Arsinikk

Glad you enjoyed it :) There's a hidden switch on the opposite side that lowers the wall. Look for a strange texture on the outer side where the health bonuses are.

Minor Update: If you downloaded a version before this post, it'll crash in Eternity. I've updated the WAD where now it should be fixed :) Download SLOTTER VULT (Final)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> DOWNLOAD SLOTTER VULT <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< SLOTTER VULT is a large (30-45 minute) single Vanilla Doom map (complevel 2) created with the resource of the upcoming Hell Revealations megawad. Since the map doesn’t really fall within the Hell Revealed style in gameplay or aesthetics, I figured I’d release it standalone. This map is heavily inspired by Huy Pham’s Deus Vult. Sort of think of it as a Vanilla compat tribute. While this map targets Vanilla Doom (no VPOs, etc), I highly suggest playing in a port that increases the sprite limit, as this map was designed ignoring the limit. Technically this map can run and play demos in Vanilla Doom, but I wouldn't say it’s exactly playable in Vanilla (due to the aforementioned sprite limit). This map is supposed to be difficult. If it’s too hard on Ultra-Violence, don’t feel bad dropping down a difficulty or two. A very special thanks to my testers: @tonytheparrot (UV) @Cacodemon187 (HMP) This map will work on most any port (-complevel 2) that supports Vanilla (+DEHACKED) Compatibility. It is highly advised to use a port that supports a raised sprite limit. Compatible Ports: MS-DOS (Doomhack.exe) Chocolate / Crispy Doom DSDA Doom / PrBoom Plus ZDoom-based ports Woof-based ports Eternity Engine Dev Build ONLY Doom Retro ...and more Download SLOTTER VULT (Final) You can also play the map in the Bonus WAD of Hell Revealations (MAP32B) Files: SLOTTRVT.WAD (main file with DehackEd built-in) SLOTTRVT.DEH (ONLY for DOS and Chocolate Doom) SLOTTRVT_WS.WAD (includes widescreen assets for ports that support them) Sprite flickering will happen. Use a limit-removing port. Let us know if you come across any bugs.

These maps are good. Y'all should play them. I would really like to see this wad expanded into a larger set personally :)

Checking out the BTSX E3 Preview! http://twitch.tv/arsinikkdm

Playing Doomkid.wad XD http://twitch.tv/arsinikkdm

I will say I like that DSDA Doom has a rewind feature, but I do think that it has made my general Doom playing worse. I don't think that's the fault of the source port dev nor do I think they should remove it. I think that's just a "me" problem in that the rewind feature has become very convenient and has led to me being much less careful and more risky. That's why I try and rely on actual saves instead, because then there are more incentives to restart fights in their entirety or to make strategic saves. While it's cool to be to beat a map without any saves whatsoever, I don't think that kind of logic is well placed during blind runs of maps and/or fights. In my opinion there's no shame in saving in a map when you have no idea what's coming next. Just let people enjoy Doom in the way that they like, whether it be saveless or save-scum.

Mmmm... This is one of the tastiest meals I've had in a while. Got some spicy ones towards the end as well. :)

Opening or closing PANDORA's shovelware box?! http://twitch.tv/arsinikkdm

Regardless of the quality of the mapset, I find your responses distasteful. I'm so glad to be part of a community where someone like you will tear someone's work down and discourage them from mapping again. Maybe next time try and be more constructive with your criticisms. Also there is absolutely no problem with a mapset not using advanced features, even though it was tested with more modern ZDoom based ports. Most players use those modern sourceports when playing multiplayer. Complaining that a mapset isn't using more advanced features is like complaining about someone buying a cheeseburger plain... they could add a bunch of other toppings, but they don't need to add those to enjoy it.

Hey Doomworld! I've compiled a nifty little site including all the midis I have composed for various Doom projects. The idea is that I'll continue to add midis to this repo, as I don't plan on stopping my midi composing anytime soon. ;) Arsinikk's Midi Directory: https://andrikpowell.com/midis/ Currently my directory includes 45 midis I've composed since I've joined the Doom Community, for projects such as: Amethyst Heights (Purple Rain) 100 Line Massacre Corruption (Hellcinerator) Limit Buffet One-off midis from various community projects and more midis in the "Unreleased" folder! Feel free to use the midis in the "Released" and "Unreleased" folders in your own projects with proper credit. Please DO NOT use the midis in the "WIP" folder for projects, as I'd rather those midis be used for my own projects first. You can hear most of these midis that I've uploaded on my Youtube Channel: Happy DOOMing! Arsinikk

Revenants. They are super fun to fight one-on-one or in hordes, whether it be their blood-curdling scream or their string of homing rockets, your death is only moments away. Cyberdemons come second, as they are very versatile, whether it be in large areas or small corridors, their rockets give quite the punch. They aren't too difficult to deal with oftentimes, but they are loveable all the same.

Playing some PANDORA shovelware goodness! http://twitch.tv/arsinikkdm

Playing moar THEME-GAWAD! http://twitch.tv/arsinikkdm

Courthouse, THEME-GAWAD, we'll see what happens! :) http://twitch.tv/arsinikkdm

Finishing up "Hell to Pay" and playing more Doom after! http://twitch.tv/arsinikkdm

I feel a sort of need to clarify that while many people in this thread are pointing out that Downtown is a flawed map, that my goal of this post wasn't to discuss whether Downtown itself is a good map. Note that the title is "In Defense of Downtown's Giant Arrow" and not "In Defense of Downtown". My main goal with this was to more to do a sort of analysis of "Open vs Linear Map Design". While it is true that Downtown may seem like a very linear map nowadays, compared to later maps in Doom 2 and especially when comparing modern Doom maps, I'd argue that with it's placement in Doom 2, Downtown is a much more open map than what came previously in the megawad. I wouldn't argue that Downtown as a map isn't confusing, nor would I advocate that it couldn't be improved. It really seems a bit trivial to try and fix a map that came out almost 30 years ago. I have no problem with people pointing out flaws in the map, as I can't say I'm the biggest fan of it myself. If you really wanna know my thoughts on the overall map, I'd say that it is confusing to navigate even with the arrow. I think it's a flawed design to have an area that the player has to drop down random "chutes" and if they pick the wrong one, they have to backtrack to pick another one to fall down. I will give credit to the map that I think that each building is pretty unique in it's design regarding fights and gameplay. Yeah, I may find the slow lift room annoying, but it least I recognise it being different from the lava ceiling building, or the red key building that you teleport on the roof and drop in to the rest of the building from above. Even the progression of jumping from one building to another, while annoying to do over and over, is pretty interesting instead of just opening a door on the ground floor. I'd argue that from Doom 1994 WAD standards, the buildings look and play distinctly enough from each other. Yeah, compared to WADs that came after it's not too nice, but I think people forget about Vanilla limitations like Drawsegs and Visplanes, when they complain about how low detail it is. Anyways, my main focus on this post was on the arrow itself, and not the map. Regardless on how it was done or the method of pointing the player towards an objective, I called the arrow "genius" because of how it guided players towards starting the map in the first place. I can definitely see how some may call it a "band-aid" to the map, and I'm not going to argue against that notion. I still think that the addition of the arrow makes it a better map, as it gives some direction where the beta version had no direction.

Playing Hell to Pay! http://twitch.tv/arsinikkdm

Today, I came across a video by That Nukem Guy (good video btw) talking about the Doom II map Downtown (MAP13). In the video, he first starts playing a beta version of the map, and then he plays the final release version of the map that we all know. What stuck out to me the most about the beta version, was 2 things: The area with the 3 powerups to the north being a sort of hell dock in the beta version is super dope. The Beta version of the map actually didn’t have the giant arrow that we all know This got me thinking about how interesting it was that id Software felt the need to add a giant arrow to the map in the first place. It’s definitely been a recurring debate topic in the Doom Community with people taking the hard stance of “arrows placed in maps are bad” or “Downtown as a map was designed so poorly that they needed to add an arrow to it”. I won’t be diving deep into whether or not Downtown itself is a bad or good map, as I feel that is going to be a subjective topic. What I’d like to focus on is why the arrow was added, and why I think that adding the arrow was actually a smart move on id Software’s side. The arrow in question in the thirteenth Doom II map Downtown: First off, let’s talk about Downtown as a map, and what makes it different from other Doom II maps. Downtown is what I’d call the first real city map of all the IWADs. By “city map”, I do not mean that the map has a city aesthetic, but rather that the map’s progression is quite open with multiple ways (or buildings in this case) for the player to go through. Downtown is a unique map in that it throws the map in the player’s face and tells them to “have fun” with it. Sure, there are certain buildings that require keys to enter, but it is still very open-ended. For some extra context, let’s look back at some other maps for comparison. I don’t think it’s a question that Doom 1 maps and even most Doom II maps tend to be quite linear in progression. Yes, they sometimes had secret areas or passages, or sometimes there’d be more than one path, but the player was often never too confused of what “the main path” was (Unholy Cathedral may be confusing but not because of it having multiple paths). Some people may look to Mount Erebus of Doom 1 as a city map, but I don’t really see it as the same thing. Mount Erebus surely is a quite open map, yes, but the progression, while sometimes a little strange, is still pretty straight forward. So let’s take a player who has become accustomed to the previous linear map design of Doom and Doom II maps. When a person like that comes across this map, there is a possibility that they may get a bit overwhelmed by the amount of choices and open-ended design. Keep in mind, compared to modern maps the amount of choices is quite small, but compared to the maps that came before from id Software, it is much more open. It is here where the arrow starts to make a lot of sense. The arrow is what brings linearity to this map for those players that do not enjoy open-ended map design. It is a win-win for both types of players: ones that like to explore and not be told in what order to check things out, and also those players that just want to be told how to get through the level. This also makes a lot of sense in the context of id Software trying to make something accessible to as many players as possible (although I’d argue that people would just generally buy Doom II anyway for being a sequel to the success of Doom 1). I think it’s important to note that Doom II in general was meant to appeal to as many people as possible, so it would make sense that some maps that were playtested would end up getting tweaks to make them accessible to as many kinds of players as they could. I think sometimes as mappers and fans of the game, we forget that we have the luxury of having many different kinds of wads directed towards many types of players. id Software’s audience was meant to be as broad as possible. Speaking of Open map design, I’d like to bring attention to the quite impressive and beautiful wad Lost Civilization. Jaska’s megawad, while impressive, is a very open ended experience. There are many different paths taking the player different ways, which leads to the main path not being very clear. This is specifically why as a player who enjoys a certain amount of linearity, I do not personally enjoy Lost Civilization very much. I can look at the combat design, the overall impressive architecture and appreciate it all, but because of the lack of linear signposting, it is limited in the amount of players who can enjoy it. I find that in these maps I find myself becoming lost (no pun intended), not in exploration, but rather not knowing where to go. This shouldn’t be seen as me dunking on other wads. It’s just simply that if you don't cater to a specific kind of player, you can’t expect that kind of player to like your maps. This is why I think the arrow in Downtown is quite ingenious, because it doesn’t sacrifice the open nature of the map, and also gives a sense of direction to linear style players. I would highly suggest that if you want your map or wad to reach the most people possible, to just add that little bit of direction into your map. If you want to go hard into a certain demographic and know that it will only appeal to a certain niche of people, that’s perfectly fine. Don’t expect your wad to be universally praised, if you haven’t taken steps to make your map(s) more accessible to the masses. I have a few certain rules that I adhere to while designing my map. Maybe one of these will become useful in your map making. While some of it is subjective, these rules will help in making your map(s) more accessible: Design your maps to be idiot-proof (to a reasonable extent). If you see players playing your map and getting lost due to the obscure progression or missing a switch, that is something you should consider changing. Even if something seems to make sense to you, doesn’t mean it will make sense to everyone. It’s very similar to the “customer is always right” philosophy, though in this case it’s more the “player is always right”. I don’t mean to make every change a player suggests; there’s still some authorship involved in the editing process. But it’s very much a mistake to think that the mapper is always right in their thinking, if everyone that plays the map misses something. Always make the intended main path clear to the player or at least guide them towards some kind of progression. There is a difference between getting lost in exploration and getting lost in the progression. Players do not find it fun to be stuck in a level because they do not know where to go. They do find exploring optional paths for goodies and secrets enjoyable however. This is why making it clear to the player what the main path or goal is, so that they have something to follow. Making maps that are too open and aimless will alienate a certain number of players away from playing your map. The main point of this writeup is to highlight that adding things to your map to make it more accessible is not always a bad thing. I feel that the arrow in Downtown is a perfect example of something so simple, yet so helpful in streamlining the map experience. Regardless of what you think of how the arrow was implemented, giving a direction to a player in a branching path situation is a great way to keep players moving forward. By giving the player the simple choice of following the arrow or not, you are giving the player a much easier choice to make. Psychologically, it is much easier for a person to make a choice if a choice has already been given to them.

Guess who's back?! Playing DBP59: Zeppelin Armada http://twitch.tv/arsinikkdm

Like I said a few days ago, we are looking for someone to take an episode 3 mapslot, due to one of our mappers dropping out. We are hoping to get a completed UV draft of the map in 2 weeks time (We are somewhat flexible).  If you are interested in taking the episode 3 mapslot, you can join the project here. For both an incentive and to show off the progress we've made, I'd also like to share some screenshots from each episode: Episode 1: Episode 2: Episode 3: Hopefully that helps as a dev update and/or another teaser! :)

Hey everyone, It's been a while since anything publicly has been said about the project. We are getting ever closer to release, but have hit a couple roadblocks on the way. For now, I will say that one of our mappers has bowed out of the project, and so we now have a free episode 3 mapslot for the taking. The requirements for this map would be to complete it within the span of 2 weeks (We are somewhat flexible - this is specifically talking about a UV draft). If you are interested in taking the episode 3 mapslot, you can join the project here. We have 30/32 maps with Ultra-Violence completed with most of those maps having all difficulties. Alot of the maps are currently being played through by our lovely testers @Large Cat and @Cacodemon187 to ensure that all issues and bugs are ironed out and difficulties are fair. We have made the decision to include Ultra-Violence Plus (multiplayer only) difficulties as well as Deathmatch support for every map. This may take a little extra time, but with how this project has evolved into a major high quality megawad, I think it's worth it. I can't wait for you to see the final megawad! Thanks, Arsinikk

@Snaxalotl @RastaManGames You are both acting like children right now. I am very disappointed in both of your behaviours. Both of you had the ability to smooth things out and decided to incite each other instead. @Snaxalotl From your actions in this situation, it is clear that you do not have the maturity level it takes to be a great project leader. A mature leader would take steps to mitigate further conflict and not let personal feelings get in the way. You know just as well as I do, that pulling RastaManGame's map from the project was a very petty thing to do, and is only in response to your personal "vendetta" against him by posting his map standalone and apparently "calling you out". A mapper can do whatever they want since it is their own map. It isn't usually against the rules to be able to post their map separately. It is clear that he was frustrated about the project's status and that his map was not working as intended. While the way he went about addressing it may not have been the most mature manner, the correct response from you shouldn't have been taking issue with you being singled out, but to help him get it to the place the map was supposed to be. I hope you feel vindicated with your little "pulling map out" stunt, as we all know project leaders are known to call other people names and let their ego over encompass them. A true leader would act polite in the face of conflict, and you have failed the test. Please don't lead any more projects until you have learned to put aside your ego. @RastaManGames Do not think you are in the clear either. While I emphasise with you and your map not being added in the WAD in the right format, the way you went about calling Snax out on it was wrong. By directly tagging Snax, you were directly provoking her. While I understand your frustration to a certain extent, you are not blameless in escalating the situation. I do agree that it was very petty from Snax to remove your map from the megawad, but your responses did not help in the slightest. I only wish that Snax had approached your responses in a non-escalating way, but sadly that is not what happened. I do not condone Snax's responses, and they make me sick reading that a leader would tell one of their mappers a "dumb fuck" and to "cry harder". Your suicidal posts are very concerning, and if this situation leads you to this conclusion, I suggest you take a break from the internet for a while. Regardless on what other people way, no one wants people to go kill themselves. The Doom community is loving and inclusive from my experience, so please don't let one person take you down. You are a loved member of this community.

Personally I've always thought Texturing Filtering should be off by default in GZDoom. While I happily endorse that such a feature should be included in the port, it being enabled by default has always been a strange choice to me. I suspect that part of the reason it's enabled by default is to showcase the feature as a sort of developer flex. In my opinion, the defaults of a source port should reflect how a game would generally look straight out of the box, but with the bonus of it being easier to run on more modern systems. Extra visual things like processing effects and filtering should be included but be extra options and not default. I think part of the reason much of the community is annoyed about Texture Filtering set as the default, is because many newer users of the port think that DOOM was meant to be played with Texture Filtering on, and don't realise that the original DOOM had no such filtering. Regardless of what anyone says, DOOM wasn't designed with Texturing Filtering in mind. It is up to the individual person whether they enjoy the look of Texturing Filtering or not. My argument is that a port's default settings should be representative of the original source material. I really do hate the strawman argument that source ports developers can do what they want because they do everything for free. While I do emphasise and appreciate developers' unpaid hard work, that argument shouldn't be used as a deflection of criticism. After all, what makes a source port popular is the users that use it. If a source port dev makes a decision that leads to users no longer using it, that's on them for not listening and respecting their user base. I feel that the defaults of a port are especially important for beginner Doomers. It'd be stupid not to say that GZDoom is one of the easiest and most convenient ways for people to get into playing DOOM. Creating a fork for source ports, while possible, is just a stupid idea when it's only one setting that's changed. What happens when the main port is updated? Now you have to wait for the fork to get updated as well, just for one setting to be changed. It still wouldn't help beginner Doomers, as the forked port would be lost in favour of the main one in searches. It is this exact reason why it annoys me that certain features have been cut out of DSDA Doom. While some people will say to just use PrBoom Plus, that port is now severely outdated compared to DSDA Doom. There is no fork based on PrBoom Plus that includes the features that DSDA Doom has, while also being for a more casual audience.

This is super cool! Thanks for implementing this in. I haven't had much time to directly test it, but the vid you provided does a great job of showcasing how useful the feature is regarding numeric actions. Since this is a thread about "Dreamed features in editors", I'd be remiss to not mention a wish for a modern equivalent of RMB (a DOS reject map builder with special effect support). From my search, there really isn't a modern tool that can allow for custom reject table editing (at least with a GUI). It'd be really cool to have a modern tool that could allow users to remove or add certain sectors of the reject table (so that monsters wouldn't be able to "see" the player in those sectors) via a visual aid of a Doom Builder-like GUI. Sadly I'm not really a programmer myself, so I don't really have the skills or knowhow to how difficult it would be to make that.