Back to Saturn X Episode 3 [WIP]: 5 MAP PREVIEW BUILD ON PAGE 11

[Beubeu]

Wow 

[Dreemurr Deceevurr]

Oh shit!!!

[bioshockfan90]

Alright, just finished this on ITYTD. Overall, it's BTSX on crack. I love what you've all done and for the most part I had a great time, I understand the order is random and you wanted a wide breadth of what there is in the demo so I'll excuse any weird pacing. Just some minor thoughts/gripes.

 

Spoiler

On MAP01, it took me ages to realize how to get the blue key. I must've wandered around the map for 20 minutes trying to figure it out. It's not made too obvious but it's entirely possible I just got unlucky by not spotting it earlier in the map. 

 

MAP02 is completely fine, no issues here whatsoever. Solid offering from Skillsaw.

 

MAP03 could use maybe 1 or 2 more shortcuts if you were to fall during platforming between areas, in the "transformation" part there is not this issue, it's just in the main portion of the level. I found myself getting frustrated every time I fell and had to significantly backtrack.

 

MAP04, holy cow. It's a bit 'out-there' for me, but I enjoyed it and it's really giving me myhouse.wad vibes (but I'm sure you were anticipating somebody to say that, so might as well get it out of the way). More of an art piece than a map. 

 

MAP05's teleporting monsters are a bit odd to figure out, and there's just too many opportunities for any given encounter, once again, not up to me though. I enjoyed it, it was just a little disorienting.

 

Overall, great stuff! Looking forward o the full release.

[maxmanium]

Thanks so much @esselfortium and crew!

[nobleflame]

WTF! Thank you so much :D

[TheShep]

Sick!

[Napsalm]

Just played the two @esselfortium maps from this on my stream,... I had the 

Spoiler

same problem as @bioshockfan90 re: blue key. I grabbed the BFG and ran back to kill the cybers then spent around 20/30 minutes just walking round looking for progression.

also, on the other map there's a HoM on the other map just as you 

Spoiler

escape the trap before the red key, on the left in this screenshot. It's not there before the trap, but when it reopens it appears.

 

Really looking forward to playing the rest of the maps later!

[DoomPlayer00]

Possible spoiler in screenshot

 

Spoiler

I take it this map is the result of all those thread bumps from years back ;D

 

 

[galileo31dos01]

Glad I can be the 101 dalmatian like to show my support to new mappers in the scene!

[TJG1289]

Very cool to see! I'll probably wait until the release next year to play the maps in context, but I'm glad this is out! 

[Kwisior]

My heart nearly stopped when I noticed a playthrough on YouTube. I'm not gonna play it until all maps come out, but I'm still very hyped!

Edited August 10, 2023 by Kwisior

[slowfade]

Same here. As tempted as I am, I'm going to wait for the full episode!

[Jimmy]

All five of these maps are their own special brand of awesome. Hats off to the BTSX team!

[JonExMachina]

I'll force myself to take a few days between each map. The first one was absolutely fantastic despite the fact I had the same problem as @bioshockfan90 and @Napsalm. Masterful encounter design and extremely satisfying secrets. The open-ish layout was delicious.

[Xenaero]

This was fun to play through! I'm excited for the rest of the episode. High quality tunes and maps from the crew.

[SleepyVelvet]

These 5 maps are really good.  Here's FDAs, me giving each of them the old college try:

noisy_BTSXE3PR.zip

[mancubian_candidate]

Have played through Maps 1 and 2 and they are wonderful. Well done all :)

[Bytefyre]

For those interested and using DSDA-Doom, I've created a DSDACR lump for BtSX and attached it via the ZIP included here.  The color ranges defined here will conform to the limits for blue and green defined in the palette and will not only correct the total stat colors to be light blue, but will also fix blood color for anyone using DeHackEd files to make caco blood blue and HK/Baron blood green.

 

DSDACR.zip

 

Edited August 11, 2023 by Bytefyre

[Searcher]

Beautiful maps.  as always.  Looking forward to working through these.

[princetontiger]

This is consolation for Maui going up in flames.

[SyntherAugustus]

Thanks for posting this demo! I really look forward to playing it tonight. 

 

Funny story, I was just thinking about doing a replay of BTSX 1 and 2.

[Napsalm]

Finished the other three maps tonight. Good stuff all round!

[Noiser]

Y E S , thank you very much!!

[Maribo]

Incredible set of teaser maps, I find myself struck deeply by Far Out Crops and A Visit To The Creep Doctor in particular. There's something about what lies beneath that murky swamp that gets me feeling things, and Xaser outdid himself with what he put together in that map. Thanks for posting, 2024 can't come fast enough.

A full set of blind UV playthroughs for whoever might be interested, -dsdademo format, v0.26.2 for playback: b3pr_fdas_maribo.zip

[Daytime Waitress]

As someone who's never played BTSX, I wasn't sure what I was in for. But I dived into Coast to Coast and it might be my favourite thing I've played all year - in a year when I've enjoyed Doom more than ever. This is what it looks like when people who have practiced and mastered an art form over hundreds (if not thousands) of hours demonstrate their skill(saw). And it's only one map from an entire episode.

 

I tend to bitch a lot about how gaming sucks these days, but between the ROTT remaster, the Quake 2 remaster, and now a preview of this, I think us shooter fans are legit blessed to have custodians of the genre that continue to provide for us like this.

[EduardoAndFriends]

Whoa. Whoa! WHOA! Christmas has come early! WHOOOOOAA! Thanks for the sampler, I’m plugging this into my veins when I get home! Is it cool if I do a video of these maps?

Edited August 11, 2023 by EduardoAndFriends
Edit shmedit

[natashanightmare]

OMG! finally a little treat for us btsx enjoyers. i'm 4/5 maps trough so far. Map 4 (creep doctor) is my fav so far. did anyone else have some enemies have very bright white pixels on them? the imps teeth, the revenants armor, mancubus weapon, cyberdemons weapon and 2 dots in cyberdemons face? (also if playing in dsda remember to select vanilla, unlike me *sips dumbgirl juice* map 2 is unplayable in prboom+) Love btsx :) the treehouse map (map 3) was really cool too... 

Spoiler

...especially that creepy red and white place underneath it

 

Edited August 11, 2023 by natashanightmare

[BeetBeardTheBrave]

 

[ReaperAA]

Just yesterday, I played through the maps and I can say that BTSX E3 looks fairly promising. I am not the biggest fan of BTSX E1 and E2 (though I think they are pretty solid), but E3 looks like I will might end up enjoying the most out of the 3 episodes.

 

The 2 Essel maps are fantastic. The first map has awesome texturing to a point where I am unsure if "vanilla Doom2.exe" has ever looked this gorgeous. The other Essel map felt a bit like a quite fun "The Living End" style adventure, but with cool "swampy treehouses" aesthetics.

 

As for Skillsaw's map. His map has, imho, the best combat of the 5 maps. Might be my favourite of the 5 maps. Though I do think the map could use a very tiny increase in ammo amounts. Was almost entirely out of ammo by the end of the map.

 

Xaser's map was... a miss for me. Not because the map is bad or anything. But it's because Xaser's mapping style is generally a hit or miss for me. Still, it is a unique map and it seems that most folks here do seem to like it and also it does add variety (something that people often tended to complain about regarding BTSX E1).

 

Mechadon's map is mostly pretty good. Though I wasn't a big fan of the teleporting roaming cyberdemons at the start. I don't mind the roaming cyberdemons and honestly I liked that they added pressure at the start. But them being able to randomly teleport around made for some really wtf surprise deaths early on in the map. Though the map definitely gets bonus for providing healthy amount of ammo in the 2nd half to let us cut loose.

Edited August 11, 2023 by ReaperAA

[esselfortium]

5 hours ago, natashanightmare said:

OMG! finally a little treat for us btsx enjoyers. i'm 4/5 maps trough so far. Map 4 (creep doctor) is my fav so far. did anyone else have some enemies have very bright white pixels on them? the imps teeth, the revenants armor, mancubus weapon, cyberdemons weapon and 2 dots in cyberdemons face? (also if playing in dsda remember to select vanilla, unlike me *sips dumbgirl juice* map 2 is unplayable in prboom+) Love btsx :) the treehouse map (map 3) was really cool too... 

  Hide contents

...especially that creepy red and white place underneath it

 

The random white pixels are a bug in Pr+ and older versions of DSDA, caused by the palette used here.