The Heretic Project (Quest Name Pending)
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Problems I've just noticed with DSDA:
automap doesn't behave the same
skies are horribly tiled when looking up
waterfall animation doesn't work when used as a midtextureWhat a mess! I've gone in to try bug reporting the latter two right now.
Revision: Crispy Heretic will be alright come an update I hope. Sorry about any inconvenience, Heretic is undersupported so it's pretty rough.
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@Cuppykeks That's annoying about crispy. I will play through the map (and Joe-Ilya's) later today after work. I did check quickly and the map opens in international heretic, another limit-removing port, though there seems to be something that crashes it just in certain locations.
Re: midtex waterfalls in DSDA: there is a trick I've found to get around this. If you unflag the linedef as two-sided but don't make it impassible, the middle texture will behave like it does for one-sided lines, but the linedef will behave just like a two-sided line for all intents and purposes (you can walk through it, it can have middle textures on both sides). One side bonus is that the middle texture will tile vertically, so you can make passable waterfalls taller than 128 units this way.
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@joe-ilya demos recorded in dsda: joelibthev3_2.lmp joelibthev3.lmp
Nice! I still haven't finished but I was really darn close. First demo file has my initial attempts and the second demo was my closest to finishing run, ended by me trying to use the gauntlets on the maulotaur which did not work well for me. I was able to play a lot more of the map this time since I didn't hate the MIDI this time around heh. The few ghost knights at the start are a bit cumbersome to damage in the open area. It was hard to see the enemies in the darkness of the theater, especially spooking me when I noticed a maulotaur stomping around. I still missed the Dragon Claw at the start a few times since I didn't make the detour to grab it every time, which really burned in one run. Anyway the mummy in the gauntlets secret area can't leave the monster closet.
Time for some praise in the form of the balance of the map being muuuuuch better. The map looks great too of course. I no-clipped around afterwards and noticed the old man with the textbox which looks to be a great secret. The name of this map can be called "The Library Theatre" if you want, to match with the usual Heretic naming scheme. Cool ideas, dicey combat for my keyboard only hands, but yeah thank you again for the map.
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@joe-ilya
Fantastic map! The theater opening at the end was a really cool setpiece, and really satisfying to beat. The map as a whole was very fun and frantic to play, running around looking for ammo, trying to maximize use out of the phoenix rod and timebombs. I'm not sure if everyone will be a fan of the lack of dragonclaw/crossbow at the start, though I'm sure the map would play differently not missing the dragonclaw earlier on like I did. But I thought it was fun nonetheless. I do wish there were just a bit more elven wand ammo lying around. Here's a demo recorded on DSDA-doom 0.25.6: LT_fddemo.lmp@Cuppykeks
Wow, this map is incredible. I can't even imagine how much work this took to make. There are a lot of really cool ideas here, and all felt well executed. The map really feels like an adventure, with all of the little details, the background story about the curse, acquiring items to break it, and the creative way of making the torches part of the progression. Very immersive! The combat all felt good and fun -- it never got too difficult, but it wasn't a total pushover either. I liked the abundance of items spread out around the map, which really encouraged exploration. My only complaint about the map was the lack of automap, which made it difficult to navigate at times. I think I know why you did that (so as not to make players think that the map scroll would reveal something on the automap to reach the exit), but even if that's right I'm still not sure if it's worth losing the automap altogether rather than signifying progress a different way than giving the player the map scroll. Here's a demo recorded on DSDA-doom 0.25.6: SN_fddemo.lmpAwesome job, both of you guys!
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@Fiendish Thank you for playing I'm glad you liked it!
I also believed that the lack of map would help with immersion if there was no point in looking at the automap since I wanted players to always have their eyes on the adventure before them. I'm okay with letting players get lost a little, as there are plenty of landmarks to help. The map item is supposed to show the path to the tower but it doesn't show in dsda for some reason so I had to implement that actual physical line to follow in the mist.
Also does anyone have requests for the resource pack? Joe asked for some decorative midtexture props.
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@Cuppykeks Ah, I see. That makes sense. If you can find a way to make the pathway show up on the automap for all ports, that would be perfect. I definitely didn't mind getting lost as much as I would in general, though, since the map was so interesting and fun to explore. It really wasn't until the end when I was trying to find the exit again and kind of going in circles that it started to bug me a bit (I should have remembered to use the chaos device, doh!). I should also mention that the map looked amazing too, especially the buildings and all the little details/doomcute. Those roof shapes are top tier. The sloping with the tiny sectors also looked really snazzy. Cool how you used the black ceiling to have good-looking sloping roofs on the enterable buildings too.
As far as resource requests, I may make some composite textures (mainly bricks with hanging vegetation baked in), and might have some other textures to request too. I'll compile some and send them over in the next few days or so.
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@Fiendish Thank you and sure thing! If you're layering textures, you might need to apply some shadow on the inner wall to make it look more believable than just stacking textures on one another.
http://latest.chocolate-doom.org <- Crispy Heretic updated to now support DeepBSP and ZDBSP nodes so my map (Stagnant Neverland) is now playable with it yay. I'll have to remember to try International Heretic too sometime.
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Onwards!
edit: updated picture
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Looks like the Action RPG that we never had.
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@Cuppykeks said in The Heretic Project (Quest Name Pending):
This map does not currently work with Crispy Heretic. You will need to play it with DSDA-Doom until the port is updated
NEW MAP (that was an absolute struggle to make wasting time with technical limitations, UDB map stats going into the red aside, having detail and then removing yet alas the map was too great and no longer had any corners to cut while still being unplayable leaving the past few days in vain).
I share this madness in the form of SCT_StagnantNeverlandV2.zip Plays in the E4M2 slot
Enjoy
StagnantNeverlandV2_FDAjoe.lmp
Awesome map, I loved the openness of it all even when I got lost.
I'm not sure what's the point of the map scroll when the automap is not available, and the whole thing about the automap not being visible is strange by itself, instead of completely hiding it you could make something similar to Grove's automap.
EDIT: An Iron Lich got stuck under a ceiling spike in a small cave in my FDA.
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V4 of Library Theatre, now renamed to The Library Theatre, changes include :
- Difficulty settings implemented
- One secret added
- Fixed the bridge handles making projectiles disappear
- Fixed secret trap
- Extra wand ammo
- Dragon Claws added in other paths
- One ghost Warrior at the start is replaced with the normal variant
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@Cuppykeks Looks like another awesome adventure. Can't wait to see it when it's done. Nice sector tent there!
Btw, I'd like to use the e5m3 midi for my map if I can reserve it. I think I'll also request some more textures to add to the resources too -- will send some more over soon. Progress on my map is coming along well. I also ended up making a bunch of combat encounters that didn't end up fitting well in my main map, but I do like them and think they would fit well with each other. So I may actually be able to whip up a second, smaller crypt-themed map pretty quickly after my main one is finished.
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@joe-ilya Thank you. Also in your demo, the look up and down keys would have helped with finding the path!
@Fiendish Yes you can reserve it, I'll list it on the Trello. Though I just noticed that the MIDI fades out for a long while towards the end.
Also right now the teleporters in my map don't work in DSDA, but they do work with Crispy Heretic ofc and I don't know why!
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RESOURCE PACK VERSION 4:
HereticLRP_RSW4.wadSome new textures, a few FLATs, and some replaced music:
TITLE, CPTD, E4M4, E4M9, E5M2, E3M4 (I should really add instead of replace)<!> ATTENTION <!>
This project will now release March 23rd. This is final and won't change. Please submit your maps before March 20th. -
NEW MAP. A replayable action-packed romp. Please let me know what you think!
E4M3
SCT_Cinderblood.wad
SCT_CinderbloodV2.wadAlso on a title for this project I'm leaning towards calling this
THE ULTIMATE HERESY -
Here's a demo on Crispy Heretic: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VAiJ6eNnLTaNM9Jn_tVMKKHaMl4ugwWa/view?usp=share_link
Awesome opening view toward the volcano, and I especially liked the way the final area looks. This was a really fun punchy map, and the gasbag generators felt like they took the center stage in terms of the gameplay. Excellent job placing them because they always felt simultaneously like a huge threat and a helpful tool.
There's a good amount of resources placed around the map, though I did feel that the cluster of time bombs closer toward the end was overkill, as there were much better means available for handling the final encounter, since the enemies and hostile terrain made them non-ideal to use. Time bombs would have been more useful at the start, but I liked the way the start played as it is. The invuln ring may also be overkill; I felt it was unneeded and would have taken away from the thrill of the ending area had I used it. Visually, the map looks gorgeous, though I felt the paper-thin looking rocks visible at around the 6:40 mark in the successful attempt did detract a little.
I went into the blue portal not realizing that was the exit. I would propose either to add the standard heretic flat that's used to mark exits as well (so that you have the flat AND the portal texture, plus the exit glitter), or else we could establish consistency across the entire wad so that all exits use the blue portal, and the blue portal is only used for exits. What do you think?
All in all, another outstanding, really fun-to-play map! Awesome details too, like the heretic-cute tent and campfire and the grave stones.
Oh, and two final things. 1. I just realized it is possible to run pacifist through the map pretty easily in ~30 seconds. I don't think that's a problem, but just wanted to mention it. 2. the reason that the portals don't work in dsda-doom seems to have to do with there being too many linedefs with actions too close together. I tried setting the linedefs that surround the whole glowing sector to WR teleport, and it worked just fine that way.
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Regarding the name for the project, THE ULTIMATE HERESY gets a thumbs-up from me! -
@Fiendish Thank you for playing! Placing the volcano really put the map together for me, was exciting and fun to admire. Invulv ring seemed nice to have, but (unintentionally) it can also protect you if a gaspod goes in the teleporter so you don't die when using it. I understand it being too much though, I'll keep things as they are for now.
The blue portal should be used for exits (or as a start as if coming from the previous level). Good call on the exit flooring so that should be a consistency too.
Yeah this map is pretty linear but non-linear in the way you want to play through it. Thank you for the explanation about the DSDA teleporters and again for the general feedback thoughts.
I've updated the map now with the fixes and other tweaks/edits:
SCT_CinderbloodV2.wad -
I'll be updating the resources again soon so I'll be taking any requests until tomorrow night. Apologies for the inconvenience. I got like 5 more people signed up to map for this thing!
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Felt inspired to switch my focus more on a crypt-themed map, especially given the new deadline. Here's a WIP shot of a hub area.
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@Fiendish
Awesome. That looks so good!
