All Doom maps look the same to me. 

because of limitations of the engine or because custom textures are more rare in doom maps? 

It's simply because if you don't play a game, you're not familiar with the nuances of its custom content. Someone not playing Quake would feel the same way. Which is not to say that of the vast amount of custom levels there aren't indeed many generic parts that look alike. 

Partly probably that but I mostly blame the lack of brushwork and lighting. 

Yeah well, Doom doesn't work like Quake at all in that regard. You can do nifty architectural stuff in Doom but nothing too complex. 

Have you tried out some of the newer Doom engines? I personally like Risen3D and some of the maps made for it, especially the Egyptian themed one. If I were the type to give ratings I'd easily give it a 9 out of 10 (nothing ever gets a 10 in my book because there's no such thing as absolutely perfect). 

I recently tried some stuff for Risen3D. Felt like going back in time to the mid-00s, when it was all about making Doom look "modern" without much consideration for exploring its strongest points. The models are straight from that era, very little has changed.

Although it's probably wrong to judge by one level that I didn't even finish. 

10 doesn't have to mean perfect. It can mean, "Has my highest recommendation". Making 10 mean perfect means your scale is from 1-9. With 9 being perfect. And down the spiral we go!!! 

Nuff said. 

Risen3D is not available for Linux and looks buttugly. Thanks though! 

"10 doesn't have to mean perfect. It can mean, "Has my highest recommendation". Making 10 mean perfect means your scale is from 1-9. With 9 being perfect. And down the spiral we go!!!"

I blame my navy days for that. Nobody got a straight 4.0 evaluation from me, including myself (yeah, I had to evaluate myself which was kind of pointless really). Nothing is ever perfect and I'm always distrustful of any score that says something is perfect. If you can't find at least one fault with something, no matter how small it may be, then you weren't really looking at it.

I'd have to say that there are very few things that get that level of scrutiny and attention to detail. Generally speaking the worst enemy of good enough is trying to be the best, that usually means that nothing is ever finished because you're too busy polishing the cannonball to actually get it loaded and doing its job.

So yes, I suppose my scale is actually 0-9 out of 10 (which is still a scale of 10 if you think about it). 

I used to really prefer the rating system of 1-5 in the old CVG mags.

1. Poor
2. Average
3. Good
4. Very Good
5. Excellent

With this rating alone it would still make you want to read the article because it still feels less scientific than percentages or marks out of 10.
Plus CVG used to have a call out box with a second opinion on the game.

I really miss that mag, it was the greatest. If a game feels like it should somehow be worse than 1/5 they used to put little turd symbols all over the place. 

Now THAT is what Func_Msgboard needs. Every post that I have ever made needs that as an icon. Instead I'll use a crate, which is a sort of turd-ish thing seeing as it just sits there, takes up space, and is not something that people want to see. 

I have a problem... my "quake like id did" is become a little bit more detailed than I intended... Oh well.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4b412mxcf71j37j/map4.jpg 

It's looking pretty sweet regardless.

Do you have any particular "rules" that you're trying to operate by, or are you more or less going by feel? (I remember that the DTWID guys really went hog-wild trying to figure out concrete aspects of the specific design styles of various Doom map authors.) 

I am making this entirely on my own and I don't really want to spend any time going through the minutiae of each mappers style. Generally speaking most of the maps in Quake could have been made by any of the other maps, *except* Sandy who had an almost doom-like style to his maps. I'm not even sure if I will end up finishing much beyond the first episode.

That also brings me to something else, should I release each episode as I complete it? 

Sounds sexy. I'm ready. 

I like the clean look of it... like if Id had spent the time making sure everything lined up neatly. 

IMO you should release episodes (or even individual maps) as soon as you are happy with them. 

Its more detailed and clean than previous maps, maybe even to nice, compared to the others. Not that they aren't pretty in their own way, but this is different, obviously, and might stand out as such. The nice details within the map might slightly undermine the aesthetic of the pack overall... Then again, as a personal project, whatever. I'd also be worried that the project could get extended/distended if you start feeling the need to do that consistently throughout, if I were you.
I'd say that considering the relatively quick pace at which you made the previous maps, it would be a better pay-off to release episode-by-episode, or, if you can make yourself wait that long, until the whole project is 'finished' - whether that's a 'megawad', or 2 episodes, or whatever.
That being said, one or two maps released early could, depending on your work/motivation style, give you the impetus to keep going at a fairly quick pace... 

who, other than myself, after a long day at work, and hoping to be constructive but worrying he is just rambling, writes like that? It is, I feel fairly safe generalizing on this point, a super fucking annoying way to write. 

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/misc/batman-drew.jpg 

All too recognizable, I start rambling trying to articulate trains of thought. Rereading afterwards makes me realize I could condense stuff into a third. I even piss myself off reading some of my crap. Lol. 

... Or whatever.