omg, my spaceship wad has been criticised

[hawklord]

hiya folks

yeah you don't know me but i've been creating wads for about 5 years now.

i did a wad based on the scenario that a freedom fighter had to transport onto an orbital spaceship (a ship controlling the planet), and trash the oppo, then make his escape via the ship's transporter in the cargo bay.

a friend played it and said the objective in attacking a ship should be to take over the bridge. (sort of like chess, where you capture the king.) in my wad, the bridge raid happens halfway thru and then you have to battle your way onwards to the cargo bay.

so... i wonder what people think of that criticism of his.

[YMB]

Perhaps you could upload this wad for further analysis by forum members.

[Steeveeo]

agreed...sort of...

It makes more sence to capture the bridge so you can control the entire ship (sealing off decks to corral your enemies so you can come back later to throw them in the brig).

Personally though, I think it would make a mroe fun gameplay experience if you had to set some "charges" to "blow the place up".

You could throw varying effects in there based on what port you are using (Im pretty sure a few of them have cinematic capabilities, if you want to put them in).

[The Lag]

yeah this is kind of the rundown on the wad i am working on.
upload yours, it may give me some ideas. :D
it does sound interesting.

[myk]

A freedom fighter? Are the bad guys communists?

[TheDarkArchon]

No, it's Doctor Robotnik and his goons

(>_<)

[hawklord]

Steeveeo said:
...I think it would make a mroe fun gameplay experience if you had to set some "charges" to "blow the place up"

if i can figure out how to do that then cool...

---------

yeah alright yomoneyboat, i'll try an upload of the wad but it's a 'work in progress' thing at present. it's not shiny!

[Patrick]

just use rapidshare or mediafire...

[Steeveeo]

hawklord said:

if i can figure out how to do that then cool...

Easily! Well, sort of. First you'd need a port capable of cinematics and level scripting (like ZDoom or, I think, EDGE).

if you choose to use ZDoom, PM me and I could probably help you out with effects and cinematics.

If you use EDGE, you may want to ask someone else, however. (I know theres an EDGE expert around here somewhere)

[VileSlay]

well if the objective is to demolish the ship so no one else can use it, I think thats a cool scenario. maybe you can split it in to two wads, ie. level 1: taking over the bridge and level 2: the escape. you can have the escape part happen with modified design of the first level, with sections sealed or wrecked so you can't pass and having to use maintnence shafts to pass by certain parts.

[LogicDeLuxe]

hawklord said:

in my wad, the bridge raid happens halfway thru and then you have to battle your way onwards to the cargo bay.

I don't think there's anything wrong with it. Reminds me of Dark Forces. Taking a bridge is one of many goals there, and it plays just fine. It's still my all time favorite Star Wars game.

[Frankdude]

Great idea reminds me of galaxia.wad. Keep the game doomish and add some cool effects and your wad will be a great wad. Also try and add in a spacesuit section.

Keep up the good work hawklord.

[Stealthy Ivan]

Frankdude said:

Great idea reminds me of galaxia.wad.

Galaxia was and still is my favorite wad!!!!
@ Hawklord, E-mail me the level to play, and if it is anything like galaxia it should kick ass!!!

[hawklord]

Thanx for all the positive feedback.

Now let's see what happens if you actually try the wad :D

it's not ready to be published to gamers.org (lots of rooms are empty and there's not much other decoration.) So i've put it somewhere else: http://www.lifeprobe.co.uk/doom/starship-TEST.zip

if your arrival on the spaceship ends in instant bloodshed then use a different part of the teleport platform.

there's some back-tracking to throw switches.

[Steeveeo]

Its a nice base of a level, but i have quite a few gripes about it:

1. Texturing. Much weird and random texture usage. In one spot there was the animated Blood flat on the ceiling in a small square, right next to the Crate Top texture.

2. Alignment. Many textures were misaligned from each other. In DoomBuilder (quite a handy map editing tool) theres a nice little feature in 3D editing mode called AutoAlign. You just place the cursor over the texture you want to align, and then hit a for horizontal alignment, and shift+a for vertical alignment.

3. Cramped hallways. The passageways around the ship were a bit cluastrophobic. I found myself bumping into each wall a lot.

4. Bad door textures. You decisions on the door textures were quite off, most of them blended into the walls around them too much, making them not look like doors at all.

5. Timed doors. Flipping a switch to a timed door that you need to find to get a needed key is painfully irritating, especially when getting the red key. There was very little time to get thru all those small hallways to that door. (I had to use ZDoom crouching to get thru it in time)

6. Full Bright. Headache inducing 255 lit hallways abound here. Only light sources (cieling, corner lights, and the like) should be full bright. I find a confortable light level to be around 196 for bright areas and 144 for medium dark areas.

7. Bad exit. The first time through I was able to finish the level in 4 seconds since it was not blocked off like it should have been.

Awesome concept, good base, but quite a few kinks to work out.

Get crackin'!

[hawklord]

yeah thanx for the feedback; i'd agree with all of them.

regarding point 3 (claustrophobic corridors) that was intentional so although i agree, i'm not gonna change it :D

i'll deal with the other things, though.

i'm going on a special mission later - a mission to find the Blood flat that you mentioned!

yesterday i started playing with DoomBuilder. it looks like it'll be a big help.

tx again

[myk]

hawklord said:
regarding point 3 (claustrophobic corridors) that was intentional so although i agree, i'm not gonna change it :D

As you wish, but that kind of layout totally kills any worthwhile playability.

Is it supposed to be the interior of a space ship? If so, cement textures make no sense, as it's by no means a suitable material for a flying vehicle (or any vehicle, really), being heavy and brittle.

[hawklord]

myk said:

As you wish, but that kind of layout totally kills any worthwhile playability.

alrite, i'll give that a bit more thought.

myk said:

Is it supposed to be the interior of a space ship? If so, cement textures make no sense, as it's by no means a suitable material for a flying vehicle (or any vehicle, really), being heavy and brittle.

yeah good point. i suppose an interstellar ramjet might need to be made of solid concrete, but damn, it's not the image i had in mind for my sleek and threatening battle cruiser!!

wow i'm glad i didn't rush into sumbitting this wad to a doomwad download site.

[Steeveeo]

hawklord said:

wow i'm glad i didn't rush into sumbitting this wad to a doomwad download site.

Many people make that mistake, glad you didnt.

Still thinking about that blowing up the ship scenario?

[hawklord]

myk said:

A freedom fighter? Are the bad guys communists?

sorry; i missed that question until today.

i'm a child of the Cold War, so yes, in my book, BADDIES and COMMIES are pretty interchangable.

commies are such an out-of-date group now that i'd never actually specify them as being the people to splat and slaughter. when i play doom i don't worry about the political orientation of a cacodemon when i meet one! i guess the oppo is whoever you want it to be.

having said that, i suppose if a member of al qaeda played doom, he might regard his character as a freedom fighter and the oppo as westerners. i don't like that thought. but then, it's probably unlikely that al qaeda supporters play doom.

[Icarus]

hawklord said:

i don't worry about the political orientation of a cacodemon when i meet one!

He is a Fascist, in case you were wondering.

[Ry74]

Nah, Demons are Randian Objectivists.

[hawklord]

Icarus said:

He is a Fascist, in case you were wondering.

mmmmm. i guess the oppo are all fascists, then, since they all behave the same way towards me... ie, try to kill me asap.

Ry74 said:

Nah, Demons are Randian Objectivists.

lol... i looked that one up, and i gather Randians think that Man needs three things: reason, purpose, and self-esteem.

cacodemons have improved on that.

they think that Man needs four things: reason, purpose, self-esteem... and dripping fangs driven deep into their torso.