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Master Levels for Heretic

Posted: Mon Nov 18, 2019 2:43 am
by NightFright
We have the Master Levels for Doom II, but for many people out there it's a mixed bag. Since Heretic is still underrepresented (even though it's getting a bit better lately), I was wondering what a Master Levels edition for Heretic could look like. With the main difference that it's free of charge and map quality is a lot better, of course. Therefore I handpicked about 50 of the best (highest-rated) levels from the idgames archive and compiled them into one big package. The challenge was to avoid sound and graphics conflicts, which turned out to be the most time-consuming effort throughout the entire process. If you are someone like me who usually only downloads full episodes instead of single maps, missing out a lot of the good stuff - this is your chance to catch up, at least to some degree. If you are not, just consider this a trip down memory lane, celebrating over 20 years of Heretic mapping. About 12-15 hours of high-quality Heretic gameplay in total.

Download (PK3, 10.9 MB)

Additional info:
1) You should use at least GZDoom 4.2.4 for this since I am using a new MAPINFO function allowing to show author names on the level stats/tally screen.
2) Some maps had to be edited to make packaging along with other maps possible, avoiding sound and graphics conflicts.
3) PWADs containing more than one level were split, with health and inventory maintained during level transitions.
4) Separately released maps belonging together (as a series) are bundled, but health and inventory is reset during level transitions.
5) "The River of Fire, Part 3": This map requires jumping.
6) Notable map changes:
- "Blood, Fire, Death": Second map omitted since you basically just die there
- "Enchanter": Line #1786 edited in second level to fix a texture problem
- "The Remote Outpost": Specials for lines #346+1180 changed from 28 to 26 (green --> blue access door)
- "The River of Fire, Part 3": TITLEMAP omitted

Menu preview:


Included maps & credits:

Code: Select all

Adrian Hanekom .................. "Where Serpents ever Dwell" (2011)
Azamael ......................... "Blood, Fire, Death" (2010)
Charlie Reis .................... "The Seven Chambers" (1997)
Chris Klie ...................... "Smudge" (1995), 3 maps
Christopher Lutz ................ "Icebound" (2011), "Reclamation" (2001), "Torture" (2001)
David Dibble .................... "Enchanter" (1999), 2 maps
David J. Reid ................... "Wyvern Heights" (1995)
DooMBoy ......................... "The Abandoned City" (2004)
Draconio ........................ "The Sewers of D'sparil, Part 1" (2004)
ETTiNGRiNDER .................... "Coven" (2012), "Mountain King's Domain" (2015), "Valley of Saints" (2013)
Eric Alm ........................ "The Sewers of D'sparil, Part 2" (2004)
Hisymak ......................... "New Dungeons" (2010)
Joe ............................. "Camelot" (1995)
J.C. 'SailorScout' Bengtson ..... "The Fiery Crater" (2000), "The Fiery Descent" (1999), "Water Castle" (1999), "Water City" (1997)
J. Keith Foster ................. "Die Trying" (1995)
John 'Dr. Sleep' Anderson ....... "Recant" (1995)
Keith Phipps .................... "The Subterranean River" (1995)
Ken Phipps ...................... "Burial Ground" (2000), "Dark Mountain" (1998), "Dark Mountain II" (1999), "Desert Crypt" (1998), "Shadowy Forest" (2000)
Lüt ............................. "The Sewers of D'sparil, Part 3" (2004)
Mike 'Impie' MacDee ............. "Max Saga: The Doom Dragon" (2014)
MorbidBrute ..................... "Emerald Bathhouse" (2016)
Pablo Dictter ................... "Heart of Fire" (2001), "The River of Fire" (2000), "The River of Fire, Part 3" (2010), 2 maps
Paul Corfiatis .................. "Candy Choppers" (2001), "Lucifer's Spell" (2007)
PCA Joseph ...................... "Ascent from the Depths" (1996)
PillowBlaster ................... "The Dragonmaw"
Pritesh 'Ice' Mistry ............ "D'sparil's Lost Keep" (2000)
Robert Eckhardt ................. "The Crypts" (2003)
Samuel 'Kaiser' Villarreal ...... "Town of Witchcraft" (2007)
Sarge Baldy ..................... "The Remote Outpost" (2005)
SFoZ911 ......................... "Town of Aquafort" (2012)
SlayeR .......................... "Fortress of D'sparil" (2002)
Travers Dunne ................... "Avatar's Demise" (1997)
Wraith .......................... "Alfa 4" (2015)

Re: Master Levels for Heretic

Posted: Mon Nov 18, 2019 9:21 am
by MFG38
Nice to see more Heretic stuff, even if it is essentially a compilation of older maps. I'll make sure to give this a look.

Re: Master Levels for Heretic

Posted: Fri Nov 22, 2019 3:16 am
by Lagi
That's excellent map pack. Thank you very much for it. I dont play any one of this before, I only replay vanilla maps with mods.

I play it with following add-ons [for other casuls like me :) ]:
  • Voxels - by Reikall
    Corner UI - NightFright (yours) (scale in options>HUD options>scaling options>user interface scale>press right arrow)
    textures - neural
    quick-keys for Artifacts - base it on Tesculpture code & tweak to work with Reikall Voxels. Default bind [zxcqrfgvbn], but can be set in menu.

Re: Master Levels for Heretic

Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2019 1:14 pm
by Lagi
very nice levels, I was just forced to "tome-of-power" staff to deal with monsters :)

are some of those levels design with jump and crouch in mind?

Re: Master Levels for Heretic

Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2019 2:18 pm
by NightFright
I am only aware of one which is mentioned in the OP. I played all these levels to make sure they can all be completed. Especially the early levels from the 90s certainly won't need jumping since there wasn't any port around that would support that. Crouching actually shouldn't be needed anywhere at all if I am not mistaken.

My personal highlight of the entire pack is most certainly "Icebound". You notice for sure this map took 7 years to make, insane amount of details. Didn't win a Cacoward for nothing, that's for sure.

Re: Master Levels for Heretic

Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2019 9:52 pm
by Jimmy
WE NEED MORE HERETIC!

And this is an awesome way to showcase what we already have! I'll be checking this out for sure. I admire the commitment to combining all the separate maps into one package like this.

Re: Master Levels for Heretic

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2020 4:06 pm
by Caleb13
Are you going to fix bugs in the maps, even though they're old? I gave this try in GZdoom 4.2.4 on UV and I encountered some problems:

BFD: in the large ironlich arena, linedefs are blocking the gargoyles from approaching the center. It looks weird.

BURIALG: very low difficulty, mainly because there are mountains of arrows everywhere. It could have 70% more monsters for the same ammo count.

CAMELOT: HOM at linedef 1066 when the gate opens, you need to look from the east.

COVEN: the secret sectors are all wonky. There are duplicate ones and some are too small to be "found" reliably.

DLKEEP: isn't the chaos device closet (behind bars) supposed to be secret? Also, check out things placement around the map, some monsters are facing the wrong way and some health is half inside wall.

DARKMTN2: sectors 491 and 493 probably shouldn't be secret.

DESCRYPT: it seems no secret areas are marked as secret.

DIETRYIN: It's impossible to walk though one gap, see the screenshot below. It's almost like linedef 217 extends to the left. Isn't sector 165 supposed to be secret? Conversely, the secret in sector 199 is useless, why it's even there? And the final stairs puzzle was annoying as hell, I just noclipped over it.

EMERBATH: aren't sectors 296 and 298 supposed to be secret?

That's all I have for now.


Re: Master Levels for Heretic

Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2020 3:22 am
by NightFright
With monster placement I cannot help. Since there are a lot of maps and I don't want to play them all again to find the places you are talking about, I'd need two screenshots per issue, one ingame shot and one showing automap.

Re: Master Levels for Heretic

Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2020 3:28 am
by Caleb13
Oh. I thought you were in contact with the original authors. Nevermind, then. But I guess you could at least fix problems where I identified exact sector/linedef numbers.

Re: Master Levels for Heretic

Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2020 3:39 am
by NightFright
Sure, that shouldn't be a problem. If I have the same impression that it should be different and there are no indicators to the contrary, it'll be done.

Re: Master Levels for Heretic

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2020 8:58 am
by Caleb13
Okay, a few more issues:

BFD: linedefs 6084 etc. shouldn't block monsters.

PC_LS: sectors 416 and 418 shouldn't be secret.

SEVEN: sitch textures on linedefs 748 and 1345 are misaligned.

TORTURE: there is no crossbow, not even on low difficulty. It must be a bug, because there are lots of ammo for around the map. Missing teleport destination thing for sector tag 18. And it seems sector 40 should be secret.

KAISER21: linedefs 4914 etc. are blocking projectiles. For example, if you shoot hellstaff from sector 1251 to UWs in sector 857, the projectiles are not getting through. It affects at least two other UW sniper areas, IMO it happens because sector 0 has too low ceiling. The phoenix rod secret is pretty much impossible to find without looking in the editor, the player has to press the switch and then quickly use 3 different teleporters to get it. IMO linedef 2684 should lower it permanently (action 60).

WATRCITY: it's impossible to picku up thing 433 (arrows). Move them a bit to north.

Re: Master Levels for Heretic

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2020 9:06 am
by Enjay
NightFright wrote:With monster placement I cannot help. Since there are a lot of maps and I don't want to play them all again to find the places you are talking about, I'd need two screenshots per issue, one ingame shot and one showing automap.
Also, remember that typing idmypos at the game screen (or idmypos 1 at the console) will put the player's coordinates on screen. Then you can use the console warp command once you are in the map to go to that exact same position.



Re: Master Levels for Heretic

Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2020 10:44 am
by Rachael
Whoa, some of these are actually really just "holy shit" levels of awesome. Really nicely done. :)

Re: Master Levels for Heretic

Posted: Mon Feb 24, 2020 1:43 am
by Darman Macray
This is an amazing idea with excellent execution. I'm Loving, loving, loving these maps!

It's like H-Zone--but BETTER :D

EDIT: I just beat this collection today! The maps were really nice--I only had to cheat on Smudge part II, as I was wandering aimlessly for 40 minutes and decided to noclipped to get on with things. Thanks for making this :D

Re: Master Levels for Heretic

Posted: Sat Feb 29, 2020 5:22 am
by pionetr123
the reclamation v2 (hidden wizard)

https://youtu.be/WzuabT5eeuU