Shambler
#1 posted by Vondur on 2004/08/25 07:44:29
please, continue inform us about quality releases.
Shambler
#2 posted by JPL on 2004/08/25 08:04:45
Well, screenies look good, even if they are a little bit small... grrrr.. I like this metallic-techno architecture, and lightning effects are really cool... Thanks for this info Shambler...
M E H
#3 posted by Shambler on 2004/08/25 08:55:33
LOL I tried to put my name in as "News" when I submitted it.
Will check tonight when it's dark.
Wow
#4 posted by nitin on 2004/08/25 09:10:00
those look really cool, particularly the first pic ont he left hand side.
Unuseful Comments...
#5 posted by than on 2004/08/25 14:41:59
I haven't finished it, but it seems ok. The quality isn't really up to the id standard in terms of visuals, although the style of the architecture is a little bit different to most of the stuff in Doom 3. I only got a little way in and then I died.
Maybe I'll go back and play the rest later. I'm sure it's the first sp map even approaching id quality though.
More Useful Comments...
#6 posted by Shambler on 2004/08/25 16:14:02
1. There is a lot of good architecture in this map. The curves are particularly impressive and crop up in a variety of ways. Good detailing too.
2. However it is mostly a series of unrelated rooms despite that, i.e. room-corridor-room. It lacks a feel of complexity and also lacks proper consistency between the designs.
3. Build quality lighting etc etc all seem good. Some good effects too. It has some good cinematic moments. However, despite that, it lacks the gripping nature of the game, mostly due to the arbitrary layout.
4. It is however utterly desperately hard i.e. save every 5 monsters just to stay alive. If you like fighting imps and long range with the shotgun whilst being repeatedly hit in the back by screaming heads, this is the map for you.
5. In short, the quality and particularly the design skill are here, the coherency and gameplay balance aren't.
6. P.S. I stopped when I met what I presume is a hell knight, didn't want a spoiler of that.
Uh...
#7 posted by metlslime on 2004/08/25 18:52:56
you have to finish the game before you download custom maps! Duh!
My Opinions
#8 posted by Lunaran on 2004/08/26 02:16:26
Shambler, I agree with all that totally. This could have been a really good map - some of his monster implementation immediately felt more intelligent than anything I saw id do with a monster. The imps put in distant windows to put them in more of an ogre role was good, except for the poor availability of weaponry or space to kill them with.
He also relied a bit on the same trick id used to put the player in danger, that being to wait until you were in a room to plop an enemy in it, instead of just placing them right the first time. At least, sometimes. Other times I wish he'd done at least that instead of spawning the monsters while I was still stuffed in a bloody pipe trying to fend off a Revenant.
It still suffers from all of the things I see wrong with the monster design in the first place, however. No SP map can escape that without accompanying coding.
Bleh
#9 posted by pushplay on 2004/08/26 23:17:22
I'm sorry I spent as much time as I did on this map. It suffers from a bunch of problems. The few clips of sarge used just felt cheap and irrelevant and I would have preferred none at all. The voice on the pda was so quiet that I could only hear it by turning up the volume so high that the heart-beat sound of the room the pda was found in was unbearable. The pda suggested there was a school on Mars, which I refuse to accept. There are two spiders in a vent which refuse to react even when shot. Above that are two soldiers who run around like idiots, totally incapable of finding you. There's a huge room lit by an unsourced, flickering light which gave me seizures. There was a flickering light sourced to a normal light fixture which is my new pet peeve. The lost souls after the mancubi was unreasonable. Monsters spawn far behind you with no visual or audio cues (see: hell knights). Often the monsters were clearly triggered on the health pickup, which makes the game play mechanical. Shooting the power whatevers didn't seem to logically follow from anything. I'm not sure what kiltron was trying to suggest goes on in that lab with the glass capsule of souls (where the soul texture clearly ends above the capsule). There was a single small section of 'growth' which was a country mile out of place. Most importantly, back tracking through a whole level with only a few extra monsters to amuse you is incredibly lazy.
And why the hell did some of the spiders explode?
Ok, so that's a lot of points. Some of them are more significant than others, but as a whole it smacks of a rushed, unplay-tested map.
Did I like anything about the map? Well blood pouring out of a portal looked cool.
The bar has been set. It just hasn't been set very high.
Hrm
Haven't played the map yet, but Kiltron has gone out of his way to post editor tips/advice and stuff on his website, which is nice of him:
http://www.planetdoom.com/meanarena/doom3_editing.html
I'll post this in the editing tips thread too in case anyone can get some use out of it.
It Was Hard Indeed
#11 posted by Friction on 2004/09/02 15:20:01
I played on veteran and fighting against Vagary with 40 health and 30 shells isn't easy Lack of ammo and health was really a major issue here. Some of the monsters were used very nicely though. For example I loved the MAGGOT RUSH after you shoot out the power thingies. That was just so.. Doom.
When it comes to the looks of the map, the design really fails. Single areas look good and sometimes even very good. It's just that they don't work together at all. Why on earth would someone build a base where two ventilation shafts are connected by a complex spiraling bridge.
It was Good Fun (lolz), but could have been a lot better.
Hmm
Why on earth would someone build a base where two ventilation shafts are connected by a complex spiraling bridge.
Shouldn't the question be, 'why on Mars..."
:D
Well
#13 posted by starbuck on 2004/09/03 10:56:51
i think its nice to see totally illogical pointless buildings and structures making a comeback, they've served us well in quake all these years!
Meh
#14 posted by Shambler on 2004/09/03 11:39:36
Have replayed from where I left off previously. Can't really decide which is my favourite moment in the latter half of the map....could it be....
Being trapped in a tight corridor with 40 health and a Hell Knight at each end??
Running past a load of long distance Imps and still not being able to do anything about them due to lack of health and long distance ammo??
Going down a ladder with an unavoidable drop at the end that knocks of 20 health or so??
The repeated prescence of Cacodemons firing their area effect weapons at you when you're crouching in a tight tunnel??
Trying to get out of a hole in the ground with two possessed soldiers firing at you from both directions??
Hmmm....still can't pick...
7 Years Too Late
#15 posted by nitin on 2011/06/19 11:20:58
but I concur with the comments about difficulty. I was literally quicksaving after each combat and it got tedious quick.
Design was nice construction wise but too many disparate bits mashed together.
Stuck
#16 posted by megalodon on 2011/06/22 19:23:32
Well, I still play D3 co-op online from time to time and have finished the game multiple times. Too many times to count. However, in this custom map, after I shot down the shotgunner almost in the beginning of the map, some Lost Souls drove me between the wall and some crate/box(whatever) and I was stuck. There was absolutely no way to get out. Despite the complexity in ID's maps, this just doesn't happen to me in SP.
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