The Doom Confessional Booth

[BigDickBzzrak]

20 hours ago, Chamelenoel said:

I am such a bad mapper, that I can't even beat my own maps.

ftfy

 

edit: what have I done

Edited September 19, 2017 by bzzrak

[Matthias]

I prefer Hexen over Doom

[42PercentHealth]

1 minute ago, Matthias said:

I prefer Hexen over Doom

If you're talking strictly IWADs, then I agree. However, it seems that Doom is a better basis for custom levels than Hexen is, as its resources are more versatile.

[Matthias]

1 minute ago, 42PercentHealth said:

If you're talking strictly IWADs, then I agree. However, it seems that Doom is a better basis for custom levels than Hexen is, as its resources are more versatile.

Well I also like Hexen better for mapping :p

[42PercentHealth]

1 minute ago, Matthias said:

Well I also like Hexen better for mapping :p

I really wish that there were more Hexen PWADs out there... What I meant in my previous comment was that it is easier to make something "good" using Doom resources than it is to make something "good" using Hexen resources. This is part of the reason there is so much more Doom content than Hexen. But I think there is still a lot of potential for Hexen mappers, especially nowadays with all the mapping tools, ability to add new monsters & items, etc.

 

Hexen is difficult to balance, because there are 3 player classes, and you have to make sure none of them are either helpless or OP in any encounter. Puzzles are tricky to design, because you want to give clues without being obvious, and make sure the player can't "cheese" his/her way through a puzzle by randomly guessing. Also, the stock weapons and monsters don't leave much space for new encounter types (e.g. slaughter fights or endurance gantlets).

 

So yeah, Hexen mapping is harder; but if done right, I do enjoy playing a good Hexen map more than a good Doom map.

[Matthias]

2 minutes ago, 42PercentHealth said:

I really wish that there were more Hexen PWADs out there... What I meant in my previous comment was that it is easier to make something "good" using Doom resources than it is to make something "good" using Hexen resources. This is part of the reason there is so much more Doom content than Hexen. But I think there is still a lot of potential for Hexen mappers, especially nowadays with all the mapping tools, ability to add new monsters & items, etc.

 

Hexen is difficult to balance, because there are 3 player classes, and you have to make sure none of them are either helpless or OP in any encounter. Puzzles are tricky to design, because you want to give clues without being obvious, and make sure the player can't "cheese" his/her way through a puzzle by randomly guessing. Also, the stock weapons and monsters don't leave much space for new encounter types (e.g. slaughter fights or endurance gantlets).

 

So yeah, Hexen mapping is harder; but if done right, I do enjoy playing a good Hexen map more than a good Doom map.

Well as an Author of "Fucking Hexen" megawad I can confirm your words:)

 

What I found really annoying is the low number of enemy species... and low number of default textures :)

[Doctor_Spengler]

I've messed with Plutonia many times but never fully passed it

I've passed TNT but hated it.

Have yet to pass E4 of Ultimate Doom.

[Michael92]

I beaten recently VESPERAS.WAD from Master Levels. Man, such a hard map to comprehend. Propotionally too much traps here and there and that yellow key thing made me stuck for a long time until I checked the solution and lowered skill to HNTR due to desperation.

 

EDIT: OK... I've gave it a second try on HMP. With the knowledge what to do and where to go, it was more enjoyable and still beatable (if I was more determined, I would still beat it on UV without much difficulty) for me, though I needed more luck at the nukage pool. Oh, and the Cybie battle was cool (previously, I had just more lesser monsters in HNTR).

Nonetheless, still a hard map to comprehend on blind run.

Edited September 25, 2017 by Michael92
Statement update

[scifista42]

This happened months ago, but I don't think I posted about it yet: In real life, I saw a brick pillar that looked like this: (left picture). And my first thought was: What a lazy texture alignment, if only the author knew about the autoalign feature. I imagined the "properly aligned" result: (right picture). And then it dawned on me. Reality was realistic after all. It was my mapping experience that made me initially perceive the natural thing as unnatural and vice versa.

 

[baja blast rd.]

Also lacks detail. 

 

[Da Werecat]

I had to make special textures for corners because of this.

[Scypek2]

I don't get it. Shouldn't a properly textured wall look like the real life example too?

Unless it's actually misaligned, or the texture itself consists of alternating long and short bricks for some reason.

 

I tend to notice real-life texture misalignments too sometimes, but it's mostly just floor tiles that have been cut on both sides for some reason, instead of just on the one side where a full tile wouldn't fit.

[Mayomancer]

A naively misaligned texture adds charm to a map.

[scifista42]

58 minutes ago, Scypek2 said:

I don't get it. Shouldn't a properly textured wall look like the real life example too?

Depends on the position of the seams between bricks relative to the corner edge, aka the brick seam's offset along the texture relative to the corner edge's offset along the texture. The picture below shows 2 textures, let's say each of them is 64 units wide. The left one will look properly if the corner edge happened to be 0 or 32 units offset from the texture's left side, but improperly if the corner edge was 16 or 48 units offset from its left side. The right one vice versa - properly with 16 or 48 units offset corner edge, improperly with 0 or 32 units offset. However, mappers are inclined to use offset 0 even on textures like the one on the right. Your screenshot is OK with offset 0 because that texture is like the one on the left.

 

Edited September 26, 2017 by scifista42

[Ribbiks]

more irl shitty texture alignment:

 

 

[NieMaMordy]

what do you know about misaligned bricks

[42PercentHealth]

^^ This makes my mathematician brain scream.

[Da Werecat]

38 minutes ago, Ribbiks said:

more irl shitty texture alignment:

 

https://i.imgur.com/X2Hnz2cl.jpg

Might be excusable depending on the target engine, but possible to improve nevertheless:

 

[Pegleg]

On 9/26/2017 at 10:11 AM, Scypek2 said:

I tend to notice real-life texture misalignments too sometimes, but it's mostly just floor tiles that have been cut on both sides for some reason, instead of just on the one side where a full tile wouldn't fit.

I remember one of John Romero's rules being that if he changed floor textures he would change heights. And I've thought about that when seeing different types of brick patterns next to each on sidewalks or different tiles on floors, when there's no difference in height one to the other.

[IncognitoMode]

I don't like E2M2.

[damerell]

27 minutes ago, IncognitoMode said:

I don't like E2M2.

Heresy.

[Rifle Infantry]

1 hour ago, damerell said:

Heresy.

E2M2 is confusing to navigate.

 

I personally prefer E2M1, because I'm a mindless zombie who cannot comprehend branching paths in a .wad without running into the same areas 230 times searching for a plainly marked exit.

[42PercentHealth]

2 hours ago, damerell said:

Heresy.

No judging allowed in the confessional booth.

[GarrettChan]

2 hours ago, damerell said:

Heresy.

Well, I consider this is a compliment since I like to be the minority. BTW, E2M2 and E2M6 are two of my least favorite maps.

Edited September 29, 2017 by GarrettChan

[42PercentHealth]

You wanna hear something that's REALLY heresy?

 

Spoiler

I don't like Doom 1. Period. The only decent levels didn't show up until Ultimate Doom.

 

[GarrettChan]

4 hours ago, 42PercentHealth said:

You wanna hear something that's REALLY heresy?

What's the problem of this... I'm totally with you. Whether SSG is overpowered, whether Revenants and Arch-viles are annoying are not a question to me anymore. The variety provided by D2 should not be ignored. (Wait, only talking about maps? Never mind...)

[Cipher]

I think 32-level megawads are too long. Much better to be a good eight-to-fifteen-level one. Combine that level-count with predominantly longer-than-normal-iwad-level maps (too long!), and it starts to feel like a slog.

 

This also seems to be an unpopular opinion, but I like hard episode delineation a la The Ultimate Doom or Scythe's forced pistol-starts in longer wads.

[Pegleg]

I've never played Deathmatch on Doom or Doom 2. A tiny bit in Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, and Jedi Knight, and even less in Halo (on a friend's XBox). But never in Doom or Doom 2.

 

I'm not much of a gamer, so I always preferred playing the games by myself.

[DMPhobos]

The first time i beat doom, it was the SNES port... on an emulator... while i had access to the original doom on my PC...

 

I was a dumb kid

[Danfun64]

Which emulator? I'm pretty sure using something as inaccurate as ZSNES would have made things smoother than they truly were...