If Scythe X was finished, what themes would the other episodes have?

[RichardDS90]

We all know the third episode most likely would've been some sort of green slime cave as The Encounter would've indicated. But what would the other 3 themes have been?

 

Well the final episode being hell is a no brainer, but I oddly suspect the 5th episode being a rusty UAC base in hell. Kind of similar to Maps 22 and 23 from CC3, but for the 4th episode, a city or ice theme sure would've been interesting. But what would everyone have guessed?

[baja blast rd.]

So the existing themes are:

 

e1: "Infested base" 
e2: "Space station" 

 

There are signs of this being a building continuous story. A good example is that map05 has a diorama of map02 in it, and is the "Long Range Teleporter" that takes you to the space station block.

 

I think one constraint is that the settings would have to make sense based on the textures available, because Alm seemed to have favored using existing resources.

 

Let's take a look at the intertex at the end of map06.

 

"YOUR ONLY HOPE IS THAT THE
STATION'S DESTINATION WAS SET AND LOCKED
BEFORE THE HELLSPAWN INVASION"

 

This hope seems to have crumbled, as map10's encounter is essentially the station being diverted elsewhere. So e3 being an alien planet does make sense.

 

"AHEAD, YOU SEE AN OUTPOST OF HELL, A
FORTIFIED ZONE. IF YOU CAN GET PAST IT,
YOU CAN PENETRATE INTO THE HAUNTED HEART
OF THE STARBASE AND FIND THE CONTROLLING
SWITCH WHICH HOLDS EARTH'S POPULATION
HOSTAGE."

Also going to assume Alm might have wanted to switch it up from red hell, having done that twice already. m10 has signs that he can use the creepy hell iconography in other contexts. I kind of imagine hell here looking a lot more like Bloodstain's map30's inner depths, with extra contrast between black and white (SP_FACE), and no lava.

 

As the intertext says, "THE MONSTERS HAVE BROUGHT THEIR OWN REALITY WITH THEM"

 

So that might be e6. e5 might be a spin on gothic themes, a higher-fidelity far grimier version of Scythe 2 m1-m6 (different too, because you do get the sense that Scythe X was trying to be different enough from Scythe 2). Might also be where Alm leans into representational design a bit more. 

 

e4? That's where we get deeper into the alien civilization after e3, so there's a definite shift from caves and outdoor landscapes to strange monoliths and crafted buildings rather than landscapes, which definitely would have been possible with the assets available back then. 

 

I imagine e3 would also quickly introduce new facets to the aesthetic, because a full five maps of the landscape of m10's closing area would get old. 

 

As far as the custom enemies, this one -- "Commander Keen is given 700 hit points, a melee scratch attack and the same projectile attack as the dark imp" -- seems a lot like an ascendant-tier 'alien' so we get a few in e3 and then more in the civilization itself. The other two are: "The Wolfenstein SS is given 850 hit points and fires a flurry of mancubus fireballs. The spiderdemon is turned into a flying monster that fires a cyberdemon rocket." Former seems a lot like something that debuts in e5 after a theme shift. And e6 is the endgame boss. 

 

e4 ends with a time machine or something and e5 is an alt timeline version of a period several hundred years before e1. Going back in time is the only way to save the world and avert what happened. But then a paradox happens (Scythe X is finished :P) and that leads us to e6.

So that leaves us with: 

 

e1: "Infested base" 
e2: "Space station" 
e3: "Alien wastelands"
e4: "Planetary civilization"
e5: "Eerie fortresses"
e6: "Fragmented reality"

[RichardDS90]

13 minutes ago, baja blast rd. said:

"AHEAD, YOU SEE AN OUTPOST OF HELL, A
FORTIFIED ZONE. IF YOU CAN GET PAST IT,
YOU CAN PENETRATE INTO THE HAUNTED HEART
OF THE STARBASE AND FIND THE CONTROLLING
SWITCH WHICH HOLDS EARTH'S POPULATION
HOSTAGE."

Also going to assume Alm might have wanted to switch it up from red hell, having done that twice already. m10 has signs that he can use the creepy hell iconography in other contexts. I kind of imagine hell here looking a lot more like Bloodstain's map30's inner depths, with extra contrast between black and white (SP_FACE), and no lava.

 

As the intertext says, "THE MONSTERS HAVE BROUGHT THEIR OWN REALITY WITH THEM"

 

So that might be e6. e5 might be a spin on gothic themes, a higher-fidelity far grimier version of Scythe 2 m1-m6 (different too, because you do get the sense that Scythe X was trying to be different enough from Scythe 2). Might also be where Alm leans into representational design a bit more. 

 

There is an issue with the second intertext, it's basically the first one you see in Doom II, it's possible that Erik may have merely left in by mistake.

[baja blast rd.]

Ah yeah I was reading the .deh, which says 

 

Spoiler

Text 405 402
YOU HAVE ENTERED DEEPLY INTO THE INFESTED
STARPORT. BUT SOMETHING IS WRONG. THE
MONSTERS HAVE BROUGHT THEIR OWN REALITY
WITH THEM, AND THE STARPORT'S TECHNOLOGY
IS BEING SUBVERTED BY THEIR PRESENCE.

AHEAD, YOU SEE AN OUTPOST OF HELL, A
FORTIFIED ZONE. IF YOU CAN GET PAST IT,
YOU CAN PENETRATE INTO THE HAUNTED HEART
OF THE STARBASE AND FIND THE CONTROLLING
SWITCH WHICH HOLDS EARTH'S POPULATION
HOSTAGE.THE TELEPORTER SEEMS TO HAVE SENT YOU TO
A SPACE STATION RACING THROUGH SPACE.
THE STATION'S ORIGINAL INHABITANTS HAVE
BEEN REPLACED BY EVIL DEMONS AND UNRULY
SPIRITS. YOUR ONLY HOPE IS THAT THE
STATION'S DESTINATION WAS SET AND LOCKED
BEFORE THE HELLSPAWN INVASION.

YOU START LOOKING FOR A DOCKING BAY WHERE
YOU MIGHT FIND A SHUTTLE THAT COULD GIVE
YOU AT LEAST TEMPORARY SHELTER FROM THE
ONSLAUGHT.

 

But the first part is not used. It's kinda funny that I didn't recognize it lmao

 

The first monsters you fight are a pair of humans with unusual hair dye, which suggests that Scythe X is set in a salon...

[Poncho1]

I don't know about the level design, but if you look around the Scythe X development thread, for one thing, Revenants were to appear at the Map14 mark. Also, it's obvious that people playtested at least the unfinished Ep. 3 maps, so they do technically exist. However, to most of us who didn't playtest them, we won't know a thing.