Things That WAD Designers Do That Irritate You

We all have them, certain choices some WAD makers make in the designs of their levels that just irritate the hell of of you. Those little pet peeves that ruin a level for you. Mine are people that make their levels way to complex and maze like. That frustrates the crap out of me. Or when someone bottle-necks enemies at the end of a level in order to make it more "Challenging". What are some of yours? Let it all out lol.

1.) Spawning and having enemies attack before you can even observe your surroundings.

2.) Starting with pistol and having to try and get around a bunch of monsters just to get a shotgun.

3.) Plasma cells and rockets everywhere but no rocket launcher or plasma rifle in sight.

4.) Having to go a long distance just to hit a switch then back track without a teleport.

5.) Cybers in small rooms where you have to shoot through a small gap otherwise risk being killed.

6.) MOD's that modify players movement are especially annoying.

7.) WADS like Epic2 that modify sounds and sprites with nothing more than a novelty value.

8.) Cheesy use of mid-textures and attempted replication of everyday objects.

9.) Terrain slopes with edges that are not smooth.

10.) Heavy use of a texture that is not vertically seamless (moon rock in Lunatic).

11.) Well done maps that are wasted on a mediocre game play element. (PL2 Map 11)

12.) Vanilla maps that don't follow render limits. (Not that anyone checks this ;) )

13.) Textured skyboxes where you can see the outline of the cube too easily.

14.) Impassible barriers with no architecture/wall to indicate you can't pass.

It annoys me that all the level designers haven't quit their jobs and left their families to start mapping for DooM full time.

Chex Warrior said:

It annoys me that all the level designers haven't quit their jobs and left their families to start mapping for DooM full time.

Someone should make an automatic WAD making machine (bot) that gets inspiration and learns techniques from /idgames downloaded files. And acts on a whim, instead of being fed commands from the user. And which regularly tries to upload files to /idgames, with enough discretion not to be guessed.

- Having to fight against more than 2 or 3 Arch-Viles at the same time, specially if you have no cover to hid from their attacks.
- Having to fight against more than 2 or 3 of these ridiculous uber-powered Dehacked evil marine at the same time.
- Too many tight corridors.
- When ZDoom wads adds redundant monsters just by the sake of adding new monsters. (Example: Adding a Railgun Zombie when Chaingunners can do the same work, same for the uber ultra over used Satyr, because 3 Demons are the same equivalent. This rule doesn't applies in partial conversion wads)
- Forcing me to fight against Barons of Hell with a shotgun.
- Placing Revenants in areas with no cover.

Flip-flopping on whether or not their slime floors are going to hurt you or not. Consistency, ho!

Yeah. It's the little things.

Gameplay that is an afterthought.

A huge level of detail achieved via copy pasting.

Purposefully adding cheesy objects in levels that break my suspension of disbelief.

Architecture that hinders movement.

Levels that don't capture my imagination.

Boring layouts in combination with boring monster placement.

- monsters hidden in broom closets that open after you pick up an item (it just seems stupid to me, I like monsters teleporting into the map better)
- blatantly unaligned textures
- doors that raise into the sky
- switches that open one of the gazillion locked doors without giving you a hint which one
- maps that desperately try to be non-linear and thus tangle up in confusing design (like some of my maps, heh)
- probably more I can't think of right now

Oh great one of these threads.

Weapons in the starting room.

No shotgun or shotgun shells but a hundred million shotgun guys (sucks for coop)

Maps with scarce ammo but also no berserk or chainsaw.

Wads intended to be played with saves so there's only one of each weapon in the entire episode.

Handrails made out of impassible lines and submerged MIDBARS textures. Fuck handrails, stop restricting my movement.

Symmetrical rooms made worse with symmetrical map layout, made even worse with symmetrical thing placement.

Secret areas that are just a tiny closet with a weapon or soulsphere in them.

Unfaithful remakes with more detail than character.

Maps with more traps and surprise ambushes than arranged monster placement.

Maps that are just too long.

I think I've heard enough unfitting rise of the triad music for one lifetime.

BFG9000 oriented levels.

Mancubi that are really really REALLY far away. (yes, you, Speed of Doom.)

Skill levels in which the harder skill levels change invulnerabilities into megaspheres. Are you serious?

Armor bonuses leading up to armor.

Light Amplification Visors.

Unprecedented Cyberdemon fights.

Making screenshots more entertaining than the level itself.

Beautiful expansive mountainous landscapes with the gameplay contained in tiny sections so that you feel like you're playing in a big level even though the playable area is very small.

There's not much that irritates me, since I like all kinds of maps, but two things really do drive me up the wall:

- Forced-kill exits. You know them. Teleporting into a room with a Romero Head and barrels. You dead, level ends, forced pistol start next level. AARGH! That's when you bring out idbeholdv.

- Starting the map in sectors that hurt you. Waste, hellslime, lava, you name it. I'm a 200% player. I always NEED to see my health and armor at 200%. If I get damaged, I reload and try again until I get out of it without getting hit and losing one % of health or armour. So these forced starting in damaging sectors are a nightmare. I see my pretty 200% vanish before I can even do a thing about it. =(

40oz said:

Oh great one of these threads.

Weapons in the starting room.

Mancubi that are really really REALLY far away. (yes, you, Speed of Doom.)

Unprecedented Cyberdemon fights.

Making screenshots more entertaining than the level itself.

Beautiful expansive mountainous landscapes with the gameplay contained in tiny sections so that you feel like you're playing in a big level even though the playable area is very small.

I couldn't agree more on these points.

Punishing the player immediately for a required objective. Putting a huge teleport trap on a required item after a huge fight to get the item is just being an asshole. If you must do this, have the teleporting varied and near the key doors the player has to go, or just don't do it at all. Doom usually only punished you with such things out of greed, similar to the "Free Bird Seed" trap. If Doom 2 used a teleport trap, it was in an area that seemed quite obvious to be an arena, and gave the player a lot of running room.

Csonicgo said:

Punishing the player immediately for a required objective.

Oooo that's a really good one I forgot to mention. I know many people say they hate pressing switches without knowing what they did; Conversely, I hate falling upon a switch or a key and knowing exactly what it's there for. I like to be expected to think while I'm playing.

EDIT: oops I thought that said "pushing"

I totally agree with 40oz, all that shit sucks, Well, except for the Speed of Doom part. I'm playing AV right now and pretty much everything said describes alot of AV!

- Slow crushers
- Monster spawners
- Inescapable areas with no damaging floors
- Infinitely respawning chaingunners (usually encountered in Plutonia wads)

Levels with lack of ammo and/or health.

Deep hiding of keys and locked doors. (great example: MAP10 - Ruins from Mr. Paddock's Jenesis WAD -> the whole WAD itself is an amazing stuff, even the level Ruins was nice, but that lot of run and search... frustated me)

Being traped. (Vanguard, Lunatic use it often)

Fight against Revenants and/or Mancubuses in straight corridors.

Lack of details.

Too much "awakened" monster in the same place and time. Often occasion in great open areas.

This is everything that I can figure out now.

Pottus said:

7.) WADS like Epic2 that modify sounds and sprites with nothing more than a novelty value.

Actually I found Epic 2 was fine in this regard because at least it followed a consistent theme. Epic 1, however, with its monsters wearing bandanas...

boris said:

- doors that raise into the sky

Heh.

Entry door textures that aren't used for an entry door, and exit door textures that aren't used for an exit.

Heretic maps using Doom-style color-coded door trims for the locked doors instead of the key gizmos. (If it's in addition to key gizmos, then it's okay.)

Pegged door tracks.

Maps that were butchered or cut in several parts to fit within vanilla limits when they would have worked perfectly fine in limit-removing ports.

Visible Romero heads (unless sprites are replaced with something that fits.)

Commander Keen (unless sound and sprites are replaced).

Making a megawad with 32 levels, MAP07 is the Mancubus & Arachnotron Comedy Hour on a square layout, MAP30 is Icon of Sin fight, MAP31 is Nazi level, MAP32 is Nazi level again but with a cyberdemon and some keens. Also known as "I have no friggin imagination".

Lots of damaging floors but no radsuit.

Death exits to enforce pistol starts.

Maps which prevents backtracking by closing doors behind the player. Especially when it's used for arena fight after arena fight.

Doors and teleports that are usable only once.

Maps that use the "door wait five minutes then open" or "door wait 30 seconds then close forever" specials.

Maps that become far too predictable after a while. If you ran out of idea, make a smaller map.

Architecture that restricts your mobility for no good reason (layout far too cramped, gratuitous wall details, etc.).

Hexen mods where the sapphire wand is replaced by a melee weapon.

Mods using the PSX/Doom 64 sounds (I'll make an exception for mods such as Threshold were it made sense to use them). Mods using the Quake grunt sounds.

Grain of Salt said:

I like toast. When I play a map without toast in it I get so angry.

Good point. More maps need toast in them.

40oz said:

Handrails made out of impassible lines and submerged MIDBARS textures. Fuck handrails, stop restricting my movement.

I'm not sure I get this one. Do you take issue with the solid 24-high sector handrails in E1? .... or actually, what about full-height midtex railings like the ones around the slime pool in E1M3's start room? Are those included in this?

- Forced-kill exits. You know them. Teleporting into a room with a Romero Head and barrels. You dead, level ends, forced pistol start next level. AARGH! That's when you bring out idbeholdv.

Death exits to enforce pistol starts.

I can just picture how some people must have reacted to E2M1 back in the day. Where is my rocket launcher this is so unfair and mean aaaaarggghhhhhhh

So I guess the trick is to cut your megawad at parts where you would have to use a death exit and release a bunch of smaller PWADs instead. More files to manage and more bloat due to identical custom resources used multiple times, but hey, people are tricked into pistol starting when they ought to! Victory!

-Inescapable pits
-Secrets that can only be activated once
-Areas that once you enter you can't go back to previous areas of the same map
-Maps in episodes/megawads that are too easy when you don't play from a pistol start. This is okay if the previous map ends in a death trap
-Secrets that hurt you more than help you
-Secret levels that don't seem any different than the other levels in a megawad
-Death traps (unless near the beginning of the level when you don't care if you die)
-When difficult jumps are required for progression
-When a megawad doesn't have any secret exits
-When arch-vile jumps or rocket jumps are required for anything
-Damaging floor with -20% health
-Long MAP30's

Csonicgo said:

Putting a huge teleport trap on a required item after a huge fight to get the item is just being an asshole.

Actually I'd love to see more of that. Usually, if a fight builds up before I take the key, picking up the item will be harmless and that's predictable. I want to be tortured like that -- powerful guard before the key, powerful squad teleporting in after I walk up and pick up the key.

Putting UAC crates everywhere. I didn't do exact calculations, but I think you won't find crates in more than 5 out of 32 maps in MM2 or Requiem or AV... So is it possible not to put them? Yes, it is.

I thought I'd just mention that as no-one did this before me - does everyone love UAC crates?

Making a map look like a Doom 3 map but with sprites

vdgg said:
I thought I'd just mention that as no-one did this before me - does everyone love UAC crates? [/B]

Yes. UAC crates are awesome. So are wooden crates. In fact I'm going to ensure that every level I ever make from now on has at least one UAC crate.

It's common knowledge that the letter C in "UAC" actually stands for Crate, but fewer people realize that the U and A also both stand for Crate.

Cross-post from the last time we did this:

Xaser said:

LIKES:

• Maps that are not too annoying.
  
• Maps that are not too long or too short or too medium-sized.
  
• Maps
  
• Maps that start the player with a pistol and a fist and some bullets for it (the pistol, not the fist).
  
• Maps that are in doom.wad and not in doom2.wad
  
• Maps that are NEITHER in doom.wad nor doom2.wad (this includes TNT, Plutonia, and every PWAD ever, but not other Doom engine games, because they are mentioned elsewhere in a separate list item)
  
• Maps that were not made by registered sex offenders (I have morals, people)
  
• New things that aren't maps and aren't monsters and aren't textures and aren't music and aren't sounds and are used to shoot enemies with (unless they suck).
  
• New music unless it is not actually music (for example, a 3-second repeating loop of Homer Simpson saying "DOH!" in slow-motion is NOT MUSIC. I have made my argument clearer by illustrating with an example!)
  
• New Bears
  

DISLIKES:

• Shitty maps. Also including, but not limited to: crappy maps, stupid maps, boring maps, lackluster/lacklustre maps, overhyped maps, maps with shitty maps, maps without maps, and maps with AIDS.
  
• Griddy maps. That's a combination of "grid" and "city" because I'm clever!
  
• Maps that use soulspheres anywhere, because FUCK THAT ITEM.
  
• Maps by authors who make maps which make me have to say that I dislike maps by them.
  
• Any use of new music whose first chord is a D minor.
  
• Maps that are in both doom.wad and doom2.wad
  
• Maps that are in other Doom engine games that are not Doom, because they use so many non-Doom resources.
  

THINGS I LIKE AND DISLIKE AT THE SAME TIME:

• Everything from the above lists, because I am an indecisive bastard.
  
• Everything else in this list below this item, because this is a tautology.
  
• Everything excluding all things included by the two previous items, because I am feeling exceptionally paradoxical.