The DWmegawad Club plays: Reverie

map24

First off, what a fucking fantastic midi. It's one of those which made me not want to leave the level more. The level's combat is mostly light enough I actually got lost in the music from time to time. Awesome work (uhh...) Jimmy!

As for the level, it's pretty good too. Like I said, the combat is pretty light for the most part, the red key elevator and the outdoor area with the exit being exceptions (the combat is  a bit tougher in those parts). Apart from that, most of the actual challenge comes from the arch viles scattered around the level, and one large group of them in a room. Thankfully there's quite a bit of health so you can afford to screw up once or twice. The blue key branch of the level was probably my favorite, with some interesting (i.e. not annoying) platforming. There's a little switch puzzle and then you exit. All things considered, a good map.

MAP24: Sewer System (Arch Vile's Den)

99% kills, 3/5 secrets

Thematically this one reminded me a lot of MAP22, as they both have a sewer area, a puzzle-y brown stone area, and an outdoor rocky area. This one obviously has more time spent on the titular sewers, of course. And I was thinking it was actually pretty easy-going until... well, yeah, that room. Bit of a shame the door is so small the AVs can't really all tumble out at once and really chase the player around. As @tmorrow notes the cyber at the end is completely ineffectual since it'll likely try to walk towards the player and thus cut off its own aim given the height difference. The red key puzzle at the end was more annoying than it had to be simply since the columns were directly aligned with each other and I kept falling in the gap going at slow speed (trying not to go too fast to fall forward), would've been better if they were just a bit off-alignment so you could diagonally walk instead and not fall in the gap.

MAP24: Sewer System (Arch Vile's Den)

This one feels like it balances the aesthetics of Plutonia with the more free-form environments and layouts of Evilution, with a slick and nicely designed network of sewers connecting thematically varied temple, cavern, and brickbase nodes through which the map's various keys are scattered.  Depending on the player's initial route and choices, the super shotgun and chaingun could end up acting as the prospective spelunker's bread-and-butter monster-slaying tools for quite some time; fortunately there are not too many places that demand the range and rapid damage of a rocket launcher that the player might stumble into before grabbing it, aside from the titular den of arch-viles which honestly can be left alone until you're damn well ready to deal with it.  The music is quite the delightful track, albeit one that perhaps calls to mind more fantasy-themed environs than are to be found here, but maybe that's just me and how it sounds to my ear.  I'll agree with @Magnusblitz that the switches-and-columns section that permits access to the red switch is more annoying than it needs to be, with a simple solution but an inconvenient placement of moving parts that doesn't challenge, simply irritates.

MAP24 Sewer System (Arch-vile's Den)

Any map with "arch-vile" in the title is gonna use them in a nasty manner. I guarantee it. One of the reasons MAP09 of Valiant is so goddamn awful is how those farkheads were used.

Thankfully, this level is an aversion of that trope, as most all arch-vile encounters are made to be fair. And you can disagree, but it's another hub map, as all required key linedefs are pretty close to each other. Another hub map that just so happens to have a little of everything again. Yellow key area has reasonable combat, several secrets are pretty fun to get. There's a descending elevator in the red key area. Two paths that must be taken for the blue key. There's even a block raising puzzle. The only hard part, and this is for higher settings, is the room behind the blue door, as there's more than one arch-vile to scuffle out there. Also the main sewer system of course has a few roamers around. But I'm glad this level wasn't the nightmare I was initially expecting when I played in the first time.

19 hours ago, tmorrow said:

The map appears to have a minor bug that only 61% (16/26) items can be found due to 10 health bonuses that are in an unreachable offmap closet with your dormant zombie player.

This isn't a bug, near the end there's this pool that you can dip into and get the items. It's a bit like MAP28 from Plutonia.

1 hour ago, NuMetalManiak said:

This isn't a bug, near the end there's this pool that you can dip into and get the items. It's a bit like MAP28 from Plutonia.

Wow! I overlooked that, thanks for pointing it out. It's a weird unexpected trick done by the voodoo doll that stands on the lift that is lowered when you cross one of the 3 linedefs into the water. You can't actually see the health bonuses, you just magically receive them by stepping into the pool. As you say, the same trick is used in Plutonia's map28 to give all 4 players a bfg when they step onto a lit square. Totally unexpected!

MAP24: A good old sewer map, with few visit on the outside too. It's good overall but I think that the various places places after the first tunnels could have been more striking. The arch-viles were a bit more tricky to fight in those tunnels since you don't have the usual corners to hide. The music was very cool.

The music is really cool, but does it fit the level? I think it worked much better in Matt Tropiano's Forsaken Overlook. It's a fantasy song, not a sewer song. :D

That song is fantastic in Forsaken Overlook, not as much here. The start here makes quite an impression, you enter those tunnels that create a sort of a ancient city setting which goes well with the song, but the rest of the level doesn't deliver that. Maybe it would have been better if there was a stronger direction to follow the theme and make something more cohesive, many of the detours to get the keys feel generic although I liked some ideas like the RK lowering floor (which is a sort of a clichè but it fits in the wad spirit) and the platforming bits near the BK.

12 minutes ago, gaspe said:

That song is fantastic in Forsaken Overlook, not as much here. The start here makes quite an impression, you enter those tunnels that create a sort of a ancient city setting which goes well with the song, but the rest of the level doesn't deliver that.

The levels were created first; the soundtrack came afterwards.

Did the musicians choose specific levels to work with? Or did you get a bunch of midis and then decided how to assign them to the maps? Did you reject anything? I've always wondered how this stuff usually works.

I just let the musicians do what they wanted - the only thing I griped about was MAP17's music being repetitive, and MAP26's midi was intended for MAP27, but I wanted something action-packed for that level so I bumped it down a slot.

And yeah, they pretty much chose which maps to make music for. I kept the first post of the thread updated with which map slots had no music, and PRIMEVAL, Jimmy and stewboy would just pick out which ones they wanted to make music for. I had placeholder music to at least establish what kind of atmosphere I wanted the level to have, but as for what those placeholder tracks were I can't remember all of them - I know MAP11 had MAP31's music from Eternal Doom, as well as the intermission screen using Eternal Doom's intermission music. MAP31 had "Tides of War" from Requiem, MAP13 had "Shadows of the Dead" from Memento Mori II, and I'm sure some Icarus midis were used elsewhere along with mostly MM1/2/Requiem stuff. Also MAP01 had "Goin' Down The Fast Way" from Rise of The Triad. Some of the levels also had different atmospheric tracks, like I think MAP21 might have used, "Suspense" from Doom, but I got something more action-packed for it.

Also, I finished Reverie by August 2011, but the rest of the time leading up to November was waiting for the soundtrack to be completed, so I just had additional playtesting going on throughout that time for it.

map25: Sever Tomorrow
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

A linear progression map. Ammo is tight from the start and is a problem all the way up to the end if you don't plan accordingly. The best place for infighting is with the teleporting cyberdemon and the 8 barons you released early in the level. Another infighting opportunity is with the teleporting spider mastermind.
 

Next Months Wad(s)

Rather than a single large 32 map megawad for next month I propose 3 smaller wads to sink our teeth into. There are old (1998) and new maps (2018) to play, i.e. maps spanning 20 years. I personally have not played any of these wads yet but have followed them with some interest.

1. Tangerine Nightmare (10 maps) is not yet released, rc2 is now available (lets help with testing) -
2. UAC Ultra (11 maps + credit map) from 2010. Download https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/s-u/uacultra. Replays http://doomedsda.us/wad1268.html. Tackled by DWIronman League in 2016
3. Realm of Shades (7 maps) from 1998. Download https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/p-r/ros. Replays http://doomedsda.us/wad773.html.

So the 3 multiwads consist of a total of 10 + 11 + 7 = 28 maps in all which should be plenty to occupy the DWMC in February.

+++ Tangerine Nightmare + UAC Ultra + Realm of Shades

2 hours ago, Memfis said:

The music is really cool, but does it fit the level? I think it worked much better in Matt Tropiano's Forsaken Overlook. It's a fantasy song, not a sewer song. :D

Sewer song

:D

MAP24: Sewer System (Arch-vile's Den)

UV/Pistol start/No saves

Deaths: thonking

First of all, I agree with everyone also about the track, it's awesome but I feel it suits better for a night-ish spacious/cave map, that's just my personal opinion though. Onto the map itself, it had its ups and downs, I liked the initial kind-of-hub sewer a la Habitat (the design choice, not all the map) that connects each wing where the keys are guarded. I'm also not quite sure how much freedom of choice the player has to choose one path or another, my way was YK>RK>BK and I got all the weapons and ammo necessary in the YK wing for the rest. Combat was focused on straightforward/corridors, which wasn't so interesting, and the cacodemons/pain elemental didn't feel ok used that way. On the other side the archviles' den was my favourite part, even though they can't do much and have some troubles to come out of their nest. What else?... I also agree with others that the pillars to the red switch were more annoying than challenging, it's a bit like Plutonia's map 16 but with switches to be used more than once, the idea is cool, the results not so much imo. And last but not least, the secret on the water was really nice.

End of review.

This is my third attempt to record the demo, why? Well because in the first one I didn't get the bonuses that tmorrow talked about (which I DID get in the first run previous recording...), so I had to eliminate that and record again. The second time came out much better and I liked it, only then I realized I wasn't recording anything -.- . So, this third run didn't go so well, as I was kind of mad, but in no way I was going to restart again. Oh whatever.

@tmorrow's vote/nomination sounds good to me:

+++ Tangerine Nightmare, UAC Ultra, Realm of Shades

+++ A.L.T.

+++ 99 Ways to Die, The Trooper's Playground, The Talosian Incident

definitely tmorrow's idea sounds great

+++ Tangerine Nightmare + UAC Ultra + Realm of Shades

map22 fda

uv pistol start saveless

wow. that final room gave me so much trouble. this map is basically a fun jaunt through a slight egyptian themed map, and then a AV-rev-mancubus gangbang. after failing twice i sped through with a dicey moment or too and ended up cheesing it by waking up one by one, and then still almost fluffed it!

Hey guys! Is this WAD good stuff? I haven't had time this month to read anything but might finally be able to play some again. If I were to play a dozen maps to get a good sense of what this WAD had to offer; which ones should I play?  Or is it really worth it to try and go through the whole thing before next month's wad? 

1 minute ago, Demtor said:

Hey guys! Is this WAD good stuff? I haven't had time this month to read anything but might finally be able to play some again. If I were to play a dozen maps to get a good sense of what this WAD had to offer; which ones should I play?  Or is it really worth it to try and go through the whole thing before next month's wad? 

Its a damn good wad, its rather slow in pacing, but you'll have fun. Play the whole wad.

Hey @tmorrow your two idgames links are broken - you've got a period at the end of them.

7 minutes ago, Demtor said:

Hey guys! Is this WAD good stuff? I haven't had time this month to read anything but might finally be able to play some again. If I were to play a dozen maps to get a good sense of what this WAD had to offer; which ones should I play?  Or is it really worth it to try and go through the whole thing before next month's wad? 

its got some good ones but probably not worth playing through the whole thing entirely (sorry valkiriforce >.< )

if i remember ill look through and pick some out.

+++Tangerine Nightmare. :)

8 minutes ago, Demtor said:

Hey guys! Is this WAD good stuff? I haven't had time this month to read anything but might finally be able to play some again. If I were to play a dozen maps to get a good sense of what this WAD had to offer; which ones should I play?  Or is it really worth it to try and go through the whole thing before next month's wad? 

perhaps try 05, 06, 13, 20... if you like harder maps, 32 and 21. those seemed to be the better maps from what i've played so far, but that's just me.

For me the highlights are: 4, 8, 10, 13, 15, 20, 28, 31. 13 is probably the best of them all.

8 minutes ago, Roofi said:

I vote for Tangerine Nightmare. :)

well youre doing it all wrong if you are :D

map23 fda

uv pistol starts saveless

this map D:

i appreciate the weird architecture, the quirky secrets, and the back to front design (starts with a set piece, ends with 2 shotgunners and an HK) but there a lot of design decisions that leave a bad taste in the mouth: annoying slow crushers; 3 annoyingly placed and seemingly unskippable masterminds; random dumps in chaingunner hell; 2 barons in a cramped teleporter staircase thingy. i was more relieved to finish than actually enjoying myself tbh.

+++ ESP

+++ Heretic