Heretic episode: Sold Soul RC2 Released

[Fryuko]

Sold Soul is a full-on Heretic episode with 9 levels that I've been working on since January 2020.
The story is that you play as a merchant with some unnatural powers and skills who have been betrayed and seeking revenge. "Best plot"
All of the levels were designed with wand start in mind on smite-meister difficulty. But for first playthroughs, I recommend playing on bringest them oneth since the gameplay can be challenging for some.
Still, all levels are beatable without saves and secrets but knowledge about layout and encounters is likely required.
Medium lowers the enemy count and on easy, you won't meet the most dangerous enemies.



Features:
- Difficulty settings
- A few new enemies
- Replacement weapon for the fire mace
- Some non-linear levels
- Most levels are 20-30 minutes in playtime
- Variety between levels
- 3D floors but mostly for decoration
- Challenging gameplay with a few slaughter sections and limited resources

Screenshots:

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Teaser:


Download:
I'm pretty satisfied with this version and no other bug came up so far.
It requires gzdoom.
May run with other source ports as well, but I built and tested it with this one.
https://mega.nz/file/kHAHyKbS#lGImyQX56 ... uIg_-i8nSM
I will update this post when more stuff is done.

Change log:

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1.4
-Replaced a certain secret reward with a shadow sphere on E1M4
-Removed some of the empty space on E1M7, overall making the map smaller. As a result, probably making performance better.
-On E1M8 you no longer have to pick up weapons to progress through the level. Added linedefs instead. (Fixed this on other levels too, not all of them though since most of the time fixing wasn't necessary)

1.3
-Mostly wyvern nerfs. Its attack is now slower and has reduced blast damage and radius.
1.2
-Saberclaws shouldn't get stuck on the castle wall anymore on E1M6
-Monsters knocked out of the map (where players would normally die) on E1M5, E1M6, E1M9 will die too.
RC1.1
-fixed some skippable enemies on E1M3
-fixed the "boss" teleport and many others on E1M9
-nerfed the Death Knight for real this time. Almost halved the damage of his homing attack and also made it slower.


-Removed mushroom enemies
-Fixed minor bugs
-Balanced medium difficulty
-Beta update:
-Added E1M8
-Added difficulty settings
-E1M7 update:
Enemy Changes:
- Chaos Wyvern's hp decreased to 650 from 750
- Chaos Wyvern's speed decreased to 11 from 14
- Death Knights hp decreased to 950 from 1250

Level Changes:
- Added E1M7 - Beneath the Marble Citadel
E1M1:
-Fixed a secret switch
E1M2:
-Removed 2 unnecessary secrets
E1M3:
-Fixed the Green key switch
E1M4:
-Removed the shadow sphere secret
-Added teleport particles to the exit
E1M5:
-Added more ammo at the start
-Lowered a secret switch
E1M6:
-Added more ammo to the green key fight
E1M9:
-Added more ammo at the start
-More health at the platform fight

- E1M6 update:
- Added E1M6 - The Bastions of Eternal Winter (Two more levels to go )
- Chaos Wyvern's hp decreased to 750 from 1000
- Decided to keep the mushroom enemies

Credits:
-Lagi for helping me out in many ways, fixing many errors, and testing things
-Raven Software
-Simon Judd for Slade 3
-Pascal vd Heiden for Doom Builder
-Realm667 for most of the stock assets in the wad
-Not Jabba's Wayfarer for the chaos serpent and the Lightbringer tweaks and for some new textures on E1M7, also without his wad I wouldn't get into Heretic
-Jagex for the music and a certain easter egg
-Couldn't find the author of the other easter egg, but I'd like to give credit for it

-Textures:
-BAKER'S LEGACY TEXTURE PACK
-ETTiNGRiNDER
-Ozymandias81 and Arkane Studios for ARX FATALIS TEXTURES
-Not Jabba

-Monsters:
-Cultist - Tormentor667, Lagi, Realms Of Cronos
-Chaos Wyvern - ETTiNGRiNDER
-Chaos Serpent - Not Jabba
-Death Knight - Tormentor667
-Inferno Demon - Maelstrom

[NightFright]

The environments look outstanding and gameplay seems action-packed yet non-slaughterish. Just my cup of tea. Thanks a lot for creating more great content for a game that certainly deserves it!

[PRIMEVAL]

Looking good! Always nice to see some Heretic content.

[Fryuko]

The environments look outstanding and gameplay seems action-packed yet non-slaughterish. Just my cup of tea. Thanks a lot for creating more great content for a game that certainly deserves it!

Thank you! There are some fights, that I still think would be slaughterish for some, might have to address that in the future. The use of difficulty setting will probably help with it.
Anyway, balancing fights is definitely harder than I thought it would be.

Looking good! Always nice to see some Heretic content.

Thank you!

[NightFright]

Now that the Raven MIDI Pack is completed, you may consider using tracks from there in case they fit into this project.

[Fryuko]

Now that the Raven MIDI Pack is completed, you may consider using tracks from there in case they fit into this project.

I will definitely check it out. There are a few tracks that I'm not really satisfied with so this will help me out.

[Lagi]

this levels are excellent

[Fryuko]

this levels are excellent

Thanks. I'm glad you like it.

I'm not sure if I can keep up with my original deadline anymore. The current level I'm working on quickly grew into the most massive I've ever done. It'll be some kind of megastructure with a few new mechanics .

[Lagi]

im in level 3. architecture of levels is flawless, plus all this decorations give nice "modern hexen" feel.
the item and weapon give away is great. Is this mod design for pistol start?

the massive amount of monster that you have to outmaneuver, because you run out of ammo is great. The puzzles have good difficulty so you can solve them on the run (like the center pillars jumps in the waterfall area). The amount of hourglass pickup, nicely spice up the game with planting explosives. Labirynt in level 3 with phenix rod vs sabreclaw is great, remind me of SpaceHulk.

I was trying to play you map with some other mod, but apparently you change some gameplay rules as well. If you do so, then you could be more intrusive IMO, f.ex. make enemies less of a HP sponges (Disciples), Sabreclaw be faster, or the hourglass could deal a little more damage? But personally I would rather like naked map with vanilla setting, to change it myself with other mod.

chaos serpents are little too tough IMO. they feel like some mini boss.
very nice is most of the time there is no deadends in map, and you can always escape from being cornered.

[Fryuko]

Is this mod design for pistol start?

Yes, all the maps were designed with pistol/wand start, how you want to call it

I was trying to play you map with some other mod, but apparently you change some gameplay rules as well.

This sounds strange since I haven't changed anything gameplay-wise. Just added a few new enemies and a new ultimate weapon.

chaos serpents are little too tough IMO. they feel like some mini boss.

That's the purpose of them and there aren't that many of them. I wanted some new "miniboss" like enemies that fit in between Iron Liches and Maulotaurs.

Thank you for your review. Stuff may change for the final release based on feedback, so I'm happy to hear your opinions.

[Lagi]

the map you produce is absolutely flawless. Very good combat wise, and interesting to walk around. The combat is as intense as possible, without being some puzzle on its own (how to kill soo many guys?). The level puzzles (key/switch hunt) is not overly complicated.

you even improve ammo availability with scarcer pick up distribution, vanilla pickups grant too many ammo esp. for gold wand and crossbow.

only cons, are coming from the game itself:
heretic monsters are HP sponges, and fighting with them is not soo fun. You have to shoot each single creature multiple time, and its not satisfying. Because player (at least me) like to change the aim for other targets, and see that all this shooting is making some effect on the targets.

I was trying to play you map with some other mod, but apparently you change some gameplay rules as well.

This sounds strange since I haven't changed anything gameplay-wise. Just added a few new enemies and a new ultimate weapon.

yes, it works with other mods ok. My bad.

[Fryuko]

I decided to post a small update since I haven't done that in months now. Still actively working on this one, but somehow I managed to lose all my progress beyond e1m6 around December.
Anyway, both of the last maps are coming along nicely. In the best-case scenario, I can finish them in a month.

Here are some screenshots:

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That's all for now.

[NightFright]

Thank God. I was already afraid this project might have gone down the drain. Keep going!

[Lagi]

me too, i want to give it second run. Cool levels, this episode has this city ambush close to the end? Thats unfair. (i think i turn off pistol start next time)

edit: no sorry its hymn

[Fryuko]

this episode has this city ambush close to the end? That's unfair.

I almost taught you meant the village arena on the snowy level. Because I can see it being unfair for some, but even with pistol start you can get an invulnerability and a bfg before the fight to make it easier.