[BETA v1.5] HellAwakened(plutonia)

[death dealer]

Hi all! I'm fairly new to the forum, but not to editing. About 7 months ago, I posted a beta v1.0 of my wad, HellAwakened. After a couple of play throughs(and help of othe play testers) I found and corrected many bugs in the wad, and now, I need a another test. I'm sure most of the bugs are gone, only minor bugs remain to be found.

A bit of info on my wad:
Background story(from read-me): You arrive on the Mars Base weeks before scheduled time, thus leaving your family at home was all the harder. The worst part? A whole year of
guard duty. So, why did you volunteer for this mission? Money sure isn't as much as combat pay would have been, but hey, seeing Earth from a space ship makes
it pretty worth while. A nagging dream about coming here kept you up nights before and after signing up. You almost changed your mind, but couldn't refuse. But days
out you recieve a briefing that has you shaking your head in disbelief...

An unknown presence has been creeping everyone out months before yor ship date. You just HAPPEN to arrive the day an unknown alien force decides
to present itself to the Mars Base, killing almost everyone on Mars. Except you. In your head, you wonder why, why did you get here the day of and not
later, maybe when a detachment was sent to reinforce, or rather, take back, the base? Would you be here at all? Suddenly, your dreams, become daily thought
and you can seem to get them out of your head, like they are telling you something...

Its a full 32 level Megawad made entirely by me that requires plutonia.wad. I wanted an atmosphereic map-set with a very high diffculty, but I didn't like some of the other attempts at that, so I made this. It has some elements of Doom3, dark hallways and areas, and it kinda follows the story of it. Its very hard, but the difficulty levels I implemented ease it down a lot. I still have a few things to do, like implement music, but right now, its fully-playable(pending bug-fixes, although they should no longer affect gameplay substancially) and very long. If you don't care about th music I want to implement, please download the music file form the Doom64 TC or use DOOM6s music in some other way, as it was the origional idea for that. I'd include it, but I haven't asked for permission to do so.

If you find bugs, please report them so I can fix it in the final version to come , maybe in 2 or 3 months. I'd GREATLY appreciate any and all feedback if you download. Please give feedback, positive or negitive as it will not only influence this wad in its final version, but its sequel already a few levels in.

edit: DERRRRRR forgot to link the wad: http://www.mediafire.com/?34un9iaa85a658u
Screenies:
http://img25.imageshack.us/g/screenshot ... 11121.png/
edit:ok, thunbnails will have to wait once I figure out how messed up imageshack is...

[GuildNavigator]

32 levels megawad...

[Ethril]

32 levels megawad...

Look out Captain Obvious, there's someone trying to steal your job!

[Gez]

Other than the texture lumps which don't contain a copy of the texture definitions from the original Plutonia, there doesn't seem to be anything there that requires ZDoom, is it?

[death dealer]

There are a few boom linedefs, a dehacked patch, and mapinfo. Other than that, no.

[gravitar]

I hate spamming enemies badly, thats why I hated Alien Vendetta so much. It was fun, but the levels were all the same to me. Meh, you might find mine to be the same way,

I think the key is balance and variation, blasting hordes of demons can be fun and intense as long as there is strategy involved.
Your approach of tight resources combined with the need to evade and provoke infighting in close quarters, map after map I found sometimes monotonous and frustrating to be honest (just that, not too difficult per se). It doesn't help there's rarely any clear hint of strategy or safe route.

Many maps go like this: you start with a measly shotgun, open the first door where you quickly face some heavy monsters. Should you somehow manage to run past them in the tight corridors, you'll get an archvile and several PEs in your face. All that while only being armed with the low tier weaponry.

Example map 04: getting the ssg is quite a lucky undertaking, then there's the archvile, and past that you'll get two barons right in the face etc. All this while the nukage is eating away at your health; there's no biosuit, no armor, no berserk, and very low ammo, so the whole affair quickly becomes frustrating.

If you intend the maps to be beatable from pistol starts, I'd often suggest more resources at start (armors/berserk, maybe even hidden in secrets to give a sense of reward) and ease the monster load there a bit, i.e. by changing barons to HKs, giving the player better weapons earlier, and providing some safe pockets where it'd be easier to manage all the infighting chaos and catch breath for a second.

Same goes for the use of PEs and archviles: often they are used too early/randomly without having sufficient firepower to deal with them, and that results in unforeseeable imbalance in the ammo department, and more frustration.

- I like your (kinda) claustrophobia style gameplay, with generally good use of barons and HKs in close quarters(like in map 11), but at times the monster mix seems very random 'just for the sake of it', maybe try to give the fights more distinct character?

- the outdoor areas are more refined than the indoor areas(i.e. map 12, nice), which often look samey and boring because of many square rooms/regular angles and bland texture choices.
Texturing indoors, I'd say less would be more sometimes with careful contrasts (color,brightness) instead of being all over the place (in some of the early maps), all kinds of torch colors in the same room etc.

For example, I liked the starting areas of maps 23/29, where it's a nice mix of tech and irregular demonic elements.
And sometimes, like the start of map 16, it's just one square room with one texture. I'd never thought I'd say this, but maybe you should consider to use the force wisely.

- many maps have no secrets, I'd suggest atleast one secret per map, to make them more interesting and have players take a closer look. But please always give a hint to them, and be it very subtle, I wasn't that pleased with the unmarked secret right in the first map.

- map 13 (and some others): provide some teleports to get back in the area with the bridges? Inescapable pits are a bad idea imo.

- maps 17/18: buttload of lava at start and not one biosuit? Figuring out the route to get through those parts could prove more frustrating than what most players are willing to endure, just saying.


All that said, this could be good, I think alot of players are on the lookout for more hard wads to play, and you have a unique style. Respect for making a full 32 map wad.

[death dealer]

Well, all of my maps, excluding MAP01 are not intended to be beaten with a pistol start on UV. However, on HMP, I'm impletementing such a feature. TBH, i don't really see where you got the monster placement has no strategy involved, as that was the main reasoning behind the wad in the first place. Maybe I just didn't do it well. I do repeat, and probably should have(and will) mention again that the maps are not intended to be beaten with a pistol start. Thats not how I tested them, nor did I factor it during gameplay design. I will impletement it into HMP, since a it seems a lot of people like that. As for secrets, i keep forgetting to implement them! I tried to as first then I got sidetracked, so that will definately be added. As for level 17/18's lava, I'll need to re-check them to see if I need to reduce their damage and add a few radsuit secrets. Thanks for the feedback. I also need to update the update log

[gravitar]

I do repeat, and probably should have(and will) mention again that the maps are not intended to be beaten with a pistol start. Thats not how I tested them, nor did I factor it during gameplay design. I will impletement it into HMP, since a it seems a lot of people like that.

There are reasons for that: the ability to replay a map without the need to keep 32 savegames, and demo recording. It is also the usual way to go with full megawads? Why only HMP and not UV?

The problem I see: pistolstarts on UV=impossible, and with bringovers=sometimes boring, several maps become more of a slog than a fun challenge.

If the architecture is too uniform and regular (indoors), it's difficult to make good interesting gameplay(?). As already mentioned, your outdoor areas are much more interesting than the indoor areas, with curves and good sense of scale etc, can't imagine why you can't do the same indoors, instead there are many boxy rooms.

I suggest to have a look at this wad, it's old and not very detailed, nevertheless it's very fun to play: there's lots of firepower, but you also get assaulted quite harshly. If players are forced to use shotguns/chaingun only for the first 7-8 maps, it'd be hard to keep them interested. Just a thought to show what I'm trying to say.

I have now played the first couple of maps with bringovers:

map01: really decent map, the assault of the spectres is fun. The chaingun is only there on HMP, and not on UV. Given it's also in an unmarked secret, and the first chaingun dude appears around map05, you could give it at the start of map02?

map04: good example why to make sure pistolstarts are possible on UV: one or two less revenants, a biosuit(or an armor) to deal with the archie, few more shells, and you have a hard but fair start which couldn't be done much better imo. With bringovers it's not as exciting.

map05: you seem to be quite fond of mazes, many hate them though.

map06: rather boring slog (much room and ammo, light enemies), until the baron/rev trap towards the end. THAT's the stuff.

map07: made me go wtf, didn't even finish properly, very confusing and tricky. On second thought, maps like that give more depth to the whole mw?

map09: the son of map07. Confusing because everything looks the same.

map10: the start is another example of a good hard trap(archie)when playing from pistolstart. Gets too easy with bringovers, you just slaughter the av with the ssg.(or use two of them)
Some more health before the trap with the cages would be good. That Hectic style trap at YK kinda spoiled it for me though, a bit too much (dark AND lava AND narrow ledges, all of that three times, the soulsphere/crusher part is ridiculous).
Good that some of it is optional...The part after that: intense, but very fiddly, perhaps one biosuit in the nukage, too easy to fall off in all the chaos. Nice map.

map31: another good one, though it could use more health, based on the first play. That part going through the lavacave was annoying, not that fun being sniped by the SMM without being able to do anything. And whether it's a good idea to spawn 5(!) cybers after taking the bfg...yes I can run to YK and lure them, and then shoot through the narrow passage (with rockets...but for that I have to be able to run past them in the room with crates).
But hey I can press mouse1 for five minutes anytime I want, no need to play doom for that Cell packs seem quite short, with such an onslaught I'd expect them all over the place. Fine map though, must replay.

[death dealer]

There are reasons for that: the ability to replay a map without the need to keep 32 savegames, and demo recording. It is also the usual way to go with full megawads? Why only HMP and not UV?

MY reasoning behind not doing it for UV is the ammo department. It would give far too much ammo, although there is a good amount anyway, if I impletemented it into UV. HMP was the origional idea I had for pistol starts. After 7 years in the making and still much to correct and add, another year of gameplay overhaul doesn't seem warranted to impletement such a feature. I guess I'm just being too too finnicky, but at this point, I'm really tired of the wad myself

map01: really decent map, the assault of the spectres is fun. The chaingun is only there on HMP, and not on UV. Given it's also in an unmarked secret, and the first chaingun dude appears around map05, you could give it at the start of map02?

Because of the PEs in lvl4, I don't see a problem with adding it in a bit earlier.

map06: rather boring slog (much room and ammo, light enemies), until the baron/rev trap towards the end. THAT's the stuff.

This is one level that I had planned a while ago to do some gameplay changes, so this level(at least the beginning) will most likely be scrapped.

map10: the start is another example of a good hard trap(archie)when playing from pistolstart. Gets too easy with bringovers, you just slaughter the av with the ssg.(or use two of them)
Some more health before the trap with the cages would be good. That Hectic style trap at YK kinda spoiled it for me though, a bit too much (dark AND lava AND narrow ledges, all of that three times, the soulsphere/crusher part is ridiculous).
Good that some of it is optional...The part after that: intense, but very fiddly, perhaps one biosuit in the nukage, too easy to fall off in all the chaos. Nice map.

I'm glad you liked that part and the map, Its one of my very early works. As of now during the(hopefully) final playtest of the wad, I can see how my level designs have evolved over the course of the build. Thats kinda why the early levels look bland and have weird monster layouts compared to the later levels. And, regarding that part, a nice secret makes that part a bit easier, but a radsuit couldn't hurt.

map31: another good one, though it could use more health, based on the first play. That part going through the lavacave was annoying, not that fun being sniped by the SMM without being able to do anything. And whether it's a good idea to spawn 5(!) cybers after taking the bfg...yes I can run to YK and lure them, and then shoot through the narrow passage (with rockets...but for that I have to be able to run past them in the room with crates).
But hey I can press mouse1 for five minutes anytime I want, no need to play doom for that Cell packs seem quite short, with such an onslaught I'd expect them all over the place. Fine map though, must replay.

As with level 6, I planned on a light redesign of the final trap, so that will also change.

Well, keeping in mind that this is still a beta version, I have some work to do. Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. Hopefully I can get a bit more interest in the wad so the final version isn't for nothing.

[death dealer]

So, I'm just wondering if anyone else has anything to say about my wad. I'm pretty sure I've gotten the bugs out now, so right now I'm working on pistol starts for HMP. So far so good. HMP needed a difficulty adjustment anyway. Next it'll be the music. That shouldn't take TOO long, but, just in case, I'm wondering if I should release a final version without the music then just have the music as a standalone file one can add to the wad, since it'll be a big file of mp3s. Has anyone else downloaded my wad? I think I'll release the beta of Hell Awakened 2 along with the music file regardless of whether or not I put the music into the final versions wad. The music will stay an optional download but with a level+music version if you want. I think. Still unsure of how to do it.

[gravitar]

So, I'm just wondering if anyone else has anything to say about my wad.

I guess it takes a while for people to play even the first half (I'm at map 21). The fact pistolstarts are not possible atm, and the early maps are a mixed bag, might be further reasons.

I'm wondering if I should release a final version without the music then just have the music as a standalone file one can add to the wad, since it'll be a big file of mp3s.

If it's a big file, keeping it separate from the maps is a good idea, not all doomers care about the music.

It would give far too much ammo, although there is a good amount anyway

Hmm I noticed you're often stingy with cell packs and health (rockets are so-so), but do supply enough shells and bullets. I do NOT think this is the way to go for semi slaughter maps, the gameplay becomes a slog.

Plus you have many wide areas in the later maps which would invite slaughter style gameplay with much more action. As it is, players are forced to provoke infighting (circlestrafing ZzZz), and then mop up the rest with shotguns/chg.

After 7 years in the making and still much to correct and add, another year of gameplay overhaul doesn't seem warranted to impletement such a feature. I guess I'm just being too too finnicky, but at this point, I'm really tired of the wad myself

A few months to apply the final touches doesn't seem so long compared to 7 years, with so much work done already.

I can see how my level designs have evolved over the course of the build. Thats kinda why the early levels look bland and have weird monster layouts compared to the later levels.

Yes the later levels look and play much better than the early tech bases.

Hopefully I can get a bit more interest in the wad so the final version isn't for nothing.

I for one am enjoying this, so thanks. You could release a demo with a few maps and post it on doomworld.com, you might get more feedback that way.


More map per map stuff:

map32: coming from 31, I had to summon health. After the revenant horde, two barons and several zombies there were like two stimpacks... Otherwise this is a very nice map.

map11: Simple but fun map. There is a missing texture (yes with plutonia as iwad):

---

map 12: Nothing spawns after taking BK? I can hear some archviles. At the descending platform after the outer part with the cacos, I encountered a strange bug atleast twice: the first wave of monsters was spawning in midair and were blocking my way (as if inf. tall actors were on), and prevented the others from spawning too.

map14: There could be much more happening in the 'arena' with the SMM. Some REAL chaos with loads of cacos and PEs, which would also fit better because of all the pillars and torches that make it easy to dodge earthbound monsters.

map 15: as in map14, there could be much more happening in those wider areas. The last fight is unfair: there's very limited room to dodge the cyber's rockets, while other monsters are sniping from all directions. And no cells before that fight, so if you're arriving there empty, you're out of luck to dispose of the cyber quickly. Should be no problem on replays though.

Btw: you're often placing barons where HKs would fit better. Like in the last room. By the time I've fired those 5 rockets, I'm toast.

map16: maybe I wasn't in the mood for such a map:
- too much guesswork with the switchhunting
- with so much lava and the platforms too high to get back on, you could provide ALOT more teles to get back to safety and/or MUCH more health
- there was 1 (in words: one) whole radsuit
- missing texture:

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map 17:
- basically another switchhunt with no clues what happens after pressing those things
- it would make sense to put some teles *near* the platforms when it's easy to fall into lava
- I don't think it's a good idea to teleport the player directly into the clutches of HKs/revs
- ammo is sometimes scarce? With two main challenges (monsters in close quarters/lava hazards), give players enough firepower (always using shotguns on those barons in order to save rockets and cells gets lame)
- the timed double switch for those two barren doors is evil; players have to traverse half of the map several times because of that; the need to memorise every destination of every teleporter gets annoying
- torches and decorations suck when they're blocking my projectiles and hinder my movement
- if I have to go through lava several times and health is scarce, I'd expect some radsoootz. What's the problem, do you think you look funny wearing them?


map18:
- I would have liked more cells and rockets near start to get rid of atleast some of the sniping mancubi
- the hurting sector with stone texture before exit??
- the battle after YK tele is fun; but again no teleporters to get out of the lava
- generally I'm not too happy about the 'spammy' use of PEs in the last maps, which is getting too much here imho. It disrupts flow, the only way to deal with those situations is to backtrack around a corner etc. (to not waste precious cells and prevent them to spawn lost souls). In my opinion they should be used more carefully, more as a surprise and not as frequently.
- good but complicated layout with the need to go back and forth several times, a real sense of accomplishment when finished

map19:
- very nice but: more #*&!@ing health (it's just enough when playing carefully though)
- some intense fights like the one at RK, but I hated the puzzles at exit (crushers/pillars-->save-load fest ZzZ). After playing such a nice long map, that ending didn't seem very rewarding... Those pillars don't even rise up again. Suggestion: once the player steps on the first pillar, all of them start to descend and rise at different speeds?
- secret radsoot = win

[NovaDragon]

I remember playing this when you released it here a little while ago.

I downloaded the new version but because of work and school lately i havent been around to testing this very much yet.
So far from what i tried i really only have one thing i noticed.

In map 4 there does need to be a rad suit at the beginning. Its not too fun when you have to kill a vile but you either take alot of acid damage or try to get on his platform and pray he flinches everytime. Then when you take him out and walk into the door you get the two barons teleporting in and they may push the player into the acid if they arent quick enough. Also at least one or two radsuits would be cool when you get too the main room especially since you backtrack through the area a few times. The main thing is when you enter the blue key area and finish killing the imps you meander into the big room and two barons teleport. All that is fine but theres a tele room full of cacos and a few elementals. I played through the level twice and neither time they teleported out. Im not sure if i missed a trigger for it or not or even if it only happens to me but thats the only thing i noticed. When i get more time ill test this out some more.

Good job so far though, i remember liking this level set alot

[gravitar]

Any progress?

[wildweasel]

A bump like this is not excused by a horrible pun of an image. Seriously.

[Cyberdemon531]

I've played up to MAP02 so far. I like it, so I'll keep playing. The detail is very similar to classic Doom. At least so far.