The DWmegawad Club plays: Sunlust

What is the DWmegawad Club?
This is a place where we settle down, have a cup of tea (or drink of your choice) and take a month to play through a megawad on our own, together! Any keen observations, criticisms, or frustrated ranting about it goes here in the discussion. As long as you want to say something about what you've played, feel free to speak your mind.

Can I join?
Sure. The only rule is that you have to play at least some of the levels in our monthly megawad to contribute, but you're generally encouraged to finish the whole thing, even if you've played it before.

What levels am I allowed to post about?
Whatever day of the month it is, is the upper limit for the map you can post on. So if it's the 6th, you may discuss up to MAP06.

Do I have to post an entry every day?
Nope, not at all. This is only for our more enthusiastic members. As long as you play through it with us you’re part of the club.

When do we vote on the next month’s megawad?
Voting begins on the 25th of the current month.

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>>>DOWNLOAD SUNLUST HERE<<<

Are you ready to rock and roll? Sunlust is a series of challenging Boom-compatible maps made by the dangerous duo of dannebubinga and Ribbiks, officially released this August. Remember that Hey Not Too Rough and Hurt Me Plenty exist for a reason!

Author and maplist for Sunlust:

Quote

MAP01 - “Chasing Suns" by Danne & Ribbiks
MAP02 - "Down Through" by Danne
MAP03 - "Forgotten Shrine" by Ribbiks
MAP04 - "Sol" by Danne & Ribbiks
MAP05 - "Gear Up" by Danne
MAP06 - "Neo Gerouru" by Ribbiks
MAP07 - "Total Enclosure" by Danne & Ribbiks
MAP08 - "Oneira" by Ribbiks
MAP09 - "Saquasohuh" by Danne
MAP10 - "Maru" by Ribbiks
MAP11 - "Cave Culture" by Danne
MAP12 - "Dangeresque" by Ribbiks
MAP13 - “Ruins of Skania" by Danne
MAP14 - “Troglobite" by Ribbiks
MAP15 - "Strength and Anger" by Danne

MAP31 - "Birds of a Feather" by Ribbiks
MAP32 - "Postcoitus Doom" by Danne

MAP16 - "Lost Antiques" by Danne
MAP17 - "The Womb" by Ribbiks
MAP18 - "Mu Cephei" by Danne
MAP19 - "Blood Geometry" by Ribbiks
MAP20 - "Inverti in Darkness" by Ribbiks
MAP21 - "Entering Aquatic Desert" by Danne & Ribbiks
MAP22 - “Black Rabbit" by Ribbiks
MAP23 - "In Flight" by Ribbiks
MAP24 - “Dying On Cue" by Danne
MAP25 - "Proxyon" by Danne
MAP26 - "Kinetics" by Ribbiks
MAP27 - "Emerald Spire" by Danne & Ribbiks
MAP28 - “Maelstrom" by Danne & Ribbiks
MAP29 - "Go Fuck Yourself" by Ribbiks
MAP30 - "God Machine" by Danne & Ribbiks

BONUS CONTENT
Summer of '69 (rejected Sunlust maps)
Kmxexii’s review
Lingyan203's playthrough
----------
OLD THREADS
BF_THUD!
Community Chest 4
Jenesis
MAYhem 2012
Memento Mori
Interception
2002: A Doom Odyssey
Hadephobia
Coffee Break & Fava Beans & Double Impact
HYMN
Stardate 20X6 & Monochrome Mapping Project
Realm of Chaos
Back to Saturn X E1 & Favillesco E1
Kama Sutra
Unholy Realms & Zone 300
Vile Flesh
Ultimate Doom
Whitemare & Sacrament
Scythe
Epic 2
Whitemare 2
Sunder & Countdown to Extinction
Doom 2 the Way id Did
MAYhem2048
Stomper
Back to Saturn X E2
Going Down
Rylayeh & Crimson Canyon & Azagthoth
Serenity & Eternity & Infinity
Resurgence
Requiem
ConC.E.R.N.ed & Draft Excluder
Doom 2 Reloaded
Valiant
Scythe 2
NOVA II
STRAIN
Icarus: Alien Vanguard

Might have to actually contribute to this one. Don't expect it to last for very long though, I've never been able to keep up with DWMC posting, heh.

also FUCK YES

Ho boy, this is going to be one hell of a ride.

YOUR DESTINY AWAITS

Yay.

I'm going through this one with PRBoom+ complevel 9, pistol starting and recording (so no saves). I'm playing on HNTR because lol no fucking way can I do more than that. I may end up having to drop down to skill 1 come later maps too, if the early HNTR maps are an indication of the progression I can expect by maps 20+. I'm going to do a death count just because I expect it to be high.

Slot: 1
Map: Chasing Suns
Author: Daniel Jakobsson, Zach Stephens

Total Deaths: 0

That opening shot is just awesome. I love intros like this where you get a sense of what's to come but have no immediate pressure so you can really take in your surroundings. The brown and orange colour motif looks gorgeous. The shotgun and ammo sitting a little ways off, but right in the open, gives you a hint that you're not going to be pussyfooting through these maps.

This one I've actually played in UV, and it was fun and not too crazy. It's not bad at all on HNTR. A lot of meat for 66 enemies in a map 1, but you're never really put into dangerous situations at all. Very little crossfire, using imps instead of revenants, and no real dick ambushes (maybe the hell knight before the yk, but there's lot of room to move around there so calling it that would be a stretch).

I found the middle stairs blended in with the rest of the scenery and I totally missed them somehow, which made me take a bit longer to finish, but along the way I wandered around enough to find the obvious secret at least.

A good start.

As a preface of sorts - it's somewhat funny to observe (for myself at least) how my attitude towards Sunlust has been changing with the passage of time ever since its inception and my involvement, from skeptical to moderate appreciation to total adoration marked by its official release. Hell, it's about to dethrone all of my favorite mapsets actually! Ribbiks can assure you that I wasn't that reliable when it came to his maps, and frustration speaking is the thing that could be heard from my side for quite some time starting with Slaughterfest 2012. Still, there's nothing I could really fault the mapper for, looking back at it - it was always me who made my life harder in the first place. Mere [belated] understanding of this - and of the fact that all the rage never helps in any useful and rational way - helped me get rid of the silly habit of succumbing to emotions that really was getting in the way of a healthy interaction during the playtesting phase, and I'm glad that it finally happened, as it had literally opened my eyes. Well, better late than never, there are always new bars to set and new horizons to discover.

01: Chasing Suns
An unorthodox opener that's not only a looker, but also a worthy introduction for all the nasty things to come, as it's as far from usual m01 pistol galore as humanly possible. Not really lethal but still punchy ambushes, powerful monsters (up to the archvile), evil snipers and generally pronounced high pace - it's all there to effectively shatter all the first maps-related stereotypes in existence (just gimme a ring and I'll point you towards some other game where the very first map will make you lose your hair... ahem, where was I? Ah, right, Sunlust). So - nice visuals and atmosphere, fun fast-paced gameplay, things that the beginning levels of Doom PWADs lack, like, very, very often. Straight into the carnage is the only way to go that doesn't suck ass, kids!

I was actually in the middle of playing Speed of Doom, but heck.

Pistol start on every map. I'll try a few times on UV and see how it goes, and if it's too tough I may have to turn down the difficulty.

Finally I get to play through this monstrosity. I’ve played through the first 10 maps (well, 7 I guess, as a couple were moved over to Summer of '69) from the first beta, and I’ve been itching to see what else these two cook up. While I confessed to being incentivized to map due to the works of Paul Corfiatis and Phml, I’d say that Ribbiks has evolved to become my favorite/most inspirational mapper from both a gameplay and visual standpoint. I had a fondness for his early stuff but it wasn’t until Stardate that I began to really dig his work and appreciate how much effort he demanded from the player; his visually succinct, tight-corridors working in tandem with his gauntlet style of gameplay is what I enjoy about Doom the most. Danne on the other hand is a mapper I’ve never been able to pin down. At times he feels like Insane_Gazebo’s true successor, but his style is more… erratic? Unregulated? He definitely feels a lot more freeform, sorta like if a beatnik reinterpreted I_G’s architectural artistry, producing some brilliant vistas but never really succumbing to one specific style from what I’ve been able to tell, other than "difficult gameplay". It’s definitely an interesting pairing that I’m hoping will put up a good fight… while 50 Shades of Graytall jokes about BDSM, I think these are Doomworld's true doms, and us poor players have been very, very naughty (that’s not too weird, is it?)

Anyway, on with the show. Playing UV, keyboard, pistol starts, and saving my ass off.

MAP01: Ha, not ashamed to admit I died plenty here. I’m fine with close encounters and tricky monster placement, but hitscanners (ie chaingunners) are my absolute bane and I got shot in the back plenty here. Anyway, this is a pleasing opener, with a lot more action than you'd expect from a standard MAP01 (it ends on a pretty tense AV fight of all things). The rustic obsidian & orange theme is a cool, reliable combination, but nothing is especially striking about this map other than the clean architecture. Onwards lads!

I have already played the wad, but I will replay at least some maps with the club (though not all), so I can refresh a bit my memory, as I wanted more likely to post the overall thoughts at the end of the month. I will play on UV, pistol start.

MAP01 - Chasing Suns

Kills: 100% | Items: 100% | Secrets: 50%

A pretty showcase of what we will see in this in this wad. Both for the visual/aesthetic style that it's adopted, and for the gameplay we will encounter. It doesn't take long to fight tougher monsters, getting straight to the point of telling you that this won't be easy for sure.

Man I've been wanting to give these maps a real shot (more than just a quick, eye-popping look and a couple maps played), but I don't think I'm gonna be able to get in on this; too many projects to work on. Maybe by the end of the month I'll be able to catch up, but either way I'll say that the few maps from this I did play through and the other spots I saw were absolutely awesome. Literally; as a long-time hermit, I was in awe.

All right, let's give this a shot. :) As usual, I'm running in ZDoom, playing continuously, and saving plenty. I did take a look at a previous release of Sunlust (Beta 3, I believe?) on my usual difficulty setting of Hurt Me Plenty; taking into account my experiences then, I will be doing this playthrough on Hey, Not Too Rough in the hopes of actually making it to the end of the WAD.

MAP01: Chasing Suns

Fun little map with a palette consisting mostly of various shades of brown trimmed in orange strip lighting; "sepia-toned" would probably be going a bit too far, but it's a different feel entirely than Doom's usual harsh aesthetics. The player explores a nondescript base-type area in a rocky setting, though a couple of rooms overlook pits of indeterminate depth - maybe a mine or disposal site of some kind. Gameplay is a pleasant warm-up with opposition consisting (on HNTR) mostly of imps and various ranks of zombies, with a few demons and cacodemons representing the heaviest hitters in play at this stage. The whole feels very polished and I'm looking forward to what the rest of the WAD has to offer.

MAP01
This map could be visually better with the opening shot and the rest of the level since the later maps offer more to look at, this one is just 50 shades of brown.
Monster placement makes you feel endangered when you're actually not, that's what I liked the most from the first three maps. And the midi really fits the difficulty of this map.
The soulsphere secret can be get in two ways; either by jumping into it from a higher point or use a lift button a little later in the map, I rather do the former even if sometimes you won't trigger the secret.
The map is rather linear, go left upstairs, open some doors, survive some traps, get the key, avoid a key trap, get the SSG, open the yellow door, push some switches and rush to the exit, I exited with 200 HP.
It's a normal map, although it could get tuned-up\revised for more exciting gameplay and non-linearity.

Zandronum, continuous play on HNTR. I wish to finally persist playing this wad to the end.

MAP01 - “Chasing Suns"

While easy for now, it's clear that this wad will bite, considering that this is just an opener and there were already a few moderately hectic ambushes. Visually, gameplay-wise and architecture-wise excellent map. The secret soulsphere is supposed to be accessed via a secret teleporter, but (as I had reported a long time ago in Sunlust thread) I was still able to get it via straferunning from the nearby raised ledge and this method didn't trigger the sector secret special. Other than that, perfect.

ITYTD so I won't worry about ammo problems.

MAP01 Chasing Suns

as expected on easiest difficulties, this one proves worthy enough without being hard. the ending gives a hint as to what to expect though.

what else can I say? Oh right, forgot to mention that I broke a keyboard once the first time I played through this whole megawad.

MAP01 - Chasing Suns

Kills: 100% | Items: 100% | Secrets: 0% | Time: 4:36 | Attempts: 1

Not a particularly difficult map, apart from the ending with the arch-vile. The Chaingunner/Lost Soul trap also tore off a big chunk of my health.
The map is very generous with health however, and you can grab a soulsphere with a good strafejump. I'm sure later levels won't be quite as forgiving.

I can't complain about the architecture and detailing, though I think the brown/orange texture combo will get old pretty fast.

Since I upgraded to Windows 10, I've started using Game DVR to record my Doom runs, so if anyone is interested, I will post my (hopefully) successful runs to YouTube.

https://youtu.be/Bp4XcvUaVb0

MAP01: Chasing Suns

Kills: 77/77 Secrets: 2/2 Items: 11/11 Skill: 4 Attempts: 1 Port: Zandronum 2.0 Saves: 0 Time: 4:20

Good, simple opener. Theme reminds me of later Plutonia maps. Map is not too hard, only parts that can take your health away are chaingunner trap and teleporting revenant. Secrets are not too hard to find (compared to later maps). A BFG can be seen from the starting area, although it cannot be accessed without cheats.

I've only played ep. 1 and 2 of this wad, really looking forward to this.

Also, first post. Yay.

I delayed playing this wad because I knew we'd get to it eventually. Due to its reputation for difficulty, I'll be playing HMP, maybe going down to HNTR if I have trouble later. I'll go as low as I need to. Weapons will be carried over, and saves will be used. I'm also doing a death count. That should be fun.
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MAP01 introduces me to orange in a way I'm not used to seeing it used in Doom levels. Besides that, the other visual thing I noticed was the use of 45-degree angles to smooth out what would have been orthagonal corners. It looks really good.

Gameplay-wise, I had fun. There's a good mix of running around and being boxed in. Even the skeleton to the back at one point didn't feel cheap, which when I see it in other wads it tends to (eternal *cough*). I think there is a lot of room to run around him, so credit for actually giving me an out on that. The extra info mentions a BFG. Judging by someone saying it's inaccessible, I'm going to assume it was behind me and I didn't notice it before I grabbed the shotgun and got started. I'm just glad I have the SSG for the next level. Good start.

100% Kills 0% Secrets 0 Deaths (I'm going to regret counting these)

Finally I can rejoin this club as I was too late last month.

Anyway....

Map01:Chasing Suns
Kills:100%
Secrets: 1/2
Difficulty: UV

This is pleasing to look at from the starting podium but I agree with everyone that past that we are reentering Quake 2 territory with the whole brown palette. The map is not too bad with not many high tier enemies(except the archvile which caught me by surprise and causing the only death).The first secret was got by accident as I thought that the soulsphere was meant to be got by strafe running but later found the secret teleporter/elevator thing. The second secret remains a mystery to me. Although I looked at the map with doom builder afterwards and found a BFG, but still dunno how to get it. As this is pistol start I will abide by the code and play each level individually so I see no point in picking up the BFG.

Alright I'm going to tackle this beast. As usual, I am going to play on UV and get 100% kills and secrets. I would scale it down but I feel that UV is the only true DOOM experience IMHO. I haven't played HMP or easier since I was a young boy so I'm not going back now.

MAP01 Chasing Suns:

Alright, solid opener that keeps you wondering what's to come in this difficult mapset. They throw quite a bit of enemies at you at the start. I died once and it was at the beginning because you have limited ammo for the shotty and a mancubus coming for you with chaingunner shooting you from alcoves when you touch the stairs. I managed to find the Rocket Launcher late but it was a nice secret. The Soulsphere I managed to strafe run to get. This has a plutonia-esque feel so far as every key and room is a huge trap ready to happen. I really enjoyed it though. I can assume that it's only an uphill battle from here.

MAP01 - “Chasing Suns" by Danne & Ribbiks
A brisk start here, though there were no deaths which surprised me. Lots of good visuals and a few tricky traps, but nothing too deadly.

Gonna be starting out on UV, though I'm sure by the end I'll have pushed it back down to HNTR.

MAP01: Chasing Suns
100% kills, 1/2 secrets

Yeah, definitely need to get back to playing more difficult/modern stuff, as I can already see how my skills have deteroriated. :) Took too much damage from each of the chaingunners on this map. Nice little opener, with some good bits of difficulty but nothing too hard, especially if the player is just careful and doesn't try to rambo everything. Monster placement is good, I really like the use of the Pain Elemental spawning in an area the player likely hasn't cleared out yet.

MAP02 - "Down Through"

Bug report: This texture displays pitch black outlines in Zandronum, and I suppose that it will display them everywhere in the wad where this texture is used. Also, 2 monsters didn't ever teleport - turns out that their teleport destination sector doesn't exist at all, and that these monsters are Easy-only, which is probably why this bug wasn't noticed earlier.

This map was a breeze on continuous HNTR, but at least tough monsters were introduced, which I see as a promise of upcoming challenge. Design quality still awe-inspiring.

Although I'm currently going through my pile of wad requests, I might consider playing Sunlust at some point this month. No promises mind, since 32 maps of torturous hell might take some self-persuading. (just the thought of playing loads of Ribbiks maps.....shudder!) If I don't cover it this month I will come back to it at some point hopefully.

Ah, I don't think I'll be doing this one right now. I played a several levels of Sunlust and not trying to be an ass, but the fun factor just wasn't here for me. Some of the early levels felt too non-linear for me and just a jumbled up mess. I'd much rather play Stardate or Combat Shock. The combo of Ribbiks and Danabubinga just doesn't work here for me. Maybe the later levels will change my mind when I get around to it. Don't get me wrong, the visuals are fantastic, but the fun factor is lacking for me.

02: Down Through
Very nice techbase-style map here with unusual aesthetic twist to it. While it may remind of things like UAC Ultra and Darkening 2 with its brown-ish and sort of remotely Quake-ish color scheme - it takes it lightyears ahead of those with its super developed detailing and impressive lighting work (seriously, I can start the map and literally waste minutes of real time standing in the very beginning and watching those lightstrips running back and forth... mesmerizing). The layout might be considered typical for a map of this style perhaps, but all the ingredients for a fun map are there. Height variation with multiple attack angles covered for the sake of constant crossfire, punchy traps and high pace without anything overwhelming should be welcoming and addictive enough for all types of players, Vanguard on steroids or something like that. The icing on the cake is a very fitting music track, though music choices of Sunlust are really successful in general, a small bunch of exceptions aside. Cool map.

Anyone doing (UV) FDAs? I hope DotW does -- I want to see what happens when good players face these maps for the first time. :D

rdwpa said:

I hope DotW does

This is my hope too, especially since I am apparently to be denied the entertainment of "The Many Deaths of SteveD" :)

Map 01: "Chasing Suns" (UV)

Sunlust, as is typical of my favorite mapsets, is like a rough lover -- she bites you in the neck, hard, as she fucks you, drawing blood, sinking into the meat, ripping out your vital organs. She wants to satisfy you, but it's no secret that she also wants to kill you. Over and over and over again. To these ends, we have dichotomies: gorgeous architecture shaped from grungy materials; chill music over the sharp wails of revenant alert sounds and the frustrating scream of numerous player deaths; vivid tech lights set in relief beside dirty earthy colors. Some have called that particular textural opposition garish, but I like it, personally: it reminds me of crushed insects, spilling alien guts into the wet dirt. Anyway, "Chasing Suns" is some sort of mountain base -- one in which the sun's power is harnessed greedily and converted into, uh, ORANGE LIGHTS! Okay, fuck it, I have no idea what it is; I'm not so good at teasing apart the narrative nuances of setting. It's an easy enough map, especially if you resist thoughtlessly grabbing shiny pickups and set off the traps at your leisure. But why bother with all of that. Go wild. Make the monsters your bitches, because soon enough, the roles will reverse.

Ah, back in the DWMC. My apologies to Adam for not providing him with lovely demos where I die a million fucking times, but maybe someday. At the very least, I expect epic death counts as we get deeper into the megawad, at least 30 or more as a normal thing.

When I played the first 4 maps during the testing phase, I was pistol-starting on UV, and after sailing through the first couple maps reasonably well, I died 16 times on Map03 and at least 15 on Map04. I still wasn't ready to back down to HNTR, the default difficulty I use for Ribbiks maps, but for this playthrough, I plan on going with HNTR pistol-starts all the way. This is partly because my long absence from Doom, as the result of endless tooth infections, resulted in a major erosion of my already limited skills, especially when it comes to dodging Revvie rockets. Expect my death counts to climb like crazy once the Revvies get unleashed.

So it's GZDoom, keyboard-only, HNTR pistol-starts, and savescumming like the jagoff I am!

Map01 – Chasing Suns by Danne & Ribbiks – Kills – 100, Items – 94, Secret – 50. End Health – 200, Armor 200. Death Count – Zero

Nice opening map. Looks good, I like the brown and orange theme, and the opening shot is really cool if you turn around and examine all of the scenery. The pace is relatively fast, and even on HNTR, the action is enough to hold your attention. It's a much gnarlier map on UV, and when I played it during the testing phase, I'm pretty sure I died about 3 times. There's no really rough moment on HNTR like the surprise Archie on UV, and the absence of Revvies made for smooth sailing. Probably the biggest surprise to me is that I never took one hit from the Chaingunners. Indeed, almost every hit I took was from Imps, which I find amusing for some reason. ;)

I did genuinely hate one thing, the Soulsphere secret, but that's because I always hate 'hit the switch and run like crazy for the secret lift/door/whatever' secrets. These are not fun for keyboarders because we're liable to bounce off walls and doorways and it can take a million tries to succeed. I persevered, though, but I was cussing like a motherfucker the whole way. :D

Map02 – Down Through by Danne – Kills – 97, Items – 100, Secret – 100. End Health – 185, Armor 146. Death Count – Zero

I liked everything about this map except for the music track, which I found annoying.

This is probably the first map I've played which was all Danne, and I really enjoyed the layout and the look of it. This map was reasonably difficult on UV, but HNTR is pretty easy apart from that dickish Chaingunner placement. Nice job suckering me into going forward like a mindless fool only to get ventilated from behind. That was almost the death of me! ;) Thanks for providing a handy megasphere to heal us up.

I was caught-out by the teleporting Archies, as I didn't expect them on HNTR. Had a fun time pain-chancing the first one in an open encounter and got his ugly ass. The second I rocketed from a distance.

Secrets were again diabolical. I'm glad I saw that one Speed of Doom switch and then later the tricky path to the Plasma Gun, which I snagged after completing the map and opening a saved game just for the fun of finding that last secret. I also noticed that Sector 1604 is inaccessible in this version, whereas I recall getting in there and encountering a teleport trap during testing.

As scifista reported, 2 monsters failed to teleport in. All in all, this was a good, fun map.