RECKONER.WAD Doom 2 - WIP by a new mapper

Hey there!

I've been mapping for probably a little over a month. The current release of this wad contains my first 2 maps, with the goal being an 8 map episode. I tried to focus on elements I enjoy in a doom map, so they are relatively straight forward, but exploration will reward players. Both Maps can be finished in around 2 minutes, but will take up to 5-6 minutes if you want to see everything.

 

Difficulties: Implemented

Style: Vanilla (classic)

Tested on GZ Doom. Crispy Doom (thanks to @holaareola)

Custom Music: Yes

Jumping: NO

Freelook: NO

 

Would very much suggest playing with texture filtering off.

 

Basically I need feedback on the work I've done before diving into new maps.

 

I am specifically curious about game play elements. (too many weapons too soon? too much ammo? are the fights fun, how can I better balance these across difficulties, should I be more sparing with monster type use.)

but yeah, all feedback welcome!

I don't think these are necessarily finished either, will probably be going back and forth between them.

 

Probably filled with mistakes, but keen to hear what you folks have to say!

 

Changelog:

-fixed the issue with the blue key door in Map01 not opening, it does now.

- fixed the monsters that were stuck in walls. 

 

 

Omen.

 

 

 

 

 

Reckonerv0.3.zip

Edited October 10, 2020 by Dylan Omen : @holaareola was kind enough to help me with the sky textures, to get it up and running in crispy doom again. I have uploaded that version as the replacement for the time being!  so now it works in Crispy.

I tried to unrar your wad and wondered why it was taking so long, jumped into the folder and saw it had written 100gb to my disk.  This is will be Linux' fault, but could you post the archive in a more common format such as zip?

2 minutes ago, holaareola said:

I tried to unrar your wad and wondered why it was taking so long, jumped into the folder and saw it had written 100gb to my disk.  This is will be Linux' fault, but could you post the archive in a more common format such as zip?

Thanks for the interest and the heads up!

I added the zip to the OP, so hopefully that solves it.

22 minutes ago, Dylan Omen said:

Thanks for the interest and the heads up!

I added the zip to the OP, so hopefully that solves it.

Is this named after my favourite song on Radiohead's In Rainbows by any chance?

 

Anyway, the first issue with the wad not loading in Crispy is that your sky is in .png format. The next thing is that vanilla doom/Crispy doesn't like textures that wide. The workaround is to break them up into 256px wide sub-textures called patches and then stitch those patches back together again in the texture entry.

 

I split your sky into 4 patches, inserted them between PP_START and PP_END markers in the wad and then added those patches into the SKY1 texture to create a version that works in Crispy -- hope you don't mind. It might work in Chocolate Doom/vanilla too, but this depends on things like how many floors and ceilings are visible at different points etc so it's impossible to know without testing. Vanilla Doom is a fussy pain in the arse.

 

I'll drop some notes after playing!

Reckoner_alt.wad.zip

2 minutes ago, holaareola said:

Is this named after my favourite song on Radiohead's In Rainbows by any chance?

 

Anyway, the first issue with the wad not loading in Crispy is that your sky is in .png format. The next thing is that vanilla doom/Crispy doesn't like textures that wide. The workaround is to break them up into 256px wide sub-textures called patches and then stitch those patches back together again in the texture entry.

 

I split your sky into 4 patches, inserted them between PP_START and PP_END markers in the wad and then added those patches into the SKY1 texture to create a version that works in Crispy -- hope you don't mind. It might work in Chocolate Doom/vanilla too, but this depends on things like how many floors and ceilings are visible at different points etc so it's impossible to know without testing. Vanilla Doom is a fussy pain in the arse.

 

I'll drop some notes after playing!

Reckoner_alt.wad.zip

Thanks so much! Don't mind at all, grateful for the help!, it's a lose reference to that song yeah, I just wanted to rename the wad from something other than Newproject, and it was the first thing that came to mind (was listening to that album while compiling everything.) Can I just replace my zips with the one you made? or should I keep them all up?

 

Had a pistol-start run through on UV in Crispy. First off, please playtest your maps before posting them! You've got a door that doesn't work (blue door near start in Map01), monsters stuck inside walls (imps at back of trap near yellow door in MAP01 and one of the barons at the end of MAP02) and secrets that won't count (stair sector leading down into the slime in MAP02).

 

Bad stuff first: visuals are rough, especially on the texture alignment side. Some of these are dead easy fixes, e.g. in the room prior to the cacodemon in Map01, you could have dropped the room height by 8 units and everything would have lined up. Then individual rooms tend to be quite flat, as in the play space is one floor height. Also, there're a lot of pinkies in large areas. They're not really a threat used in this way -- either apply some pressure to the player by bumping the numbers up or ambushing them from behind, or hold pinkies back for use in smaller spaces IMO.

Finally, in the first map I ran into the blue armour secret. Once you've gone this route, you're locked out from getting back to the main part of the level, so I chose to noclip so i could see the rest.  Maybe add a way to reconnect?

Neutral stuff:
- The pitch darkness will be divisive, I personally like it, but if the player is going to be in pitch blackness for a while, e.g. the loop in MAP02, I think it's best when you have _some_ points of light in the background so that the player can use them to pick out silhouettes.

Stuff I liked.
- I really enjoyed your approach to secrets. Very reminiscent of Doom E1 for me - whole new areas opening up is so much more satisfying than being rewarded with little supply closets. The one connecting to Map02 starting area was my favourite.
- Ammo supply was good for me in both maps.
- Difficulty was decent as well, especially considering your restrained usage of upper tier monsters. A little on the easy side, but I think you managed the health supply really well which kept me on my toes..
- I go hard for non-realistic lighting in Doom e.g. the little spikes out around doors, the frequent use of alternating strips or how in the BK area of Map01, you have this ray of light falling on the one thing you need.
- A lot of height transitions between areas -- flatness is a hallmark of beginner maps that you've avoided. Could do with more variation within areas individually though, you've got a lot of convex spaces at the same height.
- The amount of optional areas. Again this reminds me of E1. Exploration-friendliness is a big plus for me. Predict you'll be doing some big free-roamers soon :)

 

Ah, so it was a port thing with the blue door. I took a look in the wad editor and it's because you have a usable line in front of it. Depending on port and compatibility settings, interactive lines can block actions from any line behind them. Here, you've got a walkover (type 90) line in front of the blue door that is blocking the use action.  Easy solution is to move it 16 units further away from the blue door so it isn't in front of the player when they hit 'use' to open the door.

1 hour ago, holaareola said:

Had a pistol-start run through on UV in Crispy. First off, please playtest your maps before posting them! You've got a door that doesn't work (blue door near start in Map01),

 

Not sure what happened there, it seems to be some kind of bug? the line defs are all right in an editor. that door was working yesterday! damnit!

 

1 hour ago, holaareola said:

They're not really a threat used in this way -- either apply some pressure to the player by bumping the numbers up or ambushing them from behind, or hold pinkies back for use in smaller spaces IMO.

Finally, in the first map I ran into the blue armour secret. Once you've gone this route, you're locked out from getting back to the main part of the level, so I chose to noclip so i could see the rest.  Maybe add a way to reconnect?

 

Definitely agree about the Pinkies I can see they aren't doing what I intended in @Biodegradable's playthrough. 

The secret you are talking about should open back on to the room with the blue key so you can loop back through the whole map, but maybe something is going funny? 

1 hour ago, holaareola said:

- The pitch darkness will be divisive, I personally like it, but if the player is going to be in pitch blackness for a while, e.g. the loop in MAP02, I think it's best when you have _some_ points of light in the background so that the player can use them to pick out silhouettes.

 

So the idea behind map02 is that you go through the first loop (heading upstairs) which is lit, in the rooms on that first loop is a switch that opens the gate and the baron traps. then in the room adjacent (the switch isn't illuminated and I need to fix this) there is a switch which turns the lights on to the second tunnel. the idea is that you can do it the long way. or you can go through the dark, bring up the bridge to the exit and in a secret in that switch room there is another switch which will open the gate.

 

1 hour ago, holaareola said:

Could do with more variation within areas individually though, you've got a lot of convex spaces at the same height.
- The amount of optional areas. Again this reminds me of E1. Exploration-friendliness is a big plus for me. Predict you'll be doing some big free-roamers soon :)

Definitely gonna work on the height thing, I've started getting the hang of the verticality in the engine which tbf is fucking weird. but it's something I want to bring more into the maps for sure. Really glad you liked my aproach to secrets and extended map areas I hated overtly complicated doom maps always preferred straightforward, with extra flavor if you want. I'm also stoked you liked the lighting, it's kinda my pride and joy with the whole thing. I feel like really cool effects can be achieved with the basic sector lighting system, and I'm gonna explore more. I'll get to the free roamers once I have a good grasp of how to build architecture in "open spaces"

 

 

Thanks so much for playing guys!

 

and I see you found the door issue! I'm gonna fix that now and update the zip! 

4 minutes ago, Dylan Omen said:

The secret you are talking about should open back on to the room with the blue key so you can loop back through the whole map, but maybe something is going funny? 

You're absolutely right, my mistake. I didn't notice the steps when jumping from the caco room into the slime.

Took a look at the 2 map wad, made a vid with my playthought and commentary.

 

 

4 hours ago, mewbusi said:

Took a look at the 2 map wad, made a vid with my playthought and commentary.

 

 

Man! Thanks so much for the playthrough and the detailed commentary, cringed everytime you pointed out a misaligned light texture etc. hahaha. Map one is exactly that, my first map ever pretty much. and I think I'll try and improve on it. but it was very much a case of rooms kind of pasted together, with little mapping projects for me to try. where as with the second map, I had a clear gameplay mechanic in mind, and it definitely feels more solid than the first. I also agree with the use of the revenants at the end of map 2, though on UV there's a second trap that opens as you cross the bridge with revs behind you. but It still isn't feeling as tight ropey as I want it to. its so funny you mention the diminishing light, It was such a headache when I started with doombuilder 2. but now I'm using UDB, and I'm having way more luck with getting sectors to be the right size. so I'll probably keep most of the strip lighting, like the pointy lights on door frames, but actually create a diminishing effect across them. one of the pains with the lighting is the way the verticality works and the splitting of textures. at one point you say "there's this light but no adjoining light source. there is. but its using the top texture so the light is high up, (I guess the fix might be to create a gap sector between the upper light source and where the light falls on the floor). Pretty much all the fights need to be reworked, I will get on that! 

 

Thank's so much again for the playthrough, I will be keeping this vid open when I do my next batch of edits. busy with the layout of map 3 atm. 

 

Also, I didn't realize I could restrict free look etc and jumping on my end! but I don't really mind, I just made the maps so you wouldn't need those things to progress, with the most "classic" doom styled play. I  will probably look into restricting jumping though, that's just cheating. XD

Didn't hate my time with these. Short, and not terribly offensive. There were a number of instances where textures were missing/applied sloppily, moreso in map01. I much prefered map02, with its organic tech walls and hyper verticality. Progression wasn't really clear or obvious, I just kind of walked around and flipped switches. When you design maps, you should try to make it clear what the player is doing, and lead them to a goal that they are already aware of, like, for instance a key they can see through a window, and later retrieve to open a door they had already passed.

31 minutes ago, Egg Boy said:

Didn't hate my time with these. Short, and not terribly offensive. There were a number of instances where textures were missing/applied sloppily, moreso in map01. I much prefered map02, with its organic tech walls and hyper verticality. Progression wasn't really clear or obvious, I just kind of walked around and flipped switches. When you design maps, you should try to make it clear what the player is doing, and lead them to a goal that they are already aware of, like, for instance a key they can see through a window, and later retrieve to open a door they had already passed.

Thanks so much for the play through! I will probably revisit map01 but after much of the feedback, I may just can it, and make a new one. it was my first map and I feel like that's quite obvious. it doesn't have the same kind of gameplay elements the second one does. 

 

34 minutes ago, Egg Boy said:

Progression wasn't really clear or obvious, I just kind of walked around and flipped switches. When you design maps, you should try to make it clear what the player is doing, and lead them to a goal that they are already aware of, like, for instance a key they can see through a window, and later retrieve to open a door they had already passed.

 On this point specifically, because it's also been apparent in the playthroughs I've seen, and the commentary I received, how could I make the function more clear to the player in that map.

so to start, the idea:

 

when you enter the facility the stairs going up are the first you encounter, hinting that that should be the first place to go, that loop, is also lit compared to the other. 

in the room on the first loop, there's two switches, one in the first room the other in the dark second room (the switch is not currently lit, I will fix this.) the first switch opens the door to the acid pit, the second switch turns on the lights in the second loop. 

 

in the room in the second loop is a switch that raises the platform, and in the secret there is a switch that does the same thing as the switch in the first loops room (the door to the acid pit switch). 

 

The idea is that, the less dangerous way is to go round the first loop and turn on the lights, but you could also "speedrun" the thing, by venturing through the dark and using the secret switch. 

 

How do I make goals such as these more clear? are these too complicated for something like this? or is it the wrong kind of map layout?

 

One fix I want to try, is by making the switch that turns on the lights, turn the lights on in the switches room as well, so the player sees an immediate response to the switch. is this enough of a visual cue to let them know it worked in the other loop as well?

 

Sorry for the mouthful!

 

thanks again for the feedback and playing!

 

 

One thing I've seen used is to create a unique pattern or decoration behind / next to the switch (e.g. a rune using same sort of technique you did with the blue insets in the exit area of map01) and decorate the target with the same thing to link them together in the player's mind.

9 hours ago, Dylan Omen said:

Man! Thanks so much for the playthrough and the detailed commentary, cringed everytime you pointed out a misaligned light texture etc. hahaha. Map one is exactly that, my first map ever pretty much. and I think I'll try and improve on it. but it was very much a case of rooms kind of pasted together, with little mapping projects for me to try. where as with the second map, I had a clear gameplay mechanic in mind, and it definitely feels more solid than the first. I also agree with the use of the revenants at the end of map 2, though on UV there's a second trap that opens as you cross the bridge with revs behind you. but It still isn't feeling as tight ropey as I want it to. its so funny you mention the diminishing light, It was such a headache when I started with doombuilder 2. but now I'm using UDB, and I'm having way more luck with getting sectors to be the right size. so I'll probably keep most of the strip lighting, like the pointy lights on door frames, but actually create a diminishing effect across them. one of the pains with the lighting is the way the verticality works and the splitting of textures. at one point you say "there's this light but no adjoining light source. there is. but its using the top texture so the light is high up, (I guess the fix might be to create a gap sector between the upper light source and where the light falls on the floor). Pretty much all the fights need to be reworked, I will get on that! 

 

Thank's so much again for the playthrough, I will be keeping this vid open when I do my next batch of edits. busy with the layout of map 3 atm. 

 

Also, I didn't realize I could restrict free look etc and jumping on my end! but I don't really mind, I just made the maps so you wouldn't need those things to progress, with the most "classic" doom styled play. I  will probably look into restricting jumping though, that's just cheating. XD

 

Glad that my review and commentary helped. 

 

As for disabling jumping, and even crouching this thread might help 

Also while doombuilder 2 is pretty good it might also be a good idea to look at GZ doom Builder

 

Personally, I loved it, the secrets were what I really like and combat was goodie.