When playing around with and testing ObHack, I became attached to a
particular 9-map Heretic episode generated by Oblige/ObHack.  So, I have
started to work on modifying this map to clean things up and get rid of
ObHack's more annoying things placed in a map.  In particular:

* Reasonable difficulty levels.  Easy is easier, hard is harder.

* Better starts; make sure we're not facing the wall or anything.

* Boss arena in E1M8.

* Better stair textures; ObHack does a bad job with these.

* Non-right angle lines, to make the map look more natural.

* The outdoor water areas look really bad in ObHack; waterfalls added.

* Wider staircases and less things that block your running around.

* Less hidey holes; let's discourage deathmatch camping.

* Better secret entrances; now you have to actually pay attention to
  find the secrets.

* No super-tall lifts (I really need to find and fix that E1M9 fixed-height
  cell bug which happens with the secret area)

Here is a description of the map:

* Game: Heretic (hopefully is compatible even with DOS version)

* Episodes replaced: E1M1-E1M9

* Single player: Yes

* Co-op: Yes, but only three starts

* Deathmatch: Yes, oh yes

* Editors used: Oblige/ObHack made the basic layout; extensively edited by
  hand in Doom Builder.

* Map size: Small (Small enough for 1-on-1 deathmatch but can probably be
  played with up to 4 players)

* Story: Plague and misfortune have come upon the land.  It started when
  magicans in Tixacan performed forbidden dark magics, opening a portal
  unleashing forces of darkness in to this world.  Tixacan is now in ruins,
  all of its people dead, overrun with unspeakable evil monsters.  The 
  monsters are bringing pestilance and suffering in to this world that is
  spreading.

  There is a magic around the cursed area that makes it impossible to 
  bring in anyone to destroy the evil there.  Our greates magicians have
  studied the magic, and they can open up a hole that only a single person
  can enter.  You are that person.  The hole is small; you can not carry 
  great weapons through it; you can only bring but a single wand. 

  You must enter the ruins of Tixacan and find the gateway opening this 
  world up to the unspeakable forces of evil.  That gateway must be closed.
  You are our only chance; if you do not succeed, the world will be overrun
  by unspeakable evil and all hope will be lost.

  (Co op story: We can only let two or three people in through the magic
  hole in to Tixacan).

* Deathmatch story: Same as above, but they were able to let two or three
  people in the city.  When you entered the city, instead of finding it
  overrun by monsters, you instead find it deserted.  But now you are losing
  your senses.  Anger and hatred consume your soul, and you are unable to
  resist it.  You want to do nothing more than kill your closest friends who
  came in with you to fight the evil here.

  There is a force here that lives on human emotion: Anger, resentment,
  enmity, hatred.  It has consumed you; it feeds off of your anger and
  violence as you kill your friends.  When they kill you, instead of
  dying, you come back to life; the evil force that feeds off of your 
  hatred keeps you alive to give it more life force.

  You are now trapped in an endless cycle.  However, even though you can
  not stop the anger consuming you, you can go deeper and deeper in to
  the ruins of Tixacan until you find the gate that links this world to 
  the world the force of evil resides in.  But this force will only let you
  in if you let it feed on your anger; so you give in and kill the people
  you came here with as they kill you, only to be brought back to life
  to continue the cycle.
  
