Dark Tide :: Finally Released

[Salt-Man Z]

Played this last night on HMP with saves and had a blast. Reminded me a lot of Kvernmo's Darkdome, very cool.

 

First thing I did was jump down into the moat and make a circuit around the entire thing, pretty much just sightseeing, the views were so great. I did find I could "bump" the shotgun shells through the fence by the red key. Speaking of which: once I cleared the initial entryway and headed into the cyberdemon's hall, I got pressured into basically running for my life and ended up at the red key with 30% health, no armor, and about 20 shells. The ambush there proved deadly in such circumstances, so I gave up on it after a couple of deaths and ended up leaving it 'til the end. I got the blue key first: cheesed that ambush by just leaping off the tower to the outer ramparts. (I loved that you could almost always just climb the walls and jump out through the crenellations; that kind of allowed exploration is always my cup o' tea.) The boat encounter with the yellow key was a bit trickier, but I had the plasma gun by that point, which made the revvie swarm at the top of the elevators manageable. And by the time I eventually headed back to the red key, I had the BFG, which made that ambush ridiculously simple. My only real complaint with the map was those "Who the @#$% is shooting me?" moments--and there were a lot of them--usually the result of high-perched chaingunners behind a window or something; not too hard to dispose of (and I almost always let autoaim handle things) but deadly until I could pinpoint their location.

 

Great map. Lots of scrambling around hunting for health and weapons, which I normally don't like, but made for a memorable experience coupled with the amazing architecture.

[Lutz]

1 hour ago, Salt-Man Z said:

Played this last night on HMP with saves and had a blast. Reminded me a lot of Kvernmo's Darkdome, very cool.

Darkdome is probably my favorite PWAD level of all time, so that's a HUGE compliment -- thanks!

[galileo31dos01]

@Nine Inch Heels I might try it, but are mouselook and whatever "sprite-z clipping" means really really really needed? 

[Nine Inch Heels]

1 minute ago, galileo31dos01 said:

@Nine Inch Heels I might try it, but are mouselook and whatever "sprite-z clipping" means really really really needed? 

You can play with "classic" settings in PrBoom+ just fine. Just don't make the mistake of trying to clean all the scanners before you enter the fortress and you'll be good. :-)

[galileo31dos01]

Ok, just played it on HMP, using ZDoom without freelook and z-clipping whatever, I know it was recommended but I didn't have any issues without them. So, the map is fun. The aesthetics are really wonderful, even though it's mostly grey bricks, I liked how it blends with the sky (haven't played Eternal Doom so this actually reminded me to NGM2 map 14). The lack of a custom midi is probably the only letdown, but this is just a personal taste. The gameplay is clearly arranged to be low paced right from the beginning, I was ok with the many hitscanners used as snipers, which made me move a bit and the fact that I could ignore them and return to kill them later was a good thing. Not going to lie that it was a bit annoying to stop and tap the chaingun every several seconds to snipe some of the least visible ones from the outside, to do a 100% everything. I did dig the exploratory atmosphere combined with incidental combat, opening doors to find some ammo caches and weapons as well as a few enemies wandering. The great number of health/armor resources is indeed good to palliate all the unavoidable hits. Aside from hitscanners, moments of pressure were the three keys battle. Low pressure I mean, but enough to make some action, specially the RK which was an actual trap. About the BK section, it is possible to grab the key and not release the monsters, I think you have to run/jump from the key's spot to activate the trap, if not then nothing happens. The finale was the best part, where I scored my only death trying to get a 2 vs. 1, and I didn't get the megasphere in time, of course too much exposure is never a good thing. I noticed that both spiderdemons died in absolute silence, which was weird. The exit room with the archvile covered in fire was really neat. 

 

About secrets, since it's a big castle I took my time to find them, only the plasma ammo and the megasphere via IDDT (though I actually spotted the suspicious cabin in the automap before). Also, could have used more secrets to add much more exploration, but it's fine anyways.

 

Nice experience overall, yeah, I see why NIH "called" me to play this, it fits my general tastes. 

[Da Werecat]

I've been unwilling to play any new Doom releases for quite some time. I played Quake maps and other games instead. Probably trying to clear my head for mapping, or something along these lines. Maybe I just got tired again. I waited for this map, and still it took me a few days to download it and get back into Doom again.

 

Dudun dudun dudun dudun dun DUN.

 

Why.

 

Why.

[Niya]

Just finished this map. Very beautiful to look at and the way the map's areas are connected to one another was very interesting. Only complaint, like everyone else, distant hitscan attacks. Other than that, perfect map. 9/10.

 

Oh, one other thing, should probably change that music. The default MAP01 midi doesn't suit this map.

Edited November 22, 2017 by Niya : Corrected spelling and grammer errors.

[wintertowns]

Nice map, I really enjoyed playing. Here is a custom MIDI of mine that I used as replacement for D_RUNNIN.

 

Also, possible bug in spoiler.

Spoiler

In PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4, when you pick up the yellow key, monsters do not spawn in for me. The trap seem to work as intended in GZDoom 3.2.1 and GLBoom+ 2.5.1.4.

 

Wintertowns - Dark Tide.zip

[Dutch Doomer]

@LutzNot only a great mapper but also a great artist. Congratulations on your release, looks impressive as usual.

[Tango]

On 11/22/2017 at 4:58 AM, wintertowns said:

Nice map, I really enjoyed playing. Here is a custom MIDI of mine that I used as replacement for D_RUNNIN.

 

Also, possible bug in spoiler.

  Reveal hidden contents

In PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4, when you pick up the yellow key, monsters do not spawn in for me. The trap seem to work as intended in GZDoom 3.2.1 and GLBoom+ 2.5.1.4.

 

Wintertowns - Dark Tide.zip

this midi is kickass. seems like a great fit for the map

[rehelekretep]

anyone else getting an error trying to download this?

[Beginner]

@rehelekretep Try this link.

[rehelekretep]

Thanks! Hopefully Lutz will edit the first post