My first doom map -- Rabbit Hole

Hey, hey,

I just finished my first speed map (and first complete, start to finish) Doom map and I was hoping some of you intrepid sorts would be willing to give it a run and maybe provide some feedback on gameplay and flow.

Difficulties are implemented, albeit half heartedly, I simply didn't have enough time to do what I wanted to, so textures and detailing start lacking but I tried to do the best I could within my self imposed time limit of 4 hours.

You'll need ZDoom to play it because of the slopes and mouselook/jumping is recommended, though not necessary.

Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/uAKeXBn.png

Dropbox download: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2b4tmr3qr6oggfd/RabbitHole.zip

Have fun!

I forgot to mention, first play through videos would be super, super appreciated!

I made a video http://youtu.be/dhwa9Ha3rt4

edit: lol, it recorded the zdoom menu mouse for some reason

FDAs in ZDoom 2.7.1 , split into several files because I got stuck.
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/attachment.php?postid=1249808

I got stuck A LOT. It got quite annoying after a little while. The player shouldn't ever get to a point where they're forced to quit / manually restart from the beginning. AT LEAST they should die from something, but even then it would be quite annoying here. The cyberdemon is enough of a challenge that having to worry about falling all the time is too much IMHO. A better solution would be some teleporters on the ground floor that take you back up to the top, and to make sure there are no crevasses or pits where the player is trapped.

Beyond that the level looked kind of cool, though the architecture was rough in places and the textures were a bit all over the place at times. The sloped slime trails looked odd - there are functions you can use to avoid texture stretching. The starting area looked really nice, it would have benefitted a lot from a custom sky or skybox to avoid seams in the sky tiling, but that's certainly excusable for a first map.

The switches should probably stay lit up when you press them. I'm not sure that they even lit up at all.

The continuously lowering Cyberdemon was nice and provided a constant threat. I liked it overall, I would like it a lot more if I wasn't worried about getting stuck from all the time. For now I'm going to back and try it with lots of saving, which doesn't work in a demo and I think is needed for this map as it is, at least for me.

It's pretty good hard but good.

xbobby64 = T_Silverwolf?

EDIT: Nevermind, I've confused two different people.

Hey hey,

First, thank you all very much for your demos and comments. I'm on the road right now but when I get home I'll have another pass at it and perhaps I can come up with a different approach on things.

Regarding detail, I agree that it does need some work but I noticed I was eating up a lot of time on the start area so I knew I couldn't follow through with it throughout the map because, you know, self imposed time limit and all. :P

I'll give this another pass later today or perhaps tomorrow, see what I can do to undo the mental damage I've already done to you poor people. :)

Thanks again for running through it!

Also, Xbobby64 =/= T_Silverwolf. I've no idea where you got that idea 😼

Here's a video of my playthrough.

I think I quickloaded about 20 times. Aside from my being terrible at Doom, there are a few things about the map that I didn't like. The ability to fall into an area you can't escape is the most obvious (put up a fence or something maybe? at least teleporters on the bottom, as plums - who I called essel in the video - suggests). I didn't like the flickering barons either. Not using mouselook was my own fault, I should have read your OP more carefully.

Also, the last switch can be activated twice, which breaks the map.

I liked the idea, but the execution was lacking in some ways.

Hey, 7hm,

Thanks for taking the time to post a video and commentary, I really do appreciate it and hope that once I get the time to underp the design, you'll consider taking another shot at it. I think I have a good idea of what needs to be ironed out and how to do so, so when I get home I will take another look at it and repost it with some polish.

Thanks again!

-T

I enjoyed this. There's no time to hang around in one spot for too long due to the Cyberdemon which makes you need to keep on the move. The major improvement has already been mentioned, that being the no-escape pits.

No problem. I'll take another look at it once you post a revision.