Cocademon

GZDoom, UV, comp level 9 Fun level, could find 5/6 secrets. I particularly enjoyed the room where the shotgunner is revealed to be hiding behind the window (maybe because I saw him first before he shot me in the back) and the secret in there. Very elegant way of hinting at it. The shootable switch in the first room is also a neat way of letting you know that you need freelook. The hole from which slime was dripping along the wall was nice decoration. The only negative thing about this map is that it's not clear what the back of the skull switch in the raised slime circle does. I can only guess it opened up the last secret? I probably missed it. Great work on the map! coldwelcome.zip

DSDA Doom, UV, comp level 9 A simple and fun level, with plenty ammo to enjoy the plasma rifle. A rare map where I could plasma imps and shotgunners without feeling bad about wasting ammo. I enjoyed the beginning where if you stick around the open area chasing the monsters, the imps will end up creating a flurry of fireballs, making me feel like in one of those ww2 games where you storm the beach and the enemies are always shooting at you with machine guns. Anyway, since you plan on making more maps, there are some things that negatively stood out to me while playing this one, which I hope to see improved: Locked doors don't indicate which key they need. I was surprised when the red door didn't open because I was missing the red key, as it looked identical to previous doors. The winding path to the red key felt a bit too long. I think it can be made shorter, with more monsters in the closet on the way back to make up for it. With how large and open areas in this wad are, they are too sparse. The pain elemental room had the right idea to hang some corpses around for decoration, even if they got in the way. But the side areas around the fort are quite barren, and could do with looking less like joined rectangles. The exit is not marked properly! I was expecting the walls to lower around me when I pressed the switch. Unfortunately I didn't think to go around the fort on both sides, so I missed a lot of content in there, including the cyberdemon. But I noticed the row of invulnerabilities and appreciated them nonetheless. forthunt.zip

I would like to try this but dropbox asks me to log in. Could you host it somewhere else?

DSDA doom, UV, complevel 9 I admit the title got me to open this thread and download the wad, but I don't think this is a good map. The rooms are simple rectangles, and they're nothing more than glorified monster closets. There's not enough ammo for all the monsters, but that's offset by the fact that a lot of them are just stuck and don't react to you. There is a sense of progression, but I feel like it's wasted on the very linear and dull map. I don't think the this gauntlet you're going for is inherently bad, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. Try adding some interesting geometry between the fight rooms, some monsters, items, secrets and you could turn this into something greater. lunshell.zip

Oh I would've never thought about them showing me that doors have opened. I think you would notice the open doors anyway when returning from that room. I don't have a lot of experience with custom maps, is this something experimental you tried or is it something of an uncommon mapping trope?

DSDA, compelevel 21, UV Couldn't find two of the secrets without automap cheats, so I didn't go for them this time. Overall I liked the map, it feels like a city proper from the outside, while inside it gets all wacky. The interiors left me confused a few times with all the teleporting around but then I always ended up back on the city streets so I could get my bearings easily. I feel like the ambushes lose their bite a bit if you can run away from them, or at least aren't forced to engage with them. Most of them didn't lock the door behind me so I always just ran back when I heard the all the monsters screaming from being woken up. Not sure what these holes were all about, automap showed they don't lead anywhere. c1t13.zip

Very impressive for a first level imo. I think you have a good grasp on this mapping thing, particularly the decorations (I enjoyed the guy hanged on the wall with his lower body turned into a blood splatter). I couldn't figure out the revenant closet secret though. I'm personally not a fan of purely dark places, even if partially illuminated by timed flashing lights, but it did make me play more careful because I couldn't know what to expect. The only thing I didn't like was the switch hidden in the dark because it felt like pure chance activating it rather than deducing its existence via environmental clues. Sadly no FDA because I'm new to this playtesting thing and didn't realize I should/could do that.

I think you have a good thing cooking up with the layout and monsters. Right now you're setting up the expectation that monsters will pop up at any time, so I would expect a couple of pinkies or some other weak enemies to come out once I emerge from the tunnel with the shotgun and back into the starting area. However I don't get much of a sewer vibe right now from the looks, possibly because of the brown textures everywhere. Once you make the level bigger you should add more decoration, stuff like liquids dripping on the walls and floor, or pipes. Really make the player feel like they're in a sewer. Can't go wrong with some green sewage either if you don't care to keep it grounded. Keep up the work though, I'd like to see your progress on this.

I played the first four levels and I think you've truly achieved your goals of expanding the ideas of the original levels while keeping the ideas there. I will be playing more of this, but I wanted to share some thoughts first: - There are a bit too many ambushes for my tastes (though the be fair, doom 2 had its fair share of those too). On map 3 when I got teleported to the rocket launcher, I was sandwiched between two imps. Didn't die, but until the teleporter effect wore off and I gathered my bearings, they already clawed off a solid chunk of my health. I can concede this was my fault for not clearing them out first, but it still stood out to me. - The secrets are well done and in line with the originals. I managed to find all but two in map 4 without automap cheats. After finding those two I shook my head because I realized I could've found them easily if I thought back to the original map 4. - In the final area of map 4, I enjoyed how the lighting in the tunnels leading to the teleporters followed you. - I think the difficulty is fitting on UV for the "Bigger and improved" theme this wad aims for. Patiently looking forward to seeing a full release one day!