(WORK IN PROGRESS) D2 Singleplayer: Substance (It's Back!)

[Viper1999]

Substance is a Descent 2 mission that I have been working on for 2 years. Originally inspired by Final Doom: Plutonia Experiment I have decided to switch the difficulty for my levels to an average rate. There will be a total of 32 levels (30 levels, 2 secret levels) so it has the same amount of levels as what Doom 2 has. I have only created one level so far which can be played in this preview (Please note that Level 1 has still not been updated yet and will still have it's original difficulty and look).

REMINDER: You don't have to make the levels exactly like Final Doom. You still can if you want to.

A new version of this mission will have a couple of things changed, one of them including the first level. Level 1 (Earth Iron Mine) is going to have a complete change, no longer looking like it's predecessor. I will post pictures of the new level soon so stay tuned! Pictures are now up! Look at my latest post in this topic to see them. Those who want to contribute with level design for this mission, please PM me with your level ideas.


Contributors:
Viper1999 (Me)
LightWolf


Screenshots:







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MIRROR

[Alter-Fox]

I like how it plays... difficulty-wise I did manage a no-deaths run on ace on the first try but it was a challenge.

Visually I think it needs a lot more detailing everywhere.

[Viper1999]

Visually I think it needs a lot more detailing everywhere.

I understand. I'm still not used with DLE-XP yet so I tend to keep level designs simple until it is the time that i'll finally be used to it. This may take months

[Alter-Fox]

Yep, just don't forget to go back and update this one eventually.

[Naphtha]

I only survived with one life out of three on Insane, so it does have the difficulty down. However, I think it's for the wrong reasons, because the level didn't play much like the original Plutonia. It's very rare for Plutonia to overload the player with enemies (can't think of much other than Go 2 It), so most of its difficulty comes from placing the monsters in very tactical positions. I'm actually building a set with similar inspiration in tactical gameplay and balance, so I think it'd be fair to use slightly more difficult robots like Fox Attack Bots and provide light weapons like the Spreadfire early on in exchange for making it with less robots, but in worse positions.

The structure of the level was a nice start. Experimenting with cube structure more is always a good idea as you learn more about the editor, but I want to note there were a few cubes in the trapezoid halls that the editor would have flagged illegal even though Retro didn't actually seem to mind. As you start dabbling with warped cubes more and more, you'll want to check the diagnostics tool frequently to keep concave cubes or other geometry errors from slipping into the final product undetected.

I don't know if I'll have a level idea to spare between working on my own set and helping with Descent 1½, but I really like the concept behind this set and I'd be more than happy to give you any pointers to help you out. Feel free to message me or ask for any advice if you like.

[Xfing]

How interesting! I personally never was a fan of Plutonia because of how dreary the aesthetics were. But it was difficult, alright. Porting that kind of gameplay to Descent is a very interesting undertaking.

[Viper1999]

How interesting! I personally never was a fan of Plutonia because of how dreary the aesthetics were. But it was difficult, alright. Porting that kind of gameplay to Descent is a very interesting undertaking.

Thanks. However this mission may take a few months to complete because i'm also focusing on other projects. Btw if you didn't know, I also create mods for Doom as well as Descent.

[Xfing]

If you get a minute, feel free to drop a map for D1,5 too. The more designers the merrier

[Viper1999]

Hello everyone! I have decided to get back to working on Substance after a two year hiatus. 2015 has been a hard and busy year for me and now that it's over and 2016 has started, it's time for my chance to go back working on this mission.
I'll be releasing another version of Substance either this or next month with a huge change with the first level (Sorry, still no Level 2 yet! ). Also, I have moved on from going with the Final Doom style that this mission originally went with, meaning that most of the levels I'll be making will be at average difficulty.

However, those who are contributing to this mission you may still go with the Final Doom-like style if you want to. Anyway, see you around!

[Viper1999]

I have posted some screenshots of how the new level is going so far (Some rooms are likely subject to change).

[Alter-Fox]

A couple tips to get the combat feeling right, if you'd like them --

I think the mindset to get the most out of a small army like Plutonia did... the designer needs to think like they're playing chess against the player. It will certainly work best if you populate as you're going along and not at the end like a lot of designers do -- although I don't know that you do that. I don't know that you don't, either!
And if you populate as you're going along it's probably best to actually build the maps in the order they'll get played so you don't need to make as many revisions to bot placement later. Looks like you're doing that already though.

[Viper1999]

Hello everyone,

After two years in the making, I have decided to let someone else take over the development of Substance. The reason why I have done this is because I have been too focused on my other projects, which has been eating up my time lately and I never got any spare time at all to work on this project. I have attempted to revive this project once before which did not work as I have planned and I eventually lost interest in this project. I'm not quite sure if I will still be making levels but honestly it really depends.

Please welcome LightWolf as the new coordinator of this project!

A new topic has been started. This is where the development of Substance will be at from now on.
I have a lot of hope with how this project will turn out and I am looking forward to what LightWolf has to offer. Thank you for your time to read this and good luck!