Shiiittt, another Heretic hub. Fantastic! Downloaded straight away - the screenshots are excellent.
I've played the first 3 levels as of this post. I have some small criticisms but overall I'm really loving it.
Layouts so far feel a little "constricting", for want of a better term, not space-wise, but in terms of flow. The maps are not linear but the crucial points of progression are definitely in a very strict order - not that this is bad in itself, but in a few instances it seems like the way forward is to go "the long way round", such as opening that small grey door on Umber Keep with a small switch that's in plain sight to begin with but is unreachable because Corvus can't jump 32 units to the island it's on. I feel it would be rewarding for the player if upon reaching these key locations, that the way opened up slightly to reduce backtracking - in the case of the aforementioned island, maybe lower it by a good 16 or 24 units once it's reached for the first time? The additional teleporter to the western section on Azure Canals is one such instance where this sort of thing is already done well. Any way that you can open up the layout across the maps like this would be more than welcome - or really, just any means of increasing interconnectivity across the layouts would be awesome.
Lifts in general could also do with being better telegraphed - I realise that the texture you've gone for is consistently used here, and is certainly used for lifts in the original, but one or two did not appear to be lifts on the first few glances. The two at the north in Azure Canals didn't appear to be useable objects on a cursory inspection (the midtexture used on their front sides had me fooled for a sec) and the one at the south in Umber Keep felt especially tucked away.
I feel like I've hit a snag on Azure Canals. The trigger line to lower that teleporter to the south is on a remote ledge that can't be accessed... unless you teleport to that ledge via that same teleporter. Is this a design oversight? That same ledge has the crucial switch that raises platforms to the blue door where the crystal skull is found.
So far I'm loving it. Always welcome a Heretic set with a bit more intrigue and novelty to it. The Bjorn Lynne midis are also a fab touch.
And well done for starting the set on a boat. For some reason that's one of my favorite tropes.
