When Hell Freezes Over [W7ALF4PE]

[ArchCrusader]

Hello everyone.
I'd like to share my latest snapmap effort, When Hell Freezes Over, a rather linear but fun level filled up with all sorts of demons. Can be played solo or coop.

Map ID: W7ALF4PE

Features:
- A linear succession of increasingly difficult rooms, complete with checkpoints inbetween each other - it may sound boring to some but it's also the best way for making large, custom fights happen.

- Upgrade crates: increase your max armour and health after each checkpoint... or don't! The game does not feature limited lives, only a scoring system, so if you want a challenge and keep going at it with 100 hp and armour, sure!

- Over 200 monsters. It can get pretty crazy but there's a somewhat generous amount of pickups (as well as powerups!) in each room to ease up the job.

Here are some screenshots:

Spoiler

The level doesn't really pretend to be anything else than what it is: just a sequence of exciting fights against the hordes of hell. Personally I'm quite happy with the result (except maybe room 2, hard to say) although I'm considering applying a few modifications such as difficulty tweaks for higher amount of players.
Whatever the case, should you give this a try, good luck and have fun!

[snapshot]

So i decided to give this a shot, It's okay but can get a bit frustrating, First some rooms are too small that you might get stuck between hordes of Barons and Mancs which is what i didn't like, you should Start Hard wave events only in Big rooms .

Visually the map doesn't look very interesting but i guess the whole focus was on gameplay, Some weapons are too weak and others are useless for Small rooms with hordes of demons like Burst Rifle and Vortex Rifle.

I like how there are Waypoints / Hint to Next areas, And how there are Health and armor pickups between each fight .

1 more suggestion, Put respawn time for weapons and upgrades (15 seconds would be good) so when players respawns they can pickup the weapons again, Also to make it work better for Co-op rounds, And also reduce player respawn time .

[ArchCrusader]

DMGUYDZ64 said:

So i decided to give this a shot, It's okay but can get a bit frustrating, First some rooms are too small that you might get stuck between hordes of Barons and Mancs which is what i didn't like, you should Start Hard wave events only in Big rooms .

First of all, thanks for trying the map.
I feel the 2nd room is the main culprit, it's got some fairly tight areas while having a decent amount of hell knights and barons. It gets clumsy really fast if you don't abuse the high places. Tbh I'd love to change the module but I fear that deleting it would corrupt the map (as it contains a teleport for the checkpoint).

Visually the map doesn't look very interesting but i guess the whole focus was on gameplay

Yeah, I decided to keep decoration to a minimum and even then 5 rooms are taking up 95% network. I have tried using multiple rooms for fights in another map of mine but it seems that sometimes spawns bug out which is annoying.

Some weapons are too weak and others are useless for Small rooms with hordes of demons like Burst Rifle and Vortex Rifle.

I think the problem here lies in the 2 weapons loadout, I wanted players to have some weapon variety but unluckily when minmaxing only a few weapons will be good enough (and others that would, like the gauss cannon, are held back by their multiplayer heritage - in this case having 4 ammo total that can barely take down one Baron). I'd love to implement the weapon wheel as soon as its available for snapmap.

1 more suggestion, Put respawn time for weapons and upgrades (15 seconds would be good) so when players respawns they can pickup the weapons again, Also to make it work better for Co-op rounds, And also reduce player respawn time .

The weapon respawning is actually a good suggestion. I wanted players to feel some setback (aside from losing score) when dying but when playing coop I think it's best to have them respawn so that everyone can have what they want.

I have updated the map, tweaking the second room (it has many less hell knights/barons) and adding respawning weapons, hopefully that addresses some of the problems.

[Potatoguy]

Oh boy.... This one was a rough one. It HAS IT'S ENJOYMENTS. But that enjoyment leaves me off unsastified at the end of it. Cause problems.

Gameplay: 2/5 – Ammo. The lack of this made every fight ANNOYING. Like even with glory kills, no ammo drops. This is FUCKING problematic in a map that boasts more enemies that the amount of ammo you have to kill them with! I ran out half the time in EVERY FIGHT. Also weapon don’t stay after death really made this a chore to go through.
Difficulty: 3/5 – Every fight is tougher than the last, whether the reasons for it are justified or not. Gradual difficulty is always welcome, and its great you gain more health and armor stats every fights.
Map Design: 4/5 – Barren maps, but they were designed to be arenas, not show floors. It has no bothersome prop to get in the way, and that’s ok!
Sound: 3/5 – The battle music drags on especially in battles that you’re losing at. I like that there’s different music! But they lose their luster as matches go on.
Uniqueness: 3/5 – This map is pretty great for what it is. At first. After the 3rd so fight, the fights just start to get tiring and even frustrating. Too many barons and stuff, that the matches start to become a blur of each other. You can’t have too much of a good thing. Also not keeping weapons after death is goddamn stupid. Especially in hectic battles like this.
Technicality: 4/5 – Checkpoints are great, no matter the map they’re in. Stat boost are a neat idea too. Good use of POI!

THIS MAP NEEDS EITHER AMMO OR KEEP GUNS AFTER DEATH. Dying because you had the weaker weapon or no ammo to fire is never a satistfying way to die. Especially in tough onslaughts like this one. It's good for what it is, but can be improved to be replayable over and over. It's just as of now, it's a blast of fun that slowly fades away.

[ArchCrusader]

Thanks for playing the map!
Onto your feedback...

Potatoguy said:

Gameplay: 2/5 – Ammo. The lack of this made every fight ANNOYING. Like even with glory kills, no ammo drops. This is FUCKING problematic in a map that boasts more enemies that the amount of ammo you have to kill them with! I ran out half the time in EVERY FIGHT. Also weapon don’t stay after death really made this a chore to go through.

Tell you what, you're probably right on losing weapons on death. I was focusing perhaps too much in making death a bit punishing but then it also makes progressing harder/more frustrating so perhaps it's not worth it.
As for the ammo, I'm not sure... perhaps it's unfair for me to say this (since I've made the map and I know what is where) but to be honest I often finish every room with max (or almost) ammo. If anything it's possible that some of that is hidden a bit too well (or maybe blends in too much).

Uniqueness: 3/5 – This map is pretty great for what it is. At first. After the 3rd so fight, the fights just start to get tiring and even frustrating. Too many barons and stuff, that the matches start to become a blur of each other. You can’t have too much of a good thing. Also not keeping weapons after death is goddamn stupid. Especially in hectic battles like this.

Heh, as I mentioned in my previous post I think this map would benefit a lot from the weapon wheel. 99% of the time when playing it I'd get double shotgun and rocket launcher and just roll with them forever, quickswitching between the two (it's well possible to kill a baron in a few seconds by doing that) and making quick stops to refill ammo.
Giving an actual weapon choice would probably spice up things a fair bit (and would allow some different weapon placing to ramp up things more nicely).

As for fights getting tiring/repetitive, I can see where you're coming from - the problem may be in the structure itself: fight, checkpoint, fight, checkpoint, etc... tbh I would have loved adding some different stuff and even "calmer" sections (and I may in some other map) but between the resource limitations (as mentioned before, this map takes up 95% network), coop optimization and weird spawning mechanics (sometimes spawns work in a really weird way and you may end up with less demons than what it's needed to progress) I figured I'd play it straight with just fights.

That said, thanks for the feedback, it helps!