SQUENCHED AVACAUSAGE [Boom, v0.4, MAP01-MAP13]

[nova++]

It's 5 A.M., cloudy and threatening to rain as you drive down the desert highway, your ancient 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 it gives up - not just quits, but a blast of fire shoots from 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 you slowly roll 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.

 

 

 

SCREENSHOTS!

(A little old but will be updated soon)

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DOWNLOAD!!

https://novaplusplus.itch.io/squenched-avacausage

 

 

README!!!

 

Hi!

 

Squenched Avacausage is what my latest mapping experiments have turned into, a quest through a strange and unsettling world dominated by the corporate behemoth SquenchCon and its various (evil) subsidiaries.

 

I started making it in November of 2021 as just a single map, but things soon spiralled out of control and now I guess I'm heading toward 32 (pls send help)

 

Its levels focus mostly on close-quarters combat and are typically between 15 and 25 minutes in length, with the exception of the first, which is around 30-40. The first serves as something of a thematic introduction to prepare you both mentally and spiritually for what's to come.

 

In general, 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 29 year old game.

 

I would describe the difficulty as ranging from  "hard" to "evil". I kind of built it at just a little bit above my own skill ceiling. To kick my own ass, so to speak. At this point in its development, there are no changes between difficulty levels, this will be done eventually though. Sorry!

 

There are 13 maps completed, three of which are non-combat intermissions. They are arranged into "blocks" of three maps followed by the aforementioned intermissions. Each block has a loose theme running throughout, and I tried to have some fun with making each level have some continuity with the previous.

 

Built with Ultimate Doom Builder and SLADE3. Assets made using a hodgepodge of tools including Aseprite, GIMP, paint.net, Reaper, Blender, and others, running on a combination of Windows and Linux.

 

Special thanks to my many early test subjects for putting up with my cruel design (it's for the greater good)

 

 

COMPATIBILITY

 

As mentioned, this wad has been built for the Boom engine feature set and will not function without them. I have tested it start to finish in PrBoom+ and GZDoom 4.7 but any source port that supports said features should work.

 

All the levels have been designed for play with no jumping and no vertical aim, and in general that should be considered the "intended" method of play. (I mean, I can't stop you, I'm just a readme file thread)

 

In addition, graphically, things are built around the colors and light levels of the classic Doom software renderer, so things might look a bit off with settings too far away from that. GZDoom's hardware renderer with the right light settings looks fine, though.

 

Co-op is absolutely off the table too due to several areas of layout shifting etc that would screw up royally if players are separated.

 

Finally, DEHACKED patches are in use and some graphics replacements are done - if using graphics replacement mods, please load them *before* this one for the best shot at success. Beyond that, I can't really offer any guarantees of mod compatibility! Feel free to report tings 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 September 3, 2022 by nova++

[TheCyberDruid]

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.

[Breezeep]

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.

[nova++]

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...

[Breezeep]

I'm playing this on Eternity Engine. I just noticed the OP edit about the bug. Maybe @Altazimuth would figure this one out?

Edited May 5, 2022 by Breezeep

[nova++]

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.

[nova++]

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

 

Edited May 5, 2022 by nova++

[Altazimuth]

I'm taking a break from EE. @printz

[Breezeep]

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!

[Breezeep]

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.

[Nefelibeta]

I guess scroll floor linedefs shorter than 32 will cause something like this. Not sure if it's the problem here.

[deathz0r]

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

[nova++]

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++

[Biodegradable]

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.

[nova++]

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.

Edited May 8, 2022 by nova++

[nova++]

Okay- I posted an updated version 0.3a to itch, it should fix the slow timer bug on other source ports.

[NaturalTvventy]

It looks nice, but the download button doesn't seem to work.

[nova++]

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.

[nova++]

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:

 

 

[nova++]

It is time. My training has begun

 

[TheCyberDruid]

2 hours ago, nova++ said:

It is time. My training has begun

I see what you did there.

[sandwedge]

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

 

[nova++]

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.

Edited May 26, 2022 by nova++

[nova++]

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?

Edited May 30, 2022 by nova++

[nova++]

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...

[nova++]

Sometimes it's about the journey, not the destination

 

[nova++]

[nova++]

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.

 

 

[nova++]

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?

Edited June 25, 2022 by nova++

[Arwel]

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.