Breathless [/idgames]

[Nirvana]

*FILE UPDATED 8/2/18*

 

Breathless is a large, Boom compatible slaughter map for Doom 2. If you check on the 'what are you working on?' thread, you have probably seen some image dumps of the wad at various stages of development. It was also streamed by a few people here and there.  

 

 

The theme is deep blues punctuated with cyan and is heavily inspired by Swim with the Whales, both in aesthetics and difficulty. The wad is inspired by a lot of things visually though, from Metroid Prime's Phazon Mines to Sunder. I wanted to make each individual area fairly unique, so despite it being one large map and all within the same colour palette, the areas hopefully still feel varied. 

 

Difficulty:

The map has a slaughter 'design philosophy' and is based around a lot of large set-piece fights, with some smaller encounters here and there. It is designed to be hard on Ultra Violence -consider it close to SWTW map 3 for reference- and is balanced mainly for this mode. HMP and HNTR are both implemented with the former tested a decent amount (not as rigorously as UV) and the latter given some quick runs. Hurt Me Plenty is fun to play and I can Max it fairly consistently without too much trouble; I would suggest playing on this difficulty first, as UV is punishing. Don't say you weren't warned :D

 

I would recommend playing with saves even for doom gods, as the map is very long.

 

Thanks:

 

Special thanks goes to Bemused, who spent hours of his own time fixing a major bug with my teleporters that caused the map to be basically unplayable. Another big shoutout to Vita (38_ViTa_38) who also fixed two major bugs in the palette for me. Also to Pinchy for some mapping tips during my streams!

 

Huge thanks to all the playtesters as well: Mr Zzul (Killer5), Loveless, Bemused, Benjogami, Archi, 38_ViTa_38 (If I forgot anyone please yell at me.) 

 

Extra credits are in a text file in the wad.

 

Also thanks to my girlfriend for listening to me talk about boring Doom stuff while I made this :D

 

Compatibility:

Boom -Complevel 9. Tested in mainly Glboom-Plus and GzDoom but seems to work ok in software-based ports (PrBoom-Plus and Zdoom.) Having said that, the GL ports have been tested much more thoroughly, so those are recommended. Obviously I can't control what people do, but as the mapper, I'm going to go ahead and suggest not using freelook for this map, as it makes some fights easier and also allows you to see things intended to be out of the player's view.  

 

Although this has been tested quite a lot, I'm going to throw this up as a beta, so it still might have bugs/exploits/cheese in it. Please let me know about any of these here and I will endeavour to fix them.

 

Secrets: 

There are a few secret fights around the map and a super secret area, so make sure you look around if you are interested in maxing the wad ;)

 

Screens:

 

 

DOWNLOAD LINK:

BREATHLESS [idgames]

 

Idgames release is up! Although the text file is a bit borked :/

Edited February 8, 2018 by Nirvana

[dybbuk81]

ok wow, you earned the right to use my favorite band's name as a handle here. I was just thinking I should have tried that when I changed names haha. Those screenshots are beautiful

[DoodGuy]

I hate how people make gorgeous maps, then it turns out be a slaughtermap :(

[loveless]

I've played through this wad in testing and enjoyed it greatly.  Strong visuals, gameplay I enjoy, and a solid midi.  Even if slaughter isn't your thing, I recommend taking a trip through this map just for sight seeing.  The fights themselves can be tough and taxing but the scenery itself is worth it.  You'll feel tired and rewarded after, cheers Nirvana.

[Kaido]

Very Nice

[Kaido]

I don't know if this was intentional or not ...

[Nirvana]

I have absolutely no idea how that floor got lowered, but it's fixed now. Please redownload the map if you have downloaded it already. 

Edited January 8, 2018 by Nirvana

[GarrettChan]

The color and the details are just impressive. I'll definitely play this. BTW, can you share your experience for looking for a GF like this? :D (JK)

[pavera]

Looks awesome. Probably too hard for me with all the cyberdemons, but it looks really nice. Will probably play it on tourist mode ;)

[seed]

Well this is gorgeous, the first caves are amazing.

[Gothic]

Unfortunatelly I can't play this, but those screenshots look beautiful. Good job.

[SOSU]

10 hours ago, DoodGuy said:

I hate how people make gorgeous maps, then it turns out be a slaughtermap :(

Thank you very much for this post,i am having fun reading the debate surronding it on the Joy of Mapping Discord server XD

Also what i wanted to say:
For someone who made Serious Doom i thought you were into everything slaughter.

[Tristan]

38 minutes ago, SOSU said:

Thank you very much for this post,i am having fun reading the debate surronding it on the Joy of Mapping Discord server XD

There's your answer btw

 

edit: screens look good

Edited January 8, 2018 by Eris Falling

[DoodGuy]

52 minutes ago, SOSU said:

Thank you very much for this post,i am having fun reading the debate surronding it on the Joy of Mapping Discord server XD

Also what i wanted to say:
For someone who made Serious Doom i thought you were into everything slaughter.

Well, I am, but not Doom slaughter, as everything is kinda boolet spongey

[Killer5]

Grats on getting the beta out. Really enjoyed playing the map.

[Nirvana]

Can this thread please not devolve into another argument about slaughter maps? I made a map with gameplay I enjoy, for others who enjoy it. If you don't like slaughter or high difficulty, you don't have to play the map. Thanks. 

Edited January 9, 2018 by Nirvana

[Roofi]

Each time you enter in a new arena.

 

[Nirvana]

15 hours ago, Roofi said:

Each time you enter in a new arena.

 

Basically what I was going for :D Hopefully it's still fun and not too arduous though...

[StormCatcher.77]

To my great regret, now I do not have time to go through the map. A little later, I will definitely get acquainted with this work. I've got a whole queue of projects ...

[therektafire]

You said you did a stream of making the map? Could you link to the VODs? I love watching other people make maps :)

[therektafire]

Just tried to start the map about 30 minutes ago, wow it is definitely pretty hard, I have certainly not got gud enough for this level of slaughter difficulty, yeah I guess I could play at a lower difficulty but wheres the fun in that? :)

[loveless]

Just handle one section at a time and save when it's safe to go afk, @therektafire.  It's generally how I'll play slaughter, not saving mid fight or when there are things alive that can hit me.  It's a good way to learn how to handle fights with consistent strategy.  Have fun!

[therektafire]

58 minutes ago, loveless said:

Just handle one section at a time and save when it's safe to go afk, @therektafire.  It's generally how I'll play slaughter, not saving mid fight or when there are things alive that can hit me.  It's a good way to learn how to handle fights with consistent strategy.  Have fun!

That's what I have been doing, you don't have to tell me twice about that :D 

[Nirvana]

4 hours ago, therektafire said:

Just tried to start the map about 30 minutes ago, wow it is definitely pretty hard, I have certainly not got gud enough for this level of slaughter difficulty, yeah I guess I could play at a lower difficulty but wheres the fun in that? :)

 

As I said in the OP, UV is deliberately designed to be very difficult and I recommend playing Hurt Me Plenty for a first playthrough. Honestly this wad is probably more 'fun' on HMP, as you have a lot more leeway in fights. I think the Doom community is a bit hung up on completing every single wad on UV -the other difficulty levels exist for a reason! Also having people test HMP allows me to balance it better and make it a better experience :D

Thanks for playing, I hope you manage to push through!

 

5 hours ago, therektafire said:

You said you did a stream of making the map? Could you link to the VODs? I love watching other people make maps :)

Unfortunately the VODs are gone as it was a few months ago that I streamed it and I didn't think to save them at the time. Sorry, I enjoy watching mapping too!

Edited January 12, 2018 by Nirvana

[djnr]

A wonderful map. Absolutely love the visuals and the different themes (especially the cyan key room).

 

A few issues to report:

 

- There are 2 cacodemons too close to each other and thus can't move, so they can't fly in for you to kill. (Screenshot is using "show alive monsters" in glboom+)

https://i.imgur.com/c1BmgAa.png

 

 

- A different 2 cacodemons never activated/teleported in

https://i.imgur.com/I14mXvE.png

 

 

- After lowering the black key bars, it's possible to SR50 and get some goodies early. It doesn't break anything, so it can probably stay in

https://i.imgur.com/iK98dQl.png

 

[Nirvana]

55 minutes ago, djnr said:

A wonderful map. Absolutely love the visuals and the different themes (especially the cyan key room).

Thanks for playing! I fixed all the cacos so hopefully it's fully maxable now (great find by the way, never noticed either of those issues). I'll leave the sr50 for now, as it doesn't actually cause any sequence breaks and just allows you to get some boosts early if you need them.

File has been updated in the OP with these changes.

Edited January 12, 2018 by Nirvana

[StormCatcher.77]

A map with an absolutely abnormally high difficulty. I have not felt so helpless for a long time. :3 Nevertheless, the graphics at altitude, and it compensates for any negative aspects associated with the gameplay. I played in GZDoom with bloom turned on, and it looked fantastic! (though slowed down) Unique in terms of visual style map, although in memory immediately pops up Swim with a whales. The beginning is very hard, makes you stay long. Maybe just I have not played slaughters for a long time.

 

Unfortunately, I can not confirm the passage without cheats, but not because of the difficulty, but because I'm stuck. When the battle started after the cyan key, I retreated to the upper level of the cave, escaping from the hordes of arch-viles and ... the stone wall closed behind me ... and did not open again. I had to use IDCLIP. Perhaps, I did not notice any swith (everything is inundated with corpses, nothing is visible).

 

In any case, this map leaves a truly vivid impression. I have seen massive attacks of cacodeonons more than once, but this map even surprises here. In the arena, shortly before exit, this is a real wall of flesh. Rain from cacodemons fireballs, just a unique phenomenon in my memory. Raining fireballs... raining cacodemons... raining blooooood :D !!! It was strong, but I will not return to this map again soon.

 

  First Demo Attempt GZDoom 3.2.0

Duration is quite long (many, many deaths...). You'll be a hero if you watсh demo to the end ;]

 

In my collection:

 

- Visuals (5 / 5)
- Detailing (4 / 5)
- Gameplay (2 / 5)
- Atmosphere (4 / 5)
- Difficulty (5 / 5)

 

- Overall Rating (4 / 5)

 

 

[Nirvana]

25 minutes ago, StormCatcher.77 said:

The beginning is very hard, makes you stay long. Maybe just I have not played slaughters for a long time.

The beginning is a tough fight, lots of people hated it in testing, but I wanted to set the tone for the difficulty of the map, so people know what they are getting into. I can also do this fight without taking any damage (or at least minimal damage) fairly consistently, so I think it's ok.

 

25 minutes ago, StormCatcher.77 said:

Unfortunately, I can not confirm the passage without cheats, but not because of the difficulty, but because I'm stuck. When the battle started after the cyan key, I retreated to the upper level of the cave, escaping from the hordes of arch-viles and ... the stone wall closed behind me ... and did not open again. I had to use IDCLIP. Perhaps, I did not notice any swith (everything is inundated with corpses, nothing is visible).

The only way I can think you accomplished this is to sr40/50 to the teleport to the secret area and then you got stuck from there? It's impossible otherwise. I have edited the map so it should be impossible to get to the teleport now (although it was quite difficult before that anyway.) If you did do it another way, then please let me know, because I wasn't entirely sure from your description.

 

Thank you for playing the map and giving me a long review, all feedback is really useful. Also glad you enjoyed it -even if it was a big rough in places (there's always Hurt Me Plenty!)

[Degree23]

Am I just blind or can I not find any weapons anywhere?

[loveless]

Walking backwards gets you a chaingun, towards the end wall of the opening room gets you a rocket launcher and ammo.  The next area has an ssg and it goes from there.