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You are expected to fight your way through endless hordes commanded by Korax to kill the Serpent Rider, once again. Exact details why and how still elude you. Path to your goal lies beyond seven Sealed Portals (not to be confused with the *other* sealed Seven Portals). You must explore the locales connected by the portal hub and retrieve whatever weapons and artifacts are required to complete your battle against Korax. Time is of the essence and you might want to eschew thorough search, but who knows what awaits you in the end?..
Featuring:
- eight non-linear levels of endless ettin slaughter
- puzzles, puzzles, puzzles - many sidepuzzles, even if most are simple item/switch hunts
- not a single new monster, period
19/10/2023: New version has extensive changes, including bugfixes.
Spoiler:
Every level is quite large (4000x and more), but episodes still runs out much sooner than full Hexen experience. The starting hub level is, admittedly, awkwardly large even if you'll never need to explore it again. For most levels, puzzles are self-contained so that's a relief at least. Sidepuzzles on levels usually reward you with a krater, an icon or a weapon piece, so that you can assemble it mid-episode if you know where to look. The most difficult part is when you don't yet have your third weapon; search for it. The maps have droves of ambit incants so if you use a mod which enables them in singleplayer, you'll gather a lot; I designed episode for them to be necessary. There's five instances across the hub for each class, not every Final level is more linear than the most of the hub, it's still large with a murderous monster count of ~600 before you enter Korax mash legions. Have fun, and do remember that both Traductus and Menelkir can kill you near instantly.
The puzzles are, most of the time, self-explanatory; I do not think any mandatory puzzle demands you find some secret lever hidden who knows where (...apart from flooding oasis, it's a mess), and the few levers which don't net visible effect are marked with symbols blantantly hinting at their purpose (which are duplicated at places they affect). Pull all switches, press all buttons and it should work out okay.
Note: I purposefully ditched all and any effort to make a storyline beyond "KMDA". It's all show, no tell. Expect suddenly Heresiarch, suddenly Zedek, suddenly Traductus, suddenly Menelkir. There are several Death Wyverns and you can save a lot of mana by killing monsters with their splash... that is, if you have the patience to dodge for so long.
A few edge cases regarding unauthorised use of Speed Boots or jumping off your friend's head exist. You can skip some puzzles that way, I think I caught them all so it's all handled (the way I like it, not the "can't do that" way) but I can't be sure. A few cases when you're locked inside someplace might be not handled well for coop mode. Some plugs for stuff I should have removed might still remain behind.
Either way, I hope you enjoy playing through KMDA.
About the class where everything sucks:
Fighter is strong even against heresiarch, the hammer does big damage on him, Mage can combo a lot of enemies, the Sapphire wand is like a railgun who go through the enemies and Frost Shards can 2hit an Ettin with the close range effect, Arc of Death can 1shot any normal enemy if used well ect...
For Cleric, you can speedrun it before getting the Serpent Staff and use the flask+disc of repulsion combo.
I started to play it and the level design is cool but there is really too much health and armor items, it's impossible to die : x
We should really remove at least 80% of the health items and armor, Hexen need some challenges and Ettin are not dangerous even for the first weapon of the Cleric, there is one health or armor item every 3 meter...
Except that, it's nice,i liked the lava who become rock in the water and the amount of enemies sometimes, i'm at the swamp, i will continue it later
"Centaurs and Slaughtaurs are common, not because they're good enemies but because they are small and can walk narrow paths better.": Make the paths/corridors larger then?
EDIT: Swamp map difficulty balance is better and the fog puzzle is very cool!
I didnt find the hammer, i suppose i should have started with the other map? I will check it
Manhs wrote:Nice, thanks!
...
I started to play it and the level design is cool but there is really too much health and armor items, it's impossible to die : x
Ah well, that's why I released this beta: to have people tell me I am being dumb about something Thank you for feedback!
It's maybe me getting too old for FPS - nowadays I can lose a bit health on single afrits as a vanilla mage by failing to dodge stupidly, so there's that. So yeah I suppose I could remove a bunch of stuff
Also - if you aren't playing at Hard difficulty, there is... indeed, a problem as I marked way too much stuff as low/igh difficulty-specific, items and monsters both.
It's also a problem because I've balanced the first level around my own mod based on beefing up some more (!!!) Wrath of Cronos because the old vanilla hexen was way too easy for me (as you said ettins are no threat, WoC has them threeshot you casually) and that certainly shows The initial draft of a slimy room on first map actually contained multiple slaughtaurs and centaurs (in a tiny room, while you only have 2nd weapon), and the timer on crushers was like half the release version - six seconds per switch or so, so I actually failed to do it even as vanilla mage ten times a row, so then I cut it back.
On the other hand, most of the maps have monster sets unique by class (e.g. Mire has brownies for fighter, for mage and for cleric mostly separate) whereas equipment pool is more set in stone, and then there's respawn scripts which take after Deathkings more, so it is probably better balanced for co-op walkthrough.
In my latest test the final level actually doesn't have enough ammo for the crowds in vanilla, I think even by plain numbers when I crunched these (I think I haven't added that much more ammo since? I've certainly upped spawns of ambushes). Like, I ran dry on most of the sections so I had to dip into kraters. Once again, some might be the issue of me wraithverging a single centaur every time stupidly. I'll be happy to confirm or disprove my theory on what's the root issue once you're done with entire hub!
P.S. The swamp level is actually the least populated of all, if I remember stats correctly. It also happens to be the one I would have hated with fiery passion if I wasn't one to design it so I know where everything is hidden
Manhs wrote:
I didnt find the hammer, i suppose i should have started with the other map? I will check it
Spoiler:
The hammer can be found in the swamp. Actually, from every level you can get your 3rd weapon, it's just usually hidden behind the puzzle and if you don't know which one, you can go through a string of three levels without one. I think, haven't exactly tried - it's difficult to try when I'm so spoiled to the bone
...actually, I've cut a lot of comments spoiling the hub from the readme file and description both, did I? I might have been wrong because they describe exactly the issue you describe.
Ah yeah, in WoC, the enemies are more agressive and dangerous yes.
I was playing it with difficulty 4/5 so no fast mode for the enemies.
Yeah, the stalkers can block you and all, but the puzzle with fog was original i think
EDIT: Forsaken Catacomb is pretty fun, nice maze, got the gem but i think i missed some stuff, apparently there is a door in the librairy, have to find to to go there, will come back in the swamp to finish it too.
EDIT2: Got the item at the librairy
Well, im playing with the fighter on difficulty 4/5 so i suppose a lot of health and mana is not too much for the 2 other class because there is a lot of strong enemies and it's very cool to fight them, hammer/axe are very powerful and don't cost too much mana. It could be harder for the other class so i suppose it's not a big problem if the first hub has too many items, people can come back to take it, the swamps are pretty dangerous with the amount of stalkers by exemple.
EDIT3: omg, all these puzzles stuff in the swamp, very challenging, i don't hate it, i found everything (the switchs, green planets and the red planet) but it was long
I think you could remove some centaurs or replace them with Afrit, there is a lot of them and it could be boring for the Cleric to fight them, even for the Mage (architecture could delete the thunder of Arc of Death sometimes) and remove maybe some health items and a few mana items too but not so much i think.
The centaur are made to tank but if there is too much of them, people won't have so much fun.
Nice maps, i like the geometry, it was fun to use the disc of repulsion in the ice tower ^^
2 gems left!
Ok, i finished it! Close to find everything i think except the Rusty key of the last area. I think i had some gears but i will check it later x)
This part of the map when we find a key puzzle or a key, i think it need something to show where the player should search to escape: https://i.imgur.com/apR0ECd.png
In "The Yawning Chasm", you can take directly the gem by jumping, Fighter without boots or Cleric/Mage with speed boots: https://i.imgur.com/ZsC76xn.png
In the hub, when you go through the door by the map and not the hub, you can't use the door again from here: https://i.imgur.com/Mann5vA.png
Same map, the Death Wyvern are too much in a high place, hard to hit them: https://i.imgur.com/L1yvAon.png
But in a way, we can dodge them easily so it's not a big issue.
After beating the final boss, if you fall here and the platform come back here, you are stuck in this place: https://i.imgur.com/GgQkP17.png
Overall, a very good expansion for me, who focus on geometry and complex puzzles/switchs stuff, items to find and we have the choice to do some puzzles to get items or just the gem.
Very vertical, i liked to walk everywhere to check stuff ^^
Items like torch are very useful here, which is a good thing because it's not so used in wads.
About balance, again, i think it's better to remove some centaurs here and here and some health/armor item but yeah, not so much maybe, you know what to do anyway
It was fun
- All puzzle items and keys you didn't use up are now useable in some manner during final map. If you ask why they weren't in first release version, I'll tell you truthfully (and still honestly): "secret"
- Some mana and health items all across were removed.
- More monsters added. Yes, I know it's a cheap way to raise difficulty
- Abode of Night revised significantly. There are now more monsters and new spawns during level are often spectral versions, which mechanically means nothing but they are even less visible. At the same time, lots of mana and health was removed. Also, many walls are passthrough - for monsters, not the player - and monster teleports were used more generously.
- Serpent Vale had the mage piece puzzle spun off the portal puzzle it was entwined with. A lot of effort to get the reward... and now that I think the other option to get that weapon piece is in an eqully maddening place. Ah well.
- Yawning Chasm now has even more ettins and afrits, and chaos serpents. Mana and health are cut, instead.
- Spire of Frost got nastier too. Mana removed, monsters added, the works. Also, afrit temple puzzle might have been unsolvable - I *think* I got it right now, but can't be sure. Use a Dark Servant as jumping pad if all else fails
- Endless Mire gained spectral brown serpent patrols in the outer areas. I considered adding more hints for puzzle (there are some, but a few things are entirely unremarkably hidden but I was short on time this week.
- Final level got some more monsters, but I couldn't really tell the difference with Wraithverge. Mana and health, cut.
- Korax fight got bit more nastier, and gets the more nastier the higher difficulty and player count.
- Some Death Wyvern stuckup fixed. Others, not so much; I think I might just give up and cut some routes, even if them being predictable lessens threat.
Some other problems I considered, rambling at night:
Spoiler:
- The six levels get progressively easier as you complete them. It's a nice feeling in a way, but I considered adding scripts to make them more difficult as you travel. The problem? Well duh, "no custom content" was the challenge I set up myself with this episode and I struggle with ways to make an ettin a threat without locking you in a 384x384 with a swarm of these; Korax was enough of a hassle to set up. Adding different monster types... is something I'm leery about, since I tried to make every level a distinct one. Removing items like mana? Well... that's just not nice. Opening sections? That's backtracking and I tried to set up so that you backtrack empty levels as little as possible.
- The secret level discovery. It's a secret, but is it secret enough, or secret too much? Finding it is... kind of pixel-hunting akin to Endless Mire, the only clue you are certain to notice is placed very obviously, but the others, not so much. Should I figure a few more places to place clues so that you're more certain to notice one?
- Secret level itself. it's set up in a manner simple to understand once you figure you cannot progress there (or... you trigger THAT trap and have fun surviving until portal back reopens ). It's actually nicely constructed all in all, if a "little" *bit* slaughtaur happy, and you really only need *one* puzzle item to explore its most important sections; others are gravy if you want your weapon piece without completing associated level... now that I think don't some level contain the same pieces *anyways*? Eh, painful to redesign entire sections at that point but I'll look into it. Well that and boots of speed for every time you make the jump, but if you quit midway this probably means you've run out of ammo, haven't you?
- Adding an extra section for first hub level (branchin off entrance caves north). On one hand, it's already sort of too long, on the other hand I could do away with cave key finding its way into your inventory no matter what because it's necessary, and stagger both monsters and goodies and also add more clues for secret level too.
- Generally balance. I found myself to be kind of shit at eyeballing mana needs, seeing as I usually play mage who uses 12 blue on a single afrit. Or 18, if it's dodging the lightning I use because I was out of shards. That is when I'm not using a wand to begin with.
- Spikes up never being used. I think I actually could fit them into Yawning Chasm, seeing as it is stylistically appropriate for this trap. On the other hand, I really really struggle to recall the last time they skewered me period, unless it was a place really spike happy Then again, punishing for walking into dark place without a torch... an idea that is for another level.
- Prettifying and making Abode of Night more interesting. It's currently flat-out slaughtermap of dark, dreary. flat empty spaces with a monster count second.. no still third highest of episode; final map is just that long. I guess the passthrough columns amidst rooms could help monsters avoid your missiles AND block your movement (lines can do that), and I might even scale down the ridiculously boring count again! Then again, some might like current way better, and I'd have to convert all corporeal ettins/centaurs to ghosts for that to truly make sense... which I probably already should but it's Saturday for me already so I'm behind schedule.
Manhs wrote:Ok, i finished it! Close to find everything i think except the Rusty key of the last area. I think i had some gears but i will check it later x)
...
Overall, a very good expansion for me, who focus on geometry and complex puzzles/switchs stuff, items to find and we have the choice to do some puzzles to get items or just the gem.
Very vertical, i liked to walk everywhere to check stuff ^^
Items like torch are very useful here, which is a good thing because it's not so used in wads.
About balance, again, i think it's better to remove some centaurs here and here and some health/armor item but yeah, not so much maybe, you know what to do anyway
It was fun
Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for testing!
I've fixed these bugs you reported (and also some you did not heh).
Some comments on your comments:
- Gem taking is... well I thought the overhang should take care of that but I didn't take into account you can jump off the edge of the tower I expanded it some, I'll spend some time trying to figure if it's expanded enough but the direct line is blocked and if you can aircontrol your way around then I might as well just give up on it
On that note, jumping from tower onto the cliff is legit. You do get a wyvern-in-your-face for that, after all.
- Lava levels were mismatched, yes. Now there shouldn't be such disrepancies
- On being platform-stranded: I guess final boss script triggered multiple times. I didn't have a failsafe there so pretty much anything non-stock Hexen could be the reason. There might be a few such issues with that across the hub, but I think nothing that important. ...Maybe, I should test Heresiarches.
- Rock texture being weird is intentional; it's meant to be broken. I changed it to sloped floor anyways.
- On centaurs: the Fighter class actually uses them as stand-in for other ranged types in most level. Mage and Cleric get more ranged enemies instead so they don't get borent, and at Serpent Oasis I drown the most in tunnels anyways
Anyways, with that out of the way once again, thanks for playing and tell me what you think:
Based on feedback (and my own confirmation of just *how* rusty I was at time of release) I've updated the entire hub. Broadly speaking changes are:
- redone Abode of Night, now with ghostly enemies and monster-passable pillars everywhere
- removed urns, flasks, ambits and kraters all over the place - healing is now less mobile
- extra monster spawns on nearby maps once you get the rubies
- removed mana from maps past the first two, to make you use kraters
- bugfixes at various points
Plans:
- make pre-final maps in hub even more difficult, somehow? Removing more mana and spawning more monsters? Taking away vials so you need stored flasks? Taking away late map flasks too? Some maps did hit the point when the monsters pretty much flood the tunnels, like Serpent Vale, and I don't see more pressure as more difficult rather than boring; there's only so much you can do without custom enemies without redoing it all from scratch.
- there are still very many porkalators: I hesitated to actually take away enough mana to make their use mandatory or reduce their amount.
- find a way to make Korax fight actually challenging but not impossible. If you finish all sidequests it's really not.
- adjust difficulty of hub map?
Anyways, feel free to play through the episode and just have fun.
A few more bug fixes were committed, but all in all, I think I'm okay with how it currently plays, so I'm calling this a release version and moving on. I might get back to polish it later but that will happen later.
(It may be something about how I play, but during multiple playthrough I repeatedly stocked full flasks and many urns, only to proceed flushing them all into drain. Most kraters of might end up unused anwyays after a full clean of all levels, but, a coop playthrough should be merrier with all the respawn scripts producing a way to actually spend mana. Regardless, running out of mana is more annoying than challenging with densely packed crowds everywhere)
Anyways, thanks to everyone here for feedback on various issues!
1. How to get the gem here? It's possible to jump on first platform, if you have enough patience to try, but not the second, ever with the boots. Guy here https://youtu.be/Iws18apmuhE?t=3768 had similar issue. I've found that there is secret with flying helmet exist on the last level, which might solve the issue, might I didn't find a way to get there. Decide that it's a bug and used "noclip" to get one.
2. What inserting 6/6 gems gives? I see no any effect after and, it seems, no changes in the hub. Does it make Korax weeker? Like it happens if you clean up 2 specific spots, one on the secret level and another on the last level?
3. Regarding castle level. It's require to press four switches in the hub, which I did, or you can enter there no matter of this fact and switches has another purpose?
4. There is no specific reward after fight in the fighter's tomb? I.e. if not count items inside it?
5. It's not possible to shoot to small switch on the wall on the north part of the secret level. If you are playing as a Cleric at least.
I finally reached a conclusion on whatever did I do to the Forsaken Catacomb in the latest version I uploaded...
UnknDoomer wrote: ↑Mon Jan 09, 2023 8:56 am
Just finished the wad, but still have some questions to figure out. Played with GzDoom 4.10.0.
1. How to get the gem here? It's possible to jump on first platform, if you have enough patience to try, but not the second, ever with the boots. Guy here https://youtu.be/Iws18apmuhE?t=3768 had similar issue. I've found that there is secret with flying helmet exist on the last level, which might solve the issue, might I didn't find a way to get there. Decide that it's a bug and used "noclip" to get one.
...bad news are, it is a broken puzzle.
Spoiler:
Longer answer: I broke this particular puzzle in at least *three* places at once while attempting to fix the fourth problem that did go away; two of the critically important bridges are at wrong height (one hardlocks the floor movement because glitter bridges cannot be moved, and the other is too high) and one script command does a softlocking owie. I actually fixed this in July, but then I decided I want to improve everything else anyways; I was much sloppier about texturing back when it was a baby's first wad, and it... drags on since.
The Wings of Wrath on the final level are not accessible. I placed them for... reasons? and then I started to mutilate ceiling heights in Spire of Frost, at which point I decided allowing player to fly is badwrong because they can possibly see unpegged texturing outside level bounds (heh, as if it is actually any worse than the rest). There are actually other problems I don't recall in details which boil down to entering areas without activating mandatory triggers in the process.
All in all, there is no good excuse for not fixing this long ago.
Spoiler:
I did know about these issues being possible for a long time but then I wandered away into sunset. Then the Redkeep mapping block happened and I kept postponing this for ... hm ... two years by now? Blech. Expect I will be updating "when it is done" (Duke Nukem Forever did release, eventually...) but that is very silly.
The Redkeep can go die in a fire at this point, it's ridiculous how many times I spent attempting to update one damn level only to give up in disgust. ...also I need to complete four of six spritesheets and I misplaced the source models at least twice over this period. It seems I did it again, so blech.
Considering the fact 6/8 of Redkeep hub 3 levels are fully designed and playable since december 2021, it is fairly obvious by now I have some major issues with the idea of completing it, and no ideas for graceful closure without picking at it like a scab.
UnknDoomer wrote: ↑Mon Jan 09, 2023 8:56 am
2. What inserting 6/6 gems gives? I see no any effect after and, it seems, no changes in the hub. Does it make Korax weeker? Like it happens if you clean up 2 specific spots, one on the secret level and another on the last level?
The Korax hall in the finale has 6 korax faces displayed, which actually display extra healthbars. Fifth and sixth gem disable one panel each, as does every other action which is accompanied by the "korax is weakened".
Reviewing the code, I think I made a mistake somewhere because it calls disabling script at least four more times than it should on a single panel 71, and it doesn't look like I actually foolproofed this case, so there might be no effect visible from extra gems because the half-baked script already weakens the Korax to minimal strength (he is supposed to have six extra lives' worth of health, barring classic edge cases of Map40-breaking by too high damage per second). I'll have to restest that later, but I am now pretty sure this does not work as intended unless you skip everything by abusing non-obvious shortcuts through the glass section.
UnknDoomer wrote: ↑Mon Jan 09, 2023 8:56 am
3. Regarding castle level. It's require to press four switches in the hub, which I did, or you can enter there no matter of this fact and switches has another purpose?
You can enter with two switches, provided you know where the hidden first entrance is. Four switches open the second portal in the start room. This set of switches has no other effects... unless you count confusing the player by cryptic messages that is.
UnknDoomer wrote: ↑Mon Jan 09, 2023 8:56 am
4. There is no specific reward after fight in the fighter's tomb? I.e. if not count items inside it?
For Fighter the main reward is Quietus piece 3. The other places this piece is found are Fairy Castle and Abode of Night. For other classes, yes, it is just a Krater of Might.
It is not terribly balanced and fair - I am not very happy about this element of Endless Mire; the effort and time spent running in search of every single torch and/or gem lost in the fogs is far in excess of the rewards when you can just visit the Abode of Night, grab a relic, punch a hundred ettins, and get the same items.
To be honest, much of what happens in the hub is optional content anyways with at least two solutions to many puzzles. Even many of the Winnowing Halls puzzle items are not required to finish.
(Also, I am pretty sure crusher puzzle shouldn't require any invulnerability or chaos device to solve, unless I am forgetting how the crusher pattern transition happens and it can misfire somehow. Mage is too slow to walk across, that is, but I tested primarily with Mage. I will be looking into it among other touch-ups)
UnknDoomer wrote: ↑Mon Jan 09, 2023 8:56 am
5. It's not possible to shoot to small switch on the wall on the north part of the secret level. If you are playing as a Cleric at least.
Are you certain about that? I tested in Zdoom 2.8.1 just now and it does trigger for me, shooting from the window down there; somewhat awkward but Serpent Staff weaving helps. Do you mean the red sun SW_EL5 switch on outer wall between NE ruin? It opens a stairs into wall and isn't meant to be accessible from the upper wall anyways.
I will admit I can't recall any other shootable switch being anywhere nearby, but it's been years since I edited this so I may be forgetting something.
That's the lava-filled 3rd slot room. Yes, normally it is not.
Spoiler:
You need to do an extremely unobvious thing and ignore one gold bullswitch (I think it is *two* switches that block access, the script says so) until you pull all four chain switches and then wait a minute until it opens. Otherwise, it is already flooded by lava because some totally unrelated earthquake ruptured one of lava tanks. The Flame Mask can be accessed regardless of that by using moon switches and cave key, which is additionally rewarded with extra set of armor pieces, health and some green mana - these are also lost in the earthquake.
I will upload a temporary fix for the Forsaken Catacomb sometime later this week, it really does not deserve being broken the way it currently is, but I need to actually revise what did I design everywhere, and hunt down more of the texturing issues. Also very likely add my support textures from Sunrise Citadel etc to cut down on misalignment fixing when different vertical alignment cannot be reconciled. Abuse of CASTLE07 in Fairy Castle is a horrifying visual design to revisit with all of the mismatching bricks in the walls.
In short, it is very cringe to revisit this baby's first wad two years later and discover that yes, I did noticeably improve in skill.
5. By this time - not remember. I've used GzDoom 4.10.0. You can try to find this moment on the video I've made, I guess, but can't tell where specific spot would be - ~ 9 hours and, well, was not yestarday. As for the rest - THX, things are clear for me now.
In meantime I've added your notes in four places around - ZDoom, Doomworld, Old-Games.Ru, IDDQD.RU, where I'm usually posting my review notes & as well as videos now, so some of other possible players would be less confused.
Thank you for feedback!
