Old Still Life .wad

[Rednov]

On 8/2/2023 at 2:56 AM, taviow said:

@Rednov will you upload this to idgames? This is an excellent wad that needs more attention. I've been playing this recently and certainly been impressed with the maps. Congratulations on this release and I'll be on the lookout for your future stuff.

Probably I'll upload a new version with corrections and other stuff which I started a year ago, but I'm busy to finish it at this time. Thanks for feedback!

[Super Benellus]

hii Rednov, 2 years have passed but i finally got a hold of your wad.
Very impressive , lots of cool detailing and nice combat(i play on UV), but of course there are some things that i want to mention: 
I play with trigger lines shown on a map, cuz im no good at finding secrets and hidden switches, i find most of your secrets very hard to find, this mostly goes for map01 where you have to stand in a specific spot and look somewhere to notice a tiny button that opens a bunch of health potions, i know that this very concept was in stardate and valiant(i think) but they were more noticable.
The other thing are switches that dont include secrets, sometimes i just push a random wall that kinda looks like something and i accidentally do the right thing, but some switches can be pressed again even if they served their purpose, i had this problem with map04 at the very end with 4 eye switches - do you need to press them all?in a specific order?or only one?to reveal that something changed on a map(luckily on a mountain and not inside).
Currently going to map05.
But this criticism comes from an average doom enjoyer, dont take it too harshly maybe im wrong.
But please less secrets with only health potions or armor bonuses would be nice

[bowserknight]

I'm currently playing this live at twitch.tv/Der_Angelord

 

I've already completed the first map but I'm replaying it because I wanna find all secrets. I see 2 of them but have no idea how to get to them...

[Rednov]

Thanks for playing after a long time!

 

On 4/3/2024 at 2:35 PM, Super Benellus said:

hii Rednov, 2 years have passed but i finally got a hold of your wad.
Very impressive , lots of cool detailing and nice combat(i play on UV), but of course there are some things that i want to mention: 
I play with trigger lines shown on a map, cuz im no good at finding secrets and hidden switches, i find most of your secrets very hard to find, this mostly goes for map01 where you have to stand in a specific spot and look somewhere to notice a tiny button that opens a bunch of health potions, i know that this very concept was in stardate and valiant(i think) but they were more noticable.
The other thing are switches that dont include secrets, sometimes i just push a random wall that kinda looks like something and i accidentally do the right thing, but some switches can be pressed again even if they served their purpose, i had this problem with map04 at the very end with 4 eye switches - do you need to press them all?in a specific order?or only one?to reveal that something changed on a map(luckily on a mountain and not inside).
Currently going to map05.
But this criticism comes from an average doom enjoyer, dont take it too harshly maybe im wrong.
But please less secrets with only health potions or armor bonuses would be nice

 

I know that, you are right and it's a good point. Actually, the essence of the wad was being cryptic, spining around on dark halls like a lost soul (the 4-eye-switches is an example of that). I think I catched this essence and I'm happy with the results, but there was a problem which I notized when watched gameplays by @SoBad (I recommend, very funny): if there are a lot of secrets, many times you find accidentally a lot of secrets instead of progress or exit, which is tedious. And, on the other hand, the more secrets there are, the less reward, you cannot put a five megaspheres and seven megarmors on a single map, so the reward is ridiculous in many of them (it's like devaluation and inflation). In conclusion, I realized the problem and I'm considering that currently. I guess a map should have at most six secrets.

[bowserknight]

Currently I'm at map 04 and I think that one's my favourite so far, mainly because you have a bit more space to move around. So far I'm a bit torn on how I feel about these maps. On one hand, the design is truly great, the fights and the layout are really well thought out. But on the other hand, I'm not having that much fun playing and find myself lost and a bit frustrated at times. As other people have said, the secrets are too hard to find, and even the mandatory path is sometimes riddled with needlessly strange switch sequences, or sometimes it's just not clear what you have to do. That, and the fights often feel pretty claustrophobic. 

But I really don't want to sound like a hater, I can see that a lot of love and thought went into these maps, maybe it's just not my thing. I'll still finish the rest of the maps over the next few days, on stream. If you wanna see what I think about it live, feel free to stop by at www.twitch.tv/Der_Angelord :)

[Super Benellus]

Finished maps 5-8
gonna say this for all the maps that the design was great so i dont have to repeat that every time
map5 - good combat, but it was hard to progress (im looking at YOU ledge)
map6 - i wish it was as small as tnt version but ok, only had trouble with nukage falling down area(how dude), the rest was pretty easy and navigation was better here (but still not the best)
map7 - nice cacodemon slaughter, actually i locked myself out of the exit cuz i used all rockets on 2 cybers that were shooting in the distance on a tower, used all plasma on the map on cacos and more cybers
map8 - with the power of gzdoom and markers i was able to find all keys and their respective switches, some were not colored for some reason on a map (both of them actually, i use flexihud minimap too), is this because this map uses all 6 keys? maybe thats the answer for other such wads. Also i like silent teleport thing you did with a path to graveyard
Entering map9 maybe ill finish your wad today

[Super Benellus]

Finished the wad
map9 - sorry but first "battle" is bullshit, a lot of rng on barons and cybers and running around dodging was not an option, maybe 10 tries before i could finally escape, a very hard map
map10 - a lot of blue, my eyes didnt hurt from it so its fine, had to look up somebody who finished it (SoBad) to understand the 4 symbols puzzle, didnt skip to him solving it cuz i saw [REDACTED], lots of ammo to kill everyone, only had trouble with 2 fights - 4 cybers in a small square arena with barons and last arena, i liked the map but i hated backtracking (Epic 2 map28 PTSD)
map11 - very hard cuz of ammo shortage, still nice breather
Benellus opinion - you need testers, of course when you made those maps like that they seem ok to you cuz you know all the tricks that happen, some questionable navigation and puzzle choices, but no bugs at all, everything played smoothly, interesting and unique design and detailing on maps(but maybe a bit too small to notice), good combat (even if archviles always there) and uuuhhhh.... thats it.
You certanly know your way around texture usage, i wonder what other works you could do with such skills, are you going to expand your designs by using different texture packs(not necesserily OTEX)? I just said how your wad is unique, i can only say thats its your style and i want more.