Strange Aeons 5.7

[JohnnyTheWolf]

You already cannot jump by default. I was just wondering about the stack of crates in E1M1, which looked like it could be jumped on.

[Suitepee]

Atmospherically this looks right up my alley. I may livestream this sometime in the future....

[Impie]

Salt-Man Z said:

If you're not supposed to jump, might I recommend adding a MAPINFO lump to prevent jumping altogether?

I should've said " "No jumping" is standard", in quotes for clarification. That's what I get for replying to people when it's six hours past my bedtime...

It already has a mapinfo def preventing jumping.

@Suitepee if you livestream, post a link here!

[General Rainbow Bacon]

E5M1 has missing textures in the room after the water, and in the exit room.

E5M2 : Start room, and there's probably more.

It looks like a few of your textures just aren't loading. Check and see what's going on.

[Impie]

I have a feeling you're running it with Doom 2 and not Ultimate Doom, as the download page explains. If you run it with Doom 2, you'll need the Doom Textures for Doom 2 wad.

I'd been meaning to convert it for any Doom version, but I wasn't sure what else I'd have to do to avoid incompatibility issues. Is including that texture pack all it would take? Would repeat textures do anything weird if it's run in Ultimate with that texture wad?

[General Rainbow Bacon]

Yeah, I'd been running it in doom 2. If you add the texture pack it should be able to find the textures that are missing and that should correct everything.

If you aren't going to add the texture pack, put something in the beginning of this thread reminding people to look at the readme or that this is for Ultimate Doom since most projects here are for doom 2.

E: There's also nothing on your site saying this is for Ultimate Doom.

Anyway, the maps look really good. I'll post a full review when I play through the whole thing.

[JohnnyTheWolf]

General Rainbow Bacon said:

E: There's also nothing on your site saying this is for Ultimate Doom.

The mod is described as a "5-Episode Partial Conversion for Ultimate Doom", right below the download link. ;)

[General Rainbow Bacon]

Oh lol.

Apparently I'm blind then.

[BGE]

I'm sorry but the skeleton hand thing is a complete eyesore. :| Everything else looks great though!

[Brewtal_Legend]

BGE said:

I'm sorry but the skeleton hand thing is a complete eyesore. :| Everything else looks great though!

Afraid I have to agree. I think I liked the strange pistol better. Though personally, I think some sort of revolver would fit very nicely in this.

Maybe an optional patch to use the original pistol you had before?

[years]

I am up to episode two and yeah, this wad is fantastic. I do agree with the above posters, some form of (more powerful) pistol or rifle would be nice for long-distance targets (with the sceptre being a slot 1 melee weapon).

[Impie]

Brewtal_Legend said:

Afraid I have to agree. I think I liked the strange pistol better. Though personally, I think some sort of revolver would fit very nicely in this.

Maybe an optional patch to use the original pistol you had before?

Or maybe I could add it as a secret weapon in 5.1, instead of the chainsaw...Hmh....You think making it a sci-fi equivalent to the sapphire wand would be too much?

The visual issue with the scepter could be the palette, which is more Hexen than Doom. I can probably tweak it in Slade.

[Brewtal_Legend]

Impie said:

Or maybe I could add it as a secret weapon in 5.1, instead of the chainsaw...Hmh....You think making it a sci-fi equivalent to the sapphire wand would be too much?

The visual issue with the scepter could be the palette, which is more Hexen than Doom. I can probably tweak it in Slade.

Perhaps something more along the lines of an "Eldrich" chainsaw? For me, it is more than just the look of the scepter that kinda turns me off. The function is the main thing. A scepter as a melee weapon which is not being swung makes it rather off looking. Plus it actually seems to have some reach to it so it isn't exactly melee either. It's just kinda rather odd and not particularly fun to use to be honest. In my opinion at least.

Sci fi elven wand doesn't sound much better. An eldritch, revamped elven wand may be better though. I never liked the regular elven wand in heretic much myself though.

[Impie]

It IS your last resort weapon, though. And it is really handy against spiders, it turns out.

As for the gauss gun, I was talking about the sapphire wand from Hexen, not the elven wand from Heretic: the one that's like a weak railgun that softens up large groups of enemies. I'll probably play around with that, and maybe see about replacing the intermission maps with the ones from Freedoom.

EDIT: Scratch that, turns out there aren't any Freedoom maps. This guy was apparently suggesting that I ask the Freedoom people to drop everything they're doing to make custom maps for me. 'Cos that's a totally reasonable idea.

[Suitepee]

I hope to be livestreaming the first part of my playthrough of this tonight, and will post on-demand links after each stream in this thread. I'm quite looking forward to playing this one!

[Suitepee]

https://www.twitch.tv/johnsuitepee/v/62417156 = part 1 of my playthrough, covering the first two episodes. (UV, continuous)

Atmosphere good. Gameplay good. Ambient music choice good.

Death Incarnates and Nightmares being used as annoying-as-fuck enemies. Bad. Bad. So very bad. They might be visually fitting with the theme of the wad, but having to deal with them in the game is both annoying and tedious.

The Nightmares need to be made visible (very slightly) when they move/teleport around, so players aren't forced to camp a corner and wait for them to approach so they can deal with them effectively. Something along the lines of having a faint speck of visibility (like with the Brutal Doom spectre's eyes or whatnot) as they move around would greatly help make them less annoying to deal with, what with their "only vulnerable when attacking" state bullshit.

And I'd just remove the Death Incarnates & replace them with something that doesn't have a 75% chance to resurrect and require being "overkilled" to finally succumb.

Aside from these two poor choices of enemy, I have nothing else to critique in Strange Aeons so far. I love everything else about it in the two episodes I have played thus far, and hope to enjoy the next three.

(P.S. Love that the 'mutant' powerup turns you into the Doomguy. Nice touch.)

[Brewtal_Legend]

The Nightmares need to be made visible (very slightly) when they move/teleport around, so players aren't forced to camp a corner and wait for them to approach so they can deal with them effectively. Something along the lines of having a faint speck of visibility (like with the Brutal Doom spectre's eyes or whatnot) as they move around would greatly help make them less annoying to deal with, what with their "only vulnerable when attacking" state bullshit.

And I'd just remove the Death Incarnates & replace them with something that doesn't have a 75% chance to resurrect and require being "overkilled" to finally succumb.

I agree with the nightmares. maybe if they could be blurry like a spectre till they fully appear.

I like the Death Incarnate. Maybe just reduce his resurrection chance?

[Impie]

Brewtal_Legend said:

I agree with the nightmares. maybe if they could be blurry like a spectre till they fully appear.

I like the Death Incarnate. Maybe just reduce his resurrection chance?

If I remove the Nightmare's abilities (and the star vampire's for that matter) I may just as well replace them with a normal monster and negate the point of having them in the first place. I know people tend not to like that monster, and I might make them appear a bit less. But usually you should just avoid them unless you're going for 100% kills. I'lll think about making them slightly visible though.

The Death Incarnates actually used to have only a chance to come back, which I removed so that gibbing them is the only way to kill them, then made it easier to gib them. I'm considering making it even easier to gib them so that one rocket always does the trick. I'd like them to otherwise always come back because they're supposed to be the most threatening common enemy in the game.

Fair warning, the fifth episode is home to the undead, so both of these guys tend to show up a lot. Well, the DI's anyway. E3 has a lot of unkillable skeletons but they can't shoot at least.

I appreciate SuitePee's reading the story in the stream! Didn't think anybody read that damn thing apart from Mr. OneManDoom himself. I'm watching the video now since I wasn't able to attend at the time, so I'll probably add more comments here later if I have any.

EDIT2: E1 secret exit is on E1M3. You actually found the switch to open it in the sewer. There's another clue to its location aboveground.

I'm also gonna go ahead and add the Doom 1 Graphics in Doom 2 wad to the pk3 to make it compatible with Doom2. Wasn't aware Ultimate Doom wasn't easy to come by anymore.

EDIT3: I was told some people configure the light amp goggles to see invisible creatures in gzdoom, so I put it in more often to help with the nightmares, as your friend said in the chat. I keep forgetting to test it though.

EDIT4: Well crap. I guess the cheat codes will have to be changed if it's gonna work with Doom 2, unless nobody uses idclev(em) anymore.

EDIT5: Weird...didn't know that Lovecraft art was also an album cover. I'm curious which it was used for first.

Really fun stream overall, so far. Glad you like the atmospheric touches if nothing else. I wasn't too sure how well this mod played for other people, so it's great to get to see a competent player give it a shot (usually when people play my games they have no idea what they're doing, like with anyone else's games).

EDIT6: Uploaded version 5.1, with fewer Nightmares in E1M2, and easier to gib Death Incarnates. One rocket should do it every time now. Also includes dmgfxd2.wad so the mod can be run in Doom II without graphical issues. You'll have to use the console to skip levels though, apparently.

[Suitepee]

Impie said:

EDIT6: Uploaded version 5.1, with fewer Nightmares in E1M2, and easier to gib Death Incarnates. One rocket should do it every time now.

Sweet!

[Suitepee]

https://www.twitch.tv/johnsuitepee/v/63799438 = part 2 of my playthrough, covering the third episode and maps E4M1-E4M5 (plus E4M9). (UV, continuous)

Episode 3 started badly and got better in the second half of E3M5. End boss was alright, although was very grateful for the double rate/infinite ammo powerup combo to deal with the minion spamming bosses.

Episode 4 was generally better, bar a small part of E4M5 when flung outside into the foggy snow of hitscans and Beam Arachnotrons.

I approve of the Death Incarnate adjustment, and I didn't mind the 'Nightmare'-esque red worms introduced in episode 3 for some reason.
I didn't like the cultist leader enemy, as I feel one hitscan enemy is more than enough without adding one that barely seems to flinch and takes a couple of hits to kill. (not a chaingunner granted, but urgh still!)

Hoping for a good end to the playthrough, as I have generally been immersed into this world quite well with the music and just-right detailed visuals.

[Impie]

Probably shoulda played on normal difficulty for your first playthrough. I actually use the difficulty settings to change things around, and the setting you're playing on is pretty fuckin' nasty, as it should be. Glad you're still enjoying it though. Looking forward to your playthrough of E5 -- curious how that one plays.

I thought for sure you'd loathe the star vampires, but maybe their tiny numbers (except in E3M6) makes them easier to tolerate?

Also remember my private tip about Nyarlathotep when you get to the E4 boss. Aheheh.

You may want to play on a slightly larger resolution as well, so the ending text doesn't go off the screen. I play on 800x600 and it looks fine.

EDIT: New update to 5.2!

- Nightmares and Star Vampires can't be seen unless flinching or attacking, BUT now you can shoot them regardless of what state they're in.
- Purple Tentacles don't come back when you kill them.
- Fixed the E3 ending screen. Still not great, but at least it's not laughable.

I don't know if Suitepee will be able to continue E4 if he uses the new version or not. It should allow him to load his old saves.

Also, for those who are curious, though you can probably learn this from the doom wiki article:
- The E4 secret map, Maniac Mansion, is partly a tribute to the titular adventure game and its sequel, Day of the Tentacle, but the mansion itself is a tribute to The Legacy: Realms of Terror, another game based on the work of H. P. Lovecraft. It basically reproduces the first and third floors of the game, plus the astral plane area. It's also where the (barely audible) level music comes from.
- The jazz number on the record player is "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" by Duke Ellington.

[Suitepee]

https://www.twitch.tv/johnsuitepee/v/63991068 = part 3 of my playthrough, covering E4M6-E4M8 and episode 5. (UV, continuous)

3 out of 5 in summary, a good atmospheric wad let down by a few poor choices in custom monsters and occasional gameplay meh-ness.

Episode 5 deserves a better boss fight than that. And less usage of the episode 2 bossworms also throughout the episode; they were annoying and at times not even a mobile threat. (looking at you, E4M3)

The dual shotgun/super shotgun hitscanners need to be either removed or have their health reduced. Annoying as heck to deal with still.

At least Impie nailed the visual/audio atmosphere pretty well in this wad, but I expected just a bit more quality in the gameplay throughout. Perhaps next time....

[Impie]

Probably agree with you about some of the boss worms, but I don't get all the hate for the skellies. They have no ranged attack and aren't hard to avoid, they just give you a reason to always watch your back.

I'm gonna raise the Chieftain's pain chance so the rapid fire weapons stun-lock him better, so you'll at least have a go-to weapon type to use against him. Hadn't realized how much health I gave him, either, so he's knocked down to player health. Two shotgun blasts oughta drop him almost every time.

Also remade the final map for Episode 5, using an unfinished alternate version I had laying around. Don't watch the vid if you haven't beaten the megawad yet.

Spoiler

[Suitepee]

I like that alternate e5 boss fight already, especially with the thematic water 'rising up' the city. And making those boss enemies taller made it feel better.

[Impie]

Version 5.3 is out!

-New Episode 5 boss battle and ending screen.
-New (mostly hidden) weapon, the Impaler.
-Assault Rifle can be used for single-shot firing as well as rapid fire, for more accurate shooting.
-Several map tweaks.

[JohnnyTheWolf]

So how do you switch between single shot and rapid fire with the AK?

[Impie]

...you just tap fire.

Before when you'd try to snipe guys with it, it always fired two shots, and accuracy was shit. Now it fires a single shot with each animation cycle.

[Impie]

Mr. Icarus covered the mod on his channel!

Also, he covers a lot of fun mods on this channel, so check it out if you haven't already. Pretty sure he's the one who sold me on Russian Overkill.

Here's a link to my own playlist, if the above video didn't sell you on the mod yet. Or if you're too lazy to play all five episodes yourself. It's a HurtMePlenty playthough, so the tougher encounters aren't spoiled.

Also thanks to Merlin and Average for the Cacoward nominations!

[Impie]

5.3.1 fixes a missing key on E2M3's easy setting, and some missing art credits on the credits screen. Download will be available momentarily.

[JohnnyTheWolf]

Not quite a new issue, but something I have not noticed before as I generally play with the fullscreen hud: the default mugshot is from Freedoom whereas the one displayed when you are under the effect of the Mutant Sphere is a slightly modified vanilla mugshot.