Valiant.wad - now on /idgames!

skillsaw said:

FuzzballFox: I don't know if even simple mods will work. If you give me a copy I can try to test it and let you know, but I wouldn't count on it. If it's something purely cosmetic like blood colors, you might want to try just going without it if you don't mind.

actor Colour_Cacodemon : Cacodemon replaces Cacodemon
{ 
bloodcolor "0000cb"
} 

actor Colour_HellKnight : HellKnight replaces HellKnight
{ 
bloodcolor "5bbf4f"
} 

actor Colour_BaronOfHell : BaronOfHell replaces BaronOfHell
{ 
bloodcolor "5bbf4f"
} 

actor Colour_Revenant : Revenant replaces Revenant
{ 
bloodcolor "73 13 13"
} 

FuzzballFox: That works fine, but consider removing the Baron and HK entries, as both monsters are replaced with something else.

Will do thank you for saying! C: Just got out the shower too so I can play now with the changes~!

Zandronum, MAP04 bugs:

Pitch black vertical trails on many places in the western garden.
Stuck Cacodemon, apparently in a 0-height outdoor sector.
Two guys don't teleport out of their closets.


That said, awesome experience so far! Fun, beautiful, well balanced, good maps.

map01-12 FDAs

Perhaps it's again the case of me playing too many maps despite being semi-bored of Doom, but a lot of this felt quite generic, speedmappy and samey, like "just another wad" by skillsaw and not something "new" by skillsaw. Lots of the levels take one structural idea and simply repeat it again and again, completely unable to surprise the player. So far map10 must be the worst example of this, it's just rocks and torches, rocks and torches with nothing standing out, I got lost there a lot despite the map not being that large. I thought all big open maps were too easy, like if you just run around a little you won't get hit much. More cramped ones seemed more interesting because some effort was actually required to dodge some of the attacks. I quite enjoyed map05 and map07 had a cool innovative idea with the mancubus that you need to defend (didn't understand that from the signs though and also it was very shitty when other monsters killed him without me even knowing lol). Dunno, maybe just not hardcore enough megawad for my taste and you said that it's harder than Vanguard\Lunatic so I was hoping to get killed more or something. I'm not saying that I can't enjoy a wad if it isn't hard enough for me, but this one is like obviously "challenge oriented" with all these traps, etc, yet it's not much of a challenge for me so far, so that's why I'm not so impressed perhaps. Looks high quality though (except vines are often buggy in prboom+, something weird appears on the screen when I'm walking under them).

At map07 and loving it so far. First 5 maps looked good to great, but 6 really picks up the pace. Feels like a little adventure on its own.

The faster imp fireball single-handedly ruined me. I would get nibbled consistently, end up at ~50hp on average and die the second a revenant or arch-vile came out of nowhere. Those AVs especially seem to like popping in tricky spots... Problem wasn't so much the number of monsters or health available but the speed really, it's just not fun to get hit all the times / have to move around consistently to try to dodge shit I can't anticipate. So I edited the wad rather than lower difficulty, slashed it to 15. Much better.

Those arachnobrains are genius. Having a small HP flying enemy with projectile so you can be much more liberal with it. Somehow they feel "legit", too, rather than an annoyance like lost souls.

Loving the pistol and chaingun too... Obviously. :) I dig the small, sensible changes trend as of late.

Phml said:

Loving the pistol and chaingun too... Obviously. :)

This, so much. The pistol and chaingun replacements are such perfect additions to valiant's gameplay. It doesn't dawn on you unless you realize you always choose the chaingun as the default weapon to enter a new, possibly trapped area. I can't fanboy over it nearly enough.

Phml said:

At map07 and loving it so far. First 5 maps looked good to great, but 6 really picks up the pace. Feels like a little adventure on its own.

The faster imp fireball single-handedly ruined me. I would get nibbled consistently, end up at ~50hp on average and die the second a revenant or arch-vile came out of nowhere. Those AVs especially seem to like popping in tricky spots... Problem wasn't so much the number of monsters or health available but the speed really, it's just not fun to get hit all the times / have to move around consistently to try to dodge shit I can't anticipate. So I edited the wad rather than lower difficulty, slashed it to 15. Much better.

Those arachnobrains are genius. Having a small HP flying enemy with projectile so you can be much more liberal with it. Somehow they feel "legit", too, rather than an annoyance like lost souls.

Loving the pistol and chaingun too... Obviously. :) I dig the small, sensible changes trend as of late.

I think that's pretty fair. I've definitely considered slowing the imp ball down a little bit wasn't positive. I think the more important change is that they attack twice, which can cause them to "lock" onto you even after you go around cover, at least until the attack animation finishes. It makes them much more dangerous and unpredictable when you aren't used to them.

Oh hello. *Clicks*

so I'm playing this on GZDoom, ITYTD, no hud:

MAP01 is pretty neat, the new pistol and imp are cool and make things a bit more fun. the ambushes aren't bad either, although I apparently missed the soulsphere ambush with the hitscanners. I saw a few mancubi and revenants, and I wonder how tough this'll be on UV (or for that matter, the rest of the maps).

btw, did that chaingunner drop his chaingun? I don't think I remember grabbing one for this map.

Chaingunners do not drop guns it appears, just ammo.

ReFracture said:

Chaingunners do not drop guns it appears, just ammo.

Yes, this is an intentional change.

Is it also intentional that their obituary claims that they're a Nazi? :P

Also, a bit of a nitpick

http://imgur.com/QaFFhWe

The archvile in MAP04 is somehow able to see me past some of the walls directly surrounding it.

Heh, I didn't touch the obituaries at all so they're probably all messed up. That's something I'll fix before a final version.

And yeah, that AV has some really weird sight lines.

Finished episode 1, had so much fun. I really liked that idea on MAP07, genius. Can't wait to have more time playing the next episode. Really really good stuff skillsaw.

Also the first time I saw those flying brain monsters I was like Octobrains?

4 more FDAs, for maps 13-15 and 31.

SFoZ911 said:

I really liked that idea on MAP07, genius.

Heh, it's probably my favourite use of tag 666 that I've seen.

more random comments from me:

MAP02

holy cow that chaingun is so cool, maybe a bit overpowered as I can completely stun a revenant with it though. I don't like the new plasma gun sound though. an okay map, not much to comment about.

MAP03

reminds me of your CC4 map. pretty cool overall.

MAP04

and here's where we run into a few monster-related problems. scifista already noted one of the closets isn't letting monsters go (in my case it was a sole demon). the first arch-vile seemed to be stuck on his staircase, would've been a bit more interesting had he been a free-roamer. and the cacodemon was also already noted (I could actually hit him with the chaingun too.) the new arachnobrain monsters were pretty cool but easy to kill in the area they were found in.

edit: MAP05

the console said that this map has an incomplete BSP tree. regardless, my favorite so far, the outdoor area is pretty easy to handle and I see more of those floating brain things.

B A S E D

5/5

I love it, it belongs with the other two wads. The trilogy of QUALITY memorable super special Awesome maps.

This is awesome stuff, really enjoying the visuals and gameplay, although the imp fireballs are a bit deadly. At that speed i tend to soak them up without a say in the matter, and with the super fast baron missiles as well I'm reduced to peek-a-boo round corners for some of the fights.

I've done the first 2 episodes on UV, and so far its a blast. Its kicking my arse quite a bit, especially in wide open areas with long range snipers, but the only downer so far was map10 - the gulleys lined with chaingunners were super annoying to clear out, and fighting with only a thin sliver of non-damaging walkway wasn't fun. I do get the feeling that I might be playing outside my difficulty comfort zone though, so maybe I should knock it down a notch...

Valiant's difficulty is somewhat higher than Vanguard or Lunatic. If you've played either of those and found them too difficult, I recommend playing Valiant on skill 3 or skill 2.

You weren't kidding. I've played through the first episode, on UV for map 1 and HMP for the rest. Some of them aren't too bad, but I don't have Memfis' ability to dodge (or aim, or know my surroundings, or move cleanly) and I had particular trouble on the even maps for some reason.

I recorded my first exits for maps 1-7.

Anyway I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to playing through the rest of the episodes.

mouldy said:

but the only downer so far was map10 - the gulleys lined with chaingunners were super annoying to clear out, and fighting with only a thin sliver of non-damaging walkway wasn't fun. I do get the feeling that I might be playing outside my difficulty comfort zone though, so maybe I should knock it down a notch...

You battled the map the hard way. The invis is a godsend here and the proper way is to rocketblast as many of the valley chainers as possible while being invisible. It is perfectly reliable!

As for difficulty... skillsaw likes to kill you with dick moves. It's awesome and you can sidetrack it after you learn about it. But I wouldn't say the mapset is particularly hard. It's definitely UV-approachable for someone who designed goddamn Going Down, haha.

I had some difficulty with Map07 but otherwise UV has been pretty fun and seemingly balanced so far.

Boom has complevel 11? Well I learned something today.

Also, this was a crazy surprise. Well done Skillsaw, screens look great (unsurprisingly.) Cooness!

I just got a really weird graphical glitch in the very first room. PrBoom 2.5.1.4, 8 bit software mode.



Here is a link to a savegame with it visible: https://www.dropbox.com/s/n8bx5i52mrjuaf0/prboom-plus-savegame7.zip?dl=0

I decided to replay the first 5 levels from pistol starts, such a fan way to approach it. UV. I really like Map05.
http://www.twitch.tv/refracture/b/621958653

I agree with Memfis on the generic feel, but it's not about the difficulty since it's still hard for me and I'm probably nowhere as good as he is :s
Skipped through a few maps here and there
I liked the no symbol and the check mark graphics in map07
I took delight in the moss growing and grass protruding since that's my fetish
I loved the glowing light bridge effect in map28 (went directly to the moon maps sometime after to look for it because it looked cool in the screenshots) because I like cool shiny glowing colorful things.

@ Memfis: You're a strange guy. You keep telling (especially after touching some of my stuff...) that FDA-friendly maps is what you really want to play, and when you actually get the thing desired - you start complaining that it's not challenging enough. Like, you can't even say what you really want, uhuh?

Map01 - Kills - 100, Items - 93, Secret - 100. End health - 156, Armor - 27. Death Count - Zero. Bullets - 200, Shells - 29, Rockets - 13

Ewww, sexy!

I'm really too busy for this, but I couldn't resist playing at least the first map on GZDoom, UV, frequent saves and keyboard only.

Super-nice first map. Gorgeous as hell. Nice layout, cool traps. I can't believe I survived the second Soulsphere trap -- twice! The first time I had to go running back for the Blursphere. I had to play it again when I accidentally reloaded a save instead of making a new save. Actually suffered more damage the second time owing to misaimed punches at the Pinky-things.

Really liked the fast Imps. The fireball speed seems the same as -fast. Is it? Also really liked the pistol, a truly effective weapon. I was aching for that new Chaingun I've heard about, which explains my high bullet count, because I was holding back waiting for the new gun. Oh well. Super-easy secrets. I expect that will change as we move along.

I hope I get a chance to play some more soon.

Hey Skillsaw, just wanted to let you know that I've casually played through the first few maps, and I'm very impressed so far! I enjoy the dehacked work, especially the Pistol and Super Chaingun; good stuff :).

The only thing that bothered me in my initial impression were the key markers on the statusbar. I had picked up a red key at some point in one of the maps, but didn't realize it (this was more my fault :P). It took me a while to even see that I had a keycard because the dark marker graphics blend in with the background of the statusbar. Maybe its just me as I sometimes have a hard time distinguishing certain colors. But is there any chance you could brighten up those markers a bit so they stand out more? And/or maybe make the background of the statusbar key marker locations less busy?