Dark Universe wad. Released.

[Payload4367]

Part One released: FINISHED VERSION

 

 

New Update: various fixes (see below) and map05

 

 

5 maps for GZdoom/Doom2.

 

Small to Medium sized maps. Maps can be completed
rather quickly (just find the switch that opens the
exit and then find the exit), with lots of secrets,
switches, scripted events, and hidden areas full of
the stuff you might need to survive the next map.
HMP and UV difficulties available.

No jumping/crouching. Mouse-look encouraged.

 

This is still a work in progress. Help appreciated. Thanks everyone!

 

Link to old file (drkuni1.zip): http://www.mediafire.com/file/8esle1fdoxu1t3r/drkuni1.zip

 

Link to old file #2 (drkuni1.2.zip): http://www.mediafire.com/file/zb44oyj02s5a9ta/drkuni1.2.zip

 

What's new:

• Fixed some texture alignments
• Worked to make the "codes" system more intuitive. (crosses fingers)
• added early build of map05
• New title screen

 

 

 

These maps work well with these fine mods as well:

 DarkForces.pk3: http://www.mediafire.com/file/as7hala473xb4cd/DarkForces.pk3
 Aliens-the-ultimate-doom: http://www.moddb.com/mods/aliens-the-ultimate-doom/downloads/aliens-the-ultimate-doom-beta-92

 

Also, check out last year's release of my 32 map MegaWad Dark Encounters:

 

 

Edited April 25, 2018 by Payload4367
added link to final release

[Liberation]

Looks very interesting, will give it a go when I have some free time.

 

[Nems]

You're quickly becoming one of my favorite mappers, dude. This is amazing. :D

 

About the only real complaint I had with this level set was that navigation was a bit confusing. The switches you need to hit to get the codes or start generators aren't marked like regular switches. Of course, this could just be a case of me being old and having a bad sense of direction. :D

[Payload4367]

7 hours ago, Nems said:

You're quickly becoming one of my favorite mappers, dude. This is amazing. :D

 

About the only real complaint I had with this level set was that navigation was a bit confusing. The switches you need to hit to get the codes or start generators aren't marked like regular switches. Of course, this could just be a case of me being old and having a bad sense of direction. :D

 

Thank you so much! I'll try and make in more intuitive with some descriptive textures or other markings. I do want the player to "figure things out", but I don't want it to be frustrating. Most of the switches aren't needed to finish the level. I'm trying to encourage more exploration. I'll release an update once I have a few more maps down (map5 is almost ready).

 

Edited December 15, 2017 by Payload4367
Clarification

[MFG38]

Screenshots look cool. I'll make a note of giving this a spin.

[SP_FACE1]

Quickly tested this. Played first level and a bit of the second. I agree that switches were hard to distinguish and the code system was a bit confusing at first. I liked the scarce ammo, low enemy count difficulty. And that you could fare better if you found the secrets. I'll try to finish the rest of the levels at a later time.

 

Spoiler

Is it a bug that this door says "LOCKED." when it's open and you press use?

 

[Payload4367]

29 minutes ago, SP_FACE1 said:

Is it a bug that this door says "LOCKED." when it's open and you press use?

Yes, it is. I didn't catch that. Easy fix. Thanks for your help.

[Expolision Studios]

I made a video of the map.

And let me just say, I am just in Aw, that someone actually made this!

i mean, was it just you? or a team of people?

I loved every inch of it, except for the part where i died...

But i made a video to show. and because i know you needed testers and feedback.. 

From what I've seen so far, its just insane, the map design, the sounds, the scripting with the whole breach of the demons, and the textures!

 

 

[Payload4367]

17 hours ago, Expolision Studios said:

I made a video of the map.

That was great to watch. You almost made it. Took the last revenant out with your last 2 shells only to turn around and see the fireball he launched earlier has come around to kill you. Awesome.

 

17 hours ago, Expolision Studios said:

i mean, was it just you? or a team of people?

It's just me...and usually a cat in my lap:)

[Expolision Studios]

Well, thats just amazing, because the architecture, the detail, and the scripting with doom marines, made up the most amazing wad i've played so far! how long has it taken you?

[Payload4367]

It's been about 3 months. Putting in 4 or so hours a night. Planning on making this into a full mega wad. I have an update coming up soon that addresses the rather confusing "codes" system and should include at least one more map. If you liked this, check out my last project. It's more run and gun style of gameplay with lots of monsters.

 

[CaptainManiac]

A good hell of a beauty

[Gez]

Excellent stuff. I did notice a few very minor issues in MAP04 you might want to fix:

1. misaligned box top here:

 

2. The battery switch can be activated from the room below, which is a bit weird. The Check Switch Range flag on the linedef ought to fix that.

 

 

Also, not specific to MAP04, the intermission screen shows the Doom II map names.

[Payload4367]

1 minute ago, Gez said:

1. misaligned box top here:

Doh!...:)

2 minutes ago, Gez said:

2. The battery switch can be activated from the room below, which is a bit weird. The Check Switch Range flag on the linedef ought to fix that.

I've had this problem in a couple of cases. I don't understand it either but I found a round abound fix for the others. I missed this one. Thanks.

 

3 minutes ago, Gez said:

Also, not specific to MAP04, the intermission screen shows the Doom II map names

Yeah, still working on most of  the title/intermission screens. There will be some periodic music through out as well. Thanks again.

[Expolision Studios]

I was also curious, what did you use to create the maps? Because i noticed the inclined areas of windows, and lights. 

[Payload4367]

GZDoomBuilder

[Payload4367]

Released update to address confusion with the "codes" system. Few other minor fixes and an early build of map05.

Link in OP and here. http://www.mediafire.com/file/zb44oyj02s5a9ta/drkuni1.2.zip

[CaptainManiac]

HEEY,THIS WAD IS GOOD BUT AM I INVISIBLE FORMYOU TO NOT SEE ME?SRY FOR DA WHINING

[Payload4367]

1 hour ago, CaptainManiac said:

HEEY,THIS WAD IS GOOD BUT AM I INVISIBLE FORMYOU TO NOT SEE ME?SRY FOR DA WHINING

?....I see you :)

 

[Payload4367]

Had to show ya'll how cool this is with the DarkForces mod. Works smoothly until Boba Fett shows up randomly and shoves a rocket up your butt:)

 

 

[Nems]

On the latest stable version of GZDoom (3.2.4) the beta codes don't work at all. I'll get the codes from the terminal and go to a door panel but nothing happens, making level one unbeatable because the doors associated with those codes won't open.

 

EDIT: Nevermind I had compatibility settings to "Doom" so that's why everything was borked haha. :D

Edited December 20, 2017 by Nems

[Payload4367]

I'll check it out. The codes only lead to secrets so, unless something else is happening, you should be able to finish all maps. Thanks for the heads up.

[Gez]

1 hour ago, Nems said:

EDIT: Nevermind I had compatibility settings to "Doom" so that's why everything was borked haha. :D

That was probably compat_useblocking that was preventing from activating doors. It can be worth it to explicitly put several potentially troublesome compat settings to off in the ZMAPINFO DefaultMap section, before defining your maps, just so that user settings will not mess up the maps.

[Payload4367]

50 minutes ago, Gez said:

That was probably compat_useblocking that was preventing from activating doors. It can be worth it to explicitly put several potentially troublesome compat settings to off in the ZMAPINFO DefaultMap section, before defining your maps, just so that user settings will not mess up the maps.

Thank you. I was unaware of this. Is this something I put into mapinfo or is it a setting in GZDoombuilder?

[Gez]

ZMAPINFO is ZDoom MAPINFO. ;)

[Kills Alone]

Pretty cool maps, great design and nice textures. I recorded the first four maps with the latest Project Brutality 3.0 Test:

 

 

BTW, what are the names for the first four maps? Took a peak with my little Slade, no dice ...

Edited January 28, 2018 by Kills Alone

[Vorpal]

map01-02 blind play:

 

 

I'm glad this is focused on mapping and not gameplay modding, as it allows people to throw on their own gameplay mods (as above) or for people who just like doom for doom like me can play it nilla style. You have a great handle on elegant detail, not going crazy with linedef/sector eye candy and instead letting the textures do the heavy lifting.

 

The layouts are tight and not terribly interesting for fighting in, but the visuals and scripting and puzzles make me not care about the combat because they are an absolute joy to explore and soak in the atmosphere. I played map01 twice more after the blind play, something I almost never do with modern pwads, it was just that much fun. I very, very much enjoy the secrets and almost-secret-random-usable/interactable-thingies, there's very often some additional goal in a secret or just some extra flavor (that one with the open vent into space, fuck yeah) is something I try to do in my own maps as an homage to how wolf3d often had secrets within secrets.

 

bad:

• breakable windows - the sound effect seems tuned way too loud, and sounds really bad when multiple windows break in quick succession. The animation also looks weird (slow, and visually more like a force field or something, than glass). Personally I would recommend doing away with breakable glass rather than going down a rabbit hole trying to make it awesome, unless there is an important gameplay reason to do so.
• camera events interrupt the action, and don't really convey much information - there's so much visual noise with the textures and geometry (not a complaint, the noise lends to the space station feel in a good way) that the location of what the camera is looking at is still essentially a mystery.
• the alpha/beta code text is confusing. Code uploaded... where? To me? To the doors? Do I lose one code when "uploading" a different code?
• coded doors that say "locked" when you don't have the code, imply that they will open when you do have the code. IMO just remove any player feedback tied to the door itself, and let the player figure out the deal with the buttons (I wasted a lot of time WITH the codes, thinking the doors were still locked, because I was using the door itself).
• title/menu graphics seem to be a weird resolution and generally awkward, doesn't feel consistent with the ingame graphics.

 

Regardless of the "issues", I'd reckon the first two maps earn a 4.5/5 in my book. Will hit the other maps soon and interested to see where this project goes.

 

[Vorpal]

Oh by the way, please don't use periods in the filename, as it confuses programs / windows file explorer in regards to the sorting and loading of files, thinking there is an extension called ".2.wad".

 

Anyway, map03 was more of the same (and by that I mean concentrated joy extract). Map04 just... dude. Thank you. Going in to map05 today... I wish you luck in your future progress with this set, but even if you get nowhere, my Doom-Core has been sated and then some with the current offering.

 

 

[Payload4367]

Thanks everyone for the comments, videos and feedback. Still working on this, just slowed down a bit. Mostly trying to tweak the gameplay aspects of the game, in particular the "codes" system. Big changes (because I knew, even while making it, that it was too cluttered and confusing). I removed roughly 95% of the "camera" interruptions and replaced all door switch panels with real switch textures to avoid confusion and made things more intuitive overall.

 

I've considered adding a few custom monsters to the maps (of the realm667 variety). Cyberimp, variations of the Cacodemons, etc. But the jury is still out on whether I will do this or not. Are these custom monsters frowned upon? This is my first use of these and so far I like them, although I think you have to pick ones that fit the aesthetics of the map set.

 

Anyway, thanks again all. 

[Payload4367]

On ‎1‎/‎26‎/‎2018 at 8:45 PM, Kills Alone said:

BTW, what are the names for the first four maps? Took a peak with my little Slade, no dice ...

MAP01: 5 Years Later

MAP02: We've Been Boarded!

MAP03: Push Back

MAP04: Hull Breach

MAP05: Their Numbers Grow