Struggle : Antaresian Legacy (now available in /idgames)

* Update *

- Added MAP04
- Revenants now shoot slower rockets than before. (25 -> 20)
- Fixed some issues from previous maps (monster placement, wrong properties, etc.)
- Limitation of shotgun ammo is increased from 30 to 36. 60 to 72 with backpack.
- Assault rifle now shoots weaker projectile. (7 -> 6)

Download link: http://www.mediafire.com/download/k5fbaighvkx4k82/strg_04.zip

Screenshots

The next update will include two maps, and one of them(MAP06) will introduce two new monsters. MAP05 is actually finished and tested in both ZDoom and PrBoom. MAP06 is still work in progress, but it will be done within a week.

One monster will replace the Baron of Hell. Its appearance and arsenal resemble the Ophidian from Heretic. First three fireballs are not a big deal, while the final blow may kill the player in one hit. The other one will replace the Wolfenstein SS. It uses modified sprite of Dark Bishop from Hexen, while its immense speed and superior firepower will make you want to call it "Flying Arch-vile".

MAP05:

That looks awesome!
I still need to play map 3 and 4 haha

Architecture/detailing/texturing looks good. All custom sprites could use polish, though.

I've played maps 1 to 4.

Didn't finish 2 to 4, since I decided to record it. Level 2 I died in the blue door trap (it was totally my fault - yay, lets get the rocket launcher in a room full of monsters >.>). In 3 I died after grabbing yellow key, with a stupid mistake, and in 4 I didn't went far, I gave up after 10 tries hahaha I'll still play the levels again more calmly (using save points).

Here are the demo links, if you want to laugh at my mistakes lol: http://www.mediafire.com/download/8enc5d1226zrhq6/struggle-deadwing-3.zip

First impressions on map 3 and 4 is that they are as awesome as the first two. 3 is very action packed, full of monsters, but since you have stronger weapons, they die easily and the game flows really well. I loved the double smg weapon.

4 is very different from the previous ones, with open space full of snipers and holes where the monsters can infiltrate and flank you. You have made a good decision to reduce the Revenants projectile speed, so he nows have a lot of versatile on the field. (especially as a deadly sniper) The map also looks really large, so I guess I haven't reached even 30% of the progress D:

Do this have difficult implemented, I could try to finish 3 and 4 on HMR until the end without dying lol

Full walkthrough for map 04, this time on HMP though :P

http://www.mediafire.com/download/g7vmw9121vpnya9/struggle-deadwing.lmp

Awesome level, I loved the progression and setups. I though I would die in the last setpiece. Monsters everywhere! D:

scifista42 said:

Architecture/detailing/texturing looks good. All custom sprites could use polish, though.

Right, I'll be honest that I'm not good at making sprites. What I can do is taking photos of items ,such as my guns, and refine them with a photoshop (Or palette-swapping another sprites.) But I'll try to improve the quality of sprites later. Thanks for the comment. :)

Deadwing said:

I've played maps 1 to 4.

Didn't finish 2 to 4, since I decided to record it. Level 2 I died in the blue door trap (it was totally my fault - yay, lets get the rocket launcher in a room full of monsters >.>). In 3 I died after grabbing yellow key, with a stupid mistake, and in 4 I didn't went far, I gave up after 10 tries hahaha I'll still play the levels again more calmly (using save points).

Here are the demo links, if you want to laugh at my mistakes lol: http://www.mediafire.com/download/8enc5d1226zrhq6/struggle-deadwing-3.zip

First impressions on map 3 and 4 is that they are as awesome as the first two. 3 is very action packed, full of monsters, but since you have stronger weapons, they die easily and the game flows really well. I loved the double smg weapon.

4 is very different from the previous ones, with open space full of snipers and holes where the monsters can infiltrate and flank you. You have made a good decision to reduce the Revenants projectile speed, so he nows have a lot of versatile on the field. (especially as a deadly sniper) The map also looks really large, so I guess I haven't reached even 30% of the progress D:

Do this have difficult implemented, I could try to finish 3 and 4 on HMR until the end without dying lol

I really appreciate your demo recording feedback! This is the very first demo that the other person played my map instead of me lol. I like how you found the secrets such as at the end of MAP01. In fact, after watching the demos, I recorded my walkthrough of MAP04 to help you. This one is recorded in prboom-plus with UV-Max category.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/0zkskb24ivn91b7/strg_04_antr.zip

A tip to clear the beginning part of MAP04 is to find a rocket launcher. There are two secrets that you can get RL before you pass the blue key door. In fact, the first one is at the very first room. :)

Firstly, PLEASE UPDATE YOUR FIRST POST WITH THE LATEST FILE.
I played the first map only to realize afterwards that there was newer files further down the thread.

You've done some excellent work; I've played maps 1-3 so far and will continue to play the others another day.

From what I've played so far all three maps are very fun. a couple of notes below. I'm sorry if I'm repeating what others have said already, but if I am I guess it's reinforcement, heh.

----------

Map 01
The 'shootable switch' wasn't very good IMHO - I know there was a gun on the floor trying to hint towards this, but it still didn't come to me naturally, I had to watch your walk-through.

I think the use of Revenants on map01 when you plan on this being a full megawad is a bit brutal - If this is what map01's like it makes me fear what kind of slaughter-maps will be towards the end of the wad.

----------

Map 02

This map looks great, the completely non-linear interlinked gameplay was good fun. I found that there were points where I had no idea where to go. The spiral stair room was hard to find (the one with the key at the top). Everything else was fine and all in all was a much more balanced map than map01

----------

Map 03

I think this was the best of the 3 maps. I found the large groups of revenants (4-rev ambushes) quite difficult to manage, but I was very thankful for the Rocket Launcher being powerful enough to take them out in one hit.

----------

General Comments

The levels so far are working really well, good stuff!

The new weapons are very fun to use, especially the pistol - it makes the 2nd weapon slot no longer feel wasted. I think the Super Shotgun now feels a bit weak? Perhaps it's the fact everything else is beefed up.

I liked the new textures, are these open for others to make use of?
Same goes for the soundtrack, all the midi's I've heard so far were great! Are other mappers permitted to use them?


Lastly:

antares031 said:

P.P.S.: If there's a tutorial about making non-linear single player map, please let me know. Thanks.

You seem to be having absolutely no problem with this so far, but here's a couple of tips, perhaps they will help the future maps:

In my experience, the easiest & most reliable way to make non-linear maps is to actually make a deathmatch map and add monsters and objectives later. There's numerous studies on Doomworld and the internet on what makes a good multiplayer map. These practices translate well to making an interconnected non-linear map.

As a rule of thumb, I find making it so that most (not all) rooms have at least three exits works very well for deathmatch and it converts well into the non-linear single players map too, as when the player enters a room they are presented with two potential paths.

The part I find hardest with non-linear maps is ensuring that there isn't a shortage of ammo or one route that seems to difficult without having collected a weapon from a different route.

Unsure how this was posted...

--- Admin Delete This Post ---

Dragonfly said:

Firstly, PLEASE UPDATE YOUR FIRST POST WITH THE LATEST FILE.
......

The levels so far are working really well, good stuff!
The new weapons are very fun to use, especially the pistol - it makes the 2nd weapon slot no longer feel wasted. I think the Super Shotgun now feels a bit weak? Perhaps it's the fact everything else is beefed up.
I liked the new textures, are these open for others to make use of?
Same goes for the soundtrack, all the midi's I've heard so far were great! Are other mappers permitted to use them?

You seem to be having absolutely no problem with this so far, but here's a couple of tips, perhaps they will help the future maps:
In my experience, the easiest & most reliable way to make non-linear maps is to actually make a deathmatch map and add monsters and objectives later. There's numerous studies on Doomworld and the internet on what makes a good multiplayer map. These practices translate well to making an interconnected non-linear map.

As a rule of thumb, I find making it so that most (not all) rooms have at least three exits works very well for deathmatch and it converts well into the non-linear single players map too, as when the player enters a room they are presented with two potential paths.

The part I find hardest with non-linear maps is ensuring that there isn't a shortage of ammo or one route that seems to difficult without having collected a weapon from a different route.

Thanks for the useful feedback!
I'm glad that you liked new pistol. I tried to make the pistol more useful, so now it has burst mode with high-accuracy; it's always accurate to aiming point. And of course, SSG is really good weapon. But I wanted to make players use various arsenals instead of "SSG all-day-long"

About textures, majority of textures are from CG Textures, which is now Textures.com. According to their terms of use 2.1 b), anyone is permitted to use textures to their computer games which is really nice. Some of textures are also from another mods such as Alien Vendetta and Plutonia.
The soundtrakcs are came from three games, and I already posted the download link of music files to let anyone to use them. They're from old-online games developed by CCR Inc. : http://www.mediafire.com/download/qd22908v456tx1p/musics.zip

Finally, about non-linear style, I tried to implement my design methods for my DM levels(called Antaresia) thanks to Memfis :). And designing that one-way door, the door with big red stripe, also helped me to design the level non-linear somehow lol.
Again, thanks for the feedback :)

P.S.: I've just updated the first post with the lastest version. Sorry about that ^^;;

antares031 said:

...instead of "SSG all-day-long"

I am glad there are more who take this stance.

antares031 said:

About textures, majority of textures are from CG Textures, which is now Textures.com. According to their terms of use 2.1 b), anyone is permitted to use textures to their computer games which is really nice. Some of textures are also from another mods such as Alien Vendetta and Plutonia.

Thank you. I appreciate the full response explaining not only 'yeah you can use them', but where to credit also.

antares031 said:

The soundtrakcs are came from three games, and I already posted the download link of music files to let anyone to use them. They're from old-online games developed by CCR Inc. : http://www.mediafire.com/download/qd22908v456tx1p/musics.zip

Brilliant, again, thanks for the credit source.

antares031 said:

Finally, about non-linear style, I tried to implement my design methods for my DM levels(called Antaresia) thanks to Memfis :). And designing that one-way door, the door with big red stripe, also helped me to design the level non-linear somehow lol.
Again, thanks for the feedback :)

P.S.: I've just updated the first post with the lastest version. Sorry about that ^^;;

As a player I was also appreciative of the one-way door, it allowed me to know at a glance that I can't open it, and that I would return to this location later (which helps me choose to kill all monsters in the area rather than leave some behind.)

I'm glad you've updated the first post. I'll probably hold fire until you add another map then replay from the start.

Again, great work so far, I like your mapping style.

Version beta one is now available: http://www.mediafire.com/download/7e5cuh46kcun4td/strg_beta1.zip

It now features custom GFX. For more details, please check out the text file inside. :)

MAP01-03 FDAs for beta 1. I was impressed by the wad. I see it as STRAIN + Zen Dynamics done right, in all seriousness. I was more than willing to tolerate the imperfect custom graphics. I liked how (most of) the DEHACKED changes actually increased pace of the game, as well as challenge and potential lethality - thankfully there was enough health laying around.

The change I disagree with is the Revenant edit. Getting rid of a homing projectile (forever, since "Tracer" codepointer only works in the Revenant missile thing) in favor of yet another fast projectile seems like a wasted opportunity which doesn't add to the gameplay, but only takes from it - also, the Revenant forces the player to stay back and take cover or dodge his projectiles, which (in most cases) decreases pace of progression more than anything good it could have done. I recommend bringing a slow homing projectile back. Also, I hope you realize that your Spectre Cacodemon will infight with normal Cacodemon, since they're different species - the only hardcoded exception to this rule is Hell Knight + Baron of Hell.

Finally, keep in mind that your DEHACKED changes to monsters may seem confusing or at least unnatural to players, who are mostly very used to the very behaviour of their classic monsters. I typically solve this by providing new graphics for every entity that behaves differently now, including monsters whose projectiles were simply made faster (so, change graphics for both monsters and projectiles), to help the player perceive it as a new enemy to accustomize to, rather than an old enemy to re-accustomize to in a way specific for this wad, which may be less comfortable.

Your level design is mostly decent, and gameplay is OK. However, please avoid putting forced ammo/health/powerup pickups into player's way or as a necessity to progress further (MAP01 green armor in front of a door was annoying, MAP02 berserk), because what if the player doesn't want to pick up the item yet?

Anyway, I mostly like this wad, keep up the good work.

scifista42 said:

MAP01-03 FDAs for beta 1. I was impressed by the wad. I see it as STRAIN + Zen Dynamics done right, in all seriousness. I was more than willing to tolerate the imperfect custom graphics. I liked how (most of) the DEHACKED changes actually increased pace of the game, as well as challenge and potential lethality - thankfully there was enough health laying around.

The change I disagree with is the Revenant edit. Getting rid of a homing projectile (forever, since "Tracer" codepointer only works in the Revenant missile thing) in favor of yet another fast projectile seems like a wasted opportunity which doesn't add to the gameplay, but only takes from it - also, the Revenant forces the player to stay back and take cover or dodge his projectiles, which (in most cases) decreases pace of progression more than anything good it could have done. I recommend bringing a slow homing projectile back. Also, I hope you realize that your Spectre Cacodemon will infight with normal Cacodemon, since they're different species - the only hardcoded exception to this rule is Hell Knight + Baron of Hell.

Finally, keep in mind that your DEHACKED changes to monsters may seem confusing or at least unnatural to players, who are mostly very used to the very behaviour of their classic monsters. I typically solve this by providing new graphics for every entity that behaves differently now, including monsters whose projectiles were simply made faster (so, change graphics for both monsters and projectiles), to help the player perceive it as a new enemy to accustomize to, rather than an old enemy to re-accustomize to in a way specific for this wad, which may be less comfortable.

Your level design is mostly decent, and gameplay is OK. However, please avoid putting forced ammo/health/powerup pickups into player's way or as a necessity to progress further (MAP01 green armor in front of a door was annoying, MAP02 berserk), because what if the player doesn't want to pick up the item yet?

Anyway, I mostly like this wad, keep up the good work.

I really appreciated your feedback and FDA! I love the one that you beat the level perfectly, triple 100%, in exactly 10 minutes. :) I'll try to improve sprites at further release. But like I said before, I'm not an expert at modifying sprites. ;_;

About revenant's new weapon, I can take anything as long as it has no homing missiles. So I tried to replace its arsenal and my best decision was to replace the slow homing missile to fast, direct projectile. Basically, its new weapon is nearly as same as the original arachnotron's plasma gun, but without auto-fire. Through the FDA, I think that you're pretty good at dealing with new revenants even if it was the first try. Of course, I'll keep trying to adjust it via DeHackEd for better balance. By the way, while revenants now have direct projectiles, arachnotrons now have machine gun just like the original spider mastermind; its new role is "bigger, deadlier chaingunner"

About monster adjustments, my first concept was that the player is not a skilled marine so he's not so good at combat, so the player originally had less speed, health, and ammo capacity(this one is still implemented). But it made the gameplay slower and boring. So instead of weaker player, I tried to make monsters stronger and faster. The result was much better for me; It made the gameplay faster and more enjoyable to me. I know it might confuses players at first time. But I wanted to give players different experiences, and they'll get used to faster demons after some levels.

I'll keep in mind that your advice about item replacement. I notice it from your FDA; the item "blocked" your way. About the berserk in MAP02, It was kind of introduction of new melee weapon. Since the hammer is more powerful than original fist, I wanted players to try it out.

Again, thanks for your comment! :)

In map04 when you get the rocket launcher I think it's only viable for a few moments until the pinky demons start pouring in because of the slow firing speed.

You have the whole interconnectivity thing down here in map05. I started to feel like monsters were more of padding than providing challenge for a bit here too.

In map06 when I met the afriest, wow he throws projectiles everywhere! I didn't know what to do after I killed them though :P

Eh, maybe I just wasn't in the mood to play :u

Also the powerdrill is still such joy to use to drill my way through baddies.

There was a lot of that assault rifle ammo in map05 but I didn't get the weapon until map06 and for map05 I think you should try balancing it a bit to not expect having the gun already since I feel I really could of used it there.

I think you should try putting big pillars of a stand-out texture for places where there's a switch nearby I need to pull because I get lost sometimes :S.

Hopefully you can use my feedback, I'm guessing we move on to the blue hexen/heretic textured worlds now :)

SuperCupcakeTactics said:

In map04 when you get the rocket launcher I think it's only viable for a few moments until the pinky demons start pouring in because of the slow firing speed.

You have the whole interconnectivity thing down here in map05. I started to feel like monsters were more of padding than providing challenge for a bit here too.

In map06 when I met the afriest, wow he throws projectiles everywhere! I didn't know what to do after I killed them though :P

Eh, maybe I just wasn't in the mood to play :u

Also the powerdrill is still such joy to use to drill my way through baddies.

There was a lot of that assault rifle ammo in map05 but I didn't get the weapon until map06 and for map05 I think you should try balancing it a bit to not expect having the gun already since I feel I really could of used it there.

I think you should try putting big pillars of a stand-out texture for places where there's a switch nearby I need to pull because I get lost sometimes :S.

Hopefully you can use my feedback, I'm guessing we move on to the blue hexen/heretic textured worlds now :)

Whenever I confront demons at heliport, I use dual pistols to kill imps and demons. To use rockets against them, you need to fall back to the entrance of heliport, or align them to the center by circle-strafing.

In MAP05, there's an armory(requires red key to access) which provides an assault rifle. I tried to make it visible from outside, but I'll make them even easier to see, and easier to access in the next release. By the way, MAP05 is actually a reformed version of my old map.

I always appreciate the feedback. Much obliged. :)

P.S: The arena where you meet the afriests, it's a kind of nightmare sequence; similar to the ending of shareware doom. But you will eventually reach the world of blue textures in MAP21.

This is really nice, and I enjoyed playing it. :)

grouchbag said:

This is really nice, and I enjoyed playing it. :)

I'm glad you liked it. Stay tuned for further update.

Here's two screenshots of MAP07 which is just finished the test. But I'm going to update my wad with some more completed maps.

Damn, this actually looks fantastic, very colorful, and has a 90's feel to it but with modern polish. I'd love to see atleast an episode of this! :)

DeathevokatioN said:

......I'd love to see atleast an episode of this! :)

I'd love to see that, too. It'll take some time, but It will come out eventually.

Some screenshots for upcoming version beta two. I need to finish two more maps, though.

Woah, these look sick! :D
How many levels do you plan to make?

Deadwing said:

...How many levels do you plan to make?

Thirty-two levels, if the time permits. It's been years since I wanted to make a megawad by myself.

Best of luck to you! The "partial conversion" / "gameplay modification" aspect of this project is cool, and I always wished there were more modern-day megawads like that.

scifista42 said:

Best of luck to you! The "partial conversion" / "gameplay modification" aspect of this project is cool, and I always wished there were more modern-day megawads like that.

Thanks! Although my level design skill is not good, I'll try my best to finish it. :)

Before I release version beta two, I think It will be good to have some feedbacks for currently finished levels. Every levels are tested with latest version of ZDoom and PrBoom with -complevel 2


* Update *

- Added MAP07, MAP08, MAP09
- Minor changes to previous levels
- Limitation of bullet ammo is increased from 150 to 180, 300 to 360 with backpack

- Pistol shoots slightly faster (10 -> 9)
- Shotgun shoots faster than before (34;original doom -> 32 -> 25)

- Spectrocaco now moves slower (18 -> 15)
- Arch-vile now can resurrects Afriest


* Screenshots *

I'll try and find some time to give the new material a play but it won't be this week.

In this screenshot I like how it looks but having fire inside a wooden pillar seems illogical - surely it'd just catch fire and go up in flames?

These new screens look amazing, by the way.

Dragonfly said:

...In this screenshot I like how it looks but having fire inside a wooden pillar seems illogical - surely it'd just catch fire and go up in flames?

I made the ceiling fireproof with steel plate since I noticed about that issue. But maybe I also should have cover pillars with more steel. Thanks for the comment :)

Bah, who cares about being as real as possible. Doom is all about breaking logic. :p

The wood is fireproof :P

Anyway, I'll record this on HMP (because I don't want to die too much hahaha) as soon as I get home.