Senators of Volition

[NuMetalManiak]

due to popular demand, i decided to do a design n' gameplay overhaul of my Mayhem2048 submission, which was MAP10, Sligenous. the map is now called Senators of Volition and has a red/tan color scheme throughout and gameplay is made to be more atmospheric. the map has been completely retextured, but it's layout is the same. no keys, just press five switches to lower the exit, but watch out for "senators". this is BOOM-compatible, but play it in ZDoom as there's still a few bugs with prboom+ (namely, one door doesn't seem to open from one side in prboom, but ZDoom works fine). and yes Ribbiks, i decided to use one of your tunes in this, plz don't kill me.

screenshots (please pardon the brightness, it's darker than it should be):





Download link

this should be the final version now, idgames pending

[Demon of the Well]

Skill 4 FDA for this map. Except it isn't, really, because I've of course played 'Sligeneous.' It takes me a little bit to remember where the last switch and some of the secrets are, and I play very carelessly and so earn myself some complementary 3rd degree burns near the end, but I still make it out okay.

Well, it's an improvement on Sligeneous in most regards, but it still has issues. Visually there is a marked improvement; the map now has a mostly-coherent theme (as opposed to the directionless and very randomly-generated theme of the original), and the addition of light variation (plus appropriate midi) makes certain scenes, and the general atmosphere, significantly stronger. The most glaring surface-aesthetic problem that Sligeneous had has also been addressed--far fewer traumatic texture transitions. However, the areas that have remained relatively brightly-lit still look rather silly/garish to me--the main offender in this regard is the room with the flashing pattern on the floor, and the switch room next door (with Baphomet's eyes, the 'Fireblue' panel, etc.). Some of the sector-lighting also looks a mite slapdash (e.g. on the ceilings in the room with columns). Some lifts are telegraphed by stark flat changes; some are not telegraphed at all. Additionally, while it is perhaps a minor concern, some of the doors (particularly the small flesh-sigil fastdoors) probably will not look like doors to some people, as the same design is often used as a form of wall detail in Hell maps these days--myself, I think I benefited from having played Sligeneous in this regard.

It seems to me like the ammo balance, which was a complaint many had with Sligeneous, has also been eased up as well (more because you don't have to use as much of it early on than because there's actually much more of it), but knowing where the secrets are and having a rough idea of what future encounters would be may make me a less-than-reliable judge in this regard. To be honest, the fundamentals of combat still are not particularly exciting; at heart it's still a lot of makework room-clearing. The steps you've taken to spice the experience up are certainly appreciated, mind you--the theme of monsters blinking in and out of existence is rather cool and helps to tie the experience together; I particularly liked shooting the sergeant at the start, having his corpse blink out of existence mid-fall, and then having another guy (which, with imagination, one can interpret as the same guy defying the laws of time and space ;) ) blink in on the same spot a few moments later. Similarly, the extra arch-viles and other monsters that are turned loose once the exit is open help this short map to come to more of an appropriate climax, even if the layout makes disposing of some of them a bit bothersome.

And that is still the map's main problem, IMO, because it is what has changed the least from Sligeneous--it's just a rather awkward layout, man. Door-heavy, lift-heavy, ridiculously steep staircases in several places, etc. Even just walking through the map on -nomonsters mode is a decidedly choppy experience, and having to fight in this space is still dicey at best--because of the way everything is laid out, the majority of the combat still takes place over thresholds and other spans of 'separative distance' (if you know what I mean) rather than within rooms, which is not particularly engaging. There are several examples of this, but the worst offender is still the group of monsters that appears in the exit room at the end--there is no way to approach that room without running into a threshold that also marks a significant vertical change, so you're always left to hang back and plink at them from above or below, which gets tedious fast if the viles keep rezzing stuff. Of course, you can also do what I did in the demo and plunge in there with them, but this is a rather foolish risk since that room doesn't really offer what one needs to skillfully fight one or more arch-viles within it, as my Doomguy exiting the level sans back-hair shows. Now, you could argue that this adds 'challenge', I suppose, but it doesn't strike me that this was really your intent with the encounter. Granted, there's really not a whole lot you could've done with that fight, and, well.....I guess that's my whole point, really.

So, in closing, while this still plays in a rather choppy way, it is as I said still an improvement on Sligeneous as an overall experience--playing up the aesthetics and mood as you've done, and even extending them to the action to some degree (e.g. the blinking 'Senators' theme) is probably the best course you could've taken, simply because there's really not a lot you can do in terms of raw playability/combat dynamics with this very ungainly layout. I don't think you can save the map from its core issues just by changing texturing and thing placement no matter how many tweaks you make, so it's probably best to consider this a learning experience and also a venue for trying out some unusual ideas like you've done in this new iteration, and just apply everything thus gained to your next map.

Edit: Oh yes, forgot to mention above, the final large door that I pass through in the demo (the red four-panel 'devil' door) was not opened under my own power--it was the commando that actually opened it from the other side, I think. Not being able to open the door from that side seems more like an oversight than a design feature to me (what would be the point?), and so I wanted to be sure to mention it.

Edit II: I fail at reading comprehension, apparently you already knew about the door. Seems like it should be an easy fix, at least.

[plums]

non-FDA from me too: http://www.doomworld.com/vb/attachment.php?postid=1290018

Also I was bad and used my customized MAYhem wad as a resource instead of retres, because I'm sick of the sounds and statusbar, so there were one or two textures that didn't display right I think.

Anyhow in the MAYhem thread I think I wrote that the map had messy visuals, OK gameplay, and good music. The visuals are much better here, though there are definitely some weird bits still, and the gameplay is a little better. Those teleporting enemies are a good theme and generally work very well. The use of fewer textures and themes works, though one or two bits jumped out at me - the main one I remember is the green marble pillar with the chaingunner and wooden fence, everything about that looks out of place. (Incidentally I was able to hit the switch from the ground.) I really like the curvy light gradients you have going on through most of the map, as compensation for the minimalist textures used.

Apart from that I basically agree with everything DotW wrote. It's definitely an improvement over the previous one, but there are still some fundamental issues with the map that only a complete overhaul might fix - at this point, better to just move on to a new one. I think the 2048 limit doesn't exactly work in your favour here either (a complaint I have for many MAYhem2048 maps mind you).

[NuMetalManiak]

plums said:

Also I was bad and used my customized MAYhem wad as a resource instead of retres, because I'm sick of the sounds and statusbar, so there were one or two textures that didn't display right I think.

you know i actually tried to import the textures i used from RETRES here into the wad (you know, for a separate release) but there were two textures i couldn't find, causing HOM's to appear had i not loaded the texturepack alongside the wad. i think 3SWISH9C and 3XEDALL were the textures, but i couldn't find them anywhere when importing. 3XEDALL was also similar to a Doom 1 texture.

regarding the comments about the layout, all i did was retexture the thing. i haven't really touched the layout. yes it is annoying height-wise, but less annoying than having somebody say that your level is very flat. i'm really not sure how some people treat heights anymore. regardless, i'll fix the door, and any other really groundbreaking bugs that DON'T pertain to the layout (i.e. missing textures) and go for a separate release.

[Estryark]

I played your two maps with ZDoom and Demon of the Well tackles pretty much every concerns I had while playing.

There's a HOM effect in the room where you drop down after following the blood trail from the player start. It's located on the edge of the fountain at the very bottom. Very minor it's no big deal.

http://i.imgur.com/ARcjxYL.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/dAq5bFR.jpg

Overall it was fun to play, definitely easier and better looking than Sligeneous. The steep stair cases is fine for me, as long as there is nothing to shoot at (Slidgeneous had Shotgunners there and I was getting really mad). Also teleporting enemies like that is good too it keeps my mind in the game. However I found strange that the room where the Pain Elemental comes out from the wall is a secret room.

I had a mix feelings with the last encounter but it's sort of related to the height differences too so we'll forget about it.

[NuMetalManiak]

cheers for the extra feedback. not sure if i should fix the HOM cause i never saw it before, plus it's not garishly groundbreaking. currently i'm trying to weed out a few texture problems in prBoom+ before release.

[Estryark]

Good idea. It's very hard to see too because you have to look from one specific side and is very tiny :)

[NuMetalManiak]

http://www.mediafire.com/download/y9cwl73ee5qde77/volition.zip

this should be the final version of the map to upload to idgames; if i can get past time out errors i'll do it.

i also plan on submitting it to DWS as well.

[Estryark]

Played it again real quick and changes looks good. If you aimed what you were going for, go for it.

[40oz]

Hey, I know you're looking for reviews so I figured I'd throw in a little input.

First of all, the texture theme is best described as experimental, and I like it! I'm not used to seeing the high contrast of black shadows on pink skin, but with the sharp gradients, it looks really cool! The music and the colors used definitely give me a vibe of "anything can happen here" so I was expecting to be surprised.

I found the map pretty fun, but the teleport traps were a little confusing from a player perspective. The teleport sound (especially in repeating succession) is a pretty terrifying sound for a player, because it's a mapper-constructed gameplay element. In this map, the way they are used aren't (or at least don't seem) quite as dangerous considering their frequency. If you watched my demo, you'll see at times I just kinda stand there gazing at what's happening. I'm getting the sense that something really intricate and carefully planned is happening with the way some monsters are teleporting in and out of some places, but it's a bit too complex from a player's point of view, which makes things troublesome to predict and strange to interact with. It might help to dumb down the traps in your future maps so the player can visually see what's happening and figure out how to respond to it.

I haven't finished the map yet but I'll give it another go tonight.

Here's an FDA

[NuMetalManiak]

about the teleport sounds: my original map used RETRES.wad for textures and flats, and so did this. except for this wad I simply put in the textures/flats I used for this and dropped everything unused, which included sounds. RETRES has it's own teleport sound I believe, and it's much quieter than the vanilla one. perhaps I could've imported the DSTELEPT sound from RETRES in here for pleasure?

on the other hand, I don't really use the vanilla sounds anyways when I play. usually I have Perkristian's sound wad for my playing pleasures. I like the DSTELEPT sound there. but thanks anyways for the small review and thanks for some extra advice (yes you're credited in the textfile along with some other peoples. :Z)

[40oz]

I wasn't speaking specifically about the sound, I mean the sound of knowing that monsters are using teleports, is usually attributed to very mean and deadly traps.

[NuMetalManiak]

idgames link