My First WAD

[SonoFelice]

This is the first Doom 2 (or any) wad I've made. It is only a single level so far, and I'm hoping I can get some suggestions on how to improve this map and future ones. I created it using GZDoom Builder and SLADE, and tested it in GZDoom and Zandronum. Tell me if you find any mistakes I've made please. :P

• 1 secret
• 1 "secret" 
• Jumping and freelook is recommended

Also, tell me how hard you thought it was.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jbyv8jncdma7r33/Mensch_Doom.wad?dl=0

[Bushpig2dope]

300 MB? Downloading now but I'm wondering what this is full of...

EDIT: Guessing its the replaced music, sounds pretty cool actually, maybe just cut back the ones you aren't using. 
Thought the map was pretty fun, had some nice traps. The chain-gunners lowering down in front and behind you after the red elevator was a nice surprise. The 2 hell knight trap was also challenging and puts the player on the spot but not unfairly. One thing I'm not a huge fan of though is the amount of ammo you included, so many boxes! You had 6 alone just with those 2 hell knights I mentioned and after that the vent was full of clips too! This much ammo is definitely not necessary IMO. Keep it up anyway!

Edited May 22, 2018 by Bushpig2dope

[HAK3180]

"Jumping is recommended" is a strange parameter. It's normally required or not allowed at all. I saw no need for it in this map at all.

 

This map doesn't look the greatest, but it's not too shabby for a first. I'm fairly impressed by the game play though. It's somewhat unconventional and it works in many places. There are indeed a number of surprises. Really the only weak encounter is the lone hell knight on a crate. 

 

It's got some challenge to it. It's not super hard, but it's well beyond the difficulty of your average 50-enemy, first time wad.

 

Keep thinking about interesting combat and continue to polish the visuals. Happy mapping to you.

 

 

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

Played on GZDoom 2.4.0, UV

Not actually my first attempt at it, but my first recording attempt broke, so I had to do it again.

Video spoilered.

Spoiler

 

Pretty neat experience, though the "jumping is recommended" sentence is really ambiguous, and in the video, you'd notice I could've easily abused this to beat the map much more quickly than I should've, but in the interest of doing it properly, I didn't.

 

The traps were pretty cool and the gameplay was solid throughout.

It was a little key hunt, but that's all okay, I like hunting keys.

The sky is the F_SKY1 placeholder flat? What's that for?

 

As Hak above me said, it's not the prettiest, but it's a solid first map. Keep it up.

[SonoFelice]

Thanks. I'll reduce the ammunition. I'm glad it wasn't too easy. Also didn't know you could jump on those trees, I'll fix that. I suggested jumping because it makes it easier, especially in that pit with the hell knights. I'm not sure what you're asking about the sky. :P

[Lorenz0]

First things first - the file is waaaaaay too heavy. It's probably the heaviest Doom wad I ever downloaded, but it's only one short map.

 

Overall I think the map is very basic, it has basically everything you'd expect from a new mapper. I mean the simple layout, not much detail, only the simplest actions, etc.

I have one complaint about the visuals: it's your first map, so I don't expect a crazy amount of detail, but you should at least allign your textures properly. It's very important, and it doesn't take much time. For example, in your first screenshot, the platform with the enemies has missaligned textures. Simply setting these two linedefs to lower unpegged should fix the problem.

 

Now about the encounters; they are not bad, but not good either. I feel like this map overall would be way more fun to play if you had a super shotgun, since there are a lot of high tier enemies, that are a pain in the ass to fight with only the shotgun and chaingun. It takes more time to kill them, so it makes the combat more difficult, but in exchange for it being less fun. Difficulty is good, but as long as it's not too annoying.

Also you should avoid making encounters that just rely on standing in the door and shooting everything that comes by. It's really boring that way.

Oh, and try not to make your areas so cramped.

 

My biggest advice for you is that you should play more Doom. Sounds weird, I know, but I think that the thing you need the most right now, is to play through some highly regarded community wads, analyze them, and try to implement different mapping techniques you notice, to your own levels.

Also don't try to make a megawad right now. It's a very dumb idea. Inexperienced mappers should focus on making relatively small maps, and release them as single level wads. That way you can get advice more consistently and improve faster.

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

In that same area, if you look at the sky, it looks exactly like the F_SKY1 flat you see in the editor. The sky itself uses that graphic. If you use it on a wall, you'll see that same graphic. It just looks really weird.

Also, it is possible to jump from the lip of the door to the platform similar to using the tree, though it's up to you to fix that.

 

Oh, and yeah, about the file, it is way too large for a single map. That music that's in there (probably mp3 files) needs to be removed, save the file used for the map.