Back to Saturn X E1: Get Out Of My Stations

[Ghostbreed]

Very well said, good sir

[Woolie Wool]

(EDIT: This is for the version before the addition of the new map, so I'm using the map numbers from the original release, not from .99i9)

I'm almost finished with my second complete playthrough of BTSX E1 (the first with Project MSX, the second as part of testing and improving Modes of Destruction), and I think It's extremely well crafted and each individual map is very good, as a whole it is a bit less than the sum of its parts.

The Good:
- The textures are awesome! They have a nicely unified aesthetic and absolutely ooze atmosphere.
- The new palette is also excellent, even if it does play havoc with mods.
- Each map, taken on its own, is very good. Some maps (Back to Saturn X Radio Report, Metal Mothers, The Hard Way, Tough Skin River) are downright awesome. It's clear a lot of thought went into the fights and how they progressed. Few of the traps are outright "fuck you" traps (although the lift trap in A Good Flying Bird qualifies, fuck that room).
- A lot of these maps seem to be inspired by Espi's work. Being inspired by Espi is a Good Thing.
- Jimmy is a fantastic musician and I've still got The Hard Way's music stuck in my head.
- The texture use and alignment has a sense of materials and no textures appear to be "wallpapered".
- Despite what I say above about the mapset being too long, the fact that I completed such a long mapset and will soon complete it again (saved game is on map21) means it's doing something right.

The Bad:
- The biggest problem with this mapset is that it is far too long. A 10-hour Doom megawad is really a bit much. I mean there's nothing wrong with a really big map or even an episode of really big maps if you keep the number of maps down (My ECWolf mod Operation Serpent has maps comparable in length to most of these but it will only have 6 maps not accounting for the boss level and secret level), but when you have to go through one after another after another ginormous map it becomes really tedious (I never finished Community Chest 4 for this reason). If average map length were reduced by half or a bit more it would be much more fun.
- Few of the maps have a strong central idea behind them (the four that I mentioned are exceptions--the first map is "the train station map", Metal Mothers is "the spiderdemons courtyard map", The Hard Way is "the Plutonia-like map", and Tough Skin River is "the cave map"), and there is no real thematic progression. Even accounting for this as a third of a story, you could still have the texturing theme change in a clear direction as the maps progress, becoming more sinister and perhaps having slight hellish influences show up to give the idea that you're getting closer to the end. Even with doom2.exe compatibility and an abstract texture set you can easily come up with a grand and memorable concept with some imagination (see: Hoover Dam from 1995).
- The Archvile in map20 (I think) makes me want to kill somebody. The hole in the center of that oblong pillar ruins it as a piece of cover.
- I think the mapset is too hard for a "first episode" and introduces the more powerful enemies and weapons far too quickly. If E2 and E3 are further progressions in difficulty from this I don't know if I will be able to complete them.
- On the other hand, map31, despite its name and the first thing you see being a giant Go 2 It-like pile of ammo, is not actually that hard. The map throws powerups and ammo at you, and it's easy to maneuver into a favorable position, making it no more challenging than the normal maps.

The Ugly:
- The faux colored lighting at the beginning of U.S. Mustard Company not only is not convincing, but looks absolutely horrible. You start the map and it's this onslaught of hideous browns until you get out of the first room.
- What's the point of keeping the black box map after Tough Skin River in ZDoom's map lineup instead of setting map23's next map to endgame?

[esselfortium]

Skill settings are implemented, FYI. With that said, the balance and fight choreography on a number of maps are actually having some refactoring done on them for the next upcoming release, in response to the quite frequent complaints that UV is a walk in the park.

I would recommend trying skill 2 or 3, and/or playing it without gameplay mods. BTSX, like any other mapset, has been designed, balanced, and tested for the standard Doom II monster and weapon behaviors, and as such there's no reasonable way for the development team to guarantee a worthwhile (or even playable) experience with any deviation from that.

BTW, E1 can be completed in roughly three hours at a pretty casual pace. It's definitely not a 10-hour megawad.

I'd advise upgrading to version .99i9, in any case.

[TheRailgunner]

Skill settings are implemented, FYI. With that said, the balance and fight choreography on a number of maps are actually having some refactoring done on them for the next upcoming release, in response to the quite frequent complaints that UV is a walk in the park.

I would recommend trying skill 2 or 3, and/or playing it without gameplay mods. BTSX, like any other mapset, has been designed, balanced, and tested for the standard Doom II monster and weapon behaviors, and as such there's no reasonable way for the development team to guarantee a worthwhile (or even playable) experience with any deviation from that.

I'd say that the Doom 64 TC works well with BSTX, at least aesthetically (probably all of the blue tones). BSTX does suffer from an overabundance of Revenants, though.

[Woolie Wool]

Skill settings are implemented, FYI. With that said, the balance and fight choreography on a number of maps are actually having some refactoring done on them for the next upcoming release, in response to the quite frequent complaints that UV is a walk in the park.

Well I was more thinking of what the next two episodes would be like. Also I don't know who says it's a walk in the park but if it's Belial you should probably ignore him.

BTW, E1 can be completed in roughly three hours at a pretty casual pace. It's definitely not a 10-hour megawad.

I completed my second playthrough and my time was 7:57:00 not counting deaths and reloading. Most maps took well over 20 minutes.

I'd advise upgrading to version .99i9, in any case.

I tried but it made my saved game crash until I went back to .99 and I wasn't about to start the mapset over.

[esselfortium]

Skill settings are implemented, FYI. With that said, the balance and fight choreography on a number of maps are actually having some refactoring done on them for the next upcoming release, in response to the quite frequent complaints that UV is a walk in the park.

Well I was more thinking of what the next two episodes would be like. Also I don't know who says it's a walk in the park but if it's Belial you should probably ignore him.

Nope, it's been a pretty common complaint from a lot of players. Again, though, playing with a gameplay mod is going to inevitably change the gameplay dynamic away from how it was designed.

Regarding E2 and E3, each episode is a self-contained experience.

I'd advise upgrading to version .99i9, in any case.

I tried but it made my saved game crash until I went back to .99 and I wasn't about to start the mapset over.

All the maps are balanced for pistol starts.

[Ghostbreed]

esselfortium, you're still working on this? I need to complete it yo!

[esselfortium]

esselfortium, you're still working on this?

Of course! The current priority is getting episode 2 ready for public beta; too much endless tweaking of E1 has gotten us way behind.

[Ghostbreed]

I understand. Can't wait

[Sp00kyFox]

I completed my second playthrough and my time was 7:57:00 not counting deaths and reloading. Most maps took well over 20 minutes.

yeah can't agree with esselfortium on that. it also took me at least 20 minutes for most maps. not counting the time I had to start over because of deaths. but I must say I played on UV pistol start, without much save/load abusing. though I don't have a problem with long maps, btsxe1 was quite the experience.
I guess you can reach these times if you play more aggressively and know your way on the maps, but I can't imagine it on the first run. too bad most responses in the dwmegawad club didn't mentioned the required time.

[Viscra Maelstrom]

the endmap is fantastic, just saying. far better than any IoS map i've played.

[Scuba Steve]

I miss you, Essel. Come back to IRC.

[oODemonologistOo]

I played this and I absolutely love this, just one problem I have with it is, how is map24 even possible from a pistol start?

---

The final fight just seems impossible without it. I am aware of the invisibility powerups down there but still, they don't help when you can't kill many of the monsters at once.

[Caleb13]

^ I don't know how difficult the maps are in this release, but when I played it about 6 months ago, I had to play all maps from pistol start or else I found them too easy (even on UV difficulty). There was so much ammo lying around that during normal playthrough, I was at full capacity almost constantly. I think the idea behind this mapset was to emulate the feel and difficulty of stock Doom 2 maps, which all are of course very well playable from pistol start.

But I certainly won't mind if Episode 2 will be very similar. Well, maybe except the endless use of grey/dark green textures...

[Ghostbreed]

My only wish for episode 2 is that it must have as good music as episode 1