ZDoom

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Hi, I'm new to the forums, and I'm also new to Doom modding. This is my current project, "The Castle". Although not mentioned in-game, the story is that you were hired by the owner to clear out the castle, which has been overrun by demons.

This project is a WIP, and I'm releasing this for beta testing. I'm interested in getting feedback about the gameplay and map detail, since this is my first project ever.

Because this is a beta, there is currently no ending, but I'll add one for the final release. If there are any other suggestions, I'll take them into consideration, thanks.


Here are some screenshots:

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Ok, the second beta is now available for testing! Some changes:

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I added an ending, but you must clear out all the monsters before you can leave, since that's what you were hired to do.
I have added more rooms to be explored, as well as improved existing rooms.
Added some secrets.
Added more monsters, and with more ways of attacking you. They're more sneaky now...

Beta 0.9.5 Ready for download! Updates:

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Some new architecture.
Intro text.

The Castle 1.0 Official Release is ready!

Get it here!

Heh, from the looks of it you've got some real potential. While the map's pretty bland and boxy, that's to be expected since you're pretty new to mapping. Difficulty wise, the map's easy. Very easy. I got through the entire map taking only 15 damage. If I were you I'd put some bigger stuff in, especially after you give them all those weapons before the big court yard. Throw in some mancubi, arachnotrons, pain elementals, and hell, maybe some archviles and a couple of cyber demons.

Something tells me the owner of this castle doesn't have guests come over too often, considering that he's got a dungeon that he keeps unlocked. Even better, he puts a sign right next to the door saying that it's a dungeon.

This is what I'd call "A nice little map"

It's a good beginner map, and I liked the little touches, such as the tombstones you could read, the sign stating that it was a dungeon and thevarious things that you didn'r have time for, such as sleeping and reading. Can't say I liked the Stealth-Archvile mind, and I didn't see an actual way of finishing the map after killing everything.

Things I'd advise:

*Making your door tracks (the bits of the sector that is a door that aren't upper-textures) have the lower-unpegged flag, to stop them scrolling.
*Making sure you get all of your door tracks to look how you want (one or two were brick, the others were all DOORTRAK)
*Some traps. All of the monsters here were in front of you. Having a monster hiding round the side of a door, or teleporting in behind, next to, or even in front of you - rather than just standing in front of you all the time would help. Likewise walls opening up to reveal hidden monsters isa good way to go about it.
* A secret or two. A bookcase with a secret room behind it with a bit of extra armour or health, or perhaps a powerup such as an invisibility is always a good start in a level like yours.

Otherwise it was a pretty good. Only lost 6 health before the final fight. Then the archvile hit me once or twice, which had me scrambling for the megasphere and extra health. I survived it all in one go though, so thats alright.

This map feels very vanilla-style, with a few ZDoom features thrown in here and there, but done so in a way that adds to the experience. I thought it was pretty good. Definitely better than my first map!

The monster placement was nice, but it could be made a little more challenging on the higher difficulty levels for the more experienced Doom players.

I agree with Phobus about adding some secrets, and about more traps, with monsters that appear in many different ways, so the player doesn't know what to expect next.

All in all, a nice map. Keep up the good work, Jake.

Thanks for the input. I'm currently altering parts of the level using some of the tips you gave and also making changes on things I felt could have been better.

Bump. Good news everyone, I've been working on the castle, and I've added some new areas as well as improved a lot of the existing rooms.

I've added some more demons and made the difficulty higher.

Slasher, my older brother, gave me some help with my WAD, that's why I decided to put him in the easter egg, in case anyone was wondering.

That'd explain the tombstones then

Phobus wrote:That'd explain the tombstones then

I didn't even know he did that until only moments before uploading it to the forums. I thought it was funny.

My brother never did that with his maps that he's made (two recently now, I believe).

Guess me helping out with door making and the like doesn't warrant Easter Eggs

(Not that he's released them, or feels as though he is done with the whole deal yet)

Update: New beta ready for testing! Check first post.

That's a lot better, though the last secret, with the final monster hidden in it, with that odd clue completely threw me. My guess is it has something to do with those coffins, but I couldn't guess what.

Good wad, and ammo balance is nice right up until the final fight, where you're overloaded with weaponary, giving the player a nice choice of how to blast down his opposition, assuming he doesn't let the opposition handle itself.

All in all, good wad. Well done.

Since I built that script for him, I guess I can explain it.

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The numbers on the wall is a code sequence. Each coffin represents a number, like this:

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3     6
2     5
1     4

Walk onto the top of each coffin, in the proper order, and you'll activate another easter egg. Enjoy.

Ah, I see...

Well, I may give that a go in a free moment at a later date, though really I need to get on with my own wad

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Cool drone thing, but it died with 3 shotgun hits. Is there an end to this level? Because I spent like an hour scouting around for the last enemy, but I couldnt find him. So I just typed in kill monsters, and still nothing happened.

Still, good beginner level. No bugs that I could see, but there were some misaligned textures, which are no big deal. I see that it has a few ambushes now, woo!

PS: LOL at the UAC crate saying "Do Not Enter"

Yes there is an end to the level. I just tested the game (by using kill monsters) on all 5 difficulties and I could end the level just fine.

What difficulty level were you using?