kvsari
Doomer
I like mapping.
Posts: 267
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Post by kvsari on May 23, 2023 10:03:12 GMT -5
Spawn Cell
UAC is at it again! They've recovered samples from the IoS and begun to run their usual biological experiments on it. Something like generating their own expendable workforce without having to worry about safety inspections or unions. It doesn't work out. You have to go in there and shut down their mad experiment.
Now of idgames!
Spawn Cell
This is my first WAD, but not my first map. I have no idea what I'm doing. Please let me know what you think.
Tested in DSDA on Complevel 2
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Post by AskYourDrAboutUVFast on May 29, 2023 0:41:17 GMT -5
downloaded and i will record some demos for you when i get back home at the end of the month
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kvsari
Doomer
I like mapping.
Posts: 267
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Post by kvsari on May 29, 2023 7:12:12 GMT -5
Thank you very much for your interest.
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StodgyAyatollah
Doomer
I'm not here. You're just imagining things.
Posts: 296
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Post by StodgyAyatollah on Jun 2, 2023 13:42:36 GMT -5
Had a good time with this one. Clean style and well paced. I'm rusty as hell and played really sloppy so only made it about 2/3rds through judging by the kill count but plan to revisit it sometime.
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kvsari
Doomer
I like mapping.
Posts: 267
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Post by kvsari on Jun 2, 2023 21:44:32 GMT -5
Thank you very much for playing.
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kvsari
Doomer
I like mapping.
Posts: 267
|
Post by kvsari on Sept 20, 2023 8:48:34 GMT -5
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Post by AskYourDrAboutUVFast on Sept 25, 2023 17:18:10 GMT -5
glad you bumped this, I forgot all about it. Here is a dsda-demo with saves/loads:
MAP01
just a few quick notes on this map.
- I wasn't really thrilled with the sewer start, but when it opened up to the destroyed city it was a very cool visual moment. I really like how you used the support textures out here to look like big damaged i-beams, very nice. Best part of the map visually imo, would love it if there is more city stuff in the other maps.
- The 20 damage slime seems a bit excessive for a MAP01.
- I was really jones-ing for barrels to help clean up the copious amount of imps on every single elevated ledge out in the city area. the cleanup out here sort of dragged down the flow of combat imo.
- I really wanted to run through the muddy maze portion of the map with the chaingun blasting everything, but I had no bullets.
- Some of the traps like the window/chaingunners in the starting room and the pinky/imps in the slime at the the top of the jump to the yellow key are kinda slow and over-telegraphed, I think these traps would work better if you used a faster action. The hellknight on top of the crate behind the YSK door popping up in my face was particularly annoying.
- I liked the final fight in this map, certainly not what I was expecting.
- Missed one monster, couldn't be assed to go back and look. Several times I was almost out of ammo, think I exited with ~60 bullets and 6 shells or something...idk could maybe use a few more shell pickups.
- Overall I think there is a lot of fat in the combat department in this map. There were so many times where I was looking at a large groups of fodder enemies and just wishing I had a rocket launcher to blast them with. I think this map would be serviced well with either a secret RL or a nice haircut in the enemy count.
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kvsari
Doomer
I like mapping.
Posts: 267
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Post by kvsari on Sept 25, 2023 20:16:54 GMT -5
Thank you very much for your detailed notes. I think I can apply some of your suggestions.
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Post by AskYourDrAboutUVFast on Oct 2, 2023 17:42:21 GMT -5
No problem Kvsari, my notes are just my thoughts and opinions on the map. Generally I like to go fast and blow stuff up in maps, which might not be what you are going for. Take anything you think is useful from my notes and leave the rest. Here is another dsda-demo w/ saves+loads on UV: MAP02spawn-cell-rc2_MAP02_dsdademo_biz.lmp (439 KB) - Cool Midi. Boy, this map look wildly different from the first one. - I appreciate the early SSG. I'm noticing right away that the incidental combat has a really high density of monsters. A couple times already in my demo (in the green tunnel and the SSG room, I wind up just standing still and shotgunning waves of hitscanners from far away as they shamble into the room from around a corner. Its not exactly exciting gameplay imo. When I mentioned trimming the fat on the last map, this incidental combat is what I mean. I don't mind pushing through large groups of hitscanners per-se, but you have to give me the right tool like a chaingun or plasmagun to hit-stun them if you want to entice me to play that way. Alright I was going to type a lot about the long run-on textures in the green tunnels, but then I hit the red key switch, which was a very cool reveal. I didn't make many more notes while I was playing since I was pretty focused on figuring out the map, which is a good thing. This map looks like it would be a lot of fun to speed through once you know what you are doing, but it can be a little rough on a blind playthrough. My first go, I wound up burning a ton of resources trying to kill the annoying SMM only to have another teleport in which sort of screwed up my whole run. It's not necessarily a bad thing...but i was sort of irked that I hadn't saved and so I would have to restart the whole map if I died (and I did). Not sure how you could better telegraph to the player that the Momma Spider has backup, but something to think about because that really screwed my first attempt. My only other nitpick is that everything looks so very similar that I sort of kept getting lost. Even though you have everything color coordinated which is helpful, there were still lots of times where I wasn't sure which islands I had been to and where the next switch is because everything just sort of looks the same. I'm not saying you should change the theme or anything, but its just something to be aware of. Maybe some hp or armor bonuses on the progression islands leading to the next switch would help the player spot the next destination? Idk... Overall this was quite a fun map and I really like the big reveal in the middle of the map. My only suggestions for this one would be to trim up some of the incidental combat at the start so the player can get to the really exciting bits quicker, and maybe somehow signpost the progression and gimmick better once the level opens up if at all possible. Great job. |
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Post by JadingTsunami on Oct 4, 2023 15:25:37 GMT -5
A really nice set! Nice work on your first individual release. I think it's a good one with lots of memorable encounters, unique detailing, and a running storyline that isn't too involved (easy to comprehend as you play through).
I gave notes during my playthrough on each map in case they are helpful for you:
Map01: Fun, nice introductory map. Good use of limited weapons/ammo with the encounters. Final fight was enjoyable.
Notes:
- The imps in the raised city section get lost behind the buildings and 100% kills becomes extremely difficult; might just use monster blocking lines to keep them at the front of the section
- Ran dry of ammo a few times toward the last 1/3rd of the map
- Many encounters like the Rev/HK cloud after the first key can be cheesed by rushing out of the room and slamming the door shut while attacking using the grate. Just a combat note.
Map02: Great theme and texturing. The "walls lowering" reveal was extremely cool. I liked the turreted Spider Masterminds; I always think they're an under-used enemy.
The progression I found really confusing. I spent a lot of time just wandering around trying to get back on track. I get the idea was to find the way up to each platform and "jump" to whatever was open, but it took a lot of lost stumbling around to figure out what switch had done what and so on. There was minimal light contrast in this map which can help guide players in open maps like this: you might consider using very bright sections as a "guide point" because players will naturally investigate well-lit areas. Since you funnel the player through a lot of tunnels, this is a great opportunity to sneak in some "light up/down to adjacent" linedef triggers, too.
Map03: Nice finale map, with some challenging sections.
- Opening was a bit chaotic but overall fun. Kind of hard to get a sense of direction in the big open area, similar issue as map02.
- Position (4179,-549,-40), the Imp trap didn't trigger here for me, and I fell into the pit and got stuck. Seems like there's a way to skip the trigger somewhere.
- Rising lost souls in the nearby blood pool was a cool effect. I liked it.
- Easy monster choke point at (4143,-255,-32). I was able to funnel almost all the open-area monsters into this tiny slot and handle them easily.
- Arachnotrons were easy to get stuck on the ledges due to sliding from rocket hits (near (4143,-255,-32))
- The fleshy eye-ball switch hunt was again confusing in an open-world setting. There really wasn't anything to draw my attention to the fleshy eye-ball switch in the first place. In general I think your concept of players keeping a mental list of places that are blocked off and then checking which one cleared due to a switch is a bit of an outdated idea (this was popular in the 90s, but it's simply not how people play games anymore). You might want to signpost the function of the switches a bit more so it's clear what purpose they serve or what area they opened up.
- The opening teeth thing was a cool way to start the boss fight.
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kvsari
Doomer
I like mapping.
Posts: 267
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Post by kvsari on Oct 6, 2023 11:34:13 GMT -5
Update to RC2.2. Top post also updated. Thank you to AskYourDrAboutUVFast and JadingTsunami for your test notes. Changelog;
ALL
- Fixed various textures that weren't animating by re-introducing the swan table.
MAP01
- Sprinkled barrels.
- Changed grate door to "U" section to be red keyed on the other side locking player in.
- Added some bullets to flooded underground section.
- Made the annoying hell knight pop-up happen before the player ascends onto the machine block.
- Added monster block lines to prevent imps from wandering behind buildings.
- Reduced damage of nukage.
MAP02
- Added armour bonuses to help indicate which platforms to jump onto.
- Slightly re-arranged some ammo so as not to double up on the armour bonuses.
MAP03
- Fixed unintended route which skipped a linedef that raised the imp pit.
- Added more of those bone pillars to make the big fight in the first eye-switch a lock-in battle.
- Fixed the red columns so bumping into them at speed in -cl 2 doesn't clip into the megasphere/cell-charge-pack stored within before IoS reveal.
Not changed;
MAP02/MAP03
I really don't know how to make navigation easier without re-doing the whole thing. Sure lighting and bonuses help but I think the problem is a deeper structural one. I don't mind the "you need to remember where you've been" style of gameplay, so there must be a way to execute it much better than I have done so in these two maps. For next time.
RC2.1 is not uploaded because it's an internal step to not lose progress on changes whilst stumbling about in slade trying to fix the animated textures. I want to upload to idgames soon (one week) so if there's no showstopper bug... |
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kvsari
Doomer
I like mapping.
Posts: 267
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Post by kvsari on Oct 24, 2023 6:22:29 GMT -5
Now on idgames. Top post updated.
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