Hexen - Shadows Of Cronos

Its been a while since I actually released a pwad to the Doom community. This is a 5-map hub for Hexen designed for Chocolate Hexen so this can run on any source port. This was a project that I've started back in 2012 and on and off, I've been slowly working on it since then.

I am not exactly happy with the way it turned out mainly due to issues with Hexen itself. I wanted to go for a more fast-paced gameplay but I still had difficulties achieving what I wanted.

I also started to get really sloppy towards the end and I even cut out some ideas and even a level just for the sake of getting this done and over with.

Download link: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/hexen/j-l/kaiser_28

Screenshots:

Even more screenshots:

So yeah... enjoy.

wow that looks great, really love that last shot in the imgur album. I like that you've still even stuck with your numeric series naming :p

Impressive architecture!

Always nice to see a Kaiser release. There's always a nice level of polish in your stuff. Looking forward to trying this out. :)

About midway through this and really loving it so far! You seem to really understand Hexen gameplay and design and it's nice to see a set of levels that embraces that instead of trying to "fix" it, even if you're not thrilled about how Hexen plays. Really nice look too, good use of Hexen 2 textures and other resources. We'll see how the rushed end comes, but so far no complaints at all, might even end up being my favourite Hexen pwad if it keeps up the quality of the start.

Finished it! Excellent set of maps. I guess the latter portions felt "sped up" a bit, but not particularly rushed or unfinished, you just seem to get a lot of keys/puzzle items in quick succession whereas the start is a lot of exploring.

I had one part where I got a bit stuck, somehow I missed an open area in the swamp when trying to get the 3rd mask. But that's really my fault. Besides what's a Hexen map without a bit of getting lost, huh? ;)

For sure one of the best Hexen mapsets I've played. I played with the Cleric but I definitely plan on going back with the other classes sometime soon. I'm curious to see how different the item/monster distribution is, based on what you wrote in the textfile.

Yeah, guess getting lost in Hexen can't be helped. Also its somewhat boring playing as the Mage and things become extremely easy when playing as the fighter. I did try cutting back on the amount of mana for the fighter though so that way you have to rely on artifacts instead.

Pretty cool maps. I only got lost like a dozen times, which is pretty good for me playing Hexen maps ;) Some areas after the first "eath has moved..." event look like you didn't bother to detail them anymore, but besides that it's very beautiful and atmospheric.

But I can't finish it. After the endboss dies, nothing happens (using some recent GZDoom version).

Kaiser said:

Yeah, guess getting lost in Hexen can't be helped. Also its somewhat boring playing as the Mage and things become extremely easy when playing as the fighter. I did try cutting back on the amount of mana for the fighter though so that way you have to rely on artifacts instead.

Well I started playing as the fighter, on Titan difficulty though, and so far that's a decent challenge. Fireballs everywhere and all I've got are melee attacks right now. And artifacts, of course.

BTW when you first get to the swamp, it's not too hard to jump on the mask-holder walls and grab the sapphire planet right away. Don't know if that was an intentional sequence break, or not. Of course going to the end map right away without even a 3rd weapon would be pretty tough...


@boris: strange, which character and skill level are you playing with? I had no problems using a recent GZDoom build from http://devbuilds.drdteam.org/gzdoom/, and it seems fine in vanilla Hexen too. I was using the Cleric on skill 4.


edit: Looking at the scripts, it might be possible that the door only opens when two Heresiarchs get killed. If so that's a problem because only skill 4 has two, the lower difficulties only have one.

Whacked Heresiarch, nothing happened. ZDoom 2.7.1, fighter class.

plums said:

edit: Looking at the scripts, it might be possible that the door only opens when two Heresiarchs get killed. If so that's a problem because only skill 4 has two, the lower difficulties only have one.

Yeah, that's the problem, works fine for me on a skill level where 2 Heresiarchs are there.

My antennae have perked. Allow me to explore these hubs and most likely I will report back before the end of July.

boris said:

Pretty cool maps. I only got lost like a dozen times, which is pretty good for me playing Hexen maps ;) Some areas after the first "eath has moved..." event look like you didn't bother to detail them anymore, but besides that it's very beautiful and atmospheric.

But I can't finish it. After the endboss dies, nothing happens (using some recent GZDoom version).

Well, I tried to make everything straight forward as possible, but being Hexen, I guess getting lost can't be helped. Also some detail was stripped out in favor of working in vanilla Hexen. I was hitting the visplane limit in numerous areas.

I'll see if I can reupload it to newstuff. I only checked for two but forgot that only one existed on lower difficulties.

EDIT: it's been re-uploaded to newstuff

plums said:

BTW when you first get to the swamp, it's not too hard to jump on the mask-holder walls and grab the sapphire planet right away. Don't know if that was an intentional sequence break, or not. Of course going to the end map right away without even a 3rd weapon would be pretty tough...

Yeah, that's a sequence break, though I am not sure what you mean by 'not too hard'. I can't seem to get up there without slipping off the mask-holder walls.

Here's a demo, should run in vanilla/Chocolate Hexen
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/attachment.php?postid=1280251

Easiest with the fighter of course but even the mage can do it. You can also get lucky and jump on a stalker right in front of the column with the sapphire, sometimes.

Holy shit, a Kaiser wad? I need this!

Sweet, you've released it.

Holy shit when did this happen? How did I miss it?

Kaiser, you legend! This looks amazing. Playing now.

EDIT: This is as good as I expected. Brilliant job -- I don't generally even care for hexen, but this is too good. I'm about halfway through, haven't felt lost or confused yet, and still intrigued by how it all comes together. The areas are very inventive and believable as places, and I feel like I have ample opportunity to battle foes in many different ways using combinations of items and weapons. Might be the best Hexen wad I've ever played.

plums said:

You can also get lucky and jump on a stalker right in front of the column with the sapphire, sometimes.

I think I'll just leave that open for speedrunners :P
The common player will usually not attempt to do this.

You should have told me you released this. Downloading now.

EDIT: Help, I've fallen and I can't get up.
http://www.doglike.org/temp/kaiser28.png

Can't progress after killing the two heresiarches on the Chronos outpost. The ethereal gate doesn't seem to work. (Playing in Doomsday Jhexen v 1.3.6)

Always happy to see new Hexen levels. And a Kaiser episode? Outstanding. Loved this. Got a little lost trying to remember which portal went to which level, but overall, not too bad. At one point I did end up coming out of a portal on MAP05 to find the door out of the area (sector tag 9) was a one-way door in. Had to go back to MAP03 and find another way back. A little frustrating. Also annoyed that there's no way to get back to MAP01 once you leave. By the time I figured out the Corpse Counter puzzle, I realized there were switches on MAP01, so I had to start over. Grrr.

Only found two minor issues which affect gameplay at all. There is a third, but only in source ports that allow crouching. You specified Chocolate Hexen, and I was using ZDoom.

-------
MAP01
-------
This is the third non-Chocolate Hexen issue. In the water canal that you have to lower, you can crouch and go under the wall to get to the water wheel and lower the water, thus avoiding the column puzzle entirely.

http://i.imgur.com/mQIltEK.png

-------
MAP05
-------
In the northern room (past the sector tag 9 door), you can jump onto the torch and from there to the top of the center platform.

http://i.imgur.com/OCtfB5G.png
http://i.imgur.com/pKWzxfC.png

It means you get the Dark Servant early (and can clean out the western room without being inside it, if you want). The bars to the east (lineid 111) are still impassable.

-------
MAP02
-------
When you get the Blue Sapphire:

http://i.imgur.com/Zdrl7MW.png

If you use the Switch in front of you to teleport back to MAP05, everything works as (I think) the author intended. However, if you turn around and use the Portal right behind you,

http://i.imgur.com/vWEsFru.png

you can skip the western room combat, the Urn, and the Icon secret, and go right to placing the Sapphire to go to the end level (or the secret level first). If instead, you use the Portal and work your way back to the northern room, something gets minorly broken. You can jump up onto the center platform (again, avoiding the combat in the western room completely, if you want) and jump to the east to get to the Mystic Urn and the Icon secret. If you used the Switch to get here, the bars are gone and you can get the Urn. If you used the Portal, the bars are still there, but you can walk through them to get the Urn. I'm guessing there is another script somewhere besides script 14 which removes the lineblock tag from lineid 111.

http://i.imgur.com/TTAPZW2.png

So with three other portals on MAP02 that lead back to MAP05, there's no reason to use the Switch at all. If you want to force use of the Switch, I suppose you could temporarily block the other four portals on MAP02 until after the Switch is used, but I don't know if you think it's worth the additional scripting required.

BTW, you can't just 'visit' MAP02, give yourself four Masks, grab the Blue Sapphire, and test this. The bars stay solid. You actually have to play through the wad as intended up to the point of getting the Sapphire, then save and test. I've done this four times to verify it.