BLIGHT v1.2 [QFE] Released 6/13/2024

[JamesBone]

 

BLIGHT is an original DOOM episode, set as Episode 7, meant to take place after the SIGIL series and right before DOOM II: Hell on Earth. Initially, my goal was to commemorate DOOM's 30th anniversary, but the release took nearly six months longer than planned. Watching John Romero stream his SIGIL II map-building inspired me to try my hand at creating my own maps. This is my first released WAD, and I haven't played many releases from DoomWorld. I don't know if that earns me brownie points, or if I lose all my gold stars for already having to create a v1.1. So, while I strive to include unique elements in each map, it doesn't mean my ideas are unique to the entire community.

 

I definitely drew inspiration from Romero's SIGIL II, incorporating those special secrets he loves. Each map includes the infamous FIREBLU secret, a 30-second room (though not marked as a secret), and my own unique take on his "Baphomet Eyes" with designs like "Blood Sacrifices" and "Death Idols." I realize opinions on SIGIL seem as divisive as those on Eternal (perhaps I'm wrong), but I'm not Romero—I don't have his rock star hair, his extensive knowledge of coding languages, or have I made anyone my ... well we all remember the ad. After almost ten months, it's finally done. So modeled after the SIGIL series, my maps are intended to be more challenging than typical ones. It's perfectly fine to play on HNTR or HMP. I appreciate good architecture and finding ways to use it against enemies. Enjoy, fellow Doomers!

 

Several players have asked about the design choices for specific maps. Here’s some trivia to shed light on that. These maps are loosely based on university campus buildings. What began as a simple project turned into a fun challenge after my colleagues jokingly suggested I model the maps after work. I walked around the campus, selected buildings I wanted to include, and based the maps on them. I've obviously had to modify the buildings since DOOM doesn't natively support multi-floor structures, but it was exciting to create maps inspired by buildings with 2-3 floors. As a result, all the maps form a single, continuous series, where the end of one map is the beginning of the next. Below is a list of the buildings that inspired each map:

E7M1 - Art and Woodworking Center
E7M2 - Facility Garage and Workshop
E7M3 - Library
E7M4 - Lunch and Student Activity Lounge

E7M5 - Basement Storage 

E7M6 - Science Hall

E7M7 - Administration Hall

E7M8 - Chapel
E7M9 - Gymnasium and Athletic Administration

Known Issues:

I had some issues in Software Rendering modes, where certain required switches had their THINGs rendered below the floor making it impossible to see them, so you may want to try OpenGL or Vulkan. 

======================================
Primary purpose : Single play, Deathmatch
Advanced engine needed : Limit-removing, Boom Compatible
======================================

Description:

As you step through the portal, it feels as if your body is being ripped in two. Like a two-edged sword, ‘piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow’. But the pain of Baphomet’s sigil is fleeting, and having narrowly slipped through his clutches and arriving through the portal back to Earth, you find your respite is short-lived as the military commandeers your fate. Aboard the chopper, the scorched tapestry of a once-thriving metropolis unfolds beneath you—flames ravage, smoke chokes the heavens, and the remnants of humanity crumble. The demonic deceit was masterful; while you battled in the bowels of hell, they invaded. Now, hellish spires, totems crowned with the skulls of the demons’ victims, puncture the Earth, channeling argent energy skywards, knitting a portal for Baphomet’s earthbound ascendancy. As Earth’s solitary sentinel who has weathered the infernal storm, you are cast once again into the heart of darkness to shatter these pillars and thwart the coming of the beast.

======================================
* What is included *

New levels: 18 (Single-player and Deathmatch areas in each level WAD)
Sounds: No
Music: Yes
Graphics: Yes
Dehacked/BEX Patch: No
Demos: No
Other: No
Other files required: None

* Play Information *

Game: DOOM
Map #: E7M1-E7M9
Single Player: Yes
Cooperative 2-4 Player: No
Deathmatch 2-4 Player: Yes
Other game styles: None
Difficulty Settings: Yes
Requirements: OpenGL or non-Software renderer

Editor(s) used: Ultimate Doom Builder / Slade 3
Known Bugs : There are known sector leaks and incorrectly rendered exit rooms in SOFTWARE rendering
May Not Run With: N/A
Tested With: GZDOOM / PrBOOM+ / DSDA DOOM
 

Spoiler

DOWNLOAD - BLIGHT v1.0 - 05/31/24
DOWNLOAD - BLIGHT v1.2 - 06/13/24 (HOTFIX)

Edited June 13 by JamesBone

[Walter confetti]

Looks really good from the pics you posted!

[LadyMistDragon]

Pretty good! I did see some of the problems John Suitepee pointed out in his stream of it but I didn't find it terribly obnoxious or cryptic. Although I suppose E7M...5?(one with sergeants in the middle of red when the player starts) could probably be a little more generous with the immediate non-secret arms.

 

 

 

[JamesBone]

I never saw his stream, and was really looking forward to the commentary. As of last week I still didn't see it up on Twitch. Is there a link to it? I'll be honest, I assumed John Suitepee forgot.

[Suitepee]

You might want to check your Doomworld messages @JamesBone, for I did indeed playtest some of BLIGHT a few days ago. :)

[JamesBone]

I did, I guess I removed inactive messages and mistakenly removed yours as well so I never seen a reply. I figured it would pop back up if it was replied to. My apologies. I did find the stream and I'm watching it now. Sorry, there was a several revisions since the one you were given. If I was available I would have given you the latest version. I feel bad I didn't get to watch it live. Reading the comments on stream is a blast as well.

Spoiler

EDIT:
@Suitepee, The SLADWALL maze was a bug. All the walls should drop down, which I did fix in the latest version. I didn't expect that to lead to a melt down, but justified. Essentially, it was a line def that wasn't getting triggered, as you said. I really do appreciate your commentary of the careful way I introduced new concepts. (I'm dreading watching lvl 5, at that version, I know what you're dealing with. I am preparing myself for an onslaught of profanity.) You finished that level the way it should. 

EDIT:
Now I'm watching E7M3, and before even getting into this map, I have already seen the dread "Thing" bug where items are getting placed in the ground so you can't see them. And I know that's going to lead to frustration. I just want you to clip through the blood, you have seen this level at this point. Ugh. Yeah for map testing. I played these so many times and never had the same result, had to change them and delete some in later versions. Well....lets keep watching. Sadly, in the current state of that level, the progression was WAY TOO cryptic as stated by a viewer. 3 of the 2 switches were "missing". Total of 5. And 2 are now removed in the final version just because they didn't work. Progression was the super secret in that level, and you never found it. On to map 4.

EDIT: Commenting your Map 4 run. I get the doors. Way too many, I removed some in final version. It may have made more sense knowing that the maps are all modeled after buildings where I work. That building having literally more doors than that. In hindsight it sucked, which is why I removed them. Not really sure what to do with Barons. I mean, they're a bullet sponge in a tight room. You don't have much variety in choosing monsters in DOOM. I'm still taking your comments as well as the viewers into account for revised versions. Also, the 1900s comment makes no sense, so its removed. it was in reference to the building being built in 1900s, but who would know that. It managed to not include that information anywhere in the game, so it sounded terrible when I read it.

EDIT: A couple comments on things you said. First comment The symmetry on the opening of this map is modelled after Levathan's Cross. That would be the reason for that specific design. The rest of the map is not symmetrical. Second comment, yes I did pistol start that map on UV and beat it. The sergeants at the start carry shotguns. And the first part of the map ironically was harder than the latter half. Which doesn't speak much. As much as I wanted you to finish you are correct, I really glad you stopped. I was getting blasted by everyone. lol  You commentary will be addressed and is much welcomed. Other than SuperMunky trying to find any sort of way to say "JamesBone", (Although JamesBarone was a good one) there was some good information provided by your viewers as well. 

Also, in defense of the testers, the reason for them not getting past a specific level was not due to difficulty but to their schedules. At the time I made that comment, not many were available to test more, so I don't fault them, because they spotted a lot of stuff that I ended up correcting in later versions. I know I have released v1.0 already, but would have very little time after this month to make changes, so I wanted to drop 1.0 to get a bigger feedback from players. You will see 1.1 in the future. I'm sorry you were feeling in a funk that day. And my map didn't help. I was literally watching on repeat SIGIL II streams and seeing John Romero repeat how hard his maps was. I assumed people wanted it hard, but people want it fun first, and I was affected too much by the Baron and Cacodemons I saw in the videos. And Baron Overload isn't fun. I'll be sure to fix that ASAP I do hope you will want to come back and revisit BLIGHT in version 1.1. I promise I will address combat. And at least try to make it better if I can. Thank you again John for playing. You stream was very appreciated.

 

Edited June 9 by JamesBone

[JamesBone]

Watching @LadyMistDragon also, and seeing the alternative ways people play. It's a real treat. Thank you all. Really. It's a pleasure. 

Spoiler

EDIT: I will watch your completely as well. I have finally finished John's.

EDIT: Though it was an abridged version, I did see a couple things that also affected playing through the maps. Many that still were present from @Suitepee's previous comments. So as stated before, expect a revision. In the near future. I will be far more busy this coming weeks, but will work as much as possible to get 1.1 out to you all. 

 

Edited June 9 by JamesBone

[JamesBone]

Happy Sunday, everyone!

I've been hard at work over the past week, incorporating all your feedback and suggestions into the latest update. I'm excited to announce that version 1.1 is now available. While version 1.0 wasn't the one showcased by Suitepee on Twitch, I've made sure to address the main issues highlighted by him and the viewers. Additionally, I've edited my post to include the structures that inspired each map. I hope you'll find this new version much improved and enjoy playing it even more. Thank you for your continued support and happy gaming! 

[Firedust]

Since I finally got around to playing Sigil 2, I thought I'd give this a shot next. Got stuck on e7m3.

 

How do I access this area - https://prnt.sc/V6dVD2kWkzSK  ?

It's blocked off by a wall. The skull pillar is lowered but the wall isn't. Did I miss something?

 

Also, the baron in e7m4 is deaf and therefore impossible to kill.

 

In e7m5, one lost soul gets stuck and doesn't teleport into the secret exit area.

 

e7m9 - got softlocked after the supercharge secret. Couldn't get into the court.

 

e7m6 - that blue key is more obscure than all the secrets in the map

also, if you hop into the teleporter by the crusher and go back inside the blue key building, you'll noticed the floor on the left-hand side remains raised.

 

e7m8 - lmao you accidentally put the player start in a voodoo closet

 

also, one of SMMs never dies in its closet

Edited June 12 by Firedust

[JamesBone]

I'll do a 1.2 release to make sure I cleared the bugs that I know, but I feel like all of those bugs were reported to me and fixed. Did you download the file straight from the Crusader Games website just recently? In any case, thanks, I'll double check all of those to make sure.

16 hours ago, Firedust said:

It's blocked off by a wall. The skull pillar is lowered but the wall isn't. Did I miss something?

It's on the "2nd floor" so you actually come in from the top after you ride the elevator up a floor, and then come in from the top 
 

Spoiler

 

[Firedust]

50 minutes ago, JamesBone said:

Did you download the file straight from the Crusader Games website just recently?

Yep, that's where I got it from.

[JamesBone]

Well shucks, that bums me out. I definite remember the Ambush flag on that Baron getting unchecked. Don't worry, I got you guys. I'll make some quick changes and bug fixes and update to 1.2. Thanks for catching the errors.

[TMMMS]

cool idea!

 

poor doomguy though just when he thought he was out of hell they pull him back in

 

waiting for godot more like waiting for doomguy!

[Async Unicorn]

I see some cool looking effects on screenshots... May I ask you, is this a Photoshop thingy? Some plugins or maybe built-in features?

Don't know, maybe I'm hallucinating, but they're looking cool when you stare at them from the PC, so I want to learn how to make mine look similar, :D

 

(Sorry that it's kinda unrelated to the wad itself)

[JamesBone]

2 hours ago, Async Unicorn said:

I see some cool looking effects on screenshots... May I ask you, is this a Photoshop thingy? Some plugins or maybe built-in features?

Don't know, maybe I'm hallucinating, but they're looking cool when you stare at them from the PC, so I want to learn how to make mine look similar, :D

 

(Sorry that it's kinda unrelated to the wad itself)

I took the screenshots using GZDoom while have the settings for Post Processing effects all maxed out; Bloom, Ambient Occlusion, Anti-Aliasing, Chromatic Aberration, then GZDoom has all those Brightmaps that added some lighting effects to certain sprites.

Edited June 12 by JamesBone

[Shinji924]

i cannot download BLIGHT V1.1 or BLIGHT V1.0, can i get help on how to download any of the files to use them ?

[Redneckerz]

That artwork alone is godtier.

[Firedust]

Alright, here are some of my thoughts on the episode.

 

The artwork is indeed fantastic. You've conjured up a consistent theme across the maps without it ever feeling overbearing. The visual side of things is cool as hell. Made me recall Visions of Eternity, if anyone remembers that Doom episode (was a fanmade episode 5, which was also very visually consistent and quite pretty).

 

I generally enjoyed the skull and heart pedestal + exit skull tower gimmicks - but imo there was absolutely no need to incorporate those fireblu secrets, especially considering how obnoxious some of them are to get and the pretty much zero reward you get for doing so. Even Romero occasionally put something else besides an armor bonus in some of those closets.

 

Combat is VERY light and doesn't really compare in terms of difficulty to any Doom episode starting from Inferno. The only time when I actually felt threatened was the big encounter in the last map. And that was pretty much it. Monster counts are super light and most of them are low tier. I think the baron gets introduced in e7m4, which is pretty damn late lol

 

Wish you had tested the mapset a bit more thoroughly before me attempting it because there are quite a few gamebreaking bugs in there.

 

Overall, good stuff, very nice for a cosy doom session.

 

Also, why does e7m7's track sound like this is nightlife lol

[JamesBone]

3 hours ago, Shinji924 said:

i cannot download BLIGHT V1.1 or BLIGHT V1.0, can i get help on how to download any of the files to use them ?

What problems are you having when you try to download them?

[TMMMS]

nothign seems to happen when i click on the link and when i try to open it in a new tab malwarebytes blocks it

[JamesBone]

25 minutes ago, TMMMS said:

nothign seems to happen when i click on the link and when i try to open it in a new tab malwarebytes blocks it

I don't know why this is the case. I don't have any issues on my end. Did you try downloading from the site?
https://crusader-games.com/home/game-blight/

Thank you Firedust for your compliments and comments. The biggest kicker to me is the reassignment of the ThingIDs, in which it randomly puts one of the Player 1 Starts as the highest ID, therefore spawning you as a voodoo doll. I never know when it will do that so it has caught me off guard far more than this incident. It's definitely not the first time its happened. In any case, I have released 1.2 to fix this bug and some of the other bugs you mentioned. Also added ammo to every FireBlu secret. I know its not for everyone, but I kind of had fun looking for them in SIGIL II. But at least you now have something to get in them. 

Edited June 13 by JamesBone

[RDETalus]

The visual design is excellent. The realization of what's going in with the skybox once you encounter the first totem is very cool. A lot of small details to look at and think about while exploring the map.

[TMMMS]

since your going for a full sigil pastiche have you considered getting jimmy to compose an optional midi soundtrack and devilmyeyes to design a doom 1-style intermission map?

 

oh yeah and it seems you forgot to flag a powerup in the deathmatch arena as multiplayer because when im playing solo i can only get 3 out 4 count items!

Edited June 13 by TMMMS

[JamesBone]

I'll hotfix that guys for you on my lunch break here at work if I get some time. 

I was actually going to do an intermission map myself and do a small rural community based around my campus, but I decided against it. I could never get something I was happy with, and spent too much time on something that would not be seen as much as the maps themselves. So I canned the idea. Also was not aware of how busy Paddock was or if I could find anything I would have been happy with. The music I currently have I already have license to use, so I just pulled from that library. I did consider those ideas though, I just don't know if it would be worth revisiting them just to replace the intermission map or MIDI music.

[TMMMS]

no problem btw i was pleasantly surprised by how chill the first level is on uv compared to its sigil 1 and 2 counterparts

 

i guess theres only so much you can get away with in terms of difficulty escalation before it becomes too much!!!

[Shinji924]

16 hours ago, JamesBone said:

What problems are you having when you try to download them?

Simply nothing happens, it doesn't download and acts as if i never clicked the link

[TMMMS]

e7m2 also has the unreachable incorrectly-flagged deathmatch area power-up issue

[FEDEX]

1 hour ago, Shinji924 said:

Simply nothing happens, it doesn't download and acts as if i never clicked the link

Right click, save target as..

[TheFartKing]

Any plans to support coop starts? I am definitely interested in playing this with a friend.

[JamesBone]

8 hours ago, TMMMS said:

no problem btw i was pleasantly surprised by how chill the first level is on uv compared to its sigil 1 and 2 counterparts

 

i guess theres only so much you can get away with in terms of difficulty escalation before it becomes too much!!!

Yeah, I find it really challenging, because some want hard encounters, others want fair encounters, and some what easy encounters. And everyone has a different opinion on what those 3 are. So I just tried my best to find a middle ground based on most comments I had seen.
 

3 hours ago, TheFartKing said:

Any plans to support coop starts? I am definitely interested in playing this with a friend.

At the moment, I don't have any plans to do so. I don't have the resources...meaning players, to test coop with. Plus, the levels are so complex, that it may be improbable to have multiple players. It would ultimately depend on player response.


ALSO:
I just released a quick fix (QFE) version of BLIGHT 1.2 that should correct those deathmatch items getting flagged.
Download link didn't change, its just replaced on the website. If 100% items is a thing you want to aim for, then you may want to redownload 1.2, otherwise, nothing else changed.