Cipher (OTEX) - New Demo (Nov '19) Available!

[Scotty]

Cipher is a mostly-orange, industrial themed mapset that uses the (now not-so) brand new OTEX texture pack. *Textures not included in this demo wad*

 

This wad features highly modern gameplay influenced by mappers such as Ribbiks, Skillsaw, Darkwave0000, Mechadon etc etc etc and runs on Boom format/complevel 9.

 

A two three map demo of the wad is available, get it here! This demo has no skill settings and has not been subject to scrutiny from my playtesters, so enter at your own risk :D

 

Have some preview screenshots!

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you like what you see.

Edited November 28, 2019 by Scotty

[bioshockfan90]

Not to be confused with this Cabal, I assume?

 

Screenshots look amazing, I can't wait to play this!

[Scotty]

6 minutes ago, bioshockfan90 said:

Not to be confused with this Cabal, I assume?

 

Screenshots look amazing, I can't wait to play this!

 

Ah. I was not aware of this as i couldn't find anything of the same name in the archives. It's just a name to me though, if it avoids confusion i can work something else out, not a big deal.

[A2Rob]

Looks neat. Can't wait to see these OTEX textures in action!

[AL-97]

@Scotty Screenshots look absolutely stunning! Looking forward to this.

 

Would you mind giving a little bit more info on the project? You said that it's a small mapset, but how many maps are there? How big are the maps and, say, how much time would a casual walkthrough of an average map take?

[Scotty]

Just now, AL-97 said:

@Scotty Screenshots look absolutely stunning! Looking forward to this.

 

Would you mind giving a little bit more info on the project? You said that it's a small mapset, but how many maps are there? How big are the maps and, say, how much time would a casual walkthrough of an average map take?

 

Yo. To answer your questions...

 

- i'll finish as many as i can that are built to the standards i deem to be good, within the set timescale... It literally depends on how many hours i have spare in the interim. A rough estimate would be 6-8 maps.

- these are combat focused maps so i guess time spent depends on skill of the player. Maps are currently of varying sizes and enemy counts, from single digits to hundreds. But hopefully replay value is offered soo... the sky is the limit?

[Nevanos]

Looking very juicy and sweet. Keep it up!

[pavera]

Looks great!

[Bridgeburner56]

Mmmm more otex. Looks sharp

[ketmar]

looks "duke"-y, but in a good sense. if you understand what i mean ('cause i'm not ;-).

[pavera]

Apparently I already posted this, but: Looks great!

[Scotty]

Hello!

 

IRL has really gotten in the way in the past month or so but i am pleased to share a two map demo set for you all to see some of the wad in action now. HMP has been quickly implemented for this demo. Tested mostly in PRBoom+ 2.5.1.5 so far. I haven't even gotten to giving out maps to my playtesters yet so rest assured any jank will be dealt with in due course!

[Gez]

On mercredi 31 octobre 2018 at 2:03 AM, Scotty said:

Ah. I was not aware of this as i couldn't find anything of the same name in the archives. It's just a name to me though, if it avoids confusion i can work something else out, not a big deal.

Given the industrial look, something like "Techno-Cabal" would work well enough to avoid ambiguity.

[galileo31dos01]

Scotty, I think something's missing in your wad because both GLBoom+ 2.5.1.4 and .5 crash and show this text: "R_TextureNumForName: OBASEM49 not found" 

[Scotty]

@Gez i'll just rename it at some point, whenever i think of a truly unique name.

 

@galileo31dos01 are you loading with the otex pack? It's not included with this wad.

[galileo31dos01]

No I wasn't, thought they were included in the demo. I think that could be specified better in the OP imo. Anyways, yummy design, happy to see arachnorbs back even if they behave a little more aggressive than in Valiant, and fun setups all around. Wish I recrded a blind HMP fda because I managed to never die or be close to it, though the difficulty felt very casual/accessible for a first playthrough (second map, of course). I also did a couple nomo researches for HOMs or misaligned textures and I haven't noticed any, so that's good.  

 

The only thing that needs a cosmetic fix is the word "SHEL" in the status bar. 

 

Definitely excited to meet the rest of you work someday :) 

[tourniquet]

12 hours ago, Scotty said:

IRL has really gotten in the way in the past month

 

I reckon this has happened to many of us at some point so don't push yourself too hard. I for one prefer to wait for a full release.

[Tango]

I've been meaning to play this for ages, and just now finally got around to it. the demo itself is pretty short, especially given map01 is really just an intro map, but it all looks cool as hell, and I really enjoyed how it all played. really love your texture work, and all the cool shapes and structures make for a really excellent visual environment. map02's flow is pretty awesome, with the openness and the secret fight. I hope you're eventually able to come back and continue this :D

[Scotty]

November 2019 project update.

 

• My progress with this stalled a lot due to my involvement in numerous other projects that i have needed to prioritise this year. I intend to refocus on this when those projects no longer require my attention. I have the framework set for the rest of this wad, it is just finding time to put all these linedefs into the editor!
• I have renamed this wad to "Cipher" to avoid any confusion with Sverre André Kvernmo's classic series of maps.
• I have updated the demo to show off some changes (link in OP). The shotgun and chaingun have been upgraded as has the palette, map02 got a bit of tweaking, and i have added a new map to the demo. Screens of that below.

 

 

[Bridgeburner56]

Hell yeah

[bioshockfan90]

I got through the first 2 maps of the demo and mostly all of the way into MAP03 up until the

Spoiler

ambush with a shitload of archviles popping out of a door at once

and kinda stopped there. I think I may have been overestimating my ability to complete these maps on UV, I ended up having to use saves (which is all fine and good) and yeah that one ambush kinda stopped me in my tracks, so maybe I'll just dial it down to HMP and beat it on that difficulty. Really like what you've made here, fights are fun and creative, layouts are beautiful and you really make excellent use of OTEX. A real blast playing this for sure.

[phoo]

Hey, so I don't know what I'm doing wrong. But I'm trying to run this wad using prboom+ 2.5.1.4 with complevel 9, and every time I try to load the first map, prboom+ crashes with the message: R_TextureNumForName: OBASEM9 not found

 

 

[baja blast rd.]

5 minutes ago, phoo said:

Hey, so I don't know what I'm doing wrong. But I'm trying to run this wad using prboom+ 2.5.1.4 with complevel 9, and every time I try to load the first map, prboom+ crashes with the message: R_TextureNumForName: OBASEM9 not found

 

 

The textures are not included in the demo wad, so they must be loaded alongside it.

Edited December 1, 2019 by rdwpa

[phoo]

Just now, rdwpa said:

The textures are not included in the demo wad, so they must be loaded alongside it.

Ah, that's what I was just beginning to think, thanks I'll grab them now. :)

[phoo]

Just finished playing it in UV, took about 45 mins to finish the 3 maps. I've gotta say I found those maps quite challenging, and really fun too. I really like the custom weapons sprites and sounds and the custom monster. I think the palette swap works great as well! The blues of the changed palette contrast really nicely with the dark colors and orange textures.

Edited December 1, 2019 by phoo

[JDR]

Previous Cabal demo had put me off with it's difficulty on UV initially, i don't know how many adjustments had been made since then but this shotgun is just... an unusual suggestion: more shotgun gameplay. In 3rd map though i died in about every arena, trying to max it after getting to the exit. Quite alot of variety with so little color variation. I'd wish future maps wouldn't escalate the difficulty very much, but maybe have one inbetween 2 and 3 with more SG, and some interesting thematic variety. Overall anticipation went high, and also for the involvement in aforementioned projects, especially Plutonia.

Edited December 3, 2019 by JDR

[RonnieJamesDiner]

Just played through this. I missed the initial release of the first 2 maps, so I was experiencing all 3 for the first time here, and I have to say I had a pretty bumpy yet ultimately enjoyable ride. 

 

The first map was a fun little idea -- a dash of combat and a pinch of puzzle, definitely got me in the mood. It took me back a bit at first, but when I realized how short the map was, I rather liked the execution of it. 

 

The second map ramped things up a notch and had a lot of interesting, tough-but-fair scenarios. Really digging the blue plasma/fire on the Hell Knights! Unfortunately I ended the map with close to 100 enemies remaining (can't remember the exact number). I could see where I thought the final battle might be, but I just couldn't figure out how to get there. I had to open the map in DB to figure it out -- that said, I'm usually pretty terrible at finding secrets, so this may have been more of a me problem. Really wonderful lighting and architecture here though!

 

Then, the third map. Oh boy! For the most part I really loved the set up here. I think you did an awesome job of creating some non-linearity with the key hunt (which was a really cool idea, by the way), and yet there was this great flow that always seemed to spit me back out exactly where I wanted to be. One thing I'll note first, you're merciful when it comes to resources. Some of the fights/arenas on this map however, not so merciful. I think the one that gave me the worst trouble was one of the white key arenas (see spoiler tag).

 

Spoiler

The one with the Archvile, PE's, Mancubus, Rev, Chaingunners, and the tele-fraggable Cyberdemon. This room was ruthless, for me at least. I have no shame in saying I save-scummed the hell out of this fight, dying probably 15-20 times trying to get it. I tried just skipping it by only waking the PE's in order to hit the switch for the teleporter, tele-frag the Cybie, and just keep moving, but there is little resolve in this approach. I really couldn't tell if this set up was genuinely unfair, or if I just didn't have the skill to pull it off. I'd say gather more feedback on it and adjust as it seems necessary, but those are my two cents.

 

The absolute highlights for me in this map, on the other hand, were the super-gang of Archviles that I had to lead backwards into the map to slowly widdle down and play peek-a-boo with. It was like the map I had just cleared suddenly turned into Hunted (Plutonia); it was terrifyingly morbid in the best way possible, and very exciting! Loved it. 

 

Hands down though, my favorite set up in the map (and in the set) was this room:

 

 

It was a very simple concept, but I just friggin' loved it. Intense and unpredictable.

 

 

 

Apart from gameplay, I really admired the general tone and texture choices here. It had this awful, bleak industrial theme that seemed to fit the color palette really well and made for a nice, austere environment, matched with some pretty awesome architecture and lighting sequences throughout. I think map03 was definitely the standout for me in that department. You found some super interesting ways of using OTEX, and I loved it.

 

As far as the custom stuff, I was a big fan of the new Plasma Rifle, and sort of lukewarm when it came to the rest. Replacing weapons is always a hard thing, I think. I thought the Arachnorb thing (I think that's what those are called...) fit the levels quite well. They have a huge advantage over the Arachnotrons when it comes to maneuverability and I think this set was served well by their inclusion. 

 

Overall, a pretty positive experience! I'm definitely excited to see more of this, if you decide to continue adding to the set.

[Marcaek]

Spoiler

 

Managed to get thrown through this midtex grate by viles.

Spoiler

 

If this teleport is intended for the player it does not work on cl9.

 

Edited December 5, 2019 by Marcaek

[Killer5]

Pretty sick new demo. Looking forward to the rest.

[Catpho]

Link in the OP is down, so i'll leave a temporary mirror.

Cipher_Demo.zip