Things in Doom Mappers Do to Annoy You

[Hellstorm Archon]

Since it's quite obvious that everyone here has played Doom at some point or another, but when it comes to PWADs/megawads/TCs, I'm pretty sure that there are some maps that just flat out get on your nerves.

My personal pet peeves in maps:
1. Too many monsters in one area- Slaughtermaps are tolerable, but pitting the player against an entire room of high-tier monsters with just a pistol or a shotgun-- isn't. That's not challenging, that's just "LOL U DED".
2. Doom II Syndrome- Map01 is a tiny map, Map07 is the Mancubus/Arachnotron Comedy Hour, Map15 is a huge level with a secret exit leading to Map31/32, in which both happen to be commutes in Nazi Germany, Map1-7 being a brown facility, Map8-20 being set in a destroyed Earth, and Map21-30 being set in Hell, with Map30 pitting you against the Icon of Sin. AKA "I Have No Frigging Imagination"
3. Giving you the BFG almost immediately- The inverse of #1. It's honestly not much fun BFGing Imps or Pinkies in a narrow hallway, nor does it make much sense.
4. Terry Traps- But of course. The anal rape jokes and the seizure-inducing lights don't help at all.
5. Too little detail- If it's going to be Vanilla Doom-compatible, that's understandable. But a map where all of the walls are STARTAN and every room is the exact same size and shape, then no.
6. Too much detail/Map is too big- Detail is always nice, just as long as it doesn't go overboard, and the same goes or the size of the map. The capital offender of this is the remake of Toxin Refinery from KZiZD.
7. Chaingunner/Revenant Snipers- Unless you have a rocket launcher or there's cover, these can be hard to take out as they just take potshots at you from across the map, especially if this form of artificial difficulty is abused.

Well, that sums up my mapping pet peeves. What about yours?

[VICE]

Toxin Refinery from KZiZD.

Oh gawd. When I read this it all came rushing back. I must have spent three hours on that map and I don't even remember if I finished it.

My main pet peeve (of those you haven't mentioned) is when I have to fight a cyberdemon/spider mastermind. No one does these fights right, it's either run around in circles and behind obstacles, or the boss/you are on a platform and you have to stand there and throw ammo at it for a couple of minutes so that you can progress, the exact same thing I've done last time I fought one of these guys. It's not fun or challenging, it's just tedious repetition. It's pretty rare to see a fight with one of these done in a way that feels fresh and interesting.

[CaptainToenail]

Excessively bumpy 'greebled' floors can be annoying. Floors are flat for a reason.

Most of these complaints are just going to be common sense really, or potentially people bawwing at challenging gameplay.

[wildweasel]

Maybe someone should make an entire megawad where you never, ever, under any circumstances, get either of the shotguns.

[Project Shadowcat]

Maybe someone should make an entire megawad where you never, ever, under any circumstances, get either of the shotguns.

That could actually be quite playable and fun if it's done right. The Chaingun and rocket launcher can more than pick up the slack.

[Abba Zabba]

Maybe someone should make an entire megawad where you never, ever, under any circumstances, get either of the shotguns.

While I agree with you on the basis that it's a pretty cool gameplay concept, I still can't help but feel you hold a bit of distaste for our pellet spewing friends.

[wildweasel]

I don't mind a good shotgun, but I just think that way too many Doom levels rely extremely heavily on them.

[Enjay]

Whereas I'd probably enjoy an entire megawad where you never, ever, under any circumstances, get any weapon other than the shotguns.


To the original question:
Hide the automap with invisible line flags.
Feel the need to finish any medium-to larger single map WAD with a cybie fight. Predictable and often dull.
Feel the need to insert an archvile into any medium to large sized map. Predictable, often dull and sometimes enough for me to quit.

[Blue Shadow]

I'm with you on the first two points, but the archvile one... not so sure, because I'm not sure what the size of the map has to do with using archviles. With the cyberdemon, yes, since it's kind of anti-climactic and makes one sigh when finding out that the boss of this big map is just a cyberdemon.

[Enjay]

but the archvile one... not so sure, because I'm not sure what the size of the map has to do with using archviles

I guess that it's just that as the size of the map increases, the chances of their being an archvile miniboss arena somewhere in the map increases. Don't get me wrong, even though I find them annoying at the best of times, the archvile with its relatively complex behaviour can be, and sometimes is, used in very inventive ways. However, all too often it feels like they seem to just be stuck in at a certain point because the map author feels "this is where you are supposed to have an archvile". As such, they often end up being used in annoying places or in unimaginative arenas much like the anticlimactic cyberdemon fights. And how many times are they set to teleport into a place? And how many of those times is the destination a room with a ton of already vanquished enemies to resurrect?

When I hear the archvile wake up sound, my heart sinks. Not because I don't want to fight it but because, from that point on, I anticipate the archie being used in an annoying or frustrating way. Most of the time my pessimism turns out to be well founded and when I finally find the archie (or he teleports in), I can actually feel my enjoyment of the map sapping away. If the placing is good, then that doesn't happen but most of the time I either line him up in my sights and hit a button bound to mdk (thereby messing up the ammo and health balance due to there being supplies for a now cancelled fight), or turn on god mode (and sometimes noclip) and quickly blast through the rest of the map to see if there is anything interesting to look at, or simply quit. In other words, most of the time, the annoyingly done appearance of an archvile is enough to scupper my enjoyment of the rest of the map and tarnishes my opinion of the map as a whole.

[Blue Shadow]

I see your point there, now, though I guess I'm more tolerant than you when it comes to archviles and revenants.

And how many times are they set to teleport into a place? And how many of those times is the destination a room with a ton of already vanquished enemies to resurrect?

Yeah, that's something I really don't like. But I guess some mappers consider that as taking advantage of the archvile's behavior, and using it as best as possible.


Okay, here is something that has become pretty dull and predictable over the years: picking an "important" item up (especially keys), spawns monsters to kill you. It's almost 95% of the times this happens. And the thing is, on difficult maps, you know it's going to happen, and sometimes you die as a result of picking the item up.

[Matt]

• Teleporting monster ambushes that are impossible to anticipate without having previously played the map.
• The above, with silent teleports.
• The above, done for every stupid key you ever pick up.
• Staged arena fights.
• Doors that lock you in to staged arena fights.
• Nukage and lava pits where you're supposed to just die and restart the level if you fall in. Never not cheated around those.
• Replacing the pistol sound.
• Music files bigger than the map itself.
• Disabling jumping or crouching or both.
• Being a sequence, whether linear or branching, of staged encounters that fail to overlap or connect to each other in any meaningful way.
• Invisible barriers.

[wildweasel]

• Staged arena fights.
• Doors that lock you in to staged arena fights.
• Invisible barriers.

All of which will utterly ruin a co-op experience.

[Shadelight]

• Replacing the pistol sound.

I'd change this to all the sounds.

- Revenants in far away places
- Chaingunners in far away places

[NiGHTMARE]

I'm curious as to how many of the people who complain about the size and complexity of KDIZD Z1M3 have ever played Eternal Doom. Z1M3 doesn't seem anywhere near as huge and confusing as some of the maps in that.