General structure ideas

I am trying to figure out on new areas when building techbase or quasi-techbase type maps (IE episode 2 halfway through) and can't really think much besides the usual switch/key hunting and computer styled areas for indoor areas.

For outside sections, they are normally smaller as seen in Abyssus and Iconic. I wouldn't know much more to think on outdoor design now (I know in the past I made a urban type map for Doom2).

Thoughts and suggestions?

Build a twisted dark laboratory map.
The player has to kill some Arch-Viles which guard power generator,
destroy a lot lost UAC machine and
kill some Cyber Demons

EarthQuake said:

Build a twisted dark laboratory map.
The player has to kill some Arch-Viles which guard power generator,
destroy a lot lost UAC machine and
kill some Cyber Demons

Don't forget Renevant snipers from halfway across the map!

Besides using the idea generator..

Maybe I wasn't clear enough, I was speaking of rooms in general for the most part..and I'm mapping for Doom not Doom2.

Mr. Chris said:

Maybe I wasn't clear enough, I was speaking of rooms in general for the most part..and I'm mapping for Doom not Doom2.

Doesn't make any difference. Play some PWADs for ideas. Or try speed mapping, where you just draw and keep drawing. Keep yourself to an hour timelimit or something.

Khorus said:

Doesn't make any difference. Play some PWADs for ideas. Or try speed mapping, where you just draw and keep drawing. Keep yourself to an hour timelimit or something.

Yeah speedmapping is a great execise as you don't really think of themes general, you just map like a machine. :P

I have never speedmapped and sometimes just get lost in thinking on what a room or area of the map will be like (IE 4-way split area in Abyssus), other times I just draw random crap with the sector drawing tool in Doom Builder.

You could make some sort of space station, with airlocks and starry skyboxes.

How about a flooded area?
flooded storage area
flooded reactor area
flooded laboratory
flooded living quarters
flooded computer area

Maybe a pipe or a dam burst and the whole base just filled up with water... or maybe it was the sprinkler systems like in that Resident Evil movie? I dunno.
Somehow though, water has ended up pooling in places where water ought not pool... like the computer room. Maybe all the computers short circuited from the water so you can have lots of blinking lights and malfunctioning doors and whatnot?

Icy techbase, with an ice tunnel connecting a tower to the base, with a transparent/40% opaque ice wall between the outside and the tunnel ... I wonder how possible that is tho. Would probably require a port for that kind of a detail.

ArmouredBlood said:

Icy techbase, with an ice tunnel connecting a tower to the base, with a transparent/40% opaque ice wall between the outside and the tunnel ... I wonder how possible that is tho. Would probably require a port for that kind of a detail.

Just a boom supported sourceport would be enough as it has a linedef special for that.

Flooded area sounds nice, that might be interesting for the planned E2M5 map, but Doom has no waterfall animations that I can use without using some patch replacements.

I also wish to keep the maps vanilla compatible for the entire episode replacement.

WFALL1-4 is defined in the EXE but unused in Doom1/2 :)

esselfortium said:

WFALL1-4 is defined in the EXE but unused in Doom1/2 :)

Hmm, very interesting! Where can I find a list of "textures" that are in DOOM2.EXE but not actually in DOOM2.WAD?

The SWATER1-4 flat animation was used in the Press Release beta but never in any of the released IWADs, and is thus free for use in vanilla-compatible wads.

The WFALL1-4 wall animation was used in Final Doom only, and the BLODGR1-4 and SLADRIP1-3 wall animations were used in Doom 1 but not Doom 2.

Doom 1.9 of course allows any of these animations to be used regardless of the IWAD in use. :)

It's also worth noting that the engine only looks for the first and last frame; you could for example only include WFALL1 and WFALL4 for a two-frame animation, or stick 50 new frames with whatever names you want in the middle of one of the wall or flat animations and it'll run through all of them.

esselfortium said:

The SWATER1-4 flat animation was used in the Press Release beta but never in any of the released IWADs, and is thus free for use in vanilla-compatible wads.

The WFALL1-4 wall animation was used in Final Doom only, and the BLODGR1-4 and SLADRIP1-3 wall animations were used in Doom 1 but not Doom 2.

Doom 1.9 of course allows any of these animations to be used regardless of the IWAD in use. :)

Cool, thanks! :D

esselfortium said:

It's also worth noting that the engine only looks for the first and last frame; you could for example only include WFALL1 and WFALL4 for a two-frame animation, or stick 50 new frames with whatever names you want in the middle of one of the wall or flat animations and it'll run through all of them.

I'm guessing the "constant" determined by DOOM2.exe here is the time in ticks between switching graphics, then..

Indeed. AFAIK it could have been possible for DeHackEd to be able to modify the animation speed, but evidently its creator didn't think of that so we're stuck with 8 tics/frame in vanilla animations. :P

Doom 1 doesn't even have SFALL1-4 textures (something I never noticed until recently).

And if you can give up vanilla compatibility but keep support universal across almost all sourceports you can use Boom's ANIMATED and SWITCHES lump to define as many animation sequences and switches at a custom animation speed.

arrrgh said:

And if you can give up vanilla compatibility but keep support universal across almost all sourceports you can use Boom's ANIMATED and SWITCHES lump to define as many animation sequences and switches at a custom animation speed.

It will just not animate in Vanilla.

GhostlyDeath said:

It will just not animate in Vanilla.

Huh? He said "if you give up vanilla compatibility...."

I may end up doing stuff with textures once I get all 9 maps done and plop them into a single WAD.

Also inside the executable, there's space for one more switch and animation respectively. In fact I read somewhere that they're really null terminators, but I was able to define new entries anyway.

I like that idea about making an icy base area - reminds me of the StarWars (Hoth?) base. Having transparent ice walls would be even more interesting, if possible with vanilla..

I would suggest just working with the same techbase theme, just with new structural/layout ideas. Especially remember to throw in stairs at least here and there, even if they're wide and shallow (in my opinion that's often a plus). Try making some large, tall, dimly lit halls with lighting or something embedded in the walls. Or make some areas incorporating the idea used in E1m7 where you can see through the crack in the floor/ceiling of the raised part (just behind the first locked door). Or make a complex labyrinth of mostly compwall halls with lots of stairs and confusing twists and turns and secret-feeling dead-end rooms! Man, now you're giving me all kinds of ideas...

*runs home and frantically sketches into doom notebook*

Try make a Techbase that the UAC could of built on the Hell side of the Teleporter maybe? like have a Proper UAC Tech base but with outside areas being hellish? I reckon that could work as a good idea.