[MegaWAD] [FINAL] Astral Globetrot - Now on idgames AND Kex!

[Quackjen]

The creator of Guest of Honor and The Mystery of Mount Fang (on a new account, since I foolishly lost the old one) presents Astral Globetrot, a vanilla-compatible 32-map MegaWAD themed around space travel. After MAP11, there are four more episodes with radically different visual identities that add new textures, and each map at least indirectly leads into the next one. Support is included for all difficulties (largely untested) and Multiplayer-exclusive monsters (also untested).

 

IWAD: Doom II

Complevel: 2

Compatibility: Vanilla

Source Ports Tested On: Chocolate Doom, Crispy Doom, DSDA-Doom

 

WAD Download

Enclosed in this ZIP file is the final version of the WAD, the DEH file, the text file created for the idgames archive upload and a text file with the list of music credits. The DEH file provides the names of the maps in the automap and also the new story text. It is only needed for vanilla-based ports though as the DEH file is also included within the WAD.

AGLOBE.zip

Alternatively, you can find it on the idgames archive: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/megawads/aglobe

 

Known Bugs

Spoiler

 

• The first story text has a typo in it.
• On vanilla, MAP24, 27 and 29 crash when you attempt to make a save due to there being too many Things. I also think MAP28 could too if too many Lost Souls spawn.

 

 

Changelog

Spoiler

RC2

Bugs found by NuMetalManiak:

• The empty secret on MAP04 was given a Berserk Pack.
• MAP11's Megaarmor secret was made possible to get.
• Both of the ice pillar rows in MAP15 were raised. I raised both of them since you could technically lead an Archvile near both areas and jump over to potentially get stuck.
• The teleporter closets in MAP16 and MAP19 were fixed.

General

• Music credits for the title screen, intermission and text screens were added.
• Some texture alligning in MAP03 was fixed.

 

RC3

Bugs found by SleepyVelvet:

• The softlock on MAP11 was fixed by raising the sectors around it.
• The Megaarmor secret was made much easier to get, since that was the only secret I could identify from MAP10 or 11 that was difficult to get. (It was possible before for the record, but it was more difficult than I wanted it to be.)

General

• Various visual improvements, mostly on MAPs 05, 07 and 08.

 

RC4

Bugs found by DreadWanderer:

• The second softlock on MAP11 was fixed by making the switch that unlocks the elevator repeatable use.
• The softlock on MAP15 was fixed by shrinking the gap between the fence and the bridge.

General

• A handful of slime trails were fixed, some found by DreadWanderer but I also fixed some others I stumbled into while running around with no monsters.
• More visual improvements, the most notable of which is a new sign texture present on MAP17, 18 and 19.

 

RC5

• There is now a TITLEPIC, CREDIT and BOSSBACK.
• Most of the slime trails and flickering reported by DreadWanderer have been fixed, save for the ones on MAP25 and 28. I played around with vertexes and changing the geometry and just couldn't get those ones removed, so right now they're cursed. All of the reported HOMs are fixed though.
• The hitscanner staircase on MAP19 now has two extra soundblocking linedefs to make it so nothing wakes up prematurely, as is intended.
• MAP19 has an extra Plasma Gun in the same spot as the Berserk, and there's a trail of health bonuses started by a cell charge leading to the original Plasma Gun.
• The Episode 2 sky now correctly tiles. Some of the geometry in MAP12 - 20 was changed to make vertical tiling less obvious.
• The ambush after getting the Blue Key in MAP20 lost the Archviles and gained a couple of more Revenants.
• A couple of maps received more ammo in them.
• MAP15 and MAP29 got fairly significant visual upgrades.

Final

Bugs and miscellaneous found by galileo31dos01:

• The Red Key teleport ambush on MAP06 now works properly as intended again.
• Monster blocking linedefs now exist on the lifts in the tree houses in MAP19, to hopefully prevent the Imps from blocking and scratching you.
• A handful of texture alignments were fixed.
• The rest of the oddities (except one I think, I just forgot about it) were fixed.

Bugs and miscellaneous found by EffinghamHuffnagel:

• All of their bugs (except one for sure, again forgot about it) were fixed.

Suggestion by Trov:

• The forced death sequence in MAP20 to make you pistol start the next map now correctly works on DSDA-Doom and other non-Crispy source ports.

 

The Story So Far

Spoiler

After concluding your expedition of Mount Fang, you arrive back on Earth. It's just like you remember it: A quiet street you live in, freshly cut grass, pristine water, and... your mailbox has another letter. That anonymous benefactor clearly wasn't done with you yet, because they've asked you to be the first customer aboard the UAC's brand new space station. You even get your very own spaceship after you're done! It seems like a good deal, you think.

 

Your bus fare to the city has already been paid for, and so has a night's rest at a hotel near the launch site. Come the next morning, you excitedly open up the front door of your hotel room to find that a small demonic uprising has sprouted in the city. It's always seemed like evil follows you wherever you go. And you'll soon find that a whole armada of demon-spawn got tickets to the space station before you did...

 

Screenshots

Spoiler

 

Edited Tuesday at 10:57 PM by Quackjen : Upgrading to the final final release!

[DreadWanderer]

Love the variety in aesthetics, nice screens!

[NuMetalManiak]

Good wad.

 

MAP04, sector 375 is a secret sector with nothing in it.

MAP11, is secret sector 220 only available with arch-vile jump?

MAP15, I was able to jump into the yellow key area after pressing just one of the switches (the south one) to unlock the ice pillars and got stuck

MAP16, two entire teleport closets (sectors 182, 183, 249 and sectors 197, 198, 250), monsters never teleported, their sectors weren't linked to the main area sectors like the other two.

MAP19, one teleport closet (sectors 341, 347, 633) has the same thing.

[Quackjen]

2 hours ago, NuMetalManiak said:

Good wad.

 

MAP04, sector 375 is a secret sector with nothing in it.

MAP11, is secret sector 220 only available with arch-vile jump?

MAP15, I was able to jump into the yellow key area after pressing just one of the switches (the south one) to unlock the ice pillars and got stuck

MAP16, two entire teleport closets (sectors 182, 183, 249 and sectors 197, 198, 250), monsters never teleported, their sectors weren't linked to the main area sectors like the other two.

MAP19, one teleport closet (sectors 341, 347, 633) has the same thing.

Thank you for playing! I've released a new version with those bugs fixed.

[LadyMistDragon]

Sooo many 1-person megawads have been released this year, it's a shame this'll get lost in the shuffle. Really, I can speak for all of your maps quality except for the ones that were going to be in that TNT related project but that's just because I didn't finish them due to lack of time, and were released at a time I was impressed by literally anything

 

 

 

[captjake13]

This is a really good map set!  I'm up to level 22 now.  Great combat design, a fun challenge to pistol start every level.

[SleepyVelvet]

FDAs for maps 1-11: noisy_AGLOBE_m1-11.zip

I had good impressions of the first map.  It felt good breezing through low tiers and kinda just taking in the linear mini journey.  Other maps started to drag a little playing them back-to-back; different in some ways, samey in others.  I did think of TNT when playing these maps, for better and for worse.

 

Note: There's a mandatory trigger on Map07 with a mega-armor on it.  I avoided it because I didn't want to waste my current armor.

I also "softlocked" on Map11, but it's an unescapable nukage "pit", and by pit, I mean nook.  It felt unintentional, or maybe it is.  There's also a secret switch (Map10 or 11?) that's not very vanilla compatible (might require a tight squeeze/speedrunning-glide to get to it).

 

Either way, vanilla maps are cool.  Always a good feat.  I peaked at Map12 onward and it does indeed look a bit more "open", at least aesthetically, which gives the chance that I might return to this eventually.

 

Kudos on the megawad.

[Count651]

6 maps in and I like it so far! I think map05 The Rooved Gardens is my favorite at the moment. There's something tranquil yet eerie about the map, and it oozes atmosphere. It reminded me a lot of Bioshock's level Arcadia.

[video_ouija]

5 maps in, and I am loving this. great style

[Oxyde]

I remember play testing this months ago and had a very good time with it, this is a great pack to experience!

[Helm]

Played the first 8 continuous and had a blast. Smooth going so far but the sense of adventure is really there, just the right amount of abstracted chonkiness so we don't get lost in sector details, just a smooth run through of the first episode for me. I will certainly continue on through to the rest. Good music choices as well. Reminds me of Fragport, but it's a better version of such obviously. Well done and thank you for sharing your creativity with us!

[Count651]

I just wanna take a moment to appreciate this adorable little detail.

 

[Walter confetti]

Played a little of this last evening togheter with A Hard Nut to Crack, Scattered Thoughts and Into Sandy Cities; pretty neat stuff here!

Got very strong mid 2000s vibes from this, loved the doomcute and attention to details...

[Quackjen]

Thank you everyone for the reviews! I really appreciate the feedback I've been given. I've dropped RC3 just now, which primarily fixes a softlock and makes the Megaarmor on MAP11 easier to get.

[Zahid]

the best part of this megawad is design and layout of maps 

its always refreshing and novel 

although gameplay gets a bit predictable and felt constant after some maps

my fdas and first exit demos for first 20 maps as maps start getting bigger will try later hopefully

prboom cl2 uv iddt used in demos.zip

[DreadWanderer]

Was a bit sceptical at first but I'm actually pretty fond of this wad right now (MAP11). It's got this very compelling and eclectic mix of textures and styles, a bit of Going Down and a bit of TNT too. Sometimes progression isn't very clear and I missed keys more than once, but the gameplay is very solid if a tad samey. I'm looking forward to experiencing more of it!

[DreadWanderer]

Think I found a soft lock in MAP11 - I unlocked the lift, entered it, then went back to check some other stuff. When I came back to take it the door was closed. It's weird because I did another test run and the second time, the door remained opened.

[Quackjen]

40 minutes ago, DreadWanderer said:

Think I found a soft lock in MAP11 - I unlocked the lift, entered it, then went back to check some other stuff. When I came back to take it the door was closed. It's weird because I did another test run and the second time, the door remained opened.

I don't know how I didn't catch this one in my own playtesting honestly. RC4 may just be this fix and a handful of other visual things, and then after this I'll start worrying about the final release.

[DreadWanderer]

3 minutes ago, Quackjen said:

I don't know how I didn't catch this one in my own playtesting honestly. RC4 may just be this fix and a handful of other visual things, and then after this I'll start worrying about the final release.

 

I can't really repro it so it might just be a freak occurrence with an obscure trigger or sequence of actions, who knows. 

[DreadWanderer]

Couple of slime trails spotted in MAP12 and MAP13 respectively:

[DreadWanderer]

MAP15:

 

- Falling between the wooden bridge and the fence to the right results in a soft lock. No problems with the left fence since the space is not wide enough;

- A prominent slime trail near the bridge to the secret exit;

 

Great map btw, love the icy mountain vibes!

 

[Quackjen]

RC4 is released! Right about now is when I should think about what to do for that TITLEPIC.

[DreadWanderer]

Btw I assume that one of the switches required to unlock the yellow key in MAP31 can only be reached via archvile jump(s)? Looked in UDB and couldn't find anything. I'm talking about the one near the metal pillars that can be traversed. Currently not on my PC but I can share a screenie later if necessary.

[Michael63]

It seems that I found a glitch in MAP 09. It is seen when player stands at sector 313 (where a rocket launcher is placed).

In general, I completed 9 levels till now, and I like it very much.

 

[Quackjen]

9 hours ago, DreadWanderer said:

Btw I assume that one of the switches required to unlock the yellow key in MAP31 can only be reached via archvile jump(s)? Looked in UDB and couldn't find anything. I'm talking about the one near the metal pillars that can be traversed. Currently not on my PC but I can share a screenie later if necessary.

If it's the one I think you're talking about, there's an invisible ledge that extends around the wall which you can walk on and follow until you get to the switch. It's a bit of a tricky jump, but try running off of the middle pillar towards the perpendicular wall and I find that works better. Or you can use an Archvile Jump and launch yourself towards the wall, where you'll land on the ledge.

 

 

[DreadWanderer]

9 hours ago, Quackjen said:

If it's the one I think you're talking about, there's an invisible ledge that extends around the wall which you can walk on and follow until you get to the switch. It's a bit of a tricky jump, but try running off of the middle pillar towards the perpendicular wall and I find that works better. Or you can use an Archvile Jump and launch yourself towards the wall, where you'll land on the ledge.

 

 

Yeah I managed to see the ledge how, damn, so sneaky! Thanks!

I'm currently on MAP22 and still enjoying it, though I must confess that the wind was took out of my sails a bit due to some elements which, while remaining consistent and thus predictable, still cause me trouble.

I noticed that you enjoy a combination of backtracking traps, cramped encounters, and moderate to severe ammo starvation relative to the opposition. The latter would be fine if your goal was to encourage infighting frequently but sometimes the layouts and the composition of the traps do not really allow for this, especially when high priority targets like pain elementals and arch-viles are involved. Another thing which kinda bothered me is how in almost every level, armor and big weapons come in much later than I'd want them to and are relatively well-hidden. As a result I often feel like I'm underpowered and at risk of dying even in smaller encounters. 'No Quarter Forest' is maybe a great example of this, where the much-needed plasma gun requires the player to suffer through a ton of exposure before going up that tree trunk to find it. This means that even when the levels are nominally open-ended, one can end up in a lot of trouble if they don't follow the most optimal path. I've somewhat adapted to your style by trying to play conservatively and defensively and camping the hell out of some sections, so we'll see how the last stretch goes.

[Quackjen]

35 minutes ago, DreadWanderer said:

Another thing which kinda bothered me is how in almost every level, armor and big weapons come in much later than I'd want them to and are relatively well-hidden. As a result I often feel like I'm underpowered and at risk of dying even in smaller encounters. 'No Quarter Forest' is maybe a great example of this, where the much-needed plasma gun requires the player to suffer through a ton of exposure before going up that tree trunk to find it. This means that even when the levels are nominally open-ended, one can end up in a lot of trouble if they don't follow the most optimal path. I've somewhat adapted to your style by trying to play conservatively and defensively and camping the hell out of some sections, so we'll see how the last stretch goes.

I've been playing through this WAD myself and I've noticed that too. I think I'm quite partial to the "opening scramble and you need to find weapons" gimmick, because I can think of a lot of map starts where it's like that. And that gameplay style extended to making you really hunt for the weapons. I also like using the Berserk which is why most maps give you one either early or in an obvious secret, and pretty much all of the boss enemies you can either soften up with infighting or you can crush them.

 

I suppose for Forest of No Quarter, it would be good to add a second Plasma Gun near the Yellow Key or the treehouse with the Berserk in it. I could go back and add seconds of weapons in a handful of maps actually. I'm glad you're still having fun though!

[DreadWanderer]

@Quackjen fair enough, regarding berserk I don't mind it since punching stuff is fun, the only place where it was overused was in MAP21. That's mostly on me because I missed the chaingun hidden in a bedroom so I had to punch my way through a lot of revs and HKs while scrounging for shells 😅

[Count651]

I'm personally a fan of making players have to get by with lower tier weapons rather than give them the means to blow everything away from the get-go. I always find that it makes the combat a bit more tactical and engaging. Even in my own maps I like to hold back on the SSG as it tends to be the default weapon players fall back on to do most of their killing. 

 

Also a little bug report, I noticed some freakiness going on with these sectors on map13.

[Octogenarihexate!]

I just finished this a few minutes ago and I wanted to say that I quite enjoyed it. I like how each episode seems to change things up, and the entire Holcovia set might rank among my current favorite urban maps.