Weird Oblige

[andrewj]

Oblige is a random map generator for DOOM 2 etc...

Recently I have been working on "V7" which used an approach where it creates these "weird" shapes and then turns them into a playable level. I am actually going to retire that approach and work on a much more typical method of just sprouting new rooms off existing rooms, but the current code does sometimes generate some cool architecture, so I'm making a package of it available for people to try and play with.

Note that this version, "7.17-WEIRD" is very buggy and incomplete. It is not an official release and is not supported, which means I won't be fixing any bugs in it or adding any new features. Of course I'll still be interested in people's impressions of the maps.

People who like slaughter maps might even enjoy the maps which this can generate.

Grab the package here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/oblige/files/Oblige/7.17

[Tompig]

Woo, love Oblige... to the point where I honestly believe it should be added to zdoom as standard with some kind of 'random level' button on the main menu.

But thats just me, good job man!

[scifista42]

Tompig said:

Woo, love Oblige... to the point where I honestly believe it should be added to zdoom Chocolate Doom as standard with some kind of 'random level' button on the main menu.

FTFY

(just kidding)

[Reisal]

Here are some screenshots for the curious.

[mouldy]

interesting weird random layouts, very easy to get lost of course. It has that unpredictability that gives computer generated maps their charm, where you don't always know if they are going to work, or lead you into a maze of dead ends.

[Kappes Buur]

Weird ..... but wonderful.

I must confess, I hate the monster closets in 6.20. Is there a way not to generate any of them?

[Job]

Definitely weird. But I see some interesting architectural nuances that would translate well as features added to the existing project. For some reason, though, this build seems to have a predilection toward hitscanners. My goodness, the cages of chaingunners in the later levels make the SMM seem like it's toting a peashooter.

[andrewj]

Kappes Buur said:

I must confess, I hate the monster closets in 6.20. Is there a way not to generate any of them?

In 6.20 yes, in the Level Control module there is a Traps setting which can be set to NONE.

[Kappes Buur]

Perfect. Thank you.

[40oz]

Pretty cool how it optimizes space to create the differently shaped rooms. I'd say its a little heavy with the 90 and 45 degree angles to be weirder than what I expected.

Weird question, but how likely could it be for an alternate version of Oblige to be made to assist map editing? As in using Oblige as a simple layout generator? Oblige Weird in its current state is a little to complex, so I tried using 6.20 and setting all the level control settings to NONE but I got a lot of blocky rooms with lots of prefabricated-looking shapes, structures, and lighting effects in it, which made it a little too clunky to use.

Sometimes I like to make quick mockup maps to test how well texture themes pair together, and sometimes that can take a couple hours only to find out its not very good. Oblige might serve as a pretty cool vehicle for something like that to test hypotheses pretty quickly. Another example would be to feed Oblige a map and it returns it with monsters, weapons and items in it.

[Job]

I forgot to ask, in the future will there be feature implemented for degree of "complexity" or "architecture" or however you want to describe it? The only thing that really gives me issues is the inability to make the weapons and enemy pacing match the original IWAD, regardless of the settings used. Don't get me wrong, though, I love Oblige.

Also, hordes definitely means hordes in this build. I selected this option and I was seeing monster counts in the 2-3k area. Wow.

[andrewj]

40oz said:

but how likely could it be for an alternate version of Oblige to be made to assist map editing? As in using Oblige as a simple layout generator?

Hmmm, it is a neat idea, you could generate a megawad of basic layouts and look through them in a map editor to find something to base a map off. Added this idea to the TODO.

Trying to populate an existing map is a much harder proposition, requiring the kind of analysis that printz's Autodoom does to know which sectors are actually floors the player can walk on, the general visiting order of the rooms (for ramping up monsters over the level), etc...... While it is doable, I am not interested in doing it.

Job said:

I forgot to ask, in the future will there be feature implemented for degree of "complexity" or "architecture" or however you want to describe it? The only thing that really gives me issues is the inability to make the weapons and enemy pacing match the original IWAD, regardless of the settings used.

For complexity, I don't know yet as future versions will work differently than any previous version, but there may well be a setting for "detail" so you can get maps with little detail (like the IWADs) and maps with lots of detailing (like modern maps).

Weapon and monster pacing : after all this time, I am still not completely satisfied with these either, for monsters I have a few ideas, but weapons seem very hard to do "right".

[SteelPH]

Any chance Doom 64 EX could be supported in the future?

[Avoozl]

I think Doom 64 would be too complex for Oblige, and the complex lighting gradients especially.

[andrewj]

Doom64EX is not really on my radar, I don't own the rom and don't feel like hunting around places to buy it. There are also a few technical issues to tackle, such as having each map in its own wad (inside the main wad). Plus after getting normal DOOM working ok, I would rather work on Heretic or Quake again.

[jerk-o]

One thing I'd like to see in Oblige is two sets of traps. 1) Immediate traps - Get the key and the walls open, releasing the dudes. 2) Distant traps - Get the key and the dudes teleport into the areas you've already cleared out.

[andrewj]

Distant traps are planned (we had them in version 0.85, IIRC, but that was a long time ago.....)