Plain ol' Doom 2 Community Mapping Project

[meatman12]

Also, finished MAP31. It's HARD. I played it with a shotgun, SSG, Chaingun, and Plasma rifle. Deathmatch spawns and Co-op only monsters are also present (Mancubus at one switch, revenant in another room, hell knight in end room). I'm relatively happy with how it turned out.
Tell me what you think of it.

Mmmmm I don't think I like this. It's got a lot of issues, most (if not all) of which stem from the layout. A few details:

-The map is a super basic "hallway-ey" affair without much going for it (hallways are not always a bad thing and can be done well, believe it or not. BTSX E1M06 and E1M18, as examples, are very heavy on hallways and are great fun). The problem here is that it's a short, cramped, straight line lacking in variation and neat ideas.
-A door-heavy narrow corridor such as this does not allow for fun, 'free-flowing' gameplay (you don't always need your map to be that way, but it does need to be fun). I suppose the extreme ammo drought was to try and make things interesting but all it did was make me play more slowly than I'd like to.
-Flat boxes. Do your best to avoid making your rooms these in the future.
-Secrets appear to be an absolute must. Otherwise, all you can do is whittle them down with your pistol until you run dry, then play un-berserked punch-out until you pick up a clip or two. The chaingun is such an important asset to the player here and you hide it away.
-That start, by the way. Pistol-ing hitscanners is fun for the first few. Then you should pick up a weapon of some sort.
-Is there a shotgun on this map? There's a bunch of shells, that's for sure.
-The BFG is the first (and only???) non-secret weapon pickup. Fire it once and you're back to fisticuffs.
-There is a shoot switch which is impossible to trigger if you don't use vertical mouselook. This project is intended for all limit-removing ports. Not all of them let you look up and down.
-Still on the topic of secrets: Wallhump secrets with zero indication (unless you look at the map or something) are bad. There should always be some sort of hint, no matter how obscure or hidden away it is.

I would strongly suggest going back to the drawing board. Get some mapping practice. Play some maps by other people, see the things they do and how they do them, then come back and make something awesome : )

I can understand that the map's a bit too cramped (not one of my proudest habits), but I made the map under the intention that the player already had weapons (Specifically, the SSG, Shotgun, Chaingun & Rocket Launcher). (Don't worry; this isn't another ztktx case)

Either way, I'm gonna rebuild the map.

[leodoom85]

I haven't progress the map due to restoring my laptop to factory status, but I almost finished with that. I saw the screenshots of all the maps that you guys are making and these are pretty good...

[Seidolon]

Got some more shots of MAP06. These will probably be the last ones.

---

Looking pretty good. About that first image, remember one of John Romero's design rules regarding doom mapping: "always changing floor height when I wanted to change floor textures". If you want to see the rest of his design rules, they're here.

[LedIris]

Looking pretty good. About that first image, remember one of John Romero's design rules regarding doom mapping: "always changing floor height when I wanted to change floor textures". If you want to see the rest of his design rules, they're here.

Actually, the floor height in that image does change, but the perspective of the image makes it look like it doesn't. John Romero's design rules are going to be really useful for a mapping project like this one.

Edit: I think MAP06's layout is ready! I just have to add monsters, weapons, items and do some polishing to the aesthetics. Here's a picture of the map exported from SLADE.

---

[unRyker]

Progress Report on MAP13: Lamia Caves (Working title)

---

The spawn, this area you will not come back to once you drop down. It also has a challenging secret to put the cherry on top!


A general view facing north after the dropdown after being welcomed by your old friends.


This area is undergoing a lot of changes, I plan on making the exterior contain the exit. This is east of the dropdown.


Also getting worked on as well-- found west of the dropdown.


A short preview with a tunnel containing bittersweet rewards (one of the many optional sections you can take!)

I'm still working on the architecture which was why I didn't feel comfortable going too much into the Gameplay itself, but here's what I have so far!

edit: Fixed a screenshot by going into a different sourceport.

[leodoom85]

What's with the sky on the first image? It looks weird...

[unRyker]

I was actually waiting for confirmation on that before I looked deep into it. It must be a problem with my QZDoom settings since it's fine in regular (G)ZDoom... Fixed!

[leodoom85]

Oh, for the other screenshots, looks well for the map 13...
And I finally finished for the maintenance stuff of my laptop, now I can continue with my map

[LedIris]

Progress: MAP06 is ready! You can download it here.
Included as well is custom music (it uses E1M3's from Doom)
It replaces MAP06, so you will have to idclev if you want to try it.
I've tried my best to optimize it for difficulty levels, deathmatch and co-op. It might not be that great, so feel free to change it.

EDIT: I quickly updated the map because there was a key that was flagged as multiplayer only. Please redownload!

[meatman12]

I should probably apologize for making the map without even asking, but it's almost done. I changed a few things so it flows ALOT better.
-The map's a bit bigger
-Less repeated textures (It goes from Wolfenstein to Doom II)
-Larger rooms
-Fixed the aforementioned control panel problem
-The map is longer

[Seidolon]

@unRyker That looks very nice.

@LedIris Nice! I really like the look and feel of the map. It was fun to play through, but it is a little on the short side. Do you think you could add more to the area past the yellow key door to make the level longer? Also, what be the map's name?

@meatman12 Okay, thanks for expanding the level. However, if you're going to make part of the level be wolfenstein themed, I would prefer if you kept the theme throughout the level.

[meatman12]

Only the beginning of the level is really Wolfensteined theme. Basically the SS from wolfenstein begin taking over an abandoned deimos base, and trapping the remaining demons.

EDIT: Almost done: I made a really neat trap.

---

When the player goes to grab the red key, the floor in the final room lowers, revealing a few rooms & and Quake a slipgate style teleporter.

[leodoom85]

A bit of progress here. This level is called "The Backyard"...pun name for the original map 18, The Courtyard . I have to do the entire area for the red skull and the yellow skull. The blue skull will be outside of the main area...that part is not ready yet. Also, map 18 is 75% hell, 25% fleshy urban tech...I think

[meatman12]

Finished (Decided not to use edit button since this will be a more recent post)

-Much less cramped
-Includes weapons I assume are being started with (Only for testing purposes)
-Reduced the amount of hitscan enemies
-More ammo to acommodate the aforementioned ammo drought
-Decorations!
-Extra little map details

I beat the map without using the mouse by the way (Keyboard only!)
Thankfully I placed a supercharge at the end of the map (And yes, there are several vanilla maps that throw you a bone like that every now & then).

Tell me if this is better.

EDIT: Uploaded earlier version by accident.

[leodoom85]

By the way, the map so far...