Heartland - final version available on idgames

[Doom64hunter]

3 minutes ago, NokturnuS said:

 

I uploaded an Eternity-only mappack with 4 levels sometime in january if you're interested:

It's in beta state now but fully playable. More updates coming soon (sorry for the auto-promotion skillsaw!)

Cool, I checked the Doom wiki page (https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Category:Eternity_Engine_WADs) but there's not much recent content listed.

 

Not to turn this into "Eternity engine wad general" though, I'll check Heartland out sometime soon.

[whybmonotacrab]

A Skillsaw release! Under normal circumstances this would make me exceptionally happy. Unfortunately I'll have to skip it since Eternity refuses to run on my system no matter which build I use. Hope everyone else enjoys it though!

[Linuxmaster1992]

5 minutes ago, whybmonotacrab said:

A Skillsaw release! Under normal circumstances this would make me exceptionally happy. Unfortunately I'll have to skip it since Eternity refuses to run on my system no matter which build I use. Hope everyone else enjoys it though!

What OS do you use?

[whybmonotacrab]

Just now, Commodore Forever! said:

What OS do you use?

Windows 10.

[continuum.mid]

9 hours ago, ReaperAA said:

A question for those who have played it, how does it compare against, say Ancient Aliens from a gameplay, atmosphere and difficulty perspective.

 

I really want to play this now, but I am going to be busy in the next couple of day :(

I've only played the first map, and am halfway through Ancient Aliens, but since nobody else replied:
 

It seems pretty similar to Ancient Aliens gameplay-wise. The atmosphere is definitely different, but it's as well-constructed as the better half of Ancient Aliens. I expect the difficulty to ramp up quickly after map01, so I can't comment on that.

[MattFright]

I hope i'm not the only one to feel this way, but: After playing through (most of) this, i really want to make some Eternity maps now.

[Edward850]

1 hour ago, whybmonotacrab said:

A Skillsaw release! Under normal circumstances this would make me exceptionally happy. Unfortunately I'll have to skip it since Eternity refuses to run on my system no matter which build I use. Hope everyone else enjoys it though!

In what way does it "refuse to run"?

[Doom64hunter]

Okay I just started it and already I'm wondering how the hell that moving train cart was done.

 

Is it intended that the player makes hurt noises when being hit by flying glass shards?

[MtPain27]

After downloading the Eternity port, roughly figuring out how to make it work, plugging in Heartland, and beating it essentially in one sitting, I'm still in a state of semi-shock. I obviously have no experience with Eternity, but the sheer amount of mapping magic contained in these seven levels is awe-inspiring. It was simultaneously nothing like what I was expecting and exactly what I was expecting. I absolutely love the sights, the fights, the music, the puns, and the overall atmosphere of this project: playing it felt like participating in a celebration of everything that's possible in Doom mapping: joyous, inspiring, and very, very bloody.

 

Seriously, how many monsters are there in MAP 06? The Eternity port doesn't show the monster count by default and I have to know! It's gotta be over 2000 right?

 

Skillsaw, stewboy, Altazimuth, Xaser, dew, thank you all for this. My day (and potentially my week) is made.

[Blip]

I've played until the start of map 04 and these maps so far have been amazing. Between the otex textures and the music it gives me some eviternity vibes. The only issue I have is that the sourceport autoaim is kind of weird and sometimes it doesn't register enemies above you, especially the imps behind railings on map 02 or the ones in map 03 that are on those cavern holes (though I'm unfamiliar with the sourceport so maybe I didn't configure something beforehand?). Can't wait to finish the remaining levels!

[stewboy]

22 minutes ago, MattFright said:

I hope i'm not the only one to feel this way, but: After playing through (most of) this, i really want to make some Eternity maps now.

You absolutely should! Mess around with portals a bit - they can take a while to get used to, both editor wise and mental visualisation wise. I wouldn't worry about polyobjects or making your own trains yet though!

 

As a matter of fact, for a while now I've been bouncing around an idea in my head for another 1024-style community project, in Eternity. It would help a lot of people to get used to these ideas, without overwhelming them with trying to create something like in Heartland.

Edited March 4, 2021 by stewboy

[whybmonotacrab]

24 minutes ago, Edward850 said:

In what way does it "refuse to run"?

I get a crash and an error message. I just posted the details in the Eternity thread so discussion here stays about Skillsaw's work.

[Spie812]

Map03's lower area is missing an upper texture.

 

Edited March 4, 2021 by Spie812

[continuum.mid]

14 minutes ago, MtPain27 said:

After downloading the Eternity port, roughly figuring out how to make it work, plugging in Heartland, and beating it essentially in one sitting, I'm still in a state of semi-shock. I obviously have no experience with Eternity, but the sheer amount of mapping magic contained in these seven levels is awe-inspiring. It was simultaneously nothing like what I was expecting and exactly what I was expecting. I absolutely love the sights, the fights, the music, the puns, and the overall atmosphere of this project: playing it felt like participating in a celebration of everything that's possible in Doom mapping: joyous, inspiring, and very, very bloody.

 

Seriously, how many monsters are there in MAP 06? The Eternity port doesn't show the monster count by default and I have to know! It's gotta be over 2000 right?

 

Skillsaw, stewboy, Altazimuth, Xaser, dew, thank you all for this. My day (and potentially my week) is made.

One of the first things I thought when reading the OP (and playing the WAD) was: "MtPain27's inevitable review of this ought to be rather interesting."

 

And yeah, this is really high-quality stuff. I wish I wasn't in the middle of so many other WADs right now, so I could sit down and play this all the way through.

[Doom64hunter]

Played through map01. The most impressive thing to me really is the train carts, mainly the fact that you can shoot enemies while you are in a train, they are in another train, and the two trains are moving in opposite directions -- and it just works. I've seen portals that give you the visual illusion of being in a moving train, but never ones that actually preserve the interactivity, i.e. the fact that you can actually directly interact with what's outside the portal.

 

And then it gets even better when a train moves away after you get off it, and then in its place another train with a new group of enemies appears. I can pretty confidently say I have not seen that in a Doom mod before -- in Duke 3D yes, but not Doom.

Edited March 4, 2021 by Doom64hunter

[dew]

31 minutes ago, MtPain27 said:

Seriously, how many monsters are there in MAP 06? The Eternity port doesn't show the monster count by default and I have to know! It's gotta be over 2000 right? 

map06 is 1664 and map07 is 1741 on UV. Eternity does have a monster counter, just press "+". Its style is configurable, but altazimuth's "Modern" skin is superior to the old Boom one.

 

The big fight at the end of map06 seems impossible without the cluster bomb launcher (which I hereby dub the Herd Thinner), which is why it may feel there's more monsters than in map07.

Edited March 4, 2021 by dew

[Redneckerz]

Hey look, another Cacoward contestant.

 

And with that, a great show piece for the Eternity Engine. Its output may not be anywhere near more popular ports, but what is there, is often so mighty impressive, it its tingling.

 

Fantastic.

[Deadwing]

This will definitely put Eternity more in evidence. Will this be the new Boom/MBF?

 

Can't wait to try Heartland when I get some time

[MS-06FZ Zaku II Kai]

Insert this into my veins... RIGHT NOW!!!!!!

[MtPain27]

2 hours ago, dew said:

map06 is 1664 and map07 is 1741 on UV. Eternity does have a monster counter, just press "+". Its style is configurable, but altazimuth's "Modern" skin is superior to the old Boom one.

 

The big fight at the end of map06 seems impossible without the cluster bomb launcher (which I hereby dub the Herd Thinner), which is why it may feel there's more monsters than in map07.

 

Thank you, both for the stats and the pointer...I'm really incompetent with settings. Can't wait to track down all the kills and secrets in my second playthrough!

[Mechadon]

Wow, I was just thinking about that construction site map the other day, really loved how that one looked in older screenshots.  And I was wondering if it was something you would eventually release.  The new screenshots are friggin' gorgeous, especially that third one!

 

Congrats on the release, I'll be putting this at the top of my play queue :D

[LadyMistDragon]

28 minutes ago, MtPain27 said:

 

Thank you, both for the stats and the pointer...I'm really incompetent with settings. Can't wait to track down all the kills and secrets in my second playthrough!

I think we've got the Season 2 Dean of Doom premiere...

Edited March 4, 2021 by LadyMistDragon

[continuum.mid]

Strange visual bug I came across in map02 - hard to describe, it's like a chaingunner corpse was visible through the floor.

 

Spoiler

 

[skillsaw]

Thanks everyone for reporting issues. Looks like I have a lot to fix! I'll keep looking out in this thread for more, even if I don't have the time to respond to them all. It's hugely appreciated. Anyways, more bugs than usual this time ... the learning curve was clearly a bit higher for me.

 

13 hours ago, SP_FACE1 said:

Pretty much this. I've had no reason to try Eternity before. Now I cannot avoid it anymore. (I do hope Eternity has a working coop play, my friends love Skillsaw maps.)

 

I'm not too sure what the state of EE's coop is. Sadly, coop is untested - Heartland really is just 'starts only' at this point. There are probably sequence breaks and also the possibility of some maps becoming unwinnable if everyone respawns.

 

8 hours ago, Uni said:

Loved the idea of monsters coming out of huge crates

Me too! There's supposed to be a loose in-world explanation for this... I mean, where are all these crates being shipped from?

 

7 hours ago, Scuba Steve said:

Since this is just RC1... here are some minor fixes I'd love to see

Xaser has heard you and made these fixes... They'll be included in the next build. The axe especially looks a lot better with the sprite fixes.

 

6 hours ago, Doom64hunter said:

Is this the first multi-map Eternity-only wad that didn't turn into vaporware? Amazing.

Somber Density by Nokturnus and Cubic Worlds by Stewboy come to mind.

 

4 hours ago, MattFright said:

I hope i'm not the only one to feel this way, but: After playing through (most of) this, i really want to make some Eternity maps now.

Try it! Portals are a game changer.

 

4 hours ago, MtPain27 said:

After downloading the Eternity port, roughly figuring out how to make it work, plugging in Heartland, and beating it essentially in one sitting, I'm still in a state of semi-shock. I obviously have no experience with Eternity, but the sheer amount of mapping magic contained in these seven levels is awe-inspiring. It was simultaneously nothing like what I was expecting and exactly what I was expecting. I absolutely love the sights, the fights, the music, the puns, and the overall atmosphere of this project: playing it felt like participating in a celebration of everything that's possible in Doom mapping: joyous, inspiring, and very, very bloody.

 

Seriously, how many monsters are there in MAP 06? The Eternity port doesn't show the monster count by default and I have to know! It's gotta be over 2000 right?

 

Skillsaw, stewboy, Altazimuth, Xaser, dew, thank you all for this. My day (and potentially my week) is made.

Of course! Working with an advanced port is pretty eye-opening - I think 'semi-shock' is also an apt description of how I felt a lot of the time when opening Doom Builder.

 

And thanks to you (and everyone else who's downloaded and installed Eternity for the first time) for taking a trip outside of the Boom comfort zone... Making an advanced port project is something that's been on my bucket list for a long time, and I'm very grateful to everyone's been willing to give it a shot, and it makes it the headaches that come with learning worthwhile.

[Vile]

Amazing work, thank you for making it!  I did a playthrough on stream and it was a blast (vod in the spoiler).

 

I'm not sure if it's been reported but I did break map03 in my first attempt at it.  I hit the switch behind the red door to open up the basement area, cleaned that out and hit the switch to open up the path to the outside area, but for some reason I went back into the red door room and hit the switch again, which closed off the outside permanently.  I think jumping on the moving catwalks on map05 has a potential to break progression as well but I played around it.

 

 

Spoiler

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/937010630

 

Edited March 4, 2021 by Vile

[VoanHead]

Today is a good day, gonna play a snippet of this today and try to finish it off tomorrow.

[TJG1289]

Is @stewboy's OST for this going to be on his Bandcamp? I clicked the link in the OP to his page, and all I see is the Ancient Aliens OST. 

[CorianderCastor]

EE has been my daily driver for at least half a decade now, and it warms my heart to see people give it a go for this pke.

 

Only played the first map, but so good so far.

[ptoing]

So nice to see stuff for EE. Keep up the good work. Played up to mid of map03 so far. Great stuff, even though I am getting my ass kicked even on HNTR.

[D.Vile]

Just ran into a weird visual glitch in Map 03. Why is this medikit floating in mid-air?