Akeldama - Now on Idgames!

[GarrettChan]

1 hour ago, tmorrow said:

In order to discover the bugs, you need the diversity of testing that comes naturally from a "final idgames release" when everyone downloads and plays it (most of them for the first time) and on vast number of systems and srcports. You just won't get this breadth of testing from the small fraction of testers that are prepared to give the betas and release candidates a thorough work out, hard as they may try.

TBH, this is why everything should be put in RC before idgames for enough period of time. I'm not saying who's right or wrong. Usually things on idgames should be considered as final. Of course, we have BtSX, so no one knows I guess.

[valkiriforce]

Anyway, I bit the bullet and updated with a fixed linedef action -Idgames upload will update eventually but the ModDB page should have the final release.

 

Also, I apologize to those of you recording demos for Akeldama up to this time - I didn't want to have to update this megawad again but the nagging for vanilla compatibility just couldn't be left alone. This is the last time I will update this megawad.

Edited July 31, 2020 by valkiriforce

[valkiriforce]

Stumbled on this soundtrack upload with the Arachno soundfont recently and I've been getting a kick out of it, so I felt like sharing it here:

 

 

[The Bug]

I remember broleg playing this.

[Snark]

Right... I really need to understand why people like this.

I gave up at map 16, not because of difficulty but because I felt like my soul was being grinded to dust by a wet flannel.

After 16 maps  all I feel I got were endless "non linear interconnected rooms" filled with metric tons of hitscanning garbage with ten thousand million ledge imps to soften me up for the inevitable "wooh, two revenants or hellknights right behind the corner!!" again, and again, and again, and again...

 

I'm not writing this as a hate rant but more as a genuine question, so many people rate this so high, I'm wondering if my affection for heavily dosed gin and tonics has finally addled my already precariously balanced mind or if I'm just missing something (or going insane from repeated lockdowns).

[SilverMiner]

@Snark I suppose you decided to go through whole megawad at once and just got exhausted. IMHO classic megawads have to be played with breaks

[Korozive]

2 hours ago, SilverMiner said:

@Snark I suppose you decided to go through whole megawad at once and just got exhausted. IMHO classic megawads have to be played with breaks

I agree, 8 to 10 maps then chill for a bit. Though I have gone as high as 14 while playing Interception II for the first time because I liked it that much.

[Omniarch]

43 minutes ago, Korozive said:

I agree, 8 to 10 maps then chill for a bit. Though I have gone as high as 14 while playing Interception II for the first time because I liked it that much.

I managed to get 21 (inc. secret levels) into TNT: Revilution in a single stretch before burning out, and now I can't for the life of me remember what any map past 10 was like. I thoroughly agree that 'classic style' megawads are best in small doses.

 

It would be a lot easier to pace oneself if Doom 2 had a clear episodic structure like (Ultimate) Doom. I think 9 maps is the perfect length for an episode, allowing for variety, digestibility and strong consistent theme. For example, I remember practically every map in DTWiD (inc. Lost Episodes and Ultimate), while maps from the similarly-good D2TWiD fell out of my memory shortly after being played.

[valkiriforce]

9 hours ago, Snark said:

Right... I really need to understand why people like this.

I gave up at map 16, not because of difficulty but because I felt like my soul was being grinded to dust by a wet flannel.

After 16 maps  all I feel I got were endless "non linear interconnected rooms" filled with metric tons of hitscanning garbage with ten thousand million ledge imps to soften me up for the inevitable "wooh, two revenants or hellknights right behind the corner!!" again, and again, and again, and again...

 

I'm not writing this as a hate rant but more as a genuine question, so many people rate this so high, I'm wondering if my affection for heavily dosed gin and tonics has finally addled my already precariously balanced mind or if I'm just missing something (or going insane from repeated lockdowns).

I guess it would help to know what kind of wads you enjoy. Not much I can offer besides lowering the difficulty - not for difficulty's sake but for having less chore work to do. I'll admit I actually do enjoy Akeldama on lower difficulties for this reason because the levels flow much faster and that was something I was hoping for when I began the project. It may not be a wad for everyone though, and I'm okay with that.

[AtticTelephone]

Is this the real Memento Mori 4 after Requiem?

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

1 hour ago, AtticTelephone said:

Is this the real Memento Mori 4 after Requiem?

Feels more similar to Alien Vendetta than MM or Requiem, but I guess you could look at it that way.

[DSC]

I'll never understand this "its bad cuz you can't complete it in one sitting" thing. You can't easily complete most classic video games after the SNES era in one sitting, does that mean they're bad too?

[damo]

This wad is excellent for survival/coop multiplayer.

[Lippeth]

That soundtrack video inspired me to make one as well with a Sound Canvas. It took three days to make and upload.

I just hope there aren't any errors, as I've never attempted this before. This wad is an instant classic by the way, in case you weren't aware!

 

[OpenRift]

So I noticed a dehacked lump in the WAD for map names and intermission text. A good addition, but there appear to be some problems when trying to run it with a vanilla client like Chocolate Doom or even using dehacked on doom2-plus, because right out the gate, automap names don't change at all unless you're running in a limit-removing port like Crispy Doom or higher. I feel like this sort of negates the vanilla-compatible nature the WAD. Anyone got a vanilla-compatible deh file I could maybe use?

[OpenRift]

On 11/20/2020 at 3:58 PM, OpenRift said:

So I noticed a dehacked lump in the WAD for map names and intermission text. A good addition, but there appear to be some problems when trying to run it with a vanilla client like Chocolate Doom or even using dehacked on doom2-plus, because right out the gate, automap names don't change at all unless you're running in a limit-removing port like Crispy Doom or higher. I feel like this sort of negates the vanilla-compatible nature the WAD. Anyone got a vanilla-compatible deh file I could maybe use?

UPDATE:

Took an hour or so to make a vanilla-compatible dehacked patch. Had to make some reductions to certain text strings to fit in the vanilla limits, especially with the super-secret level intermission text as well as remove the level numbers from the automap labels for all of them to fit completely. 

 

Reductions made to intermissions texts still maintain most of of the contents and still portray all the core pieces of the story as best I understand. If anyone wants to make quality-of-life revisions to my patch, feel free.

 

EDIT: Fixed a spelling error in the second intermission text.

 

DOWNLOAD HERE

AKELDAMA DEH PATCH.zip

 

Edited November 26, 2020 by OpenRift

[P41R47]

2 hours ago, OpenRift said:

UPDATE:

Took an hour or so to make a vanilla-compatible dehacked patch. Had to make some reductions to certain text strings to fit in the vanilla limits, especially with the super-secret level intermission text as well as remove the level numbers from the automap labels for all of them to fit completely. 

 

Reductions made to intermissions texts still maintain most of of the contents and still portray all the core pieces of the story as best I understand. If anyone wants to make quality-of-life revisions to my patch, feel free.

 

DOWNLOAD HERE

AKELDAMA DEH PATCH.zip

I was planning on making it for my own vanilla confort, too. So i started doing it as soon as i see your coment 15 min ago.
Here is my take on it if you want:
AkeldamaVanillaDeh.zip

Also, @valkiriforce i find strange that if the project aimed to be fully vanilla compatible from the get go, the dehacked patch was made on .bex format :/
Maybe it was just something that get overlooked?
Anyway, if you want, you can use this patch, modify it or use it as you like for an update.

Edited November 21, 2020 by P41R47

[OpenRift]

11 minutes ago, P41R47 said:

I was planning on making it for my own vanilla confort, too. So i started doing it as soon as i see your coment 15 min ago.
 Here is my take on it if you want:
AkeldamaVanillaDeh.zip

Also, @valkiriforce i find strange that if the project aimed to be fully vanilla compatible from the get go, the dehacked patch was made on .bex format :/
 Maybe it was just something that get overlooked?

I see you decided on shortening the automap names to keep the level number, an interesting take. I tried to do that at first but decided I'd just do a more BTSX-style label with just giving the title without a number so I could display the full level names (albiet without apostrophes for consistency with "Alexandrias Library"). I think we mostly did the same thing in terms of the intermission screens with only slight variations. Seems the biggest difference is the super-secret level text, mine being more explicit (albeit rather hamfistedly explained if I'm being honest) while yours goes more on the vague side of things. 

[P41R47]

2 hours ago, OpenRift said:

I see you decided on shortening the automap names to keep the level number, an interesting take. I tried to do that at first but decided I'd just do a more BTSX-style label with just giving the title without a number so I could display the full level names (albiet without apostrophes for consistency with "Alexandrias Library"). I think we mostly did the same thing in terms of the intermission screens with only slight variations. Seems the biggest difference is the super-secret level text, mine being more explicit (albeit rather hamfistedly explained if I'm being honest) while yours goes more on the vague side of things. 

I think that giving much info for the secret maps its like telling someone what will you give him for birthday. There is no surprise!
Thats why i decided for that approach... also,  is the first time i saw a textscreen so long for a secret map. Not bad, for sure, but taking in count the limitations aimed for, well... its kinda meaningless.

 

About the map name, i just shortened on word size, not meaning. Its nicer to read Knights of Ilasac, but it could be read as Ilasac's Knights too without missleading anyone.
Another one was Winter Stronghold. Stronghold was two letter long above the limit, so i changed it to Fortress, maybe not the best word to replace it but work on the theme.

Aqueduct Fortress was resized to Aqueduct Fort, no harm there.
The one that i didn't knew how to properly reword was Alexandria's library, i changed it to Alexa's Library, but the proper way to do it would be to take in acount what is the meaning behind alexandria's library, a place that supposelly, alocates all the aknowledge of the known world of that time. A place of wisdom.
And library is a place for books, and its kinda redundant to say something like Wisdom Library, a book is something that contains wisdom, so instead i think tiers would fit the description.

So Wisdom Tiers was born perfectly fitting the size limitation on the updated patch
The cultural side of the title was left behind in respect of the meaning behind it, unfortunatelly.

But i think its better than simply shortening the name to Alexa's library. Who the heck is Alexa? Alessa Guillespi? the one from Silent Hill?
None work, so that the philosophy behind the only dramatic change.

 

Anyway, these patches could be used for those who want to play on vanilla/chocolate and by no means try to replace the official work.

Fortunatelly, the text screens didn't receive much cut out, just less nicer text or rewording to fit on the limited space and trying to be faithful with the meaning of the text.

Edited November 21, 2020 by P41R47

[DoubleCakes]

Just finished episode 1 and had a blast although the last four levels got exhausting with all of them being big facility levels. It was especially bad on Carnage Facility because I found that level tedious to navigate.

 

I'll take a break before continuing but I have a feeling this is going to be one of those classical acclaimed megawads that all the kids love!

[Zolgia108]

On 11/16/2020 at 7:42 AM, Snark said:

Right... I really need to understand why people like this.

I gave up at map 16, not because of difficulty but because I felt like my soul was being grinded to dust by a wet flannel.

After 16 maps  all I feel I got were endless "non linear interconnected rooms" filled with metric tons of hitscanning garbage with ten thousand million ledge imps to soften me up for the inevitable "wooh, two revenants or hellknights right behind the corner!!" again, and again, and again, and again...

 

I'm not writing this as a hate rant but more as a genuine question, so many people rate this so high, I'm wondering if my affection for heavily dosed gin and tonics has finally addled my already precariously balanced mind or if I'm just missing something (or going insane from repeated lockdowns).

Don't worry my friend, you are not alone :)

I had to quit after some maps, feels so boring and standard, but this was their goal so i think it may be considered a props. Most people loved it and i respect their opinion, i didn't

[Da Werecat]

If I was told by someone else that my goal was apparently to make something boring, I'd probably feel inclined to ask a few questions about what exactly were they trying to say.

 

That said, I stopped at maybe 10 maps and never resumed. I think I wrote somewhere above that my reason to be interested was music, and, well, it quickly stopped being something that I liked. Pretty much on the next map, IIRC.

[DoubleCakes]

So I just finished Akeldama and I have some thoughts.

 

While I really enjoyed Episode 1 despite the sameyness of the latter half of its levels, I quickly burnt out on Episode 2. While 'Urban Strike' was a fun although big level, I quickly got tired of the same kind of big techbase maps. Not all of the levels could be classified as a 'tech-base' but many of them share that kind of design. These levels are big and while I didn't get lost in every one of them, they were a slog and through the entirety of Episode 2, I can barely remember a single moment.

 

Maybe it's because I readjusted my expectations but I had a much better time with Episode 3. Levels were still pretty big and complex (moreso than episode 2) and many still fell into similar design aesthetics, but I enjoyed myself more although one some of those bigger levels I was getting exhausted trying to play the whole map in one sitting.

 

Despite how stark exploring the levels can be, this wad is good but I don't know if I'd compare it to Momento Mori or even Alien Vendetta. It reminded me of BTSX episode 1 more than anything.

[Hitman]

 

 

[CacoKnight]

Just finished this fantastic wad, had a blast, one of my favorites! Died ONCE on MAP29 :)

 

..I wasn't ready for MAP30 !