nova++ Posted May 4, 2022 (edited) It's 5 A.M., cloudy and threatening to rain as you drive down the desert highway, your ancient, beloved truck's engine furious about how long it's been driven. You aren't looking forward to going back to work after a time away from the big city, but this might just give you an excuse to put it off. And then with a final wail and muffled thud, it gives up, and streaks of flame flash through the gaps in the hood. You didn't know it was even possible for an engine to fail like that. Extended vacation it is, then. You debate how long of a walk it might be to find the nearest payphone so you don't get fired, as your truck slowly rolls to a stop. ... In front of a large structure. Hm. Maybe they have a phone? You climb out of the truck, but pause. There's a tingle in the air, and you feel like you're being watched. If the corps taught you anything, it was to never, ever, ignore that feeling... At the edge of perception, you swear you hear a distant, howling scream. You can smell cooked meat and ozone. Something's not right. You turn back and take your sidearm and a few magazines out of the glovebox. Just in case. README Hi! Squenched Avacausage is some sort of Doom project I've been working on since the end of 2021. It is a quest through the strange and unsettling world of SquenchCon International Food-Similar Products Ltd. and its many (evil) subsidiaries. Its levels generally focus on rather close quarters combat and are around 10-20 minutes in length, except for the first, which is closer to 25. I have tried to think outside the box a bit with mechanics and design as well as architecture in particular. I guess I set out to try and make something new and different and experimental, at least to the extent that's possible with a game with such a heritage. Above all though - fun. I would describe the difficulty as ranging from"moderate" to "evil". I kind of built it at just a little bit above my own skill ceiling, such as it is. The current Bite 1 version contains 13 maps, of which three are shorter intermission + slight puzzle sequences. Special thanks to my test subjects for putting up with my cruel design choices (it's for the greater good) SCREENSHOTS (finally updated!) Spoiler DOWNLOAD Is over here: https://novaplusplus.itch.io/squenched-avacausage (working out uploading to idgames still) COMPATIBILITY This WAD has been designed to be run with Boom-compatible source ports. I have tested it with DSDA-Doom v0.27.5 for "ground truth" compatibility, and with GZDoom g4.11.3 for casual play. In the latter case with both the "Boom" and "Boom(strict)" settings. Default compatibility works acceptably, but its default setting to have projectiles blocked by scenery items can cause problems in some areas. Also, the levels were designed with having jumping, crouching, and vertical aiming disabled, along with classic doom style light levels. There's presently no difficulty scaling - all settings are equivalent to UV difficulty right now. I really want to get this added eventually though!! I have no intention to support multiplayer (deathmatch or co-op), for a lot of reasons. Sorry! DEHACKED patches are in use and some graphics replacements are done - if you wish to use graphics mods, please load them *before* this one for the best results. Beyond that, I can't really offer any guarantees of mod compatibility! Feel free to report things that do and don't work though, for the benefit of other players. ======================================== BY THE WAY - there are a lot of areas in this wad that are built around the "first time experience" for the player - the element of surprise for an enemy arrangement or level setpiece, etc., so if you want to talk about something good or bad regarding such things, I'd appreciate if you use a spoiler tag! Anyway, remember: Consume Avacausage. Edited July 24 by nova++ 53 Share this post Link to post
TheCyberDruid Posted May 4, 2022 Do not shoot the chaingunner! Had to get it off my chest ;) Interesting mapset. Pretty rough and a lot of funny environmental storytelling. Map 2 is... weird :D And so is map 6. Big brain was maybe a bit dragged out, but overall a fun mapset. 1 Share this post Link to post
Breezeep Posted May 5, 2022 Spoiler Is it normal for the voodoo conveyor to move so slowly during the fight in the room with the big sector monster? I already cleared the area out and I'm apparently stuck here now. I'd appreciate not waiting like an hour for a door to open so I can progress. Really digging this btw. 0 Share this post Link to post
nova++ Posted May 5, 2022 9 minutes ago, Breezeep said: Hide contents Is it normal for the voodoo conveyor to move so slowly during the fight in the room with the big sector monster? I already cleared the area out and I'm apparently stuck here now. I'd appreciate not waiting like an hour for a door to open so I can progress. Really digging this btw. What port are you playing on? You're the second person to report this, I might have to rework things to stop this from happening... 0 Share this post Link to post
Breezeep Posted May 5, 2022 (edited) I'm playing this on Eternity Engine. I just noticed the OP edit about the bug. Maybe @Altazimuth would figure this one out? 0 Share this post Link to post
nova++ Posted May 5, 2022 Hopefully can figure something out. It should take just about 2 minutes exactly to finish. I've tested it in EE the other day and found that if you stand on a slow conveyor and start moving in the opposite direction slightly, you will start to sort of moonwalk along it, moving slower than the conveyor is moving. The same seems to apply for objects starting on it from a standstill. 0 Share this post Link to post
nova++ Posted May 5, 2022 (edited) I forgot I made a video earlier of the bug in action in EE. It can be caused by either moving forward against the direction of the conveyor, or (as affects the voodoo dolls) starting from a standstill. Very strange: Spoiler 0 Share this post Link to post
Breezeep Posted May 7, 2022 Played through the rest of this in GZdoom and I just have to say that this is easily one of my favorite wads I've played so far! I really enjoyed how you used boom's features to create a bunch memorable sequences and moments, and the amount of creativity on display here is just staggering to say the least. I'm really looking forward to what comes next in this set! 0 Share this post Link to post
Breezeep Posted May 8, 2022 So apparently the conveyor bug affects DSDAdoom as well. I have a feeling that this wasn't tested thoroughly in a port that isn't gzdoom, although It could be because the voodoo dolls are all facing backwards and aren't triggering as intended. 1 Share this post Link to post
Nefelibeta Posted May 8, 2022 I guess scroll floor linedefs shorter than 32 will cause something like this. Not sure if it's the problem here. 0 Share this post Link to post
deathz0r Posted May 8, 2022 (edited) On 5/8/2022 at 1:43 PM, Nefelibeta said: I guess scroll floor linedefs shorter than 32 will cause something like this. Not sure if it's the problem here. The limit I found for scroll floor linedefs is 21 units, anything lower and the speed will drop dramatically on complevel 9/boom on PrBoom+/DSDA/Woof. EDIT 27/05/2022: Double checked and it's 22 units that is the minimum for Boom, not 21. Edited May 27, 2022 by deathz0r 0 Share this post Link to post
nova++ Posted May 8, 2022 (edited) 2 hours ago, Breezeep said: So apparently the conveyor bug affects DSDAdoom as well. I have a feeling that this wasn't tested thoroughly in a port that isn't gzdoom, although It could be because the voodoo dolls are all facing backwards and aren't triggering as intended. As mentioned in the readme... I've played through the whole thing in PrBoom+ at complevel 9 but I guess there's some oddities going on between ports still. That was my main port when testing, even. I am aware that gzdoom tweaks a lot of stuff that other ports don't, and I tried to be mindful of that while building it out. I will work out a fix soon. I just need to rethink how the timer works I guess. I guess the easiest way would be to just double the length of the whole voodoo doll corridor. I really was hoping that by picking a stable standard in complevel 9 that it would just work across the board, but nooo... Now I'm afraid of what other shit isn't going to work in later levels Edited May 8, 2022 by nova++ 0 Share this post Link to post
Biodegradable Posted May 8, 2022 49 minutes ago, nova++ said: Now I'm afraid of what other shit isn't going to work in later levels It just goes to show that these things take time, especially when you're hoping for cross-port compatibility. Try not to be disheartened and simply work your way through the issues you and others find. The community is here to help you as well all love to see Doom projects thrive. 0 Share this post Link to post
nova++ Posted May 8, 2022 (edited) This should be a lot more robust, I hope. A series of slowly-lowering pillars on a much faster conveyor belt. Spoiler There are other areas that use very slow conveyors, but all the ones I can think of are only cosmetic so I'm not going to worry about them. 1 Share this post Link to post
nova++ Posted May 8, 2022 Okay- I posted an updated version 0.3a to itch, it should fix the slow timer bug on other source ports. 1 Share this post Link to post
NaturalTvventy Posted May 9, 2022 It looks nice, but the download button doesn't seem to work. 0 Share this post Link to post
nova++ Posted May 9, 2022 3 hours ago, NaturalTvventy said: It looks nice, but the download button doesn't seem to work. The itch download button? Seems to work for me - and the stats report other people are too. Maybe you need to refresh the page a few times for the new version to show up? It might be trying to get the old one. 0 Share this post Link to post
nova++ Posted May 10, 2022 With all the compatibility trouble I got sidetracked from talking about what the future holds. I have MAP13 effectively complete - it's a moody, slow-paced, spooky level, and a very different pace to what came before. It still needs a detail pass though, it's mostly just roughed out at this point (but already spooky) Meanwhile, MAP11 had a small-scale prototype completed quite a while ago, which can be seen here: 2 Share this post Link to post
TheCyberDruid Posted May 20, 2022 2 hours ago, nova++ said: It is time. My training has begun I see what you did there. 0 Share this post Link to post
sandwedge Posted May 22, 2022 hey this was kind of awesome. played the first three levels, theres a ton of variety and some challenging stuff that got a me a few times. Also sorry for the audio as it might be a bit loud, i shouldn't have turned it up all the way, i usually do vids with commentary so didnt realize that would happen Spoiler some really ruthless archvile placement here which could be quite fun. there's definitely a weird vibe with the "story" ie this strange company, the intermission level is actually a super cool lsd trip. some of this reminded me of auger zenith and its trippy corporate cyberspace stuff. love the third level's sort of garbage dump/ factory setting. conveyor belts are fun. only 3 levels in but what an impressive amount of work! Will probably play some more soon 1 Share this post Link to post
nova++ Posted May 26, 2022 (edited) So, as of this writing MAP13 is very nearly done, but I have encountered some more frustrating source port differences with boom features so part of the end sequence won't work properly in prboom, so I need to revise that. MAP11 is maybe halfway or three quarters done, there are a great many railroad antics to be had and I am pretty pleased with how I've been making use of the limited space... I'll try to find some non-spoilery spots to get some screenshots of soon. MAP12 does not exist, although I think I've found a midi I want to use for it. And MAP10 shouldn't be too hard as it's just another intermission. 1 Share this post Link to post
nova++ Posted May 30, 2022 (edited) Forgot to actually post pictures. Here's two relatively unspoilery ones of the current state of things: At some point I think I'm going to see if I can make some sort of convincing skybox to help disguise the start and end of the track area. IIRC extra-wide skybox textures will wrap around more? 3 Share this post Link to post
nova++ Posted June 11, 2022 Okay - map11 is now playable start to finish... it still needs refinement, testing, etc, but the main layout is complete now that I thought of a suitably dumb way to end it. map13 as I mentioned is nearly finished too a while ago apart from revisions to the ending, which leaves map10 (an intermission, so less hard) and map12 to make from scratch... 0 Share this post Link to post
nova++ Posted June 15, 2022 Sometimes it's about the journey, not the destination 6 Share this post Link to post
nova++ Posted June 23, 2022 And now I would say MAP10 is basically finished as well. The intermission maps are always a nice break to make, it's a very impressionistic development experience. 2 Share this post Link to post
nova++ Posted June 25, 2022 (edited) Nighttime train wreck vibes... I mean, technically pointing out that the train crashes is a spoiler. But come on, am I really going to let the player onto a vehicle and then just not crash it? 6 Share this post Link to post
Arwel Posted June 27, 2022 Really enjoyed this mapset, looking forward for more! To try to describe it, I'd say lots of tricky layouts and interactivity (somewhat like Doom Zero, but different), some dark humour and a bunch of varied punchy encounters, with the rest being quality incidental fights. 1 Share this post Link to post