Maiden Voyage V2.0 - Now On IDGAMES! A 32 Map Limit Removing Megawad - My First Ever Maps

[Mustangtel]

I'm an old British bloke who discovered Ultimate Doom Builder a couple of months ago. Maiden Voyage is my very first mapset, so please bear that in mind! My big hope is for some of the Youtubers to play it on their channels. Hopefully they don't think its total rubbish :-)

 

For some, a maiden voyage may end in disaster....

 

Version 2.0 now available from Idgames:

 

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/maidenvoy2

 

Or download from Doomshack:

 

https://doomshack.org/uploads/maidenvoy2.0.zip

 

 

32 new levels built in Doom 2 format.

HUGE thanks to Stuart Rynn, James Paddock, Esselfortium and AD 79 for the music.

 

Game: Doom 2

Tested with: Crispy Doom and GZdoom. I believe classed as Limit Removing.

Single player: Designed for.

Co-op: No.

Deathmatch: No.

Difficulty settings implemented: Yes.

 

Base: New from scratch.

Build time: Approx 2 months intensive.

 

No jumping or crouching please.

Freelook is allowed...in fact encouraged (but not essential).

Difficulty: This is subjective of course, but I'd say easy to moderate, with a few of the later levels a little harder. Nothing outrageous though. Probably somewhere between Doom 2 and Plutonia.

 

All maps were designed with pistol starting in mind. Continuous play is ok I guess...but really they should be pistol started.

 

Known Bugs: The only bug I found was that sometimes (not every time), when using Crispy Doom, the All Ghost Monsters glitch can occur on Map 32, due to the high concentration of corpses in a tight space. As I say, it doesn't do it every time, and doesn't do it at all with GZdoom. (I recommend GZdoom anyway, purely because the music sounds better).

 

If anyone finds any other bugs then please let me know on this thread and I'll fix.

 

 

List of levels:

MAP01: Setting Sail.    Music: "Hangar Danger" by Esselfortium.
MAP02: Basements.    Music: "Starting Out" by Stuart Rynn.
MAP03: Baron Manor.    Music: "Rusty Bridge" by Stuart Rynn.
MAP04: Bastille.    Music: "Untilted" by James Paddock.
MAP05: Toxicity.    Music: "Featherfall" by Stuart Rynn.
MAP06: Compression Therapy.    Music: "Accelerator" by AD 79.
MAP07: Plain Sailing.    Music: "Nobody Told Me About Plutonia" by James Paddock.
MAP08: Machination.    Music: "Drilling by Night" by Stuart Rynn.
MAP09: Temple of Depression.    Music: "Clonk" by Esselfortium.
MAP10: Sludge Gardens.    Music: "Remnants of War" by AD 79.
MAP11: Torment Square.    Music: "Goldrush" by Stuart Rynn.
MAP12: Southampton Docks.    Music: "Getaway" by Stuart Rynn.
MAP13: Skirmish.    Music: "Deep Fried Erotic Poultry" by AD 79.
MAP14: Inner Sanctum.    Music: "Stars" by Stuart Rynn.
MAP15: La Quinta.    Music: "Los Muertos Locos" by James Paddock.
MAP16: Turn on the Waterworks.    Music: "Night Run" by Stuart Rynn.
MAP17: Streets of Glory.    Music: "Radioisotope" by AD 79.
MAP18: Penitentiary.    Music: "Phobophobe" by Esselfortium.
MAP19: Research Centre.    Music: "Entering" by Esselfortium.
MAP20: Fort Pain.    Music: "Red Shift" by James Paddock.
MAP21: Enlightenment.    Music: "Rusty Bridge" by Stuart Rynn.
MAP22: Bloody Abyss.    Music: "Hangar Danger" by Esselfortium.
MAP23: Lava Hurts.    Music: "Abysswalker" by AD 79.
MAP24: Pandemonium.    Music: "Clonk" by Esselfortium.
MAP25: Disinterment.    Music: "Drilling by Night" by Stuart Rynn.
MAP26: Vile Pit.    Music: "Radioisotope" by AD 79.
MAP27: Grave Misfortune.    Music: "Night Run" by Stuart Rynn.
MAP28: Pyramid of Carnage.    Music: "Egypt" by Stuart Rynn.
MAP29: Departure Lounge.    Music: "Prototype" by James Paddock.
MAP30: Abandon Hope.    Music: "Remnants of War" by AD 79.

Secret Levels:

MAP31: Wolfenbollocks.    Music: "Astral Dreadnought" by James Paddock.
MAP32: Gi it some Ommer.    Music: "Womp" by Esselfortium.

 

Screenshots:

 

Edited May 22 by Mustangtel
New Version On Idgames.

[ryiron]

Wanted something casual to play for 30 mins or so and had a great time blasting through this. Did the first six maps continuous. A lot of areas are quite spacious making the fights generally fairly easy, but some good ideas, fun combat, interesting architecture and nice lighting in these. I liked the slaughtery fights that started showing up towards the end of map05. The imp/pinky rocket fest was my favourite.

 

fda: mv-ryiron.zip

[Mustangtel]

21 minutes ago, ryiron said:

Wanted something casual to play for 30 mins or so and had a great time blasting through this. Did the first six maps continuous. A lot of areas are quite spacious making the fights generally fairly easy, but some good ideas, fun combat, interesting architecture and nice lighting in these. I liked the slaughtery fights that started showing up towards the end of map05. The imp/pinky rocket fest was my favourite.

 

fda: mv-ryiron.zip

Ryiron....you just brought a tear to a grown man's eye!  I've worked so hard on this over the last two months, and to hear that someone actually enjoyed playing it is really special to me...Thank you!

 

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that some of the maps do get a little "slaughtery" at times...but I didn't want to make it too difficult so gave plenty of space to move around in. Map 30 being the exception ha!  There is no Icon of Sin in Map 30 by the way, as I truely hate Icons of Sin :-)

[Async Unicorn]

A coincidence? =)

[zeusty]

A whole megawad for your first mapset, impressive. I'll give it a run-through.

Edited April 28 by zeusty

[Mustangtel]

14 minutes ago, Vanilla+Unicorn said:

A coincidence? =)

Yes definitely a coincidence lol...never played GTA IV in my life. I called it Maiden Voyage purely because this is my first outing as a mapper...and the Titanic tie in is because bad things happened to her on her maiden voyage....

[Async Unicorn]

2 minutes ago, Mustangtel said:

Yes definitely a coincidence lol...never played GTA IV in my life. I called it Maiden Voyage purely because this is my first outing as a mapper...and the Titanic tie in is because bad things happened to her on her maiden voyage....

Looks pretty good, actually! =)

[Jimmy]

is that an imp strip joint

[Mustangtel]

9 minutes ago, Jimmy said:

is that an imp strip joint

Erm....yeah lol....thats in Map 17...and if you think that's bad, you should see whats inside the toilets of that strip joint :-)

[zeusty]

Just played through the first 5 levels pistol start and single-segment. Really enjoyable, you have a good handle on level flow. Reminds me of early Romero levels, mowing through demons, trapdoors springing left and right. Weapons are introduced in each level at a nice pace.

 

Really well done for a first mapset.

[Mustangtel]

7 minutes ago, zeusty said:

Just played through the first 5 levels pistol start and single-segment. Really enjoyable, you have a good handle on level flow. Reminds me of early Romero levels, mowing through demons, trapdoors springing left and right. Weapons are introduced in each level at a nice pace.

 

Really well done for a first mapset.

Ah thank you Zeusty...that's very kind of you to say :-)  I'm really pleased you're enjoying it....I must admit I was half expecting everyone to say it was rubbish lol :-)

[netcurse2000]

This wad looks interesting and promising.

 

Map01 playthrough

 

 

1 hour ago, Mustangtel said:

There is no Icon of Sin in Map 30 by the way

 

Sounds great.

[Zahid]

simple design but gameplay is effective though maps lack height variations 

my playthrough fda of first 7 maps

prboom cl2 uv skill iddt used

popi9.zip

[Zesiir]

I am sorry to say, that I made it to MAP05 before I lost interest. For a first mapset it starts out okay I guess, but the extremely simple design of the maps; huge rooms and corridors, hordes of low level monsters (and hordes of high level ones) and the "flip switch to flip switch to flip switch to flip switch to flip switch to open door" got old very quickly.

 

I know it's likely the maps will improve the further I get since it's the author's first mapset, but I just don't feel stimulated enough.

 

Gameplay flow is mostly good though as others have said, though it feels repetive after a while.

Edited April 28 by Zesiir

[Mustangtel]

1 hour ago, Zesiir said:

I am sorry to say, that I made it to MAP05 before I lost interest. For a first mapset it starts out okay I guess, but the extremely simple design of the maps; huge rooms and corridors, hordes of low level monsters (and hordes of high level ones) and the "flip switch to flip switch to flip switch to flip switch to flip switch to open door" got old very quickly.

 

I know it's likely the maps will improve the further I get since it's the author's first mapset, but I just don't feel stimulated enough.

 

Gameplay flow is mostly good though as others have said, though it feels repetive after a while.

Well that hurt....remember these are my first ever maps, and that I made all THIRTY TWO of them in two months. I agree they could be more detailed...but then it would have taken me 6 months or more. The 5 "flip switches to open door" is a bit of an exaggeration...yes in Map 3 you have to flip 4 switches to open a door, and also in some other maps you have to flip a couple of switches to open a door...but I don't think it gets repetative.

 

I totally respect your opinion of course, and you are entitled to dislike it...not sure I would have belittled a first time mapper in that way myself though.

 

All the best to you anyway :-)

[Clippy]

Well hello there - the world is a hard place to please huh - all you can do is try your best and for a first effort, making an ENTIRE megawad is a feat no matter how you slice it

 

I been interested since I found your music inquiry thread, new mapper megawad British gentlemen it sounded appealing lol - this stands out to the other new ppl we get around here, mostly kids eh

 

But you can tell you did your homework and, there is very competent stuff here and WELL above and beyond the curve here for beginners 

 

I played first 5 maps, I never got bored - had buddies to hang out with tho but yeah - a lil long but didnt feel like the hour 20 it took for first 5 maps

 

I will try my best to visit more some day but I hope you enjoy video and keep up the good work, take a rest you deserve it lol - you are one of the extreme few to come out of the gate swinging and make a full on set like this - kudos to the extreme

 

 

[Zesiir]

I am not trying to come off as rude, I am just giving my honest impression. Don't be afraid if you get criticised for your works, that has happened

to me as well and no doubt countless others posting their first maps here.

 

It is important to take your time to get good at mapping, rushing will only affect the end results. Starting out with a full megawad is often

not ideal, because as you improve gradually it'll also show in the quality of the maps as the wad goes on. You end up having to either push

yourself to get the wad done, or go back and polish the previous maps so they are all up to the same quality.

 

I'll give the wad another shot later, I am interested in seeing how it plays out, so don't worry about that.

[cannonball]

Heh it is always strange to see map names that come from places I know very well (In this case Southampton Docks, I was a student at the university of Southampton). 

Building a whole megawad from scratch as a first project is ambitious, the fact you did this in two months is on one hand impressive, but on the other a little concerning as to how the maps will play. Looking at the screenshots I can see a lot of large areas that are a little lacking in detail, on the other there are some quite interesting ceiling details. I will say that even a quick glance through some of the maps (Yes I did IDCLEV12 :)) and yes of the maps I saw there seemed to be a real lack of height variation that could prove to be a negative. 

 

I'm also guessing that Southampton is referenced because it was a starting point of the Titanic's maiden and only voyage. 

Edited April 28 by cannonball

[netcurse2000]

6 hours ago, cannonball said:

Southampton Docks

 

I immediately associate it with the Pink Floyd song

 

Map02 playthrough

 

 

[Mustangtel]

9 hours ago, Zesiir said:

I am not trying to come off as rude, I am just giving my honest impression. Don't be afraid if you get criticised for your works, that has happened

to me as well and no doubt countless others posting their first maps here.

 

It is important to take your time to get good at mapping, rushing will only affect the end results. Starting out with a full megawad is often

not ideal, because as you improve gradually it'll also show in the quality of the maps as the wad goes on. You end up having to either push

yourself to get the wad done, or go back and polish the previous maps so they are all up to the same quality.

 

I'll give the wad another shot later, I am interested in seeing how it plays out, so don't worry about that.

Ok, first off...Zesiir I apologize for being a little blunt with you. I now realize you're right about the tedium of multiple switch presses to open doors (although I still think you exaggerated just a little lol)...but generally yes it can become tedious, and I will try to change any instances of that if I do a version 2.0. Thanks for the advice :-)

 

Huge thanks to Clippy for his playthrough of maps 1 to 5...I really enjoyed watching it :-)

 

After map 5, there are a few things I'm not happy with that I'd like to change in any future version:

 

Map 6...I like this map, but the difficulty is a little too much for the map 6 slot I think. But I wanted to leave it in slot 6 for reasons that will become apparent when playing it.

Map 7...the Mancubi fight does have an instance of the tedious multiple switch presses...at the time it was the only thing I could think of to keep the player in the same area as the mancubi. I didn't know about tag 666 at the time....now that I do I will get rid of the switches and replace with a tag 666 in any future update. (also removing the couple of mancubi from later in the map so that the tag 666 works).

Map 11...my least favourite map in the set. Its severely lacking in detail and probably has a couple of fights too many.

Map 13...I really like this map....but the large main area needs work, as its very plain.

 

I'm pretty happy with most of the maps after map 13...although I'm sure there will be the odd instance of tedium I'll change in future.

[mancubian_candidate]

Wow, what an achievement! I'd love to give this a shot but don't have time to play a whole megawad at the moment (have a huge backlog!)

 

I'll try record maps 6-10 seeing as Clippy did maps 1-5 and I'll leave feedback here 😄

[Mustangtel]

21 minutes ago, mancubian_candidate said:

Wow, what an achievement! I'd love to give this a shot but don't have time to play a whole megawad at the moment (have a huge backlog!)

 

I'll try record maps 6-10 seeing as Clippy did maps 1-5 and I'll leave feedback here 😄

ahh thanks mate....please bare in mind what I said about maps 6 and 7 above though :-)   The more I think about that multiple switch press thing in map 7 the more it makes me cringe lol

[Zesiir]

I'm blasting my way through. On MAP11 currently, challenge has been fair for slaughtermaps, gameplay flows okay.

 

Not seen any bugs or issues so far, well done.

 

 

[mancubian_candidate]

50 minutes ago, Mustangtel said:

ahh thanks mate....please bare in mind what I said about maps 6 and 7 above though :-)   The more I think about that multiple switch press thing in map 7 the more it makes me cringe lol

 

Haha, don't worry. Taste is subjective so I'll play as is when I get the chance and let you know 😄

[Large Cat]

Just got through the first 20 maps (and the secret maps) on UV in a single sitting (so kudos for making something that I can play for that long!). I'll get back to the last ten later. I recorded a demo of each map, so you can see some more gameplay to get an idea of how your maps come off to a player. The demos were recorded in DSDA Doom, but all except map32 should play back properly in Crispy Doom, so you can view them there if that's your vanilla-faithful port of choice. I've also included a simple dehacked file that you can pop right into your wad to display the correct automap names, if you like. You can copy that format for any non-vanilla format.

 

mv-largecat.zip

 

Before I jump into any criticism, just know there's a lot here you're doing well and plenty to be proud of, beyond the inherent merit of completing a megawad solo. You've taken into account a lot of things early mappers tend to overlook, such as not making traps or progression trigger properly when players don't play "as intended," and you have a lot of nice courtesy gestures, like teleports for backtracking after making a long trek. Also, you know how throw in some good soft lighting.

 

Further caveat: with this megawad, you have created more maps than I have, so don't take my word as gospel. Hopefully I can at least make some insightful suggestions for you to try, though. I won't do a blow-by-blow for each map, rather focusing on broad strokes across the wad. One reason for this: I am not intending any of this feedback as changes you should make to this wad; rather, I think it's more productive to take feedback and start on new maps instead. I don't say this because these maps are somehow "beyond saving." Rather, given that you were just starting out when you created this work, you've evolved creatively over the course of its creation, and it's best not to shackle your current ambitions to the vision of someone who had not made any Doom maps yet. If touching up this project excites you, then go for it! Just consider the option of starting on something new instead, carrying all of this learned experience with you.

 

While there is a lot of interest going on, in my experience, there were some consistent points of friction or other "pathological" tendencies the wad exhibited to my senses. I'll spoiler this both due to length and some references to specific events in maps that others may want to leave a surprise.

Spoiler

• This wad has a small number of encounters in its "combat palette" that you seem to like using A LOT. For example, there long stretches where, every time I turn the corner, there's a squad of up to a dozen guys, often accompanied by a few barrels. At some point, this started being frequently accompanied by a closet that opened behind the player, with some bonus fodder enemies (and usually more barrels). Every map also features numerous bigger monster closets opened on backtracking, filled with a few dozen hitscan or other fodder monsters (and once again, a bunch of barrels). Eventually, we started getting consistent rushes of revenants too, when we needed a "hard" encounter. There's nothing wrong with each of these encounter types, but they were so thoroughly ubiquitous that they amounted to more of a constant drone, a constant force pushing me back and adding additional travel time when visiting or revisiting areas. I like the concept of "preloading" and "reloading" arenas. I think you would benefit greatly from experimenting with more monster formations, rather than the blocks I'm seeing now.
• Visually, as has been pointed out, a lot of the maps are pretty bare. This was almost comical in MAP32, which started out with an excellent vista, followed by...a big box at a single light level. Your indoor arenas could benefit from a few "large-scale" details, such as a trim running along the floor or ceiling, or some sort of inset, like computer panels or just an accent stripe. More mid-room pillars could help in some cases. You use some of these ideas on occasion, but making this more well-distributed would help the visuals in my eyes. Curiously, despite the simplicity of your indoor scenery, your outdoor rocky terrain is on a whole different level, being varied in shape and having interesting interplay between different height levels. I would love to see you capitalize further on this knack you have for rocky terrain, and perhaps even apply that dynamism to some of your indoor areas too. That's not to say there's nothing good-looking in your indoor areas; the hub of MAP13 was both striking and evocative!
• You picked some nice iconic tracks to accompany your maps, but that's a double-edges sword. Because almost all of these tracks have been used with widely famous maps, your levels are sharing some of there impact and emotional connection with those more famous maps, which I think is a disservice to your maps. I'd like to think of Maiden Voyage, rather than Valiant, when playing these maps. That's not to say you should never use iconic midis, just consider snooping around for more obscure options.
• The large barren arenas made combat balance strange. Projectile-based monsters are bordering on harmless, making almost all of the wad's combat a cake walk by modern standards. However, there are some moments where hitscan monsters get a moment to shine, as distant hitscan is great danger; while you can dodge a projectile, the only way to avoid bullet damage is to kill the source, and doom guy isn't very good at killing far away monsters. This combined with the general lack of cover and obstacles to create some unforgiving stretches of no man's land, watched over by shotgunners and chaingunners.
• Related, I think the arena design made your archviles problematic and unpleasant for me. Because hallways are so long and broad and courtyards have minimal cover, the appearance of an archvile can often mean that, if the AV feels aggressive, all you can do is hope you have enough health to take the hit, since the nearest corner to duck around is several counties over. When you can reach a corner, there's a lot of waiting for the AV to run all the way over to you so you can SSG them or land hits with rockets. The huge exception here was the AV in the blue key ambush in map20; the buildings available for cover made the fight feel well-balanced.
• Your encounters involving huge floods of monsters were cathartic the first few times, but they started getting stale with how easily they fell victim to circling the mob. In general, I can see some ideas and passion in your more slaughterific combat scenarios, but the execution feels clumsy. If you haven't checked it out, I might suggest playing the wad Rush to try to hone this penchant for slaughter combat (and if you really like that one, you could try moving on to big bois like Sunder at some point).

Some additional comments on a few specific moments (including some bugs)

Spoiler

• The red door of map05 doesn't seem to actually require the red key to open.
• In map15, I found it odd that the player, if they choose to grab the secret yellow key and jump out of the cubby hole, they can easily be locked out of engaging the main encounter before the regular exit. That seems like a shame, given how climactic that fight is.
• I did indeed receive the intercept overflow (and hence all-ghosts bug) in map32, hence why that demo doesn't play back in Crispy Doom. Unfortunately, given the way that first trap is constructed, I don't see an easy way to remove it. Luckily, most modern ports all you to choose not to emulate that bug.
• In map16, it seems possible to become softlocked around the octagonal building with the plasma gun if you drop down after the four "spoke" platforms raise up.
• In the eastern courtyard of map18, the small raising platforms around the edge have little crooks that the player can fall into, becoming trapped.
• Maybe I played it incorrectly, but map19 started with quite a difficulty spike, providing a lot of monsters and not a lot of provisions. I did make it out alive in the end, though.

 

Hopefully there's something useful amid my page of drivel. Once again, congrats on completing a solo megawad, and I'm excited to see what's in store for me in the final episode!

[TMMMS]

congratulations on the first release it looks promising but on map01 it appears that the first door opened by a switch can only be opened once as after I entered the tunnel and returned to the exterior area the door closed behind me and there doesnt seem to be a way for me to open it again

[Mustangtel]

30 minutes ago, Large Cat said:

Just got through the first 20 maps (and the secret maps) on UV in a single sitting (so kudos for making something that I can play for that long!). I'll get back to the last ten later. I recorded a demo of each map, so you can see some more gameplay to get an idea of how your maps come off to a player. The demos were recorded in DSDA Doom, but all except map32 should play back properly in Crispy Doom, so you can view them there if that's your vanilla-faithful port of choice. I've also included a simple dehacked file that you can pop right into your wad to display the correct automap names, if you like. You can copy that format for any non-vanilla format.

 

mv-largecat.zip

 

Before I jump into any criticism, just know there's a lot here you're doing well and plenty to be proud of, beyond the inherent merit of completing a megawad solo. You've taken into account a lot of things early mappers tend to overlook, such as not making traps or progression trigger properly when players don't play "as intended," and you have a lot of nice courtesy gestures, like teleports for backtracking after making a long trek. Also, you know how throw in some good soft lighting.

 

Further caveat: with this megawad, you have created more maps than I have, so don't take my word as gospel. Hopefully I can at least make some insightful suggestions for you to try, though. I won't do a blow-by-blow for each map, rather focusing on broad strokes across the wad. One reason for this: I am not intending any of this feedback as changes you should make to this wad; rather, I think it's more productive to take feedback and start on new maps instead. I don't say this because these maps are somehow "beyond saving." Rather, given that you were just starting out when you created this work, you've evolved creatively over the course of its creation, and it's best not to shackle your current ambitions to the vision of someone who had not made any Doom maps yet. If touching up this project excites you, then go for it! Just consider the option of starting on something new instead, carrying all of this learned experience with you.

 

While there is a lot of interest going on, in my experience, there were some consistent points of friction or other "pathological" tendencies the wad exhibited to my senses. I'll spoiler this both due to length and some references to specific events in maps that others may want to leave a surprise.

  Reveal hidden contents

• This wad has a small number of encounters in its "combat palette" that you seem to like using A LOT. For example, there long stretches where, every time I turn the corner, there's a squad of up to a dozen guys, often accompanied by a few barrels. At some point, this started being frequently accompanied by a closet that opened behind the player, with some bonus fodder enemies (and usually more barrels). Every map also features numerous bigger monster closets opened on backtracking, filled with a few dozen hitscan or other fodder monsters (and once again, a bunch of barrels). Eventually, we started getting consistent rushes of revenants too, when we needed a "hard" encounter. There's nothing wrong with each of these encounter types, but they were so thoroughly ubiquitous that they amounted to more of a constant drone, a constant force pushing me back and adding additional travel time when visiting or revisiting areas. I like the concept of "preloading" and "reloading" arenas. I think you would benefit greatly from experimenting with more monster formations, rather than the blocks I'm seeing now.
• Visually, as has been pointed out, a lot of the maps are pretty bare. This was almost comical in MAP32, which started out with an excellent vista, followed by...a big box at a single light level. Your indoor arenas could benefit from a few "large-scale" details, such as a trim running along the floor or ceiling, or some sort of inset, like computer panels or just an accent stripe. More mid-room pillars could help in some cases. You use some of these ideas on occasion, but making this more well-distributed would help the visuals in my eyes. Curiously, despite the simplicity of your indoor scenery, your outdoor rocky terrain is on a whole different level, being varied in shape and having interesting interplay between different height levels. I would love to see you capitalize further on this knack you have for rocky terrain, and perhaps even apply that dynamism to some of your indoor areas too. That's not to say there's nothing good-looking in your indoor areas; the hub of MAP13 was both striking and evocative!
• You picked some nice iconic tracks to accompany your maps, but that's a double-edges sword. Because almost all of these tracks have been used with widely famous maps, your levels are sharing some of there impact and emotional connection with those more famous maps, which I think is a disservice to your maps. I'd like to think of Maiden Voyage, rather than Valiant, when playing these maps. That's not to say you should never use iconic midis, just consider snooping around for more obscure options.
• The large barren arenas made combat balance strange. Projectile-based monsters are bordering on harmless, making almost all of the wad's combat a cake walk by modern standards. However, there are some moments where hitscan monsters get a moment to shine, as distant hitscan is great danger; while you can dodge a projectile, the only way to avoid bullet damage is to kill the source, and doom guy isn't very good at killing far away monsters. This combined with the general lack of cover and obstacles to create some unforgiving stretches of no man's land, watched over by shotgunners and chaingunners.
• Related, I think the arena design made your archviles problematic and unpleasant for me. Because hallways are so long and broad and courtyards have minimal cover, the appearance of an archvile can often mean that, if the AV feels aggressive, all you can do is hope you have enough health to take the hit, since the nearest corner to duck around is several counties over. When you can reach a corner, there's a lot of waiting for the AV to run all the way over to you so you can SSG them or land hits with rockets. The huge exception here was the AV in the blue key ambush in map20; the buildings available for cover made the fight feel well-balanced.
• Your encounters involving huge floods of monsters were cathartic the first few times, but they started getting stale with how easily they fell victim to circling the mob. In general, I can see some ideas and passion in your more slaughterific combat scenarios, but the execution feels clumsy. If you haven't checked it out, I might suggest playing the wad Rush to try to hone this penchant for slaughter combat (and if you really like that one, you could try moving on to big bois like Sunder at some point).

Some additional comments on a few specific moments (including some bugs)

  Reveal hidden contents

• The red door of map05 doesn't seem to actually require the red key to open.
• In map15, I found it odd that the player, if they choose to grab the secret yellow key and jump out of the cubby hole, they can easily be locked out of engaging the main encounter before the regular exit. That seems like a shame, given how climactic that fight is.
• I did indeed receive the intercept overflow (and hence all-ghosts bug) in map32, hence why that demo doesn't play back in Crispy Doom. Unfortunately, given the way that first trap is constructed, I don't see an easy way to remove it. Luckily, most modern ports all you to choose not to emulate that bug.
• In map16, it seems possible to become softlocked around the octagonal building with the plasma gun if you drop down after the four "spoke" platforms raise up.
• In the eastern courtyard of map18, the small raising platforms around the edge have little crooks that the player can fall into, becoming trapped.
• Maybe I played it incorrectly, but map19 started with quite a difficulty spike, providing a lot of monsters and not a lot of provisions. I did make it out alive in the end, though.

 

Hopefully there's something useful amid my page of drivel. Once again, congrats on completing a solo megawad, and I'm excited to see what's in store for me in the final episode!

Hi Large Cat...wow, many thanks for your in depth analysis...that must have taken you a long time to write...very much appreciated, thanks!

 

There's definitely a lot of room for improvement in this mapset, and I'm still undecided whether to make a version 2.0, or leave it as it is and take it as a learning experience for future projects as you suggest....I shall give it some thought before deciding I think. (although I may fix the bugs you noted and release a v1.1 in the next few days).

 

I agree with pretty much all of the downsides that you describe....its tough to come up with new combat ideas when you're doing so many maps on your own, and yeah some of the fights are a bit repetitive.

 

Regarding the bugs you mentioned:

ooops....yes indeed you're right about the red key door in map 5. The only thing I can think of is that I made that door as a normal door at first...then decided to make it a red door, but forgot to assign it the red key action. I don't think it breaks the map though...just means you can avoid one small fight for the red key.

 

I was pulling my hair out trying to fix that All Ghost Monsters glitch with Crispy Doom in map 32 lol. I tried putting bends in the corridors to try and break up the amount of corpses in one spot, but it just ruined the fights. It happened about 1 time out of 3 for me when using Crispy. In the end I gave up as the glitch only happens with Crispy, and I just decided to list it as a possible bug. (never happened at all for me in GZdoom).

 

The possible softlocks in map 16 and 18...yes indeed you're correct. I was always looking out for softlocks when making the maps, and always tried to put in a means of escape...but I obviously forgot with these two maps!

 

Map 19....I think yes, if you take the eastern door from the central area first, you're gonna have a hard time lol. Much easier if you go west first.

 

Again many many thanks for your very in-depth post....I shall definitely take on board everything you said :-)

[EduardoAndFriends]

Love the look of the screenshots, mate - I’ll definitely give it a play! Love the concept too. :D

[Mustangtel]

43 minutes ago, TMMMS said:

congratulations on the first release it looks promising but on map01 it appears that the first door opened by a switch can only be opened once as after I entered the tunnel and returned to the exterior area the door closed behind me and there doesnt seem to be a way for me to open it again

Hi Tmmms, thanks for replying. That switch is a "Door open stay" switch.....so the door should stay open. However I just tried that map again, and I managed to replicate your issue!  I went inside, and coaxed an imp to follow me back outside....when the imp passed through the door it closed! I didn't realize that was possible if the door has been set to open and stay. Hopefully it shouldn't happen too often, as there's no need to go back outside once the door is open...but I will add that to my list of bugs to fix (I'll just make it a repeatable switch). Thanks :-)

[Mustangtel]

6 minutes ago, EduardoAndFriends said:

Love the look of the screenshots, mate - I’ll definitely give it a play! Love the concept too. :D

ohh...first Clippy, and now Eduardo and Friends....I'm truely honoured :-) (been subscribed to both of you on Youtube for a while now). Cheers mate!

 

Don't expect too much though...it has a few issues lol