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bryant robinson

How do I keep from being a screw-up on wads

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Is there anyone else besides me that checks and double checks for glitches, HOM effects, monsters stuck in walls ,etc and then upload it to the archives and a week or two later discover that there is still more glitches that have been overlooked? How can an author keep from making these blunders?

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I have the same problem sometimes. No matter how many bugs I find, there's always one more hiding somewhere, laughing at you. I playtest it constantly as I'm making the map (sometimes just run through it in Doom Builder 3D mode), not just for graphical glitches, but to check for any gameplay problems. I find most of the bugs this way, but every so often one sneaks by, usually hidden enough so that only I would notice it.

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Happens to me all the time. The worst is when you make a mental note a bug while working on something else, and then forget about it.

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I always playtest my wads for many hours. I never upload a file without testing it. The secret is to fix bugs each time that you add new things, sectors, etc.

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The oh-so-handy error checker should get a bunch of them. Get a couple people to test it before you release it, though it's still almost guaranteed to have something wrong with it :p

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I always playtest thoroughly and get others to betatest for me as well.

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By the time I am ready to release a wad it has at least 200 plays on it by me. I do dozens of plays with every port to be sure it is OK. I also always use a play tester that also runs 25 to 50 laps thru it with various ports.

Then several final look arounds for anything that might be out of place or out of alignment.

I am sure I spend way to much time doing all that but it just makes sense to me for my own maps. My maps may not be the best around but they typically have no mistakes by the time they get released.

edit:typo

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Don't just rely on just playing through occasionally and remembering bugs. Have at least one session where you play through the entire level, spending some time looking through each and every area, and writing down all the problems you find. When you've finished, load up the editor and fix each bug in turn, ticking them off as you go. Load up the corrected wad and repeat the process. Try and get at least one other person to give it a similar intensive playtest and report any issues they find. This kind of methodical approach to QA isn't the most exciting activity, but it's pretty reliable.

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Yeah, the only wad I have in the archives has 2 bugs that I need to address. It seems that it just happens unless you are really vigilant about it, and even then one can slip through your fingers so to speak.

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i playtest my maps lot but i usually stick to the source port i intended it for. then again, a vast majority of the maps i make, are generally for my own amusement, and never leave my hard drive, and are rarely completed. i can't tell you how many maps i've started and not finished.

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I never have this problem because I playtest after every little change. In fact, I think I spend more than twice as much time playtesting than I do mapping.

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As a general point (i.e. not specifically related to making wads, but to making anything), I find that a lot of errors that make it into released products are due to last-minute changes. This often introduces quite elementary errors of a type that wouldn't have survived for long at any earlier stage of the creative process.

The solution is to have the final stage of the work as a purely error-trapping process, just making sure everything works correctly, with any changes being restricted to pure correction of specific errors. Some self-discipline is needed to avoid the temptation to make a few other last changes during this stage. If you do succumb to this temptation, you need to be aware that a cock-up is being made more likely, and be sure to check these last-minute changes extremely carefully.

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I'd say just run through everything very carefully before you upload it. Take a look at everything from all angles and make sure it doesn't have any errors. If it does, the taking screenshots idea is a very good one. Hell, if you're about to release a new level and want someone to take a run through it and give you feedback, let me know. Just PM me, and I'll be happy to go through the level and see what I can find. I've never been a beta tester, but I do have a habit of finding mistakes that level authors never saw.

Ah, what the hell, \/\/007 for 500 posts. After 5.5 years.

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I still don't understand the multiplayer only flag for the yellow key in Evilution's map31, and more curious is the lack of an oficial update (by this I mean one in id Software's web site). In fan made wads this could happen, but in a comercial game, come on! And the key isn't at an advanced part of the map that you could somehow excuse the authors for lazyness.

The invisible wall in DOOM 2 v 1.666 map 18 is a good sample of this almost universal issue.

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Vegeta said:
I still don't understand the multiplayer only flag for the yellow key in Evilution's map31, and more curious is the lack of an oficial update (by this I mean one in id Software's web site).

You probably already know this, but just in case:

Ty Halderman said:
No sour grapes here (much) but id had a fixed version of that map at least a month before they packaged it up, and still not only didn't include it but never provided a fix. In fact, you could go to their "help" folks and not even find out that TeamTNT had a fix for it, probably because they preferred to keep the true authorship of Final Doom a secret.

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Am I the only person who makes sure each room is as bug-free as possible before moving on to creating the next room? That's how I usually end up taking care of most glitches, it's a lot easier when you're only concentrating on one small portion of the map at a time.

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Kid Airbag said:

Am I the only person who makes sure each room is as bug-free as possible before moving on to creating the next room? That's how I usually end up taking care of most glitches, it's a lot easier when you're only concentrating on one small portion of the map at a time.


There are flaws that still slip by, particularly "stupid" things that you normally would never do. Stuff like jumping off a rising platform and getting stuck behind something halfway across the room that you couldn't reach from ground level.

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Sometimes I'll check everything in my map and finally go,"*few* now lets test it," only to find that I managed to screw up the first door and need to quit and fix it. It's not that bad if the room in question is the exit room, but there's just soething about having a glitch in the first room that really ticks me off. I'm gonna go punch something now. Toodles!

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As long as this thread is bumped...
WadAuthor's mapchecking feature catches pretty much everything; it's never failed me before.

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