Mortal Soul: Outer Compound – Little outdoor techbase map from 2010 (Now on /idgames)

Just played the map in HMP. Nice architecture (the map is quite spacious, indeed). The gameplay in HMP felt quite easy, maybe I'll give a try in UV. The initial struggle is the most fun part where there are incoming attacks from all sides.

I've found all the secrets and items, but couldn't kill 100% (2 monsters were missing, I searched for them fruitlessly - maybe they were a Cyberdemon and a Mama Spider? haha).

There are some plasma cells in the map, but no plasma gun nor BFG. Looks like those items were left behind, as this map was taken from a mapset where those weapons are supposed to be found in later maps.

At least in HMP, I think the monster count is low for a map this size. Especially in a map that requests limit removing. After the initial crossfire, the encounters feel somewhat few and far between. I've seen full-vanilla maps with half the area and about the same monster count.

I personally don't like large maps that get tightly connected as passages open up; this dilutes the remaining fights over a larger and larger space... but maybe this is just me.

Keep mapping! Cheers!

Thanks for giving it a play!  That’s odd about the plasma rifle, I could swear I had put one in. It would not surprise me if 14 years on I had never noticed that I’d been putting in ammo for a weapon that didn’t exist (on single player anyway).  Something that could use an adjustment…also need to figure out who isn’t appearing, and why.

I always like maps that open up, I suppose that’s why I build them a lot :p That said it only works when the the threats escalate concurrently and I agree that that doesn’t really happen here.  Also the difficulty balancing you point out is a side effect of me being terrible at Doom, meaning that even on UV it’s not going to be that difficult usually…plus of course the map’s age and the fact that it was early in the set. I’m unlikely to change this much on account of having other new maps to make but it’s still good for me to know where people are at on my difficulty balancing.

start was hard,lots of snipers and little ammo, i enjoyed it later half was easy map is huge so its easy to dodge projectiles, can accommodate a lot of more monsters....cant found 2 secrets and some monsters although i tried to kill all....exit switch seems a lift but it finished the map...lighting is great not so dark yet atmospheric 

my prboom fda on uv skill 

popi9.zip

50 minutes ago, Stupid Bunny said:

the difficulty balancing you point out is a side effect of me being terrible at Doom

I can totally relate, haha! My maps have some balancing issues too, although with experience I think I managed to mitigate these problems. My early maps either were very easy or very unfair, and frequently suffered from pacing issues. I'm still learning as of today!

New gameplay in UV! My updated comments:

1. UV IS MUCH, MUCH MORE FUN! The problems with scarce encounters in a large area are virtually nonexistent in UV. Congrats!

2. I died a lot, since I'm not a great player. Saving is my friend. Now we have a challenge with a nice pacing on top!

3. I was able to get 100% kills this time.

4. The problem with the plasma ammo and weapons still exist.

Cheers!

Played on UV. This was a tough map especially given I'm not an amazing Doom player - but I managed to make it through (just!).

Couldn't find a plasma rifle or BFG but I was teetering on the edge of death most of the time so I didn't have a lot of opportunity to look for one (or secrets, for that matter). Feel free to laugh at my horrendous gameplay!

I really liked this one! I love the distant buildings you can see from anywhere in the map, the lamp posts, the space sky, and the overall spaciousness of it. I didn't have any issues figuring out the progression in this one. My only complaint, and this is more of a nitpick, is the use of the Demons on the Prey midi instead of something more unique. Overall, I think I like this one even more than the previous map you released.

Quite the techbase in space we have here!

Some great scenery and a moody atmosphere with the light effects, I really liked this level!

I made it through in UV by the skin of my teeth if you wanna see me suffer!

I was not able to find any of the secrets, so, while I can question my own capabilities in finding them, I'm genuinely surprised I couldn't find at least one.

Thanks for the feedback so far everybody! I’m still working through the videos so I’ll comment on some of the rest later…in the meantime always super interesting to see how different people approach some of the open-ended bits (and to see what breaks.)

Note I’ve replaced the cell ammo with other stuff and ever so slightly adjusted the health and ammo count (although I like it kind of tight like it is).

@Plerb I have actually tried at various points replacing the midi with something…more novel, I guess, and never quite liked anything else as much. I guess this one is kind of grandfathered in at this point. Glad you liked it though! Atmosphere and space are something I went for with all these at various points and I’m happy when they come through. The sky is Andromeda overlaid with Hubble’s Deep Field image overlaid with TNT stars. I had fun throwing that together way back when. 
 

@LadyMistDragon looks like you managed pretty well overall…at least at the difficulty intended. It sounds like @ARMCoder had the “right” level of challenge on UV also :p maybe slightly easier now with a tad more usable ammo and like 15 more HP points, but not by much.

That was pretty fun! Very good looking too! Spider mastermind harassed me a lot, and the start was pretty tough!

FDA: msc-ryiron.zip

Very cool map. I like the attention to detail with the lighting, structures like the street lights, and the mountains and buildings in the distance. The start is very fun, running around trying to figure out where the better weapons are so you can deal with some of the more obnoxious enemies. It does get a bit easier as it goes on and most of the snipers are dealt with. I only found 4/5 secrets, and a couple of them felt like I just got lucky humping random walls, but most of the secrets are well telegraphed with a goodie lingering just out of reach. I think the only misstep in the map is the spider demon. There was nothing left to in-fight with her, so it was basically just playing peek-a-boo until all my ssg ammo was gone.

This is a really good map! From gameplay flow to architecture, everything looks and feels professional. The beginning was tough (UV) but manageable.

You also nailed the atmosphere, night maps are hard to get right but this felt perfect. I also ended up taking out the Mastermind with the SSG, but that's fine. The only secret I didn't find was the one with the Soulsphere in the outer area. Couldn't figure out how to lower that lift. There were some dark corners in the map, perhaps I overlooked a switch or something.

Thanks for giving it a look and for the thoughtful feedback all! No surprise the secrets are causing people trouble, they have never been my strong suit. The outdoor one is a brand new addition to this not very new map and probably just shows my secret design has gotten more pointlessly cryptic over the years lol.
 

Still watching through the videos and FDAs (I am a busy man), @CravenCoyote I’m glad you were able to get to the end (eventually) and you’ll be pleased to know I have many more, probably harder maps on the way :p Probably will have the next one out in the next day or so.

I haven't been on DW in a while, looking forward to playing this! Love the screenshots. 

Extremely well crafted map you can tell much thought went into all aspects of it. Loved it 

@Clippy thanks for checking this out!  Happy you liked it, I definitely put a lot of love into it back in the day and am still pleased with how tidy and interconnected the layout is.  Noticed a couple minor oversights were I forgot to fix some lighting or floor textures though, but can leave those in as a mark of their age or something (Btw I started mapping in c. 2004-5, not exactly sure when thenabouts.  I've got my very first maps around, don't think they're archive worthy lol but may put them up here some time).  The one secret you missed was added much, much later, I don't think anyone has found it yet lol.  I may try doing another "back to basics" map without all the weird shit someday, though I'm not sure I could if I tried.

@Oxyde no problem about not finding any secrets, I tend to overhide them out of fear that I'm underhiding them ;p That was an intense run to watch, more impressive somehow that you left the big spider stomping around out there and made it out anyway.  Glad UV is providing a good challenge to people hehe

@Delisk you and your little helper pal made out good with this one, pretty fast too!  Good stuff

As indicated, this map is now on the /idgames archives, which along with /idgames Down from the same set are my first uploads to the archives since 2010.  Good to be giving these a home finally.

Playing through these mortal soul maps and where as idgames down was decent and challenging in its own ways and I enjoyed it for what it was, this one is pretty damn close to what I would call a perfect little doom map. I liked everything about it, from its hot start and scramble for ammo to its snipers everywhere and constant ambushes and traps. I liked that I felt I should chainsaw all the demons to conserve ammo even though by the end I probably had plenty, just goes to show how I was kept on the edge of my seat the entire time. The layout was fantastic, with everything either interconnecting or wrapping around giving this site a real compact but sprawling dicotomy. The secrets were also a highlight for me as they had both hinting and challange which left me with a little something extra to enjoy once everything was dead. Got me a 100% x 3 and as others have noted, there are cells with no cell weapons but... who really cares. Cheers and thank you very much for sharing these, I am highly anticipating jumping into the next one and will look forward to any other maps you deem worthy of posting.

@Insaneprophet thanks much for playing!  I'm glad you liked it so much, and also that you found all the secrets lol.  I guess I missed a few cells, suppose it doesn't break anything :p I forget if there used to be a plasma rifle anywhere or not.