Creaphis
I will deliberately take a contrary position just for the sake of writing incredibly long arguments
Posts: 3991
Registered: 10-05 |
Okay Jobro, I just played through your "Mount Mortal" for the first time and I'd say that it has some severe problems. I don't want you to feel picked on, so I'm going to write these points as generally as I can, so that ALL MAPPERS HERE CAN KEEP THESE IN MIND. I also promise to say something nice about it.
1) When you map, you need to remember that when someone else is playing your map, he'll be playing it for the first time. He doesn't know what obstacles he'll be facing, and he doesn't know how to prepare for them. He definitely doesn't know where the secrets are, if they're impossibly hidden. Sure, you can beat this map more easily with practice, but the casual player doesn't want to practice your map. He expects to be able to beat it on his first play-through while only loading prior saves a few times. Maps need to be easy enough for this to be possible on at least one of the difficulty levels.
2) This is largely point 1 again, but more specific. For every individual trap and fight in your level, you need to think: "Is there a chance that a player could beat this obstacle on his first try?" If the answer is no, it needs fixing. Some specific traps in your level that violate this principle are the wind sectors on the tower (every player will be swept into the lava on his first try, and none will catch themselves in time, because no reason has been given to expect wind) and the minotaur pit (it took me about ten tries to get out alive).
3) Maneuvering in this map is far too difficult. This was especially annoying when I was killing the golems and disciples on the tower in the lava pit. Because you put a lava stream in the middle of the passageway, it's impossible to dodge projectiles in that passage without burning yourself. I had no choice but to back far away and snipe awkwardly from a distance instead of confronting the enemy. This is awkward and tedious.
4) Monster hordes are fun to see in Heretic, as the original maps never really had any, but decent weapons and ammo must be provided to fight them. Look at Hell Revealed; every map has tons of monsters, but the player always gets the RL and BFG to deal with them. Fighting everything with basically just the wand was extremely tedious. Even if you don't want to include more of the upper weapons, keep in mind that Heretic provides many interesting items to aid the player. Giving the player some tomes of power to strengthen the wand would already make this a bit more fun.
5) It's impossible to get 100% kills. An unwritten rule (well, actually it's often written) is that 100% kills should be possible from a pistol/wand start. Otherwise, many players and all max speedrunners will be frustrated, as they expect to be able to finish off every monster they see. You really can't break this rule in a community project, unless your map is an astonishing artistic achievement (see CChest 2 map 20).
6) Your lower difficulty levels are harder than the upper ones. This is sloppy design and absolutely out of the question. Don't switch the difficulty levels around, though, but make the lower ones much, much easier, because four minotaurs in that pit is ridiculous when two is already too many.
I promised something nice, and here it is: There is a niche audience who will like this mapping style. Some pain-loving Doomers will enjoy struggling through a painful level like this. But, I believe this project is oriented towards more classic and less brutal gameplay. Maybe if you're lucky, we'll decide to include an episode (4 or 5) of arduous maps like this one. But otherwise, this needs heavy rebalancing to fit in. If you only want to make maps like this one, your efforts may be better suited to a solo project. I hope you've taken the time to read this, and I hope you don't feel offended, but I want to see people mapping as well as they can.
Last edited by Creaphis on 05-18-08 at 01:36
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05-16-08 08:42 
