Asylum of the Wretched [UPDATED]

Updated Version [Uploaded Dec.2, arrived in /nestuff Dec.4]

1.Added a few stimpacks here and there for level 1, plus a visor
2.Little bit more ammo and enemies (ammo just to for extra imps)
3.More torches with light sectors around them
4.One more texture to go with the black brick
5.Little bit more detail
6.The stairs still fall, but in a differant way.
7.aotw.txt has a section for "Notes from varies prisoners"
which gives some hints. It's kinda stupid, but oh well.
8.Increased lighting some in the basement with the Modified Baron
9.2nd Baron encounter isn't randomly teleported between 4 sectors
10.The 1st crushing ceiling is a Xtremely obvious trap now
11.Erased some normal textures that were blocking a few windows
13.The pit with the pentagram has a way out now
14.*ADDED* A switch that will raise the Red Key from the pool of guts
15.Added some Cacodemons and Lost Souls outside of the Asylum
for difficulty 4/5. They'll find there way in through a window
16.Added some Cyberdemons in the outside area also
17.Added more screams and 2 differant kinds of screams
18.Added heart beat noise.
19.Added rocket launcher/boxes outside of the Asylum
20.Modified Barons alert sound
21.Smoothed out teleporting a little bit
22.Added 1 evil laugh that should go off in crushing room
23.Added chanting type sound in pentagram room
24.The 2nd outside area now has 3 switches instead of 2
25.I replaced a few colors in the Baron fireball with yellow.
There were a few grays and light pinks that I didn't want.
26.Updated the credits
27.Flaming barrles have a wind and fire sound
28.Torches have a fire sound
29.Some enemies don't affect kill%, such as the SS Nazi who you
dont even see, etc...
30.Increased the power of a rocket
31.Increased the lighting in the pit around the Asylum.

My! It's so very big :) Wow. Quite good really. Here's what I think it needs. More lighting contrast. It's very dark. Also the textures you use tend to be dark as well. I'd brighten it up a little. Not too much that you lose that atmosphere though. That was great. More action. There are some long stretches with no encounters. I know what you are trying to achive. The tension of wondering where the baddies are, and being caught off guard when you finally do run into something. That works for a while. This is a very long map though. You also need to keep the player's attention. I may be wrong about this, but I had trouble finding enough weapons, ammo, armor, health etc to get by. Maybe it's there and I couldn't find it?
I can't beat this level. Since it's so big, multiple attempts are not really an option. After awhile I just got to the point of giving up. You need to make so the player believes it can be beaten.

The amount of work you put into this one is pretty obvious. Very good atmosphere, very original and really tough. I havent beaten it yet, but ive tried about 10 times already. I like the spooky sounds you gave to the cyber. I was a little confused by the graphic you replaced the clip with though. I havent ever seen a wad quite like this big boy before and i think its one of the best single player maps ive played, Id like to see more like it.

Where do I download this wad?

You can get if from the newstuff section of Cdrom.com or off the
mainpage of this site, it just got its review today.

This is a very strange wad indeed. Its not very detailed, yet beutifull. The music aint great, yet fantastic. The idea aint great, yet unbelievable. This wad made me change my look at DooM! ...once again...

Keep it up Malice. Keep it up! :)

Malice Rancor said:

1.Added 2 Soul Spheres (1 in the fan room & 1 in crushing room)

Nah, don't do that. Maybe on the easy skill level, but it's more than fine the way it is now. If you're running around with full health like that, the suspense is gone.

2.Little bit more ammo and enemies

Again, I think it's fine the way it is. Perhaps a few more cacos and lost souls, as those can easily be killed with a chainsaw, but no more ammo.

3.More torches with light sectors around them

Not many!! The lighting right now is just about perfect.

6.The stairs still fall, but in a differant way.

I would assume you mean the stairs after you run through the blood pit with that baron guy in it near the beginning? There's a trick to those - I noticed the steps you have are 2 sectors, so even though you tell them both to lower at the same time, the inside one won't lower beyond the nearest floor, which is the outside of the step, which is an equal height, so obviously nothing happens, and you get some texturing errors (missing textures). There's a way you can keep the same setup, but link the middle sectors to dummy sectors in a small area outside the map, and set the dummy sectors to the same floor height and special # as the main floor. If you don't know how to do this I can explain further, but since you're getting help from somebody else he can try and show you first ;)

11.Start out with 33 health instead of 23

I prefer 23 myself.

Stphrz said:

My! It's so very big :) Wow. Quite good really. Here's what I think it needs. More lighting contrast. It's very dark. Also the textures you use tend to be dark as well. I'd brighten it up a little. Not too much that you lose that atmosphere though. That was great. More action. There are some long stretches with no encounters. I know what you are trying to achive. The tension of wondering where the baddies are, and being caught off guard when you finally do run into something. That works for a while. This is a very long map though. You also need to keep the player's attention. I may be wrong about this, but I had trouble finding enough weapons, ammo, armor, health etc to get by. Maybe it's there and I couldn't find it?
I can't beat this level. Since it's so big, multiple attempts are not really an option. After awhile I just got to the point of giving up. You need to make so the player believes it can be beaten.

Hm... you lack skillz then :P I had to reload savegames a few times because I got killed, but you should have to do that with every good map. If I was the author I probably would have made it a bit harder.

Lüt said:

Oh, a few other things - first, there is that place where you have the ceiling crusher (the only part that shows up on the map). You have 2 separate sectors start the crushing action. These can fall out of sync rather easily (and in fact, did in my game). You can either change the type of crusher they are to fix this, or add textures to the in-between lines so that people can see there are two different units if and when they fall out of sync.

Second - that pit around the pentacle: I couldn't find a way out when I fell down there. It was dark so I probably missed something, but if there is no way out, you should add one.

Third - the red skull key. It was in a place that was somewhat 'indented' into the ground. I could walk over it but couldn't pick it up because it was too deep into the ground. Had to use clipping to get it. I checked the map and there's no lines or switches to raise the key out of the rest of the pit, so I'd suggest removing the floor indent.

Fourth - no automap is really annoying. It just got a little too confusing since the level is such a maze.

Fifth - those silent teleports are a bit strange. You walk into a dark hall and then all of a sudden the rest of the map appears. Smooth those out a little by adding an extra corner to the hallways, so when the player teleports, he has to turn the corner before moving onto the next scene. That makes the transitions almost unnoticable.

OK, that should be it for now...

Lüt said:

I didn't add many more, biggest reason I did was so that there
wouldn't be so many sectors with the same light level next to
each other. I also like to make the light at 96 between torches
to hide enemies in too.

As for the stairs, I made it so the outside edge falls first. And then the inside falls next.

Lüt said:

Hm... you lack skillz then :P I had to reload savegames a few times because I got killed, but you should have to do that with every good map. If I was the author I probably would have made it a bit harder.

Glad to hear you beat it. I was beginning to think it was impossible. I would have tested it out myself but it doesn't work with Legacy. And legacy is the only port that uses my Gravis controller, which looks just like the playstations
controller. I haven't used the keyboard for doom in ages.
I did run through it on God mode making sure there was enough
ammo though.

Lüt said:

Hm... you lack skillz then :P I had to reload savegames a few times because I got killed, but you should have to do that with every good map. If I was the author I probably would have made it a bit harder.

Oh well. To each his own. This map just takes different skills to beat it that's all. I guess I'm too used to DM and action packed Doom singleplay. I prefer dropping monsters like demons and cacos etc with the ssg than with a chainsaw. Kill 'em all, kill 'em fast and onward I say. That's just me though.

Malice Rancor said:

16.Added some Cyberdemons in the outside area also

mmmfph. Unless there's ammo, I would recommend not. It's kind of a standard thing to be able to get 100% kills on a map.

Sure I can throw in some ammo by the exit or something, but it will be optional if you want to kill the 3 cybs or not. Can't really think of a way to force you to kill them.

I wouldn't really suggest ammo either :| If there was some constructive way you could have them killed, that would be great. Like, shoot a pillar and have a ceiling fall. The reason I don't recommend it is that quite often, people will place a boss in their levels and give you the ammo for it. However, most of them are easy to avoid and thus you can breeze through the rest of the level.

It's only a suggestion, just so you know there are people out there that gripe about a level having to have 100% everything be possible (I always try and make that possible in my maps).

Another thing you could do, as long as you are editing a Dehacked patch, is to change the cyberdemon's life limit to something reasonable, say 500-1000 hit points instead of the original 4000.

I just realized that you can't get 100% kills in this level. Not in the Original or the soon Update. There are enemies in the walls... Did you ever have to dodge the Fireballs from the Barons
that for some reason weren't even there? You would have to go back in the level and kill the Baron in the Basement, and the one in the Cell. I guess I will change the attribute that makes them count towards you kill. I could do that with the Cybs too, so that you can still get 100% without killing the enemies that weren't ment to be killed.