Brigandine [RC2, updated 2017-05-13]

[Ralphis]

Absolutely sick. Played through it in Odamex with the true color renderer and it looked amazing. Gameplay was super fun. I especially loved the earliest parts of the journey where you vertically scale the whole map. I also loved the ending scene, made me not want to walk into the exit. Only thing that kind of bummed me out was that I was expecting a bigger enemy or threat once I found the BFG secret, but I never ended up having to use it.

SICK

EDIT: Also, I will say that I actually had the most difficulty at the very beginning of the map with the shotgunners. After that, it was smooth sailing on UV (the arach caught me by surprise coming up from the blue key though)

[Viggles]

Wow, thanks all! :o I'd been staring at the level for way too long and genuinely had not expected this kind of response. The comparisons to Crucified Dreams are very gratifying, as that had been a conscious reference point for the design.

It sounds like the overall difficulty is where it should be, but the final encounters (post-blue-key and post-yellow-key) are underwhelming and need some revision. These take place in already-fought-over areas so it was hard to iterate on them, and ultimately I got design exhaustion and just wanted the damn thing out already. I would welcome suggestions on ways to improve those fights.

(For a long time the level was going to end with a cyberdemon fight in a pillar maze, but I cut it as it didn't fit the rest of the level at all and felt stale and cheap. Hence the post-yellow-key fight ended up having to carry the weight of the climax.)

Aquanet: The mancubi and cacos were intended as a meatwall that would push you back toward the viles if you rushed the exit, but I guess they went past under you before you dropped down?

Mechadon: I haven't been able to replicate slipping through the bars, which source port were you using? If ZDoom, any unusual compatibility flags?

[scifista42]

Viggles said:

I haven't been able to replicate slipping through the bars,

Gliding is already very hard to do in vanilla/Boom, and even harder to do in ZDoom-based ports.

[Jonathan]

This is incredible. This is my favourite Doom aesthetic, and you've taken it beyond anything I've seen before. I love how the architectural detail extends way past the playable part of the map, so that you feel truly enclosed in this labyrinthine city. The texture choice, the verticality, the geometric composition and contrast between the different areas — all amazing.

Gameplay-wise, it felt challenging, but not unfair. The only point where I had ammo trouble was just after fighting the Mancubuses by the blood pipes in the main marble area. I didn't feel I'd been particularly inaccurate or profligate, but was reduced to fists, and had to charge through the next set of monsters to find some ammo on the other side.

I also encountered the issue of slipping through the cage near the blue key. I was playing in QZDoom.

[Chopkinsca]

Mmmm, those screenshots are delicious.

[NiGHTMARE]

Absolutely amazing level!

It very much reminds me of the work of Malcolm Sailor, and in fact almost feels like a spiritual successor to Chord 3.

[WH-Wilou84]

Here's my FDA ( also on YouTube ), recorded with PrBoom 2.5.0 on Ultra-Violence skill.

Now that's a gorgeous level :o
Plenty of cool eye candy everywhere, and great use of light variation to create an immersive world. The map also has a lot of verticality, which is always a plus.
I love the classic Doom Hell theme, and you nailed it perfectly :)

I've lost a lot of time looking for a way to reach the RK, only to stumble upon the teleporter almost by accident, heh. Maybe teleporting a couple more enemies in the beginning area could draw the player's attention a bit more.

There are some minor bugs, such as floating items / decorations ( e.g. some cadavers at ~8:15 in my video ) and a bleeding wall in the main courtyard ( ~1:44 ). Please note that this video has been recorded with GlBoom-plus 2.5.1.2, maybe it works fine with a more recent version though.

The only thing I'd complain about is the ending fight, which is absolutely anticlimatic ( even if the free BFG9000 isn't found ). Instead of opening the two demonic marble panels guarding the exit when the player gets the YK, I'd have them closed, and I'd add an Ach-Vile behind each of them when the player tries to open them, or at least something threatening.
For now, the Mancubus couple and the PE can be dispatched too easily.

Super-cool map. Please make more !
Nice music, too. :)

[Viggles]

WH-Wilou84: Thanks very much for the vid! That highlighted a bunch of graphical glitches in GLBoom+ that I wouldn't have caught otherwise, along with some traps that didn't fire properly or that fired too early.

In particular, three sets of pillar monster-closets did not lower at all for you, rendering a couple of the encounters nonexistent or laughably trivial. I haven't managed to replicate this so it may have been fixed in more recent Pr/GLBoom+ versions.

EDIT: Ah. Turns out these traps are broken in prboom+ complevel 2. I'm not surprised you found the final encounter such a letdown, since half of it didn't spawn in - the archviles got stuck.

Not sure how you missed the RK teleporter for so long though - the player is facing it when they hit the switch that lowers it, and it's glowing red, and monsters teleport in around it once it lowers (so teleporting in more probably wouldn't make it more noticeable.) Possibly it was too obscured by the revenant corpse that was already on top of it?

[Darch]

Just finished it on UV. Fantastic job! My favorite fight was the arch vile over the pillars. Architecture and visuals were superb, as already mentioned. Really creative use of stock resources. (like that 3 eyed two nosed golem :)

I agree with Wilou that the final fight could be improved, as it was easier then some previous fights; I accidentally fell near the exit after picking the yellow key, skipping the most dangerous enemies. Just had to BFG some monsters near the exit teleporter and it was done.

You asked about difficulty, it was just right for me. There are lots of ultra hard mapsets around, it's good when someone tunes difficulty for us average players :)

Hats off!

[Mechadon]

Whoops, sorry I should have clarified what port I was using. It was ZDoom with everything set to default. I saw that BA nearby and thought the way to get it was by jumping through the bars...and well, it worked somehow :P. I believe I slipped through the front part of the bars. I also tried to replicate it afterwords, but I couldn't pull it off again.

[WH-Wilou84]

Viggles said:

Not sure how you missed the RK teleporter for so long though - the player is facing it when they hit the switch that lowers it, and it's glowing red, and monsters teleport in around it once it lowers (so teleporting in more probably wouldn't make it more noticeable.) Possibly it was too obscured by the revenant corpse that was already on top of it?

Yep, well now that I've rewatched that part the lowering pillar was in plain sight, haha, somehow I completely forgot about it. Never mind :)

[grrfield]

Hey man,

This IS a nice map. Top design and well thought gameplay.

Only one small thing though: that sky does not fit the scene. The level is kinda medieval-ish and the skyscraper sky does not fit so well.

But that is only my opinion. I end with what this map truly is: fantastic!

[Ed_Deth]

Great job loved the detail. I found no secrets, and missed about 30 monsters. I will play this again.

[Urthar]

Just finished on HMP, and it's a total masterpiece. The only thing that threw for a short time was the switch that activated here:



Due to the ammount of decorative usage, it didn't occur to me to try pressing it for a while.

[Gothic Box]

Oh Daddy, I feel so faint. I just finished this map, and I'm falling in love with the architecture the same way I did with Breach. The only thing I don't like is that it's not long enough.

This is definitely going to land you another Cacoward, I guarantee it.

[Tango]

This looks absolutely beautiful; been a while since screenshots had me in such awe. Will definitely be giving this a go :D

[Doktor Mandrake]

Wow this looks amazing!

What source port would you recommend for playing this in? Will it work with zandronum?

[Viggles]

Doktor Mandrake said:

What source port would you recommend for playing this in? Will it work with zandronum?

Zandronum will run it fine, though I prefer stock (G)ZDoom because I'm not a fan of item glows. Doomsday will be unplayably slow. I don't recommend running it on PrBoom+ until I've fixed some serious bugs on complevel 2, and without mouselook you'll miss out on a lot of the architecture (sorry DoomRetro :/ ).

Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to play it so far! I'm delighted with the response it has gotten, and I really appreciate the feedback and suggestions. I'm working on a beta2 with gameplay fixes, better signposting and hopefully more dramatic final encounters; that'll probably be posted later this week, but please do keep giving feedback on beta1 so I can take it all into account.

EDIT: Did anyone miss or nearly-miss the rocket launcher during their playthrough? Should that be signposted better, or perhaps marked as a secret?

[Gez]

For some reason, these fences didn't look correct when I played. Instead I got this.

[Viggles]

What port did you play it in? If PrBoom, which complevel? If ZDoom, any non-default compatibility flags?

The fences look correct in every port I've tested so far, except in ZDoom with "ignore Y offsets on masked midtextures" turned on, which shouldn't be enabled by default. (If you had manually toggled it on at some point, I may have to force it off in the mapinfo.)

[scifista42]

Viggles said:

ZDoom with "ignore Y offsets on masked midtextures" turned on, which shouldn't be enabled by default.

It is enabled when you toggle the compatibility mode at the top of the compatibility options page to either Doom, Doom (strict), Boom, Boom (strict), or MBF - which people often do when playing maps that are advertised as being vanilla, limit-removing, Boom or MBF compatible, respectively.

[Gez]

Viggles said:

except in ZDoom with "ignore Y offsets on masked midtextures" turned on, which shouldn't be enabled by default. (If you had manually toggled it on at some point, I may have to force it off in the mapinfo.)

That was it. I must have turned it on at some point (perhaps when writing this) and then forgot to turn it back off.

[pavera]

Those screenshots are nothing short of breathtaking. You've managed to pack so many little details into each scene, yet none of them draw my attention away from the scene as a whole. Your architecture stands up with the best I've ever seen in Doom mapping.

Can't wait to play this one, I hope the whole level is able to stand up to those screens!

[Jonathan]

I missed the rocket launcher on my first play-through, which explains why I was having ammo trouble a little later.

[Darch]

I also missed the rocket launcher, but since I had many rockets and no ammo for other weapons, I went back and searched until I found it. I wouldn't tag it as secret, as it is almost mandatory to get it due ammo balance (at least it was for me). The rocket launcher itself is visible enough, the way to get it is that could me more noticeable.

[Ex Inferis]

Map is absolutely beautiful! Difficulty on UV could be jacked up a bit, IMO

[P1NKAC1D]

Oh god this architecture looks absolutely fantastic. Words can't really describe how stunned I'm right now just looking at the screenshots. Downloading it right now!

[Player177]

I really want to play this map again since last saturday. Very impressive overall!

[Dynamo]

Truly amazing work :D Hope to see more from you!

[pagb]

Mechadon said:

Whoops, sorry I should have clarified what port I was using. It was ZDoom with everything set to default. I saw that BA nearby and thought the way to get it was by jumping through the bars...and well, it worked somehow :P. I believe I slipped through the front part of the bars. I also tried to replicate it afterwords, but I couldn't pull it off again.

I also slipped through the grates, using gzdoom with gameplay options to default. I slipped through twice.

Anyways, astounding looking wad, and I also liked the music a lot. Somehow it reminded me of NIN.