PSX Doom: The Lost Levels - New Pre-Beta Available courtesy of Salahmander2

[Avoozl]

BaronOfStuff said:

Pretty good stuff. A few missing textures, but gameplay's fine. A few things I would suggest though are a Nightmare Spectre or two along the way, swapping a couple of Barons for Hellknights, and replacing the Shotgun Guys on the exit column with a Chaingunner. Other than that, I like it!

Well I haven't touched the gameplay yet, only the texture replacing and lighting mostly, I have decided to replace the monsters as you have recommended and I will add some Nightmare Spectres also, I'm glad you like it though.

[Avoozl]

Edit: Third update: http://www.mediafire.com/?u5pqc57gn38mngy

Here's a second update on the map: *link removed*

[fenderc01]

Here is Fear:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/e55ie6c37tfn5vh/PSXFEAR.WAD

Let me know what you guys think.

[BaronOfStuff]

fenderc01 said:

Here is Fear
Let me know what you guys think.

Excellent. A very slight orange tinge to outdoor sectors (because of the sky used) would be the finishing touch.

[fenderc01]

BaronOfStuff said:

A very slight orange tinge to outdoor sectors (because of the sky used) would be the finishing touch.

I did actually. Maybe it was a little too slight. Do you think the steel bars on the south end of the map are too complex for a PSX level?

[BaronOfStuff]

I'll have to take another look in a moment, but it didn't seem particularly complex. Might be worth messing with all the same.

[BaronOfStuff]

fenderc01 said:

Do you think the steel bars on the south end of the map are too complex for a PSX level?

Okay, the steel bars would most likely be far too much for the PSX to manage without slowing to a crawl. Looks like it's MIDBAR type nonsense for this section.

[fenderc01]

Fear (rev 1):
http://www.mediafire.com/file/e55ie6c37tfn5vh/PSXFEAR.WAD

-Made outdoor lighting more orange
-Removed steel poles on south end of map and replaced with bars texture
-Minor changes/bug fixes

[BaronOfStuff]

Balls, just noticed this. The changes are all good, but there may have to be another revision to simplify this bloody thing... I'm not sure if it should be a smaller window with the bars removed, or if it should be filled entirely, or if a few bars should be removed with MIDBAR stuff between the remaining bars though.

Or I guess we could leave it -- they aren't sectors, just one-sided lines.

[fenderc01]

I considered removing those, but they aren't as complex as the other ones were. I decided to keep them.

[BaronOfStuff]

Yeah, the more I think about it the less of a problem I see. As far as I can tell, Fear's ready to go!

[Avoozl]

I don't remember any of the E4 sky maps in psxdoom using orange lighting for outdoors areas but it looks pretty good.

[Devalaous]

Just had an amusing thought: Taking all the console exclusive levels and PC-ising them, the opposite of this project. Xaser's done something similar, but I was thinking more "What if they always existed on the PC?"

Similarly it'd be nice to have an option to play this TC with PC level monsters in the same levels, extra atmosphere + extra challenge.

But thats not 100% relevant right now. Fear's looking good. Forsaken Keep looks so much better without the flat walls. That level was always the worst of all of Doom, probably why it was replaced in console versions with a more detailed level. Hows Wolfenstein/The Castle/Other name going?

[BaronOfStuff]

It's being difficult. I'm having to take 9001 liberties with floor/ceiling height variations and adding a few bits and pieces here and there, while at the same time shortening/reducing some of the longer corridors/larger rooms. The layout will of course remain familiar, but aesthetically (of course) it will feel like a completely new map from scratch.

It'll get done eventually, but it's strangely hard work considering how simple the original map actually is.

[BaronOfStuff]

Well here's the current status of the map. No in-game screenshots yet, it all looks a bit bare right now but I'm working on that.

You can see where I've hacked and mangled bits and pieces of it up to keep gameplay reasonably speedy. No point in traipsing down long corridors with nothing in them.

[BlueFireZ88]

Screenshots must be seen of this thing of beauty. :)

[BaronOfStuff]

All in good time!

I have to mess around balancing monster/ammo placement and tweaking the general flow to liven it up before I post any worthy screenshots. No way am I leaving this as a simple "go from A - B and win!" map, not now!

[Devalaous]

Looks good. No way can it keep the name Wolfenstein now though!

Hows the height variation? I imagined the map all going downhill or uphill looking at that new layout for some reason.

[BaronOfStuff]

Ragnor said:

Hows the height variation?

Short answer: it makes playing the map on repeat through constant testing so much more tolerable. It really was for the best if this was going to be worth the conversion.

[BaronOfStuff]

Going back to the topic of 'Hunted', if we can't use the Arch-Vile (a choice which should depend entirely on getting the 'correct' sounds), would anyone see a problem in switching out all of those for something like a trio of Cyberdemons?

Clichéd to do this sort of thing, I know, but under the circumstances and in order to create the same level of fear/tension, I see no other alternative. Barons would simply be a pack of low-threat Meatshields. Revenants a sparse collection of largely-ineffective 'glass cannons'. Mancubi/Arachnotrons wouldn't even be able to move properly, if at all.

Of course this also means a few other changes would have to be made (e.g. swap the SSG for a PR), but I think this would be workable with enough tweaking/testing.

[Gez]

I think the maze set-up might work with a different monster if you change the dynamics a bit and put teleport monster lines everywhere. So the barons attack, move, and disappear but reappear behind your back or at some other place...

[Shadow Hog]

So kinda like Cat and Mouse from Doom 64?

[BaronOfStuff]

...very much like Cat And Mouse it would seem.

I'd like the chance to mess around using this concept. This is going to be a lot of fun to toy with.

[Shadow Hog]

BaronOfStuff said:

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/4527/somestuff.png

Well here's the current status of the map. No in-game screenshots yet, it all looks a bit bare right now but I'm working on that.

You can see where I've hacked and mangled bits and pieces of it up to keep gameplay reasonably speedy. No point in traipsing down long corridors with nothing in them.

Well, I notice you made it so the big L-shaped corridor right at the end is now two separate rooms. Kinda removes any need to go to the one on the side, though, since the exit's straight ahead.

Maybe introduce some key quests into the picture, to force players to go into some of the side rooms instead of trucking on through the straight path? Best example I can think of is the big room in the center; there's the room to the right with two more rooms, one of which is hiding a BFG9000, a megasphere and four backpacks (and a SSG, I think?), the other of which has nothing but enemies in it. Maybe put a blue key in there, and make it so you can't progress through the big room unless you've grabbed it?

[BaronOfStuff]

Shadow Hog said:

Well, I notice you made it so the big L-shaped corridor right at the end is now two separate rooms. Kinda removes any need to go to the one on the side, though, since the exit's straight ahead.
...
Maybe introduce some key quests into the picture, to force players to go into some of the side rooms instead of trucking on through the straight path?

Way ahead of you:

BaronOfStuff said:

No way am I leaving this as a simple "go from A - B and win!" map, not now!

[Shadow Hog]

Bah, missed that. Still, sounds good :)

[Coolster]

found a bug in Fear map, you can easily squeeze yourself between the bars going backwards :P was using the latest GZDoom SVN

[BaronOfStuff]

It was the same in E4M9 (no surprises seeing as that was the base); it's up to fenderc01 whether or not it should be 'fixed' for this version.

[Coolster]

didn't know that (but then again Episode 4 was my least favorite) but then again map itself gets rather difficult if you try to sequence break so let it be :P

[fenderc01]

Coolster said:

found a bug in Fear map, you can easily squeeze yourself between the bars going backwards :P was using the latest GZDoom SVN

I can't seem to reproduce this bug.

I will work on The Chasm.