by Rex Claussen » Thu Dec 21, 2017 18:09
Hi Jeff. I finally had some time to play your mod. Here are some of my thoughts:
1. It is a nice nod to MAP04, as you probably intended.
2. There's a very nice mix of themes. When I first saw your screenshots, I thought it would be a challenge to pull off so many different themes, but I feel you've managed it well.
3. I love the complexity of the map design, with its intricate and intersecting pathways. Some people complain when they have to use the auto-map to navigate through a map, but I believe that the mod author should not be leading the player by the nose. In particular, the first time a map is played, the player ought to spend some time becoming familiar with the layout of the map and the challenges. Many players feel they ought to be able to play a map at UV and beat the map in the first attempt with no save-games and max kills. I disagree, and I feel that the player ought to occasionally refer to the auto-map for guidance.
4. I like the steady ramp up of difficulty.
5. Given that this is intended for vanilla DooM, the architecture is nicely detailed and appealing.
6. The texturing and texture alignment are good, and I noticed only one instance of misalignment (although I wan't looking very hard).
7. The secrets are visible but not easily accessible. I like that. [Incidentally, I was only able to reach one secret.]
8. The traps are clever.
Now some thoughts about those aspects of the mod I wasn't too thrilled about:
1. There were times when I was utterly out of ammo, and quite low on health. In one instance, I had to tackle an arachnotron (near the yellow-key bars) with just a chainsaw and 16% health.
2. The ammo distribution created an unnecessary challenge at times. For instance, the area with the secret invulnerability on the ledge and the 3 barons had absolutely no ammo. And this was coming after a fight with numerous Hell Knights, a few barons, a cacodemon, and an assortment of the weaker enemies, followed by 2 archviles. I had to restart from a saved game and skip the 3-baron fight for later.
3. The distribution of some of the powerups puzzled me. For instance, there was a liberal sprinkling of radiation suits in one area, but I didn't need that many (particularly as a couple of them were in lave dead-ends that didn't reward me with anything besides the rad suits).
4. There's an area with platforms in slime, and some of the platforms serve as lifts. Running from one platform to the next works on some, but in a couple of instances the overhead ledges block your access to the ledges. The only way, it seems, to reach those platforms is to step into the slime (bad idea when you're low on health, which I was for most of the time), lower the lift behind you, and when it is rising you time your run just right to get on the "fixed" platform. This was very frustrating for me, and I ended up just using GZDooM to jump onto the fixed platforms.
5. I did not like the final fight, as it relies just too much on luck. If you come up near a Mastermind before the infighting has begun, you're toast almost immediately.
I intend to play the map again, having learnt some of the tricks, and see if I can do better. Overall, however, I must say that this is an ambitious and well-executed effort.
Hi Jeff. I finally had some time to play your mod. Here are some of my thoughts:
1. It is a nice nod to MAP04, as you probably intended.
2. There's a very nice mix of themes. When I first saw your screenshots, I thought it would be a challenge to pull off so many different themes, but I feel you've managed it well.
3. I love the complexity of the map design, with its intricate and intersecting pathways. Some people complain when they have to use the auto-map to navigate through a map, but I believe that the mod author should not be leading the player by the nose. In particular, the first time a map is played, the player ought to spend some time becoming familiar with the layout of the map and the challenges. Many players feel they ought to be able to play a map at UV and beat the map in the first attempt with no save-games and max kills. I disagree, and I feel that the player ought to occasionally refer to the auto-map for guidance.
4. I like the steady ramp up of difficulty.
5. Given that this is intended for vanilla DooM, the architecture is nicely detailed and appealing.
6. The texturing and texture alignment are good, and I noticed only one instance of misalignment (although I wan't looking very hard).
7. The secrets are visible but not easily accessible. I like that. [Incidentally, I was only able to reach one secret.]
8. The traps are clever.
Now some thoughts about those aspects of the mod I wasn't too thrilled about:
1. There were times when I was utterly out of ammo, and quite low on health. In one instance, I had to tackle an arachnotron (near the yellow-key bars) with just a chainsaw and 16% health.
2. The ammo distribution created an unnecessary challenge at times. For instance, the area with the secret invulnerability on the ledge and the 3 barons had [u]absolutely[/u] no ammo. And this was coming after a fight with numerous Hell Knights, a few barons, a cacodemon, and an assortment of the weaker enemies, followed by 2 archviles. I had to restart from a saved game and skip the 3-baron fight for later.
3. The distribution of some of the powerups puzzled me. For instance, there was a liberal sprinkling of radiation suits in one area, but I didn't need that many (particularly as a couple of them were in lave dead-ends that didn't reward me with anything besides the rad suits).
4. There's an area with platforms in slime, and some of the platforms serve as lifts. Running from one platform to the next works on some, but in a couple of instances the overhead ledges block your access to the ledges. The only way, it seems, to reach those platforms is to step into the slime (bad idea when you're low on health, which I was for most of the time), lower the lift behind you, and when it is rising you time your run just right to get on the "fixed" platform. This was very frustrating for me, and I ended up just using GZDooM to jump onto the fixed platforms.
5. I did not like the final fight, as it relies just too much on luck. If you come up near a Mastermind before the infighting has begun, you're toast almost immediately.
I intend to play the map again, having learnt some of the tricks, and see if I can do better. Overall, however, I must say that this is an ambitious and well-executed effort.