Valiant is FANTASTIC!

[DCasali]

I'm certainly late to the game in talking about how great Valiant is, but I just played through it for the first time, and holy crap, what an achievement! I was so impressed with how consistent the quality is, and that it was all done by one guy - Paul DeBruyne. I hope he reads these forums because I want to say congratulations directly. 

 

The maps always have something new, something interesting to them, and the use of monsters, and placement of bonus items is masterful. The visuals are great and I even listened to some of the music because it was that good (I usually hate having the music on because I mostly don't like video game music). Map 31 was probably the most fun I've ever had playing Doom single player. I hope Paul went on to have a great career in games, he clearly has the talent and passion for it. 

 

I played through the entire thing blind on UV and had an absolute blast! Even when I sounded grumpy, it was either because I was suffering from Covid or it was because I just sound that way when I'm enjoying playing Doom :)

 

 

Is Ancient Aliens as good as Valiant? Is anything else this good? I had way more fun playing this than I did Doom Eternal.

 

This community has so much talent. 

[Syn]

Ancient Aliens I would call just as good, if not better than Valiant. Just as visually striking, and the gameplay is just amazing. The music, all done by Stuart Rynn, has a wonderful texture and feel to it as well. Not as many new monsters, though, but the ones it adds are quite interesting. I would recommend it.

[esselfortium]

Valiant is great, glad to hear you enjoyed it! Ancient Aliens and Heartland are also by Skillsaw and are similarly brilliant.

[Dusty_Rhodes]

1 minute ago, esselfortium said:

Valiant is great, glad to hear you enjoyed it! Ancient Aliens and Heartland are also by Skillsaw and are similarly brilliant.

Seconding AA and Heartland. Really fantastic stuff. AA is one of my favorites Mr. Casali, hope you enjoy!

[Antkibo]

Valiant is the quintessential map of the previous decade IMHO. Try Eviternity which is also top tier.

[Deadwing]

Valiant is great, but I like Ancient Aliens more and you should definitely play it :P
I haven't played skillsaw older stuff, but people also enjoy a lot Vanguard and Lunatic too.

[Yugiboy85]

Valiant is fantastic and is my favorite megawad of all time. You will have a blast with AA/heartland if you do play through them.

Fair warning: Heartland requires the eternity engine to be played and wont work on any other ports (not that I'm aware of at least) but honestly, it's worth it :D 

[Dynamo]

Thought about picking up the mapper's mantle yourself again? Maybe valiant can serve as an inspiration for that ;)

[esselfortium]

Just now, Dynamo said:

Thought about picking up the mapper's mantle yourself again? Maybe valiant can serve as an inspiration for that ;)

;) ;) ;) ;) ;)

 

(yes please)

[Redneckerz]

Great to see a classic mapper enjoy works by another classic mapper.

 

Also shameless plug to denote that Valiant has had a conversion to ZDaemon, for those who play on that. It takes advantage of ZDaemon's unique ACS features.

[kwc]

Well if this isn’t a heartwarming thread. :)

[ImproversGaming]

Have watched them all @DCasali, really, really enjoyable. Also the Plutonia Experiment playthrough was a really enjoyable nostalgic trip. Did my PTSD a world of good to see you trapped and sniped by chaingunners!

Keep up the great work!

[Kute]

Valiant has the best opening and Dead Simple maps I've ever seen.

 

Infact for me personally those first like 7 maps is one of the most entertaining block of maps in history. 

 

[HavoX]

21 minutes ago, DCasali said:

Is Ancient Aliens as good as Valiant?

YES!

[xdude_gamer]

Ancient Aliens is just as good as Valiant if not better. The visuals are very surprising and awesome. You will love it Dario!

[Dogmachine]

Valiant is certainly the best; i knew it was gonna be unmatchable when i played The Popes of Roam, one of the best levels in valiant IMO. 

[Gez]

1 hour ago, DCasali said:

Paul DeBruyne. I hope he reads these forums because I want to say congratulations directly. 

Yeah, @skillsaw is around.

 

You'll probably also enjoy Lunatic and Vanguard, two older and smaller projects that are kind of prototypes for Valiant. And yes, Ancient Aliens is excellent.

 

I'll also echo Eviternity and add both episodes of Back to Saturn X.

[Rudolph]

Check out the Vaccinated Edition if you want a more vanilla experience.

[DCasali]

3 hours ago, Dynamo said:

Thought about picking up the mapper's mantle yourself again? Maybe valiant can serve as an inspiration for that ;)

I've definitely thought about it. A little busy at the moment, but it's always there at the back of my mind. 

[ChopBlock223]

23 minutes ago, DCasali said:

I've definitely thought about it. A little busy at the moment, but it's always there at the back of my mind. 

Keep that thought in there. Modern editing tools like Ultimate Doombuilder and Slade3 are very flexible and easy to use. Their nodebuilders are also very fast and reliable, which I know not all nodebuilders in the 90s were.

 

Further, most Doom sourceports are also 'Limit Removing', so even when making a Vanilla format level you can basically ignore all the static limits to make levels as grand and detailed as you please, without having to deal with visplane overflows, or intercept overflows.

[skillsaw]

3 hours ago, DCasali said:

I'm certainly late to the game in talking about how great Valiant is, but I just played through it for the first time, and holy crap, what an achievement! I was so impressed with how consistent the quality is, and that it was all done by one guy - Paul DeBruyne. I hope he reads these forums because I want to say congratulations directly. 

 

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I may have done all the maps and the gameplay modifications, but I had plenty of help (testers, community graphics + music, and some couple decades of user-made maps to learn from) so I don't feel like I deserve 100% of the credit, but the praise is appreciated!

 

I heard about your YouTube playthrough (of course, I heard about it right after your MAP07 playthrough) but haven't gotten around to watching it through. I definitely will though.

 

3 hours ago, DCasali said:

I hope Paul went on to have a great career in games, he clearly has the talent and passion for it.

 

Not exactly ... I work in a much, much more boring field. Level design has always been my hobby -- I've always been afraid that working professionally under someone else's creative direction would take away from my passion/drive.

 

3 hours ago, DCasali said:

Ancient Aliens as good as Valiant?

 

Valiant took a lot more time to make (around three years), and I made it to meet a longtime personal goal of mine (to make a solo megawad for Doom). Valiant was the subject of a bit of perfectionism (I threw out 7 or 8 maps so made a total of ~40: these scrapped levels were eventually released as Sawdust).

 

Ancient Aliens was kind of the opposite, it was started impulsively and came together -- in a complete and total whirlwind of activity -- in the afterglow of Valiant over the course of about a year. It's got the same DNA as Valiant but it's more sibling than descendant. It was made in collaboration with Stuart Rynn (an immensely talented composer here), who wrote the full soundtrack, quite a bit of which is bespoke to Ancient Aliens, and 7 guest mappers, who each contributed a map (and two maps in Joshy's case). Like Valiant, it's also got punchy gameplay with an emphasis on running, gunning, and flow, and a difficulty curve that tries to straddle the line between casual/hardcore, but it doesn't feature Valiant's gameplay modifications, instead focusing on neon aesthetics and weird settings.

 

I think I like Ancient Aliens a little better? But I go back and forth.

 

3 hours ago, DCasali said:

I had way more fun playing this than I did Doom Eternal.

 

This community has so much talent. 

 

Absolutely, I've more or less given up on playing single player FPS games at this point (not that I disliked Doom Eternal). But I'd rather play something off the forums here most nights.

[Poncho1]

Don't forget to check out Vanguard, too!

[roadworx]

ayy, i'm glad you liked it!! valiant is an absolutely fantastic wad, agreed; imo it's skillsaw's best work, by far. ancient aliens is really good as well, and many people consider it to be even better. i can see you loving that one as well, i highly suggest you check it out!

 

btw, if map31 was one of your favorites, i can see you really enjoying vanguard. most of it has that same slaughter-but-not-super-hard feel to it, and it's only 13 maps

[ENEMY!!!]

I definitely second the recommendation of Ancient Aliens, it's still easily in my top five favourite Doom mapsets and a serious contender for my number one spot.  Valiant isn't far behind for me, either.  The gameplay of Ancient Aliens has much in common with Valiant.

[ReaperAA]

Ancient Aliens is definitely worth it. I like Valiant a bit more, but AA isn't far behind. AA does take time to pick up momentum. The first 7 maps are short and share some similar ideas, like in case of map 3 and 4.

 

Map 8 is where AA really hits its stride and that's where things get epic.

 

I would also recommend to check out Heartland, which imho is Skillsaw's best work but it does require Eternity Engine to play it.

Edited February 21, 2022 by ReaperAA

[Borg]

Another Valiant and AA fan. Those two should not really be compared. Valiant is Doom. AA is........ not sure WTF that really is but I loved it.

Can't say which one I like better. Like trying to decide between steak and a good movie.

[Astronomical]

I had a great time keeping up with each batch of videos released.  Seeing someone who is less familiar with dehacked sets defiantly shows what people who are less familiar with the limitations pick up on.  By the time I finished valiant, I was familiar with the way that dehacked works and was able to figure out how enemies behave much faster than someone who doesn't know the limits of mbf.  I think remembering how players from the outside may look at custom elements is important. 

 

1 hour ago, Borg said:

Another Valiant and AA fan. Those two should not really be compared.

I disagree, I think being 2 megawads primarily authored by the same person released one year apart are very comparable.  I think Ancient Aliens guest maps help it stick out and stay fresh.  No one can make 32 maps on their own without the player feeling at least slightly burnt out.

[Nevander]

Just logging in to say this thread is amazing. Carry on.

[DCasali]

4 hours ago, skillsaw said:

I heard about your YouTube playthrough (of course, I heard about it right after your MAP07 playthrough) but haven't gotten around to watching it through. I definitely will though.

 

Not exactly ... I work in a much, much more boring field. Level design has always been my hobby -- I've always been afraid that working professionally under someone else's creative direction would take away from my passion/drive.

 

Hmm, I'm not sure you want to watch my map 07 playthrough :) 

 

I'm sad to hear that your fear of working under someone else's direction prevented you from pursuing games as a career. You clearly have the aptitude and passion for it. At Valve you never have to worry about that. The vision is shared, and everyone has ownership over it. It might sound weird and impossible but it works for us. In fact, we actively discourage individual ownership over large sections of our games because collaboration has always improved our products and creates a happier and more fulfilling work place.

[ReaperAA]

I knew it. This was all just part of Valve's great plan to find and hire talented mappers from our community. You won't take Skillsaw away from us you hear me.

Just kidding :D