HeXen: Tower of Chaos Special Edition

[Zhs2]

Map08: P_StartScript: Unknown script 2. Probably a dragon activator.
Some use lines, particularly for puzzle activation, are actually walkover lines instead. Case examples include the seal activations, the flame mask, several gear wheel spots, and so on.
There's a horrible HOM serving as the exit following the seals.

I want to like this HeXen wad. I really do. Unfortunately, it's plagued by several un-HeXen-like elements such as switch hunts over massive, sprawling levels, and puzzles that aren't really puzzles at all, such as "zero indication of which of three switches doesn't activate a ceiling crusher". The switch hunts themselves might have been a little more interesting if they had taken advantage of the lore elements you seem to love ("The sound of bars echo in the distance as they slide into the floor", etcetera), and yet they show lazy cameras that sometimes indicate a little less about the door they opened than they should have. All in all, I would be pressed not to call this any more than a slog that sometimes becomes hella confusing as to how to proceed in because some puzzle items are hidden too cleverly in the darkness and some switches are fully obscured behind statues, easily missable until you stare at the automap a little more carefully. I'd take "ONE-THIRD OF THE PUZZLE HAS BEEN SOLVED ON THE SEVEN PORTALS" over this crap any day. All of that is to say nothing about how those massive, sprawling levels *do* serve as atmospheric, aesthetic HeXen-like environments, however, so don't let the fact that the gameplay sucks discourage you from a sequel. A little more to do and a little less frustration in doing it would top this wad off as a fair contender.

(I also haven't finished this yet - I've reached the Shadowlands - but I'm not sure if seeing a little more would really change my opinion thus far.)

Edit: I beat it. The clock gear shuffle was just as bad as the key hunt in the Drathi Marshes. I groaned really hard at the voice acting and the straight Castlevania rip, but what else did I expect?

[ArgonianLord]

Addressed some minor issues that have been reported by others and noticed by myself. I also went ahead and changed some voice acting to sound a bit less annoyingly high pitched. To make the boss it was assigned to sound a bit less annoying to listen to, because honestly, bosses with high pitched voices are impossible to take seriously, hence the pitch was lowered.

The post will also receive some new screenshots to replace the old outdated ones at some point in the future.

That is all, have a good new years you lot o/

/ArgonianLord

[tyketto]

I've been playing this wad on my YouTube channel. If you're interested in checking it out - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 18eMR5-uum

[armymen12002003]

This is really good mod just a few questions 1 will there be voice acting for the other bosses etc and player character? Also did u start work on the sequels? Finally if your looking for new monsters sunmadcat from the the zandronum forums made a shit load of monsters which you should take a look at.

[invisible_warrior]

I've played through all of the first six levels and found them quite beautiful and well designed. But imho the gameplay has been way too easy so far. Other than the first level, when you really have to think how to handle some creatures in the dark with no armor and low quartz flask count, other levels become easy because you get plenty of "mystic ambit incants" and Dragonskin bracers, and so you always run with like 20 armor class. There's not much the enemies can do to you at this point.

So I'd advise reducing the item numbers in the levels so that they are more challenging. Enemy placement on the other hand is perfect.

Don't really know about the puzzles, they're fine to me, I just wondered that in Deathkings and continue to wonder now, does the editor really not allow to insert some other items and environmental triggers as puzzle elements? (so that you Have to use the same ones as in original Hexen) It would be just too cool to see something replacing good old "planet calendar" and so on with some things like, let's say putting some missing tiles into the wall with the magical texts, or something like that.

I mean it would really make one think what the heck he must do to complete the puzzle, instead of merely running around searching for a key/switch

[KILLER2]

Neither of the download links seem to work anymore :/

[The Ultimate DooMer]

Don't really know about the puzzles, they're fine to me, I just wondered that in Deathkings and continue to wonder now, does the editor really not allow to insert some other items and environmental triggers as puzzle elements? (so that you Have to use the same ones as in original Hexen) It would be just too cool to see something replacing good old "planet calendar" and so on with some things like, let's say putting some missing tiles into the wall with the magical texts, or something like that.

With ZDoom format, decorate and custom sprites/textures, you can create any puzzle item you like.

Also did u start work on the sequels?

The sequel is A New World...pretty good but it's not without flaws. (same as this project)

[invisible_warrior]

to add to all I've said in the previous post: I wouldn't emphasise on these flaws if the wad plainly sucked. In contrary, it's just friggin' awesome! I never hoped for such a massive and worked map pack for Hexen. The biggest and, tbh, only serious flaw to me as for now is simplistic battle gameplay; it would be cool if it was made a bit harder.

edit: as I progress through the second hub, I realize that it's getting progressively harder, but the earlier levels have to be somewhat challenging too
edit: it's just unbalanced when only real difficulty in certain number of levels comes from trying not to fall into the abyss/lava

[invisible_warrior]

I got to Shadowlands... There, the game really gives you problems.
As of earlier levels, me personally I would remove half of Mystic Ambits and some of the health items from levels 02 to 07, to make things challenging.
Also the track in Water Temple is reeeeeeeeaaaally annoying, and being fast and loud, makes you want to turn the music volume in game down, which I did... Maybe you could edit this track to make its volume lower by default? Or just replace 'cause honestly I have no idea how it connects to the Hexen atmosphere (other tracks that I've come across as for now, fit perfectly).

Now about the things I love in this wad.
First of all, its own unique style. With narratives, exit doors and cutscenes. It's a bit odd first, but when you get the theme after 1-2 levels, it's very cool.
To own unique style also - instant kill lava, lol. First i was like "oh what the..." , but then it seems really a part of style too.

Next, monster placement and level design. First level is a gem. Being realistic and highly worked location, it places monsters in such a way that they present danger to you, especially those serpents. Ettins and stalkers in the dark are cool too, especially that sense of lurking unknown in the dark. Drathi Marshes is good in making a "no place to feel safe" atmosphere (though Fire Canyon is better at it, lol, with no real possibility to conveniently kill fire stalkers, because you know, they live in friggin instakill lava ). Drathi Canyon is good at monster spam and at the same time is a highly atmospheric location. That is where I most wished that the game hadn't given you 20 armor class - those battles would be awesome if they were just a wee bit more dangerous. Same goes to the heresiarch battle at the end of hub.

I really liked the water puzzle in the temple. Again, the sub-levels of the Valley of Rateshk hub are the ones when you start feeling problems, so their design is perfect to my opinion. I can't name the things I don't like there, I love absolutely everything. %)

And maybe to someone key/switch hunt in Town of Jualtsa was too boring, but I think this is cool and realistic, you search for a friggin key in a big town. I liked it where the steel key was at, very good moment

I like it that the levels don't seem monotonous and always offer you something new.

P.S.: just noticed:

-First 6 maps (or so) are disproportionately easy compared to what comes later on.

If you don't believe me, believe this man, he made Masters of Chaos for Heretic, he knows about balance! (MoC is perfect in sense of balance)

[invisible_warrior]

I finished it. The last two levels had the level of difficulty that's greatly superior to what all other levels had.

I'd suggest adding kraters of might, or at least seriously more mana to the final arena. Look, you have to kill three bosses (well, 1st and 3rd being two different forms of one, but I say this to evaluate the necessary amount of ammo) - if you have no kraters, you're dead. So you have to either guess that you need kraters for the final fight, or just load up to where you had them, and this time NOT spend them.

The difficulty was ok in Shadowlands and its sub level Twilight Cathedral. Also the wad continued being awesome in design up to the last piece. But Castle Gryphon was strongly on the easy side to my opinion. I see it right though that it has few enemies which are mostly hidden in their lonely rooms, because it adds up to the atmosphere of suspense, which is present in this level. But as this level is near the end of the game, you should boost up the difficulty by adding really few health and armor. Instead there is plenty of it. I suggest removing big part of it.

Ssekrad mines are one of the best levels in terms of design, but its part (about the first half of all the level) is easy-ish. Amount of health/armor could be somewhat lowered, though not to big extent, because two maulotaurs await you in the end - one of them is also a super-boss.

And last - it's an unfortunate case that the boss of Shadowlands can really be morphed to a pig!!! I threw at him a porkalator "just 4 the lulz" and was surprised that it worked just like he was ordinary monster! I think you must make sure none of the bosses are morphable. I didn't test super-maulotaur, Korax and D'sparil on this topic, but you should do so, or else game becomes too abusable %)))

To sum it up - great wad, but it could be made even better by perfecting its balance and correcting unfortunate bugs!

It's also worth noting that the final Korax form is similar or even identical to the last boss of the already mentioned Masters of Chaos

I played as fighter, though boosting difficulty for other classes in levels 2-7 wouldn't make it too hard. And in Castle Gryphon/Ssekrad mines they will already have wraithverge/bloodscourge which will solve most of their problems anyway, be there many or few health.

[invisible_warrior]

Playing through the wad again now as mage. Still feels that it could and should have been made harder. Though I finally succeeded at dying when I met Heresiarch But all of the other opponent (except several lava places ) weren't even close to ever killing me. Balance update is very much needed imho.

edit: Can't find Bloodscourge's final segment anywhere. Seems like it has to be in the Valley of Fire, but it's nowhere to be found (I have searched all over the ziggurat, because, by analogy, in the Fighter walkthrough, I've found Quietus's segment where the Zedek boss fight was). Maybe it's just a bug and it is not on the map? (Or I'm just dumb, on the other hand)

btw, once again, the second hub is great. Can't find anything to really complain about, everything is just perfect.
I've already recommended this wad to anyone, several new streams/walkthroughs of it can be incoming

edit: I once found out that I can't return from Valley of Rateshk to Drathi Marshes, but why it suddenly became impossible remains unknown to me Because I used to return there to get some loot (ammo and health), and then go back to Valley and continue the real business. But one time I suddenly found out that I just slam into the door and can't go "through" it (to the other level) in the usual way.

No bloodscourge for me I guess Maybe I did something wrong but I dunno what.

I finished it for mage. Not much to say, two last levels are still hard, but once again, I think all of the wad could be made harder. This time I knew that I needed ammo for boss fight, so I saved the kraters, though it would be ok if I didn't cause mage's ambit incants give you ammo, and you always have plenty of them.

edit: You should also add random ettin spawn on locations. It helps to make the feeling that the location is kind of "alive". In original Hexen always when you move through the map you can run into a random ettin coming out of nowhere that just happened to spawn some time ago somewhere. Or hear its grunts at least. It makes the atmosphere of something constantly happening in the map even without your participation.

[Daedolon]

Excuse me, I can't seem to understand how to install the mod. Where do you put toc.pk3 and tocwoc2.pk3?
Isn't this supposed to be playable in gzdoom?

Please tell me how to install and do I need any extra files that are downloadable somewhere else because nothing is happening wherever i put these.

[invisible_warrior]

the cleric has the imbaest imba ambit incants! they replenish all of your health at once. Or, at least 60%, I didn't test. But as the game goes, you pretty much become effectively equipped with 25 Mystic Urns (in addition to some urns and flasks you have as themselves), and dying of a monster becomes next to impossible. This is even more imba that the fighter with constant 20 Armor class. In addition to Cleric being already the most imba class lategame, having the wraithverge, he also has more imba things in this map pack.

So I think they need to be somewhat nerfed, to replenish, say, only 25 health, as a flask...

[SallazarSpellcaster]

Excuse me, I can't seem to understand how to install the mod. Where do you put toc.pk3 and tocwoc2.pk3?
Isn't this supposed to be playable in gzdoom?

Please tell me how to install and do I need any extra files that are downloadable somewhere else because nothing is happening wherever i put these.

All you need is to open toc.pk3 with GZDoom.

Tocwoc2.pk3 is a compatibility patch, if you intend to play it with Wrath of Cronos, a gameplay mod that adds various other features. For vanilla ToC you don't need to use that file.

[Manhs]

I have finished it 2 days ago and for me, it was awesome, sometimes, a bit too symetrical but at least, i was rarely lost x)
I was really lost 2 times, not more. But there is some nice parts who are not symetrical and large.
We can say, it's not really like an usual wad of Hexen but there is a lot of nice ideas, the last part was really epic !
The only problem i think, there was too much health items, i used the fighter in difficulty 4/5 so it wasn't really hard to destroy the enemies in close range.
Some things who are not like the original but there is a lot of cool things like fun actions, good job!

I will check the sequel !

EDIT: I replay the expansion with the Mage, max difficulty and i try to 1life the maps without dying or saves (just auto saves), it's really harder ^^, i use the saves only before some boss or traps.
He can boost only the mana (with the gray paper thing), the Fighter had a big defense with it but not the Mage (he can take a lot of damage!), really more challenging now
EDIT2: At the end of Hub2 or 3 (with the temple where we put the 3 keys after fighting Traductus and the others, i had no more quartz flask but only some Mystic Urn x)
So yeah, it can be challenging !