Zandronum

Hi guys!

What a long time without working on my own projects (Im always helping others and I dont have time for myself ). This time I want to show you what Im working on (the tittle says it, dont waste more time!). Its a custom remake of E2M4 - Deimos lab in the way that the TSoZD team is doing, I mean, not only recreating it with a modern style, also adding more rooms like they were parts of the original map, a few more monsters (when I mean a few, its about 5 - 6 new monsters, nothing else).

Well, first beta is ready for the testing! There is a couple of things that should be done but there isnt nothing important, just some ambient sounds, some detail, etc...

IMPORTANT: To run this wad correctly you must use Doom2 IWAD (NOT DOOM!!). For better experience in game, choose sector lightning type "DOOM" if you are playing with OpenGL.

Download link: http://www.mediafire.com/?q464gp758epres9

Now its the time for the bunch of screenies (OLD IMAGES)

Spoiler: Images (Open)

Starting area


Teleport control room (this was a secret)


That teleport at the start...






That trap after the elevator (still a secret, find the way to enter in)


Damn, acid lake!


Remeber the crusher?

Regards

I have a raging hard on for this. Looks really good so far! Will you be remaking any other maps?

Yummy! Can't wait to play it.

I dunno, it looks kinda simple and I don't really see any of the weirdness that made E2M4 appeal to me.

It looks like you saw a bunch of screenshots from Z2M4 and decided you were going to do exactly that, but with everything that makes Tormentor maps unfun to play. I guess congrats if that was what you were going for.

EDIT: this post implies that this map looks great, which IMO it doesn't really. Really flat lighting, lots of ugly borders around everything that are hard to distinguish due to the same texture being used on the flat and sides of them, lots of alignment issues (especially THOSE FUCKING GRAY PIPES JESUS CHRIST)

Coff, coff... do you understand what WIP and Progress 40% means?

darkhaven3 wrote: It looks like you saw a bunch of screenshots from Z2M4 and decided you were going to do exactly that, but with everything that makes Tormentor maps unfun to play. I guess congrats if that was what you were going for.

WRONG!. Im not trying to steal TSoZD work. Im just only relying on their work. You can see that they only posted 2 (just 2!) images of Z2M4 and as you can see, there is a lot of differences between their work and mine. Also, Tormentor inst working for the TSoZD team, dont start spamming false information.

darkhaven3 wrote:...lots of alignment issues (especially THOSE FUCKING GRAY PIPES JESUS CHRIST)

Have you seen all the places on the 3D enviornment so you can say that those pipes has alignment issues? Really...

Ah, you have caught my eye. I love remakes!
Can't wait to see the finished product.

The rest of his criticism is spot on, TBH. How far along the map is doesn't dismiss it, you should keep it in mind during construction if you aren't already. The regular gray pipe texture doesn't look very good tiled on the rounded pipes.

Also from what I see there's very little to do with hell or even just non-tech stuff. If you're going for a simple techbase style then that's fine but Deimos lab wasn't just a techbase.

Marcaek wrote: The regular gray pipe texture doesn't look very good tiled on the rounded pipes.

Oh well, I can change it (maybe what darkhaven3 tried to say is that gray pipes are quite clashy in a gray enviornment).

Marcaek wrote:Also from what I see there's very little to do with hell or even just non-tech stuff. If you're going for a simple techbase style then that's fine but Deimos lab wasn't just a techbase.

True. Dont worry, there will be also corrupted areas. Let me put my gloves.

Double posting, I know. New screenshot.

Spoiler: Image (Open)

Who was the ass that took the key away?.... okay, it was me -_-

The only thing I can point is the door on the left side of the screen.
The brownmetalish texture you used clash horribly with the gray door and the top and bottom of the door hole, another color of same texture could do the trick though.

Fixed. There was also a problem with the door texture. Check the image again.

This map look so good I could drool a rainbow :D

Lollipop wrote: This map look so good I could drool a rainbow :D

Looks like navigation is going to be a problem in this map due to all of the areas looking mainly the same.. you should try use more and different colors to identify areas. Nice work with the sloped architecture, but I also agree with darkhaven3 about the flat lighting.

Some thoughts...

• E2 was already quite hellish and corrupted and destroyed so you could incorporate that stuff in your map. Having some areas cleaner and some areas more broken could help a lot with the navigation issue I'm foreseeing. GSTONE/skin areas could provide some interesting contrast...
• Colored lighting? An area with all-red lighting would surely stand out.
• The floor seems awfully bumpy in the 3rd, 5th, 6th and 8th shots. At least 8px difference there! I'd flatten those off. Bumpiness for the sake of detail does not work well.
• Thought of using more base colors other than black and brown?

Dusk wrote: E2 was already quite hellish and corrupted and destroyed so you could incorporate that stuff in your map. Having some areas cleaner and some areas more broken could help a lot with the navigation issue I'm foreseeing. GSTONE/skin areas could provide some interesting contrast...

This will be specially useful with new areas. Lets give it a try that contrast in the caverns zone.

Dusk wrote: Colored lighting? An area with all-red lighting would surely stand out.

Already added in some zones. I didnt show them becouse they are traps.

Dusk wrote: The floor seems awfully bumpy in the 3rd, 5th, 6th and 8th shots. At least 8px difference there! I'd flatten those off. Bumpiness for the sake of detail does not work well.

I replaced that floor texture with something more appropiate

Dusk wrote: Thought of using more base colors other than black and brown?

Since Im trying to make a dark themed map would be quite difficult to add different colours without provoque a clashy contrast. Palette maybe?

Or have a door actually teleport you to a version of the map that is more hellish themed -no way back through that tele-door-.. This looks good either way.

This map is where hellish areas start to become more common.. this episode in general makes me think demons turned the base into a weed garden...

Ooooooooooohhhhhh, thats something very interesting!! Thanks for that idea!

Or perhaps you could use some ACS to turn the map into that over time?

To expound on what I said in my previous post and add some new notes relevant to your latest screenshot:

1) The pipes. Note that the contours of your slopes don't follow the shading of the texture; this is why they so visibly tile so badly in your screenshot. Refer to the following screenshot; note how the slopes complement the shading of the texture, and don't try to fight against it:
[spoiler][/spoiler]

2) The lighting. Your screenshot suffers from what a lot of low-quality ZDoom maps suffer from; lighting does not behave the way you portray it to in your screenshot in real life, and you can offer your players another degree of immersion by trying to more closely approximate the way light behaves in the real world. Refer to the spoiler below:
[spoiler]
This is what a lot of ZDoom mappers do.


This is a closer (though not perfect) approximation to how light behaves in real life. Photons do not necessarily always project in a straight line in the direction the light source is intended to point; they have a tendency to scatter throughout every possible pathway away from the light source radially. This brings me to my next demonstration:


Not 100% lifelike, but this is a closer approximation to how light may behave in reality. Note the dramatic shadow outlines drawn by the pillars.[/spoiler]

3) Minor point: the textures on the sides of the blown-out stone bricks. Try something like this, I think it'd look better:
[spoiler][/spoiler]

I hope this helps you. And please stop trying to pick a fight with me, I'm trying to give you actual constructive criticism to make your map better.