Ante Mortem (UDMF) Development Thread: Map07 "Stygian Odyssey" Released 7/21/22

[Snaxalotl]

Map 07 "Stygian Odyssey" Released 07/21/2022 The Episode 1 release thread can be found here:

 

 

This wad is a work in progress, and all updates will be posted here. Currently Episode 1 has officially been released and work has now begun on the second episode.

Flavor: Mars has been invaded and lost, your method of escape was to board a demonic starship inbound for earth and save what's left by the time you return.



Screenies!!!

Spoiler

 

 

WAD: Ante Mortem
IWAD: Doom II
Tested-Compatible: GZDoom 4.2.0 And Later
Difficulty: Fully Supported
Freelook: Required
Jump-Crouch: Required

Dynamic Lights: REQUIRED

Rendering: Hardware

Pistol Starts: Both are fully supported, (Pistol starts are enforced at the end of each episode)
Custom Texture pack: OTEX version 1.1 by Ola Björling (Ukiro)

Gameplay Modification: Supercharge (Tango)
Other Assets: Carpets from Blood
Music: Plutonia Midi Pack, Sunder, Eviternity, And the title screen music is from Hellstorm Archon's ambient pack

Please note this may not run well on lower end machines with the amount of dynamic lights and actors

Big Thanks to all of my playtesters: Biodegradable, Clippy, DavidN, HAK3180, Azerty, Bridgeburner56, Terminus, And Sandwedge!

 

Download Via Mediafire: Ante Mortem (Don't forget those dynamic lights!) Hope you all enjoy :>

Edited December 12, 2022 by Snaxalotl : Map07 Released 07/21/22

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

Those are some nice screenshots, almost looks modern if you take out the sprites. I'll definitely check this out.

[1Destro3456]

Damn, those are some nice screenshots, I'll see when I have time to play this

[SyntherAugustus]

I had fun playing this. I guess my only comment is that since there's a lot of cool water sector work going on in general, why are the crate/cubes in the beginning of map01 omitted from this rule? It looks a bit odd.

[Snaxalotl]

56 minutes ago, SyntherAugustus said:

I had fun playing this. I guess my only comment is that since there's a lot of cool water sector work going on in general, why are the crate/cubes in the beginning of map01 omitted from this rule? It looks a bit odd.

That was an oversight on my part, I decided to include jumping and deep water on map 2. Originally there was no jumping/crouching

 

I agree though, I'll fix that up soon.

[Clippy]

Jolly good show everyone play it

 

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Interloper was  an amazing map when it was initially released; I'm excited to see how Castrum follows up!

[HAK3180]

Sorry to be that guy, but incorrect Latin is a pet peeve of mine, and I would want someone to tell me if I were putting it out there. Assuming you want "Before Death," that would be Ante Mortem.

 

I don't know how much you know about Latin or how many Latin nerds frequent the forum, but I'd be happy to take a look if ever you wanted to make sure something makes sense.

[Snaxalotl]

5 hours ago, HAK3180 said:

Sorry to be that guy, but incorrect Latin is a pet peeve of mine, and I would want someone to tell me if I were putting it out there. Assuming you want "Before Death," that would be Ante Mortem.

 

I don't know how much you know about Latin or how many Latin nerds frequent the forum, but I'd be happy to take a look if ever you wanted to make sure something makes sense.

Thank you!! I looked into the correct translation a while before actually including the name in any text, must've misremembered in that time. I really appreciate it being pointed out.

[1Destro3456]

Just finished Interloper (map 01) and it was really enjoyable, the way the map flows was great, I loved how you used the dynamic lights and the fights were enjoyable. I liked the doomcute being put in from time to time and I just loved it. Th texturing is great, the OTEX use was really great

 

Going to leave my thoughts on MAP 02 here when I finish it

 

I found this misaligned texture in Map02 (I turned the gamma correction there to make sure it was misaligned but it is pretty noticeable in the normal gamma correction)

 

 

Anyways, my thoughts on Map 02, pretty enjoyable map, it has a relatively high monster count and has a nice sense of progression, again, a good use of OTEX and I thought it was really fun. It was pretty big. I enjoyed it a lot.

 

The reason I took so long to say about Map 02 was the size of it and that I got confused with the yellow keycard. I couldn’t find it, however that was more of a me problem rather than the map’s because I didn’t see initially the door that had the yellow keycard I started searching the map except that area, only reason I found it now was because of IDDT, I’m dumb lol.

Edited June 11, 2021 by 1Destro3456

[Snaxalotl]

Spoiler

5 hours ago, 1Destro3456 said:

Just finished Interloper (map 01) and it was really enjoyable, the way the map flows was great, I loved how you used the dynamic lights and the fights were enjoyable. I liked the doomcute being put in from time to time and I just loved it. Th texturing is great, the OTEX use was really great

 

Going to leave my thoughts on MAP 02 here when I finish it

 

I found this misaligned texture in Map02 (I turned the gamma correction there to make sure it was misaligned but it is pretty noticeable in the normal gamma correction)

 

 

Glad you liked it! I have an error on the image though so I'm not sure where this misalignment is, mind giving a bit more info?

[1Destro3456]

2 minutes ago, Snaxalotl said:

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Glad you liked it! I have an error on the image though so I'm not sure where this misalignment is, mind giving a bit more info?

Sorry, just fixed it

[1Destro3456]

There, I left my thoughts on Map 02, sorry for taking so long 😅

[LVENdead]

Here's a playthrough of your map:

 

 

Sorry, I recorded this video like 2 weeks ago but I was legitimately too lazy to post it lol. 

 

I'm really digging the aesthetic of this map. And as I've said a lot recently, I'm very surprised this thread hasn't gotten more response. I love the style you're going for in these two maps, and they manage to use OTEX wholly without feeling like they owe their identities to the texture pack if that makes sense. Since it's not as fresh on my mind, I don't have as much to say about the gameplay in this post, so I apologize that you may have to sift through the video if you want some actual feedback. I can say definitively that I enjoyed it though.

 

 

[Snaxalotl]

3 hours ago, LVENdead said:

Here's a playthrough of your map:

 

Sorry, I recorded this video like 2 weeks ago but I was legitimately too lazy to post it lol. 

 

I'm really digging the aesthetic of this map. And as I've said a lot recently, I'm very surprised this thread hasn't gotten more response. I love the style you're going for in these two maps, and they manage to use OTEX wholly without feeling like they owe their identities to the texture pack if that makes sense. Since it's not as fresh on my mind, I don't have as much to say about the gameplay in this post, so I apologize that you may have to sift through the video if you want some actual feedback. I can say definitively that I enjoyed it though.

 

 

Thanks for playing!! Really enjoyed watching and your experience/feedback gave me some ideas. I reworked the archvile trap that was kinda dickish and made it difficult rather than tedious. The very final arena is less underwhelming (hopefully)

Spoiler

thanks to a modified monster composition, an extra teleport pad to help surround the player, and a delay for the archvile to spawn in so the fight can get going first. Made some areas a bit brighter, and some other tiny things not worth listing.

 

[Snaxalotl]

Map 3 Has been released! Core Infestation takes place in a tech base situated within an expansive cavern, quickly being overtaken by hell as the player progresses. Enjoy! :>

Edited August 1, 2021 by Snaxalotl

[Clippy]

Spoiler

 

Pretty epic map had fun playing it un released version quite hard beautiful map 

 

 

 

 

[1Destro3456]

There's a third one? Huh, now I feel like I need to play it lol

[Fiendish]

This is really outstanding stuff! As LVENdead said, it's surprising this hasn't gotten more attention. I played the first two maps a while ago, but I just got around to playing map03. Here were my thoughts on it:

 

Spoiler

Aesthetics:

- The map looks beautiful and makes excellent use of sector portals/3D floors to add vertical depth.

- Excellent height and lighting variation as well as detailing. The flesh tentacles covering the reactor core/creeping from under one of the doors were really cool (though since you're working with UDMF, you could slope them to give them a more natural look).

- Lots of really neat details, such as the lights on one of the lifts changing colors as the lift activates or deactivates.

- Really the only critique I have from an aesthetics standpoint is that I found a few texture transitions that looked a little abrupt, but really, it was very minor.  

 

Gameplay:

- Although clearly a lot of attention was paid to the aesthetics and technical aspects of the map, the gameplay was great fun as well. Challenging but always felt fair.

- Encounters felt varied, with a nice mixture of close-quarters and long-range, use of height variation in the combat, and enemies attacking from different angles.

- Scripting was put to excellent use for gameplay purposes, especially with the blue and yellow key ambushes (my favorite was the yellow key ambush, with the staggering of the revenants/barons to make it require more effort to get them to infight). It was super cool how the room darkens, the lights go red, and then a series of doors open up, each chock-full of demons.

- Speaking of infighting, there were plenty of opportunities for it in this map, which definitely elevated the fun for me. 

- I was not really a fan of the liquids that slow movement. For using environmental hazards to restrict certain areas, I'd much prefer a damaging sector over a slowing sector.

- I would have liked having more rockets to deal with the high number of mancubi/revenants/arachnotrons, especially the sniping ones in the main hub area. It did start to feel kind of grindy to have to shotgun/chaingun so many of them.

- It also felt grindy having to kill the cyberdemon in the red key area. There weren't many rockets in that area, and I didn't have a plasma gun at that point, so I had to super shotgun the cyber. I think this would have been better if either the door to exit the area weren't tied to the cyber dying or there were a plasma gun/BFG available in the area to finish off the cyber more quickly (or if there was one in the area that I missed somewhere, making it harder to miss). 

 

I hope this is helpful!

Edited August 28, 2021 by Fiendish

[Snaxalotl]

Ante Mortem now utilizes the gameplay mod supercharge created by @Tango! In addition to reduced enemy health making combat much faster paced.

Edited September 9, 2021 by Snaxalotl : Grammar stuff

[Pirx]

On 6/5/2021 at 5:10 AM, Snaxalotl said:

 

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Map02: Castrum 06/04/21 (Hellish outpost on Earth) 12:00 par

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Map03: Core Infestation 07/30/21 (Tech base being invaded by hell) 10:00 par

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some exquisite mechanical stuff. love it. especially as it comes with supercharge.

[Snaxalotl]

Map04 has been released! Explore a misty forest surrounding a massive bridge, hope you enjoy! :>

[Biodegradable]

 

[Pistoolkip]

 

[Pistoolkip]

Part 2!
 

 

[97th Century Fox]

I've just played through the 4 levels available!

 

I've had a great time playing this!

My favorite maps are map01 and map04, with my favorite moment being the spooky fight at the very end of the latter map.

The aesthetic is great all around, with map01 being the best looking in my opinion, followed closely by maps 02 and 04.

The gameplay is a blast, with UV being just spicy enough to be fun without getting too annoying. I am also impressed with all the technical stuff, with my favorite showcase being the blue key area in map02!

 

This is a great wad overall, and I am excited to see where it goes from here!

[azerty]

 

[sandwedge]

Played this recently and it's an amazing work in progress!

 

 

Lots in the video but suffice it to say this is really beautiful, detailed and sprawling and the supercharge mod adds a lot of cool enemy and weapons changes.  As someone new to supercharge I found it to be quite tastefully done and works with the environments here.  Will play the next maps soon and looking forward to more progress on the wad!

[Snaxalotl]

Map05 is finally out and Episode 1 has officially been released, that thread can be found here:

 

This thread will continue to be used for development updates, I will post here as more maps are added and if you experience any bugs or other issues please let me know in this thread or dm me.

Thanks to everyone for the support and great advice along the way! I'll be back with more... eventually :>

[Snaxalotl]

Map06 "Pale Wilds" has been released!! The first entry in the second episode with a much different atmosphere to distinguish itself. Expect it to take between 8-20 minutes to beat.



And additional link if you don't feel like scrolling to the top: Ante Mortem DYNAMIC LIGHTS ARE IMPORTANT :>