zxdunny wrote:ArcturusDeluxe wrote:You don't sound like a moaner or anything, don't worry about that. Could I ask what exactly puts you off though? Is it that it's further from the original game, or something specific about the changes I made? I'd be interested to hear the feedback.
Ok, sorry for the delay in replying. I have no excuse. Please don't take this as whining, I'm trying to be constructive
The lighting is fantastic, the gameplay is spot-on, I can live with those weird green and blue pickups if I absolutely
have to (though would prefer to be able to go back to the original pickup graphics if possible an option like being able to use the original weapons). But what I really don't like are two things:
1) Drops to prevent backtracking. Level 2 has one at the entrance to the third room (which serves only to annoy if you accidentally fall down it - you then have to fight to get to the switch to raise the stairs... but if you've played it before then you just stand at the top and wait for the enemies to come to you and pick them off one by one as they can no longer get to you). Drops remove a gameplay style where you can inflict damage and then retreat to draw enemies out or catch your breath. AB3D has large arenas where it's packed with bad guys and you have to be more tactical than just running in guns blazing.
You corrected the drop at the end of level 2 nicely by raising stairs at the end of the fight. That was nice.
There is another drop in level 3, too, and this one then does force you into a large area with no retreat possible. Also annoying.
2) Removed (in Level 3 again) a large area (the one with a secret and the lift to the teleporter) an large area filled with bad guys and replaced it with a corridor shooting section. You can quite simply walk through that one and just kill everything as it appears, whereas previously you had to be more careful.
I'm sorry to say I didn't bother to play beyond level 3, and dug out an earlier version. Which is a shame as you've done such an amazing job. Having the original levels as an optional level pack, or an option in the Osiris settings would be just wonderful.
Anyway, I'll stop now, and continue to watch this thread with interest. And give my heartfelt thanks for what you've done so far, even if it's not quite what it was.
No worries! And again, don't worry about seeming whiny or anything, you don't, and I appreciate the criticism. I understood going into this that not everyone will be on board with all of the changes being made from the original, and that's ok.
The option to use the original pickup sprites already exists, go into Project Osiris Options under Options and change Pickup Style to Classic. The blue armour shards will still be in there, since armour is part of this version now, but I did make new sprites for the smaller health pickups to fit with the original style when you choose this setting.
The reason I made the first map 2 drop was because the enemies couldn't get up the staircase, the stairs are too steep for them to navigate, making it completely trivial to pick off the red aliens without any danger from them. Admittedly, I still fucked it up as you could fire to wake up the monsters from the top of the drop, but that's been fixed. Now you're forced into the fight after taking the drop. On reflection, I could have made the staircase bigger so the enemies could navigate it, but I quite liked the ambush aspect of the fight the drop adds.
I wasn't happy with the corridor section in map 3 either, but I felt the large room from before was too easily bypassed. I've changed this area again in the next version back to an open room but with two pillars for some cover from the hitscanners, and you now have to hit a switch at the far end of the room to open the way to the elevator, but it also brings in extra enemies. This makes you engage with the whole room and you can't just run through, but keeps the openness and danger of the original. The drop added later in map 3 was done for the same reason, to stop you just running on by and not fighting anything. I do wonder if it's too hard of an area now though, since there's no real cover and the deep water affects your movement speed.
Not saying you're wrong or anything with all this, just explaining the decisions I made. They might indeed not have been the right calls, as I'm not an especially experienced level designer. Porting AB3D to GZDoom makes it a fundamentally different game to begin with, just from being in a different engine, so I figure I might as well attempt some improvements to the map design while I'm at it - to make things hopefully more palatable to the Doom players and to keep players of the original on their toes.
With all that said, I will release the maps that are closer to the original game as an add-on mod after I finish 1.0, because I have them and I might as well. There will still be some differences here and there because of quirks with the engine and such, and I made some adjustments while converting them, to fix some obvious mistakes like bugged textures and misaligned geometry.
For anyone wondering, as for 1.0, it's still incoming. Feeling a bit bad because I promised it in the new year at first, but I've had some mental health issues lately. I'm doing ok, but been a bit burned out on the music and modding stuff over the past few weeks. Please bear with me, I really want to get back into the swing of things!
