Nostalgia 2 - now on idgames! [32 Maps] [Doom 2 Format] [Limit Removing]

All done now

Thank you for putting this together, you meat and potatoes style is incredibly satisfying. 

I got so addicted to this it made me late to work. Looking forward to finishing this. Easily my favourite thing I've played all year.

RC3 is now available in the OP. Lots of stuff fixed, balanced, and tweaked in this version thanks to everyone reporting stuff in this thread. An extra thanks to @Vile and @ProfBloom for the streams which were not only fun to watch but also super helpful for updating stuff.

RC3 Changelog:

Just throwing in some FDAs (RC3) since I happened to be recording. 

MAP16 - line #815 - missing SP_ROCK1 texture.

Wow made it to Map 3, so far really enjoying this megawad! Going to try and finish this asap!

Having completed it today, I can safely say it's one of the best releases of the year, extremely satisfying and tight. Something which was quite surprising to me was the unorthodox difficulty curve, with the hell levels being more difficult than the final fleshy episode. I don't mind at all though. If this doesn't win a Cacoward I'll be very surprised.

Made it to map 13 today, going to push forward. Hopefully I can finish it this week, having a blast so far! Maps feel just right to keep me on my toes lol. 

Finished it tonight (I forgot to grab RC3, so it was RC2) and loved it.  The prison stands out to me as one of the most fun levels I've played in a long while.  The effortless feeling flow in maps is so satisfying to play, and the way you use space is just brilliant.  Easily one of my top wads for the year, awesome work!

Nine maps in. Seriously good. Tight level design, explosive action, and good secret hunting. 

This is such an amazing set, and exactly the sort of doom I love; short, plutonia-level limit-removing challenge sets with wide arenas, and an emphasis on smart weapon use and movement without being too brutalizingly difficult.  Also, the aesthetics, architecture, lighting, and music are all carefully considered without being too showy or over detailed.  Nice work, Penguin-man.  I'll be replying this one just as much as the OG. <3

Finally finished this amazing megawad! I really enjoyed the textures and layout of the maps, enemy placement felt challenging yet not overwhelming. I need to play Nostalgia 1, personally think Nostalgia 2 deserves a Cacoward! Great job Sadistic Penguin!  

I finished this set this week (first Doom anything I've COMPLETED in quite some time) and highly enjoyed it. I'd describe the maps as breezy and prickly - casual enough that you can pick it up and go (bite-sized Doom is about all I have time for these days) but tuned so that you can't play it half-asleep either. I like how you clearly did not want to just rehash Nostalgia's journey, and things that seemed more inspired by Nostalgia were only similar enough to invoke some...nostalgia (sorry there was literally NO WAY to phrase the sentence without the pun, no way at all) without feeling like by the numbers rehashes.

The low point for me was probably the cave episode - mostly because those maps blended together the most for me and the theme itself isn't really my favorite, but it was totally worth it to get to the Hell City episode which I loved. The cheeky nature of it was highly amusing and the sort of levity I appreciate when it's present in Doom. I also liked that the culmination was a flesh episode rather than another red rock Hell theme. I was kind of surprise at how simple the IoS fight was - I pretty much "accidentally" beat it on my first try, but I hate IoS maps almost universally so it wasn't an unwelcome experience. The penultimate map was a great culmination of challenge without being grandiose "this is my perfect opus" sized. 

This would be a hard WAD not to recommend to just about anybody who likes Doom.

I just finished this today. Took me about 2 weeks. Really the perfect mapset for anyone who likes to play doom in short, frequent, stints. You can jump in a couple nights a week, 100% a few maps, and then go about your business. The pacing is fantastic, the combat varied and fun, and the visuals are great, too. If you're the type of person who likes everything about megawads EXCEPT for the time they demand from the player, then you'll love this WAD. Literally not one dull moment. 

Finally finished this. Don't normally get through a megawad before actual release.

This was such fun! The maps were not tight, congested affairs, nor epic journeys, nor slogfests. Several times I finished a combat and realized that was it. Everything was dead. Simply put, the maps were just the right length.

I only found one issue, but it wasn't a mapbreaker. Also several items which are subjective and an author's prerogative.

MAP24 - Thing #31, the Burning Barrel, is just off the sidewalk, so you can use the sidewalk as a step to get over the barrel in GZDoom and run around the outside of the map. You can get back into the map going over either set of Barrels again or with the steps by the tag 10 secret. It also lets you get the Soul Sphere from outside the building. One spot on the outside of the map where you can get softlocked, is the bloodpool south of the fence by the tag 10 switch. Otherwise, an interesting perspective.
 

Three slight grammatical errors in Dehacked.
C3TEXT - missing apostrophe in 'Earths' and comma after 'descend'.
C6TEXT - missing apostrophe in 'aliens', either before or after 's', depending on whether you meant singular or plural.

Subjective things.

I don't know if you intended to add a Mapinfo to better differentiate Episode 6 with maps 26-30 defined as cluster 11 and creating a C7TEXT to use as exittext for cluster 8, with C4TEXT as exittext for cluster 11. You didn't list a specific port in the OP, so this may not be feasable.

I always assumed that walk-through walls were some sort of UAC holographic projection or Hell magic and that walk-through liquids were actual liquids with a space behind them. Meaning, a wall doesn't necessarily have to have a texture on the back side, but a liquid would. There's no hard and fast rule, so it's subjective.

So:

MAP02 - Line #334 SFALL1 is invisible from the back side.
MAP06 - Secret tag 3 switch area. WFALL1 entrance to 'room' is invisible from inside room.  Does making it visible give the Chaingunners too big an advantage?
MAP17 - Line #575 lava invisible from the inside secret.
MAP20 - Line #910, #912 lava invisible from the inside secret.

And I just thought of a way to give a hint to a walk-through wall by making animated 'shorted-out, flickering' frames and having an ungodly long time for the solid frame.

That's it. Very enjoyable time.

---------

Edit: Shit. I always screw up MAPINFO clusters and exittexts (which don't play if the next map has an entertext, as in the secret maps).

Map 15 is the last map of E3, cluster 7, so would have new C7TEXT as exittext (which only plays if you go to MAP16)

Maps 16-20 EP4 would be cluster 8, with C3TEXT as exittext

Maps 21-25 EP5 would be cluster 11, with new C8TEXT as exittext.

Maps 26-30 EP6 would be cluster 12, with C4TEXT as exittext.

The secret maps 31 and 32 are default clusters 9 and 10, but have entertexts, so they'd both have C7TEXT added as exittext, which only plays when you enter MAP16. That part of the MAPINFO cluster definitions would look like this:

There. I'm pretty sure that works in (G)ZDoom. Something was nagging at my brain, and I had to figure it out.

Hello everyone, just a quick bump to announce that Nostalgia 2 is now on idgames here: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/nost2

And just like that, my "Playing now" tab in DoomLauncher is re-organized.

3 hours ago, myolden said:

Hello everyone, just a quick bump to announce that Nostalgia 2 is now on idgames here: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/nost2

I congratulate you on the release and myself on waiting for it!

7 hours ago, myolden said:

Hello everyone, just a quick bump to announce that Nostalgia 2 is now on idgames here: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/nost2

Congrats on the release, really great stuff!

All I have to say is...

Really wonderfull little set you made here. Spent part of yesterday and this morning running through it and enjoyed every single map. If forced to share my only gripe I would have to say that by about map 10 or so I kept hoping to run into the maps getting just a little bit longer. I understand that your intention must have been to have them all be bite sized little levels but for my own nostalgia to kick in I would have preferred a more traditional length progression. Outside of that, you have definately proven why you are one of the elite mappers on the scene. Thank you for all of your creations. Now its on to Obzen, Ive only tested the first few maps on that and am ready to dive the rest of the way in. 😀

I recently finished the first part and suddenly the second one is here omg !! then I like it nice secrets 

Sweet! That reminds me that I have yet to finish the first Nostalgia.

Half-way through, great stuff. I think I like it more than Nostalgia 1, and I liked it a lot.

Not a big deal, but are the demos out-of-sync?

16 minutes ago, RHhe82 said:

Not a big deal, but are the demos out-of-sync?

I straight up forgot to add demos 💀

I'll probably update the idgames file to include them at some point.

27 minutes ago, myolden said:

I straight up forgot to add demos 💀

 

I'll probably update the idgames file to include them at some point.

I can’t believe I didn’t just assume they were iwad demos, geez :-D I guess I got confused when the first one, for a moment, looked as if it was the real deal. Didn’t even realize it was MAP11.

I've just completed it, it was absolutely fantastic. Action and pacing were great - the miniature map length always made me want to return to it as I knew I would make progress. I played this whilst testing the weapons for Malevolence Episode 2 so I can't comment on gameplay specifics but I felt that the violence was high throughout but fun was the main priority rather than grinding gauntlets.

Highlights for me would be all the little details - I loved the prison map and the super creative secrets - like the mirror room were so much fun to discover. (I also like how easy most of the secrets are).

My criticism would be repitition of environments, there were a few stints where it felt like I was moving from another cave to another cave and then to another cave!!! (same applies to the flesh maps tbh)

As a one person "megawadder"(?) to another, you've achieved something wonderful here!

Oh just seen this now! The previous Nostalgia was one of my favorite mapset in recent times, to think there's a second one I missed until now!

Gonna download and play, ASAP.

Double-post but I played up to MAP07 and unsurprisingly it's just as entertaining as the first Nostalgia was. You really know how to make small but action packed maps. Even finding secrets are fun because, occasionally, they require to pay attention to find them. Like the secret with the large cell pack in MAP06 or that Plasmagun that require you to shoot an evil eye decoration, akin to Sigil. I'm going pistol start for this one! (versus continuous in Nostalgia 1...though I may go back and fix that) Just like with Nostalgia, looking at Nostalgia 2 is inspiring in the sense that I should really try to keep maps short and simple because clearly whenever I try to do anything doom mapping related nothing bear fruits because I always aim "too big".

Bless you for changing the plasma sfx by the way. :P

Thank you for the maps!