(Unbalanced CBT version with original music, without Horde Hammer this time) Finally got around to play the unbalanced version, now that I'm more confident in my skills after a plethora of other Master Level mods.
Before I start gushing over how good this level is, I gotta get ONE encounter in particular out of the way:
Spoiler:
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The double Possessed Marauder encounter really needs to be nerfed. Having the encounter all with respawning Blood Maykrs, Hell Knights, Pinkies, Cyber Mancubi (2 each) and an also respawning Cursed Prowler is just too much. Like yeah, CBT and all, but every other encounter of the level (and Unreclaimed Earth Unbalanced) are not as frustrating as this one, it's just not fun. The whole time I was attempting the encounter on my two clears, the only thing in my mind was "Maaan... when can I get to play the game again?". This encounter felt like a stain on an otherwise perfect Master Level in my opinion.
I have a couple of suggestion on how to balance the encounter:
Have one Hammer Pickup each in the middle of both floors. This is because on my first clear, I went to the encounter without any Hammer charges which made it way more difficult than it should be. If there's only one change from this that's going to be made, it should be this one.
Increase the time it takes for the Blood Maykrs to respawn, perhaps twice the current length or more. The current respawn time makes it feel like killing them is pointless, the increased time length would reward the player with a much needed breathing room, but of course not too long that it enables them to camp on the platform.
Either massively increase the Cursed Prowler's respawn time, or have it not respawn at all, or just remove them entirely.
Swap the Cyber Mancubi to normal Mancubi. If the Hammer Pickups suggestion isn't being taken, then this one should.
The only saving grace for this encounter is that there's a checkpoint right after clearing it. Without the checkpoint I would've died IRL.
With that out of the way, another masterpiece of a Master Level! Everything I've said before with the Mild CBT version also applies here but with harder and more chaotic encounters.
One major thing that I didn't realize until my first clear was that almost all encounters throughout the level only consists of a single wave or two, and for a good reason. There's probably only like one encounter that have three waves, and they could probably be categorized as having only two waves depending on the person. Despite the low wave count per encounter, I never felt like saying "That's it? There's gotta be more.", and instead always thought "Whoa holy crap that was really difficult, amazing!".
The level is ultrakill difficult, but it never felt truly unfair (except for the one aforementioned encounter) and no encounter felt like it's overstaying its welcome.
In terms of difficulty comparison, I'd say this level is around 4 levels harder than the official Taras Nabad Master Level, and it takes around 120-160 minutes to complete for the first time, depending on your amount of restarts.
hammer pickup charges for the possessed marauder encounter is a good suggestion i could add those in
the respawn timers are really really tight i agree but the idea was more to deal with the pressure rather than clear openings (isolate from the mancs, react to the blood maykrs with flick shots, ballista and yeethook around if you get cursed, save lock ons for hell knights and constantly charge BPs for the pinkies) you got an entire arena to work with thats not filled to the brim for that encounter so i figured its whatever (still probably the hardest encounter in an already very CBT level though yea)
if anything maybe it could use a stack refill going in i think which could apply for the level as a whole like unreclaimed earth
(Mild CBT version with original music and Horde Hammer, not sure if I'll ever try the full CBT version because I have skill issue)
Masterpiece of a Master Level! The encounters are all very challenging but it never felt straight up unfair, and they are all just the perfect length to not overstay their welcome. I love that you reversed the level's progression on the destroyed Atlantica facility part, just the simple idea of going through that part of the level backwards gives it a fresh spin on the experience. The Meathook Points traversal sections and the Trials were also very fun puzzles and serves as a nice change of pace from the intense combat encounters.
Unfortunately though the level seems to have a bug where sometimes a heavy enemy just dies due to falling from a geometry, which seems to more often happen on Possessed enemies for some reason, though I don't think there's much that can be done about it as it's probably more due to the game's own jank.
Anyways, very great mod! In terms of difficulty comparison, this level is around 3 levels harder than the official Taras Nabad Master Level, and it took me around 100 minutes to complete for the first time.
Oh boi. I f*#@ing did it. Beat both balanced and unbalanced version of this Mod. Man am i proud of myself. It was intense and a lot of encounters took so many lives but i did it. I f*#@ing did it. I tried the unbalanced version first and thought "What is this random ass s#*!?". Tried to beat in on balanced and it was also rough but i finished it. The unbalanced version was actually quite passable after that and I got through some encounters better than i thought. Overall good lvl with some neat ideas. Took overall around 5-10 hours. Enjoyed it, a ton.
I love the unbalanced version. As someone who's played an embarrassing amount of Delta's UACA it really appeals to my sense of masochism. I'd love an option for no music change though, the OG ost for UACA gets my blood pumping.
it would take editing the map file in this case because i replaced and use the tutorial level music for the mod (its alot easier to replace for custom music use and alot less limiting because of all the dozens of short stems normal level music uses)
even the balanced version of this mod is WAY TOO unbalanced, it's similar to horde mode 2 - full of random bullshit with buff totems and possesed enemies in closed space took me 5-6 deaths to beat it on Nightmare on 250 fps well done overall dude well done But truth is master levels should be one idea more balanced and fun to play not filled with unbalanced random stuff xD
24 comments
Finally got around to play the unbalanced version, now that I'm more confident in my skills after a plethora of other Master Level mods.
Before I start gushing over how good this level is, I gotta get ONE encounter in particular out of the way:
Having the encounter all with respawning Blood Maykrs, Hell Knights, Pinkies, Cyber Mancubi (2 each) and an also respawning Cursed Prowler is just too much. Like yeah, CBT and all, but every other encounter of the level (and Unreclaimed Earth Unbalanced) are not as frustrating as this one, it's just not fun.
The whole time I was attempting the encounter on my two clears, the only thing in my mind was "Maaan... when can I get to play the game again?".
This encounter felt like a stain on an otherwise perfect Master Level in my opinion.
I have a couple of suggestion on how to balance the encounter:
- Have one Hammer Pickup each in the middle of both floors.
- Increase the time it takes for the Blood Maykrs to respawn, perhaps twice the current length or more.
- Either massively increase the Cursed Prowler's respawn time, or have it not respawn at all, or just remove them entirely.
- Swap the Cyber Mancubi to normal Mancubi. If the Hammer Pickups suggestion isn't being taken, then this one should.
The only saving grace for this encounter is that there's a checkpoint right after clearing it. Without the checkpoint I would've died IRL.This is because on my first clear, I went to the encounter without any Hammer charges which made it way more difficult than it should be.
If there's only one change from this that's going to be made, it should be this one.
The current respawn time makes it feel like killing them is pointless, the increased time length would reward the player with a much needed breathing room, but of course not too long that it enables them to camp on the platform.
With that out of the way, another masterpiece of a Master Level! Everything I've said before with the Mild CBT version also applies here but with harder and more chaotic encounters.
One major thing that I didn't realize until my first clear was that almost all encounters throughout the level only consists of a single wave or two, and for a good reason. There's probably only like one encounter that have three waves, and they could probably be categorized as having only two waves depending on the person.
Despite the low wave count per encounter, I never felt like saying "That's it? There's gotta be more.", and instead always thought "Whoa holy crap that was really difficult, amazing!".
The level is ultra
killdifficult, but it never felt truly unfair (except for the one aforementioned encounter) and no encounter felt like it's overstaying its welcome.In terms of difficulty comparison, I'd say this level is around 4 levels harder than the official Taras Nabad Master Level, and it takes around 120-160 minutes to complete for the first time, depending on your amount of restarts.
the respawn timers are really really tight i agree but the idea was more to deal with the pressure rather than clear openings (isolate from the mancs, react to the blood maykrs with flick shots, ballista and yeethook around if you get cursed, save lock ons for hell knights and constantly charge BPs for the pinkies) you got an entire arena to work with thats not filled to the brim for that encounter so i figured its whatever (still probably the hardest encounter in an already very CBT level though yea)
if anything maybe it could use a stack refill going in i think which could apply for the level as a whole like unreclaimed earth
Masterpiece of a Master Level! The encounters are all very challenging but it never felt straight up unfair, and they are all just the perfect length to not overstay their welcome.
I love that you reversed the level's progression on the destroyed Atlantica facility part, just the simple idea of going through that part of the level backwards gives it a fresh spin on the experience.
The Meathook Points traversal sections and the Trials were also very fun puzzles and serves as a nice change of pace from the intense combat encounters.
Unfortunately though the level seems to have a bug where sometimes a heavy enemy just dies due to falling from a geometry, which seems to more often happen on Possessed enemies for some reason, though I don't think there's much that can be done about it as it's probably more due to the game's own jank.
Anyways, very great mod! In terms of difficulty comparison, this level is around 3 levels harder than the official Taras Nabad Master Level, and it took me around 100 minutes to complete for the first time.
took me 5-6 deaths to beat it on Nightmare on 250 fps well done overall dude well done
But truth is master levels should be one idea more balanced and fun to play not filled with unbalanced random stuff xD
gg yo