[WIP] Disopolis, Looking for testers

[zrrion the insect]

The second map is progressing rather well, and the textures I've added are looking at home with the stock textures. I am still messing around with decorate to see what I could change to get things to play better without loosing the feeling of hexen-ness. Instead of adding these changes to this project I may release them as a standalone mod. Depends on how complex/gameplay changing the decorate changes end up being.
On the second map, I'm mostly working on making what I have done more interconnected without breaking the intended progression of the map, while also including non-necessary side puzzles/brawls. When the bell is rung the first time, it lowers some cliffs, but for every subsequent ring it does something else. It's not much, but it is kinda neat.
I've run into a bit of a conundrum as it seems. I'm using the fadetable property in mapinfo, which works well in zdoom, but does not do anyhting close to what I want in Gzdoom, but my portals work in Gzdoom and are broken is zdoom. So neither port is working perfectaly for this project, which is a shame. If I could figure out how to get portals to work in software I'd be golden, but I'm stumped as far as that goes.

Screenshots showing off the fadetable stuff I've done(as well as a few other shots):

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And as an added bonus, the download link has been updated with a much newer version.

[SerbianDoomer]

Haven't played it yet, but by the screenshots I can say this is the most interesting looking Hexen map I've seen. I'll be back when I play it with a proper critique but I can already tell by the screenshots that it looks awesome. Oh and I would suggest that you don't add any new enemies or if you do, properly plan out how they fit in. Perhaps I am too much of a purist, but IMO people usually add new enemies just for the sake of it, without thinking whether new enemies are needed (and I think Hexen's bestiary is already perfect as is)

[zrrion the insect]

Ice monsters don't work outside of ice-themed levels, and the stalker only really works in swamps. I plan on adding a few variants of monsters that are already in the game so that I can use them in more places and they'll be stylistically consistent. That's pretty much all I plan to do. Perhaps an Ettin chieftain to compliment the Slaughtaur. I'll try not to over do it though.
I hope you like it, but keep in mind it is probably more balanced for the fighter.

[SerbianDoomer]

I've played through the first map and some of the second map
Uploaded a recording here http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x19au6 ... -35-09-737 (also the recording is not of my first try)

Sadly the first thing I noticed was lots of visual glitches

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which is a shame because if the stacked sectors performed as intended it would look perfect, also the glitches are even worse in ZDoom, but they are small and easily ignored and the architecture is still very impressive.

As for the gameplay, I played with the fighter on Titan difficulty and it was challenging but not frustrating, so I think it ought to be maybe a little bit harder (hardest difficulty should be at least a little bit frustrating so victory is more rewarding)

Most notably the Mage's weapons, which are woefully underpowered ...

I beg to differ, I find that the mage is overpowered if anything. The fight with the wraiths (at 8:35 in my video) was extremely difficult as the fighter as I had no ranged weapons and had to dodge crazily in order not to get hit and manage to hit them whereas the mage could just dodge in and out of cover and blast them one by one with the wand (without using any mana at all). His weapons are perfect against shielded foes (the wand and lightning can stunlock centaurs), enemies frozen by ice shards can be used to block more enemies from approaching you etc.

In any case it is my humble opinion that you shouldn't mess with the classes and instead allow players to choose whether they want to use a class changing mod.

All in all, it's a great mod and finding any fallacies would just be nitpicking on my part.

[zrrion the insect]

That playthrough was enjoyable.Your parkouring through certain parts was awesome! hadn't intended that at all, but it doesn't really break the levels.
For the visual glitches, the first shot you posted is most probably an engine thing, and can't be fixed mod-wise. The second shot is intended. Zdoom's glitches could probably be fixed but I haven't the slightest idea as to how to do that.

As for the difficulty, it's probably a little on the easier side no matter who you play as because I'm not the best at hexen. I'll try and throw some more at the player in the next update.

one by one with the wand

That's the thing though, his wand is so pitiful. You could use it if you wanted to, but it's so tedious. It'd be like using the pistol against a baron, sure it can be done, but it isn't any fun and slows the map's pace to a halt.

[SerbianDoomer]

Your parkouring through certain parts was awesome! hadn't intended that at all, but it doesn't really break the levels.

If you haven't intended it then why put hidden items in such places? Unless there is another conventional way to get to them, but this one was the most obvious to me .

The second shot is intended.

Well, it does give the scene a surreal touch.

It'd be like using the pistol against a baron, sure it can be done, but it isn't any fun and slows the map's pace to a halt.

It is boring for sure, but easy. If you bump up the damage mage's weapons can do, it might be less tedious, but it will definitely be overpowered. Maybe you could replace the wand with a melee weapon (I recall seeing sprites of the heretic staff with mage hands, I think made by NeoWorm) but increase power for the rest of the weapons.

Edit: Oh and sorry for the poor video quality, it was much better before uploading. Dailymotion seems to have encoded it in a very lossy way.

[SerbianDoomer]

Oh and what's with the bible quotes at the start of the map? Sorry if it was already mentioned in the thread.

[zrrion the insect]

I thought they sounded cool is all. They don't have much bearing on story/gameplay at all, just something to look at while the level fades in.