DoomPhreak

Anyone disappointed that these construction props only come in grey and yellow, and can't change colors? Also, we need *hell* construction props too. And I can't believe there is still only ONE table. I want to make an office type of room and can't with so few furniture selections. Small props still can't be static. Blocking volumes finally block AI's but I haven't tested how well it works.

Very nice use of the grid room. You wisely use liquid surfaces so the demons can walk on them and still look natural. You probably know that you can't make solid walking surfaces in the grid room because demons can't walk on props. So using blood as the floor is wise. Of course, some may wonder why all the walking surfaces are liquid, so you may want to distract them with other effects (rising blood level, maybe). Still, I noticed some demons still had trouble navigating around all the custom props you put there. For a small short map, that's ok. For a big long map, you gotta find some ways to deal with that. Seeing demons stuck near props repeatedly can be immersion-breaking. I can't really help you there since I'm struggling with it myself. But I'm all for you to expand this idea into a bigger map whatever your workarounds may be. I'm making a map with original architecture too, but with the UAC "storage facility" module, which is a huge empty room with an actual floor (albeit UAC-style) that I don't need to cover up, unlike the grid room.

With Snapmap being as limiting as it is, I would forgive the occasional lack of "window dressing" of modules, but ONLY IF the map compensates it with enough gameplay content. I would also look at percentage of resource used. If the gameplay is good but the window dressing is lacking, and yet here is 20% unused resource, then the mapmaker has no excuse: he or she needs to dress up the modules with that 20%. Aural dress-up uses much less resource than visual dress-up, so use more sound clips if your resource is low.

The problem with this is that demons have trouble navigating on props and/or with props surrounding them, and blocking volumes don't block demons. I have yet to see a map, including the ones you cited, that solves this problem. Unless Bethesda solves this, this will always be a major stumbling block of having original architecture.

Ok, you want constructive criticism, here it is. I played your Pestilence map where I just ran to the Hell module, used the panel, and got the victory. You gotta make victory harder to get than this. You know from playing all the Doom games that you gotta make the player work to gain entry to an area, and then work it for another area, until he gains entry to the room where the victory is.

This forum is slow as you can see, nothing we can do. Try also posting at Bethesda's User Snapmaps section, which is also not the busiest place.

My latest map is called "Hellbound (by DoomPhreak)" (ID: 4978L4BJ), where you play a UAC marine exploring the mysteries of Hell. The trademark of this map is the unique way of demon spawning and respawning throughout, which is unpredictable and may be quite challenging to fight against. There are also some puzzle situations such as these: I bring back the invisible staircase which I used in my earlier map: More screenshots: This is my FOURTH map. My first is called "The Beginning of the End" and it's not that good. My second is "The End is Nigh" where you go up a 5-floor building and fight on every floor. "Descent" is the reverse where you go down a building and look for audio clues and other secrets.

The L&T effect can be used indoor too. All you need to do is place a window. You will have the believable effect of the L&T coming through from the window. Save logic too. You don't have to turn off L&T when the player goes indoor.

I appreciate all the Demon voice clips, but some of them are just too specific for general purpose use. And I can't find something as simple as HA HA HA HA HA... Maybe I use a voice clip that starts with "Hell", play several of them really fast in succession, and get something like "HeHeHeHeHe..." (haven't really tried that). But then if subtitles are turned on, it will ruin the effect. The Vega voices seem to have a lot more to choose from, but if I try to lower the frequency to make it sound like a demon, the subtitles will say "Vega:..." and again it will ruin the effect. There isn't even a voice clip of each individual demon's sound. If I want the shriek of a revenant at a specific time, I can't do it.

Has anyone tried creating thunder and lightning effects for modules with outdoor scenary? I did a test with "atmosphere: overexposed" and pitch-altered explosion audio with randomized timing, volume, and pitch, and was surprised by how realistic it looked and sounded.

Actually, placing demons high up can be accomplished by teleporting them in mid-air and letting them fall to the props you made. That would be something I would suggest. Player-blocking volumes don't block demons, and it would look ridiculous when demons move in and out of them. That's why I avoid using them when demons are present. That's another thing Snapmap needs to improve on. Also, these volumes don't look too good in an immersion-breaking kind of way. And bloodshot did use them to hide the grid lines, but still had to use fog to hide them.

This is called forum discussion, hello? If reading slightly contrarian comments makes you uncomfortable do something else. The SAD thing is you don't realize I'm actually in support of this mapmaker because I made it quite clear that the fault is really in Snapmap, not him. Which part of "Snapmap is holding back his creativity" did you not understand? And it's NOT a small issue. Notice how some of the demons have trouble running, especially the charging pinkies? That's because walking AI's have a hard time navigating on props. Another thing is why not have only flying demons? That would at least solve that problem. Instead, you have all kinds of unnatural walking motions. And my comment on his other map was about a spawning BUG. You called that a small problem too? Notice a lot of mapmakers don't even get a comment when they create a thread here? I responded because I cared about this mapmaker's work. Next time stop being so butthurt when you read comments that don't agree with your narrow, poorly-informed views.

Nice use of the "grid room" module. But it looks like Snapmap is holding you back. It has to look foggy because you need hide the grid lines on the walls of the grid room. And there is no elevation, because the demons must be placed on the ground floor, and can't be placed on props. So all combat must be done on the ground. Even the original E3M2 has a few steps to climb up to avoid monotony. So this is one instance where Snapmap's limitations are holding back the creativity of the mapmaker.

Sometimes no music can be effective too. In movies, such as in Hitchcock's The Birds, the lack of music is used to heightened the atmosphere. The background sound effects are also the key. In fact, one should see music AND sound as a whole. If the end result of the audio works, it doesn't matter if there is music or not. Many years ago when they gave out Oscars for sound design, the awards went to both the sound recorders and music composers.

Same thing happened to me in single-player. I also stopped seeing any spawning much earlier. Maybe the mapmaker change something since then? Because there seemed to be quite a few spawning errors. To the OP, please fix these. This seems like a good map and I want to experience the gameplay as it was designed.