[WIP] Vela Pax (on hiatus)

[Tango]

whyyyyy

[Snakes]

Mechadon said:

Oh good, then I think you might be able to squeeze some enjoyment out of these maps DeathevokatioN :). Maybe there are a few other people out there who like maps like these.

I think I've made the decision to go ahead with a 3-map beta release once MAP01 is done and tested thoroughly. So I'm going to go ahead and plan to do that unless you folks think it's a bad idea. I'm looking forward to getting some feedback and comments on the job I've done so far.

Sweet deal. Browsing through this thread give me a mapping inferiority complex. I don't even want to open Doombuilder right now because it'll just make me cry.

[Mechadon]

Snakes said:

I don't even want to open Doombuilder right now because it'll just make me cry.

I kinda feel like that right now, but not really for the same reason X_X

Well anyways, just thought I'd say that I finished up MAP01 tonight. I made a big push tonight to finish the gameplay elements and it came out pretty good. There are still large areas that I haven't tested yet though so I'll probably be getting on that in the coming days. I did something a little experimental with the flow as far as the keys are concerned so I'm hoping that won't make it more convoluted than it already is. I'd try to explain exactly what I did, but I'm pretty sure I would just confuse everyone [myself included], so I'll just wait until you guys play it. Anyways, be looking for a testing release very shortly :)

[Katamori]

How many people work on the maps? Because if you are not the only mapper, you might plan more maps than 6.

I know, these maps will be extremely detailed but IMO 6 is a small number :D rather about 9-10-11 (or maybe 15?)

[Jimmy]

These maps are not only extremely detailed, but ENORMOUS.

Having been a tester for two of these maps so far, I won't spoil anything, but I think I can say this without fear of overstatement: in order to play through the whole thing, you're probably looking at spending a good 10 or 12 hours straight at the very least on this WAD, by which time you'll be so burnt out by the sheer energy required to conquer its obscenely mammoth maps that you'll thank whichever divine entity you pray to that you only had to go through six of them.

And honestly, I'm pretty sure Mek is glad he isn't doing any more than six, because he is the only one working on these maps. :P

[Katamori]

Jimmy91 said:

These maps are not only extremely detailed, but ENORMOUS.

Having been a tester for two of these maps so far, I won't spoil anything, but I think I can say this without fear of overstatement: in order to play through the whole thing, you're probably looking at spending a good 10 or 12 hours straight at the very least on this WAD, by which time you'll be so burnt out by the sheer energy required to conquer its obscenely mammoth maps that you'll thank whichever divine entity you pray to that you only had to go through six of them.

And honestly, I'm pretty sure Mek is glad he isn't doing any more than six, because he is the only one working on these maps. :P

I'm understand :) well, in this chase, 6 maps is definitely enough (for me, and also for you :D)

[Mechadon]

Yup, so far I'm the only one working on the maps and the graphics. I've had some excellent help with testing and feedback so far though :)

Depending on what I hear from the testing group, I'm shooting for this public candidate to release sometime this week. It'll contain the three finished maps, all of the graphics I've worked on, the music tracks I'm planning on using (only for the three maps since I want to keep the filesize down)...and I guess that's about it!

[Vorpal]

Please don't release this until the weekend, I have two exams I need to be studying for on Friday you bastard.

[Mechadon]

I don't have a set date in mind, but we'll see. It really all depends on what I'll be doing this weekend too. Actually Friday night would probably be the best day for me to release it as I have lots of free time then.

[DeathevokatioN]

Weekend sounds good to me too.

I'd be interested in seeing whether this will even run on my computer. :)

[Vader]

Can't wait to play the test release :)

[Mithran Denizen]

I was originally thinking that maps like this would be some cumbersome behemoths that are completely useless for play, but after seeing some of the above comments, I can't wait to play 'em. The latest screenshots are also quite convincing. :)

[Mechadon]

It took me the better part of the day, but I got one of my time-lapse Doom Builder videos uploaded. You can download it below.

http://mekworx.phenomer.net/mekastuff/wads/vela_pax/vp01-jan25.zip

It's a hefty 121 MB file though so you may only want to bother download it if your really interested in such a thing. I really wanted to upload it to Youtube but I gave up after my gazillionth "unknown upload error", so this is my only other option for the time being.

Anyways, this footage is from late January. I worked on what turned out to be the south-western corner of the finished MAP01. I did another recording sometime in mid-February which I'll upload too, although it's almost twice as big so it'll have to wait until I have the patience to bother with it :P

[Icytux]

Awesome, Downloading it right now.

Yeah It took me around 20 hours straight to get the timelapse video up on youtube too, it just failed and failed and yet again failed. It was really horrible, And the wait time for something so huge as a HD 15 minute video is so long you wish you wouldn't have to do it more than once.

Feels even better now that Youtube friggin deleted my video from youtube thanks to copyright infrigment. *yawn* Havn't bothered to reupload without the music.

[Mechadon]

Yea I know exactly how you feel Icy. I searched and searched to what the cause could have been, but I was never able to get a definite answer to what was causing the problem. The upload bandwidth here is really small so it would take me quite literally half of a day to upload the thing. After being greeted with an obscure error message after waiting that long, it was really frustrating. I tried uploading it to Vimeo too but my results were pretty much the same. Oh well, hope you enjoy the video Icy :)

On a lighter note, here's the test build I've been talking about! I worked on it most of today to make extra certain it was polished enough for public consumption.

http://mekworx.phenomer.net/mekastuff/wads/vela_pax/mek-velapaxbeta1.zip

Looking forward to hearing what you guys think :D

[Carnevil]

If this is an April Fools' joke, so help me Mechadon...

[Tango]

I played that for however long thinking you included your first maps in there as a secret, then realized it was a mandatory secret and there was nothing else in the wad

*sigh*

[esselfortium]

Dammit Mek, now Tango's going to quit Doom again because of you :'(

[Tango]

yeah. bye guys.

[Mechadon]

Tango said:

yeah. bye guys.

[Grain of Salt]

[Carnevil]

This wad shows that you've certainly progressed as a mapper, Mek ;)

[Mechadon]

I'm sorry Tango, please come back ;_;. Here it is, for real this time!

Vela Pax Beta 1 [18 MB]

Everything you need to know as a player/tester should be contained within the readme. So please give that a once over before digging too deep into the maps. But if you guys have any questions, shoot away! Big thanks goes to Jimmy91, esselfortium, and Super Jamie for all the excellent preliminary testing work they provided!

Grain of Salt said:

1. Stuck in the yellow switch enclosure. Send help.
2. What the hell am I playing?

1. You should be able to lower the wall were you entered that little maze by walking over the pillar with the yellow skull switch on it.
2. I don't know.

[Varis Alpha]

Whoo, awesome! Can't test nw, though: too damn late.

[Grain of Salt]

[AconyX]

Misalignment here (MAP01):

http://i52.tinypic.com/20qz0qq.jpg

[DeathevokatioN]

I spent half the night playing the fake version trying to figure out exactly what was wrong, thinking surely Mechadon doesn't have such a bad taste in music. I had just finished a hard as fuck assignment so my brain was too tired and sore to put my finger on what was wrong, and a result my headache only got worse. :(

I hate April fools day.

[WH-Wilou84]

Holy cow, "Excella" has to be one of the largest and most beautiful maps I've ever played. I really enjoyed it :)
Very impressive layout, and there's eye-candy everywhere.

The only thing I disliked was the jumping sequence on crates to get the yellow skullkey.
Good luck to anyone who'll dare UV Maxing this one :o

[General Rainbow Bacon]

As I said over at WIP, some of the best levels I've seen in a looong time. "Apollyon" is my favorite so far. @Wilou-84: If you thought Excella was big, check out map 05. Anyway, I can't wait until this is done. Keep the maps this size, it's awesome.

[Varis Alpha]

Just played a little bit of the first map. And by little, I mean 15 minutes.

I really like how fair you made the gameplay with over 1000 monsters in it. You don't throw the monsters in one's face, you keep it at a slow pace which really compliments the nonlinearity in the level. The architecture and texturing is just plain beautiful, and the music fits very well. Where does the music come from, btw?

At any rate, I've got some Dooming to do with this. I've only played 15 minutes and haven't even found any keys on the first map yet, so this should keep me busy for a while.