Lack of map-like intermission screens

[LadyMistDragon]

I can think of only one other megawad besides Doom: The Way Id Did that places each map as one facility/temple/whatever in a particular planet/sector/whathaveyou but the name escapes me. I'm pretty sure why there wasn't one in Doom II (that wasn't a priority) but it just doesn't seem worth the effort for most people. It's a real shame because that was such a cool part of the Ultimate Doom (4th episodes excluded). Maybe I'm just underestimating the amount of effort involved, but I guess it's hard to see why there couldn't be 4-5 of these map intermission screens within a megawad/

[TheNoob_Gamer]

There's one for E4.

There's also Knee-Deep in ZDoom - but it's more like an animation preview of next map's info rather than a plain map.

Eviternity, while not featuring any sort of intermission maps, does have custom backgrounds after you beat each level. 

It's indeed a shame that those kinds of screen are rare, though it probably is one of the features that got cut due to redundancy/time constriants. 

Edited July 26, 2021 by TheNoob_Gamer

[Doomkid]

Making those map screens is pretty damn hard, you basically need to be a skilled pixel artist and graphic editor in general. I think if Doom 2 had a map like E1-E3, they would be substantially more common in user wads as well, since Doom 2 was/is more commonly used as a mapping canvas.

 

I really liked them as well.. In games of that era, it was really common to have an overworld. Lots of NES and SNES games come to mind, like Super Mario World, where you can actually see the player moving from location to location. The map screens and "you are here" thing were Doom's equivalent, it gave much more of a sense of continuity and place.

 

I'm pretty sure the overworld map was a Tom Hall thing, I recall an earlier sketch of the overworld map in the alpha Dooms and I swear there was some indication that it was Hall who came up with the idea. For all the flak he copped about Wolf3D-like level design, he did have a great sense of what makes a game immersive.

 

The closest thing I've ever done is connected exits and story text after each map.. Those things combined with an overworld map would result in a rarely seen level of world continuity in Doom wads.

[Teo Slayer]

38 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

I think if Doom 2 had a map like E1-E3, they would be substantially more common in user wads as well, since Doom 2 was/is more commonly used as a mapping canvas

It would be cool if Doom 2 had an intermission map like E1-E3

[Mystic 256]

I kinda wish intermission maps were a thing in later doom games / iwads.

 

Maybe we could do a community intermission map pack (kind like how midi pack projects are popular lately) that adds intermission maps to Sigil, Doom 2, TNT, Plutonia, and maybe No Rest For The Living, not sure about Master Levels though because they are separate wad files and there different consensuses on the order they would go in.

 

Major Iwads like Doom, TNT, Plutonia would have 3 maps, 1 for each of the thirds (maps 01-11, maps 12-20 + 31/32, and 21-30)

Sigil and Nerve are both a episode long so they would have just 1 map

 

 

[Devalaous]

Master Levels does have an official order via the PSN ordering and the Unity Port's numbering. 

 

Another wad that has a custom map screen is Xaser's Lost Episode. 

[LadyMistDragon]

15 hours ago, Mystic 256 said:

I kinda wish intermission maps were a thing in later doom games / iwads.

 

Maybe we could do a community intermission map pack (kind like how midi pack projects are popular lately) that adds intermission maps to Sigil, Doom 2, TNT, Plutonia, and maybe No Rest For The Living, not sure about Master Levels though because they are separate wad files and there different consensuses on the order they would go in.

 

Major Iwads like Doom, TNT, Plutonia would have 3 maps, 1 for each of the thirds (maps 01-11, maps 12-20 + 31/32, and 21-30)

Sigil and Nerve are both a episode long so they would have just 1 map

 

 

The problem is how ill-defined some of those places are. Supposedly, you go to a jungle in Plutonia but you leave that behind probably around Map 07 or something and it's anyone's guess where you're at. No Rest for the Living too, since that one is a bit lacking in the story, other than something about killing the big bad cybie when you finish it. If it was Memento Mori, TNT, or various CPs like what the French and Russians comes up with though, I think that would really add somethingt