Alkylation - Betatester needed !!!

[Lorenzo]

My last project, Handle With Care (the first episode of my megawad Alkylation) is almost completed.

Here the link for the first official version:

ftp://archives.gamers.org/.1/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/a-c/alk-ep1.zip

Screenshots:
http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/8423/hwc07.png
http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/5278/hwc06.png
http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/3583/hwc05.png
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/6177/hwc04.png
http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/6559/hwc03.png
http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/6871/hwc02.png
http://img847.imageshack.us/img847/9800/hwc01.png

[General Rainbow Bacon]

Cool shots dude. I really like the gazebo in shot 3 :)
I'd be up for playtesting too.

[iLLbeint]

Pretty small screens, but I like what i see!! I'll only be able to play this in software. keep it yup!! that third shot's slopes could be a tad better though!

[NaturalTvventy]

sweetness doood. You mentioned episodes. is it for DOOM or DOOM2?

[DemilinX]

iLLbeint said:

Pretty small screens, but I like what i see!! I'll only be able to play this in software. keep it yup!! that third shot's slopes could be a tad better though!

In the image URL delete the ".th" portion towards the end.

For example, on the map051 image...

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/9201/map051.th.png

Delete .th towards the end so that URL reads...

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/9201/map051.png

This will provide access to the 800x600 screenshots.

[esselfortium]

Alternately, enable image display in your user settings. It's an old Doomworld forum bug where, if you have images disabled and someone is using thumbnails as links, you'll just be given links to the thumbnails. If you enable images, the thumbnails work as intended.

[Philnemba]

With the exception of the first pic(too bland if you ask me), this project look promising. Also in terms of episodes is this for Ultimate Doom or Doom 2 with Episode definition by MAPINFO?

[DemilinX]

esselfortium said:

Alternately, enable image display in your user settings. It's an old Doomworld forum bug where, if you have images disabled and someone is using thumbnails as links, you'll just be given links to the thumbnails. If you enable images, the thumbnails work as intended.

Oh -good advice. When I registered this account back in 2000 I had images disabled, so I forgot about it after not using it for years.

[Use]

Great selection of screens, well done. The rough metal texture clashes a little with the clean grays but it's still fine with me.

[Lorenzo]

I put images bigger... thank for your suggestion Demilinx. Now perhaps too much big ;-)

The episodes will be for Doom 2 with mapinfo entry.

I'm looking for beta tester so DoomHero85 you're hired ;-)

[Khorus]

Not a fan of the "add things sticking out of the ceiling" method of creating architecture. Shot 3 is the best of the lot imo, where the room itself is what catches the eye. Using some other rock textures with the existing one would help break some monotony there too. And texture bug on shot 5, on the ceiling where the hex from the floor is missing (a rather tired cliché). :P

The lighting is also very flat. Shot 4 is just screaming for some darkness with the lights lighting up parts of the crate maze.

I really like that you're mixing expansive, open areas with the more closed in ones, keep that up. :)

[General Rainbow Bacon]

cool man, I'll get testing as soon as you want :)

[Lorenzo]

@Khorus:

Shot 4 is from a level for which I still have to define the lights.

what do you mean for "add things sticking out of the ceiling"? Why is it so bad? If it is what I think, well, I love it ;-)

Thank you for the bug issue !!!

Lorenzo

[General Rainbow Bacon]

Lorenzo: You can pm me the file whenever you're ready. I won't be able to start playtesting until tomorrow though.

[esselfortium]

If I had to guess, I'd say Khorus meant that your ceilings themselves are generally very flat, with the only height variance on them being for lamps and sometimes some bars between the lamps.

[Jodwin]

1. Why is your gamma so damn high?

2. The computers hanging from the ceiling in the second screenshot look messy and out of place compared to the rest.

3. The third, last, fifth and fourth screens are the best ones (in that order) since they're the only ones showing any large-scale architecture.

[Lorenzo]

@DoomHero85: At the moment it is not completly playable: on a total of 5 levels, I finished to add monsters only on 3 and all 5 levels need some testing by me...
Probably a playable beta-version will be ready end September beginning October.
So thank you very much for your help but I fear you'll have to wait a little ;-)

@esselfortium: ok, now I understand... yes probably Khorus is right. I'll keep this in mind.

@Jodwin: 1. no idea for the gamma. Really.
2. you mean all the computers or only the one with monitors?
3. in my episode there are both large and small areas... sure shots of large areas are more impressive but I am pleased with the structures i built in the small areas so i tried to represent them as well.

[Jodwin]

Lorenzo said:

3. in my episode there are both large and small areas... sure shots of large areas are more impressive but I am pleased with the structures i built in the small areas so i tried to represent them as well.

90 % of small rooms in all Doom maps are either squares or rectangles (and 80 % of statistics are pulled out of someone's ass, but you get the point). The thing is, yeah you can have different kinds of areas, but what you're showing is the same rectangular box that we all have seen for so many times already. At least try to take screenshots which hide the room shape so that we don't know they're squares, or try to add some angles to the walls to make it a little more interesting. Having an interestingly shaped room with very basic detail looks much better than a room with a boring shape and lots of detail - so it's actually less work to make good looking maps as long as you get your shapes and architecture right.

[Lorenzo]

@Jodwin: ok i got the point, thank you. so a series of squared rooms, one after the other, even if with interesting details, is worse than let's say, a single area with lots of angles, windown, floor level difference and so on, right?

Some additional photo:

[DeathevokatioN]

Jodwin said:

Having an interestingly shaped room with very basic detail looks much better than a room with a boring shape and lots of detail - so it's actually less work to make good looking maps as long as you get your shapes and architecture right.

This is the best advice anyone can ever get with regards to making aesthetically pleasing maps.

[iLLbeint]

DeathevokatioN said:

This is the best advice anyone can ever get with regards to making aesthetically pleasing maps.

I approve of this.

[Walter confetti]

as usual, cool stuff from you.
I think to see this on your website long time ago, isn't?
Or i just seen wrong...

[iLLbeint]

I like the tech pillar in shot 4. Where did you get it from? I also like the use of pillars in general for this mapset. I'm already visualizing some Chaingun action. :)

[BlueEagle]

The sky on the first image looks a lot like the close-up from the porn I watched recently...

[Lorenzo]

@walter: you're right, some maps were originally for a revamp of my old "death is just the beginning". I decided to use them in this new project instead, together with completly new maps.

@iLLbeint: i don't remember where the column is from :-(

@BlueEagle: the sky is the original doom 2 sky ...

[Bobsklim IV]

looks like you've had a good scrounge on the bestiary. I quite enjoyed promethius so am looking forward to seeing how this turns out

[Lorenzo]

The bestiary is there for that....

[Lorenzo]

In the first post you can find the link for the 0.1 version.

Comments, reviews, testing, opinions, etc... are welcome.

Lorenzo

[PRIMEVAL]

From what I could play, it is challenging but not too much to ruin the fun. A problem I encountered was a crash on Map03. In GzDoom, as soon as the level loads, the game crashes and my computer freezes. I don't know what the problem is.

[Lorenzo]

Thank you Primeval for your feedback.

I've just tried it with gzdoom 1.5.3.990 and it works correctly.
Which gzdoom version are you using?

However the levels are designed for zdoom (gzdoom compatibility will be checked later) so please can you use that port?

Lorenzo