HEXEN: Cyrgoth's Revenge - 8 Level Hub

[Seidolon]

Cyrgoth's Revenge is an 8 Level Single-Player Hub which is a sequel to Cyrgoth's Manor. It is designed for GZDoom and Zandronum, and utilizes no new assets, meaning compatibility with any Hexen gameplay mod. While being Single-Player oriented, Cyrgoth's Revenge can also be played in Co-op and Deathmatch modes, however due to the large map sizes, the latter is discouraged. Like in it's predecessor, there are numerous unmarked secrets throughout the span of the Hub, as well as a secret level, which isn't as easy to find as the one in Cyrgoth's Manor.

 

 

Spoiler

 

Download: CYRVENG2.1.zip

 

Credits:

Level Design and Graphics: Seidolon

Font used in Title Graphic: Ichor

Edited November 30, 2020 by Seidolon

[seed]

*puts leather boots on*

 

Oh yes, so the sequel did see a release in 2019 after all. Seems it's time to return to Hexen soon :D.

[Seidolon]

I will look forward to seeing you possibly stream it in the future.

[seed]

6 minutes ago, Seidolon said:

I will look forward to seeing you possibly stream it in the future.

 

Of course I'll be streaming it :p, I just have some other stuff to get out of the way first though.

[Manhs]

I was happy to test it when i played the beta, liked a lot the geometry and the level design, very vertical! 
 

Edited September 22, 2020 by Manhs

[Seidolon]

Update: Fixed a bug in which the player cannot solve a certain puzzle with certain gameplay mods.

[Komenja]

Oh boy! More Hexen!

[Jimmy]

I'm playing this and its prequel and for the most part I'm having a blast. These maps are oozing with atmosphere and positively scream all the little details and design aspects of Hexen, right down to the wooden support beams in the mine-like sections, and the indented door tracks. And there's so much going on in them, with huge numbers of areas to explore and plenty of combat on offer. My favorite map so far may be the Frostmire Woods (an icy swamp! very cool idea) The maps feel a tiny bit stingey on inventory items, which I would argue are the most interesting aspect of Hexen (and Heretic!) combat, but I can live with that, but you get plenty of mana so this isn't really a balance issue. There's some really inspired little touches too, like the glitter-bridges being used to create a force-field.

 

If I had to make a minor complaint it'd be how on the hard difficulties, the maps seem to be rather heavily laden with monsters - this was especially a problem with Cyrgoth's Manor, so I swapped down to medium for Cyrgoth's Revenge. When you design building interiors, the rooms can get pretty small and confined, although the enemy encounters themselves remain very heavy. You have entire rooms stuffed with them sometimes - I would advise examining whether placing that many monsters in confined quarters lends more to the challenge, or whether it just gives the player more walls of meat to cleave through and actually stops the monsters from being quite so effective on their own.

 

I'm currently searching for the last clock gear to place in Cyrgoth's Stronghold. I opened a big door somewhere in the Mines and I'm not sure where that is. Will keep looking - unless I can get a hint. :P

Edited November 3, 2019 by Jimmy

[Jimmy]

"A door opens in a distant land". Oh boy. Tips that vague don't really help at all in a set like this with 8 giant levels to navigate. I may be stuck. Though the switch that gave me that message was pretty well hidden away so I assume I've unlocked a secret somewhere rather than found the next required step of progression. Even so, gimme something to work with here! D:

 

I'm also encountering some difficulty in making my way between the worlds I want to visit. I feel like some improved interconnectivity between the portals would not go amiss - maybe have several clustered together, a la the chapel portals in Hub 3? Your main hub map is pretty massive, and the routes taken to each portal tend to be pretty winding and confusing. I also tend to forget very easily where I've been and what leads where, so if I wanted to get to the Deadlands, for example, I know that's a level that branches off of somewhere, but... I could be looking for a while.

 

Now, back to looking for that freakin' Liber Oscura...

[Jimmy]

I found the book, and beat the set.

 

(SPOILERS HEREIN!)

 

Spoiler

 

(Geez that book's well hidden... if you look at it, it's only a texture difference with a width of 3 pixels you need to be on the lookout for)

 

Overall, I loved it. I would just see if there's any way you can smooth out moving from level to level towards the end of the game. There's a fair amount of backtracking looking for the right portals, and clambering through dark and narrow cave sections full of insta-death pits. This set is very heavy on the caves!

 

Some really cool settings and concepts at play here. Great use of textures in combination to create pretty unique settings, memorable setpieces, and really good use of space and combat - a marked improvement on Cyrgoth's Manor in this regard. Boss battle felt a tiny bit underwhelming (wasn't immediately obvious how the portal-shutdown puzzle was meant to work) and I wonder if I'll ever find all four switches that open the doors on the Tomb of Exiles. Got 2 of 4, though. Wondering what else lies behind those doors.

 

 

[Seidolon]

8 hours ago, Jimmy said:

"A door opens in a distant land". Oh boy. Tips that vague don't really help at all in a set like this with 8 giant levels to navigate. I may be stuck. Though the switch that gave me that message was pretty well hidden away so I assume I've unlocked a secret somewhere rather than found the next required step of progression.

Spoiler

Yeah that message is for opening the tombs on the secret level. One theme I try to stay true to with my Hexen WADs is switches telling you what happened unless they affect something close by or unless they're secrets, so vague messages or nothing at all usually indicates some optional/secret areas.

 

If you're interested in finding the other switches to open the tombs, there are four switches total, one in the Frostmire Woods, one in the Mines, one in the Mage Guild, and one in the Falgor Deadlands.

 

Good to hear you liked the WAD. I enjoyed making it and I was much more satisfied with the release of Cyrgoth's Revenge than I was of Cyrgoth's Manor.

[ShadesMaster]

 

[Jimmy]

9 hours ago, Seidolon said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Yeah that message is for opening the tombs on the secret level. One theme I try to stay true to with my Hexen WADs is switches telling you what happened unless they affect something close by or unless they're secrets, so vague messages or nothing at all usually indicates some optional/secret areas.

 

If you're interested in finding the other switches to open the tombs, there are four switches total, one in the Frostmire Woods, one in the Mines, one in the Mage Guild, and one in the Falgor Deadlands.

 

Good to hear you liked the WAD. I enjoyed making it and I was much more satisfied with the release of Cyrgoth's Revenge than I was of Cyrgoth's Manor.

 

Thanks for sharing it! Always great to see new content for Hexen, especially that which takes advantage of just the Vanilla assets.

[Seidolon]

For those of you who have played the WAD, here's a development video I recorded back in August.

 

 

[Jimmy]

Nice! I was going to ask if you had any intent to share your process in putting either of the Cyrgoth WADs together, as with any hub-style episode with multiple puzzle elements it must have been quite the undertaking.

 

My work on hub episodes has required me to take extensive notes on the level progression, locations of puzzle elements, what enemy selection each map is likely to have, as well as quite rigorously brainstorm names and music selections for each map. Curious if you had anything like that. :)

[Seidolon]

Yeah I did take some notes as far as level progression. Unfortunately, as the video shows, there was an oversight I didn't notice until late into the development. One thing I did do was write down tons of notes during the testing phase. I would write down any time I saw something I wanted to change, and I would keep track of mana/item balance on paper. Doing this makes it much easier, since you don't have to worry about remembering what you wanted to change while you were testing. As far as names and music goes for the maps, I usually procrastinate in coming up with a name for a level until the very end. The music I like to decide before I get too far into making the level because it helps with creating the atmosphere of the map. As a result, I sometimes listen to the level music while making the map.

[seed]

I'm liking this so far (I finally got to it). Seems most of my concerns were addressed in Revenge, such as sheer numbers of enemies and resource starvation. Or, at least the latter is, the number of enemies in some indoor areas is still a bit ridiculous.

 

But now... my main gripe: The Liber Obscura puzzle is horrible (sorry... ). It tells the player NOTHING about where they're supposed to be looking. I have no idea how to proceed from this point onward, hence why I stopped playing to ask about the book. This particular puzzle is not fun...

Edited November 9, 2019 by seed

[Ichor]

2 hours ago, seed said:

I'm liking this so far (I finally got to it). Seems most of my concerns were addressed in Revenge, such as sheer numbers of enemies and resource starvation. Or, at least the latter is, the number of enemies in some indoor areas is still a bit ridiculous.

 

But now... my main gripe: The Liber Obscura puzzle is horrible (sorry... ). It tells the player NOTHING about where I'm supposed to be looking. I have no idea how to proceed from this point onward, hence why I stopped playing to ask about the book. This particular puzzle is not fun...

I managed to figure it out. It goes something like this:

 

Spoiler

 

1. Find the four clock gears.

2. Get the axe key.

3. Use axe key.

4. Press a switch inside.

5. You'll see a door open (and some enemies). Inside there you will eventually find the bookshelf with the A book. Use it and the bookshelf will change to the book missing texture.

6. Take it back to that place where you needed it.

7. There's a magic barrier near where you got the axe key. Using the book removes the barrier and opens the way to the final level.

 

 

[seed]

3 minutes ago, Ichor said:

I managed to figure it out. It goes something like this:

 

  Hide contents

 

1. Find the four clock gears.

 

 

 

Where's the last clock gear though, if I need it first to get the book? I have found 3.

[Ichor]

I had to skim through the videos, and I think the one you're missing is the bronze one. It was there about 20 minutes into your first video (or, in the stronghold map where you use the gears).

[seed]

Yea, found it and finished it :D . Missed the secret map though, but that's ok.

 

Overall, it was nice and fun, but that book puzzle was dangerously close to a game-stopper. I've no doubt things will change in the future. Mostly an improvement over Manor too, as it addresses its biggest issues. Let's play in spoiler.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

[Seidolon]

Sorry about the trouble you were having @seed, and thank you @Ichor for providing assistance. It seems that the trouble you were having stemmed from initially missing the bronze gear. Are there any suggestions you would have to make it less confusing for players?

 

Thank you, and I will get around to watching your let's play of the WAD soon.

[Ichor]

31 minutes ago, Seidolon said:

Sorry about the trouble you were having @seed, and thank you @Ichor for providing assistance. It seems that the trouble you were having stemmed from initially missing the bronze gear. Are there any suggestions you would have to make it less confusing for players?

 

Thank you, and I will get around to watching your let's play of the WAD soon.

It actually wasn't the bronze gear he missed. It was another one. He eventually found that one though.

[seed]

14 hours ago, Seidolon said:

Are there any suggestions you would have to make it less confusing for players?

 

Actually I do. As I said in the videos, this could be very easily rectified by simply changing the clue messages to also tell the player that "something else awaits" first (something to allude to what they need before gaining access to the book - I didn't know there was a clock gear in the mines, or that I needed the Axe key first, maybe make implications to those crucial elements).

[Ichor]

There may be an easier way. In the Deadlands map, you need a fire key to get into the place where you use the book. Perhaps if you changed it to the axe key (and either remove the fire key or make it open a secret, maybe even open the silver doors there), then you will have it by the time you get to the place where you use the book, and most of the confusion is gone. Once you get the axe key, you'd get there and get the book message. You'll then go back to the Guild map and use the axe key there open the way to the book. And as for the gears, none of them are behind the fire key door, so that won't be a problem either.

[rivendor]

Beat both Manor and Revenge today. It was a lot easier without the Brutal RPG mod.

What a great set of maps. I loved how Revenge felt more claustrophobic with so many tight corridors, small rooms, and vertical movement.

[Jimmy]

Is it possible to get locked into the Dark Acropolis map's starting room if you don't carry Wings of Wrath into it?

 

Also, minor thing: I noticed that the portal to the Falgor Deadlands in Cyrgoth's Stronghold doesn't appear to have a symbol (with a print-message if you use it) beside it.

[Ichor]

1 hour ago, Jimmy said:

Is it possible to get locked into the Dark Acropolis map's starting room if you don't carry Wings of Wrath into it?

 

That teleporter to the next area should open once the death wyvern is dead.

[Jimmy]

Hmm. The wyvern's pretty hard to kill if you're the Fighter...

[Seidolon]

2 hours ago, Jimmy said:

Also, minor thing: I noticed that the portal to the Falgor Deadlands in Cyrgoth's Stronghold doesn't appear to have a symbol (with a print-message if you use it) beside it.

Ok thank you I somehow must've over looked that.

37 minutes ago, Jimmy said:

Hmm. The wyvern's pretty hard to kill if you're the Fighter...

There should be plenty of mana in that area. A few quietus strikes as the Wyvern passes close by should get the job done.