Any ideas?

[Ganryu]

(this is actually thread requesting a few ideas. skip to the bottom if you're lazy)

I'm working on sub maps for my final hub in my own Hexen wad and right now i'm working on the Carceri level. The name is obviously "borrowed" from the chaotic evil plane of the D&D world, but the map itself has little in common.

The level is essentially a big prison made up of six smaller areas. Each area being roughly equal in size and the contents of each area differs, though the theme is the same (imprisonment) and i'm trying to to stick to the texture themes of stone, steel and ice.

All the areas are connected by a system of tunnels and corridors, but they are all blocked off. From each area there are atleast two doors out into this tunnel system, but they cannot be opened normally. You have to solve a puzzle to do this. Until this puzzle has been solved the only way to move between areas is using the various teleporters scattered around. Each room has two teleporters. One leading back to the room with the portal back outside, and one leading to another room.

There are also plenty of windows out into the tunnel system from the areas, but they are all blocked by steel bars. I put the windows there so that they player can see some of what can be found in the tunnels.

By looking around carefully in each area you can find a switch that when pulled will light a little "icon" in the main room with the portal. Once all the six icons are lit, the doors blocking the tunnel system will open.

Once inside the tunnel system you will find lots of goodies, and one puzzle item needed for the puzzle on the main hub.

The current two rooms created are

1: The portal room. This is the room with the icons showing puzzle progress, and the portal back to the main hub level (The Spellforge). The switch in this area is inside one of the cells immidately near the portal outside. You can see it through the window, but you can't reach it because the corridor to the cell doors is blocked by steel bars. There's a way to get to it from the other direction if you look carefully in a really dark corner in the room with the icons, though.

2: The steel room. This is one single big room with one pit in each of the four corners. Each pit is a cell and once you've fallen into it you'll be stuck there for a while. Just outside the teleporter landing there's a switch that when pulled will activate a script that triggers the room trap, and allows you to reach the puzzle switch here. If you accidentally fall into one of the cells this trap will also activate. The room sequence is actually a step-by-step process that takes about ten seconds between each step. For each step, a few of the steel blocks will lower into the ground, and steel blocks will raise from the ground in the pits to create stairs up. And more enemies spawn.

Once the procedure is over (takes 8 steps or so), then enough blocks have lowered into the ground for you to be able to reach the puzzle switch. Of course, nothing prevents you from leaving the room through a teleporter while this is happening, but it is unwise as more enemies will keep spawning until the script has ended so it is better to kill them off as they appear.

Blah blah blah. (i like describing my own maps >_>)

Anyway. I thought why not ask some people here for room ideas? I mean i could make four more rooms myself, but it's fun to get some outside input as well

[picklebro]

It sounds like you've put a lot of thought into this! Just a word of warning - your map may end up being too hard to figure out....be careful about the complexity of your puzzles.

[FATAL]

Go for it. Doom lacks good puzzle maps.

I can't say that I have any good ideas, though. Randomness is usually a very good thing in Doom. Surprise the player. Hopefully not with monsters teleporting in around the player, as that is usually very lame.

[Ganryu]

Originally Posted by picklebro

It sounds like you've put a lot of thought into this! Just a word of warning - your map may end up being too hard to figure out....be careful about the complexity of your puzzles.

It's not as tricky as you think. It's not like i hide the switches in impossible places. The only thing you have to do is look around a little bit and you'll find it.

And for the record, you ALWAYS know when you'lve pulled a puzzle switch, because they give out a message "One sixth of the puzzle on Carceri has been solved".

Originally Posted by FATAL

Go for it. Doom lacks good puzzle maps.

I can't say that I have any good ideas, though. Randomness is usually a very good thing in Doom. Surprise the player. Hopefully not with monsters teleporting in around the player, as that is usually very lame.

I know. It's just that i haven't had a good spawner script in any of the two previous hubs, so i figure why not make one here. It's not as if the enemies here are too difficult either.

I actually didn't think about using randomness, though... Hmmm... I'll have to consider that one.