A Boom basement map

Probably the first map into which I've put actual effort. Set in a demon-infested basement underneath an UAC complex.

Doom 2, single-player, requires Boom-compatible port (uses Boom features).
Still not named; music is tentative.

Difficulties other than Ultra-Violence not yet implemented.





http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/89415187/JDbasmap.wad

Good effort. I died a few times to the traps but finally beat it on FDA. I think maybe it's a problem that only locked traps are truly dangerous in this map, I mean aside from them there are always enough health items around to restore to 100% HP. So that makes "normal" fights feel too much like filler in comparison to the key fights. Nice moody lighting everywhere enhanced by an appropriate midi, good joke with the red key fight. I didn't like triangular architecture in one of the last rooms: it looked goofy and reminded me of the "100 Lines" project. Sector 468 is a bit buggy: there is a little invisible hole in it because that trap linedef crosses it.

FDA (2 attempts, both failed). I liked the map. The texturing theme (complemented by a fitting architectural style) contributed a lot to my positive feelings, because I like techbases and good usage of stock Doom 2 textures, which you've managed to do here and hit my soft spot. Gameplay itself wasn't perfect, though - the map led me a straight path from one switch to another one, from one setpiece encounter to another one, it failed to give me enough freedom and excitement. Still, not bad!

a pretty enjoyable map. Not quite to my tastes (a bit too easy, and the E1 aesthetic is old and tired to me), but a solid effort. Beat it on a single go, misc thoughts below:

- nice atmosphere. like the lighting work and some of the pacing with the empty areas and whatnot. midi is a bit overused at this point but that's hardly a notable complaint.
- waaaaaaay too much health and ammo. it seemed like I nearly always had a full ammo, and was perpetually surrounded by dozens of medikits I didn't need. I'd tone that down a bit.
- I never really felt in danger throughout the map. The only threatening encounters were the YK room (a classic setup, pretty fun btw), and the claustrophobic trap after the YK/BK door.
- RK fight was humorous :D
- rev and cg teles toward the end of the map (in the room made of diagonal platforms) felt pointless and unnecessary.
- final fight can be cheesed real hard by staying up on the ledge. also the amount of cells you gave was way more than necessary
- there's a medikit weirdly in the floor here.
- I like the idea of the BK room, fighting beefy floor mobs while having to hide behind pillars to avoid cg fire. think it could be done more justice if there were either more things on the floor, forcing you to move around more, or if the chaingunners weren't so campable from safe spots.

Played the map, got through it without too much trouble despite some sloppy play. Here's the FDA, if you like.

Generally I agree with most of what has been said by others. Aesthetically it's a very pleasing map--I very much enjoyed both the lighting and the texture selection, generally the scene has a nice sense of depth and weight to it as a result despite some simplistic/minimalist architecture, although a few of the long hallways look a mite featureless and thus unfinished (e.g. the one with the various keyed switches in it, or the blue/silver upstairs one that branches off into the yellow and blue key areas). I think I remember the dark basement battle having some misalignments on the periphery, as well, but generally speaking a very clean offering.

Gameplay is palatable enough but a lot of the incidental combat feels a mite undercooked as a direct result of the layout being very corridor-based, and the trap-based battles are often blunted by the generally excessive amount of ammo and especially health items that are available. For example, I made a dumb mistake in the aforementioned dark basement battle, but it hardly mattered at all because of that soulsphere you give out beforehand--at very least I should've had to clean up after myself by scampering around under duress to get all of the other health kits scattered around the room or something. The red key sequence was my favorite part--very witty. I also thought the lift with the big stack of crates on it was cool--you ride it up and end up in what is basically a designed chokepoint/camping battle, but because of the setting it seems credible/natural rather than dull or untoward. The related secret is a nice bonus as well, again, rather clever. About the last battle, it is indeed rather softballed, one thing you might try to complicate the issue is to try to force the unwary player off of the megasphere ledge somehow--maybe port some archies up there or something (strong-willed players could take cover from them via the switch-consoles).

A couple of other miscellaneous points that occurred to me:
*You give the player a soft choice of doing the yellow or the blue key area first, but you only get a rocket launcher (which is important to smoothly mitigate the YK battle) in the BK area--I'd put one in the YK area as well.
*It's not immediately clear that nukage isn't damaging in this map, when you first see it it really looks like it naturally would be, and somebody might have more trouble in the first little boobytrap based on a false assumption as a result. Maybe mention it in the textfile or something?

That was pretty fun for me. Atmosphere is really good and detailing/lighting was sweet. I agree a bit with above comments too.

It was cool to see the the gameplay style changing as you progressed in the level, from weaker foes (normally roaming) to stronger ones (more planned setpieces). Some of them made me die a few times (the two archville battle and a trap where you get the plasma gun). The experience was quite linear, so things were predictable (especially when you entered empty rooms, where a trap was comming), but it was cool that you made fun of that (RK fight haha).

Yeah, I didn't realize that nukage wasn't damaging at first, but imo it would be kinda lame to warn about that in the *.txt. Too much babysitting for the player. :P Let him explore the game world on his own!