Reply To: DGC Map Pack Collaboration

[sorceress]

#9621

Hi Wesbat, thanks for your feedback 🙂

Firstly, I’ve been testing the map with zdoom, and I was unaware that different engines have different rendering & physics limitations.

I’m not sure how to load custom maps in chocolate doom. I’ll have to look that up.

– Difficulty

I was aware that HMP plays a bit hard, but I decided to leave it as is for first submission. I mostly tested the map on UV, and I’m quite happy with how that plays, even if it is numerically a bit different from classic Doom (as per your analysis).

I’ll consider your advice though with the hitscan types. Either reducing their numbers a bit, or replacing them with Imps.

– Ammo

I’ve tried to leave the player with a bit more ammo by the end than what they start out with (the 50 bullets). I’d agree that if a player starts this map short on ammo, they might struggle to survive the first third of it. I’ll also think about that.

I agree that you can’t dodge hitscan attacks, but you can limit your exposure, by taking cover. Not even I would brave running out of the tunnels into the middle of those shotgunners!

It’s important to note that hitscanners are more a source of ammo than a drain, and in my map they adequately make up for the lack of placed ammo pickups.

The interaction with balance and pacing of the game is also complicated, since hitscanners are easier kills than imps – You can often down 2 hitscanners with 1 shotgun shell, whereas an imp may take upto 2 shells if you don’t hit it square on. This affects pacing, and thus the damage the player is taking over time.

I’ll continue some fixes this weekend.

– Map Making

I think I spent about 25 hours on this map over the past week (3-4 hours each evening), which has been quite a challenge.

I had a hard time with Eureka though. Part of that may be inexperience with it (plus inexperience with Doom map making in general). But there were inexcusable bugs like the text entry boxes losing focus when my mouse drifted away from them, causing my keystrokes to be interpreted as hotkeys, creating all manner of unintended changes in the map. I’ve literally lost over an hour to that alone. Switching between modes to select things is also painful, and I’ve never used Ctrl-U so much in my life before :p

There were three rooms that I removed due to quality concerns, which were some of the first areas I made, despite them playing well.

The exit room was one of the final additions, so I’m not surprised it didn’t connect properly.

I just tried to search for this analysis tool you’re using, and I found something which looked like it – dmon on github. Then I noticed the author’s name… would that be your good self? 😀