Return to Hadron E2 - Limit removing E2 replacement.

cannonball said:

... it looks like I might need to beef up the end of E2M4 to kill SteveD though.

A quality death at that location would be much appreciated, cb. ;)

Luckily for both of us . . .

M5: When you grab a PG before you've seen your first monster, the odds are strong that an action-packed map lies ahead, and this one does not disappoint.

5 clean deaths, including 1 to each Cyb. This map was good old-fashioned bareknuckle brawling for much of its length, with a bunch of sweet fights unfolding in the main central area. The map looked fantastic, too, with some of the structures reminding me a bit of Double Impact. Always a good thing, IMO.

The secrets were more difficult in this map than the earlier ones, even though cannonball used mostly the same techniques. A lot of it came down to darkness combined with sneakiness, so that I only found 3 secrets honestly. After that, I cheated and opened DB2 so I could puzzle out the secret exit. The switch that opens the door to the BFG is perhaps excessively difficult to figure out for someone who doesn't cheat, though I shot in that direction on a blind hunch earlier, when I tried to raise the platforms in the lava, so we'll see how many people figure this one out using honest means.

Overall, best map so far. Fun from start to finish. I'm thoroughly satisfied and look forward to pistol-starting in the future.

M9: Dances with Cybderdemons in a slaughtermap room with brightness set at 80? Hah, I chickened out early and decided to do a God Mode walkthrough. This map would be a savescumming spectacular and with a death count north of 30 if I played it for real on UV. Bump the light level to 112 and I'd give it a go. I'm simply lacking the skill necessary to tackle this map as it is, and it would be a huge challenge for me even if it was Fullbright! ;)

I look forward to the rdwpa casual run video. :)

rdwpa said:

One more for e2m9.

That was great. If it had looked like that when I played it, I'd have gone for it, but for me, it was over twice as dark. For example, that Cyb at the top of the stairs? I couldn't see it at all until I was halfway up the stairs, and then all I saw was a brownish shadow, visible only because it moved. I play in GZDoom Dark with no gamma correction, but it isn't really that different from Standard or normal Doom mode. 80 is just Really Fucking Dark. ;)

Yeah seems like the predominant light levels in e2m8/e2m9 are in the 64-96 range. Too dark for cyber combat imo, since upping the gamma in software isn't even an option unless you want everything to look like crap. Maybe replace the secret soulsphere in e2m9 with a light amp? :D I guess that undercuts the concept too strongly -- if only light amps boosted the light levels of all sectors by a set value (like 32) instead of making them full bright.

Regarding E2M9 and E2M8;
For E2M9 I will keep the light levels similar, though I placed a couple of candles by the cyber near the exit and raised the light levels a tad there so at least people should be able to see him. Otherwise I will leave the map be (I did move the items at the start though).
For E2M8 - I have raised the general light levels in the arena area by a couple of levels (96/112/128 instead of 64/80/96). Hopefully this will make the final fight enjoyable, whilst I was going for darkness, I don't want that to hinder gameplay here which differs to E2M9 where obviously it was part of the secret map gimmick.

Anyway thanks for the suggestions and I will wait for some more people to finish this but hopefully a final version will be up some time during the coming week.

Played 6-8. I'm scurred of 9. Overall, I think this lives up to e1 and is a worthy companion. e2 is busier and more sprawly, which I suppose could be considered appropriate for a udoom e2. I think everything 3-8 is strong, with 4 being my favorite. 1-2 are OK, oddly enough they haven't stuck in my mind like 1-2 of e1 (which had a more representational approach to architecture). I had lots of fun fights in 7 but had to rely on the automap quite a bit because of a lack of architectural landmarks to break up the hallways upon hallways. I cheated during 8's last wave (IDBEHOLDL), and saw that you'll be tweaking the light. Very rich gameplay overall. Maybe it's the power of incidental placements, or you're just that good at traps. Even the goshdarn packs of barons served fun roles as I was rolling through.

So I finally beat this. This was a really fun episode. Thank you, Cannonball. I do agree with what everyone is saying about m8. It's too dang dark. I got killed so many times because there were cybs right in front of my face and I didn't even notice. Also judging by the text at the end of the episode, it looks like you'll be making episode 3 ;)

More, we want more of this.

Right here is a temporary link to the final version of this wad with most if not all suggestions added as well as co-op settings.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/11214pgta091usm/hadrone2.zip

Many thanks again to all who have commented here. Maybe someday there will be an episode 3 but I should probably concentrate on getting UDINO back on track.

Maybe a silly question, but will anything be lost by loading E1 and E2 together?

Fantastic episode cannonball, some of the best content I've played this year. A shocker considering im not typically all that fond of doom 1 wad's.

Salt-Man Z said:

Maybe a silly question, but will anything be lost by loading E1 and E2 together?

There shouldn't be any clashes in there so it should be fine to do so.

Anyway the idgames link is up;

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/Ports/g-i/hadrone2

Fantastic work, Cannonball. Knocking it out of the park again.

Got to M4 today in my down-time, but it's a great mapset. Good to see this and NEIS to make 2 solid Ultimate Doom sets in one year. Keep it up! Can't wait for an E3! ;)

I thought the first 5 or 6 maps were superb. They had great flow, good visuals and there was a lot of variety between the maps.  Sadly the last few levels turned out to be too slaughtery for my liking.

Today I discovered that the fake titlepic I made for my review of the original Return to Hadron has become the official and I couldn't be happier!