Breathless [/idgames]

[Death Destroyer - 4.7m4d]

*old beta*

[Nirvana]

3 hours ago, A7MAD said:

*old beta*

 

Actually I just realised that Americans might see that date and think it was from December :D

[tourniquet]

This map was a real headscratcher for me, no weapons & no idea where to go until i've just noticed that i was playing a version with the player start in the wrong location? Nice memes Nirvana :D

Guess i'll have to give this another spin with the new version.

[Nirvana]

@tourniquet Haha how unfortunate that you caught that download in the short window it was accidentally uploaded for! Sorry about that, new version should be all good though -it was just a prank etc.

[tourniquet]

Playing on HMP & found this.

 

Spoiler

 

Had to punch him away to avoid taking damage since the area got flooded with HK's and Cyb's just a switchpress later.

[Nirvana]

2 hours ago, tourniquet said:

Playing on HMP & found this.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Had to punch him away to avoid taking damage since the area got flooded with HK's and Cyb's just a switchpress later.

Well that's certainly unexpected...this is why I need people to not just play UV all the time I guess (myself included...) Fixed in the latest update anyway.

[UgiBugi]

So I found this thing:
 

Spoiler

You can get stuck by making an Archvile-jump back to an ssg area. Those bars here cannot be opened from the other side.(or can they?) [Zandronum3.0]

Dunnno if it's a bug or I just shouldn't made that jump.
Great map anyway!

[Nirvana]

On 1/18/2018 at 10:09 PM, UgiBugi said:

Dunnno if it's a bug or I just shouldn't made that jump.
Great map anyway!

I added a step that raises with the bars allowing you to get back over if you get blasted over by the archvile. Although I'm not too bothered if players manage to soft-lock themselves through attempting exploits, I figured this could happen accidentally too and might frustrate people if they can't get back.

Other changes in the new version (1.6):

Fixed being able to use the secret to hide from the second cave fight -also soft-locked

Fixed a rocket jump exploit that allowed a major sequence break and soft-lock

Fixed a few linedef skips in the BFG building

Minor balance changes to the final fight
Minor cosmetic touch ups to a few areas

Minor balance changes to Plasma fight

[GarrettChan]

After endless of save scum, and secret searching:

Spoiler

 

The following block can be lowered for some reason. I'm just curious what does it do.

 

 

The problem I got into is that the final fight caused my computer to lag heavily. The lag is unbearable on PrBoom+, and I had to switch to GLBoom+, which was better, but still pretty terrible until you kill all the Cacodemons. Maybe it's the problem of my computer?

 

Overall, it's a very fun experience to playthrough this map. I don't really like dark maps, but the "neon effects" definitely caught my eye, and the blue/cyan environment is beautiful looking.

[Nirvana]

Turned out to not just be your pc I'm afraid, so I've gone ahead and put in an update to fix the issue. Thanks for letting me know about it. 

Glad you enjoyed the map overall, despite the problems you had :D

[tourniquet]

Also experienced some slowdowns in the final fight which was certainly the highlight of the level. Didn't spot any further bugs apart from babysitting a voodoo doll ;). Great map, good job.

[Nirvana]

Thanks @tourniquet appreciate the feedback. Anything you liked/disliked in particular apart from the final fight?

[tourniquet]

Hm, i've no complaints in terms of gameplay. Encounters were overall fun on HMP. Maybe as a minor nitpick i'd recommend to move the Soul/Megaspheres in the cyan key battle away from the center to prevent players from picking them accidentally.

[GarrettChan]

@NirvanaOh, forgot one thing. The two Megaspheres on the pillars for the final fight can be easily bumped, so I guess it's sort of pointless to put them on pillars? Other than this, I'm with tourniquet for the placements of the Megasphere for the Cyan Skull battle.

[Nirvana]

13 hours ago, GarrettChan said:

@NirvanaOh, forgot one thing. The two Megaspheres on the pillars for the final fight can be easily bumped, so I guess it's sort of pointless to put them on pillars? Other than this, I'm with tourniquet for the placements of the Megasphere for the Cyan Skull battle.

 

Not a huge deal, they are mostly on the pillars to stop you accidentally picking them up. I guess if you can still bump into them it can still happen, but you should at least be more aware of them. Might still change them and perhaps the megas in the cyan fight, although I found them easier to avoid in the centre, since I used the outer edges of the room a lot more in my runs of that fight.

Thanks for the feedback guys, any and all of it is useful honestly :D

 

After endless of save scum, and secret searching:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The following block can be lowered for some reason. I'm just curious what does it do.



 

Also this just has some rockets on it, you must be able to bump those too? 

Edited January 23, 2018 by Nirvana

[GarrettChan]

Ah, that's for some rockets. I accidentally bumped one of the MegaSpheres on the pillars while doing the final fight. Since it's sort of messy and there are a lot of Caco bodies, so sometimes you can't really "control" where you go.

 

The time I tried the Cyan Skull fight, the side spawning Mancubi is fine because they are in relatively small number, but the other side spawning Hell Knights/Revenants are clogged with monsters. Therefore, while I was doing the fight, I thought your intention is forcing to the place not to stay on the edge. Probably this is a UV thing? I hadn't stopped spamming BFG, so I think the damage output is there.

[Nirvana]

Basically when I do the cyan fight I do a U-Strafe around the revenants and use the corners of the room to run up and kill off revenant rockets that are chasing me. This is what the corners are designed for, although it doesn't seem all that obvious I guess since a lot of people have missed it!

[Nirvana]

Ok, a new version is up. It mostly buffs/rebalances most of the fights on HMP in order to make the difficulty a bit more well-rounded. Also fixes a problem with some monsters that weren't spawning in on UV. There are a few cosmetic tweaks here and there and a couple of little things added around as well.

This will likely be the final version before I upload the map to idgames, since it seems thoroughly tested enough. Thanks to everyone who played the map and gave feedback :D

[DeletedUser]

Hi there!

 

I've finally gotton around to playing this deep blue odyssey and what a stellar voyage it was! My experience was with v1.7.

 

I found the difficulty well balanced and fine on UV, encounters are generous with ammo and plentiful with power ups. The opener can be tricky if you don't dispatch the viles immediately, I hugged the edge of the cliff corners when they got a lock on, once their dead the revenants are easily dismissed with good footwork but you need to keep a close eye on the chaingunners.

 

The drop down with the SSG is tense, lots of projectiles coming your way in a small area but nothing swift reflexes can't handle. The interior with the RL compels you to become acquainted with rapid fire, working my way to the tower where the white skull awaits wasn't too daunting due to the breadth of space on offer. The white key battle itself was perplexing, I did the whole thing pacifist till their were three cybers left standing, I just moved around the outskirts and delicately timed my movement to avoid eating fireballs and rockets, I assume this was an intended tactic for the masochistic and not an exploit! :D

 

The BFG battle was a good example of making the player prioritize targets to avoid getting cornered. I first killed the vile and revenants on the right cliff with the RL, then slam the BFG into the Barons and Cacos pushing them back into their entryway till I can fire another volley at the revenants on the left cliff. It's good their are an assortment of medkits if you take a battering, as it's easy to make a slaughter fight frustrating by providing the player only one powerup to fall back on, so your expected to perform flawlessly just to survive, it reduces the strain and makes the gameplay more enjoyable as a result.

 

The cave and cyan key were my favourite encounters of the level, as they lock the player into a claustrophobic situation with little movement room and an overwhelming swarm, forcing you to carve your own breathing room with aggressive BFG use. The cave was quite manageable, the only real threat here are stray cyber rockets. I was quite surprised at the generosity in powerups, 2 megas with a soulsphere and mega armor, no complaints if your considering a UV Max run though :D

 

I concur with your analysis of the cyan key battle, I also moved in a U pattern sticking to the outskirts and carving a path with the BFG so I could keep moving through the swarm and not get trapped. This was the most intense battle for sure, it's difficult to see stray cyber rockets amongst the thicket of fireballs and those Archviles have to die immediately!

 

The first part of the finale I actually found disappointing, the pinkies can be killed before the Cacos swarm your position and the cybers on the cliffs are easily avoided, it's just really tedious killing so many Cacos which don't pose a threat alone and they spawn in slowly, I was expecting another monster to complement them, revenants on the ground behind the pinkies maybe? The second part picks up in intensity, but the revenants are placed along the wall so they die easily, then I just danced circles around the goats who spawned in by the back hall.

 

The super secret with the Archviles and Zombiemen was a real bitch, such a pain in the arse to kill the viles quickly and efficiently, then you've got Cybers breathing down your neck :D

 

I take it this is your first map? Prior to your submission for Slaughtermax ;) A very well executed slaughter which pays homage to the aforementioned sources which inspired it's creation. Congrats!

 

Feel free to tell me if anything is significantly different in the final, in contrast to my feedback above :D

[Nirvana]

Thanks a lot Krypto for playing and for the detailed review! 

 

10 hours ago, Bloodite Krypto said:

 

The white key battle itself was perplexing, I did the whole thing pacifist till their were three cybers left standing, I just moved around the outskirts and delicately timed my movement to avoid eating fireballs and rockets, I assume this was an intended tactic for the masochistic and not an exploit! :D

 

It was intentional for this fight to be able to be done pacifist, yes, although the imps do allow some options if you get stuck and have to force your way through with the plasma gun. The intention was for the fight to be based around movement rather than gunplay. The monsters can't enter the middle so you can use it by dipping from the outer edges through the middle and back out through another gap. I had to nerf/change this fight many, many times as I had a lot of complaints about the difficulty of it when it was all HKs haha.

 

Quote

The BFG battle was a good example of making the player prioritize targets to avoid getting cornered. I first killed the vile and revenants on the right cliff with the RL, then slam the BFG into the Barons and Cacos pushing them back into their entryway till I can fire another volley at the revenants on the left cliff. It's good their are an assortment of medkits if you take a battering, as it's easy to make a slaughter fight frustrating by providing the player only one powerup to fall back on, so your expected to perform flawlessly just to survive, it reduces the strain and makes the gameplay more enjoyable as a result.

 

This is maybe my favourite fight in the map so I'm glad you enjoyed it too. I wanted this to be an 'endurance' kind of fight, which I love in slaughter maps, where if you take your finger off the gas for too long you lose control of things because the Barons will overwhelm the space you're in. 

 

Quote

The cave and cyan key were my favourite encounters of the level, as they lock the player into a claustrophobic situation with little movement room and an overwhelming swarm, forcing you to carve your own breathing room with aggressive BFG use. The cave was quite manageable, the only real threat here are stray cyber rockets. I was quite surprised at the generosity in powerups, 2 megas with a soulsphere and mega armor, no complaints if your considering a UV Max run though :D

 

You asked about differences and since doing a few HMP runs and realising how much health there is in that cave fight I have shifted it to be roughly the same amount of health but in a different form -soulsphere, mega armour and a bunch of medkits, rather than megaspheres. 

 

Quote

The first part of the finale I actually found disappointing, the pinkies can be killed before the Cacos swarm your position and the cybers on the cliffs are easily avoided, it's just really tedious killing so many Cacos which don't pose a threat alone and they spawn in slowly, I was expecting another monster to complement them, revenants on the ground behind the pinkies maybe? The second part picks up in intensity, but the revenants are placed along the wall so they die easily, then I just danced circles around the goats who spawned in by the back hall.

This fight has actually been changed for the final release version which I will upload after I make this post. Honestly I think this fight never should have been tiered in the first place and was only kept that way because I wanted the fight to be broken up for some reason. The second part of this fight now starts on a timer, so the Caco swarm should actually pressure the player to deal with what they can of it before the rest of the monsters spawn in, if only for the space.

Quote

I take it this is your first map? Prior to your submission for Slaughtermax ;) A very well executed slaughter which pays homage to the aforementioned sources which inspired it's creation. Congrats!

Although I have made a lot of smaller maps in the past this is my first full-scale slaughter wad that I have submitted to the forums. Thanks a lot for playing and for the feedback and I'm glad you enjoyed it :D

 

New -final final ;)- version is up. 

Basically I doubt there will be too many changes to the wad from this point. The only changes I would make would be if there was a lot of interesting for multiplayer. My main concern is that I would have to add in a lot of extra multiplayer-only teleports and such for the lock-in fights, which would actually be a decent amount of work. So basically if there isn't enough interest in multiplayer then it likely wouldn't be worth my time.

Edited January 28, 2018 by Nirvana

[waverider]

Just played through Breathless 1.8 yesterday on HMP, what a great map this one is! I really love the visuals, my favorite being the cyan caves and the big cyan room, but the entire map is just shockfull of breathtaking visuals! And the gameplay is great too, lots of very challenging and fun battles is to be had. The ammo and health balance is just fine, no problems there either. So I really love this map! Will try out 2.0 on UV soon as well, will be tough as nails I'm sure. ;)

[Nirvana]

Thanks for playing, wave! Glad you enjoyed it on HMP. The final fight is a bit harder now than it was and UV is already a pretty sizable step up in difficulty from HMP, so prepare yourself for that :D The cyan caves were probably where I spent most of my time in the editor -although it nearly didn't exist at all due to my concerns about reaching the 65k sidedef limit-building that room full of 242 sectors had some painful moments but it came out how I wanted in the end!

Edited January 30, 2018 by Nirvana

[Nirvana]

Just a bump for the idgames release. Thanks to everyone who played during the 'beta' phase and helped improved the map. 

[Death Destroyer - 4.7m4d]

Congrats on the release!

[Nirvana]

Felt like it would never happen at times :D

Thanks!

[Master O]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4QGPWLY-EM

 

[Nirvana]

Funnily enough Ribbiks uses that song as a midi for map 31 of Swim With the Whales :D

[mArt1And00m3r11339]

I beat your level.

0Breathless.zip

[mArt1And00m3r11339]

A video of this level is now ready.

 

[Red Recluse]

Fun slaughterfest map blue decoration resembless magnolia wad.Eight secrets and zones battles just fantastic.Last zone where a lot of demons cacodemons hell knighs it's fear.Great boom map necessery for TAS.