Back to Saturn X Episode 2 is out of beta! (v1.0.1 Aug 13, 2020)

[esselfortium]

6 hours ago, lirui1001 said:

Map04: This pit near the exit platform is marked as sector 11 damaging floor.

 

That one's an intended feature, since it's right next to the exit.

[GarrettChan]

4 hours ago, Poncho1 said:

I don't type anything into the command lines, since I'm a lazy bastard.

Oh come on dude, you do speedruns and you don't have an excuse :P

[Poncho1]

2 hours ago, GarrettChan said:

Oh come on dude, you do speedruns and you don't have an excuse :P

* For casual play. :P

[esselfortium]

For the blockmap optimization used in MAP20, it would probably be possible for the new fork of PrBoom+ to incorporate a similar fix to what Eternity does, so that it would work independently of complevel. I'm paraphrasing @Altazimuth here, but from what I understand, the general idea is that if the blockmap starts with a 0, it continues with Boom's assumption and drops the leading 0s. If the blockmap doesn't start with a 0, it doesn't drop anything. This would make MAP20 work regardless of complevel, while still maintaining perfect compatibility with Boom's handling of blockmaps that don't take advantage of the optimization.

[Altazimuth]

Note that given PRBoom+'s penchant for demo compat, including with itself, you'd want to still have it not work for complevels like 9 and 11 and such.

[Alaux]

Just as I decide to play E1 this comes out of Beta, and I just finished E1 a few moments ago. Can't wait to see what's awaiting!

[GarrettChan]

Don't know why I did this to myself, but heh. I'll included my video and thoughts in the spoiler tab in case somebody doesn't want to accidentally see it.

 

BtSX E2M31 UV Max w/ commentary Video:

Spoiler

 

Thoughts:

Spoiler

Overall it's a pretty fun map. I would say it's a little bit harder than an entrance level slaughter map, and some of the fights do challenge the player with correct usage etc. The start is pretty hectic and requires some foreknowledge in order to find your way. If you didn't know there's a BFG, you're going to suffer a lot, but this happens to many hard maps, especially those with hot start.

 

One problem in making this video for me is the length of the map. On the other hand, for individual fights, they are not very hard, and you have quite a bit of health (but not Armor ;P) for error room, so if you're doing this map with save, it shouldn't be that bad.

 

BTW, actually I didn't realize until very recently, the music here is a remix (or reversed) of Jimmy himself's Great Hall and this is supposed to be (part of, maybe) Joshy's Poison Ivy series.

 

[Bytefyre]

Hello!  I'm glad to see this came out of beta!  However, I seem to have discovered something very strange in Map 19.  After taking the lift near the starting area, I see a solid rock face, which appears to be closing off a huge section of the map, and I didn't find any way to get beyond it (there's a megaarmor there which made me suspicious).  I'm not sure if this is multiplayer only, but I thought I should point it out.  Also, there are two Arch-viles that never teleported in (from the map view, they're the ones in the leftmost containment area), so I was unable to get 100% kills.  I'd appreciate it if you could let me know about these observations.  I'm using GZDoom 4.4.2, by the way.  Thanks!

 

 

[tchkb]

2 hours ago, Bytefyre said:

After taking the lift near the starting area, I see a solid rock face, which appears to be closing off a huge section of the map, and I didn't find any way to get beyond it (there's a megaarmor there which made me suspicious).  I'm not sure if this is multiplayer only, but I thought I should point it out.

 

That's an unmarked super secret / easter egg area. There is a "simple" way to get there - keep looking if you want to find it yourself or use a map editor to find out. :)

 

2 hours ago, Bytefyre said:

Also, there are two Arch-viles that never teleported in (from the map view, they're the ones in the leftmost containment area), so I was unable to get 100% kills.

 

That's an actual issue - apparently we broke that closet while reworking the intro section's geometry (they're supposed to teleport right as BK becomes accessible). Will be fixed in the next update.

[Bytefyre]

4 hours ago, tchkb said:

That's an unmarked super secret / easter egg area. There is a "simple" way to get there - keep looking if you want to find it yourself or use a map editor to find out. :)

No need for the map editor!  I figured it out...that was very, very subtle, and very clever!

 

5 hours ago, tchkb said:

That's an actual issue - apparently we broke that closet while reworking the intro section's geometry (they're supposed to teleport right as BK becomes accessible). Will be fixed in the next update.

Good to know!  After thinking back on it, I did recall those two Arch-viles when I was playing the beta version a couple of days ago.

[JXC]

Will Episode 3 have a boss or custom monster?

[Gez]

1 hour ago, JXC said:

Will Episode 3 have a boss or custom monster?

Probably not, if the aim is to have episode 3 on the Bethesda roster of official add-ons. Since these ports do not support DEHACKED modifications, custom actors become extremely unlikely.

[Chip]

Now I'm waiting for this beautiful specimen!

[A_D_M_E_R_A_L]

On 8/15/2020 at 11:58 PM, GarrettChan said:

Don't know why I did this to myself, but heh. I'll included my video and thoughts in the spoiler tab in case somebody doesn't want to accidentally see it.

 

BtSX E2M31 UV Max w/ commentary Video:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Thoughts:

  Reveal hidden contents

Overall it's a pretty fun map. I would say it's a little bit harder than an entrance level slaughter map, and some of the fights do challenge the player with correct usage etc. The start is pretty hectic and requires some foreknowledge in order to find your way. If you didn't know there's a BFG, you're going to suffer a lot, but this happens to many hard maps, especially those with hot start.

 

One problem in making this video for me is the length of the map. On the other hand, for individual fights, they are not very hard, and you have quite a bit of health (but not Armor ;P) for error room, so if you're doing this map with save, it shouldn't be that bad.

 

BTW, actually I didn't realize until very recently, the music here is a remix (or reversed) of Jimmy himself's Great Hall and this is supposed to be (part of, maybe) Joshy's Poison Ivy series.

 

I remember doing this map myself, it was a bitch and a half.

Spoiler

 

 

[Poncho1]

So I gather, based on the fact that this is on idgames, that we have a FINAL (!!!) version?

[Edward850]

26 minutes ago, Poncho1 said:

So I gather, based on the fact that this is on idgames, that we have a FINAL (!!!) version?

If it being on idgames doesn't seem very final, it being on consoles should. 

[GarrettChan]

 BtSX E2M10 UV+ Max w/ commentary Video:

Spoiler

 

 

Thoughts:

It seems this map is a flooded mine. I saw some mine tunnel and some abandoned structures in some watery areas. I kind of like ruins in general, so this map also seems pretty nicely constructed and I like it.

 

I like the start design because it punishes playing conservatively. You do need to play a little bit aggressive in order to make it easy. The map itself is not very hard, but it's decently long, so things can go wrong in many cases while the map doesn't provide you with a Backpack nor a MegaArmor outside of secret areas. I did run out of everything in a point of the map. Maybe I forgot some ammo here and there.

 

 

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP19: Sector 193 does not have a teleport destination (sector has tag 4, 1-2 arch-viles fail to teleport in)
MAP20: Teleport destination 1597 only flagged on UV/NM (on lower settings hell knights fail to teleport in)

[GarrettChan]

17 minutes ago, NuMetalManiak said:

MAP20: Teleport destination 1597 only flagged on UV/NM (on lower settings hell knights fail to teleport in)

I think this is probably fixed now since there'll be a few changes on HNTR/HMP for Map20, and I'm pretty sure Map20 is HMP/HNTR Max-able now.

[DSC]

Very well! I'll be honest, and I hope this doesn't make me a hypocrite... But I really didn't like BTSX E1. This however, looks like a massive improvement. Congratulations on having it finally released! I'm curious to see what E3 will bring upon us...

[maxmanium]

I don't know if you're aware or if it even matters but I came across a visplane crash on MAP15 that is very specific but reproducible. It's around (128, 2784) facing almost directly east (angle 0). Crashed Chocolate Doom for me during normal gameplay.

[esselfortium]

3 minutes ago, maxmanium said:

I don't know if you're aware or if it even matters but I came across a visplane crash on MAP15 that is very specific but reproducible. It's around (128, 2784) facing almost directly east (angle 0). Crashed Chocolate Doom for me during normal gameplay.

Thanks, I'll add it to the list.

[maxmanium]

Also, what's up with MAP28?

[esselfortium]

12 minutes ago, maxmanium said:

Also, what's up with MAP28?

It's a dummy map to keep Slade from purging some textures that shouldn't be purged.

[GarrettChan]

EDIT: Shoot, I was going to edit this one with the video, but I posted another one by mistake.

[maxmanium]

2 minutes ago, esselfortium said:

It's a dummy map to keep Slade from purging some textures that shouldn't be purged.

 

Why does it do that?

[GarrettChan]

BtSX E2M07 UV+ Max w/ commentary Video:

Spoiler

 

 

Thoughts:

Pretty fun map overall. The most difficult part, believe it or not, is around the first secret. If you didn't use the secret like what I did, it would be harder to deal with that part. The last room with the alter may be rough from time to time due to being exposed to the Arch-viles.

 

BTW, this level name also hit the input limit of Youtube titles.

[esselfortium]

3 minutes ago, maxmanium said:

 

Why does it do that?

BTSX has thousands more textures than what is included in an episode release, and we purge the ones that aren't actually used in maps. But some textures, like tall skies, aren't actually used anywhere in the maps themselves, and are only in mapinfo lumps. The dummy map is just insurance to make absolutely sure nothing gets inadvertently purged that would break the wad.

[TheOrganGrinder]

Even taking into account the compatibility issues I am loving the expanded start area of Speedtraps.

[Paul977]

On map 22 an imp (thing 566) is placed outside of the map