Playtesting Stream #11 feedback thread

[Suitepee]

So here I am once again with a thread based off my playtesting streams. Seems the last thread on no.10 was a small success, which I think helped get the mappers I playtested a bit of extra attention/feedback. Good to see!

https://www.twitch.tv/johnsuitepee/v/74527557 = Playtesting Stream #11

Here are the mappers in the order I covered them, and some brief notes:
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Mapper: Blasqen
Map: MAP01.wad
Thread: https://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/89114-small-map/

A small map this was indeed. Not sure why rocket/plasma ammo was included on this map when neither gun was to be found in the level (especially when one of the secrets was a whole pack of rockets). Found a mid-texture error by the armor. Gameplay was decent, although the texturing could have been more interesting. Not a bad map overall though.

Mapper: Brakespear
Map: The Back Door (WIP)
Thread: https://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/88888-doom-2-the-back-door-wip/

Detailing was good throughout the 2 maps. The music (done by the author himself) was decent and seemed to fit the maps theme, without being too catchy or annoying. The "secrets" in map 01 were not really much of a secret at times, and map 2 has a really questionable health starvation problem, especially when hitscanners were always around.

Mapper: EduXYZ
Map: firstmap.wad
Thread: https://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/88967-firstmap-wad-doom-ii/

Bad ceiling texture choice at the start once you left your "bedroom". Definitely played like a first map, although the PE/Archvile combo at the end was a welcome spike of entertaining difficulty. A short but alright map overall.

Mapper: Joca64
Map: InProgress.wad (WIP)
Thread: https://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/88979-yet-another-first-time-wad/

Now this was something good! The mapper certainly knows how to make tough but fair gameplay encounters, even if some of the 'rearguard' teleport ambushes became a tad predictable. The crushers that blended in with the ceiling texture so you couldn't guess them ahead of time were delightfully evil! I also liked the little 'windows' you could pop open to show the effect of the nearby switch to the window did. Overall this was the most fun wad I played in this playtesting session. Expecting good things from this mapper in the future.

Mapper: Miss Bubbles
Map: bpools.wad
Thread: https://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/89015-birthing-pools-an-e2m7-remake/

A mostly decent remake of E2M7. I was a bit disappointed with the redrock lava pool area near the end, when only Imps emerged from the teleport encounter; in my opinion that needed some more monster variety. Fine otherwise, not much else to say.

Mapper: MyNameIs
Map: Towards The Hell (v1.3)
Thread: https://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/88883-toward-the-hell/

ZDoom-heavy and packed with props (plus a few cutscene levels)! As you'd expect from a ZDoom-focused mapset; great detailing and technical trickery. I particularly liked the hell map with the fog for visual style, although apparently this may have been partly inspired by UTNT (which I've not played yet). The first map of this certainly reminded me of Brutal Doom Starter Pack's second episode. There were also two H-Doom model references in the opening level. I found the tone of this wad to be a bit inconsistent at times; in the second cutscene we go from serious to Mario BOING! light in tone within a minute. Some people in the chat liked the part goofy/part dark & heavy tone in both cutscene and texture to this wad.
Fuck that final Icon fight though. Boring as hell, and once you know where to shoot initially can be ended quickly without too much excitement. I'd have preferred a custom boss, much like the one utilised before the big Icon reveal.
Was fun overall though, although I've played better ZDoom-heavy wads....but also worse ones.

Mapoer: Uberskunk
Map: The Prison
Thread: https://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/89004-the-prison-a-very-weird-map-of-mine/

Not scary. Just dull. The floating pop-up eyes in the courtyard was the only thing I really noticed for spooks. A nice idea (seemingly inspired by Silent Hill 2's prison) poorly executed in my opinion. Detailing was nice though. Needed a scare or two in it, and perhaps some more fun gameplay. One well-timed jumpscare would have helped! Seems like horror maps in Doom are very hard to do right.....

Mapper: untilitdies
Map: Alpha.wad
Thread: https://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/88814-babys-first-map/

Also really felt & played like a first map. A simple enough jaunt with an odd optional red keycard to acquire (didn't seem to add much), but needed more gameplay variety than "here's a bunch of enemies all together, please kill". The stair texturing by the yellow card was off, and I found a big HOM in one point. The "fake wall" stuff was also done somewhat poorly in my opinion. Still, for a first time map it was alright.

Mapper: vdgg
Map: Transfiguation (v1.1)
Thread: https://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/87958-transfiguration/

(Apologies to the mapper: at one point I go off and replay map 30 of Alien Vendetta to see if you needed to speedrun trick it to win. Turns out you didn't, and thus I apologise for calling out speedrunners as bad mappers sometimes. So you achieved that at least in this map!)

An overall enjoyable map, with lots of nice level transformation and tight encounters. Music choice was also good. I found a problem with ammo starvation on the route I chose at the start, but it turned out there was an ammo supply of shotgun shells if I'd gone up one set of stairs early on. Dunno if that's a problem with the map or not, but I survived anyway (with a few quicksaves) and the map picked up after the first few minutes for me.

And that's it for playtesting stream #11. Feel free to leave comments in the thread, and to play these maps for yourself to help give more feedback for these mappers! Until next time....

[Miss Bubbles]

Hey John! My boyfriend and I watched the playtest together, we both got a laugh out of that baron sneakily escaping the megaarmor room and chasing after you. There isn't any teleport trickery there, he just slipped out of the door before it closed lol.

I agree with your feedback about the final room with the birthing pools themselves, the design is a bit boring. I recall following the aesthetics of the original map pretty closely, for better or worse, and in this case I think it was mostly worse. That hallway I recreated is pretty bland so I may give it another go, although this is sort of a one-off map that I may not really come back to, but it couldn't hurt to tighten it up.

Thanks for the feedback overall, I appreciate it and enjoyed watching you play it :)

Oh and before I forget, to answer your original question about why I chose to remake it: I find spawning vats to be one of the stranger maps in Doom, it's design is sort of just all over the place. Being an E2 map it's meant to be a blend between UAC techbase and Hell and I find that to be one of my favorite things about the level and Doom itself. I feel that the way E2 & E3 mixes abstract design with strange texturing sort of creates this vivid imagery that just sticks with you. E1 definitely has my favorite maps from a gameplay and pacing perspective, but I really enjoy the more off-the-wall aesthetics of the the later episodes. E2M7 is a shining example of Doom weirdness and one day I just decided to start up a map as sort of a love letter to that map itself.

[Fuzzball]

Good stuff~ :3 Might check out a couple of the other parts too that I missed earlier!
A small idea for you too seeing as you are posting to the recorded stream- might be neat to include how far in each part is and list it for each wad played- so people know where to skip to in the video!

[Suitepee]

FuzzballFox said:

A small idea for you too seeing as you are posting to the recorded stream- might be neat to include how far in each part is and list it for each wad played- so people know where to skip to in the video!

I will do that for next time. Thanks for the suggestion!

[Suitepee]

Miss Bubbles said:

Oh and before I forget, to answer your original question about why I chose to remake it: I find spawning vats to be one of the stranger maps in Doom, it's design is sort of just all over the place. Being an E2 map it's meant to be a blend between UAC techbase and Hell and I find that to be one of my favorite things about the level and Doom itself. I feel that the way E2 & E3 mixes abstract design with strange texturing sort of creates this vivid imagery that just sticks with you. E1 definitely has my favorite maps from a gameplay and pacing perspective, but I really enjoy the more off-the-wall aesthetics of the the later episodes. E2M7 is a shining example of Doom weirdness and one day I just decided to start up a map as sort of a love letter to that map itself.

Do you have plans to do any more Doom map remakes?

[Miss Bubbles]

Suitepee said:

Do you have plans to do any more Doom map remakes?

I might put out a Pandemonium remake some time in the future. Right now I'm working on a Heretic wad so it's occupying most of my mapping time. But whenever I get stumped I do a little bit of Doom mapping on the side for a change of scenery and E3M3 is something I've been messing with.