The moronic selection of decorations

[Jesric1029]

You know what really grinds my gears?

Some of the selections of decorative objects for this map. I mean I can't figure out exactly with the creators were thinking when they decided what small objects to add.. Let me show you what I mean..


So I want to create an RPG..


Bed object? Nope.
Toilet object? Nope.
Dead body or gore (should be the first thing in Doom)? Nope.
NPC's - Nope
Decorative guns/gun parts/equipment - Nope

Bag of chips - They have that.
Unopened container of noodles - Check.
Opened container of noodles - Check.
Bag of chips - Check.
Soda - Check.
Another Soda - Check.
Beer Can - Check.
Food tray - Check.

Computer parts that look like they are from the late 90s - Check.

[Chubzdoomer]

LOL, this had me cracking up because it's so true. The selection of small props is weaksauce as fuck.

[40oz]

Yeah when I saw all that microscopic junk you can place in your map, I groaned. When you go to large props you get things like trash cans and wet floor signs. There is nothing big enough to climb on except three variants of crates and even those aren't set up to be interactive by default. Shits retarded.

That is surprising there aren't corpse objects and severed limbs to lay around.

[Jesric1029]

Oh thanks I forgot all about the maintenance items.

We have a hard hat that seems useless since everyone is wearing space helmets.

A drill that looks like it came straight out of our current time period rather than the future.

Gardening gloves because I guess there is gardening on Mars?

We have 5 different types of security barriers, that I have rarely seen anyone actually use.

Feel free to add lol.

[julz_d]

Lol these props are doomed

[spectre0618]

So glad I'm not the only one lol

The first map I started had me in a state of irritation as exactly what OP stated, the props sucked balls. I can make more in-depth, interactive and interesting maps on ZDoom using DB2.

I also can't believe there is no mod support. At least then the wealth of creative minds not looking for a quick buck in this huge community could make new props and other additional items.

One big gripe I have is the lack of any sort of external view of mars. I hate the lack of outdoor areas but at least adding some skyboxes to a few room modules would make things a little more interesting.

And no gore? No bodies? No heads on skewers? No hanging stuff aside from crappy hanging home depot chandalier thing. And what the hell is with the lack of FX? Two sizes of spark? No flickering or pulsing light effects? (That I can find) no adjusting light levels or roomtones with pickups? (Again, nothing I've found)

Boo!!

[Jesric1029]

spectre0618 said:

So glad I'm not the only one lol

The first map I started had me in a state of irritation as exactly what OP stated, the props sucked balls. I can make more in-depth, interactive and interesting maps on ZDoom using DB2.

I also can't believe there is no mod support. At least then the wealth of creative minds not looking for a quick buck in this huge community could make new props and other additional items.

One big gripe I have is the lack of any sort of external view of mars. I hate the lack of outdoor areas but at least adding some skyboxes to a few room modules would make things a little more interesting.

And no gore? No bodies? No heads on skewers? No hanging stuff aside from crappy hanging home depot chandalier thing. And what the hell is with the lack of FX? Two sizes of spark? No flickering or pulsing light effects? (That I can find) no adjusting light levels or roomtones with pickups? (Again, nothing I've found)

Boo!!

I'm actually fairly satisfied with the FX, light effects and logic abilities. Sure there could be more but I don't have many complaints there. Just seems like they added a ton of certain things but none of others. I mean they took the time to put so many useless atmospheres in the modules. Really the atmospheres are for the most part useless. Only a handful are any good like dark, maybe some of the noir and demon vision types but all the "lime green" and those are bad. They totally ruin any light effects you could put on your map and since you can't see the atmosphere from adjacent modules it really comes off as unprofessional since the transition is all of a sudden.

Perhaps gore is the most significant item missing. With gore we could have done so much more for creepy games.

A small tip for you, it is possible to create flickering lights with a bit of effort.

Create a spotlight for example. Then create a repeater. Now inside the loop create a timer with your desired time and connect to a Boolean. Now, each time the timer completes test the Boolean. If it is false then disable the spotlight and set Boolean to true. If it is true do the opposite then link back to the repeater for the next loop. You could technically alter the amount of seconds between light flickers by using a random number generator between say 1-5 and then linking each outcome
to a different timer for each number. The good thing is once you have created this logic once you can copy and paste. I'm very good with the scripting aspect of SnapMap (possibly due to being a programmer in my career) so if you have any questions or what to know how to do something that seems impossible let me know.

I used that method to create an "alarm" like you see in horror movies when something bad is happening.

[DoomPhreak]

I've never used a single small prop because they are so puny and so unmemorable unless maybe you use a lot of them. But who's going to waste valuable resource% on them?

The good old days of modders given a lot of control are likely behind us as the industry has moved on. Publishers nowadays want to have all the control over the content, which they want you to pay for instead of creating on your own.

[HALFRATS PS4]

Ive just created my own template map with all my code in it and build a new map off of it. In one room of my template I have premade props with all of these items youve mentioned preset and ready to go. For instance I have a tipped over trash can with cans and bottles spilling out ready to copy and paste. When the map Im creating runs out of memory I delete the template. I just pull out any code out of the rooms first before I do. Your imagination sounds like half of your problem because Ive seen some cleaver shit done with these props, platforming, decorating etc..hell one guy built the orginal E1M1 inside of bigger rooms with barricades as walls and ceilings.

[Chubzdoomer]

Jesric1029 said:

A small tip for you, it is possible to create flickering lights with a bit of effort.

Create a spotlight for example. Then create a repeater. Now inside the loop create a timer with your desired time and connect to a Boolean. Now, each time the timer completes test the Boolean. If it is false then disable the spotlight and set Boolean to true. If it is true do the opposite then link back to the repeater for the next loop. You could technically alter the amount of seconds between light flickers by using a random number generator between say 1-5 and then linking each outcome
to a different timer for each number. The good thing is once you have created this logic once you can copy and paste. I'm very good with the scripting aspect of SnapMap (possibly due to being a programmer in my career) so if you have any questions or what to know how to do something that seems impossible let me know.

Yep! You could also theoretically script your own pulsing lights by tying a light's intensity to a variable, then constantly decreasing/increasing its value via a repeater. It'd be a hassle to set up, but it's definitely possible to pull off nonetheless.

[DoomPhreak]

chubz said:

Yep! You could also theoretically script your own pulsing lights by tying a light's intensity to a variable, then constantly decreasing/increasing its value via a repeater. It'd be a hassle to set up, but it's definitely possible to pull off nonetheless.

I use random relay to create random-looking on and off flicker, which seems more realistic. And it's fairly simple to set up. Two controls can do it: one repeater, one random relay. Have the random relay send 3 signals, or however many you want:

Repeater (send signal)
|
|__ Random Relay (send signal) -> Enable Light
.................|
.................|___(send signal) -> Disable Light
.................|
.................|___(send signal) -> Disable Light


Every time the repeater sends a signal, the random relay sends a signal to one of the 3 outputs at random. The result will be that the light will be on about 1/3 of the time. You can alter the number and proportion of the "enable light" and "disable light" outputs to get the flicker effect you desire.

Note that you must have 3 (or N) "send signal" commands coming out of the repeater, not 3 (or N) outputs coming out of a single "send signal" command. IOW, the following will not work:

Random Relay (send signal) -> Enable light
.................................... -> Disable Light
.................................... -> Disable Light

[Jesric1029]

HALFRATS PS4 said:

Ive just created my own template map with all my code in it and build a new map off of it. In one room of my template I have premade props with all of these items youve mentioned preset and ready to go. For instance I have a tipped over trash can with cans and bottles spilling out ready to copy and paste. When the map Im creating runs out of memory I delete the template. I just pull out any code out of the rooms first before I do. Your imagination sounds like half of your problem because Ive seen some cleaver shit done with these props, platforming, decorating etc..hell one guy built the orginal E1M1 inside of bigger rooms with barricades as walls and ceilings.

Trust me my imagination is certainly not the problem. I've created some unique things with the items I have available and certainly made use of them. For example one of my maps starts off in a janitors closet. I've also used the various barrels, computers and the wire object to make what looks like a bomb wired to a terminal.

My point isn't that it's impossible to get creative and do unique things with the objects we have my point is just why? Why did they include 10 different tiny food items but not one portion of gore. What if someone wants to create a map that isn't "Doom" related such as an RPG, it's hard with the items given. If you can sit with a straight face and tell me that the items we have are reasonable then your either delusional or a serious, serious fanboy.

I'm not saying SnapMap is bad by any means, I'm just saying the selection of objects doesn't make sense. Why give us numerous versions of the same things while lacking others? Do we really need an opened AND unopened tiny package of noodles? What do we fill those shelves with besides food or computer parts? I've seen some of the unique things done with objects but I guarantee of you start building a really story-driven map your going to have a hard time coming up with solutions.

[Potatoguy]

I'm guessing the selection of decorations where for UAC type of areas in mind. Crates, boxes, terminals, computers... All are for UAC type of places, which ALL of the modules of snapmap are.

The logic for not having gore props is because there's no "gory" module that would fit in them. It's stupid, but its the only reason i can think of as to why not have it.

BUT YEAH. I barely if not ever used any of the small props. Too much time consumed just to have a fucking soda can sit on top of a table correctly.