Godless Night [GZDoom episode || RC1 11/29/2023]

[Velvetic]

Found some more stuff, and I have a suggestion (perhaps????)

 

Spoiler

MAP15 - The Other Earth:

 

 

This fight can be avoided with a single rocket jump (if mouselook is allowed, which by the heavy Wicked usage in the set, I'm assuming it is).

MAP16 - The Sinking Sisters:

 

This switch can be used while its hidden, making this fight extremely easy to bypass.

MAP09 - The Eye of the Cosmos:

This one is just a suggestion after playing the map on Medium and watching another person playing it on Tough. The final fight seems to be a bit more brutal on the lower difficulties simply because the platforms don't raise up, leading to an absolute flood of ressurections by the Diabolists there. The platforms somewhat hinders the Diabolists, making them easy fodder with the BFG and overall nerfing the fight. So maybe raising the platforms would be best on the lower difficulties?

 

[Tango]

thank you so much for all this again @Velvetic, I’ve already got a bunch of fixes lined up but I’ll add these to the list!

[SiMpLeToNiUm]

A bit of feedback myself, aside from all the gushing and praise I wanna lump upon this mapset:

This area in the Egypt map, for flow and QoL I think there should be some stairs that rise up from the sand in this corner once you complete the encounter here (maybe a switch on the wall next to the diabolist or a trigger once you go that way the first time) since you have to constantly loop around if you're going back through this area again:

Spoiler

 

These bars in the Royal Chapel just outside of the big Cathedral fight can softlock you if you come back through this area and re-trigger them. I'm not sure exactly how this happens:

Spoiler

 

Nodebuilder void in The Eye of the Cosmos:

Spoiler

 

Also in the same map, I feel like the lifts should be easier to spot. Earlier on in the map I had 0 idea these were lift textures. Something like lights or something earlier on could make this easier to notice. I think it was only towards the end of the map I watched a lift raise or lower and only then went back through the map noticing the other ones. Maybe something with brightmaps or lights on it?

Spoiler

 

[Tango]

really appreciate the kind words and all these bug reports :D

 

in my local build I have fixed all the bugs mentioned so far, and also took both the suggestion from @Velvetic and @SiMpLeToNiUm. I've also redone a few fights in ruin mode to reduce rng and make them more distinct from the regular versions - should have that out as the next beta this weekend!

Edited October 26, 2023 by Tango

[TJG1289]

Ok, I just beat the main campaign on medium, finding all 8 portraits and completing all but one of them 100%. This was insanely fun! I loved the little bits of exploration in the maps, finding stuff that I wouldn't have expected. Idk how many of them there are, but I know there's at least 1 cool unmarked secret in here with a very nice reward that I found while snooping around map 10. I also liked how you used the light hub elements, allowing for some pretty fun things with exits and secret maps. It's been a minute since I played something with Supercharge, and the new stuff that was added since was pretty cool! I'm going to try Ruin mode now, as at first I thought it was just a harder difficulty, but then I noticed the map numbers were different, so I'm excited to see this take on New Game+. 

 

One question that may be answered in Ruin mode, idk:

Spoiler

Can I do anything with the key I found in map 10's secret, before ending the main playthrough? Or is that something for Ruin mode /  setting up a future WAD?

 

The only issue I found were some script errors each time I found a pillar with a health bonus on it in map 04, but it didn't seem to break anything.

[Catpho]

More video playthroughs. So much fun:

The Old Earth (Pre Minigun): Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Royal Chapel: Part 7, Part 8, Part 9 (Contains a bit of Tower of Night Seer)

Tower of Night Seer: Part 10, Part 11, Part 12

I'm probably in the minority regarding this one, but I think Royal Chapel's gameplay is not as dynamic as the surrounding levels. A lot of times monsters don't generate any meaningful pressure even on Tough, often taken on one by one, or without teamwork or synergy when together, or just kinda walk into your shooting range. I think the stairs fight in that level is about the only exception, which I thought was pretty cool. I don't dislike the level on its own, and it has the benefit of being pretty as hell, but it does feel a bit naked compared to this mapset's other levels where combat chops are concerned.

[Tango]

OP has been updated with beta 2! I am exceedingly grateful for everyone who has played so far, and for all of the bug reports and suggestions. I've been able to fix I think everything that's been reported so far? I still have a few small changes in my mental todo list, but nothing major. the next version should be a release candidate, I expect! which will probably be in a week or two.

 

rough changelog:

• Disallowed vertical rocket jumping
• Buffed minigun by decreasing windup, and allowing action out of cooldown sooner
• Fixed bugs across nearly all maps - 100% kills/secrets should be doable without cheats
• Overhauled several fights in Ruin mode to be more distinct from their non-Ruin counterparts
• Increased resources in a few places to reduce the chance of unwinnable situations
• Added hub return portraits in what was previously a point of no return (including on Ruin mode)
• Made the BFG harder to obtain early in Ruin mode so as not to trivialize the set if obtained as early as possible

 

I wanted to do a more detailed changelog, but I just finished playtesting for nearly 4 hours and I can't be bothered anymore 🙃

 

note that updating will break any in-progress save, so I would wait to update if you are mid-run. if you plan to tackle Ruin mode but haven't yet, it should be pretty close to its final form now, so definitely use this beta over the last one!

 

===============

 

On 10/27/2023 at 8:20 AM, TJG1289 said:

Idk how many of them there are, but I know there's at least 1 cool unmarked secret in here with a very nice reward that I found while snooping around map 10.

 

you're the first to mention this, glad you found it haha. I think I actually need to make that thing slightly less beneficial than its current state hah. appreciate the kind words, thank you so much :D re: your question in the spoiler, the answer is the latter! the latter of the latter, rather

 

4 hours ago, Catpho said:

More video playthroughs.

 

can't thank you enough for these!! (and to everyone else who has streamed/recorded, it's a pleasure to watch)

 

4 hours ago, Catpho said:

but I think Royal Chapel's gameplay is not as dynamic as the surrounding levels.

 

I think that's a totally fair assessment! but, personally I'm quite fond of that aspect of it - for me it's always a fun break from the rest of the maps where I can run around guns blazing and just enjoy gibbing monsters left and right haha. fair enough though! and yes it is a looker, I love how much of an adventure it ends up being too

[Matt Eldrydge]

34 minutes ago, Tango said:

• Disallowed vertical rocket jumping

 

So much for thinking I was smart when I did clear Garden of Mechanus after like twenty minutes of blindly bumbling around in it and remembering I had a lot of health and a bunch of rockets. :P

 

It'll be a little while before that video does go up (each map gets its own video, more or less) but I'll make sure to put this in the description and pinned comment.

 

Keep up the good work!

[Steve D]

I chose the Plutonia difficulty and I'm enjoying myself immensely. Absolutely stunning work, Tango. Progression is a bit obtuse, and I look forward to taking down that turreted Cyb in Garden of Mechanus; I only need to find the way to get 'im. ;)

 

This is a long-term playing project that I'll attack in bite-size time chunks. It'll give me time to appreciate the staggering visuals.

[Firedust]

The portrait of ruin tracks  really warm my heart :3

[Helm]

I'm glad people are enjoying this. I did some testing for UV. It was a real pleasure to see how Tango goes about his creative work, very inspiring, esp. considering when I played Paradise yrs ago I remember thinking 'it can't get better than this'. It did! I am enjoying watching videos of runthroughs as well to see how people dealt with the encounters and adventuring with what is very familiar ground to me now. Some of the best stuff I've played this year and as a supercharge superfan, definitely *the* set to play if you're new to it.

[Muleke_Trairao]

I haven't finished it yet, but this is Cacoward-worthy, hands down!

 

Supercharge is one of my favorite gameplay mods for DOOM. No wonder it was well implemented into Godless Night since they are both from the same creator.

 

I can't wait for your future projects, Tango!

[KneeDeepintheSludgemetal]

Loved finding the secret entrance to 

Spoiler

Map 7

Quote

 

This is going to be a fun playthrough. 

 

[Muzzy]

This was SOOO MUCH FUN TO PLAY! The combat puzzles are amazing and are so satsifying to solve, thank you! A couple of things,

Spoiler

there's a bookshelf on Royal Chapel that has 2 red books, I REALLY thought this was a secret but it doesn't seem to be
https://imgur.com/a/7bUUF8k

 

Spoiler

Also, you can SR50 to the secret level if you're precise enough 

 

Edited November 1, 2023 by Muzzy

[Muleke_Trairao]

Just finished GN. Found and cleared all the levels on skill 4.

 

What an amazing experience!

[.zwxn]

This project is so incredible I felt compelled to create an account on this forum just to praise it. There's so much thought and effort put into every aspect of it, every level is an absolute joy to play through. I really like how well the Supercharge mod integrates with everything, it makes the combat even more satisfying. Also, I really dig the whole Castlevania aesthetics thing along with the MIDI renditions of Portrait of Ruin's soundtrack. 

 

All-in-all, an amazing project that is most definitely worthy of a Cacoward.

Edited November 1, 2023 by DJ Groggy in the Morning

[ginc]

Hey Tango, congrats on the (beta) release, this is a joy to play and clearly a labour of love. All those Castlevania MIDIs in the extra maps of Paradise were definitely foreshadowing this :)

 

Played through Extreme difficulty first, didn't find any major issues, but I wasn't trying to break things. Currently playing Ruin, found 2 cheesable fights in particular that probably also work in the regular maps:

 

For this area of MAP17, if you follow the path along the right side and jump down you can skip the linedefs that trigger the fight and just move on.

As a result, you can fall into this pit of dormant monsters and softlock.

 

For this fight of MAP14:

You can escape without hitting any switches by SR40'ing here:

 

Edited November 4, 2023 by ginc

[ginc]

Also, I don't know if this would be considered cheese, but I've found 2 areas where the sound-blocking linedefs might need adjusting. There might be more.

Basically, these areas have ledges where you fall into a combat area, and I think that the idea is that the sound-blocking lines are supposed to prevent players from waking up monsters before they fall in. The problem is that players can get close to the edge (so that the center of the player is actually over the line), use a weapon, and wake up a bunch of monsters before the player falls in. If the lines are moved to be 16 units (ie. player radius) away from the edge, that should fix it.

 

This area in MAP15 with the altar with the fuckton of Archviles:

(edit) Looked in UDB and figured out why its cheesable. The monsters in the back are supposed to stay dormant until a monster crosses the line next to the cyber, but if you wake up the Wickeds and just back out to the south, they'll fly over the line and wake up everything.

 

MAP19 after you go up the elevator near the start:

 

Apologies if these have already been pointed out by Velvetic or someone else

Edited November 4, 2023 by ginc

[BohdanZPM]

This looks gorgeous. You didn't specify the map list and/or the number of maps in the wad. How many are they?
Also, please include in the readme file music credits and song titles if you can.

[unkind]

download says "Link is temporarily disabled" :(

[doomedwarrior1981]

Link is temporarily disabled anyone have another link to the mod after watching Icarus's video I really want to play it

[Tango]

 

super cool, thanks for nothing dropbox. sorry for actually using your service!!!!

 

seems like dropbox has stopped throwing a fit now, but I have added a google drive mirror to the OP. thanks for reporting yall

 

=========

 

I am slowly chipping away at some bugfixes for the next version which will be RC1, just been taking a nice break from dooming lately ;_; I really appreciate the reports @ginc, they are immensely helpful!

 

On 11/8/2023 at 7:19 AM, BohdanZPM said:

How many are they?
Also, please include in the readme file music credits and song titles if you can. 

 

I am deliberately vague about the map quantity because of all the secrets, but you're looking at less than 10. in the next or next next version I will include a proper readme file with all the songs listed!

Edited November 12, 2023 by Tango

[Not Jabba]

Damn, that's dumb.

 

Dropbox claims it allows 20 GB of bandwidth or 100k file downloads per account per day. I guess you'd be more likely to hit the first limit, but either way, I guess the silver lining is that your mapset is super popular :}

Edited November 12, 2023 by Not Jabba

[Tango]

1 minute ago, Not Jabba said:

but either way, I guess the silver lining is that your mapset is super popular :}

 

haha that is some silver lining indeed! I think Icarus' video is the cause of the traffic spike, which I am not complaining about haha. but really frustrating dropbox imposes such a limit in the first place. I had no idea it did so 🤷‍♂️

[MisterIcarus]

I would like to formally apologize for killing the drop-box link.

[Maribo]

Finally got around to playing, results of a casual playthrough of beta 2:

Spoiler

 

Incredible set, as expected. Supercharge once again shows off how flexible and fun it is in a variety of map compositions (I love you so much Diabolist, Tortured Soul, Weak Cyberdemon), the Castlevania-inspired locales are absolutely gorgeous, and that purple sky is so deep and intoxicating. Sunken Sanctuary was probably my single favorite highlight, that map is a frantic scramble where anything and everything can catch you out if you stop paying attention for an instant. Wonderful experience, thank you and everyone else who was involved in putting together such a cool work.

[Theespressoman]

Tried the first level, a lot to like, the difficulty is very descriptive and pretty accurate (chose the second hardest), which is appreciated. the enemies are cool and the puniness is nice.
But there is one really big issue with pacing, the reloading. (Though a disclaimer is i am not experienced with the parent mod and tend not to use gameplay mods too often (maybe 30% of the time, mostly a mix of kegan and project babel))
I found the combat feel clunky and unbalanced for the reloading, like it was a quality normal .wad (cause when the .wad worked, it was really good) with dehacked that it was slapped onto, the issue is less the idea of reloading per se, but the pacing that it's doesn't feel like it's balanced with, as well as baffling decisions like being unable to swap while reloading, which feel super punishing and unfun. The pacing seemed to expect normal behavior, but the gameplay punished it.

Maybe the fix is just to allow swapping while reloading, so you're not caught with your pants down, but idk, it took a lot of the fun out of a great looking mod.

[YoshiTheMage]

Great set of maps, had an absolute blast with this. Just finished my first playthrough on Tough mode getting 100% on all eight portraits in a bit under three and a half hours. I'm definitely up to the challenge of Extreme but I decided to heed its warning about prior map knowledge being expected. No real complaints, though I did manage to grab the partial invisibility on Gardens of Mechanus through the grate it was housed in. Grenadiers are also horrible, horrible bastards but that just means they're being used effectively and that I suck at managing their grenades.

 

My favourite map wound up being Last Dance with the Devil for its challenging and inventive encounters. My favourite fight in the entire WAD is the Diabolist and Cyberdemon fire pit. Sure it took a while to make the Diabolists kill them all one at a time, I'm not the greatest rocket dodger and given a slightly larger arena I'd have chanced roasting the Cyberdemons two at a time but I loved it all the same. If I had to decide on a weakest link in Godless Night's chain it'd have to be Royal Chapel. Royal Chapel's a perfectly fine map but it's very linear, has quite a bit of downtime (on Tough anyway) and a lot of it does run together in my memory.

 

Since I've got nowhere better to put this I like the difficulty select map's colours and difficulty descriptions though I was a bit disappointed to see Ruin mode lacking the difficulty comparison that the other five modes have. Its current description is effective to a degree but it doesn't actually tell me much, particularly about how much of a step up it is from Extreme and how it's different from the other modes. Maybe that was the point but I think some would assume it's just Extreme with fast and maybe respawning monsters.

 

Still, I look forward to replaying the WAD on Ruin mode to see how nice the altered palettes are and how much the remixed encounters kick my teeth in.

[Catpho]

Belated complete playthrough (minus one portal apparently!) on Tough, Beta 1:

Boring secret hunting video: Part 12
Sunken Sanctuary: Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16
Iron Blue Intention: Part 17, Part 18
The Old Earth (cont.): Part 19
Eye of The Cosmos: Part 20, Part 21, Part 22, Part 23.
 

Tough is just right for me to breeze through the set without feeling like I was steamrolling it (I tried Ruin and I shudder to imagine Fall Arborea being my introduction hah, bullish UV player I am). Difficulty balancing is top notch here, at least with Tough :D

 

I dunno man, I might like it even more than Paradise, and I already thought that project would be a dream career-capper for many, a culmination of your previous tinkering to make the best of Doom's arcade-y side arcade harder. Maybe it's that the fights themselves are better, with great showings from both the ol' reliables and the new guns (on both sides). It felt like playing one of those Ribbiks (his more "conventional" slaughter stuff at least) and Wilou wads at their most inviting, a niche where things are elaborate and demand attention but you just kinda felt like ramming everything at full speed anyway. Maybe it's the surprisingly effective hub structure and the candy trail of secrets tying it together: I've never been happier to find a berserk pack or a minigun, and that's not to say that sometimes you can link yourself to another part of the map from some separate world. It's somehow an addicting and stylish way to link what are disparate levels together: it keeps the actual size and length seem manageable despite the continuous nature of the arsenal, which makes it really hard for me to put the wad down as there always felt like something was happening — I was always accomplishing something, and I was accomplishing them fast. That kind of thrumming momentum is a perfect compliment to the combat style you've been practicing with Supercharge.

 

And of course they look beautiful: it's the most earnestly crafted big broad video-game-y environments, where certain popular tropes of certain gameplay-first doom maps (and some non Doom stuff) are sculpted with the utmost gravity (the guest maps are kinda their own thing imo, but of course that's the point and they are great too). This is rounded off by a bouncy, buoyant soundtrack; you can't stop while listening to those tunes really.

 

Fine job from everyone involved. Probably going to be one of my major references for Doom as a big ball of energy for years to come, and with the amount of content in here, I'll be revisiting often.

Edited November 25, 2023 by Catpho

[Tango]

the OP has been updated with RC1 at last! changelog:

 

• Cleaned up automap on all but 1 map

• Made a slew of bugfixes across the maps, mainly to prevent easily cheesing some encounters (ty @ginc!!)

• Added proper skill description to Ruin mode once unlocked (per feedback from @YoshiTheMage)

• Slightly nerfed the strength of one super secret (which so far only @TJG1289 has managed to find, it seems)

• Fixed looping on some midis (done entirely by @Phoenyx tysm!!)

I should maybe warn that I haven't had time to do a complete playthrough of the set on this version, just a lot of idclev and idclipping around to make sure nothing's broken. everything seems ok, but I'll get to a full playthrough soon to make sure it's free of showstoppers.

 

next update will be RC2, not sure when that'll be though. I have a handful of half-finished easter eggs I would like to add - just a matter of finding the time and motivation

 

=========

 

all that aside, thank you all so much for the feedback :D really can't stress enough how much I appreciate it all.

 

On 11/18/2023 at 8:43 AM, Theespressoman said:

Maybe the fix is just to allow swapping while reloading, so you're not caught with your pants down, but idk, it took a lot of the fun out of a great looking mod.

 

the reloading definitely isn't to everyone's liking, and I've gotten similar feedback in the past. I totally see where you're coming from - but I love the reloading minigame so much and the weapons are all balanced around it, so I have no plans to change it myself. appreciate you giving the mod a shot at all though!

 

 

On 11/23/2023 at 5:19 AM, YoshiTheMage said:

Since I've got nowhere better to put this I like the difficulty select map's colours and difficulty descriptions though I was a bit disappointed to see Ruin mode lacking the difficulty comparison that the other five modes have.

 

great feedback, thanks for this! I initially had more of a description for Ruin, and a wad comparison, but scrapped them for some reason? I've added it back in though, so once you unlock Ruin you can see a slightly expanded description, with a reference point too

 

 

On 11/26/2023 at 12:39 AM, Catpho said:

Belated complete playthrough (minus one portal apparently!) on Tough, Beta 1:

 

watched about half of these so far, really enjoying it :D I'm really, really glad the structure of everything resonated so much with you though. can't thank you enough for all the kind words and for the recordings ;_;