What are some odd mapping quirks you love to see?

[ckejo]

Multiple switches to open doors

Voodoo dolls, as someone already mentioned

Triggers that you need to shoot a la Quake/Sigil

DOOM 64 esque lightning

[Misty]

When you can press switch or grab key - nothing happens at all, even if you search all triggers around, just pleasant music plays and your own silence.

When you press switch and all dark areas before gets lit up, this should be used more in my opinion, it gives some character in map. 

When they put some sector/linedef art somewhere outside of the map to look at it.

 

[I_Punch_Demons]

23 minutes ago, 666shooter said:

I'm going to mention this one because I just don't see it too often: Medkits by the exit. It's a Skillsaw trademark and makes a big difference if you're playing continuous. No matter how bs that final fight was, how much I hated that last level, the fact that there's two medkits to make sure I'm not going to start the next map with 5% health makes everything just a little better.

[Yes, I know it has been used in one or two other Wads such as Interception Map 15, but it's still fairly uncommon.]

Oh, I know! Skillsaw really cared about both play styles! 

[Maes]

FORGEX.WAD had a few:

 

• Crossing-activated barrel trap.
  
• Piston-engine with lifts/crushers.
  
• Multiple pickup options for the same key, one of which was OK and the others were crusher traps.
  
  

 

Some early maps like CLEIMOS10.WAD had an "exposed reactor core" gimmick, where hitting a switch would do some floor lowering/raising trickery and turn an otherwise normal room into a damaging one. Didn't see that being used much.

 

Also, call me oldschool, but I'm a fan of the good old "obligatory Pinky/Spectre chainsaw massacre" part. When you see a chainsaw (or more rarely, berserk pack) you KNOW that as soon as you pick it up A HUNDRED DEMONS will suddenly teleport in to chew your ass off. Conveniently, there will always be a corner for you to back up and take your time chewing THEIR ass off.

[URROVA]

Scripting in boom with vodoolls and conveyor belts, or other things made with vodoolls

Faked room over rooms

Well-used glitches that make the engine do things it wasn't intended to do (eg autoreferenced sectors, mikoportals, or other useful glitches.

Well used HOMs or Flat Bleedings, i made a teleporter with homs.

Sky textures used to make pictures

transfer_heights transparent doors

 

non-typical fps mechanics achieved with ACS or others, for example Wall Jump, which is more platform than FPS

Edited May 29, 2020 by URROVA

[Maes]

Maps with a predominant "suspended in void" feeling, or at least featuring little desolate courtyards and windows/balconies to nowhere. These elements really give the feeling of a completely circumscribed world/a different dimension.

 

On other maps, decorative topographic or urbanistic elements such as (normally inaccessible) remote mountains, buildings, machinery (e.g. those rockets in Hell 2 Pay) or even a suspended moon texture, which give a feeling of there being far more to the map/game than there normally is.

 

"Floor reflections" tricks with offset masked textures, and masked texture constructs in general.

[Solmyr]

• See through doors in vanilla doom. 
• A map consisting mostly of mid tier monsters but as ghost monsters, with limited rockets and a cyberdemon the player has to kite around to deal with the limited ammo.
• Maps that use the MAP 07 slot and aren't Dead Simple clones, but use its features in a different way, i.e. using the Mancubus and 666 tag combination to reveal other areas of the map which aren't acessible in lower difficulty settings.
• Extremely complex sector toilets in a  map that has the same level of detail as an IWAD map.
• Romero style red cracks on the floors.

[Not Jabba]

11 hours ago, Xaser said:

Skies on floors, and liquids on ceilings.

Tough combat puzzles that hurt players' feelings
Clever solutions that spring from crushed hopes
These are a few of my favorite tropes.

 

Subtle in-game lore that makes new connections
Gigantic secrets that lead to new sections
Things that exist just for me to explore
This is what I want when I go to war.

 

Cool puzzle items and respawning plant pods
Maps that require the non-Doomy IWADs
Ones that will make me use Time Bombs and Wings
These are a few of my favorite things

 

Unique bosses, brand new monsters
Built-in mods and stuff
Give me a well-planned, well-balanced TC,
And then I will be in luff.

 

 

(dodges tomatoes)

[Ichor]

A key for a door that doesn't exist

An extremely long and complicated map with an exit that's right behind you and you could access at any time

A map which is constantly rising (or decending), but the background is also scrolling at the same speed, making it seem to be stationary except for every projectile flying towards the ground (or ceiling)

A sky with the same height as the ceiling next to it

Lava that doesn't hurt you, but every other floor does

Doors that open into the sky

Large ammo or health pickups that cannot be avoided.

Arch-viles behind fake walls with a line of sight of the entire map

Purposely making a bunch of ghost pain elementals

Cyberdemons in an open arena with a bunch of teleport lines that constantly send him to random spots in the area (bonus points for playing the Popcorn music while this is happening)

Korax hidden in a pot

Puzzle pieces that have to be put somewhere that does not correspond with them. For instance, a flame mask has to be used on a bookshelf or a ruby planet has to be used on Yorick's statue.

Thick, bright green fog everywhere

Crazybus music

[Dark Pulse]

Secrets that you can't actually activate because they're too small for Doomguy to fully step into.

 

Also, gun-activated doors/linedefs.

Edited May 29, 2020 by Dark Pulse

[Not Jabba]

3 hours ago, Ichor said:

Korax hidden in a pot

Please do this.

[Hisymak]

3 hours ago, Ichor said:

Korax hidden in a pot

Heh, this amused me the most among everything posted in this thread.

 

But one more point from me.

When a Romero's head is placed in a map, and that map can be exited by killing it. Romero's head being killed with a crusher is even more quirky.

[Chip]

A secret that almost acts as a secret level because large. 

also, when the BFG is not a secret, and is almost required.

those things that they want to hide in like TNT Evilution where it is like stairs where the width is like a couple of pixels, but it is so obvious to find them. 

also plant textures

^{and doomed space marines.} 

[DynamiteKaitorn]

A level that constantly shifts about the place and both expands and retracts at the same time, the further you progress. Think like void but more dynamic.

[Andromeda]

Secrets directly behind the start point.

[vdgg]

[Red-XIII]

Invisible bridges and shooting to activate switches.

First time I saw it on plutonia map02 I spent hours trying to figure out how to proceed, it really struck me.

[Aaron Blain]

When you turn around after starting a level and the "start" door is a secret door.

[Someone277]

Infinite height

[I_Punch_Demons]

15 hours ago, vdgg said:

This is oddly satisfying! Put this in R/OddlySatisfying

[Mangcubus]

Parkour secrets are the best. 

[Mystic 256]

a key thats looks like gonna be a trap when you pick it up, you pick up the key then doorway that came in from blocked off and monster closets opens.... but there are no monsters in them oddly?!?... there is switch room in the closet area in there though that looks like to reopen the blocked off door... so you go in a press it and the door opens but, when you walk out of the switch room area its actually teleporter line and your teleported into a area surrounded by monsters on all sides that you have to fight through and that's the real trap

[Doom-X-Machina]

10 stacked armour bonuses in a single +10 pickup (armour stimpack).

Can't remember where I first encountered it but I use it on all my maps now. Makes things a bit tidier.

[Lutz]

3 hours ago, Doom-X-Machina said:

10 stacked armour bonuses in a single +10 pickup (armour stimpack).

I do this all the time in my levels, particularly with rockets -- 5 co-located/tightly-grouped rockets just looks better than the ugly old rocket box.

[snapshot]

Sector shading like this

 

Edited June 7, 2020 by sluggard

[Dragonsbrethren]

On 5/28/2020 at 11:11 PM, DRMman said:

Really thick doors.

Entire rooms that open like doors.

[PeterMoro]

Interractive lighting and light switches, like the corridor in DoomII 04 the Focus. 

Edited June 7, 2020 by PeterMoro
spelling

[Hisymak]

I love when a mapper puts a fancy MIDI version of some pop music hit track as a music for his map. Then listening to that track is lot of fun while playing the map, and it's pure delight for me to listen with OPL Synth.

Edited June 9, 2020 by Hisymak

[Doom-X-Machina]

On 6/8/2020 at 1:59 AM, Lutz said:

I do this all the time in my levels, particularly with rockets -- 5 co-located/tightly-grouped rockets just looks better than the ugly old rocket box.

Stumbling upon a bunch of rocket boxes always bring a smile to my face though :D

Usually means shit's about to get out of control. The way I like it :D

[NeedHealth]

I made a map that is playable backwards, "Dull Needle" for mayhem2019, I think.

 

The latest map I made has a number of things I think are rare. A secret bonus area that is eventually the path to exit which also turns the map in on itself in a way. There is also a archvile whos health is modulated by exploding barrels. Finally, there is a tripwire at one point.