ever had mappers block ?

Yes, I am fully conscious of that and I am really trying my best to make it as detailed as possible but also avoid making it like KDIZD and keep it in good taste. And yes, it took quite a while to build, especially since I am a newbie.

EDIT: I really feel like I need a more in-depth analysis of the room with all the pros and cons. Does anyone want to volunteer?

Thread highjack permission temporarely granted by the thread starter for the sake of helping DOOM_RO analyse his Screenshot, anything not about his life work
in terms of mapping for doom will be between you and a moderator. ;)

DOOM_RO
http://i.imgur.com/mJcRUne.jpg



I only have a screenshot to go on but this is my analysis. Because i am only one person my view on this is not an absolute and preferably should be compared to multiple people their thoughts about this.

The first impression this screenshot creates is that it is a high detail map with a room design leaning towards end 90's engines and games. This is not a bad thing, but it is difficult to make it work in doom its texture style and the 2.5D quirks for level design. Your detailing looks to be functional and logical
next to some odd looking attempts at over detailing in small areas where the textures seem to start fighting a bit.

To the left there is a door with two White light strips on both sides which is a nice touch which actually works, The thin blue strip inside of the door its frame also does not feel odd or off. But directly next to that white light strip there is yet another blue strip which seems to break the theme and texturing smoothness. Then there is a skillfully implemented support beam to give it a feel of architecture instead of just being a room with support walls (joke).
If you look at that same support beam on the left it seems to have the support texture straight next to the texture of the walls inside of that small square room,
which always looks a bot odd in doom. Most mappers avoid doing that by making depth differences between wall so two different textures never directly touch each other, unless they want to create special texturing tricks to simulate a new texture without actually having one.

If you then look again to the right support beam which flows over to the brown texture (i forget these texture names) with the computer screens in the way most mappers do with a depth between the pillar and the wall, there is this small white lightstrip between the two screens which is a fantastic way of detailing,
but just seems to be a tiny bit to much for this room because it somewhat seems to mess with the visual flow. For the rest my eyes and mind can not identify anything but great looking design in the front room.

For the rest i can only nit pick on what i see which means i could never objectively write something that should be read by anyone, like the small grey room on the left with its square inlay on the right wall clashing its lower wall and upper wall texture with the wall they are directly connected to.

so the conclusion i make is that this could be the most insane attempt at analyzing a doom map screenshot preview ever.

edit :
corrected a wrong word that slipped in somehow, a million thoughts....

FireFish said:

Thread highjack permission temporarely granted by the thread starter for the sake of helping DOOM_RO analyse his Screenshot, anything not about his life work
in terms of mapping for doom will be between you and a moderator. ;)

DOOM_RO
http://i.imgur.com/mJcRUne.jpg



I only have a screenshot to go on but this is my analysis. Because i am only one person my view on this is not an absolute and preferably should be compared to multiple people their thoughts about this.

The first impression this screenshot creates is that it is a high detail map with a room design leaning towards end 90's engines and games. This is not a bad thing, but it is difficult to make it work in doom its texture style and the 2.5D quirks for level design.

How very preceptive of you, that is exactly what I am trying to accomplish! Thank you for the feedback, I will think about what you said and start my own thread for the map, sorry for hijacking it, the title made me think this thread was for people stuck in general.

I have played your unfinished map and I liked what I saw. The first room is quite good and I like the use of textures but you should use more brick textures to make the building look more realistic. I would use 70% brick and the rest wood and metal but the overall shape is pretty good. I also like the lava cracks. The next rooms have interesting shapes as well but could use more bricks. The MARB family of textures are very powerful resources and if used correctly you can create some very good looking stuff.

No problem in case of the highjack, i am capable of doing extreme thread highjacks by accident trough discussions and because of that
i joked about it because i know many forum readers hate it beyond hate. Thank you for looking at that unfinished test map, but i abandoned it.
My detail/ map style can only be seen in one wad i showed trough doomworld yet and that is the short tech dead with lead.

edit :
Actually forget the bad thread highjacking joke as this is a thread about mappers block, and you where blocked.

Ok, since this isn't hijacking I will post a video showing some parts of the map, including the one you saw earlier.

It is the first video I ever made and for some reason there is no sound...

I kindly ask you to be polite and if one of the details does not seem aesthetically pleasing to you don't just say "it sucks", provide explanation and I would really appreciate a more in-depth review of what you see, I am struggling with this map but I won't give up until it meets my standards. As for the areas that seem unfinished (like the first hallway) I know, but at the present time I do not know how to make them better.

Also, if you like what you see then I would be willing to donate my map for a larger megawad but please ask me first.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68B2JFx8iUw

EDIT:

Uploaded another. This part is slightly unfinished

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWCD2pkZtDM&feature=youtu.be

For me sometimes, I run low on detail ideas.

I just map when i feel like it which is pretty often. When i feel some block i won't even try.

I've found myself having mappers block many times. I'll get stuck on something; no layout idea, non-compelling room/setup, running out of focus for room detail, texturing, leave maps unbalanced, just plain running out of ideas.

Staggering rooms helps me, so that each room is in a different phase of completion. That way if I do run into a room block I can move on and come back later. I think of rooms in these phases: basic room shape, main textures, basic height variation, tags/functions, detail shape/textures, lighting, things placement

Yes. So much that I never even open up Doom Builder anymore.

i have not mapped in a very long time, nor did i visit doomworld.
i think i have bundled up some ideas now, or maybe not. :)