The Village of Archensheen - A single level for Heretic - v2 update!

[Egregor]

 

The Village of Archensheen v02.rar

 

Hello fellow Doomers! Here is a bite sized Heretic level for you to sink your teeth into! My restrictions for this one were no more than 100 enemies, 100 sectors, and 1000 linedefs. This prevented me from building an absolutely sprawling level, which is what I tend to do when there are no restrictions (see Endquest). It also has some assets from a texture pack I've been working on included so it has a fresh look, as well as a custom MIDI from the Raven MIDI Pack called 'Deathwind' by Jimmy. Difficulty implemented; easy: Enchanted Shield, medium: Silver Shield, hard: no shield. Also, don't forget that the 'Black Plague Possesses Thee' difficulty setting speeds up all the enemies and projectiles but does NOT feature respawn. Give it a try with The Wayfarer's Tome MOD for a more modern feel. Feedback, suggestions, comments, videos, and criticism all welcomed!

 

Version 2 update: Thanks for the feedback everyone! The level has been re-balanced and made slightly easier over-all. A Tomb Of Power has been added, and the weapons have been placed differently. Hanging skulls have been added to the Phoenix Rod area and the switch lifts are now color coded as well.

 

Edited July 21, 2022 by Egregor

[kalensar]

Very slaughter style, but Heretic always had a theme of being that way. I made it to the Green Key room before I got roasted on Normal setting. I noticed a severe lack of TOPs in the map, but to be fair I was having to run and gun like mad to stay alive. 

[Egregor]

1 hour ago, kalensar said:

Very slaughter style, but Heretic always had a theme of being that way. I made it to the Green Key room before I got roasted on Normal setting. I noticed a severe lack of TOPs in the map, but to be fair I was having to run and gun like mad to stay alive. 

 

Were you able to eventually beat the level? Sometimes Disciples or Iron Liches will drop Tomes of Power! If I update the map I'll be sure to add one (I forgot!)

Edited July 17, 2022 by Egregor

[kalensar]

Haven't been able to beat it yet. LOL.

 

TOPs are a Tomb of Power, is what I meant. Pardon the confusion. 

 

I have had fun with it with my mods though. Its a fun map.

 

[MattFright]

Hell yeah, glad to see a new release from you :D

 

It's very late for my timezone but I'll definitely give this a shot tomorrow (& record a demo assuming it runs on dsda, though im fine with it if its only gzdoom compatible too :p)

[Cacowad]

I would like to try to record a demo too, if possible. On what engine (and version) did you test it on?

[Egregor]

1 hour ago, Cacowad said:

I would like to try to record a demo too, if possible. On what engine (and version) did you test it on?

Current version of GZDoom, I believe. Thanks! I'm looking forward to it!

[Cacowad]

Short and sweet, played on HMP with gzdoom 4.8.2 and latest wayfarer mod. The demo is a fda, apparently i'm less rusty that i belived to be.
The wayfarer mod never fail to smooth things out eh?

 

The demo will speak for itself: less tricky than i expected, but the map has a nice theme and flow really well. Good job!

egregor_1.zip

[MattFright]

Was too lazy to update my GZDoom & figure out how to record demos in that port, so i just gave it a very casual shot on smite-meister.

 

I can't give much feedback since, at least without wayfarer's tome, there's not enough ammo to finish the map (and was also scarily low on health most of the time). Two things i can give feedback on, though, is that i feel like the crossbow and hellstaff could be better distributed throughout the buildings rather than clustered w/ most of their weapon and most of the items in that central area, otherwise you feel lost until you reach that part of the map. Another thing is that the phoenix staff secret was a bit just plain annoying to get (and that's with saves!).

 

On the positives though: i loved the texturing! I'm glad to see such tidy use of stalungcraeft textures that blend in really well with plain heretic textures. I also thought the midi went pretty well with the flow and look of the map :)

[Cacowad]

16 hours ago, MattFright said:

I can't give much feedback since, at least without wayfarer's tome, there's not enough ammo to finish the map (and was also scarily low on health most of the time).

 

Today i gave it a go during lunch break on UV without the wayfare tome, same as you did. Crossbow ammo can be a little tight as it is severely dependant on the drops from weredragons, but i never actually run out. Health was not a problem, but it was also my second run, so i knew what was coming.

[LadyMistDragon]

Volcanoes in the middle of a pool? I can only imagine the logic which went into that. At least it's not poison water like Gulag or something, but I giggled at the sheer ridiculousness of it.

[Egregor]

37 minutes ago, LadyMistDragon said:

Volcanoes in the middle of a pool? I can only imagine the logic which went into that. At least it's not poison water like Gulag or something, but I giggled at the sheer ridiculousness of it.

 

Yeah, the idea for the volcanoes was to use some unique assets from Heretic that players who are more familiar with Doom rarely get to experience, and at the same time preventing the player from using the large pool area as an place to circle strafe. I don't believe there is any place in this level where a clean circle stafe can be achieved, which was intentional. I know the volcanoes look a little silly but I'm hoping the more exciting gameplay created by this decision will make up for that.

[Jimmy]

Enjoyed this! Played on Smite-Meister. Combat started out strong with the early hellstaff provided for the outright mayhem in the center area, but then things petered out quite rapidly. The final encounter with three single-file iron liches in the exit corridor was a bit of a disappointment.

 

Had no trouble navigating, and I appreciated the more minimalistic approach to detail and the use of varied room shapes. There may however be an overreliance on the Baker's Legacy textures, and I would recommend selecting fewer distinct types/colors of textures next time - you can still impart a real sense of place and location with just a few textures, since even Heretic's stock set does a lot for creating that kind of atmosphere.

 

I missed the (secret?) Phoenix Rod but never felt I particularly needed it. I found one secret and scored an extra morph ovum which helped me out greatly.

 

Good stuff overall!

Edited July 22, 2022 by Jimmy

[Egregor]

Alright! Thanks for the feedback Jimmy.

 

I hear that with the level featuring front heavy combat. My method was to create the overall level first, and then place the enemies and items from beginning to end so the final room combat was literally the last part to be created. This, combined with my self-imposed limitations, made it so that I painted myself into a corner regarding my resources for the final room, so if it felt like an afterthought it's because it was. I'm wondering how the level would have differed if I would have designed the final encounter first and worked my way backwards?

 

Regarding the jumbled colors and textures; I wanted to showcase a custom texture pack that I've recently been assembing. I was trying to create the feel of a diverse village of individual buildings and demonstrate the range of new colors and textures beyond Heretic's original assets. I see how doing this came off as looking like a jumbled mess though, and how reigning that in to create a specific 'color palette theme' for a single level would look better and stand out more.

 

Thanks again for the feedback Jimmy!