Ante Mortem Episode 1, Super Large and Super Charged (UDMF)

[Snaxalotl]

After 2 years of development, episode 1 of Ante Mortem had finally arrived...
 

 

GAMEPLAY

Fast paced and challenging with a buildup to slaughter. Supercharge's arsenal and slightly reduced enemy health prevents any grind as you tear your way through massive hordes of demons. Ultra Violence does not hold back so avoid it unless you are very skilled or for a second playthrough, Other difficulties are supported and still provide a good challenge. All 5 maps are fairly large so expect this first episode to take 2-4 hours to complete.

UV - Intended for masochists that want to push their limits, Situational awareness and patience are key. Every mistake will be punished and the legions of hell will give no mercy. (This is not the standard difficulty)
HMP- The standard difficulty, not easy by any means but is recommended for most players. Provides a good challenge without the required precision of UV. 
HNTR- Much more forgiving than HMP or UV, still not easy but is a good choice for those who struggle with tough maps.
ITYTD- Same as HNTR with extra ammo and less damage, good for a casual playthrough.

I recommend HMP for most players, don't force yourself to play UV... It doesn't back.

Requires GZDoom 4.2.0+  4.7.1 is recommended as it was used for testing and is more up to date.
Freelook and jumping are required, crouching is only required for secrets.

CREDITS

@Tango For the wonderful gameplay mod supercharge.
@ukiro For the beautiful texture pack OTEX.
@Biodegradable For the great trailer.
Everyone That helped me playtest along the way. @Biodegradable, @Clippy, @azerty, @Terminus, @Bridgeburner56, @DavidN, and @sandwedge in no particular order. Thank you all so much for your advice and assistance!

Music is from the Plutonia midi pack and Sunder, The title screen music is from HellStorm Archon's ambient music pack.

PERFORMANCE AND THE REQUIRED DYNAMIC LIGHTING

Dynamic lights are essential as they are the main way the maps' lighting is implemented, turning them off will leave the levels looking very dark and dull. Despite my best efforts to optimize these maps do require a decent rig compared to most doom maps. This is due to the large size and the many 3d floors / dynamic lights at work. If you are experiencing fps issues on the larger maps trying turning off texture filtering, and lowering the "Max VFX" Setting in the supercharge options (50 or 100 are both acceptable. Higher values greatly impact performance with the large quantities of gore decals and bullet casings.

BUGS

Nothing major unless I somehow missed something, there are probably a few misaligned textures hiding somewhere. If you run into bugs please let me know in the development thread here.\

DOWNLOAD

https://www.mediafire.com/file/ev3trwdh5xdod13/AnteMortem.zip/file Make Sure you have those dynamic lights on!

 

I hope you all enjoy playing this as much as I did making it! -Kyra

 

Edited December 12, 2022 by Snaxalotl
Forgot one of the credits.

[eternalegg]

oh this looks cool will give it a try

[Biodegradable]

Happy to be of service, Snacky! Proud of you for finishing it. I hope you like it, kids!

[big smoke]

congrats on the release!
this looks great 

[Austinado]

Noice...very noice indeed. Congrats ! 

[Vile]

Congrats on the release, it was quite fun!  More stuff using Supercharge is welcome for sure.

[DavidN]

Wow, your map work has really evolved fast - this looks more like a set of UT99 levels :D Great to see it complete

[kalensar]

Tried it on my upper end potato and the results were choppy at best. 10/10 definitely follow the advice of having a decent rig to run this Bad Boy. Also don't be stupid like me and attempt to run it on LZDoom because the results were really really bad juju.

[97th Century Fox]

Congrats on a released episode! Gonna play this soon!

[Arwel]

Bloody cool and snappy to the maximum! All maps are epic, unique and intricately designed.

Mostly dark and sinister but there is also an open air map for a final breath of fresh air before delving into underworld!

[sandwedge]

Awesome map, a fitting end to this episode!

 

 

YT description:

Played blind on GZDoom on Default compatibility (required), Ultraviolence with pistol start. After 2 years in the making, Episode 1 of Ante-Mortem has been completed by Snaxalotl! This is an initial release so some changes may be made, but I can say after playing it that this episode is already highly polished! What we have here are large, detailed and beautiful maps that take full advantage of GZDoom features, especially dynamic lighting. You may require some decent hardware to run it smoothly. If you can, you're in for a treat. After playing up to map 4 previously (see playlist), I try out the newly released Map 5: Cerebral Underworld. Once again we have fast paced combat enhanced with the Supercharge mod, at times peaking into huge slaughter encounters, mixed with some fun exploration. At the climax we finally get to wield the fearsome BFG and take down a new enemy, a fearsome cousin of the dreaded Archvile. If you want a new episode that pushes GZDoom to the limit, look no further!

[Clippy]

Cool map as always brutal stuff way beyond me but enough eye candy to give me diabetes - the atmosphere and environments are top notch and the paring with supercharge is lovely - good times - I loved it hope you enjoy seeing me get dead a bunch - also sleepy @sandwedge was here to help me not get lost 

 

 

[sandwedge]

Had fun maxing these two levels with Man With Gun.  Couldn't get snax in for this one but will next time!

 

 

[azerty]

Another banger. Well done, this one was a bit shorter but I didn't mind. My time was well spent :) Let me know when more is ready or if you want me to do some pre release playtesting. I'd like to help in the development of this awesome map set. 

 

 

Edited June 13, 2022 by azerty

[thelamp]

Since starting a playthrough of POINT// BREAK// I decided to give this a go as well! Gettin' immersed in the supercharge

 

 

[thelamp]

 

 

[thelamp]

Really loving this set and getting to know Supercharge's tricks

 

 

[Caleb13]

I know it's necropost, but latest GZdoom 4.10.0 reports these during startup:

 

Brightmap 'brightmaps/sprites/VILE[1.png' not found in texture 'VILE[1'
Brightmap 'brightmaps/sprites/VILE[2.png' not found in texture 'VILE[2'
Brightmap 'brightmaps/sprites/VILE[3.png' not found in texture 'VILE[3'

etc.

R_InstallSpriteLump: Bad frame characters in lump VILE%5E8
R_InstallSpriteLump: Bad frame characters in lump VILE%5E7
R_InstallSpriteLump: Bad frame characters in lump VILE%5E6

etc.

 

I haven't played the WAD (there are way too many custom monsters and weapons for my tastes), but MAP01 looked familiar. Hadn't @Snaxalotl release it about 5 years ago, but without all the custom stuff?

[Snaxalotl]

56 minutes ago, Caleb13 said:

I know it's necropost, but latest GZdoom 4.10.0 reports these during startup:

 

Brightmap 'brightmaps/sprites/VILE[1.png' not found in texture 'VILE[1'
Brightmap 'brightmaps/sprites/VILE[2.png' not found in texture 'VILE[2'
Brightmap 'brightmaps/sprites/VILE[3.png' not found in texture 'VILE[3'

etc.

R_InstallSpriteLump: Bad frame characters in lump VILE%5E8
R_InstallSpriteLump: Bad frame characters in lump VILE%5E7
R_InstallSpriteLump: Bad frame characters in lump VILE%5E6

etc.

 

I haven't played the WAD (there are way too many custom monsters and weapons for my tastes), but MAP01 looked familiar. Hadn't @Snaxalotl release it about 5 years ago, but without all the custom stuff?

 

The post says that gzdoom 4.2.0+ is required, but 4.7.1+ is recommended

 

map01 was released in 2020, then included in ante mortem when I wanted to make a multi level wad following the same style.

 

Also the install sprite lump errors are benign, gzdoom corrects that mistake on startup but leaves the message anyway.

Edited December 24, 2022 by Snaxalotl

[nickxcom]

God DAMN this is great @Snaxalotl, good job! This is some seriously impressive and beautiful stuff. Super Charge feels like it fits perfectly with the maps. Can't believe I missed this one before

[Gifty]

Every single Snax release I've played this year has been fantastic, love stumbling across another one :D

[thelamp]

The depressing grey overcast visuals are actually kinda nice. Or maybe it's just the weather where I am is so bad that this monster infested place seems tolerable by comparison haha!

 

 

 

[thelamp]

Really liked this one, the meat infesting a building thing is totally my jam. Neat ending trigger too!

 

 

[Delisk]

 

[Delisk]

 

[Delisk]

 

[Delisk]

 

[Delisk]

 

[thelamp]

 

 

 

[Snaxalotl]

5 hours ago, thelamp said:

 

 

 

Thanks for checking this out! I had a lot of fun watching through your whole playthrough :>