Obviously, I'm still here too.

Since we ARE all here at the moment though...anybody notice PD's front page seems to be a bit...how shall I put it...under the weather?

I have also seemed quite “absent” a lot lately.   But… Here I am!

*potential necropost warning!*
I believe that you left out the unused boss death roll sounds (Bosses 3-6)
They sound drastically different from the default d2 boss death sound, and Boss deaths 5 and 6 seems to sound like the default being split into 2 sound files

Goes to show how often I do not play D2X-XL anymore these days then, as I hadn't previously noticed Karx had tweaked the weapon loadouts...that does seem like an odd thing to decide to go and change, but I know Karx just well enough to know he wouldn't have done it without a reason (even if the reason makes more sense to him than others, but beside the point). In any case, I don't have an issue with it, as I said before, so that's probably the important thing to take from this, but it did surprise me nonetheless.

I haven't actually played anything of the Pumo Mines, to be honest, not because there wasn't interest but because I'd previously encountered troubles getting it to run well enough to be worth trying to play (D2X-XL levels can have the downside of being resource hogs sometimes, depending on how they're built). It's been awhile since I last tried though and I know Pumo's since released an update, so I should probably try again, but...well, you already know how long it took me to get around to playing this level set, so...  Still, on the agenda.

I think that's part of the reason why I liked the energy pulse mechanic attached to the cloaked bots, it helps make them a little more visible. But to me it also just makes sense that a cloaked robot, presumably operating on stealth, would resort to such a function as a means of attack. In any case, to me it just makes more sense for a cloaked lifter than a regular one.

So I finally--FINALLY--sat down and played the first three levels of this. And then wasn't able to get back here and say anything about it until about two days later, so...par for the course there. 

More seriously though, I am actually fairly impressed by what I've seen thus far, Kai. I admit, I went into it not really sure what to expect going off of what you described, but these levels have been pretty nicely designed thus far. So much so, I'd even go as far as say it's among the better D2X-XL specific levels I've played, because the thing about D2X-XL is that it introduces all of these neat new features, and I've noticed most builders treat it as if new toys to play with and end up implementing them fairly...arbitrarily. It leaves such features feeling random, overdone, or just out of place, like something's that just sort of...tacked on...to an otherwise traditional level as if after the fact. They are, if anything, just a fun gimmick that's not super necessary, or just a unneeded nuisance or extra step.

But I don't get that here. You've thus far managed to use those features creatively and effectively, in ways that make sense, and it only adds to the overall enjoyment of the levels. 

The custom robots also work pretty well, with easy to identify designs and iconic patterns of behavior/attack that stick with a player, and overall feel decently balanced in terms of difficulty and when and where they are used, while also not really reinventing the wheel, as there isn't enough need to. One thing I noted you did that I particularly liked was with your standard lifter bot, it doesn't fire the homing green plasma attacks, but the cloaked ones do, which I thought was a clever idea that I'm sort of wishing the official D2 campaign had thought to use (though of course, I always thought D2 had over-utilized that particular mechanic, but beside the point).

The ambient sounds are well utilized as well--I remember you emphasizing them once in a comment and I can see why, because they are very effective and used in the right spots at the right times when and where it makes most sense to use them. Very atmospheric and immersive.

The custom music didn't play when I played...but I think that's just because they're redbook tracks and I have D2X-XL set to favor the midis instead, and it just defaulted to the standard music there. In any case, not much to say there as a result.

I think the overall level I liked most thus far was the second one, as I liked the organized and procedural lab half of the level and how it contrasts with the more unorganized and uneven cavern half of the level, and it's just immediately eye-grabbing in all the right ways. It's the sort of level that visually sticks with you and will immediately come back to mind the next time you play it because it's that iconic. All of the three levels I've played thus far have been like that to some degree, and I fully expect the fourth one will be the same (even though all I've seen of it thus far is that it opens with a big pit that drops down into what looks like a black nothing).

Speaking of--you use the big rooms effectively too, enough that whenever I see I'm about to enter another one of these big rooms, I get a little nervous, wondering what you have lurking in there just out of sight, a sense of anxiety I loved about classic D1, so additional props for successfully recapturing that--it's not an easy thing to do, it turns out!

The briefings and overall story are fairly standard for Descent, but effective and get the job done, and that's what's important there.

I think the only real criticism I have was the underwater reactor area of the third level, and that's less a complaint on you than it is a complaint on that D2X-XL feature altogether, as the "underwater cubes" as we'll call them were a neat idea on paper, but I think ultimately proved to be more just...frustrating...for the player to navigate (much less try to battle in) than it is entertaining--it's definitely a feature best used tastefully and probably sparingly, but there it is anyway. But at least it's not game-breaking--just annoying but not annoying enough to not go ahead and persevere and get past it anyway.

I noticed you tweaked the weapon loadouts, so that, for example, even when you have an ammo rack, the max amount of homing missiles you can carry is 15 instead of the traditional 20 for D2--I assume this was an attempt to mirror Pyro-GL weapon loadouts? Not complaining, it just surprised me, really. It otherwise hasn't affected my gameplay in any real meaningful way that I've noticed.

...can't really think of anything else to say beyond that (though I feel like I'm forgetting something), but yeah, there's my thoughts thus far. Apologies for taking so very long to get around to it, I really hadn't wanted to delay this long for it, but...that's life for you, I guess.