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Frayed
Jul 7, 2024 11:38:48 GMT -5
Post by jforce on Jul 7, 2024 11:38:48 GMT -5
Hello all, I'm J-Force. I just registered here and would like to share my Doom wads with this community. www.moddb.com/mods/frayed/downloads/frayedThis is Frayed. It's a Doom 1 adventure containing 4 full length episodes jam packed Ultimate Doom insanity! Frayed is Limit Removing (Vanilla compatible) So it will run with any source port of your choice! This wad can often times be tight on ammo so ammo conservation is a must (chainsaw) but I felt this added to the challenges of Doom in a different way. Enjoy! ![]() Attachments:![](//storage.proboards.com/6313256/thumbnailer/LsXOcGRpQzKtKzXkzFWj.png)
![](//storage.proboards.com/6313256/thumbnailer/NSuIceTYtHeewNmqJjtG.png)
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Frayed
Jul 7, 2024 11:49:35 GMT -5
Post by nikolanchik on Jul 7, 2024 11:49:35 GMT -5
Wow, it's full megawad
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Frayed
Jul 7, 2024 11:55:45 GMT -5
Post by jforce on Jul 7, 2024 11:55:45 GMT -5
It is indeed, I have a few other ones I'll be posting here as well. If you're interested let me know what you think.
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Frayed
Jul 7, 2024 12:06:01 GMT -5
Post by nikolanchik on Jul 7, 2024 12:06:01 GMT -5
It is indeed, I have a few other ones I'll be posting here as well. If you're interested let me know what you think. To be honest, I rarely play someone's maps, especially megawads. But I was attracted by the screenshots, I'll try to master at least the first episode
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Frayed
Jul 7, 2024 12:21:00 GMT -5
Post by jforce on Jul 7, 2024 12:21:00 GMT -5
I appreciate that! Hope you like it.
I tried your wad. I love the map layouts! and very challenging. I finished the first map and got blown away in E1M2. I pressed on that computer screen and everyone warped in haha. Nice trap.
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Frayed
Jul 7, 2024 14:00:27 GMT -5
Post by nikolanchik on Jul 7, 2024 14:00:27 GMT -5
I appreciate that! Hope you like it. I tried your wad. I love the map layouts! and very challenging. I finished the first map and got blown away in E1M2. I pressed on that computer screen and everyone warped in haha. Nice trap. Thanks, and tomorrow I'll try to play your episode in my free time.
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Frayed
Jul 7, 2024 18:33:16 GMT -5
Post by thelokk on Jul 7, 2024 18:33:16 GMT -5
Completed the first two episodes and took a peek at the remaining two. Excellent stuff, while it's limit removing it really feels like it could be a very well detailed vanilla wad. I appreciated in particular the choice to do away with the IWAD themes for each episode, coming up with your own instead. Are the sky textures yours?
Considering how polished the package is, with custom skies and pics and all, I admit I'm a bit puzzled at the choice to retain the IWAD music. Not that I mind, I guess I just listened to those MIDIs so many times it's sort of difficult to separate them from their IWAD maps.
Just one small note: in the .txt file you say the megawad is "limit removing (vanilla doom goodness)." Keep in mind that, almost universally, 'vanilla' refers to vanilla format, which is mutually exclusive with limit-removing. Some people are super anal about that kind of imprecisions.
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Frayed
Jul 7, 2024 23:30:35 GMT -5
Post by jforce on Jul 7, 2024 23:30:35 GMT -5
Completed the first two episodes and took a peek at the remaining two. Excellent stuff, while it's limit removing it really feels like it could be a very well detailed vanilla wad. I appreciated in particular the choice to do away with the IWAD themes for each episode, coming up with your own instead. Are the sky textures yours? Considering how polished the package is, with custom skies and pics and all, I admit I'm a bit puzzled at the choice to retain the IWAD music. Not that I mind, I guess I just listened to those MIDIs so many times it's sort of difficult to separate them from their IWAD maps. Just one small note: in the .txt file you say the megawad is "limit removing (vanilla doom goodness)." Keep in mind that, almost universally, 'vanilla' refers to vanilla format, which is mutually exclusive with limit-removing. Some people are super anal about that kind of imprecisions.
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Frayed
Jul 7, 2024 23:33:18 GMT -5
Post by jforce on Jul 7, 2024 23:33:18 GMT -5
I appreciate the feedback! Glad you liked it. The first three skies are ones I found a long time ago online. The fourth one is originally a freedoom sky but I added the black hole effect to it.
I kept the original music just because I love classic Doom haha.
I suck when it comes to the correct terms of things, I always get Limit removing and vanilla confused.
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Frayed
Jul 9, 2024 4:44:24 GMT -5
Post by nikolanchik on Jul 9, 2024 4:44:24 GMT -5
I played a few levels of the first episode, I like the simple design and the length of the levels. But sometimes, strangely for me, the textures of the doors and the elevator are used
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Frayed
Jul 9, 2024 14:38:34 GMT -5
Post by AskYourDrAboutUVFast on Jul 9, 2024 14:38:34 GMT -5
thanks for sharing jforce and welcome. These maps look very good and play pretty well, really gave me a nostalgia trip. I won't beat around the bush, the combat started out a bit rough... My big advice would be to hand out more ammo, I found myself always being out of shells when i needed them most, and there are many times in the first two maps where i wind up just sitting still pistoling big hallways of enemies which is rather boring. Youre selling me run-n-gun but my first impression of your wad is where is the gun??? Luckily things started to pick up around e1m3 and I'm looking forward to playing the rest of the maps. a few other misc. notes i glossed over in the video: e1m2 - I think part of the reason the starting lift switch is so annoying is because of the sector 5 crate which the player is always bumping into when trying to hit the switch or get from the switch to the lift. I would recommend just removing that crate. e1m3 - line 1506 should be a repeatable action instead of a one-time use. I was able to softlock myself by skipping line 1204 (the W1 floor raise action) and triggering it after hitting the single use floor lower switch. If you place your action linedefs on a diagonal instead of running parallel to the grid, it will help you avoid these problems.
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Frayed
Jul 9, 2024 17:14:13 GMT -5
Post by jforce on Jul 9, 2024 17:14:13 GMT -5
thanks for sharing jforce and welcome. These maps look very good and play pretty well, really gave me a nostalgia trip. I won't beat around the bush, the combat started out a bit rough... My big advice would be to hand out more ammo, I found myself always being out of shells when i needed them most, and there are many times in the first two maps where i wind up just sitting still pistoling big hallways of enemies which is rather boring. Youre selling me run-n-gun but my first impression of your wad is where is the gun??? Luckily things started to pick up around e1m3 and I'm looking forward to playing the rest of the maps. a few other misc. notes i glossed over in the video: e1m2 - I think part of the reason the starting lift switch is so annoying is because of the sector 5 crate which the player is always bumping into when trying to hit the switch or get from the switch to the lift. I would recommend just removing that crate. e1m3 - line 1506 should be a repeatable action instead of a one-time use. I was able to softlock myself by skipping line 1204 (the W1 floor raise action) and triggering it after hitting the single use floor lower switch. If you place your action linedefs on a diagonal instead of running parallel to the grid, it will help you avoid these problems.
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Frayed
Jul 9, 2024 17:19:37 GMT -5
Post by jforce on Jul 9, 2024 17:19:37 GMT -5
Thank you for your suggestions! Nice video too! I was inspired by a wad called Deathless by James Paddock. The idea was "ammo conservation" the challenge of having your back up against a wall and not having much ammo. having to kill shotgunners for shells rather than finding it lying around. Though this wad does become a lot more generous with ammo as it goes on, It still gets tight at times. I see what you mean about the small crates in E1M2, I actually edited that out. As far as the annoying factor of having to fall down into the start area and re-use the lift, My idea was to challenge the player to make that jump and in doing so it triggers the door/lowering wall. also, I did correct that switch in E1M3 to SR. thank you for pointing that out. Thank you for playing and glad you partially liked the maps ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png)
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Frayed
Jul 10, 2024 17:20:58 GMT -5
Post by mayhemicdestrvctor on Jul 10, 2024 17:20:58 GMT -5
like how you used those UAC doors to specificy to the player that those are open-able. i wish you could climb the metal to reach the ammo the zombies dropped tho. forgot the name of the difficulty but its pretty nice in all honesty, reminds me of the first doom WAD john romero released. i cant manage to progress beyond the very first level after all that alcohol but it looks nice, kinda like a mix of episode 1 and 3... i dont know how this game even works and i keep dyin but im havin fun and you achieved that so keep mappin my man.
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Frayed
Jul 10, 2024 22:49:16 GMT -5
Post by jforce on Jul 10, 2024 22:49:16 GMT -5
Thank you much! I hope you figure out my maps ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) I really think you'll enjoy them. I appreciate the support sir! I will keep on mappin.
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Frayed
Jul 11, 2024 1:18:56 GMT -5
Post by AskYourDrAboutUVFast on Jul 11, 2024 1:18:56 GMT -5
Thank you for your suggestions! Nice video too! I was inspired by a wad called Deathless by James Paddock. The idea was "ammo conservation" the challenge of having your back up against a wall and not having much ammo. having to kill shotgunners for shells rather than finding it lying around. Though this wad does become a lot more generous with ammo as it goes on, It still gets tight at times. I see.. I haven't played deathless, but I may have to check that out to see how it compares to this and see how closely you followed the inspiration.
It may be a good idea to put that in your wad description so players know what they are in for. There aren't any real hard and fast rules for what constitutes certain types of gameplay, but to me when you advertise the wad as "run and gun" it makes me think of going real fast and blowing shit up (skillsaw comes to mind), and not so much gameplay that consists of scrounging up every possible scrap of ammo and health I can find in the map but still constantly coming up short-handed. I sort of think that if I had a better expectation of what I was in for from the start, I could have adjusted my expectations and even my play-style to better adapt to the wad (I have some stubborn habits like not grabbing the chainsaw, but I may have to break them to finish your maps). But again, everyone is going to have a different opinion on how a certain style of play is defined, so take it with a grain of salt.
One other question I had was if you had anybody to help you playtest the maps? Sometimes when we try to balance our own maps the difficulty can be skewed because we know all the little facets of the map including where all the resources are, where the enemies are going to ambush us from, ambush composition, directions of attack, where the linedef triggers are, etc, etc. I wondered if maybe these were all self-tested and that might be why they are so incredibly light on resources?
Anyways, here are some more playthroughs of your maps. There is a lot to like here, I think you have a very good handle on texturing and detailing, as well as player progression...but there are also going to be times where I am running around with almost no health and zero ammo, which leads to moments of frustration.
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Frayed
Jul 11, 2024 8:13:13 GMT -5
Post by use3d on Jul 11, 2024 8:13:13 GMT -5
Hello and welcome J-Force! Thanks for posting this, it looks amazing! I can't wait to play it.
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Frayed
Jul 11, 2024 11:48:18 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by jforce on Jul 11, 2024 11:48:18 GMT -5
Hello and welcome J-Force! Thanks for posting this, it looks amazing! I can't wait to play it.
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Frayed
Jul 11, 2024 11:49:36 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by jforce on Jul 11, 2024 11:49:36 GMT -5
Hello use3d, thank you very much! I appreciate that! Hope you enjoy my maps! They are a bit tight on ammo (intentionally) so the chainsaw is a go to at many points.
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Frayed
Jul 11, 2024 11:49:50 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by jforce on Jul 11, 2024 11:49:50 GMT -5
Thank you for your suggestions! Nice video too! I was inspired by a wad called Deathless by James Paddock. The idea was "ammo conservation" the challenge of having your back up against a wall and not having much ammo. having to kill shotgunners for shells rather than finding it lying around. Though this wad does become a lot more generous with ammo as it goes on, It still gets tight at times. I see.. I haven't played deathless, but I may have to check that out to see how it compares to this and see how closely you followed the inspiration.
It may be a good idea to put that in your wad description so players know what they are in for. There aren't any real hard and fast rules for what constitutes certain types of gameplay, but to me when you advertise the wad as "run and gun" it makes me think of going real fast and blowing shit up (skillsaw comes to mind), and not so much gameplay that consists of scrounging up every possible scrap of ammo and health I can find in the map but still constantly coming up short-handed. I sort of think that if I had a better expectation of what I was in for from the start, I could have adjusted my expectations and even my play-style to better adapt to the wad (I have some stubborn habits like not grabbing the chainsaw, but I may have to break them to finish your maps). But again, everyone is going to have a different opinion on how a certain style of play is defined, so take it with a grain of salt.
One other question I had was if you had anybody to help you playtest the maps? Sometimes when we try to balance our own maps the difficulty can be skewed because we know all the little facets of the map including where all the resources are, where the enemies are going to ambush us from, ambush composition, directions of attack, where the linedef triggers are, etc, etc. I wondered if maybe these were all self-tested and that might be why they are so incredibly light on resources?
Anyways, here are some more playthroughs of your maps. There is a lot to like here, I think you have a very good handle on texturing and detailing, as well as player progression...but there are also going to be times where I am running around with almost no health and zero ammo, which leads to moments of frustration.
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Frayed
Jul 11, 2024 11:54:09 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by jforce on Jul 11, 2024 11:54:09 GMT -5
Yes, the chainsaw is often times a must and pistol starting These maps proves to be extremely challenging.
My son play tested all my maps. Otherwise I built all the maps solo. I had as mentioned earlier, ammo conservation in mind. And the chainsaw is a must at times. It is extremely effective against cacodemons as well.
Health is very tight often, but other times it is generous (if secrets are found)
I often make secrets tough to find but fairly rewarding to the player.
I didn’t want this wad to be so easy as to the player never runs low on ammo and may have overdone the idea of “ammo conservation” but the chainsaw does come in handy quite often.
I appreciate the feedback though.
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40oz
diRTbAg
Posts: 5,937
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Frayed
Jul 12, 2024 16:50:41 GMT -5
Post by 40oz on Jul 12, 2024 16:50:41 GMT -5
i cant get past e1m2. did you update the wad? i see in the video above, theres a switch that biz is pressing but the same switch is doing nothing for me.
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Frayed
Jul 12, 2024 18:42:29 GMT -5
Post by jforce on Jul 12, 2024 18:42:29 GMT -5
Hello, I corrected the issue. for some reason that switch had an unknown linedef.. It has been corrected.
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40oz
diRTbAg
Posts: 5,937
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Frayed
Jul 14, 2024 17:13:24 GMT -5
Post by 40oz on Jul 14, 2024 17:13:24 GMT -5
jforce I played episode 1 using an infinite ammo patch* based on the comments from others about light ammo. I had a pretty good time for the most part, but the health was pretty light too. If my health is high, I cruised through the maps without a problem, but if I take a few unlucky shotgun blasts, then I'm left hanging for pretty long stretches between stimpacks and medikits which was anxiety-inducing I liked the attention to texture alignment and the continuity/consistency in the texture motifs across the maps. Very professional looking. You don't usually see Doom 2 textures used in Doom 1 maps but they fit in pretty nicely here. I liked it! One thing that kinda nagged me a bit was how often the map layouts loop in on themselves -- perhaps prematurely, I think? There were a few too many times across just about all of the maps where I follow a route only to be dumped off back into a place I've already been in, often without carrying a new key or any significant change to the map. So I'll have to retrace my steps on previously taken routes to see if there's an open door or some hallway I missed. By the time I reached the end of the episode it had happened so many times it almost felt like you were playing a joke on me. Many of the switches are usually not very clear as to what they are activating. Some of the lifts in this map probably could have used an automation trigger so they activate as you approach them instead of expecting the player to use them. Overall I think its pretty good but I would definitely advise giving the player a bit more resources. Sometimes some medikits in the exit room or an extra shell box at the start of the map can go a long way. Especially for the first episode. You can hang the player out to dry on their own in episodes 2 in 3 I think. (*) I've played every classic megawad and thousands of single level pwads from pistol start. I hope that's enough to qualify me to say that I have learned many dozens of micro-strategies to manage my ammo conservatively, its just over the many years I've been playing Doom, I don't actually enjoy playing Doom this way, even if I emerge victorious. I find this more stressful than a challenge, if that makes sense.
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40oz
diRTbAg
Posts: 5,937
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Frayed
Jul 15, 2024 20:47:03 GMT -5
Post by 40oz on Jul 15, 2024 20:47:03 GMT -5
i got stuck on e2m5, fortunately i did save right before i locked myself in there. I would advise doing a quick pass at your maps with no monsters on to ensure that the linedef actions are all functional and you can reach the exit every time. after this drop, theres a switch at the end of the hall that does something but i didnt see any action take place and nothing i shot at or wallhumped at got me out of there.
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