Anonymous Recovery Group's Playtesting Thread [Updated OP]

[ANonThingie!]

ANon: There's going to be a couple of days lag in the update posts, as stuff got busy from other sources we needed to pay attention to. It's became a bit unwieldly to micromanage, still not fully on our feet and we also made an error in the recording step, so we have to go back and re-record. Just thought, it'd be helpful to mention this. Didn't want ya thinking we've forgotten, things have fallen behind schedule.

THOUGH, something to note. Once Walpurgis is done, we're going to 'freeze' any new requests for possibly up to two weeks. Since we have an idea on what we can take on our plate now, we'll try and organise a better public listing for our limits, after the current list is dealt with. This is just going to hopefully be a warning upfront to any newcomers, we're still a partial play tester due to time constraints/commitments.

Thanks for your understanding. Bye for now, need to try and rest.

[ANonThingie!]

@Clippy: DooMWorld Playtesting: Clippy - MAP01 Pizzeria of Peril - https://youtu.be/80S9sk8nG2k
@Dubbag: DooMWorld Playtesting: Dubbag - MAP01 Night Shade - https://youtu.be/STd9B_Um3F8

ANon: Truth is, we didn't really have a lot of points since the other requesters here had a lot more content in their WADsets to discuss and playthrough, compared to both your single short levels. So, instead we at the very least tried to be certain that the UV-MAX litmus test was true and you both passed, single-segmentable as well. As such, it's easy to say there's no fundamental issues to report. Feel free to observe the contents and if you want any follow-ups let us know and we'll see if we can try and think of more.

In the meantime, to conclude this month's playtesting bucket [yes, we're not accepting anymore this month] Walpurgis is getting a looky! Back soon enough.

[Clippy]

Thank you guys for playing my map. I have limited time to truly invest in mapping but still try to make short fun things that I hope people appreciate. Good times

[ANonThingie!]

ANon: That's OK @Clippy. We just wanted to elaborate on all the possible solutions/improvements we could think of [this does in some cases, mean ones that might not work, again that's fine]. We were worried initially, since the level was rather quick, we wouldn't have any talking material so we were just glad to pull our headspaces together and come up with something productive... hopefully.

@eharper256: We've started having a look at Walpurgis, we got a bit of free time to mess around and at least on first observation... Thingie!'s definitely impressed, there's so much to nerd out to, it's ridiculous :D. We're going over some resources to try and find some effective playtests [we don't have Heretic or HeXen, so trying to work with custom DooM MAPs].

Can we ask you if you have specific elements in mind to give feedback on? For example, we know that you have 4 classes in game and they are supposed to be different stats... Do you want us to confirm granular elements, like if the big strong class has, say 150 HP at start? We were going to try and dig in and check some of the code but there's a lot to digest, when we look at the internals and admittedly struggling to talk about it, except in a opinionated manner and aim is to provide more than just an opinion. We'd like to give you some meaningful insight too.

One thing we definitely would like in the future and it's similar to something we discussed with @Kan3 recently. It was to include ACTOR lists in Maps and Mods. Your case here, there's lots of fundamental tweaks. We would appreciate some reference to the new items and weapons, how they are supposed to work, etc.

We will end our questioning for the moment, with some form of early feedback.
It's definitely got some medieval power fantasy vibe [which according to your wishes, is what you wanted so good job there] and it's definitely got a little DnD craziness in there too [looking at the Pyromancer and Druid there]. The way that the DECORATE and ZScript is neatly written is very appreciated :D and the flavour text definitely helps set the mood. We noticed there's a note about incomplete works, so we might need to re-read what doesn't work but we still haven't quite looked at everything in it. It promising to those who want a more fantastical experience, but with the regular monsters it feels too OP at times... We can stunlock Multiple Cybers with fire!

That's where we'll leave it for the moment, folks [especially since we had to rewrite half of this message, due to technical errors over here *sighs in tech issues* and we could do with a rest, it's been *another* day for sure here.] Back later, to conclude this month reviews :D

[Frostman]

Hey guys,

 

Just signed up.

 

In my first week of map making and made a functional map. Still some graphical bugs I need to fix, but not sure how. 

 

Anyway, it's a pretty basic slaughter map but I also rate it as somewhat fun.

 

Totally understand if no one can be fucked playing it though lol. Be forewarned that I have no history of map-making and I made it in my first week!

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/megokajr3rb81vw/Triangular_Dementia.Wad/file

 

 

[eharper256]

11 hours ago, ANonThingie! said:

One thing we definitely would like in the future and it's similar to something we discussed with @Kan3 recently. It was to include ACTOR lists in Maps and Mods. Your case here, there's lots of fundamental tweaks. We would appreciate some reference to the new items and weapons, how they are supposed to work, etc.

Did you try looking at the 'Read This!' menu in game? It does alot of the basic explainations in a summary page, and also gives a lowdown of the basics of each class. I also highly, highly recommend enabling the custom HUD through the Walpurgis options menu (I'm actually going to add a reminder in the mod for this in a future version after other testers keep missing it as its hidden at the bottom of the menu lol).

I am going to add in a page about items as well later on as I realise not everyone knows about the Raven item selection. Two of these are covered in the class help pages in game (Flechettes, which are Grenades but effect differs on a class basis, and Icons, which give each class a unique version of the Invulnerability). Some others have parallels to Doom Items (i.e. Torch = LightAmp, Waterwalking Boots = Radsuit). But other key ones are:
Quartz Flasks (Purple Bottle)- your basic medkit items, they are hotkey'ed to H by default. Heals 25.
Discs of Repulsion (Golden Disc)- blows enemies and projectiles away with a wave of force.
Mystic Urn (Ankh symbol)- Portable Soul Sphere.
Krater of Might (Urn with Purple Fluid & Smoke)- Gives 100 of both mana; replaces backpacks.
 

Quote

Can we ask you if you have specific elements in mind to give feedback on? For example, we know that you have 4 classes in game and they are supposed to be different stats... Do you want us to confirm granular elements, like if the big strong class has, say 150 HP at start? We were going to try and dig in and check some of the code but there's a lot to digest, when we look at the internals and admittedly struggling to talk about it, except in a opinionated manner and aim is to provide more than just an opinion. We'd like to give you some meaningful insight too.

 

Obviously, alot of the basics have been confirmed by multiple players over the last year so I don't need things like that. Its cool that you can code dive, but I'm not looking for that as such.

Honestly, the big point I always look for is what people think about balance in Doom with the classes; and with the extra bestiary adjustments et. al, and of course just to make more people aware of the mod.
 

Quote

We will end our questioning for the moment, with some form of early feedback.
It's definitely got some medieval power fantasy vibe [which according to your wishes, is what you wanted so good job there] and it's definitely got a little DnD craziness in there too [looking at the Pyromancer and Druid there]. The way that the DECORATE and ZScript is neatly written is very appreciated :D and the flavour text definitely helps set the mood. We noticed there's a note about incomplete works, so we might need to re-read what doesn't work but we still haven't quite looked at everything in it. It promising to those who want a more fantastical experience, but with the regular monsters it feels too OP at times... We can stunlock Multiple Cybers with fire!

 

The only incomplete parts right now is that not all the weapon upgrades will work, and that Dimensional Instability mode may have some issues with +BOSSFLAG levels (like Dead Simple), but everything else should otherwise be mostly stable

[ANonThingie!]

10 hours ago, Frostman said:

First week of map making... Be forewarned that I have no history of map-making and I made it in my first week!

@Frostman

'Spaces First Impressions:
Thingie: Hey, we're technically new to mapz and shtuff. We're aren't that long in the communities and don't have a lot of published work. So it kewl you're trying to post mapping work. Yey, maps! :D. It kinda reminds us of a certain 90's WAD Compilation set, we tend to play for lols.
Monké: Taken a look even though we're supposed to be freezing the post for now. It's not great, there's a lot to try and assist with here. But, going to wait since I'm not the best at balanced advice.
Arty: Yes, concurring with our simian friend here, it's rather slapdash and definitely will need some re-tries to help make something grander bloom, but that'll depend on if you want to expand upon your first attempt.

ANon's First Impressions:
ANon: There's some genuine attempt at trying to make a decent fight, in this. For example, your [and we'll come back to this later] only working secret, if some attention is made to where you should be positioned ensures the difficulty is trivial. It requires learning the map, to become better at handling with the fights. But, please understand we have to point out, there's a lot of choices in how it's staged and the environments, which make it not that enjoyable for US. We had to use Kill Monsters to learn the map first, then come back, complete a legit run, then try for secrets. In the map's state only UV-Kills is possible. There's two things which are tagged as secrets... Z-Height Teleporter and one of the Spaster Minderminds, they will need untagged if UV-MAX is going to be supportable.

ANon's Analysis:
ANon: There's a fair share of HOM effects here and a lack of direction [especially for teleporters and where they are, from visual cues]. On top of that, a lot of weird hanging Middle Textures and odd buttons. Also, more importantly, there's a fair share of hit-scanners in the map. Now, it's more a problem if you don't realise where to go and just because of how open it is, it tends to be more annoying that you might think. The map's functional, so we can't say under our rating system it's not playable... but due to a lot of rough design it might lead to some people not giving it a fair shot. Also, it's possible to SOFTLOCK!!! If you don't grab the Blue Key and happen to appear at the end... you're trapped!

ANon's Advice:
We would suggest that you try and clean up the HOM's at least [aka, fix the missing textures] and try to simplify the level by adding in some visual markers where you might end up as honestly your secret teleporter, was honestly not hinted at well. And ABSOLUTELY!!! fix the SOFTLOCK!!! Move the teleporter, outside the Blue Skill Door and it should fix the issue. Apologies, if this point is shouty etc. We care about softlock and performance issues so glad we can at least provide this sanity check for you. As it's your first map, it's a good place to start learning more about refining the map and trying to improve, which we will love to see you do. We can try and assist with potential clean-up in a video later, giving possible suggestions in full, but we at least wanted to make a early post highlighting, some immediate problems

ANon's Rating: [Love/Play/Hate] Hate [due to softlock]. Calling it as is, at the moment there's potential here to irritate that needs addressed. We tend to do be very self-critical on our own work too, so understand that we do believe the next version, will be improved and in the Play rating. It's a good start, but we need to let ya know when there's problems. Beginners and Veterans alike. Please let us know, if you'd like us to give more feedback. Good bye for now.

[ANonThingie!]

@eharper256
ANon: Admittedly, not enough time was looked at the Read This section, in fact, probably had forgot or ignored so that one is somewhat on us. Apologies, we had tried skim reading a lot between the PK3, README and the post, so during the first pass, we were more gathering any first hand questions and sending them back, since we were looking to get confirmation.

Thingie!: Oh oki! We just wanted to be sures if there was some techy shtuffs to test out. That's kewl, hey gives us a chance to just play a modpack, woohoo. We'll try and get on a quick video hopefully before the end of the week then. Thankies for the infos.

ANon: Thank you for some of the specific item details at least, just to be clear, we haven't played Heretic/HeXen/Strife before. Not used to the Equipment in this way, you see. Which is why we do have one question?
Now, when the Player's dead you can't use items which makes sense, but we were still able to toggle the selected item. Is this normal?

Last point to mention before we actually proper try out a set of levels is, you mentioned the HUD. We read in the notes, you do recommend switching/enabling the Custom HUD. We've typically used the Alt GZDooM HUD, so really this is more a curiosity. Is your plan to build a replacement HUD for both normal and alt GZDooM HUDs, as long as your playing with the MOD Pack. We ask simply because we just tend to use the ALT HUD for it's display [counters and timers]. We did have the new HUD on, but we didn't notice Kills/Items/Secrets and timers. Also, the new icons and whatnot are still new for us, so please understand our questions might just be a learning curve thing. Hope you understand. *waves* Speak later, but so far Walpurgis is a goddamn great power trip MOD, that's for sure.

[eharper256]

5 hours ago, ANonThingie! said:

ANon: Thank you for some of the specific item details at least, just to be clear, we haven't played Heretic/HeXen/Strife before. Not used to the Equipment in this way, you see. Which is why we do have one question?
Now, when the Player's dead you can't use items which makes sense, but we were still able to toggle the selected item. Is this normal?

Last point to mention before we actually proper try out a set of levels is, you mentioned the HUD. We read in the notes, you do recommend switching/enabling the Custom HUD. We've typically used the Alt GZDooM HUD, so really this is more a curiosity. Is your plan to build a replacement HUD for both normal and alt GZDooM HUDs, as long as your playing with the MOD Pack. We ask simply because we just tend to use the ALT HUD for it's display [counters and timers]. We did have the new HUD on, but we didn't notice Kills/Items/Secrets and timers. Also, the new icons and whatnot are still new for us, so please understand our questions might just be a learning curve thing. Hope you understand. *waves* Speak later, but so far Walpurgis is a goddamn great power trip MOD, that's for sure.

No problem! Hopefully I didn't come across as too short, had to quickly throw that last post together before going to work lol.

 

There's also a test-map you can go to from the Walpurgis menu, it spawns all the items and can spawn monsters relevant to the game you're playing if you want to mess around with things to try them out.

 

It's funny, I've honestly never tried flicking through inventory whilst dead before, but yes indeed that seems to be the case, haha. As its kinda niche and useless I guess its not really a bug, just a strange situation. You can also setup hotkeys for items in the menu (H defaults to flasks, and G to your Flechette, which usually has a grenade or mine like behaviour).

 

I'm not sure if the Alt-Hud is actually replace-able or is hard coded into GZDoom. Guess its something I will have to investigate in the future; though I expect the latter since its impossible for mods to alter core CVARs or change user settings directly. I personally use Tekish's HUD addons for monitoring stats and stuff because its a very good all-in-one package of QoL and better than mine; but the HUD does include optional Kill/Item/Secrets/Timers which you can enable in the Statusbar options (under Walpurgis Options => Statusbar Options => Stats).

 

If you ever find Walp to be a little easy, there are also options to make it a bit harder via the Monster Settings (with higher Elite Spawns, and Dimensional Instability Mode), and via "Doomed Souls" Mode, which removes all healing items from levels except a starting Flask (which you can define the amount of HP in) that can only be refilled rarely.

 

Feel free to throw any other questions you have my way.

Edited January 19, 2022 by eharper256

[SkeletronMK666]

On 1/8/2022 at 12:27 AM, ANonThingie! said:

If the post's wrong to make, can you please say why? [new to the forums, and to be honest, still intimidated being around here]

Admittedly, wasn't and still not completely certain this is the best way approaching this or thing to do. However, some time has freed up and would like to try and offer some assistance for people wanting to see if they'd like some opinions or advice on their creations. At the time submitting a playtester application, there was some technical concerns [mostly around recording and streaming] and believe that things are in order. While a few names might recognise us, Hello, I'm [or we're, it's a thing we prefer using due to personal reasons] ANonThingie!, our way of reviewing stuff is more in our 'headspaces' we enter and depending if there's cool effects and tricks used, or story and puzzles, or just nice combat or skill challenges, we usually tend to simply see if things are fun and that's pretty much it.

 

*awkward wave* So, yeah. Hope people will stop by and chat a bit and send sum maps! :D

hello, it's skeletron. this is somewhat a minor return to the community.

hi! :)
 

i was reading your post, and i need some playtesting done with a weapon set in a wad called Entropic DOOM. it's in release candidate 1.0.
i just need someone to look over the mod, i think it's pretty much done.
 

here is a version of the file, it's also up on MODDB, however i will link it to you here via mediafire:

https://www.moddb.com/mods/entropic-doom/downloads/entropic-doom

 

or

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/4h5ojrwgfwcvr6d/ED1.0_RC.wad/file

i've been stress testing the wad myself in playtesting on Plutoina. the VOID HAMMER is super fun and i think most guns are in a good spot.

EDIT: the mod is only compatable with GZdoom

Edited January 19, 2022 by SkeletronMK666

[SkeletronMK666]

and thank you :)

[ANonThingie!]

1 hour ago, SkeletronMK666 said:

...i just need someone to look over the mod, i think it's pretty much done...

ANon: That'll be similar to the current mod that's on the list right now. You'll probably end up either hearing/seeing feedback later in the week, or we'll come back and be asking some tech questions [assuming that your MOD doesn't have a README or some information readily available]. That being said, since the backlog of external work is getting bigger, you'll be the last playtest for a while. So hold on for a day or two and we'll get back to you properly.
 

Quote

Just in case, for anyone else reading the post, we've adjusted the Title and OP to include a note saying the bucket of requests is full and we won't be taking more until February. Please check the OP's edit and Title.

 

[SkeletronMK666]

39 minutes ago, ANonThingie! said:

ANon: That'll be similar to the current mod that's on the list right now. You'll probably end up either hearing/seeing feedback later in the week, or we'll come back and be asking some tech questions [assuming that your MOD doesn't have a README or some information readily available]. That being said, since the backlog of external work is getting bigger, you'll be the last playtest for a while. So hold on for a day or two and we'll get back to you properly.
 

 

alright thank you. download the MODDB version, it should have a .txt file in that.

[Dubbag]

I'm thankfull for your deep dive into review this map. I have never seen such an in depth review like this. Thank you so much.

[ANonThingie!]

@eharper256: DooMWorld Playtesting/Playthrough: EHarper256 - Walpurgis [GZDooM Mod] - https://youtu.be/ShSqaotQwUA
@Frostman: DooMWorld Playtesting: Frostman - MAP01 Triangular Dementia - https://youtu.be/d6Xtp2EAqJ4
@SkeletronMK666: DooMWorld Playtesting/Playthrough: SkeletronMK666 - Entropic DooM Weapons [MOD] - https://youtu.be/WXgCmHivYmQ

ANon: Reporting! The comments are in the video descriptions. Apologies, but due to personal reasons we really need a break from Playtesting and the freeze begins now! We'll come back later in February and re-open [with some limitations] and resume playtesting services. If anything needs further details, we'll check back later. Also, fair warning, we aren't in a great situation, since we had been forced away from recording/streaming and had issues when doing so, glad SOMETHING was able to be finished. See ya later!

[eharper256]

Thanks for the review.

The Doom II Secret levels aren't probably the best one's to show off the mod because that weird effect the SS get where they turn into Chaingunners for some reason lol. That one's been around a while and I should probably fix it but I keep forgetting.

Yep, there's still more to come; 0.96 will add Parias' alternate slot 2 weapon (at the moment he's the only one without one, though the Lightbringer is super cool of course) and weapon upgrades for more things.

A Cheat-Sheet for items is already a fairly requested thing, so I'll make sure I add that soon (TM). And yeah, I don't think I've seen the Prism get hit with a Cyberdemon rocket before, so I've never seen that slide (lol). Easy enough to add to my fix list, thanks for finding it.

[SkeletronMK666]

12 hours ago, ANonThingie! said:

@eharper256: DooMWorld Playtesting/Playthrough: EHarper256 - Walpurgis [GZDooM Mod] - https://youtu.be/ShSqaotQwUA
@Frostman: DooMWorld Playtesting: Frostman - MAP01 Triangular Dementia - https://youtu.be/d6Xtp2EAqJ4
@SkeletronMK666: DooMWorld Playtesting/Playthrough: SkeletronMK666 - Entropic DooM Weapons [MOD] - https://youtu.be/WXgCmHivYmQ

ANon: Reporting! The comments are in the video descriptions. Apologies, but due to personal reasons we really need a break from Playtesting and the freeze begins now! We'll come back later in February and re-open [with some limitations] and resume playtesting services. If anything needs further details, we'll check back later. Also, fair warning, we aren't in a great situation, since we had been forced away from recording/streaming and had issues when doing so, glad SOMETHING was able to be finished. See ya later!

i'll do a graphic pass on the wapons, and streingthen up the void hemmer a bit, thank you :D

[ANonThingie!]

ANon: In February it seems. Just wanted to say that for now, our state over here is somewhat more relaxed but not quite freed up yet. 
Hoping the advice was helpful. This post is still technically frozen, [still planning Feb 14th to return proper] However, as we don't want to seem to be ghosting or likewise. Here to say, some of the revised limits will be based around being able to make replies/review/commentary in short a time frame as possible. So, we'll likely be doing single levels only for a while [assuming that they can be beaten quickly] Thanks at least for giving some experience in field play testing, as this was at least something we wanted to try and gain some practice with.

Again for now, have to go as there's still a personal backlog to deal with. Goodbye for now, folks.

[ANonThingie!]

ANon: We've updated the First Post & title, please review accordingly. See ya in due time, folks.

[ANonThingie!]

*Signal Boosting Wave* ANon: Hello, anyone wanting a Play Tester for short content?

[ANonThingie!]

ANon: Small spoiler, we are all going to be busy very soon and there WILL be small/large changes to this group so to speak. We will roll out updates WHEN we're ready to make them in full. That's all for now.