Progressive Fiction (Hadephobia now on /idgames)

I've got a problem. After dusting off my laptop that I use for doombuilder, I discovered it does not work (Display is shot to a degree where I cant even plug in a monitor. Furthermore, I don't have any other computers that can run doom builder at this time. Would anybody with a map after mid may be willing to switch with the one next week.

I got bored of doom so im giving up my map slot.

Cell said:

Well, the MAP08 is kinda fair just after the brutalism of both MAP06 and MAP07. The addition of those friggin' Revenants didn't bother me either, it just appeals to the difficulty itself. During my first playthrough, I didn't ecounter that Plasmarifle secret which was transformed into a Backpack secret, and the only thing to mention is the Baron trap with nukage which is a bit disturbing; the liquid would have looked better around the podium according to my opinion as well - even though it would have seemed to be a partial copy of Doom's E1. I suppose it was actually you who mentioned this issue.

MAP07 is rather brutal. Vaporizer is re-doing MAP06, hopefully it won't be as crazy as his first attempt. If, when we have a good run of levels in the .wad, MAP07 seems out of place difficulty wise we can always tone it down a little more.

I agree about your points on MAP08. I know Vaporizer is busy re-working MAP06 so I will make a version 3 and hopefully he will approve. Here's what I plan to change:

1. Change the G1 switch to S1 - I know he explained why he used G1 but playing through I can't see a scenario where the player can either accidently or advantagously avoid waking the imps in the teleport trap and S1 makes more sense here.

2. Put posts at the end of the mid-textures on the podium to neaten them up.

3. Maybe widen the area around the podium as it's a bit cramped. I've not opened up Doombuilder to see how feasible this is though.

4. Remove the nukage from the blue key room and put it around the podium instead. The player should be discouraged from fleeing the baron as it's the easy way out. But the nukage makes it difficult to hold your ground.

5. Move the Revs teleport destinations to on the podium. This is just an idea I'd like to expermiment with as one of them ran up there and it made the fight with them more interesting.

6. If I can think of something I might add some sort of decoration to the ashwall corner near the blue door. It looks a bit bland. This isn't a big issue though.

Cell said:

Off: what about magicsofa? The winter holiday is over. I could imagine (and I wish it wasn't true) he would have quitted out of the project not said yet, but then, what about MAP32 which was also taken by him?

I don't know one way or the other. I would have thought he's had more than enough time to finish MAP05 by now but I've not had an update since he last posted on the thread. His slot can be re-allocated if he decides he's not working on it anymore but I'll give him more time as there's no advantage to gain in re-assigning it now.

TheMionicDonut said:

I've got a problem. After dusting off my laptop that I use for doombuilder, I discovered it does not work (Display is shot to a degree where I cant even plug in a monitor. Furthermore, I don't have any other computers that can run doom builder at this time. Would anybody with a map after mid may be willing to switch with the one next week.

Nightmare... Hopefully someone can swap but mid-May might be a bit late in the project. I suppose someone could take your slot then you could take MAP25, which is free at the moment. Can I ask you to come back to the thread on Monday-ish when A.Gamma has finished MAP10 and write the story for MAP11? That way if no-one can swap by then at least MAP12 can continue based on the end of your story.

If anyone wants to take MAP11 you need to have enough free time to make a map between 10 JAN 11 - 16 JAN 11.

killer ninja said:

I got bored of doom so im giving up my map slot.

Bored of Doom, seriously?! Err, OK. I will make your old slot the next available one on page 1. Thanks for letting me know.

If anyone wants to take MAP12 post here and I'll make it happen. You'll need to have enough free time to make a map between 17 JAN 11 - 23 JAN 11. And a lasting interest in Doom ;-)

I'll take map 12.

Great. Thanks Olympus - you're in the 17JAN11 - 23JAN11 slot. I'll update the thread title and first page.

I still quite urgently need someone to take MAP11 (week 10JAN11 - 16JAN11). If you have a slot in May you can swap it with MionicDonut but anyone interested can take it and Mionic can always take MAP25 if the dates suit him.

"Bored of Doom", what an utopistic bullshit! :D Maybe he won't have enough time. Actually, I've never had that plenty-of-time to map, but my abilities just let me squeeze it into my day schedule. Or at least, the responsibility for the community.
I can promise MAP07 is the first and last mistake in my mapping career. It can be even a new-year promise as well. So, I'll do #13, #19 and #26 with all I have in "talent of mapping". And I really do hope conveniences won't force me to give up my slots. It's almost impossible(TM).

[EDIT] I was thinking over the "original", beta version of the map. Plutonia or HR would have accepted it in no time :D [/EDIT]

i claim the missing week...
whatever what's going on this project?
i see there's the usual 5 maps from so long...

Thanks walter - so you're on next week then. I've updated the first page.

To answer your question: there are indeed 5 maps in the .wad: MAP01 - 04 + MAP07. MAP09 is finished and MAP08 is very close. I'm hoping to get them both in the .wad in the next few days. I think MAP05, MAP06 and MAP10 are currently being worked on. magicsofa, Vaporizer, A.Gamma - can you please give us a quick progress report?

@TheMionicDonut: Let me know as soon as possible if you want MAP25. It's not quite mid-May but 02MAY11 - 08MAY11 is pretty close. I'll give you first refusal of the slot since you've lost MAP10 but if you don't take it up I'll make it available again.

purist said:

Thanks walter - so you're on next week then. I've updated the first page.

Ok, thanks....

I've added MAP08 & MAP09 to progfic.wad. I hope Vaporizer likes the changes I've made. I've mainly just changed what Cell and I raised after playtesting.

The .wad can be found here as usual:

http://www.hellbent.iwarp.com/box_widget.html

downloaded right now, i'll check the main stuff tomorrow....

purist said:

Thanks walter - so you're on next week then. I've updated the first page.

To answer your question: there are indeed 5 maps in the .wad: MAP01 - 04 + MAP07. MAP09 is finished and MAP08 is very close. I'm hoping to get them both in the .wad in the next few days. I think MAP05, MAP06 and MAP10 are currently being worked on. magicsofa, Vaporizer, A.Gamma - can you please give us a quick progress report?

@TheMionicDonut: Let me know as soon as possible if you want MAP25. It's not quite mid-May but 02MAY11 - 08MAY11 is pretty close. I'll give you first refusal of the slot since you've lost MAP10 but if you don't take it up I'll make it available again.

See the problem between mid May and before Mid May is that I have school and don't have time enough to work on maps between that and jobs and extracurricular school related activities. And in early may there is final exams to consider as well. I appreciate the offer but unless its after like the twentieth I wont have time for it.

Slight notices a la MAP08 and 09:
- Five imps can't activate their teleport lines on 08
- There are still some - semi-disturbing - offset problems on 09, such as six 16-unit wide linedefs with non-offseted SUPPORT2 (the deadend-signers of the trainway) and the COMPSPAN one on the side of switch which activates the first way down of the slow elevator. Il faut pay attention to those SUPPORT3 columns next to the startpoint, too - some of them have weird offsets.

purist said:

can you please give us a quick progress report?

Progress is being made, slowly. I'm hoping to be 98% finished by tomorrow.

Here are some screenshots in a zip file if you wanna take a gander

http://www.mediafire.com/?ryb575c3dly5dzw

Now, it's understandable why you've been stretching it so long. Anyway, the visuals are looking so prehellistic - thinking about a name, I would definitely suggest like "Brain-Infected Departure" or something else...

.

I don't know what the others say, but the gargoyle fountain, the blood pool and the gothic-satanic FIREBLU cross are fair enough to be prehellish. It makes no sense to hellify so early.

The reason for the infestations can be explained, because Doomguy is sick during the story of MAP05 (at least according to the story Magicsofa said), so all he has is a hallucination and maybe the thingies he considers intestines/pink snakes are not more than some wooden pieces floating on the surface of the water and some cables of the ship's control navigation.

MAP08 and MAP09 ought to be "mine" maps, but MAP10 - after that huge wooden door - has to be something like... mystery for now.

Cell said:

The reason for the infestations can be explained, because Doomguy is sick during the story of MAP05 (at least according to the story Magicsofa said), so all he has is a hallucination and maybe the thingies he considers intestines/pink snakes are not more than some wooden pieces floating on the surface of the water and some cables of the ship's control navigation.

I agree, and also, I don't think everything has to be completely linear in terms of hellishness. What I mean is, maybe doomguy encounters some weird hellish stuff, but he's constantly on the run so he manages to escape to a less infested area, only to find he has to dive deeper still.

The only request is to "map as the story flows". Even if we're doing this with a semi-classic feature a la stock resources, nothing says much about the texturing themes following each other - though I would be grateful if I could map a hellish reference for MAP26 and a semi-hellish for MAP19. But everyone is given free hands with his map, except for the starting area of course.

I've been away for the weekend so I've just caught up with the latest developments.

TheMionicDonut said:

I appreciate the offer but unless its after like the twentieth I wont have time for it.

That would leave maps 27 (just) that I've agreed for Vaporizer can have, 28 (Katamori's), 29 (mine) and 30 (yours is the only audition received for the last map). I can only suggest that either Vaporizer or Katamori might take MAP25 and give you their slot instead.

I've updated the map slots on page one and the thread title to indicate MAP25 is now free to whoever wants it.

Cell said:

Slight notices a la MAP08 and 09:

Thanks Cell. I also noticed there is still some damaging floor and nukage step textures in the blue key room in MAP08. I'll fix all these in time for the next upload when MAP10 (and hopefully 5 & 6) are done.

magicsofa said:

Here are some screenshots in a zip file if you wanna take a gander

Thanks magic. I took a look at these. They seem concentrated on the outdoor area but I imagine the annex rooms are there or thereabouts if you're 98% complete. I'm looking forward to playing the finished map soon and will reserve comments until I play it.

Vaporizer said

MAP07, 08 and 09 should be made more hellish too.

Apart from bugfixing I consider MAP09 done so I doubt I'll make those changes. If you're planning on adding more Hell details to MAP08 feel free but please finish MAP06 first (how is that going?) and wait until after I've uploaded the latest version of the map. I recommend the best place to add the extra detail is the grey ashwall dead end near the blue door.

Cell said

The only request is to "map as the story flows". Even if we're doing this with a semi-classic feature a la stock resources, nothing says much about the texturing themes following each other - though I would be grateful if I could map a hellish reference for MAP26 and a semi-hellish for MAP19. But everyone is given free hands with his map, except for the starting area of course

Please think of the progression in this project as more than just start/end areas and a developing story. I want the final megawad to look like it's been made by a team. This means resisting the temptation to force your own pre-conceived ideas for maps into the project. Instead we need to use our creativity to produce good work that is also in keeping with and evolved from the maps before it.

This is just a heads up for everyone on the team. Please don't take it as a critism on any individual or take it to mean I think these values have not been shown in the maps already done.


@A.Gamma: We've not heard from you since your slot for MAP10 started. Will you be in a position to upload a near finished map and story today so walter can start MAP11 tomorrow as scheduled? Let me know how you are getting on please.

laughing and joking, monday is coming here in the Bel Paese from a few minutes, and i started to drop down some story for my map:

Title: Descent into Underworld
Music:
Author: walter "daimon" confalonieri
Story:

... After passing that huge wodden portal you felt down into a familiar place, the way of it's familiarity it's since you seen this place in your visions at the asylum, but now looks so real... so BRUTALLY real.

You felt like called from a some sort of entity, the mastermind maybe, and so you go to investigate to a marble fortress...

wait for more...

EDIT: sorry, i wrote the story having in mind map09 (i think to be after purist, but i'm after a. gamma!), i'll change map start whit the map10 ending!

It's good to hear you're all ready to go walter. You're going to have to hold off for now but one way or another you will be able to start tomorrow (see below). I'm a bit disappointed not have heard from A.Gamma yet.

@A.Gamma: Please upload your map today. If you haven't finished please upload what you have done so far. Please write your story either in a .txt file or on the thread. If you haven't finished the exit area describe what it will be like as best you can so walter can start. It's unfair to delay walter anymore than one day so if I don't hear from you today I will have to assume you haven't started and give MAP10 to walter. If that's the case you can take MAP11 instead.

Sorry guys. I'm in a bad mood nowadays (which induces me mapping even eagerlier), so sometimes I end up arguing with some other people.
I'll do the Aura Mediocritas (a la Horatius) between the requests of the community and my mappings. The actual, alternate AM-mapping can be seen in MAP07, also - the brownie techbase with the warehouse was already planned and I was able to fit this into the story itself and even if it made a story twist, the community was able to solve this. So, I won't be this kind of abusing next time.

Don't worry Cell, your maps are fine. I must admit I was suffering headaches a little when the map locations kept changing so frequently without it being fully accounted for in the story but I'm happy with the story we're working with now and the last few maps (MAP07 - MAP09) are more consistent (all semi-subterranean tech-mines). When Vaporizer finishes his ship map and magicsofa finshes the dock I think the set will come together quite nicely so far.

.

I'd rather worry about the project itself. More and more people, started off by Marnetmar and came up to killer ninja gave their slots up and various errors appeared on others' computers. I wouldn't even let the devils of the technique separate me from mapping, but I must consider nobody else might be this kind of eager in the thread. I don't want to be a pessimist, either, but I'm afraid Vaporizer might be right about this deadline-issue.

It's common for people to drop out of community projects. I don't think there's been more dropouts in this one than in others. As far as we know only Marnetmar, killer ninja and MionicDonut have quit slots.

I don't know why Marnetmar had to give his slot up. Judging by some of his comments in the DTWiD thread he might have had concerns that he couldn't produce a map within the time constraints. At least he gave me plenty of notice.

killer ninja was bored with Doom, which nobody can do much about. It's better he's not involved in the project if he's lost interest.

Mionic couldn't honour his slot due to his broken laptop, which is circumstances not within his control. He at least let me know as soon as he knew there was a problem.

A.Gamma I just don't know about. I PM'd him when I finished MAP09 but his profile shows his last post as 30.12.10 (on this thread - it was his link to his custom HUD) so perhaps he's not been on DW to read it. Still, that is less than two weeks ago so I don't believe he didn't realise he had to make a map this week.

Hopefully, he'll materialise at the last minute but if he doesn't I will allow walter confalonieri to take MAP10 starting tomorrow and MAP11 will become the next available slot (A.Gamma could pick it up if some real life problem has prevented him working this week). If no-one takes MAP11 by the time it is due it will pass to the next mapper in line and so on until the gap is filled.

It's not a massive problem given amount of mappers attached to the project. Only downside is that people might not get the map slots the signed up for but it's more important everyone keeps the dates they chose to work within.

Sorry guys, work got in the way.
Somehow i managed to put together the map, although it still doesn't have monsters and detail is minimum.
Here's the download link
http://www.mediafire.com/?9gwg4do07635dov

Again, it's still on an early stage, but the layout will most likely be final (and i wont change the exit anyway).

Edit:
He, i materialised at the last minute, just as purist said.

Thanks A.Gamma. I won't have time to download until tonight but hopefully walter can now get going with MAP11.

walter, things to remember for MAP11

1. It's shaped up to be the mastermind boss level
2. In the story the mastermind was stuck underground before the miners unwittingly released it so it should have an underground theme.
3. You can still add marble and hellish motifs if you like though. Hell has a habit of influencing it's surroundings :-)

4. It's the end of the episode so make it a grand finale!

5. Make the exit interesting if you can so the player is looking forward to the next episode. Maybe unviel a portal (that the mastermind couldn't fit through or didn't go through for some reason) so they player can go where the Spiderdemon came [i]from[i/].

6. Please give us an update at some point (Thurs, Fri) and tell us if you're running late to avoid the panic of MAP11 :-)

Good luck!

uh-oh, the mastermind was going to appear on map 11?
I shaped a room to fight the mastermind...
But i suppose i could add lots of monsters instead