Dominus Diabolus - Episode 1 released (updated 5/18)

[Bofubutt]

Yeah, I can live with the instagib trap if I am given more than cryptic clues. The other problem with the coloured torches is that I had to memorize the whole sequence.

And yes, getting the BFG in MAP10 is slightly annoying indeed. I was not going to complain about it, but now that you mention it, you might want to take away the timed puzzle and just have the secret switch lower the stair section permanently.

Exactly what I've done, in fact! The blue part of the stairs now lowers permanently. The main purpose of the switch was to make sure the player had to deal with the Baron before grabbing the BFG, but permanently lowering the stair section still does exactly that.

[Bofubutt]

MAP11 is now available, completing Episode 1, and multiple significant changes have been made to previous maps:

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MAP01

• New MIDI track.
• Made some layout changes, particularly to the yellow key area.
• Added a handful of enemies.
• Increased weapon, armor, health, and ammunition availability.
• Made visual improvements in various parts of the level, most noticeably the nukage pool and yellow key area.

MAP02

• New MIDI track.
• Added a new room.
• Added a handful of enemies.
• Increased weapon, armor, health, and ammunition availability.
• Changed the contents of some secrets around.
• Rebuilt the room behind the blue key door.
• Changed some enemy types.
• Made the Lost Soul nukage trap a little less daunting and a lot more worth it.
• Overhauled the appearance of several areas, particularly the front lobby the area leading to the blue key door.
• Changed the method of opening a secret.
• Various graphical tweaks in other areas.

MAP03

• Made the super shotgun readily accessible earlier in the map and replaced the secret with something else.
• Made the former super shotgun secret a little more obvious.
• Changed the method of opening some secrets.
• Can't cheese the end anymore.
• Increased weapon, armor, health, and ammunition availability.
• Various graphical tweaks in other areas.

MAP04

• Made the super shotgun readily accessible earlier in the map.
• Increased weapon, armor, health, and ammunition availability.
• Made the lava pit with the rocket launcher less lethal and more escapable.
• Lost Souls can now follow the player into the exit area.
• Various graphical tweaks in other areas.

MAP05

• Made the lava less damaging to the player.
• Made slight changes to monster types in some encounters.
• Some minor visual upgrades to a few areas.
• Increased weapon, armor, health, and ammunition availability.
• Fixed some linedefs being incorrectly displayed as one-sided on the automap and hid linedefs that were supposed to be hidden.
• The player can now exit the locker area without the yellow key card.

MAP06

• Increased weapon, armor, health, and ammunition availability.
• Changed the method of opening some secrets.
• Decreased the number of Lost Souls in the blue key area.
• Made the plasma gun secret, soulsphere secret, and mega armor secret a little more obvious.
• The player can now lower the platforms where chaingunnners attack them from.
• Various graphical tweaks in other areas.

MAP07

• No more hunting down Arachnotrons. You'll fight them during the course of the level now.
• Removed the annoying switch hunt from the optional encounter and changed the reward for doing so.
• Changed the contents of some secrets.
• Changed a few monster placements.
• Added some monsters and changed some existing placements and monster types.
• Added a secret.
• After escaping the courtyard encounter, the player can now use a teleporter to more quickly mop up any surviving enemies on the ramparts.
• Increased weapon, armor, health, and ammunition availability.

MAP08

• Certain encounters now trap the player (temporarily) inside of them to prevent cheese.
• Added some monsters to certain encounters and made the encounters more dynamic.
• Made the jumps in the final area much less annoying.
• Made lava throughout the level less damaging.
• Changed the contents of some secrets.
• Made some secrets more obvious, including the blue key, and altered the location of others.
• Changed the method of opening some secrets.
• Increased weapon, armor, health, and ammunition availability.

MAP09

• New MIDI track.
• Changed up the torch puzzle room and made the order more obvious. The first room will allow the player to enter each door without killing them, but the wrong doors will take the player back to the beginning of the puzzle the first time they're taken. Subsequent wrong choices in any room will kill the player but also provide additional feedback.
• Added a secondary method to kill the Spider Mastermind.
• Altered some of the monster types in a few encounters.
• Increased weapon, armor, health, and ammunition availability.
• Various graphical tweaks in other areas.

MAP10

• Made the BFG secret much less annoying.
• Added a small number of enemies.
• The player can no longer escape the final encounter until they make it through to the end.
• Went for the memes.
• Increased weapon, armor, health, and ammunition availability.

MAP11

• MAP11: Go To Hell is now available. By far the toughest map, especially if you go the completionist route. Now that you've arrived at the UAC Slipgate Facility, you must fight your way through and open the portal to Hell so that you can take the demons out at their source.

New download link is here.

[JohnnyTheWolf]

Excellent! Thank you. I will check it out as soon as possible.

[Bofubutt]

Excellent! Thank you. I will check it out as soon as possible.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it!

I'm particularly fond of the new music tracks, and Lee Jackson wrote the music for MAP11. I'm also a lot happier with some of the early levels, which are less grindy in terms of resources. This does make them a bit easier, so it's entirely possible I might bring up the difficulty of MAP01-MAP03 in particular to be slightly more consistent with the rest of the levels, but right now, the difficulty curve feels very smooth yet broad to me, as MAP11 is definitely the hardest level in the whole set.

[ActionAlligator]

looks interesting, very impressive for your first map set will give it a try sometime and report back

[Bofubutt]

looks interesting, very impressive for your first map set will give it a try sometime and report back

Let me know what you think! I'm looking forward to it.

I'm making some good progress on MAP12, which is the start of the Hell episode (what's the episode after Hell? that's a secret). Expect even bigger fights where you'll have to think on the fly, think about which enemies are the biggest threat, and deal with them before you get overrun.