Venturous 1.5 Release

[ZikShadow]

Heh, there's practically no story. It's still Doom underneath, after all. Story isn't why I play old-school shooting games. What little there is, is just an excuse to get to the next level.

I'm currently in Atlantis right now, and I'm confused with this statement. There's "practically no story", but there's cutscenes, texts, and animated "weapons" that are technically storytelling. My main concern with those is the whole "excuses" thing being rather flimsily put when placed on the bigger picture, which can frustrate some folks. Me, for instance.

The starting element is fine. I guess there's really no need to explain why The Explorer went to Mesoamerica in the first place, or how he crashes. Goodness knows Indy movies tend to start with an initiating journey, no need to detail those. The connecting tissues between episodes on the other hand seems like a bunch of disconnected luck, both good and bad. The Explorer finds a random journal detailing the Soldiers' plans to capture the Professor in Egypt to find the key to Atlantis. What are they doing in Mesoamerica, then? I don't think there's any artifacts here that The Explorer recovers anyways that's relevant to the Atlantis thing, so it feels like a random stop the Soldiers took while traveling to Egypt that luckily told The Explorer about what to do next.

The Soldiers needs to find the Professor in order to nick the key to Atlantis. They couldn't find anything there, so they explored a temple complex to find it. So far, so good. They probably figured out what temple to look for based on the museum trinkets and documents. Easily handwaved. The capture and the second temple with the gate, still decent enough, though I can't for the life of me figure out why the Protectors don't just kill The Explorer right then and there or talk to him about what their mission are when he wakes up. Would've prevented pointless bloodshed with his escape.

The red guy is where I actually got a notch agitated. He tells me that the Soldiers have found a way to get to Atlantis anyways without the key. How did they do that? I know they used a sub, but how did they find Atlantis? Random diving? Would that mean the whole kerfuffle with the key and the gate have been a wild goose chase? Was there actually something in Mesoamerica that hinted at it that I missed? It just seems arbitrary to explain why they're there, but not how they got there. That alone would've been something, but then the red guy continued on.

He remarks that the Soldiers are foolishly harnessing the power of the undead, but then doesn't elaborate why they can't. If they can't 'cause they'll all be killed by the existing undead, then shouldn't the Protectors just wait it out and then seal the gate after? If they can't 'cause they'll unleash hell instead, thus needing to send The Explorer in to stop them, wouldn't it be a good idea to tell The Explorer about what it is and how to avoid it so he doesn't accidentally do that? I dunno, it just didn't sit right with me. Maybe it'd work if the Soldiers attack the temple that I was captured in and stole the key from the Protectors, having the u-boat later 'cause now they know where they are, but the current setup right now just weirds me out.

[PixelFox]

I'm currently in Atlantis right now, and I'm confused with this statement. There's "practically no story", but there's cutscenes, texts, and animated "weapons" that are technically storytelling. My main concern with those is the whole "excuses" thing being rather flimsily put when placed on the bigger picture, which can frustrate some folks. Me, for instance....
current setup right now just weirds me out.

Fair points.
What I meant with "practically no story", was that there's not much more than what is presented. You've got nearly all of it. If I add additional maps, I'll probably flesh things out a bit more.
The problem is I started with no clear story in my head, because I was genuinely expecting to lose interest with the mod within a month. I made levels first (and out of order), because fun locations were more important to me at that stage than a coherent story. The story elements (while always vaguely there in my head) only got added in later, when it started looking like I might want to release it one day.

So in map 2 of Mesoamerica, behind the throne with the golden skull, there's a room with a broken portal. I imagined that the Atlanteans set up a few portals across the world. The Aztecs build a temple around one, probably long inactive. Somehow the Ahnenerbe find out about the portals (maybe during one of their IRL expeditions). They send some soldiers to go after the Aztec one, and some others to find the Egypt one. They never actually find either portal or the key, but don't need to because they find the underwater entrance instead.

So that is the problem area. Atlantis was not originally meant to follow Egypt. I always intended another episode inbetween, which would've given me opportunity to figure out how the soldiers found Atlantis by sub, with the Explorer taking the portal as a shortcut.

But real life got busy, and I wanted to see if anyone would even enjoy what I already had, because I feared I was wasting my time. So to have something presentable, I skipped ep3 for now, made the portal in Egypt active, and inserted the red guy as a clumsy way to explain why we're going to Atlantis. So yeah, it's a plothole. But at the time was hard for me to care, since during that period I had such a hard time getting anyone interested in the mod, and the few who were never seemed to care at all about story. But now at least I have incentive to fix it.

[ZikShadow]

Ah, I see. Fair enough, I suppose. I had wondered if Venturous were to be expanded if it'll have more episodes after or inbetween, but I suppose that answers the question.

In any case, I've finished the demo, and I say good job! Aside from pet peeves and the occasional hiccups (the bosses seem very underwhelming to fight despite their visual grandeur), the level design is solid, no mandatory secrets which alone already gets a gold star from me (considering some mappers sometimes lack that restraint), the artstyle like I said is still very neat, and the architecture of the maps themselves are quite detailed. Also love the music choice for the first Thonopses map, the mechropo one.

Sure, the lighting could be a notch dark at times, but it wasn't at all a problem for me, since like I said, I did figured out a good setup to do whenever I need to fight in the dark. All else fails, I could probably install addons like Use-to-Pickup in my next run of the mod so I can run over the torches without grumbling whenever I accidentally pick one up. Goodness knows I already use Extended Markers to mark caches in this mod to come back to later. Very interested to see how it'll continue to be updated in the future, will definitely await its potential new episodes with great anticipation.

Oh, and here's my custom HUD for interested parties. Fullscreen only, statusbar's been made blank. It ain't much, but it works for me as a themed alternative without being default GZD minimalist. Probably didn't need the O2 meter since Venturous doesn't seem to have any swimming, but since I do play Venturous as a gameplay mod sometimes in other mapsets with swimming in it, it's a useful implement for me personally.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/vuv5hz6w ... D.pk3/file

[whirledtsar]

This is very cool! Unfortunately, at some point through the first level, I became unable to pick up any of the revolver ammo clips. Also there was a weird forced weapon switch, the action was going fast but I think what happened is I ran out of revolver ammo while carrying the torch and then it changed to revolver + machete which doesnt make sense. Playing version 1.3.3 on GZDoom 4.7.

[mike3k]

Looks and feels amazing - pity its have no reload weapons

[PixelFox]

@ZikShadow Thanks!

This is very cool! Unfortunately, at some point through the first level, I became unable to pick up any of the revolver ammo clips. Also there was a weird forced weapon switch, the action was going fast but I think what happened is I ran out of revolver ammo while carrying the torch and then it changed to revolver + machete which doesnt make sense. Playing version 1.3.3 on GZDoom 4.7.

The weaponswitch seems to have been because of an +WEAPON.AMMO_OPTIONAL tag which allows the game to switch to the revolver/machete combo even though it's dry. It's now fixed for v1.3.4, which I'll have ready soonish. I'll investigate the ammo clip issue as well.

[forealdo]

I'm using GZDoom 4.11, which doesn't have the standard sector light mode anymore. What should I use instead?

[HazelHyena]

Hi hi! I'm having a good time with this game, I made an account just to say you're doing a great job! I'm having a hell of a time with it, though, it's really hard...
Some more medkits might be a good idea? Even on HMP I find myself barely scraping by pretty often.

[PixelFox]

I'm using GZDoom 4.11, which doesn't have the standard sector light mode anymore. What should I use instead?

Bright or DoomLegacy should be fine too. But as of v1.3.4 it should no longer matter, I'm now forcing the light mode in the mapinfo. This is probably frowned upon, but I keep seeing comments and playthroughs of players using the darker light modes, and it really does limit visibility in a way that affects gameplay negatively. And tweaking the lights and sectors to compensate, doesn't get rid of Software's super crushed darks. I would have to relight the entire thing.

I made an account just to say you're doing a great job!
Some more medkits might be a good idea? Even on HMP I find myself barely scraping by pretty often.

Much appreciated!
Re the difficulty: I'm happy to add a few more healthpacks for the next version. I've playtested these maps so many times I can't judge the difficulty myself any more. That said, I also don't want it to be too easy. A lot of the secret areas already have Soul- and Megaspheres (now reskinned to look like idols) and armour pickups. Also try to get headshots on the human enemies, that drops small medkits. As of v1.3.4 the headshot hitboxes are now a little larger too.

[PixelFox]

1.3.4 Updates: The torch can now be dual wielded with the SMG, although this will decrease the SMG accuracy. And the megaspheres and soulspheres are now reskinned to be more appropriate.
A few other small tweaks and changes, listed in the first post.

[HazelHyena]

Much appreciated!
Re the difficulty: I'm happy to add a few more healthpacks for the next version. I've playtested these maps so many times I can't judge the difficulty myself any more. That said, I also don't want it to be too easy. A lot of the secret areas already have Soul- and Megaspheres (now reskinned to look like idols) and armour pickups. Also try to get headshots on the human enemies, that drops small medkits. As of v1.3.4 the headshot hitboxes are now a little larger too.

The headshots thing is probably a game changer! I don't think I went for a single one in my first playthrough, haha

Yeah, if you find an idol, it totally changes the level balance, huh? I found the one in the first level and just cruised through the rest of it...

[Master O]

A The Mummy/Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider -inspired partial conversion for Doom2.
I'm releasing it as-is for now. There's 7 completed maps, and I'm hoping to add some more in future, but no idea when that will be.

Mr. Icarus reviewed your mod:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfkXkYQUdck

[JoeyKelastiof]

Hi! Mod looks awesome but I'd like to make sure I do everything right before I start playing. So my question is: Am I supposed to keep jump and crouch on or off?
Thanks!

[PixelFox]

Hi! Mod looks awesome but I'd like to make sure I do everything right before I start playing. So my question is: Am I supposed to keep jump and crouch on or off?
Thanks!

Hi hi. Jump and crouch will both need to be on. Maybe I should force it in the Mapinfo so it's always on regardless of the player's defaults.

[JoeyKelastiof]

Thanks for the quick answer ! I'll start to play it soon