Jimmy91
rhymes with Midi91
Posts: 1335
Registered: 04-06 |
Would it be untoward of me if I were to leave my own thoughts on the maps in this thread? :) (More from a historical and critical point-of-view than from that of a playthrough experience.)
MAP01: Treatment Plant
Completion stats:
Kills: 95%
Items: 82%
Secrets: 50%
Time: 6:40
Best Time: 2:00
History:
This map is actually more than a few years old (I think it dates back to 2006-7). Back when I first discovered how beautiful the Plutonia textures were (when I still mapped for Skulltag), I began work on a small mapset called "RPSE" (Random Plutonia Skulltag Episode) which never really took off, although I did finish a couple of the (terrible) maps for it. This was to be MAP01 in that, as well, although due to lack of creativity, I didn't actually manage to expand the map past the initial starting area and the forked slime room past the first door, so the rest of this map was done in October 2010.
Gameplay/Layout:
Playing on UV already reveals my unfortunate tendency to accidentally make extremely challenging maps. One of the reasons for this is that I normally play on HMP, and regard UV as the skill level I pick if I feel like a real challenge. However, seeing how most Doomers seem to play on UV for a more "casual" experience, I can see that my quickfire, "casual" mapset actually turned into a borderline slaughterfest, due to my downright evil placement of UV-only monsters (which I'll admit I didn't test a great deal compared to HMP). Another reason for the strangely difficult nature of my maps is simply because I think "Hey wouldn't having a revenant here be a challenge?" and before I know it I've placed similar challenges all over the map that could seriously overwhelm a first-timer. And that's before I lay down the UV-only monsters.
All that said, this map is indeed unusually brutal in places. I still hate the quartet of revenants in the final room because it often takes a great deal of time to kill them all with the weapons you have at that point (and getting the chaingunners to take them down is pretty much impossible). There also might be a tiny bit too much nukage overall.
I like the way I made the player revisit areas (although maybe having to revisit the main courtyard twice was a little excessive), and there's a little homage to the original speedmap in the demon compartment that opens up opposite the yellow door - it's almost identical in design to the original map's starting area. :P
It definitely has its faults, as a few have pointed out so far. Towards the end of the development of Jenesis Pt. 1, there were several moments when I looked at this map and felt a strong urge to redo the whole thing. Thing is, it's already a redo of an old Skulltag speedmap of mine. Overall, though I don't see it as that bad a map, there are still parts that make me cringe - certainly the overly orthogonal room-by-room layout is an absolute eyesore. It's almost like something out of OBLIGE. Obviously back in 2010 I was even more conservative with angular walls than I am now.
All in all I don't think this is a great map, but it fits the MAP01 slot. Needing all three keys is a little odd, I'll admit, but I did envisage this to be quite a substantial map even back when I was first making it in about 2007. I might just redo it one day for the hell of it. I think it's the only map in Jenesis that I would definitely redo from the ground up given the chance - its age and my lack of inspiration while I was making it kinda show.
Music:
It took me a long time of trawling through my MIDI collection and the various posts on DMG to finally decide on the track that would accompany Jenesis MAP01. The choice of track for this map could potentially make or break the entire megawad - certainly, immensely popular WADs like Memento Mori 1 & 2, Requiem, HR2, Vile Flesh and many others, have amazing MAP01 tracks that reflect the quality of the rest of the WAD.
Ultimately, I settled on a custom track by Nick "Theshooter7" George (used with permission) called "Into the Fire", who posted it on the DMG under his résumé. It seemed like an ideal MAP01 track, with the heavy, guitar-driven intro and the fast-paced Metallica-inspired riffs, so into Jenesis it went. :P Progressive, too - I haven't often encountered Doom music that changes tempo halfway through.
Pointless trivia:
My dad couldn't finish this map. He was unable to find the yellow key for about 5 minutes. :P It was at this point that he pretty much gave up on trying to play through the whole megawad.
EDIT: Screw it, I played the map and reported my critical thoughts. :P
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Last edited by Jimmy91 on 10-02-12 at 14:02
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10-01-12 06:00 
