Replacement for Entryway! A .wad file I made.

[xdude_gamer]

https://wadhosting.com/Wad/6A9FC7DB21D52AAE2461C7D08650366C965084BF for the .wad.

 

Basically, Entryway is too easy for me, and it gets boring really fast if you've played for about 20 months like me.

 

Using OBLIGE, I made a bit of a rough sketch, then changed around just a few minor details and called it my own. Please tell me how it is.

[Biodegradable]

It's okay, I guess. Oblige's influence still feels very much apparent regarding its texture-use and there's a lot of empty space going on that makes the map feel a little barren.

 

 

[Silhouette 03]

I'll try and formulate my thoughts about why I think OBLIGE wads aren't the best choice when it comes to mapping, and what you should do next. Played on UV, tested with GZDoom 4.6.1.

 

Gameplay

This brings us to the first problem of OBLIGE: it doesn't know how to make combat interesting, or make unique encounters or traps. There are basically no traps to speak of, besides one monster closet on the return trip from the blue key. The key to making good traps, at least in my eyes, is having traps that are well designed, i.e. challenge the player or catch them off guard, though they must be fair( the player must be able to survive the trap). You need to learn basic encounter and trap design, and how they are structured. Your best option is to study the IWADS, preferably Doom 1 and 2.

 

Layout

  There's a real sense of emptiness to quite a few areas in the map. Some areas feel a bit pointless, as they add very little to the actual map, other than being empty space, and making the map pointlessly big. I'm not sure if this is an OBLIGE thing or not, since I don't use OBLIGE. I just know the trends of OBLIGE maps, since they are often very obvious to the playtester.

 

Texturing and detailing

There's no real creative usage of textures here. It's all really stock standard, besides the exit room computer. Try and use textures creatively to give more life to these environments. Add a bit more detail, if necessary. Again, OBLIGE creates pretty... lifeless... environments, to put it bluntly.

 

Conclusion

The purpose of this playtest wasn't to insult your map, rather to guide you and set you on the right path. I don't know if this was your first wad, but I'd highly recommend leaving OBLIGE alone. Try and create something that is unique, and try to find your own mapping style by asking yourself: What maps do you like, and what mappers do you like? Take inspiration from their works, and eventually you'll develop your own personal style as you progress. 

 

[Hawk of The Crystals]

OBLIGE makes it a little errehhhaggggioueyhuiehjkgnwiujgbwlikujbgwk.

[Benjogami]

6 hours ago, xdude_gamer said:

Basically, Entryway is too easy for me, and it gets boring really fast if you've played for about 20 months like me.

imo check out underhalls

[kalensar]

2 hours ago, Silent Wolf said:

I'll try and formulate my thoughts about why I think OBLIGE wads aren't the best choice when it comes to mapping, and what you should do next. Played on UV, tested with GZDoom 4.6.1.

 

Gameplay

This brings us to the first problem of OBLIGE: it doesn't know how to make combat interesting, or make unique encounters or traps. There are basically no traps to speak of, besides one monster closet on the return trip from the blue key. The key to making good traps, at least in my eyes, is having traps that are well designed, i.e. challenge the player or catch them off guard, though they must be fair( the player must be able to survive the trap). You need to learn basic encounter and trap design, and how they are structured. Your best option is to study the IWADS, preferably Doom 1 and 2.

 

Layout

  There's a real sense of emptiness to quite a few areas in the map. Some areas feel a bit pointless, as they add very little to the actual map, other than being empty space, and making the map pointlessly big. I'm not sure if this is an OBLIGE thing or not, since I don't use OBLIGE. I just know the trends of OBLIGE maps, since they are often very obvious to the playtester.

 

Texturing and detailing

There's no real creative usage of textures here. It's all really stock standard, besides the exit room computer. Try and use textures creatively to give more life to these environments. Add a bit more detail, if necessary. Again, OBLIGE creates pretty... lifeless... environments, to put it bluntly.

 

Conclusion

The purpose of this playtest wasn't to insult your map, rather to guide you and set you on the right path. I don't know if this was your first wad, but I'd highly recommend leaving OBLIGE alone. Try and create something that is unique, and try to find your own mapping style by asking yourself: What maps do you like, and what mappers do you like? Take inspiration from their works, and eventually you'll develop your own personal style as you progress. 

 

 

Completely off topic, but on the subject of OBLIGE. I've had it generate entire megawads mainly out of boredom and seeing what it could do. And what I will say is that if you set the parameters to be close to what you want instead of willy nilly random then it can do a pretty decent job such as lining out what type of progression you want and what not as in episodic.

 

Normally I agree with the OBLIGE concensus that its a fun tool or toy to play with. But as far as it making traps I can tell you that the current version of OBLIGE can do those very well, and most of that lies within the SEED generation area. All I'm going to say is set the OBLIGE to Full megawad length set everything by hand to about average, set progression to episodic or campaign style. Then use the' Seed as 666666, read as six sixes and no more. This aint a joke, it generated good maps and mean traps. Super chaingunner and revenant heavy. I think I deleted my generated wad by accident but I remember it well just because it was a cheesy test of oblige making a megawad. It was fun cllear up to map 7 where I got stuck due to a gruesome encounter that was a ridiculously good trap.

[xdude_gamer]

Ah yes, I see. Oblige is lifeless, empty and uninteresting in terms of combat. Mostly I think this was meant to be a test to see if it could make a map that was worth a play. Thank you guys so much for your help and stuff on what is good and not good about the level's designs and other flaws.

[kalensar]

10 hours ago, xdude_gamer said:

Ah yes, I see. Oblige is lifeless, empty and uninteresting in terms of combat. Mostly I think this was meant to be a test to see if it could make a map that was worth a play. Thank you guys so much for your help and stuff on what is good and not good about the level's designs and other flaws.

 

OBLIGE is fine, it just requires a lot of experimenting in order for it to spit out something good. One thing Oblige is excellent for is giving a head start on a map. You can then import that wad into a map builder like SLADE or Doom Builder and then go wily nilly on it from there with texture changes and whatnot. Truly, feel free to keep using Oblige because has spat out me out some pretty cool map layouts before.

[Silhouette 03]

12 hours ago, kalensar said:

 

Completely off topic, but on the subject of OBLIGE. I've had it generate entire megawads mainly out of boredom and seeing what it could do. And what I will say is that if you set the parameters to be close to what you want instead of willy nilly random then it can do a pretty decent job such as lining out what type of progression you want and what not as in episodic.

 

Normally I agree with the OBLIGE concensus that its a fun tool or toy to play with. But as far as it making traps I can tell you that the current version of OBLIGE can do those very well, and most of that lies within the SEED generation area. All I'm going to say is set the OBLIGE to Full megawad length set everything by hand to about average, set progression to episodic or campaign style. Then use the' Seed as 666666, read as six sixes and no more. This aint a joke, it generated good maps and mean traps. Super chaingunner and revenant heavy. I think I deleted my generated wad by accident but I remember it well just because it was a cheesy test of oblige making a megawad. It was fun cllear up to map 7 where I got stuck due to a gruesome encounter that was a ridiculously good trap.

Thank you for the correction. I recently tested a map made with OBLIGE, and it had the same issue with encounter and trap design, so I came to the general conclusion that the program struggled with trap and encounter design. Thank you for the insight. I'll keep it in mind.

[kalensar]

10 hours ago, Silent Wolf said:

Thank you for the correction. I recently tested a map made with OBLIGE, and it had the same issue with encounter and trap design, so I came to the general conclusion that the program struggled with trap and encounter design. Thank you for the insight. I'll keep it in mind.

 

All I can tell you is OBLIGE is not horrible. It does exactly what it is made to do. You can get some decent maps, but never with the largest map size setting. lol. If you treat it with some care and an idea that doesn't rely completely on randomness then it can spit out okay stuff. The other important thing is to not use a random seed. There are no magic seed numbers but simply putting a number of your own choosing will be better than the usual randomness. 666666 was a pretty decent one to screw around with.

[xdude_gamer]

On 8/29/2021 at 3:48 PM, kalensar said:

 

Completely off topic, but on the subject of OBLIGE. I've had it generate entire megawads mainly out of boredom and seeing what it could do. And what I will say is that if you set the parameters to be close to what you want instead of willy nilly random then it can do a pretty decent job such as lining out what type of progression you want and what not as in episodic.

 

Normally I agree with the OBLIGE concensus that its a fun tool or toy to play with. But as far as it making traps I can tell you that the current version of OBLIGE can do those very well, and most of that lies within the SEED generation area. All I'm going to say is set the OBLIGE to Full megawad length set everything by hand to about average, set progression to episodic or campaign style. Then use the' Seed as 666666, read as six sixes and no more. This aint a joke, it generated good maps and mean traps. Super chaingunner and revenant heavy. I think I deleted my generated wad by accident but I remember it well just because it was a cheesy test of oblige making a megawad. It was fun cllear up to map 7 where I got stuck due to a gruesome encounter that was a ridiculously good trap.

 

Maybe a few changes and this will make a great Plutonia III haha