Egregor

Egregor_DIS_v0402.rar DIS_MID_v11a.zip Map Name: False Cube of Frigid Torment Author: Egregor Music: False Cube of Frigid Torment by Egregor Sky: N/A, all skies use sky-box transfers Format: Boom (per challenge) Difficulty Settings: YES! Build Time: 6 hours for layout, 2 hours and 20 minutes for game-play, 10+ of detail and balance (sorry!) Comments: All major suggestions (except for splitting the level up) have been implemented at this time, as well as visual bug found in DSDA v0.25.6 have been fixed. The level now has SS and PM, as well as slightly more ammo and slightly less enemies (from 261 to 242) so hopefully it has moved from irritating to challenging. *custom MIDI is also saved as D_RUNNIN within the PWAD Screenshots: (no new screen shots at this time, sorry) RE: splitting the level up: After checking all the other levels out mine is the largest (by a lot) so I feel like it doesn't sit well in the mix as a CP map. I will try to divide up the level into two, but that will take more time and effort so I wanted to start with the quick fixes, done here. Hopefully I will be able to split up the level in time and we feel that they work well. I'll keep y'all posted with any progress I make there.

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Entrance area of a new map that I'm making for a Heretic level set @SuperCupcakeTactics is hosting here. This is the first room I've detailed and I'm super happy w the results. Yes, that is a portal, and yes, it is fully animated! :D

Just downloaded and hey, these are great! I especially like the darker, grittier, textures. These types of textures have been largely overlooked by the types of Heretic resources found on Realm667, and are a greatly appreciated contrast to Heretic's comic book primary color stock textures.

This is great! I'm commenting to bookmark this for download next time I'm at my computer. Hopefully this is a tease for your next Heretic episode. Thank you!

Hey, thanks for playing through HYMN! If you enjoyed that I recommend The Realm of Parthoris, another Heretic Community project that I led from 2015: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/heretic/Ports/rop_2015

I just played (and beat) Cabal. What a rush! Structurally, the map was fantastic! There is a lot of great thematic elements! The dark void quarter of the elemental final room was incredible! I was never able to get the phoenix rod so that probably made the entire level a whole notch harder for me. I like your vision for enhancing classic Heretic. These really feel like classic levels if they just had a better use of colors and a better sense of aesthetic. The floor details (cracks, liquids, and symbols) were a nice way to add detail while keeping the maps feeling minimalist. The flow of the level was interesting. Good use of space, using both the interior and exterior of the temple. The game-play was a lot of fun, but it was extremely hard. It took me like 25 tries to beat the final ending. There is a projectile that auto-kills every time. It's unclear to me what it is. I know the fire stack is from the Iron Lich can do this but it was just a single fireball. Overall I probably died 50 times on that level! Also, that was on my 2nd attempt. When I attempted the level this morning I was 20 deaths and 45 minutes in, and I had to leave it. The snake pit battle was a lot of fun! I liked the 3 key battles. The pentagram lava pit room was just brutal. I probably died like 15 times in this room alone. The final battle was impressive. I feel like the game-play is informed by games like Dark Souls, where the challenge is supposed to be extreme. I like a good challenge, but this was trying my patience. Sometimes a level can be too hard and it beats you. The resurrecting ghosts in the key hall felt harsh, but they did keep me in the key room battles, so they worked. The out of sight/out of reach golem and knight snipers in the final battle felt "unfair" or sadistic. Same with the resurrecting ghosts in the pentagram lava pit room. I get that the idea is there will always be a threat from some angle, and it makes that room tense even after defeating all of the liches. Maybe there is a way to kill them but I wasn't able to. Overall for Condemned the challenge feels like it was harder than I was prepared for. I'm not great at Heretic, but I am pretty good, and I eventually DID beat Cabal, but it felt too brutal, and I could see the casual Doomer walking away from the map-set without beating it because the challenge was just to great. Now, with that said, a little bit of health would probably go a long way toward making some of these challenges a lot more level, and make this set more accessible for casual games. I'd also encourage you to use the Easy=Enchanted Shield / Medium=Silver Shield / Hard = No Shield quick formula for balancing your levels. It wont work all the time, especially if you've already balanced around Enchanted or Silver, but when implemented properly it can work really well. A good place to add this trick is right near the start of a level. Also balancing groups of enemies for medium/easy. If hard has say 8 snakes. make medium have 6 and easy have 4. or 8/6/4. If hard has 6 snakes make it 6/5/4. With 10 its 10/8/6. So medium has 85%-75% and easy has like 50%-70% of enemies that hard has. Hope those ideas help!

Difficulty can be a tricky needle to thread. As a mapper no one knows your levels better than you. If it is difficult for you then it will be more difficult for someone who is not familiar with the layout. I found it took me around 3 tries/deaths to get through each area, each time trying a different approach. One question I usually ask is if there is "mandatory damage" like is the chaos so high that I'll probably have to take a few hits, and if the answer is yes then I make sure to include health during (or before w QF). For more simplistic battles where damage is completely avoidable I believe it is a good challenge to include little to no health. Finding cover/safe spot can be just as important as health.

E1M6: another great level! I got all kills + items, about half the secrets. I really like the fire and ice split temple theme you got going here. The combat here is all really good. I found that it took me a time or 3 to unravel each encounter, which is interesting! The crypt area being a good example of this. The loops with the lifts at the end are cool progression ideas. The time elapsed maulotaur area was awesome! Same with the melting ice trick! I will say that for the end battle I retreated to the southern courtyard and picked off the wizards and gargoyles, but even that was tricky. Again, health felt very tight and difficulty felt pretty unforgiving. Id recommend adding about 40-75 health, unless you want to keep UV at maximum challenge. The only issue I had is it took me longer than I'd like to admit to find the triple key door, until I got frustrated and started "wall humping" and was like "of course". Same with the ending stairs, I thought the sparkles were like ending indicator markers, not literal portals, so I was looking around for the exit door, and then again, I was like "of course". It took me a minute to figure out, but I think they are both fine.

I just downloaded 0.7 and played level e1m4 and I have to say it's my favorite level from you (so far) I haven't gotten any further. -sectors 14, 17, 18, 19, 23, 24 and 125, 131 (all highest points) you can see the top of the sky tile-ing IE a blue horizon bellow the mountain sky can be seen. This can be solved by adjusting the height of the ENTIRE LEVEL down bellow that horizon. Hypothetically a taller sky texture could be added to solve this problem as well. That was the only issue I found. Other than that the level played GREAT! That central arena is a ton of fun! I like how much re-use it gets. The western intro is great. I was able to get the Tomb of Power but didn't figure out how to access the alternative exit. I like how that dead end just NE of the YK made enemies pool in strange ways and caused some unpredictability. The caves in the SE and the water temple in the NE felt a bit dark but the Hell Staff seeking made them okay. Overall it was very-hard. You probably don't really need to balance hard any further but if you wanted to make it a tad less frustrating maybe add 20-50 more health. Great use of enemy swarms! Looking at the level in the editor, you left the prettiest part out; the exterior around the NE GK area. Maybe work in an exterior perimeter path into the level somehow? I also think the imp tower could be repurposed into a secret area as well. Maybe add an entrance is on the N side? The ending battle felt a bit underwhelming, and it ended unexpectedly for me. Maybe some statues or markers at the cave would visually indicate an exit? or like pillars with the sparkles coming out of them maybe? Or allow the player to travel further into the darkness of the cave (reaching full black) before exiting. Great level!

Regarding progression: Personally I'd like to see them arranged (by you Blue), but how I'd like to see them arranged is a blend of this: -by enemy count (a measurement of size) -by sector count (another measurement of size) -by difficulty (this one is difficult to qualify, but we all know when something gets too hard) -finally, arrange for diversity; if a mapper has multiple entries keep them apart, seperate similar levels So, overall the levels generally get larger and harder but from one level to the next there is intentional game-play diversity.

Egregor_DIS_v0303.zip DIS_MID_v11a.zip Map Name: False Cube of Frigged Torment Author: Egregor Music: False Cube of Frigged Torment by Egregor Sky: N/A, all skies use sky-box transfers Format: Boom (per challenge) Difficulty Settings: YES! Build Time: 6 hours for layout, 2 hours and 20 minutes for game-play, 10+ of detail and balance (sorry!) Comments: Way less hard but still pretty challenging. This update has a little extra visual polish, but mainly the game-play balance is now much better! NTR and HMP are now viable options! Still pretty chaotic! Balancing always takes me forever! *custom MIDI is also saved as D_RUNNIN within the PWAD Screenshots: (no new screen shots at this time, sorry) **new version of MIDI solves pitch bug I believe so make sure to update that as well thanks

A different angle from my PUSS DIS submission

DIS_Egregor - False Cube of Frigged Torment v206.zip DIS_MID_v10.zip Map Name: False Cube of Frigged Torment Author: Egregor Music: False Cube of Frigged Torment Sky: N/A, all skies use sky-box transfers Format: Boom (per challenge) Difficulty Settings: (*still) not implemented yet Build Time: 6 hours for layout, 2 hours and 20 minutes for game-play, 10+ of detail and balance (sorry!) Comments: I feel like this is very hard, but very pretty, I might be able to do one more update if I get some quick game-play feedback! *known bug (MIDI has a reset sound at looping point most likely due to pitch wheel on the strings *custom MIDI is also saved as D_RUNNIN within the PWAD Screenshots:

Hey @Kenon, these maps were tested with ZDoom and GZDoom. I can't vouch for other engines, so my recommendation would be to try them in these ones. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks for showing interest in this project.