Harmata

Whoa, that's one expensive sticker.

Phew, finally finished the last map, at first i thought i'd die from boredom. Then things became more interesting and i've managed to last till the end. The map is very long, there' some visual variety but encounters are very similar, that's the main problem. It's not easy to create entertaining map of such size in brief period of time, but i guess it's good that authors at least tried. Couple of notes: The ASHWALL2 area at the beginning is painfully dull. The soulsphere trap completely cancels the bonus health and then takes some more while being optional. The two Masterminds encounter was quite dull. I didn't even know that they can infight, which they did. Eh. Welp, that was it. Thanks topic starter, thanks all fine gentledudes who shared their time with me. Wish you all good things in 2013. Now, one last thing... MAP07... I don't cheat in video games, i am the guy who finished Nitro Family without cheating. The key word is "game", something that contains gameplay. MAP07 doesn't. The author created rooms, he placed monsters, but there is no reason to engage them, there's no threat, and it will not appear even if you'll engage them. It's like opening a wad in SLADE, there are monsters, there are levels, just no gameplay. No fighting, only clicking, you don't win, you click required amount of times. And you don't even have to start clicking.

I'd say that people who ran past encounters on maps 10 and 11 simply weren't in the mood for slaughter maps. One more thing, there are these revenants that teleport when you cross some linedef near the exit, but you only have to fight them if you stopped purposively, because they teleport with a pause and simply can miss the fun. Oh boy, one map left, is it gonna be good? (NO) Will it end this marathon on a high note? (NO) Only time will tell. I'm your host, Harmata "Harmata" Harmata, stay tuned for tomorrow, God bless America. (NO)

Jesus Christ dude that's cruel, you want FBI all over this place?

MAP10: Solid map. The only things i didn't like were two or three out-of-thin-air encounters (like three Mancs) and the mess after the red key pick up (by the way, room with the Revenants above the red key is too dark, it's even hard to tell whether they still alive or not). Visuals are constant throughout the map and certainly don't hurt the eyes, running around wasn't tedious. The central cave area is the most interesting area encounter-wise, it's just of the right size. I was ignoring Cybers when they just started popping up one by one, but in the end i had to deal with all of them at once now supported by bunch of Barons and Revenants. MAP11: Someone was on fire. Pretty and atmospheric map with some fantastic encounters that create hard and immersive flow. A pair of awesome Christmas presents from cannonball.

MAP09: This map has some balls, not often i've met such hard but steady flow. Visuals are good, i wouldn't say that there is a specific atmosphere but map looks interesting. I liked all encounters, i really liked the red key rocket-jump. Hell yeah.

Same for me.

The second level is much better. I'm playing in ZDoom and i have a feeling that some switches and triggers don't work for me. I killed the Pain Elemental, and i don't have ammo for that corridor of death and can't find the exit. You know, i'd say that these enemies have potential and could be used for great lulzy glory by some experienced mapper.

Nothing opened anywhere, but thanks for two prop doors, they really create that Christmas atmosphere in your dungeons. I guess i'll just noclip, just to see what's gonna be next. The sprites of the kids crack me up, now that's what i call Beyond Reality.

Was the absolutely fucking dark 64x64 maze necessary for a Christmas wad? Why the hell cardboard boxes explode? Why levels are so damn ugly? ... Where should i go after the room with a fat kid (Manc), no new doors open when i kill him. Also, someone forgot to replace all sprites of the Mancubus. Someone forgot to replace all sprites of a giant lard-covered demon with sprites of a fat kid. Fat kid is fat as Mancubus. Got it.

Man, i love killing kids for Christmas.

Ooor, you could've made the roof smaller, added a concrete border like in real life (with optional fence on top of it), added not the one giant metal box-room but a roof complex (you had the space), aaaaaand, most importantly, ADDED SOMEONE TO FIGHT DUH. MAP08: The map is empty, because someone forgot to put monsters in. Well, at least there is a lot of things that move up and down. Up and down. Or just up. Or only down. On second thought, there's not even that many of 'em. Visuals are bland, everything is empty. A giant lava plain with 4 towers of different colors. Areas inside are not related and ugly. Cyberdemon used as elevator music. You know, "fight this until the elevator arrives". In the middle of that lava plain. Like throwing a hot dog down the well. Or your mom's vagina. Author should've combined encounters and moving architecture to create better, more epic, more complex encounters. Here these two parts are equally lame. Other: i had 200/200 at the start, and the cave ceiling crushers reduced it to only 130/130. My insta-death crushers win again. Fatality.

What's with the high-tier monsters placed in the pits? They can't harm you, while you can do anything to them. Huh? The point? Another detail i didn't like was HKs in straight narrow corridors, very bland encounters. However, i'd say that in general there are no problems with flow, i liked the 2 chaingunners-2 cacoes encounter and the yellow key trap.

MAP07: FUCK.

Merry Catholic Christmas, you dirty heathens. MAP06: No-one can destroy the metaaaaal... A map with great atmosphere and good visuals. Encounters are fun, the ammo and health are plenty. In fact, maybe there's too much health at the courtyard and not enough for the plasmagun fight, which is the hardest on the map. I didn't like the use of AVs, they were kinda random and didn't suit the map tone or other encounters. Small things i didn't like: too many Cacoes at the start, considering the small entrance to the courtyard, the leap of fate down on green toxic looking liquid (considering the amount of health and ammo there, i'd say the liquid should've give small damage), the inability to return to the starting area. Abrupt ending, when i pressed the exit switch i didn't even noticed that it's that final Exit area i saw from below. Shame, cause it looked more interesting from down there. You didn't have to worry about the chaingunners, the main problem with CC4 MAP07 was their position. High above the player protected by big pool of HURT, they still were capable to snipe him even when he was only near the entrance to that area. On this map, they were much more vulnerable to fire and much closer.

Ah, another frosty December day, best time to drink some hot cocoa if you are a successful middle-aged white man like me and the best time to freeze to death if you are worthless homeless hobo of some lesser race. Like Argonian. MAP05: Not a single interesting fight. Nothing works on this map to create entertainment, not monsters, not traps. The chaingunners in the corner of the lavafall room, the specters in the room with blue key, and especially, cacoes in the last area, all are worthless. The lava tunnels are pointless. The moving pillars room. First of all, it's huge. Secondly, it's ugly. Green misaligned hexagons moving up and down. Thirdly, there's no indication anywhere to show what player has to do in that room. I thought there will be an exit somewhere, but instead author gave me BFG. How unrewarding. The flickering maze is just cheap. You can kill every monster by simply shooting blindly into the darkness, but chaingunners will probably take couple of cheap kills, due to proximity and darkness. The walls of the maze are not displayed on the automap, because they are only single linedefs with middle texture. Was it so hard to place those linedefs on slightly raised floors? There's a very good reason to hide layout on the automap tho, because the maze is just two-bit. The roof area is such a pointless and empty place. The last area is simply ridiculous. So i guess the platforms give damage because the whole atmosphere is poison, or more like "evil",yeah? Well, HK and 3 cacoes are not enough to create impression that this area is so evil that you need invulnerability to survive. Other problems: not enough health at the start, the platform to the first secret creates HoM when you wait for it above. The middle texture with window on the roof of a building near the helipad is protruding. Some losers where whining about instant crushers on my map, but let me tell you this: insta-crusher creates a deadly trap. Slow-moving crusher that only takes some amount of health while looking like the game is having a glitch creates waffle iron.

We wish you a Merry Christmas; We wish you a Merry Christmas; We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New DIIIIIIEEEEEE! MAP04: Just enough details to make the map look good and finish it fast, good work. Too much gray in the textures tho, i couldn't remember a single texture from the map except the painting. The flow is good, but i'd say that giving at least some rockets would reduce the use of SS. I had 9 or so rockets from previous levels, and i used them against Cacoes and the final Mancubus. I like the diversity of used monsters, especially considering the map's size. I liked the surprise platforming part at the end, but Capellan is right about the Baron, only chaingunners would be better. EDIT: One more thing, people who found the blue armor can accidentally pick up the inferior green armor which is located right in front of the moving platforms that leads to the exit if they have less than 100 percent of armor left. It also makes the crossing harder if player wants to avoid picking it up.

Good morning gentledudes, i hope you are feeling all comfy. MAP03: okay, i guess that little amount of theme that was present on The Golden Age exhausted Walter C completely and he decided to stop even trying. And i'm pretty sure you'll see me using this slightly modified quote again when i'll get to Walter's last map, MAP07 - Red like Jungle. The red card or skullkey is located in a big dark silver box-room. This is soo ugly, i had to mention it. Encounters and flow are better this time, but not without silly moments like a Mancubus between you and three Revenants. Poor Manc.

Happy New Year everyone! MAP01: i had no problems fighting first monsters with just the handgun, i'd say they are balanced. I have mixed feelings about the Revenant, because first time he actually followed me to the chainsaw room and kill me with a hit (which was cool), but the second time he killed most of the monsters himself and then kept shooting his rockets into the upper border of the window. I think the map would benefit from placing some of the niche monsters on moving platforms to allow player gather more ammo and to diversify his movement. Almost all the time i had feeling that i'm on the edge of running out of ammo both for the shotgun and handgun, but it didn't happen. Nice. The chaingunner at the end was definitely unnecessary. "Surprise" chaingunners at close range can melt player in a moment, without giving him any chance to fight back, thanks to their continuous fire. After player reloads, he can step up to the opening and easily shoot the fatso diagonally without taking a single hit. What a contrast. This is the end of the map and the player is definitely not at full health after many fights, he can't take much damage. That chaingunner also breaks nice flow created by a sarge that player kills from the window and the deaf imp that waits him below the window. MAP02: Definitely. The scrolling BROWNWELL texture in the room with 4 tall red pillars doesn't fit entirely because the ceiling is too low. It's not that obviouse because you can't understand what the hell is that texture, two valves on a rusty plane? Textures with elements that represent materials (like hexagons or segments on STARTAN) also aligned badly. This map should have been called Chainsaw: The map, because half of the time it throws demons at you, and we all know what doomers to demons (not only in jail). In case you didn't finish the first map, you can receive chainsaw on this one, in a not-very-secret secret. The yellow key location is quite unnoticeable, the way to the exit is also unnecessary long. I had 0 fun on this one.

The world: 0 Me: 1

Thank God I'm not the loser who made that map.

Ah yes, the archive 0/5 comments. They are not the reason why i will not drop new maps there, the mod who removed my responses is. So not nice. I hope they will pull themselves together and implement functioning rates and comments, not this "comment-rate" crap. Until then, i'll keep my Doom and other maps on my new website that soon will be ready. Still, i'm glad i had that experience and also received a chance to say "Thank you!" to the developers of DB, Slade, Zdoom and its wiki in my txt. This is a big problem in modding community, some people think that there is some sort of competition between modders. I blame the society and gaming press, it always was blabbering about "super talented pro-gamers" and creating was Gods from developers. "Made by Spector, made by Romero, made by Tim Cain!". They've made it sound like a game is good because of special people, but the truth is, every designer works with something: models, textures, monsters, weapons, ammo/health/armor balance. Designer makes decisions based on something. If these decisions create atmospheric environments, charismatic characters, seamless flow, believable world or thought-out encounter then he made right decisions. You can test these decision by implementing them and changing them to see what will happen in the game, with the game. I've said that you can run past most of the monsters, which means that monsters are worthless? Go to that level, and see for yourself. Now block the entrance, what will you receive? A threat, a battle. Gameplay. Of course, always simply blocking the entrance is boring, but this is why you have to create such encounters that will not require blocked doors to force player to fight for his life. I've said that you can kill all monsters from safety? How can you know that i'm not lying? Go see for yourself. I just told what i saw and gave some advices, but the decision to ignore them or implement them is up to authors. But you can't ignore the fact that you can run past all of the monsters or the fact that those silly railings do nothing but block your view and call me a liar for pointing these out.

Yes-yes i know. But i had to show some kids who like to throw "retards" and "piss" around that they are not the only one who can shittalk. Papa Harmata knows some funky lyrics too.

Why would i be ashamed of this: http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doomworld-news/61936-the-newstuff-chronicles-420/ I wouldn't call this a "buuuurn". Besides, BonM wasn't my first Doom map, my first Doom map was the one where i was learning DB2 controls, and fun thing, i also put chainsaw in a secret in the first room. Have you ever seen that map? That's the joke. That's exactly what my post was, but i sure must admit that the "i want to find and rape the author" part was made under strong emotions. Sorry, author. Still, shooting something in a pitch dark room in Doom is as fun as in Doom 3. You can't see shit, and that specter was an overkill.

Fuck you dannebubinga, you douchbag motherfucker, there's not a single fucking argument in your post, dumbfuck. If i'd decided to piss here you'd drowned in my piss, trust me faggot. Who was expecting that you shiteater, can you fucking quote the part of my post where i say the words "difficulty curve" or "texture theme"? Dumbfucked cunt, go fuck darkreaver in the ass, he seems to like that. ... I could've picked random wads from idgames and then combine them in a megawad and it would be exactly the same thing as this project. You don't have to make a community project to "let them make what they want". Besides, you didn't even let them make what they want by forbidding the use of new textures and sprites. And don't give me this hipster personalities bullshit.