[Boom] The Esoteric Formula (idgames)

[dashlet]

 

The Esoteric Formula its a boom compatible mapset with 21 maps that focus on esoteric concepts/vignettes and hardcore gameplay. All of these maps are pretty short but they were designed to be a challenge to veteran players who seek hard content in doom. 

 

Ultra Violence its the intended experience, but some players may find it completely inaccessible due to some of the ingredients that the Esoteric Formula on UV contains. For this reason, i had implemented all difficulties in order to make these maps more accesible. On HMP and HNTR you will find that platforming sections are nerfed, almost all speedrunning tricks had been removed, and the combat in general its more fun than seeking to be pure challenge.

 

There are also bonus maps on slots 33 and 34 that originally belonged to maps 03 and 04, but they were discarded due to their quality. All maps were tested using dsda-doom. These maps also support UMAPINFO and they were designed for pistol starts.

 

Download (idgames): https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/eformula

 

Edited February 12 by dashlet
idgames

[dashlet]

RC2: 

- Implemented difficulties for maps 31 and 32

- Changed some things on lower difficulties on some other maps

- Fixed some bugs on HNTR

- Fixed some visuals problems

[Lhyntel]

Despite the differences between UV and HMP, the ideas (or concepts) behind the maps were clear and I really enjoyed them (even some of the mandatory parkour, which is not my cup of tea), mostly because of the creative encounters and the ways you can clear them. Glad you finally finished this project!

[dashlet]

idgames version its out, mostly for the sake of having demo compatibility

 

- new status bar taken from floatsam

- changes on maps 16, 31, 14, 13 and 03

- fixed some problems on HMP (thanks Lhyntel)

- more tiny visual things fixed

 

hope you enjoy! Also credits to stxvile for streaming the whole thing

[slowfade]

It would be impossible for me because of the tricks (can't do any), but instead of playing I'm going to watch videos of it; the chances are good that eventually there'll be a lot of demos for it. I like the idea of the mapset however.

[dashlet]

@slowfade you can always play on HNTR or HMP. I took quite some time implementing those difficulties in order to mitigate some of the things that uv has. For example almost every "trick" there its removed and the combat its much more forgiving. Also if any map you dont like appears, you can always skip it

Edited February 13 by dashlet

[Mr. Alexander]

This wad's intended experience is far beyond my abilities and my patience, but I'm having a lot of fun goofing around on Map03, which has an easily intelligible concept that requires some pretty solid movement and execution to get right. I love the chintzy easy listening jazz music and the bold use of blue and red in the decor. This is definitely a wad to look forward to when I actually get my practice in and can actually play the stuff for the deep addicts. Nice work!

[Ravendesk]

Very interesting wad so far (I've played first 9 maps), I especially liked maps 01, 05 and 07. 05 is very creative, I don't think I've ever seen 

Spoiler

pushing av off the ledge as part of a map progression

anywhere else before. 07 might be one of the cutest dead simple formula maps I played.

 

Have to say I'm surprised that UV is intended experience, when playing this I was certain HMP is intended and I brought it upon myself choosing to play on UV, but apparently no. Some maps are incredibly cooked (05 especially) to the point where they require near perfect execution and 0 mistakes to single segment them.

 

Anyway, here are fdas with saves on UV of first 9 maps: eformula-fdas-01-09.zip

Recorded with dsda-doom 0.27.5. I probably cheesed quite a few fights or did them not the intended way.

[dashlet]

@Ravendesk Nice demos and thank you. Saying UV its the intended difficulty its kinda of a joke to be honest, but i technically did design these maps to be fully and mainly experienced on UV. This means that HMP and HNTR differs a lot on how the actual maps should play like, but it makes them much more fun, accessible and less of a pain like you pointed out with map05.

 

@Mr. Alexander glad you enjoyed map03. Its also one of my favorites from this set. Im glad that end up been the actual map03 instead of whats on map33. The hold idea of using two main colors through out the maps (At least for the first 10 i think) combined with some jazzy midis its of course inspired by the frog and toad series.

Edited March 26 by dashlet

[SpinningPlates1]

Only 5 maps in (on hmp) so far, but already enjoying it immensely. I'm normally not a massive fan of "combat puzzles" but these are pretty fun generally. My favourite so far is probably map03 but I really like the arch-vile puzzle on map05. Also the visuals are really cool :)

Edited March 26 by SpinningPlates1