               .***................**********************                ****************   ,***      ..........            .***   ****************   
   ******//(**********......**********.  ...  ..   ..........  .****************************,............................*****************************
   *******/%**********......********** .......  .. ..... .....  ****************************,............................*****************************
   ......//***********...*******.,,,,... .....   . ......  ...  ,,,.,,****************,,,,,,,................ .. .. ... .,,,,,,,**********************
         *************...******,. .. .. ....  ... ....... ..  ..   .  ****************.......  ..  ...... .... ..  .  .. .......**********************
         *************...******* .... .. .....   . ......   ..   .. ..****************.........  ....... .... .. .. ..  ........**********************
            **************** .... .. .......          . .....    .  . *************..........................  ..   . ..   ..  ..  ......*************
            ****************. .. .... ......          .. ... .    .  .*************............................  ..  .  ...  ..  ........*************
            **************** .... .. .......          . . ...    .  . *************..........................  ..   . ..   ..  ..  ......*************
                % ,******................                            .  .   ,******.. .. .... .... ...                    .  .   ......... .. . ******
               ./,.******................                            .  .   ,******.. ....... .... ...                           ...............******
            **********  ..............                                   **********     ..    ........                             ........  *********
            **********  ..............                                   **********     ..    ........                             ........ .*********
            ********** . ... .........                                   **********       .. . .......                             ......  .,*********
         ******,        ........................ . .. ..                    ,***        ..  ..........  .    .                      ..   ..  ...      
         ******,       . ........................ .. .. .                   ,***          ............   .    .                    .  ...  ..         
         ******,      .......... ..   .. .... .. .  ....    ..   .. ..  .            .  ..  ......... .. .....    .  .  ...  ..  .. ..    .  . .      
         ******,      ........... .   . .... .... ..  . . ..  ..   .  .             .     .......... ........ .  .  .      ..  ..  .     .    .       
         ******,      .......... ..   .. .... .. .. ....    ..   .. ..  .            .  ..  ......... .. .....    .  .   ..  ..  .. ..    .           
                   ................             ..  .. ..    .       .  .            ........................ .... ..             .  .                
                   ................             ..  .. ..    .       .  .            ........................ .... ..             .  .                
                   ..... .........  ..          .    .  .    .                  ... ............             ..... .. ..     .                        
                   .... ........  ..             .  .  .    .    .              ....  ..........             .... .. .....    .                       
                   ..... .. ......  ..          .    .  .    .    .             ... ............             ..... .. ..  .  .                        
                      ...... ...  .                                         ,***......... ..                       ...... .... .. .. .                
                      ..... . ....                                          ,***........ ...                       ....... .. .... ..                 
                      ...... ...  .                                         ,***......... ..                       ...... .... .. .. .                
         ***          .......... ..                                             .. .. .. ...                             ......  .. ..                
         ***          .......... ..                                             .. .. .. ...                             ......  .. ..                
                    .........   ..                                              ...   ....   .                           .   ..  ..  .                
                    ....... ..  ..                                              ...   .. .  ...                         ...  ..  ..  .                
                   .  ......  ..  .                                             ...   ... ..   .                      ..   ..  ..   .                 
                .. ... ..  ...  .                                                     ....  ...  .. ..  ..   ..  .. ..  . .  .    .  .                
                  .....  ..   .. .                                                    ... ..   ..  .  ..  ...  ..  .     .    .  .  .                 
           .    .   .. ..  . .                                                       .  .   ...   .  .  .    .    .  .  . .  .                        
            .    . .  .  .. .                                                       .    .     . .  .    .    .  .  .    .    .                       
                    .. ..                                                            .       ..      .            .  .                                
           .    .    .  .                                                               .    .    .  .  .                                             
                    .                                                                            .  .                                                 
                .    .  .                                                                    .           



                                    [1] GENERAL INFO & CREDITS
                                    [2] THE STORY SO FAR
                                    [3] INSTALLATION
                                    [4] DEV NOTES & MISC


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[1.1] INTRODUCTION
-------------------

Flooded Base is a massive, sprawling level for Plutonia.wad, set in an abandoned installation overrun by vegetation, stillwater and hellspawn.
Work on this project began over a year ago, with the intention of creating an extended playing experience inspired by my favourite megawad levels (Toxic Touch, Lake Poison, Misri Halek, Speedtraps for the bee kingdom). Vanilla mapping is my favourite by far and the lack of lenghty Vanilla levels pains me, so this was an attempt at scratching that itch. 

The level itself is in the MAP01 slot; Maps 03-05 are included for the Demo loop and aren't exactly playable. The Demos detail Doomguy's arrival at the facility, from the drop-off point near its main entrance to the maintenance pod MAP01 starts from. I'm not big on machinimas so this was my first earnest attempt at anything of the sort. The Demos were recorded on Choco Doom for best port compatibility - please report desyncs if you encounter any.

Special attention was paid to the visuals and the combat. The difficulty scales progressively as you go, finally approaching slaughter near the end. Difficulty levels are fully implemented, posing a different kind of challenge without trivialising fights. There are around 730 monsters on UV; a UV-max run takes about half an hour to complete.
While primarily built for singleplayer, FB supports 2-4 player Coop and Deathmatch (as in -altdeath, with respawning ammo/weapons); DM play takes place in a separate arena, while Coop features a higher monster count and a bonus area. Some preliminary testing was done using -solo-net; feel free to suggest any possible optimisations if you have more multiplayer experience.

FB is my first Doom release. I designed it for personal enjoyment at first, updating it according to the taste of the Doom community as a whole. Criticism, thoughts, reviews and bug reports are much appreciated - I can only do so much on my own, and any outside feedback is welcome.

--------------
[1.2] CREDITS
--------------

All maps, midis and graphics are original, with the last midi being a rendition of "Lifestyle" by Young Thug and Rich Homie Quan.
A few minor texture changes were made, all from the original Plutonia set by Dario & Milo Casali.
The plasma gun sound is lifted from Epic 2, a megawad by Eternal.

Regarding the editors and utilities used, special thanks go to
-ZZYZX et al. for UDB
-Rick Brewster et al. for Paint.net
-Günther Blaschek et al. for Aria Maestosa
-Simon Judd for SLADE3
-Jval for ENDEDIT
-Eevee for the DOOM Text Generator site
-Xttl for his fork of Dehacked 3.0a
-JadingTsunami for UMAPINFO Designer,

along with countless forum members for dealing with my problems years ahead and being a fantastic resource.

---------------------
[2] THE STORY SO FAR
---------------------


                                                   LAKE MERTON DROUGHT UNCOVERS PUZZLING SECRET INSTALLATION

                                                  
By Cameron Lacosta | 06/17/26


DAVENSHORE COUNTY - As Davenshore faces its harshest drought in over a century, an unidentified installation emerges from the waters of nearby Lake Merton.

The structure was first sighted on June 15th, with reports detailing a massive ruined building encased in rock and marine debris. "It's unlike anything I've seen before, it looks straight out of a sci-fi movie" one resident explains.

The local UAC base is joining forces with its colleagues at Ruthermore Hill to secure the area before the public can hope to sail there. Authorities refuse to report on the event, with vice mayor Norman Wilson declining all interviews on the matter.

The facility - likely a top-secret research base from the Cold-War era - is said to house classified tech and experimental weaponry. It is the epicentre of several bizarre phenomena: it generates periodic seismic waves and corrupts all radio signal in a 30-mile radius, taking up around half the lake at full capacity.

Locals question whether the otherworldly base will threaten the local fishing industry, which is already dealing with the drought and its effects on the nearby city - 
Cameron Lacosta for the Davenshore Daily
 

                                                                            ...
__________________________________
From: artie.salgati03@uaccorps.com
To:   mishinimrod@uaccorps.com

soldier this is big

droughts so bad a whole ass installation showed back up, like the cold war era ones that had actual secret weaponry and all

trying their hardest to make us shush about it so the public doesnt catch wind yadda yadda

you HAVE to come see this shit sometime, once in a lifetime type shit. Confidential technically so dont tell your hinge roster

__________________________________
From: mishinimrod@uaccorps.com
To:   artie.salgati03@uaccorps.com

im on punishment from last week how tf am i meant to get there

everyone knows btw theres talk of sending volunteers to secure the area

allegedly the superweapon thing is real. Like did you hear abt the radio waves and interference

like at this rate they finna execute the exploration team

__________________________________
From: artie.salgati03@uaccorps.com
To:   mishinimrod@uaccorps.com

hey long week hru man

about the volunteers, they've been gone 4 days, no signs of them and its been that way since monday

like they lost contact 5 mins after entering or smth like that

and they're DEFINITELY retrieving that shit so they're sending more soon

__________________________________
From: mishinimrod@uaccorps.com
To:   artie.salgati03@uaccorps.com

not much man business as usual

see if i can get your supervisor to send your ass in there, you'd be the perfect fit

__________________________________
From: artie.salgati03@uaccorps.com
To:   mishinimrod@uaccorps.com

bitch its 12 of us at base, like decent chance they actually do

or you since you're their little disposable puppet till they lift the charge

__________________________________
From: mishinimrod@uaccorps.com
To:   artie.salgati03@uaccorps.com

WE at Davenshore have human rights, we dont just play with our prisoners

sounds like you're projecting a bunch chief

__________________________________
From: artie.salgati03@uaccorps.com
To:   mishinimrod@uaccorps.com

bad news i cant talk rn ill get back to you

they'll send you the notice you'll be told everything

you'll survive this soldier trust me id know. Godspeed


                                                                             ...


EYES ONLY - KEEP CONFIDENTIAL


                                                     REPORT: INSERTION INTO L. MERTON SECRET WEAPONS BASE


                                                                 UACnfm: 189068   06/23/2026

From: UAC Elsinore Regional Committee


To whom it may concern, 

Marine-in-training Nima Mishinagi of Davenshore Base has been selected to partake in our security operation at nearby Lake Merton. Our criteria cannot be properly disclosed at the moment; Mishinagi has nonetheless displayed great persistence and resilience since his enrolment last July, and we believe him to the the best fit as things stand.

The operation will begin June 30th due to key personnel being currently deployed abroad; a later date will also serve to distract the public from the whole ordeal - press is growing increasingly insistent towards local authorities and we cannot risk being reprimanded. The Marine alone will be dropped off at the East-most point around 700 hours. We will not attempt another joint operation. This has cost us 7 lives already, and were things to fail we'd like for his to be the last.

Mishinagi is to be made aware of this ASAP. There is time to spare now but we'd rather not delay things further; the later it gets dealt with the sooner civilians make it there and get themselves killed. Again, to avoid DA County's outrage is to be safe.

The Marine is to rescue any survivors, ward off potential attackers and retrieve any Plasma weapons present. He will be instructed on their use and appearance in the coming days; bottom line is, all non-civilian tech is to be taken off the base and destroyed before it falls into the wrong hands.

Should Mishinagi succeed, his monthly salary will be doubled beginning the month of his return (July at most, or he will be left for dead); moreover he will rank up to Chief Officer at his base and any UAC-affiliated installation. The matters discussed herein are strictly confidential and he will face immediate termination should he make the public aware in any fashion.

Good evening and best of luck.


                                                                                                                                      Colonel Marian Greystone

                                                                                                                                      Elsinore UAC Headquarters


--------------------------
[3.1] COMPATIBILITY NOTES
--------------------------

Flooded Base is compatible with all versions of Plutonia.wad and the Final Doom executable. Playing on the ID Anthology version is recommended for quality-of-life reasons, mainly due to the Final Doom teleport bug and related glitches (monsters teleporting in the air during ambushes, teleport sprites being offset vertically etc. Player teleporters are few but the same issues apply); most copies of the game come patched nowadays so this shouldn't really be a problem.
A fourth Demo is included so the original version doesn't crash; it's completely irrelevant to the story and some ports may skip it entirely.

The .DEH patch is included as a lump in the wad for ports that support it; when playing on Chocolate Doom or other more conservative ports you'll have to load the separate Dehacked file from the zip (the command should look something like -deh or -dehlump).

------------------------
[3.2] PLAYING UNDER DOS
------------------------

Playing FB on DOS/Emulators will require a copy of Dehacked alongside the aforementioned files. The .DEH patch included in the wad was developed on a fork of Dehacked 3.0a by Xttl on Doomworld (https://www.doomworld.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=104669) which is fully compatible with Final Doom in its various iterations; Dehacked 3.1 (https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/utils/exe_edit/dhe31) MIGHT work too but I don't have time to test this on my end currently :(

Either way, after setting up the program in DOS you'll have to patch your Final Doom executable using FB.deh. Any version of the Doom.exe should work, but Final Doom is required for custom par-times. The process isn't exactly straightforward, so I'll link a couple sources that explain it better than I can. As usual, if you encounter any issues just email/report it on the Doomworld thread and I'll get to them whenever I can.

-https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/48892-how-do-i-patch-the-pl2s-deh-file-in-the-plutonia-exe/
-https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/114077-using-deh-files-in-dos/

Once done I suggest renaming the patched .exe to FB for simplicity. Type

FB.exe -file FB.wad

in your Doom folder to fire the game up.

------------------
[4.1] DEVELOPMENT
------------------

I'm a big fan of water-themed levels, Toxic Touch being one of my favourites. A couple years back I got into the habit of picking random Idgames levels to practice blind playthroughs and I was disappointed by the lack of watery Vanilla maps; I figured if nothing scratched that specific itch I'd have to make my own.
I've only really mapped for Vanilla before - matter of fact, FB is my second ever complete map, the first one being a Doom 1.666 techbase that got corrupted by my hard drive. I figured I'd make an extended experience based on the theme I'd picked, maintaining full Vanilla compatibility in the process.
The first few sectors were laid down in early 2025; work continued from June to September during summer break, then stopped abruptly due to time constraints. In late may 2026 I salvaged some test build of the level and began prepping it for release; I'm writing this on June 17th but I don't expect it to be fully bugfixed before the 30th.

Life got in the way, I had a birthday and I'm now graduating HS. Which isn't super convenient but I'll hopefully manage to juggle Doom and my exams. Uni is daunting and all, but I'm looking forward to rebuilding my circle and actually socialising this time; I could use the change in environment and I'm glad I got the chance, plus 
it's chemistry I'm studying and I'm very much hyped.

The map itself was a colossal pain to get ready. VPO's aside (which I'd learned to deal with in the aforementioned first map, plus a few deathmatch levels) I managed to run into practically every conceivable Vanilla limit. One of the open power-plant areas had a massive HOM that wouldn't disappear no matter how much I reduced the segs, so that delayed development a bunch. Later I had to move every teleport closet around to avoid overflowing the blockmap, seeing as shrinking the map area was the only thing that fixed it. The final product has like 2100 sectors, which is technically more than BTSX2 MAP20 and Misri Halek while still feeling less competently made. I guess I'm drawing more from modern Doom sensibilities and struggling to fit those into the engine, as opposed to designing my maps around its limitations.

Several areas were rebuilt over time (nearly all the map actually, save for the green-brick power plant and the starting room); It's not all up to my current mapping skills but I'm mostly satisfied nonetheless. Earlier betas were longer, if anything, and I had to cut some bits down to avoid making it an hour long. As a side-note, I like that you can skip through most of the latter fights to cut playtime down a little. The par-times are from my attempts at a quickest exit (think UV speed but way less optimised).

Not sure if I'll make anything else; I'm getting the hang of Halo and I might switch over to console for the foreseeable future. I love Doom and I'll revisit it often, just not with the intention of making levels. I'd rather spend next year doing something else and maybe that's for the best.

-----------
[4.2] BUGS
-----------

FB is barely within Vanilla Doom's static limits due to its structure and scope.
1. First and foremost, saving on DOS/Choco will crash the engine immediately upon startup. The map geometry alone seems to be enough as I can't get rid of the issue even with -nomonsters and -skill 0. I might release a redux version of the wad which doesn't do this in the future; keep in mind that any modern-looking map with a high killcount is bound to do this in Vanilla, and avoiding the savegame overflow means sacrificing a lot of the juicier gameplay on display.
2. The visplane count gets really high at times, but it should be just under the overflow threshold during normal play (I can't guarantee it won't crash the map when noclipping for instance).
3. The drawseg limit is reached a couple times on paper but it doesn't seem to affect gameplay in any way. The green-brick power-plant area was the most affected during development, but all HOM's should be dealt with now.
4. The level is VERY close to overflowing the blockmap and some serious optimisation was required to avoid glitches. The Big secret area in the North-East would implode half the time I rebuilt the nodes due to how far it is from the origin point; this again should be fixed.
5. Slime trails get annoying in the areas with rounder/off-grid geometry. I've tried my best to mitigate this as of the last node rebuild, but fixing the problem at core would mean erasing a lot of cool architecture (which I'm not brave enough to do right now). Mind you, AV (which wad also developed for DOS Doom) has an INSANE amount of slime trails at times (Like on MAP23, with the whole castle segment being tilted off-grid), so this is more of a general Vanilla issue.

--------------------
[4.3] COMBAT DESIGN
--------------------

I designed the combat according to my own tastes and what few megawads I've played to completion. I drew a lot from AV originally, preferring pre-placed monsters and time-consuming filler encounters; my current style is very different, focusing on movement/quick reactions and employing frequent teleport traps. A few major fights determine how far along you've made it in the map; the encounters cluster more towards the end, with the final fight being by far the hardest I've designed.

The first half of the level (before the double cyberdemon fight) is fairly simple and can be completed by most players with some practice. Archviles are few and the fights revolve around simple dodging, ammo conservation and weapon selection. Most weapons show up early, so learn which ones to use for best results; the chainsaw appears fairly early too, and using it will spare you valuable munition.

The first cyberdemon fight marks a major shift in difficulty. You'll be given cells aplenty, but make sure to save the surplus for later (I recommend leaving 1 charge pack untouched for safety reasons). The entrance to the cave is rich with resources, so stay here as take out the first few spectres. I run out whenever possible, circling the arena until only the cyberdemons are left. A few filler encounters follow; by the time you reach the corridor fight you should have around 100 cells to spare.

The corridor fight itself is all about cover and plasma spam. I take on the second archvile first - use the corners to break line of sight if needed, and make sure the archies are dead before you clear out their minions. The staircase fight can be a major pain; take the lower archvile out first, the water columns should provide enough cover. After that keep to the staircase wall, use your plasma on whatever enemies you see and start using the whole lower floor as you switch to the RPG. The turreted archie should descend soon, and once he's out you'll mostly be safe. 

The next cave fight is basically 7 archie + generic horde encounters mashed together. The hordes spawn sequentially and the order is always the same; use 1 BFG shot on the archie and no more than a couple on the lower-tiers each time, otherwise you'll run out quickly. You MIGHT be out of plasma near the end, but if you have enough rockets/shells saved this shouldn't be an issue.

The finale comes in 2 waves. For the former, carve your way through the mess to reach the switch area, take out the cyberdemon and clear out whoever's left. I recommend saving as many cells as possible at the cost of depleting your rockets/shells. For the latter, take out the first wave of archies outwards; try to keep a steady rhythm, take cover whenever possible. Make your way back in; if you manage to make it back to the switch you can pretty easily camp the whole time, provided you have enough cell pickups. The spiderdemons at the end are meant to help with cleanup, so don't kill them immediately unless they refuse to infight. There's well enough ammo throughout, it's all about knowing where it is beforehand. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you've made it this far, thanks for reading. This project means a lot to me and seeing it come together has been a wonderful experience. Hope you enjoy playing it as I did making it; share your thoughts and experiences, I'll be sure to read them and keep your tips in mind.

- See you, space cowboy -

Kyoku