[Community Project] THE HALLS SPEAK TO ME: A tribute to Underhalls and single-level PWADs

7 hours ago, Biz! said:

Finished map29, use any midi you want with it

 

NAME : Out of the Halls

MAPSLOT : MAP29

AUTHOR : Biz! Bee

 

 

underit.zip

Nice! Going to give a round of playtests soon, so hang tight for a couple of days.

Hey, this looks cool! Is MAP20 still open?

2 minutes ago, Moustachio said:

Hey, this looks cool! Is MAP20 still open?

Mhm, I gave you the slot. Be sure to drop by the discord server if you have one, we do a lot more of the project chat on there than on DW to avoid spam.

On 2/25/2023 at 4:41 AM, R0rque. said:

Good evening. Are you still looking for a composer ? If the answer is "yes", can I try to be a part of the OST please ? 

Heya, it's been a while since you made the offer and I just wanted to check in. Not sure if I had you onboard with the project or not.

2 minutes ago, DiR said:

Heya, it's been a while since you made the offer and I just wanted to check in. Not sure if I had you onboard with the project or not.

Good afternoon, how are you ? Well huh... I have to post demos right here or in PM ? Or join the Discord server to start the making of the OST ? :P

1 minute ago, R0rque. said:

 

Good afternoon, how are you ? Well huh... I have to post demos right here or in PM ? Or join the Discord server to start the making of the OST ? :P

Oh alright, either is fine. although I would prefer it to be in the discord server so that it's more organized when I make the compilation.

Here's a first draft of my map 15, Over Hall and Under Hall.

So far just single player UV implemented. Will probably add some more detailing and rebalance before it's done.

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/lhlrd1rgyyvdm/15_-_Over_Hall_and_Under_Hall

On 3/2/2023 at 7:31 AM, Biz! said:

Finished map29, use any midi you want with it

 

NAME : Out of the Halls

MAPSLOT : MAP29

AUTHOR : Biz! Bee

 

 

underit.zip

Played through it just now, found the progression rather strange but I'll spoiler it for those who haven't played it yet.
 

Title: Spacehalls
Slot: Map13
Author: Ar_e_en
Ports Tested: Woof, Crispy and PRBoom+
Known Bugs: Sometimes Pinkies get stuck on lifts.
Additional Comments: The map has been tested for single-player, but it does also have coop and deathmatch spawns (however - multiplayer is untested). I haven't selected a midi for the map, I leave it up to the project lead to choose an appropriate space-themed midi.
Screenshots:

I Hope you enjoy!

Ar_e_en - MAP 13 - Spacehalls.zip

5 hours ago, DiR said:

Played through it just now, found the progression rather strange but I'll spoiler it for those who haven't played it yet.
 

  Hide contents

So initially when met with the starting teleporter hurting you, I thought that it was a crusher but as soon as I stepped off it was fine. Was this intentional? Not sure why but it didn't feel that way. Moving onto the main area where you must run across the damaging mud floor, I really couldn't make it even partway down the corridor as I would keep dying right at the entrance of the door. Instead, I looked around and found the red skull key hidden in the floorboards because I accidentally walked over the area and fell in the hole. I opened the door, took the teleporter and dealt with the revenant area, which opened the exit.

 

I thought maybe that was a secret exit of sorts since there were a lot of monsters left and the mud hallway wasn't a distraction. I tried multiple times but I couldn't make it out of the hallway without dying to the damaging floor, but checking the map with noclip there IS a boss fight down there as well as some divets in the wall with health packs but not enough to really make it through the entire corridor without dying. Not quite sure if this is the intended path but the damaging floor feels a bit much since I found the fight with the floor harder than the end fight.

 

Overall, I'm not quite sure what the progression on this is. Maybe I'm too dumb to figure out a way through the muddy hallway without dying but I couldn't figure out how to make it through the corner since as soon as the door opens the hitscanners behind the door already shoot me a little bit.

 

I think the fight was pretty good as a finale of sorts for exiting the Underhalls but getting there I couldn't figure it out.

 

Alright, so the damaging start area is "supposed to be a challenge", I should've marked that red key as a secret, the strategy to the hitscanners is to shoot them with a rocket, and use a dropped chaingun shoot the rest down the corridor, and then you could make it to the platform which houses the plasma rifle, shoot the pain elemental, go outside and grab cells, shoot the enemies, grab the blue key, grab the god orb and shoot the enemies, and then either kill the cyberdemons or make a run for it. Finally use your rockets to kill the revenants, flip the switches. Maybe use the red secret teleporter I forgot to set as secret lmao.

I could redo the layout of the map if it's causing trouble

19 minutes ago, Biz! said:

Alright, so the damaging start area is "supposed to be a challenge", I should've marked that red key as a secret, the strategy to the hitscanners is to shoot them with a rocket, and use a dropped chaingun shoot the rest down the corridor, and then you could make it to the platform which houses the plasma rifle, shoot the pain elemental, go outside and grab cells, shoot the enemies, grab the blue key, grab the god orb and shoot the enemies, and then either kill the cyberdemons or make a run for it. Finally use your rockets to kill the revenants, flip the switches. Maybe use the red secret teleporter I forgot to set as secret lmao.

 

I could redo the layout of the map if it's causing trouble

I gave it another shot with the proper route in mind, and it was much easier. Progression is a bit strange, but since the red key was supposed to be marked as a secret it makes more sense now. I'll admit it's still kinda strange making it through that corridor, but it isn't as impossible as I originally thought. I think that once I made it through the tunnel the boss fight was more doable now.

As for the map layout, I think it's fine, albeit a little bare in the design of the main "boss fight" area, so I guess a little bit of detail on the sides could make it look a lot nicer. Not sure about how other people went about using the mud textures but from what I've seen there is another map in the set which uses non-damaging mud floors so perhaps the damaging floor could be more obvious if it was lava, but it's your call.

1 hour ago, Ar_e_en said:

Title: Spacehalls
Slot: Map13
Author: Ar_e_en
Ports Tested: Woof, Crispy and PRBoom+
Known Bugs: Sometimes Pinkies get stuck on lifts.
Additional Comments: The map has been tested for single-player, but it does also have coop and deathmatch spawns (however - multiplayer is untested). I haven't selected a midi for the map, I leave it up to the project lead to choose an appropriate space-themed midi.
Screenshots:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

I Hope you enjoy!

Ar_e_en - MAP 13 - Spacehalls.zip

Whoa, I'm lovin how you made the planets out of vanilla textures! First time I had a look at it I noclipped out just to see how you pulled it off :P

I don't have anything too strongly to say about any changes because it feels pretty solid already, if a bit easy. Anyways, when we re-order the maps to smoothen the difficulty curve it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Great work on the theme! 

4 minutes ago, DiR said:

Whoa, I'm lovin how you made the planets out of vanilla textures! First time I had a look at it I noclipped out just to see how you pulled it off :P

I don't have anything too strongly to say about any changes because it feels pretty solid already, if a bit easy. Anyways, when we re-order the maps to smoothen the difficulty curve it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Great work on the theme! 

Thanks for playing!

Yeah, I agree - this map should probably be moved to an earlier spot in the map list.

restarting map layout, gonna make it a "you actually left the underhalls" type map

14 hours ago, Ar_e_en said:

Title: Spacehalls
Slot: Map13
Author: Ar_e_en
Ports Tested: Woof, Crispy and PRBoom+
Known Bugs: Sometimes Pinkies get stuck on lifts.
Additional Comments: The map has been tested for single-player, but it does also have coop and deathmatch spawns (however - multiplayer is untested). I haven't selected a midi for the map, I leave it up to the project lead to choose an appropriate space-themed midi.
Screenshots:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

I Hope you enjoy!

Ar_e_en - MAP 13 - Spacehalls.zip

Dude wtf, this is really cool! I was blown away by the little planets you made, and how you made a convincing looking waterfall out of the compblue texture. That must have been a real pain in the ass to create, mad respect for your effort

19 hours ago, DiR said:

Whoa, I'm lovin how you made the planets out of vanilla textures!

Wait. Holy shit, is that sky made out of stock textures? Damn impressive!

30 minutes ago, Walter confetti said:

Wait. Holy shit, is that sky made out of stock textures? Damn impressive!

I know right? I noclipped and was just in awe at how it was pulled off.

Making the planets and stars in the sky was pretty fun. The compblue waterfall was an idea I stole from one of the "Antaresian Reliquary" maps (there was a lavafall in one of the maps that was made from several narrow lava textures). Funny thing about the waterfall - when I threw the map into AJBSP to compile the map - I kept getting minor errors around the waterfall textures. The errors didn't seem to cause any problems when playing, but I decided to mess around with the lines and sectors until the errors disappeared.

Hey everyone, I'm running a head count since there's two weeks left until the deadline. Just want to be sure who's still onboard and who's already done.

So far, I've received maps from @Razza @Ar_e_en @Eon Toad @finnks13 @aRottenKomquat and @Biz! (although Biz said that a remake was in order) as well as seeing some progress from @RED77 @Walter confetti @Sneezy McGlassFace @Norb who still have their maps in the works.

That leaves a couple of people, so I'm just going to ask how everyone's going with their maps. (@Moustachio's off the hook because of the recent join) If I haven't mentioned your name then I'd just like a quick update, no biggie yet since there's still two weeks (heck, I haven't started my maps yet)

Figuring out how to make an Icon of Sin bossfight fun, thinking of a wave-like system.

2 hours ago, DiR said:

Hey everyone, I'm running a head count since there's two weeks left until the deadline. Just want to be sure who's still onboard and who's already done.

 

So far, I've received maps from @Razza @Ar_e_en @Eon Toad @finnks13 @aRottenKomquat and @Biz! (although Biz said that a remake was in order) as well as seeing some progress from @RED77 @Walter confetti @Sneezy McGlassFace @Norb who still have their maps in the works.

 

That leaves a couple of people, so I'm just going to ask how everyone's going with their maps. (@Moustachio's off the hook because of the recent join) If I haven't mentioned your name then I'd just like a quick update, no biggie yet since there's still two weeks (heck, I haven't started my maps yet)

Hey @DiR My map is almost done, but I had a really bussy week. I'll try to finish a first version this week.

Made an Icon of Sin fight, made it more linear and included secrets for weapons.

When opening the wad ignore the map01 thing, it's an earlier version of the map.

finalhalls.zip

Title: Underhells

Author: Moustachio

Slot: MAP20

Ports Tested: DSDA-Doom, GZDoom

Runtime: ~6 minutes

Known bugs: none yet

moustachio-map20-halls-speak_R1.zip

First draft of MAP20. I think it took me about 6 minutes to finish UV max. I can record a demo if need be. It's Underhalls but it gets slowly corrupted by Hell's influence. A midi idea I had was to combine The Healer Stalks with Donna to the Rescue.

Screenshots:

3 hours ago, Biz! said:

Made an Icon of Sin fight, made it more linear and included secrets for weapons.

When opening the wad ignore the map01 thing, it's an earlier version of the map.

finalhalls.zip

I tried it out just now, I like the new intro area where you actually see the outside of the underhalls as well as the top of the brick building (maybe put a railing there to make it more clear that you can't drop down) as well as the small muddy area where you can find the BFG, chainsaw, and Megasphere. Not much of a secret since it's kinda visible but I guess it might be missed by someone.

As for the arena where the Icon of Sin battle takes place, there's hidden Archviles in the walls, right? I'm not sure where but I heard pain sounds when I shot the wall with a BFG on accident so they're in there somewhere. Just how many backpacks are stacked in that one corner? I got blinded picking it up lol

I think that this fight is a lot more accessible, although your old map with the revenant circlestrafe thing was pretty fun too. Perhaps you can still reincorporate a small "Gantlet" like that before the actual IoS fight, since it was over a bit too fast with some well placed BFG shots.

Detailing wise, I understand that it's probably not done yet but the actual arena room seemed to have less detail than the watery cave area leading up to it.

14 hours ago, DiR said:

I tried it out just now, I like the new intro area where you actually see the outside of the underhalls as well as the top of the brick building (maybe put a railing there to make it more clear that you can't drop down) as well as the small muddy area where you can find the BFG, chainsaw, and Megasphere. Not much of a secret since it's kinda visible but I guess it might be missed by someone.

 

As for the arena where the Icon of Sin battle takes place, there's hidden Archviles in the walls, right? I'm not sure where but I heard pain sounds when I shot the wall with a BFG on accident so they're in there somewhere. Just how many backpacks are stacked in that one corner? I got blinded picking it up lol

I think that this fight is a lot more accessible, although your old map with the revenant circlestrafe thing was pretty fun too. Perhaps you can still reincorporate a small "Gantlet" like that before the actual IoS fight, since it was over a bit too fast with some well placed BFG shots.

 

Detailing wise, I understand that it's probably not done yet but the actual arena room seemed to have less detail than the watery cave area leading up to it.

I figured it would've been the Final Bossfight but now that I think about it, a little extra arena that allows you to open a switch to access Romero would be fun

EDIT: Changed my mind, gonna keep it this way, gotta make my own wads now.

Hi @Moustachio i think your link is invalid

On 3/8/2023 at 9:41 PM, Biz! said:

I figured it would've been the Final Bossfight but now that I think about it, a little extra arena that allows you to open a switch to access Romero would be fun

 

EDIT: Changed my mind, gonna keep it this way, gotta make my own wads now.

Fair enough, may I ask for permission to detail your level? I'm not going to change the gameplay, just going to add some details here and there so that there won't be too much back and forth.

On 3/9/2023 at 10:40 AM, FEDEX said:

Hi @Moustachio i think your link is invalid

Ah yeah, the link is dead on DW but on the discord server the file works. Here, I'll upload it on @Moustachio's behalf.
MAP20 - Moustachio - Underhells.zip

1 hour ago, DiR said:

Fair enough, may I ask for permission to detail your level? I'm not going to change the gameplay, just going to add some details here and there so that there won't be too much back and forth.

 

Ah yeah, the link is dead on DW but on the discord server the file works. Here, I'll upload it on @Moustachio's behalf.
MAP20 - Moustachio - Underhells.zip

Yeah, you can detail the map a bit, gotta do my own thing for a while do I don't get burnt out

Thank you @DiR

OK. Here we go:

 

Map 10

Title: ROUNDED HALLS

Slot: 10

Author: RED77

Ports Tested: DSDA-DOOM /GZDOOM

Known Bugs: not so far

Additional Comments: FIRST VERSION HERE. Difficulties were implemented but I think I need a little balance.
Any feedback is welcome!

CP010_(THSTM)MAP10_ROUNDED_HALLS_BY_RED77.rar