Mortal Soul: The Installation – Atmospheric classic-style map from 2010 (now on /idgames)

[Stupid Bunny]

 

The map that started it all, and still maybe the best.  At the time I started this I had no intention of making it part of a set, and technically this is a re-release, though with the intent of this being the final one before it finds its home on /idgames.  (If you're curious, here's the very first release thread, where I think you can still find an old version of the map.  Don't bother though it's not different enough to be interesting.)

 

Most of the design decisions of this map are responses to the shortcomings of my first two released maps, which were respectively too cramped and convoluted, and too linear and orthogonal (and both were quite large).  As such I put a lot of focus into making it nonlinear, interconnected, architecturally interesting and keeping the size down, although it is not exactly a tiny map.  It's mostly techbase of one sort or another, with a little bit of demonic corruption going on here and there.  I wasn't trying too hard to conform the map to any particular concept or principle, and I remember making it was lots of fun.

 

Requirements

IWAD: DOOM2.WAD

Format: Vanilla, limit-removing port required

Map: MAP01

Allowed: Freelook

Disallowed: Jumping, crouching

Note: Fancy mods may break some of the dehacked decorations in these maps

 

/DOWNLOAD FROM IDGAMES

 

SCREENSHOTS

 

 

Previously released maps

/idgames Down

Outer Compound

Edited March 30, 2024 by Stupid Bunny

[Nootsy-Nootsy]

A very nice map with a persistent dread, very consistent and clean detailing. I enjoyed the small amount of non-linearity at the start, which constrasts a more straigtforward and propulsive progression at the end. The encounters aren't that bad but they're compounded by the darkness (and for me Cripsy doom's resolution) that makes everything so much more cramped and difficult. There's a nice pace between the challenging areas. For instance going from a double archie room with only SSG that you can make very simple by running away, to fighting two hell knights in a pitch black room, to a crazy outdoor slaughter-lite scenario.

Ammo balance is very constricted and killing everything seems tied around the secrets. You get a chainsaw and berserk but very little was easily boxable. I have absolutely no idea what I would have done had I not found the BFG. The second outdoor area is extremely chaotic and the only area to kill me, which it did so once. I barely had enough ammo to get through it. I can't imagine having to take twice as much cells to take out the cyber. Having all the rockets around when you only get one until later felt cruel, though I did appreciate all of them going up to the final fight, really enjoyed the increased scale in that area.

Health was also very tight in this map and I was consistently around or below 50 health, but the map was very well crafted so that was always enough. Even without the mega in the final area I managed to not die, thanks to the power of the BFG and running away.

With only 2/4 secrets, I had to exit with 2 shells to my name, leaving 2 pain elementals and 4 Mancubi alive.

Great map! :)

Edited March 21, 2024 by Nootsy-Nootsy

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

@Stupid Bunny Hey bro, what you have done here is truly sensational, since it is a very large map, not at all linear and confusing, but also with somewhat scarce resources as well as health. However, it has entertaining combat and I had a lot of fun wandering around until I found a way to kill them all and survive by escaping that infernal place, huh.

 

 

 

[Delisk]

 

[LadyMistDragon]

It feels more classic in a way which makes sense with the release date, but the blue key fight was seriously something closer to Alien Vendetta or maybe Plutonia 2. Dunno if you expected people to go into the not-very signposted blue corridor kind of to the left of the starting room initially....but it just made that first outdoor area packed with the Mancubi and chaingunners not worth dealing with since the Super shotgun was in the other wing. Pretty good stuff though! I did end up rushing it near the end, but well, you see how long the video gets.

 

 

 

[Plerb]

Great map as usual. I don't have much to add this time around, but I enjoyed it and I thought it generally flowed well.

[Clippy]

Wow what a grand adventure trip through time - I was doing ok til I wasnt lol - lots to chew on here - @sandwedge got to witness me killing the last monster!

 

 

[Stupid Bunny]

Thanks all, it's fun to see playthroughs of this after so many years.  That said will probably fast track this one to the archives soon since it's pretty well tested compared to most of the others

 

@Nootsy-Nootsy funny thing about the ammo balance, I think the first released build of the map was described as having a "glut" of ammo by the end...could it be I've overcorrected? ;3 Also believe it or not that BFG is a later addition, as is one of the other secrets.  I wanted the map to escalate along the way while keeping the player just well equipped to handle it so I'm glad that seems somewhat to have worked out, even if the best move in the final battle is to fuck off and leave instead of engaging everybody in combat.  Unsure if I'll fiddle with the ammo count or leave it as is at this point

 

@ElPadrecitoCholo good stuff!  Well played, never quite sure how the weapons mods affect balancing but the challenge definitely ramped up nicely from what I can tell

 

@Delisk You did well with finding secrets...the megasphere might have made the final battle a bit easier ;p But I guess it's not obvious at all how to get it or that it's even there, if these playthroughs are any indication.

 

@LadyMistDragon I'm not sure I remember having an "intended" starting route for this, for whatever reason I tend to go to the right and get the green armor over there first.  The SSG used to be in the room behind the lift-door with the cacodemon and stuff, but I decided (or I think somebody suggested) that that made the lower route through the nukage completely pointless.  Lol'd when there were like 38 seconds left in the video and you still were just grabbing the blue key...thought "I foresee some scarpering happening in the near future".  If I add any more ammo to the map, it'll be in the leadup to this area (and probably not too much).

 

@Plerb Much appreciated, any feedback is good feedback to me

 

@Clippy haha you posted this right as I was replying to the others—thanks for playing!  Good to see you seem to have enjoyed at least at the top, I'll reply in more detail after I've had a chance to watch the video

[Stupid Bunny]

@Clippy good job getting 100% kills on that and having like 2 rockets left still ;p  I'll probably add a wee bit more ammo, like just a tiny bit more along the way for the final release...it should be tight but maybe not quite as tight as it ended up lol, especially considering you got like 40 shells extra from a secret there.  Also some mancs that could be replaced with something more effective and less spongy.  If I remember right, I chose the music track right as soon as I started making this and the entire visual design kind of followed from it...it's "RoboCreeping" by @leejacksonaudio from Duke3D (I checked this time lol), wonderfully atmospheric piece of music that holds the whole aesthetic of the map together I think.  I'll definitely keep the RL after the yellow key door, though maybe putting it on a tiny ledge where the player is guaranteed to miss it is going too far?  Anyway thanks again for playing and for the great commentary, the map was supposed to be an adventure so I'm happy it felt like one.  Thanks also to @sandwedge for the super detailed feedback as well

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

6 hours ago, Stupid Bunny said:

@ElPadrecitoCholo good stuff!  Well played, never quite sure how the weapons mods affect balancing but the challenge definitely ramped up nicely from what I can tell

 

It was entertaining to tell the truth, I didn't want to use a very powerful set of weapons so as not to break the balance of the map so much, so I realized that with a certain balance on top, the map can become a bit hard at times and hectic too, haha.

[Stupid Bunny]

I've gone ahead and added just the lightest sprinkling of ammo here and there--I really didn't want to nerf the combat, and like that it keeps the player on a razor's edge, but also don't think one should be forced to resort to punching multiple times in spite of even finding secret caches and such.  Very little new health, think that's not needed especially with more ammo, but some of the monster placement in the final battle has been changed.

 

I'm sure there's other changes I could make, more secrets to add and such, but this map is such an old thing for me at this point that I don't want to go much beyond fine tuning and will probably be sending to the archives after nearly half of my life lol.  Thanks again to everybody who has tested it, now and over the years.  More from the same set to come in the coming weeks, but tbh these few are probably the high points for most people.

[Insaneprophet]

Very good level, its got everything I could ask for, even if I do still like outer compond a bit more, probably due to its more cohesive nature. Ammo and health seem to be pretty spot on. I always had just enough of either even though I was playing sloppy with both. Got all the secrets and items but had 3 missing kills at the end. Got to the finish line missing 5 but after re running through everything I found 2 late teleporting imps in the blue key arena. As for the other 3... one showed up on the map with iddt in the outdoor area past the yellow door that had imps and mancs up on the outer ledges. It appeared to be an imp stuck in the walls because I could hear him but not get to or see him even with idclip. The last 2 kills completely ellude me. I played on lzdoom and could completely understand if you dont care to look into it, no one else seemed to have missing kills and it didnt bother me any. Anywho, thanks for these 3 Mortal Soul maps, they were fun as hell and well made shit, its a shame the entire set never got dinished but Im looking forward to any more of them that may pop up and I am most likely going to hunt down some of your other maps. Who knows, Im strange and if these maps show anything, I will probably like them more than most people. Thanks again.

[Stupid Bunny]

Really appreciate you going through and playing all of these @Insaneprophet, and that you’re having such a good time with them…I thought a lot about releasing the finished maps as a single wad, but it felt wrong without the in-progress maps and especially final confrontation being finished, and truthfully I just have too much on my plate to pull out maps like these, at least for the next while. Doesn’t help that I can’t really draw sprites with more than 16 colors lol. Maybe someday the full 13 map set will be released as a single wad, but for now at least they’re out there and I don’t have to feel icky about them being holed up on a hard drive forever.

 

Anyway on that note this one is now on /idgames, 13½ years after completion. Thanks everybody over those many years who have contributed to making it what it is and who have played it. There’s just 3 more left from the set to come, which may or may not need some massaging before they’re release worthy lol