The Wayfarer: A 9-map Episode for Heretic (April 2022, significant update to v1.2!)

[Master O]

4 minutes ago, ReaperAA said:

 

Either that or something like a pain elemental (in terms of its ability to spawn more monsters) . 

 

Basically what Heretic lacks is a monster that adds combat urgency. 

 

Also, there are no hitscanners in Heretic iirc.

[seed]

Heretic needs an almost entirely new bestiary tbh - no I'm dead serious, this is not sarcasm or a bait post.

 

Too many of its enemies are either tedious or plain unfun to kill... as limited as it is, I take Hexen's bestiary over Heretic's any time of day...

Edited March 22, 2020 by seed

[whirledtsar]

6 minutes ago, seed said:

Heretic needs an almost entirely new bestiary tbh - no I'm dead serious, this is not sarcasm or a bait post.

 

Too many of its enemies are either tedious or plain unfun to kill... as limited as it is, I take Hexen's bestiary over Heretic's any time of day...

Even with the Wayfarer's modifications? I think its simple balance tweaks upgrade Heretic's gameplay from just mediocre to actually fun.

 

Speaking of "combat urgency", the Iron Lich kind of already takes care of that because you really don't want to experience his tornado attack.

[seed]

10 minutes ago, whirledtsar said:

Even with the Wayfarer's modifications? I think its simple balance tweaks upgrade Heretic's gameplay from just mediocre to actually fun.

 

Speaking of "combat urgency", the Iron Lich kind of already takes care of that because you really don't want to experience his tornado attack.

 

Wayfarer definitely makes a significant improvement, that's undeniable, but even so, the enemies still feel a bit... underwhelming.

[Fonze]

Maybe try turning the difficulty up to bppt then! Wait why are we discussing heretic mobs in this thread again?

[UnknDoomer]

 

Wad of 9 levels, 1 of them secret. Among other things it features a built-in gameplay modification, which introduces many minor edits. What I personally noticed right off the bat, without reading the list:

 

1. Something like an amulet that gives a short-term volume of power.

2. Hammer, which creates an effect similar to the berserker from Doom (although I personally would prefer 4X damage).

3. If I'm not mistaken in the name, chaos device, weapon #6, a new sound appeared when colliding with an enemy.

4. 2 new types of enemy - a knight with a hammer and a lizard (if not count mini-bosses).

5 .1 new weapon that replaced slot #7.

6. The fourth, red key appeared.

 

Settings and Features:

 

* GzDoom.

* Difficulty - "Thou art a smite-meister".

* The exit to the secret level is on the M5.

* There are a lot of enemies at the levels. You will often have to fight large waves of them.

* Extensive maps.

* Hard one. Require to think and use specific items in a specific time if you want to proceed further. Not for casual players.

 

Secret level.

 

1. On the M5, behind the yellow door, find a bookcase with a small burning candle on it and disable it.

 

 

2. A passage to the north will open. Go into it.

 

 

3. Walk forward, pick up the torch. You will need to correctly press the switches several times to build the platforms at the desired level. Then take the second torch and repeat the operation again. The screenshot shows the second sequence. The very first switch lowers all platforms to the default level.

4. After you can go to the teleport.

5. Expect the last major battle on the level.

6. One of the switches will lower the elevator. It leads into an icy passage, and it's, in turn, leads to a secret exit.

 

 

* On M4 - Collsseum there will be a small gladiatorial fight.

* At the end of M5 there is a battle with two minotaurs in a small location.

 

 

* 610 enemies await on the M6. You can hide in a location with a green key, which will block the entrance from the outside. Most opponents will gather at the entrance. On the one hand it will be easy to attack them. On the other hand they will attack each other. At the end of M6 there will be a battle in a small gladiatorial arena with two rather tough mini-bosses - a brown lizard and a character that moved directly from Hexen. Several green lizards will also help them.

 

 

* M7. 700 opponents. To get rid of ~ 200 of them you can make several circles around the location and then head to the center. On the one hand you can provoke them to attack some of their own kind, also there are temporary gains around. After you get 3 keys and open the passage to the exit expect the final battle with ~ 300 opponents. It is most reasonable to make your way to the exit from the center and either immediately proceed to the teleport, or shoot back from afar, not fight directly.

* M8. The boss fight takes place in two stages. In the case of the former I recommend stick to the strategy of grouping minotaurs at one corner. During the second stage more powerful weapons are best saved to the end, as well as the volume of power. The strategy of "cutting circles", which I have used more than once on complex maps with UV difficult in Doom and in combination with Complex Doom, along the boundaries of the location works quite well here.

 

Pros:

 

+ Gothic atmosphere.

+ Gloomy soundtrack.

+ From the entire list I liked M2 and the music on it the most.

+ Challenging.

 

Contras:

 

- Lots of enemies on the heights on some maps. They are more annoying than they are a real danger.

Edited March 27, 2021 by UnknDoomer

[UnknDoomer]

Quote

Heretic needs an almost entirely new bestiary tbh - no I'm dead serious, this is not sarcasm or a bait post.

Too many of its enemies are either tedious or plain unfun to kill... as limited as it is, I take Hexen's bestiary over Heretic's any time of day...

 

@seed,

 

 

Edited March 27, 2021 by UnknDoomer

[TheWolfman00001]

This is just a quick question but one that I feel hasn't really been asked: Do you plan on expanding the wayfarer by developing more levels or even a new episode for it? I would love if this was expanded upon since I don't feel heretic gets much appreciation compared to doom and there is so much potential for a project like this (as much as I love heretic I have to say that doom overall is a better game, so doom getting more attention isn't unwarranted and I don't blame anyone for not being interested in it)

[Not Jabba]

9 minutes ago, TheWolfman00001 said:

This is just a quick question but one that I feel hasn't really been asked: Do you plan on expanding the wayfarer by developing more levels or even a new episode for it? I would love if this was expanded upon since I don't feel heretic gets much appreciation compared to doom and there is so much potential for a project like this (as much as I love heretic I have to say that doom overall is a better game, so doom getting more attention isn't unwarranted and I don't blame anyone for not being interested in it)

 

Hey, thanks for your interest. I am planning to make sequels and other Heretic maps using the same gameplay mod. However, they will be separate releases, not add-ons to The Wayfarer.

 

You can also check out The Iron Forge, another map using the same mod (but without the new monsters/weapon).

[Memento Mori]

I only played the shareware Heretic back in the day and The Wayfarer has been my first introduction to third party maps after buying Heretic from GOG on sale.

 

What an introduction. The architecture is beautiful, creating a coherent sense of place with some great details. The additions to the weapon systems and power ups also flesh out the game. Combat feels fair but challenging and I was having a great time...all the way up until the end of E1M6, specifically the Throne Room prior to the blue key.

 

From this point onward sadly the fun was gone. The combat becomes incredibly frustrating: not enough ammo, not enough health, not enough space to strafe and too many monsters. Additionally, there’s simply not enough in my inventory to overcome these fights. I tried backtracking through the level for pickups but there were still pockets of monsters where the cost/risk/reward balance just wasn't good enough. After finding the map-scroll, it was clear I'd missed a few secret areas, but again the odds were not nearly good enough. Gave up and had to iddqd to experience the episode after this. It is safe to say that I wouldn't have beaten the last few levels without this shameful behavior.

 

Hopefully, you read my comments as constructive criticism. E1M1-5 were perfectly pitched with difficulty producing a great sense of achievement and I really enjoyed this portion of the game. It really feels commercial level in terms of content and coherence and I will certainly be watching out for more in the future!

 

Skill 3 for reference.

[Not Jabba]

8 hours ago, Memento Mori said:

Hopefully, you read my comments as constructive criticism. E1M1-5 were perfectly pitched with difficulty producing a great sense of achievement and I really enjoyed this portion of the game. It really feels commercial level in terms of content and coherence and I will certainly be watching out for more in the future!

 

Skill 3 for reference.

 

Hey, thanks for the feedback. I have been working on a v1.2 update for the episode, and although it probably won't address a lot of what you're experiencing, I do plan to play all maps again on all three settings from Wand starts and see if there are adjustments I want to make. I'll make sure to look at potentially adding health to the lower difficulty settings -- though as for ammo, tbh I feel it's a bit saturated in the later levels already, without factoring secrets. That may depend on playstyle -- Heretic has a lot of variables when it comes to ammo consumption, which makes it very difficult to balance. I'm also making adjustments to the two tightest fights in the episode (M6 boss arena and M7 green key), and hopefully having the Lightbringer be fully functional again will help a bit as well.

 

Wayfarer is definitely one of the two hardest Heretic PWADs that I'm aware of, so jumping straight from Heretic.wad to Wayfarer is bound to be pretty intense (like going from Doom2.wad to Speed of Doom, say). It's possible skill 2 would feel more fun for those last three maps. I'm glad you liked the first half though. Unfortunately, your experience is pretty common. I know a few people who really like the episode and have as much fun with it as I do, but few people seem to like it all the way through -- some think the early maps aren't as fun as the later ones, while many hate the difficulty/intensity of the later ones.

[Not Jabba]

 

**Update**

Three years later, The Wayfarer has been updated to v1.2! I've been tinkering with this update for a while to address bug reports and various little things that have bothered me about the episode. Most importantly, it fixes the badly bugged Lightbringer behavior caused in more recent versions of GZDoom. As a result, it is no longer compatible with ZDoom 2.8.1, but should work with any recent build of GZDoom. The other biggest change is better and more consistent balance for the lower difficulty settings. Here's a more complete list of changes:

 

Spoiler

-Fixed various minor bugs that have been found/reported, mostly texturing errors and a couple potential softlocks.

-Added armor and sometimes health (and occasional monster placement tweaks) to skills 1-3 in conjunction with fully retesting each skill setting, with the goal of making each feel fully consistent and properly targeted toward an intended audience.

-Added some more detailing to a few parts of M1 and M2 that felt bare and inconsistent compared to the rest of the episode.

-M2, better conveyance for a switch in the dock area.

-M2, fixed the MIDI to loop properly in recent versions of GZDoom (thanks to Volasaurus for the fix).

-M3, better conveyance for the Green Key.

-M3, the boss guarding the megasecret is now a Maulotaur on all skill settings, because the Liches on lower settings felt dumbed down; on skill 4, it's now two Maulotaurs.

-M4, fixed a lift to behave more intuitively.

-M9, fixed monsters not dying when they fell into the abyss.

-M6, gave the boss arena a little more space to move around in.

-M7, fixed monsters piling up in a southeast room (with another set of chaotic monster teleport dispensers, a la the other three corners).

-M7, the Green Key battle now has an Enchanted Shield on all difficulty settings, making it reliably beatable.

-Added ACS script in nearly all maps that alerts off-map monsters of your existence. In other words, you can't avoid monster teleports by not shooting anymore.

-Rocastus and the High Disciple (second form) each have 500 less health (now 2000 for Rocastus, 2500 for the High Disciple).

-Chaos Serpent fireballs have a slower movement speed and are easier to dodge; used the red Serpent from Faithless Trilogy as the reference for the new speed.

-Fixed dynamic lights for the Chaos Serpent fireballs.

-Improved the Lightbringer pickup sprite.

-Smoother weapon animations code for the Lightbringer, thanks to Xtyfe on ZDoom Forums.

-Fixed the Lightbringer's ripper/bounce behavior to work properly in recent versions of GZDoom.

-Nitrogolem projectiles have a reduced sound rolloff so they're not so loud, as in recent Wayfarer's Tome builds.

-Fixed the Staff melee range (regular, zerked, Tomed), as in recent Wayfarer's Tome builds.

-Fixed the Gargoyle's charge attack behavior, as in recent Wayfarer's Tome builds.

-Added improvements to how the Maulotaur's ground crawler deals damage, as in recent Wayfarer's Tome builds.

-Disciples drop a version of the Sigil of Power that doesn't count as an item, as in Wayfarer's Tome.

-Added an alternate version version of the Chaos Serpent that doesn't drop any items, and replaced all turreted Chaos Serpents with this version.

-Fixed DECALDEF, as in recent Wayfarer's Tome builds.

-Fixed KEYCONF hotkey bindings, as in recent Wayfarer's Tome builds.

-Added the Automatic Wand Start/Crossbow Start options, as in Wayfarer's Tome. These are in the main menu under Wayfarer Options.

-Removed the unused MIDI files from the WAD itself; they can still be found in the zip download.

-Provided a better explanation of difficulty settings in the included textfile.

 

I've done full runthroughs of every difficulty setting to confirm the changes, but I'll let a few other people take a crack at it before reuploading to /idgames in a few weeks. Unless anything else has broken in the meantime, this is expected to be the final version.

Edited April 23, 2022 by Not Jabba

[brick]

I don't know if they make any difference to the game proper, but I did notice a bunch of DECORATE warnings when starting the wad (no other mods loaded). I'm including the relevant part of the log here in case any of it is useful.

This was with GZDoom 4.7.1, Windows 7.

Spoiler

Script warning, "wayfarer.wad:DECORATE" line 856:
Icon 'RKEYICON' for 'KeyRed' not found

Script warning, "wayfarer.wad:DECORATE" line 869:
Tried to define class 'BloodSplash' more than once. Renaming class to 'BloodSplash@wayfarer.wad@DECORATE'
Script warning, "wayfarer.wad:DECORATE" line 119:
Unknown class name '0' of type 'BasicArmorBonus'
Script warning, "wayfarer.wad:DECORATE" line 126:
Unknown class name '0' of type 'BasicArmorBonus'
Script warning, "wayfarer.wad:DECORATE" line 150:
Unknown class name '0' of type 'BasicArmorBonus'
Script warning, "wayfarer.wad:DECORATE" line 180:
Unknown class name '' of type 'Actor'
Script warning, "wayfarer.wad:DECORATE" line 181:
Unknown class name '' of type 'Actor'
Script warning, "wayfarer.wad:DECORATE" line 182:
Unknown class name '' of type 'Actor'
Script warning, "wayfarer.wad:DECORATE" line 183:
Unknown class name '' of type 'Actor'
Script warning, "wayfarer.wad:DECORATE" line 184:
Unknown class name '' of type 'Actor'
Script warning, "wayfarer.wad:DECORATE" line 185:
Unknown class name '' of type 'Actor'
Script warning, "wayfarer.wad:DECORATE" line 274:
Truncation of floating point constant -4.500000
Script warning, "wayfarer.wad:DECORATE" line 275:
Truncation of floating point constant 4.500000
Script warning, "wayfarer.wad:DECORATE" line 379:
Truncation of floating point constant -4.500000
Script warning, "wayfarer.wad:DECORATE" line 380:
Truncation of floating point constant 4.500000
script parsing took 216.97 ms
Script error, "wayfarer.wad:GLDEFS" line 252:
Warning: dynamic lights attached to non-existent actor Disciple

 

Edited May 9, 2022 by brick

[Not Jabba]

Thanks for the report! Looking through the wad, I can identify what some of those are, but not all of them (for instance, the Basic Armor Bonus thing is definitely connected to the Staff attack function, but I don't know how). I don't think any of it affects the intended player experience, and most of it appears to correct itself or isn't relevant to the functions it's attached to, so fixing it may be all pain and no gain. But I will take another look before I finalize on /idgames and make sure.