Insanity Edged

Pieruskwurje, You makes me cry abandoning (?) Super Natural!

Playthroughts (without commentary) of map01 and map02:

I think in map01 at the 11:26 mark I got up to a part of the map where I was not supposed to be yet.

I didn't bother finishing map03 because combat got so annoying just wasn't fun for me. Looks great, though.

54 minutes ago, boris said:

I think in map01 at the 11:26 mark I got up to a part of the map where I was not supposed to be yet.

I did not think the player could get up there like that, but getting up there that early doesn't actually matter as that's the area you'd get to if you take the machine gun rather than the shotgun at the first choice. Amusing how the player just kinda rocketed up there though.

55 minutes ago, boris said:

I didn't bother finishing map03 because combat got so annoying just wasn't fun for me. Looks great, though.

I'm sad to hear that, but thank you for your honesty. While I appreciate you suggesting that the combat was only just not to your taste, I do want to try to make this as accessible to as many different players as possible and still be an enjoyable experience. I'd really appreciate if you could provide a little more info about what exactly took away from the fun so I can try to remedy that for future updates. I think there's always room to improve, so I'll take whatever feedback I can get.

42 minutes ago, Pieruskwurje said:

I'm sad to hear that, but thank you for your honesty. While I appreciate you suggesting that the combat was only just not to your taste, I do want to try to make this as accessible to as many different players as possible and still be an enjoyable experience. I'd really appreciate if you could provide a little more info about what exactly took away from the fun so I can try to remedy that for future updates. I think there's always room to improve, so I'll take whatever feedback I can get.

Arch-Viles left, right, and center. And I'm not even an AV hater. I get that they resurrecting monsters is a theme in the map.

What made me quit was the trap behind the tag 88 door (the one straight ahead from the starting position). No matter what I did I had no chance of survival. I just tried it again a bunch of times, and I was able to beat it a few times. My issue is that it feels completely random. It heavily depends on what the two AVs do. Where they move, what they resurrect, how the other monsters move, how they infight. If both of them happen to target me I'm pretty much toast. Even if I manage to break the line of sight of both it's likely that one of the other monsters gets me.

The pillars you can use as cover are pretty slim (64x64 units), and the space between them and the walls is only 96 units. With doomguy's speed, and being under pressure from multiple sides, makes it pretty hard for me to use them against the AVs; it's very easy to overshoot and not be behind cover. Maybe making the pillars bigger on lower difficulties (through ACS) might be an idea.

I'm going into that fight with about 100 health and 26 blue armor. I'm just an average player, so you can definitely attribute many fails to skill issues (I'm very good at shooting rockets into my own face). But I'm playing on HNTR, not UV or anything like that.

On 9/10/2023 at 4:16 AM, boris said:

I'm going into that fight with about 100 health and 26 blue armor. I'm just an average player, so you can definitely attribute many fails to skill issues (I'm very good at shooting rockets into my own face). But I'm playing on HNTR, not UV or anything like that.

Thanks for the detailed response and even providing suggestions for improvement, I really appreciate it.

I've decided a clever way to implement this in a way that makes the fight more interesting is that initially only the centre part of the walls lower, and then after a short 10 second delay (that changes based on skill level), the rest of the walls lower. I've also reduced the difficulty of the monsters they can revive on easier skill levels. Hopefully you'll give the new version a shot and see through to the end of MAP03.

In general, I've watched a couple of people play both live on streams and on uploaded video playthroughs and I've come to the decision to reduce the overall difficulty on the Medium and easier skill levels. I think this is overall beneficial since it helps the mod feel more inline with the difficulty of Winter's Fury and ensures that people playing on easier difficulties aren't being thrown in the deep end from the beginning. I still want to keep the spirit of the encounters and make it challenging, so it's not a dramatic change, but hopefully enough to keep players engaged without ramming their head against a wall. If I have to adjust it again later, so be it. if you're having trouble on the ultra-violence equivalent, it's a skill issue

Detailed update notes below:

I'm slowly playing through the maps, trying to get all secrets and of course the logs. I have to "cheat" by checking ACS scripts and map in the editor to figure out some of them.

After the first 3 "regular techbase" maps, the combat encounters become more sinister to me until I got my butt kicked hard by Archfaults in map05. At first I was thinking "oh nice, no need to break its LOS" and suddenly found I got swarmed by monsters. D:

On 9/9/2023 at 4:22 AM, SportsterV90 said:

Pieruskwurje, You makes me cry abandoning (?) Super Natural!

What makes you say that? Did he make an announcement about it?

Question about the hidden story-log in MAP03:

24 minutes ago, unraveler said:

Question about the hidden story-log in MAP03:

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Am I supposed to get there through the air vent, or finding the red key?

The red key doesn't seem to exist in this map, and the air vent is completely sealed on the red-door side, with no way to open it.

 

The red key in map03 is kinda tricky:

I went in expecting this to be good, but like, it physically hurts my brain how good this is.

Guess it's time to play the whole thing again and figure out what I'm missing and what happens when you get all the logs. The one in map 07 is so devious -- I found like three ways to almost get to that secret section of the map, but never quite made it there.

Really excited for whatever Part 3 is going to be, but when you say "Hopefully it won't take 10 years this time," I'm like, how would you even make something this complex in less than 10 years? Still trying to wrap my head around a lot of the environmental design and other stuff.

I actually disagree. It would've been the perfect opportunity to introduce new abilities, to show they cannot be killed.

Well... I passed a New Project from Pieruskwurje! In fact, the Creator made a good sequel to "Winter's Fury".

Yes, the gameplay is no different: The arsenal is the same, but with improved animation. But the New Monsters made me sweat (Two Azmodual so generally the toughest. Without the HP Bar, you will spend all the ammo!). The claim is only to MAP07: it lagged so much that my eyes hurt. Okay, MAP08 suffers the same, but this is because of the large accumulation of Monsters and their corpses - this is the norm. But MAP07 with a small number of enemies manages to lag like that? A little optimization is needed.

As it is, I am happy with the Project. Although for some reason it seemed to me rather boring and confusing than "Winter's Fury". Maybe because of the atmosphere?

Incredible mapset! And although it lags a little on my PC, I'm enjoying it as much as Winter's Fury. Gonna make a DoomWiki page for it as soon as I beat it.

I found a softlock on MAP03 (see pic 1). I like to check all corners for secrets. During the process, I fell behind a tall tree (see pic 2). Unfortunately, its height and the height of the adjacent wall (see pic 3) are too high to jump over.

i've been waiting 10 years for this, its gonna be a fun weekend

There was I thinking that everything in 2023 will be overshadowed by MyHouse. But everything changed when Insanity Edged attacked. 

Made a small update mainly to fix some of the potential softlocks:

I'm going to port some of the quality-of-life changes (like the menu) over to Winter's Fury too, to keep consistency.

On 9/14/2023 at 5:16 AM, Not Jabba said:

Really excited for whatever Part 3 is going to be, but when you say "Hopefully it won't take 10 years this time," I'm like, how would you even make something this complex in less than 10 years? Still trying to wrap my head around a lot of the environmental design and other stuff.

I'm really glad you had a great time playing. I, too, would like to know how other creators are able to make incredible mods in less than 10 years!

On 9/14/2023 at 5:46 PM, Blacklight said:

But the New Monsters made me sweat (Two Azmodual so generally the toughest. Without the HP Bar, you will spend all the ammo!).

I was actually talking with another person about ideas to try to make the mechanic more obvious, and somehow the idea of using a HP bar never even crossed our minds. As per the above update comments, there's now a HP bar and a bit more ammo in the room, to help guide the player in the right direction.

On 9/14/2023 at 5:46 PM, Blacklight said:

As it is, I am happy with the Project. Although for some reason it seemed to me rather boring and confusing than "Winter's Fury". Maybe because of the atmosphere?

There's at least one other character who shares your feelings.

On 9/15/2023 at 5:23 AM, Nockson said:

Incredible mapset! And although it lags a little on my PC, I'm enjoying it as much as Winter's Fury. Gonna make a DoomWiki page for it as soon as I beat it.

I found a softlock on MAP03 (see pic 1). I like to check all corners for secrets. During the process, I fell behind a tall tree (see pic 2). Unfortunately, its height and the height of the adjacent wall (see pic 3) are too high to jump over.

 

I'd feel very honoured if you would make a DoomWiki page for it! Might be worth making a cross reference between this mod and the original Insanity's Edge on DoomWiki to avoid confusion? 

Also good catch on the softlock; this is like, the 8th one of these that's been found related to trees. I feel embarrassed that they're still happening!

4 hours ago, faad3e said:

i've been waiting 10 years for this, its gonna be a fun weekend

I sincerely hope that the 10 years was worth the wait! 

Fantastic work, this mod really puts GZdoom engine (and my old-ish PC) to the limit. But TBH I got lost in both the main plot and side plot (the logs). They were already rather nebulous in Winter's Fury, but this mod feels like playing through Mulholland Dr. or Eraserhead. I suppose they would make more sense if I played WF and IE back-to-back, but what's done is done. Maybe someone will write up an explanation at Doom Wiki, similar to My House mod.

I see you've already addressed many shortcomings, but do you plan to make MAP08 more engaging somehow? I explored it for a while, but then just used IDKFA to obtain the keys...

In the meantime, I'd like to ask
 

1 hour ago, Caleb13 said:

I see you've already addressed many shortcomings, but do you plan to make MAP08 more engaging somehow? I explored it for a while, but then just used IDKFA to obtain the keys...

1 hour ago, Caleb13 said:

In the meantime, I'd like to ask
 

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1. What's needed to get the "good" ending @Archi mentioned? Press/open all red switches and doors in all maps? Find all logs? Find the... entity that wrote the logs, similar to WF? And if so, is it located in MAP08?

 

2. It feels like the last paragraphs of the logs were written by somebody else. Is that so?

 

3. Why Jacob shoots Darkness before the final fight? In self-defense? And what's that black crystal thing that rips into the floor?

 

 

Finished the mod (Sep. 6 build) and found all logs. MAP07 is a pleasant one comparing to previous two, focus more on exploration than combat, and the end is damn beautiful.

To me MAP08 is kinda a downer, especially the second half, comparing to WF it's more like map07 instead of the final map08, and the first half doesn't feel climactic either. My main complaints are 1) Some sections of keys/logs hunting are awfully dark (at least for my eyes), good thing I play with a flashlight mod. 2) The doors to different sections cannot be opened freely, need to wait the script sequence to open them.

I'll try playing again with Supercharge. I made a small patch to replace the weapons so with "keep inventory" it should work fine.

A question about the ending:

On 9/13/2023 at 9:00 AM, NovaRain said:

The red key in map03 is kinda tricky:

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When you enter the teleportation hub, don't rush toward the Tao team (causing the blast door to close). There's one guy with green armor and black shoulder pad standing outermost, kill him and he will drop the red key which you can grab during the boss fight. The rest of Tao team cannot be killed and will fire back if you shoot them.

 

This isn't working for me.

Sorry, I got it wrong.

Finally made it to

I found another softlock in Map 02, and I'm using the most recent version. Not long after the beginning, there's a room with the 1st destructible energy pillar (sorry, don't know their actual name). In the same room, there's a bridge above the player with 2 Revenants & 1 Archvile (on UV) and a switch behind them, which is blocked off by a force field at first. You're supposed to destroy the energy pillar and then get on top of the bridge. But it's possible to jump up there before deactivating the force field. After you press the switch on that bridge, walls raise around you and the force field blocks you from leaving.

At least it's early into the map and you're not supposed to jump up there, I know that.

Also, I made it through map 03 but I'm worried to continue, because I have a question...

9 hours ago, bowserknight said:

I found another softlock in Map 02, and I'm using the most recent version.

Another one! Good catch, easy fix.

9 hours ago, bowserknight said:

Also, I made it through map 03 but I'm worried to continue, because I have a question...

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EDIT: I found it. But now I'm confused about something else. After picking up the 3rd logbook and exit the red door again, the level stats are floating just before the red door. Am I missing a secret exit or something?

9 hours ago, Not Jabba said:

Finally made it to

 

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this mapset's equivalent of the beach ending. This goes in some really interesting directions. Real life, the creative process, trauma, the relationship between mapper and player, a literal narrative about soldiers fighting demons, a whole different literal narrative about someone accidentally fucking up the cosmic archives of space and time...it all kind of wraps up together and becomes one single story. I love all the hidden/obscured secondary storytelling, but especially how enormous the post-final-battle section actually is (where you just stumble through it confusedly the first time, and then learn/explore it the second time), and how even the frustration of "having to" play the whole mapset a second time builds into the narrative. It all works in a weird sort of way.

 

And to make it so this whole post isn't just spoiler tags, I've uploaded ANOTHER hotfix version to fix the above mentioned MAP02 softlock and a few more adjustments. I recently got to see a playthrough on stream by a player who isn't a complete god at the game, which helps give perspective on just how much of an ammo problem you can run into if you don't explore enough and use 4 rockets to take down a single lost soul. I think the updates I've done over the last two weeks mostly resolve the issue already, but it at least highlighted a few more places I could make life easier for those players. The damage has already been done, so I at least thank all the players who have had to suffer through the mod with the previous level of difficulty for medium and below. Your feedback is always appreciated.

More detailed changes below:

Wow! Only on the 2nd level. Very impressive as well as beautiful.

7 hours ago, Pieruskwurje said:

 

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Yes, the 5th difficulty is still the same as WF: enemy damage doubled, aggressiveness set to max, UV filter, fast monsters, and cheats disabled. I'd love to see both the Winter's Fury and Insanity Edged playthroughs!

 

If you're interested, here's the playlist of my Winter's Fury playthrough on nightmare, where I also get all the secret logbooks:

I've just beaten map 04 on UV and it looks like a nightmare to complete on, well, Nightmare difficulty. But I'll still try it once I'm a little more familiar with the maps! (I do use savestates fairly often but on these settings, you can just die in a matter of seconds, especially with the ice enemies not infighting)

Sorry for the double post, but I found another softlock, in the far South side of map 05. You can jump over the railing and get stuck on that little ledge down there. All you'd need is a small stalagmite or something to make it back up. (see 2 screenshots at the bottom)

Speaking of map 05...

I'd like to be able to use those weapons somehow to play other random map packs. Is it possible to do so?

Hey, does the universe where this mod and Winter's Fury have a name? If not what do we call it? The Pieruskwurje-verse? The Baphomet series?

17 hours ago, Doman said:

I'd like to be able to use those weapons somehow to play other random map packs. Is it possible to do so?

I threw this together in a couple of minutes. It should probably work???

On 9/21/2023 at 5:28 AM, bowserknight said:

Sorry for the double post, but I found another softlock, in the far South side of map 05. You can jump over the railing and get stuck on that little ledge down there. All you'd need is a small stalagmite or something to make it back up. (see 2 screenshots at the bottom)

This has been fixed. Ironic that this softlock was caused not by a tree, but the lack thereof.

12 hours ago, Restrained Fury said:

Hey, does the universe where this mod and Winter's Fury have a name? If not what do we call it? The Pieruskwurje-verse? The Baphomet series?

Codicil.