Just GZDoom 01 - Release

[SyntherAugustus]

Hello.

I'm really late in putting this as a release. RL problems kind of distracted me and I know I should have put time into doing maybe a half hour's work into compiling this so the general public can play it. Not sure how much I'll be into doing the rest of the Just GZDoom packs as I originally planned this year so I'm going to hold off on it for now. I think I'm going to do a Yearly thing starting March instead of a 2 month thing like I planned.

Anyway the map levels are

Demon Laundry Day by Glenzinho
Empty Spaces by walter confalonieri
Terminus Virtute by smoke_th
Constrained Base by Guardsoul
Facility by BlackFish
Sins of The Flesh by zrrion the insect

Screenshots
Download

Let me know if there's anything gamebreaking. It should be all good though. Enjoy, and thanks to the other mappers for contributing to this project.

Note: Someone has pointed out that Guardsoul's map is actually some kind of edited version of Speed of Doom's MAP03, down to the same music. I apologize for not seeing this during the submission process as I should have looked at the thread he pointed out stating it was some kind of remake. The PM itself suggested it was his own map and I assumed he made it from scratch.

[JCB]

Good looking environments, will dl and test in the morning.

[Andrea Rovenski]

Can we expect an idgames release? And yearly? D: Maybe every six months or something? I mean its up to you, but I was looking forward to participating in the second one.

[SyntherAugustus]

I switched it to 6 months. Idgames might happen pretty soon after I write a proper readme for this.

[Jimmy]

Hate to be that one guy, but I have to say this is seriously underwhelming. I'm honestly struggling to find good things to talk about, and I try to make that a priority when criticising anything. But really, there's some bad stuff in here.

MAP01: This is like, two rooms - with a berserk fight against two zombies, then a couple of pains, and then 100 demons. Yawn. Does the map exist only for the visual gag in the opening shot? Sorry, no points.

MAP02: This map screams "walter confalonieri" in all the worst ways. The map is huge and empty and basically actionless, with bad flat/texture mixing (please do not put flats on big walls, ever) and an almost entirely linear progression.

MAP03: I... er... just... what? This smacks of myfirstmap.wad something fierce - like it was made by someone who knew everything about ZDoom and SLADE beforehand but never made a map in DB2 in their lives before then. Is it supposed to be experimental? Artsy? Satirical? The town area was kind of cool, but everything else was... "um... okayyy". Tedious fights like the HK/spider fights early on. And sweet fuck, the music in the boss encounter (the 5-second boss defeated theme LOOPS! Playtesting!).

MAP04: I sincerely hope permission was sought from Joshy to turn Speed of Doom MAP03 into this lifeless detailfest. Actually, maybe that's inaccurate - some parts like the underground segments look less detailed than the original. The hell? At least credit Joshy in the first post, for Pete's sake.

MAP05: Very underdetailed map mixed with hyperdetailed 3D models. Monster placement leaves a lot to be desired, again. Also those UAC computers. I mean really. Those... those are a joke, right?

MAP06: I stopped playing beyond MAP05, but I promise I will give this a more thorough playthrough at some point, it looks interesting, and zrrion does some interesting stuff. Perhaps a bit too cramped, but at least it's architecturally sound.

In a lot of cases, these maps did not really represent GZDoom in a positive light, if they did at all. Feature saturation, a low standard of mapping and a lack of proper playtesting is painfully evident in here, and in some cases the maps just plain offended me (3 and 4).

I really hope the next installment comes with a much more disciplined mapping process, and there is a quality standard that all submissions should uphold. I see potential in the idea behind this project, but it needs a serious jumpstart in the right direction.

[Da Werecat]

Jimmy said:

myfirstmap.wad

Looks like a joke. Apparently, the players are supposed to think that they're in a very typical level by a newbie who jumped into GZDoom mapping without learning the basics. After the dreadful first room the map is supposed to change into something cool, but I didn't see much of it, because the game crashed shortly afterwards (I don't know whose fault it is).

It's a very sad joke, because most of this wad leaves the same impression, except unintentionally. I hate to say it, but if I was a zealous purist, and wanted to mock GZDoom projects, I would produce something similar.

Jimmy said:

Also those UAC computers.

Comic Sans - srsly radical.

[Jimmy]

Yeah that's why I wondered if MAP03 was satirical or ironic in a sense. Certain parts of it beyond that first room and the strange arenas were okay, but the overall product is such a confusing thing that it's almost like it's mocking or lampooning other GZDoom wads in general, possibly for having no sense of direction or self-control over feature usage.

[SyntherAugustus]

I had no idea about MAP04 being a ripoff. It was a submission from Guardsoul (via PM, which might shed some light on things) and that's all I knew about it.

MAP05: Yeah the mapping process was kind of odd and some of the placeholder stuff kind of settled in. I'm going to change the way I do the mapping process the next time I make a level because it just ended up being kind of blah. I was told similar things about the monster placement by some others. It felt fine to me and I really wasn't sure how to change it dramatically in time for the intended release.

It would have been really nice if you had these kinds of criticisms in the development thread. The 6 month mapping period should allow some better maps in the long run.