Lab Infestation (My third map)

[inkoalawetrust]

                                  

                                  

 

After a month of back and forth work and motivation on this i have finally finished it and decided that this is the first map i should upload here.*

 

A month or so ago i had made a map simply called lab.wad, i finished it and was fine with it and started working on another map, but eventually i started getting multiple ideas for a map and since they fit the theme of lab.wad i decided that instead of making a new map from scratch, i should just expand upon lab.wad** and room by room idea by idea the current final version of lab extended.wad came to be.

 

The map definitely works with GZDoom and i don't see any reason for why it wouldn't work on other ZDoom based ports like Zandronum since i don't think i used any GZDoom specific features in it.

 

Edit: I made a second version with some small improvements: 

An extra step on the portal in the final room so you don't have to jump on it

Clarification on what you need to do to in the final room

Buffed the chainsaw zombies

 

Download: https://drive.google.com/open?id=10tUKHcmrgatUWldgina8NXjc8__Q_m3H (I couldn't get the archive to upload on the forum.)

 

Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/XZOYYGR (Sorry that i don't know how to embed imgur albums)

 

 

The Orginal lab.wad

 

The original map is a pretty small map i had made after watching several long gameplay videos of mods like brutal doom and project brutality and thinking to myself " I should try making a map like those cool maps these channels record videos of". The map is about 5-13 minutes of gameplay or maybe even less.

 

*I'll upload my very first serious working map sooner or later along with my second one.

**And because i didn't even know where to start with a new map

 

 

Edited August 17, 2019 by inkoalawetrust : Updated file

[FruitOfTheDoom]

You might want to add another screenshot to your post.

 

I looked at your other screenshots via the link you provided. Having only that brown outdoors screenshot doesn't give much sense of what the level is like. The current screenshot you've featured on this post has a lot of solid color parts and texture repetitions. It doesn't communicate very well. Pretty much any of the other screenshots you have would be better probably.

 

Anyway, just thought I'd try to help a bit. Have a good day.

[Magicana]

Did a playthrough of your wad

 

 

Overall was pretty decent - Lot of places to explore. Progression felt a little weird for me, but the only thing that really tripped me up was the end. I ended up just jumping because I had no idea what else I was meant to do. Were you meant to jump up to finish? Or did I miss something. I'm going to guess that I missed something because I only got 50% of the kills, but I just can't see how I was meant to progress any further.

 

The custom monsters also didn't really hit the mark for me. Long corridors full of chainsaw zombies isn't particularly threatening. 

 

Lots of neat little ideas though.

 

Edit: I had a brief IDCLIP through the map. Found the other 50% of the monsters - They're in the strange secret area that I also can't work out how to reach (I'm not familiar with UDMF mapping). Yeah, I don't really know what to say. I hated these guys in Valiant and they aren't any better en-masse.

 

I also hauled ass after killing the cyberdemon to "Jump" with the lowering pillars onto this part of the exit. I also can't get up to the exit linedef. I presume you're meant to jump then, but the rest of the map didn't involve any jumping at all. 

 

Edited August 17, 2019 by Magicana

[FruitOfTheDoom]

Oh, I see you changed the screenshot and a got a review now. Good to see.

 

You have a bunch of interesting uses of custom art assets in the level, which is pretty cool. The overall level is far better than the original brown aerial view screenshot made it look. There were some wonky moments in the level but it's still interesting overall.

[inkoalawetrust]

14 hours ago, Magicana said:

I ended up just jumping because I had no idea what else I was meant to do. Were you meant to jump up to finish? Or did I miss something. I'm going to guess that I missed something because I only got 50% of the kills, but I just can't see how I was meant to progress any further.

 

I should've probably made it more obvious that in the final room you need to kill all the monsters in the excavation site and cave for the bars to lower.

Also yes i accidentally made the steps too big to simply walk up to and i may end up making a minor update on the map eventually with some changes.

 

14 hours ago, Magicana said:

the rest of the map didn't involve any jumping at all. 

 

 

In the hangar bay there is a bunch of ammunition on top of the ship that you need to jump over the rails to get but i presume you took the highest platform and launched yourself on top of the ship by sprinting instead.

 

14 hours ago, Magicana said:

Found the other 50% of the monsters - They're in the strange secret area that I also can't work out how to reach

 

 

The way to get to the desert section is hidden inside the final room and requires you to climb something and jump on it until you can see the trigger to go to the secret desert section.

And also that desert section is 100% a Serious Sam reference complete with almost the exact small opening text of the first level in The First Encounter.

Edited August 17, 2019 by inkoalawetrust : Clarification

[Misty]

I can suggest, that you should try more continuous mapping design and rely less on tight corridors with meat shields in the future mapping, also ceilings could use more love. Well, I can see that you have plenty of creative ideas, keep it up. 

[Magicana]

6 hours ago, inkoalawetrust said:

 

I should've probably made it more obvious that in the final room you need to kill all the monsters in the excavation site and cave for the bars to lower.

Also yes i accidentally made the steps too big to simply walk up to and i may end up making a minor update on the map eventually with some changes.

 

 

In the hangar bay there is a bunch of ammunition on top of the ship that you need to jump over the rails to get but i presume you took the highest platform and launched yourself on top of the ship by sprinting instead.

 

 

The way to get to the desert section is hidden inside the final room and requires you to climb something and jump on it until you can see the trigger to go to the secret desert section.

And also that desert section is 100% a Serious Sam reference complete with almost the exact small opening text of the first level in The First Encounter.

 

The bars were fine - That last room was probably my favorite. Plenty of room to move, but with threats coming from everywhere. It's also more dangerous than it looks, because there are objects that can splash the rockets from the Cyberdemon just laying around. My only other thing would be to release the Cyber during the fight with the other monsters, but that's probably because I'm simultaneously playing through Sunder and everything that can go wrong, does go wrong in that mapset.

 

Yeah I grabbed that ammo - I launched myself like a rocket off the very top and landed it. I thought that was a cool bit of manoeuvring, good use of 3d space. I don't mind jumping being required, it's probably just a good idea to either require it or not to - And then use that requirement through the map to condition the player for it.

 

Ahh, I've never played Serious Sam so I missed that reference.

 

--

 

On Youtube you also said you never expected anyone to video your map. That's precisely why I do it. I'm a new mapper as well, and watching how people approach your map is 10x as valuable as a text comment on the forums. One of the biggest problems with level design is complete foreknowledge of how the level operates, where to go, etc. Watching someone play and the paths -they- take really helps give a sense of how the level flowed for that player, relative difficulty, etc. Obviously there are gaps in player skill, because someone like Ancalagon might play through and not get touched, but it gives a rough idea of balancing.

 

Anyway, I did enjoy the map. Good stuff, interested to see more from you.

[Suitepee]

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/470911218

 

I play this at 3:08:15 into this playtest livestream. I somehow missed out on about 200+ monsters. Ending was a bit meh.