dobugabumaru
Member
Posts: 463
Registered: 02-12 |
You're welcome major, I thought it would be a shame for you to quit then since you already contributed so many maps and hours of work. For the teleport business, I'd consider putting the ones that send you back on an island in the water. If the player is going for 100% kills they're going to explore a lot more of the map anyway, so they're likely to find those hidden teles anyway. Also, not sure how much ammo is in the map, but you may want to teleport them to an elevated island in the first area with loads of ammo on it so they can clean up efficiently.
If you wanted to keep the reverse tele at the "silver area" with the mancs to keep the players on their toes, at least send it to the beginning of the walkway and not the previous area.
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Your turn fiend. Played "Whispers in the Dark"
Honestly, the map works poorly as a "fear of being alone". I never felt alone during the whole map, and Spellbound covers that theme much better. However, the map works beautifully as a "fear of the dark" map, since nearly everything terrifying comes out of the dark (explosions, fireballs, AVs, cybies). And it is also a very dark map without being annoying since there's enough light for the player to see.
Like I stated during my quick run-through, the start needs to be change since it's too cryptic. I realized on this run that there's three switches you need to shoot, two in the dark and the one in the fire. One switch in the dark I think would be a good change of pace, but as it stands now I feel like most players won't stand for finding all three, and just IDCLEV to another level.
Inside the next room, few issues. Besides the misaligned wall, there seems to be something in the way, blocking me from running into the corner (pic). If I try and run into the corner from my point in that picture, I'll be blocked. Second, the SSG needs to be illuminated or something, because it's somewhat easy to miss unless you already know its there beforehand. Exploding barrels also come in pretty quickly, which is okay since you pick up a megasphere beforehand, but since the area is coated in darkness, you can't see what's damaging you.
Running back to the starting room, there's an untextured wall (pic). Also there's a room the right of that area that has ammo which I unable to nab (pic).
And then the map plays swimmingly well, being intimidating, open, frantic and fun, weaving in and out between shadow and light as baddies warp in. One of the best things about this map is that you continuously change the light and warp guys in seemingly randomly, and the "randomness" adds to the fear of the unknown which all good scary games possess. The AV coming in after one of the keys was a super fun fight in the dark, since you could only see where he was when he began igniting you.
However, I feel there's one megasphere too many (kind of, depends how well you avoid the exploding barrels) and I didn't have enough ammo to deal with the cybies at the end (more cell would've helped). The cybies are great in the core of the map, being able to fire at you from many angles.
I personally think it needs only some gameplay tweaks, since I love how it looks visually and how the player progresses through it. I can see this working well now as an early map, since it's not too taxing on the player, but given the big enemies and weapons given it still would work better not as MAP02.
EDIT:
Finally played through Vertigo Limit. Hell of a map fiend! Pat yourself on the back for this monstrosity! Architecture and music were perfect, making you feel fatigued due to all the encounters and trek upwards, but encouraging you to push and go further. Definitely the best map of our set IMO.
But onto the gripes:
Health was extremely sporadic. I found myself at about ~30% for the first four minutes, then once you opened the cages to the giant imp arena I never dropped below %100. While health is nearly perfect at the start for the penultimate level (I would've liked it if you left a couple stimpacks around the starting area, since the battles there are the fiercest due to low ammo and CG only), you go a little crazy with health in the big imp arena, placing down megaspheres and medikits like crazy.
Although, I beat the level with only 670 out of the 840-something monsters killed. I used IDDT and noted a bunch of monsters stuck in their rooms at the top left. Where were these bad boys? (pic) Perhaps I wouldn't have complained about the overabundance of health if they showed up.
But starting from the beginning, the pinkie at point where you tele to the Supercharge is stuck. Nothing else really goes wrong there, low health as I mentioned before, and I really like the arachnatron providing cover fire for his buddies. Really smart placement.
When you warp the AV in that area later though, the walls on the outside of the arena (near the switch and ammo) DON'T provide cover fire, which is pretty bad, since it forces you to kill him in one go. And then walking into the area that contains the SSG immediately triggers the zombiemen and sergeants to immediately warp in, which I think you should hold off on for about 1-2 seconds. This is because the player (or at least I was) tempted to fight them in the corner right away, which led to a LOT of deaths since I was low on ammo and health. Giving just a second of breathing room will allow the player to see the stairs down to the SSG without learning by death beforehand.
Second green armor of the map is unnecessary (on the lift to the imp arena). I had 190% left over from the blue armor so it was silly when the lift lowered with it on it. Imp arena also suffered from the same problem as the thing I mentioned in the previous paragraph, that you don't have enough ammo to outlast the fight when they move in on you, forcing you to learn by death that you need to cut your way through the horde with the BFG to get to the cells & health. This was a shame too because I liked the manc providing fire behind the player while the imps swarm out and the cacos approach from the sides. Going into the arena still provides a tough battle, but all the health bonuses negates the true danger of it.
The fights from there were fine, with various tense moments, but nothing as hectic as all the parts that come before it. On one elevator you have an HK and rev at the top of it, which is annoying since it'll force you to use the BFG to take them out. If you take out the HK it might allow the player to dance around the rev a little more, instead of playing the elevator game.
Also, what is with that secret exit? Fell off a cliff, I was running around and then I bumped into it. Seemed really out of place to me. And when I was climbing up one side of the mountain to hit a switch, I started to get hurt by a damaging floor. What was with that?
And only bits of the map show up when you look at it. Seems kinda confusing to me, as I expected all of it to show or not. And it’s not like bits of a landmark or anything, it’s just random slices all over the place, including that big invisible path. What was with that too? I wanted to go there!
I'm only pointing out all these issues because I enjoyed this map so much, and want it to be as awesome as it possibly can be. I LOVE the idea of keeping health and ammo near the edge of the map, so the hasty player will plummet to their death unless they’re more cautious. And the constant barrage of Lost Souls and cacos work well in this map since they cover all angles and push the player into situations they may not necessarily like.
And the elevator walls are misaligned and this imp is stuck (the one facing the wall). pic
Last edited by dobugabumaru on 10-01-12 at 04:58
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09-29-12 23:02 
