Eponasoft Posted August 2, 2009 I've been getting the hang of Yadex and DOOM editing in general so I figured I would show what I've been working on. This is not the megawad to end all megawads, nor is it even "great" by most of y'alls standards. This is, after all, my first attempt at DOOM editing. It contains four levels, MAP01 thru MAP04. It does have some new textures, and the four included levels have their own soundtracks. The music is in MOD format so you'll need a source port capable of that. Four-player co-op and deathmatch are supported on all levels. http://www.eponasoft.com/davewad.zip I've been doing this to practice for a new DOOM engine based game port I've been wanting to make...it's an FPS similar to Heretic (fantasy-based, item usage, etc) but its current form is a primitive raycaster that's barely better than Wolf3D. Finding the right source port to utilize for it has been a challenge but I think odamex fits the bill, since it has just about all the features I need. I was going to use Vavoom or EDGE but they are both rather lacking, plus I'd rather hardcode this rather than using their weird scripting methods... Oh yeah, btw...comments welcome. :) I'd like to become a better mapper, so any suggestions are always appreciated. Flames will be ignored though. :D 0 Share this post Link to post
ArmouredBlood Posted August 2, 2009 Interesting. The best thing about this is the music. Then I think MAP02 is about the best gameplay wise. MAP03 is definitely the worst, as with all the hitscanners you can barely get out with 30-40 health since there's only 1, ONE, armor bonus in the whole level, at least until you get into at least 2 nukage patches that will kill you if the monsters don't, many of whom are still hitscanners. Basically give the player more armor and health or remove some hitscanners, even the best speedrunners will get slaughtered by 20 former humans with no armor while running through nukage. Another thing to think is that some ports have infinitely tall actors; unless you intend to map for ports that don't have this, keep this in mind, as you use quite a few pits that would be very hard to fall into without getting surrounded. A good solution is to make the monsters in the pit deaf then let them sight the player when he falls in. And now we get to the texture alignment and choices. The new textures were okay, I particularly liked the floor one in the first map as it reminds me of Halflife 2's grimy bone pile slippery slides which works quite well there. You should work on texture alignment though, and using lower unpeggeds to make uneven floor heights look better, especially on the sides of stairs. Something to think about is how bare the maps are. Don't get me wrong, doom is mostly gameplay, I think there are very few graphics whores left in the doom community. But that doesn't mean you can't spice the level up a bit, add a few alcoves, some light sources, a few dead players. The stone pillars with hearts on them in alcoves in the beginning of MAP03 is exactly the kind of decorating your map could use. Overall good layouts and music, but the thing usage, sector effects, and texturing could use some work. 0 Share this post Link to post
Nomad Posted August 3, 2009 I really enjoyed the music. Where did you find it? Theres some good tracks there, especially the second level. Gameplaywise, it was OK. I'm sure a lot of the other pros here wouldn't like the (ab)use of all the former humans, but personally I don't mind them at all. They could have been used more sporadically, though; more spread out than in large groups. Architecture-wise... Honestly, none of these maps were much better than the one you submitted to the Crappy Map Contest. They are all pretty 1994 in quality. Although i appreciate the non-linear fashion you did map04 in--I wouldn't mind more stuff like that! All I can really say is to keep trying, and what I tell everyone else: study the more popular wads and try to figure out what exactly makes them so interesting, and try to do more of that (although, obviously, try not to copy too much ;) ) 0 Share this post Link to post
DuckReconMajor Posted August 3, 2009 I really like the music. Only thing I'd like to add to what ArmouredBlood said, is that when you align textures, you definitely want to make scrolling textures a priority, such as the instance here: 0 Share this post Link to post
Eponasoft Posted August 3, 2009 Thanks for the comments, everyone. The music is all by XTD. I have over 200 of his modules in my collection...I've used his music for several games, including the original FPS I wrote. I'm attempting to balance out MAP03, as I realize it's pretty well hosed. It was actually the most uninspired level I made for this...don't know why. I'm pretty sure it can be made better though. I was mainly experimenting with nonlinear routes and open-roof type sectors on this particular map. It's also the only level I made with a PONR. I'll certainly see if I can follow some of this advice...some of it is still a bit out of my league but hey, I'm learning. Thanks again for all the comments. :) EDIT: Using Vavoom, I managed to find an incomplete part in MAP03...Linedef #36 which has Sidedefs 38 and 190 was missing textures. It couldn't be seen in odamex normally, although I might have seen it after adding the light amp visor. Since the area this linedef is in is very dark, it wasn't detectable until now. 0 Share this post Link to post