DTWID: Project is done, check the release thread

Marnetmar, what do you like about episode 1? What do you like about e1m1? What do you remember about your experience the first time you played e1m1? What about it had an impact on you? Answers these questions and we'll work from there. That's a nice room you made, but it doesn't seem to encapsulate the elements of e1m1 that are memorable to me. This isn't very impressive, but at least it's moving in the right direction. I made the pool into a river from c3N09's map.

esselfortium said:

It doesn't really look anything like an E1 map, or really like an IWAD map in general.

What about this? (Yeah I'll fix the tutti frutti later)

@Hellbent, what I like about E1 is what I reflect in my maps, it's colorful, it's got interesting geometry, interesting architecture, etc. What I like about E1M1 itself is that it demonstrated the Doom engine's capabilities, and back in 1993 when you loaded up Doom for the first time, it just 'wowed' you, and this is exactly the kind of effect I am trying to achieve.

Hellbent, don't you touch my map! How dare you?!

Just kidding. :P

Marnetmar, that's better, but the 4 stairs should be lowered in order to reduce detail.

C30N9 said:

Hellbent, don't you touch my map! How dare you?!

Just kidding.

Well, the pool was a bit homage-y, so for demonstration purposes only, I made it into a river. :0

Marnetmar: symmetry aside, that looks well proper e1m1.

Finished ep2. the vault was completely awesome! Also, while i remember, i liked that one e1m8 level which had gigantic comp halls and i think some tight corridors and had a remix of e1m8 music much better than the e1m8 that got into this alpha.

Anyway, since ep2 too had a few maps that didn't stand out and that i will undoubtedly confuse in my mind, i think i pinned down the general issue with the wad.
My thought is that a lot of maps weren't courageous enough to try and make something new, since most of id's maps vere pretty unique, but most of the maps of this project so far (especially ep1) feel like they just took a little bit of everything from their episode. Like every level was put into a blender and then a spoonful of that mix was turned into a "new" level. Many levels didn't have a real theme to them, except for "looks like everything from ep1/ep2". I think far more levels should be a bit more unique and not as varied throughout the level itself. Does anyone else feel this?

Antroid said:

Finished ep2. the vault was completely awesome! Also, while i remember, i liked that one e1m8 level which had gigantic comp halls and i think some tight corridors and had a remix of e1m8 music much better than the e1m8 that got into this alpha.

That one was mine :D

@Hellbent, about the symmetry, it's only that one room, and it's really not completely symmetrical even though the screenie makes it look that way. Do you think it should be changed though?

Just played E1M4 and M5 and they were really great. The only thing in E1M4 is the room with 2 computer walls at the side was identical to the one that the original has. Why Lorenzo?

Marnetmar said:

That one was mine :D

It was pretty epic! I really liked it. After having played the vault, in retrospect i really feel that e1m8 from whis alpha/beta/whatever was pretty weak.

Also, i forgot to mention the music. Sadly, i do not like it at all so far. Most of it feels like mr.freeze was just choosing a few random instruments and then trying to create a melody with one of them by randomly putting down notes. Not a single one so far (eps 1 and 2) had as much mood-creating power in it as the original music, even doom2's.

Uhh, challenger appears! Here is my attempt at "short and memorable E1M1": http://www.mediafire.com/?jlg9xxl2qd3ljgc

Vault by Marcaek not Marnetmar.

I just noticed a huge flaw in the music as well. I use a fairly-high quality soundfont, so it sounded great at first, but then I tried it in one of the more common soundfonts (Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth and OPL Synth) and I noticed a huge problem...

...You couldn't hear the drums. At all. On any of the tracks.

Memfis said:

Uhh, challenger appears! Here is my attempt at "short and memorable E1M1": http://www.mediafire.com/?jlg9xxl2qd3ljgc

It's a nice map, but it seems too cramped, and the architecture in the starting room was rather bland. I wasn't the biggest fan of the way you got to the exit either.

The vault was a pretty cool map but I think it needs work. I was a little dissappointed in that the cyberdemon is sitting on a pedistool that he can't get down from. If he weren't sitting in the center of the map the whole time, and instead chased the player in something a little more maze-like, the fight would have been a lot better. Don't forget that one of the most distinctive features of the cyberdemon is the thud that his metal leg makes as he walks. The map should accent that.

Yeah i did feel that the vault was too easy and the cyber was really underwhelming, but i felt it was forgivable because i knew that he would be there and the buildup was pretty great. It was really atmospheric.
What i can think of doing with it is maybe open the walls around the cyber instead of lowering him down, and maybe have many more columns be there/get lowered after the cyber is released.
Also for once i thought the trend of texturing completely inappropriate surfaces with TEK textures should've been forgotten and an actually fitting texture placed on those steps to the vault.

Marnetmar said:

I just noticed a huge flaw in the music as well. I use a fairly-high quality soundfont, so it sounded great at first, but then I tried it in one of the more common soundfonts (Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth and OPL Synth) and I noticed a huge problem...

...You couldn't hear the drums. At all. On any of the tracks.

I think your setup is a little busted, because I use the same soundfonts and they sounded perfectly fine. Just to be sure, I ran several of the tracks through Synthfont and Guitar Pro, and the drums were leveled exactly like they should've been.

Mr. Freeze said:

I think your setup is a little busted, because I use the same soundfonts and they sounded perfectly fine. Just to be sure, I ran several of the tracks through Synthfont and Guitar Pro, and the drums were leveled exactly like they should've been.

That's odd. I just tested the original Doom tracks in those soundfonts and they were just fine.

I was playing E2M4 earlier, in Chocolate Doom, and as I was going through the red door, the game crashed. To make sure it wasn't a freak occurance, I did it again, and it crashed again!

Marnetmar said:

That's odd. I just tested the original Doom tracks in those soundfonts and they were just fine.

What source port?

Chocolate Doom and Skulltag are the two ports I used to test it.

Any feedback on E3M8?

Processingcontrol said:

Any feedback on E3M8?

Well nobody's said anything bad about it, so you must have done something right.

Also, due to unwarranted self importance...I demand Dark Passage makes it in! I DEMAND IT! :P

e3m3 was such bullshit that i quit playing after the first death of e3m4. gonna try again tomorrow. I remember e3m4 being one of the few levels i actually played before, way before it was fixed and i got lost and then trapped with zero chance to escape... i think all that was tweaked a bit since then though.
Also, i found e3m2 to be quite a nice lil' map. But by e3m3 the shock value of multiple barons which i had to slowly kill with a shotty wore out and was replaced by frustration. The worst moment of e3m3 is the lava room with a dodgy circular walkway and a baron chamber.

Antroid said:

First death on e2m4, that map is awesome. But playing keyboard only with no mouse has it's drawbacks - i was positively murdered by that one baron that caught me off-guard.

Thanks Antroid. I'm a keyboard player too :)

Yea not overly ID-like, I must confess. Early attempt... e2 is hard to pull off.

Hope you can figure out the blue key. It's one of those nasty ID you-can-f-it-up/one-shot type of secrets...

Matt534Dog said:

I was playing E2M4 earlier, in Chocolate Doom, and as I was going through the red door, the game crashed. To make sure it wasn't a freak occurance, I did it again, and it crashed again!

suxor!!

NT

It sounds like an older version of Vault was included in the project. The latest version I made does allow the Cyber to roam freely. I'm not sure about the plasma rifle, I don't remember if I moved or removed it. I posted a zip containing my latest work but the link has definitely expired by now.

As for e3m3, I'm surprised it was included given how many problems it has, probably should be axed. I'm not sure if I still have the interest to work on it but maybe I'll give it a shot this week.

I don't have access to my comp atm, but I'll reupload the maps when I do.

Marcaek said:

As for e3m3, I'm surprised it was included given how many problems it has, probably should be axed. I'm not sure if I still have the interest to work on it but maybe I'll give it a shot this week.

E3M2 I'm assuming you mean? - Foodles did E3M3.

If it's your map you're referring to then I agree.

What do you guys think of that rough E3M2 layout I posted on the previous page?

E3M2 I'm assuming you mean?

Was referring to E3M2, yes. I'm glad some people liked parts of it, but I think it's a really rough job. I might try to redo it but no guarantees. If anyone would like to see a certain part of it retained let me know!

Also, which layout are you referring to Marnetmar? The first one looks like it has potential but the second is symmetrical.

Marnetmar said:

What do you guys think of that rough E3M2 layout I posted on the previous page?

I was gonna comment on it earlier marnetmar. yeah, I think it's pretty cool. I like.

We should find people on here who have not played doom 1 and give them 10 screenshots of maps from e1, nine of them being from e1 and one of them made by someone on this project and see if they can spot the imposter. :)

Thanks Hellbent!

Marcaek said:

Also, which layout are you referring to Marnetmar? The first one looks like it has potential but the second is symmetrical.

The first one, the second one was an E1M1 concept and it's been scrapped entirely.

Marnetmar said:

What do you guys think of that rough E3M2 layout I posted on the previous page?

It's got potential. I'm curious to see how it turns out in the 3D world.

Dang, e1m8 has a crap-ton of bugs.... how embarrassing.