My First Map: Crate Factory

[Basin_is_BACK]

Thanks to DavidN's fantastic videos on Doom mapping, particularly his 7-part series on making a level for the Theme-Gawad, I've caught the mapping bug. This is my first attempt, using the Theme-Gawad rules (3072 x 3072 size, some restrictions on monsters and weapons), as a guideline but not an absolute rule.

 

Info: Map made in Ultimate Doombuilder, in the UDMF format and tested solely using gzDoom and the Doom II IWAD. I've scaled the size of a couple of textures and added some false floors, so I don't think it's Vanilla-compatible, but it might work with some other ports. I don't think there are any particular rendering requirements or anything either, but I know nothing about that side of things so I can't guarantee anything. The textures are all Doom II, and I've not used any different music so feel free to add your own.

Freelook is expected and ok, and I don't *think* jumping will have much effect on gameplay, but it is discouraged. 

 

The map itself is rather linear with fights along the way. I'm not sure exactly how difficult it is, but I'd guess it would around the Doom II level. I can breeze through on easy, beat it on medium if I'm careful, and I haven't bothered trying hard because I'm fairly confident it would be too much for me, a fairly novice Doom player. Feedback on the difficulty would be especially appreciated!

 

Beyond that, any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

 

(Edited to add updated file with missing textures fixed)

(Edited again to upload 2nd update, with corrected secrets and doors)

 

 

 

Crate_Factory_01.zip

Edited May 20, 2021 by Basin_is_BACK

[Silhouette 03]

A promising start with a Doom 2 Episode 1 styled map. Played on UV, tested in GZDoom 4.5.0

 

Gameplay

Very fast, yet smooth feeling encounters that have some teeth to them. Very enjoyable to play, since the fights don't go on for too long, and feel dragged out. There is, however, one criticism I have with the combat. Some of the later fights seem to require the SSG, or at least a hard hitting weapon. You do give the player a rocket launcher, though rockets aren't in an abundant supply. Having more firepower would be welcome, is what I'm saying.

 

Layout

Pretty simple, though no areas feel to narrow and there is an adequate amount of height variation as to not feel to flat.

 

Texturing

Solid texturing throughout, and simplistic use of vanilla textures. Not really much else to say.

 

Bugs

There's a missing texture here:https://imgur.com/a/zdOiIqN

This door is set to far into the floor ( I hope this sounds right) : https://imgur.com/a/5rpOARv

There's something odd with this texture, might want to take a second look: https://imgur.com/a/5rpOARv

The sky texture has been applied to a wall: https://imgur.com/a/09Qux6C

 

Conclusion

Very promising start, man. I thoroughly enjoyed playing through this one. Good stuff. 

 

 

[Delisk]

 

When I see "first map" in the title I know there are 2 possibilities.

• Its literally their first map, they messed around and the editor, placed a few random and items and called it a day, leaving everyone wonder why they lost their time with this crap.
• Its the first map they released, a few things show they are new but all around you can see a strong efforts put in this.

Your map is strongly in the second option. keep on the good work buddy! Frankly it is almost hard to believe this is your first map.

 

The layout of the map is really good everything flow together nicely, the encounters a just hard enough to keep you on your toes with out being unfair, I like how manage to often have the player attacked on more than one side at once.

 

There is a few missing texture (inside the monster closed near the end) and one of your window as a messed up skybox, but these should take you about 2 min to fix.

 

There is a few monster who never showed up, I don't know if they where in a secret or if they where just shy, I could hear them and I was close but never found them.

 

All around a excellent first map my friend. I will look forward to your next map.

Edited May 2, 2021 by Delisk

[GhostPlayer]

The map is very good, in my video you can see some of the errors.

 

 

[Biodegradable]

Very nice techbase map, dude. Besides a couple of texture errors, this is a solid effort with fun combat scenarios, smooth progression, interesting layout and a good sense of design and detailing. Very good first impression and I'd love to see more maps from you later down the line. :^)

 

 

[Basin_is_BACK]

Thanks for the feedback and the playthroughs everyone. It was very informative to see how actual Doom players approached the map blind, as well as letting me spot places where I'd forgotten to change the textures as the map evolved. I've uploaded a new version of the map with the textures fixed and a linedef altered to activate when players climb into the nukage pool in a way I hadn't realised was actually possible!

 

I thought about making the secrets a little less obtuse, as well as adding a few in the spots where they were clearly expected, but I don't want to get caught up in an endless cycle of perfectionist edits, so I think I'll leave the map as is for now.

[Clippy]

 

[Basin_is_BACK]

Thanks for the replay and commentary Clippy. You managed to catch quite a few bugs that I either hadn't noticed before or cropped up during my last edit (such as the Cacodemons getting loose the first time you enter the first main factory room and the blue door room not being tagged as secret, when you're the first person to find it!)

 

Other than that I think it's very clear that as a beginner, I have my own idiosyncratic ideas about secret placement which don't follow the usual conventions. Socmething to think on.

 

Anyway, thanks again for the commentary, I hope you enjoyed it!

[FireWarden1000]

I tested Crate Factory MAP0.wad with GZDoom on Hurt Me Plenty, this map needs more improvement, 57/100. The crates in the rooms will restrict movement in a room, and will cause monsters to be stuck in the boxes. If rooms were empty, or if the crates were placed in rows instead of random locations, the monsters would be able to move around the crates. Placing monsters in front of each other will cause the monsters to attack each other. I see ambushes start with enemies attacking each other. Ammo, and health was provided in huge quantities, which will reduce the difficulty of the map. Adding more enemies to ambush locations will increase the chances of monsters injuring the player. Smaller rooms means you will have less room to add enemies. Larger rooms will provide you more room to add enemies.

[Basin_is_BACK]

Thanks for the feedback! It's nice to have some advice on improvement rather than just praise.

 

If you have a spare 15 minutes I'd love to hear your opinions on the Ultra Violence version of the map, it's got more monsters and less health. This doesn't address all of the problems you cited (the crate placement, the infighting) but it would be slightly less easy.

[ScrappyMcDoogerton]

Hello 0/ Just played through your map on UV and I've got some notes for ya!

 

First off I will mention that I tried playing this map in PrBoom+ however I got an error related to the vertexes lump and so the map would not load. I don't know how to fix a vertexes lump so I'm sorry I can't help you fix that. So I just switched over to GZDoom MBF strict compat.

 

Playing through this map on UV was very easy. Anyone who plays modern Doom maps on UV will have no trouble breezing through this one. This is not a criticism, just some feedback on how difficult the map is. You could easily add a few Revenants to some of the fights and give the player an ssg at some point if you want to spice up the difficulty a little bit.

 

I tried to be fairly thorough looking for secrets, but after reaching the exit I hadn't found any of them. I was also missing a few kills. I went back through the map to try for 100% completion and after using IDDT there was still 1 secret that never showed on the map. The last four monsters I was missing were here

 

but their closet did not open so 100% kills was also not possible for me.

 

Overall, for a first effort I found this map to be really fun. The texture work was mostly good, the layout was not confusing, and the fights were interesting enough to keep me wanting to press forward to the next one, even if they were a bit too easy for my personal taste.

[FireWarden1000]

I tested out Crate Factory MAP01.wad on Ultra-Violence. I did not see a difference between Hurt Me Plenty, and Ultra-Violence. I used the shotgun through most of the map, and I had full ammo before exiting the map. I actually didn't even need to use the chaingun or the rocket launcher. The monsters attacking each other was one of the main problems with the map. Chaingunners shoot everyone, and Demons are placed in locations where they will not be able to approach the player. The last part of the map, the crushers actually destroyed the Cacodemons. The rooms with the keys, the Imps were attacking the Cacodemons, and the Demons. Take your time with map development, there is no reason to rush the map out the door. Spread out monster placement throughout the map, even if this means adding more areas to the entire map.