[0.9 Update] GRIM SOJOURN - (U)Doom Episode - Map: "PANERGON"

[Ezo Fuzz]

 

 

Spoiler

 

"Grim Sojourn" is a new personal project of mine. I intend to create a 9-Level Episode 1 replacement for (Ultimate) Doom 1. It is mainly focused around techbase-aesthetic while restricting myself to vanilla textures only. I get too sidetracked with custom textures and sprites, so this will aid in actually getting things done. One artistic challenge I pose to myself however is Music. I suck at it, even more at midi. So I'm applying myself to create a custom midi track for each level I create. Mainly to learn Sekaiju.

 

I hope to finish most levels over the course of 2025. With playtesting maps being released whenever I am comfortable with sharing the level in it's initial form (90% geometry done, music listenable, difficulty somewhat OK for UV). Any and all feedback received for those maps will be incorporated and individual people (whoever's interested) will receive revised versions of the maps to get opinions on the reworks. More on that later.

 

 

Spoiler

 

I'm sharing with you the first map I've built for the project, over the course of the last month or so. I had an idea for a circular map with rather linear features, in which a central observatory tower is always visible. Hence the title "Panergon" came from a mishmash of "Panopticon" (concept for a central observing prison) and "Ergon" (greek for work). Like a UAC factory of sorts.. do demons adhere to OSHA regulations? *(Writes notes..)*

 

Format: Doom / Doom2

Sourceports Tested: Crispy-Doom, PrBoom+, Eternity, GZDoom

iWAD: Ultimate Doom / Doom

Map: E1M1 (subject to change)

Difficulty: UV (HMP implemented later)

Kills: 315

Items: 77

Secrets: 7

Avg Playtime: ~ 20:00 min

Monsters: Zombie, Seargeant, Imp, Pinky, Spectre, Lost Soul, Baron

Weapons Available: Shotgun, Chaingun, ... maybe More? ;)

 

New Version 0.9: (Many fixes and restructured areas)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FENqjXMkfQ8-p--WpnGKO8x4O1HANW3V/view?usp=sharing

 

(OLD) Doom World:

GRIM-SOJOURN_PANERGON.zip

(OLD) Google Drive:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cmPVET1hvVXM3sXjVule8p3ArNdHn6jH/view?usp=sharing

 

 

Spoiler

 

For those out there willing to spend some of their time to give me feedback, I want to make it as concise as possible (thank you in advance).

Here's a list of important aspects that I would like some opinions / pointers on:

 

• Bugs / Glitches / Skips discovered?
• Misaligned / Missing textures?
• Difficulty and Ammo / Health availability rating (for UV)
• Favorite + Least favorite Rooms / Encounters / Designs
• What would you change? (off the top of your head)
• Music rating
• General opintion / feedback

 

Demo files or even commented video playthroughs would be amazing!

A little text note is already more than I could wish for though, no worries :)

 

 

Spoiler

 

Fuzzy Notepad / Eevee for the awesome Doom Text Generator <3

https://eev.ee

https://c.eev.ee/doom-text-generator

 

Dragonfly on YouTube for the great Sekaiju tutorial

 

 

 

Edited 21 hours ago by Ezo Fuzz : Newer DL Link

[JXC]

It would be cool if you add modified Doom 2 monsters like in Rekker and Nihility.

[Ezo Fuzz]

11 minutes ago, JXC said:

It would be cool if you add modified Doom 2 monsters like in Rekker and Nihility.

Want to keep this one rather vanilla, but I'll look into it!

[HalidK.]

This is a well designed map, more importantly it was fun!

 

General opinion / feedback:

While encounters are unique from each other and fun, sometimes there are too many hitscanners imo. Multiple hitscanners coming out of nowhere while i deal with others does get annoying sometimes. I also could not find any secrets altough i dunno if it was because they are hard to find or im just dumb xd. Other than these, progression and encounters are quite good. I especially liked the symmetrical design.

 

Music rating:

Decent, but too quiet.

 

What would you change?:

Slightly less hitscanners, more varied enemies. And to deal with tougher foes, i would add Rocket Launcher and/or Plasma Gun. (these might be actually on the map as secrets, but as i said before i could not find them)

 

Favorite + Least favorite Rooms / Encounters / Designs:

The first ''pistol only'' area was surprisingly good. The outside areas were definitely my favorite, trying to navigate in a semi-tight area while picking the best target to kill first without getting chomped by pinkies was fun. Thats one of the places i actually did like the hitscanners!

 

The room with baron+lost souls were boring imo. Lost souls are just annoying, especially when there are so many of them. This was my least favorite.

Nothing else comes to mind. The map was mostly consistent

 

Difficulty and Ammo / Health availability rating (for UV):

Not hard but not easy. Always keeps you alerted. Exactly what i like!

Ammo count was fine, but adding one or two stimpacks at cylinder trap area could be nice.

 

 

Misaligned / Missing textures?:

Did not notice any, but im terrible with noticing these details so dount count on me.

 

Bugs / Glitches / Skips discovered?:

No bugs or glitches that i found. If i read the feedback section on this page before i played i would try to find skips deliberatly. Right now there is nothing i found.

 

I will definitely gonna play your future maps, i like your style!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ezo Fuzz]

43 minutes ago, HalidK. said:

This is a well designed map, more importantly it was fun!

 

General opinion / feedback:

While encounters are unique from each other and fun, sometimes there are too many hitscanners imo. Multiple hitscanners coming out of nowhere while i deal with others does get annoying sometimes. I also could not find any secrets altough i dunno if it was because they are hard to find or im just dumb xd. Other than

[..]

 

Thank you so much for playing! :D

 

I'll just respond with what comes to mind:

I'm quite happy that you enjoyed the outside areas, they were really the main focus of the map.

Hitscanners could definitely be reduced yeah, you get used to where you placed them a little too quickly when mapping ;)

The Baron / Cylinder Trap area was rather rushed and a bit uninspired, honestly glad you felt the same. I'll try to come up with a better encounter!

And you found no secrets at all? Interesting! Most of them are rahter well hidden, that's true. I'll see if I telegraph them a bit more.

 

 

And for future maps: I'll post them right here when I'm comfortable with sharing anything new ^^

[TheNoob_Gamer]

Thanks for bringing this level to my attention! As promised, here's my UV FDA of the level.

panergon.zip

Like the dude above, I too unfortunately found no secrets. In general, this is a solid introduction map - difficulty was neither too hard nor easy, just the right amount for a roundabout (heh) adventure. I jumped in the map blind, so did not caught on to the central gimmick until halfway through the level. Nonetheless, the progression still feels organic and intriguing.

I like how you are forced to use the pistol for a while too. More pistol appreciation is always a good thing. The level in general also has a fair usage of midtex wizardry, which gives a lot of visual variety and clear signposting. I mostly like it. 

Feedback in spoilers below. I took notes as I went along, so apologize in advance if they seem disjointed.

Spoiler

• In general, the level suffers a bit from scale. Some textures ended up being overdrawn and stretched out quite a bit, knocking down the level a bit visually (the switch texture in the blue key room, the outdoor lifts are the most notable examples). Perhaps you could try "hiding" those stretched out textures by additional metal chunks surrounding them?
• Signposting is also vague at times. I had no idea how to get the final red key until I finally took note of the symmetrical design of the level. While this is a neat thing for the player to figure out on their own, I think more subtle signposting should be done to nudge the player to the right direction, perhaps by making the outdoors entrance more easier to spot.
• A lift in the indoor circle should not be triggered to move down by a walkover linedef at the beginning of the lift, as you'd see in my FDA, it creates frustrating pacing. Perhaps a separate switch will serve better.
• The blue room showdown is lacking verticality, mostly served by a low-tier mob swarm, with the imp reinforcements in the upper ledge arriving a moment too late. Switching the position of the lost soul closet encountered later in the room with some imp encounters can perhaps increase combat variety.
• In the same vein, the hitscanner clusters (particularly those outdoors and in closets) aren't quite threatening, mostly due to their tight proximity. In regards to the outdoor ones, placing some on top of crates could introduce good challenge.

 

I can't promise to go through the remainder of this episode, but if opportunity arises, I'll be eager to check out future updates!

[Ezo Fuzz]

@TheNoob_Gamer

Thanks for the feedback! Also just wathed your FDA.

 

A few notes / follow-up questions:

• What exactly do you mean by textures being "overdrawn and stretched out"? Not enough variety?
• Adding recessed switches into the side of the big outdoor lifts is probably a good idea! I'll do that
• I'll rework that last fighting section with the ledge and the slime pool entirely. It's not satisfying enough and creates confusion
• Putting hit-scanners at elevation outside would be interesting, but could get unfair quickly, have to try that.

In general the thing that stood out most about your demo was that finding the opening switch for the second outdoor lift seemed confusing to you. Basically the switch at the end of the imp ledge opens that closed brown door in the hallway, next to the yellow door and monster closet. That switch - earlier seen in one of the corner rooms - opens the lift to the outside. I really have to think about how to better telegraph this. Good to see it from someone elses perspective!

[TheNoob_Gamer]

7 hours ago, Ezo Fuzz said:

What exactly do you mean by textures being "overdrawn and stretched out"? Not enough variety?

Some sectors (mainly the lifts) are made a bit large (presumably in service of the map's size), so their side textures are often a bit too stretched out (see the blue room switch for a clearer example of what I'm talking about). I personally found this not very visually appealing, but this could still be an interesting visual feature on the map.

[Clippy]

hey there, checked out the first map of this project, not sure if I can do more down the road pending on time etc but nice job, you can tell a lot of work went into this - watch vid for full analysis but we got a lil silly and distracted and stuff - way she goes - not bad, nice little nostalgia trip , appreciate the secrets

 

 

[Ezo Fuzz]

@Clippy

Thanks so much for playing, guys!

Hope it didn't get too cryptic or frustrating, I've already fixed quite a lot of stuff and will update this page with a newer version of the map, just for posterity sake.

 

Cheers!

[RED77]

nice map

[Ezo Fuzz]

Just updating this real quick to put out the current version of the map (0.9):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FENqjXMkfQ8-p--WpnGKO8x4O1HANW3V/view?usp=sharing

 

I fixed many issues and unclear telegraphing desgins that the numerous awesome playtesters provided.

Secrets are now quite a bit less cryptic and many areas were cleaned up and look nicer.

 

Any feedback is appreciated, but I mainly want to put it up here for posterity sake.

Hopefully I get to work on the next map soonish, well keep ya'll posted.

[HalidK.]

2 hours ago, Ezo Fuzz said:

Just updating this real quick to put out the current version of the map (0.9):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FENqjXMkfQ8-p--WpnGKO8x4O1HANW3V/view?usp=sharing

 

I fixed many issues and unclear telegraphing desgins that the numerous awesome playtesters provided.

Secrets are now quite a bit less cryptic and many areas were cleaned up and look nicer.

 

Any feedback is appreciated, but I mainly want to put it up here for posterity sake.

Hopefully I get to work on the next map soonish, well keep ya'll posted.

 

so much better than the first version for sure. i'd say its almost flawless. i did find one bug(?) tho 

 

 

[Ezo Fuzz]

2 hours ago, HalidK. said:

 

so much better than the first version for sure. i'd say its almost flawless. i did find one bug(?) tho 

 

 

Ohhhh that's interesting! Yeah multi-sector lifts are a problem.

I think I'll leave it for now, but after making some more maps I'll come back to it, thanks!