Terraformal (My First Map)

[nerdemperor]

Tried my hand at mapping, Single map, Map01 of Doom 2, Doom 2 format, tested in GZDoom. Fairly large and basic map with no bells and whistles like freelook or crouching/jumping. Not particularly difficult. Let me know what you think.

 

https://wadhosting.com/Wad/FD20BA408DB1F407F1CF4DD260BC4130D15D9363

 

[KZ_Frew]

A pretty good first map, I enjoyed myself. Here's a playthrough for ya on UV.

 

 

Spoiler-y feedback/thoughts below:

 

Spoiler

I was pretty surprised I didn't come across an SSG, but there was plenty of rockets to deal with the beefier monsters, especially in the last room, that I didn't miss the SSG too badly. The elevator room was cool. I didn't understand it at first, but then I was vibing with it, especially with all the surface area and the big center column. The outdoor fights were also good, but the first big area (with the river) might be a touch easy on UV, the revenant was the only real threat. A hell knight or two could spice things up. Everything else felt fairly balanced.

 

Hope to see more from you!

[nerdemperor]

Thanks mate, glad you liked it. As for the SSG, it might not be as absent as you think ;)

[jmac]

Gave this one a go on UV. Overall a good map with some interesting ideas. The visuals are simple but appealing for the most part (with the exception of some odd vertically repeating textures). The fights are definitely on the easy side, and some of the monsters immediately begin infighting as soon as you alert them. I'd also recommend double checking the positioning of your monster; I encountered at least 4 or 5 that were stuck, unable to move or attack. My final nitpick is that the first outdoor area feels a bit too empty. There aren't really enough monsters placed in it to justify the large open space in my opinion.

 

On the positive side of things, the structure of the map itself is quite good. I like the way it looped back on itself once you got keys, and the elevator fight was genuinely interesting. For a first time mapper, this was definitely a solid effort.

[nerdemperor]

That's fair, think my mistake was using HMP as the baseline and doing the others after, probably should have started with UV and worked my way down.

 

[IcarusOfDaggers]

58 minutes ago, nerdemperor said:

That's fair, think my mistake was using HMP as the baseline and doing the others after, probably should have started with UV and worked my way down.

 

If your skill level is currently HMP, then that is a correct approach. 

Might have gone wrong when testing it. I'll let you know once I get to recording it

Edited August 24, 2022 by IcarusOfDaggers

[Biodegradable]

Not too shabby for a first map, mate. Height variation and texture work need a lot of fine tuning, but your progression was decent and nothing felt borked. Demon placement seemed a bit wonky as I found multiple occasions where demons were simply stuck in walls and such and were basically useless. Also noticed some weird use of blocklines that was also easily exploitable. Combat overall was a little toothless, but thankfully not boring. The big elevator setpiece was cute.

 

 

Welcome to Doomworld! Keep practicing, fam.

[Murdoch]

Not bad for a first go, I have seen worse, but your texturing really needs work. Do not let things tile that clearly were not meant to tile like the doors and switches. It just looks really ugly.

 

As my friend @Biodegradable said, keep practicing. Becoming a good mapper takes time and effort, like anything else.

[nerdemperor]

Yeah, I know the doors look kind of whack, couldn't figure out how to get them looking good. Are door sizes really limited to the size of the texture, or is there a way to skew them to fit a different sized door?

[TheSlipgateStudios]

Heya nerdemperor! I did a playtest video of your map on YouTube, here's the link:

And now my summary: I'm sorry to say it, but I didn't really enjoy playing your map. It had several cool parts though, but revisiting those parts turned to be tedious so yeah. Enemy placement is okay, there is a lack of weapons and ammo and I had to cheat to get through, level design is okay I guess, only found one secret, died once at a tough spot as well, and overall the experience was kind of not that special. You did well on your first try at making a map.

My score for this will be 3.0/5, hopefully your next projects will turn out better!

[IcarusOfDaggers]

 

[Wyrmwood]

On 8/24/2022 at 1:06 PM, nerdemperor said:

Yeah, I know the doors look kind of whack, couldn't figure out how to get them looking good. Are door sizes really limited to the size of the texture, or is there a way to skew them to fit a different sized door?

 

I'm a rookie mapper myself, so maybe not the best help, least your brave enough to show your map here, I only let my kids playtest for now.

 

From looking at your screenshots, you made the doors flush with the walls. You want to set them in a little, which looks nicer but you should also have a thin sector in front of and behind the door. Grab the ceiling part of that sector in 3d mode and pull it down to the top of the door, slap some textures on to match the wall and done. I also found you need to lower unpeg the door track textures on the side and don't forget textures for the bottom of the door when it open. I've been learning with SLADE, so hopefully this is still relevant if your using Doombuilder.

[Proxy-MIDI]

The level design was great ! I freaking liked the different ideas in this map such as the elevator fight. For the cons, they have been already told so I'll not repeat them. For a first map, that's a nice try ! I hope you'll fix the defaults to bring a nearly perfect experience !

 

P.S : The beginning reminded me the Sandy Petersen's map "Tricks and Traps", I dunno why ! :P

[Custom Longplay]

Terraformal - [4K] - [100% Secrets]

 

I have posted an impression of the map below my video in the comments section!