Improvements you would make to commercial Doom maps

[Sotenga]

I don't know if this would be more appropriate here or the mods forum, but I'm curious to know what anyone might do to improve the flow and/or structure of maps from Doom, Doom II, and Final Doom. No disrespect intended to the original authors! I'm just curious how modern-day Doom minds might jazz up the classics. For example:

 

Nuclear Plant (E1M2): I'd put a key somewhere in the maze area, but I think I'd also lighten it up a bit too. I'd keep the flashing lights, but I'd pitch up the contrast of the darkness about 20%. 

 

Hell Beneath (E4M1): I'd put a secret Plasma Rifle and large cell box somewhere in the map. Since it gives you most other weapons with little ammo, I figure I'd tilt the odds in favor by giving you one more weapon if you're willing to snoop.

 

The Pit (D2, map 9): I don't know why, but I find the slime pit area with the yellow key particularly pointless. I'd have sliced that part out entirely and put the yellow key in the infamous Chaingunner and Lost Soul ambush area instead.

 

Nirvana (D2, map 21): I'm not sure it's possible to polish this reviled level, but I would have at least have its segments connected by hallways instead of the disparate teleporter thing going on. Maybe make it non-linear so each area has a necessary key and put the exit back where you started instead of having a gap where you can waltz through one of the key doors. 

 

The Temple of Darkness (Plut, map 25): I'd have put a railing on that damn spiral staircase. One of the very few parts in Plutonia that I'd call outright fake difficulty, just negate the "challenge" aspect of it entirely.

 

Now I'm no mapper, but I'd like to hear thoughts from community members on how they'd punch up the original levels. And yes, I reaaaaaaaally need to play Doom The Way Id Did sometime.

[Henry]

I would just delete fucking chasm

[Gifty]

This is sacrilege but I would make Downtown linear

[baja blast rd.]

In Downtown I would have arrows pointing at everything so that the player finds it impossible to progress out of indecision. 

[Roofi]

I would have made Barrels of fun funnier  and tricks and traps more tricky 

[Omniarch]

I'd make all of Ultimate Doom's boss levels complete maps, with secrets and shit. Either that or turn them into Go 2 It style slaughter-lite maps, though such large-scale combat would probably fry most PCs available in '93.

 

For Doom 2, I'd replace the IoS with a slaughter-lite map and remove the stupid Wolf3D levels, maybe replace one of them with a Warrens-style re-tread of MAP01 or something to that effect.

 

I haven't played all of Final Doom yet, so I can't say anything about that, and the Master Levels are... well, I haven't actually played them, but if their reputation is anything to go by...

[Vaeros]

I would just remove or fix the bugged secret from Map15

[Pseudonaut]

Just add a berserk pack in the middle of E3M1 and it will finally be fun for UV-Max.

[ReX]

I'd make the city maps less uniformly brown.

[Tato]

I'd make all Petersen maps in Doom II less frustrating. Oh, and that big black arrow needs to go.

 

Kidding aside, I would also replace the numerous chaingunners and revenants in The Plutonia Experiment with something of a lesser demon class at lower difficulty settings. 

[Shepardus]

Put a super shotgun somewhere in Refueling Base.

[Tato]

1 minute ago, Shepardus said:

Put a super shotgun somewhere in Refueling Base.

What happened to the one you should've picked up in Underhalls? ;-)

[Pseudonaut]

3 minutes ago, Sign_of_Evil said:

What happened to the one you should've picked up in Underhalls? ;-)

Pistol start is the One True Way to Play Doom™.

[Tato]

1 minute ago, Pseudonaut said:

Pistol start is the One True Way to Play Doom™.

-wart -fastmonsters

 

gg :)

[Polri]

Ultimate Doom

 

E2M5: make the path to the secret level more convoluted, involve some of the optional areas in the map (like the plasma gun area) in the process of unlocking it

E3M5: change the music to something more church-related, for instance by involving organ sounds

E2M8 and E3M8: switch the boss fights: Spiderdemon in E2, Cybie in E3

 

Doom 2

 

M01: connect both outdoor areas, possibly with a secret path

M29: make beating the cyberdemon 29 mandatory to finish the level (or at least more challenging to skip)

 

TNT

 

M12: add a challenging fight in the crater area, instead of just one Baron

 

Plutonia

 

Plutonia is perfect as it is.

 

Edited March 2, 2021 by Polri

[Stupid Bunny]

Kill that tedious moving floor "puzzle" in Doom II MAP12

 

Also, as I've mentioned before I actually like the Wolf3D secret levels, but I think there was a less lazy approach to the gimmick where they made actual Doom II maps that simply included Wolf3D resources and the goofy SS men as an extra enemy, rather than just retreading the same old levels with a couple minor changes.  Then they'd actually be neat gimmicks instead of just a "oh lol I see what you did there gg guys"

[Spectre01]

Correct all the texture misalignments.

[GraphicBleeder]

I'd make the city levels in Doom 2 look more like actual cities.

[Nevander]

I've actually done some improvements to my least favorite map, E3M7. Which you can get and play here, under E3M7 Improved:

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/100595-nevanders-mini-mods-and-doom-mapping-portfolio-updated-113020/

 

[roadworx]

get rid of everything in downtown except the arrow

[wallabra]

I would make it good. Like, y'know, the Re-Volt ingame track editing thingy. ^{No?.... aw..}

[Scrabbs]

delete downtown and just the make a map a giant arrow

[Murdoch]

I suppose I would do a simple visual pass through and try to make some of the more abstract maps look more like the thing they are supposed to be, particularly in Doom 2. Refueling Base is a good example. It's not unfun, but when you stop and look at visually it's like what? Why does this outside space have flicking triangles of light with no attached light source? What are these stone pillars?

[DynamiteKaitorn]

For DooM:

E3M7 - DELETE IT. Seriously, it's a convoluted, horrifically made map that kills the fun flow DooM has set up to this point in the game, and being the 2nd to last map for my fav episode, it's a major blemish on one of the best FPS games in history.

 

E4M1 + E4M2 - lower the difficulties since the intros here are WAY too sadistic for what is really a mediocre episode.

 

E2M2 - Change the song. A lot of DooM fans love E2M2's theme but I personally can't stand it at all.

 

 

DooM II:

MAP08 - The whole gimmick of "Tricks & Traps" is that you're meant to meet tricks & traps around every corner... but apart from like 1 trap and the exit floor lowering trick, the map doesn't add much flare from the name. Personally, I'd try to get creative with sudden crushers, spontaneous traps inside traps and even add some cheeky power-ups that kill you if you go for them too quickly (as in, use secrets to access the power-ups otherwise get crushed and locked inside said crusher).

 

MAP25 - This map is honestly frustrating to try and finish due to the difficulty of the fountain room. Bloodfalls is really a testament to bad level designs; but with that said, one idea is maybe make the fountain room larger and add 2 angles of approach so you can get some cheeky snipes in but you'd be much closer to the enemies or be further away but harder to attack the enemies since a pillar or two is blocking your vision a little.

 

MAP28 - This would be the one map in DooM II I'd happily delete and re-do from scratch. For one thing, I'd try to make the map more uniform in texture usage as I personally think MAP28 is a bit too chaotic in it's design (or if we stay with the chaotic theme, make the entire map chaos) also the spider mastermind fight would probably be better if there was some kick to the challenge as currently you can quite easily gun her down with a few BFG blasts.

 

MAP30 - Not sure how many people would agree with me but I think MAP30 - Icon of Sin - feels rushed. All you do is ride up a slow pillar and try to aim a rocket in a very janky fashion into an exposed brain like 3-6 times and you win... which feels really unrewarding for a final boss.

[mxrgan]

In general Id remove the abundance of brown from most Doom 2 levels (Especially the city ones) and make the earlier Doom 1 episodes harder.

[Rytrik]

4 hours ago, rd. said:

In Downtown I would have arrows pointing at everything so that the player finds it impossible to progress out of indecision. 

 

And have some arrows pointing at each other -> <-

[P41R47]

44 minutes ago, Murdoch said:

I suppose I would do a simple visual pass through and try to make some of the more abstract maps look more like the thing they are supposed to be, particularly in Doom 2. Refueling Base is a good example. It's not unfun, but when you stop and look at visually it's like what? Why does this outside space have flicking triangles of light with no attached light source? What are these stone pillars?

that kinda sounds a lot like Doom 2 In Name Only, or are you telling of just add a few little touches for the areas to ''resemble'' what they are suppose to be?

[Doomkid]

I’d connect the two outdoor areas in Map01, similar to what Dwango5 M1 does. I’d also love it if the lift in the brown Ashwall room dropped back down to the start area with the chainsaw!

[forgettable pyromaniac]

"Hey Sandy, you know what would really help with  this fight? A super f*cking shotgun!"

[Gokuma]

The pre-release version of map01 is kinda like that where you can circle back to the beginning.   But the big room is textured in pipes instead of ashwall and there's no chainsaw, while there's a lot of demons to deal with instead of imps.