[MBF21] Power Struggle

[JustAthel]

 

 

What if I had made a "normal" secret map for Emblem, instead of the reflective, story-based one I made? What would it look and play like? What if I had no limits to contend to? This map attempts to answer these questions…

 

Hello, chat. I am back again, this time with a smaller scale project for 2023's NaNoWADMo. As many of you are aware, Emblem was my first actually decent release that garnered some pretty mixed to overall positive reviews. With its sequel, Artifice, on its last stage of development before release, I thought I'd take a bit of a break before polishing it up, but I still wanted to make a map of my own, not directly tied to any project. The thought of doing an actual E1M9 for Emblem had been on my mind for some time, and with this project slowly being tinkered on throughout November (and later expanded upon mostly in December), I was able to knock out three birds with one stone:

 

• How can I utilize DSDHackEd and DECOHack?
• How does it feel to utilize the MBF21 map format, without all of the limits of vanilla?
• What would a proper secret map for Emblem look like?

 

Power Struggle is a single level add-on for Ultimate Doom. Though it's designed to be loaded up with Emblem, it can also stand alone and be launched like any other map.

 

Features:

• A new map (E1M10), accessible either through the episode select screen, or through a modified version of Emblem's E1M1: Dig Site
• A new weapon: the plasmatic rifle, which originally showed up in Artifice.
• A whole new roster of enemies, originating from all four parts of the (as of now) unnamed Emblem series
• DSDHackEd source code included in WAD file

 

Power Struggle utilizes features such as DSDHackEd, MBF21, and UMAPINFO. To that end, you will need to run this on the latest version of DSDA-Doom (-cl 21). I may make a ZDoom friendly version down the line which would not rely on these features, but that is a low priority for me at the moment. You may quickly find that I have went way beyond the scope of my original ideas, but I think it's for the best.

 

Spoilers for credits:

Spoiler

 

Myrgharok, “Escaping the Darkness,” “Halls of Wandering Spirits,” “On a Sea of Lava,” “Beating the Demons”

Cammy, “An Eye For (and of) Molecules”

Peter Lawrence, “NM100S Pistol Start or Perish”

 

…as well as one midi transcription I pulled from Chrono Trigger.

 

Meks, for his Box of Skies that really helped spruce up the environments

Various assets (Plasmatic Rifle, 5th Episode Texture Pack, every custom enemy and prop that's in this wad, etc.) have been pulled from Realm667.

 

Paf, finnks13, and the rest of the NaNoWADMo discord for playtesting an earlier version of this map and providing insightful advice and commentary

 

 

Spoilers for screenshots:

Spoiler

You can download Power Struggle here! (power-struggle.wad, 8.3mb)

Here is a ZDoom compatible version of the map. (power-struggle-zd.wad, 9.4mb)
 

One last thing -- this map focuses on using your surroundings and wit to your advantage, but also encourages exploration. I'd be thrilled to see reactions to all of the secrets you find, and also what you guys make of the map as a whole. I will be putting together a video showcase within the next couple of weeks, which will go a bit more into the behind-the-scenes of this level. If you do post reactions, please place them under spoiler tags -- I'd love to have as many people go into this blind as possible. (Even that feels like I'm saying too much...!)

 

Enjoy =)

Edited January 27 by JustAthel
Added ZDoom compatible version

[KneeDeepintheSludgemetal]

Hey, I played through e1m1 again, loved it the first time around too. I was wondering what else do i do, to get to the new map?? Also what is the correct load order for ZDL? Thanks for the fun maps and all. 

 

I figured it out. Sorry for the bump! :-) go play this map! 

Edited January 6 by KneeDeepintheSludgemetal

[JustAthel]

Hey, glad you figured it out! I don't know if ZDL can support launching DSDA, but if you're combining the two wads, it would be emblem.wad, followed by power-struggle.wad (for those wondering the same thing)! Glad you enjoy my maps!

[Firedust]

Was Emblem the episode 1 replacement with weird progression that didn't let you play through all levels consecutively in one continuous playthrough?

[LadyMistDragon]

That was a cool map! I guess there must have been lots of secret fights because I think I ended with less than 500 monsters dead. The bit for the yellow key was quite cool though! I like how there's sort of three different themed areas and that the music changes every time!

[JustAthel]

11 hours ago, Firedust said:

Was Emblem the episode 1 replacement with weird progression that didn't let you play through all levels consecutively in one continuous playthrough?

 

If you mean the fact that I decided to make E1M2 lead into the secret map, then yeah. I've been thinking on and off on how I want to fix that up for re-release, since that is a pretty valid criticism to have towards it.

 

50 minutes ago, LadyMistDragon said:

That was a cool map! I guess there must have been lots of secret fights because I think I ended with less than 500 monsters dead. The bit for the yellow key was quite cool though! I like how there's sort of three different themed areas and that the music changes every time!

 

Glad you enjoyed it! There's at least a couple of secret fights you might have missed... :D

[JustAthel]

Hey guys! Small bump to let everyone know I have gotten around to making a ZDoom compatible version of Power Struggle. The link has been added to the OP. The biggest challenge for this was converting the voodoo scripts into ACS, but everything should be functionally similar, if not the same as the MBF version. I've also added a few cosmetic changes to the ZDoom version, but the MBF version of the WAD is still strongly recommended for the intended experience. Enjoy!

[RataUnderground]

A very extensive map, but quite fun to play. It feels much more like a DooM II map than an Ultimate DooM map, which made me miss the SSG the whole way through xD.
I think I only got to discover 712/2994 of the monsters, pretty unusual that you've hidden the vast majority of the monsters in completely optional areas xD.
In any case, I had a good time. I hope you like the gameplay.
 

 

[JustAthel]

Glad you enjoyed it! That's interesting how it feels more like a Doom 2 map than anything, guess that's my sign to start mapping for Doom 2, heh :p

 

Congrats on getting the second ending of the map :p

Edited January 27 by JustAthel