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nicolas monti

Favillesco Alpha Episode: Amalthea's Apostasy. Released!

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Hi Doomers! This is an Alpha Doom themed episode, it runs on E4 due to special tag availabilities, not being the original E4 episode planned for the favillesco series though. This episode takes place on the moon Amalthea, the biggest moon of jupiter after the 4 galilean moons, keeping the favillesco Jupiter's moons rule as well ;) and the original name was going to be "roots of evil" reflecting the alpha connection but I desided to keep the moon name where the apisode is set in the episode title, I had to turn "Apostasy on Amalthea" into "Amalthea's Apostasy due to graphic constrains. After working with some alpha-doom texutes on reticula episode 1 I felt the need of making an episode themed on the alpha doom, giving some chance to those textures and playing with them. I used circa 95% of the textures because some of them looked really crappy and in addition I edited some of them using some original patches contained in the alphas which wheren't used at all or "missused" like the tech ones which in the available textures are cut at some point. About 2/3 of these textures are used in Doom and Doom2 as well, some with minor modifications so the levels will look like E1 and E2 melted, with emphasis on the alpha look but not being extremely poor. I didn't rely on teleport ambushes this time, just as original Doom was, but monster closets are numerous, keeping the gameplay fluid. Dedication was put on the layouts as always do because I hate levels with only square rooms in Doom and I tried to use more lighting features than in my previous releases, so you might notice that this mapset is very far from most of modern releases regarding to feel and atmosphere because I constantly try to recreate that 90's aspect in Doom.
PD: This wad was made in Buenos Aires, Argentina during summer, in a room with 35°C everyday XD, hence some possible undesirable results :P.

Idgames Link:
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/?file=levels/doom/d-f/faviae10.zip

Mediafire Link:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/8zv1za4h4lh6jja/faviae10.wad

walkthrough video Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTkRPHjDk3w&list=PLYvmcWeAvQQvcnBAWNeu4tYxE3k4iq-gJ

last updates:
E4M1: 3 zombieman turned into imps *_*.
E4M2: Secret rocket launcher reachable on Prboom fixed, 1 shells box. replaced by an ammo box for ammo balance and 1 texture realigned
E4M3: Some monsters relocated to add danger, 1 shells box replaced by an ammo box for ammo balance and 1 medikit replaced by a Stimpack.
E4M4: One HOM fixed during lowering lift and 2 textures realigned.
---------
E4M1: sector 141 has tag 1 (the same tag used by the donut <--- there is a donut action in this wad! spoiler alert!!) this causes an invalid memory access with vanilla doom.
E4M3: side 968 has middle texture '-3'.
All monster overlapping DM starts.
---------
E4M7: fixed wrong linedef action making a secret area inaccesible.

The new levels:

E4M1: Enter the Gray
E4M2: MS-Dos Station
E4M3: Amalthea Lab
E4M4: Communications
E4M5: Warp Base
E4M6: Main Engineering
E4M7: Sigma Quadrant
E4M8: Vanilla Warriors
E4M9: Vestige

The Pics (the cameraman cheats)












If you find stupid bugs like stuck monsters, floating items, a HOM or some really crappy texture alignment don't hesitate in pointing it out, gameplay criticism and any advice to make this wad better is welcome as well!

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Interesting looking screenshots, I'll definitely check these levels out sometime soon. I wonder how I'll like the sky ingame, because I find it pretty nice.

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Did a quick run of a bit of it. Died most of the time, but that's no big deal.

It's very hectic, lods of bad guys everywhere. Certainly helps that there is barrels most everywhere to thin them out a bit. Was fun to play in.

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Inkie said:

Did a quick run of a bit of it. Died most of the time, but that's no big deal.

It's very hectic, lods of bad guys everywhere. Certainly helps that there is barrels most everywhere to thin them out a bit. Was fun to play in.


Two constants in this wad: barrels and hitscanners :)

scifista42 said:

Interesting looking screenshots, I'll definitely check these levels out sometime soon. I wonder how I'll like the sky ingame, because I find it pretty nice.


Thanks, I've read your "Modern-day Doom mapping style = not Doom anymore?" thread. I see your point as a simple observation of facts, not as a oldschool-nazi complaint, I mean, no problems with modern style maps, just problems with the lack of classic style maps, however I see plenty of olschool projects recently.

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http://www.solidfiles.com/d/c5e65d194f/

Consists of two demos; the first contains maps e4m1-e4m3. The second only has e4m4; I died immediately after picking up the blue key and GLPrBoom-plus got grumpy when I tried to load the game. I didn't have time to play any further, so I decided to end it there.

While the maps were densely populated, I never found them particularly difficult -- which is fine. However, consider changing the monster density a bit as I pretty much steamrolled my way through the wad using mostly a shotgun. After a while, most of the fights really weren't all that threatening and just felt like filler.

In more than one instance, I was able to "bump" weapons and items; not too sure if you meant for me to do that. I think the rocket launcher in e4m3 is a prime example, as the secret itself can be bypassed entirely.

I liked some of the alpha texture usage, although in the first three maps, they became a bit repetitive and I got seriously lost after a while. In the two demos you might notice me walking around like a stupid -- that's actually me with the automap open :P Consider having more landmarks or maybe adding a little "Peterson" to some of the layouts; after a while, they all kinda ran together.

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BlueFeena said:

http://www.solidfiles.com/d/c5e65d194f/

Consists of two demos; the first contains maps e4m1-e4m3. The second only has e4m4; I died immediately after picking up the blue key and GLPrBoom-plus got grumpy when I tried to load the game. I didn't have time to play any further, so I decided to end it there.

While the maps were densely populated, I never found them particularly difficult -- which is fine. However, consider changing the monster density a bit as I pretty much steamrolled my way through the wad using mostly a shotgun. After a while, most of the fights really weren't all that threatening and just felt like filler.

In more than one instance, I was able to "bump" weapons and items; not too sure if you meant for me to do that. I think the rocket launcher in e4m3 is a prime example, as the secret itself can be bypassed entirely.

I liked some of the alpha texture usage, although in the first three maps, they became a bit repetitive and I got seriously lost after a while. In the two demos you might notice me walking around like a stupid -- that's actually me with the automap open :P Consider having more landmarks or maybe adding a little "Peterson" to some of the layouts; after a while, they all kinda ran together.


Thanks for the tips, your feedback was very usefull. I watched your demos, well played btw. I made some little changes listed above and I'll keep making them if necessary, In Prboom you can reach items further away than in other ports in some circumstances, I don't know if that is intentional or not but it bothers me because it screws the "near but inaccesible" item effect sometimes. About that blue key trap in E4M4, barrels are the "key", and about the overabundance of shells it is maily because of the large amount of shotgun guys, since the levels are made to be pistol start compatible I had to put at least one or two shell boxes in the first rooms of each level.

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I will play this at some point, along with the other Favillesco packs you've released.

Just one question:

WHY THE SCREAMING BACKWARDS ZERO-GRAVITY FUCK ON MARS DID YOU CONVERT THE MIDIS INTO MUSES.

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Jimmy said:

WHY THE SCREAMING BACKWARDS ZERO-GRAVITY FUCK ON MARS DID YOU CONVERT THE MIDIS INTO MUSES.[/B]


haha, those are mostly muses from Mr. Smiley Head's Safari, dated in 1995, hence the format, oldschool tracks for oldschool design, hardcore "vanillism" I guess. You can convert them with the mus2mid program, I'm really interested to know the source of the tracks I used for E4M1 and E4M8 btw.

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nicolas monti said:About 2/3 of these textures are used in Doom and Doom2 as well, some with minor modifications so the levels will look like E1 and E2 melted, with emphasis on the alpha look but not being extremely poor. I didn't rely on teleport ambushes this time, just as original Doom was, but monster closets are numerous, keeping the gameplay fluid. Dedication was put on the layouts as always do because I hate levels with only square rooms in Doom and I tried to use more lighting features than in my previous releases, so you might notice that this mapset is very far from most of modern releases regarding to feel and atmosphere because I constantly try to recreate that 90's aspect in Doom.

I have played the first two levels so far. And I can confirm that what you said here is true, and according to my feelings you did it all very well. The oldschoolness is extreme (specially the stripy textures), but a level of professionality (in the level design etc.) is apparent too. And that's the difference between crappy-like oldschool maps, and a cohesive and somehow naturally-feeling work like this one. You are able to match Tom Hall's style very well.

I am actually no oldschool-lover, and no oldschool-hater either. I judge things individually and can enjoy various kinds of wads if I consider them worth it. And as I already implied, the oldschool feel is almost smile-worthy for me, in both visuals and gameplay - but I definitely enjoyed shooting through the vast maps full of weaklings. The atmosphere somehow catched me, the music might be a factor of that. I never thought nothing like "meh, overall crap, bad, dated, overcomed" while I usually do think so when playing 1994 maps and similar to them.

So I highly enjoyed the emphasis on pistol gameplay you've created. Thanks to the set-up atmosphere, I didn't at all mind it prolongs the gameplay. Each time I had died, I gladly replayed the whole map again from pistol start, explored it differently and didn't mind the prolonged time spent in there.

Even though the enemies are weak, there are masses of them, and that surprisingly increases difficulty. That's why I died several times on each map. I decided to pistol start this episode though, because from my experience with your map, they're better fun from pistol start than if you come in fully packed already.

So the things about leveldesign and flow and gameplay were already said. The last thing I'd like to point out is about the only thing I dislike about your mapping style. That is - some of your fights are enormously harder compared to the other, average ones. Notable red key ambush in E4M2. You had this problem with FavE2 too, with traps in E2M7 and with E2M8 fight.

Spoiler

That's another thing, when you sometimes tend to believe that player's patience is unlimited. It isn't. I'd advise you to make the critical fights to be fun, rather than long. Excitement decreases with time. And shooting 10 barons with only a chaingun + shotgun, or plasmaing 4 unpredictable cybers in a rectangle room, that take time and player's enthusiasm may disappear before the player completes the challenge. You should not make that happen.

I'll gladly to check out the rest of maps too. :) By the way, I wasn't able to find secret exit even with automap powerup. I probably again missed some timed lift, I guess.

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While testing I found a couple of things:

On E4M1 sector 141 has tag 1 (the same tag used by the donut) this causes an invalid memory access with vanilla doom.

On E4M3 side 968 has middle texture '-3'.

Some of the DM starts are on top of monsters:
E4M1 thing 8, E4M2 thing 15, E4M4 things 23, 28, 50 and 56.

The sky looks slightly off where it tiles.

Hope this helps.

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marineController said:

Hope this helps.

Sure it does, I've fixed those issues now, that tag 1 thing was worth mentioning, that kind of mistake sucks. About the -3 texture it was a bad typing movement I guess. I've fixed the overlapping DM starts, however I though I would't matter since there are no monsters in DM. Thanks for the meticulous testing, it's funny to know that people are not only playing the wad but also "dissecting" it with DB.

scifista42 said:

The last thing I'd like to point out is about the only thing I dislike about your mapping style. That is - some of your fights are enormously harder compared to the other, average ones.
I'll gladly to check out the rest of maps too. :) By the way, I wasn't able to find secret exit even with automap powerup. I probably again missed some timed lift, I guess.

Thanks scifista42, nice quality observations as always, regarding to the dickish traps I'll wait to see what you think about the forthcoming levels, because there are some nasty ones, not in every room (neither my style) but it'll be useful to know if you or the other players got any serious trouble in their progression.

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on e1m2 I like the way it Alpha looks so far, game play is good with lots of baddies everywhere. I still don't like those key traps :). are you planning to work on this series for an Ultimate megawad episodes 1-4.

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I've played the other episodes you've made as well, and this one was as good as the others. The only thing I don't like are your "boss-fights". The multiple teleporting cyberdemons from the other episode is the "prize winner"... but concerning this episode, the Barons in Communications spring to mind (I haven't gotten further yet).

One's chances of surviving that one are slim to none, and that is *with* the plasma rifle. Another example is the ambush when going for a red key in one of the earlier maps.
What bothers me, is that in those situations, luck suddenly becomes a very large factor compared with player tactics. I think that you can do better than resort to such cheap and overdone tricks, when the rest of your mapping shows such class!

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Olroda said:

the Barons in Communications spring to mind (I haven't gotten further yet).

One's chances of surviving that one are slim to none, and that is *with* the plasma rifle. Another example is the ambush when going for a red key in one of the earlier maps.
What bothers me, is that in those situations, luck suddenly becomes a very large factor compared with player tactics. I think that you can do better than resort to such cheap and overdone tricks, when the rest of your mapping shows such class!


Yeah, some traps are a bit dickish, but I've tested them many times, In Communications you have to make sure you're 100% at health and armor (there's a green armor just before the exit room) for the final fight. It's doable with the plasma gun as long as you manage to "dance" and keep moving while firing, taking cover is almost impossible and useless. Even if you're 1% health at the end of the fight you'll be rewarded before the exit so you can start the next map with 100% of health in continuous play too. That fight works as the boss battle of the first half of the episode, kinda semi-final.

SgtMagor said:

on e1m2 I like the way it Alpha looks so far, game play is good with lots of baddies everywhere. I still don't like those key traps :). are you planning to work on this series for an Ultimate megawad episodes 1-4.


Thanks, actually I've released the first 2 episodes too. That's all for now :)

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nicolas monti said:
It's doable...


I suppose I have to practice my dancing skills quite a bit, then! On another note, I really liked those "bumby" brown textures used in Amalthea Lab (among others). There's also a room with demons in it that really reminds me of Alien (the table they're eating around), which is a good thing.
Will you release all of them as a single WAD when you're done with the last episode? Not that one can't load them all individually...

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just downloaded the updated file, was playing on level 1 got the blue key, and the imps that were near the slime on the other side of the wall dunno if I blew the barrel up or an imp hit it with its fireball, but I thought I heard an imp and a zombie, or shotgun guy fighting but when I got around the wall I shot at 2 imps when I realized they were fighting each other, never saw that before.

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SgtMagor said:

just downloaded the updated file, was playing on level 1 got the blue key, and the imps that were near the slime on the other side of the wall dunno if I blew the barrel up or an imp hit it with its fireball, but I thought I heard an imp and a zombie, or shotgun guy fighting but when I got around the wall I shot at 2 imps when I realized they were fighting each other, never saw that before.

An infight within the same species of monsters can happen if one monster hits a barrel accidently and the explosion damages the other, a paradigmatic example of this is a Baron vs Baron fight in Phobos Anomaly.

Olroda said:

I suppose I have to practice my dancing skills quite a bit, then! On another note, I really liked those "bumby" brown textures used in Amalthea Lab (among others). There's also a room with demons in it that really reminds me of Alien (the table they're eating around), which is a good thing.
Will you release all of them as a single WAD when you're done with the last episode? Not that one can't load them all individually...

You'll see an extensive use of a similar texture in E4M7, about the Alien factor, It surely serves as inspiration sometimes, that dark section of the E4M3 (Southwest) is very nostromo like (the ship of the first alien movie). I'll eventually make a short video of the final fight in E4M4 with the plasma gun.

Edit: E4M4 fight on video (spoiler alert) 6 wins in a row using the plasmagun and starting at 100% both health armor (keyboard only):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k26JBYeb5iI&feature=youtu.be

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Well, after watching your video and taking some dance lessons I was able to beat consistently them without much issue. There's a still real threat of death, though (as it should be). Not sure I'm a real fan of such traps yet, but they make a lot of sense if one is looking at it from the monster's point of view:

The Barons are clearly some form of leaders, and when they realise that they're up against a 12.0 on a 10.0 scale of badness who's been slaughtering hundreds of their "buddies" (many of them with his bare hands) without any sign of stopping...

...trying to ambush him, all four at once at close quarters, instead of fighting him head on at a distance, is a VERY good idea!

Anyways, the Alpha Episode feels like your best work so far, and I'm looking forward to the next episode (no sign of E3 yet)!

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Olroda said:

Well, after watching your video and taking some dance lessons I was able to beat consistently them without much issue.

Great, so your dooming skills were updated!

Olroda said:

There's a still real threat of death, though (as it should be). Not sure I'm a real fan of such traps yet, but they make a lot of sense if one is looking at it from the monster's point of view:

The Barons are clearly some form of leaders, and when they realise that they're up against a 12.0 on a 10.0 scale of badness who's been slaughtering hundreds of their "buddies" (many of them with his bare hands) without any sign of stopping...

...trying to ambush him, all four at once at close quarters, instead of fighting him head on at a distance, is a VERY good idea!

About the real threat of death, that is what it's meant to be, something that pushes the player to be tough in order to survive, so when you win the fight you can say "shit, that was way close"
About the enemy perspective, I think it could be a clever move, just wait, pop up and surround the player so you can "imagine" that the AI has improved a bit.

Olroda said:

Anyways, the Alpha Episode feels like your best work so far, and I'm looking forward to the next episode (no sign of E3 yet)!

Thanks, I won't map in the short term due to other responsabilities, maybe at the end of the year I could start the E3, when I will have more time... At least I can say that the alpha episode is a bit harder than the first two.

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What's up with the caco+baron trap at the end of E4M7 lol? Like, how the hell are you supposed to pass it? Seems very random even if you know what's coming.

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Memfis said:

What's up with the caco+baron trap at the end of E4M7 lol? Like, how the hell are you supposed to pass it? Seems very random even if you know what's coming.

You have to load your bfg before enetering the previous teleport and release the charge just at the time you enter the room, I have a video with that, min 22:



Ok, link broken??? go with this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao8u2-SLtP0

There's a link with the whole playthrough above too.

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