Claustrophobia ('Caged' remake)

[TravyB]

Claustrophobia is a remake of Plutonia's map 4, Caged, with elements of that levels (I assume) inspiration, Doom 2's The Abandoned Mines, thrown into the mix. It was made using the Boom format, which was an interesting change for me, and was tested using GZDoom.

 

Design-wise, I tried to build it around the idea that instead of being so early in the megawad, Caged was instead placed somewhere in episode 2 or 3 of Plutonia. I enjoy both of those maps quite a bit so I figured I might as well try my hand at a fairly quick remake just to try and learn a bit more about level design. 

 

I'd say its pretty difficult. Like Caged (and I hope I'm remembering this right...), the map may at first seem a little bit confusing but once you find the right path (the same as Caged) to the first key you should be good to go. Because it's so dark and everything, its my intention that you play with the software renderer (its kind of required for one section to function as intended, but won't break anything if you don't). There's a few secrets to find, over 200 demons to slaughter and I hope you enjoy it. I'd love your thoughts on it, both positive and negative. 

 

Screenshots

 

Spoiler

 

Download (now with a few fixes)

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/uzm098xy9x9ewls/CLAUS.wad?dl=0

 

The map includes textures taken from Realm 667, to whose creators I give full credit, and the song is "Battle Strategy" by James Paddock.

Edited October 12, 2019 by TravyB

[EffinghamHuffnagel]

Nice map! Constant pressure. Definitely E2. Only suggestion would be to have the Blue Key bars open from both sides, not just the one side, for people who find the back way into the area. Also noticed two missing textures in the door jambs of this closet.

 

 

FYI: it looks like there's a third missing texture on the left-central column, but there's no error in GZDoom, only in ZDoom. I've seen that happen before, but I don't know why.

 

I'm also trying to figure out why this map works (I opened it up in Slade because I couldn't figure out the Megasphere secret). It's Boom format, but there's an Endmap entry, which is UDMF. You have a Pnames entry, but no Texture1. All your textures except RSKY1 are between TX markers. Does that eliminate the need for a Texture1? I had no idea.

 

I haven't gotten around to playing Abaddon's Nightmare yet, but now I'll have to move it up my playlist. You do really nice work. Looking forward to your first megawad.

[baja blast rd.]

How was the map tested? I'm getting R_InitTextures errors in prBoom+, with both the Plutonia iwad and Doom 2. 

[TravyB]

1 hour ago, EffinghamHuffnagel said:

Nice map! Constant pressure. Definitely E2. Only suggestion would be to have the Blue Key bars open from both sides, not just the one side, for people who find the back way into the area. Also noticed two missing textures in the door jambs of this closet.

 

 

FYI: it looks like there's a third missing texture on the left-central column, but there's no error in GZDoom, only in ZDoom. I've seen that happen before, but I don't know why.

 

I'm also trying to figure out why this map works (I opened it up in Slade because I couldn't figure out the Megasphere secret). It's Boom format, but there's an Endmap entry, which is UDMF. You have a Pnames entry, but no Texture1. All your textures except RSKY1 are between TX markers. Does that eliminate the need for a Texture1? I had no idea.

 

I haven't gotten around to playing Abaddon's Nightmare yet, but now I'll have to move it up my playlist. You do really nice work. Looking forward to your first megawad.

Thanks! I actually just put the textures I'm using between the TX markers to make it simple for me to see what I'm working with as I import them since it's my first time using the Boom format and I found the Pnames and Texture1 a bit confusing. If it doesn't have a Texture1 I don't know why? Last I checked it WAS there so I don't know what happened to it. The Endmap entry might be a remnant of my originally using UDMF before I decided to give Boom a try, though that was before I even started on any geometry. Abbadon's Nightmare is alright. I should probably go through it some time and fix some of the mistakes I made with it. 

 

EDIT: Texture1 oughta be there now. I have zero idea how it got deleted, must have done so by mistake at some point, I guess. 

Edited October 12, 2019 by TravyB

[TravyB]

1 hour ago, rdwpa said:

How was the map tested? I'm getting R_InitTextures errors in prBoom+, with both the Plutonia iwad and Doom 2. 

I'm sorry, I completely forgot to mention (again... :\) that I only used GZDoom for testing. I assumed that since I used the Boom format it would work fine with Prboom but I guess I should look into that. Nice catch. 

 

EDIT: I'm stumped... moving the flats out of the FF entries (which I know aren't needed) fixed the error, but then they appear as a black void, not a HoM, so I just don't know what to do. I'll have to do more research on how to get them implemented properly, I suppose. So far I've just kinda figured it out by messing around with different stuff but I suppose that'll only get you so far lol

Edited October 12, 2019 by TravyB

[Magicana]

I ran it in GZDoom and had no trouble.

 

Really liked this map. Definitely could see the homage, but it was its own map - It wasn't just a carbon copy of what had come before.

 

There were a few little things I picked up on (This is nitpicking, I really enjoyed the map):

 

There was a lift (In the nukage, the alternate path to the room behind the blue bars) that had its textures as lower unpegged - I only noticed because I fell off and had to get the lift to lower. It looks weird. That may be a design choice.

 

There were some bars midtextures next to the yellow door that weren't marked as impassable and I could walk through. No big deal, just drops me into a nukage pit I could already access.

 

With the arch-viles and pain elementals, ammo was a little too tight to max. A better player would probably not have that problem. I also missed the plasma rifle secret which would have helped with that.

 

The red switch triggered the trap even though I didn't have the red key - I don't know if that was a walk linedef or not, but it feels like it shouldn't trigger until I've got the red key - It definitely was challenging to trigger it at the start of the game without some of the bigger gun pickups.

 

Fantastic map though. It really kicked my ass, and I loved it.

[TravyB]

3 hours ago, Magicana said:

I ran it in GZDoom and had no trouble.

 

Really liked this map. Definitely could see the homage, but it was its own map - It wasn't just a carbon copy of what had come before.

 

There were a few little things I picked up on (This is nitpicking, I really enjoyed the map):

 

There was a lift (In the nukage, the alternate path to the room behind the blue bars) that had its textures as lower unpegged - I only noticed because I fell off and had to get the lift to lower. It looks weird. That may be a design choice.

 

There were some bars midtextures next to the yellow door that weren't marked as impassable and I could walk through. No big deal, just drops me into a nukage pit I could already access.

 

With the arch-viles and pain elementals, ammo was a little too tight to max. A better player would probably not have that problem. I also missed the plasma rifle secret which would have helped with that.

 

The red switch triggered the trap even though I didn't have the red key - I don't know if that was a walk linedef or not, but it feels like it shouldn't trigger until I've got the red key - It definitely was challenging to trigger it at the start of the game without some of the bigger gun pickups.

 

Fantastic map though. It really kicked my ass, and I loved it.

I was actually wondering myself why the lift looked like that (I thought it might have been a Boom 'floor' thing), and I guess I forgot to uncheck that after changing the method for it to work. I didn't even think to give the trap doors near the red switch a red key req, to be honest lol

I'm glad you enjoyed it.