ANonThingie!

Preamble: Probably gonna need to be away from looking at whatever WADs I find for a while. Caught this pretty early and decided to pass back some notes for the Author and others wanting some context. Author - Work Played: @amnion - Animoin's Infiltration. Played on GZDooM Version 4.8.2 & HMP-Max & UV-Max & Single-Segmented. Bugs: Line 308 has no first side. [according to the GZDooM console.] [For GZDooM, it tends to handle small inaccuracies, so probably best having a look in Ultimate Doom Builder with the F3 tool and check the Line Index and see if it's weird.] Experience Sum Up: Small single level, with some modifications to boot. Already trying to personalise [despite assets used from existing sources, though credit has been listed.] It's a small base, located seemingly close enough to a 'tower' I think, with a few outdoor segments. One more bloody and the other more grassy. Combat's not too bad, though hit-scanners can hit you from the beginning, which I do have a problem with [but it's not causing too much concern here.] Design work is serviceable and considering maybe compatibility wishes, it does it's job well enough. Could be a bit better with some extra splits and variation. I'd say the main point is the length, it's very short. Can be beaten within 90 seconds. Improvement Suggestions: Not too many considering the length, but I can throw a few pointers. Expand the sections by forcing the player to complete some sequence of events, thus allowing for a more lengthier engagement. Which also allows yourself to... Improve on the look and feel of the level holistically. Rating = Play. [While I did some fun, replay ability is minimal and thus I can't recommend it for anything more than a small level to blast through.] Bye for now.

Preamble: Hey, figured to try this out and pass back some words. It's not a bad start, but there's roughness here and there that at current, holds it back. Author - Work Played: @RunyDummy - Recon Mission Gone Wrong MAP01-MAP05. Played on GZDooM Version 4.8.2 & HMP-Max & Single-Segmented continuous play. Bugs: There's a map that within GZDooM, reports some line errors. [Check the console for these. They don't effect GZ as there's some code that help fix that, but might affect other ports.] There's also missing textures, noticeably on the door tracks. Experience Sum Up: To those that play this, you're getting about [as stated 15 minutes approx.] a small trip travelling to hell and back. Combat's tame overall, Navigation between the levels, can be a bit cramped... Noticeably in MAP03 and MAP05. Design wise, it's serviceable. You can determine where and what things are... but smaller detailing is fairly scant in the pack. There's some attention to narrative, as the levels do try and aim to link between each other. It's not a bad level set, but I can't honestly recommend it either. Improvement Suggestions: There's no easy guide on improvements here, but there's definitely room to improve for sure. However, I do have a few things to consider trying first. Clean up the existing levels, via alignments and signposting, etc and perform changes to the geometry to make things a tad less movement restrictive. Adjust the positions for certain enemies, here and there, to help improve the effectiveness of the enemies. Some encounters in this are trivial. Re-assess your secret awards, if I remember correctly, one secret had nothing in it. After that, try expanding on your current level set and add micro detailing to boot. Rating = Play [I can't honestly say I'd be rushing to replay this, in the current state. However, it's in a decent place to begin expanding and modifying it.] Bye for now.

Preamble: Hey, noticed you wanted some playtests and feedback given. Since that's kind of the thing I do now, with some previews to help sway to giving the level a try. Went to boot it up and here we are. Couple runs botched, due to one custom monster. Anyway, let's get into this thing already. Author - Work Played: @GreenSlayer - Computer Center. Version 1.1 btw. Played on GZDooM Version 4.8.2 & HMP-Max & UV-Max & Single-Segmented Continuous play. Bug: The switch that lowers the platform for you to hop over and pick up the chainsaw, can be pressed lower down than the same level of the switch. Some other lowered in floor switches can also be triggered in a similar manner, bypassing progression. As it's a UDMF map, look for "Switch Height Check" flag, under Activation. This should help you out. Experience Sum Up: Stock textures, but detailed nicely, with a fair light-level variation and effect map, full of encounters and some custom [Realm667 assets, but still] elements to boot. The majority of the map, plays nice enough. [I can see a case being made for the right gameplay mod, this level is just good enough to be a pleasant trip.] At least, if I remove the 'Crackodemon'. There's no way you're framing this that this monster is a good fit. Does way too much damage in close quarters. Having an enemy in this WAD that can, if not aware, one tap you, just feels unnecessary and puts a blemish on the map. Navigation feels a tad weird, but after considering the detailing, this might be more just something the player will re-adjust to. [Hard to say if the design choices work, within a single level for what doors, switches and etc look like just in one custom level.] Despite these inconveniences and moments, that made me backtrack a tad and the monster that added to the death counter. Music was nice enough, mostly can't complain about it. With the encouraged exploration and structure here, this is a map which was very enjoyable. Well done. Improvement Suggestions: Please remove the 'Crackodemon' or lower the damage it can do. While progression will make you encounter this monster, I don't think the introduction was handled well. Further adjustment of the difficulty settings. UV [or Skill 4 in UDMF], might benefit from having less spare bonuses and a teeny bit less ammo. Yellow Key Door area is mostly optional, there to provide more Cell Ammo. Assuming the player doesn't pick up the Plasma Rifle, this area feels wasted. A small reduction of Zombieman [Former Human] enemies in the room, containing the Green Armour. They do tend to hurt themselves more than the player. Signposting is somewhat done on this level, but different door textures might get some players confused if it's a key door, switch door or use door. Up to you. I may have missed something, but I can't think of it right now. Rating = Love [Geninue effort put forward, 3 months well spent. Was fun doing the replay on the different difficulties, minus that one enemy.] Bye for now.

Preamble: Decided to try it, since some of the review points currently given, made me raise an eyebrow. Also, "For people who like Slaughter". Now, I don't, but I've seen a fair share of players who do and what maps they play/favour. The fact that is was meant for April Fools, also confuses me. Though, I don't always get the joke so that I can pass of as my problem. Let's just talk briefly about this, as this is a micro-map, mini-pwad you've made and I can concur with the lack of content statements. Author - Work Played: @gamingcooler- Quagmire's Dungeon. Played on GZDooM Version 4.8.2 & HMP-Max & UV-Max & Single-Segmented Continuous play. Bugs: Didn't notice any reported console issues. [GZDooM instances will report issues with the maps in the console.] However, in MAP02 there's rocket ammo that seems unreachable. [At least, there's no immediate solution and without opening the editor to check, I think it's blocked with the skull things as a barricade.] Experience Sum Up: To the player who plays this, you're getting about 4 minutes worth, of low detailed mapping, with clear seams showing. Combat's high point include, a few starting lost souls in a corridor, along with firing squads behind a wall, in open spaces. There's sadly not a lot here, but it's playable and not overly confusing, despite not a lot of signposting built in. Definitely doesn't feel like slaughter either. IMPORTANT -> As it is, this is mostly just a few corridors and a few BFG battles. It's alright for a small mess around, but this could've been one level. Improvement Suggestions: This is difficult to suggest, as the maps are too abstract. The only area that looked like anything is the 'dungeon' with the beds. One consistent problem for sure is spacing. Either too narrow, or too spacious, which judging from the encounters is polarising. To improve this, you'll want to consider the style of encounters you'll want to endorse throughout the level set. Another problem is context, reading the blurb you're playing as "Stewie", going to some unknown location. Why not play into that and make the level's feel bigger to help set context. Another thing you can do is try doing more decorating with the things, like you did in MAP02. I'm unable to suggest specifics as if this is a themed WAD and meant to be a joke, I'm lost. All I can do is tell you how it played to me and it was rather flat, but at least it was quick. Rating = Hate [Because what's here is too simple and I'm struggling to even see the link, between your pitch/ad for the level set and playing the WAD. If I see this as a Speed map WAD, it's okay, still fairly brief though.] Bye for now.

Hey, preamble bit before I pass back any thoughts. Anxious thing here, so bear with me. While I tend to avoid the 'horror focus/themed' WADs and MODs, this one's trying pretty hard, so figured to give it a go. I'm only mentioning this, to at least provide context. Anyway, here to try and provide playtesting support, so here we go. This is focusing on the Single Player content, I don't have a way on testing Multiplayer maps. Played on GZDooM Version 4.8.2 & Played on the Hurt Me Plenty equivalent. Everdoom Levels MAP01-MAP04 by @Nathan Silver Bug: Identified an area in MAP04: Landing Bay; If you fall into the boxes, near the COMPFYEL [Yellow Computer Tech texture] Pillar, you'll get stuck, as jumping's disabled. Try adding a "Floor_LowerToLowestFloor" linedef action on the back side of the small brown crate. Experience Sum Up: Appreciate that there's been effort to personalise with the inclusion of a TITLEMAP and TUTORIAL MAP00. Most of the levels, definitely feel like the PSX DooM ones, only less small and detailed better [at least for the most part] Some areas, due to the 'theme' and 'vibe' you're aiming for, feel barren. For example, MAP04 felt way too big, as there's quite a few sections with limited engagements. Lighting still feels odd to me, there's some sectors here and there that don't blend in right. Also, finding some items in this WAD can be a pain to see. Combat, at normal difficulty, feels simple. Perhaps as a general starting point for a longer planned mega wad, I can understand if it's meant to be on the easy side. Some of the trigger traps [the ones that happen, when a key item is picked up], feel WAY too obvious. So far, it's possible to MAX the four levels, at least on the normal difficulty setting. I haven't tested the other skill settings at this time. Sound effects to help the tense, darker atmosphere do their job. [but if I'll allowing myself to show my subjective take here, that's where the ambience loses me] Secret design's a bit hit or miss. Some cases the trigger for certain timed wall reveals, feels too far apart, as an example. [But, I can see you're trying as some of them were my fault, due to sound issues on my side.] Easter Egg's a nice touch. Improvement Suggestions: I'll only pass on two suggestions, I hope you'll take onboard for the future levels. Your current work for the most part feels decent as is. 1) Please try to make a few short and sweet [even if you need to make them hard] levels. I don't know your planned roadmap, but having a few shorter levels would help a little with the larger sprawls. 2) If you need to keep the lighting in the levels the same, can you please consider making lighting changes or colour changes to the items [think health bottles], to help them stand out. Sometimes, I missed items, as the area they were contained in was too dark. Rating = Play [If you're able to keep up the work, then this should be a decent play for those wanting PSX-esque DooM mapsets for the ZDooM family of ports.] I'll keep checking in if I can to try and help out if possible. Bye for now.

Played on GZDooM Version 4.8.2 and Played on Hurt Me Plenty. Experience Sum Up: This, for a DooM IWAD based map, with seemingly little extras/modding to it, is actually fairly well done. Throughout the level, while using stock can be seen as amateurish. This, I believe, second ever level is detailed enough to be quite the looker. Blood stains, touches of wear and tear and just various ambient touches. General combat and traps are handled decently, revisiting areas is possible, but only after completing the circuit. You might need to play a bit carefully though, ammo can be a tad sparse. At least during the playthrough done, had a small drought mid way in. Like the music, though usually relaxing music signifies that it'll be a tough map. Thankfully it's chill "mostly" all the way. Improvement Suggestions: 1) Add a little more Clip, Shell and Cell small ammo drops throughout the corridors of the map. 2) Add skill/difficulty support to help very the level playthroughs. Harder or Easier, up to you. Rating = Play [and a contender for replaying it too, I can't put in it in my Love rating, sadly the DooM IWAD feels limiting to me, but it's probably to the PWADs accessibility's favour.] See ya for now, bye.

Played on GZDooM Version 4.8.2 & Played on Hurt Me Plenty. Alright people, coming back with more playtest notes/reviews. Went back in the thread and played the next two from Smeg's entry that I noticed, so enjoy the notes. Path to the Forbidden Temple: by @dashlet Experience Sum Up: In terms of looks, this is beautiful. There's a sombre, relaxing air to this, which helps ease me into this. Music choice helped with this. The platforming in the beginning doesn't wear on me too much, thankfully. However... There are a few spikes in the map's progression and I can label them by when the Archviles are introduced. The first and second encounter, can have their difficult moments, but you can learn how to approach them. The third though [right at the end], if others can handle it, sure go ahead and keep it, but I know I didn't enjoy it. The chain-gunners on the pillars, depending on the player's reaction time, might be a problem. Difficulty adjustment is present, but seemingly only has two settings I believe. TL:DR Cute, lovely floating islands map, has bigger fangs than it appears. Improvement Suggestions: 1) Ammunition is sparse. Didn't have a lot of rockets when I needed them. Rating = Play [I'd be hesitant on replays, but for what I did play, things felt fine and I did enjoy the atmosphere] The Forgotten Wilds: by @Silhouette 03 Bugs: If you don't back track through the door, after getting through the Red Key ambush. You can be softlocked, behind the raised bars and therefore be forced to noclip to continue [as what happened with my playthrough] Experience Sum Up: This map had a somewhat okay sense of aesthetics. Outdoors looked nice enough. Indoors could do with some touch up details. Combat in this map is polarising to me. There's segments where being blind sighted seems very likely, but also you can herd the enemies in circles too. Secrets within the map, to me, don't feel like secrets. They were easy to find and pick up, felt arbitrary to have them tagged as such. Backtracking isn't possible at certain parts of the map, so 100%ing the map needs to be as you begin to move forward. Lifts might mean, point of no return, as a heads up. TL:DR Woody outdoors map with a few hard fights and a few subpar fights. Improvement Suggestions: 1) Un-tag the secrets 2) Try to have some of the enemies, delay appearing into the fight, or help have a bit more chaos in the level. [I did check that you've done some difficulty adjustment, but the fights on my playthrough felt off in some parts.] Rating = Play [But I feel like there could be more done, to help polish the experience.] I'll try and be more active this year, no promises though. Still very anxious being here. Bye for now.

"The two arachnos either side of the red staircase after the red key door?" AH! Thank you for confirming! You've misplaced your Player 1 Start!!! I'll keep the screenshot in, but I believe that as I started in the maze, this is not intended as I was struggling from map start to find a button or key, within the Maze section and now I see I was supposed to have the Red Key, before even entering it. When you perform any needed fixes, I'll re-download and try again later.

Okay, since I really do need to try and do some public playtesting and despite hiccups and all. Better late than never, right? Considering this thread can get bulked out on posts, might need a better method of replying to people later, but I'll worry about it later. Here's the short hand notes. @smeghammer: Played some of Descent Into Madness... the version with the April 7th update. I have a concern that the door, contained near the two arachnotrons, where the stairs are might be broken. I wasn't able to find a switch from the maze side and that door only seems to have one linedef marked with a door action and no tag. Maybe I missed something, but not sure. I also believe you may have mis-tagged some sectors as secrets, as there's 30 of them, with a sizable number being contained right next to each other. I had to noclip to get to the central marble floor room and continue from there. The rest of what I played seemed alright, I was able to have a fair bit of fun, but my biggest problem with the map is just it's cramped nature, some battles were tricky due to narrow spacing. I wasn't able to complete it, during the time I had to play but yeah that's my early feedback and bug sniffing attempts for now. I'll see people later, just wanted to make sure to pass on the notes. If anyone has a suggestion for how I can try and keep notes on playing levels here, without bulking out the thread, I can bear it in mind. Bye for now.

Played in GZDooM version 4.8.2 [It's my preferred port to play with]. I'm trying to be a bit more active in playtesting stuff [and vocal, I'm rather anxious a poster], so here's my feedback and whatnot. Experience Sum Up: The map's really short and even if we account for very first map here. It's too short to really make much of a comment on it. There's enough resources to single-segment it, max it and all that here. Encounters are trivial, it's inoffensive. Improvement Suggestions: I don't know what I could suggest here, as it's obviously early days. I guess, just keep making more or try and extend this one with some new rooms and encounters. ======================================== Rating: Play [If you want a warm-up level] Hope you got something out of this. Bye for now.

Played in GZDooM version 4.8.2 [It's my preferred port to play with]. I'm trying to be a bit more active in playtesting stuff [and vocal, I'm rather anxious a poster], so here's my feedback and whatnot. Experience Sum Up: This map wasn't a lot of fun, due to geometry scaling being way more large, thus diminishing any encounter significance in the level. When I re-read and found this was made as a test level, that does explain some of the map being simple in layout, but something I do want to say is the secrets. Thanks to textures not being cleaned up, there's problems with some doors and windows having mid-textures seemingly block view, despite being passable. Also, some of the secrets, didn't make too much sense once confirming them in editor and checking in game. There's a lot of small problems that make this map feel too bloated and confusing. Oh yeah... I forgot, there's a secret in this, I'm very upset in this because it basically becomes a 'beginner's' trap' moment, where by reacting to it, the Player's confirmed killed and it did feel unfair. Improvement Suggestions: The best thing you can do is either... 1) Start shrinking the scale of the map down and since this map does have a couple of ways of navigation, reaching from point A to B. You'll want to consider a critical path. That's a path which as long as you follow it, will lead to the exit, but not cover everything possible. or 2) Revisit each region and consider adding some more involved traps, to try and help provide more markers, points of interest and allow players to better bread crumb back to the main route. Even with the auto map, thanks to the scaling it's harder to glance and follow, where you are. Once the map's been re-structured or re-scaled, if you carefully allow certain or special encounters to appear for careful exploration, then you'll have something good to use not only as a test map but a better map to let others play through. ======================================== Rating: Hate [Only just in this category, due to the length required to visit and back track through long corridors. Map isn't hard or painful, just boring to move through] Hope you got something out of this. Bye for now.

Played in GZDooM version 4.8.2 [It's my preferred port to play with]. I'm trying to be a bit more active in playtesting stuff [and vocal, I'm rather anxious a poster], so here's my feedback and whatnot. Experience Sum Up: I was able to play this map and after a lot of deaths. Was able to Single Segment and Max it. [Difficulties as noted are not present, so stuck to Normal]. The biggest problem I've got with the map is, it really does feel there's no alternative solution to getting through it. Some of the design feels as there's an expected approach, rather than having some choice [even if it was on what side of a room you appear in]. Parts of the map feel way too cramped also, while I get this is intentional to facilitate the challenge, I also even have to question the stingy item amounts [those secrets do become more important than planned]. The annoying bit I hope that is changed is the hurt floor blood platforms and the one housing an important healing item, one attempt I died on those due to having low enough health. Improvement Suggestions: 1) Difficulty Settings on some of the crowds, meaning that the ambushes won't last as long and less ammo is needed to be banked. 2) Remember seeing another poster mention armour drops. That would help, but having a few splits in the path which lead to caches would be a good way to help both allow changes to the layout and provide some replay ability points. 3) A few less hit scanners, if anything was to be taken out, if minimal or no other changes. The chain-gunners made learning the route more difficult than it really should. I would also hope a little texture variation comes into a few of the rooms, but as some people prefer less detail/texturing maps, this is more a "if you want" point. ======================================== Rating: Play [but only if you like strict encounters] Hope you got something out of this. Bye for now.

Hey, currently waiting on some background stuff to finish and I'd figured to try this, since it looked rather short. Yip, pretty short, was able to beat easy, normal and hard in about 11 minutes. Everything was MAX-able in all difficulties, progression didn't seem to lock up so no bugs [at least on GZDooM v4.8.2, since that was the port I played on.] Without writing a lot, since I tend to. There's only two things to note. 1) Bug: I believe one of your toxin sectors is missing it's hurt floor property. It's one of the raised toxin floors, near where the blue key is. 2) Suggestion: The last secret might not make sense to those on lower difficulties, as the enemy doesn't spawn and the Player might think the platform doesn't activate. Maybe some support textures [the ones used for lifts] might make it more distinguishable. Surprisingly effective and even difficulty adjusted, despite the short length. Even appreciate the fact that the level's routing was considered too, granted it's a short enough level that backtracking here isn't a problem. Nice habit to learn early though. Those looking difficulty might need to pass though, but it makes for a decent casual playthrough. It's also modestly detailed and using stock textures, which I think's a bonus. Seems like you've got a solid foundation to make more, if you want to. Good job, humble first. Hope you make more.

Hello, decided to play the map. Was able to Single-Seg and MAX it on HMP [Counting 100% as Level Completed, due to no Level Exit], wasn't easy, but it's possible. [Difficulties don't seem to be present, one difficulty for all settings it seems] General feeling is, it's not great. Due to how short it is, I can say it won't take a lot of time up, but there's enough here where I can see it being unnecessarily jarring. :| I would normally prefer doing breakdowns and improvements/suggestions, but there's not a lot happening here, so I'll just throw together the observations. A cautionary piece of advice, avoid using stealth monsters. There's folks here who tend to get upset, when they're in a map. Another cautionary piece of advice is, around using jumping as a mechanic. If you're intending it to be used, make sure to say this in either an attached README, in the original post or even a print script in game [if you did intend to target G/ZDooM, as your port of choice], saying "use Jump". Something like that script below. I can see the logic, with the start to jump out of the box... but I can also see some players, thinking you're intentionally blocking them in a one-way damage trap. The Railgun Marine. Now, I already think with how the map is not well structured for the player with the challenge and resource availability... Having a One-Hit HIT SCAN enemy in this, is the bit I find personally offensive. The scenario in the map, for how little is here, just feels claustrophobic and uninviting. Texture work is, low-effort, but it's not too bad... except for the fake walls. This is where having the stealth enemies can really feel mean. Did not like the custom music, personally. Those are the observations and considering that, according to yourself saying, there was some laziness in the creation. I'll leave it here for now, if you want more advice, feel free to reply. But, do try and at least add the level's exit. There's no reason to not provide a end point in the map, even if it's a single level. Bye :D

Noticed a bug in the HUB room. If you go to the back of the teleporter and pass through the portal. Did this in the BooM room. The C O M P L E T E ! text that appears showed up, despite not completing the level or even entering it. Also, found the secret and yip it did exactly what it said it would. I need to go a wash my eyes out with soap, because I wasn't ready for it.