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Pheidippisodium

Posted: 2009.06.21 (04:00)
by Pheidippides
Image

Pheidippisodium:
Welcome to another failed farewell. I was going to say more, originally, but I'll spare you that conceited monologue. Just know that, as with Dialogue, I was intending to quit mapping after I finished this pack, but I've reversed that decision for the time being. All set? Let's continue.

About the Pack:
The pack contains 52 maps, arranged into a column in two parts. Two special maps, Boston Beckons and She Walks In Beauty, act as an interlude and finale (respectively) to the episodes. For these maps to fall into the proper order, your Userlevels list must be sorted by level name.

Boston Beckons was inspired by a view of the Boston skyline from atop the Tisch Library at Tufts University, which is where I'll be going to school next year. She Walks In Beauty was inspired by the poem of the same title by George Gordon, Lord Byron, and by a special someone.

The rest of the pack is typical in its arrangement. There isn't a terribly large difficulty curve, so I tried to sort the maps based on which ones I felt go nicely together thematically as well as in terms of actual gameplay.

All told, this pack is pretty difficult. Slick demos will earn serious respect from me. Enjoy, guys.

Featuring:
00-4: All Along the Watchtower
03-0: Thundercrack
05-0: You Can't Count on Me
06-0: Planet Farmer
06-4: City on a Hill
08-0: Honeycomb Heights
08-2: Starry Saturn Skies
09-1: Cluster Bomb Parade
09-X: She Walks In Beauty

Special Thanks to:
-- epigone, for early playtesting and general support, friendship, and awesomeness.
-- incluye, kkstrong, and Meta Ing, for more playtesting and feedback.
-- astheoceansblue, for support and healthy doses of inspiration.

Update, 11/04/12:
Pheidippisodium, Part II has been released! You can find it here.

Re: Pheidippisodium

Posted: 2009.06.21 (04:20)
by Leaff
Downloaded. Will play whenever the hell my userlevels work again. ;_;

EDIT: Bah, screw it. I went through the text file and am playing through these in debug mode. It's totally worth it, the pack is amazing.

Re: Pheidippisodium

Posted: 2009.06.21 (04:22)
by Riobe
This looks awesome. Can't wait to play through the whole thing. :)

I'll post about every level when I get the chance. :)

Re: Pheidippisodium

Posted: 2009.06.21 (04:29)
by Chained(but-alive)
Good job. i love it

Re: Pheidippisodium

Posted: 2009.06.21 (05:24)
by bobaganuesh_2
<bobaganuesh_2>: not a bad pack Pheidippides
. . .
<bobaganuesh_2>: a bit too post-modern for my tastes

Re: Pheidippisodium

Posted: 2009.06.21 (09:39)
by Tunco
Nice, very nice.

I'm working on a agd demo pack on this map pack, I will post it here when I'm done with it.

Re: Pheidippisodium

Posted: 2009.06.21 (11:13)
by a happy song
Man, some of the designs in this pack are just awesome. Massively inspiring, as I've said before.

I'm not usually a fan of such busy packs, I prefer episodic and gradually increasing difficulty, but the quality of maps really knocks that ideal into the ground.

I'll pick out my favourites and comment soon.

Re: Pheidippisodium

Posted: 2009.06.21 (14:38)
by unoriginal name
How could you release this when I wasn't around? How?! ;_;

*downloads*

Re: Pheidippisodium

Posted: 2009.06.21 (19:09)
by Riobe
Well, I've managed to get through half of the maps. Here's what I thought of them individually:

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

Episode 00

Aghost 4/5 - The tiles are fantastic, and the gameplay is really laid back, but still fun at the same time.

Turbines 4.5/5 - Fantastic map. The thwump racing is just amazing. The top half wasn't as amazing, but it was still very fun nonetheless.

Super-Agro-Crag? Spill my guts. 4/5 - Jumping among the one-ways at the top of the map was definitely my favorite part. However, the bottom half of the map was also very fun as well.

You sunk my Battleship! 5/5 - Again, fantastic gameplay, mechanics, blahblahblah. It was surprisingly more tricky than it first seemed, however it wasn't too frustrating either. Drones were awesome, gauss were awesome, mines were awesome, gold was awesome. No flaws in this one! :D



Along The Watchtower 4/5 - I liked basically everything in this map, though the seeker/gauss/thwump combo did get a bit frustrating at times. Still, it was a great map in the end (especially that top part).

----------

Episode 01

Morning Mile 4/5 - I really liked the jumping on the one-ways above. However, it was a bit awkward trying to maneuver on the tiles below (though that's just a minor quibble at best). Still, fun map.

Blue Rain, Black Sky 4/5 - The jumping in this one sure is tough. Though it was still fun jumping from cloud to cloud. The gauss was also placed well too. Nice aesthetics, as always.

(Don't) Fall 4.5/5 - Fantastic gameplay, fantastic aesthetics, fantastic everything.

Serene 4/5 - The aesthetics are awesome (provides a fantastic atmosphere). The gameplay is fun, though it's very tedious. I do however realize that there wasn't much you could do about that.

Mr. Jones on a London Night 5/5 - The gameplay in this one was fantastic, as was the gameplay. The rocket area of the map was my favorite.

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Episode 02

Piranha - Petrifying, Petrified. 4.5/5 - I absolutely loved that chaingun in this, and the aesthetics were fantastic too.

Ghost Towns in the Ocean 4/5 - The seekers were really fun to dodge, as were the gauss. Aesthetics are again, fantastic.

Fountain Pen Cartography 4.5/5 - You know I'm a sucker for maps with flow. :3

Sandswept 5/5 - Absolutely brilliant placement of the rockets. Aesthetics were also orgasmic. No flaws in this one. :D

Wither 5/5 - This map probably has one of the greatest tilesets I've ever seen in one map, and the placement of the enemies were fantastic in the end as well. Fantastic mines, fantastic gauss, fantastic chaingun, fantastic everything. <3

----------

Episode 03

Thundercrack 4/5 - The chaingun was placed very well, and the gold looked great.

Belay 4.5/5 - The chaingun part was fantastic in this map as well, not to mention all the enemies were placed well in this anyways. I love the tiles, as always too. Nice mechanics as well. :)

The Scientist 4/5 - Those damned laser drones are placed sooo well. :P Oh yeah, nice aesthetics too.

Flight of the Superjinjo! 4/5 - The placement of everything was great. What's new. :P

Atop The Reactor 4.5/5 - The aesthetics and gameplay in this map are fantastic (I'm starting to get major deja-vu right about now). I loved the placement of the mines especially, as they really give a great feel to the map overall. The floorguards were placed well, as were the gauss. My favorite enemy though (besides the mines) would have to have been the laser. Great great placement.

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Episode 04

Fault Line, Fault's Mine 4/5 - Well, let me start of by saying, catchy title. :) The gauss in this one definitely did frustrate me after a while, but the gameplay overall was still pretty awesome. Also, nice aesthetics.

Pneumatics 4.5/5 - I love the placement of everything in this map. Nothing was too annoying, while nothing was too unnecessary. Awesome map.



Supermagnitude 3.5/5 - Whoa, this map is intense. O_o The overall gameplay was nice, though I disliked those drones on the outside of the map a lot. :/ However, the aesthetics were still great. I probably would have liked this map a whole lot more if it wasn't for those 2 drones. ;_;

Crystalize 4/5 - I loved the outside fraction of the map. It was awesome flying in the air to the next area in the beginning of the map. However, the inside portions of the map weren't as great, though still fun. The gauss got frustrating at times, definitely. But since I like to end things on a good note, I'll say this one thing: Nice aesthetics.

A Fraying Semblance of Order 4.5/5 - This map was absolute madness. However, it wasn't as hard as it seemed. This is one of the only few maps I was actually able to get a demo on. :D



The map was awesome though. I loved all the madness, and me being able to complete this level made me feel good about myself. XD Still, wonderful aesthetics, wonderful gameplay.

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Interlude

Boston Beckons 4.5/5 - What a wonderful interlude. I loved the top section, as well as the bottom section especially. The aesthetics in this one were also awesome. Fantastic map, Pheidi.

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

And that's all I can do for now. I'll remember to edit this post whenever I get the chance to finish playing all the maps. :3

Re: Pheidippisodium

Posted: 2009.06.22 (02:20)
by toasters
My favorites: 00-4, 03-2, 03-3, 04-1, 06-2, 06-3, 07-2, 07-3, 08-3, 08-4, and 09-X.

The levels are challenging, which makes sitting down and playing through episodes a little tiresome, but it's fun to pick out one or two levels to play at a time, because they're all very fun. Also, I love how your tilesets can be so visually stunning while still retaining functionality. You're one of the few authors that can really nail that aspect.

Re: Pheidippisodium

Posted: 2009.06.22 (02:43)
by PALEMOON
cool pack, bro!

Re: Pheidippisodium

Posted: 2009.06.23 (01:42)
by epigone
Awesome. I can't wait to play through this, probably over the course of tonight and tomorrow. I'll comment more later.

Re: Pheidippisodium

Posted: 2009.06.23 (04:24)
by otters~1
!!!!

Right when my computer gets fucked.... There's nothing for it--I'll have to steal another.

Re: Pheidippisodium

Posted: 2009.06.23 (23:00)
by epigone
I just finished playing through the pack. Really great, all the way around. It's inspiring, as atob said. It might even inspire me into making maps again.

Re: Pheidippisodium

Posted: 2009.07.02 (16:19)
by Destiny
I gotta hand it to ya, Pheidi, the pack is pretty awesome - even though i'm only halfway through. Since i am going to bring you a text file with AGD's on every level, i've geen going for all gold on each level, and it's been pretty frustrating on a couple. Thundercrack was especially tedious to AGD. It was nearly impossible to track the chaingun when it's at the opposite corner of the map, and i found maneuvering to be a little too restricted to dodge the chaingun so many times. (Dont)Fall was also very frustrating to get all the gold, it must have taken me longer than MTI lol, but all the other levels were very enjoyable and of a very high standard.

I thought Fault Line, Faults Mine was probably one of the most fun maps i've ever played. The layout is absolutely genius, and the difficulty was just right. Much loved.

anyways, here are AGD's for every map from 00-0 to 04-X. Due to the high difficulty of this pack, they took me a long time to gather :P

<3

Re: Pheidippisodium

Posted: 2009.07.08 (02:41)
by otters~1
I'm finally getting to play through this, and, well, it must've been hard to follow up on your other packs, but you've done it. Enough said.

Re: Pheidippisodium

Posted: 2009.07.18 (05:27)
by moonlight
I have to say, I love this pack with all my heart.

Re: Pheidippisodium

Posted: 2009.07.18 (05:40)
by PALEMOON
some levels in here are stupidly hard but i really enjoy them all especially the last one it took me foreverrrrrrrrrrr to beat >:|

Re: Pheidippisodium

Posted: 2009.07.20 (18:59)
by Viil
I love this mappack so much, i hope you mak another one.

Re: Pheidippisodium

Posted: 2009.08.12 (09:37)
by Rule
Amazing...