Sanity's Eclipse - Demo 2 (5 levels - looking for feedback!)

[ArchCrusader]

VERSION 2.1 UPLOADED - CHANGELOG BELOW

ADDED A BESTIARY SECTION

 

Greetings everyone!

 

About a year ago I published my first demo for my Sanity's Eclipse project (here, for those who are curious), consisting of levels 1, 2 and 7 out of 11 planned. This time around I'm publishing levels 1 to 5 (no level 7, it'll be for next time when I properly rework it), along with a few improvements to the first 2.

 

Supposedly pretty challenging on UV - bear in mind I tune the challenge based on my own skill, since my standard is completing a level with 100% kills and secrets on UV pistol start.

 

VERSION 2.1

Sanity's Eclipse DEMO 2.1 by ArchCrusader.rar

 

Alternate link - DROPBOX

 

VERSION 2.0

Sanity's Eclipse DEMO 2 by ArchCrusader.rar

 

Alternate link - DROPBOX

 

Requires the DOOM II IWAD; since it makes use of MAPINFO and DECORATE it should require ZDoom or any derivative (and, therefore, that's what I used for testing).

I don't have much of a recommendation for compatibility, I just use ZDoom's default. Aside from custom monsters, the WAD plays like vanilla DOOM, so most configurations should work - I would however suggest disabling infinitely tall monsters.

Use freelook at your own discretion, everything should work fine regardless of that; crouching and jumping are disabled by default via MAPINFO.

Uses the Community Chest 4 texture pack (included), a few monsters (downloaded from Realm667) and custom music (credits are found in the readme).

Runtime: early levels shouldn't take more than 20/30 minutes or so - expect the later levels to take much longer, though, especially the 5th (I assume UV on first play would take at least 1 hour for that one).

 

I've kept an eye for continuous play, however maps usually get tested with pistol start, so if you want the most balanced (although harder, obviously) experience that's what you should go for.

 

KNOWN ISSUES:

I've noticed that the first door in MAP04 becomes impossible to open with certain compatibility options (I accidentally found out trying the "DOOM (strict)" settings in ZDoom, I don't know which specific option is causing it though).

(FIXED IN 2.1) It also seems that the barriers and glasses in MAP05 don't show up when using hardware render. Using software render seems to fix the issue for me (I'll eventually upload the fixed version).

 

Spoiler

Level 1 "Enemy Complex":

Spoiler

Level 2 "Shell Shock":

Spoiler

Level 3 "Cognitive Dissonance":

Spoiler

Level 4 "Persecutory Delusion":

Spoiler

Level 5 "Action Potential":

Spoiler

 

 

 

Obvious spoilers for maps and enemy mechanics/behaviour

Spoiler

Catharsi

Spoiler

 

90 health, shoots volleys of fireballs, drops a timed bomb on death, releasing a ring of fireballs after a few seconds.

 

Notes:

- Does not receive friendly fire from the bombs

- Has 25% less health than the original on Realm667

 

Terminator

Spoiler

 

600 health, shoots either rockets (volleys of 2) or machineguns (burst of 10 bullets, 20 if it maintains line of fire).

 

Notes:

- Heavily edited from the original on Realm667

- Multiple Terminators can infight among themselves, even with rockets

- Immune to splash damage

- Drops 1 rocket and some bullets on death

 

Shadow Stalker

Spoiler

 

100 health, shoots slightly homing fireballs, can go invisible and retreat to ambush. Beware of its triple shot when attacking from ambush.

 

Notes:

- Heavily edited from the original on Realm667

- Will turn invisible once hurt and try to break line of sight with the player, allowing it to enter ambush stance

- During ambush the Shadow Stalker will not move and will shoot a volley of 3 fireballs when attacking the player, revealing itself

- Be wary that, during ambush stance, the Shadow Stalker slowly regenerates health

- When activated, will immediately enter ambush stance if out of sight

 

Wicked

Spoiler

 

120 health, can move very quickly in bursts, shoots volleys of 3 highly damaging fireballs capable of making sharp turns in order to hit the player.

 

Notes:

- Behaves very similarly to the original on Realm667

- Much lower health, less than 50% (275 -> 120)

- Fireballs are slightly more lethal and are fired in bursts of 3 rather than individually

 

 

A bit of history:

Spoiler

I started with this project back in 2010, with the intention of making a full 32 maps pack. Of course, as per usual with these solo projects, I had to downsize its scope to 11 maps once I realized I was taking way too long and life was getting in the way - not only that, but my standards were continuously increasing, to the point where several maps were scrapped and completely remade several times over (I believe map01 was made and remade about 5 times total).

 

Finally, in recent times, I decided to start publishing some stuff to regain some momentum and, while I had some hiccups here and there, I think it's going alright, even though I don't really work on this "full time", so to speak.

 

About the new monsters:

Spoiler

The project has been dragging along for years, so you can probably understand that my motivation wasn't particularly high; when I realized that I needed to revise several maps (not in small part due to the fact that they were carrying with them different design choices from different years) I figured adding new monsters would have been cool and refreshing, so I did (sorry compatibility!).

They get introduced every map after the first, so you can expect 4 new enemies total - the basic resources have all been downloaded from Realm667 but I edited them all to better fit my vision.

 

Comments about each map, as well as changelog (read if you intend to go for a thorough review)

Spoiler

Changes written in bold characters refer to the latest version (in this case, 2.1)

 

MAP01:

Your typical starting map with lots of low level enemies and a handful of traps and mancubi to keep players on their toes. My main concern is that it's probably giving way too much ammo for the kind of challenge it provides.

 

- added a shotgun in the blue key room to make the fight afterwards a bit snappier

- moved the chaingun to the room before the "acid courtyard"

- moved the rocket launcher from a secret to the chaingun's previous position (the secret has more rockets)

- replaced the secret super shotgun with a normal shotgun

- changed a couple of ammo pickups

 

I figured that streamlining weapon pickups would have allowed combat to flow better. I decided to remove the super shotgun towards the end since I felt that it gave the player too much power on map 2 on continuous play.

 

MAP02:

Shorter map with a restricted enemy roster, focusing on hitscanners, cover and resource management. There should be an abundance of health and armour pickups (there are at least 3 soulspheres and 2 blue armours) to counterbalance the inevitable chip damage,

 

- added new monster

- moved most ammo pickups to the other side of the outdoor area

- reworked a few combat arenas to be much more involved

- reworked the red key room fight a bit

- fixed one translucent texture not rendering in hardware mode

 

I wanted to incentivize players to move around outdoors a bit more while taking cover from hitscanners. As for the red key room, I felt that, after the initial "shock", it was basically trivial, so I spiced up the fight a bit.

 

MAP03:

Features close quarters combat and a couple of setpieces that should keep people on their toes.

 

- fixed a few translucent textures not rendering in hardware mode

- Something that I may do is remove the switches from the doors (making them normal doors) and/or making them stay open, something that was suggested during Suitepee's stream. I haven't changed anything yet, I'll see about it when I receive more feedback

 

MAP04:

It's like DOOM3 but without the flashlight (sorry not sorry for the new monster). Meant to feel oppressive.

 

- toned down several early encounters in the map, almost halving the number of Shadowstalkers before and after the blue key

- replaced the Mancubi that appear after you pick the blue key/berserker with Revenants

- replaced the Cacodemons in the acid corridors with imps

- slightly increased a couple of ammo pickups

- added a rocket launcher in the final arena

- I MAY change the Arachnotrons in the area before the yellow key to something a bit easier, I don't think they're too bad to deal with using cover but I'm waiting for more feedback

 

I felt like the first areas of the map were perhaps a bit too oppressive and contributed too much to slowing the pace down - something that I was quite wary of even before publishing this WAD. The changes are aimed to make the early, slower paced area flow a bit better while preserving the big fights towards the end. I'll be waiting for more feedback before making further tweaks.

 

MAP05:

The "big bad" of the pack. Expect a gauntlet of several arenas with hundreds of enemies. I am especially curious about feedback on the final arena, since I spent quite some time on it to make it work but I also have a few doubts about its flow. I have a couple of concerns about player fatigue, but knowing certain WADs I feel like it shouldn't be much of an issue.

 

- fixed translucent textures not rendering in hardware mode

- fixed one door at the end not having yellow key signs

 

Quick rundown on how I approached making these levels:

- Vanilla DOOM gameplay

- Levels must be doable (and tested) with pistol start

- As a matter of fact, I don't consider a level finished until I UV-MAX it with pistol start

- Map structure resembles what I call "pseudo-realistic arenas": expect areas to mirror "realistic" enviroments, with continuity from one part to another, but I don't add stuff like furniture or excessive clutter that would be detrimental to gameplay.

- I try to make the maps as "backtrack-able" as possible

- Coop is contemplated, but not balanced. There are player starts but no additional monsters. Not only that, several arenas lock doors behind players. Triggers tend to be somewhat generous (aside from a couple of instances, doors don't just shut behind players) and the way eventually reopens, but some areas may softlock progress if you die and respawn at the start. If you play with others, make sure to stick together when interacting with switches.

- Different difficulties are implemented but I need feedback for anything lower than UV. With the way I balance the maps, I am bound to find anything less than UV just "easier" and "much easier", so I can't exactly gauge how well they play for others.

 

And with that I'm done - I'm sure I've forgotten something somewhere, but hey.

Good luck and have fun!

Edited July 3, 2021 by ArchCrusader

[ScrappyMcDoogerton]

After playing the first two maps I can say the visuals are outstanding but there's a bit too much hitscan in the combat for my tastes. As in, both maps have huge armies of hitscanners with the occasional caco or revenant thrown in. Even the new custom enemy is essentially a chaingunner with about 4x more health and who also shoots rockets. Really can't say enough about how good these maps look though the final versions of these are gonna be a real treat.

[ArchCrusader]

On 6/28/2021 at 2:34 AM, ScrappyMcDoogerton said:

After playing the first two maps I can say the visuals are outstanding but there's a bit too much hitscan in the combat for my tastes. As in, both maps have huge armies of hitscanners with the occasional caco or revenant thrown in. Even the new custom enemy is essentially a chaingunner with about 4x more health and who also shoots rockets. Really can't say enough about how good these maps look though the final versions of these are gonna be a real treat.

Hey, thanks for playing and the feedback!

The first 2 maps (mostly the second) do go pretty hard on hitscanners, theory is that there is enough cover and resources around to counterbalance it. However, in case you haven't tried them, the other maps (especially the 3rd) should have a much more balanced monster composition.

Edited June 29, 2021 by ArchCrusader

[Korozive]

This looks awesome. Getting bombarded lately with some awesome works.

At this rate I figure I will be able to get through my backlog of levels about two years after I am dead,  :o)

[hakros]

Hi, awesome megawad, thanks for share it !
I can't wait to play full version ... ;-) !!
PS: I've included it in my app 'Hakros Doom Launcher'
https://www.doomlauncher.com/

[ArchCrusader]

UPDATE

Uploaded version 2.1, which mostly fixes a few issues with translucent textures not rendering on hardware mode and improves the flow of map 4, especially in the beginning. All changes are listed in the changelog in the main post.

Additionally, I added a bestiary section to the main post. It goes without saying but if you want to learn about them ingame you should avoid opening the spoiler.

 

On 6/30/2021 at 3:44 AM, Korozive said:

...

 

16 hours ago, hakros said:

...

 

Thanks!

[Suitepee]

https://youtu.be/64NmTwinIc8 = maps 1-3 and part of 4.

https://youtu.be/8QIvmPFmEv4 = rest of map 4 and 5. (starts at 2:30).

 

Here's my playthrough.

 

[Biodegradable]

 

[ArchCrusader]

On 7/2/2021 at 11:34 PM, Suitepee said:

https://youtu.be/64NmTwinIc8 = maps 1-3 and part of 4.

https://youtu.be/8QIvmPFmEv4 = rest of map 4 and 5. (starts at 2:30).

 

Here's my playthrough.

 

 

Thanks a lot! I'd like to point out that I cut down the difficulty/size of early encounters in map04 so that the pace doesn't slow down as much and picks up a little faster. I'll see what to do about the SSG in map05 once I get more feedback.

 

On 7/3/2021 at 4:45 PM, Biodegradable said:

 

 

Thanks for playing! Nice to see some sub-UV playthroughs. If you don't mind me addressing a couple of things...

 

I have to say, and this is just something I found funny, you seem to have an uncanny ability to stop searching for secrets right when they're next to you and/or elegantly move around a secret switch or door, scanning 90% of the room EXCEPT that bit (it was especially funny in the rocket launcher room in MAP01, I think you literally danced around a switch without it ever entering your visual). :D

 

The new enemy in map02, the rocket launcher/machinegun Terminator, is immune to splash damage - just so you don't use too many rockets against them (I'd like to know of a way to teach that to the player, but nothing comes to mind, the bestiary I added to the thread should suffice for now).

So, uhm, at 21:25, the SSG is right there on the left, I think you skirted right next to it, literally a few pixels away... :D I may be mistaken, but I think the mod you're using has a slightly smaller sprite for the pickup and (as I noticed at the start of the map) it tends to move them a bit, so it may have been closer to the wall than originally intended.

 

As for map03, just wanted to point out that

Spoiler

the massive frame drop in the room at the end is caused by about 400 zombiemen getting gibbed by explosive barrels, something that becomes exponentially taxing on the system due to the gore mod you're using. If you're wondering, it's a little curveball I've made to throw people off when looking at the monster count.

 

Many thanks again, I'll be waiting for the rest of the levels! :)

(oh and, by the way, in case you're using version 2.0, map05 has barriers that don't render in hardware mode, it's fixed in 2.1, which also has a bit of an easier start for map04)

Edited December 17, 2021 by ArchCrusader

[Biodegradable]

 

[ArchCrusader]

6 hours ago, Biodegradable said:

 

 

Thanks again for the playthrough! Just wanted to say, those monster closets in map05 do work, they just open when you pick up the soulsphere (basically picking up either the soulsphere or blue armour opens up the monster closets on either's OPPOSITE side). Sorry for the invisible barriers! They're fixed now.

Edited July 4, 2021 by ArchCrusader

[TheNoob_Gamer]

I took some time to play MAP01, on UV. This was pretty fun.