Titanoxus

I think that's fine now. There's plenty of cover and the palyer learns from the start that he has to think about the spiders in the back. It's a short map, so i don't think it hurts too much if it takes a little longer at the start

I played through the map real quick. It looks cool, the spider turrets work really well and create some nice unique fights at the start. The last switch to the exit does have a different texture than the others, I don't know if thats intentional. Also, the textures on those pillars with the switches inside seem to be off. Lastly, I believe spider masterminds are not allowed this early. Gameplaywise I'd add a bit more ammo or a supershotgun/chaingun at the start, I ended up pistoling the archvile. Great Map and awesome action.

Glad you liked it :) The bridge just uses a ton of self referencing sectors so they appear invisible. You can not walk under the bridge though. The Secret is reachable by lowering a crate near the rad suit secret. I fixed the misaligned textures, so this should be the final version: Themegawad25v5.zip

I played through the map on glboom-plus: Very nicely balanced. Even though there are no super punishing fights, there's never enough ammo to clean everything up until the end, so there are allways monsters behind and around. The player has to pay attention and it never gets boring. The map looks great, only the added walls all around in the new version feel a little underdetailed compared to the rest. A Few Problems i stumbled upon: I could'nt enter the BFG secret, the ceiling seems to be too low. Same goes for the exit stairs. Also I coulndt not open the second door to the exit. The second rocket launcher on the window is no longer obtainable, since in the new version the bridge does'nt rise when you f the secret. Also, it's possible to grab the rockets from the floor. The flying cubes with mancs on them look really cool, but the floor texture under them looks buggy. I'm not sure how to fix that, maybe just put them a little higher up, so the floor is not visible. Lastly, i really don't know how to get the auto map secret, even after looking at it in doom builder. That might be on me though. Overall a really neat map.

I tested on glboom-plus

Allright I did another round of testing for maps that were added since last time. Most of the maps have no game breaking bugs anymore so close to release, so most I will only give some feedback, because I didn't find any problems. Map 4: Map 9: Map 10: Map 13: Map 31: Map 16: Map 20: Map 24: Map 27: Map 28: Map 29:

Allright this map feels more and more complete. Lighting looks neat. The progression works very well now and after getting the plasma,you can blast through everything and the map is pretty much over. The two megaspheres are a bit overkill I feel. At that point the map is allready pretty easy and your very healthy. Also, did I miss something or do I really have to go through the whole level again to open the secret exit and BFG after finding it? Feels a bit strange. I also found these monsters, who are still stuck:

I played until version 2.5. But I'm testing on glboom-plus. In gzdoom monsters tend to not get stuck in each other. The lighting was fine and i liked the contrasts. Nothing was too dark. You could use the holes is the ceiling and make it look like light shines through them, so a few places in a room are brighter.

I played through all versions now and the map looks better and better. More details and lighting contrasts. Gameplaywise it seems to fluctuate between being crazy hard and way too easy. The newer version is super easy early on and is still managable at the later fights with no ammo problems at all. In the earlier version, the start was doable and the rest nearly impossible. In every version the first half is very cramped with lower tier monsters and the second half has bigger rooms, crushers and high tier enemies. To fix the difficulty issue, I think you have 3 options : 1. You could give out lots of ammo like in the newer versions and make earlier fights tougher. Maybe put in a few revs and archies. This kidnnddestroys the survival aspect a little but it makes for a fast paced and fun map. 2. You could take the approach of the first version and let the player only use melee weapons for the most part. Use less high tier monster like mancs, arachnos and barons. Remember that the player must be able to beat the fight with berserk and chainsaw or has to lure monsters into crushers. This really feels like your more surviving than fighting, which fits the theme, but maps liek this can get very tedious if done wrong. 3. You combine both. Really starve the player of ammo the first half (I was a fan of the very early berserk pack). That makes even small enemies hard to fight. Then in the later parts, put in stronger monster as the rooms get bigger but give out weapons and ammo accordingly. I think this idea could work if done right and it gives a feeling of accomplishing the map step by step, getting stronger by moving forward. Bugs: one of the imps and a caco behind the first fake wall are stuck in each other. Same with the archvile and another imp in the secret exit teleporter room.

I tested the map: First of all this is waay better than the first version. The visuals are especially great. Feels a lot like Doom and Doom 2 hell but more fleshed out. Some more specific feedback: A few monsters are stuck in each other: The first Cacos u encounter, the 3 imps in front of the switch in the very narrow hallway, the cyberdemon the archvile in the secret exit teleporter room and finally the imps by the bfg.. A blocking decoration corpse in front of the mega amor secret makes it awkward to fight the archviles. I'd also open this secret a lot earlier it does'nt really help much if you get it after the map is basically done. Ammo is a lot better than the first version, so if you use your fist and chainsaw for everything small you can survive the later parts of the map. It gets really hard though, so probably add a bit more ammo. In the big room with mancs and arachnos, I would swap some of them around so they infight better. Pulling them to each other gets very tedious. The cyber fight feels a little crazy but might work when the cyber is not stuck in ceiling. I love the crusher room with cacos. It helps cleaning up, when the player didn't manage ammo good enough. Remember to not let the archvile get there though or he will resurrect pain elementals and ghost monsters. Since there are not many rockets, you can't really deal with them. Health is very scarce, but when you find it, it's often too much and you can not backtrack until the end. I'd spread it out more, especially in the last rooms, so the player can fight towards those health packs when needed. I really like the bfg at the end so the player can get 100%, if he survived. Also running this map blind is almost impossible. If you do not conserve ammo for specific parts and use it early, the later rooms are not really doable. However, I think that works quiet well as a secret map gimmick.

okay I did a first test run through the whole map. First of all, i would never expect the player to have more weapons or ammo that i give in the map. I know the wad is supposed to be played single segment, but you never know. Players might have died in your map and restartet or ended the last map with very little ressources. So I recommend to allways design the map with pistol start in mind. I played through the map in GLBoom-Plus but i had to use IDDQD since i dont think it's possible to beat it otherwise at the moment: 1.I really like the design of the start, and the overall cave feeling, especially how u can see the sky through the ceiling. I can see the resemblance to your other map, which is a cool thing. 2. I also like the idea of very limited health, which fits the survival theme. But the map is kinda all over the place, first you start with very little space to manouver and very little ammo and weapons, which is fine for a tyson-esque map. But later on there are very big fights without giving appropriate weapons. 3. I would give the player a berserk instead of the forced chainsaw. It's way more skillexpressive and u can kill a bigger variety of monsters with berserk. Maybe make it a choice? 4. Keep in mind that Mancubi, Spiderdemons and Arachnotrons are very hard to melee in ports other than GZDoom. 5. I like how u have to get the monsters to infight, i think that's the main concept that makes this map work. I'd change the barons to hell knights though. In the end your stuck with so many barons, because they just win the infighting with their big health pools. Also i don't think it's necessary to have that many monsters overall. Since you wait a lot for infights to end so you can chanisaw or punch the rest out, it can get very frustrating and boring if done for too long without variety. Another fix for that could be to add more clever fights for the player to figure out. 6. If you go with the full infighting survival style, avoid too narrow walkways, where you can't sneak around a monster to get away(Mancubi and Arachnotrons are very fat). I would also be more careful with Pains and viles, since you don't have the arsenal to deal with them quickly and the way they are placed now they just fill the room with monsters . You can make both of them work in Tyson maps but they should maybe be alone or stationary. 7. The switch hunting ist cool, but often times you do not know where to go next, because after running around a bunch everything looks pretty similar. Maybe add some recognizable landmarks. 8. The last room is kinda nuts with no weapons. Especially a Spiderdemon with no cover? I dont know about that. If you want to do it maybe give an invulnerability. That might make for an interesting fight. I'd also let the palyer get out before exiting so he can clean up and get 100% with whats left of the big last fight. 9. One idea to make the map more interesting: Maybe add some crushers so you can get rid of enemies that are left after infighting. 10. The map is kind flat overall; maybe add some height variation. 11. The cacos at the start are stuck in each other. 12. In the small room with the 4 green torches, there is a wrong texture left of the south western one. 13. Also i miss a few secrets. It's a secret map after all ;) These are the things I found and a few ideas. Maps like this aren't easy to get right so i hope it helps :)

First off, I think the theme is hit really well. It might need a bit more detailling and texture work. I also like how u have to look around a bit for ammo or you will run out. Some of the rooms feel a bit pointless, you don't get anything in there except a few monsters. Maybe add another key plus door or another gun , so those rooms feel like they have some kind of purpose and the player doesn't go in there to just kill monsters without getting anything. Also im not a big fan of disguising mandatory things like the lift to the red key. Other than that, nice first version :) But there are some technical issues I ran into (I tested the map on GlBoom-plus): Most of the lines with actions on it are not tagged ,which leads to a lot of problems with especially lifts. Not getting out of the secret room is one of those. The lift in the red key room is another oneand the exit door. Make sure to tag line and sector you want to lower with the same number.

I played through the map and I agree, this is one of the best. Very clever fights, but also very fair. Plus the map looks great. It's a shame we can't use the midi because it fits so well. Great work :)

I played through both Map 10 and 29: Map 10 is amazing. You can choose many different routes and the map itself feels huge. The rocket launcher secret is very cool as well. I feel similar with map 29, but in the final fight with the icon mosnters tend to get stuck in each other in front of the switches. They can't move around the stairs very good so they just stand there until the next one is spawned inside the other. It might help to put the monster spawner destination somewhere the monsters can move away from. Also the room with the cyber feels much less detailed comapared to the rest of the map. Lastly, i'd make the megasphere a secret, since the map is lacking one, but thats just an idea. On a different topic, i made a new version of my map, which fixes some of the problems I mentioned in an earlier post, mainly the visible wall behind the exit line: Themegawad25v4.zip

With more and more maps completed i thought it's time to test waht we have so far. So i've been playing the whole wad over the last few days for testing purposes and of course to provide some feedback I tested with glboomplus: Map 1: Map 2: Map 3: Map 5: Map 6: Map 7: Map 8: Map 11: Map 12: Map 14: Map 32: Map 18: Map 19: Map 22: Map 23: Map 25: Map 30: