Aimless places - another first map

[Cilian]

Hey, I've been playing around with UDB for a bit and just did my first finished first map (you could argue that it's not the first map because I've done some very short stuff shortly before it but it's the first finished one and I just want to call it the first one) and want to show it for feedback.

It's a doom2 map that is around 6 minutes long, tested with Crispy Doom 5.12.0, intended to be played with -complevel 2. Difficulty I would say is above the average difficulty of Plutonia maps but it's shorter than them. Skill levels are not implemented (sorry).

Download: aimless.zip
Screenshots:

[RED77]

Solid layout. Way too hard and short on resources. Maybe some armor would help

[thelamp]

Cool first map! Very punishing difficulty but I made it thru :)

 

 

 

[IcarusOfDaggers]

You can use lower unpegged on the linedefs before the raised floor and upper unpegged on linedefs before the raised ceilings to align the textures. When I start recording, I'll also comment what I mean. Looks good so far.

[Cilian]

1 hour ago, RED77 said:

Solid layout. Way too hard and short on resources. Maybe some armor would help

Yeah, skill levels would be very nice to have but I got lazy... Like in the first two fights there could have a bit less imps to make them less cramped, the computer monster closet could have the chaingunners and caco teleport in with longer delay at lower levels, etc. The UV difficulty is mostly as hard as it can go before it gets harder than I can still beat the fights with reasonable effort

[Dopaminecloud]

First impression: Pain! I'm going to have to use saves here.

[Cilian]

1 hour ago, thelamp said:

Cool first map! Very punishing difficulty but I made it thru :)

 

 

 

Thanks for playing. This map actually has a soulsphere in a secret but looking at your playthrough it would be a lot less cruel to make the secret more obvious, hiding it is like hiding a key required for the exit in a secret

[Dopaminecloud]

 

I had just beaten it with a save when you revealed the soulsphere secret. I believe that chaingunner/rev fight is the hardest in the map and it cools down a lot afterwards, so while it's possible to do without the secret it's very tricky and I may not have gotten the single-segment without it. Definitely make it a bit more obvious or even just outright give it, I still managed to get brought back down to 50% anyway.

Fun-wise I think the yellow-key is the best, followed by the opening room and then the chaingun fight. The short bit after you sprint over the blood platforms is neat too but everything else at this point becomes shooting gunners around a corner, which is like a well deserved rest but I don't know if that's what you were going for.

[Biodegradable]

You've got quite the mean-streak, fam. Quite the spicy little map.

 

=

[Cilian]

2 hours ago, Biodegradable said:

You've got quite the mean-streak, fam. Quite the spicy little map.

 

=

Lol that was very fun to watch. I think playthroughs show me a lot of little mistakes made because I don't consider what a blind player is gonna think or do. If I updated this map I would for example add the texture for blue key doors next to the door at the left of the player at the beginning to make it obvious that you can't open it, remove the two high chaingunners at the chaingun fight because it's easy to think that they are part of the things that open up, make the second secret much more obvious as it's an important one, try to make switches that open up more noticeable with more contrast, small things.

[Custom Longplay]

Project Brutality 3.0 - Doom 2 - Map: #0257 - Aimless places - [4K60ᶠᵖˢ] - [100%]

 

 

 

 

[RastaManGames]

This level destroyed me several times.

I didn't expected it to be that harsh.

And, personally, I think that some places have a bit too much enemies.

Beside that, layout is not that complex.

Nice little touch that you letting player to re-visit previous locations.

 

 

[Zahid]

solid layout and well planned ammo and health.difficulty is high but not unfair. awesome for first map 

i maxed it out in my 10th attempt

prboom+ 2.6 cl2 uvmax demo

popi9.zip

[Cilian]

1 hour ago, Zahid said:

solid layout and well planned ammo and health.difficulty is high but not unfair. awesome for first map 

i maxed it out in my 10th attempt

prboom+ 2.6 cl2 uvmax demo

popi9.zip

Feel like I've done something wrong if people pistol the imps on the platform in the first fight, that's not how I intended the fight to be done but it seems way easier but annoying. Also you are doing the yellow key exactly how I did when playtesting it, I wanted the chaingunners to force the player to stay behind the mancubus pillar so that's how I always tested it after just one unsuccessful attempt to kill them before focusing on the imps. How you begin the chaingun fight (not the most well thought one, it's just teleport spam) looks pretty clean, quickly lure the imps away to one side and run into their closet from the other. How you did the ambush at the part with blood platforms mini-platforming is also similar to how I did it, took more damage than I thought is usual there but it was fine.

 

5 hours ago, RastaManGames said:

This level destroyed me several times.

I didn't expected it to be that harsh.

And, personally, I think that some places have a bit too much enemies.

Beside that, layout is not that complex.

Nice little touch that you letting player to re-visit previous locations.

 

 

The animations of these weapons look funny. Plays very differently with mods, brutal doom is the only mod I played and I think it would make the map impossible to beat because enemies there are much more dangerous and on this map I imagine that's unbearable 

[ANonThingie!]

Played in GZDooM version 4.8.2 [It's my preferred port to play with]. I'm trying to be a bit more active in playtesting stuff [and vocal, I'm rather anxious a poster], so here's my feedback and whatnot. 

Experience Sum Up:
I was able to play this map and after a lot of deaths. Was able to Single Segment and Max it. [Difficulties as noted are not present, so stuck to Normal]. The biggest problem I've got with the map is, it really does feel there's no alternative solution to getting through it. Some of the design feels as there's an expected approach, rather than having some choice [even if it was on what side of a room you appear in].

Parts of the map feel way too cramped also, while I get this is intentional to facilitate the challenge, I also even have to question the stingy item amounts [those secrets do become more important than planned].

The annoying bit I hope that is changed is the hurt floor blood platforms and the one housing an important healing item, one attempt I died on those due to having low enough health.

Improvement Suggestions:
1) Difficulty Settings on some of the crowds, meaning that the ambushes won't last as long and less ammo is needed to be banked.
2) Remember seeing another poster mention armour drops. That would help, but having a few splits in the path which lead to caches would be a good way to help both allow changes to the layout and provide some replay ability points.
3) A few less hit scanners, if anything was to be taken out, if minimal or no other changes. The chain-gunners made learning the route more difficult than it really should.

I would also hope a little texture variation comes into a few of the rooms, but as some people prefer less detail/texturing maps, this is more a "if you want" point.

========================================

Rating: Play [but only if you like strict encounters]
Hope you got something out of this. Bye for now.

[IcarusOfDaggers]

Your map turned out to be too difficult to me. Sorry about this, but I will not be recording a video.

 

As much as I did play, I have one question to ask: why there are no difficulties? The two medikit secrets turn out to be your most valuable asset, making the yellow key fight nothing more than an rng fest, as you have to hope for a lucky kill from both mancubus and your shotgun just so you can use rest of the monsters as a meatshield, that is, if you're lucky enough to not fall into a pit you have no realistic escape out of anyway.  This is definetly way above my skill level, good luck on future works.

Edited April 12, 2023 by IcarusOfDaggers

[Cilian]

10 hours ago, IcarusOfDaggers said:

Your map turned out to be too difficult to me. Sorry about this, but I will not be recording a video.

 

As much as I did play, I have one question to ask: why there are no difficulties? The two medikit secrets turn out to be your most valuable asset, making the yellow key fight nothing more than an rng fest, as you have to hope for a lucky kill from both mancubus and your shotgun just so you can use rest of the monsters as a meatshield, that is, if you're lucky enough to not fall into a pit you have no realistic escape out of anyway.  This is definetly way above my skill level, good luck on future works.

You could say rushed because I wanted to move on to a new and better map with a tiny bit of experience I gained so I just put an exit at the end of what I already have and began a new map and posted this one for feedback.

 

Also since the post is already bumped again (surprised how many replies this got) I think I can use it to show a few screenshots of the new map (...really want to just show something because mapping in silence feels lonely)

[Dopaminecloud]

As crudely cruel the first one was, you did have an eye for pushing the player's buttons while still providing solutions which is anything but bland. I'll be keeping an eye on your releases.

[Cilian]

On 4/13/2023 at 8:30 AM, Cilian said:

Also since the post is already bumped again (surprised how many replies this got) I think I can use it to show a few screenshots of the new map

I'm sorry for yet another bump of a month old first map and forgetting to send this earlier but here it is:

 

[IcarusOfDaggers]

On 4/13/2023 at 8:30 AM, Cilian said:

You could say rushed because I wanted to move on to a new and better map with a tiny bit of experience I gained so I just put an exit at the end of what I already have and began a new map and posted this one for feedback.

 

Had to wait for free time to answer. it did not feel rushed, outside of few minor errors, it felt just too difficult for me, kinda like plutonia does. So you hit the mark

[xavrua]

Great map, I had fun with it. I started to rage a little bit not going to lie, but I got there in the end ahah. Those damn chaingunners!