Colourful Hell: Test Map V2 [DONE]

[bowserknight]

https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=47980

 

Alright, so a few weeks ago, the mod Colourful Hell (as seen in the link above) has finally seen its full release! For the past 2-3 years I had been working on a test map for it, where you can screw around in all kinds of ways with all the new monsters added in the mod. This map is actually the 2nd version, I made another one at first but didn't like the result so I just started new from scratch. I had stopped working on it a while ago but since the full version of Colourful Hell is now finally out, I decided to give it another go and actually finish it.

 

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DOWNLOAD LINK:

https://www.file-upload.net/download-15210781/CH_Test_newmod.zip.html (don't forget this needs to be played with the mod)

 

CHANGELOG:

Quote

30.09.2023:

-made some small visual improvements (added key displays in Gauntlet, slightly changed layout of Zoo, made the door to the arena in Test Lab more visible)

-improved a majority of text messages to work on all screen sizes (all Zoo monsters, all descriptions for optional tiers, fireblu monsters)

-added description for the White Baron

-added combat stats for fireblu monsters to be more in line with the Zoo descriptions (strength, speed, annoyance)

02.10.2023:

-added combat stats for cyan, gray, brown and abyssal monsters (strength, speed, annoyance)

04.10.2023:

-added combat stats for EX bosses (strength, speed, annoyance)

-checked every single Zoo / optional monster for errors, corrected some HP numbers and fixed some actor names

-added description for the White Mastermind in the Zoo

05.10.2023:

-added more visual details in the TEST LAB, like indicators for what some of the switches do

-checked every single possible tier / monster combination in the TEST lab, corrected some typos and wrong actor names

-added arenas for the white Baron and white Mastermind, not playtested yet

-added HP bars for all the boss fights in the GAUNTLET (thanks to Pieruskwurje!), not all of them work properly yet

07.10.2023:

-added HP bars for every single Cyberdemon / Mastermind tier, had to change up the scripts a bit

-playtested and rebalanced the Cyberdemon / Mastermind fights a little

12.10.2023:

-tested every path in the GAUNTLET, tried to make every encounter as balanced as possible, still further testing required

16.10.2023:

-tuned some GAUNTLET encounters some more, added more walls to White Cyberdemon fight, also for White Chaingunner

26.10.2023:

-added HP bars to Black Revenant, White Cacodemon, White Pain Elemental and White Hellknight (again, Pieruskwurje was responsible for this, he did all the work here, all credit goes to him!)

-added Plasma Rifle to White Chaingunner fight, which was supposed to be there in the first place

-removed plasma weapons from White Baron, fight seemed too easy

-made some changes to the Cacodemon / Pain Elemental rooms, now you can enter the pit to collect loot from killed enemies if they were killed over the pit

-added some missing text about abilities from some brown / abyssal monsters

-some more overall balance changes, especially the Pain Elemental path

-some minor texture / linedef corrections

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So generally this map is divided into 4 areas, each serving a different purpose. Next to each entrance is also a monitor that can be used for a brief description.

 

 

AREA 1: THE ZOO

 

This area is just to look at all the regular monster variations, meaning everything from the base monster up to their black & white boss versions. You can see all their individual combat stats like HP, how much damage they deal, how fast they move etc.

The monsters here are normally dormant but can also be woken up if you make a sound in their room. I also gave the Spectres vision on you because you won't even be able to see some of them unless they try to bite you, just don't try to pet them...

 

 

AREA 2: THE GAUNTLET

 

This area is for all the people who are looking for a challenge. In here you can pick one of 17 routes. Each route has you face off against all the regular color variants of one monster type. So for example, if you walk into the Mancubus teleporter, you'll have to fight against all the different colored Mancubi, finishing with its black & white boss versions. You're supposed to do this with vanilla weapons and you only get limited ressources for each encounter. And skipping fights is not recommended...

This area also enables you to actually finish the map, by beating all 17 routes in a row, since they eventually all give you keys which will allow you to open the exit door.

 

I honestly have never been able to beat this myself yet but who knows, maybe somebody is up for the challenge... (I also still need to test a lot of these fights because some of the bosses tend to be too hard)

 

 

AREA 3: TEST LAB

 

Probably the most fun area. You have a selection of every single monster type and color tier and can spawn any specific monster that you want into an arena. You can do anything you want here. You can either watch monsters bash each other's heads from a distance, or join them, or just fight against them one on one. It's actually impossible to die in this lab, so you can battle to your heart's content. There's also an ammo closet up in the watching zone that fills up your entire inventory everytime you use it.

This area is perfect if you're just curious to see which monster would win against another monster, or if you want to practice against a specific one.

 

Once you leave this area, your immortality wears off.

 

AREA 4: THE OPTIONAL TIERS

 

This is basically the exact same as the ZOO area, just with all the optional monsters. These monsters only show up if you activate them in the settings. There's 6 rooms in here, each for a different optional color tier. They are: Fireblu, Gray, Cyan, Brown and Abyss. 

The 6th room is for special boss monsters, called EX bosses. These are even tougher versions of already tough bosses. If these are activated in the settings, they have a chance to replace their normal black / white (sometimes even red) counterparts.

 

 

Edited October 25, 2023 by bowserknight

[bowserknight]

-small update (check changelog), still some more work to do for a proper full version-

[FEDEX]

The old and the new files are dated the same: sept. 29 , 00:28 AM.  Is the current file updated ?

[bowserknight]

1 hour ago, FEDEX said:

The old and the new files are dated the same: sept. 29 , 00:28 AM.  Is the current file updated ?

Yes it's updated. I'm working on it pretty frequently in small chunks. Since I update the link everytime, it might occur that there's multiple updates on the same day. There's not much left to do anyways so there shouldn't be too many more updates.

[bowserknight]

-small update #2 (check changelog for more information), only EX monsters are left now, still need to add White Mastermind and make battle arenas for it, as well as White Baron-

Edited October 7, 2023 by bowserknight

[bowserknight]

-small update #3 (check changelog for more information), now all that's left to do is finish the Gauntlet and maybe make some more visual improvements, then the map should be complete-

Edited October 7, 2023 by bowserknight

[bowserknight]

-small update #4 (check changelog for more information), I think I got everything I wanted into the wad, now the last thing I need to do is to playtest and balance the Gauntlet to be beatable, and make the HP bars work on every boss somehow... the bosses with multiple forms are an issue. The HP bars only work on their first form, as well as the white Hellknight, who is 2 bosses in 1, the HP bar only works on one of them. Need some help with this one...-

Edited October 7, 2023 by bowserknight

[bowserknight]

-tiny update #5 (check changelog for more information), still need to find a way to make the HP bars work on multi-form bosses or the white Hellknight. I'd be really grateful if somebody could help me with that... (without changing the monsters from the mod themselves). Hopefully I'll find the time to finish this in the next few days-

[bowserknight]

-update #6 (check changelog for more information), almost everything's done now, the next update should be the final one. What's left to do: tweak the Gauntlet fights some more (don't want them to feel unfair), record a video of myself beating it, and trying to find ways to add HP bars to certain bosses where it's not working yet-

 

EDIT: I also noticed the download link was messed up for some reason... it kept sending you back to the old version. I replaced it, should work now. Sorry about that...

Edited October 12, 2023 by bowserknight

[bowserknight]

-last update, I'm now comfortable with all of the different paths in the gauntlet feeling beatable without too much difficulty. The HP bars still don't work properly on these following bosses: Black Revenant, White Cacodemon, White Pain Elemental, White Hellknight. But it's only for their 2nd forms, so I'm fine with it. I tried to record a video / demo of me beating the map, but I'm struggling with it. I can beat all the paths individually, but doing them all in one go is pretty tough. Anyways, I'm done with the map now.

 

I hope everybody enjoys it and experiments with the monsters in the Test Lab! ;D I'd love to see videos of people trying to beat the gauntlet too.

[Dewzan]

I just got word that you finished the test map, just checked out what's changed since before, and WOW I was not expecting those health bars! Good stuff!

 

One thing to mention, regarding ex bosses: I talked with Hege about what he'll do next regarding CH, and he mayyyyyyyybe will add in more ex bosses somewhere down the road (Hard to tell, because the mods been slow the past few years). I imagine that any vanilla enemy will soon have 2 ex boss variants instead of 1, for both Black and White. I don't know if there will be Red EX or Yellow EX bosses either, but I'm thinking you'll have to separate ex bosses into multiple tiers sometime, as it seems a bit messy right now.

 

Well, maybe one day I'll try to beat this fabled gauntlet. I think I have a shot at it now that the 3 Red Barons don't spawn the boss form, thankfully.

[bowserknight]

7 hours ago, Dewzan said:

I just got word that you finished the test map, just checked out what's changed since before, and WOW I was not expecting those health bars! Good stuff!

 

One thing to mention, regarding ex bosses: I talked with Hege about what he'll do next regarding CH, and he mayyyyyyyybe will add in more ex bosses somewhere down the road (Hard to tell, because the mods been slow the past few years). I imagine that any vanilla enemy will soon have 2 ex boss variants instead of 1, for both Black and White. I don't know if there will be Red EX or Yellow EX bosses either, but I'm thinking you'll have to separate ex bosses into multiple tiers sometime, as it seems a bit messy right now.

 

Well, maybe one day I'll try to beat this fabled gauntlet. I think I have a shot at it now that the 3 Red Barons don't spawn the boss form, thankfully.

Yeah I asked him too myself, he said it might take a while tho if he ever tries to add anything. As of now, I think it's alright as it is, since there's only like 10 ex bosses / boss versions in total.

 

If you know the mod "Winter's Fury" or "Insanity Edged", the creator of those helped me with the HP bars. It's been something that I wanted to add for a while, because it's really hard to tell how far you are into a boss fight but I just couldn't fully understand how they work. So the HP bars here are basically just copied from those 2 mods.

 

In the old version of this map, before I decided to completely rework it, there was only the boss version of the red Barons and Archviles. Did I really have 3 boss barons before? If so, that wasn't intended.

 

Thanks for trying it out!

[Treva]

I'm playing around in the gauntlet at the moment, very fun stuff. There are some things that bothered me:

 

In the mad scientist fight I ran out of ammo a couple of times, and I noticed that she drops a lot of plasma; you should add a plasma rifle to that fight as it not always drop from the black chaingunner.

 

Also, in the white revenant fight, when he started flying he entered the exit teleport and I had to finish him off on the entrance hub of the map.

 

I loved the hp bars btw; hope you can make it work on second phase bosses and on both white hell knights.

 

Another thing, on the Zoo the purple and orange specters (and also the fireblu pinky and specter) got alerted just by entering the room, and they actually can hit you through the bars.

 

PS: White PE can open the door to previous room and fly there.

Edited October 19, 2023 by Treva

[bowserknight]

7 hours ago, Treva said:

In the mad scientist fight I ran out of ammo a couple of times, and I noticed that she drops a lot of plasma; you should add a plasma rifle to that fight as it not always drop from the black chaingunner.

Oh wait I didn't? That must be an oversight of me then, I usually get a Plasma Rifle on the yellow Chaingunners, but I still thought I added a Plasma Rifle somewhere. You got it right tho, the big Arachno-Barons always drop lots of energy cells and you're supposed to use those for your Plasma Rifle. Thanks for pointing it out.

7 hours ago, Treva said:

Also, in the white revenant fight, when he started flying he entered the exit teleport and I had to finish him off on the entrance hub of the map.

That one is partially intended, because I don't want people to skip any bosses. They're supposed to follow you into the main room if you try to leave early. But it's not supposed to happen while you're still in their arena... only thing I can do there is to make the wall lower a little slower.

7 hours ago, Treva said:

I loved the hp bars btw; hope you can make it work on second phase bosses and on both white hell knights.

Thanks! I might still do it later on, but there's a chance that it's not possible without changing the monsters themselves.

7 hours ago, Treva said:

Another thing, on the Zoo the purple and orange specters (and also the fireblu pinky and specter) got alerted just by entering the room, and they actually can hit you through the bars.

That one is fully intentional. Normally, you can't see those because they're completely invisible, you only see them when they try to attack you or if you shoot them. That's why I left their cages "open".

7 hours ago, Treva said:

PS: White PE can open the door to previous room and fly there.

Yeah that has happened to me before as well... maybe I just have to make the door a little thicker.

[Dewzan]

Beat it!

 

It took me over 3 hours, and I have the video, but it will take time for it to get uploaded.

 

Kind of a fluke tbh. The Barons, Viles, Cybers, and Masterminds are by far most problematic, barons by far. With all those AOE attacks in such a small room, I think 2 barons would be more fair. My success rate for Blue through Red baron was probably like 25%. Vile gauntlet was around 50%, Mind and Cybers were probably 50%, if not a bit higher than that.

 

Two fights I had issues with ammo, Red Mancubi and White Chaingunner (though during practice, White Chaingunner was tight on ammo, but I got lucky here). Red Mancubi takes hardly any damage from rockets, so more SSG, less rockets.

 

Red Pain Elemental can be greatly cheesed, only 2 out of the 3 though. They spawn Red Lost Souls over time, regardless if you're in their line of sight. When cornered, the Red Lost Souls immediately die, and they deal explosion damage during their death. As a result, Red Pain Elemental will slowly die after nearly 20 minutes of waiting. The Pain Elemental gauntlet would've been worse, but I got lucky. I'd probably recommend using 2 enemies for Yellow and Red PE regardless, there's a reason I waited nearly 20 minutes.

 

I'll update this once I've got the recording.

[bowserknight]

On 10/20/2023 at 8:33 PM, Dewzan said:

Beat it!

 

It took me over 3 hours, and I have the video, but it will take time for it to get uploaded.

 

Kind of a fluke tbh. The Barons, Viles, Cybers, and Masterminds are by far most problematic, barons by far. With all those AOE attacks in such a small room, I think 2 barons would be more fair. My success rate for Blue through Red baron was probably like 25%. Vile gauntlet was around 50%, Mind and Cybers were probably 50%, if not a bit higher than that.

 

Two fights I had issues with ammo, Red Mancubi and White Chaingunner (though during practice, White Chaingunner was tight on ammo, but I got lucky here). Red Mancubi takes hardly any damage from rockets, so more SSG, less rockets.

 

Red Pain Elemental can be greatly cheesed, only 2 out of the 3 though. They spawn Red Lost Souls over time, regardless if you're in their line of sight. When cornered, the Red Lost Souls immediately die, and they deal explosion damage during their death. As a result, Red Pain Elemental will slowly die after nearly 20 minutes of waiting. The Pain Elemental gauntlet would've been worse, but I got lucky. I'd probably recommend using 2 enemies for Yellow and Red PE regardless, there's a reason I waited nearly 20 minutes.

 

I'll update this once I've got the recording.

I agree the Barons are tough but I actually almost never died to the non-boss versions. The black Hellknight can be quite the bitch tho. The Rocketlauncher in the Baron path is supposed for you to focus one of them down as fast as you can, so you only have to face 2 of them.

 

For the Pain Elementals, what I usually do is hide behind a wall and take out one of the ones on the left or right as fast as I can. 

 

The guy who helped me with the HP bars is currently trying to get the remaining bosses to work with them. When he's done, I'll try fixing some of the issues mentioned here. Thanks for the feedback by the way!

[Dewzan]

30 minutes ago, bowserknight said:

I agree the Barons are tough but I actually almost never died to the non-boss versions. The black Hellknight can be quite the bitch tho. The Rocketlauncher in the Baron path is supposed for you to focus one of them down as fast as you can, so you only have to face 2 of them.

 

For the Pain Elementals, what I usually do is hide behind a wall and take out one of the ones on the left or right as fast as I can. 

 

The guy who helped me with the HP bars is currently trying to get the remaining bosses to work with them. When he's done, I'll try fixing some of the issues mentioned here. Thanks for the feedback by the way!

 

I actually had less success targeting one of the three barons. One would always block the way, or in the case of the Yellow Barons, they would just dodge everything and become so spread out until there was nothing I could do.

 

I swear I had updated the previous post with the video, so I'll just put it here instead. (unless I'm posting it twice, idk :/ )

 

[bowserknight]

2 hours ago, Dewzan said:

 

I actually had less success targeting one of the three barons. One would always block the way, or in the case of the Yellow Barons, they would just dodge everything and become so spread out until there was nothing I could do.

 

I swear I had updated the previous post with the video, so I'll just put it here instead. (unless I'm posting it twice, idk :/ )

 

Nope I didn't see any video in the first post. Cool to see tho! So far I've only watched the first 2 paths, what's with those roman symbols and the weird colors, is that colorblind mode?

The white Baron fight looks pretty damn easy, I barely tested that one to be honest.

[Dewzan]

9 hours ago, bowserknight said:

Nope I didn't see any video in the first post. Cool to see tho! So far I've only watched the first 2 paths, what's with those roman symbols and the weird colors, is that colorblind mode?

The white Baron fight looks pretty damn easy, I barely tested that one to be honest.

Indeed is Color Blind mode. It's a bit strange the way it works, but I keep it on just because. The palette is just a custom palette I have loaded. I would've liked the video to be better quality than what it is, but I'm not sure how to get it above 360p. Should still suffice though, so I'm not gonna bother reuploading.

 

Yeah, the "White" Baron is kind of a pushover. Too high pain chance, not enough agility.

[bowserknight]

-update #8 (check changelog for more information); looked at some of the things people have mentioned and adjusted the map accordingly. I originally didn't wanna release any more updates but it just didn't feel 100% right before. Thanks to Pieruskwurje, now all the HP bars work properly and the map feels complete. The fact about the Cacodemon / Pain Elemental fights that you can kill them without getting their loot if they die over the pit, has always bugged me and made the fights harder than they were supposed to be. Now you can drop down there yourself once the fight is over and collect everything.

 

I checked the Red Mancubus fight and honestly didn't have big issues with it, ammo-wise. The monsters before it always drop a bunch of rockets and I don't see how the red Mancubi "hardly take damage" from them. I always end up with over 50 rockets when I enter their room and it's enough to kill them all, with some SSG or Chaingun here and there.

[Dewzan]

1 hour ago, bowserknight said:

I checked the Red Mancubus fight and honestly didn't have big issues with it, ammo-wise. The monsters before it always drop a bunch of rockets and I don't see how the red Mancubi "hardly take damage" from them. I always end up with over 50 rockets when I enter their room and it's enough to kill them all, with some SSG or Chaingun here and there.

 

Apparantly, I'm just now learning about this, but the reason my rockets were doing hardly anything was because there was a "Rocket Fire Damage" option that was enabled the whole time. Red Mancubi take 25% fire damage, so therefore 25% damage from rockets with the setting enabled, which makes it so you pretty much have to run past them.

[bowserknight]

1 hour ago, Dewzan said:

 

Apparantly, I'm just now learning about this, but the reason my rockets were doing hardly anything was because there was a "Rocket Fire Damage" option that was enabled the whole time. Red Mancubi take 25% fire damage, so therefore 25% damage from rockets with the setting enabled, which makes it so you pretty much have to run past them.

Huh that's weird, never heard about that one before... but yeah, under normal circumstances you only need like 8 rockets to kill one of them. Sorry that this option caused you troubles, didn't make the fights with that in mind because I had no idea it existed.

 

But congrats for beating it the hard way then haha

Edited October 25, 2023 by bowserknight

[bowserknight]

I'm debating on updating this map, since Colourful Hell got updated as well...

[Dewzan]

@bowserknight I'm not sure if the 1.01 patch really justifies much of an update if the main feature is the anti-cyan-yeet option. Unless of course if 1.01 causes issues with the test map.

 

It'd be cool if CH Plus got a test map after the next update. I made some new EX bosses, but I'm not sure if they'll ever exist in the main mod. From what I was told, Hege doesn't have any ideas atm. I at least hope the main CH issues I mentioned get fixed in the main mod, because there's sooo many issues I've seen over the years.

[bowserknight]

On 3/29/2024 at 2:49 AM, Dewzan said:

@bowserknight I'm not sure if the 1.01 patch really justifies much of an update if the main feature is the anti-cyan-yeet option. Unless of course if 1.01 causes issues with the test map.

 

It'd be cool if CH Plus got a test map after the next update. I made some new EX bosses, but I'm not sure if they'll ever exist in the main mod. From what I was told, Hege doesn't have any ideas atm. I at least hope the main CH issues I mentioned get fixed in the main mod, because there's sooo many issues I've seen over the years.

well it would only be a tiny update, correcting some HP values and stuff because I saw that some enemies got buffed / nerfed, but also I'm not sure if it's really worth since I also uploaded this onto the idgames archive and I don't want 2 different versions floating around.

What issues did you find in the mod?

[Dewzan]

Some of the biggest issues I found were the overlap between the yellow mancubus/brown revenant sounds, and so yellow mancubus plays the wrong noises. Yellow Mastermind only does the homing bomb attack after he spawns his Yellow Arachnos if I recall correctly. Red Mastermind has the same hitbox as Yellow Mastermind, so that's why he's a bit hard to hit. And I think the biggest issue of all is the "growing" mechanic where enemies get resurrected to become the next tier. They leave their old corpse behind, so an enemy like a common imp can be cloned over and over into several green/blue/purple imps. I could go on about the less major issues, but I think I've made my point.

[Cellular Lamp]

Is it just me or is this map like extremely laggy? (nvm I had a hp bar mod on that made it SUPER laggy)
 

also is there a way to make sure enemies don't like spawn skeletons when they die due to the necromancer even if he's not nearby them or something? I wanna do the gauntlets but that's kinda annoying. 

Edited June 8 by Cellular Lamp

[bowserknight]

21 hours ago, Cellular Lamp said:

Is it just me or is this map like extremely laggy? (nvm I had a hp bar mod on that made it SUPER laggy)
 

also is there a way to make sure enemies don't like spawn skeletons when they die due to the necromancer even if he's not nearby them or something? I wanna do the gauntlets but that's kinda annoying. 

The thing with the skeletons is fully intentional, it only happens in the Zombie gauntlet since the Necromancer is the main boss there, I felt it's appropriate. None of the other monster paths should have those skeletons in them.