Armolitskiy Posted September 7, 2019 (edited) Hello. I really like this game and it's good that the community is still active. Once I played and played, but then I decided to make my level. It turned out terribly. And today I made a full (maybe) first level. I will be glad to your criticism. The map is very small, I made it in about 3-4 hours. I did not use third-party resources, this wad can be played in vanilla DOOM 2. Most of all I like industrial maps. I love all sorts of scientific complexes and military bases, rather narrow spaces. Spoiler DOWNLOAD: MyFirstMap.zip Edited September 7, 2019 by Armolitskiy 7 Share this post Link to post
ketmar Posted September 7, 2019 (edited) not bad at all! of course, rooms are rectangular, and no height variations, but they aren't simple rectangles, you added details to make rooms look like something that has a purpose. that's great. the map is too symmetrical too. especialy at the outdoor area, where rocks somehow made almost identical landscape on both sides. doortracks aren't properly pegged, so they slides with the door. you provided cover from hitscanners, this is another good touch. good use of detailing and decorations. hiding a blue key behind an impaled body was a fun move, you almost tricked me! ;-) overall, looks like a good start. you seem to know how to detail a map so it looks interesting, and resembles some real place. ah, "height variations"... it is not only about having some floors/ceilings with different heights, it is also about "playing planes". if you'll put some monsters higher than others, the player will be forced to think in three dimensions. original id maps does this alot, by putting imps into "wall alcoves" which are much higher than the player. this way the player has to fight with "floor" monsters, and in the same time remember to avoid imp fireballs coming from above. that is what we usually mean with "height variation". your outdoor area with imps on those rock walls is what i mean, for example. make those rocks little higher, and maybe drop imps onto crates too -- and it may work even better. p.s.: using ordinary door as level exit is... questionable choice. it is not "bad" or "forbidden", but the door doesn't look anything special. i think putting the usual exit switch behind that door will work better for map flow. 0 Share this post Link to post
Armolitskiy Posted September 7, 2019 43 minutes ago, ketmar said: not bad at all! of course, rooms are rectangular, and no height variations, but they aren't simple rectangles, you added details to make rooms look like something that has a purpose. that's great. the map is too symmetrical too. especialy at the outdoor area, where rocks somehow made almost identical landscape on both sides. doortracks aren't properly pegged, so they slides with the door. you provided cover from hitscanners, this is another good touch. good use of detailing and decorations. hiding a blue key behind an impaled body was a fun move, you almost tricked me! ;-) overall, looks like a good start. you seem to know how to detail a map so it looks interesting, and resembles some real place. ah, "height variations"... it is not only about having some floors/ceilings with different heights, it is also about "playing planes". if you'll put some monsters higher than others, the player will be forced to think in three dimensions. original id maps does this alot, by putting imps into "wall alcoves" which are much higher than the player. this way the player has to fight with "floor" monsters, and in the same time remember to avoid imp fireballs coming from above. that is what we usually mean with "height variation". your outdoor area with imps on those rock walls is what i mean, for example. make those rocks little higher, and maybe drop imps onto crates too -- and it may work even better. p.s.: using ordinary door as level exit is... questionable choice. it is not "bad" or "forbidden", but the door doesn't look anything special. i think putting the usual exit switch behind that door will work better for map flow. Thank you very much for taking the time for me and my first level. Thank you for your feedback and for your criticism. I was very pleased with your phrase: Quote you provided cover from hitscanners, this is another good touch. good use of detailing and decorations. hiding a blue key behind an impaled body was a fun move, you almost tricked me! ;-) I will remember everything that you said and will use it in my next creations! Thanks! 1 Share this post Link to post
ketmar Posted September 7, 2019 thank you for reading it too. you have a good start here! i also love techbases, so it is great to see someone sharing that love. there cannot be enough techbases, we always have room for more! ;-) 1 Share this post Link to post
Magicana Posted September 7, 2019 Played through your map (I apologise if you hear heavy breathing; I'd just come back from a run). The good: Nice detailing, good little change ups, and I like blowing things up with barrels (Especially my well placed shotgun blast that hit two barrels and killed a demon). The bad: Very corridor orientated. Doortrak's not lower unpegged (If can be done well, but it wasn't in this case), and the door being the exit really threw me. 1 Share this post Link to post
WolfBlue Posted September 7, 2019 All the doors have unpegged textures on the rails so it moves up when the door opens. The guy on a pike with the blue keybehind him could be pushed forward alittle bit its seems super janky you have to squeeze through to get the key. The end switch being just a door you press is very strange. There are seemingly no secrets in this map which is very odd also the room to the left in the second room seems to have little point to it. I like your details in the map and the textures you used its very pretty, short and sweet levels are very nice, could use alot more monsters though and more dangerous monsters than pinkys maybe some hell knights that become Barons on UV, revenants and maybe an archville or 2 in UV as it is now I beat it on UV nearly hitless but I got careless with a shotgunner 1 Share this post Link to post
Armolitskiy Posted September 7, 2019 (edited) 39 minutes ago, Magicana said: Played through your map (I apologise if you hear heavy breathing; I'd just come back from a run). The good: Nice detailing, good little change ups, and I like blowing things up with barrels (Especially my well placed shotgun blast that hit two barrels and killed a demon). The bad: Very corridor orientated. Doortrak's not lower unpegged (If can be done well, but it wasn't in this case), and the door being the exit really threw me. Thanks so much for taking the time to record this video! Well, the next level (or maybe even several levels) will be much better, thanks to your words. Thank. Sorry, I didn’t add secrets because I forgot about them. Quote All the doors have unpegged textures on the rails so it moves up when the door opens. The guy on a pike with the blue keybehind him could be pushed forward alittle bit its seems super janky you have to squeeze through to get the key. The end switch being just a door you press is very strange. There are seemingly no secrets in this map which is very odd also the room to the left in the second room seems to have little point to it. I like your details in the map and the textures you used its very pretty, short and sweet levels are very nice, could use alot more monsters though and more dangerous monsters than pinkys maybe some hell knights that become Barons on UV, revenants and maybe an archville or 2 in UV as it is now I beat it on UV nearly hitless but I got careless with a shotgunner 1 Share this post Link to post
Matias Posted September 7, 2019 Few thoughts Detailing work here was really nice but there seems to be a lot of misaligned textures and obviously there is the issues with the doortraks that others have already mentioned. I was expecting this to have much harder enemies in the end, that would have made this short level much more interesting. oh and that last door is really thick. looks kinda strange Not a bad first map and shows some good potential for future projects. Here is my gameplay video 2 Share this post Link to post
kknot5889 Posted September 7, 2019 Just played through and recorded the map Fun little first map. Thanks for sharing! Hope the commentary helps. Just read through the other comments and see that a few things were already mentioned. Definitely looking forward to playing more when you make them. 1 Share this post Link to post
beast Posted September 7, 2019 This is a fun map to play, short but fun. Make more tech bases please! The entrance hall looks good. I like those support columns in the flanks, and the TEKWALL4 behind the grating. Very techbasey. Simple yet effective teleport trap with the imps, and good mix of meaty monsters and hitscanners. I can suggest one hint - adjusting the light levels in the rooms to create some suspense. Rooms inside are darker than outside, and you can make the zone around light sources lit for extra pop. Nice work! Spoiler 2 Share this post Link to post
baja blast rd. Posted September 7, 2019 (edited) 17 hours ago, ketmar said: ah, "height variations"... it is not only about having some floors/ceilings with different heights, it is also about "playing planes". if you'll put some monsters higher than others, the player will be forced to think in three dimensions. original id maps does this alot, by putting imps into "wall alcoves" which are much higher than the player. this way the player has to fight with "floor" monsters, and in the same time remember to avoid imp fireballs coming from above. that is what we usually mean with "height variation". your outdoor area with imps on those rock walls is what i mean, for example. make those rocks little higher, and maybe drop imps onto crates too -- and it may work even better. The main tool a mapper invokes when using perched monsters is movement restriction. These monsters can be confined to specific, advantageous positions. Sometimes elevation allows monsters to access vantage points that otherwise would be shut off; imagine a monster shooting down over a wall or into a pit, or as you mentioned, over other monsters. But if you isolate elevation, a steeper incline tends to reduce projectile monsters' threat level compared to their ground-bound, but still movement-restricted, counterpart. This is important to understand. If a projectile monster is firing with no incline, you have to move left or right, out of its path, to dodge it. If its path is on a significant incline, you can now dodge it by moving left, right, forward, or back -- the greater the incline, the lower the required forward or backward movement. The flipside of the above paragraph is that the incline angle can be adjusted deliberately to 'calibrate' a monster's threat level, not just to the player, but to other monsters where infighting is concerned. Two monsters that have 'special' attributes when perched are the revenant, whose homing fireball will track the player even as it arcs down, and the cyberdemon, whose splash damage can impact the ground (or other monsters) around you even at elevation. Archviles can be considered a third: if you know the trick to reduce their blast damage and eat only 20%, hugging their turret is a trick you have up your sleeve. Understanding this whole dynamic works is important. Perched monsters are a useful tool in the kit, but it is useful to how they work. Edited September 7, 2019 by rdwpa 3 Share this post Link to post
meapineapple Posted September 8, 2019 (edited) Hey @Armolitskiy, I recorded my playthrough of your map, too. You certainly have room to improve, but this is a solid start. Good work! It's well detailed, visually comes together nicely. The combat isn't unchallenging, considering your use of hitscans combined with being stingy on the health pickups, but it is a bit monotonous - enter a new room, fight some monsters in it - they never really come from any direction but right in front of you. There are a couple of odd sectors that show up on the automap but seem to be inaccessible without idclip and don't contain anything... very curious. 1 Share this post Link to post
Armolitskiy Posted September 8, 2019 (edited) Unfortunately, due to the limited number of posts per day, I can’t answer each one individually. I just express my gratitude to all of you! Thank!@meapineapple @rdwpa @beast @kknot5889 @Matias 4 Share this post Link to post