[MBF21] [Ver. 3 now on idgames!] The Human Condition; a 34 map megawad

[NickMP]

 

Hello! Welcome to The Human Condition, my first Doom project that I've spent the last 14 months off-and-on working on!

 

Technical Details

Requires: MBF21/cl21 + UMAPINFO + MUSINFO compatible port

IWAD: Doom2

Comp-level: 21

Map Format: MBF21

Difficulties: Implemented

Co-op: Player-starts only

Deathmatch: No

Source Port used for testing/dev: DSDA-Doom 0.26.2

 

Maps are designed for Pistol Start or continuous play, and most maps focus on short punchy combat in cramped spaces, comfortably being UVMax'd from a pistol start in between 5-10 minutes. (Most par times are my personal UVMax times rounded up to the nearest 5 seconds.)

 

Ultra Violence is the "intended difficulty" and I think is overall just a bit harder than The Plutonia Experiment (though the wad starts off much more gently than TPE, it has some intense spikes in the last third), HMP should be around Doom 2 on UV, and HNTR should be around Doom 1 on HMP.

 

Additionally, there are some new enemies, and lots of the heavier enemies now drop some ammo when killed, finally all but 3 of the players weapons have been modified!

 

Weapon Changes

Spoiler

Ammo! - You can carry 475 Bullets, and 75 Shells and Rockets, without a Backpack. Bullet Pickups provide 3 times as many bullets!

 

Fist - Replaced by the Fire Axe, which swings slower but has more range, and deals a whopping 300 flat damage when berserked, and even unberserked still smacks for a consistent 60 damage, every swing. It also doesn't make any sound until the actual swing goes through, making it great for sneaking up on enemies.

Pistol - Replaced by the Assault Rifle, with a blazing fire rate of 420 RPM. Also drops little shell casings on the ground.

 

Shotgun - Still the good ol' Shotgun! But now it gains an Alt-Fire if you hold the Fire key down, firing homing micro missiles that are great for handing crowds of weaker monsters! Just be careful not to hold that trigger button too long in close, it's more merciful than the Rocket Lunacher, but it'll still blow your face off.

 

Chaingun - Bigger and meaner, now has a jaw dropping fire rate of 3,150 RPM but a lengthy spin-down that can leave you vulnerable when out of ammo.

 

Plasma Gun - Now named the Plasma Defender, fire rate lowered to 525 RPM but damage increased (DPS up ~12%), and shots can collide with enemy projectiles, giving you a way to protect yourself when you're cornered!

 

Chainsaw - Turned into a new super weapon! And now the Rocket Launcher has something to share ammo with, so it doesn't feel left out!

 

The SSG, Rocket Launcher, and BFG-9000 are unchanged.

 

The wad also sports a custom soundtrack, consisting of 42 songs I composed myself, which can be listened to in advance here:

Spoiler

 

 

Screenshots

Spoiler

 

Download

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/thc

 

Version 2 Changelog

Spoiler

GENERAL:
Added a "CHANGELG" text lump
All Weapons: Adjusted offsets so graphics do not cut-off on statusbar-less HUD setups.
Fire Axe: New graphics.
Assault Rifle: New graphics and muzzle flash. Shell Casings now move up and down on lifts.
Chaingun: New muzzle flash.

 

MAPS:
MAP07: Fixed a crash that occurred in newer versions of DSDA-Doom.
MAP09: Implemented Difficulties
MAP12: Fixed 2 enemies in a teleport closet being stacked on top of each other.
MAP15: Made some monster closet teleporters more consistent, minor texture fixes.
MAP19: Fixed a monster teleport closet never opening.
MAP20: The Ships teleport pads also allow you to leave now, putting you near the teleporter you used to get on. Said Teleport Pads are also now on switch activated lifts.
MAP22: Removed empty text screen after clearing map, sector fixes.
MAP28: Improved a few graphics that only appear in this map.
MAP30: Fixed a Long Wall Error with the final boss health bar. Shotgun Areas have had more ammo added to them. Fixed ending text.
MAP34: Fixed two lifts whose triggering line def was pointing the wrong way, texture fixes.

Version 3 Changelog

Spoiler

GENERAL:
MIDI Soundtrack has had audio rebalanced, about half the soundtrack has been made 15%~20% louder, with some outliers being made around 30% louder.
Shotgun: Fire delay increased by 2 frames, from 5 to 7, making timing more lax on using standard or alternate fire. Cocking animation made 2 frames faster to maintain overall fire rate.
Fixed Fallen Combat Medic having the wrong active sound.
Fixed Transparent Cyberdemons speed being halved.
DEMOs have been updated; DEMO2 is now a playthrough of MAP09 on NM, and DEMO3 is a failed D2A run on NM.

 

MAPS:
MAP03: Adjusted lifts.
MAP06: Added some player corpses to the instant death slime pits.
MAP09: Fixed a Revenant that was accidentally moved in V2.
MAP13: Adjusted a lift. Added some player corpses to collapsing tunnel section.
MAP19: Texture fixes.
MAP25: Fixed a problem that allowed things to sink into the floor in one area.
MAP30: Fixed an issue with multiple monster teleporter closets.
MAP34: Fixed a multitude of long wall errors.

 

Edited June 18 by NickMP
Version 3 is now up on the idgames archive!

[plastrio]

The axe has no effect in my play(GZDoom 4.5)

 

Edited December 5, 2023 by plastrio

[Large Cat]

Played through the first 9 maps in DSDA Doom. The maps are fairly simple, but the weapons are good time to sling around! I'll spoiler my reaction for those who want a clean experience, but the short version: this arsenal will ruin every horde of demons that dares face you!

Spoiler

I love using the axe, and it's so powerful that it's tempting to use even in totally inappropriate situations, like cutting down a horde of revenants, since they all go down in one shot.

 

I didn't realize the shotgun had micro-missiles at first, since I always overlook the single shotgun, but they actually promote the pump-action to the top dog long-range spot. Relaxing to pump a few of these guys out.

 

The chaingun is absolutely cracked. New superweapon. You know it's serious when the SSG is the "weak" gun now.

 

Plasma defender takes the cake for my favorite MBF21-ism so far. I'll have to look into the dehacked to see how it's implemented, because a defensive weapon is a niche that's usually mostly missing from the doom roster.

 

It's been a blast slowly uncovering custom enemies, and I'm looking forward to pushing onward to see what I'm up against. It's a bit of a shame to me that all of the weapons got revealed within the first 3 or so maps, which really flattens the power curve, but seeing new monsters helps keep up the anticipation.

Nice work putting out a solo megawad, with a full soundtrack no less! The maps and tracks are both quirky, but they play on each other in a charming way. Another Base was a standout so far, both for progression and music. Excited to see what else this wad has in store for me.

[Shepardus]

3 hours ago, plastrio said:

The axe has no effect in my play(GZDoom 4.5)

 

You probably need a newer version of GZDoom, the version you have is from before MBF21 support was implemented.

[plastrio]

4 hours ago, Shepardus said:

You probably need a newer version of GZDoom, the version you have is from before MBF21 support was implemented.

OK with newer version it's good now.

BTW you can use graphics for rifle,axe etc from other mods, the currect pics looked weird.

[Large Cat]

I've now played all 34 maps in DSDA on UV.

 

While some of the graphics and level design were on the crude end, the ideas presented were well worth the journey. For anyone who enjoys 90's-style aesthetics, it's a win-win; charming locales, funky 3D renders, and a bunch of good ideas in both the levels and dehacked.

 

Standout maps, for me, were MAP06: Another Base, MAP13: Cave In!, MAP21: Gray Matter Mines, MAP22: Nostalgia, and MAP25: Theobromine, so if you don't want to commit to playing 34 maps, try these five out (and maybe the secret maps too, which earn their slots). I especially appreciated the music for Another Base and Nostalgia, which both fit their environments delightfully. A few tracks grated on me after a while, but that's nigh unavoidable when you're stocking an entire megawad with new tracks.

 

Regarding the weapons, I must once again commend your implementation of the plasma defender. However, it didn't see that much use given the unbridled power of the other weapons, which managed to shift the otherwise mighty BFG down to 3rd place in my weapon pecking order.

 

Custom enemies were a treat, even if that green baron had some tendency to slow the pace of gameplay. I'm totally unsure what to think of the "jumpscare pickle," but it played its role well enough without feeling cheap at any point. Humanoid enemies added nicely to the roster of glass cannons, so I was glad to see them.

 

Difficulty-wise, the "slightly above Plutonia" marker might be accurate on average, but there are some significant swings in there. MAP21 will trounce the unprepared, and MAP25 is oppressive in a way you don't see elsewhere. Combat spiked pretty wildly between being tough and being well within Doom 2 range, though the tough fights can be dismantled in many cases by properly using the busted arsenal this wad provides.

 

I'll spoiler my individual map thoughts:

Spoiler

The first stretch of maps is very easy, but it otherwise sets the tone for what to expect. I still think most of the weapons are doled out too early, though I'm glad the one-man army is held back until halfway through (if you don't find MAP34).

 

MAP06 made its way onto my special list because I was so taken by the central elevator concept. That, and the secret exit sequence, which brought me to the utter glory of imps that followed.

 

MAP08 - MAP12 really slowed down the pacing for me, with the visuals blending together and the fights being more drawn-out without providing additional challenge.

 

MAP13's central concept hooked me again. Shooting the beams is a delight.

 

The library section had some of the same issues as as the gray rock areas for me. Not a highlight, but serviceable. MAP15 has some bugged teleport closets that never open because two door sectors are touching each other, meaning that they "open" to a lower height than they start, leaving those monsters trapped.

 

MAP16 - MAP19 were not as remarkable for me. Fine maps, but not the special stuff at this wad's peaks.

 

All secret maps were well worth their secret slots, with the possible exception of 33, which felt more like a reject from the main lineup than the others, which all had great concepts and were delightful to play.

 

MAP20 is worth mentioning as a good concept, but it was executed in a way that was a drag for me, especially given the number of times I had to retread the initial segment after deboarding a ship.

 

MAP21 will be terrible for many kinds of player, but I'm glad this is here. Truthfully, this is the wad's zenith in terms of scale and power level, so it could have made a good final map, though capping off the first two thirds of the wad works well too.

 

MAP22 has excellent music and an atmosphere to fit its gameplay, which is my favorite kind of whiplash from the slaughter of the Gray Matter Mines.

 

MAP 23 and 24 were nice, though they didn't stand out as much as the maps around them.

 

MAP25 might be the hardest map, depending on the player's facility with the slaughter of MAP21. Luckily, the pacing of the combat in this map is good, so I don't feel so crushed that I don't want to press onward.

 

The next few maps strike as filler to hit the full 30 main-line levels, but I can forgive it given how much you've provided. MAP30's multi-part gauntlet plays generally quite well, with a special shoutout to the rocket launcher arena, which requires some more deliberate play. Oddly, both shotgun arenas felt sparse on ammo compared to the rest.

 

Overall, great work! There are rough edges to be sure, but sometimes its best to eschew the design dogma in favor of reaching out of the box.

[LadyMistDragon]

Just gave this a whirl!

 

The MS Paint weapons might look a little amateurish but they don't clash with the aesthetic and that's all that should count if one's artistic abilities aren't quite developed.

 

It's kind of nice to see maps that don't just shove hundreds of monsters and blazes its own trail. And from the frequent story prompts, it kind of feels like if someone made a wad like Revolution! in MBF21.

 

This soundtrack is actually really nice! For a wad that's basically using Doom as a template to reflect on, well, the human condition, you're really following a path that feels independent from established Doom tradition. But I really like it. It's quite a nostalgic perspective, and I caught the downtuned "Into Sandy's City" remix in the map....Nostalgia. (haha) One little note: I did have to turn it up a bit because it seemed overly quiet. That feels like kind of the point, but it's not really ambient as such and even on the lowest sound settings, it can be hard to hear at times.

 

 

I sort of regret missing out on more of the custom monsters

One more thing: I played this in an outdated source port but I ran out of time and I'm not sure if anything is actually affected. But I'd recommend DSDA or a Woof/Woof derivative. 

 

 

Edited December 19, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[Mr. Meanor]

map 7 crashes DSDA Doom

[Hayden49]

 

[NickMP]

15 hours ago, Mr. Meanor said:

map 7 crashes DSDA Doom

Which version of DSDA were you using? If it's more recent than 0.26.2 I'll look into it and try to figure it out and get it fixed.

[Armolitskiy]

Hmm, changed pickups are looking interesting. It's like Doomguy's marine helmet lights up those items! It can even be a standalone mod.

[TMMMS]

i cant open the thc.zip from the github download link i take its because its obsolete but then you should replace it with the idgames one which i managed to find on google https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/thc

 

anyway i started playing it and it looks like the axe sprites get cut off at the bottom on my 2560 x 1080 monitor but not the starting assault rifle which looks fine

 

[Akagi666]

On 4/5/2024 at 11:21 PM, NickMP said:

Which version of DSDA were you using? If it's more recent than 0.26.2 I'll look into it and try to figure it out and get it fixed.

It crashes for me in 0.27.5. 

[NickMP]

Alright, attached a Version 2 update to the original post that fixes the MAP07 crash, and every other technical issue I'm currently aware of, it also contains some graphical updates that I ran out of time for the deadline I set for myself for the initial release. Going to take a look at getting midi audio balanced better and try and see if there's any other issues before uploading a final update to the archive.

 

Thanks to everyone who's played my wad so far, and all the valuable critique/bug reports!

[bnbhehe]

The wad was an interesting journey. The things done in this, and can be done with MBF21 are quite the work. Nice! The whole wad also has a 90s vibe which gives it an extra points. And the fact that you made this all on your own is remarkable.

I also liked the custom enemies a lot. The grey barons can be a bit too much sometimes but nevertheless most of them seem fairly balanced given the arsenal.

Hope to see more stuff from you in the future :) 

 

Spoiler

P.s. I did get 1 broken green baron on map30 on V1 in the final boss area, don't know if the fix in the changelog for v2 is related to it.

 

[TMMMS]

nevermind i found them although i had to restart because it doesnt look like i can warp back to the initial areasi cant get all secrets on map01 not sure if its a bug but i can see on the automap two spots on brick walls - one in starting room and the other one in the room with the teleporter to the icon of sin wall - that look like they could be opened but when i interact with them nothing seems to happen

 

anyway i have mixed feelings about the level design and new graphics that are reminiscent of hell 2 pay and im usually not fond of custom enemies and weapons but i must say i love the reworked arsenal especially the plasma defender as ever since doom 3 and brutal doom ive been wanting to be able to shoot down projectiles in classic doom

 

if i have one major criticism its that its way too easy to kill yourself with the new shotgun since the altfire trigger is too sensitive and anything more than the quickest of taps will set it off i dont know if it would be possible to bind it to a different key or to give it a longer charge time with a visible cue a la megaman so this doesnt happen all the time

Edited April 10 by TMMMS

[TMMMS]

im sorry for the double post but i have some serious praise to give here

 

map04 is fucking brilliant in the way it acts as a tutorial for the plasma defender using only level design to teach the player how to make the most of it

 

i previously compared this to hell 2 pay and i stand by it as you clearly had a lot of fun experimenting with the capabilities of the doom engine to design all sorts of clever unusual scenarios like that tower using invisible teleporters but also the run the gauntlet style challenge of map02 that plays like a bonus level straight out of sonic the hedgehog or toejam and earl in panic on funkotron

 

however i have to ask how do i get the bfg secret in map06 because i keep going back and forth but i cant finda way to unlock it without cheating

Edited April 10 by TMMMS

[NickMP]

On 4/9/2024 at 6:27 AM, bnbhehe said:

The wad was an interesting journey. The things done in this, and can be done with MBF21 are quite the work. Nice! The whole wad also has a 90s vibe which gives it an extra points. And the fact that you made this all on your own is remarkable.

I also liked the custom enemies a lot. The grey barons can be a bit too much sometimes but nevertheless most of them seem fairly balanced given the arsenal.

Hope to see more stuff from you in the future :) 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

P.s. I did get 1 broken green baron on map30 on V1 in the final boss area, don't know if the fix in the changelog for v2 is related to it.

 

I'll definitely be making more stuff in the future; I think I've been hooked on Doom mapping for life.

Spoiler

Regarding the broken baron, how did it break? Did it fail to teleport into the arena, or did it get stuck inside another monster? Or was it something else entirely?

 

On 4/9/2024 at 7:05 AM, TMMMS said:

if i have one major criticism its that its way too easy to kill yourself with the new shotgun since the altfire trigger is too sensitive and anything more than the quickest of taps will set it off i dont know if it would be possible to bind it to a different key or to give it a longer charge time with a visible cue a la megaman so this doesnt happen all the time

Yeah the Shotgun's timing is pretty strict, I based it on the vanilla shotgun having a 3 frame delay between pulling the trigger and the damage coming out, in this wad after those 3 frames are up, is when the game checks if you're still holding the fire button and decides between a mini-missile or a shotgun shot. I did consider alternatives, but in the end just went with the current design to keep the Shotgun's animation/timing the same.

Edit: Okay just looked back at the dehacked, the timing window is 5 frames, which isn't the same as vanilla. (Although total animation time is the same). I'll look into it and probably increase the window by another 2-3 frames if it doesn't hurt the animation look for the final update.

 

5 hours ago, TMMMS said:

im sorry for the double post but i have some serious praise to give here

 

map04 is fucking brilliant in the way it acts as a tutorial for the plasma defender using only level design to teach the player how to make the most of it

 

i previously compared this to hell 2 pay and i stand by it as you clearly had a lot of fun experimenting with the capabilities of the doom engine to design all sorts of clever unusual scenarios like that tower using invisible teleporters but also the run the gauntlet style challenge of map02 that plays like a bonus level straight out of sonic the hedgehog or toejam and earl in panic on funkotron

 

however i have to ask how do i get the bfg secret in map06 because i keep going back and forth but i cant finda way to unlock it without cheating

Haha, glad you're liking the wad! And yeah, a lot of this wad was me kind of using it as a "stepping stones" project to get used to what you can do in Doom modding.

 

Regarding Map06

Spoiler

When you first enter that building there's a door on the right that leads to a room with the Blue Key, there's also a silver pillar with an embedded shoot switch that opens the closet with the BFG.

 

Edited April 10 by NickMP
Corrected mis-information.

[TMMMS]

thanks i knew i was missing something i guess that switch wasnt appearing on the automap hence my confusion

 

ive been equally impressed with the level of care that went into designing map06 btw every time i thought i had broken sequence or gotten softlocked you surprised me with ways to revisit previous areas and the only real issue i have with the map overall are the instakill floors or rather the lack of indication that theyre so deadly since the mapset so far has been pretty inconsistent when it comes to the appearance of damaging floor

 

[bnbhehe]

14 hours ago, NickMP said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Regarding the broken baron, how did it break? Did it fail to teleport into the arena, or did it get stuck inside another monster? Or was it something else entirely?

 

Spoiler

It was stuck inside the teleporter - I had to noclip to kill him. It was one of the green barons that spawns when you damage the Icon of Sins

 

 

Edited April 11 by bnbhehe

[bofu]

I may be biased, but I have respect for anyone who comes out and releases a fully functional solo megawad project complete with original soundtrack.

 

These are some soulful levels! Definitely impressive work for, if I am to understand correctly, a new creator.

[NickMP]

Version 3 has now been uploaded to and accepted into the idgames archive! Thanks to everyone who's given my wad a try!