[Release]Random map

Hey there, as im pretty new to this forum (been around on zdoom quite some time)
i thought i should post something i made for once
so here goes, a speed map that i did in 8 hours.

http://www.speedyshare.com/files/23610148/ICYSpeed.wad

tried to fast make something look good, make a flowing layout that isnt too linear(theres just that god damn switch that lowers the red key that isnt very flowwy D:)
opening up areas more and more as you progress, and doing some keycard loops. (or whatever they are called)



share your thoughts please!

might throw it into the idgames archive tomorrow, never done it before so i gotta find out how it works first.

Hey I really liked that map! I found the balance of monsters to ammo to be just right. I like the use of the mancubus. The demons in that area provided good cover and I was able to use the manc's rockets to take most of them out while taking pot shots at it. Detailing is clean and non-intrusive. I like that.

Certainly a fun little romp of a map.

I thought it was too easy, too few monsters for the generous amount of space, ammo and health provided (and ramping up the difficulty to Nightmare made it too hard for me, as there's lots of going back to the same places). The map didn't draw me in and I found myself randomly wandering to the next switch/key rather than playing. The looks might be part of that boredom ; it's a techbase just like a million others. In fact, it felt like playing SP in a DM level as tons of DM levels seem to look like this somehow...

Apart from that, there were no bugs or errors of any kind that I could see in PrBoom+, and there's certainly nothing *bad* about the map. It's just the kind of thing I'll play once and never look at again.

I thought the map was pretty fun both in terms of design and gameplay. Thanks for sharing.

Decent map, good detailing for 8 hours of work. Gameplay was base-normal to me, which I don't find appealing (nor does phml, heh). What I did like was the rather open spaces - most base maps are cramped or are big corridor-fests. Although it does make the map easier than it would otherwise be. Another thing you might consider is moving the imps on the high wall overlooking the manc + 2 demons/ yellow key area onto a lower wall/walkway; I did that with a few maps of mine and it's a little annoying for people playing in ports without mouselook to try and kill those guys.

I'd like to point out the mixing of some flats on even floor heights - it's not something you should make a habit of, at best it looks kinda funky, at worst (usually on the door sectors) it clashes badly. Consider using slight height differences (2-4 is enough without giving serious icy-floor problems) to give a small break between flats and to add a small border to rooms if you really want that effect.

Besides that, using extra height in a lot of rooms to add nice-looking detail was cool. Definitely do more of that, heh. The interconnectivity was nice, not thrown in the face nor really stretching it. Ammo and health were fine, maybe a little much, although I played in skulltag since you didn't mention port. And yeah, mention the port/map level/ and iwad next time you post something, I was thinking about doing a demo in prboom but didn't know if it would work.

ArmouredBlood said:

I'd like to point out the mixing of some flats on even floor heights - it's not something you should make a habit of, at best it looks kinda funky, at worst (usually on the door sectors) it clashes badly. Consider using slight height differences (2-4 is enough without giving serious icy-floor problems) to give a small break between flats and to add a small border to rooms if you really want that effect.

In general, changing flats without changing floor heights isn't an issue. I do it pretty often, myself; you just have to take into account how the flats complement each other. There are some cases of it in this map that are odd (like the ceil5_2 -> flat1 -> ceil5_1 -> flat1 below some doors), but others (like ceil5_2 borders around brown96 ledges) that are completely normal. Though I'd have made the ceil5_1 borders a bit thinner, like 8 units maybe. That's a personal taste thing, though.

Also, the big staircase leading down to the red key door is butted up right against the door, which makes it look rather crampy and unnatural. I'd probably put at least 64 units of space between the bottom stair and the door, maybe set up to look like some sort of overhang or mini-"room" landing at the end of the stairs.

As far as gameplay goes, there were some rather dull slogs through pinky demons at points. Those tend to work best when combined with other monsters, with the other monsters providing the main threat and the pinkies serving mainly to limit the player's maneuverability.

esselfortium said:

... That's a personal taste thing, though.

ArmouredBlood said:

... at best it looks kinda funky

@ icytux; go with what you like ;)

thank you for the responses, its always nice to get critiscm.

i intentionally wanted to make the gameplay like this (e1-ish)
but i didnt really catch the feel that well, i overused pinkies too much and made it a bit too easy.

also heh, i must say that i got a little lost in the floor flats myself heh. went a little overboard with them.
i just didnt want to change the height all too much all the time so theres a border after border after border that lowers the floor more and more, it makes it look like an unnatural tube of some sort.

but i suppose by reducing the hp items (and if you find the soulsphere secret, then holy) replacing pinkies with something else, and upping the difficulty overall, itd be o/