Doom 2 MAYhem 2024 - EXEMPLARY CADAVER (On IdGames!)

Kind of offtopic but I just realized something uncanny about this project.

Instead of the common case in which people are using OBSIDIAN to generate random maps...

There's now an Obisidian using people to generate random maps. :o

Edit:

8 hours ago, VICE said:

Instead of the common case in which people are using OBSIDIAN to generate random maps...

There's now an Obisidian using people to generate random maps. :o

All I'll say on the matter. :P

I would like to join in!
I don't have a lot going on right now, so I should always be free to patch up some segments/maps if needed. (at less if my brain decide to work properly during the 48 hours :^) )

Alright, next round! Spinz

• @Worm318, you get Part Six of MAP02!
• @NeedHealth, you get Part Seven of MAP02!
• @MFG38, you get Part Six of MAP03!
• And @dac, you get Part Seven of MAP03!

Details have been sent via DM and your 48 hours starts...now!

Neat idea! I'm willing to do a segment if your still letting others join in. The smaller map and shorter time limit should give me more practice in improving my time management skills while mapping.

Quick status update: from looking at the time remaining this month it seems like we won't be able to start any more maps using the current relay method, so we're gonna finish things off a little differently. The next map is going to be started by me (alongside the developing of the current two maps, don't wanna keep everyone waiting for me :P) and once I make the next call for mappers I'm going to select four of them: this last map is going to originate from the center of the 9x9 grid and build out from there, which means that there'll be two waves of four mappers to finish all this off. This should hopefully mean that everyone who signed up and hasn't been assigned a map piece can get a turn as well. 👍

Almost done with my part, adding doodad and doing the final testing.

Submitted. As for the rest of the ride feel free to remove me from the list of potential mappers, I will NOT have time to map for a few weeks lol

Alright, I've got the submissions for the second map! The third map submissions may take a little while longer.

Last call for the next two maps! Spinz

• @CrazedCleric, you've got the last piece of MAP02!
• @Logamuffin, you've got the last piece of MAP03!

Oh yes, and @Obsidian, you've got the first piece of MAP04! XP Details will be sent to CrazedCleric and Logamuffin and our 48 hours starts now!

Folks, it is time for MAP04 to get underway in earnest! Here's a candid shot of the first finished map piece:

Time to select our four mappers! Our lucky contestants are...

• @JackDBS
• @SuyaSSS
• @Track Federal
• and @ByRntStarOEI

Check your DMs for details and remember, you've got 48 hours to submit! Thanks heaps to CrazedCleric and Logamuffin for getting the last map pieces for MAP02 and MAP03 in so promptly, I'll see about releasing betas as soon as I can.

Beta releases for MAP02 and MAP03 are up!

Some notes:

• The names I got for MAP03 were Doomguy's Cozy Mansion, Die a Death, Unity! Duty! Destiny! and Worst Dinner Party Ever: lemme know in here which one you like, else I'll see if I can set up a straw poll or something. On the other hand, the only name I got for MAP02 was Duct Tales. :P If any of the other mappers involved want to pitch an alternate name, speak quickly or forever hold your piece.
• As an aside, I got a suggestion of Frigid Domain as a name for MAP01, which I'm fine to go with if people prefer it to Cold Open.
• I got five pieces of music as suggestions for MAP02 and two for MAP03: the music occupying D_RUNNIN in each map is the one I chose out of the selections, but I've included the other ones as music for MAP02 and onward and you can IDMUS## to play them in the map and see how they feel. Again, lemme know which tracks resonate with you.
• Had to make a couple of executive decisions for the sake of map progression and such: I added a player-only teleport to CrazedCleric's piece that takes you back to the start of the map (as the map configuration prevented the player from escaping the bottom row of pieces) and the teleporter in Logamuffin's piece now deposits the player into the middle of Egregor's piece (as opposed to in the red key path, which is inescapable without said red key).
• If people are okay with it, I'd be keen to do some detailing outside of the map pieces to unify the external decoration and make the maps more cohesive. Should I go ahead with this or do people think it goes against the spirit of the whole Exquisite Corpse idea? Comment down below!
• And of course, we'll need some gameplay testing and such to make sure all the pieces play nicely together.

I think that covers everything. Looking forward to the next lot of map pieces for MAP04!

Oh yeah, and here's a quick ninja edit of the resource pack: nothing huge, just added some composites that I made for my MAP04 piece and a realigned flat for a portion of MAP02.

I'm certainly okay with additional edits, especially in terms of cohesion between pieces, thematic-wise.

40 minutes ago, Obsidian said:

Beta releases for MAP02 and MAP03 are up!

 

Some notes:

• The names I got for MAP03 were Doomguy's Cozy Mansion, Die a Death, Unity! Duty! Destiny! and Worst Dinner Party Ever

Damn Map03 slaps.
I'd like to suggest another name option: ''Don't Mansion It''

1 hour ago, Obsidian said:

• As an aside, I got a suggestion of Frigid Domain as a name for MAP01, which I'm fine to go with if people prefer it to Cold Open.

Tbh I think Cold Open is a great map01 title already.

1 hour ago, Obsidian said:

If people are okay with it, I'd be keen to do some detailing outside of the map pieces to unify the external decoration and make the maps more cohesive. Should I go ahead with this or do people think it goes against the spirit of the whole Exquisite Corpse idea? Comment down below!

I'm cool with this, would be nice to have these maps polished to shine their brightest

29 minutes ago, kwc said:

Tbh I think Cold Open is a great map01 title already.

Yeah, I think Cold Open was already perfect.

Just started playing MAP02... :| that extreme difficulty right off the bat. Immediately two arch-viles even on the easiest difficulty...

5 minutes ago, BeachThunder said:

Just started playing MAP02... :| that extreme difficulty right off the bat. Immediately two arch-viles even on the easiest difficulty...

It's a bit of a hot start, yeah. Bear in mind that difficulty settings won't be present in every piece and I advised people to only consider them once the maps are fully complete so that all aspects of the gameplay could be taken into account.

Played through map02, definitely a tougher map on UV, bit of a grinder given the space.

-I ran out of ammo quickly going down the southern side of the map, very few resources to assist the player here. definitely some armor and extra health would be a good idea. mid/west proved better results but still lent to many deaths. Middle section got real crowded but managed to get through. I think overall could use some extra bullets and shells. possibly a cut down on an archvile or two or some of the smaller chaff enemies (demons ideally). Main reason bringing it up was i had to IDDQD out of the southern path from the start due to limited resources and options. May be bad run but i was consistently on the back foot in this map.

-Linedef 5676, 5085 is misaligned
-sector 436 has midtex bleeding into the floor, change lighting (1 brightness needed) to fix

As for name and mus. Votes for music is 1.D_RUNNIN, D_COUNTD, D_BETWEE
Name suggestion: Saltwash (kinda gives a bit of a rundown seaport vibe)

I'd say a good name for MAP02 would be "The Heat Rises", because there's so many goddamn Archviles (for which I'm partly responsible), and also serves as a connection with the next map's more warm setting.

7 minutes ago, Gothic said:

also serves as a connection with the next map's more warm setting

To be honest, I'm giving consideration towards swapping MAP02 and MAP03 around in the map order to account for the higher difficulty. I've also had thoughts of whether or not I should put what is the current MAP03 in the MAP01 slot (the current MAP01 does drop a Cyberdemon onto the player's head near the end), but I'm less sure about that and I'd appreciate other thoughts on the topic.

25 minutes ago, Obsidian said:

 

To be honest, I'm giving consideration towards swapping MAP02 and MAP03 around in the map order to account for the higher difficulty.

Oh I just wanted to suggest this. Yeah, that's a good idea.

Okay, so I tested MAP03 and I want to say that I'm very much against the current MIDI used because at least on my end it sounds like one ambient sound repeated over and over again. Genuinely tiresome to listen to.

1 hour ago, Obsidian said:

 

It's a bit of a hot start, yeah. Bear in mind that difficulty settings won't be present in every piece and I advised people to only consider them once the maps are fully complete so that all aspects of the gameplay could be taken into account.

Is that your section? Tbh I think if there is a strong hint for the invulnerability sphere it would help a lot with the perceived difficulty of that start. Allowing the player to know that the powerup is there may help make the encounter feel less hopeless and more goal-oriented.

32 minutes ago, Li'l devil said:

Okay, so I tested MAP03 and I want to say that I'm very much against the current MIDI used because at least on my end it sounds like one ambient sound repeated over and over again. Genuinely tiresome to listen to.

Oh yeah, that'll be the MIDI I included in the resource so people didn't constantly hear Running From Evil while they were testing their map pieces, heh. You can delete it if you want.

9 minutes ago, kwc said:

Is that your section? Tbh I think if there is a strong hint for the invulnerability sphere it would help a lot with the perceived difficulty of that start. Allowing the player to know that the powerup is there may help make the encounter feel less hopeless and more goal-oriented.

JJBoren is the individual you wanna talk to there, I had no part in making MAP02 beyond my general overseer role.

Heh, my piece feels out of place considering how easy it is. Maybe I should have just slapped an archvile on that fight. I'm okay with editing surrounding areas to make them more cohesive. It is weird how the metal wall in the northeast of my piece is invisible on the other side and becomes a waterfall :v.

Anyways, I tested the map in DSDA-Doom 0.24.3 and I have a pair of nitpicks:
 

So, I played through MAP03 and... it has an interesting progression. I expected the map to be open ended and you being able to move freely between the pieces, but on this map kinda locks you in into one correct route. Heh, I'm not complaining, it just stumped me a lot of times as I was thinking "how do I get to that piece from here??".

However, I really don't have any idea how to open the exit. I got all the keys and pressed all the switches in that corner piece, but the door remains locked.

3 minutes ago, Worm318 said:

Maybe I should have just slapped an archvile on that fight.

And 30 revenants and a couple of cybers, to keep up with the modern difficulty standards :)

41 minutes ago, Li'l devil said:

However, I really don't have any idea how to open the exit. I got all the keys and pressed all the switches in that corner piece, but the door remains locked.

There's an additional switch next to the yellow one that raises a walkway to the exit. I assume that's what you're talking about, because I checked the map and was able to reach the exit after pressing all the required switches.

I found 3 switches in that room, 2 in the northern side and 1 in the southern side, and only one of the doors opened.

3 minutes ago, Li'l devil said:

I found 3 switches in that room, 2 in the northern side and 1 in the southern side, and only one of the doors opened.

There's three doors there and their tags correspond to a matching key switch. I dunno what to tell you, chum.

Time's up! I've only received three map pieces, so I'm passing on the opportunity to make the fourth to @Timilyo80 (by my understanding the last person to be selected from the candidate list): details have been sent and your 48 hours starts now. Thankfully we have 2 days of wiggle room before May ends, so with any luck we should still get all the mapping done by the end of the month.