My First WAD - Roland.pk3

Download: Roland.pk3 (requires GZDoom - tested in g4.3.3, the latest release)

See README for credits and file information.

Hey y'all,

I guess this is the obligatory "my first" topic.  I tried Doom wadding wayyyyy back in the late '00s as a high schooler but could never really get anything going.  Now as a married adult with a full-time job and too many hobbies to balance as it is, I have decided that Doom is back in the rotation.

This is my take on a level 1 map.  Short and sweet - around 3 minutes to complete, par time of 1:15, with 2 pretty easy secrets.  My main goals with this mapset as it continues are:

• Justify the choice to develop in GZDoom by making constant, tasteful use of engine feature such as portals, 3D floors, and scripting
• Keep the combat and level design classic, fast, and tricky (balanced for standard Doom features - no jumping, crouching, and vertical aiming optional)
• Develop a clean, uncluttered architectural style

I used the OTEX texture pack and think it looks really nice. I tried my best not to fall victim to overdetailing and tried to keep the floor space pretty clean - let me know if I succeeded.  I also buffed the pistol to be a lot more usable, but most of this map is meant for the shotgun, so that change will mainly affect pistol starts in other maps.  I have not implemented difficulty options yet - this is intended to be UV.  I think the difficulty is around Episode 3 Doom 1 levels.

Anyway, this level is quite small, but I'd like some feedback on the encounters and aesthetics since this is my first time making a full one.  Let me know if you encounter any major problems.

Thanks for reading!

Screenshots:

Don't really care for GZDoom, but the screenshots were great, so I gave it a shot. I did not regret my time with this cute little map at all. It's very professionally put together for a first WAD (though I'm assuming you really mean this is the first WAD you posted, rather than created). It was quite fun and kind of reminded me of the early Scythe X maps (not visually, but layout-wise). You for sure succeeded with your goal of using GZDoom features tastefully, with the 3d floor actually feeling like it had a reason for being there. Didn't really care for the blue key platform, since it seems like its descending from nothing (like for real, where do those poles come from?) But other than that, I didn't really mind the GZDoom-isms since they were subtle and added to the atmosphere, rather than subtracting from the "Doom-iness." Great job.

Thanks for the kind words - cute is definitely how I would describe this map.  I haven't played Scythe X yet, but it's on my list of influential mapsets to play.

The blue key platform is definitely a bit of a bastard feature.  Originally this was a much more vanilla platform, but I wanted the room to be more open overall, so I changed it to the current 3d platform so that the floorspace was unobstructed.  I could extend the skybox ceiling to add in the missing length from the poles, but that looks very goofy honestly... I think the best way to alter it would be to change it to an elevator style platform instead of a hanging one.  That way you'd still get the window view to it from the starting room.  Thanks for the feedback, I'll probably revise that in a later update.

Looks Great! im going to check it out.

Always great to see a GZDoom specific map! Screenshots look ace!

I haven't played many GZDoom-specific WADs but I really enjoyed this! It felt very fresh to me.

Also for once I enjoyed playing a map with nukage-style floor

I wasn't used to the look of the switches, so it took me a bit longer to figure out how to finish than it should have (not realizing a few things were actually switches). But I got 100% everything.  I didn't find any issues, and would definitely play more of your maps.

23 hours ago, Mitchfork said:

I guess this is the obligatory "my first" topic. 

This could NOT be further from the truth if you tried.

Okay, jokes aside if this really is your first map, P L E A S E M A K E M O R E ! :D

This is seriously one of the best 1-off maps Iv'e played in a long time! From the brilliant use of 3D floors to give a nice room-over-room effect, to the slopes that make some of the arches to the exit being a literal lift that descends then fades to black then ends. This map has love written all over it! :D

On top of it being a power-house of a first map released, the difficulty here is actually quite fair (shocker I know O_O). There's a good amount of ammo and health wasn't too hard to come by. Sadly I don't think I got much in the way of secrets (but than again I suck at finding them XD).

I only found 2 extremely tiny problems here:

1, a switch leads to a room where some dirty water is and 2 lifts to leave it. This felt kinda pointless and there's no items or enemies in there. (Did you forget to flag any for HMP difficulty?)

2, Like 95% of people who use Hell Knights, you didn't provide the super shotgun (or at least a chaingun) to deal with one. Not really a problem per-se but just don't get into a habit of doing that. <3

I'm seriously half tempted to nominate this for cacowards 2020.

8 hours ago, MatthewPhillips said:

I haven't played many GZDoom-specific WADs but I really enjoyed this! It felt very fresh to me.

Also for once I enjoyed playing a map with nukage-style floor

  Hide contents

that doesn't actually damage me. Ha!

I wasn't used to the look of the switches, so it took me a bit longer to figure out how to finish than it should have (not realizing a few things were actually switches). But I got 100% everything.  I didn't find any issues, and would definitely play more of your maps.

Thanks!  I'm assuming you mean the small switches with the yellow symbol when activated, right?  

Yeah, I've noticed a lot of inconsistency towards nukage and sludge in PWADs (and even IWADs if you're including Final Doom).  I just felt that blue water really didn't fit the aesthetic, so went with the green here.  Since you're forced through it in this level, it should set up for that being the rule for this color in later maps.

42 minutes ago, DynamiteKaitorn said:

This could NOT be further from the truth if you tried.

Okay, jokes aside if this really is your first map, P L E A S E M A K E M O R E ! :D

This is seriously one of the best 1-off maps Iv'e played in a long time! From the brilliant use of 3D floors to give a nice room-over-room effect, to the slopes that make some of the arches to the exit being a literal lift that descends then fades to black then ends. This map has love written all over it! :D

 

On top of it being a power-house of a first map released, the difficulty here is actually quite fair (shocker I know O_O). There's a good amount of ammo and health wasn't too hard to come by. Sadly I don't think I got much in the way of secrets (but than again I suck at finding them XD).

 

I only found 2 extremely tiny problems here:

1, a switch leads to a room where some dirty water is and 2 lifts to leave it. This felt kinda pointless and there's no items or enemies in there. (Did you forget to flag any for HMP difficulty?)

 

2, Like 95% of people who use Hell Knights, you didn't provide the super shotgun (or at least a chaingun) to deal with one. Not really a problem per-se but just don't get into a habit of doing that. <3

 

 

I'm seriously half tempted to nominate this for cacowards 2020.

Also thanks!  I assume the room you're talking about is the outside bit?  There's a secret there which you can see from one of the interior windows.  Should be flagged for all difficulties.  The elevator is not required and only there so players don't get stuck in the sludge.

Also - yes about the Hell Knight.  I feel like this kind of shotgun-only fight is only really fun once or twice as an early game challenge, and infighting is really easy to get going in that encounter.  Chaingun is in level 2 so this will not be a stingy mapset in terms of weapon availability.

If you liked this, I would really recommend Ultimate Simplicity, which I feel has a very similar vibe.

Nice job with the design of the map, it is very detailed and was a cool environment to explore. For the future, I think you should spend a little more time with the combat and change the types and amount of demons that show up on each difficulty. I also found a way to get out of the map which you can see in the video I linked. Other than that, its a fantastic first map and I can't wait to see what else you come up with. 

Video Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wNZ3pnpKxE6sWMkNUDQeCDr5WzueOd44/view?usp=sharing

3 hours ago, Clownslay said:

Nice job with the design of the map, it is very detailed and was a cool environment to explore. For the future, I think you should spend a little more time with the combat and change the types and amount of demons that show up on each difficulty. I also found a way to get out of the map which you can see in the video I linked. Other than that, its a fantastic first map and I can't wait to see what else you come up with. 

 

Video Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wNZ3pnpKxE6sWMkNUDQeCDr5WzueOd44/view?usp=sharing

Thanks for finding that!  I'll adjust the heights on this segment of the map to prevent this from happening.  I tried a lot of straferunning setups from the other side of the cliffs, but missed checking that zone.

Difficulty settings are not implemented, but I will work on that as I work on encounters in general on future maps.