My first Doom2 levels. Please playtest and tell me what you think.

[bullsquid]

I have wanted to create my own doom levels since i was about 12 years old and now 12 years later i finally learned how, using doom builder.

These are my first levels and i would like to hear what you think.

I want to continue making maps and become better and better so i need all help and feedback i can get. Below is a small description of each level and a download link.

Note: All these levels are meant to be played on UV since i only play UV normally. level 1 and 4 have skill level support but are best played on UV othervise they will be too easy.

Also i recommend playing with a modern 3d port like jdoom or risen3d but that's up to you. Maps are for doom 2 only.



Level 1: Hell Caverns



This is the first level i made. I Wanted to make something really challening for my first level since i like challenging doom levels so this one is supposed to be hard.
It's some kind of underground lava cavern with lots and lots of monsters. I recomend that u try to find all the secrets othervise it can be a bit too hard. Save often. Skill levels are implented but has mostly minor changes. (No bosses on easy skill lvl)
Some parts of the map is lightly inspirated from id's map 28.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/vjhtck


Level 2: Marble Halls



This second level is not that hard but should still be a challenge.
It has some mixed styles. You start out in some green marble halls and continue on to dangerous caverns. Be sure to look for the radiation suit before going after the red key.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/rltdkm


Level 3: House of Pain



Also a level of mixed styles including some kind of wooden house, a library area and a dangerous spider cavern.
Difficulty is moderate but gets harder towards the end.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/u79x6y


Level 4: The lost base



My newest level. This one is much easier and is supposed to be the first map in a megawad. Some inspiration from Doom 1.
Small and easy map.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/bofbi4


More levels to come but please give me some feedback on these so i know what i do right and what i can improve.


*edit: fixed misaligned textures in map 1 and 2

*edit: fixed misaligned textures and some sector errors in map 3

*edit: replaced most of the medikits with stimpacks for map 1 since it seemed to be too easy with that much health.

[r_rr]

Here are comments on your first two maps.

Hell Caverns:

Your first level was not bad, especailly the surprise attacks. Ammo was tight, but made gameplay tough. Need work on textures, they seemed out of place. Many were also missaligned. Level feels very liniar Overall I give a 2/5.

Marble Halls:

I liked this one, a good combination of ammo and non-stop action. The arachntron cave was the hardest part. Again missaligned textures and linear level design, but still packs a punch! Some really cool mazes with lava underneath, and a few traps to keep you on edge. Action around every turn, and monsters get tougher as you progress. I give it a 3/5.



Textures misaligned like this can be easily fixed.

And to make level non-linear just look at other popular WAD;s and see how they are built. Adding outside areas, windows, different ceiling heights all add up to make your level look good. I'm in progress of playing your other 2 WAD's

[bullsquid]

OK thx for the feedback, can u tell me more specific where the misaligned textures are so i can fix it. And how could i make it more non-linear?

Did u test the other 2 aswell?

[bullsquid]

Hmm i saw your pic now and thats strange because it dosent look that way for me. Just in the editor but not in-game. I use Risen3d. How should i fix it?

this is the way it looks for me:


seems about right...

[r_rr]

House of Pain:

This one was interesting. It seems a little similar to Marble Halls. Tight ammo, plenty of Revanents, Barons, and occasional Arch-Vile make this level the hardest out of your 4 levels. I found the library ambush to be the most deadly. Again, just minor misaligned textures. Over good. 3/5

The Lost Base:

This was my favorite. It's a tech base type level. The gameplay is pretty easy on this one, because you can just run away from some of the bigger monsters, and there were not as many traps as the other levels. But still make a good first level of a megawad. Requires that the player hunt down all three keys and blow away many zombiemen. 3/5.

Hmm, you should specify that these WAD's be played with Risen 3D. But for the normal doom2.exe I get the misaligned textures.

[esselfortium]

bullsquid said:

Hmm i saw your pic now and thats strange because it dosent look that way for me. Just in the editor but not in-game. I use Risen3d. How should i fix it?

Not using Risen3D.

To be more specific, unless you're making maps that are specifically intended to be played with that port, it's a good idea to playtest them in something that better shows how your map will look to the majority of ports it's compatible with. (i.e. no hi-res texture replacements, no 3D models, and preferably using the original Doom software renderer or something very similar to it).

[bullsquid]

Ok i recommend using risen 3d with 3d models and high-res textures but i will also playtest the maps in prboom+ and see if i find any errors.

I'm glad u liked them :)
I hope i will get much better at mapping and i start to learn more and more of doom builder now.
When i first tried to learn the program i could hardly make a working door. So i think it has improved a bit since. (about 2 weeks ago)

* Shit i just tried map3 and what the hell is wrong here??? almost all sectors on the map lowers and rises randomly wich makes the map almost unplayable in regular doom2...how should i fix this? This is a huge error!

[Vermil]

Check your lift's. The triggers for them have a tag of 0.

Some ports interpret that any non Dx trigger with a tag of 0 should affect the sector they are attached to.

But in the original Doom engine and most ports, any non Dx trigger with a tag of 0 will effect, well, every sector on the map with a tag of 0. Which, of course, is every sector that you haven't manually placed a tag on (by default, every sector on a map is given a tag of 0).

[bullsquid]

What? Do u mean i have to give every sector a number? some sectors are already tagged for different actions.
Isn't there some easier way to fix this? The lifts on the map is not connected to any sector that i know of.

What should i do?

And what can i do to avoid this in future maps?

- and about the misaligned textures. i can't correct them in the editor with auto align and i cant align floor or ceiling textures manually in 3d mode. so how do i fix this?

[Subatomic]

What editor are you using? You may want to try Doom Builder, which has a very useful 3D editing mode.

[bullsquid]

I use doom builder already

[Vermil]

The editor a person is using doesn't matter.

Whenever you use an Sx, Wx or Gx trigger line, you must tag it to a sector even if the sector it is suppose to affect is one that the trigger line is attached to.

Only Dx and map exiting triggers types don't need a sector tag. Dx triggers are coded to only affect the sector that the linedef is attached to and map exiting triggers immediately end the level.

Flat textures are aligned to the 64x64 sized grid.

[Grazza]

Vermil said:

The editor a person is using doesn't matter.

Well, it matters in this context because DB positively invites people to use untagged Sx triggers for doors. The vast majority of maps with this problem were made with DB and only tested in Zdoom.

bullsquid: In case Vermil's post didn't make it sufficiently clear, what you need to do to fix this problem, is to find every time you have used Sx for a door, and replace it with Dx.

In cases where that doesn't fix it, you need to give a tag to the linedef that matches one you also give to the sector to which you want it to apply.

BTW, there are three different behaviours that you will get in various ports (and with differing comptibility options, where applicable) if you fail to use a tag with action types that require them. There is the vanilla behaviour, as you have observed, where the action is applied to every untagged sector. The Boom behaviour is that the action is applied to nothing. And there is the Zdoom/Risen3d/prboom+mappingerrorcompatibility behaviour where it is applied to the adjoining sector.

[Vermil]

Well, I was trying to not confuse by going into port specific alternatives in any detail.

The "Vanilla" method, which I was trying to detail, is the only method that will work in the original engine and every single port.

[bullsquid]

Ok my configuration for all maps are "doom2".
should i change it to "risen3d" ? since i use that, but then will it still work in regular doom2?

i dont want all sectors to lower and rise like that but when u say change S1 to D1 that means if i have a switch to open a door then i would only have the door open manually and have to remove the switch?

That would cause some problems too.

Is there no easier way around this? For short i want the map to behave the same way it does in risen3d for vanilla doom2 without having to change almost every sector.

[myk]

bullsquid said:
should i change it to "risen3d" ? since i use that, but then will it still work in regular doom2?

No, that's used when you want to make a level that relies on Risen3D's specific features. For a level that'll work with Doom2 (as well as source ports), use Doom2.

[bullsquid]

How can i fix all these errors in a easy way then?

[Subatomic]

Vermil said:

The editor a person is using doesn't matter.

I merely suggested Doom Builder because it's 3D editing mode makes it incredibly easy to correct misaligned textures.

[myk]

The lift trigger and the misalignment above?

For the misalignment, move that box so it fits in the grid. Risen3D auto-aligns flats to sectors (I'm no expert on this but it's evident from the screen shot*) while Doom normally aligns flats according to the map's overall grid. That is, you can't align the flats themselves they are always drawn in the same place, so what you can do is move the structure you created to where the flat would be drawn on the grid. All flats are 64 unit squares, so each fits exactly in a 64 unit square of this grid.

* It may have a setting to turn this effect off, see its documentation.

[Grazza]

bullsquid said:

i dont want all sectors to lower and rise like that but when u say change S1 to D1 that means if i have a switch to open a door then i would only have the door open manually and have to remove the switch?

Find every place where you have used S1/Sx without a tag (this is simply a mapping error), and replace it with D1/Dx. If you have done this dozens of times, then yes, you'll have to make dozens of changes. Fortunately, it is a simple change to make each time.

There is no need to change genuinely remote doors where you have correctly used a tag. That is the way this action type is meant to be used.

Vermil: I wasn't describing port-specific alternatives, but just pointing out that this error has several different possible consequences in different exes or with different settings, which might be very puzzling for someone unfamiliar with this stuff.

[Vermil]

@Grazza.
The problem is the lift's, not the doors (have you actually looked at the map?). Bullsquid has set up his doors correctly.

@Bullsquid.

Here is a fixed version of your map. Have a look at any of the lift triggers to see what I was trying to explain with tagging.

Also, I shifted the sectors with the misaligned flat's slightly so they do align. In your editor change the grid size to 64 and then have a look at how all the sectors that use the flat CEIL1_3 line up to this grid size.

In the original Doom engine, all flats are aligned to an editors 64x64 grid setting. Though some ports have added ways to aling individual flats to the mapper’s choice.

http://darkocean.info/Daniel3.wad

[bullsquid]

I seem to have fixed it now by tagging all sectors "next unused"
map 3 should now be error free :) but if u find more errors please tell me.

Also i can't seem to align ceiling and floor textures in the editor, only walls

[Remmirath]

bullsquid said:

Also i can't seem to align ceiling and floor textures in the editor, only walls

Floors and ceilings can't be aligned just like walls, because they're made to work with a special 64x64 grid alignment viewable with most of the newer editors.

Anyway, they can be aligned if you use ZDoom or GZDoom, by using some scripting, but here i suggest you to stick with normal doom map format, in order to make your things easier. When you gain more experience, you can start mapping for more advanced map formats. ;)

[bullsquid]

I am working on a new level now but i think i have run out of ideas.
I tried getting inspiration from some wads i like but i dont want to make my maps look too much alike.

Do u have some ideas for my next map please tell me.
Its supposed to be the map after daniel4 (the lost base) so im not giving away all weapons yet and trowing in lots of hard monsters.
I started out with a tech base theme with some inspiration from episode.wad map 2


Here is a download link if u wanna see what i have done so far.
The map is in slot 02 and is still unfinished.
Give me some ideas on how to expand the map please.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/rag3dk

[Christoph]

Holy crap! That first shot (of the spider over a lava pool) is almost exactly like a part of map I once made (though never finished or published it, and unfortunately my bro deleted it.)

While I don't have time to play many wads these days, I do recommend that you just keep at it, keep trying to make better and more unique stuff, use criticism constructively, and most of all make what YOU want to make.

While other people's wads are a great source of inspiration and new ideas, most of my map ideas come from my own imagination, and I have so many ideas that I'd like to fulfill but I can only do one painstaking map at a time. Several of my really old maps (like when I was in my early teens) came from dreams, so if you are prone to having doom-related dreams then maybe you can use them as a source of inspiration.

The art of mapping is just a learning process that takes much time, experience, and the drive to keep trying and making new stuff, so don't feel bad about not being instantly as good as you want to be - use the motivation to work towards getting there! I've been mapping off and on for roughly a decade, and while I feel pretty accomplished at this point, I'm never satisfied and always want/need to learn new things, and it's such fun/challenge anyway so I'd say I'm permanently addicted to mapping.

Just my 2 cents for now..

[pcorf]

I thought your levels weren't too bad for a first go. The gameplay was quite good. You'll get better at mapping as time progresses if you have the patience. I remember how sh!tty my maps looked when I first layed something out in DoomCad way back in 1996. But I also remember how good it felt when I made my first ever map and actually got it running. I was on the computer more excited than ever and 6 months later my levels had grown from wow.wad like crap to id like goodness. I started work on The Twilight Zone 12 years ago (in late 1996).

[Deeforce]

My favorite map is “Level 3: House of Pain“, because of the choice of textures. To your future maps: try to implement difficulty settings, because they are very important too. Also: I would use other textures for level 04, because this map looks like the thousand other levels that are in the Idgames archive. You may also want to increase the level of detail in your future maps. It is better to have one very good looking map than ten ok looking maps :-P !

I played your wads with normal Doom 2 textures (sourceport: ZDoom)... could you please tell me where to find the “risen 3d with 3d models and high-res textures“ things?

[bullsquid]

Risen3d is very similar to doomsday engine but is much more stable since the current jdoom release in only beta.

You can find the port and much more cool stuff like custom made maps monsters and weapons here: http://risen3d.newdoom.com/

check out the screenshots to see why it is my port of choice :)