What are your creative crutches?

[LVENdead]

33 minutes ago, Li'l devil said:

Actually, I don't know where the line between crutch and design philosophy is. It probably doesn't exist, tbh

 

For me personally, a crutch comes into play when you have one consistent solution to a problem you've possibly become too complacent to solve in any other way. I would say complacency is the operative quality here. Maybe an example would be if you always use SUPPORT3 as a border/highlight texture ALL THE TIME. I mean, that appears to be what it's primarily intended for, but can you say that it should be used for every border with every possible map aesthetic? Style is highly subjective, yet I would say that SUPPORT3 probably SHOULDN'T be used every time you need to separate different textures of highlight a window or door frame, and instead it might be a good idea to reevaluate how you've constructed the visuals of that map.

 

Another example might be consistently using Barons or AVs on the other side of a door to slow down or trap a player you don't want to bypass a fight. There's "I like using it a lot because it works" and then there's "I like using it a lot because I haven't really bothered to consider an alternative." Maybe a bit of a semantic argument, but those are situations I'd start talking about the difference between a crutch and core design tenant, fwiw.

[Clippy]

I'm too silly 

[Pistoolkip]

1 hour ago, LVENdead said:

 

For me personally, a crutch comes into play when you have one consistent solution to a problem you've possibly become too complacent to solve in any other way. I would say complacency is the operative quality here. Maybe an example would be if you always use SUPPORT3 as a border/highlight texture ALL THE TIME. I mean, that appears to be what it's primarily intended for, but can you say that it should be used for every border with every possible map aesthetic? Style is highly subjective, yet I would say that SUPPORT3 probably SHOULDN'T be used every time you need to separate different textures of highlight a window or door frame, and instead it might be a good idea to reevaluate how you've constructed the visuals of that map.

 

Another example might be consistently using Barons or AVs on the other side of a door to slow down or trap a player you don't want to bypass a fight. There's "I like using it a lot because it works" and then there's "I like using it a lot because I haven't really bothered to consider an alternative." Maybe a bit of a semantic argument, but those are situations I'd start talking about the difference between a crutch and core design tenant, fwiw.

 

Support3 is redundant

Use Wood5 instead. It is the superior texture.

[Li'l devil]

Here's a good mapping crutch that will make any map more enjoyable (at least in the beginning). It's pretty easy to do.

 

In your map:
1) Put the player start on a damage floor.

2) Place a chaingunner behind the player start, so that the chaingunner faces it, but the player start faces away from him.

 

That should do it! People who will play your map will like it immediately!

[bofu]

1 hour ago, Pistoolkip said:

 

Support3 is redundant

Use Wood5 instead. It is the superior texture.

I like to use both in conjunction with each other at times, and either rone separately depending on the aesthetic. WOOD5 (and a lot of the wood textures) are incredibly underrated as trim.

[Async Unicorn]

I don't know, I always liked exploring and atmospheric / immersive sides of maps, so I'm trying my best to make maps like Drake O'Brien / Sandy Petersen / Leo Martin Lim and other guys (preferably night / dark setting, lots of rooms, and attention to details)

(christ, how terribly pics look 'cause of compression...)

 

Edited November 27, 2023 by Vanilla+Unicorn

[invalidlain]

my creative crutch is that i am lazy.

[Tarnsman]

On 11/25/2023 at 11:53 AM, uber said:

 

I feel seen. Big Mood. This is a personal attack. Etc.

[antares031]

 

3-4-5 triangles for non-orthogonal layouts. It's also pretty useful for aligning textures.

[Deadwing]

Enemies behind corners, support texture everywhere, textures with "fog" effect, drop offs as a way to lock players, teleports to create non-linearity, rockets over any other weapon..

 

As for midis, add sus2 to every minor chord lol

[LoatharMDPhD]

So when you say "Not too Detailed", do you mean a square startan2 room with 160 lighting?

[LoatharMDPhD]

On 11/27/2023 at 1:09 PM, Li'l devil said:

Here's a good mapping crutch that will make any map more enjoyable (at least in the beginning). It's pretty easy to do.

 

In your map:
1) Put the player start on a damage floor.

2) Place a chaingunner behind the player start, so that the chaingunner faces it, but the player start faces away from him.

 

That should do it! People who will play your map will like it immediately!

// I feel your hatred for the player...

[LoatharMDPhD]

// Duh! it just dawned on me... The player starts with a  view of the exit... first half my of my wad you're barely 300 meters from where it all started...

[Fletcher`]

When in doubt, I always build sections that look like they've been destroyed or decayed or infested. Then I add a cave. Every goddamn time.

[MEMEAIDS]

>23x23 SUPPORT3 "border bars" that break up the walls of a room, to help with sectioning the walls for detailing
>Cutting chunks out of floor/ceiling tiles
>Weapons, ammo, and armor usually placed next to corpses
>gore-filled cages in the walls
>Scrolling tech textures
>Burning barrels under hanging corpses
>Blood is NEVER a hurtfloor
>GothicDM Textures
>Custom MP3s made from classic midis (Helps curate the intended experience)
 

[bofu]

7 hours ago, MEMEAIDS said:

>23x23 SUPPORT3 "border bars" that break up the walls of a room, to help with sectioning the walls for detailing
>Cutting chunks out of floor/ceiling tiles
>Weapons, ammo, and armor usually placed next to corpses
>gore-filled cages in the walls
>Scrolling tech textures
>Burning barrels under hanging corpses
>Blood is NEVER a hurtfloor

I feel called out. (Blood not being a hurt floor without some indication is just good design, though.)

 

(Though I will also advocate for the use of various WOOD textures, SHAWN2, various SILVER textures, BROWNHUG, COMPSPAN, and the middle 16 horizontal pixels of SUPPORT3 rather than the outer 24 as trim textures, among others.)

Edited November 30, 2023 by bofu

[EANB]

Lately I've had a habit of using mid texture wires and railings to fill out ceiling space. 

 

Works nicely with a hanging light.

[Li'l devil]

Okay, I think I'll just list some of my very common mapping habits that aren't necessary crutches, but I don't see that big of a difference.

 

1) If a wall texture is "continuous", by which I mean you can put it on wall of any width and it'd look okay (unlike for example STARTAN variants, which have distinct 32px wide blocks), then I always smooth the corners.

2) I always try to avoid making walls 1024px or longer. I think it's because I've heard there's a bug with walls over 1024px in vanilla.

3) I like corridors. I like corridors a lot. When I want to make something, I always think of corridors. I guess it's because I grew up with corridor shooters like CoD!

4) This one is definitely a crutch: whenever I want to fill the room with enemies, I always want to fill it with shotgunners. I have to resist hard to not do so. And I still always put at least one.

5) This is a common one: I always make sure the player gets the shotgun within first 5 seconds. Fighting with a pistol just isn't really fun to me.

6) I always try to avoid trial and error gameplay (because I hate it), which is actually hard since when I playtest I know everything in advance, but other players don't.

7) I always give at least a slight hint for each secret. No secrets that require just blindly hitting walls or doing something completely random.
Probably will post more if I remember more.

[Treehouseminis]

1 hour ago, Li'l devil said:

 

2) I always try to avoid making walls 1024px or longer. I think it's because I've heard there's a bug with walls over 1024px in vanilla.

 

It's a bug in how doom engine renders lines.  If it's a super long line/wall, when moving it will look like the wall is moving too, its trying to calculate the position but since it's so long things get wonky.  You can help avoid this by just placing more vertices on the lines, making the engine calculate smaller lines more accurately.  

 

I've made big ass rooms before and adding more vertices always helps with this visual bug. 

[bofu]

4 hours ago, Li'l devil said:

This is a common one: I always make sure the player gets the shotgun within first 5 seconds. Fighting with a pistol just isn't really fun to me.

 

I do this sometimes, but I've also taken conscious steps to get away from it. Here are a few ideas to break out of the habit:

• Give the player a berserk instead, and make them punch their way through the first few encounters.
• Make the opening combats promote the use of infighting to distract the monsters until you can grab something more powerful.
• Barrels.
• Make the opening combat one that isn't intended to end with the monsters' death. Maybe the player has to shoot some difficult-to-hit switches while avoiding a swarm of Revenant missiles or hell noble projectiles or even Cyberdemon rockets, and they don't kill the monsters until later.
• Use DEHACKED to turn the pistol into a more viable weapon by increasing fire rate, turning it into a rifle, etc. Even if you make no other changes, this can break you if that habit.
• Stealth opener. The player is on a narrow, winding path loaded with barrels on both sides, with some chaingunners overlooking specific areas. If a single chaingunner draws a bead on the player and starts shooting, the barrels will get hit and set of a chain reaction that most assuredly kills the player, so of course the player won't want to shoot and wake them up.

[Roofi]

One of my creative crutches consist to place items as if they were trophies. I create small compartments or sort of small pedestals just for placing them.

 

Quote

 

 

Edited December 8, 2023 by Roofi

[Andromeda]

On 12/8/2023 at 8:24 PM, Roofi said:

What level is this screenshot from?

[Aeddes666]

Scaling textures/things.