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I'm glad to hear that some of the negative aspects of this mod I have experienced have already been fixed or at the very least are being looked into, very encouraging news!

I genuinely hope that you will consider making "fast monsters" optional as opposed to being on by default for Serious Difficulty though as I truly think most of all the balancing issues stems from it.

At any rate I hope that I have provided some useful feedback in my videos despite my negative rants at times. I really want to see this mod succeed as there really isn't anything else like it available for the Sam franchise. This mod has so much untapped potential and I wish nothing for the best for you.

I will eagerly be awaiting any new version of this mod available to be tested!

I feel dumb for not replying to this sooner. Yes I am interested in joining the Classics Discord server if it means I have a more direct line of communication with sharing feedback on the mod.

The version I am playing I believe is "Update 41" as the latest one labeled "A temporary fix" for some reason made the game crash to desktop without any warning after loading any level. Full disclosure though, at the time of downloading I just used the "- The Mod Itself -" hotlink to download the mod, so for all I know it could have led me to an earlier version of the .gro file.

Lastly I have finally updated the playthrough to contain all of the Planet Atlantis levels. I won't sugar coat it though, I got pretty pissed off during some key fights, so expect some long winded rants that are pure rage venting that really don't offer any meaningful feedback. I am hopeful that I provided enough useful feedback in these commentaries and that if nothing else the footage will help you out in further refining combat encounters.

I hope to complete the remaining 2 levels soon and update those to the playlist, will send an update when that happens.

EDIT: I also wanted to say that I wholeheartedly agree with you that dying a couple times is part of the learning process and is entirely expected when playing on the hardest difficulty. Where I personally draw the line is when fights are unable to be beaten consistently despite having a good understanding of the fight itself. I would argue that any good fight should be able to be beaten consistently with enough practice and skill. If the player has practiced a fight countless times and has a good grasp on their arsenal and what enemies they can expect to face then they should be rewarded for their efforts, not thrown into a blender to see how many times they need to slam their head into a wall before they can break through.

The challenge should ultimately come from the basics of dodging and shooting; knowing which weapons are effective against which enemy types, learning enemy attack patterns, and how to dodge them when overlapping with other enemy attacks.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCkJwPBctJN0WX0mziYdAteAXGO3CIkys

Here is a link to the current playlist of maps I have recorded. So far it contains all Ancient Cambodia & Deserted El Deratto levels. Remainder of levels will be updated to this playlist and I will comment here when that happens.

TODO - Add chapters & pinned comments to videos to help skim to relevant areas, finish recording & uploading remaining levels.

I have a couple videos ready to share. I can post the links here if you want or I can DM them to you if you have somewhere private you want me to send them.

They have English commentary and some of what I say is quite rude due to frustrations with some... particular fights.

Apparently so yeah

The previous .gro file you had available for download worked fine for the most part. The main bug related issues were the door not opening for the final arena in the 1st level and the file not being named correctly that made Crystal Mountains unable to launch

I could make unlisted videos and provide you the link if that works better for you

Oh, also I downloaded the temporary fix version and is still giving the same error in console when trying to open Crystal Mountains level, not sure what's going on with it

EDIT: I've tried launching multiple levels and every time it closes the the game without any warning. It also resets settings like forcing the mod to launch in windowed mode every time despite my changing it to borderless

2nd EDIT: I figured out why the Crystal Mountains level still doesn't work. I went to Serious Sam Classic The Second Encounter\Mods\TheSequel\SoundsF\Destruction and found the sound file it says is missing. You have it named Impact_Stone01.wav when it should be named Impact_StoneLarge01.wav. I renamed it though I can't tell if it worked or not because instead of booting me back to the difficulty screen it again showed me a black screen for a second after the loading bar finished and closed the application

3rd (and hopefully final) EDIT: Luckily I still had the old .gro file of the mod I had downloaded a couple weeks ago and it seems to be working fine. I tested and renaming the file did indeed solve the issue with not being able to load Crystal Mountains level

Thanks for the reply, I have a small Youtube channel and would be more than happy to do some gameplay of your maps on Serious Difficulty to hopefully highlight fights in the mod that are well balanced and those that are not.

Either way I'm very much looking forward to seeing how this project evolves over time. I've always wanted a campaign that integrates elements from all the mainline Sam games including Next Encounter and this mod does this and much more.

Hello, I've been playing this mod on and off for the last couple of weeks on Serious Difficulty and have a couple bugs and suggestions to post.

First I just want to say this is one of the coolest mods for Serious Sam I have ever seen. The visuals are incredible, the music by Senmuth compliments the maps brilliantly, and I really like how weapons with secondary firemodes are balanced around needing to have the alternate ammo type. The environments are absolutely gorgeous and are hands down the most visually unique since probably Next Encounter.

Onto the bugs:

- If playing with the Classics Patch the XM8, SS2 Plasma, Flamethrower, and a couple other automatic weapons will have incredibly fast fire rates. This can be fixed in the Classics Patch options via "Gameplay Customization" and disabling the "Fix Timers" option that prevents the slow down bug. Even though the user can fix this issue, I hope it's something that will be looked into.

- Cluster Grenades fired by the Grenade Launcher's secondary fire can randomly fly in random trajectories, usually above and slightly behind the player for some reason. It doesn't happen every time but often enough that it can make using Cluster Grenades feel like a gamble.

- In the first level, Ancient Cambodia - Overgrown Ruins, the door leading to the final arena doesn't open after beating the fight with the 2 Next Encounter cannon statues.

- The level Planet Atlantis - Crystal Mountains cannot be played. Trying to open the map results in the following console message: File 'SoundsF\Destruction\Impact_StoneLarge01.wav' does not exist

Suggestions:

- If possible, please add input buffering for secondary attacks. If switching to a weapon like the Rocket or Grenade Launcher, holding down the secondary attack key doesn't do anything. You have to release and re-press the secondary attack key to make the weapon fire once it's finished being fully drawn.

- Please please please, for the love of God and all that is holy, remove/disable "fast monsters" on Serious Difficulty. I think the idea itself is really cool and could make for an interesting custom mutator. Being on by default for Serious Difficulty though feels like complete bs, especially in the case of large monsters like Highlanders or that one blue Bull Soldier from the end of that one fight in the Angkor Wat level. In the span of it firing off 3 rocket volleys it's pretty consistently able to run up and one shot Sam with an undodgeable melee attack.

- The final fights of Forgotten Temple & Warrior's Way, the Ghostbuster fight of Bayon Temple, the last 2 arenas of Angkor Wat, pretty much the entirety of Fungal Caverns (especially the room where you pick up the statue with all the faces on the wall) are very over tuned and have quite a few things in common. Commonalities include Serious Speed pickups that are either absent entirely or don't respawn after being used, spawning 5~7 waves of monsters in a row without any pauses or meaningful resupplies, and spawning additional rushing enemies in largely projectile based waves that immediately follow a large wave of rushing enemies. I haven't mentioned any of the Planet Atlantis levels purely because I haven't spent much time on them yet so will probably comment on them at a later date.

- Fine tune enemy melee attacks to ensure they match the attack animations. The Snake & Poison Crab enemies from Fungal Caves and the SS2 Neanderthals with shields in particular have melee attacks that far exceed the range of their melee animation and can hit the player from pretty considerable distances. Of course this is super noticeable because of fast monsters which if nothing else gets changed please at least change this, I beg you.

Sorry for the long rant. I'm honestly in love with this mod and think it has potential to be one of, if not, the greatest Sam mod to exist. It takes elements from all the Sam games and manages to stand alone as a completely unique experience. I really hope you will remove fast monsters from Serious Difficulty and will consider reviewing how some of the fights play.

The best way to summarize my experience with this mod would be something like this: The levels are extremely fun to play up until you get to that one arena fight that takes 26 retries and some secret Serious Bombs I thankfully stumbled across in order to beat.