Island Fortress - now on ID Games!

** Update 4 **

Now on ID Games

** update 3 **

Made deep water as per feedback. Actually, made two. 'IslandFortress.wad' is brown slime and brownish underwater colour and 'islandfortress_3dwater.wad' is blue water and blue fade under water. Which do you prefer? 

** update 2 **

Suppressed jumping (sorry...), changed music.

** updated **

added more health and moved mancubus guard.

** - - - - - - **

I have got my latest map, Island Fortress, into a state I am reasonably happy with.

I would love to hear what you guys think. It is still rough around the edges (loads of ACS debug messages, and probably some dodgy textures), but it seems to play now as I want it to. It's MAP01, tested with GZDoom (needs it - 3D floors etc) on UV. Difficulty settings are implemented somewhat as well.

Get it here (github) and have fun...

And on ID Games

Anyway, some screenshots:

This needs much more health at the beginning.

When all you have is a pistol to start with, this map is just really unfair. I tried on UV, HMP and even HNTR, but I just couldn't make any real progress. Way too many damn hitscanners everywhere to chip your health down. From the screenshots, I love the design, but I can't play the dang thing. Might just be my novice Dooming skills talking, but I just can't get anywhere in it. Might have to come back to it later.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

It's certainly possible. I tested many times on UV to completion. Agreed, it will kill you pretty quick if you get it wrong,

Use vanilla GZDoom - it is actually harder at the start if you use Brutal Doom (more bullets as you run basically). I also noticed that it doesn't work properly with Beautiful Doom (there's some odd conflict with scripted key usage, so you can't open the doors inside the building).

I'll think about altering the approach, or giving alternate approach options. However, one of the main design features was to give the 'what the *^&k do I do' feeling at the start.

34 minutes ago, smeghammer said:

I'll think about altering the approach, or giving alternate approach options. However, one of the main design features was to give the 'what the *^&k do I do' feeling at the start.

Haha well you certainly got that feeling nailed, my friend. Okay, I'll give it another whirl.

I think you are right - I do need to add more health. I want to keep the start hard though, so it'll be once you get a bit further.

1 hour ago, Biodegradable said:

 

Haha well you certainly got that feeling nailed, my friend. Okay, I'll give it another whirl.

There is a plasma gun when you get down the stairs near start, try grabbing it, I think it will make combat slightly easier.

Sorry the video isn't a straight playthrough, I was interrupted at one point and then during my second session I realised I wasn't recording half-way through so I had to edit accordingly. It still has the majority of my experiences.

I really dig the overall design and progression, Smeg, but I found the combat to be a bit gnarly and unfair in some respects. I think it might have to do with the lack of health pick-ups. Regardless, I respect the absolutely fuck out of your ambition. It's a great looking map, mate.

Haha - nice! Thanks for the hugely encouraging comments. I guess I am caught out by my focus on realism - arbitrary health lying about isn't realistic - so I try to always have bonus things next to a dead body. Also, it looks like I need to disable jumping. I forgot that it is possible to bypass the bars...  I'll revisit and try and adjust things.

And here is my playthrough on UV (no reloads):

I tried the latest version, and after a few tries to work out a safe route, it was fine, although the amount of hitscanners was still tiresome.

The use of 3D floors was impressive, although the interior was largely just a bunch of small grey rooms full of hitscanners connected with small grey corridors. I was also somewhat confused at the use of deep water for the slime, but the giant open ocean you can walk on top of.

The Rocket Turrets were also somewhat annoying because of their extremely fast reaction time.

Thanks @Stabbey for the feedback. Yeah, all the points you raise are things I wondered about - 

20 hours ago, Stabbey said:

bunch of small grey rooms full of hitscanners connected with small grey corridors

I want to add more decoration really. Likely 3D 'floors' for more cabinets/shelves/computers etc. and/or sprites and definitely something in the stairwells.

20 hours ago, Stabbey said:

somewhat confused at the use of deep water for the slime

Ha ha, yeah! I originally had the 'sea' as a dry plain, but that didn't work quite right, so I altered it to fwater1. I'm making it into swimmable water now...

FIXED NOW

20 hours ago, Stabbey said:

The Rocket Turrets

Yes, I got these from R667. I thought they might fit well with the theme. Not so sure now after your feedback. I'll probably leave the one by the  exit as that is triggerable by one of the lookout tower switches, and you can easily dispatch it with judicious use of a couple of rockets. 

Generally, I used the various former humans as they fit with the theme. Unfortunately, they are all hitscanners and that may be a problem. I might revisit with some custom monsters that use projectiles if I can find any suitable.

Happy now - my first set of maps is on the archive.

ID Games release

That texture filtering on the screenshots should be a war crime.