Episode [WIP] [Video] [Downloads] Looking for feedback.

NOTE: Any and all criticism is very much appreciated no matter how harsh. The more feedback, The better the content I can provide to the community.

I have posted this to the Zdoom Forums, but was not met with too much in the way of feedback. I'm hoping having more outlets can mitigate this. I'm just worried about pumping out new map skeletons when their are flaws I've not had pointed out to me. Since I am new, and the format of the site is a bit different, please let me know if I've made a mistake about where this type of post would go.

All the maps in this post will remain up-to-date, Along with the newest screenshots if necessary.
Once a map is finished, fleshed out, and it feels right; I'll be making videos of beating said map as well as go over the levels design aspect.

DOWNLOADS (4/10)
Map (1)x http://www.mediafire.com/download/9rcn3dr7gumccn2/Map0X.wad
Map 2 http://www.mediafire.com/download/84qfa65mmmgu6vd/Map02.wad
Map 3 http://www.mediafire.com/download/363i7w9xm4k664v/Map03.wad
Map 4 http://www.mediafire.com/download/mwhyh541jna852f/Map04.wad

SCREENSHOTS (4/10)
Map 1 http://imgur.com/a/wkTJ8#0
Map 2 http://imgur.com/a/FNEsK#0
Map 3 http://imgur.com/a/n0p5x#0
Map 4 http://imgur.com/a/pZRDl#0

VIDEOS (0/10)
Map 1 N/A
Map 2 N/A
Map 3 N/A
Map 4 N/A

looks nice, why the wooden ceiling on second screen shot?

Map1 has a repeatable switch to lower the pillar holding the red key, I was looking for a lift near the switch until I realized the red key was accessible outside.

The maps look nice but are work in progress, can't say much, but I like the lighting effects and all that.

walter confalonieri said:

looks nice, why the wooden ceiling on second screen shot?

Honestly, In that case I think I just missed it, Thank you for pointing it out!

Estryark said:

Map1 has a repeatable switch to lower the pillar holding the red key, I was looking for a lift near the switch until I realized the red key was accessible outside.

The maps look nice but are work in progress, can't say much, but I like the lighting effects and all that.

I actually wasn't aware of the switch bug! No ones ever mentioned it hah. I went in and change it as a "switch once" because as you said, a repeating switch usually hints the player at a timed event. I've updated the Map 1 download.

@Topic
I have 3 partial Map skeletons (maps 5;6;7) But will not be posted until their at more of a level as the ones above. I also still need to work on those maps, as said this is a WIP.

I'll try to get them done in a timely manner but I don't want to rush my self at the loss of quality, so expect many of these maps to be item-less, and in some cases not even playable

(their will always be a player start but lack of exits or having two parts of the map disconnected will [for obvious reasons] make the map unbeatable.)

not able to play it myself atm but judging by the shots it looks pretty interesting! classic feel no doubt. cool to see that you seem to be putting a lot of thought into these

I'll sub to this and give feedback as this project grows.

-------
MAP01
-------
Not bad.

The back of the Blue Skull Door looks like it should be tagged to only open with the Blue Key. It's not. It's tagged to open with the Blue Skull.

-------
MAP02
-------
From the start: in the first crate room to the east, you can climb the two small crates and get stuck between the big crates (I'm assuming no jumping).

More rooms of crates. Not fond of crates.

Why are there two Blue Keys? At the start and up the stairs you build. Did you forget to remove the one at the start after testing?

Northern area with the Arch-Vile up the stairs - why is it there? I see that originally it held the switch that raised the stairs to the Blue Key, but the switch is below the floor. Or was the second switch at the start that raises those stairs used for testing and accidentally left in?

The third secret inside the large computer console has nothing in it. Also, automap shows there's a space there, but not how to get to it. Nothing on the outside to indicate this either.

What do you do with the Yellow Key once you get it? The Yellow Key Door is not a door, it's just a wall. Oh, I see. This is where you stopped mapping. Before putting in the exit to MAP02.

-------
MAP03
-------
Short map. At least things are functional. Oh, look. Another room full of crates.

The Red Key is really found accidentally, by walking over a hidden lift. Why is it hidden?

Hidden area to the south with the Plasma Gun not tagged as secret.

You walk towards the Blue Key Door and a hidden room containing the Blue Key opens right next to you. Not much work to find it.

You can't split the DR Blue Key Door into sectors for lighting purposes. It won't open.

-------
MAP04
-------
Another short map. Hard to judge since so many doors, switches and lifts are non-functional.

Is the whole Blue Key area supposed to be secret? Since the Yellow Key leads to the Red Key and the Red Key leads to the exit.

-------
First two maps are okay. Second two are short. Maybe they'll play longer when you add monsters and items. You're not going to get much feedback with empty levels and levels that can't be finished.

@Topic
I remade 90% of Map one and have made a video to show it off; plus it's finished barring a bit of polish and game balancing. The link is here as well as the OP.

Map01v2.wad
http://www.mediafire.com/download/a140es8ze3i72ea/Map01v2.wad
Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xkvh_F9DIE&feature=youtu.be

@EffinghamHuffnagel
First off thank you for all that juicy feedback!

------
Map01
------
First off, Thank you.

The texturing for the door has been changed.

------
Map02
------
This is true, Jumping and crouching are not and will not be part of my maps. Doom was fine the way it was (IMHO). Using these features in any if not all my maps WILL result in unintended circumstances. When I find any "extra" features from modern source ports can break the map (just jumping to get to a key) I alter the map to make this impossible. Not saying I'll find them all, but I do keep it in mind.

I'm not big on the room either, currently thinking of possible alternatives.

as stated, Fully expect these maps to have "debug" items for my use, no monsters, entire sections unreachable, and some maps downright unbeatable. I'm working to finish 10 maps by the end of this, as well as juggle my life; this will be a very long going project but I assure you, I'm working to get as much out as I can when possible.

That room is intended to raise the stairs to the blue key, yes. Again; much is not done. However do point these out, assuming every shitty room is just not done can lead to missing key feedback.

The secret is perhaps too secret, I'll work a way to give a hint for it.

Correct, as before, many maps will be nothing but rooms too look at until I can polish it better. Every map is subject to change. TBH I'm thinking about just ditching Map02 due to it's many problems; I have a really basic skeleton of a map that would probably be an apt Map02.

------
Map03
------

Sorry about the crates.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to go on the subjective route for this one. Two giant pillars with doortraks on them hardly seem hidden. I'll consider ways I could aid players in seeing it. Not a high priority however.

Maps unfinished.

That will be a monster trap. The blue key placement is temporary.

I actually hadn't tried to open it hah! Thank you for noticing that, It'll be changed.

------
Map04
------

Yes, the blue key section is a gigantic secret. Makes exploration largely rewarded through items and guns to grab as well as more things to shoot, and everybody loves that!

@Topic
Thank you all for the feedback and support so far. I hope MAP01V2 can tide you over for a bit!

Re: the "hidden" lift in MAP03 - perhaps "hidden" was an inexact choice of words. Perhaps "surprise" is better.

You're right. The columns say "Walk this way. There's something here." I expected a "hidden" door leading to a secret. What I meant was, if you want the player to be surprised by the lift and drop into a room with monsters in his face as a trap, then a lift that's flush with the floor and has the same texture as the floor is perfect. It's great as is. If you want the player to be aware he's stepping on a lift before he steps on it, then change the lift's floor texture and either raise or lower the lift by 8 or 16 units. I just wasn't sure of your intent with the lift.

--------------------
Edit: Played the revised MAP01. Your screenshots look like GZDoom. Wondered if I needed it now. ZDoom worked fine.

First, this is not a MAP01. There's a Revenant, six Cacos, a Baron and a Stealth Baron; plus a load of Imps and Demons. If this is MAP01 of an Episode, then MAP06 will be nothing but Cyberdemons. In Doom2, the first Hell Knight was on MAP05, the first Revenant on MAP06, the first Baron on MAP08. This feels more like one of those levels.

I still like it. Compact, dense, nice use of lighting effects. Glad you made the Blue Card Key a Yellow Skull Key. Less confusing.

---
There's a problem with sector heights in the outdoor Red Skull Key area.

http://i.imgur.com/KV086kS.png

---
Had problems getting the Yellow Skull Key. You set the platform the Yellow Key is on as a lift. All your linedef tag 16s are set as W1 Lower Lift to LowestNearestFloor. Not WR, or Lower Floor to LowestNearestFloor. Either one of these fixes this problem.

---
The other problem is that you don't need the Blue Key to finish the level. You have a linedef tag 16 inside the closed door, sector tag 10. That works fine, although you actually didn't need a separate linedef inside the door sector. You could have tagged either side of the door since it's opened remotely and never closes. But you also have three linedef tag 16s outside, near that door. From the Start, you can go through the door behind you, run around to the closed door, trigger the lift, run back around to grab the Yellow Key, run inside to open the Yellow Key Door, use the Red Key lowering switch, go grab the Red Key, and head for the exit.

---
The inside of the exit room door is tagged upper unpegged. Looks odd.

EDIT: I beleive I've fixed all you found wrong with the newest revision of what was Map01 (Now Map0X as I don't know). Here's the link http://www.mediafire.com/download/9rcn3dr7gumccn2/Map0X.wad
Again thank you!
--------------------------------------------------------------
BAMF! Goddamn where would I be without you? Thank you for all that information. I have to agree that MAP01 is much to involved for a Map01. The thing I was figuring was that anybody that plays this 1994 doom port in 2014 is probably the guy that knows their sh*t and is (maybe not MLG pro, but pretty MLG pro). It would make sense the level difficulty actually go somewhere though, so I'll keep this map as a MAP04 maybe even higher. Do keep in mind this will work out to be 10 levels so the difficulty spike from level to level will be much greater then a 32lvl map set.

The way to beat the level like that is ingenious, I will give you that, but consider it fixed heh. (I will post when the actual update of "MAP01" is up!)

The lift the yellow skull is on is undoubtedly broken, I had to noclip to get it in the video I put up. So I've already covered it, just waiting for more changes to make it worth changing a bunch of stuff around.

The unpegged texture was missed on my part so thank you for pointing it out I'll change that.

The reason with so many lines trying to control the yellow key lift is because I started out with the one in the door, realized that didn't work so I added the ones outside it. Making the noob move, I saved and made the video without checking if the new lindefs worked!

I will post an update soon, but I do have plans with the lady this evening (figured I'd at least acknowledge your post so as too keep everyone in the loop) Tomorrow should be great, I'm off.

Thank you again for all this great info!