Rank Mapping Qualities in Order of Importance

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

Rank the following ten map qualities in order from most to least important:

1. Gameplay
2. Atmosphere
3. Texturing
4. Geometry
5. Music
6. Item Placement
7. Difficulty
8. Map Layout
9. Story
10. Map Size/Length

 

^these are examples, they aren't in any order

Edited October 7, 2020 by TheMagicMushroomMan

[P41R47]

1. atmosphere

2. music

3. story

4. texturing

5. geometry

6. gameplay

7. difficulty

8. map layout.

9. mapsize/length

10. item placement.

First five items of my list are the what may make me buy something.
The second part of the list are just important to me if they are really really bad, and sometimes the combination of those sums up to the challenge, but yes, if they are very bad, not even the first five items would save the map. 

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

Just now, P41R47 said:

1. atmosphere

2. music

3. story

4. texturing

5. geometry

6. gameplay

7. difficulty

8. map layout.

9. mapsize/length

10. item placement.

First five items of my list are the what may make me buy something.
The second part of the list are just important to me if they are really really bad, and sometimes the combination of those sums up to the challenge, but yes, if they are very bad, not even the first five items would save the map. 

Glad to see I'm not the only one who values atmosphere and music a lot!

[SOSU]

1. Atmosphere (If i had to choose between playing 100 techbases or 100 castles i'd choose the latter)
2. Texturing (The castles gotta look nice)
3. Gameplay (Isn't gameplay just 4-8 together?)
4. Item Placement (I don't wanna fight the Barons with just the shotgun)
5. Map Layout (It gotta flow nice)
6. Geometry (If hope you mean playfield, in the end it's all square-ish)
7. Map Size/Length (Preffer shorter maps but it doesn't matter in the end, 10 5 minute maps vs 1 50 minute map)
8. Difficulty (I save scum)
9. Music (I listen to Talkernate History when i play)
10. Story (Elric of Melnibone? Don't make me laugh, that's gutter trash to the plot of Eternal Doom, the magnum opus of dark fantasy. [It ain't even dark fantasy it just has some medieval maps] {Though i like the end of Ancient Aliens' plot, it's cute.} )

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

2 minutes ago, SOSU said:

1. Atmosphere (If i had to choose between playing 100 techbases or 100 castles i'd choose the latter)
2. Texturing (The castles gotta look nice)
3. Gameplay (Isn't gameplay just 4-8 together?)
4. Item Placement (I don't wanna fight the Barons with just the shotgun)
5. Map Layout (It gotta flow nice)
6. Geometry (If hope you mean playfield, in the end it's all square-ish)
7. Map Size/Length (Preffer shorter maps but it doesn't matter in the end, 10 5 minute maps vs 1 50 minute map)
8. Difficulty (I save scum)
9. Music (I listen to Talkernate History when i play)
10. Story (Elric of Melnibone? Don't make me laugh, that's gutter trash to the plot of Eternal Doom, the magnum opus of dark fantasy. [It ain't even dark fantasy it just has some medieval maps] {Though i like the end of Ancient Aliens' plot, it's cute.} )

 

By gameplay, I meant thing like enemy placement/enemies used/pacing/switch hunts/etc. But 4-8 definitely have an impact on gameplay!

[pcorf]

1. Atmosphere
2. Texturing

3. Gameplay

4. Item Placement

5. Difficulty
6. Geometry
7. Map Layout

8. Music
9. Story

10. Map Size/Length 

Edited October 7, 2020 by pcorf

[P41R47]

3 minutes ago, pcorf said:

8. Music

Never imagined, after listening for so long to the amazing music you made, that you give it not much importance hahaha.
I always thought that music and atmosphere come kinda togheter.

[Firedust]

1. Gameplay

2. Gameplay

3. Gameplay

4. Gameplay

5. Gameplay

6. Texturing

7. Texturing

8. Texturing

9. Texturing

10. Texturing

[RonnieJamesDiner]

1. Commitment

2. Motivation

3. Inspiration

4. Everything else

[HQDefault]

Here's how it goes for me:

 

1: Atmosphere

2: Gameplay

3: Creativity/"soul"

4: Map Layout

5: Balancing

6: Detailing

7: Music

8: Story

 

Edited October 7, 2020 by HQDefault

[Bridgeburner56]

1. Having fun making the map
2. Some other stuff

[Endless]

15 minutes ago, Bridgeburner56 said:

1. Having fun making the map
2. Some other stuff

Don't forget 3. Over 100k lines.

[NuMetalManiak]

1. Map Layout/Geometry/size (they are identical) - To start, layouts have gotta work out. The level should be reasonably sized and structured to please multiple audiences, and the way the level is built is how it will taste as the final product. If a layout sucks the whole thing sucks.

2. Gameplay/Difficulty/Item placement - then you add the gameplay elements, cook it with items, all for the taste

3. Textures - then sautee it with the textures, which texture the wad appropriately and give off a good impression

And you're done! For added flair make sure to sprinkle it with doses of atmosphere and give it a top layer of music. Story may or may not be optional too. Congratulations, perhaps? You will always learn from this practice, even if the end result does not taste great to everyone.
 

[Doomkid]

1 - Layout

 

Seriously, I have 99999 other wads to blaze through on the backlog, don't give me a crap layout that makes no sense and is impossible to figure out. No amount of great textures or great MIDIs is going to help me if I never have any idea what your switches do since they activate a small door at the other end of this giant labyrinth you've got me wandering around in!

 

Good gameplay obviously matters as well, but other than "single barreling 3 barons is boring" there's no hard and fast rule for what is and is not "good gameplay". For some people it's nail-biter maps with ammo starvation, for some people it's huge slaughterfests, and for some people it's E1-like combat which is largely incidental, with a few focused traps here and there. I'm more partial to the 3rd approach, but is it "better"? Not really.

 

Creativity and originality matters a lot to me as well, if your wad features some custom behaviors I'm naturally going to get more immersed because the experience is more unique. I know how a revenant works.. until you modify it. Then I have to throw all my expectations out and learn some new behaviors, which makes me go from playing with a glazed-over look in my eyes to suddenly being thoroughly engaged.

 

Obviously this is all just totally subjective. Having fun making the map is all that truly matters!

[Capellan]

My personal rankings, which may be very different to those of others

1. Gameplay (which is a composite of many of the other things on the OP's list)
2. Atmosphere (ditto)
3. Visuals (ditto)

 

 

Not mattering at all:

Story
Music

[Sir Hattington]

My list:

1. Map Layout
2. Gameplay
3. Item Placement
4. Texturing
5. Geometry
6. Difficulty
7. Music
8. Atmosphere
9. Map Size/Length
10. Story

[GarrettChan]

1. Whether Jimmy, AD, Tarnsman, essel, skillsaw or other people I like are involved

2. Gameplay

3. Music

4. Difficulty?

5. Difficulty!?

6. Don't know anymore...

[HAK3180]

1 hour ago, Doomkid said:

Creativity and originality matters a lot to me as well, if your wad features some custom behaviors I'm naturally going to get more immersed because the experience is more unique. I know how a revenant works.. until you modify it. Then I have to throw all my expectations out and learn some new behaviors, which makes me go from playing with a glazed-over look in my eyes to suddenly being thoroughly engaged.

 

This made me laugh so hard. And I think you know why...

[Doomkid]

lmao, I sure do - despite feeling how I do on the topic though, I can completely appreciate the opposite perspective.

 

If we think of Doom's pieces as being like Chess pieces for example, I can imagine Chess players getting annoyed immediately if someone was like "hey, let's play a round, but this time pawns do something completely different than what they usually do." For me though, it's kind of like, after the 100,000th Chess match, I'm eager for the pawns to just start dancing around the board in an eclectic way!

[Pottus]

You guys have it all wrong......

 

Doom mapping is all about the story it's number one at the center!

A Doom map should tell a story, a story doesn't need words to be told.

All these attributes tell the story it is up to the mapper to arrange them.

Every attribute is as important as one another.

The story however, is the sum of them all.

[AinuTheTaken]

1. Gameplay (anybody who doesn't put this at 1 is memeing)

2. Atmosphere (I'm putting this high because I believe you mean the map should make me feel tense or should make me have some other feeling)

3. Map layout

4. Item placement

5. Difficulty

6. Map size/length

7. Geometry (I think you mean some rooms look bad if they're basic shapes, but I don't care.)

8. Texturing (I think 1996 wads look fine.)

9. Story

10. Music (fine with default music)

[Midnight_00]

1. Gameplay

2. Map layout

3. Item placement

4. Difficulty

5. Map size/length

6. Geometry

7. Music

8. Texturing

9. Story

 

I didn't include atmosphere since I would've said that it's simply the final result of the other qualities. I still think all of them are important, even story in the sense of the individual maps in a WAD forming a coherent sequence (unless it's just meant to be a collection of maps, anyway). 

[Albertoni]

1. Gameplay
2. Atmosphere

3. Story (optional, but telling a story just with pure gameplay is amazing)
4. Geometry

5. Map Layout

 

From here on down, those things by themselves can't make a good map, though they can ruin what would be a good one.
6. Music
7. Item Placement

8. Texturing
9. Difficulty
10. Map Size/Length (Technically you can salvage a meh map before it goes bad by cutting it short, but... Eh.)

 

 

1 hour ago, Doomkid said:

I'm eager for the pawns to just start dancing around the board in an eclectic way! 

Don't tempt me; ... actually you have tempted me. I don't know where I'll find time but sure, I ****ing guess I can get it done by next April Fools. Implement a chess AI in ZScript while half-drunk over a Sunday, why not, that sounds like an amazing time, and I'm not even being sarcastic. Where's my AI book, I need to brush up on alpha pruning again...

 

41 minutes ago, AinuTheTaken said:

1. Gameplay (anybody who doesn't put this at 1 is memeing)

Eh, if you threw me a "museum" walking simulator map where cool graphic effects or scripting effects with things were the main attraction, I'd be very much amused and rank it very high on my list of favorite maps. Just because Doom has very few good ways to implement gameplay doesn't mean throwing them all out by the window and focusing on something else isn't possible.

Edited October 8, 2020 by Albertoni

[Noiser]

Here's my list (I think they are all important though):

1. Gameplay
2. Map Layout
3. Item Placement
4. Geometry
5. Texturing
6. Atmosphere
7. Music
8. Difficulty
9. Map Size/Length
10. Story

Edited October 8, 2020 by Noiser

[Arbys550]

1. Gameplay

2. Item Placement (I think this is just gameplay, not really its own category)

3. Map Layout

4. Texturing
5. Atmosphere (Does this mean location/theme? I've always been confused when people mention "atmosphere" in reference to doom maps)

6. Difficulty

7. Geometry (I think it's part of layout really)

8. Map Length

9. Music

10. Story

[Phobus]

1) Working with GZDoom (and of course, working at all)

2) Not being a slaughter map (or Terry map, or shitty jokeWAD)

 

Once a map/WAD passes those two tests, the below criteria will decide if I play through to the end or not:

 

3) Game play

4) Difficulty (specifically, things not being too hard on the difficulty I guess is appropriate for me)

5) How obtuse progression is

6) Length when compared against the others being undesirable. I can forgive a lot more in a short map than I can in a thousand monster beast of a map

 

Music, atmosphere, texturing and all that other stuff are just "nice to have" optional things. I want to enjoy something first and foremost, and I don't want to spend too long banging my head against it, given how limited my free time for playing stuff is. 

[antares031]

1. Blue & Gold Textures
2. Structural Pillars & Beams
3. Banners on the Ceiling

4. Custom DeHackEd Monsters

5. MIDI Soundtrack, composed by either Eris Falling or Psychedelic Eyeball
6. 3-4-5 Pythagorean Triangles
7. Random Doomcute™ Decorations
8. Additional Blue & Gold Textures

9. Animated Walls, made out of 1-pixel-wide scrollers

10. Automap Cleaning

 

Jokes aside, here's my personal ranking of mapping qualities:

Spoiler

1. Gameplay, supported by Difficulty
2. Atmosphere, supported by Texturing and Music
3. Map Layout & Geometry
4. Item Placement
5. Map Size/Length
99. Story

 

[Deadwing]

1 - Layout (how consistent it is)

2 - Thing Placement

3 - Pacing (build-up x breathing moments)

4 - Concept (how strong is the map's concept)

5 - Atmosphere

6 - Map Size (not too big)

7 - Difficulty (not too hard for me)

8 - Texturing (I suck at texturing lol)

9 - Music

 

[DynamiteKaitorn]

I personally think maps should focus more on:

 

1] layout (Bad layouts mean I'll get lost fast and it'll make me want to quit faster. Make sure your map isn't a gigantic maze of pipes and decorations =_=).

 

2] difficulty (If a map is brutally hard and not fun to play, I'll rate it quite low. I perosnally dislike high difficulties (even IF I play sunder... a lot >_>)).

 

3] gameplay (It's all good having a decent layout and fair-easy difficulty but if the map is "linear: the mod" (not counting linear doom!) I'll likely get bored of it before I finish all the maps).

 

4] Enemy choice (Good LORD do I rail hard on people who think the base shotgun is like the super shotgun but half power. It isn't. The SSG is significantly stronger and doesn't take a bleedin' year to clear out a small handful of high tier enemies. PLEASE add chaingun ammo more if you intend on making me fight a hell knight without a decent weapon, chaingun is still a good gun).

 

5] Size/Length (This one is a little tricky to pin point. I suppose it's not so much of "big map = good" or "big map = bad" but more of "Okay this map is starting to overstay it's welcome, am I near the exit soon?". If the answer is yes, good job! you made it just long enough! If no, why? Too large and I'll give up but if it literally 5 sectors then it'll be over way too fast. balancing size is a little hard to say what works and what doesn't).

 

6] Item placement (Placing half of your health near the exit is kinda stupid. As long as there is a decent distribution of supplies though, generally you can't go wrong WHERE you place it (provided you're not shoving a megasphere into an inescapable pit)).

 

7] Atmosphere (Is your map dark and creepy? good! Is it meant to be light and fuffy? good! As long as you keep the theming of the map consistent throughout, generally you can't go wrong. Heck, some people had twisted the standard formula of "tech", "urban" or "hell" by doing hybrids or even straight up new styles with the vanilla textures).

 

8] Texturing (*Tutti Frutti error intensifies* Ahh texturing... technically you CAN make a fairly okay map with the vanilla texture and flats but it's generally recommended to add more than 2 flats and 1 wall texture to a level. Doors have door textures, water for liquid-y bits and the occasional FIREBLU to praise our second lord and saviour).

 

9] Music (Provided you're not pulling a Sluggion levels of annoyance when a song loops, or its not just complete audio diarrhoea, music isn't all that necessary in a WAD to still be good. Heck, Plutonia only used songs from DooM & DooM II and that WAD is one of the classics).

 

10] Story (Yeah.. unless your WAD is MEANT to be narrative driven... I rarely care about the plot and I just want to vapourise everything with a plasma rifle).

 

[Juza]

Most people here put so many words to get it to 10 points, but for myself, I abbreviate all of those into three.

 

1. Gameplay. This includes layout, monster placement, and balance, with the first going hand in hand with one another, and the latter being entirely dependant on how challenging I want the level to be. If a level's a straight line with poor architecture, it's boring. If it's too easy, it's boring. If there's a hundred Barons in it and minuscule weapon selection, it's boring.

2. Music. If it's bad or unfitting, that's a way to (excuse the language) kill my vibe in just the first few seconds. Unlike gameplay or balance though, it won't risk making me feel like I wasted my time playing a level.

3. Visuals. I can't lie, I love me some finely crafted atmosphere. That's conveyed through the way the map itself and its whole theme is structured and put together. A lot of people associate visuals with "how many linedefs can I put in this one room?"... you can have a great looking map using purely architecture, featuring few or no additional sectors with the purpose of detail.

 

In my eyes, all of these are equally important. If just one of these aspects feel off, it's noticeable. When making a level, I aim to reach its full potential.

Edited October 8, 2020 by Juza