Tellerstein

[RederickDeathwill]

Greetings!

I'm new and I've made a seven-level WAD for DOOM2. I've already uploaded it in IDGAMES, but I would really like to see your opinion here too.

DOWNLOAD LINK:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/nmf34f

About the WAD:

I. Different textures.
II. Different gfx.
III. Seven completely new maps.
IV. Original compositions for the maps and screens.

I'm a composer and keyboardist, and I've used some of my compositions in this project of mine. All the music were composed by me. If you enjoy the music, just look for Poisone Wein (This is my personal project, where I put my works to publish them online.)

Youtube Channel (I personally recomend this):

http://www.youtube.com/user/poisonewein

Myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/poisonewein

I'm really new in this thing (This forum), so, your opinion is very important to me to continue works like this. I could do something better in the next time, with the experience I've got.

I thank you all for the attention.

[glenzinho]

Just played Map 01 and I see a lot of potential.
Here are some pros and cons in my eyes:

THE GOOD
Your original music is quite fucking good. It adds a lot to make the spooky atmosphere in the map.
The different colouring for your weapon sprites look etheral and is very well done also.
Great use of custom & modified textures and sprites, very impressive.

THE BAD
Your texture placement and usage needs a bit more work and polishing, for example under your doors, and the double high door didn't look very good.
The architecture beyond the first part of the map became very square and blocky, some variation needed there.

Good start, you music is especially awesome.
Who is the picture of in the intermission screen, yourself?
BTW, your download site is terrible!

[RederickDeathwill]

Thank you very much! I'm much more a composer than a "WAD creator", but I'm learning more the craft. I really appreciate your comment!

Map01 is my very first map. In my opinion, the other ones are much better. Initially I've made map01 and map04 just for fun, so, I think the quality of the other ones are superior.

Yes, it's me in the picture haha. I've managed to change all the original gfx files of that "doom soldier", what was REALLY a boring thing to do.

In fact, I wanted to create my own weapons, my own everything, but, I'm not a pixel artist; I have no idea how the hell the guys in IDsoftware made such good animations for the graphics. I've tried to create my own, but it's really hard.

Well, that's my very first thing, so, thank you for posting your opinion. And sorry for the "sendspace".

[Simon666]

It seem that all Doom II textures are included in your file minus the new textures included, this is...kinda strange.

[RederickDeathwill]

Simon666 said:

It seem that all Doom II textures are included in your file minus the new textures included, this is...kinda strange.

Yes. I'm from Brazil, so, I've did this to upload a version with Zdoom.exe renamed to "tellerstein.exe", and "tellerstein.wad" renamed to "doom2.wad", to that they could open by "default".

I'm saying this because this "WAD Creation Culture" doesn't exist here. People here have played Doom, but never created a WAD; so I've did that so that my friends could play "directly". But, in my new creations I'll put just what is necessary in the WAD.

[hex11]

ProTip: If you test with ZDoom, chances are your maps won't work with other ports. Indeed, both chocolate-doom and prboom crash on this. The "Advanced engine needed" header line in the TXT file should be changed to reflect the ZDoom dependency (hopefully you did that when uploading to idgames, if not, just reupload and ask archive maintainer to replace the old version).

[glenzinho]

Tellerstein, see here for an awesome mapset made by a Brazilian, text is available in Portugues even!
There also used to brdoom.com for Brazilian mappers, but I don't think it's very active anymore. Valeu!

[ArmouredBlood]

First, having any of id's resources like textures, sprites etc in the wad itself is copyright infringement, don't do that. You pretty much gave the game away to your friends and whoever downloads that wad.

The maps are ok for a first try, but the music is really good. I'd definitely be interested in what you could compose for some maps I've made heheh. I usually make maps with a firm choice of music already though, maybe I'll make something for yours. If you're interested in making some more maps, I've got some opinions on what you've got already.

Use height variation. You've got some crazy ceilings in that one map, but you don't really use it except for that one staircase to the bottom. Your maps feel very flat, which isn't too easy to break a habit of since the game is 2.5D. 64 height ledges, stairs to a second level of a room, some pillars with mobs on them, a bit of a canyon added to a map, there're many more options. Just do something.

Good room width. I think you start to get this later, but the early maps are usually smaller rooms/tight corridors. This is especially a problem with that cyberdemon. The long hallway makes it very easy to get sniped, forcing a choice between just waiting for it to reach the corner and maybe having a better chance, or running straight at it and hoping the barons block it off long enough you can actually see the rockets before they reach you.

Doorfighting. Putting a door that will frequently close between you and mobs is bad for gameplay. You get pauses in the fight, waste ammo on the door closing, and sometimes get stuck with the door closed on you if feeling a bit adventurous. This is especially bad with two doors, like the last map.

Detailing/texture problems. Mostly with lower unpegged for doorjams so they don't look really weird when opening. Uniform textures like your symbol on black look best when put on the gridlines, or aligned to 64/128/256 mu sections. Stuff like the ash or rock textures usually look ok on odd lengths. Same for uniform flats, a 64x64 square looks really weird when off the gridlines.

Speed of doors/lifts(or ceiling/floor movement) working. In zdoom, you can set the speeds of these so that you aren't waiting around for the mobs to come down so you can kill them, or so you can get the next floor. In boom format or vanilla there will be specific line actions that say fast for fast, and the default will be slower.

Mob/item placement. You did ok in the later ones, but the early maps felt very unbalanced, especially that one with the 10 cacodemons and the crusher. It would be ok if there was a bit more signalling for the crusher, like some bloodstains and maybe raise the area of the crusher, but I didn't notice and wasted a lot of shells from the last map. It wouldn't have gone so well if I was pistol-starting. That brings up ammo and health. You had a decent placement, but it's good to use mostly the smaller quantities of shells or plasma and stimpacks instead of the boxes or medkits, simply so you aren't wasting like 15 shells when running over them in a fight. Keeping track of how much ammo/health you use over a map and placing accordingly helps a lot. Monster closets, the little alcoves you place a mob in then open when you cross a line, break the feel of the map for a lot of people. You can instead use teleporting monsters by making 2 rooms off the map, one only 64 units wide or so and 32 units in floor height different from the other, and have the larger one merged to a sector you will shoot in before the trap is activated (ctrl+j while selecting two sectors, select the one in map first). You use some trigger to lower/raise the floor of the 64 deep one and have a teleport trigger on the line so mobs cross it and teleport.

That's pretty much all I want to think of right now, hope this helps and good luck mapping and composing.

[Pottus]

I think you should take all the effort you put into making 7 maps and do one map next time. I think you'll get more out of mapping by doing one decent map than a bunch crummy maps. The problem doing what you've done is you applied the mapping skills you have to all the maps so they all have a very similar style/appearance evidently that of a noob mapper but that's okay everyone was a noob mapper at some point. Here is what you need to realize, it's better to learn a hundred ways something won't work until you find a way that it will what I see here is you've learned a couple of ways and are sticking to them but in my honest opinion they're not working for you.

Here is what I think map by map of what skills to keep and what to drop.

MAP01: - I like the style of sector 3 my suggestion is to build architecture around shapes like this so it basically has a wrap around effect.
- The maze technique is pretty bad don't do mazes like that, the hallways should have more architecture and connect to one another naturally

MAP02: - Ok well, this map I think looks more like a base you would be starting out from again it has that maze technique

MAP03: - This map is starting to look like the layout is getting better but in some spots where you have 90 degree turns linedefs are on weird angles which is fine however I would suggest that where you have 90 degree turns use 45 degree angles the area i'm looking at is near sector 5 also keep in mind to split linedefs and curve slightly - linedef 29
- Again this map looks like a base map to me

MAP04: - This is getting better there is a bit more detail than just a basic layout however at this point you should be concentrating on wall, floor and ceiling detail
- Whats good here is there is enough space in the layout to do other work remember always give yourself some play 64 units is usually good for spacing between walls you can go less but having that extra space can help out

MAP05: - Avoid copy and pasting whole rooms, copying switches, light sectors etc is where copy and paste is best used if your copying more than 10 sectors you should probably have good reason for doing it

MAP06: - Pretty flat and boring and feels like what you did on the other maps is making it hard to do anything past what you've been doing

MAP07: - Avoid doing long hallways with no details
- don't use mid-textures on single sided lines this is horrendous and the worst thing I've seen you do ;)

Anyways that is what I'm seeing in this WAD (Besides the good music) if you want to actually make some maps as good as your music forget everything you've learned so far.

[gemini09]

that video on your Youtube page was, hype.. hehe

seriously cool music :o

[RederickDeathwill]

I thank you all very much for the comments. They were very useful. I agree that I must create just one map to improve my skills, so, I'll do that. I'll create a WAD with just one map.

Glenzinho, I didn't know. Actually I thought that the general activity of WAD Creation was dead, but I saw here that I was completely wrong.

Hex11, thanks for the tip!

Pottus and ArmouredBlood. You've said everything! I need to focus in just one map. I'll play another WADs trying to learn some techniques, and I'll play more the original Doom2 WAD, doing the same. But obviously, creativity and originality are things pretty essential, I'll just notice the techniques.

And thank you all for the comments about my work as a composer! I compose with a software called "Guitar Pro" for years; then I import the midi to a software called "Live". I play keyboard for 10 years already, and I use the MIDI-PORT very often, playing and recording the notes in the software (In Guitar Pro or Live). Sometimes I compose just with the mouse; in fact, 2 MIDI that I used in this WAD, I've composed with ROSEGARDEN in Linux (Mouse). I could discuss something like that more deeply in the forums some day.

Gemini, thank you! For those who read Lovecraft; I try to create something similar musically speaking, and I really pretend to improve my skills in this sense.

Well, that's it! Thank you all!