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kildeth

NOVA: The Birth - v1.1 release now on idGames!

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What I could do, I suppose, is having the monsters not warp until you reach the main area again

- or -

Remove the block monster linedef and have half the monsters warp in at the center area and half the monsters warp in an area that connects to the bottleneck room/corridor.

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EvilNed01 said:

What I could do, I suppose, is having the monsters not warp until you reach the main area again


This sounds like a good idea if you can make it work.

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Thanks for the updates EvilNed and Stygian! I'll be having a look at them over the next few days and combining EvilNed's levelset with everything else.

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dobugabumaru said:

MAP03[/b]: Another neat level, with it's most interesting idea being the goodies etched into the wall. Thoughts: At the start, the ASHWALL above the "entrance door" is raised and it looks a bit weird/out of place. In the room with the "POISON" wall warnings the corner near one of the doors is lit up, when it should probably be dark. Also when you return to that room with the red key, triggering the ambush, it is almost guaranteed that the HK and caco will fight, nullifying any sense of real danger.

The room past the red key door is pretty cramped and dangerous, which is always good. On the way to the blue key, the specter can't get down the stairs, so he's a non-threat. The monsters that come out afterwards are a nice surprise, but the following double HK surprise with a pinch of Baron is just too obnoxious to battle with solely the SG and chaingun (baron could easily be replaced with just another HK). The SSG and RL are surprise secrets, so it kinda balances out, although I don't like the idea of having the SSG as a secret. Also, health is nicely balanced for the first half of the level, but it's completely missing near the end which is another red flag for me (since you'd ideally want to give the consecutive players as close to 100% for the next level). Again, health is given out through secrets, so maybe it's just a preference thing. Otherwise it was pretty fun, although ammo was quite superfluous compared to the first two maps (you can exit with like 80 shells; two boxes of shells in the red key room are unnecessary and it's generally a bad idea to overload goodies in secret rooms, like the backpack secret).

Oh, and visuals were okay. The DOORTRAK for the crushers in the poison pathway is a nice touch.


OK, I've made a few small tweaks based on dobugabumaru's comments:

-I removed the Caco from the ambush after getting the red key. You're right, he is a non-threat thanks to the Hell Knight.

-I changed the Spectre into a group of Imps.

-I changed the Baron into a Knight.

-I tweaked the appearance of health packs near the end.

-I removed one of the Boxes of Shells from the Red Key room.

-I tweaked the ammo power-ups in the Backpack secret.

Here's a new version: http://www.mediafire.com/?161bfqidxr71ej5

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Still much work to be done yet, but nonetheless... here it is, in it's incomplete form.

'Sensorium' (aka Wakawaka) by Alwaysdoomed and Kildeth
http://www.mediafire.com/?0za8hbn6z7c3cxh

Making a level of this scope was a big challenge for me as a new mapper and I had to take several long breaks as the editing process became tedious, thus why it has taken so long. Looking back on it there are sooo many things that need fixing up, but nonetheless I think the basic idea of the level is now here and I think I've kept it waiting on my hard-drive long enough with only screenshot teasers for everyone else to go by.

I hope no-one is too disappointed as this level was probably built up to be more than it currently is. :P

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@kildeth The map looks great dude, you have done a fantastic job.

You transformed that map into something i never thought it could be.

In saying that i must point out that you need to soften up the lighting in parts of the map because some of the lighting, specially from torches is too dramatic of a change from dark to very light. Other than that i think the few bits n pieces of tech seem a bit out of place.

Overall The map itself it great, infact its soo good that im going to check out the rest of the maps now =]

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Thanks Alwaysdoomed! I was actually nervous about putting Sensorium up in an unfinished state considering that its gameplay is not at all balanced yet and some of the architecture (the "Blue Key Door" room and the lava swamp with teleporters especially) is purely experimental and incomplete for now. The problems you cited seem to be stemming mostly from the unfinished areas which is good as I'm quite proud of the rest of the map.

I'm not sure if I want to change the dramatic lighting though, like in old films, great contrast when done right can give a great mood effect which is what I was trying to accomplish with Sensorium. As of now though, I might work at Hazard Facility a little more and maybe scale the level up a bit bigger, just to see if I can add anything more to it and give it an extra professional touch.

Meanwhile... new work has begun on Hazard Facility (I think this is going to be the third rendition of this level over a two year period...? Might make a separate wad of a few levels just to show its evolution once it's done.)

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Version 4 of the prisoner
http://www.mediafire.com/?wf9ilwvm3n2g4em
Changelog - nothing gameplay wise
Areas for which pcorf highlighted have now been changed, there is a courtyard area with a slime fountain (of sorts) which you can look into from the main corridor, corridor to the red key and the red key room.
Some other general clean up of detail with some work done on lighting, especially in the computer room area.
Edit - removed 3d mode thingys as well

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"Played" Sensorium. It has a very unique, wild vibe to it kildeth, which I think is a benefit to the map. Got stuck in that pit with all the silver tele textures, but it seemed like a neat map so far.

Also good Hazard Facility screenshots. It's quite interesting to see its progression.

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dobugabumaru said:

"Played" Sensorium. It has a very unique, wild vibe to it kildeth, which I think is a benefit to the map. Got stuck in that pit with all the silver tele textures, but it seemed like a neat map so far.

Also good Hazard Facility screenshots. It's quite interesting to see its progression.


Thanks! The tele pit sounds like one of the unfinished parts... don't worry it won't be like that when it's done. :)

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I made some more modifications to "Cistern". The additions are numerous, but the most significant changes were monster placement and addition of linedefs to control monster movement. I included some changes in texturing and layout as well. Also, the official name of my map is going to be "Ring of Gyges".

A note to play-testers: use MAP23 to test the map. (MAP01 is empty).

As always, I'm open to input.

[EDIT]
-Difficulty settings added*
-Revenants inside of the temple are better behaved.
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?le28asytjzxtscw

Screenshots:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/33/screenshotdoom201211241.png/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/853/screenshotdoom201211241.png/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/853/screenshotdoom201211241.png/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/189/screenshotdoom201211241.png/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/163/screenshotdoom201211241.png/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/13/screenshotdoom201211241.png/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/690/screenshotdoom201211241.png/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/834/screenshotdoom201211241.png/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/607/screenshotdoom201211241.png/

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I really like the changes, actually. They really give the level more of a sense of, well, being a level, as opposed to a big ol grassland with monsters in it.

However, I think you should reduce the amount of revenants in the center area, Or put crenelations on the center building's walls so that they don't have unlimited line of sight to shoot at you wherever you are.

As it is, those revenants make the level too hard because there's no way to shoot them back until much later on.

Looking at the map, I can see that some of those revenants are supposed to stay inside the building, judging by your block sound lines.

However, remember that in order to block sound, you need to put the block sound tag on two lines who have no other lines between then.

Put block sound on these lines: 1361, 1364, 1454, 1460, 1465, 1552, etc., so that sectors 10 and 66 are the "mute" area that actually blocks the sound.

Also, make the revenants inside the building deaf.

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I have added tentative difficulty settings and made some tweaks to address the problem with the revenants inside of the temple waking up prematurely. I may add more rock formations/structures/trenches for the player to hide behind, but it may not be necessary.

When I was rearranging the monsters, I liked the idea of grouping the imps into skirmish lines and then using arachnotrons, cacodemons and revenants as covering fire for the imps. This arrangment works assuming the player finds a place to hide or breaks through the skirmish lines before they are overwhelmed by the covering fire. Previously, when the monsters were spread out uniformly and capable of roaming around freely, it was too easy for the player to run past all of the monsters without firing their weapon, so one thing leads to another, I suppose.

If anything else bothers you or you have other suggestions, I'm all ears.

Here's the updated version: http://www.mediafire.com/?le28asytjzxtscw

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dobugabumaru said:
PrBoom is telling me your map has no nodes Stygian. Same happens in ZDoom ("map has no vertices")

A note to play-testers: use MAP23 to test the map. (MAP01 is empty).

Load up MAP23 in Doom Builder. I thought the map looked better with a red skybox.

[EDIT]
Here's a version with a working MAP01 slot in addition to some layout changes (although MAP23 still works and looks better, in my opinion).

http://www.mediafire.com/?32q15efa01rczbq

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Working on updated versions of my maps. Fixing bugs and reworking certain areas altogether. Don't know when next version will be up, but maybe soon.

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Ok, new versions of my maps.

Overhauls, bug fixes, balance issues, expanded MAP04 extensively.

http://www.filmklubben.eu/wads/EvilNedv3.wad

I'd like MAP01 to be somewhere among the first 5 maps if possible.

MAP02 one of the first 11 if possible.

MAP03 feels like a 11-20 map.

MAP04 can be anywhere between 11-30. It's considerably tougher than the rest.

NOTE:

They're not finished, but close. Still missing are balanced difficulties and multiplayer support.

Things to do:

Fix the Imp traps in MAP01 and MAP03...

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Started playing through the maps released so far. Really great stuff. I'm up to MAP06,

and what I can say so far is:

in MAP01, I'd prefer it if you didn't acquire the shotgun from a shotgun guy. Don't know, I just like it when you find the actual weapon, rather than pick it up from an enemy. This is a very minor nuisance, otherwise good maps.

Really liked MAP02-05 and no real gripes. I loved Map02, the gameplay was lovely and good action fun. Likewise, the long corridor with tons of zombies in MAP04 was excellent. I'd agree with whoever wrote that there might be one too many arch-viles thrown in there, but otherwise good stuff.

MAP06 was fun, but I can't complete it without cheating, because there's just too little ammo around. I've played it twice, once I went for the yellow key first and once I went for the blue key first. I run out of ammo on the Blue Key side (regardless of which key I go for first), almost at the end of the trek where you take a lift up to the actual key and a bunch of monsters teleport in. From thereon out, I'm constantly living off of whatever ammo zombies drop.

By the time I get to the big room with the archviles and things, I'm down to my fists and I've run past several revenants and hell knights just cause I have no way of fighting them. This is me playing on UV, btw.

So, yeah... Waaay more ammo. But good map otherwise. I have fun playing it, I just can't play it all the way through. Oh... But the music doesn't really work for me, tho...

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Yeah, I don't know what to do about the music either.

Did you play the updated version I linked somewhere on earlier pages, or the release version?

there's a few minor differences in some monsters and some more ammo.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/39292814/teleportarion2.wad

Most notably, there's a bit more ammo at the start, more ammo on the blue key side, and a backpack in the main hallway.

I think the main issue with the map is: you have to be careful WHICH weapon you use at any particular engagement:

Depending on whether you use the rocket launcher or supershotgun or chaingun in any particular fight, you end up using more ammo than if you'd used something else...

I guess the issue here is that not everyone will use the rocket launcher or chaingun when I want them to. So I'll continue to add ammunition, or move things around so that players use ammunition differently.

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@EvilNed01- your map set was very suspenseful and fun.

However, I did notice a hall of mirrors glitch near the outdoor waterfall on MAP01 and, in my opinion, MAP02 could use a little more health and ammo (I finished the map on Hurt Me Plenty with no ammo and only 2% health.)

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@Paul_D Ok great! I'll try that version out.

@Stygian Thanks, Ok, ammo situation on MAP02 noted, I'll add some more for the final version.


EDIT:

Also, I'm working on a new map. A much bigger map than any of these four I've contributed so far. My attempt at a high tier map, I guess.

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Continued my playthrough, finished off MAP09 and MAP10, both by cannonball I believe.

Overall, both maps were good fun and lots of fighting to get through. I have a few minor gripes tho. In both maps, you have to learn by trial and error which way to go and which to leave for later. Not something I enjoyed a great deal. This was more prevalent in MAP10 rather than MAP09, where I ran out of ammo fairly early on in the level (essentially, I was all out after picking up the red key). I played through it twice, and the same thing happened both times. By saving and reloading I managed to beat a couple of arch viles to death with my fists, but after awhile I just gave up and started over.

But the same thing happened. So this time I just cheated when I ran out of ammo, because there was simply no way for me to get through this map without resorting to my fists and or chainsaw waaaay to often.

I later realized there was an alternate route, to go trekking for the Blue Key before going into the red door. I didn't try this sans-cheats, but I'm guessing that's the way to go. I'd wholly prefer it if the red door was off limits until you'd collected both keys (and thus, gotten all of the ammo) or if you simply added way more ammo to allow for the non-linearity to shine through. As it is now, the map is technically non-linear, but if you don't do the map in a certain way, it means certain death (I play on UV, btw).

Other things; I dug the many various rooms you could visit. Like the BFG room for instance. However, please don't make the BFG so hidden, as it's essentially a must (at least it was for me) to get through several of the encounters towards the end of the map.

I'm also feeling a bit arch-viled out after that MAP10, might be one too many there. But I did enjoy punching them to death!

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Really neat midi Paul. Another spooky atmosphere this time, with a spice of intrigue added into the mix. The synth is great, but when the guitars kick in, they sound dissonant to me. I have a very poor grasp of music theory, so I'm just going off what I hear. Otherwise it sounds great. Also listened to Crimson but it wasn't doing anything for me; the main guitar rift felt too repetitive without a good hook, like in this song.

I'll get to reviewing Gyges soon. I finished EvilNed's MAP06, I'll leave my thoughts in the morning once sleep has left my head. Off the top of my head though, there is not enough health. The bottom right area of the map was my favorite, such a sinister layout.

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