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Re: RETRO HERETIC MAPS / H!ZONE [Re-Upload]

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2020 5:28 am
by SiFi270
Thanks for looking into it. I should have known you'd come up with a more efficient way of doing what I thought would be so daunting.

Re: RETRO HERETIC MAPS / H!ZONE [Re-Upload]

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2020 6:06 am
by NightFright
Yeah, and I am glad it was so easy after all. Wouldn't have wanted to play through all those maps properly again just for this.

Fun fact:
It seems that this separate wad with sprites the original H!Zone shipped with contained the stalagmite/stalagtite replacements as well as the Iron Lich/Undead Warrior substitutes. That means in theory you would have only been able to play through ep.1 with the new enemies while not having these fake stools popping up here or there. That could have hardly been intended. Anyway, it's now entirely possible to use the enemy sprites in any episode without having to worry about this unwanted side effect.

H!Zone v1.21

Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2020 2:44 am
by NightFright
Hotfix time! Mostly I did this to replace most map fixes with a ZScript solution, allowing usage of the original versions of the maps (only did not work in case of E1M4, but there I found a different solution which at least does not involve adding new lines, only editing existing ones). I also used the wrong sector ID for the E1M2 lift fix, so it did not work before (but should now).
The most important change is the one for E3M9 - now you don't end the map any longer by triggering an invisible line in the final area, but instead you have to kill all four Undead Warriors (called "Masked Knights" now) on top of their towers. This is a far better approach since it gives you control over what's happening and you don't accidentally leave without killing everything. That and the map didn't have to be edited for this any more (ZScript ftw).

H!Zone for ZDoom v1.21 (PK3, 4.2 MB)

Changelog v1.21 (Oct 13, 2020)
> Reverted most changed maps (E1M2, E3M9, E4M6, E4M8, E6M3, E6M7) to their original (non-edited) state and re-applied fixes via ZScript
> E1M2: Corrected sector ID for green key lift fix (sector #247 instead of #230)
> E1M4: Inverted metal bar lines #1268-1271 (instead of creating new ones)
> E3M9: Changed map ending (now all four Undead Warriors in the final area need to be killed)
> MAPINFO: Removed dummy episode as separator between SP and MP episodes (MP content is now marked with [MULTIPLAYER] tag instead)
> LANGUAGE: Changed obituary for Undead Warrior from "Skull Knight" to "Masked Knight"

Re: RETRO HERETIC MAPS / H!ZONE [Re-Upload]

Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2021 6:46 pm
by Devalaous
Hi NightFright, just bumping this to say thanks for assembling this, and to report a few bugs ive encountered so far. First off, E1M1 has a Disciple behind a wall that never teleports in, down in the waterfall area down the river, it seems a wall was supposed to lower to let him have line of sight; clipping into the room causes him to wake up then move forward and teleport into the room, similar to the green key trap. In that same room, there is a missing texture to the right of the waterfall, and its highly visible. Not sure if the above two things are change-worthy, but im only a few maps in and it seems like 100%able levels would be on the list, especially given the change to e3M9 to allow max killing.

Secondly, the two reskinned monsters, when they kill me, the obituary lacks any spaces at all (corvuswaskilledbyamaskedknight, for example) for both of them.

Is it possible to use normal graphics for the episode titles, or is the sheer amount of episodes making that unlikely? Also, is it possible to vary up the soundtrack for later episodes? Seems like it repeats Episode 1's soundtrack over and over after a point, and with the release of the Raven Midi Pack, a good lot of variety could be added.

I'm running H!Zone with your custom brightmaps, the heretic spritefix and widescreen project, the raven midipack, and your fullscreen huds, if any of these is causing conflicts anywhere.

Re: RETRO HERETIC MAPS / H!ZONE [Re-Upload]

Posted: Fri May 28, 2021 4:00 pm
by NightFright
I have just read this now. The thread got a bit lost with all the posts happening here. I'll see if I can eventually get back to this project one last time, but right now it's hard since I am preoccupied atm.

One thing I can tell you already: Episode titles cannot be changed. It's too many episodes and there is no way to use the normal font, GZD cannot resize it. That small font is used automatically. We can be grateful GZD supports showing so many episodes at all.

Maybe something can be done with the music, but if it happens, it wouldn't be much more than assigning random tracks (possibly also from that Raven MIDI Project) to the levels. After all, it's not like any effort went into this for the original release. Most episodes were replacing the first episode and used its music without any changes.

Regarding those map issues: Might look into them, but haven't been into Doom mapping since I ended this project, and right now I am not motivated to get back into it. Maybe later this year, but no promises. I wasn't exactly planning on putting any more effort into this.

H!Zone v1.3

Posted: Sat May 29, 2021 6:02 am
by NightFright
OK, forget what I wrote above, lol! I took a look and found I could fix this in a rather short period of time, so I did...

This release should address the issues reported with E1M1 and custom obituaries not working as intended (basically I forgot to put quotation marks, simple mistake). I also put an end to episode 1 music repeating over and over again, utilizing the Raven MIDI Project, even including five tracks that remain unused in the regular game. Ideally, this should be the last update this time, so enjoy!

H!Zone for ZDoom v1.3 (PK3, 4.4 MB)

Changelog v1.3 (May 29, 2021)
> Now uses random music mix from original game and Raven MIDI Project
> Fix for new obituaries being displayed incorrectly ingame
> E1M1: Fix for Disciple (thing #32) not teleporting in on Hard; texture fix for line #254

Re: RETRO HERETIC MAPS / H!ZONE [Re-Upload]

Posted: Sun May 30, 2021 3:16 am
by Devalaous
Awesome, thanks for this! I got a few people interested in H!Zone's exclusive content recently, after getting through all of E1. Nash's widescreen update for GZDoom definitely sparked further interest in Heretic, having these lost episodes available is a great way to use them.

Re: RETRO HERETIC MAPS / H!ZONE [Re-Upload]

Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2021 9:53 am
by NightFright
I would still like to know how you were supposed to get that blue key from the pedestal in E6M3 without any Wings of Wrath to be found anywhere in the level. I mean, it's indeed possible the author just screwed this up, but normally you do some playtesting before release. Maybe some of those maps were made in such a hurry that sloppy mistakes like this one just had to happen.

Btw, interesting side infos from Joe Wilcox, former Simply Silly Software part owner who surfaced over at the Duke4.net forums:
- These shovelware CDs used to sell really well in general (that's why there were so many of them).
- H!Zone was the first WizardWorks addon with custom-made content especially for that release. At least one new monster and new levels were requested by WizardWorks.
- It was made within 2 months, 15h/7d shifts with just one artist (named Andre) responsible for new graphics.
- That snowy rock texture from ep.1 was (re)used by Wilcox in XMas Doom, H2H Xmas for D2 and Nuclear Winter for Duke3D.
- The Undead Warrior replacement was Wilcox' girlfriend (now wife) in a Halloween costume. The big "A" on the cape is probably for Andre, the name of the graphics guy.

Re: RETRO HERETIC MAPS / H!ZONE [Re-Upload]

Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2022 10:20 pm
by brick
Hey @NightFright. I'm not sure if you're still interested in maintaining this but I might have come across a bug in E3M5. Line #1089 is supposed to raise several sectors (tag 14) to partially make a walkway (it's completed through tag 10 and another switch elsewhere). The sectors with tag 14 are 304 305 306 308 309 310. However, pressing the switch only raises 304 and 310, so the walkway is never complete. I have a feeling this is fixable with a compatibly flag but nothing I've changed makes any difference.

I've also noticed several levels where it's possible to get softlocked if you go somewhere too early, usually before finding a key, but I'm guessing you didn't mess with these in the first place and only fixed bugs that make levels completely impossible to complete, right?

Re: RETRO HERETIC MAPS / H!ZONE [Re-Upload]

Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2022 6:03 am
by NightFright
Strange I haven't noticed this back when I played it. I haven't been into GZD compatibility scripts for a while, so I dunno if I want to get back into it just for this. But well, if it's a showstopper, I guess it's worth taking a look. What would probably help would be screenshots (ingame+map) so I know what to look for while checking on my own. Makes one wonder how others were able to complete ep.3 without coming across this issue, though.

When you start with softlocks however, I am sure the pack is riddled with them, so that's a bit out of scope for me at this point.

Re: RETRO HERETIC MAPS / H!ZONE [Re-Upload]

Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2022 11:18 am
by brick
Oh I am such an idiot. I went back and checked, it's not a softlock because the area you get access to is completely optional. And by testing a bit more I also found out that pressing the tag 10 switch first THEN coming back and using the tag 14 one still bugs out the floors raising, but it does then become possible to get across. I'm including a screenshot for the record but there's no need for a fix at all.
Spoiler:
Anyway thanks a lot for putting this thing together! The maps are quite variable in quality but there are some rather ingenious designs and ideas in there and it's been fun going through.

Re: RETRO HERETIC MAPS / H!ZONE [Re-Upload]

Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2022 11:54 am
by NightFright
That's quite alright. Thanks for checking again! I am glad my edits made people play this a bit more, it's actually a hidden gem. And in spite of its quantity of maps, there's some quality to be found there.

I would still be curious how some maps were supposed to work without my edits, though. Like E6M3 where I added Wings of Wrath since I couldn't find any way to get on top of that pedestal to reach a key...

Re: RETRO HERETIC MAPS / H!ZONE [Re-Upload]

Posted: Sat May 21, 2022 2:08 pm
by RKD
Hey, just wanted to thank NightFright for putting a playable and more practical version of this all together and also AstroCreep for sharing this in the first place.

The varying quality of maps for each episode are really interesting and can totally be used as a case study in map design. There are some really neat ideas here and there, aside from the fact that they are not all well executed. Ep 1 to 4 are really amateur-ish and bad looking, as if they were made by a 10yo kid or something. First two levels of Ep 3 don't even have enough ammo for all the monsters count, iirc.
Having said that, tho, ep 5 onwards were waaaay more enjoyable. Really nice map design and encounters, good fun. One of the levels full of Ophidians and eggs was a neat and funny concept, for example. Didn't check the multiplayer ones but I'll do that eventually. So yeah, nice to have a massive collection of Heretic maps to test stuff. :wink:

Re: RETRO HERETIC MAPS / H!ZONE [Re-Upload]

Posted: Sun May 22, 2022 3:51 am
by NightFright
I just wished I could make this compatible with more ports than just GZDoom. However, there are several obstacles in the way, the biggest ones being the lack of Heretic having proper DEHACKED support like Doom, you can't have too many episodes, nothing like ZScript etc. If only there were Heretic ports with UMAPINFO support at least. I could also use maps that already have all fixes integrated, but it won't be enough to make everything work. It's a pity, really.

Re: RETRO HERETIC MAPS / H!ZONE [Re-Upload]

Posted: Sun May 22, 2022 11:56 am
by RKD
I'm not entirely an expert in the matter, but GZDoom is the Heretic port of excellence from what I can tell. Unlike Doom, which has a plethora of ports with different approaches and emulations and stuffzz, Heretic has... how many? Two, three? Considering that the best way of playing vanilla Heretic is basically "just play it on MS-DOS", I would say that what you did (getting this working and running in GZDoom) is the most widely approachabble solution for whoever gets interested in this map pack. Trying to get this working in other ports as of now feels more like a novelty, imo.

Who knows, maybe someday in the future Heretic/Hexen will have their own dedicated gazillion ports like Doom. :)