A long needed update:
Hello again Rex and others who may be into this thread and the map it pertains to. Sorry it has been a lot longer than expected since any news. I've been mostly working on my multitudes of other Doom projects (The project I am secretive about that was formerly called Abhorrence and many others) and being my usual clusterf**k self in many other efforts and endeavors. However, I have a little bit of news regarding tweaks and such that I have been making to Refocused. Rex, I'm not sure if you still are available or into play-testing and providing feedback, and I greatly appreciate all your thoughts from before, but unfortunately I do not have another Test Build yet. I want to get the next Test Build as close to a release candidate as I can, and the main hurtle is that I've basically, in my sessions in Doom Builder and test-running, realized that the ending part of the map is just too ambitious and has too many things (leading to save game buffer overflows) for vanilla Doom compatibility. I really want to keep what I've already built, but even more I am very stubborn about letting go of vanilla compatibility and just allowing it to be limit removing. I think I can very likely use the concept for the final boss battle area for another project I am working on, or copy and paste it over altogether, and I have some alternative ideas for Refocused. Stay tuned on that front, and for a new build.
Here are some changes I have made since December of 2017 (heh):
1. I changed a lot of the stim packs and smaller ammo things into med kits and bigger ammo boxes, etc. and added some ammo/health (though not enough yet, due to the savegame buffer overflows) to the hellish lava area with the three Barons.
2. I raised the height of the ceilings on the platforms (with TLITE) in the mud, and they can now easily be jumped onto from the rooms above. Rex, I'm still not exactly clear on what you mean by not being able to get from one platform to another TLITE one, but it occurs to me I neglected to mention that the "jumps" (as they were in vanilla Doom) require a lot of precision in lining up so that you are directly facing the next platform (effectively exactly facing east, for example), and then getting a lot of momentum from a running start.
3. I replaced the partially completed piece of music that had a marching drum, tubular bells etc. I borrowed the music from Final Doom TNT: Evilution's Map04: Wormhole. It seems to fit the map better. I also may try to make a different sky texture to replace the current starry, dusty brown texture that reminds me a little of the game Dead Space. I like the current sky, but it's a little lacking in the 'professionalism' department, if designing 256-color palette textures for use in a game that was released in 1994 can be considered professional
Anyway, it's a little crude IMO.
4. I've been altering and experimenting with the final area, but ultimately I'm thinking it will have to go, and be replaced with something that is less of an "arena" and has significantly less things and monsters, for the sake of keeping this map vanilla Doom friendly. Vanilla Doom compatibility is something that is probably far too important for me in many of my projects, but I only really like to design maps for vanilla and boom compatibility, with a few exceptions.
5. Again, sorry for the long delay and my neglecting this thread. I am actually going to get a little work done on the map right now. Stay tuned.