🚀 go-pugleaf

On 25 Apr, 11:16, RjY <R...@sp.am> wrote:
> chrisbaz...@bigfoot.com posted:
>
> >Hello,
>
> >I have just released a new patch WAD for Doom 2, which is now
> >available to download from my web site:
> >http://www.starfighter.acornarcade.com/mysite/doom.htm#rienzi
> >I have cross-posted to comp.sys.acorn.games because I did all of the
> >authoring on an Acorn Risc PC using Lee Noar's port of the Doom Editor
> >for Total Headcases (http://www.leenoar.ukos.com/deth) and
> >playtesting in R-Comp Interactive's port of Doom.
>
> Oh nice. I have a Risc PC, although it hasn't seen much use of late. It
> has your SF3K hack on it. I also used to play Doom on it, but with the
> other RISC OS engine (DIY) since I already had the IWADs.
>
> I remember trying to use that port of DETH as well. I don't know how you
> can stand it really :)

Yeah, it's pretty tricky - and not just because it takes an age to
rebuild the nodes (and the result is so poor that I then have to
rebuild them again using a different node builder). The two things
that annoy me most are the insanely short key auto-repeat delay (I
have to 'peck' at the keyboard, which probably makes my landlady
wonder what on earth I'm doing) and the bad GUI design whereby moving
the pointer over a sector, thing or linedef highlights it and
refreshes all the information at the bottom of the screen. The latter
issue makes the info boxes at the bottom almost useless for editing
values (unless you can twitch the mouse very quickly over any
intervening selectable entities).

> It's obvious you've put a lot of effort into making it look nice.
> However making it look nice is of secondary concern to how it plays, and
> here I found it dark, cramped, and having hardly any ammunition and
> instakill traps. I quit after having spent several minutes tediously
> working my way through the awkwardly cramped cave system with nothing
> but a pistol, only to get through the blue door and almost immediately
> squashed under a ceiling. I'm not a fan of this kind of gameplay, I'm
> afraid.

The beginning is supposed to be cramped and lacking in high-powered
weaponry, although it certainly isn't supposed to be tedious. I don't
like to throw the player into the grandest location right at the
beginning of the map, and I found that larger caves just looked stupid
and unrealistic due to lack of detail. I am also trying to resist a
general inflationary trend towards more monsters and bigger monsters:
fighting an imp with the pistol can be just as challenging as fighting
several barons of hell with a chaingun. For example there is only one
cyber-demon in my map. :-)

Instakill? Hardly. You get two seconds and lots of visual clues that
it is a trap. The only way I can think of making it easier would be to
raise the ceiling, but that would spoil the architectural symmetry
with the other rooms.

If I've learned one thing, it is that it is impossible to please
everyone (even despite the fact that I spent tens of hours
playtesting). Here's a selection of the other (somewhat contradictory)
feedback that I've received so far:

"Chris, your level is INCREDIBLE! I just completed it. I found the
plasma gun. :)"

"This level confirms that you and I have never seen remotely eye-to-
eye in terms of what constitutes an acceptable level of difficulty.
It's a shame it's unplayable, really, because it is certainly the most
intricate level I have ever seen."

"Nice, but not that difficult on UV."

"Great scenery. Was too easy on UV for myself but still fun."

"Nice map. Normally I'd find a map this easy a little boring, but all
the lighting and extra detail had me eager to keep exploring your
little cavern system."

Cheers,
--
Christopher Bazley