The Return of Terminus' Playtesting Streams Series! [Hiatus]

[Clippy]

Thanks for playing buddy that was fun to watch. A cyber demon did get crushed at the start ish you're not insane but my plan to make you insane worked out pretty well. I'm glad you think this is my better map as I'm happy with how this one turned out. Here's my latest map that comes after this one that I don't think worked out quite as well and is probably 50 times harder. Same amount monsters only if you're interested 

 

 

Lol that picture in my thumbnail is not what my map looks like 

 

 

[Stabbey]

I could use some more eyes to help better balance and test my maps. I've just finished a two-map set. I like the first one a lot, the second one is more controversial and might not end up making the cut. GZDoom recommended. Both maps have been balanced to be beatable from a pistol start on UV difficulty. I'm not the best player and I know the map so I can't be a good judge of the amount of health provided.

 

The first map, Nukage Treatment Pools is about 40-50 minutes long, but it's highly linear so there should be little risk of getting lost. The second map, Dead in Five Minutes is about 15-20 minutes long, also linear, but far shorter.

 

The music tracks used are both MIDI's by Lee Jackson from the original Rise of the Triad OST. That OST is used in many WADS.

 

Thanks for your time.

[MAN_WITH_GUN]

Hey there @Terminus, good to see you're back. I have a request from your well-known PUSS event, it's a doom 1 speed megawad and all maps in it made in 3 hours. My map is on e1m8 slot, it's pretty short because y'know - 3 hours only. It's a hell map, that's all :P

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/nte93kxjzapqrco/PUSS13.Beta.Final.wad/file

[Terminus]

We're Live!

Slight delay, but we're good to go. Come join!

http://twitch.tv/motiterminus

 

[Delisk]

Just finished my new map

 

 

[CblBOPOTKA]

If you're interested. This map

 

- is quite big (par time 45 min)

- contains some easy puzzles

- propose some slaughterish fights

- has a bunch of experimental stuff

 

 

[Terminus]

Live now!

Apologies for the slight delay. Come hang out!
http://twitch.tv/motiterminus

 

[Terminus]

Thank you to everyone who joined in yesterday. It's always a pleasure to have you guys on board for these streams!

Here's the VOD link:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1303320872

 

 

The WADs that I've played are listed in the first post as usual.

 

I'm still unable to upload to Youtube due to my computer's age finally starting to take its toll, but do not worry as I am keeping all of the VODs on my hard drive even after they expire. So I will end up uploading all of these to Youtube. I would still recommend everyone to check out the Twitch VODs ASAP if they don't want to miss their map being played, if they weren't there during the stream itself.

 

The next stream is gonna be another Sunday stream, so I will see you guys on February 27th! Same time as always. Hopefully this next stream will be a little longer than usual.

Submissions are still open for anyone interested!

[Delisk]

I do not know if you where planning to play my map (Asmodeus Cursed Sanctuary) on the next stream, however I will not be home for most of this week-end and I would prefer to be there when you play it, so do not hesitate to push it back to next week.

[Stabbey]

I just completed what are probably going to be the final revisions on my "More Tricks and Traps than You Require" map.

 

It replaces MAP 08 for Doom 2. It's a GZDoom compatible map which is a "Hub + 7". Any door off the hub can be completed in any order from a pistol start on UV, finding 0 secrets. All three keys are required to leave, but can be obtained in any order.

 

While in theory the map can be finished in as short as 15 minutes for someone who knows exactly where to go, there's a lot of optional content. So in practice this is a LONG map approaching an hour for full completion, so put this one at the back of your queue behind most of the megawads you need to finish up. I wouldn't recommend starting it if you're tired or starting to feel like you need a break.

 

 

Edited February 27, 2022 by Stabbey

[Terminus]

Apologies for the last-minute update but I will not be streaming today as I am not feeling too well.

I will do my best to stream tomorrow instead and if not then it will happen on the weekend as it usually would've.

Sorry guys.

[Delisk]

You have nothing to apologize for... take care of yourself!

[Terminus]

Gonna have to skip this (already past) weekend's stream for the rest of the week, so our next one will be on Saturday, March 5th.

I've also made the executive decision to temporarily close down Megawad submissions, or to be more specific - anything that contains more than 11 maps.

 

I didn't imagine I would get so many megawads submitted for playtesting simultaneously and it takes up much more stream time than I thought. Not that it's a bad thing, but while I do enjoy playing megawads I tend to drag them on for months until I'm done with them as I try to play more than one at a time, as well as other submissions in between.

I will of course continue anything that was already submitted and hopefully get to finishing them very soon, but until the list is significantly smaller I will not be taking any further megawad submissions for the time being.

 

Very few exceptions will be made, such as speed megawads (like Short Maps For Short People as an example, where each map takes anywhere between 1-5 minutes to beat), or if you have a megawad steadily in progress that I've already started playing and you're sending me a new update (like Bloodflow), but you get the point here.

 

This incredibly talented community is releasing great projects at a much faster pace than I can play all of them, so this is me trying to catch up.

[Terminus]

Live now!

Slight delay, but we're finally kicking things into gear. Let's play some Doom, shall we?

http://twitch.tv/motiterminus

 

[cannonball]

Cheers for playing through my map (Within the Solar Struggle Mapset), apologies for not answering during the stream (Alas was able to watch but had to repeatedly go and do other things).

The visuals were deliberate in fitting with the title, I tried to essentially stick to a sterile theme with reds offsetting this. The progression should be easier in the update as the path to the red key isn't marked very well. There were a couple of other things that I spotted that need addressing, which is always helpful (Notably the soulsphere secret where I didn't put block lines on the teleporter to access that platform, as such many of the monsters in the final trap teleport up there and are rendered harmless). 

As it wasn't answered, the music originally was used in a Heretic episode released in 2015, but was notably used in Mechadon's Formalhaut from THT in 2016. It was used in Eviternity though.

[Stabbey]

5 hours ago, Terminus said:

Live now!

Slight delay, but we're finally kicking things into gear. Let's play some Doom, shall we?

http://twitch.tv/motiterminus

 

 

Thanks for the playthrough of Dead in Five Minutes.

 

You said that the first part wasn't compelling, and didn't have good gameplay. That is actually one of my concerns about the map, and one reason why even I'm on the fence about it. Do you think that it's possible make that premise compelling? If so, what changes to gameplay do you think would improve it?

 

Things I could try:

1) Increasing the number of Cacodemons somewhat.

2) Putting stationary monsters onto the light columns.

3) Removing the pillar from the Arachnotron cage so there's a wider field of view.

 

However, I am only a moderately skilled player, so there's only so hard I can make the map and still have it beatable for me, and even if I was better, I have a knowledge advantage from dozens of playtests. I don't want to tip the scales all the way into "this is unfair bulls&*t" territory. John Suitepee for instance thought that the combat bordered on unfair, but didn't cross over too badly, and he cited that was because there weren't too many cacos swarming, and the Arachnotrons didn't have too good an angle, and so on.

 

 

[Terminus]

Hey guys!

Thank you for your constant support and submissions.

I have something important to prepare for tomorrow so I will unfortunately not be streaming today. However that just means for next week there will be two playtesting streams!

On Monday, March 14th, we will start at the usual time of 5PM GMT.

On Saturday, March 19th, we will start one hour later than usual - at 6PM GMT, and incidentally it will also be a birthday stream! My birthday is on the 20th, and I am hoping to be streaming for long enough for the time to turn midnight during the stream, so it should be a whole lot of fun.

 

Of course, if anyone wants to submit their map or short episode for me to play on the stream, feel free to do so.

I hope to see you all on both Monday and next Saturday!

 

To answer some recent comments:

 

@Stabbey - It definitely is possible to make the first part more interesting! For example, you could make it so more Cacodemons spawn outside, move the Arachno pillar a little closer so they can have a better shot at getting to you and the player gets a little less dodge time, spawn some enemies on the outer pillars, and maybe make it so the Cyberdemons can actually see you for more than just the last 30 seconds. That's just the tip of the iceberg, I'm sure there's more things that you could try to add to make the gameplay of the first half a little more engaging for the player.

 

@cannonball - Thanks for the clarification, your map was very enjoyable none the less and I'm glad my playthrough was helpful. :)

[Stabbey]

On 3/12/2022 at 5:43 AM, Terminus said:

@Stabbey - It definitely is possible to make the first part more interesting! For example, you could make it so more Cacodemons spawn outside, move the Arachno pillar a little closer so they can have a better shot at getting to you and the player gets a little less dodge time, spawn some enemies on the outer pillars, and maybe make it so the Cyberdemons can actually see you for more than just the last 30 seconds. That's just the tip of the iceberg, I'm sure there's more things that you could try to add to make the gameplay of the first half a little more engaging for the player.

 

I myself am not a top-tier Doom player. I try to beat MAP 02 saveless (no counting the autosave), and even after many playtests, it's still not unusual for me to get momentarily distracted long enough to get creamed by the Cyberdemon. I will try some changes and tweaks, like a few more Cacodemons, and a few enemies appearing on the platforms, and giving the Arachnotrons a slightly better field of view... but I may end up leaving the base map untouched, but including a copy of the map with a harder difficulty included in the WAD.

 

Edited March 14, 2022 by Stabbey : removed previous edit

[Terminus]

Live now!

Let's play some Doom, shall we?

 

http://twitch.tv/motiterminus

 

[Terminus]

Live Now!

Birthday Stream time! Gonna be playing Doom until the clock turns midnight on my birthday. Come hang out!
http://twitch.tv/motiterminus

[CblBOPOTKA]

I fell asleep almost immediately after the start of the stream, too late time in our region. Watched the VOD - great playthrough. You and Stabbey gave me good ideas for gameplay improvement. That cyber must be seen from great spawn machine, to force player climb over the mines to reach BFG. But still map requires some exploration and this is the way how it designed initially. Hope it wasn't much painful experience on your bday) Good bday!

[MAN_WITH_GUN]

Sup @Terminus, here's my really short and small speedmap made in 2 hours and it was a part of recent ASS contest, you might heard about it before.

 

IWAD: Doom 2

Port: Prboom plus (complevel 9)

Theme: 23 monsters

Time: Shouldn't take more than 2-3 mins.

Sexy delicious download: Here, catch!

[Terminus]

Hi guys,

I'm gonna step down for a while. IRL matters happened and that comes first and foremost. I don't know what's the next stream ETA, but when I do return I will of course let you know.

Nothing major's happened and I'm mostly okay, but I need time to process things. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I'll return, and submissions will be fully reopened by then methinks.

Feel free to submit more wads if you want, and I will get to them in due time.

[Astro X]

I just realized you actually played a few maps made by me! And also other cool ones too. I'm sorry I'm this late.

 

But it seems your Twitch channel doesn't have any streams available to watch, sadly. I'm not sure that was intentional.

[Terminus]

Hey guys!

Figured I should give a bit of an explanation for my disappearance.

 

I'm not in a good head space to stream right now. Dealing with a lot of stress involving job hunting and staying afloat. I hardly have time to play Doom on Single player either way.

I don't know when I'll be back to streaming unfortunately. I tried to gather mental energy during a holiday last month and I just couldn't.

I'm sorry to anyone disappointed by this news. All of the submissions will be played eventually, I promise, whether be it on single player (with testing notes sent to the author ofc) or whenever I go back to streaming, once life decides to throw me a bone.

 

@Astro X I have played some maps of Astroverse a few months back, yes. Twitch VODs usually last two weeks and then they poof, so I make sure to download the stream VODs to my computer to later upload them to Youtube. I've been delaying the Youtube uploads because my toaster computer is struggling to handle it, but they will be up! Eventually. Promise.

 

I'd also like to address that I will continue this and I am not declaring quits whatsoever. I love Doom and I really enjoy streaming, and being helpful for the community is something I'm truly passionate about. I'm thinking of changing the format of how these streams are handled so it's better for both the user submissions and the general pacing of the streams. Right now there's nothing concrete, but this will be more relevant once I return.

 

For now I thank you all for the constant support and hope to see you soon. <3 

[Terminus]

Hi! One thing led to another and it's been about half a year since I last streamed. Jesus Christ.

I'd first of all like to update you all that things are better. I got a new job, I'm financially and mentally recovering and I'm generally doing a lot better in the past couple of months or so!

Some people have already asked me multiple times when I'm going to be streaming again. Well, I have... news?

 

Unfortunately I have two major problems that are still preventing me from streaming.

First one is, sadly, a lack of time. The new job is more time-consuming than I imagined it'd be, and my weekends fly by before I can even finish playing a single map.

The second one is, well, my computer is finally on its last straws. It's 10 years old, gets randomly stuck, and everything is so slow and jittery that it might overheat if I try to play Witcher 3 with Google Chrome open.

 

So, the plan is as follows.

Holiday season is coming soon over here (near the end of September), and during that time I hope to stream at least a couple of times. I've yet to try to run OBS lately, but I hope it won't run like dog water.

Other than that, if things go according to plan, hopefully by early January or even December, I shall get a new rig and put this one to rest. With a new powerful PC, I should be able to stream and provide some quality content once again. Trust me that I cannot wait for this to happen, and I miss streaming a whole bunch.

 

There's a lot of wads that I've missed, and those that I stopped playing abruptly in the middle, and to the authors of these wads I truly apologize. I'm sure you've moved on to your next projects since I last picked up your wad for playtesting, so once I'm back in the business, feel free to yeet your beautiful maps at me.

 

I once again thank every single person who ever joined my streams, you guys keep me motivated and nothing brings me more joy than to be helpful for the community. I hope to see you all next month. <3

 

Tl;dr - Things are better, however I'm super busy and my computer is grasping at straws for its life so no streams yet, gonna hopefully get a new one soon-ish!