The Infernal Castle

[marxr]

The Infernal Castle. BTW if someone could update this on idgames i'd appreciate it, i'm not good with that FTP magic.

Download link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/j8kpzc76quwcxsi/TIC.zip?dl=0

Moddb: http://www.moddb.com/games/doom-ii/addons/tic

Fixd all the things subject_119 wrote were problems RIP. Also added better music that is much better.

[Degree23]

I played my way through it and didn't have too many problems, in part because the rocket launcher made short work of the more dangerous enemies on the map and I ended up with about 8 or 9 to spare. I only killed about 110 enemies and I found 1 of the secrets. The music was quite abrasive and would maybe suit a more frantic map than this one. I did enjoy the narrow corridor battles because there didn't seem to be anything to get stuck on so despite the small amount of space, I was able to move around as I wanted. Overall I enjoyed the map.

One problem seemed to be that after picking up the partial invisibility behind the Arachnatron, I ran past it and seemed to get stuck behind the pillar (which had risen) with no way of lowering it or otherwise escaping.

[marxr]

Thanks for the feedback. I will definitely address the pillar issue and re-upload. Thanks again.

[Walter confetti]

played your map today, here's some hilarious FDAs, not one of your best map (is this a jokewad? i guess it from the layout and some texturing choice), actually the first time i've seen a useful way of dodging in zdoom (manc room), is a nice map overall...

[marxr]

I'm guessing you think i'm that ultimatedoomer who has made more maps, i'm not though, this is my first release. BTW what to do with the .lmp file?

[Walter confetti]

Whoops! Sorry, i think you was this ultimate doomer, so it's a pretty nice map for be a first try...

for the lmp file, it's a demo i recorded for the first playing on this map. You can play it doing this command:

zdoom -file [your map] -playdemo [demo.lmp]

[marxr]

Watched your demo, didn't think anyone could die this much in this map :D Last 10 minutes of the video you went apeshit and wasted all your ammo on books in the library, then saved the game several times, what was that all about?

[Obsidian]

Good job for a first map. :) I noticed 2 Imps were stuck in the area you teleport to after the blue door, which you might want to fix. Also, do the lifts have to be so blimmin' tall? :P It was a decent romp at any rate.

[marxr]

Thanks. Well it's not actually my first map, it's a first decent map, my first maps were all squareish clusterfucks. I'll take a look at that imp issue.

[marxr]

Hmm, didn't see any imps being stuck anywhere, could you be more specific?

[Obsidian]

TheUltimateDoomer said:

Hmm, didn't see any imps being stuck anywhere, could you be more specific?

After you enter the blue door, kill the PE and take the left teleporter, you can find an area behind where your destination point containing 2 Imps and some Rocket Launcher ammo. I was playing in ZDoom and neither of them went to attack me.

Also, feel free to shoot me a PM when you want your map on the archive, I can upload it for you.

[SubstanceJ]

TheUltimateDoomer said:

Last 10 minutes of the video you went apeshit and wasted all your ammo on books in the library then saved the game several times, what was that all about?

Seems like a desynchronization issue.
@walter confalonieri, what version of zdoom do you use? I think it has something to do with the save games.

Anyway, the map is alright, a little confusing but not a bad place to start. Keep it up! :)

[marxr]

Obsidian said:

After you enter the blue door, kill the PE and take the left teleporter, you can find an area behind where your destination point containing 2 Imps and some Rocket Launcher ammo. I was playing in ZDoom and neither of them went to attack me.

Also, feel free to shoot me a PM when you want your map on the archive, I can upload it for you.

LOL, i had totally forgotten that area, i don't think i have ever been there when playtesting, however the imps seemed to attack me, tested on every difficulty (not that i have difficulty levels implemented but still).

[scifista42]

For a first release it's a good map. Features quite a lot of long and unintuitive travelling, exploring mechanisms, backtracking and teleporting, I think it could have been improved. There are little "side rooms", which honestly don't make a very effective Doom design. For the sake of flow and due to the prolonged time needed to visit and leave each room, complex and interconnected structures suit Doom maps better, in my opinion. Today's players have little patience, they are after an effective design without unnecessary prolongations. That's why you could also use less tall lifts etc. (lifts are generally slowing down the gameplay).

Many areas are narrow/cramped, although high ceilings surprisingly help to improve the feel. Still, better avoid too small areas, they are often uncomfortable to move around, specially during fighting. Steep height differences on a small area (stairs in a pit) are an odd choice, if someone doesn't use mouselook (I don't) he cannot see for example what's down in the pit. Design is a bit too square-y and texture choices are sometimes garish (overuse of bloodfalls, brown/green/silver colour mixing). But that will probably improve with time and experience. Well, well - as I've seen your recent house DM map - these problems are still present, it might be your natural style which would be hard to overcome. Anyway you could try to improve it, because squares are uninteresting and ugliness is not good as well.

Gameplay-wise the level is easy. Monster placement seems like if you placed the monsters more or less randomly. That's understandable. But next time you might want to think about the particular monster's abilities, and place them in a rational way in order to provide challenge, to minimalize "filler fight" moments. ;)

I like the map, it's obviously a beginner's effort, strange and different from advancedly polished maps. Well, it's an older map. Good luck with your further level designing.

[marxr]

Hey big thanks for your long feedback. Yes, this map was made 4 years ago or even more but back then i was afraid to release my maps for some reason and I got a ton of unfinished maps from that time as well that i'm finishing now, 3 of them are already finished but 2 of them are DM maps wich i'm yet to release because i haven't tested them with my friends yet and one of them i released some time after TIC, it's here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/e8i5uymqxd3f0co/ultrakill.zip?dl=0 Probably another squerish map for your standards but give it a try when you have time, it's pretty small.

As for that house DM map, well all rooms in my house are pretty much squares :P so can't improve there, I could also send you a version with monsters of that house map if your interested but i think it didn't turn out too well. As i said as of now im finishing my old doom 2 format maps that i've left behind ages ago. Also im developing a new map in Doom in hexen format (went over to that some time ago) But i think i wont release it because it's going to be a map of my basic school :P where i went a long time ago.

Story is this - when i went to that school, we had 6 shitty computers on our home classroom, i installed doom95 on them and we played deathmatch with our classmates all the time, then i got this idea, what if i made a map replicating that school so we could deathmatch in that, i made one but only one floor and it was really fun. So recently maybe 2 weeks ago i came across that old map and my intel collected from that school to make the map (pictures, emergency evacuation maps) so i thought what if i made a revised edition of that map with all the floors, use custom textures and scripting, doom in hexen format and other advanced features. So i thought it would be awesome and started making one and right now the whole first floor is done by now. Since i cannot DM with my classmates in that anymore so i think it'll be a personal map more or less, maybe i'll send it to few classmates and maybe someone like you in the forums who may be interested.

Wow that turned out long, ill stop now.

[scifista42]

Solid Snake said:

As for that house DM map, well all rooms in my house are pretty much squares :P so can't improve there, I could also send you a version with monsters of that house map if your interested but i think it didn't turn out too well.
...
Since i cannot dm with my classmates in that anymore so i think it'll be a personal map more or less, maybe i'll send it to few classmates and maybe someone like you in the forums who may be interested.

Since it's your unprofessional / unpolished work and if you plan it for an eventual release, release it straight to the public, to (potentially) get more people's opinions. If it didn't turn out well, improve it so that it does turn out well, because then you're more likely to get people interested and get feedback (even a positive one). :)

Also I suck at judging quality of deathmatch maps, I don't even play deathmatch very often anymore, as I always lose :P (and my ping is constantly bad, due to my internet connection). So you'd be better to not count with me for your eventual map testing / playing.

[marxr]

I thought i'd make the school map more single player oriented because it's a big school and deathmatch wouldn't be too fun in such a big map, with silent teleporters and all that. However as an SP map i think it could turn out quite well.

[marxr]

Updatd this shit as well: https://www.dropbox.com/s/j8kpzc76quwcxsi/TIC.zip?dl=0