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Capellan

SPECTRUM (limit removing Ult Doom episode) - now on idgames

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Thanks for playing, @Super Mighty G and congratulations because you managed to do something that isn't supposed to be possible.  Now I need to work out how you did it and fix it, because none of the playtesting managed to break it! :)

 

Edit to add: OK, I think I've made it vanishingly unlikely that the feat can be repeated.  Link in the OP has been updated.

Edited by Capellan

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On 7/20/2019 at 1:29 PM, Super Mighty G said:

I managed to get to map 5 on HMP before stopping.

 

Finished watching last night, and you actually made it to map 6, which is not a bad effort at all I reckon.

 

Didn't notice any more things that needed changing from the balance of your stream, so the update from about 36 hours ago is still the current version of the WAD.

 

Thanks for playing!

 

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HAK3180 found a texture misalignment in map 2, and being the hopeless pedant I am, I fixed it and uploaded a new version.  You can grab it from the OP if you are as hopeless as me :)

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The levels have a neat design, nicely detailed. No kidding about the difficulty however, I completed map 1 and made ten attempts on map 2, HMP. I may retry on an easier skill, I do want to see what the rest of the maps look like, it feels like cheating to skip incomplete levels.

 

 

spectrum_beast.zip

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I pan with the mouse (no mouselook). Admittedly I am not the best player, and completed map 2 on NTR skill. These maps look really good by the way!

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10 hours ago, beast said:

I pan with the mouse (no mouselook). Admittedly I am not the best player, and completed map 2 on NTR skill. These maps look really good by the way!

 

I am not the best player either but I think I have my mouse sensitivity a fair bit higher than you which makes for faster turning.

 

Hope you continue to enjoy the set!

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Okay, where was I?

 

M5 was another great map, which I found super-tough on HNTR, and for the usual reason of tight ammo. Probably about 8 deaths all told.

 

Nice violent opening with excellent crossfires. Had some trouble fighting my way out of there, and even more trouble surviving beyond that thanks to my perforated carcass being at low health, but I'm always willing to die my way to victory, and so I did, probing various routes to see which ones killed me the least. As usual, I failed to find many of the secrets, IIRC only 1, the Rocket Launcher at the start. But after watching HAK3180 get all the secrets in M3 on the first try, I feel like I'm better equipped for understanding your devious methods. We'll see how that works out. ;D

 

Now for the real meat of this map, the Yellow Key Trap. It's a thing of beauty, and I died twice to it, maybe 3 times. The first time was in the Baron/Plasma Gun room, and I blame it on the miserly ammo supply. I had seen the Baron earlier, but let him live because while I had the ammo the kill him, it was tight, and I worried that I'd be completely drained if I used it on him. So when the YK Trap was sprung, I tried escaping through his room. Alas, I didn't realize he had some friends in there, and I got blown away by a Sergeant. I opened a save, killed everything in the room, happily discovered the PG, and went back to set off the YK Trap. After that it was a matter of dealing with all the enemies as they converged on you. I really appreciate the sense of menace you achieved by allowing us to see the enemies approaching from a fair distance, as opposed to teleporting them right into the YK room. It's an unusual approach which IMO has great theatrical appeal and is still plenty hard to deal with. As I raced about looking for escape or at least a good defensive position, I stumbled upon a spawn point and camped there until Barons and Cacos forced me out. Eventually, I prevailed, only to die at the exit in a hail of buckshot.

 

When I finally made it through all these battles I had very little ammo left. I'm thinking you can up the ammo on HNTR for us wimps. There's plenty of bruisers to kill us in the fights, and those Barons are professional ammo sponges. More ammo would make the map more fun, IMO. It will still be exciting and deadly, I promise.

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What are doing with all the ammo that's already there, Steve?  Eating it? :)

 

I've added a bit more ammo to map 5 on HNTR, and fixed a couple of minor visual issues in map 3.  Link in OP.

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1 hour ago, Steve D said:

But after watching HAK3180 get all the secrets in M3 on the first try,

 

I was both motivated and lucky. So don't be disappointed when M4 video comes up tomorrow and I only find, say, 2/6...

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1 hour ago, Capellan said:

What are doing with all the ammo that's already there, Steve?  Eating it? :)

 

I am! And spitting it back in the monster's faces, along with some of my broken teeth. Bullets and buckshot are murder on your molars, so I don't recommend eating them no matter how delicious they are.

 

Do you reduce ammo and health on HNTR along with the monsters? I know you use that balancing app, and of course, you balanced for continuous, so that's a probable factor. And . . . keyboarders presumably miss more often. So when you're designing for a tight ammo supply, I'm gonna feel it more than most. I plan to become a mouser someday, and since I'm forced to use the mouse on Doom 2016, I'm slowly getting practice. I've also considered buying a half-keyboard so I can do the WASD with my right hand instead of my left. Anyway . . .

 

I'll go download the new version, though I plan on going straight to M6, where I expect yet more ammo starvation. :D

 

Edit: Oh, wait, you balanced for pistol start. Where did I get the idea it was for continuous? Maybe because you're a continuous player?

Edited by Steve D

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46 minutes ago, HAK3180 said:

 

I was both motivated and lucky. So don't be disappointed when M4 video comes up tomorrow and I only find, say, 2/6...

 

At least you didn't strike out, and that's the most important thing. It just shows that Adam has even more tricks up his sleeve.

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38 minutes ago, Steve D said:

Do you reduce ammo and health on HNTR along with the monsters?

 

There might end up being slightly less ammo and health in HNTR where there are a lot of hitscanners in higher difficulties, but I never remove health, armour or bonus ammo in HNTR.  If anything, there will be more of that stuff.

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@CapellanAn awfully minor detail...but maybe not to you...

 



Level 3, go into the first wide open outdoor part and turn left...there's a plainly brown tree/bush like sprite sitting there...

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@FrancisT18, "nary a hint of brown" in the original post could be said to be a further modification of "using only standard textures and flats," but otherwise, yes, it is a bit of an overstatement, as there are also shotguns, rockets, and boxes of rockets. And "gray tree"s. And then it wouldn't have to exclude imps. But even just impless Doom 1 is pretty interesting.

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@HAK3180My interpretation was/is that the 'brownless' rule excludes only weapons/ammo, and non-Imp/Cyberdemon monsters that posess tiny traces of brown...ie nothing PRIMARILY brown aside from weapons/ammo. But you could be right too...

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Yeah there are some unavoidable browns unless you were to mod Things or Textures: some brown streaks in textures for instance, plus rockets and shotguns and some decorations. Ditching shotguns would mean ditching sergeants, which was a step too far in thinning out the bestiary, and no rockets would just be no fun.  So a modicum of brown things are allowed.

 

Imps I removed because they are not just brown but also so ubiquitous to Doom's gameplay (just look at how much of Deathless is "imps on ledges").

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I'm playing through this in Crispy (E3M3 atm) and I'm digging it. Interesting concept and the colors look sweet together in 320x200. I'll be able to comment more once I finish my playthrough and can go back and look at each map in depth.

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I think I finally have M4 working as intended.  Download the newest version at the link in the OP, as usual :)

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E3M6 on HNTR: Another killer map. A much easier start this time, though once again, tight ammo punishes you for mistakes, such as staying outside and killing both Cacos. After that I tried the SP_Rock entrance and found myself facing a Baron with hardly any ammo. So then I tried the nearby door -- and perhaps missed the ammo box --  and found a ton of hitscanners on the other side. Went in, punched a couple zombieboys -- no Zerk -- and soon died. Altogether, I surrendered 6 pelts to your collection on this map, so it continues your tradition of killing me multiple times in basically all of your maps. Oddly enough, that's what makes them fun for me. ;)

 

After starting over and surviving the hitscanner area, I grabbed the PG and took note that Doom Parkour is a major theme of this map. For example, you had those odd little silvery structures that served as stairs to higher places, and that platform outside a window in the Blue Key area where a Sergeant guarded a Stimpack. Getting out there was a lot easier than getting back in. I had to strafe-jump after several fails. Luckily, I was able to use this training to -- God help us all -- find the Secret Exit! Woo-Hoo, I can't believe I did it! The only secret on the map and I actually found it. Talk about happy-dance time. :D

 

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The map has a nice, flowy layout and a good variety of themes that make sense for a hellish semi-tech area. Action was consistently good as well, and after the opening, ammo flow was maybe the best of all the maps so far. There were tight spots, but I aided my cause by killing Pinkies with my normal fist in order to preserve my bullets and shells, and was overjoyed when I discovered the Zerk, such a rare thing in your maps. You doled out rockets and cell charges to a stunningly perfect degree for dealing with the Cacos and Barons as I encountered them. Indeed, the PG was a big help in clearing out the super-dangerous hitscanners. Even so, I successfully died twice at the Blue Key Fight and 3 times at the battle which greeted me as I teleported back. After that, I was well-stocked and was able to survive the rest of the way.

 

All in all, this is an exceptionally well-designed map with a great layout and fun combat. Lots of nice little design touches throughout. Qiestion: as a general rule, if I discover the secret exit, I play the secret map continuous. Would you prefer me to pistol start?

 

I discovered a couple misalignments.

 

This one is pretty obvious and can be fixed by auto-aligning on Linedef 864, though that may introduce problems elsewhere.

iZvWNLX.png

 

This is more subtle. Auto-aligning on Linedef 1183 seems to fix it. Definitely do not auto-align from Linedef 1952.

mLsawTe.png

 

Bricks with just their tops exposed above the ground. Raising the floor 8 units should fix this, if you think it's worthwhile.

0oMew7U.png

 

Proof that I found the secret exit! I'm gonna poach that Secret Exit texture.

Twl75z3.png

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There are no custom textures in SPECTRUM, @Steve D.  You are welcome to copy the sector shenanigans I used, though :)

 

I've fixed the two misalignments (but not uploaded a new version yet).  Not worried about the partial bricks coming out of the floor, though.

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Hi, started playing this on UV continuous.

 

Up to map 4 so far. Levels don't seem particularly difficult (that sarge trap in map3 was lolzy though) but engaging enough combat-wise to keep the player interested. I managed to cheese all map 3 caco encounters because I used zero rockets from the previous levels - I got really lucky with the last one in particular as I punched my way back through the pinkies and spectres and then camped for the flying blobs just to give them a nice RL greeting. Also, you must really hate it when people find your secrets. I mean, some of them are just walls with no distinguishable features about them, so unless you are a wall-humper, you've no hope finding the coolest goodies. What have people done to you to make you so evil? I jest. I had to use the auto-map to find some of the secrets, but I've still no clue how you are supposed to get that rad suit in map 2. 

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13 minutes ago, Firedust said:

I mean, some of them are just walls with no distinguishable features about them, so unless you are a wall-humper, you've no hope finding the coolest goodies. What have people done to you to make you so evil? I jest. I had to use the auto-map to find some of the secrets, but I've still no clue how you are supposed to get that rad suit in map 2. 

 

My secrets are never just walls with no distinguishable features.  But the distinguishing features may be hard to spot!  Or may need some lateral thinking.


For instance, getting the radsuit in map 2

Spoiler

is just a question of a bit of tricky parkour from the north.

 

Some players have instantly tried that as soon as they saw the suit.  Others have missed the idea completely :)

 

Continuous - especially if you do find some of the secrets - will definitely make the maps easier.

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I never resort to wall-humping unless I am clueless as to what to do. I liked the pillar secret with armor bonuses - that was a pretty neat idea. 

 

But yeah, maybe I was too dumb to notice certain stuff. Like the soulsphere teleporter in map 2 - I found it completely by accident! I am trying to figure out how to get to that bloody plasma switch in map 4 atm, but I still don't see it. Just give me five more minutes. Or a year.

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