ERASER v2.0, a creepy adventure map [CL9 BOOM]

[Matt Eldrydge]

 

Don't let them erase you.

 

PLAY INFO
Complevel: Boom (9)
Mouselook: Feel free to use it.

Difficulty: Only UV is implemented. Couldn't think of any reason to balance it lower.
Crouching, jumping: No. It shouldn't break anything, but still.
Ports tested: DSDA-Doom 0.27.5, GZDoom 4.11

Renderer: Software, or DSDA-Doom's hardware renderer.
Slot: 01 + 02 as a stopper.

DOWNLOAD: Version 2.0

 

You can find all the versions here.

 

You find yourself in a strange space, at the edge of a dead world suspended in darkness.

Getting here wasn't easy.

You nearly died in the process , but at least you still can move and aim well enough.

The rules are the same: survive and find a way home.

 

P.S.: Since Eraser has a lot of asset replacements and Dehacked changes, it won't play nicely with mods. Use them at your discretion.

 

Weapon changes:

Spoiler

Slot 1: Knife

Attacks twice in a row and is much faster. Useful all around.

 

Slot 2: Rifle

Decently fast and perfectly accurate.

 

Slot 4: Carbine

Fires in very fast 2 round bursts, but otherwise behaves like the chaingun. Good at stunlocking.

 

Slot 5: Rocket rifle

Slightly slower, with 3x the vanilla damage.

 

Slot 6: Plasma magnum

Slightly slower, but with increased damage (20 per bolt) and no recoil frame.

Good luck finding it. Entirely optional.

 

The chainsaw and shotguns just get a new skin.

BFG goes unused since I couldn't think of any role for it to play.

 

Ammo limits:

100/200 bullets

20/40 shells

10/20 rockets

50/100 cells

 

More details:

Spoiler

The map has just two secrets, despite the size. One hints at a stronger weapon and the other contains said weapon.

 

Exploration is key. Every new version will include at least one new place for you to explore.

 

If you're running low on ammo or health, look harder or keep moving. Supplies are tight and placed in a way that keeps you moving for most of the map.

 

Since the map has so many optional areas, shortcuts and paths, you're bound to be here a while. Don't be afraid to take your time with it.

 

Lastly, thank you for playing. This map was in the making for around five or six months and I sometimes forgot the purpose of a given room because of it.

 

Consider it Structure's smaller, more focused brother.

 

 

 

Edited April 18 by Matt Eldrydge
Version update.

[Zahid]

my 30 min first attempt.....visuals are great but gameplay is so boring that i quit

i do like puzzle maps at times but not today i guess

prboom cl9 demo

popi9.zip

[Matt Eldrydge]

12 minutes ago, Zahid said:

my 30 min first attempt.....visuals are great but gameplay is so boring that i quit

i do like puzzle maps at times but not today i guess

prboom cl9 demo

popi9.zip

 

Sorry to hear you didn't like it, it's just how the cookie crumbles though. I really wanted to try something different. Thanks for the demo.

[Shepardus]

Cool map, I enjoyed exploring the different areas, and there was more to it than I expected. Got tricky to navigate though, I gave myself a computer area map trying to look for the red key and even then it took me a long time to figure out how to get to places I hadn't been. I haven't played Structure, but that must be quite a large map if this is smaller than it! Combat was easy but still kept me on my toes, at least until I found the plasma magnum. No demo from me, but have an intermission screenshot:

Spoiler

 

[Async Unicorn]

Cacoward nomination, I believe?

Don't know how awards work and maybe I'm a bit emotional, but I think you deserve some kind of award.

Playing now, enjoying your work, kinda claustrophobic and confusing, but I believe it actually works great for the atmosphere of you, being alone, in some strange place, between the reality and the dream...

For me, that's the definition of "Doom" straight from the dictionary, I love these Abscission-like stuff.

 

UPD:

God damn! Your map is very specific and not for everyone, but, you know, I actually love it!

Edited April 15 by Vanilla+Unicorn

[Matt Eldrydge]

 

3 hours ago, Shepardus said:

Cool map, I enjoyed exploring the different areas, and there was more to it than I expected. Got tricky to navigate though, I gave myself a computer area map trying to look for the red key and even then it took me a long time to figure out how to get to places I hadn't been. I haven't played Structure, but that must be quite a large map if this is smaller than it! Combat was easy but still kept me on my toes, at least until I found the plasma magnum. No demo from me, but have an intermission screenshot:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Thanks for checking it out! My comment about Structure is there more because that map is more or less composed of quite a few individual maps put in a single, massive map. It doesn't have any specific theme or mood unlike Eraser, which is meant to be horror-ish and oppressive.

 

The red key often comes up in feedback and I'm not sure if I should "fix" it or not, given the map's thing is kinda being impenetrable, you know? It does take people a little while to actually find it...but anyway, glad to hear you enjoyed the combat. :)

 

Also, good time considering the map is large and not super clear on what it wants from you!

3 hours ago, Vanilla+Unicorn said:

Cacoward nomination, I believe?

Don't know how awards work and maybe I'm a bit emotional, but I think you deserve some kind of award.

Playing now, enjoying your work, kinda claustrophobic and confusing, but I believe it actually works great for the atmosphere of you, being alone, in some strange place, between the reality and the dream...

For me, that's the definition of "Doom" straight from the dictionary, I love these Abscission-like stuff.

 

UPD:

God damn! Your map is very specific and not for everyone, but, you know, I actually love it!

 

I'm not sure this is worth a cacoward, but the sentiment is welcomed - thank you!

 

Being lost in a strange place is actually a fairly common dream I have, and much like most of my maps, my dreams end up playing a large part in inspiration. Abscission as well as Snaxalotl's previous work in Stickney Installation informed a lot of the "feel" the map wound up having, and reaching out to her for the midis is another way to thank her for the excellent reference material. :)

 

There's also most of the second half's layout being made while I was dealing with a fever, so the abstract "stairs everywhere" look is only partly Escher-inspired. :P

 

Anyway, very happy to hear you enjoyed your time in Eraser! I'll certainly look into making some more stuff in that vein, survival horror in Doom is an idea that just fascinates me!

[LadyMistDragon]

It's not a map for people who hate any whiff of survival mechanics or otherwise hate getting lost. I loved it however, and even found all the little oftentimes-hidden paths back to previous areas to be quite nice :)

 

 

 

[Yousuf Anik]

5 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

It's not a map for people who hate any whiff of survival mechanics or otherwise hate getting lost.

 

So true, one need patience to find all the way here and survive at the end. I also felt that ammo is very tight here.

 

@Matt Eldrydge But I must say the level design is very attractive and interesting. I'm thinking to try it with one of my favorite mod (I wonder it will work, haven't tried it yet but will definitely. If work successfully maybe I will come up with a video). It's a survival-horror type level after all which is always cool to me. And guess what, maybe a little more work on it and it might get attention for Cacoward or something, I'm not sure just my thought because it's so beautiful and inspiring.

[97th Century Fox]

Just finished it and I love it! Great atmosphere and I adore the new arsenal, always a treat seeing new guns in my wads! Pacing was amazing, and the gameplay fits perfectly with the desolate atmosphere. Enjoyed wandering the halls and looking for hidden places (managed to find the ssg secret!). It's also cool recognizing most of the guns from the mods you covered on your YouTube channel!

 

A minor thing I'd mention is that I found a misaligned texture at this spot: https://imgur.com/a/DYyFNss

Edited April 16 by 97th Century Fox

[antares031]

A couple of texture issues to point out. The second one appears, when the blinking light goes dark in software mode. Check the coordinates on the top-left of each screenshot.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

It feels like lots of places were designed as secret areas, especially the one with a plasma magnum. Kinda strange that all of those areas are not tagged as secrets, and just worked as optional areas. Regardless, it was a pretty good survival horror wad, with a couple of surprising moments.

[Matt Eldrydge]

14 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

It's not a map for people who hate any whiff of survival mechanics or otherwise hate getting lost. I loved it however, and even found all the little oftentimes-hidden paths back to previous areas to be quite nice :)

 

Thanks for the video! It was fun seeing someone go through it with just half of the weapons, even though I didn't really account for that happening. :P

Good to see the shotgun/chaingun only combat actually worked out, though!

 

9 hours ago, Yousuf Anik said:

So true, one need patience to find all the way here and survive at the end. I also felt that ammo is very tight here.

 

Ammo and supplies are indeed tight, but if you do drag down the place for it you should always have just enough to get by. By the end you'll have a full backpack, assuming you did that.

 

9 hours ago, Yousuf Anik said:

But I must say the level design is very attractive and interesting. I'm thinking to try it with one of my favorite mod (I wonder it will work, haven't tried it yet but will definitely. If work successfully maybe I will come up with a video). It's a survival-horror type level after all which is always cool to me. And guess what, maybe a little more work on it and it might get attention for Cacoward or something, I'm not sure just my thought because it's so beautiful and inspiring.

 

Thank you! I'm considering making a mod-friendly version, it shouldn't be too hard but the thought of having to playtest this map another time makes me want to not do it right now. :P

 

Aside from fixing the odd texture misalignment here and there, I'm not sure what else I can do to "improve" the map though. In fact, that's the main reason I decided to release it after making the exit room - just couldn't think of ways to make it better. I'll look into making some doors two way, maybe, but the less geometry I have to change the better. Still, happy to hear you enjoyed it!

 

1 hour ago, 97th Century Fox said:

Just finished it and I love it! Great atmosphere and I adore the new arsenal, always a treat seeing new guns in my wads! Pacing was amazing, and the gameplay fits perfectly with the desolate atmosphere. Enjoyed wandering the halls and looking for hidden places (managed to find the ssg secret!). It's also cool recognizing most of the guns from the mods you covered on your YouTube channel!

 

A minor thing I'd mention is that I found a misaligned texture at this spot: https://imgur.com/a/DYyFNss

 

Thanks for playing it! I was super worried the pacing would be too slow (which it might be for some people), but then again it's easier to build tension if you take it slow and steady. Congrats on finding the SSG, I tried to make it decently challenging but not too cryptic to find. :)

 

Also, noted on the texture misalignment. It's so minor I'm surprised you even noticed it. Good eye!

 

36 minutes ago, antares031 said:

A couple of texture issues to point out. The second one appears, when the blinking light goes dark in software mode. Check the coordinates on the top-left of each screenshot.

 

Thanks for the feedback! The second one doesn't show in DSDA-Doom but I'll look into fixing it, since I'm pretty sure it shouldn't happen with the way the map is set up at the moment.

 

40 minutes ago, antares031 said:

It feels like lots of places were designed as secret areas, especially the one with a plasma magnum. Kinda strange that all of those areas are not tagged as secrets, and just worked as optional areas. Regardless, it was a pretty good survival horror wad, with a couple of surprising moments.

 

The main reason no secrets have been tagged is simple: they tell you there's more to the map. If you remove them, then the player will be almost completely in the dark which is usually not what a mapper should do - but on the other hand, it's a good way to make the player not worry about exploring everything either. It's a bit complex and definitely subjective, but since secrets ideally are optional I think it's fine to make them, well, entirely optional. It can also boost replay value, but in Eraser? It's just to make the map that bit more hostile to the player's presence, which is one thing I was interested in tackling from the start. It's why the map is very dense and rather difficult to navigate, why supplies are quite tight, why you start with almost nothing in terms of health and ammo...the whole idea is you don't know anything about the place you're in and having a readout that says "hey you have these secrets to find still" went against it.

 

I got the idea from this writeup by Stewboy, which is definitely worth a read in my opinion. It's not something I think every map ever should do, but it is a very interesting way to bend Doom's level design rules.

[Stabbey]

Interesting map. Challenging because of the way you start, but I got a foothold.

 

I stopped at about 20 minutes both because I have other things I need to do today, but also because I seem to have run out of progress to make without finding any keys. I do have two of the four orange switches pressed, though, and found some of the non-secrets (including the backpack), but at the moment I'm stalled and just trying to see if I can make an awkward jump across pillars to a place I'm certain I need a switch to reach properly anyway.

 

EDIT: The way I was about to try required only a simple jump, and it led to progress.

 

I finished the map. It was interesting how the atmosphere made me so nervous for what was ultimately not very difficult combat wise. It does take a lot longer to feel secure than normal, but after that, you get stronger and the amount of enemies never increases to the point where you're in danger. You eventually start handing out the plasma rifle and rocket launcher, but with the amount of room you get for the small amount of enemies, there's not much to worry about. I only missed one kill somewhere.

 

I am confident that I got all the (untagged) secrets. Personally, I think hiding the number of secrets by not tagging them so as to not spoil how much more there is to the map doesn't make sense. There IS only a finite amount of content to the map, and a failure to tag the secrets does NOT change that there's only so much content to see. All not tagging a secret does to someone who wants to find them is to make them look harder and/or use cheats. When I reached the end and double-checked using a cheat code, I didn't seem to have missed anything.

Edited April 16 by Stabbey
update

[Matt Eldrydge]

7 hours ago, Stabbey said:

Interesting map. Challenging because of the way you start, but I got a foothold.

 

[snip]

 

I finished the map. It was interesting how the atmosphere made me so nervous for what was ultimately not very difficult combat wise. It does take a lot longer to feel secure than normal, but after that, you get stronger and the amount of enemies never increases to the point where you're in danger. You eventually start handing out the plasma rifle and rocket launcher, but with the amount of room you get for the small amount of enemies, there's not much to worry about. I only missed one kill somewhere.

 

 

Thanks for playing! I understand there's not a lot in terms of actual difficulty, but this was also an exercise in making the map itself something you have to overcome. Not sure if I actually succeeded in that regard or not, but by the end I figured it was better to let it go in a more traditional Doom way. I think I was also riffing on Resident Evil, where you barely scrape by but get a rocket launcher to blow everything up at the end but don't quote me on that.

 

7 hours ago, Stabbey said:

I am confident that I got all the (untagged) secrets. Personally, I think hiding the number of secrets by not tagging them so as to not spoil how much more there is to the map doesn't make sense. There IS only a finite amount of content to the map, and a failure to tag the secrets does NOT change that there's only so much content to see. All not tagging a secret does to someone who wants to find them is to make them look harder and/or use cheats. When I reached the end and double-checked using a cheat code, I didn't seem to have missed anything.

 

Fair points there. Actually tagging secrets or not seems to be kind of a big deal and while I do agree with the completionist angle, I also don't really see it as being a reason to comb through every single room with cheats to see everything the map has to offer. I don't really 100% most of the maps I do play because I like the idea of being able to come back to them someday and find something I didn't know existed, which is something I actually like more than I care to admit. I'm not sure I actually succeeded at that here, so secrets might feel like secrets when I really intended them to be indistinguishable from the rest of the map - if you've played Lost Civilization, you'll know what I mean. It probably doesn't help that at certain points I had actually forgotten what a given part of the map was supposed to be.

 

TL;DR: Secrets aren't something I'm concerned about, I only tag them if I must. If you have to seek out something, the kill count is still there for a reason.

[Stabbey]

Speaking of kill count, that's the thing to mess with to really keep the player uncertain how much more map there is. For instance, if you stick 223 zombiemen in an isolated room somewhere, the player who sees the number of enemies remaining on the automap screen will never be able to relax. Then once the player gets close to the end, trigger a crusher to flatten them all so 100% kills is still achievable.

[Maribo]

A long faded dream of void and concrete.

eraser-maribo.zip - v0.27.5

 

A minor suggestion:

Spoiler

It would be prudent to lower the volume of the bonesaw up and idle sounds (DSSAWUP and DSSAWIDL) or perhaps replace them with something else altogether, because the vanilla ones are very loud in comparison to the relatively quiet soundtrack and atmosphere of the map. Having the bonesaw audio feel more comparable to a gentle purr instead of the vanilla chugging would make it a lot more appealing to walk around with in-hand.

[Matt Eldrydge]

16 hours ago, Stabbey said:

Speaking of kill count, that's the thing to mess with to really keep the player uncertain how much more map there is. For instance, if you stick 223 zombiemen in an isolated room somewhere, the player who sees the number of enemies remaining on the automap screen will never be able to relax. Then once the player gets close to the end, trigger a crusher to flatten them all so 100% kills is still achievable.

 

Not a bad idea. Will keep it in mind for future projects.

 

15 hours ago, Maribo said:

A long faded dream of void and concrete.

eraser-maribo.zip - v0.27.5

 

A minor suggestion:

  Reveal hidden contents

It would be prudent to lower the volume of the bonesaw up and idle sounds (DSSAWUP and DSSAWIDL) or perhaps replace them with something else altogether, because the vanilla ones are very loud in comparison to the relatively quiet soundtrack and atmosphere of the map. Having the bonesaw audio feel more comparable to a gentle purr instead of the vanilla chugging would make it a lot more appealing to walk around with in-hand.

 

Jeez, that demo opened my eyes to just how awful the idea for that double-color locked door was. I'm sorry I put you and anyone else through that, it must have been at least 20 minutes of blind wandering. I've already fixed it by making it so the red skull is only required for the very end, just gotta playtest it to make sure everything is working fine now.

 

As for the suggestion, noted. I'm not great with sounds but I'll look into it.

 

Edit: Since I've fixed a number of things (including secrets, might as well since the cat is out of the bag), I added some doomcute. Might as well.

 

Edited April 17 by Matt Eldrydge

[Not Jabba]

Really neat map, loved the atmosphere and the steady slow burn, and the satisfaction of hunting down all the bits of resources. This is the type of project where untagging secrets is truly useful, since the whole map is an exploration puzzle with lots of different layers of secrets (or layers of "finding things"), and giving the "secret found" feedback on some of it (or worse yet, all of it) would feel dissonant. Plus it just kinda interrupts the "silence," so to speak.

 

I was expecting a bit more to come at me at the end--after I cleared out the initial wave of opposition in the final structure, I switched over to my plasma pistol with all its hoarded ammo for the final wave I was expecting to trigger, only to realize there wasn't much left in the map at all. The current finale does fit the rest of the map, so it's not a critical issue or anything, but it's something to think about--the suspense of the map feels like it's building up to a bit more than what we end up getting.

Edited April 17 by Not Jabba

[Stabbey]

4 hours ago, Not Jabba said:

Really neat map, loved the atmosphere and the steady slow burn, and the satisfaction of hunting down all the bits of resources. This is the type of project where untagging secrets is truly useful, since the whole map is an exploration puzzle with lots of different layers of secrets (or layers of "finding things"), and giving the "secret found" feedback on some of it (or worse yet, all of it) would feel dissonant. Plus it just kinda interrupts the "silence," so to speak.

 

You could keep the silence by replacing the sound effect of DSSECRET with an audio clip of a few seconds of silence, so only the counter and the pink lines on the map indicate a secret.

 

 

4 hours ago, Not Jabba said:

I was expecting a bit more to come at me at the end--after I cleared out the initial wave of opposition in the final structure, I switched over to my plasma pistol with all its hoarded ammo for the final wave I was expecting to trigger, only to realize there wasn't much left in the map at all. The current finale does fit the rest of the map, so it's not a critical issue or anything, but it's something to think about--the suspense of the map feels like it's building up to a bit more than what we end up getting.

 

Yeah, the final fight has a ton of open space but not much which is threatening.

[Matt Eldrydge]

Thanks to everyone for the comments, I don't have time to answer to them in full at the moment but the feedback has been taken and used to improve on the map.

 

Download the much-needed update here.

 

Changelog:

Spoiler

-A couple of secrets have been tagged.

-Computer area map is now available.

-Maze will appear on the automap.

-More monsters. More ammo. Overall better combat, hopefully.

-Some doors can be opened from both sides now.

-New saw sounds that should hopefully mesh better with the atmosphere.

-Fixed the rocket launcher's sound, it was left in as a WAV by accident.

-The blue-red locked door is now gone. This should make exploration nicer.

-The final area no longer is quite so toothless.

-The SSG switch puzzle now is a bit easier to solve.

-Minor texture issues fixed (hopefully).

-Slightly touched up the flow. Nothing major, I don't think it'll actually matter too much but the map flows better now.

 

[CravenCoyote]

Really cool to see this! As someone who just happens to be working on something quite similar, it's great to see that people are enjoying the moody atmosphere and tense gameplay.

 

Good job!

[Matt Eldrydge]

On 4/17/2024 at 3:46 PM, Not Jabba said:

Really neat map, loved the atmosphere and the steady slow burn, and the satisfaction of hunting down all the bits of resources. This is the type of project where untagging secrets is truly useful, since the whole map is an exploration puzzle with lots of different layers of secrets (or layers of "finding things"), and giving the "secret found" feedback on some of it (or worse yet, all of it) would feel dissonant. Plus it just kinda interrupts the "silence," so to speak.

 

I was expecting a bit more to come at me at the end--after I cleared out the initial wave of opposition in the final structure, I switched over to my plasma pistol with all its hoarded ammo for the final wave I was expecting to trigger, only to realize there wasn't much left in the map at all. The current finale does fit the rest of the map, so it's not a critical issue or anything, but it's something to think about--the suspense of the map feels like it's building up to a bit more than what we end up getting.

 

First of all, thanks for playing the map! I'm glad you enjoyed it and your comment regarding the secrets almost made me untag them again, but by then I had already figured out a new, rather unintrusive secret sound and didn't want to let it go to waste. :P

 

I also figure the allure of "ooooh new mysterious map" had already worn off and decided it wouldn't hurt to have the sounds turn up on occasion. Maximum immersion was something I was kinda concerned with, but there's just a limit to how much you can make achieve that in regular Doom. Anyway, the idea is still worth pursuing so I only tagged two of them and called it a day.

 

Regarding the final structure, I made sure to put up not only more monsters in it, but also a small ambush right before the exit room in version 2.0 of the map! I don't think it's realistically threatening but it should make it so you can't just waltz out of the map.

 

23 hours ago, Stabbey said:

 

You could keep the silence by replacing the sound effect of DSSECRET with an audio clip of a few seconds of silence, so only the counter and the pink lines on the map indicate a secret.

 

For this, I opted for just using a quiet, more musical DSSECRET sound. It meshes well with the mostly quiet vibe of the map, I just wish I could change the actual secret found message to match it as well. I couldn't find the related string in WhackED 4, alas.

 

12 hours ago, CravenCoyote said:

Really cool to see this! As someone who just happens to be working on something quite similar, it's great to see that people are enjoying the moody atmosphere and tense gameplay.

 

Good job!

 

Thanks! I know Doom's thing is usually running and gunning, but if you control supplies and a few other variables it can make for a rather tense survival horror-type thing too. I think Snaxalotl's megaWADs definitely show there's an interest in scarier stuff, so go for it!

[Smolspidey]

I really enjoyed this map. It was very tense and looked really cool the entire way through, good job.

[SportsterV90]

Absolutely remarkable wad! I like maps with such atmosphere - a lot of exploration areas! You should discover every little secret for everywhere to stay alive! Exciting visuals and gameplay! Thank You!

[Matt Eldrydge]

On 4/21/2024 at 3:21 AM, Smolspidey said:

I really enjoyed this map. It was very tense and looked really cool the entire way through, good job.

Thank you! Happy to hear you enjoyed this map. :)

 

On 4/21/2024 at 6:24 AM, SportsterV90 said:

Absolutely remarkable wad! I like maps with such atmosphere - a lot of exploration areas! You should discover every little secret for everywhere to stay alive! Exciting visuals and gameplay! Thank You!

Yep, that's what I was going for - keep the player moving and in search of supplies. You're welcome, and happy to hear you enjoyed it! I might make more maps in Eraser's lane in the future, but perhaps not quite as large as Eraser itself since I have to playtest it all multiple times. :P

[BEG]

Got around to finishing it today, about an hour of playtime.

I really liked the atmosphere. just like @CravenCoyote I just finished working on something similar, so it was nice seeing another take on it.

 

Great texture use and detailing, reminiscent of Espi's style.

 

Didn't care that much for the weapon sounds and there was little distinction between most of the rifles. I didn't play the latest update but on the original one backtracking was on the brutal side and there wasn't necessarily a clear flow after obtaining new keys for example.

 

Overall a good experience that stands out.

[Matt Eldrydge]

4 hours ago, BEG said:

Got around to finishing it today, about an hour of playtime.

I really liked the atmosphere. just like @CravenCoyote I just finished working on something similar, so it was nice seeing another take on it.

 

Great texture use and detailing, reminiscent of Espi's style.

 

Didn't care that much for the weapon sounds and there was little distinction between most of the rifles. I didn't play the latest update but on the original one backtracking was on the brutal side and there wasn't necessarily a clear flow after obtaining new keys for example.

 

Overall a good experience that stands out.

 

Hey, thanks for playing! I do honestly apologize for the lack of guidance in actually finding the keys, but I should have expected since this map actually has some of Marathon's level design in it - specifically, doors opened with switches and not keys. I should have seen how awful that damn blue-red door was before posting, I can't imagine how many people have wasted at least 20 minutes wandering around instead of just going down that corridor.

 

Version 2.0 does hopefully fix this excessive backtracking and introduce a few more possible routes in the map's first half, while making combat a bit more engaging (especially towards the end) so if you feel like it, you could give that a shot as sort of new game plus. :P

 

The weapon sounds were pretty obligatory, I'm not good with weapon sounds and generally was a bit impatient to get this map done already, so I didn't ask for help with those. Kinda sad to hear you didn't enjoy the bullet weapons, I was super happy with how they turned out and was rather proud for making the chaingun work a little differently. Then again, there's only so much I was able to figure out with Dehacked.

 

Well, with that said, good to hear you enjoyed the map as a whole. :)

[quakis]

@Matt Eldrydge Neat level! Enjoyed my time getting lost within its halls.

Wrote up a review you can find here: https://taw.duke4.net/2024/05/doom2/eraser/

 

Came across one issue during my first run but I haven't been able to replicate it since (played version2 using DSDA):

Spoiler

When going for the yellow key, I wasn't teleported to the other zone (greyed out on automap). During a second run and attempts to replicate this bug, I teleported without issue so uncertain what happened (or didn't) the first time. Thought I'd bring it up just in case.

 

Click on image for bigger size:

 

I hope you'll consider an /idgames upload, it would be a shame to lose this one to temp hosting services.

Edited May 26 by quakis

[Matt Eldrydge]

@quakis Thanks for playing! I just finished reading the review and I'm not really sure how to put my gratitude into words, but still, thank you for writing it - I enjoyed reading it while coincidentally working on Eraser's next update. :)

 

As for the issue, I've tested that particular section of the map at least 20 times and I'm yet to run into that. Still, I'll look into it just to make sure.

 

I'll look into /idgames soon, though I'd like to reserve the occasion for when version 3 finally does materialize. I've kept mostly quiet about it but you can find the odd screenshot in the what you are working on thread, though by now even those are rather outdated. You can think of V3 as a new game + mode or what Eraser was meant to be if I had more time before V1. It has a tiny amount of implied lore, substantial changes to the map (mostly with new areas) and a few new faces to meet. Lest I forget, the weapons have been given a pretty good facelift, a few powerups make their appearance and you play as someone other than Doomguy! :D

 

 

I'm maybe 60% done with Version 3 and the feedback I've had so far leads me to believe this will be even better. I do admit some of the mystery will be lost in this next update, but trust me when I say I'm working to make sure you're left with more questions than answers...and it's not like I can hide all the secrets from people, so updating the map is one way to keep the map interesting.

 

Some screenshots below, since the thread has been bumped. ;)

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

Rest assured, there'll be plenty more to see even if you do get to the exit...maybe there's even another way to leave.

 

 

Hopefully the map will be finally done and perfected before October, I love working on it but knowing I've been at it for a year causes me some psychic damage. :P

 

Edited May 27 by Matt Eldrydge