Terror Signal - 2 Episodes [MBF21]

[SeaTree]

Terror Signal is a set of 17 maps(14 normal, 2 secret, 1 epilogue) designed for MBF21. It features new enemies along with some modified weapon and enemy behavior.

TERRORSIGNAL 1.0.6.zip

 

 

-Changed Weapons-

-Pistol-
Higher damage, perfect accuracy, and faster fire rate, but must be reloaded after every 10 shots.

-Plasma Gun-
While firing, the heat gauge on the weapon will fill up. When it is full, projectiles will deal more damage along with splash damage.

-Chainsaw-
Between each attack, a second 1-damage attack will happen to increase the chances of causing an enemy's pain state.

 

-Changed Enemies-

-Baron of Hell-
He will now throw two fireballs for each attack.

-Arachnotron-
Slightly smaller colission radius in order to fit into tighter spaces.

-Spider Mastermind-
Slightly smaller colission radius along with enemies no longer retaliating against its attacks.

 

-New Enemies-
 

Spoiler

 

-Gargoyle-

Small flying enemies with low health a fast fireball attack. Easy to kill but almost always comes in swarms.

-Nightmare Zombies-

Variants of the Former Human and Sergeant that live up to their namesake. They will get back up until they are gibbed.

-Forgotten One-

A more aggressive variant of the Lost Soul. Don't stay too close when they die.

-Ghost Wizard-

The boss of Episode 1. A very powerful wizard who can only be damaged while charging up an attack. His magic is devastating.

-Mother Demon-

The Mother Demon has returned as the boss of Episode 2, with some new tricks. She can now leave walls of fire and summon Guardian Cubes that will track down the player and explode.

 

 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

CHANGELOG:

Spoiler

5-05-24

• Fix misspelled title card for map09.

 

4-25-24

• Modify the logic on the Nightmare Zombies to allow Nugget Doom's "Extra Gibbing" option to be used for non-Nightmare Zombie enemies.

 

4-24-24

• Fix a softlock on Map10
• Fix an issue where Map30 would not properly end with the player's death.
• Include DECOHACK file in the zip.

 

4-21-24

• Fix an unintended skip on Map11.

 

4-19-24

• Adjust the Baron fight in Map06 to prevent a potential softlock and prevent the player from fighting them outside of their arena.

• Fix issue on Map31 where the Spider Masterminds would not be killed on GZDoom.

• Fix issue on Map09 where the helper dogs could be instakilled after being freed if they wandered back into their spawn area.

• Increase the amount of cell ammo on Map14 on every difficulty but Ultra-Violence and Nightmare.

 

4-18-24

• Change title music to a trimmed-down version of "Descent" from Descent 2.
• Fix issue where the M_DOOM graphic would display incorrectly on DSDA-Doom in software mode.
• Fix issue in GZDoom where the Plasma Gun's projectiles would have a limit on their sounds.
• Give the shotgunners in an ambush on Map05 more space to move.
• Set blue door on Map07 to block monsters, preventing a potential softlock.
• Fix a misaligned texture in a Revenant closet on Map09.
• Fix issues in maps 09 and 12 where monsters would not be properly killed on GZDoom.
• Fix issue on Map13 where the Hell Knights would be stuck inside the floor on GZDoom.
• Fix issue on Map31 where the player would be stuck before the exit while using GZDoom.

 

Edited May 5 by SeaTree
Updated file in post.

[LadyMistDragon]

Before this sinks completely like a stone....

 

Pretty nice! It's fun to run around enemies while using the chainsaw. And the later maps start to look pretty nice!

 

 

[Large Cat]

I have a soft spot for MBF21 solo projects, so I had to try this out. I'm pleased with what I've seen so far, three maps in! I'll hold final judgements until I'm further in, but right now the combat does seem to rely heavily on archviles, as fights without them keel over immediately without trouble. That said, the surprisingly interconnected layout of the arenas is serving the combatants excellently, so we'll see if you can keep it fresh for another 13 maps.

 

The pistol reloading mechanic is neat, though I find it to be a nuisance after the novelty quickly wears off. Since I mostly use the pistol for low-pressure cleanup, the occasional reload just throws off my rhythm and prolongs the easy part of finishing off stragglers. I'm interested to see how the plasma heating plays in.

 

One oddity I noticed in the menu on DSDA. It looks like some of the menu background is misaligned, being shifted slightly up. It didn't look intentional, given how it bleeds into the title text above.

[SR388]

played it last night, but I told you before, but for others here I recommend a playthrough!, I'm only 4 maps in but I really enjoy this wad

[Napeyear]

Played on HMP and finished episode one, playing on Woof v14.0.0 in a little over an hour (including the first secret level) and I'm really impressed so far. The plasma gun and chainsaw are really fun to use with the upgrades that your WAD gives them, and I liked how many secrets you put in the levels, making it really fun to explore and backtrack, along with the interconnected level design in many of the levels, which was well done too. Combat is more on the intense side, often claustrophobic in the later levels of episode one, relying heavily on archviles in many situations. Despite this, I felt like I always had more than enough ammo to work with, and overall had a lot of fun. The new flying enemy that you use works as a good middle ground between lost soul and cacodemon, and I liked how you used them in packs to hunt the player down. Going to give episode two a playthrough whenever I get the chance, great work so far!
 

Spoiler

The new enemies that you used in the first secret level made me go WTF? This was an awesome level that was full of creative and interesting encounters, my favorite area being the wood area with the fireblu skybox. The gargoyles scared the hell out of me when they came out of the window in the bedroom area. Another area being the final fight where the barons and hell knights are 'flying' around in space, though I face rocketed more than I would like to admit..

 

 

Edited April 18 by Napeyear

[DreadWanderer]

10 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

Before this sinks completely like a stone....

 

Pretty nice! It's fun to run around enemies while using the chainsaw. And the later maps start to look pretty nice!

 

 

That's the music from Super Metroid's Lower Norfair at 14:26. Awesome.

[SeaTree]

I've put out an update that fixes some of the issues provided here and in private. Check the changelog in the OP for details.

10 hours ago, Large Cat said:

I have a soft spot for MBF21 solo projects, so I had to try this out. I'm pleased with what I've seen so far, three maps in! I'll hold final judgements until I'm further in, but right now the combat does seem to rely heavily on archviles, as fights without them keel over immediately without trouble. That said, the surprisingly interconnected layout of the arenas is serving the combatants excellently, so we'll see if you can keep it fresh for another 13 maps.

 

The pistol reloading mechanic is neat, though I find it to be a nuisance after the novelty quickly wears off. Since I mostly use the pistol for low-pressure cleanup, the occasional reload just throws off my rhythm and prolongs the easy part of finishing off stragglers. I'm interested to see how the plasma heating plays in.

 

One oddity I noticed in the menu on DSDA. It looks like some of the menu background is misaligned, being shifted slightly up. It didn't look intentional, given how it bleeds into the title text above.

Certainly not intentional, and something I first noticed in LadyMistDragon's video. It seems to only happen in software mode. I generally have my DSDA-Doom set to OpenGL, so I never saw this issue. Woof! and Nugget display it correctly so I figured it would work in DSDA as well.

 

EDIT: I've discovered that the issue is caused by part of the M_DOOM graphic being drawn off-screen.

 

6 hours ago, Napeyear said:

Spoiler

The new enemies that you used in the first secret level made me go WTF? This was an awesome level that was full of creative and interesting encounters, my favorite area being the wood area with the fireblu skybox. The gargoyles scared the hell out of me when they came out of the window in the bedroom area. Another area being the final fight where the barons and hell knights are 'flying' around in space, though I face rocketed more than I would like to admit..

 

The first secret level is a mashup of every map I've worked on prior to this project.

Spoiler

The rockets on legs and gremlins are custom enemies from Ad Mortem. As are the Gargoyles.

 

Edited April 18 by SeaTree
Mentioning update.

[Napeyear]

Got around to finishing the entirety of your WAD, and I loved it! I personally enjoyed episode two a little better, as I thought the environments were more varied, and the overall gameplay was more creative. Not to say episode one was bad or anything, I just felt it wasn't as memorable as the second save for a few instances. My favorite maps being 9, 11, 13 and 14, and I thought the epilogue was really cool too. I will replay this on UV in the near future, as I thought this WAD was super fun, and didn't really drag on at all as the levels were mostly short and moderate in length. This was one of the better WADs I've played in recent memory, and I think it has some good replay value as well, as I ended up missing many of the secrets throughout + I need to find the second secret level. Awesome work!
 

Spoiler

I didn't realize that you were supposed to die on the final level so I ran around confused trying to survive the hordes of enemies, but I thought it was a cool concept nevertheless as it gave me E1M8 vibes. Also, the final fight was well done too, and I loved the way you broke the fight down into 'phases' with the monsters teleporting in once the boss took enough damage.

 

Edited April 19 by Napeyear

[EyeBallTank]

Played it on HMP and still had some challenges.
I liked most of the maps and some of the gameplay changes.
Felt really good chainsawing Caco's and Revs.

Spoiler

But at the wizard boss fight, the mapset took a whole turn and I struggled with map 8/9 before I got most weapons back.
For some reason, I thought I heard what sounded like a sick dog at the end of map 9.
The new enemies are neat and I've had some rare moments of using Forgotten Ones against Nightmare zombies.
But the Mother Demon fight felt a bit too much: I'd have her fire trails and homing rockets be seperate attacks and maybe add cell ammo in that ammo, I dunno.

 

But overall, there's a lot to like in this mapset.
Just it having a revamped arsenal and enemy roster is what I like about these kinds of wads.

[SeaTree]

I posted another update with some more bugs that I've been made aware of. Changelog is in the OP.

[Large Cat]

Just finished the wad (I never got the updated version, so it's possible my experience doesn't fully reflect the state of the art). I love the turn the wad takes around map07, where I feel the set is properly doing its own thing and giving us something new. The first half is no slouch still, but the second half is the main feature for me. I don't want to spoil too much, so I'll try to stay vague here. For reference, I played the wad in DSDA on UV, pistol-starting each map (whether that's intended or not).

 

Earlier I made a comment about the combat being archvile-centric, which seems true in the first stretch of maps. The second half helps broaden the combat portfolio, though I still believe the gameplay is centered on the "renewable threats" this wad presents, ensuring that pressure is everlasting (and the way the new zombies function was communicated clearly, which I adored). Difficulty-wise, even on UV this wad was totally manageable by the modern standard. It typically killed me at least once in a given map, but foreknowledge made everything surmountable, and I could easily imagine playing through these levels without use of saves.

 

Spoiler

The bosses in this wad rubbed me the wrong way, but that could be a me thing. The wizard felt sluggish to fight, since I have to keep "waiting and baiting" while hoping I don't get an inopportune purple attack. The mother demon's first phase was pretty much harmless, while the second phase suddenly jumped up to feeling insane, given the combo of omnidirectional fire, rev missiles, and exploding skull cubes.

 

Secrets were abundant and satisfying across all maps. Entering the second secret level was strange, but I have at least managed to do it with help from the editor.

 

I am a fan of the explosive plasma rounds, especially when fighting cyberdemons. The heat-up mechanic gives me some reason to play more aggressively, as well as helping the plasma gun over the BFG in the cell ammo economy. The pistol's superior per-shot damage made it almost totally replace the chaingun for me, since I only use bullets in tame clean-up scenarios, so damage output over time is less of a factor than ammo efficiency. The reload feature still annoys me endlessly without actually changing how I play, but it's minor thing overall. The chainsaw upgrade was fully welcome, helping the chainsaw properly fill its stunlock role, particularly against revs and cacos.

 

I did notice what seemed to be some use of voodoo dolls to align flats. This method is troublesome in DSDA because rewinding or loading a save will undo the alignment, though I don't know whether that's worth trying to work around.

 

Excellent work on this one! Your use of MBF21 was reserved but decisive, and your map design complimented your vision nicely. I hope others can take some inspiration from what you've done (as long as the mechanic you've introduced doesn't get overused).

[TMMMS]

looks promising but when i download it i get headers error message when extracting the file and it wont run please help

[SeaTree]

10 hours ago, TMMMS said:

looks promising but when i download it i get headers error message when extracting the file and it wont run please help

Thanks for the heads-up. It would extract just fine using Explorer for me, but I hadn't tried using 7zip. I updated the file in the OP.

[Apex CHUD]

Sup. OK I've been playing this and mostly liking it, agree that the use of MBF21 features are very tasteful. Really like the upgrades to the chainsaw and plasma rifle, the pistol is good too but it does seem to usurp the chaingun's role a bit now, I don't think there's really much reason to use the latter any more given the pistol's greater damage and accuracy. I'm not so fond of the new enemies -- the gargoyles for example are fast enough that I often find them blocking my path and generally negating my mobility advantage, leading me to use degenerate and unenjoyable strategies like waiting for them to appear round corners and then pistoling them to death. The new lost souls are similar but even worse due to the explosions when they die (NB. if you use an A_AddFlags(NOGRAVITY) codepointer at the start of their death sequence they won't fall down like that); plus due to their constant charging they're usually in your face when they explode so you get to lose some health too. I'm reminded of the Spawns in Quake where the only non-annoying way to deal with them is to memorise their spawn locations and kill them as soon as they appear (given the nightmare zombies are presumably inspired by the Quack zoms this may have been deliberate?).

Thanks for making maps that don't overstay their welcome too, progression has been clear, I'm enjoying the sense if interconnectivity and the visuals have been very nice so far (I'm up to MAP10) with each level having it's own visual identity. Difficulty has ramped up satisfyingly and most importantly I'm not bored or frustrated, which frankly is a major issue these days (ask me about Eviternity lul).

Anyway normally I'd wait til I finished all the maps before spamming my 'thoughts' such as they are but I found a softlock in MAP10 (automap screenshot in spoiler):

Spoiler

this monster closet traps the player if you get caught in it (the one opposite is fine). Pls fix.

 

OK cheers I hope you enjoyed my post and if you didn't well done making it all the way to the end. Thanks for the cool WAD too.

[SeaTree]

On 4/23/2024 at 7:49 AM, Apex CHUD said:

Sup. OK I've been playing this and mostly liking it, agree that the use of MBF21 features are very tasteful. Really like the upgrades to the chainsaw and plasma rifle, the pistol is good too but it does seem to usurp the chaingun's role a bit now, I don't think there's really much reason to use the latter any more given the pistol's greater damage and accuracy. I'm not so fond of the new enemies -- the gargoyles for example are fast enough that I often find them blocking my path and generally negating my mobility advantage, leading me to use degenerate and unenjoyable strategies like waiting for them to appear round corners and then pistoling them to death. The new lost souls are similar but even worse due to the explosions when they die (NB. if you use an A_AddFlags(NOGRAVITY) codepointer at the start of their death sequence they won't fall down like that); plus due to their constant charging they're usually in your face when they explode so you get to lose some health too. I'm reminded of the Spawns in Quake where the only non-annoying way to deal with them is to memorise their spawn locations and kill them as soon as they appear (given the nightmare zombies are presumably inspired by the Quack zoms this may have been deliberate?).

Thanks for making maps that don't overstay their welcome too, progression has been clear, I'm enjoying the sense if interconnectivity and the visuals have been very nice so far (I'm up to MAP10) with each level having it's own visual identity. Difficulty has ramped up satisfyingly and most importantly I'm not bored or frustrated, which frankly is a major issue these days (ask me about Eviternity lul).

Anyway normally I'd wait til I finished all the maps before spamming my 'thoughts' such as they are but I found a softlock in MAP10 (automap screenshot in spoiler):

  Reveal hidden contents

this monster closet traps the player if you get caught in it (the one opposite is fine). Pls fix.

 

OK cheers I hope you enjoyed my post and if you didn't well done making it all the way to the end. Thanks for the cool WAD too.

Got your bug and another I was informed of. Update in the OP.

 

EDIT: And one more update in the OP.

Edited April 25 by SeaTree

[UnknDoomer]