Dimensional Lake (now on idgames)

[Rince-wind]

A single map for Doom II that I used as practice for mapping, I tried making it fun to play while also using a few settings and scripts to get myself familiar with Doombuilder.

 

Map Info:

Tested with - GZDoom 3.2.5

Freelook and crouching allowed

Jumping required

Software rendering

Difficulty - somewhere between Doom I and Doom II

 

idgames link

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jadwick]

Played on GZDoom 4.0. UV with smoothdoom and bolognese.

So this started off okay, like a normal map, but this went way off the rails to unplayable. About halfway through I just turned on godmode and infinite ammo, and rushed through the rest.
There is some nice geometry here. You put a lot of work in on the second half of this, but that's the part not really playable ya know? So I'll talk about the part that is.

 

First off, untextured stuff:

Spoiler

Your sky was also not working. After you go through the door in that room I kept getting a script trigger that wouldn't fire as well.

Second, I liked the roundness of the early part of the map, but it also felt like you were just using the circle tool in doom builder. You also have a paper-thin wall here:
 

Spoiler

And then I ran out of ammo approaching the yellow keycard room. Definitely not enough ammo to get through the arachnotrons, I turned on godmode and punched them to see if the rest of the level restocked you, but then the door didn't open anyway.

Spoiler

Clipped through the door and got the yellow key, and the other side of the door wouldn't open either.

After you go through the portal there isn't enough ammo to get through the dark area with the specters, or the barons and hell knights after them.

Then we got to the part where I gave up. The teleporting key was a neat idea, but a literal key hunt in a room with endless spawning monsters wasn't. Too many monsters, not enough ammo the rest of the level obviously. Again, the design for the rest was really cool, I particularly liked the face on the wall where you crawl through the mouth, but just monsters ad absurdum.

I was a little upset actually because it was pretty good up to that point too.

 

Other stuff:
The frozen monsters for decoration was distracting. I think I saw a revenant shopkeeper? Then later in the level there was a arachnotron that blocked the hallway and I had a hard time jumping over him. Afaik he didn't activate either. I really just blazed through the rest.

So finally; you have some promise, really there was obviously hard work put in the later part of this, but the hard work you put in on mapping left everything else feeling sloppy. I hope you rework this a bit and rerelease it.

[baja blast rd.]

This map would be amazing to watch on Suitepee's stream.

[Rince-wind]

Thanks for playing my wad, Jadwick!

About the texture and the sky, I don't know what to tell you they worked fine for me, maybe it's your version of GZDoom.

The reason the first and second part of the map are so different in mapping quality is because I was slowly getting better at mapping the further I went,

that's why the second room is just basic shapes, I started with something simple and tried to make each progressive room more complex.

The reason I put the frozen monsters there is just because I liked how it looked.

 

[Rince-wind]

26 minutes ago, rdwpa said:

This map would be amazing to watch on Suitepee's stream.

I've never seen his streams, I hope they're not about making fun of crappy maps D:

[baja blast rd.]

Not quite. It has one of the more creative sections I've played in a while, though, so it's bound to elicit a lot of reactions. 

[Rince-wind]

Just now, rdwpa said:

Not quite. It has one of the more creative sections I've played in a while, though, so it's bound to elicit a lot of reactions. 

Dodged a bullet there.

[Mk7_Centipede]

im such a sucker. XD

[Rince-wind]

10 hours ago, Mk7_Centipede said:

im such a sucker. XD

What happened?

[Mk7_Centipede]

mein lieben!

[EffinghamHuffnagel]

Played this with GZDoom 4.0. Some very nice architecture. I've never been a fan of using patches for flats and vice versa, but it's a choice.

 

First, there's nothing in the text file indicating that jumping is required. You should mention that. Most maps don't need jumping. Also, crouching is not just allowed, it is also required. You need to jump-crouch through the mouth of the entrance to the room with the Yellow Skull Key (and if you 'use' the wall from the inside to lower it, it reveals a missing texture and you still have to jump-crouch to get out).

 

Things you should have found while testing:

 

@Jadwick mentioned the door to the room with the Yellow Card. I also got stuck. It's because the door is tagged 'player use', but neither side is tagged 'repeat'. So when an Imp opened the door from the inside and then it closed, it couldn't be re-opened.

 

The Blue Skull Key wasn't a problem for me. After it teleported and the Boss Spawner activated, I re-loaded the game and came through the door at an angle to come at the key from the side hoping the Boss Spawner wouldn't activate. It did, but the Key didn't teleport. Grabbing the Key stopped the Spawner. Cheesed that nicely.

 

The Yellow Skull Key - all monsters in the pentagram room were dormant. I assumed they would activate when I picked up the key. I jumped around the outer edges. When I grabbed the key, nothing happened. I realized then they were probably triggered to wake up when I grabbed the BFG, which I was planning to get after I got the Key. So I never grabbed it. I just left the room. Cheesed again. I saved and went back in Godmode to grab the BFG. The monsters around the rim of the pit never activated. Was that really intentional?

 

On the way to the Red Skull Key, halfway through the cells, there is a small room with a barred window. You can jump up and look through. There are a dormant Demon and an Imp. Also a Potion. Which can never be reached.

 

The Blue Armor secret can never be scored. The door action on both sides is 'player crosses line'. And did you honestly think a player would say "Hmm, if I jump on top of the green torch from the steps, and jump from there to on top of the bookcase, and check all these identical WOODGARG panels, maybe I'll find something that's been hidden without a hint?" That same logic applies to the invisible Megasphere in the Blue Skull Key room. You have to jump on top of three different things to get onto a 'box' to score something you can't see (found it in an editor afterwards).

 

So, you can't get 100% items, you can't get 100% secrets, and with dormant monsters that don't wake up, you can't get 100% kills. A bit frustrating.

 

All that said, there really are some very nice things here. Clean some things up, fix some mechanics and keep getting feedback.

 

Edit: Nazis? Why?