The Slaughter Spectrum - RC1 Release

                                                            

So after releasing a 13 hour speed map (JOM 6) and making a 1k line limited vanilla map (1K lines CP) I am finally releasing some maps of my own. As you may or may not have heard my maps for Refracted Reality are no longer wanted in the project so I have bundled them up and am releasing them under the name The Slaughter Spectrum. Four playable maps along with what was designed to be the hub map for RR.
Map playstyle is generally light to moderate level slaughter (it has been compared to Rush by some of the testers) with one map being an ... experiment in portal gameplay. Thanks to Nirvana, Major Arlene, Nevanos, Liberation, Killer 5, Galileo31dos01, Terminus, Kyle2959, Cyano Blugron, Simpletonium, No Reason, General Roasterock and Elend for helping me test these maps. They would be ... less good without all your input. If I've missed anyone many apologies, let me know and will amend the list.

Thanks to the Refracted Reality team for letting the resources be used for this mapset. These maps were made for that project and the aesthetic concepts are inspired by that project and wouldn't exist without it. Everyone should give that Refracted Reality a play through when it released.

 

Special thanks to:

Cyano Blugron for helping with Where Dragons Dwell, extensive testing, ideas sounding board, and being a generally awesome human. These maps wouldn't be what they are today with out you.
Clay for sexy af models and decals (the saviour of fps) and generally letting me chew your ear off.

Major Arlene for support, encouragement and keeping me going through some tough spots.

 

These maps are pretty resource intensive. If you can only run the vintage GZDoom it is unlikely that you will be able to run these maps very well. I get a minimum of 60 fps and the dedicated test team generally came back with no issues performance wise. If there is enough demand I may do a version for people with lower end rigs but these are designed to push the limits of the port to a degree. GZDoom 4.1.1 or higher is recommended although a lot of early testing was done on 3.7.2. If you are having issues make sure you check your version (one of the testers was unknowingly using 3.3.2. Funnily enough they struggled at first).

 

Download Link

*** Hotfix update: New Title screen and MDoom by Insane Gazebo added. Gzdoom startup now correctly says The Slaughter Spectrum ***
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1fYch1zOxEy-VdnBB0qN2P7rt-Wyk-uCy

 

Map 01: The Palace of the Black Singularity
Relatively easy and free flowing map that goes out with a bang. Some trickery included. This was the first map I made for this and was originally almost twice the size (130k linedefs at it's fattest). However GZdoom loading times were abysmal even on powerful rigs so a chunk was removed and stowed away for a rainy day (Some of you will remember the infamous jellyfish room). This map has some of my favourite light sequences to date.

 

Map 02: Crimson Chaos
This map was heavily planned on paper before a line was drawn on GZDB and is largely the same as what the original layout was. However you could hold the entire map within your steely gaze when the first map draft was completed (not good for fps). The map was then chopped up into 3 pieces and linked with line portals to create the effect of a winding journey while being actually playable (credit to Cyano for that idea). This map uses more portal trickery during combat with a fair degree of success. Portals have inbuilt issues (sound clipping, dumb AI) but I'm calling it a success

 

Map 03: Where Dragons Dwell

This map was originally meant to be made by someone else who could no longer participate and at the time there was a looming deadline. So Cyano and I decided to collab on a map and the idea was a shortish, but heavy slaughter map (I used Sunlust map 18 as a reference). Cyano started the ball rolling and I took it across the finish line. The result is a very punchy map that I believe is the best of the set. Lessons learned from POTBS and CC made for a better initial design and having Cyano's input made for a different perspective leading to a higher quality map. The final area was heavily inspired by Amid Evil and yes it's named after a Gojira Song \m/

Map 04: Void Noir

So this is where things get a bit different. A seed of an idea from Cyano that I then went a bit crazy with. This was also a map meant to be made by someone else with even less time to make a replacement so I went with a very short but highly experimental concept map that deeply explores how line portals can be used to build non euclidean geometry and be specifically built around in combat situations, not just as another monster dispenser. By far and away the most polarising map in the set. People either think it is a fantastic idea and want to see more or they absolutely hate it. Fortunately for those who hate it, it is really short. Oozing atmosphere and genuinely eerie I really enjoyed making this one and listening to people test it in voice chat was greatly satisfying ;p

 

Map 05: The Infinite Void
This was designed to be the hub map for RR. I can't really do anything with it so I'm chucking it here as a 'bonus' map. No combat, nothing to do, not finished (optimisation in particular). It is a rather striking map and contains one hell of a floor flat changing script (probably easier done with shaders but ACS for the win). Jokingly referred to as "The Spirograph Map" I did things here that would never be practical in a combat map but being a hub various artistic ideas could be explored. The centre of the map was to be the boss arena for the end of RR.
 

 

To do list/known bugs:

- The pk3 has been hastily put together from the original RR pk3. Unused textures/assets need to be cleaned out and some startup errors appear (but don't appear to affect the maps), change log needs to be updated to reflect these maps etc. Shouldn't be anything that has an effect on playing the maps but this will be done for the final release to idgames.

- MDOOM screen is most likely a placeholder and will be sharpened up. Startup screen needed.
- Potentially change the invuln palette to something less retina scorching

- Various minor portal glitches (sprite flicker etc) but as far as I know these are unavoidable. If anyone sees something and they know a fix hit me up ;p
- Void noir gets very performance heavy in the last are due to hall of mirror effects created by multiple portals in the same area. I'm considering lowering the amount of portals in the area to improve performance but the dedicated test team didn't flag it as an issue. If it gets pinged as an issue during RC1 I will alter the layout for RC2.

- Possibly too much health in some areas. I'm usually pretty generous with resources

- Change scripts triggered by weapon pick ups to line triggers for mod/continuous play compatibility 

 

Hopefully no major fuckups! I've done some very minor bug fixes today and triple checked the pk3 runs properly. Always a chance I've done something stupid and messed something up. If I have please let me know as soon as possible and I'll fix and update the link.

 

 

Edited November 21, 2019 by Bridgeburner56

Thanks everyone for the kind words, it was nice to wake up to. And a pleasing lack of "ugh your pk3 doesn't work". One thing that has popped up is that the levels will break with weapon replacement mods due to some weapon pick ups being linked to actions. I will go through and add in line actions to fix this for rc2 because this can potentially cause an issue for people who play continuous. If you do play continuous please make sure you pick up every gun. This should ensure you don't get stuck anywhere. 

 

Also big thanks to insane gazebo for taking the time to make me this sexy mdoom screen which will be added post haste

 

@tempdecal.wad there is a berserk in the first area and enough ammo to kill everything if you are careful. Difficulty settings have also been implemented and tested so if its a bit tough you can try hmp. Hope you enjoy it though.