Bad map concepts

[Shikamaze]

Recently, replaying the original scythe, i faced map 28. Run from it features a off screen timer that instakills you after some time. That map seems to be almost 100% regarded as bad, and i thought about it for a while, and could not think of a way to make the map concept work in a way that would be enjoyable but also "true to the original''. Can you think of a way to make this map gimmick work? What are some other map concepts that also don't work (excluding joke maps)?

[dasho]

 

[Ravendesk]

I honestly think that map 28 works well and it's one of my favourite scythe maps.

 

[matador]

6 minutes ago, Shikamaze said:

Recently, replaying the original scythe, i faced map 28. Run from it features a off screen timer that instakills you after some time. That map seems to be almost 100% regarded as bad, and i thought about it for a while, and could not think of a way to make the map concept work in a way that would be enjoyable but also "true to the original''. Can you think of a way to make this map gimmick work? What are some other map concepts that also don't work (excluding joke maps)?

IMO, this map does the "Run from It" concept better.

[Pseudonaut]

Run From It is a really fun map. I'm not sure what people don't like about it.

[DNSKILL5]

What about good map concepts?

[TheDanMarine]

before I opened this thread I was really hoping this would be some kind of idea for a community project where people are given intentionally bad ideas and try to make good maps out of them. I'm of the personal mind that any idea can be done well, it's just that some take more work than others. like city maps. they take more work than most people give them :P

 

45 minutes ago, matador said:

IMO, this map does the "Run from It" concept better.

that map is like a metal as hell temple run, I had to force myself to stop after the 13th attempt because I knew I'd spend all day trying to beat it if I didn't. 

[ViolentBeetle]

I once did a map that serves as a time trial, it was OK, but not very interesting. The problem with Run From It is mostly that it's too hard.

[xScavengerWolfx]

I did two things of shovel ware style wads where there bad on purpose because i was going through old doom wads of the 90's and figure "hell, i can make shovelware style bad wads out of boredom".

 

I mean yes there playable but i made them bad because i was trying to re create the days of the old wad editors and show that even in modern day mapping you can make junk look good lol.

[msx2plus]

this thread is all wrong. we shouldn't be talking about "this mad has a bad concept". we should be pitching new, novel concepts that are bad, and should be created immediately.

[heliumlamb]

you walk forward 10 units and it triggers a perpetual slow crusher on tag 0. that's it, the whole map.

[Mog]

A firing line of chaingunners that have archviles nearby but you cant shoot the archviles so they just keep reviving the chaingunners

 

Edited May 6, 2023 by Mog

[esselfortium]

27 minutes ago, msx2plus said:

this thread is all wrong. we shouldn't be talking about "this mad has a bad concept". we should be pitching new, novel concepts that are bad, and should be created immediately.

Consider:

 

[ViolentBeetle]

16 minutes ago, Mog said:

A firing line of chaingunners that have archviles nearby but you cant shoot the archviles so they just keep reviving the chaingunners

 

That's just plutonia.

[Firedust]

22 minutes ago, Mog said:

A firing line of chaingunners that have archviles nearby but you cant shoot the archviles so they just keep reviving the chaingunners

 

reported

[SCF]

32 minutes ago, msx2plus said:

this thread is all wrong. we shouldn't be talking about "this mad has a bad concept". we should be pitching new, novel concepts that are bad, and should be created immediately.

 

I don't know if it's been done before, but a while back I was theorycrafting a map that's just a room with a switch and a closed door. If you press the switch and wait some amount of time, the door opens and you can exit.

 

A very long amount of time.

 

The map has a number of hallways, each containing a voodoo doll on a conveyor. Pressing the switch releases voodoo doll #1, which starts moving along its corridor. Once it gets to the end, it triggers a linedef and teleports back to the beginning to repeat the process.

 

Each time that linedef is hit, it lowers a wall blocking voodoo doll #2 by 24 units. Let's say for convenience that it takes 1000 loops from voodoo doll #1 before this wall is fully lowered and voodoo doll #2 is released. Doll #2 then makes its own trip to the end of its hallway, where it lowers a wall blocking voodoo doll #3 by one step and teleports back. It also raises its own wall back to the original height, so it has to wait for doll #1 to make another 1000 trips before it can move again. After doll #1 has made one million trips, voodoo doll #3 is freed, and the same thing happens. One billion trips, and doll #4 can start moving.

 

You can make as many copies of this contraption as you can fit into the map, but let's be modest and make ten of them. The last one will open the door and allow the player to exit. If it takes the voodoo doll one minute to move to the end of the hallway, this will only take 10^30 minutes, or about 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years.

 

I'd make it right now, but I don't have enough time to playtest it.

[SuperFreaksDev]

Hunted but it’s in the backrooms

[TheDanMarine]

37 minutes ago, SCF said:

Spoiler

I don't know if it's been done before, but a while back I was theorycrafting a map that's just a room with a switch and a closed door. If you press the switch and wait some amount of time, the door opens and you can exit.

 

A very long amount of time.

 

The map has a number of hallways, each containing a voodoo doll on a conveyor. Pressing the switch releases voodoo doll #1, which starts moving along its corridor. Once it gets to the end, it triggers a linedef and teleports back to the beginning to repeat the process.

 

Each time that linedef is hit, it lowers a wall blocking voodoo doll #2 by 24 units. Let's say for convenience that it takes 1000 loops from voodoo doll #1 before this wall is fully lowered and voodoo doll #2 is released. Doll #2 then makes its own trip to the end of its hallway, where it lowers a wall blocking voodoo doll #3 by one step and teleports back. It also raises its own wall back to the original height, so it has to wait for doll #1 to make another 1000 trips before it can move again. After doll #1 has made one million trips, voodoo doll #3 is freed, and the same thing happens. One billion trips, and doll #4 can start moving.

 

You can make as many copies of this contraption as you can fit into the map, but let's be modest and make ten of them. The last one will open the door and allow the player to exit. If it takes the voodoo doll one minute to move to the end of the hallway, this will only take 10^30 minutes, or about 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years.

 

I'd make it right now, but I don't have enough time to playtest it.

 

 

reminds me of an idea I had for a map where you're literally just waiting in a room for like, half an hour, and then the exit opens. I haven't started making it yet because a: I'm in the middle of another project and b: I'm still flip flopping on if it should just be a waiting room or have cool optional stuff in it like in that watch paint dry mod for half life 2

[Shepardus]

44 minutes ago, SCF said:

I don't know if it's been done before, but a while back I was theorycrafting a map that's just a room with a switch and a closed door. If you press the switch and wait some amount of time, the door opens and you can exit.

 

A very long amount of time.

 

[baja blast rd.]

Reminded to turn this into a map now. 

 

 

[Eon Toad]

1 hour ago, msx2plus said:

this thread is all wrong. we shouldn't be talking about "this mad has a bad concept". we should be pitching new, novel concepts that are bad, and should be created immediately.

 

That's not far from the concept behind the Limit Buffet community project currently currently in the works. Every map has its own unique constraint that should make for a bad level, like only liquid textures allowed or the whole map has to be one sector, and your goal is to try to make a good (or at least funny) map anyway.

Edited May 7, 2023 by Eon Toad

[msx2plus]

13 minutes ago, Eon Toad said:

only liquid textures allowed

only liquid textures is good by default, sorry to say

 

15 minutes ago, baja blast rd. said:

map

please continue

Edited May 7, 2023 by msx2plus

[Nefelibeta]

3 hours ago, baja blast rd. said:

Reminded to turn this into a map now. 

 

 

could've put another zombie on the opposite side as well

[Chocolate_Doomer]

So, you know that maze that dosen't appear on the auto-map in that one level of Chex Quest? Yeah, let's do that for an entire level.

That would be the worst map idea ever.

[TheSlipgateStudios]

A bad map concept: anything like The Chasm or Nirvana. Bland, ugly and not so fun gameplay.

[Grain of Salt]

• Room which is entirely made of incredibly steep stairs (like 1 pixel wide, 16-24 higher than previous step), and you fight a bunch of pain elementals using only rockets
• Area where you have to clip into a spider mastermind to get past
• Maze where you're constantly gliding and there's ghost monsters closing in on you
• "super archvile" that kills you instantly if it's ever onscreen, so you have to learn where they are and kill them with splash or infighting etc

Well, that last one wasn't even a map idea so I'll stop there

[Xyzzу]

Those first two can be found in the form of D5DA3 maps 54, 48 and 92.

 

[MFG38]

I like Scythe MAP28.

 

4 hours ago, baja blast rd. said:

Reminded to turn this into a map now.

 

*busts out notepad*

[Sneezy McGlassFace]

6 hours ago, baja blast rd. said:

Reminded to turn this into a map now. 

Valiant MAP07 on steroids

[Sneezy McGlassFace]

8 hours ago, esselfortium said:

Consider:

Spoiler

 

I genuinely love the idea of this. Shame it didn't get off the ground.