UAC Prison Break - 1 map

[Chud]

Hi everyone. This is my first map - after quite some time I'm finally pretty happy with the outcome so I'm really looking forward to your thoughts, critiques, and ways I can improve on my future maps. I learned a ton and had a lot of fun over the past few days dipping my toes into mapping so I'm super excited to get started on my next project. So any feedback you leave will be much appreciated.

 

Story:

"The UAC prison for demonic forces has been overrun, and your job is to reclaim it for the UAC and restore order. Unfortunately for the demons, you're locked in there until they've all been exterminated. Rip and tear until it is done."

 

This is a single map designed for the Doom II IWAD using UDMF format. It was tested using GZDoom and everything seemed to be working well there so I recommend using that. I have not tested with any other source ports at the moment. Freelook is recommended. Crouching shouldn't be necessary but jumping might be helpful (though not necessary).

 

I tried not making it too difficult (though it may take a few tries anyway) and to leave enough ammunition, but honestly, I found item and monster placement to be the least intuitive of the whole process. I also did not implement skill levels so it should all be the same monster placement. It played well when I tested it, but I also know the ins and outs of the map so it's hard to make a judgement there. Finally, keep an eye out for secrets! Let me know what you think. Hope you enjoy :)

 

Update: Fixed misalinged/mismatched textures. Fixed stuck imps. (when i posted this update I fucked up the player start location so if you downloaded it and started in the middle of the map try it now...sorry!)

Also changed stealth demon to spectre. Should've been that way in the first place.

 

 

 

UAC_Prisonbreak.rar

Edited August 17, 2022 by Chud

[IcarusOfDaggers]

hey, Welcome to doomworld.

 

===============Gameplay Video===============

 

 

===========Feedback=============

 

Try to use .zip file so everyone can open it.

Also, you can always ask playtesters to test the map for you. Check out this thread here: 

Or this thread here:

 

The first thread stays more up to date, but you have to comb through hundreds of pages. Second thread is less updated, but you can easily find playtesters and their contacts. just make sure to always check the players activity in the file. 
 

===========WALL OF TEXT ==================

Some feedback

• For first release, quite a good map, but:
  • General
    • Texture alignment issues in some places 
      • Lower Unpegged for ceiling movement,Upper Unpegged for floor movement. Use "Doortrack" or "Ceil 5_2" texture where you need to move the ceiling and floor. Less noticeable
    • When you change the texture of a ceiling or floor, change the elevation as well.
    • Monsters stuck. 
      • Monsters get when they don't have room to move or if they are crossing over a ledge they can't cross over, so anything higher than 16 map units. Make sure to always have monsters inside the sectors for best compatibility.
    • Udmf allows for texture resizing. Use it. 
    • GZDoom/UDMF allows for usage of flats as textures. Ceil 5_2 can be used as seperator texture thanks to that. There are some other flats you can use, for example, "flats_4" texture for stone stairs.
    • UDMF also allows usage of texture alignment.
    • Revenants were stuck in a small room, thus not much of a threat.
    • Felt like HMP more than UV skill level wise, but that's okay. I even like playing it more than the insanely tough ones some people put out.
• Pacing:
  • Actually I like the pacing. But once I upload the video, you'll notice how it escalates from me using only a pistol to using supershotgun, skipping the shotgun for a long period.
  • You will also notice how most of the time I used either chainsaw(even on hitscan, which you usually get punished for), pistol or super shotgun, only using shotgun for the imps (despire having super shotgun)
• Secrets
  • The plasma rifle secret was nice, but also a lot more obvious than the green armor one. However, the plasma gun itself felt like a nice thing to  have, so you hit the nail in the head for that one.
  • There was so much room to move that green armor is enough for whole map, getting blue armor was overkill, allowing me to survive where I should have not survived. It was a nice secret though, but again, easier to find than green armor.
  • Above points about secrets go mute if you fix the texture alignment issues.
• Gameplay
  • Overall gameplay was quite solid. Switches, 3d floors were well used. Sludge Slope...errm, I would have used stairs. 
  • One of the rooms felt underwhelming, It was the computer room with a switch, where you had 1 shotgunner, 2 hellknights and a bunch of demons. The reason it felt underwhelming was because the room was perfect for infighting, yet outside of letting the pinkies bite the hell knights to dust, there wasn't much of an infight to be had. It's not an easy feat to accomplish by any means, but that area could see a bit of a change in monster composition.
  • Mancubus after the sewer can get you some nice reactions, but is way too easy to deal with due to his inability to follow around or even shoot through the small gap.
  • Overall I did have fun. 
• Mapping advice
  • Focus more on the looks and feel of the map. It is okay for the first maps to take months to develop.
  • Ask help with testing the map.
  • Have a look into ZMAPINFO (Click)
    • type "nocrouch" to disable crouching and "nojump" to disable jumping
    • music changes the music in the map, more about that in the link above. 
      • Extra stuff to experiment with once you got the hang of basics.
        • (https://zdoom.org/wiki/MAPINFO)
        • (https://zdoom.org/wiki/MAPINFO/Map_definition)
  • Get used to using slade. Ultimate Doom Builder is good for creating the maps. But Slade has every other customization option out there, starting from textures and ending with pk3 files (which lazygamer covers quite well, i believe someone else has tutorials as well)
  • Above all, have fun!

============BB Wall of Text======================

TL;DR: Fun map, bunch of rookie mistakes in the map, but other than that, was nice to play. 

Edited August 16, 2022 by IcarusOfDaggers
video posted

[Degree23]

Nice map for a first time.

 

- Without the secrets I think ammo would be pretty tight. I ended with 96 Bullets and 300 Cells, but that was with finding two of the secrets, and the RL did a lot of work on grouped enemies. I'd say one of the 100 Cells can be removed from the PG secret, and maybe something like 20 Shells or some scattered Shells/Bullets could be added to the main progression.

- Having a RL in a secret felt slightly odd given that one appeared during the normal map progression. Maybe just have the ammo there but remove the weapon.

- I also agree with the MegaArmor comment above. A bit overkill, could maybe be replaced with an Armor if you really wanted to keep some there. 

- The very final fight felt slightly underwhelming. I liked the previous room with the Revenant/Mancubii "guards", but the final part being some trapped Imps and a Baron felt like an anti-climax. If the Baron had been an AV that would have been a bit more spicy.

 

I have to say the overall feel did give me the impression of a prison, and this was pretty fun to play through!

 

[Chud]

3 hours ago, IcarusOfDaggers said:

hey, Welcome to doomworld.

 

===============Gameplay Video===============

 

 

===========Feedback=============

 

Try to use .zip file so everyone can open it.

Also, you can always ask playtesters to test the map for you. Check out this thread here: 

Or this thread here:

 

The first thread stays more up to date, but you have to comb through hundreds of pages. Second thread is less updated, but you can easily find playtesters and their contacts. just make sure to always check the players activity in the file. 
 

===========WALL OF TEXT ==================

Some feedback

• For first release, quite a good map, but:
  • General
    • Texture alignment issues in some places 
      • Lower Unpegged for ceiling movement,Upper Unpegged for floor movement. Use "Doortrack" or "Ceil 5_2" texture where you need to move the ceiling and floor. Less noticeable
    • When you change the texture of a ceiling or floor, change the elevation as well.
    • Monsters stuck. 
      • Monsters get when they don't have room to move or if they are crossing over a ledge they can't cross over, so anything higher than 16 map units. Make sure to always have monsters inside the sectors for best compatibility.
    • Udmf allows for texture resizing. Use it. 
    • GZDoom/UDMF allows for usage of flats as textures. Ceil 5_2 can be used as seperator texture thanks to that. There are some other flats you can use, for example, "flats_4" texture for stone stairs.
    • UDMF also allows usage of texture alignment.
    • Revenants were stuck in a small room, thus not much of a threat.
    • Felt like HMP more than UV skill level wise, but that's okay. I even like playing it more than the insanely tough ones some people put out.
• Pacing:
  • Actually I like the pacing. But once I upload the video, you'll notice how it escalates from me using only a pistol to using supershotgun, skipping the shotgun for a long period.
  • You will also notice how most of the time I used either chainsaw(even on hitscan, which you usually get punished for), pistol or super shotgun, only using shotgun for the imps (despire having super shotgun)
• Secrets
  • The plasma rifle secret was nice, but also a lot more obvious than the green armor one. However, the plasma gun itself felt like a nice thing to  have, so you hit the nail in the head for that one.
  • There was so much room to move that green armor is enough for whole map, getting blue armor was overkill, allowing me to survive where I should have not survived. It was a nice secret though, but again, easier to find than green armor.
  • Above points about secrets go mute if you fix the texture alignment issues.
• Gameplay
  • Overall gameplay was quite solid. Switches, 3d floors were well used. Sludge Slope...errm, I would have used stairs. 
  • One of the rooms felt underwhelming, It was the computer room with a switch, where you had 1 shotgunner, 2 hellknights and a bunch of demons. The reason it felt underwhelming was because the room was perfect for infighting, yet outside of letting the pinkies bite the hell knights to dust, there wasn't much of an infight to be had. It's not an easy feat to accomplish by any means, but that area could see a bit of a change in monster composition.
  • Mancubus after the sewer can get you some nice reactions, but is way too easy to deal with due to his inability to follow around or even shoot through the small gap.
  • Overall I did have fun. 
• Mapping advice
  • Focus more on the looks and feel of the map. It is okay for the first maps to take months to develop.
  • Ask help with testing the map.
  • Have a look into ZMAPINFO (Click)
    • type "nocrouch" to disable crouching and "nojump" to disable jumping
    • music changes the music in the map, more about that in the link above. 
      • Extra stuff to experiment with once you got the hang of basics.
        • (https://zdoom.org/wiki/MAPINFO)
        • (https://zdoom.org/wiki/MAPINFO/Map_definition)
  • Get used to using slade. Ultimate Doom Builder is good for creating the maps. But Slade has every other customization option out there, starting from textures and ending with pk3 files (which lazygamer covers quite well, i believe someone else has tutorials as well)
  • Above all, have fun!

============BB Wall of Text======================

TL;DR: Fun map, bunch of rookie mistakes in the map, but other than that, was nice to play. 

Awesome. Thanks so much for writing this up and making a video. I really enjoyed watching you play through my little map. I gotta say, I was smiling watching you try to figure out that secret at the very end of the video there. You were so close many times, especially on your first pass through in the beginning! I swear that was the only wall you didn't hump.

 

I was pretty disappointed to see how many misaligned textures there were though (along with mismatched textures, which as you saw were hard to find in places with moving floors because they can become invisible in the editor). I felt like I spent the whole day cleaning it up but I guess after a while I just became blind to them. I will go through and fix them tonight and update the forum post. That seems to be the most glaring mistake, along with the stuck imps in the outside section which I couldn't figure out why they weren't aggroing...I thought maybe it was elevation but now I know they were stuck. Same thing with the inability for demons to climb stairs in some places. I'll keep that in mind.

 

In regards to your notes on texturing and the look of some rooms...yeah, I spent a lot of time staring at the textures list trying to figure out what would look best while also trying not to make it look boring so some rooms, like the hallway on the right from the starting room, came out looking a bit worse than other rooms where I had a good image in mind already. There are definitely rooms I am more proud of and some that are more just a means to the next one and that really shows in your playthrough. I feel as I do this more, different styles will become more second nature so I'll be able to hem and haw on it a bit less and just worry about making it look clean. 

 

Finally, good shout on the map testing forum and other mapping advice. These are things I didn't know existed so I'll be sure to look into them going forward. And thanks for everything else I didn't mention explicitly. I definitely agree with most of them but I moreso just wasn't sure what decision to make, like with the super shotgun being so early and giving you the chainsaw. Your feedback gives me a bit of context to make better decisions later.

 

Overall I'm really happy to see you enjoyed playing it even though it has quite a few mistakes still. That's pretty encouraging.

Cheers!

[KZ_Frew]

Played on UV, got 100% monsters and secrets. Liked the green armor secret. Died to the mancubus once lol.

 

Felt really nice and simple, played well enough and I had fun. I don't really have anything to add that the above poster didn't cover, but I think it's a great first map. I'll add that the difficulty did feel less-than-UV, even though I found ammo short at the beginning (I missed the chainsaw on my first go), but quickly felt loaded and had no troubles making it to the end (except that manc!)

 

Excited to see more from you!

[Chud]

2 hours ago, Degree23 said:

Nice map for a first time.

 

- Without the secrets I think ammo would be pretty tight. I ended with 96 Bullets and 300 Cells, but that was with finding two of the secrets, and the RL did a lot of work on grouped enemies. I'd say one of the 100 Cells can be removed from the PG secret, and maybe something like 20 Shells or some scattered Shells/Bullets could be added to the main progression.

- Having a RL in a secret felt slightly odd given that one appeared during the normal map progression. Maybe just have the ammo there but remove the weapon.

- I also agree with the MegaArmor comment above. A bit overkill, could maybe be replaced with an Armor if you really wanted to keep some there. 

- The very final fight felt slightly underwhelming. I liked the previous room with the Revenant/Mancubii "guards", but the final part being some trapped Imps and a Baron felt like an anti-climax. If the Baron had been an AV that would have been a bit more spicy.

 

I have to say the overall feel did give me the impression of a prison, and this was pretty fun to play through!

 

Thanks for the feedback. That RL was a bit of a afterthought. I wanted people to have the RL at some point regardless of whether or not they found the secret, but still wasn't sure about it. Lots of decisions regarding actor placement I was unsure of to be completely honest.

 

I actually thought about putting an archvile in that last room too but was wondering if that would make things worse since they can make or break a map ime. Maybe I'll replace some of those imps with some hit scanners to make it a bit more dangerous because now that you mention it, yeah it is a bit underwhelming, they die pretty fast so its really just a single baron. Might end up putting an archvile there after all since you mentioned it. I was just thinking the room before with the switch and trap would be moreso of the map coming to the head since there's baddies on both sides. When testing that felt pretty evil...I turned them to ambush mode cause it got pretty hectic and it still felt kind of evil. The more carnage the merrier though.

 

Thanks for playing it!

[Chud]

42 minutes ago, KZ_Frew said:

Played on UV, got 100% monsters and secrets. Liked the green armor secret. Died to the mancubus once lol.

 

Felt really nice and simple, played well enough and I had fun. I don't really have anything to add that the above poster didn't cover, but I think it's a great first map. I'll add that the difficulty did feel less-than-UV, even though I found ammo short at the beginning (I missed the chainsaw on my first go), but quickly felt loaded and had no troubles making it to the end (except that manc!)

 

Excited to see more from you!

I was worried that I wasn't leaving enough ammunition/health but looks like I left plenty after all. Might be because I am a little bit worse at doom than most people here probably so I was mostly compensating for my own (lack of) skills. Might go through and take another look at ammo/health again at some point if I decide to add skill levels.

 

Thanks for the kind words though...glad you enjoyed the map. Also glad that mancubus got someone ;) Stay tuned for more at some point!

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

UAC Prison Break

First of all, I am going to say that the way this map is structured is really very fabulous and really interesting, why do I say this? Because of the way everything is made, the structure of each part of the Wad, and the the way everything looks so unusual with some decorations that maybe don't fit well with the environment but still, the Wad turned out to be my attention in the end, huh. By the way, the fights here were a bit intense, but more than anything I apologize for having used a mod that helps me with my health, it's that... when I saw the beginning of the video of the user "IcarusOfDaggers", I noticed that It was 33 minutes that it took him to complete this, and since it was quite a night here, and he suffered from insomnia, I didn't want to be making a lot of noise in my room and therefore the sudden pauses that will be seen during the gameplay, but at least Other than that, it's a very entertaining and challenging map, with various environments that change in each room, and personally, I didn't feel like frantically searching for Medikits throughout the level. Great job here and very entertaining all in addition.
 

 

[IcarusOfDaggers]

3 hours ago, Chud said:

I was worried that I wasn't leaving enough ammunition/health but looks like I left plenty after all. Might be because I am a little bit worse at doom than most people here probably so I was mostly compensating for my own (lack of) skills. Might go through and take another look at ammo/health again at some point if I decide to add skill levels.

 

Thanks for the kind words though...glad you enjoyed the map. Also glad that mancubus got someone ;) Stay tuned for more at some point!

 

Hey!  About skill level:

 

Design for your own skill level at first. Then, as you keep testing the map. Get it as close to completion at your own skill level, then start adding or removing stuff.

 

I usually design my maps around hmp, then adjust for UV.

 

Also, try to approach your map in different ways. You'll quickly recognize what needs a change then

[Biodegradable]

 

[Chud]

7 hours ago, IcarusOfDaggers said:

 

Hey!  About skill level:

 

Design for your own skill level at first. Then, as you keep testing the map. Get it as close to completion at your own skill level, then start adding or removing stuff.

 

I usually design my maps around hmp, then adjust for UV.

 

Also, try to approach your map in different ways. You'll quickly recognize what needs a change then

This definitely seems like a good way to do it. I guess since it's my first map I didn't want to do anything too crazy, so although it may be slightly easier than I hoped I'm still really happy with the outcome. Still probably nothing that can't be fixed with a few well placed monsters when/if I decide to add a UV mode. 

 

 I bet playtesters would also be really helpful with optimizing for different difficulties and approaches. Thanks again for the tips!

[Chud]

9 hours ago, ElPadrecitoCholo said:

UAC Prison Break

First of all, I am going to say that the way this map is structured is really very fabulous and really interesting, why do I say this? Because of the way everything is made, the structure of each part of the Wad, and the the way everything looks so unusual with some decorations that maybe don't fit well with the environment but still, the Wad turned out to be my attention in the end, huh. By the way, the fights here were a bit intense, but more than anything I apologize for having used a mod that helps me with my health, it's that... when I saw the beginning of the video of the user "IcarusOfDaggers", I noticed that It was 33 minutes that it took him to complete this, and since it was quite a night here, and he suffered from insomnia, I didn't want to be making a lot of noise in my room and therefore the sudden pauses that will be seen during the gameplay, but at least Other than that, it's a very entertaining and challenging map, with various environments that change in each room, and personally, I didn't feel like frantically searching for Medikits throughout the level. Great job here and very entertaining all in addition.
 

 

Hey! I'm glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for the response. I really wanted to make something pretty unique and well structured by any standards, not just first release standards. So I'm glad I managed to do that decently well in the end. Stay tuned :)

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

@Chud Hey Hey, first of all, I apologize, it seems that I sent you the wrong video, I thought I had uploaded it at dawn but because of the sleep I felt at that moment, I ended up forgetting to upload it, for which, you just wait a moment and I'll send you the correct video, seriously, I apologize for the tremendous inconvenience caused here...
Secondly, I'm surprised that you didn't tell me about the video that had nothing to do with your Wad, again I apologize for that misunderstanding.

[Chud]

6 hours ago, ElPadrecitoCholo said:

@Chud Hey Hey, first of all, I apologize, it seems that I sent you the wrong video, I thought I had uploaded it at dawn but because of the sleep I felt at that moment, I ended up forgetting to upload it, for which, you just wait a moment and I'll send you the correct video, seriously, I apologize for the tremendous inconvenience caused here...
Secondly, I'm surprised that you didn't tell me about the video that had nothing to do with your Wad, again I apologize for that misunderstanding.

Haha all good, no worries! I figured you just sent the wrong one...I knew you were talking about my map anyway. But yea for sure feel free to send the video I'm loving watching y'all take it on.

[LadyMistDragon]

So um....this was a good debut! I really liked how secrets weren't too hard to find, yet sort of spit at the concept of constant wall-humping. There was one bit where I didn't duck far enough around a corner and a homing rocket struck me. Pretty funny!

[Chud]

On 8/16/2022 at 8:41 PM, LadyMistDragon said:

So um....this was a good debut! I really liked how secrets weren't too hard to find, yet sort of spit at the concept of constant wall-humping. There was one bit where I didn't duck far enough around a corner and a homing rocket struck me. Pretty funny!

Thanks for playing! Glad you liked the secrets :) I had fun trying to hide them. Yea homing rockets are killers though...I've heard it said that its 50/50 whether a rev missile is homing or not, but it always feels closer to like 80% when I'm playing hahah

[Custom Longplay]

UAC Prison Break - [4K] - [100% Secrets]

 

 

[Chud]

7 hours ago, Custom Longplay said:

UAC Prison Break - [4K] - [100% Secrets]

 

 

That mod looks great. Is that project brutality? It looks similar but I don't remember it having the same UI or a weapon wheel which is honestly a super cool addition.

 

Also you totally cheated on that first secret...there's a switch behind one of the walls that lowers the platform...but I'll let it slide ;) thanks for checking it out!

 

Edit: I'm blind, it says project brutality right in the title lol

Edited August 31, 2022 by Chud