Penumbra (Hexen megawad) - Released

This was a great wad for the most part, some platforming sections can be a little tedious (I suggest not putting mushrooms or any other solid decorations on tiny surfaces, it screws with your momentum), but otherwise very enjoyable, up until the Chaos Realm, where it falls appart with long and boring corridors where you can just skip everything until a boss stops you, and then continue. Honestly it feels like it's there just to fill a gap. Seems like you had a lot of fun making it though.

One thing about using Korax as a boss: while fighting him, he executes a bunch of scripts which your maps lack. If you can't think on anything, just leave the scripts empty, but they need to be there, otherwise a bunch of error messages will appear.

5 minutes ago, Gothic said:

This was a great wad for the most part, some platforming sections can be a little tedious (I suggest not putting mushrooms or any other solid decorations on tiny surfaces, it screws with your momentum), but otherwise very enjoyable, up until the Chaos Realm, where it falls appart with long and boring corridors where you can just skip everything until a boss stops you, and then continue. Honestly it feels like it's there just to fill a gap. Seems like you had a lot of fun making it though.

 

One thing about using Korax as a boss: while fighting him, he executes a bunch of scripts which your maps lack. If you can't think on anything, just leave the scripts empty, but they need to be there, otherwise a bunch of error messages will appear.

Hello,

Thanks for your very first feeback I received! And congratulations for being the first person who completed it!

I didn't know the scripts are required and cause errors when unused :)) I wated to use Korax like common enemy because in doom Cyberdemon is used like that a lot, so I wanted to try the same with Korax. Also I felt wrong to do "just another Korax arena" in the same way as in original Hexen.

So if I undestand well, I should add to avoid errors?

script 249 (void)

{

}

for all Korax scripts?

Hmm, so you don't like The Chaos Realm? I just had the idea I need to use somehow the fact the Wings of Wrath works until you finnish the whole wad and I was like "Hmm, maybe I should make a map based only on flying" and I try to make some and I realized it's actually fun, because you're very fast when you fly and it can be used for the design itself :)

ok, so bug reported:

- Fix korax

- Maybe remove some mashrooms?

And I had lots of fun making it, indeed :)

Thanks again

Oh jolly good, something else I can play with Walpurgis.

I'll have a look at this either this evening or early tommorow and give you some feedback as well.

--------

EDIT: Gave it a quick look; one thing I'll immediately say- the amount of 'gotcha!' traps where you can't move in the traps is very annoying. Starting with the early attack by Afrits in the graveyard, after the courtyard... that's rather cruel if you're the Fighter or Cleric without your weapon 2 (and actually, in base Hexen, Fighter WITH his weapon 2). I realise its in at the altar in the church; but if you're the stand and attempt to fight type of lunatic like me, you'll get yourself killed (and I did, and I restarted as a Magister), and if you run, you'll instead be penned in by the Ettins rapelling through the glass.

And then, there's times when you're suddenly surrounded by Centaurs. As a Mage-type, that's instant death~ even the first time you're surrounded by Centaurs getting Yorricks Skull, I even had the foresight to line the room with 4 Flechettes because I figured it was a trap, but its not enough to deal with that many and I almost died there.

Then again in the stone hexagons room in the second map after the passage across the lava, after pulling the switch, I literally couldn't move, and only killed one Centaur before being sliced and diced.

However, its very pretty, and immediately the first level being a city reminded me of Hexen II's opener, which is nice; many, many Hexen levels are regurgitations of the Seven-Portals or Darkmere in some variation, so its cool to have a different concept.

Perhaps I'll give it another go at difficulty 2, because 3 is a bit much for me (I am, admittedly, quite a Doom casual, and an alien amongst the l33t of Doomworld, haha). That said, certainly think about class-specific enemy loadouts a bit more; the Fighter shouldn't hardly ever encounter Afrits until later on, and the Mage should fight many less Centaurs.

13 hours ago, eharper256 said:

Oh jolly good, something else I can play with Walpurgis.

 

I'll have a look at this either this evening or early tommorow and give you some feedback as well.

--------

EDIT: Gave it a quick look; one thing I'll immediately say- the amount of 'gotcha!' traps where you can't move in the traps is very annoying. Starting with the early attack by Afrits in the graveyard, after the courtyard... that's rather cruel if you're the Fighter or Cleric without your weapon 2 (and actually, in base Hexen, Fighter WITH his weapon 2). I realise its in at the altar in the church; but if you're the stand and attempt to fight type of lunatic like me, you'll get yourself killed (and I did, and I restarted as a Magister), and if you run, you'll instead be penned in by the Ettins rapelling through the glass.

 

And then, there's times when you're suddenly surrounded by Centaurs. As a Mage-type, that's instant death~ even the first time you're surrounded by Centaurs getting Yorricks Skull, I even had the foresight to line the room with 4 Flechettes because I figured it was a trap, but its not enough to deal with that many and I almost died there.

 

Then again in the stone hexagons room in the second map after the passage across the lava, after pulling the switch, I literally couldn't move, and only killed one Centaur before being sliced and diced.

 

However, its very pretty, and immediately the first level being a city reminded me of Hexen II's opener, which is nice; many, many Hexen levels are regurgitations of the Seven-Portals or Darkmere in some variation, so its cool to have a different concept.

Perhaps I'll give it another go at difficulty 2, because 3 is a bit much for me (I am, admittedly, quite a Doom casual, and an alien amongst the l33t of Doomworld, haha). That said, certainly think about class-specific enemy loadouts a bit more; the Fighter shouldn't hardly ever encounter Afrits until later on, and the Mage should fight many less Centaurs.

Hello,

Thanks for your feedback!

Well the affrits are kinda cruel if you're cleric (fighter is rather strong, but it's still meelee, I understand). But it's still doable. For the small spaces traps like the yorrick skull room and hexagon room, the trick is the use Dics of Repulsions, to keep them out of you a little bit. And lots of flachenttes :)

If it's too difficult, I can make it easier, but lots of people reporting me so far the oppisite - it's too easy :D

If it's too difficult, I can make it easier, but lots of people reporting me so far the oppisite - it's too easy :D

Do keep in mind Doomworld is really skilled on average! I'm the type of guy who can't complete Ancient Aliens on easy, so I'm an outlier here as I mentioned (haha).

The hexagons room and such are those 'forwarned is forarmed' type of traps, I guess. Perhaps I just need to get more quicksave-happy.

Nevertheless, I made some footage of me playing on it; so I thought I'd post it here as well as the Walpurgis thread. Like I say, its a very nice looking mapset! Everyone should check it out.

Anyways; I finished it.

I actually liked the Chaos Realm; its rare to see the Wings of Wrath utilised to their full potential. I kinda get what Gothic is saying about the Room-Corridor-Room thing; but there was enough interesting about it as a set-piece to make it fun. The most interesting one was when the Heresiarch died and dozens of priests appeared, leading to a Touhou-style bullet hell moment. Actually, you know what; yes the Chaos Realm is absolutely a less extreme Touhou level (haha- reminds me I should play the Doom Touhou mod again).

The only thing that was bit 'eh' for me is that fact that both the Spirit Realm and the Chaos realm were basically boss rushes. Considering how nicely the puzzle elements were put together for the earlier maps, it does feel a bit of a rush towards the end.

1 hour ago, eharper256 said:

Anyways; I finished it.

I actually liked the Chaos Realm; its rare to see the Wings of Wrath utilised to their full potential. I kinda get what Gothic is saying about the Room-Corridor-Room thing; but there was enough interesting about it as a set-piece to make it fun. The most interesting one was when the Heresiarch died and dozens of priests appeared, leading to a Touhou-style bullet hell moment. Actually, you know what; yes the Chaos Realm is absolutely a less extreme Touhou level (haha- reminds me I should play the Doom Touhou mod again).

The only thing that was bit 'eh' for me is that fact that both the Spirit Realm and the Chaos realm were basically boss rushes. Considering how nicely the puzzle elements were put together for the earlier maps, it does feel a bit of a rush towards the end.

Thanks for your feedback here .)

Well the Spirit Realm (The Void) was originally only the chess board with two Koraxes and Heresiarches, but evetually I added a little bit more :)

Any other bugs found?

It did call some random script errors from time to time (probably Korax not working probably).

I was a little stuck for a moment when you collect the Quietus/Wraithverge/Bloodscourge puzzle-pieces and slot them in on that level; its not instantly obvious that you can now make it across~ I edged across and fell down, reloaded, and then thought; 'nothing's changed, it must not be this', not realising you have to dash across, and spent awhile looking around the level and even going back to the tower. Maybe add a star bridge that appears for it? Plus, as I already noted, maybe making a few adjustments to the earlier ambush encounters (I didn't have too much trouble later on, once I had my third and then my ult), other than that I think its all fine.

23 minutes ago, eharper256 said:

It did call some random script errors from time to time (probably Korax not working probably).

 

I was a little stuck for a moment when you collect the Quietus/Wraithverge/Bloodscourge puzzle-pieces and slot them in on that level; its not instantly obvious that you can now make it across~ I edged across and fell down, reloaded, and then thought; 'nothing's changed, it must not be this', not realising you have to dash across, and spent awhile looking around the level and even going back to the tower. Maybe add a star bridge that appears for it? Plus, as I already noted, maybe making a few adjustments to the earlier ambush encounters (I didn't have too much trouble later on, once I had my third and then my ult), other than that I think its all fine.

Well it simply takes time until the bridge is built :)

I tried to make the player wait with "the sequience completed" message... it didn't help?:(

There's a gap you can still fall down to your death if you try to cross slowly, that's what got me (or perhaps as you say it hadn't built yet, not sure).

Sorry to bump old topic, but it was released

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/hexen/p-r/penumbra

https://www.moddb.com/mods/penumbra-hexen-megawad

Enjoy