What are the things you hate the most in a map??

[AdirBlaz]

Playing a good megawad to find a rather horrible area you HAVE to endure to progress the level.

i.e.;

Let's say, a set of about 12 or so crushing ceilings through a real tight corridor. Along with this, the floor harms you. Basically unless you're either quick enough, or have enough health, or in some cases, both, you're gonna die. And that's especially a bitch when you already ran through what you can of the level and found every health pickup.

[Ribbiks]

6 hours ago, DAZZER said:

I hate Maps which work against you. A mapper's goal should never be to kill the player instead giving him a difficult BEATABLE challenge which brings fun to the players. (maybe not in Slaughtermaps)

 

tell me more about what my goals should be.

[rehelekretep]

Ribbik's goal is to inspire players to create cute ASCI frogs in text files (ᵔᴥᵔ)

[Empyre]

11 hours ago, Megalyth said:

Either you were playing a map intended for cooperative mode, or the switches require sr50 to hit both quickly enough to proceed. Mandatory strafe-running is annoying.

 

4 hours ago, NuMetalManiak said:

I think what @Empyre could be talking about are the switches that are simply doors that reveal another switch behind them. These are the switches that you have to press use twice in quick succession and I don't like them. Other than messing with speedrunners, what kind of purpose do they serve?

I am talking about 2 switches across a room where one switch opens up a door in front of the other switch, but crossing a line part way through the room closes the door, so a second player has to already be on the other side of that line so he can hit the switch when you open it. That is a bad design decision. Sometimes a coop server only has one player on it, and sometimes somebody wants to play the map in single-player even though it was designed for coop. PLEASE MAPPERS, DON'T DO THIS! It is not clever. It is just mean, and it will make players not want to play your map.

 

Here is a compromise solution: Have the line trigger an ACS script that will close the door in front of the second switch ONLY if PlayerCount() > 1.

[Bauul]

4 hours ago, rehelekretep said:

barons are mostly just time-sinks. 

I'm in the Pro-Baron camp, but only when used well.  A Baron in an empty room is always a waste of time, but I've always liked the fact that if you encounter a horde of mid and low tier enemies with one Baron at the back, the Baron always tends to be the last monster standing.  It gives it a real sense of strength.

 

On topic: Levels where it's unclear where you need to go next I hate.  They can still be sprawling and non-linear, but you should always be able to look at a map and go "oh, I've not been there yet!" see where to go next.  If the entire map is filled in and there aren't any obvious switches you haven't flicked or doors you haven't opened, then that's a problem.

 

I got completely stuck on Sunday map 7 the other week for exactly this reason.  Ended up quitting the wad completely I was so annoyed with it.

[40oz]

I like barons as BFG shields, sucking up all the damage in a horde when there's other monsters like revenants in the mix that need to be taken out first.

[rehelekretep]

i like barons! i just think theyre quite rarely used well.

[galileo31dos01]

12 hours ago, rehelekretep said:

hah! id flip that and say 'any map that has more barons than AVs i will tend to dislike'

barons are mostly just time-sinks. AVs normally create much more interesting gameplay scenarios

Archviles can also be time-sinks or ammo-sinks, just free an ambush in a place full of killed enemies and you'll have enough for a long time. 

 

(without a BFG, of course)

 

But yeah well used archies and/or barons is not very common.

[rehelekretep]

true true but im normally a lot more excited when an AV is running around reviving stuff and i cant get to him than i am killing 5 barons or so.

last time i appreciated some barons is map04 (?) of aaliens when you have to clear them out of the way with the RL before they swarm you and get too close; that was a cool use of their increased HP over HKs

[Spectre01]

In larger fights, I like it when Barons are mixed in with Hell Knights for some variety. 100 Hell Knights = Boring monotonous horde. 90 Hell Knights and 10 Barons looks far more interesting.

[TootsyBowl]

4 minutes ago, Spectre01 said:

In larger fights, I like it when Barons are mixed in with Hell Knights for some variety. 100 Hell Knights = Boring monotonous horde. 90 Hell Knights and 10 Barons looks far more interesting.

Mix it up even more, put in some Mancubi.

[esselfortium]

Archviles provide a more immediate threat (via their area-denial flame attack), and put time pressure on you since the longer you keep them alive, the more monsters they can revive. Barons' behavior is pretty limited in comparison: unless you're in a tight space, they can't control the room and force you to stay as aware of your surroundings as archviles do.

[Guest]

Elevators/lifts that takes forever to lower or rise.

 

Inescapable pits with damage floors. 

 

Encountering large groups of chaingunners in open areas where there's little or no cover.

 

Monster closets with arch-viles. Especially if I don't have the BFG.

 

Teleporting to a really small room where a bunch of enemies are lying in ambush.  

 

Puzzles in general.

Edited July 8, 2017 by Guest

[Memfis]

I don't like when monsters teleport in and it doesn't seem logical. People will often spawn enemies in random spots for no reason and usually it looks really contrived. At least put some basic pads on the floor, or telegraph it otherwise. The rocket launcher trap in Doom 2 Map13 is a nice example of how you can make it seem normal. You can hear the demons beforehand and the room kinda has a demonic presence to it with the weird textures and everything. When you get ambushed by evil it makes sense.

[Deleted_Account]

Inconsistent use of damaging flats, like how some toxic slime will hurt you and others don't.

[MrGlide]

I love high end monsters like Viles and Barons. When the upper end of Doom's cast is used correctly (I state the upper end because they're easier to mess up imo.), it makes for very exciting and engaging gameplay.

[Spectre01]

3 hours ago, Memfis said:

I don't like when monsters teleport in and it doesn't seem logical. People will often spawn enemies in random spots for no reason and usually it looks really contrived.

The worst example of this is instant pop-ins that happen very close to the player. I can think of at least one section in both Speed of Doom and Epic 2 where a Revenant will literally punch you in the face if you don't know about it. Not cool. I'm still not a fan of how the pop-in looks but at least use it at a reasonable distance.

[galileo31dos01]

11 minutes ago, Spectre01 said:

The worst example of this is instant pop-ins that happen very close to the player. I can think of at least one section in both Speed of Doom and Epic 2 where a Revenant will literally punch you in the face if you don't know about it. Not cool. I'm still not a fan of how the pop-in looks but at least use it at a reasonable distance.

 

Reminded me of that time I was walking calmly through an open corridor and suddenly a Cyberdemon insta-popped right in my face and instantly shot me... this happened in umm, Plutonia 2. I did not only died but also did number two in my pants. 

[Nine Inch Heels]

17 minutes ago, galileo31dos01 said:

I did not only died but also did number two in my pants.

Too much information ;-)

 

3 hours ago, Memfis said:

I don't like when monsters teleport in and it doesn't seem logical.

I think in ancient aliens m29 or m30 there's spots where monsters teleport in at some point in time and there's no way to tell where those spots are, unless of course you play that map a few times. What pissed me off about this was that there was a good chance that at the time the monsters started spawning in, you had the RL up and running, and shit teleports in right in front of you, if you don't keep a sharp look on the timer... I don't think I need to elaborate this much further...

Edited July 9, 2017 by Nine Inch Heels

[Scotty]

Needlessly grindy but easy gameplay (ie having to use the shotgun against a lone noble, come the fuck on - this is my main pet peeve in maps).

Being forced to wait on damaging floors for lifts and such.

Unreasonably distant sniper gunners with no cover.

Insta pop floors (i just think they look really odd).

[Fuzzball]

Huge open spaces with no real "goal" or any kind of landmarks or hints on where to go~

[Voros]

Maps that have no indication of what to do. I've suffered a lot from this due to Freedoom.

For example, I fight this and that and find a switch and I flick it. What did it do? IDK. Maybe it opened one of the ten doors I saw earlier.

[Empyre]

10 hours ago, Piper Maru said:

Inconsistent use of damaging flats, like how some toxic slime will hurt you and others don't.

Definitely that one.

 

I also hate when an exit is not marked. It looks like a regular switch, but it exits the map, and you might not have been ready to exit.

Likewise, exit signs labeling things that are not the exit are also annoying.

[TootsyBowl]

15 hours ago, Piper Maru said:

Inconsistent use of damaging flats, like how some toxic slime will hurt you and others don't.

Always hated this, but I was playing Interception and this was taking it a little far.

Edit:in the same WAD, nukage that doesn't hurt. What.

Edited July 9, 2017 by TootsyBowl

[baja blast rd.]

^ Beware of the toxic light strips. 

[Fonze]

I do love me some light strippi--strips. Light strips. Love 'em.