Orion Zero M1

Space station orion zero. (doom 2 test wad)

this is a map for an idea i have called Orion zero.
this wad only contains one single map (m1), it is not made to be a relaxing sunday break, nor is it perfect and it has its flaws.

this wad was tested on the ZDEAMON source port, and compatibility with other source ports is probably not an option, because i have experienced a door bug in slade that zdaemon ignores.

any possible input about the idea is what i am after.


download link :
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gzibrjn2fmcbxyd/SSOZero.zip

I played in Zandronum. Didn't experience any problems. Then I quickly tested in ZDaemon too.

I have a few things to reproach:

• The map is created mostly from HUGE, orthogonal corridors, monochromatically covered with simple textures, and to top of that, it's overly and unnecessarily symmetrical. Honestly, it's quite a bad setup. That's what I can tell about the idea.
  
• ALL of the battles are easily skippable. You can just run past everything, with the sole exception of the spectre cave, which is easy anyway.
  
• Speaking about that area, you've got some bars there that block monsters, but not players.
  
• Health is badly balanced. To be precise, there's no health at all, except health bonuses late in the map. Did you actually want the player to avoid combat and run past everything?
  
• In the first room, in the south-eastern shotgunguy's closet, you've got an unclosed sector. If you open the door, you see a glitched strip of a floor on the right side. You fix it by redrawing surrounding sectors.
  
• A minor complaint: Red key isn't obvious to find, I missed it and then travelled the whole map back and forth before finding out what to do.

Ammo is balanced relatively well, but the backtracking to start for shotgun shells may get annoying. What is good about this map is a lighting, just a shame the overall layout isn't that good. If you decide to actually fight all monsters, gameplay is fine and challenging at places, however you'll also feel how the symmetry is annoying, then.

I was reviewing your map like I'm doing it with every single player map. If you have any special (multiplayer?) intents with it, I don't know how that would be different. I just don't see the point why the map is so much spacious while underpopulated, because it just can't influence gameplay in a good way.

thank you for the review.

just before i uploaded it i deleted probably 30 or 40 monsters because of it being overkill.

the map its symmetry was based upon space stations being a form of "only what is needed", thus the textures / flats where to.

BUT :
if i would ever make by example an "4 map" wad based upon this, i will make it less equal on both sides, and make sure people need to fight monsters. as this was a "test" map.

your input is apreciated.