Struggle : Antaresian Legacy (now available in /idgames)

BTW: Do you later on consider to "vanilla" release without the altered weapons (they are okay but don't do the leveldesign justice) and not so much depending on dehacked patches for certain doors and areas? I think many people would appreciate that, especially those ones who like to play this megawad with their favourite mods :)

5 hours ago, kyolung said:

BTW: Do you later on consider to "vanilla" release without the altered weapons (they are okay but don't do the leveldesign justice) and not so much depending on dehacked patches for certain doors and areas? I think many people would appreciate that, especially those ones who like to play this megawad with their favourite mods :)

I do have a plan to make a "vaccinated version" of this wad, but I can't tell you when it will be done. Many elements in Struggle, including teleportation effect for popup things and custom monsters with special code pointer, heavily rely on the modified dehacked patch. If I have to make a wad, which is compatible with custom mods, I need to redesign lots of sections, or maybe even recreate the majority of the level, so it will take some time to make one.

Hi!

I spend some more to time to read in the forum and I realized how common (and sometimes even annoying) it seems to be (as an wad-author) to be asked "Will it run in that-and-that mod"? I appreciate your polite answer tough.

However: I've spent the last couple of days with Slade and Eureka trying to "abuse" your maps in such a way to make them playable with  that-and-that Mod (and others), while still keeping them as close to the original as possible (not changing any layout or adding any lines, sectors etc). What I did was basically to play them rather thoroughly and to change some traps in order to make them work without the 666-scripted magic.

In some areas (especially map 26) some traps now have a lowering floor that keeps the player from leaving the place too early. In other places, especially in areas, which are heavily guarded anyways, I just replaced them with ordinary doors.

Of course that approach is rather crude and things are missing compared to the original: Some traps (map 28 and 29) are now missing certain monsters and some Bossfights in maps 20 and 29 had to be skipped completely... but:

These "modified" levels are now rigged in such a way that they do not need any special treatment anymore and can be played with alll the mods I have tried. My current favourite at the moment is a rather pure Doom64 thing but your maps -do- play extremely well and intense in Project Brutality indeed (Except maybe the slaughtermaps but I am working on that too).

If you allow me to (and only then) I would gladly upload this modified versions of your maps to this thread... and the next time somebody asks you: "Will it run in this-and-that mod?" you can point that person right to them and not bother with it anymore ;)

I'm having so much fun with the wad. Great job!

10 hours ago, kyolung said:

...These "modified" levels are now rigged in such a way that they do not need any special treatment anymore and can be played with alll the mods I have tried. My current favourite at the moment is a rather pure Doom64 thing but your maps -do- play extremely well and intense in Project Brutality indeed (Except maybe the slaughtermaps but I am working on that too).

 

If you allow me to (and only then) I would gladly upload this modified versions of your maps to this thread... and the next time somebody asks you: "Will it run in this-and-that mod?" you can point that person right to them and not bother with it anymore ;)

Sure, feel free to upload the modified version to the public, as long as it doesn't break the levels. I can take a look on those reformed levels, and I might find some useful elements for the "official-mod-compatible" version in the future.

Hi!

I attached a zip-file to this post with the changed maps. It als includes a textfile that explains what is going on. So I don't have to clutter this thread with a wall of text :)

BTW:After all that insight I would have only one little concern to express: The exit of Map 10 is blocked by a lowering ceiling. I think it opens a bit too fast, thus making it pretty easy to exit the level without even the purpose to do so (maybe you have it intended that way, but it still feels a bit awkward). However I am also even more aware now -how much work- this must have been, and I want to congratulate (and thank) you again for that -excellent- set of maps :)

kind regards

STRG_UNBLOCK.zip

So I just finished playing the entire wad on co-op, and I have to say that it's amazing, and I would be very surprised if it didn't get a cacoward. The architecture and texture use in most levels was great, the new weapons were very fun to use, and a few new enemies were fun to fight against.

Though that being said I have some problems with this project. The biggest one is the fact that there are so many large maps. I'm usually fine with them, but here they are used basically always. The short levels only appear early on, and after that it's just big-scale maps over and over again. And they're all tightly packed with enemies, that appear in very difficult encounters. So because of that the gameplay can get really tiring, and after just one map you can feel completely exausted, and lose interest in playing the wad for a while. It's a slog, basically. I feel like the entire wad is probably longer and more difficult than any skillsaw project because of that.

But I'm not gonna say that there's a complete lack of balance in the level size and gameplay style. A very good tactic was used with map 28 and 29. Map 28 is a gargantuant Sunder-esque slaughter that takes a lot of time and effort to complete, but the level after that is very relaxing compared to that, and serves as a good cooldown moment.

Other than that I have a problem with some of the new enemies. For example Antaresia is overpowered af. When you look at it, you feel like it should take way less hits to kill it. The attack pattern is also pretty ruthless, since because of that exploding projectile at the end of an attack, you can't just dodge slightly, but you have to get pretty far away. So killing this thing is a bit of a pain in the ass.

The weird boss (or miniboss)-like enemies with mancubus attacks, are an even bigger pain in the ass to kill, since they're harder to kill than Cyberdemons, harder to dodge than Cyberdemons, and it makes them very annoying.

Besides that we have modified Revenants, which have much more ruthless attack patterns, and blue chaingunners, which are fairly well balanced, but also pretty hard to fight against.

So all that sums up to a much more unforgiving combat, that I'm used to. Sometimes it's a good thing, but sometimes it also feels pretty unfair. Combine that with my first complaint, and it all can turn me off from playing this wad even more.

Another point is that even though I mostly love the texture use, and overall look of this project, I feel like there is not enough variety. Because the textures mostly rely on blue colors, many maps feel like they're the same thing over and over. A few levels were green. Why not more? I think that monochromatic colors make many areas look unmemorable.

Some of the textures also looked like they were of worse quality than others. Same thing with the red tree. A bit too pixelized.

Also some of the layouts were pretty confusing, but that could've been just me not paying enough attention.

Btw. thank you for making the wad completely co-op compatible, I probably wouldn't have played it all the way through otherwise, but I did, and it was really fun :D

So I finally beat this.

10/10 wad. I was literally smiling during my whole playthrough of this beauty. This is easily up there with stuff like Ancient Aliens in terms of quality. The visuals are gorgeous, and the gameplay is phenomenal. Also love the interconnectivity in the maps. And don't mind the people hating on the enemy replacements. I think they are awesome. And so are the weapon replacements. All in all, thanks a lot for this masterpiece, dude! I hope that one day you'll make more doom-related stuff :)

On 7/25/2018 at 7:11 PM, Lorenz0 said:

Another point is that even though I mostly love the texture use, and overall look of this project, I feel like there is not enough variety. Because the textures mostly rely on blue colors, many maps feel like they're the same thing over and over. A few levels were green. Why not more? I think that monochromatic colors make many areas look unmemorable.

Yeah, I agree with this. Having two techbase episodes was a problem. The levels were still fun, but they felt repetitive after a while. Other textures like the Red and Green ones were only really used in one or two levels. IMO, the megawad would've been better if the second episode was made up of green and red levels rather than more techbases. If not the whole second episode, at least levels 16-19.

Still, great megawad.

On 7/25/2018 at 9:30 PM, kyolung said:

I attached a zip-file to this post with the changed maps. It als includes a textfile that explains what is going on. So I don't have to clutter this thread with a wall of text :)

 

BTW:After all that insight I would have only one little concern to express: The exit of Map 10 is blocked by a lowering ceiling. I think it opens a bit too fast, thus making it pretty easy to exit the level without even the purpose to do so (maybe you have it intended that way, but it still feels a bit awkward). However I am also even more aware now -how much work- this must have been, and I want to congratulate (and thank) you again for that -excellent- set of maps :)

Thank you so much for making the patch file! I'll post it to the first post, so anyone who wants to play the wad with mods can enjoy it.

I checked the MAP10, and I couldn't find the issue with the exit. You can get access to the exit, without the interruption of the ceiling. If you meant that it's easy to go through the exit by simply avoiding the afriests, I can say to players that feel free to do that. 

On 7/26/2018 at 8:11 AM, Lorenz0 said:

Though that being said I have some problems with this project. The biggest one is the fact that there are so many large maps. I'm usually fine with them, but here they are used basically always. The short levels only appear early on, and after that it's just big-scale maps over and over again. And they're all tightly packed with enemies, that appear in very difficult encounters. So because of that the gameplay can get really tiring, and after just one map you can feel completely exausted, and lose interest in playing the wad for a while. It's a slog, basically. I feel like the entire wad is probably longer and more difficult than any skillsaw project because of that.

 

......For example Antaresia is overpowered af. When you look at it, you feel like it should take way less hits to kill it. The attack pattern is also pretty ruthless, since because of that exploding projectile at the end of an attack, you can't just dodge slightly, but you have to get pretty far away. So killing this thing is a bit of a pain in the ass.

 

The weird boss (or miniboss)-like enemies with mancubus attacks, are an even bigger pain in the ass to kill, since they're harder to kill than Cyberdemons, harder to dodge than Cyberdemons, and it makes them very annoying.

 

...and blue chaingunners, which are fairly well balanced, but also pretty hard to fight against. So all that sums up to a much more unforgiving combat, that I'm used to. Sometimes it's a good thing, but sometimes it also feels pretty unfair. Combine that with my first complaint, and it all can turn me off from playing this wad even more.

 

......I feel like there is not enough variety. Because the textures mostly rely on blue colors, many maps feel like they're the same thing over and over. A few levels were green. Why not more? I think that monochromatic colors make many areas look unmemorable. Some of the textures also looked like they were of worse quality than others. Same thing with the red tree. A bit too pixelized.

Much appreciated for the feedback! It was pretty obvious that I was too ambitious for my first megawad project, so the levels were getting larger and larger, until you reach the last episode. I'll make sure to make some more compact levels for the next project.

Although there's no plan to change the attack pattern of Antaresia, since it's a homage to the Ophidian from Heretic, I can reduce some hit point of it to make it easier to deal with them. Same thing goes to the elite version, and the Leviathan as well. But I'm not sure that I'm going to change Chaingun Elite's attack pattern, or its properties.

The reason that I used lots and lots of blue texture is quite simple; I like blue textures. And because they do look like the same thing over and over, I tried to give some various gameplay style for those levels. Sometimes you get a straightforward linear level, or a complex level with explorable layout, or even a giant slaughterfest. About the custom sprites, I tried to make it less pixelized before with no success. I wonder if there's a tutorial to make sprites more "doom-like", other than using blur effects on Photoshop.

Again, thanks for the feedback, and I'll see what I can do for the upcoming version. :)

Chaingun Elite is perfectly fine, I was just listing him as another monster that adds up to the overall difficulty. So I'm not saying he needs to be changed.

On 7/28/2018 at 4:30 PM, antares031 said:

 

Thank you so much for making the patch file! I'll post it to the first post, so anyone who wants to play the wad with mods can enjoy it. 

Well, it's a really crude workaround but I am glad you appreciate this way of fanboying your work so much ;)

On 7/28/2018 at 4:30 PM, antares031 said:

 

Much appreciated for the feedback! It was pretty obvious that I was too ambitious for my first megawad project, so the levels were getting larger and larger, until you reach the last episode. I'll make sure to make some more compact levels for the next project.

I enjoyed especially the large levels a lot! Actually sometimes it felt like playing Eternall Doom. Just better and (in all respects) more sophisticated and modern. If you are planning more releases in future I would be glad to see at least some of those mega-epic-super-large maps again :)

Same goes for the colors, textures and the almost monochromatic design/approach of the levels. I -loved- the green one and (especially) the blue ones.  But of course: All of this is a matter of personal taste :)

Kind regards

On 7/28/2018 at 6:30 PM, antares031 said:

Much appreciated for the feedback! It was pretty obvious that I was too ambitious for my first megawad project, so the levels were getting larger and larger, until you reach the last episode. I'll make sure to make some more compact levels for the next project.

I really like the longer levels, too. I'm no speedrunner and I do honestly believe that the whole notion that "if you don't to beat the level in 15-20 mins on your first try, then it's crap" is stupid. I felt like the techbases were varied enough to make me feel I'm on a real adventure (and again, loved the interconnectivity), and the third episode levels had rather distinguishable encounters, so I didn't get bored for a second. If you stick to that kind of variety, I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with this kind of level length :)

Yeah, yeah... I could not resist. After removing all this neat extra-stuff from STRG to make it more mod friendly...

...I just had to make Doom64 more STRG-friendly. Here you go: I attached an archive with 5 files (3 are necessary, one is just gore (I like it) and one is just extra resource (D64 guns plain) if someone else wants to tinker even a bit more with it). With them it is possible to play "Antaresian Legacy" with a decent Doom64-flavour, COMPLETE with all scripted extras, bossfights and traps. Credits and instructions are right in the zip-file too :)

Updated to v1.1: Switched from D64WEAPS to Doom 64: Retribution as a resource (improving overall quality), tested with STRG RC4.

Kind regards!

STRGgoesDoom64.zip

Struggle : Antaresian Legacy is updated to Release Candidate 3. If nothing goes wrong, this version will be uploaded to idgames. As always, I appreciate all of those feedback comments and opinions about this megawad. I also want to thank everyone, who participated the last Doomworld Megawad Club. Most of changes in this version were based on the reviews from the DWMC session. You may check out the changelog below, before you download the wad:

Download link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bzr2wp0451qvoe6/STRG_RC3.zip?dl=1

What do you guys think about the effect of these levels on the eyes? Personally, I found many of them quite tiring to look at. I feel like there are many monotonous environments where it's difficult to make out the important details, and even more maps where it seems like every room has little panels and lights and supports plastered all over the walls, resulting in what could probably be described as an eye exam. Like it's just hard to focus on anything. Opinions? Is this one of the differences between eastern and western senses of aesthetics? I mean, if you look at their street signs...

I think they are all good-looking and overall visually pleasing, even though more themes/colors would have benefitted.

Great to see the wad getting near to the final release.

We played through the wad up to MAP20 so far in Thursday Night Survival and I have to commend you on the excellent coop compatibility we have experienced. It really is quite rare, especially in a wad with a single author.

We noticed 2 easy to fix issues:
- In MAP09 the SSG near start of the map (in sector 72) becomes unavailable if the player(s) die before pressing the switch which opens the bars again. Not map-breaking but SSG is quite an important item to miss out on.
- The maps that have random spawners placed in them (16, 18, 19, 27) crash in ZDaemon if fast monsters are enabled. This can be fixed by changing the duration of Frame 481 in dehacked from 1 to 2. I didn't test if that would mess with timing or anything but hopefully it shouldn't.

13 hours ago, Keyboard_Doomer said:

We noticed 2 easy to fix issues:

Much appreciated for those bug reports! I'll make sure to fix them for the final version. I playtested the wad with ZDaemon, but I haven't tried -fast option with it, which is my bad. And thanks for the solution of the latter issue. :)

Struggle : Antaresian Legacy is updated to Release Candidate 4, with a few, but important, changes. You may check out the changelog below:

- Now you can get access to the SSG in the beginning of MAP09 during cooperative mode, even if the bars are closed
- Fixed an issue of MAP20, where the players can't exit the level during cooperative mode
- Fixed an issue of the levels with random monster spawners, while you run the wad on ZDaemon with "fast monsters" option
- Fixed an issue of MAP25, where the player can easily skip the essential action line

If nothing goes wrong with it, after the next ZDaemon TNS, this one will be uploaded to idgames.

Click Here to Download (RC4)

Struggle : Antaresian Legacy is updated to the final version, and now it's available in /idgames.

= Changelog for the final version =

- Increased Energy Bolt's speed from 24 to 27

Click here to get to the /idgames page

Special thanks to everyone, who played the previous versions, provided feedback comments and opinions, and participated the Doomworld Megawad Club session and ZDaemon Thursday Night Survival #366. Thanks, and have fun. :)

I'm halfway through Struggle and have been just blown away by the quality!  Wanted to give some feedback:

• The balance changes to the weapons and the enemies is across the board a great change!  I love that the enemies mostly have less health while being more deadly.  And the weapons all feel better and more useful.  For example Revenants are so much more fun and satisfying to fight without that stupid homing attack and the unpredictability of which attack they will use.  Honestly if the weapon/monster changes were rolled into a mod, I would run it on Vanilla maps - thats how big an improvement it is IMO.
• The levels are absolutely top-tier.  My favorite megawad in terms of levels is Valiant, but after Struggle I'll possibly have to re-evaluate.  The progression through them, winding back and forth and opening new doors is a really cool style.  My slight complaint would be sometimes the monster closets are just a bit much.  Like you clear out one, and another one is right around the corner.  And the next corner.  Sometimes it just feels like it is impeding the flow of the level, constantly turning around and dealing with the new threat.
• I really like how often when opening doors you have enemies placed perfectly close together for a SSG blast, or a barrel right next to several enemies.  It feels really satisfying opening a door and quickly dispatching a series of enemies and I can tell this must have been a design decision.
• The visuals are amazing with mostly stock assets!
• The difficulty is really well done.  I'm playing Skill 2 and it's quite challenging but usually not frustrating.
• I know you were likely going for a specific look with the new weapon sprites and the intropic, but it just doesn't look right :/  The resolution is off somehow and it doesn't really fit Doom.  And there are very few frames on most weapons.  Personally I'd prefer to play Struggle with stock weapon sprites.  Considering how awesome the rest of the package is though, it's pretty easy to look past this.

Have a great weekend and thanks for your months/years worth of effort on Struggle!

16 hours ago, grahf said:

Wanted to give some feedback:

Much appreciated for the feedback! I'm glad that you're enjoying this megawad. :)

The main principle of making Struggle was this: Making a megawad that I want to play. Because of this, the megawad received lots of custom elements and gameplay changes with my own taste, such as, like you mentioned, deleting the homing missile of revenants, boosting most of weapons except SSG, and adding custom monsters, which were based on those from Heretic and Hexen. Not to mention that explorable non-linear levels are my favorite, which explains that most of levels have complex non-linear layout.

I tried to implement sufficient amounts of frames for custom weapons, but I had to use most of frames for custom monsters. Keep in mind that the frames with code pointer are limited for vanilla doom and limit-removing wads, unlike boom compatible or above. About the weapon sprites, I wanted to make custom weapons of my own, with the same way that id Software did; taking pictures of toy guns. Although I've received lots of mixed-bag opinions about the weapon sprites, I personally like the result of it, especially the dual-wield pistols. That being said, It'll be really appreciated, if someone makes a HD weapon sprite pack for Struggle.

Again, thanks for playing Struggle. :)

Just started playing this and have been pleasantly surprised. For some reason, I keep thinking "this is what Blake Stone: Planet Strike should have been" (probably due to the particular fm synth bass in the first two levels.)  I almost passed on playing initially due to the shotgun sprites, but if you're paying attention to the game instead of the weapons, they fade into periphery and work well enough.  I do like the dual pistols, though a paint-over might improve them. The hammer is incredibly satisfying to use. I think the shotgun + dbl shotgun sfx are too quiet and indistinct, although they almost give the impression of blown ear drums, which is amusing. I've only played up to a little bit into map 3 so far, but I think I'm going to be replaying this set a decent amount into the future. I wouldn't worry about the sprites in the end--their charm increases with exposure.

11 hours ago, Reiken said:

Just started playing this and have been pleasantly surprised.

Thanks for the comment! :) I haven't played Blake Stone yet, but that's an interesting opinion, I must say. About the shotgun, I got a feedback that the sound effects of weapons and custom monsters are too loud, so I had to adjust the volume of sound. And yes, I'm personally satisfied with those homemade weapon sprites, although, like I mentioned from above, I've received lots of mixed-bag opinions about them.

Hi, antares031 I just finished this wad. It is totally awesome. I love those blue texture.

BTW, I really like weapons replacement in this wad. Is it possible for you to make a separate weapon mod?

19 hours ago, marina2 said:

Is it possible for you to make a separate weapon mod?

The weapon mod in Struggle borrows various code pointer frames from many elements, since the dehacked was designed under vanilla limitation. But it's certainly doable to make a separate weapon mod, and I'll see what I can do for it. With vanilla limitation, of course.

Anyway, thanks for playing Struggle! I'm glad that you enjoyed it. :)

EDIT: @marina2 It didn't take too long to make one. Here you go: STRG_WEP.zip

Keep in mind that I made a slight adjustment in ammo capacity for this one.

Reporting that Map28 (the regular full version) runs fine on the 2008 Potato with the Software renderer. Minor slowdowns that don't impact gameplay at any moment. Great job.

I just want to say that I am enjoying this mapset so far and I congratulate you for your use of Fortress 2 Blue tracks.

I was not familiar with that game, but I can tell that I have been missing out - at least, when it comes to its soundtrack!

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