Claustrophobia 1024 -- Fixed version released!

[Butts]

Yeah, I'll get on that. I've been busy lately sorry.

[Mechadon]

Thank Mik57! I'll go ahead and upload the texture wad again. I'll have an link up on the OP and in this reply shortly.

@Butts: Awesome, looking forward to seeing your updates :D

[EDIT]

Texture resource is back up: http://mekworx.phenomer.net/mekastuff/wads/1024/1024TX_V08.zip

[Mechadon]

I've got some map changes to let everyone know about :

Power Station -> Padma
Enough Space? -> Severed Survival (still pending)
Forgotten Fortress -> Carbacan 1024 (will likely move maps around here)

Barring anything drastic, those should be the final map changes. dutch devil wanted me to drop his Forgotten Fortress map since he released it previously (I believe it was released slightly before Claustrophobia 1024 was officially started). I had started on a 1024 map about a month ago and I decided that I would finish it up and, if it was good enough, I would use it in place of dutch's map. dutch was one of my playtesters and he really seemed to enjoy it, so it will be taking the place of his map. You guys [testing team] will get to play the map if this pre-release build ever gets done :(. The other two maps that are being switched out with what I think will be better maps. The 'Enough Space?' switch is still pending right now. Anywho, just wanted to let you guys know!

[Jodwin]

:(

[Mechadon]

I just finished up all of the map changes. Here's the new listing which includes all of the new maps and swaps:

MAP01: The Warp Facility
MAP02: Return to the Darkening
MAP03: Break the Chain
MAP04: Pit of Sludge
MAP05: Subterfuge 1024
MAP06: Four Square
MAP07: Dead In, Dead Out
MAP08: Hex of Depression
MAP09: Bitter Sanctuary
MAP10: Mudbath
MAP11: Technicfear
MAP12: Spitshine
MAP13: Assault
MAP14: Deception
MAP15: The Inmost Con'dens'ed
MAP16: Nocturnal Abyss
MAP17: Transfer Base
MAP18: Weather Station
MAP19: Nova Scotia Robots
MAP20: Refinery
MAP21: Padma
MAP22: Diminished Apparatus
MAP23: Fear No Evil
MAP24: Second Assault
MAP25: Carbacan 1024
MAP26: Aura of Evil
MAP27: Hell Sewage
MAP28: Poison Ivy
MAP29: Magnum Opus
MAP30: Thanatophobia
MAP31: Skyscrape IV
MAP32: Oil Rig
MAP33: Nil

This should be the very final map list. All that remains at this point is the update to [now] MAP26: Aura of Evil by Butts. After that, the pre-release test build will be released to the testing team, at which point a release date will be set.

[Butts]

Shiiiiiiiiit....

I'm getting to it now. It should be in by tomorrow.

[Kyka]

Go Team. Nearly there. :)

Also, I am stoked that one of the maps I did with KingKill made it into the final cut. :0 yaaaaay. Thanks Mech.

[Carnevil]

Butts said:

Shiiiiiiiiit....

I'm getting to it now. It should be in by tomorrow.

It's tomorrow.

[[name_withheld]]

Out of curiosity, how's 1024 2.5/3 going? I noticed that the other forums are a bit bare.

[Jodwin]

KingKill33 said:

Out of curiosity, how's 1024 2.5/3 going? I noticed that the other forums are a bit bare.

Needing 3-5 maps (two "new" maps currently pending/under work) more, other than that done mapping-wise.

[Reevys]

Got a name for 1024-3 yet?

I like Asphyxiation and Suffocation myself, the only problem with those being neither begins with "C". :/

[sean_muscles]

Cramped 1024? Condensation 1024?

[esselfortium]

Cancelled Megawad Project #1,024

[Jodwin]

Claustrophobia II: The mystery of too many maps.

[Butts]

Constriction 1024.

I'm finished... maybe. Sending to Mek right now.

[Mechadon]

With any luck I should have the pre-release build ready for testing as well as a release date up today. Yay!

[EDIT]

Blarg, damn blackout :(. Ok so it'll come sometime tonight.

[Mechadon]

Alrighty, after far too long, the Pre-Release build is finally ready! Like last time, this is limited to the testing team. A password is required to unzip the contents of the wad; it is the same as the previous build's password. If you misplaced your password, drop me a PM and I'll send it to you again. You may need 7-Zip in order to extract everything. If your having problems extracting it, give it a whirl.

- Claustrophobia 1024 - Pre Release Test Build - 7.4M (password required)

I typed up a quick readme for you guys to go over. But I'll quickly summarize the points made in it right now:

• Since this is the Pre-Release test build, please try to stay away from nitpicky/subjective feedback as much as possible. This time, make sure all of the previous major bugs are fixed and no other major bugs have cropped up since then.
  
• MAPS 10, 21, 25, and 32 are either brand new maps or have changed significantly. In this case, feel free to offer subjective feedback. But keep super nitpicky stuff down to a minimum please.
  
• I included the readme with this build. If you could, please go over it and make sure there aren't any errors of any kind. Also if you've got info to add to it (ie. music credits, if you used any other editor besides the ones listed, etc etc), let me know and I'll add it.
  
• I found out how to edit PLAYPAL lumps in XWE a few days ago. So, of course, I just had to make adjustments to our current color palette. From what I can tell there aren't any problems with it. If you happen across a bug with it, please let me know.
  
• WinMBF has a problem with maps 02, 09, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 25, 29, 33. I don't know what the problem is and it was too late to try and fix it. On those maps, WinMBF will crash with a Segmentation Fault, which means absolutely nothing to me. If anyone knows what the problem is, please let me know. All of the maps work just fine in prboom-plus.
  
• As far as content goes, just about everything is done and in the wad. What we lack is the complete version of D_READ_M (for MAP33) and demos. Jimmy91 is taking care of MAP33's track (there's an incomplete version in this build). If you'd like to volunteer to do a demo, please let me know! I don't want to do them all myself...actually I'd prefer if I didn't do any of them, heh. Also if someone would like to explain to me exactly how replacing the demos works....I would really appreciate it!
  

That should be it! As with anything I do, there's an extremely high possibility that I'm forgetting something. Please don't be afraid to speak up and/or smack me around a bit if something is wrong or missing or broken, etc! I'll be posting all of this stuff on the OP so it's easy to find.

As for the release date, I'm mulling through the calender right now. Since this testing session will not take long [or it better not anyways] I'm thinking a week or two from now should do it. If anyone wants to get their two cents in about the release date, now's the time to do it.

[The Green Herring]

Right away, just from the first few minutes of play, a bug on MAP04!

Spoiler

The soulsphere secret is now a gunfire-activated door... except it doesn't work, because both the door and its linedef are untagged. Whoops!

[The Green Herring]

This just in: After playing MAP06, I have to say I'm rather ticked. Why? In the process of getting converted to MUS, the BGM I composed for it lost the pitch bend effect, completely ruining the intro riff (in both the times it occurs.) If you've ever played Hell Revealed, this is why the version of "Oww!!" (from Rise of the Triad) that plays on MAP09 sounds worse than the original. This once again makes me question why you converted every single song to MUS when Boom (and even vanilla Doom, in its later versions) can play MIDIs just fine. "Consistency" be damned.

[Mechadon]

Heh, not a problem. I'm picky when it comes to consistency but I don't mind not converting a track if it causes a problem. I don't have an ear for any inconsistencies that might pop up from converting the .mid to .mus so it couldn't tell. So yea, no need to be ticked, I will gladly use the .midi version :p. Oh and if you happen to notice any other musical issues with any of the other tracks, please let me know and I will rectify the problem ;)

[Joshy]

Nasty bug in Map 22 (Diminished Apparatus): When you exit the level, it just doesn't move on to the next level. Instead, it replays the same level. I think the switch is 'go to secret exit', instead of the normal exit?

[Mechadon]

Ah, I found the problem. It's a bug with the MAPINFO lump for ZDoom ports (haven't checked EMAPINFO yet). The problem has already been resolved; just use the console to go to the nextmap in ZDoom ports. Do the same for MAP24, MAP25, and MAP29. I moved around alot of the latter maps and I forgot to update the next map in the rotation properly :P.

[EDIT]

EMAPINFO has also been updated, though for a different reason than above. I had MAP30 warping to MAP33 for some reason. Whoopsie!

[EDIT2]

Alright, I think I've come up with a release date: Friday, June 12th. I'll wait and see if anyone has any reasonable objections for a bit and then I'll finalize it.

[Joshy]

Two gameplay bugs found:

Map24: Second Assault:
In the red skull room, the player gets stuck and there is no way out. Apparently the floor tagged as number 7 which reveals a switch to open blocked door doesn't lower. I think its the linedef action lower to highest floor that stops the lowering as the adjacent sector is 128 high, hence the floor stays with the highest floor. I hope I explained that correctly. Heh :3

Map26: Aura of Evil:
Most of the monsters are teleported 'asleep' (unalert) using conveyor belts, so most of the monsters will be asleep instead of charging at the player. In fact, the last teleport trap can be easily avoided by leaving the unaware baron alone on the demonface sector, which blocks all the other waiting monsters until the teleport to exit lowers.

[Mechadon]

Both bugs have been fixed. I'm keeping a changelog all of the changes made from Build 2's release and onward. You can see it here. I'll be updating it regularly. I'll also post the link in the OP.

[The Green Herring]

Mechadon said:

Heh, not a problem. I'm picky when it comes to consistency but I don't mind not converting a track if it causes a problem. I don't have an ear for any inconsistencies that might pop up from converting the .mid to .mus so it couldn't tell. So yea, no need to be ticked, I will gladly use the .midi version :p. Oh and if you happen to notice any other musical issues with any of the other tracks, please let me know and I will rectify the problem ;)

To be honest, it didn't cross my mind that converting to MUS does this until I listened to the music in the pre-release. D: Also, if you'd like to be consistent, I'd suggest using the MIDI version of MAP01's music as well, if only because it seems really weird to me for one of my two songs to be in MIDI form, but not the other.

Random observations while playing the pre-release version:

MAP08: Hex of Depression -
* The secret is still given away on the automap.

MAP10: Mudbath -
* The monster teleports at the end can be a little slow. It'd help if, uh, the teleporter pads were pointed toward their destinations instead of away from them.
* The secret door is given away on the automap.

MAP14: Deception -
* The side tiles in the first hallway aren't aligned with the floor tiles, even though it's perfectly possible for them to be so.

Mechadon said:

WinMBF has a problem with maps 02, 09, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 25, 29, 33. I don't know what the problem is and it was too late to try and fix it. On those maps, WinMBF will crash with a Segmentation Fault, which means absolutely nothing to me. If anyone knows what the problem is, please let me know. All of the maps work just fine in prboom-plus.

This is because all of those levels have zero-byte REJECT lumps. Believe it or not, even Boom and MBF require full-size REJECT lumps to load a map, even if they just consist of zeroes. Your use of ZDBSP is the likely culprit for this, as it does not generate a REJECT lump by default; it has a command line argument, --zero-reject, for the purpose of generating simple full-sized REJECTs (consisting of all zeroes) which are compliant with ports other than ZDoom.

[Mechadon]

The Green Herring said:

This is because all of those levels have zero-byte REJECT lumps. Believe it or not, even Boom and MBF require full-size REJECT lumps to load a map, even if they just consist of zeroes. Your use of ZDBSP is the likely culprit for this, as it does not generate a REJECT lump by default; it has a command line argument, -zero-reject, for the purpose of generating simple full-sized REJECTs (consisting of all zeroes) which are compliant with ports other than ZDoom.

I see...I recently switched to DB2 at which point I was able to use ZDBSP again (for whatever reason, ZDBSP would just crash with DB1). I'm glad this ought to be a fixable thing then...just gotta figure out how to do it.

Anywho, I will go ahead and fix all of those things you mentioned in those maps. And I'll also change your MAP01 music to .midi as well ;)

[The Green Herring]

All right. Oh yeah, I corrected the command line argument I mentioned in my post, as it needs two dashes at the start instead of one.

Also, even in PrBoom+, the blank-REJECT maps don't quite run "properly," as the port filling in the blanks (a la vanilla Doom) results in odd things like monsters that don't notice you until you walk right up to them or shoot them. MAP15 has this especially bad, from what I've noticed so far.

[Mechadon]

Hooray for people smarter than me! The rebuilt nodes did the trick (as if I had any doubt). Thanks alot for helping me out there TGH :D

The changelog hath been updated.

[Jodwin]

Question about the changelog:

- [MAP26] Fixed the monster teleporters so you can't just have the Baron block all incoming monsters until the exit teleporter lowers (I think). Just made all in-bound teleporting monsters un-deaf.

Does this mean "all" you did was make the monsters not deaf? This fix works in (at least) prBoom, where if a non-deaf idle monster teleports to a sector where you have once shot it's automatically awakened, but it doesn't work in ZDoom in which you'd need to shoot again after the monster has teleported in (this caused me some grievance back with Skyscrape, although in an opposite way as I wanted to have idle monsters teleporting in that could be later awakened with gunshots, but that doesn't work in prBoom at all :( ).

edit:
You could either make it a "normal" monster teleport instead of conveyor belts, or make them be awakened by gunshots in the belt but make it scroll faster than the monsters can move (unless there's cacos in there :P).

[stewboy]

The Green Herring said:
* The monster teleports at the end can be a little slow. It'd help if, uh, the teleporter pads were pointed toward their destinations instead of away from them.

I didn't know it made a difference.
Mek, can you fix those bugs, or should I?