The /newstuff Chronicles #363

Cjwright79 said:

Seems to me most of the remaining mappers have run out of inspiration, at least from my perspective.

Oh man, are you trolling ? :p
Seriously, go play recent wads ( like those mentioned in the latest Cacowards for instance ) before saying comments like that. Or play Brood of Hatred which is mentioned in this very thread.
Modern source ports' features and new texture sets allow for a lot more possibilities than in 1994 dude.

[WH]-Wilou84 said:

Oh man, are you trolling ? :p
Seriously, go play recent wads ( like those mentioned in the latest Cacowards for instance ) before saying comments like that. Or play Brood of Hatred which is mentioned in this very thread.
Modern source ports' features and new texture sets allow for a lot more possibilities than in 1994 dude.

Your tastes in wads and mine are quite different, suffice to say.

I doubt the majority of the mappers are running low on inspiration nowadays. Perhaps the numbers will naturally fluctuate but you can't deny we are all never not brimming with creativity and imagination. Very soon, my personal achievement of a megawad will be released. I'm the kind of mapper that goes for the classical style so you could say I'm a musician with an electric piano playing Mozart : P. Personally I'd say inspirations is quite high as it's ever been but the amount of maps differ considering the standard of a good map is quite high so that puts people off compared to 1994. You're one of the few determined to keep on going. I'd like to see how you'd end up if you did put maybe a few weeks work on a single map and perhaps try to raise your mapping standards; you can only go so far IMO.

On a sidenote, another good newstuff reading.

Joshy said:

I doubt the majority of the mappers are running low on inspiration nowadays. Perhaps the numbers will naturally fluctuate but you can't deny we are all never not brimming with creativity and imagination..

You know you are absolutely right. I've given out plenty of fours or fives lately on the archives. That said I haven't played anything that compels me to keep playing more than five minutes.

Cjwright79 said:

You know you are absolutely right. I've given out plenty of fours or fives lately on the archives. That said I haven't played anything that compels me to keep playing more than five minutes.

Then its not the mapper running out of ideas its simply you who can't be content with their work or you simply lack of the patience required to play through some of the maps. (assuming most of them are really long)

I'm surprised Rangex has escaped relatively unscathed this TnC.

His Entryway contribution this issue is one of the poorest PWADs I've seen in a while.

Super Jamie said:

I'm surprised Rangex has escaped relatively unscathed this TnC.

His Entryway contribution this issue is one of the poorest PWADs I've seen in a while.

Indeed, needed more udderdude. :x

(I personally loved his reviews)

Much like the folks who have bragged about their sector or linedef/sidedef counts in the past, file size is a meaningless number and tells virtually nothing about the quality, style, effort, or worth of a wad. It might be an interesting tidbit of information if there's more context to go along with it, but the number by itself really doesn't do much but probably make some people wonder if that's what you're judging quality by.

Not that I'm trying to discourage you from putting more time and work into your maps, Cj, I just think you might be judging it in an odd way :)

esselfortium said:
Much like the folks who have bragged about their sector or linedef/sidedef counts in the past, file size is a meaningless number and tells virtually nothing about the quality, style, effort, or worth of a wad.

You know this comments alone cheered me up and made me wanna continue the current map i'm working on. o.o

Yeah, so just played Brood of Hatred and it was pretty sweet. The gameplay was solid all around and the architecture well-designed and what-not. Russian Arsenal = Win. One of the best times I've had with a WAD. And HOLY SHIT this thread is completely derailed.

Ok so I got through most of Brood of Hatred and thought much of it was pretty interesting.

Squipple is really flat and boring, but it feels like someone's first map so that can pass. :P

Cjwright79 said:

I have my self-respect intact at least. While you are keen on sarcasm I see. How is that working out for you? Lots of friends I'm sure, very good ones too.

Your opinion means nothing if you're acting like a jackass.

Sector 1663 in BoH failed to lower for me in Pr+ 2.5.0.5.

Cjwright79 said:

I have my self-respect intact at least. While you are keen on sarcasm I see. How is that working out for you? Lots of friends I'm sure, very good ones too.

Actually, Zap610 is pretty well known and respected on Doomworld, a popular moderator on skulltag, and a pretty cool dood to play games with. Can't say much about his life outside of the internets but he seems like a good guy.

Now you on the other hand...
Well, your unwarranted self importance seems to be holding up fairly well. I'll give you credit for that for what it's worth.

Belial said:

Sector 1663 in BoH failed to lower for me in Pr+ 2.5.0.5.

I believe abominat spotted that happens intermittently in the map playtest thread, though nobody seemed to know why?

It lowered for me but the bottom Revenant platform made a small HOM in PrB+ 2.5.0.6 as the linedef is missing a bottom texture.

Yeah, that is a nasty bug :/

I have found a way of fixing it though, but I`m sooo sick and tired of the map right now so I`ll fix it for a new version later. Also I`m very busy working on my CC4 map and I really want to finish it so that it`ll make the WAD :)

I admit, I went too far but then again, who would'nt like to go nuts on a guy which keeps denying all the logic and standards here? Anywho, It's his problem now that I was a dick to him because he kept denying what we tried to say to him. Anywho, I'll let others speak about him now like Essel and Zap, my language is too twisted for that haha. I'm done with that guy.

I think I'll throw my two cents into the meat grinder here...

File size, as has been established, means shit. My first map was massive and reached 2,570 KB, for instance, and I'm not afraid to admit that it's a boring haphazard mess. Scythe--all 32 maps--are together 5,920 kb, which averages to 185 KB per map (and bear in mind Scythe also includes new textures, flats, music, etc, meaning that the average is still less.) And yet the levels in Scythe are neat, attractive, challenging and fun to play through again and again.

What it basically amounts to is that, if you don't have the vision and skill to make a map fun and interesting to play, no amount of detailing, space, monsters, or what have you will ever make your map good. It will just mean the map takes up more memory, and nothing else.

Super Jamie said:

I believe abominat spotted that happens intermittently in the map playtest thread, though nobody seemed to know why?

It lowered for me but the bottom Revenant platform made a small HOM in PrB+ 2.5.0.6 as the linedef is missing a bottom texture.

I can answer why the wall doesn't lower in BOH; A lower to nearest linetype (219) was used when it should have been a lower to lowest (i.e linetype 38).

The linetype 219, which is also used at multiple other points in the map is also a Boom linetype meaning the wad doesn't just require a limit removing port.

There’s also a DB start in there.

alterworldruler said:

I admit, I went too far but then again, who would'nt like to go nuts on a guy which keeps denying all the logic and standards here?

Like I've kept trying to tell you when you talk to me about it over IM, you can't solve a problem by creating another problem! Haven't you heard the proverb, "Two wrongs don't make a right"?

Come on! I almost feel bad for you and all the feedback you say you're getting about your maps, but then you go and act like this and somehow I feel like you deserve some of it.

WildWeasel said:

Like I've kept trying to tell you when you talk to me about it over IM, you can't solve a problem by creating another problem! Haven't you heard the proverb, "Two wrongs don't make a right"?

And three rights make a left, which still isn't getting us anywhere!

rf` said:

And three rights make a left, which still isn't getting us anywhere!

And two Wrights make a plane.

Also, fuck yeah another awesome WAD by Tolwyn. :D

Having played Tolwyn's wads on /idgames now, I fully agree with the post above mine!

Hmm, I'm not sure how I feel about Prototype. It's a very well-polished mod, though it resembles its source material a bit too much. Of course, it'd be wrong to be hard on the author just for that reason seeing how I say it's okay. :P -- I suppose my only real concern is that the Chainsaw is more or less a straight ZEROT rip. Still doesn't condemn the mod, though -- and for the record, I like the palette. :P

I must say, Russian Arsenal is pretty badass. Some of the sprites are a bit fugly (and the anti-aliasing is kinda strange at such a resolution) but as the reviewer stated, it just feels right.

And as silly as it is, I kinda like the "No Hands" mod. Timesplitters Doom, ahoy!

Also, Alfonzo needs a medal for his reviews. Keep doing that. ;)

Thanks to CowboyAndy for the nice review, and to everybody else for the constructive criticism. It's great to have the mod noticed... Anyway, I'll take into account the remarks about the lack of a gratis/melee weapon, and the palette (though I have to admit I am still liking it :-P). A special thankyou to Xaser, for two reasons in particular:

1-having appreciated the amount of polish I've tried to put on the mod.

2-being *the* source of inspiration for the mod, and having shown up to comment about it!

Now, only "The Rebel" (rslrebel.zip) is left out to try... And I am also working on a moderate overhaul of "Revenge", also basing on the feedback I had about it. So stay tuned ;-)

Optimus said:

Funny thing with squipple is that it makes you think: How the hell can I get that shotgun? If there is a box of shells, it is there for a reason. Then how? The secret was in the second play, I got the bazooka secret early and blasted the only trooper upon the box from one side so that the shotgun falls off the box sector. If that was the intention of the author it was clever, although this doesn't work on vanilla doom (I just tried) and you may also not think of it too early and kill that trooper with another way that doesn't get you the shotgun.

Cool! I went back and replayed it and found the 'bazooka' as well. Still, this map has tickled me and I somehow feel like more could be done with it. I really like the theme and layout of it. Something about it feels classic to me, sort of how E1M1 feels classic (not that I'm comparing the two). I've actually been busy since I was sitting in my cell in Losers forum. I've been having a fun time modifying squipple (which I hope the author will be okay with). I'm hoping Goldenhog will take a look at it.

Among the changes, I've made the shotgun always getable, and I've added another shotgun guy in a rather interesting implementation. I've basically added tons of secrets to the map in an integrated type way (not just tacked on randomly) which I think give the map more mystique as a dungeon and make it more fun. As a result, there are now more ways of tackling the map and overall the gameplay is a lot more dynamic. Although it is a lot harder now (but I've also implemented skill levels).