Bloody Realms of Hell - release

[Chris Hansen]

Since the archieves is currently in maintenance mode then I thought that I might as well release my latest level here. As soon as it is uploaded, and accepted into the archieves, once they get back online, I will update the download link.

The map itself is not 100% new. A big portion of it has already been semi-released here on DW earlier this year. But it has undergone lots of changes, and dare I say, that it is a much better version this time! If you are at all a fan of these kinda oldschool levels, and in particular one that it is episode 3 themed, then I think you will enjoy it. At least, I hope so :)

It's almost vanilla compatible, but I wouldn't recommend it. Use a limit removing port of your choice. It has been tested with various ports, so there shouldn't be any issues. If that's the case, then please, by all means, tell me before the archieves gets resurrected so that I can fix them before uploading.

Enough rambling, download here: http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=17418

[Memfis]

Heh, never thought I'd say this, but I miss the damaging floors from your 2002ado E3M6 (probably the most sadistic map in the wad). I think this level would be a looot more exciting if all blood sectors were damaging. In this current state I found it too relaxing to be enjoyable, maybe because I was lucky enough to find both blue armor and soulsphere secrets.

[vdgg]

When in the area with many lost souls, I was pretty surprised as well when I noticed the blood didn't damage me. But then, I can imagine plenty of other folks complaining if you change it; if I remember, everyone hated E3M6 in the Megawad Club... I understand this level will not be changed, but for the future, maybe -5% damage + radiation suits on skill 1-3?

Anyways, when playing through this, I still managed to die twice, as I picked up the RK and went to the RK door without the chaingun, and I was running out of shells :)

[plums]

FDA with cl9, 4 secrets, no deaths: http://www.mediafire.com/?o3cj5gjfivr3fc2
Includes an extremely long pause right before I get the red key, sorry. I futz about for half a minute after unpausing so don't worry about precise ffwd-ing if you watch it.

Gotta agree with Memfis, it was just too easy and having the blood sectors as damaging would change that a lot, even if you threw in some radsuits on UV. As it was with all the stuff I found none of the harder encounters felt like much more than ammo taxes.

Really like the architecture etc, some parts were a little too Hell's-Christmas but other than that it was great. The skintek details were excellent, especially those pillars jutting down in the large room as seen in your last screenshot.

[Veinen]

Cool map, not very difficult but I did enjoy the laidback gameplay somewhat. I agree with what's been said about the blood by others though, making it damaging would make some of the fights quite a bit more intense. Here's the FDA: http://www.mediafire.com/?i9gg7252f50mtja. No deaths but I take my time so it's quite long.

Oh, and I accidentally recorded that with -cl2... Doesn't seem like it changed anything though.

[plums]

Heh, if you wanted to get really clever, you could use a Boom conveyor with a voodoo doll that appears only some skill levels -- or even variable player starts based on skill level -- with a few linedefs that change sector effects to make the blood only damaging on UV.

[vdgg]

Veinen said:

Oh, and I accidentally recorded that with -cl2... Doesn't seem like it changed anything though.

-complevel 3 (or 2, which is almost the same) is what I would recommend, no Boom-specific features here.

[Chris Hansen]

Thanks for playing it guys. I'll be watching those demos later. And what can I say... I really hate some of the levels I made 10+ years ago. Some of them are downright unfair and really unbalanced. Today, I'd much rather make an easier level than another 2002 ADO E3M6. It's an age thing perhaps, hehe!

[Veinen]

vdgg said:

-complevel 3 (or 2, which is almost the same) is what I would recommend, no Boom-specific features here.

Yeah, I would have recorded with -cl3 had I remembered to change the command line. But if it's almost the same as -cl2, then I guess it's not that big of a deal.

[vdgg]

Well, Veinen's health didn't drop below 60% in the whole demo (except one brief moment when hit by a baron when invisible) in his first playthrough, so it's not "balanced", but rather "too easy on UV". Your map may be cool on Nightmare I guess.

I didn't notice this before watching plums' demo, but the sergeant - thing 351 - is facing a wall and looks like he's not sure why he's there ;) (at about 10:40; -playdemo bloreal_plums-fda -skipsec 990 because of the aforementioned pause)

[FTuma]

Chris Hansen said:

Thanks for playing it guys. I'll be watching those demos later. And what can I say... I really hate some of the levels I made 10+ years ago. Some of them are downright unfair and really unbalanced. Today, I'd much rather make an easier level than another 2002 ADO E3M6. It's an age thing perhaps, hehe!

Some of the 2002ADO stuff is indeed really harsh difficulty, but I still think some of those older maps as well as Ch Retro, Rip it Tear it Smash it, the early High/Low series maps, Rising Blood, the Hellcore level, and probably others as well don't seem dated.

I don't think you have a 'bad' map in 2002ADO, either. Just some extremely punishing parts (including the whole of E3M6).

[Steve D]

vdgg said:

if I remember, everyone hated E3M6 in the Megawad Club.

Not quite correct. I loved E3M6, and E4M7 as well. That's why I called Chris Hansen an axe-murderer.

Been trying to download the file, but ATM I can't connect to Windward. Will keep trying. Will I like the "kinder, gentler" Chris Hansen as much as the old-time axe-murderer?

[Chris Hansen]

Thanks for the praise guys, much appreciated.

And SteveD, I hope you wont be too disappointed. And btw, if you still can't connect (btw, the domain should be ok) just send me a pm and I'll send the file to you in a mail.

[Steve D]

Chris Hansen’s “Bloody Realms of Hell,” E3M1. Playing on GZDoom, UV, keyboard only, probably cl-9.

Kills – 93%, Items – 79%, Secrets – 57%. Time – 43:21. End Health – 107%, Armor 122%. Death Count – 3

Despite the warnings of potential disappointment from this map by a “kinder, gentler” Chris Hansen, I was not disappointed at all. This is a big, oldskool exploration/attrition/resource management type map. No hordes of enemies, only 196 monsters, IIRC, but they appear at times and in traps that are calculated to stress you out a little bit. They stressed me out several times.

The map starts out looking a lot like Chris’s 2002:A Doom Odyssey maps, though thankfully there’s no squinchy corridors filled with Barons this time. I’ll admit that I approached the opening a little too casually for a player of my limited skill, because, after all, it’s supposed to be a walk in the park, but it’s a park with hitscanners and very little health or ammo at first, so although it starts off nice and easy, each little peck from a zombieboy or a Sergeant starts to add up. Before long, I’m wandering around at 20% health and dealing with teleporting Cacos and Imps. And then I’m suddenly crossing teleport lines into uncomfortably occupied areas. And then I’m dead! :D

I died once before I reached the big room with the Zerk and Green Armor on tall columns. I died 2 more times fighting for these treats, because I didn’t immediately hit the switch that lowers them when I had the chance. I wanted to kill everything first, which turned out to be a mite difficult since I went into the fights at 23% health. But I really loved this section, because to even reach 23%, I had to fight a bunch of Lost Souls that appeared while I walked the platform steps, and before this fight, I'd been reduced to 1% health before I could grab a Medikit and teleport back to the upper platform. I was almost a hero, but alas, when fighting the guardians of the Zerk – again from the upper platform – I did great against the Cacos and Lost Souls but foolishly tried to pick off Imps and zombieboys from above while Cacos still lived. My attention thus divided, I was hit in rapid succession by an Imp fireball and a zombieboy bullet. I died one more time fighting everything down below, but dodged into the lava one time too many. As I sank into the ooze, I noticed that the Ashwall rim was horizontally misaligned . . .

Once I had the Zerk and punched out some Pinkies and Spectres, I was never again in serious danger, but I was still well-entertained. There were enough teleport traps, plus the dropped-floor trap at the Zerk fight, to keep things interesting. A fair number of Cacos teleported in at close quarters and inspired frantic maneuvering. Then at one point I grabbed me a little something and – whoopsie! – Baron in the face! Baron in the face! Panic!!!!! :D That was some fun shit.

The map seemed to get better and better in terms of detail and lighting as it went along. I appreciated touches like the often angled hallways that exposed you to enemies in 2 directions but gave you the option to back away and pick your battle. The difficulty eased up a bit as I collected health, ammo, and especially weapons, and found 4 out of 7 secrets. IIRC, I found 1 Soulsphere, 1 of the Blue Armors (not the first one), a Plasma Gun and, somewhat oddly, a Chainsaw. Since the map had a Zerk, this seemed superfluous and potentially annoying, since the game forces you to cycle through the chainsaw to reach your fist. Intriguingly, when I first played Chris’s 2002:ADO maps earlier this year for the Megawad Club, I had never before used the Zerk for punching Pinkies until pcorf’s E4M1 forced me to! Now, it seems as natural as breathing.

Although I thought this map was fantastic, especially the Zerk Room, I do have complaints. I didn’t like the platforming in the beginning, since after all, I’m a keyboarder and platforming, for us, is an opportunity to use IDCLIP. I wanted to make certain I leaped to the switch, however, in order to activate any triggers. And, even though I spilled much ink in my 2002:ADO commentaries about unavoidable items in the player’s path, here they are again! In the yellow key area, there’s 4 unavoidable bullet boxes in Sector 295 and one each in Sector 165 and 167, and both a shell box and bullet box in Sector 246 which could have been nicely stashed in the sides of Sector 244. IMO, all of these items should be moved out of the player’s path before the map goes into the idgames archives. And that’s just the stuff I remember, there might be more.

Those gripes aside, this is a really fun, expertly-made map. I enjoyed it.

[Chris Hansen]

Thanks a bunch SteveD for your thorough report on the level. It's a good read for sure :)

I actually always try and avoid placing items in the players path. These must have slipped my mind and I will fix it before I upload the level to the archieves. I won't, however, make the bloody floors damaging. I feel the level is good as it is and I am very happy with it.

Again, to all of you, thanks for playing and commenting!

[scifista42]

I really liked the map. As a "weaker" player, I appreciate the low difficulty and enjoyable gameplay. I died once anyway :) (in the big cave before yellow door when all the demons were released). I would stand a damaging blood, but was glad for it being safe. A great sense for art is felt from the map, I admire you. The atmosphere (complemented by music) impressed me. You even made the non-hellish textures and hitscanners not feel out of place. And you did this all with minimum usage of barons. I liked the secrets too, found 6 of them and ultimately cheated to get the last one, which was the rocket-launcher one. I see the map satisfying for both people who like classic non-hardcore gameplay and people who like exploration. Which is the ideal for myself to enjoy a map. I actually didn't much like High/Low5 for it being too hard to find the right way. But here the navigation isn't difficult at all, while there also isn't just a one linear dumbly-highlighted path. Again, that's how I like it.

Thank you for this experience!