Blanket Techbase (BLANKETC.wad)

[YukiHerz]

This is a Vanilla map made in one day (around 6 hours of work), with this map I forced myself to create something small rather than burning myself out trying to make something too ambitious.

Download: BLANKETC.wad

Notes: Music is a Midi version of Rainbow in the Dark, Ronnie James Dio, all difficulties implemented but only 1 player start, made with pistol start in mind, run with Doom 2, tested in Chocolate Doom, Demos, Criticism and other types of input are more than welcome.

 

A few changes in the updated (blanketc) version: changed enemy encounters, hopefully they are now more interesting, changed the blue key room in its entirety to pose a harder challenge to those who want to grab that double barrel, some minor item tweaks.

Screenshots:

Edited January 9, 2018 by YukiHerz : Update

[Gunsmith]

Why do you play on such low resolution?

[Misty]

Because chocolate doom emulates vanilla doom feeling, visuals, quirks and bugs.

[riderr3]

Dio is King of Metal!

[HAK3180]

Nice little map. I got frustrated because I ran out of ammo and had to punch out about 2.5 demons. Yet I saw shells and was positive you had hidden a shotgun somewhere but I could not find it. That secret is definitely the least obvious, yet the most necessary. 

[guineu]

34 minutes ago, HAK3180 said:

Nice little map. I got frustrated because I ran out of ammo and had to punch out about 2.5 demons. Yet I saw shells and was positive you had hidden a shotgun somewhere but I could not find it. That secret is definitely the least obvious, yet the most necessary. 

 

There are many Sergeants, one soon after the start and many later on.

[HAK3180]

@guineu

 

Well, I know I'm not crazy. And I assume you're not crazy. So I took a look in the editor, and that sergeant "soon after the start" is only there on easy and medium, it turns out. On hard, it's a demon and 4 shells. So I guess the secret is significantly more useful on hard.

[YukiHerz]

Perhaps I should add a sergeant somewhere before that in hard.

 

Thanks for playing!

[baja blast rd.]

Gameplay notes: 

 

- Early monsters don't feel like a part of their environment: it seems like 'okay, troopers here, some imps here, some pinkies here, some chaingunners here'. Monsters can't interact with one another. These parts are essentially filler.

 

- From a 'fun' perspective, expecting the player to pistol three pinkies (in the absence of the secret) is bad. Fighting them with the secret shotgun is not much better. Pinkies aren't the right monster for their placement; they fail to take advantage of the layout's most interesting feature (the ledge overlooking the start), and they are conspicuously useless on the crates and through the narrow doorway. 

 

- Seems like the map's approach to secrets is to bore the player if they don't find the secrets and 'reward' the player by making some boring fights ... not particularly noteworthy, but less boring at least. Hence the doors with health at the end of the map, that exist mostly to prolong SG/CG combat. (The arachnotron is defensible in the SG/CG balance, but the HK is quite bad.) The preferable approach is to make gameplay fun without secrets, and even more fun with them. So against the SG/CG and coming from one direction, you are mostly relegated to a block of low-tiers, which can be not-boring with the SG/CG and satisfyingly crunchy with the SSG. 

 

- Secret sidequest is the map's most noteworthy progression feature. The action in the crate room is quite mundane, however -- a pinky, some imps to snipe, a HK. It's a good spot for something more viscerally satisfying and off-kilter: think barrels, low-tiers, etc., or even a more demanding fight in exchange for the SSG reward. 

 

- Note in the video how much more dynamic the last area (prior to the spider/HK meat walls) can be than the first few groups of monsters all encountered one-by-one in their discrete little pockets of space. This is what I mean by monsters being able to interact with one another. I mean, played straightforwardly it's still not interesting (snipe shotgunners all in their individual cubbies -> corner camp chaingunners -> clear out cacomeat) but at least it gives the player the opportunity to mix it up.

 

- Overall, I'd emphasize that 'unambitious' doesn't have to be 'perfunctory'. 

 

 

Edited January 9, 2018 by rdwpa

[YukiHerz]

Thanks for the criticism!

I'll be updating the map soon to re-do enemy placement and make the level more enjoyable without finding secrets, I'll also try to do the best I can to make the secret areas more interesting.

[xvertigox]

I quite enjoyed this map. It was nice and short and had a real classic feel to it. I played through once then again to find all the secrets.

[SuperArjunaButt]

Good map overall!  Kind of picking up on rdwpa's next to last point above, I played through that area the straightforward way the first time, and shooting each shotgunner in their individual cubbies did get a little dull.  The blue key area is a significant improvement over what's in the video above.

 

Just my preference, but when I'm playing a level with as many Demons/Spectres as you put in, I want a chainsaw.

 

+1000 for using one of my favorite Dio songs

[YukiHerz]

Thanks for playing!

I'll be sure to have a chainsaw next time I unleash a haul of demons!

[franckFRAG]

Nice small map, I don't have anything to say about that. I played this one on Chocolate-Doom, and I had no problem. Good stuff!