Manin/Wyrda/Hugin

[Obsidian]

Manin, Wyrda and Hugin are 3 Boom-compatible maps that I have made over the past week, each in the space of one day. Hopefully this is good preparation for the Doom Radio speedmaping session this weekend. :P

Manin.

Manin was created on the 26th of October and is partly inspired by one of Mouldy's maps from his wad "Going Down"(check it out, it's much better than this :P). The music is "Agony Rhapsody" from TNT: Evilution.

Wyrda.

Wyrda was created on the 31st of October: I meant to make it after Manin, but I didn't have much ideas for it at the time and I ended up making Hugin instead. This one is influenced by TimeOfDeath's map "The Floor Below": not in terms of monster quantity though, heh. The music is from the Guard Tower map from Heretic.

Hugin.

Hugin was created on the 28th of October and is influenced by...err....Gothic99. *Sheepish grin* The music's from Null Space.

There you have it. Due to these being speedmaps there may be a few errors, whether it be design or ammunition balance or whatever: let me know if you find any so I can upload these to the archives mistake-free.

Oh yeah, each map has a DeHackEd boss. Should probably mention that. >:-D

-Obsidian

[plums]

I thought of mouldy's map as soon as I saw the screenshot for Manin. Wydra doesn't look much like The Floor Below though, not enough REDWALL1, and Hugin needs more dark metal and red lights to be gothic99 :P

Going Down and The Floor Below both kicked my ass hard so I'm already nervous about playing these, but I'll give 'em a shot.

[Obsidian]

Hugin was more inspired by the mental amount of detailing in Gothic99 than it's actual textures, truth be told. :P

[plums]

Hi, I didn't get to explore these as much as I'd have liked, but here are some initial FDAs:
http://www.mediafire.com/?9cqabt222qta4a7

In the spirit of encouraging authors to add meaningful difficulty levels, and for players to use them instead of complaining that UV is too hard, I played on HMP. I used GLBoom+ with mouselook.

Manin: Looked a lot like mouldy's level, but that's fine, it's a good look. Took me a few tries to figure out a strategy that would keep me alive, but by the end I was able to get to the boss fight, whereupon I died quite quickly and decided I'd have more fun being able to save before that room. The switch puzzle took an embarrassingly long time to figure out and then execute, but I did get it eventually. I like the yellow key bit.

I broke the Revenant lift a few times, once by hitting the switch as fast as I could which caused me to have to quit and start over, and once (not recorded) by running on top of the lift and getting stuck in the ceiling with no way to get down.

Also noticed a few texture oddities, like a bookshelf texture disappearing when I was on the higher ledge only to reappear when I fell, but maybe those were caused by GL use.

Wyrda: I hope I spelled this right in my demo. Visually it's my favourite except for STEPTOP is such a boring and ugly texture, especially against the green marble. You're using Boom so you should be able to use any of the other STEP textures. Gameplay wise I couldn't figure out what to do after getting the blue armour, I run around a bunch and then quit.

Hugin: Couldn't play this for very long because I got a phone call, I'll have to go back to it. What I did do was get into the first main room and then promptly get killed, then try again by laming it out in the hallway beforehand, but still dying. Will try again later, but probably with saves.

[Obsidian]

Thanks for the demos. :) Just wondering, what do you think I should use instead of STEPTOP? I'm kind of limiting myself to the stock textures for the time being. Also, you can swim in the blood in the blue armor room: I used the Boom "Create Fake Ceiling and Floor" action.

[plums]

Aha, I thought I got hurt standing in the blood, so I didn't think to go back to standing in it. Maybe I'll give it another try tonight.

For stock textures, I guess there aren't many good options. It's up to you but I think STEP3 or STEP4 would look a little better than STEPTOP. I guess you could say.. they're a step up? (sorry!)

[plums]

Wyrda take two: http://www.mediafire.com/?d59j6euakcaefzm

That underblood part is extremely non-obvious and extremely painful. Other than that, I liked the level a lot. It had a very threatening feel throughout, even though it wasn't actually too bad on HMP. Boss fight was fun, a good bit of excitement and uncertainty without being overly hard.

Hugin will have to wait another day.

edit: BTW, the music in Hugin is Heretic's E1M1?

edit2: Whole lotta deaths on Hugin: http://www.mediafire.com/?chwn9y2e673793r

In the end I gave up and switched to GZDoom with saving. Also played UV to balance that, and see how different it was. I guess I came pretty close with my last attempt in PRB+. The boss wasn't too different than a regular Cyberdemon, but a nice variety nonetheless. Couldn't break anything, despite trying a bit. The item conveyor was fun. The Romero head explosion is off-centre, presumably because you have the head in the middle of that room.

All in all I liked these, there's a fair amount of gameplay and visual detail for being speedmaps.

[dobu gabu maru]

MANIN: I liked a lot of the ideas here. The switch fest in the blue key library was the only aggravating part, but other than that I had a lot of fun. The Lost Souls are unfortunately uneffective during the YK part as they tend to infight more than help out the AV, leading him to a quick demise. The “SILENCE” section was a really great idea that I think got bogged down in some unbelievably strict timing, and I wound up killing everyone outside the block sound lines and skipping it. The sergeant trap afterwards was tricky. The red key/blur sphere part was my favorite since it’s a concept I don’t think mappers use enough (manc + blur sphere = hell on earth), and the really tricky boss battle definitely kept me on my toes.

WYDRA: Pretty entertaining—I’m not one to shy away from tight spaces. A little more hit n’ miss here too, like the damaging blood run (which I wound up dying to the first two times) and the AV fight down in the GSTONE pit with the chaingunners up top (who tend to tear each other apart rather than me). Fun boss to fight. The map overall felt more like a puzzle map than a combat one.

HUGIN: A decent map one up until you get the RL then go back up top to meet the clusterfuck of Lost Souls and AVs. I had to play an annoying game of "bring the AVs into the sewers" so I could properly fight them since anything I killed at the red door (imps, barons) were quickly rezzed back to life. Other than that, I took to liking the central arena and the initial fight there, as the barrels really added a sense of urgency and knowledge of your position. The boss worked well in that area too, although the 4 BFG cells inside the following compartment did shorten the battle significantly.

Overall it's a neat triplet of maps. You definitely have your own quirks when it comes to mapping, which can both liven up traditional gameplay (like your puzzle elements) and bog it down significantly at times (anything that demands tight timing or foreknowledge to complete unscathed). Great visual sense too—even if it's clear where your inspirations come from, you do a great job at making each area clean and lush.

[Badboy]

manin/silence library

how do i solve the 3 switch riddle in the silence library. im not fast enough.

[Obsidian]

Badboy said:

manin/silence library

how do i solve the 3 switch riddle in the silence library. im not fast enough.

I'll admit that puzzle is a bit convoluted. :D Here's how you do it.

-Press the first switch and run over to the second

-Press the second switch just as the bookshelf is going back up

-Press the first switch again and then press the third switch before it gets covered up again, but make sure there's a good gap between pressing the first and the third

-Use the first raising bookcase to get to the top and press the fourth switch

-Press the fifth switch

That should do it. :)