Abhorrence [CANCELLED] public release of abandonware available

[NaZa]

CANCELLED https://www.doomworld.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=23302

 

What I've learned!

Spoiler

I've learned that - a good and difficult map can be made without monsters; that it's important to have a consistent theme throughout the WAD and the level; using dynamic effects and unpredictable traps is more than welcome; than it's not good to start out with a 32-level megawad

So, here I propose my work in progress; Abhorrence! I must admit I've just taken out my dictionary and named this after the first evil noun in it. Ha ha ha. This WAD will feature nasty maps, mostly revolving around your surroundings and dynamic effects that will leave you dazzled, and frozen in place you'll die. :P

TO PROGRESS DOWN WITH THE LIFT ON MAP01, PRESS THE TRAKS ON THE LIFT ITSELF since the power is out. :P

MAPs and a bit about them (big spoiler)

Spoiler

MAP01: Power Outage by DoomLover234
This map contains no monsters whatsoever. It instead revolves around dynamic effects and nasty surprises hidden on the floor itself. In this map you have two levels - the higher one, where the lab is located, and the lower one, where the disused base and the cave are. To make progress on the higher level, you'll have to dig to the lower level. It's a small map, even in FDAs a <5 min time is possible. In the lift part, just use the trak to the left to go down and the trak on the right to go up. Most of the level is nicely designed, but a bit empty without the monsters. Also, there's not much Things - 4 health items, 3 keys, 1 player start, 6 big candles and 3 small candles. That's 17 Things only. I'm going to experiment with adding more in the meantime. The music is In Tents from Duke 3D. It's creepy but fits well.

Screenshots:

Spoiler

MAP01: Power Outage

Maplist (O = completed, X - not yet completed, I - in progress):

Spoiler

MAP01 - Power Outage - O
MAP02 - Supply Lines - O
MAP03 - Breakdown - O
MAP04 - Life Dome - I
MAP05 - Energy Plant - X
MAP06 - Crack - X
MAP07 - Virus - X
MAP08 - Made in Hell - X
MAP09 - Extinction - X
MAP10 - Voices - X
MAP11 - Spaceport - X

Changelog

Spoiler

GAMMA 0.03 - 7th February 2016
- Tweaked MAP01 a lot, ensured compactibility with Crispy Doom
- Started work on MAP02

GAMMA 0.02 - 6th February 2016
- Tweaked MAP01 a bit, ensured compactibility with PrBoom

GAMMA 0.01 - 5th February 2016
- MAP01 made, music added

Music used:

Spoiler

MAP01 - Shadow In The Dark (DoomLover234)
MAP02 - Lemon Chilllll

COMPATIBLE WITH: limit-removing

LINK : cancelled version

Have fun (I hope)! I know the way I laid out MAP01 is confusing (with the doors going on without power), but I used generalized actions before. It's just that I wanted this mapset to feel as vanilla as possible, and the ceiling lower/raise functions for the doors (hence why they close behind you - you rose them with your own hands) didn't work well so I implemented doors and lots of dummy sector goodies. Let me know if you find bugs.

 

Edited November 11, 2017 by NaZa : let's keep this our little secret

[scifista42]

DoomLover234 said:

I must admit I've just taken out my dictionary and named this after the first evil noun in it.

Which dictionary has the word "abhorence" with only one 'r' in it?

[NaZa]

scifista42 said:

Which dictionary has the word "abhorence" with only one 'r' in it?

Wow, my dictionary is completely wrong. I have a Croatian-English dictionary and it said "Abhorence" with one 'r'. My apologies.

[NaZa]

However I'd like some feedback on the map itself.

[scifista42]

Sorry, I've played the map right after my previous post and just forgot to write the feedback here. Visuals were good, but I thought the difficulty was underwhelmingly low after all that effort put into building up an atmosphere, which I've ignored anyway and just rushed through the thing boldly.

[grommile]

My feedback on the map is:

• In Eternity, I can't get past the second door; it just plain won't open.
  
• Chocolate Doom ("Bad V_DrawPatch") and prboom-plus ("createPatch: Unknown patch format M_DOOM") both throw fatal errors when I try to open the main menu (whether at the title screen or during gameplay) with this wad loaded.
  
• If I use -warp to go directly to the map in choco or prb+, I have the same problem with the second door as I do in Eternity: it won't open.
  

What port did you test this with?

[NaZa]

Makes sense. I've only tested the map in ZDoom and I think I know why doesn't it work. Give me a minute and I'll fix it.

[NaZa]

MAP VERSION 1.1
- Fixed a critical bug where the door won't open due to the WR Close Door (fast) line being too close to the door itself
- Tagged the red door, wasn't tagged before and couldn't open
- Fixed the red key trap where not all the platforms lowered
- Elongated the nukage stream leading to the red key area
- Removed a medikit behind the red door
EDIT
- Removed the HOMs in the Red Key area.
- Remade the action "SR Floor Lower To Nearest Floor" into a "SR Floor Lower To Lowest Floor" on the lift because it didn't work in Doom2.exe.

All tested in GlBoom, newest version. (also a bit of testing in Doom2.exe)

http://www.mediafire.com/file/27web41gvekdvim/abhornce.wad

EDIT: Map's broken in Crispy Doom because the Red Key trap does not trigger right (floor lowers, but the texture doesn't change and the sector isn't damaging)

[grommile]

First, I will say that this is a good map, the Doom level creation community has been enriched by you writing it, and you should definitely continue exploring its design concepts.

Second, I will say that I don't actually like this map. The things that made me not like it are:

• The 20% hurtfloor crapshoot on the way across the blue key room to the lift. (It's a crapshoot because of the way the global hurtfloor damage timer works.)
  
• The weird non-intuitive way the lift down from the blue key room works.
  
• The fact that the lift in the yellow key room can only be lowered while standing on the hurtfloor.
  

[NaZa]

grommile said:

First, I will say that this is a good map, the Doom level creation community has been enriched by you writing it, and you should definitely continue exploring its design concepts.

Second, I will say that I don't actually like this map. The things that made me not like it are:

• The 20% hurtfloor crapshoot on the way across the blue key room to the lift. (It's a crapshoot because of the way the global hurtfloor damage timer works.)
  
• The weird non-intuitive way the lift down from the blue key room works.
  
• The fact that the lift in the yellow key room can only be lowered while standing on the hurtfloor.
  

Thank you for your kind words, grommille! It took me some time to create it, so I appreciate that.

That lift works that way bc the power is out, yeah hahaha. I'll change it for the next update. The lift in the yellow key area was purposefully done that way because you must take somedamage is the level. There's a way around it tho - you can trigger it and run straight back to the platform, you'll take less damage. And that nukage floor, would it be OK if I just reduced it to 5-10%?

[grommile]

5% or 10% for the nukage in the blue key room would be absolutely fine given the design concept of the level, yes. It was specifically the fact that it was 20% that bothered me.

[Gez]

Interesting idea. If there's no monsters to shoot, you could replace the pistol sprites with blank sprites to get it out of the view.

The lift that raises after picking up the second key has a liquid floor texture. In fact the whole lift thing breaks a bit with the theme anyway, maybe make a way back that involves climbing a cave tunnel and then dropping back into the base through a ventilation shaft or something like that.

I'd also suggest replacing the automap name.

[Ed_Deth]

like it want to see more

[fabian]

DoomLover234 said:

All tested in GlBoom, newest version. (also a bit of testing in Doom2.exe)
...
EDIT: Map's broken in Crispy Doom because the Red Key trap does not trigger right (floor lowers, but the texture doesn't change and the sector isn't damaging)

Could you please check if this is also broken in "PrBoom+ -complevel 2" or Doom2.exe? Thanks!

[NaZa]

fabian said:

Could you please check if this is also broken in "PrBoom+ -complevel 2" or Doom2.exe? Thanks!

Yes, that's also broken in PrBoom+ complevel 2. I don't know how exactly, the floors have a dummy sector.

[BigDickBzzrak]

DoomLover234 said:

Yes, that's also broken in PrBoom+ complevel 2. I don't know how exactly, the floors have a dummy sector.

Someone ought to learn sector surgery, I think.
https://www.doomworld.com/vb/post/1517076

[NaZa]

bzzrak said:

Someone ought to learn sector surgery, I think.
https://www.doomworld.com/vb/post/1517076

Thanks! I'm rebuilding the sectors so far so good, it's really working! Thanks, bzzrak! (and rdwpa for writing that)

[NaZa]

MAP VERSION 1.2
- Fixed a critical bug where not all the sectors changed texture/lowered in the red key trap
- Tweaked the lift because it hindered movement too much
- Changed the damage in the hallway to the lift from 20% to 10%
- Deleted the lift in the yellow key area - replaced by a cave tunnel that has some nukage traces - be careful with that one
- Added Player 2, 3, 4 starts
- Raised the floor in the hallway to the lift so that you can't abuse it anymore

All tested in PrBoom, ZDoom and Crispy Doom.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/27web41gvekdvim/abhornce.wad

[NaZa]

Slowly working on MAP02. Maayyyy be the most beautiful map I've ever made. No screenshot yet as it's still in very early phase, but I've planned a lot of traps and monster placement (keyword:INDIANA JONES). Yes, from MAP02 onwards there WILL be monsters.

[NaZa]

Just a question for you guys - what's better? Uploading a map one by one for feedback or making multiple maps and then uploading it? So I'm nearly finished with MAP02. Should I upload it instantly or make a beta when I finish like 3 maps or so? Or sending maps one by one to some playtesters privately?

Which one would be common practice?

[baja blast rd.]

For this project, releasing multiple maps at a time will be the most enticing thing from a player's perspective. If you have the luxury of private playtesters, even better; get feedback behind the scenes and release a complete beta. If you really need public feedback, put something out only when you are over halfway done, as Mechadon did with Counterattack, and post WIP screenshots to generate interest and keep yourself motivated. 

 

Releasing one or two maps at a time is good only when map slots are essentially interchangeable, and the player experience is basically 'playing x maps under the banner of [project name]'. This would be the case in a speedmap compilation, for example, or a modern take on Scythe, with small maps. But it seems like your project will be best judged and experienced as a cohesive whole. 

[NaZa]

Postponed until I manage to retrieve data from my old hard drive. 

 

How's it going? SLOW. 3 maps done, 4th one was under construction and going pretty swell but yeah... anyway I hope I won't need to wait for too long. It could be a week, or a month... damn.

[NaZa]

Cancelled due to loss of interest, inspiration and proper maps... it's really a shame as it looked like I'll finish this one. I just can't make anything in MAP04 bar that temple area... I just can't. Really sad.

 

I'll focus on single maps rather than episodes, due to large commitment... and I'm missing commitment. :(

[Deadwing]

You don't need to cancel, just take some break, and when the inspiration gets back, then continue. Meanwhile, you can release single maps or other stuff.

[NaZa]

I'm working on MAP04 three months now and I'm stuck on one point for two months. I really can't think of anything to expand it, and too much work was put into it to just replace it.

[NaZa]

Due to some interest I'm uploading the 3 1/2 maps I've completed for this project publicly (MAP02 and 03 were previously just privately playtested and MAP04 was never shown to anyone). If somebody wants to do anything with these maps, go ahead.

abhorzip.zip

[dl_simc]

That's a cool wad - I like the traps and the detailing looks great! It's a good use of various lineactions.

 

If some places are locking up could you rethink of continuing on other parts of the map or even on other level? Passing time might bring up new solutions to the problems and the project would stay fresh in the mind.

 

Don't be so hard on yourself. Make levels YOU like!