My first REAL DEAL Doom WAD!

[TheRevenant212]

I just finished working on my first true-blue Doom WAD. This took a whole lot of time, so I hope it was worth it! I should mention this is kinda a teaser/beta for a megawad I am working on. Depending on the reception this gets I may even make it the opening level. Only time will tell. I'd REALLY appreciate some feedback on this! Thanks!

 

Welcome to: The UAC Escape!

 

Story: Taking place sometime after the Final Doom experiment, Doomguy is stranded on a strange new base. Monsters surround each corner. He must find an escape to get back to his home planet! But be wary, there are secrets that this base houses.

 

Made using: Doom Builder 2

 

Have fun!

 

 

UACescape.zip

Edited September 1, 2022 by TheRevenant212

[Tompig]

Just blasted through it, well done!

 

I enjoyed it and had a good time, here is some feedback that I would like you to consider for future projects though if I may...

 

1: Lower your ceilings, the rooms in this map felt very tall to me, and nearly became overwhelming due to the verticality, I think the height in general should be a little lower, which will allow you to use taller structures later for more 'wow' sections.

 

2: More monsters and more ammo, I was playing on UV and had fun but I wanted more to shoot! I was also really expecting a teleporter ambush at the rocket launcher and blue key.

 

3: Watch your textures, a few mis-aligned textures there, over all I got a good star-base vibe, I think maybe run through the map once or twice more, just add a few detail tweaks, maybe another section before the exit with lots of bad-guys to mow down, and you'll be golden.

[TheRevenant212]

Awesome! So glad you had a good time! I'll make sure to take those criticisms to heart and apply them to my megawad!

[Lucius Wooding]

I generally agree with Tompig, so I'l just add a few things to work on. It's clear you're still learning how to do things so I encourage you to keep learning and experimenting. It's far from the worst map I've played and it's at least beatable and has a working exit and stuff. Here are some things to consider:

 

-The required blue key door isn't using a door related texture. Textures that are typically used for doors, switches, and lifts are important to signal the player how your maps work and where the progression is. Just because a texture is blue does not make me assume it’s a blue key door, especially when you use a lot of different textures and it doesn’t look that out of place to have a random section of Compblu. In a small map it isn't a big deal but the more you make it clear to the player how to progress the better. For hidden non required doors this doesn't apply obviously.

 

-To add to the above, the exit switch isn't marked which you should usually be in the habit of doing. Some players like to go for all kills and secrets and could press it prematurely thinking it opens something and have to replay the run. Either the classic exit door texture on the door or making little exit signs by the switch is a nice courtesy to the player. 

 

-Some of the hanging decorations block the player's movement depending on their settings. I think by default in GZdoom it's possible to run underneath cacodemons, on top of torches and stuff. But traditionally monsters and many decorations usually block movement and are infinitely tall in terms of collision. Many players play with these settings so it's important to be aware of, you can always make a little ledge cut into the wall to tuck the decoration out of the way. I nearly died to a revenant and lost soul in a narrow corridor due to a hanging corpse making an invisible wall I couldn't see because the ceiling was so high. Or, you could specify that it's not meant to be played with infinitely tall actors if you prefer. Personally I like to design so as many source ports as possible provide a good experience.

 

-There were misaligned textures in a lot of places which is one thing, but if you rely on misaligned textures to hide secrets they don't look out of place and you force the player to hump the entire map. Plus the hidden plasma was fairly important for ammo. There are both horizontal and vertical auto alignment tools for textures but they often require tweaking since they don't always work exactly how you want. I recommend being careful about your geometry so it's easier to align everything; don't necessarily make everything square but try to keep things neat and keep things somewhat aligned to the grid. Otherwise things are harder to keep track of and it's more work to get it looking clean.

 

-There is no lighting variation in the map whatsoever. It's not necessary to go wild with it, but even a little attention to lighting can make a simple room look much better. I encourage you to experiment a bit with different levels and lighting effects, especially in indoor areas. Sometimes even making it look cheesy and overly dramatic can be really cool looking in practice.

 

-Be aware, monsters on high ledges like the imps are awkward to kill especially if the platforms are high like this. This goes especially for players not using freelook, if you make them really high up it can be impossible to auto aim onto them. In this case it just hurt your already tight ammo supply since the shotgun pellets would tend to only hit with around half and especially so with the SSG. Not a big issue but something to keep in mind for those types of placements. 

 

-On a lot of these fights, the monsters would just spill from room to room as soon as you make noise, especially with all the open space. I think the blue key fight was supposed to have enemies out there but they all left before I got to it. Also the revenants on the steps seemed like they were supposed to stay up there but would just spill out and wander around. Using monster blocking and sound blocking linedefs, lifts and the ambush tag will help make your encounters make a lot more sense. There are lots of video and written tutorials out there, or you could open a map that uses them and try to learn from that. Otherwise monsters will just swarm into a ball and wander in your direction as best they can.

 

-Minor thing, the exit door's doortracks are unpegged, most doors in the map properly peg those textures so they don't move up and down. Sometimes people do this on purpose but it's commonly missed by mappers.

 

-There are some things placed outside the map which isn't a big deal, but you should get in the habit of using the "map checks" feature which will automatically scan the map and list things like missing textures, stuck monsters, and things placed out of bounds so you can keep those basics in check. With big maps it's a lifesaver. It's called "Map Analysis Mode" under "Mode" with the hotkey F4 in Doombuilder, I assume Doombuilder 2 is basically the same.

 

-I'd definitely list out more information about the map as detailed in this thread: 

A lot of people will skip any thread that doesn't detail stuff like this. 

 

Anyway, congrats on getting officially started as a mapper, I hope you keep working and master the craft. It's a very high bar to please this community since we've been spoiled with amazing stuff for nearly 30 years. 

[TheRevenant212]

Thanks for the feedback and encouragement man! I had no clue about a lot of this and you really helped show me some new techniques and also pointed out some previous flaws. Hope that you still had fun with this!

[xScavengerWolfx]

3 hours ago, TheRevenant212 said:

I just finished working on my first true-blue Doom WAD. This took a whole lot of time, so I hope it was worth it! I should mention this is kinda a teaser/beta for a megawad I am working on. Depending on the reception this gets I may even make it the opening level. Only time will tell. I'd REALLY appreciate some feedback on this! Thanks!

 

Welcome to: The UAC Escape!

 

Story: Taking place sometime after the Final Doom experiment, Doomguy is stranded on a strange new base. Monsters surround each corner. He must find an escape to get back to his home planet! But be wary, there are secrets that this base houses.

 

Made using: Doom Builder 2

 

Have fun!

 

 

UACescape.zip

Screen shots?

[TheRevenant212]

Sorry, I didn't know you could take screen shots in the builder at this point as Lucius kindly informed me

[TheRevenant212]

Here's the screenshot of the map!

[Dubbag]

 

[Herr Dethnout]

Played on UV with Doom Retro!
 

Spoiler

First of all, congrats for releasing your first map! It's great to see more people going into this community c:

Now about your level, well, it's clear you're learning about mapping and theres a lot of flaws and oddly design decisions. In general, the map feels pretty empty and incomplete (however, you stated in your post that still in "beta phase" so it's ok)

I liked some things, like the getting a shotgun really fast (regular shotgun fan present heh)

also this areas (along the 2 secret ones) looked pretty cool and well designed (loved the enemy turrets).

 

Spoiler

Now let's talk about the flaws or thinks I dont like

First of all, the enemy placement seems pretty random, and the fact is a really low monster count for a pretty open map makes it even worse.

Speaking of the open map, although I liked it in some times (like fighting against the Revenants), it looked so big and mostly simple, as said before, the monster count is so low on UV to justify the size of the map.

You made a lot weirdly texture choices, some of them doesn't really work well in large structures, I suggest to use a combination of upper and lower textures (instead of using just a floor o ceil column, use a half floor and ceil column) for columns with textures like compwall.

Spoiler

Also, what's up with that Keen? It was funny to see it, but I don't understand the sense of having it.
 

Spoiler

There's a lot of textures misalingments too, one that I particulary hate are the ones that leads to secrets rooms (I rather use similar textures with another palette or similar textures with a difference rather tan misalign the texture for secret hints)
 

Spoiler

Talking about the secret room... (SPOILER)

Spoiler

I didn't like the fact that the secret room leads to another IMO

About the design, I'm starting to think this map was made with use of Mouselook in mind, since the ceilings are too tall, theres decorations in the ceiling that I barely notice because is too tall.

 

Spoiler

I suggest a variation in the brightness too, can help with the atmosphere in some parts (e.g. Dark sectors in the corridor leading to the blue key area making the spectres less noticeable)

Other thing I noticed is the absense of doors (only 4), this make the monsters of the other sectors hear the sound and notice you way before you go to that places. If you don't add a door, at least block the sound of the sectors to avoid that.

I'm puzzled about this decoration, at first I thinked it was a secret hint since it looked out of place but it seems is just a odd decoration choice.
 

Spoiler

I was specting that the Blue Key area have a damaging floor effect, but it doesn't, a wasted oportunity :/
 

Spoiler

Also, this I hate this little unpasable part, I would be better if you separate it more.

Spoiler

About the exit, aside the fact you used a Normal door and didn't used the exit texture to mark it, you used 2 different textures for switch and walls. I know that doom have a pretty limited switch texture selection, it would be better to use similiar texture for the switch and for the walls to avoid discrepancy.

The switch texture is misalingned btw.

Spoiler

And last but not least, let's talk about your post.

You missed a lot of information. At least add the sourceport you used for testing.

Imagine if I start the wad in doom retro but it requires gzdoom to work, a advoidable problem if you specify the sourceport.

Also, it would hurt too add some screenshots (I suggest into spoiler), these are the major selling point in your map, most people will ignore your post because it looks unappealing.

 

2 hours ago, TheRevenant212 said:

Here's the screenshot of the map!

I not recommend showing a photo of your entire map without aleast putting into spoiler. Spoils all the secrets and kinda ruins the fun of exploring.


I really hope this doesn't discourage you (Pls I don't want that guy who makes people quit mapping :c), you have a lot of potential, and I see a lot of good ideas (the Reavenants and Spectre fight was fun) and I love that you put a Chainsaw, it was a must have since the scarce ammo, it just need a lot of polish to make it a great map.

Hopes to see a Final version in near future. C:

Edited September 2, 2022 by Herr Dethnout : fixed the images and forget 2 things to add

[StodgyAyatollah]

No light variation. Odd texture usage. Blocking hanging corpses in hallways. Unnecessary powerups. Large empty spaces. Inaccessible locations. Items placed outside the map... Are we back in 1995? Yeah this is a bit rough but wouldn't take a huge amount of work to improve it dramatically. First thing, when using hanging corpses as decorations where players will be moving you want to use the non-blocking variants. I would assume you're editor should say which is which. This won't matter when infinite height is turned off but a lot of people play with it on so those corpses on the ceiling will basically become invisible walls to them. That would be the first thing to change.

 

Some suggestions and things to consider purely focusing on gameplay. Try to think about how the monsters and player will move and how things will play out. Here are some possible changes that may give you some ideas. I would move the first two pinkies much further apart so they are hidden from the player's view then tag them as ambush. Replace all the monsters on the raised platforms there with imps and add a few more. Now the player would step out into an open space, pinkies would start advancing toward them from both sides while slow moving projectiles are being shot at them. This puts pressure on the player from multiple angles and makes them use the open space for movement during this fight making it a lot more engaging. I would replace the shotgun, since the player should already have one with a box of ammo and move it onto the red elevated area to be more visible. This will give the player enough ammo to deal with fodder enemies throughout this area.

 

The invuln is overkill and the blur sphere is useless against anything but hordes of hitscanners so I would replace those. A soulspehere and blue armor would be more appropriate, still overkill imo but a lot more reasonable. I would add a few more fodder enemies to each of the smaller fights since one or two zombiemen or a lone pinkie is zero threat. Tag every monster in the exit room or anywhere else you would want them to stay in place as ambush.

 

Now for the red room. As it is all the monsters will have already left this room by the time the player gets to it so it's just a big empty room. Pretty boring but we could set up a big fight there so let's think about that. I would move the rocket launcher to the room with the blur sphere along with enough ammo to set the player up. Tweak the hall to the red room so monsters won't be able to see from one to the other. Make it curve, zig zag, add a door, teleporter or whatever. Now we can set up the fight. I would add more revs and cacos, maybe a small horde of imps instead of a lone zombieman. This is a good room to experiment with enemy combos. Tag them all as ambush. Now add a few pillars so the player can have some cover and you have a decent little arena.

 

There are things to be said for texture use, lighting etc but that's all less important than the gamplay imo. Hope this helps give you some ideas and inspiration. 

[TheRevenant212]

OMG!! All the attention this has gotten! I'm so friggin' thankful guys! It's awesome to see people actually care about my work enough to give some feedback! Thanks everybody!

[Delisk]

 

Your layout is good but you should also focus more on details, right now the whole thing fell rushed and unpolished l’m not going to go on details why since I pretty much agree with the previous replys.

 

I have seen worst first map so keep on mapping.

 

I would strongly suggest you have a look at this video

 

 

 

[Clippy]

 

 

 

 

[TheRevenant212]

WOWIE! So cool seeing people make videos about my stuff! Thanks man!

[Proxy-MIDI]

The map was good. Even if there were some mistakes (such as the misaligned textures or a lack of monsters in UV), that was a good beginning. Keep it up pal ! ;)

[TheRevenant212]

Sure thing buddy!

[Custom Longplay]

UAC Escape - [4K60ᶠᵖˢ] - [100% Secrets]

 

I have posted an impression of the map below my video in the comments section!

 

 

[Sonikkumania]

Played through your wad and it was an okay beginner map.

 

It's fine gameplay wise, but despite being such an large hall, there isn't too many enemies. Sometimes it's better to have less than too much, but the key is to find a balance. For example, the hall with the red conveyor belt(?) could've used some more low tier enemies like Imps, maybe hitscanner Zombies too. That of course means you need to add in more inventory items such as ammo and health / armor pickups. Also remember to reconsider where you place your items: There was a SSG right next to the exit, what's the point to have that gun when there's nothing left to shoot? Speaking of the Exit, always preferably remember to mark the line / sector which features an exit - some players might want to backstep somewhere in your level.

 

And I have nothing else to add but the misaligned textures and flats, but other users have pointed it out in this thread so I have nothing more to add.

 

All in all an okay start and keep them coming :D