My Very First DOOM Map!

Hi! My name is Emerald and I just finished my very first map. I'm really nervous about uploading it here, but I hope I did a good job.

Was tested in GZDOOM and in the DOOM II format.

It's called Maniacal Mayhem, and it's sort of just a learning ground for me on creating a map, so there's many different themes stitched together. If anything is messed up or not working correctly please let me know!

Length: About 30 minutes

Difficulty: I'd say about moderate to hard.

Download link: http://www.mediafire.com/file/ynk8uunrn2a9zkc/Maniacal Mayhem.wad

Looks really good for a first wad judging by the screenshots :)

Played the wad on UV.

Above average for a first wad, but not without problems.

The map is very rectangular and linear. Some detailing would help a lot. Remove a lot of the extra space.

Ammo is relatively scarce - so UVMaxing this might be a tad difficult. More ammo packs need to be added.

There's 478 monsters (low and mid-tier exclusively), and you get maybe 20 rockets, 150 shells, 240 cells, and 400 bullets until the end which is a slaughter area that can be run through by hitting switches. There is also a relatively easily seen item that is too OP somewhere in the map. I also think there doesn't need to be a BFG at the end.

3.5/5 for a first map - it's big and has lots of monsters and is beatable. For someone with experience, however, I'd give it a 2/5.

24 minutes ago, Pure Hellspawn said:

Played the wad on UV.

 

Above average for a first wad, but not without problems.

 

The map is very rectangular and linear. Some detailing would help a lot. Remove a lot of the extra space.

 

Ammo is relatively scarce - so UVMaxing this might be a tad difficult. More ammo packs need to be added.

 

There's 478 monsters (low and mid-tier exclusively), and you get maybe 20 rockets, 150 shells, 240 cells, and 400 bullets until the end which is a slaughter area that can be run through by hitting switches. There is also a relatively easily seen item that is too OP somewhere in the map. I also think there doesn't need to be a BFG at the end.

 

3.5/5 for a first map - it's big and has lots of monsters. For someone with experience, however, I'd give it a 2/5.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for the critisicm! I'm sure I'll use this information in my next map. What was the OP item though?

The Invulnerability Sphere.

Here's a second demo attempt in GZDoom 3.2.5. (My first demo attempt was getting softlocked in the pit in the room on the right with the troopers and shotgun after about 15 seconds. The railing doesn't have impassable flags. :P) 

mmayhem_rd_fda.zip (~14 minutes, near-max kills, 0/1 secret) 

I generally don't like grinding through meat with the weaker weapons (SG/CG/chainsaw) so I ended up skipping lots of stuff (pinkies vs. chainsaw, some HKs vs. SG, etc.) early on. Later on in the map there is another room full of pinkies that I wanted to skip too, but I had to clear that room to progress. I also skipped the three barons near the YK, they don't really do anything and killing them wouldn't have been fun. The block of lost souls you face in the hallway is also something I wanted to skip. I think a lot of the monsters are deployed in such a way that they are "meat that gets in the way".

My favorite fights: the imp/shotgunner fight early on in a reasonably tight room (iirc it was after the player gets the SSG), the caco + manc + hitscanner ledge fight, and the big slaughter fight at the end. Those were all pretty enjoyable. 

"Harmless stuff to be killed" is fair and fun if done well, but it's a good idea for the player to have decent-enough weaponry relative to the monsters used, because "low threat" combined with "takes too long to kill" means a grind. So, chainsaw vs. a big block of pinkies in an open space will outstay its welcome (the combo can work, but either slightly fewer pinkies or another weapon to soften them up, like the RL, is a good idea). On the other hand, RL vs. lots of imps for example will be fast and fun, even for a relatively large number of imps. It's a good idea to try to match weapon availability to monster placement in synergistic way. For example, the line of ledge imps/troopers would be really fun to blast to bits with the RL. SG/CG is not terrible but just less dynamic there. In general, given the current monster placement, the pre-BFG portion of the map could do with double the number of rockets. Perhaps an earlier SSG and RL too. The earlier copies can be secret too, if you want. I saw lots of monsters that could be blasted with the RL for good fun, if it were available at that time. Those "outposts" of imps for example qualify (if you want to optimize those for the shotgun or chaingun instead, then one or two imps per outpost would work better than a few or several). 

I'd vote for keeping the BFG in the last fight. As it is now, it's a relatively low-threat spam fight with the RL/BFG against about 200 monsters. Without the BFG, it would be a relatively low-threat spam spam fight with the RL/PR against about 200 monsters. So, I think it'd be grindy with the RL/PR. There's just too much meat for it to be ideal imo. I'd get rid of those two invuls though, or make them HNTR-only, or make one (just one) a secret. Those are unnecessary. This fight is mostly skippable too but I stuck around just to BFG things.

Btw, the SSG bridge is probably a good spot to have monsters warp on the bridge. Make it roughly as dangerous as the imps/shotgunner fight and that'd be sweet.

I'll let others comment on map design itself. One thing to mention: the impassible lines on the pier blocking entrance to the water are a bit odd-looking, and also awkward since they are likely to be bumped into.

Anyway, keep at it. Make/post more maps. Looking forward to seeing a second map that has more of the things that I liked in this one. :) 

12 minutes ago, rdwpa said:

Here's a second demo attempt in GZDoom 3.2.5. (My first demo attempt was getting softlocked in the pit in the room on the right with the troopers and shotgun after about 15 seconds. The railing doesn't have impassable flags. :P) 

 

mmayhem_rd_fda.zip (~14 minutes, near-max kills, 0/1 secret) 

 

I generally don't like grinding through meat with the weaker weapons (SG/CG/chainsaw) so I ended up skipping lots of stuff (pinkies vs. chainsaw, some HKs vs. SG, etc.) early on. Later on in the map there is another room full of pinkies that I wanted to skip too, but I had to clear that room to progress. I also skipped the three barons near the YK, they don't really do anything and killing them wouldn't have been fun. The block of lost souls you face in the hallway is also something I wanted to skip. I think a lot of the monsters are deployed in such a way that they are "meat that gets in the way".

My favorite fights: the imp/shotgunner fight early on in a reasonably tight room (iirc it was after the player gets the SSG), the caco + manc + hitscanner ledge fight, and the big slaughter fight at the end. Those were all pretty enjoyable. 

 

"Harmless stuff to be killed" is fair and fun if done well, but it's a good idea for the player to have decent-enough weaponry relative to the monsters used, because "low threat" combined with "takes too long to kill" means a grind. So, chainsaw vs. a big block of pinkies in an open space will outstay its welcome (the combo can work, but slightly fewer is a good idea), but RL vs. lots of imps for example will be fast and fun, even for a relatively large number of imps. It's also a good idea to try to match weapon availability to monster placement in synergistic way. For example, the line of ledge imps/troopers would be really fun to blast to bits with the RL. SG/CG is not terrible but just less dynamic there. In general, given the current monster placement, the pre-BFG portion of the map could do with double the number of rockets. Perhaps an earlier SSG and RL too. The earlier copies can be secret too, if you want. I saw lots of monsters that can be blasted with the RL (those "outposts" of imps for example). If you want to optimize for the shotgun or chaingun instead, then one or two imps per outpost is better than a few or several. 

 

I'd vote for keeping the BFG in the last fight. As it is now, it's a relatively low-threat spam fight with the BFG against about 200 monsters. With PR only, it would be a relatively low-threat spam spam fight with the PR against about 200 monsters. So, I think it'd be grindy with the PR. There's just too much meat for it to be ideal imo. I'd get rid of those two invuls though, or make them HNTR-only, or make one (just one :)) a secret. Those are unnecessary. This fight is mostly skippable too but I stuck around just to BFG things.

 

Btw, the SSG bridge is probably a good spot to have monsters warp on the bridge. Make it roughly as dangerous as the imps/shotgunner fight and that'd be sweet.

 

Anyway, keep at it. Make/post more maps. Looking forward to seeing a second map that has more of the things that I liked in this one. :) 

Thank you so much! I'll keep the parts you liked in mind and use it in my future maps. And apologies for the soft lock!

Another thing, the RL is pretty early in the map. It's a secret just before the Red Key Room. (The room with the poison and wood bridge. There's a third switch hidden in there! You can actually see the cage it's contained in if you look around in the outside area where the cabin is) 

Not really bad for a first map, though I like to point out some helpful criticisms. Throughout the playthrough, there is an abundance of health yet a pretty tight amount of ammo, which is pretty odd since I have enough medkits to be ready to Chainsaw some Hell Knights but not enough to even shoot an Imp. It isn't until the end where you get a room full of ammo and health, plus a BFG to prepare for a slaughter room, which includes two Invulnerability spheres that pretty much made the fight a bit too easy. Rooms, while big and allow some movement, are pretty empty and some don't have much in them. Not saying you need crazy detail, but even something like a window or some change to the sector brightness can add a whole lot to a map, but the light decorations included were certainly in the right direction.

Most of the map can be skipped with relative ease, especially since combat is a bit slow and the last room only needs you to press two easy switches and have the monsters infight while you run. To make your map fun to gain 100% Kills on, I would suggest changing up how you set up your arsenal and what scenarios you'll have the player face. Nothing wrong with a Shotgun or Chaingun, but it would fit to have the enemies and the number you're facing go alongside their use, basically optimizing the weapons and the enemy encounters at some point in a map. With most enemies being low-medium tier threats, even by the end, it might also help to have some tougher enemies even early on, with plenty of ammo and some weapons to go alongside the situation like a Rocket Launcher. Having an Arch-Vile and Arachnotron in a good set up or trap can help in changing up the pace. Have monsters be a threat you want to kill, not some sprites that are more of a pushover than anything to worry about.

A map theme helps, especially if the theme is something you'll find yourself into. This can help make map making fun and can help making a better map overall, especially if you really get into making the fights within the map you made. Also, height variation, have the rooms vary in their shape and size, they don't always have to be large rectangular rooms, bring your imagination to life for a bit. Overall, hope you do great in making more maps in the future, I'll look forward to what you can expand upon from here. :)

I have screenshots below for your pleasure, might help point out a couple things.

I really enjoyed this level it was fun and it looked damn good! But I did find some problems in it.

Pros:

• Really nice texture work almost every texture i saw looked aligned and were fitting.
• Cool layout the map felt really open and epic. 
• Not really linear, there were tons of side rooms and stuff.

Cons:

• Enemy encounters felt super unfair at times, not because of the enemy types but because of how stingy the ammo was.
• Map felt empty at times with a lot of flat non detailed areas.
• NOT ENOUGH SECRETS! This map was huge and had sooooo much secret potential but according to the stats there was only one marked secret in the map.

All in all it felt fun to play! Especially that ending with all the enemies, though it could use some more ammo in that section. I really enjoyed the aesthetic of this map as well, it felt very classic. I did not dig the invisible walls next to the water though, they just felt kinda useless. I did find one texture glitch which was weird as balls so i'd recommend fixing that. Still a very nice map I really liked it it keep on mapping I see potential!

-ExoticTrash 

This map works in prboom+ without any problems, besides some hall of mirrors problems. I guess, it's due placed textures on the ground. I'll record demo if I won't forget and play it further. 

There have been much worse first efforts. The "errors" were minimal, and they've all been pointed out except I don't know if anyone mentioned that the first rocket launcher is not tagged as secret, although it clearly is a secret.

You've got a lot of solid advice here, so I'll just offer a general suggestion: work your way up to a big map. (1) More people will play a newcomer's map if it has ~100 monsters, rather than 400+, especially if they find it glitchy. I also fell off the ledge right away and almost quit because I thought "I'm not slogging through 400 enemies of glitchiness." At that point I had no way to know that would be pretty much the only error. (2) You can focus more on making every monster encounter count instead of just trying to fill the map. (3) Months/years from now when you're much better at mapping, a short map is much more savable by modifying than a really long one.

Happy mapmaking to you. I'd be happy to do a video playthrough/review of your future efforts in this thread.

I actually did not encounter the glitch. My playthrough was actually relatively glitch-free.

I suggest that some areas have less brightness than others, for example in indoor areas.
In outdoor areas, so they are not empty, you could decorate with trees, impaled people, or the decoration you prefer.
As for the gameplay, it's okay, it's a funny map, there could be a little more ammo in some areas, or enemies that drop ammo.

With a few details, each area can be better differentiated from another. You have a good basis to go into details.

For a first map it's better than a lot of first attempts, there are lot's of things that a lot of mappers don't nail on their first try as well as you did such as keeping doors on a right size, but i must admit that you did used some odd textures for some doors, specially on the last area, here's some feedback about it

-The map was very generous with health packs, but ammo was really scarse so skipped a lot of rooms, big monsters such as mancubus, barons, hell knights or even cacodemos eat a lot of ammo, so i would recomend that when you place them, consider placing some ammo sparsed in the rooms before the encounters
-A lot of rooms felt very blocky and symetrical, don't be afraid to buld nonsymetric areas, a single square room can be a bit boring, but if you modify the shape and detail it enough by playing with the floor and ceiling height you can make interesting rooms
-The choice of textures it's fine, but it does tend to look a bit repetitive since a lot of rooms have a single texture feeling, i would recommend building some sectors to add some detail on the walls, and changing a bit textures for other that keep the theme

-Also i noticed that the whole map has the same brightness level, changing light level here and there, can help to make your map more interesting

Overall it's good for a first attempt, it shows a lot of potential so keep it up and keep making maps

I didn't find there to be too much ammo. The ammo count seemed about right. But as others have said, there were just so many health pickups everywhere, which really just felt odd and random more than anything. Definitely, keep making more!