Perpetual Powers [/idgames] - 21-level megawad

@Firedust

That one was a guest map, but it was a conscious decision to focus on incidental combat in quite a few maps in the wad. I felt like I was worse at it, than setpiece encounters, so I tried including it more, for the sake of improving my map-making skills, as well as introducing some variety for the player.

The Hellforge will be giving this a thorough coop test next weekend.

I hope your (map) body is ready :D

15 hours ago, Firedust said:

Oh, silly me! Thanks for clearing that up. Now it all makes sense.

Yup, that´s my map there! I went for a non-linear/exploration map (doing too many of those lately) as a self-training for future projects and to give the players something different. Maybe I should have gone for something more similar to all the other maps though.

I think it worked wonderfully on the set 

4 minutes ago, Guardsoul said:

Yup, that´s my map there! I went for a non-linear/exploration map (doing too many of those lately) as a self-training for future projects and to give the players something different. Maybe I should have gone for something more similar to all the other maps though.

Nope, the map was great! It was my fault for not reading the credits...

3 hours ago, Guardsoul said:

Maybe I should have gone for something more similar to all the other maps though.

Map variety is almost never a bad thing and is usually one of the biggest benefits of recruiting guest mappers.

Played the first 2 maps. Absolutely gorgeous! I'm loving that corrupted, hi-tech, Quake2-ish with frozen outdoors vibe. Doing a relaxed continuous playthrough on UV, and died once on each map. That Archie caught me by surprise on Map02. ;D

I'm enjoying the setpiece fights, and I'm certain they'll soon be deadlier. I'm hoping for an SSG and RL in the near future, and some armor would be nice, too. I mean, like, a whole Green at least. ;)

The midis by Xaser and BJ34 are great. I'm eager to play the rest.

That map was very antarish, with lots of enemies, many of them inside closets, open layouts with lots of options to where to go.

Another great map on the set! Visually stunning!

Lovely so far. Found a softlock in map 03 at the beginning, a hole behind the blue armor you can't get out of.

Very impressive work indeed, I hope you will expand it into a full megawad one day! In the meantime, I noticed some bugs while I played on UV in GZdoom 4.5.0:

MAP08: isn't chainsaw near start supposed to be secret?

MAP11: I fell into monster closet sector 1135 because I walked around trigger linedef 7824.

MAP12: GZdoom reports these:

Unknown bottom texture 'ZYHXRK05' on second side of linedef 533
Unknown bottom texture 'ZYHXRK05' on second side of linedef 706

MAP20: exit is not marked with signs.

MAP21: there seems to be no way to get into secret sector 1581.

Agree on the praise. I thought the 21-map length and current structure was perfect for it, and hope to see more by these mappers in other future releases. (Not everything needs to be a full megawad imo.) 

This wad is so awesome! Maps are so good designed 10/10!

Good job dude!

And the 3 remaining maps from episode 2:

Fantastic levels, and each one is very unique on its design, with map 13 being my favorite, with the beautiful landscapes + jazzy soundtrack and the crusher double setpiece. 14 has also a beautiful eye candy in the beginning and really sick setpiece at the finale with the archies and two cybers (!)

Thanks a lot for the feedback guys, I really appreciate it. I'll be sure to look into the reported issues.

I'm glad you like the structure of the project @rd.. It was an intentional decision from the very beginning to make this megawad a shorter one. I stand by the opinion that many megawads simply drag on for too long, so I want to avoid this problem in my own wads. (Also I don't have the patience to make anything longer than this :P)

I think I'm about halfway through so far, and its been awesome! I love the visuals of the two eps I've been able to play. The icy techbases are really cool (the fog in I think map 6 was a cool touch and I liked how it hid not only spectres better, but pretty much anything if it was far enough away). The blood jungles of ep 2 that I've played are gorgeous. There's some challenge to these maps, which is great. I'm really liking the MIDI choices so far. A lot of more chill-type stuff. Idk if anything was composed specifically for this project, but the preexisting picks are great. Adds a lot to the atmosphere for sure. 

Maps 15 and 16. New episode, this time some sort of "dark hell", if that makes sense haha

Loved both maps, pretty cool gimmick with the mastermind to hide her temporarily with a lift

3 more amazing maps, the detailing is amazing and there's a great sense of atmosphere, loved especially 17 and 18, with very thoughtfull setpieces on both maps. (17 with some really tough ones with the archivilles + lifts gimmick).

Fantastic map, as expected from the slot. It is very hard with very strategic setpieces, this time with more enemies than usual.

The mood is amazing and the MIDI fits really well.

I played the wad. I have to say the first 4 or so maps were pretty average, but later things improve and the maps are more interesting and engaging. Map 20 was a bit of WTF, way harder than the rest of the entire wad, including map 21.

Fantastic mapset, definitely on my top 10 favorite wads. Very unique and detailed visuals combined with intricate and thoughtful setpieces!

The last level was a bit harder but still very managable for me, that last battle was crazy! haha

@Turin Turambar

Thanks for the feedback. The first episode was the hardest for me to make, so it contains some of my weaker maps and is also the reason why I had to recruit 2 guest mappers to help me, as opposed to just one for episode 2 and 3 each.

And yeah, map20 was a bit of an experiment. Very slaughter-inspired as you can probably tell.

@Deadwing

I really appreciate your words, I didn't think this wad would be good enough to take a spot in anyone's top 10 lol.

You managed to take the invul at the best possible time during that final fight. Right when the second wave of archviles is relesed is when you need it the most. I've seen people die a lot on that encounter before figuring that out. Good job :)

There's an update to the wad coming soon btw. I've already compiled what I hope to be the final release, and I'll publish it right after my last one playtesting session.

I can't wait to see this released in the archives. Once that happens, I could maybe host this on my Zandronum server.

The wad has been updated for the final time!

Changelog:

map03 - added more co-op ammo, removed a softlock

map06 - added a few more enemies, moved around clipping rocket boxes

map11 - moved a walkover trigger line so that you can't skip it, removed a softlock

map15 - the door after the plasma fight now closes and opens back up on a timer

map16 - removed a softlock

map18 - added slightly more co-op ammo, the teleporter inside the first secret area is now repeatable instead of single use

map20 - marked the exit, slightly shortened some timers, the staircase at the beginning now lowers way later into the map - it was a cool atmospheric moment, but broke co-op too badly

Thank you everyone for playing :)

Finished it!!

A very fine and relaxing map-set (except the last two maps where my doomguy got killed a couple of times), excellent maps for demos and Iron-man mode.

You definitely have won a name in the Doom Community @Lorenz0.

Thanks a lot @Noise

Playing through this now... I can already say it's one of the best sets of the past year, probably more.