Inscrutiny 2 (Single level for Ultimate Doom)

[Makazi the Hyena]

Hello again! Been a while, lol. This is a sequel to my 2019 map, Inscrutiny, which was my first return to mapping after 14 years of absence from the scene. I actually started this map back in 2019 shortly after releasing the original, but left it shelved for a long while, only working on it for a few minutes here and there over the course of the last three years. More recently I've gotten back into Doom again, and I decided to go back in and finish this one up. There's five secrets, and the music is custom made as usual. I also took the main criticism from my last wad and also made it overall less pitch black, though there are still some dark areas, haha.

This was designed for vanilla compatibility, and was tested with Chocolate Doom 3.0.0, 3.0.1, and Crispy Doom 5.12.0. Haven't tried it with Zandronum or GZDoom but I imagine it'd work fine. There's some differences between the difficulty levels, and there's spawns for up to three cooperative players. Also this wasn't really designed for speed-running, so I'm not sure what the lowest possible time would be, but with skipping most of the secrets and running past some enemies I was able to get a time of 5:06.

It was designed for Ultimate Doom, the iwad is doom.wad, and the map is E1M1 -- same as the original Inscrutiny.

Hope you like it :D

EDIT: I've updated the WAD to give the player a little bit more ammo and health, and I've fixed some of the issues.
Full changelog:
 

Spoiler

-Fixed light alignment, Sector #573
-Removed skull switch at the top of the ledge.
-Removed lever to open the outside activation door, added yellow key instead.
-Fixed an issue with there being a doubled up secret at Sectors #329 and #43; only 43 contains the secret now.
-The door which opens the bars to the outside now opens the rock pillars to release the monsters outside, so it is no longer necessary to go up the lift on the other side of the base to get to the end of the level. But you can still go up there to get the plasma gun, if you want.
-Removed a few demons from the map.
-Sector #322 now closes quickly, which prevents the player from walking out of the trap and causing a softlock.
-Softlock with the light-column room at the end of the tunnel is now fixed as the switch to close the door can only be hit once. There's also a switch in the monster closet right before the door to open it back up, in case the player still ends up stuck in that area.
-Added cell charge pack to the plasma gun on the top ledge.
-Added a dead marine with a box of ammo and a chaingun, in the hallway near the medical room.
-Added a dead marine with a medkit in the light column room.
-Added a skull switch to the inside of one of the monster closets at the exit, in case the player wants to go back out of the room to find secrets.

Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

inscrutiny2.zip

Edited December 8, 2022 by Makazi the Hyena : New WAD version and changelog

[Floowand]

I like it, having to open all the doors with switches was something that caught my attention, although to tell you the truth, it was a problem for me when backtracking, especially when you get the plasma rifle and have to go back outside, at first the rhythm of the map was good from door to door, but it came at a time when I didn't know which switch opens which door.

I couldn't find any secrets, but I suppose they are something necessary to clear the map 100%, I had to skip like 10 enemies to be able to finish the map, because in the final encounter I barely managed to clear it with the ammunition I had.

[nickxcom]

Great lighting and some good fights, especially for Ultimate Doom.

 

I think I got softlocked :

Spoiler

in the room after the specter ambush- I flipped the switch and it closed the door, but flipping it again does nothing and the side door never opens.

Maybe missing something obvious? :)

Edited December 6, 2022 by nickxcom

[Makazi the Hyena]

1 hour ago, Floowand said:

I like it, having to open all the doors with switches was something that caught my attention, although to tell you the truth, it was a problem for me when backtracking, especially when you get the plasma rifle and have to go back outside, at first the rhythm of the map was good from door to door, but it came at a time when I didn't know which switch opens which door.

I couldn't find any secrets, but I suppose they are something necessary to clear the map 100%, I had to skip like 10 enemies to be able to finish the map, because in the final encounter I barely managed to clear it with the ammunition I had.

Thank you for the review! :D And yeah, there's not a lot of ammunition; not every enemy can be killed, but some of the secrets have ammo that makes it easier to kill more of them. I'll definitely have to consider ammo balance a bit more the next time around.

Good point about getting a bit lost at the end. In hindsight, I probably should have had a yellow key switch next to the door that opens the bars to the outside, and then put that key up on the ledge where the skull switch currently is. That way it would have been apparent where the player's supposed to go next. Another thought I had was adding some demon closets to release new demons into the map to guide the player -- but considering the amount of enemies there already were, I didn't think it was the best idea, haha.

 

1 hour ago, nickxcom said:

Great lighting and some good fights, especially for Ultimate Doom.

 

I think I got softlocked :

  Reveal hidden contents

in the room after the specter ambush- I flipped the switch and it closed the door, but flipping it again does nothing and the side door never opens.

Maybe missing something obvious? :)

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah that door is designed to shut behind the player so they're protected momentarily from the baron and other demons in that tunnel, haha. There's a switch a bit further ahead, in the dark room with the imps having their date (candle on the table), which opens that door back up and also opens a side room in that dark corridor that leads to the blue key.

[nickxcom]

Thank you! Good grief I'm stupid, I looked right at the switch to the imps multiple times and just didn't process it for whatever reason lol. Good stuff, like @Floowand said, a little tight on ammo and a bit tricky to figure out some of the doors, but honestly I enjoyed it a lot. Great lighting and music with some good ambushes!

[RataUnderground]

Good map! Its a little unorthodox in the use of switches to open doors instead of simply doors, and I got lost a few times, but good overall. In the last fight I missed more ammunition : (

 

 

 

Edited December 6, 2022 by RataUnderground

[Makazi the Hyena]

2 hours ago, nickxcom said:

Thank you! Good grief I'm stupid, I looked right at the switch to the imps multiple times and just didn't process it for whatever reason lol. Good stuff, like @Floowand said, a little tight on ammo and a bit tricky to figure out some of the doors, but honestly I enjoyed it a lot. Great lighting and music with some good ambushes!

 

I'm really glad you liked it ^^

 

2 hours ago, RataUnderground said:

Good map! Its a little unorthodox in the use of switches to open doors instead of simply doors, and I got lost a few times, but good overall. In the last fight I missed more ammunition : (

 

 

 

 

Yay, the first play-through! :D Thanks for posting. I actually laughed when you saved before the baron room; don't blame you, there! Good job on getting the medical room secret. You can thank my girlfriend for that one, as when she was playtesting she said that one of those panels should open a secret.

Also great work getting that soulsphere secret near the start!

 

I was surprised when you were able to get the blue key without using the switch, but I've been playing Doom for long enough that I should have known it would be accessible by running at it with the right angle and speed, lol. Good work getting it.

 

Now, I feel really bad that you ended up not being able to get the secret near the red key room despite trying for it for so long. :(

Spoiler

In the room with the double staircase, when you walk up and there's the switch that opens the double imp ambush, there's a panel on the back wall of that staircase that you can hit which opens up the wall near the red key room.

 

I also saw that you saw the BFG, haha. That's a 'timed' secret and is pretty tricky to get to.

 

Thanks again for the video. It was fun to watch!

[RataUnderground]

31 minutes ago, Makazi the Hyena said:

 

Now, I feel really bad that you ended up not being able to get the secret near the red key room despite trying for it for so long. :(

  Hide contents

In the room with the double staircase, when you walk up and there's the switch that opens the double imp ambush, there's a panel on the back wall of that staircase that you can hit which opens up the wall near the red key room.

 

Ah! that one is hard! xD
Thanks to your gf for the two medikits : ) they were handy.

 

Count with me to play your next map!

[Clippy]

hey buddy - I gave this an honest go but sorry to say - my experience was not so great - both maps frustrating lacking ammo and confusing - I feel bad cause I always want to surpriser mappers with my videos but this just did not go well for me - thoutht I scan share the vdieo anyway buddy youube slow ad fuck right

 

 

[Sesamia]

Ammo & health are tight, but the few secrets I did find made things okay, and I never ran out of ammo while playing.  A bit more health outside of secrets might be helpful in case those secrets aren't found, but the map wasn't too difficult without them.  Some switches were occasionally confusing since I could never remember which way the "lever" texture was supposed to point after it was pressed.  The single monster teleporter made for a welcome surprise after I ran away from the baron (who teleported into my face), and the map is nice to look at most of the time.

It was a nice, chill experience for me overall.  Thanks for sharing.

 

Some possible bugs:

That door previously mentioned by nickxcom (with the sector tag #16) appears to actually be able to cause a soft lock.  Closing it and then going up the lift later (with the sector tag #19) seems to lock you out of pressing the switch to re-open the doors.

 

Sector #573 seems to have its ceiling texture misaligned.  That's a light ceiling by the lift with the sector tag #19.

 

Edit:  The trap with two pinkies and two sergeants is also able to cause a soft lock if you're quick and you run back.  That's the one at sector #322.  This is pretty unlikely to happen without intentionally trying to soft lock the map.

Edited December 7, 2022 by Sesamia

[Makazi the Hyena]

On 12/7/2022 at 11:57 AM, Clippy said:

hey buddy - I gave this an honest go but sorry to say - my experience was not so great - both maps frustrating lacking ammo and confusing - I feel bad cause I always want to surpriser mappers with my videos but this just did not go well for me - thoutht I scan share the vdieo anyway buddy youube slow ad fuck right

 

 

 

Ah man! I'm sorry you had such a bad time with it, lol. There are definite issues in the first one that, in retrospect, make it frustrating to play through for sure.

This time around I was more aware of the things like the map being too dark and even tried to include more ammo and health. I was aware that the ammo was still sparse, which is why I added the weapons shelf in the imp room and the plasma gun both on the skull switch ledge and another plasma gun with some ammo, and a chainsaw, in the first column that the cacodemons come out of outside (which unfortunately you weren't able to get to due to getting softlocked, sorry about that!).
I also didn't design every encounter with the intent of the player immediately being able to kill every demon, and some encounters (such as the first baron) are just meant to be run past. You did have the right idea, though, when you later got him and the cacodemon to infight each-other.

Again it was pretty apparent that where the player was supposed to go wasn't obvious after hitting the skull switch, and I really should have just put a yellow key in the level, which would then open the door that opens the outside. It was a bit disappointing to watch you actually run past that open door the first time around, lol. I didn't telegraph that area very well.

To avoid the softlock, I should have had the switch which closes the door be a one time switch, that way once the player is free from the area, they can't accidentally close the doors on themselves again. Or maybe a switch in the monster closet just before the door.

Anyway, I'm sorry you had such a bad time with it. I hope the experience doesn't put you off of my maps completely! I still appreciated you going out of your way to make a video.

Thanks for the feedback. :)

 

Also you're under no obligation to put yourself through it again, but I've just uploaded an updated version of the map which adds a little bit more health and ammo, and fixes the softlock issues.

 

On 12/7/2022 at 12:31 PM, Sesamia said:

Ammo & health are tight, but the few secrets I did find made things okay, and I never ran out of ammo while playing.  A bit more health outside of secrets might be helpful in case those secrets aren't found, but the map wasn't too difficult without them.  Some switches were occasionally confusing since I could never remember which way the "lever" texture was supposed to point after it was pressed.  The single monster teleporter made for a welcome surprise after I ran away from the baron (who teleported into my face), and the map is nice to look at most of the time.

It was a nice, chill experience for me overall.  Thanks for sharing.

 

Some possible bugs:

That door previously mentioned by nickxcom (with the sector tag #16) appears to actually be able to cause a soft lock.  Closing it and then going up the lift later (with the sector tag #19) seems to lock you out of pressing the switch to re-open the doors.

 

Sector #573 seems to have its ceiling texture misaligned.  That's a light ceiling by the lift with the sector tag #19.

 

Edit:  The trap with two pinkies and two sergeants is also able to cause a soft lock if you're quick and you run back.  That's the one at sector #322.  This is pretty unlikely to happen without intentionally trying to soft lock the map.

 

Thanks for the feedback! I've uploaded a new version which fixes the main softlock issue, as well as a few other miscellaneous things.

Edited December 8, 2022 by Makazi the Hyena

[LadyMistDragon]

Really am liking the use of lighting in certain locations. While I could barely see, there was nothing too challenging in those dark spaces. Ammo was a little tight for the end though.

lmd_inscrutiny.zip

[sandwedge]

I liked it, you have a good simple but effective techbase style.  I thought you overused switches for every single interactive element though.  Other than that would like to see more!

[Makazi the Hyena]

On 12/9/2022 at 7:22 AM, LadyMistDragon said:

Really am liking the use of lighting in certain locations. While I could barely see, there was nothing too challenging in those dark spaces. Ammo was a little tight for the end though.

lmd_inscrutiny.zip

The first playthrough of one of my maps to be made in demo format, yay :D Haha. Seems like most players get confused by those red closets at the start, lol; they're just player spawns. Really good job on skipping past the first pinkie, and good work getting at the soulsphere, medical room, and red key room secrets. Though I noticed you repeatedly looked at the open door to the upper ledge (near the red key room) and kept walking past it. If you had gone out there you would have gotten access to another plasma gun and a cell charge pack.
 

You had me REALLY worried when you got momentarily wedged between the light on the wall and the torch in the baron room; thought you were going to find a way to softlock the map, haha. Also, regarding the baron, he stood no chance, lmao.

 

I also thought it was cool when you got the berserk pack after the red key secret, then used that to save ammo by punching pinkies and imps (and even a caco!). I think in my next map I should put the berserk somewhere not hidden, so players can then utilize fisticuffs more effectively like you did.

 

Also I chuckled when you ran past the final encounter.

 

Thanks for recording your playthrough ^^ It was fun to watch.

 

22 hours ago, sandwedge said:

I liked it, you have a good simple but effective techbase style.  I thought you overused switches for every single interactive element though.  Other than that would like to see more!

 

Yeah the switches were a bit overkill. I think in my next map I'll save them for things like large doors and bridges, and let small doors be open normally. Thank you for playing :D