design - original vs traditional

recently started a new map. again, got inspired by a quake 3 map.

after fiddling around, i learned that you can actually mimic jump pads in zdoom. with thrustthing and thrusthingz, you can almost replicate the exact jumppad behavior from quake 3.

but here's my question. it's a more philosophical one:

would you try to use the original design, aka the jumppads or would you try to replicate the mechanic through traditional doom methods, aka elevators and teleporters?

i went with the original approach but i don't know if i'm comfortable with it. i mean, i want to build a map for doom and doom doesn't have jumppads, so you have to find alternative solutions.

what do you think? how would you decide?

I think you should do whatever you think works best. Who cares if doom had jumppads if jumppads are fun?

Don't stick to conventions blindly. Think of practical pros and cons of each option, and/or what you personally like or dislike on them, and with those in mind, make whatever decision you want. The idea that one shouldn't be making jumppads merely because Doom doesn't have them sounds stupid to me. If the reason was that you believed that they would spoil playability and fun factor rather than improve it, then OK. But I don't see how they would necessarily spoil it. I'm sure they can be done right.

You can create jump-pads in ZDoom, and they do have their advantages, but they also have their drawbacks. You don't have to wait on an elevator to lower and raise, which is nice, but they're more unpredictable, and sometimes if you jump on them at an odd angle you won't go where you think you will. Don't try and recreate something like q3ctf4 in ZDoom, you'll fall into the void more often than not.

Jump pad physics have also changed over time - there are several maps from the ZDoom 1.23b33 era that rely on older physics and jump pad behavior that are nearly unplayable now:

Physics have changed very little since the bad old days of ZDoom 1.23 and 2.0.xx (over a decade ago), but you never know.

yea, i'm tending to use the traditional methods. the jump pads work but i have one big issue: there are no fitting textures for them. i tried to use scrolling textures that kind of help. maybe some custom actors that act as some sort of particle effect would, too. but i think i'm going to stick to the oldschool stuff and use elevators and teleporters.

zzzornbringer said:

the jump pads work but i have one big issue: there are no fitting textures for them.

If in the future you find a use for jump pads, FLAT22 is widely considered the standard for jump pads, sometimes along with a particle fountain.