*2020 HAKAWARDS* I'm Also Looking to Play and Record Your Maps 2 *CLOSED*

[Clippy]

OK last map for a while maybe ....

 

Tested tweaked and ready for you probably 

 

Gzdoom

 

As always getting the file before playing may be best cause I always find touch ups

 

 

[HAK3180]

Table of Contents

 

@Austinado

 

Doomworld forum topic (project)

 

I don’t do much speedmapping, so understand that “but it’s a speedmap” is always valid. But taking the thing on its merits, I felt it was rather bare visually. The texturing felt like placeholders for a later detail pass or something. And the rooms didn’t really come alive. The main atrium thing had potential, but the fighting in there was in small waves that didn’t make the best use of the space. In general, it doesn’t seem that the gameplay was made for the space or vice versa. I thought the tiny spider horde was kind of interesting and the very last part was enjoyable, but I did spend a significant amount of time thinking, “Is that all there is to this?” Ironically, it seems less (but a more fleshed out less) would have been more.

 

Bottom line: Seems quality was traded for quantity

[Austinado]

Thanks alot @HAK3180, the time limit was 8 hours.  

Yeah, i take this speedmapping threads to try to improve a little bit more. Sure i would liked to make more...noticed some textures that needs to be fixed. Still, im falling in love on making maps without mods actually. Speedmapping is less acurate on giving better or non linear progression. But like you say, im a simple guy with simple geometry. Thanks again!

Cheers!

[HAK3180]

 

Again, folks, I will invulnerability your post when I download your map. I will not look for updates after that unless you @ me in your thread, post again here, or DM me. 

 

@Egg Boy

 

Doomworld forum topic

 

I think these maps’ best quality, and probably Egg Boy’s, from all I’ve seen, is map layouts. Simply sophisticated, they offer just enough interconnection and architectural expertise to make the gameplay work and look nice without making you feel like you’re in a puzzle. It’s nice to be able to know early on pretty much how the map will go, but still be surprised, not only by monster traps, but even by a little progression twist here and there. Gameplay itself is solid. The moments of frustration or boredom or “why didn’t you do it this way?” are very few, perhaps the most notable of which is the ammo situation in Map 04.

 

Bottom line: Fun, distinct set of short-medium maps

[Egg Boy]

1 hour ago, HAK3180 said:

I think these maps’ best quality, and probably Egg Boy’s, from all I’ve seen, is map layouts. Simply sophisticated, they offer just enough interconnection and architectural expertise to make the gameplay work and look nice without making you feel like you’re in a puzzle. It’s nice to be able to know early on pretty much how the map will go, but still be surprised, not only by monster traps, but even by a little progression twist here and there. Gameplay itself is solid. The moments of frustration or boredom or “why didn’t you do it this way?” are very few, perhaps the most notable of which is the ammo situation in Map 04.

 

Bottom line: Fun, distinct set of short-medium maps

Hey, thanks for playing Hak! Always a pleasure to watch you play. Don't worry about missing the update, I didn't change too much, really it only fixes the HUD and makes a few minor changes to the maps. I noticed you weren't into the imp and hell knight moment in map02, I wont try to defend it, but I will explain what I was going for. I feel that sometimes maps need moments that are a bit cathartic, its not meant to be a challenge, its more like an excuse to watch a bunch of monsters blow up. The demons and revenant trap in map04 is similar, its just a little cooldown moment that doesn't require a ton of effort, but is fun because it gives the player a sense of that "power fantasy" which I don't always like to employ (I try to be a complete bastard to the player as often as possible) but I think is fun every once in a while. Anywho, lots of good commentary as usual. I always look forward to these, even when they aren't of my maps. Also, that other map you played called "Cold Open" a few years back was also by me, an early effort that I stole the name from due to its dormancy. As for my next work, I plan on making something longer, more atmospheric, and more detailed (Oh! and with mostly stock textures as well). Expect a few demo maps for "What Remains" sometime in the future, you're one of my favorite testers.

[HAK3180]

@nicolas monti

 

Though I hadn’t played one by this mapper in a while, the style was familiar enough. The only thing the time lapse may have affected was my ability to find secrets. As usual, the layout is the main event. You basically just need two keys to get to the final area, but getting those two keys – Oh, the places you’ll go. Combat was all suitable. The hitscanners were a nuisance in a good way – never way too far away or too high or too dark, but always making you pay for leaving them alive. All of the major traps here were baron reveals, not really anything special at all – just deal with them in high density, so I thought that was the weakest aspect of the map.

 

Bottom line: another day, another Monti map

[HAK3180]

@Shawny

 

Doomworld forum topic (project)

 

Well, it seemed to have a cool layout, and the appearance changed on you from realistic office space to hellish. I didn’t quite follow all that, but this map had an appropriate unraveling: easy to start and hectic to finish. Some bigger guns would be nice though.

 

Bottom line: Pay attention or you may just miss this whole map

[HAK3180]

@ViolentBeetle

 

Doomworld forum topic

 

This map is definitely sectioned off. There’s the opener, two paths, the penultimate fight, and the final area. They are very separate fights, so it’s good that the map doesn’t feel disjointed. That happens because there is not much space; it is reused and sometimes shifted about for the different fights. The only fight that stood out to me in a positive way was when you had to attack quickly from damaging floor. But still, nothing was boring or overbearing.

 

Bottom line: visually distinct, mostly standard gameplay

[nicolas monti]

3 hours ago, HAK3180 said:

@nicolas monti

 

Though I hadn’t played one by this mapper in a while, the style was familiar enough. The only thing the time lapse may have affected was my ability to find secrets. As usual, the layout is the main event. You basically just need two keys to get to the final area, but getting those two keys – Oh, the places you’ll go. Combat was all suitable. The hitscanners were a nuisance in a good way – never way too far away or too high or too dark, but always making you pay for leaving them alive. All of the major traps here were baron reveals, not really anything special at all – just deal with them in high density, so I thought that was the weakest aspect of the map.

 

Bottom line: another day, another Monti map

Thanks as usual, I'll add more variery to the RK trap to avoid having 3 traps involving barons in the same map, these videos always make me think about some changes for the better!

[ViolentBeetle]

1 hour ago, HAK3180 said:

This map is definitely sectioned off. There’s the opener, two paths, the penultimate fight, and the final area. They are very separate fights, so it’s good that the map doesn’t feel disjointed. That happens because there is not much space; it is reused and sometimes shifted about for the different fights. The only fight that stood out to me in a positive way was when you had to attack quickly from damaging floor. But still, nothing was boring or overbearing.

Thanks for playing.

The floors are supposed to be quite far apart (By the map 21 you leave Earth's atmosphere), and not really expected to maintain the consistent exterior, being part of demonic abomination of architecture.

Arch-viles are mostly there to harass you during the part where you grab the rocket launcher, if you try and hide on the balcony. There were originally more monsters camping in this area, but I found that they all gather in the same spot and it wasn't very fun, so I just kept one vile.

[Shawny]

@HAK3180

(I will copy-paste what I said in the youtube comments.)

Hey, thanks for playing. The plasma gun is in a quite obvious secret if only that one revenant did their job, but no... they had ONE JOB.

Other thing is that I would swear I set those pillars to not be visible on the automap... I guess I didn´t. That I will fix ASAP.
I also see another bug that didn´t happen in my testing but happened here and also to Zolgia108.
Thank you again, your playthrough is much appreciated.

 

Edit: Also... for whatever reason your confusion makes me happy. :-D

Edited October 27, 2020 by Shawny

[HAK3180]

@Shawny, I see what you mean about the revenant, haha. Is that the one I thought was in the fire area, or was there one there too? In any case, as much as I say I don't like weapons in secrets, I do think that depends on the difficulty of the secret. At the end of the day, a secret and an optional area are the same thing, and I sometimes like, even prefer weapons in optional areas. And since this secret is (supposed to be) really easy, I don't really have a problem with it, especially since we're not talking about a huge difference.

[HAK3180]

@WH-Wilou84

 

Doomworld forum topic

 

In comparison, what I liked about this was that the hub section was less of a hub map and more of a hub area. In the main Map 30, it really feels like 5 different levels. It basically is just that. But this one only has three sections and they’re much shorter. I also thought there was more distinct gameplay here. There was definitely some of what I consider boring slaughter, but it wasn’t all mindless BFGing.

 

Bottom line: Some may say anticlimactic, but I like it a lot better than the main Map 30

[HAK3180]

@DragonsForLunch

 

Doomworld forum topic

 

I like the adventurous feel to the open layout. The map is linear, but you usually have a sense of space, even if the traversable terrain is a lot less. The layout is a loop of loops, and it works just fine. I think the whole map could give a little more/earlier firepower, as it becomes a bit of a task to grind through some of the meat, but I’m not talking about adding tons of BFG rounds; I just think more rockets could be available and maybe a super shotgun sooner. The visual experience is mostly atmosphere and novelty. The texturing itself is somewhat crude and monotonous in some places. At the end of the day, I think this is a mostly positive experience.

 

Bottom line: The faults are noticeable, but you’ll forgive them as you journey to the demon blade

[HAK3180]

@Clippy

 

 

Doomworld forum topic

 

May Clippy not lose the desire to map. The talent is on the rise, but the ideas are bold, good ones. In this case you choose your weapons one at a time. It might be wise to sweeten the deal of the obvious later choices, like for example, put extra shells with the regular shotgun and a whole box with the chaingun. Otherwise I think 3 and 4 are going to be the last choices without fail. But it’s a great idea and implemented admirably so that the toughest part is the beginning but it’s not an absolute breeze until right near the end. The map opens itself up nicely to reveal new challenges, and the gameplay is varied enough to stay fun and have a pretty high replay value

 

Bottom line: creative as always, better execution than often

 

[Shawny]

@HAK3180 Yeah, that one, in my testing that revenant is usually like a pro call of duty sniper or something.
The secret has a plasma gun and 40 plasma ammo. It helps with like 1 fight, but doesn´t make the map trivial.

Edited October 28, 2020 by Shawny

[Clippy]

7 hours ago, HAK3180 said:

@Clippy

 

 

Doomworld forum topic

 

May Clippy not lose the desire to map. The talent is on the rise, but the ideas are bold, good ones. In this case you choose your weapons one at a time. It might be wise to sweeten the deal of the obvious later choices, like for example, put extra shells with the regular shotgun and a whole box with the chaingun. Otherwise I think 3 and 4 are going to be the last choices without fail. But it’s a great idea and implemented admirably so that the toughest part is the beginning but it’s not an absolute breeze until right near the end. The map opens itself up nicely to reveal new challenges, and the gameplay is varied enough to stay fun and have a pretty high replay value

 

Bottom line: creative as always, better execution than often

 

 

Thank you so much for the review, your playthrough after the first hurdle was amazing and made my map look too easy. Which I'm realizing it really is after you have 3 weapons and I handed out too many backpacks. I had a terrible time balancing this map, original version had twice the caco ending onslaught and I thought that was too much to handle. Honestly after a while I had to say let's just release this cause I can not figure out how to best balance the final act. I guess it's like an Avengers movie with a weak ending

 

Anyway you did that special strife move at the start to get on the blue ledge with soul sphere and blue armor. First try and effortless. Hats off I try that and maybe 1 out of ten times I get it, Soulless also found it very difficult to get. My original intention was to have to do that to get it but I also added a switch to temp lower it for the player. Also you clicked on it which was hiding a secret button that is revealed from the lowering, I had to fix that thanks to you right when I thought I was done touch ups haha

 

Anyway I am really glad you had fun it's nice that I can make something that stands out to you and achieve your highly esteemed praise with all the maps you sift thought on the daily with the stamina of a champ. So yeah I'm burnt out, this is like my third map this month and my idea well is dry and I'm probably going to hang back for a while before mapping again. I have some kind of OCD where I start a map and can't rest until it's ready damn it! It's not good lol

 

But hey I always admire your videos you do great work. Stay tuned I'll plug in some Crossbearer and get through your maps too! 

 

Good times gotta go eat food now

[HAK3180]

3 hours ago, Clippy said:

I'm realizing it really is [too easy] after you have 3 weapons and I handed out too many backpacks.

It has a nice daunting start though. I think it's okay for a map like this to lose its edge eventually, especially since it doesn't really drag on. But yeah, maybe a few too many backpacks.

 

3 hours ago, Clippy said:

Anyway you did that special strife move at the start to get on the blue ledge with soul sphere and blue armor. First try and effortless. Hats off I try that and maybe 1 out of ten times I get it, Soulless also found it very difficult to get.

SR-50 is quite easy to do with my keyboard only setup, and it almost becomes my default movement. My understanding has shifted over the years but lately I'm seeing more evidence that rodent people don't really SR-50 much, if at all. That could be anecdotal nonsense, but whatever.

 

3 hours ago, Clippy said:

So yeah I'm burnt out, this is like my third map this month and my idea well is dry and I'm probably going to hang back for a while before mapping again.

Do what you gotta do. Play some stuff and take note of cool stuff you can steal draw inspiration from.   

[Capellan]

So @HAK3180, are you up to the challenge of Barbie Girl?   :)

 

It's CL2

[BluePineapple72]

Guten tag HAK! Long time no see. 

I've got something special for you today. An optional map. Yes indeed; you can skip this map if you'd like.

 

Why? Well it's the secret level to ViolentBeetle's Hellevator. So the choice is yours to either skip this for when Hellevator releases within the next few weeks or spoil the secret surprise and play it now.

 

As for the map: it runs on PRBoom+, par time is 15 minutes or so, difficulties are implemented, and no custom resources are required whatsoever. Oh! And I forgot to actually put it on MAP31, so it's still on MAP01.

 

Enjoy and... auf wiedersehen!

 

[WH-Wilou84]

Thanks a lot @HAK3180 once again :)
It's actually a cool thing you played it on HMP, as it will help me rebalance items and enemies a bit.

@24:50 : This second section (the Quake/metal Knave-themed one) seems really short but holds a secret surprise that rewards a keen eye and expands the playing area by quite a bit.
And you're absolutely right, I should lock the player in this zone so that things get more interesting :)
Allowing players to retreat makes it too easy.
 

[Soulless]

12 hours ago, Clippy said:

I have some kind of OCD where I start a map and can't rest until it's ready damn it! It's not good lol

Yeah, thats was im taking a break, better not start!

[Clippy]

5 minutes ago, Soulless said:

Yeah, thats was im taking a break, better not start!

 

Yeah I keep telling myself just work on it when you can don't push yourself or spread yourself too thin

 

I really tried with this last map and I just kept coming to it pushing everything else aside

 

I work from home upstairs I kept coming downstairs on my breaks and lunches to build a little more get up early and build a little more ugh I don't know how to fix that part of myself. 

 

If I have ideas in my head I can't rest until I get them out it's not a good way to be and I hope I can not be like that haha

 

Remember that map I made about 100 secrets? well I had a vacation that was canceled because of the pandemic but I kept the vacation time and I wasted all of it mapping that all day and all night everyday. By rights that should have taken me months to do right. 

 

I have an even bigger vacation coming up in December and I hope to spend appropriately haha

[DragonsForLunch]

22 hours ago, HAK3180 said:

@DragonsForLunch

 

Doomworld forum topic

 

I like the adventurous feel to the open layout. The map is linear, but you usually have a sense of space, even if the traversable terrain is a lot less. The layout is a loop of loops, and it works just fine. I think the whole map could give a little more/earlier firepower, as it becomes a bit of a task to grind through some of the meat, but I’m not talking about adding tons of BFG rounds; I just think more rockets could be available and maybe a super shotgun sooner. The visual experience is mostly atmosphere and novelty. The texturing itself is somewhat crude and monotonous in some places. At the end of the day, I think this is a mostly positive experience.

 

Bottom line: The faults are noticeable, but you’ll forgive them as you journey to the demon blade

 

Thanks for the playthrough man! That was fun to watch.

 

I was definitely a little "worried" about your thought on Supercharged but looks like you had fun regardless. Anyways, I'm actually considering doing a vanilla version of the map as well!

 

Things to do

• Fix soft-lock!
• More rockets!
• balance a few encounters
• Make that catacombs switch a bit easier to find
• Textures, textures, textures

[HAK3180]

@BluePineapple72

 

Doomworld forum topic

 

Isn’t there a better way to do these Wolfen maps than almost entirely nazis and demons and weak weapons. Why, yes. This map did a nice of job of being unmistakably Wolfen, but not really in any bad ways, i.e. boring hallways and tedious action. I think the secrets are too strong, but it was a fun map of exploration and a meaningful combination of tighter spaces and a slightly more open courtyard.

 

Bottom line: one of my favorite maps in this style

[ViolentBeetle]

@HAK3180 If you want context for the secret level, in level 15 (Remember the code lock?) you fall out of the window and break through the ground, so secret maps take place in the basement.

[HAK3180]

@Capellan

 

Doomworld forum topic

 

The demon gimmickry does some nice storytelling, which perhaps makes the barbieism counterproductive, but it’s not something I really paid much attention to.  In a midified format, it’s much less unfitting anyway. Oh, the demon is the barbie. Well, that was not obvious to me at any point. As for the map itself, I thought the demon switching was more frustrating than it needed to be. It’s a cool idea, but I think it should be better communicated toward the beginning. You have to notice the X, not kill the demon, and remember that there are a few lines monsters can trigger. Then you’re facing south, turn to the east, but it’s to the north where stuff happens. And the initial demon’s entrance does a decent job in hindsight of conveying a lab rodent’s habitat or something, but in the  moment – I mean, it’s Doom, and there’s a monster. But my bigger issue was with the door open. Again, kinda clever once you realize it (in my case, after the fact via Doom Builder), but it just seems like a puzzle for the sake of it. All of that aside, when you’re just playing the map, it’s a good time: simple but sophisticated old school Doom. I can’t criticize it much, as it’s got a nice flow, good monster positioning, and a decent balance.

 

Bottom line: standard solid map + potentially frustrating gimmickry

[VanaheimRanger]

I released a thing :)

 

[Capellan]

This is actually fairly firmly in the limit-removing family.  Pretty much the whole of test area 3 is in ><128 visplane territory, peaking at over 200 visplanes.  The other two test areas each have areas that go over that limit, too.

 

Edit to add: about half of the total play area is over the vanilla drawsegs limit, too.

 

For the record, it's just one demon; the same one in all 3 tests.

Edited October 30, 2020 by Capellan

[BluePineapple72]

I’ve got a pre release for the Trick & Tear event. I’ll PM you the file as it isn’t releasing publicly until Halloween morning. 
 

Some general information:

- GZDoom

- 9 Maps by 9 authors. Map list is contained in zip file. 

- Dynamic Lights are recommended

- Resources are compiled within the WAD file

 

Edited October 30, 2020 by BluePineapple72