Resurgence - Boom Compatible Megawad [Final Version Released] - Idgames link up!

[dew]

Yay, congrats on releasing this and I'm glad I could help.

[skillsaw]

Awesome! I've been waiting for this. Congrats on getting a beta out!

[Caleb13]

I played first 15 maps in Zdoom 2.8pre-417 and so far I found only minor stuff:

-Map09, Map26: Zdoom reports some unknown textures.

-Map12: it is possible to become stuck in crate area, see the screenshot.

-Map12: secret sector 134 is narrow and therefore can't be "found" very reliably. I suggest you make sector 135 secret instead.

-Not a bug, but in some earlier maps, I noticed that most secret sectors don't appear on automap (their linedefs have "hidden" tag). AFAIK it is customary the sectors should become visible once found.

-The font you've used for HUD etc. is kinda weird. Especially the zeros look like... erm... a symbol for female genitalia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%AD%C4%8Da

-Oh, and the music. To say it politely, it is just not very Doom-ish. Personally, I would even call some tracks (01, 04, 09, 10, 16, 21, 31) gay, for the lack of better word. :-/

[paymentplan]

Caleb13 said:

-Oh, and the music. To say it politely, it is just not very Doom-ish. Personally, I would even call some tracks (01, 04, 09, 10, 16, 21, 31) gay, for the lack of better word. :-/

I guarantee you there are tons more descriptive and useful terms to use than 'gay.'

[tourniquet]

What's supposed to be doom-ish music? Most of the tracks you've mentioned are quite atmospheric.
Btw congrats on the release Joshy, gonna give this a try soon.

[cannonball]

Had a quick skim, some mighty fine levels in here. Look forward to giving this a proper whirl when I have the time.

[Memfis]

More complaints!

Spoiler

map06 - In the room with three switches you can hear the voodoo machinery working (doors opening). In my opinion the player shouldn't be aware of such technical stuff happening.

map07 - Revenants get stuck on their little islands easily if you shoot at them with rocket launcher. Also the starting area with just four ASHWALLs is a joke: at first I thought that it must be either a skip map like in Deus Vult 2 or wrong wad loaded by me (one of the 1994 compilations?).

map08 - Badly aligned METAL bars all over the place. One place needs block monster linedefs to prevent hilarity with the spider.

map10 - Woohoo, icy lava holes. When I saw that area on a screenshot, I knew some tester will tell you to use transfer heights there to avoid floor bumpiness, so how did this pass? Perhaps that detailing concept is too flawed in the first place since it produces gazillion slime trails. Also when you give the player 100 rockets and start spawning monsters, you really shouldn't include spectres in that crowd. DON'T BE A DICK. Generally I think the map quality in this wad would greatly benefit from swapping all spectres with demons. :P Also the detail level in "marble sewers" is a bit too low compared to everything else perhaps. Finally, you need to double-check all secrets in the wad to see if the automap spoils them. For example, I found the soulsphere in this map only thanks to the automap.

map11 - I think the difficulty of the three circles is far higher than of anything else in this map (the rest is really easy BFG spam), making it somewhat unbalanced.

map12 - Once again you're using double switches even though you can manage with just one since you have the voodoo doll stuff. Two chainers were stuck in each other here.

map15 - Another very lame looking start just like in map07, please try a little harder with these. :)

[stewboy]

Caleb13 said:
-Oh, and the music. To say it politely, it is just not very Doom-ish. Personally, I would even call some tracks (01, 04, 09, 10, 16, 21, 31) gay, for the lack of better word. :-/

What do you mean by 'Doom-ish'? They're certainly not like the original Doom music, but I just don't think that's necessary. Being the composer of the music for 09, 10, 16, 21 and 31, I was aiming to fit in with the atmosphere and mood of the level, rather than necessarily providing perhaps a more upbeat rock track. Except for 16, of course. That one I was just having fun :P. Hopefully the map is also fun, so the music fits in that way!

[Tarnsman]

Caleb13 said:

-Oh, and the music. To say it politely, it is just not very Doom-ish. Personally, I would even call some tracks (01, 04, 09, 10, 16, 21, 31) gay, for the lack of better word. :-/

The fuck does this mean?

[dew]

I don't agree with memfis regarding spectre usage, but he does have a point re: monster blocking lines. Silly of me I didn't spot that myself, Boom is stupid about disabling monsters by knocking them over edges partially. I totally disagree about map03. :P

[Cynical]

Memfis said:

More complaints!

Spoiler

Generally I think the map quality in this wad would greatly benefit from swapping all spectres with demons. :P

See Joshy, it's not just me!

[kmc]

On map 17 a hom is visible if you block the first of the two lowering lifts (so that only half of it goes back up). Also consider changing the room so that the player doesn't have to go back around to exit if they are in the middle of the room when both lifts rise.

[subject_119]

Seems there's linedef problem in map10 the cyberdemon & the 2 barons at the end aren't coming up : /

[Snakes]

Map31 looks familiar. can't quit put my finger on what it is about it, though...

[Joshy]

Snakes said:

Map31 looks familiar. can't quit put my finger on what it is about it, though...

It's certainly not a Joshy map!

Thanks for the feedback so far guys, keep them coming!

[Memfis]

Is 31 even possible to finish? I seem to always get stuck in the weird teleport tunnel, the teleport never works. Trying rerecording again and again, no luck so far...
edit: OK, worked after like 5 tries.

[Archi]

Heh.

Also, this one looks like a mistake: http://i.imgur.com/sCMhnbZ.png
On MAP11, some enemies can drop down and player would be unable to kill them.
On MAP12 I can't register the secret with soulsphere. For switches, that require keys it's better to make them S1 Door open, so they will make sound and change texture like a switch.

[Demonologist]

FDAs for maps 1-10. Really enjoying it so far, feels like a vast improvement upon Surge which I already liked.
Quick overview:

01 - I like how this map is already fast-paced enough compared to its generic brethren in other megawads, cool start.

02 - Some punching, eh? Decent, I barely remember the original map though.

03 - I didn't like this map in Surge, and I don't like it here, though this is the question of preferences. Platforming and balancing above lava under the hail of fireballs are big pet peeves of mine, so it's definitely not my style. Still, it was short enough not to become annoying. I believe that archvile may give you a lift up to the exit past all these bars.

04 - It seems like I tricked the hell out of this one. Just watch the demo and you'll see. Also, the first map where I failed to find all secrets (you're quite a fan of phantom walls, aren't you?) and never found one monster.

05 - Oh yes, I remember this one, so probably my FDA isn't exactly honest. Some monsters never appeared, though they may be in the secrets which I also failed to discover.

06 - Also not a fan of borrowing vital weaponry from zombies, especially when they're that numerous. Other than that - cool map.

07 - This is great! M07 from Surge was, well, really bad, and this one is a blast. Not much more to say here.

08 - This shit will make you laugh. I remember the original map, still, I was hit by blindness or something. Two (!) embarrassing deaths in the sea of lost souls and other fat freaks with no ammo left, and when I was ready to freak out and go complaining about horrible balance and weapon placement - I finally saw that rocket launcher. Duh. Well, a worthy price for inattentive play. What can I do, I fucking suck at this game. Cool map actually, nothing I could really complain about.

09 - Again, a start with shotgunners all around and no decent weaponry. Oh well. After that the action becomes cool and stays on that level until the end, but - the visuals is what really bugs me. Eyeraping texture clashes, those mountain textures from Hexen look completely out of place and don't fit together with anything else, and that blood flat is disgusting. The default one is miles better. Overall - plays good, looks bad.

10 - This one, on the contrary, looks nice, but is quite sloggy and monotonous gameplay-wise. The cyberdemon chose to stay underground and scare me with its ground bombardment. The secret is to be reached via AV jump I guess?..

To be continued.

[subject_119]

About map10 with the cyberdemon, just noticed I was in HMP....(:shame:) ans the cyberdemon is checked in medium so it's blocked with the 2 barons causing it to stay in the ground. Looking at the other difficulties checked, people playing in easy ( yeah, no one) should've met the same problem.

[Veinen]

FDAs for 1-15, 17-18,20. 11 is a DNF with ~400 enemies left, 13 is a DNF because I suck, 17 is a laughable late DNF, 18 is a decent length demo but I didn't really get anywhere and finally 20 is a DNF in the douchbaggey part (I think you know what I mean). Didn't get anywhere in map16 or map18. Generally speaking, after map15 I started getting my ass kicked in every possible way so successfull FDAs may be hard to come by for 21 and onwards.

The starts here are pretty brutal more often than not, usually I just tried to hang on for dear life until the initial chaos subsided. I like that though, definitely gets the map going right away. Really enjoying everything though, starts and things that come afterwards all the same.

Map09 had some issues with the boss monsters: the SM got locked on the ledge of her platform due to Rev rockets, which GREATLY helped me. The Cyber fell down from his platform to the small pit with the lift which on the other hand did not help me at all. Map07 had another lackluster SM encounter because she got immediately locked in with the architecture and got scratched to death by an Imp. Just "unlucky" I guess and not much you can do about it. In several other maps I noticed Revs (at least) on crates and such get locked on the ledges too, can't pinpoint those spots exactly but they should all be visible in the demos.

[Caleb13]

Here is some more stuff I noticed:

-Map32: if you run down the stairs fast, you may "miss" secret sector 244. I suggest you make sector 222 secret instead.

-Map16: not sure if sector 355 needs to be secret, the blue armor is in plain sight.

-Map16: IMO there needs to be a way to open door (sector 118) again, possibly after you beat the cyberdemon. Also, this cyber quite tough to beat, due to limited space. Maybe you could make the corridor at least a bit wider? The tech columns help, but AFAIK they don't block projectiles in some Doom ports.

-Map17: sector 367 etc. is not damaging, even though it has acid texture. Maybe converting to water would be more sensible?

-Map18: linedef 1960 should IMO be farther from the cyberdemon, or it needs to raise the cyberdemon instantly - I ran over it so fast that the cyberdemon rose behind my back...

-Map18: lifts use at least 3 different textures, which is a bit confusing.

-Map18: cacos get blocked by linedefs 10122 etc. which looks weird (just you wait when Memfis or other linedef nazi spots this one :-D).

-Map20: similar to above, but with linedefs 2458 etc.

-Map21: for some reason, one zombieman got stuck in air in sector 670. See screenshots.

[Degree23]

I'm up to Map 9 (not finished) now and I rather feel there's a difference for the better. I haven't been finding all secrets, but the lack of a SSG in many early maps does seem to make fights either draw out or become a campfest while I snipe away with Shotgun or Chaingun, especially given the relative strength of enemy you encounter.

On Map 6 there are a lot of immediate enemies and you have absolutely no weapons, and the best you get initially is a Shotgun if you provoke infighting. Perhaps a Chaingun would help out here, even without extra ammo, just to give some helpful firepower.

Map 7 was brilliant, easily the best map so far.

Maps 7 and 8 are where I start to feel more positive overall about the wad. There are traps and enemies aplenty, but I'm actually being given ammo and, crucially, some space to fight them. The layout of 9, in particular, with the enemies you've chosen in the ambushes don't really allow you to run and hide anywhere inside the building, but there is a bit of space to move around.

I'm liking the look of 9 with the Spider Mastermind being there but you having intermittent cover as you fight around the edge. These maps (7-9) have been a lot more enjoyable for me than the first few.

Edit: Meant I'm up to Map 9.

[Cynical]

Quick note to everyone on the start of map 06: you don't need a weapon there, the Cacos will kill 3 or 4 Shotgunners pretty easily if you manipulate them correctly. Once you get the Shotgun, don't try to chokepoint the entrance to the fortress, but just barge in; everything will work itself out nicely if you do.

[Memfis]

31 - I would either make the BFG non-secret (!!!) or add considerably more ammo to the final tower. I think there is just not enough of it to kill the revived enemies without the BFG, unless you're very good and lucky. And please don't make the player jump down right to an infinitely tall cyberdemon, that's just unfair. I died to him once when he catched me with his kilometer-long hands. Also the teleporter tunnel malfunctions quite often: high speed is very likely to cause linedef skips. Needs more safety linedefs.

Here are my FDAs for the first half of the wad. Most likely there won't be a second part: I aborted my map32 attempts because I wasn't having much fun anymore, and I plan to abort all FDAs after 1 or 2 deaths max from now on. Time to get rid of the FDA-stubborness and start having fun with this game.

[DeathevokatioN]

Wow, those spectres on map10 man.... giving someone a rocket launcher and sending spectres in at a light level where you can't see them is just evil. Oh and cacodaemons that descend onto you with infinitely tall actors.... wow.

[Joshy]

DeathevokatioN said:

Wow, those spectres on map10 man.... giving someone a rocket launcher and sending spectres in at a light level where you can't see them is just evil. Oh and cacodaemons that descend onto you with infinitely tall actors.... wow.

Haha yeah, that's a result of the combined evilness between me and dew; he suggested I totally go for that scenario, heheheh.

[Ashstrodamus]

I noticed the Type O Negative track on either map 01 or 02, can't remember which. Enjoying so far.

[Plut]

Really nice work and congrats with the release! Played maps 1-16 and 31-32 so far.
I liked map01-08, now hellish maps from original Surge look (and sometimes play) better, but I don't like berserk gameplay too much though. Slow killing mancubuses and final imps-crowd is a bit boring. Map07 is VERY fun, I also liked adding archviles on map08.
Map09 is very fun too, I died there only once in the beginning even with pretty risky playing, but this map looks a bit clumsy.
I didn't like map10 a bit for teleporting about 300 monsters in one place (I gave up after few deaths there) and lava pools which shake a player.
Map11 is pretty easy and a bit boring BFG spam with only two dangerous places: small building on the edge of the playing zone and three wooden circles. I didn't liked platforming in the beginning also.
Map12 is pretty fun but a bit annoying with berserk gameplay in the beginning and that cyberdemon.
Map13 - short and fun, nothing to say more, but you could make invisible sectors for fences near the red key.
Map31 - epic map with epic music, but pretty hard and annoying with its stingy balance and I gave up after 2 deaths. Also I think it would be better to set BFG secret trigger not on the wall near the torch, but on the torch itself if it's impossible to make BFG non-secret. Really cool idea with teleporting in the future btw.
Map32 - really cool map too. I spent more than 5 hours with it, but couldn't give up for some reason. Very beautiful, fun and hard map, but the ending is a bit random.
FDAs for maps 1-16 and 31-32

[PRIMEVAL]

Caleb13 said:

-Oh, and the music. To say it politely, it is just not very Doom-ish. Personally, I would even call some tracks (01, 04, 09, 10, 16, 21, 31) gay, for the lack of better word. :-/

I find Maps 06, 07, 13, 30, Title, Inter, and Story themes to be very homosexual as well.

[Springy]

Having a bloody good time with this beta so far despite only being up to 04 and I have to say, it is very enjoyable. I rarely download betas but seeing as I have anxiously been awaiting this, I caved in.

PRIMEVAL said:

I find Maps 06, 07, 13, 30, Title, Inter, and Story themes to be very homosexual as well.

Yeah not to sure about the music personally so far. I could have sworn that 01 gave me a cheeky windmill of its cock.