Quoth The Raven (Now on idgames!) (27 Limit-Removing Heretic Maps)

[Death Bear]

That tap-tap-tapping at your chamber door means it's time for a release thread!

 

PUSS 28: Quoth the Raven
A Heretic Community Project

by Pineapple Under the Sea Studios, led by Death Bear and Egregor

3 Episodes of Heretical Goodness!
Vanilla Limit-Removing Heretic, targeting most recent version of Crispy Heretic (Uses HEHACKED for TITLES)

Also compatible with:
- dsda-doom 0.26 (UMAPINFO AND HEHACKED NOT SUPPORTED)
- GZDOOM 4.10 and up

Co-op Starts and Difficulties Implemented

Custom Music, featuring a number of tracks from the Raven Midi Pack!

Secret Exits are forced for seamless playthrough.

 

MAPSET DOWNLOAD: idgames

RESPACK DOWNLOAD: QTR_Tex 1.0 (Google Drive)

SCREENSHOTS:

Spoiler

Wonder, fear, doubt, and dream with us on this fantastic new adventure! Pineapple Under the Sea Speedmapping Series introduces its first Heretic event, Quoth the Raven. In a challenge to create maps semi-inspired by the rules of the originals in 8 hours or less, 17 of us collectively constructed 27 maps in the time limit! We had a lot of fun with this, and we hope you enjoy playing! Venture into the dark and survive the Night's Plutonian Shore! Defeat the Serpent Rider and be granted the forbidden knowledge of yore!

 

As a special bonus, we have linked the resource pack, as well! Use it for good! (Or evil. I'm not your dad.)

 

MAPLIST (These are balanced for wand start.):

Spoiler

            EPISODE 1: The Hopeless Morrow
            E1M1: "Wondering, Fearing, Doubting, Dreaming" by Death Bear
            E1M2: "Magic if You Please" by BluePineapple72 @BluePineapple72
            E1M3: "The Scorching Citadel" by United VirusX @United VirusX
            E1M4: "Hunt of the Chickenmancer" by Unicorn Skull and Death Bear
            E1M5: "The Shimmering Falls" by Snowy44 @Snowy44
            E1M6: "Upon First Gleaning the Warrent of Dawn" by Peccatum Mihzamiz @Peccatum Mihzamiz
            E1M9: "No Rays from the holy Heaven come down" by Egregor
            E1M7: "The Deep Woods of the Hopeless Morrow" by Egregor, LGmaire, and Death Bear
            E1M8: "In the Hall of the Mad Bull King" by Hambourgeois @TheHambourgeois
            
            EPISODE 2: Shadows That Lie
            E2M1: "The Ravenking's Rusty Keep" by Death Bear
            E2M2: "Grease" by Walter Confetti @Walter confetti
            E2M3: "Disciple Square" by notTyrone @notTyrone
            E2M4: "Clue" by Peccatum Mihazmiz
            E2M9: "Water Weird" by Hambourgeois
            E2M5: "Round the River Bend" by Egregor
            E2M6: "Crystal Caverns" by Heich @DynamiteKaitorn
            E2M7: "Un Hospedaje Para Los Condenados" by Cacodemon187 @Cacodemon187
            E2M8: "Cavern of Peering Sunlight" by Doomcat and Death Bear
            
            EPISODE 3: Unmerciful Disaster
            E3M1: "Serpent's Maw Keep" by Shadow Sparkle and Death Bear
            E3M2: "Smol Dewngeohn" by Walter Confetti
            E3M3: "The First Town" by Zari
            E3M4: "Quaff the Raven" by Peccatum Mihzamiz
            E3M9: "El Torturador" by LGmaire @LGmaire
            E3M5: "Sinodo de Brujos" by Cacodemon187
            E3M6: "Upon Grim Wings of Sorrow" by Egregor and Death Bear
            E3M7: "Crystal Lake Compound" by DukeOfDoom @DukeOfDoom
            E3M8: "Nevermore" by Death Bear and Egregor

 

Known Issues: There are currently some HOM/ visual glitches on E1M6. Because HEHACKED appears to have a limit on characters for title patches, some titles are not full length in Crispy Heretic.

 

As always, a HUGE thanks to our event staff for their enthusiasm and expertise in helping with our events. A GREAT BIG SHOUTOUT to my co-lead @Egregor, without whom I would not have been able to do this as smoothly, effectively, and of such caliber. His work on the texture pack, overall consultation, and playtesting feedback has been invaluable to this project. He also made it a lot of fun!

Our texture pack also featured the work and help of @kwc and @TheHambourgeois, for which I am very thankful! An additional big thanks to @SilverMiner in helping provide support from Crispy Heretic, including ANIMATED support and a big help with our texture pack compatibility. Thank you to @Peccatum Mihzamiz for playtesting the original run of submissions! Thank you to each our map contributors, who have really made this an enjoyable experience for me, not just as a project lead, but as a player and average Heretic enjoyer. Congratulations to BluePineapple72, Peccatum Mihzamiz, and LGmaire for making their first Heretic maps! Congratulations to Zari, for making their first map ever for this project! Thanks for everyone being patient as we sort everything out, and for allowing me to go ham to finish up the third episode, because boy how I HATE having partial episodes.

We hope you enjoy playing this as much as we did creating it! Now grab that wand and get psyched heretical! Please send a raven drop a message if you find bugs and stuff, if you e are in need of an update.

Edited November 20, 2023 by Death Bear

[Lila Feuer]

Can't wait to go hard on Heretic releases, I've somehow beaten the original game a gorillion times but played very little PWADs. Full game replacements or damn near full are a rare sight indeed, shots look great.

[Peccatum Mihzamiz]

Congrats Zari and thank for contributing to this project with your first map ever! I had a lot of fun playing that one, and was blown away by some of the other submissions!

 

A huge set comprised of an eclectic bunch of maps. From the insides of castles to outdoor forests, from golden temple boss fights to broody, darker maps: I kept being happily surprised by the variety in this set, as well as laughing out loud at some of the absolutely bonkers fights in a handful of the maps!

[eharper256]

Here's a video with me playing Maps 1-5 in Walpurgis.

It's a lovely looking mapset, for sure.

I skipped 3 deaths to the Maulotaur in Map 2, in case you're wondering what happens when I die there, lol. The arena is just a bit too insanely crowded, IMHO, and should be opened up a bit and made a bit easier to move in~ it's way too easy to take incidental damage from the sludge and the exploding pods, and with how cramped it is, it's super easy to get caught in the Cow Boys AoE's (as you see in the death lol). That's the only point I felt just utterly overwhelmed; though I guess if you're playing Heretic and held onto all your Tomes for that moment, it might be less of an issue? Would still consider nerfing that a bit; incidently this is the only map to have both a Lich and Maulotaur as well.

Map 3's Lava caverns got me lost for a while (you also see that in the vid, lol), so perhaps some landmarks in there. Map 4 is fine, except that once you clear the outside, it's bit derelict for a while until the keep ~ If that's the intention then that's fine though; incidently, this was my favourite map of the 5, and marks one of the first times I've seen a cloud of heretic imps (caco-clouds are so last season lol).

Though I played this on Skill 2, it's very packed for that, I guess this is a Heretic standard for whatever reason. I did notice a conspicuous absence of Quartz Flasks through the wad in general which is a little mean. I would maybe ease it very slightly for those playing on Easy (just in general).

Still other than the rather high difficulty, it's a fabulous mapset, good job to all involved.

Edited September 24, 2023 by eharper256

[Death Bear]

Thanks, everyone!
I updated the OP link to RC1.1 to add in a MAPINFO that adds the map names, authors, and episode names...for those who play in associated ports. No custom text yet, but that'll be maybe later down the line. Enjoy!

[plums]

I won't be able to get to this for a while, but it looks great! Congrats and bravo on pulling of a new Heretic megawad.

[Not Jabba]

Hey, excited to check this out! Not sure when I'll be able to get to a full playthrough, but I poked around a bit and came away with a couple quick suggestions/bug reports.

You all have probably noticed the funny colormapping on some of the textures with gold metal materials. Lemme pull up the Heretic palette real quick and show you why that happens.

 

You can see there are three ramps on that palette where yellow appears. There's the yellows that fade down into dark bronze (111-136), the pure yellows (137-144) that eventually fade into the bronzes as well, and then the few down at the bottom that will fade into orange and then red. When those fiery yellows get mixed in with other types (which most likely happens if a truecolor image gets converted to Heretic palette), you get the weird effects in dim light.

 

This is pretty easily fixable, and I'm going to toss you some already-fixed versions of some textures from my own resources. It's possible there are other textures in your pack that have the issue, these are just the ones I already know about. It probably isn't going to happen with the newer textures from folks like Hambourgeois, but it was present in older textures from BakLeg and MedTex.

     

 

I also happened to notice that a bunch of the leafy midtextures around the outer edges of E3M8 are floating -- they either need to be upper unpegged or they got offset somehow.

[TheHambourgeois]

11 hours ago, Not Jabba said:

It's possible there are other textures in your pack that have the issue, these are just the ones I already know about. It probably isn't going to happen with the newer textures from folks like Hambourgeois, but it was present in older textures from BakLeg and MedTex.

This is actually good to know about, I think my recolor method could possibly grab colors from that range.

[Peccatum Mihzamiz]

@Zeroandneko played through episode 1 and over half of episode 2. Video over here:
 

 

Edited September 26, 2023 by Peccatum Mihzamiz

[kalensar]

Well this just made my day. Gonna have a blast on this for sure.;

[Zeroandneko]

This set is wonderful and I really cant wait to tackle the latter  half of it!

[Fonze]

Looks amazing! Always cool to see some love for heretic!

[TheHambourgeois]

11 hours ago, Peccatum Mihzamiz said:

@Zeroandneko played through episode 1 and over half of episode 2. Video over here:

 

I always tested e1m8 from a wand start, the normal flow does not work so well if you're already loaded up

[LadyMistDragon]

I played Map 01 on TBPPP and actually finished deathless!....but managed to end the video whilst fiddling around with settings and trying to see how to fly. Safe to say the advantage of it is pretty good!

[Egregor]

Thanks for all the interest! I'm very happy with how it has turned out so far. A few things to keep in mind: the names on the intermission are original stock. To see the real names check the map. Check out the https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Heretic to get familiar with Heretic's inventory system. Time Bombs and Morph Ovum (Egg) are part of your ammo and should be used.

 

This has been a learning process for everyone involved so bear with us as we try to improve. Please post any play-throughs or streams of QTR here, please. We are waiting to get more feedback before working on and releasing RC2. Thanks again!

 

EDIT: RC1.1 has proper titles in intermission now!

Edited September 29, 2023 by Egregor

[LadyMistDragon]

 

[Kyka]

A heretic Megawad you say?

 

Color me interested.

 

Looks awesome. Well done.

[LadyMistDragon]

Cute map!

 

 

[DemoGorgonZola]

Hi, I played through the wad and it was super fun! :)
I used GZDoom 4.5.0 with Fullscreen Statusbar for hud; SM wand starts, not blind (I checked maps beforehand and roughly* prepared). 

 

Full episode videos in the spoilered section below:

Spoiler

 

Heretic - PUSS 28: Quoth the Raven E1: The Hopeless Morrow

 

 

Heretic - PUSS 28: Quoth the Raven E2: Shadows That Lie

 

 

Heretic - PUSS 28: Quoth the Raven E3: Unmerciful Disaster

 

 

 

Some notes on the levels... @Death Bear

E1M3 "The Scorching Citadel" by United VirusX
- I was a bit paranoid about ammo because I kept running out while testing, so starting area are all infight baiting; adding a bit more wouldn't hurt probably :p
- one monster closet didn't open
E1M6 "Upon First Gleaning the Warrent of Dawn" by Peccatum Mihzamiz
 - so many nice apple doomcute (hereticute?), not a single snake/Ophidian to go with the sinful garden, hmmm wink-wink
E2M6 "Crystal Caverns" by Heich
- easy to softlock by walking more than once in the water before the exploding pods area (I think I've seen it as reported/known issue but included for completenes)
E2M8 "Cavern of Peering Sunlight" by Doomcat and Death Bear
- I approached the blue key area from the other way around, monster traps are triggered by the green door not the key so it's possible to bypass them
E3M3 "The First Town" by Zari
- Iron Lich is stuck in a pillar indentation in the ice section behind yellow doors, killed it there but maybe it was supposed to trigger and fly out after getting the secret next to it?
E3M4 "Quaff the Raven" by Peccatum Mihzamiz
- apple shaped secret, no snake; beautiful Poe sector art ;)
E3M9 "El Torturador" by LGmaire
- I wasn't sure how to get the secret with firemace in yellow door area, decided to move on and checked later (*but after finishing, should have inspected thoroughly not just roughly beforehand), oh well it was just shootable... silly me :p 
E3M5 "Sinodo de Brujos" by Cacodemon187
- it turned out I pretty much played it without secrets for main playthrough and only after reaching exit went secret hunting :p
- is going on the barrels for the secret the intended SM-Speed route? See bonus video below (on DSDA 0.22.2 for variety and to exclude any GZDoom shenanigans ;) )

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

E3M6 "Upon Grim Wings of Sorrow" by Egregor and Death Bear
- stuck Disciple in the ice section, green key room (113th kill around 90 min)
- skip-able bonus/final fight?
E3M8 "Nevermore" by Death Bear and Egregor
- cavern wall didn't open for me after D'Sparil died on GZDoom, I also checked it on DSDA and it worked fine there
- love the hereticute display in the credits hall :)
 

 

 

[ProfBloom]

This looks great, definitely going to give it a play!  I haven't really played anything Heretic since the 90s or early 00s so this should be a treat.

[LadyMistDragon]

https://youtu.be/B54lv6xaDXE

 

[LadyMistDragon]

 

[Death Bear]

I’m accepting the final round of updates for RC2 by Oct. 22nd, so if you feel like your map needs one, try to get it by then. We’re about to start wrapping this up.

[TheShep]

My play through is in my VODs of Twitch. I'll be doing a proper highlight down the road but for now you can dig and find it. 

 

https://www.twitch.tv/sheporiginale

 

[Not Jabba]

Thanks for the Heretic megawad! Had fun with this, although I switched from vanilla to Wayfarer's Tome around the start of E2 (nothing personal, I like most Heretic maps better that way). I liked the texture set and some of the new theme ideas, but especially all the little town areas and forested valleys sprinkled throughout the mapset. This is some nice pure Heretic, and I'm glad people were willing to mess around with stuff like slippery ice and fast currents and flight powerups as part of progression and combat. My favorite maps were the red fortress (E3M9?) for the great architecture and fights, and the map with all the Wings in it (E3M6?). 

 

A few minor issues I found, I don't remember what some of the map slots were, but hopefully the screenshots will do it:

 

This secret area that you can fly up to, the back side texture of the midtex banners is floating up at the ceiling.

 

This secret area was difficult to figure out how to get out of, because the lift only drops when you stand on the item platform, and it's also on the other side of a fake wall -- kind of a confusing setup, wish I could just press a button to lower the lift back down. Also, is it intentional that the lava doesn't hurt me?

 

E3M8, this platform in the lava in the center of the map (the one D'Sparil starts on) has a damaging floor, which seems like it's not intended.

 

My wife and I both liked the "owls and beer" thing in the credits room. All the little doomcute signatures were fun.

[OpenRift]

Fuck, this might actually be the best Heretic mapset I've ever played...

[OverflowingMocha]

On 10/26/2023 at 10:23 PM, Not Jabba said:

 My favorite maps were the red fortress (E3M9?) for the great architecture and fights, and the map with all the Wings in it (E3M6?). 

 

E3M9 is my map! Thank you so much, I'm really glad you think it's one of your favorites.

 

On 10/26/2023 at 10:23 PM, Not Jabba said:

This secret area was difficult to figure out how to get out of, because the lift only drops when you stand on the item platform, and it's also on the other side of a fake wall -- kind of a confusing setup, wish I could just press a button to lower the lift back down. Also, is it intentional that the lava doesn't hurt me?

 

About this, I've gotten a few other complaints over this, so I may do something about it to make it less weird, hope to change this next update!

[LadyMistDragon]

Finally was able to start the 3rd episode!

 

 

[hereticfan]

Hello, what is the respack for ? Should I download it too?
 

Congrats for the release!! Hexen and heretic are my preferite games and it's lovely to see more content. 

[Peccatum Mihzamiz]

2 hours ago, hereticfan said:

Hello, what is the respack for ? Should I download it too?

 

As the OP states, the resource pack is there as a nice bonus. Feel free to make your maps with them! :D

 

Also: a final version of this project will be released very soon. I would recommend waiting just a tiny bit more and getting the full shiny version with all kinds of bugfixes and upgrades.