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an_mutt

Port Glacia - now on /idgames!

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As a tester I can and will say how amazing this map was! Great fun from start to finish. There is a certain level of open exploration based gameplay coupled with fun encounters that makes this map thrilling to play. :)

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Am i right in thinking this is a Boom format map? It looks that way from the editor, but i get an I_SignalHandler error if i try to load it in Boom.

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I admit I gave up on this one. Visually stunning. The gameplay was too hard for me. Way to many archies and not enough ammo. I managed to get to sector 1449 - using god mode a lot - but could not access sector 1525, since the player had to use the switch at line 9300. But how to get there ?

 

OK found the teleporter at sector 1563 ... continuing on ...

 

Got to the end. I could not access secret sector 150. Monsters in sector 459 did not exit. Player Things at sectors 1882, 762, 508 and 513 remained that their starting position. Maybe me ?

 

Im wondering if the exit area with the boat? could use fake sectors.

Edited by hawkwind

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Beat on HMP with a very long time I didn't jot down. Resurrected once earlier on because i did a really dumb movement against a Cyb, and once on the final ambush.

 

As far as sheer looks go it really doesn't get much better than this. The textures are great and work together to create this barren, hostile environment. Kinda felt like a map from Counterattack but more Brutalist. MIDI's bangin' too.

 

Uhh, the layout's fantastic, not really sure what else to say other than that you deserve to be up in the ranks with the current greats because this is beautiful work, your shapes are really unique and combine to help flesh out the layout even more. Gameplay was on-par difficulty-wise with BTSXE2, lot of archviles poking out at every corner to make your life miserable, lots of cool setups with forcing the player to move. Noticed that in most arena ambushes the name of the game was running, although I can recall a moment in the waterpit by the exit section being able to just blast away an arachnotron and being able to hide there to take out the caco swarm. 

 

More specific things I liked were the cave section, especially how the pair of Archies "come back" once after you accomplish something, uhh that whole exit section and how you revisit it multiple times was great, enjoyed the initial frantic struggle to get good weapons, etc...

 

Things I were kinda meh on were:

 

-the texturing on the cave section (can't really fault you for this as you were working with a specific set but it feels almost too white, if that's a valid criticism

-Ammo starvation occured quite a bit and while for the most part it was fair and I was never truly out, there was a moment or two when I was down to about 4 shells and 3 rockets going into a new section, forcing me to do some pretty ridiculous stuff to stay afloat (see resurrecting after moving dumbly into a cyb). I guess if you're gonna do something about it, do it on something lower than HMP because I suppose it was fair, but it did become a slight problem for me. 

-This isn't even a complaint, I just wanted to say fuck you for that archie on the final ambush, ruined my day. :(

 

 

tl;dr- i need to use saves on these big maps 

 

10/10

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I played GZDoom 3.2.5 in software, and the map seemed pretty dark to me at the very beginning. Visually everything is fine. The atmosphere of the abandoned technobase was transferred beautifully. The gameplay pleased me. It is not quite simple, but it does not let me get bored. I did not observe a lack of ammunition, except once my rockets runs out, when they were so needed. On the map for some reason, a lot of berserk-packs. Enough of a couple. Abundance on the map of arch-viles does not harm gameplay. Usually this opponent serves as a support and does not attack the player from any inaccessible heights. In this role, arch-viles are only making the gameplay more interesting. Most of all I remember the area with a reservoir where clashes with large groups of cacodemons took place, and also the most dangerous traps were opened.


The chosen music is not obtrusive and emphasizes the atmosphere. And yes, these new keys look just super stylish!

In general, very well done!

 

Doom_Font_Green_Arrow.png  First Demo Attempt - GZDoom 3.2.5, UV

 

In my collection:

 

Blue_4-5.png - Visuals (4 / 5)
Blue_3-5.png - Detailing (3 / 5)
Blue_4-5.png - Gameplay (4 / 5)
Blue_4-5.png - Atmosphere (4 / 5)
Orange_3-5.png - Difficulty (3 / 5)

 

Green_4-5.png - Overall Rating (4 / 5)

 

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8 hours ago, Scotty said:

Am i right in thinking this is a Boom format map? It looks that way from the editor, but i get an I_SignalHandler error if i try to load it in Boom.

That's weird - I'm able to load it in prBoom+ on my end. The map is built with extended nodes, so perhaps that has something to do with it? (I've never built anything with extended nodes until now, so I don't know if this has to be made clear, sorry!)

 

5 hours ago, hawkwind said:

Got to the end. I could not access secret sector 150. Monsters in sector 459 did not exit. Player Things at sectors 1882, 762, 508 and 513 remained that their starting position. Maybe me ?

Sector 150 is accessed via the voodoo closet 762, and closet 1882 is just for the exit. The other two were redundant closets from an earlier version of the map so I've taken them out now, thanks for pointing that out to me~

 

Thanks to everyone else for the feedback so far - I'm still in the process of fine-tuning the gameplay (especially in the underground cavern area, it feels a little empty but I'm not 100% sure on how to flesh it out), so I'll be sure to address everything (ammo imbalance, etc.) for the next version!

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20 minutes ago, an_mutt said:

That's weird - I'm able to load it in prBoom+ on my end. The map is built with extended nodes, so perhaps that has something to do with it? (I've never built anything with extended nodes until now, so I don't know if this has to be made clear, sorry!)


Spoilers. an_mutt (and people who have maxed the map) can read.

 

Spoiler

 

On load, it appears to be a gl-related error. I get it running in prBoom+ (2.5.1.4 and 2.5.1.5) but not in glBoom+ (equivalent versions). 

 

The culprit is this dog (which unsurprisingly looks guilty now that it has been found out). 

 

Spoiler

b8iF5UF.png

 

What happens is that prBoom+ flat-out ignores the use of this texture in the wad on load, but glBoom+ doesn't, therefore it crashes immediately. prBoom+ loads fine but crashes if it tries to render the texture, by going to the secret normally or (in my case) clipping through the void to it to see if it is ignored -- which proves that you didn't test the map thoroughly in prBoom+, tsst tsst :P. 

 

This should be converted to Doom format for prBoom+ (and added to TEXTURE1). In addition to that, a separate HIDEF section containing the PNG version (exactly as it is now) can be used to get the dog to render without Doom's palette restrictions in glBoom+. Here's an example in epic2gl.wad: 

 

6uBGB9V.png

 

 

Edited by rdwpa

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Thanks rdwpa, I've went ahead and made the necessary fixes. An updated dropbox link fixing this is now in the OP, for anyone who wasn't able to get it running in GLBoom and whatnot.

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First off, visuals are excellent. Another map I'll spend a session or two looking over in GZDB.


As far as the gameplay, ~20% or so of was quite enjoyable -- I liked basically all of the point-blank traps, and also the two-vile two-HK setpiece nearing the end -- and I guess half or so is just ambient conflict which by definition is neither great nor bad, but the rest gave me the impression of being conspicuously watered down. It felt like HNTR of a tough map, rather than UV of a typical one, despite the fact that both might be of equal difficulty.

 

It's things like releasing 6-7 cacos in a giant area that contribute to that feeling. I actually think that the density of the incidental combat and less important encounters is perfect -- sparser, tidier 'point' encounters are my preference for lower-threat stuff, over looser scattering, and they also work for harsher traps -- but many of the encounters that were telegraphed as important were noticeably empty. The common inner monologue was: 'yeah stuff is warping in as expected -> wait, it's not anywhere near as much as I thought it'd be'. I guess the gameplay doesn't really have a consistent identity. 

 
I thought most of the incidental combat was fine, but 

 

https://i.imgur.com/oaB7HXD.png

 

This PE felt pointless.

 

https://i.imgur.com/pGQTYRo.png

 

I'd put a monster-blocking line halfway through this rock sector so that the revenant can't run to the back of it, where everything but the chaingun is annoying inefficient at killing it.  

 

(As a counterpoint to the ammo discussion, I was practically swimming in it for the entire map. That was around 200/300 monsters through and it got even more generous later. This was without tysoning or infight induction, and with only 1/7 secrets.) 

 

Oh, almost forgot: the "freezing water" idea was genius. 

Edited by rdwpa

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Played with GZDooM, HMP, took one hour to finish. Beautifully crafted and textured, large, nicely interconnected map. The way the map opened up reminded me a bit of Miasma but more spacious or some of the maps in Counterattack but far less confusing. The fights were tough but not overwhelmingly. I constantly forgot that the water eats your health and lost a lot of hp because of that. If the water is supposed to be freezing (or is it?) why does it move? I'm not a fan of damaging water. I think I almost ran out of ammo twice but it didn't last long. And it just nudged me to play more sparingly.
TL;DR I liked this map a lot, please make more maps.

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I gave the map another look-through and despite earlier reservations about some of the fights, I think the design and structure is top-notch. The cleverness of progression and the more intricate secrets rivals Counterattack. In particular there is that secret that allows you to soften up one of the traps, which is a cool device that I "theorized" about but don't remember seeing in an actual map. I attached a casual playthough below, roughly 25 minutes long. 

 

Additional thoughts: 

 

- The BFG quest is fun but doesn't have much utility, as both high-tier monsters have to be released to get to it, and doing so also springs forth many viles at once. Doing all of that stuff at once is about the toughest one can make the map, and then the BFG's value afterwards isn't that high. I guess that can be a good thing . . . not all "BFG quests" need to soften up the map. 

 

- This is a surprisingly tidy map for monster pathing, a good thing. I didn't actually intend to get max kills, but a lot of the monsters I left behind in multiple areas showed up upon my return anyway. 

 

- Bugs: 1) I guess one unavoidable "bug" is that the arachnotron behind the bars in the grid area can break the "3D floor" effect if it is left alive. 2) Also in this area, the invisible sectors used to allow the cacodemons to float over bars are a potential rocket hazard. 3) The music loops badly.


portglac_rd_cpt.zip

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Here's a complevel 9 FDA with saves and 1 death: portglac_fda.zip

 

I got lost for a long time trying to find the red switch. At some point, which will be obvious in the demo, I stopped and opened it up in doombuilder to find my way. When I saw it, I was pretty disappointed with myself! Overall, I had fun when I wasn't disoriented, which is usually how I feel about maps with clever backtracking intertwined layouts like this. 

 

Notes:

 

- In my PrBoom+, the music goes silent after the fadeout. I think the 0 volume from the fadeout is preserved when it loops. 

- Saw a weird HOM thingy around the corner after the silent teleport. After I finished the demo, I plunked down a p1 start near there to see if I could reproduce it, but I couldn't. I did notice that the silent TP transition isn't so seamless, though, with some thing, texture alignment, and lighting differences between the 2 areas.

- I found very few secrets, which is typical for me. :P

 

 

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The floors of sectors 695, 696, 681, 697, 692, 694 and 693 need the floor flat MFLR8_1 and AQMETL22 on the back-sidedef of line 4350 needs an x alignment of -56.

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Hi folks, I've updated the OP with a second release candidate, hopefully this will be the one before I make the upload to /idgames.

 

Made a number of changes, most of them small adjustments to monster & item placement. The biggest change is in the final cavern area - I've shifted the gameplay a little further towards rocket-play, and I've increased the difficulty of said area so it matches the rest of the map a little better.

Edited by an_mutt

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