The City of the Damned : Apocalypse | Remaster | Dev

Suggestion! This wad is one of the few horror themed wads that is really good. I played and i love it, and i replay it from time to time. Little recommendation is improve the things you marked (hope still being compatible with old gzdoom builds) and don't add anything new. The experience you bring back then was perfect from every spot. The new hud its pretty good, about the dynamic ligthing, they were ok, but a little more surely will add to the experience, but a lot more will drag... so balance quality over quantity.
Maybe a few atmospheric sounds, like wind, drops of water, things like that could improve the atmosphere and make it a lot more moodier. I loved the mechanic of the alarm and the need to go to a shelter, and had to fight for them with the acolytes roaming around, neat experience.
What i remember that from the get go, the player know where it will be the final fight. So maybe moving that fight to a more mystery and secret location?  Just to add a little more exploration.

And why not, a secret ending? Or a different way to reach the ending, like a countdown before the final fight, or a twist about the invocation?
Aside from that, i hope this will give you motivation for work again on TCOTD 3.

Cheers, Torm!

On 4/22/2020 at 2:17 AM, P41R47 said:

Maybe a few atmospheric sounds, like wind, drops of water, things like that could improve the atmosphere and make it a lot more moodier.

That's a good suggestion and I will take care of that, I have various ideas already on how to improve the atmosphere. I will also think about a way to explain where the final location is and maybe even add a few more locations to explore - not sure about that yet though. Thanks for the suggestions!

I remember really enjoying the visuals & atmosphere of this project, but finding the gameplay frustrating. The issue was that the map is fairly non-linear, but the level of difficulty varies wildly depending on what path you take. You can take a path that seems to be allowed/encouraged but end up without the resources you actually need and have to start over. So perhaps in this remaster, resources could be spread out more, or the possible paths could be tightened.

Well, I always thought that's what makes up for a replay value or for some kind of density - compare this to the early Resident Evil and Silent Hill titles. If you make wrong decisions too often, you might end up in a dead and. I think chances are low that I am gonna change too much about it. I will add some "secrets" that help you to fix a wrong decision - but not all of them :)

I understand what you mean, but the issue is that it may not be clear what the "wrong" way to go is.

Do you think it's a solution to place "side quests" where the player can fill his ammo, equipment and health?

New areas in the Remaster: The Cellar and The Swamp

I like those new areas, Torm. But why restringe yourself to just a few more areas? Probably TCOTDA is your best map, why don't take it to higher grounds? The progression of the map, as @whirledtsar pointed out, is very disjointed. You have to try a few routes until you found a way to progress, but with that approach, you will surely get out of ammo or health.
I loved this map backthen, and i always thought it was the most near one can get to make a proper horror themed map in a Doom engine. But fixing the things that hindered the progress will change the content a lot. 

For example, there is little backstory of how the player get there and not much sense of direction as the singpost near the starting point signals two roads but only one is there.. Then we have to traverse a wasteland-like area to reach the proper city. That wasteland-like area could have been a forest like area with a lot of hangign mid textures for more mood, much dense and creepy than monsters in the open roaming around. Then there are some apocaliptics logs scattered around the map. To be more beliable, there need to be more files, and much of them just need to be there for added flavor, like RE did, or how Cold As Hell also did after you.
I think that TCOTDA was a great map, with not soo much replay value, and with the plus of being fun, entertaining, and a neat experience, but chaning it too much will make it another entry, so why bother in chaning it? I think that its better to take what worked here, and implement then on a new project, and learn about what didn't work so well.
Also, Blood was a neat game for it time, and what make it interesting, for me at least, was the ever changing nature of the maps during the differents episodes. And TCOTDA was a neat condensed experience.

New area in the Remaster: The Gipsy Camp

It's looking great!

I loved this wad so much when I played it, that when I saw that you are working on a remaster, it really made me excited! I look forward to this!

First one is tested. Waiting for the next one!

We are currently cleaning up and improving the map and coding, so it will take a bit longer - the second one is more complex :)

> double post, feel free to delete

I'm listening...

Just to give a small feedback to those who listens as Scuba does: We are currently revamping a lot of the mod, adding enhancements that improve performance but also adding new gameplay elements and also new areas that will improve the immersion and atmosphere, the project was already aiming at years ago. @Nash and @Ozymandias81 are doing an amazing job and are a great priceless help with this and I am glad having both at the team.

This will take a bit longer than expected but I can already tell you that this remaster will live up its name. There will be so much more to discover and to look for - and reasons to play it yet another time, I promise this :)

Is the project alive out there?

It is :)

Slightly off-topic, but when can we expect the Stronghold: On The Edge Of Chaos remaster?

Well, there will be one - but that will take some time :)

is this remake still alive?

5 minutes ago, rytgames said:

is this remake still alive?

nvm just read that he's leaving

Tormentor has said he plans to finish up his in-progress works, including this one, before "leaving."