None Like It Hot! - A single vanilla DOOM 2 map

[LerxstInWonderland]

Here's a map I came up with while experimenting with some custom textures from 32in24-15 Tex (https://www.doomworld.com/afterglow/textures/).

 

It's a vanilla map (with custom textures of course), and uses the DOOM2.wad, MAP01 slot (I used Chocolate DOOM/Crispy DOOM/DSDA-DOOM for testing).

 

No jumping or crouching. Freelook, totally up to you.

 

It's a sort of underground, geothermal base type thing mixed with some cavernous/hellish touches. It's a mix of tight, up close combat and more open exploration/non-linearity. It takes around 15-20 minutes to complete on average.

 

The difficulty is similar to the original IWADS. All skill levels are implemented (thanks to everyone in this thread who gave advice on this)

 

As always, all feedback is appreciated.

 

NLIHv4.zip

 

 

 

 

Edited February 20 by LerxstInWonderland
Updated the ZIP file to the latest version.

[Gothic Box]

I really liked this map.

Great visually consistent "vanilla plus" style detailing + magnificent fight design and nonlinearity - I discovered after the fact that this was vanilla. Combat kinda has a liminal feel to it.

[LadyMistDragon]

Played it this morning and daaaang....you sure picked the right music for this! I don't think my gameplay was the best. All the same, I did find it all too easy in the first cavern with the chaingunners and Cacodemons I arrived in to go in the lava on accident.  I suppose that was a way to prevent circle-strafing, but I'm not sure it works here. If you wanna take more time for secrets though, things will get much easier! Perhaps the damage of the lava could be reduced though, because it sure took off a lot of health

 

As for suggestions for lower difficulties....instead of the one secret rad suit, there could be 2 more non-secret ones on HMP and probably at least one more on HNTR. Also, perhaps the amount of chaingunners and Lost Souls could be reduced on the lower difficulties since right now, they're probably the largest threat next to the Cacodemons. (maybe reduce the numbers of the latter on HNTR a bit?). Also, I would suggest placing less Revenants at the one end of the pit with the rectangular platforms leading to the yellow key, probably the ambush after collecting it most specfically.

 

That being said, I enjoyed this greatly and only didn't bother so much with removing the rock blocking that lowered Megasphere because not everything occurred to me in a playthrough that went on about twice as long as I really had the time for.

 

 

 

 

 

[Makros_the_Black]

Watching LadyMist's playthrough right now and damn dude!    This map looks awesome!   Love the use of the inset candles with the switch texture behind them!   Just downloaded and will give it a go later on tonight!   Am looking forwards to it!

[Mr. Alexander]

As LMD said, the music selection here is great. I love the detailing. I like how you can see secrets which you finally collect in one initial sector from one of the other sectors. It doesn't feel much like the IWADs thanks to the especially tight spacing and the steep staircases, and it feels a touch harder than the IWADs, but I'm bad at the game and could probably stand to play the IWADs more. A half-hour into my attempts, I got frustrated at falling into the lava between the blue key and the larger arena before it, and so I bailed, but I had a fun time with this. I'll definitely come back to it later this week.

 

I agree that the lost souls should probably be dialed down for lower difficulties, but since I didn't finish the level, my opinions should be taken with a grain of salt. Maybe turn some chaingunners into shotgunners in the "early" areas?

 

Failed FDA recorded in DSDA-Doom using an extended HUD:

nlih01fda-mralexander-failed.zip

[Noiser]

Oh, this looks pretty sweet! It's on my list already 8D

[Zahid]

great map....some moody traps which most mappers dont use and i hate at first but after some tries i began to enjoy cant find 1 secret 

my fail fda and a successful demo 

prboom cl2 uv skill

fail.zip

[AshtralFiend]

Gotta be honest, some of the design choices got on my nerves on the practice run.

However, after knowing the map layout, I had a lot of fun recording it.

Good combat and good architecture.

 

 

[LerxstInWonderland]

@Gothic Box Thanks for the kind words! "Vanilla Plus" is a good way to describe it. Adding new textures to the mix definitely helps in making things look more complex than the are.

 

@LadyMistDragon The video was great, thanks for recording your run. Your feedback was really helpful, and you're absolutely right about the floor damage being to high (I've already made the change from 10-20 to 5-10 damage), and I added a few more radsuits throughout as well. I've been working on implementing the lower difficulties as well, and I think I have a good balance now.

 

@Makros_the_Black Thanks for kind words! Hopefully you had an alright time with it if you played it already. (I'll be releasing the updated version soon, so If you haven't played it yet, maybe wait for that).

 

@Mr. Alexander Thanks for the demo! You definitely gave it more than a fair shot, and to be honest I would have quit at that point as well haha. Difficulty is hard to gauge for me, and I think I may have over-playtested this one, and lost sight of the true difficulty for a blind player

 

@Noiser Thanks! Hopefully you'll enjoy it!

 

@Zahid Thank you for the demo! There's definitely some annoyances to iron out with this one, but I think some of the suggestions people have talked about should improve the map overall.

 

@AshtralFiend Nice video! Thanks for taking the time to do that! That was a great run of the map. You were very efficient with your ammo and health. I don't think I ever finished a save less run with that much ammo left over (full bullets, and almost full shells), and I've played this level a lot more than you haha! Nice job finding all the secrets as well!

[Makros_the_Black]

5 hours ago, LerxstInWonderland said:

 

@Makros_the_Black Thanks for kind words! Hopefully you had an alright time with it if you played it already. (I'll be releasing the updated version soon, so If you haven't played it yet, maybe wait for that).

 

 

Oooh ok, maybe I'll do that.  Then I'll go back and play the original one!  

[Aeddes666]

Pretty intense!

 

 

Edited February 13 by Aeddes666

[Maribo]

Neat map. Don't have anything particularly insightful to say other than "IWAD similar difficulty" is a bit off the mark, it's not bone-crushing or anything but definitely a bit meaner and certainly more claustrophobic/awkward (not a bad thing) in geometry + monster composition. Good aesthetic, you nailed the geothermal base feeling and the texture usage does feel quite like "vanilla plus", as someone else put it.

 

A v2 playthrough demo, -dsdademo and plays back on v0.27.5 - nlih-maribo.zip

[azerty]

Very fun level, I had a blast playing it. Even though the tech base parts were a bit cramped, which I'm not really a fan of, I think it was handled quite nicely.  There was a delicate balance between being cramped and oppression to the player but still being able to move freely to kill all enemies. Btw these tech base sections where gorgeous. I really liked the rusty look with the very nice usage of light and support textures, it looked awesome.

It was a pretty spicy level. It wasn't easy at all and that's how I like it. Keeping the player on their toes with some jumpscares sprinkled throughout the level. Very nicely done. If you want to make it a tad more difficult you could start playing with resource management. I didn't really run out of ammo all that much during my playthrough so if you want to make it even more spicy you might want to remove some resources to starve the player out a bit more. It's just a suggestion though the level is more than fine as is.

[Jezze]

I really like this map, great level design with many lovely details, probably one of the best looking vanilla maps out there. I also liked the switch puzzles and overall enemy placement.

 

Is the map supposed to allow jumping? If so, then this secret should not be reachable by jumping over the low wall.

[Not Jabba]

45 minutes ago, Jezze said:

Is the map supposed to allow jumping?

No, because it's vanilla-compat.

[El Juancho]

Played this on DOSBox-X, great combat, level design/progression, themes on the different areas etc. Really surprised on how good this level was, really good job :)!

[Makros_the_Black]

I decided, I couldn't wait!   Was just giving it a play with my morning coffee a moment ago!   DUDE!   Awesome work!!!!!   Look forward to the updated version!  :D

[Delisk]

 

Nice layout, great details, good combat...

[LerxstInWonderland]

@Aeddes666 Thanks for the video. I enjoyed your playthough!

 

@Maribo Thanks for the demo and feedback! Yeah, I'm pretty much always wrong about where to rate the difficulty of my maps haha. I suppose by IWAD I was thinking more TNT/Plutonia, but that could be way off as well. I did want some areas to be a little cramped, but I think I went a little to far. It'll be something to work on for the next map.

 

@azerty Thanks for taking the time to try the map out and I appreciate the comments! Glad you liked it overall! The cramped nature of the map was somewhat intentional, but I don't think I executed it quite right. The ammo thing is something I messed around with for a while, but I think I'm still too inexperienced as a mapper to get the balance just right. I wasn't sure where the player would go first, and I rather they have more ammo than less. I might experiment with that a bit on a more linear map where I can predict where the player has been and what items they have.

 

@Jezze Thank you for the kind words! I don't think it's one of the best looking vanilla maps personally, but I tried to make things look as good as I could within vanilla limits and I'm glad you liked it. As @Not Jabba said, it's a vanilla map so no jumping/crouching ( I should probably add that to the main post).

 

@El Juancho Thanks for playing, happy you were surprised by it! Glad to hear it worked out on DOS-box, as I usually just stick to chocolate DOOM for testing.

 

@Makros_the_Black Thanks for trying it out, glad you liked it!

 

@Delisk Thank you for the video, nice job on the playthrough! I was laughing at around the 9:20 mark where the chaingunners kept getting pots thrown at them while confetti was going off as they were continuously being resurrected haha.

 

I think this ones mostly wrapped up. If any major issues arise, I'll fix them. All the comments really helped out, and I'll try to keep them all in mind when I work on my next map or project. Thanks again to everyone who played! 

[Makros_the_Black]

WOW!   Wow, wow, wow!    This was... just... SO MUCH FUN!   I mean, it was brutal as HELL!   But there wasn't a moment that I wasn't enjoying myself a great deal!

Well ok... I do hate a good archvile and this one was used so damn well!   Exactly the kind of use I've been trying to figure how to accomplish for when I introduce him to my WAD.   Details, across the level are so well executed!   I love the idea of the support beams used throughout!   Mind if I utilize that idea later?  :D

As you can see, it took me almost an hour and I couldn't find the last 6 enemies anywhere.   But I pretty much 100% completed it and the feeling of satisfaction for having done was worth the absolutely sadistic and ingenious traps and moster usage! 

EDIT:  OH HEY!   I just noticed I actually finished on 100% health too!   Fire!
  

Edited February 15 by Makros_the_Black

[Oxyde]

Just adding my FDA(s) to the list!

 

Pretty much everything has been said about this level, atmosphere is killer, difficulty is something else. I especially enjoyed the music!

[LerxstInWonderland]

@Makros_the_Black Thanks again for the playthrough :) Nice job finishing with 100% health!

 

@Oxyde Awesome video, thanks for trying the map out and I'm glad you completed it! There are definitely some tricky parts, and I kind of regret putting the death pits in honestly, and probably will avoid them in the future. I wanted the area to feel dangerous and that you had to watch your step. Most players kind of run full bore everywhere (myself included), and this map is a little different in that careful movement can really help out in certain areas.

[scrm]

This is a fantastic map. The visuals, fights and progression were all really good. The atmosphere was incredibly thick, and gave me a serious dose of claustrophobia and anxiety, in no small part thanks to fairly challenging gameplay. Platforming over lava with so little health to go around is very tense.

 

I think my favorite section was raising the platforms to the Yellow Key, along with the fight that happens after you drop down into one of the trenches, with the lowering Mancubus. It was an unexpected twist and forced me to readjust on the fly.

 

I recorded a demo. I had two early deaths before this attempt. Knowing how difficult it was gonna get, I didn't think I'd be able to do it saveless, but I'm glad I did.

 

LerxstInWonderland-NLIHv3.zip (dsda-doom-0.27.5, -cl 2, 100% kills, 50% secrets)

Edited February 18 by scrm

[Roofi]

Hello !

 

Here is my walkthrough on Doom2.exe.

 

I agree with the other playtesters, this is a really sharp-looking volcanic tech-base. The difficulty was tame for me but the overall design manages to create a strong feeling of urgency and danger. Easy-to-avoid but deadly pits, perilous platforming passages, lots of little traps to keep your attention, heavy usage of lava and flashy red hellish texture and above all, the anxiety-inducing music that gave me the feeling of escaping from a volcano about to erupt.

 

About the bugs, I spotted no one but I would suggest to move the shell box located in front of the switch at 5:10 of the video. You're forced to pick it up and it's a bit annoying.

 

Otherwise, well done for this map !

 

 

 

Edited February 18 by Roofi

[The_Eon_Star]

Hi. I did test this map. It is quite hard. I did like the design of the level. But I think you should give the player more "room". I tried to play the map over an over. In the end I gave it up. Sorry to say that. Still it is a well designed level. Thanks.

[Makros_the_Black]

11 hours ago, LerxstInWonderland said:

@Makros_the_Black Thanks again for the playthrough :) Nice job finishing with 100% health!

 

@Oxyde Awesome video, thanks for trying the map out and I'm glad you completed it! There are definitely some tricky parts, and I kind of regret putting the death pits in honestly, and probably will avoid them in the future. I wanted the area to feel dangerous and that you had to watch your step. Most players kind of run full bore everywhere (myself included), and this map is a little different in that careful movement can really help out in certain areas.

<3  Thank you for such a fun map!   I actually didn't mind the deadly pits at all... they felt like they added to the sense of danger in the area.   Normally, I really dislike deathpits with no way of escape if you can react quick enough but they really made me think about how I moved about that room and dealt with the cacodemons... (In the end, I hid in the secret and used the door frame for cover... let them come to me because I kept dying to the Caco's... not the pits!  lol).

[LerxstInWonderland]

@scrm Thanks for taking the time to record a demo :) I enjoyed it! The yellow key section is probably my favorite section as well.

 

@Roofi Great video! Nice job on the playthrough. Yeah, difficulty is very hard to get right. The encounters are small in numbers but it's pretty cramped, so I guess that adds to the difficulty a bit. I move the box of shells to a new location for version 4 as well, thanks for the feedback!

 

@The_Eon_Star Thanks for giving it a shot! You're right about the lack of space, and it's something I'll keep in mind for my next mapping attempt.

 

@Makros_the_Black Thanks again for the comments :)

 

I added version 4 to the OP. Just some more minor fixes (slightly different ammo/enemy placement etc.)

[The_Eon_Star]

Your map still is one of the toughest I ever played. Keep it up.

Edited February 23 by The_Eon_Star