UNBELIEVER - a Heretic megaWAD (/idgames RELEASE!)

[scwiba]

Art by @Jayextee

 

That's right, your old pal Ryath's back with a new speedmap megaWAD! UnBeliever is a vanilla Heretic mapset with three distinct episodes you can play in any order. E1 has lots of gimmicky combat scenarios, mostly focused on Heretic's unique gadgets and sector specials. E2's maps are ultra-simple and action-packed, with only 100 linedefs a piece. And E3's environmental trials require quick thinking and even quicker reflexes. Survive all three episodes and defeat the three D'Sparils to prove you are the UNBELIEVER.

 

DOWNLOAD HERE

Includes HHE patch for vanilla and Chocolate Heretic (for map titles)

Tested in Chocolate Heretic v3.0.0 and GZDoom v4.0.0

 

UnBeliever is the third part of my "UnSeries," which includes UnAligned and UnNecessary. Each one is created during the month of November, though I have to admit that I did cheat a little this year by reworking two maps after the fact, E1M7 and E3M4. (Edit: And as of Beta 2, E3M1 as well.) This was my first foray into Heretic mapping so I wanted to release something I'm at least mostly happy with.

 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

Map List:

Spoiler

Gimmicky Gauntlets

E1M1 - Rambunctious Ramparts
E1M2 - Extraordinary Arsenal
E1M3 - Live By the Light, Die by the Dark
E1M4 - Ice, Wind, and Fire
E1M5 - Flight of Necrofancy
E1M6 - Optional Escort Mission
E1M7 - Choose Thy Destiny
E1M8 - Cult of Tag 666
E1M9 - Council of Corvuses

 

Limited Linedefs

E2M1 - Down the Privy
E2M2 - Watery Grave
E2M3 - Temple of Four Owls
E2M4 - D'Sparil's Icebox
E2M5 - Caduceus Hall
E2M6 - Dragon's Maw
E2M7 - Upstream Battle
E2M8 - The Font
E2M9 - Fireslide Chat

 

Tricky Trials

E3M1 - Cardinal Sin
E3M2 - Follow Thine Ears
E3M3 - Sabresweeper
E3M4 - Timing is Everything
E3M5 - Stair Architect
E3M6 - Voodoo Cube
E3M7 - Leap of the Faithless
E3M8 - Light the Fuse
E3M9 - Conveyance

 

Known Issues:

Spoiler

1) The WAD contains a DECORATE fix for ZDoom-family ports which tries to approximate vanilla behavior of explosive gasbags, as well as correcting the amount of damage that D'Sparil should take from crushers (both of which are central to how E3M8 plays). The fix is close but not perfect, so if you want the "authentic" experience of this map, play in Chocolate.
2) An HHE patch is included in the zip for use with vanilla and Chocolate Heretic, which contains new map and episode titles. However, there is a bug in Chocolate Heretic where the new titles will be overridden by the original map titles on the intermission screen. In addition, because of the limits of the format, some of the titles had to be shortened. Any port that supports MAPINFO will display the full, correct titles. Otherwise, refer to this thread, in the section above, for a complete list.

3) GZDoom has a bug where you can fall off some parts of the invisible platforms in E3M2 but don't fall all the way into the lava below.

4) Some objects flicker in and out when playing in vanilla or any ports that cap the number of sprites onscreen. Most noticeable in E2M8 and E3M8.
5) Pretty minor drawseg overflows in E3M7, in addition to visual glitches with the sky if you get up high enough.

 

Changelog:

Spoiler

/idgames Release

-E1M7: The quartz flasks in the final arena are only accessible after the switch has been flipped

-E3M1: All torches around the solution for the compass puzzle have been removed due to an issue where they would obscure the solution if dynamic lighting was turned on

 

Release Candidate 3

-Updated CREDIT screen

-E1M7: One side of the pillar in the iron lich arena is no longer erroneously a blue door open

-E3M6: Item placements have changed considerably, and some ammo and rings of invulnerability can only be picked up by the voodoo dolls

-E3M8: The two barriers blocking the way out of the first room now begin much lower down

-E3M8: Items throughout the map have been distributed differently, and a chaos device accidentally left over from testing the last version has been removed

 

Release Candidate 2

-Now includes a version of @anotak's ZScript for turning off jumping and crouching, with the option to force them back on after a warning that they may break the map

-Deathmatch starts, for anyone who cares (DM is generally untested)

-Updated CREDIT screen

-E1M5: A lift on the south rampart now provides an escape from the lava if you run out of wings

-E1M6: The ring of invincibility has been replaced with a mystic urn (playing continuous and carrying a ring into E1M8 allowed a huge exploit)

-E1M7: The ring of invincibility has been replaced with a mystic urn (for the same reason as above)

-E1M8: Secret now contains a bag of holding instead of an urn, and its location has changed slightly

-E1M8: The exit sector starts higher up so that it takes longer to lower

-E2M8: Each iron lich has been replaced with three sabreclaws (the lich tornadoes were causing sequence breaks in ZDoom ports due to a gravity "fix" those ports make)

-E2M9: The ring of invulnerability has been replaced with an urn

-E3M2: Placed a couple torches flanking the first switch in the water room to draw players' attention to it

-E3M2: You can no longer (incorrectly) walk south at the second pillar in the invisible platform maze

-E3M3: Hid the inner linedefs of any block that has an open space inside

-E3M5: The iron lich on skill 3 has been replaced with three ghost undead warriors (for the same reason as in E2M8)

-E3M6: An impassable linedef now prevents a bizarre bug where the voodoo doll on the top level of the final puzzle would be pushed toward the player when shot

-E3M7: Swapped which switch raises which section of the bridge, and added short pillars next to the final switch on the southern section, both to prevent easily phoenix-jumping to the exit without raising the entire bridge

-E3M8: Using a chaos device once you have begun the final battle with D'Sparil will now teleport you directly to your death
 

Release Candidate 1

-Demos!

-Playtester and technical assistance credits added to the CREDIT graphic (one of the screens displayed when pressing F1 during gameplay or selecting "info" on the menu)

-E1M1: Removed all quartz flasks; rebalanced ammo

-E1M2: Cut one ghost undead warrior from the phoenix rod fight
-E1M3: Depending on which wing of the map the player enters first, the other wing's torch now becomes inaccessible, effectively limiting the player to one torch for the map (both torches become accessible again at the end of the map for those who want 100% items); added an extra torch on skill 3 and another on skill 2

-E1M3: Further adjusted Thing placements and added a few more lighter sectors to account for the even more limited torchlight

-E1M5: Reduced the number of ethereal arrow pickups and added a ton more time bombs; cut four gargoyles from the final ambush

-E1M5: Changed the look and sequence of the floor-lowering triggers

-E1M5: Players 2-4 now start in their own little rooms with wings of wrath in them, to make sure everyone has the ability to fly at the start

-E1M7: Switches that require crossing lava now have narrow safe platforms surrounding them

-E1M9: Monster-blocking lines now keep the liches on their platforms even when the platforms are lowered; pillars now block easy access to the switches while the liches are alive

-E2M1: Added two wand crystals

-E2M6: Removed the lesser runes on the east side of the metal bars

-E2M7: The door to the large blue arena room is now timed and will open for co-op players after a short time; also moved the walkover that lowers the liches and disciples so it will trigger at almost the exact same time as the door closing

-E2M7: Put some mace ammo in the gargoyle monster closet by the hellstaff, shifted it up 32 units, and marked it as secret; it also opens after you ride the water lift up rather than before

-E2M7: Replaced the silver shield in the first secret with a tome of power

-E2M7: Lowered the highest level with the maulotaur by 128; exit is now a walkover instead of a switch

-E3M1: Extended the silver shield secret a bit to the north so you don't pick up the shield before having a chance to see what you're picking up first

-E3M4: Lowered the point to which the second lift in the north cave lowers in order to give players extra wiggle room on the timing

-E3M6: Reworked the final puzzle; there is also now an additional ring of invulnerability in this room on skill 4

-E3M6: Removed an unintentional skip in the third puzzle where you could skirt around the blue barrier; on that same puzzle, raised the level with the black floor pad so it's less likely a dropping voodoo doll will fly off the side

-E3M8: D'Sparil is now flagged as ambushing

 

Beta 3 (unbe_b3.wad)

-DECORATE lump, which modifies the size and mass of explosive gasbags and the damage D'Sparil takes from crushers (both of which are vital to the gameplay of E3M8) to approximate vanilla behavior (Thanks, DavidXNewton!)

-E1M3: All sectors have been given brightness levels above 0 and can be navigated to some degree without a torch; number of torches has been reduced and the player isn't given one from the start

-E1M3: Removed all quartz flasks but increased the number of crystal vials; added a large number of time bombs (very useful when backing away from enemies in the dark); changed a few monster placements

-E2M5: Switched out the relatively useless shadowsphere for a tome and the tome at the north end for an urn; replaced the nitrogolem at the exit with two sabreclaws

-E2M8: Lowered the floor of the exit sector and fixed an error in ZDoom where the surrounding sector would lower too far

-E2M9: Removed gasbags and placed two gasbag generators; added more dragonclaw ammo

-E3M1: Fixed a bug in the third compass room where the lava pits would raise 8 units higher than intended; gave the player one free reset on this puzzle in the form of a chaos device

-E3M1: Two new secrets

-E3M2: The first switch in the large water room now glows

-E3M2: Lowered two of the water barriers so all three are visible from the start and players can better understand the goal they're working toward

-E3M3: The exit is now a teleporter behind a switch, in order to give the crushers time to kill off the sabreclaws

-E3M4: Brightened up the upper door in the lavafall room; also changed a few Thing placements here

-E3M5: One new secret and one blue step swapped out for a yellow one to accommodate; new secret has the tome in it while the old secret tome was swapped for an urn

-E3M5: Moved the yellow key so it doesn't require a jump to get to

-E3M5: Crystal vials now line the outside walls

-E3M5: Each pair of switches is now marked with the texture of the steps they will affect (in case the pillar itself is too low to see)

-E3M6: Added a number of crystal vials at the start

-Gasbags added to E2M1, E2M6, and E2M7

 

Beta 2 (unbe_b2.wad)

-E1M1: Slight changes to the barrel positions at the start so you can't open the secret area before you can get up to it; also upper unpegged the exit door of the other nearby secret

-E1M2: Adjusted some geometry in the poison water area, as well as adding three caged golems for extra health

-E1M2: One new secret

-E1M3: Added an extra walkover to lower the initial torch, since you can apparently go down the stairs so fast that the first walkover doesn't trigger

-E1M6: The first gargoyle cage now becomes a crusher when you reach the exit

-E2M2: Widened the step up onto the L-shaped platform at the south end to make it more obvious

-E2M2: Obscured view of the shield secret a bit and made the platform slightly harder to jump to; also shifted vertices so it's not quite so easy to accidentally step into the time bomb secret

-E2M3: Changed several textures and added a proper switch that lowers the elevator

-E2M3: Raised the ceiling height of the secret to make the gap underneath more noticeable

-E2M3: More health on the upper level; replaced the disciple in front of the exit with a ghost undead warrior

-E2M9: Disciples now stand between a speedrunning player and the exit

-E3M1: Major overhaul: simplified and clarified candle "puzzle" and teleporter maze, plus an additional puzzle in the east side of the map; renamed "Cardinal Sin" (formerly "Signs and Portents")

-E3M2: Added another teleporter in the lava

-E3M2: Removed nitrogolems from the large water room to cut down on distracting noise

-E3M3: Corrected the color on one square that erroneously indicated it was adjacent to one "mine" instead of two

-E3M3: Additional wand ammo and health

-E3M4: One new secret

-E3M4: You can now permanently open the lower door to the lavafall room from the inside

-E3M4: The edges of the secret in the crusher area (one of two switches that opens the secret exit) now show up on the automap

-E3M4: Swapped the disciple at the exit for two ophidians, removed the gargoyles from the end section, and added gargoyles and extra hellstaff ammo in the north cave area

-E3M4: Adjusted the starting position (and thus timing) of the large lift in the lavafall room so you can't solve the puzzle backwards; also shortened the hallways that house the switches for the final puzzle to make the timing slightly more forgiving

-E3M5: Fixed a couple of missing lower textures in the stair maze

-E3M9: The first door is now 64 units further from the start

 

Beta 1 (unbe_b1.wad)

-Difficulty settings
-Co-op starts
-New secrets added to about half the maps
-Too many Thing placement tweaks to mention, including tons of decorative objects
-Placed ambient sound Things in most maps
-E1M1: A locked door now blocks the final tower, replacing a barrier that had to be lowered; the key is where the switch used to be
-E1M2: Changed the switch sequence in the poison water
-E1M3: Replaced disciples of D'Sparil with other enemy types so they get a better introductory appearance in M4
-E1M4: Put impassable grates in all windows to accommodate secret wings of wrath
-E1M4: A crusher will now kill any gargoyles who fail to teleport into the main map
-E1M5: More enemies, plus timed bars on the exit switch to encourage fighting the final wave
-E1M5: A crusher will now kill any enemies who fail to teleport in
-E1M5: A bunch of time bombs have been added after I realized they can be set in mid-air for extra fun time
-E1M6: Moved the switches in the first golem room
-E1M7: Completely redone
-E1M8: Very slightly extended the time before the sabreclaws are released
-E2M8: Now ends with a D'Sparil fight, after I realized D'Sparil's death can be used to kill a hidden Maulotaur, triggering Tag 666
-E2M9: Cut the five golems and gargoyles at the start so players can get a better feel for the arena before combat starts
-E2M9: Due to Heretic's baked-in behavior of only spawning the firemace 75% of the time, it had to be replaced with a dragon claw; a firemace is instead placed in the secret
-E3M1: Instead of a return teleporter in the exit room, there is now a wall that opens back into the starting room
-E3M1: Enemies come out of the hint alcoves to draw more attention to them
-E3M2: Added a few enemies to keep things interesting
-E3M2: Revamped the octagonal water room with a series of lifts instead of the hidden alcove
-E3M4: Actually finished the map (previously this map was only the crusher area)
-E3M5: Repositioned a few of the platforms to prevent grabbing the blue key early
-E3M5: A boss enemy now stalks you (above skill 2) while you try to figure out the puzzle
-E3M7: Added a shield on each branch, as well as other tweaks to try to make the jumps less frustrating
-E3M7: Merged some geometry to cut down on drawseg overflows
-E3M8: Placed a couple more gasbag spawners in the second room to prevent camping the corners
-TITLEPIC, HELP1, HELP2, and CREDITS graphics

 

Alpha 27 (unbe_a27.wad)

-first 27-map version (only released on the NaNoWADMo Discord)

 

 

Edited August 4, 2019 by Ryath

[Walter confetti]

Great to see that this project is actually released for good after the alpha in the NaNoWADMo challenge...

 

Also that makes me think about that I will release my project from that challenge too... When I have the time after all other stuff i'm doing... 

Edited April 19, 2019 by Walter confetti

[Lila Feuer]

WHERE IS ALL THIS HERETIC COMING FROM I'M FREAKING OUT.

[Jimmy]

[shadowsphere react]

[Philnemba]

A Heretic megawad!? IS THIS A THING!? 

[leodoom85]

GIMME ALL THE HERETIC CONTENT YOU BASTARDS!!!

I NEED IT!!!

[Not Jabba]

Amazing. When can we change this website's name to Hereticworld?

[scwiba]

3 hours ago, Walter confetti said:

Great to see that this project is actually released for good after the alpha in the NaNoWADMo challenge...

Still not quite released, but finally in beta at least! 

 

1 hour ago, Philnemba said:

A Heretic megawad!? IS THIS A THING!? 

It is. That's the one thing going for me in the battle against Wayfarer and Faithless: quantity over quality!

[Loud Silence]

Looks cool. I have played only one level of Heretic at all, none of Hexen and Strife. I have a feeling soon i will change that.

[NightFright]

Pinch me, I am dreaming. "Heretic" and "megawad" in the same thread title. This is it, guys. Second coming of Christ. Right. F'ing. Here.

[kristus]

i go out of town for one week and what happens?

[Kepehn]

Another Heretic Project!? :O

Megawad by a Single One!?

That's freaking Unbelieveble!

It's already on my must-play list!

 

2 hours ago, Ryath said:

That's the one thing going for me in the battle against Wayfarer and Faithless: quantity over quality!

 

That's an amazing "Thing"! 3-Episode Megawads for Heretic are rare nowadays! This IS Special!

Good Work!

[SOSU]

This looks very awesome :D
I wish i had mnore time to work on my Heretic project so that i could continue this ultra combo :DDD

[elend]

I am honored to be witness to the great heretic renaissance. Lovely stuff!

[Emmanuelexe]

Awesome, thanks! ^^

[CyberDreams]

Wait? There's ANOTHER Heretic megawad out (well Jimmy's isn't out quite yet)?? Well hot damn!!

 

Also, looks like Heretic needs its own sub-forum now eh? ;)

Edited April 20, 2019 by CyberDreams

[xvertigox]

I really dig this, fun as fuck.

[Gez]

Played the first two episodes yesterday and the last one today. Short and sweet. Really enjoyed the various gimmicks.

 

Anyway: E1M2, something to neutralize the toxic sludge once you've crossed it? In case you loop back to the start because you're looking for the secret you missed?

E3M5: one of the stair blocks is missing a lower texture.

Spoiler

 

[scwiba]

On 4/20/2019 at 8:46 PM, xvertigox said:

I really dig this, fun as fuck.

Glad you like it! If you've got any suggestions or find any bugs, let me now.

 

8 hours ago, Gez said:

Played the first two episodes yesterday and the last one today. Short and sweet. Really enjoyed the various gimmicks.

 

Anyway: E1M2, something to neutralize the toxic sludge once you've crossed it? In case you loop back to the start because you're looking for the secret you missed?

Thanks, Gez! That was the idea behind the ring of invulnerability in the secret that loops back to the start, but I admit it's an inelegant solution. And I'm not too keen on giving a ring that early in the episode anyway. I'll see what else I can do.

 

8 hours ago, Gez said:

E3M5: one of the stair blocks is missing a lower texture.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Dang it. I thought I caught all of those. Good find!

[NightFright]

Is there anything special I need to do to get out of the starting area in E2M3? I can't seem to find any elevator of some kind to get out of that hallway.

[Gez]

The non-orthogonal SKULLSB1 wall on the north-west corner is an elevator.

[scwiba]

3 hours ago, NightFright said:

Is there anything special I need to do to get out of the starting area in E2M3? I can't seem to find any elevator of some kind to get out of that hallway.

 

50 minutes ago, Gez said:

The non-orthogonal SKULLSB1 wall on the north-west corner is an elevator.

Yeah, there's no texture in Heretic that definitively says "this is a lift" the way PLAT1 does in Doom. So I tried to always use SKULLSB1 to hopefully train the player to see it as the Lift Texture. Apparently not to great success.

 

The added problem in E2M3 is that there isn't any good place to put a walkover trigger to lower the lift, especially without adding an extra linedef. But I'll put it on my list of things to look at and see if I come up with a better solution.

[NightFright]

Outstanding. Still need to play the third episode, but I like rather short maps. Also I think "gimmicky" levels like this haven't been made for Heretic before AFAIK. Especially the one in which you fly almost all the time was fun. Finally the flying artifact became an essential gameplay element.

 

Besides this problem in E2M3, nothing major that messed with progressing through the levels. I leave the texture problem reports to others. 

[elend]

I am now through the second episode and really, really like it so far. I love how tight all the maps are but especially in episode 2 the progression of the maps is just awesome. Fun, a bit tricky but not too contrived that it gets annoying. Maybe it's because I haven't played Heretic in literally ages, but I have a shit ton of fun so far. Just wanted to comment real quick, before the thread is buried in other stuff and / or this will be a necro post.

[scwiba]

13 hours ago, elend said:

I am now through the second episode and really, really like it so far. I love how tight all the maps are but especially in episode 2 the progression of the maps is just awesome. Fun, a bit tricky but not too contrived that it gets annoying. Maybe it's because I haven't played Heretic in literally ages, but I have a shit ton of fun so far. Just wanted to comment real quick, before the thread is buried in other stuff and / or this will be a necro post.

Thank you! E2 is honestly my favorite by a long-shot. I'm most curious what everyone's reactions to E3 will be because it's so much puzzlier and doesn't have much in the way of classic combat stuff. If you give it a play, let me know what you think about it.

 

And yeah... I remember a time when this forum didn't move nearly so fast. Still, we're far from necro territory for the time being.

[Gez]

E3M1 is probably the puzzliest of the whole. The candle puzzle is very subtle (I mean, you're hunting for a one-pixel detail), and the teleport puzzle is quite annoying too (though if you've mostly solved it, then you can open the way to a secret that gives you the solution). The rest was pretty easy in comparison, IMO, so it's definitely a front-loaded episode.

[scwiba]

27 minutes ago, Gez said:

E3M1 is probably the puzzliest of the whole. The candle puzzle is very subtle (I mean, you're hunting for a one-pixel detail), and the teleport puzzle is quite annoying too (though if you've mostly solved it, then you can open the way to a secret that gives you the solution). The rest was pretty easy in comparison, IMO, so it's definitely a front-loaded episode.

Huh. And here I was thinking that M6 and M7 were the toughest, hence why they got put at the end. And then M8 is either super hard or a joke depending on what port you play it in.

 

Now that you mention the candles, I'm thinking of maybe having three that you need to find instead of just the one. That would make it much more likely you'd notice at least one, and once you do you'd know what it is you're looking for. Do you have any suggestions on how to make the teleports less annoying? It's hard to judge when you know the solution by heart. Is it that there are too many steps? Five seems like it could be a little tedious now that I think about it.

[printz]

1 hour ago, Gez said:

E3M1 is probably the puzzliest of the whole. The candle puzzle is very subtle (I mean, you're hunting for a one-pixel detail),

Oh come on. It's not hard to figure it out once you realize there's nowhere to go and that the candle decorations look peculiar.

[Gez]

For the teleports, I'd suggest using different textures for the teleporter backdrops. Currently the right path lets you see in order SPINE2->SPINE1->SNDPLAIN->SNDBLCKS->SNDCHNKS so it seems the clue is that you need to see a different texture each time. If you see a texture you've already seen, you've gone wrong -- at least I think that's the clue. This could be made more explicit by having the wrong rooms simply have CSTLRCK there.

 

Alternatively, you could show the texture sequence a bit before, e.g. something like this perhaps:

I've just noticed that in easy mode, you have some Monty Hall hint in that a block decoration will prevent one of the possible bad choices, until the switch room. However, there's a drawback to this: it's possible to get stuck behind one of them: the teleport destination in the first room, the one where you will eventually get back if you took a wrong path, is blocked by one. Moving it to the other bad choice here would solve this, but also make the clue stronger as in each time, the right path would be the one opposite to the blocker.

 

14 minutes ago, printz said:

Oh come on. It's not hard to figure it out once you realize there's nowhere to go and that the candle decorations look peculiar.

I was seriously overthinking it, counting the amount of candles on each stand and trying to figure out some logical progression in which they'd have to be activated. Turns out the solution is to attack a candle. (Fun fact: you can light it with your staff, too.)

[scwiba]

5 minutes ago, Gez said:

For the teleports, I'd suggest using different textures for the teleporter backdrops. Currently the right path lets you see in order SPINE2->SPINE1->SNDPLAIN->SNDBLCKS->SNDCHNKS so it seems the clue is that you need to see a different texture each time. If you see a texture you've already seen, you've gone wrong -- at least I think that's the clue. This could be made more explicit by having the wrong rooms simply have CSTLRCK there.

Oooh, oh no. There's definitely a problem with clarity here then.

Spoiler

The solution to the teleporter maze is shown on the floors of each of those alcoves that opens. If you read them from right to left, the tridents point in the direction you go at that step. The only reason the wall textures were different in the alcoves was in an attempt to help with memorizing the sequence. "East at the skulls," "south at the big bricks," etc. Clearly I need to think on this a bit more.

 

9 minutes ago, Gez said:

I've just noticed that in easy mode, you have some Monty Hall hint in that a block decoration will prevent one of the possible bad choices, until the switch room. However, there's a drawback to this: it's possible to get stuck behind one of them: the teleport destination in the first room, the one where you will eventually get back if you took a wrong path, is blocked by one. Moving it to the other bad choice here would solve this, but also make the clue stronger as in each time, the right path would be the one opposite to the blocker.

Ugh. Thanks for noticing that... Would have been really embarrassing to let a bug that big slip through.

 

10 minutes ago, Gez said:

(Fun fact: you can light it with your staff, too.)

Hey, it's a magic staff... probably.