[Public Beta] Ultimate Simplicity (Episodes 1-4)

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AgentSpork
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[Public Beta] Ultimate Simplicity (Episodes 1-4)

Post by AgentSpork »

A little bit of multi-forum pimping never hurt anyone.. :P

I recently released a public beta for the first episode of Ultimate Simplicity, my oh so oxymoronic megawad, at Doomworld forums. Today though, I released a larger scale beta, which includes all of the following episodes:
  • Episode 1 - Fortified Base
  • Episode 2 - Pathway to Hell
  • Episode 4 - Director's Cut
I decided against posting the original 1-episode beta here, due to its lack of content. Since this is a somewhat more complete beta, I thought it'd be a good idea. Yeah, Episode 3 is missing. That'll probably take me 10 or so more years to finish. :D Anyway, here's a general overview of what you can expect from this WAD (wad, pk3, whatever):
  • MAP01 - MAP05 have been remade entirely from scratch.
  • Almost every map in this megawad has undergone layout changes, gameplay tweaks, etc.
  • Difficulty settings have been implemented fully on all maps, excluding Episode 4 (more on that later), although they haven't been thoroughly tested, at least on Episode 2 (hence the whole "public beta" thing).
  • Every map should be fully cooperative compatible. Again, this excludes Episode 4.
Episode 1 has had the most changes made to it. Episode 2, while having also undergone major changes, isn't quite up to par with Episode 1, and quite frankly I'm displeased with it. If anyone is willing to compile a brutally honest list of things that suck in Episode 2, I would greatly appreciate it.

Now, we have Episode 4. Its title should be fairly self-explanatory, as it includes a variety of maps that were cut from the project because, well, they sucked. They are provided as-is, with minimum modifications made to them. Here's the episode's disclaimer, taken directly from the wad itself:
The Director’s Cut episode is a collection of all the maps that have been cut from the normal three episodes during the course of the WAD’s production due to lack of quality. Be advised that some of these maps are really, really bad. You may or may not be at risk of going blind when playing these maps. You have been warned.
Now that we've got all that useless information out of the way, you can download the current Ultimate Simplicity beta here, and the text file here. ZDoom 2.1.7 is needed to play the WAD (don't even think about playing it in 2.1.6 or I'll cry like a gigantic emo) .

Comments and criticism are appreciated. :D

Oh yeah, and if you've never played the original Simplicity, or just want some screenshots to look at, you can always look at the site here.
Last edited by AgentSpork on Sat Dec 02, 2006 3:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Shadelight
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Post by Shadelight »

Woah, Downloading now. :D
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Wasted Youth
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Post by Wasted Youth »

This sucks...I mean awesome!

Also, I think you should add this on your post (for the people who just want to download and not read your ramblings :P):
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD NOW!
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Osiris Kalev
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Post by Osiris Kalev »

Heh, very nice choice for the title music Spork. Isn't that from OMF?

Just played through the first episode. I like it, espcially the gameplay.
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Vader
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Post by Vader »

I've just completed Episode2 and found some issues, so here it goes:

Map11:
-The Teleporter floor texture near the red skull key is misaligned by 32 units (x-2116 y-997 z-288).

Map 14:
- Shouldn't the Invisibility behind the Toxic sign down in the nukage be a secret?

Map15:
-All the ceiling lights in the red key area (Archy trap) are missing the proper texture. Currently they use CEIL5_2 instead of TLITE6_4.

Map17:
-Both Hectebus trigger an unknown script 253 when they die.

Map19:
-There is a soulsphere hidden behind a blue banner on the wall, shouldn't this also give a secret credit?
-I wasn't able to kill all monsters in this map. After locating the eneemys left through the "monster" console command i spotted them hidden on top of those pillars near the end (i think it was the last switch I had to press).
Are they just remainings of the previous version of the map or are these pillars supposed to lower at one point (wich didn't happen for me)?
-Same problem with the Hectebus like in map17.

Map20:
-The camera texture that shows the second of the gates you have to open, is misaligned
-The Chaos elemental triggers an unknown script 254 when it dies

Overall it was really great and fun to play through the maps again!
I think there was a bit too much ammo from map11-map18, at least for my liking.
I had almost always a maximum of shells, bullets and rockets although i played on UV.
Some maps still suffer from linearity a bit, but it's nothing to really worry about IMO, as it was quite good fun all the way through.

One more thing that bothered me is that almost all the maps (also in Episode1 IIRC) lack secrets, wich makes it impossible to get the 'secret locator' bonus wich is quite sad IMO.
Maybe adding at least one secret to every map.

Good job though, can't wait for Episode 3 :thumb:
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AgentSpork
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Post by AgentSpork »

Heh, dang. That's a lot of stupid errors. :oops: Well, at least they're all minor issues. The script errors are especially stupid, as they're leftovers from the score system I removed a long time ago.
I think there was a bit too much ammo from map11-map18, at least for my liking.
I had almost always a maximum of shells, bullets and rockets although i played on UV.
I'll see if I can't tighten it up a bit.
One more thing that bothered me is that almost all the maps (also in Episode1 IIRC) lack secrets, wich makes it impossible to get the 'secret locator' bonus wich is quite sad IMO.
Maybe adding at least one secret to every map.
Yeah, I usually forget to add in secrets for some reason. I'll see what I can do to work in at least one secret per map.

Thanks for the info, I'll try and get these problems patched up. :D
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Vader
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Post by Vader »

Glad that i could help in some way :wink:
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AgentSpork
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Post by AgentSpork »

Okay, got a new version up. Here's what's different:
  • I've added a custom HUD. I'm not entirely sure why. I was bored. There might still be some kinks to work out of it, but for the most part it works great (even in coop).
  • Added MAP31 back into the project. MAP32 is still being worked on, so that'll have to wait a bit longer. More information on the changes to MAP31 can be found in the spoiler below (read only if you've played the map before or don't really give a crap.
  • Fixed a majority of the problems Vader listed, excluding the ammo unbalance in Episode 2 (laziness), and I haven't added in extra secrets yet.
  • Episode 4's epilogue didn't display the proper text.
  • Some other stuff I'm not entirely sure about (there's a changelog somewhere in the PK3 if you care enough to look)
Don't click this if you don't want to potentially spoil one of the secret maps:
Spoiler:
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD NOW!
Qi Len
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Post by Qi Len »

Truly excellent work AgentSpork. I have just downloaded the new version, so I have yet to play it, but the previous beta was excellent, and extremely well polished for a beta. I will edit this post later should I find any bugs.
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Logan MTM
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Post by Logan MTM »

"SACANAGEM"

I'm asking to myself, what the hell you did with the ACS! Where is?
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AgentSpork
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Post by AgentSpork »

I removed the scripts before uploading it. Trust me though, your head would probably explode if you saw them, due to how sloppy and unorganized everything is. This includes, but is not limited to, the script library.
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Graf Zahl
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Post by Graf Zahl »

Any reason for hiding them?

Seems I have to dig out my ACS decompiler again...
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AgentSpork
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Post by AgentSpork »

I don't have any real reason for hiding them. It was mainly to save myself some embarassment from people reading (and/or gawking at) my badly written and unorganized scripts. That and it'd suck if someone started looking at my scripts in hopes of learning a thing or two and left with some of their brain cells missing instead. :P
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Graf Zahl
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Post by Graf Zahl »

There's no need to be embarassed. I have seen the scripts in your original release and the only thing that made me laugh (and think WTF?) was the occasional stupid variable names like 'heh', 'wow' and 'omg'. Aside from that they are no better or worse than the vast majority of ACS I have encountered.
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Cutmanmike
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Post by Cutmanmike »

I hope you didn't look at the ACS in that huge wad I sent you a while back then graf ;)

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