Return to Hadron Episode 3 - Idgames release

[cannonball]

4 hours ago, D.Vile said:

I beat all of the monsters in the final arena of E3M8, but then nothing happened. No traces of an exit switch or portal nearby. Tried opening the map on GZDoom Builder to figure out if I was missing something, and it turns out there is indeed no level exit (no signs of linedef actions 11 or 52). Oh, bummer.

The way to exit E3M8 is the same way as most other UDoom wads. When the last mastermind falls then the level ends.

Just a note the final fight is accessed through a portal that has been used to exit the levels on the previous several maps. So it is probably worth making sure that the main section of the map is fully cleared before moving to the final part of the map.

[cannonball]

On 6/12/2020 at 9:31 AM, tourniquet said:

Still need to play 3-7 & 3-8 but here are some inept demo's, with tons of deaths for the rest of the set.

HadronE3_TNq.zip

 

I've always been a huge fan of your works, especially Draft Excluder and Hadron E1&E2 are some of my favorite sets for Ultimate Doom. I think this is by far one of  your best efforts to this date. The maps whilst mostly rather short and crisp offer some fantastic challenge and highly chaotic gameplay. Creating some interesting encounters with the limited variety of enemies isn't an easy task and you, once again really hit the nail in that regard. 3-5 and 3-9 were my absolute favorite maps so far.

 

I've no bugs/issues to report at this point however some misc thoughts.

 

3-5 - Didn't like the Combination of a shoot switch and a Cybie right behind, upon entering the BFG fight. The chance of catching a rocket before you even have a chance to leave the teleporter is pretty high

 

Same goes for the teleporter that leads to the exit, i got killed multiple times due to being teleported right in front of the cybie up there.

 

3-9 - I think it's easy to miss the RL at the start, i did and accordingly had a hard time gaining some foothold. Considering there are multiple spots where you can find all other weapons a second RL somewhere might be a good idea

 

The secret blue armor can be accessed without shooting the hidden switch via SR50

 

Cheers for the feedback, glad you enjoyed it. 
Regarding suggestions;

E3M5 - The BFG fight will be a teleport ambush essentially so there won’t be any moments like you and MrZzul experienced. The final cyber at the top tier by the exit has been removed along with the ammo behind the blue door as this is surplus to requirements now.

E3M9 - blue armour is now on the platform where the rocket launcher was, RL and rockets are now on the stairs and behind the wall which lowers when you hit the switch. Not sure whether I should alter the secret you mentioned or just leave it as it is given the precision needed to make the jump.

[baja blast rd.]

just a couple of whatever bugs I got at some point: 

 

e3m9 - one of the 'guaranteed' cyb telefrags managed to fail once (ended up next to the cyb). the teledest for the east cyb is not centralized in its sector, which could explain it.

e3m8 - ran into the exit arena issue too. I left a MM alive in the main map and forgot about it. didn't lose any sleep over it -- I just immediately used a console kill after clearing the final arena when I remembered -- but imo it makes sense to add a way back to the main level.

[cannonball]

RC2 is out now;

All the soft-locks have been addressed.

 

Changes;

E3M1 - Some extra lighting around the doors to aid progression.

E3M2 - No changes 

E3M3 - Outdoor area increased in size slightly, some cosmetic changes to the start and exit areas.

E3M4 - No gameplay changes, but some secrets might be slightly easier to spot and obtain. RL/PG moved slightly to make them easier to pick up.

E3M5 - BFG fight altered, exit cyber + demons removed along with ammo.

E3M6 - No changes

E3M7 - Yellow key now has to be grabbed to leave the arena so people shouldn't get stuck now.

E3M8 - Route from final arena to the main part of the level added, platforms at the start can now be lowered by switches.

E3M9 - RL moved to unmissable position, blue armour on platform that lowers instead. Platforms that the cybers stand on at the start have been shrunk slightly and the teleport destinations properly centred.

Hadrone3rc2.zip

[cannonball]

Okay, hopefully this will be the final update;

Changes;

Some co-op action added along with some extra items here and there.

A few changes (Mostly cosmetic) to some of the maps

Now at this point I am going to post the single episode and a compiled wad with the other two episodes. The compiled wad also includes some cosmetic changes to some maps, it also fixes a few little gameplay issues with a couple of maps that I overlooked at the time. However I am undecided as to whether to go ahead with the full three episode or simply upload the single episode on its own.

Hadrone3rc3.zip

uhadron.zip

 

Hopefully I didn't make any slip ups and break any of the maps, on testing this again they seemed fine but you never know. If there are any bugs/issues then let me know.

[Poncho1]

E3M3 is misspelled as "Blood Dept" (at least, on the automap). Also, unless I'm a crap player, the supercharge secret is impossible to get.

[cannonball]

On 7/13/2020 at 12:29 AM, Poncho1 said:

E3M3 is misspelled as "Blood Dept" (at least, on the automap). Also, unless I'm a crap player, the supercharge secret is impossible to get.

 

Whoops, did not mean to do that. One to add to the last minute fixes.

The secret requires you to be rather quick, however I can make this a little easier by tweaking the access points for the lift.

[Poncho1]

On 6/7/2020 at 1:21 PM, cannonball said:

The thought of combining the episodes had crossed my mind. However as demos have been made for some maps in E1 and E2 I thought it would be best to keep the wads separate unless there is a real drive for this to happen. Plus combining the episodes gives the temptation to tinker with the earlier maps.

Never mind, I found it. I was getting a little frustrated, is all. No need to tweak it in my book. 

 

[Edit] Also whoops, wrong comment to reply to.

Edited July 17, 2020 by Poncho1

[D.Vile]

Just replayed the latest build, and found out that it is still possible to get softlocked in E3M7 by straferunning off the ledge surrounding the yellow key arena into the platform with the teleporter. Guess you have another thing to add to your list of last minute fixes.

[Caleb13]

I gave this try on UV and here are some thoughts:

 

E3M1: paradoxically, I found this to be the hardest map from the pack, mainly because you need to fight so many tough monsters with berserk. More rockets near the start would be handy.

 

E3M5: the red key fight arena needs at least 1 more radsuit. I know about the secret one, but it's so hard to find it's practically irrelevant.

 

E3M7: like D.Vile mentioned, the bars behind the yellow door (sector 658 etc.) should be openable from the outside. I killed the monsters there and then jumped down to sector 605, but I couldn't get back to the final fight teleporter (sector 456).

Edited July 18, 2020 by Caleb13

[Bryan T]

I just finished this. At the end of e3m9 I killed the 3 cybers and then nothing. The lift kept raising and falling and I couldn't leave the area. Playing on gzdoom 4.3.3.

Edit: On second thought that could've been my fault. I had killed everything and couldn't find a way to the yellow key so I jumped over to it. 

Edited July 22, 2020 by Bryan T

[cannonball]

On 7/18/2020 at 10:50 PM, Caleb13 said:

I gave this try on UV and here are some thoughts:

 

E3M1: paradoxically, I found this to be the hardest map from the pack, mainly because you need to fight so many tough monsters with berserk. More rockets near the start would be handy.

 

E3M5: the red key fight arena needs at least 1 more radsuit. I know about the secret one, but it's so hard to find it's practically irrelevant.

 

E3M7: like D.Vile mentioned, the bars behind the yellow door (sector 658 etc.) should be openable from the outside. I killed the monsters there and then jumped down to sector 605, but I couldn't get back to the final fight teleporter (sector 456).

Cheers for that. I will add a couple more rockets on the first map as in the end it won't make much difference on difficulty as the aim was to make an oppressive first impression.

E3M5 - A radsuit by the red key will be added, this is something I have spotted in a couple of other playthroughs as well.

E3M7 - You and D.Vile are not the only ones to spot the issue on E3M7, a glaring mistake that there should have been bars on the windows to prevent dropping down to an earlier part of the level, however I have implemented the fix regardless as it will still apply to co-op.

 

[cannonball]

Final release (Just Episode 3)

 

Hadrone3.zip

 

All issues should have been addressed in this release. The IDgames version should be up in a few days hopefully. Thanks to everyone for spotting issues and general blunders on my behalf. 

[dubaCRO]

18 hours ago, cannonball said:

Final release (Just Episode 3)

 

Hadrone3.zip

 

All issues should have been addressed in this release. The IDgames version should be up in a few days hopefully. Thanks to everyone for spotting issues and general blunders on my behalf. 

no way man,i didnt know u were making hadron episode 3.playing it ASAP!

[Salt-Man Z]

On 8/30/2020 at 3:00 PM, cannonball said:

Final release (Just Episode 3)

Hadrone3.zip

Are you planning on doing a final version of the 3-in-one release as well?

[cannonball]

On 8/31/2020 at 9:08 PM, Salt-Man Z said:

Are you planning on doing a final version of the 3-in-one release as well?

 

It had crossed my mind quite a few times to the point where I did have a look back at the previous episodes to see if I could stitch it all together. However for now I think I am going to leave things as they are.

 

==============================================================

 

Idgames download is up;

 

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/Ports/g-i/hadrone3

 

[Valboom]

Congratulations for the release!

[tmorrow]

OMG! Cannonball, you've gone cyberdemon crazy! It took me 2 weeks to beat these maps on UV. E3M8 alone took me a week of attempts. I reserved the 2 invulnerabilities for last 2 fights - the baron/caco pit and the finale but that still meant learning how to reliably beat the initial room full of enemies and 6 setpieces, 2 for each of the keys. Over 800 enemies, 18 cyberdemons and 11 spider masterminds! It's complete madness! Return to Hadron indeed!

[Lorenz0]

Congratulations for the cacoward runner up!

 

I just got done playing the first 5 maps and I enjoyed them way more than expected. The gameplay is tight, tense, and fast all the way through. You're honestly a genius at applying pressure to the player. Being forced to run and gun pretty much constantly, with not too many breaks in between, while not ever feeling unfair is a sign of a well designed level in my book. As someone who focuses on setpiece encounters in my maps, I'm very impressed that you were able to do this with mostly incidental combat.

 

I'm gonna finish my first hmp playthrough, and after that I might just play it again on UV, and record some videos on youtube for you.

[Rednov]

I've just finished this wad and, well, if Sigil gave birth to a boy and he was a gifted child, he would be this wad. It doesn't decay at all, like a symphonic orchestra. The maps and their architecture are complex, non-lineal and varied (even using only Doom textures), and the combats are intense and varied: there are maps in which you must run and face enemies until the end, and there are traps with a lot of monsters in small halls. But the most important thing: it makes clear from the beginning that the rocket launcher is the pillar of your arsenal (as well as plasmagun and especially BFG later), while shotgun and chaingun are mostly relegated to face enemies when they're few and weak. This is the best Ultimate Doom episode I've ever played, at least the most balanced and fun. Soon I'll play this in UV and search the secret level.

 

PD.: The only criticisms I have are at E3M7, in Prboom+ you can reach an invulnerability from outside the secret area. There is another bad thing but I can't remember it now.

[Rudolph]

Found out about Return to Hadron while browsing the Doom wiki and started playing the first episode today. It is surprisingly challenging for an Ultimate Doom mapset. I like it! As of yet, my only (minor) issue is that the music, while excellent, does not always seem to match the pace of the map it is playing in, e.g. the slow, almost pensive "Under Death" in E1M4, a map that starts you right in the middle of the action and never lets up.

 

Anyway, I have taken the liberty to stitch the three episodes and Draft Excluder together to create a full mapset replacement for my personal enjoyment, but I would not say no to an official compilation if you end up changing your mind about it!

Edited March 1, 2021 by Rudolph