Disdain - Get out of your comfort zone!

[Scripten]

There's been a lot of threads lately that consist of constraint-based mapping projects. Most of them are pretty cool ideas, and while the results aren't always the absolute best, there are some real gems that get pressed out when one restricts themselves.

This isn't another one of those.

Project Concept
Disdain is a concept I came up with while playing a few wads where, despite wanting to love them for all the effort that went into them, I just couldn't do it. To combat that, I decided to try mapping something of my own that was in the same vein. (That map will be up eventually, but I'd like to get it working first.) So here's my challenge to you all. Try breaking out of what you're used to, both in terms of mapping and playing.

Criteria
- Must be Zdoom or Boom compatible (I know a lot of you really can't stand Zdoom-isms in your maps, so consider this an opportunity!)
- Must be pistol-start compliant
- Must use Doom 2 as an IWAD (Let's avoid custom textures/flats for now)
- Must have MP starts to avoid crashes

Lastly, though it's obviously very difficult to ascertain this from our end, try to pick something that you really dislike. Don't like slaughter maps? Make one! How about script-heavy set pieces full of slopes? Do it! Just try to make it fun, if you can. Other than that, just have fun and learn to love!

[scifista42]

Interesting idea, however I personally don't feel that I'd want to spend a lot of effort and time into making a map I will dislike. Not to say nobody would, though, anyway I'm not participating here. Sorry.

[Scripten]

Understandable. However, just to clarify that the idea isn't to make a map that you will hate, necessarily, but to foster some branching out. Sometimes what it really takes to appreciate a certain type of map is to become intimate with how they are created. Either way, glad to have the feedback. :)

[Obsidian]

Ummm....there's not much I don't like. I'm even giving slaughtermaps a go nowdays. :-) I'm not overly keen on 1994 maps, but I don't think you'll want one of those somehow.

[Walter confetti]

i don't like terry troll wads.... but i don't think you want something like that...

[Obsidian]

walter confalonieri said:

i don't like terry troll wads.... but i don't think you want something like that...

I was thinking that too, but I think we can rule those out considering they're engineered to annoy people.

[Touchdown]

I'd like to see a slaughtermap made by someone who hates slaughtermaps, where such person would take it in order to like it. Same for scipt heavy, slope maps and such. It's easy to just despise some types of maps but to use those elements to create something that such person would enjoy? I'd like to see it.

[Sergeant_Mark_IV]

Well, maybe I could try a Slaughtermap.

[Katamori]

The problem is that there's hard to define (and way harder to prove) that what is not "comfortable" for a map maker.

[Scripten]

It's true, we can't prove conclusively that everyone who contributes does so honestly. Someone may submit something that is right up their normal alley and we'd never know the difference. I suppose the idea was to rely on any contributor's sense of honor that, if they didn't quite try something they hated, at least it'd be a style they've never done before. There's really not even a problem with making a map that uses a set of enemies and weapons you may feel you neglect otherwise, even. Really, the idea of the project isn't to restrict mappers so much as it is to encourage them to try something new. Obviously, troll and joke maps are a little out of this project's range, but there's a number of possibilities that fall under just traditional maps.

If you:
- Rarely do anything with the rocket launcher and BFG, then make a map focused on just those two weapons.
- Really can't stand archies and revenants, make a map focused around battles with them.
- Tend to do very non-linear maps with key/switch hunts, make a straightforward killfest, or vice versa.

There's any number of different things that I'm sure most of us haven't tried.

[Xaser]

If the phrase "Disdain in the Membrain" isn't used at least once somewhere, I'm gonna feel betrayed on a deeply personal level.