map tester wanted

[RottingZombie]

I am moving toward completion (hopefully) of my first Doom level ever. I've screwed around with mapping for Doom before, never got past a room or two. Well this time I stuck with it for a little while and shit out this little level.

It does not I think suck like some 'first' levels do, believe me.

I'd like feedback on the difficulty (although I notice it is too easy right now on hard, maybe medium too), texturing, general gameplay. Insult me, criticize, let me know if I've got that Doom mapper blood.

Download it from my site or leave an email address here and I'll send it.

http://www.geocities.com/roz1281

[Marius]

Well i played it, beat it in 14minutes and 28 seconds on hurt me plenty in zdoom. I didn't notice any texture misalignments. The difficulty is definitely a bit low. I think the map could benefit from a few harder monsters maybe a few hell knights. The texture use is a bit plain, but not too bad. I'll go back and play it on ultraviolence and see how it is on that difficulty. Do you want a demo of someone playing your level to see how people play it? If so, what should i record it with?

[Marius]

On ultraviolence (beat it in 12:38) the monster usage is a bit nicer, although there is prolly a bit too much ammo. Also, i can't find either of your secrets, but i'm generally not to great at finding secrets, so that might be my problem. However, with the current level of difficulty of your wad, there wouldn't be anything the secret areas that a person would really need to beat the level.

[Grazza]

I've put a little demo here. I didn't spend long on it, and it's nothing fancy - just a UV Speed in 1:59, showing a little trick, and the fact that most areas of the map can just be run through. You might want to block off that trick, and beef up the monster content generally.

Overall, I find the map quite attractively made - fairly unfussy design, but not bland. I must say that I don't like the strobe lighting (or give the player a light-amp for that area) or overly dark areas. Also, you've got some quite nice areas in the map that the player can skip - you might want to force the player to enter those areas, and provide some heavier resistance and useful power-ups in them.

The route to the red-key switch was a bit repetitive - essentially the same idea repeated three times in succession. A bit more variety wouldn't hurt there - as it is, there are few surprises for the player in that area.

You could make the blue-key trap a little more dangerous by having some bad guys teleport in behind the player too. As you can see from the demo, you can pretty much ignore the trap as it stands.

I didn't find the secret areas on a casual play-through. Maybe some visual clues would be a good idea, or give the player the option of getting a computer map early on.

I didn't have problems with missed monsters, and everything seemed to work correctly (I was playing in GLBoom with Doom2.exe compatibility). On a first play-through on UV, I took about 12 minutes to kill everything and have a good look around the map.

[RottingZombie]

Ok first, thanks for the great feedback.

Noted, the difficulty IS low isn't it. I will work on that then. Marius, sure I'd love a demo feel free to mail it to roz1281 AT yahoo DOT com. I use PRboom and zdoom , so zdoom or doom2.exe/prboom would be fine for a demo.

Marius, glad to hear UV is better, The first secret is in the first hallway past that first shotgun zombie where you start. There's a lightly shaded arrow on the floor pointing to it on the right wall, but the zombie often dies right on the arrow making it impossible to see :(

Second secret is in one of the outdoor chaingunner nests.

Grazza you're right that redkeyh section is repetitive, i was thinking that as i made it. Probably change it up a bit, we'll see what i can cook up then.

I'm going to watch the demo.

thanks.

[RottingZombie]

Grazza said:

showing a little trick,

Nice one, i thought i fixed that trick by puttuing the little angled posts there, I'll probably move the switch back another 8-16 units. Thanks for catching that one though :)

the armor wall you found in the beginning was a secret, but it won't trigger till you step a bit more into the alcove. I'll find a way to fix that.

[Grazza]

RottingZombie said:

the armor wall you found in the beginning was a secret, but it won't trigger till you step a bit more into the alcove. I'll find a way to fix that.

It did trigger in this demo (thus the 50% secrets), but if you are finding that it sometimes doesn't trigger, then it makes sense to change it. My comment about not finding the secrets related to the first time I wandered through the map, without any prior knowledge.

There's one thing I forgot to mention: a demon and spectre are stuck together near coordinates (-1000, 1000).

[Vile1011]

I had a look at your map: considerably underdetailed of course, but it played nicely. The challenge was about moderate-low, good for when you just want to relax and kill a few demons, but hard enough that you actually have to pay attention in the process.

A bit less health and ammo would boost gameplay considerably. The only other thing the wad needs is detail, but that can be worked on.

[SYS]

Yout got a Private msg Zombie.

[RottingZombie]

A new version is up with altered red key area, hopefully improved difficulty, and some new additions that kind of force the player into some areas (like the outdoor area). Be sure to try UV and HMP :)

[Marius]

I played it on ultraviolence and i have to say it is pretty nice now difficulty-wise. And the new additions do make it a bit more interesting. Your monster balance is good now, at least for my skill level. Good job!!! :)

[RottingZombie]

Nice, thanks alot. I might polish up the detail , add a little eye candy then prepare for release.

[.:DartmerC:.]

Nice map, while we are on the topic, I'm actually mapping my first real map for a mod being worked on going under the name "Doom 3 in Doom 2" (we havent thought of a real name yet). If anyone with EDGE would like to have a run through and give me some feedback on any section of the mod/map I would greatly appreciate it.

As of yet it is not complete in coding or mapping, and it is not possible to finish the level. Not all monsters have been put into the map, so mostly detail and layout feedback would be best.

A copy of the weapon files can be found here:
http://www.wackyhq.com/global/downloads/dfd/d3nd2.zip

And the map along with DooM 3 textures can be found here:
geocities.com/deltaqdelta/doom.zip

Anyone without EDGE, it can be found at http://edge.sourceforge.net or something like that.