My First Wad - The FORTRESS OF OBLIVION

[QuentinTrembleyIII]

Hello everyone, I only recently got into doom WAD-making, and have spent the last week and a half screwing around with Ultimate Doom Builder to create my first level, The FORTRESS OF OBVLIVION. I made it basically as a testing ground for me to get familiar with various parts of Doom level design and the backdoor aspects of building a WAD, so I would be really grateful if anyone would like to check it out and give feedback. It is a little longer than most IWADs, mostly because I just kept thinking "I want to know how to do this" and adding a segment that uses it. My par time is around 17 minutes, down to 13~14 if I speed through and don't try to kill every enemy I see, and around 23 minutes finding every secret.

In terms of specifications, it was built and tested on GZDOOM g.4.11 (I am aware that a new version is out, it just did so midway through my development so I was worried about updating in case it would break something), with Doom 2 as the base. Freelook is optional (it will make some segments easier and others harder, I have beaten it with both), while jumping is discouraged (I've tried to make sure you can't break anything by doing so, but if you do that's on you), and I'm fairly sure crouching will have no effect whatsoever. Feel free to use any visual specifications you like, though I have used a few dynamic lights here and there, and the plasma gun looks amazing with raytraced lighting in the darkrooms.

I designed it for Hurt Me Plenty, though the other skill levels are supported via differences in enemy placements and amount. I would recommend going through once and looking for useful secrets on a lower level before trying Ultra Violence or Nightmare.

Epilepsy Warning: There is one of those flashing-light mazes in the server room, there are a pair of low-light goggles near the entrance behind the right of wall of the room that is revealed after the first button press.

I do plan on making some changes based on feedback (or rapid changes if I find out that I screwed up the Slade asset upload), so I've uploaded it via a Google Drive link rather than a WAD uploading website: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hZwV6i ... drive_link

I'm exited to start designing levels for this game. I've always been interested in video game level design more than coding, so making Doom WADs I think will be the perfect balance between not needing to code everything myself (though I have already picked up some simple ACS tricks) and having as many options as I need to make what I want.

[Berserker]

Hey there,

I played you wad and I liked it, but unfortunately either I am stupid or there is a bug somewhere but I can't seem to open this door :



Despite that I have enjoyed the first bits, also I have one suggestion for you pool of blood at the benginning of the level, just put an escape platform or teleporter so you don't just
die down there

[QuentinTrembleyIII]

Ah, it appears that I have made grievous errors when it comes to telling the player what they can do. Firstly, if you notice there are different textures on the walls in the blood-pit, if you press use on the glowing ones stairs will lower. Next, to open that door you need to go around to the hallway with the other doors, head up the elevator, and shoot the high switch in the next room (though both are shootable in case you chose the wrong one). This is because I'm using a monster teleporter bank and need to wake them all up with sound, so I need to make sure that the player fires a shot in that area.

Do you have any idea how I can more effectively communicate both of those things to the player? I could maybe rig up a "this door appears to be opened elsewhere" script on the stair door, but I don't know how to make it stop running when you hit use on that line even if the door is open.

Edit: Correction, I added teleporters in the lava pool and figured out how to add the message without it triggering again. Should I upload the altered version, or do you want to play through the level past the point you go suck at on the old one?

[QuentinTrembleyIII]

Berserker wrote:
> Hey there,
>
> I played you wad and I liked it, but unfortunately either I am stupid or
> there is a bug somewhere but I can't seem to open this door :
>
> [imgur]https://imgur.com/ukhaC7n[/imgur]
>
> Despite that I have enjoyed the forst bits, also I have one suggestion for
> you pool of blood at the benginning of the level, just put an escape
> platform or teleporter so you don't just
> die down there
I am sending you this post so you receive a notification that this thread has updated and that I have responded to you. I'm not sure how the notification systems work, but I am fairly sure that if I update my previous comment to include the quote, I'm fairly certain you won't see it.

I've also gone through and made many other minor changes to the level, so I'll be willing to upload the new version if you want.

[Berserker]

Ah, it appears that I have made grievous errors when it comes to telling the player what they can do. Firstly, if you notice there are different textures on the walls in the blood-pit, if you press use on the glowing ones stairs will lower. Next, to open that door you need to go around to the hallway with the other doors, head up the elevator, and shoot the high switch in the next room (though both are shootable in case you chose the wrong one). This is because I'm using a monster teleporter bank and need to wake them all up with sound, so I need to make sure that the player fires a shot in that area.

Do you have any idea how I can more effectively communicate both of those things to the player? I could maybe rig up a "this door appears to be opened elsewhere" script on the stair door, but I don't know how to make it stop running when you hit use on that line even if the door is open.

Edit: Correction, I added teleporters in the lava pool and figured out how to add the message without it triggering again. Should I upload the altered version, or do you want to play through the level past the point you go suck at on the old one?

No problem, I'm not the most experienced mapper out there lol, but I learned a few tricks over time that I can give you :
For the blood pit, simply just make it more obvious, like a near teleporter or a visible switch on the wall. For the door, displaying a message was a good idea, if you don't want it to appear again once it's opened just create a variable with "false" state, then make a "if else" script in which if the variable is false then display a message, else if variable is true display nothing or do something else.

For example :

bool DoorOpened = false;

script 1 (void)
if (DoorOpened == false)
{
print(s:"This door is opened elsewhere");
}
else if (Dooropened == true)
{

}

[QuentinTrembleyIII]

Berserker wrote:
> No problem, I'm not the most experienced mapper out there lol, but I
> learned a few tricks over time that I can give you :
> For the blood pit, simply just make it more obvious, like a near teleporter
> or a visible switch on the wall. For the door, displaying a message was a
> good idea, if you don't want it to appear again once it's opened just
> create a variable with "false" state, then make a "if
> else" script in which if the variable is false then display a message,
> else if variable is true display nothing or do something else.
>
> For example :
>
> bool DoorOpened = false;
>
> script 1 (void)
> if (DoorOpened == false)
> {
> print(s:"This door is opened elsewhere");
> }
> else if (Dooropened == true)
> {
>
> }

Huh, well, I already found a much more simple solution. Just set the line to have a switch height check, therefor it will be impossible to activate unless the player is flying or something. And if they are then the level design is already borked, so what's a random message to do?

Also, I am *really* new to ACS coding, so I am just learning how to define variables. I'll definitely make note of that format and use it in the future if need be.


And here's the updated version of the map, tell me what you think now that you can, you know, finish it:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jmspk3 ... sp=sharing

[QuentinTrembleyIII]

I saw that someone tried to access the file and couldn't. I unlocked it for everyone now, so go ahead.