FIO - Single Map Release

[narrowtomato]

Single MAP01, Boom format, tested with PRboom+ (dsda-doom) and GZDoom.  Doom 2 is the IWAD used.

 

This is my first map that I would consider "completed" by any means.  I know there's a lot of different themes, if I proceed to a longer project I would want to stretch them over multiple maps.  Feedback is welcome and desired as long as it's constructive. 

 

It has support for difficulties, UV is what was tested the most and recommended.  Difficulty is Final Doom-ish.

 

Specific details are in the .txt file included in the .zip, screenshots below.

 

fio.zip - This contains fio.wad, fio.deh (also included in the wad for modern ports), and fio.txt.

 

If you just want the .wad, https://wadhosting.com/Wad/241EC2814DECABDB5B9B80BA9B37B5EC7150F9AF

 

I regularly stream Doom wads and mapping, https://twitch.tv/narrowtomato

 

Screenshots below

[Delisk]

Not bad for a first map, but here a few points you should have a look at

 

 

• You have some misalign textures, for example near the red door in the inside and in many location with height changes, use auto align to fix them.
• When doing stairs with some texture avoid using the same part of the texture for every stair (Check out your own screenshot)
• You have some odd texture transitions, when changing texture along a wall tray use a separator (support2 and support3 are great for this purpose)
• The door on the green building is all wrong, you side are not using any normal "track" texture and are not pegged. Also with such a small roof the door seem to disappear in the sky, raise the sounding sectors a bit.

These are all pretty much the standard newbie mistakes, so don't fell about them.

 

Keep on mapping...

 

 

 

[Large Cat]

Nice work. I played through in DSDA Doom on UV (-complevel 9). I'll attach my blind demo as fio.zip.

 

I like the visuals you have going on here. The technique was generally solid, and there were some nice details. I was particularly struck by the arches in the lava bridge area at the end. There's misalignment here or an unpegged texture there, but that's just something you'll keep an eye out for as you continue. Keep up the nice touches, like the little nukage spouts in the walls! I also enjoyed the MIDI selection and felt it complemented the atmosphere well.

 

Engine-wise, I'm curious why you chose to go with Boom compatibility. It looks like everything you did should work fine in vanilla, though it's possible I missed something.

 

I found all three of your secrets, so they are certainly fair. As I'll discuss later, I think the plasma is overkill, as the map is easily completed without it, and you run the risk of trivializing your later combats with the abundance of cells you provide. The backpack didn't feel that impactful, since the map is so short, so I never need to carry much ammo, but it's always some level of convenience.

 

In terms of combat, I don't think you hit your "Final Doom-ish" goal. I don't think any of the combat had any difficult elements, and the most danger I was in was when I took two baron hits because I couldn't see him through a manc corpse. I believe the combat went so smoothly for me or one major reason: the enemies are always on one side of me, and I always have room to back up. It's hard to make combat hard when it's all in front of you, so I'd suggest experimenting with ways of attack the player from multiple fronts, like ledges, monster closets, teleport traps, dropping the player in to room where they're somewhat surrounded, etc.. If you're taking inspiration from Final Doom, Plutonia is often shameless about the teleport traps that give it so much of its famed difficulty.

 

One encounter I have mixed feelings about: the lava bridge. I felt the most intensity of the whole map when I dropped down to lava level there, as I had hell knights on one side and revenants on the other to juggle; it was my favorite moment in the map. It would have been a shame if I had pre-killed all those monsters by entering that area from archvile room instead, so I am tempted to suggest not allowing the player to enter the lava bridge from that direction, initially. That might just be me getting sentimental about a single combat, though.

 

Another comparison to Final Doom combat, specifically Plutonia: archviles and pain elementals. They're infamous in Plutonia, but I think they ended up harmless here. The pain elementals fell quickly to my rockets, and I'm able to door-fight them to some degree; I think they work much better in open spaces and helped out by some body guards to create that delicious issue of prioritizing targets. I'd recommend experimenting pairing PE's with other monsters and seeing how combat unfolds. Regarding the archviles, they felt like more of a time-sink than a threat. This is because I can trap them in their starting room and because they have no bodies to resurrect. For future AV's, I'd recommend something similar: give them some space where they can't be easily bottlenecked, and give them some meat hide behind/resurrect.

 

Overall, I enjoyed it, even if it didn't push me very hard. I think you did very well with combat pacing, as the map never felt like it was dragging, so nice work! I hope to see more stuff from you in these "multiple maps" you've hinted at.

[Dubbag]

 

[DarkIceCyclone]

Hey, i played on HMP at first, then UV.  So I'll be posting both videos here. now that my mic and everything is working again. (Btw, thanks @Dubbag for that. Got OBS thanks to you, works like a charm)

 

Fair warning, I think my gameplay will tell you more than my commentary, which is drowned out by ingame music and sounds anyway. Sorry about that, I did not expect that. Recording everything again won't give genuine response and you'll just end up seeing my silent gameplay, like in UV.  
Both videos are unregistered. Both videos do have some foreknowledge, they are not blind runs. UV has more foreknowledge as I played on HMP before. I must say, you nailed the HMP difficulty! Good job.
 

Spoiler

To those wondering, I have 2 youtube accounts. 

HMP Gameplay:

 

UV Gameplay:
 

[Dubbag]

Spoiler

@DarkIceCyclone you are welcome :) here are my other settings for you so that you can possibly get better frame rate results in your videos. I hope this helps.

[DarkIceCyclone]

7 minutes ago, Dubbag said:

  Hide contents

@DarkIceCyclone you are welcome :) here are my other settings for you so that you can possibly get better frame rate results in your videos. I hope this helps.

Thanks, i'll fiddle around with that. I didn't notice any framerate issues on the video though


Also, forgot to mention,ammo was plenty. 

[Biodegradable]

It's a little claustrophobic at times, but otherwise I had a good time with it. Very cheeky combat with optimal balancing and the design/layout was intriguing.

 

 

[Murdoch]

I concur with my friend, esteemed colleague and owner of the world's noisiest keyboard @Biodegradable, feels a bit cramped at the start in places to the point where an experienced player can excessively cheese the enemies. As I type this, the Mancubus that you put in the room on the left of the first building is trying in vain to hit the shotgunner who shot him after I lured them into a crossfire. The console in front of the shotgunner is preventing his fireballs from hitting him. The shotgunner could barely hit me either when I went into the room. In the trap room that opens up after you pick up the red key, there's a couple of odd texture problems I could not quite figure out - almost like there's a couple of super tiny linedefs that need not be there, and this is making the textures misalign.

 

Detail and lighting is a sold classic style effort with a few hints of extra detail flourishes, what I like to call Vanilla+. Ammo is a bit lean at the beginning. I did not find myself overly challenged, but still found myself short of ammo and having to rely on infighting more than I would like. Thank jebus I found the berserk pack. Always add more ammo than you think you need. The supplies improve towards the end and maybe swing a bit too far in the opposite direction perhaps.

 

Have you used a lot of monster blocking linedefs? For some reason numerous times I found monsters would not come out into areas where it looked like they should have clearance to do so - such as in the big arena with the rocket launcher. There's a side cave with some reventants, imps and spectres. They would not come out, letting me easily bottleneck them. The central building in the same area, the door has incorrect doortrack textures and are not properly pegged. Oh and in the room with the two Archviles, remove the deaf tags or reposition the second one so it's more likely to get hit. I entered quite cautiously and so was able to draw one out and kill it easily without alerting the second at all. I do like your use of alternate routes, nice work, adds a sense of dynamics to the gameplay.

 

Definitely far more good than bad, and a solid effort particularly for a first timer. Keep it up.

Edited February 23, 2022 by Murdoch

[BetelgeuseSupergiant]

Simple, but good map :D
My advice: pay more attention to textures alignment

[azerty]

Overall a pretty ok map and certainly for a first "completed" map I know I would have done way worse ;). 

Combat was decent I guess. I c&n't really complain as it wasn't really wad ro anything it just wasn't that interesting. I Think that some cool or unexpected ambushes and fights would greatly improve this map. The combat was also pretty rough imo. It wasn't impossible or frustrating but it certainly wasn't balanced for HMP (that's the difficulty I played it on). That might be intended or not. Ammo was pretty tight as well so you might want to consider adding a chainsaw or berserk somewhere just so the player has an alternative. It's just a suggestion you do what you want with your map.

The map itself looked pretty descent except for some things I mentioned in my playtrough that looked a bit weird or need to change. It also felt very claustrophobic and cramped in some places. It felt like you were trying to put a lot of stuff in a small room and that isn't because of very thing you want to put in but it is because of the room itself. Try making larger rooms next time it feels way better to play and you can move wherever you want.

Here is the video:

 

 

[Clippy]

Everyone and their dog beat me to the punch but I'll play it anyway

 

Nice little map ya know

 

 

[DarkIceCyclone]

2 hours ago, azerty said:

Overall a pretty ok map and certainly for a first "completed" map I know I would have done way worse ;). 

Combat was decent I guess. I c&n't really complain as it wasn't really wad ro anything it just wasn't that interesting. I Think that some cool or unexpected ambushes and fights would greatly improve this map. The combat was also pretty rough imo. It wasn't impossible or frustrating but it certainly wasn't balanced for HMP (that's the difficulty I played it on). That might be intended or not. Ammo was pretty tight as well so you might want to consider adding a chainsaw or berserk somewhere just so the player has an alternative. It's just a suggestion you do what you want with your map.

The map itself looked pretty descent except for some things I mentioned in my playtrough that looked a bit weird or need to change. It also felt very claustrophobic and cramped in some places. It felt like you were trying to put a lot of stuff in a small room and that isn't because of very thing you want to put in but it is because of the room itself. Try making larger rooms next time it feels way better to play and you can move wherever you want.Here is the video:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey! the berserk was hidden near to the pinky caves. Check my HMP playthrough, I kindly have to disagree with you  on the HMP. I actually think HMP was just right for that difficulty. 

 

@Clippy Misaligned grey bricks was third one

Edited February 23, 2022 by DarkIceCyclone

[narrowtomato]

Thanks everybody for the feedback, much appreciated!! 

 

I've started on my next set of maps, going to go for at least 3 in the next WAD, maybe more but I don't want to overcommit (especially with Elden Ring coming out tomorrow). 

 

I'll be coming back to this thread to review everything while I polish the new maps.  There will be more ambushes and I'll try to have enemies coming from more than one side :)