NOVA III [LINK TO NEW THREAD IN OP]

Glad to see so much progress being made already on some people's maps - I can't wait to play them! Also, regarding the title of NOVA III, I think that can be best left until we're nearing completion of the project. :V

CWolfRu said:

What about maps 31-32, BTW?

I'm probably going to put a post up in the OP to confirm this, but I don't want to influence the project on what these two maps may be. I'd prefer to leave it to everyone taking part in the project to discuss, and for an idea that everyone is excited with to be brought up.

Like scotty said, we can simply have two regular maps in these slots. Other people are suggesting a Megiddo-type map. I'm not a fan of the original two Megiddo maps, but that's entirely because of their size and length, and I'm aware that I'm not the target audience for those kind of maps. I want to make sure that if a Megiddo III does happen, the mappers who work on it actually have good ideas for their sections: I wouldn't want to see a Megiddo map just for the sake of having one.

NinjaLiquidator said:

I would like the map before me to end by player suicide, please.

We won't be confirming any death exits until we have a full mapslot order, sorry. If another mapper would want to make a map that directly precedes yours in terms of progression (and story, I guess?) and you can both make it work nicely, then I'd allow that.

Also Ninja, I can't actually see any of your screenshots in tinypic. Mind making a gallery of them on imgur?

CWolfRu said:

Will we replace nazi by someone else?

We will be sticking with the stock Doom 2 bestiary for this mapset, barring whatever dehacked custom boss monster Obsidian will put together. This monster won't be affecting the regular monsters, so everything should be fine on that front.

an_mutt: Weird. What exactly you mean by "cant see"? Because it works for me. If it doesnt work for you, you can download them from 4th link in that post.

You should prefer posting direct links instead of "mediated" preview links anyway:

So, map ready, but one thing need to be done.

The MIDI... God, help me...

Preview

I can't believe some people are finished already... this is going to take me a long time to complete. I have switched from DB2 to GZDB for this new mapping effort so hopefully it won't take too long to get used to it.

Yeah, I am at the "still trying out concepts" stage myself and I'm really hoping that the level of progress we've seen from some quarters so far is not one I should be aiming to keep up with. x_X

TheOrganGrinder said:

Yeah, I am at the "still trying out concepts" stage myself and I'm really hoping that the level of progress we've seen from some quarters so far is not one I should be aiming to keep up with. x_X

Haha, +1. I've spent like 15 hrs on the project maybe, but all studying and exercises.

I've still got a long way to go, but I have made some progress. I have some ideas for a final battle type encounter but it's going to take some work to implement in a way that I'm happy with, so it'll be a while.

CWolfRu said:

So, map ready, but one thing need to be done.

The MIDI... God, help me...

Preview

I'm digging the texturing here. Fits together like a glove.

I've barely started, since my map revolves around an inside joke relying on conveyor belts, which don't actually work properly at the moment. As is, it eventually ends up with a pile-up of candelabras x_x

EDIT: eh fuck it, I can't get consistent results across ports. Looks like other themes are full so I'll do some other moon map instead.

I only made the starting area so far.
Btw does anyone knows if there's a good looking texture somewhere (that can be used) to make some sector-based trees? Maybe it will be helpful for someone else who wants to make something similar in his E2 map.

DONE.

Title: Khmeer Agul Tan
Player starts: all 4
Main difficulty: UV (other included too)
Requires n3tx from 1st post
MIDI: my own. Name: "Erebus" initiative
Download

Working on the map now photos will be shown shortly.

CWolfRu said:

DONE.

Title: Khmeer Agul Tan
Player starts: all 4
Main difficulty: UV (other included too)
Requires n3tx from 1st post
MIDI: my own. Name: "Erebus" initiative
Download

FDA. 100% kills, 0% secrets, no deaths, final time around 17 minutes.

Fun map! Gameplay was pretty decent, flowed fairly well for the most part. Wasn't too challenging but that's not a bad thing. Progression was a little questionable; as you'll see I got quite lost a few times in a relatively small map, heh. Will do a more detailed write-up tomorrow after getting some sleep.

CWolfRu said:

DONE.

Title: Khmeer Agul Tan
Player starts: all 4
Main difficulty: UV (other included too)
Requires n3tx from 1st post
MIDI: my own. Name: "Erebus" initiative
Download

http://www.mediafire.com/download/p2r5q1ln6h8rt6o/cwolfru_rdwpa_fda.lmp ~23 mins, I was lost for a while.

The first big encounter is top-notch. Texture scheme and design is nice too, though the map could use more darkness in the indoor areas for contrast. Notes for revision: I think some of the later encounters pulled punches too much, because they were easy to escape. BFG felt superfluous. I was expecting to fight two or three cybers out in the open, but couldn't find much use for it.

rdwpa said:

http://www.mediafire.com/download/p2r5q1ln6h8rt6o/cwolfru_rdwpa_fda.lmp ~23 mins, I was lost for a while.

I was expecting to fight two or three cybers out in the open, but couldn't find much use for it.

Well I may pull 3 more cybers in.

EDIT: Watched rdwpa's FDA and find out one little mistake in actions. Yellow pillars should pull down if you find yellow key, for some reason they pulling without key. Fixed

Link updated.

gaspe:

Have you played TVR!.wad? There is one cool variation of ZIMMER, which just begs to be in jungle map. Last of my screenshots, right side. Also you can rip off the purple textures from Wolf3d to make it more colorful, and raining midtexture from TVR! (in TVR! it is a thing) - first screenshot. Can you see? :D TANROCK8 for tree roots. Stock ZIMMER* are best, as you said. GRASS* and RROCK*. Also I would recommend Valiant and CChest4 - they have some grass and vine midtextures.

the WIP entryway...

NinjaLiquidator said:

Have you played TVR!.wad?

Yes and actually the last month with the MegawadClub lol. I forgot of that texture, thanks!

CWolfRu: Fun map, not too much difficult for fact that it has 4 Cyberdemons and a lot of teleporting traps. But when 2 Cyberdemons appear in that room, they cannot pass through doors cause they're maybe too low. I dont know if you wanted this, but honestly I hid behind the corner next to one of that doors and snacked them with SSG.

NinjaLiquidator said:

CWolfRu: Fun map, not too much difficult for fact that it has 4 Cyberdemons and a lot of teleporting traps. But when 2 Cyberdemons appear in that room, they cannot pass through doors cause they're maybe too low. I dont know if you wanted this, but honestly I hid behind the corner next to one of that doors and snacked them with SSG.

Aw... alright.
Fixed. Link updated.

I feel like I'm in bizzaro world with two different people saying the map isn't challenging. I thought it was incredibly challenging. Especially that opening mad dash. Maybe I'm just not that good at the game.

@Krenium: Spend a couple years playing community-made wads, and your view may change. By that time, not only you will probably improve your playing skill, but you might become appreciative of levels providing your preferred kind of gameplay in a totally concentrated form. :)

CWolfRu said:

DONE.

Title: Khmeer Agul Tan
Player starts: all 4
Main difficulty: UV (other included too)
Requires n3tx from 1st post
MIDI: my own. Name: "Erebus" initiative
Download

Had a quick run through this and good job! I'll be doing a stream of the first bunch of maps that will be submitted to the project, so I'll be able to give some in-depth feedback then. For now, I'll just address some of the larger things:

I'm not that keen on the double cyberdemon fight before the yellow key bars, as I think it's too easy to leave the area or to let the cybers just kill everything that spawns in there, and it wasn't particularly fun to play through. I don't know if this was designed with that in mind, but the shape of the room isn't the most interesting way in which it all plays out.

I also feel that the progression leading to the blue key should be simplified. The walls that lower in which to enter that room can easily be yellow-key locked instead, which would better tell the player what he needs to do to access it. Instead, linedef 600 (tagged 09) lowers them, which is on the other side of the map. The three bars that stop the player from going into the northern area where the yellow key is don't need to be there either, and those three bars are also lowered by a linedef on the opposite side of the map (linedef 2033).

The things you have to do to get to the yellow key make you go all around the map to trigger them and adds a lot of linear progression to a map that looks like it should be much more non-linear. I would get rid of the bars (sectors 415-7) and make the walls (sectors 376) need the yellow key, and let the player be able to go straight to the yellow key if they go that way at the start.

Aside from that, I really enjoyed the map otherwise. It has good atmosphere and plays nicely, althougth I did keep getting caught by decorations such as the candelabras and the candles in the corridor before the double cyber fight. Likewise, the trees at that fight got in the way of both the cybers and myself, which made the fight less fun than it should have been.

Hey are you still excepting mappers? I would be happy to pitch in if you are.

GregLafitte said:

Hey are you still excepting mappers? I would be happy to pitch in if you are.

Certainly. At this rate, if everyone who's claimed a map actually makes one, we'll have a good few leftover maps to put into a separate wad as its own episode to include with the full megawad. I wouldn't be surprised if a few mappers drop out though, given how the average map project usually is and how busy people can be, so I'm always eager for more people to sign up.

Ok sounds good, I have an idea for a hell/Temple kind of map, will get to it right now.

scifista42 said:

@Krenium: Spend a couple years playing community-made wads, and your view may change. By that time, not only you will probably improve your playing skill, but you might become appreciative of levels providing your preferred kind of gameplay in a totally concentrated form. :)

Out of curiosity, what would you say, broadly, are the 'types of gameplay?'

Krenium said:

I feel like I'm in bizzaro world with two different people saying the map isn't challenging. I thought it was incredibly challenging. Especially that opening mad dash. Maybe I'm just not that good at the game.

Nah it was hard, especially that opening mad dash. There are just people here who are stupidly good at doom.

I liked it but a couple things...

I didn't like the mad dash at the start at all. Too little ammo / hp and too many hitscanners at a distance. I ended up just turtling and taking it super slow, which is really boring.

The decorations get in the way and are annoying. The trees during the double cyberdemon fight in particular. That fight was super unfun due to the trees limiting movement in odd ways even with the plasma rifle just aching to be used.

The double cyber fight felt like a map climax, everything after that was just mop up. Especially the single cyber fight over near the teleport pad. I'm not the best at fighting cybers, but that was a breeze even for me when there's that much space. Just an uninteresting place to put that guy.

I couldn't find the red skull key, even after having killed everything on the map. I took another quick pass around the map, said fuck it, and quit. Maybe make that progression more obvious? I'm cool with obscure progression while the map is still going on, but it seemed like either I missed something early on that needs to be more obvious early on, or the progression was just weird. Or maybe I'm just tired.

Sory guys i might have to drop out i haven't had enough time to work on the map and i am busy for the next month lots of school therapy and family matters :/ I haven't had much time to work on the map and my designs aren't nearly as good as these design i've seen