What are the things you hate the most in a map??

Basically which design decisions do you hate seeing in maps?
I hate it when a map with a great start and middle starts throwing tons of enemies at you near the end,instead of being a nomal slaughter map and throwing shit at you all the time those maps surprise you with "a steaming pile of dog shit!"-as the AVGN would say at the end.

Hate is a very strong feeling, I would say "dislike" for my cases. One is when the map has many mid-tiers in extremely tight rooms, e.g. a mancubus all cramped in a hallway that can't even move, it makes me think "how the hell did he get there?!?!". Basically mid-tiers placed in a way that you don't have space or time to avoid their attacks. I also dislike overuse of infinite tall snipers, specially chaingunners and archviles. And secrets that demand wall-hunting, also overuse of secrets when the map itself isn't quite interesting... I'll post more when something else comes to my mind. 

If there's one thing I don't like, is when the map's designer prevents the player from returning to previously visited areas. Let me go back and grab those goodies, goddammit!

I also don't like when they put a Computer Area Map at the end of a level, because then I realise I missed a bunch of stuff and I have to backtrack. This is just lazyness though :P

I hate running out of ammo because a map doesn't have enough, or just barely enough if you carefully conserve ammo. I don't want to be afraid to shoot my gun for fear of running out of ammo. That is not fun.

I hate falling into a pit from which there is no way out.

I hate platform jumping "puzzles".

I hate maps with 2 switches that must be used to proceed, but it is arranged so that it is impossible for one player to hit both.

I hate death exits. It is just wrong to punish player for exiting the map.

I hate having to wait forever for a wall to lower so I can go to the next area, which has another such wall, and so on.

I ABSOLUTELY HATE DEATH EXITS!!!

That's because the gameplay flow of the mapset is cut in a way that's not even fun. I can understand that's for some map story but this is a really bad move.

I hate sprawling levels with switch hunts that take over 20 minutes to solve. Bonus negative points if the level was full of monsters and by the time you're deeply invested in the switch hunt, there's nothing left alive to break up the monotony. I dislike feeling like my inability to find a poorly placed switch is all that is holding me back from the next map, not my skill as a player. 

Obscure puzzles, and/or switches that do something on the other side of the map without any sort of clue.  Also not much a fan of when you're ambushed with monster closets that you'd have to be lucky to escape (if you didn't have the BFG).

1 hour ago, Empyre said:

I hate maps with 2 switches that must be used to proceed, but it is arranged so that it is impossible for one player to hit both.

Either you were playing a map intended for cooperative mode, or the switches require sr50 to hit both quickly enough to proceed. Mandatory strafe-running is annoying.

Arch-viles in tight quarters and minimal or no cover to avoid attack.

Archviles period. Archviles are like minibosses and rooms with more than one should revolve around them. If a megawad has more archviles than Barons they did something wrong.

Deathmatch spawns that aren't on top of or at least directly behind a decent weapon. A particular outdoor spawn spot in Dwango5 Map01 has the player about a meter away from the SSG, and fucking facing away from the damn thing. That shit really rustles my jimmies and is an ugly zit on an otherwise well balanced map.

I dislike huge maps to go on way to long. 

Precision platforming and first person shooters don't mix. 

Mandatory strafe running is pretty terrible yeah. Also maps that teleports enemies behind you for every room you enter. It's okay sometimes now and then but getting revenants and chaingunners behind me for every inch I walk is terribly annoying. Good morning phobos was a pretty big offender here, even though the rest was great.

I hate Maps which work against you. A mapper's goal should never be to kill the player instead giving him a difficult BEATABLE challenge which brings fun to the players. (maybe not in Slaughtermaps)

Secrets that can become Lost Forever through usage of W1 tagged linedefs or similar for no good reason other than "replay value. " A prime example would be the supercharge in E2M2. It ticked me off one time knowing I couldn't achieve an even 100% for secrets. I decided to spite the level by straferunning over the trench to the otherwise inaccessible exit without grabbing any more keys.  

small-to-medium linear techbase or hell levels balanced for on-sight play are the worst - the Doom-ing world perfected maps you can progress automatically through from one end to the other with the only obstacles being enemies in the first few years of activity and I can't believe they're still coming out >:) bonus points for some MIDI soft metal to further dull your senses

Activate or pick something up -> get ambushed. It got a wee bit predictable.

47 minutes ago, Aldaraia said:

Secrets that can become Lost Forever through usage of W1 tagged linedefs or similar for no good reason other than "replay value. " A prime example would be the supercharge in E2M2. It ticked me off one time knowing I couldn't achieve an even 100% for secrets. I decided to spite the level by straferunning over the trench to the otherwise inaccessible exit without grabbing any more keys.  

-_- That one secret in MAP27: Monster Condo comes to mind, what with the thing closing its door on you permanently, 30 seconds after the start of the map.

50 minutes ago, Aldaraia said:

Secrets that can become Lost Forever through usage of W1 tagged linedefs or similar for no good reason other than "replay value. " A prime example would be the supercharge in E2M2. It ticked me off one time knowing I couldn't achieve an even 100% for secrets. I decided to spite the level by straferunning over the trench to the otherwise inaccessible exit without grabbing any more keys.  

One-time secrets that are locked if you fail to find them within 30 seconds or whatever? Yeah those are annoying.  Why should you have to restart the map if they got locked? 

Mandatory strafe running however, I can't see it being something negative because it rewards movement skill. At least sr40 is pretty basic.  Games like quake 3 have entire maps dedicated to movement practice (strafe jumping here, it can provide huge boost)

*reading all the posts*

Hey, you know what pisses the people off?

jokes aside, Dark places..... and spectres.

5 minutes ago, R1ck said:

*reading all the posts*

 

Hey, you know what pisses the people off?

jokes aside, Dark places..... and spectres.

https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=37763

6 hours ago, Megalyth said:

Either you were playing a map intended for cooperative mode, or the switches require sr50 to hit both quickly enough to proceed. Mandatory strafe-running is annoying.

I think what @Empyre could be talking about are the switches that are simply doors that reveal another switch behind them. These are the switches that you have to press use twice in quick succession and I don't like them. Other than messing with speedrunners, what kind of purpose do they serve?

Insanely tough maps that are only designed for UV (i.e., no skill levels incorporated), where the text file doesn't warn the reader about this. I end up doing this.

Obscure, foreknowledge-based secrets that significantly alter the balance of a map. For instance, the early BFG grab in Resurgence map26 that's on a 30 second timer from map start. Makes the start significantly easier and not the type of secret you'll figure out unless you watch a speedrun or check the map in GZDB.

5 hours ago, TootsyBowl said:

Archviles period. Archviles are like minibosses and rooms with more than one should revolve around them. If a megawad has more archviles than Barons they did something wrong.

No way, Archvilles are much more cooler than boring Barons! haha

6 hours ago, TootsyBowl said:

Archviles period. Archviles are like minibosses and rooms with more than one should revolve around them. If a megawad has more archviles than Barons they did something wrong.

hah! id flip that and say 'any map that has more barons than AVs i will tend to dislike'

barons are mostly just time-sinks. AVs normally create much more interesting gameplay scenarios

15 minutes ago, Deadwing said:

 

No way, Archvilles are much more cooler than boring Barons! haha

nu barons r kewl

i mean look at him

Too much repetition in design decisions, predictable gameplay and lack of memorable situations/areas.. as if the mapper stays in his comfort zone and goes on autopilot when he designed the map. This is only noticable when playing a megawad though.

Un-escapable pits with lava or nuke of some sort, especially in a Survival gameplay. Also a big dislike from my part goes to instant-death sectors (like in Map06 of DBzone, and pretty much all [LA] wads having those retarded lava pools).