Forgotten Reliquary

[anfractu0us]

Hello! Woefully past the intended release date, I'm finally formally releasing my map that was featured on decino's channel in the last round of viewer submissions :^)

^{(and if anyone noticed, yes, I did upload it to idgames. ignore that version; immediately i caught a bunch of problems AND i changed my plans for this wad :^P )}

 

Forgotten Reliquary is my first completed and released map! It's intended to be a somewhat sprawling, dense, occasionally non-linear journey that bares its fangs(no pun intended! ;^)) right from the get-go. For clarification, in case you're not into long maps - my average completion time is around 45-50 minutes on UV; lower difficulties should be a good bit faster. While it is designed for use with any Boom-compatible port, I think it looks/plays best in GZDoom^*. Mouselook isn't discouraged but be aware that some visual artifacts will result in certain areas using it. complevel 9 in DSDA/prBoom, complevel 0/default is fine in GZDoom.

• Download: frgtrelq1.5.zip (6.5mb, 36.7mb uncompressed) ^{[minor fixes; tex alignment + 0-tag doors😳; switch animation fixed; fixed 100% kills]}
   

Gameplay is largely focused around increasing pressure applied and forcing player momentum in mostly close-ish quarters - though there's room for multiple strategies and at times can get somewhat slaughtery; "in some parts it feels very "close-quarters slaughter." All difficulties are implemented, however, I can only attest that UV is (mostly?) balanced - I tried to imagine what I'd expect from the other two difficulties and adjusted the monster count in respect to that(roughly 45-50% difference between ITYTD and UV) but I made no adjustments to the ammo, health, and armour available. UV is designed around fairly tight resource availability for at least the first half - I wasn't sure if I'd be able to cater to the other difficulties in that regard so I err'd on the side of abundance for them. I'd say overall that the difficulty is mostly moderate with increasingly difficult spikes, nothing too crazy but definitely not a mindless romp.

For those who've seen or played it already, I've fixed a truckload of texture alignment problems, the missing textures, stuck monsters, and have made sure that any monsters stuck in closets are eventually crushed. Additionally, I noted quite a few comments that wanted me to keep the original, incorrect ending encounter with 6 cybers/12 archviles. The intended version sits in the MAP01 slot, however, if you'd like to try the 'original' encounter instead idclev/etc to MAP02.

 

While there are still quite a few issues that I'm aware of, I'm considering it as done as it's going to get for the time being. I was originally planning on simply finishing this map so I could say that I at least finished one map before callin' it quits, but I've since had a ton of ideas for another map or two and intend to work towards completing this as a trilogy/3-map set/whatever you wanna call it :^) Whether or not I'll get there in a reasonable amount of time however.....

 

Before I write an entire book, here's some screenies ;^P The textfile covers more details for those interested. All feedback/critiques/questions/suggestions are welcome of course, and thank you!^{edit: of course I managed to screenshot some of the most egregious misaligned textures...should be mostly fixed now! lmao}

Additionally, here's the mentioned playthrough:

 

^*

Spoiler

^{Would highly recommend using ZDoom(Forced) classic transparency due to how I went about stacking transparent effects if you're using GZDoom.
I say plays best as complevel 9, while required in other ports to ensure voodoo belts work right 'cause I'm a dum-dum, also forces classic extreme elastic collision which can be VERY frustrating in some of the tighter and more detailed sections of the map.}

 

Edited July 28, 2023 by anfractu0us

[mancubian_candidate]

This map is a beast, don't know if I'm brave enough for it just yet haha. Well done, it's a fantastic accomplishment!

[Insaneprophet]

Kills 999/1008 99%

Items 104/114 91%

Secrets 4/9 44%

Time 01:33:07

Saves- yes.  Save scumming- minimal...?

That was indeed a beast of a level. You arent kidding about keeping pressure on the player at all times. Very well balanced though. Ammo was sometimes tight and I used as much infighting as I could when I could but there were time where I felt the best stratagy was to just leave the area and move on so that I could come back with hopefully more ammo or a better angle/direction. Some of the heavier, slaughterish fights and traps took many many attempts to figure out a strategy for but even the most rediculous scenarios felt fair after learning what was happening and what was available for a fight plan. There were a handful of minor glitches I found throughout but they were mostly stuff like a missing texture in an obscure out of the way corner that could only be seen from one perfect spot. Nothing that I would worry about on a behemoth such as this. Definately going to go back into my last save and peek around the map again to see if I can find a few more secrets (I already know where at least one is just never figured out how to get there) and the last few demons. Will also make a point of replaying this one from the start sometime soon so that I can perhaps pull off a cleaner run. I think this is definately deserving of more of my time. Thanks for making and sharing this map. I kinda am hoping for/looking forward to you making more maps as youve suggested. 😃

[anfractu0us]

On 7/22/2023 at 9:29 AM, mancubian_candidate said:

This map is a beast, don't know if I'm brave enough for it just yet haha. Well done, it's a fantastic accomplishment!

Haha, thank you! I really wanted to make use of all the space I created as I went so while it's not sprawling in overall size versus other maps I think really limiting any dead space makes it feel big :^) I think it also helps shift the difficulty to where it's more perceived than felt; I tried to have a constant flow of tension so that even just corridor peeking lower tier enemies has weight to it in a sense.
 

 

14 hours ago, Insaneprophet said:

Spoiler

 

Kills 999/1008 99%

Items 104/114 91%

Secrets 4/9 44%

Time 01:33:07

Saves- yes.  Save scumming- minimal...?

That was indeed a beast of a level. You arent kidding about keeping pressure on the player at all times. Very well balanced though. Ammo was sometimes tight and I used as much infighting as I could when I could but there were time where I felt the best stratagy was to just leave the area and move on so that I could come back with hopefully more ammo or a better angle/direction. Some of the heavier, slaughterish fights and traps took many many attempts to figure out a strategy for but even the most rediculous scenarios felt fair after learning what was happening and what was available for a fight plan. There were a handful of minor glitches I found throughout but they were mostly stuff like a missing texture in an obscure out of the way corner that could only be seen from one perfect spot. Nothing that I would worry about on a behemoth such as this. Definately going to go back into my last save and peek around the map again to see if I can find a few more secrets (I already know where at least one is just never figured out how to get there) and the last few demons. Will also make a point of replaying this one from the start sometime soon so that I can perhaps pull off a cleaner run. I think this is definately deserving of more of my time. Thanks for making and sharing this map. I kinda am hoping for/looking forward to you making more maps as youve suggested. 😃

 

 

Really appreciate the stat breakdown! After a certain point I became the sole tester, and I wasn't sure how to gauge how others would fare in terms of completion and the time it would take lol. I was worried some of the fights would feel too RNG or obtuse to the point where cheesing was the only option; I really wanted the player to be able to come up with their own strategy once they understood the encounter, and not impose a clear "this is how you do it!" method upon them. I tried really hard to clean up any missing textures but glad that they're mostly tucked away; it's a bit of a nightmare trying to clean them up in certain sections lmao. I tried to make the secrets seem fair but think I completely missed the mark with at least one if not two of them; the rest have SOMETHING to hint that they're where they are, albeit perhaps a bit obscure lol. If you're unable to find the few remaining monsters: after the red key door there's a few linedefs to trigger some crushers; if any monsters are stuck in closets etc. they  should  get killed but it won't be fast enough to catch 'em if you go right for the exit switch. Either way let me know if you're unable to 100% - it drives me nuts when I can't 100% kills a map so I really don't want mine to be bugged like that lmao. All said though, thank you so much both playing it and writing the review!
 

Edited July 24, 2023 by anfractu0us

[Insaneprophet]

I have done quite a bit more exploring after my save at the end switch. Was able to find all 5 of my missing secrets, and fairly easily I might add. The only one that I feel may?, and that really is just may?, be a little bit obscure would be the computer area map. The bulk of my missing kills were tucked away in secrets as well. My updated stats are.  K-1006/1008   I-113/114   S-9/9.  I have no ideas about the last two demons. Ive been all over this map many times over and made sure to trip any line defs at the end well before going off exploring so... maybe a couple of lost souls that took off into the void?? Ive made a short list of what I felt were the more noticable bugs, you may or may not already know about these and they arent even anything that neccesarily need fixing, but I thought Id let you know in any case.

Spoiler

1. From next to the blue door, up the stairs and turn left, you can squeeze past down into the slime and then your soft locked in the slime tunnel.

Spoiler

2. The elevator inside the blue door can soft lock you if youre standing in the wrong spot. Being made of multiple sectors it will sometimes raise all of the sectors except the one youre standing in thus locking you in a little cell.

Spoiler

3. From the top of that elevator or if you drop down to the ledge that had a cyber-demon on it, you can make a running leap to the cliff side across from it. A little point of land with an impaled body, from there you can go exploring "out of bounds" and soft lock yourself out in the "ocean" if you drop down on either of the two sides.

Spoiler

4. In the main "pool of water" just past the 3D bridge, inside the door that opens, there is a small set of stairs that is missing a texture both before and after the water drains. Also a little biy of water texture that looks out of place remains in the other corner after the water drains out.

So thats it, there are a couple handfulls of misaligned textures and at least 2 or 3 more soft locks but they are either so minor, obvious or out of the way and convoluted to find that I didnt want to bring them up. Thanks again for making this one. 😃

[anfractu0us]

Figured out the 100% kills I believe :^)

 

Spoiler'd 'cause it's related to the super non-secret secret/easter egg:

Spoiler

In the two secret areas that give you a view of the water planes/odd constructs with the orange beam, there are two skull decorations that are shootable. The player need only shoot at them to complete the first part of the unmarked super secret, as there is shootable self ref'd sectors in front of them. Killing them actually isn't important to revealing anything, but I forgot to remove the kill% in the dehacked file, and depending on port either may or may not actually be killable. Since this is an easter egg I kind of wanted it to be very obtuse ;^P

 

Uploaded a fix for this :^) Great catches on the softlocks, in particular 1 and 3! Really appreciate you taking note of them. As you said I think they're okay for now, and will probably hold off any more fixes for now as I work on the second map. Thanks again!

[Renbot]

i download random single-level wads from idgames, usually theyre pretty run of the mill but this one blew me away so i decided to look it up assuming there would be a thread somewhere.

it's a really good map. very difficult also, i'm still pushing through (UV) and its taking a while. i really like how everything is so detailed.

i noticed some missing textures and also some erroneous sky transfers, pictures below (taken on v1.5 downloaded from here). this is on nugget but its the same on prboom+, probably a software renderer issue.

Spoiler

 

i think there maybe have been some other minor issues but i didnt think they were too important so i didnt take notes. for example, these lindefs bleeding into the ground (maybe intentional?)

Spoiler

 

Edited August 12, 2023 by Renbot