2 Short TSoH Maps [E2M1/E2M2]

[Zemakat]

A two-set replacement WAD for E2M1 and E2M2.

I thought of making a smaller project for now, and this is a gameplay experiment. If you have any suggestions/critiques you wish for me to consider, please let me know, especially if it's for gameplay! Thank you in advance, and I hope it's great.

[imgur]https://i.imgur.com/OvP35Ys[/imgur]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qvqS2v ... sp=sharing

[TorrentialFire]

I played both maps and have a couple of suggestions. Firstly, in map 1, I would give the player some other weapon than the pistol before unleashing multiple pinkies on them. If your intention was to have the player use the explosive barrels to kill the enemies, I recommend designing an arena that makes it more straightforward to do so. I played the map again and tried to rush around through the provided side route but grabbing a shotgun from the sergeants wasn't really that effective.

In map 2, there is barely enough ammo to finish off all the enemies. The player can attempt to just rush the switch in the center to open the exit, but I am the kind of player who tries to eliminate the enemies. I recommend making more of an arena here as well. The Barons are pretty stuck and have a hard time lining up a shot on the player. They really only pose a challenge if the player is inaccurate and runs out of ammo.

Good stuff!

[Zemakat]

Post

Thank you for the comment! I read it and here are my thoughts:

E2M1: In easier difficulties (Hurt Me Plenty and others), there is a placed shotgun where a gibbed Marine is, across the first lift. It is not offered on Ultra-Violence as a challenge.

I am interested on how to make a more clear layout for the barrels. I think it could prevent player frustration for future maps, and perhaps this map if I update it accordingly.

E2M2: The Barons struggling to move has me puzzled. I believe that each and every test I've run, all the Barons would successfully reach the looping hallways.

As for ammunition, I'm thinking of perhaps adding more shells and rockets. Also, my previous question about area designs goes here.

[TorrentialFire]

I can appreciate challenging the player on higher difficulties. I choose UV by default, assuming most maps are balanced around that difficulty the most. As Doom is a power fantasy game, I feel the challenge should come more from managing resources then a lack of powerful weapons. Pacing out weapon and ammo placement is crucial to the flow and feel of a level. I tend to like levels more when they feel less resource constrained and more about movement and cover/choke-points. That's just a personal opinion though, not a critique.

Here's an idea for the demons and barrels. Introduce the concept in a closed off room with the player on one side of a barrier that they can shoot through with several barrels and a demon on the other side arranged in such a way that it would be easy to kill the demon by shooting the barrels. An isolated scenario like that firmly establishes the theme in the player's head. This would work really well in a longer level if other encounters were paced out to deplete the player of ammo, then introduce an arena where the player has to carefully manage exploding barrels and killing demons with them.

For the barons, I would just widen the doorways and remove obstacles to the barons moving out into the exterior chamber. I think I strafed around quite a bit and abused their pathfinding unintentionally.