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The Quinary Conundrum - MBF21 mapset (NOW ON IDGAMES)


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Had a lot of fun playtesting this, an excellent sequel to The Lost Magic! Once again, the rate you pumped out these maps is nothing short of impressive.

 

Spoiler

I need to go back and figure out how to reach the secret exit in MAP31, I loved that it's a heavy throwback to TLM as well

 

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good seeing it played by the testers over the past few weeks. look forward to playing it sometime in the future :)

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Started my playthrough and just wanted to confirm something - do you actually get the BFG replacement in the first map of the megawad or is GZDoom spazzing out lmao

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3 hours ago, Firedust said:

Started my playthrough and just wanted to confirm something - do you actually get the BFG replacement in the first map of the megawad or is GZDoom spazzing out lmao

 

Yes, that is the new BFG

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Beat maps 1-15+31 and this has been great as expected so far. Loving the callbacks to The Lost Magic, like the tower or the dilapidated amalgam of the predecessor's city levels. Couldn't for the life of me figure out how to lower the yellow key bars. Looked at the editor, still made no sense (I did try crossing the tagged linedef by the normal exit, bars didn't lower).

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7 hours ago, Firedust said:

Couldn't for the life of me figure out how to lower the yellow key bars. Looked at the editor, still made no sense (I did try crossing the tagged linedef by the normal exit, bars didn't lower).

 

Spoiler

Vortale or someone else can correct me if I'm wrong but to access the secret exit, a yellow key is necessary to lower the bars, and to acquire the key you have to stay silent throughout until you take the teleport out of the flesh pit fight and pick up the key that should be accessible then, so never shoot a bullet until then. I took this from watching Vile's stream of the wad. 

 

----

 

I'll take this chance to mention I finnished the wad (great fun everything btw!) and report two super minor things:

 

Spoiler

22

- In the final area, before jumping to the RSK I noticed some of the invisible pillars that hold the crystals were HOMing from my viewpoint. This is in software renderer.

 

30

- There was a noticeable HOM over there although that's if you're inclined to explore behind the tallest piles of crates

 

- This is more of a suggestion: I liked the edits to the SMM, which if I noticed correctly were hitbox reduction, wielding BFG, no infight between each other (but still vulnerable to friendly fire) and quick switching targets like archviles do if hit. I want to suggest you elevate it even more, by reducing its pain chance (and/or reducing reaction time to 10 tics or so). I found that it's consistently easy to neuter them completely with the crossbow, since at close range the three projectiles always stun it, so they stand no chance at all. That's about it.

 

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15 minutes ago, galileo31dos01 said:

 

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Vortale or someone else can correct me if I'm wrong but to access the secret exit, a yellow key is necessary to lower the bars, and to acquire the key you have to stay silent throughout until you take the teleport out of the flesh pit fight and pick up the key that should be accessible then, so never shoot a bullet until then. I took this from watching Vile's stream of the wad. 

 

Well shit lol

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Alright, just wrapped this up. Once again, a stellar job! Can't believe you finished another megawad in only a month. Very impressive variety of settings this time around too. Hopefully, a sequel next year? ;)

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Great mapset, the verity between episodes really adds to the spice!

As soon as the topic of Cacowards 2024 is open, this will get mention from me!

On 12/11/2023 at 7:02 AM, deathz0r said:

 

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I need to go back and figure out how to reach the secret exit in MAP31, I loved that it's a heavy throwback to TLM as well

 

Spoiler

After teleporting away from the pit with the big fight, look for a wall that can be opened, and there in the opposite to the caged yellow keycard, you would see a hint.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Finally got around to playing this, and really enjoyed it! I like how the pistol and chaingun are replaced with plasma versions, effectively making the chaingun the plasma rifle, thus making a lot of the combat plasma focused. The bow that replaces the plasma rifle did take some time to figure out how to use effectively, but it's a cool weapon. The maps are pretty fast paced and fun. I really like some of the homages to The Lost Magic, like map 31. The 6 episodes having different settings is a nice choice, and I especially liked how the final episode approached it. Good stuff here!

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I've finished the wad , the only part I've found difficult for me even on ITYTD was 

Spoiler

The green arena on Map 29 , maybe I didn't find the secrets so was even more difficult or didn't understand the trick to complete it. At the end I've IDDQD'd 😅

Still an impressive wad  , good job 

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  • 2 months later...
Posted (edited)

Finally got off my backside and got the idgames link posted. Decided to jump straight from RC1 to final release as it was sort of getting there anyway and collecting feedback over the months has helped refine certain troubling spots. All major changes are in the changelog if you want to look. Apologies for taking so long to get this properly finished though.

 

Once again, thanks to those who played it already! I'm not sure what the future will bring, but I've got something cooking in the oven! I'm going to leave with a few final thoughts on this set that you can skip.

 

Spoiler

I personally consider this project a bit of a failure.

 

Now, I don't think it's 'bad', but it didn't achieve it's goal. A lot of the feedback I'd gotten had been very negative, either towards the latter half or the entire project as a whole, and the negative feedback has mostly been from it's target audience. Much like TLM, TQC was meant to be accessible, "fat-free", light hearted Doom action, yet I decided to go a bit more experimental and it may have bit me in the ass. Of course, there are some that consider this better than TLM, perhaps some of the best shit I've made, but admit that it could've been better if I had continued to work on it passed the NaNoWADMo deadline. Unfortunately, I'm a hardass and I like to stick to challenges as close as I can, only really modifying things that are truly egregious.

 

It also didn't help that unlike TLM, development was riddled with issues across the board. From Doombuilder deleting hours of progress, an illness and even a bit of a physical impairment, to mappers block coming in hard around episode 4 (which, funnily enough, seems to be the standout episode of the bunch). Furthermore, the incentives caused me to force myself to see it done, without breaks, as I'd feel like a right PoS for letting people down. It was a true mental struggle this time and I can't look at this without thinking of what could've been if I hadn't dialed my stress levels to 11 for a Doom mapset of all things.

 

Would I do a redux of this in the future though? Probably not. The reason I'm a hardass is that I like the final product being the culmination of the restrictions, the experimentation and the problems that ran through it. To spend a month fixing everything up ruins the purpose of the challenge and what this mapset is supposed to be in the end. Sequels can fumble, especially when expectations are higher, and while this was a bit of a negative experience, overall I'm glad I had it. There are lessons learned I can take into the future. If you hate the set, then that's absolutely fine, this isn't everyone's cup of tea as I get a bit wild in places. But hey, if I don't at least attempt to get wild, things will get stale. Put some pineapple on your pizza, you might find you like it in the end. Or maybe bump it down a peg.

 

And for people mad about map31's secret exit requirements and map32 itself, I slipped a disc during production, so, we'll call it even.

 

Edited by Vortale

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Posted (edited)

Regarding the final thoughts, what I always say when I run into something that's "OP" or "turbochad" or what have you, I'm like "this isn't for me" and also as you said (paraphrasing) "if we don't do lavish experiments in Doom, then what more can we really do that's not already been done?"

So for those who go for crazy platforming, or super slaughter encounters, or magnum opuses (opi?), don't dial it down because the norm is "UV pistol start;" leave the dialing for the other difficulties, or just re-iterate "hey, there's other difficulties ya know??" especially if it's truly built differently for those difficulties.

Anyway, for tldr; more experimentation, and don't worry about the naysaying. There's plenty of wads that cater to straightforward encounters to play through.

Edited by TheShep

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I really enjoyed TLM (recorded a full playthrough of it after all) and checked this one out too a bit and liked how it felt with the sci-fi elements. I'm sorry you got a lot of flak for it. I would have recorded a playthrough of this too if not for 2 reasons: 1. Starting other wads and most importantly 2. Waiting for other release candidates, bug fixes, and so on. Wished there was more interest in TQC but unfortunately it doesn't seem to be the case. I take it that with the idgames release, there isn't going to be any more work on it? That's what I understood from @Vortale's post at least.

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Posted (edited)

I thoroughly enjoyed this mapset and thought it was a great deal of fun. Great visuals, distinct themes, fun combat. All done within the span of a month. The only 'failed' aspect of this wad, based on your post, is the fact that it is indeed harder than Doom 2, so casuals won't do particularly well in certain levels here.

 

Looking forward to the next entry in the Vortaleverse!

Edited by Firedust

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Favorite wad of the year so far. Glad it doesn't go overboard and has a great narrative. MAP30 is insane.

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  • 1 month later...

been streaming this over on my Kick channel the past couple nights, and my god, this is gonna get my seal of approval, and a nomination for cacoward for this year. It is so good, and a huge step up from The Lost Magic (another banger of a wad).

This is, hands down, the most fun I've had with a wad since Eviternity 2 broke Doomworld.

Vortale, you are an absolute madlad, and I hope there is a part 3 in this series.

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