B L E A K [MBF21, 3+1 Maps]

[Treehouseminis]

4 hours ago, SpinningPlates1 said:

Hey, I've only played the first map so far but it is abolutely soul crushing. I'm a sucker for any map that uses a more ambient background music and love the subtle palette change, your architecture and texturing are brilliant also. Combat-wise, I played on HMP but was considering switching to UV until the gray sludge fight kicked my ass several times (still my favorite fight in the level tho probably). Generally, I think the area-denial style combat puzzles work really well with the map's oppressive atmosphere. Excited to play the next two maps :).

 

Note: I seemed to exit the map missing a kill, after checking, it was in the area past the blue door where the floor drops out. Idk if I did something wrong or if its a bug. Other than that tho, the first map is basically perfect:

 

Was there a hell knight in that hallway before you lowered it?  It looks like the monster is inside the wall?  I've never seen that before.  What port and comp level you using?  It might be a hmp bug as I suck at checking the boxes on different monsters etc.

 

But glad you seem to enjoy it so far :) 

Edited November 6, 2023 by Treehouseminis

[SpinningPlates1]

7 minutes ago, Treehouseminis said:

Was there a hell knight in that hallway before you lowered it?  It looks like the monster is inside the wall?  I've never seen that before.  What port and comp level you using?  It might be a hmp bug as I suck at checking the boxes on different monsters etc.

 

But glad you seem to enjoy it so far :) 

I was playing on Nugget Doom on MBF21. I may've just skipped the linedef by accident. I'll test it later to see if the same thing happens again.

[Treehouseminis]

30 minutes ago, SpinningPlates1 said:

I was playing on Nugget Doom on MBF21. I may've just skipped the linedef by accident. I'll test it later to see if the same thing happens again.

nope its all on me.  I just checked it again in the editor and the HK was inside the wall.  I seem to sometimes move more than one thing when moving stuff around.  Ive done that several times in the editor I usually catch it, Its so weird.  Im gonna update again soon.  Thanks for finding a bug lol

 

EDIT:  was a quick fix so I updated link and actually changed the name of the wad to RC3 even though its like the 5th time Ive updated lol

Edited November 6, 2023 by Treehouseminis

[Thil]

The first map starts in a classic way and then the blue key arena appears! I find the area too difficult (in UV), too many monsters and tricky ammo/infighting management.

So let's see if other players have also encountered difficulties in this first zone or if it's me who played poorly! ;)
And it's a shame because in the following areas the fights are also difficult but the ammo/infighting management is better thought out and I had a lot of fun!

[Treehouseminis]

7 minutes ago, Thil said:

The first map starts in a classic way and then the blue key arena appears! I find the area too difficult (in UV), too many monsters and tricky ammo/infighting management.

So let's see if other players have also encountered difficulties in this first zone or if it's me who played poorly! ;)
And it's a shame because in the following areas the fights are also difficult but the ammo/infighting management is better thought out and I had a lot of fun!

Yeah that's the hardest area in the map01.  I have trouble gauging difficulty for descriptions, cuz I made the fight I didn't find it that hard so idk lol.  If you focus on the pinkies and vile first It's a lot easier.  It just forces you to always move and dodge in cramped areas.  

[Thil]

12 minutes ago, Treehouseminis said:

Yeah that's the hardest area in the map01.  I have trouble gauging difficulty for descriptions, cuz I made the fight I didn't find it that hard so idk lol.  If you focus on the pinkies and vile first It's a lot easier.  It just forces you to always move and dodge in cramped areas.  

This is the strategy that I used and which actually worked after a lot of unsuccessful attempts!

[Treehouseminis]

14 minutes ago, Thil said:

This is the strategy that I used and which actually worked after a lot of unsuccessful attempts!

A good general strategy, at least for my maps is focus on the enemies that take up the most space first.  Even if it's low tier trash that won't damage you.  And cyberdemons are good Infighting.  Map02 has a few fights that are tough, map03 is bigger in scale and there's more room to move around, it's more classic macroslaughter. 

[ABearInThaWoods]

Picked this set up a few days ago and I have thoroughly enjoyed it so far. I've been playing on UV without saves and am pretty close to finishing map03. The two cybers in the BFG fight really like scamming me.

 

Map01 was a great intro and really sets the mood perfectly. The opening fights are tame but as the map progresses you turn the pressure up smoothly. I may have picked up an older version because like previous commentors I had one monster not teleport in at the end of the map.

 

Map02's start was a little slow but once I hit the bridge it became clear where we were going and I was there for it. I really like how you set the fights up with enough wiggle room to get around the hordes but only if you move properly and keep a good pace in cutting down the enemies. The yellow key fight was particularly nasty even compared to the fight before it with only 1/10th of the monsters. I loved the big fights past the yellow key, its exactly my wheelhouse. The final fight looked like it would be bigger than it was but it was totally fine.

 

Map03 so far has been great, definitely my favorite so far. The yellow key area is a good example of how you can construct a threatening fight without dumping tons of heavy demons in there. I'm surprised there weren't Pain Elementals in the second wave to put outside pressure on the player, I feel like they match well with Viles in that scenario. One thing I loved was how the FX makes the Cacos looks especially ominous in the dark. When you see that blue grin floating at you it strikes a special kind of fear. The red key path, while heavier in HP walls and dangerous enemies, doesnt feel as threatening because of the open space. The floor certainly complicates the movement a bit but the fight itself is pretty straight forward. The blue key fight is also very fun, the slight delay on the interior wall dropping makes for a nice panic moment once the realization sets in. The BFG fight doesnt appear as threatening as you would assume at first but then youre catching infighting rockets that you would never expect. I think its probably the hardest fight in the map. I havent been past this point yet in a single segment attempt but I have taken a peek and find the rest of the map to be not as threatening.

 

Overall this set is so high quality and carries such a brooding dark energy. The glowing effects, the PSX Doom sounds, and the soundtrack all fit together perfectly and help elevate the maps. Very well done. I'll add demos when I complete everything.

[Treehouseminis]

49 minutes ago, ABearInThaWoods said:

I havent been past this point yet in a single segment attempt but I have taken a peek and find the rest of the map to be not as threatening.

 

Overall this set is so high quality and carries such a brooding dark energy. The glowing effects, the PSX Doom sounds, and the soundtrack all fit together perfectly and help elevate the maps. Very well done. I'll add demos when I complete everything.

Yeah the last big area in map03 is more spectacle than hard gameplay, but sometimes you just gotta bfg stuff for funs.  

 

Thanks for the write up and kind words. I Look forward to the demos!  

[Beubeu]

I played the first one and i realy like it, i will play the others ones.

 

Btw you can go tough this barrier in map01 

 

I thought this was a bug from my source port but i quikly found others mistakes like that at the beginning of map03

 

There are not flags has impassable 

 

It's weird that nobody notice it ealier.

[Treehouseminis]

28 minutes ago, Beubeu said:

I played the first one and i realy like it, i will play the others ones.

 

Btw you can go tough this barrier in map01 

 

I thought this was a bug from my source port but i quikly found others mistakes like that at the beginning of map03

 

There are not flags has impassable 

 

It's weird that nobody notice it ealier.

Sigh, no one noticed it because its a recent blunder, once again UDB fucked me over.  When I saved and updated a few days ago for some reason it opened and saved the map in BOOM format, erasing all the line parameters I had on those lines, block player, land monster etc.  I fixed it and uploaded new version. 

[Bubbabooie]

I'm partly through map02 (157 kills in) and I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed this so far. The atmosphere is great (is the title screen a Zdzisław Beksiński piece?). I realized that for the first time since I was a kid, I hesitated with trepidation to lower the lift I was on because I was scared, like actually uneasy, about what I was going down into. Besides that the maps are handsome designed with a lot of dread-inducing architecture and the combat is fun, cramped, and at times, shocking, e.g. my utter disbelief at the number and location of the revenants you're putting in the room with me. I'm UV pistol start/no saves and map one took me 3 tries over 2 days but it was never frustrating. Map02, I guess difficulty remains to be seen, but so far I've been having a blast.

 

Spoiler

Alright just did the yellow switch arena which was stressful, and got reamed after that by the cyberdemon/imp kerfuffle even after the secret.

 

Edited November 9, 2023 by Bubbabooie

[Treehouseminis]

5 hours ago, Bubbabooie said:

I'm partly through map02 (157 kills in) and I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed this so far. The atmosphere is great (is the title screen a Zdzisław Beksiński piece?)

 

  Hide contents

 

I usually don't do my own maps saveless so godspeed to you.  And yes the title is zdzislaw piece, cool of you to notice:)  map02 is Harder than map03 imo,  so if you can manage that you should be OK for the rest.  

[ABearInThaWoods]

Completed single segment demos for maps 1-3. I don't know if I'll do one for Map31 yet. Really fun set.

 

BearInThaWoods-BleakRC2.zip

[Treehouseminis]

5 hours ago, ABearInThaWoods said:

Completed single segment demos for maps 1-3. I don't know if I'll do one for Map31 yet. Really fun set.

 

BearInThaWoods-BleakRC2.zip

Just got home and watched the demos!  Awesome stuff thanks man.

[Beubeu]

Just finish all the maps and it was really really really really really good 

i love everything !!!

I you made others map before i am interesting :)

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

[Treehouseminis]

16 minutes ago, Beubeu said:

Just finish all the maps and it was really really really really really good 

i love everything !!!

I you made others map before i am interesting :)

 

 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Awesome glad you liked it! 

[philcul]

Hey, I just wanted to download the newest version of this wad but for some reason the link doesn't work for me. The page stays blank/white and loads and loads but never finishes loading. I don't know if this is a problem on my side or if maybe the upload is broken?

And are you still working on this or is this more or less finished?

[Treehouseminis]

17 minutes ago, philcul said:

Hey, I just wanted to download the newest version of this wad but for some reason the link doesn't work for me. The page stays blank/white and loads and loads but never finishes loading. I don't know if this is a problem on my side or if maybe the upload is broken?

And are you still working on this or is this more or less finished?

Its more or less done.  Im very slow at getting stuff to idgames for some reason, only 2 of my wads are atm...

 

But the link does work for me, thats weird.  I can try a google drive link for ya

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZIgl3yA8uK-RjlAuRKGCkr6tfxI0Wocl/view?usp=sharing

Edited January 7, 2024 by Treehouseminis

[philcul]

50 minutes ago, Treehouseminis said:

Its more or less done.  Im very slow at getting stuff to idgames for some reason, only 2 of my wads are atm...

 

But the link does work for me, thats weird.  I can try a google drive link for ya

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZIgl3yA8uK-RjlAuRKGCkr6tfxI0Wocl/view?usp=sharing

 

Thank you very much for the alternative link, it worked for me now! Don't know why dropbox didn't work for me... 

I'm always excited to see your stuff, as it's kind of relaxed slaughter for me and cool, mysterious places to explore! 

[Treehouseminis]

Just now, philcul said:

 

Thank you very much for the alternative link, it worked for me now! Don't know why dropbox didn't work for me... 

I'm always excited to see your stuff, as it's kind of relaxed slaughter for me and cool, mysterious places to explore! 

Thanks!  My next release(hopefully by Feb) is less relaxed, mostly the later levels, but I hope ppl find HMP enjoyable if they don't wanna play hard maps.  

[Flyxolydian]

Just doing a quick playthrough of this for the ol' YT at the moment, and have found a weird glitch. For some reason, all of the fences are passable. I'm playing on GZDoom, but I haven't seen this one before.

Fun maps btw, feels very moody! 

[Treehouseminis]

14 minutes ago, Flyxolydian said:

Just doing a quick playthrough of this for the ol' YT at the moment, and have found a weird glitch. For some reason, all of the fences are passable. I'm playing on GZDoom, but I haven't seen this one before.

Fun maps btw, feels very moody! 

Very Strange honestly.  I double checked the link had the most up to date version and it does.  The fences work as intended when I just now retested in Gz but Im using version 4.8.2

[Flyxolydian]

My version of GZ is fairly old, don't think I've updated it since I DL'ed it in 2022! Will update and see if that affects it.

*edit*

 

Nope, does it on the latest version as well. How weird!

[Treehouseminis]

7 minutes ago, Flyxolydian said:

My version of GZ is fairly old, don't think I've updated it since I DL'ed it in 2022! Will update and see if that affects it.

*edit*

 

Nope, does it on the latest version as well. How weird!

Odd.  I don't know much about gzdoom settings etc but my latest release also had problems for someone with gzdoom using the latest version even though testing on my outdated version it worked fine.  I make my wads for dsda usually anyway but sorry about the weird Inconvenience :( 

 

Did gz remove mbf21 line flags?  And also dehacked support? 

[Flyxolydian]

3 minutes ago, Treehouseminis said:

Odd.  I don't know much about gzdoom settings etc but my latest release also had problems for someone with gzdoom using the latest version even though testing on my outdated version it worked fine.  I make my wads for dsda usually anyway but sorry about the weird Inconvenience :( 

 

Did gz remove mbf21 line flags?  And also dehacked support? 

 

No idea, I'm an absolute dinosaur when it comes to programming, hopefully someone else more literate knows the answer.

No inconvenience though, I just stayed away from the edge during the bigger fights! I'll chuck the videos up before too long (and get the WAD name right this time)

[Treehouseminis]

1 minute ago, Flyxolydian said:

 

No idea, I'm an absolute dinosaur when it comes to programming, hopefully someone else more literate knows the answer.

No inconvenience though, I just stayed away from the edge during the bigger fights! I'll chuck the videos up before too long (and get the WAD name right this time)

Well can't decide if I wanna update gzdoom at all anymore, if it's gonna be so fussy.  I must have lucked out with 4.8.2. And stayed there.  

 

Or maybe I should update so I would know of bugs, but then again I wouldn't have any idea how to fix it anyway.  

[eater29]

1 hour ago, Flyxolydian said:

 

No idea, I'm an absolute dinosaur when it comes to programming, hopefully someone else more literate knows the answer.

No inconvenience though, I just stayed away from the edge during the bigger fights! I'll chuck the videos up before too long (and get the WAD name right this time)

From what I know, I think GZ has a setting called “disable MBF21 features” (so like player blocking lines, instakill sectors etc.) that’s turned on by default. So by default GZ disables the stuff that makes MBF21 maps function properly.

[apichatpong]

related to what  eater29 said, had the same problem with eviternity II, I chose first MBF for compatibility and had some weird stuff happening like yours... then went back to default compatibility and evverything worked fine.

I tried MBF compatibility with BLEAK and was able to go throuugh fences then back to default and fences were doing their job.

Edited March 31, 2024 by apichatpong

[Treehouseminis]

53 minutes ago, eater29 said:

From what I know, I think GZ has a setting called “disable MBF21 features” (so like player blocking lines, instakill sectors etc.) that’s turned on by default. So by default GZ disables the stuff that makes MBF21 maps function properly.

 

6 minutes ago, apichatpong said:

related to what  eater29 said, had the same problem with eviternity II, I chose first MBF for compatibility and had some weird stuff happening like yours... then went back to default compatibility and evverything worked fine.

I tried MBF compatibility with BLEAK and was able to go throuugh fences then back to default and fences were doing their job.

I've never messed with compatibility stuff so good to know!