[Finished] The New Phobos Base

[Keykhosrau]

"Uh oh, it looks like the Phobos Base needs clearing out again. Turns out Doomguy's invitation "opening invitation" to the newly refurbished base is a phony. "

Hello everyone, this is a map that I was working on and off for 3 months and then released it in late September. I thought I'd share it with you guys aswell!

A huge, sprawling, non-linear map chock-full of GZDoom features. Uses low-tier baddies and stock textures only, but contains one or two ZScript edits of existing monsters. I'd estimate a blind playthrough to 1 or 2 hours to complete.

Additional credits to:
-"D_ROMER5" by anotak from lilith.pk3
-"Arrival" by Snaxalotl from Abscission
-"Claustrophia" by pcorf from 2022: A Doom Odyssey
-Pulse Zombie Man Base by deathz0r from OMG Weapons! (and Monsters)

Please use GZDoom/UZDoom v4.14.2 or higher!

Some more Screenshots:
https://i.ibb.co/KjStmPRC/The-New-Phobos-Base10.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/SDBQsfxF/The-New-Phobos-Base11.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/yn1SfH6s/The-New-Phobos-Base8.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/B5qSMJPG/The-New-Phobos-Base9.jpg

Download link: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/level ... /phobosnew

[Enjay]

That was a lot more than I expected. It has a lot of very, very cool architecture and features. Very impressive. The sheer amount of 3D architecture is quite breath taking and so many scenes look very cool. I particularly liked the courtyard with all the security towers. I loved the nods to well known original maps - very nicely done. Despite all the complexity - way beyond what was possible in 1993 - you still managed to capture enough of the feeling of the Phobos bases to make it believably the same kind of location. The map is certainly complex enough that my machine had a noticeably lower frame rate than I normally get when playing.

I did find several areas a bit lacking in light variation. The areas in question were usually fairly dark and I felt could have done with more points of light to mix things up a bit more. Sometimes this darkness was in really quite impressive looking areas that were let down slightly (I felt) by relatively dark and uniform lighting. Given that the map is aimed at GZDoom (and now UZDoom of course - which i played it with) and is loaded with (U/G)ZDoom features, I'm surprised that you didn't employ dynamic light objects. That, of course, could just be a personal choice.

As for gameplay, I *think* it plays well enough. I certainly didn't notice any problems with it but the recent* trend of maps with 1000s of enemies is not to my taste. I find that style of gameplay gets tedious after a while and maps with it have the "superman problem". i.e. Superman is unbeatable on normal terms because he is literally a near-invulnerable alien. So, you have to have a supervillain of similar power to beat him, or somehow nerf Superman to make him vulnerable. By the same token, maps with this style of gameplay need thousands of ammo items and many soul spheres/megaspheres/invulnerability items (etc) lying around (things that were occasional "OMG I found an amazing bonus" in the original maps) just to make them playable. That's purely a personal taste thing. Obviously there are people who enjoy that style of play, but it means this map is an "I've played it once, and that's enough" one for me. A shame, because I really thought the physical environment of the map was quite stunning in places.

*I know it's not a new thing, but there have been a lot of maps doing this recently.

So, yeah, a very impressive map architecture-wise, with lots of interesting elements but it features a style of gameplay that isn't to my taste. If you like fighting a couple of thousand bad guys in a good-looking and complex environment, then I would certainly recommend giving this one a go.

[Keykhosrau]

Enjay wrote:
> That was a lot more than I expected. [snip] If you like fighting a couple of thousand bad guys in a good-looking and complex environment, then I would certainly recommend giving this one a go.

Thank you very much for the review. I really appreciate it from the bottom of my heart.

Regarding your concerns with dark and uniform lighting, I completely agree and I do partially blame my absolutely jank monitor for making everything look brighter than it should be (it's fixed now). I've also found the experience with darkness to be more enjoyable when playing with software lighting, but that of course disables all dynamic lights. Speaking of dynamic lights, I did include them here but they are subtle and subdued which may not be the best option for such a large map where the range would be limited. I was worried that it would tank the frame rate more than it already has.

Regarding the gameplay, I believe that this stems from me getting bored with a regular gameplay and attempting to spice it up a bit. I think the artificially inflated monster count may've turned people off, so everyone reading this, don't worry! About ~40% of the monsters are Mucus Flow-esque chaingunner turrets, which in hindsight I'm not sure why I just didn't program in recurring enemies. In addition, should you ever wish to replay it, the lower difficulties are far more forgiving and ITYTD/HNTR have only about 340 monsters. Again, many of these monsters are low-tier baddies, so they can be somewhat easier to clean off given this. I put some effort into making sure that the difficulties on skill 1 are noticably more pleasant and HMP is nearly the same but with a bit more breathing room overall.

Again thank you so much for the review. I'll try not to be too much of a stranger on this forum haha, and give back to the community.

[Enjay]

ITYTD/HNTR have only about 340 monsters.

Well, that's significantly lower than the tougher difficulties. I may well give it another go as that sounds much more like the kind of monster count that would suit me (assuming that health/ammo are modified accordingly too).

[Enjay]

Yep, played it on an easy setting and found it much more enjoyable - far less endless wading through bad guys. There are still quite a few though, as befitting a map of this size (not a complaint, just a comment). I think by the time I was done, counting new spawns, there had been just short of 400 enemies on the map. I left three alive - I have no idea where they were.

As far as ammo is concerned, it's a bit strange. I found if I didn't go to the big courtyard, ammo was tight - probably too tight. However, once I had a key and could start revealing the ammo caches in the courtyard, I had waaaaay more ammo and health than was required to deal with all the bad guys - but I did have to go back to the courtyard to top up a few times. So, it's an interesting dynamic of most of the map being tight in ammo, but there being a huge stash in one particular area. Not sure if it works or not, but it's definitely a thing.

Also, playing on the easy setting let my computer breathe. The framerate was noticeably better with 1/5 of the enemies present.