[Community Project] The 20 Heretics Challenge [Released]

[Rachael]

Because of delays with getting the project finished, I figured I'd release at least what we have available right now as a playable beta.

Enjoy!

Feel free to give your critiques on the playable maps. If you end up in "SECRET" you'll have to warp to MAP15. (Use "changemap map15" in the console)

Yes, it's a big download. I haven't pruned the textures, yet. Been too busy, plus not having all the maps completed, yet, anyway.

[Marisa the Magician]

*prepares self for influx of "MAP15 is too dark" comments*

[Zero X. Diamond]

MAP15 is too dark

[Accensus]

MAP15 is too dank.

[Mor'Ladim]

Here is a mirror to the playable beta, for those who don't trust download sites or just want a direct download:
Download 20 Heretics Challenge Beta

[Ardias]

Seeing that no feedback related to the beta release has popped up in this thread, I decided to put in my two metal coins of incredibly low denomination.

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MAP01 - Oceania

Running around the wooden houses and blasting monsters is pretty fun, though once or twice I was going and swimming round the whole place again to find the next key. The amount of detail is okay, though prettying up the exterior of the houses would be good to differentiate them more.

MAP02 - The Best Weapon

Can't say there's much to talk about, to be honest. It's pretty much an okay joke, but if you wanted to show the mace's strength, a Tome of Power would've suited well, unless I somehow missed that.

MAP03 - The Downward Spiral

This might be one of my favourites. It's relatively short, yet on my first run I felt like I had set out on a long journey (not the "oh my mind hurts from how long it is" sort) which also made a fool of me for thinking I had beaten at least 50 enemies by the end of it. I have to admit that all of its areas fit right under my "Would like to live here forever" list, with woods, a pitched tent and a campfire next to it, a battle-scarred castle, a gorge with a rickety old bridge that'd gladly send me plummeting to death, well, you get the idea. I really liked the ruins at the end and the little "cinematic" there too.

MAP04 - Preserved Catacombs

Definitely a looker, every room felt aesthetically pleasing (except for the caves, but hey, they're not real rooms). My main gripe with it, however, is that the actual layout is really simple, reducing it to straight corridors wouldn't be hard. The boss fight made up for it somewhat, I'd actually say it was the most fun part for me.

MAP05 - Trial of the Maulotaur

With the amount of items here, this map felt like the easiest one, though the lava managed to keep me cautious. It has a decent amount of detail.

MAP06 - Desecrated Shrines

Possibly another one of my favourites. The start felt rather claustrophobic, but getting some more room for my fat, blasphemous posterior was an improvement. Neat details throughout.

MAP07 - Night of the Translucent Dead

A nice little map, though I would've enjoyed ripping through the "zombies" at the crypt with the gauntlets.

MAP08 - House Cleaning

An alright entry in the compilation, even if it's clearly unfinished. I'd put another weapon in the house or at the entrance, though.

MAP09 - Elementary

Not bad; I know its name is "Elementary" but currently the latter half of it is pretty much walking through an empty field

MAP10 - Malignant

I had a fair amount of fun with this map, performing some parkour maneuvers on rooftops is always a plus from me too. The textures outdoors could be changed, though, I think a bunch of the buildings don't blend well visually.

MAP11 - Holy Water

Another fun romp through Hereticland. I'm a little boy who likes explosions so I wouldn't mind getting the phoenix rod a bit earlier.

MAP12 - A Hell of a Sewer

Not really my cup of tea, to be honest. Sewer-themed levels are low on my "Themes and scenes I like seeing in maps" list. I'd also suggest changing the ladder's look a bit, I thought it was actually a platform you needed to lower. Props for spooking me with the jumping fish though.

MAP13 - Dead River

I found this map pretty enjoyable, plus it got me in the mood to play Chasm again. Thanks, Egypt.

MAP14 - The Wizard's Techbase

Hot damn, this one was a helluva good trip. I might have to take back what I said about your other map in this project and let it be my favourite. I was kinda bummed that I missed the extra weaponry in Malumax's chamber on my first run, whoops.

MAP15 - Thievery at the Forsaken Manor

It's too dark, you taffer.

Real talk: it's easily my favourite when it comes to the atmosphere, but with the dark corridors I found myself wandering around a few times too many. At first the "Kill all enemies" objective made me worry that I'd be spending lots of time looking for one last sucker in his hidey hole, but that didn't actually happen.

FINALE

It seemed okay when I was going through the houses and clearing them of monsters like a magical SWAT reject, but once the Malumax showdown began, my satisfaction levels rose. We hardly knew ye, Mal.

Let me also give a thumbs up for the cute treasure chests popping open, the new HUD, and Malumax's voice, I totally wouldn't mind serving under him. Oh, and I accidentally shot Zero in the credits map, whoops.

[Rachael]

Thank you for the feedback! Yeah I definitely could do with more detail on my maps, but it's one of those things where I am wrestling my own creative vision with how I actually want the maps to appear versus how others think it should appear.

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Oh, and I accidentally shot Zero in the credits map, whoops.

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Only once? Try 25 times!

[Rachael]

A new beta!

https://mega.nz/#!xEsDzIhD!NymtxSq35KBO ... ChDqgE5hFI

This one really needs a run-through to make sure no textures are missing. Please help out if/when you can! Thank you!

[Gothic]

2 textures missing on the CREDITS map: AVATA208 and GRASDRT4. Also check for other maps that change textures via scripts.

[Rachael]

Thank you. Those are in the repo now.

[Hipnotic Rogue]

I've had a quick play through and the only thing I have noticed so far is that, in map 11, there is a 'face' switch that doesn't light up when activated. It's the one that brings up the pillars that one crosses in the first main area of the map.

Also, just thought I'd mention that I get masses of slow down in map 03. I've got a fairly beefy CPU (i7) and GPU (1080ti). I'm running GZD 3.3.1. I'm sure you're aware of it, like I say, just thought I'd mention it.

[Rachael]

Also, just thought I'd mention that I get masses of slow down in map 03. I've got a fairly beefy CPU (i7) and GPU (1080ti). I'm running GZD 3.3.1. I'm sure you're aware of it, like I say, just thought I'd mention it.

Not really sure what I can do about that, to be honest...

[Hipnotic Rogue]

^
Yeah, just thought that maybe there was some tweak or other that might, perhaps, help. A while back there was an issue in GZD that caused raising stairs to stutter and slow down in Heretic and Graf was able to fix it in-engine. The slowdown just reminded me of that issue so thought it was worthy of a mention. I wasn't complaining just observing.

[Rachael]

I think the slowdown is mostly there because of the number of sprites in the map. It's literally a forest beneath the clouds, and no matter how powerful your GPU is, it's hitting a bottleneck at the CPU side.

[Rachael]

Officially released