NOVA II - Ver. 1.2 on /idgames (now with no missing keycards!)

MajorRawne said:

Shrine to Madness looks amazing.

NuclearPotato, as someone who has also left lighting til last, and am in the middle of re-detailing an entire map to change its theme, I would strongly recommend stopping all other work and fixing the lighting now if you haven't already. Good lighting is crucial to a map's realism, it's one of the best ways to break up any potential monotony and can be used to striking effect. It's a borderline obnoxious task to re-light a map that is filled with details and trip-lines etc.

Consolidate what you've got before building more. Trust me on this, it is frustrating but in the long run will remove a source of stress.

EDIT: Help, my phone's going mad, how did this happen?

Cultus diabolus!



Laus ut flamma!



Cultus obscurum!



Amplexus fatum!



A Shrine to Madness



;)

First pics of the conversion to hell. Light levels and detailing have not been updated yet:

still working on this area.

Made some edits to panic station
http://www.mediafire.com/download/pf576znz0cee4tr/pstat.wad
-Sealed the exit room for the final fight, there is a release switch behind the revenants.
-Added more detail and a couple more monsters to the start area
-Changed the music back to the first midi (memento mori midi) as it's more fitting for a map01 slot.

I was not happy with a few areas, so I re-did them.

I remember playtesting Fuzzy's submission to the first NOVA 4 years ago (can't believe how fast time flies) and I'm excited to see that he's contributing again.

For those that don't know, he's had one other release besides Suspended.

Careful with overloading the page with images guys.

Also this is a second reminder that I'd really like a number after the wad name to indicate which version it is. This is so I don't make any mistake and accidentally include an older version inside of the current alpha.

Sorry about that
Here a new file link
http://www.mediafire.com/download/c7gcuzj35c2h8ej/pstatv2.wad

Alright butts and grills, I put together the newest alpha: Download here. The OP has been updated accordingly. I mainly did this just so I could see if there are any errors in compiling the textures together. I did spot a few missing texture errors using the Zdoom console for egregor & tourniquet's maps, and anamia crashes PrBoom on my PC, but otherwise everything should be nice and tidy. Remember that most maps aren't finalized, and the incomplete ones (7hm, Major's, etc.) are mainly included because as long as they're put together properly, they'll be in the finished product.

EDIT: Actually, considering that we may be getting maps from fuzzyfireball, Pinchy, AD_79, an_mutt, mrthejoshmon and mouldy, and that MAP30 & MAP32 are basically reserved, we're down to a single map left open! At this point I'm going to have to keep track of who's contributing what, just to make sure we have enough room.

dobu gabu maru said:

anamia crashes PrBoom on my PC,

Huh thats weird, on which version did you play it, i'm using 2.5.1.3 and everything works fine with the new beta.

we're down to a single map left open

These are great news, looks like i need to end my lil' new years break and complete the 2 maps.

Edit: Could you please add Ribbiks as author in the OP i don't deserve all the credits.

I cannot play either of Tourniquet's maps in pr-boom as both register missing texture error messages. The rest are fine.

Gorgeous texture. Just kidding, i think i found a bug:

To be honest, I kinda miss Joe Ilya posting here. He had potential as a good mapper, it's just because he needs to learn how to take criticism properly and show some respect for every user on the fourms.

Breezeep said:

To be honest, I kinda miss Joe Ilya posting here. He had potential as a good mapper, it's just because he needs to learn how to take criticism properly and show some respect for every user on the fourms.

Heh, I'm kinda curious about when Joe-Ilya gets unlosered. Maybe by then he will be both a better mapper and forum user.

KevinHEZ said:

i think i found a bug

That's actually just an animated computer texture. Whether or not cb wanted it like that, only he knows.

tourniquet said:

Huh thats weird, on which version did you play it, i'm using 2.5.1.3 and everything works fine with the new beta.

The error I get is "I_SignalHandler: Exiting on signal: signal 11" It has the same issue with PrBoom ver.2.5.0 on my mac. Just for reference, Zebetite works fine so it's not because of the missing textures.

dobu gabu maru said:

That's actually just an animated computer texture. Whether or not cb wanted it like that, only he knows.

I don't think that he intended to use it that way, giving that i also saw it being used in other maps completely out of place and it probably looks like a normal texture in the editor (DB still not working for me) and it animates very horribly in-game.

Hm Signal 11 could mean pretty much everything, at least it seems that the error only occurs in older PrBoom versions. I'll try a few things like rebuilding nodes with a different builder in my next update.
Both maps also use a few equal textures and maybe those were accidently double defined, we'll see i'm on it.

NoisyVelvet said:

my gzdoom treats the textures COMP1 through COMP4 from the texture pack as an animated texture, but prboom and chocolate treat them as a normal, static ones.

I put those same textures in my map. and everytime i saw them, i said, "heh, maybe i'll do something about that". But i would forget about it and a bit later would see it again and "heh, maybe i'll do...". Eventually it grew on me and now I prefer them being animated. I have no clue why they do what they do

Soo, I'll need some boss sprites before I can start work on the final boss. What do you guys wanna see? Maybe you could take a peek around here for something suitable.

^ The Super Demon sprite or the Death Incarnate sprite as a base are what I'm leaning towards. I kind of like the former because it can fool the player briefly as being just a normal cyberdemon at first. No idea about attacks though.

Need some game play related feedback..

http://www.mediafire.com/download/hb352ernt1rk7po/nova_dav_1.zip

As far as detail and lighting go, it's very much unfinished, so some areas will look quite bland, but I want to fine tune the game play elements before I finish the cosmetic stuff. All the textures are included in the wad, so no additional resources are required.

Thanks.

Hmm...the Death Incarnate is probably a bit small for a final boss, it doesn't really have much presence to it. As for the Superdemon, it's firing sprites are unfortunately quite lazy: it does the exact same pose as the Cyberdemon and somehow fires red baron balls from it's hand. I'd imagine someone on ZDoom could possibly make better looking attack frames given time, but all the same I'd advise against using the Superdemon. Not trying to shoot you down Dobu, I promise. :)

On a more positive note:

Scalliano recently released his Sabaoth from Threshold of Pain II to the ZDoom forums to use. Could be an option.

https://db.tt/JzJpAgKj

Rebalanced hopefully.

Also, monster count isn't reduced much on low difficulty, instead there are way more support items. This way people who aren't very good don't feel jipped by a gimped level.

Have we got anyone making a MAP15? I have an idea for it, but if someone else already has that slot then I'll simply make an early E3 map.

No worries Obsidian, you know more about this stuff than I do. And I'll peek at your map tomorrow Dave. Sorry that I forgot you were contributing—definitely brings us basically to our full list!

AD_79 said:

Have we got anyone making a MAP15?

Yup, an_mutt reserved it. A shortish E3 map would be nice to receive though!

Alright, MAP22 it is. I might take some GothicDM textures and use them in the map along with standard hellish textures.

oh wow so many submissions. my unfinished layouts are still open if anyone wants to make meat out of them (but none of you probably care anyways).

also for the love of god dobu, please get my name right. or use my other one.

Breezeep said:

To be honest, I kinda miss Joe Ilya posting here. He had potential as a good mapper, it's just because he needs to learn how to take criticism properly and show some respect for every user on the fourms.

I'm guessing that as soon as he stops making veiled insults towards Bloodshedder, he may be un-losered, but he can't seem to help it. A shame, I'm getting to like him.

Getsu Fune said:

also for the love of god dobu, please get my name right

Oh hahaha just realized what it actually is, real sorry about that

Played your map Dave The Daring. Phenomenal stuff! I absolutely had a blast on the finish portions of the wad (less so on the unfinished). I really like that you allow the player plenty of room to move around, but severely punish them at the start for trying to scout ahead. There's a lot of angles of attack here too, which is always the sign of a good mapper. Coupla things:

- Obviously the map being finished would give me a good idea on its pacing, but other than that I have to shake my head at hitting multiple switches to get the blue key. It's a neat idea but one of the problems is that if the player can't find one of the switches, they're going to be stuck in the level for a looong time. Personally I couldn't find a way to get the red key so I was pretty stumped for a while until I decided just to IDKFA and see what was left. This is something I tend to do this on my maps, but I like having the player only need some of the keys in order to exit the map, as it allows them to play at their pace and explore the whole thing if they want, or just finish if they get stuck.

- Some enemy compositions may need a little retinkering. You use a lot of AVs and revs—which are fun—but feels a little worn out by the 6th time you hit a switch and hear an AV waltz out behind you. In some areas (like the YK battle pit), the combat may be improved if you take one of the rev closets and change them to two barons or three HKs, as it'd be harder to corral all the monsters if they're moving at different speeds.

- It's more of a subjective thing, but I don't like some of the chaingunner sniping positions, most notably in the exit room area. They're fine in some places, but when they're used far away, in the dark, without the player noticing they're there, it tends to feel a bit cheap.

- There needs to be some sort of indicator for the switches that raise the pedestals to the BK. Its a bit jarring to be going down a path and then run into a switch that seems to do nothing, making the player wonder "did I miss something?" A good indicator is just placing some sort of unique texture nearby, and then also placing that texture in the BK hallway so the player associates the two in his/her mind.

- Perhaps it's because of the missing details, but some rooms like the stairwell past the RK feel kinda awkward.