Going Down

I don't mind at all actually. In a later video, I mention (not at the first time in history) that my main purpose is to make a useful and representative video about every noteworthy and significant Doom maps (about which there isn't yet). Therefore, finishing maps quickly is better because you have to waste less time to know the map. The layout of it, at least.

Yep, at some points these are too easy, for example MAP22 was less than 8 minutes for me on ITYTD, but it doesn't matter, since the next one was truly hard to finish.

Oh, about MAP23:

But I'm gonna tell the same in my video.

Also, I told that you know what to expect ;P

I still get my ass kicked constantly on 27 but here's a sucky First exit for 28.
It's quite easy to pick the BFG+BK as long as you don't wake up all the horde's sleeping in their closets.
The rest is basicly just Invuln abuse and BFG spam.

Excellent map 2 more to go.

tourniquet said:

I still get my ass kicked constantly on 27 but here's a sucky First exit for 28.
It's quite easy to pick the BFG+BK as long as you don't wake up all the horde's sleeping in their closets.
The rest is basicly just Invuln abuse and BFG spam.

Excellent map 2 more to go.

Nice one, I figured that would be a pretty good tactic, in fact I always wondered if there is one too many invul spheres in that map.. Trouble is I want to give less skilled players a chance even on UV. I might look into making it more difficult to not wake stuff and chain the invuls like that.

Those archviles guarding the exit are meant to all run out when you pick up the secret invul, might have to look into that too.

MAP28 - over the top for me, even on HNTR. In addition, Zandronum got seriously lagging. Not my type of a map at all, but that's me. I needed resurrecting cheat and jumping over monster's heads. Not much more to say, other than that the visuals and structure are impressive once again.

MAP29 - Heh. I've barely noticed that the map is uglier than the previous one, I didn't care AT ALL. Great idea for a finale - flashback to the start, well-performed demolition, arena layout, spider boss. Wasn't too difficult even on UV pistol start. I liked this "real end" a lot. IMO it could have worked even without the low-tier monster assault.

MAP30 - Pretty nice details, simple gameplay. I was frustrated several times, hopelessly searching for a way out. At first I couldn't find the Icon switch, then I didn't know about the "timed" exit mechanic, so I rushed around in slight anger and cheated. Anyway, it was an okay epilogue, as long as I only take it as an epilogue.

Overally: Awesome megawad, full of ideas, surprises and fun. Great experience, thanks for creating it. :)

scifista42 said:

Overally: Awesome megawad, full of ideas, surprises and fun. Great experience, thanks for creating it. :)

Cheers man! I really enjoyed making it, though it might be a while before I make another megawad.

By the way, I've just recently noticed the TITLEPIC lightning effect and the post-MAP20 intermission text. Hilarious. ;)

scifista I showed that post-MAP20 text in my video, to make your life easier... :P

Done.

29 neat boss fight, blowing up the building looks great. Difficulty wise this one is much more forgiving then the previous 2 maps. Still a cool and challenging finale.

30 Thanks for spraring us from another tedious IOS fight. The furniture looks amazing. Generally it's fantastic how much beatiful stuff you made with stock textures throughout the whole mapset.

My personal favorites for E3.

25: very beatiful architectural madness
26: the complete map shapeshift is amazing and the exit transition was damn brill
27+28: slaughter-tastic

Kudos for creating this awesome megawad.
Looking forward to more mouldy stuff in the future :)

You can put these demos in your Pwad, they aren't very long.
https://www.mediafire.com/?ptptrdtwh54w36n

Just finished this on ITYTD. Overall very nice stuff. MAP27 reminded me a lot of the Wrath section of D2INO-30. Early on in MAP26 would make a pretty cool horror level, with pinky silhouettes running about in the periphery of your vision. I thought it was pretty awesome how the entire level transformed into a completely different setting. The ending of that map was a jawdropper for me. A simple effect, but wow!

Also thought it was pretty cool how you revisited maps, i.e MAP18 in 19, and 01 in 29.
When the icon appeared in 30, I was caught off guard, thinking 29 was the end map :P

Also, the soundtrack is probably the weirdest I've ever heard :P

On the basis of Eris's comments, I just played MAP26 - Wow! So inventive, and executed with real flair. Moving the set to the top of my pile...

Damn forgot to mention the awesome soundtrack, very unique and kinda weird but i'm really digging it.
The music was basicly one of the things that kept me hooked to this since the release of E1.
I must admit i was a bit disapointed since i expected a few new tracks for the final episode but the music works well for all new E3 maps, so whatever.

heh, cheers folks, nice to hear the music getting some love. I wish I could have done some new tracks for the final episode but I ran out of creative juice by the end.

Ooh, I'd forgotten about this. I played a couple of maps when you put the first beta out and liked it. This has definitely gone near the top of my list of things to play.

Fully awesome Wad, easily my favorite of the year.

Just wanted to give some post-playthrough love.

I am very impressed with these maps and can't wait until the entire wad is finalised. I've managed to complete maps 21-25 on uvmax and I'm now working on the last 5 maps.

I have a question about map 30. Is it possible to collect the blue soul sphere and/or get outside? I was able to collect the other 3 items: health bonus, berserk pack, and megasphere.

Some comments on the maps I've completed. I have not found any bugs yet.

Map 21 is a great tyson map. I felt that no place was safe (except after clearing the red key area) and that the enemy could come from anywhere.

Map 22 has a hectic start. I like the non linearity of this map that gives it replayability. The chaos that ensues after collecting the blue key can be avoided by making a beeline to the enclosed area behind the 4 moving platforms where the former humans spawn and waiting for the infighting to complete. Not sure if such a safe place is intended.

Map 23 is my favourite map so far, an incredibly intricate map design with lots of enemy triggers. It took me several attempts to uvmax this map. So many ways to play the map due to its non linearity, each method making some sections easier and some harder. Finding how to get to the 7 keys was tricky, the bedroom one took me over half an hour to solve. After working out everything though I would say that there is probably too much health. With careful management I was able to finish on 150+ health with the secret megasphere in reserve.

Map 24 is a fun but easy slaughter map. The side switches that lower the platform to get back to the exit elevator (where you can hide) can be abused too easily though meaning that several of enemy waves can be handled with almost no risk. The throne room provides a lot of hiding opportunities too, even the teleporters can be abused by going back and forth as required. Ammo is a bit too generous since you can let infighting take care of most of the enemies.

Map 25 has an excellent architecture. The enemies aren't too dangerous when taken out slowly and methodically. I like the cacodemon / pain elemental trap when you reach the red brick "civilised" outside map portion. You need to plan where you want to be when you destroy the last "red thingy" due to the arch vile trap that follows, a nasty trap indeed.

tmorrow said:

I have a question about map 30. Is it possible to collect the blue soul sphere and/or get outside? I was able to collect the other 3 items: health bonus, berserk pack, and megasphere.

Whoops, the soulsphere and blue armour outside shouldn't be there, they are left over from map29 which I used as a base for this one. It shouldn't be possible to get outside, though I once saw a cacodemon floating around out there so I might need to check that.

Thanks for the feedback on the other maps. I don't mind so much if players find a safe spot on map22, but map24 might be problematic. I can fix the elevator camping spot, but I have a feeling that luck and even source port might make a big difference in the throne room battle. Ribbiks had a very easy time of it in his demo, so I think I will have to take a good look at that. Ammo had to be generous in case people play it in a way that doesn't generate infighting, but I suspect infighting itself behaves slightly differently in zdoom and prboom, I've noticed cybers and masterminds are more easily pinned down in prboom for example.

The map23 health is maybe too much, although I tend to run out when I play it myself, but that is probably just the haphazard way I play. Megasphere seems a bit OTT, and I can probably replace the soulsphere with a green armour and have a couple of medkits behind the mastermind instead.

You're still misspelling map 11: Vivisection.

General Rainbow Bacon said:

You're still misspelling map 11: Vivisection.

Funny I actually fixed that in the E2 release, and somehow the error returned.. Files get a bit messy at this stage, doesn't help that I work on 2 different computers. Thanks for spotting that.

Got a small batch of skill 4 FDAs for you, maps 21-23.

The main one of interest here is the demo for map 23, which is split into two parts. The reason for this is that the first part ends on a game-ending mishap--I manage to get irretrievably stuck in one of the small wooden cylinders in the room with the sewage floor. Think I saw a texture misalignment nearby, too. Other than that, all clear.

Map 21: This guy is going to wish he had the demonic equivalent of some Pepsid AC, I'm sure. There really does seem to be some kind of trope in the community where if you're going to have a Tyson map, it's probably slot 21--no problem for me, I'm okay with Tyson maps. This one has a higher monster count than most, but it's not too frantic, since the interconnectivity allows you to move around fairly well, and you can get a lot of help from the flesh-thing's digestive musculature. Seeing the dead bodies begin to pile up in the narrow passages I was afraid you were going to release an arch-vile or two into them at some point, but not today, it seems....little too much of a dick move?

Map 22: Some kind of.....hi-tech toilet? Thematically quite unexpected, and vaguely reminiscent of the blood + computers theme from way back in 'Vivisection.' The idea here seems to be that stuff is constantly moving and teleporting in, but not often in the immediate vicinity, so it can be a bit bewildering at first. Think I got lucky with the arch-viles, most of them had more trouble reaching me than I had reaching them.

Map 23: Nonlinear exploratory map, but remaining on a tight scale. Ammo seemed tighter here than in the great majority of other maps in Going Down, but I suspect I might've taken a really unideal route. I'm sure some people will balk at the 'mandatory secrets' aspect of this map, but eh, that's what the computer area map's for, I assume. For the most part the action wasn't quite as nasty as I expected, but still quite bloody at points. Again, the arch-viles' luck with me was as poor as mine was with finding weapons. Incidentally, I don't really like those two guys behind the walls at one point...they certainly do look cool silhouetted against the firewall like that, but they're aggravating to take out while yet being almost completely irrelevant as a threat.

The use of micro-sectors and props for the necromancy lab was utterly absurd. And awesome.

Demon of the Well said:

Got a small batch of skill 4 FDAs for you, maps 21-23.

Excellent cheers! You made pretty short work of those (as I thought you would). Well done getting stuck on map23, I'd probably never have fixed that otherwise. And yes those viles in the wall are more ornamental than threat really, I might have a look at that.

You went quite a funny route on map22, managed to activate nearly all the traps at once. Interestingly that vile you met in the sunken blood-doughnut must have had a real adventure to end up there, it takes a fair bit of monster teamwork for him to escape, never seen that happen before.

.....and here are maps 24-30. All achieve completions, but you did get me a few times in this batch (which is cool). Didn't encounter any other obvious bugs (that I noticed).

Map 24: Ah, this old chestnut. A classic example of a potentially dangerous situation that's really not as bad as it looks as long as you don't panic. I think the second spiderdemon's probably extraneous most of the time since he'll probably infight with the first one unless you kill it immediately, and isn't likely to do much on his own against the two cyberdemons. I was again rather lucky here, though--the two spiders were in that smallish keep together and yet miraculously avoided fighting each other, and they neatly polished off one cyb each for me.

Map 25: A fresh (and by that I mean "rotten") spin on the Keen concept, featuring an unexpected cameo from that creepy-ass "Ticket Oak" thing from TV. Despite being one of the smallest 'normal' levels in the episode, this one had one of the longer runtimes, a function of entrenched/perched enemies, somewhat navigation-unfriendly terrain, and a relatively tight ammo balance. I wasn't feeling it at first but it grew on me (<-heh heh) by the time I was done, largely thanks to the caco assault, I think. The final ambush (when you actually pick up the blue skull) is perhaps a little too soft, but maybe that's just me.

Map 26: Got me once here, in trying to extricate myself from being cornered I ended up even more cornered. The second attempt is successful, but it's pretty damned ugly, too. Neat concept, but I think the reveal of the proper play area and then the cinematic exit sequence are probably the best parts of the map--under classic/Boom settings, infinitely-tall monsters tend to be a pain in the ass in this one given the irregular terrain + great height of the area, which means it's best to take things fairly slowly/methodically. Probably plays better (though easier) without that setting on, and that's certainly the way I'll play it next time.

Map 27: Hmm, now this is unexpected: An oldschool abstract 'zone of influence' slaughtermap, mouldy-style. I don't make particularly good use of the V-sphere here, but grabbing it right away turned out to be the right choice, anyway, since clearing out a space to work from and then methodically expanding your territory from there is the bread and butter of this style of map. Put another way, it means you use more camping/choking/other conservative tactics here than in many of the other maps in the set, but unlike the engine-related awkwardness of map 26 it feels natural/entertaining here--that's just the way this kind of map works. Speedruns of this will probably be pretty interesting, though! Edit: How do you get that secret, other than by vile-jump? Or is that the only way?

Map 28: Got me again once here, I turned a bunch of stuff loose at once like a fool and ended up in a situation I had no chance of winning. Cleared it on the second try despite a couple of crass mistakes and some comically bad BFGing. Resource management is definitely the underlying strategic concern in this one. There's more than enough stuff around (I successfully exited without really using the secret megasphere/V-sphere combo), it's just a question of being able to get to it when you need to--there are just SO MANY SKELETONS cascading out of the blue key area that even fully expending 100 rockets and 600 cells probably only kills half of them, and stuff can easily go pear-shaped in the time it takes to go and refuel, especially with the arachnatrons gaining momentum. The cacodemons complicate the second blue skull wave--more than the perched cybies, honestly--but again I suspect they're much less of a threat without infinitely-tall things. I'm not sure the final ring of viles worked as intended....I killed one, and some of the others suddenly descended (and were summarily BFG'd), but one guy stayed put.

Map 29: Ah, closure. This might be a little too easy, I played like total shit but still won anyway. Didn't get to see much of what the boss was actually capable of (its appearance predisposed me to treat it in a certain way, e.g. don't stay in its line of sight unless necessary), but he surely had a goodly stock of HP. The arch-viles + cacos were what made the fight.

Map 30: It's the ouroboros effect! (Read: "Ah, closure.")
Is it possible to turn on the IoS effect and then keep completely mum out of sight until the doors open up, so you can easily leave, or does something prevent that? I thought about trying it but decided to fight like a man (or like an angry video game nerd, at least) instead.

******

Stupefyingly cool set of levels, man, easily my new favorite 'small maps' pack--the degree of senseless, frantic violence on display just really works for me. I reckon E2 was my favorite part, but all three have lots of good stuff in them.

You may or may not have another one-man megaWAD in you, but I bet you and Dobu would make a good team, like Danne/Ribbiks, Darkwave/Joshy, etc. etc. (wink wink nudge nudge).

Demon of the Well said:

.....and here are maps 24-30. All achieve completions, but you did get me a few times in this batch (which is cool). Didn't encounter any other obvious bugs (that I noticed).

Hoorah! Thats my viewing entertainment for tonight sorted. Glad you enjoyed these ones (and the whole set), the final episode is definitely a step down in overall chaos I think from episode 2, mainly because I wanted some breather maps before the slaughter (and epilogues after), but hopefully it helps negate the familiar megawad fatigue we all get.

I'm particularly interested in your map24 demo, I see that like Ribbiks you also had a very easy time of it. I'm making some changes to that map to try and make the fight in the 2nd tower more interesting (there wasn't a fight at all in your case). It does seem to be largely down to luck in the end, and I always intended it to be like a battle of the monsters that the player was caught in between, but the idea was for the fight to spill into that 2nd tower more. Definitely more work to do on that one.

The secret in map27 you get by jumping down from the mancubus shelf (which you get to via the archvile lift). Those viles at the end of map28 are a little temperamental, they are basically there to hassle people who try and exit early, but are such a pain to clear out from their little shelves that I made them all escape when you kill one. But yeah, needs a little fine tuning I think.

For map30 you will never escape without waking the monsters, because you need one to open the front door for you. Knowing the mechanics of it all, you could theoretically make it a lot easier for yourself, but who would do such a thing..

Think it will be a little while before I attempt a project like this again, but who knows. My weekends feel so empty now.

Eris Falling said:

MAP27 reminded me a lot of the Wrath section of D2INO-30.

IMO the track for MAP27 (and 10) would have a perfect fit on a level themed like "Wrath". Of course it fits the 2 mentioned as well.

MAP22. Short vid. I finished the whole suff BTW, the blue key switch "monster" on MAP28 was literally the sickest thing I've seen for a very long time.

Cool, looks like you are having more fun on lower difficulty. I guess map22 is some kind of giant toilet for the monster you were previously running around inside.

o_o

You're gross.

Anyway, yep, it's definitely less agony, but it was too quick sometimes. Fortunately, MAP28 was hard enough even on ITYTD. MAP27 was close to that as well.

It may have been mentioned already, but MAP26 has a lot of HOMs/flat bleeding around the ceiling. Some of it is pretty minor but there are a few big spots as well.

plums said:

It may have been mentioned already, but MAP26 has a lot of HOMs/flat bleeding around the ceiling. Some of it is pretty minor but there are a few big spots as well.

heh, that doesn't surprise me on that map, getting all those sectors to behave is quite a challenge. I don't normally use mouselook either so there's probably a lot of stuff I've missed up there. I'll check it out, cheers.

I notice on your screengrabs that the monsters are brightly lit when they should be in shadow, which port is that you are using?

That's GLBoom+. I might have tweaked the lighting settings recently, can't remember. Which monsters should be in the shadows, all of them?

And yeah, I'm not surprised if there are some missing textures in there, I imagine getting that all working properly was quite the ordeal.