Hexen : Curse of the demon lord.

[kristus]

So after having this project sit on my harddrive for the longest time. I've finally accepted that I won't be finishing this. At least not in the foreseeable future. So I am now releasing the first three worlds of my wad as is.

 

I had high ambitions with this project. But due to my life changing four years ago with my work starting I ended up not getting any work done on it. Then some time later the ball got rolling on Doombringer (www.doombringer.eu) and since then Curse2 didn't really stand a chance. I just don't have the time to work on both projects, and then Curse2 is the one losing out.

 

So unless anyone else for whatever reason would like to finish it. It'll probably end up as one of those projects that just never got done. 

 

Big thanks to everyone who helped me while working on it. Especially Khorus who made the secret level and helped me playtest a lot.

 

EDIT: File is up on idstuff.
Looks like I was a bit sloppy with the text file though. Khorus isn't listed as a level designer and the name is wrong.

 

Edited June 10, 2017 by kristus

[Not Jabba]

I'm sorry to hear it, but thanks for releasing what you have. I'm looking forward to playing it!

[kristus]

Thanks. I hope you like it. Even if it's essentially just the preamble.

[Fletcher`]

It looks quite impressively good, though its even more of a puzzlehunt than hexen ever was. Also the first level was extremely difficult with the cleric, only artifacts, and no weapons. I spent 10 minutes dodging slaughtaurs and a fleet of afrits.

[kristus]

The cleric is the weakest Starting chat . which is why i död the most testning with it. 

Actually got a vid up of me playing him here.

 

As for the puzzles. Yeah I like puzzles. But I don't think there's all that much in way of puzzles. More a kin to quests.

Edited June 9, 2017 by kristus

[Alfonzo]

It's a real shame that this won't be fully realized, though understandable given the scope of the project and the attention it would have doubtless demanded vs. all your other commitments. I enjoyed playing through what little there was a couple of years ago, anyway — mesmerizing architecture and a dedicated focus on items, much like with Curse of D'Sparil. Your enthusiasm for exploring the game the way that you did Heretic really shone through, I think. Kudos.

[Ichor]

I tried it with random...came up with cleric. When they say slaughter map, they usually mean the monsters get slaughtered, not me. Over...and over....and over...

 

(10 minutes later)

 

and over again. Thankfully, I already bound a key to "resurrect" for testing other maps. The fighter can chuck those flechettes and the mage can simply plink the enemies to death, but the cleric? I've discovered that the poison doesn't actually kill the centaurs more than just stun them, and you can't smack them when they're stun locked either unlike the other enemies. Anyway, the maps themselves were good and large. I didn't have much trouble finding my way around once I covered all of the territory and thinned out the hoards. The gems were easy to find, though I didn't get all of the secrets of map 1. Once I got to map 2, I was never before so happy to see blue mana, and when I found the serpent staff...that's where the fun really started. Too bad I had to cut it short because of other real life things, so I took a quick look at map 3, which was a nice foggy map. That red teleport mist at the start fights with the fog a little bit. At first, I thought it was a glitch.

[kristus]

On 2017-6-9 at 8:06 AM, Alfonzo said:

It's a real shame ... || ... really shone through, I think. Kudos.

I hope I'll get back to it eventually. But right now I feel like it's been lingering for long enough to warrant a release of what is there. It's a big defeat for me. But hopefully there will be some enjoyment to be had out of it from people who may have hoped to see it released.

 

Thank you. I'm glad that shone through. Like I said, I haven't given up entirely on it. Though making the maps themselves isn't the most time consuming process. It's all the testing I do on my maps. Like Curse of D'sparil's first map took about a weekend to build. But 4-5 months of playtesting. But if I start working on maps just to finish them. Then I will get very sloppy and quality will suffer for it. (An example of that is for instance Phobia: The age.)

 

10 hours ago, Ichor said:

I tried it with random... || ... I thought it was a glitch.

The Cleric is definitely the more difficult starting character. You'll have to be smart with how you use the flechettes. The Mage's timebombs for instance is a lot easier to use. But with proper positioning and comboing the cleric flechette with the disc of repulsion you can use them very efficiently.

 

I'm aware people will be put off by the first map. But I felt that it was necessary to "educate" players in using the items more efficiently. And I didn't want to have a long tutorial section. So instead it was to make sure people had to use the items to succeed.

[Alter]

Or, turn the big defeat into a victory, because you had the balls to say stop and release what you had, in the name of people having fun with it. I did the same earlier this year with Ever Shrine, which was actually 3 best maps from a 32-map megawad I scrapped. Anywho i'll give this a shot when I have time because I loved Curse of D'sparil :D

[Fletcher`]

I was more put off by the second map Asphodeus. So very little health and ammo when you need it in the map, and that end fight. I spent most of the entire map with 3 health and no way to fix it. Do you know how difficult it is to try and siphon health off certain enemies with the serpent staff? And that end fight? I was killed by the earthquake as it flung me into a wall. This was a long, arduous slog on medium difficulty through beautiful architecture. The maps are absolutely massive by hexen standards and I was constantly lost. I spent 20 minutes trying to figure out where the hell the swamp key was (spoilers: its in a corner behind some shrubbery.) I would have gotten a chuckle from the secret area if it had given me more than just a switch that does nothing but quote monty python. I had to stop by Tartarus because by this point I was no longer having fun.

 

Edit: Just to add something else:
I totally understand why you put so much emphasis on artifact usage--but therein lies the problem. By themselves they are a pain to use. Hexen doesn't give you a lot of offensive options outside of the flechette, and a disc of repulsion doesn't swat projectiles away very effectively. You're better off just dodging than blasting a shot away. Dark servants can be used as decoys but they're less powerful against large groups (or the burrowing serpents). Yes, I'm aware that blasting flechette clouds can rapidly kill enemies, but should you require players to rely on an exploit that not all ports may adhere to?

Edited June 14, 2017 by rf`

[Gez]

So in the last map of Tartaros, how do you get the key to get to the second part of the map? Even with the boots of speed, there's no way to cross all four crushers before they close down, and there's not enough room to wait between two. I figure the only way is to quaff quartz flasks frantically while you wait for the crusher to open back up, or to have saved an icon of the defender just for that.

 

Same map, the teleporters between both halves of the map are not repeatable. Oops. Granted there's normally no reason to go back and forth between both halves, but anyway you can, and if you do you can get stuck on the first part.

 

Finally there's a typo in CLUS3MSG; it should be "its denizens", not "it's denizens".

[kristus]

@rf` Sorry you didn't like it, but I understand your frustrations.

Had I finished it properly, it would probably had become less unforgiving as development went along. For instance @Alfonzo did a test and sent me a list of suggestions way back. But I never got around to implementing them. It wouldn't have been any massively different changes. But one difference it suggested was that you would get a more intuitive introduction to the first map. So it's possible that you still wouldn't have enjoyed yourself. 

 

I don't agree with your opinion of the artifacts though. I think there are a lot of meta game that you can get out of them, and for me that is a lot of fun. Also for this I made the banishment device work differently based on character. For instance, the Cleric gets the best use out of them. As he can banish to tartaros, ie killing any monster that he banishes. The Mage is a bit weaker in that regard and will banish them all to the start of the map. So he can use it aggressively and thus telefragging the enemies into eachother. While the Fighter is the weakest with them and have them just scatter across the map at predisposed points. 

 

As for the comboing of gas clouds and repulsion discs. It works in the port that it was made for and that is good enough for me. Also the discs of repulsion can be used offensively to make enemies infight, fall off ledges and just let you get out of a tricky situation or make your way to a better position.

Positioning is also very important. 

 

@Gez Actually you are supposed to run the past them and it is possible with all the chars. But I realise that it could have been easier. As it is really by the skin of your teeth now without the boots of speed. Also you have to have a running start, so you can't rub up against the first crusher and expect to make it. I introduced this earlier in the world where two sideways crushers got a timing that makes it difficult to get through without exact timing. But that area is not required to reach.

 

Hopefully I'll get around to fixing those bugs you mentioned too. 

 

 

[kristus]

Well, it's been a while and I've decided to upload the compiled resources for this project. Maybe someone will find it interesting to pick through, maybe get some use out of the resources... or maybe even finish what is here.

 

Either way, I'd be happy to hear your thoughts, or see whatever comes out of it. What was released originally didn't exactly make any waves. Which is expected considering the half finished nature of the beast. But this way you can at least get a glimpse of what I was doing.

 

http://www.doombringer.eu/files/curse2_unfinished.zip

 

EDIT: Please understand btw, when playing any of these maps. That the way I work on game play is over a long time and usually starting from an absurdly hard point, and then playtesting it and adjusting it over a very long time. So, game play will be rough. 

Edited April 2, 2018 by kristus

[brick]

Sorry to revive a thread from so many years ago, but I only just realized that there were 2 files released for this, the idgames release, and also extra resources as curse2_unfinished.zip. Unfortunately the link in this last post is dead. @kristus if you still have the file do you mind reuploading it? If you no longer have it but don't mind it being shared, I can ask in the lost wads thread if someone still has it, would you be ok with that?

[kristus]

Sorry for the late reply @brick

 

Here's a dropbox link to the file. If you want to share it somewhere else, that would be fine by me. https://www.dropbox.com/s/292cemu1tkiypsl/curse2_unfinished.zip?dl=0

Edited October 13, 2022 by kristus

[NaliSeed]

I like the fact that there are secret areas with their respective counter, the one thing Hexen unfortunately never had, and neither did Hexen II. But it's a slaughter map, and boy, do I dislike those. I just don't understand why this stuff appeals to so many people, it gets boring and repetitive and often frustrating dealing with shitloads of monsters everywhere. I don't recall the old Doom-engine games being like this, least of all Hexen; there were never hundreds of enemies to deal with in a single map, so why is this stuff so prevalent?

[kristus]

On 10/13/2022 at 10:15 PM, NaliSeed said:

I like 

Considering you said "it's a slaugter map" as in singular, I am assuming (though I may be wrong) that you only played the first of the lot If I am mistaken, I apologise for jumping to conclusions. 

 

Reason for that map in particular was to force the player to experiment with the artifacts. The reason I end up making more slaugtherish maps  in general is that the compat puzzles appeal to me in creating them. Now I rarely find the time or space to play other people's maps. So I do question this conviction when it isn't my own map being played. It may just be so that I am blinded by my own creation.

That being said. there are skill levels, and anyone going in to any of my projects would do well to start on the easier skill levels. Should you still not enjoy your time.  I hope you didn't feel your time was wasted. 

Edited January 29, 2023 by kristus