Anthology: my wad

[Blueworrior]

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ntzzz3iadmm
i hope you enjoy it!
give feedback to this forum when you are done

[Shanoa]

i'd say it would be nice to provide pictures of your work just so people have a small idea of what to expect...but i'll download after i get some sleep.

[Blueworrior]

O_o
Good idea!

[Blueworrior]

Some screenshots!
http://s606.photobucket.com/albums/tt146/blueworrior/Anthology%20pics/

[Kyka]

I played through the first 6 levels and so far, I enjoyed them. Very simple dooming. Nothing too complicated here. Monsters, weapons, keys. A few really dark areas. And I mean really dark.

Very retro dooming. Never mind things like texture alignments. Who needs them anyway. :P Seriously though, you have great mapping ideas. These maps have been fun so far. More polish in the layout is probably needed, but the gameplay and monster/health balance was generally pretty good. A bit too much ammo in places, but meh to that. Keep up the good work.

Will finish the rest soon. :)

[lareman]

I agree with kyka, the balance was very good indeed. Only some dark places with spectres all over were frustrating. With a bit of texture alignment egg. detailing the levels would be great.

[Udderdude]

Some of the early maps were definitely not too hot. That one levei with the auto-map disabled super dark maze with spectres is the most annoying thing I've seen in awhile. Anyway. The maps definitely got better as I played farther into it. If I were you, I'd take the best maps and make a version that works with Boom compatible ports, not just Skulltag.

[ArmouredBlood]

Some good gameplay and some bad gameplay in those maps, with some map breaking or simply "you must know what to do" problems. Like the map with the ash starting area ... I had to noclip through half the map cause the triggers weren't working.

I also thought some maps could do with quite a few more monsters, they just felt soooo empty, like the giant level with the ship and spider mastermind in the end, 100 or so monsters just doesn't feel right there.

Other maps felt pretty good though, not exactly the last few as I get bored with slaughter maps that don't really go anywhere, but the middle 5-6 were good.

I'd follow udderdude's suggestion and take the best maps and work on them.

[Blueworrior]

Thanks for all of your replys.
i think i WILL take my best maps and improve on them...
could someone please tell me what all of the good maps are, then i can get started.

[ArmouredBlood]

Here's what I'm thinking;

MAP01, I have no strong feelings for or against. the rocket launcher ledge is about the only interesting thing in there.

MAP02 was decent but needs more detailing.

MAP03 I wish you wouldn't use soulspheres to trigger stuff to advance so much. That and the random cyberdemon put me off on what was otherwise ok gameplay. Revenants could possibly work instead of the cyberdemon, but only 4-5 at most. Detailing again.

MAP04 was pretty good to me, you just need to add more areas of light contrast, because I couldn't see ANYTHING half the time. Parts like this Would really help. Detailing not so much an issue, especially if you do stuff like the pic.

MAP05 should be SSG not plasma. I only touched the plasma once and that was to take out an arachnatron that got too close. Otherwise it's completely completable with SSG, in fact I used only the shotgun and chaingun and it worked in UV. OK detail lvl, and you could definitely use some lights on that ledge where the baron guarding the switch in the water room is. Very easy not to notice it when it's so dark.

MAP06 I really liked the first door part, kept it kind of low-key but filled. I liked having that little window to the cyberdemon in the next part, but it's completely ignorable and much easier just to run outside and circle strafe the cyber with the SSG to death. You should tighten that up, get rid of the invulnerability sphere and the BFG and the PLASMA. Too much plasma for this type of level imo X.X Also the arachnotron can easily be killed with the chaingun without it doing damage to you, you should make a small door to one side and have the cage be open but impassable. And finally the archvile has no one to res and many pillars between you, plus is easily held in it's little closet. Really think teleporting something in would be nice. Detail was ok.

MAP07 was good, liked basically everything except that you have plasma again, it's not really necessary. Rockets and a SSG would be quite workable here, especially against the archvile. Just a bit of detailing.

MAP08 is waaaaaaay underpopulated for that size of map. Sure there's decent coverage on the actual islands themselves but there's so much extra space you could be using. That's not necessarily a bad thing for an atmospheric map, but there just isn't the detail to call it that. And then there's the plasma again. After this may maps with plasma I'd say just uncheck them for ultraviolent, as it's so easy to just run and stream and take out everything that way. Again the layout itself is nice, you just need to fix what's in it.

MAP09 has ok reasons for plasma but it's still too abundant. Also raising the ash wall on the right of the spider mastermind would be nice, I hid behind it but it could still shoot over at me -.- If that's intentional, you might want to move it some, I really didn't like it. Had good gameplay otherwise, a bit of detailing would be good.

MAP10 works pretty well, reminding me of the lower numbered plutonia maps, until you get to the marble room with PLASMA again, where the map takes on a whole different theme. It's always the PLASMA isn't it :P Detail was fine.

MAP11 is the start of the speedrun technique maps. That last bit is so unnecessary it's not funny. Otherwise a pretty strong map, add a little detail to the interior bits and it should work fine.

MAP12 is annoying. The first part you can simply hit the switch, strafe run in a circle in the arena and wait for the cyberdemon to kill all the hell knights, then plasma him a little and he's gone. Nothing else poses a problem as it's all infighting, excepting the random revenant fireball which is why you're strafe running in a circle. The rest of the map is mostly skippable, just run, open door, BFG spider mastermind, grab blue key, open next door, run to end. I'm now starting to see why you have 16 maps in this wad versus 5-8, as they're so short. Anyway, little detailing would be nice on the interior and marble room, everything else doesn't need it.

MAP13 works nice. I'd only say that in the end you should get more monsters in front of the player. Texture alignments and some detailing would be nice in some rooms. And then there's the pipewall :D Here's yours, here's mine. Here's what mine looks like in DB2. Just auto align in the middle line and it comes out nice.

MAP14 was a nice idea but is VERY confusing to get the trick down in the hell knight area, or at least was for me. detailing doesn't really fit in the scale here, just make sure stuff is aligned, maybe add some decorations.

MAP15 was switch hunts, and again you use the soul sphere triggers as a necessary step. I always treat them as traps, and if I'm over 120% I never get one that looks out of the way. You should also level out the spider mastermind area as it's VERY hard to get a rocket down to it. And you should also check block monster on the teleport lines so this doesn't happen:

And next I got very angry when I found out the edges were impassable in the redbrick with archviles and revenants room. If it's going to be an abyss, use some sort of star textures and flats and have the player teleport back up again. Setting up a small sector you teleport to, get pushed forward while on damaging floor, then back to the main platform would be cool. A kind of small piece of hell.

MAP16 was fairly good but had a LOT of open space, which is a problem when dealing with arch-viles. Nowhere to hide, everywhere to run and get flamed. You should also let the monsters wander out of the hub room, it's kind of strange to see them just wandering around in there and not follow you without an obvious reason. Liked the detail on the blood canals where the red skull key is.

That about wraps up this in-ordinately detailed feedback article. Would like to subscribe to the AB reviewing corporation? :P 6,100c

[Blueworrior]

Thank you for the reply. It helped a lot to see where the problems were and so... Im gonna make another wad called Codename: Avenger. It will inclue some old maps revamped and some other new maps. I have already started map01. Pics will come soon!

[NoWits]

I played the first few levels. I must say it is quite 1994y in some areas. Especially the third level. It was fun up until the really dark part in level 4. I cheated myself a lite-amp and the level became very good looking. However, this was spoilt due to the complete absence of light, which kinda spoilt it.

My recommendation would be to make moar light, then it would definitely be much easier.