Ashes: Dead Man Walking

[ReformedJoe]

Really good expansion for Ashes, I must say. I did see some missing textures here and there, though. One of the crates in the town hall, before the bunker, is missing it's back texture. It just gives off a HOM instead.

Thanks.
I found a missing texture on the stack between the bunkbeds. Is that the one you're talking about?

[Vostyok]

Are you using Doombuilder Joe? You can use the map analysis tool to check for missing textures and unclosed sectors etc. It won't help you find misaligned or incorrect textures (like when I accidently left a wall with duke nukems face as a texture haha none of you found that) but it's really useful when adding polishing touches to a map. I use it all the time now.

[ReformedJoe]

Yeah I use GZDB. I do know about map analysis, and I do sometimes use it. The issue is that it throws a lot of false positives, especially when it comes to linedefs which wont be visible due to the sky hack. There's also an issue with some linedefs around slopes. So I usually rely on the ol' eyeballs to spot errors.

[Get Phobo]

The analysis tool is quite buggy even in the latest version of Bugfix. It will show some textures as 'unused' even if they are required, hence following its advice blindly will lead to HOMs here and there.

[Zan]

Played it. It's awesome, really nothing bad to say about it, played like a charm, and had a good mix of feel and gameplay to it.

[Captain J]

I dunno, it gets challenging and challenging when playing this map pack often. Anyway really brilliant map set! And thanks a ton for understanding my feedback, you actually imported my suggestions to it!

---

... Also unlike the original game, i found this map pack LACKS checkpoint autosaving.

[ReformedJoe]

Played it. It's awesome, really nothing bad to say about it, played like a charm, and had a good mix of feel and gameplay to it.

Thanks, glad you enjoyed.

I dunno, it gets challenging and challenging when playing this map pack often. Anyway really brilliant map set! And thanks a ton for understanding my feedback, you actually imported my suggestions to it!
... Also unlike the original game, i found this map pack LACKS checkpoint autosaving.

I appreciate your feedback, it's been very helpful. Will put this stuff on the list (though one of those issues has already been reported).


So, the next step is the release of the sanitized version, which will coincide with a bugfix release. There honestly hasn't been that much reported as broken but there are a few things.

Not that much work, but I'm feeling real lazy right now. So it'll be a while.

[Get Phobo]

I honestly didn't notice any texturing bugs while playtesting, and actually still don't get what could be wrong with those wooden boxes. It is as if I was blind. I thought they looked okay.

[ReformedJoe]

I honestly didn't notice any texturing bugs while playtesting, and actually still don't get what could be wrong with those wooden boxes. It is as if I was blind. I thought they looked okay.

Yeah that's alright. If you've got a darker screen it can be hard to spot. There's a strip of asphalt on the floor where it should be a crate texture. I had a similar issue when it was first pointed out.

[Kroc]

Thank you so much for this! When I finished Ashes 2063 I didn't know what to do with myself, nothing was as good, so I'm super glad to have played your levels -- as others have mentioned, they fit in perfectly with Ashes 2063. The whole experience was awe inspiring; the whole train yard / shed was just perfect.

Literally the only thing I can think of that stood out as not typical Ashes 2063 was the use of trash-hags not being reserved until that one point in the final level, but then given the number of levels I can see why. It always ends too soon The power plant level was pretty but could have done with being significantly longer, which would likely be natural if this were part of a much larger campaign but I can understand that you needed to wrap it up.

Along with Ashes 2063, DMW is the best game of any stripe, including non-DOOM, I've played this year. I hope you explore this world some more!

[gennoveus]

Hi! Just wanted to pop in to say this is amazing; every bit as good as the original mod. Thank you for the excellent entertainment!

[Get Phobo]

The power plant level was pretty but could have done with being significantly longer, which would likely be natural if this were part of a much larger campaign but I can understand that you needed to wrap it up.

That map was actually planned to be longer, with a large arena-style boss fight at the end, but that would had been too repetitive due to the current limited bestiary, so ReformedJoe cut that part, and the map became a little shorter.

If there were more different monsters, something based on the Spiderdemon and perhaps also Doom II's bestiary, things might have had looked different.

[Kroc]

A boss wouldn't have to be necessary; given the story line. If the scav accidentally triggers a meltdown, then the ending could have been a large-scale fight with the various Plant inhabitants seeking last-minute revenge on the guy who's just triggered the obliteration of their home & lives. I was thinking that one of the smoke stacks would have made a good 'chapel' like holy-place structure for the rad-worshipping mutants.

[ReformedJoe]

Along with Ashes 2063, DMW is the best game of any stripe, including non-DOOM, I've played this year. I hope you explore this world some more!

Hi! Just wanted to pop in to say this is amazing; every bit as good as the original mod. Thank you for the excellent entertainment!

Hey that means a lot to me. Thanks guys.

...the ending could have been a large-scale fight with the various Plant inhabitants seeking last-minute revenge on the guy who's just triggered the obliteration of their home & lives.

As Get Phobo said, the power plant used to be longer. There was to be an arena style final encounter where you fought waves of mutants, but it felt really contrived and didn't fit thematically at all.

The nuclear plant was actually intended to cap off level 3, but as you all know ended up as its own separate level. At 3 levels (4 if you count the town), DMW had already outgrown it's initial scope, and I decided that I needed to wrap it up before the scope grew even more.

While I tend to agree that the final part is somewhat lacking, I think it does the job well enough. Any final encounter with the existing bestiary would have been similar to what already exists, but... more. Not necessarily harder, but more tedious. So in the interest of keeping it "short and sweet", here we are.

[RTheM]

Nice bite-size DLC you have here man. I enjoyed playing through in on the hardest difficulty. That said, I noticed a crate with a missing texture on its back. I'd give you a screenshot but Imgur is being strange with me and not allowing me to upload anything at all to my tester screenshots album for some reason. Regardless, its near the end of the first map, the pile of crates between two bunkbeds that you can climb up and get some ammo and sellable junk, its a room or so away from the bunker entrance where the three or so fiends are, next to the secret with the backpack.

EDIT: Imgur issue solved, here you go with the screenshot if my description was lacking.

https://i.imgur.com/KMchuzY.png