Halloween wad - Beneath Phobos Lab #5

[PeterMoro]

You know when you are working on a wad that turns out to be bigger than anticipated and you are getting burnt out and so you decide to make a small map, to keep the joy of mapping alive, and then your 'small map' ends up becoming kinda big and time consuming? 

 

Welcome to "Beneath Phobos Lab #5", a horror-themed wad inspired by Doom E2M6 Halls of the Damned and Doom II map 04 the Focus. With this map I'm trying to 'make Doom scary again', like John Romero did with Sigil. 

 

Story: In the center of a vast lake on Phobos lies the top secret UAC cryonic laboratory, Phobos #5. It's been months since communications have stopped from Lab #5, ever since an ancient marble slab with strange markings had been discovered and examined. As an elite mercenary for the UAC, you have been sent to investigate.

 

Name: Beneath Phobos Lab #5
Map Format: UDMF
Ports Tested: GZDoom, made for GZDoom.
IWAD: Doom II
Map(s):MAP01
Music: "Within the Shadows" by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio
Gameplay: Designed for Single player but Multiplayer possible (4 players)
Difficulty Settings: No
Multiplayer Placement: Yes
Build Time: About 6 months, mostly about 30 mins a day during my lunch break. 
Textures: This wad uses all stock vanilla Doom and Doom II textures only: d1gfxd2.wad ( SargeBaldy) and DoomII.wad. Skybox from "Box 'o skies" by the very awesome Mechadon.
Requirements: Jumping and crouching are disabled. Free look is permitted.

Credits: Thanks to Mechadon for sharing "Box 'o skies".
Thanks to the awesome devs who made Ultimate Doom Builder.

Thanks to Dragonfly for his PK3 tutorial which is so helpful everytime I release a wad.

 

Gameplay: Mostly linear with ^mild slaughter ^-ish encounters. Intended to be more fun than difficult but there are some challenging areas. It's totally possible to finish this map on the first attempt without saving if you are badass. The final boss fight might kick your a$$ though LOL There are six secrets, none are too difficult to discover. Exploration is rewarded. This is a Halloween "horror wad" so close the curtains, turn the lights off and play with headphones for a spooky experience :P

 

Playtime: Around 45mins. 

 

This wad is dedicated to Hak3180 for being a badass Doom reviewer - the legend has played, recorded, and commented on 100s of Doom wads in the past 10 years. Fucking cool. Cheers man :)

 

IMPORTANT: As there are many dark and semi-dark areas, brightness levels are a huge part of this map's game mechanics. Strong contrast between bright and dark areas are often utilised so please calibrate your brightness levels at the very beggining of the map: In the first room, after you enter the first door, adjust the brightness level so that when your back is to the first door (main entrance), you cannot see the UAC sign on the desk in front of you. It shouldn't be visable until you are about halfway across the circle. There will be no monsters to attack in the beginning of the level so you'll have plenty of time to calibrate without fear of being attacked. 

 

My GZDoom display settings are:
Screen size: 10
Gamma Correction: 1.70
Brightness: 0.05
Contrast: 1.1
Saturation:1.00

Please experiment with the Brightness / Contrast levels in the first room to find a balance that works for you. Ideally you should be able to see a few steps in front of you, but no more. 

Be sure to enable Dynamic Lighting for the optimal experience. (This map would look pretty crap without it enabled). Also, be sure to enable Light Shadowmaps = Yes (in Dynamic Lighting settings)

Feel free to use any Mods you like but I strongly reccomend the latest version of Brutal Doom because it's fucking badass and also it really enhances the lighting on this map for a better experience.

 

Monsters and  some items have been removed from the screenshots to avoid spoilers. 

 

Hope you enjoy it.

 

UPDATE: This wad has been tweaked, balanced, and refined and is it's now the best possible version it can be.

 

It's been uploaded to the IDgames wad archive so please download it there.

 

Go, kick some ass :P

 

Download it here:

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/a-c/bpl5

Edited December 17, 2022 by PeterMoro

[Foodles]

Hey this looks pretty good - I'll check it out and get back to you. Do I need to have played the first 4 beneath phobos labs though?

[PeterMoro]

21 minutes ago, Foodles said:

 Do I need to have played the first 4 beneath phobos labs though?

LOL Yes, you do. ^{(scrambles to speed map 4 maps in 60mins)}

[Dark Pulse]

This was an excellent map to watch on the Sandstream tonight. Solid map! Definitely going to be checking out more of your work now. :)

[PeterMoro]

8 minutes ago, Dark Pulse said:

This was an excellent map to watch on the Sandstream tonight. Solid map! Definitely going to be checking out more of your work now. :)

Thanks so much! I wish I'd been given a heads up about the stream, I would have sat in. I'll go watch it now. Cheers.

[TheCyberDruid]

I like the atmosphere and the level design a lot. Maybe a few too many low tier enemies for my taste and the 'sewer' section is a bit too samey, but overall a cool map especially for Halloween :)

[Biodegradable]

Those screenshots look lovely, Pete.

[PeterMoro]

44 minutes ago, TheCyberDruid said:

I like the atmosphere and the level design a lot. Maybe a few too many low tier enemies for my taste and the 'sewer' section is a bit too samey, but overall a cool map especially for Halloween :)

Thanks very much! @sandwedge said on his stream that it was a bit too easy, especially the final boss fight, so I might add some more monsters in the future, after I watch a few playthroughs. Thanx for playing.

[PeterMoro]

32 minutes ago, Biodegradable said:

Those screenshots look lovely, Pete.

Thanks Bio! Looking forward to your review sooner or later :)

[Biodegradable]

17 minutes ago, PeterMoro said:

Thanks Bio! Looking forward to your review sooner or later :)

 

I'll take it for a spin tomorrow when I have more energy to take on a big map. ;^P

[TheCyberDruid]

37 minutes ago, PeterMoro said:

Thanks very much! @sandwedge said on his stream that it was a bit too easy, especially the final boss fight, so I might add some more monsters in the future, after I watch a few playthroughs. Thanx for playing.

Maybe convert some monsters instead of adding even more. As it plays right now it's borderline tedious with all the enemies.

[PeterMoro]

24 minutes ago, TheCyberDruid said:

Maybe convert some monsters instead of adding even more. As it plays right now it's borderline tedious with all the enemies.

Roger that. I'm gunna do both as @sandwedge mentioned that there are way not enough monsters to be considered a slaughter map. Wasn't really going for a full on slaughter map but I wanted a few parts to be slaughterish. The final boss fight was way easier than I'd anticipated.

[CBM]

cool map... does the lab use the dam for power?

I especially like how you did the signs on the floors

[PeterMoro]

1 hour ago, CBM said:

cool map... does the lab use the dam for power?

I especially like how you did the signs on the floors

haha, thanks man. Yes, the dam is for power. Too cloudy for solar ;)

[RastaManGames]

That was an amazing Halloween experience as for me!

 

Map layout is simple, but has various catchy details.
There is no overusing of closets or ambushes, so I've explored map with calm heart.

I loved a mini-adventures that I had to pass in the different areas of this map.

 

Near the very end I missed 4 enemies, 9 items and 2 secrets.

Here you can see my "video-report", if you wish to spend spare ~45 minutes:

Spoiler

 

Please don't be offended that I've used some mods like "Project Malice" bestiary.

In my honest opinion, these monsters is both most disgusting and scary beside other various bestiaries.

 

Happy Halloween, my beloved Doomer lads! 💪🏻🎃

[PeterMoro]

42 minutes ago, RastaManGames said:

That was an amazing Halloween experience as for me!

 

Thanks for playing and posting a video! Glad you liked it. Cheers.

[sandwedge]

Looks like you already saw my video, glad you enjoyed it!  And I'm glad I checked this out, really incredible atmosphere, lighting and build up throughout a spooky techbase.  As I recently discovered, shadowmaps can do a lot for that too, but you've got great command of lots of gzdoom features like dynamic lighting as well.  As you mentioned, I liked the build up but for me the final area was a bit too easy, though mileage may vary - probably a single cyberdemon even without plasma isn't gonna be too scary, so he might like to have some friends around :) .  All in all really glad I checked this out and highly recommend it :)

 

(linked to timestamp)

 

 

[PeterMoro]

3 hours ago, sandwedge said:

Looks like you already saw my video, glad you enjoyed it!  And I'm glad I checked this out, really incredible atmosphere, lighting and build up throughout a spooky techbase.  As I recently discovered, shadowmaps can do a lot for that too, but you've got great command of lots of gzdoom features like dynamic lighting as well.  As you mentioned, I liked the build up but for me the final area was a bit too easy, though mileage may vary - probably a single cyberdemon even without plasma isn't gonna be too scary, so he might like to have some friends around :) .  All in all really glad I checked this out and highly recommend it :)

 

Yeah, thanks for streaming it. Fun to watch. I've made a few changes to the gameplay and added some more monsters and general improvements so the difficulty is much higher, especially the final boss. Should be a little more slaughterish and challenging now. (See Update in original post) . You are pretty good at Doom and make everything look easy LOL

[Biodegradable]

Threw in the towel close to the end point. I'm sorry, Pete, but this map feels schizophrenic in its gameplay. It can't decide if it wants to be a survival horror or a slaughtermap. The resource-starvation really doesn't complement the encounters as there are so many demons (especially hitscanners) in every situation where I found myself constantly at near-death with barely enough ammo to deal with everything. If you're going to throw that many bodies at me, then please give me the resources to make it at least somewhat fair. A+ for atmosphere though.

[PeterMoro]

24 minutes ago, Biodegradable said:

Threw in the towel close to the end point. I'm sorry, Pete, but this map feels schizophrenic in its gameplay. It can't decide if it wants to be a survival horror or a slaughtermap. The resource-starvation really doesn't complement the encounters as there are so many demons (especially hitscanners) in every situation where I found myself constantly at near-death with barely enough ammo to deal with everything. If you're going to throw that many bodies at me, then please give me the resources to make it at least somewhat fair. A+ for atmosphere though.

Wow, sorry to hear that. What a bummer. On Sandwedge's stream (above) it was the total opposite experience. Not enough enemies and way too much ammo, so I thought a few extra enemies would be a better balance. Hmmm I'll playtest it again and might scale it down a bit if it's too tough. 

Anyway, thanks for playing.

[sandwedge]

14 minutes ago, PeterMoro said:

Wow, sorry to hear that. What a bummer. On Sandwedge's stream (above) it was the total opposite experience. Not enough enemies and way too much ammo, so I thought a few extra enemies would be a better balance. Hmmm I'll playtest it again and might scale it down a bit if it's too tough. 

Anyway, thanks for playing.

 

Yeah it can be tough to balance UV for different players, so it's possible the original balance would work better for more people.  I didn't actually think the difficulty was too easy for most of it, I thought it worked, I just thought the build-up in the final encounter with a single cyberdemon could add a bit of something.  Hope you figure it out - I'll also be posting a standalone video soon as I find it helps with discoverability aside from the 5+ hour stream archives.

Edited October 30, 2022 by sandwedge

[PeterMoro]

33 minutes ago, sandwedge said:

 

Yeah it can be tough to balance UV for different players, so it's possible the original balance would work better for more people.  I didn't actually think the difficulty was too easy for most of it, I thought it worked, I just thought the build-up in the final encounter with a single cyberdemon could add a bit of something.  Hope you figure it out - I'll also be posting a standalone video soon as I find it helps with discoverability aside from the 5+ hour stream archives.

Hey thanks for your help. I'm working out a better balance right now so stay tuned. @Biodegradable is right, some parts are on the OP side, especially putting a Pain Elemental in the sewers, that's my bad. Thanks if you do a standalone video - should be more fun and involving after my latest fine-tune ;)

[sandwedge]

1 minute ago, PeterMoro said:

Hey thanks for your help. I'm working out a better balance right now so stay tuned. @Biodegradable is right, some parts are on the OP side, especially putting a Pain Elemental in the sewers, that's my bad. Thanks if you do a standalone video - should be more fun and involving after my latest fine-tune ;)

 

Ah not sure if I was clear, it'll just be a clip removed from the original stream, not a new playthrough.  But hope it works out for future players!

[PeterMoro]

14 minutes ago, sandwedge said:

 

Ah not sure if I was clear, it'll just be a clip removed from the original stream, not a new playthrough.  But hope it works out for future players!

haha no worries. I thought you meant you were posting another video. Well I'm working out the kinks, should be a better play through for future players.

[PeterMoro]

2 hours ago, Biodegradable said:

Threw in the towel close to the end point. I'm sorry, Pete, but this map feels schizophrenic in its gameplay. It can't decide if it wants to be a survival horror or a slaughtermap. The resource-starvation really doesn't complement the encounters as there are so many demons (especially hitscanners) in every situation where I found myself constantly at near-death with barely enough ammo to deal with everything. If you're going to throw that many bodies at me, then please give me the resources to make it at least somewhat fair. A+ for atmosphere though.

Hey, I think I know where you gave up - the circular pit room was waaay OP. Sewers with a Pain Elemental spawning Lost Souls constantly in the dark wasn't cool either. My bad. Well, thanks to you it's all been toned down and much better balanced with less OP monsters and more health and ammo. Not expecting you to replay the map after having such a bad time, but maybe you'll consider it for next Halloween ;) Thanks for your feedback.

[LadyMistDragon]

Lack of health made things a little challenging, but it wasn't too bad. It was nice how things got harder toward the end, though the final battle could've probably used more cells, and some more enemies. I think it would be better if you can't teleport out of the room with megasphere right away too, as it's arguably the first battle whose challenge doesn't come so much from the ever-present darkness of the map.

[PeterMoro]

37 minutes ago, LadyMistDragon said:

Lack of health made things a little challenging, but it wasn't too bad. It was nice how things got harder toward the end, though the final battle could've probably used more cells, and some more enemies. I think it would be better if you can't teleport out of the room with megasphere right away too, as it's arguably the first battle whose challenge doesn't come so much from the ever-present darkness of the map.

Thanks for the feedback. Sounds like you played the first version of the wad. After watching a playthrough or two I updated it and improved gameplay and also changed the megashphere room so that you can't pick it up until the end of the fight (like you suggested). The final boss fight is way more fun and challenging now. I didn't want to give too many cells at the end to avoid BFG spam....but there are plenty of rockets ;)

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

Hey Peter, I haven't played this map yet, I probably will tomorrow as I plan on going through Halloween maps.

 

Either way, I just wanted to compliment you on the way you handle feedback and criticism, and the fact that you take the time to respond to everyone individually. I think it's good to see a mapper communicating like that with their audience. Many people would just issue a vague and cold blanket statement instead of addressing individual comments. It's good that you respect people's time.

[PeterMoro]

^{mistake post, oops can't erase}

Edited October 31, 2022 by PeterMoro

[PeterMoro]

23 minutes ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

Hey Peter, I haven't played this map yet, I probably will tomorrow as I plan on going through Halloween maps.

 

Either way, I just wanted to compliment you on the way you handle feedback and criticism, and the fact that you take the time to respond to everyone individually. I think it's good to see a mapper communicating like that with their audience. Many people would just issue a vague and cold blanket statement instead of addressing individual comments. It's good that you respect people's time.

Hey, thanks for the comment. I'm grateful for the feedback as only I playtested it and the gameplay was a bit off in parts. I tried to increase difficulty but went too far and totally ruined Biodegradable's playthrough. If he hadn't spoken up and been honest, I wouldn't have known and many people would also have had a way too difficult playthrough and shitty experience. So I owe Bio one for his help there.

 

Anyway, it's been totally balanced and improved so make sure you play the latest version when you play it tomorrow ;) (link above)

 

Thanks for the compliment.