The DWmegawad Club plays: 1000 Lines Community Project

MAP01 - Ebb by Lord_Z

HMP / Continuous

Screenshot:

Interesting opener here. It starts off about how you'd expect — mowing down low-tier enemies with the shotgun. But rounding the first corner, you'll come face to face with a mancubus. Bold choice here. You'll even meet a second in short order. Fortunately, there's a good infighting opportunity.

Aesthetically, the map does a decent job introducing the theme of the episode — city — with its sky and opening street layout. Texturing mostly consists of grey, brown and green which provides a fair bit of consistency throughout the map. Custom and vanilla textures are blended together skillfully, though I found the inside walls of the water treatment(?) building a tad bland with large swaths of unbroken grey brick. I noticed quite a few lines devoted solely to lighting gradients — a nice touch given the 1000-line budget.

Encounters are mostly incidental but this map is no less interesting for it. Diversity is the name of the game here, with every monster being used except the chaingunner, pain elemental, lost soul, and archvile. Fortunately, you'll have the tools to get the job done, so it never feels tedious. The alcove monsters seemed fairly ineffectual — maybe they needed more room or I just got lucky.

Amusingly, at the end of the level just before the final room, there is quite an extensive vista, almost as if to say "Hey, look at how many more lines I can burn!" All in all, this is an intriguing first map that has me excited to play the rest of the wad.

Alright, finally, I did not sleep for this post, so here we are. Again with "dev commentary" on MAP14.

1klinecp.wad "1000 Lines Community Project":

A totally overlooked Vanilla community megaWAD, (so overlooked it does not even have a Wiki page), with the  restriction of building a map only with 1000 linedefs or less, so mappers here are up to a challenge, as we are on an era where linedefs means more detail, and with less linedefs, limited details. You are going to be surprised sometimes on how mappers were able to get creative, as more restriction means more creative ways of solving problems.

MAP01 - "Ebb" - Lord Z (100%K/I/S):

A really simple starting map, so simple, it enabled Lord Z to use extra linedef to create some quirky DoomCute details here and there, to make this first map, look like a promising start. Well done job, there were also some extra linedefs used at the end of the map, to make a connection for continuity's sake, with MAP02. See, at first, when making the project, maps did not have a slot, they only had a "episode" in mind, so luckly, we are going to see  something with good sense of progression here.
First "episode", takes part in the city, and here we are, near some kind of water treatment complex. 
Fun map, and even though is simple, it does not have any problem by throwing mid-tier enemies at you with few ammo, and a regular shotgun for the first two rooms. 

Deaths: 0 (HMP Playthrough - Chocolate Doom)

As we have seen by this first map so far, maps may be short, but sure they get pretty challenging, so no messing around. That's  why I'm playing yet again in HMP, as I find most maps here more difficult than in Akeldama.
Also there is some episodic progression, so maps may vary in style depending of the author, but are going to be the same in terms of theme.
It goes as it follows:
City
Hellish-City
Hell
Techbase.

While I don't understand a lot of the technical jargon around the process that comes with mapping, I understand the basic gist behind this particular megaWAD's theme: Limiting map size/density. I love creative problem solving and have always believed that limitation breeds creativity, so I am definitely eager to see how those who contributed to this pulled off their ideas with the limitation in place.

MAP01 - Ebb

HMP | Continuous with Saves | GZDoom + Zagemod

Not too shabby of an opening map, I must say. It's rather quaint, but solid with some interesting layout. The use of hitscanners and imps in windows, along with starting things off with you tackling a reasonably large horde of zombies with a shotgun was an interesting choice that gets you going right off the bat. Mind you, I tend to be a bit conservative with my shells in the beginning, so I took out all the bastards with my trusty pistol. While nothing feels too intense, the mapper Lord Z decides to throw plenty of mid-tier enemies into the mix with Revenants, Hell Knights and Arachnotrons popping up in quick succession and ending things with a Baron for added measure. The map's design is cool and makes me think of a water treatment facility as DJ pointed out. Progression is straightforward and combat is fun with a nice dose of tension. I didn't find anything particularly spectacular with this map, but it's a strong opener that gives you an idea of what this WAD is going for and leaves a lot up to your imagination on what lies ahead.

Gameplay:

I got a late entry in 1K Lines CP 2, so feel like I should check out the previous instalment, and this is as good an excuse as any! Short maps appeal to me (particularly in a megaWAD), so I suspect I'll be happy with this until the difficulty takes a hike. Saying that, I've had to reinforce all of my underwear after beating on Bastion of Chaos on HNTR, so I'd be doing my mighty scrote an injustice to not at least start on UV, with my usual GZDoom setup. I'll still play continuous and with ample saving, and much like last month I'm totally prepared to skip a map if I really, really don't like it.

MAP01: Ebb

Lord_Z and Dreadopp are related IRL, IIRC, and seem to often come as a mapping double act in community projects like this. They're both consistently solid mappers, so I wasn't surprised to see a decent-looking map with a decent starter difficulty here. I actually made it to the blue key without getting hit, and only took one round from the pair of chaingunners that ambush you there. I did catch a bit of lead from a shotgunner right at the end, but otherwise made it through unscathed. Fortunately I'd already worked out the secret, so could leave on 100/100 quite happily. For a limited line project, I was surprised to see so much backdrop by the exit!

It's a strong start! Not a lot more to say, other than I hope we get more of this quality as we go.

thx, played the first 10 maps or so already, i'll see about posting later... but that title pic is hilarious.

MAP01: Ebb

PrBoom+ | UV | Pistol Start | 98% Kills | All Secrets

Well, it's a decent, simple opener. I almost died at blue key area, but I was able to survive. Don't had any words to say anyway, can't wait to play MAP02.

Ranking:

I really enjoyed seeing the feedback and Playtest style of DWMegaclub plays during last month's Alkeldama run, So i figured I'd throw my hat in and try out this month's pick.

MAP01: Ebb by Lord Z (100% kills/100% items/100%secrets)

Blind Run|UV|Continuous|ProjectBrutality3.0

We start of with a fun little romp through what I can assume is a water treatment plant. At first the detailing and simplicity of the map seemed a little bare but I had to remind myself of how small 1K lines are. With that being said this map had a lot of nice detail in the outdoor segments, with several towers/buildings filled with imps and mancubi. I like maps that add good verticality into their maps, both exploration wise and monster placement. We even see aracnotrons in the first level of this CP, however difficulty wise this map was decently tame, especially with the inclusion of a ssg.

The ending had a nice vista of another part of the plant, a good touch, although the detail here seems to be a bit more in-depth than the rest of the map (i checked in Doombuilder to check if it was included in the 1K line limit or extra for map transitions, the outdoor segment has 104 of the alloted 1k). While nice, I feel like some of the lines spent here could have been used in the main water treatment building to break up the bare brick walls, possibly with some more pipes or limited trim. This may be an overly critical point, but the indoor section stood out a little to me just on the outer walls.

Overall, a nice short starter. Gameplay was good, outdoor sections were nice, I liked the window usage and the monster doors after grabbing the blue key. For improvement i'd say to cut some lines out of the ending vista so the indoor area has a similar quality to the outdoor areas.

I'll include a ranking later, but considering how day 1 = map01 limit, This is so far the best map in the set.

Given the premise of this wad I expect the maps in this are gonna be on the short and sweet side, which works for me. For my run I decided to get silly and throw on a combo of Doom Incarnate and Colourful Hell. Former can be a bit overpowered, but based on past experience I know the latter can kill me in an instant if the RNG gods get tired of my nonsense, so this should be interesting.

MAP01 - “Ebb” by Lord_Z

Mancubi and revenants right in the first level, eh? Alright, I'm game. Enjoyed how quickly you get thrust into the action with those shotgunners at the start. Overall a pretty good time if going to town on whole rooms with primarily the shotty is your cup of tea. Colourful Hell decided not to throw anything too crazy at me this time, though I did get caught off guard by the capabilities of a purple hell knight by the blue key. Looking forward to the next map for sure.

I am not good at write-ups and reviews, so here's my playthrough of MAP01 :)

MAP01: Ebb

LZDoom + UV

Oh boy, here I go killing again!

The first step to what will be an interesting month. I am always excited to experience projects with limitations or special factors, in this case, 1k linedefs. It sounds quite interesting at first sight and I think it will be an enjoyable megawad, I hope so.

Map 01 starts pretty well with a solid presentation. The difficulty seems to be a bit higher than normal for now, due to the nature of the project, but this map was quite sensitive in that case. I like the theme of the factory or ''water reserve''(something like that), as well as the structuring of the map that from the first moment we can see how the 1k line limit begins to shine. It is a fairly simple map without too much elaboration, quite easy to see with the eye but enjoyable enough to progress. As my grandad used to say: A decent start is a good start (No he didnt said that).

HMP Continuous, frequent saves, no music.  PrBoom+.

MAP01

Decent opener with modest but engaging action.  Uses higher-tier monsters than a map01 usually would,. but not in any particularly threatening way.  I skipped the final baron as a waste of ammo.

Visually it is bland.  Lighting is quite flat in a lot of areas and the colour palette in use is pretty drab.  Also, inefficiency in line use means that a lot of the walls are just unbroken grey lumps, and everything is very orthogonal.  Hopefully later maps engage more with techniques to maximise line-efficiency.

I played 1k Lines 2 last month, but never played the original, so let's see how it compares. I'm starting it off on UV. It took me until map 7 to downgrade to HMP for 1k Lines 2, and I'm ready to repeat the switch if need be. Pistol starts, prBoom+

MAP01 - “Ebb” by Lord_Z

So the opening slot of the city episode goes to Lord_Z. With a restriction of 1000 linedefs, there will be no sprawling metropolis map here, instead more on the town square size of things. 

On the evidence of the first map, difficulty is already reasonably high, with a multitude of mid-tiers, including mancubi, arachnotrons and revenants. The open space makes the revenant homing rockets that much more tricky.  Visually it seemed okay to me, even if there wasn't a whole lot of lighting variation. Combat was enjoyable for the most part, the door with health at the end excepted.

MAP02 - “Flow” by Dreadopp

My first death came to this map. Thematically this and the previous map link well, to be expected I guess given the map names (and relation that Phobus mentioned). It's a step up in difficulty again, with two revenants that are hard to dodge given the geometry of the map, in the end I just lured them back to the start.

This map shares the same fault as the previous with its use of barons as ammo tax, albeit it's a more prevalent issue here. Also odd is the water at the same height as the surrounding area. Already we see our first arch vile in the final battle, it can be a challenging one to slay too given the lack of cover.

@Biodegradable I like how you played around with the Music Volume to get it to exactly 0.50, 0.49 or 0.51 wouldn't cut it! :P

MAP01: Ebb, by @Lord_Z
Pistol starts, no saves, Chocolate Doom 3.0.0
What's the point of playing a vanilla megawad if you ain't gonna play it in Chocolate Doom? :) It's super comfy, the lack of in-game level stats makes everything more mysterious and fresh and exciting, and the difficulty in seeing distant objects makes the game feel more ominous and fires up your imagination.

MAP01 on skill2 is what I want from easy - it's still fun with lots of stuff to shoot, and you can beat it in one run without dying.

Skill3 is well-balanced and exciting; the mancubus at the start looks cool in his perch, and I got 1-shotted by the first revenant twice in a row. I fared better against the second one.

The difference between skill2 and skill3 is greater than the difference between skill3 and 4. Considering the increase from 2 to 3, I was expecting more from UV. Adding too many more monsters would turn the map into a slog, so dramatically reducing the health pick-ups on UV would be the best way to make this more difficult on hard.

The map looks very good in its intended port IMO. I haven't played MAP02 but I'm assuming the view at the end is a preview of the next map. Very good addition

MAP02

Frequently wasteful of lines again, but does a better job of including detail than did map01: not so many flat, unbroken walls here.  Also a better use of lighting.  Still not a huge amount of variation in absolute terms, but it's better integrated into the play and the visuals.

The exit ambush is easily skipped; I pretty much ignored it entirely.

6 hours ago, guitardz said:

I am not good at write-ups and reviews, so here's my playthrough of MAP01 :)

Is that standard GZDoom? How can i get damage #'s?

I loved level 1. Going to play 2 tomorrow.

1 hour ago, RottingZombie said:

 

Is that standard GZDoom? How can i get damage #'s?

 

I loved level 1. Going to play 2 tomorrow.

All my mods are in the description.  I use a lot of informative HUD add-ons mostly.  Nothing that changes gameplay however.

The damage numbers is from Xaser's DamNums mod.

1 hour ago, RonnieColeman said:

What's the point of playing a vanilla megawad if you ain't gonna play it in Chocolate Doom? :) It's super comfy, the lack of in-game level stats makes everything more mysterious and fresh and exciting, and the difficulty in seeing distant objects makes the game feel more ominous and fires up your imagination.

As a longtime GZDoom boy I must admit you got a point. Pretty different visual atmosphere compared to running with GZDoom's bells and whistles if that screenshot is any indication, which is neat.

Try it, you'll like it :)

I generally use Chocolate Doom for vanilla stuff. There are some exceptions, like some maps are too large and the distant enemies are too hard to see, like Base Ganymede E3M4, and some maps just look too damned good to want to play in Chocolate Doom, like Base Ganymede E2M5. I played Base Ganymede E1 in Chocolate, but E2 and E3 in Crispy.

Also, full disclosure! I took the screenshot in Crispy Doom, but with wide-screen resolution turned off and with high-resolution rendering turned off, but I did the actual playing of the maps in Chocolate Doom. For some reason, when I use Chocolate Doom's screenshot key, the screenshots look like this :(

MAP02 - Flow by Dreadopp

HMP / Continuous

Screenshot:

Not only is Flow tied to the previous map by name, but in space as well. The end of this map is the vista that can be seen at the end of MAP01. You can even see into the final hallway of the previous map (though the end room was different). This fosters a strong feeling of place that I'm guessing won't be continued to this degree throughout the wad.

Aesthetically, the map features a lot of brown and octagonal shapes. I thought the trees lining the tops of many walls were a nice touch that somehow made it feel more like a city. There are repeating design tropes that offer some visual consistency, such as the grates for water to escape through. I liked the moderate contrast in the lighting, lending a feeling of depth heretofore unseen. Flow's texturing is reserved which is a preference of mine.

This map felt shorter than MAP01 despite being more spread out. It's almost entirely linear, though it loops around on itself near the beginning in a pleasing manner. Gameplaywise, I felt this map could use a little something. It employs a low number of monsters, and the ones outside the set pieces were unmemorable (except for the tricky revenants in the courtyard). However, I enjoyed the fight with the archvile. Pillars are placed just out of reach and may go unnoticed in the heat of battle.

Overall, Flow is an adequate map that performs its duty in propelling the player deeper into the city. Its details and sense of exploration make it memorable for me. I am curious to see what direction MAP03 takes the wad, as it will be more free to do its own thing.

Map ranking (favorite -> least)

1 2

MAP02 - Flow

HMP | Continuous with Saves | GZDoom + Zagemod

A little Phobus-shaped bird told me that Lord Z and MAP02's author Dreadopp here, are in fact brothers, so having him right after his bro in the line-up here is pretty neat and his map very much complements MAP01 pretty well as it feels very much like an extension of MAP01's water treat facility aesthetic. This time however, we have greater height variation and deeper pits of water. It very much feels like a natural second level that's very much following MAP01's lead, while of course, still managing to do its own thing. The teleportation ambushes at the beginning and the end gave a balanced level of tension without feeling too crazy. In fact, the first ambush got a fair bit more hairy than the bigger one at the end because of the limited space to maneuver around the demons. I was trying to get rid of the pesky Bone Boys when the surprise party decided to show up to give me a cake wrapped in dynamite. The final confrontation also sees an ArchVile being brought in pretty early into the fray as well. Indeed, the 1K team are pulling out all the stocks here.

Gameplay:

prboom+, no saves, uv pistol starts  
map 1 

played 1k Lines CP 2 with a friend in survival a few weeks ago, confused it for this one.  surprise surprise, i didn't recognize map 1 as i've never seen it before. 

1kcp-1-loveless.7z

You guys are in for some fun with these bite size beauties. I had a lot of fun with it 9 months ago, too recently to play through again with the club this month. I will be enjoying your critique though. Maps 16, 31-32 are the toughest maps if I recall. I managed to uvmax all but map32, ammo starvation and with a really mean ending that I didn't want to keep working for. I feel I was lucky to have managed a uvmax for map31, rng was on my side for that run. Enjoy!

prboom+, no saves, uv pistol starts  
map 2
deaths 0

it's late and i'm bored, please don't hold this against me.  the finale was a true slap in the face, something i did not expect.  doesn't matter if it's pre-map 10 or not, take the maps seriously; i damn near choked. 

1kcp-2-loveless.7z

MAP02: Flow

The follow-up to yesterday's map is a pretty similar affair, once again giving us a spacious, simple flowing layout throwing some more heavy hitters at us. I took a bit longer on this map as I was determined to puzzle out the secrets, even though I'd gotten 100% kills comfortably without them. Early on I forgot I already had an SSG and made a reckless push for it, getting punished by the ensuing fight. I survived, though, and after that it was all reasonably safe. The trick with the big fight at the end was definitely diving off the side into the safety of the water (the water is always safe in this map, and contains a few bonus items to make the exploration worthwhile) and then engaging at a distance. Five rockets is ample for one Arch-Vile that's crowded up with a couple of Hell Knights and a Revenant - particularly when there's Mancubi behind them too.

The soulsphere secret was nice and clear once I started looking into it, but I found the backpack was very subtle and not even visible on the map without IDDT, so I suspect I'd not have found that unaided. Still, I think I'll need these early advantages by the time I get to the tougher maps. Another solid effort! That's 1/16th of the set deemed satisfactory by me so far ;)

Great to see people playing this!

A note for folks playing continuous, 1k does have death exits prior to starting the Hell and Tech episodes.

Hope people have a good time with this and I'm looking forward to the 16th.

MAP01 - Ebb 

^{UV \ 100% \ Continuous \ Ps \ Prboom+}

The start was interesting, Grabbing  the Shotgun, Killing Zombies. Mancubus on the top gives a great Infighting, The Green Armor Secret was brilliant. It's a great thing to see in a Mapset that mixing low-tier Monsters with medium-tier ones. The look (Including Monster/Item placement) of that Facility is 

empty, Ngl.

Lord_Z's Style looks very similar to TNT's Style, This Map gave me a smile on my face.

MAP02: Flow by Dreadopp (100% kills/NA/50%secrets)

Blind Run|UV|Continuous|ProjectBrutality3.0

After playing the sister (or more aptly brother) map to Ebb, I can appreciate the detail in the ending vista as it really helps join these two maps into feeling like one longer map. Its been done before, but I still think the continuity here is really cool.

As for the map, a linear circuit around the basin of the water treatment plant, monster placement is alright, traps are a lot deadlier in this map, with many barons, mancubi, and even an archvile. The arch didn't cause too much headache but an archvile by map02 seems to suggest that while there may be a difficulty curve, there isn't much restriction in this WAD for monsters or possibly weapons, also having a RL by map02.

This map also has rather good detail, however half of the map is a uniform brick hall that snakes outside, then opening into the outdoor vista from map01. Fair and alright to look at and play, but I found map01 to be a bit more interesting. I very much like the concept of 1 larger map split into 2 for the sake of limitations, but since this is a per map review, I preferred the former part to the latter.

Rankings:

MAP01-MAP02 - "Ebb" and "Flow"

glBoom+ 2.5.1.7um, skill 4, pistol starts with saves, no complevel specified

Back in glBoom hardware and going back to pistol start (but still savescumming)

Two great short maps!

There's a certain "anything can happen" excitement that comes with starting a community project megaWAD and it's definitely felt here.

Facing you off against the usual zombieman moshpit sets some chill vibes before throwing Hell's kitchen sink of mid-tiers at you.

MAP01 has you go into some sort of water-treatment room? I did find it funny the bridges built across water of 0 depth, that even rewards you for wading in it! But still a neat room nonetheless.  

MAP02's last fight was a cruel but fun surprise, I didn't realize you could run past until my 2nd attempt there.

Can't wait to see what's next!