Mapping alignments

[Rince-wind]

^{From Xaser's twitter}

 

How would you organize the different mapping tropes, styles and maps themselves (not just in Doom, but in other similar retro-FPS) on the alignment chart?

My examples for Doom would be:

Lawful - meticulously aligned textures, strict thematic consistency, traditional (as close as possible to the original game) level design

Chaotic - item vomit, creativity over agreed upon design choices

Good - heretic crushers (the ceiling always has the same red texture), consistent difficulty curve

Evil - antagonistic design, randomly damaging floors/liquids (sometimes the water hurts, sometimes not), confusing layout and progression, "switches" (a brick wall can be a switch too!), unpredictable death traps

 

I ask out of curiosity and also because I had the idea of making 9 maps that follow the alignments, so I wanted to gather as much info and opinions as possible.

[SilverMiner]

IMO too much properly aligned textures sometimes lead to ugly

I'm sticking on true neutral

Edited March 16, 2020 by SilverMiner

[yakfak]

chart says i'm neutral evil. yr classic supervillain really. the way I see it, all design choices are valid and i'm not that interested in impressing people, so everything i make is basically an in-editor rant!

man it's been so long since i actually opened the editor
or opened my project thread

[DynamiteKaitorn]

As I try to stay somewhat consistent with my allignments and I try not to have many mis-aligned textures I think I land Lawful Neutral. Also, my maps are kinda notorious (if I'm using that word correctly) for being on the easy side. (I like to make maps for lower skilled players like myself. :3)

[SirJuicyLemon]

It'd be interesting to see some bigger pictures of those maps, I can't quite fully understand the Chaotic Evil one. But being honest, even with a bigger picture, I'm not sure if I could understand it either. Seems like Chaotic Evil is sort of the freedom of expression at it's fullest and craziest, the weirdest shapes are met by the strangest textures combinations, and if it doesn't makes sense to the player that's too bad. It's kind of the mapper equivalent to artists like Salvador Dalí.

 

From what I can sense, the Chaotic Neutral is like creativity on the design of the map with a classic touch of the use of same/similar textures on a room, not making a total mess like what it looks like in Chaotic Evil (which may be like a total freedom of expression, the design can be whatever you want and the textures too, and the more random the better), nor making much contrast like in Chaotic Good (in favor of creative design in this (CG) case).

You can see that there is not too much contrast between the stairs, walls, ceiling, floor so in first glance, you may not be able to recognize the overall "shape" of the room and so you may be forced to apply some brightness differences to make it more recognizable (like the 2nd floor which is a little darker).

 

I kinda like what I can see on Chaotic Good, it's like they try some unconventional ways to achieve better design. We've all seen skyboxes on Doom's ceilings, but using it on the floor (at least in great proportions, not like just in the exits) and combining it with a good-looking, but totally different skybox (like that one, with the space theme) it's pretty awesome.

 

Neutral Evil seems like if something has a purpose, then it's meant to be added. Those weird things in the corridor, in the alternation of colors between gray, red and gray again seems to be something, to mean something, it kinda gives importance to that corridor. Even if it the textures are somewhat concerning and makes you wonder why they used those and they don't match up too much, it's still somewhat loyal to classic designs. It looks like what I imagine/suppose the earlier 90's WADs looked like. The design of the map resembles to the classic Doom's designs, but it's daring and audacious with the textures.

 

True Neutral seems like a balance (duh) between all, it's creative, not that much, but not that rigid or restricted either, both in shapes/map design and textures, they don't look all the same, they aren't that misplaced or weird-contrasted either, the kind of map to be expected from Doom 1's E3/E4 or Doom 2 more hellish and outdoors levels.

 

Neutral Good lets the creativity of the design flow, but not too far away, and uses some good and somewhat varied combinations of textures.

 

Lawful Good stays too loyal to some Doom maps, mainly to Doom's E1/E2 and tries to give the map some well done and precise details, like those tiles fallen from the walls, but always being very cautious with the geometry and proportions.

 

Lawful Neutral sort of looks like Chaotic Neutral in terms of textures, but it's map design is more rigid.

 

Lawful Evil keeps the sort of rigid designs of classic Doom and combines it with some weird selection of textures. It can has a meaning, but without much of a design difference to make it clear, it's kind of a mystery to know how one half as a texture and the other half has another one, while being separated by a weird third textured line of some kind.

 

Maybe I'm biased just on the specific selection of pictures that were chosen for the Lawful, but they all look like rigid structures taken from the Phobos and Deimos bases maps.

 

So yeah, for me pretty much it all sums up (as a reference, not a rule of thumb) that the Lawful-Chaotic axis goes from rigid/too geometrical restricted (rectangles,squares) map design to some more bold ones, trying with different figures and proportions; while the Good-Evil axis goes from too loyal (may be well done or may be just boring) textures combinations to make contrast and make sense, to just plain non-sense and artistic rebellion.

 

[Rince-wind]

@SirJuicyLemon that's a pretty interesting read, thanks for the info!

The image for chaotic evil is from lilith.pk3, a wad that exploits technical bugs of ZDoom to create an alien and disturbing experience.

I guess it applies to chaotic evil because of its total disregard in making the player comfortable.

[SirJuicyLemon]

2 hours ago, Rince-wind said:

@SirJuicyLemon that's a pretty interesting read, thanks for the info!

The image for chaotic evil is from lilith.pk3, a wad that exploits technical bugs of ZDoom to create an alien and disturbing experience.

I guess it applies to chaotic evil because of its total disregard in making the player comfortable.

Wow, that was frightening as f*ck

[Rince-wind]

34 minutes ago, SirJuicyLemon said:

Wow, that was frightening as f*ck

 

There's this too:

 

 

[Rince-wind]

Self bump cause I'm still interested