Hell-Forged - Final Super-Secret Map Completed (P.391)

[Amuscaria]

3 Cyberdemons? O_o wow, must be a mistake then. I definitely didn't meant there to be 3. I though they were barons of Hell. Must be DB saving the last monster being placed. Thanks for noticing.

[Ghastly]

Oh, I wasn't really complaining. We sniped off one of them, and when I went in for the key, I managed to kill the other two with the plasma rifle I got in Map01.

[Amuscaria]

Oh, I wasn't really complaining. We sniped off one of them, and when I went in for the key, I managed to kill the other two with the plasma rifle I got in Map01.

There is a Plasma Rifle in that map too, it's a semi-secret. Hidden in the men's bathroom.

[zdude]

It's good to hear that you got back into working on this again. This is THE Doom project I am looking forward to a final release for. It is just that awesome and I honestly think it's the way Doom was meant to be.

[Alice Jameson]

So glad this is being worked on again. ^^ I can't wait to see the Hierophant completed. XP

[Amuscaria]

Aside from monsters and weapons for Episode 3, I'm also working out how to make the levels more immersive. Aside from their immensse size and unique zoology and appearence, where's some ideas I plan to implement:
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Level Specialties:

[Black Citadel - main level]
-Monsters here are weak against nothing, but also strong against nothing.
-Monsters here deal normal damage.
-Has a combination of any of the other level's attributes in "warped" areas (areas where the dimensions of this map mixes with those of the another).
-Has the 5 portals to the 5 sub-levels.

[Acheron - Poison Level]
-Monsters are weak to fire, but strong against toxin attacks.
-Attack monsters have toxic attacks that deal continuous damage.
-Where will be fields covered in clouds of toxic gas that prevent player from going through it without either a Hellsphere or burning the gas away with the fire weapon.
-There are deep pools of toxin that the player cannot swim in without a Hellsphere.
-Gas pods grow here (ike heretic) and act like barrels, capable of explode when hit.
-Some gas pods release toxic clouds continuously until destroyed.
-Venomous vines can be burned away by the fire weapon.
-Some toxin geysers can be frozen temporarily, allowing the player to jump on them to get to higher places.
-The Scourer (poison weapon) will regenerate faster here.

[Tartarus - Fire Level]
-Monsters are weak towards ice, but strong against fire.
-All monsters deal fire and splash damage (aside from melee).
-Where are lava vents that spew lava until frozen shut by the ice weapon.
-Some crystals grow here that can only be shattered when hit with lightning, blocking certain areas until you have the Hell storm.
-Hard rocks can only be destroyed by a physical attack (Vorpal Blade, Bone weapon), and blocks certain paths.
-The Incinerator (fire weapon) regenerates ammo here.

[Hades Spire - Lightning Level]
-Monsters here are weak against bone (impaling) attacks, but resistant against lightning.
-All monsters here have lightning attacks.
-Special crystals can be charged up by the lightning weapon, opening doors or doing other special actions.
-Small crystals can relay a lightning attack to a nearby crystal, until it relays to the charging types, activating the special action.
-Some crystals protect a special switch-actor that only the impaling attacks can shoot through. Once killed, the switch-actor activates a action.
-The Hellstorm (lightning weapon) regenerates ammo here.

[City of the Damned - Bone Level]
-Monsters here are weak against venom, but strong against bone attacks.
-Monsters here use bone, blood, or normal attacks. All ranged attacks are homing in one way or another.
-Special bony barricades can only be destroyed/dissolved by the corrosive venom attacks of the Scourer.
-Blood geysers can be frozen, allow the player to jump on them.
-Deep Blood pools can hide secret rooms. The player can swim in these without damage.
-The Flesh Render (bone weapon) regenerates quicker here.

[Necropolis - Ice Level]
-Monster here are weak against lightning, but strong against ice.
-Monsters here deal ice or soul damage.
-Ice barricades can only be shattered by the lightning weapon.
-Bony growths can be shattered by any physical attack.
-Frozen pools are dangerous to wade in without the hellsphere.
-Graves will summon spirits if disturbed.
-The Frostbite (ice weapon) regenerates ammo here.
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Weapon Specialties:

1. Vorpal Blade - Same as before. However a upgrade item can be attained to unlock it's alternate mode that allows limited ranged attack.

2. Scourer - Rapid fire, toxic weapon. Powered up mode spits spores that deal poison damage or grows "venom spitters" that attack monsters (if launched at the ground). Upgrade normal attack shoots a gas sack that explodes into a toxic cloud. Powered-up alt attack summons a large cloud. Clocks explode into flames when hit by fire weapon, dealing lots of damage at once (rather than over time).

3. Flesh Render - Bone weapon that impales; normal attacks splits into small damaging shards that does not impale bosses. Upgrade mode summons bone wall that blocks non-flyers. Bone shoots can blast through the bonewall with no damage. A max of 3 wall can be summoned before the weapon regenerates. Bone wall has timed life and can be destroyed with repeated attacks; a player can jump on them to get to higher places. Wall is weak against poison attacks. Powered up normal attack shoots bone spears that do no split (more damage) and rips through bosses as well. Powered-up upgraded mode summons a sturdier bone wall, that has spikes that damage non-demons that wander too close (wont hurt the player).

4. Incinerator - Fire weapon that has short range with fast attack (flame thrower). Upgraded attack shoots auto-seeking fireballs. Powered up normal attack unleashes a wall of fire. Powered-up upgrade attack shoots a projectile that summons meteors to fall from the sky.

5. Frostbite - Ice weapon that freezes enemies on death. Normal mode is that of a icy projectile with splash damage. Upgrade mode is a health draining attack that targets multiple enemies at once; enemies that die from this attack will explode, dealing splash damage to anything near it equal to 50% of it's HP, those killed by the splash will through this exploding death as well. Soulless enemies will not explode when killed. Powered up normal attack shoots a large icy sphere the explodes into ice shards. Powered-up upgrade attack gives you the "ghost" ability as long as the weapon is held out, attack is the same as before, but more damaging.

6. Hellstorm - Lightning weapon that can activate several switch-actors. Normal attack a launches a ball of electricity that electrocutes enemies on contact - will kill anything with less than 500 HP with 1 direct hit (doesn't work on bosses). Upgrade attack instantly zaps a group of enemies within range with a bolt of lightning. Powered-up normal attack launches a bigger ball-lightning that spawns wandering lightning bolts on impact - will kill anything with less than 1000 HP. Powered-up upgrade attack is similar to the normal upgrade attack, but more powerful.

7. Unmaker - Ultimate weapon that can only be assembled after killing all 5 normal bosses in the sub-stages. Uses no ammo, but rather it slowly charges up it's own power. Normal attack uses little power and shoots exploding projectiles. Alternate mode can only be used once the power charges up to 666 units. It then launches a black hole that disintegrates everything it touches before it collapses and explodes.

[Ghastly]

By the way, if you want to somehow keep compatibility with Skulltag survival mode, you might be able to pull it off something akin to hubs with global variables, rather than coop-only hubs.

[Amuscaria]

Global variable hubs? O_o explain.

[Ghastly]

Well, not really a hub, but you can somewhat simulate hubs to a degree. For example:

-Player exits map01 into map02.
-Player beats map02. The "Player beat map02" global variable sets.
-Player goes back to map01. Players start Map01 at the entrance to Map02 (via some ACS which you'd have to use in a hub anyway), and a script checking for the "Player beat Map02" global variable removes and adds monsters, etc., accordingly.

It's a little tricky, unfortunately, especially since global variables are kept completely during Skulltag's map resets. For example, you turn on a switch that sets a global variable to 2, die, and get reset, the variable is still 2, even though the map was reset. To get around this, you could set it with a normal map variable, and in the exit script, check if these variables were changed, and if they were, change the global variables accordingly.

A friend and I used this to conceptualize a Legend of Zelda mod that was completely compatible with Skulltag's survival mode, but she got bored and killed the project before we finished anything playable.

[NeuralStunner]

-Player goes back to map01. Players start Map01 at the entrance to Map02 (via some ACS which you'd have to use in a hub anyway)

Actually, you wouldn't need ACS for that specifically, that's why there are Args for Player Starts.

[Cutmanmike]

DE doesn't have hubs though does it? I thought it just played like a traditional collection of doom maps and episodes, from the first map to the end map. Has it really been that long since I've played this? Or is that just episode 3? To be honest I haven't been paying attention on purpose so I have no idea what's in store for me, but the wait is killing me!

5. Frostbite

Frrrreeeeeeeze

[Captain Ventris]

Trrrrreeeeeeeees

[Ghastly]

DE doesn't have hubs though does it? I thought it just played like a traditional collection of doom maps and episodes, from the first map to the end map. Has it really been that long since I've played this? Or is that just episode 3?

Eriance said that Episode 3 will be hub-based. To be honest, I like the style he's going for. Ep1 was Doom, Ep2 was Heretic-ish, Ep3 will be Hexen-ish and Ep4, I think he said, will be Doom 3-ish.

[Cutmanmike]

Doom 3-ish?... aw... I would imagine Strife-ish would be better, but it might be too much of a leap from the traditional shooter style of doom, heretic and hexen

[Gez]

Well, not really a hub, but you can somewhat simulate hubs to a degree.

It'd be a lot of work and the single-player gameplay would suffer. It'd be simpler to make a copy of the maps with a linearified gameplay (so that the maps are played in a straight sequence, no backtracking) and offer that for Skulltag. A lot less work and a more satisfying result.