Doom3057 Demo

[Mordeth]

A demo of the ZDoom project Doom3057 has been released, sporting one large level, new textures, sounds and extensive use of scripting. In this game, scientists from 3057 have brought the legendary Doom marine to their timeline to assist them in a losing battle against the demon hordes unleashed again from their realm. Go kick some butt, grandpa!

[Guest Levendis]

I've got mixed feelings on this one.
On the one hand, the effort and creativity are definately there. This appears to be the work of some guys who genuinely want to turn out a good product.
Unfortunately, it appears to be the first time they have attempted to turn out any kind of product. The level design is frankly horrible, using the same wall textures and flats throughout (apparently, some kind of FLAT23 and SHAWN2 analogs--you'll see). All the doors and lifts operate at blinding speed, which is simply weird. The authors also seem to understand only two light levels--0 and 255--except for in one place. Colored lighting is also used in one place but--and this is something I have to get on everyone's asses about--no effort is made to actually make it look realistic (look for a demo wad on wcarchive about using colored light PROPERLY soon). There is a new water texture, but apparently because the animation lumps were screwed up it does not move.
Finally, the level is not detailed AT ALL. There are NONE of the usual trimmings and whatnot that players have come to expect. This level is a complete eyesore, with no effort at all made to spiff things up. In addition, for some odd reason I was able to shoot right through most of the walls, which is also simply weird.
Because of these problems it was impossible for me to get a sense of "being there," or to suspend my disbelief enough to get into the game. For this, the level gets a fat zero in terms of playability.
Despite all of this, I think that the IDEA has potential. I would say to the authors: scripting does not a good level make; go around and look at some other maps by people who are recognized as "good" (gothic 99 and slaughterDM are good maps to look at), and learn how to make your levels somewhat less ugly. I get the feeling that you are having trouble making the image of the map that you have in your head a reality; get some chops and then keep working on your levels.

[prower]

i totally agree with you. this looks like a person's first attempt at a project. the level design is some of the worst i've seen: the textures are monotonous and the detail is sparse. the lighting is hardly varied at all. the scripting is nothing special in my opinion as well.

i'd recommend that the authors try to release doom2.exe maps, to get a sense of how detail and level design and gameplay SHOULD be, THEN add scripting elements.

[Guest Daggah]

The DOOM community isn't worth shit any more anyway...

[Guest Omniverse]

basically for the same reasons Levendis did I thought the scripting was really good though and Daggah, if that's so, why do you bother to even go to doomworld.com? go to hell.

[Guest Levendis]

Dagger, that was simply the most groundbreaking, insightful comment I've heard in a long time. Please, be sure to come back often and continue to enlighten us with the effervescent fountain of your wisdom and wit!

[Guest Risen]

...does that storyline sound a lot like some other nameless project I just happen to be currently moderating?

[Guest Mad Cow Disease]

Bad elements aside, you gotta love Mordeth's comment; "Go kick some butt, Grandpa!"

[Guest nitro]

Well, I have to say that this demo wad has to be the dullest zdoom map I've played in a looooong time. The design is purely horrible and the textures (both)... ahhh, I don't even wanna go there! Runnin' around in a totally undetailed map, searching some specific place is, boring and frustrating. (because every place looks the same.) Maybe the level's author should create the storyline himself and then ask someone else to build the levels, otherwise... well, the level speaks for itself. btw, BuckaZoid liked the doors that slide into the wall. (as always :)

[Guest Anonymous User]

The demo was okay but I could churn out better Duke Nukem levels than with DooM. Hell Build may have its flaws but it is better than these damn DooM editors.

[boris]

...that the level design is horrible. Ok, not everybody can build so detailed maps a SLDM or FFI, but this map looks like the times when the first DooM editors came out. Not even the upper/lower textures are aligned... too bad.

[boris]

And where to hell is the 'extensive use of scripting'. For me it's not extensive use of scripting to open a door or change a camera.

[Guest Anonymous User]

We mainly did this demo to get some feedback on what people expect to see. Most of the effort actually went into scripting. When I released it, I knew that it was pretty ugly, but I wanted some good suggestions on what to do to make it better. We'd like to hear more suggestions on how to improve it. Thanks again.

[boris]

First of all, please use more different texutres. Improve the architecture. And a little bit more lighting won't hurt (I know that this consumes much time, and I personally don't like to do it). Oh, IMO stealth sargeants are not very nice (or weren't there any???)

[Guest Levendis]

To the guys who are creating Doom 3057: Your map needs to be detailed to the point where people at the very LEAST get the idea that some sort of scientific lab/research facility/military base is the location for a fight. Because it's a fantasy world you can make it look like anything you want, but players need to be able to tell that that's the point you're trying to get across.

As for the scripting, again, you need to make it so that people know what is going on. In your level, at the point where the lights shut down and the floors shake, yeah, we know that there's a reactor overload because you tell us when it's all over. The lights going out and then coming back on don't mean much because there are no light sources, only ambient bright light. Some light flickering would be nice, or brownouts or whatever, before the reactor goes batty. Either that, or some evidence that the monsters are fucking with the base's systems besides just the reactor overloading for no apparent reason.

[Guest Anonymous User]

As Tarin said, use more different textures, PLEASE. I got lost in your base more than once, the main reason being the lack of detail. Every place was identical, res.lab looked the same as conveyor belt room, etc. Otherwise it was quite nice level, but textures make most of level's 'spirit' and 'feel'. Without them levels are total crap. But don't get excited with details, there CAN be too much detail (as in Gothic '99 places weren't recognisable just because every place looked the same. Too much detail...) And I thought that demo of an TC shuould be almost complete level (or a few levels), not one, structurally complete but otherwise undone. Or am I just an idiot? Oh, BTW windows look better, if they have some kind of transparent texture - those Team TNT -style windows simply suck ass.