Anomaly Report - Released! A new 33-level megawad for vanilla Doom II.

[Korozive]

On 4/4/2022 at 7:45 AM, StyxGaming said:

Just played through the first few maps and it's pretty dang solid so far. Few bugs (like the map 2 secret) but overall I'm enjoying it. Would love to play through it on my youtube channel. 

 

Could you post a link to your channel?

[StyxGaming]

3 hours ago, Korozive said:

 

Could you post a link to your channel?

For sure! It's:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjHqnB15w_iWm7pM76ey39w

[TJG1289]

Just finished up map 32 on UV, so I'm half done. I'm really enjoying this so far! I liked how most of the maps aren't too difficult. It's a nice little breeze. I was surprised at some of the traps in map 15; they are much nastier than anything else in the WAD. And map 31 was slaughter-lite, which wasn't what I expected. And I loved the Romero tributes in map 32. Super fun! And the maps look really nice. I liked the homey feel of map 9 a lot. 

[Kor]

Just finished playing through all of it, except for map33.  Pretty good stuff.  I liked how it wasn't incredibly hard like a lot of wads have been lately. 

[Caleb13]

These were fun to play, it's refreshing to see something not chock full of archvilles for change. Anyway, I played on UV in GZdoom 4.7.1 and I noticed some problems, although I think others already mentioned some of them:

 

MAP02: sector 97 shouldn't be secret.

 

MAP11: if you run from sector 195, you can jump to yellow key. Thus you can get it without obtaining the blue key first.

 

MAP14: player can become stuck in secret sector 65.

 

MAP20: I couldn't figure out how to get the red key, I had to look in an editor. It would help if sector 24 had the standard teleporter floor texture.

 

MAP30: I got telefragged by monsters, the final teleporter should be protected by "block monster" linedefs.

[Roebloz]

Here is a small review of it.  I really liked that but uh, one question: WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT MAP33?!

 

 

[Degree23]

Played through this. Mostly very enjoyable!

 

Map20: The ambushes in this map felt pretty harsh in relation to what's happened so far. It's the last map of the episode I guess, but having hitscanners constantly pop up in your face, as well as a couple of nasty AV ambushes, and there being no MegaArmor (or if there was, I didn't find it) made for a map that felt a bit more unfair than the others so far.

Map27: I feel this map needs another Green Armor part way through, or maybe a MegaArmor somewhere in the first third. You take an absolute ton of damage from distance in this map.

Map29: This progression was hard to keep track of. It was easy to get lost and frustrating to work out where to go. Being sniped from a distance all the time didn't help either. It felt unsatisfying as a penultimate map.

Map30: The teleporter to the final platform probably shouldn't be in the middle of the open area where any monster could run over it and telefrag you. Or block it off with monster block lines.

Map 33: Nice secret map.

 

Overall this was great fun to play through.

[valkiriforce]

RC2 is now available - >>>RC2 Download<<<

 

Here are the updates:
 

Spoiler

 

-Fixed the secret sector bug on MAP02 and removed the W1 line near the computer

-Changed teleport pad on MAP02 to indicate the secret more clearly

-Made lots of difficulty changes throughout - mostly for easy/normal

-Changed yellow key teleport ambush on MAP04

-Added more health to MAP06

-Removed secret effect from the chaingunner platforms on MAP12 and added a switch

-Added switch function to opposite side of trap door for co-op players on MAP20

-Added another invulnerability on MAP25 for easy/normal difficulties

-Small change to secret function on MAP31

 

 

7 hours ago, Caleb13 said:

MAP11: if you run from sector 195, you can jump to yellow key. Thus you can get it without obtaining the blue key first.

 

This was done on purpose for speedrun-related reasons. Some other maps have them as well, but not many.

 

7 hours ago, Caleb13 said:

MAP14: player can become stuck in secret sector 65.

 

This shouldn't be possible as the player is 56 units tall and the sector is 48 units - the only way I can imagine it might be possible is if players crouch in ZDoom ports. I've updated the OP to include this with no jumping. I'll include it in the text file as well next time.

 

Also MAP30 having a teleport in the center of the map was intentional for the risk of the player getting telefragged from wandering monsters, although I have thought about adding block lines as I imagine it would probably annoy people. The map itself really isn't that difficult all things considered, so I haven't settled on making any further changes just yet...

 

2 hours ago, Degree23 said:

Map20: The ambushes in this map felt pretty harsh in relation to what's happened so far. It's the last map of the episode I guess, but having hitscanners constantly pop up in your face, as well as a couple of nasty AV ambushes, and there being no MegaArmor (or if there was, I didn't find it) made for a map that felt a bit more unfair than the others so far.

 

Map27: I feel this map needs another Green Armor part way through, or maybe a MegaArmor somewhere in the first third. You take an absolute ton of damage from distance in this map.

 

There is a mega armor hidden on both maps. As I mentioned in the first post, there are bound to be at least a few nasty surprises in this megawad, though it can become a little more manageable either with the help of secrets or if you decide to play it on a lower difficulty.

 

Happy to see people are enjoying everything so far - I'm really thankful for all the feedback and it helps me to refine the experience for all the things that I missed.

 

7 hours ago, Roebloz said:

I really liked that but uh, one question: WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT MAP33?!

 

I noticed ZDoom/GZDoom seem to like showing the E1 sky on MAP33 and without music for some reason. Not sure why...

 

[EDIT] I'll have to remember to include NightFright's widescreen HUD and OpenRift's DeHackEd patch next time, sorry!

[Caleb13]

14 hours ago, valkiriforce said:

This shouldn't be possible as the player is 56 units tall and the sector is 48 units - the only way I can imagine it might be possible is if players crouch in ZDoom ports. I've updated the OP to include this with no jumping. I'll include it in the text file as well next time.

 

Yet it happens in Gzdoom. I just tested in RC2 with Doom compatibility enabled and I got stuck again. No jumping, no crouching.

[valkiriforce]

Yeah, very strange...I've since checked GZDoom and indeed the player just sinks into the floor for some reason. I've fixed it to make it open for the player to drop down - also I noticed it was possible to bump the computer area powerup from outside so I moved it further from the railing. It'll be included in the next release.

[Caleb13]

Hmm, you're right, the player indeed sinks. It's not a nodebuilder issue though, it happens even when I force internal GZdoom nodebuilder (gennodes 1 option).

[valkiriforce]

So I found there is a possible VPO on MAP13 from an inaccessible imp cage just southwest of the starting area - while I know it shouldn't matter since it can happen from a place the player shouldn't be able to access, I decided to remove the imp cage altogether. I actually tended to forget these enemies were there anyway when running through the opening of the map, so I figured it would be better to do away with it.

 

Besides this, I just wanted to mention that eventually there will be an RC3 in the future hopefully with all the right changes, and I hope after that's been available for a while I can get this out by next month maybe in time for my birthday (May 11th) so any further thoughts or feedback is always helpful and welcome.

[Phobus]

I've played the original version of this through in Crispy Doom and just wanted to let you know that I had a blast! Probably your best megaWAD to date and potentially your best work full stop. The majority of the maps are enjoyable for my preferences and I experienced no bugs or anything. MAP33 is very disposable, and I can see why you moved that to an "extra" slot. If I had to mention some drawbacks (which I don't!), MAP29 felt ball-bustingly difficult compared to the set overall, MAP30 is an IoS (not a bad one, mind, but still an IoS) and there's multiple traps where you're effectively surrounded by Demons or Spectres in immediate damage range with no manoeuvring room... Which is a bit of a bugger if you don't have the plasma rifle or BFG to hand. Saying that, I did tend to survive those traps first time on UV, so they're probably more fair than they look, but they certainly nudged my "bullshit-ometer".

 

Thanks for sharing this megaWAD! It's good to have something nice to play every now and then :)

[TheShep]

ooh !

[Firedust]

Got a small bug to report: there's a softlock in map 32 - you can strafe across the green armor platform for the soulsphere secret but there's no way to get out if you haven't collected the red key.

[Veinen]

I finished RC1 a while ago but forgot to post. Had a really good time with this overall, I have always liked your mapping style a lot and this classic & chill version is no different in that. Very much easygoing as advertised and that was exactly what I needed after a few months of zero dooming. Excellent stuff as always!

 

Attached are my UV FDAs for RC1, dunno if they are of any use at this point though. Recorded with prboom+ 2.5.1.3.

FDA_AR_RC1_01-32.zip

[DoomBerry]

On level 11 of RC2 and so far I have really enjoyed the maps. Good layouting and a few very nice Doom-cute details (like the tank).

 

I know it's not supposed to be a difficult WAD but UV I've played through most maps with no saves on UV and I dont consider myself a fantastic player :) Maybe change up a few enemies and/or add a few more revs and macubi.

 

Loving the MIDI pack!

Edited April 17, 2022 by DoomBerry

[ChaosSmurf]

Only played four levels but having a lovely time. Very classic action. Secrets might be a bit esoteric at times (though I get that's part of the theme) and the new status bar text breaks in the default zdoom alternative HUD (don't know if you care/can fix that, but figured a bug report is a bug report). Looking forward to playing through this over the next few days for something a bit more relaxed from the norm :)

[Firedust]

Beat this today! Great classic mapset, was a real throwback treat. Thank you, VF, for making this megawad! I had a blast with it!

[xAn]

Finished it yesterday and it was fun from start to finish. A very nice mix of mapsets and also loving the music-choices.

[Valboom]

Thanks for this megawad, I really enjoyed it very much!

[Rudolph]

Playing this with Final Doomer's TNT Evilution arsenal and having a blast!

[valkiriforce]

On 4/18/2022 at 10:51 PM, ChaosSmurf said:

Only played four levels but having a lovely time. Very classic action. Secrets might be a bit esoteric at times (though I get that's part of the theme) and the new status bar text breaks in the default zdoom alternative HUD (don't know if you care/can fix that, but figured a bug report is a bug report). Looking forward to playing through this over the next few days for something a bit more relaxed from the norm :)

 

Yeah, not sure what this is about - I think I've had it kind of glitch on me as well through chocolate Doom with the weapon numbers, usually from changing the HUD visibility. @galileo31dos01 Any idea what might be causing this?

[ChaosSmurf]

2 hours ago, valkiriforce said:

 

Yeah, not sure what this is about - I think I've had it kind of glitch on me as well through chocolate Doom with the weapon numbers, usually from changing the HUD visibility. @galileo31dos01 Any idea what might be causing this?

 

 

What it looks like, if it helps.

[galileo31dos01]

4 hours ago, valkiriforce said:

Any idea what might be causing this?

 

I'm not sure what the glitch would be, tbh. Could you show me a screenshot in choco?

 

Also I fail to see the problem in @ChaosSmurf screenshot, isn't that how it's supposed to look?

[valkiriforce]

If you enlarge the window with the + key and go back to showing the HUD the numbers have this sort of block around it for some reason. It's a minor thing though but I'm not sure why it happens exactly.

 

[galileo31dos01]

@valkiriforce Ah, I think I've seen that before in older versions of crispy. Out of curiosity, does it happen with TNT:R's bar too? Because if so, it may be a choco thing. It's something I reported to Fabian a long time ago and got fixed in crispy. 

[valkiriforce]

RC3 is now available. There are quite a few small changes that I've made throughout this month.

 

-Added slightly more health and ammo throughout a number of maps

-Slight difficulty changes made

-Added linedef triggers on MAP13 for when navigating around the red key area to release a monster ambush

-Changed green armor to mega armor in a secret area on MAP14

-Fixed the computer area secret on MAP14 so GZDoom players can't get stuck

-Added another secret on MAP16

-Fixed a softlock on MAP18 when jumping out the window in the northern outdoor area

-Changed the soulsphere powerup on MAP20 to a megasphere

-Resized the outer ring of the spider mastermind arena on MAP20 and fixed some texture misalignments

-Added an extra powerup on MAP21

-Changed teleport destinations for monsters on MAP23 so the ambush is more spread out

-Added multiplayer cyberdemon on MAP24

-Slight change to teleport destination on MAP26

-Slight change in monster behavior on MAP28 by adding the deaf flag for monsters guarding the plasma rifle

-Added secret effect to the soulsphere area of MAP29 and changed the teleport destination

-Linedef action change for a secret on MAP31

 

This may be the last update before I eventually upload this to Idgames - that is unless anyone reports any other bugs or has any other suggestions to make. I'll let it sit on RC3 for a while before then.

 

[EDIT] Oh yeah, and I made sure to package this with the widescreen status bar from NightFright and the DeHackEd patch from OpenRift this time!

Edited April 28, 2022 by valkiriforce

[DoomBerry]

On 4/17/2022 at 10:17 AM, DoomBerry said:

On level 11 of RC2 and so far I have really enjoyed the maps. Good layouting and a few very nice Doom-cute details (like the tank).

 

I know it's not supposed to be a difficult WAD but UV I've played through most maps with no saves on UV and I dont consider myself a fantastic player :) Maybe change up a few enemies and/or add a few more revs and macubi.

  

Loving the MIDI pack!

Finished the WAD and the difficulty does pick up nicely! Great all in.

[valkiriforce]

Hey, I decided to finally release it yesterday - Idgames link is pending, but there is Doomshack and ModDB available in the meantime - enjoy!