t3hPoundcake

I've restricted myself to mostly indoor areas in my maps, because I can't get the right look or feel for outdoor areas. I'm just wondering if anyone has any go to tips or tricks they use to sort of get that outdoor area looking a bit more impressive, making the layout better so it doesn't just become a wide open arena of circle strafing, etc. The things I do understand are texture transitions, platforming, and cave to open area transitions. What I struggle with in particular is the "outline" of the outdoor area, I always end up with just a straight wall around the entire area and it looks sort of flat and "too two dimensional" if that makes sense. Here is a screenshot to show what I mean about that. https://imgur.com/a/WpEyEYB So any tips are appreciated!

I'm bracing myself for the "it's not possible" answer :( I've been designing maps recently and the one I'm working on right now I have set up so you fight some demons, get the blue key, and I want a switch to lower the floor opening up the next area of the map, but I want it to be based on having the blue key otherwise my level design is literally useless. Is there a way to make the floor lower action based on a switch require a key? Can I write a script somehow myself or what. What do I need to do to make this work. Maybe theres another trick to make it do the same type of thing but not use the lower floor action? Any help would be appreciated.

Hello Doomworld. I'm working on a map and I'm noticing that enemies in separate propagation sectors are being alerted by (what I'm assuming) is my gunfire. I've linked an imgur album so you can see what I mean with some notes and scribbles to help explain the issue. Do I have to make the monsters stealth mode? Will they be alerted by the sight of other enemies moving when I shoot? Thanks. https://imgur.com/a/3lvwiKk

I've seen a couple texture packs online but they are all like really high definition looking or ripped from other games etc. I see many custom maps that have great base textures that I haven't seen anywhere else, I'm wondering if anyone knows any good "all purpose" type texture packs because I'm not a fan of mapping with just the doom2.wad textures. I'm hoping I don't have to rip and tear and compile my own pack from textures I see around, but I guess I may have to.

I'm mapping for ZDoom and my spawn area is the building pictured here. I want to give the illusion that the building is shorter than the surrounding cliff walls because I have a taller building (shown on the far right of the image). Right now all I know to do is to just put a 1px border around the building, lower it's ceiling and apply a sky texture. The only issue is it erases anything behind that part of the map, so the cliffs behind won't render for example. Is there any way for me to do this without using a 3d floor for the ceiling of my building? https://imgur.com/a/fFtPo

I'm still sort of ignorant when it comes to map formats, to be specific I'm using "ZDoom (Doom in Doom Format) for the map. I have no issue with putting a 3d floor here or there if I can't get the desired effect another way, but the interior of the building, where you spawn, is really detailed and it would be a pain in the ass for me to do 3d floors there to retain the detail I already have, so if I can get away with just making the building upon some higher elevation I'd rather do that. I was just wondering if I was missing a simpler trick.

Thanks for the input. I think I'll just resort to building up the floor so that the building is at a higher elevation so the ceiling is flush with the sky where I want it.

Obviously anything that hinders gameplay is going to lose it's appeal quickly for the player. I personally have a hatred for rooms of cubicles/computers in the middle of the floor - I believe the middle of the room should be open unless there is something there designed for a reason (dodging an Arch Vile or Cyberdemon). I often end up mapping in a unique way I think. I design one area, the spawn for example, and then detail the shit out of it until I'm happy, and then move on with only a limited idea of how my map is going to progress at that point. The downside of this is that my rooms end up being all squares, lots of good looking detail mind you, but the rooms have no real interesting geometry usually. I'm very OCD when it comes to dimensions and texture sizes etc so I struggle making rounded edges or rounded stairs, everything is at right angles. I absolutely CANNOT force myself to map like John Romero and do random angles or weird sized rooms. I just need some tricks that will make my square rooms more enjoyable to play. I can do round rooms, rounded corners, etc but I'm hoping for other tips here. Thanks.

NEAT. I haven't really used GZDoomBuilder, I hear it has built in tools for doing complex geometry and this randomize feature is pretty cool as well, maybe I'll switch over.

https://imgur.com/a/s5xBD Here's an imgur link to a short album with some descriptions of my areas on the map. I feel like I do great texture work but I can't create interesting geometry to follow up on it. Am I overthinking it? Will square rooms at right angles be just as good looking as weird crazy geometry if textured correctly?

If I wanted to take the gore nests from the D4D addons, and make them into a thing in GZDB so I can manually place them instead of having them randomly generated around the map, how difficult would that be? Would I have to get into writing my own DECORATE lump and defining everything and all that messy stuff or is there another way?

I've actually encountered this in my mapping lately. They are necessary parts of the map, it's ugly to just have rooms connected by a door, but it's also ugly to have just a 256 unit long room between rooms. What I've seen done in most wads is, when applicable, the corridor will curve instead of 90 degree bend, and if the design allows it people will often make the corridor a staircase instead of just a straight connection. There are exceptions but those are the easiest ways to make them "unnoticeable". I've started using metal textures to create "supports" against the walls so I can freely use different textures within the corridor as well. When you need to use a corridor, it's a really good practice to make them curve around so you can't directly see whats in the next room as well. It makes the player anxious, especially if you add some lighting differences. When they round the corner they are far enough ahead of the other room to not want to run back necessarily and they have to take a fight right away which makes for really fun gameplay. Other general tips about corridors, don't make them too narrow, we don't need more Hell Revealed where you're fighting barons in 64 unit hallways. Allow the player to move around just enough to dodge projectiles, and don't make them too long. They are "useless space" for the most part and you don't want to keep your player walking through boring corridors. Just keep them short and sweet, spruce them up with different textures /windows to see outside or into another room and you'll be fine.

If I were to make a map for a specific mod like D4D, or any other partial conversion like that, how would I go about being able to test with that mod through the editor? I don't really think updating my wad and loading it in ZDL every time I need to test is a very good solution. Also can I configure the editor to support the enemies/items from that mod so I see the new things instead of vanilla things in the editor? Would I just load the .wads and .pk3's I require as resources or is that bad practice?

Yea I'm an idiot now that I think about what you said, it indeed works fine just adding the resources into the list hurr. Thank you.

The easiest way to add some more fidelity to outdoor areas is to add varying cliff heights with trees/burning barrels or even some enemies. Find similar texture families that look well together and give each "height" a different texture every so often to make it stand out a bit. Another thing you'll see in outdoor areas are little caves, not full blown tunnels but just little indents in the rock with some items in it. Other things that are easy to add which give outdoor areas a lot of depth is waterfalls/slimefalls that go down to small ponds/puddles. You can also vary the floor height and give the illusion of layers like you see in Unholy Realms or I'm sure dozens of other wads. You make it look like there is a top layer of grass, then it ends and 4-8 units lower is some dirt or gravel. That way you're not just running across a flat piece of ground.

"You need to enable crouching for this level" I'm out. This isn't a cacoward winner or anything but if these are the first things you made when opening the editor, at least you understand how to use it. You were using doors, moving sectors/floors, switches, enemies, weapons, pain sectors, you used varying textures. I feel like you just made these just to make them though. When it comes to making Doom maps there's 2 things I've learned: - You have to have 100% passion and confidence for your project - And it's going to take you a long ass time to complete one map There's not really such thing as a bad map, because it's entirely subjective, but a map can have bad gameplay, and unfortunately that's where your maps fall for me. Fighting cacos with a shotgun on map 1, when they are the only enemies? Meh. Another tip, if you have to literally use text to tell the players how they have to play the map, it's going to make the player feel claustrophobic and it takes away from the magic that is hunting and pecking in Doom. People like exploring, while killing demons, and telling your player what to do takes away from that. People have one goal when they play Doom: Kill demons and find the exit. If either of those are taken away by telling the player how to play the map loses like 50% of its potential. You never want to take control over the player in any way, it makes you feel less powerful. Your map scale is actually decent, if there were more side passages and a bit less linear gameplay the maps could actually be decent little fun short maps. Work on monster placement and progression, nobody likes fighting cacos with a shotgun, on map one, let alone 4 of them. Keep in mind that certain guns are good for certain enemies, if you gave the player the chaingun on map 1, throw in some shotgunners or chaingunners. You gave them a shotgun early on, so throw some imps in there. Save the cacos for a trap or further on like map 3 or 4. I don't like when I'm given multiple weapons so easily also. I would put the chaingun as maybe a secret area, and make the player have to kill a shotgunner to get the shotgun. People like challenging maps, so by limiting the arsenal and using hitscan enemies you can make even the first map of a wad a nice challenge. "Oh you want the shotgun? Well you gotta kill some shotgunners first!" and that way if they find the chaingun secret, they get this sense of relief like "Finally I can take out these hitscanners more easily". You've got a long ways to go before you're an amazing mapper but hopefully what everyone is telling you in here will get you there quicker. If you make another map or set of maps I'd like to test them to see what you've improved on.

I've been changing some things around to get the fight to feel more threatening using some of your suggestions and it's definitely making it feel better. I like the idea of being forced to put yourself in danger to get a more powerful weapon (RL/BFG) and then being forced to use that weapon to open up the circle strafe option so I may lower the count of imps in the lava pit, and instead make a majority of them walk out of the rear wall so that you have to fight them instead of just waiting. Thanks for all the feedback it's really appreciated.

This is a project I started working on shortly after Christmas of last year. This is my second serious project, my first being a terrible tech base map that was mainly a learning experience, but it's out there in the Doomworld Megaproject 2016 wad. I wanted to do something that I actually had passion for, rather than just making something I thought everyone else would like. My inspiration for this project came strongly from Doom 64, particularly in architecture and theme. Then there's the polar opposite of Doom 64 - TONS of enemies. I wanted to sort of bridge the gap between the lonesome helpless feeling of D64 and the overwhelming bad ass feeling you get from playing classic Doom. I've been keeping a journal of sorts documenting my thought process as I work on different parts of the map, which will be released with the final version of this wad. I hope to make at least one episode of this, so I can contribute something I'm really proud of to the millions of Doom maps out there. So with that being said I'd like to get some feedback on my map so far. Currently the map can be completed up until you get the blue key. This section of the map consists of two larger fights, a couple traps, and a couple secrets to help you get through. In my opinion it's quite easy for a slaughter map, but I find it incredibly fun. Here are things I'm looking for input on: - Monster count of each fight - Type of monsters in each fight - Health/ammo supply - Visuals (how good does it look) - Any specific details you really enjoy or really dislike so far Remember, the map is not complete at all, I just want to get some feedback before I get too far ahead so if anything is glaringly bad design I can fix it and learn from it. I'll put some screenshots below and a link to download the map! SCREENSHOTS: http://imgur.com/a/Z1X4x Download link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8022363/spawnedfear.zip Game: Doom 2 Ports: Only tested with GZDoom 2.x.x Required files: None Note: I designed the lighting around the Doom sector lighting mode in GZ/Zdoom openGL options, so use that to get the best looking lighting. I've not yet included a readme file in the zip, but I of course will give credit where necessary. I'm using Gothic textures and a few other things. So thanks again to anyone who decides to play this real quick and give me some feedback.

Would you recommend re-organizing the load out progression like giving the rocket launcher first with few rockets, or putting the rocket launcher in the center of the cybers? And then do you have any suggestion for the rocket launcher secret? Maybe a megasphere if I make the fight harder? I kind of wanted the first areas to be about movement and just avoiding damage, but if that's not fun gameplay to anyone else I don't want that to be the case. I can make each area longer and provide more weapons early on and add some more difficulty like having to push through corridors with the BFG instead of just opening the door and hitting the switch maybe? I'll work with these suggestions today and see what I can come up with. Keep in mind I have 3 more areas to do (2 more keys and an exit) so there is room for more difficulty. Thanks for trying it out. What did you think about the visuals by the way, is the map looking nice or is it too bland?

This isn't because you're a bad mapper or an idiot, it's something everyone goes through. This is probably the biggest reason it takes so long to release maps, your vision in your head might be clear and concise but as soon as you transfer it to the editor, you're now subject to all the real applications of scale and feel. It's one thing to say "Man I have this amazing idea with this huge arena with tall pillars of lava and then in the distance cybers firing rockets at you it's so epic." and then you go to make it in the editor and you have to get everything perfect so it feels right. It takes dozens of compiles and tests just to get the scaling right, and then even more when you add obstacles and other stuff. Your room could be the perfect size empty, but when you add some detail and pillars and things to the middle it suddenly loses a lot of it's size so you have to change it. What I've learned, even though I'm still a beginner, is that it's really best to keep focusing on one area or room in your map until you have it perfect, so that way as you get further and further on that area, you don't have to worry about resizing it interfering with other parts of the map. Some people like starting with a giant sector like an ocean or just a giant square room and then build inside of that so they can keep a sense of scale to the "outside" of the room, so maybe try something like that. It's just hard to look at a single room or a few rooms and get the scale perfect on the first try when you're surrounded by void space. It doesn't help either that the editor 3D view is much different from in-game. Especially if you're mapping for vanilla, lighting looks much different, so you'll end up playing with sector properties for a long time. Just don't give up, keep working on one area of your vision and test it as often as you can so you get everything perfect. Don't get discouraged and give up, there's nothing better than finally getting that fight or room looking perfect.

I found the thread about looking in the temp directory, and that does in fact have a backup of my map but it's for some reason from like 4 PM EST, meaning it's further back than my last actual save. No idea how that's possible. There are a ton of .SNAPSHOT files from just minutes before the crash, although I hear those are useless. I lost around 2 hours of progress, with some pretty intricate geometry being lost. Really has me upset so I'm just being hopeful that theres a way to salvage it, although it's probably unlikely. Here's a couple screenshots (none of this was affected thank god) if anyone wants to give me some kind words to keep working on it.

Demon rune should spawn at a set location or a set number of locations. Too often does the other team all happen to spawn on it. I've spawned on top of it my fair share as well. People trying to play this game as competitively as it can be played and there's just too much of that kind of shit in the game. Also get rid of equipment wtf.

I pick up megaspheres and soulspheres regardless of my level of health. In the middle of a fight I will fire one SSG shot and immediately run over the ammo stockpile. I will always at least once end a run by firing a rocket at an enemy lower than me when I'm certain the rocket will not clear the platform I'm on. I also have a habit of saving when I'm low on health rather than being a big boy and dying to try the fight over.

There was very little I disliked about Realms of Zoon so far. The new BFG type scepter was a little odd, and the over use of Lost Souls got on my nerves a bit as it soaked up most of my bullets, but the amazingly odd color scheme, the few new monsters, and the map design really made this one of the best wads I've ever played. I only wish it had a lot more maps already! What other wads come to mind that use wild color schemes, high contrast, minimal new weapons/new enemies, but mostly stay true to the vanilla experience. I don't want something super reliant on 3d floors or anything like that, but I'm fine if they are included. Number of maps is not important, I just ask that they aren't too slaughtery or grindy, I'm just looking for something "different but vanilla" to casually play while I'm taking a break from mapping.