8 action packed maps! [WIP, 2 maps complete, updated 03/13/09]

[Neon]

Currently my plan is to make an eight map wad. Ideally the wad will feature maps that are short, action packed, challenging, and unique. The wad includes new monsters/weapons. So far I have two maps done. I'm pretty happy with them but I'm open to suggestions. There are different difficulty levels but I spent most of my time testing ultra-violence. The other difficulties may be too hard/easy.

This wad is designed to run in Zdoom 2.3.0. I haven't tried running it on anything else yet. Feel free to do whatever you want with these maps. Any feedback would be appreciated, and thanks to those who have given me feedback in the past.

Zdoom: VERSION 2.3.0 REQUIRED
http://zdoom.org/Download

Wad download: http://files.filefront.com/Neon6wad/;13456255;/fileinfo.html

Image Gallery: http://img23.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=screenshotdoom200903121.png

MAP 01:









Map 02:

[Deeforce]

Hi,
your levels are an interesting experience, but before finishing the wad, you will need to make huge variances.

Map01 looks like crap, because of the chosen textures. Flat20 and Grey7 are very bad choices for the bottom. I would use Floor7_2 for Flat20 and Browngrn for Grey7 there or you use total new textures. Also the light level is too high on map01. Maybe you want to change it to light level 150 in the main area and make the rooms with the light texture bright to 250. The wall textures in map01 should be Stone2 instead of Grey7 and the walls in the rooms where the light texture Grnlite1 is I would use Rockred1... This will look half-decent.

For map02 you should also make the light level darker (light level 150 in the water area and maybe the cross area brighter), but the textures are better chosen than in map01. To the gameplay: I think there are too many “RAAAAHHHHS“. I wasn’t able to finish the map.

Map03 reminds me of a map that I wanted to make for DM. Maybe you should remake this map and make it especially for DM, because it is a bit confusing with all the doors, so it could be funny in DM.

[Neon]

Thanks for the feedback!

I've used some of the textures you suggested for level 1, and changed a few others, I think it looks much better now.

I think the difficulty on map 2 is about right, maybe just a little too hard. I changed the green armor to blue.

Not exactly sure what the problem with map 3 is. I put a computer map at the start of the level and I turned the enemies around so the player will have a chance to check the layout of the level. Maybe that will help a little. I can see how it would make an interesting DM map but I'm not big on DM.

[Deeforce]

Neon said:

Not exactly sure what the problem with map 3 is.

There is no problem, I just thought it would be better in DM... One more thing I like to add: you should include candles in all your maps. It will look good, believe me :-P !

[DuckReconMajor]

I just finished them, though I had to play in ITYTD because I'm a noob. I thought they were a lot of fun. The only thing I would have changed is maybe the slime area in the third level, maybe put a lip or something around the nukage to make it look like an actual slime river instead of looking like it goes under the walls if you know what I mean.

[gggmork]

This is some excellent gameplay. Really frustratingly difficult (just how I like it) requiring multiple attempts for me. The minimal geography is also a plus imo because you can immediately play without having to memorize a large/complex layout and or figure out which trigger/switch lines do what and where items are; just gameplay stripped of the crap. Also means dying/restarting immediatly puts you back into the chaotic fray without having to redo long boring periods over and over, and obviously the new monsters are a nice change of pace still. Didn't mean to be so harsh on your last map btw.

I did map 1 and 2 uvmax demos for zdoom 2.2.0, havn't played the remaining map(s) yet. I really liked map 2. When recording, zdoom blacks out the screen for the first second or so, so you can be blindly attacked at the start of the first level.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/py5lux

[gggmork]

Here's a map3 zdoom 2.2.0 demo:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/4ugipa

By the way these play rather similarly to these 3 maps I made a long time ago, so you might like them (similar difficulty but only ultraviolence implemented- and no exits, just kill all to win. I did beat them all so they're possible (works in zdoom only or the textures will be messed up)).
http://www.sendspace.com/file/rf9co4

EDIT: there I did zdoom 2.2.0 demos for my 3 old maps linked above:
http://files.filefront.com/qdemoszip/;13382287;/fileinfo.html

[Pedro VC]

Some new weapons?

[Neon]

This wad is now designed to run on Zdoom, I'm unsure how it will run on other engines.

4th map is done, it includes a new weapon. 6th or 7th map will probably have the next new weapon.

I Still need to touch up some little things on the other levels, like the slime in level 3.

I see a lot of similarity in your maps Mork, short levels with lots of action. They are pretty damn hard, I think I like the gray map the best.

By the way, can anybody recommend any good image hosting sites? Imageshack seems kinda blah.

[gggmork]

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/ worked fine for me. I thought map 4 was probably the easiest so far, if you use a strategy of rotating to the next nearest ammo cubby as soon as the enemies start to close in (they mostly stay bunched up that way and there's a long cooridor with no obstructions for them to infight that way. demo if interested: http://www.sendspace.com/file/3v9j24 ). It was fun though. A few enemies seem to get stuck making max maybe not possible btw.

[Neon]

Thanks for the feedback. I used the same strategy for map 4, I agree it does seem easy compared to the other maps. I've uploaded a more difficult version of map 4, I may have gotten carried away though.

I've beat the new version twice, once with 10 health, once with 17 health, both at about 90% kills. It's very intense now.

[Deeforce]

Map04 is your best work for this wad so far. I can’t give you any hints for it here, because it is good as it is...

[gggmork]

Best strategy i found for the neon4 map 4 was mostly circling around killing many enemies when they first appear behind the warp line and using that area as shelter. still 2 missing enemies, not sure where they went. zd220: http://files.filefront.com/neon4+04+zd220+ggglmp/;13396345;/fileinfo.html

[DuckReconMajor]

Map 04 is a lot of fun. Keep up the good work.

[Neon]

Thanks guys. I modified map 04 once more, added some acid near the warp lines which leaves those passages as a last resort. I think the difficulty is just right now. Gonna get started on map 05...

[Neon]

New map is ready! Map02. It's extremely intense, very difficult, and a hell of a lot of fun IMO. This would have been Map 05, but the first three maps in the old version no longer meet my standards for this wad. They will not be included in the final version, but will be included in this version as Map03, Map04, and Map05 for any who are interested.

Feedback is always appreciated! =)

[esselfortium]

Deeforce said:

Maybe you want to change it to light level 150 in the main area and make the rooms with the light texture bright to 250.

For map02 you should also make the light level darker (light level 150 in the water area and maybe the cross area brighter)

This is somewhat bad advice. It's always a good idea to use increments of 8, and multiples of them, in Doom mapping. Even though ZDoom and some other ports can differentiate between smaller brightness values vanilla and many software-rendered ports only differentiate between increments of 16 and it's just generally not a good habit to get into using weird values like 10. (Yes, in Doom, increments of 10 are weird.) Light levels like 128 or 160 (or in some ports, 136 or 152 or whathaveyou) are normal, are easy to work with in Doom editors, and are consistent with the numbers you're using everywhere else in the map.

[gggmork]

zdoom 2.2.0: execution could not continue: script error, decorate line 20: 'alwaysrespawn' is an unknown flag

[Neon]

Oops, forgot to mention this wad needs zdoom 2.3.0 to run now.