Scorching Earth (32 Level Megawad)

[NightFright]

Ultrawide statusbar, coming in hot!
 

scorch_uwide.zip

Edited June 5 by NightFright

[Astro]

17 hours ago, morningstars10 said:

I still cannot find it, just updated, where is the launcher? The version you uploaded just now says 6/3/2024. Did you upload the wrong version? As for map 31, that's it, thanks!

The latest version should be up now. archive.org is a bitch sometimes.

[Astro]

13 hours ago, Auron said:

I finally finished the entire WAD on ultra-violent continuous. Quite an experience, well-designed maps with just enough difficulty to keep the gameplay interesting without being frustrating. Amazing work @Astro definitely a must play.

 

Thank you!!

[morningstars10]

8 hours ago, Astro said:

The latest version should be up now. archive.org is a bitch sometimes.

Finally, I can beat map 30 :). Way easier too now that killing the horde or hellknights isn't painful. I give this wad a certified (by me) 9/10 on pistol starts (plus I could have sworn some levels have ammo for weapons that are not given, but in your defense, I know sometimes they were in a secret only, plus I could be mis-remembering in other cases), and 10/10 continuous. Agree with Auron there, Definitely would be a bit less frustrating without trying to pistol start every level (lots and lots of punching and chainsawing), but I think it is super fun to have to run forward quite a ways into a level to get the weapon.

[Auron]

2 hours ago, morningstars10 said:

Agree with Auron there, Definitely would be a bit less frustrating without trying to pistol start every level (lots and lots of punching and chainsawing), but I think it is super fun to have to run forward quite a ways into a level to get the weapon.

To tell the truth, I started the WAD from pistol start until map 10 then I decided to start again continuously and the experience proved to be much more satisfying and enjoyable for me (although I have no problem playing from pistol start).

 

I particularly enjoyed looking for secrets and exploring the maps, especially map 12: Metropolis due to its large size.

Edited June 6 by Auron

[NightFright]

I'm not playing many GZDoom wads these days since I've moved on to Woof!, but this one is worth a return. Nevertheless, should you ever manage to convert this into a proper vanilla/Boom project, it wouldn't be the worst thing to happen. In any case, this one should be on everybody's playlist this year.

Edited June 7 by NightFright

[Terminus]

I've been playing this and I'm about halfway through.

The level design is really good and I love your attention to detail and sense of place. The environmental storytelling in the wad is really strong and I've been enjoying the exploration aspect of the maps.

 

I do have to mention a couple of glaring issues I've experienced that have been hindering me from enjoying this wad as I should.

 

The first is the fact this wad is not exactly pistol start friendly. I tend to pistol start megawads and the balance is all over the place in here. Some maps work okay, but for example map08 had me starving for ammo while having 440 cells for a plasma gun that doesn't exist in the map. I mostly spend the time searching for weapons while all of the maps have ammo for all weapon types way before you can find them.

I realize that continuous is probably the intended play style and is the "natural" one in terms of Doom progression, but pistol start balancing has to be taken care of IMO. No map has been impossible so far, but some have been way more unfair than if I'd have continued as usual from the previous without resetting my inventory.

 

The other issue I have is with the backtracking. Most maps just have you backtrack from one side of the map to the other after picking up a key, and I noticed that you're not a fan of monsters teleporting in or monster closets in general, so the backtrack just tends to be very boring most of the time. Not as much of an issue rather than a personal opinion on how you could improve engagement in your maps.

 

The Cyberdemon fight in map32 felt very unfair with the tiny space I was given to try and tackle it. Couldn't beat it without cheating.

 

Other than that, great work and congrats on a very solid release! Hope to see more from you in the future. :)

[VanaheimRanger]

I caught covid part way through playing this in VR and it might be a while before I can put my headset back on without immediately vomitting, but here are the few levels I got to play so far:

 

[Bryan T]

This goes beyond what I would call inspired and encroaches on outright plagiarism. 

As well done as the maps are, if I wanted to play Hellbound for the 10th time, I would do just that.

I'm not sure why you wouldn't just say so in the main post. It's obviously a copy of it. It doesn't just look like it, it is it.

The maps are a bit switched around, but all the notes are there. 

I've played maps 1-20 and map31 and the the only one that is original is map31, and that one is essentially "find the switch to proceed". Eternal Doom would be proud of that one.