Been away from mapping for 14 years; finally made something

[Makazi the Hyena]

Heyo! So pretty much as the title states, I haven't made anything for the past 14 years. Now, that doesn't mean I haven't touched the editor in 14 years: Every once in a while (usually once or twice a year) I'd open up Doom Builder and try to make something, usually a room or part of a level -- but I never finished anything.

 

"Inscrutiny" is my recent attempt at finishing something. It's a single-level WAD, designed with somewhat of an episode one style in mind. It was designed around (and for) vanilla limitations and tested with Chocolate Doom 3.0 and Zandronum 3.0, and it should work with just about any port; theoretically even on DOS.

 

There are included difficulty levels, and you can play with up to three people (though solo is advised; the multiplayer isn't balanced). There are also six secrets, most of which are pretty easy to find -- one of which is a bit of a challenge.

 

IWAD is doom.wad, map is E1M1.

 

Here's some screens:

 

 

 

 

 

And here's the WAD:

Inscrutiny.wad

 

Lastly, the two music tracks (e1m1 and intermission) were composed by me -- though they are highly evocative of existing Doom music. That said, I'm really eager to hear your thoughts and criticisms. Also curious to see if anyone manages to hit the big secret, lol.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Edited March 24, 2019 by Makazi the Hyena

[ShadesMaster]

Not bad at all! I missed the big secret since I didn't see anything of particular difference, I suppose! And no tagged secret areas.

 

That said, it was a good map - a bit dark overall. One spot with a rising doorTrak. Some of the corridors were a bit long-ish and same-y, but never did I feel lost. I'd say the dual barons not too far through are a bit much for the equipment we have - a pair of Hellknights, maybe, but they're in Doom 2 only, so....

 

Good work, can't wait so see more! The new music was nice, too - I wish I could hear the intermission song in a map!

[Makazi the Hyena]

14 minutes ago, ShadesMaster said:

Not bad at all! I missed the big secret since I didn't see anything of particular difference, I suppose! And no tagged secret areas.

 

That said, it was a good map - a bit dark overall. One spot with a rising doorTrak. Some of the corridors were a bit long-ish and same-y, but never did I feel lost. I'd say the dual barons not too far through are a bit much for the equipment we have - a pair of Hellknights, maybe, but they're in Doom 2 only, so....

 

Good work, can't wait so see more! The new music was nice, too - I wish I could hear the intermission song in a map!

 

Hey, thanks for playing! Glad you liked it. :) That is true about the barons. I was a bit undecided as to whether or not they should be there, but ultimately decided to leave them and add difficulty scaling. So on HMP there's only one, and on easier difficulties they don't show up at all. Can you show me the area with the texture issue?

 

As far as the secret goes, I'll say that it's a repeatable switch that activates something else; keep an ear out.

 

Cheers for now!

[nWADDEN]

It's pretty good! It's a lot better than something that I can make (and let me tell you, I suck at mapping!). Some doors' DOORTRAK textures aren't lower unpegged which kind of mildly infuriating (i might have OCD, I don't know). I only found one secret though. And by the time I got to the exit, there were still like 20 monsters to kill. It can also be extremely dark at times which can be kind of frustrating. The music is actually pretty nice to listen to and is well composed. Overall, it's a really good map and I enjoyed it very much.

[Doomkid]

This looks right up my alley, I’ll give it a spin tonight and let you know how it goes!

[Makazi the Hyena]

23 hours ago, nWADDEN said:

It's pretty good! It's a lot better than something that I can make (and let me tell you, I suck at mapping!). Some doors' DOORTRAK textures aren't lower unpegged which kind of mildly infuriating (i might have OCD, I don't know). I only found one secret though. And by the time I got to the exit, there were still like 20 monsters to kill. It can also be extremely dark at times which can be kind of frustrating. The music is actually pretty nice to listen to and is well composed. Overall, it's a really good map and I enjoyed it very much.

 

Thank you. :D You're right about the darkness; and it seems to be much more significant in hardware mode than software.

 

Glad you enjoyed it.

[Marlamir]

Looks like mapping is like riding a bike, once you learn it you will never forget :D. Had to try this for sure.

[Doomkid]

Overall enjoyable wad, the map and MIDI both feel very genuinely 1995. All the design is competent, the layout makes sense and it is generally fun to play.

 

My main criticisms would be the two barons on UV that don't make things harder, but just more boring. I stood in basically one spot and held down fire until the chaingun was about empty to take them both down, it was no challenge at all. To make fights like this more engaging, maybe replace one of them with a cacodemon and add a one-use monsters only teleport line somewhere in the room so that they can change position suddenly in the middle of the fight, keeping the player a bit more on their toes. Alternatively, you could have the door that leads to the barons trigger a hidden monster closet behind the player with 3 imps or something in it, just to have a brief threat from multiple angles. This kind of stuff goes a long way for fun-factor!

 

I liked the MIDI, it set the tone very well, I just wish it wasn't so short. As someone who occasionally composes MIDIs, I've run into the problem of decent tunes being too repetitive for long maps before - My solution is to just double the entire MIDI in length, but add one more instrument the second time around to spice it up a little. Maybe a little guitar or synth melody that accentuates the existing piece the second time around. A lot of MIDIs in the original Doom do this: The same tune repeats but in a different key, the same tune repeats but with an added guitar or something, etc etc. It's not too tough to implement and does wonders for making your MIDIs less repetitive for maps that take 10 minutes (or more) to complete.

 

Health seemed a little sparse. I didn't get whomped at one point or another, but all the (already dark colored) shotgunners hidden in practically invisible black spots just kept chipping away until there was almost nothing left near the end. A much needed medkit and Blue Armor were found at one point but it kinda felt like too little too late. The addition of 3 or 4 more stimpacks scattered about the base would help. I didn't check the other difficulties that thoroughly, I just picked UV and rolled with it. This is not such a big deal anyway, it could have easily been error on my part. In fact, raising the entire light level of the map by just 8 or 16 would work wonders and probably mitigate this issue altogether. A dark map is nice and spooky, but this was a bit overboard at times.

 

Forgive me for focusing so much on the "bad" aspects, I just think reviews are more helpful this way. Overall, I really like your approach and would love to see an actual episode from you at some point, if you had the inspiration and time of course. You clearly have a talent for classic style mapping - When the goal is to make a genuinely oldschool-feeling map, some mappers hit the mark and some miss the little touches that make a map feel "truly 90's". Yours hits the mark perfectly. It's hard to even identify why exactly that is, but I really like that about it.

 

Hope this helps!

[Patrick B.]

A really enjoyable WAD for me to play first, as someone who is finally picking up DOOMing again.

 

Strongest point: Really cool music

 

Most notable criticisms: The map is way too dark, health and ammo is a bit sparse - I had to resort to punching pinkies at one point, too much hitscan - maybe use Doom 2 as a basis next time to get a bigger variety of enemies that aren't hitscan

 

I also played through your map here: 

 

[Marlamir]

Just finished the map and overall it was enjoyable map. I liked the layout and the oldschool vibe that was quite strong it this one. Gameplay felt okay but as others said few more medkit would be only for good, especially after the bigger fight and those two barrons felt bitt out of place but overall really solid map.

 

2 hours ago, Patrick B. said:

Most notable criticisms: The map is way too dark

Looks like you was playing in gzdoom and if the map is way to dark for you can allways change sector light mode under display-opengl option menu for brighter one.

[Patrick B.]

1 hour ago, Marlamir said:

Just finished the map and overall it was enjoyable map. I liked the layout and the oldschool vibe that was quite strong it this one. Gameplay felt okay but as others said few more medkit would be only for good, especially after the bigger fight and those two barrons felt bitt out of place but overall really solid map.

 

Looks like you was playing in gzdoom and if the map is way to dark for you can allways change sector light mode under display-opengl option menu for brighter one.

 

You are right, I could do that. I just always feel changing brightness is cheating because what if the WAD creator wanted me to stumble around in the darkness for a certain part of the map. Maybe that's a mentality born from playing too many horror games.

 

[Makazi the Hyena]

4 hours ago, Marlamir said:

Looks like you was playing in gzdoom and if the map is way to dark for you can allways change sector light mode under display-opengl option menu for brighter one.

 

There's really something about software rendering that makes darkness look beautiful; at a distance, it's almost as if certain aspects of the textures become limned by the shadows.

[Marlamir]

On 3/27/2019 at 7:04 PM, Patrick B. said:

 

You are right, I could do that. I just always feel changing brightness is cheating because what if the WAD creator wanted me to stumble around in the darkness for a certain part of the map. Maybe that's a mentality born from playing too many horror games.

 

Well i never think about brightness should or can be count as a cheating until now, interesting.

[Tribal]

On 3/24/2019 at 7:26 PM, Makazi the Hyena said:

 

As far as the secret goes, I'll say that it's a repeatable switch that activates something else; keep an ear out.

 

 

Spoiler

I found the switch, but i can't get to the elevator on time, it always close right in my face. And i tried a lot :( 

 

[Makazi the Hyena]

On 3/27/2019 at 2:04 PM, Patrick B. said:

 

You are right, I could do that. I just always feel changing brightness is cheating because what if the WAD creator wanted me to stumble around in the darkness for a certain part of the map. Maybe that's a mentality born from playing too many horror games.

 

 

Don't worry about it, man; I don't mind. :) Next map will be brighter for sure.

 

Also awesome video! I don't know if you saw my comment on Youtube, but it's really cool to see someone play my map. Also, the lift that you have to run to that you couldn't figure out, there's a

switch on the wall inside that lift that you have to hit to open up a wall on the other side of the room -- which then leads to a teleporter. You look at it at 10:37.

[Suitepee]

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/410481821

 

Playtested this SIXTH in my most recent livestream. A very dark map, lots of switches and I think one of the doors was broken (or something?) when I pressed the switch to reveal the two Barons and the bloody corridor, as I wasn't able to get out of the switch room. Decent map otherwise, your custom music was alright.

[hella knight]

I liked using a torch mod with this map.