Unnamed Map Needs Testing

[Malinku]

I would like some testing of a map I've been working on. Its a cave map with a few indoor brick rooms. Made to work with boom compatible ports.
(note last 2 rooms are not fully detailed)


Screenshots:





Link:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/fgdy13

Edit: fixed door to exit room

[Mithran Denizen]

I tested the map with PrBoom (using the software renderer), and noticed some issues:

-You can get stuck on the sides of the rocky stairway at the beginning of the map.
-HOM in the northwestern part near the chaingunners and pinky demons.
-Large slime trail at the southwestern area with all the Barons of Hell.
-Shotgunner stuck beneath the floor in the area before you grab the yellow key.

The map's balance and difficulty were fine for me on UV, though I was swarmed and killed a few times due to carelessness. After collecting the keys though, I wandered around the map for a while searching for something to use them with, to no avail. After around 5 minutes of backtracking through the empty level, I assumed that you have not yet created an exit, so I quit.

I didn't open up the WAD to investigate closely, or anything, but I figured the feedback might help anyway. It's a nice map so far; cheers!

Edit: I just noticed your edit about the exit door. I don't have time right now to download it and play through again though, so I apologize.

[Du Mhan Yhu]

Mithran Denizen said:

-Shotgunner stuck beneath the floor in the area before you grab the

Grab the what?

Great map, I struggled with health a little. Died 3 times. Had no problems with ammo.

[Mithran Denizen]

Oops. Brainfart. Fixed.

[ArmouredBlood]

My fda. The title fits my reaction to the map - blah. Just not feeling canyony maps at the moment, though D_RUNNIN didn't help. I know you said you've got some detailing work in the end, but right now the canyon isn't very interesting to look at - possibly some more light variation and experimenting with using some more rocky textures to give the sides of the canyon depth would be nice. Gameplay is ok in the canyon, but the last few rooms are rather large so you could lose the barons and add some more middle health enemies like revs and hks, or add detail to scrunch out that extra area. Also, I'm not sure where exactly you intended to give the chaingun if at all, I have a suspicion it's where that last former human is that I kill in my fda. I ended up SR50ing to the chaingunner ledges to grab one (which I failed to replicate, heheh). And I'd take out the blue armor, or at least give just a green, it was way too easy to just run past everything to the ssg.

Technical problems, I had a HoM where it appeared some lower sidedefs are untextured near the end of the canyon, a little farther on than the chaingunners' ledges. Also the door to the teleporter which the revenants are behind is very temperamental about opening, not sure what you've got going on there but it'd be nice to fix. Those revenants should also be able to go up the stairs, or else they become pretty trivial to kill with enough ammo.

[Vorpal]

I enjoyed the visuals of the canyon, but like AB said perhaps it could use more light variation. Maybe only so much as making the dark 16 units darker, and the light 16 units lighter, to create a greater contrast.

Also encountered the revenant door problem (had to press it like 40 times before it finally opened), two untextured sidedef HOMs, able to get stuck at the beginning, and never did figure out what the switch in the "big room" did.

[Malinku]

Mithran Denizen said:

-You can get stuck on the sides of the rocky stairway at the beginning of the map.
-HOM in the northwestern part near the chaingunners and pinky demons.
-Large slime trail at the southwestern area with all the Barons of Hell.
-Shotgunner stuck beneath the floor in the area before you grab the yellow key.

First issue is going to be fixed in next version. (I never looked at that area once I finished it as I knew what to do in that part :p)
Second and Third issue will be fixed in next version (note was not caused by a missing texture. Had to move a vertex to fix it).

Can you explain the 4th issue in my detail as I can't seem to find where it is.

ArmouredBlood said:

My fda. The title fits my reaction to the map - blah. Just not feeling canyony maps at the moment, though D_RUNNIN didn't help. I know you said you've got some detailing work in the end, but right now the canyon isn't very interesting to look at - possibly some more light variation and experimenting with using some more rocky textures to give the sides of the canyon depth would be nice. Gameplay is ok in the canyon, but the last few rooms are rather large so you could lose the barons and add some more middle health enemies like revs and hks, or add detail to scrunch out that extra area. Also, I'm not sure where exactly you intended to give the chaingun if at all, I have a suspicion it's where that last former human is that I kill in my fda. I ended up SR50ing to the chaingunner ledges to grab one (which I failed to replicate, heheh). And I'd take out the blue armor, or at least give just a green, it was way too easy to just run past everything to the ssg.

Technical problems, I had a HoM where it appeared some lower sidedefs are untextured near the end of the canyon, a little farther on than the chaingunners' ledges. Also the door to the teleporter which the revenants are behind is very temperamental about opening, not sure what you've got going on there but it'd be nice to fix. Those revenants should also be able to go up the stairs, or else they become pretty trivial to kill with enough ammo.

well I did most of the cave part of the map when I was only going to use stock textures so I'm going to go back over most of those areas and make them look less boring. As for the light level I was just going by what I normally use (192 for sky and going down from there) but now that you brought it up it does look very drab.
So I'm going to add a few new rock textures and revamp the lighting.

The last room in the map was just put together quick leading to the sloppiness of it. I wanted that room to be a challenge,which is why i put in the barons. I think what is going to happen to that room is that I'm going to change some of them to HKs or Revs but leave one by the switch. for the detail of the rooms I'm going to close up a bit of the open space (as I can see that the area in front of the second to last door is a bit to large). Also the main look of the last room is shown in the first indoor room.
I forgot to tag the exit so there is no point in going to the exit room (will be fixed in next version)
(note I never tested the gameplay of the last room)

I left out the chaingun because I felt that it would make the map to easy (might put it in a secret though).

The red key door is wierd It is at a funny angle and split into 3 linedefs to get the texture to align properly. One of those might be the cause of the problem or it might be because the door tracks were tagged with action 1. I would not know how to make the rev fight there any better and I think that most other monsters would be even easier when used in that type of area.

I also plan on having a second map that goes along with this one that finishes off the indoor part.

[Mithran Denizen]

Malinku said:

Can you explain the 4th issue in my detail as I can't seem to find where it is.

I just checked the map again, and couldn't reproduce the problem. Probably a PrBoom bug, or some other one-in-a-million thing. Sorry.

[trrobin]

I enjoyed the map, but was dissapointed that I couldn't finish it :P.

Yes the design is simple atm, but I like that.
Less is more sometimes.

I used zdoom, with psxdoom sounds to bring out the atmosphere more.

Cheers, and I will play the complete one when finished!