First Map! Constructive criticism welcome

[VandalVinny]

Hey everyone, I've been a bit of a lurker on the forums for a while, I've decided to finally join the community and try my hand at map making.

 

 

This is MAP01, "West Wing", of Solitary.wad. My plan is to have this be the first of 3 or 4 maps centered around Doomguy escaping a containment facility. It's an idea I've had swimming in my head for a while, and I finally sat down to get started earlier this week. 

 

MAP01 is a very linear map and is basically a series of arenas strung together, but I have some cool ideas for the next maps in the wad. Any criticism,advice, and demos are highly appreciated!

 

Designed for vanilla. Not tested in UV fast or Nightmare. Tested in Chocolate Doom, Crispy Doom, and prboom+. Screenshots taken in prboom+

 

http://www.mediafire.com/file/u9rk548nh3vhf4y/Solitary.wad.zip/file

 

 

I hope you enjoy!

Edited October 1, 2020 by VandalVinny

[Clippy]

 

[Biodegradable]

Not bad, not bad at all. You've got your combat and progression up to snuff, but I think it's a bit sad in the visual department. Everything's pretty flat and barren. Your texture work is very competent and I liked your use of bordering and such so it doesn't feel like you're trapped in a void. But the rooms are all terribly boring and in dire need of some imagination. It's competent and decent, but bare bones and a bit dull. You've got a strong skeleton here, man, but it needs some MEAT on its bones.

 

 

Anyways, keep practicing and welcome to Doomworld!

[Zolgia108]

found a Softlock that you need to fix, video is uploading, will tell you once it's ready :)

Edited October 1, 2020 by Zolgia108

[Zolgia108]

 

[VandalVinny]

Thank you all for playing! I really appreciate your comments and suggestions.

 

For my next map, I'll try to make it more structurally and visually compelling, and to be more imaginative with rooms and combat situations. I'll also be sure to fix the technical issues you guys found in this one.

[DynamiteKaitorn]

An okay first map. There's some designs I think are cool, like the hallway with the pinkies and the rays of light from the outside. Making that room go dark though seems kinda weird and unnatural.

 

There's a rather high amount of ammo for how few enemies there are (is the extra ammo needed for UV difficulty? If so, you can probably remove the 2nd shotgun ammo box by unflagging it for easy/medium difficulties).

 

Difficulty is fine, but be aware Hell Knights are classed as mid-tier enemies so don't expect the average DooMer to be okay with chipping down multiple of them with just the regular shotgun (on in my case 1 since I typically role with HMP personally).

 

Also, you mentioned that this map was tested in Chocolate DooM yet there's a fairly obvious Tutti-Frutti error. Step textures are terrible to use as wall textures (even as a small, half-wall) since vanilla/chocolate DooM doesn't tile them vertically very well. (Also, personally speaking, I think it looks kinda terrible).

 

The final room with the former humans is a bit weird... none of them are looking at you initially and they die super easily to a super shotgun blast.

 

Overall, a decent little attempt for a map and one with some good themes. :)

[VandalVinny]

32 minutes ago, DynamiteKaitorn said:

An okay first map. There's some designs I think are cool, like the hallway with the pinkies and the rays of light from the outside. Making that room go dark though seems kinda weird and unnatural.

 

There's a rather high amount of ammo for how few enemies there are (is the extra ammo needed for UV difficulty? If so, you can probably remove the 2nd shotgun ammo box by unflagging it for easy/medium difficulties).

 

Difficulty is fine, but be aware Hell Knights are classed as mid-tier enemies so don't expect the average DooMer to be okay with chipping down multiple of them with just the regular shotgun (on in my case 1 since I typically role with HMP personally).

 

Also, you mentioned that this map was tested in Chocolate DooM yet there's a fairly obvious Tutti-Frutti error. Step textures are terrible to use as wall textures (even as a small, half-wall) since vanilla/chocolate DooM doesn't tile them vertically very well. (Also, personally speaking, I think it looks kinda terrible).

 

The final room with the former humans is a bit weird... none of them are looking at you initially and they die super easily to a super shotgun blast.

 

Overall, a decent little attempt for a map and one with some good themes. :)

 

Thank you for playing!

 

Could you actually tell me where/screenshot where the error is? I'm looking around everywhere and I might be so used to it being there that I can't notice it.

 

As for the last room, the whole super shotgun secret was a pretty late addition, and I pretty much just wanted to give the player something to shoot with it before they left (I like blasting groups of weaker enemies, as evidenced by the 3rd room). They all are placed looking at the door in the editor, but they all collectively back up as you enter. As others have mentioned, it is a bit of a dud, and I probably should have drummed up another, larger encounter.

 

Thanks again for your comments!

[donevan427]

Had fun playing this quick map. Was going to report the softlock at the revenants, but zolgia already explained that. The lights turning off is a neat touch feels nostalgic.

The fight in the hexagon room was fun too, I'm stingy with ammo so I got some imp/caco/hellknight infighting going. I liked the end room, it's kind of like a victory lap. One thing that would make the map look a bit nicer is if you pushed the ceiling in the doors ways (16 units or so) to make door frames. Good luck making your next map, I just recently starting making maps too.

[VandalVinny]

1 hour ago, donevan427 said:

Had fun playing this quick map. Was going to report the softlock at the revenants, but zolgia already explained that. The lights turning off is a neat touch feels nostalgic.

The fight in the hexagon room was fun too, I'm stingy with ammo so I got some imp/caco/hellknight infighting going. I liked the end room, it's kind of like a victory lap. One thing that would make the map look a bit nicer is if you pushed the ceiling in the doors ways (16 units or so) to make door frames. Good luck making your next map, I just recently starting making maps too.

 

Thank you! I'm glad you had fun. I'll have to try Devils Pass sometime soon.

[DynamiteKaitorn]

10 hours ago, VandalVinny said:

Could you actually tell me where/screenshot where the error is?

 

 

Kinda surprised you missed this one since all 8 external sides have this bug.

[Clippy]

9 minutes ago, DynamiteKaitorn said:

 

 

Kinda surprised you missed this one since all 8 external sides have this bug.

 

I think most ppl play in gzdoom or a port that fixes this error for the player

[ViolentBeetle]

1 hour ago, Clippy said:

I think most ppl play in gzdoom or a port that fixes this error for the player

Yeah, it's pretty much impossible to experience tutti frutti if you aren't a purist.

[HAK3180]

If a guy is "design[ing] for vanilla," then let's not encourage him to ignore errors in vanilla. If you say the map is vanilla and tested in Chocolate Doom, then it should not have tutti frutti errors. If you don't want to fix the error ( / don't want it to be an error), that's fine, but then call it limit-removing and don't say it works in Chocolate.

 

If you don't know all that vanilla really means, take a look here. I'd actually recommend limit-removing* or Boom format if you're just starting out, but opinions on where to begin differ greatly, and it may depend on what you ultimately want to do.

 

^{*still Doom 2 format, but don't test in Chocolate and ignore most of the limitations linked above}

[VandalVinny]

On 10/2/2020 at 7:21 AM, DynamiteKaitorn said:

Kinda surprised you missed this one since all 8 external sides have this bug.

 

Idk how I missed it either, but I've replaced the texture and the error is fixed.

 

 

On 10/2/2020 at 10:02 AM, HAK3180 said:

If a guy is "design[ing] for vanilla," then let's not encourage him to ignore errors in vanilla. If you say the map is vanilla and tested in Chocolate Doom, then it should not have tutti frutti errors. If you don't want to fix the error ( / don't want it to be an error), that's fine, but then call it limit-removing and don't say it works in Chocolate.

 

If you don't know all that vanilla really means, take a look here. I'd actually recommend limit-removing* or Boom format if you're just starting out, but opinions on where to begin differ greatly, and it may depend on what you ultimately want to do.

 

^{*still Doom 2 format, but don't test in Chocolate and ignore most of the limitations linked above}

 

Thanks for pointing to that resource. I'll refer more to the doomwiki going forward.

 

EDIT: Just noticed the misaligned texture in this very image lol, will also be fixed

Edited October 3, 2020 by VandalVinny

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

Solitary.wad
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Map 01 (West Wing):

This wad is really interesting and creative, I like the fact that each decoration put here turned out to be more creative and less monotonous, with respect to its difficulty, it is passable, quite in fact, just one or another drawback that I have found, such as the fact that there are not many shotgunners to have more shotgun shells, among other details. In a general view, the Wad is not that difficult, it is really enjoyable, and very entertaining, even with dangers such as Hitscanners or Hell Knights that will be waiting for you at full speed. All in all, it's a fun and entertaining wad in its own way, if it has its own difficulties, but nothing a good pack of shotgun bullets or Chaingun can't fix.



Oh, and taking advantage of the fact that the way the map for this level was designed was some open spaces in certain parts, what better way than to take advantage of what was learned in the Wad just by giving it a good Speedrune, which by the way, I managed to pass me this level with the minimum time of around 28 seconds, good luck for the people who are still trying to pass this level. I wish you all an excellent day and have a good rest.
 

 

[Chip]

I can't play WADs, since I don't own a computer that can run them, but I watched Bio's video (as I always do), and I have to ask, is this really your first WAD? This is really good. I mean like really really good. There are so many great features you use, and I am truly impressed. You are a very promising newcomer, and I think in the future, you could be able to make WADs cacoward worthy. 

[Lovin'TheDemonSlaughter]

Great wad man! The beginning reminded me of Wolf3D a bit, and the idea of demons capturing doomguy and putting him into a containment facility kinda reminds me of Duke3D a little, you have a very promising future, I'm excited to see the rest of these containment facility maps, who knows, maybe one day you'll get a wad that wins a cacoward!

[VandalVinny]

Thank you all for your kind comments. I'm really glad you guys enjoyed the level, and it's really cool to see it being speedrun.

 

It is my first level, and I've learned a lot from the community playing and critiquing it. MAP02 is in the works!