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This is my first mod for hexen. It is a 5 hub 23 map wad.

here is the link

moddb.com/mods/hex-lore/

The project took me over a year (off and on) to build.

The first hub is the caves of malice. A forgotten chain of caves linked to a fire temple, an ice cavern, and a swamp inspired by my favorite hexen map darkmere.

The second hub is a castle once ruled by a noble king, until it was destroyed by the demons.

The third hub is the village of the dead. A once thriving place, now desecrated and decaying.

The fourth hub is the heresiarch's cathedral


and finally the fifth hub The city of darkness


I want to thank everyone on the forums who helped me with ACS code.

I know its not much just new levels.

I also want to credit id software, raven software, codeIMP and Slade 3

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I've taken a look at just the first map so far.

If this is meant for vanilla, then your MAPINFO map titles should be in "ALL CAPS". Lowercase letters cause garbage characters like this:

If it's meant for a port, you should say which port (though judging by the first map it seems to work OK in vanilla, so far.)

You can assign music to maps in the SNDINFO lump (you'll have to copy the one from HEXEN.WAD into your WAD and then edit it). There's no need to put the maps in specific slots to get music on them.

If I fall in this hole (circled) I can't get out.


Will report more as I get farther.

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okay I've fixed the hole in MAP01, thank you for pointing that out.

idk what vanilla means, but i ran the game in zandronum 2.1.1
and the map names show up fine
i used slade 3 for the MAPINFO lump and the names were in all caps

as with the music can i use XWE for sndinfo lump?

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"Vanilla" means "the game as originally released, without a port", i.e. the DOS EXE, or the emulation thereof that you'd get using Chocolate Hexen. If you tested on Zandronum then it should be compatible with anything ZDoom-based and possibly other limit-removing ports depending on if you rely on any ZDoom-style feature.

Using XWE for anything is not recommended as the program has serious bugs, but it would probably work. SLADE shouldn't tamper with how you enter your MAPINFO in any way, though.

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Vanilla has a great deal more limitations than ZDoom or its downstream ports (such as Zandronum), though it is also technically more accessible. In Hexen's case this is less significant than Doom, as there are far fewer source ports that seek vanilla-like compatibility (Chocolate Doom being the main one off the top of my head). That said, if your intent isn't to allow for it to be playable via HEXEN.EXE, that's fine. I agree with ETTiNGRinDER that you should mention what source port it was designed for, however: if nothing else, stating it was tested via Zandronum would imply that it's not guaranteed to work with other ports.

As for my own experience with the WAD, it's not vanilla compatible: ice and fire maps don't work with HEXEN.EXE nor Chocolate Hexen. I quickly tried out the same in ZDoom with no problems and I'll likely continue playing through the mapset with it (and will reply again to the thread when I do). For the time being I was mostly interested at the chance to play a full vanilla Hexen megawad, so I'll mention what I've seen thus far:

  • As far as the first hub map is concerned, I like the spacious, open-ended aesthetic design. It's a little big considering the monster density/difficulty, but it definitely stimulates the desire to explore.
  • There are numerous alignment errors in the texturing: while it doesn't affect the gameplay, I make a note of it in case you're looking to polish up the aesthetics. For the most part you'll need to adjust the alignment whenever adding curvature to a wall. Here is one such example:
    Spoiler

  • This jump in the first map is very difficult to pull off for a Mage (and probably a Cleric):
    Spoiler

    I wasn't able to make the jump without straferunning on the way back, either. This could be a matter of testing through Zandronum, as I recall jumping is different in that port.
  • Are the enemies considered on a per-class basis? The Fighter has a lot of trouble dealing with Afrits over death pits and the Cleric doesn't do much better without a decent supply of mana. Having played through on Fighter I found these encounters kind of rough to maneuver, though perhaps this is intended.
I'm still interested in checking out the set as a whole, so expect more feedback from me in the coming days.

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I have mainly tested this mod with Zandronum 2.1.2 when i first built it.
then skulltag in the last two hubs 4 and 5.

I'm going to guess the source port is intended for Zdoom

I mainly play with the fighter, and I always had auto run (caps lock) enabled.

I wanted to make challenging maps without too much effort.
Jumping across chasms is one thing I should consider especially for the other two classes.

I should add more mana to maps as well.

I haven't fully tested the game with the cleric or mage.

I have recently been setting texture offsets to 0, and removing vertices.

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I've played a good way into this now with ZDoom 2.8.1, as the Cleric class, Cardinal skill. I think I might have reached a point where I'm stuck, though.

Generally having fun with this set--thanks. It feels like "real Hexen" in a way that not many releases of the past decade or so do. That said, though, there are some definite things you could improve on across the board:

- Texture alignment is poor; there's little excuse for this in the days of editors that can auto-align stuff for you. This also means that secret doors that were maybe meant to be hinted by alignment don't really stick out.

- Which leads into: secrets, including mandatory secrets, aren't always well-indicated. I'm not necessarily opposed to a Hexen map requiring the player to find a hidden path to progress, the IWAD levels did that sometimes (Dungeons) but there has to at least be some hint that the player would want to investigate there.

- It's generally unclear when and how progress is being made. What I mean is, switches that affect things in a single level aren't set apart in any way from switches that affect things in a different level. In the stock levels, the chain switch was used to indicate a switch that would affect something in a different level, and there was usually a little message like "a door opened on such-and-such-level". In your maps, the only indication is to see that there don't appear to be any unmapped areas left, and backtrack at that point.

- Doing more with light and shadow would go a long way towards making your levels prettier. You seem to pick one light level and paint a whole section of the map with it instead of having things be brighter near flames, darker where things would be shadowed, etc. What I mean are things like how, in the first level of Heretic, the pillars cast shadows, things like that. Or how the GothicDM WADs did a lot of light and shadow stuff.

- You sometimes have strange things inside breakable pots, including one that had a swamp stalker in it who proceeds to "swim" in a brick floor when freed.

- As mentioned earlier, all mandatory jumps in a Hexen WAD ought to be tested with the Mage as he is the slowest class and has the most difficulty with such things.

Map specific things:
--------------------
Castle Keep has a texture bleed issue:


Postern Gate has a section of cliff textured as wood:


The horn key in Postern Gate is difficult to collect--I had to crouch-jump into its niche which I doubt was intended.

This is where I'm stuck. There's a portal here that doesn't work but I'm guessing it's where I have to go:

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I opened my wad in doom builder 2 the linedef action is 74 teleport to map 14
i forgot to check repeatable action.

as for the horn key, there is a switch at the end of the tunnel that leads to the second room you enter with the lava and afrits. look to the left. the switch lowers the floor allowing you to access the horn key.

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!!EVERYONE TRASH YOUR OLD VERSIONS OF THIS MOD!!

I have improved the mod

Hexen Lore Beta 1.2.1

changelog :

fixed texture in MAP09
changed pot in MAP14 to contain an afrit instead of stalker
Fixed switches to print a message when they open a door in a different map.
changed linedef in MAP10 to repeatable action
fixed mapspot thing tag in MAP16.
fixed linedef action in MAP16 : Door will no longer close behind you in the star room.
added more blue and green mana to MAP19
changed zekek action to print statement
changed mana Z height in MAP22
added player co-op starts to MAP19

link

moddb.com/mods/hex-lore/downloads/hexen-lore-beta-121


This mod was really crappy when I first released it. I need to make more adjustments and hopefully I will release a better version within the next few days.

sorry for the double post!!

!!EVERYONE TRASH YOUR OLD VERSIONS OF THIS MOD!!

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Pretty good, fairly simplistic but effective level design (at least to start with - only played the first few maps) but quite nice fiendish dangerous areas and nice jumping areas.

Texture alignment is atrocious - press A to auto align those walls!

The ettins can't get out of this area in the temple of fire, so you can just run in and ignore them and they'll never get out. A couple of places like this where torches make it awkward to get past places - function should take precedence over decoration!


Keep up the good work, good to see more mappers for hexen. 23 maps is A LOT!

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This mod is still in the beta phase, but I'm almost done with it.

So long as I make these minor tweaks. I can't believe I didn't catch them.
I got way ahead of myself.

I still can't figure out how Zedek handles scripts. His action is 80
and script 7 map 22.

script 7 (void)
    {
    print(s:"A DOOR OPENED IN THE UNDERWORLD");
    ACS_Execute(6,20,0,0,0);
    }
When I kill him the message doesn't show.

I can't find bleeding texture in MAP08. as mentioned by ETTiNGRiNDER
idk exactly where it's at.

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Rycky91 said:

script 7 (void)
    {
    print(s:"A DOOR OPENED IN THE UNDERWORLD");
    ACS_Execute(6,20,0,0,0);
    }
When I kill him the message doesn't show.

"Print" only displays for the player who activates the script, so when the script is not activated by a player, then it doesn't display at all.

Use PrintBold if you want to be sure the message will be seen regardless of who or what activates the script.

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Thanks everyone for helping me. I am 99% complete. I need to add music to maps
15-20. That's why in hexen shadow wood is map 13, warp trans is 7, but the devs must have had issues with music, so they changed the map numbers. like heresiarch's seminary warp trans 13, MAP27.

I have auto aligned all textures in all maps.

I fixed zedek with printbold. Thanks Gez

and I thank everyone for their input

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Rycky91 said:

That's why in hexen shadow wood is map 13, warp trans is 7, but the devs must have had issues with music, so they changed the map numbers. like heresiarch's seminary warp trans 13, MAP27.

That has nothing to do with a hardcoded music track playing on a certain map number, Doom and Heretic do that, not Hexen. The most likely reason for the weird map numbering is that they moved the map progression around and cut some maps, but didn't want to have to redo all the scripts that referred to a specific map number (although I'm speculating here). You can assign any music to any map. See this for the ZDoom-style way where you put Music="<musicname>" in your MAPINFO definitions. This won't work with all ports but you already appear to be using ZDoom-dialect ACS in the map scripts so that's kind of a non-issue unless you wanted to make it cross-port compatible.

Spoiler

It's still entirely possible to assign music in non ZDoom-based versions of Hexen too, it's just that it's tucked into the SNDINFO lump. Look for this section:

;===========================================================================
;
; MAP SONG DEFINITIONS
;
;===========================================================================

$MAP    1               Winnowr
$MAP    2               Jachr
$MAP    3               Simonr
$MAP    4               Wutzitr
$MAP    5               Falconr
$MAP    6               Levelr
$MAP    7               Chartr
$MAP    8               Swampr
(etc.)

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I would like to make this mod cross-port compatible.
How does one do it?


Here is the release of Hexen Lore Beta 2.0


http://www.moddb.com/mods/hex-lore/downloads/hexen-lore-beta-2-0



This is why I'm better at mapping than I am at scripting or puzzle planning.

Fixed linedef in MAP08
Added a lot more mana to maps
auto aligned textures in all maps

My last mod was an embarrassment to all hexen fans.
I apologize for the crappy mod.

So trash those old versions and play Hexen Lore Beta 2.0

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A few more things to consider:

Spoiler

- You might want to consider adding a Chaos Device somewhere in the early maps, even if it's in a secret--if the player uses it wisely it can give them a second chance if they mess up with the jumping sections.
- Torch items are also nice if you're going to keep some of the very dark areas as dark as they are.
- Circled door on MAP05 is messed up the first time it opens, I think you made ceiling height too low (red). Also the portal behind the throne has wrong alignment on the portal border texture (blue):


- Consider making this door on MAP06 a normal door or at least putting more of a hint that it exists, as it is mandatory to progress:

Rycky91 said:

I would like to make this mod cross-port compatible.
How does one do it?

You seem pretty close to there already--the main problem is that your scripts are compiled in ZDoom format.
In the scripts for MAP06, change the "int books = 0;" to "int books;" and put "books = 0;" in an OPEN script.
Then, in SLADE, go to every SCRIPTS lump in your WAD and look at the buttons above the text window, there are two with arrows, one is blue, and the other one is green and says "Compile ACS (Hexen bytecode)". Recompile all your scripts using the green "Hexen bytecode" button and make sure to save the changes to the WAD.
In your MAPINFO, use ALL CAPS when writing all the level titles, so it should look like:

map 1 "CAVES OF MALICE"
warptrans 1
next 2
cluster 1
sky1 SKY2 0
sky2 SKY3 0
lightning
cdtrack 13

map 2 "FIRE TEMPLE"
warptrans 2
next 3
cluster 1
sky1 SKY4 0
sky2 SKY4 0
cdtrack 15
and so forth.
When you assign music, use the SNDINFO method of doing so.
Double-check that all non-door line actions are tagged properly; actions with a tag of 0 can have undesirable effects (up to and including complete breakdown of the map when triggered). I haven't seen this problem in any of the maps yet, but be aware of it.
With those adjustments, your maps should at least load on anything that runs Hexen; I've played partway through with vanilla using those changes with only minor visual glitching in large areas.

If you want to have the WAD run on general "limitless" ports outside of those that are ZDoom derived, you should do at least a little testing with Doomsday Engine, enough to make sure it loads without crashing at least. If you want full vanilla compatibility (which puts limits on how many lines and sectors can be visible at once; that isn't currently much of an issue given the simplicity of your maps, but might be if you intend to add more details) then test with the DOS EXE and/or Chocolate Hexen.

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ETTiNGRiNDER said:

Double-check that all non-door line actions are tagged properly; actions with a tag of 0 can have undesirable effects (up to and including complete breakdown of the map when triggered).

In Hexen?

I always thought ZDoom's behavior of picking the back sector when the tag is 0 came from Hexen in the first place.

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Gez said:

In Hexen?

I always thought ZDoom's behavior of picking the back sector when the tag is 0 came from Hexen in the first place.

Don't be fooled; most of them do NOT have that behaviour. Only a few select ones, such as doors, do. I'm afraid Quasar assumed the same when he added the parameterized specials to Eternity.

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Gez said:

In Hexen?

I always thought ZDoom's behavior of picking the back sector when the tag is 0 came from Hexen in the first place.

A quick test of inserting a 0-tagged lift into one of my maps to check this says yes, this is an error in vanilla, even for Hexen.

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I'm having trouble compiling my scripts in hexen byte code.

Couldn't open file
File:
"C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Local Settings\Temp\Slade3\common.acs

I copied common.acs from my doom builder directory and put it in the address above ^

It still has an error message when I try to compile.

Should I try reinstalling Slade 3?

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Rycky91 said:

I'm having trouble compiling my scripts in hexen byte code.

Couldn't open file
File:
"C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Local Settings\Temp\Slade3\common.acs

I copied common.acs from my doom builder directory and put it in the address above ^

It still has an error message when I try to compile.

Should I try reinstalling Slade 3?

Try going into the Edit > Preferences > Scripting > ACS section of SLADE and point it to somewhere you've installed ACC. You might also try pointing to the location of the ACS libraries with the "Include Paths" section of that same window, but I don't have anything set there on mine.

Keep in mind that including common.acs includes a couple of other files through it, so copying only common.acs might've triggered another error when it couldn't find those sub-includes.

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ETTiNGRiNDER said:

The most likely reason for the weird map numbering is that they moved the map progression around and cut some maps, but didn't want to have to redo all the scripts that referred to a specific map number (although I'm speculating here).


The only reason they'd do that tbh is if they did the stupid thing (which loads of people still do) and put the map number in every ACS_Execute for running scripts on the current map. (when putting 0 does the same thing)

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Finally here it is.

Hexen Lore Beta 2.1.0

Change Log :

Maps 15-20 now have music

Brightness levels adjusted

changed MAP04

added door to MAP22

moddb.com/mods/hex-lore/downloads/hexen-lore-beta-210

I'm still having issues with the bats on MAP15

script 14 (void)
{
	
    Thing_Activate(2); //summons bats
    delay(const: 128);
    Thing_Deactivate(2);
}
For some reason the script auto starts, and the trigger line is back in the cave.
It loops until I walk over the line.

I can't figure out that door on MAP05 either.
The ceiling and floors of the adjacent rooms are the same height, yet the door opens
256 pixels on the first open.

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Just finished the mod, and the main issue by far is the confusing switch hunts - there really needs to be some indication of what happened when you press each one. I was constantly in the editor to check stuff, and at the beginning of Zedek's map I had to puke script 1 in order to leave the sewer, plus some noclipping/flying to progress in the city itself late on. (it's very hard to tell if anything's bugged when the switch hunts are like this)
There's also a lot of secret doors (ie. unmarked) that are required to progress, while none of the actual secrets are flagged as such.
Korax twice at the end seems a bit excessive, too.

Map-specific, there's one switch in the city that doesn't have it's texture. (outside in the top-right corner, does script 5)

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This is why I should have released my walkthrough, but it's a huge spoiler.
I want my mod to be challenging. not easy

To get to the sewer in zedeks castle, you must first defeat menelkir in MAP20, then get the wings, fly across the chasm in the west part, and pull the switch that opens the door in the sewer.

If you get stuck, just retrace your steps, go back to closed doors that are opened elsewhere, start pushing on walls too.


as for the switch, it's not necessary to progress, but thanks for pointing it out.

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