First map out of a megawad of 10 maps

Well here is a map in progress. About 35% completed as it is now. I really would like to hear your comments on it.

New version 0.1.1!
http://www.speedyshare.com/651396246.html

Features:
- Barrel obstacle is now spawning barrels on the fly since the barrels are destroyed.
- Ambient sounds for barrel obstacle
- Modified map layout.
- Created a new barrel that reponds as a monster.

Monster modifications:

- Rocnotron rockets move faster, and are now tracers, and on explosion they catapults player up in the air.
- Rocnotrons are now shooting their rockets with a bit more inteligence.
- Rocnotron got a new translation
- Rocnotron got an overhauled death sequence spewing a horde of BFG shots.

Game mode: Zdoom Doom in Hexen. Tested with GZDoom aswell.

I didn't like:
-the layout and progression were a bit simplistic, even for map01
-TEH UNMARKED DOOR, no-no...
-designs a bit too plain
-the tiny, narrow corridors (the level feels to cramped, and those tiny windows near the beginning also didn't agree with me)
-too short, even for map01

Me likes:
-the fake exit trick
-the usage of zdoom features
-the barrels obstacle

I'd say it can become a good map, but needs more work. I think making the level bigger (and more spacious) would help a lot, plus making the progression and fights more interesting aswell, since everything felt too linear and straightforward. I'd recommend working on individual areas and finishing individual maps before making plans for a megawad. Quality is more important than quantity.

Just my 2 cents...

EDIT:I see the map is not finished, this explains the shortness...

Quality is more important than quantity.

That's my leadstar in all the things I do. Thanks for testing.

Rendering glitches in zDoom spoiled the trooper and sergeant ambushes.
The corridor is a bit cramped - kept the chaingunners in single-file, limiting their ability to attack.
The door at the top of the stairs is unmarked on the automap in zDoom and visible in GzDoom.
The stairway down to the Yellow door could do with a bit more headroon so players don't get blocked.

I like the conveyor belt and fake exit - look forward to revisiting this map as it evolves.

Thanks for your advices. I'll post a screeny or two on my progress when I'm back home 2nite.

New version available. Check topmost post for download link.

More than half of your textures is misaligned or cut off on weird/wrong places it needs to be bigger and more spacious the layout could be improved as well it needs more traps and alot more monsters imo.

Quality in mass quantity would be my goal I want both, good luck with the project.

Download links not working. I don't suppose they're blacklisting Australians? :-)

That Rocnotron is not fucking funny

I've played your level and I've got some things that might help you out.
The Good:
-I really liked the Barrel-spawning trap; Good Job!

The Bad (Unfortunately many more):
-Unmarked doors outside of secrets are very bad and annoy people
-Your map has a lot of texture misalignments that make it look pretty poor
-Some of the textures you used, while not misaligned, look kind of wierd as they are, like the COMP textures. Perhaps add some additional sectors around them to improve the way they look.
-The lightning in your level isn't bad by any means, but light variance will make it look much better.
-Just a side note, the special barrels you used for the trap are counted as monsters, so it will screw up the end tally if they're not blown up when you exit the level
-The "Rocnotron"... I HATED THAT THING! =(

Now, I'm not just going to dis your new monster and leave it at that. I'll give you some tips to improve it, as the concept seems perfectly fine.
The Good:
-I liked the increase in speed from the Arachnotron. It makes it creepier, more spider-like, and more of a threat.
-It's hard to see in that dark room, but the green coloration works well to distiunguish it from regular Arachnotrons.
-It's HP and flinch percentage were appropriate.

The Bad:
-It has no "wind-up" before attacking. Remember how the arachnotron will pause for a half-second before firing so you know to dive for cover. As is, your monster is just like, "Bam, you're dead." You can't even react faster than it can shoot.
-It's Rocnorockets are too fast and too powerful. You practically can't dodge them and they kill you instantly, so the fight just degenerates into trying to shoot it around corners just out of it's line-of-fire, with is tedious and dull. You can't ever be in its line-of-fire, even for half a second, without dying.
-The BFG self-destruct was overkill. Firstly, it kills you after you already eliminated the threat, which is bad since it isn't obvious that it's about to do that. Instead of BFG projectiles, I'd make it spawn an isolated explosion that is far less powerful (maybe does one rocket's worth of splach damage?) This would give a reason to put it near other enemies since killing it would give you a headstart on killing the others. Also, it won't be such a put-off for the player, who is upset that they died "out of nowhere" since the weaker explosion likely won't kill them, just injure them badly.

Generally, it's much too powerful. Your monster need not have godlike strength to be cool. I once designed a monster that was overpowered and you know what I did? I made it weaker and suddenly it was much more fun to fight. How would you use something like this? If you put in in a crowd of enemies, it will level them all, and if you use it alone, it will force you to snip it as mentioned.
I'd suggest making the rockets much slower, fire much less at once (non-continuous, that would level everything too; maybe in groups of three?), and far less powerful, maybe equal to revenant rockets in damage, plus what I said already. Tracer missiles are probably overkill as well. You don't have to make these changes to the letter, but probably a lot of them. I'm pretty good at DECORATE programming, so feel free to ask if you have any questions. =)

Well the rocnotron ain't ment to be funny. It's ment to deal serious busines and is not ment to be available at all dificulties. It is ment to be fought where you got plenty of hideouts and stuff that can block his rockets. I've also took a decision for the easier difeculties make one that ain't so "hardcore". Will still shoot rockets at the same pace, but the rockets will not use the rockets explosions so to say.

At least dont put it in cramped space x___X

Jorbo, I can tell you that I'm not going to be playing any megawad with that monstrosity in it, and I'm sure that there are a lot of others that won't either. It's just too big of a put-off. I know that it's hard to make such drastic modifications to your enemy, but your whole WAD is likely to go down with it. Trust everyone whose been saying that your monster is very overpowered. They're trying to help and they know what they're talking about. Your WAD will be better off for it. =/

I totally agree with Death...people like challenge but this rocnotron is like too much personally...and if you plan on using it in the first lvl i cant believe how many there will be in the 10th lvl =/

Well the rocnotron ain't ment to be funny. It's ment to deal serious busines and is not ment to be available at all dificulties

(...and similar)

Has Ruba finally joined the forum?

While I first played it, I thought rocnotron (I'd change that goofy name, btw.) was meant to kill the player to teach him a lesson, not to go to the obvious exit, and I kinda liked that.

But dealing with that monstrosity in real gameplay? God no!

Arachnorockettron.

Maybe that's a better name I don't know.

Let me put things into a whole new perspective for all who complains about my missaligned textures. I'm visually impaired. That's right I'm allmost blind. I see 10% of normal sight on my right eye, and nothing on my left eye.

So what you see is this:



While I see this:



And that is many lightyears away from what you see imho. So stop complain, cut me some slack and accept my limitations will ya? :D

I actually quite liked the map. But that conveyor belt was a tough one to get past. Also, there's an autosave glitch that everytime you go back across the line, an autosave kept generating. I know that's the purpose of an autosave but I ended up with 5. I liked that trap near the end of the map though with the "Rocnotron". After 2 tries I realised there was another exit. Good job :D

jobro said:

Let me put things into a whole new perspective for all who complains about my missaligned textures. I'm visually impaired. That's right I'm allmost blind. I see 10% of normal sight on my right eye, and nothing on my left eye.

That's no excuse, jorbo. Since you're presenting your work to an audience that most likely has perfect eyesight, you still have to put effort into your texture alignments. The public only cares about the final product, not the way it was made or the limitations involved. If they don't like what they see, they will play something else.

Beethovan was completely deaf, but he didn't produce crappy music. He produced some of the best classical music we have. He could do this because a musical score is just a mathimatical pattern. You need not be able to hear it played to compose it. Similarly, you don't need to be able to see your texture alignment to know if they're aligned or not. Modern editors allow you to align textures based on X and Y position as well as having autoalign functions. I'd recommend using autoalign for the X-axis. You can than manually align the Y-axis. Remember that the height difference between two adjacent sector is the offset you need to make them line up correctly, like on that staircase in your map.

I can say this to you in good conscience because, while I can see with both eyes, they're both about as bad as your right eye, and I have double-vision, but that doesn't stop me from lining up my textures correctly. People like us have to learn to overcome our limitations, not submit to them.