Testers come forth

[KennyJC]

Need input on this level. Is it too hard? Not enough health? Ammo? Any bugs? Suggestions?

One thing to bear in mind is that I have not aligned all of the textures... I'm saving that till last because it's so much fun.

Also, there is only one skill level although it's safe to say people still playing Doom today will be pretty good so I don't think we need any other skill level than ultra violence! I intended it to be difficult, although I haven't played it for the first time like you have...

Download Here

[Epyo]

It's ok. Outdoor areas are not your specialty. Work on those. Eventually you may like outdoors more, once you conquer your OCD.

Gameplay gets pretty good later on, but at first it's kinda bad IMO.

Overall design is pretty good too. I think you'll get the hang of it quickly.

[KennyJC]

Yes the outdoor areas might be missing something. But pretty adventurous compared to the first wad I did. The first outdoor area was an afterthough. Origionally you started in the main hall, and the two turrets were all that there was outdoors, then I thought it would be cool to have it outdoors to give it the traditional castle look from outside... so it would have been better if I planned it that way from the start.

The last outdoor area looks pretty good I think... with the exception that I was planning a second outdoor building, but I just couldn't think of anything that looked good. I may still add something though. The 'exit' room needs its floor raised also to blend in the textures better.

As for poor gameplay early on - How do you suggest this gets fixed. Just load up on ammo early on and add more monsters? I will add a few 'monsters can not cross' linedefs since they seem to follow you out into the narrow corridor of the two side rooms which sucks...

[Ichor]

Is that supposed to be a sky near the red key? All I'm seeing is a big HOM there (also behind the BFG).

[KennyJC]

Is that supposed to be a sky near the red key? All I'm seeing is a big HOM there (also behind the BFG).

Hmmm... strange... It looks fine on my Prboom.. There is an upper texture missing but that is for the second sector which has a lower ceiling so that all you can see is the sky. I learned this from other wads... so I don't know why the missing texture is showing up when all you should see is sky...

[Ichor]

That sector behind the missing texture, is the sky flat on the ceiling?

[KennyJC]

Behind the windows there are two sectors, one with sky texture and one with regular texture (that is lowered) and the upper linedef has no texture...

From memory anyway... When I get home from work I'll look at it.

[Dr. Zin]

The lowered ceiling has to have the sky flat too.

[Epyo]

KennyJC said:

As for poor gameplay early on - How do you suggest this gets fixed. Just load up on ammo early on and add more monsters? I will add a few 'monsters can not cross' linedefs since they seem to follow you out into the narrow corridor of the two side rooms which sucks...

I think the first battle, just inside the gate, where it's pistol against 2 shotgunners was one of my big beefs. Give me a zombieman or two to hide behind or something, right now I'm pretty much guaranteed to take damage.

And the part with the reeeeeally long staircase with chaingunners at the end, change that, and the two towers, as soon as I go up the elevator I'm screwed.

[scwiba]

Some of the things I noticed have already been mentioned. There are HOM's near the red key and the BFG and your outdoor areas need some work.

The door marked with red skulls doesn't actually require the red key. However, the door right behind it that requires the yellow key has no markings to indicate that. (Which isn't necessarily a problem. There's just usually something to indicate the color key that the door needs.

It would have been cool if after getting the red key, enemies teleported into the main room, or if walls opened up and let them out. As it is, it's a big room that nothing really happens in.

In the second outdoor section right before the end, there's an arachnotron stuck in one of those brown stubby things.

In my opinion, there's really no need for the BFG to be in this level. It's not overly hard as it is, and the BFG just makes it easier. You could replace it with a plasma gun.

At the end, there's no reason to actually fight the Cyberdemon. You can easily just avoid him and go right to the exit.

Not a bad level -- you just need to do some polishing. I enjoyed it.

[KennyJC]

Interesting you thought it was easy. I thought it was bloody hard and I consider myself a decent player who knows this level better than anyone! In fact I've made it easier since this test.

I've fixed the sky bug and monsters being stuck. Might change the BFG to the plasma rifle, but I'll make up my mind after playing it more. Red door was going to get changed so that it actually required red key. I just couldnt be bothered typing idkfa everytime i wanted to go through it during testing. Also added the yellow marker to yellow door.

Haven't made up my mind about the Cyber Demon... He will probably go.

[KennyJC]

Well it's done now. Thanks everyone for giving thoughts on it. It's helped.

Let me know if there are any obvious bugs before I upload it to idstuff etc. There are so many ports out for doom it's hard to know how it will look on other peoples ports.

The sky bug was a good example of that: It worked fine on my port but not anyone elses apparently.

BLAH

[Ichor]

There's still an HOM around the south tower here:

[KennyJC]

Is the other one alright?

Why doesn't GLBoom show up these HOM? Heh..

[Ichor]

The other one seems fine.

[KennyJC]

That's funny since they are both identical as I copy and pasted the HOM one as the one that is fine...

Sigh... well maybe one day I will download a port that shows up the HOM and I will try to fix it then and release it properly.

But for now I am already busy with my next level. On paper, it kicks this maps ass. Watch out for it!