Congestion Control

Replaces: Doom II, MAP01
File Size: 329 KB

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Congestion Control is an action-packed single-player level for Doom II.  It includes new graphics, new music and a couple of extra goodies thrown in, all in one neat package!

Play it and do tell me what you think (of the map, and of the story too)!  Comments and demos are welcome!

Congestion Control by Karthik - the Titlepic

By the way, the name Congestion Control comes from the Congestion Control Algorithms I learnt about in Computer Networks at college.  When I heard that term I thought it would make a great name for a Doom level!  That's why this level is called that.

Screenshots

A Tech area, notice the yellow lights 
(texture made by Varun) and the window showing you the sky A room with an elevator A room with a switch

Demos

11 April 2003: Varun did a maxdemo in 4:40!  It is a terrific demo and you can of course download it at his site.

Oct. 2002: Magikal did a maxdemo of this level and you can download it from his site.  The demo is recorded with Doom Legacy and is 6:11 long.

Reviews and Comments

Starting December 10, 2003, Doomworld had a set of special features for the next three days to celebrate Doom's 10th Anniversary.  Part of this was the list of the Best 100 WADs of All Time, which was broken up by year and had a listing of the best ten WADs released in each year (1994-2003).

December 12 featured the 2002 Top Ten WADs list - and if you scroll to the bottom of that page, you'll see that Congestion Control is part of that list!  I am so proud of this!

May 14, 2003 - Kak Home did a detailed review for this level, and sent it to me by email.  Here it is...

Design: This level is well-designed. It has no huge structures, but the design is well done. The level is somewhat circular, meaning you go to different areas and back. Quite a complex map in terms of switches, but it does not get comfusing. I can clearly tell that you used inspiration from some other levels when building the map. Good design, and no major complaints here. I hope Congestion Control 2 has even better design, as you promised it will have. Well done!!

Design Score: 9/10

Gameplay: Very good. The map has a good challenge, but health and ammo balance is very good. Look out for the secrets - they have lots of good supplies in them. The level is very fun. There are some very memorable fights, especially the Cyberdemon area. Very fine job with the gameplay here. Again, well done.

Gameplay Score: 9.5/10

Music: I like the music. It is somewhat undoomish, but it still goes well with the level. It has a good sound to it and helps set the atmosphere. Good job here.

Music Score: 8/10

Sounds: None; Sounds Score: None

Textures: Well, some very neat new textures here in addition to some imported from "Plutonia Experiment". I like that secret with all the drawings in it, and the new key codes on some doors is very well done. Plus a few other textures, which are all quite good. Well done.

Texture Score: 8.5/10

Architecture: This is a strong point of your level. You managed to combine hi-tech, modern, future, hell, plutonia and many other themes. Often, the concept is tried by authors, but often, this detracts from the map rather than adding to it. But you have managed to combine the hi-tech computers with hot red brick walls, then to all the brown and gold walls, along with Plutonia brick textures, and many others with absolute perfection!! Combine this with the rather high level of detail, and you just got a combination that looks unique!! It is added to even more by the super-secret area, which does a great translations of your drawings into Doom itself!! And, as I said before, it is clear you got inspiration from other authors - Pablo Dictter and Tobias Münch's "Hot Blood" come in to mind right away. The only reason I'm not giving the looks a 9.5 or a 10 is because there are no huge, amazing structures, and 9 is the best score I will give without them. Very, very nice job!!

Architecture Score: 9/10

Overall: Very good map in pretty much every aspect. Get it now!!

Overall score: 89%

Apr. 10, 2003 - Chris Hansen has reviewed Congestion Control, and the review can be seen on his site (mentioned here below).  80% is the score my level got!

Jan. 6, 2003 - Chris Hansen who runs The DooMer's RecesS has posted the 2002 Great Doom Releases - his compilation of the WADs he felt, stood out from the rest in the past year.  And guess what?  Congestion Control is part of this list!

Nov. 1, 2002 - Ismaele reviewed Congestion Control at his site, Outpost of Doom II.  My level got a rating of 8/10!  Thanks, Ismaele!

SgtCrispy also mentioned Congestion Control in Episodes 7, 8, and 9 of his Doom Radio show.  7 and 8 were comments on the screenshots that I had posted before I released the level, in Episode 9 he comments about the map itself.

Doomworld's /newstuff Chronicles Review by The Ultimate DooMer

My map was released at the right time, because it got into the 100th edition of The /newstuff Chronicles (20 Oct. 2002)!  This week's reviews (14 WADs) were done by Steve Clark (The Ultimate DooMer), and here's what he had to say about Congestion Control -

"It's certainly the time for comebacks at the moment! This time it's Karthik, who after quite a while since his last release, appears at just the right moment to deliver another high-quality map. This is a small DooM 2 map with an extremely rare quality of architecture, since it manages to blend gothic, modern, hi-tech and Plutonia styles all together in the same map! A couple of Plutonia textures, some hand-made graphics and the red sky from Evilution all add to the atmosphere. Gameplay-wise, it's fairly challenging with some sneaky traps at the beginning, but doesn't really get harder, except for one or two areas later on. There's more than enough ammo to go round, with a fairly good health balance, but the confines of the map's rooms and passages means it's not plain sailing. (and there's also a few surprises along the way...) There's also a special secret (in a Quake 2 sort of way) to be found, along with three others and a cool ending. In short, play this wad now as it's well designed, brilliantly detailed, and good fun, too."

The Story

13 HOURS AGO:  You were working at the UAC's research center, unaware of the trouble that was to follow.  You were in charge of maintaining all the facility's computer networks (no trivial job, seeing as how these networks had to communicate over interplanetary distances).  But today was no ordinary day.

3 HOURS AGO:  The entire base was evacuated and everyone made preparations for the big experiment - well, atleast, you assumed it was something big because you didn't have a clue as to what it was.  Those geeky scientists didn't talk much, and when they did you usually couldn't understand a word they were saying.  Quantum Physics wasn't your area of expertise.

7 MINUTES AGO:  You saw a huge beam of light encapsulate the entire facility.  You were a safe distance away, fortunately, but your friends weren't lucky.  Come to think of it, you really still don't know what happened to them.  Or the facility itself.  It seems a sort of spatial and temporal distortion had taken place - your base had literally "fused" with some sort of hellish place from... wherever.  And there were so many demons infesting the place!  You'd dealt with network congestion before, but never demonic congestion!!  You could hear noises all around you - demons waiting to materialise into this reality!

NOW:  You suddenly materialise inside the base and you find yourself near an almost-closed door near the radioactive waste management system's main disposal pipe.  Atleast that structure still remained - everything else seems to have changed after the distortion.  You don't have anywhere else to go, and nothing important to do - so you figure you may as well resolve the situation here.  Atleast it would be something productive - for the past few days things had been very boring - changing all the UAC Website port numbers to 1337 for a brief period of time was the most amusing thing you'd done.

Inside, you suddenly recall something that you downloaded just yesterday (from a website on Earth) - a video clip.  (You had also got some pictures of that monkey, Doch.)

What you had seen in it applied perfectly to this situation...

"HOW ARE YOU GENTLEMEN!!  ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US.  YOU ARE ON THE WAY TO DESTRUCTION.  (WHAT YOU SAY!!)  YOU HAVE NO CHANCE TO SURVIVE MAKE YOUR TIME.  HA HA HA HA!"

Well, you now decide you'll tackle the demonic congestion situation the same way you would deal with a network congestion problem.

Congestion leads to congestion.  Therefore you have to control it at the source.  The best way to do that is to eliminate congestion at each stage, "choking" it repeatedly until you got to the cause - and then you would destroy it once and for all!

So what are you waiting for?  Go 2 It!

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The Author
Karthik

Karthik Abhiram

27-year old Taurean (birthday 15-May-82), Assistant Manager - HR at Tata Consultancy Services Ltd in Hyderabad, India.  Previously, did Post Graduate Diploma in Management from T A Pai Management Institute (2003-05) and before that, Computer Science Engineering from Sree Nidhi Institute of Science and Technology (1999-2003).

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