Blasphemous Experiments: an episode for Heretic

[Cacowad]

 

Delve deeper into obscure experiments as you progress in this brand new episode for Heretic.

 

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

 

Blasphemous experiments is a complete first episode replacement for Heretic, using the Blasphemer texture pack.

 

Features:

 

• Run from E1m1 to E1M8, including secret level, for a total of 9 maps.
• It was tested with GZDoom 4.5.0, Zdoom 2.8.1 and Crispy-Heretic 5.10.1, so no bamboozle.
• Every port capable of running Limit removing heretic should be able to run it.
• Difficulty settings are implemented, but can be challenging even at lower difficulties.
• Artifacts are KEY, you won't be able to progress if you don't use them.
• Every map was tested in wand start and should be 100%-able.
• An additional .hhe was included to show map names for Crispy-Heretic or your limit removing port of choise. (G)zdoom Have it's own mapinfo definitions.

 

Known bugs\issues:

 

• Crispy heretic may display incorrectly some textures (as misaligned).
• In Crispy heretic, Map 7 may kill the player if it enters the map in continous play with low health, as several voodo dolls need activating. This issue is fixed in (G)zdoom. 

 

This episode is considered donated to the Blasphemer project for use, and may be integrated in the next revision.

 

As i consider this my "magnus opus" for Heretic, you may find some maps i had already released in other projects or stand-alone, those were reworked to be up to standard and may play differently (Or the same, who knows).

See you in another 9 years for episode 2.

 

Screenies for the screenies God:

 

 

As a final note, Some music i listened to while mapping\playtesting:

 

Master boot record: Keygen Church

 

Spoiler

 

 

Dzivia: Rujnuj

 

Spoiler

 

 

Occam Lazer: Divine trilogy

 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited September 8, 2021 by Cacowad : Music raccomandation.

[Manhs]

It looks really amazing, i will play it :)

[Walter confetti]

Awesome! A new Heretic episode! With textures from Blasphemer too!

[LUISDooM]

Looks amazing! Now I know what I'll play next XD

[Egregor]

This looks awesome! I'm still working on the Endquest with your submission there, but as I overhaul the gameplay I have made some small but key level design edits on your map. I see some screenshots from it in this here as well. I feel the two versions should be different enough though that there is no real conflict of interest.

[Cacowad]

1 hour ago, Egregor said:

This looks awesome! I'm still working on the Endquest with your submission there, but as I overhaul the gameplay I have made some small but key level design edits on your map. I see some screenshots from it in this here as well. I feel the two versions should be different enough though that there is no real conflict of interest.

Of course! Having played both versions, i can safely attest they play very different indeed. I included it here as a form of closure toward it, as i basically abandoned it as a half finished product and that always bothered me... so as i had the chance i "finished" it, so to speak. Best of luck with the ending quest!

[Lore]

Nice. Gonna play it soon!

[Noiser]

Those screenshots are beautiful

[galileo31dos01]

Hello, I'm playing your wad in Crispy on skill 4. I'm quite enjoying the aesthetic side, the attention to detail and new shades of blue/gold/green look all really sweet, the different ways to approach progression is also appreciated, and the gameplay aspect so far has been gradually getting more engaging towards e1m3 -- multiple bombs, gadgets, and weapon variety help a bunch, so it doesn't suffer too much from heretic's lows (as in, everything feeling like monotonous combat, aside from lots of wand shooting in early m1 and m2, though the narrow corridors add an extra pressure along with the palette's darker tones). One critique would be lack of more fitting ambient music, because stock midis don't do justice to the narrative aspect I feel in the maps - the e1m2 midi is too noisy for exploring catacombs in the dark. 

 

Here's a list of stuff from the first three maps, will be posting more from other maps another time:

 

- In e1m1, several monsters in the big round room were clogging the BK doorway when I opened it, and many more coming, I had already exhausted my bombs by then so I had to herd them out and grind them with arrows (I never found the armor secret room open until after looking at the editor, since that one is a bit obscure). I'd like to request an extra bomb somewhere in the northern walkways after the BK, maybe right before the gray room with pods.

 

- In e1m2, the golems in the dark silver rooms are completely harmless outside of their boundaries, so not sure why they even exist, they should be nitro at the very least. There was also a lot of firemace ammo but no weapon present, despite it being flagged for all skills as the editor shows... is this because of randomized appearance? 

 

- In e1m3, you can very easily reach this high (automap) in the large secret watery area if you straferun from the ledge to the west, since the rocks are too thin to prevent that. Also there're lots of misaligned SNDBLCKS that you can't unsee...

 

- Sector 773 is tagged 0, so the lift action screw up the entire map temporarily

 

- You can easily jump to the higher rocks and enter the phoenix rod area from this way (also found a bunch of stuck dudes cause of the lift bug, so the more reason to fix it), which isn't a problem except that there's no way to backtrack unless you are carrying a chaos device, so it's possible to miss stuff behind: can't leave the exit room because this door only opens from the other side, and this other door is apparently already closed to lock you in the PR fight, but the corridor is long and wide enough that if one tried camping there's no danger at all. I suppose you intended things to be "one way or the other", although one of the paths allows backtracking, while the other doesn't (again, with the secret chaos device you'd be good), so not quite sure what to think of this...

 

- In the exit room, fliers can go through the bars in the windows, which seems like that shouldn't happen.

 

- Minor thing, you can use the hellstaff platform to jump through the window and fall to basically death - not really an issue, though I point it out in case it's not intentional.

 

- I took the instant lift past the GK door and found a congregation of dudes waiting on the edge, which was a little hairy moment but I was lucky to have health to bar some inevitable punches from killing me (also thanks to weak heretic damage, if those would have been HKs and imps I would have been destroyed :P). Maybe I'd make the enemies pop up with lift switch so the ambush is less of a "cheap" surprise, up to you though.

[Cacowad]

Hello there, thank you for playing and for the very detailed feedback! I'll try to fix most of the issues as fast as possible, time permitted.

About the firemace: well, it has 25% chance to not spawn, and even so if there are multiple spawn points it appears in only one of them. Fickle weapon for sure.

cheers!

 

Edit: most of the stuff should be fixed. Link is the same in the OP.

Edited September 11, 2021 by Cacowad

[Egregor]

Hey Cacowad, I just gave this episode a real quick spin. I played the first level with enemies and then did a sight seeing tour with 'no monsters' on E2-E9 just to have a look around. This episode is quite ambitious and extensive! I like the varied thematic and layout themes. I recognized at least two of the levels from former collaborative level sets that we have done together, though there seemed to be some good improvements on both of them.

 

The Blasphemer texture set is refreshing and gritty! With that said there are three constant texture annoyances I have with this set, maybe this should be in the Blamsphemer thread but either way you'll see it, which is the important part.

 

1: Saint 1, Saint 2, and Horses1 textures all stick out like a smooth, mono-chromatic sore thumb! I don't make textures but surely someone in the community who does can give another pass at these three and get them up to par with the rest of the set. I'd like to see Horses1 replaced with symmetrical dragons, mermaids, or centaurs, and Saint 1 and 2 with angels or demons. The thing to note however is right now these 3 don't really have a texture that  blends in with the rest of the set.

 

2: The teleporters in the Blasphemer, while different enough from Heretic, are almost identical to Doom. Everything else feels fresh but these feel more tired than ever. I feel like a new symbol and a new color (may I suggest green) on these would really help here. It would be great if the 'teleporter' sparkles in Blasphemer were green as well to match and make the set feel fresh.

 

3: The implementation of archways are fantastic, but the way you are using them makes them feel paper-doll thin. I'd like to see EACH time they are used to be doubled up with a 16mp gap between them to give them a bit of thickness and weight. In the gap make the arches and walls black. I took a look at the texture pack and the all-black arches and all black textures seem to be missing/removed. Take a look at how arches were implemented in my E1M5 level from:

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/heretic/Ports/rop_2015

 

Are you considering this set finished, or are you in the beta testing phase? If you are interested I might be able to play test this entire set with extensive notes in a month or two if that is interesting to you. Let me know, maybe PM me. Overall this looks fantastic and one of the most significant contributions to Heretic in a long time.

[Cacowad]

29 minutes ago, Egregor said:

Are you considering this set finished, or are you in the beta testing phase? If you are interested I might be able to play test this entire set with extensive notes in a month or two if that is interesting to you. Let me know, maybe PM me. Overall this looks fantastic and one of the most significant contributions to Heretic in a long time.

 

Hey there! i'm always open to suggestions\feedback\demos\etc, also things always slip trought the cracks... One man can only do so much to test everything. Once everything's in order i'll upload it to idgames as "finished".

 

TL,DR: Yes, i'm very interested!

[Antkibo]

Looks incredible!

[P41R47]

Oh, Cacowad, this is just what Blasphemer needed.
Thanks for this, its just amazing :D

[PVS]

Good maps and dark atmosphere of the episode, thanks! I personally never liked the limited ammo strategy, it produces a slow gameplay, but I see that this is your choice and "standard".

I play M1, M6, M8, M9 from this wad, since other maps I've played and seen before, noticed a few bad tech moments that only matter to the vanilla engines:

M4: need to check lines with GATMETL5 texture, some of them must be impassable? Sector 1332 for example. In fact I did not play this version, but I remember this map well, I like it under the old name "Twin Peaks".

M9: missed WLCRA01 texture used, vanilla engines crash at map load stage. Newer Crispy Heretic versions change this behavior and works?

M8: first episode boss is a Iron Lich, tag 666 works only for him. For this reason player will get stuck on easy skill in tag 666 walls area. During my blind attempt I got stuck here on skill-4, could not finish the map, after I realized what happened: I killed 2 Iron Liches very quickly, at this moment the big 666-wall has not finished moving up and 666 tag has not been applied for this wall. Possible add additional linedef for lower 666 walls, somewhere in the blue key area, for this rare situation.

P.S. Firemace (from the practice of vanilla behavior): if Mace did not appear during the first map loading - it will never appear on this map, it is easy to check - start map at least 100 times in a row. On such map, Mace can randomly appear only if player die, when press space and reborn, but in fact - no one plays in this way. Possible easily force the Mace appearance under first map start: need change things quantity on map, I use 'moss' or 'torches' for this, add them in zones invisible for player with a step of 5-10 units and check the moment - when Mace appears.

P.S.2: it would be nice to hear new midi in this episode, you can look around.

[galileo31dos01]

Continuing...

 

- Misaligned tex in e1m4, would be the eastern side of the crossbow room.

 

- In e1m5, there was a helpless maulotaur in the huge lava pool, not sure if it was supposed to be down there or it fell off, in which case you may want to prevent that by putting block lines where needed. 

 

- I need to ask, in the room past the BK door, what was this switch for aside from opening some walls to the sides? At that point I was already feeling disoriented from looking for keys and whatnot (not saying the map's progression isn't unintuitive, but I wasn't paying enough attention and missed the small switches for the GK for a minute). 

 

- This iron lich can't teleport out because the closet is too small, so it's a missing kill.

 

- In e1m6, stuck ghost here, two stuck UWs on each other in a secret nearby (automap), more stuck golems in the leftmost room to the exit, some of them can't walk through the gaps.

 

- HOM in this bit (automap), would be at the second step, and here (automap).

 

- Crispy crashes when trying to load e1m9, it says "R_TextureNumForName: WLCRA01 not found"

 

- Misaligned tex here in e1m7 (automap)

 

- Minor HOM here, northernmost secret.

 

- Stuck golem next to BK switch.

 

- Another minor visual glitch in the crates room heading towards GK, I believe all these HOMs are related to the nodebuilder or something.

 

- Floating crystals. 

 

On the subject of the firemace:

 

At least a couple places in these maps seem to have been purposed to introduce this weapon during standard progression, if the piles of ammo scattered around in the same room(s) and in between monsters were enough hints, so if it's not there because of a bad chance in the numbers, the purpose of that setup is gone, not to mention that the ammo becomes useless.

 

I'm thinking of m2 and m5, and although I usually don't miss that thing, seeing it would have given meaning to the contexts in both cases. The only map where it did spawn was m4 - incidentally in a secret area, but that's merely a bonus for variety's sake. Now I don't know much about heretic's modus operandi, but if there's any way you could make the firemace always spawn in those maps, I would recommend going for it.

Edited September 13, 2021 by galileo31dos01

[Cacowad]

Hi there, thank you for playing!

 

6 hours ago, PVS said:

M4: need to check lines with GATMETL5 texture, some of them must be impassable? Sector 1332 for example. In fact I did not play this version, but I remember this map well, I like it under the old name "Twin Peaks".

 

I can't possibly fathom how that was possible, but they were passable. Fixed.

 

6 hours ago, PVS said:

M9: missed WLCRA01 texture used, vanilla engines crash at map load stage. Newer Crispy Heretic versions change this behavior and works?

 

My bad, made some alterations to the texture pack when i included it, and must have messed up. Fixed.

 

6 hours ago, PVS said:

M8: first episode boss is a Iron Lich, tag 666 works only for him. For this reason player will get stuck on easy skill in tag 666 walls area. During my blind attempt I got stuck here on skill-4, could not finish the map, after I realized what happened: I killed 2 Iron Liches very quickly, at this moment the big 666-wall has not finished moving up and 666 tag has not been applied for this wall. Possible add additional linedef for lower 666 walls, somewhere in the blue key area, for this rare situation.

 

Did not realized tag 666 worked only on liches?... I'm sure i recently played a map where dsparil was made E1 boss and those worked, maybe it is a zdoom thing and i'm getting very confused. Anyway, added an emergency switch just in case.

 

6 hours ago, PVS said:

P.S. Firemace (from the practice of vanilla behavior): if Mace did not appear during the first map loading - it will never appear on this map, it is easy to check - start map at least 100 times in a row. On such map, Mace can randomly appear only if player die, when press space and reborn, but in fact - no one plays in this way. Possible easily force the Mace appearance under first map start: need change things quantity on map, I use 'moss' or 'torches' for this, add them in zones invisible for player with a step of 5-10 units and check the moment - when Mace appears.

 

I don't really get this explanation, i assume you are trying to manipulate the rng by placing things? It may work for the very first map of the mapset, but would it not for each subsequential one? I could be convinced to do something if it's not too hacky. Also i'm one of those who play that way >:c

 

5 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

On the subject of the firemace:

 

At least a couple places in these maps seem to have been purposed to introduce this weapon during standard progression, if the piles of ammo scattered around in the same room(s) and in between monsters were enough hints, so if it's not there because of a bad chance in the numbers, the purpose of that setup is gone, not to mention that the ammo becomes useless.

 

I'm thinking of m2 and m5, and although I usually don't miss that thing, seeing it would have given meaning to the contexts in both cases. The only map where it did spawn was m4 - incidentally in a secret area, but that's merely a bonus for variety's sake. Now I don't know much about heretic's modus operandi, but if there's any way you could make the firemace always spawn in those maps, I would recommend going for it.

 

Can't really do much about it, pvs "fix" seems a little weird, i don't really know how the firemace is handled in the soucecode, but if it is generated upon with a p_random function call then you could technically manipulate the random table to make it appear in the first map loaded. but honestly it's tacky and not intended behaviour. The maps are balanced enough to not need the firemace at all.

 

5 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

- Misaligned tex in e1m4, would be the eastern side of the crossbow room.

 

You won't belive it, but is not misaligned, it's supposed to be the upper part of the "dome" collapsed on the ground... Not really noticable enough i suppose.

 

5 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

- In e1m5, there was a helpless maulotaur in the huge lava pool, not sure if it was supposed to be down there or it fell off, in which case you may want to prevent that by putting block lines where needed.

 

Is intended that the maulotaurus would eventually end up into a teleporter and teleport into the domus, it started as a unintentional zdoomism in my Hymn submission (maulotaurus in zdoom 2.8.1 can drop off ledges) and i kept it . Now i'll need to double check if in crispy it can teleport in at all at this point, as i belive it would. I could maybe change it into a classic teleport closet.

 

5 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

- I need to ask, in the room past the BK door, what was this switch for aside from opening some walls to the sides? At that point I was already feeling disoriented from looking for keys and whatnot (not saying the map's progression isn't unintuitive, but I wasn't paying enough attention and missed the small switches for the GK for a minute).

 

BK door is just for firemace and ease of navigation, that switch does nothing else.

 

5 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

- HOM in this bit (automap), would be at the second step, and here (automap).

 

- Another minor visual glitch in the crates room heading towards GK, I believe all these HOMs are related to the nodebuilder or something.

 

All of those are node builder related, i especially struggled with the third one for a long time, but could not fix it no matter what i did. I'll try to think of something.

Fixed. Why couldn't i fix it before is a mistery.

 

5 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

- This iron lich can't teleport out because the closet is too small, so it's a missing kill.

 

- In e1m6, stuck ghost here, two stuck UWs on each other in a secret nearby (automap), more stuck golems in the leftmost room to the exit, some of them can't walk through the gaps.

 

- Crispy crashes when trying to load e1m9, it says "R_TextureNumForName: WLCRA01 not found"

 

- Misaligned tex here in e1m7 (automap)

 

- Minor HOM here, northernmost secret.

 

- Stuck golem next to BK switch.

 

- Another minor visual glitch in the crates room heading towards GK, I believe all these HOMs are related to the nodebuilder or something.

 

- Floating crystals.

 

All fixed.

 

Hoping i didn't broke anything else, you can find the new version at the same link.

 

I'll try to find some music, but no promises.

Edited September 13, 2021 by Cacowad : Internal screaming.

[PVS]

Cacowad
Episodes bosses for 666 tag on ExM8 maps in vanilla - have the same sequence as in IWAD, this is hardcoded in engine. "I'm sure i recently played a map where dsparil was made E1 boss and those worked" - if it was EndQuest E1M8, then I put an additional Iron Lich there, he sits in an isolated sector, when DSparil dies - he kills all monsters on map and also this Iron Lich, for player it seems that DSparil is the boss, but for engine - Iron Lich remains the boss on E1M8, heh

Firemace: yes, it looks like we are changing the "main map random factor" from the editor, part of this random factor - is the number of things on map. This factor is individual for each map and does not depend at all on its slot-position in wad, it can be M1 or M7, it doesn't matter. It's hard for me to explain this in English, it's easier to try to show it in practice, made two simple test E1M8 maps only with Mace.

MaceYes.wad: when finished this example I check map in game, for this map - Mace spawned on skill easy and medium, but did not spawn on hard, I correct this by adding 'moss' with step 1-2 units for skill hard in the isolated sector and check in game again. The same I check and correct for easy/medium/hard in coop mode. Now possible start this map as many times as you like - Mace will always be on it, on all skill levels and coop.

MaceNot.wad: the opposite is done - Mace will never appear on map when loading it from scratch, for single and coop.

An interesting situation with coop mode, because when the players dies in coop - map does not reload and if Mace not spawn from the map start, means - that for this map and this skill it will never be on map. In DM mode engine will always spawn Mace, we don't have to worry about this mode.

I am not suggesting that you change anything in your current wad, but maybe this information will be useful in future maps. Also, this is only vanilla behaviors, ZDoom's may behave differently. And these are not 'fixes' or 'hacks' - these are small mapping tricks, nothing more.

I also recorded a small fun demo in vanilla format (Crispy will be OK), possible play it like this:
Heretic.exe -file MaceYes.wad -playdemo MaceBest

I named it "Why I like Mace":
- I can shoot anywhere without even seeing the monsters - Mace will find them itself!
- I can shoot from around the corner, staying completely in safe position, I love it!
- Mace so powerful weapon that can kill the player himself, we need to respect the Mace!
- Mace is the best weapon ever!

This is a little joke, have fun guys.
 

MaceIsBest.zip

[galileo31dos01]

Finnishing up...

 

- In e1m9, the stairs leading to the exit revealed a HOM (it's the front side of the first step).

 

- The idea with raising walls to lock players in this room may need tweaking: it's easy to back up while they're slowly raising, I did it by accident because some monsters were getting too close and then figured the other two ways also had triggers. If you want a foolproof trap, the walls could be relocated more in the middle of each hallways and have faster actions far enough from them so you can't skip the trap at all, up to you.

 

- Sometimes I'd be taking teleports that send me somewhere new but I appear facing the wall, and when I move a little I'd spawn somewhere else because there were monsters at point blank range that pushed me into the teleport, missing the opportunity to inspect that previous area, and then figuring which of all similar-looking teleports takes me back was a bit tedious. I'd suggest making the tps spawn you facing in the right direction. 

 

I think that's it. This also ended up being my favourite of the set, along with m4 and m6 (m7 too if it didn't take me so long to upgrade from the crossbow). I was also infinitely glad e1m8 didn't end in a classic d'sparil fight, but a series of intense timed traps instead worked like a charm. Good stuff overall!

[Cacowad]

Hello there, again.

 

New version Up at the same link, there are small fixes to E1M9.

[FEDEX]

3 hours ago, Cacowad said:

Hello there, again.

 

New version Up at the same link, there are small fixes to E1M9.

Hi there! 

Congrat. for this full heretic episode

I've downloaded it, and the .wad is dated 08/09, three hours before you said that was a new version with a small fix to e1m9.. maybe i'm a little ignorant here,but is it the correct updated file?

[Cacowad]

I hope so, maybe it take a bit to update the file in drive?

 

Edit: apparently, the metadata in the .zip is messed up, but the file is updated correctly. You are good to go.

Edited September 19, 2021 by Cacowad

[Omniarch]

Hello! I've been enjoying this episode thus far (just finished M2). Very nice classic Heretic feel, with surprisingly lethal combat.

 

That aside, I just wanted to let you know of a small out-of-bounds exploit I discovered while playing E1M2:

Spoiler

You can use the highlighted bit of decorative geometry to get out of bounds:

 

I've marked the exact spot on the map as well for convenience's sake:

Not sure how much of an issue this is to you, but I thought I'd report it anyway, just in case.

 

EDIT: I found a more serious bug: in E1M2, the Ethereal Crossbow that is supposed to spawn in the graveyard doesn't do so, due to being flagged as a multiplayer item. This is a fairly serious issue, which throws off the map's balance somewhat. I am playing with GZDoom 4.7.0, if that helps.

Edited October 11, 2021 by Omniarch

[Cacowad]

Hello there, thank you for playing.

 

I'll fix the out of bounds issue, good catch.

Regarding the ethereal crossbow: it's not a bug, is supposed to be multiplayer exclusive. You can still find the crossbow in pistol start in the secret area near the start.

[Omniarch]

Right, I've just finished M3, which I liked very much. Good large-scale architecture mixed with naturalistic environs, relatively challenging combat and engaging progression. Good stuff indeed. I did find a couple out-of-bounds exploits though, one of which results in a softlock.

 

Spoiler

The No. 1 marker highlights the problem area for the one which causes a softlock. It is trivially easy for the player to jump over the "railings" and become trapped in the canyon below. No. 2 highlights the second area from which the player can jump in order to get out of bounds, though all this does is disrupt the intended progression slightly.

 

[Pixel Fiend]

I'd like to give you a standing ovation because I think it's rare to see a Heretic wad that looks so amazing and tasteful. I featured it in a list where I'll be later be uploading cover pictures for wads. The only thing I'm disappointed with is the inclusion of the same old Heretic songs instead of some more refreshing gothic midis.

[Cacowad]

Hello there, thank you for the praise! I've been looking for midis around, but i could not find anything fitting unfortunately. Maybe i'll stumble in something someday.

[NightFright]

When in doubt, the Raven Midi Pack is always a good choice.

[Cacowad]

I must say, it is a fantastic midi pack and really accomplished their goal to stay faithfull to the original soundtrack, but i really don't think it is a good fit unfortunately.

Raven pack 2 on the other hand... unfortunately is not finished yet.

[ClumsyCryptid]

This door here in e1m2 has one side not unpegged... it moves with the door.