LeschNyhan

I'm in, but you already knew that!

I helped! I hope people enjoy it!

Bumping for the new map in the set I've been working on. Updated the OP with the new link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8u9i8drb5sjheut/PWormwood_beta_02_Release_0.1.wad?dl=0 My personal objectives for this map were to work on building up monster crossfires, working in the occasional rear ambush, using sound blocking lines better, and using darkness and lighting effects for more decrepitude and moodiness indoors. (I think this is ok? Seems better than creating a whole new OP.)

I liked this! It's definitely got some tough moments and traps, especially when the first two heavies show up before you have a weapon to deal with them effectively. Some extra impetus to move past them would be helpful - it wasn't until I ran entirely out of ammo that I thought to run past them to the elevators to get the SSG that I realized it was up there, so maybe moving it further forward for the player to see would be helpful. I also noticed up there that the cacos can travel through the bars, in case that wasn't your intent. There's an odd stair that seems to glitch in the entrance to the beige room - it lowers and raises, but does nothing else that I could tell. Also in that room - the fake door trap is a pretty fun gotcha, but never getting to actually open it (that I could find) was kind of a let down. Assuming it isn't a secret that went over my head.

Not like doomguy needs any more conditioning, but lmao:

You're definitely braver than me in using some of the gzdoom capabilities like custom messages and slopes and lighting. I'm not sure how much it adds, though? The room with a ramp and a stairs serving the same purpose is what I mean, so I guess I'd say either lean into it completely or leave it out. For myself, I've decided not to use a feature unless I'm certain it'll be for a very specific reason I absolutely can't duplicate with basic tools. For example in the secret area the pond has a right-angled bottom, right next to some nicely curved mounds. I have no idea if you can also make the pond bottom curved, but it would fit better (and also you could walk out without needing to jump). More so if the walls around the outside area had some slopes as well to give a better sense of being outdoors. Also if you drop a skybox sector the buildings and outdoor areas wouldn't be flush with each other, and will have a better sense of place. As a complete aside, I noticed on the mini-map the pond isn't actually a circle, but it doesn't have the contours to look like like anything other than a circle in game - so you're using a lot of linedefs for a complex shape that doesn't look complex. Conversely, the mounds look rounded with relatively few linedefs. I'm guessing you're going to have a lot of the non-working doors either open up to new areas in the future or be monster closets on a return trip. As it is, they mostly serve to confuse. You've also chosen to highlight some non-working doors with lighting effects, which normally suggests the door is important. It was linear enough that I didn't get lost, but that also means I was almost always attacked exclusively from the front. This made UV a bit of a breeze - I got tagged once by a zombieman during the run. Unless difficulty isn't working properly you could definitely stand to up the challenge, with more traps, harder enemies, or monster placement. I'm pretty new myself so you can take my advice with a grain of salt, but there you go! Good luck, hope it helps.

@ketmar I've uploaded some new screens in the initial post as well updated the wad to reflect your advice (and others). You're right, it looks a lot better! Thanks again.

That's helpful, thank you. I had been wondering about that somewhat, and there are some areas I tried to implement lighting changes and shadows, but it's clearly not enough. It might be gamma settings or something but one of the machines I was testing on was very dark and that definitely influenced the range of brightness I allowed myself to use. I'll have to do another pass on brightness.

Thanks very much! I did do it manually - according to my backups, I started at the end of May, so about 2 months?

@Biodegradable Wow, a video review, at that! Much obliged. A few questions to build on your comments - I did try to set up no keys, but of course that had you wander into the final area feeling underpowered. I'm curious whether for you and other players it is preferable for me to gate that zone with a key (that I would probably leave in the bunker near the rocket launchers, visible from near the start) so you don't go in there without the equipment? Also, from the comment about putting the assault rifle on slot 4 instead of 2, my follow-up question is which should be given priority? I had them separated so you can reliably switch for your desired use case, but if they should stay grouped together, I am guessing you would want the chaingun first for crowd-control emergencies.

My quarantine project has been to learn Doom mapping! I released Map 01 in early July, and Map 02 is now ready for review and feedback. Map 01 has been tweaked, but only slightly. My goal is to make a 7-8 map wad, with Doomguy fighting his into a Black Mesa style UAC facility after a Black Mesa style accident. Here's the link to my dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8u9i8drb5sjheut/PWormwood_beta_02_Release_0.1.wad?dl=0 These are UDMF maps based on the DOOM2 IWAD that has been tested in GZDoom. I am hoping it delivers a pretty standard Doom 2 experience, with a few tweaks here and there - no jumping or crouching. Freelook is probably ok, but discouraged. All standard difficulties are implemented. Screenshots are with newest map first. Playstyle is I guess adventure with mostly run-and-gun encounters, but punctuated with the occasional set-piece fight. Around 300-400 monsters a map with a fair bit of chaff. Map 02 - Unheeded Unheeded is a more linear than Aftershock, but does loop and should still be a interconnected in key places, and previously visited areas do repopulate. My personal objectives were to work on building up crossfires, using sound blocking lines to build up ambushes, and using darkness to better effect. There are two keys, five secrets, and maybe more doomcute than necessary. Map 01 - Aftershock An interconnected adventure map with two main paths to find your better guns. Personal objectives were building up fight pacing and practicing indoor and outdoor architectures. I tried making it no-keys, but failed, and got some very helpful advice about lighting that was implemented in version 2. One key, four secrets. New or modified things to expect: Slot 4 Assault Rifle - more accurate than the chaingun, but with a lower rate of fire and higher per-bullet damage. Somewhere between the shotgun and the chaingun in dps. Chaingun - higher rate of fire and slightly higher per-bullet damage. No longer usable for tap-sniping. Both assault rifle and chaingun have been balanced closer to the SSG, although certainly not surpassing it. The intent is to make bullet weapons more attractive and usable with slight buffs. Standard pinkies are faster than usual. Lost souls have less health than usual. Barons have less health than usual, but have learned a few new tricks. There is a Wolfenstein SS replacement that fills a hole somewhere between a standard zombie and chaingunners. As this is my first serious project, I would really welcome any feedback and guidance. Thank you for your interest and time! Credits: I owe much to the free resources that have been made available by this incredible community. There is a full Credits file lump in the wad, but this is the abbreviated list:

Finished it, now that the GZ Doom fixes are in, I'll PM you some additional comments to avoid spoiling it more than I already have for others. I do want to note that the sky texture really contributes to the feel when it appears. The black with just the edges of the tekwall stuff visible in the mist both above and below really suggests this tekhell extends infinitely.

Oh, that's interesting. So if I understand right, the damage is hitscan but the weapon spawns a non-damaging projectile, which behaves like an equivalent thing? Honestly I think you could probably do away with the tracers. The weapon's exaggerated firing animation, the increased damage, and the burn decal give plenty of oomph already. Since the hitscan and the tracer behave differently in engine, I think it risks confusion for minimal reward.

Here from that other forum. Also agree: the soundtrack kicks ass. It's oppressive, driving, and dark, and it's absolutely the thing I enjoyed most. I've played maps 1 and 2 so far, on UV, but I hit some potentially game-breaking bugs that might need tweaking. I'm playing on GZDoom, so I don't know if other ports have similar issues. The pistol replacement feels powerful, and is fun especially early in map 1. Textures are unconventional, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. If you were going for jarring and disjointed, it kind of works. It's like the UAC facility is itself having a nightmare, which does add to the oppressive sense of the levels . That said, in some places it's a decision that's made the map geometry a little hard to read. For instance, I couldn't tell this was an elevator for quite a while: In another instance, the large central platform in level 1 with a silver support texture reads as an elevator once its raised, because there's another elevator with that texture I'm forced to use earlier. However, it doesn't appear to be useable, so it was a bit confusing when I was trying to get back up to the higher levels after falling down. I think there's a way to choose a few consistent textures you can use to signal points of interest or importance to a player without necessarily losing the hallucinatory vibe you might be going for. Swapping the roles of the cacodemon and lost souls was interesting. I'm not sure how I feel about the cacodemons being homing attackers, but maybe I'm just upset by how much they murdered me. It does make them extremely dangerous priority targets that must be stunlocked with the chaingun. In ambush or open terrain, they're absolutely deadly, they do so much damage. The opening of map 2 where you only have an SSG to deal with them is a real challenge. I think your intent was to have the player use obstacles to block their rush and buy time, but having maybe a couple extra lamp or other obstacles would have been much appreciated and a tad less frustrating. Having the lost souls as flying snipers did at times make me wish I had an effective sniping weapon, especially in the closing of map 2 after I'd dealt with the cacos. In map 1, I really liked the cyberdemon bullying me the whole map and just getting punished for any positioning mistakes. There's a decent amount of cover, I can use its rockets to kill enemies, and the telefrag is satisfying. It's a fun theme and definitely sets that tone. The only room I didn't really understand was the awkward box-climbing room in the dark. Doom platforming is, well, doom platforming. In map 2, as I said, the opening was pretty challenging with the rushown cacodemons, which I both loved and hated. The dark pit they come out of was hard to read though, and I initially thought it was just a dark floor and stepped right into the hole. I might be an idiot, but maybe just a little more light, or some strobing, so it reads clearly as a pit would help. Cacos continued to be an enormous and literal pain in the ass for the rest of the map, and the most dangerous of the ambushes, so good job on that. I stopped at this point because it was hard to gauge whether I was just breaking the maps with the unlimited ammo bug, but I'd be happy to revisit this if you can fix that. (this is fixed now)