SIGIL v1.21 - New Romero megawad [released!]

[jupiter_ex]

Either Buckethead connected his MIDI guitar to some sequencer while playing his songs (quite impossible considering that all but one song were pre-existing and not made for Sigil) or yes, it would be a long labor of love to translate the entire soundtrack to MIDI files.

 

For the record, at the early stages of the announcement of Sigil I also thought the MIDI, if anything, was going to be the Buckethead songs midified

[Ferk]

I think all those narrow passages and monsterfest near the exit and the difficulty some people complain about makes a lot of sense when seeing this from the readme:

 

Quote

I designed this game mode idea decades ago but never programmed it into
a game. It was invented for DOOM, DOOM II, Heretic, Hexen, etc. Basically
any game with level progression where you can kill your buddies. It's
most fun when there are 3 or 4 players.

 

The rules: You play COOPERATIVE mode as usual. You are all killing the
monsters to get to the exit. If you kill each other, that doesn't matter
since you end up at the start of the level anyway and have to catch up to
the other players.

 

But the only way to score the EXITMATCH point is to flip the exit switch.

There is only one point possible per level and that point goes to the player
who flips the exit switch! Watch as everyone start the level cooperating,
but as soon as the end of the level is in sight, all kinds of problems
start happening.

 

Before you start, you decide how many levels, or points, are possible
in the match. That's how many levels you'll play, and the winner is the
player who flipped the exit switch the most times. You have to keep track
of the score manually.

 

It's quite possibly the most fun I've had playing DOOM.

 

I think Sigil would be very fun in this "competitive coop" mode, Romero apparently designed the levels with that in mind.

[drygnfyre]

Is it possible for idclev and idmus to work with Sigil?

[Diabolución]

Spotted this WIP release of 1.2.

 

https://www.wad-archive.com/wad/b2fc22ee9bdaebff188561f3d116ffd8

 

http://doomshack.org/uploads/sigil_compat_v1_2patch_wip.zip

 

https://pastebin.com/3KWWVDeQ

 

The good:
 

Quote

 

map5:

- added little islands under the cybs to avoid lock-in damage when killing them

 

 

Not so good...
 

Quote

map5: / map6: / map7:

- added a MP-only chaingun

 

 

These maps need so badly a chaingun for the single player mode as well. When you run out of shells, having to use the pistol is just boring, slow and impractical. In my opinion, at any rate.

[ReaperAA]

14 minutes ago, Diabolución said:

These maps need so badly a chaingun for the single player mode as well. When you run out of shells, having to use the pistol is just boring, slow and impractical. In my opinion, at any rate.

 

Agreed. These map could definitely benefit from having a chaingun. The levels won't become much easier by adding a chaingun. They would just be less tedious on pistol starts.

[Epyo]

13 hours ago, Ferk said:

I think all those narrow passages and monsterfest near the exit and the difficulty some people complain about makes a lot of sense when seeing this from the readme:

...

 

I think Sigil would be very fun in this "competitive coop" mode, Romero apparently designed the levels with that in mind.

Oh I missed that in the readme!  That sounds awesome!

[TheNerdTurtle2]

I want to try this competitive co-op. I am wondering however, do you have to pistol start when you die?

[Ferk]

Actually he called it "Exitmatch" in the readme.

I think you do start with pistol when you die in coop, but it might depend on the port and settings.

[TheNerdTurtle2]

35 minutes ago, Ferk said:

Actually he called it "Exitmatch" in the readme.

I think you do start with pistol when you die in coop, but it might depend on the port and settings.

I would think that this wouldn't leave you with enough ammo to finish the map

[cybdmn]

Yay! My standard box arrived today. Now waiting for the beast box.

[Linguica]

Not sure why there was an argument over SLADE in the SIGIL thread but it's gone now.

[funduke]

For those, who prefer the standard font against that with the melting effect in the episode menue, i took that from SIGIL_COMPAT.wad and made a pk3 of it.

sigilmenuetitle.pk3
SIGIL Fifth episode menue title in standard (non-melting) font.
Works fine for Ultimate Doom and also the latest Wadsmoosh.
You can add it to the
[doom.id.doom1.ultimate.Autoload]
or the
[doom.id.doom2.wadsmoosh.Autoload]
-section in gzdoom.ini.

 

 

freedoomsigilmenuetitle.pk3
SIGIL is also playable with Freedoom, Phase 1. because of that, i made a episode menue title in the freedom font for it.

Greetings
Funduke

   

sigilmenuetitles.zip

[xttl]

The first Beast Box on eBay went for $676 + shipping.

 

And LRG still hasn't got around to sending mine. :D

[Kyka]

Just posting this here because I really liked this review and agree wholeheartedly with the opinions expressed within. Especially the idea that if you want oldschool classic Doom, play it on HMP and if you want newschool modern Doom, play it on Ultra Violence.

 

I thought Sigil was brilliant. Now, given Mr Romero couldn't use new monsters, textures, sounds or weapons to surprise us, as none of those things are new, he did a great job of making Doom scary and surprising in the only ways possible: lighting, traps, map design and item and monster placement. A masterclass of design.

 

Also posting this here because I really think this channel deserves lots of support and shizzle like that. Has also done great reviews of such classics as Blood, Doom 2, Duke Nukem (is he unmentionable around here?) and Corridor 7. Get on it.

 

 

{Insert all relevant apologies here if this is not the sort of thing you post in this thread.}

[D4NUK1]

The better for me it's Icarus, for review every level per se

[noisebloom]

4 hours ago, xttl said:

The first Beast Box on eBay went for $676 + shipping.

 

And LRG still hasn't got around to sending mine. :D

 

Yep - I dropped out of that insanity pretty quickly... 

[Zakhiel]

bLOCKbOYgAMES > Civvies review has allready been posted.

... While I am here : Hello everyone, this is my first post (after 15 years of visiting the site).

'would like to add something about Sigil. Because almost everyone officialy declared that Sigil was very difficult, I prepared myself for one of the most difficult game I have ever played...
Spoiler : 'twas not really difficult. For the record, I played with gzdoom, in Doom software rendered, no fancy graphical options, resolution to the lowest Gzdoom could grant me (I setted it to 320x240 but I think Gzdoom only goes down to 640x480), mouse movement but no mouselook.
It was not hard, people need to chill, 'twas fine, was never in need of ammo or health...

 

And it made me think about hype, anticipation, what people expect etc...

 

I expected a Thy Flesh Consumed bis. I was happy to discover something that I might consider the best official Doom episode ever made. I really missed that kind of level design. I love the Doom community, I love hundreds of wads and total conversions. But I miss old Doom, sometimes.

Most new levels for Doom, even the best that are out there, tend to be a mix between 90's corridor shooters and arena shooters. That doesn't mean that they are bad, that just mean that they tend to be a slaughter fest with big (sometimes beautiful) rooms, some corridors between those rooms, a lot of simmetry in the design of those rooms (oh look at my big room with 8 big colonnes all very well alligned and those 12 big windows with fancy effects etc...), everything is construct like if it was drawn on a nice squared paper... you get my point.

I just LOVED Sigil levels. Encounters where like little puzzles, I played Sigil like I would play a point and click. I had to think about what was hapenning, I had to play with monster infighting, I had to pay attention to where I was going, to pixel dodge fireballs, to swim my way between Cacos so I could say hello to some pinkies...

And the look of the levels was great.
It was not hard, it was maybe too easy. I want more. Lot more.

Also, loved the U shaped levels, how Romero cleverly played with tiny spaces, made them change. I loved the fact that in most levels, you could see the major parts of the level wherever you are, it's so great "oh look I was their 5 minutes ago, now I can see it from here" that's something that you often see in the original Doom levels.

It was fun, it was clever.
Last level was weird... when i founded the last zombieman, I tought "ok Romero... are you fuckin' with me ? I think you are, but I'm not sure..."

Still... loved it.

 

I don't understand why some people have a problem with Sigil. When was the last time you played Doom ? Not Brutal Doom, Not freemouselook Doom in 1080p, just Doom. I tell you, run Chocolate Doom, it is still a great game. It's not the same as what we are used to, but it's great. Sigil is an extension of the original and should be played as one.

 

That's my thoughts.

/Sorry for my bad english and cheers from France/
 

Edited June 10, 2019 by Zakhiel

[Diabolución]

https://www.ebay.es/itm/223545439744

 

Standard box just for 200 euros (article itself, five times the original price) + 14 euros (shipment). What a madness.

[Cruduxy Pegg]

That's always the case with collectibles. Their price will keep increasing with time instead of decreasing.

[xttl]

41 minutes ago, Diabolución said:

https://www.ebay.es/itm/223545439744

 

Standard box just for 200 euros (article itself, five times the original price) + 14 euros (shipment). What a madness.

 

We'll see if anybody really buys it at that price (it's a buy it now listing). If you use advanced search on eBay to look for sold listings only, you'll see some regular edition Sigil boxes went for eg. 149 US dollars, 110 dollars, 95 dollars, and one for 90 euros.

 

I wonder how many boxes of each edition were produced in total?

[Welfare Prodigy]

8 hours ago, Zakhiel said:

 ....just Doom. I tell you, run Chocolate Doom, it is still a great game. It's not the same as what we are used to, but it's great. Sigil is an extension of the original and should be played as one.

 

That is a very good question, I asked myself Friday night and started playing Sigil in Retro DooM on UV. 

 

It isn't easy to me lol not by a long shot. As more difficult as other wads/mods can make things for DooM. Most (not all) of us are using mods to balance out that difficulty. 

 

I use Brutal DooM way too much without realizing it, until Friday night. It ads to the game play of DooM what it's also taking away, what it's about: the crafting and architecture, the fluidity of its gameplay and how other games since then have tried to clone that essence. And it's just fucking fun as fuck.

 

Falling off of ledges and tight corners in areas with bigger amounts of demons, falling off every other time and having to restart the level (or save often like I do) sucks; and you end up yelling "damnit Romero" and really, it's been a long while since I had a honest challenge like that. 

 

Console iterations of DooM are nothing compared to PC. I have had a few years now to see what I've been missing for a long time staying on console, there's some truly great shit out here the community has given me, us, a chance to see what they can do to challenge us. 

 

But @Zakhiel you are right, if we wanted to play modern games like CoD (lol eff CoD) then we should but those clones are not DooM and DooM is not like those clones. 

[funduke]

Beast box on ebay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sigil-Doom-Limited-Run-Beast-Box-Collectors-Edition-Rare-Signed-by-John-Romero/264356202407?hash=item3d8cdb87a7:g:y2oAAOSwXRJc~aJL&frcectupt=true

 

Greetings

Funduke

[drygnfyre]

Is the Sigil SKYBOX unique? Looks like the Doom 2 sky. 

[Stocki]

3 minutes ago, drygnfyre said:

Is the Sigil SKYBOX unique? Looks like the Doom 2 sky. 

It is unique. The Doom 2 sky is more "brownish". It doesn't have those white parts.

[VGA]

1 hour ago, drygnfyre said:

Is the Sigil SKYBOX unique? Looks like the Doom 2 sky. 

It is taken from somewhere. pcorf posted earlier it may be from Quake2Doom

[Stocki]

I've just finished Sigil on UV and first of all: I really liked it. It definitely has it's own style regarding the "hell theme".

I've played continuously, taking some time looking for secrets but not necessarily going for 100% kills. I've only saved at key points during the levels, so no save-spamming.

It is harder than the original Doom, that's for sure. But I have played through Plutonia for the first time a few weeks ago and have to say: I died way more during Plutonia than Sigil.

Sigil throws some really nasty traps and ambushes your way, that seem a little bit unfair the first time you encounter them. But generally I have always found a way to handle those situations without taking too much damage during the second try.

Spoiler

(The often mentioned crushers in E5M4 being a good example. Or the two bruisers behind the yellow door in E5M7)

I liked the Buckethead soundtrack very much. It contributed a lot to the mood of the levels. But I'll make my second playthrough with James' midi tracks to see what I prefer.

 

A slight problem with the levels (at least on gzdoom) was that sometimes they were a little bit too dark. I've tried a lot of different settings to no avail. Either it was too dark or too bright and killed the mood. In that case i played through those parts with the automap. But it seems I'm not alone with that. ;-)

 

All in all Sigil has some pretty good looking levels that still capture the Doom feeling for me. I prefer this version of hell way more than the classic episode 3. The levels are hard, but not overly so. I really enjoyed playing this new episode.

Next thing on the list: Playthrough with midi soundtrack and going for a 100% kill rate.

 

[Gerardo194]

I haven't played SIGIL yet. I'm a sinner

 

[OleBumma]

I very much appreciated the gameplay. I kinda hate tedious games that keep me stuck forever.

I've genuinely played the whole game, a first time not in a 100% vanilla fashion, but let's say 97% vanilla, and v1.1 worked quite beautifully.

not too hard of a game, but not too easy either. obviously died alot of times in my first experience with it as I wasn't completely aware of all the gimmicks and the traps the gameplay was offering me.

coolest parts about it were, the graphic design ofc, the fact that yes I was able to spot the majority of the secrets of manage ways to get hold of them, but there were a fair share of secrets I couldn't imagine a way to find because they required some more "hunting down" and pushing walls you couldn't have imagined were hiding a secret... I like the blend between the competition that you're granted by the game, as it was indeed easy to handle, but still adding that verge of hardship where it could just take you a failed step to mess your whole enjoyment, like fall into a lava pit, or failing to telefrag a cyberdeamon, or finding yourself under the wrong crusher at the wrong time!

 

I've also played Sigil on brutal doom and it worked quite fine for the major part. gameplay is obviously eagerly different on that one, some phases seemed even easier as the enemies take more damage from the hits, some stuff drastically messed with the graphic (like trees being more invasive to walk around). the secret map was kinda buggy on BD as it was failing to raise the whole catwalk leading to the yellow door, but I assume it's something to do with BD's settings behaviors.

I've also played Sigil on Doom Delta and the whole gameplay flew gracefully.

 

I'm gonna have myself a ball playing Sigil in all kinds of sauces I can think of, especially doing an absolutely 100% vanilla gameplay as soon as possible. bottom line, it's a great expansion to Doom, and as "simplicistic" as it was made to seem like I'm glad it wasn't overexagerated with shit - that part of the competition could still take place whenever there'll ever be a Doom II expansion for it. ^^

 

I agree on alot of points you've made! @Zakhiel

[Epyo]

2 hours ago, OleBumma said:

the secret map was kinda buggy on BD as it was failing to raise the whole catwalk leading to the yellow door, but I assume it's something to do with BD's settings behaviors.

 

OH I watched a streamer play and saw a similar issue (or maybe it was a different issue) (it was not brutal doom related).  There's a required tripwire you must walk through while running on the walls around the cyberdemon, but it's very possible to miss the tripwire, and get confused about what you're missing.

[OleBumma]

15 minutes ago, Epyo said:

 

OH I watched a streamer play and saw a similar issue (or maybe it was a different issue) (it was not brutal doom related).  There's a required tripwire you must walk through while running on the walls around the cyberdemon, but it's very possible to miss the tripwire, and get confused about what you're missing.

yeah, I was thinking about that. walked those walls back and forth for 30+ minutes and it didn't raise a it, while when I've played the map with Doom Delta (and no other addons plugged in) the catwalk raised on my first try. those tripwires are there tho, there's atleast another map where they play a part into, so it might very well the same case in E5M9.