Cyberpunx: episode for doom2 finished and on idgames!

[nicolas monti]

This is my 5th alpha episode, 6th if I count Alpha Centauri, but that one mixes alpha with regular textures.

Yeah, I do not change much in style but I simply love those textures!

This time I'll also make use of some graphics for objects as an addition to the archaic mood.

The signature for this episode is the moody nocturnal atmosphere, the first map is my generic monti techbase I guess, the second map is a compact squareish city map, the 3rd involves a lot of acid, map04 is set in the forest, map05 in a futuristic city' map06 contains some crate area and some outside installations over acid, map07 is set in a mine, map08 is the main installation and map09 the finale set in a technological palace.

 

It runs on doom2, any limit removing port:

 

Idgames link

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/a-c/cyberpnx

 

Map01: Organic

Map02: Alphaville

Map03: The inmost dams

Map04: Cooksonia

Map05: Cyberpunx

Map06: Inside out

Map07: Substrate

Map08: Biodegradable

Map09: Tech palace

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 5 by nicolas monti

[Walter confetti]

That sky looks beautiful!

[nicolas monti]

12 hours ago, Walter confetti said:

That sky looks beautiful!

 

Thanks Walter, I've already used that sky in mass extinction megawad for the last episode, it's a night version of the sky used in witness of time, another episode, which in turn was taken from the alien soldier game of sega genesis, the sky is fearured in map18 and 19 of that game:

 

 

[Cacodemon187]

00fda_dark02.rar
Did an FDA of both maps, died a couple times and I couldn't finish map02 without saves... Still, this is shaping up to be a cool monti mapset! The 90's atmosphere is present as always, and the use of the alpha sprites is a nice touch.

However, the Archvile use in both maps is really mean. Specially in map02. In the first map, they're mostly just time consuming, but in the second one they can get really dangerous thanks to the cramped spaces.

Another thing I didn't like were the Hell Knights in 64-units-wide corridors. Those just plain suck and should be replaced with a less tanky enemy, or more space to move.

Also, map01 could use a bit more lighting contrast imo, it's mostly pretty dark except for a couple areas. You could also highlight the yellow door, as it's kinda hidden away from the rest of the map in a dark corridor.

Minor things: The shell box's sprite is a box of bullets, while the box of clips' sprite is a box of... something. I could do a quick edit of the alpha box to have shotgun shells instead of bullets if you want to change this!
The electric hazards are solid. I know it would go against the cramped nature of the wad, but I suggest making them non-solid, so the player can walk through them. This could make them more dangerous if you couple them with ambushes, as you did with map01, while making the wad feel less restrictive.

Overall, I liked playing these maps. The bizarre texture usage and quirky atmosphere really sells it for me!

[nicolas monti]

20 hours ago, Cacodemon187 said:

00fda_dark02.rar
Did an FDA of both maps, died a couple times and I couldn't finish map02 without saves... Still, this is shaping up to be a cool monti mapset! The 90's atmosphere is present as always, and the use of the alpha sprites is a nice touch.

However, the Archvile use in both maps is really mean. Specially in map02. In the first map, they're mostly just time consuming, but in the second one they can get really dangerous thanks to the cramped spaces.

Another thing I didn't like were the Hell Knights in 64-units-wide corridors. Those just plain suck and should be replaced with a less tanky enemy, or more space to move.

Also, map01 could use a bit more lighting contrast imo, it's mostly pretty dark except for a couple areas. You could also highlight the yellow door, as it's kinda hidden away from the rest of the map in a dark corridor.

Minor things: The shell box's sprite is a box of bullets, while the box of clips' sprite is a box of... something. I could do a quick edit of the alpha box to have shotgun shells instead of bullets if you want to change this!
The electric hazards are solid. I know it would go against the cramped nature of the wad, but I suggest making them non-solid, so the player can walk through them. This could make them more dangerous if you couple them with ambushes, as you did with map01, while making the wad feel less restrictive.

Overall, I liked playing these maps. The bizarre texture usage and quirky atmosphere really sells it for me!

 

Thanks man! I,ll check those FDAs tomorrow, I didn't notice your notification.

I agree on most of the things you say, in fact I've already planned to make the hazards non solid so there are more chances the player gets hurt while fighting. I don't know how to do it but I guess I'll quickly realise playing with whacked, the DEH files editor.

On the box of bullets I got confused, I tried to avoid the horrible shell graphics of the alpha resource files, I'll make the correct assigments.

I agree with you also on the YK door marking, I'll put some lighting on it.

On the gameplay the general idea is a bit of crampness to induce desperation but I'll see if more people complain about it, specially if I went too far with that building at the center of map02.

[DarkIceCyclone]

This feels stargate'ish. If you haven't seen that show, maybe watch it, I bet you'll find a couple of map ideas there

[Cacodemon187]

20 hours ago, nicolas monti said:

 

Thanks man! I,ll check those FDAs tomorrow, I didn't notice your notification.

I agree on most of the things you say, in fact I've already planned to make the hazards non solid so there are more chances the player gets hurt while fighting. I don't know how to do it but I guess I'll quickly realise playing with whacked, the DEH files editor.

On the box of bullets I got confused, I tried to avoid the horrible shell graphics of the alpha resource files, I'll make the correct assigments.

I agree with you also on the YK door marking, I'll put some lighting on it.

On the gameplay the general idea is a bit of crampness to induce desperation but I'll see if more people complain about it, specially if I went too far with that building at the center of map02.

 

No problem! You could just swap the box sprites around if you don't want to use the other alpha sprites.

[nicolas monti]

3 hours ago, Cacodemon187 said:

 

No problem! You could just swap the box sprites around if you don't want to use the other alpha sprites.

 

Just did that, also I learned how to play with objects so the hazards will be non solid and hanging from the ceiling.

[nicolas monti]

3rd map ready!

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/cadk2lwa7l0zv4b/dark03.wad/file

 

 

 

@Cacodemon187 I still owe you feedback on the demos, your suggestions have been implemented, this is the YD in map01 now:

 

 

[Cacodemon187]

20 hours ago, nicolas monti said:

3rd map ready!

 

00fda_dark03

Did a FDA for this one too, died a couple times and then finished the map with saves. @nicolas monti

 

I think you might have gone too far with this one...

This map seems designed to infuriate you, filled with cheap shots and fights that you have almost no way of doing unless you cower in a corner and peek-a-shoot. The baron standoff at the nukage river could be a nice idea, I get that you wanted to make the player feel desperate, but this comes off more as annoying and anti-climatic due to the dull lighting and repetitive action. You could place glowing lights on the walls to make it contrast more with the rest of the map, and give a bit more space to move in the red room.

 

The blue key fight takes a lot of time if you kill the pain elementals first and then jump down to the main area, and it takes even more time to kill all the teleporting monsters, as the only way you can reliably do that is to go to the lit halls and shoot them from the windows. That's the best approach I think and it's not very fun. Also, if you stay at the top of the dam killing the PEs then the other demons will crowd around the blue key's pillar, and it's really hard to get down if you run out of rockets and rad suits. I propose having the monsters teleport once you get down the dam, not as soon as you reach the top.

 

The crusher rooms I thought were pretty cool, but could use better lighting contrast. Also, the monsters on the right nukage pool move over to the secret soulsphere, so you have to wait for them to come back to you for the barrels to actually kill them. Also also, the archvile creates ghost monsters if they die in the crushers. I thought it was funny, but there aren't enough rockets to kill a ghost Hell Knight.

 

The yellow key fight is the second worst of the map. As soon as you press the switch you get your back ripped off by a Hell Knight, but if you don't, then you'll probably die to the barrels as there's barely enough space to run away from the explosions. Once you're finished there, you have to get down the lift to go back to the main area. Problem is, the lift is really dark and blends in with the walls if you look at it from the switch that lowers it.

 

The ambush before the final fight sucks too, as you'll most likely not have enough health to tank a hit from the HKs or Revenants, and the only way to safely kill them is to run back to the doors and shoot at them with the super shotgun.

 

Then, it's the final fight before the exit. This one's the worst. There's absolutely no way of doing this without dying unless you hide and pray that the mancubus will either infight or get stunlocked by your chaingun. After they're dead, you still have to kill the chaingunners above you. The barrels up there will most likely fall down as they explode and kill you, instead of the chaingunners.

 

Secrets in this map pretty much force you to use IDDT or look them up in the editor. The easiest one to get is the one at the beginning, which gives you a berserk that you won't need at all, as the map is very generous with ammo and the tight spaces make it very unreliable to use. About the other ones, they're ridicously obscure to get and you'll probably spend as much time getting to them as the reward itself will last.

 

I have no problems with the start of the map though, the spectres running at you and all the zombiemen at the barracks are fun to fight, if not a little slow. You can also perform a grab at the shotgunner control room and get the armor and medkit early. Also, the platform where these items are placed damages you for some reason.

 

Overall, this map isn't very likeable to play and prioritizes difficulty over fun. Health is scarce and the fights are really, really mean. It's more dark than the other entries, and the lack of contrast with the lighting makes it difficult for the map to stand out. The layout is flawed in a way that all the big fights devolve into you peeking over and shooting at dozens of monsters with the super shotgun.

[nicolas monti]

3 hours ago, Cacodemon187 said:

 

00fda_dark03

Did a FDA for this one too, died a couple times and then finished the map with saves. @nicolas monti

 

I think you might have gone too far with this one...

This map seems designed to infuriate you, filled with cheap shots and fights that you have almost no way of doing unless you cower in a corner and peek-a-shoot. The baron standoff at the nukage river could be a nice idea, I get that you wanted to make the player feel desperate, but this comes off more as annoying and anti-climatic due to the dull lighting and repetitive action. You could place glowing lights on the walls to make it contrast more with the rest of the map, and give a bit more space to move in the red room.

 

The blue key fight takes a lot of time if you kill the pain elementals first and then jump down to the main area, and it takes even more time to kill all the teleporting monsters, as the only way you can reliably do that is to go to the lit halls and shoot them from the windows. That's the best approach I think and it's not very fun. Also, if you stay at the top of the dam killing the PEs then the other demons will crowd around the blue key's pillar, and it's really hard to get down if you run out of rockets and rad suits. I propose having the monsters teleport once you get down the dam, not as soon as you reach the top.

 

The crusher rooms I thought were pretty cool, but could use better lighting contrast. Also, the monsters on the right nukage pool move over to the secret soulsphere, so you have to wait for them to come back to you for the barrels to actually kill them. Also also, the archvile creates ghost monsters if they die in the crushers. I thought it was funny, but there aren't enough rockets to kill a ghost Hell Knight.

 

The yellow key fight is the second worst of the map. As soon as you press the switch you get your back ripped off by a Hell Knight, but if you don't, then you'll probably die to the barrels as there's barely enough space to run away from the explosions. Once you're finished there, you have to get down the lift to go back to the main area. Problem is, the lift is really dark and blends in with the walls if you look at it from the switch that lowers it.

 

The ambush before the final fight sucks too, as you'll most likely not have enough health to tank a hit from the HKs or Revenants, and the only way to safely kill them is to run back to the doors and shoot at them with the super shotgun.

 

Then, it's the final fight before the exit. This one's the worst. There's absolutely no way of doing this without dying unless you hide and pray that the mancubus will either infight or get stunlocked by your chaingun. After they're dead, you still have to kill the chaingunners above you. The barrels up there will most likely fall down as they explode and kill you, instead of the chaingunners.

 

Secrets in this map pretty much force you to use IDDT or look them up in the editor. The easiest one to get is the one at the beginning, which gives you a berserk that you won't need at all, as the map is very generous with ammo and the tight spaces make it very unreliable to use. About the other ones, they're ridicously obscure to get and you'll probably spend as much time getting to them as the reward itself will last.

 

I have no problems with the start of the map though, the spectres running at you and all the zombiemen at the barracks are fun to fight, if not a little slow. You can also perform a grab at the shotgunner control room and get the armor and medkit early. Also, the platform where these items are placed damages you for some reason.

 

Overall, this map isn't very likeable to play and prioritizes difficulty over fun. Health is scarce and the fights are really, really mean. It's more dark than the other entries, and the lack of contrast with the lighting makes it difficult for the map to stand out. The layout is flawed in a way that all the big fights devolve into you peeking over and shooting at dozens of monsters with the super shotgun.

 

I'll fix the mistakes you mention like the wrong damaging floor, the accidental secret reveal, etc.

You're idea of releasing the horde when you reach the BK and not before while you fight the PEs seems logical also, it will be implemented.

I'll also make sure you have more health before the pre exit ambush.

The hard to spot lowering lift to exit the YK area is also a problem that I've noticed and it will be improved.

Lastly I'll see if I can relocate the barrel near the exit so there are less chances it kills the player.

That is for now. On the overal difficulty of the map I'll way to see if at least one more player has trouble with it and I'll tone it down without problem, by the moment with the changes I mentioned it will be more "fair".

Thanks for the detailed feedback!

 

EDIT: about what I've said about the secret reveal forget it, I've read wrong. I've set those monsters non deaf, it's ok to me that they roam, if the player miss some kill because they got to the secret ledge (although unlikely them getting stuck there) I'm fine with it, just a bonus for the secret

Edited October 30, 2021 by nicolas monti

[grrfield]

Blu, chairs and Nicolas Monti, what can go wrong?

[dei_eldren]

Played map01 on HNTR - fearing the next two a bit based on comments above, but this map was once again incredible in design, and i'd say combat was not harder than Doom Island, only map being slightly shorter.  Loved it.  Got the invisibility secret - one of these days i'm gonna get the hang of the way you design them and find more..!

 

 

[nicolas monti]

2 hours ago, dei_eldren said:

Played map01 on HNTR - fearing the next two a bit based on comments above, but this map was once again incredible in design, and i'd say combat was not harder than Doom Island, only map being slightly shorter.  Loved it.  Got the invisibility secret - one of these days i'm gonna get the hang of the way you design them and find more..!

 

 

Thanks for the video! I strongly suggest to wait for the next upload before recording map03, it's too hard for a blind player as @Cacodemon187 made me realize, I replayed it after his feedback and I he was mostly right so the next upload (the one with map04) will feature a more balanced map in terms of difficulty.

[nicolas monti]

4th map ready for testing!

Map03 was made easier at some points also.

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/pxmujn771wodko5/dark04.wad/file

 

 

[nicolas monti]

5th map ready!!!

Cyberpunx

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/aif97a2oyy6imwr/dark05.wad/file

 

 

[Cacodemon187]

Played maps 3 to 5, I liked the new ones! I'll provide a detailed review tomorrow

[Firedust]

Will play as soon as I'm done with Judgment. I was away for a couple months and this is already your second episode within such a short window. Nice going! I always look forward to playing your WADs :)

[nicolas monti]

2 hours ago, Cacodemon187 said:

Played maps 3 to 5, I liked the new ones! I'll provide a detailed review tomorrow

 

Thanks a lot. I've tried to run your demos, I usually drag the demo file and the wad over the prboom icon to play them but this time your demo plays on map11 as the regular doom2 demo. Surely I'm stupid and I'm doing something wrong, probably you now another way to play them!

Also glad to know you played through without experimenting a horrible bug or ammo /health shortage.

 

48 minutes ago, Firedust said:

Will play as soon as I'm done with Judgment. I was away for a couple months and this is already your second episode within such a short window. Nice going! I always look forward to playing your WADs :)

 

Thanks Firedust, just 4 maps to go (themes already sketched) but not in a hurry, the compact size of the maps also help with the periodicity. I hope to finish them before the end of the year!

[Firedust]

10 minutes ago, nicolas monti said:

Thanks Firedust, just 4 maps to go (themes already sketched) but not in a hurry, the compact size of the maps also help with the periodicity. I hope to finish them before the end of the year!

Yep, but I still got Doom Island to play as well! That's the next one on the list.

[Cacodemon187]

@nicolas monti Here's my review, I didn't record demos this time.

 

First of all, the wad is unplayable in Crispy Doom and PrBoom+ because of a typo in two sprite lumps!

The highlighted lumps end in 'O', should be '0' instead.

 

I replayed map03 to see if it got better, and it definitely did. Just a bit.

The combat is still either infuriating on your first playthrough, or procedural when you already know it's tricks. Thankfully you get more health this time, but it's still just a "meh" map. Also, the ending still sucks. It should be redesigned entirely because there's literally no way of winning unless you cower in a corner and slowly shoot the chaingunners and mancubi.

 

Now, map04 is a lot better! First thing I noticed was how much better the map looks overall. The graphics and architecture look a lot more polished than usual, and the tech-trees are a fantastic detail! The first two or so minutes are pretty good, shooting at low-tiers with your shotgun and chaingun. You can get the invisibility powerup from the fridge without actually getting the secret. I have no idea how to actually open the fridge, I just ran into it and picked it up cuz of Doom's janky collision physics. I liked the long river fight, however I suggest replacing the partial invisibility in the fridge with a rad suit. It's a lot more helpful when doing the next two encounters. It might be a little misleading to hide the SSG and Rocket Launcher by the river, but chances are the player will run along the shores and stumble into them while running away from the monsters. Could still probably place another SSG by the cramped forest after the river, just to be safe.

 

After that, it's off to the red key fight. It's actually really hard if you don't know what's coming, and the damaging floors make it worse. The RL is almost unusable due to the high monster density and the small room to move in. I suggest scattering a couple stimpacks along the arena, or better yet, don't block the way to the river and make cacodemons fly out of the trees by the shores. It would be a lot more dynamic and interesting, even if it goes against the cramped nature of the wad.

 

With the red key in hand, you can now access the eastern part of the map. Complete with a cabin, arachnotrons and a sweet sweet secret BFG! After you get that secret, the map pretty much completes itself. This is not a complain, as the next couple fights are Hell Revealed levels of bullshit without it.

 

The yellow key fight is the worst one in the entire wad so far. You get locked into a 256x192 room, with no cover, no health, a couple cells, and an Archvile. Also HKs and Revenants. I don't know what you were thinking with this one because without the BFG your chances of surviving are from 0 to -1. Your best bet is to spam the plasma rifle and hope for good RNG.

 

Anyway, after that fun stuff, you go to the yellow key door. This encounter is pretty tedious if you don't have enough health, because then you're forced to stand at the doorway and slowly kill the PE, revenant and chaingunner one by one.

 

Then, you get locked into a bedroom with three barons cornering you. Again, without the BFG this encounter is really, really mean and unnecesary. It would be better to use either hell knights, revenants or pinkies.

 

It's good practice to play through your map at least once without finding any secrets, just to make sure they're not mandatory for completion.

This map has a lot of issues, but as I said, it looks really cool, and the encounters between keys are pretty fun, specially the revenant infestation!

 

I'll post my feedback for map05 tomorrow, sorry for making you wait but I've had some busy work these days.

 

[Cacodemon187]

22 hours ago, nicolas monti said:

I've tried to run your demos, I usually drag the demo file and the wad over the prboom icon to play them but this time your demo plays on map11 as the regular doom2 demo.

 

The demos should play automatically by just double clicking on the .lmp file. The sourceport will load the wad file on it's own as long as it's in the same directory as the executable.

[Cacodemon187]

@nicolas monti Here's my thoughts on map05!

 

I love this one! It's the best looking map in the set so far, you did a fantastic job with the lighting and decoration. Running through the streets, whizzing by the bushes and admiring the plazas is really fun, very well done. There's abundant ammo and health, and none of the battles are unnecesarily difficult.

 

A few things to note:

 

There's a small trail next to the plaza that leads to a SSG. The bushes make it impossible to move along the walls, forcing you to walk over the trail. I suggest moving the bushes a bit, so the player can move along the walls and out-maneuver the imps.

 

It's very easy to get lost and wander aimlessly in the streets. The lifts are a bit hidden away and the player can miss them easily.

 

On your way to one of the keys, there's an encounter with hell knights over some nukage. You can just walk backwards and dispose of them at the narrow doorway. I suggest replacing the wall with a grate or fence, this way the HKs can take more shots at the player, and it would be a lot more fun overall.

 

The YK fight is easily the worst one. For a first-timer this one can end really badly. On my first playthrough, I ran away when the archvile and his friends came out of the wall. I spent the next 5 minutes save-scumming in the small office room where you teleport in. The revenants and shotgunners on the streets kept shooting me while I tried to kill the other demons. It was awful. On my third playthrough, I found out you can easily kill everything by shooting rockets at them as soon as they appear, so this fight isn't so bad after all.

 

The final fight with the-

Spoiler

Super Mega Hyper Duper Super Mastermind

-is kind of disappointing. Despite her super powers, it's still not a very threatening demon. She has a ridiculous amount of health, so killing her is not an option unless you feel like spending the next 5 minutes taking potshots at her. I feel like it would be a lot cooler if you could encounter her at the start of the map, while you're still gathering weapons and cleaning the streets. It would be a lot more fun and would give the map a feeling of urgency and excitement! It could also end in a disaster but let's hope it doesn't.

 

Oh, also, there's no custom midi :(

 

That's pretty much it, there's not much wrong with this one and I thoroughly enjoyed replaying it!

[nicolas monti]

Thanks @Cacodemon187, I'll give a more detailed answer on what you pointed out when possible, currently working on map06.

As usual there will be some changes based of your feedback!

Yep, I forgot the map05 custom midi :/

[Uni]

Looks really good!

 

[nicolas monti]

11 hours ago, nicolas monti said:

Thanks @Cacodemon187, I'll give a more detailed answer on what you pointed out when possible, currently working on map06.

As usual there will be some changes based of your feedback!

Yep, I forgot the map05 custom midi :/

 

Well, some changes that will be implemented @Cacodemon187:

 

Map04:

* Fridge secret grab fixed.

* second SS at southwest in case of a miss.

* a couple of stimpacks at the RK trap area. I think that letting the river open would make the trap innofensive.

* one less HK at YK trap. I survive that trap with RL but yeah, it's hard if you don't know what's coming.

* one baron replaced with HK in the last trap, what I do is letting the monsters get out from the U shaped alcove and then getting there for cover but yeah, it's a bit hard for a blind.

 

Map05:

* A grate at the room you teleport into before the YK so if you hide there you also can get shot.

* I liked your idea for the spider so what I did is to cut it's HP in half, to let the one at the exit and to add one outside free. A couple of buildings were moved a few units to have a loop where the spider can transit without getting stuck.

 

All need to be tested, the spider move in map05 is not without balance problems since the outside spider can trigger a lot of infighting making some ammo potentially over-abundant, we'll see how it ends up.

All the updates will be seen when I upload map06!

 

[azerty]

This looks interesting. I will give it a try when I have some time.

[azerty]

I really hate writing bad reviews but I think it's the best for you. All I am saying is my point of view and my opinion and everything I am proposing to change are suggestions you do with it what you want. So I personally didn't have a great time with these maps (I only played the 2 first ones).  I played on HMP.

 

MAP01:

This was brutal! In some places it was way to dark and enemies just randomly shot at me while I didn't even know they were there. I even had to change my lighting setting but it didn't to much and I didn't want to make it to bright. I felt really unequipped and fragile. That wasn't really fun for me. Once I got the SSG it got a bit better as I was better equipped and had a better fighting chance. But even then there were some very nasty surprises. I don't mind that it it's just that after having a hard time those things can really be frustrating. And then there were those weird lighting thingies. There where lots of hit scanners as well which made some fights even more impossible. And the worst part is that I was playing on HMP. so I can't even imagine what UV would be like. If this difficulty is intended and is meant to give the player a hard time that most of then things here can be ignored. But personally I didn't like it. Visually this looked very nice good job on that part. Nothing to say about that. And like you said those textures are nice.

 

MAP02:

So this was a bit better than MAP01 but still not that fun for me. I was better equipped but fights were still very harsh. So much revetments in this one those really screwed me over. But one thing in particular that was very annoying and nearly got me to quit. The 2 hell knights at the elevator. That was really mean and the opposite of fun. This map at least was brighter so that helped. I have less to say about this map as most of my criticism has already been given at MAP01. Again visually nothing to say, stunning work!

 

I hope I don't sound like a jerk. I really hate writing such posts but I think it's for the best and I hope you understand. I still hope it was helpful tho. And I see that other feedback about maps I didn't play yet is very positive so I am going to give those a try as well so I can hopefully give you some good feedback.

 

P.S.: Please forgive me for any spelling mistakes or weird sentence constructions you find. I am dyslexic so I have some problems with that and I usually don't write such long posts so I apologize in advance.

 

 

[azerty]

Lol @Cacodemon187 your profile pic looks just like the video thumbnail.

[nicolas monti]

17 hours ago, azerty said:

I really hate writing bad reviews but I think it's the best for you. All I am saying is my point of view and my opinion and everything I am proposing to change are suggestions you do with it what you want. So I personally didn't have a great time with these maps (I only played the 2 first ones).  I played on HMP.

 

MAP01:

This was brutal! In some places it was way to dark and enemies just randomly shot at me while I didn't even know they were there. I even had to change my lighting setting but it didn't to much and I didn't want to make it to bright. I felt really unequipped and fragile. That wasn't really fun for me. Once I got the SSG it got a bit better as I was better equipped and had a better fighting chance. But even then there were some very nasty surprises. I don't mind that it it's just that after having a hard time those things can really be frustrating. And then there were those weird lighting thingies. There where lots of hit scanners as well which made some fights even more impossible. And the worst part is that I was playing on HMP. so I can't even imagine what UV would be like. If this difficulty is intended and is meant to give the player a hard time that most of then things here can be ignored. But personally I didn't like it. Visually this looked very nice good job on that part. Nothing to say about that. And like you said those textures are nice.

 

MAP02:

So this was a bit better than MAP01 but still not that fun for me. I was better equipped but fights were still very harsh. So much revetments in this one those really screwed me over. But one thing in particular that was very annoying and nearly got me to quit. The 2 hell knights at the elevator. That was really mean and the opposite of fun. This map at least was brighter so that helped. I have less to say about this map as most of my criticism has already been given at MAP01. Again visually nothing to say, stunning work!

 

I hope I don't sound like a jerk. I really hate writing such posts but I think it's for the best and I hope you understand. I still hope it was helpful tho. And I see that other feedback about maps I didn't play yet is very positive so I am going to give those a try as well so I can hopefully give you some good feedback.

 

P.S.: Please forgive me for any spelling mistakes or weird sentence constructions you find. I am dyslexic so I have some problems with that and I usually don't write such long posts so I apologize in advance.

 

 

Hey man, no problem with criticism, it mostly helps!

A few points:

* I have some troube too writing long post but because of english not being my first language, if you see my answers they are always short and not because I don't care.

* I've noticed the darkness in your videos, believe me it doesn't look so dark in my pc, you can try with the gamma levels, maybe is something on your port configuration, or the graphic card.

* On difficulty I'll keep in mind your feedback also, like the HK elevator thing, I guess it depends on how much HP you have at that moment, but in any case I can move the one of above a little further back in the corner so the player has more chances.

Feel free of comment, I think map03 is a bit salty too but I'm trying to moderate those difficulty spikes.

Thanks for the videos!