IronEagle Competition 4: Dark Covenant

The IronEagle Competition is back! No, I'm not @Aquila Chrysaetos, but I have his blessing to continue these monthly competitions since he would be unable to continue them for the near future. I enjoyed the ruleset that had been put together (particularly not having to play on UV if you don't want to), so, after a 1 month hiatus, the other Ironman competition on Doomworld is back. Yes, it's a week into the shortest month of the year, but hopefully that doesn't hold anyone back. Without further ado, let's proceed!

 

This month, our IronEagle runners will be facing Dark Covenant.

The objective for survival is MAP12. There are no secret maps.

 

This month's winners (further details below):

UV: kmc

HMP: n/a

HNTR: Pegleg

 

Yes, this is the mapset from 1996 by Keith Phipps. I went back and forth between a classic and something obscure and decided to split the difference with an older, generally well-accepted mapset. That may mean everyone has played it and this becomes a speed running contest--we'll see.

 

The rules are the same as they were before. In fact, most of this is copy-pasted from the previous posts.

 

Rules:

Submissions must include a demo from one of the listed available ports.

The first actual attempt must be submitted, there are no do-overs (with very few possible exceptions which I will address as they arise).

A run must be done in a singular sitting. (With room for breaks. This will be addressed below.)

If we do a WIP wad, make sure you are using the latest available version to minimize demo desync issues.

Stream and video runs are accepted if and only if a demo of the same run is provided. This means you are streaming/recording the gameplay as you are recording the demo. A stream/video submission with no demo will be automatically rejected.

Secret levels are, as in DWIL, treated as extra credit.

Freelook is allowed, but jumping and crouching must be disabled for wads that do not support them.

 

Accepted Ports:

PRBoom+

ZDoom 2.8.1

ZDoom32 2.8.5

GZDoom 2.4.0

GZDoom 3.5.1

 

Category System:

• Category 1: Blind run.
  • This explains itself. You have no knowledge of the wad and have not played/seen it before.
• Category 2: Non-blind.
  • If you have played the wad before and/or possess any foreknowledge, your run is non-blind. Basically, anything that is not Category 1 is Category 2. 

 

Difficulty System:

• You may submit a demo for HNTR, HMP, or UV.
• If you submit a UV run, you may not submit one for HNTR or HMP. Likewise for the other difficulties. Multiple difficulty runs will be rejected and the runner's submission void for that month.
• ITYTD and NM runs will not be accepted.
• Submitting a HNTR run does not pit you against UV players. Each difficulty will be graded separately. This will, hopefully, keep the runs graded as fairly as possible.

 

I will attempt to maintain a spreadsheet where I will keep the information up-to-date, and I will record the top ten runs of each difficulty there, where applicable.

 

Breaks:

You are free to take a quick break when needed. Intermission screens are the best time to do this.

Multiple demos cannot be accepted, however, last month was a singular exception.

The bit last month about death exits still stands.

If you reset the map before going to the tally screen on a death exit, you must either end your run or play the map again.

If you die going back around, your survival will count, but your run will end there.

 

Even if you die, you are encouraged to finish the wad.

Attempting to max the maps is encouraged, but not necessary to win.

When you submit your run, please do not go into detail on the wad or map you survived or died on, only declare the category and difficulty, and say what map you died on, if applicable.

Obviously, runs must be done vanilla to prevent demo desyncing, as such all mods must be merely cosmetic.

If you die, please wait a few seconds before quitting out for me to catch the information I need to determine your placing.

 

If you don't know how to record demos, I recommend getting the ZDL launcher.

Once you have it set up to find your IWAD's and ports, you can use the field at the bottom entitled "command line parameters" to record your demo with ease.

 

Template for PRBoom+:

-file darkcvnt.wad -complevel 2 -skill <4> -record <IEDarkCovenant> -warp 01

Where the skill is 2 for HNTR, 3 for HMP, and 4 for UV.

 

Template for ZDoom:

-file darkcvnt.wad +compatmode 2 -skill <4> -record <IEcrumpets> +map map01

Using the ZDL launcher will allow you to select your skill directly and skip the wad selection and warp by immediately starting you in MAP01 on launch.

This wad uses complevel 2 or Doom(strict).

 

Obviously, the angular brackets indicate fields where you choose what goes there. Don't actually leave them in your line.

 

When recording in ZDoom, double check your compatibility settings. When the compatibility is set from the cmdline, it doesn't always stick, so open the port in an IWAD map and make sure to set it to Doom (strict) to be sure the compatibility settings are correct. ZDoom will remember the settings next time you start it.

 

Happy Dooming!

 

 

Previous IronEagle Competitions

 

2018

Scientist 2 (Winners -- UV: leodoom85   HMP: n/a   HNTR: Liberation)

Vanguard (Winners -- UV: Bdubzzz   HMP: n/a   HNTR: Liberation)

Crumpets (Winners -- UV: NoisyVelvet   HMP: n/a   HNTR: Pegleg)

Edited March 1, 2019 by Pegleg : Added winners and previous months.

I will show my support for this with a demo.

IE-darkcvnt-AC.lmp

 

Survived, 2:24:00, Category 1.

I'd like to participate but before I want to ask: what port is preferable here (from the list above)? I stick to GZDoom but if most ppl prefer PrBoom-Plus, I'd use it instead.

1 hour ago, Mere_Duke said:

I'd like to participate but before I want to ask: what port is preferable here (from the list above)? I stick to GZDoom but if most ppl prefer PrBoom-Plus, I'd use it instead.

 

There is no preferable port. The distribution seems to be about 50-50 between PrBoom+ and GZDoom, so whichever you use is fine, so long as your compatibility level is correct.

I'll try to remember to give this a shot at some point this month.

https://mega.nz/#!KAhVzY6B!FQzsVWc7k14tMvgAv4-ovNQB_ajZN4O8x0tWngRwxVk

 

Died on map 3 in the quadruple Cyberdemon room, after tele-fragging one of them.

 

Hadn't played this before at all, and was enjoying it. Kind of like a 90's "Hellbound" in some aspects. I might revisit this wad someday.

Dead: Map03

Category 1: Blind Run

Pretty cool wad that I have played quite a bit of. A bit low on cells/rockets overall, but it has enough cool parts to make up for it I think.  I did routing and practice for a full speedrun sometime last year but never got around to finishing it.  I get a bit lost on Map08 in this one (could have sworn there was a blue armor somewhere...).

 

UV, Category 2 - survived in 46:44.

IEDarkCovenant-kmc4644.zip

Edited February 24, 2019 by kmc

I'm finally here in support of the Challenge that I chose to continue! I'd actually been wanting to play this for awhile and this was a good chance. I enjoyed it. I ended up dying somewhat earlier than I expected for how things were going, but that's how quickly things can turn around when you miscalculate and back yourself into a corner.

 

Difficulty: HNTR

Category: 2

Dead: Map 03, 27/102 kills

 

pegleg_ie_darkcvnt.zip

Shit totally forgot I'd recorded this, sorry for late posting

 

GLBOOM UV

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/22iswelrbgcpew0/irneaglcvnt.lmp?dl=1

 

Think I made it to map08, blind play.

 

Wasn't sure what to make of this wad, it kind of felt like a doom1 wad, with corridors full of easily killable meat, but with an ssg and the odd revenant.  Really weird ammo balance, basically infinite shells and bullets, but the only rockets I found in any decent number were in a random room in map03 i think, and that was it, you'd better make 'em last.  With more rockets this would have been a proper laugh, but ssg/cg on fair crowds of barons, hks etc was a bit dull, and towards the end of the demo I started to get a bit bored and took the piss a bit, just running into silly situations, and it took a fair few dumb risks to get me killed.  Cheers for setting this competition up!

Well, I got a brutalized hilarious death at map 03, UV, all blind.

Here's the demo: darkcoveagle_ld85.zip

and...here's the moment of death...

 

Recorded in PrBoom+. Category 1, UV. Duration is above 2 hours (2:21 maybe). Demo ends at map 11 (killed by Cyberdemon).

 

IEDarkCovenant_StormCathcher77.zip

Category 1 UV

 

Dead Map 07.. well I ran through an obvious area that looked like it would be crushers and what do you know.. it was, but i was still alive after that and somehow managed to get kind of stuck on a wall for a second then died to a manc fireball, o well, as john said reminded me of a way less detailed hellbound. 

Dubz-DC-IM.zip

Thank you to those who participated this month! I hope to see many, if not all of you, back for IronEagle 5.

 

Without further ado, here are the results for IronEagle 4: Dark Covenant.

 

UV

1. kmc (Survived)

2. Aquila Chrysaetos (Survived)

3. StormCatcher.77 (Map 11)

4. dt_ (Map 8)

5. Bdubzzz (Map 7)

6. Suitepee (Map 3)

7. NoisyVelvet (Map 3)

8. leodoom85 (Map 3)

 

HMP

None

 

HNTR

1. Pegleg (Map 3)