Do you have any mapping gimmick trademark?

[Kyka]

2 hours ago, Faceman2000 said:

That’s great to hear - I’m really excited for Forever. An odd grab bag of various maps of varying quality always sounded more likely to capture the spirit of TNT than it’s two highly-polished sequels (not a dig on them of course, as they are both great mapsets as well).

 

Thank you. :) And while yes it is definitely a grab bag, much work has been done to make it a coherent grab bag. So, not completely coherent, but very coherent by the standards of grab bags. :)

 

And yes I agree Revilution was superb, when I finally got around to playing it a year or so ago. And tnt2 is unsurprisingly amazing, though I have not played through all of it.

[Shepardus]

11 hours ago, Kyka said:

 

C'mon Doomkid. It only makes sense that I should be awarded a non existent cacoward for a non existent wad. :D It's simple cause and effect see.

 

New cacoward category anyone?

 

Of course the cacoward for best non existent wad would face some stiff competition, from the likes of Mordeth, the remaining levels of Scythe X, and probably Half Life 3 somehow. Hey don't ask me I don't make the rules.

Well, there is the "What are we still waiting for?" feature in the sidebar (here's the one for 2021), so in a way there already is a Cacoward category.

[Kyka]

6 hours ago, Shepardus said:

Well, there is the "What are we still waiting for?" feature in the sidebar (here's the one for 2021), so in a way there already is a Cacoward category.

 

Thank you for informing me. I had no idea this existed.

 

I still maintain that these wads do however exist, in some form, which differentiates the award they can logically be given would also exist. As opposed to a non existent cacoward for a non existent mapset.

[Domestic-Weirdo]

I haven't been mapping that much but I do like making unmarked secret areas (perhaps Super Secrets). It's a pleasant surprise to find a hidden medkit even after the counter has been maxed out. I think it encourages players to explore maps more thoroughly by not having all secrets being a part of completion percentage. 

[Koko Ricky]

I like to add bridges to my limit-removing maps. Despite how finicky the vanilla versions are, I like finding ways to suggest verticality. 

[Lucius Wooding]

I suppose I forgot one, I like to place health and armor bonuses in overlapping bunches, usually stacks of 5 or 25. I find them to be nicer rewards since they let you stockpile a big stack of health if you avoid hits. That, and they let you place something smaller than a soulsphere and I don't have to worry about spacing them out evenly for aesthetics, it's a nightmare.

 

I also favor stimpacks over medikits in almost all circumstances. It spreads out the health a bit more and you waste less of it, giving the player the option to backtrack and clear out early portions of the map to heal up if they want to play careful. I also place multiple berserk packs in some cases, so a player can pick one up for the powerup but still have one or two as emergency heals. Personally I consider it more as a healing item than a good weapon, unless you're really limiting the monster roster. It gives the player an interesting choice if they want to make the best use of it and save it till they're low, or use it to top off to reduce risk of a big hit. I've also used it in one fight to prevent the player from being able to circlestrafe a crowd because they'll auto switch weapons when they accidentally grab it.

[fai1025]

• absolutely no acute angles
• wide arena
• hell knight + Cacodemon combination
• wall opening monster closet + teleporting ambush
• 255 > 240 > 220 > 200 > 180 > 160 > 140 > 120 > 100 > 90 > 80 > 60 + soild blackwall (brightness levels)
• add little border around the room

[DannyMan]

I create small nooks for switches 

[TheMightyWhoosh]

I’m noticing I really make an effort to ensure connecting/touching wall and floor/ceiling textures match as close as possible, to avoid contrasting textures clashing. 

[Geodesic Dome Enthusiast]

• Doomcute and other such detailing
• Obsession with 3D bridges
• Fake 3D midtexture decoration in general
• Making use of Boom specials
• Custom Dehacked enemies
• Adding more props with Dehextra
• Giving every map a sense of place

[RonLivingston]

I make Train stations which I was inspired by the ultimate doomers fragport mod

[Stabbey]

- I like using standard line actions. Scripting is fine, but the challenge of trying to accomplish what I want using standard actions is rewarding.

- One of my signature tricks is “much more of the room opens than you were expecting.” It's especially effective if the wall which opens is detailed.

- I tend to rarely put in Large Cell Packs, as the cell-using weapons are very powerful.

- I occasionally use crusher-barrel-teleport traps to send dead monsters to places. It can be confusing and alarming to players to see a previously empty space now full of corpses they didn't leave themselves.

- I largely use Arch-Viles where they can resurrect enemies, less so as turrets or solo monsters.

- Many of my fights create infighting naturally, which I like for the random elements it adds to each playthrough.

- Generally though, I think I try and have a unique gimmick for each map.

 

Control Tower - The exterior playable edge is a giant self-raising staircase and you need to loop around it more than once to exit.

More Tricks and Traps Than You Require - A bunch of unusual tricks and such which wouldn't fit in most other, less gimmicky maps.

Nukage Treatment Pools - move nukage into the central area, then flush it into the overflow pool to raise the way to the exit.

Dead in 5 Minutes - You're stuck inside a crusher being sniped at for 5 minutes until the door opens. I wouldn't dawdle on the way out.

 

The current map I'm working on, Fire, Water, and Blood was originally intended for the PUSS "March Mayan Madness" CP, but I was overambitious and didn't finish, and put it aside for a while. That one has multiple gimmicks. Since it's ancient ruins, I decided that there should be no doors, and almost no switches. There are less than a dozen switches in the map, and few of them look like actual switches. Most of the deliberate triggers are done using large, visible touchplates which sink into the ground when stepped on. I even created a touchplate which requires that all three skull keys be collected and "placed" on special altars before it performs its task.

Edited October 17, 2022 by Stabbey
added a couple more of my personal gimmicks.

[Lizardcommando]

Well, for most of the maps I have released so far, I've implemented some kind of doomcute in it.

[nerdybunny]

I keep making the chaingun firing interval shorter. Fast chaingun is awesome.

[out_of_service]

Not finishing my maps and scrapping them lol.

Edited October 16, 2022 by Piper Maru

[E1M10]

A single zombie behind your spawn

[jazzmaster9]

Starting with Rapidfire 2 onwards, I started incorporating this Doorway-Archway-Thing(i don't know what this is called) into my architecture.

Very inspired by BTSX E1's visual design.

[Koko Ricky]

20 hours ago, Piper Maru said:

Not finishing my maps and scrapping them lol.

 

I've done this several times and it honestly made me a better mapper.

Edited October 17, 2022 by Koko Ricky

[Phobus]

I think my gimmick is that each map and project has it’s own gimmicks. I can’t get enough of them…

[volleyvalley]

I found out recently after playing my maps, that I have almost zero health in them.

[NeedHealth]

Sometimes I make the key door the key trap. Espcially funny to do this in community project, since i suspect few other people do this. This makes for a nice jump scare to the player, especially if my map is located later in the map set. Makes them fear key doors for a little while.

 

 

 

 

[IcarusOfDaggers]

well someone noticed i'm using ancient greeks symbol for sun in my maps quite often. Also, I tend to like marble or at bare minimum bricks in pretty much any map I make. haven't mapped long enough to have anything else though.

 

Oh, and I definetly like to overdetail to the point where detailing becomes part of the combat

[Bri]

Revenants packed into closets. And slime trails. :P

[xdarkmasterx]

Edited January 4, 2023 by xdarkmasterx

[JT88]

Making secrets that are not tagged as secrets.

[DoctorNuriel]

I enjoy making small/compact maps (MAP01-sized, even if the difficulty is high for that particular slot) that loop back on themselves or otherwise reuse spaces for different encounters (Noroi from Doomworld Max '21 has the player make one-and-a-half loop around a linear layout). I like to make rooms relatively small (not cramped) but provide corners and other such geometry for short- to mid-range cover shooting.

 

I dislike having the player spend too long plonking at enemies with the pistol so I like to provide a shotgun at the start, or at the very least a chainsaw or Berserk. In A Lesson In Rhythm Management I went for a hot start where the player, cornered, fends off the initial horde with rockets and slowly gains a foothold.

[INfront95]

Trims, TRIM LINES EVERYWHERE! Pillars, Upper\Lower walls, Vertical, Horizontal, On the floor, On the celling! If this is a plain wall that conected to the floor\celling without somekind of moldling, me no like.

[orangefire222]

Over use of the TNT-exclusive texture EGSUPRT3, to the point that most of my levels are only TNT compatible. Easily fixed, but it's my thing so meh.

 

Also I like to build chemical storage tanks/bottles/silos/cylinders when decorating a level.

 

Like these.