Heretic: Sitnalta

[ArgonianLord]

(Download Link will be at the bottom of the post)
Sitnalta is a traditional episode long WAD for Heretic that adds 9 new levels that sparsely utilizes ZDOOM features like slopes and 3d floors. It also features a new unique boss that replaces the conventional D'Sparil fight from Episode 3.

Chronologically it takes place between my first release, Tower of Chaos and its sequel, A New World. But you need not have played ToC to enjoy Sitnalta, as it doesn't feature story and dialogue as much as those two.

The story for Sitnalta can be read right below:

---

Many years after Parthoris had rebuilt from the wreckage left behind by Morcalavin's plague, Corvus had retreated from the general public to catch up on some well earned rest.

Alas, it seems heroes can't ever rest easy, because swiftly after our hero finally settled down, he was waylaid by a horde of D'Sparil's former minions. Corvus fought them off and the remaining monsters escaped into the portal they had arrived from.

Not wanting to let his enemy run away, Corvus pursued the monsters through the portal and found himself in a wholly unfamiliar location. Around him was endless jungles and marshlands that seemed to stretch for miles, and he felt he was being watched.

Corvus' suspicion would eventually prove to be correct, as he was ambushed by even more monsters from the past. However, this time Corvus didn't fight them off alone, he instead fought off the monsters with a small group of azure scaled lizardfolk. When they had all fought off the ambush the lizardfolk introduced themselves to Corvus as the Llithras, the rulers of th realm he now found himself in which was known as the Federation of Vardorzal.

According to his newfound allies, their capital city of Sitnalta had been assaulted by the same monsters that sought to kill Corvus in his home. To the sidhe's relief the monsters weren't under the control of his ancient enemy, D'Sparil. Rather, they were led by a wizard who referred to himself only as "The Rift Lord".

The Rift Lord's intentions for slaying Corvus was and laying siege to their capital city was uncertain to the Llithras, but they were certain the attacks would stop immediately if he assisted them. They offered to help Corvus return to Parthoris after the Rift Lord has been defeated, so that they all may return home without fear.

Corvus' desire to slay the one behind his attempted assassination was great, and as such he agreed to help them slay the Rift Lord inside the besieged city of Sitnalta. The Llithras themselves would help liberate the city's other districts whilst Corvus took care of the Rift Lord's monsters in key locations of the city.

Once their plan was laid out the Llithras teleported Corvus deep into the besged city. The Elven hero would step onto a teleporter platform in what seemed to be a small shrine once upon a time, and that is where our story begins...

Screenshots:

https://i.imgur.com/oUmmnmo.png

https://i.imgur.com/a86GvgX.png

https://i.imgur.com/tnPKqGh.png

https://i.imgur.com/FI3hf3j.png

https://i.imgur.com/iCNSkAG.png

https://i.imgur.com/BZ25q8g.png

https://i.imgur.com/DazyG8q.png

Now to give you some other info about this WAD.

Sitnalta is a midquel to TOC and TOC's upcoming sequel (LotM = Legacy of the mage). As in it takes place between TOC and its sequel. To put it right into the timeline of TOC and LotM, it takes place around the same time as the events of TOC.



That'll do it for the story writing.

Now for the credits.

The Custom final boss belongs to Starscream, and the HeXen bookcase textures are from HeXen (Obviously I know).

None of the remixed/arranged Castlevania music belongs to me, all credit goes to Micihru Yamane (The Original composer) and TGmagus (The Remixer/arranger)

The Castlevania music that were used for the levels of the wad are listed here. (Once again, none of the music belongs to me)

MAP1 = Castlevania: Bloodlines: Sinking Old Sanctuary
MAP2 = Castlevania: Circle of the Moon: Nightmare
MAP3 = Castlevania: Rondo of Blood: Bloody Tears
MAP4 = Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia: The Colossus
MAP5 = Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia: Wandering the Crystal Blue
MAP6 = Castlevania: Rondo of Blood: Picture of a ghost ship
MAP7 = Castlevania: Rondo of Blood: Slash
MAP8 = Castlevania: Bloodlines: Calling from Heaven
MAP9 = Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow: Top Floor


With the credits done, here are is the download link.

Media Fire Link -> https://www.mediafire.com/file/rmc0e3i4 ... a.zip/file


If you find any glitches or bugs in the WAD, do let me know and I'll fix them ASAP!

/ArgonianLord

Copyright / Permissions.

Authors may NOT use the contents of this file as a base for
modification or reuse. Permissions from authors for the music included
have NOT been contacted, however, their credits are listed. As such, this
WAD may NOT be used for commercial or "for profit" purposes, either by
myself or other parties.

You may NOT redistribute this file without my permission.

[twinkieman93]

I like what I've seen so far(which is one map), but I do have some... negative thoughts. The first map feels a bit cramped; a lot of tiny, narrow passageways and cramped room really prohibit your movement, which I'm not a huge fan of. Also, I was able to grab the gauntlets through the bars without hitting the switch to lower them; a bit more space between the bars and the gauntlets is in order. Speaking of which, the way you bar switches feels weird to me. Not necessarily bad, just weird. Perhaps smaller bars, or even actual bar textures? That's all for now. As I play it I will edit this post with further thoughts.

[Ed the Bat]

This had my interest up until the teleport-tile guessing game in Map 03. Forcing tedium on a player like that just doesn't seem like a profitable choice for anyone, since those who weren't lucky enough to guess right will be frustrated, and those who simply spam quicksaves will defeat the puzzle through sheer brute force, ultimately rendering it obsolete.

[ArgonianLord]

@twinkiemap93. Yeah, that's an issue with this wad as far as I'm concerned. As for those bars, well granted they do look rather shitty in the beginning, but I end up making them look less weird later on in the level.

@Ed the Bat. Just letting you know, the answer to that puzzle teleporting could clearly be seen on the ceiling.

[Ed the Bat]

@Ed the Bat. Just letting you know, the answer to that puzzle teleporting could clearly be seen on the ceiling.

As the ceiling is not easily visible without mouselook, this is not what I would consider an ideal accommodation. However, since I myself do use mouselook, I have no excuse and therefore withdraw my statement.

To add some extra notes, I would like to perhaps urge suggestion to some extra item placements. There have so far (in these three levels) been several very dark cavern/dungeon areas. In recognition of this darkness, I might suggest placing a Torch powerup to assist players with poor vision/navigation.

I also found that there were no Time Bombs of the Ancients (unless I missed them) until a ways into Map 03. This is certainly not a game-breaker, but it's something I noticed. I find this somewhat similar to building a Doom map with no Armor Bonuses, as they are not vital, yet assist in a player's combat in a non-direct manner.

[ArgonianLord]

@Ed the Bat.

At this day and age, I assumed everyone was using mouselook. Clearly that was not so. Now as for the Time Bombs... well I really don't add them a lot. Since they are more likely to get the PLAYER killed rather than your enemies.

As for the darkness, well I really don't see the point of adding torches in every level, seeing as how the darkness will obviously return in a few seconds when the torch goes out.

[Ed the Bat]

Now as for the Time Bombs... well I really don't add them a lot. Since they are more likely to get the PLAYER killed rather than your enemies.

I have never had such an issue, as their explosion radius is fairly small and easy to walk away from after planting them. Standing in one's own explosives has been demonstrated to be a poor move in the vast majority of games, such as Doom; a technical predecessor to Heretic.

As for the darkness, well I really don't see the point of adding torches in every level, seeing as how the darkness will obviously return in a few seconds when the torch goes out.

As the torch lasts a full two minutes, I find your definition of "a few", which apparently includes 120, to be a bit baffling. To that point, if you believe the torch will run out before a player can complete the tasks required in these dark areas, perhaps the areas need to be streamlined a bit. Even if left unchanged, a full two minutes of light would undoubtedly be a boon compared to a full trek in deep darkness.

[ArgonianLord]

@Ed the Bat. Well that wasn't really what I was getting at when I said that they are more likely to kill you than your enemies. What I meant by that is that planting them usually results in even more damage than its worth.

Oh so THAT'S how long it lasts. I always assumed it lasted WAY less than that. Well fair enough, if they last THAT long THEN I can see an actual point in adding them.

[Mav3rick]

will be a nice idea if u change the format of the music to ogg for a better and size file

[Ed the Bat]

will be a nice idea if u change the format of the music to ogg for a better and size file

I would honestly have suggested making the music an external add-on, as it is literally 90% of the bulk of this file (removing it shrank the .pk3 from 52MB to 5.2MB), which is quite extreme.

Now, since I now know the solution to the third map's teleport puzzle, I have continued my venture to play through. So far, I've spotted a minor HOM in a dark tunnel (rough coordinates X:-2900, Y:2300), and one in the fifth map at X:-600, Y:3600. I've also noticed that no map except for E1M1 has a 'next' map defined in MAPINFO, so the 'nextmap' console command has no effect in any level other than the first one.

[ArgonianLord]

will be a nice idea if u change the format of the music to ogg for a better and size file

I'll get my friend to fix that for me. Seeing as how he is more experienced with converting than I am. Though an update of the WAD with OGG music would require me to wait till Friday or Saturday before I can get him to do it for me. So keep than in mind.

[ArgonianLord]

will be a nice idea if u change the format of the music to ogg for a better and size file

I would honestly have suggested making the music an external add-on, as it is literally 90% of the bulk of this file (removing it shrank the .pk3 from 52MB to 5.2MB), which is quite extreme.

Now, since I now know the solution to the third map's teleport puzzle, I have continued my venture to play through. So far, I've spotted a minor HOM in a dark tunnel (rough coordinates X:-2900, Y:2300), and one in the fifth map at X:-600, Y:3600. I've also noticed that no map except for E1M1 has a 'next' map defined in MAPINFO, so the 'nextmap' console command has no effect in any level other than the first one.

Well I'd rather turn them into OGG files, because I wanna have some space left on media fire (Granted I haven't even barley used up half of it, but I still want to have as much space as possible there for the time being)

Now... I'm not really any good at coordinates at all, so if you could post a screenshot of where these HOM is I'd be grateful. Alright, I'll fix that MAPINFO issue when I get home after school

[Ed the Bat]

The tunnel in Map 3 (Automap view)
The wall (after being raised) in Map 5 (Automap view)

I also went ahead and converted the music to .ogg for you; should save 12 MB or so.

[Caleb13]

Very nice Heretic mapset! I especially like your choices of music tracks - music has never been high point of Heretic and its mods (to put it mildly), yet you managed to compile good-sounding ones. Some switches are a bit hard to find, but nothing too terrible. The mapset is easy, even on ITSM difficulty, mainly due to copious ammounts of ammo everywhere. I died only once and it even wasn't from the monsters - I drowned while exploring underwater section in E1M5. I hardly ever used any powerups in the first 5 maps, because there was simply no need to. Maybe you could cut down the ammo a bit for the higher difficulty settings. Or are the maps supposed to be played from pistol starts?

Other than that, I noticed a few minor problems along the way (Zdoom r4251):

E1M2: there are several open coffins with ammo and health vials in them. But the coffins are so narrow that the player has difficulty stepping inside and picking that stuff up. Make them a bit bigger.

E1M4: two stuck monsters in staircases, one weredragon (thing 426) and that ironlich (thing 213).

E1M6: stuck weredragon (thing 185). Maulotaur guarding the yellow key charged me and fell into the water pit (sector 223) and then it was as easy as killing fish in a barrel.

E1M8: stuck undead warrior (thing 185).

E1M9: five golems around the gauntlets activate only if player picks them up. If he already has the gauntlets from previous maps, the golems are unkillable. Maybe you could add linedefs around the gauntlets and use them as the trigger instead. Also, there are several monsters in cages in this map, but most of them are stuck.

[ArgonianLord]

Very nice Heretic mapset! I especially like your choices of music tracks - music has never been high point of Heretic and its mods (to put it mildly), yet you managed to compile good-sounding ones. Some switches are a bit hard to find, but nothing too terrible. The mapset is easy, even on ITSM difficulty, mainly due to copious ammounts of ammo everywhere. I died only once and it even wasn't from the monsters - I drowned while exploring underwater section in E1M5. I hardly ever used any powerups in the first 5 maps, because there was simply no need to. Maybe you could cut down the ammo a bit for the higher difficulty settings. Or are the maps supposed to be played from pistol starts?

Other than that, I noticed a few minor problems along the way (Zdoom r4251):

E1M2: there are several open coffins with ammo and health vials in them. But the coffins are so narrow that the player has difficulty stepping inside and picking that stuff up. Make them a bit bigger.

E1M4: two stuck monsters in staircases, one weredragon (thing 426) and that ironlich (thing 213).

E1M6: stuck weredragon (thing 185). Maulotaur guarding the yellow key charged me and fell into the water pit (sector 223) and then it was as easy as killing fish in a barrel.

E1M8: stuck undead warrior (thing 185).

E1M9: five golems around the gauntlets activate only if player picks them up. If he already has the gauntlets from previous maps, the golems are unkillable. Maybe you could add linedefs around the gauntlets and use them as the trigger instead. Also, there are several monsters in cages in this map, but most of them are stuck.

Thank you Caleb for the nice feedback, and another thanks for letting me know of those stuck enemies (I will fix that asap).

Well if I'll be honest, I really was afraid I added too little ammo. But that might be because of the fact that I was testing the WAD on the Hardest Difficulty, where loads of ammo proves to be rather essential. But no, this WAD was not designed to be played from pistol starts, but the ability to do pistol starts for each level is there for those who want an extra challenge.

/ArgonianLord