Doomed Urbex - V1 release!

[Firedust]

37 minutes ago, Ar_e_en said:

Can you be a bit more specific? I checked the area you described and everything seems to be in order in that room - you press the nearby  switch, enemies come in, stairs appear next to the 3 crushers, you run through the 3 crushers and press the switched on the  platform at the end that raises the stairs to the elevator.

The crushers never activated for me after pressing the switch.

[Ar_e_en]

That's odd.

Does this issue occur repeatably between map reloads? What port are you playing this wad on? Have you set the compatibility settings to MBF21? I tested all of the maps in this project on Woof, which has MBF21 as a default compatibility.

[Ar_e_en]

Any updates on future versions (in regards to bug fixes and things of that nature)?

[SaltBadGuy]

Rattled through the entire wad in 3 or so days (UV). I think the wad starts very weak but picks up in quality afterwards.

Map01 is pretty offputting, gameplay-wise it's outright bad with the best course of action to just run past all the sniping hitscanners. Also leaves a pretty bad impression with the MSpaint sky and solid yellow texture. I think a more standard sky to begin with and then switching to the bizarro sky once you leave the city block would work far better. The corruption could still be bright yellow, but it really should have a subtle texture since I thought I might've been missing resources or something when I first seen it. I'd probably rework the whole first block, both for the dreadful gameplay and, being a geometrically boring location with clean textures and a touch of doomcute which doesn't sell the Urbex particularly well..

Map02 and Map03 feel a lot closer to what is promised with something about Urbex, and Map04 really sells the fun cinematic/story stuff which is the real strength of the wad. Map02's midi is probably too cheery and stuck out like a sore thumb immediately. With retrospect it's even more out of place, and map03's midi feels like a far better fit.

Map05 and Map06 have some dreadful MIDIS, Map05 especially seems to have a midi that loops every 15 seconds or so. The only other maps with MIDI issues would be Map18 and Map21 (not a bad midi at all in this case, but doesn't loop properly.)

Map08 locked me in for the rest of the set, perfect midi and a genuinely cool and atmospheric hub idea. Map09 was a great followup. From here the set is a lot more consistently good with some real runs of standout maps like Maps 15-17 and  Maps 20-23.

 

I think a common problem is not getting access to fun weapons, you often have to slum it with just your 3 and 4 slot (and sometimes it's not even the super shotgun). There's quite a few levels where you do have access to your rocket launcher but still have to fall back on chopping down mid tier with your shotguns since there's not enough space etc. Some maps have a fun take on dealing with resource starvation with little side areas/houses etc. having a stash of health etc. but I'd say the mapset can feel a bit frugal on health and armour at points which is exacerbated by the occasional 80 damage rev rocket and abundance of hitscanners milling about.

I'd generally give more access to stronger weapons with limited ammo. Given the maps generally involve you fighting in cramped spaces, I wouldn't limit rockets much at all  since you should be rewarded if you can find a way to use them safely. Rockets would also make it fun to actually deal with the abundance of mid-tier snipers or mid-tier milling about wide spaces, since I started getting into the habit of just ignoring them. The wad also suffers from an overreliance on hitscan, especially snipers, and there's more than a few cheap usages of ambush chaingunners. The mid-tier enemies aren't often that fun to fight, often just vibing in cramped rooms or otherwise acting as window dressing, which isn't helped by often only having the SG or chaingun to hand. The setpiece fights are generally pretty good.

There's a lot of genuine quality and great ideas in this mapset, and I'm glad I stuck with it after the pretty poor early levels (map04 is probably the only reason I didn't drop the wad at map05).

[OceanMadman]

20 hours ago, Ar_e_en said:

Any updates on future versions (in regards to bug fixes and things of that nature)?

I still want to update the wad for fixing glitches and then upload it to a few more websites, but I've been quite busy with other projects and irl stuff, so I haven't been able to make much progress. However As soon as I have more free time again I'll work again in this.

1 hour ago, SaltBadGuy said:

Rattled through the entire wad in 3 or so days (UV)...

Thanks for the review! I'm glad that you enjoyed the later levels. To be honest I wasn't very happy about how map's 1 gameplay turned out either even if I like the atmosphere and stuff, but that's something I'd like to improve in a future update. I don't think I can do much about criticisms of other people's maps because, well, they're other people's, but if any of the mappers feel like also improving their work for an update, that's perfect for me.

Edited March 10 by OceanMadman

[Grotski]

On 3/10/2024 at 5:31 AM, SaltBadGuy said:

Map02 and Map03 feel a lot closer to what is promised with something about Urbex, and Map04 really sells the fun cinematic/story stuff which is the real strength of the wad. Map02's midi is probably too cheery and stuck out like a sore thumb immediately. With retrospect it's even more out of place, and map03's midi feels like a far better fit.
 

 

thanks for the input. if somebody else wants to get a midi for it i'd be quite happy. was tempted to just leave it silent tbh because i'm pretty bad with midis.

[SaltBadGuy]

18 hours ago, Grotski said:

 

thanks for the input. if somebody else wants to get a midi for it i'd be quite happy. was tempted to just leave it silent tbh because i'm pretty bad with midis.

For the map, you're probably wanting something that's at least a little moody/dramatic. It can still be reasonably uptempo though.

Off the top of my head, any of the first 3 map MIDIs from the AV Community MIDI project could work.

Just before playing this mapset, I played through Afternoon which has an amazing original soundtrack. The MAP01 midi would probably be a really good fit.
 

From Resurgence, Ghost Town would also be a good fit.

[JoeyKelastiof]

Hey, I'm at map 11 and cannot seem to find the last secret; could you PM me or put the secret walkthrough in a spoiler perhaps? I do not know if this is linked to the secret, but near the end,

Spoiler

2 walls made of wooden boxes don't seem to open and there's 4 enemies behind

.

Also, I was wondering if there was any way to pick up the items in the hub map (map08 the caves)  or if they are just a form of decoration?

[OceanMadman]

On 3/15/2024 at 3:56 AM, JoeyKelastiof said:

Hey, I'm at map 11 and cannot seem to find the last secret; could you PM me or put the secret walkthrough in a spoiler perhaps? I do not know if this is linked to the secret, but near the end,

  Hide contents

2 walls made of wooden boxes don't seem to open and there's 4 enemies behind

.

Also, I was wondering if there was any way to pick up the items in the hub map (map08 the caves)  or if they are just a form of decoration?

This is where all the secrets are, since I don't know which one is the one you're missing.

Spoiler

1.

 

2.

 

3.

 

4.

 

 

The boxes that lower those monsters should lower when walking in front of a switch, but now I think It's possible to activate the switch without walking through that line, so that's probably what happened. Thanks for informing me about that.

 

And yes, those items are just decoration in map08.

Spoiler

 

 

[JoeyKelastiof]

Thanks for the reply and the screenshots, it's really helpful! Secret number three is the one I missed :D

[Grotski]

map02 updated with new midi track, and some texture alignment. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hfzSQG-M5uTSjQ0pRFADYUwMWaUAXPWt/view?usp=drive_link

[OceanMadman]

22 minutes ago, Grotski said:

map02 updated with new midi track, and some texture alignment. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hfzSQG-M5uTSjQ0pRFADYUwMWaUAXPWt/view?usp=drive_link

I need permission to access it.

[Grotski]

30 minutes ago, OceanMadman said:

I need permission to access it.

fixed

[LadyMistDragon]

I played through this entire thing btw. Enjoyed it a hell of a lot honestly