DRON12261

Not really about difficulty, but I will note that in Europe 1 and Europe 2 by Erik Alm had a starting room with several teleporters leading to different "beginnings" of the level, providing high replayability and probably different difficulty at least at the beginning of the map.

What kind of texturepack(or wad) is this? After these screenshots I very VERY much wanted to try to do something with these textures.

In general, I believe that the secret (the one that is the game mechanics and is displayed in the statistics counter) should always be a hint, no matter how realized, how much hidden, but there should always be at least some hint at the presence of the secret. I usually approach secrets with the belief that it could always be found if the player wanted to do so. Make secrets for attention and intelligence. If the player will run like a stung on the level, he should not find them, but if the player will stop, think a little, wander around the location, correlate one thing with another, he with a sufficiently high probability should find the secret, no matter the first time he passes the level or not. I consider secrets as an additional quest on the level, the fulfillment, finding, overcoming of which will somehow additionally reward the player. Secrets should also be well suited either to a particular situation and location, or to the level as a whole. For example, there is no point in a secret with extra ammo, weapons or anything else at the very end of the level before the exit, they just do not give the player anything inherently. But if, for example, in front of some arena or even in the arena itself to place a secret with additional weapons, ammo, first aid kits and reinforcements, they will greatly reward the player for finding it. Also for the player himself will be a great motivation to find something like this, if he feels that ahead will be a difficult part of the level and he is not sufficiently prepared in terms of resources, because he made, for example, a lot of mistakes before reaching this area. Secrets can also be either just extra scenery, or some shortcuts, or extra optional special arenas (there's nothing wrong with hiding monsters in secrets). Or better yet, combine all of these. For example a secret that has extra ammo in it, and yet is a shortcut to another piece of the level. Or a secret that will hide a good weapon (bfg, plasmagun, rocket launcher), but to get it, the player has to overcome an additional arena in that secret. Or a shortcut, which in itself is some kind of great and beautiful view, for example opens up a view of a gorgeous, vast and detailed background. Or you can hide some narratively important element, some scene that will make the player look at the level from a slightly different perspective, like some hidden "mystery" or "plot twist" and all that. In general, you can think of a lot of things. Separately, the secret level exits are still worth mentioning. Personally, I like the idea of secret level exits being more than just a regular secret. I like the idea when in order to open the passage to the secret level, you need to perform a chain of actions or "quests" throughout the level. For example, to click on several secret switches throughout the level, having previously at each switch cleaned up especially difficult, compared to the main level, arenas. Perhaps you can literally do a chain of actions, for example, at the technobase conditionally find a way to one secret piece of location, from which you can open a passage to another secret piece of location, where you can find a secret key to the secret door on the level, where you need to run, for example, some electric generator, which will start power in the section of the level, where the door to the exit to the secret level will open. Unravel such a tangle of actions is always particularly interesting. The main thing that it was all as hidden as the usual secrets, that is, they would always be able to find the same player who will carefully and consciously approach the passage of the level. As for the automap, I always try to hide the secrets completely from the automap, as if there's nothing there, but immediately after that I make some additional markings on the automap itself, as hints that there's something in this piece of location and it would be good for the player to pay closer attention to it, if he saw it on the automap. You know, it's also that feeling when you find an automap and use it like, figuratively speaking, a treasure hunter who found a map with treasure markings. Of course there are always some crazy secrets hidden behind 27 blending blank walls opened by random invisible lindefs on the other side of the map, but for god's sake, don't count such secrets in the stats. At least personally, I always consider such secrets (which are counted in the stats) to be the worst examples of how not to do things. (But if we talk about invisible triggers that open or lower something somewhere, a good example is when such passages are very close to the trigger itself and the player needs to navigate to the sound to find them, the sound itself is the very hint of the secret I wrote about in the beginning).

I have previously written about tips that in theory can help absolutely any mapper: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/post/2703732 And about testing your maps: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/post/2640803 In general, the topic is about the extra features of certain ports and specs that can be leveraged in vanilla or boom maps (See answer by Gez and then by me): https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/136375-vanilla-friendly-features/ And maybe not exactly on topic, but close - about how to effectively build your own texture pack, getting past some of the pitfalls: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/post/2652222

Masterpiece work, enjoyed it very much. Passed on UV-MAX No Saves on Doom Retro. 10/10, want to see more maps from you.

@Johnny Cruelty @Track Federal @SpaceCat_2001 I just tweaked the texturepack from realm667 (and checked some points in DOS BOOM), so you can use it. Also added SKY4 (SKY4 from Ultimate Doom) and SKY5, SKY6, SKY7 (all 3 skies from DOOM2 itself). You can use a different sky on your map via the Sky Transfer action, but note that it is not supported in vanilla DOS DOOM specifically (though I'm not sure if you'd use the original boom as the target source-port). And yes, reupload this wad to a filesharing service, I've uploaded it here for the time being. And I didn't check every texture, so if something else breaks somewhere, let me know, or maybe fix it by yourself. d1tod2fx.zip

a little teaser of this map

a little teaser of this map

I wrote last time that I was freeing up a slot. I don't see it possible for me to sit down fully for mapping in the next few months, sorry. https://www.doomworld.com/forum/post/2694784

I think I can register and try, although I have high risks of not doing anything because of the very heavy workload. I will have at best 7-9 free days in October to do something. Maybe I will be able to make at least a couple of small but good maps. Or maybe I can finally get into the topic of intensive speedmapping, as my biggest problem is the long development time. Anyway, I have one simple concept in my head that I could try to realize at least partially.

Monumentum*

Arrival. I fucking love it. And the rest of @AD_79 work. So much so that I specifically converted some of his tracks to mp3 and added them to playlists on my phone for everyday listening.

I've been relatively detailed about map formats, ports, and testing in general, with references to one thing or another. https://www.doomworld.com/forum/post/2640803

Let's discard the "just practice and do what you like" advice. Because for the most part this advice is useless, and it's clear enough if you're not a fool. If you are suddenly a fool for whatever reason, just don't be one and you'll be fine. 1) Study the editor. Explore its capabilities, what it even allows you to do. Go a little further than just "you can draw a sector, lines", "you can make doors", etc. 2) Study map formats, what they are, what they provide, and what ports they work on. Learn certain mapping tricks, there are a lot of them and for each format can be different. Today of the significant formats there are the following: Vanilla(with limits under the original), Limit-Removing, Boom, MBF21, Hexen, UDMF. Each format has its own limitations, its own purpose and its own goals. At the very least different port coverage. 3) Study how ports work at a good level (I mean those aspects that can play a role in mapping, you don't need to dig into the port source code, much is described in the Wiki, much is learned with experience, much is mentioned in discussions), what features and capabilities they have, as well as what problems and limitations they have. Make yourself a list of ports for each map format, customize configurations in Doom Builder to match these lists. If you think that on one port everything works great, and on other ports everything will work just as great, you are terribly mistaken. In almost all ports, various unforeseen nuances may pop up in certain situations (up to bugs in the vanilla Boom or prBoom+, for example, which some ports focused on during development, and which were fixed by other ports). 4) Pay attention to additional features and "standards", especially MAPINFO. Today there are many additional features implemented in different ports, which you can additionally use in your map. If we talk about MAPINFO for example Boom maps, always implement several MAPINFOs. In my experience, the greatest port coverage is achieved by including UMAPINFO, ZMAPINFO, EMAPINFO, MAPINFO(Hexen format) in your wad. Combine with techniques for vanilla ports (level names in Dehacked and additional image files with level names for Intermission Screen, naming music and everything else for vanilla format, etc.). 5) Test your maps on a wide range of ports. DO NOT sit only within one or two ports only, unless you are creating an exclusive that will only work on, for example, GZDoom or Eternity Engine. If you created a map on Boom, for example, but tested on GZDoom, then you haven't tested it at all. Good testing and paying enough attention to the polishing of the project often plays an important role. 6) Learn to do things quickly. Gradually increase your development speed. Get deeper into the nuances of the editor. Develop your own "techniques" for doing certain things "in a couple clicks" that you spend a lot of time on. Practice speedmapping, not necessarily with rigid limits. The main message, do more without losing quality in less time. 7) If you feel that you lack creativity, set yourself limits. It's often the case that in the face of strong constraints in trying to implement certain things, you'll look for hacks of one sort or another to implement them, which in turn will keep your "brain is boiling" and will go a long way towards delving into a topic and therefore ensuring your growth. This is one of the reasons I usually tell beginners to start with Limit-Removing or Boom. Limits can straighten your arms if you put in the extra effort, there is no magic out of thin air, don't get your hopes up. But it's still worth considering that it may not work for everyone, although from my observations it has often worked for me and many other mappers I know. Another thing worth mentioning here is to search for your idea generators. For example for me it's listening to music, especially MIDI soundtracks, listening to which I already start visualizing my map in my head. 8) Take into account the rule that a player is a "fool" (I don't mean to disparage, I'm a player myself). If you think you've come up with some incredible new thing on your map, don't assume that the average player will be able to figure it out and see it. It often happens that even on seemingly insanely obvious things, the player will sit scratching his head for 3 hours and do not do what you have in mind. This is basically the eternal dilemma of leveldesign and gamedesign in the game industry. So always keep this thing in mind. And don't forget to test on players before releasing a map. It's a good idea to keep in mind among potential testers as people with experience in mapping, as well as ordinary players who may not even know much about Doom itself. 9) Your multi-layered posts and README files will be read by only a few people. People don't know how to read. Either they are insanely lazy or busy. If you have to write certain important things that need to be conveyed to the player in a post or README, this is likely to be a problem. If you have a way to automate this (e.g. the settings or things or whatever are automatically applied when the map starts) or implement it in such a way that the player simply can't miss this information (e.g. explicitly provide it to the player on the map itself) or something along those lines, do it. The less there will be such an intermediate textual and not only layer between the player and your wad, the better it will be. 10) Don't rush with the release on idgames. It can often happen that you post a map on idgames after some pretty confident testing and polishing, and then suddenly after a couple of weeks you find out that there are certain flaws, someone had something broken, or the balance or level progression was not as obvious as you thought. Do a temporary Release Candidate and specifically wait for a certain time period (e.g. a month), during which certain issues could potentially surface. 11) Play other wads and learn from other mappers. It is impossible to come up with something potentially new. Observe, adopt, combine, develop. And don't be afraid to learn other maps in builder, this is the key point, due to which you can learn a lot of things. I've also written in more detail about some things in other posts, you might be interested in reading that as well: - Map formats and port testing in detail: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/post/2640803 - How to build your own texture pack: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/post/2652222 - Vanilla-Friendly features: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/post/2655658 Good Luck!

That may also be true. But the other thing to consider here is that it's more about using a couple or three portals instead of creating several dozen 3D floors. I don't know clearly what experience we had before, but speaking from my personal experience with Eternity Engine and GZDoom - portals are always a winning option in building complex multi-story architecture. Eternity Engine itself is fast enough, and in GZDoom the difference in performance and ease of mapping is visible to the naked eye. The actual prerogative of 3D floors, in which today they prove themselves successful, is to be a complementary element, not fundamental.

from this

Play other wads. Don't sit in a vacuum. There are a huge number of other mappers and their work, whose experience could be adopted and developed into something new, something banal to learn. But play meaningfully, analyzing everything you see. And don't be afraid to practice by studying other people's maps in doom builder. Try to work on the speed of mapping without losing quality. This is a very VERY useful skill. It often happens that you have a spark to make a great idea, but you can drown in some routine for a long time, losing that spark. It often happens that you just can't devote a lot of time to mapping because you are busy with other things, and as a result you drown in long projects. Once you get the hang of the basic functionality and understand a bit about leveldesign, try speedmapping as a way to develop yourself. It doesn't have to be something hardcore from the "megawad in a month" category, just set yourself a hard deadline and meet it by all means. Do a full-blown interesting level in a week. Make a small level in half a day. And everything like that. At the same time, strive to map not boxes, but something elaborate within the time constraints. The more you will have time to realize your ideas in a short period of time without dropping in quality, the better it will be.

These are not misconceptions, this is an factual result that can always be seen on the maps, where 3D floors are very much in use. I say this because I myself sat for a long time with a multistore implementation and watched it work in different ports. Well, it's more a question of tastes. In any case, as a technical example it is highly relevant.

The best port personally in my opinion that can play multi-story is the Eternity Engine. But it, as mentioned above, does not do it through 3d floors, but through portals. GZDoom can implement multistory through 3D floors, but if there are a lot of them (especially per sector), it can hit performance very hard, so abusing them might not be a good idea. GZDoom also supports portals, but in Eternity Engine they are easier to implement and work without roughness (as far as I know the AI of mobs may not work correctly with portals in GZDoom). Also Eternity Engine is more optimized, especially since they implemented multi-threaded rendering there. The best practice for realizing full-fledged multistory is to use portals. 3D floors are a good thing for small elements, for which the use of portals would probably be unnecessary, such as some decorative element, like a bench or a protruding brick in the wall and all that. But the use of 3D floors to build a complex multi-layered architecture can have unpleasant consequences in the form of a significant complication of map development (because the grid will be literally a mess), and especially it will be critical for performance. Plus multi-storey architecture, implemented through 3D floors can be very painful if you will try to implement on the floors of the elaboration of lighting, especially color. UPD: A good example of a really impressive multi-story and not only is Heartland, I would call it a kind of tech-demo of Eternity Engine. I highly recommend to play it and see for yourself.

Very strong and meticulous work. Congratulations on the release!

I dug through my hard drive and found something that would fit here. The map is probably about 4 or 5 years old. Of course it doesn't reflect my current mapping skill. Name: Monumentum Author: DRON12261 Music: None Resources: No (Doom2.wad) Format: Boom Tested: prBoom+, Doom Retro, Nugget Doom (actually there is nothing much to break on the map, so it should work everywhere). Comments: Passes probably in less than a minute. All I've added here is just an option to exit the level. Called Monumentum most likely because I wanted to realize then some monumental large and tall buildings in the manner of brutalism. But it looks like I started making starting locations and never got to the heart of the map. Monumentum.zip

Retro Friday) Good work!

For me, the best mod in terms of quality and quantity of content, preserving the aesthetics of Doom itself and sufficiently developed balance (given the amount of new and diverse content and mechanics) is Dusted Pandemonia. I highly recommend to immerse yourself in the mod. There are additional addons recently released there that are quite experimental in terms of balance, but provide new content if you get fed up with the main mod. Another of my favorites is Nobody Told Me About id, Complex Doom (pure, without any addons). Recently tried DN3Doom and Punisher, very fun and interesting mods. As for maps and megawads, there is a huge choice, you need to look at try. You can focus on the list of cacowards (but do not expect only masterpieces there, there are often controversial moments), look at what is on doom-wiki, etc. Personally I recommend trying A Doom Odyssey 2022 for Ultimate Doom, and for example Machete for Doom 2.

TNT goes Boom!: (WIP, boom) https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/118154-tnt-goes-boom-episode-1-vanilla-tnt-evilution-replacement/ https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/121133-tnt-goes-boom-episode-2-vanilla-tnt-evilution-replacement/ https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/133438-tnt-goes-boom-episode-3-vanilla-tnt-evilution-replacement/ TNT Overcharged: (WIP, boom) https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/122743-tnt-overcharged-beta-skill-update-08142023/