Doom II - Stellar Depopulation (Blind Ultra-Violence 100%)

[@Malefication]

Thanks for the lovely playthrough and educational comments! Sick intro too! We sorted the complevel stuff, it was caused by me being confused during submission thinking "I'm not using GZDoom stuff so Doom2 sounds right", it's tested with Boom. I must also apologize for the confusion, I need to clarify that this isn't the first map I ever made, it's the 3rd I ever uploaded to Doomworld and I very much am a noob. I enjoy reading commentary by authors so I might as well give it ago if anyone cares. My early memories of Plutonia were basically "WTF are these BS chaingunner and revenant traps?!" so that's the core Plutonia inspo for Stellar Depopulation. I set out to give the map more detail (hence broken walls with computer stuff and slime etc.) with more focus on lightning as well, but there are certainly several areas that fall quite flat. The ending part with the platforming and mancubi feels like filler in hindsight and is a far worse area than what came just before. The revenants in the trap in the area before getting the red key sometimes blocked me and I've died there a fair few times but it looked easy AF here, I should have expected that! The rock-climbing area actually has quite purposeful design. Ideally the player doesn't have loads of ammo and isn't keen on killing the arachnotron. There are plenty of hiding spots on the way up as well as some stone parts to break LoS and provide cover. After grabbing the blue key, Doomguy is teleported to the arachnotron's location thus telefragging it. In practice, however, it doesn't really work out since it's unintuitive and safer to kill it before the ascent. Purposefully leaving it alive makes it more exciting! So if anyone has any feedback on how to implement that idea better in practice, I'm all ears :D (PS the double-secret is more visible on the way up too, check 7:38 for example and the big dark piece of wall where the secret is! Not something one thinks of perhaps, don't think anyone has gotten those secrets on their first playthrough that I know of) The blue key room is one of the two areas I'm actually proud of in this map. I've died a fair few times here too but should of course have expected it to be handled expertly here. I'm grateful of the music's timing and really, really happy you enjoyed the fight! I wanted to get the adrenaline pumping with the uncertainty of the darkness and the tight pillars making rockets more risky when dodging revenants and then the archvile. Spent quite a lot of time tinkering with the timing of the lowering of bars/archvile to ensure it doesn't arrive too soon, nor so late that the revenants are easily wiped out. Really am elated it was enjoyable! The pillar/vile room is the other area/fight I think is good here. Here too I wanted to light a fire under the player's ass with the wall lowering. I made sure the viles reach anyone who tries to retreat back down the stairs. There are plenty of nooks to hide behind to avoid the archviles' LoS but I intended for the other enemies there to also pressure the player out of said hiding spots. I tried to intentionally limit the player's ammo so they are pushed forward to explore rather than be stocked up and able to snipe the archviles from the very first area. Hence the place with 3 boxes of rockets etc. There too I wanted the player to feel pressure, restock on rockets but ambushing revenants right behind, hidden from view until the player gets to that area. Revenants on one side, but a rather small area of safety from the archviles as well. The final revenant and archvile ambush there is probably unnecessary though. Sadly the level doesn't quite end on a high note, the brown room could just as well be removed or reworked a lot. But I am proud of the blue key room and archvile pillars. Huge thanks to Decino for showcasing the map, being understanding of the complevel issues and educational as well. Thanks for all the positive comments I've read here too

[@decino]

Thank you for the submission! It's a great map for a self-proclaimed newbie with some pretty damn solid combat encounters. The complevel thing is not a big deal, if anything it helps us develop the submissions app to make it more user intuitive when choosing between those stupid Doom engine differences. Keep up the good work.

[@AB0BA_69]

Awesome map, dude! Got it downloaded and playing it tonight. What inspired the name of the map? Just something that sounds cool? 😊 Edit: And where did you get that MIDI??

[@Malefication]

Hope you enjoy it! Name is from another song, Stellar Depopulation by Wormed. Wouldn’t really be suitable as music for a map tho :D I don’t remember exactly where I grabbed the MIDI, but it wasnone of those sites that… host loads of MIDI versions of songs. Do ’t remember how I ended up going for exactly that song either. I just remember that I at the time didn’t feel like I had earned the use of a track someone in the community had made, so I wanted to use something completely unrelated gg

[@onlyJONDIS]

The visuals and gameplay both seem very solid in this map. I think i would have got owned at the quad archvile section - especially when pumpkin man ran round that corner and there was all of a sudden revenants messing up his ass.

[@scalewingedprophet2975]

Man, that's looked like a newb-made map (let's keep it real) but it's still very exciting! You have a feel of DooM so keep up! Hope to see new maps. PS: Btw this one reminded me of old hope to see something like "doom-in-single-map". Like map that will tell a story of doom or doom 2 in one map. Not sure it existing yet..

[@13mungoman13]

For those who are curious, the music playing in this map is a MIDI arrangement of A Dying Wish by Anathema!

[@decino]

Also shown during the intro in the bottom left corner.

[@13mungoman13]

@@decino Oop, my bad! I missed that and went to the Doomworld page to look that up. Thanks for letting me know!

[@Raiggonaxes]

@@13mungoman13 I missed it too dw XD

[@Runie549]

@@13mungoman13 I missed it as well, thank you XD

[@BunnyOnASnuman]

Decino the type of guy that sees unexpected behaviour and immediately knows the compatibility option that's messing with it

[@mike4starr]

"I dont think this map will be ... (5 revenants walk in screaming) too.... difficult"

[@shukterhousejive]

Man, that was a blast for a first map, the world's thinnest staircase cracked me up

[@worldoffood123]

Good thing he played in GZdoom! That would almost impossible to climb with elastic collisions lol

[@Malefication]

@@worldoffood123 It really ain't that bad, I playtested it almost entirely in GL/PrBoom+ :D Finicky but not too bad if you just walk slowly!

[@AB0BA_69]

7:56 I tried to physically dodge out of the way of the projectile while eating dinner at a cafe. Thanks for all the strange looks I got, Pumpkinman! 😅

[@Chunes3]

This mapper's got a bright future! They already know how to make interesting encounters which is usually what new mappers struggle with most I feel.

[@FilipeDoValeGalvao]

I love this super shotgun mann. 2:13

[@proydoha8730]

Always love when post run UDB investigation is included

[@JangianTV]

Not just E4M2, that Caco ambush, and shotgunner bait, is also reminiscent of Tricks and Traps.

[@E53061]

The song is by Anathema - A Dying Wish.

[@decino]

Yup, as shown in the video's intro.

[@datcrazytwitch3677]

@@decino reminds also of kzbin.info/www/bejne/aoCvknV8d5aAn8k

[@PiotrWieczorek]

​@@datcrazytwitch3677that's exactly what tge guitar sounded like for me!

[@caxide]

Anathema! Hope you're doin' well, Pumpkin Man.

[@gigaslave]

Decino has been busy being Dadcino, but it's nice to see him find some time to play Doom.

[@osamaaj]

Never thought I'd hear an old Anathema song in DOOM. This brings back memories 🥲

[@makrostheblack4791]

Oooh, that really thin staircase was an awesome idea for hiding a secret! Nice looking level!!! Music kept reminding me of the Airwolf theme!

[@metalslug3fan]

Didn't think to see another video from you this soon. But it sure is a nice surprise :)

[@Brucifer2]

One of my favorite things about your content specifically is that you like to focus on level details alot. I dont see alot of other channels doing that often. Level design is one of my favorite things to look at in Doom.

[@Raiggonaxes]

Yes! It's an analytical approach where Pumpkinman enjoys a good scrap too. Love it and so happy to see you slaying demon hordes again Decino

[@noises4978]

a lot is two words

[@Raiggonaxes]

@@noises4978 That's some great advice. Thanks alot.

[@MuTheSlime]

Absolutely awesome awesome flavor detail at 14:29, when the platform raises out of the damaging floor, the toxic muck texture raises with it, before vanishing when it reaches the top. This gives it a convincing effect that some of the sludge is being carried up with the platform, and is pouring off the sides as it's raising. The icing on the cake is that the platform *itself* is a heavily chipped away at rectangle shape, giving the impression that the raisable platform has been in the toxic sludge for years, and is already half gone from corrosion!

[@8LegoVogel8]

Usually when Decino starts secret hunting I'm screaming at my screen. But the mini-staircase and second secret, very clever, but also very quick find, I'd never would've thought of that.

[@BladeTrain3r]

Some really nice ideas in this map, a little more time and experience should bring us a fine new mapper.

[@lecoindugamer7644]

A really cool looking old school map ive always liked old fashioned style maps they really remember me of when my dad downloaded some maps on the internet long ago that i played and i had fun but damn i never really expected that custom maps could be this much fun. The difficulty that the maps were was insane if we would compare the fact that i struggled on doom 2 at hmp back then and plutonia looked impossible. Good memories

[@Qoko88]

The area that reminded you of Abbatoire did for me the moment the Mancs got revealed when going up the platforming! I know it so well because it was the first part in the IWADs where I ended up dying repeatedly whilst single-segmenting and that got really frustrating. Should have just saved and practiced but ended up going through with the repeats and made it. After that, not much bothered me except for map 29. Very solid first map, good variety of texturing and some solid tough encounters. As for the switch... interestingly, I played a map today that's on the DOOM WAD World channel that also has a generalized door relatively early in the map; now that was on me, because the text file said 'May not run with: vanilla/limit-removing'. So, yeah. Mistake can be on either end 😂. Do concur the different options are confusing.

[@OisirM]

I actually really like maps like this. To me in a weird way they capture the feeling of original doom much better than some of the ambitious packs do. To me there's a strong charm in a simpler, more gradual escalation in difficulty; a lot of maps seem to really want you to constantly be fighting epic thousand-demon arenas that rely on constantly dashing around, infighting, etc. This one actually feels more like, well, a classic game to me, you start off fairly small and you work your way through escalating packs of enemies. It feels like you are progressing, in other words. The map may be less visually impressive than some of the tech or hell-scapes that grand arena slaughters, but it feels in a way a bit more organic, more alive. And frankly, the gameplay is fair. I say this as someone who was never excellent at Doom and frankly has the reaction speed of a mollusc under a steamroller. I like that I'm not getting dropped into a pit of cyberdemons, and instead the difficulty is positioning and ambushes, but ones that I am equipped to deal with by just moving through the map.

[@karlk5801]

I was going to say the same. I logged onto KZbin today and @Malefication delivered me an absolutely classic Doom feeling experience. Every monster matters and was put there to surprise or pressure you, not outnumber you. Thanks to @decino as well for boldly stumbling into every trap and finding his way out with panache. Very enjoyable viewing experience.

[@Nob1ej0n]

This was a really good showcase. And a very good first map! I appreciated the use of light and shadow, the interesting and diverse geometry, and the tough but forgiving arena battles, with a good balance of complimentary monsters and generous cover. Decino, thanks for the breakdown in Ultimate Doom Builder. That was informative and educational. This map makes me want to try map making again. 17:53 Blink and you miss it, but there was just one more armor bonus along the wall just on the right side of the screen. That would have probably been 100% items.

[@MaggiesBirds]

VERY solid first map! Great job Malefication!

[@Raiggonaxes]

100%

[@kaylzshter6153]

I loved that imp getting that skelly-boy in the beginning. It's great to see you still posting, I hope all is well with the family!

[@dinitroacetylen]

10:55 -- the design here is simple, but the combat... not quite so simple. The mapper's got some talent.

[@pannomic]

This midi was so god choice... fit to well with the action that the level offer to the player. I remember asking for a tutorial about engine and sourceports and you address the Dwars videos about that topic, really helpful for understand the weird differences :)

[@Damien.D]

Cool map. Nice layout. A bit lacking in details and eye candies, but some good rendition of exterior and natural scenery. The World Thinest Staircase™ (trademark totally deserved) is well design, didn't spot it at all. Love that kind of trick.

[@TheRogueWolf]

For a first-time map, the secrets were nicely placed.

[@Aikisbest]

I really like this series with the viewer submissions, it has great variety and a lot of content, as watching someone play a megawad can sometimes make things a bit too repetitive since many wads are made around a theme or in similar fashions from map to map.

[@coryfusting9294]

Great map to watch after a long day and Anathema are criminally underrated.

[@XzMondayNightzX]

Unwritten rule -> All secrets in a secret must contain one megasphere. Tiny staircases not included.

[@georgeheilman885]

The midi and the map have a great TNT vibe. Impressive work.

[@BRSQUIRRL]

Decino: "Something tells me this map shouldn't be too difficult." (a dozen platforms with Revenants suddenly lower) Decino: "Oh, ok...."

[@adinocc2042]

That was a great map. A lot of fun to watch!

[@nameunknown8383]

Awesome map with an even better Midi. Can't believe it's age, what a relic!

[@LENKRAD]

Great playthrough. The soundtrack was also awesome.

[@SadraxBrightwood]

Well now i wanna see you playing Supplice with this level of detail noticing :D

[@northernlefty5412]

After a long hard day, I'm happy to see these videos again.

[@DooshieV]

Another Decino playthrough already? The glory days are back boys. 😎

[@Beanie-Babe]

what a wonderful map! love watching you play these :)

[@gxthchxra]

decino never fails to fill us up with his delicious and clear content everytime

[@cretinhisterian]

Yummy 😋

[@NekoKhris]

Huge fan of the thin staircase, I love design like that

[@augustogodoy2535]

I never understand how you handle secrets in the map, it's incredible

[@ItsBofu]

Not a bad beginner map, and the combats were interesting. I hope Malefiction keeps making maps and hones their craft.

[@cheeseburgerbeefcake]

Nice map, good work Malefication!

[@kiertronik8035]

I really liked the music in this map

[@Muscleduck]

That as a fun an d interesting one to watch as well. Really well done for a first map!

[@Olek54321]

Those last 2 secrets were very well hidden, good job to map maker :D I don't think I would ever find it myself haha

[@Muladeseis]

Those teleporting monsters were fair placed.

[@rhainehook4544]

What an awesome community you have here.

[@Ertamperometer]

Went from Pumpkin to Mountain Goat for those last two secrets. Really cool staircase.

[@neuroharmonics]

Great video! Now I want to try this map myself

[@Kingdramana]

Nice timing with themusic indeed!

[@victoralvarado2621]

Health 99% Decino: I'm getting rekt

[@the_nyancat972]

Personal opinion but the music in this level is very good, I like it

[@paulsibilleau3639]

Those Last 2 Secrets, doe...those stair's were so thin! GG! 😎

[@crit-c4637]

4:00 that button opened the secret with the mega armor, it just had no sound attached to it.

[@sakitoshi]

afaik, that happens when you use a switch action on a wall with a regular texture instead of a switch texture.

[@Fyshtako]

That was a really nice map!

[@silverroddo1468]

Thin stair cases always reminds me of that climb from a dark pit in a Doom 64 tech base, the one with a pain-elemental on the other side light platforming.

[@lukebehrendsbro.]

Man how I missed your videos bro! Sorry for a bit of a late post here but still, that was a fun map here. Always great to see you around my guy. Hope you had a great time with your family. 🙂

[@wolfiespider9267]

AAAAAAAAAAAH! - A Revenant

[@adamruzenec-freerunning9838]

Very original idea for secret, very nice.

[@perteks7639]

That staircase was very nice

[@askthedoctor8696]

Woohoo! Halloween again!💪🏻

[@alexandersmith6140]

19:12 - "I saw that" - *How* do you see things like that? I've seen in other videos where you need to see like only a single frame of a rocket launcher as you straferun past the door to a new room to go "Ooh there's a rocket launcher in that room." If I played this map, I would see that odd texture on the wall only if I turned and paused to deliberately look at the landscape; there is just *no way* I'd ever be able to simply turn and jump from the backpack nook and still recognize what amounts to 1% of screen space as different from its background texture. Have you always had this hyper-rapid eye that darts to details like this?

[@decino]

It's probably harder to see because of YT's compression, but the shimmering white pixels of the steps were pretty visible to me.

[@southpakrules]

A decino day is a good doomday.

[@DEdens1525]

Loved the music.

[@iguana9173]

Excellent video for the day. Really enjoyed it.

[@Artyomann]

That one moment on 14:09 immediately reminded me of Plutonia's map08

[@RaketoQ]

Great Map, great playing

[@lucierymelez9204]

Hiii new perfect video thanks decino 💜🥳💜

[@abecks8093]

Awesome midi!

[@l3iggi3]

Babe, wake up; Pumpkin Man dropped a new vid...

[@kulrigalestout]

Moonspell! took me forever to place where i heard the song

[@decino]

It's A Dying Wish from Anathema.

[@kulrigalestout]

@@decino ah. sounded familiar, guess I was wrong. Good news; new band to check out!

[@Gougaru]

Return of the Mac

[@HavasiP]

Power of the kvarg!

[@DinnerForkTongue]

The only Doom content I can think of that you cannot play in GZ are maps that require the intercept overflow bug like Abscission map32, and Eternity Engine wads like Heartland. Solid map even for a beginner with some experience. For a novice's very first effort, it's excellent.

[@Zieleslaw]

Mutabor (Tourniquet's great WAD) map02 did not work for me in GZDoom due to different voodoo doll handling; Eviternity II has less issues with DSDA. Some BoSCP maps did not load at all and some had heavy performance issues... and just take a look at Twogers DoomWorld topic. I "converted" to DSDA-Doom and it's far more pleasant and universal after initial learning :) .

[@multigamer856]

Interesting. I can't even run Eviternity II with GZDoom, it runs an error for me, but it works in DSDA, so I don't know what's up with that. There was 1 Eternity map in Doomworld Maximum Project 2021 that didn't work (I got stuck), so yeah Eternity maps don't work with GZ.

[@DinnerForkTongue]

@@multigamer856 What version of GZ are you using? In v4.11.3 it runs fit as a fiddle.

[@multigamer856]

Could be a little outdated, I don't know right now, cause my notebook is being repaired, but I think 4.1.1.0. That is the issue then. Should have guessed it was the outdated version that was the fault.

[@multigamer856]

@@DinnerForkTongue I got latest version of GZ (4.12.1) and Eviternity II still doesn't work with it for me :D.

[@Jaegerschnitzel209]

Holy sh!t this midi is fire

[@TheRuinsfate]

Change of pace today; video in the background while building a giant lego set I got myself :3

[@madson-web]

The secret part was pretty funny

[@jastaples85]

“Stellar Depopulation” is also an awesome song by a band called Wormed. Would make a lousy Doom midi though.

[@Malefication]

That's the inspiration for the map name ;) Struggled thinking of a name, Stellar Depopulation came on while listening through Exodromos on the way home from work all those years ago and it immediately clicked. "That's the name the map will have!"

[@benpurdy7459]

Great video as always! Seeing a more newbie map is nice, especially as someone who is just getting into mapping. Any idea when the next viewer submissions might be so i cna try and get a map in?

[@decino]

No idea yet. There's still 23 submissions left to record and I can't tell how long that will take to wrap up.

[@benpurdy7459]

@@decino ah, yeah I don't expect to see it for a while, but excited to none the less! Your videos are the reason I got into doom mapping so having you play a map I made would be dope as heck

[@riba2233]

Haha those thin stairs were really cool! Btw you can use resurrection if needed, instead of rewind.

[@decino]

Resurrection kind of messes with monsters in teleporter closets staying dormant under certain circumstances.

[@riba2233]

@@decino yeah snd it also deletes the berserk :) but sometimes it can really save you, like a last resort

[@allesklarklaus147]

nice map

[@crit-c4637]

Default auto-aim setting for gzdoom is the same as vanilla, however it does have a block map bug fix.

[@nerdysoldier]

Yay

[@abecks8093]

Add welcome back Pumpkin man!

[@dreadwanderer]

A shame about the broken switch in DSDA, but for a novice mapper it's really excellent!

[@decino]

In hindsight a simple TNTCOMP into complevel 9 would've fixed it, but GZDoom is my guaranteed safety net.

[@DinnerForkTongue]

​​@@decino For wads in complevels below 21, if you have an AMD GPU you can also use VKDoom for improved performance. Vulkan runs much better than OpenGL.

[@dreadwanderer]

​@@decino Agreed, and good call on streamlining the submission questions in order to eliminate any ambiguity. There are some cases of wads that are labelled as -cl2 or -cl3 but in fact contain a few maps that need -cl9 for special actions (I think 2022 ADO comes to mind). In that case I just go for -cl9 for all of the maps so I don't have to worry about switching back and forth. Fortunately in the case of 2022 ADO the authors did specify which levels need Boom stuff.

[@dreadwanderer]

​@@DinnerForkTongueWhat's wrong with NVIDIA? Does it not play nice with Vulkan?

[@DinnerForkTongue]

@@dreadwanderer NVidia focuses on OpenGL, and AMD focuses on Vulkan. You don't see much of the latter because it's a harder API to work with for programmers, but its performance is worlds better. Especially on the low end of hardware specs. For reference, I have an RX580 that could easily run Kenosis, the biggest and most demanding map I've ever played in GZDoom, at 50+fps on the huuuuge open area, where even DSDA-Doom on hardware acceleration chugs. My hope is that DSDA gets a Vulkan-oriented branch like GZ did with VKDoom.

[@zylinderkatze]

Aaaaa! It's you! Yay!

[@magmamax]

Another video? Dadcino it's so back!

[@grimv4037]

You should check out the wad “Not even remotely fair” I heard it’s really good!

[@theshep]

Nice

[@MR_ZELE]

1 second 0 views. Pumpkin man fell of?

[@narmale]

😂😂😂

[@decino]

ded chanel covering a ded gaem

[@nitrosnowman7410]

100% UV fortnite run when

[@lecoindugamer7644]

@@decinosad poor duncino

[@southpakrules]

​@@decinoa dad channel covering a dad gemar.

[@slicknik007]

💪💪

[@MineDoom312]

I have a question: if I have a wad with, for example, 6 levels, but they are short, can I put a full wad in the next viewer submission? I mean, would you go through all of them?

[@decino]

One map only just to be safe.

[@MineDoom312]

@@decino Ok, thanks!

[@eldandraken4850]

decino getting rekt and there is not an itallian shooting squad in sight? what is going on?

[@SpacialKatana]

Using gzdoom without mouselook.......melts my brain decino 🤯😝

[@Appreciation-Community]

Cacos rise up!

[@SN-oq3el]

There is a map I would like you to play. One I played 21 years ago 😂, but I can't find it. He was very good, I just remember his midi "Starway to Heaven" by Led Zepelin. Doom Legacy Times 😮