Nine Inch Heels

Hang on... There is more... We have a floor spectre there to the left of the blade of the chainsaw, and it seems to be like this consistently... I also don't understand the purpose of the placement of linedef 11173, 11174, and 11175... I get that they're supposed to unleash the cacos and PEs on some delay, to make sure those come in while the player is busy with the vile and his crew, but this also comes with the problem that, if players feel like tackling that fight later, the flyers might spawn anyway, while the player does something else, which kind of breaks the fight.... I understand the desire to refrain from making it a lock-in, but at least that wouldn't break the same way this trigger could. There has to be a better way to do this.... Also, checking the map in the editor.... Of course.... vile plateau is easy with the secret BFG, and the hidden invuln is probably meant for the small arena that comes right after... EDIT: Yeah.... Got stuck in the very same corner as doom_dude

Gave it a shot and had a so-so experience... The climbing around is nice as an idea, but with so many small steps in places you get very bumpy or choppy behaviour when moving at full speed, especially when it's linedefs at an angle that isn't 90° or some multiple of that. There is also something to be said about making some these steps more visible than they are, in particular in the starting area where it's a lot of brown in brown, possibly even with some added brown... I ran around aimlessly for a couple minutes because of a lift that might have been just another pillar, and didn't seem "useable" at first. I don't see a good reason as to why that pillar isn't operated via some switch, just to denote that there is something to "use"... Never ever will I care to pick up these annoyingly placed single rockets: This paper thin wall doesn't look very nice: It is possible to get stuck at the fight with the first invuln where the cacos and PEs spawn in, because the crumbled wall piece to the right side (looking from where you approach that area from) can be walked over... The other bigger fight with the viles and the nobles is a bit of a mess, because it's not that unlikely to get cornered there in such a way that damage can't be avoided... There also seems to be some teleport or such nearby, and if that happens to get used voluntarily or involuntarily there's a chance for players to get nuked by the viles, because the teledest puts players into a place without any cover between the teledest and that plateau... The blue armour nearby is as useless as it could possibly be, because picking it up early can be a death warrant, and that amount of armour isn't required for the small follow up arena or the viles behind the exit door either, because everything past that "vile plateau" is free anyway, unless both mancs shoot at the player right away, while the teleport fog still keeps them stuck for a moment, in which case you better hope you have some HP to spare... Overall: on my first and second playthrough, when I took those screenshots, I ran around and played somewhat carelessly, so I ended up losing a bunch of health, and the soulsphere a few moments prior to that vile plateau wasn't enough to tide me over... second playthrough I pulled each and every tooth on the map, which means meticulously killing revs and hitscanners, which turned out to be effective, but it also wasn't the most fun I ever had, despite going into the vile plateau with 170% health that time around, I still almost died right there, because two of the viles focused on me before I could even get a shot off, and the rest had me cornered behind the pillars pretty quickly, at which point all that I could see as a solution was to hose them with plasma and hoping to get them into a pain state before it was too late.. I'm not one to bitch about "mandatory damage", but if there is anything like a reliable method to that plateau that doesn't involve a secret which trivialises the whole encounter, then I fail to see it... I touched on item placement already, but I guess I'll point it out again; placing items in nooks and crannies like the rockets above, or stimpacks and small shell pickups is extremely annoying, and it doesn't have much to do with exploration, nor is it conducive to gameplay in any way... If it was something I actually needed, or if there was some interesting nuance to picking for example these rockets up, I would be more willing to just say nothing about this, but stuff like this feels like bending over backwards for a nickel nobody really needs when there are boxes of rockets and even a berserk conveniently placed in the open... I'll happily climb a pyramid to get an early rocket launcher while I need to be mindful of incoming projectiles or lost souls, but these singular low value items in small and entirely uncontested corners are a no for me, so I'll never not bring that up...

I feel like splitting WADs and mods into single map releases and multiple map releases would help already - at least it would make looking for things a little bit easier while the download section is still borked. So, just from the browse- and searchability POV I would like to see that happen... Likewise, a split between (beta) releases and "ongoing (community) projects" could be useful... Not only for people who want to see what kinds of CPs are about to see the light of day eventually, but also for people who are looking to find a CP to contribute to, be it mapping, testing, or contributing resources... Sometimes, people happen to have limited time on their hands, and it would be pretty nice to not be too late to sign up for some CP that might have been interesting, just because you couldn't happen to see it buried among lord knows how much else... It would also prevent ongoing projects from hogging the first index page for some time when new and hot updates or such are up for discussion, or when some wave of feedback comes rolling in.. So even if some of these splits might seem like they're overkill, I feel like the utilitarian aspects of them might make them worthwhile to at least try....

Would I defend some CEO..? Yeah, sure... Would I defend Bobby Kotick, though..? Nah...

Doesn't happen to me... I only ever map when I have the urge to do so instead of deciding "now I'm gonna map" and then having no ideas whatsoever... Most of the time, I just have some ideas in mind anyway, if anything, I need to bring myself to bite the bullet and put them down in the builder... I still have about a dozen rocket jump maps as well as some "experimental stuff" on my bucket list, not to mention the palettes I wanted to create for those kinds of things... Certainly not in real life... Doom doesn't really lend itself to "realistic environments", or at least it's pretty tough to bring "interesting" gameplay and "realistic places" together in a map... I never really concern myself with "interesting environments", most of the landscapes I happen to create are nothing but a by-product of the kind of gameplay I want in a map... Some people draw entire layouts first, and somehow push gameplay into the "husk" that is their unpopulated, albeit sometimes rather pretty map... I can't work like that... My maps are born from the perspective of creating problems, rather than inserting problems into a virtual installation...

I don't quite see what happens there that wouldn't happen with DBX by anotak, and if you're gonna recommend anything GZDB, you might as well recommend Ultimate Doom Builder instead of an outdated version...

ladies and gentlenerds.... this debate is over... :P

All things considered, I didn't really have issues with the OP in and of itself, though I would like to add that I view mapping as a spare time activity - with the outcome being shared for free in places like this... As such, I tend to take issue with the type of shilling people like KappesBuur seem to commit to (Such as "use this builder over that builder, and use this format over that format")... Likewise, I also tend to take issue with the mindset some people appear to have when it comes to ideas like "mapping for the player" or "putting the player in the first place" when it comes to ideas which may or may not be met with a lot of "acclaim" or "approval" from the majority of players... I hate the idea that a hobby of mine (one that results mostly in kind of niche maps) could be taken hostage by whims and wishes of others - and it irks me a great deal that it's often a standard pushed by those who, for all intents and purposes, never contributed anything to this community other than their personal opinions... And I don't think it's much of a surprise when people who ramble about standards "we as a community" have established (while they have nothing to show for themselves) get a verbal elbow to the ribs from people like me, who don't have issues with making themselves uncomfortable when and where it's justifiable... That being said, sometimes when people are new to mapping, I'd have preferred to see them try their hands at a format like lim-rem vanilla or boom first.. Not because I expect them to stick to it, but because "option paralysis" is less of a factor in these formats, and people aren't drawn to "scripting all the things " or feature creep either... I get that modern GZDoom maps aren't as heavy on the feature creep any more, but it's still something of a noob-trap, and learning what linedef actions can do before getting into scripting is also a valuable learning experience in its own right. Sure, you can have that same experience with UDMF, but chances are somebody is gonna try and talk you into scripting when you're not sure how to do something in a map, so instead of only learning to use the builder of your choosing and the linedef actions you need to get a map to a playable state, you have the "coding" on top of the learning curve in many cases, and I don't think that lends itself towards a good "first time experience" for quite a few people... If you are versed with regards to coding, you may find it less of an additional hurdle, but if you have close to no experience going into ACS when it's your first map... Just how long do you want to work on it before it's finally done and ready for "the audience"..? The ZDoom stuff I work on at the moment is still mostly "standard geometry" and standard linedef actions, with some ACS thrown in where I needed an effect that linedef actions were unable to deliver, or when I needed a trigger other than a linedef, besides that the added features don't mean anything to me, because I get where I want to be just fine in most cases, and the reason for that is that I learned to accomplish my goals with what's "already in the game" before looking into "adding to the game myself"... Anyway... if you learn how to map in one format, it usually won't take you long to learn it in another, so there's really no reason to sweat it... Just don't do all the things right away...

Why not UDMF..? It's real simple: I prefer for the vast majority of maps I make to run in ports which can not only support insanely high numbers of monsters without choking under the overhead that comes with ZDoomisms like "fixed hitboxes" that also happens to run through only one single core (there is no port with multicore support for the gamesim), I also need none of GZDoom's features to be "creative". Also... of all the features there are, there's only one I would want, and that's true 3D geometry, but believe it or not, I can live without it just fine in the vast, vaaaaaast majority of cases I want to create anything... As for "only UDMF allows mappers to be truly creative, because vanilla/boom maps are basically all cheap E1M1 ripoffs with no style or substance of their own" - dude, don't complain about being met with hostility when you insult so many content creators at once... Maps are more than just sectors and monster placement, sorry to pull that rabbit out of your reductionist hat...

I'd say when the term "fake" is used, we'll need to agree on some definition... To me it means something like: "kind of behaves and looks like X"... For example midtexture bridges that use action 242 in "boom"... It kind of resembles a 3D bridge, but most importantly also kind of works like one... If you fake "room over room" with silent teleports, it kind of looks and feels like room over room (could even be made to "almost" work like room over room with some restrictions), if the mapper put some effort into the illusion... 1mu x 1mu slopes on the other hand don't behave like a ZDoom slope with a similar looking angle at all - it's probably an arbitrary distinction, but to me that's different from something that "looks like and also kinda does thing"...

That's just neither a slope, nor does it really behave like one... plus, it inflates the visplane count and can lead to problems if you overdo it... anything other than 1mu wide and 1mu height difference might look "iffy" already, because the more you deviate from 45°, the more you'll see individual pixels... it's a very resource hungry endeavour if you want to make it a consistent visual feature...

fake slopes don't really exist as far as I'm aware... translucent walls is something you'll see here and there, for example in Miasma, fake coloured lighting is not a boom or MBF specific trick, vanilla can do it too, if you fuck around with the colourmap, deep water isn't very common, but has existed for a long time, I think galileoDOS used it in one of his maps for some CP, creative use of friction existed since speed of doom, and it's also in mayhem 17 (or 16, don't remember, the super mario one)...

I mean.... that's like any decent boom or MBF format map, because why map in boom/MBF if you don't use any of its features to begin with..? Also, what kinds of limits are we talking about anyway..? Faux3D bridges are nothing new, conveyor scripting has been around since I don't even remember when... so what exactly are you looking for anyway...? Is there any ZDoom-ism you want to see done outside of ZDoom or what's the idea here..?

Lines that intersect without a vertice are not necessarily a problem, and can even be used to reduce filesize, for example when you build fake 3D architecture out of midtextures... ToD did this very often, you'll also find examples in Aurelius' "remnant"... Also, because sometimes this also means you create less lines, it might help keep visplanes lower, not 100% sure about this tho.. It's fine to ignore the rules if you know what you're doing, but if you don't, bend the knee to the almighty vertice...

programs like "autohotkey" might allow you to create a key-combination that will simulate the key-press... also : https://www.autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=29582

Hey guys! Hey guys! Shitstorms need more detail!

I don't know where you live, but where I'm from, arguments like yours lose their charms in sandboxes already, kindergarten the latest... First of all, you really don't get to hide behind "The actual people themselves haven't said anything, so no harm no foul", because that's just not how it works when you share something with a community that happens to know said people or their backgrounds... Secondly, deadnaming is not something that falls in the "sense of humour category" unless you are enough of an asshole to think that causing gender dysphoria is funny, so congratz on dropping the mask, I guess... And number three; you wouldn't keep arguing here if you didn't project your sense of humour at all...

Look, I know you wanna sound off like you know what you're talking about, but even you should realize that these pivots there are completely and utterly nonsensical - not to mention irrelevant. What's relevant here is what's in the mod, and how it is perceived by the community and its respective moderators, who have every right to remove this content if they so desire. Pick your battles more carefully, and next time, don't show up empty-handed.

Yeah.. but it's not going to cause any problems, because crispy won't crash due to "unknown" actions, afaik it will just ignore them... So worst case is that a wall that was meant to scroll won't do that at all, which seems minor to me personally, but if SteveD wants it fixed it's at least on the table now...

My suggestion for an achievement would be quitting the game successfully... Other than that, just do the standard shit all the other FPS do...

yup... Think of something like this, with a bit more room towards the south perhaps...

Looking over some of the technology behind these maps, so that some of the potentially problematic designs can be overhauled in due time: E1M1: The pinkie and imp teleport closets need redesigning, because the way they're built now makes them prone to unreliable output which can cause undesirable delays for monsters... E1M2: Linedefs #3023 and #4561 show action 85. which appears as "unknown" for me in DBX - not sure what's up with that, could be good for somebody else to have a gander at that... E1M8: The small red teleport closet seems a bit iffy, would probably work better if it had slanted lines like the other closet in the map E2M5: Some of those "stick closets" here can produce wildly different results, in particular when it comes to stragglers, those may need cleaning up... E2M6: not a fan of some of the closets there... I guess for the lost souls it won't matter much, but the imp closet could do well with some angled teleport lines, same with the caco closet... E2M7: please angle the lines in these closets to make sure monsters get into the map reliably.. zig-zag or whatever E3M1: caco-closet lines may need to be moved a bit closer to the linedef closest to the map (linedef #512) to prevent cacos from hugging the wall of the closet until kingdom come... Baron of hell teleport closet is unacceptable and will misfire for all of eternity if the teledest happens to be blocked (for example by a caco) at the one time the baron might teleport successfully... E3M5: maybe make some of the teleport lines in these super wide imp + baron closets angled to avoid stragglers... E4M1: the teleport closets here need reworking... they are genuinely bad E4M2: some of the "dividers" in these closets aren't set to "block monster", not sure if on purpose, but might warrant another look (linedef #1739 up #1744)... any monster in these closets that is small enough to fit between the monster blocking dividers and the end of the closet might cause delayed arrivals because they brush along the outer wall for a time, so maybe lay down some angled teleport lines there to prevent that... E4M6: any monster in these closets that is small enough to fit between the monster blocking dividers and the end of the closet might cause delayed arrivals because they brush along the outer wall for a time, so maybe lay down some angled teleport lines there to prevent that... E4M7: off-map sectors with the tags 14, 15, and 16 don't seem to be targetted by any linedef action at all, the larger teleport closets in this map are in dire need of attention to prevent stragglers etc... Worst offender is the single cyberdemon closet because it's not supported with a repeatable line... The perched "in-map" SMMs need to be surrounded with monster blockers to make sure they get around reliably, too... I've also checked for "ZDoomisms" like tag-0 actions that could cause entire sections of a map to goof out, but couldn't seem to find any after combing through the Alphav4 linked in the OP... Doesn't mean I can guarantee there aren't any, but that's it for the most egregious stuff I found in these maps that also happens to be easy to fix prior to a beta...

I took a look at that snippet, and I like the idea of having some manner of central hub, with pure tech, tech/hell, and lastly pure hell sections attached to it, in order to reflect the "in between realms idea", and since it's a hub it should also be pretty easy to attach several areas to the map without much in the way of having to account for geometry issues... This means that joe's snippet, or some variation thereof, could fit in rather nicely, and it also means it would be pretty easy to make the map a team effort, if that's something you're interested in... That way, it should be possible to push it out the door pretty quickly, I reckon....

I just gave it a look in the editor, it's basically kind of what I did in E3M6, except with added monster closets and chasing barons - I can see it being fun if built a bit less linear than it currently is, so I'm not gonna knock the idea itself... ...However... just in terms of construction, there are all sorts of problems - from easily skippable linedefs to teleport-closets that seem iffy, as well as sectors that might not change height when run with a port that has "true to vanilla logic"... I think that, if you want something like this as a core part of a map, it might just be more efficient to build this from scratch while using the snippet as inspiration... It's not like I want to elbow joe's idea out of the project, so this might be overstepping a little bit right here, but I really feel like using the idea and building from scratch is the better course of action here...

Don't really like the idea of invoking "standards", but my pick would have to be "Speed of Doom"... As for the argument that Memento Mori is still being played today, and how reflective the numbers are when it comes to how well it held up: The numbers don't tell you, or anybody, why people still play it today... What makes you think people aren't playing it specifically because it's not modern..? Did you never think to yourself that you want to go back to some old game to get some nostalgia vibes going? Or what if you saw people talk about some old WAD you played in your early days - did you never think to yourself "those were the days, perhaps I'll boot it up later today"..? Anyway.. Don't be so eager to use statistics to support your argument, because how you interpret the numbers is, quite often, 100% subjective...