Testing Maps 1-4

[watto3699]

Hey Lads,

Been working on a few maps lately and would like some feedback on the first 4. Maps are designed to be quick, linear and with interesting areas to move and shoot in. 
I'm trying to design them in a way that, at a glace, can be understood where to go and what you're up against. An issue I'm grappling with at the moment is how easy it is to avoid everything in a room and run right through, I'm not sure that's because of how many times I've played these maps myself, or that there isn't enough reason to stay in certain rooms and gear up. I'm trying to avoid turning every room into a slaughter map, as a reason to actually explore the map for weapons, etc. I've added in switches to doors and used hit scanners that have to be dealt with but still feel as if I can zoom through care free. 

 

As always, critique on enemy placement, room layouts and ammo scarcity are also helpful.

 

Any help is appreciated, but if you'd like to go a step further, demos of your first play throughs are very much welcome. 

 

John.

MAP01.rar

[Rifleman]

I tried it and I like the maps, they are really quick - couldn't finish map 4 though. Killed all enemies and pressed the button in the room with silver 3d floor stairs and after killing the Caco I couldn't find anything else, did I miss something? I like how all the maps start the same. I played on HMP and had just enough ammo, ran out a couple times, but never for long.  

 

I guess you can just run through some places - the maps are spacious(but not too much) and you don't use any dangerous monsters or keys. I didn't feel I should run through though, the maps were fun enough.

[watto3699]

1 hour ago, Rifleman said:

I tried it and I like the maps, they are really quick - couldn't finish map 4 though.

Sorry, Realised I hadn't finished the end of Map 4 yet. I really like the faster style of map, hated all the back tracking in the OGs. Don't know how I'm going to scale up the difficulty and length of the levels as I go deeper into the map pack. Maybe adding more powerful weapons to keep things quick, I don't want resort to making enemies feel redundant.

Quote

I guess you can just run through some places - the maps are spacious(but not too much)

That's the hardest part so far. I want to keep things open, but it almost nullifies some enemies like the pinkies. I tried keeping the pinkies in the way of the switches using monster blockers, as to make them essential to kill to pass. 

1 hour ago, Rifleman said:

you don't use any dangerous monsters or keys.

Keys feel very limiting in this style of mapping. I like the expanding arena feel to them, and feel as if keys are for dividing maps or maps that involve back tracking. As for the more dangerous monsters, it was hard to find a place for them without it making the flow of the map come screeching to a stop. 

 

Thanks for the feedback :)