[/idgames] Arrokoth - vanilla compatible Ultimate Doom episode

[Somniac]

6 hours ago, Fernito said:

Hey! Took me long, but here are some more playthroughs :) (I still owe you E1M8)

 

I found a couple of issues, namely:

- In E1M6, you can get softlocked in the first area if you happen to fall down the platform as it's going up.

- In E1M7, some monsters didn't teleport in.

 

E1M5

  Reveal hidden contents

 

E1M6

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E1M7

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Hey, thanks I really appreciate it! E1M5 is probably my favourite map in the WAD. I think you posted E1M6 twice though :p looks like some monsters failed to teleport in on that map as well at the red key, probably an issue with where I joined certain sectors (same for E1M7 probably). Looks like I need to add a switch to prevent softlocking with that platform too. Thanks again, this feedback is invaluable! 

[Fernito]

54 minutes ago, Somniac said:

 

Hey, thanks I really appreciate it! E1M5 is probably my favourite map in the WAD. I think you posted E1M6 twice though :p looks like some monsters failed to teleport in on that map as well at the red key, probably an issue with where I joined certain sectors (same for E1M7 probably). Looks like I need to add a switch to prevent softlocking with that platform too. Thanks again, this feedback is invaluable! 

 

Heh, you're absolutely right, dumb me uploaded the same video twice lol. I updated my post with the right video. It's uploading now, it should be available in half an hour or so :)

 

I'm glad the feedback has been useful! :) 

[LadyMistDragon]

This doesn't seem to work in DSDA Doom. I just get told "Texture: 1 error."

[Incantations]

This wad is right up there with my favorite Doom 1 wad Nihility. Hits the same level of creepy, lighting used to perfection.

[Somniac]

14 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

This doesn't seem to work in DSDA Doom. I just get told "Texture: 1 error."

 

Strange, I'll see what I can do, should be fairly easy to fix. Thanks for flagging this!

 

11 hours ago, Incantations said:

This wad is right up there with my favorite Doom 1 wad Nihility. Hits the same level of creepy, lighting used to perfection.

 

Awesome, yeah I love that one too! I never actually played it until about half of this was done lol, but I instantly loved it. Thanks!

[Somniac]

So, how about that RC2? E1M9 is now done and will probably look quite familiar ;) yet also a little different. So that's a full episode now!

 

I've also fixed a bad texture definition so compatibility with DSDA-DOOM is now fixed - that should also apply to PrBoom+ incase that was also giving errors. 

 

Final steps are to maybe tweak the difficulty a little in places, and other things like the ENDOOM before I send this off to idgames. This project has consumed my life for the better part of 4 months, and while I'm relieved that its basically done now, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't feeling a tiny bit empty. Definitely due a recharge though! I've already started some vanilla Doom II maps, so perhaps those will be seeing the light of day sometime this year. Until then, enjoy, and do let me know if anything isn't working right!

[Rudolph]

It is a shame that this is not a Doom II mapset, as it would have been funny to have a Wolfenstein 3D-themed secret level called "Ultima Thule". :P

 

Anyway, is E1M1's secret supposed to be the closet with a Demon and a stimpack? Because if so, I cannot get it to register as a secret.

Edited May 28, 2023 by Rudolph

[Somniac]

2 hours ago, Rudolph said:

It is a shame that this is not a Doom II mapset, as it would have been funny to have a Wolfenstein 3D-themed secret level called "Ultima Thule". :P

 

Anyway, is E1M1's secret supposed to be the closet with a Demon and a stimpack? Because if so, I cannot get it to register as a secret.

 

I don't think there is a secret in E1M1, unless I accidentally tagged a sector as one without thinking (need to check that) :p

 

Also in my haste, I forgot to put the actual secret exit in when I finished the secret level - link has just been updated!

[RataUnderground]

This is as good as classic Doom gets : ) loved the atmosphere.
 

 

[Somniac]

18 hours ago, RataUnderground said:

This is as good as classic Doom gets : ) loved the atmosphere.
 

 

 

Thanks Rata, I really enjoyed watching that! Noticed a couple of texture problems I still have to fix too :p

[Horus]

Played through all of this finally, over one month after I said I would on discord :P posted here since you say you don't login to discord much. 

I had a good time, you succeeded in creating the kind of dark moody atmosphere that you were aiming for, and it was nice playing something that wasn't uber-challenging for a change. E1M9 was quite buggy but the rest of the maps were fairly clean save for a few bugs here and there. I gave some pointers in the video.

 

Videos in the spoiler:

Spoiler

 

 

[Somniac]

Thanks @Horus that was great and very helpful! True to form for me, there were some unfortunate bugs still, so apologies for that :p glad you enjoyed it though.

 

I've just uploaded a new version of the WAD which has tidied things up. Thanks!

[DreadWanderer]

Hey Somniac, thanks for your great work. I got the latest version of Arrokoth and I am currently trying to record a UV-max playthrough of this. However, I can't seem to get to E1M9 - the secret exit in E1M3 just takes me to E1M4. I'm running DSDA-Doom 0.25.6.

 

Any idea what the issue might be?

Edited June 1, 2023 by DreadWanderer

[Somniac]

24 minutes ago, DreadWanderer said:

Hey Somniac, thanks for your great work. I got the latest version of Arrokoth and I am currently trying to record a UV-max playthrough of this. However, I can't seem to get to E1M9 - the secret exit in E1M3 just takes me to E1M4. I'm running DSDA-Doom 0.25.6.

 

Any idea what the issue might be?

 

Hi, that's odd! Checked my DSDA and it was doing exactly what you reported. Forcing the definition in UMAPINFO seems to have solved that - OP updated, give it a try now, should work!

[DreadWanderer]

2 minutes ago, Somniac said:

 

Hi, that's odd! Checked my DSDA and it was doing exactly what you reported. Forcing the definition in UMAPINFO seems to have solved that - OP updated, give it a try now, should work!

 

Thanks for the reply. I can confirm that it's working properly now. Hope it's okay to post my playthrough here once I'm done :)

[Somniac]

4 minutes ago, DreadWanderer said:

 

Hope it's okay to post my playthrough here once I'm done :)

 

Absolutely, looking forward to it!

[DreadWanderer]

Hey Somniac, back with more bug reports I'm afraid.

 

1. I've played through E1M9 but found no way out of this area after getting the red key and hitting the 2 switches (screens below). Did I miss something or is there a problem?

 

2. After noclipping out to reach the red bars and exit, I was hit with this crash: "W_GetNumForName: E1M10 not found" (screen below). The good news is that I think I managed to fix this by editing the UMAPINFO a bit so that the next level is E1M4 and not the inexistent E1M10. You can find the updated version attached here. I've tested it in the level itself and simply by using the "next level" key in DSDA to see if the progression is correct (1-2-3-9-4-5-6-7-8).

UMAPINFO_edit.rar

Edited June 1, 2023 by DreadWanderer

[Somniac]

3 hours ago, DreadWanderer said:

Hey Somniac, back with more bug reports I'm afraid.

 

1. I've played through E1M9 but found no way out of this area after getting the red key and hitting the 2 switches (screens below). Did I miss something or is there a problem?

 

2. After noclipping out to reach the red bars and exit, I was hit with this crash: "W_GetNumForName: E1M10 not found" (screen below). The good news is that I think I managed to fix this by editing the UMAPINFO a bit so that the next level is E1M4 and not the inexistent E1M10. You can find the updated version attached here. I've tested it in the level itself and simply by using the "next level" key in DSDA to see if the progression is correct (1-2-3-9-4-5-6-7-8).

 

UMAPINFO_edit.rar

 

Hey, thanks for letting me know! I've added your UMAPINFO fix into the wad, thanks a lot for doing that! I wouldn't have known how to do that myself. I'll make sure to credit you in the final release, really appreciate it. The red key area seems to be a softlock, the lift to get back was set to W1 not WR. I've changed it to a switch which makes a bit more sense. Thanks again! 

[DreadWanderer]

1 minute ago, Somniac said:

 

Hey, thanks for letting me know! I've added your UMAPINFO fix into the wad, thanks a lot for doing that! I wouldn't have known how to do that myself. I'll make sure to credit you in the final release, really appreciate it. The red key area seems to be a softlock, the lift to get back was set to W1 not WR. I've changed it to a switch which makes a bit more sense. Thanks again! 

 

Hi again Somniac, thanks for the update. 

About the soft lock - I had a feeling that something was wrong with the lift, since my instinct was to backtrack, hoping that it would also go back down.

On the UMAPINFO stuff - I'm still learning the syntax, so until I get better at understanding it and introducing stuff manually, I'm using JadingTsunami's UMAPINFO Designer. It's a really neat tool which is basically a frontend for creating/editing/fixing UMAPINFO stuff. You can find it here:

 

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/125690-umapinfo-designer/

 

In this case, the trick was to add the line 'next = "E1M4" ' in E1M9's UMAPINFO section. Hope this was useful :)

 

[NightFright]

Widescreen statusbar had been requested. This was an easy one.

 

arrokoth_wide.zip

Edited June 2, 2023 by NightFright

[Somniac]

2 hours ago, NightFright said:

Widescreen statusbar had been requested. This was an easy one.

 

arrokoth_wide.zip

 

That's awesome, thanks for sharing! Will make sure to include this in the final release.

[DreadWanderer]

Additional updates:

 

- E1M9 can be completed now, but I couldn't 100% it, I only got 82 out of 86 kills on UV. My guess would be that something happened with a monster teleporter and they could not spawn. I've attached a screenshot below.

- This might be lower priority, but entering and exiting a menu that is wider than the TITLEPIC leaves trails in the main menu. I've tried tinkering with the TITLEPIC in SLADE, but had no success. Some issue with transparency perhaps? Screenshots attached.

- Maybe it would be good to allow the player to ride the main lift back up just in case they missed the secret or some kills. Image of the relevant lift found here.

[Somniac]

Thanks @DreadWanderer, appreciate your attention to detail on this! I've tidied up those teleport closets and was able to get 100% kills, and that lift is now repeatable - I should have done that in the first place really haha. TITLEPIC has been adjusted, I just tested it in GZDoom and it looks fine now. Seems like it was a tiny bit too small at first.

 

New link in the OP!

 

 

 

[DreadWanderer]

29 minutes ago, Somniac said:

Thanks @DreadWanderer, appreciate your attention to detail on this! I've tidied up those teleport closets and was able to get 100% kills, and that lift is now repeatable - I should have done that in the first place really haha. TITLEPIC has been adjusted, I just tested it in GZDoom and it looks fine now. Seems like it was a tiny bit too small at first.

 

New link in the OP!

 

 

 

 

Very nice, thank you!

 

Can confirm that the TITLEPIC issue has been fixed. Good to know that it had to do with size and not transparency or something like that, will remember this.

 

Can also confirm that E1M9 can be 100% completed on UV and that the big lift is working properly.

[DreadWanderer]

Finished Arrokoth. No major issues encountered. A few last things to mention:

 

- I think the berserk pack in E1M7 should be a secret, it's easy to miss and I could not find it in my first playthrough. The second time I randomly hit this console and the door on the right opened, as shown in the screenshot.

- I can't figure out how to get open the door to the secret(s) in E1M8. Screenshot with the relevant door attached. Would love some help with this.

- In DSDA, the end-of-episode intertext does not show once you finish the level. Fortunately I managed to fix this by copying and formatting the text from the dehacked file into E1M8's UMAPINFO section. It displays correctly on my 16:9 monitor and should be fine for 4:3 as well. If anyone encounters problems on 4:3, let me know. Version 2 of the edited UMAPINFO included here.

UMAPINFO_edited_v2.rar

[Somniac]

3 hours ago, DreadWanderer said:

Finished Arrokoth. No major issues encountered. A few last things to mention:

 

- I think the berserk pack in E1M7 should be a secret, it's easy to miss and I could not find it in my first playthrough. The second time I randomly hit this console and the door on the right opened, as shown in the screenshot.

 

I could have sworn it was tagged as a secret :p whoops! My fault, I'll make sure to re-tag it.

 

3 hours ago, DreadWanderer said:

- I can't figure out how to get open the door to the secret(s) in E1M8. Screenshot with the relevant door attached. Would love some help with this.

 

Spoiler

There is a switch in that room but its fairly well hidden ;) and quite small lol

 

3 hours ago, DreadWanderer said:

- In DSDA, the end-of-episode intertext does not show once you finish the level. Fortunately I managed to fix this by copying and formatting the text from the dehacked file into E1M8's UMAPINFO section. It displays correctly on my 16:9 monitor and should be fine for 4:3 as well. If anyone encounters problems on 4:3, let me know. Version 2 of the edited UMAPINFO included here.

UMAPINFO_edited_v2.rar

 

I think I assumed that because I was mapping for vanilla and testing in vanilla/Crispy, that these sort of issues (like the secret exit in E1M3) wouldn't happen in other ports, and I rarely use DSDA myself so it never occurred to me. I'll put that new UMAPINFO into the wad, thanks for your help!

[DreadWanderer]

3 hours ago, Somniac said:

 

  Hide contents

There is a switch in that room but its fairly well hidden ;) and quite small lol

 

Oh wow, finally found it! Very sneaky! Thank you!

 

Quote

 

I think I assumed that because I was mapping for vanilla and testing in vanilla/Crispy, that these sort of issues (like the secret exit in E1M3) wouldn't happen in other ports, and I rarely use DSDA myself so it never occurred to me. I'll put that new UMAPINFO into the wad, thanks for your help!

 

No problem, I still have no idea why these issues were specific to DSDA, going to leave that to the DSDA devs. In the meantime, I will upload my (now completed) UV playthrough on YT and post the link here. Thanks again for the prompt replies!

 

EDIT: My UV-Max playthrough of Arrokoth is up:

 

 

Edited June 2, 2023 by DreadWanderer

[Esperpento]

Downloaded and finisihed today. Amazing, I really liked it. Great flow, map layout and level progression. Love this techbase aesthetic. The music and sound replacement are nice.

 

Quote

In E1M7's red key room  you can fall into the nuke pool but it doesn't damages you and I couldn't find a way out, and ended up dying because I couldn't see the cacos above me (no freelook). I don't know if that is intended, if so ignore this.

 

[Somniac]

17 hours ago, DreadWanderer said:

My UV-Max playthrough of Arrokoth is up:

 

 

 

Nice, I look forward to checking the videos out! The black gloves is a perfect fit haha.

 

16 hours ago, Esperpento said:

Downloaded and finisihed today. Amazing, I really liked it. Great flow, map layout and level progression. Love this techbase aesthetic. The music and sound replacement are nice.

 

 

 

Glad you enjoyed it! I was trying to make a conscious effort to get better at layouts making this. The E1M7 bit isn't intentional, so apologies for you dying there :p I might still make those lines impassable to prevent that. Thanks for the feedback!

[thelamp]

Finished playing this today and had a blast with it! Lots of interesting setups and moody visuals. Great Ultimate doom stuff here :)