Stomper Beta 2 (Released for preservation sake)

[ducon]

The imp fireballs are moving in straight line, it’s physically impossible too. ;-)

[Alter]

Well, this is more of a progress post than anything, so no screens for now. This post may make Memfis happy.

SO anyway, I decided that old map17 which Nmn supposedly hated from the original unfinished version will not get scrapped and instead go into a free map19 slot. The reason for that? I actually enjoyed the map and it felt complete as it was.

So that would leave me with only one map needing to be made from scratch (30), 8 maps needing tuning and 3 maps needing gameplay (working on one). A public beta should be a thing once that's all done and ready. No ETAs for this one though, real life and stuff.

[Alter]

Hooray for visual progress, this is a shot from map23 i'm working on, unfortunately while the map was layout complete, it lacked both the details and monster/item placement, so doing that now, may take a bit of work to bring it up a notch or two to a reasonable level.

Meanwhile i've completed another gameplayless map, map24. So that kinda leaves me only with map23 and map27 from gameplayless maps, rest being map30 which needs to be made and 8 maps that need some tuning.

Also added current maplist and stuff to the main post, for you to get a good grasp on how much there is left to do.

[Alter]

You know I mentioned I am working on map23? Yeah it's already done, tested out and put in the main wad, there's only map27 left from gameplayless maps, map30 to be made, the rest of maps (about 8), is all polishing.

[Alter]

Visual progress time.

I'm currently working on map27, it's gonna be somewhat of a different map than the rest gameplay wise, because it's gonna be pretty chaotic and tight (but not unfair), I've managed to complete the layout (there were some unfinished things), so now it's just thing placement.

[Alter]

Minor n-th bump in a row, managed to complete 27. I'm on fire with the progress! Now, map29's stuff left, map30 and map polishing, then, a public beta should be a thing.

[Nevanos]

Nice, hurry up so I can play it fully :P

[Alter]

Just a status update because screenshoting what I was working on would be a giant spoiler.

Basically i've finished 29 and 30.

Remember 29? The unbeatable map due it being unfinished? Well, I made it beatable and I overhauled the last room which anti-climatic as hell, I won't spoil anything, you will have to wait until public beta to see that one.

The original 30 was just an anti-climatic the end, I've changed it, how so? I won't say, as I said, wait until public beta.

Unfortunately map20 won't be in the public beta, Xaser's still working on it and probably will for next 2-3 months, which I can use to polish Stomper via public betas. Yes gents, Xaser's working on map20.

[Alter]

Beta 1's out gents! Read the main post for the link and what kind of testing help I need with this wad. Test the entire wad please :).

Mind you this is the first out of planned betas, so lots of things will be probably improved if there's any real feedback. However, not to say it doesn't represent the final product, it does, it is pretty much the final product minus some polishing and testing!

[Avoozl]

Nice to see this is getting more work done on it now, however I hope it's not too challenging and slaughter-ish.

[Alter]

Avoozl said:

Nice to see this is getting more work done on it now, however I hope it's not too challenging and slaughter-ish.

There are few difficult demanding maps in Stomper but there's often many easy/medium maps in between those. Now go ahead and give Stomper a try, be sure to try to beat it :)

[Caleb13]

Here are some things I noticed during my playthrough on UV difficulty in Zdoom 2.8pre-417. Just first 6 maps for now, I will check out the rest later:

-Why the main menu title reads "R-ONE" when the mod's name is Stomper?

-Map03: It is a bit unusual to make teleporter (sector 471) secret, because you "find" the secret only after you return to it. I suggest you make sector 473 or 474 secret instead.

-Map03: should sector 219 be secret, when the blue armor inside it is in plain view?

-Map05: many raising steps in central room (sector 133) produce HOMs. See screenshot.

-Map05: texture on linedefs 2497 and 2498 move when sector 243 is opened. Also, the texture on linedef 2498 seems misaligned.

-Map05: linedef 1497 produces HOM when the lift (sector 253) is down.

-Map05: I believe sector 327 or 328 should be secret.

-Map06: misaligned textures on linedefs 2677, 2710 and 2716. Why is that wall split into so many small linedefs, anyway?

-Map06: misaligned textures on linedefs 2749, 2755, 2790 etc. Similar to above.

-Map06: misaligned texture on linedef 2721. Similar to above.

-Map06: check texture alignment on all metal pillars in outside areas (sector 400), many seem off.

-Map06: misaligned textures on linedefs 4621, 4627 etc.

-Map06: monsters in sector 88 are pretty much unnecessary, because they rarely have the chance to fire at the player.



Oh yeah, in case you're wondering from the screenshot, I cut out most of custom weapon sprites, sounds and other crap like that for my playthrough, because I hate when people change these things in mods. I left the custom boss monsters intact, though.

[Alter]

Caleb13 said:

Here are some things I noticed during my playthrough on UV difficulty in Zdoom 2.8pre-417. Just first 6 maps for now, I will check out the rest later:

-Why the main menu title reads "R-ONE" when the mod's name is Stomper

Now that's some real feedback and i'm looking forward to more of it! I'm on fixing those now, for beta 2 in 2 weeks I guess, so it can contain a whole bunch of bugfixes and possibly some improvements.

Also I can explain this one, Nmn originally was working on a zdoom TC called R-one, the TC failed throughout it's many iterations so he decided to take some remaining stuff from it including some maps (map15 is a prime example of a map from the scrapped TC). So both names are correct and he hasn't decided which one should be on the release, I think having both names in release title should be a fair compromise.

[Devalaous]

Maybe a larger Stomper for the title screen with R-One under it, like a subtitle?

[Alter]

Ragnor said:

Maybe a larger Stomper for the title screen with R-One under it, like a subtitle?

Not likely to happen, as Nmn would need to draw that and he's LONG since out of gaming or doom altogether or doing graphics for games. And I am sure doing anything to his graphics would make him go haywire if he heard about it. Gotta stay on the terms and respect.

[Tuxlar]

It's like a remix/medley of doom maps, but much-expanded in size and detail. Bit too much level spaciousness makes the gameplay feel pretty light, but I've only played the first few levels so far. The sounds+sprites are decent, but you probably could package them in a separate wad, and lose only a little freshness feel for those who choose not to use them.

Here's a demo of my first playthough (prboom 2.5.1.3, used "-deh" to load the bex file, no compat flags specified:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B22sUllBm3Z2TGpwSTUxSXg1bWs/edit?usp=sharing

[blueinferno776]

I played It and became one of my favorite map packs so far. Map 7 could use some more health pickups. Between the hit scanners and revenants, it is very very hard.

I appreciate you restoring this project.

[Alter]

blueinferno776 said:

I played It and became one of my favorite map packs so far. Map 7 could use some more health pickups. Between the hit scanners and revenants, it is very very hard.

I appreciate you restoring this project.

Noted for things to do before I release the next beta in 2 weeks. Thanks for the comment, the restoration would'nt happen if not the original author who sorted the map list (which I had to sort myself because there were some issues later), gave me a detailed list of things to do. So this was a good start.

Next beta will bring following things:
- Bug fixes
- Some balance changes (for better)
- An interpic
- Possibly custom level lump names once I figure that stuff out.

[Alter]

Update 1-B is out.

It does those things:
- Fix bugs mentioned before by Caleb123
- Map29 has been rebalanced even on UV, not anything below UV is bound to be half as easy but still hard (Great Ragequit of 2014 (c) Whoo)
- Chaingun/Shotgun were sped up by few frames (suggestion from tarnsman on stream)
- Map11 has a proper exit now instead of a monty python holy grail style ending (c) tarnsman
- Map06 includes more rocket ammo and a non-secret rocket launcher now
- Map07 has more health and more radsuits, primarly for coop balance purposes
- Map05 and map08 have more health.

[Alter]

Well, after nearly a week of hiatus or so, because I had a bunch of birthdays in a row. Well, seeing there's not much gameplay related reports, I began the process of possibly visually polishing the less polished maps. Like map08 for example, and by polishing, I don't mean throw in 1000 details to make it prettier.

Just make it less barebones, throw in some nicer texture choices and stuff, I don't want the details to affect the gameplay.



Example, improved map08 entrance shot, although the lights to the left seem a bit misaligned against what I wanted.

[Caleb13]

alterworldruler said:

Well, seeing there's not much gameplay related reports...

Sorry, I got unexpected mountain of work, insofar I have to work even over weekends. But don't worry, I should get rid of it in a week or two, and I definitely plan to play the rest of the maps. Also, I believe many Doom people are on their vacations etc., so nobody is in right mood to make bug reports.

Speaking of which, your october/november target release date is IMO far too optimistic, or rather, unrealistic. Stuff like this simply takes time, especially when the mapset is so extensive. Take Doom 2: In Name Only project for example - even after 2 full rounds of bugfixes, people were still finding and reporting some. It took almost 6 months until everything was fixed. And those were only bugfixes... but you still actually work on the maps!

Oh, and I'm absolutely in favor of Tuxlar's idea of putting custom HUD, weapon sprites and custom sounds into separate WAD, so they can be enabled/disabled on request.

[Alter]

I don't necessarily agree with the idea of putting it into a custom WAD neither do some testers, but I'm considering it for next build.

Also technically all the maps but 20 are done, i'm currently just beginning to refine them, both in gameplay and visuals, but it's not something I do full time as i'm occupied with many other things, the october date would be the first "release candidate" when Xaser completes his map20.

In best quality case although I am not sure if it will work because once my education starts in late October, I won't have much time to tackle this stuff, a reasonable date would around Mid-2015 to put out a definitive version of this thing. No promises, because I am legimitately concerned about how much time I will be able to devote to try to make this a cacoward-nomination worthy thing. Also there's a chance that people could lose interest in testing and helping me refine this if this takes too long, this is also a concern of mine.

[Alter]

Release of Beta 1-C which will be probably the last Beta 1, considering DWMegawadClub will probably test it for a month. If they do it, then Beta 2 which will bring all those fine adjustments to gameplay and visuals, push it much further quality-wise.

Anyway here's the notes:
- Map07/08/12/21 got their visuals upgraded a bit.
- Map29 has a SERIOUS gameplay change, ITYTD/HMP have far as less much spawning monsters and... completely omits the second half of the map straight to endboss. So those who want a SERIOUS challenge, will play this map on UV.
- Guns and their sounds were seperated into StomperGuns.wad as per Caleb's request.

[Obsidian]

Hi ho, just popping my head in! I had a cursory glance at the latest beta for the Megawad club(mainly warping to the special maps looking for boss fights, heh) and I noticed the boss on MAP30. It's, uhh, kind of underwhelming concept-wise: it's certainly effing deadly, but it's basically a fast unit that fires pretty much every projectile at you that doesn't have a melee attack built in. I have to ask, was this what NmN had in mind for the final battle? If it was and he doesn't want it changed then never mind, but otherwise would I be able to make a final boss for you? I've got a neat idea that I thought up for an old abandoned project of mine a while back that I think would work quite well with the current setup. The only hiccup is that I may need an extra set of monster sprites(maybe one of the Strife robots or something), but hopefully that won't be too much trouble.

[Alter]

Obsidian said:

Hi ho, just popping my head in! I had a cursory glance at the latest beta for the Megawad club(mainly warping to the special maps looking for boss fights, heh) and I noticed the boss on MAP30. It's, uhh, kind of underwhelming concept-wise: it's certainly effing deadly, but it's basically a fast unit that fires pretty much every projectile at you that doesn't have a melee attack built in. I have to ask, was this what NmN had in mind for the final battle? If it was and he doesn't want it changed then never mind, but otherwise would I be able to make a final boss for you? I've got a neat idea that I thought up for an old abandoned project of mine a while back that I think would work quite well with the current setup. The only hiccup is that I may need an extra set of monster sprites(maybe one of the Strife robots or something), but hopefully that won't be too much trouble.

It is what Nmn intended for the very end, so I will keep it as it is, because it was planned and this is a restoration project. Also dehacked is limited in certain ways so can't do much about it either.

[Obsidian]

alterworldruler said:

It is what Nmn intended for the very end, so I will keep it as it is, because it was planned and this is a restoration project. Also dehacked is limited in certain ways so can't do much about it either.

...

Oh poo. :P

Like I said, it just doesn't really seem to be a satisfying ending, although I suppose that's my opinion. And you'd be surprised at what I can do with DeHackEd, especially for Boom. Lemme know if the stance on that changes.

[Caleb13]

As I promised, here are some more issues I spotted in beta 1c:

-Map07: monsters from the uppermost part of sector 56 never teleport into playable areas, because there is no linedef to lower sector 248.

-Map08: incorrect texture on linedef 2100. Why is it split into 2 smaller ones, anyway?

-Map08: misaligned texture on linedef 737. I guess this one will be rather hard to fix though, because the texture is around entire room.

-Map08: Linedefs 1937 and 1938 should be WR, not SR (they are supposed to trigger the lift, right?).

-Map08: misaligned wall (and floor?) textures around sector 89.

-Map09: misaligned texture around switches, linedefs 334 and 694.

-Map09: for some reason, all doors (sector 183) never opened and became stuck closed when I pressed linedef 1943, see screenshot. This appears to be some issue in Zdoom, because they opened as they should in Zdaemon.

-Map09: in the same area, one door (behind sector 180) is not visible from the big room (sector 120) in Zdoom. But again, all was OK in Zdaemon.

-Map10: textures on linedefs 138, 1481, to 1483 and 1273 appear oddly, though I'm not sure I'd exactly call them misaligned. Also check all other curved metal paths around this area, especially around linedefs 1691 or 1501.

-Map10: wrong texture on linedef 290.

-Map10: linedef 2429 - small part of "posion" sign is cut off in the right corner.

-Map10: vertically misaligned textures around linedef 2147. Or is it supposed to look like that?

-Map10: misaligned textures around linedef 531.

-Map10: misaligned textures on linedefs 950 and 1276. Also, shouldn't the shadows in sector 189, 191 and 230 be more visible (darker)?

-Map10: perhaps there should be some visual cue on linedef 2773 leading to a secret.

-Map11: variously misaligned textures STONE6 around sector 217.

-Map11: revenant (thing 314) IMO should have angle 270 degrees.

-Map11: sargeant (thing 324) IMO should have angle 135 degrees.

-Map11: hell knight (thing 334) IMO should have angle 90 degrees.

-Map11: sector 267 shouldn't be tagged as secret.

-Map12: it happened that linedef 5491 teleported arachnotron (thing 214), which then became stuck on the ledge above. Not sure how to best fix this.

-Map12: misaligned texture on linedef 1547.

-Map12: vertically misaligned texture on linedef 4699 and others.

-Map12: vertically misaligned textures between linedefs 3656 and 4754.

-Map12: misaligned textures on linedef 5083 and all around it.

-Map12: wrong texture (METAL2) on linedef 5081 etc.

More later this week. Oh and about the separate WAD file for custom stuff... it is usual you put all such custom stuff into it, including sounds and HUD...

Edit: I just noticed Doomworld Club plays Stomper, so I'll probably postpone any bug reporting until they're finished with it. There is no sense in reporting same bugs twice.

[Alter]

So this thread will continue now that Stomper month in megawad club's over, i'm in process of writing down everything from 200+ posts posted there into a text file before I do anything next. Also Caleb13, you may continue as you may find more that they didn't pick up on.

So September FOR ME will be about implementing all these changes, suggestions that are viable, fixing all those bugs, textures, it's gonna be a bit of a work.

As for map20, it will come, Xaser himself will be posting updates either here or privately.

Once all these changes are done, this is when i'll put out a next beta, probably one of the last ones if not the last until release.

[Alter]

Stomper Beta 2's under the way, with bugfixes and possible visual polish of certain maps that need it.

note: too large to post here, to not spam.
http://i.imgur.com/VwcYWdO.png
http://i.imgur.com/eFEch5t.png
http://i.imgur.com/NeHr2Dw.png

And yes, map16 is the first one to get visual improvements, with possible gameplay changes. Anyway, meanwhile, Nmn is gonna redesign the title screen and rest of graphics, we decided to throw out whatever story was left there except the ending text (which will be changed), what we had planned for map20 will not change however.

We realised it's pointless in a boom wad and because we've already done a wad before called Soulcrusher where story was not a gimmick and a part of it.

[Sokoro]

I started to play this yesterday and I am having fun, but it is the original unmodified version. Today, I found this thread. Are you still working on this? Can you at least release the beta 2 ?