[RC5] EVITERNITY II - RC5 Released!

[DarkQuill]

Finished the second chapter a moment ago, very enjoyable but the engine chugging is what really gets me. I feel like a lot of the maps so far try to do too much flexing with long-distance architecture, or having giant chunks of next/previous maps that can't even be accessed, let alone seen in meticulous detail. Hell, Map2 has all of Map3 in there. Some skybox projection and fake wall-sky tomfoolery can cut down on massive out-of-bounds empty space rendering while keeping the visuals looking great.

 

I am guessing some of that kind of stuff is leftover from trying to meet the self-imposed deadlines, but would love to see an eventual version that can improve framerates a little. I don't even know if Map36 will be playable for me.

[Dragonfly]

@DarkQuill If I may ask - what are your computer's specs, what port are you playing in, and what rendering mode are you using within that port?

[Cammy]

Noticeable sky error in map16

 

Spoiler

 

Also probably a bit too easy to see the sky vertically tile in the north-east area of map34 imo, but that could be difficult to fix without adding a bunch of new geometry so it's not a huge deal. In the same map, linedef 10657 is visible on the automap while the surrounding are not.

[Budoka]

Redshift was excellent, especially how the health and ammo distribution seems to consistently punish excessive camping (assuming that's on purpose because it sure felt like it). Had a lot fun figuring out how to kill every single enemy in the level and eventually succeeding.

[veevil]

Nearing the end of episode 3 and it's been a blast. I admit I'm not very familiar with the capabilities of MBF21 yet, but some of the stuff I've seen in the levels looks like straight-up magic to me. Great work all around, Eviternity team!

 

Number one favorite thus far? Absolutely Tristan's map32. Seeing the vista at the start and that kill count on the automap screen I was prepared for a whole-ass adventure, and the map didn't disappoint. Only issue was the crusty framerate I was getting on my ageing machine, but that was mostly fixed by switching over to GL and lowering the resolution a notch or two.

 

But uh, that map33.

Spoiler

Eventually managed to beat it by savescumming like crazy, but the word that comes to mind is "unreasonable". Especially since changing the skill level doesn't seem to do anything. You guys must've known it would be loved by few when you put it in, but I'd ask you to consider putting in a "I give up" switch at the start of the level to let players out without the reward if they just can't hack it.

 

[Cammy]

If Eviternity II map33: Catalyst has a million fans, then I am one of them. If Eviternity II map33: Catalyst has ten fans, then I am one of them. If Eviternity II map33: Catalyst has only one fan then that is me. If Eviternity II map33: Catalyst has no fans, then that means I am no longer on earth. If the world is against Eviternity II map33: Catalyst, then I am against the world.

[Dragonfly]

I'm putting this here in the hopes that all those looking to release the OST on our behalf might see this - no, please do NOT upload the soundtrack to YouTube or other platforms. We are not finished with it yet, and the musicians themselves will handle distribution of the music. Thanks for cooperating.

[marina2]

 

MAP24 - The ending is a real surprise. I thought that 'Big thing' was just out there for decoration. That is very good looking model.

Spoiler

Took me a while to understand I have to kill one Cyberdemon to get to the teleport. I love the button to fire ship cannons and the hole they made.

 

Playing MAP26 right now.......this map is,eh, an interesting challenge.

 

[fabian]

MAP01 This tree sprite occasionally bleeds through the stone texture:

[Shawn]

I just finished the first few maps and the first secret map. The black rain, the leaves floating with the wind, the imposing architecture. I can't wait to experience the rest of the wad. I can see all the work that went into it, and it pays. Combat is fun, music is delightful and the maps layout feels logical. This is amazing. Thank you for this awesome work of art.

[Denzel20]

Omg

[Dragonfly]

1 hour ago, veevil said:

"I give up" switch at the start of the level to let players out without the reward if they just can't hack it.

 

IDCLEV15 will have the same effect in this case, since you pistol start MAP33. I will note that Bauul went to extra lengths to ensure the conveyor is slower on lower difficulties, and the explosions that chase you are either slower or not there at all on lower difficulties. :)

 

We knew it'd be polarising, yes, but to say "loved by few" is a reach when it seems to be one of the more commonly complimented maps (from what I've seen of various Twitch streams at least! 😅

Edited December 12, 2023 by Dragonfly

[Bauul]

1 hour ago, veevil said:

Especially since changing the skill level doesn't seem to do anything

 

Dragonfly beat me to it, but I can confirm Map33 does have difficulty settings:

Spoiler

• Lower difficulties reduce the speed of the conveyor belt, giving you significantly more time to dodge the obstacles
• HMP adds a 10 second delay to the wall of flame behind you (which is a lot in practice) and HNTR removes it entirely, so if you want to you can hold Backwards the whole time and do the entire level at snails' pace.

 

 

And as it's a forced pistol start, you can start a new game at your desired difficulty and IDCLEV33 without losing anything.  So you have plenty of options.

[veevil]

See, I knew I missed something! Shows me to open my big mouth.

 

I'm a bit surprised it's so widely loved, considering stuff I feel is similar like good old Run From It from Scythe... isn't. Doom streamers probably skew towards just being better at the game than a random bozo like me, and I will grant you that the concept of the map is very cool.

 

The IDCLEV point is fair, but I will note that using cheats to get out of a level feels bad, at least for me. I've seen the "I give up" switch (with those exact words printed above) in these kinds of "we know it'll be divisive" levels before, which is why I brought it up, but that's just me spitballing.

[Dragonfly]

You're right to bring it up! I even suggested the same during development and we all agreed "that looks a bit goofy, especially when IDCLEV achieves the same" in the end. I'm not personally writing the idea off entirely, it's @Bauul's map, so they get final say on the matter. :D

[veevil]

Just to clarify my point, because I don't think I argued it very well:

 

Even though you're right in that the "I give up" switch does kinda come off as goofy (it does break the fourth wall), I think the switch is a neat way to communicate the following to the player: "We know this level may be too hard for some players. It's okay if you can't beat this right now, just move on."

 

But then again, is that underestimating the player? Thinking that they can't figure that out themselves? What is this, game design?

 

Eehh, I'll leave it there. Back to actually playing the rest of the maps!

[taviow]

MAP33

 

 

Personally I think that if the main factor is that cheating "feels bad", maybe pressing a give up switch does as well. :P
Though I'm honestly also not against it either way.

One suggestion for lower skill levels would be to --8 the kill floors.

 

EDIT: giving it some further thought, I'm actually against the give up exit, for the following reason:

Spoiler

Although I'm NOT a speedrunner or even skilled player, I assume this map could be very appealing to run. Adding an exit at the start would trivialize the UV Speed category, because if the quickest exit you can reach is right in front of you, then there's no reason to actually play the map.

 

One idea I had about that is adding a secret right at the exit so at least the UV Max category would require fully completing the challenge. But otherwise I think that this is an interesting and special map that shouldn't be gutted like that.

Edited December 12, 2023 by taviow

[Devalaous]

Doom 64's Hectic had a 'I give up' exit, so I think its fine.

 

Also in unrelated things, I like how the wad has some widescreen stuff out of the box

[klif]

I AM SHOCK

[TasAcri]

On 12/10/2023 at 6:04 AM, Hebonky said:

you'll see.

You are saying i shouldn't use the smooth weapons mod?

 

That's the only mod i ever use btw.

[Hebonky]

2 minutes ago, TasAcri said:

You are saying i shouldn't use the smooth weapons mod?

 

That's the only mod i ever use btw.

Yeah don't, because spoilery reasons of course.

[TasAcri]

4 minutes ago, Hebonky said:

Yeah don't, because spoilery reasons of course.

 

Could you pm it for me? I don't mind the spoiler, i need to know if its worth it playing without the smooth mod. I don't mind the different pistol model either. Playing with the default original sprite animations is an eye sore for me after all these years of smoother animations.

[DarkQuill]

10 hours ago, Dragonfly said:

@DarkQuill If I may ask - what are your computer's specs, what port are you playing in, and what rendering mode are you using within that port?

1080TI GPU, i7-4790K CPU, 16GB onboard RAM, Win10 64x. For a frame of reference, this can run stuff like Cyberpunk on max settings.

 

Running on GZDoom 4.11.3, using Hardware Render mode, where changing this doesn't have any performance differences. I did notice I was running the Video Settings on OpenGL rather than Vulkan, and after switching to Vulkan I am getting a significant improvement, with only an extremely minor dip every now and then rather than constantly.

 

The opening to Map36 is still pretty chuggy but is no longer a slideshow, but given the size of the playable map this is not unexpected, and comfortably returns to 60+FPS once inside an interior. Happy with the way it's running now, thanks for the prompt to double-check. Even if Map36 is the only one that suffers for me, having the rest of the wad running smoothly far outweighs some hiccups on one colossal map.

 

 

 

 

 

42 minutes ago, TasAcri said:

You are saying i shouldn't use the smooth weapons mod?

 

That's the only mod i ever use btw.

If you are wanting to use a smooth weapon mod but still want the default weapons without any monster changes, you can use any version of FinalDoomer with the Doom2 weapon set, and then use this ugly patch I made to correct any weapon replacement mod mistakes. (being vague on purpose to avoid spoilers) Please be aware it only works with the Doom2 weapon set because I am very lazy.

Load order would be FinalDoomer, Eviternitry2, and then the patch.

Edited December 12, 2023 by DarkQuill
Context

[hawkwind]

Map 07 RC2 Softlock plus

 

1. I got the red key at sector 1036 ( T28 ), killed all the imps in this area, but sector 1829 did not lower, trapping me. I noticed that T70 was still in its starting position, hence could not cross line 8171 to lower sector 1829.

2. Unless mistaken, there is no clue that the texture on line 8665 is a switch.

3. Related to point 1 - The monsters at sectors 1799, 1819 etc. did not teleport.

Edited December 13, 2023 by hawkwind

[DMPhobos]

22 minutes ago, hawkwind said:

1. I got the red key at sector 1036 ( T28 ), killed all the imps in this area, but sector 1829 did not lower, trapping me. I noticed that T70 was still in its starting position, hence could not cross line 8171 to lower sector 1829.

 

The trap is supposed to teleport a couple of astral arachnotrons on the platforms above and killing them is what makes sector 1829 lower, did they not teleported in?, what port are you using?

[hawkwind]

1 hour ago, DMPhobos said:

 

The trap is supposed to teleport a couple of astral arachnotrons on the platforms above and killing them is what makes sector 1829 lower, did they not teleported in?, what port are you using?

Exactly. And no, they did not teleport. Using gzdoom 4.12 pre 140. It appears that the astral arachnotrons have too wide a radius.

Edited December 13, 2023 by hawkwind

[hawkwind]

Map08 RC2

 

Tree radius issue. See pics ...

[CacoKnight]

WTF did I get myself into? MAP26 is screaming at me to throw away the computer and never touch DOOM again! Damn beautiful map but what kind of human can finish a level like that? I thought 200 monsters was insane.

Edited December 29, 2023 by CacoKnight

[akolai]

had another look through, here's some more issues. rc2 this time
eviterni3willbemadebyhackfrauds.zip
back half of the list is sparsely populated, two proper checks through an entire megawad takes more patience than i can manage

[unraveler]

16 hours ago, Dragonfly said:

I'm putting this here in the hopes that all those looking to release the OST on our behalf might see this - no, please do NOT upload the soundtrack to YouTube or other platforms. We are not finished with it yet, and the musicians themselves will handle distribution of the music. Thanks for cooperating.

Is the whole OST gonna be packed in one place? Or similar to the first Eviternity - divided by composer's Bandcamp/Spotify account?