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RonnieJamesDiner

Tartarus (UDMF / OTEX map for GZDoom) Now on /idgames!

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It's the "All special lines can block <use>" compatibility option. The line that teleports the monsters around is just too close to the switch. You can force it off through MAPINFO:

 

map MAP01 "Tartarus"
{
    sky1 = "OSKY04"
    music = "ROGUE"
    compat_useblocking = 0
}

 

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33 minutes ago, boris said:

It's the "All special lines can block <use>" compatibility option. The line that teleports the monsters around is just too close to the switch. You can force it off through MAPINFO:

 


map MAP01 "Tartarus"
{
    sky1 = "OSKY04"
    music = "ROGUE"
    compat_useblocking = 0
}

 

 

You're a MAD MAN. Hopefully that is indeed the issue. I had no idea that was a setting. I can't thank you enough! 

 

@kaleb. @Demion I'll update the WAD as soon as I get home, hopefully this is the only source of the issue for you.

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46 minutes ago, Turin Turambar said:

The blue column (the one for the blue key) won't lower if you don't pick the BFG. And you can't pick it up if you have 600 cells already...

 

I actually realized this after the release, and have since changed the setup there to avoid this. Thanks for pointing it out though! It'll be corrected for the update. 

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Ultra-minor nitpick: what is that baron at the start hanging from?

Spoiler

KUHKixu.png

 

The void in this area isn't instadeath, a fact some arch-viles helped me discover. They're so helpful!

Spoiler

K2W0Dyu.png

The textured automap fails here, which seems to hint at broken subsectors.

Spoiler

xKvX7bP.png

 

 

The upper arena for the blue key (with the big spider) is kinda annoying to get back up to if you fall to the lower level during the fight (and I fell a lot). Crossing through the main island, then using two elevators in a row, then crossing through the main island again but on a bridge this time, and finally dropping back down. It could use an elevator to get back into the fray quickly, even if it only becomes active once you land on it "the right way" for the first time, just like how the pool of blood raises. Perhaps this wall section could be it? The other three are passageways.

Spoiler

pek1lqH.png

 

The final melee was... a bit too hard for me, what with the big mess of arch-vile. I tried BFG, I tried infighting, but in the end the method that worked was... the coward's way out, rocket-jumping above the barrier ASAP before they have the time to gang-incinerate me. (They're the ones who gave me the idea to do this, since during an attempt my burnt corpse landed back outside after a quick visit to the stratosphere.) After that, riding the elevator and peeking just a fraction of a second from time to time was enough to trigger a monstrous infighting section which lasted for a long while and ended up with everyone dead except two heavily-wounded cybies.

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@Gez Thanks for checking the map out, I really appreciate the feedback. To address your first few points, (1) Basically... that Baron is hanging by the power of the imagination! I was honestly just hoping no one would think too hard about it, lol. (2) Thank you finding that missing insta-death sector; fixing that. (3) I'll try to fix those broken subsectors, I've been finding them intermittently and just haven't caught them all yet, again thank you. 

 

The blue key arena was a huge oversight by me that shouldn't have been released like that, it's definitely annoying to no end. I've changed it so that the centre blood column will act as one huge lift once it raises up top, this will be part of the update coming shortly.

 

As for the final arena, it's meant to be a serious challenge. I do really appreciate you discovering the fact that you can get blasted out by the Archviles, I'll be blocking those linedefs to hopefully trap the player in there for good (I'm sorry to rob you of your strategy, but I still commend the effort!) So, the idea I had here -- and the strategy I've used to beat that arena -- was getting as many BFG shots off at the Archviles as possible, while waiting for the Cyberdemons to come into play. At that point, it becomes essentially a game of using the Cyberdemons to spark massive infighting with the Viles and Revs, while dodging and killing as best you can, snagging the two Megaspheres that become available as needed. The Cyberdemons are effectively your allies here, at the start. Sometimes I still have a bitch of a time pulling this off, but it is completely manageable.

 

Hopefully the final battle, bugs and oversights didn't detract too much from the experience. The feedback has been really helpful!

 

 

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I've updated the original post with the latest version of the map. Thank you so much for the support and feedback! I'll leave a full list of changes below. If you've already played the map, there aren't really any massive, game-altering changes, just a lot of quality-of-life stuff. Hopefully those of you who were experiencing the red skull switch bug will be in the clear now.

 

// Tartarus v1.1 //

 

-- Visuals --

 

- Replaced small red switches with their purple variants for easier visibility
- Made the switch for the main lift (hopefully) stand out more
- Fixed flickering light level bug in central arena
- (Hopefully) fixed the rest of the broken subsectors

 

-- Gameplay --

 

- Added a MAPINFO compatibility flag to hopefully address the Red Skull switch issue (thank you boris for the incredible tip, and thanks
to kaleb. and Demion for reporting this)
- [Blue Key Arena] The large central blood pillar now acts as a lift once it raises, so the player can almost instantly get back up
to the arena if they fall (thank you Aurelius and gez for bringing this to my attention)
- Added the Yellow Skull to what was originally the optional double-Cyberdemon trap on the eastern edge (requiring the red key). 
The yellow key can still be obtained from the Caco-cage arena/trap at the far north of the map, so there's two ways of getting that key
now. I just wanted to make that Duo-Cyb trap actually mean something, and thought this added a nice bit of extra non-linearity.

- Added a blocking line to the final arena (player should be right proper trapped in there now)
- Added the missing insta-kill sector special (thank you for spotting this gez, though undoubtedly it meant you died a screaming
miserable death discovering it)
- Added a new secret, and re-positioned one of the Soulsphere secrets
- A few other smaller, incidental tweaks

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Wow, looks gorgeous...

swipes right

taps super like

gzdoom -file tartarus_v1.1.zip

15 minutes later...

Wow, that was gorgeus!

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2 hours ago, SP_FACE1 said:

Wow, looks gorgeous...

swipes right

taps super like

gzdoom -file tartarus_v1.1.zip

15 minutes later...

Wow, that was gorgeus! 

 

Thank you sir :P

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@Bridgeburner56 Hey, thanks so much for the kind words and the playthrough, that was great to watch. Sorry I missed the stream! There was actually an updated version that addressed a few of your points -- chief among them being the issue of falling from the blue key arena, you can actually just use the large blood pillar now as a lift. Your feedback was tremendously helpful though, I almost died in my chair when I realized you can activate the final fight a second time... I'll be fixing that immediately. Didn't consider the fact that I was using the same button for both the fight activator, and the perpetual lift caller. Whoops. That was the reason you couldn't get back into the centre at the end, the final fight had technically been "activated" again and the area was sealed off for it. The notes on lighting and directing the player were also extremely helpful. 

 

Immensely appreciated, and just glad to see you had a good time.

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So I finally did a run through this map on HNTR (in my own time, though, not on stream) - gotta say, I'm thoroughly impressed by what you've crafted here. The map was visually a total treat - then again, OTEX is a visual treat in and of itself - and the layout was generally good, allowing more or less free exploration while never reaching the point of being unnecessarily convoluted. Though that might just be the map's size lending to that as well.

 

The gameplay was greatly enjoyable as well. I especially liked the first few steps, with the lack of resources and enemies firing at you from all directions, encouraging staying on the move. The "arena" fight sequences whereafter you get the keys were another highlight - while confined in a fairly small space, I still found adequate room and resources to take out the enemies in relative safety. Generally, the gameplay was quite well done in my opinion. Didn't run into any bugs either.

 

Overall, you've done a good job. I'm looking forward to whatever you may cook up in the future! c:

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@MFG38 Thank you for such a warm review, I'm really excited to hear you enjoyed it! Balancing resources is always a constant struggle for me, but ultimately I wanted the player to have some leniency and freedom to use whichever weapons they preferred, including the BFG (without feeling too overpowered, of course), while keeping that non-linearity in mind as well. I'm glad to hear that, so far, it's felt alright for most people. Thanks again!

 

As a general note, I've finally updated the OP with a link for v1.2 (mainly fixes the finale being triggerable multiple times (thanks to Bridgeburner56 for spotting this one), and adds a few more secrets). 

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Screenshot_Doom_20200110_151057.png.9897899ccee1e831ad627c3fd7a5faad.png

Visual glitch found.

 

Great map. I enjoyed playing it. The red fog makes it kinda hard to distinguish between different areas, but I managed to get lost surprisingly little. If you plan to implement more updates I have a suggestion; change the visual effect of the invulnerability sphere if you care for your players' eyesight ;)

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@Lorenz0 Hey, thanks for checking this out! I'm really glad to hear you enjoyed it. And thanks for pointing out the visual glitch, I'll tend to that. I've been chasing those damn things since I made the map... I think they're caused by vertices not actually being on the grid, but I'm not 100% sure. 

 

5 hours ago, Lorenz0 said:

I have a suggestion; change the visual effect of the invulnerability sphere if you care for your players' eyesight ;)

 

Haha, I've hated that screen effect for as long as I can remember. I don't really know what I could change it to, though. If you had any suggestions I'd be more than happy to hear.

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Eviternity has a custom invul effect, maybe you could look around in Slade to see how they did it, or just ask the creators personally.

From what I've heard 1000 line community project also did that.

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The download has been updated with v1.3.

 

  • The Invulnerability Sphere effect now uses a GreenMap color like in Eviternity; thanks to @Lorenz0 for the great suggestion!
  • Fixed some visual bugs (god I hope that's the last of them)
I'm most likely going to begin the process of having this map uploaded to the idgames archive, so unless there are any major game-breaking issues, this will probably be the final iteration of the map. There are a few things I've considered changing, but I'm taking them more as learning lessons for future projects. I really appreciate all the support and feedback I've received for this, cheers everyone.

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Just finished this on hurt me plenty, wow what an awesome map! Will definitely attempt a ultra violence run asap!

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9 minutes ago, Paul814 said:

Just finished this on hurt me plenty, wow what an awesome map! Will definitely attempt a ultra violence run asap!

 

Thanks so much! I really appreciate that, and happy to hear you enjoyed it. Wishing you the best of luck on the UV attempt :D

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@RonnieJamesDiner I will need all the luck I can get. The Archviles on the island mixed with the Cyberdemons was pure brutality! I didn't realize Doom Guy could fly so well lol. I got launched so many times :) The final confrontation was tough, but not impossible very rewarding feeling when you finally finish a wad like this. Thanks for this great experience!

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19 minutes ago, Paul814 said:

The final confrontation was tough, but not impossible very rewarding feeling when you finally finish a wad like this. Thanks for this great experience!

 

Hopefully it's not too too rough on UV -- there's no Invul Sphere in that final arena anymore, so get those Cyberdemons infighting and stay nimble! I really appreciate the kind words. 

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I got through it on ultra-violence, it's rough but not stupid crazy, I liked it a lot!

 

Ran into a few issues with v1.3 of the wad & gzdoom 4.3.2:

  1. Yellow-key trap, I could activate the switch then run & jump to the teleporter (that brings me to the soul-sphere secret) before the cage drops, then was unable to get to the yellow key again
  2. Blue key platform was positioned well below the height of the upper-platform.  I could drop from the upper arena platform down on it and pick up the blue key, though I then had to noclip to get back, screenshot shows me on the blue-key platform
  3. After starting the blue-key arena fight, dropping back down to the lower level had bugs with the floors not being at the right height, I'd fall into like a pit and can't get out without noclip, screenshot attached
Spoiler

Screenshot_Doom_20200125_121136.png

Screenshot_Doom_20200125_135643.png

 

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18 minutes ago, adamadam said:

Yellow-key trap, I could activate the switch then run & jump to the teleporter (that brings me to the soul-sphere secret) before the cage drops, then was unable to get to the yellow key again

 

This was a major oversight... I really appreciate you pointing that one out.

 

Regarding the blue key arena issues, I'm having trouble figuring out how those occurred. The only one I can replicate is the third point (with the accompanying pictures), but the only way I can replicate it is by breaking sequence in the map by skipping the trigger for the zombie/Archvile battle in the lower pit beneath the BK arena, which occurs earlier in the map. Did you find a way to skip that fight?

 

As for the pillar with the BK itself, again, I'm not sure how this occurred and I am actually unable to replicate it. There's only one trigger to lower the platform by "x" value, and by the sounds of it, the trigger is activating more than once for you somehow. I'll see if I can figure out why that might be happening.

 

I'm sorry to hear you ran into so many issues. I'm not sure if it has anything to do with version 4.3.2 of GZDoom, but version 4.3.3 seems to work fine. I'll see what I can find though, I really appreciate the bug reports. And I'm glad to hear you still enjoyed the experience overall, despite these problems.

 

  

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The issues were minor, I thoroughly enjoyed playing the level!  I know the work you've put into it and for me to noclip two portions is no biggie at all.

 

I didn't skip any fights, first did the fight below the BK arena, then the first fight in the main arena, then circled around / up top & over to the blue-key arena fight before going after the other keys.

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I just ran through the start of the map quickly on god-mode, and the blue-key arena acted normally, nothing glitchy at all (still with gzdoom 4.3.2).  I see now another bug happened with the blue-key arena my first playthrough, after I dropped down, grabbed the BFG, blasted the zombies that rose up, blasted the spider-mastermind, near the time when the two side pillars the barons stand on lower, the zombies in the center again re-animated and the center blood circle rose way up high into the air.  Pressing on the side of the circle I could lower it down to the lower-level floor, then it would raise back up high into the air far above the upper platform.

 

Spoiler

Screenshot_Doom_20200125_160532.png

 

And honestly, I thought reanimating the zombies and shooting the blood high into the air was kind of cool!

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29 minutes ago, adamadam said:

I see now another bug happened with the blue-key arena my first playthrough, after I dropped down, grabbed the BFG, blasted the zombies that rose up, blasted the spider-mastermind, near the time when the two side pillars the barons stand on lower, the zombies in the center again re-animated and the center blood circle rose way up high into the air.  Pressing on the side of the circle I could lower it down to the lower-level floor, then it would raise back up high into the air far above the upper platform.

 

Lol oh my god, I still don't know how these scripts are firing twice for you, but that gave me a good laugh. I'm certain that my ACS work is probably not air tight with that arena (my general ACS abilities are kind of dubious), but I'm hoping I can figure out what's going on here. For now... I'm just going to call that second wave of re-animating zombies a secret bonus fight :P

 

I appreciate the feedback. 

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Just thinking, maybe a save-point & reload midway through the fight caused the scripts to trigger again?  I think I also picked up a bfg before reaching the blue-key arena - earlier in the thread it was mentioned that weapon grab was a trigger?  Maybe I actually grabbed the bfg from that platform after killing the spider mastermind?  I really don't remember the exact order of things tbh.

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