Mission "Critical"!

[TropicalDeathPunch]

Hey folks, as some of you already know from the "Post your Doom pictures" thread here,
I have been intensely working to update and critique this map so it is of a satisfactory standard. All BS aside, you can find the file
at Media Fire and play till your heart is content! :P

To be clear, with the great assistance of a Mithran Denizen, the textures that I chose to add to this map where installed directly into the wad because of the small amount of textures used. Upon the council of Mithran, I agreed that this was the best solution for the wad. Also be sure to note that this wad is intended to be used with the Plutonia.wad as the base launch. (IWAD)
any additional information can be found in the text file located in the zip.
Again, thank you to Mithran for his assistance in this first map! And thank you to those who have contributed to the tutorials and wiki's. Also thank you to the Makers of DB2. I hope to form more connections with others here in DW forums and make a heck of a lot more maps.
PS.
I'm probably not going to go overboard with the thanks for every single map I do. I just prefer being clear about my position.

Update 4-9-2011
Fixed some slime areas on the map!
Corrected some of the texture alignments!
And moved the linedef further away that triggers the raising bars in
the blue key area.
Update 2.
Sorry folks but thought I corrected a lift issue, should be fixed now.

[Guest]

Correct that link, as you can't access it as it stands at the moment.

{edit} I must have posted this just after you corrected it. Thanks dude.

Also, I like the tag on your posts. If I run out of shells on this map of yours, there will be trouble! :)

[TropicalDeathPunch]

Then I suggest you aim carefully soldier!

[Guest]

Heh. Thanks for the tip. :)

As it turns out, I have played through this, and yes, there were enough shells!

Ok, so long story short, this level was actually very good, showed really strong eye for level design and monster placement. It is much much better than most new maps that I see. With a little polish, this would not be out of place in with the original Doom2 maps. Some really unique and creative ideas in this level. Gameplay was generally pretty good too.

That said, there were lots of little things that need to be better, so here are a few.
-The A-RAIL1 texture is unknown and doesn't show up ingame.
-linedef 1806 raises the bars slowly enough that you can run back across them and lock yourself out of that part of the level, which breaks the level. Either make those bars raise faster, or move that linedef far enough away that the player can not run back across those bars and break the level.
-FWATER2 texture does not scroll, which looks kinda odd, you probably should change this to FWATER1, which looks way better.
-Upper and lower unpegged needs to be used more. For example, above the doorway in the start room (linedef 5317) use upper unpegged and it will line up neatly with the linedefs around it.
-Aligning textures throughout the level. (As time goes on, you will just notice this more and more.) Especially in the very start room, that brown stripe on the walls needs to be done lined up better.
-A bunch of sectors needed to be closed. Especially sector 167, which faces out into nothing, you could just delete this sector entirely. Having frontside sidedefs facing off into the void causes problems all over the place.
-I don't think I have ever seen a curved crate before. Square crates probably should be square. :P

I guess the biggest thing is that I don't really see why this needs to be for ZDoom only. This could just about be a classic Doom2 level with a few new textures added in.

Ok, but those criticisms aside, this is a pretty darn good map, I had fun playing through it, and it will be good to see what you come out with next. :)

[Mithran Denizen]

KiiiYiiiKiiiA said:

-The A-RAIL1 texture is unknown and doesn't show up ingame.

[snip]

-I guess the biggest thing is that I don't really see why this needs to be for ZDoom only. This could just about be a classic Doom2 level with a few new textures added in.

In regard to the first point, the A-RAIL1 texture comes from Plutonia, which is the intended IWAD for the map. (You might want to add that point to the main post, TropicalDeathPunch, rather than just the text file.)

I considered bringing up the second point while I was testing the map, but because there's already a big mixture of textures/flats on the walls and floors/ceilings (plus there's no REJECT lump), it'd take a fair bit of work to un-ZDoom-ize. I don't want to pressure a beginner to bother with making the map work in ports that they don't use, either. (At least not right away. ;P )

Anyway, TDP, glad to see that you fixed the missing AVP texture. I had fun playing through the map again! Feel free to keep in touch.

[TropicalDeathPunch]

Hey thanks for the critiques!
In response to Kiyikia,

-I don't think I have ever seen a curved crate before. Square crates probably should be square. :P

This is true. It was my attempt to display a storage room that had been partially submerged/eroded by waste materials.
It seems rather boring to me to have to confine to the same ol rules if you will. :)

@Mithran,
will do. My next little project is going to be learning to add a custom weapon. I figure it might give me a bit of a break from the mapping, frustrate the hell outta me, thus resulting in me going back to mapping. Such a viscous cycle!