armadosia the mad corridor

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Armadosia bugfixing changelog

* General Notes *

The list of changes is quite long, with many of them requiring detailed
explanation; so here's a short summary of the most important issues fixed, 
along with the map numbers:

• 26 required a full-3-D engine to get past the first quarter of the map
• 07, 16, 24, 25 were impossible to complete in vanilla compat
• 05, 08, 09, 19, 28 and 31 could get you stuck
• 31 and 32 had severe weapons and ammo shortage
• 10, 15, 16, 24 and 28 didn't allow 100% kills
• 15, 24, 26 and 27 didn't allow 100% secrets
• 08 and 11 had rockets and cells but nothing to use them with
• Medusa fixed on the TEXTURE1/PNAMES level
• SKY3 extended into a 1024-wide non-repeating graphic
• FF_END (a WadAuthor-ism) changed to the proper F_END

Additionally, each level received a face lift: most of the textures have been
aligned and every moving doortrack (a pet peeve with me) I could find has been
unpegged — about six thousand of them, the way it felt.

Despite my best efforts to preserve demo compatibility several maps required
changes too extensive for it to be a realistic goal. For your reference, here
are the map numbers:
 05  08  10  11  15  25  30  31 and 32
But worry not: the old versions of these maps have received the same cosmetic 
treatment as the rest (which often had to be done in parallel) and are compiled
into arma-old.wad (included). So the existing demos will benefit from this
project almost as much as future ones. Load it after the main WAD like this:
 -file armadosia.wad arma-old.wad
if you want to watch the old demos on the maps listed above. If you don't watch
demos, you don't need this WAD.

For those who felt overwhelmed by all the monsters in the original, skill levels
have been implemented: the opposition on "Hurt Me Plenty" and lower is now 
reduced by 20-25%. This was mostly achieved by simply by editing out skills 1-3
from the monsters' flags, although substitution of weaker monsters for stronger
ones was also used; and in a few cases limited amounts of health and/or ammo
were added. 
Overall, while most of the maps can be now completed quicker on lower skill 
levels, the monster/ammo ratio is similar to that of the original. Two special
cases deserve to be mentioned: MAP29 is now more reasonable on HMP, although you
still need some help from the Cybers; and on MAP07 the new ratio is actually 
a little higher, as the reduced opposition called for downsizing the
overpowered secret cache (don't worry, there's still way more than enough to 
kill everything on HMP :).

Last, but not least, all maps — except MAP02 and MAP27, where it would affect
demo compat — had their REJECT rebuilt; first with RMB (with the "perfect"
option) and then Zennode, when RMB took two hours and a half (wtf?) on MAP10.


* Disclaimer *

Changes not included in this list, for the sake of the reader's sanity:
 - various purely cosmetic changes (e.g. changing clashing textures; subtle
   texture changes to indicate secrets; doortracks etc.)
 - removal of action specials from doortracks, except where that affects
   demo compat
 - monster/item changes on skills 1, 2 and 3
 
Thus while maps 03, 06, 13, 14, 17, 20-22 and 30 are not in the list, that
doesn't mean they received less attention than the rest, only that the 
numerous minor changes to them were not as critical as the rest.


And now onto the gory details.



================================================================================
                              * CHANGELOG *
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Abbreviations:
 LD = linedef
 SD = sidedef
  S = sector
  T = thing
 
Issue symbols:
  ! = critical
  ? = potentially critical
  + = gameplay
  · = non-critical/cosmetic
 
Map change symbols:
  * = breaks existing demos

================================================================================

 MAP01  
 ·  Fixed misaligned lights on the ceiling of S 34 (behind the blue-key door and
    just before the door to the outside) with a new offsetted flat CEIL1_2X
 ·  Fixed a grate bleeding into the floor on LD 1479 (thank you, scifista) by
    spitting the sector it's in into smaller ones with different light levels
 ·  Same issue and fix on LD 685

================================================================================

 MAP02
 ?  Fixed Medusa error caused by two-sided linedefs having multi-patch textures
    as middle tex — removed these linedefs' 2-sided flag and back SDs. This is
    the only map that received manual treatment. The rest of the levels that 
    suffered from this glitch (about 15 of them) have been fixed in bulk by
    making all the offending textures single-patch in TEXTURE1, which called for
    the addition of 28 new entries between PP_START and PP_END.
 ·  Fixed two armor helmets (Ts 166 and 167) jumping up in the air when the 
    nearby door (S 203) is opened

================================================================================

 MAP04
 ·  Fixed a cellpak (T 491) jumping up in the air when you enter that sector

================================================================================

 MAP05*
 ?  Player can get stuck in S 505, to the north of a door (S 509) that can be
    opened only from the south (LD 2968 "31 Door Open Stay"). After he opens the
    door and enters S 505 monsters can try to "open" this door via LDs 2944 and
    2970. If that happens the door closes after a few seconds, trapping the 
    player.  Fixed by removing the door special from LDs 2944 and 2970.
 ?  Fixed a similar potential situation with Ss 438 and 439, and LDs 2471 and
    2490 by removing the door special from LDs 2471 and 2490
 ?  Player can get stuck to the east of the red-key door (S 3) because the west
    side (LD 27) of the door is "1 DR Door Open Wait Close (also monsters)", 
    unlike the east side – LD 26 "33 D1 Door (Red) Open Stay". So, you can open
    and close the door from the west side many times, but only one time from the
    east side.  Fixed by changing LD 27's special to "31 D1 Door Open Stay".
 ·  Fixed HOM on the switch panel (S 514) in the blue room (sector 512) by 
    assigning the missing upper textures to SD 4815 (SW1BLUE) and SDs 4814, 4818
    and 4820 (COMPBLUE)
 ·  Fixed the grating bleeding into the floor on LD 2191, when viewed from the
    north side, by reassigning MIDSPACE from LD 2191 to LD 2169
 ·  Fixed the grating bleeding into the floor on LD 2532 by splitting its sector
    (445) in two, with different light levels on each side.

================================================================================

 MAP07*
 !  In vanilla compat the walkway to the exit (S 6, tag 667) rises only half 
    the intended height because one of its SDs (705) has the "-" empty texture
    as its lower texture. This doesn't happen in Boom and most of later source
    ports, as they ignore "-" textures when searching for the shortest lower
    texture of the sector(s) with tag 667
      http://doomwiki.org/wiki/Tag_667#Bugs
    Fixed by changing SD 705's lower texture to SUPPORT3. Should work the same
    in vanilla and in Boom modes now. Ironically, Revved's ar07-158 plays back
    just fine with the new version, whereas my NM run doesn't.

================================================================================

 MAP08*
 ?  Changed LD 1257 from "W1 Teleport" to "WR Teleport" to prevent the 
    possibility of getting stuck in the outdoor half of the map
 +  Added a plasma rifle (T 499), as there were cells on the map but nothing to
    use them with
 +  Changed a box of rockets (T 468) into a rocket launcher, as there were 
    rockets present but nothing to use them with
 ·  Raised the light level of the invisible teleporter (S 293) to the blue armor
    secret to provide a visual hint, set the sector special to "8 Light Glows"
    as an enhancement
 ·  Two unclosed sectors (38 and 39) created HOM around the second SSG at 
    certain angles in the GL renderer. Fixed by merging them (thanks to PavelU
    for the report)

================================================================================

 MAP09
 ?  Removed the shootable special from LDs 866, 867 and those between them,
    since activating them can trap the player in the teleporter secret
 ·  Raised light level of all sectors by 20, as most of the level is nearly 
    pitch-black in software renderer

================================================================================

 MAP10*
 +  One chaingunner (Thing 136) is placed too high for autoaim, thus 100% is
    possible only in ports with Quake-style mouse aiming.  Fixed by lowering
    the floor of his pillar (S 217) from 500 to 400. To maintain the proportion
    between the heights of this series of pillars (Ss 219, 218 and 217) also
    lowered the floor of S 218 from 400 to 350.
 +  Moved several monsters in the "human die" room (S 149) away from "Block 
    Monsters" lines that made them stuck in place, unable to attack
 +  Deleted Ss 123 and 124 - these are supposed to be solid pillars, yet 
    missiles could pass through them, as seen in Revved's ar10-732 demo

================================================================================

 MAP11*
 ?  Removed GR special from LD 1823 (the east side of the doorway into the
    backpack secret). It had zero tag and shooting it caused half the map to
    go haywire
 +  Added the missing rocket launcher (T 528) to the supercharge secret area,
    because the level supplied a lot of rockets and nothing to use them with
 +  Made the SSG available earlier, to make the gameplay less tedious. It is
    now in the semi-secret S 489.
 +  Replaced the former SSG with a blue armor
 +  Added a plasma rifle to the backpack secret, so now there's something to 
    use all those cells scattered around the map with
 +  To compensate for the addition of RL and PR changed some of the shell boxes
    to 4-shell pickups, and some bullet boxes to 5-bullet pickups
 ·  Moved the four armor helmets (Ts 318-321) north of the supercharge closer
    together and away from the lift edge so that they don't stay suspended in
    the air when the lift is activated
 ·  Fixed the window of S 61: the north side (SD 747) has BROWN144 as a middle
    texture, thus the window looks like a solid wall from outside
 ·  Set the "lower unpegged" flag on LDs 3833, 3854 and 3856 - these are MIDBARS1 
    grates that are suspended in the air
 ·  Fixed MIDSPACE grate bleeding into the floor on LD 2730 by making the light
    levels on each side different

================================================================================

 MAP12
 ·  Lowered S 326's ceiling from 540 to 512. This is the only way to fix the
    misaligned upper texture on LD 1036 without screwing up the look of the
    grate in the window

================================================================================

 MAP15*
 +  Removed secret special from Ss 851-854; as well as from Ss 892, 893, 896
    and 897, because they are solid pillars and are impossible to get into —
    100% secrets is possible now
 +  Moved a Sarge (T 245) from the void outside into the hallway to the south —
    100% kills is possible now 
 ·  Fixed vines bleeding into the floor on linedef 2535 with Y-offset = 64

================================================================================

 MAP16
 !  Moved to S 745 an Imp (Thing 438) stuck in the ceiling of S 743. The floor
    of S 743 can be lowered in vanilla compat now.
 +  Gave the nearby Imps in the corridor the Ambush flag (which most editors
    misleadingly list as "Deaf") so that they stay there waiting for the player
    rather than wander off randomly
 +  Fixed an inaccessible teleporter (S 648) by raising the ceiling of its
    sector and the ceiling of the surrounding S 647. Removed the unnecessary
    tag 37 from the teleporter sector.
 +  Moved the Hell Knight (T 287) from the void to nearby S 561 — 100% kills is
    possible now
 ·  Fixed vines midtex bleeding on LD 1290 by giving S 276 a lower light level

================================================================================

 MAP18 
 ·  Fixed the misaligned teleporter (S 206) in the supercharge secret with a 
    new flat GATE3X

================================================================================

 MAP19
 ?  Made S 528 in the BFG secret a lift, as you could fall down from it and get
    stuck — the lava S 252 had no damage special (it does now)
 +  Placed three blocking decorations (Ts 449-451) to prevent the player from
    going into dead-ends, two of which have no way out 
 ·  Moved the exit sign from the last step of the staircase, where it looked 
    cut-off, into an alcove on the top landing

================================================================================
 
 MAP20
 +  Moved a Demon (T 51) east, away from the hanging leg that it was stuck to
 
================================================================================
 
 MAP21
 ·  A rocket (T 159) was floating under the ceiling in vanilla compat; fixed
    by moving it away from the walls

================================================================================

 MAP23
 ·  Moved a medkit (T 173) away from the red key, so that the medkit won't jump
    in the air (comp_floors)

================================================================================

 MAP24
 !  In vanilla compat, the player gets stuck in the L-shaped hallway (S 746)
    beyond the blue-key door, because the walkway (S 747) around it fails to
    lower as intended. 
    This happens because LD 4865 is the trigger with the special "19 W1 Floor
    Lower to Highest Floor" and S 746 contains a linedef (4904) with both sides
    within this sector. This makes DOOM think that the tagged sector is adjacent
    to itself, so the floor won't lower (a comp_floors issue).
    Fixed by changing LD 4865's special to "5 W1 Floor Raise to Lowest Ceiling",
    which, paradoxically enough, works in this case both in vanilla and in Boom
    compat.
 +  Changed S 564's trigger from "19 W1 Floor Lower to Highest Floor" to
    "38 W1 Floor Lower to Lowest Floor", which allows a Cacodemon (T 289)
    to come out from its closet and makes 100% kills possible. 
    In the original, the floor won't lower even in Legacy v1.40, as both floors
    next to it are 256 units *lower*, not higher, than S 564's floor. 
    Reassigned the trigger from LD 5278 to LD 3116, so that the player activates
    it a little earlier and doesn't have to wait almost ten seconds for the 
    floor to lower.
 +  Made 100% secrets possible by reassigning S 285's secret special to S 301.
    S 285 is the bottom step of a staircase and is not deep enough for the 
    player's center to touch its floor. What happens is that when the player's
    center enters this sector, the player is already ascending the second step,
    so his center is in the air over the first step and doesn't touch its floor.
    S 301 is the landing at the top of the stairs.
 ·  Fixed some textures bleeding into the floor on various LDs (e.g. the vines
    and the grate at the start) by applying positive Y-offsets
 ·  Removed a stimpak (T 108) that was in the void
 ·  Moved the rocket boxes in S 129 away from the walls — they showed through
    the floors of the sectors above (Ss 129 and 132) in software renderer
    
================================================================================

 MAP25*
 !  In vanilla compat, a door (S 157) won't open because it is bisected by 
    LD 941 — a problem similar to the walkway issue in the previous map.
    Fixed by deleting LD 941 and assigning its special to LD 869.
 !  Changed action special on LD 1352 from "19 W1 Floor Lower to Highest Floor"
    to 38 "W1 Floor Lower to Lowest Floor", because S 554 lowers in Boom compat
    only (another comp_floors issue)
 !  Moved a Baron (T 223) that was stuck in S 293's ceiling, preventing its 
    floor from lowering in vanilla compat 
 ·  Moved a medkit (T 329) away from a lowering sector (319), so that it doesn't
    float in the air
 ·  Lowered the floor of S 366 so that the secret megasphere is visible 
    (which seems to be the purpose of the window — S 366)

================================================================================

 MAP26
 !  Enabled access to switch on LD 2831 by replacing the blocking decorations
    (Ts 252, 265, 266 and 268 — types 75 and 77) hanging from the ceiling in
    front of it with a non-blocking type (66)
 ?  Player may get stuck at the north side of the bars (Ss 1218 and 1219) if
    he is forced to go through that area again. The bars are lowered by LD 7609.
    Its action special is "110 W1 Door Close fast" and there's no trigger to
    raise the bars.  Fixed by making one LD to the north (7548) and one to the
    south (7699) walkover triggers that raise the bars.
 +  A blue-key door (S 414) doesn't open in vanilla compat, which in turn leads
    to the monster closet in S 651 not opening = no 100% kills. Same problem
    as MAP24's walkway: S 651 is bisected by a linedef (4297).
    Fixed by changing LD 4297's sidedef references to a nearby sector (415).
 ·  Fixed the gratings on LDs 2118-2121 bleeding into the floor by splitting
    their alcoves from S 257 into new individual sectors (1282-1285) and raising
    their light level. Set Y-offsets on these LDs to 16 for better looks.
 ·  Fixed a few things that get stuck in the air when nearby sectors move — e.g.
    the player corpse by the LD 2831 switch and a bullet box (T 221) — by moving
    them away from the walls
 ·  Fixed an Imp (T 235) stuck in a wall

================================================================================

 MAP27
 +  Secret sector 402 is another staircase step too shallow for the player to
    fit onto. Fixed by assigning S 402's secret special to S 417 instead –
    100% secrets is possible now

================================================================================
             
 MAP28
 ?  It's possible to prevent S 1324 from lowering if you activate the switch on
    LD 8008 right after walking over LD 7995 — the latter raises the switch and
    is tagged to S 1324 as well. If that happens you cannot get the red key.
    Fixed by changing LD 7995's action special from 130 "W1 Floor Raise to Next
    Higher Floor (fast)" to 5 "W1 Floor Raise to Lowest Ceiling" and adjusting
    the control sector (1323) accordingly.
 ?  A similar issue and a similar fix for the yellow key: LD 10186 won't lower
    S 1702 if the player doesn't wait a bit after walking over LD 10194
 ?  Added a teleporter to the Arch-Vile pool (S 1457) as a means to get out.
    The teleporter is accessed via the new switch in the Archie's room.
 +  Replaced a Chaingunner (T 1015) with a Revenant
 +  Changed S 1467 from a solid long bridge into three discreet platforms 
    (this and the two preceding entries are the author's idea)
 ?  Removed the action special "46 GR Door Open Stay" from the red-key bars
    (S 980). Shooting these by accident screws up half the map in vanilla compat
    because the special linedefs have 0-tags
 +  A Revenant and a Chaingunner are trapped in S 140 because there's no trigger
    to open that sector.  Fixed by making tagging S 139 (the wall between S 140
    and the player) to the LD 2113 switch.
 +  Changed action special on LD 8715 from "112 S1 Door Open Stay (fast)" to 
    "109 W1 Door Open Stay (fast)" – this releases the two Archviles in S 1469
    that are otherwise unreachable
 +  Added a box of rockets in S 249 to encourage the player to cross LD 1320
    and find the way out of the room quicker
 +  Added a green armor and three stimpacks to the starting area, doubled the
    shells pickups to ameliorate the brutality of pistol start on UV
 +  Moved the trigger to open S 1150 from LD 7052 to LD 7131, otherwise there
    is no point in S 1155 and the action special on its door (LD 7131)
 +  Replaced one of the three Rad suits in the secret with a much more useful
    backpack
 ·  Fixed MIDBARS1 bleeding into the floor on the linedefs bookending sectors
    1063-1065 – replaced with the shorter MIDBARS3 + Y-offset
 ·  Split S 815 into two sectors with different light levels to fix MIDBARS1
    midtex bleeding into the floor
 ·  Replaced MIDSPACE (64x128) in two windows (Ss 133 and 147) with a new custom
    texture MIDSPAC2 (64x64) to prevent midtex bleeding — TEXTURE1 modified
 ·  Removed lower unpegged flag from linedefs 4610 and 4612 — although it's a
    doorway, the sector action here is Lower Floor not a door, so that flag
    actually makes the doortracks slide here

===============================================================================

 MAP29  
 +  Replaced a medkit (T 160) with a backpack. Although it's possible to get
    100% kills without it, it's badly needed to avoid wasting the little ammo
    that's available.

================================================================================
 
 MAP30*
 +  Moved the final lift to the east so that the north tip of the star points
    directly at the IoS
 +  Widened the window to Romero's head from 64 to 88
 +  Reduced the number of spawn spots to five (fewer on lower skill leves)
 +  Added a cell pak on UV
 ·  Moved Romero's head south so that the final explosions show up


================================================================================

 MAP31*
 A major overhaul for pistol-start playability by RjY
 !  Fixed the door to the regular exit (S 63). In vanilla compat, it won't open
    because of LD 501 inside of it. Fixed by deleting the linedef and assigning
    its W1 trigger to LD 417 in front of the door.
 ?  Added an extra teleport trigger (LD 1376) to the "O" sector in the secret
    exit area, as it is possible to use up the W1 action of LD 1218 without
    teleporting by crossing it from the wrong side. If that happens (and there's
    no visual hint which is the right way to go) you get stuck in that letter.
 +  Added weapons, ammo and a megasphere to the playing area
 +  Two doors (Ss 81 and 83) made stay-open types to avoid bad cases of monsters
    stuck on doortracks
 ·  Added a small sector (180) with an exit sign opposite the secret exit
    walkover trigger — stumbling into an exit blindly is usually not a happy
    event
 ·  Made the secret exit area always shown on the automap, since it seems to be
    the map's highlight
 ·  Raised S 119's ceiling for a sneak preview of the new BFG and megasphere;
    this door now opens on approach from the Archvile side

================================================================================

MAP32*
 ?  Set the final teleporter line (LD 2670) from W1 to repeatable, as I once
    managed to jump through the window without teleporting and got stuck
 +  Added a SSG, two shell and two bullet boxes, a green armor and a berzerk
    pack in various locations to make the level playable from a pistol start.
    There's still not enough ammo for just shooting everything in sight, but 
    100% kills is definitely possible now.
 +  Set "Block Monsters" to the lower boundary of the mountain (Sector 251)
    so that the player won't get swarmed too easily
 ?  There was massive HOM instead of the sky in the starting area in Choco-plus.
    Fixed by adding an extra sector around the perimeter à la HR MAP26. Still
    some HOM over some structures, possibly because of some Choco limitations.
          
================================================================================

Never_Again
[email protected]
June 5 2015


EOF