An Unreleased Secret Santa Map

[Snakes]

So, an atrocious crime on my behalf was committed some time ago. I realized recently that I had an unreleased map from the poorly-managed, Secret Santa Project. This, I feel, must be amended. It is quite a fine map well worth looking at. So without further ado, here is the unreleased map:

Linky-poo

So then, who made this map? And who in the world was this author imitating? All of this and more on Legends of the Hidden Doom Wad!

[Cupboard]

If you are looking for feedback here is some

I really liked the map's progression, how you flipped a key-color switch before hitting a door, that was charming. Geometrically speaking, the map is a real winner. Really picturesque. Caves and tech blended beautifully. Reminds me of AV.wad in some respects, but much more refined.

I never took damage from a sergeant, just one thing I noticed. You could have been more mean to the player in that respect. :p They always came 1 or 2 at a time and were never placed at a sniping distance so they were easily disposed of. Chaingunner placement seemed good but also forgiving (not a bad thing).

I ended the map with 140 some bullets, 16 shells, 100 health and 100ish blue armor, so there is a comfortable gap there if a player doesn't create monster infighting at the apex battle sequence. I chose to instigate a moderate amount of infighting after clobbering a few hell knights when I retreated to one of the alcoves. I really liked the sheer number of cacodemons at the end. They were really appropriate considering the number of windows in the structures; they had plenty avenues of attack.

If you wanted to make this map a lot harder, you would teleport in archviles and a couple of strategically placed arachnotron snipers in the central green space to begin reviving dead corpses. You can get away with this because the 1st archvile probably revived the zombie sergeant at least once and dropped ammo. This would be a way to prolong the end of the map and allow the player to whip out a powerful weapon if you gave him rockets or plasma in the current exit room. I thought the map could've been harder but I am a methodical player, checking the monster count and pacing my ammo consumption with what I expect to happen later in the map.

IMHO it is a top tier map, a bit on the easy side. But I understand you spread health throughout the map to compensate for the final battle. That's smart and the player will appreciate when the time is right.

edit: there is a chopped in half brick on the left wall of the start area. a couple verticies could be shifted to make it a clean break in the brick pattern. and even the brick above it, it's kind of cut in an odd way *OCD

[SFoZ911]

Great little map! Loved the action, visuals, stock texture usage and overall layout. Very easy and straight forward map, good work.

I'm not sure who made this map, but I certainly know who the author imitated.

I don't how to use spoiler tags so I could write the imitated author.

[scifista42]

FDA, recorded with -complevel 9. Very nice map, I liked it a lot.

Now, the guessing part:

Spoiler

I would guess that the map author is Dutch Doomer, and the imitatee is either Jimmy or Khorus - more likely the latter one. Dutch Doomer because of his elegant design and detailing style, the way how he distributes ammo and health items and how the combat tends to be straightforward, and also because I've read the Secret Santa thread and he was apparently one of the few mappers who finished a map, heh. Khorus is the imitatee because the texture schemes + natural environments remind me of Khorus Speedy Shit maps, as well as the overall layout and key progression, elegantly compact yet giving an impression of a tuned-up speedmapped layout.

[Dutch Doomer]

Thats my map :) I was imitating Joshy I think.

[gemini09]

Mine is actually still in development, but I decided to make it a huge project with up to seven maps instead of just one.