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.

The opening UAC sequence had nice atmosphere-setting sound and visuals (btw, the opening of the window shutters was a nice sleight of hand, done with debris pasted on to the window). But the Hell sequence a little less so. I played single player but saw very few demons. I looked at it in the editor and noticed that some of the spawns didn't occur.

Another seldom used trick is rotating the orientation of the props by pressing Shift and rotating with the mouse (on PC), instead of having all the props in their default upright positions.

One of the rooms in my map has gotten so glitchy that there are certain objects in the room that I can't select nor link to. I have placed a gray keycard on the floor and now I can't select, delete, nor link to it. One of the doors in that room also can't be selected nor linked to. And if I try to delete the whole room from the map, Snapmap freezes! And I have to Alt-Tab out to Windows Task Manager to abort the program. Has anyone seen this? I'm at a very late stage in my map design so I can't just scratch the whole map. Right now I'm trying to remove as much logic from that room as possible to not worsen the situation. I'm not even going to use that gray keycard, and am hiding it under a crate to prevent pickup, LOL. I'm also going to remove all the demons in that place to avoid any more logic problem. And I'm going to have to come up with an interesting challenge that doesn't involve demons...

I wonder if this a widely seen phenomenon or just me, but sometimes when a lockdown concludes, I don't hear the Vega voice saying "Lockdown complete." This can occur in a wave event's lockdown, or a manual lockdown logic added to a module. If it is the latter, I can delay the "end lockdown" action by a few seconds to make sure the player hears "Lockdown complete." I find out I have to delay it by as many as 4 seconds. A wave event provides no way to delay the "lockdown complete", however. I figure the missing audio is probably due to its being covered up by other audio while the lockdown is ending. Of course, today's technology should have no problem play multiple audio clips simultaneously, so this is likely a bug.

This discussion has gone sideways because these characters simply refuse to address my last arguments and compounded it with childish comments. Yeah, I committed SUCH a crime by simply asking for a response to my arguments, LOL. That is what a discussion IS FOR, buddy. It's for people to offer arguments and counter-arguments. So WHAT EXACTLY have I done wrong, pray tell? Nothing, right? Conclusion: those who derailed this discussion were those who couldn't address the arguments and posted childish remarks. Please understand this.

Has anyone run into problems using trigger volumes and cylinders as usable objects? I run into several strange phenomena. I have a secret door that I want the player to open by activating it (pressing "F", the default key on a PC). So I put a trigger volume right in front of the door and set it to be "usable". The first strange thing is that when I walk to the door, the "F" prompt for usage doesn't appear. The second strange thing is that when I walk to the door and then LOOK LEFT OR RIGHT, then the "F" prompt appears. The THIRD strange thing is that when I put the usable trigger volume AWAY from the door so there is space around it, the "F" prompt appears normally; i.e. I walk up to the volume and the "F" shows up right away, without me having to look left or right. If the put the volume back against the door, the problem comes back. Away from the door, no problem. This happens to trigger blocks or cylinders, large or small, long or short, above or below the player. Then the 4th strange phenomenon is that even if the "F" prompt doesn't show up, the volume is STILL USABLE. I walk up to the door, don't see the "F", press "F" anyway and the door still opens as I designed it. And a FIFTH phenomenon, oh yes baby. Using the volume without seeing the "F" prompt DOES NOT TRIGGER THE "ON USED" EVENT!! Any logic that created with the trigger's "on used" event is not executed. The only way to execute the "on used" logic is to use the volume when you actually see the "F" prompt, which, as mentioned earlier, needs to be done by look left or right. I can't expect the player to know this, so I just have to forgo the "on used" event. For now, I rely on the door's "on opened" event instead.

Hi redrage, I'm a big fan of adventure games, and I know a demon-less map with only puzzles is not everyone's cup of tea, but I'm so tickled by the idea that I just want to give it a try. Vertical separation for audio is not possible yet. You notice this in other games too. When enemies are upstairs or below you, they sound like they are on the same floor as you. That is just the limit of the technology. I don't like my open floor puzzle because it makes more sense that if someone designs this floor security, the deadly currents should be on all the time. Making it go on and off is too obvious and contrived an attempt to enable you to jump over it. That's why in another room, I have floor currents on all the time. I like a good challenge, but I also want puzzles to make sense. You can't put messages in a camera view. Some get around this by putting "world messages" in front of the camera. But world messages use a whopping 0.4% resource each. You use a few of these and you lose 5-10% resource easily.

My last map is about going up a building, so this map is about descending one. You start at the top floor, go down 4 levels to find all the access cards to open the exit. There are 11 secrets to find, and some are required to complete the map. There are also what I would call "non-secret secrets", which can be a challenge to find but don't register as secrets because they are not as hard. Also, to make the leaderboard relevant, I add bonus score to each secret found, and deduct score from each player death. The map opens with a unique challenge, where you have to cross an electrically-charged floor: A running theme of the map is malfunctioning doors that block your progress, and you have to find ways to open them. Sometimes, even the messages that give you clues are malfunctioning (following the theme): Another running theme is the audio signals that you have to locate with your hearing: As in my last map, there is a time-limited BFG located in a secret room. Finding it spawns extra demons that will increase your score: More screenshots: Finally, I'm including a list of secrets. Someone played my last map and got stuck early on and couldn't finish. I know all of you like a good challenge, but when you're stuck it's no fun. So this is just in case anyone needs any hints to complete the map. So here are all 11 secrets of the map. As mentioned earlier, each secret found earns you score. But "non-secret secrets" yield no score:

In order to "understand each other's position" as you put it, they need to actually HAVE a position for me to understand. As I already said, they refuse to address my last points, so what is it for me to understand? Instead, they resort to one failed would-be comeback after another. What sort of "position" do you think they can have by calling me "brat", "asshole", and "13-year-old"? Isn't it obvious? They CHECKED OUT this discussion long ago, obviously because they CAN'T come up with anything to counter my arguments. So they resort predictably to name-calling. And somehow I'm the 13- year-old here? Moi?? So I implore these characters one last time: THE BALL IN ON YOUR COURT. Address my damn arguments, THEN you'll have a position.

Didn't I say I was imploring you people to address my yet unaddressed arguments? The ones who are truly made uncomfortable by disagreements are the lot of you who have YET to address my arguments. Again, if you people want to sass me so badly, ADDRESS the damn arguments and actually prove them invalid to the point that I'm unable to address your arguments back! That's how grown-ups do it. Funny you call me immature, when you were the one with that feeble cheerleading attempt that fizzled so badly.