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Post by Tangra on Jul 26, 2024 13:49:45 GMT -5
This map is semi-old, from 11 months ago, but it was never "officially" released, as it was (and i guess still is) part of the "Embryo" CP by Moustachio, over at the other forum. Unfortunately, that project has been delayed for nearly half a year, and during this time i've revised and polished the map further, but since there's no way to update it for the Embryo project, i might as well post it here, and use it in the future for one of my little episodes that i have planned. The map is constrained in 2048x2048 units of playable space, because of the original gimmick of the Embryo CP. So yeah... it's a medium-sized square, but i tried my best. Name: The Wailing Fields Format: BOOM IWAD: Doom 2 Gameplay: Single Player Tested in: DSDA-Doom (-cl9) Difficulty Levels: Yes Textures: The Sky is from CC4, but the rest is vanilla Doom 2 textures LINK: www.moddb.com/games/doom-ii/addons/the-wailing-fields |
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Post by Bob Page on Jul 26, 2024 18:14:48 GMT -5
I really like the mid-texture usage in the screenshot! It gives me some ideas for maps of my own.
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40oz
diRTbAg
Posts: 5,937
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Post by 40oz on Jul 27, 2024 17:30:48 GMT -5
There's a lot to like about this map. The lighting is very moody. It definitely smells like doom, which is to say that the map feels pretty detailed while staying pretty consistent with classic doom IWAD tropes. It had kind of a 'professional' feel which you don't see very often in maps these days. Even some of the best looking ones tend to make a lot of rookie mapping mistakes and texture misalignments. This is pretty refreshing to see. The combat in this is pretty punishing. It reminds me a lot of Doom 1 Episode 4. In fact, this reminds me a lot of what I hoped Sigil was going to be like. It's very 'smartly' designed in the sense that it's almost impossible to round every monster into your field of view all at once. New monsters coming from the front often means new monsters coming up the rear too. Every encounter leads you right into the next one too, maintaining a constant state of alert. Right from the start of the map, you have to make a lot of moves to secure the very first space where you can stand still without being shot at. The way the map does this feels very deliberate, but in my opinion, makes for a more anxious doom experience than fun. With the acquisition of each new weapon, I would still feel pretty underequipped for what lies ahead, which shows a pretty thorough dissertation on Doom's gameplay, but also stressful to play. I was a little nagged by the amount of collisions I was making with the world geometry, particularly on the 45 degree angle midtexture handrails, support beams jutting out, and the thing decorations nestled in corners. It's not impossible, but it adds a lot to the challenge in an otherwise already challenging map. Additionally, the somber lighting had a tendency to camouflage the monsters into the rust and wood-texture-heavy scenery quite a bit, which also added some extra injuries. The health and ammo balance was pretty good. I did die quite a few times but, it didn't really feel unfair. I didn't really have much trouble, but I think I would have liked a few starting room medikits that I don't have to earn by killing 50 monsters first. Architecturally, the map is pretty impressive. The texture alignment is excellent and the layout is pretty dynamic even with being almost entirely made of orthogonal and 45 degree lines. The areas feel a little stuffy though. Presumably because of the 2048x2048 limitation. I think I would have liked to see a little more extreme contrast in room size than I did, but I do think the map makes the best it could out of this rulset. I wasn't able to beat it. I died after each attempt and had to take a break after getting zapped by an archvile with no way to get away from him. This would be pretty good if it wasn't also fatiguing! |
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Post by Tangra on Jul 27, 2024 20:34:36 GMT -5
Thank you 40oz, this is nice of you, i can take notes from your feedback. In this state the map would have been final for the Embryo CP, but since i plan to use it in my own project, some changes will happen to it eventually. Probably reduction in enemy count to reduce the starting clutter on the way to the first skull key. I will also make it limit-removing, as this is my first and only Boom map and i'm fully committed to limit-removing maping for almost a year now.
The combat gets a bit punishing for sure, but that was me thinking of difficulty progression, because the map is meant to be on Slot17 of the CP, and you should've seen what kind of punishment some of the other mappers are trying to pull in that project. It was naive of me to think about balance, when that's never going to happen in a CP of this kind. There is a combination of way easier and much more brutal maps before my slot, and all of them end with a death exit, so that you can't carryover weapons and powerups.
The 45 degree geometry is ingrained in my brain, i can't help it, i like using it way too much and will probably continue to do it. When watching his mapping streams, i was wondering why John Romero is mostly sticks to 90 degree angles, but considering how tightly cramped some of his interiors are, i think i understand now. My map here also has some tight spaces, but that had to happen due to the forced restriction. I got so used to it while testing, that i didn't saw the angled geometry as an issue until you mentioned it now. The colision with the support beams on the outer walkway is easily "fixable", and i will probably change it in the future. I kind of did them like that on purpose, to add some extra obstacles when doging the revenant rockets (it also makes the mid texture guardrail look a lot better), but i will consider other options. The 2048 restriction also forced me to make the whole layout beforehand, and once i did i realized there was no room for monster closets, and as a result the abundance of teleport ambushes will probably be repetitive to most players... i know they are for me, but i didn't think too much of it at the time. The overusage of teleport closets was one of my main mapping sins when i started mapping, and my shitty UDMF maps were all plagued with it, because i was thinking about needless details that left me with no room for closets. I started to fight that habbit of mine once i stopped mapping in UDMF, but with this map here, it just had to happen this way.
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