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ViolentBeetle

Hell Frontier. WIP megawad for Doom 2. [Development thread: Episode 3 progress 7/???] - New MAP30 (update 17.03.2024)

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Very nice, can't wait to try them out again. I was the "door guy" on /vr/ who helped you with Bad Reception and other maps. Also I don't know if you spotted my post from 2 days ago, but seeing your mapping progress was very useful.

 

1.PNG.b21f252fddecedeaa28999c6462e3602.PNG

 

Will probably report back later when I've played through the whole thing. You might wanna check out my wad too, if you like.

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14 minutes ago, Killerratte said:

Very nice, can't wait to try them out again. I was the "door guy" on /vr/ who helped you with Bad Reception and other maps. Also I don't know if you spotted my post from 2 days ago, but seeing your mapping progress was very useful.

 

1.PNG.b21f252fddecedeaa28999c6462e3602.PNG

 

Will probably report back later when I've played through the whole thing. You might wanna check out my wad too, if you like.

I saw it but wasn't able to reply at the time. Glad to see someone got encouraged.

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Ehem...Quarantine is boring, so yesterday i've decided to start recording doom gameplay.

Here is my playthrough map01:

https://youtu.be/vFVCS8sFSCk

(im still trying to figure out why OBS omits first seconds of video, so sorry about that)

 

Map is solid, compact and well packed with a pinch of claustrophobia (i could swear i hit my head with computer hanging from ceiling on 1:15) and quite a challenge on UV, but not too hard. Lightning effects are very nice. Only one frustrating thing is doors: you open you wait you open wait. Too many of them on a little space.

 

Didn't find all the secrets, otherwise poking all the walls video would be too long.

 

If video playthrough helps i will continue

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4 hours ago, 4MaTC said:

Ehem...Quarantine is boring, so yesterday i've decided to start recording doom gameplay.

Here is my playthrough map01:

https://youtu.be/vFVCS8sFSCk

(im still trying to figure out why OBS omits first seconds of video, so sorry about that)

 

Map is solid, compact and well packed with a pinch of claustrophobia (i could swear i hit my head with computer hanging from ceiling on 1:15) and quite a challenge on UV, but not too hard. Lightning effects are very nice. Only one frustrating thing is doors: you open you wait you open wait. Too many of them on a little space.

 

Didn't find all the secrets, otherwise poking all the walls video would be too long.

 

If video playthrough helps i will continue

All feedback is helpful, although your use of vertical aiming might mess up later maps, such as 4, 5 and 7 which are not designed with this in mind.

 

4 hours ago, 4MaTC said:

(i could swear i hit my head with computer hanging from ceiling on 1:15)

I actually checked and it is exactly as tall as the doomguy, can probably give such an impression, but won't obstruct you in any way.

Edited by ViolentBeetle

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Map01 - Same as when I tested it before, good map. I wonder though, did you increase the amount of monsters in the inner yard?

 

Map02 - Loved this map back when I first played it. Note that I found a texture problem as seen in the screenshot.

 

Screenshot_Doom_20200716_214816.png.c038a0f0ec98c89d8bb6f45e21cc35b8.png

 

Map03 - The eyes in the wall thing, could you somehow use a switch texture here it, so it closes the eyes when you press them, it's just a minor thing.

 

Screenshot_Doom_20200716_215338.png.1f67dc90f7323e9cedd3737119c9c79d.png


Map04 - I'd get permabanned on this forum if I'd try to write any comments about it.


Map05 - It's a good map up till I got STUCK, but the difficulty is completely upside down here. Right when you pick up the BFG you get swarmed by tons of hitscanners and Revenants and an Archvile and they completely fuck you up while you try to run out. Even BEFORE that you get an Archivile spawned behind you and if the plasma stunlock doesn't work you're already screwed. Then after you beat that entire part the map is suddenly way easier. I mean right after you leave that room you're faced with three lousy hell knights and after that some Cacos and then you encounter a bunch of Imps & Chaingunners, clustered together, where you're able to easily take cover. I mean that really doesn't scale well at all until you come to the blood floor room.

 

Screenshot_Doom_20200717_215030.png.81036d482926cbfb13584465ed6aea35.png

 

Also I couldn't continue after I cleared the red blood room. At first I was wondering if it's a broken trigger. I looked into Doom Builder to see how it's working. Turns out that a monster got stuck when I hit the switch, (and that monster seemed to be a Spectre), causing the floor movement to stop, as demonstrated by my screenshot with a spider.

 

Screenshot_Doom_20200717_215849.png.b13a5443ac55183440d029f6d8f95b76.png

 

I had to stop playing after that, or I'd start smashing my keyboard. I got filtered too hard.

Edited by Killerratte

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1 minute ago, Killerratte said:

ausing the floor movement to stop, as demonstrated by my screenshot with a spider.

Hm, shouldn't it resume once you kill the spider though?

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Nope, doesn't move. Try it for yourself. Idclip over there and try hitting the switch while she stands under the bars.

 

Screenshot_Doom_20200717_221529.png.eed776ccc7e72269bb2eb21717079bdb.png

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4 minutes ago, Killerratte said:

Nope, doesn't move. Try it for yourself. Idclip over there and try hitting the switch while she stands under the bars.

 

Screenshot_Doom_20200717_221529.png.eed776ccc7e72269bb2eb21717079bdb.png

Yeah, weird. Going to need a better mechanism.

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A mid-update change log based on feedback so far:

  • MAP02: Rocket launcher is moved out of the secret and into the main area. Additional ammo provided. Switch to lower the really big lift is lit up to draw attention.
  • MAP03: A few obstacles removed and pick-ups reshuffled to not be mandatory anymore.
  • MAP04: No more specters in dark areas. That was a bad idea. The number of teleporting revenants is reduced significantly, added a few teleporting imps instead. Might remove teleporting imps later as well.
  • MAP05: Removed potentially bug-inducing bars. There's no real reason to keep you from jumping back into the pool of blood.
  • MAP07: Removed soul sphere being fed to a voodoo doll for being unreliable, compensated by adding more medkits into the arena. Removed some ammo and shell pickups for being way more than necessary.

Those changes are not yet in the upload, just keeping you in the loop. And shamelessly bumping my own thread.

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I have set myself an arbitrary deadline of September 1st when I will upload the final version on Episode 1 on idgames. Until then I will finish working on tweaks.

 

I am also now started working on further maps that will be included in "Episode 2" pack, starting with MAP10: Beheadquarters. The wad contains stand-alone level in 10th slot.

Edited by ViolentBeetle : Probably no reason to not add link here as well, for ease to find.

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This is the final-final pre-release version of Hell Frontier. Not much has changed since the ones in the opening, but overall it's more generous, with more health and ammo pickups. This will likely be the one uploaded on ID Games, maybe a little cleaned of superflous skies.

 

This is your last chance to have an opinion on it.

hell_frontier_prerelease.rar

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After a sleepless night of balancing, here it is: MAP11: Foile a Deux. The last map on Earth and the second map ready for "Episode 2". Load it with main wad for sky and crates.

 

 

hf11.rar

DOOM0028.png

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Another map for Episode 2 is ready for testing. This time it's MAP08. Not decided on the name yet.

Please refer to the next post for link, I deleted this one.

 

 

DOOM0045.png

 

Edited by ViolentBeetle

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Slight update for the same map. I would delete my previous version, but I posted link in some places and don't want it to be gone entirely.

Fixed missing type on some floors that should be damaging.

Expanded windows on wooden gallery and moved blue door to make it a less lucrative camping spot.

Made lift go both way, but locked until you reach the bottom from elsewhere.

Replaced some imps with cacos to make them not get lost under the ledge.

Removed Arch-Viles from the last monster pack.

hf08v2.rar

Edited by ViolentBeetle

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Just wanted to update and bump, guys. After @Bridgeburner56 played through my wad, I'm pretty confident about it, just going to incorporate some of his suggestions before loading the final version on idgames. Finally.

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I am still working on it, but took a break for Hellevator. I've done another revision going by @Bridgeburner56 and after one last round of testing, I will finally be done with those seven maps I promise. The latest set of tests were conducted in PrBoom+ complevel 2.

 

Download link

Edited by ViolentBeetle

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MAP09: Acid Trip.

Now I actually have 11 maps and might have a more logical episode. But I would need to rebalance the other 3 maps and not sure I have patience necessary.

hf09.rar

doom29.png

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Very nice work and clever map design, I'm really looking forward to the future maps! In the meantime, I tried "hell_frontier_3009.wad" on UV in GZdoom 4.5.0 and I noticed some problems:

 

-MAP01: it wouldn't hurt to move the EXIT sign to a more visible place.

 

-MAP02: several monsters didn't teleport out of sector 659 because they're deaf (thus 100% kills is impossible).

 

-MAP04: small HOM (or maybe unclosed sector) at the bottom of door sector 345, the door need to be open and you need to look from the east to see it.

 

-MAP05: cacodemon 61 can't teleport out, 100% kills is impossible.

 

-MAP07: this one could use more rockets and/or cells. I got unlucky with the last batch of archviles, they resurrected too many tough monsters before I could dispatch them. I had to snipe the last one (and the monsters it kept resurrecting) with chaingun, even though I had lots of ammo from previous maps. MAP07 is also suddenly much harder than the others, particularly the blue key arena.

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Oh, one more thing, the intermission text is cut off. I deliberately play on oldschool 1024x768 resolution and this seems to happen in other mods too, lately - maybe it's caused by recent GZdoom changes, but I'm not sure.

Screenshot_Doom_20210109_130038.png

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Yeah, I tested it primarily in Crispy Doom and it breaks lines by default. I only recently discovered that other ports do not and I'll have to break them manually. Pretty annoying.

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It only breaks lines if they exceed Vanilla's horizontal resolution. The alternative would be to stop printing altogether at that point. 

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9 minutes ago, fabian said:

It only breaks lines if they exceed Vanilla's horizontal resolution. The alternative would be to stop printing altogether at that point. 

Yeah, there's no issue with Crispy Doom, problem is with everyone else not doing that. (I think gzDoom also did it for me, could be compatibility setting). Regardless I'll make time to break the lines to fit.

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The wad is now officially an 11-maps episode replacement. I've been balancing this the whole night and now it's much tighter.

Major overhaul's been done on maps 8, 10 and 11. Map 5 now has a death exit.

This will hopefully be the final beta for this map set.

 

Please refer to the opening post for the wad.

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A small balancing update as I did some more testing. Mostly rebalancing of MAP10 with new sound blocking lines and slightly more ammo for the big courtyard fight.

 

The wad also now supports co-op on every level.

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Release candidate for episode 1 now uploaded. It might be the final version.

 

Important changes:

- Restored a wall that went missing on MAP02 as well as some other geometry on the upper terrace

- Added a wall in red key room on MAP04 to help avoid the arch-vile during the fight for the key.

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