Heretic: Masters of Chaos v. 1.2 WIP - See last page.

[wildweasel]

Remember that there's a zdoom bug with Firemace weapon. I dunno why but sometimes it just won't appear. Eg. E1M6, E2M2.

That might actually be intended behavior; the Firemace has a strange behavior where it will only appear 50% of the time at each place where it's spawned.

[Tapwave]

Remember that there's a zdoom bug with Firemace weapon. I dunno why but sometimes it just won't appear. Eg. E1M6, E2M2.

That might actually be intended behavior; the Firemace has a strange behavior where it will only appear 50% of the time at each place where it's spawned.

According to the Doom wiki, it's roughly 75%. However, ZDOOM code my alter that, i'm unsure. And the chance is shared amongst all the firemace spawners, as only one can be on the map.

[Xaser]

Heh, yeah. The firemace spawning is super-weird. <_<

Easily fixable in the Z world, though, wince you can define a new pickup for the Firemace directly.

[Ravick]

Or just spawn it with ACS, that's what I've done in Chicken's Nightmare

BTW, downloading!

[The Ultimate DooMer]

Just finished episodes 2 & 3 (not episode 1 as I played that a few weeks back), incoming wall of text:

Maps: The first episode had a certain rawness to it but was still pretty good. The second and particularly the third episodes I thought were better. Some areas are perhaps a bit bare, but on the whole detail isn't too much or too little...and there's some pretty impressive architecture in some maps.

However, I cannot stress enough the importance of aligning textures...just because the IWAD has misalignments doesn't mean that it's OK to leave them in (after all, the original Doom E1 has many misalignments and even the purists would agree that's one feature that doesn't belong in E1 tribute wads). Trust me, the maps will look a lot better and people will think better of them too if the misalignments are fixed.

Gameplay is long and reasonably hard, I played all maps from scratch and was able to complete most without cheats.

Individual points/issues as follows:

---

E1M5: Not many forest maps around and this is a decent take on the subject...could use a bit more variance in the ceiling height though. (and ofc align the tree trunks)
E1M6: Love the look and feel here, though it's more like a winter wonderland than a wasteland Needs more ammo, and it's not recommended to hide necessary items behind secret doors/walls. (like the blue key is here)
E1M9: Needs a crossbow near the start.
E1M10: Some nice architecture in here. Way too confusing though, needs more clues as to where to go next.
E2M2: Like the look of this one.
E2M3: This one's a bit weird, but the name kinda suggests it. Hedge maze is quite appropriate and from a wand start could almost be considered scary too, nightmares in a nightmare
E2M5: This was one of my favourites, probably cos I like Hexen's brown rocky wasteland theme. Flows nicely too.
E2M6: Bit tricky in places but it works for me, a neat large-ish scale volcanic map.
E2M8: Not bad for a boss map. Needs a crossbow, a hellstaff and maybe a firemace.
E2M9: Needs more ammo and a dragon claw. The switch in the green key room doesn't open the door...checked in editor and the linedef is set to Door_Open (32, 0) - ie. the speed is 0, hence why it won't open. (needs to be 16)
E2M10: Nice watery map.
E3M1: Heretic towns/cities are always nice, this one looks good and has plenty of scope for exploration too (which is quite neat for a starting map)
E3M2: Another one of my favourites, quite a unique look about it - although I'm not sure what's happening with the trees, they seem to have no tops on them?
E3M3: Well whaddaya know, a moving train map in Heretic (well sorta). Needs more ammo though.
E3M4: One of the best maps in terms of looks, themes and atmosphere. Has some gameplay issues though...needs more ammo and some of the traps need toning down. (especially the one with the butcher horde in the middle of the cross-shaped main hall)
E3M5: The combination of the ettin mini-boss and the archers, both in sniper positions (at the start) will be too much for some.
E3M6: Definitely the best-looking map, and that huge room at the south end of the map is awesome. However the nitrogolems in there need to be removed or replaced with something that fires non-homing projectiles of a similar speed (eg. undead knights), trying to do the platforming puzzle with homing skulls flying around is unacceptable. (plus some won't have the aim or the patience to snipe them down)
E3M8: Another neat idea for a map, nicely done too. (extra points for the wall paintings even if they lack sprites )
E3M9: This city is even better than the first one, another favourite this is.
E3M10: Suitably tough finisher, although the boss fight itself is easier than the buildup (not enough monsters teleporting in maybe, and they all die easily via infighting). Certainly has the epic feel though, with the earthquakes and all.
E3M11: Pretty good ice map, liking the frozen sewer idea too. Bit confusing at times, but some nicely-placed teleports after you hit a switch helped out. (E1M10 could definitely use some of that)

Enemies: Pretty good all-round, mixing in some of Hexen's tougher ones with some altogether new ones. Placement and usage is fine for the most part. The ettin mini-boss could perhaps use a lower pain chance (so the fight doesn't drag as much), the archers perhaps have a bit too much health and the vampires don't seem to fire up or down, only straight ahead (if this is a bug, replace the last 2 with 0 in all entries like these below).

Code: Select all

VAM1 Y 0 Bright A_CustomMissile("BatAttack",Random(8,64),Random(-32,32),Random(20,-20),2,0)
VAM1 F 1 Bright A_CustomMissile("VampireRoundBeam",34,0,0,2)

Weapons: On the whole these were quite good...but shared ammo weapons are always a problem if not balanced right. The jade wand is fine, as it's a ripper that is weaker on single enemies but better on packs of enemies than the crossbow. The frost fang is next to useless because the dragon claw is better in every way (therefore it would also be better if you swapped the 2 weapons round in their slot order), and the hellstaff becomes next to useless because the blood sceptre is better in every way (once you acquire it ofc). The other two weapons are fine, although I think it'd be better if they didn't share a slot with other weapons (as they use their own ammo type). Finally, there's a bug with the skull staff projectile that causes a framerate drop around dead enemies you've killed with it, fix is below:

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Code: Select all

ACTOR SkullStafProj
{
  Health 140
  Radius 12
  Height 8
  Speed 40
  Damage 5
  Scale .75
  Alpha .5
  Projectile
  RenderStyle Add
  SeeSound "weapons/skulprojshot"
  DeathSound "weapons/skulprojdeath" 
  States
  {
  Spawn:
    SKPJ A 3 BRIGHT
    SKPJ B 3 BRIGHT A_SeekerMissile(30, 45)
    SKPJ C 3 BRIGHT
    SKPJ D 3 BRIGHT A_SeekerMissile(30, 45)
    Loop
  Death:
    SKPJ EFGHIJ 3 BRIGHT
    SKPJ K -1                          // remove this line
    Stop
  }
}

I didn't have an issue with the firemace spawners because I was using my all-purpose mod (red key, ammo hud etc.) that includes a 100% spawn chance for the mace, but if others are reporting weird issues then it's best to fix it.

I also discovered that all the new weapons and also the Hexen enemies were missing dynamic lights, so I've created a new version of the GLDEFS and put it here. (I also increased the light level by 0.3 for the frost fang shard, as it was barely visible)

Overall it's a worthy mapset, fix the issues mentioned in the thread and it'll be even more so

Edit: forgot to add that all of Hexen's scenery (gravestones etc.) are non-solid.

[Caleb26]

Thanks again The ULTIMATE DOOMER.
I'll fix all these issues as fast as possible. Then I'll upload MOC10 to Doomworld.
And about these strange looking trees in E3M2. This level was inspired by the first level in Golden Axe (just look at the trees and the very beginning).

Glad to see my megawad is getting some more attention. It's a shame that there are very few heretic megawads available. I'm not sure is there any other heretic megawad with 9+ levels
Keep them coming!

[lzvk25]

E3M4 also becomes unplayable once you get into the room with the chaos device with the knight archers underneath it, it is right after you open the blue key door. As soon as the pillars trap you, you better "noclip" the rest of the level, because there is no way to escape, and there are even more pillars blocking practically everything. The worst it that it is supposed to be a level where you go to another secret level. So, please either tone this trap way down or preferably remove it or at least tell us what to do.

Thanks

[The Ultimate DooMer]

Those pillars seemed to randomly open while firing shots, I don't know what controls them.

[Caleb26]

Don't worry I'll just deleted these pillars along with the ones where you encounter a bunch of Butchers.

[lzvk25]

Don't worry I'll just deleted these pillars along with the ones where you encounter a bunch of Butchers.

Thank you, this level will be much better.

Unfortunately, I have another observation :

According to the mapinfo after E3M6, there should be a secret level E3M12, however such secret level does not exist :

Code: Select all

map e3m6 "Bright Sanctuary"
sky1 nskywall 0.0
sky2 newsky 0.1
doublesky
music ep3m6
secretnext e3m12
cluster 3
next e3m7

...

map e3m12 "The Forsaken Garden"
sky1 newsky2 0.1
music ep3m12
cluster 3
next e3m7

It is not noticeable during game time because the secret exit in E3M6 does not work. If you don't want to include that level, just remove the "secretnext e3m12" and the "map e3m12..." entries from the mapinfo.

[Caleb26]

Yes I Know. I was planning to do another secret level in E3. I'll add it in v 1.1 .

[PFL]

EPIC MAP10. EPIC.

[NovaDragon]

I definitely enjoyed playing this heretic megawad. A great challenge along with awesome
looking and some pretty epic levels. I do agree with most people about what has already
been mention but I will also jump on the bandwagon needing more ammo, health, but
especially armor. I went with nearly the entire second episode without armor and it ended up
being devastating although I did survive out.

Most of the new enemies are enjoyable but the invisible warriors are complete overkill.
They would be fine except most of the times you encounter then in cramped areas and
considering they can one shot you, makes it a wee bit difficult. The Bormereth at the end
of the abyss (episode 2 map 6) was a little unfair in my opinion because you have no place to hide.
If he fires off his charged fireball, you will most likely die. Also the 3 Bormereths at the end of episode
2 before the Minotaur fight has the same issue. I took the ring of invincibility and was able to kill 2
and the 3rd I had to pray and stun lock him before he got the charged shot off.

Other than those things most of it seemed fair and poised a great challenge. Thank you for creating this
gem in my opinion and it would be awesome to see another from you some day.

[Average]

This is great stuff! I can't wait to try out the 'fixed' version. There's never enough new Heretic stuff if you ask me. Thank you for this.

[printz]

HOLY MOLY

New Heretic Megawad!

This is historic.

I will play this!