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I.H.N.I. Episode 1 - The Jittery Update v1.04


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Now - keep in mind that i wasn't able to get rid of all the issues you've had on stream.

I won't be able to work on it for the next week or so, so i decided to fix the most important gameplay-related issues first, and leave aesthetics for later.

So - you know - that clipped pistol sprite is still there. Doom guy still has no elbows.

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Oh boy this looks AMAZING for something that seemingly came out of nowhere. Is this your very first Doom project? Released or not

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14 hours ago, Kraja said:

don't get your hopes up, this one's neither long nor hard

 

... 

...

 

Nah.

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6 hours ago, MattFright said:

Oh boy this looks AMAZING for something that seemingly came out of nowhere. Is this your very first Doom project? Released or not

 

Thanks!

I've been on and off mapping since 2016, but i rarely ever released anything to the public - i usually just gave my maps to some friends or posted them on some discord servers. But this is the first time where i went beyond just mapping and did some other stuff - that's why it took me two years to make.

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This is phenomenal. Everything about this is just wonderful. Great fun levels with sweet designs, excellent texture work, fun combat, terrific set pieces, some interesting and challenging progression. Weapon sprites are cool, though some of their animations look a bit rough. I think the sound effects could be a little beefier, but that's more of a personal preference, so take that as you will. It's a terrific start and I'd love to see more. Splendid stuff, truly man. B-e-a-utiful!

 

 

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Well well, this was a bit good.

 

Played through to the beginning of the third map. The level design, flow, atmosphere, use of atmospheric effects like fog and colored lighting, and traps were all absolutely excellent. Minor complaint, I ran out of ammo after the red key trap in the second map. Couple of extra boxes of either shells or bullets would do it. I was able to scrape through punching the chaingunner in the vents to death so it was not too bad. Certainly encountered far worse. I must give special mention to the traps. They surprised, got the adrenaline pumping, challenged, but you always gave the skilled player enough time and space to react. Really well done.

The weapons are largely good. For the first time I can remember I actually not only did not mind pistol sniping but actually enjoyed it. The pump action shotgun's animation was a bit stiff, and you could see it cropped off in some parts of the animation on the right hand side which was not ideal. The animation should convey just as much punch as the sound and effect do but this one does not quite seem to fit that bill. The super shotgun animation has the same problem but the recoil seems to help convey the punch the animation does not. Chaingun was good. I was a bit dubious about the weapons at first. After nearly 30 years, every aspect of Doom's gameplay is muscle memory to me, and anything that changes an aspect of what is expected can be off putting. However, I adjusted quickly to the changes.

 

So in summation, this kicks pretty much all the ass. I look forward to finishing it. Unreservedly recommended.

Edited by Murdoch

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Just played the first level and very much enjoying it so far. Love the amount of effort that clearly went into this.

 

Also I love how the intermission music is Damask_Rose.it. More mod files like that should be used in Doom.

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Oh Man 

I wasn't expecting feedback like this. 

Keep in mind that I'll try to release a new build on Monday that fixes some of the most glaring bugs. 

But for now - let me just say: be careful when skipping curscenes at the end. The while thing *might* explode and softlock the game now lol 

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Holy shit, you've made all this by yourself? Damn impressive, particularly for a newcomer! I could live without the new weapons and HUD, but at least they work adequately (which can't be said of most weapon and HUD mods out there).

 

Speaking of bugs, there is one concerning the final boss: if he kills you, his model is sudenly replaced by standard sprite cyberdemon. Also, the intro and outro text intertitles disappear a bit too fast, maybe you could show each of them for 2 or 3 seconds more. From visual standpoint, certain fog textures are very pixelated, this is perhaps most visible in RL secret in MAP02, but also above the city at the very start of MAP01. I played in GZdoom 4.4.2 and it throws these warnings:

 

Unknown patch 'N_SPDR3B' in texture 'SPCDOOR3'
Script warning, "I.H.N.I. build 6.pk3:ihni_maps.wad:DECORATE" line 231:
Tried to define class 'Mug' more than once. Renaming class to 'Mug@I.H.N.I. build 6.pk3@ihni_maps.wad@DECORATE'

 

MAP01 - Site Alpha

Script error, "MAP01" line 1:
Dialog script does not define a namespace.

Line 14841 has no first side.
 

----------------------------------------

MAP02 - Site Theta

Line 16233 has no first side.
Line 16245 has no first side.
 

 

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1 hour ago, Caleb13 said:

Speaking of bugs, there is one concerning the final boss: if he kills you, his model is sudenly replaced by standard sprite cyberdemon. 

 

Wait - I thought I fixed that lol 

Well - I'll just add this to the list - v1.01 should be available on Monday. 

 

While I don't know if I'll be able to get rid of those two warning messages that pop up during startup , I'll try to fix those janky linedefs on maps 01 and 02. 

Cheers 🍺

Edited by Kraja

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What an absolute labor of love. There's this fantastic "old-school FPS" vibe that hooked me almost instantly (and kept getting better and better). Finely-crafted atmosphere, fun weapons, decent level design with some great visuals, and all of the zdoom-isms and different features are used to phenomenal effect. It was easy to forget I was playing a Doom wad. Loved the music, as well (it gave the entire thing a very fitting and unique ambiance). I had an absolute blast playing through this.

 

I enjoyed using all of the weapons (particularly that pistol), but I have to agree with Murdoch that the SSG animations feel a bit stiff (they really undersell the power of that weapon). Otherwise, the arsenal is tons of fun to use. I also loved how you handled secrets (the "kiss the chef" moment was amazing!)

 

Super minor nit-pick here: The arrow on the menu seems a bit off. It almost seems to point to the option below the actual option I'm highlighting, it's weird. Not sure if I was the only person who experienced that, or not. I also experienced that same visual glitch with the final boss that Caleb mentioned (where the model turns into the classic Cybie sprite if he kills you). I was running gzdoom 4.5.0 if that helps at all.

 

Can't wait to see what you have in store for us with Episode 2!   

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1 hour ago, RonnieJamesDiner said:

What an absolute labor of love. There's this fantastic "old-school FPS" vibe that hooked me almost instantly (and kept getting better and better). Finely-crafted atmosphere, fun weapons, decent level design with some great visuals, and all of the zdoom-isms and different features are used to phenomenal effect. It was easy to forget I was playing a Doom wad. Loved the music, as well (it gave the entire thing a very fitting and unique ambiance). I had an absolute blast playing through this.

 

I enjoyed using all of the weapons (particularly that pistol), but I have to agree with Murdoch that the SSG animations feel a bit stiff (they really undersell the power of that weapon). Otherwise, the arsenal is tons of fun to use. I also loved how you handled secrets (the "kiss the chef" moment was amazing!)

 

Super minor nit-pick here: The arrow on the menu seems a bit off. It almost seems to point to the option below the actual option I'm highlighting, it's weird. Not sure if I was the only person who experienced that, or not. I also experienced that same visual glitch with the final boss that Caleb mentioned (where the model turns into the classic Cybie sprite if he kills you). I was running gzdoom 4.5.0 if that helps at all.

 

Can't wait to see what you have in store for us with Episode 2!   

Just an idea, but maybe the menu pointer being off has something to do with GzDoom 4.50's new menu scaling option?

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4 hours ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

Just an idea, but maybe the menu pointer being off has something to do with GzDoom 4.50's new menu scaling option?

Yup - apparently it's a gzdoom thing. 

That menu arrow works well on anything from 3.7 to 4.4 but gets all wonky in 4.5.  @RonnieJamesDiner

And hey - I'm glad you liked it. 🍺

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Additional musings.


Misspoke in my original thoughts, it's the pistol with the cut off bit on the right not the shotgun. Oopsie. Anyway again, your use of environmental effects and sound to create atmosphere and layouts to tell story are just <insert chef's kiss noise here>.  I am about 3/4 of the way through map 3 (lousy having to get up and be a productive member of society running my own business, pfft, what was I thinking?) and I particularly enjoyed the initial glimpse around the big central pillar area I am assuming is going to contain the final boss. If so, brilliant visual storytelling. You never say specifically, you just know it's going to open and it is probably not going to be fun when it does. I particularly appreciated that one electrical sparking noise that also kind of sounded like it might be something scurrying around about to bite your face off.

 

The issues I found not already mentioned are teeny tiny and are mostly points of personal taste. The few voxels I have seen are fine as voxels go but... well they kind of stick out like crazy. The rest of everything creates a coherent visual style and then SURPRISE VOXEL! In say Shadow Warrior, you accept it because they are introduced early and fit in with the overall visual style. Here it is just a bit off. And finally, the trap sprung after you past through the glass tube in the third is a bit over the top. The only really viable way to survive it is to kill the Baron first (turning off autoaim) and then run back up to the next level then use in-fighting to thin down the quite massive herd. It's a bit dull, plus there are so many there that I was greeted with the rather comical site of some bad guys somehow standing on the heads of other bad guys. Kind of killed the mood a bit. Definitely need to cut down on the number of bad guys here I think.

Like I said, minor tiny issues. On the whole really, seriously good work.

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2 minutes ago, Murdoch said:

The issues I found not already mentioned are teeny tiny and are mostly points of personal taste. The few voxels I have seen are fine as voxels go but... well they kind of stick out like crazy. The rest of everything creates a coherent visual style and then SURPRISE VOXEL! In say Shadow Warrior, you accept it because they are introduced early and fit in with the overall visual style. Here it is just a bit off. And finally, the trap sprung after you past through the glass tube in the third is a bit over the top. The only really viable way to survive it is to kill the Baron first (turning off autoaim) and then run back up to the next level then use in-fighting to thin down the quite massive herd. It's a bit dull, plus there are so many there that I was greeted with the rather comical site of some bad guys somehow standing on the heads of other bad guys. Kind of killed the mood a bit. Definitely need to cut down on the number of bad guys here I think.

Oh - that fight

Yeah i decided to spawn a baron there to prevent people from cheesing it exactly the way to you did lul

I guess i'll have to tweak it a bit today

(oh and there's way less enemies there on lower difficulties - like 50% on HNTR)

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Main menu is partly off-screen (using GZDoom 4.5.0 default menu scaling settings and a 1680x1050 resolution).

mainmenu.jpg

Edited by lakersforce

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6 hours ago, Kraja said:

Oh - that fight

Yeah i decided to spawn a baron there to prevent people from cheesing it exactly the way to you did lul

 

Then i would rethink that section. Its a very tight area with a lot of enemies,  not enough ammo and basically no cover. Even cheesing it i ran very low on ammo aftwerwards. Survival would be more down to dumb luck than skill.

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@Murdoch

Well... there's a solution to that fight. And it makes it quite easy, actually.

Just stand on that pile of rockets like this:

But i suppose i could make that a bit more obvious and easier to spot.

I'm currently working on a patched version and i already tweaked that fight a bit, giving the player a bit more time to look around before they start pouring out.

But i guess i have to work on it a bit more.

 

EDIT:

Just posted an updated version.
Fixed some bugs, tweaked some things and adressed some of the feedback from here and other places.
Cheers 🍺

Edited by Kraja

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At the second level, after you collect the red keycard and arrive at the grate with two barrels dropping, leading to the room with the blue keycard, you can arrive without the barrels having dropped, leaving you stomped for a while.

O4f0JlG.png

 

Also on the second level, the blue keycard is obscurely placed, making it possible to miss it, before being routed back to the blue door. That happened to me on my first playthrough, leaving me stomped again, having to go through the entire level again, before discovering it. I would suggest routing the player counterclockwise, past the key.

emCvBlH.png

ZzhgSO2.png

Edited by lakersforce

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Just now, lakersforce said:

At the second level, after you collect the red keycard and arrive at the grate with two barrels dropping, leading to the room with the blue keycard, you can arrive without the barrels having dropped, leaving you stomped for a while.

Dang it, i forgot about that.

Welp - time to make another build.

Thanks for pointing that out.

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2 hours ago, Kraja said:

Well... there's a solution to that fight. And it makes it quite easy, actually.

 

Welp... in retrospect that seems blindingly obvious. My first thought when a trap is sprung is always to focus on the biggest threat which is the Barons and Hell Knights. By the time that information was processed, I was already swarmed and rocket spamming would have been deeply fatal. Was that guy playing on UV? Seemed to have less Imps and Pinkies than I remember.

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Just now, Murdoch said:

Welp... in retrospect that seems blindingly obvious. My first thought when a trap is sprung is always to focus on the biggest threat which is the Barons and Hell Knights. By the time that information was processed, I was already swarmed and rocket spamming would have been deeply fatal. Was that guy playing on UV? Seemed to have less Imps and Pinkies than I remember.

Yup - UV.

But don't worry - it's already fixed.

Added another baron to prevent people from cheesing the fight (but if you manage to get both of them then you deserve all the cheese you want), deleted some of the demons there, changed their properties to prevent them from stacking, changed that barrier to give you a bit more time to react and added lights to that spot with rockets to better guide the player.

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Cool WAD! It really shows that you put a lot of effort and creativity into making it. It gives me a lot of Duke Nukem 3D, Strife and Daikatana* vibes, with some Half-lifey strokes as well. Really cool visual design! I wish that some of your areas had the chance to be more fleshed out; the chemical plant, and final foundry area could easily have been two separate levels. I could have used more of each :) 

 

The gameplay is fine, and mostly fits the atmosphere of the surroundings. The only fight that was really annoying is the Hell Knights, Pinkies and Imps in the rocket arena, but that's been addressed already :)

I did have a bit of an issue with the weapons though. For some reason they feel really sluggish. I defaulted to the SSG and the pistol, since they felt ok, but the others weren't nice to use. Luckily those two can do 90% of the work in the map.


For some reason, the final boss went directly to phase two and then despawned. So, I couldn't finish the WAD, unfortunately. I might have some wonky settings or something in my gzdoom... it's worth mentioning.

 

Very, very good work! Keep it up!

Edited by klaymeb

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4 minutes ago, klaymeb said:

For some reason, the final boss went directly to phase two and then despawned. So, that's a thing that can happen. I must have some wonky settings or something in my gzdoom...

Wait, what?

That's one hell of a bug - how did that happen?

I gotta fix that ASAP

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