OBLIGE 3.39 Released

[andrewj]

OBLIGE is a random level maker for DOOM 2.

Version 3.39 has been released. This is the first public release after the big rewrite (which is on-going). It's in the spirit of open source "release early release often" motto, being quite early and lacking many features (e.g. only supporting DOOM 2 right now).

http://oblige.sourceforge.net/
(reload the page if it says November 2008)

Have fun with it :)

Comments and critiques welcome of course.


P.S. many thanks to all the beta testers: Sam Trenholme, Chris Pisarczyk, JohnnyRancid, Esselfortium, gggmork, Csonicgo.

VERSION 3.39 INFO

The good:
+ nicer GUI interface
+ name generator
+ sky generator

+ big rooms!
+ symmetrical rooms
+ room-in-a-room
+ diagonal walls

The bad:
- only one supported game: DOOM 2
- only one available theme: TECH
- no traps, no cages
- no secrets, no powerups
- very limited scenery

The ugly:
- the MAP07 and MAP30 arenas
- common glitches on outside borders
- occasional wrong textures or misalignments
- lousy crates all over the place

[GreyGhost]

Downloading . . . don't anyone tell Squishybrick about this until he's well and truly sick of SLIGE. :-)

[david_a]

Two quibbles:

- Perhaps consider replacing the seed number with a hashed string. I read somewhere that the seed range was a limited so that people could remember it - wouldn't strings be much more memorable? :)

- You create a temp directory/settings in the same location as the EXE. On Windows it's best practice to dump stuff like that in the proper place (%TEMP% and %APPDATA%), especially for OSes like Vista/Win7 that care a lot more about user permissions.

EDIT: OK, I played through two maps and this thing is awesome. With some minor alterations here and there Oblige levels could easily pass for '94 maps.

[Kappes Buur]

I've been using OBLIGE and ObHack for quite some time and I admit that I am a big fan. This new version is just awesome. The way the sectors are laid out and the distribution of monsters, weapons and health, heck, in some instances it's better than what I would have done.

With a little bit of attention to texture selection and adding a bit of detail here and there, these levels could easily pass for someone's master piece.

david_a said:

Two quibbles:
- Perhaps consider replacing the seed number with a hashed string. I read somewhere that the seed range was a limited so that people could remember it - wouldn't strings be much more memorable? :)

Should your memory fail you, there is always the OBLIGDAT lump to help you out.

[Reisal]

This should keep me busy until the next update..

*mods doom1.lua for his own use*

[geekmarine]

Holy crap, this is for real? I am thoroughly impressed. This is just... wow... had no idea this was even remotely possible with a random map generator. Sheesh.

[gun_psycho]

One question about this version of Oblige: Will it allow you to add custom monsters?

[printz]

Ajapted said:

- only one available theme: TECH
- no traps, no cages
- no secrets, no powerups
- very limited scenery

I'll be more interested in OBLIGE when they're fixed.

[Reisal]

gun_psycho said:

One question about this version of Oblige: Will it allow you to add custom monsters?

Yes, you can! For now, direct doom1.lua editing would do until the module specifications are implemented. For now, just use the links at the bottom of this post for maximum gameplay and carnage. Hordes or More monster amount is suggested.

There already is a Skulltag monsters and weapons module in the directory but it's not all ready yet (but you can add them in with clever cut/paste into the right sections of doom1.lua like I have)

I also have added about 20-22 DECORATE monsters that Oblige places properly and it's a bit chaotic at times.

**Note this is for Skulltag ONLY! If you want to use it with ZDoom, you must comment out the Skulltag exclusive weapons, armor and monsters manually with a double minus in front of the entries**

The crap I added (Thanks Realm667 beastiary!) are below:
The LUA file. Goes in /games directory.
The contents for the LUA file. Must load if you make a wad/megawad with the above file!

Mediafire mirror for ob3_modding.zip
Mediafire mirror for ~Random.zip

Rapidshare mirror for ob3_modding.zip
Rapidshare mirror for ~Random.zip

[Kappes Buur]

@ Mr Chris

Would you mind uploading this to something other than MEGAUPLOAD, please.
That site uses an unintelligible code before a download is possible.

[40oz]

If it's alright with you, I'm gonna tweak the mapname generator around so you don't get dreadfully generic/weird names for maps 99% of the time.

[Reisal]

JohnnyRancid said:

If it's alright with you, I'm gonna tweak the mapname generator around so you don't get dreadfully generic/weird names for maps 99% of the time.

You mean examples like "Ancient Machine" or "Hunger for Weapons"?

@Kappes: I will upload it to MediaFire and RapidShare too.

[40oz]

Heh. Yeah like that. I should also say the only screenshot displayed on the website is probably the least of the good designs oblige can make. I've taken many screens of way better architecture oblige created than what can be seen there.

Here's an example.

[Squishybrick]

GreyGhost said:

Downloading . . . don't anyone tell Squishybrick about this until he's well and truly sick of SLIGE. :-)

I never liked SLIGE... \: |

[TomoAlien]

This is just... AWESOME!
I think you should make a music generator.

[esselfortium]

TomoAlien said:

This is just... AWESOME!
I think you should make a music generator.

I think you should let him finish the map generator.

[Reisal]

Concur, as there's much work to do (get the other games working, finish the URBAN/HELL/CAVE/NATURE/WOLFY themes, traps and other sliders not currently working, etc)

Personally, I can't wait to see the traps and since it's an RMG, it is sure to ambush me.

[DuckReconMajor]

More fun than Doom 2

[Reisal]

DuckReconMajor said:

More fun than Doom 2

Even more if you use the fileset above that I provided.

[40oz]

TomoAlien said:

This is just... AWESOME!
I think you should make a music generator.

Why dont you just pick from all the music wads out there? There was a hard rock one that was reviewed on this weeks newstuff. Extract those, mix em up and put em in your oblige wad. There's also a bunch of other music wads out there.

Mr. Chris said:

Personally, I can't wait to see the traps and since it's an RMG, it is sure to ambush me.

Same. I'm dying for traps.

[gun_psycho]

Will the next version be able to add those two boss monsters as well as additional themes such as urban and hell?

[Reisal]

I think later on it will, give Ajapted a rest (a couple of weeks) as he is burnt out from all the Oblige work lately.

[Tormentor667]

Any chances ofd getting some more screens? :)

[Reisal]

I would but it would have custom badguys from Skulltag and your site's beastiary, Tormentor. :)

[Kappes Buur]

These screenshots are of a run through a map generated with seed = 52550







continued in next post.

However, screenshots are not doing it any justice.

And I must say, the gameplay with Mr. Chris's addon is simply phenominal. The updated actors make all the difference.

[Reisal]

Likewise, facing groups of rapidfire hitscanners or stronger monsters (IE revenants or higher) can be a pain on the two higher monster amount choices.

Thanks for some screens, Kappes Buur.

[Kappes Buur]

and the rest of the screenshots

[40oz]

I hope I'm not being an annoying douchebag fan boy that seems to have really high expectations and demands and little to contribute other than ideas. I'll live if you can't (or have no interest in) doing these.

but here goes.

Oblige 3 Wishlist:

Bosses:
-More templates for boss battle arenas. (I could contribute for this if possible)

-Boss battle maps other than map07 and map30. Oblige could pick random map numbers to make into a boss arena (other than MAP01) I understand the map07 "floor lowering after all monsters dead" tag won't work, but I'm suggesting maps where a cyberdemon or spider mastermind is on a platform with a key or exit switch on it thats near impossible to reach without killing them first.

-Map names specific to boss battles.

Gameplay:

-More monster variety per room.

-Use the maximum amount of ammo and health the player can have as a factor for ammo and health placement.

-Maps that have a chaingun in the starting room still overload the rest of the map with bullet boxes.

Design

-Stairs or teleports in lava/nukage/slime pits so you can escape.

-Areas where the player is required to run across a damaging floor. (In most cases provide a radiation shielding suit)

-Switches engraved in walls.

-Wall details used in the "hallway" style areas of the maps.

-Wall moating patterns. (I think I'll make a screenshot to better explain this one)

-Switches that do things other than open doors (Lower lifts, build stairs, etc)

Interface:

-Selectable themes for maps, also allow to choose the order of themes in a full game wad per episode

-Options to pick more specific map themes. For example Tech can be broken down to "Brown", "Startan", "Tekgren," "Shawn," Hell can be broken down to "Greenstone" "Marble" "Red Rock" Etc.

Thats about all I got for now. Need I remind you that Oblige is super duper awesome. I've tweaked the mapname generator a lot by removing some of the weirder words and throwing in a bunch of new ones. I still need to work on the Urban and Hell map names to see how they are. I'll send it to you if you are interested.

[DuckReconMajor]

Is this an okay screenshot?

[Kappes Buur]

DuckReconMajor said:

Is this an okay screenshot?

It's okay. I regard a 640 pixels wide image as a minimum.

i.e.: The native resolution of my monitor is 1680 x 1050, which is a bit too large for a post. So I reduce that to 60%, which results in an image of 1008 x 630. Then I reduce that to 20% for the thumbnail image.

As to the visibility, it's good.
Most people post images which are way too dark. If I feel the need to view such an image, I copy it to the clipboard and increase the gamma to suit.