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

[gun_psycho]

Map30 reminds me a lot of the Scythe Series' Map30 levels. (No Icon of Sin, which I didn't really mind.)

[Cynical]

Memfis said:

I thought that one sniper Vile you're talking about was quite well placed: he makes reaching the plasma trickier because you have to kill him while dodging all the stuff that's being thrown at you by the outdoor crowd, the faraway cyber, etc. Just pressing the switch and running through would be too easy.

You really don't have to dodge crap, though; if you herd that stuff for a few seconds before attacking the Vile (you have to really, otherwise you won't be able to physically get to him), it'll all happily turn into a giant infighting blob.

[Memfis]

Well, some projectiles usually hit or almost hit me when I'm fighting that arch-vile.

Anyway, so plasmadicks are slow now but they still move their legs so fast, it looks funny. Can't you change that via DEHACKED?

Also it kind of sucks how nukage damages the player on some levels and not on others. Perhaps you could use the classic NUKAGE flat for non-damaging floors and this one for the damaging ones:

[Not Jabba]

Memfis said:Perhaps you could use the classic NUKAGE flat for non-damaging floors and this one for the damaging ones:

Or the other way around. It's easier to interpret the classic texture as damaging since that's what we're used to, and the new one could be non-damaging.

[40oz]

Speaking of liquids, did anyone mention that the new pallete kinda mucks up some of the red? Namely the blood liquid flats, bloodfall textures, and red marbleface flats. I only just started getting around to playing this, haven't gotten further than MAP04 yet so I don't have much to comment on yet except you made me hate Zombiemen more than anything in the world :)

[esselfortium]

40oz said:

Speaking of liquids, did anyone mention that the new pallete kinda mucks up some of the red? Namely the blood liquid flats, bloodfall textures, and red marbleface flats. I only just started getting around to playing this, haven't gotten further than MAP04 yet so I don't have much to comment on yet except you made me hate Zombiemen more than anything in the world :)

Yeah, there was a miscommunication between me and Joshy when I explained how to remap the red textures for the modified palette, so a bunch of things that had already been remapped got accidentally mapped back in the other direction. I've since gone through the resources myself and given Joshy fixed versions of all the red textures, which will hopefully be in the next beta.

(The palette modifies the red ranges to fade more smoothly into black, rather than leveling out and needing to be mapped into brown in dim areas.)

[Ashstrodamus]

On map 11 and this shit is insane already. Looking more like Holy Hell so far. It's a little overkill so far, yet very cool maps. I love it, but nothing can beat Alien Vendetta. That wad is so balanced, it's crazy.

[Degree23]

Map 11 is more slaughtery than the ones around it.

Map15: Like many maps there are enemies in your face right at the start. The red linedef did confuse me near the end of the map until I realised that must be the secret exit. I then hunted around for the red key and with such a small map there were only a couple of places it could realistically be. I saw it but it took me a minute or so to work out how to get to it. The forced Beserk pack is lame. I died on this map so second time around I fell to the side to avoid it. Good map otherwise.

Map31: I did like the way you teleport to an identical section that looks a bit post-apocalyptic. The end section is completely insane with Cacodemons pestering you at all times. It took me a few goes to get through this because it does feel a bit luck-dependent on how many enemies the Arch Viles actually resurrect. I was very low on ammo here and possibly either more ammo at the switch or making the BFG (which I didn't get) a non-secret would make this a bit less reliant on luck. Enjoyable otherwise.

Map32: I let the Cyberdemon basically clear out the starting area, including the Spider Mastermind, before I fired. I ran around for a while to let infighting clear out a lot of the enemies on the ground. I found it weird how one of the secrets was basically on the way down the stairs instead of where the megaarmour and cells actually are. I didn't trigger the secret until I was on the way back up the stairs. The lava caves where you need to snipe the Arch Viles was a bit tedious, especially as one side didn't seem to hold anything important. The final room is again a bit lucky with how little space there is, and would be annoying at the end of a speedrun. Overall an enjoyable map.

[Demonologist]

FDAs for 21-27.

21 - Well, I admit that this is better than I expected. In fact, it's tyson only on the onset, and pretty much turns into a normal map shortly after. I believe with foreknowledge weapon acquisition could be even faster. And now - this is the plasma marines' speed I feel totally comfortable with, haha! Seconding Memfis re: fast-moving feet vs slow movement speed though, looks really funny, like a snail race or something. Good stuff.

22 - Cool map, the interior texturing is somewhat bland with all these brown bricks all over the place, but the mountainous exterior is nice, epic, even. Can't say anything bad about gameplay in general, though I'm not a fan of masterminds being used as just big ammo dumps and time wasters. It's in mapper's best interests to make it possible for them to be dispatched asap or involved into infighting with the player's proper positioning to avoid significant pace slowdown. Some distant snipers, but I can't say they're too annoying.

23 - Somewhat minimalistic (Vanilla-grade, huh?) but still nice Crimson Tide-like map, with some frantic action. I also can't say that I like it when some particular liquid vary between being damaging or non-damaging within the single map pack by the same author though. Not a dealbreaker, just my thoughts since I like consistency. Another SM used as an ammo dump.

24 - It's always nice to revisit some old rusted shit with the new touch, yes. Especially that m05 piece since it's probably my most favorite map from Joshy in SoD. Still, this whole map is long but also really easy, you could change the difficulty to easy in your textfile and it won't be a lie, even considering the fact that ammo is pretty tight overall. Still, an interesting map, and a nice calmer piece before the storms that follow. And again - dumb SM to eat your ammo. Ah, come on.

25 - Magnificent! While I can pick Techoprison as a remarkable map in CC4 without hesitation - its gameplay approach isn't exactly fun, more like a tough challenge to overcome for the sake of accomplishment. This map, on the other hand, isn't easy but notably more entertaining. Could use some more rockets scattered throughout though, there's something charming in shamelessly camping rev horde with ssg, but it's not the most adorable activity for sure. Plasma marines prior to the yellow key felt like cheap trick to slow the player down. Not that it ruined my good impression, but I still have to mention it. Not very elegant solution.

26 - Quiet now, you're in a library! And it's also the one with quite unusual appearance, probably the one Spanish Inquisition would be happy to discover for some occult book burning back in the day, I doubt the literature in this place is aimed at good things (send me some books from there, I'm always ready to dive deeper into forbidden knowledge). Looks are cool, but sadly I can't say the same about gameplay. Fuckton of distant snipers that are SUPER annoying, freely roaming archviles all over the place, cybers that are boring to kill (at least without the secret bfg that I failed to obtain)... Ugh. Definitely not the thing I enjoy. Bonus points for graveyard though, this made my heart a bit warmer. Demo is 62 minutes long, be warned.

27 - Uhhhhh, that was... intense. I admit that I've never been a fan of your Poison Ivy stuff, it always looks nice but the fun is highly questionable for me, more like irritating shit and crass dickery all around. And now this one. I, for once, don't know exactly what to say, neither I can say if I liked it or not. The start isn't bullshit for sure, weapons are close enough to it, and there are many infighting opportunities. However, the middle parts (everything prior to yellow skullkey shortly after the initial steps plus that AV disastrous mess) are the ones I don't care about at all, quite unpleasant chore it was, with pretty much each attempt at aggression being brutally interrupted, thus forcing me to cheese, camp and all that, i.e. playing like a coward. But then, when you drop down into that pit in your quest for the red skullkey - the map starts to shine again. Some really cool fights there. Cacovasion following the key pickup is downright awesome, pretty much hitting my soft spot. And I like pretty much everything behind the yellow door except for cyber guarding the first switch that forces you to run into lava, and those final afrit dicks. So... a bit of everything here, I guess. Insane stuff overall. And very long demo, almost 2 hrs long, with the successful attempt itself lasting 1.5 hrs. Happy time watching, hehe.

Three maps left... I must say that I'm also feeling enthused enough at this moment to revisit 31 (and give 32 a go, subsequently) once I'm done with regular maps. Hopefully this attitude won't change. But of course I'll learn how to grab that damn bfg in 31, I'm not diving into that batshit without it, no way. Once again - please make it non-secret, relocate it if you must, but don't be a prick and don't leave everything as it is now. I beg for your reason, Josh!

[Caleb13]

Demonologist said:

27 - it always looks nice but the fun is highly questionable for me, more like irritating shit and crass dickery all around. [...] And very long demo, almost 2 hrs long, with the successful attempt itself lasting 1.5 hrs.

Yeah, that's exactly why I called it a troll map. Sniping cybers etc. with shotgun for 15 minutes is not exactly what I would call fun.

[Demonologist]

It's not a troll map, neither is any of other Poison Ivy maps, but the ways they all achieve difficulty are annoying and frustrating rather than entertaining most of the time, at least that's how I see it. Being sadistic on your maps is fine as long as you can keep the player entertained, but raw sadism meant to challenge the player in almost mockery-oriented ways is a bad thing. Not that I hate this particular map, it has its strong moments. But it has its drawbacks as well.

[Degree23]

Map16: This was no doubt made easier by leaving Map32 with virtually a full arsenal. Berserk punching everyone doesn't look that fun in cramped corridors with a lot of hitscan around. Beating the final room with the intended weaponry also doesn't look like that much fun. I enjoyed the map but only because I had good firepower to take down the Cyberdemons. I don't think I'd mind the rest with other weapons, but the Cyberdemons would take ages.

Map17: With all the ammo around I expected a huge influx of enemies and I wasn't disappointed. The Cyberdemons wandering the corridors made for an intense map. I cleared everything before going through the lava/crusher area, but when the last bunch of stuff spawned in I just let the Cyberdemons take out most of the Barons before I dived in. This map was chaotic and fun, although I thought the green poison floor would be damaging and it wasn't. I'm not sure if it's great to have the same texture be damaging sometimes but not at others, though that's just my preference.

Map18: I really liked the music here, and it's a good thing too because I spent some time on this map. The opening again was very chaotic and I ran around for a bit trying to generate a bit of cover to take out the hitscanners. A lot of infighting made the job a bit easier. The map was going fine, but it was getting harder to keep track of what the numerous switches were actually doing. The lift up to the four Arch Viles behind the barrels was a bit out of the blue. I couldn't make sense of the area just through the door after that because you were up high on a fairly large area with (what looked like) no important features other than a few Revenants and Mancubi that had been killed earlier. I'm guessing from there you jump down to the area with the red bars? I finally got stuck at the switch by the yellow bars as I have no idea what that did. I eventually made a jump from a nearby ledge to get to the red key area. (I assume that is not the intended route as it looks like getting the yellow key would open the bars to let you into this area properly) After grabbing the red key I made for the red bars and was able to finish the map. I never even saw the yellow key during the map. I enjoyed the first half of this map, but a switch hunt with no obvious clues as to what some of them do wasn't something I particularly enjoyed.

[Demonologist]

...It is done. *sigh of relief*
FDAs for 28-30.

28 - Fan. Fucken. Tastic! I was expecting to be brutally torn apart repeatedly without having any fun as soon as I saw the inspiration section, but I happily admit that I was wrong. This map is pure awesomeness. Well, okay, the ending is DICK, but somehow I survived in there even with a rocket caught in a face at point blank range, so I don't really mind that much. Everything prior to that is brilliant. Feels somewhat reminiscent of D-D's more slaughter-oriented approach indeed, but not nearly as punishing. I only regret that I didn't enter that icy cavern with bfg, would've trivialized it completely that way. Silly me. Awesome work right here, Josh, thank you!
P.S. This FDA is probably among my best performance illustrations to date, and of course you'll forgive me my recurring cowardice. Beaten the map on my very first attempt, oh dear...

29 - Haha, sooo quiet... In all seriousness - the start wasn't very enthusing for me, and that part with afrit towers felt really harsh (is there a way to dispatch those fucks faster?..), but overall it's a nice map with some fun stuff happening around. To me, it felt like CC3 m29 done the right way sometimes (while I admire Matt Tropiano's effort, I can't help but to call "For we are many" boring, repetitive and artificially prolonged grindfest; although nice-looking, I give him that). Good work.

30 - I made sure to read some bug reports before playing since I wanted to actually play the map, not to get stuck in there.
You know, ~40 minutes ago I was ready to murder someone. Now it seems like I've regained control of my emotions (even before I've actually beaten it, what a surprise), so the only thing I could actually say - this one is really bad. Well, I can stand the exterior fight, it's not great but at least it's acceptable as some sort of finale I guess (duh, or maybe I should just admit that all these Scythe-like map30s aren't really my thing in terms of execution, even though they're still far better than another IoS dog's cum), but the beginning... Punching hordes? Are you serious? This thing ruins it all, and in paroxysm of frustration one may decide it ruins the whole megawad. Yes, it's that bad. A little piece of advice - rethink gameplay in the beginning parts completely before it's too late, forget about this tyson bullshittery and make something decent to start with. I understand your constant need to punch someone, but believe me - this is not the thing this map needs, not at all.


In the end - this was actually a remarkable megawad, impressive work. Some not so good maps, but most of the time it was solid fun and entertainment, for me it falls somewhere in-between Scythe and Scythe 2 (you have to understand me, Scythe 2 has its issues but it's still an undying masterpiece, and topping it is pretty much an impossible mission). Thank you, Josh, this was well worth the wait. And I'm once again grateful for finishing off Surge in a first place. Cheers!

I still haven't lost my inclination to give secret maps another go, I doubt I'll have anything else to say about 31, though I may still have some words regarding 32. Unless you wanna get rid of me and never to see my writings again, of course, just let me know if that's the case.

[Demonologist]

Cynical said:

As a whole, it's basically Twilight Massacre part 2, except it doesn't look as good. An occasional tough fight with practically years worth of filler in between each one; gigantic fields of monsters with absolutely no pressure at all and no purpose other than to waste your time.

Well, now that I've given this map a go - I have to agree, for what it's worth, except for the part about looks. I like these viney structures more than generic red rocks. The biggest highlight of this map is undoubtedly the gigantic mess in the YK valley, cool and epic combat. Another potential highlight is the one I failed miserably in a matter of seconds - the final battle, though it's understandable - after an hour of plowing through hordes I was feeling really tired and dreamed of the exit, but then... Maybe I'll try again tomorrow, seems like the mood is gone for today.

And between these highlight battles you watch hordes kill each other, shoot loads of monsters in front of you or camp the shit out of everything (that pre-final ascension is a perfect example of that, no offence to Darkwave, but that one is really lame). And considering the overall monster count - shit, that takes loads of time. I'd go as far as calling the layout flawed since the very beginning, with space THAT big you can go either for utter boredom or complete rapefest (I tell from experience), and neither one of those is really fun to play, obviously. Ambitious scale often leads to dull or over-the-top type of gameplay, sad but true. Sometimes, scale should be reduced and your ambitions hidden away for the sake of smooth play.

Very mixed feelings about this map, after all. While I'm a fan of Darkwave's work - this time he haven't nailed it. I'll post demos afterwards in case I achieve something rather than long and boring DNF one.

[gun_psycho]

@Demonologist - I remembered playing all the way through Twilight Massacre, along with the rest of the entirety of Speed of Doom, and Map28 is especially lag-heavy in the center area.

I doubt that the lite version has that specific problem. (That brought my PC's framerate to the low double digits at the least.)

[Degree23]

Map19: I liked the music on this map. Large spaces to move around which was helpful given the number of enemies able to fire at you at any given point. The large ambushes that appear after grabbing the keys were made so much more annoying by Pain Elementals. If they didn't die quickly you soon had a ton of Lost Souls flying around getting in the way a lot. I'm not sure what the Arch Viles near the exit were trying to accomplish though. They only have a couple of lines of sight out to the main area where you have more than enough space to avoid them seeing you and hardly any enemies die in there to get resurrected. Once I'd cleared out the outside area I just took cover and fired a barrage of rockets in to clear them out. Maybe if there were 2-3 in that area for the whole map, and then instead of the 5-6 teleporting into that area, those 2-3 teleport out to the main area? I played it through again being as much of a Pacifist as I could, and before getting any keys I was able to rack up 200 kills just with monster infighting!

Map20: Yet another chaotic start. I missed the low maze entrance that leads to the blue key for quite a while. I actually made a jump from a ledge near the blue bars to the raised platform to the left to bypass the blue key entirely. It was only after I was in the next area that I saw how to get the blue key. The Cyberdemons that appear in the centre were easily dispatched because I was still carrying a BFG. Given that you have 4 Cyberdemons in total in that area (although you don't see 2 until later), the "ambush" that appears after you pick up the blue key feels really out of place because it's only 3-4 enemies. Maybe having one less Cyberdemon initially and have the second one spawn in after you get the blue key, or just remove the enemies that spawn in entirely. The final switch was hidden away and I didn't see it for a few minutes.

Map21: I really dig the music and theme going on here. The transition back to a disused version of the end of the previous map is awesome. I concur with the animation of the legs on the Plasmagunners, it's far too comedic for the feel of the WAD. There must surely be something that can be done to edit that. These ones are an awful lot better than the ones in Scythe 2 though as I don't want to feel like I'm playing a deathmatch in the middle of a single player campaign. I died once initially, but I was glad to find the SSG secret on the second playthrough as the Shotgun on its own doesn't really do much with the more powerful enemies here. After killing Afrit I expected something to lower the exit or stairs to rise to it. I ended up jumping from a ledge outside through to it but I don't know if that's the intended way to exit?

Map22: It's been a while, but Imps on ledges again! This time they're right at the start so high up that you don't know they're there. There's enough chaos going on in your face without worrying about enemies you can't even see. I took a whopping 51 damage (unlucky that they all fired at once) from them when I'd ducked into a corner inbetween SSG shots at a Mancubus and only then did I realise there were enemies above me. I'm not finding those to be difficult, just irritating and not in a good way. Luckily I stumbled into a Megasphere around the corner while on 2% health. Now onto the better parts of the map. First of all the music is awesome, one of my favourite tracks from SoD! After the initial chaos settled down and I wandered around for a bit I got a shock when I realised just how big this map is! On the path to the blue key, a couple of the pillars could be a bit higher or spaced further apart as they seem to be so close you can't actually see them any more when you're traversing them. There was total carnage at the yellow key with a couple of Afrits and some Cacodemons firing at me from miles away (I think my trip to the blue key first woke them up), as well as the Afrits that spawned in the area itself. I think I only killed a total of about 4 Imps because the rest got absolutely massacred by everything else! The final area is quite tight, especially with some Plasmagunners, and you do love your final Revenant guarding the exit! Apart from the starting ledge Imps, this is quite possibly the best map of the WAD so far for me!

[Demonologist]

Alright, here we go. A bunch of stuff recorded for 31 and 32.

Some more thoughts regarding 31: it was certainly a bit more enjoyable with bfg, yet I can't help but to call for more ammo in that helix part because even with bfg I exited almost empty. The very thought of trying to conquer this mess without bfg makes me terrified. So - non-secret bfg and more ammo, please!

And about 32: my words about the final fight remain intact, cool chaotic fight, though it definitely requires some awareness to feel more or less comfortable. My only grievance regarding it is that it's too far away from the start...
I've put an FDA as well (the only real reason to watch it entertainment-wise is probably the fact that I survived that YK valley mess without bfg; oh shit that was hectic!), after that crushing defeat in the final part it still has a couple of early deaths before ending (inertia, I guess?..). Today's demo has a couple of early deaths as well (warmup, I guess?..), but then leads all the way down to glorious victory. Well, with foreknowledge this map is notably more enjoyable since you know where you can speed things up a bit and act more aggressively without losing too much in exchange, but still - lots of filler/time-waster parts, not good. And it looks beautiful, too, though I never denied that.

I guess this is it, I'm fully done with this megawad. Thanks to everyone involved once again, hopefully my rants weren't totally pointless. You're the man, Joshy. Now fix shit up and release the damn thing.

[gun_psycho]

And I do have a problem with Map02's third secret. How do you get those bars out of the way?

Edit: Come to think of it, any of those difficult-to-access secrets?

[Degree23]

Map23: The Chaingunners at the start don't respond to sound, only to being hit. Is that intentional? I enjoyed the layout of this map, as well as most of the enemies that teleport in. I don't know if the radiation suit at the switch that lowers you down into the damaging floor is in the best place because the Revenants seem to get on top of it very quickly. I ran around a lot on my first playthrough wondering why I was in a huge damaging floor with no radiation suit. I only saw it when I had about 30% health left (after going in with a lot) and I ended up dying anyway. Maybe it could either be in the pod that lowers, or moved closer to you.

Map24: A frozen SoD tribute map here with parts from some of the early levels of that WAD. Not too much to say here really as I was very familiar with the levels that were copied across. A few different enemies and overall very enjoyable. I could sense the Arch Viles at the exit coming from a mile away!

Map25: Well you know what you're getting with this map when you lower down. I didn't know if they were all going to be let out at once or not, so I saved the middle Megasphere until a bit later. Even with the BFG I died first time around after unleashing everyone, rather stupidly when not many enemies other than the Cyberdemons were left. On the second playthrough, while trying to get something to hit the Arch Viles, I failed and got blasted across to the lone Cyberdemon platform and straight into the exit. (A good UV Speed strategy there) From that I saw that you die at the end of the map, and knowing I'll have to start the next map afresh really kills any desire I have to play through the map again fully as part of a continuous playthrough. I've never really liked these "forced deaths" as exits, although I appreciate it does allow the author to create an episodic feel. I'm sure the slaughtering in this map is pretty good, but I'll be moving on to 26 now.

5 maps to go, but from what I've seen so far I'd love to see a TAS of this WAD when there's a final release. I'm no expert speedrunner, but I've seen (and used) at least 3 or 4 places where well timed jumps can skip parts of a map, and that's excluding various Arch Vile jumps that no doubt skip even more.

[Degree23]

Map26: Remind me never to go to a library that you've designed! I really liked the layout here, both on the ground floor and the ledges around the edge. Like in many previous maps you can be shot at from a multitude of places, but by the time you get to Map 26 it's a bit more expected. There are too many Revenants for my liking because there's always a swarm of homing rockets heading in your direction. A whole bunch of them could be replaced by Hell Knights and still achieve the desired monster placements. I spent a bit of time getting the initial Cyberdemon to do a lot of sniping work for me. I think the weaponry is generally placed well in this map. I didn't get the BFG so the Arch Vile ambush was a bit tougher to deal with. I sort of rushed to the exit at the end past a lot of the remaining enemies. I think I was definitely using a poor strategy for this map, if/when I play it again I'll make better choices with the stronger weapons.

Map27: I love slaughter maps but this one didn't really do it for me for the first half. I think in part it's because it is so open that there is just too much firing at you when you don't have any weapons to respond with (if you were doing a pistol start), even with a Megasphere at the start. The RL and PG both require passing a Spider Mastermind and a few Barons all while under fire from 2-3 Cyberdemons, several Arachnatrons and Revenants so far in the distance that they can fire homing rockets at you at the start and they're still tracing you by the time you get around to the RL and PG. I came in with some ammo from the previous map and I was still struggling to get a foothold in the initial area. A lot of the fights up to the Yellow Key seemed more irritating than slaughter. The Arch Viles that spawn more or less where you start are quite lame in my opinion because there is virtually no cover there but there are too many to just rush, even with the BFG. (Is there a need for 3 BFGs on the map? The one by the Spider Mastermind could maybe be replaced with a pack of 100 cells) The map from going through the yellow bars onwards was something I enjoyed a lot more. I died in the huge Revenant/Cyberdemon ambush before the Blue Key, so second time around I didn't kill the Plasmagunners so they could contribute to the infighting. The huge Afrit ambush was totally awesome, probably my favourite part of the map. There was still some infighting going on but they pretty much annihilated everything! It took all my BFG and some rockets to kill them all. After you go through the yellow door and lower the walls and you see the Demons/Cacodemons, there are monster block lines that didn't seem necessary? It allows you to basically just lame them with little fear of retaliation, even with Cyberdemons and Arch Viles around the corner. Then the ending is full of chaos, which is excellent. Overall I enjoyed it in the end, but the first half is very frustrating. There's a lot of health, but very little armour so maybe a green armour or two could be placed at points. One would be very useful at the top of the map where you activate a lift to go down to the yellow key where Hell Knights and Revenants spawn. Either way I feel like this map could do with a bit of tweaking.

[Cynical]

degree23 said:

(Is there a need for 3 BFGs on the map? The one by the Spider Mastermind could maybe be replaced with a pack of 100 cells)

There actually is such a need, oddly enough. It's possible to SR50 straight to the yellow key without jumping in the under-trenches and going around the upper area, so one is needed behind the bars. The one at giant Revenant battle in the under-trenches didn't used to be there (that is, the original placement was the one on the Mastermind), but was added when during playtesting I managed to get there without a BFG at all, since I didn't see the first one through the Mastermind's corpse.

[Degree23]

Ah ok. I still think 3 BFGs in 1 map is pretty odd. Perhaps make a slight adjustment so that even SR50 doesn't allow you to reach the key? That would remove the need for one of the extra BFGs.

Map28: Now this map was an awful lot more enjoyable than the previous one for me. The music for this map is amazing. The start isn't quite as chaotic as there is enough cover to run around until you get a feel for what's going on. There were a couple of things I wasn't so keen on. The only thing I felt that was unduly tough was the cavern fight. I had a BFG and decent ammo, but there are so many Arch Viles that if you have a bit of bad luck you can end up using a very large amount and each new wave doesn't give you much extra ammo. A couple of extra large cell packs in the middle where the Cyberdemons come from would not go amiss down there. In a pistol start, if you went down there before getting the BFG (which is entirely possible as the blue key is guarded by a Cyberdemon which I didn't kill immediately, and therefore ended up down in the cavern first) then it would be even harder. The other thing is that I don't see the need for THAT many Arch Viles to appear after you get the red key. 2 less would still give the desired effect, but without the large amount of nonsense that happens unless you BFG them perfectly. Overall it was a great map though.

Map29: Liked this map except for the section with the Afrit cages. They are so difficult to kill in that environment, and nothing really infights with them despite the fact they can destroy nearly everything on the ground. Otherwise this was a great map for running around and shooting stuff!

I will attempt Map 30 soon.

[mouldy]

This looks cool, gonna have a good old go at the weekend

[Joshy]

mouldy said:

This looks cool, gonna have a good old go at the weekend

I'm going to try and have the second beta release very soon, within a few days hopefully, so might want to wait for that. :P

[mouldy]

ah cool, i'll wait for the new version in that case

[Joshy]

Well I managed to push myself to do all the quick fixes, here's the 2nd beta! I scanned through all the feedback so there's a good chance I overlooked some comments, please do check the changelog and let me know if I've overlooked some crucial changes that needs to be done (or should be done). I'll be making myself go through the whole megawad sometime this week, and will upload to idgames archives not long after that.

Downlozz for 2nd beta (6th September, 2014): [link removed- look for the new link in OP]

Changelog:

Resurgence changelog:
Ensured all levels have player1-4 starts.
Map05: Added some impassible lines to stop getting caught on black columns at cyber area.
Map06: Moved voodoo dolls area further away from map.
Map08: Replaced most metal textures with better metal texture variant. Added monster blocking lines at mastermind area.
Map10: Changed 2 barons at redkeydoor to easy setting, cyber at medium and hard setting.
Map12: Player won’t be stuck at crate area now. Sector 135 is secret sector instead of sector134.
Map13: Made it possible for player to get back into arena if AV-blasted outside (by changing monster-only teleport to WR teleport)
Map31: Added BFG at end with more ammo (one chargepack and several rocket boxes). Made it possible to exit funky teleport hallway in case of line skips.
Map32: Made sector 222 secret instead of sector 244.
Map16: Made sector 118 door openable on both sides.
Map18: Made linedef 1960 lower to highest floor instead of raise fast.
Map21: Made all zombiemen enclaves stuck-proof. Made sector 1227 more obvious.
Map23: Some multiplayer radsuits added (4).
Map24: Some ammo added for lower difficulties (like 2 shellboxes lol). Sector 957 door can be opened both side.
Map27: Fixed texture alignment for linedef 1949 (wow that was bad).
Map29: Made several linedefs single-sided instead of doublesided.
Map30: Added impassible fences to stop blockage in either side. De-tysoned the starting gameplay with shotgun and shells. Some extra rad suits.
Colour palette and texturing fixed by Esselfortium, big thanks!
Added new nightmare graphic by Mechadon.

[Degree23]

Map30: Given that I'm not a mapper myself, I'm very hesitant in general to say a map is bad because it's not like I can make anything better. Unfortunately, I have no other way to describe this map. It is not fun at all. I iddqd'd through version 2 to check out the changes that you made.

1) Tyson starts don't really have a place in Map 30, especially not one that crowded and ridiculous. (Glad to see that's been changed, but honestly a SSG would be better as you can get crowded in very easily and retreating back to the spawn so you can pick them off isn't that fun)
2) There are not nearly enough radiation suits in the main area. (Glad to see that's been changed)
3) The initial radiation suit placement is awful as it is very easy to run down those stairs and collect 3 or 4 of them before you know what's happened.
4) There are just too many Afrit/Pain Elementals flying around which clog up the ability to move.
5) A Megaarmour or two wouldn't go amiss, although the extra radiation suits may offset that a bit. I lost a lot of incremental health from lack of suits that I wouldn't have done in your new version.
6) The intended route is not at all obvious in the main area. Heading straight for a platform with that many Arch Viles doesn't strike me as being the first thing I should do, not least because they are not easy to kill even with the initial Cyberdemon barrage often hitting quite a few of them. As a result, I got trapped in the red key area. They are by far the most threatening thing in the whole area due to their line of sight, so I didn't expect them to be guarding the first thing I needed from the area.
7) By the blue switch there are a ridiculous number of Arch Viles in that little section. You can't drop down from there anymore, but if you're unlucky with the Afrit spam then you end up with many of them chasing you.
8) The fences you put in seem to look a bit out of place in hell. I thought going to the back of the level and using the lifts to get to the blue and red key areas was quite nice, so instead of that maybe have it so that picking up the red/blue key lowers the wall back to the main area on that side? (As well as the yellow switch doing that if you follow the intended route)
9) The Revenant/Arch Vile trap by the blue key releases so many Arch Viles that again you need to be lucky.
10) Too luck based.

On the left side of the map, looking from where the BFG is, you have a lot of Hell Knights and stuff spawning on what looks like damaging floor, but it's not actually damaging. Was that intentional?

So overall, I was more than glad to finish this map. The ammo balance initially seems ok, but there isn't enough if the Arch Viles are able to escape a bit and go on a resurrecting spree, and there are too many Arch Viles to contain. A bunch of extra large cell packs in several places would not go amiss and taking out a couple of Arch Viles from the areas where you have tons would be useful too.

I'll summarise the comments from my posts about tweaks I thought might be useful to maps.

Most maps: Imps shooting you from ledges, especially ones you can't see, is massively overdone.
Map15: The forced Berserk pack is a bit lame.
Map32: The Lava caves could do with less Arch Viles, especially on the side where they're not actually guarding anything useful.
Map18: I'm still not sure what the intended route to get the yellow key, which I didn't even see, actually is. There could be some sort of indication of what the switches actually do.
Map19: The many Arch Viles near the exit are largely ineffective because they can hardly see out to the main area. Maybe there could always be 2 or 3 in there from the start of the map.
Map20: I'm not sure 4 Cyberdemons are needed in the area they're in. One could teleport in as an ambush after you pick up the blue key.
Map21+: The Plasma Marines' legs!
Map23: Deaf Chaingunners at the start?
Map26: Too many Revenants around the edges, that could maybe be swapped with Hell Knights so you're not constantly being trailed by a thousand homing rockets.
Map27: More armour and access to better weaponary without needing to pass the Spider Mastermind would help out here. The first half of the map was just not enjoyable overall.
Map28: More cells down in the caverns, and less Arch Viles after you pick up the red key.
Map29: Afrit cages seem to be largely irrelevant because you can just speed past them with only a few Arachnatrons to kill before you can leave again.
Map30: Many tweaks...

Overall a great WAD for the most part, definitely a commendable effort and many places of absolute brilliance in a lot of the maps. The standout map for me is definitely Map 22. It could do without the Imps right above your head at the start, but otherwise was an absolutely outstanding map.

[dew]

degree23 said:

Map29: Afrit cages seem to be largely irrelevant because you can just speed past them with only a few Arachnatrons to kill before you can leave again.

Agreed. The setup looks good at the first sight, but the way back is super-lame and I never warmed up to it. I'd probably release the afrits somehow after the player hits the switch and wants to go back - suddenly the afrits fly out and he player has to fight them for real. Add resources and it's $$$. The secret to go near them in a sequence be damned.

[Caleb13]

Joshy said:

Well I managed to push myself to do all the quick fixes, here's the 2nd beta! I scanned through all the feedback so there's a good chance I overlooked some comments, please do check the changelog and let me know if I've overlooked some crucial changes that needs to be done (or should be done).

Those blocked door that prevent normal re-entry into the final cyber arena in Map28 is rather annoying, IMO you should improve that somehow. Or are you waiting for Darkwave to make more complicated fixes like that?

More importantly, it is sad you decided to ignore the fact that at least 3 different players criticised the gameplay in Map27. I mean seriously, why did you even pre-release the WAD if you don't want to address issues like that?

[dew]

Caleb13 said:

More importantly, it is sad you decided to ignore the fact that at least 3 different players criticised the gameplay in Map27. I mean seriously, why did you even pre-release the WAD if you don't want to address issues like that?

AT LEAST 3 PLAYERS HOLY SHIT, CALL THE PRESIDENT!

What's the deal with entitled "testers" demanding shit with a foot stomp these days?