Level Master: Remastered! (v2)

[CutmanMike]

Level Master has finally returned! A Doom 2 mod many have not had an opportunity to play due to past online limitations has been fixed up and revamped for those with fond memories of this mod and new audiences!

Description

Level Master is a mod for Zandronum Doom 2 survival multiplayer. One player is selected as the Level Master, and omnipresent being of absolute power over the minions of hell. At the start of the match he places a rune which the other players must find to win. Once it has been placed, the Level Master is granted the ability to summon monsters and traps into the world to prevent the marines from reaching the exit rune:



Should the heroes fall, the Level Master wins and he stays on as the Level Master! If someone finds the Exit Rune however, the Level Master is defeated and he becomes the new Level Master for the next map. It is a game mode about teamwork, strategy, and being an absolute pain in the ass to your friends. How will you stop the heroes from getting the rune? Will you stalk them and summon monsters in their path? Or gather your resources and prepare a nasty surprise for them at the exit?



Gameplay Tips!

Start the game normally in single player to be given a tutorial. Familiarize yourself with the Level Master's abilities before jumping online!

HUMAN PLAYERS

If you are not chosen as the Level Master, you will be temporarily frozen and blinded. The Level Master places his Exit Rune at this point and you must patiently wait while he chooses a good location. He only has 30 seconds (by default) though so don't expect to be waiting too long. Once he has placed the rune, you will become active again. Now you must play through the level killing anything in your way to try and find the Exit Rune. Watch your back, the Level Master can spawn monsters anywhere where the player cannot see. Try to cover as much ground as possible to make it harder the Level Master to spawn enemies. Also try to move as quickly as you can, as the Level Master gains power from wasted seconds.
The player who finds the Exit Rune will become the Level Master in the next level. When it is picked up, the Level Master dies and the next level will be loaded.

Watch out for traps! They appear on the ground and are barely visible. Enter new areas with caution.
 Keep your distance! The Level Master cannot spawn monsters in your visible range. Abuse this by standing out in the open while your friends search for the Exit Rune.
 Save your ammo! Do you really need to use a SSG blast on that Imp stuck up on a ledge? Save for ammo for Level Master minions that need putting down.
 Keep moving! Don't just stand around. The Level Master regenerates power over time. Taking too long may result in an extra Cyberdemon in your way!

THE LEVEL MASTER

When the Exit Rune is placed (press fire), or you run out of time, you unlock the Level Master's summoning and flying powers. Press weapon forward/backward to choose a different ability. You can only summon a monster if you have the right amount of Mana, which increases over time. You can also only spawn a monster if there's enough room, and if there's no players looking. Even if a player is not facing you, you cannot spawn the monster if the player is in visible range. Try spawning the monster around a nearby corner or behind a pillar if you need to summon one up close.
If the players find the Exit Rune, the game is over and a new level is loaded. If you defeat all the human players, the Level Master stays on and the level is restarted.

Hide the Exit Rune well! Secret areas are pretty obvious. Try somewhere where the player won't look, like that dark corner everyone rushes past or the cliff no one jumps down.
 Save your power! Spamming Zombies may seem like a good idea but they are extremely weak once the human players get their hands on any other weapon.
 Protect key spots! Not only should you protect the Exit Rune, but protecting areas with powerups, weapons and keys can determine the victor!
 Use the level! If you know the level well, you should know where all the monster traps are. Interfere with the level and open up all the traps ready for the human players!

What has changed

Level Master did exist back in 2009 but due to Zandronum limitations it was discontinued. What has changed since then?

Version 1:

(click to show/hide)

Supports more players! Now more than 4 people can play on maps with only 4 spawn points!
 Fixed up scripting means it is more stable and less exploitable!
 New GUI for the Level Master! It shows clearly what he can do with the mana he has available.
 Chains of Hell (stun trap), Earthquake, Fake Exit, Call of Apocalypse (mass aggro) and Soul Harvest have been removed as these abilities were pretty imbalanced or fairly useless.
 New buffs and traps! Double Health and Flight buffs have been added as well as a Slow trap and Tentacle trap to replace Chains of Hell!
 New server options! You can now specify a winlimit for the level master.
 External modding support! Giving the Level Master new powers to support other mods with new monsters etc via patch files is easy! More info later.

Version 2:

(click to show/hide)

Maps now reset after placing the Exit Rune. This means doors will shut and moving terrain will be back to their original state when the game begins, giving the level master more time if he has opened up the map to place the Exit Rune.
 Added a new server option: sv_randomlevelmasters. Setting it to 1 picks a new level master after he hits the winlimit. Setting it to 2 picks a new level master after each round.
 Added Fake Exit Rune trap. It looks identical to the exit rune and disappears when touched. It fades in and out from time to time showing that it is fake.
 Added Resurrection Trap. When triggered by a player a totem pops out the ground and starts Resurrecting fallen enemies around the trap for a few seconds.
 To pick up the exit rune you now have to stand next to it for a few seconds to channel it's power. Moving away from the rune breaks the channel and you have to start the channelling again. While channeling you are immune to stage hazards.
 Lost Soul now costs 6 (down from 10).
 You can no longer spawn Arachnotrons or Mancubi on MAP07 to prevent issues where the players could not proceed.
 Added an error message for failing to teleport to the Exit Rune.
 Level Master increased mana rate doesn't decrease when players die.
 The Level Master now triggers shootable lines/doors by running into them.
 You can now prepare buffs in line of sight of players.
 Recoil traps can be destroyed by shooting them.
 Recoil traps do not trigger if the player is standing perfectly still.
 Spawned monsters no longer infight.
 Changed the default Exit Rune spawn time to 40 seconds (can still be changed with pointlimit).
 Other internal stuff to make mod compatibility better.

Recommended Server Setup

The game mode must be Survival.
You may allow any number of players but many maps will be too easy with large numbers of players.
sv_doubleammo or sv_infiniteammo is recommended for maps with limited ammo if you are allowing lots of players.

A map rotation. Many default maps are too small. Non-linear or long maps are the best. Here is a good map rotation for Doom 2:

Code: [Select]

MAP06, MAP09, MAP10, MAP12, MAP13, MAP14, MAP15, MAP16, MAP17, MAP18, MAP19, MAP20, MAP22, MAP24, MAP25, MAP26, MAP27, MAP29.I recommend experimenting with different Doom2 megawads to see what people like!
Mods that introduce new weapons, monsters, playerclasses etc may break the game until they are properly outfitted for Level Master.

There are some additional controls a host has over the game:
Pointlimit - The amount of seconds a Level Master has to place the exit rune (default is 30).
Winlimit - The amount of Level Master wins before the map changes (default is 3).
set sv_randomlevelmasters. Setting it to 1 picks a new level master after he hits the winlimit. Setting it to 2 picks a new level master after each round.

Download

Download v2 from Cutstuff.net

[Korby]

As a fan of the original mod and someone who helped test this: play it, it's great.

Also, screw map28.

[Laggy Blazko]

Nice to see you back to Doom modding.  

Waiting for inevitable Samsara patch. :v

[Messatsu]

Waiting for inevitable Samsara patch. :v

Hilarious that you mention this.  Yes, this will be a thing.  Also perhaps DemonSteele and Metroid Dreadnaught......Terminus stuff apparently.

[Knux]

Fuck yeah, looks like I'll have a reason to visit servers again soon!

[Hallan Parva]

When I heard about Level Master a while back I honestly thought it was a joke.

Nice to see it's not a myth anymore. I'll definitely have to give this a spin.

[Emmanuelf06]

It looks really fun! I will try it on the servers!

[CutmanMike]

New version up! Should be a lot more fun to be both the Level Master and the players with these changes as it should resolve the issue of people just speedrunning the map to find the exit rune as fast as possible.

Maps now reset after placing the Exit Rune. This means doors will shut and moving terrain will be back to their original state when the game begins, giving the level master more time if he has opened up the map to place the Exit Rune.
 Added a new server option: sv_randomlevelmasters. Setting it to 1 picks a new level master after he hits the winlimit. Setting it to 2 picks a new level master after each round.
 Added Fake Exit Rune trap. It looks identical to the exit rune and disappears when touched. It fades in and out from time to time showing that it is fake.
 Added Resurrection Trap. When triggered by a player a totem pops out the ground and starts Resurrecting fallen enemies around the trap for a few seconds.
 To pick up the exit rune you now have to stand next to it for a few seconds to channel it's power. Moving away from the rune breaks the channel and you have to start the channelling again. While channeling you are immune to stage hazards.
 Lost Soul now costs 6 (down from 10).
 You can no longer spawn Arachnotrons or Mancubi on MAP07 to prevent issues where the players could not proceed.
 Added an error message for failing to teleport to the Exit Rune.
 Level Master increased mana rate doesn't decrease when players die.
 The Level Master now triggers shootable lines/doors by running into them.
 You can now prepare buffs in line of sight of players.
 Recoil traps can be destroyed by shooting them.
 Recoil traps do not trigger if the player is standing perfectly still.
 Spawned monsters no longer infight.
 Changed the default Exit Rune spawn time to 40 seconds (can still be changed with pointlimit).
 Other internal stuff to make mod compatibility better.

Download v2

[Sonnitude]

I would love to see a gamemode like this for megaman 8bit deathmatch, but I don't know how exactly it would work. But it would still be awesome, as this looks like you are being a dungeon master in a dungeons and dragons game or something like that.

[NemZ]

Rather nifty.

[CutmanMike]

I would love to see a gamemode like this for megaman 8bit deathmatch, but I don't know how exactly it would work. But it would still be awesome, as this looks like you are being a dungeon master in a dungeons and dragons game or something like that.

It could probably be adapted to some of the singleplayer missions that have been made. Shouldn't be too difficult to do since I made it with the intention of people being able to modify what enemies can be summoned and their costs etc.

[Laggy Blazko]

It would need non-linear maps and stuff like that, though.

[Emmanuelf06]

I would love to see a gamemode like this for megaman 8bit deathmatch, but I don't know how exactly it would work. But it would still be awesome, as this looks like you are being a dungeon master in a dungeons and dragons game or something like that.

It could probably be adapted to some of the singleplayer missions that have been made. Shouldn't be too difficult to do since I made it with the intention of people being able to modify what enemies can be summoned and their costs etc.

Single player wasnt so popular because it wasnt fast paced at all.
Making enemies with a lot of hp and force us to be blocked often, is very boring.
You can make it fast paced and canon in the same time, more enemies, less hp, and maybe more areas who are made for that then (a bit more like doom).
I have played with Bass but damn, killing a blue gun thing who dont move and shoot at you in mm1cut, is just really frustating.
Level remastered could be fun with megaman then, especially if you are wily, summon some robotmasters (not with a ton of hp) and become the boss at the final part of the map, kind of....
But i have never tested LM so i can't really say.

[Korby]

So a few issues with your statement.
1) It was insanely popular. People played it nonstop for weeks.
2) People only stopped playing it because they got bored of the four stages it offered, and no one else in the community aside from Maxine has shown interest in actually finishing and releasing more.

I have 0 doubts that people would still be playing more non-MMXSP singleplayer today if there were more than 4 maps.
Doom has thousands of maps to pick from so it will never become stale; We don't exactly have that luxury at the moment in the singleplayer department.

[Emmanuelf06]

1) 4 people on a server is a "very" played mod for you? even if there is more, it's not like a lot of others mods.
2) Well, it's a big reason, because the few people who played it didnt have any more maps to play it more.

In coop, it can be fun because we can kill the enemies faster (but not fast paced anyway)
But it should be fun even in single player mod'