I'm Also Looking to Play and Record Your Maps

@Zolgia108

Doomworld forum topic

This is a big map that has some distinct parts to it. It has a nice look to it and a fun sense of adventure throughout the first half. I liked the first half combat better for the most part too, because I thought some of the enemies were used cheaply once you got inside. 

Bottom line: Probably the best looking map yet, but some of the combat reminds me of the old days of cheap, unfair tricks, pretty much entirely due to overpowered (or not well used) enemies.

Thanks for the patience, this map took me a long time to build, i wanted to make some "swarm" / "slaughter" inside with bfg spam to change things a little, but as i said, i hate a lot of what i did, cause being a huge map it's not well detailed in many parts, i am going to redo many things here (for example those clashing floor that you mentioned in open area, they are horrible). About the hitscanners: well, mmm, i will cut them away (at least the teleporting ones for sure), when my brother tested the map there were more of them, it was hilarious to see him dying but it was just for me, he, in fact, hated me a lot. So i deleted a lot of them (try (not) to imagine how it was before lol). Now that i have another opinion, which is the same, i will definetely remove them, cause yes they are cheap and bastard as well. I was also thinking about dividing the map in 2. Oh and the bridge: first testing the monsters were higher and so it was really impossible to hit them, so i found the right height for them to be hit by rockets without autoaim, problem is that it seems it didn't work as i thought lol, so i will fix that too, try to understand that this was really big and hard to balance and architect nicely (at least for a new mapper like me). Thanks as usual, now there will be just 3 short maps for your joy and happiness!

@meapineapple

Doomworld forum topic

This no shotgun map lets you explore the whole map right away. Gather some rockets and bullets and survive the monsters. The environment is pretty good but could use a little more variety. It’s kinda nice that there are no sergeants and just one or two commandos; it makes it pretty casual.

Bottom line: Not a bad time: run around, gather goodies, shoot monsters, and don’t die.

Thanks for playing! As you rightly pointed out, I didn't spend a ton of time on the texturing. I hope that the gameplay makes up for that, though.

I was slightly sad that you didn't spot the gag at the beginning of the map, namely...

"It's dangerous to go alone. Take *DIS*." — Chaingunner

On 10/3/2018 at 4:58 PM, HAK3180 said:

@genericpainelemental

 

Doomworld forum topic

 

It’s pretty crude and lacking in detail. It’s all rectangles and almost all of the combat is simplistic. Some of the areas are way too big for what you encounter in them. The progression is okay except I don’t think it’s even possible to see the yellow door (not that it’s marked) without having the yellow key (or at least having been right in front of it). So might as well ditch the yellow key and make that an exit door instead. The lifts were confusing. No secrets makes me sad panda. The good is that it's an effort and I don't think anything was broken.

 

Bottom line: Definitely early in a mapping career.

all the issues with the level are born from issues i found in doombuilder that i couldn't fix for the life of me so it boiled down to either have the map not work or have it work in a wonky way.                        (i have made better levels in the past i just haven't posted them because of a texture issue)

@Capellan

Doomworld forum topic

14 - pretty tough all the way through but I found all the secrets – pretty big map for this wad

15 - nice interconnected design and I liked the cavernous part. Fun secret exit setup

31 - pretty much another Wolfenstein
32 - Big, wide open map with a decent amount of challenge and lots of monsters

Bottom line: 14 and 15 are some of my favorites yet

Fun video.  You did well with map14 once you managed the opening..

@Ryath

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Doomworld forum topic

It’s fun. The door markings, sector markings, and automap markings allow you to know where you are and where you’re going but do not take away from the sense of exploration. It’s also pretty well landmarked with the possible exception of the starting area. Right when I was getting a little bored of shotgun/chaingun action, I found a rocket launcher (and opted to turn a rocket into a plasma gun). I really like how many of the “optional” key doors are marked secret. I also like the tension of the choice when you have very few rockets but really could use some health or other ammo. I thought the radiation suits and light visors were implemented very well. They don’t last forever, so you can’t just give them up at one point and be done with it. But what Ryath did was put a sufficient amount of them basically everywhere you might need them and then has them all unlock at some certain point. It’s a pretty clever way of effectively making those powerups permanent once you finally get them. I also thought the areas that required those power-ups were well done. It was plausible to do it without them, but would have presented a major disadvantage.  I got pretty lost at one point, and I do think the yellow key could be more visible, but very much in keeping with the theme, when I finally saw it and set out to find it, I ended up executing the biggest (only?) sequence break of my entire playthrough. Combat is solid. There’s really a nice variety of styles in play, and they work well, always a decent challenge, and one of the only times I’ve enjoyed “supply management.”

Bottom line: Excellent. Brilliant design through and through. A great concept executed almost flawlessly.

@HAK3180 Wow, that's some pretty high praise. Thank you! More of my thoughts are in the BMHKD thread, but that was a great, insightful playthrough.

"what is this? i can't really read it mmmm ano anomaly connnntol mmm i wonder what it means" - hilarious. Anyways, great map, after i saw hak's playthrough i decided to try it and i liked it a lot :)

@Deadwing

Doomworld forum topic

This one has an extremely wide open progression but you can’t just go anywhere. There are little bridges to keep you out of the lava, as well as some one-way drop-offs, etc. Its design is brilliant. The combat is also really good. There’s always challenge and tension, and the actual traps are well done and usually fairly unexpected.

Bottom line: A contender for my favorite map in the wad

@Zolgia108

Doomworld forum topic

I mostly enjoyed this. It’s very structured conceptually, but not in a way that’s boring to play. The big slaughter section was pretty bland in appearance, but it had some pretty fun gameplay. For this late in the wad and being a big slaughter climax, I thought it could have been even tougher.

Bottom line: Pretty cool map that turns into fairly decent light slaughter

Thanks Hak! i m really happy and proud that thanks to your advices weeks ago i finally started to make something at least slightly enjoyable :) There was a small bug concerning that archvile (the one which got stuck) that i fixed in the latest version that i've sent you some days ago (which you didn't download damnnnnn), also those fucking hitscanners were removed already :). Please download it for the next 2 maps cause they are completely different, it's important, i'll send a new link right now wait for that (just give me the time to upload it on dropbox and i'll send a message).

As for the Scythe recall, it may probably be, i used to play it a lot (especially scythe 2) as it is basically my favourite megawad out there, so maybe my subconscious was recreating a similar situation i don't really know!

The difficulty: well i'm just not sure what to do, i could turn it into a real slaughter but many people don't like it so i tried to find a sort of compromise to make everyone happy. I hope next map will be hard enough! But please wait for the link :) Cheers

@Zolgia108, I've got one dated 10-06-18. Maybe I downloaded it but used the old one??? Wouldn't be the first time. I can appreciate the tension concerning a slaughter map, so if it's where you want difficulty-wise, great, but in a long megawad with plenty of non-slaughter maps, I wouldn't worry about a few full-on slaughter moments here and there. As it is now, that map won't turn players off due to difficulty, because there's been plenty that I thought was harder already. So it's only the general style that might turn some people off, but if they've made it that far and don't like slaughter, I'm pretty sure they'll just power through to see what's next, especially since it's only a 200-enemy map.

Thanks a lot for the playthrough! I'm glad you haven't got lost in this. This map is actually quite big and non-linear, so I was worried a bit about it haha That lift in the BFG area is bugged, it should've worked lmao I have no idea why the Cyberdemon got stuck >.< I'll try to find a fix for it.

Hi !

Try my Saturn then. I made it in 2000 and now, after 18 years and tons of fixes in last few weeks, Saturn is officially released. It's medium wad (7 medium-long levels) and each level focused on specific theme. More about exploration (many secrets) than heavy fights (only one imo medium difficulty). Can be played as well in vanilla, gzdoom or Brutal. With freelook or without. Jumping is prohibited of course.

Love to see video with a commentary about my stuff.

Saturn

Saturn's thread:

@meapineapple

Doomworld forum topic

This map gives you a little more visually/environment wise than the first. It has a lot of levels and cool looking scenery. The gameplay concept is similar: the level is yours to explore, so gather weapons, slay monsters, and have fun. It works well for the first half, but the big wave at the end is not very effective unfortunately; there’s just too much space and it’s hard to get the infighting going, so it becomes a bit tedious.

Bottom line: Really fun to run around in. First half gameplay is better than second

Did you ever try humping the chaingun pillar? If you had, it should have come down...

The end may have been less tedious if you didn't keep ignoring a stash of something like 20 rockets! It was right there, in the area around the exit! You kept walking right past it and not caring even as you ran out of ammo! I feel like I could tear my hair out. I was also confused by how quickly you gave up on the soulsphere secret, which was only a pretty tame platforming bit.

Anyway, thank you for playing.

13:16 -

@meapineappleYou might consider giving the section that lowers a similar-but-different texture, or same texture but intentionally misaligned, to give some subtle indication that it lowers. As-is, the only indication that there is a way up there is the presence of ammo, which does not indicate how to get up there.

9 hours ago, meapineapple said:

Did you ever try humping the chaingun pillar?

I did not go back and listen for hump noises, but I'm pretty sure I did not. I guess I just assumed it was on a switch elsewhere. No big deal. I enjoy running around trying to find a weapon if the opposition isn't too bad and the level is nice and open.

9 hours ago, meapineapple said:

I feel like I could tear my hair out.

I know the feeling.

9 hours ago, meapineapple said:

I was also confused by how quickly you gave up on the soulsphere secret, which was only a pretty tame platforming bit.

Early on I wasn't trying to get the soulsphere; I was just trying to get to the other ledge. When I was trying to get the soulsphere, you can actually hear me conclude that it's not a platforming bit, haha.

57 minutes ago, HAK3180 said:

I know the feeling.

Isn't it time someone just declare one of the Doomworld reacts to indicate "haha"?

Anyway

@MarcinT

Doomworld forum topic

The progression is simple, but works. Visually the map’s loci stay thematic and somewhat interesting, but it does lack detail – metal texture abounds. Yet it has some pretty solid lighting in it. Combat is very basic. It’s really only interesting at all because of the use of hitscanners. As such, there could be a little more health. There are some other n00Bisms as well like an obvious softlock spot, visual bugs (or just an odd choice) in a number of places, and a misaligned door texture.

Bottom line: some nice touches but a lot of it feels pretty amateurish

First of all thanks for playing my Saturn! It's great feeling to see that someone other than me, finally playing it after all those years! (I was 17 when I've made Saturn). And never, ever play vanilla Saturn, with all those taxtures bugs and etc, etc You will prabably have a heart attack ;)

Now to the business :)

I'm sad and I wanna almost cry because all those sky-glitch textures on floor or celling are very weird and should not happen. Probably it's because of port :( Map (and probably later ones)  looks so stupid. Maybe try use gzdoom.

You can get out form the pits around the bridge. Some pillars are just elevators. Maybe doesn't work on Your port. No idea.

Metal texture is one of my fav, that's why a lot of them.

PS - now level2 - Mines ! Claustrophobic, quite dark, spooky and larger than map1 Pipeline. You'll probably lost a lot and imps and demons just waiting for that ;)

PS2 - look for helpful secrets :) There is alway (or almost always) a hint.

@Capellan

Doomworld forum topic

The maps are different enough that you don’t feel you’re playing the same exact thing over and over, even though the progressions and overall style is often similar. These maps are beginning to pack quite the punch.

Bottom line: Nice ever increasing challenge and new ways to make things interesting.

@Deadwing

Doomworld forum topic

Very different progression allows little exploration but does get a bit odd in some places – not confusing necessarily, but odd. Combat was a lot of fun as usual, and I do like the idea here – going around checking out the different vertical levels of this map; but to me the progression was not as cohesive as it usually is.

Bottom line: fun map with a different style and a few moments of odd progression

@HAK3180 I've been meaning to say for a while now, but I'm glad to see somebody else who knows Scar Symmetry on here. No requests or anything.

Only had time to watch map16 so far.  Enjoyed it, even if you did miss both ways to get the SSG :)

@Phobus, I'm still holding out hope that Phase II will come out. Ever.

Oh yeah, for that map I wanted to go full-linear, like something more adventurous. In the good side, you didn't got lost any time, so I'm glad, although progression itself didn't feel much cohesive. You almost found the switch secret haha, the one switch you should've shoot you ended shooting in the wall D: 

I will reduce a bit the amount of rockets, it indeed felt a lot like there was too much around :P

@Zolgia108

Doomworld forum topic

Pretty straightforward, this is Zolgia108’s take on an Icon of Sin map. You don’t have to time rockets; you just have to hit switches, possibly in succession. I think the opposition in this map doesn’t get very strong until it’s kinda too late, especially if you pick up the BFG. With all the goodies, it seems that there could stand to be some more monsters on the map when you start. Otherwise it’s fairly easy to run through the switches, once you figure out what to do. All in all it's a fun time.

Bottom line: Monster spawner levels don't have to be the end of the world