@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.

@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.lmp

Awesome job, both of you guys!

Greetings, I just found that this is in development, and I'd love to contribute a map if there is still room for more mappers. Regardless, I'm looking forward to seeing the results of this project!

I played through the latest versions of the maps I hadn't done demos/feedback for already. Wrote down a few thoughts below.

@Cuppykeks
Banquet of Flames V2:

Here's a demo (not blind) recorded on crispy heretic: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HlPOQcmSk_gF6WEUcuhs2WV0MsWpndlS/view?usp=share_link

• I really liked the abundance of bombs here and the ability to approach the map in a variety of ways. The detailing and vibrant colors here are beautiful. The secrets were really satisfying too, especially the wings of wrath.

• The ending of the map is so cool! I love the silhouette houses and the floating structure, both the inside and outside of it. Definitely helped give the map a strong sense of narrative, not to mention that it looks just awesome.

• I wasn't able to find 2 enemies. I found all the secrets, so you might want to check to make sure that these last two enemies I missed are killable.

• Overall, this is a fantastic, short and punchy map! I ended up playing through it 3 times in a row due to me being a dummy and dying at the end to crushers or other things I shouldn't have. But it says something that it was still a joy to play the third time in a row.

More minor suggestions:

• There are some places where flying makes the sky look glitched out (didn't show them in the demo). It might be more trouble than it's worth to fix this, though, as you'd have to ensure that the player cannot fly higher than a ceiling with a sky texture in sight.

• The chain texture in the doortracks looks kind of odd to me, since it looks like the chain is pushing up the door. But of course, this is more of a personal preference kind of thing.

• I see now on your previous post that you intended the HOM at the end, but just mentioning that it seemed like a glitch when I saw it, FWIW.

Cinderblood V2: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rvuDMe4F9-VTv65_awujldPk9j4fuPya/view?usp=share_link

• I also wasn't able to find 2 enemies in this map, so again you might want to verify that they aren't stuck or anything.

• I liked the new secret, but flying does allow the player to reach the edges of the map, which look very off. It might be more trouble than it's worth trying to make them look okay on a map this open, though.

• Forgot to mention before that I really like the combined the mist and water vapor where the water meets the lava!

@joe-ilya
Library Theatre V4:

I did record a new demo on crispy heretic, but it unfortunately got desynced somehow. The map still seems great! Anyway, here were just a few thoughts on my more recent playthrough.

• Ammo and items felt much more abundant this time. You probably don't need as many tomes as are placed, but I don't think it hurts here to have more than necessary. Overall, I felt gameplay was balanced and fun; I found no issues here.

• I noticed this time that the windows to the outside close when you start the final battle at the theater. Really cool detail there! Nice chessboard at the start too.

Minor suggestion:

• I like the skylights overall, but some of them look a bit odd because they have too thin of a border. I think they would benefit from having thicker borders if possible, to make the walls/ceilings look like they have some more depth.

@kvsari Very cool map! Excellent job creating an immersive setting. The combat encounters were also well crafted. I liked having so many time bombs, especially together with the presence of sharp corners, which allowed for plenty of tactical opportunities. In general, I appreciated the liberal and intentional usage of items throughout the map. Favorite fights were the one after the first gate and the green key fight.

Here are some demos on Crispy Heretic. furnace_fd4.lmp furnace_fd3.lmp furnace_fd2.lmp furnace_fd1.lmp I ran into softlocks quite a few times and so gave up trying to record an FDA, and finished the map in DSDA-doom using the rewind function to get out of any softlocks. One of the demos ended abruptly due to Crispy crashing as I tried to use a tome (not sure why it does that sometimes).

The biggest issue I found was the aforementioned softlocks. They all occurred around the same area, with pits of enemies that are supposed to rise up later on. The problem is that it's possible to fall into them before triggering them to rise. (However, even if they are triggered to rise, it is almost as bad to fall into them and get stuck in a monster as it's still rising, as I did on the first recording). You could make some of these pits into regular teleport ambushes, or make sure that they trigger before the player can reach them. In any case, I'd also suggest bringing them up to a height that the player can walk over the monsters' heads just in case.

Again, the enemy placement was really well done throughout. I do have a few nitpicks, though. Overall, I found there to be way more health than necessary. I never really felt in much danger, other than when pushing gasbags around, because at any given time I was stacked with quartz flasks and knew there were lines of crystal vials lying around nearby if needed. I'd suggest cutting back on the amount of health pickups, at least for skill 4.

Second, I wasn't a fan of the maulotaurs at the end of the map, as it felt tedious to have to kill four of them, especially after having just gotten through 600 enemies over the course of the past 25 minutes or so. I felt the disciple swarm would have been a good finisher (or heck, even the big battle before entering the blue portal). Thankfully, it wasn't difficult to hit the switches to exit and walk past the maulotaurs, but IMO the map would be stronger without the maulotaurs in the first place.

Two more minor things: you might consider giving the dragonclaw earlier, as it did begin to grind a bit being stuck with the crossbow for so long. The phoenix rod definitely came at a good time and helped, but by the time I got the dragonclaw, I had pretty much no reason to use it rather than the hellstaff/phoenix rod. Why not hand it out earlier? Second, the two turret ghost undead warriors outside of the building that houses the green key seemed a bit unnecessary, as they never really posed a threat and were too big to exit their rooms when the wall opened behind them later on.

Aesthetically, the map had a strong, coherent theme, with some ending areas that provided an appreciated contrast. Really nice use of curves. However, you might consider breaking up the lavafall-textured walls that surround the boundaries of the map (using metal pillars, for example). I suspect that would help make the aesthetic pop more and make it less monotonous, especially around the beginning portion.

Overall, though, this map was solid and a lot of fun to play! Hope you find this helpful.

Just played map 5. Really cool map! But I wasn't able to exit. Couldn't find an exit line when searching in UDB either, so looks like that needs to be added in.

@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.

@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.

@Cuppykeks

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.

--
Regarding the name for the project, THE ULTIMATE HERESY gets a thumbs-up from me!

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.

Just played map 5. Really cool map! But I wasn't able to exit. Couldn't find an exit line when searching in UDB either, so looks like that needs to be added in.

Here's a small update to the Druids' Citadel (mostly just a few texture fixes). fd_citadelv6.WAD

I should have an update to the Resurrection either tonight or tomorrow. But again, I have no qualms with not including it in the initial release if anyone feels it still needs more work (or if this is too close to the release date).

Edit: Okay, here's an update for The Resurrection. The ammo (and health) is tighter than the last version. Especially focused on overhauling the outdoor/surrounding area, making it more explosive, deadlier, and tense. fd_resurrectionv5.WAD

@Cuppykeks I really appreciate the demos and the critique. Again, I want to make the best maps I can for this and improve as a mapper in general, so constructive criticism really is much appreciated. I'll see what I can do to address these points before the deadline. If you or I still think it could use more time in the oven once I post the next version, then I propose not to include it in the demo release.

A couple things to mention here:

• I intended for a very different way of playing in the area with the gaspods. It's much more fun to immediately go out into the open area once the ambush triggers and then use the gaspod generator to dispatch swaths of enemies at once. I tried to pressure the player to do that by moving most of the enemies to teleport in behind the player, and by having armor and a phoenix rod in view in the outdoor area. I'll try to turn up the heat even more so that the player will end up completely swamped unless they flee to the outdoors.

• The egg was moved to a secret, but it's maybe not a bad idea to swap in more non-secret eggs in place of some of the crossbow ammo. Also, I'm starting to think the initial secret shadowsphere should be replaced with something else since it really takes all the bite out of the early ghost undead warrior room.

• I don't think the map could easily be translated to a doom map, at least not without losing a lot of intended elements, as most of the setpiece fights were conceived and designed around the properties of ghost monsters. But I think the sense would come through more if the player had a stronger need to use the gaspods instead of the crossbow. And having more eggs in place of ammo would probably help too.

• I'll see what I can do to revamp the optional fight to make it more interesting. initially, the room was just put there to make the secret more elaborate and add to the feeling of exploration.

• The wall torch being higher is due to items being pushed around (not sure what causes this bug, but I think it happens when floors move up/down sometimes). All of them are placed at the same distance from the walls. I suspect surrounding them with impassible lines might prevent this, but would also potentially interfere with player movement. If you know of any other way to prevent that from happening, let me know!

Updated the map (titled "The Resurrection"). Did what I mentioned I'd do above, and also added a few more secrets (including a whole new little optional area inside a secret). Btw, the MIDI is "In Tents" by Lee Jackson (from Duke3d). fd_resurrectionv2.wad

In addition, because the default settings on GZDoom look godawful for this map and ruin the atmosphere, I included a MAPINFO that sets the lightmode for this map to look more like software renderer for those who run this on default GZDoom settings. So requesting to include/incorporate the MAPINFO lump in this if you don't mind

Edit: Oops, just realized I forgot to add difficulty settings. I'll make sure to add them in for a final version before the deadline.

@Cuppykeks Thanks for the demos and feedback! The demos are super helpful. The ammo issues I think were due to hanging back when ammo was placed in danger ahead in a lot of cases. Regardless, though, I don't want players to end up resorting to staff/wand usage as much as you did, as I imagine that would feel very grindy. So I'll up the ammo.

You got it for making the sludge damaging, and for the earlier floor sigil to have a similar lighting effect as the ones at the end. I'll also make sure to eliminate any sprite clipping. I do think I'll reduce the size and number of monsters around the green key area too.

@kvsari Very cool map! Excellent job creating an immersive setting. The combat encounters were also well crafted. I liked having so many time bombs, especially together with the presence of sharp corners, which allowed for plenty of tactical opportunities. In general, I appreciated the liberal and intentional usage of items throughout the map. Favorite fights were the one after the first gate and the green key fight.

Here are some demos on Crispy Heretic. furnace_fd4.lmp furnace_fd3.lmp furnace_fd2.lmp furnace_fd1.lmp I ran into softlocks quite a few times and so gave up trying to record an FDA, and finished the map in DSDA-doom using the rewind function to get out of any softlocks. One of the demos ended abruptly due to Crispy crashing as I tried to use a tome (not sure why it does that sometimes).

The biggest issue I found was the aforementioned softlocks. They all occurred around the same area, with pits of enemies that are supposed to rise up later on. The problem is that it's possible to fall into them before triggering them to rise. (However, even if they are triggered to rise, it is almost as bad to fall into them and get stuck in a monster as it's still rising, as I did on the first recording). You could make some of these pits into regular teleport ambushes, or make sure that they trigger before the player can reach them. In any case, I'd also suggest bringing them up to a height that the player can walk over the monsters' heads just in case.

Again, the enemy placement was really well done throughout. I do have a few nitpicks, though. Overall, I found there to be way more health than necessary. I never really felt in much danger, other than when pushing gasbags around, because at any given time I was stacked with quartz flasks and knew there were lines of crystal vials lying around nearby if needed. I'd suggest cutting back on the amount of health pickups, at least for skill 4.

Second, I wasn't a fan of the maulotaurs at the end of the map, as it felt tedious to have to kill four of them, especially after having just gotten through 600 enemies over the course of the past 25 minutes or so. I felt the disciple swarm would have been a good finisher (or heck, even the big battle before entering the blue portal). Thankfully, it wasn't difficult to hit the switches to exit and walk past the maulotaurs, but IMO the map would be stronger without the maulotaurs in the first place.

Two more minor things: you might consider giving the dragonclaw earlier, as it did begin to grind a bit being stuck with the crossbow for so long. The phoenix rod definitely came at a good time and helped, but by the time I got the dragonclaw, I had pretty much no reason to use it rather than the hellstaff/phoenix rod. Why not hand it out earlier? Second, the two turret ghost undead warriors outside of the building that houses the green key seemed a bit unnecessary, as they never really posed a threat and were too big to exit their rooms when the wall opened behind them later on.

Aesthetically, the map had a strong, coherent theme, with some ending areas that provided an appreciated contrast. Really nice use of curves. However, you might consider breaking up the lavafall-textured walls that surround the boundaries of the map (using metal pillars, for example). I suspect that would help make the aesthetic pop more and make it less monotonous, especially around the beginning portion.

Overall, though, this map was solid and a lot of fun to play! Hope you find this helpful.

Here's another map for this. I'm still working on the aesthetics of some sections, but it's ready for feedback on the gameplay. It's a moody ~10-12 minute crypt-themed map. No difficulty settings yet.
fd_resurrection.WAD

I'm thinking about trimming down some of the rooms and monsters around of the green key to shorten the map a bit. But let me know what you think, and thanks in advance!

@Cuppykeks Thank you for the demo and feedback! Glad to hear that you enjoyed it! The demo didn't desync this time, btw, and yes I do need to bind look up/down in Crispy. Here's a minor update to my map. (Just fixed the bleeding foliage and text textures, reduced the number of time bombs a bit, obscured the ring secret a bit more, and put the wings secret back in but made it somewhat harder to find.) fd_citadelv5

Making the gasbag generators openable/closable on your map seems like an interesting idea! Also digging the screenshot for the E2 map, especially the waterfall placement and dark pointed windows. It'll be good to have some slower paced maps to vary up the wad.

Here's an update to my map with the texture oversights fixed, some more detailing and openable chests added, a few dangerous enemies added to certain locations, and the resource excess cut down to encourage more scavenging and exploration for the first half of the map. fd_citadelv4.WAD For anyone testing, no pressure to record a demo if you want to use saves, as this is a longer map.

@Cuppykeks Played through the most recent version of Incision of the Voice, and it looked great! Nice additions to the boat. I almost had a full demo for you too, though I died at the end by accidentally telefragging a gasbag. (Here's the demo, though, in case it might be useful iotv2_fd.lmp .) I still think the number of gasbags in the final fight is too much (I tried out the fight with half the gasbag generators, and it seemed more fun and less random to me that way, FWIW). Hopefully we can get more people to playtest this and the other maps before we release the first episode.

@Cuppykeks I felt like playing through Incision of the Voice again. One thing I forgot to mention before -- really awesome doomcute, especially that boat. Posting a couple texturing errors I found this time around, with screenshots below.

There's a HOM here, on the lip of the wooden ceiling.

Misaligned texture here near the start.

Misalignment (near the blue key room).

Minor issue here, but it looks like some of those brown block textures on the beam that juts out should be wood textures as well? (This is in the phoenix rod room.)

This last screenshot is not an error, but I just wanted to mention that this area looks amazing, especially with the dark tree/vine textures against the red sky. Makes me kind of wish for a forest-themed map that capitalizes on that aesthetic.

--
(Btw, the resource balance on my first map is where it should be now, I think, so an updated version should be ready soon. I'm also making progress on my crypt map, which will most likely be ready by next weekend or soon after.)