Plerbtonia, a vanilla Plutonia mapset (26 map demo, development thread)

[Plerb]

NEW DEMO with 15 MAPS (a whole megawad already)!!!

plerbtonia_demo3.zip

 

What's new in this version:

 

-5 new maps! These are the new ones:

MAP07 (music: NWarkanoid#28.mid from Warkanoid 2, by Vakhtang Adamiya)

MAP10 (music: DRIVE.MID from Gubble, by Seppo Hurme)

MAP11 (music: NWarkanoid#18.mid from Warkanoid 2, by Vakhtang Adamiya)

MAP12 (music: 8 Gallons of Fuel from Demonstar, by Bobby Prince)

MAP14 (music: Tim 3 from Lemmings, by Tim Wright)

Every map after MAP06 from the second demo was rearranged, so if you played the second demo and just want to play the new maps, play the ones in the aformentioned slots.

 

-There's now text screen and intermission music. Text screen music is War3#02.mid from Warkanoid 3, and the intermission music is bespoke by me, titled "Intermission from PLERBTONIA".

 

-All the maps have names now! They're just in the CWILV lumps tho, not in the dehacked yet.

 

-MAP07 and MAP12 make use of Mikostaggers, and MAP14 makes use of some vanilla donut quirks. Thus, they aren't compatible with anything that doesn't accurately support vanilla/cl4 behavior. I could've added some ACS or whatever that gave a warning when you try to play it in a Z-Port but I got lazy. There'll be workarounds to support Z-Ports in the final version but not right now. Everyone who played this so far used appropriate ports though, so just keep it up :P

Edited August 21 by Plerb : fixed version

[Plerb]

Fuck, there's a small error in MAP14. Don't download it yet... Ok I think I fixed it, go ahead and download it now.

Edited August 22 by Plerb

[-BLEEDTEA]

Played the new maps and recorded more demos! -dsdademo (0.27.5), -complevel 4, skill 2. Blind for every. I might not have finished MAP14? I forget.

tea_plerbtonia_d3.zip
I unfortunately could not understand how to play the new maps very well. I was not in enjoyment. Completely my fault! I had a lot of "tunnel vision"... repeated many mistakes. Played without sound to not overwhelm myself, but that could have contributed to the Lesser Enjoyment aswell...
No other thoughts on map this time.

[Plerb]

Progress update:

I've finished 3 maps since the last demo, 1 E2 map and 2 E3 maps. I also have another E3 map in development, which is almost done. Really getting a lot of mileage out of reworking scrapped maps from my other projects! 2 of my latest maps were originally started for StarZone, another project of mine. Here's some screenshots:

The next demo should hopefully be released within the next week. In the meantime, I'm hoping to see more people play the maps I've added since the first demo!

 

Edit: Although it still needs more testing, the aformentioned E3 map is pretty much done.

Edited September 3 by Plerb

[paymentplan]

Hi Plerb! That break from mapping sure provided some fun maps! These might be my favorite of the 3 demos you've released. I especially liked your take on a MAP07. I've attached some dsda-demos that I recorded on v. 0.28.0 (if that matters). 

 

I did soft-lock myself once on MAP14 by dropping back into the red skull key area after making it back to the main room. 

 

You have an interesting design principle where these maps are kind of kaizo-esque in the since that they can be extremely punishing if you have no foreknowledge or aren't as quick on reading the situation like the best doomers out there. However, there's usually enough health and ammo that, even going into some of the tougher traps blind, I was able to limp through. All of this is extremely in kind with some of the more player-unfriendly aspects of Plutonia, while never quite feeling unfair or impossible. 

 

I want to say you have a definite playfulness that comes through, which I noticed even more with your MIDI selections (I had previously been playing without sound). I really love everything about this, with your custom menu pic and intermission music. There's a lot of joy in this map set so far and I hope my lil demos help you tune the fights the way you want em.

 

plerbtonia3 pp lmps.zip

[Plerb]

@paymentplan I haven't watched all the demos yet, but thank you for continuing to play these!! I was able to watch at least the first one on 0.27.5 thankfully. And I just (roughly) finished my 20th map, so there should be another demo soon! :D

 

Edit: I just fixed the softlock in MAP14.

Edited September 4 by Plerb

[Plerb]

Aaand here's a new demo, with 20 maps! Let's hope I didn't make any glaring mistakes this time!

plerbtonia_demo4.zip

I didn't shuffle any mapslots around this time, but they'll still be shuffled around later. Here's the new maps:

MAP16 (music: Reaching Deeper from TNT: Revilution, by Tristan Clark)

MAP17 (music: Murky Marsh from Atroxian Realm, by Gamebird)

MAP18 (music: WASTE1.MID from Gubble 2, by Seppo Hurme)

MAP19 (music: Observing by me)

MAP20 (music: At the Place by me)

I didn't name these maps this time, because most of their slots might move around, and thus will have to fit under different character limits on the automap screen. Also this demo adds in a UMAPINFO lump again because the last 3 maps are intended for E3.

 

In addition, the WAD now contains some resources from greenwar2-tex, lostres, and Grove, some of them haven't actually been used in any maps yet though. Also the softlock in MAP14 was fixed (I think).

Edited September 4 by Plerb

[paymentplan]

Had a chance to play the new maps today, exciting to see the map size and monster counts increase as we get further into Plerbtonia! I've recorded some more FDAs (with saves) in DSDA v0.28.1.

 

These are some of your most devilish designs yet. I struggled a bit with them (as you'll see if you watch the demos [I recommend increasing the playback speed]) but still found them very engaging and rewarding to battle through. I think MAP19 was my favorite of this bunch. I also really enjoyed your custom midis. I think you're going to end up with an impressive solo megawad if you keep this up, Plerb!

plerbtonia4 pp lmps.zip

[Plerb]

Awesome, gonna watch these now! How do you change playback speed in dsda doom?

[paymentplan]

You'll have to bind it to a key, but it's in the keybind options under "Game Speed" you can bind "speed up," "speed down," and "reset to default."

[Plerb]

Fun fact about MAP19: It's partially the reason Plerbtonia exists in the first place. I actually started this one around January for a different project (StarZone), although unlike other map transplants that ended up here, this was always Plutonia themed. After working on it for a bit I decided I'd rather eventually start a plutonia wad and use it in there instead, so the idea of making a plutonia wad was floating in around in my head for a while until I got the inspiration to start one.

 

In addition you can find most of my own midis here if you want to listen to some of the others I've made:

Still going through the demos right now :)

[paymentplan]

Oh hell yeah! Your midi selection and your own compositions have such a fun, upbeat style that feels kind of underrepresented in Doom, but not unfitting. 

 

I'm excited to see how things evolve over the rest of the WAD. The small puzzlebox style spreading out into these larger (but no less challenging) encounters makes for a cool progression and variety of gameplay. And Plutonia has such a distinct visual identity that makes it a fun palette to paint with, as it were. It's working for me, anyways!

[Plerb]

Progress update:

Finished 3 more maps! Well, one of them is ALMOST done. All 3 of these maps were heavily derived from other maps I started in the past. One of them was based on a failed attempt at a submission to the Snow Wave project, one was derived from the map I started for Knee Deep in the Dictionary (I could still theoretically submit this one to that project :P), and one was based on a speedmap I made in December 2023.

 

E2: 7/9 maps done

E3: 5/10 maps done

Secrets: 0/2 maps done

[RiviTheWarlock]

This is excellent, I'm officially Plerb pilled

[Plerb]

Progress update:

25 maps are now done, including a proper MAP15 with a secret exit, and MAP32! Also, @RiviTheWarlock is making a guest map for this! Once they finish it, I'll release the next demo, which will have a complete E2. If I keep up the pace, RC1 could be released by the end of the month!

[Plerb]

New demo with 26 maps! This might be the last demo before RC1!!!! Had to quickly update it while I was in the middle of writing this post because of an update to MAP14. :P

plerbtonia_demo5.zip

 

E2 is now done! The maps also now all have names again, and the map order is shuffled again. Here's the new maps:

MAP14: Cobra by @RiviTheWarlock (music: DLA from Cringe, by Mark Klem)

MAP15: Steel Furnace (music: Gamen't by me)

MAP18: Chlorophyll (music: Flipped by me). This map was originally started for Knee Deep in the Dictionary.

MAP24: Fortress (music: NWarkanoid#16.mid from Warkanoid 2, by Vakhtang Adamiya)

MAP25: Nukage Winter (music: Refraction by me)

MAP31: Hide from it (music: Stage 5 music from Super Mario PC, by unknown). This is supposed to be MAP32, but MAP31 is still in development.

 

If anyone else wants to submit a guest map, feel free to post about it here and we can talk about it more via private message! I have room for maybe 2 or 3 more guest maps. Only requirement is being somewhat experienced with making the general kind of maps plerbtonia has (and knowing how to map in vanilla format).

Edited Sunday at 10:27 PM by Plerb