[Released] Templum Dormiens Dei - Heretic SP map

[Stormwalker]

Advanced Engine Needed: ZDoom 2.8.1 or later
Primary Purpose: Single Player
IWAD required: HERETIC.WAD
Title: Templum Dormiens Dei

Hello, I am looking for playtesters to provide honest and unbiased feedback on a new Heretic level, titled Templum Dormiens Dei(Temple of the Sleeping God). This is a medium-to-large level with new monsters, but the core gameplay is rather old-school and there are not many ZDoom-isms to be found. Difficulty settings are fully implemented. The current version is Beta 3. I would be most grateful if some Heretic fans would test this map out and let me know how it could be made better. Do not hold back your criticism no matter how harsh. Below are some screenshots. EDIT: The level has been released and is available on /idgames, link below.

Screenshots:

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Video playthrough courtesy of Leonardo85:

Story:

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*This story picks up where Dark Deity's Bastion ended* Corvus barely survived the trap prepared for him by the Dark Deity. In the end, however, he triumphed over the magical D'Sparil clones and emerged with his life. But while he did battle in the evil god's bastion, Corvus learned the identity of the deity himself. The malevolent ancient power was none other than Scelus, the god of wickedness.

In the following months Corvus sought the counsel of the elders, who had instructed him in the ways of magic and warfare. The wizened men of Parthoris knew of an eldritch temple which served as a shrine to Scelus, and it was thought that the dark god himself lay sleeping within its mighty walls. Corvus gathered his courage and prepared for his perilous journey, for a great burden now rested upon his shoulders - he was to make his way to the temple, braving the fearsome guardians, misshapen beasts, and deadly hazards along the way, and defeat the nefarious deity known as Scelus.

The /idgames link is here.

Credits: Apothem, Enjay, and Ozymandias81 for the Health Point Bar. All music by Kevin Schilder. Eriance, Ghastly_dragon, Blue Shadow, Captain Toenail, Hexx, Rolls, Gothic, and MagicWazard for the new DECORATE monsters.

[mutator]

this looks great! can I test it? does this map have iron lich?

[Blue Shadow]

Just finished playing this (on hard difficulty). Map design is solid. I found the gameplay to be challenging enough (at least for me). I died a few times, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

[Stormwalker]

Just finished playing this (on hard difficulty). Map design is solid. I found the gameplay to be challenging enough (at least for me). I died a few times, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

Awesome, thank you for playing and giving feedback! Also, I just realized that I need to credit you as well for your enhancements to the DECORATE code for the boss monster.

[HexenMapper]

Cool map, nice flow and detailing. No texture errors I could see. Nice and hard on Thou art a smite-meister.

I haven't finished the map yet, but will keep at it

[Mav3rick]

this looks great! can I test it? does this map have iron lich?

Yes u can test it, that is why is here, and no there is no spoils of what will be on the map

[Gez]

Found a few little bugs. Nothing big, though, and only one that really needs fixing IMO.

Worst bug: you can get stuck here.

When you move into that area it's easy to step on the barrels because of the higher floor just outside the niche. Once you're walking on the barrels, you can fall in the corner, and then you're stuck -- without jumping or noclipping, no way out. A simple fix would be adding another barrel to make sure you can't fall.

Exploit: it's possible to run from this platform onto the secret area -- in fact I even though it was how you were supposed to. If you do that, you can skip the whole hunt for the green key. IMO having shortcuts is fine, though, so I don't think this needs to be "fixed".


Cosmetic issue: the ceiling is too low to have a torch in a couple places.

The first is the corridor with the blue-locked door. I guess this shot isn't the clearest. Here's a better one:


And the other place:

[Stormwalker]

Found a few little bugs. Nothing big, though, and only one that really needs fixing IMO.

Worst bug: you can get stuck here.

When you move into that area it's easy to step on the barrels because of the higher floor just outside the niche. Once you're walking on the barrels, you can fall in the corner, and then you're stuck -- without jumping or noclipping, no way out. A simple fix would be adding another barrel to make sure you can't fall.

Exploit: it's possible to run from this platform onto the secret area -- in fact I even though it was how you were supposed to. If you do that, you can skip the whole hunt for the green key. IMO having shortcuts is fine, though, so I don't think this needs to be "fixed".

Cosmetic issue: the ceiling is too low to have a torch in a couple places.

The first is the corridor with the blue-locked door. I guess this shot isn't the clearest. Here's a better one:

And the other place:

Ah, good eye Gez! Thank you for noticing these issues, I will be fixing them today. Regarding the run-and-leap onto the morph ovum platform, I never knew it existed until my first playtester pointed it out. At first I thought it was cool, but now that more people have had issues with it I think I am going to disallow jumping to that platform. Very few of my testers seemed to realize that they are not trapped inside the Green Key area if they make that jump without the Green Key, due to the Demon Mask doors which open after hitting the switch that brings forth the Maulotaur. Perhaps I should make it more obvious that the Demon Mask doors that the player sees around the level are all tied to that switch. I might end up making them a different color so that they stand out. I dunno. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Thanks again!

EDIT: Also, if anyone knows how to change a sound file's type in SLADE or XWE so that the engine recognizes it as music and loops it properly, that would be really helpful. I currently have a different song that I'd like to use instead of the current one which plays during the boss encounter, but when I load it into the archive it shows up as a sound, not as music. I've looked at the wiki but I can't find how to change the file's type.

[Gez]

Ah, good eye Gez! Thank you for noticing these issues, I will be fixing them today. Regarding the run-and-leap onto the morph ovum platform, I never knew it existed until my first playtester pointed it out. At first I thought it was cool, but now that more people have had issues with it I think I am going to disallow jumping to that platform. Very few of my testers seemed to realize that they are not trapped inside the Green Key area if they make that jump without the Green Key, due to the Demon Mask doors which open after hitting the switch that brings forth the Maulotaur. Perhaps I should make it more obvious that the Demon Mask doors that the player sees around the level are all tied to that switch. I might end up making them a different color so that they stand out. I dunno. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Thanks again!

Trapped? Did they miss the switch that's used to find the secret the "legit" way? It's easy to get out of the green key area even before releasing the big cow.

Anyway I find that jump cool, too, and I'll miss it if it's gone.

EDIT: Also, if anyone knows how to change a sound file's type in SLADE or XWE so that the engine recognizes it as music and loops it properly, that would be really helpful. I currently have a different song that I'd like to use instead of the current one which plays during the boss encounter, but when I load it into the archive it shows up as a sound, not as music. I've looked at the wiki but I can't find how to change the file's type.

File type shouldn't matter; if you play it as a music it should loop. As long as it's one of the recognized [wiki]music formats[/wiki], of course. Looking at the script now, you do use [wiki]SetMusic[/wiki] so it should be fine.

[Stormwalker]

Greetings,

Templum Dormiens Dei has been updated to Beta 2. Thanks to all who played and gave their thoughts, including Wilou84, Gez, Judge, Jambon, Blue Shadow, and HexenMapper.

Trapped? Did they miss the switch that's used to find the secret the "legit" way? It's easy to get out of the green key area even before releasing the big cow.

I think in those cases they did miss the switch, and since they didn't know about the switch or the Demon Mask doors, they figured that they were trapped. Which is weird to me, because I purposefully made one of those flame orb ledges unlit.

File type shouldn't matter; if you play it as a music it should loop. As long as it's one of the recognized [wiki]music formats[/wiki], of course. Looking at the script now, you do use [wiki]SetMusic[/wiki] so it should be fine.

Looks like you were right, the music does seem to be looping on its own. Awesome, thanks!

[Stormwalker]

Hello,

Templum Dormiens Dei has been updated to Beta 3. In addition to a great deal of fixes and balance tweaks, I added some new enemy types to the level in an attempt to add some diversity to the encounters. I also added in a few pop-up messages which occur when certain things happen, which I feel better explain some sequences of the map. Finally, by popular demand I restored the player's ability to jump to the morph ovum secret, which I had removed in Beta 2. Below are some screens of some of the new content.







I am curious to know if these new monsters are a good fit for the level, so feel free to have a go at the level and let me know your thoughts. The download link for Beta 3 is here. Thanks guys.

[Stormwalker]

The wad has been released and is available on /idgames. A big thanks to everyone who played the level and helped out with criticism or commentary!

[Rachael]

I just had a play through of this.

This is a very beautiful map, and despite limiting yourself to the texture set that Heretic provides, you did a fantastic job of putting it all together and making it look nice. I liked some of the new monsters, and how you chose to stay faithful to Heretic's theme in adding them in.

The only real gripe that I have is it was a bit confusing figuring out what affected what in the layout, figuring out where I needed to go. But despite this, it was a fun experience for me, so thank you.

[Stormwalker]

I just had a play through of this.

This is a very beautiful map, and despite limiting yourself to the texture set that Heretic provides, you did a fantastic job of putting it all together and making it look nice. I liked some of the new monsters, and how you chose to stay faithful to Heretic's theme in adding them in.

The only real gripe that I have is it was a bit confusing figuring out what affected what in the layout, figuring out where I needed to go. But despite this, it was a fun experience for me, so thank you.

Thank you for playing and for your kind words!

[leodoom85]

I played your map and it was great. The crusher-bomb trap was clever and I died once because of that. I even uploaded a video of your map (it's a 1-hour gameplay video). Beautiful map, great challenge. Awesome work.