[Release] The Escape Teleporter

[Blue Shadow]

The Escape Teleporter - August 1st, 2013

The areas shown in the screenshots below are from an earlier version that was released on the ZDoom forums last year. However, they still look how they look in the release version, though they are necessarily not when it comes to the items and whatnot.

http://i.imgur.com/t97e2.png
http://i.imgur.com/EsVSq.png
http://i.imgur.com/JZsEW.png
http://i.imgur.com/30ww8.png
http://i.imgur.com/4ydAQ.png

Well, this is my first ZDoom map, which I started in late 2008. I released an unfinished version of it on the ZDoom forums last year. Last month I decided it was finally the time to dust it off and complete it once and for all.

The map doesn't come with a story or anything like that but you have one objective, which is finding the yellow keycard to have access to the facility's telepoter to escape the place - hence, the name. However, the map does come with a few custom textures, a couple of custom monsters, items and some scripting.

General Notes:

• The map is linear. So, if you're not interested in this kind of a map, you might want to skip it.
  
• There is only one difficulty setting, but don't worry it isn't Hell Revealed kind of hard or anything. I'm not a hardcore Doom player. In fact, I consider myself an average player, so if I can beat it with only a keyboard, then you might as well.
  
• Though there is enough ammo to get through the map, don't get too comfortable with it and try not to waste it that much. This goes for health as well.
  
• Secrets aren't that hard to find, so try to find them if you can. Of course, you can still survive without them.
  
• Jumping is not necessary to progress through the map, though it is needed in a single bit in an optional area.

[schwerpunk]

Whoa, nice screenshots. I especially like the silhouette of the hill in the last one. Or is that part of the skybox? Anyway, nice to see a well-detailed map that is made with vid_renderer 0 in mind.

[Blue Shadow]

schwerpunk said:

I especially like the silhouette of the hill in the last one. Or is that part of the skybox?

It is part of the skybox, yes.

[Marnetmar]

I don't think linearity is necessarily a bad thing if it's done correctly. I'll give this a play sometime in the near future.

[Blue Shadow]

Marnetmar said:

I don't think linearity is necessarily a bad thing if it's done correctly.

It was more of a "heads-up", so people who like non-linearity won't get disappointed when they find out that the map was otherwise.

[pavera]

http://www.twitch.tv/krispavera

Streaming this right now. Come in for maximum fun times!

[AtTheGates]

i quite liked the map. the music, the map design and even the new items work out quite nicely, lots of neat little zdoom tricks in there as well, all without being too "out-there" / not "doom" enough. i didn't even feel the map was *that* linear, i expected much worse after you mentioned it.


some stuff i noticed:

- the elevators absolutely need a sound to play when you ride them. right now they totally break the immersion for me, i thought i was stuck at first.

"pillars barring the bridge have been lowerd" -> small typo there.

- the difficulty is ballanced really weirdly. right after the fight with the archvile +2 blackred-barons (whatever they are called), the trap on your way back reveals...4 imps. lots of other instances like this were the jumpsi n difficulty feel weird and somewhat random. this also affects health and ammo, which either seems overabundant or really sparse at times (especially the health is often lacking).
at the time i picked up the yellow key and was trying to find the corresponding door, i was almost out of ammo, so i had to dash past the pain elemental. once i rode the elevator back up again, i was completely dry and couldnt get around the imps and the caco without cheating. seriously, where's the ammo? 3 revenants after that and all you get are some shotguns and clips off of the resurrecting zombies.
i didn't find any secrets by the way, so i guess maybe they were somewhat mandatory to have enough ammo? if so, that's generally not a good idea.

- also, if you invest that much time into all of this stuff - the new items and such, you basically have a (small) new ruleset for the player - it would be a shame to let it go to waste for just one single map in my opinion, a couple of more using the same "ruleset" would be nice.

[pavera]

Stream is over, here is the recording: http://www.twitch.tv/krispavera/b/440354617

Most of my criticisms can be listened to there, but overall I enjoyed it enough. The layout is flat and straight forward, and honestly I think it would have done well to be a bit more difficult (or at least have some difficulty settings).