Swim With The Whales [Final Release]

[Ribbiks]

If anyone's willing to assist in balancing MP gameplay (either zandro or zdaemon preferably) I'd be appreciative. I don't think there are any areas where players can get locked out and break the map etc, but I'm not 100% sure. I'm currently in the process of guestimating difficulty as I add plenty of additional health/ammo/monsters for coop-UV:




For the time being I may assume if I can beat it in solo-net with a relative surplus of health/ammo it's probably fine.

Once MP is balanced and I nix the rest of the bugs people mentioned this thing will be ready for proper release. Though I guess I'm not in a big hurry if /idgames is still down for the count.

[chainsoul]

A very strange wad but good detail work

[Soundblock]

Checking this out in ZDOOM (any reason I shouldn't? - I know its labelled as Boom) and finding it tough but rewarding, after you get over the "its bloody impossible" 1st impression. Love the otherworldly dimension vibe.

Tough sell on the name though - you might have better luck pushing it if you called it "Purple Doom" or something.

Nice and tight battles, with defined solutions you have to trial and error look for the way out of, thinking on your feet while missiles whistle around your ears. Only knee deep in the 2nd level so far, but thought I'd drop a line or two about it.

EDIT: The only glitch reporting I've found for your beta are texture alignment details, like matching up the x-axis on the scrolling window-pillars in level 2's southeastern chamber, and perhaps randomising the alignments on the rocky stairsteps and pillar-centers in map 1...

[Ribbiks]

bumpity bump final release etc, yay.


DOWNLOAD [final]


- numerous bugfixes/tweaks/graphical what-have-yous
- MP difficulty implemented, sort of fun to play on -solo-net actually..
- textfile, hurray?


Unless anything truly game-breaking is found I intend for this to be the same version I upload to the archive whenever it comes back online, so it should be safe for demos, etc.

[SyntherAugustus]

I'll attempt to get a samsara survival server going for this sometime this week.

[40oz]

Ya might need a hotfix. The three archviles are stuck in map02 in that part with the row of cacodemons, hell barons and those 'bleachers' with revenants on them.

wish I could be more specific but my girlfriend doesnt have doombuilder on her craptop so I dont know the thing numbers.

ill have more comments later after I play on an easier skill :)

[Ribbiks]

ahh, excellent. I had added a 3rd AV on UV because I thought it was too easy to bum rush the caco/AVs with rockets, but I guess I didn't give them enough room, I'll fix and update the download link. thanks!


edit: download link updated! My apologies to those who had grabbed it already. Here's hoping there aren't any more bugs remaining that would eventually warrant a swtw_final.wad :p

[SyntherAugustus]

I have an hour long footage of Samsara Survival footage with MAP02 and MAP31. We only beat MAP31, but PresidentPeople got pretty far in MAP02.

Edit: Did another vid with MAP03, but only made it in 15 mins the longest. The videos should be ready on YT sometime tomorrow night.

The vids. Second vid is still processing HD I think.

[40oz]

Here's some FDA's of map02 and map03 playable with the newest version (though to be fair, I did watch some other people's demos first before trying)

Good luck to any worthy contenders! I thought I was man enough to beat it after watching most people tremble in fear and me playing really aggressively helped at times but it got me into quite a bit of trouble sometimes too. I had a lot of fun with it but I need to take breaks every once in a while from the nasty Contra-difficulty of it.

Congrats on making such difficult maps, btw. That's a skill that I'm still learning and you've nailed it. I find myself getting clipped on details a little too often in these maps, particularly the high vertex-count in the cavey areas bounce me around like pinball while I'm trying to hug the wall, and sometimes I get a little disoriented about where to go (only during high intensity/little time situations that happen a lot) when the non-blue dark muted colors come into play, but I think I could have alleviated that problem if I had played the maps on an easier skill level first. I'm more of a fan of wide open areas with a lot of freedom to move. But I understand the tight spaces with deadly monsters is part of the appeal. Also the style you've created with your wads is nothing short of magnificient and it makes me jealous :P

other notes: it's possible to bump the super shotgun in MAP02, without going up the stairs. I did it by accident in the final run before I died by a dumb judgment call trying to weave in between a burst of cyberdemon rockets. It doesn't nerf the opening battle at all, but it could be handy for speedruns :)

also you're awfully stingy with ammo in MAP03! Unless I'm missing some obvious stuff or a secret or something. I spend a good bit of time being a pacifist in that map!

[Ribbiks]

thanks for the demos and such!

For funsies here's a HMP-max of map03 in 25:50:

https://www.mediafire.com/?bu4d1ec1zba7vwq

Pretty sure UV is above my skill/patience to ever complete in one go. If nothing else though this demo could be useful for showing how to get all the secrets.

[Bytefyre]

Hello!  I just did my first casual run through Ride the Dolphins on HMP and was curious about something.  I noticed on Doomwiki's list of stats for this map that there was a BFG, but I never remembered seeing one.  Checking the map with IDDT, I found it...way outside the accessible boundaries of the map.  None of the official ten secrets had any mention of the BFG, so I'm wondering:  is there some supersecret Easter Egg in the map which allows the BFG to be obtainable, or was it meant to only be included for multiplayer?