The Wall

I liked it a lot. Cool start with the rocket launcher. Nice use of distant enemies from areas accessible later. But no secrets makes me sad panda.

Thank you!

Do not be sad! I might add some secrets if you feel this is really a problem. But in most of my maps my philosophy is that you should be able to access any spot you see on the map, which kind of makes it satisfying enough - or so I thought! :)

I've always wondered if secrets really are this needed. I'm gonna add some in all of my maps, but hey! There are no shortage of great maps that have no secrets. (Showdown from Memento Mori, Anger from Scythe, The Inmost Dens...) 

I think secrets are pretty much necessary unless there's an obvious gimmick like a boss fight. Especially now that lots of people play with a secret counter and/or a secret revelation message, it feels like part of the game is lacking without it. In a map that size I probably would have tried to get in at least two secrets, probably not more than six.

But that's just one person's opinion. Others may feel differently. 

On 5/3/2018 at 5:35 AM, LouigiVerona said:

*pics*

Are you taking these pictures in prboom-plus? You could lower the gamma by pressing F11 or set usegamma in prboom-plus.cfg to 0 so that the game doesn't look to bright. (Sorry if you already know this.)

12 hours ago, mun said:

 

Are you taking these pictures in prboom-plus? You could lower the gamma by pressing F11 or set usegamma in prboom-plus.cfg to 0 so that the game doesn't look to bright. (Sorry if you already know this.)

Did not know this, thank you for the tip!

Usually I have multiple screenshots flooding the imgur servers for specific Doom wads, but I've only got one here.

I ran afoul of the two fatsos up there on my first attempt at it.

Aside from that, I rather enjoyed this wad, in spite of those damn h4x0r shotgunners just below the wall in between the start and the chaingunner nest.

Gameplay was solid, not too rough, but not too smooth, though after the beginning, the difficulty tapered somewhat and urgency drifted, since 60+ kills could be scored before grabbing a shotgun or chaingun.

Neat aesthetic, excellent texture variety, and nice level flow. Only once did I forget where I was supposed to go and I figured it out rather quickly.

In short: good wad.

Thank you, appreciate the feedback!

Cute little map. Has way more rocket ammo than really necessary, and that generosity makes things fun here. (I think that this points in the direction of what would improve the 1monster.wad remix you posted recently.) I liked the mix of big clusters of monsters and stragglers, and there's enough rocket ammo to turn the low-tiers to pulp, which is always amusing. A few notes: 

- The lower area has three (if I'm remembering correctly) monsters perched and spread out on the upper area displayed in the final screenshot. This might be a case of where it would be fun to add a few more, to make splattering them with rockets an amusing option. 

- Likewise, the revenant overlooking the start area could use a buddy or two. With lone perched revenants, it's often the case that it takes four or more rockets to kill them, because they are fast monsters with small hitboxes and it isn't possible to lead rockets without freeaim. So it's often the case again that adding more makes the action more 'viscerally satisfying' -- it still takes 4-5 rockets to kill the cluster, but all rockets fired hit something, and using the shotgun or chaingun to finish off a lone survivor, which is usually quite weak due to splash damage, is then quicker than it would be on a full-strength lone one. (This is more or less personal taste. Some people enjoy chaingun tapping such revenants.) 

- The layout would flow better if there was a way to get back to the 'upper level' path leading to the coven of chaingunners if you initially drop off -- as is, you have to go all the way around. 

- A similar thing could improve the flow around the exit. If it's the first or second key you get, you have to go in search of others and then return, so if grabbing the key would reveal an alternate path to get back up, that'd be pretty slick (although it's not strictly necessary at all, given the map is so compact).

- Secrets: I don't think they are mandatory, but yeah this sort of classic map is crying out for at least a couple, perhaps a push closet somewhere (not the 'best' type of secret but fitting for this map imo) and a way of getting up to that area in the last screenshot (in line with your philosophy of being able to access visible areas), which could maybe contain a berserk that lets you punch those monsters up close? (Idk, just thinking aloud here.) 

Thank you, sir, sounds good. I will definitely work more on this map and see if I can add a couple of secrets. Technically, there is 1 - the starting door opens, if I remember correctly this room is marked as a secret. But I get the point.

53 minutes ago, LouigiVerona said:

Thank you, sir, sounds good. I will definitely work more on this map and see if I can add a couple of secrets. Technically, there is 1 - the starting door opens, if I remember correctly this room is marked as a secret. But I get the point.

It wasn't when I played. In the bottom left of my screenshot, you can see K, I, S, ST, and AC above my health and armor. Where S: 0/0 is means there aren't any secret sectors or things.

Got it! I stand corrected

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/260618277 = half-way through the stream.

I liked the rocket launcher start, was kind of average past that. Fun enough though.

Thank you, sir! This was the first time someone played my map, was interesting to watch!

Okay, so I played the map, and my impressions are generally positive. Despite being vanilla, the level had a very unique layout, and relatively pretty area design. You made good use of the default textures despite not making the level extremely detailed.

I liked how non-linear the map was, you left many different paths a player can take, which is a good thing.

The combat was standard, and kinda annoying at times. You went a little overboard with these hitscanners, making them not that fun to fight against. Also the player doesn't feel the need to kill all the monsters, some of them are completely skippable. Also that small area with the blue key and two Mancubi is without question the most poorly designed area of the entire map. You'll see the reason for that in a video I made for you:

But overall I think it was well worth the effort, and I can see a lot of improvement potential in you, so keep up the good work!

Hey Lorenz0,

Thank you very much for the comments and the video!

Can I ask for clarifications?

1. Hitscanners - can you elaborate here? Do you mean the part with all the soldiers at the end of the level?

2. Mancubi placement is one of those cases when an author of the map (me) creates a nonlinear map, but ends up preferring one way to play it, and thus does not notice how a different play-though will not work well.

I usually do not go into the area that leads to Mancubi immediately, and thus they play very well as sniper monsters when you are on the other side of the wall. So, I agree with your criticism, but not sure how to fix it.

About those hitscanners, I didn't mean anything that happened in the video, but how they affected me during my first time playing the map. I took a lot of damage simply because they were basically everywhere, and they took me off guard. It's kind of a nitpick, but fighting against them is much different if you're aware of their existance than when you're not.

Also I don't know what triggers that action, but the door behind the spawn opens, and more hitscanners come out that way. So they can hit you even when you're on the other side of the bars. I feel like replacing them with revenants would make for a bit better trap.

If you don't want to fundamentally change the area with mancubi, just make it so the player can easily escape with the key, even if they're still alive. So you can make the platform with the blue key be always lowered, so that the player doesn't get stuck. And if you want the mancubi to be always on the sides of that area, not in the middle, where the key is, just set two linedefs that block monsters or something like that.

But if you want those mancubi to not be skippable, you could make them teleport somewhere, after the player jumps down after grabbing the key. That way they have to be killed no matter what.