Rez
Green Marine
Posts: 36
Registered: 04-02 |
Firstoff, I'm VERY impressed. I've made and played about a hundred maps so far, and they've ranged from decent enough to -- as good as some of the better hand-built maps. (And I've played almost every BOOM-compatible map there is.) I prefer the outdoor maps as they're less linear and a whole lot more scary :) I will never run out of fresh DOOM maps again!
Things I especially like:
** The balconies and overlooks, which can be a hazard or a help :) and are good for shortcuts. Ditto how many maps loop back on themselves, and the numerous "murder holes".
** Monster movement is natural, constrained only by the landscape (fences etc.) -- and there is usually some way for them to escape containment so you have to keep an eye on them!
** Monster progression and placement (including which are deaf or not) is from very good to downright diabolical
** Lots of crossfire, often from a day's hike away, leading to many rude surprises and "Where the hell IS he??" moments :D It's also often as well-placed as if done by hand -- there's no such thing as a truly "safe" window!
** DOOM1 and DOOM2 maps definitely feel and play different, true to the originals' look and feel.
** Jumping-friendly -- at least in the outdoor maps, a lot of the walls are a good height for skilled jumpers, and you usually can get away with jumping in and out of places you don't yet have legit access to. This makes the maps somewhat non-linear, and occasionally far more "exciting" than the design intended :) (Also often shortens the long hikes back for supplies.) In those few areas where you can get stuck, it occurs to me that if there was a closet teleport somewhere after each locked door, which simply goes back to the player start (or to just outside the previous locked door, rinse and repeat as needed), this would solve all "whoops, jumped into a deep spot and can't get out" problems. (With an *option* to let monsters use teleports too once they're opened, this could put some surprise monsters on your butt as well.)
** Often they are quite nifty-looking, with some nice visual features, and some are downright spectacular. (I can ignore the occasional poor alignment or orphan texture -- I did note that the orphans seem to be artifacts of breaking off a wall on the other side of what you can see.)
** The tidy way supplies are laid out is a nice little visual bonus.
** Colour-coded doors and switches, with some of the switches on tall columns visible from afar -- nice touch. There's enough randomness in how they're placed that it's not just 'the nearest door you see' either. (I like the occasional switch that hangs from the air!)
** It builds fairly fast even on my old P3-550, and I have not seen any nodebuilder errors (other than some flat bleed when I jump up where I don't belong, along the extreme outside edge of the map).
I'm not a big fan of secrets, so having just one per map is fine with me. I do like how sometimes they're almost a separate mini-map, and how they often have a visible balcony or overlook (or in one case, a big cage extended from the main map into the secret -- OUCH!)
I find these settings perform best for what I want to play:
-- Settings --
seed = (whatever it spits up)
game = doom2
port = nolimit
mode = sp
length = episode
-- Adjustments --
size = huge
steep = random
puzzles = normal
traps = normal
mons = swarms
health = more
ammo = more
outdoors = outdoors
iweapon = hardcore
switches = both
keytype = both
roomsize = large
lighting = bright
(try seeds 8440 and 8652 for some really good maps, especially one map in 8440 that has skyscrapers and a penthouse apartment :)
This is the only fatal bug I've seen (and my buddies encountered it too, using different engines, so it's not just me):
========================================
R_TextureNumForName: MARBL not found
map 06, map 09, map 10
-- Levels created by ObHack 006.7
-- Settings --
seed = 0
game = doom2
port = nolimit
mode = sp
length = episode
-- Adjustments --
size = progressive
steep = random
puzzles = more
traps = normal
mons = swarms
health = more
ammo = more
outdoors = some
iweapon = none
switches = both
keytype = both
roomsize = random
lighting = random
=====================================
R_TextureNumForName: N_MTSP3D not found
map 03
-- Levels created by ObHack 006.7
-- Settings --
seed = 6656iot9u8t
game = doom2
port = nolimit
mode = sp
length = episode
-- Adjustments --
size = huge
steep = random
puzzles = more
traps = normal
mons = swarms
health = more
ammo = more
outdoors = lots
iweapon = none
switches = both
keytype = both
roomsize = random
lighting = random
===============================
When this happens it is always one or the other of those two textures-not-found. These are just some examples I saved for bug reporting, not unique (have seen it with other seeds too).
Occasionally ObHack abends, but it restarts gracefully (at worst it'll sometimes forget my settings). I do wish that it would remember the "last used" directory, since it's a lot of navigating from "My Documents" to where I keep my WADs.
As someone else notes, there is a lack of big weapons. Since with my settings you get a flock of cacos and PEs coming over the walls within the first minute (and meanwhile you're still fighting off the initial rush of foot traffic) I solved the problem by doing IDFA *once* at the beginning of map01. Since there are NO loose rockets, I then ration them carefully -- reminiscent of old Episode 1 :) and if I run out of those 100 rockets (plus the two at each map start) before the 11th map is over, tough for me. :D
The other deficiency is armour -- there's often none at all, other than the occasional blue armour in a secret. We need at least a thin scatter of green armours, and I think there should be at least one in every map.
I've observed that as the maps progress, the ammo tends to get skewed from shells to bullets, and often there are no shells at all in the late parts of big maps -- by which point there are more monsters that need the SSG, so shells become precious. So I often have to ration shells, but often have more bullets than I know what to do with.
There is usually plenty of plasma, appropriately placed, tho sometimes there is no plasma gun at all.
If about a third to half the plasma were rockets instead, I think it would be about right for folks who love the rocket launcher.
I've only encountered ONE Cybe, in a DOOM1 map09 (ouch!!). I've been a bit surprised that there's never been one in any of my DOOM2 maps, tho I think the occasional cybe would work well in the largest and most open parts of the outdoors. None of them has enough space for a big spider, tho I've wondered if when several outdoor "rooms" have the same or almost the same floor height, whether they could be combined by simply removing some of the separating walls. (I wouldn't worry too much about it confusing locked door access -- at that point you're using locked doors mostly for monster-flow-control, not to get somewhere, and if you have to backtrack to find the key or switch, oh well!)
I've not seen any stuck monsters other than the occasional baby spider in a cage that's just a tish too small -- I think it doesn't account for the greater room that it takes for larger critters to turn.
However, I've been stalked, ambushed, had my ass unexpectedly chewed, had to run for my life, and otherwise been astonished many a time :)
Anyway... I'm thrilled as hell with what ObHack is creating, and best of all they are Real DOOM maps. They feel right. Good job!!
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Heavily armed, easily bored, and off the medication
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01-04-10 19:36 
