Lorenz0

I proudly announce that the final version of Alienated is now available on idgames. The download link has been updated. Thank you all for support :) You too, @seed I enjoyed watching your playthroughs :)

I've been mapping for about 5 years now. My biggest regret is probably not publishing the first maps I made. Receiving a lot of feedback early on could have helped me improve faster, but it took me about 2 years until I published a map on doomworld https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/s-u/struggle and only then my actual career as a mapper started taking off. Besides that I only have minor regrets, like not planning ahead enough in my maps, which results in some unexpected imperfections like boring layouts or areas doomed to have lackluster gameplay.

@Jaska Wow, how did you do that? All vertex slopes?

@Demion Thanks. I made a few other wads, they are linked in one of my comments above. I usually use doom or bright, but most other settings should work as well. The no vanilla/software restriction was made only with map08 in mind, since a few areas from that level play out much worse with these light settings turned on. But overall I'd recommend doom or bright.

The visual effect of the invulnerability sphere

So I finished playing the wad on co-op a few days ago and it was mostly a fun playthrough. It definitely seems like you succeeded in making it a one of a kind experience, as I can't think of many projects similar to this one. I look at this wad more positively than negatively, but I definitely have a few complaints. It might come down to the fact that I was playing on co-op, but I found many maps to have incredibly confusing layouts and I got lost constantly because of that. I also didn't enjoy some of the hitscanner-focused encounters, which felt like cheap ways to damage the player. Aside from that, the sheer amount of invulnerability spheres in this wad is downright unethical. It's fine if you want to center your gameplay around that powerup, but if you want to do that, for the love of god, change the blinding effect to a different one. I don't know how many people have the same problem with this powerup as me, but as soon as I pick it up, I can barely look at the screen until its effect runs out. This resulted in me actively avoiding these spheres every time I spotted them. So yeah, that would be it from me. When none of the issues I mentioned were present, I enjoyed immersing myself in the custom features this wad introduced, but they were present a bit too often for my taste.

Alright, RC3 version is up. Some of the most substantial changes include making the last area in map09 somewhat harder, deleting the rocket launcher fight in map07, removing a couple of softlocks, and overall quality tweaks throughout the whole wad. Unfortunately I forgot to write down a changelog this time, so I don't have a full list. Anyway, I'd like to thank some folks from the DWMegawadClub for playing the wad and pointing out all of its issues which needed fixing. I was able to address only a few of them, but hopefully the finished product will make for a better experience than the previous versions anyway :> If no major problems will come to light, this will end up on idgames soon-ish :>

Or you know, it can just be a longer map. Sometimes maps with over a 1000 monsters don't include slaughter elements.

I just started playing this wad and I think it's pretty fun. My biggest surprise was when map01 succeeded in being entertaining while making the player fight with just the pistol. Smart use of exploding barrels is not something I often see in wads. I tend to forget they even exist. Custom monsters and weapons seem to fit the project well, and so does the enviroment, although I'm really not a fan of huge open spaces and corridors, present in all of map02. Seems like very lazy design to me. I'm going to stop my playthrough for now, and play the rest on co-op, so I might drop some more feedback once I'm done with that.

Thanks :D I'm currently working on the third (and hopefully the final) version of the wad, which will see a few gameplay changes and further bugfixing. It should be out in a couple weeks or maybe even sooner.

Thank you all for playing, I'm glad to see you had an enjoyable experience with my wad, despite its flaws. I've been aware of some of them before, like the repetitivness of map layouts, or certain fights lacking in quality. Reworking huge portions of a map or even the whole map would be necessary in some cases to get rid of certain problems, so I won't be touching those, but I'll do my best to fix smaller issues, like removing the rocket launcher fight in map07. The process of making Alienated was also the process of me getting good as a mapper, so some of my earlier levels can be very inconsistent, or filled with weird design choices. Still, I consider even the worst ones to be ''at least decent'' like Horus said, so I decided to include them. Not being able to stick to one theme is definitely a huge fault of mine, aa-tex is such a varied texture pack, that I just wanted to try everything, but I guess it might feel a bit jarring to see many strong contrasts between individual rooms. I'll try to plan my future projects more carefully in that regard. Same with gameplay in general. Sometimes I have a fight in mind while designing an area, but in other cases I focus on the visuals first, and fill it with monsters later. That might be the reason why the end of map09 turned out to be so lacking. I'll try to make it better, somehow. I'll probably get around to polishing the wad later in november, so when the time comes, I'll be sure to go back to this thread and read through your critiques once again.

Nice, I'll probably give this a try with some wads on co-op. I appreciate the effort to get this on zandro :>

Thank you guys, I really appreciate those words. I'm glad I was able to create something that would be enjoyed to this extent by so many people :) I hope to make even better projects in the future. This might be a good time to advertise my past wads in case someone wants to see how my mapping was before I got gud with Alienated. Scattered Ashes - Short but fun speedmapping efforts NoMonochrome - My first big project, more slaughter heavy. (not that good, you've been warned).

Skillsaw - easiest pick of my life, Valiant and Ancient Aliens are both among my all time favorites. Consistently high visual and gameplay quality among all of his numerous works. Dragonfly - same as above, but with Skulldash and Eviternity. Ribbiks - I was hesitant to place him here, as I can't exactly beat his levels on a consistent basis, but having played all of Sunlust and both Stardates on co-op (more than once) was such a blast that I cannot omit him. His maps have such unique identity and have inpired me so much over time, that I greatly appreciate his works. AD_79 - Violence is still to this day one of the most fun experiences I had with Doom, though somewhat quick to play through. His recent work on the Mappwich also reminded me how great of a mapper he is. Xaser - dead.air is a truly incredible wad that I replayed many times in the past, which also served as a big inspiration for me. His Eviternity map is one of the highlights of that wad as well. Honorable Mentions: FloatRand (Disjunction), Pyroscourge (Winter's Fury), Payload4367 (Dark Encounters), Mechadon (Eviternity24, Counterattack), Tango (Paradise).

The second release is finally here! The download link has been updated. Here's the changelog: Jumping disabled in the whole wad. MAP01: Slightly more ammo and hp at the beginning. Fixed a softlock. MAP02: Overall difficulty slightly lowered on everything except UV. MAP03: Slightly less rockets in the green room. Made the path to the exit a bit more visible. MAP04: General bug-fixing and difficulty balancing. MAP05: Blue key fight made easier on lower difficulties. MAP09: The swarm corridor fight made easier on lower difficulties. - and a few other small tweaks not worth mentioning. There are still some known issues, like being allowed to skip most of the final map through rocket jumping in one area, but I decided not to do anything about that, since creating more walls around that area would make it look far worse, so I'm just gonna trust the player. Hopefully no more major issues are found, and this will become the final version. Time will tell. For now, enjoy the wad :)