Encrypter (Heretic Total conversion)

[Fenriswolf]

Hello!
Encrypter is a total conversion for Heretic to run with ZDoom. It changes basically everything about the game, and contains all new, hand-drawn graphics and 4 new weapons. It also has some RPG elements, for example shops, small quests and a little crafting system for potions. The player explores strange wastelands in long forgotten realms of fantasy and battles vicious monsters with the force of magic.
The game is probably far from being outstanding in terms of graphics or all the technical stuff, so don't expect too much here. Many things might be done very noobish, but it should work without any major bugs since a handful of people already played it through. The whole thing is more about it's atmosphere... (what a good excuse ;) ) I hope you have some fun! Let me know what you think of it!

Please don't play it with OpenGl, it will work, but it will take a lot of the oldschool atmosphere of the game... ZDoom version should be 2.6 or higher.


Features:
- All new, hand-drawn graphics
- 4 new weapons
- 8 new enemies + 2 bosses
- more than 6 new levels
- many small quests



Some important Tips:

- If you find the letters too small to read you might want to play with a lower resolution, it will make the letters much bigger and easier to read. 640x480 works very good :)
- If the dialogues disappear too fast for you, just look at the console ^, you'll have them here as well.
- If you stumble across any mysterious writings during the game, you might want to take a screenshot of it. there is a secret alphabet that one can decrypt. It's not a must, but it will give you a hint later on ;)


Screenshots:






Here is the download link, the file is fairly big due to the music, but I hope you'll give it a try:

Download (Version 1.2)
http://www.monika-neuber-wiese.de/misc/encrypteraktuell6explp.wad

[SavageCorona]

I get an error when I try to download

Not Found

The requested URL /misc/encrypteraktuell6.zip was not found on this server.

[Fenriswolf]

Fixed it, it should work now... Sorry my fault ;)

[Canofbacon]

It looks amazing and I love the graphics, but when I played it the red and yellow exclamation points were everywhere. I was running it in ZDoom.

[Fenriswolf]

Hmm which ZDoom Version did you use? I just checked mine, it says "Version 2.6".

PS: Just downloaded the newest version 2.7 and it worked as well... maybe you are using an older one?

[Canofbacon]

Fenriswolf said:

Hmm which ZDoom Version did you use? I just checked mine, it says "Version 2.6".

Wait is this for Doom or Doom 2?

[Tarnsman]

>Encrypter is a total conversion for Heretic to run with ZDoom
>for Heretic

[Canofbacon]

Tarnsman said:

>Encrypter is a total conversion for Heretic to run with ZDoom
>for Heretic

Oh okay, wow I'm not smart.

[Fenriswolf]

Canofbacon said:

Wait is this for Doom or Doom 2?

Ok, this might explain the problem... ;)

Edit: no problem, I'm just hoping you are havin an hereit iwad as well...?

[Cire]

I played around in the first level a bit, and it's pretty amazing! I'll play more when I find the time for it. I'm playing with Blasphemer, and it works great.

[Fenriswolf]

Cire said:

I played around in the first level a bit, and it's pretty amazing! I'll play more when I find the time for it. I'm playing with Blasphemer, and it works great.

Thank you very much, I'm glad you like it so far :) Actually it was originally designed to be played with blasphemer (using the blasphemer palette) but i eventually switched to heretic during the progress of the work.

[Canofbacon]

Yeah I agree with Cire, it's pretty darn good. You did a good job.

[Da Werecat]

30 MB is a little too much for my current connection, but I've downloaded it anyway. Looks promising.

Will try it out tomorrow.

[Varis Alpha]

it's pretty fun so far!

there's a bit of grammatical irkyness in it (the narrator in the intermission screens seems to mix in "i am the narrator"-style speech with "i am talking to you personally"-speech"), and the level design, while fun and explorative, is pretty flat and one-sided, most walls being of the same height, with little to no floor-height variation aside from the occasional cave.
giving the maps a bit more "depth" to them would, i think, greatly enhance the overall atmosphere of the game (which in and off itself has got a original flare to it, due to the art-style and setting).

but i wouldn't say i disliked what i played so-far (i'm at the level after you got the Ankh). it's pretty interesting going through the game, and see how the story unfolds. and the music's pretty cool(a hint for file-size: you could try and cut off the ends of some of the songs, so that they loop properly and doesn't have silence at the end, and, if they aren't OGG files already, will probably decrease the file-size dramatically).

all-in-all, it's been a pretty enjoyable romp so-far. :3

[Fenriswolf]

Thank both of you for the nice feedback!

@Doomhuntress: Looks like you are nearly through all of it ;)
You are abolutely right, the level design is a bit flat and I have probably even done better in the past (although I did not release much maps here). When I originally started the project, I wanted it to look a bit like Shadowcaster so I did not care much about ceiling heights and stuff but after all I did not came around using at least some height differences, that's why there might be a bit of a contrast sometimes.
Hmm that doesn't sound like a bad idea with the music, indeed...

Glad you like it so far!

[Da Werecat]

The crossbow works a little weird. You hear the sound first, and then it shoots.

Karl Sanders? Nice. :)

[EDIT]

One of the quest guys in the second town is a little too rich. You can get a seemingly unlimited amount of gold from him after delivering the pergament.

[Fenriswolf]

One of the quest guys in the second town is a little too rich. You can get a seemingly unlimited amount of gold from him after delivering the pergament. [/B]

Oh, none of the players and playtesters noticed that so far, neither did I... :/
I will wait until other minor bugs are spotted and then I might do a little patch to fix these things. Meanwhile it should be the best if noone exploits this obvious bug ;)

[Egregor]

Looks pretty sweet from the screens. I'm going to give this a try later this week.

[Da Werecat]

Fenriswolf said:

Meanwhile it should be the best if noone exploits this obvious bug ;)

Well, I didn't. :)

I have a few more nitpicks.

One of the NPCs have no face. Is that intentional?



Decorative corpses are blocking the way. Not a big deal, actually.

The projectiles emitting from the red wand are not glowing in the dark. Looks strange, because they're resembling flames.

There's an inescapable pit in one of the last levels. With a lot of armor it's possible to survive the fall, but the player will be trapped.

Speaking of armor. One of the quest givers says that he can't reward the player with anything but prayer, but helping him restores the armor. I thought it was a mistake of sorts, but then I thought a little more...

The main character's vocalizations are slightly jarring to the ear, especially the "wall humping" sound.

The overall impressions are good. This game is very short and simple, but I really appreciate attempts at making something original. How long it took?

[Fenriswolf]

Thanks for playing it through, Da Werecat!
As for the things you noted:

1. Yes and no :D He has a face, but only if you look at him from the side. He is placed in the wrong direcetion obviously - Don't know how I missed it. I guess you noticed that all Sprites in the game are always "looking at the player". Yet many of the people that have played it so far (who were not familiar with the Doomengine) always thought that the tax collector had spotted them when they burgeled his house, so I eventually did a "backside" of this npc, and since the guy in the herb shop is the same npc-type, he also has this "backside".

2. Okay, but actually that was meant that way, or do you mean they just occupy too much space?

3. Well yes this would look silly indeed, but as I've said in the opening post I recommend playing it without GzDoom/OpenGl anyway and "normal" ZDoom rendering doesn't have any light effects.

4. Yes, the pit... should have been deeper, you're right ;)

5. Yes, prayer equals armor restoring. Everytime an NPC says somethg like "be blessed" (like the hermit or baal thasar) you should get full armor.

6. My wav sounds always come out somehow distorted when I import them into my Wads :( Don't know why..

7. Thanks for the kind words... It's hard to say when I started the project but the idea of creating a doomengine-based game "from scratch" is probably already 5 years old. I always had many, many ideas which I tried to put in gamebooks, but when I learned how to do maps with DB and XWE, a dream was fulfilled for me :D I began working on an early version of this back then which i eventually gave up. There are basically not much remains from that early version in the current game. The original version was designed to be a pure dungeoncrawler game.
Last year I began working on it again (because I hate not finishig things), it probably took me half a year or something to get it done and i "released" it in winter last year.

[Da Werecat]

Fenriswolf said:

Yet many of the people that have played it so far (who were not familiar with the Doomengine) always thought that the tax collector had spotted them when they burgeled his house, so I eventually did a "backside" of this npc, and since the guy in the herb shop is the same npc-type, he also has this "backside".

You can burgle his house? I haven't even tried that. :)

Okay, but actually that was meant that way, or do you mean they just occupy too much space?

Well, no. I just didn't expect to bump into a corpse while navigating one of the indoor locations. But, as I've said, it's not a big deal.

Well yes this would look silly indeed, but as I've said in the opening post I recommend playing it without GzDoom/OpenGl anyway and "normal" ZDoom rendering doesn't have any light effects.

It is possible to always draw selected frames at full brigtness, regardless of light level. It's a simple effect that works even in vanilla Doom, being used for fireballs, explosions, etc.

It's hard to say when I started the project but the idea of creating a doomengine-based game "from scratch" is probably already 5 years old.

I can relate to that. Except I'm slower.

[Fenriswolf]

You can burgle his house? I haven't even tried that. :)

Yes, this is one of the early quests. There are 3 miniquests in the first level, in case of you've missed one: finding the antidote, killing the red serpent and getting back the gold talisman for the poor man by burgeling the house of the tax collector ;)

It is possible to always draw selected frames at full brigtness, regardless of light level. It's a simple effect that works even in vanilla Doom, being used for fireballs, explosions, etc.

Oh wow, I've never heard of that... I'll have to inform myself how this works. As I've said, I'm not very deep into the whole technical stuff.

I can relate to that. Except I'm slower.

I can only encourage you to do so :D It was a great experience and much, much fun. It's really something different to do a project from scratch than to do a regular WAD using the original resources, because the work you have to do will be much more diversified. If one is tired of mapping at one stage, one can jump over to draw a few more enemies or record some sounds - you always have to do something different :) Not to forget the freedom you have in expressing your ideas the way you like.

[Da Werecat]

I know, I know... The only downside is that it's a whole lot of work. :)

[pavera]

http://www.twitch.tv/krispavera/b/440390321

Complete playthrough on stream, featuring guest commentary from Tarnsman. Cute wad, really! I thoroughly enjoyed it, despite minor grievances. Fun, kitschy story with loveable MS paint graphics. Super punishing if you decide to spend your money on anything but a weapon at the beginning, though.

[Fenriswolf]

Pavera said:

http://www.twitch.tv/krispavera/b/440390321

Complete playthrough on stream, featuring guest commentary from Tarnsman. Cute wad, really! I thoroughly enjoyed it, despite minor grievances. Fun, kitschy story with loveable MS paint graphics. Super punishing if you decide to spend your money on anything but a weapon at the beginning, though.

Oh wow this is great and was fun to watch! :) The "sexual popcorn rock" might rank as one of the greatest neologisms I've ever heard :P Thank you very much for taking your time!
Yeah, it was kind of painful to see you running in the temple without the crossbow knowing what's going to come. I thought "oh no, this is gonna be hard, let's just hope they come through and buy the elderstaff afterwards"... but then you missed this one as well and I knew by that point of time that it was going to get frustrating at the latest when you meet the boss spider... :D But you were very brave and didn't give up ;)

Unfortunately you also missed basically all of the miniquests in the beginning (defeating the serpent, burgeling the tax collector, finding the antidote and finding the lost tome) - you would have had much more gold if you did them and would have been able to afford the crossbow even though your first "mispurchase".

But in the end you are right, one should have the chance to get the other weapons even if one missed them before. Maybe the crossbow in the mushroom forest and the elderstaff in aggath?

[Katamori]

Those pics strongly remind me of Chosen.

[Fenriswolf]

Ok, I just did a mini update featureing some smaller improvements, the download link is already updated:

Features of version 1.2:
- you can't get infinite gold from the one quest guy in the second town
- you will be able to find weapons later on in the game if you missed to buy them. You still should buy every weapon because the earlier you have them, the better.
- the secret passage in aggath is now easier to find with another wall texture. normally, you would have to decrypt the secret alphabet to get the hint to look there, but since many people seem to miss that, it is now easy to find without the tip from the writing.
- there is no inescapable pit any longer - you will be dead no matter how much armor you had
- the one guy "without face" now looks at you
- Ben Amun has more "mass" now, he won't be bumped if you hit him.
- magic projectiles now glow in the dark

[Egregor]

I played through the first level, then skipped around just to check out each of the other levels. I like it. I like how it feels. More old school RPG than doom, really. They level layouts are strong, and that music is super cool. Who are the musicians by the way?

A few criticisms:

-all your walls (linedefs) above, and often bellow an opening need to be 'unpegged'. Do this by pressing U and L in doombuilder 2. It can also be done in the linedef sub-menu. This will help all those texture misalignments. It will make everything look much smoother and more 'professional'

-the use of sky 'alignment' is rather poor. there are spots where the walls just jump in height with no transition. the best advice i could give on how to work around this would be to examine other doom mappers work, perhaps by looking at some recent cacoward winners.

-while i like the plain and simple 'cartoon' feel, or perhaps 'vintage rpg' feel that the textures and sprites you have created have give the game, i feel the levels could benefit from slightly more detail, height variation, and shading.

-i found a lot of the text went by a little too fast. i often had to cycle through text because i wasn't getting it all. perhaps you could find a way to keep each line of text up until the player presses 'action' so they can read at their own pace.

-finally, i found the difficulty a little too unforgiving. there wasn't much in the way of wiggle room if i screwed up. it was sort of like "well, i got hit too many times, i might as well start this level over again" or "i spent the cash incorrectly, better start over." Perhaps you could place a few 'hidden' items in remote areas or behind secret doors that reward the player for exploration.

[Fenriswolf]

Glad you liked what you saw!

The graphical issues like these alignment problems can be fixed of course, it won't be a bad idea i think. As for the "sky alignment", i really hated that, too but couln't find a way how to fix this if you have two open sectors with different heights next to each other...

The level design subject was already adressed by Doomhuntress, it is kind of an ambivalent thing for me, while I can totally understand what you mean, i find it difficult to balance all these different demands namely good graphics and "vintage rpg look".

Yeah, the texts might be a bit fast sometimes, if I should figure out how to add that feature you described i will include it in the next update ;)

As for the difficulty settings: I just checked te first level again. It is possible to gain 12 gold here + 6 free healing potions, that is far more than you need to get the crossbow and some bolts ;) just do all the side-quests and explore the map a bit and you shouldn't have that much problems with the difficulty, I guess. If you should need help wth one of the quests, just ask :)