Doomer Boards Project #25: Dead But Dreaming

Nightmarish! :o

Great work dmdr, the colours look sick in this one

Fuck yeah. Keen as fuck to play this as a full set.

Alper002 on DW ID'd a stupid bug I introduced into MAP04. A fix has been added to the OP so grab that if you're playing/gonna play this.

Actually, maps here are in fact easier on NM than other DBPs on UV, because they are shorter. It is the concept that seems scary, when I actually playtested it lots of them were fun to me. Of course, no death victory on blind is impossible but you do learn fast, I've beat some maps in fda (a few deaths in each recording) to completion. Die and learn, die and learn, it quickly ceases to be blind and wherever you die you get there shortly from the beginning.

Yeah, I'll give it a go.

There's always godmode😉

I've recorded a FDA movie. I've done a few re-records, so if you don't want to waste time just watch #04.

Lobo I have to say testing the maps for the past month has really improved my 'Doom fundamentals', so if you were to play through the set I think you'd find that the other DBPs would feel magically much easier. I will say that maps 1-6 are all pretty relaxed (although 4, 5, and 6 are somewhat less so); the screws don't really start to turn until map07.

ANYWAY I've added a wad to the OP with a ZMAPINFO and an EMAPINFO for people who want to use Eternity or antediluvian versions of ZDoom for some reason (these will be in RC2). printz please add UMAPINFO support to Eternity soon, I'll be your best friend if you do.

of course it will. AND I'll be your bff so what have you got to lose?

I've made it all the way through on Nightmare now, playing continuous and with tons of save scumming in the later maps. MAP08 got the most kills because I spent so long trying to find the secrets. I ended up going to Doom Builder and having a look - joe-ilya is right about those little secret switches. Very hard to find in the heat of the moment. I think a misaligned texture would probably do me more good, or even one that doesn't quite match it's surroundings. The automap does give some clues away (like for the invulnerability in particular), but otherwise it's a hard task. The secret map itself I think I blew through first time as I was pretty heavily armed at this point and was in the groove of not hanging around. The arrows on the automap were pretty helpful, I'd say! Seemed nice from what little I saw of it, although with plenty of weapons and ammo it was more about not getting bogged down, than checking out the scenery!

MAP09 took a bit of working out with the switch in where the Hell Knight was, and then a lot of attempts to get past the Cyberdemons, even with plenty of plasma to take down the first one with (and backup from my Hell Knight buddies) - really glad they respawned somewhere that they couldn't come back. I have the impression that the secret in this map is a crusher? This one was pretty lethal a few times, to be honest, but it's "scrupulously fair" and pretty well made, so good job, Joe.

MAP10 was like a brick wall I had to knock down by banging my head against it, but I slowly got to grips with the three key placement and what I was doing. I found there were a lot of times I was being funnelled into unfortunate dead ends and having to turn back - particularly with the switch to access the white skull key. The green skull key Cyberdemon was a total fucker to get past! So many deaths as I tried to push past him, lure him out and get him infighting, even with the BFG...

Maps 1-8 and 11 were all pretty reasonable playing continuous, with the various degrees of foreknowledge I had. All told, it's a nicely-made set. I think MAP04 looked like it was made by a competent beginner, which stood out amongst the more detailed and flowing offerings from the other mappers, but the gimmicks were good and the degrees of separation between each key path at least meant it wasn't too difficult!

Very intense, this experience we've put together. I like that the UMAPINFO means we can end on a story text and cut to credits, even though I was half-expecting a map where we're in a messy bedroom and there's some credit graphics and a deep sense of foreboding. Good job dmdr! You went for something different, and it worked!

thanks Joe, I should have most of those sorted for the next release. I couldn't replicate the green key grab in MAP04 though, can you please make a demo to show me how you did it?

Thanks Joe. I still can't get this to work consistently but I've added an extra sector so the key is further away from the blocking wall now, hopefully that will fix the problem.