Squenched Avacausage - BITE 1a [Boom, map 1 to 13]

This is quickly expanding to be adjustments to most of the early maps now. There's a lot of unneccessarily slow bits as was the case in MAP01 which I am adjusting... cacodemons are a lot of it, honestly. Sponges...

Also, uncovering mysteries. There's this random secret sector in MAP03 that is in a completely inaccessible area. I cannot remember why, or what I might have been intending to do...

I think the revisions to MAP01 are finished, now - I gave an extra detail pass over the whole thing because some areas just felt very boring to me and needed livening up. I've done this a bit to some other maps but will be going through and doing so a bit more intensely soon as well.

(The green pillar things scroll downward and it looks super cool in motion)

Back to MAP04 next...

I intend this upcoming release to be sort of a... "incomplete but less beta feeling" kinda thing. Not the full map layout but the ones that are in there are polished and "release quality" or near enough...

edit: Also I figured out what the weird sector in the last post was doing... it was a linked sector to another one to pre-alert some monsters that had become detached

he sleepin...

MERRY SQUENCHMAS 2023 A.D.

MAP04 is coming along well, will be getting back to it after holiday shenanigans. It's mostly the last area I need to add and then I can start properly refining. Onward to next year!!

Regrettably I have LIED TO YOU and things stalled out again - partly cause I had to steal the CPU out of the computer I was using to work on the maps due to instability in my main desktop - but I finally have wrapped up several other projects in the last week or two so I can properly focus on all this stuff again

Been watching this for awhile, glad to see it's still going. the beta from ~2022 was one of my favorite things I played that year and I eagerly await the finished version :)

4 hours ago, Ribbiks said:

Been watching this for awhile, glad to see it's still going. the beta from ~2022 was one of my favorite things I played that year and I eagerly await the finished version :)

Thank you so much, I really appreciate hearing that especially from someone like you!!

Into the home stretch now... getting things like par times (based on me trying to hurry to get 100% on each), adjusting textures, a million little tweaks to everything, adding more vending machines...

Gameplaywise it's... ready? I think? I am always paranoid about running into oddities with source port compatibility like has bitten me in the past. I do try to make sure everything is playable start to finish with complevel 9 in DSDA-doom as my "ground truth". On that note I added the COMPLVL lump, which I only recently learned about, to help ensure tthat's set properly when played. I think I want to add an exit text screen too for good measure. Now I'm getting nervous.

Been letting things bounce around my mind thinking of what I might want to change or update but that list has gotten very small... started playing what might be the last compatibility check run in DSDA-doom before I start actually packaging things up for release, I guess. On idgames and everything too... Maybe I'll get mentioned in the cacowards, or a nobel prize!!! or maybe people will just enjoy playing it, that'd be cool.

Okay... actually doing formal stuff like writing up some asset credits and the soundtrack and overthinking everything. Only just realized the last release was back in september of 2022... geez.

Been looking into the submission process for idgames as well... kinda intimidated. Feels like submitting a scientific paper or something. And not sure where this wad falls for being a "WIP" - technically this upcoming release won't have every map that I intend to add, but the ones it does have I consider as close to done as I can, and I don't intend to revise them too much after this short of fixing issues. It's a " complete* " experience.

In any case... I think I can tentatively say that I'll get a release out before the end of the month - possibly much before. Admittedly I still haven't gotten much third party testing done for this version, so hopefully there's nothing glaringly obvious and game breaking I've missed.

Missed this before, but played through it just now. Good stuff, if a little tough and mean in places. I'm glad I use saves. I didn't get all the secrets, but I did get most of them.

I can't really tell if there's any difference between the Megasphere and Soul Sphere powerups.

I appreciate it - what do you mean about the difference between power ups? Functionwise they're the same as the original soulsphere and megasphere.

I mean I am not sure if there is any visual difference between SS and MS.

Oh, here are the two side by side for reference:

The one with the appetizing squirming monstrosity on top is the mega-causage!

OKAY FINALLY!

I decided to just give up and post the bite 1 version! Everyone else can find any problems with it cause I've been obsessing over it too much.

Have fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![message truncated]

The ideas tearing the roof on these maps resemble an A.L.T.  If he had a continuation.

14 hours ago, BeeWen said:

The ideas tearing the roof on these maps resemble an A.L.T.  If he had a continuation.

I hadn't actually heard of ALT before (I am a bit of a community outsider here) but looking into it I should definitely check it out sometime...

Well worth checking out! For those who liked some the KWC maps from last year, this carries on that same sort of tradition, featuring world-building straight out of Zeppelin Armada and a worthy combo of Doomcute and action!

i'm no specialist of the doom modding scene but this has to be one of the most interesting wads to come out in the last few years, right? i'm sorry for doing lame shit-talk but at least it is to me much more exciting to play than most of the very popular ones that people talk about non stop, and the fact that it is made by a self-claimed community outsider makes a lot of sense in that regard imo

Played through the latest version in coop last night, and yeah, amazing stuff! The density of ideas here is off-the-charts, can hardly take two steps without running into sectorwork or texturework that feels 'inspired', either in service of the set's world building or general whimsy. If I had to draw comparisons I'd say the maps are like a midpoint between Going Down (in general tone / chaotic-evilness) and RU wads like BeeWen's Voyager (in emphasis on narrative/locale, and haphazard-but-somehow-works approaches to texturing). Overall, highly recommended for those who enjoy Fun Things.

I'll check out the maps in single player again sometime soon, too, as it was clear that multiplayer wasn't quite intended ;D. We had to skip parts of a couple maps due to lockins, e.g. player 1 enters a room, door shuts behind them, player 2 can't get in and is now stranded, etc.

Thank you all for the feedback and kind words!!

1 hour ago, Ribbiks said:

Played through the latest version in coop last night, and yeah, amazing stuff! The density of ideas here is off-the-charts, can hardly take two steps without running into sectorwork or texturework that feels 'inspired', either in service of the set's world building or general whimsy. If I had to draw comparisons I'd say the maps are like a midpoint between Going Down (in general tone / chaotic-evilness) and RU wads like BeeWen's Voyager (in emphasis on narrative/locale, and haphazard-but-somehow-works approaches to texturing). Overall, highly recommended for those who enjoy Fun Things.

 

I'll check out the maps in single player again sometime soon, too, as it was clear that multiplayer wasn't quite intended ;D. We had to skip parts of a couple maps due to lockins, e.g. player 1 enters a room, door shuts behind them, player 2 can't get in and is now stranded, etc.

Oh boy, I'm amazed almost anything functions in coop lol. It's definitely designed fully for singleplayer and there's so much reliance on voodoo doll sequencing hax that it's a bit...fragile sometimes.

Going Down was very much one of the sparks that brought me back into doom mapping and I'm not afraid of letting it show...although funnily enough map05 being in an office building was one of the first particular ideas that came to mind, and that was before I played GD.

Can't help myself, already brought back MAP17 for whenever Bite 2 arrives - it was already basically gameplay complete, but now it's time for playing with detail and refinement.

I also decided to start adding some extra scenery sprites, which I think is overdue. To start off, these little tufts of grass:

Happy birthday to me... I got myself a piano

Compatibility testing: bonus round!

This is running with the original 1999 Boom 2.02 executable under FreeDOS, via 86box emulating a Pentium CPU at 133 MHz. It does not like my complicated levels... the speed counter at the top right stays at 100% though - so it's just hitting the limits of what a real one would too. But it's technically playable, and my dehacked stuff even works too (but only by loading them as a .bex file like a true OG)

I do intend to get this working on real hardware at some point, but the only vintage CPU I've got on hand is a 40mhz 386 that can barely handle original doom in postage stamp screen size, so that will have to wait until the opportunity arises.

Just finished the mapset. Everything about this is brilliant.

Quote

Also, the levels were designed with having jumping, crouching, and vertical aiming disabled, along with classic doom style light levels.

You should include a MAPINFO file that disables jumping & crouching.

2 hours ago, Scuba Steve said:

 

You should include a MAPINFO file that disables jumping & crouching.

I should... I forgot you could do that. I'll add that to the list of tweaks for the first patch update. I would like  to make it as universally compatible as possible so time to do a bit of research.

i played this a second time because this is the most fun i've had with anything released after i started playing a lot of wads, i'm happy i checked it out after seeing beewen's comment, i think the first level is still my favorite because of how much there is to it and the distinct identities that a lot of the spaces have and the dream-like quality of the layout as a whole feels at it's strongest here (reminds a little of the stuff from my favourite level designers like azamael or toasty), despite the level being linear it just feels like a playground of ideas to have fun in and not something you have to progress through (which i guess makes sense if it's the first level you built, just toying around instead of going for something specific), but i also really like level 3 a lot because of how cool the setting is and i adore that frickin bar and then when you shut down the cute machine after jumping around on piles of garbage, yeah, and level 4 feels a little bit more like a normal level in many ways but that fleshed out sense of adventure kept it exciting for me and reminded me of some of the stuff people like didy would do back in the days

regarding what it's been compared to, i enjoy this so much more than the big ambitious doomer boards wads like auger zenith and zeppelin armada because this is not nearly as much about the "world building" and complex visuals than it is about the ideas and designs, there's a lot of diversity between the levels and it tries to run with a bunch of different things, the decoration is actually quite simple but just tasteful and balanced but still exciting because its focused on the more strange and surprising elements, and i also like it more than mouldy's levels and going down because this is so much more unique and bizarre and unpredictable, it doesn't feel like there's something here you can quite put your finger on, it never feels like a professional product and more like a crazy object you happened to put your hands on, yeah it's like not something that tells a proper story that's supposed to make sense and you can put into words, there's more to it which is why its so cool, and regarding the russian stuff, outside of it being pretty ambitious and kind of wip i don't see much of any connexion with voyager (and am sorry to say that when it gets properly released, i will only have eyes for it and forget about everything else, this wad included, but i mean it's already been mostly finished for years and i've been obsessed with it for a while so what's new), but outisde of the 2 or 3 big general ideas this obviously has in common with a.l.t., i think what this reminds me of the most are the works of bigmemka because of how "dirty" and "messy" the environments are

you also mentioned wanting to use monsters in a way that makes us feel like we're interrupting in their daily life which is something i love, i feel like it's one of the best tools doom has to offer to create interesting spaces and i love the job you did with it here, and i always like when the spiderdemons and cyberdemons are used as a hazard to bypass instead of something you properly have to deal with so you got me there

i think i enjoyed this less consistently past the first four levels, with level 7 being my least favourite, not because it's bad by any means but because it's the one that feels the most like a regular doom level that could be in any other wad, but i still had fun all around, especially with level 8 because i like the use of the hub layout, that iron skull is adorable (so is the hidden painting, would love to see you do more stuff with paintings used as decoration in the future) and i love the computer area in the north, and level 11 which has a bunch of very cute spaces, level 9 i adored the setting but the level design didn't do much for me, which is absolutely fine really because this wad has a bunch of variety and i really like that this level is more about the narrative, and the in-betwixt levels are of course a very welcome touch, they allow us to breathe and make the whole thing less exhausting, and i pretty much always enjoy the "messing with you" kind of levels so there you go

the frequent dickish traps are one of the things i care the less about in this wad, just not my thing really but i've had much worst and the clever use of monsters to make the world feel alive in bizarre touches more than compensates, and some of those encounters are still super creative (that part with the two conveyor belts in level 1, it's crazy and hilarious, i love it and want to see that kind of stuff in every level i play)

i can't wait to see the difficulty settings added to this so it becomes easier to recommend it outside of the doom community, as this might be a bit too intense at the moment, but for me this was already much more reasonable than a lot of stuff i've played, i really like how much items there are, those invulnerabilities like at the end of level 5 are so much fun and are one of the reasons i always play wads with difficulty settings on easy, it's much more enjoyable to me to play this way and people often shy away from giving them because "it makes it too easy" (zzzzzzz), same for all those cells in level 9, it would have been a chore to me otherwise but here i just blasted through those guys, so thanks for that

i don't enjoy this quite as much as the things i personally compared it too, i think it's a little bit too "in your face" and effects heavy in places for my liking, and a bit more polished and "under control" than my ideal stuff, but with the general idea you're going for this is kind of as close as it gets

you mentioned several times being too busy with other stuff to work on this, is there some other creative efforts or other things you're involved with you would be willing to share here or is it only stuff best kept for your private life? just curious what you're up to

It has been brought to my attention that MAP03 has a broken secret annoyingly. I ended up setting a tag on the activator line to 0, though I swear I tested it and it worked but oh well (it's a remote line, not anything that would be "fixed" by gzdoom tho, so I must have just forgotten to check entirely) I will probably be making a patched version in the next couple of days, so just be aware it's not currently possible to get 100% secrets there

Other known issue is in MAP09 there are some keys that teleport in and they can occasionally get blocked. I have taken several steps to prevent that (constantly recirculating the key through a teleporter line to make it try repeatedly) but that doesn't seem to have worked either. I tried a quick fix but long-term I think I have a better idea for how to do it (two opposing conveyor belts that bounce it back and forth across the teleport line instead of relying on a second teleport)