DAZZER Posted October 7, 2017 (edited) General Info Hellebarde is a 32-Level Megawad with small/medium Maps created for gzdoom. It features classic Gameplay with intense Boss Fights in well detailed Levels. Story You found the "Tome of Power". A old demonic Book with infinite Forces. But with it came the Armies of Hell which will do anything to get their Artifact back... Screenshots Episode I - Gothic/Earth MAP03 - "Forgotten Crosses" MAP04 - "Cathedral Drain" MAP08 - "Church of Bones" Episode II - Tech/Space MAP14 - "Rocket Station" MAP16 - "Moonstone" MAP19 - "Moon Gardens" Episode III - Gothic/Hell MAP22 - "Azazel's Tomb" MAP24 - "Red Rain from Olympus" MAP25 - "Castle Hellhammer" Play Info Hellebarde is a gzdoom only wad and has only been tested with gzdoom. All Maps are balanced for pistol start and have some slight changes per difficulty. This wad is not made for non classic functions like jumping or crouching. Map Listing Episode I - Gothic/Earth MAP01 - "Castle Exodus" MAP02 - "Black Marble" MAP03 - "Forgotten Crosses" MAP04 - "Cathedral Drain" MAP05 - "Jungle Science" MAP06 - "Underground Base" MAP07 - "Ruins" MAP08 - "Church of Bones" MAP09 - "Temple of the Sun" MAP10 - "City of the Damned" Episode II- Tech/Space MAP11 - "Moon Base" MAP12 - "Storage Bunkers" MAP13 - "Waste Disposal" MAP14- "Rocket Station" MAP15 - "Zero Gravity Zone" MAP16 - "Moonstone" MAP17 - "Moon Facility" MAP18 - "Teleportation Center" MAP19 - "Moon Gardens" MAP20 - "Mothership" Episode III - Gothic/Hell MAP21 - "Another World" MAP22 - "Azazel's Tomb" MAP23 - "Bloody Leafs" MAP24- "Red Rain from Olympus" MAP25 - "Castle Hellhammer" MAP26 - "Shrine of Ares" MAP27 - "The Shape" MAP28 - "Aztec Hell" MAP29 - "Phobia" MAP30 - "Chord of Souls" Music Listing MAP01 - "Body and Soul" (Sisters of Mercy) MAP02 - "Time is Dead" (Luna Sea) MAP03 - "Rusty Nail" (X-Japan) MAP04 - "Be Awake" (Luna Sea) MAP05 - "Summerdays" (Glay) MAP06 - "Locomotive" (Guns N' Roses) MAP07 - "Crazy Train" (Ozzy Osbourne) MAP08 - "More" (Sisters of Mercy) MAP09 - "Moonchild" (Fields of the Nephilim) Map10 - "First and Last and Always" (Sisters of Mercy) MAP11 - "Midnight Wandering" (Metal Slug 3) MAP12 - "Mission 1" (Metal Slug Advance) MAP13 - "Iron Man" (Black Sabbath) MAP14 - "Credits" (Half-Life) MAP15 - "Sound007" (Blood) MAP16 - "Time What is Time" (Blind Guardian) MAP17 - "Opening Stage Zero" (Mega Man X5) Map18 - "Another Brick in the Wall" (Pink Floyd) MAP19 - "Stage 01 & 05" (Ballon Kid) MAP20 - "Ace of Spades" (Motörhead) MAP21 - "Welcome to the Jungle" (Guns N' Roses) MAP22 - "Planet Caravan" (Black Sabbath) MAP23 - "115" (Elena Siegman) MAP24 - "The Accolade" (Symphony X) MAP25 - "Crownless" (Nightwish) MAP26 - "Dungeon Theme 2" (The Elder Scrolls: Arena) MAP27 - "Darkness" (Clock Tower) MAP28 - "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" (Black Sabbath) MAP29 - "The Old Camp" (Gothic) MAP30 - "Rediscovery Part 1 + 2" (Symphony X) MAP31 - "Wave 4" (Raptor: Call of the Shadows) MAP32 - "Body and Soul" (Sisters of Mercy) Download Final Version https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/hellbrd Version 2 [outdated] closed: 28.10.17 Version 1 [outdated] closed: 14.10.17 GZDoom https://zdoom.org/index Edited October 28, 2017 by DAZZER 29 Share this post Link to post
Tango Posted October 8, 2017 a full megawad is a huge effort, awesome job :D shots look great! 1 Share this post Link to post
Traysandor Posted October 8, 2017 (edited) Looks good, but to be honest, I did a warp to Map30 just to see what it looked like, and dear god... the midi to that map was just dreadful. Sure the original tracks may sound badass, but not all of them translate well to midi doom format. The transfer to the midi format butchered some parts of the song pretty badly. Keep that in mind for your future projects. 0 Share this post Link to post
therektafire Posted October 8, 2017 4 hours ago, Traysandor said: Looks good, but to be honest, I did a warp to Map30 just to see what it looked like, and dear god... the midi to that map was just dreadful. Sure the original tracks may sound badass, but not all of them translate well to midi doom format. The transfer to the midi format butchered some parts of the song pretty badly. Keep that in mind for your future projects. Well the problem is they probably just downloaded the song off some random midi download site and slapped it into the wad without doing any real quality checking... These sorts of song cover midis always suffer either from either poor or inadequate tracking or at best being designed for the wrong soundfont, which is why I always try to use mod/xm files instead of midi whenever possible, there are xm covers of some metal songs that sound pretty good like this https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=139886 and this https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=134931 (basically almost anything by betrayer kicks complete ass) and of course there are a lot of originals too. 0 Share this post Link to post
DAZZER Posted October 8, 2017 12 hours ago, Tango said: a full megawad is a huge effort, awesome job :D shots look great! Thanks ! Yeah it took me quite a time ^^ 12 hours ago, Voltcom9 said: This looks amazing! I'm looking forward to playing through this. That makes me really happy ! I don't think you will regret it and hope you have Fun :) 9 hours ago, Traysandor said: Looks good, but to be honest, I did a warp to Map30 just to see what it looked like, and dear god... the midi to that map was just dreadful. Sure the original tracks may sound badass, but not all of them translate well to midi doom format. The transfer to the midi format butchered some parts of the song pretty badly. Keep that in mind for your future projects. hmm... maybe it depends on the MIDI Device your using cause it doesn't sound that bad to me. I use "Fluidsynth" cause it gives the tracks a nice echo effect. But im also not 100% satisfied with the Soundtrack and maybe even will change some tracks. Pleasing everyone is impossible though :) 5 hours ago, Walter confetti said: Looks awesome! Thanks ! Means alot to me ! 4 hours ago, therektafire said: Well the problem is they probably just downloaded the song off some random midi download site and slapped it into the wad without doing any real quality checking... These sorts of song cover midis always suffer either from either poor or inadequate tracking or at best being designed for the wrong soundfont, which is why I always try to use mod/xm files instead of midi whenever possible, there are xm covers of some metal songs that sound pretty good like this https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=139886 and this https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=134931 (basically almost anything by betrayer kicks complete ass) and of course there are a lot of originals too. Well, these xm covers are pretty big in size. 2 -3 MB are pretty much... especially if you want to fill a megawad with them. 3 Share this post Link to post
StormCatcher.77 Posted October 8, 2017 Big stuff. I try to find some time to run through it. Maybe i'll do it by small pieces, maybe I'll try it later, but i'll take a note about this project. Screenshots looks very hopefully. 0 Share this post Link to post
Traysandor Posted October 8, 2017 1 hour ago, DAZZER said: hmm... maybe it depends on the MIDI Device your using cause it doesn't sound that bad to me. I use "Fluidsynth" cause it gives the tracks a nice echo effect. But im also not 100% satisfied with the Soundtrack and maybe even will change some tracks. Pleasing everyone is impossible though :) Well, these xm covers are pretty big in size. 2 -3 MB are pretty much... especially if you want to fill a megawad with them. I could think of a few ways to make Map30 a better (And more difficult) map overall compared to its current presentation. As for midis and taking music from other places, just be careful with that. Might not be a bad idea to take a listen to the track in each stock midi player that source ports make use of. Also, no one wants a megawad that's like 90~100 MB where most of that space is because of the songs used in the wad. I can understand if a lot of that is because of details, scripting, and other assorted advanced source port effects though. 0 Share this post Link to post
Impie Posted October 9, 2017 I thought it was called HellBeard at first. Looks really spiffy! 3 Share this post Link to post
franckFRAG Posted October 9, 2017 Seems really cool, but why do you choose the GZDoom format? I have the impression there aren't GZdoom features on the screens... 0 Share this post Link to post
grrfield Posted October 9, 2017 (edited) hosting this with zandronum now. Map01 and 02 have been done, with no major issues (i only have some monsters left i did not find, but mebbe they are in secrets i did not find either). There were some ennemies in a secret in the first map. About the wad itself: I like it so far, but feels a bit easy (which is good in comparison to my skills). bugs so far: - got stuck in yk room (cant get out no more) Edited October 9, 2017 by grrfield 1 Share this post Link to post
riderr3 Posted October 9, 2017 How many time did you spend on this? I've made my megawad in 2 years. Also should say that GZDoomBuilder features can improve mapping speed a lot. 0 Share this post Link to post
StormCatcher.77 Posted October 9, 2017 At the moment I have passed the first 10 levels. Impressions are very good. The idea with mini-bosses, as I understand it, is central to this project. This is what makes it unique. Gameplay in my opinion is not quite difficult, though I managed to get lost several times in the "clean field" because of haste ... Mini-bosses for the most part do not cause difficulties. All, except for the boss on Map 04, he seemed to me quite difficult. I made about 6-7 attempts to beat him. And on Map 08 too. There I survived by accident. Architecture does not abound in detail, all in the form of Plutinia. Of the GZDoom features, I noticed only 3D floors. Visually I remember the map of Temple Of The Sun, just sweetie. Music ... I can not say that all the tracks nice fit the atmosphere, but there are those that perfectly complement it - a track from Ozzy, for example. So far, that is very impressive and intriguing. I feel monumental work.Soon I will continue the "lunar episode" ... First Demo Attempt, Map 01-10 - 3 parts (with saves), GZDoom 3.2.0 2 Share this post Link to post
Traysandor Posted October 9, 2017 After playing through the first handful of maps, aside from some minor issues with the midis, I will say it looks, feels, and plays pretty good. Clearly a fair bit of testing went into the balancing and gameplay elements. I died a few times, but that was to be expected. Some of the end level bosses can be lured out and skipped though, even though I've taken the time to pump each and every one of them full of lead and rockets. (If there was a minor tweak to that, I'd say have the exit to the level blocked until you kill the "Boss monster", then you can exit) 0 Share this post Link to post
DAZZER Posted October 9, 2017 First of all thanks for all the Feedback and for 100+ Downloads ! You guys are amazing ! 5 hours ago, franckFRAG said: Seems really cool, but why do you choose the GZDoom format? I have the impression there aren't GZdoom features on the screens... Yeah the only reason I choosed gzdoom is for the 3D Floors... I used them very often. Best example is MAP19 :) 3 hours ago, grrfield said: hosting this with zandronum now. Map01 and 02 have been done, with no major issues (i only have some monsters left i did not find, but mebbe they are in secrets i did not find either). There were some ennemies in a secret in the first map. About the wad itself: I like it so far, but feels a bit easy (which is good in comparison to my skills). bugs so far: - got stuck in yk room (cant get out no more) Well my goal never was to create a very hard or difficult wad. Sure the Maps should be challenging and will increase in difficulty in later Maps but the main point is Fun ! :D with yk room i think you mean yellow key room but in which Map ? MAP01 or 02 don't have a yellow key 1 hour ago, riderr3 said: How many time did you spend on this? I've made my megawad in 2 years. Also should say that GZDoomBuilder features can improve mapping speed a lot. I started this project in March 2016 and yeah that is one of the main reasons why i use gzdoombuilder 1 hour ago, StormCatcher.77 said: At the moment I have passed the first 10 levels. Impressions are very good. The idea with mini-bosses, as I understand it, is central to this project. This is what makes it unique. Gameplay in my opinion is not quite difficult, though I managed to get lost several times in the "clean field" because of haste ... Mini-bosses for the most part do not cause difficulties. All, except for the boss on Map 04, he seemed to me quite difficult. I made about 6-7 attempts to beat him. And on Map 08 too. There I survived by accident. Architecture does not abound in detail, all in the form of Plutinia. Of the GZDoom features, I noticed only 3D floors. Visually I remember the map of Temple Of The Sun, just sweetie. Music ... I can not say that all the tracks nice fit the atmosphere, but there are those that perfectly complement it - a track from Ozzy, for example. So far, that is very impressive and intriguing. I feel monumental work.Soon I will continue the "lunar episode" ... Thank you very much for this feedback and the Demo ! Yeah I thought the Boss thing would be a cool "bonus" to the Maps and make them more "recognizable". I hope you have Fun in Episode II ! :D 1 Share this post Link to post
grrfield Posted October 9, 2017 Sorry man, i was planning to group a bug report in one post, but failed miserably (forgot to mention the map indeed). I guess it was in the first map that was more tech based - map06). In this one, my companion fell of the map, can't remember map number either (i acknowledge being a bad reviewer). But hey man, you must make these mp friendly, we DO like these maps 1 Share this post Link to post
Alfonzo Posted October 9, 2017 Hello, this is a Doomworld health inspector. Could you consider lowering the volume of the intermission music by... a lot? Perhaps any other non-midi source that I haven't come across yet and which is similarly loud, as well. I was happily testing out your wad when I reached the exit of the first level and my ears were almost exploded. Didn't even have time to adjust the volume; I simply ripped my headphones off and threw them aside. 3 Share this post Link to post
Megalyth Posted October 9, 2017 (edited) 35 minutes ago, Alfonzo said: Hello, this is a Doomworld health inspector. Could you consider lowering the volume of the intermission music by... a lot? Perhaps any other non-midi source that I haven't come across yet and which is similarly loud, as well. I was happily testing out your wad when I reached the exit of the first level and my ears were almost exploded. Didn't even have time to adjust the volume; I simply ripped my headphones off and threw them aside. You've lost some Ironman points. Edit: On a non-idiotic note, I like the screenshots, this looks like fun. Edited October 9, 2017 by Megalyth 1 Share this post Link to post
DAZZER Posted October 10, 2017 16 hours ago, Alfonzo said: Hello, this is a Doomworld health inspector. Could you consider lowering the volume of the intermission music by... a lot? Perhaps any other non-midi source that I haven't come across yet and which is similarly loud, as well. I was happily testing out your wad when I reached the exit of the first level and my ears were almost exploded. Didn't even have time to adjust the volume; I simply ripped my headphones off and threw them aside. I'm sorry. I think I didn't notice that cause i always play on pretty low music volume... I'll change that immediately ! Hope you still had Fun though 16 hours ago, Megalyth said: Edit: On a non-idiotic note, I like the screenshots, this looks like fun. Thank you :) 0 Share this post Link to post
StormCatcher.77 Posted October 11, 2017 Passing today the lunar episode, I noticed one strangeness in the behavior of the mini-boss, who first appears on the map 11. As I understand it is armed with several types of weapons, including a grenade launcher, only for the place of a grenade he, for some reason fires him: :D It's happens under GZDoom 3.2.0. I didn't check it in other versions. 4 Share this post Link to post
DAZZER Posted October 11, 2017 6 hours ago, StormCatcher.77 said: Passing today the lunar episode, I noticed one strangeness in the behavior of the mini-boss, who first appears on the map 11. As I understand it is armed with several types of weapons, including a grenade launcher, only for the place of a grenade he, for some reason fires him: :D It's happens under GZDoom 3.2.0. I didn't check it in other versions. haha what funny bug. Thanks for mentioning this ! This (of course) was not planned :D I will change it in the next Version 3 Share this post Link to post
SP_FACE1 Posted October 12, 2017 (edited) Quick impression after testing this by sampling 10 levels. Visual style, lightning and detail level in the maps I tested were a bit too old school for me. Also the Heretic/Hexen style put me off a bit (not my favorite games) but I see that's a conscious decision as it's part of the plot. I loved the intro and intermission graphs, pretty sweet looking! I hope I find the time to play all the levels someday and write a better review. Thanks for releasing a megawad! Takes a lot of time to produce so many levels. Edited October 12, 2017 by SP_FACE1 0 Share this post Link to post
StormCatcher.77 Posted October 12, 2017 (edited) Another episode is behind, and it's impressed me much more than the first! Perhaps, simply because I love technobases, and they are planned almost perfectly. "Almost" because the map 18 made me roam in search of the switch, raising the bridge to a yellow key. Maybe I did not notice him because of the rush. Very original and beautiful location on map 19, but also contains non-obvious routes. The blue key, by the way, I never found. The final battle was somewhat tedious, but quite passable. Most of all I liked the visuals and more elaborate detailing. Let's see what will happen next... First Demo Attempt, Map 11-20 - 3 parts (with saves), GZDoom 3.2.0 Oh yes. Secret levels ... I somehow missed them. I'll record later, with a pistol start. 1 Share this post Link to post
DAZZER Posted October 12, 2017 12 hours ago, SP_FACE1 said: Quick impression after testing this by sampling 10 levels. Visual style, lightning and detail level in the maps I tested were a bit too old school for me. Also the Heretic/Hexen style put me off a bit (not my favorite games) but I see that's a conscious decision as it's part of the plot. I loved the intro and intermission graphs, pretty sweet looking! I hope I find the time to play all the levels someday and write a better review. Thanks for releasing a megawad! Takes a lot of time to produce so many levels. Thank you for checking it out :) 4 hours ago, StormCatcher.77 said: Another episode is behind, and it's impressed me much more than the first! Perhaps, simply because I love technobases, and they are planned almost perfectly. "Almost" because the map 18 made me roam in search of the switch, raising the bridge to a yellow key. Maybe I did not notice him because of the rush. Very original and beautiful location on map 19, but also contains non-obvious routes. The blue key, by the way, I never found. The final battle was somewhat tedious, but quite passable. Most of all I liked the visuals and more elaborate detailing. Let's see what will happen next... First Demo Attempt, Map 11-20 - 3 parts (with saves), GZDoom 3.2.0 Oh yes. Secret levels ... I somehow missed them. I'll record later, with a pistol start. I'm glad and happy you liked Episode II ! But somehow I am not able to get your demo files to work... hb00.lmp from Episode I worked perfectly until MAP04 where it got de sync. When I tried to load hb01.lmp it telled me "can't play the demo without it's savegame"... But the .zds files are in the same directory as my autosave files for example. And ingame I can also load your .zds flies... What am I doing wrong cause I really would like to watch them :( Im also using GZDoom Version 3.2.0 btw 0 Share this post Link to post
StormCatcher.77 Posted October 12, 2017 @DAZZER I usually run via a shortcut: In my config: "C:\ ... \gzdoom.exe" -file megawads\*.* +skill 3 -loadgame saves\hb01.zds -playdemo saves\hb01.lmp *megawads - folder where "hellbarde.wad" is placed *saves - there GZDoom creating *.zds files On clean GZDoom, probably this is true: "C:\ ... \gzdoom.exe" -file hellebarde.wad +skill 3 -loadgame hb01.zds -playdemo hb01.lmp 0 Share this post Link to post
StormCatcher.77 Posted October 19, 2017 The last episode is really infernal in terms of gameplay. At each level, I died many times, but this did not discourage the desire to complete the project to the end. The last level surprised me with the abundance of mini-bosses. I watched with interest, as the battlefield turns into a "bullet hell" from the first person, when they starting infight. Visually, hell seemed too much oversaturated in red, it very tiring my eyes. Well at least in the end in the style appeared features of Plutonia. The ending, as I understand it, implies continuation. I hope the next part will involve more features of GZDoom ... and more lunar bases! I'll bring review about this project on Doom Power in near time. First Demo Atempt, Map 21-30; 31, 32 GZDoom 3.2.0 In my colection: - Visuals (3 / 5) - Detailing (4 / 5) - Gameplay (4 / 5) - Atmosphere (3 / 5) - Difficulty (4 / 5) - Overall Rating (4 / 5) 0 Share this post Link to post
DAZZER Posted October 28, 2017 Big Thanks for over 300 Downloads and every single Person who played my work ! means alot to me ! I am proud to say that Hellebarde's Final Version is now available on /idgames ! 2 Share this post Link to post
Gideon020 Posted October 28, 2017 I tried this with a weapon mod and the hud is invisible when the game starts, which is a little weird. 0 Share this post Link to post
Bryan T Posted October 30, 2017 I started playing this once it was up on idgames. I don't like the music for the most part. The levels, although small, are sometimes still confusing oddly enough. Like on one of the earlier levels when you have to hit a timed switch that opens not only the door to the room you're in, but also the door to the yellow key. This annoyed me. Just make the doors stay open. I got to the boss on map11 and got destroyed multiple times. Admittedly, he surprised me so had I known what was coming I probably could've killed him without dying but his attacks do absurd damage. I ended up quitting about map18 because I kept getting confused on where to go and just wasn't really feeling it. I do like the custom monsters though. It's odd you decided to enable players to skip the last boss enemy in most of the levels. 0 Share this post Link to post