SIGIL v1.21 - New Romero megawad [released!]

15 minutes ago, Revenant100 said:

Buckethead's soundtrack is ~93 minutes in length, well more than the standard 80 minute capacity of an audio CD.

So the usual way would be to use two CDs.

15 minutes ago, Revenant100 said:

Buckethead's soundtrack is ~93 minutes in length, well more than the standard 80 minute capacity of an audio CD.

 

The lossless versions of Buckethead's tracks are on the USB drive.

There's 2 discs is there not? I know one of them is supposed to contain the WADs too but it is actually possible to have redbook audio alongside a data track (see PS1 DOOM). Still, it's nice to know the lossless versions are provided in some form. I can always burn it but I'm just a little disappointed I can't pop the official CD with its nice artwork in a CD player I guess.

1 hour ago, Revenant100 said:

The lossless versions of Buckethead's tracks are on the USB drive.

Cool. Do the contents of that WAD folder match the online release?

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Oh right I can finally read this longform article about Sigil I've had open in my browser for 2 months https://www.shacknews.com/article/110199/icon-of-sin-doom-and-the-making-of-john-romeros-sigil

2 hours ago, pulkmees said:

In the behind the scenes footage Romero has the crushers still set on fast damage, which would have been more manageable. I wonder if that was before or after the feedback. Or maybe the feedback didn't effect that choice at all.

I was listening to Linguica+Dew's playthrough, and according to Dew, who playtested the wad for John, there turned out to be a surprising technical constraint that made the fast crushers a bad idea, and he had to switch back to slow crushers.  I didn't quite understand the constraint though.

I'm excited to see what Tom Hall thinks of the map-set once he plays it! 

1 hour ago, MeatSafeMurderer said:

There's 2 discs is there not? I know one of them is supposed to contain the WADs too but it is actually possible to have redbook audio alongside a data track (see PS1 DOOM). Still, it's nice to know the lossless versions are provided in some form. I can always burn it but I'm just a little disappointed I can't pop the official CD with its nice artwork in a CD player I guess.

I'm pretty annoyed by it as well since it's one of the main reasons I bought the box. I didn't realize the lossless music was on the USB drive though, so at least there's that.

I just bought Sigil and played E5M1...

OH. MY. GOD.

It's probably my favorite M1 map: looked amazing, played amazing, and with the Buckethead soundtrack... sounded unbelievable. I'm so pumped right now. What a perfect start. Off to play more...

Alright... which one of you put your standard edition on eBay for $150? ;) 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SIGIL-PC-Game-DOOM-Sequel-Megawad-John-Romero-Buckethead-CD-Limited-Run-Reg-Ed/233240962760?hash=item364e3ea6c8:g:CEsAAOSwr6Jc7cJJ

3 minutes ago, noisebloom said:

Alright... which one of you put your standard edition on eBay for $150? ;)

What a steal! It's only...3.75x the original price!
 

7 hours ago, pulkmees said:

You must have been extra patient in E5M4 then. Or gotten lucky with rng. Or somehow you knew exactly what to expect before something surprising happened.

Did you also 100% it or was it more a passthrough run?

Considering they're limited, I'd be selling them for a lot more expensive price.

3 hours ago, SamuelNMEvander said:

It wasn't that bad. There was plenty of safe pockets in that maze and it was all about timing anyway.

I consider myself a pretty average/mediocre Doom player (I usually play HMP), and the crusher maze was one of the easiest parts of E5M4 for me. I had more difficulty with the Barons of Hell on this level, having not a lot of ammunition to start off.

Could just be because I play a lot of platformers, so I'm used to precision movements. It was definitely a fun maze, though, and pretty nerve-wracking!

The part that I found confusing (spoilers):

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You don't need keys to activate the red and blue switches? Very strange. Seems like he could have just put them on the paths there, so all three switches would be consistent.

Honestly I think that's one of the few bugs on the entire wad pack that needs to be straight up fixed, among other things.

13 minutes ago, noisebloom said:

The part that I found confusing (spoilers):

 

  Hide contents

You don't need keys to activate the red and blue switches? Very strange. Seems like he could have just put them on the paths there, so all three switches would be consistent.

That bugged me as well.

1 hour ago, noisebloom said:

Alright... which one of you put your standard edition on eBay for $150? ;) 

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SIGIL-PC-Game-DOOM-Sequel-Megawad-John-Romero-Buckethead-CD-Limited-Run-Reg-Ed/233240962760?hash=item364e3ea6c8:g:CEsAAOSwr6Jc7cJJ

I may be the poor sucker that ends up buying that soon if no one else ever does...

I wanted either box I just didn't have the $$ at the time. That bastard.

42 minutes ago, dybbuk said:

I may be the poor sucker that ends up buying that soon if no one else ever does...

I wanted either box I just didn't have the $$ at the time. That bastard.

I was debating buying it, but I'll probably wait until someone puts up a Beast Box and pay like $500, LOL... 

Got my my Sigil box today and played though the episode a while ago. It. Kicked. Ass!!! I totally loved it!

This was a phenomenal set of maps. Gorgeous to look at, fun to play, and pretty damn hard at times. It's everything I wanted it to be and a little more! Romero sure made me his bitch again. :P

Now it's left me wanting more levels from him, bring on the Doom 2 megawad!!

2 hours ago, noisebloom said:

You don't need keys to activate the red and blue switches? Very strange. Seems like he could have just put them on the paths there, so all three switches would be consistent.

1 hour ago, SamuelNMEvander said:

Honestly I think that's one of the few bugs on the entire wad pack that needs to be straight up fixed, among other things.

As explained here, it's not really a bug: each colored switch opens the corresponding color bars. The keys aren't needed because (a) Doom 1 didn't have keyed switches (they were introduced in Ultimate Doom, and only worked doors), and (b) the switches don't appear until you've traversed the required paths, anyway. Is it inconsistent? Sure, okay. But not a bug.

I emailed them and got a reply telling me that it's just the beast boxes that haven't been shipped yet. Apparently no one has received them yet. It's a little disapointing tho that we will get them way after the release of the free version, considering that we paid the most for the game.

15 minutes ago, Salt-Man Z said:

 

 

As explained here, it's not really a bug: each colored switch opens the corresponding color bars. The keys aren't needed because (a) Doom 1 didn't have keyed switches (they were introduced in Ultimate Doom, and only worked doors), and (b) the switches don't appear until you've traversed the required paths, anyway. Is it inconsistent? Sure, okay. But not a bug.

Ahh, thanks. I missed that.

Does the yellow switch look different? Because I believe a yellow skull key was required...

Is that a bit of Space Quest 3 I hear in the soundtrack?

Space Quest 3:

https://youtu.be/dxEP05TtOfE?t=48

https://youtu.be/dxEP05TtOfE?t=447

Sigil:

https://youtu.be/ZOk8gJJAsrw?t=26
 

I couldn't resist to wait so I forked out a small amount and brought Sigil with Buckethead's soundtrack.

I have played from E5M1 to E5M5 on UV = AWESOME STUFF! - Found it very challenging getting continually murdered by enemies, fighting Cacodemons and Barons of Hell in tight spaces and always loading and saving the game. You need to get the monsters infighting but that is not always easy. Even though there was a bit of odd texturing like the yellow key door in E5M5 I loved the spooky, dark, abstract hellish atmosphere and I think is was very puzzling and John Romero takes full advantage of the Doom engine for example shooting the evil eyes in order to open areas or raise bridges plus platforming. He sure had lots of fun in Doom Builder and I'm sure he'll make a sequel one day if we wants to. Loved that crushing ceiling area in E5M4 with the TEKWALL2 and TEKWALL5 textures, that looked great. E5M5 was great fun, reminded me a little of E4M2 and Doom 2 MAP29, set in dark underground city, extremely challenging and I was always below 58% health in that map and those two Cyberdemons just made it so much more challenging, luckily you can telefrag them. Up to E5M6 and is looking very promising and I'm sure the final cave with the Cyberdemon and glowing cracks is going to be a great challenge and I am fully prepared for the two Barons ready to ambush you behind the yellow key door in E5M7. Also the buckethead soundtrack was nice,  especially the ambient-like songs. As I said I've spent most of my time with low health as in the screenshot I've attached.

26 minutes ago, noisebloom said:

 

Ahh, thanks. I missed that.

 

Does the yellow switch look different? Because I believe a yellow skull key was required...

Yellow key was required to get through they yellow door (which was set low into the ground so you had no choice but to fight the monsters in the lava cave before the door had fully opened) and then you can lower the yellow bars. The red and blue bars (not blue bar pigeon) can be lowered after completing their respective areas.

2 hours ago, ([zen3001]) said:

I emailed them and got a reply telling me that it's just the beast boxes that haven't been shipped yet. Apparently no one has received them yet. It's a little disapointing tho that we will get them way after the release of the free version, considering that we paid the most for the game.

Mine shipped on the 23rd and it'll be at my house on thursday...

The cd should have been cd audio with the pre emphasis flag set so we could argue for years over whether a correct rip has de emphasis applied or not and which algorithm to use 

Got my big box today! Super impressed with everything, the packaging and presentation is great. The soundtrack and the bonus stuff on the floppy disk USB drive is also very cool! Buckethead's soundtrack is incredible, unsurprisingly. During my next playthrough I'm going to give the game a go with the MIDI soundtrack. 

As far as my thoughts on the WAD itself, I'm really happy with it! It does feel like a natural extension to The Ultimate Doom. Pretty challenging stuff, with some creative secrets. I did find some areas a little frustrating (the crusher maze in particular gave my friend and I some issues while we were playing some co-op). Besides this and a glitch or two that I came across, I'm more than pleased with it! 

I had fun playing these levels. YouTubers are sightless rat people.

Did anyone try out the deathmatch levels? I believe most of them are a different separate area of the map, so it's like 2 maps in one.

I guess once the WAD goes free they would be good for rotation on Zandronum servers.

Another thing I like about Sigil. It uses entirely stock textures (which I expected) apart from the sky which could be from Quake2Doom.

33 minutes ago, Ferk said:

Did anyone try out the deathmatch levels? I believe most of them are a different separate area of the map, so it's like 2 maps in one.

I guess once the WAD goes free they would be good for rotation on Zandronum servers.

Yep, I've given em a quick jam each. Most of them are simple DM maps tbh.