Hell's Invasion (My First Doom Map)

[Salty Kido]

Hells Invasion MAP-01.wad

It's my first map I made

(65.55 KiB) Downloaded 101 times

This is my first Doom maps and I wan't to make better and better maps so please give criticism.

[merlin86]

I liked it. I found the texture selections somewhat weird, like this door :


I think you should choose a style, since IMHO, this map seems too random

I don't like it the archivile behind the last door with 2 barons, but nothing too bad.

Here some other screenies:

[isaacpop23]

Not bad for a first map, most of the problems are in aesthetics, but there are a few gameplay items as well.
Criticisms:
-The most obvious thing is the schizophrenic choice of textures, if you can't tell if some textures go together look to see what they're paired with in other maps.
-Behind the Blue Key door, you're given a Megasphere and a Soulsphere in quick succesion, and it's hard to find an instance that really requires more than a few stimpacks of medkits. Really just in general pull back on the health and armor given.
-Make the exit door a Yellow Key door first, so that people have an idea to go back there when they have it.
-In the room with the Blue Key, when exiting you can hit the Icon of Sin texture in front of it and cause it to come down, trapping you in.
-The Red Skull key seems to have no purpose, you can open the skull wall with the Red Key Card, so the Skull is useless.
-When making doors, it's a good idea to make the inside sides of the door WALLTRAKs and "lower unpeg" them. Also for the ceiling of the door sector, put something like FLAT20 to make it look less odd, since it's unusual for ceiling material to make it onto the underside of doors.
-The boxes in the starting room seem to emanate light from their tops.
-The three doors at the end are slightly bothersome to open all of them at once, maybe make them stay open instad of closing after a few seconds?
-In the third room (the one with zombies on boxes and a green armor) the ceiling texture above the boxes oddly changes from the rest of the ceiling.
-I'd advice away from stealth monsters, short of specific situations they're needlessly annoying.

tl;dr- Pull back on health and armor items, texturing is odd look at other wads for ideas of how to make it look more cohesive.

[HanzvonShreky]

Welcome to the community Salty Kido! Since you asked for criticism, I decided to record a live play through of the map and give my criticisms along the way. Also, near the end of the video I mention a "small youtuber" who made Doom Builder 2 tutorials that really helped me out when I first started, and they'll probably help you out too!

My video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad-zYLB ... e=youtu.be

The "small youtuber" ( SimplyElegant )
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... hp4EFvw02P

[Salty Kido]

Thanks helps out allot

[Salty Kido]

Thanks helps out allot

[Enjay]

Grabbed the map. I will try to play later but today is a busy day, unfortunately.

Grammar Nazi stuff to follow...

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Thanks helps out allot

Normally when people mess up typing the two words "a" and "lot" the spell it "alot" which is not a real word and tends to get this response.


However, you used "allot" which is a real word but still doesn't mean "a lot".

Allot
verb (used with object), allotted, allotting.
1.
to divide or distribute by share or portion; distribute or parcel out; apportion:
to allot the available farmland among the settlers.
2.
to appropriate for a special purpose:
to allot money for a park.
3.
to assign as a portion; set apart; dedicate.

http://www.grammar-monster.com/easily_c ... _allot.htm

[edit]
OK played it and my comments are basically the same as isaacpop23's. In fact, I noticed/felt everything he said. It's a good first map and much of the gameplay is generally quite good (although I didn't like what was waiting in the final room - or the fact that the door closed behind me as isaacpop23 pointed out). However, you give away too many weapons and health items so it's almost impossible not to breeze through the map killing everything with no real risk to yourself. I like the fact that you put marking textures on all the key requiring doors. Lots of mappers forget to do that with their first maps (although comments about the red skull duly noted). Architecturally, some of the areas are pretty interesting and quite evocative of structures seen in the original game.

So many keys, so many weapons and so many powerups in such a small map? Wow! The doortrack thing really bothered me. The mish-mash of textures was quite messy and in a lot of places the textures were inappropriate or didn't fit properly on to the wall.

Just a few examples...

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The left side of this computer (in particular) doesn't fit the wall so we can see a sliver of screen on the left and the small screens have their top/bottom cut off. Also the bigger screen slightly to the right is bent around a corner. Do screens do that?

(Also, it would be better if the metal panels further to the left ended where the wall ends rather simply getting cut off half way through.)

Looks like this door cuts right through the tech wall panel. Not a major problem but, if you think about it, it doesn't make sense.


Think about recessing doors and providing borders for them. e.g. (just a very rough edit in the same place that I knocked up in a couple of minutes)


The texture used to make this box (and you have used it elsewhere) is meant to be transparent. The black bits happen look OK in GZDoom but in other engines they are likely to mess up. They are meant to be used on 2 sided lines forming window bars or similar.

(Also, look at the lights on the ceiling. Many of them are big 64x4 squares but the walls cut right across some of them.)

e.g. of correct use


What they look like in some renderers.


Also, in a similar way, some textures do not wrap properly vertically if they are not a power of 2 (typically 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 etc) in height in some renderers. e.g. this door texture is only 96 units tall but you have used it in taller rooms.



Sooooo, what's this wall made of - cobblestones or boulders?

If you want to have clashing/different textures on the same wall, think about providing a natural border for them using DOORSTOP or SUPPORT2/SUPPORT3 etc etc. John Romero did this a lot in Episode 1

and eslewhere.


In the same area, why can I see the edge of the skull switch from map32?


and, again, watch those non power of 2 textures.


The amazing pipes going nowhere.


This area (and a few others) looks like you were entering a competition to see how many textures you could use.

I mean, obviously you want a bit of variety and doors should look like doors etc but this is excessive.

This time, a gameplay comment. What's the point of this blue key? It's right beside the blue door.

Ideally, in most cases, the player should come across the key-requiring door before they find the key. This gives them a goal (search for the key) and lets them know that they will have to come back to that location at some point. Putting the key right beside the door is pointless as is (usually) setting up the map so that the player always finds the key before the door even if the key isn't close to the door. (Because why not just use a normal door in that case? The player was never unable to get through the door so why bother with a key?)

And again, same area

Computer console chopped in half, computer wall panel chopped in half...

So, yeah, not a bad layout, quite interesting to play but far too many weapons/keys/powerups, a few technical problems (doortracks, unsuitable textures) and an awful mish-mash of clashing textures. However, it works, it's completable and OK to play. For a first map, actually not bad