Okay guys, as phase 2 is slowly approaching, I guess it's time to discuss what's important to do in general. This is not meant to be a copy of the bugtracker, so if you have bugs that need to be fixed or areas that need to be detailed, post this into the bugtracker. This here is only meant for general discussion in terms of consistency, details and what we are aiming for phase 2.

I guess I'll start off.

Ambient sounds. I think that the level's atmosphere could be enhanced with careful and subtle use of ambient sounds here and there. Some suggestions:

NATURE
-Jungle ambience for overgrown outdoor areas. Thiink bird calls, monkey screeches etc. BUT this may seem at odds with the demonic invasion where you would expect the local wildlife to have fled or been killed off.
-Wind howls and loops for higher and more exposed outdoor areas.
-Gentle water tinkling for pools of water. Rushing waterfall sounds etc.
-Cave ambience, tumbling soil and rocks
-Tree and undergrowth rustling

BASE
-Computer beeping, humming and working sounds. Might want to avoid the QuakeII ones as they have become a ZDoom cliche of sorts.
-Various humming and buzzing noise for lights, big screens, hologram projectors etc.
-Sludge slopping/bubbling noises for nukage flow areas
-Klaxon for first lab area with warning light? Might be annoying though.
-Various sound sequences for the doors and lifts. As nice as the default Doom ones are, we have heard them a million times. With special custom sounds for different types of doors they will feel more real and memorable.

HELL
-Background growls, snorts, laughs etc.
-Slopping oozing noises for scrolling fleshy growths
-Various weird musical effects
-Lava bubbling and sizzling
-Medieval or fleshy door/lift sound sequences. Hearing hydraulic doors in pure Hell areas is a real mood killer.
-Tortured screams and howls of pain for torture areas
-Screams of damned souls

And to top it all off use of appropriate reverbs in key sections. Think echoing caves, clanging air vents, weird muffling in Hellish corridors. Of course the background music + ambient sounds + gameplay sound + reverb effect could result in a horrible cacophany if not done subtly!

For additonal props, I would suggest adding in tufts of grass, small ferns and bushes, scattering small rocks and boulders and adding hanging vines into the outdoor areas. Could maybe randomise the size of the trees but perhaps that's taking things too far.

For other effects I would suggest using Ghastly's lavaball spawner in magma areas. I'm tempted to suggest the Doom 3 blood decals too for the base interior, but the art style is maybe a bit too different. Doom's blood is notably bright and pixely.

Edit: Also might want to consider liquid splashes and blood colour fixes built into the wad.

Player sounds could be expanded too. Add falling, drowning and surfacing, poison caughing, Quakeguy lava-screeching etc.

Extreme death states? At least for the pinky - that one is surprisingly prone to happen..

I think I'll be taking care of the simulation area for day 1 (I'll probably default to Vader's suggestion, with some virtual reality touches here and there. ;v Got a few ideas!) and well who-knows-what tweaks and general problem addressing for day 2.

Hmm I dunno. On one hand it would be nice to gibb those Pinkies, but on the other hand it is sort of straying into gameplay mod territory when you start modifying monsters like that.

Was just thinking of some more things. We need a sky-box for Hell. Will we go for something traditional, i.e. red baked mountains and a fiery sky, or something a bit more surreal?

I think I've submitted my main thoughts for this in the Bug Tracker (see "Phobus Sucks" for the majority of them )

@Cpt. Toenail: Good list of suggestions there IMO. I'd prefer a traditional mountains-and-fire sort of sky myself, if it comes down to a vote!

@Dusk: I think gibbing for the pinky would be a fair shout actually, as we're already looking at adding burning deaths for the flamethrower.

Mountains-and-fire gets my vote. It'll mesh well with the ending section.

Speaking of fire and pinkies, I wonder if it'd be worth requesting fire deaths for Mr. Pinky and maybe a few other creatures...

@Toenail - Exactly what I had in mind!

I'd still table the motion of using the fire deaths from Reelism

Just realised, there is a dissapointing lack of explosive barrels in the base. Need to add some more in there for good times.

Edit: Cage, Enjay and crew were to thank for these cool marble textures which must be used in Hell somewhere.

http://i.imgur.com/PBbxa.png
http://i.imgur.com/X2QJw.png

Emm, since when do we have an autoshotgun in the arsenal?