My First Time Posting A WAD

[DecoyZulu]

I used to mess around with DoomBuilder but I've never uploaded anything before. Been working on this one the past couple days. I started it on CrispyDoom, so it should run on that, but the majority of it was tested on PrBoom. I'm not sure what else it might be compatible with. It does not require and was not designed for the use of freelook, jumping, crouching, or anything of that nature. No new resources were used, only the Doom II IWAD. It replaces MAP01 and it is the only level in the WAD I have changed, thus far. 

It's got some cramped areas and it's designed to be difficult based on my own comfort zones, like hugging walls and lots of strafe room. There are secrets, and I had some difficulty completing the map without using them. 

 

I've included some screenshots. Like I said, I tested with PrBoom, so please excuse the Marc Rutzou Vision quality of the scenery. I tried to emulate stars in space in two of those shots, and there are a number of little aesthetic details I played around with.

Any comments, suggestions, criticisms, whatever, I'm open to any bit of feedback available. Thanks and have a good one, boys and girls.

 

Awaken.7z

[Walter confetti]

Looks nice, like the void sky and some of the details... it uses a new palette? That blue looks a little too bright...

[DecoyZulu]

I'm glad you like it. The palette is entirely the same. Perhaps it's something to do with the particular lighting. When I use the computer blue or blue light textures, it's usually a brighter sector than the surrounding ones for contrast. 

[HAK3180]

Some comments:

• DOORTRAK doesn't look so great on software rendering when horizontally tiled so much
• First two secrets: is there anything distinct about them? I don't think so. Players do not want to hump 15 identical looking things.
• The idea behind the star effect is brilliant. It needs a little cleanup though. Probably a good idea to hide them from the automap too.
• near the red door are two former humans stuck in each other
• The red door is just an irritant, since you can go all the way around to either side of it long before getting the red key
• Accessing the blue key is basically a secret. Be careful making secrets or secret-like progressions mandatory.
• Some of your tall techno pillars are a bit too high for where they are placed
• I think it's a good idea just to conform and use SW1 switches, not SW2, unless you have a good reason not to.
• And conventional door textures for doors
• nothing better than pistol except in secrets, where I found a berserk. It makes things interesting, but this doesn't exactly feel like it's "supposed" to be a Tyson map. I'd include a shotgun somewhere.
• Doors in Doom should be treated like commas in English: "when in doubt, leave it out." The one section, in particular, had lots of nearby doors.
• Overall geometry and layout is decent.
• There are some bold visual choices, which is per se a good thing, whether or not they work.

May your mapping career live long and prosper.

[Simomarchi]

I completed yohr map on UV in 4.31 minutes, with 95% kills, 100% items and 25% secrets.

 

The map was a quite cramped techbase, and it was (surprisingly) a tyson map. It was a short and quite hard experience (god bless the randomness of the hitscans because i finished the map with 2% health).

 

But starting with the visuals:

I really loved the theme of this map. It was not a detailed work, but the use of the blue carpet with the metal combined with the dark areas and the black external environment was a really good idea. Of course a little bit of detail is always appreciated but this is one of the maps that are not punished by the lack of it. 

The doors that are part of the wall in which they are placed is commonly considered an error. You may want to create a small sector that breaks the wall and put the door here. 

Also a softer light transition can help your map to apper better.

 

Thing placement:

This was a tyson map, so nothing stronger than a pistol is given to the player (at least outside of the secrets, as far as I know). In this kind of maps is quite wierd to see a berserk pack placed in a secret, because it become a basic part of the level progression (luckily it is the only secret that I found).

The blue key being also basically a secret is a HUGE mistake. A player can give up you map very easily in this situation, so be careful.

The fact that there are like 2 medikits in your map is also not the best of the things. Making a map harder only because the player has no health or weapons is usually seen as a mistake.

so generally a bad thing placement, considering the fact that there was I think only one ambush in all the map.

 

General design:

I always like when a map is linear and loops on itself, and this one is not an exeption, but the facts that there is a mandatory secret and that a foundamental item is also a secret are (at least for me) indexes of a poor map layout.

Also I don't like to see so much rectangular rooms and ortogonal angles.

 

Overall a visually pleasant map, but filled with some frustrating gamplay choices and an even more frustrating layout, based on "mandatory" secrets. 

 

Edit: Also I think that you have used the 32 m.u. grid, which is a little bit bigger than the one that is considered the standard one (for doors, walls etc), the 16 m.u. one

[DecoyZulu]

Thank you all so much for the feedback, and mighty quick, too. There's a lot I can work with there and I'll be sure to update this thread when I've made some tweaks to the layout and the secrets. I think I'll just make the two secrets in the first room plainly visible. The map wasn't meant to be a Tyson really, I just had plans for the following map to be a storage facility where a lot more action, breathing room, and resources wait for you. There's a secret shotgun but it is rather far into the level. As for the red key in the office/study...well, ya really got me there. I thought that was more clear than it turned out to be and I'll switch it up accordingly, might just put a door texture there instead and treat it more like a closet.

[DecoyZulu]

14 hours ago, Simomarchi said:

I really loved the theme of this map. It was not a detailed work, but the use of the blue carpet with the metal combined with the dark areas and the black external environment was a really good idea. Of course a little bit of detail is always appreciated but this is one of the maps that are not punished by the lack of it. 

Happy to hear that. Just out of curiosity, what detailing did you have in mind? I'm always looking for ways to improve.

[Simomarchi]

4 hours ago, DecoyZulu said:

What detailing did you have in mind? 

For example you can make some pillars creating a small sector inside a room and deleting it. Also some classical decorations are holes in the ceiling with some light that enters the room across them, niches in the wall to breake their linearity (with columns in them, or lights) or some aechitecture detail (more impressive and big rooms, for example).

You can play with edges and shapes. Circular rooms are nice to see, and odd angles helps to make your map more interesting to the eye

[Austinado]

 

Hello, i have played your Wad...i think you could had more monsters, and sometimes i got a little confused where to go (Blue Key for instance) , to many doors closed, and you just gave shotgun in all the level....but i think it was a good first Wad...you keep up mapping! Good Job!

[DecoyZulu]

7 hours ago, Austinado said:

 

Hello, i have played your Wad...i think you could had more monsters, and sometimes i got a little confused where to go (Blue Key for instance) , to many doors closed, and you just gave shotgun in all the level....but i think it was a good first Wad...you keep up mapping! Good Job!

Thanks for the feedback and the video, Austinado! It helps me see the level the way the player does and make adjustments accordingly. The layout was not planned out terribly well in advance, admittedly. 

[Suitepee]

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/447434614

 

I play this at 1:55:17 into this livestream.

[DecoyZulu]

On 7/2/2019 at 6:39 PM, Suitepee said:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/447434614

 

I play this at 1:55:17 into this livestream.

Oh damn, that's cool. Really sorry it wasn't more polished up for your stream. I'm scratching my head something awful because in my testing I never saw any of the HOMs, but they're everywhere there! I was having some line and sector issues earlier, and I filled in all the missing texture warning signs, but it seems I sure messed something up. I was alternating between shame and amusement at the airing of my amateurish efforts. I hope you'll give it another run after I've fixed it up. Got a follow-up map in the works, as well. Hopefully, that one'll be playable at least.