What are your creative crutches?

[Plerb]

Drawing a bunch of random blobs mostly with orthogonal lines and beveled corners, and figuring out what they represent and how they interconnect later.

[act]

3 hours ago, Plerb said:

Drawing a bunch of random blobs mostly with orthogonal lines and beveled corners, and figuring out what they represent and how they interconnect later.

That ain't no crutch, that's a mapping philosophy.

[Plerb]

24 minutes ago, act said:

That ain't no crutch, that's a mapping philosophy.

Ah yeah, I guess that's true.

[prfunky]

On 11/21/2023 at 8:38 PM, Emperor S P O O N said:

... And if Youtube gets picky or if I simply don't like Youtube at the moment then I've got...

 

Ain't that a b*tch?! YT has been pissing me off lately. Does Google screw up everything they touch?

I used to like image search but now I can't get it to stop telling me I've reached the end of the Internet ~ sheesh!

 

On 11/22/2023 at 6:46 PM, act said:

... I also never playtest on any difficulty below UV, which is a cardinal sin of mine

 

I'm going to agree with that being a cardinal sin. I can't tell you how many maps of others I never take a 2nd

look at because I got my ass curbstomped on HMP in 10 seconds. Hopefully, what I'm designing doesn't do

this!

 

I'm pretty conscious of crutches. I notice them, then I force myself to not do that anymore. I guess my original

crutch was making massive levels out of GRAYx textures. They were very boring.

[LVENdead]

9 hours ago, prfunky said:

I'm going to agree with that being a cardinal sin. I can't tell you how many maps of others I never take a 2nd

look at because I got my ass curbstomped on HMP in 10 seconds. Hopefully, what I'm designing doesn't do

this! 

 

So in my experience, I'm not sure how much easier HMP and lower are "supposed" to be for people since I primarily play Doom on UV. I try my best to look at what makes something difficult on UV and adjust it - is it because you don't get much health (and therefor, I add some extra medkits), or is it that AV that should be replaced with something else? I can try my own maps out but I don't personally get much feedback about the balance of the other difficulties from players, so I just kind of have to go with "I guess it's good enough and hopefully playable".

[prfunky]

4 hours ago, LVENdead said:

 

... or is it that AV that should be replaced with something else?

 

YES!! NO F*ING ARCHIES unless you're playing on Ultraviolence! No Spider Masterminds, no Cyberdemons either.

Personally, I'm almost done with producing my first ever dedicated single player map. I've cut the amount of ammo

available in UV while increasing the intensity of the enemies. We'll see how my map plays out when it's released and

I'll be able to give you better feedback then. But as a mental exercise, what would it be like to design a Doom map

straight down the middle, beginning with HMP. Then, increase the difficulty for UV and decrease the difficulty for

Please Don't Hurt Me. If you're the only one doing playtesting of your maps and you typically only play the game set

to UV, try this:

Play on HMP sitting on one hand. Seriously, you'll amp up your difficulty enough to experience the handicappedness

of other less skilled players. I'm an awful video game player in general. I play Doom keyboard-only. It's not that I

never tried to play both mouse and keyboard, it's just that my pea-sized brain couldn't handle it. To me, it's like that

pat your head while rubbing your belly thing; I can't do that either.

 

[Jayextee]

51 minutes ago, prfunky said:

YES!! NO F*ING ARCHIES unless you're playing on Ultraviolence! No Spider Masterminds, no Cyberdemons either.

You are the reason people feel like they're missing out for not playing UV.

[Treehouseminis]

Does watching random let's plays of doom count?  I get like half of my fight, or Layout ideas from watching people play doom.  

 

I never outright copy anything of course, but I take inspiration from stuff for sure.(like everyone really)  I'll get good layout in my head, and even that doesn't turn out in the editor how I see it lol.

[RonLivingston]

Model Freight Trains which has me inspired by the ultimate doomer, vehicles, like that tractor trailer of shipping/respawning, usually going for minecarts and even drinking pubs, any ultimate doomer fans around here?

[TheHambourgeois]

I've made like 3 levels that are variations on Cat and Mouse, its a fun level concept ripe for mixing in new ideas

[jazzmaster9]

definitely orthogonal architecture, I started noticing this around the time I was making Rapidfire 2. It just looks so visually clean and tidy for me so I mostly stick to it when making non-natural terrain.

[uber]

[eater29]

When in doubt:
-stairbuilder spam and liquid ceilings
-light gradients
-squiggly lines on the floor

Spoiler

-marking out important switches with a SHAWN texture on the side
-shootable switch secrets
-letting a player see at least some parts of a fight behind some 242 sectors
-imp floods, pinkies leading a teleport ambush, caco swarms to end off a map
-ultra-cramped spaces with all of that
-revenant, cyberdemon and archvile spam
 

[Egg Boy]

16 hours ago, uber said:

factual information spotted

[Pechudin]

14 minutes ago, Egg Boy said:

factual information spotted

Anything special about those numbers? Like 128 + 32 for bordering 128-wide textures? Please share, I would like to know.

[Egg Boy]

1 hour ago, Pechudin said:

Anything special about those numbers? Like 128 + 32 for bordering 128-wide textures? Please share, I would like to know.

1:2 angles generally just give your map a sharper more distinct look than 1:1 angles would.

[baja blast rd.]

<3 2:1 angles too

 

[DoomGappy]

15 minutes ago, baja blast rd. said:

<3 2:1 angles too

 

My symmetry loving ass could never... Maybe that's the next step to become a better mapper.

[EraserheadBaby]

I don't do a lot of heavy detailing.  I don't know if that's a crutch or not.  I find heavily detailed levels to be a bit busy and it makes the map a nightmare to read.  As a result, my maps can look kind of flat or plain by comparison.  All the extra sectors involved in detailing make it hard for me to keep everything organized while building.  This could just be a matter of being stupid and lazy.

 

This is about as intense as my architectural complexity gets.

Spoiler

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by EraserheadBaby

[Treehouseminis]

1 minute ago, EraserheadBaby said:

I don't do a lot of heavy detailing.  I don't know if that's a crutch or not.  I find heavily detailed levels to be a bit busy and it makes the map a nightmare to read.  As a result, my maps can look kind of flat or plain by comparison.  All the extra sectors involved in detailing make it hard for me to keep everything organized while building.  This could just be a matter of being stupid and lazy.

I have definitely played levels that feel too busy in the detail department.  I think everyone has a different threshold for it, I sometimes feel my levels aren't detailed enough but if I stare at the editor for a while and can't think of anything it must be detailed enough lol

[ViolentBeetle]

Ceiling support snaking over the uneven ceiling, missing hex tiles, 3D carpets and holes in ceilings with tall pillars.

Edited November 26, 2023 by ViolentBeetle

[slowfade]

This topic is actually a goldmine of design techniques.

 

But yeah, I do too much symmetry, too bad I like areas where everything is mirrored in the cardinal directions.

[Treehouseminis]

Oh any liquid FALL or liquid flat texture I've realised I use A LOT.  I detail with those a ton turns out.  Liquids on the ceiling is neat.  

 

Everything looks cool with blood slime or water in random spots

[Li'l devil]

Aside from crates, my actual crutch: on most of my maps, most rooms I make as well as a lot of my object placement are borrowed from various games. What I do is I find a room/area in some game that I really like and then attempt to recreate it in Doom. Then same with another area/room, etc. until it's enough for a complete map. Usually the end result is a lot different from where I borrowed from, which makes my work sort of original, or at least it feels like original. I do mix it up with my own creative choices too though.

The only times when I did entirely original work were when I just mindlessly drew sectors and then filled and desgned them with anything that came to my mind first. But doing this is boring to me. I need some kind of defined idea beforehand, and only defined ideas I ever get is from other games.

[Yugiboy85]

Apparently, this is something I do alot (which is true). If I have a staircase and If I can do it, I'll make a "fade to black sector" to spruce up the stairs: 

 

I dunno why. It's just something I like doing because, my mind thinks a plain staircase just doesn't look appealing to me anymore heh 

 

I do it sparingly in vanilla too if i can get away with it. It's grossly simplified though (like 3 to 4 max splits of gradients). 

Edited November 26, 2023 by Yugiboy85

[DMPhobos]

I guess for me its interconnected layouts with weird shaped rooms, odd angles and curved stairs

[rita remton]

23 hours ago, baja blast rd. said:

<3 2:1 angles too

 

hi! i'm intrigued by the map layout. if it's not too much to ask, may you provide a link to download this map? thanks in advance!

 

21 hours ago, ViolentBeetle said:

Ceiling support snaking over the uneven ceiling, missing hex tiles, 3D carpets and holes in ceilings with tall pillars.

hi! if possible, may you provide a link to download this map? the architectural decorations, the different textures and how they jive together, all are simply gorgeous! thanks in advance too!

[ViolentBeetle]

2 hours ago, rita remton said:

hi! if possible, may you provide a link to download this map? the architectural decorations, the different textures and how they jive together, all are simply gorgeous! thanks in advance too!

Those are actually two different maps, MAP21 and MAP22 of my ongoing Hell Frontier project. One day I will finish it.

[Li'l devil]

There should be, or maybe already is but forgotten, a thread about our design philosophies. There are things I do a lot that I can't call crutches, more like habits and design decisions I think are good. Actually, I don't know where the line between crutch and design philosophy is. It probably doesn't exist, tbh

Edited November 27, 2023 by Li'l devil

[bofu]

Need to make a room taller but the wall textures don't tile well? Outer sector border with the metal part of WOODMET1!

 

Need to break up the repetitive floor or ceiling textures? Make some cracks in the floor or hang some bodies up!

 

Player needs to backtrack through an area and I want them to know they're going the right way? Have some new monsters appear!