Death's Map (Requesting feedback on my first map)

Hello fellow Doom fans. I just recently joined this site and spent most of today lurking before posting this up.

I've been playing Doom for as long as I can remember but I didn't get into community made content until about 2 years ago. Currently i'm running GzDoom with Brutal Doom and HD Texture Pack.

After playing so many great pwads from the top 100 list, i decided to give mapping a shot. I have some background in creating small independent games so this isn't my first time creating game content but it is the first time i've ever used a sector-based map editor.

Anyway on to the map, currently it doesn't have much of a name or a theme, it was more of a test of what i can do with Doom Builder. The wad only contains Map01 and should be used with Doom2 as a base. I've only tested it with the latest version of GzDoom but i did not make use of any special zDoom features.

Some details:
- Does not contain new graphics, sounds or music.
- Does have different enemy sets for Easy, Normal and Hard.
- Not multiplayer tested
- Some rooms are a little too dark, this will be edited later but for now turn up the brightness if necessary.
- Contains 5 secrets
- A complete run through of the level took me 8 minutes on Hard.
- Made in 3 days
- There are some rooms that work best with jumping enabled (but has been tested to work without it)

I'm open to any sort of criticism so bring it at me.

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vp9u18zjmjix6s0/Death%27s%20Map%20%28doom2%29%20%28v2%29.zip

EDIT [7-14-13]: I've updated the map. Improved the doors, added a lot of extra ceiling decorations, threw in some monsters and a bunch of other minor stuff.

p.s. if i broke any rules by posting this i apologize.

Edit: here are some screenshots:

You haven't broken any rules, but try posting some screenshots of your work next time: give people a sample of your map, as it were. :-)

I recommend explicitly setting tags for your doors and lifts. Using tag number 0 breaks things in many ports.

If it's just a DR or D1-activated door (even turbo or keyed) then you don't need a dedicated linedef tag. But for anything else you do.

Also, if you aim for vanilla compatibility, test your stuff with Chocolate Doom (if you don't want to run doom.exe in DOSbox). It's the only way to catch some bugs.

First run through: 2/5 secrets, 5:46, 96% kills

Since this seems more of a first map, I'll be a bit nicer :) The gameplay's nice, as the areas flow between each other well, and there's good manuever space. However, there are many areas where the monster count is sparse, with over abundant ammo, making the entire map too easy. For example, the demons are literally cannonfodder for the SSG trap, as well as the mancubus/hell knight trap. The entire map was very easy, and isn't much of a challenge.

For architecture, many of your rooms remain flat and neutral. Though there are stairs and the such, the beauty of the Doom engine over the Wolf 3D engine would be dynamic floor/ceiling heights. You can break up monotonous rooms with arches, pillars, lights, etc. I hope you do not take offense that I'm using your map as an editing example, as I do hope you learn and continue to make maps. Similarly, I find it best to break the habit of fixed, square/rectangular rooms. I'm not saying that they're necessarily bad, but dynamic rooms with height variations offer a more interactive style.

Trap wise, I'd pull up a few tutorials on traps that are not completely door based. Door based traps usually ruin the texture alignments if done incorrectly, and are boring if they're the only type encountered.

Sample editing:
http://i.imgur.com/pZ3CFEv.png
http://i.imgur.com/B531T1s.png

Overall, it's a great start for making Doom maps, and I wish you the best of luck in making more maps.

Ps, ZDoom has both the Z and the D capitalized, making it GZDoom and ZDoom rather than GzDoom.

@BloodyAcid: that is a nice edit you did and i can definitely see what you mean. I'm still getting the hang of designing good looking maps for Doom and playing through the Doom64 maps recently i've noticed just how good the Doom engine can look when making good use of varying ceiling heights and shapes. (some of the outdoor areas in Doom64 look awesome)

I ended up using a lot of pillars and candles because i didn't know what else to do. some of the rooms i put in some ceiling lights but I couldn't help but notice the short supply of light textures. I'm not sure if I'll continue to edit this map or just move onto a new map and carry over some of this experience/info.

As for compatibility, I wasn't sure how many people still run Doom on DOSbox but I do have DOSbox so I'll start using it for testing if it'll help.

I also felt the level was quite easy for me but it is an intro map so I don't think it should be too hard. I forgot to mention the few rooms with some platforming-like design, again it was tested with ZDoom so i was making a lot of use of the jump key but i stopped with the platforms about half way through making the level realizing many people probably don't use the jump key.

Thanks for the quick replies. I'll be sure to upload screenshots next time. (or later today)

Here's my First Demo Attempt. Played in ZDoom.
Easiest way to run the demo is to select both "My Maps.wad" and "MYMAPS_schwerpFDA.lmp" and drag them onto ZDoom.exe, or a shortcut thereof. Tell me if you have any problems running it and I'll give you a hand.

Pros:
Overall, I think this is a very strong first map: Each room feels unique, and has it's own identity. Even your interconnecting corridors have personality (lights, etc.). Speaking of interconnectedness, I love how the map flows - I played again just now in Chocolate Doom (until I experienced a no more plats crash in sector 204 (right after the red key door)), and was very pleased with how different the experience was when I took an alternate path. I even found a chainsaw that I'd overlooked! Great lighting, too. And I think you made pretty good use of height variation, particularly in the rooms with NUKAGE, and the room with the SSG. Nice grandiose halls and courtyards peppered throughout the map, but used sparsely enough that they don't lose the impressiveness or independent identity. Good, economical use of decorations to spice up rooms. Looking through My Map.wad in GZDoom Builder, you show some great attention to detail - for instance FLAT5_2 on top of the bookshelves - it's completely unnecessary, but it shows that your process is organized and thoughtful. Gives me great hope for your future maps.

Cons:
Lots of predictable monster-closet traps with unpegged textures where the DOORTRAKs would usually go. Some texture cutoff on DOORRED and CRATE# textures (here's an example of a quick fix to the latter - just replace CRATE1 with the texture I've used on the right side and you'll be able to get away with height 96 crates without giving mouldy a conniption ;). A bit of a pet peeve, but some doors are flush with the wall, which I find distracting. Some very steep staircases, but that's another personal peeve (mostly because I don't usually use mouselook). As I mentioned under pros, your rooms are well connected, but they connect very conventionally (either by hallways or doors); I think you would benefit from 'squashing' certain rooms together, so that they take on a sort of joint identity.

P.S. A note to future play testers: This map is a lot more enjoyable if you throw caution to the wind. It is a short map, seemingly designed for carefree play. If you sneak around conserving ammo and checking everywhere for secrets, you're apt to find the map slow and unexciting.

@schwerpunk: thanks for the excellent feedback :D
also the demo shows you died in the 3rd room. Is that an error with the demo or did that really happen? kinda looks like it got a little wonky at the end.

i noticed that i left some doors without checking unpegged. it bothers me to, not sure how i forgot them, just too many doors lol.

I'm not sure what you mean by "flush with the wall" but i assume you mean they are flat along the wall and not pushed in like most of the other doors. that was simply laziness on my part, the doors are gonna be the first thing I edit on this map. (when i first started using Doom Builder i was having a lot of trouble with doors, it's pathetic i know)

I made use of the traps to limit the number of enemies that are thrown at the player all at once. The last area shows what i mean the most. I wanted an easy starting map but my next map will be a little more difficult than that. Also if anyone has any good examples for better traps I'll gladly take a look at it.

Here's a quick trap demo I whipped up. Includes: Boom compatible.

• Basic door trap
  
• Basic floor trap
  
• Scroll-based teleport trap
  
• Scroll-based timed door trap
  
• Hidden floor raise trap
  
• Invisible wall trap
  
• Sound-based teleport trap
  
• Lift surprise trap
  

deathzero021 said:

@schwerpunk: thanks for the excellent feedback :D
also the demo shows you died in the 3rd room. Is that an error with the demo or did that really happen? kinda looks like it got a little wonky at the end.

That is an error known as desynching. Maybe because we're using different versions? I'm running ZDoom 2.7.0 (r4342), rather than 2.7.1. Maybe that was a mistake on my part.

Re traps: I can see how you wouldn't want to go crazy with different types of gameplay on a MAP01, but this doesn't really feel like a starter map. A bit over elaborate and long. In Doom 1 terms, it feels Episode 2-ish.

@BloodyAcid: Great example wad. I actually enjoyed going through that, myself. :>

Cool i downloaded that example.

While testing my map in Chocolate Doom, everything was smooth until the red door, it crashed on an error that said "P_AddActivePlat: No more plats!"

Does anyone know what this means and how i can fix it? I don't get this issue with GZDoom.

Edit: updated the link with a new version of the map. Still have that crash on Chocolate Doom though.