Zalewa

Hey folks! Suddenly, we're out of beta and the public release version is here! See the first post for the download links and the trailer. Changes since BETA3: * v1.0 - 2024-05-21 - NEW MAP! MAP10 is now "Household of Pain" by Ordon - MAP10 "Sandcastle" moved to slot MAP12 and shifted all maps after to the right - MAP07 "Vaclav" added ammo backpacks so that pistol-start players can get 100 rockets. - MAP08 "Zolc" fix coop hard-lock: the rising bars with tag 30 that lock the player in the cyberdemon fight will now be lowerable from their entry side to allow coop players to pass through. - MAP09 "Memorial" fixed the stray stair builder ruining the red key section in ZDoom ports AGAIN, because it somehow didn't get saved in the map for Beta 2 - MAP11 "Houses" the pentagram secret is now accessible sooner... much sooner. - MAP02 minor gameplay tweaks

A map full of content, with cool music that plays a single tune but doesn't get tiresome - just plays in the background and fits well. In a sense I had a feeling that I played 3 maps here: the first map ends at the blue door, then the second lasts until the final big red cave. The red cave is the 3rd "submap". I liked the 1st part the best, as it was the most interconnected one with the player constantly returning to the central room. I think this was also the most demaning part of the map, especially given that there are many vertical fights and teleporting-in enemies. In overall: 👍 👍 👍

One more map is still in the works and I think that will be it for the final release. So, 14 maps in total.

@boom_compatible Thanks. I thought I fixed the stair builder problem in map09 in beta v2 already, but somehow my hard drive forgot and, indeed, the source wad file with the map still has this bug. Gotta fix this for beta v4. As for the coop issue in the new map08: thanks for catching this one. I'll add a switch on the other side, so that this area can be opened by the players who lingered behind. This will also make it into beta v4. I normally take care to solve all such coop issues. Even if the WAD is meant primarily for single-player, there's virtually no good reason to not have it playable in cooperative too, as some people like to play with their friends. Catering for coop doesn't break single-play, it only adds some artifacts to the map like extra teleporters, strange SR switches or suspiciously-high ledges, but such artifacts are a low price to pay for having the maps run properly in multiplayer modes. If you notice any other coop issues like this one, I will definitely fix them.

I tried all of what you suggested (sans the cheese) before asking my question, and nothing of this has worked for me. Since the fight was optional, I moved on. There's no point lingering in one arena when there are many more still to go. But still, I wanted to know what's your designated tactic for this fight, mainly out of curiosity from the design perspective. Another reason I came to this thread was to look for any playthrough recordings, to see how others have dealt with this spot. But there are none :(.

Hey, @Peccatum Mihzamiz, got a question. What's the idea for this fight in MAP03? I'm just getting hammered from all sides, as the moving pillars in the middle don't provide enough cover. Should I just wait for the exit door to open without even starting the fight, since this is possible?

Santa Zalewa brings you A NEW MAP! in Public BETA v3: https://www.doomshack.org/uploads/polishcp-beta3.zip The map, "Quarter of Zolc" by @dqdq1, is at slot MAP08. Changes: - NEW MAP! MAP08 is now "Quarter of Zolc" by dqdq1 - MAP08 "Parapet" moved to MAP12 slot - MAP12 "Cancerous Temple" moved to MAP13 slot Enjoy!

BETA v2 is released, with the link updated in the first post. The list of changes: - MAP02 "Szeol" made the final fight with archviles easier on lower difficulty levels; at the same time, changed one of the nooks so camping is impossible. - MAP03 "Czern" replaced 2 of the 3 green armors on UV with ammo - MAP05 marked the exit line as monster blocking; chaingunners won't die behind it anymore, preventing the player from picking up their chainguns - MAP06 "ZeLN" corrected midtexture pipes bleeding into ground - MAP07 "Vaclav" added a display case with Szczerbiec and another invulnerability secret (now there are 4 invul. spheres in total) - MAP09 fixed a stray stair builder ruining the red key section in ZDoom ports - MAP09 added another stair builder for the red skull section that allows to return to the entrance from the lava section - MAP09 fixed the lift at start not triggering from some sides - MAP09 swapped 2nd and 3rd wave of monsters after grabbing keys because the 2nd wave was much harder than the 3rd. - MAP09 added more health for the final fight - MAP09 added some more barrels here and there - MAP11 added more ammo, health and invulnerability spheres - MAP11 added more red skull textures to show where the red skull bars are - MAP12 is updated and has a name now: "Cancerous Temple"

Thanks for playing. The difficulty levels are implemented on most maps, and I made my maps super-easy on skills 0 and 1. HMP will probably still be tougher than the vanilla UV, though.

From your demo I see that the revenant in the hidden sector tagged 667 got stuck over the ledge as the sector raised. I need to correct that. This revenant is supposed to move over a monster walk-over line that releases a voodoo doll that, in turn, triggers more revenants to appear.

Found it. This was not triggering in non-ZDooms because of tag 0, and I have neglected ZDoom testing. Thanks.

Oh no, this is bad. Which port, may I ask? This part of the map has lots of stair building so that if you fall down from the cliffs you can quickly get back up. But I don't see any problems with texturing or incorrect sectors being raised.

The maps were made separately, which means that they can all be completed from the pistol start, but when I get a WAD with multiple maps I personally prefer continuous play regardless, which is how I tested this most of the time. Depending on your choice in that matter, the challenge may be greater, but I think that's fine. We're aware that the maps aren't particularly easy, but I also think that the only one that could be called unfair is the last one at the MAP12 slot (which is also why it's got the last slot). In any case, please try Hurt Me Plenty and tell me how it goes. Also, the primary criteria for map ordering was weapon progression, but I also tried to interleave the difficulty slope, so that you get an easier map after a harder one. That's why MAP03 is easier than MAP02.

Get the WAD: from Doomshack from Idgames So, a bunch of Polish doomers have been lured by @Ordon to a Polish Discord server to create a bunch of maps with an end-goal to bundle them together into a Polish community single-player map pack. We've been working on this for over a year now (or two), and today, on May 21st, 2024, we're pleased to announce the public release! The mapping requirements for this pack were simple: stick to Boom complevel 9 and use the CC4 texture pack. This got us a total variety of 14 maps, that I compiled with a weapon progression in mind. Pierogis are included if you reach MAP07. Play Info Port: A Boom-compatible complevel 9 with UMAPINFO IWAD: Doom 2 Maps: MAP01 - MAP14 Game mode: Single-Player Cooperative: 2-4 player starts; untested Deathmatch: No Tested in: Doom Retro 5.0.7, DSDA-Doom, PrBoom+ 2.6.66, Nugget Doom 2.2.1, Nugget Doom 2.3.1 Release Trailer Screenshots Map Roster Our Discord https://discord.gg/bb5Cae5N - Polish DOOM Community

You don't say, bro :D

I have an itch for Egyptian themed levels that needs to be satisfied from time to time and I only wish we had more of them, because this one has scratched it only a little. The landscapes are impressive and the shadowplay is attentive, which make the map an interactive, pretty painting. The one thing is that at times I thought it could use some more color variety (see: https://i.imgur.com/ep0k5Tm.png) -- Egypt had colors -- but I get that it is the visual design preference to keep everything in the color of the sand, and well, okay, let it be like that. Now, apart from the visuals, the level remains unsatisfactory in the terms of gameplay and a variety of issues build up to that. Fights are mostly straight-forward with enemies coming from you from a single direction. There's no need to manage multiple angles during fights. There are large, rectangular rooms with just a few enemies in them. Even the limited ammunition is not a problem because it's so easy to skip the fights. I didn't find the rocket launcher either. Then there's the Skyrim-like layout, in one case literally where the section circles on itself and there's a hidden door opening to the beginning. Looking at the screenshots I expected a journey of exploration, but got a railroad to the level exit. The are some areas that are reused, but only to backtrack. When you wrote that the level is "large" and "outdoors" I expected something else and my expectations were subverted immediately after I booted the level and noticed the monster count. "Large" is not something you expect when you see that there are 100 monsters. It's medium, at most. This level succeeds at visuals, but a wholesome Doom level must succeed in playing Doom too. I see the potential, and succeeding at visuals is not a small feat, but this is just not there yet. Screenshot gallery: https://imgur.com/a/ORwovZp

Not a softlock, it's deliberately possible to exploit that open door. You can skip most of the level this way, although you will be much less prepared for the final fight.  Well I just wound up at the same door and had it close on me permanently because I didn't immediately go through. The first thing I did was to IDCLIP through it, then wondered if prboom-plus broke it (I'm running with complevel 11, tho), then came here to check if the problem was reported already. What I didn't think was that this was intentional. I'm too used to see this kind of things as a mapping error instead of a mapping feature.

Played in PrBoom Plus 2.6.2, didn't notice any serious bugs aside from a few vertical texture misalignments. For a first WAD I would call this a success. It has 11 levels of varying sizes and creating 11 coherent levels is not a small deal. When it comes to detailing I think you definitely nailed the tech-base theme. Other themes look a bit more spartan, but adequate. It's on par with what I would expect when going into a vanilla WAD. I'd prefer not to see so many crates and crate rooms, however. Gameplay is a door-room-door pattern with nearly always upfront enemies that don't pose much threat. Because of this, and because of generous provisions of spheres and armor, the difficulty is low, while the flow is interrupted by the doors being closed all the time. I think the difficulty picks up a bit in the last few maps. The "door-room-door" pattern is something I learned not to do early on, even though here it's not the worst because it's not in a straight-line. There are some off-shoots and some revisiting. Unfortunately, that last part also produces some non-obvious and lengthy backtracking, especially in map 10 as @Kor has mentioned. The vibrant detailing also helps with making the maps appear more interesting. For a seasoned player there are definitely more substantial WADs out there, but for someone who took a break from Doom and is just coming back this is a cute and cozy little adventure. Any tips for future WADS? This kind of backtracking is not cool. Think of layouts where if you wish the player to revisit a location, ensure it's rewarding and interesting, instead of having the player navigate the labirynth in the auto-map mode. The door-room-door pattern could probably be broken easily if you simply removed some of the doors and left open pathways there. It could probably even work in some places without changing anything else. Monster fights could also be made more interesting by making layouts more open. Feel free to steal some ideas on decorating hell from other designers. Anyway, congratulations on your release.