What is/are the most unique thing(s) you have done in your mapping career?

[Roofi]

Hi all!

 

The mappers, myself included, are inspired by maps already made to create new ones or take ideas to distort them to his own liking.

However, sometimes, it happens to make particularly original things, little or never seen in other wads. It can go from the biggest to the smallest: a new theme, a mapping trick never discovered before, a decorative element, a style of gameplay...

To illustrate what I mean it would be for example:

- The final boss of Kama Sutra that I will not describe.
- Ancient Aliens themes
- the turrets in Mapgame

...

 

 

 

For my part I can mention:

- A bar with mugs of beer (Tangerine Nightmare Map 07)
- A secret key made with a sector and lower it to show that we take it (TN map 07)
- An ultra long 3D bridge that takes at least 20 seconds to cross (Deadly Standards 2 - E2M8)
- A final battle against a cyber taking place on a boat (DS2 - E2M8)
- A staircase that flattens to create a new room below (Mayhem 2018 Orange , map 20)

[Wagi]

I created a deathmatch level based on TNT's most despised level. Does that count?

[Bauul]

Pretty much all of my levels are built around a specific idea or gimmick (for better or worse).  They range from pretty basic ideas, like "what if there were four levels in one?" (Foursite) to "What if the map was a single cube of interconnecting rooms, 3x3x3, that rearranged themselves during the course of the level?" (The Steamclock Labyrinth, map F3 of Elementalism).

 

The most ridiculous thing I probably ever did was the final map (CONF54) of the Community episode of Confinement 256.  The idea was "What if I used moving walls and dynamic portals to make a single 256x256 map-unit room feel like a much larger map?"

 

The result was a relatively basic map:

 

 

But featured 39 portals and 60 moving sector walls, all of which were changed, rearranged and redirected over the course of the map.  Overall, the level rearranges itself 23 times, and the player navigates through the same physical space multiple times without realizing it.  In total, it took over 1,300 lines of ACS to program everything.

 

I'm super proud of how it turned out, but it's not something I'd probably attempt again any time soon.

[Deadwing]

The shittiest final boss for my Exomoon megawad, also the pick-ups as "enemies" lmao

[ViolentBeetle]

4 hours ago, Wagi said:

I created a deathmatch level based on TNT's most despised level. Does that count?

Which one?

 

On the subject, I don't think I made anything particularly unique, though I did make a chain of teleporters filled with revenants who teleport around pretty much every time they make a step, I don't think anyone ever made something this unpleasant.

I also made a sector Black Mesa-style monorail (Doesn't move) as an exit room, but I'm pretty sure someone done something like this before.

And also a map centered around a raising platform that raises connecting two passages allowing you to ascend higher and higher. This was actually the idea that motivated me to get into mapping.

[DynamiteKaitorn]

Probably my 4th TMoD project: 3D Adventures since this was the first time I ever properly sat down and tried to utilise 3D models in my projects as well as portals. Sure it's not the fanciest TMoD ever but I really do love this instalment since I think it's the point where my mapping went from bland and bad to interesting and more of my own flare and style of mapping. Another thing: It's the first TMoD fully designed around the idea of a third person view. This meant I had to think better with level designs since now the player can see a bit further around Dynamite than usual.

 

Now I was going to mention what may very well by the 6th instalment of TMoD but... I wanna keep it a surprise. ;)

[RichardDS90]

Pretty proud of my Sonic loop I made. Sure, it's non functional. But it's there. And a 720 degree circle, take that Lunatic Fringe!

[Stabbey]

I try and do at least one a level.

 

Map 01 - a puzzle where the player needs to cross a floor pattern with a grid of various colored floors in order to raise some ceilings and raise some floors others so that there is a clear path to run across a gap. If they cross the wrong lines, all that happens is that some ceilings lower and some floors lower, making it impossible to get across.

 

Map 02 - More floor/ceiling raising/lowering goodness to create a ground path which apparently crosses under some floors and over others in one continuous path. It's no longer impressive at all in the era of fake 3D floors.

 

Map 03 - A simple, but remarkably challenging setpiece fight where the player is essentially stuck in a tower needing to rocket-snipe an Arch-Vile and the horde of monsters. The distance is just enough that hitting the Arch-Vile among the enemies is hard, but close enough that the enemies and Arch-Vile will use suppressing fire to discourage the player from emerging. Pain Elementals and Cacodemons help keep the player from seeking shelter elsewhere.

 

Map 08 - The area I like to refer to as "The Blue Key Palace". The most elaborate exterior I've ever done (not actually impressive by this forum's standards), the largest battle arena I've ever made, and an impressive interior space, but what I like the most is the changes which appear once you leave the structure.

 

Map 11 - A self-raising staircase which forms a circle, large enough to enclose the entire rest of the level inside it, and rises up 504 units in total.

 

[Tristan]

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

[jazzmaster9]

There is a secret in one of my old maps where you need to find a key hidden in another secret to open. inside was a Health Bonus that gave 0 health. Not much but it's honest work.

[Archanhell]

Well, leaving my big team-project TCTOA aside for reasons I have already, say I can talk a bit about my first wad/mod, Entering the Impending Chaos.

 

MAP01 forced you to tread carefully through the map, starting with nothing with fists and having to utilize your resources without greed, the first room you go in is dark and full of Specters, but the player doesn't fully know it until taking the pistol - The best here is just fleeing to the next area, but some who played it decided to risk, good enough!

 

Going with the same level, everything goes normal, prioritizing saving resources and being stealthy, using the enviroment and monsters to help yourself, you have to kill a Sargeant Guy here if you want to have the shotgun - There is not much more here, but I made some sectors that looks like a boss hall, you get two sides with ammunition and armour, and that is basically all there.

Other two gimmicks on MAP01 and what apparently everyone liked: When you get the blue key and get past the blue door, you see a dormant pinky with a

 

Hell Knight and upon crossing a line the player descends temporarily into madness (Lore-wise, because it's their first time seeing such a horrible enviroment full of dead marines and monsters) and gets "teleported" into an eldritch version of the base, having to fight even worse enemies with eerie music, and you see how your "friends" die by a lot of Barons.

The second one is finding the Super Shotgun on a 'secret' area, inside some kind of coffin-shaped altar lying on a flowerbed and protected by some Cultists.

 

 

MAP02 is an escape from prison, prioritizing even more the concept of stealth even if it was not full possible utilizing Wandering enemies, you have no weapons but a knife and a silenced pistol - Upon finding the sewers and escaping, you have to run through a snowy land full of monsters of all kind, head to a temple and just kill all enemies there with your knife or pistol, entering a portal.

 

 

MAP03, the unfinished map one where I took some break, but forgot it and then my PC was formatted losing all my stuff.

This one is my favourite.

 

Basically, "Relinquish to your Humanity" - Those who entered Hell would slowly stop being human if they were such from the beginning, and the player has to kill a sargeant and a few zombies to get the Shotgun again, this area has a lot of obligatory areas and a single, large optional one - The Laboratory.

So what is the good thing on this area? There is an actual living marine who serves as your guide.

 

You have to find and enter the Laboratory killing many mech-themed and scientist enemies, then on the second room you find a marine who is enclosed within a control room, saying how his friend left with an experimental weapo and he is confined there, he uses computer panels scattered through the area to communicate with you, give your hints and advices and overall telling you about the base, so you soon or later get to a room with two mini-bosses, kill them, blah blah, get a key which is obtained with a lowering sector, travel to an area full of biological habitats, get a special laser pistol, trigger a trap where enemies teleport, you kill them all aaaaaand - Here is one of my favorite parts.

 

The Forbidden Sector is a dark eerie area based around survival horrors such as Dead Space and I don't know, you have to tread carefully and fight drones, turrets, guards, all kind of enemiies, the marine tells you there is an experiment called "The Deathbringer" who is an inmortal being, and if the player was to find him, they have to lure him to The Crusher.

So, the player explores and finds a staircase, goes up killing enemies and when they open the door there is  The Deathbringer, Walrider Chase music played here and the player had to do what the marine said, luring the monster into a Crusher to kill him as he was immortal, if they failed, the enemy would revive until it was killed.

The rest of the area has a boss and all, so let's stop there.

 

 

Of the last completed areas I had...

You entered a hotel which had a lot of marines walking around and such, you roamed around, met new guys and got a lot of cool stuff (All this I am saying is on "Show your Doom Pictures" or something like that, by the way) until findind a guy who told you to go upstairs, because the electricity was gone and he could swear he seen some enemies, I use horror here to make the player fight some dark enemies, get to the electricity room and then when you pressed the switch you descended into madness again, going through the same eldritch enviroment but this time the marines were basically zombies, you kill all of them, get to a mirror inside an elevator and are teleported to the Mirror Realm, what I did here was make it so the player NOW HAS TO FIND FOUR SWITCHES BECAUSE WHY NOT, the Area's boss is The Jester, a Diabolist who knows it all and fights the marine (After he transformed from an Archvile to a Diabolist), in the end the boss dies telling a hint to the player.

 

 

...Don't worry about more walltexts, that's all because the map was unfinished, but the concept was getting Three Skulls from three different areas, then you would go to a hall guarded by Evil Knights, using each skull to enter a room and fight a pair of Mini-Bosses, and lastly you would fight Doomguy on a "I do not want to do this" battle.

yeah that's all have fun reading Ig

 

 

 

[joepallai]

Either the day to night cycle in Parechesis or the trap I did in Entryway1.2

[Chainie]

-Placed weapon on column sprite in OOWFMLD

-I've made a switch, which can be both G1 and S1 in vanilla doom. But i haven't released a map with this trick though.

-Used sprites as shadows

Edited August 14, 2020 by Chainie

[pcorf]

2048x2048

[NaZa]

In my very oldest maps I somehow managed to make doors (normal, action 1) that require you to press on them twice before they open. I never managed to replicate that later. 

[SilverMiner]

The most of things I've done, I forgot. However the unique things I remember:

 

Horisontally sliding doors and railings in Boom/Eternity

 

Waggling water in Boom (There's only two maps to use this feature but none of them publically released at the moment)

Back in the days I used crushers to change 3d floors' heights to achieve water waggling in Zdoom (I didn't know about ACS)

 

Breakable ashwalls for vanilla/boom

In my boom maps they are almost all replaced by sliding ashwalls and zimmers

 

I specially let the player to go out of the playing area (even out of bonds) and let him go back, so that I create special speedrunning routes and super secrets that don't count as secrets. I know the only one released map with this feature, but there's at least two of a kind

 

 

 

I no longer make linear maps

[Pierrot]

The final map of my wad ruinsawa involves an obscure ceremony lead by the demons that you're supposed to stop to end the ride.

 

Basically you start the map facing a crowd of demons scattered around a sawed Romero head (edited so it got rid of the pike) that levitates slowly up in the air. At the end you teleport right in front of the head and the two of you quickly drop back down to the ground.

 

I thought a close up of Romero was a fun touch to end a final battle.

 

 

[Chopkinsca]

I wish a certain thing I did wasn't so unique (not tooting my own horn). I'd love to play someone else's attempt at a more classic adventure game style type of mod. It just isn't the same playing my own when I know all the clues, answers and mysteries.

[Clippy]

One time I made a map that had 100 secrets in it