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Vandoom

'First' Level

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Hi guys, finished my first map I'm happy to release to the community yet would like some feedback before i figure out uploading it to the idgames site, It's my third level and made in doom 2 format so should play in most ports, i made it with doombuilder 2 and run it in gzdoom myself, for best results pair it with brutal doom otherwise you will miss some of the features i implemented, its tough level to get going but once you make it into the main complex you shouldn't find it too challenging, link to the wad over on my dropbox https://www.dropbox.com/s/s9qfz4ot2jrf8v3/complex.wad

feedback much appreciated!

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I don't understand the clamour for screenshots when he's actually given you a map to download and look at. He's also told you that it is intended to be Doom2-compatible and what it has been tested with, which is more information than you get from many textfiles.

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Grazza said:

I don't understand the clamour for screenshots when he's actually given you a map to download and look at. He's also told you that it is intended to be Doom2-compatible.


my time is so valuable, I can't be downloading maps that might not look good!

now back to browsing DW...




edit: anyways... here's an fda, if you're into that sorta thing. I'm shit with keyboard, but beat level anyway, I imagine it's more difficult with brutal doom or whatever, was really easy played normally. Overall map has that 90's feel, I liked the crevice of fire thing. Also if you're going to have ceilings start crushing out of nowhere I'd advise using the kind that only does like 50 or so damage, instead of the ones that outright kill you, but that's just like, my opinion, man.

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A nice map. Bit square and the MIDSPACE texture was a bit out of place through out the map.

But clearly shows you have a great grasp on layout and all the basics.

I didn't use Brutal Doom though.

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The map looks pretty good to me, especially for a first map.

You could probably be a bit tighter on the ammo and power-ups, espcially on UV, and add some of the tougher monsters. The invuln in the final area also removed any challenge at that point. Overall the map offers little challenge or danger to the player. A few arch-viles teleporting in at certain moments could change that, for instance (though that can have a cheap and randomizing effect if not implemented carefully).

The transforming effect made one otherwise bland area somewhat memorable.

Did you intend the player to be able to escape from the main area through the fence near the starting point? I'd guess not, so you might want to fix that, as it means the player can just run around the edge of the map provoking infighting in near-complete safety.

I played in prb+ with -complevel 2 (Doom2.exe emulation) and nothing critical seemed to be wrong. When you said that your testing had been done in GZdoom, I feared the worst in that respect.

You offer the player a chainsaw after he has been given a berserk pack. Perhaps you view the chainsaw as the better melee weapon, but most experienced players will disagree, and ignore the chainsaw (once you have berserk, it simply makes weapon switching a pain). So you might want to put the berserk later in the map, or switch the two around.

Fire textures were nice (reminded me of City in Chaos); you could use them more liberally too I think.

Obviously I didn't use Brutal Doom, and wouldn't recommend designing maps with it primarily in mind. Balance your maps for the standard monsters and weapons and you'll get a much wider audience. If you can make them also balanced with certain weapon packs, then that's a bonus. Or maybe, e.g., balance skill 2 for a particular weapon mod and balance skill 4 for tough/standard play and skill 3 for easier standard play.

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Ribbiks said:

my time is so valuable, I can't be downloading maps that might not look good!

now back to browsing DW...


Thus a simple guide to attention was born:

1. Make map.
2. Post to dw along with some sexyass screenshot from different wad.
3. Get tons of downloads and feedback, huge success and profit.

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thanks for the feedback guys, as for the chainsaw it's really there for decoration, perhaps i should add one near the player start so you can't pick up it up, being decorative and all, thinking of porting it to UDMF format to get some of the neat features and i'll get on balancing for U.V and N.T.R, oh and fix that damn fence! MIDSPACE is out!

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I liked it. A bit straight forward, but for a first map quite good.

Just one thing though, nowhere is there an upper or lower texture, which needs it, marked as unpegged.
With today's editors (Doombuilder2, GZDoombuilder) which give you a Visual Mode, that should not happen.
And using a low lightlevel will not solve that problem.

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Kappes Buur said:

nowhere is there an upper or lower texture, which needs it, marked as unpegged.


DOING THIS HAS MADE IT LOOK SO MUCH BETTER THANKYOU!

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Thanks! i'm currently implementing suggestions and changes and thankfully no one mentioned the undeniably lazy default floor / ceiling textures which i'm in the process of ridding the map of

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Vandoom said:

WIP update since the last has been replaced https://www.dropbox.com/s/s9qfz4ot2jrf8v3/complex.wad

Just downloaded and played this latest version (in prBoom), but I think I'm missing something, because I can't seem to progress beyond this point. I hit the switch, the little bars lower, then... nothing? I think I'm missing something vital, lol.

What little I saw did look promising, though. That firepit is cool, and the general aesthetics are tantalizing yet not overly detailed. Great visual balance.

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Ah yes the little bars represent the large bars in the room you just came from (with the I.O.S texture on the floor), dropping so you can access the stairs then its a quick jaunt into an unlocked door upstairs to be on the way to getting delicious skull keys

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Processingcontrol said:

I think you put the player start in the wrong place.

Very Odd, when did you download it? if it was within the last few hours it should be the finished version with unpegged textures and difficulty balancing, on UV you start underground behind a former human, there's a chainsaw on the ground (to stop you taking ones i used decoratively) and a lift into a small room, it's hell making it into the main complex on UV (well it is for me) try HMP

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The version I was using was downloaded yesterday. I just played the most recent version and it looks like you now start in the right place.

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Haha, ahh, the downsides of directly syncing your wads to dropbox... that one's bit me a few times as well. The benefits more than outweigh the occasional oddity. :)

P.S. this is one of the reasons I've recently started getting into the habit of moving items meant for sharing out of my Doom Builder save folder and into a separate "Doomshare" folder, which I reserve for static files.
P.P.S. pardon the runon sentence.

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Btw, your map was fun Vandoom. I liked the challenge.

I noticed a ton of misaligned textures though, you might want to fix that.

Also, you kind of had secret area displays when they weren't really secrets, but that's not a big thing really.

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