Hexen: Veil of Darkness (UDMF Mapset, GZDoom)

[Captain Toenail]

On 10/31/2023 at 6:12 PM, eharper256 said:

I was considering adding it as a Stalker elite spawn option for the upcoming 0.99 patch before I even saw it in this wad, but also giving it the Acid Spray from the Druid's Hebiko Sceptre Upgrade as a bonus attack). :D

 

Sure go ahead.

 

 

1.3 UPDATE

 

• Added clue to first map regarding smashing boxes
• Mana now sometimes spawns into the forest hub map over time
• Minecart script now no longer broken when playing with Walpurgis

 

This will be the final version uploaded to idgames within the next couple of days, unless any further issues are discovered.

 

 

Walpurgis 0.98 Patch Update 1.1

 

• Starting inventory now contains Walpurgis items
• New enemies now sometimes drop small mana upon death
• Added item tags and fixed sounds of some inventory items

 

Load Order:

Spoiler

 

 

Have fun :-)

Edited November 13, 2023 by Captain Toenail
Removed old download links

[hereticfan]

Reading about the spawns being "insane" is making me think to play this on easy. What's the difference between difficulty setting? Did you add some peculiarities or is it like hexen? 

I'm going to go with knight difficulty.

[eharper256]

1 hour ago, hereticfan said:

Reading about the spawns being "insane" is making me think to play this on easy. What's the difference between difficulty setting? Did you add some peculiarities or is it like hexen? 

I'm going to go with knight difficulty.

Basically, whenever you return to the main hub in this, it's basically fully re-populated, alongside the normal Hexen respawn mechanics. It's not like it's a Doom Slaughterwad, but it's generally quite dense for a Hexen wad and can chow through your mana moreso than usual.

Also, good job with the changes, looks good. Feel free to include my video in your OP if you'd like.

Edited November 4, 2023 by eharper256

[Captain Toenail]

4 hours ago, hereticfan said:

Reading about the spawns being "insane" is making me think to play this on easy. What's the difference between difficulty setting? Did you add some peculiarities or is it like hexen? 

I'm going to go with knight difficulty.

 

The spawns should not be 'insane'. They were heavier in the first release, where the majority of feedback is from. They have since been toned-down as feedback was received.

 

3 hours ago, eharper256 said:

Basically, whenever you return to the main hub in this, it's basically fully re-populated, alongside the normal Hexen respawn mechanics.

 

This isn't quite correct, let me clarify below how it works below (spoilers):

Spoiler

There are mainly two different mechanism for spawning in extra monsters in this map set. There are three or four scripted events that will spawn in extra enemies into the main hub. Each of these only happens once. The heaviest is after visiting the metal map, as that is usually visited near the end of the hub.

 

There are also spots in every map that once reached, will spawn an enemy roughly every 20 minutes. These are not scripted but coded in Decorate. These are to keep the maps from becoming barren and empty as the adventure unfolds. These are mostly lesser enemies like Ettins, though there is a small chance for something else to appear. The result is you may return to an area in the map you visited 20 minutes ago in gametime and find 2 or 3 ettins lurking there, and maybe a centaur or serpent, or if you are very unlucky, maybe a butcher or even a warlock.

 

A third element is that two of the lesser enemies (the plants and the pods) have a chance of respawning upon death. These can be thinned down as you progress and provide minimal threat.

 

 

Using Medium as the default setting, the differences are:

 

Very Easy & Easy

• Start game with extra items in inventory
• Less monsters throughout
• Extra items in maps
• Decorate Monster respawners disabled

Hard

• more monsters
• no starting items
• puzzle clues removed in maps

 

There are also slightly different weapon/item/monsters depending on class selected.

[Captain Toenail]

Hexen VoD has now been uploaded to idGames Database.

 

What's new with 1.4

Spoiler

 

- fixed a bug with clinker projectiles losing momentum

- increased delay slightly on respawners

- plants & pods have greater chance of being removed permanently upon death

 

 

Thank you everyone in this thread for playtesting and providing valuable feedback. Could not have done it without you!

 

Get it here:

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/hexen/g-i/hexenvod

or

https://www.moddb.com/mods/hexen-veil-of-darkness/downloads/hexen-veil-of-darkness-14

 

Enjoy :-)

[RonLivingston]

awesome! So lovely to see a Hexen Project arriving here

[Emmanuelexe]

Post i made in the fb group  of heretic & hexen:
 

"I continued to play Hexen - Veil of Darkness, its a huge gem, amazing but pretty hard, im at difficulty 4/5 and im lacking items to survive, not sure if i could finish the game, for hp i have only a jar left and the enemies spawn very often!

It's the first version but i will try to have it done even if i have to save often ^^'

Death Wish is considered as Blood 3 like this wad should be considered as Hexen 3 seriously, not to act like a fanboy but im so impressed by it!

There is a ton of custom stuff (monsters, items, chest, other breakable stuff) who fit well Hexen.

Some puzzles are complicate (like the one with the spheres) but not too much ^^

Now, i just hope i can finish it or rip xD"

Also: very impressive level design and details, big gem like i said, it feels so like a complete mappack with custom stuff! His own thing without adding too much or not enough! Good job :)

EDIT: finished it, the ice map helped to to get back some purple flask

Edited November 19, 2023 by Manhs

[Zoti]

What a great and exciting adventure this wad is!

 

Superb and very diverse areas (I love the forest and the castle) filled with formidable enemies.

One of the aspect of Hexen being its hubs, I had to use the paper/pencil combo so as not to get too lost and set my objectives without boredom, which is a feat!

 

Once again, congratulations for all this work.

Edited November 18, 2023 by Zoti

[Nate42]

Great work, always good to see Hexen get some love. Hard as shit though:)

[Nate42]

OK dumb question:

 

Spoiler

Are all the flowers located in the forest hub or are some of them elsewhere? I have all but 1. I've been to all levels (I think) at this point, including the machine world. I'm missing a planet, a blood diamond, and a flower, and kinda stuck on what I missed.

 

Edit: nevermind literally as soon as I asked I found the last flower and I guess that just unlocks a healing pool. Which is handy but doesn't help me progress. So next question I guess: what levels have blood diamonds?

 

Edited December 2, 2023 by Nate42

[linkov]

@Captain Toenail great work on this. I've noticed quite a few authors has been posting their works with actual license in the end of readme file. Just out of curiosity, does that kind of license means that if somebody would adapt this mod (read remake) for Hexen II, you'd be okay with that?

Edited December 2, 2023 by linkov

[Not Jabba]

1 hour ago, Nate42 said:

 

  Hide contents

 

Edit: nevermind literally as soon as I asked I found the last flower and I guess that just unlocks a healing pool. Which is handy but doesn't help me progress. So next question I guess: what levels have blood diamonds?

 

Spoiler

I think it's two in the castle and two in the dungeon below the castle. The one you might be missing (or at least, it's the part I got hung up on for a while) is the box puzzle in the dungeon -- it's easy not to realize it's an interactive puzzle at all.

 

[Nate42]

6 minutes ago, Not Jabba said:

 

  Hide contents

I think it's two in the castle and two in the dungeon below the castle. The one you might be missing (or at least, it's the part I got hung up on for a while) is the box puzzle in the dungeon -- it's easy not to realize it's an interactive puzzle at all.

 

Thanks for the help!

Spoiler

I had figured out the box puzzle actually, the thing I missed is the place in the dungeon where you fight the boss (Varnak) and you get a diamond there. So yeah 2 in the dungeon.

 

[Nate42]

So I did finally finish this yesterday, really enjoyed it. Particularly liked the boss encounters, and the 

Spoiler

machine world under the mill

I played with fighter on medium difficulty and found the combat to be quite challenging, but nothing I couldn't handle with some occasional save scumming. :D Highly recommended, and looking forward to part 2!

[Captain Toenail]

4 hours ago, Nate42 said:

I played with fighter on medium difficulty and found the combat to be quite challenging, but nothing I couldn't handle with some occasional save scumming. :D Highly recommended, and looking forward to part 2!

 

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it :-)

 

22 hours ago, linkov said:

@Captain Toenail great work on this. I've noticed quite a few authors has been posting their works with actual license in the end of readme file. Just out of curiosity, does that kind of license means that if somebody would adapt this mod (read remake) for Hexen II, you'd be okay with that?

 

That's something that is to be appended to the file when uploading to idgames. Sure that would be fine, I would be interested in seeing how that turns out.

[eqagunn]

On 10/21/2023 at 3:55 PM, NeoWorm said:

I got about halfway through, finished, swamps, mines, most of castle and dipped into the ice caves. But hell, those respawns in the main HUB map are getting overwhelming. I am out of mana most of the time and getting around the map is getting really annoying. Some of the monsters seems like designed to counter both Cleric weapons.

On 10/24/2023 at 5:57 PM, Matthias said:

First, I totally agree with others that the endless spawn is soo annoying. I understand that even vanilla Hexen had some sort of script to spawn some ettins so the maps won't feel so empty once you kill everyone.

On 10/22/2023 at 12:55 PM, Muleke_Trairao said:

I agree with NeoWorm that the respawns were overwhelming. The Hub map would get swarmed by enemies if you didn't routinely kill them. Since you have to backtrack a lot, reducing their respawn rate might help alleviate the frustration.

On 10/28/2023 at 1:29 PM, Mathuzzz said:

the respawning is just too much. And this is probably my biggest issue with the mod. As the mod is definitely worth more than just one playthrough, I did my first on the lowest skill, mostly to enjoy the design and it was a wise decision. Even on that skill, the respawning was unbearable, especially at the central map.

HexenDD had the same annoyance an there was a mod created that disables the respawning as per discussion in this thread.
 

On 10/29/2023 at 11:27 PM, Captain Toenail said:

1.2 update

Monster respawners removed on very easy and easy throughout entire hub

I have been playing on very easy (still quite hard lol) with v1.4 and Mawthorns (Forest of Gloom and Bloodwind Castle), Spore Pods (Stinksump Swamp), and Harpy (Abandoned Mine) were still constantly respawning.

 

Other issues include:

- An invisible Claw Orb for Mage in Varnak's room even though I was playing with Fighter.

- An out-of-bounds Shock Orb in Hidden Machinations.

- A few Afrits out-of-bounds at two spots in Lair of the Ice Queen (entrance is called Catacombs of Ice for some reason).

- The switch in The Old Mill spawns two platforms with no apparent usage; as if there was meant to be a third one in between.

- Door that leads to corridor to Hidden Machinations can be accessed while still blocked off by pressing Interact directly above.
- I couldn't find 4th secret in Forest of Gloom and the 5th Troll (but I had 3 extra Lockpicks hehe).

 

Took forever to figure out:

- that the rotatable wall is rotatable

- how to open Temple of Divine Shadow

 

Nevertheless, I enjoyed this map pack as much as I enjoyed Faithless Trilogy. Really great stuff!

Edited December 15, 2023 by eqagunn

[Muleke_Trairao]

1 hour ago, eqagunn said:

HexenDD had the same annoyance an there was a mod created that disables the respawning as per discussion in this thread.

Oh, interesting! Thanks for sharing that!

 

And congratulations on winning a Cacoward, @Captain Toenail!

[Da Spadger]

This is a great mapset. I think I'm stuck though.

 

Spoiler

I need either a flame mask, a book or a gear to bring to the old mill to continue but I don't know where to look.

 

Edited December 17, 2023 by Da Spadger

[UnknDoomer]

@Captain Toenail, have a several questions, before installing last gem and proceeding to the end (I suppose):

 

 

1. I've collected four lamps. They just for the light near by, different color?
2. Where can I find a rescued frog? As I've got it must be somewhere after, but I didn't find him anywhere.
3. In the first location I found one of the five hidden trolls. Does this affect anything or is it just an easter egg?

4. Teleport in the castle, that is in the middle of the air. It's just for the decor?
* 5. Playing with Walpurgis and can't take any of the mystic urns.

Edited December 18, 2023 by UnknDoomer

[Captain Toenail]

On 12/14/2023 at 7:48 PM, eqagunn said:

I have been playing on very easy (still quite hard lol) with v1.4 and Mawthorns (Forest of Gloom and Bloodwind Castle), Spore Pods (Stinksump Swamp), and Harpy (Abandoned Mine) were still constantly respawning.

Yes the Mawthorns and Sporepods have a different mechanism for respawning - every time you kill them they have a chance of not reappearing (I think it's 33%?).

Harpy in the mine is scripted to respawn. Same with a Bishop in the castle.

 

On 12/14/2023 at 7:48 PM, eqagunn said:

 

Other issues include:

- An invisible Claw Orb for Mage in Varnak's room even though I was playing with Fighter.

The Orb was probably dropped by the boss - it inherits from Heretic's Disciple.

 

On 12/14/2023 at 7:48 PM, eqagunn said:

- An out-of-bounds Shock Orb in Hidden Machinations.

Not entirely sure what happened here.

 

On 12/14/2023 at 7:48 PM, eqagunn said:

- A few Afrits out-of-bounds at two spots in Lair of the Ice Queen (entrance is called Catacombs of Ice for some reason).

Are they the ones that awaken then get stuck in the ceiling? I noticed that happen a few times but completely forgot. 

 

On 12/14/2023 at 7:48 PM, eqagunn said:

- The switch in The Old Mill spawns two platforms with no apparent usage; as if there was meant to be a third one in between.

Yes I actually fixed this in an earlier version - there are two additional bridges that are supposed to spawn in the middle by using SpawnSpotForced. I must have reverted the fix at some point by mistake.

 

On 12/14/2023 at 7:48 PM, eqagunn said:

- Door that leads to corridor to Hidden Machinations can be accessed while still blocked off by pressing Interact directly above

Which door was this?

 

13 hours ago, Da Spadger said:

This is a great mapset. I think I'm stuck though.

 

The mill requires three gears. 

You can find them at:

Spoiler

The mine, the gatehouse and the dungeons.

 

 

8 hours ago, UnknDoomer said:

@Captain Toenail, have a several questions, before installing last gem and proceeding to the end (I suppose):

 

1.

Spoiler

The lamps are a bit of a red herring. You can place them to light up dark areas of the forest/mine but they don't actually do anything. It was an experiment to recreate similar lamps from Morrowind. Leaving them in was probably a mistake if they are causing confusion.

2.

Spoiler

Captured frog is in the swamp near Shrakk's Shack behind a locked barrier.

3.

Spoiler

Trolls are just a silly easter egg, but they are also a second way of getting the ultimate weapon.

4. 

Spoiler

That's intended as a shortcut back to the dungeon once you get the gold key from the tower.

5.

Spoiler

Not sure what's going on there. If the mod has been updated it may no longer be compatible with the patch.

 

[UnknDoomer]

 

2. @Captain Toenail, I mean can I find the frog after free him there? Because he telling like it's possible to find him after... or it's not possible / there is no point for it?
5. Okey, will ask @eharper256. It's an old thing, I guess. Not wad specified.

Edited December 18, 2023 by UnknDoomer

[Captain Toenail]

2.

Spoiler

Once you talk to him in his cell, if you travel south you may find a new trail that is now visible

 

[UnknDoomer]

 

2. So he just open alternative route in first location?

Edited December 18, 2023 by UnknDoomer

[Captain Toenail]

@UnknDoomer

Spoiler

A new secret area to the south of the start area becomes available

 

[UnknDoomer]

So, as I've figure out now, it's required to go straight forward enough into the fog to get to this location.

[Captain Toenail]

@UnknDoomer

Spoiler

Yes, just follow the new trail of flames :-)

 

[eqagunn]

3 hours ago, Captain Toenail said:

On 12/14/2023 at 7:48 PM, eqagunn said:

- A few Afrits out-of-bounds at two spots in Lair of the Ice Queen (entrance is called Catacombs of Ice for some reason).

Are they the ones that awaken then get stuck in the ceiling? I noticed that happen a few times but completely forgot. 

Yes, I believe so. It happened in two different alcoves. Although an explosion was able to kill them all.

 

3 hours ago, Captain Toenail said:

Yes the Mawthorns and Sporepods have a different mechanism for respawning - every time you kill them they have a chance of not reappearing (I think it's 33%?). Harpy in the mine is scripted to respawn. Same with a Bishop in the castle.

I see. I was hoping you have disabled them completely. Respawning is only an annoyance for me and it seems for others as well. Coming back to an area I made sure I cleaned and wondering where did that guy come from and how did I miss him.

 

4 hours ago, Captain Toenail said:

On 12/14/2023 at 7:48 PM, eqagunn said:

- Door that leads to corridor to Hidden Machinations can be accessed while still blocked off by pressing Interact directly above.

Which door was this?

The one at the bottom of The Old Mill. While the spiral staircase is still blocked, you can stand above where the door is, and while looking horizontally at the centre pressing interact will make you enter that corridor as if you have interacted with the door directly. Which is likely what happens due to how verticality in the engine is.

 

4 hours ago, Captain Toenail said:

The lamps are a bit of a red herring. You can place them to light up dark areas of the forest/mine but they don't actually do anything. It was an experiment to recreate similar lamps from Morrowind. Leaving them in was probably a mistake if they are causing confusion.

Funny thing is, when I encountered them I thought how they look like they are from Morrowind haha, but I though they were only a decoration. This was because you need to interact with them to collect them while the rest of the items pop into your inventory upon being close by. Only when I used "give all" I noticed the lamps are collectable.

 

4 hours ago, Captain Toenail said:

On 12/14/2023 at 7:48 PM, eqagunn said:

- An out-of-bounds Shock Orb in Hidden Machinations.

Not entirely sure what happened here.

I noticed that sleeping Afrits can be pushed by attacking and they would get pushed horizontally through the air and remain to float in spot. That is gravity doesn't affect them. Perhaps something similar happened with that Shock Orb as well.

 

On 12/14/2023 at 7:48 PM, eqagunn said:

- I couldn't find 4th secret in Forest of Gloom and the 5th Troll (but I had 3 extra Lockpicks hehe).

@pagb I'm lost without your guidance haha.

[Captain Toenail]

@eqagunn I have attached a quick optional patch that should remove all the respawning monsters discussed earlier, in all difficulty settings. Load it after the main pk3, as it overwrites existing content to work.

 

Also thanks everyone for reporting these new bugs. I may have to rustle up a small patch to fix these issues (the door skip is quite concerning!)

 

On 12/14/2023 at 7:48 PM, eqagunn said:

- I couldn't find 4th secret in Forest of Gloom and the 5th Troll (but I had 3 extra Lockpicks hehe).

Spoiler

Looks like the corpse at the bottom of the well is tagged as a secret for some reason. Another thing to add to the list!

 

VoD_RemoveSpawners.zip

Edited December 18, 2023 by Captain Toenail

[eharper256]

There shouldn't be any reason why you can't pick up Mystic Urns in Walp, unless VoD replaces ArtiSuperHealth.

A special spawner replaces that in Walp, since it has a different use in the Doomed Souls challenge mode.

Here's the three Walp actors in question in case Captain Toenail wants to double check:

Spoiler

ACTOR SpawnerBigHP : CustomInventory replaces ArtiSuperHealth 23876
{
    States
    {
    Spawn:
        TNT1 A 0 Nodelay A_JumpIf(GetCVar("walp_doomsouls")==1,"NoSpawn")
        TNT1 A 0 A_SpawnItemEx("MysticW",0,0,0,0,0,0,0,SXF_TRANSFERPOINTERS|SXF_TRANSFERAMBUSHFLAG|SXF_TRANSFERSPECIAL|SXF_CLEARCALLERTID|SXF_CLEARCALLERSPECIAL|SXF_SETMASTER,0,tid)    
        TNT1 A 0 A_Remove(AAPTR_DEFAULT,RMVF_EVERYTHING)
        Stop
    NoSpawn:
        TNT1 A 0 A_SpawnItemEx("KestusPickup",0,0,0,0,0,0,0,SXF_TRANSFERPOINTERS|SXF_TRANSFERAMBUSHFLAG|SXF_TRANSFERSPECIAL|SXF_CLEARCALLERTID|SXF_CLEARCALLERSPECIAL|SXF_SETMASTER,0,tid)    
        TNT1 A 0 A_Remove(AAPTR_DEFAULT,RMVF_EVERYTHING)
        Stop
    }
}

Actor MysticUrnHealth : Health
{
    Inventory.Amount 100
    Inventory.MaxAmount 200
}

Actor MysticW : CustomInventory
{
    -COUNTITEM
    Inventory.PickupSound "Pickup/Potion"
    Inventory.UseSound "UseArtifact"
    Inventory.PickupMessage "\c[white]An \c[cyan]Urn of Water\c[white] blessed by the \c[gold]Mystics\c[white]!! [+\c[brick]100 Overheal\c[white]]"
    +FLOATBOB
    +INVENTORY.PICKUPFLASH
    +INVENTORY.INVBAR
    Inventory.InterHubAmount 3
    Inventory.MaxAmount 3
    Tag "Adds 100 HP, up to a maximum of 200."
    States
    {
    Spawn:
        SPHL A 1 Bright A_SpawnItemEx("SunProjectileTrail",0,0,36,0,0,0)
        Loop
    Use:
        TNT1 A 0 A_GiveInventory("MysticUrnHealth", 1)
        TNT1 A 0 A_SetBlend("Yellow", 0.5, 22)
        Stop
    }
}

But unless something whack is going on, loading VoD > Walp > WalpPatch should work fine as usual.

Edited December 18, 2023 by eharper256

[eqagunn]

18 minutes ago, Captain Toenail said:

@eqagunn I have attached a quick optional patch that should remove all the respawning monsters discussed earlier, in all difficulty settings. Load it after the main pk3, as it overwrites existing content to work. VoD_RemoveSpawners.zip

Perhaps it would be the best if you add it to the first post for future players as I have completed this mapset and it is of no use to me any longer. :)

 

23 minutes ago, Captain Toenail said:

  Hide contents

Looks like the corpse at the bottom of the well is tagged as a secret for some reason. Another thing to add to the list!

 

OMG! So there isn't meant to be a forth one? And I've spent about an hour looking for it haha.

 

24 minutes ago, Captain Toenail said:

Also thanks everyone for reporting these new bugs. I may have to rustle up a small patch to fix these issues (the door skip is quite concerning!)

The reason I report them is because it hurts me to see something being done so well with a lot of effort invested yet often left unpolished. Usually so little is required to make it golden!