[Limit-Removing] Shevirah (on /idgames)

[Demonologist]

Greetings,

 

Shevirah is a long and challenging OTEX-driven map for strong limit-removing ports (tested with DSDA-Doom 0.25.6 -complevel 2) that should take around 1-1.5 hours to beat on a blind playthrough.

 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

Download from /idgames

 

Good luck subduing the beast!

Edited June 8, 2023 by Demonologist : /idgames link

[Demonologist]

[no longer relevant]

Edited May 19, 2023 by Demonologist

[Firedust]

yolo gonna play this in gzdoom

Demonologist maps are super rare to come by these days, unfortunately

Edited April 29, 2023 by Firedust

[Astro X]

Looks very cool and ominous :o

[rita remton]

one of those rare wads that i just download without hesitation. thanks for making and sharing it :)

[Maribo]

Long hell-style OTEX adventure, featuring a couple of old dehacked friends that will make you grin in nostalgia or sigh in frustration. My favorite parts were the outright slaughter setups, particularly the revenant + arachno lava cave and the finale, which are both excellent tests of spatial awareness and efficient BFG usage. The area with more sparse/incidental combat are typically hosted in rooms with geometry on a massive scale, makes for an interesting contrast. Feels like most of the buildings in this reality were built for massive demons that we never quite meet. Thanks for posting.

Full FDA in -dsdademo format, will play back in v0.25.6: shevirah_maribo.zip

[Caleb13]

I'm just popping in to mention that the map worked without any apparent problems in GZdoom 4.10.0 with default compatibility setting, despite I killed the custom monsters via console (not a fan of those). Another damn impressive work, I have no idea how you manage to properly create and texture all those 45k+ linedefs...

[Demonologist]

Thanks for the feedback so far!

19 hours ago, rita remton said:

one of those rare wads that i just download without hesitation. thanks for making and sharing it :)

Comments like these warm my black heart, much appreciated.

14 hours ago, Caleb13 said:

I have no idea how you manage to properly create and texture all those 45k+ linedefs...

Heh, took some time, not gonna lie. Thanks for the kind words.

 

Made some adjustments (mostly to the initial pre-central hub segment to encourage more aggressive, less worrying-about-supplies playstyle; also slightly reduced the finale's intensity), fixed some cosmetic issues. Link in the OP updated.

Still -complevel 9.

[WH-Wilou84]

Yay, a new Demonologist map, can't let that one slip away !

Here's a FDA for v2 on UV recorded with DSDA Doom on complevel 9 : https://www.dropbox.com/s/5xp8y84pjom99h6/shevirah_v2-fda-wh-05012023.zip?dl=1

Was overly cautious at the beginning, I was expecting intense fights every time a door opened but it's more of a slow burn, immersing you into this giant, ominous fortress.

Completely blundered the demo, that central sniping Arch-Vile is a top-tier threat and I should've rocketed him right away.

I'll retry with saves later on. So far, this is pretty fun :)
Music choice made me feel like I was playing an old Eternal map, hehe. Good times.

 

[Demonologist]

Appreciate it, W!

 

OP link updated, -complevel 2 functionality restored, also made some minor adjustments here and there based on all the feedback I received in various forms.

Barring any other potential mishaps - this is going to be the final version set to be uploaded to /idgames eventually.

 

Thanks!

[Scotty]

Whew what an absolute monster of a map. I feel like these gargantuan adventure-slaughter maps are super rare these days to find so i appreciate this map a lot. I applaud your tasteful use of the extra enemies, people are often too heavy handed with them. Generally a really nice difficulty and scale ramp through the map as well.

 

My only real comment is that i thought the fight below was definitely more difficult than anything else in the map, even the final fight. I had to deal with the second wave with like 110/0 health and armour and more or less reality that section, shit was no joke. Was like being in Sunder for a brief moment :D

 

Spoiler

 

[Demonologist]

Well then, final version is up, the OP's been updated, /idgames link coming soon.

Some misc changes here and there, and regarding the fight @Scotty mentioned - soulsphere on the stairs is now megasphere, also moved the medikits from pinkie closets to the ground level.

Once again - big thanks to everyone for the feedback.

[DoomBerry]

Christ! That was intense.

 

Really enjoyed the level and must say it's one of the most well balanced difficulty, for my skill level, I've played in a long time! I play on UV with saves and I never got stuck or ran out of ammo. Had to retry some of the more difficult fights several times, specially the 10+ archie traps.

 

[Demonologist]

@DoomBerry Thanks, glad you liked the map!

 

/idgames link is in the OP. Dixi.

[plums]

Hey friend, that was an excellent map! I was a little worried it would be too much for me these days, but other than the last fight it was quite manageable. And it would've been disappointing if there wasn't at least *one* intense battle. I'll always hate the Scythe 2 evil marines though, heh, but at least there weren't too many.

 

Great work on the architecture and landscaping, especially the outdoor areas. A pleasure all around!

[Demonologist]

3 hours ago, plums said:

Hey friend, that was an excellent map! I was a little worried it would be too much for me these days, but other than the last fight it was quite manageable. And it would've been disappointing if there wasn't at least *one* intense battle. I'll always hate the Scythe 2 evil marines though, heh, but at least there weren't too many.

 

Great work on the architecture and landscaping, especially the outdoor areas. A pleasure all around!

By gods and devils and spirits of the ancestors, look who it is! So very nice to see you, good sir!

Thanks a lot for the kind words, glad you liked the map, as for evil marines - one could say it's an acquired taste, all in all, it's fairly easy to make things rather aggravating with them, yet their usage also opens up some intriguing opportunities, what with the way they force to quickly readapt even when there's ample space and considerable distance.

Cheers!

[plums]

Indeed it has been a while, last time I was in orbit around these parts was 2020 and I think you were away at the time? Glad to see you're still around and making new maps even. I'll probably hang around for a bit, though perhaps not with the involvement that I had before.

[Demonologist]

I'm always around, one way or another, and even though I might appear inactive - I still observe you all silently from the thickest of shadows. But thanks!

23 hours ago, plums said:

though perhaps not with the involvement that I had before.

Ah yes, I can relate.

[galileo31dos01]

Hello! I played your map today, used crispy-doom on HMP with recurrent saves prior/after fights. Enjoyed this very much, tasteful combo of self-concentrated fights with many incidental skirmishes in between that were as equally entertaining, and also complemented each other nicely, plus I'm sure you can chain setups together which is of good value on replay. Bonus points for bringing back the Erik Alm minions, you made sure their sparse yet significant roles felt well part of the whole journey without having altered their original states. 

 

I found legally only one secret unfortunately -the armor+telefrags- despite looking around meticulously but I still failed on that. Oh and the vistas outside, breath-taking and hot, so hot that crispy would melt occasionally, lol. Of course indoors visuals contrasted nicely with dark green, especially this part (oh, the poor thing was stuck lol)

 

I had a great time with Tetraptykon (hope I spelled that right!) and the red aesthetic theme in the map reminded me of it. I guess the only shallow nitpick I have is that it's missing its own titlepic, but who cares really :p

 

Thanks for sharing it! 

[Demonologist]

@galileo31dos01 Thank you for the full-fledged review, glad you liked the map!

[Khaoscythe]

Not a bad map.

 

Some of the larger areas seem too empty considering the amount of space you have to work with (as far as UV is concerned anyway), although areas like the 'Revenant curve' and the final fight are alright. The paranoia induced via Scythe 2 plasma marines/afrits was quite refreshing though there aren't enough of them imo.

[Demonologist]

12 hours ago, Khaoscythe said:

Some of the larger areas seem too empty considering the amount of space you have to work with

Was never supposed to be stuffed to the brim with monsters, the goal was to make gameplay varied enough in its approaches as to not bore players with endless repetition while also trying to maintain balance between that and the general sense of scale. After all - it's not Sunder and was never intended to be.

12 hours ago, Khaoscythe said:

there aren't enough of them imo.

A question of perspective I imagine, those are very easy to overuse (at times I actually think I did go slightly overboard with afrits...).

 

Nevertheless - thanks for your reply!