[FINAL RELEASE] Eviternity

[Gez]

On lundi 7 janvier 2019 at 4:48 AM, Bauul said:

I believe this is a GZDoom bug.

Yes. One that should be already fixed, though.

 

The TL;DR is that you're seeing a cut made in the sky extended from the map geometry.

[Poncho1]

Currently on Map09: I just want to say that it's more or less awesome. 

 

However, I personally feel that, for example, in Map02 there be a [secret] Berserk somewhere, since single-shotgunning Hell Knights can get a little tiring. 

 

Don't take this as nasty criticism or whatever, but I thought it might be a suggestion? 

 

Regardless, as I mentioned before, it is nevertheless awesome what you guys have created.

[Dragonfly]

That's a great idea - I'll replace the somewhat-obvious secret backpack with a berserk. I've also added a secret SSG to map03 since people complained it's a little grindy at times.

 

Thanks for the feedback!

[damo]

Hi,

 

Can you remember what issues you faced with compatibility with regards ZDaemon? Just thinking that this wad would be great to run through on coop.

[Dragonfly]

Extended nodes is the first that comes to mind, and is required for at least 1 or 2 maps... I can't remember the others, I just remember ZDaemon not being a happy port when I threw Eviternity at it during early testing. :P

 

It's perfectly compatible in Zandronum though, if that helps. I've even added coop monsters etc. :)

[damo]

Thanks Dragonfly.

[Yugiboy85]

Afaik, zdaemon also doesn't like mbf specific code pointers or whatever (for dehacked).

[Tristan]

4 hours ago, Dragonfly said:

I can't remember the others

 

 

The status bar had the tutti-frutti effect. The STATUS BAR.

[holaareola]

Boom, essay incoming:

 

5: Awesome. It looks absolutely evil for a start, and the asymmetric openings on the starting side of the arena give a great sense of scale. I liked the sometimes counter-intuitive difficulty curve on enemy types. The packs of troopers were actually a health-chipping threat instead of just fodder at the time of release.  The kind of foam of blocks on the ceiling at the two opposite corners was a cool design touch. I'm playing without mouselook and only just caught them, think it'd be great if they were a bit lower to make this excellent detail more prominent.

9: Nice non-essential use of the red key. Good, solid architecture without being overly fussy and adept monster usage-- quite a lot of attacks from multiple directions due to the openness and I can't remember a single fight that felt grindy.

10: Wow. I think this is the best looking Doom map I've ever seen. Seriously, the central structure is so open and graceful, it looks epic scifi. No fussy fine detail, just perfectly architected arcing slabs of that horizontal texture with the foliage giving a great contrast and taking the grandiose feel even further.  The chosen textures and structure work together so well, and despite the largish scale of the level look fantastic at lower resolutions due to lack of moire.  Combat was an even flow due to the mid-tier enemy selection and the gradual injection of cacos and pain elementals from the perimeter meant there was always something going on. The quadrant-by-quadrant then all at once structure was intuitive and unfolded nicely too. And it even manages to squeeze in a quick crate maze on top! The arena layout foreshadowed the final encounter too. Bravo, inspiring stuff.

11: Nice intro to the next episode, pretty relaxed and a pleasant change of theme for Doom. Music matches the vista like it was written for it, ah, I just read the notes: it was. Mood mission accomplished then.  Those astral cacos are bloody nasty!  I really love the unpredictable movement, it keeps them threatening even when you've adjusted for the 3 mancball pattern (well, middle is doubled I assume, so 4). It's one of the most interesting monster behaviours I've seen in Doom -- partly evasive, partly offensive.  Inspired addition to the bestiary, it's an alarming you-die-first-no-matter-what monster up there with the Archvile for me. Although with the damage, close-in speed, dodging and reasonably high health perhaps a little too dangerous.

The wide trees are annoying though. The sprite is so wide, if close, they block your view even as you face away from them.  They also blink in and out at oblique angles, at least in PRBoom+

Oh, and two of the secrets are right-under-your nose great :)

12: Not a standout map for me. The end fight was good, took a few goes round to work out a strategy for it.

13: Ah, I really enjoyed this. I really liked the open approach due to the two teleporters. The way the play area keeps evolving around the large staircase that winds the inner courtyard is masterful.

14: Didn't write up after quitting so can't remember much of this one other than that the large arena looked absolutely beautiful and that the yellow key fight took me about 10 goes!

15: Loved the clock arena, so good. Nice architecture, great flow in the areas around and it was weirdly satisfying to watch the enemies 'porting in, wondering how high up the tiers it was going to go. Lots of room to move and the different waves meant you could run around whipping up civil war so the fight was actually pretty easy.  And yet enjoyable, a rare combo in a long fight!

30: I liked the vertical layout in the initial area and clever use of jumpable-gap overlaid pathways. Intricate flow without being confusing. It's hard to do a vertical and/or massive area without the 2.5D engine tell of weird structural tallness everywhere, but the architecture here looks great.

 

The canyon area bored me a bit -- some get-out-your-rocket-launcher-and-hold-down-fire gameplay at points. Looked great and exploration afterwards was fun though. Could be skill/difficulty mismatch but I thought there were a couple of bad traps on this map. One at end of canyon area was very doable, but only if you already had plasma out: I had SSG first time and I'd been blocked in by the time I'd changed weapon. Yellow key trap I had to do with 100 health, no armour and no cells and I would say it's nigh-on-impossible first time round in that condition.

I'm assuming bugs on red key door and exit have been reported. I found all secrets but couldn't see an exit to 32 anywhere, is that the intended destination of the main exit?

 

Other general thoughts
- The robo pinkies. I can see why you added them, they do add strategic depth to many fights. But in my case at a slight expense of fun, I'd like them better if they were either slightly slower or slightly weaker. I had quite a lot of situations where once I was blocked in I was inescapably done for despite decent stats.
- ice world torches jump left and right on PRBoom+, dunno if it's sprite alignment or just the port.
- I really like the episode format.

 

All maps played from pistol start on UV.

 

Looking forward to playing the rest in RC2. Congrats again to all the team, and appreciate the hard work -- you can see it everywhere. Can't believe this was done in 9 months!

[Tristan]

^ Nightmare Demon health is reduced to 300 from 400 in RC2

[Jaska]

Whaaaat! Are maps 26 & 29 the most beautiful seen in doom?

[hella knight]

Just being a douche @Scuba Steve, glad to see these guys taking the criticism on board and further improving an already fantastic mapset.

[PeterMoro]

Been playing an Eviternity map every now and then...Wow what amazing work! Some really beautiful and inspiring maps.

I just finished Map 16 Neutralize. I think it could be the best Doom map I've ever played! Really well designed, the simplistic architecture and layout and colour palette just works so well and navigation is clear. Well balanced monster encounters and interesting locations. It just really flows and looks great, is fun and clever and a perfect length too. This is the kind of Doom map i would call perfect. 

Yeah i know i sound like a complete brown nose with this post but I'm impressed. 

 

[zinkai]

Just finished last night playing with complex ica. Awesome map set. Some seriously stunning maps

[Gez]

Finally started playing it. The timed secret on Regicide was painful, as with regular running I wasn't fast enough but with strafe-running I tended to get snagged by geometry, since the route to run is complex and requires dodging a corner (sector #513) and a wall (line #1109). Took me over a dozen tries to reach it. So I'm gonna avenge myself by dumping on you a bunch of extremely anal-retentive nitpicks, be ready for my revenge of annoyance:

 

Spoiler

Some oddities that escaped the "automap cleanup" phase:

 

 

Something that bugged me with the textured automap: the two posts on the throne don't have the same brightness since their texture has a diagonal pattern.

As I needed to open the map in the editor to get the sector and line references, I took the opportunity to try a few things. And I think that actually, OLGHTJ02 would work well here, because its pattern fits the geometry just right.

 

There.

[seed]

I've been generally having fun with Eviternity, until I kinda hit a dead end today on MAP31 :v .

 

Somehow, I accidentally managed to access the map (that's incredibly rare for me) after failing to locate the regular exit on MAP15, but got completely confused after grabbing the red skull. Why is the red door seen near the starting area requiring the blue skull while the other one that's accessed through an elevator right after getting the key works just fine? Is this a mistake or done on purpose?

[Manuel-K]

@seed: It's a bug.

 

[Dragonfly]

A bug which has been fixed in the upcoming updated version, which is rapidly approaching a release-ready state. Sorry you got caught by that issue; I'll take the blame, all my fault there, heh. :P

[seed]

@Manuel-K Good to know, I was so sure I was once again missing something (that's how I usually waste time when playing stuff, either missing the obvious, or not getting a more cryptic hint), but, I guess it wasn't the case this time.

 

Glad I skipped the map after running on damaging floors for a while since it can't be completed.

 

E: @Dragonfly You have my latest stream in the videos topic if you want to amuse yourself by watching me running in circles for nothing, map starts at 49:41 and I spend a long time on it :p .

Edited January 21, 2019 by seed

[Gez]

MAP05: Looks like a texturing mistake, I don't think this was for effect.

 

 

[ukiro]

Indeed, and it's been taken care of. Now might be a good time to re-link the RC2 change log:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qD2iHYH2uqL1MTPoRPD67ECfzxIfPg-9QDkJ2Dncd_A/edit

 

[seed]

I forgot to mention something and I'm not seeing anything in the changelog.

 

Are the intermission screens meant to be blank? All I'm ever seeing in GlBoom+ are black bricks and no text.

[ukiro]

They were deliberately left blank in RC1 and have yet not had text implemented for RC2. But it is indeed planned!

[Dragonfly]

On that note - if any good wordsmiths are lurking and fancy a shot at composing some intermission message screens, please drop me a PM!

[Loud Silence]

I think messages should be related to "battle lasting for 25 years and monsters grew stronger" theme, since Eviternity was released for Doom's birthday and has new, stronger monsters.

[seed]

32 minutes ago, Rimantas said:

I think messages should be related to "battle lasting for 25 years and monsters grew stronger" theme, since Eviternity was released for Doom's birthday and has new, stronger monsters.

 

Seeing how modern and futuristic the techbase levels look like... I actually like this idea.

[Dragonfly]

Not bad ideas. A couple of kind individuals have reached out offering to help with the story - I'll be crediting them all on their efforts of course and I've bounced little nuggets of ideas their way in case it inspires them to write what I couldn't. :)

[seed]

I ran into this in the meantime.

 

Bug or did I forget to enable/disable something about the skyboxes in GlBoom+ ?

 

[Loud Silence]

I think it was discussed about sky with freelook and OGL. Eviternity is meant to be played in vanilla way (no freelook nor HW acceleration). But i remember option about stretching of short skies in some port.

[seed]

1 minute ago, Rimantas said:

I think it was discussed about sky with freelook and OGL. Eviternity is meant to be played in vanilla way (no freelook nor HW acceleration).

 

I'm never playing Doom with freelook unless I have to :p .

 

I think I have the stretch short skies option turned off, if it has anything to do with this issue.