Phobos: The Doomed Moon

[RustyGold]

http://www.mediafire.com/file/t77odtn78b3bb0t/PhobosDoomed.zip/file

 

I've been working on this for about a year. Phobos Is a wad that Is meant to replicate the early 2000's feel of level detail so I would recommend playing It at 300x200 resolution If you got Zdoom to make It have that neat pixel look to It. All the maps were made by me, Most of the music I used from Jimmy's music library with the exception of E1M8 and the title screen which were made by Bloodskull. I also had abit of help from Glaice posting It on Id games. This Is my first full episode wad I have officially released so I hope you find It enjoyable.

 

 

[Reisal]

The /idgames/ link will be up on top once it's clear on the archive.

[galileo31dos01]

6 hours ago, RustyGold said:

I would recommend playing It at 300x200 resolution If you got Zdoom to make It have that neat pixel look to It.

 

Which compatibility is your wad? or, have you tested it in anything other than ZDoom? 

[HAK3180]

I played the first three. Some mid playthrough observations are below.

 

what I liked...

nonlinear design

attention to visual detail

the sky texture

casual ammo shortage in M2

double entrances to yellow and blue doors in M2

The brief outdoor section in M2

barrel use

At least one creative door texture

baron usage

M3 layout

 

What I didn't like...

Random teleporting enemies at beginning of M1 and M2

Confusing exit signage in M1

blue key teleport in M1 (felt like a cheap way to avoid backtracking)

Much/most of the demon usage

Some unclear switches

soulsphere in E2 didn't tag secret for me (or is it not a secret?)

E2 is rather corridor-y at times

significant ammo shortage in M3

 

 

[Reisal]

 

Here's a general idea and an earlier version of E1M1 just to see what you're gonna get into. Gameplay changes are my RDND mod. I still have to play E1M8 now that the map set is final so I will have to get around to doing that.

[RustyGold]

10 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

 

Which compatibility is your wad? or, have you tested it in anything other than ZDoom? 

I've tested It with GZDoom aswell, though I'm sure It will work with any engine.

[RustyGold]

9 hours ago, HAK3180 said:

I played the first three. Some mid playthrough observations are below.

 

what I liked...

nonlinear design

attention to visual detail

the sky texture

casual ammo shortage in M2

double entrances to yellow and blue doors in M2

The brief outdoor section in M2

barrel use

At least one creative door texture

baron usage

M3 layout

 

What I didn't like...

Random teleporting enemies at beginning of M1 and M2

Confusing exit signage in M1

blue key teleport in M1 (felt like a cheap way to avoid backtracking)

Much/most of the demon usage

Some unclear switches

soulsphere in E2 didn't tag secret for me (or is it not a secret?)

E2 is rather corridor-y at times

significant ammo shortage in M3

 

 

Thanks for the feedback.

#1- I thought the blue key teleport would be a cool way to set you on the right path instead of having to backtrack.

#2- I'm not sure what you mean about confusing exit signs on E1M1

#3- I guess I went a wee bit overboard with the pinkies

 

I hope you get to try the later levels most people say they like E1M5 the most. 

[HAK3180]

51 minutes ago, RustyGold said:

#2- I'm not sure what you mean about confusing exit signs on E1M1

You start in front of an exit sign (not too unusual, except this is M1, yea E1M1) and then there's a small box room just after the first door also with exit signs.

[Salt-Man Z]

Ooh, this looks prix coup; I'll have to check this out soonish.

[RustyGold]

You mean these?

[HAK3180]

^

Yeah, that. Not really a need to have an exit sign at the start, especially in the very first level, especially when the actual exit is so close.

[Skunkbear]

I just played through the entire thing (took me a while).  I really enjoyed it!  The visual aesthetics and detail were excellent.  Nice work.

 

I played it on Hurt Me Plenty and found it very difficult.

[Cheshire Sphinx]

Holy. Crap.

 

It’s been a long time since “Phobos: Nightmare Reborn” when that blend of original E1 style, challenge and quasi-plausibility of a realistic (enough) place just comes together to form a sweet and potent experience.

 

With a sane level of detail and attention to the maps’ layouts to fit their theme and purpose, you did a fantastic job stringing me on try and piece together some of the little stories and explore these places that really felt like they belonged not only in their own place but as part of a larger cohesive base. I go in for hard sci-fi and that claustrophobic tension you gave to the entire map set really fed that part of me that longs for prowling derelict ships and moon bases with a slug thrower. >_> Because I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s with those kind of silly fantasies. :)

 

You say this took you a year, and it really shows; the detail and care you put into crafting the environments and encounters just oozes passion and thoughtfulness with awesome ups and downs in tension and combat edging on the hard side. I played on UV, had a few deaths but nothing that felt unfair or something I didn’t kind of get myself into. A particularly memorable one was going into one of the interconnected paths in M2 I think and the hall lead into another where a shotgunner was behind the door that the branching tunnel lead into and a bunch of zombies in front- I focused on the zombies and got blasted in the back and totally could’ve forseen it had I been paying attention to where I was.

 

I’m one of those weirdos that wishes DooM had an involved story with its own lore and something to sink my teeth into more than ‘blast demons, hit button’ and while I’ll probably never get that I can still find parts of it in map sets like this. The atmosphere, the logical layout and theming that says ‘this is a place that could exist and did have functions’ is there in just about every map.

 

Add to this the general feeling of tension and second-by-second decision making you have to process in some of these places and it’s just just magnificent. Part of me hopes you’ll do an E2 and E3 set, I’d love to play a DooM campaign through your eyes. (Creepy, I know.)

 

The only bug (I’m not sure if it was since I only had it happen the once) I came across was the BFG 9k testing chamber after I went through trying to find all the switches to get to it, the ‘vent’ texture bit that hides the switch that opens it didn’t open. I’ll have another go at it later, I may have done something wrong.

 

So, thanks for sharing this. I had a ton of fun playing through it and thoroughly enjoyed the. . . .four hours I spent with it. This just scratched all the right itches. :)

 

Oh, and that ending.

 

>_>

<_<

 

So very fitting.

[Reisal]

File is on /idgames/ now.

[RustyGold]

1 hour ago, Cheshire Sphinx said:

Holy. Crap.

 

It’s been a long time since “Phobos: Nightmare Reborn” when that blend of original E1 style, challenge and quasi-plausibility of a realistic (enough) place just comes together to form a sweet and potent experience.

 

With a sane level of detail and attention to the maps’ layouts to fit their theme and purpose, you did a fantastic job stringing me on try and piece together some of the little stories and explore these places that really felt like they belonged not only in their own place but as part of a larger cohesive base. I go in for hard sci-fi and that claustrophobic tension you gave to the entire map set really fed that part of me that longs for prowling derelict ships and moon bases with a slug thrower. >_> Because I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s with those kind of silly fantasies. :)

 

You say this took you a year, and it really shows; the detail and care you put into crafting the environments and encounters just oozes passion and thoughtfulness with awesome ups and downs in tension and combat edging on the hard side. I played on UV, had a few deaths but nothing that felt unfair or something I didn’t kind of get myself into. A particularly memorable one was going into one of the interconnected paths in M2 I think and the hall lead into another where a shotgunner was behind the door that the branching tunnel lead into and a bunch of zombies in front- I focused on the zombies and got blasted in the back and totally could’ve forseen it had I been paying attention to where I was.

 

I’m one of those weirdos that wishes DooM had an involved story with its own lore and something to sink my teeth into more than ‘blast demons, hit button’ and while I’ll probably never get that I can still find parts of it in map sets like this. The atmosphere, the logical layout and theming that says ‘this is a place that could exist and did have functions’ is there in just about every map.

 

Add to this the general feeling of tension and second-by-second decision making you have to process in some of these places and it’s just just magnificent. Part of me hopes you’ll do an E2 and E3 set, I’d love to play a DooM campaign through your eyes. (Creepy, I know.)

 

The only bug (I’m not sure if it was since I only had it happen the once) I came across was the BFG 9k testing chamber after I went through trying to find all the switches to get to it, the ‘vent’ texture bit that hides the switch that opens it didn’t open. I’ll have another go at it later, I may have done something wrong.

 

So, thanks for sharing this. I had a ton of fun playing through it and thoroughly enjoyed the. . . .four hours I spent with it. This just scratched all the right itches. :)

 

Oh, and that ending.

 

>_>

<_<

 

So very fitting.

Thank you so much for the compliments It really made my day to see that! I'll make sure to do an episode 2 some time in the future.

 

[Cheshire Sphinx]

6 minutes ago, RustyGold said:

Thank you so much for the compliments It really made my day to see that! I'll make sure to do an episode 2 some time in the future.

 

 

If I can help, let me know! Glad I could make you smile as much as you did me!

[RustyGold]

21 hours ago, Skunkbear said:

I just played through the entire thing (took me a while).  I really enjoyed it!  The visual aesthetics and detail were excellent.  Nice work.

 

I played it on Hurt Me Plenty and found it very difficult.

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[RustyGold]

18 hours ago, Cheshire Sphinx said:

 

If I can help, let me know! Glad I could make you smile as much as you did me!

As for the BFG room, I made sure to make It as hard as possible to get the BFG. You may have just missed something when It came to finding all the switches. Two of the switches are In computer looking textures, But they are all In that room so you don't have to search the map. And the ending of E1M8 was inspired by the Doom title cover.

[RustyGold]

On 6/5/2018 at 2:31 PM, HAK3180 said:

^

Yeah, that. Not really a need to have an exit sign at the start, especially in the very first level, especially when the actual exit is so close.

I put It there because It was supposed to be the exit out Into the landing area before the Invasion happened and the Elevator Is the exit to leave down to the second level the nuclear plant. 

[Salt-Man Z]

Played through the first four maps on GZDoom/UV/continuous/saves/keyboard-only, and so far it is an absolute blast. MAP04 in particular was sooo much fun, with the big, sprawling, nonlinear techbase stuffed to he gills with (mostly) lower-tier fodder. Great stuff, and it all looks really good, too. Combat isn't particularly difficult (at least not playing continuous) but it's constant, really keeping the player engaged.

 

If I had any complaints, it would be the automap is a little messy looking; and also that some of the secrets are a little bizarre, like the one in MAP01 that just gives a single health bonus. (But then, maybe lower difficulties have something better there?) Minor, minor issues, though.

 

I did manage to find a missing texture in MAP01:

[hedgehog]

Started playing through this using PrBoom+ and have really enjoyed so far.

 

However, in the second map, I got stuck...

Spoiler

...in the room with the blue key: once I go through the door, it closes and cannot be opened from inside. Maybe I'm being stupid and missing something obvious, but I've scoured the room several times, and there doesn't seem to be any button I should press or any other type of trigger should activate -- the only way I seem to be able to leave the room is to noclip out.

 

The same thing happened shortly thereafter:

Spoiler

After cheating myself out of the blue key room, I went through a dimly lit passageway and finally ended up in an outdoor area, facing a building with a small door in the centre. When I went through that door into an underground bunker-like area and then took the lift on the other side of this bunker, I once again got stuck: the lift rose and then I found myself trapped in a tiny space facing what looks like a door, unable to activate anything. And the lift doesn't go back down again.

 

Now I don't know the first thing about Doom mapping, so maybe I'm way off track -- but seeing as you've only tested in Zdoom and GZDoom, I'm wondering if your maps don't contain some so-called "Zdoomisms" that make them unnecessarily incompatible with non-Zdoom engines (just going by what I've read in other threads). Your readme simply says "Advanced engine needed  : Limit Removing" and what I've seen of the maps so far, they look like they should be PrBoom+-compatible (no slopes or other fancy features). Maybe it'd be worthwhile testing these maps in PrBoom+ too -- and/or being more specific about the engine requirements?

 

 

[Reisal]

@hedgehog I was the one who uploaded the files for him so yeah, Boom at the very least is the minimum port you should use, so I forgot to edit that line on the top. I have reuploaded the text file with the edits that Boom is minimum to play the mapset.

Edited June 9, 2018 by Glaice

[hedgehog]

27 minutes ago, Glaice said:

@hedgehog I was the one who uploaded the files for him so yeah, Boom at the very least is the minimum port you should use, so I forgot to edit that line on the top. I have reuploaded the text file with the edits that Boom is minimum to play the mapset.

 

Thank you very much for responding, but that doesn't really address the problem.

 

Maybe I was unclear in my first post. The problem is that at least one of the maps is broken when played in PrBoom+ (see the spoiler-tagged parts in my previous post for more detail). I haven't played past the second map, so I don't know about the rest of the set, but it is impossible to finish the second map in PrBoom+.

 

I have just run through the same map in ZDoom, and it worked fine -- which strengthens my suspicion that the culprit is some sort of ZDoomism.

 

The point is, it doesn't suffice to assume or hope that something will work in all limit-removing engines if you've only tested it two engines of a very particular family (i.e. ZDoom and GZDoom). Either the readme should specify that the map set is only for ZDoom and ZDoom-derivatives, or the maps should be tested in other engines too, and accordingly fixed/made compatible (if possible).

 

 

 

[pulkmees]

I can also confirm getting stuck at the exact doors as the previous poster using PRBoom+.

 

Checked the editor briefly too. Should work, but doesn't.

Edited June 9, 2018 by pulkmees

[Reisal]

I played through all but E1M8 without a hitch with GZDoom 3.2.5 so it might be a mapper error?

[hedgehog]

51 minutes ago, Glaice said:

I played through all but E1M8 without a hitch with GZDoom 3.2.5

 

That proves nothing other than that the maps work with (G)ZDoom, which is not the issue -- as I wrote, I tested the same area within the same map in ZDoom, where it worked. What I am saying is that I am running into map-breaking bugs in PrBoom+ (as did the person who posted after me).

 

1 hour ago, Glaice said:

so it might be a mapper error?

 

Yes, that is what I said in my previous two posts. The fact that it works in (G)ZDoom but not in PrBoom+ suggests that the map contains ZDoomisms, i.e. "common mapping errors that may appear when a mapper only tests maps in ZDoom, without testing in other source ports" (doomwiki, which I linked to in my previous post as well).

Examples of ZDoomisms include

Quote

-Tag 0 on S1/SR/W1/WR lines - in ZDoom, it will affect the line's back side sector, but in vanilla and classic ports, it will affect all sectors with tag 0 in the entire map -> don't do this, and always use non-zero tags for S1/SR/W1/WR linedef actions. On the other hand, D1/DR actions should have tag 0.
-Walkover linedefs in front of switchable linedefs - in vanilla and classic ports, they'll block player's ability to press use through the walkover linedef -> don't put linedefs with a walkover action in front of doors or switches.

(from scifista42's post in this thread)

 

If you search the forums for "ZDoomisms" (as I just did to find the above examples), you're sure to find more information.

 

 

 

 

[KVELLER]

Hell, it's been a while since I've had so much fun playing a Doom WAD! The pacing and level design was absolute prefection for me.

[RustyGold]

On 6/9/2018 at 12:14 AM, Salt-Man Z said:

Played through the first four maps on GZDoom/UV/continuous/saves/keyboard-only, and so far it is an absolute blast. MAP04 in particular was sooo much fun, with the big, sprawling, nonlinear techbase stuffed to he gills with (mostly) lower-tier fodder. Great stuff, and it all looks really good, too. Combat isn't particularly difficult (at least not playing continuous) but it's constant, really keeping the player engaged.

 

If I had any complaints, it would be the automap is a little messy looking; and also that some of the secrets are a little bizarre, like the one in MAP01 that just gives a single health bonus. (But then, maybe lower difficulties have something better there?) Minor, minor issues, though.

 

I did manage to find a missing texture in MAP01:

 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

 

 

There are more than on bonuses In the secret area, I put like 5 of them there all mushed together to look like one.  I didn't want to have too many goodies so I figured i'd give the player a little health boost. And as for the mirror effect I get on to fixing It with hopefully the one and only patch.

[RustyGold]

14 hours ago, hedgehog said:

Started playing through this using PrBoom+ and have really enjoyed so far.

 

However, in the second map, I got stuck...

  Hide contents

...in the room with the blue key: once I go through the door, it closes and cannot be opened from inside. Maybe I'm being stupid and missing something obvious, but I've scoured the room several times, and there doesn't seem to be any button I should press or any other type of trigger should activate -- the only way I seem to be able to leave the room is to noclip out.

 

The same thing happened shortly thereafter:

  Hide contents

After cheating myself out of the blue key room, I went through a dimly lit passageway and finally ended up in an outdoor area, facing a building with a small door in the centre. When I went through that door into an underground bunker-like area and then took the lift on the other side of this bunker, I once again got stuck: the lift rose and then I found myself trapped in a tiny space facing what looks like a door, unable to activate anything. And the lift doesn't go back down again.

 

Now I don't know the first thing about Doom mapping, so maybe I'm way off track -- but seeing as you've only tested in Zdoom and GZDoom, I'm wondering if your maps don't contain some so-called "Zdoomisms" that make them unnecessarily incompatible with non-Zdoom engines (just going by what I've read in other threads). Your readme simply says "Advanced engine needed  : Limit Removing" and what I've seen of the maps so far, they look like they should be PrBoom+-compatible (no slopes or other fancy features). Maybe it'd be worthwhile testing these maps in PrBoom+ too -- and/or being more specific about the engine requirements?

 

 

I just read some of your posts and I am sorry for taking so long to reply. It seems as If It's a engine error, I assumed sense It worked with the ZDoom family It would work with any engine so i suppose I was wrong. I made the maps without 3-d slopes and the fancy Zdoom lighting hoping that you could use any engine to play It on so I have no Idea why It will not work with that engine and I do not know how to fix It. And for the record I used GZDoom builder with Doom In Doom format also Boom. I'm not 100% what that means.

[Edward850]

4 hours ago, RustyGold said:

I assumed sense It worked with the ZDoom family It would work with any engine so i suppose I was wrong.

It's a fairly common mistake for new users, G/ZDoom's changes aren't always entirely obvious (and I really wish they would at least try to make that more clear to newcomers). ZDoom is probably about the last engine you'd want to test traditional mapsets on. Good options is Chocolate Doom for strictly vanilla mapsets, and PRBoom+ is good for testing limit removing and Boom mapsets. G/ZDoom may support vanilla, limit removing and Boom, but because of its vast array of supported features it has a lot of behavior in such maps that the initial map formats never did.

Edited June 10, 2018 by Edward850