I only have a handful of maps under my belt and not much collaboration experience, so when the call came for mappers I couldn't resist. I love creating tech-bases with a focus vanilla compatibility.
The maps were assigned randomly, and I was especially grateful to get Phobos Lab. It's one of my favourites.
1) The story of Doom takes place in the radioactive waste facilities on Phobos.
I wanted a large nukage area that will be visited multiple times. I made this area a hub where the player moves through as they find each key. To keep the action flowing, I made volleys of monsters teleport into this area as the player progresses past pivotal points.
One of the tricker parts was holding the monsters at bay until the player exits the blue door area, after they collected the key. By using a combination of two triggers, one wall lowering only if the other has lowered, I was able to delay the monsters teleporting at exactly the right time.
2) The original E1M5 has a rising platform that emerges out of a nukage pit.
This notable feature has always stood out for me. Not wanting to replicate it exactly, I took inspiration from it and made rising pillars for crossing raised platforms. To add variation, one set is activated by switches, the other is a constantly moving floor that has the player perform a timed-run.
3) Trying something different.
I wanted the player to revisit a previous area in an unexpected way; they should emerge and go "ah, I was just here!" I achieved this via a set of stairs that emerged from a lowering floor. The intent was to create an inverse visual effect; the Doom engine only builds stairs upwards, so this effect is very subtle.
I did this by cloning the stairs in the void, placing them next to a blueprint set of stairs and moving their sectors down to the next lowest floor. The player, in a dark tunnel, sees the sky open above them as the stairs lower, climbs them and find themselves in a familiar place.
4) Learning a new engine trick.
I wanted to create a nukage pit where the player appears to be nearly submerged, and they need to find the ledge to climb out. There is a technique where you can make liquid appear to have depth, known as "deep water", and creating this effect has always eluded me until now.
The effect relies on editing a sector's lines so that both sides refer to the same sector. This tricks the rendering engine to not draw the sector, however the game physics still detects this invisible sector, which lowers the player's stance, giving the illusion of being close to the liquid.
I am happy that I got a chance to create deep water.
I am very excited to be part of the DOS Game Club Doom map collaboration. It is a labour of love to dedicate time and effort towards a creative work such as this, and everyone involved delivered such wonderful maps. I can't be more happy with what we created, or more proud with everyone involved!