Hot Potato - Team Mapping Event - Boom Leage WAD out now!

Consistency is key, and consistency is something this map could use more of. Visually, the map has a good sense of location, large areas alongside a waterfront with pathways leading deeper inland or underground. I never felt lost and progression was relatively simple, this tied with the relatively easy combat on even UV led me to believe this map was meant for a more 'chill' playstyle - until a particular mancubi fight. This is where consistency is stretched a little thin, up until this point it has been quite large areas with a few imps and zombiemen, there is a huge difficult spike with 10+ mancubi in a small winding path which I should add, is initially inescapable compared to every other fight in this map which you can go back the way you came to safety at any point. This latter point invalidates much of the intended challenge this map has, this of course is fine if the combat was consistent with a steady difficulty increase, which we know is not the case.

Conclusion:

Overnight Apocalypse is able to give the player a sense of location, I believe the combat side of the map falls a bit short due to inconsistency between lack of challenge and a sudden increase in challenge also the fact at times combat felt a bit too simple. There were nice setups like the aforementioned macubi setup (which is still a good challenge) and the chaingunner trap.

While making a unbroken up linear map with many people might be tricky to retain visual consistency, having a relatively non-linear city with a building for each mapper is a clever way around that. Whilst it is unusual for a twenty-five minute map to have five keys, it distinguishes progression easier as opposed to having many switches or having to settle for a linear version of the map. Even though visual themes can differ quite a bit between buildings, the combat remains surprisingly consistent. Most fights are well thought out and general encounters aren't unfair (even with that many chaingunners). There was one particular fight which could have been tinkered a bit which was the ice rink, far too slippy that you cannot avoid the lost souls and the pinkies can't move either - it's a nice premise, but could be better executed. Most of the bigger fights you can escape from relatively easily, however the mappers do try to stop that from happening for the first moments of a fight. The non-linearity allows backtracking for extra goodies if you remember their place although I can't say I'm a fan of the old misaligned-wall-secret that leads to a backpack, ssg and lots of ammo in the first building you enter.

Conclusion:

Twice Fried manages to jam lots of different themes into one map via the pretence that each theme is its own building, while balancing combat difficulty consistently. I also never felt lost due to spaced out signposting, although this map is technically non-linear, it has fairly linear buildings sometimes only one room although they need not serve any further purpose so it is a fitting size.

I have decided towards giving my vote to Twice Fried, as its well rounded combat consistency and method of tackling visual themes differences between mappers creates a well put together map with not much to nit pick (apart from the ice rink encounter ;) ) or break up the experience.

This is a map of moments. It had highs and it had lows. It starts with a cool adventurous feel, but then it takes its time to get going. For the most part I like the progression here (brutal backtrack near the end though). Even the sudden move to hellish comes full circle fairly quickly. But the action itself just doesn’t really come alive besides a couple moments, namely an early fight shotgunning revenants, and a seemingly well plotted mancubus, although not the most organically implemented, trap. Visually, it’s inconsistent. Overall it fits together, but the levels of detail clash a little bit. The beginning feels totally vanilla but then there’s all sorts of lighting in the first hallway and the middle section all looks a little nice until the very end, which is rather crude again. This bit of collision stands out to me now. In the end, the gameplay has a good skeleton, but the monster composition seems too basic. It feels like it would not take much to elevate the combat significantly. I'm a big opponent of secrets like the plasma gun secret. In my FDA, I came out of that with almost 300 cells, more than enough to make the rest of the map more of a breeze than it already was.

My first run was 15:48 - 100/97/71

I don’t think this map was long enough to justify five keys being in use. The city approach helps, but it still felt like a bunch of small maps crammed into one. To be sure, I do understand that is the main challenge of this project, but I felt there could have been either more choice in the progression or more semblance of connected space, not just an empty city street. I felt most of the combat was decent in theory but either implemented in too much space or with too simple a way to solve it. The red key fight, for example, I actually just left and carried on with the map. I also thought the weapon progression was too slow. Since I got all the secrets and since the map is linear, I really could not have gotten anything any earlier. In this regard, the ice skating rink was the biggest culprit. The strength of this map is visual cohesion. It’s a cool city with several areas to visit. The whole thing is semi-realistic and pays attention to lighting.

My first run was 19:59 - 103/80/100

This was what I would call a split decision. While one was more ambitious in scope, the other ended up with more organic cohesion that felt more clever after initial kneejerking, even with some awkward backtracks. Neither jumps out as significantly better in terms of combat, but the fact is Twice Fried got a bit tedious with so many separate areas, and I really appreciated the mancubus challenge of Overnight Apocalypse, even with the cell abundance that somewhat ruins the game plan for that fight. 

Bottom line: my vote is for Overnight Apocalypse

The beginning and the cave area look pretty nice, with subtle big picture detail items – just pleasant texturing, subtle sloping, and buildings in the background. Most of the rest is pretty bare, more what you would expect with so little time to work. This map’s highlight for me is easily the grey-ish metal basement room, which seems to be the only gameplay-first part of the map. I quite enjoyed the pace in there and the difficulty pitch: not brutally hard but makes you make decisions. The layout, although visually cohesive, is a little choppy in terms of gameplay. You essentially need yellow and red to exit, but you need blue to get yellow, so I like that little frustration of symmetry, but it’s definitely a map of sections: beginning/hub, cave, basement, mastermind. That’s not a major negative, but I prefer when maps of distinct fights find ways to disguise it a little better. The cave section and the mastermind section felt unpolished, the former seeming thoughtless in monster composition and noticeably unbalanced. Even entering with rockets and plasma from the mastermind area had me leave early with enemies alive and no ammo. However, this may be the best looking “room” in the entire project. The mastermind arena just seemed like a spamfest. It’s perfectly winnable by simply holding down fire with the plasma gun with very basic evasion tactics and not much prioritization. I do like that this map has some obvious replay value in being markedly nonlinear at the beginning, but any way I play it, the basement section is by far my favorite.

I finished my first run in 12:32 with 95/100/66

I thought it was well executed in terms of layout. Visuals are refreshing, fairly level throughout and just right for the timeframe. There are not a lot of stylistic choices that call for fine detail, which speaks to wisdom in planning. The weakness in terms of visuals is probably lighting in the bigger areas and some instances of the Hell Keep effect. I don’t know that this map needs two separate somewhat similar cyberdemon fights (beginning definitely > end), but I thought most of the gameplay was at least a little distinct. The hot start was fun and engaging, and I appreciated that both the weapons are viable options for different purposes/situations. The blue key fight is unique. It doesn’t seem all that interesting at first, but the monster setup forces you into the damaging floor and there’s no health, so the name of the game is working quickly. I like the red key room’s quirkiness between the little puzzle and the crushers. This map has identity, and I think players will appreciate that, even if they don’t love everything about it. Lastly, the whole map serves as a little aggression release, as you use mostly plasma and rockets, but it’s by no means an all-out power trip.

I finished my first run in 18:10 with 100/96/33

The Temple is more consistent in quality of visuals and gameplay, giving the impression of better team chemistry. It’s also more varied in what it offers, taking the time to set up some outside the box situations. Contingent Demolition, while less cohesive, is certainly not a mess, and it does get my vote for “best fight” and “best looking room.” But this is a team effort, and although Demolition got better for me after my FDA while the Temple stayed about the same, I don’t think Demolition’s very highs are enough to offset the consistent quality of the Temple.

Bottom line: My vote is for Temple of the Crystal Spud

Thoughts on Twice Fried:
I want to start out by saying I like city themed open world type maps, and given the time constraints Twice Fried delivered a relatively cohesive map stylized like a city. Detail was somewhat limited but thematically cohesive, and considering time constraints it still managed to build a distinctive charm and a feeling of location.

Some criticism I have for this map is that despite being a city map it still felt relatively liner in progression. That may be due in part to the use of 5 different keys. While I find the idea unique especially for a grand city it may have been a bit ambitious and resulted in the loss of openness by sealing off most paths and keeping the buildings & fights compartmentalized as well as increasing the number of door fights. I would have loved to see more options for areas to go from the start, and more inter-conectivity between different areas of the city. The ice rink was a cool idea, but i felt like the friction factor was just too low making it far too hard to move on.

Overall the map was enjoyable, aesthetically coordinated, and generally made you feel like you were in a city. However it suffered in my opinion from the aggressive use of keys making the map areas less connected and linear in progression.

Thoughts on Overnight Apocalypse:

This map to me felt like it had a wider range of skill among its authors. Some areas were well detailed, others were crude.

For example, the room with slime floors, Revenents and lost souls was well crafted aesthetically, and in my opinion was a great combat arena. And it connected perfectly with the red key path. Unfortunately it seemed like a missed opportunity, the initial fight to me seemed like it was on the weak side, and by how the monsters were visible to the player before being altered, making it easy to cheese the fight. This area could have supported a bigger fight or perhaps multiple fights when the player passes through the second time.

Other areas like the ending room or the mancubs gauntlet were relatively crude in terms of aesthetics, choosing simpler geometries & texture decisions. However I actually found the fights in these areas to be more interesting. The mancubus gauntlet, even though I had to cheese it was a lot of fun to try and beat. The final area was also relatively interesting, the strategy that worked the best for me was to dive straight in, circle-strafing with the plasma gun. Rather than moving in cautiously and getting swarmed by cacos. The chain gun ambush was also quite interesting.

All in all Overnight apocalypse is a fun map to play, I played it twice and it was just as much fun running and gunning the second time through. It had some great encounters, and in my opinion its greatest weakness is that it could have more with just a little bit of tweaking.

My vote has to go to Overnight Apocalypse, it to me had the better encounters overall. Twice fried suffered from too many door fights in my opinion, perhaps related to the ambitious number of keys used.

Each of these fights could have been done before any other due to the non-linear approach and giving choice to the player. This is something to keep in mind. The little beach outdoor hub area looks quite pleasant and serves its purpose.

The first area I journeyed to was a nicely detailed cave with water flowing throughout, with adorning key of course. Green armour would have been quite nice as quite a few of the many enemies teleported into the confines of the cave deal quite a bit of damage - there is a secret green armour that can be found fairly easily in the hub so it's not too much a qualm. There are quite a few torches dotting the cave which while looking pleasant, can very easily congest the player with their deceiving hitboxes. While I'm certain if I picked another area to start with I'd be fine on ammo for this arena, there wasn't enough for this fight alone and so I had to abandon it for another area. While it was a bit tight, quite a lot of the monsters get infighting and bunch up in the middle allowing the player just enough room to skirt around.

The next area I went to was the underground techy area. The fight isn't particularly challenging due to the wide geometry allowing the player to circle strafe until most things are dead but I don't think that is necessarily bad - as the fight seemed to pivot around this point with resources in little inlays with stationary turrets for a risk/reward factor while dashing about.

Whilst it isn't necessary to drop into the centre pit, and you'd expect the player to do this towards the end of the fight for reduced danger, the super shotgun is fairly visible to where if the player really wants it they'll be able to find it just fine. Circle strafing is bound to cause infighting and you'll save a lot of ammo - not that in this map's layout that is a particular problem. It is especially tricky to balance a map where any route can be picked first or last. Lastly I found the blue armour at the start was quite suitable as I left with no armour due to being chipped away at by chaingunners.

The final area I visited was the second cave arena although without any water (not a critique). The secret is incredibly obvious as the button to unlock it is right next to the button to activate the fight, perhaps if the texture covering it was more opaque/further away it would be harder to find. Fairly simple fight with little challenge other than dodging the archvile, there is adequate cover in the form of trusty pillars. Mastermind seems a little irrelevant as it just infights with everything. The fact you have practically infinite cells with a plasma rifle to deal with everything indicates to me with much of the fights of this map - that it focuses on the fun of a fight as opposed to the challenge.

Conclusion:

While the difficulty of some fights is a little off compared to others, which is important as the player can choose any of the three key areas to start with, this map to me focuses more on the fun side of combat compared to the challenging, whilst running in large circles dodging projectiles isn't particularly challenging, it's fun casually. It is pretty much impossible to get lost or not know progression due to the admittedly simple layout, not that it needed to be anything more.

Hot start, takes a moment to establish a strategy (mostly not dying), good stuff.

First area looks pretty good and is a fair challenge, you are given two megaspheres to manage your health, you'll need both as most enemies in this fight are high damaging and will chip away at you considerably.

Each switch with either cyber to unlock the next area is fool proofed for if the player did not kill the cyber before activating the Hell Knights and Barons, which block either entrance, they're screwed.

The next area you next unlock is a lot less frantic, interacting with the very first decorative texture you see you grant you a secret SSG with a box of shells with no contest, pretty powerful secret. You get a SSG just a bit further on so it isn't too egregious. While the next area does look quite a bit more simple visually, progression is still pleasant with navigation around level dependant sprint-jump platforms that you'll use to access the blue key once you reach that height.

The fight where you receive the SSG is completely negated by the huge opening to which you entered, remaining open. After grabbing the blue key, you can just leave. It isn't a particularly difficult fight, with the mancs and revenants infighting and large pillars to SSG revenants around. You'll probably lose more health to the damaging floor than the monsters.

Next area is a nice little courtyard with a drop down centre to the red key, natural progression. Something tells me the chaingunners on the return crusher path weren't supposed to come out of their closets until you took refuge between crushers? Or perhaps they were. Bit of an odd way to get to the soulsphere, having to teleport elsewhere then back again to enter the room. The next area seems to be trial and error unless I missed a code somewhere, the punishment isn't that bad so after a few attempts you'll get it, nice little gimmick.

What might seem as another tricky fight quickly shows you it isn't, as I realised the blood didn't hurt in the moat, even with it having a few pinkies in it was quite safe, and the cyber will infight with all the mancs, then exit.

Conclusion:

The strongest portion of this map was the start to me, afterwards the difficulty kept ramping down which was a little disappointing in terms of natural difficulty progression, but nice ideas were presented along the way for a change of pace like the trial and error pressure plates or crushers. I also really quite like the stone/wood/jungle theme.

My vote, after some deliberation, will go to Team 2: Temple of the Crystal Spud as I am quite partial to the theme the team went for as well as an excellent hot start fight, also keeping things fresh with diverse gameplay. Team 1's: The Contingent Demolition of the Lackadaisical Potpourri Outpost had its fair share of nicely detailed areas and different fights, but felt more disconnected as each area was distinctly separated. It was a tough choice between two well made maps.