HEAD TRAUMA - (Now on IDgames)

[AshtralFiend]

 

Head Trauma is a 6-level map miniwad (5 + ending) in Doom 2 - Boom format.
The maps were designed with forced pistol start on the Ultra-Violence skill (No other skill level implemented yet)
These are somewhat cramped and slightly hard, each one loosely inspired by one of the five senses, with some homages to 
classic megawads like The Plutonia Experiment, TNT, and Going Down.

 

        Misc Info: 
            - Single Player;
            - Play Time: 1 or 2 hours (depending on completion %)
            - Not designed with Jumping/freelook in mind;
            - Tested with PRBOOM+, DSDA and GZDOOM;
            - Not designed for Brutal DOOM mod, but plays "okayish" with it (Map 2 breaks all over the place and overall balance goes out of the window); 
            - No new Textures (Self-imposed Doom2 Vanilla textures limitation)
            - Title screen track composed by me

 

Music tracks are from the "TNT: Evolution midi pack" (located here: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/music/tntmidi) 
A huge thanks and credits to the authors of this fantastic music list:

 

Map 01: Triangular Currents - pcorf 
Map 02: Minds Like Magnets - Deadwing
Map 03: The Doom World is Flat - decino
Map 04: Abyssal Mystery - pcorf
Map 05: Terror Firma - Lippeth
Map 06: A Foggy Night - stewboy
Intermission: Impending End - The Green Herring

 

Edit v0.2 change log

 

Spoiler

Head Trauma v0.2

 

Map01:

- Reworked warehouse secret;
- Fixed HOM in the exit room;
- Fixed Misc. Textures;

 

Map02:

- Added "Evil Eye Switch" visual confirmation for activation;
- Rebalanced central room teleport fights;
- Fixed Megasphere secret;
- Added ammo to Hell warehouse;
- Fixed Misc. Textures;

 

Map03:

- Fixed broken CyberDemon secret fight;
- Added better clue to find the exit;
- Minor balance tweaks;
- Fixed Misc. Textures;

 

Map04:

- Reworked Secrets;
- Secret fight rebalancing;
- Added "Evil Eye Switch" visual confirmation for activation;
- Added better clue to prison area entrance;
- Added Misc. detailing;
- Fixed Misc. Textures;

 

Map05:

- It's now harder to flee from the optional red key fight;
- Fixed "bucket of death" in the optional yellow key fight;
- Fixed the possibility of preventing some enemies from teleporting;
- Fixed the possibility of preventing some secret items from teleporting;

 

Edit v0.3 change log

 

Spoiler

Head Trauma v0.3

 

Map01:

- New fight added to the final room;
- Rebalanced secret plasma fight;
- Fixed Berserk switch activation box;
- Rebalanced red key fight;
- Removed blur sphere from starting room;
- Rebalanced second warehouse fight;
- Misc. detailing;

 

Map02:

- Changed behavior of the "Chaingun supply switch";
- Slight change to the architecture surrounding the "evil eye switch" in the warehouse;
- Ammo rebalanced;
- Fixed possibility of preventing some enemies from teleporting;
- Misc. textures fixed;
- Misc. detailing;

 

Map03:

- Yellow key secret is no longer a one-time change;
- Added "Doom cute" to the pool area;

 

Map04:

- It is now easier to spot breakable walls;
- Added "Doom cute";
- Fixed typo in CWILV04;

 

Map05:

- Ammo rebalanced;
- Changed teleport type of specters ambush;
 

 

Screenshots:

 

Spoiler

 

Download Link: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/g-i/ht

Edited November 26, 2023 by AshtralFiend

[Maribo]

Holy hell, what an incredible set of maps. Chock full of gorgeous environmental design, stuffed with doomcute. Crazy ambition that absolutely delivers on every map title's meaning.

 

Here's a full set of casual playthroughs for the 5 main maps, -dsdademo format, v0.26.2 for playback. - headtrauma_maribo.zip

 

I didn't really encounter anything that I'd consider broken, although I'm a bit of an airhead and get lost in a minor way in a couple of the later maps. Don't really think you should change much at all, although there might be an argument for being *slightly* more generous with drip feeding stimpacks in some places. Thanks for sharing.

[Bri0che]

Cool ! Some details are something, such things need time and patience I can tell you, but this is also a pleasure. :)

I only finished MAP01 yet, let's go 

[TheShep]

Will download!

[AshtralFiend]

@Maribo Thank you so much for taking your time to play!

I gave a watch to your demos and saw some minor things that need adjusting, but nothing too serious.

It was interesting to see your approach to some of the fights!

 

Spoiler

Also, I found it funny that you unlocked the sarcophagus in map 4, but didn't grab the secret bfg inside. Maybe some of the secrets are a bit too cryptic?

 

 

[AshtralFiend]

@Bri0che Glad you like! I think I've spent as much time in the details as on the fights! Hope the rest of the maps are of your liking

[tom3kb]

File size 6,66Mb nice, its fits for Doom ☺️ Downloading.

[plums]

Nice maps! Have some -dsdademo fdas. Kinda long, sorry! Don't feel you have to watch them.

 

https://user.fm/files/v2-ba0ba44330d526c047f1b66d9de15c3d/headtrauma-plumsfdas.zip

 

With a set called "Head Trauma" I was expecting some real nasty fights, and while these weren't easy maps there wasn't anything overly mean, and a lot more level detail/adventuring/worldbuilding/doomcute etc. than I was expecting. Not a complaint at all! I had a great time playing.

 

Some random notes:

-You use the "delayed AV/other nasty thing" in teleport traps often enough that I was able to start anticipating them pretty early on. Which is fine, just maybe got a bit more predictable than you intended.

-The "shoot the eye" switches were a fun mechanic but I'm still not sure what some of them did, and it took until map 3 or 4 before I was sure I was always supposed to be shooting them. BTW if you wanted to you could have the eyes trigger secrets by causing sectors to change their type to match a secret-type control sector. I can make an example if you don't know what I mean. Not necessary anyhow.
-The yellow skull key secrets in the first 3 maps seemed extremely beneficial, I bet those maps would be much harder without them. Also I was surprised you stopped them on map 4.

-I was not a fan of the rooms full of teleporting enemies in map 2, I hate that kind of mechanic in general so personal bias I guess.
-Having to get the green armour in map 3 to progress was kind of unintuitive since I had blue armour at that point and so no reason to try to pick it up.
-It took me a loooong time to figure out I needed to break another wall in map04, after getting the rocket launcher. Some of this may be my fault but the way you made that wall flush to the edge made it hard to notice what I was supposed to do. Also I hit dsda-doom's rewind key a bunch some point after finding it, the demo might look a bit weird but I think it plays fine, it probably just edited out some of the time I spent looking for what to do.
-In map 5, I cheese the optional red key fight by riding the lift up and firing tons of rockets. Maybe not ammo efficient but it worked.
-Map 5 again, you can drop into yellow skull key bucket before it raises, and not be able to get out. Nice guillotine piece though.
-I had to cheat to get that last eye switch in map05. I was sure that there was at least one I missed; there had to be a BFG somewhere :)

 

Given how long and intricate these maps were those are all pretty minor issues. Good work!

Edited October 13, 2023 by plums

[AshtralFiend]

@plums Thank you so much for playing and for all the feedback! I tried to keep the maps tricky, but also somewhat fair.

 

- I like to give a little delay on the teleporters. It allows you to react or plan before the monsters are on your face. But I get what you mean;

- That was one of my fears. The idea was to access the BFG by activating all the eyes. I tried to give a visual cue in the last map by warping an item. 

Maybe I'll try to rework this idea on the other levels;

- I only saw the first three demos, but activating all the eyes opens a sarcophagus with a BFG. You have to do the secret fight to activate the final eye, so I thought a key would be redundant;

- Fair! I saw you struggle with that fight! It's one of the few fights that still kills me randomly on that map, but I really wanted to have a fight with a cyberdemon "helping" while a horde of demons warped in;

- Yeah, good point! I'll have to change that! Maybe a Backpack is a better idea!

- I'll have to put a better visual clue on that wall;

- I knew the fight could be cheesed that way I did it once. But I think the ammo waste isn't very beneficial... Maybe I'll have to temporarily close off the passage to the elevator;

- Yeah, it's a design choice, ahaha. Perhaps too evil? Maybe just warping the key in would be a better idea;

- One of them is kinda cryptic, yeah (The one where you have to press a wall, shoot a switch across two rooms, and a wall with a rocket launcher opens). I've thought about redesigning that secret.

 

Thanks again for the help! I'll try to keep your thoughts in mind when revising the map!

[mancubian_candidate]

Howdy :)

 

Played Map 1 and am enjoying it so far! 

Spoiler

Found one tiny issue, there's a texture bleeding/HOM thingey in the Movie theatre (exit room) area of Map 1! Found it playing on dsda-doom. 

Other than that, great work!

 

 

[plums]

5 hours ago, AshtralFiend said:

-That was one of my fears. The idea was to access the BFG by activating all the eyes. I tried to give a visual cue in the last map by warping an item. 

Maybe I'll try to rework this idea on the other levels;

I don't know if it would feel too Sigil-y but having the eyes lower into the map or otherwise get blocked off after shooting them, so you can't see them anymore, would definitely give an indication that *something* is happening. Anyhow I did get that shooting at least most of them did something, it just wasn't always obvious to begin with.

 

5 hours ago, AshtralFiend said:

- Fair! I saw you struggle with that fight! It's one of the few fights that still kills me randomly on that map, but I really wanted to have a fight with a cyberdemon "helping" while a horde of demons warped in; 

That's actually not the fight I was talking about; I died a lot there because I was being greedy/stubborn about infighting, but I liked it just fine. What I was complaining about it this setup, where the monsters in the two cages dance around between teleports. That you have to deal with three times in the map! It didn't ruin the map for me or anything but by the 3rd time I was definitely beyond tired of it.

 

 

Edited October 14, 2023 by plums

[AshtralFiend]

A new version has been uploaded! Thank you all for the feedback so far! I tried to fix some of the issues I saw during the demos and in the comments.

I'm still looking for some more feedback before uploading the final version! Again, any help is always appreciated :D 

[dmh094]

For sure going to give this a go. Looks great. 

[Wo0p]

Oof these maps are not for ones resting on their laurels. Some nasty traps but also as some have said you begin to anticipate when an ambush happens after a bit. I've only played the first map on GZDoom UV so take what I've said with a grain of salt. I intend to play the rest later, for certain!

 

The architecture is amazing and really inspires me to try my hand at going back to vanilla textures but evolve my modelling instead to get some of the same effects you manage here. The server room and the auditorium? are definitely my favourites :)

 

One thing I absolutely despise (But that's just me, so ignore it if you want :P no hurt no foul) is monsters popping into existence without warning. The four hellknights + pain elemental irked me to no end. Just a teeny teleport effect would placate me, pwetty pwease :>

 

Anyway... that aside, great map! Great detail, great danger, great secrets :)

Completed Map01 with 100% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets. Onwards!

 

 

[AshtralFiend]

@Wo0p Thank you for your kind words! I'm glad you are liking it thus far! In my opinion, the first map is the weakest of the wad, but I'm still proud of it :D

I've thought about changing that silent teleport into a normal one several times, haha. Guess that will be on the next update list.

Thanks again for giving it a chance, and hope to hear your opinion and thoughts on the rest of the maps! :)

[mancubian_candidate]

Forgot to mention, I finished this set last week. Fantastic set, I think Maps 4 and 5 were my favourites 😄

[Wo0p]

Just made it to map 4 and dang these maps are hard on UV (Or I just suck haha). The amount of times I died to the secret trap within a secret trap with a certain CyberD and Mancubi + 2 Revs in map 3 are embarressing! 

The wonderfully detailed architecture continues to bless my eyes and its strangely soothing to look at inbetween moments of rage when I die repeatedly on the next encounter!

If you play this on UV you will be pressured every step of the way, you will feel like you're fighting for every inch of territory, pushing back the hordes of Hell one teethgrinding step at a time! And that I suppose is the essence of Doom? But I'm getting carried away with artsy prose. Sorry.

 

The secrets are getting harder to find, but I don't feel like they're unfairly hidden. Also the secrets are seldomly just secrets. They're often their own encounters and some would be annoyed that you're hiding monsters behind secrets but I think the way you do it works well. It feels more like a part of the map, part of the experience, than a sidequest.

 

Good stuff, will report back later once my blood pressure is down lol

[AshtralFiend]

8 hours ago, Wo0p said:

The amount of times I died to the secret trap within a secret trap with a certain CyberD and Mancubi + 2 Revs in map 3 are embarressing! 

 

That one is particularly evil due to the tight space: Easy to get a rocket to the face if you get distracted 

 

8 hours ago, Wo0p said:

The secrets are getting harder to find, but I don't feel like they're unfairly hidden. Also the secrets are seldomly just secrets. They're often their own encounters and some would be annoyed that you're hiding monsters behind secrets but I think the way you do it works well. It feels more like a part of the map, part of the experience, than a sidequest.

 

I think it's fun to do multi-layered secrets and reward exploration with something interesting that isn't only an ammo cache.

Also, I think it's inconsequential to hide enemies in secrets: when people want to UV max, they'll look for all the secrets anyway. 

 

Good luck on the last two maps :D

[GD_RadicaI]

Hey this looks pretty cool and ive been looking for a new mod to play!

[Biodegradable]

This looks really cool. Just posting now to remind myself to check it out later.

[Wo0p]

Just finished the last two maps and I must say map 4 is amazing. Its hard but not crushingly so, the shootable walls make it weirdly fun to search for secrets! :) Map5 is also great, good use of silver textures interspersed with coloured lights and liquids to make it appealing to look at despite the texture's thoroughly exploited service throughout the years. 

And I dont wanna repeat myself so take the good positive bits of what I've said earlier and crank them up a notch for the final levels ^_^ thanks for making these levels, I had a blast (And got blasted...) also the final boss room was very fun to try and figure out how to get through. Bosses are a tricky concept to pull off without making them overly gimicky og overly boring but I feel like you managed to strike a fun balance to it.

 

Can I say something constructively negative about the mapset as a whole? Hm.. well if you play on UV as I did, sometimes you can get into ammo shortages and you're screwed if you don't find a few secrets here and there. The last map also was a bit scarce on health if you don't find any secrets. It's a playstyle I imagine, I just don't like having to rely on secrets to get through a map. But I guess that just means I have to git gud :^)

 

Great stuff though! Impressive, fun, inspiring :)

[AshtralFiend]

@Wo0p 

 

Thank you for playing my levels, and for all the feedback/kind words! I'm glad you had fun!

The last two maps take a little more time to beat than the others, but I think they came out enjoyable to play :D

 

As for item management, I can see this being a problem. I've played to each level more times than I can count, each time balancing ammo and enemies. Ending single segment with and without secrets. I've tried to hit the sweet spot between too little and too much ammo/health. I guess I got too good at my own levels :P

I may try to add some more ammo/health here and there in the final version :)

 

Thanks again!

[SleepyVelvet]

These are pretty good.  Lots of big square rooms, felt kinda TNT-ish in design direction, but in a good way.

 

FDAs: noisy_HeadTrauma.zip

[RataUnderground]

A little on the bullshit side of difficulty, but... nice visuals. Liked the style overall.
 

 

[AshtralFiend]

@RataUnderground I watched the video and saw the struggle... I know it's on the hard side, but it's the intended difficulty.

Thanks for giving it a try! I'm glad you liked the style and aesthetic!

[Pomps]

Dude these maps are so good!!

[dmh094]

Planning to make a video of this for sure :) 

Edited October 25, 2023 by dmh094

[Biodegradable]

Off to a spicy start with the right amount of zing!

 

 

[dmh094]

Hello there!

 

Just played and recorded map 1.

 

WOW! what a start. Excellent, excellent map. The aesthetics are on point, the fights are engaging, and the challenge while hard, is always giving you just enough to make you think 'Screw it, one more time.' 

 

I have nothing to complain about at all with this one. Genuinely thought it was a perfect map. 

 

I will for sure will be playing the other 5 maps. No doubt about that. 

 

Keep up the good work! 10/10 

 

played with DSDA

 

 

[AshtralFiend]

22 hours ago, Biodegradable said:

Off to a spicy start with the right amount of zing!

 

10 hours ago, dmh094 said:

Hello there!

 

Just played and recorded map 1.

 

WOW! what a start. Excellent, excellent map. The aesthetics are on point, the fights are engaging, and the challenge while hard, is always giving you just enough to make you think 'Screw it, one more time.' 

 

I have nothing to complain about at all with this one. Genuinely thought it was a perfect map. 

 

I will for sure will be playing the other 5 maps. No doubt about that. 

 

Keep up the good work! 10/10 

 

played with DSDA

 

Thanks for the videos! It's always interesting to see how others deal with the maps you created.

The "Where is the trap?" reaction after pressing the blue switch made me laugh. Glad you are having fun! 

And damn, those revenants in the office room were tanky!