RUST /// THE INFERNAL MACHINE

[4MaTC]

On 4/17/2024 at 12:10 AM, Endless said:

I just want to say this is the most impressive WAD thread presentation I've ever seen in all my years in Doomworld. @4MaTC @Nikoxenos check this shit the design is badass.

 

Even if the WAD sucked (which doesn't!) this thread alone is worthy of commendation.

Oh, shut up!

design is cool tho

[RHhe82]

The opening post deserves a cacoward of its own - and certainly compels me to play Rust as soon as possible.

[Spectere]

I did a thing involving this thing.

 

 

[Bubbinska]

Really great levels. I thoroughly enjoyed playing through this on HMP, though even then it was more difficult than I was expecting! That ambush near the end of e1m9 was rough. 

 

Codex stuff: 

Spoiler

I haven't figured out the Codex key yet - looking around in e1m7 I can't find anything that wouldn't feel like I'm just making random guesses. I've looked at the (poem?) but can't figure anything else out. Any guidance?

 

 

[Arsinikk]

27 minutes ago, Bubbinska said:

Really great levels. I thoroughly enjoyed playing through this on HMP, though even then it was more difficult than I was expecting! That ambush near the end of e1m9 was rough. 

Thanks! Hopefully it wasn't too rough :)

 

27 minutes ago, Bubbinska said:

Codex stuff: 

Codex Spoiler Stuff:

Spoiler

You are on the right track looking in E1M7. I would suggest taking the "seventh floor" part very literally, as in you'll know when you found it. It'll be like you're literally being told you're on the seventh floor.

 

Not sure if it's useful, but each part of the riddle is meant to be done sequentially. So while each line doesn't quite make sense at first glance. When you figure out where the "seventh floor" is, the "shot in the dark" will start to make sense, so on and so forth.

 

Edited April 19 by Arsinikk

[DeetOpianSky]

Bout to watch this on @AdamTheSlave's Twitch stream.

[Sikreci]

You had me at "fast + short", but the rest is great too, love the lore and post and everything. Just finished burning it down and I'm definitely going to go back for NG+ very soon.

 

Spoiler

E1M7 and E1M8 are the standouts here, obviously. I really enjoyed your glitchy, surreal, spooky map a lot more here than some GZDoom maps because it's done within the vanilla limits. I also want to give you props for using two things I generally absolutely detest in Doom maps, mazes and the Spider Mastermind, without making me cranky.

 

I'm glad you made the really sharp visual presentation in the OP, because otherwise I worry people might have ended up sleeping on this one. Good shit.

[Arsinikk]

Made a few updates based on Vile's playthrough and other minor things I found.
None of these really affect overall gameplay or the experience, but are just to fix a few minor issues.

 

 

Changelog:

Spoiler

 

Map Fixes:

• E1M5 - Slightly adjusted a teleport line, so that it's much harder to linedef skip.
• E1M6 - Slightly adjusted an action line (before the switch in the health bonus room) so that it's harder to linedef skip.
• E1M7 - Fixed a misspelling (previous update).
• E1M8 - Fixed an egregiously misaligned texture near the start. Re-added a glow to a certain sector that was in the secret rocket launcher area. Attempted to add stop crusher lines for Vanilla (due to all sounds being full volume in Vanilla E1M8), but sadly the only crusher triggered action by switch in Vanilla (Line Action 49) doesn't seem to a traditional crusher and so it doesn't stop from a "stop crusher" line.

Other:

• Added map-by-map commentary in text file (previous update)
• Fixed a slight oversight with the Codex application. (Previously, when you went from reading an entry to the setting screen, the page navigation buttons for the entry screen could be visible/pressed. Now the page navigation buttons will always disabled when on the setting screen.)

 

 

[Arsinikk]

As promised, I mentioned if GZDoom came up with an update that fixed their Vanilla compatibility, I would add support.

 

 

RUST now supports:

• GZDoom 4.12 and up!
• Eternity Engine (Dev Build)
• Zandronum
• ZDoom

 

*** Make sure to download the latest GZDoom before playing RUST or you will run into issues! ***

 

GZDoom Update Changelog:

Spoiler

• Added loading graphics for GZDoom / Zandronum
• Added ACS script to get E1M8 working in ZDoom based ports and Eternity
• Added ACS script that fixes E1M4 New Game Plus in ZDoom based ports
• Added level name pop-ups (during the start of each map) for ZDoom based ports
• Adjusted FONTDEFS for ZDoom ports (Zandronum and older ports got really mad with me replacing some text characters graphics, so this is a fix)
• Adjusted text screen in ZDoom ports so that it would look correct.
• Added "New Game Plus" option under the skills menu for GZDoom.

 

Edited April 25 by Arsinikk

[CrazyJeff]

This is the best DOOM1 mapset I've played since 2017's Cacoward winning No End In Sight. I even played through it again to get the code for that codex program, which is the coolest thing ever. I hope things like that become more common. And I can't wait for the next episode.

 

However, I encountered the strangest glitch I've ever seen. With GZDOOM 4.12.1, the pit elevator in e1m8 will not raise. That itself isn't strange, the way to fix it is. By the process of elimination: "cl_maxdecals 0" MUST be in autoexec.cfg  ... then the elevator will work. Turning off decals any other way will have no effect. If we have any GZDOOM guru's around here, I'm genuinely curious to learn how decals could do this.

[Arsinikk]

2 hours ago, CrazyJeff said:

This is the best DOOM1 mapset I've played since 2017's Cacoward winning No End In Sight. I even played through it again to get the code for that codex program, which is the coolest thing ever. I hope things like that become more common. And I can't wait for the next episode.

Thanks I'm glad you enjoyed it :) . I'm planning on expanding the codex every episode with new info added per episode. Also each episode is planned to have it's own "colour" and mapping theme to better distinguish them from one another.

 

2 hours ago, CrazyJeff said:

However, I encountered the strangest glitch I've ever seen. With GZDOOM 4.12.1, the pit elevator in e1m8 will not raise. That itself isn't strange, the way to fix it is. By the process of elimination: "cl_maxdecals 0" MUST be in autoexec.cfg  ... then the elevator will work. Turning off decals any other way will have no effect. If we have any GZDOOM guru's around here, I'm genuinely curious to learn how decals could do this.

Hmmm let me play around with this.... I'm hoping it's just a new GZDoom introduced issue and not something that affects older ZDoom or Zandronum. That does sound rather strange though, as decals shouldn't affect gameplay elements.

 

That elevator works via a crushed barrel explosion pushing a voodoo doll over some lines. So I'm thinking if decals are to blame, it would be related to decals on barrels as they take continuous damage from a crusher?

[Bobby :D]

Cool WAD! Gotta admit, I didn't figure out the complete solution to the puzzle so I brute forced what I couldn't figure out, but great idea anyway! If I was more explorative and less tired, I'm sure I'd figure out the full password. Either way, some of these level concepts are really dope, and I can't wait to see E2! (also, thanks for being a future inspiration for packaging more meta game stuff with Doom WADs!)

Edited April 27 by Bobby :D

[Baron T. Mueriach]

E1M7 was quite the penultimate. Loving these new WAD's that have been coming out lately, really shows what Doom is capable of in the right hands. Good job on this!

[Arsinikk]

2 hours ago, Bobby :D said:

Gotta admit, I didn't figure out the complete solution to the puzzle so I brute forced what I couldn't figure out, but great idea anyway!

I'm going to guess the final line of the riddle?

[Arsinikk]

Here's a new update (hopefully the last one for Episode 1)!

This update fixes E1M8 on ZDoom ports ( @CrazyJeff ) and fixes a really stupid DOS/Chocolate Doom crash that I accidently introduced in the last update.

 

 

If you wanna know more info about the fixes, look below:

Spoiler

E1M8 Issue On ZDoom Ports

Contrary to what it seemed, it's actually not a CVAR or compatibility issue at all. In E1M8, I ended up doing an unusual setup with my Vanilla conveyors by double stacking barrels on top of each other. In ZDoom ports, stacking monsters/things is not allowed, so it would try unsticking them. This caused the conveyor to sometimes work or sometimes not. It was random when the conveyor would trigger. I reworked the Vanilla Conveyors to only use 1 barrel and now it works correctly every time in ZDoom ports.

 

DOS/Chocolate Doom Crash

In the last update, to make use of the custom obituary message in ZDoom ports, I swapped the Mastermind dehacked from replacing the Pain Elemental (which has no obituary) to the Arachnotron (which does have obituaries). Unfortunately I missed replacing the Arachnotron active sound, which meant DOS Doom would crash when trying to play the sound since it doesn't exist in Doom 1. Luckily, I've fixed this in the latest version. Sorry, this is what I get for trying to rush DehackEd without thoroughly testing it. Luckily modern ports weren't affected by this issue.

 

Edited April 27 by Arsinikk

[CrazyJeff]

@Arsinikk  Excellent work! So it was random, and not decals? I thought I was losing my mind. It seems to be working perfectly now. I'm still playing this because I have found every secret rocket launcher except the first one. Also, I've been using the universal rain mod, not for the rain effect (the one you made is great), but for the rain and thunder sound effects. Which I'm assuming might not be possible to do in vanilla, as the sound effect fades when inside buildings.

[Arsinikk]

1 hour ago, CrazyJeff said:

I'm still playing this because I have found every secret rocket launcher except the first one.

Well I don't wanna spoil you :)  Although I'm glad someone's having fun with the "hidden rocket launcher" game!

 

1 hour ago, CrazyJeff said:

Also, I've been using the universal rain mod, not for the rain effect (the one you made is great), but for the rain and thunder sound effects. Which I'm assuming might not be possible to do in vanilla, as the sound effect fades when inside buildings.

Interestingly enough, I've dabbled in doing Vanilla rain quite alot. During the development of 200 Line Massacre, I experimented using the pain elemental death to spawn raindrops. The problem with that way is two fold though... There's a lost soul limit which would limit the rain to 20 drops, and also Vanilla has a sprite limit of only being allow to display 128 sprites on screen, and will flicker / not draw any sprites after that (sprites draw from the player, moving out... so furthest sprites would not draw after the limit is reached). It's also a shame to lose the pain elemental functionality, and the sprite cost just doesn't seem worth it in Vanilla.

 

I've also dabbled with rain sound as well. It's actually rather easy to do if you just have the rain object emit a sound. The problem is that in Vanilla, it just doesn't sound very good, and sounds more static-y than nice. It's also worth noting that Vanilla has a sound limit in that it can only play a certain amount of sounds at a time, so a rain sound is just another sound to get in the way of monsters or more important sounds, or just randomly cut off when other more important sounds are playing. Although, the main reason is that it just didn't sound very good and was static-y.

 

Regarding the universal rain mod, I thought I'd try it out just to see how RUST would play with it. It's kinda interesting to see how the maps are with added rain and thunder sound effects. I don't know if I'd add effects into RUST like that in an official case because I think it would go against the mapset feeling Vanilla. However, I don't mind if you or others use the universal rain mod, because it is a pretty cool effect. :)

Edited April 27 by Arsinikk

[PsyDOOMer]

After going through this WAD, I can definitely say this is one of the most interesting presentation and style-wise Doom WADs I've played in a while. I applaud whatever spirit made you do the light puzzle thing on E1M2 and the Spiderdemon fight on E1MX for their sheer genius and fun frustration factor they had.

 

I've still not actually discovered what the CODEX password is, and didn't quite get what the hint in E1M7 was supposed to be. (This could be something that my brain skipped entirely.) But beyond that, A note, no notes!

Edited April 29 by PsyDOOMer

[CrazyJeff]

On 4/27/2024 at 10:44 AM, Arsinikk said:

Well I don't wanna spoil you :)  Although I'm glad someone's having fun with the "hidden rocket launcher" game!

 

Interestingly enough, I've dabbled in doing Vanilla rain quite alot. During the development of 200 Line Massacre, I experimented using the pain elemental death to spawn raindrops. The problem with that way is two fold though... There's a lost soul limit which would limit the rain to 20 drops, and also Vanilla has a sprite limit of only being allow to display 128 sprites on screen, and will flicker / not draw any sprites after that (sprites draw from the player, moving out... so furthest sprites would not draw after the limit is reached). It's also a shame to lose the pain elemental functionality, and the sprite cost just doesn't seem worth it in Vanilla.

 

I've also dabbled with rain sound as well. It's actually rather easy to do if you just have the rain object emit a sound. The problem is that in Vanilla, it just doesn't sound very good, and sounds more static-y than nice. It's also worth noting that Vanilla has a sound limit in that it can only play a certain amount of sounds at a time, so a rain sound is just another sound to get in the way of monsters or more important sounds, or just randomly cut off when other more important sounds are playing. Although, the main reason is that it just didn't sound very good and was static-y.

 

Regarding the universal rain mod, I thought I'd try it out just to see how RUST would play with it. It's kinda interesting to see how the maps are with added rain and thunder sound effects. I don't know if I'd add effects into RUST like that in an official case because I think it would go against the mapset feeling Vanilla. However, I don't mind if you or others use the universal rain mod, because it is a pretty cool effect. :)

That is interesting, as vanilla limitations get fewer each year, maybe that could be improved at some point. I overuse the weather mod, so that's why it felt weird to not hear the rain. Anyway, I found all the secret rocket launchers, the most difficult to obtain(and the most necessary) being e1m8. I wonder what the ep2 non secret weapon will be. My next challenge is to complete ng+. I expect it to be pretty rough because I play with a controller. I'll be keeping an eye out for for ep2. If any gzdoom specific testing is needed, you can count me in :)  

One last thing, your choice of music for each level was perfect, we must be from the same generation. I ... might have made a music mod for this mapset ... I know its not vanilla, but having the real versions of those songs playing in the background takes the RUST experience to next level tier, especially on the secret map. Its like being a kid again, where playing the same game over and over never gets old.

[Arsinikk]

10 hours ago, CrazyJeff said:

I wonder what the ep2 non secret weapon will be.

E2 will finally introduce the Plasma gun, so maybe that'll be the secret weapon. Been debating whether to keep the BFG exclusive to E3.

 

10 hours ago, CrazyJeff said:

My next challenge is to complete ng+. I expect it to be pretty rough because I play with a controller. I'll be keeping an eye out for for ep2. If any gzdoom specific testing is needed, you can count me in :)  

Regarding NG+, it is hard. Like very hard. Like I came off of leading Hell Revealations (Hell Revealed project) hard. I haven't heard of many people playing through, so I'd be interested on how that goes. Regarding GZDoom support, I did have to add a specific script on E1M4 because of how ZDoom ports adhere to exact monster hitboxes (instead of Vanilla's more jank implementation). It should be fully compatible, but I'll admit I haven't fully tested NG+ in GZDoom.

 

10 hours ago, CrazyJeff said:

One last thing, your choice of music for each level was perfect, we must be from the same generation. I ... might have made a music mod for this mapset ... I know its not vanilla, but having the real versions of those songs playing in the background takes the RUST experience to next level tier, especially on the secret map. Its like being a kid again, where playing the same game over and over never gets old.

Interesting, I haven't actually played through RUST with the actual music and not midi versions. I may try that out. LOL I don't need to explain why midi versions are used. It's a bit convenient that it's the 30th anniversary of NIN's "The Downward Spiral". Honestly I usually write my own music for my projects, but due to the 90s D!ZONE influence, I thought midis of songs that came out around that time would work better. I always liked NIN songs and there's quite a surplus of midis to choose from. Even with some of the midis like "Heresy" I actually reworked it heavily to make it sound more like the original song (because it's one of my favourites, and I thought the midi didn't sound close enough).

Edited April 30 by Arsinikk

[bioshockfan90]

Played and reviewed.

 

Sorry I missed so much like the NG+ that I'm just now hearing about or a lot of the secret progression, but nonetheless this was an absolutely fantastic mapset. I'm agog by how much there is to love about this. It's hard to really put into words how this hits for me, but it just does. I dunno, I wish I could access the Codex but I'm on linux (probably runnable via Wine but just another missed opportunity on my end). I mean, the thread presentation, the maps, the design, the secret weapon and monster, the FANTASTIC final 2 maps, the mechanism in the final map and everything on the technical side of things - just bonkers. You've cemented yourself as a mapping champion with this one, Arsinikk. Hell Revealations was great and you just proved your own with this one.

 

Deserves all its flowers and more. Do NOT skip.

[Arsinikk]

1 hour ago, bioshockfan90 said:

Played and reviewed.

Thanks for the kind words and review. It's quite appreciated. It's a little interesting for me to see how much this WAD has been resonating with people, especially with it having some heavy influences from early 90s / D!ZONE WADs. I mean I literally turned off auto-alignment for textures in Ultimate Doom Builder, just to help give RUST that early 90s WAD feel. Any texture that's been aligned had to be done so manually.

 

1 hour ago, bioshockfan90 said:

Sorry I missed so much like the NG+ that I'm just now hearing about or a lot of the secret progression, but nonetheless this was an absolutely fantastic mapset

No worries. It's a little hard to fit that much information with how the post is laid out. Kinda had to resort to putting most of the extra information in a spoiler / text file of the WAD.

 

1 hour ago, bioshockfan90 said:

I dunno, I wish I could access the Codex but I'm on linux (probably runnable via Wine but just another missed opportunity on my end).

Yeah it's a little tricky. I'm currently using a super old version of Game Maker (2011) to compile the CODEX, and it only has support for Windows. I may look to upgrading to a slightly newer version to see if I could add more platform support, but there's no guarantee the current code I wrote for it will work the same in the newer version.

 

1 hour ago, bioshockfan90 said:

the FANTASTIC final 2 maps

Fun fact, I sorta felt like I messed up slightly with E1M7 when I made it. Don't get me wrong; it seems to be everyone's favourite map of the set, but it really did raise the bar so high that I felt like I needed to at least match that map with the following E1M8. Lol I don't know if it's exactly on par with E1M7, but I hope I did a good enough job with ending the episode.

 

In your review, you said "Arsinikk has big shoes to fill with the promised follow-up"... Part of me is happy for this, but now I feel extra pressure to really make a great follow up in episode 2. :P

Edited May 1 by Arsinikk

[bioshockfan90]

12 minutes ago, Arsinikk said:

In your review, you said "Arsinikk has big shoes to fill with the promised follow-up"... Part of me is happy for this, but now I feel extra pressure to really make a great follow up in episode 2. :P

Oh heheh, I wouldn't take it as gospel. I'm not the be-all-end-all resource on what makes a WAD good - I cover what I feel like covering. You got this in the bag, no problem. Was really moreso a way of saying "I'm anticipating E2" than anything else.

 

Thanks for giving it a read! :)

[s4f3s3x]

Is E1m8 beatable?

[mancubian_candidate]

21 minutes ago, s4f3s3x said:

Is E1m8 beatable?

It is indeed, beat it yesterday!

 

Spoiler

You have to race to the end of the map, press a switch which kills the cyberdemons

 

[EduardoAndFriends]

Well I’m firmly moist. Gonna jump into this tonight! That OP gif(?) is some of the best presentation I’ve EVER seen. 👑

[AdamTheSlave]

One of the best wads I've played hands down. Great work @Arsinikk!

My Playthrough on youtube ^_^

Edited May 2 by AdamTheSlave

[s4f3s3x]

14 hours ago, mancubian_candidate said:

It is indeed, beat it yesterday!

 

  Reveal hidden contents

You have to race to the end of the map, press a switch which kills the cyberdemons

 

 

Yep, I did it too. I feel very stupid now as it was quite obvious indeed :' D . I guess I didn't pay enough attention to the starting messages...

 

Also played the secret level (didn't find the entrance during playthrough): I was surprised to find the custom Green Imp from Eye Of The Beholder! I just finished that WAD last week! Great quote @Arsinikk

[Noiser]

I love how you made your thread! And I'm very intriguing with the complevel 1 requirement *_*

[Arsinikk]

Special thanks to @Spectere for playing through all of RUST on his YouTube channel!

 

If you'd like extra commentary on each map, you can check out my comments under each of his RUST videos.
I also highly suggest checking out his other videos, as he's a great DoomTuber! :)

 

In the final video above, Spectere ended up solving the CODEX passcode, and dedicated a full hour reading through the entire CODEX!

So if you'd like some ASMR to listen to for RUST lore, you can check the video above!

 

I also put together a sort of passcode hint system for those stuck on finding the CODEX passcode:

RUST CODEX Passcode Hints

 

(Note that it's currently not possible to solve the entire passcode in ZDoom ports... I'm not going to explain why, as it would be sort of a spoiler. I would like to find some way to fix it, I'm not exactly sure of the best way to approach it yet...)