Descent into Hell ready for download

[Brad_tilf]

Yup, the wad is finally ready. I spent the entire day working on the difficulty levels and playtesting it using various ports. It is only the first level in what will eventually be a complete (I hope) resurrection of Doom2. Enjoy. And.. Please email me with your thoughts and let me know if you find any glitches. The addy is:
http://www.doomwadstation.suhost.com/descent.html

[Ichor]

Oooooo, this should be fun...

[Brad_tilf]

Please, let me know but if you play it on anything but Ultra Violence or Hurt me plenty you're probably going along for a little trip to visit the wad. The real fun in in ultraviolence

[Ichor]

I played mine in skill 4 (Ultra violence). First of all, there was enough ammo and to make it through with no real problems, but I did notice a few things.

1 - Some of those long halls are secret areas, but I don't think they should be. They weren't all that secret, heheh.
2 - That red key column at the end was a bit redundant, since you needed the red key (and the blue key) to get through those doors leading to the caged Cacodemons in the lava.
3 - When I saw those chaingun guys at the end, I thought I was in for a tough battle, but those crushers took care of them for me (and crushed their guns they left behind).

[Vile]

Yeah, same comments about the tunnels. It's a nice-looking and fun level, the only real problem I had was a VPO error. I got it facing the wall(?) at the backpack in the room with the caco cages (I played on UV skill).

[Ichor]

Using JDoom will eliminate that error.

[Brad_tilf]

Ya - I knew about the visiplane error but I thought I had mentioned that on the page. hmmm - thanks for the feedback guys. I'm gonna go in tomorrow and take off that tag on the tunnels and probably do something at the end so the chaingun guys are a little bit more difficult.
Thanks again

[Brad_tilf]

done :-)
As per your feedback I got rid of the secret tag and did a little something more at the end for those on UV and higher.
Might be interesting to try it on Nightmare at that.

[Chopkinsca]

I would try it again, but I just deleted doom, and I don't feel like d/l zdoom again, and tranfering the doom2 wad file..

[Ichor]

Much better with the chaingun guys. Even though a couple of them were still behind the crushers, I don't think they were squished by them (I killed them before they had the chance).

I didn't notice this before, but that door where you start from (almost every level has one for some reason) bordered by the red skulls. I thought that was a door which needed the red key, but it never opened. I think you may have just used that as a decoration, but that is typically used as an indicator for red key doors, and that would lead people into believing that it needs a key to open. Of course, you could put something back there, like a section of the map which leads to a nice weapon or whatever.

How's this for a wacky idea:

Keep that door I mentioned the way it is, but add another area behind it which eventually leads to the blue key. On that raised pentagram in the big room could be the green armor (and if this is the first of many maps in a series, you might want to remove the super shotgun from this map altogether). And in the hall leading to the caged Cacodemons, remove the red door, but keep the blue one.

[Brad_tilf]

I appreciate the thoughts but I think I'll leave it the way it is.
Personally, I don't see how you could make it through the level without the ssg. ouch!
Unless you're like a doom god.
I'm glad you liked the changes I did make tho

[Ichor]

If this is the first in a series, it shouldn't be that hard anyway. The only time I actually used the super shotgun was to kill the Cacodemons, mainly to conserve shells. If I had used it all the time (like to kill the Lost Souls), I would have run out of ammo by around where I found the red key.

[Brad_tilf]

Ya - the ssg is definitely an ammo hog but man, it comes in handy sometimes.
I hope everybody has pretty much enjoyed the playing experience with this wad and yes, it is the first in a series so its basically a lead-in but I thought I made if fairly difficult - not a piece of cake or anything...

[Chopkinsca]

I found it slightly easy, and I played on UV, something I don't do too often.. because I suck. or I think I do

[Kid Airbag]

Ichor said:

Using JDoom will eliminate that error.

Just about all source ports remove VPOs and other such errors caused by limitations in the vanilla exes.

[Jello]

Well, it was pretty good in all. If it is the first in a series, then maybe the difficulty is alright. I actually found it extremely easy on UV, I had enough ammo to go around, but I mainly just used my single barrel. I did notice that several times, enemies (former humans and imps mainly)would just stand there staring at me, even after I shot my gun near them. This only happened in the long tunnels though. Other than that, as a first level in a series it should work pretty good. Just maybe think about adding in some more enemies on UV, and I'd be happy.

[Brad_tilf]

The next level will be more difficult - I promise. :-)
I didn't put any really hard creatures in this one like the Hellknight or anything so that makes it a little easier but I'm trying to factor in that there will be many more levels to follow.
I did, however, change the wall texture on the entry door walls....
Thats the last change I'm making... Time to start work on the next in the series.