Avactor last update is out

[TheOrganGrinder]

I'm still making my way through this (Avactor's levels are individually substantial enough that I don't want to sit down to play without giving the WAD the time and attention it deserves) and I'm currently on MAP06 with a question.  If you skip out of the subterranean arena area, with the four bosses in its quadrants - is there a way to get back down there, if you want to go scavenge for supplies or if you leave without killing everything and want to go back and mop them up later?

[Eradrop]

After grabbing the red key and teleporting back, you cannot return since the elevator is closed for use.

So what you left there is left forever...

[TheOrganGrinder]

Ah, more's the pity, but that's what I get for being skittish and not maintaining multiple saves.  Thanks!

[Eradrop]

Another Update is Available!

What's new?

Not much honestly, couple of bugs fixing, missed texture, and really minor changing is actors emplacements.

Also I've added a new secrets and areas here and there.

Link:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/cn840vel0bkdr9s/Avactor.wad/file

[galileo31dos01]

I downloaded the last update and still got the same error, is it just me? :l

 

Also, a suggestion would be to rename the wad file every time you update it, to avoid any confusions, e.g. "AvactorRC2.wad" 

[EffinghamHuffnagel]

2 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

I downloaded the last update and still got the same error, is it just me? :l

 

Also, a suggestion would be to rename the wad file every time you update it, to avoid any confusions, e.g. "AvactorRC2.wad" 

Looking inside TEXTURE1, there are no definitions for any standard Doom2 textures, just the new ones. Only the original release of Avactor had the TEXTURE1 with those definitions. Not sure now that got edited out. So SKY3 is not defined.

[NuMetalManiak]

got stuck here in MAP07 from falling somewhere NW of the starting point.

[Eradrop]

Thank you all, i promise to fix all what you mentioned till tommorow.

I tried to run it with prboom and its told me also an issue about the sky3, ill fix it so it will run with all the runners

[NuMetalManiak]

NW Crusher arena in MAP09 had me stuck again, apparently there's a linedef (42315) that stops the crusher (after several waves of enemies), but this is a slow one so it slows down when it crushes something (the enemies mostly), but I got stuck when it decided to stop while it was at a low point and I was unable to enter the teleporter to leave.

 

also a rather ugly HOM I found in the SE secret area

 

Edited December 26, 2018 by NuMetalManiak : added another bug

[Woolie Wool]

I just played the first map of this wad. My first reaction:

 

I should have been paying more attention this year because this is like, everything I want from Doom right now. A comprehensive set of new assets that leave the original gameplay untouched and legible to the long-time Doom player? Check. Ancient ruins theme? Check. Huge, sprawling, beautiful maps that alternate extended periods of calm reflection with violent, frantic battles that give these gigantic Eternal Doom-like ruinscapes teeth to match their grand vistas? Check. Software friendly with no GL bullshit, ridiculously dark lighting, or truecolor textures? Check.

 

I think I'm going to play more of this right now. My only wishes are that it had a matching custom smallfont and bigfont that were used consistently across all the menu assets, and a new palette that has some wacky modified color ranges to make the visuals really pop in software. Otherwise, this is amazing!

[Eradrop]

16 hours ago, NuMetalManiak said:

NW Crusher arena in MAP09 had me stuck again, apparently there's a linedef (42315) that stops the crusher (after several waves of enemies), but this is a slow one so it slows down when it crushes something (the enemies mostly), but I got stuck when it decided to stop while it was at a low point and I was unable to enter the teleporter to leave.

What sourceport you using? now tested with PRBoom and Zdoom and it's was ok.

 

On ‎12‎/‎26‎/‎2018 at 6:06 AM, NuMetalManiak said:

got stuck here in MAP07 from falling somewhere NW of the starting point.

NICE Discovery lol, got fixed it :)

 

4 hours ago, Woolie Wool said:

I just played the first map of this wad. My first reaction: 

 

Thanks for the kind words mate, pls... Keep up playing and share you thoughts ! :)

Im still updating the Wad so it will work for everyone perfectly, once in a day im updating the link so if it's not working to someone, share it here so it will be uploaded perfectly to idgames.

 

[Kappes Buur]

5 Thumbs Up

I find those maps really engrossing, despite their large size.

Fine job worth to be awarded best map of 2018.

[EffinghamHuffnagel]

Haven't seen this mentioned, but you have some missing/duplicate sprites for your Plasma Tank. You have BSPIL2L8, L3L7 and L4L6 in there twice. I think the first set should be K2K8, K3K7 and K4K6. It makes the Plasma Tank randomly disappear and reappear when in pain.

 

Loving it so far. A real Hexen/Tomb Raider kind of feel. Way cool. Great work.

 

[Eradrop]

Thank you guys :) really nice to hear.

I'll give a look about the plasma tank, thank you for mentioning it up !

[Zalewa]

I'm during my second attempt at this WAD. The first attempt was in multiplayer and I didn't like it then. We quit after MAP03.

 

Now I'm playing this in single player and just completed MAP04. So far I'm liking it very much and I think that the Cacoward was well deserved. I think that the WAD difficulty is very fair and there's a constant flow. I rarely need to camp or get stuck. However, there are spots that surprise you suddenly and don't forgive mistakes. You make a single mistake there and you die. In single player you just F3 and repeat, in multiplayer the consequences can be more dire (depending on your game settings, of course), hence the dissonance between how the MP and SP feel.

 

Personal notes:

• Excellent visual design. While it's true that many mappers nowaday are capable of doing it, it's still up to the highest standard.
• The rocket launcher secret puzzle at the very start - some people here said that they liked it. I didn't. The crusher puzzle is something you want to avoid altogether as a player in a multiplayer survival game unless you have beforehand knowledge on how to complete it. I thought it was counter-intuitive that the floor with blood is the safe one. I also couldn't find any clues on where to step next beyond the general movement direction as shown by other objects lying on other pillars. However, when the walls lowered and the imps came out I decided that this secret is not worth it and noclipped out of there, leaving the rocket launcher alone. It's not even that useful considering that you get another one in the same level later on.
• Monster sprite replacements are mostly good, but this is up to a personal preference. I like the Baron of Hell very much. I don't like the Arch-Vile though - it looks like a village idiot who glued a shield to its face and now runs around cluelessly unable to take it off. The turret enemies stand out, perhaps because these are not Doom edits. I also don't like that the stationary turret's corpse is just as high as when it was alive.
• Boom bridges. They are pretty and expand connectivity possibilities, so people use them. I'm not a big fan of them. They consistently fuck up multiplayer in all WADs where I've seen them. They also fuck up single player when monsters get involved near them. In Avactor, in addition, they are super loud too. What a nuisance.
• It somehow makes more sense for Revenants to shoot ghosts than fireballs.
• In MAP04 the setting seems to change from a mesoamerican to a mix between this and medieval, to the point where medieval textures from Hexen and Hexen 2 are used.
• No good secret goes unpunished. This gets infuriating after a while. I was also surprised that the BFG secret in MAP04 didn't leave me surrounded with monsters.
• The repeated motif in the MAP04 music track gets old quickly.
• I got lost and stuck in MAP04 after the XY = -4182, -121 staircase. It took me a while to figure out there's also a bridge-raising switch at XY = -1975, -134

Technical issues:

• I couldn't find any mentioning of the intended source-port. This is important as it allows to decide on the ruleset with which to play. It doesn't cut it when you say you tested the WAD in some source-port as this doesn't explicitly specify the ruleset, especially when you mention both ZDoom and PrBoom. I launched the WAD in Zandronum with all flags set to 0 which allows me to freelook, use obstacles as projectile shields, use ZDoom's random number generator, walk under cacodemons, etc. I don't know if the WAD was intended to be played with such rules or does it simply leave the rules up to the player's preference.
• Player sprites are broken. A player who stands still will appear as a corpse.
• In MAP03 the pyramid at XY = 2700, 250 can close twice, presumably leaving you stuck forever the second time it closes.
• Got stuck in MAP03 after falling between bushes at XY = 4174, 585. I think this is something that "infinitely tall actors" flag would prevent.
• Cyberdemon fight in MAP03 triggered by picking up the blue skull key can be avoided if you pick up the key gently.

Edited January 1, 2019 by Zalewa : clarification

[Eradrop]

Thank you zalewa for the honest feedback :)

* First of all, you mentions issues about multiplayers and its not relevant because Avactor never ment to be for this kind of gameplay and none of the maps including players 2, 3, and 4.

So i guess you did the job making it working for online game.

* Many people complaning the very early secret is usless and not worth to get it, important for me to say that in my mapping vision not all the secrets must include "gifts", but also the option to have 100%, or just find new areas or easter eggs can be considered as a secrets too.

Specific about the very early secret, people saying its usless since you wasting the rocket launcher you get on the mancubus who protects it. But you forget that all the map contains scattered backpacks (since this wad refers to bags as a regular ammo) so you can keep using the rocket lancher a bit later.

* you said player sprites are broken - i guess yeah, i had to use some of the players sprites to complete the new monsters (in dehacked) . But no one should notice that.

* i never played it with zandronum but i could think that because its heavy zdoom runner, no issue should be come up running a boom wad.

 

Please keep playing and share your thoughts here !

 

[Zalewa]

2 hours ago, Eradrop said:

* First of all, you mentions issues about multiplayers and its not relevant because Avactor never ment to be for this kind of gameplay and none of the maps including players 2, 3, and 4.

So i guess you did the job making it working for online game.

Zandronum has a feature where it will spawn players on any available player spawn spot if there's no dedicated spot for that player. So, as long as the WAD doesn't require any of the post GZDoom-1.8.6 features, I can play it in multiplayer.

 

It's understandable that you don't want to design your WAD for multiplayer and you simply do not care about multiplayer issues. Many mappers do that and that's their choice.

 

It's also understandable that players may have issue with this.

 

Nevertheless, I don't know why people would ever not want their WAD to work in multiplayer. There's no reason to block multiplayer explicitly. There's also no reason to design the map in a way that breaks in multiplayer. Boom WADs don't have any scripting so you don't need to specially cater for players dying and respawning, players leaving the game or new players joining mid-game. All that's needed to support multiplayer is to put the remaining player spawn spots and ensure that no map section gets permanently cut-off when someone enters it.

 

Quote

* i never played it with zandronum but i could think that because its heavy zdoom runner, no issue should be come up running a boom wad.

There are no explicit issues with Zandronum and Boom WADs. I'm not sure why you feel I implied there are any?

Edited January 2, 2019 by Zalewa : phrasing

[Eradrop]

Genenrally, making this wad to work with multiplayer can be very freshing idea, specially after playing it alone, But I dont really have a way to test it in multiplayers since i dont have a team for that.

Its possible to add the players 2,3,4 alone and let them playing against the same monsters as you would fight in singleplayer, but there're many places where you locked in and for making it work to multiplayers I need to add the maps a "rescue teleport" to get them back inside the locked areas.

Again, this wad designed to singleplayer only :)

[EffinghamHuffnagel]

It's taking me a while to get through this, but I'm enjoying it. Still using GZDoom.

 

MAP03

--------

Silent teleport, linedef tag 19, pissed me off. I thought those stairs were part of the empty monster closet. Ran around for half an hour looking for a path from the lower area back to the upper. It's also misleading that the steps in the lower area are leading down, but after the teleport you're walking up steps.

 

The secret area, sector tag 108, can only be lowered from the alcove with the switch. If you lower the water lift and run into either of the other alcoves (to grab the Potions), you're stuck.

 

When you grab the Blue Key, the bars go up in front of the pyramid, but you can get up on the step/railing next to the bars and get past them, skipping the Cyber fight. Don't think that was intentional.

 

Linedef tag 112 lift - had a hard time getting out of the pit. I kept having to walk over a 112 FloorDown linedef. Couldn't get out to the N of it; blocked. Had to keep using the switch to raise the floor again until I'd used all four W1 linedefs. One of the times, switch didn't raise the floor all the way to the top. Kept testing this until I figured it out. It's because you have a sector within a sector both rising/lowering on one trigger. They don't always both move to the same heights at the same time. Sometimes the Hexen body doesn't lower with the lift; it just floats on the edge of the trigger sector which doesn't lower. Another time, the trigger sector lowered below the lift sector and I fell in; stuck. The linedefs which lower the lift don't have to be in a separate sector. You should be able to merge those two sectors and keep the linedefs working as is.

 

At the very back of the big ship near the exit, you can explode a Red Jar and go over the side into the water. I thought it was a secret (actually, it would be an interesting secret exit to a secret map). No way to get back into the map. You can get onto the 'exit ship', but not back onto the dock to the exit linedef. Fun exploring the water, though, but no way back up after jumping off the waterfall. Also kind of expected the big ship's wheel to turn and reveal something.

 

Onwards.

 

[Eradrop]

Great feedback mate, thank you very much.

I've put attention on everything you said here.

8 hours ago, EffinghamHuffnagel said:

It's also misleading that the steps in the lower area are leading down, but after the teleport you're walking up steps.

I agree with you and I will change it.

 

[Zalewa]

Just completed MAP07. I'd say this is the one that ramps up in difficulty. Many times you find yourself swarmed with monsters trying to find cover, or fighting with time itself as the horde surrounds you on lava when your radpajama is about to expire. I used all of the 200/200 powerups very quickly and spent most of the time running on 50/0. Death count has risen up too and the reloading slowly started to become annoying. The arch-vile water section also gave me some trouble. Even though that section is not particularly difficult by itself, I was very low on ammo and had to take some risky shots that resulted in failure and death. The map took me about an hour to beat.

 

As for MAP05 and MAP06, here are some more thoughts:

 

• I was positively surprised to see new monsters appear in MAP05. WADs usually like to push out everything at once. In Avactor, given the map lenghts, MAP05 is already fairly late into the WAD. As for the monsters themselves: the BFG brain was kind enough to kill all the pale demons for me. I regret killing it afterwards as it would've helped with other swarms that appeared later. The pale demon seems to have a quicker attack and more HP than the skull-masked one, but in overall the biggest difference is the appearance. It also seems that the pale demon is a more capable infighter as it actually managed to eat a cacodemon.
• The central arena in MAP05 is very spatious and you can run away and hide in houses with fast doors that enemies cannot open. The fights there didn't give me much trouble.
• Given that MAP06 presents an armory of sorts and there are the exactly same shields in that armory as the ones that the arch-viles wear on their faces, it furthers the point that the arch-viles are village idiots in this WAD. Good. Screw the arch-viles.
• @Cynical was right about putting +25 HP medikits (or other items) at narrow walkways where you can't avoid picking them up. I have 99 HP and I must pick it up to progress the map. This may be a non-real issue as Avactor is generous enough with resources for it to not matter in the long run, but consider that by placing items in such way you're taking away from the player the decision on what items to pick up and when.
• That lava drop in MAP06 was a real life drainer. Went from 200/200 to 22/6, but survived the first attempt.
  
  There are really nice weapon and armor forging animations in MAP06. I'm however not sure how a crusher can press lava into shoulder pads, but I'll just assume that dark magics are at work here :)
• I have used all of the radpajamas in the "need radsuit" section in MAP06.
• The game says that MAP06 took me 65 minutes to beat, but I had to reload a few times. The difficulty ramps up here, but it's still very manageable. The final elevator fight drains your resources and then you must face the spiderdemon grouped with lesser enemies. It's preferable to one-shot the spiderdemon with BFG or it will do a number on you.

 

 

[Eradrop]

Thank you again zalewa for posting your thoughts, was really enjoyable to read this and see what people think about the wad.

I was giving attention to some things you've mentioned here. Thank you and I'm waiting for your next comment with the rest of the maps :)

[EffinghamHuffnagel]

Just finished MAP06. First, love the 'Bell Tower' nods to Hexen MAP01 in the previous maps. That made me smile. Wondered if hitting the bell would do anything. Guess not. But I did notice a semi-hidden switch on the ground from the top of one tower, so they are useful. Second, the forging animations in MAP06 are freaking cool! Outstanding. Only one thing: just before the exit on MAP06, there are two barred rooms. One can be opened and is a secret. The other can't be opened, but has an Invulnerability Sphere in it. So you can't 100% the map. Not that there was much of a chance of that, anyway. Way too many nooks and crannies with a random Potion or Helmet to find everything. But the Sphere room feels like a bug.

 

Onwards.

 

Edit: Forgot. The text after MAP06 says "no more mechanical objects will be build for resist." Did you mean "built for the Resistance"? It's not correct in English the way it is now.

 

Edit2:MAP07

Lots of lava! One thing. The Cyber past the Red Key door teleports as soon as the door opens, but because he's monster-blocked into a box to force him to cross the teleport linedef, none of the other monsters can get past his box out the door to attack you. Picked them off easily. Not sure there is a fix for this. Moving the Cyber further from the door lessens the surprise effect. Have the Demon Shamans appear later, after you've passed the box? Instead of monster-block linedefs, would putting the Cyber in a shallow pit which rises to floor level after he teleports work? I don't know. It's not a big thing. Doesn't break anything the way it is, just odd.

 

Edit3:MAP08

One monster failed to teleport in. The teleports in that closet are W1 instead of WR; don't loop; and the floor scrolls so if it's landing spot was blocked, there's no way it could ever teleport in.

Spoiler

 

Edited January 7, 2019 by EffinghamHuffnagel

[Eradrop]

Thank you EffinghamHuffnagel for the great comment !

First of all:

On 1/6/2019 at 12:32 AM, EffinghamHuffnagel said:

Only one thing: just before the exit on MAP06, there are two barred rooms. One can be opened and is a secret. The other can't be opened, but has an Invulnerability Sphere in it. So you can't 100% the map

You're not suppose to see Invulnerability Sphere Since this item is removed from the wad, and I've add a unique chaingunner corpse instead.

You probably touched the dehacked file or added a new one while running the wad.

 

On 1/6/2019 at 12:32 AM, EffinghamHuffnagel said:

The text after MAP06 says "no more mechanical objects will be build for resist." Did you mean "built for the Resistance"? It's not correct in English the way it is now.

oh yeah, my bad.

 

Please keep up and post here :)

[Hellbent]

Please complete the process of making this a full conversion. All your modifications to the monsters fit perfectly and don't feel like modified doom monsters, since the theme is so consistent and fits so nicely in the Mayan environment. Ammo appearances probably don't need to be changed, since they look find in your game. But the blue armor should be darkened some and have some dark green smudge/leafy stuff on it. The bright blue armor just feels out of place, even if the blue water is a similar brightness. I don't want to put on a bright blue armor when everything else in the game is so cool and Mayan! I want to don Mayan armor! (same applies to the green armor).

 

It would be soooooo sooooo cool if the fists could be replaced with a whip! Who doesn't love Indiana Jones? And the sounds of floors lowering and rising in your wad are sooo Indy. And of course the whole Mayan motif is very Raiders of the Lost Ark. I do hope there is somewhere in this game where you grab a yellow skull key off of a raised platform. :)

 

All the weapons should probably get a slight grunge treatment as per my request on the armors. Some weapons would need it more than others (army green chaingun would be very cool). The rocket launcher probably just needs some subtle army green smudges or nothing at all.

 

Speaking of...

you have the player work so hard to get the rocket launcher at the beginning of the map that they don't really need until you give it to them later in the level for free, when they actually need it. When I finally figured out how to get the first rocket launcher and then died after getting it, I was really hoping it'd be like 5 levels until you get an opportunity to get the RL again, since it was so hard to get it and to stay alive once you get it.

Really just a minor gripe, this is such a blast to play!

 

The sense of place in map01 is just absolutely wonderful. Very few wads really give the player such a strong sense of story while playing. I don't know if your game has a back story or not, but even without any, it really doesn't need it. Map01 is so rich in detail and sense of place that you really feel that you are living out a story, like you are Indiana Jones trying to survive a Mayan temple riddled with booby traps!

 

Now I made a bit of an odd post in the Editing forum, in part complaining about monster teleports. Somehow your map gets a pass here. Probably because of its absolute brilliant flow and progression and overall verisimilitude. Also, I think teleporting-in monsters fits the atmosphere of your wad better than most wads. 

 

Anyway, it was a blast to play. It didn't just look amazing, it was super fun to play as well. The gameplay fit the atmosphere and the map just flows so nicely. I didn't mind at all not knowing where to go next at times; if anything it added to the fun; as I ended up exploring the map more and finding more secrets :). And something about the lay of the land of the map made it never confusing or feeling lost; I always had my bearings. Exceptional work!

 

I really hope you will touch up the weapons and armor so that there is no sense of any part of the wad not getting an overhaul that should have! And the fists replaced by the whip would be amazing! (Hopefully others on here agree with me and will pull for such an update! :). I recorded an FDA but I think it did not record for some reason as I can't find the file. :-/

[Eradrop]

Thank you very much for your comment.

About the weapons and items conversion, as I said before, there was a thought of making the supplies with the same style but I guess some of the players here or even most of them already playing with their own weapon/item pack. besides, I wanted to keep the old ones so people would not be stop and wonder: "what is this item?" 

If you're already asked I can show you a minor conversion I did to the originals weapons but I didn't add it to the wad.

Link:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/uy0fxj2w1ewg5cz/D2+Weapons.zip

[Zalewa]

I've only now managed to complete the WAD with some rather lengthy breaks, which unfortunately means that my thoughts on MAP08 and MAP09 are not as fresh as I'd want them to be. I'll try to summarize and rate the WAD as a whole regardless.

 

First, some thoughts as usual:

 

• MAP09 - the crusher in the crusher arena at XY = (-5600,7000) got stuck after 3rd wave in a position where it was impossible to get out from the safe area
• This chandelier is oddly placed in a walkway. It doesn't block walking. I don't remember which map it is.
  Spoiler

  

   

• MAP09 - you can skip some portion of the map by jumping off the ledge at XY = (2131, 5627). There's a fake floor hole with a Mancubus and two shotgunners that doesn't rise up when you do that. This area is normally accessible with the blue skull key.
  Spoiler

  

   

• 90 minutes were needed to beat MAP09, but this time doesn't count the reloads, so I'd imagine the real time is more close to 2 hours.
• Actual spoiler here:
  Spoiler

  Nice secret sea battle there in MAP10 :)

   

• Typo in post-MAP11 text repeated twice "invation" -> "invasion"
• Protip: If you mark the voodoo doll and monster compartments linedefs as always hidden on the automap, they won't appear on the automap when player picks up the computer area map power up.
• Some nice pics:
  Spoiler

  

   

  

   

So, MAP09 is the pinnacle of this WAD. With 1400 monsters that are evenly spread it's an adventure on its own and it's a good idea to leave this map for a separate session. The layout design shines through especially here, as even though the map is huge and the pathways wrap around, the player always ends up in the spot they need to be. There's not much running around cluelessly - there's just moving forward almost the whole time.

 

I expected MAP10 to be a bit of respite after MAP09 - a "breather level" of sorts. While it is much smaller than MAP09, it's still demanding. I liked the theme of collecting the keys here and then gradually climbing that pyramid. Also, those ships that you see in the distance are a nice visual treat.

 

MAP11 is an Icon of Sin cube arena and it's meh. While still up-to-the-par visually, the gameplay premise doesn't hold up. IoS cube maps are usually time limited - when horde amasses too much, you cannot beat them anymore. Here, however, there's enough playfield to render the horde completely irrelevant. Even though all those cube shooters managed to spawn over 600 enemies, none of those except for Arch-Viles were any threat, and even the Arch-Viles were just little ticklers given all those megaspheres lying around. I also am not sure whether that's for the best or for the worse, because I dislike the time limitation imposed by the IoS maps as this usually forces the player to beat the map through reloading.

 

So, to sum the WAD up as a whole

 

I'd vote MAP06: Mount of Steel to be the most memorable level here. This map is distinct from all other maps in this WAD. Through its visual design and the animations it brings refreshment after the jungle/pyramid design. The player may become fed up until this point with the repeating theme and this map is placed just at the right spot. The subsequent maps return to the previous theme and stick to it until the player becomes fed up again.

 

This is somewhat of a gripe of mine. The WAD sticks to a single theme and by this I mean a single theme that goes on for hours. If we go back in time and look at the Ultimate Doom we can see the same thing in E1 and E4. Nowadays whole games can use the same approach to theming. I'm thus not saying that it's invalid, but it can be expected that the player will become tired of the repetition. If you took all 12 maps in Avactor and glued them together into a single map there would be nothing jarring here - it would feel like a big but coherent level. Fortunately, the gameplay doesn't suffer from the same repetition and the maps are basically made distinct not by their visual themes, but by gameplay gimmicks or layout. I think it's possible to mention pivotal points for each map. Some examples: the rocket launcher secret in MAP01, the red skull fight in MAP03, the not-so-small village in MAP04 with huge pyramid at the side, the central arena of MAP05. MAP08 has probably the most hallmarks, with the lava pit, the column room (with soulsphere), and the chains room as presented on one of the screenshots above. I'd still like some more diversity in visuals.

 

Now, for the gameplay - as mentioned above by others there are some silly things here like the pinky berserk punch-out, but in overall the WAD holds up to the best of them. It never gets slaughtery, but it doesn't mean that there aren't hectic and populated figths here. There are some arena fights here with lots of enemies, but they are spread evenly with long moments of progressive/procedural gameplay in-between. I like the exploration and freedom of movement. Even though there are defined paths throughout the levels, I didn't feel railroaded.

 

In terms of difficulty Avactor doesn't take baby steps. It immediately demands the player to focus on the game or die. It also does get harder in later levels, but it's still within the limits of being beatable without too much reloads. Generally. At times there are some traps that will fuck the player up if they don't expect them. In the later maps the player should have their BFG equipped whenever walking down a corridor, approaching a switch or collecting a really nice item (or just at all times, really). Even then, there are several instances where a Revenant will pop up just in front of you and immediately sell you a punch with a ticket to the other side. In the past I've downrated many WADs that used such tricks. When I see something like this I think that the mapper did one of the two things:

1. Expected that the player will reload a previous save and reapproach the trap with beforehand knowledge.
2. The mapper has 100% beforehand knowledge of the map and didn't realize how the trap will be seen by someone who has none.

Both of those are mapper failures. But downrating WADs on this basis made the forum regulars explain to me that I'm mentally incapable of understanding the game, the grandoise design of such maps and the life in relation to other sapient beings in general. In Avactor, when I noticed that such traps started to happen and happen often I also started to quicksave a lot which throwed me off the rythm and reduced the fun.

 

Stars:

• Visuals - 5 / 5
• Sprites - 4 / 5 - the Arch-Vile and mechanical enemies still don't sit well with me
• Music - 3.5 / 5 - there are distinctively repetitive themes in each track and given the length of levels there's a strong desire to just turn the music off after a while.
• Gameplay - 4 / 5
• Overall - 5 / 5

Edited January 20, 2019 by Zalewa

[Eradrop]

First of all, thank you for sharing your thoughts, was really nice to read what you think overall.

Very good feedback you made me understand even all the time im updating it still lots of issues to fix.

The last update to id games will come out in the next days and will close Avactor wad.

If someone still finding a thing that he think should be fixed/changed/replaced please share it here.

8 hours ago, Zalewa said:

There's a fake floor hole with a Mancubus and two shotgunners that doesn't rise up when you do that. This area is normally accessible with the blue skull key

if you finding bugs with freelook I cant consider that as a bug cus freelook not allowed.

 

9 hours ago, Zalewa said:

Typo in post-MAP11 text repeated twice "invation" -> "invasion"

Yeah, classic mistake for people who dont speak english as a mom tongue. :) :)

 

9 hours ago, Zalewa said:

90 minutes were needed to beat MAP09, but this time doesn't count the reloads, so I'd imagine the real time is more close to 2 hours.

When my brother played it it took to him 3 hours :)

So two hours its pretty good.

You can find on twitch a player that played this map also and it took him also 3 hours.

 

9 hours ago, Zalewa said:

Both of those are mapper failures. But downrating WADs on this basis made the forum regulars explain to me that I'm mentally incapable of understanding the game, the grandoise design of such maps and the life in relation to other sapient beings in general. In Avactor, when I noticed that such traps started to happen and happen often I also started to quicksave a lot which throwed me off the rythm and reduced the fun.

I agree with you, I also dont like it and really tried to make as fair as possible. :)

 

 

[Zalewa]

30 minutes ago, Eradrop said:

if you finding bugs with freelook I cant consider that as a bug cus freelook not allowed.

You can still fall on that ledge regardless if you're using freelook or not. Use the automap if freelook is disabled and you'll still figure out that the ledge is there. Or just drop, see that it's there, reload and drop again.

 

In regards to freelook: you just stated that "freelook is not allowed", but in the original post you said that you tested the WAD in ZDoom and PRBoom. You also disabled jumping through MAPINFO, but not freelook. Furthermore, as I have mentioned before, you have not clearly stated the intended source-port for this WAD. Not only there was no indication whatsoever that freelook should not be used, the fact that you mention ZDoom as the port you tested the WAD in suggests that using or not using freelook is up to the player's preference.

[Eradrop]

i saw in game what you have mentioned, and i fixed that up, thanks 

this wad can run on zdoom as i said but the main sourceport i aimed was boom.

i dont mind people use freelook, but when you use freelook you surely find bugs.

i can tell i have many secret in the wad that you can activate with gunfire, only if you standing on the same height with tye button, but with freelook you can activate them no matter on what height you standing on.

same thing about enemies that been placed on specific areas.