Tech-Heresy (Single map, limit removing) - RC2 released!

[Riclo500]

Fun map, a bit challenging, and the midi was super epic.
 

 

[Matt Eldrydge]

On 10/21/2023 at 11:46 PM, Riclo500 said:

Fun map, a bit challenging, and the midi was super epic

 

 

Damn, you have my respect with that one! You beat it on UV, saveless and really just made a slaughter-y fight look easy with a slower paced mod with reloads. It was a ton of fun watching this one, very well played!

 

And before I forget, happy to hear you enjoyed it, Riclo!

[Matt Eldrydge]

On 10/20/2023 at 12:12 AM, Maribo said:

Casual playthrough, -dsdademo format, plays back in v0.26.2 - th01-maribo.zip

 

Finally had the time to sit down and watch this, I keep forgetting just how cool it is to watch a demo playback of your own map played by someone else. :)

 

I did notice one monster was left, probably one imp that got stuck in the main area of the map or something. I'll take a look at making sure that doesn't happen, or at least let the player go back to make sure they have all the kills/secrets - that was on my mind from day one, not sure why I didn't do it.

 

It's always a treat seeing how peole handle fights differently, the fact you basically didn't use any cells until the final fight in particular struck me as quite skillfull. Lots of nice dodging as well, and I can fully see why people say it might be a bit too generous with supplies now. Then again, it's more a map for fun than challenge so I don't mind it that much.

 

Thanks for the demo again!

[CrueCut]

I just finished this on UV.  Tons and tons of fun!  The last battle was great, and I had no issues with the Cyb being stuck (GZDoom 4.10).

 

My only suggestion would be to add a way to get back from the exit switch area to the main portion of the map.  I got there with 2 secrets remaining to be found and I wanted to go back to look for them, but couldn't see any "approved" way to do so (so I idclip'ed back).

 

Hope you keep up the map making!

 

[Matt Eldrydge]

Hey, thanks for playing @CrueCut! I do believe the last fight should function just fine now regardless of what port/complevel you use, so that's good to hear. I'll keep mapping, it's a lot of fun and definitely helps keeping my mind busy in a good way. :)

 

As I said in the post quoting Maribo's demo, I'll look into letting you go back to the slime teleporter once you do reach the exit room. I do let the player go back to the entrance in most of my maps, I'm not sure why I didn't do the same in this one. Probably got too focused on making sure the final fight was fun and not too overwhelming.

[Degree23]

Just played this on UV. Really good fun!

 

I was a little unsure on having so many RLs/PGs lying around, particularly in the final arena. Often there's usually just one per map (excluding secrets), though if you have multiple pathways then having extras dotted around to make sure the player is equipped even if they don't take the "correct" path is often done. Just felt like a few of them could have been ammo instead. I also ran across the MegaArmor before I found any Armor, which did feel slightly odd.

 

The final fight felt a little bit "cheeseable" in the sense of the switch to release the Cyberdemon could be hit fairly quickly with only the AV to really worry about, and it took care of a lot of stuff for me. But that said, you don't necessarily need (or want) to make the final fight any harder than it is if you're not gunning for a full-blown slaughtermap ending.

 

Really enjoyable map overall, and great MIDI to boot.

[YoshiTheMage]

Nice and uncomplicated little map, a bit on the easy side perhaps. I finished this on Ultra-Violence in a bit under 20 minutes and never came close to dying. I found two of the three secrets, the one I didn't find was the BFG and I'm sort of glad I didn't because this map really doesn't need one. I think the final fight is more than manageable without it, there's ample rockets and cells lying around and I never even fired my plasma rifle until I had to put the final Cyberdemon down. I found ammo to be rather overabundant in general, especially for UV.

 

It's a good looking map, I do prefer maps with smaller and more defined texture/colour palettes but what's here doesn't devolve into being noisy and there's a lot of finer details to be enjoyed. MIDI's nice as well. I encountered no technical problems but the yellow skull fight is able to be cheesed in multiple ways, you can stay on the upper platform and snipe from above or leave the room and bottleneck everything with or without the assistance of a door. Would be more interesting if the yellow skull was moved forward a bit to be directly on the platform allowing the player to be locked in the room and make it a real ambush, it'd help make the Archvile more threatening at least.

[Matt Eldrydge]

On 10/28/2023 at 10:51 PM, Degree23 said:

Just played this on UV. Really good fun!

 

I was a little unsure on having so many RLs/PGs lying around, particularly in the final arena. Often there's usually just one per map (excluding secrets), though if you have multiple pathways then having extras dotted around to make sure the player is equipped even if they don't take the "correct" path is often done. Just felt like a few of them could have been ammo instead. I also ran across the MegaArmor before I found any Armor, which did feel slightly odd.

 

The final fight felt a little bit "cheeseable" in the sense of the switch to release the Cyberdemon could be hit fairly quickly with only the AV to really worry about, and it took care of a lot of stuff for me. But that said, you don't necessarily need (or want) to make the final fight any harder than it is if you're not gunning for a full-blown slaughtermap ending.

 

Really enjoyable map overall, and great MIDI to boot.

 

Thanks for playing it, and happy to hear you enjoyed it! I don't really remember why exactly I left a bunch of weapons lying around since it's been a little while since I made the map, but I think it was a friendly way of saying "hey, you might want to use these for this fight" or I was just anticipating someone playing with mods that have random spawners (happened to me a few times) and not finding a good enough crowd control gun.The mega armor in the cave is a minor oversight and will be replaced by a regular armor in the next version.

 

As for the final-final fight before you can actually leave, I'm not too satisfied with it. You can definitely run away from the archviles, lead them outside and then just bolt for the exit too. Maybe hitting that switch makes a bunch of imps or pinkies teleport or get released into that room? I'll think about it some more, but I do think it would keep people from trying to leave without finishing the fight.

 

It's still good to hear you liked it, though! I've been busy with another map, so I haven't been able to work out some of the kinks in this one but I've made a little list with the feedback provided so far.

 

On 11/22/2023 at 9:28 PM, YoshiTheMage said:

Nice and uncomplicated little map, a bit on the easy side perhaps. I finished this on Ultra-Violence in a bit under 20 minutes and never came close to dying. I found two of the three secrets, the one I didn't find was the BFG and I'm sort of glad I didn't because this map really doesn't need one. I think the final fight is more than manageable without it, there's ample rockets and cells lying around and I never even fired my plasma rifle until I had to put the final Cyberdemon down. I found ammo to be rather overabundant in general, especially for UV.

 

It's a good looking map, I do prefer maps with smaller and more defined texture/colour palettes but what's here doesn't devolve into being noisy and there's a lot of finer details to be enjoyed. MIDI's nice as well. I encountered no technical problems but the yellow skull fight is able to be cheesed in multiple ways, you can stay on the upper platform and snipe from above or leave the room and bottleneck everything with or without the assistance of a door. Would be more interesting if the yellow skull was moved forward a bit to be directly on the platform allowing the player to be locked in the room and make it a real ambush, it'd help make the Archvile more threatening at least.

 

Happy to hear you enjoyed it! As for it being rather easy, that reflects my skill level I think at the time. I died to most of the lock-in type fights here at least twice, for reference. :P

 

I'll definitely calibrate the ammo/combat once again, though. I notice a lot of people have no reason to use the plasma gun until maybe the final arena, which is...fine, I don't think I ever throw much at you that actually demands the plasma gun's high rate of fire and damage until then. I do concede the BFG secret shouldn't really be a secret, but it's a holdover from this map's original incarnation as a community project's break map. I didn't want to throw away the geometry I already had and felt it would be nice for people who aren't quite as skilled (kinda like me when I was making this map). I think you know what I'm getting at here. Might leave it in as a non-secret secret or something.

 

As for the yellow skull, believe it or not but teleporting a pair of revenants right behind the player to force them to jump off the platform was on my mind when I was touching up the map. Should have gone that way, honestly, by that point you have a bunch of ammo and possibly a plasma gun if you looked for the doomcute room behind the smaller blue door.

 

As for the vile comment, I think you're talking about the red skullkey fight? I'm pretty sure no viles actually teleport when you get the yellow skull...unless you didn't alert the vile that is released when you get the blue skull, which might be a issue I have to look into. Maybe some bars will fix it.

 

With gameplay out of the way, I'm happy to hear you enjoyed the aesthetics here! With each map I make, I try to make the visuals pop out a little more. It's a fun challenge and also somewhat relaxing, in a way. The aesthetics here are also another holdover from its original incarnation, though there it had a more consistent tech, brick, metal and overall foundry vibe. I just felt like exploring some themes I hadn't yet and boy, am I glad I did. The flesh room gave me a lot of trouble and the final fight is my first attempt at slaughter-ish combat, but I think I did things well enough here. The only way to improve is by seeing what others think of your work, after all. :)

[AshtralFiend]

An amazing map! A bit on the longer side, but had a lot of fun. Perhaps a little too generous in the health/ammo/armor department.
Also, loved the visuals! Super detailed "Hell Tech-base" theme is always a plus in my book. I can see a lot of dedication went into making this map!
This video was recorded after one practice run. Played on DSDA and found no issues. 

 

 

[Matt Eldrydge]

1 hour ago, AshtralFiend said:

An amazing map! A bit on the longer side, but had a lot of fun. Perhaps a little too generous in the health/ammo/armor department.
Also, loved the visuals! Super detailed "Hell Tech-base" theme is always a plus in my book. I can see a lot of dedication went into making this map!

 

Hey, thanks for playing it! I'll check the video out in a little, and once again I'm happy to hear people liked the visuals. The whole idea for this one began with seeing just what I could do with Doom 2's stock textures and a few more weeks worth of mapping under my belt.

[EmoLevelDesigner]

A very detailed map with excellent locations. UAC computers fused with Hell technology, caverns, bases with round walls, piece of a town with unbelievably convincing house interior. Texture of black square in white frame is used to form chair's legs. Combinations of many textures form new unique world despite not having any new art.

 

Battles with many enemies that focus on giving you ability to outsmart them and make them fight each other. Even more interesting use of such ability are "stealth" segments where enemies are facing the walls and if you plan carefully, are quick and clever in your actions, your approach will be effective with low risk.

 

Second level confused me for few minutes before I realized it's a 3d ending screen showing Doomguy resting in the basin after successfully completed mission.