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NiTROACTiVE

Project: Illuminatus (32-level Megawad) [Full WAD Finally Released To /idgames]

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Can't wait for it, N!tro.

It would be pretty funny, if a secret level had a terry trap in it. But you wouldn't do that, would you?

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Crasger said:

Can't wait for it, N!tro.

It would be pretty funny, if a secret level had a terry trap in it. But you wouldn't do that, would you?

It won't have a Terry trap in it, because then I would get a lot of hate for it. Besides, this WAD is meant for DOS even though it has a custom MAPINFO lump in it.

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NiTROACTiVE said:

It won't have a Terry trap in it, because then I would get a lot of hate for it. Besides, this WAD is meant for DOS even though it has a custom MAPINFO lump in it.


Interesting. Well, best of luck on this mega wad and may more maps come from your talented fingertips.

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Finished 5 levels, it's quite enjoyable thus far.

Only thing i don't like is how some monsters are reused on a frequent basis shortly after they are introduced. Like the Revenants in Map05, you first seem them later in the level and from there they constantly return in group of 3 or 4 in the following rooms. Same thing happened with baron of hell.

Of course with that said, i only played 5 maps so far so i'm not sure whether this habit keep happening in later levels.

EDIT: Stopped at MAP07, seems what i reported above only occured in MAP05. MAP06 was a good map to end the first episode.

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Fellowzdoomer said:

He only trusts Forum Regulars sadly :-(

Yeah right now I only trust Forum Regulars right now because I don't want anyone else to release my project without my permission.

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Hey guys, I know it's been over a year since I last posted here with an update, but I've finally come back to make a very late update.

You see, the reason this project never got 100% finished and released to Doomworld's /idgames was that I was having trouble getting all of the problems with it fixed. GreyGhost here on the forums had helped out along with Satori Komeiji of YouTube. GreyGhost was having some issues back then he was busy with, and the beta testing never got finished. Maybe he's not as busy anymore as of now, but he might have forgotten about it since it's been such a long time.

I'm not a huge expert on compatibility with DOS/Vanilla, so I got some help on that. I did use a plugin over at the official Doom Builder 2 website called the Visplane Explorer, which would help prevent visplane crashes. Aside from that, that's all I could learn easily.

So I'm sorry that the full version never got released, but hopefully we can start working on it again so we can finally get it all done.

In addition to that, here's a beta release of the WAD, which is basically the full version of the WAD, but it has many problems.

So as I said before, I would like to get this WAD 100% done, so I can release it to /idgames. And I hope you understand what's been going on. Until then, have a nice day and take care.

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I'm going to give another update with three important things.

First off, as of 6/15/2015, GreyGhost has returned to beta test the WAD, so hopefully we can get this all done by the end of 2015.

Also, I'm looking for someone to help me make the ending screen as well as someone to tidy up this image below by removing the brown spots.



Finally, if the final version has some bugs, then I can always update it by going to v1.1 and over.

That's all I have to say for now. Take care.

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I gave it a try in Zdoom on UV difficulty, always trying to have 100% kills. The worst thing about these maps are the switch hunts. Essentially, the player has to run around the map like headless chicken and check everything. Needless to say, this translates to minutes and minutes of boredom. It is particularly bad in maps 13, 28 and 31, but all maps more or less suffer from this. In many instances, I simply gave up and looked which switch opens what in Doom Builder. You really need to cut the switch hunts down. Apart from that, I noticed some bugs, some of them game-breaking:

-Map04: two chaingunners (things 437 and 438) are stuck.

-Map10: the whole map is a huge ammo drain, particularly the maze section. I entered the map with 200 bullets, 70 shells, 40 rockets and 600 cells, but I left it with 50 bullets and 30 shells only. And that happened even though I killed most of demons and spectres with melee weapons. Maybe you forgot to add ammo for UV? Then in Map11, I run completely out at one point and had to use console commands to give me some ammo (killing barons and revenants with chainsaw is not my favorite pasttime).

-Map14: HOMs at linedefs 2288 and 2294 after you raise the bridge.

-Map18: there is no way to get up onto sector 213, which means the rocket boxes secret (sector 280) is also inaccessible.

-Map20: similar to Map10, this is a big ammo drain on UV.

-Map21: one side of the red door (sector 143) is incorrectly marked with yellow skull texture.

-Map22: the meandering path to the yellow key is poorly designed. It is possible to rise some segments when the player randomly runs into the lava. The segments then remain damaging and some HOMs are created on their side walls.

-Map23: large HOM at linedef 456 when the lift is down. Small HOM at linedef 2562 which is briefly visible when you ride the lift up. The rocket boxes secret doesn't work because there is missing teleport destination thing in sector 656. On a side note, it is rather annoying the player has to navigate most teleporter puzzles back again.

-Map24: a demon (thing 851) is stuck. A radsuit is needed for revenant fight inside acid pit (sector 524).

-Map25: an imp (thing 1018) is stuck. If player falls to the "right" side of sector 397, he/she is unable to get back up. HOM at linedef 2566. All 6 ceiling cubes in the starting room (sector 81 etc.) generate HOMs. Three mancubi (things 1020 to 1022) never teleported into playable areas.

-Map26: critical bug - rising stairs to the blue key are too short. Sector 216 shouldn't be damaging. Six cacodemons (things 720 to 725) didn't teleport into playable areas because they never became active.

-Map27: HOMs at linedefs 3029 and 3127.

-Map28: critical bug - some lava bridgs (sector 22 and 466) don't work properly.

-Map29: critical bug - sectors 55 and 132 didn't lower even though I pressed the right switches. It is impossible to get into bit rocket secret (sector 139) without jumping.

-Map32: critical bug - there are missing steps in front of sector 356. Once you drop down, you can't get back up to complete the red key puzzle. Also, 6 revenants (things 102 to 107) never teleported into playable areas.

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EffinghamHuffnagel said:

How's this?

[image]

That looks better, but there are some green and brown spots you missed. Could you clean those up if you can please?

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NiTROACTiVE said:

That looks better, but there are some green and brown spots you missed. Could you clean those up if you can please?

"Green spots"? The only pixels in the green range are the eyes of two of the faces. There are also a fair number of grey pixels of color 39,39,39 and darker. None of those are actually "brown spots", so I ignored them. Are you saying you want all of those corrected, also?

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EffinghamHuffnagel said:

"Green spots"? The only pixels in the green range are the eyes of two of the faces. There are also a fair number of grey pixels of color 39,39,39 and darker. None of those are actually "brown spots", so I ignored them. Are you saying you want all of those corrected, also?

Yes if you can, and if you look closer at the image, you'll see pixels that aren't a pinkish color.

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This looked interesting enough to want to try. I'm playing on Zandronum on UV continuously.

Map 1: It's a map 1. A SG earlier may be helpful as I completed most of the level without it and was bored senseless by the time I needed to kill the 20th enemy with only a Pistol. Only found 3 of the secrets.

Map 2: The fight to get to the SSG is really one you actually need the SSG for with the amount of Demons and Cacodemons that can easily crowd the small lift you go down. The secret with the Armor comes very late into the level and is almost not needed by that point. Found all the secrets here.

Map 3: Without a SSG (or more) the section with the Cacodemons leading to the yellow key may be quite tedious. The RL secret is fairly hard to notice and the PG secret is very difficult to notice unless you're listening carefully and I didn't find them until I'd killed everything. I'm now on 26 Rockets and 340 Cells and I'm not sure that much ammo is necessary, even for secrets. Depending on what's coming up, this could totally wreck the balance of the upcoming maps for anyone playing continuously. I'd say you can definitely lose 100 Cells at least from that secret, because even if you use it all on the Cacos and don't kill them all, you will certainly do substantial damage.

Map 4: My comments from the previous map do hold here. From a Pistol start this is probably quite a challenging map, but with so much ammo I was able to breeze past all encounters with no trouble at all. The section with all the corridors that lead up to the red key were quite tedious with so many dead ends. The upside of sections like these is that there's normally a secret hidden away, but there didn't appear to be one. These Chaingunners at the blue key appear to be stuck. I don't know what triggers the enemies that you're holding in the top left of the map to spawn in, but I completed it with 186/219 kills and I thought I'd been everywhere. (I only found 1 of the 5 secrets though, so maybe it's related to that) I'd definitely lose about 100 Cells, and maybe 5-10 Rockets, from the secrets in the previous map. Another MegaWAD I played recently at one point gave 400 Cells in a secret, and by that point I already had a BFG and it ruined 2 huge encounters in the subsequent 3 maps because they were supposed to be challenging, but with so much ammo they didn't work as intended.

Overall, quite enjoyable so far!

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Map 5: The start of this map seems very challenging from a Pistol start as you could easily get rushed by the Demons. I'm not too sure what the point of this room is. I had to expend an awful lot of ammo to get there (past 2 Barons, plus some Hell Knights earlier) and all there seems to be up here is a bit of ammo for the RL, which I haven't even seen in the map yet. This room similarly seemed to serve no purpose other than to absorb a lot of ammo. The RL appears really late into the map, and despite coming in with a reasonable amount of SSG/CG ammo, I became very low at points. (I left with significantly less Bullets and Shells than I entered with, even using all the Rockets and over 200 Cells for the PG, which I didn't even find in the map) The SSG appears far too late into the map I feel. You don't get to it until after the RL, but you sorely need it beforehand to deal with the amount of Revenants, Hell Knights and Barons you've got in the map. I didn't even come across a Berserk pack anywhere until near the end, which would help a bit earlier on. (It's basically useless as a weapon at the end because you cannot really punch all the Revenants in the final fight) This map feels like it's lacking enough ammo for UV, but is exactly the sort of map that I was talking about earlier. I came in with 9 Rockets and about 430 Cells, and that just made the hefty amount of Hell Knights and Barons no problem at all, whereas without them the map would have been substantially more difficult. This is a very challenging map for its place in the WAD, so probably needs more ammo.

Map 6: Again I'm running into Barons (and Cacodemons, Revenants and Hell Knights) yet I don't seem to have found a SSG or RL in the map yet. I found an Armor when I was 189 kills in the map but it needs to be way earlier with the amount of higher HP monsters you have in this level. Here you have a Baron in a narrow section and he is only guarding 20HP with of Stimpacks, which is very a disproportionate effort v reward ratio. I have come across a lot of Cells in this map with no sight of a PG or BFG, and a PG is very much needed. Are you intending these maps to be completable from a Pistol start? UV-Maxing the last couple of maps from Pistol start seems nigh on impossible, or at the very least exceptionally tedious with a Chainsaw or Berserk needed for ammo conservation. The secret at the end is nice, but contains ammo that is needed long before then. I found that and the MegaSphere, and I think one is in the tunnel section, but I couldn't open it.

Map 7: Simple, but very enjoyable.

Still enjoying this a lot, but it feels like there are ammo shortages, misplaced Armors and a lack of the weaponry needed to deal with the monsters you're putting in. Everything would be fine if this was the original Doom II, but you're placing tougher enemies earlier on and in more places without really bumping up the (non-secret) weapons to match. If I hadn't spent a lot of time getting the RL and PG in Map 3, I rather suspect I would not be enjoying this WAD by now.

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Map 8: A few Demons at the start before you get to a SG is a bit tedious, but not too bad. At least you get a PG at some point reasonably early in the level, but without a SSG you have a few Revenants and a Baron to take out before you get there. I've sort of always felt that if you're facing a Baron with anything less than a SSG (e.g. only a SG or CG available) then it's quite tedious. It already takes 5-6 SSG shots to kill one, using a SG or CG is time consuming without any real challenge. There didn't seem to be any Armor anywhere in the level and I only had the 200 from the MegaSphere in the previous map. The Berserk secret that leads to being able to get the BFG secret is too well hidden as there is nothing to indicate you should be shooting the wall inside where the SSG is. It is for a BFG mind you, but no clues at all don't really make for great secrets as anyone can hide something behind a wall and provide no clues that it's there.

Map 9: Again, lots of higher tier enemies with no obvious high power weapons to deal with a lot of them. There is ammo around for the RL/PG, but those weapons are needed earlier for Pistol starters. The level is fine if you have plenty of ammo for the RL/PG/BFG, but not otherwise. I actually ran out of SSG ammo near the end of this map. Despite hitting every wall I could see, I didn't find any of the 3 secrets, which was incredibly frustrating.

On continuous play, this is proving to be quite enjoyable. Lack of ammo for the SSG is really the only thing I'm noticing, and the unfairness to anyone who is Pistol starting each map. In some cases (5, 8 and 9 most notably) simply adding a SG and 4-8 Shells at the start would make a world of difference to Pistol starters and makes the early parts of these maps much more tolerable, without unbalancing it for those who are playing continuously. In some cases there are Shells, but you have to get past Imps (or worse, Demons) before either getting a SG or being able to kill a Shotgunner to get one.

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Map 10: Same comment about ammo here, especially at the start. Even using the Chainsaw on nearly all Spectres in the corridor section with the flashing lights, I still ran very low on ammo. This section was quite lengthy and repetitive, but my main complaint was just how much ammo I had to spend here. I came into the map with 388/24/43/600 and by the time I reached the lift at the end of this section I had only 372/24/0/134, including picking up all ammo in this section and other parts of the map until now. There isn't even a PG or BFG up until this point, so without 600 Cells to use to this point in the map I don't want to think what my ammo situation would be like. Having picked up the yellow key and made my way to the yellow door, AVs are the last thing I want to see. Ammo has been so scarce recently that having to kill some enemies again becomes very painful. By the time I'd finished this fight I was at 330/0/0/0. I hunted around all the currently explored section and found the RL secret, which was very welcome. Ammo later in the map is better, but it would be a struggle to even get there. I came into this map pretty heavily stocked so I didn't really expect to run out of ammo for all but the CG at any point in this map. I found 5 of the 8 secrets here.

Map 11: Again, running into Revenants and then Barons before finding any substantial weapons. This room here seems to have a soundblock line, but it's a bit weird that shooting into here doesn't wake up the Imps. Overall not a bad level, though there are still a lot of high tier enemies with not much ammo around.

Generally ammo is becoming a problem now and is making the maps less fun because I feel like I'm having to play much more conservatively and it also feels like I'm needing to find the majority of secrets on a map just to make them feasible, which is quite a chore given how well hidden some of them are. You're putting in so many Barons without placing much ammo after you fight them. Given how much ammo it actually takes to kill them, after these encounters there should really be at least some Shells to compensate.

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Map 12: Here some of these Revenants don't appear to wake up even though they are looking right at me. Same thing here by the blue door. Again weapons are lacking for anyone who is Pistol starting and I didn't come across an Armor until I was 201 kills into the map. I really liked the layout of this map, especially the similarity, though it was very much a switch hunt with not too much indication of what some of them were doing.

Map 13: You have 6 Imps, 2 Hell Knights and 2 Barons in the first couple of areas with absolutely no weapons at all. A SSG and 40 Shells is the absolute minimum that should be placed there. This section of tunnels could be shorter as the whole "dark corridor with Spectres" has been used a few times already in this map, let alone the WAD. At the RL, having to hit the switch that raises bars on the other side of the map, run all the way across the map to hit the switch you can now access, to run all the way back to the first switch so you can now get on the lift is incredibly tedious and serves no point whatsoever as you don't even get ambushed anywhere. The switch by the RL could just raise the lift and the other switch could just be removed entirely to reduce the tedium.

Map 14: The second half of the map was again a switch hunt, but otherwise this was pretty enjoyable.

Map 15: Once again no weapons at the start, no Armor that I've come across after 108 kills. These Revenants didn't wake up until I fired, even though they were looking right at me. The SSG secret is needed considerably earlier in the map given I've already had to kill almost every type of non-boss enemy in the game so far. At 277 kills I came across a MegaArmor, finally. This bridge has a small HOM section on the sides. The Nazi cave section is waaaaaaaaaay too long. For the amount of time and effort it takes to navigate that section, I was hoping it was leading to a secret exit. If it did, I didn't find it. Exited the map with 597 enemies killed. Apart from the lack of weapons at the start and the long cave section, the rest of the map was really enjoyable.

Fundamentally a lot of these maps are good and play well, but the recurring themes so far are:

- Lack of weapons, at the start, and armour, near the start, of a lot of maps. In many cases you're forcing Pistol starters to fight anything from Imps (tolerable) to Hell Knights and Barons (ridiculous) with no real weapons. I also shouldn't be over halfway through a map before arriving at an Armor or MegaArmor.
- Ammo during many of the maps becomes very low, to the point of needing to use the Chainsaw and wait around for infighting. This was a particular problem on Map 10. The reason why I think this is concerning is because I have been maximising the BFG as much as possible, to take out enormous groups of enemies, or grouped up Barons. That's saving me an absolute ton of ammo for the rest of the weapons, and I'm still running low at times. The BFG isn't even available in all maps, but without it I would not be enjoying this WAD beyond about Map 9.
- Disproportionate fights relative to the reward. In some cases you have rooms that you don't need to go into to complete the map, and so you just spend ammo for no reason with very little ammo in the room to replenish. In others, you have situations like Barons guarding 20HP worth of Stimpacks. I've lost track of the amount of times you've put a situation that would take 5+ Rockets to kill, with absolutely no ammo around either before or after the fight.

I just opened this up in Doom Builder to check it out, and I notice that you do in fact have weapons at the start of some maps, but not for UV. In every map you do this in, make the weapons available in all difficulties. A good example is Map 13. Not giving the CG on UV doesn't make the start difficult, it makes it boring and tedious. Do you really want someone to take out 6 Imps, 2 Hell Knights and 2 Barons with only a Pistol? Even with the CG this fight will be boring, but at least it won't take 4 minutes to kill everything.

I shall continue with this WAD soon.

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Thanks again for all the beta testing, degree23. Also, when you finish beta testing the WAD, can you list all the maps that can use more ammo for pistol starters?

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I've spent a couple of hours investigating the first 12 levels from Pistol starts and also looking in Doom Builder to see what you actually placed in levels. I can send you my recommendations what I have so far if you like. (It's a pretty lengthy list)

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I sent you a PM. I'll do the same when I finish the second half of the WAD.

Map 16: A lot of corridors here, and again you have Cacodemons, Hell Knights, Barons, AVs and others all without ever finding a weapon. The corridors are getting tedious because I get to the end of a lot of them only to find a wall or barrier that I need to go find a switch for. Because there are so many, it's not clear which switch opens which area, which results in a lot of running over the same areas multiple times trying to find the new area. The maze section to get to the AV switch is really annoying to navigate, and would be even worse if I hadn't found the Computer Map secret. One of the ways to make a switch hunt less tedious is to be having monsters spawn in to indicate that although you've been somewhere before, you should go there again. A good place for this would be from the switch behind the yellow door to guide you towards the red key.

Map 17: The outside area is very large and flat, which is somewhat bland. Again there's a lot of long corridors to navigate here, as well as more switch hunting. There was actually plenty of ammo for once.

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^ lol

Map 19: Again no weapons until the PG way into the map. There was quite a bit of ammo for the RL, but I didn't see one anywhere. There were some good Revenant fights here, as well as some nice Arachnatron use. There are a lot of places to explore, so I'm not sure how you're supposed to notice that a switch is going to lower a wall on the other side of the map. There was some damaging floor beyond the yellow door which was ok, but there doesn't seem to be a Radiation Suit here and there's no indication that you're going to get health in there, or how long the tunnel is.


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Map 20: So many enemies before you get to a SSG. The Cacodemons here don't wake up even if you shoot in the area. This is actually a theme that runs throughout the WAD; soundblock lines seem to be very overused. This area with the AV has less ammo than you need to kill everything in it. The blue key ambush was nice. This room would benefit from some more ammo. 2 Cyberdemons at the end? I haven't come across anywhere near enough ammo to deal with that. I ran out of SSG as it was, and that was with good BFG usage through the map. This plays quite well, lack of ammo aside.

Map 21: A pretty brutal start to this map, though quite enjoyable. The room with the Arachnatrons could maybe have some more enemies, or enemies teleporting in on your way back, as it's quite a large room so could have quite a large fight in it, though would need more ammo if you do. This door has yellow skulls on one side, but is actually a red key door, which confused the hell out of me for a few minutes as I couldn't work out where to go. I really liked how the end room mirrored the fight of the first room, though the Baron could be replaced with a Hell Knight and still do the same thing. Overall a really good map.

Map 22: Ammo problems again. Here there is a Cacodemon and Imp stuck on each other. There's a nice variety of fights in this map, though there's been the "Revenant shooting from above" situation in a few maps now, but overall not too bad.

Map 23: Clearing 4 Cacodemons with a SG or CG is quite tedious. A SSG at the start would be better, and this would make the subsequent fights with the HK/Barons and Cacodemon/Revenants better. There's a HOM at this lift. An instant-death teleporter with no warning is not cool. It's easily done with the automap, but still. At the yellow key, you can trigger the AV before you raise the bars by just running at them, so you may want to move the trigger back a bit. Another instant-death section? Oh wow, the instant death section beyond the yellow door with the 2 AVs and 4 Imps is one of the worst things I have ever seen in Doom. You have no choice but to tediously snipe at the AVs as the chances of them blasting you into one of the linedefs is high and there is no way you will ever get across without being hit. Either the AVs or the linedefs need to change. Then after that you have another teleport/instant death puzzle, all the while being shot at by Revenants. They are tedious to take out (and I have almost no ammo now) and it's pointless to rush through as you end up on the cramped platform with them and can die easily. The section in the dark with the Revenants, Mancubus and Pain Elementals is very difficult to deal with given the lack of ammo and near total darkness. Then you have a teleporting AV trap where it's done in such a way that if you shoot them with a Rocket, they actually move backwards into the teleporter and go to one of the other cages, usually shooting you. You THEN have a slow lowering exit door, which is almost pointless as the chances of actually running to the end and getting out without being hit are very low, so you could make the exit reveal a bit faster. Mercifully I could then exit.

Gonna stop there as that was one of the least enjoyable maps I have ever played. There are so many things I would change with it, but ultimately the fact I am running very low on ammo at points is making good maps frustrating and other maps very frustrating. I will PM some recommendations for ammo when I finish.

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Map 24: This map is challenging, but you provide enough ammo to deal with the early stages. The open area you have to traverse to get to the yellow key room should definitely have some sort of ambush on the way back through. The Demon here couldn't move. On the far right of the map you want the player to fight Revenants in the dark and on damaging floor? A Radiation Suit is required here. This is very switch-hunty and because there are so many rooms, there is no good indication of what each switch does. The trap where you have to hit all the switches before being crushed is super lame. Also this bit isn't MP friendly as if someone dies before making it to the teleporter, you won't be able to complete the map. You want the player to fight a Cyberdemon on damaging floor, or by shooting Rockets from stairs where you can easily take splash damage? A Radiation Suit is also needed here. Fundamentally a good map, but too much running across the map repeatedly to hit switches, with a poor one-time trap and too much time needed on damaging floors. The first half of the map was excellent though.

Map 25: More ammo is needed at the start, as well as a SSG. This is because there is total choice on where the player can go, so you can't guarantee they are going to go through in a sensible order to collect weapons. If the person goes into the green acid zone first, they are in massive trouble. A PG + Cells is really needed here or the Pain Elementals will just take over. This Imp in the distance was trapped in the pillar. Twice in the same section (the middle left teleporter of the original 6) you teleport the player into a location where he is immediately surrounded by Demons/Spectres. Once is ok, twice feels repetitive. Otherwise I really love the idea and execution of this map.

Map 26: The rising stairs to the blue key don't appear to rise high enough for you to actually get them. There's a walkway that only leads to 40 Bullets which feels rather pointless. I'm guessing the switch beyond the blue door isn't supposed to on a damaging floor? Otherwise this played really well.

Map 27: What is the point in having 4 red keys, 3 of which kill you and there being no way of telling which is the correct one? There's a HOM here and here, the second one being around the entire side of the upper step. Lots of Cells in this map, but no PG. Unusually, I was overstocked on ammo by the end of the map. I was expecting the final ambush to be more than just a Spider Mastermind, so you could add in some extra Arachnatrons spawning in too, especially as you killed some in that area earlier on.

Map 28: Really switch-hunty again. Ammo a little on the low side, but if the PG secret wasn't a secret it would be fine. Otherwise a good map.

Map 29: An awful lot of running around on this map, which has become so tedious now. The Spider Mastermind teleporting in feels very arbitrary. There were a few points where switches didn't activate anything.

Map 30: It's a Map 30. Classic IoS rising pillar fight.

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Finished playing the whole thing now, and I've sent you a PM with my thoughts on weapons and some linedefs. Overall my thoughts on this WAD can be summarised as follows:

+ For a one person effort, this is really a fantastic piece of work. Level variety was pretty good and while some ambushes got a bit repetitive, there are only so many ways you can do things in 30 maps.
- You were very keen on placing enemies that take 2+ Rockets to kill near the start of your maps, but didn't regularly place adequate firepower to deal with them until about Map 26. Inadequate weapons for a battle don't make it more "difficult", they just make it more tedious.
- Instant-death lines and traps you only get one chance to get right are not a good idea. Unless properly signposted, they don't serve any purpose except to frustrate the player.
- There was far too much switch hunting for my liking. You had a lot of maps where you could access a lot of places and in many of these places there was a barrier that I knew would lower with a switch. But in most cases it was never clear what switch would activate what barrier or door. In almost all of these cases, there weren't any ambushes either, so I was literally running over the same piece of map 3 (or more in a lot of cases) times trying to work out what switch number 7386 had actually done. This got worse in the later maps because the maps were physically bigger. Either remove some of the switches and have a switch near the barrier activate it, or teleport monsters in to guide you to where you should be going. If there are new enemies in an area that's already been visited then that's often a clue that you should explore the area again.
- Weapons and ammo seemed to either be too few, or too many. Pistol starters don't have a hope in hell on a lot of maps. (See my PM)

Unfortunately these last two points meant that by the time I'd finished this WAD I was just glad to have it done. Switch hunting + ammo management isn't really my style of play, but I would have thought it would just be frustrating for most people unless you know exactly where to go on the map.

Map 25 was probably my overall favourite map for the concept and battles. While this WAD became a more and more frustrating experience, I don't think there's much fundamentally wrong with it, and a bit more ammo on most maps would go a long way towards making them very enjoyable.

I hope other people give you feedback as, of course, everyone has their own ideas about what would be good, but also because I think this is very much worth playing.

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I know this thread never got another new post in over two years, but I have a big update to this project. The WAD has offcicialy been released to Doomworld's /idgames! Here's the official YouTube video for it:

 

 

People on YouTube and Doomworld Forums helped me get the beta testing of this WAD finished. I also fixed many bugs that the released beta had. With that said, I want to thank everyone who helped me get this megawad finished once and for all.

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Nice to see that you got this released. I hope my feedback was useful and I hope you got a lot of other feedback elsewhere too. Some things weren't to my taste, but I'm only one person and I'm sure things I disliked others would like. Overall it was a great effort for mainly just one person, so congrats!

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So I played some of the maps and unfortunately I didn't like it. maps look very basic, even though they are very long. Corridors are too narrow, and open spaces are huuuuuge, for no particular reason. I also don't like that most, if not every room in this wad has flat floor, with no steps or something that would make it more visually appealing. The only thing that I liked was those new skybox textures. Those were nice. I like your youtube videos, but this one is not my favourite.

 

Edit: I thought this wad is vanilla compatible (hence those basic designs), but no. The game crashed several times when I played some of the maps on chocolate doom. That sucks too

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