cannonball Posted October 26, 2023 (edited) Almistice (obvious pun intended) is a ten map vanilla episode that tries to celebrate the influence of one of the greatest mappers of the 00s. The wad was started during a period of uncertainty before the Rusty Drill project was created. As such I vowed to finish this off to 10 maps (2 sets of 5 maps each culminating in a death exit on the final map of the set, the first five are space base and the second five take a darker/gothic theme, think a weird cult group with access to tech theme, crudely like Europa3.wad). I will refrain from stating this is fully vanilla purely because I don't have a huge amount of confidence in regards to getting the dehacked right (The maps themselves are fine).The maps start out easy but escalate beyond the half way point, only one map has a three figure kill count and in that one the monsters tend to be dispatched fairly swiftly. Download - https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cedvz4tiuq3t3x0hdksus/AlmisticeRC1.zip?rlkey=5vnp9melc79yauk2gv7ucvf9w&dl=0 Screenshots Spoiler Changes; Knife (credit - aeea7835 (Also used in Ray Mohawk)) - Quite simply makes the melee a little more useful, especially with the berzerk (Which shouldn't be hard to find in most maps) Hellknight - Replaced by the dark imp (Credit - Carnevil) - Lower health, but quicker and sturdier than a normal imp. Spoiler Evil Marine (Credit Espi) - Don't worry these appear in only one map and honestly it should be obvious which one it is - the health is reduced but you will need to be cat-like for a while. The pistol, shotgun and chaingun also have a bit of a speed increase to make them a little more useful. Other credits Esselfortium for the extra textures used (Taken from 32in24-15tex) Maplist Map01 - Transporter (Midi - Prism by Stewboy) Map02 - Launchpad (Midi - Cybernetic by Psyrus) Map03 - Cavedwellers (Midi - Patterns by Psyrus) Map04 - Ambergris (Midi - Corner Club by Stewboy) Map05 - Come Undone (Midi - Basement by Stewboy) Map06 - Run From Evil (Midi - Arrhyhmia by James Paddock) Map07 - Firefighter (Midi - Don't Stop bleeding by Lippeth) Map08 - Occultism (Midi - Terro Firma by Lippeth) Map09 - Granite (Midi - Plummeting by Bucket) Map10 - Lords of the Night (Midi - Heartbeat by Stewboy) Map11 - [Still to be made] I hope people enjoy this, the only testing was by yours truly, though this was meant to be more casual than my other releases. Edited October 26, 2023 by cannonball : You would think that someone with a scientific background could use brackets correctly - alas 55 Share this post Link to post
plums Posted October 26, 2023 (edited) Wow, you've been a busy guy lately! Will give it a shot when I can. 1 Share this post Link to post
taviow Posted October 26, 2023 Oh shit! This looks great, I'll give it a try for sure. 1 Share this post Link to post
Biodegradable Posted October 26, 2023 Another one to add to my to-do list. You're spoiling us lately, Cannon mate. ;^) 1 Share this post Link to post
Cutman 999 Posted October 27, 2023 Boy the psyrus_ midis. I love that man's work, let's start using them in more doom projects! 1 Share this post Link to post
Matt Eldrydge Posted October 27, 2023 Played through maybe half of map 01 just now, I can definitely see the Alm influence! I've never actually played either of the Scythes and only gave X a little look, but I think you nailed the vibe. Here's hoping it doesn't go full Death on me towards the end, relying on the zerked melee in the first map made me realize I gotta practice some more. :P Will definitely be playing through this in full when I have more time, keep up the good work! 1 Share this post Link to post
S3M_XM Posted October 27, 2023 Played on Chocolate Doom up through MAP09, and so far I haven't experienced any crashes up through MAP09, which I had to stop due to a softlock on HMP. MAP08 If playing on Chocolate Doom, loading from after the blue skull key door and before the exit causes the Archviles not to be awake. Which might be a Chocolate Doom thing. MAP09 The teleporter where the Archvile was (Linedef 787) doesn't work on HNTR & HMP. 1 Share this post Link to post
cannonball Posted October 27, 2023 3 hours ago, S3M_XM said: Played on Chocolate Doom up through MAP09, and so far I haven't experienced any crashes up through MAP09, which I had to stop due to a softlock on HMP. MAP08 If playing on Chocolate Doom, loading from after the blue skull key door and before the exit causes the Archviles not to be awake. Which might be a Chocolate Doom thing. MAP09 The teleporter where the Archvile was (Linedef 787) doesn't work on HNTR & HMP. Sorry about that, here is a hotfix for the map09 issue. It must have got caught up whilst I was editing the rest of the area for difficulty settings. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/3naen6fedp3cku7ahf1ba/AlmRC1.1.zip?rlkey=4m7mvw9mfonk2yczf8cid6lj7&dl=0 0 Share this post Link to post
DoomBerry Posted October 27, 2023 Played in gzdoom (latest) on complevel 9, no issues so far and I'm up to map07 Map06 was so much fun! 1 Share this post Link to post
dmh094 Posted October 27, 2023 Hello! just played maps 1 and 2 and recorded them! just posted map 1, map 2 will be up shortly. Great work so far. Really good flow to these maps. Like the monster encounters. They are both engaging and challenging at the same time, making you think about how your going to deal with them. Inventive secrets as well. Really liked that aspect of the maps. Keep up the good work! 8/10 Played with DSDA 1 Share this post Link to post
Matt Eldrydge Posted October 27, 2023 Found what I assume is a slight oversight in map 04's rocket launcher secret, you can grab one rocket and the RL itself if you nudge up against the wall in just the right way: Spoiler This in the pre-hotfix version by the way, so I'm not sure it got adjusted yet. I used DSDA-Doom, for reference. Just got to map 08 and I don't think I've ever respected berserk more. Really good maps, perfect for playing in short bursts. 1 Share this post Link to post
Roofi Posted October 27, 2023 (edited) Hello, Currently playing this episode on Doom2.exe, I'm at map 05 and everything runs fine. Map 03 is currently my favourite for now. Almistice looks like a fusion between Alm's unfinished "Scythe X" and his underrated masterpiece "One Bloody Night" thanks to the nocturnal theme and the fact that maps are more substantial than the first Scythe 1 without compromising the vanilla-compatibility. The overpowered knife gives me "Ray Mohawk" vibes but I have to admit that it seemed a little out of place in relation to "Erik Alm's universe" to me but it definitely make the berserk pack more valuable. Here are the videos of the first 4 maps for now , in spoilers : Spoiler 1 Share this post Link to post
Egg Boy Posted October 27, 2023 19 hours ago, cannonball said: Almistice (obvious pun intended) is a ten map vanilla episode that tries to celebrate the influence of one of the greatest mappers of the 00s. Say no more. 1 Share this post Link to post
natashanightmare Posted October 27, 2023 Good timing since i just started playing Scythe, playing this later for sure 1 Share this post Link to post
S3M_XM Posted October 28, 2023 I've just finished MAP09 and MAP10 and thank you for the hotfix. All the maps on Chocolate Doom work perfectly normal and including the savegame limit as well. 1 Share this post Link to post
Roofi Posted October 28, 2023 (edited) And I finished Almistice, all the videos of map 05 to map 10 are available in the spoilers. The good new is that I noticed very few minors glitches during my playthrough. I noticed some tutti-fruttis here and there but that's all. All maps are polished and competently built. Well done ! In map 06, check at 2:08 in the video, there's a tutti-frutti on the crusher near the beginning. In map 07, check at 3:07 in the video, you'll notice the tutti-fruttis appearing on some steps. Now the bad new is after playing the remaining maps, the first four ones still rankl as my favourites. I have to be honest and say that I have mixed feelings about the remaining maps. I think the main factor lies in the visuals, which although very clean and modern, turn out to be really monotonous due to overall blackness and darkness. Of course, I'm not forgetting the variations created by the orange lights, for example, but I'd perhaps have preferred different themes that were a little more pronounced. Now here's a brief review of each map : Map 05 : An ok one. It's the first where combats start to be spicy. Watching the barons being crushed is quite satisfying but nothing really special beside that. Map 06 : My least favourite one. I just simply hate those marines haha, even the nerfed ones. However, it's a great relief to see them only once, and the short duration of the map makes it bearable. Seems like a more hardcore version of Mr X. Map 07 : I was really disoriented at the beginning, but I eventually appreciated the sand-boxy progression. The last combat involving dehacked imps and SMM was pretty inventive and explosive. Map 08 : Not fond of that one. The combination of dark exteriors, few ammo and monsters shooting from all sides didn't really work for me. I like the small chapel though. Map 09 : That one kicked my ass several times but in the end, it was particularly engaging. The lava arena in order to get the yellow key was my favourite part of the map. Map 10 : Maybe this map makes a creative reuse of turrets cyberdemons but it was not really my jam. Perhaps I was expecting less calibrated traps for a tribute to Erik Alm. Congrats on the release and wish you the best luck on your future projects. Spoiler Edited October 28, 2023 by Roofi 1 Share this post Link to post
dmh094 Posted October 31, 2023 Okay so here is my run of map 3! Pretty good map! bit of a lacking of ammo, but I guess I'm playing on Ultra-Violence difficulty so there is bound to be something that makes it a bit hard in there. I only have one complaint about this map. The secret. It was an absolutes pain in the butt to find. I suggest making it a bit easier? Maybe changing the texture up for the button? Not sure. But I was running around for a good 5 minutes trying to look for the thing. Apart from that, aesthetics are excellent, encounters are fun. Overall, I'm looking forward to playing map 4. Keep up the good work! Played with DSDA 0 Share this post Link to post
dmh094 Posted November 6, 2023 Map 4 was a hard one. Lots of deaths in this run. The lack of ammo really threw me through a loop. Apart from that, great job for the 4th time in a row! Although I cant imagine the remaining maps getting any easier :P keep up the good work! 0 Share this post Link to post
Firedust Posted January 3 Are there still plans for map 11? Just wondering if I'm better off waiting or not :) 0 Share this post Link to post
cannonball Posted January 4 On 1/3/2024 at 12:39 PM, Firedust said: Are there still plans for map 11? Just wondering if I'm better off waiting or not :) Well I have made a start on Map11.... Just been distracted in terms of doing other project work, for the record I have also made fixes to some maps and made the second sub-episode a little more varied in terms of visuals. 6 Share this post Link to post