Hell-Forged Episode I - v1.11 Released

[Amuscaria]

@Gez: Is that for the dropped item or the actor that is spawning them?

 

@Firedust: The ones in m6-8 are all tagged as secrets. The one in m5 isn't. Will try Gez's suggestion.

[Firedust]

Hi, it's me again! I beat your mapset and simply put, it was brilliant! However, there are two things that you might possibly want to take into account for your next project - consider these nothing more than minor nitpicks on my part.

 

1) Hub-based level progression. There's a lot of that here (mainly in the later maps) and I think sometimes it's better to go for a certain degree of diversity. The environment itself looks spectacular, jawdropping even, and I love how you added fog or some other effect in certain areas to indicate what key the player should be looking for there. That is very much appreciated. But you know, large levels don't have to be just big hubs. Sometimes it's totally cool to go for something pseudo-linear, where for example, the player goes through a linear map but with small-scale path deviations to collect the keys required to progress.

 

2) Boss-tier monsters. I know it's just one episode but it would be nice if you added more encounters with them. The final map has them all and I can see what you went for there, making the player fight a mini boss to collect a key it's guarding, but I also think they hold great potential for much more sophistically orchestrated battles. Like I've said before, this is Episode 1, so if you are simply going to expand the baddy roster and not completely replace it in the episode 2, please please consider designing more fights with the Behemoth(s), Hell Duke(s), Spider Mastermind(s) and Sentinel(s).

 

The things that impressed me the most were the texturing and area design + weapon replacements, oh boy are those stunning.

 

All in all, very well done and I look forward to your next project!

Edited October 27, 2019 by Firedust

[Gez]

On samedi 26 octobre 2019 at 6:03 AM, Amuscaria said:

@Gez: Is that for the dropped item or the actor that is spawning them?

The one that should be picked up.

 

I don't think killing a shootable secret actor would trigger the secret...

[Nihlith]

[ yt]

[/ yt]

Hell Keep has got to be one of the coolest castle levels I've ever seen. None better.

[Count651]

I've only just finished the first map and I'm already in love with this. The weapons are so cool, both visually and functionally.

[Amuscaria]

@Firedust: Thanks for playing! And thank you more for the feedback! :) HF-Ep2 will have 10-12 new enemies, some of them replacing the the HF and vanilla ones. All the fire-theme enemies will be replaced with a poison or spirit type enemy. The HF-Ep1 mini-bosses are also incomplete. They're missing their alternate attack that's equivalent to your 2nd-tier weapons. The Hellduke is also missing its melee state. Those will be added n the 1.1 patch, along with the goofy shark-level.

I will try and keep the levels less-hub like in E2. Most of it stems from both a lack of time to plot out a long map and I wanted to give the players choice during map start. The Hub layout simply made sense since along with the color-coding to prevent players to getting lost. Also, the later maps don't require you to revisit the central hub to continue. You can move from 1 spoke to any adjacent one once you have the key in the spoke, which makes it quasi-linear if you choose to play that way. This is more pronounced in the Tower of Command map since picking a key in the hub essentially determines your path for the rest of the map. 

 

Mostly experimenting with different non-linear and open-ended designs without making things confusing.

 

Thanks again for playing!

 

@Gez: Ah, that's a shame. I think it might be confusing to suddenly have a secret added to the map during game play, but if that's the best I can do, that I'll settle with that. I wonder if I can un-tag a dummy secret sector when the mushroom drops so the secret counter effectively doesn't change by removing the 1024 sector effect. Not sure how or if that works, though. Will have to test.

Edited October 30, 2019 by Amuscaria

[Gez]

39 minutes ago, Amuscaria said:

@Gez: Ah, that's a shame. I think it might be confusing to suddenly have a secret added to the map during game play, but if that's the best I can do, that I'll settle with that. I wonder if I can un-tag a dummy secret sector when the mushroom drops so the secret counter effectively doesn't change by removing the 1024 sector effect. Not sure how or if that works, though. Will have to test.

I have an idea: look at this little example map. The red sphere hanging from the ceiling? Shoot it, and it turns into a soul sphere and falls so you can pick it up.

testshootablebonus.zip

[Firedust]

47 minutes ago, Amuscaria said:

I will try and keep the levels less-hub like in E2. Most of it stems from both a lack of time to plot out a long map and I wanted to give the players choice during map start. The Hub layout simply made sense since along with the color-coding to prevent players to getting lost. Also, the later maps don't require you to revisit the central hub to continue. You can move from 1 spoke to any adjacent one once you have the key in the spoke, which makes it quasi-linear if you choose to play that way. This is more pronounced in the Tower of Command map since picking a key in the hub essentially determines your path for the rest of the map. 

 

Yeah, it's up to you in the end and I, as most folks here, appreciate that you're effectively making a new game at this point, all solo. A very tough undertaking indeed. Like I said, it was just a minor nitpick, the maps play very well - the only thing that wasn't fun for me was having to backtrack in the last level to kill the remaining monsters hiding behind the different-keyed doors. 

 

Will you be releasing your mons to the public as well, by the way? I can't even remember if the original Draughr (I can never get the spelling right) or hell arachnotron were your creations because I wasn't part of the community at the time. The spirit/poison theme sounds cool, excited to see what you're going to do with it. It would also be nice if you didn't disappear into oblivion for ten years again :p

[Amuscaria]

@Gez: Thanks! I will take a look this weekend.

 

@Firedust: The new monsters have already been release in the HF Resource package.

The Draugr, Aracknight, Corpulent, and Guardian v2 were release years ago when I canned Demon Eclipse. You can simply copy the sprites into a wad and copy the monsters decorate from the DECMONS text file in the wad. I haven't submitted anything to R667 yet since I was thinking about making minor some touch-ups to the older sprites first for v1.1.

[Datacore85]

I play in Normal difficulty and i can't finish the first map because.....Please give more health and armor ! lol

 

I played too Demon Eclipse and this Episode need Ammo .The Work of your two wad is awesome i like the new Models but  how appreciate the Wad if i can't survive and fight.

 

I would like to play your two Wads in UV.

Edited October 31, 2019 by Datacore85

[Firedust]

Dude, you just gotta master using the sword! Once you get the replacement, you'll be able to wreck stuff with its alt fire.

[Amuscaria]

HF on UV is already too easy for me. So i'm not gonna lower the difficulty. Turn on the double-ammo option in the game options if ammo is too tight.

[Datacore85]

ok it's fine now, your wad is a masterpiece, I feel like to have a new game it's fun.

 

It's fun but some Map are very confusing, i m lost often...

 

The Weapons are Awesome !

Edited November 1, 2019 by Datacore85

[Amuscaria]

@Gez: Thanks for that. That gave me the solution I needed. I put COUNTSECRET on the props and the mushrooms pickups. When the props die, I call A_ChangeFlag to unset the the secret flag. This seems to work perfectly when I spawn them in the map. It adds the secrets and the items count towards the secret when picked up. :)

[Amuscaria]

HF has been updated to 1.00b, which fixes a couple of small bugs.

 

-Props that drop the secret mushrooms in Maps 4 and 5 now properly count as secrets before you kill them, and after the mushroom drops.

-Fixed a faulty floor-lowering line that lowered a teleporter during the opening of map 2 that allowed you to skip most of the map.

-Some minor tweaks and touches.

 

Check the opening post fort download links.

[Amuscaria]

There is a minor bug in HF-100b.wad with the M_DOOM logo entry. Open the wad and change the offset for that entry to 96 , 33 (from 0,0) to correct the issue.

[Xulgonoth]

I have a minor bug to report. In HF1E6 there's a secret left of the front entrance to the keep (sector 231) that's meant to be accessed from inside. There's a way to get there from the crates outside, but if someone was to do that, they'd get stuck with no way out other than noclipping.

While I'm here, I might as well say good job on this wad. The later maps are a bit too big for my taste, but I really like how easy to navigate they are thanks to the passageways and teleporters everywhere. I think that's a prime example of how to do large non-linear maps right.

[Amuscaria]

@Willy W: Fixed. Thanks. :)

[Amuscaria]

1-year Necromancy!

 

Version 1.10 is released. Unfortunately I'm unable to connect to the FPT server with my new computer (getting repeated timed out responses), so I'm unable to upload the mod to /idgames archives. If someone could do that for me, it would be much appreciated.

 

HF: Episode 1 development has ended, and I will begin ramping up full development of Episode 2 starting next weekend. Follow the development here: https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=73013

Edited September 6, 2021 by Amuscaria

[Pirx]

A big like from me, I didn't know you were still working on this! 

[Pixel Fiend]

They are still processing the new version file, I'm very eager to try out this cool Gzdoom mapset soon. Looks like you are developing an equally stylish sequel that I'm going to add to my list of anticipated releases.

[Amuscaria]

4 hours ago, game said:

They are still processing the new version file

 

Processing is done now. :) Not sure why they adding a .1 after 110, but w/e.

[Amuscaria]

I'm trying to upload the mod to /idgames archive and I just keep getting this error:

 

I can log in fine and view all the files in the Incoming folder, but when I try to drag and drop stuff into it, it just fails. Anyone got a solution?

Edited September 7, 2021 by Amuscaria

[Aurelius]

Don't know if you're aware of this: 

It's a bit less cumbersome than an FTP client.

[Amuscaria]

Well that makes things easier. :P

[WH-Wilou84]

Totally hyped for this. These new vampiric monsters look rad :)

[Amuscaria]

Uploaded thru Xymph's site a second time. Don't know if the first attempt went through or got rejected, but I never got any e-mail about it.

[Amuscaria]

Uploaded a hotfix for 1.10. Fixes a couple of bugs. Download the the ModDB download. Waiting for the idgames archive one to be approved.

• Fixed a minor sprite dimension inconsistency that caused the Director's front-facing alt-attack to jitter vertically slightly during its reloading animation.
• Fixed a bug in HF1M0 that prevented 100% kills and items because the Cacodemon monster closet near the exit didn't open.

[Scuba Steve]

Quote

(Development Closed)

 

Muahaha! It's never closed!!!

[Amuscaria]

On 9/22/2021 at 4:51 PM, Scuba Steve said:

 

Muahaha! It's never closed!!!

 

It will never end. :(

Also another minor bug was found, that user should just fix themselves. In HF1m6, 2 Aracknights are tagged as Count As Secret when they shouldn't, making 100% not possible. Just remove the tag.