How to be effective on placing things on map?

[Marlamir]

Placing things on map can look easy, but is not and i think that can damage your map pretty bad. and is not what i want to happen to me, so yes i´m noob but i need some advice, tips and tricks how to be good at that. i hope i´m not alone who wants to know that.
thnks :)

[BigDickBzzrak]

Don't make it too difficult, place a bit MORE health and ammo than YOU would need.
Also, at least try to implement difficulty settings. You can just mark randomly taken monsters as "not on easy/medium" or whatever. I don't use different difficulties, you might not use them either, but there are people who do.

And remember, people always play your maps worse than you.

_{if only I could remember that myself}

[Marlamir]

alright and yeah i trying for difficult settings

[Memfis]

It's difficult to come up with something interesting while looking at empty areas. Maybe an easier approach is to do at least some thing placement, doesn't matter if good or bad, play the map and see what works and what doesn't work. Actually experiencing the map will give you more ideas. You will see which parts lack a sniper on that big column, or need more meat, or are too slow/boring. You will know where to go from there.

[baja blast rd.]

Yeah, what Memfis said. Playing the map is a very important step. In my last map I deleted two separate preliminary placements before settling on the general shape of an arrangement I liked.

bzzrak said:

Don't make it too difficult, place a bit MORE health and ammo than YOU would need.

...

And remember, people always play your maps worse than you.

I think it's useful to think about other players in the sense of gamebreakers and stuff, but futile where difficulty and playstyles are concerned, since there is a lot of variance in that. You should focus on yourself and making sure the map is fun for you.

[Marlamir]

thanks for advices guys

[t3hPoundcake]

People have covered monster placement really well here but I think its just as important to correctly place your other things around the map - such as decorations. I always hate wads that place things near switches or outlining doorways. It looks nice, but it's going to prevent you from strafing behind the doorway to dodge that arch vile blast! Make sure you keep clear lines of sight over and around obstacles so they don't block enemies or anything and keep them away from fast moving areas where you need to be able to maneuver quickly to make that lift or secret in time.


Monster placement is sort of up to you 100%. Don't worry about making your map too hard. People will find a way to beat it. Just don't make it purposely unfair like 4 cyberdemons that are guarding the only exit on the first map. Just make sure however hard it is on UV, you take away some of the harder enemies for the lower difficulties. Maybe reduce the 5 shotgunners to 2 shotgunners and only 1 hellknight instead of 2 barons or something like that.


Weapons and ammo all depends on how you want your map to progress. Is it MAP01 in the first episode of your megawad? Well then you probably want to give the player a chance to progress and feel excited about finding that SSG. Give them a couple sergeants to kill to get a shotgun, and then maybe put a secret rocket launcher or something depending on what enemies are on MAP02. Then next map you can put some chaingunners and give them the SSG. Ammo balance comes with testing your map, but try not to force the player to do something a specific way. For example, if you put 3 hell knights on MAP01 and give the player a shotgun, but there's a secret rocket launcher on the map, that's kind of shitty because they'll either have to not kill the hellnknights or waste probably every bit of ammo on them with the shotty because they might not know how to get the rocket launcher, and likewise it would feel kind of grindy and strange to give them 10 boxes of shells but no other weapon or ammo on the map.


To test your map you should try to assign yourself certain weapons to use against only certain enemies. So maybe for imps you only use the shotgun, for former humans you only use the chaingun if you have it on the map, just general restrictions that most other players more or less follow and then you can see if you have enough ammo around. It's always good to throw a couple extra shells or ammo boxes around anyway, either in a fairly easy secret or just around the map behind some boxes.


That's my opinion anyway.

[antares031]

If you haven't read this article about monster placement, I suggest you to read this one.

[40oz]

Doom is a pretty naturally fun game. Big monsters + big guns = fun. If you've played doom and you like killing monsters with certain weapons, then make those things available in your map!

Some basic tips:

More monsters does not equal to more hard. The reason any monster is hard has to do with the amount of damage they can do to the player -- not the amount of HP they have. ie 5 chaingunners are way harder than 5 hell barons

No monsters = suspense. If a player enters a room and there are no monsters in it, the player will use that as an indicator to get their big guns out or search for items. It's suspicious and they'll be expecting a big fight. No monsters followed by a big ambush is a great payout.

Use items the player will want as bait for traps. Players want soulspheres, megaarmors, weapons and keys. Place these items in open areas where they are easily visible and get the player away from cover. These are prime opportunity to activate trap monster closets or teleport ambushes to attack the player at a point where he is exposed.

This isn't always true, and some people here will take this as a challenge, but as a beginner id recommend no more than 200 monsters on your map unless the rocket launcher plasma gun or BFG are readily available and there's generous amounts of ammo for it. Ive observed from the DW Megawad club that really long maps are a common complaint so dont make your map take over a half hour to beat by gently chipping away at hell knights with a regular shotgun.

Monsters naturally walk towards the player when active. Most of the players weapons are more effective up close. Placing monsters on pillars or ledges or in cages where they cant walk very far will draw the player out of safe areas with a lot of cover, like doorways, crates, and pillars. Too much safety and low risk of getting damaged is boring. Place monsters in such a way where they are active only when the player is vulnerable, such as in the middle of an open killing field, or up high walking on a narrow ledge or surrounded by damaging liquids.

[Marlamir]

Woohoo, thank youu a lot guys
that helping me a lot

[grommile]

One of the guidelines I seem to have developed for myself is:

On HNTR/HMP, give the player a shotgun and some shells.

On UV, give them a sergeant and some shells.

[Marlamir]

grommile said:

One of the guidelines I seem to have developed for myself is:

On HNTR/HMP, give the player a shotgun and some shells.

On UV, give them a sergeant and some shells.

heh nice one
i think i land this one