Monument - an eps. 2 replacement - Released!

Hehe, I guess the difficulty was just right for you then ;) Glad you're enjoying it so far.

Played 5, 9, and 6 last night. Love this WAD. Plus I found my first legit (maybe) bug: In M6 near the end, when you have to drop down into the nukage tunnels, grab a square corner lift up into the control room, and hit the switch raising the second leg of the path across the nukage pool... there was a spectre stuck up against the lift.

I was looking at kmx's blog looking for more of your maps, and came across images from The Wailing Horde (which I've been wanting to play) and instantly recognized shots from M3 and M4. So I have to ask: how many of the maps in Monument came from TWH? Just M3+M4 means that level must be huge... Edit: Or I could, y'know, just read the textfile. :D

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Sorry for the late reply. I was attending a Mini meeting here in DK. I'll just write this before I fall asleep... yeah, the beers were dirt cheap! :D

Anyway, thanks for commenting! Before I left for the meeting, I was hard at work changing the BFG secret in M4 because my #1 critic and monkey on my back, SteveD, who told me some truths about it and I agreed. I will correct the stuck Spectre as well, thanks for letting me know! In beta6, there are other small changes as well.

Having all this help from you guys is just awesome. I would have never found all these problems and bugs myself. The final release is coming closer! But first, I have updated OP with a link to beta6.

List of changes in beta6 are as follows:

Just finished this a minute ago. Loved every minute. I missed a single secret/item in M7; didn't even know what I was looking for (though I did get the soulsphere and blue armor, both very clever.) Just a wonderful set all around, probably my favorite WAD I've played all year. Well done, sir.

M7:

High/Low 2 not broken by ZDoomisms! I warped straight to this one first.

There are a couple of lines, 45 and 201, that refer to an unknown texture named "SKYWALL"

You might consider switching thing 212 to a non-blocking type, the player should be able to walk under it.

An imp in a cage, thing 600 in sector 139, is unable to move or attack, until shot.

The backpack, thing 127 in sector 318, can be easily bumped through the bars. This makes ammo management a lot easier so please don't fix it ;)

M1:

The first time I played this map, I managed to use the lowering wall in the shotgun trap to hop over the small raised wall.

Unfortunately I wasn't recording, and I must confess on subsequent tries I found the trick quite hard to repeat, but it still may be worth making linedef 112 a repeatably pressable lift (type 62 or 123) and tag 2, so nobody gets stuck.

Demos - recorded on beta5 but still appear to play correctly on beta6

RjY said:

M7:

High/Low 2 not broken by ZDoomisms! I warped straight to this one first.

Hehe! Ohh, those were the days. I constantly peeked out through the curtains in fear of an angry mob!

There are a couple of lines, 45 and 201, that refer to an unknown texture named "SKYWALL"

Hmm, I was pretty sure I had eliminated that pesky skywall thing. Thanks for letting me know about it, I'll take a look at it again!

You might consider switching thing 212 to a non-blocking type, the player should be able to walk under it.

An imp in a cage, thing 600 in sector 139, is unable to move or attack, until shot.

The backpack, thing 127 in sector 318, can be easily bumped through the bars. This makes ammo management a lot easier so please don't fix it ;)

Thanks! I'll have a look at those issues. I'm surprised to hear about the backpack. I've tried a million times and never succeeded in doing that. I'll take a look at it... again. Sigh! :)

M1:

The first time I played this map, I managed to use the lowering wall in the shotgun trap to hop over the small raised wall.

Unfortunately I wasn't recording, and I must confess on subsequent tries I found the trick quite hard to repeat, but it still may be worth making linedef 112 a repeatably pressable lift (type 62 or 123) and tag 2, so nobody gets stuck.

Demos - recorded on beta5 but still appear to play correctly on beta6

Hmm, thanks for letting me know about this "issue". I think I'll leave it be though. It's a trap, so people won't know it happens in the first playthrough. And should they be so unfortunate to get stuck, they are only seconds into the level and can just start it over.

Thanks again for playing and commenting! I'll watch the demos right away!

Salt-Man Z said:

Playing M3 using the new Beta5, so I had to pistol-start, and wow that was a ride. By the end I was already low on health, and then after I (eventually) survived the final ambush, I was down to precisely 1%! I did eventually figure out the soulsphere secret, which was one those solutions you feel oddly proud of accomplishing; kudos for that one. Oh, and the new palette on the plasma bursts is gorgeous.

I was pulling my hair out trying to get that soulsphere.

Ashstrodamus said:

I was pulling my hair out trying to get that soulsphere.

Salt-Man Z said:

Spoiler

If I recall... Out in the yard, there's that raised block with a secret BFG or plasma gun or something on it; when you drop off that block, it lowers a windowsill at the far end of the yard and reveals a switch on the other side of the window. The switch drops the floor and leads to a teleporter that takes you to the sphere.

I could tell there was a switch (I could see it on the automap) and I knew it would take me to the soulsphere somehow (it was the last secret left) but I couldn't figure out how to reveal the switch. Eventually, after playing out in the yard for a bit, I caught the sound of the windowsill lowering, and it still took me a couple minutes to figure out what was going on.

I have a complaint about M5. Label the exit. I didn't know it was an exit and now I have to go back and find all the secrets. Also, there is an imp that I can't see or kill, but I can see his location using iddt and I can also hear him. I'm playing on skulltag, so I'm not sure if that's an issue.

Ashstrodamus said:

skulltag

Why are you still using Skulltag? Zandronum has replaced it 2 years ago after development halted for good.

Glaice said:

Why are you still using Skulltag? Zandronum has replaced it 2 years ago after development halted for good.

Habit. I have ZDoom but I always used skulltag.

Ashstrodamus said:

I have a complaint about M5. Label the exit. I didn't know it was an exit and now I have to go back and find all the secrets. Also, there is an imp that I can't see or kill, but I can see his location using iddt and I can also hear him. I'm playing on skulltag, so I'm not sure if that's an issue.

You mean, like this:

The exit signs are there already.

Can you perhaps be a bit more precise on the location of that Imp? There are multiple Imps in cages spread around the map. Also, it's a bit strange, because noone's complained about it before and people have had 100% kills on this map. But if it's there, we have to fix it of course, you just need to be a bit more specific.

Thanks for playing and commenting!

Chris Hansen said:

You mean, like this:
http://www.windward.dk/TDR/monument_m5_exit.jpg
The exit signs are there already.

Can you perhaps be a bit more precise on the location of that Imp? There are multiple Imps in cages spread around the map. Also, it's a bit strange, because noone's complained about it before and people have had 100% kills on this map. But if it's there, we have to fix it of course, you just need to be a bit more specific.

Thanks for playing and commenting!

Oh, sorry about the exits. I think it's still hard to see. As far as that imp. He's labeled as thing 173 just to the south of sector 267. Also there is a room full of lost souls that there seems to be no way of getting to which is sector 401. Also, those lost souls don't show up in doombuilder. I'll try it in Zdoom and see if skulltag is my problem. Fun maps btw.

Edit: Went back through with Zdoom and still getting that same invisible imp. I can hear him clawing at me and can even kill him, just can't see him or get to him without clipping. If sector 401 isn't a mistake, then by golly, please tell me how to get there before I go insane!!

delete

Ashstrodamus said:

Oh, sorry about the exits. I think it's still hard to see. As far as that imp. He's labeled as thing 173 just to the south of sector 267. Also there is a room full of lost souls that there seems to be no way of getting to which is sector 401. Also, those lost souls don't show up in doombuilder. I'll try it in Zdoom and see if skulltag is my problem. Fun maps btw.

Edit: Went back through with Zdoom and still getting that same invisible imp. I can hear him clawing at me and can even kill him, just can't see him or get to him without clipping. If sector 401 isn't a mistake, then by golly, please tell me how to get there before I go insane!!

I took at look in DB and played through the level in Skulltag. I found the Imp you are talking about. In beta6, there's an Imp trapped outside the map around the area you are talking about. So, you're right :) Thanks! The funny thing is, that I must have spotted him for beta7 (not released yet), because he's not there any more. He's a leftover from a cage in that building. He was just a waste of time for the player, so I deleted the cage at some point and forgot about the poor Imp now trapped in the void!

The Lost Souls room had me puzzled. I could not replicate the exact circumstances you mention. But maybe your memory is a bit off, if I may be so bold, because...

Chris Hansen said:

I took at look in DB and played through the level in Skulltag. I found the Imp you are talking about. In beta6, there's an Imp trapped outside the map around the area you are talking about. So, you're right :) Thanks! The funny thing is, that I must have spotted him for beta7 (not released yet), because he's not there any more. He's a leftover from a cage in that building. He was just a waste of time for the player, so I deleted the cage at some point and forgot about the poor Imp now trapped in the void!

The Lost Souls room had me puzzled. I could not replicate the exact circumstances you mention. But maybe your memory is a bit off, if I may be so bold, because...

Spoiler

...yes, there's a room with Lost Souls, just not the one you mention. The sector you are talking about is the secret exit which can be seen through a small window from another secret room. The Lost Souls are guarding the entrance via teleport to the secret area, but that's another sector in a nearby sp_rock1 area.

Thanks for the feedback!

I'll send you a PM with a hint.

Chris Hansen said:

I'll send you a PM with a hint.

Thanks brother!!!! Great wad though. I'm with Salty Z on this wad. I'm gonna nominate it for a Cacoward and I haven't even started on E2M6 yet. Awesome stuff and a lot of fun. Cheers!!!!

Thanks! That's very kind of you.

edit - post moved

No worries, Brad! I've had so much awesome feedback up until now, that I doubt there are any bugs left :) Relax and enjoy playing through it (perhaps it would be an idea to download the new beta 7 - see below).

On a related note, I've updated the link with a new beta 7. There aren't that many changes since 6, so I'm pretty sure, that this will be the final release.

Here are the changes for beta 7:

It seems I've taken so long to get my next batch of notes and demos written up that you have already put out a seventh beta. So some of the things behind the cut may be already fixed, and the demos may desync. Sorry about this. I hope not to take so long to playtest the remaining maps 9, 6, and 8.

Ohh damn it RjY, why are you so thorough! :)

Thanks for the comments. Some of the issues you mention have already been fixed like the BFG platform rising into an unreachable state. M5 has a lot of weird stuff going on when using complevel 3. I made the map when I was a newbie, and 90% of the map´s sectors floors and ceilings are something like -800 units. I think what happens is, that floors that are set to rise to highest floor, don't use the neighboring sectors height, but instead the highest sector of the entire map or something like that. In this case, that would be outdoor start/exit area which have ceiling and floor height in the positive range.

Anyway. I'll take a look at some of the other things you mention. Please find some more bugs fast, so I can get this damned thing to a final release candidate! :D

Okay, final set. Thanks for your patience, and for a really neat set of maps. For expediency I shall simply copypaste the demo textfile into the post.

Thank you very much for the final set of comments, RjY!
It was fun watching those demos!

I'll definitely fix those bugs you mention with the blocking things and trigger effects. You've got some interesting observations, but I can't promise that I can fix them all. But then again; i'm not even sure you expect that :)

I am playing this, finished level 4. Very solid so far! The "darker" filter works very well for the mood of the wad, along with the new sound effects. The soundtrack is amazing, especially the one in level 4, with 5/4 patterns very moody setting.

Level 1 was a great starter. Playing 2 and 3 made me wish a little more freedom, but the gameplay was quite solid. 4 was amazing, handling very well the limited set of monsters of Doom 1, also the amazing song!

I found one very irrelevant bug in level 4 haha: The berserk secret has 2 sectors tagged as secret, instead of one :P

EDIT: Just finished the level 5, another great one! Loved the big open space! I think I finished it in a way I wasn't supposed thought, I finished it without getting the blue key (I ran through the big acid pool and ended going into a teleport that made me access a more advanced area D:)

Yeah map04 is a gem among... gems. I am still slowly progressing (very slowly thanks to the release of MGS:V)

Deadwing said:

I am playing this, finished level 4. Very solid so far! The "darker" filter works very well for the mood of the wad, along with the new sound effects. The soundtrack is amazing, especially the one in level 4, with 5/4 patterns very moody setting.

Level 1 was a great starter. Playing 2 and 3 made me wish a little more freedom, but the gameplay was quite solid. 4 was amazing, handling very well the limited set of monsters of Doom 1, also the amazing song!

I found one very irrelevant bug in level 4 haha: The berserk secret has 2 sectors tagged as secret, instead of one :P

EDIT: Just finished the level 5, another great one! Loved the big open space! I think I finished it in a way I wasn't supposed thought, I finished it without getting the blue key (I ran through the big acid pool and ended going into a teleport that made me access a more advanced area D:)

Glad you're liking it so far! Thanks for commenting!

I'll fix that double secret thing asap. And yeah, M5 had a shortcut. It's been fixed :)