Canal: vanilla Doom 2 single player level for playtesting

[srk:.]

Hi everyone, just a small single player level for vanilla Doom 2. It's intended as a MAP01 so it's quite short and easy. Lots of secrets and non-squared rooms. Difficulty levels, co-op and deathmatch implemented.

Would appreciate FDAs and comments on bugs, suggestions and gameplay (especially on the difficulty of the secrets).

Thanks.

Download v1.1

(I've updated the link as per a request, but there's no major changes to the map)

Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

Edited July 29, 2018 by srk:. : Download link updated

[scifista42]

FDA. The Doom-1-ish irregular techbase shapes, unusually high focus on lighting for a vanilla map, and deep secret hunting - all of these really appealed to me. It's something I'd only compare with my first time exploring KDITD, or possibly SecretDoom wads by Cyberdemon531. On the other hand, all combat was too easy and kinda pointless, the map lacked challenge or anyhow interesting fights, instead there was just shooting gallery of sparsely distributed weakling enemies. Overally, good anyway. It could work as an opener for a mapset with slow difficulty curve across its levels. But still, I'd personally ramp up the challenge.

[Tosi]

I played it on UV in PrBoom+. The map looked nice and I liked the layout, but it was much too easy. I'm not a Doom expert and I don't usually play with PrBoom+ and I don't think I got hit once, let alone came anywhere close to dying.

The map itself looks good. It is very non-rectangular, and feels somewhat open. I didn't notice any glaring visual errors such as misaligned textures or HOMs. I can''t vouch for vanilla-compatibility since I didn't use Chocolate Doom or DOSbox, but I didn't notice any areas that seemed like you might come up against rendering limits.

The gameplay is very lackluster. There are very few enemies, mostly zombies with a few sergeants and imps. What enemies there are are placed in such a way that none of them are really a threat. Playing this map on UV felt like playing Doom 2 on ITYTD. It definitely needs to be more difficult.

I managed to find 4 out of 6 secrets after getting the computer map secret. Most of the secrets are accessed by shooting tiny switches, which I thought was better than the usual misaligned texture or different colored wall indicating a secret. However it felt like more of the map was secrets than actual gameplay. I spent much more time looking for secrets than fighting off the monsters.

Overall, this map looked good and had great potential, but was sorely lacking in the gameplay department. I feel if the map was a little longer and was more difficult, it could be a very fun map.

[gaspe]

Fda, recorded on PRBoom+ cl2.

Cool looking map. I liked the secret and hunt for them. Though it's easy and it's really lacking of a more interesting gameplay at least.

[AnonimVio]

Very pleasant, short and easy map. Couldn't figure the secret out though. I hope you will make some longer maps.

[nicolas monti]

Played it and found 5 secrets out of 6.
The map is beautiful, so organic, and the inside /outside areas blend perfectly. I was surprised by the large portion that is available via secrets (just commenting, it's a design choice). The shapes are nice, they avoid the grid and flow smoothly. Also the flats and textures are on point, the startan one in a closed was a nice detail, I like when some weird of not so theme-matching texture is used just in a small portion of the map. Some plain gray textures are something I personally love and use too, those textures give the feeling of something not entirely finished and contrary to common sense I like them for that, maybe because they were the default texture in some old editors.
Also something that stood out for me is the interconnectivity, the map is very dynamic and "transforms" as long you proceed. Very loopy and enjoyable. Creative secrets, good lighting and nice height variation. Overall the map has its own theme with those brown bricks and the outside with grass and trees, also the semi-dark lighting for the outside areas adds some mood. Nothing to complain at least for me!

EDIT: I always undestood this as a map01 so I didn't care much on the "easyness" of the gameplay.

[vadrig4r]

Beautiful little level, you crammed so much into such a relatively small map. Took me a good long while to find all six secrets but they were all well made and fair. Really interesting shapes for rooms and outdoor spaces. Fun map.

[SFoZ911]

I liked it. Good texture usage, good layout, cool secrets and optional areas are a big yes-yes. A little bit short and the gameplay was very very easy(D2 MAP01 easy) but it didn't put me off since it's a small map after all. Great work.

[srk:.]

Thank you all for your time, comments and FDAs. I will try to apply your suggestions to my next level.

[Benjogami]

FDA complevel 2

I only found one secret, despite trying a bunch of walls and futzing around after finding the exit. I'm bad at secrets.

I like the look of the level, particularly the start and exit and the view between them. I imagine that you can get down there somehow :(

[Olroda]

I played it on Ultra-Violence. A nice looking map with excellent lighting, something that I wish more mappers would pay attention to. It flows very well, but might be a bit too easy on UV. Hunting for secrets is always fun. All in all, a good MAP01. Looking forward to playing more of the same.

[Breezeep]

Lovely layout! Keep mapping!