Back to Saturn X Episode 2 is out of beta! (v1.0.1 Aug 13, 2020)

That semi-hidden route that allows you to skip a bunch of the map (including the keys) is presumably an intended part of the design, perhaps geared towards episodic speedruns. After running around more in the map myself, though, I have found that there does seem to be a lot of soundblock shenanigans going on if you run certain routes--for example, if you come at the route you opened with that shootable switch from the back side, you'll see more than a few monsters with their backs to you ignoring you while you kill their compatriots a few yards away.

Diggin' that birthday cake in screenshot 2!

More like a wedding one. A mysterious present to someone from Skillsaw, huh?

Hey all,

Can't quite update the OP since Essel's got the megaphone, but we've addressed a bunch of fixes (thanks to those who reported things here! You rock!) and put together a 2nd beta version, just in time for TNS tomorrow. Here's some linkage:

http://static.angryscience.net/doom/btsx_e2_b2.zip

Caleb13 said:

Is there some unannounced competition among WAD authors about who will use most wimpy and effeminate (=gay) music in their WADs?

I think stewboy started this "competition" around the time Speed of Doom came out. His style was quite innovative (especially the quiet and calm hell songs) so other musicians got interested. I see what you mean, this is definitely not "Doom music" as we knew it, but I can still appreciate the musical qualities and I'm getting more and more used to this type of midis over time.

Xaser said:

Hey all,

Can't quite update the OP since Essel's got the megaphone, but we've addressed a bunch of fixes (thanks to those who reported things here! You rock!) and put together a 2nd beta version, just in time for TNS tomorrow. Here's some linkage:

http://static.angryscience.net/doom/btsx_e2_b2.zip

Is it just me, or is this zip file corrupt? I can't unzip it using either 7-Zip or Windows' inbuilt unzip.

I too can't open this file. Using Cygwin unzip I get "bad zipfile offset" errors for all files but the textfile.

Yup, same here. 7zip can't extract any of the contents.

Xaser said:

Hey all,

Can't quite update the OP since Essel's got the megaphone, but we've addressed a bunch of fixes (thanks to those who reported things here! You rock!) and put together a 2nd beta version, just in time for TNS tomorrow. Here's some linkage:

http://static.angryscience.net/doom/btsx_e2_b2.zip

Nice! I'll make sure this gets updated in the ZDaemon post right now.

Felfekfl. No idea what caused that, but I rezipped+reuploaded and it seems to be fine now.

Confirming that it works fine for me.

Memfis said:

I think stewboy started this "competition" around the time Speed of Doom came out. His style was quite innovative (especially the quiet and calm hell songs) so other musicians got interested. I see what you mean, this is definitely not "Doom music" as we knew it, but I can still appreciate the musical qualities and I'm getting more and more used to this type of midis over time.

All thanks go to Joshy (and darkwave) for letting me play around and be experimental with my midis for their maps! SOD (among other projects I've composed for, but mainly sod) has definitely played an integral part of my development as a composer.

If anyone's interested, important parts of the changelog for b2:


map02: The chainers under the lift delayed so they take longer to reach it.
map03: Resources culled a little, MP monsters added. RK HOM & the ugly slime trail at start fixed.
map04: Tuttifrutti switches fixed. PG moved into plain sight. The fight at locked doors cannot be cheesed so easily from the west. Some pointless high HP ammo sponges removed/replaced. Better pointers to key arena teleports and further gameplay tweaks next time, sorry.
map07: Anti-cheese fix for the BK fight.
map10: Safety setup for lowering the first barrier.
map13: COOP STARTS FFS!
map14: A slew of fixes and tweaks, because Mechadon never stops.
map15: Fixed the exit pillars raising to wrong heights.
map16: Doesn't go to map06 in EE anymore, heh.
map31: Imp invasion trap cannot lock coop players in the noodle area now. A VPO squashed in the imp hallway.
map19: MP resources added.
map20: Map replaced with Citadel at the Edge of Eternity.
map21: Fixed non-porting arachnotron.
map26: Exit fight trigger foolproofed. Fixed Zdoom story text after exiting.

The monster teleporters after the blue key in map02 are a bit slow. I killed several and then went down the lift only to hear more teleport in a few seconds later.

I like gay music. So far I like this better than ep1 too, map07 was great fun. Although whoever is responsible for blocking trees in the final circlestrafing revenant/AV fight deserves to be put in a 128 pixel wide corridor filled with cyberdemons.

Interestingly enough, even though I like the visual themes much more, to me the textures have a lower quality feel this time around. Perhaps "ancient temple" grit is harder to pull off than "techbase" rust, because the materials can't look as structured by design and detail is more likely to look like noise given the resolution constraints.

Tiny little visual mistake; sectors 68 and 71 on Map08 have a brightness of 144, when they should have 160.

For what it's worth - here are FDAs for all maps except 31. Recorded for beta1, wad files inside. Rather crappy playthrough, but not that I really care, no one is under any obligation to watch those. 25 is sole DNF because FUCK YOU. If you want me to retry your devious scenarios time after time - make something shorter and less tedious next time, so that I won't have to grind through ridiculously long fillerish slog that is the rest of this map after each death. Fucking great. And how in the world am I supposed to stay calm after all this?.. Maps like these will soon drive me into sedative medications hysteria.

The maps I liked are 03, 04, 09, 12, 14 (now that's more like the right map length, Mechadon), 18 and 21 (dual tele cyb bullshit aside).

Overall, I think I liked E1 more. This one is quality in terms of visuals, music and artwork, but where it fails too often is gameplay. A sincere wish for the future endeavours (E3 in particular) - hire top players and speedrunners to do playtesting next time, so that you can actually get qualified feedback, as your current PT & QA team obviously fails to see the difference between fun and interesting gameplay and grand tedium that dominates this mapset.

You are overstepping your boundary, Demonologist. First of all - no one ever asked you to provide FDAs. If they're not your style or beyond your skill level, maybe swallow up your pride and start saving. No one even implied that all BtSX maps were FDA friendly, so why are you screaming in rage? Also stop trying to box everything into YOUR niche. You rant and scream about any map that deviates from your favourite length or playing style, throwing swear words like a spoiled 12yo CoD kiddie. I don't give a shit how agitated you are right now, go get a cold shower or something, but if you cannot stay even remotely civil, then we probably don't need your feedback. As for my qualification, there's another entire skill level waiting above UV (solonet), so maybe YOU aren't qualified to pass judgement.

dew said:

go get a cold shower or something

I did, thank you very much.

...From this point I'll behave, no need for further fury anyway, as I told everything I wanted in the above post in that regard. However, let me clarify some things: first of all, you miss my point re: fdas, there are tons of maps that made me quit fdaing but not playing them, and that's because they were fun and encouraged retrying over and over even with their unfriendly setups on display. And BTSX - it's far from being that unfriendly, but it's not that encouraging, anyway. At least not for me. And this I admit without evil grin or something, on the contrary - this sort of thing always saddens me.
Note about saving, or, to put it right, the lack of it - it's dictated not my my pride (pfft, for the sake of what it should act that way?), but by the very fact that I simply can't enjoy this game with savegames. Well, that's how I roll, I can't do anything about that. Not joking.

Next. MY niche is a term so vague that I don't even know what to say. Even my beloved Vanguard doesn't fall into my "absolute 100% hit zone" in its entirety, and it's still awesome despite that. Most of the maps I listed above don't, either, and I somehow liked them. So...

And the last thing - it's actually funny that you took personal offence re: QA team. When I say "team", I mean team, not you. And by including new members or changing the ways QA team interacts with other peeps involved in the development, you won't make it anything else but a team. So please calm down, I didn't say a word about you and your competence. And I also didn't say a word about MY qualification, if you don't want to hear/read me - it's your choice, really, and I can't change your mind on that, no matter how hard I try, right? Right. So - no problem, I guess.

Perhaps map01 should have several berserk packs at the start in multiplayer? For obvious reasons.

dew said:

I don't give a shit how agitated you are right now, go get a cold shower or something, but if you cannot stay even remotely civil, then we probably don't need your feedback.

Unless you have some incredibly virgin eyes that can't handle seeing the word "fuck", I'm not seeing anything uncivil in Demonologist's post.

I just finished the wad just twenty minutes ago. I loved the gothic hellish atmosphere and the stages really stood out in there own. The music was perfect for the maps they where givin. I have all the midis on my mp3 player for the fact of being some of the best Ive listend to.

All this being vanilla compable is unreal. ID all this time had so much more to work with from the start! I like to know what Romero thinks of this.

Demonologist said:

stuff

Well, one thing *I* can understand is getting a bit passionate, heh. Anyways, BtSX may have a very strong direction, but the maps themselves in spirit are still a team project where many different mapping styles meet. Use3D or Mechadon wanted to make an eternalish map? There's a following for that style and it's not my place to tell them no, make a map that plays like my favourite thing. BtSX is eclectic and almost every map seems to have supporters and haters, and they change sides unpredictably in the next map. When something straight out sucks, it gets ditched, but I find so very little in BtSX that would need axing, I only see challenges in thing placement and linedef juggling to make things more enjoyable. This is why e1 had a thousand revisions and it's still not out, we took the criticism seriously and tried streamlining the boring fluff. e2 is in beta1 and we are aware that certain maps will undergo serious changes, not unlike e1map18. Telling us to go fuck ourselves, on the other hand, serves no purpose.

Memfis said:

Perhaps map01 should have several berserk packs at the start in multiplayer? For obvious reasons.

I did consider that, but I thought it'd look like ass and people would be motivated to backtrack with item respawn, which is the targeted MP experience. :( There's a second berserk above the chaingun... MP placement for modern ports while keeping things sane for vanilla is hell.

Cynical said:

Unless you have some incredibly virgin eyes that can't handle seeing the word "fuck", I'm not seeing anything uncivil in Demonologist's post.

I have no idea how to react to this shit.

I ended up playing MAP04 again and got the keys so my dead monster count was ~300 this time. I realized that the "secret speed passage" is so obvious I ran into it by accident twice. It's the brightness difference that made me autopilot into it.

Question is, what opens this passage? Clearly I unintentionally opened it twice.

Oh and very good BGM btw.

Opening the speed passage has two parts; one is the switch on the back of the blue throne, the other is the switch on the Northern side of the locked doors room.

Just in case I give up before the MW club hits the 14th... Map 14 is so fucking good. What a wonderful adventure map. It's a weird comparison maybe but it reminds me of Dark Souls in terms of how it uses vertical space and loops in on itself in so many different ways.

Heh, "Eternalish" was the word I was looking for to describe a few of these maps! What will happen to "Speedtraps?" I was intrigued by the Living End type atmosphere the first part gave off. The second part dragged a bit and the gameplay was mainly rocketing mid-tier monsters on ledges and at a distance, but I absolutely loved the watery mountainous setting, especially the wooden huts and rope bridges. This level could be split into two separate maps and each would stand up pretty well.

Map 22: Bite is my favorite map. It had a strange relaxed tense mixture feel to it, maybe cuz of the music?. The combo of beautiful architecture and smooth gameplay had me sold.

glenzinho said:

What will happen to "Speedtraps?"

The first part seems okay. The mountainous second half is lovely, but the gameplay there needs rethinking. A big problem right now is that it can't use any additional teleport traps, because the blockmap would shit itself, heh. There will be some brainstorming, I guess.

The final monster in that map was highly amusing, especially after picking up the BFG directly before it. As they say, leave it in!

edit: Is it just me or does beta 2 still have the old Map 20?