DBP61: Tempest Enterprise

[DerBlanca]

16 hours ago, AD_79 said:

As is the standard with DBPs

 

6 hours ago, AD_79 said:

I wouldn't know about past projects, as I haven't played many of them

 

[DreadWanderer]

7 hours ago, AD_79 said:

 

I wouldn't know about past projects, as I haven't played many of them. That being said, either make the decision to have difficulty settings across the board or not, I can respect either of those approaches. Having some maps with and others without makes it feel unfinished, as if some mappers simply could not be bothered to implement them.

That's fair enough, I get where you're coming from. I have a lot of respect for your work, doubly so considering the fact that I am not a mapper and just a player. That being said, I look at things a bit differently given the wider context. At an average of around 10-11 maps per project, the DBP crew has been consistently putting out 4 megawads worth of content every year since 2018, with each section having a unique flavor. That's no small feat. Given the tight constraints of the 1-month development cycle, I don't expect the individual mappers to prioritize the implementation of difficulty settings, or the project leads to pressure all the mappers into going one way or the other. With DBPs, the emphasis has always been on creating cool moods and themes, and as such the issue of difficulty is put on the back burner.

You can, of course, judge the merits of the projects on a case-by-case basis when it comes to how they play and how they feel. But on the specific point of difficulty settings, it would probably be more reasonable to raise your expectations when the time for development, testing, and quality control is more extensive. As far as I am concerned, I'm grateful that I get to experience some new and interesting episode every month or so, sometimes with pretty creative narrative work around it (as is the case here and with Zeppelin Armada).

[galileo31dos01]

I'm on map 12 and I have met a major roadblock:

 

Spoiler

That is, the off-screen "timed bomb" that is activated after pressing the "class-4" switch at the southern end of the map. The sign suggested to save the game, so I did. Then I dropped another save on top of it, as I always do unless special exceptions, and by the time I was back to the wide hallway where the first teleporting cyb appears, I died all of a sudden. I thought that maybe there was some exposed voodoo doll somewhere and it got killed, but then I looked in the editor and noticed the actual timed mechanism behind it all... 

 

My roadblock is that because of "screwing up" my former save I'd have to replay the entire map, and I was at 30 minutes in. It's a fun take to the corridor crawler style, lots of good exhilarating fighting with rockets and stuff, but I don't feel like replaying a big map like this right now... that's my problem anyways. The real issue is that, well unless I'm too oblivious, how are players supposed to know they are setting a timed death on them?? Is there some encrypted message on the class-4 sign that I'm missing? The way I see it currently you can only find out by dying once and hopefully you kept your suggested save intact the whole time...

 

It appears that you can hear the explosions nearby and that might be the hint, but I also immediately heard the several cyberdemons waking up and they might have distracted me from hearing the barrels... either way, if there isn't a more blatantly obvious message already, I might suggest just straight up telling players they better starting rushing, or to protect your suggested save, because like I said before this is very far into the map to not be crystal clear with certain information.

 

[BiZ]

3 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

I'm on map 12 and I have met a major roadblock:

 

  Hide contents

That is, the off-screen "timed bomb" that is activated after pressing the "class-4" switch at the southern end of the map. The sign suggested to save the game, so I did. Then I dropped another save on top of it, as I always do unless special exceptions, and by the time I was back to the wide hallway where the first teleporting cyb appears, I died all of a sudden. I thought that maybe there was some exposed voodoo doll somewhere and it got killed, but then I looked in the editor and noticed the actual timed mechanism behind it all... 

 

My roadblock is that because of "screwing up" my former save I'd have to replay the entire map, and I was at 30 minutes in. It's a fun take to the corridor crawler style, lots of good exhilarating fighting with rockets and stuff, but I don't feel like replaying a big map like this right now... that's my problem anyways. The real issue is that, well unless I'm too oblivious, how are players supposed to know they are setting a timed death on them?? Is there some encrypted message on the class-4 sign that I'm missing? The way I see it currently you can only find out by dying once and hopefully you kept your suggested save intact the whole time...

 

It appears that you can hear the explosions nearby and that might be the hint, but I also immediately heard the several cyberdemons waking up and they might have distracted me from hearing the barrels... either way, if there isn't a more blatantly obvious message already, I might suggest just straight up telling players they better starting rushing, or to protect your suggested save, because like I said before this is very far into the map to not be crystal clear with certain information.

 

 

Thanks for the feedback galileo.

 

Spoiler

The text on the computer screen actually changes when you press the button and there is an explicit warning telling you that the station will self-destruct and how much time you have...however I have seen a few players speed right past without even noticing so I severely botched the execution on this gimmick, my apologies.

 

I've been mulling over today how best to remedy the situation, and I think I will move the switch farther away from the screen to help players hopefully see the text changing, as well as adding a little 1/2 in the corner of the screen to denote that there is more to text to read. I am also considering requiring a 2nd button press on the switch to start the timer.

 

edit: something like this

https://streamable.com/0a9z73

 

Even then though, I did see one streamer catch the message but think the timer wasn't actually real so the entire premise might be flawed.

 

If you have any other ideas, I'm all ears. Thanks again!

 

Edited September 4, 2023 by BiZ

[galileo31dos01]

@BiZ 

 

Spoiler

Ahh, dammit... yeah I totally missed the second warning, that's my bad. Although if you're planning on an update, I think your edit is good, more in line with the setups in zeppelin armada iirc -- the switch being a bit more distant from the messages so you can very well read them and not miss one word, and enabling each message one at a time. I'd say the messages are very clear to me in what you're supposed to do. If you want it even clearer, perhaps you can have some visible explosions nearby in small containers inside the walls, or maybe the red lights could be off until you press the switch... either way I like that edit as it's shown currently.

 

[kalensar]

Is this DBP's answer to Sunlust? It starts with quite the bang!

[Zeroandneko]

Streamed through the entire set today in one sitting. These maps were glorious and the color scheme is perhaps one of my favorites of the DBP's I have played. I really liked the purples used with the parasitic corruption parts of certain maps. I dont wanna spoil anything but the sprite work done with Doom Guy on the credits map was a very nice touch.

 

Once again DBP you have put out pure magic and again I am here to humbly offer my gratitude for being able to enjoy it. Cheers!

[TheShep]

hot darn! gotta git it

[Pixel Fiend]

Where's the yellow key to the tesseract?

 

The best thing I've played in Doom this year, period.

Edited September 4, 2023 by Pixel Fiend

[DreadWanderer]

5 hours ago, Pixel Fiend said:

Where's the yellow key to the tesseract?

 

The best thing I've played in Doom this year, period.

 

There's a small button near the stairs that lead up to that archvile + 2 revenants fight (right before you get the plasma gun). You need to run off the platform and press the button as you're falling, and this will lower the lift with the yellow key. Beware though - you're going to get more than what you bargained for. 

Edited September 4, 2023 by DreadWanderer

[Auron]

Widescreen status bar for this one:

 

DBP_61: Tempest Enterprise

DBP_61_wide-stbar.zip

[DreadWanderer]

1 minute ago, Auron said:

Widescreen status bar for this one:

 

DBP_61: Tempest Enterprise

DBP_61_wide-stbar.zip

I noticed you posted it on the DBP forums before you posted it here and got it as soon as I saw it. Thanks for your work, really nice!

[DreadWanderer]

18 hours ago, BiZ said:

 

Thanks for the feedback galileo.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

The text on the computer screen actually changes when you press the button and there is an explicit warning telling you that the station will self-destruct and how much time you have...however I have seen a few players speed right past without even noticing so I severely botched the execution on this gimmick, my apologies.

 

I've been mulling over today how best to remedy the situation, and I think I will move the switch farther away from the screen to help players hopefully see the text changing, as well as adding a little 1/2 in the corner of the screen to denote that there is more to text to read. I am also considering requiring a 2nd button press on the switch to start the timer.

 

edit: something like this

https://streamable.com/0a9z73

 

Even then though, I did see one streamer catch the message but think the timer wasn't actually real so the entire premise might be flawed.

 

If you have any other ideas, I'm all ears. Thanks again!

 

I appreciate the explanation, I was wondering why the hell I was dying randomly as I backtracked. I assume the map is still beatable without saving?

[natashanightmare]

This thing seems to lock me inside and not let me out? 

Spoiler

Map 5

Spoiler

 

[JadingTsunami]

8 minutes ago, natashanightmare said:

This thing seems to lock me inside and not let me out? 

  Hide contents

Map 5

  Hide contents

 

 

That's a bug, thanks for the report. It looks like an extra line got tagged as a door by accident.

[Auron]

2 hours ago, DreadWanderer said:

I noticed you posted it on the DBP forums before you posted it here and got it as soon as I saw it. Thanks for your work, really nice!

Actually I didn't. I made this one and posted only here. Probably someone else made another one and posted on DBP forums. But thanks anyway. <3

[DreadWanderer]

1 hour ago, Auron said:

Actually I didn't. I made this one and posted only here. Probably someone else made another one and posted on DBP forums. But thanks anyway. <3

 

Ah my bad then, apologies for the confusion.

[BiZ]

21 hours ago, DreadWanderer said:

I appreciate the explanation, I was wondering why the hell I was dying randomly as I backtracked. I assume the map is still beatable without saving?

 

yeah, if you don't care about leaving monsters behind there is plenty of time. If you want a max, you are going to have to learn the map and play a bit aggressively at the end.

 

there should be a patch out the end of this week to address this map and any other bugs which have cropped up so far.

[DreadWanderer]

23 minutes ago, BiZ said:

 

yeah, if you don't care about leaving monsters behind there is plenty of time. If you want a max, you are going to have to learn the map and play a bit aggressively at the end.

 

Yeah sorry, I should have specified that my interest is in maxing it without saves. That's fair enough, thanks.

[BiZ]

Tempest Enterprise v1.1

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11arCQc05VhdOCxKNnyAmn2If7Is7bhJo/view?usp=sharing

 

An update for this wad was pushed out a few days ago. Maybe @matador can update the first post when he sees this. Thank you to the players for the bug reports.

 

Changes:

Spoiler

- Added in @Cammy midi rebalance pack, thanks!
- Updates to MAP05 to fix a potential softlock + rare cases of not being able to backtrack from final arena.
- Updates to MAP12 to better signpost progression at the end of the map.

 

[matador]

The OP has been updated with v1.2: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/pnokwn2vrctolx59kvf0j/DBP_61_v1-2.zip?rlkey=e324lvi1sbbsud5avyp5lw8du&amp;dl=1

 

In addition to the changes mentioned by BiZ for v1.1, this also includes edits to MAP03 to fix a couple of bleeding midtextures.

 

A further update to make the credits map maxable will be coming soon.

[Fly In The Lotion]

On 9/3/2023 at 7:16 PM, galileo31dos01 said:

I'm on map 12 and I have met a major roadblock:

 

  Hide contents

That is, the off-screen "timed bomb" that is activated after pressing the "class-4" switch at the southern end of the map. The sign suggested to save the game, so I did. Then I dropped another save on top of it, as I always do unless special exceptions, and by the time I was back to the wide hallway where the first teleporting cyb appears, I died all of a sudden. I thought that maybe there was some exposed voodoo doll somewhere and it got killed, but then I looked in the editor and noticed the actual timed mechanism behind it all... 

 

My roadblock is that because of "screwing up" my former save I'd have to replay the entire map, and I was at 30 minutes in. It's a fun take to the corridor crawler style, lots of good exhilarating fighting with rockets and stuff, but I don't feel like replaying a big map like this right now... that's my problem anyways. The real issue is that, well unless I'm too oblivious, how are players supposed to know they are setting a timed death on them?? Is there some encrypted message on the class-4 sign that I'm missing? The way I see it currently you can only find out by dying once and hopefully you kept your suggested save intact the whole time...

 

It appears that you can hear the explosions nearby and that might be the hint, but I also immediately heard the several cyberdemons waking up and they might have distracted me from hearing the barrels... either way, if there isn't a more blatantly obvious message already, I might suggest just straight up telling players they better starting rushing, or to protect your suggested save, because like I said before this is very far into the map to not be crystal clear with certain information.

Yeah, I was kind of annoyed with that part, because I missed the indication of setting a timer, so my saved game was already way too far into it. I just IDDQD'd out of my way of the last room, because I just couldn't bring myself to redo a half an hour's worth of game.

[grendelw]

Only at Map08 but I'm loving this so far, probably going to be one of my favorite dbps. Only criticism is the color palette is incredibly dark and kind of eye strain inducing after a while.

 

edit: Is there a way to get UV Max on Map 12 without godmode? I kind of gave up out of frustration.

Edited September 27, 2023 by grendelw

[tom3kb]

First part of wad was fun, later we have slaughter with hundreds monsters on maps, not my cup of tea.

Edited October 7, 2023 by tom3kb

[CravenCoyote]

Been playing this on stream and having a blast! Haven't finished yet, just arrived to Map08.

 

Video-On-Demand footage available here: Twitch VOD

Wad starts at the 15 minute mark.

 

Update:

I've now finished the wad. I had a great time but the last two levels were not the best for me.

I personally didn't like the time limit at the end of the penultimate map and had to cheat to finish it.

The final map was a huge slaughter map which seemed never ending and I skipped it.

 

All in all, a great wad but slightly let down at the end of the penultimate map and further let down by the enormous slaughter map as the final. Well worth playing up until the slaughter maps, and if you don't like them - bail at that point. And if you do, then carry on. Had great fun with this despite the final map.

Edited November 16, 2023 by CravenCoyote