The DWIronman League dies to: Abcess

Was indecisive all month about whether I'd bother but decided to see if I could continue my two month streak of not dying (by quitting the demo while still alive, cough).

Death by attrition on map 2.  Even going in at 116/200.  Type 1 blind  Unlikely to push out a prepared attempt in time and I'd probably get whittled down by hitscanners in map 1 anyways.

PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4 -complevel 2

dwiron_abcess_cnr.zip

From well's heart I stab at thee, Steven.

STEVEN!

(Ugly survival, 55:40, Category 2)

It seems I couldn't pass up an excuse to (re)play some maps by one of my favorite Doomers. I've played pretty much all of Steve's maps in pretty much all of their assorted incarnations more times than most folks, so I reckon my advantage is considerable here. Absolutely *horrible* aim aside (seriously wtf is my problem here???), I managed a decent clip through the first three levels, but started to get a bit scared in m04 (the ending stretch is rather nasty in this one, isn't it?), and then a bit lost in m05, and slowed down considerably. Other than the Big Metal Hallway Fight going pear-shaped, and, uh, forgetting about the whole 'floor is lava' thing at the end, m06 goes "fairly" smoothly, but by that time I was deliberately going slower to hedge my bets. I reckon m03 is the most smartly designed in the set (it's also probably seen more iterations/public incarnations than any of Steve's other maps), but m06 is my personal favorite of these. I just love all that big, abstract, ominous space.

5 hours ago, Demon of the Well said:

From well's heart I stab at thee, Steven.

And he returns, hopefully, for more than a quick one month visit.

I suppose he just couldn't resist collecting your pelt, @Steve D.

8 hours ago, Demon of the Well said:

From well's heart I stab at thee, Steven.

LOL!!!!

Damn, dude, 55:40 is some kind of awesome. Can't wait to see it. I'm pretty sure it took me longer to beat the first 3 maps. 

I'll echo @Pegleg and say I hope we see a lot more of you around here. :)

BTW, I'm doing my write-up now, but as a preview, I successfully died at the first Big Ambush on Map06.

Can't resist quoting you here,  "I managed a decent clip through the first three levels, but started to get a bit scared in m04 . . ."

Oh, such sweet music to my ears!!!!! :)

Now then, I've done my runs for this and the previous month but don't have access to a pc til tomorrow, will they still be counted?  None of the runs were brilliant, didn't survive either monster hunter , got stuck behind a box in the first one, and shot in the forehead by an arachnotron in the second.  With abcess, I ran out of time roundabout halfway through m4, and tried to speed things up, much to my expense

The "pelt farmer" gets harvested on Map06, at the first Big Ambush, with IIRC 66/443 kills. Keyboarding all the way. Cat3 of course.

Abcess Kills Steve

Welcome to those thrilling days of yesteryear, the glorious '90s, an era of obtuse progression, weird key puzzles, switch hunts, and lots of hitscanners. I'd like to thank @Demon of the Well for recommending Abcess and @Alfonzo for selecting it. It's been a blast watching so many runs, and embarrassing to realize I need to prepare a v1.2 to correct the errors you guys uncovered.

Although these maps are from the '90s, I spruced them up -- especially the lighting -- and changed the gameplay a bit, though gameplay is about 85% the same as the originals. The layouts are all unchanged except for Map05, where I added that big room with the Mancs on pedestals at the south end. But for the most part I wanted these to be as they were, warts and all. For example, I wouldn't do a key puzzle like the one in Map02 today, which confused a lot of players, nor would I make a bridge guarded at one end by mid-tiers, forcing the player to provoke infighting or plink away at them from a distance. I'm also averse to locked doors that are not key doors, and would use bars instead to signal that they are opened by a switch. But I still make trappy maps with harsh gameplay because I want to kill the player, in the nicest possible way. ;) Truly, I want every significant battle to at least have the possibility of taking you out if you make a mistake or get a little unlucky. I guess that's partly because I'm a low-skilled savescummer, so I want to go out there and mix it up, not playing safe, secure in the knowledge that if I die -- and at one time or another I have successfully died in all of these maps -- I can open a save and do better the second time. So trying to survive this whole mapset, which was expressly designed to kill me, personally, was a stressful experience, to put it mildly. :D

Adding to that stress was keyboarding on PrBoom 2.5.1.7um, which feels more sluggish and "numb" than my favorite, 2.5.1.3, and my second favorite, 2.5.1.4, but both of those have become crashy, possibly as the result of Win10 updates, so I can't do Ironman runs with them. 

This playthrough got off to a shaky start, especially when I almost died to a Chaingunner on Map02 when I was showing how to get the Green Armor secret. Jeez! Map03 went better than all the others. I showed how to reach the outdoor area, which previously only @Anima Zero had discovered. I was a little scared of that one because I like to play it aggressively and frequently die out there, but playing safety first, it was actually easy. Things started going pear-shaped at the end of Map04, where I hilariously forgot about one of my nastiest traps. You'll see it coming when I lift the BFG before heading to the big Icon of Sin door. I somehow survived the ensuing battle, mainly because I knew where to replenish much of my lost health and armor, but that moment was really the beginning of the end for me. Even though I tended to do well in the upcoming battles, leaving lots of health I had to pick up later, that moment signaled the beginning of numerous mental lapses that ended with me losing tons of health and using way too much ammo. Map05 was virtual torture as I screwed up again and again and had to chicken out of fighting the Cyb, and as a result, I also missed showing how to get the secret Rocket Launcher because I just wanted out of there. 

And then came Map06. When you hear the first deep, ominous notes of the tracker module Heat Miser, by Substance, you know that I'm coming after you harder than in previous maps, especially at the beginning and end. I foolishly decided to fight the first Big Ambush in the corridor instead of dropping into the water. It was a foolish move because I didn't really have enough plasma to pull it off. If I had gotten past that fight, I almost certainly would have at least reached the end, but I only beat the end fight on about 30% of my first tries, so my odds of survival were dismal. Still, all things considered, I did better than expected after more than 3 grueling hours of combat. 

Secrets are a big thing for me in traditional maps like these, which show a heavy KDiTD influence. Nobody found the secret BFG in Map04 -- @Demon of the Well will, of course -- and other hard ones include the outdoor area and the secret Rocket Launcher in Map03. I stick to the classic '90s clues such as vertically misaligned walls, light variances on walls, and unusual textures, so all of the secrets are signaled. With the exception of the Rocket Launcher on Map05, I show how to reach all of them up to the point where I died. Overall, you guys did very well in secret hunting, getting the majority on most maps. Congrats!

Special note 1: For fun, I decided to turn Map01 of Abcess into an Amiga Demo Party map, and it turned out so well that I'm including it in the final ADP mapset, to be titled, Grinning Like An Undertaker, The Amiga Demo Party of Doom. For those curious about how Map01 looks and plays when totally transformed into a completely interconnected map with much fiercer gameplay, you can grab Deadlock here. It plays on Map22 and requires cc4-tex.wad.

Special note 2: I'm a huge fan of Osiris, and the end of Map03 and much of Map04, especially the lift-puzzle area, are an homage to Map01 of that episode, except for that Michael Krause inspired area near the end.

Special Note 3: All of the music, except for the title screen and Map06, is by Tiziano Cappiello from the Amiga game Breathless, my personal favorite Doom clone. Very atmospheric game with great textures and quick-moving enemies, and no histcanners! Damn, how could I like that? ;D The engine has some limitations compared to Doom -- all 90-degree angles, and the flying monsters are just sprites with invisible legs -- but it does have freelook, spinning fans and a way cool fog effect. All this in 1995. Here's a link to the full Breathless Longplay, well worth a watch, IMO. If all you want to see is the fog effect, skip ahead to 1:46:00.

Thanks again to everyone for playing Abcess. I'd like to spend more time on Ironman and will do as @Pegleg does, providing both a blind and a prepared run. Just imagine all those early deaths I'll provide you! ;) 

24 minutes ago, Steve D said:

Nobody found the secret BFG in Map04

I did (:

3 minutes ago, galileo31dos01 said:

 

I did (:

Oops!!!! I should have said, "Nobody found the secret BFG in Map04, in the playthroughs I've seen so far." Yes, I still have a few to go. Congrats on finding that BFG! :)

9 hours ago, dt_ said:

Now then, I've done my runs for this and the previous month but don't have access to a pc til tomorrow, will they still be counted?  None of the runs were brilliant, didn't survive either monster hunter , got stuck behind a box in the first one, and shot in the forehead by an arachnotron in the second.  With abcess, I ran out of time roundabout halfway through m4, and tried to speed things up, much to my expense

I would personally count them as you did them during the month even if you couldn't have uploaded them. 

11 hours ago, dt_ said:

I've done my runs for this and the previous month but don't have access to a pc til tomorrow, will they still be counted?

Only a monster would deny you this run as we approach Christmas, the season of giving!

On 11/11/2019 at 6:33 AM, Alfonzo said:

Previous Threads

 

2019

[...]
2017 Collection (winner: an_mutt)
Revolution! (winner: NaZa)

Followed by:

Monster Hunter Ltd.

Congrats @Demon of the Well! I think my demo of the first two maps is as long as your completion of the entire set xD

You guys are just too cute.  Without further ado here's my run:

Would it be possible in future to save on stream and re load the save later on?  I might be speaking for a few here, but I find that I don't often have time to play a full wad out, maybe only getting a couple of chances a month to play for that long.  With this wad I was expecting it to be a shorter affair on account of it's age, but was mistaken, and ran out of time towards the end of m4, resulting in a really reckless run at what is possibly exactly the wrong time.  Nearly made it though