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DoomRL => Modding => Releases => Topic started by: yaflhdztioxo on April 14, 2013, 22:30

Title: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.2)
Post by: yaflhdztioxo on April 14, 2013, 22:30
...is too big for the forums so I put it on filebin for now.  It is a CONSOLE ONLY mod, it is long so take breaks between levels, and if you get overwhelmed it stops being fun.  MAd is the easiest build in my experience.  Lastly, assemblies and rewards are largely indestructible so craft away.

http://filebin.ca/ekqAn8zlbS9/elevator.module0.9.2.zip (http://filebin.ca/ekqAn8zlbS9/elevator.module0.9.2.zip)

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The Elevator of Dimensions will take you on a journey through space and time.  It is an invasion style map that uses SkulltagRL as a base.  That means most things are scripted--levels aren't generated randomly, nor are most items and enemies.

Levels:
* RAID the Pharaoh's tomb!
* TORCH the baron enclave!
* RANSACK the German castle!
* ZAP the computer corridor!
* SHOWER the outer limits!

Difficulty levels:
Since monsters and items aren't spawned randomly XP is given a flat modifier based on difficulty.  Higher difficulty slows level gain and ups enemy accuracy (that last part is as it normally is).  Ideally the difficulty curve should follow this spread:
* ITYTD: A player familiar with the waves can get through without casualty and without relying on overpowered builds or cheap tactics.  Ammo shortages will be the bigger threat.
* HNTR:  A player can expect to suffer in the tricky spots or they can corner shoot everywhere.  A good player with a good build and careful tactics might still clear this without casualties.
* HMP:   Player casualties will start to mount up but a good build will prevent getting stuck in a loop of carnage and death.
* UV:    Even using every dirty trick in the book player casualties will be all too common.  One shot kills will be a reality and cycles of death and rebirth distressingly common as you try to get a handle on the demon hordes.
* N:     You're dead, you just don't know it yet.

Monsters:
* In addition to enemies found and derived from Doom you can expect to see enemies from Blood, Duke 3D, and a host of other odd games I don't recognize.

Issues:
* The player name is treated as part of the HUD now with an enemy count as well as an active powerup/rune display.  In previous revisions the level name served thie purpose; 0996 invalidates that.  Consequently looking at yourself displays the adapted HUD text instead and the powerup color coding is gone.  Lesser of three evils...
* Color flashes don't work quite right.  This has been mitigated for now but once they are fixed they'll need to be returned to their proper state of being.
* Better rips of the music would be nice as to get them to loop correctly I had to re-encode them and they were already lossily compressed.
* No doubt there are some balancing tweaks that could be implemented.  I was very careful with the first level and moderately careful with the second.  After that it is difficult to get a good measure since builds can diverge very heavily.
* You know how the mastermind's shots, when being spread across an area, all come at once?  I would really like a hack to circumvent that.

Future:
* Add being ascii art
* When possible, add sprites
* When possible, add the other HUD stuff that's kludged in
* Fix other issues and balancing concerns

Credits:
* GH for AI
* Other guys on IRC who probably helped in some way
* The testers, mostly
* The guys who originally make the EoD for Skulltag for the obvious inspiration, and by proxy, everyone they stole content from

Dedications:
* For all coffee makers
* For all disco lovers
* For all the paranoids
* For all the psychopaths

Changelog:

v0.9.2
------
Scaled experience gains down.  Seems there's no way to make a boss scary to a sufficiently prepared doomguy.  So now you can't be that prepared.
Since there are no spawn rate differences UV and N! difficulties now give enemies damage bonuses while ITYTD and HNTR give damage penalties.
Badge requirements have changed to be harder since it took all of three runs for TWO people to get angelic.
Prosperity nerfed, is no longer as good as MEDPLUS
Level 3 should be faster paced and less dull now.
Fixed boss level river
AI and HP tweaks to keep the boss alive long enough to do cool things before Tormuse kills it.

v0.9.1
------
Sound binding fixes, also monster that should drop rockets was not dropping rockets
Beefed up clones to make them more of a threat and make them appear more often

v0.9.0
------
First public release for DoomRL 097.  1.0 will be whatever version makes it to the mod server; KK has stated that won't happen without G support.
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.0)
Post by: darksergio on April 16, 2013, 11:13
jnice wad it really chat the fell of hopeless fight on the original level since I always get one shotted on boss wave on this level on skulltag or zandronum I think you balance a little more the first level since is I am not miskaten the brutes only show up on the desert worm map at least on invasion mode also I noticed a bug on the name during the computer corridor they dont show the proper name it just show random character on the name. I dont know is you can but maybe it could be a good idea to remplace the ammo drops on the elevartor to ammo box and shell box also changing the medpack to large help a little when you have 7 diabolist knocking on the elevator doors
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.0)
Post by: Tormuse on April 18, 2013, 00:48
Here's my first attempt at this mod.  (At Nightmare! of course)  :D

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This is a pretty cool mod!  I like the music and the selection of enemies was pretty interesting.  I'll have to give it another try soon.  :)

Except for one death earlyish on, I managed to avoid any casualties for quite a while...  up until I encountered the first Avatar, which one-shotted me and then shortly after that, I got cornered in the elevator by a bunch of Diabolists and suffered a bunch of casualties in quick succession.  Once I killed them, I got a message that said something like "The elevator doors are closing" which I assumed meant that I was supposed to *get out* of the elevator, (I had been outside the elevator for most of the game up until that point, so I assumed that the game was about to penalize me for spending too long in there) but then I abruptly died and got the message that I was "left behind," so I guess I was supposed to stay inside after all?  :S  I wish I'd known that; I might have been able to win this one.  :(

If I can make a suggestion, I think it would be nice if the mortem tells you how many casualties you've suffered.  It would be nice to have that benchmark for how well I did.  :)
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.0)
Post by: shark20061 on April 18, 2013, 10:09
If I can make a suggestion, I think it would be nice if the mortem tells you how many casualties you've suffered.  It would be nice to have that benchmark for how well I did.  :)

It does if you complete it:

--------------------------------------------------------------
 DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
 Module : Elevator of Dimensions (0.8.0)
--------------------------------------------------------------

 Shark, level 16 Marine
 Toured the world with 71 clones in the Elevator of Dimensions.
 He survived 100580 turns and scored 82285 points.
 He played for 4 hours, 59 minutes and 58 seconds.
 He was too young to die!

 He killed 1487 out of 1487 hellspawn. (100%)
 This ass-kicking marine killed all of them!

-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------

  Tourist (Bronze)

(snip)
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.1)
Post by: Tormuse on April 19, 2013, 01:47
Okay, here's a more successful Nightmare! attempt.  This time I got Tourist Platinum.  :)

Spoiler: Mortem (click to show/hide)

By the time I got to the fifth level, I only had one casualty, (on level 1) and I was well on my way to getting the Angelic Badge.  Then, I had a very abrupt death which I presume was because I stepped into the "void."  I was just walking along with no enemies in sight with decent hitpoints and spontaneously died, and that's the only explanation I can think of.  Just another death that would have been very avoidable if I'd played this before, I guess.  :|  Then I got killed nine more times by the Overlord and Battlelord (the Duke Nukem 3D bosses)  I just couldn't run fast enough to get away from them and into a better defensive position.  (I probably should have invested in Hellrunner)  And I lost one more to the group of Avatars that came afterward.

I played with a masterless build this time because I wasn't sure what to expect.  Next time, hmm...  Maybe I'll try a melee build?  I haven't decided yet.  :)
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.1)
Post by: yaflhdztioxo on April 19, 2013, 05:29
...how!?
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.1)
Post by: Rajhin on April 19, 2013, 06:02
Tried to play this. Well... I guess I became too adjusted on graphic version. Especially that shoot-on-click feature. Maybe you will make at least some placeholders for absent sprites? Colored letters will be okay.
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.1)
Post by: Tormuse on April 19, 2013, 06:56
I've been playing the console version all along, so no adjustment for me!  :D

...how!?

Lots of corner/radar-shooting with the Tactical Shotgun and a lot of patience.  :P  Med packs and shells spawned and respawned often enough that I was rarely in short supply, but I kind of found myself wishing I had gone with an Army of the Dead build for how long it was taking to kill everything at range with the shotgun, especially on level 2.  (Ooh!  Maybe I'll try that next!)  :D

At Castle Wolfenstein, I switched to using the Gatling Gun more, since bullets were a lot more plentiful.  It got a bit tedious with the scores of tiny enemies after all the big enemies I had just faced in previous levels, but was still marked by amusing moments when I would shoot a guard and have him explode into a big pile of med packs he had been picking up.  :D  That level would be fun with a Gunrunner build, just tearing around, letting the shotgun do all the work.  (Well, as long as the shells would last anyway)

After that, I used the Micro Launcher and Plasma Rifle in the Computer Corridor a lot, since rockets and cells were a lot more plentiful, and didn't really have any trouble until the Outer Limits level, since it had very little cover and (apparently) I had to watch where I walked!  (though, I was thankful that knockback seemed to be turned off for that level)  The Cyberdemons, in particular, gave me a lot of trouble and I was thankful for the fact that Shottyman works on the Missile Launcher now.  As I mentioned earlier, the Overlord and Battlelord were a pain in the ass, as they kept heading toward me and avoiding corner-shooting positions and I couldn't get to my discarded equipment in order to better deal with them.  (Die, you son of a bitch!)  ;)

I dealt with the Arch-Lich by corner-shooting as much as I could with the Hyperblaster and hitting it with my Plasmatic Super Shotgun if it got too close and I think the Anti-Gravity Boots were helpful in avoiding the explosions when he went into his invulnerable mode.  He was tough, but I wore him down eventually.

EDIT:  BTW, why does my mortem say version 0.8.0, when the file I downloaded says 0.9.0 and the thread title says 0.9.1?  Am I playing the wrong version or is there a typo somewhere?
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.1)
Post by: shark20061 on April 19, 2013, 12:02
He was too young to die!
 He killed 1487 out of 1487 hellspawn. (100%)
He opposed the Nightmare!
 He killed 1472 out of 1472 hellspawn. (100%)
How did Tormuse end up killing *less* enemies on Nightmare than I did on ITYTD????

EDIT:  BTW, why does my mortem say version 0.8.0, when the file I downloaded says 0.9.0 and the thread title says 0.9.1?  Am I playing the wrong version or is there a typo somewhere?

Typo.
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.1)
Post by: Tormuse on April 19, 2013, 14:08
Typo.

Ah, but which one is the typo?  :P

How did Tormuse end up killing *less* enemies on Nightmare than I did on ITYTD????

Good question; I was under the impression that there are the same number of enemies at each difficulty level.  Is the rest of the mortem for that game posted somewhere?  My first guess is that you took longer to kill the Arch-Lich than I did and he summoned more minions.  In my game, he only had time to summon two Skeletal Dragons.
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.1)
Post by: yaflhdztioxo on April 19, 2013, 17:25
Quote
...wishing I had gone with an Army of the Dead build...
MAd is the easiest by far, though the lack of hellrunner does cause some problems against the boss enemies.

Quote
Castle Wolfenstein... got a bit tedious...
Any suggestions?  It's meant to be a breather level but if it's boring I can try sprucing it up.

Quote
I was thankful that knockback seemed to be turned off for that level
Yeah, even for me that would have been too evil.  If you think the battlelord and overlord are a problem I can tweak them; I did not have too many problems with them on a MAd build, but that was non-N!.

Quote
I dealt with the Arch-Lich...  He was tough, but I wore him down eventually.
By being careful, out of sight, and not dying you missed some of my favorite boss features :(.  Making the last boss tough but fun is a critical goal for me.

Quote
BTW, why does my mortem say version 0.8.0, when the file I downloaded says 0.9.0 and the thread title says 0.9.1
080 is a typo; should have been 090.  I did push a minor update recently as 091 but it didn't have anything in it that would have made a huge difference for your game.

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How did Tormuse end up killing *less* enemies on Nightmare than I did on ITYTD????
The final boss is the only enemy who can spawn more enemies.  Shark must have run into a lot more Added Fun Stuff than Tormuse.
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.1)
Post by: appuru on April 20, 2013, 12:46
Kudos for this mod, it's really fun. I tried Nightmare right off the bat since I was used to the punishment from standard DoomRL anyway, and after a few runs it felt like MBm -> Whizkid -> Whatever was the way to go. It worked out, the hardest part was the beginning, but once you get rid of the big wave of anubis ministers, you can run laps around the map picking up health upgrades while you berserk on everything. The nightmare strategy of triggering berserk with arch-viles doesn't work with diabolists, but at the very least brutes fulfill that role nicely, with their suicide attacks actually making you live longer. I'm fairly certain I clocked 7 deaths at the very first level, then at the arch-lich I was wandering around and fell into the void like an idiot: I got flashbacks to that N! Ao100 run where I nuked myself on level 100, but at least I was still within the Angelic badge range.

I realized I didn't pick my stuff back up after falling into the void, but noteworthy items were: APT duelist armor, anti-grav plasteel boots, P3T2 Railgun, B3T2 Super Shotgun, A Ripper. The Arch-Lich is a cakewalk with a melee build it seems, though the Arch-Lich's fire attack was very creative. I wish more bosses had those kind of "super attacks", and this seems like a great concept to extend to DoomRL, too ;)

I mirror other people's sentiments on the Wolfenstein level: it's a good breather level but it's also a bit tedious. Maybe reduce the amount of enemies and add an extra room where you fight a Wolfenstein boss? You start to get rare mods around this time, and a single, very strong enemy is still probably easier than the group of diabolists you have to deal with in the first level.

I can't see myself using MAd in Nightmare, it felt like Hellrunner was essential, specially since you can't get something like anti-grav boots early on (it seems like a nano pack is only guaranteed in the fourth level?), the lack of run speed really messes with you if you're caught off position. Then again, it might just have to do with the playstyle.

Also, the final boss can spawn more enemies? 4xBru + Ripper + Berserk barely let him get some melee attacks in + his "super attacks". I'm almost curious to see what he can do, but I wasn't about to risk the Angelic badge! :p

In my mortem, you'll see that some of the monster names are garbled. They all came from level 3 IIRC, the one where you just go in circles.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.1)
Post by: yaflhdztioxo on April 20, 2013, 13:29
Things learned:
* Berserker build isn't suicide like I thought it would be
* Nobody remembers level 2; nobody's commented on it in any way and apparently apparu forgot about it completely :)
* Level 3 is too tedious.  Do you think elite beings (like the elite formers you run into on Ao100) would help?
* Nobody plays Skulltag Invasion, so nobody gets the 'gibberish' names on Level 4
* I may be too generous with the mod packs (perhaps that's something I can scale by difficulty)
* Perhaps the boss should actually REMAIN invincible for a while after his fire attacks so that he can use his specials... actually that might be too tedious and annoying.
* Nightmare is too easy.

If you want to see what the final boss can do, well, the code IS editable.  Skipping waves is pretty easy, and you can then manipulate your doomguy on spawn to be the build you want.
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.1)
Post by: appuru on April 20, 2013, 14:13
Things learned:
* Berserker build isn't suicide like I thought it would be
* Nobody remembers level 2; nobody's commented on it in any way and apparently apparu forgot about it completely :)
* Level 3 is too tedious.  Do you think elite beings (like the elite formers you run into on Ao100) would help?
* Nobody plays Skulltag Invasion, so nobody gets the 'gibberish' names on Level 4
* I may be too generous with the mod packs (perhaps that's something I can scale by difficulty)
* Perhaps the boss should actually REMAIN invincible for a while after his fire attacks so that he can use his specials... actually that might be too tedious and annoying.
* Nightmare is too easy.

If you want to see what the final boss can do, well, the code IS editable.  Skipping waves is pretty easy, and you can then manipulate your doomguy on spawn to be the build you want.

In order:
* Berserker build is more than viable, and I agree N! is too easy.
* Don't take it as something bad, I enjoyed the level. :P Taking down bruiser demons was very satisfying, but one thing to note is berserker build shits on this level, but probably the biggest reason is the rune that lets your health max out at 250%, hellrunner + letting medpacks overheal to this amount basically lets me activate berserk without ever dying. I forgot the name of the rune, but that rune might be a tad overpowered.
* Cutting down on the enemies and putting stronger ones near the end would be cool. Any wolfenstein boss or elite beings would be awesome.
* I thought it was a bug, lol
* The amount of mod packs are very generous, but I feel it should just be rebalanced instead: slightly more instances of rare mods, significantly less common mods. Currently, for a melee build I only *really* need mods for tactical/anti-grav boots, and whatever I can find for a melee weapon. This is partly thanks to the rune that lets me overheal to 250%. I feel more rare mods could help accommodate other builds without necessarily overpowering the rest of the upgrade paths.
* You could add more "super attack" instances where he's invincible while performing his other actions. I would scale the strength of his specials based on his remaining health, so if you had 4 specials (ex. 75%, 50%, 30%, 10%) his last two would be stronger: additional summons, or explosions occur twice as fast. You're supposed to be very strong by this point, after all :3
* Maybe the Angelic badge could be made harder? ;3 Nightmare could be a *little* bit harder on the later levels, but level 1 is pretty brutal as is, and in my case comprised all my deaths aside from jumping into the void at the end.
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.1)
Post by: Tormuse on April 20, 2013, 20:47
If you think the battlelord and overlord are a problem I can tweak them; I did not have too many problems with them on a MAd build, but that was non-N!.

I think I would have fared a lot better if I had had HR/Dodgemaster.  As it was, I was just ill-equipped to deal with them, especially the part when I was fighting both of them at the same time!  :o  That doesn't mean you have to change them; I think I just need to be ready for them next time.

Things learned:
* Berserker build isn't suicide like I thought it would be

Not sure yet, but I'll give it a good try when I can.  :)  (I have exams this coming week, so I really shouldn't be playing this game right now)  :P

* Nobody remembers level 2; nobody's commented on it in any way and apparently apparu forgot about it completely :)

Oh, I remember it!  I was just in a bit of a rush and, as mentioned above, I can't spend too much time on stuff like this lately.  :)  Believe me; there's tons of stuff I'd like to say, but I figured I should pick and choose the most important comments to make.  Anyway, I thought the many variations of Barons/Knights were pretty cool.  I mostly tried to avoid giving them a chance to fire, so I can't speak of their abilities except for that one guy who got off a shot and filled the room with explosions!  Yikes!  :o  And as Appuru said, that Prosperity Rune is way overpowered, partly due to the duration, I think.  It lasted me for a couple of levels with plenty of time to spare!

* Level 3 is too tedious.  Do you think elite beings (like the elite formers you run into on Ao100) would help?

I recognize that it's supposed to be a breather and that's fine; it's just a bit too long of a breather with too little variety of enemies, (plus the fact that they give you almost no experience) but then there isn't a whole lot of variety within the original Wolfenstein enemies anyway.  (Mostly different-clothinged guys with similar guns)  I think Elite Formers would be a bit out of place in a Wolfenstein-themed level, but maybe you could put in Grosse?  (The boss of the first episode; you could call them "Grosse clones" so you can have more of them)  :D  Maybe you could put in the Hitler clones that shoot fireballs from episode 3!  (As shown in this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXQrCwGCp-I))  Heck, maybe you could even put in Hitler himself as a final boss!  :P  (Also shown in that video; you would, of course, have to make him a two-stage boss)  ;)  Come to think of it, you could probably throw the Angel of Death in there, considering it was lifted from the Spear of Destiny expansion to Wolfenstein (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmjvMeNYZLM) in the first place.  :)  (Huh!  Until watching that video, I didn't realize what the AoD was saying...  "Do your worst, human!" and "You may wield the Spear;" for some reason, back when I played the game, ages ago, I assumed he was speaking another language)

* Nobody plays Skulltag Invasion, so nobody gets the 'gibberish' names on Level 4

Holy crap!  "sdw!" is "imps" upside-down!  I just got that!  Mind blown!  :o


Very clever!  :D

* I may be too generous with the mod packs (perhaps that's something I can scale by difficulty)

I find that hard to say...  there were plenty of mod packs that I discarded as I went along, but I find that's true of most games I play.  I guess I'm just not really big on mod packs.  :)

* Perhaps the boss should actually REMAIN invincible for a while after his fire attacks so that he can use his specials... actually that might be too tedious and annoying.

Without knowing what his special attacks are, I'm not sure how to comment on this.

* Nightmare is too easy.

Yes, especially considering the kind of game this is, where death is a minor, temporary inconvenience, rather than the end of the game.  Nightmare! can afford to be a lot less forgiving.  (I sure hope I don't regret saying that!)  :P  Incidentally, I'd just like to say that as a game mechanic, it works very well and makes quite a fun game.  :)
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.1)
Post by: shark20061 on April 20, 2013, 20:58
And as Appuru said, that Prosperity Rune is way overpowered, partly due to the duration, I think.  It lasted me for a couple of levels with plenty of time to spare!

That's intentional.  The runes last until you grab a new one.  But I was asking yafl on IRC while I was playing if my health going to 250% was actually a bug.  It could probably be nerfed and not bother anyone.

I recognize that it's supposed to be a breather and that's fine; it's just a bit too long of a breather with too little variety of enemies, (plus the fact that they give you almost no experience) but then there isn't a whole lot of variety within the original Wolfenstein enemies anyway.  (Mostly different-clothinged guys with similar guns)  I think Elite Formers would be a bit out of place in a Wolfenstein-themed level, but maybe you could put in Grosse?  (The boss of the first episode; you could call them "Grosse clones" so you can have more of them)  :D  Maybe you could put in the Hitler clones that shoot fireballs from episode 3!  (As shown in this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXQrCwGCp-I))  Heck, maybe you could even put in Hitler himself as a final boss!  :P  (Also shown in that video; you would, of course, have to make him a two-stage boss)  ;)  Come to think of it, you could probably throw the Angel of Death in there, considering it was lifted from the Spear of Destiny expansion to Wolfenstein (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmjvMeNYZLM) in the first place.

Yeah, I was actually expecting one of the bosses to show up during that level.  I got caught off guard when it just ended.

Yes, especially considering the kind of game this is, where death is a minor, temporary inconvenience, rather than the end of the game.  Nightmare! can afford to be a lot less forgiving.  (I sure hope I don't regret saying that!)  :P  Incidentally, I'd just like to say that as a game mechanic, it works very well and makes quite a fun game.  :)

I, at the very least, expected N! to spawn WAY more enemies but... it might be a good change to make them super strong instead.
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.1)
Post by: yaflhdztioxo on April 20, 2013, 21:50
Some good feedback.  I never considered prosperity could be a game breaker; in the Skulltag Arena it always seemed to be one of the least popular runes.  Would simply scaling its benefits to 150% or 200% be enough?

I think spawning more enemies on N! would drag the game on for too long.  The same logic leaves me wary of adding a toughness or health tweak, but I could fiddle with adding a todamall bonus (+1 for UV +2 for N!).  That should make the swarms more dangerous without majorly impacting the bosses.  I would have thought the speed penalty the player gets on N! would be enough to prevent the player from stemming the swarm... It stopped me :/.  On the flip side should ITYTD be made easier, and if so how?

I'm going to nix the boss enemies for Level 3 idea though; gotta keep SOME unique things for WolfRL after all.  Which I should probably start working on again soon.  If elite guards doesn't work I may consider a mini-hans or two.
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.1)
Post by: Tormuse on April 21, 2013, 11:30
Well, this shows how bad my will power is, playing this game with exams coming up.  :P  Here you go:

Spoiler: Tourist Angelic (click to show/hide)

I didn't actually play for 12 hours; I just left the game on while doing other things, like sleeping.  :)  As I indicated before, I tried a MAD build this time and it was much more successful.  (And less time-consuming in areas like level 2)  Later on, I also got Berserker trait and a Piercing Chainsaw, so I guess this was the game of armour-piercing weaponry!  :D  (Incidentally, what's up with the Chainsaws that I can't select with the numbered keys?  Pushing 0 gives me the message "You don't have a chainsaw")

The only death happened while fighting the Arch-Lich.  I was at 180% health and berserk and I spontaneously died.  The culprit seems to have been that one tiny square of void at the centre of the map.  I can't remember if I was moving at the time; I think it may have appeared under my feet while I was chainsawing the Arch-Lich.  (Seems like a bit of a dick move; hmph!  Spoiled my otherwise deathless game)  I had been happily chainsawing away at him while he was invulnerable, since he kept my berserk charged, but after that spontaneous death, I switched to corner-shooting him with the Shotgun for a while, because I wasn't sure what had happened and I lost some of my supplies to the explosions after they got scattered all over the place.  I only recovered one med pack, so I had to be careful after that, but ended up switching back to the Chainsaw for the coup de gras.  :)

The Berserker trait was a big help for an extended section of level 5, which kind of became a game of Whack-a-Mole, standing at the centre of the map, Chainsawing each enemy as they teleported in.  By funny coincidence, I happened to choose to wander off to heal myself at the exact moment the Overlord appeared, which made it a bit awkward to get back to him, but his second hit against me made me berserk and then I just charged him and finished him off.

I was surprised to find that the Phaseshift Armour regenerated and...  is also indestructible?  :o  I wish I'd found that during my previous game; it would have been a big help!  (Heh, it seems that I forgot to put it back on after I died; oh well...)  :P

Some good feedback.  I never considered prosperity could be a game breaker; in the Skulltag Arena it always seemed to be one of the least popular runes.  Would simply scaling its benefits to 150% or 200% be enough?

I think it would be good for the Runes to be balanced, but I find it hard to say how to balance them, because quite frankly, I don't know what most of the Runes do.  :|  Is there a listing of what they all do somewhere?

I think spawning more enemies on N! would drag the game on for too long.  The same logic leaves me wary of adding a toughness or health tweak, but I could fiddle with adding a todamall bonus (+1 for UV +2 for N!).  That should make the swarms more dangerous without majorly impacting the bosses.

Could be a good compromise; I guess I'll have to keep on my toes in the next version.  :)

I'm going to nix the boss enemies for Level 3 idea though; gotta keep SOME unique things for WolfRL after all.  Which I should probably start working on again soon.  If elite guards doesn't work I may consider a mini-hans or two.

No Hitler?  Awww...  :P  (I mean shite!)  ;)
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.1)
Post by: Tormuse on April 22, 2013, 21:12
So, I guess I wasn't done with this mod.  :P  I decided to try out a Gunrunner build this time.

Spoiler: Mortem (click to show/hide)

Once it got going, it was devastating to boss monsters like the Cyberdemons, Overlord, Battlelord, Mastermind, and Cycloid Emperors.  (By then, I had the Plasmatic Double Shotgun and I just danced back and forth, two squares away from them, firing and reloading simultaneously with each movement)  It was also pretty effective in the second level against the hordes of huge Barons, although I still died there due to the yellow one that makes the room explode.  (Can't remember that guy's name)  And then I got cornered in the elevator by *four* of those yellow guys and lost a bunch of lives.  :|  It was fun, for a bit, to charge around Wolfenstein with my Tactical Shotgun, but I couldn't do it too long due to lack of shells, but I made up for it on level 4 by charging around with my Micro Launcher.  :D

Oh, and I *still* stepped in that void square while facing the Arch-Lich.  *sigh*  I was hoping to see some of those special attacks that yaflhdztioxo talked up, and I thought if I ran around out in the open this time I would get to see it, but I didn't see anything special beyond a bunch of fireballs hurled my way.  Perhaps my Plasmatic Double Shotgun and Nano-modded Railgun were just doing too much damage too quickly and kept plunging him back into his invulnerable state before he could do anything.  With my agility-modded Phaseshift suit, Tactical Boots, and HR 2, I was moving pretty fast, and therefore shooting pretty fast.
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.1)
Post by: yaflhdztioxo on April 23, 2013, 06:02
Clearly experience gains need to be further decreased...
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.2)
Post by: Tormuse on February 06, 2014, 16:44
So, someone (http://forum.chaosforge.org/index.php/topic,3097.msg58960.html#msg58960) suggested that I try this mod out again.  (Was that really five months ago?  It doesn't feel like that long!)  :o

I was doing pretty well, trying out a Blademaster build, and got up to round 4 when the game suddenly crashed.  :(  It froze up completely and wouldn't let me finish, and generated this error message:

Spoiler: Error message (click to show/hide)

I had been playing for a while, cutting everything up with my chainsword before they could react, and this happened while I was fighting the upside-down Cybruisers.  The playing field was pretty cluttered with items by that point, but not 100% full, so I don't know if that was a contributing factor.  Also, my computer has lately been crashing occasionally due, I think, to issues with my graphics card.  That may or may not have been a contributing factor too.  (I doubt it, but I thought I'd mention it anyway)  Screenshot from the end is attached below.

And on an unrelated note, for some reason, fighting all those upside-down enemies on round 4 brings this song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdQDXs75Ulo) to mind.  :)
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.2)
Post by: thelaptop on February 06, 2014, 17:54
I don't think it's just the percentage in which a level is filled -- it's also the proximity of the open spaces.  The time I was testing this, I was trying to spawn Cyberdemons on Phobos Base Entry (yes, it was with console access).  I didn't hit the theoretical maximal, but crashed some time before.

I guess I'll have to dig in and fix this seeing that KK isn't so... on the ball for DoomRL these days.

And Tormuse, stop leaving you crap around.  =P
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.2)
Post by: yaflhdztioxo on February 06, 2014, 18:19
Tormuse SMASH puny game engine.
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.2)
Post by: Tormuse on February 08, 2014, 20:29
LOL!  :D  Okay, so I tried the build again and this time, I cleaned up after myself better.  :P

It was good enough for another Tourist Angelic badge!  :D  ...which is kind of odd, because apparently, I died 8 times and I thought you're only allowed one death per floor, which would mean a maximum of 5 deaths, but now that I look again, it says one death per *wave* and since there are multiple waves per floor, I'm probably allowed up to 10 deaths.  (I think?)

Anyway, all the deaths occurred on the first floor while I was establishing myself.  Once I got Blademaster, I was able to zip up to every enemy almost before they could all get a shot off, especially once I had the Phaseshift set.  For a while, I was moving at 0.2 seconds per move and by the end, I got that down to 0.11.

The burst minigun was kind of fun in a silly way; it fired an incredible barrage of shots which couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.  At one point, I had to fire 36 bullets to bring down a suicide skull.  :P  (4.7 second reload time too)

Nothing much else to say that hasn't been said before.  Here's the mortem:  :)

Spoiler: Mortem (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.2)
Post by: yaflhdztioxo on February 08, 2014, 23:31
Tor, if you'd actually hang around on IRC and play WolfRL you could probably cajole me into finishing and releasing it.
Just a thought.
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.2)
Post by: Errant on August 22, 2014, 11:03
I had the same problem on round 4 as Tormuse. First come access errors if you level up (and you don't actually level when that happens) or if you press 'e' to look at the overview, and then when round 5 starts, there's an error when the elevator doors try to open, and fail, leaving me locked in. Ctrl-q then causes a fatal exception.

Spoiler: Error message (click to show/hide)

It's probably caused by the huge number of dropped rockets in such a small arena, I guess? Should I just collect them all so they stack?

Edit: nope, still happens every time on round 4, even when there's plenty of room. Ho hum. I also noticed the critter counter went to -1 when everything was dead.
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.2)
Post by: Tormuse on July 27, 2015, 23:52
For no particular reason, I felt like going through this module again last night, and didn't realize until after I finished the game that I think I'm playing the previous version?  (And have been all along?)  :S  I mean it says version 0.8.0 which has always been incorrect, but looking again at the file I downloaded in 2013, I think I've been playing the earliest version all along!  :o  (Oops!)  :|  Well, here's the mortem anyway:

Spoiler: Mortem (click to show/hide)

I got Tourist Angelic, this time with a Malicious Blades build.  I didn't expect to get Angelic because of a bunch of deaths in quick succession on level 1 while I was getting myself established, but I guess I didn't suffer as many deaths as I thought.  :)  It was tricky starting off with HR instead of going for extra damage; you always want to use your strengths to their fullest and it's hard to take advantage of speed when there are hordes of monsters coming at you from every direction, but I managed to do enough clever dancing around to minimize the loss of my clones.  :)  What helped was that at the end of one of the rounds, all enemies were dead except a single Sand Demon and I just led him on a merry chase around the map a few times, allowing large medpacks and ammo to respawn until I was well established enough to last me 'til the end of the game.  :)

I still suffered one more loss in level 2, right before I got my master trait because I got cornered by Belphegors when I went for the Prosperity Rune, but once I had MMB, I was able to charge right into the crowd and cut them up faster than they could respond and the rest of the game was fairly easy and I found myself playing around with getting a variety of melee weapons just for fun.  :)

I'll have to download the new version...  (well, two years old, but newest anyway)  :P  ...and try it again.  Maybe this time, with a Vampyre build, since it's the only melee build I haven't tried this mod with.  :)

EDIT:  P.S.  I decided it's about time I give myself an Avatar.  :)
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.2)
Post by: Tormuse on July 28, 2015, 18:36
Okay, I played a game of the new version with Vampyre build and got Tourist Platinum!  :)

Spoiler: Mortem (click to show/hide)

I didn't fare nearly as well as my previous game with the MMB build.  :|  I had a smattering of deaths in each level except levels 3 and 4.  (Nice additions to level 3, by the way)  The deaths in the first two levels happened because I was still getting myself established, (things got easier when I got Vampyre) and on level 5, I had a surprisingly hard time with the Blood enemies.  (Acolytes, Zealots, etc.)  I think that was due to the fact that Vampyre blocks HR and that's a part where you need speed, because they approach from all directions.  I lost my Phaseshift armour there because after I died once, I think one of them put it on and then got gibbed, so it got destroyed.  Also, the abundant explosions from their dynamite-throwing guys blew up all the Chainsaws before I could get Whizkid 2, so I couldn't make a Ripper.  :(  I had to do the whole thing with the Chainsword instead.  *Sigh*  They blew up a lot of my stuff, actually, so I was short on supplies when I went up against the Arch-Lich.  (I wasn't even able to use my Whizkid skill for anything; that was a waste of two levels!)  :|

I died once while fighting the Arch-Lich, but that was mostly because I went in there with only two small medpacks.  If I had had better supplies, I would have easily done it without dying, because it only took a few hits each time with my Chainsword to make him retreat into his invulnerable state and he hardly had a chance to fight back.  Funny thing:  I got him just barely in time at the end; I was down to 3% health and, thanks to Vampyre, killing him made my health instantly shoot up to 200%!  :D

EDIT:  Oh yeah, and that Dodgemaster level 74 thing...  I have a feeling it's because toward the end, I picked up the shifting powerup and it gave me "haste" ability and I already was using a Haste rune.  Bug or feature?
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.2)
Post by: flamewolf393 on July 14, 2017, 11:59
Sorry for the super-necro, but Im hoping someone is still paying attention.

I tried this mod for the first time today, and really like it. But Ive hit (what i assume based on reading the thread) a major bug. It sounds like there are supposed to be mulitple levels, but I auto-die after the wave of diabolists on the first level.

Also, are we supposed to have infinite lives? Cause the monsters are insanely difficult, but theres no real point to the difficultly when we dont run out of lives.
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.2)
Post by: Tormuse on July 14, 2017, 15:40
Sorry for the super-necro, but Im hoping someone is still paying attention.

I am!  Funny thing; I was just thinking of playing this again.  :)

I tried this mod for the first time today, and really like it. But Ive hit (what i assume based on reading the thread) a major bug. It sounds like there are supposed to be mulitple levels, but I auto-die after the wave of diabolists on the first level.

Yeah, it sounds like you found the most irritating feature of this mod.  :P  Every time you complete a level, you get a message that says "Elevator doors are closing" and there's a countdown that goes 5 4 3 2 1.  You have a limited time to get back inside the elevator to continue, otherwise, it's game over.  It's annoying because it's *really* easy to miss the message about the doors and I've lost the game a number of times because of that.  I think other people have worked around that by adding a line to the bottom of the Config.lua file to change the colour of the text of that message to make it more eye-catching.

Also, are we supposed to have infinite lives? Cause the monsters are insanely difficult, but theres no real point to the difficultly when we dont run out of lives.

Yes, it's designed so that basically anyone can complete it.  The *real* challenge is doing it without dying.  :)  See if you can get Tourist Angelic!  :D
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.2)
Post by: flamewolf393 on July 14, 2017, 17:18
I am!  Funny thing; I was just thinking of playing this again.  :)

Yeah, it sounds like you found the most irritating feature of this mod.  :P  Every time you complete a level, you get a message that says "Elevator doors are closing" and there's a countdown that goes 5 4 3 2 1.  You have a limited time to get back inside the elevator to continue, otherwise, it's game over.  It's annoying because it's *really* easy to miss the message about the doors and I've lost the game a number of times because of that.  I think other people have worked around that by adding a line to the bottom of the Config.lua file to change the colour of the text of that message to make it more eye-catching.

Yes, it's designed so that basically anyone can complete it.  The *real* challenge is doing it without dying.  :)  See if you can get Tourist Angelic!  :D

I just tried it again, and there literally is no message for the doors closing, or any kind of countdown. I guess I just have to notice if the last enemy has died and run for the doors.

And as far as I can tell its physically impossible to do this without dozens of deaths, considering the avatars and diabolists kills you in two hits flat (even with an ironman/TaN build), and even the "basic" enemies kill youin 3-4.
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.2)
Post by: yaflhdztioxo on July 15, 2017, 05:41
aah, memories.  The gameplay suffers heavily from an unstable equilibrium and if you're patient enough you can beat it standing still--but that's no fun.

I tend to think of it more as a modding demo; instead of the randomness you usually expect with a roguelike here's a very predictable, structured telling.  With lots of easily stolen features for future modders.  Alas modding didn't revitalize the DoomRL community as much as I would have hoped.  But we got tehtmi's work out of it so that's a plus.

You can edit the mod and lengthen the timeout if you like.  Maybe add a screen flash.
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.2)
Post by: Tormuse on July 15, 2017, 11:55
I just tried it again, and there literally is no message for the doors closing, or any kind of countdown.

This sounds very strange; can I see the mortem?

And as far as I can tell its physically impossible to do this without dozens of deaths, considering the avatars and diabolists kills you in two hits flat (even with an ironman/TaN build), and even the "basic" enemies kill youin 3-4.

And this sounds like a challenge!  :D  Maybe this should be my next video.  :)  It's definitely possible, since I've done it several times.  :)
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.2)
Post by: Tormuse on July 25, 2017, 14:48
Okay, so I ended up dying several times and ultimately, didn't succeed because I tried to pick up too much stuff while the elevator doors were closing, but there were long stretches of time where I daresay I was holding my own pretty well; I still wouldn't say it's impossible.  Recording available by request.

Spoiler: Mortem (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.2)
Post by: Tormuse on July 26, 2017, 18:26
So, I had another pretty good game going, Army of the Dead build, well on its way to being Tourist Diamond;  I managed to complete the first and third levels without dying and died twice on level 2 in completely avoidable ways that only happened because I was playing while tired.

Then, suddenly, on level 4, the game crashed!  D:

I think what triggered the crash was me pushing the E key to look at my equipment screen while I was targeting an enemy to shoot them.  I'm not sure why that would trigger a crash; it's a somewhat common accidental key combination.  Maybe it had something to do with the Search & Destroy Orbs?  I don't know.  Anyway, here's the error log:

Code: [Select]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Timestamp   : 26/07/2017 20:14:20
Error level : CRITICAL
Message     : Player action exception!

Error message : Access violation
----------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Timestamp   : 26/07/2017 20:14:38
Error level : FATAL EXCEPTION
Message     : Fatal exception encountered

An unhandled exception occurred at $0040DAA8 :
EAccessViolation : Access violation
  $0040DAA8
  $0047977E
  $00462508  TDOOMXML__SAVE,  line 449 of src/dfhof.pas
  $00460219  TSCOREFILE__SAVE,  line 187 of src/dfhof.pas
  $0046BC15  THOF__SAVE,  line 1249 of src/dfhof.pas
  $0046BB6F  THOF__DONE,  line 1233 of src/dfhof.pas
  $0042FA11  TSYSTEM__DESTROY,  line 51 of e:/Projects/fpcvalkyrie/src/vsystem.pas

----------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Timestamp   : 26/07/2017 20:14:38
Error level : FATAL EXCEPTION
Message     : Fatal exception encountered

An unhandled exception occurred at $02E225FD :
EAccessViolation : Access

Unfortunately, this means there's no mortem.  :|  Fortunately, I recorded the whole thing and I can upload the two hours of gameplay if anyone wants to see it and get an idea of how I keep ahead of the ridiculous mobs of enemies in this challenge.  :)
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.2)
Post by: Errant on December 26, 2017, 11:19
Link dead, requesting a re-up please.

Edit: oh, nvm, it was just the xmas logjam causing too much load to serve the request.
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.2)
Post by: Tormuse on April 12, 2019, 18:53
I felt like playing this mod again today (for the first time in almost two years, apparently!)  :P  and I had the same fatal crash as in my above game.  :(  It happened in the same place too, level 4 (the upside-down one) when I tried to look at my equipment screen and this time, I'm sure I wasn't targeting an enemy at the time I tried to look at it.  Out of curiosity, I reviewed the video I recorded two years ago of myself playing this and I freely looked at my equipment screen on that level without problems.  (I thought maybe it had something to do with the equipment I was using, since I had recently picked up a plasma rifle in both games before the crash, but that doesn't seem to be what caused it...  or at least it doesn't do it consistently)  I doubt anyone's looking at this mod these days, but here's the error message it generated anyway:

Code: [Select]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Timestamp   : 2019-04-12 20:36:47
Error level : CRITICAL
Message     : Player action exception!

Error message : Access violation
----------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Timestamp   : 2019-04-12 20:37:03
Error level : FATAL EXCEPTION
Message     : Fatal exception encountered

An unhandled exception occurred at $0040DAA8 :
EAccessViolation : Access violation
  $0040DAA8
  $0047977E
  $00462508  TDOOMXML__SAVE,  line 449 of src/dfhof.pas
  $00460219  TSCOREFILE__SAVE,  line 187 of src/dfhof.pas
  $0046BC15  THOF__SAVE,  line 1249 of src/dfhof.pas
  $0046BB6F  THOF__DONE,  line 1233 of src/dfhof.pas
  $0042FA11  TSYSTEM__DESTROY,  line 51 of e:/Projects/fpcvalkyrie/src/vsystem.pas

----------------------------------------------------------------------


EDIT:  I have a feeling that since both error messages have the "TSYSTEM__DESTROY" line in them, it has something to do with the "Search and Destroy Orbs," like looking at the equipment screen in their presence crashes it.
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.2)
Post by: Errant on September 17, 2019, 07:16
That looks pretty similar to the error I encountered. I wonder why you only get them every so often and i get it 100% of the time. I want to finish the game dammit.
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.2)
Post by: Tormuse on July 08, 2021, 06:39
(Huh, no posts here in two years?)  :o

Well, today, I randomly felt like playing this mod again, trying it with a Malicious Blades build.  This made me very dependent on my shotgun for the first two levels, which was tricky, but I was barely able to scrape by, up until I got cornered in the elevator on level 2 by two of those yellow baron guys.  (I can't remember what they're called, but they're the ones that cause spontaneous explosions around themselves)  They completely torched everything in the area, and I had no cover, and was reduced to just running up to them and knifing them with my Brute 2 unmodded combat knife, which wasn't terribly effective, and that's where I got the vast majority of those 25 deaths.  :P  (I didn't actually get Malicious Blades trait until the Wolfenstein level)

So no Diamond badge for me this time, but it was at least good enough for Platinum.  :)  (The game didn't actually take 11 hours;  I just left it running overnight)

Spoiler: Mortem (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.2)
Post by: pika132 on April 06, 2022, 14:11
I know this forum, and this game, and this whole site are dead as hell, but I'd really like to download this mod and the link doesn't work =(
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.2)
Post by: tehtmi on April 06, 2022, 20:14
I don't have the actual release of 0.9.2 (it looks like the only "official" version I have is maybe 0.8.1), but I have dev copies of add's mods that were in the old Chaosforge svn repo (although maybe not the absolute latest versions). Not sure what changes this entails besides some updating to account for changes in the base game. This doesn't work with DRL 0.9.9.7, but it mostly works with the github version. So, I could maybe post a Windows binary of my github fork with a fixed version of dev Elevator, or I could try to downgrade dev Elevator to 0.9.9.7 (maybe not that hard, but I don't really remember all the changes off the top of my head). Or you could wait and see if someone else like Tormuse can share the actual release of 0.9.2.
Title: Re: The Elevator of Dimensions (0.9.2)
Post by: Tormuse on April 08, 2022, 10:30
I know this forum, and this game, and this whole site are dead as hell, but I'd really like to download this mod and the link doesn't work =(

Here.  I just threw my copy on my Google Drive.  Try this link.  :) (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XMAgb_bYA_coWZ8vrsTYXrfk95sz1bD_/view?usp=sharing)