Mordekai's Showcase

[LazaruSAdaMEva]

Hello.
I have played your map, but resigned at fourth level, with those 4 lava golems and wind god.
The musics are nice.

[Mordekai]

Originally Posted by LazaruSAdaMEva

Hello.
I have played your map, but resigned at fourth level, with those 4 lava golems and wind god.
The musics are nice.

Thanks

but this is not thana's insanity

some levels need a boss fight

whats a problem with 4 large lava golems and wind god

[LazaruSAdaMEva]

I mean, the arena for this fight is huge, and items are too far away, especially when you fight win god and he tornados you out.
Also, there is no cannon ammo and it takes years to kill wind god.

[Mordekai]

Originally Posted by LazaruSAdaMEva

I mean, the arena for this fight is huge, and items are too far away, especially when you fight win god and he tornados you out.
Also, there is no cannon ammo and it takes years to kill wind god.

LOL, you can kill it with laser and rocket and grenade launchers

[Mordekai]

i have made a small version 1.1 of my mappack
Changelogs are:
added more cannon ammo to backpacks for boss battles
added a door i forget at level 4


https://www.dropbox.com/s/mej3lyn32d...0Tumb.gro?dl=0

Note: if you already have a old one, please delete it and download a new one

[Mordekai]

I started work at new map!

[PikaCommando]

Looks promising!

[ZynX]

Tried the maps, it's not bad at all for a first timer.
It got atleast all the map key elements, ok enemy placements, but if you are going to do more after, try not to make too many boxy rooms with plain walls.
Serious Sam was made at the time to compete other games with the same genre, with higher detail level and gameplay. Play a bit more with smaller world bases, texture mapping and shadows.

Also, don't forget to recalculate shadows (ctrl+r) to load them before saving.

[Mordekai]

Originally Posted by ZynX

Tried the maps, it's not bad at all for a first timer.
It got atleast all the map key elements, ok enemy placements, but if you are going to do more after, try not to make too many boxy rooms with plain walls.
Serious Sam was made at the time to compete other games with the same genre, with higher detail level and gameplay. Play a bit more with smaller world bases, texture mapping and shadows.

Also, don't forget to recalculate shadows (ctrl+r) to load them before saving.

i understand, but custom levels sould base on difficulty and challenge

[Mordekai]

Some new screens

[Discy]

First screenshot: The monkey statue lighting doesn't match the sunlight. Try setting the ambient color and color to match the environment.

Second screenshot: The ceiling texture is too tiled, it doesn't look natural and there's no shadows coming from outside since it's open.

Third screenshot: The water seems to exactly reach the edge of the pool, which looks unrealistic. Cut the water sector down the edge a bit and use those polys for the water.

Otherwise, looking pretty good.

[DMI-1407]

you fuck of music artists and steal his works. (see attachment)

(tip: stop hating other users and do it better before saying his works are chancer.)

[Mordekai]

Originally Posted by DMI-1407

you fuck of music artists and steal his works. (see attachment)

(tip: stop hating other users and do it better before saying his works are chancer.)

okay what the hell is your problem with what i already done and how can i fucked music artists and stole his works, i never steal

beside i was only giving my opinions, thats all

[Mordekai]

i have made a small version 1.2 of my mappack
Changelogs are:
Fixed the water what you cant see
Added the readme.txt due the music i used

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mej3lyn32d...0Tumb.gro?dl=0

[Fungus]

Originally Posted by Mordekai

I added textures, please do not annoy me with dumb questions

lol he's cracking me up

Good luck, pay attention to non-stretched textures (texture's that repeat 1000 times on a surface and look like small repeating patterns are not a good sign).
Don't stop making maps, your first mappacks look good, and it seems like you're improving your map quality with every new iteration, so I'm seeing potential here.
Probably better than most people's first maps. ;3

[Mordekai]

I have some new screens for the new map

[PikaCommando]

That wall tiling in the 3rd image reminds me of a Quake map, lol

[Discy]

Hey man, don't ache the Quake!

[PikaCommando]

Alright, finished City of Tumb. Here's my review:

Did you test this map pack on Normal from beginning till the end without any cheats? If yes, did you think this was fun to play? Because it certainly isn't for me. I can forgive amateurish geometry if the fights are good, but unfortunately I can't say that about this.

To address the elephant in the room of every room in this map pack, all the rooms and corridors are very blocky with lots of tiling (I don't mind, but still). Now with that out of the way, let's get in-depth with these 5 maps...

1. Inside the Tomb
The player starts out in an underground area with South American walls. It's dark, but there's sufficient lighting. There's not much going on in this level, but here begins the flaws that'll plague the rest of your map pack, namely the arenas. The doors to the arenas (if there's any) aren't closed once the player is in, so the player can just get out if the going gets too tough (I certainly had to). Also, the water textures are opaque and you can't see the Reebans underneath. There's not much else going on in this map.

2. Tomb of Varcophillia
It's similar in theme to the first map, except there's some switch puzzles going on. The map briefly turns into '150 Gnaar Fight' with Painkiller music at one point. I don't remember much else about it, but I think this is the map that begins the trend of "there's a locked door in the middle room, so you have to pick keys from the left and right room" that's in the rest of the map pack.

3. Cursed Yards
The player is now in an open yard at night, with Persian textures and buildings. It's fairly linear and you go around and collect keys to open doors, I think. There's one yard where you have to collect pretty much every key in the game to progress. After that is a big arena with a huge mosque in the distance, with a Minigun to pick up in the room before that. Now this is my biggest problem with the map. First off, it's the generic Kleers+Werebulls combo. That wouldn't have been so bad, if the map doesn't shit them out one after the other without stopping. A few seconds into the fight and Biomech Majors with start spawning and they all just don't stop coming. The Cannon is unavailable at this point, so all you have is a Minigun, Double-Barrel Shotgun, Sniper Rifle, Flamethrower, and Lasergun to deal with them. I tried my best to snipe the Werebulls as soon as they spawn while ignoring the sea of Kleers (because Werebulls always get stuck with the Kleer horde, which is close enough for them to activate their melee stab attack that has enormous range and deals a shitload of damage and throws me into the air, which'll make me fall down right in the middle of the Kleer sea and the Biomech rockets finishes me off) but in the end I have no choice but to return to the Minigun room before and have the Biomech Majors block off the entrance so I can pick them off slowly. Afterwards, there's a Highlander Bride boss fight. Phew, what a ride. At least the map pack is over n

4. Lava District
Or not. The last thing you want your players to feel when playing your map pack is "oh shit, there's more?". I fucking hate this level. I'm fine with the all-red lava walls and floors, but it's the fucking enemies that makes me hate it. First off, the majority of the level is narrow halls/platforms. That wouldn't be so bad, if you didn't spawn Kleers right in my face when I move forward and a Lava Golem immediately behind me so I get hit by their bullshit long-range melee when I move backwards (in order words, I'll get hurt no matter which direction I go). I frequently have exactly 1hp on this level. Also, there's one section with wire gauze walls, and you spawn Arachnoid Majors in this section. Now, I don't know if you knew about it or tested this section correctly, but bullets go through wire gauze textures. In order words, there's quite literally nowhere to hide from the Arachnoids' hitscan attacks and you're forced to get hit. Also, the pattern of "move forward, spawn some enemies in front and an Arachnoid on the previous path" gets old pretty quick. After this section, you have to fall down a series of holes. What's the problem here, you ask? You see, I didn't know fall damage is a thing in this game, until I actually took fall damage because the holes are so deep. Have you ever accounted for the fact that the player might have low health? Because they have no way to progress but to fall down the hole, but falling down will kill them because fall damage + low health. Only about two of these holes have a health bottle beneath (but not directly beneath, you still have to take fall damage). The map ends with 4 Lava Golem bosses in a huge lava cube room with a bunch of pickups and a Cannon as well as a Kukulkan after they're dead. Killing the Kukulkan won't turn off the enemy spawners, but I just moved on the next level because I'm worn out at this point.

5. The Last Palace
A huge outdoor corridor that leads to a ziggurat in the distance. Since this is the last level of the map pack, a huge fight is expected, but it's still the same old Kleers+Werebulls, with Biomech Majors and Cucurbitos thrown into the mix now. There's also a part in the middle where there's a Highlander Bride flanked by 2 Highlanders, and another set of Highlanders will spawn in once the first two are dead. 3 Highlander Brides will spawn in once you're at the entrance, so you kill them to get in. That's all, right? Nope. There's a boss room inside with two Exotech Larvas (the second one activates once the first one is dead). No regenerators, but Reptiloids and Biomechs will start to spawn once their turrets are down. Pretty goddamn annoying. Beat them and the level ends.

Overall
Now, I'm not trying to be mean here, but you really need to think about the players when designing your map. Challenge is good, but not bullshit unfair ones. I'd say you should spend more time on learning proper battle design first. Your levels does have some pretty interesting concept and I can see what you're going for (some of the time, at least), but real quality lies in the gameplay. For that, I have prepared 10 Commandments of Level Design for you to follow as a guideline:

1. The player shall not be forced to take damage to proceed.
2. Thou must beat the map on Normal without cheats and deaths.
3. Thou shalt not place Lava Golems, Werebulls, Fiendians, Highlanders, and Zumbuls in tight areas.
4. Thou shalt not place Zumbuls close up top.
5. Thou shalt minimize the use of Kleers + Werebulls in fights.
6. Thou shalt not spawn Kamikazes one by one around the player.
7. Thou shalt make water textures translucent if it can be swum in.
8. Thou shalt make it clear for the player on how to progress in the map.
9. Thou shalt maximize the use of Beheaded Rocketeers in the map.
10. Thou shalt make the purpose of every key and switch clear to the player.

If I had to say something good about your map, then I guess you have a good taste in music and the mappack is still more colorful than the entirety of SS3.

All in all, you have some fairly interesting concepts, but you must continue training so you can execute them well. I look forward to see how much you'll have improved by the time you're done with your next map pack.

[LazaruSAdaMEva]

Eaten.

"2. Thou must beat the map on Normal without cheats and deaths." Sometimes can happen.
"9. Thou shalt maximize the use of Beheaded Rocketeers in the map." You really like these guys.