Jump to content
Search In
  • More options...
Find results that contain...
Find results in...
Marcaek

50 Shades of Graytall (now on idgames!)

Recommended Posts

Well, IDK what to even do with your map. I'll include it in a bonus slot with some gameplay, but I'd want some kind of a seizure warning room to start in or just change how the flashing lights work. At least one person told me they felt actually sick playing it due to the flashing red and blue(which is probably the worst combo to have flashing at a person, especially if they're photosensitive). It's certainly an interesting curio of a map.

ToD: BTW, the mancs near the double red skullkey setup can be resurrected in a way that they hang over the openings to the blue\yellow key area and lock all the monsters there in. Maybe you could have some blocking lines there?

updating OP btw, check it in a few minutes

Share this post


Link to post
Marcaek said:

...flashing red and blue(which is probably the worst combo to have flashing at a person, especially if they're photosensitive)

FIREBLU itself has this problem, shouldn't it be banned for itself, then?

To make gggmork's map more "epilepsy-friendly", perhaps it could just use overally lower light levels.

Share this post


Link to post

No, fireblu is nowhere near as nausea inducing as that map. I actually got a little woozy myself.

Share this post


Link to post

Just so you guys know I'm totally working on something for this.

but first SCHOOL aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Share this post


Link to post

I have played pinchy's map.


I love it, good music, the feel good map of the wad.

It's charismatic, clever, well done architecture, and love the special little neat thing on the ceiling.

It's platforms done well which is amazing since I hate platforms in doom.

Share this post


Link to post
Pinchy said:

That was a pretty unique and unconventional map. It greatly worked as a whole, even though I wouldn't normally be impressed by particular parts and design choices in it. Enjoyable to play, with one exception: I didn't like the fact that there were (seemingly) inescapable pits. One little bad step = death and restart. Making all the pillars into lifts could help, IMO. Still, good job!

The menu/HUD graphics were also awesome, I hope they'll become a part of the whole final project.

Share this post


Link to post

Another update to my map, added more detail and improved the layout of some rooms, and added more enemies. The map is pretty much finished now, just needs a midi and probably some texture alignments.

Share this post


Link to post
scifista42 said:

That was a pretty unique and unconventional map. It greatly worked as a whole, even though I wouldn't normally be impressed by particular parts and design choices in it. Enjoyable to play, with one exception: I didn't like the fact that there were (seemingly) inescapable pits. One little bad step = death and restart. Making all the pillars into lifts could help, IMO. Still, good job!

The menu/HUD graphics were also awesome, I hope they'll become a part of the whole final project.


The main large pit in the downhill area pretty much has to be a death pit since if you touch even one monster on the way down you miss the timed floor and cannot get in.

I have currently modified and tweaked this map to allow speedrunners to avoid the slide as I got a complaint that the downhill section is "boring" for a speedrun.

I'm in the process of trying to improve the look of the main sections that are plain as well as editing available ammo, health pickups and monsters.

I have tried to speedrun the map myself and got a 1:26 (I'm not a speedrunner) It looks like Lego at some points though as FIREBLU had it's way with the encoding as usual.

Contains Spoilers 1:26

Share this post


Link to post

@ShadesMaster: Your map indeed felt like a standard MAP01/02 techbase starter map with limited textures. Not much elaborate idea to it (except teleports + RK jump), but anyway it was a nice, relatively simple map to play, and I liked it.

It crashed PrBoom+ on startup, I had to use Zandronum. I'm also unsure if the red key jump can be even made in non-ZDoom ports without SR50 (distance was too big, middle pillar with the medikit never raised at all). Maybe you should make the mandatory switch(es) more obvious that they're actually switches - surely there are ways to achieve so (I've only figured out one switch in the map). Backpack secret isn't tagged as secret.

Share this post


Link to post

Mainly, I tested it in GZdoom so for that reason it's not the 'final' draft; besides the fixes that will make it PR-Patible, I may yet add one more secret area as well (and of course properly tag them, why does 'Sector Type 9' not work?), as well as some minor texture alighnment-isms.

I used GZdoom-isms as well such as the item pickups / killing the BossKnight activate objects but those can become switches easily!

Again, glad u enjoyed it and thanx! :D

Share this post


Link to post

Pinchy: Ah, I'm not really feeling it. The starting segment is irritating, if you don't know what you're supposed to do right away there's no chance to repeate it, and having one shot at it is irritating and unfun. It goes on far too long either way. The revenant\demon area really needs to have better monsters than demons because there's just enough space to make them harmless due to how easy it is to make them infight(and lose) vs the revenants. The following section is really just shooting hordes in linear hallways, not much thought or effort goes into it. Highlight of the map is probably the cave just for breaking up the visual monotony but it could be more interesting itself even. Don't like the DBRAIN sky, anything else would look better. Personally I'd suggest attempting aonther map that's a little less "stringy" or sections attached in such a linear fashion. Something more interconnected and free to move about in.

The resources you provided are alright, I'd at least like to use the titlescreen music if that's ok.

ezormer: The fade on the red carpet near SSG is a nice touch, nothing but improvements to the map once again :) I'd say it's good enough to keep but feel free to pick at it. I'd use version numbering from now on though in case you'd like to revert an unwanted change to any previous versions.

Shadesmaster: I'll check the map out once it's Boom compatible.

Share this post


Link to post
Marcaek said:

Pinchy: Ah, I'm not really feeling it. The starting segment is irritating, if you don't know what you're supposed to do right away there's no chance to repeat it, and having one shot at it is irritating and unfun. It goes on far too long either way. The revenant\demon area really needs to have better monsters than demons because there's just enough space to make them harmless due to how easy it is to make them infight(and lose) vs the revenants. The following section is really just shooting hordes in linear hallways, not much thought or effort goes into it. Highlight of the map is probably the cave just for breaking up the visual monotony but it could be more interesting itself even. Don't like the DBRAIN sky, anything else would look better. Personally I'd suggest attempting another map that's a little less "stringy" or sections attached in such a linear fashion. Something more interconnected and free to move about in.


No chance to repeat the downhill section? You mean like restarting the map? You get one shot at almost every difficult trap in doom. You say it's too long? Alfonzo told me it was too short. Weird that you hate the downhill section so much since everyone else liked it. I might be able to work in a platform reset if it's too hard for you, Slashbane and Cubeface didn't have much trouble with it. I've softened the chaingunner section a bit.

Getting trapped in that caco room is a lot more than just shooting in hallways, especially with the current version where the mancubus can walk down the escape corridor requiring good dodging and fast action to get past.

The hitscanner room is supposed to require a few skilled rocket shots to avoid wasting ammo at range so you don't get stuck later in the map.

You have a choice whether to go left or right in the last section, it's not completely linear. It changes up the ammo usage, bullets + rockets left, shells and plasma right. If it needs less linearity I will build more sections into it.

I don't know what DBRAIN is, the sky I used was lava, that must have been an error.

I'm not going to throw away the work I've put into this to make a generic iWad map just painted with 3 textures and sky.

Share this post


Link to post
Pinchy said:

I'm not going to throw away the work I've put into this to make a generic iWad map just painted with 3 textures and sky.

+1, I support this. I actually didn't like how Marcaek condemned individual quirks of the map as being off-standard and therefore bad, instead of looking at it as on a unique whole.

Share this post


Link to post

it's marcaek's project, if he wants a certain standard for his work and judges that standard by his own tastes that's down to him. i imagine he's taking this approach so that the end result is a shorter and on average higher-quality piece of work rather than 32 maps that the player has to slog through to find any gems.

Share this post


Link to post

Well this idea was experimental, I didn't know it was only going to be conventional maps.

I have already added this as a secret map in my more traditional mapset, now that it's not limited I have a fantastic idea that's similar to the Commander Keen maps I've seen.

Share this post


Link to post

It has nothing to do with being "off-standard", I just don't like those elements how they're implemented and more importantly don't foresee them meshing well with the mapset. Nothing personal but I don't really want to slot this in.

Share this post


Link to post

Disclaimer: The following post is just an opinion, and has a high probability of being wrong. Viewer discretion is advised

I thought the gimmick in the start of the Pinchy map was pretty sweet. It was a fun little mini-game type thing. Personally, I wish the timing wasn't so tight; instead of ending the player's chances if they stumble or slow down, I would have just rewarded the player with a timed secret (that, or change the steps to sinking steps so you are forced to move at a steady pace, I hated getting to the end after a few tries just to find out I didn't make it in time). Also, the first time I played the map (before the teleporter was added, so this is less relevant now), I was confused at first by the path and rad-suit, so I wandered around the pit in vain which was a bit boring. I would have preferred to just be insta-killed even though the path and rad-suit is instrumental to the current exit-to-start loop-around mechanic, which I think could have been done in a different way to maximize the gimmick effectiveness at the start of the map.

As for the rest of the map, it did feel kinda "stringy". There is that one hub part where you can choose 2 directions; I liked the direction with the loop of jagged platforms with the mancubi pressuring me while lost souls come in over the wall. The rest of the map was a sequence of linearly strung encounters, which were cool but independent of the more important and memorable gimmick at the start of the map. I kinda wish the map was completable very shortly after that first gimmick was completed. I would have favored something like a tricks-and-traps-esque style hub that you enter right after you complete the first slide, rather than the current "stringy" topology.

Share this post


Link to post
NoisyVelvet said:

Disclaimer: The following post is just an opinion, and has a high probability of being wrong. Viewer discretion is advised

I thought the gimmick in the start of the Pinchy map was pretty sweet. It was a fun little mini-game type thing. Personally, I wish the timing wasn't so tight; instead of ending the player's chances if they stumble or slow down, I would have just rewarded the player with a timed secret (that, or change the steps to sinking steps so you are forced to move at a steady pace, I hated getting to the end after a few tries just to find out I didn't make it in time). Also, the first time I played the map (before the teleporter was added, so this is less relevant now), I was confused at first by the path and rad-suit, so I wandered around the pit in vain which was a bit boring. I would have preferred to just be insta-killed even though the path and rad-suit is instrumental to the current exit-to-start loop-around mechanic, which I think could have been done in a different way to maximize the gimmick effectiveness at the start of the map.

As for the rest of the map, it did feel kinda "stringy". There is that one hub part where you can choose 2 directions; I liked the direction with the loop of jagged platforms with the mancubi pressuring me while lost souls come in over the wall. The rest of the map was a sequence of linearly strung encounters, which were cool but independent of the more important and memorable gimmick at the start of the map. I kinda wish the map was completable very shortly after that first gimmick was completed. I would have favored something like a tricks-and-traps-esque style hub that you enter right after you complete the first slide, rather than the current "stringy" topology.


The current map I have (that isn't uploaded) has teleporters in the pit now, if you fail the slide, you get teleported to the first rooms entrance but don't get the rocket launcher, so there is an incentive to complete it now.

I've only been mapping since October so I can't quite work out a good way to set everything up yet, I was hoping for some experienced players to offer something up.

The idea of sinking platforms is good, but it was meant to be like a downhill race on a skateboard - hence the music (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUUUfiIOlbk) This is however a good idea for another sloped section like this. So - a better thing to do would be to create a set of of say four downhill sections leading to a hub room, each more difficult than the last, so it's entirely downhill runs and no standard map, because they don't go together. Having every downhill reach the same large hub room, but the room changing each time you get to it, would be a nice idea, eventually uncovering the exit.

The rad suits are now on high platforms that can only be reached by activating the second loop stairs and going through the exit room secret, so nobody will go running to them down there. I don't think you can make a sector both damaging and hidden turn into stairs and non damaging with Boom compatibility (to hide the lower grey paths). The second loop was just to kill the monsters and max the map, you have to do a careful "drive by" or risk falling, you can actually knock them off with rockets, that's why I provided the plasma and bullets.

The room and corridor with hitscanners: It may not be overly complex, it wasn't meant to, the idea at first was the player use careful rocket shots to take most of that room out and plow through that corridor, since originally the rocket launcher was unavoidable and ammo had to be used carefully. After some changes, it's now only rewarded if you beat the downhill and do not use the speedrun route, so you get the choice of fast paced rocket use after completing the downhill or no downhill and use shotgun and chaingun.

I'm going to put this map away until I've completed up to MAP11 of my main project, hopefully by that time I would have learned enough and figured out a way to build it better. It's going to feature as a secret map in that set.

Share this post


Link to post

It's possible to take your time on the "ramp" and kill all monsters there, then jump into the revenant/demon room with ZDoom if you straferun to it from the last few steps and hit the jump key at the right time.

I don't think that's a problem BTW; just something I've noticed.

Share this post


Link to post
Gez said:

It's possible to take your time on the "ramp" and kill all monsters there, then jump into the revenant/demon room with ZDoom if you straferun to it from the last few steps and hit the jump key at the right time.

I don't think that's a problem BTW; just something I've noticed.


I've learned about the defaultmap recently, which you can use to disable jumping despite player settings. These maps are designed to run with vanilla doom, which doesn't have a jump.

Share this post


Link to post

True but there are people who get really upset when a level disables jumping because HOW DARE YOU CONTROL HOW THIS MAP IS PLAYED or some such thing.

Share this post


Link to post
Linguica said:

True but there are people who get really upset when a level disables jumping because HOW DARE YOU CONTROL HOW THIS MAP IS PLAYED or some such thing.

But the mapper totally has a right to disregard them, like he'd disregard all standard cheaters when designing a normal map, intended to be playable without cheats. Some design decisions would be broken / made redundant if the player cheated (= jumped).

Share this post


Link to post
Linguica said:

True but there are people who get really upset when a level disables jumping because HOW DARE YOU CONTROL HOW THIS MAP IS PLAYED or some such thing.


or HOW DARE YOU DISABLE CROUCHING ITS THE ONLY WAY I KNOW HOW TO DODGE REVENANT ROCKETS

Share this post


Link to post

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×