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I've come with some good news. E1M7 is getting pretty close to being done. The main layout is just about finished, I just want to polish up a few more things and add some more details here & there, and then it'll be time to add in the monsters and items and such. This one feels like it's taken quite a bit longer for me to finish compared to the previous maps, I guess partially because I'm still getting back into the swing of things after that long hiatus, and also because of how big and interconnected this map is in general. As is tradition, here's a layout comparison between the two maps- This map will also be getting the "introductory area" treatment once I've wrapped up the main layout and enemy placement. I also want to experiment with that Half-Life style scripted sequence idea I had before releasing the next update. I wrote a script for a short scene at the beginning of E1M3, we'll see if I can get it to work.

Here's a screenshot that I think is a little... cooler.

I remember it was basically almost never when I first started playing. But over time I've learned to check the map if I, say, pick up a keycard and don't remember where the associated door is, or just don't know what passage I haven't gone down yet. (Although I honestly don't remember if the base game color coded the locked doors on the map or if that's just a source port thing) That being said, I do prefer to be able to get through a level without having to go back and check the map.

WIP of my E1M7 remake

I've been playing through it on Ultra Violence and I've been mostly enjoying it. A lot of the maps are right on the razor's edge of difficulty that I still enjoy. I have not been able to finish Soul Silo, though. I didn't go to the secret level and therefore didn't have the calamity blade, and when walking into that Arch-Vile room, I didn't have a backpack or any spare rockets. And with those three elements combined, that effectively made the Arch-Vile room impossible at my skill level. I can only kill a maximum of two with the flamethrower before the invulnerability runs out, and there's still another six to go with barely any cover. And it's really hard to motivate myself to finish the rest of the expansion knowing that even if I do get past that room... from there on out it's basically slaughter map territory. And while it's not impossible for me to like slaughter maps, it's still pretty rare.

I'm back with version 8. Link: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/bgg8l9ifzpba19j36c9gc/spectacle-creep-build8.zip?rlkey=9fq1k0p6anh032wwoh323oygl&st=55cbw2uh&dl=0 I was going to wait until E1M7 was ready to release the next update, but I figured since it's been such a long time I might as well. This version adds opening segments to most of the levels, except E1M5 and E1M9. E1M5 already had an extended outdoor secret that you caught a glimpse of at the beginning, and E1M9 works better when you're dropped directly into the action. If I do move onto the later episodes, these probably won't appear as often just because I think Phobos is helped the most by the scene setting. Also has a few refinements to the addon mod, such as some new frames for the status bar face as well as some new pickup sounds.

I fixed it. I had multiple sets of portals where parallel realities would overlap each other, and I think the sound propagation system just got super confused by this. Changing it into a one-way portal seems to have fixed it.

Okay, so I have an issue where monsters are being alerted in this "numbered maze" segment from outside the building, no matter how many sound-blocking lines I add. There is an interactive sector portal that allows me to have a rooftop area above this, so I have to imagine that the problem has something to do with how I've implemented the sector portal. Even though none of the portal sectors touch any of this area, and none of the geometry should even intersect at any point. I don't know what could possibly be carrying the sound into there and waking the monsters up. Can someone give me a list of things to look for? 'Cause this is driving me crazy.

WIP of a bit of Phobos exploration. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to get the lighting to be a bit less flat.

Went through and modified some of the city textures that were bundled with Legacy of Rust to have the same window texture as in Cage's Texture Pack. (In other words: Not just solid black)

I'm back. Again. Hopefully for real this time. Yeah I'm not gonna lie, my life's been kinda rough lately. I've continued to struggle with college due to my mental health issues, which in turn made it difficult to feel like I had time to work on mapping projects. And in this past summer: I have moved to my brother's apartment, I've had another computer break on me (I wound up using a college loaner for a while), my dad got arrested and is facing a minimum of 5 years in prison, my biological father died, and now I'm in the process of moving back out of my brother's apartment and trying to find a job. Here is the good news- While all this was happening, I decided to move to online classes to finish my degree. I've taken two courses over the summer, and things have been going much better. Also, while my dad getting arrested sounds stressful (and it was in the moment)... without divulging too much information, I'll just say he really had it coming. My house feels infinitely more comfortable without him being here. And lastly, I now own a new laptop and can finally get back to work on Spectacle Creep. Long story short: For the first time in a while, my future actually looks fairly bright. The status of the mod- But enough life posting! Here's what's happening with the mod: I've officially decided how I want to handle the "introductory segments" of each level. It's not usually going to be a complete bridging between two levels, instead I've decided I just want to have a brief bit of puzzle solving to enter the main complex and set the scene. Y'know, just enough to make you feel like these bases actually occupy a space on this terraformed Phobos. I've completed these bits for each of the levels up to E1M4. I'm also thinking a lot more about how I want to handle the storytelling in Spectacle Creep. While I of course want to keep things mostly subdued, I'm thinking I might have a very small number of Half-Life style scripted sequences. Like... a maximum of 3 in episode one. And they'd all be in either the short intro areas, or tucked in a secret somewhere. This is of course really tough to make convincing in GZDoom, so we'll see if this goes anywhere. I do know I want to re-write all of the interstitial screens to be more focused on Doomguy's mindset and his mission rather than just "here's some trivia about the level you're going into." Also GZDoom's been updated so that some of the settings I used while building Spectacle Creep no longer exist. So... that's something I might need to figure out. Oh yeah, and I guess Legacy of Rust dropped and updated some of the beta textures that I've been using. I might go into the WAD files and see if I want to incorporate some of its assets in with SC. As a bonus, here's some work in progress screenshots... E1M2 opening area: E1M4 opening area:

I've been away for a while dealing with IRL stuff, but I was feeling the urge to put together another piece of music so here's what I have: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/kho7v2ha43o82couu3357/Skulking-Season.mp3?rlkey=fj3urxkuk3s0lhmr4w9du2b0j&dl=0

I am being brutally mauled 😀