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Forli

4 Seasons of DOOM (on idgames)

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I picked it up and played it until a near-full damage shotgunner killed me about halfway through the first map.

I like what I saw so far, and I'm looking forward to tackling this wad when I'm able to give it my full attention.

So far, I found it rather easy, but that has a lot of time to change, but the fights are pretty fun.

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Comments on screenshots:

 

Spoiler

 

Some of those shots look stunning -- rich scenes with well made architecture, strong contrast, and vivid colors.

 

The library shot third from the bottom looks like an unfinished room. It is missing one fundamental element to make the scene truly pop, which doesn't have to be 'detail' -- it could be the introduction of another strong color, or of darkness and shadow, for instance.

 

The bastion of steel is not bad, but I get the sense it could easily be more impressive than it is. If suitable with surrounding sight lines, I would be tempted to raise the large building (and that alone) by at least 384 units: 128 units per each of the three upper tiers -- those marbface slabs might become 4x4 instead of 4x2. Or maybe I'd try having the upper tier of architecture extend stylistically from the building (curlicues, spikes, etc.).  

 

The last shot is less of a showpiece area than the rest, but there is something garish about those red highlights to me. Perhaps either orange (matching the lava), or a lighting gradient (if there's no strobing effect going on), would work better.

 

Overall it looks awesome. Looking forward to playing this. 

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The screenshots look incredible.

 

I particularly like the library and the metal structure in the winter map. It looks at rather imposing; I wonder what is the farthest away you can view it from within the map. I also like the metal cages around the torches. That's a nice visual touch.

 

What texture/resource pack(s) did you use for the non-stock textures and resources?

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@Pegleg The main one I used was ghotictx, but also some from cc4 and some textures I had used in previous maps, and some recolors... I think most or all of it can be found on realm 667.

 

@rdwpa That metal structure may be difficult to alter because there would be a lot of linedefs crossing each other and that could cause some trouble... , the lights in the last pic are indeed scrolling, I don't think they look bad, but maybe they could be orange instead?

 

As for the library, does it look better if I ad some of these yellow window things?

GFulVId.png

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2 hours ago, Forli said:

As for the library, does it look better if I ad some of these yellow window things?

 

Personally, I think it looks better, at least from that screenshot. It's difficult to tell if they're inset into the brick; it would look better if they were inset into the brick slightly. That way, you weren't just changing from brick immediately to "window".

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Tried Map01, managed to kill about half of the monsters before dying in a rather tricky scenario. I really liked the mysterious mood created by your unusual music choice. I felt like there weren't enough rockets so occasionally I had to use the shotgun on powerful monsters or just run away from them, but it is likely that I wasn't searching well enough. The texturing is somewhat unique and quite pretty, I can tell that you're growing when I think about your older release Oscillation. These new marines exploding didn't make sense to me (I can't think of a good reason why it should be happening), but I guess it's just something to get used to. The scale is interesting, it allows you to run around rather freely but you can still get overwhelmed. Overall this seems like a really ambitious project, I'm curious to see more. Here is my demo:

 

Seasons01_mem_FDA.zip

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@Memfis Thank you for the demo.

 

Those marines are carrying flamethrowers, which means they are also carrying fuel that would explode when shoot (by doom logic at least), and any reason is good enough to make things explode.

 

In case you're wondering, the midis for each of the four maps are from vivaldi's four seasons, I used the second movement of spring which may be difficult to recognize.

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Run into this on map02:

Spoiler

map02.jpg.c16d5b5e70992cc98c7c55659ec2d8fd.jpg

 

Lovely set of maps... Well, I just had time to play the first two but will definitely play all of them! Nice to see the hobo imps that live in trash cans have returned!

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This is so awesome. Great looking level design with fun gameplay and very nice mood. I'm not sure what else should i say, i really like this wad. Keep it up!

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Just updated the file, changed some of the things that were mentioned here as well as some I noticed myself, such as adding a way back after reaching the exit on map 3 and adding some midtextures on some impassable linedefs in a room of map 4.

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Updated the file again with some minor fixes.

I thought that I would need to make some adjustments to the gameplay, but if nobody says anything I guess I'll just upload the final version as it is right now.

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Looking good, definitely gonna try this one when I get the chance (along with Paul977's latest map, Tango's wad, etc.).
Too many wads, too little time... :)

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@WH-Wilou84 Now that you mention it, there's been a lot of stuff coming out recently. I should probably give it some more time to see if anyone gives me any criticism for this.

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A small update, just fixed a few places a found that had the wrong texture and tried to improve the texture alignment on map 2 a little.

Also I wanted to ask, has anyone tried maps 3 and 4? I don't know if nobody has said anything because they are fine or because they have not been played.

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Thoroughly enjoyed this mapset. Nothing felt too hard (well, maybe except for that final fight in map04...) or out of place, the music added a lot to the mood and the atmosphere was top notch.

 

Gave it a little singal boost on my Twitter: 

 

Keep up the good stuff! :)

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Finally took some time to try this wad, and I'm glad I did : map 01 is gorgeous from the get go, with large and detailed natural landscapes. Plenty of room for exploration, too, and I didn't find many secrets (aside from the secret fight with the Masterminds and the new flamethrower marines).

As regards to the custom monsters, so far I've only seen two of them (the marine and the Shadow). The marine is pretty cool as a new glass cannon, these kinds of enemies are always fun to fight against.
The Shadow still has some leftover blue pixels on some of its frames, you might wanna check that (it's particularly visible in this wad thanks to the new palette).

Really liked the huge crusher room. :)

Judging from what I've seen so far, this is like a fine brew between Avactor and Combat Shock 2. I'm curious to see what's next ;)

Edit : got this visual glitch here on map 02 :

fF5zzAc.png

 

Edited by WH-Wilou84

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I have to say I didn't like Maps 01-03 much, mostly because they feature my least favourite kind of progression - press a switch, then play the "find 5 differences" game on a huge map. I got lost often and wasted a lot of time just running around trying to figure out what to do next.

 

Combat is okay though, and I like the plasma barons (even though they're very annoying) because they feel different and have a unique combat flow. The other two new monsters are pretty much meh: they just feel like a weaker walking cacodemon and a weaker exploding mancubus. Blowing up groups of flamethrower guys is fun, though.

 

Map 04, however, is absolutely great. Progression is clear, and the fights! Infighting is my favourite gameplay mechanic and it can be used a lot on this map. I would even say it should be used a lot, and in some cases it's actually the best strategy.

 

Spoiler

Spider Mastermind fight, or the final fight where you can pretty much just run around in circles BFGing the Archies, while HKs, Revs, and the Cyber take care of each other.

 

 

Edited by Rathori

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I've played the whole wad (so please send me my duly earned $100), with ZDoom 2.8.1 on Ultra-Violence skill.

Overall, I liked it, it's a great little wad.
Yeah, the maps are more open and expansive than in Oscillation, but I never got lost and the objectives (locked doors and colored switches for the most part) are always presented upfront. The highlights here (for me at least) are the various traps and "choregraphed" fight sequences that take place in key parts of every level. If you liked this kind of stuff in Oscillation, then download this wad right now.

Map 02 was a bit dim for a "summer" map I think. Somewhere near the ending, I even got spooked by a Revenant coming from a very dark tunnel in some tech base. Not really what I was expecting for such a setting, to be honest :)
Other than that, the map is nice and the ending sequence is particularly brutal and memorable - if we ever play this wad in some kind of Ironman event, many players will die here. :)

On the other hand, with its yellow, brown and red tones, map 03 clearly evoked autumn, and map 04 is winter all the way with snow and ice contrasting with the black structures. Map 04 also has a nice gimmick at the very end with lava melting the ice and snow (maybe alluding to the warmth of a homely fireplace).

The only criticism I can give here is that some areas and corridors are monotextured and plain-looking, particularly in the indoor parts of maps 02 and 04, but there's plenty of cool eye-candy in there as well (map 01 being the prettiest map by quite a large margin).

Keep going Forli !

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Link updated again with more fixes.

 

@Terminus I know it may be too late to say this, but thanks for that.

 

@WH-Wilou84 Looking at all the frames of the shadow one by one I only found 2 with a blue pixel each, I don't know how you managed to see them in gameplay, good catch.

I actually had a weird problem on maps 3 and 4 that stopped me from adding more detail at the end, the more recent linedefs did not seem to have their collision working and monsters could see through them, I think it had something to do with the size of the blockmap lump. As for map 2, anything I tried to do to make those indoor areas look better felt wrong, I think that techbases are a weak point for me.

 

@Rathori That's bad to hear, I also hate when I get lost and when I don't know what a switch did, I tried to avoid that problem by having the switches always be in the same area as whatever they activated and by having bars with the same texture lower near the switch, maybe I should have tried to make the thing that gets opened always visible or always on the same room? This is a problem for big maps I guess. At least I'm glad you enjoyed map 4.

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@Catpho Well... I have no Idea how to fix that, since that's just the way the sky looks and placing something to block the view there would look really akward :S.

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34 minutes ago, Forli said:

@Catpho Well... I have no Idea how to fix that, since that's just the way the sky looks and placing something to block the view there would look really akward :S.

Looking at the wad with Slade confirms that the sky texture you used doesn't tile well.

It looks like the Plutonia E2 sky, which is composed of four patches (SKY2A, SKY2B, SKY2C and SKY2D).

You have to import all the four patches into Seasons.wad, and then edit your TEXTURE1 lump (with Slade) so that the SKY2 patch becomes a collage of the four parts of the sky, just like in Plutonia.wad :

 

Spoiler

8lSmy6P.png



Pay attention to the parts I highlighted in green, as you'll have to add patches to your SKY2 texture and play with the X offset so that you have the full version of the sky.
I can provide additional info if needed, but there's a thread about that already IIRC.

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The sky has been fixed!

 

Also, I tried making the blandest part in map 2 look better:

Spoiler

lJDuvrK.png

heHTjCw.png

lbAHeIc.png

I'm afraid of adding more linedefs to map 4, so... I placed some torches.

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One last update, I fixed a couple texture misalignements and can't find anything else wrong, I also tried to make it so that it's not possible to be stuck on multiplayer, but I can't test that.

 

If nobody brings up any issues I'll try to upload to idgames this Sunday.

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Very awesome mapset. Such detailed & organic environments with plenty of space to move. One problem I've had though - the invisible walls in Map02. They can be really annoying, especially when they're really close to the playing area, since there's zero visual indication. I died to a damn Revenant because I expected room to maneuver but ran into one. It would be nice if there was some sort of indication, like a midtexture fence, or a drop in elevation.

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@whirledtsar Thank you for playing! However, now that I've already uploaded this to idgames I don't think I'll be changing anything unless there's something gamebreaking.

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Thanks for the maps.

Been playing through on HMP continuous: the difficulty seems pretty nicely balanced for me like this.

 

That said, I'm stuck at the rising/lowering platforms bit with the hurt floor on "autumn" (after grabbing the red key). The restriction on movement makes it pretty tough to survive + deal with the monsters until the bars lower, at least if you're not particularly precise, like me :) The other two keys were fine.

 

"autumn" is probably the prettiest map for me, the palette is really nice, and the library section feels suitably sprawling and labyrinthine!

 

 

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These maps are amazing! Played through on UV and the difficulty can be challenging at times but was just perfectly balanced.

 

Level 1:

 

Level 2:

 

Level 3:

 

Level 4:

 

The music for each level uses Antonio Vivaldi's four seasons movements fit perfectly with the season-themed levels. I hope you enjoy the videos and hopefully these will inspire other players who have trouble getting through these on UV or for those who want to do UV max demos. :)

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