joepallai

I've been on a 1000mods kick for a while now:

The biggest tip I learn back in the 90's was save often.

@Cherno that looks amazing and I loved the game that inspired this so I am looking forward to this when it comes out!

What I've contributed to (plus my earlier single releases)

for me it would have been played a couple of times before making room for the next big rpg. It's all about user-made content and exploring other people's ideas.

Syringe Hellrun2 (always a favorite of mine) Dark Covenant Flay the Obscene series Coffee Break Death Tormention episodes NoSun series

Just finished playing through maps 10 - 12 of Dark Covenant and it was a great mapset overall. A couple of the earlier maps didn't age too well, but overall this was a fantastic overlooked mapset from the classic era of Doom mapping. Not sure what I'll play next, probably something newer or do a bunch of single levels.

just stumbled onto this:

A bookstore that only carries self-help books.

Still dying to Map09 of Dark Covenant...stupid revenant rocket in the last room got me this time. Good map overall, classic styled '96 map. Looking forward to the last two maps after I beat this one.

I need to listen to this album again...so good.

@ketmar really cool lateral moving platform you got there. Never thought I'd see stuff like this in Doom

Went back to Dark Covenant, finally got past Map 07 from a pistol start and then blew through Map 08 and ended up getting killed on Map09. Really liking the second half more than the first (Map 03 is still brilliant). Took a break from that and played The Rabbit Hole by Michael "Prower" Reed. Pretty good '95 level with some visual bugs and ugly texturing in spots--fun level though, with a great set piece in the NE section of the map. Lotta fun in that section and mappers could learn a thing or two there; I'm definitely going to re-examine that area as it was an intense rolling fight for me. Overall I'd give it a 4 out of 5.

What game do you look at and think, "Wish I had made that"?

Older hidden gems: Outpost21, Dark Covenant, Osiris, Hellrun2, Castle of Evil Newer hidden gems: Reverie, Bond of Hatred, Syringe (there's a ton of good, newer stuff--the problem is that it all just blends into one another since the overall quality of the newer stuff is that much higher than the older stuff).

I did 30 years of nights before my promotion in January and personally I loved it; though I'm a night person by nature, so take that with a grain of salt. Best advice I can give is try to eat dinner by 9PM, otherwise you risk getting use to eating late which isn't good on your body. (I still never followed this one completely and had a snack when I got home since my job was very physical). My food schedule went like this: breakfast 11AM, lunch 1PM, dinner/lunch 6PM, snack/breakfast between 12am- 3am depending how late I worked. For sleep, try to fall asleep before birds begin to wake up (4AM) otherwise earplugs are your friend (cuts out on school buses, garbage trucks, birds, etc.). Heavy curtains also help when trying to sleep. Also, don't listen to dayshifters question you on why you go to bed so late, none of them go to bed at 6PM after their job is over; you're going to need an hour or two to wind down once you get home.

lately the only thing I've been playing is Doom...pretty bored of my XBox right now

Thanks Paul!

Dementia is probably my all time favorite level that I did; I like it enough that I started making an episode inspired by that one level's theme. Everything else is okay, but doesn't hold the same draw that Dementia does for me (what can I say, I'm a sucker for GSTONE and Orange skies).

I love the sense of adventure a large non-linear map provides, but I like short punchy levels too. It all depends on my mood that day.

that brings back memories...

Just discovered this thread and found it interesting. So my two cents.... Making combat fun, for me, involves applying pressure to the player until they nearly bite off more than they can chew and still somehow find the means to survive and beat back the odds. This involves providing adequate space and cover for multiple sets of enemies that activate at different times; preferably while the first set of monsters is still active. In my view it is only unfair if there isn't enough resources, cover or space; and it doesn't necessarily have to be available to the player immediately, they might have to run for their life and come back later. I prefer to have the player start combat with enemies from 3 directions, then as they move they open themselves up to a new attack from the 4th direction as they become visible to the monsters; for example, high up on a ledge from behind but deaf so that they don't activate until in the monster's sightline. Staging the monsters is key and requires a mixture of deaf/non-deaf monsters spaced out in small groups that engage the player at different times or in different attack forms. Variety is all-important here; you don't want your mixtures of monsters to be all of one type, throw in a couple of small nuisance monsters with your hordes; or have a rev/imp/spectre party set facing the party while a pack of imps attack from the left and a mancubus/caco team on a ledge attacks from the right. Force the player to make tactical choices and give them the tools to do it. The use of hazards comes into play here, as does forcing the player to choose sub-optimal weapons against mixed hordes. Also, I find it critical that a small percentage of your enemies are given free range over large sections of the map; so that even players well versed in the map (primarily you as lead tester) never become too bored with the combat situations, because of the few random encounters throughout the map. Finally you need to occasionally give the player a free "gift" in the form of a helpless gib-able monster standing too close to a barrel (of course if that's tied in to a monster teleporter closet via sound propagation that's even better).