The DWIronman League dies to: Dark Resolution 2008

Thanks for posting a replacement for this month @Roofi! Hopefully, you (or someone else) don't have to do this again, because that would mean @NaZa would be back.

The OP looked fine to me, Roofi. All the necessary information was there. You could have added the bex file to the command line, but that's a nitpick because I think it's almost a certainty that the people that would really care about reading the map names as they played through the set will already know how to load the bex file. And it might be nice to add a hyperlink to Hell Revealed, so if someone wanted to look at past DWIL months, they could do so, without you having to manually add them all.

Now, on to Dark Resolutions 2008. I decided to give it a shot.

Category 1

UV
Died on Map 02
Kills: 41/221

Time: 17:37

HMP

Died on Map 02

Kills: 32/202

Time: 1:45

HNTR

Died on Map 02

Kills: 124/184

Time: 11:41

dwi_pegleg_dr2008_cat1_all.zip

I wasn't sure what to make of it when I saw on the text file that a number of the maps were rated as very, easy, or medium. I spent over 14 minutes on the first map, although that was owing more to my wandering around trying to figure it out. The monster count was low and even though it seems a bit cramped and awkward, there's actually enough room to move around in the middle, which is the only place you really need it. The second map, which is by Death-Destiny, didn't seem as though it would be so ball-bustingly difficult as I usually find his maps to be, but the monster placement is enough to trip up those who don't take care (or who tangle with the wrong end of a chaingunner). Looking a bit ahead after my untimely death, the monster counts don't appear too oppressive, and the maps look pretty nice. I could see the more experience, better skilled players cruising through this mapset for a bit before encountering serious resistance. Good choice!

By the way, Death-Destiny definitely more than makes up for his relaxed attitude in Map 02 with his last two entries in the set, just as Roofi said.

EDIT: Two things I forgot to add.
1. I'll submit my HMP and HNTR soon, and I'll just add them on to here. Hence the addition of "UV."

2. I forgot to mention that it was a zombieman that dealt the final death blow (or shot) in my UV run. Good fun was had by all.

3. I added my HMP and HNTR runs, and I replaced the zip file to one that includes all 3 difficulties. By the way, when I said, "looking a bit ahead," that meant skip to the other maps on UV and look at the monster counts and the starting room. These runs were both Category 1.

Yikes... 

I am so, so, so, so sorry. I can't even begin to say how sorry I am but uhhhhhhhhhhhhh... this completely out-of-the-blue absence of mine shouldn't happen. I had a bit of a rougher last few weeks (at least time-wise) and I, well... as a consequence kinda forgot about this all. @Roofi, your selection I will approve of, and @Pegleg your proposal is good as well. I just apologize for my absence and me not even mentioning how I won't have time. This absolutely shouldn't happen. I basically said I'll try to keep it up better than Alfonzo but after less than a year, well... I don't know what to say except I'm sorry.

I welcome this set and announce it as the official Ironman, @Roofi. If you think this is a bit too difficult you can also re-introduce the 1CC rule. Thanks for organizing a new thread, I would probably have gotten around to it but this set I never played before so it's interesting.

As for the ordeals last month, Roofi won - congrats! More congrats to @WH-Wilou84 for a great return performance as well. Hope to see a good amount of participants this month as well!! :)

Oh god, isn't this the mapset with Death-Destiny's allegedly hardest ever map?

Anyways good to see the Ironman League make it to 51 months!

1 hour ago, NaZa said:

If you think this is a bit too difficult you can also re-introduce the 1CC rule. Thanks for organizing a new thread, I would probably have gotten around to it but this set I never played before so it's interesting.

If Roofi decides to implement the 1CC ruleset, can I go back and submit HMP and HNTR runs?

If so, yes.

I will implement the 1CC ruleset for this wad eventually , so yes. 

Can I play with gzdoom? Just to make sure never played in this specific comp before and am unclear what compatibility level 9 means - thanks

Category   : 1
Death        : Map01
Time          : 00:03:59
Kills           : 7
Port           : PRBoom+

Starts at : 56:23

Category   : 2
Death        : Map02
Time          : 00:14:55
Kills           : 112
Port           : PRBoom+

Starts at: 1:01:44

Harsh baby...it was harsh...

2 hours ago, Clippy said:

Can I play with gzdoom? Just to make sure never played in this specific comp before and am unclear what compatibility level 9 means - thanks

Yes, but you need to change your GZDoom compatibility options to Boom before starting

5 minutes ago, Horus said:

 

Yes, but you need to change your GZDoom compatibility options to Boom before starting

Thank you - I'm not quite sure on that setting but I'll have a look :)

50 minutes ago, Clippy said:

 

Thank you - I'm not quite sure on that setting but I'll have a look :)

Bring up the menu and select "Options." Then select "Compatibility Options." At the top, where it says "Compatibility mode" select "Boom (strict)."

Then, under "Gameplay Options" scroll down and make sure that "Allow crouch" "Allow jump" and "Allow freelook" are all set to "Off."

5 minutes ago, Pegleg said:

 

Bring up the menu and select "Options." Then select "Compatibility Options." At the top, where it says "Compatibility mode" select "Boom (strict)."

 

Then, under "Gameplay Options" scroll down and make sure that "Allow crouch" "Allow jump" and "Allow freelook" are all set to "Off."

I can't free look ?

Thanks for letting me know cause I always play in freelook

I tried to participate again in the competition this month and everything was going fine, until something really weird I've never seen before happened. xD

First, I fell from one of the pillars that had been raised into a place on the ground with an invisible obstacle that didn't let me go out, no matter how hard I tried.

When I was about to surrender and end the run there, SUDDENLY, I don't know how, I was out the place, but the way of my doomguy was moving now was sort of clunky and shaky... and what's even weirder, my PrBoom+ was running at 200% speed! Doesn't seem like the sudden change of game speed can be seen in the demo, but at least you can see all the other weird things happening there. XD

I don't know if there's a hotkey unknown to me that would change the game speed, but my reflexes weren't ready to dodge projectiles like that and I was wrecked by a baron in a very open space with a lot of room to maneuver... Oh, welp...

The instructions says that you can't repeat after technical difficulties, so sadly that's the end of my run!

But what a weird thing to happen right when I tried the challenge! Or just to happen in general. xD

Played on UV.

Category 1 (never played the wad before).

Died on Map01.

DWIronManOct20.zip

Made it to map 6 before I got banged up rather bad right before the YK trap.  Hitscanners aplenty when you're sitting at 1 health mid trap doesn't end well.  A lone imp finished the job with a fireball in the face.

Anyone who makes it to map 10...good luck.  That one and 11 are real brutal on UV lemme tell you, heh.

DWIronman_DR2008V2_AnimaZero.zip

UV: Died on map 1 to an insta-baron (8/14 monsters, 4:20)

HMP: Died on map 2 to an insta-HK (142/202 monsters, 13:20)

HNTR: Died on map 3 to a revenant that got me stuck in mid-air with no method of retaliation (84/155 monsters, 14:40)

00ironman_horus_standard.zip

Dead on map 07 because of a not-so-hard but deadly platforming section ! 

Category 2 for me because I played Death-Destiny maps last year for a review project. I was expecting to die in map 10 but the other maps are not so simple. I almost died in map 02, it's much harder than I remember, that's why I let the possibility to continue in HMP and HNTR.

The maps are particularly gimmicky. I didn't like map 01 at all, I always had the impression that I was stuck. Map 04 is a big strange mess, I had played a small partlast year, but it's largely playable continuously so it's fine.

The levels are mostly not very beautiful, I feel like they're beginner's maps but there are some good ideas overall for boom effects and layouts. On the other hand, map 06 with its rusty basic theme is my favorite in terms of aesthetics.

I'll do my HMP demo later! I think that Death-Destiny put an armor for map 11 in HMP and HNTR because the main difficulty of this map is that there is absolutely no armor in ultra-violence difficulty.

DEMO

Pretty good 2000's wad.

DEAD - Map01

UV

Category 1 (blind)

noisy_DR2008V2_ironman.zip

got infinite height punched by a rev rising out of the dirt, very cool.

So, reading the rules again, can we actually try again in a lower difficulty?

Since my first run ended that badly. XD

Yep , you can record a demo on HMP and HNTR from where you died. So if you died in map 03 on UV , you can record a demo on HMP from this map for instance. However , you can't continue if you die in HNTR. 

Category 1

UV: dead on map02 with 140 kills at about 18:30
I incorrectly remembered the location of the SSG I saw earlier, and ran toward the wrong place.

HMP: dead on map02 with 169 kills at about 13:45. Jesus christ this map is hard to do blind.

HNTR: dead on map06 at about 2:10:00. I accidentally broke the map and fell into the void, with untextured walls and a hell knight. The floor here was probably supposed to raise up at some point. Clearly a map that needed more playtesting.
Over 80 minutes were spent on map04, where I got lost multiple times. There's a lot to like about it, but I think even Eternal Doom is more intuitive from what I've played of it (the first ten maps). Skipsec is recommended to anyone who watches the demo.

I'll have to play more of this wad later, it's pretty cool.

drironman-pseudonaut.zip

All demos recorded on PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4 -complevel 9, category 1.

UV: Absolutely shambolic performance capped off by a hilarious exit linedef skip (MAP02 death - 214/221 kills @ 18:48)

HMP: Textbook example on how not to manage your radsuit supply (MAP04 death - 149/167 kills @ 55:00)

HNTR: Could've done better, oh well (MAP10 death - 131/254 kills @ 1:44:15)

ironman_andromeda_standard.zip

Added HMP and HNTR runs to my previous one.

I changed from PrBoom+ to GlBoom+ this time and I think my computer likes it better.

HMP: Died on MAP02 when a chaingunner ambush teleported directly from Plutonia to my neck and got me completely off guard!

HNTR: Now that I was prepared to survive the chaingunners from the previous trap and get my revenge, they didn't show in this skill level. :P

Died on MAP03 when a group of monsters slowly sorrounded me. Only two barons survived but when they were just at my face, my finger failed me and I stopped shooting plasma. They probably would have resisted the damage and killed me even if I didn't stop anyway, they were too close. Or the cyberdemon far in the room would have blasted me to oblivion.

At least my dead body did a cool slide to escape the barons at the end.

DWIronManOct20_HMP_HNTR.zip

Blind run, died on map 2 with 137 kills at the hands of a Hell Knight. I should have run for the SSG, but I couldn't see a safe way in the heat of the moment once I discovered those guys weren't (more) hitscanners.

Also, damn, those invisible walls on the first level are annoying.

john-wheel-ironman-dark-resolution-2008.zip

15 hours ago, Fadri said:

So, reading the rules again, can we actually try again in a lower difficulty?

Since my first run ended that badly. XD

15 hours ago, Roofi said:

Yep , you can record a demo on HMP and HNTR from where you died. So if you died in map 03 on UV , you can record a demo on HMP from this map for instance. However , you can't continue if you die in HNTR. 

As explained by Alfonzo most recently in the Stardate 20x6 DWIL:

"Players are granted three lives in this format, one for each of UV, HMP and HNTR. Play proceeds as normal until death, at which point the player drops down to the next available skill level and restarts the game from pistol start, beginning on the map in which he/she died. Death is final once the player dies on HNTR. Players are ranked either according to the time taken to survive or to reach the map they died on, with skill level taking priority in both cases. Players are only considered to have "survived" the challenge if the set/map is cleared on UV."

Survived in HMP but category 2,99999 for the last two maps.

DEMO

When I did my reviews on the Death-Destiny maps, I challenged myself to beat all his maps without saving in UV difficulty. In order to beat his maps 10 and 11, I had to die and retry countless times. In fact, playing D-D maps without saving is a great way to progress I find and it makes the maps more exciting to play. The maps in HMP difficulty are simpler, but are still quite difficult, more difficult than the UV difficulty in most of the known megawads (Eviternity...)

Brief comments on the last two maps.

Map 10 : I love this map for the music and the use of cyberdemons which makes the map very hardcore, especially in UV. "Soulscarred Universe" looks a bit like a slaughtermap when you see the beginning but the good management of the items is essential at the risk of quickly running dry.

Map 11 : Probably one of my favorite Doom maps using music from the Heretic/Hexen universe. There's absolutely no armor in UV difficulty, which erases almost all margin of error. Narrow fights tend to require a good RNG, especially towards the end. The most successful passage is the fight below in the big pool of blood. The area is pretty spacious, which is quite rare in D-D maps to be honest.  It's the hardest map from D-D behind No Chance. In July 2017 , we did an ironman on Disturbia. Disturbia was clearly easier.

For those interested , there are all my UV-walkthrough demos on all D-D's maps I did last year(even No Chance !)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PTfhsfeh_soAWkq4hF35DwwMgJwPj1aQ

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/776560343

Blind run on UV, died on map 5 to my own incompetence in dealing with the double Viles on an otherwise alright map.

EDIT: Only just realised this was a 1CC rule run, but I don't have the time to go back and try map 5 on HMP, so I'll just stick to this as my ending.

Died on map 4 with 145 kills to an unexpected nasty trap. Category 1. I don't want to try on HMP or HNTR.

So this was the first time I tried to live stream it but I messed up the OBS setup so for reasons it didn't captured the sound effects. if the video is not valid because of that, I would easily understand.

VOD link

It took me a bit longer to get back to this than I had thought, but I eventually did. I added the details to my original post, but here are the details of the remaining Category 1 runs. The zip file containing all three difficulties is also in that first post.

HMP

Died on Map 02

Kills: 32/202

Time: 1:45

HNTR

Died on Map 02

Kills: 124/184

Time: 11:41

Yes, just like when we died to Rush, my HMP run was worse than my UV run. That sort of thing happens sometimes. Anyway, I thought I might be able to comment on Map 03, at least on HNTR, but that was not to be, either. As it turns out, I ran into an imp (quite literally) while trying to be clever and use cover to dodge a Hell Knight. Death-Destiny managed to get a decent amount of mileage out of the mostly lower tier enemies, and it all comes down to placement. For anyone who tells you that lower tiers can't pose a threat, tell them to play Map 02 and pay attention to the way the lower tiers are placed and used. That is how you do it.

1 hour ago, Pegleg said:

Death-Destiny managed to get a decent amount of mileage out of the mostly lower tier enemies, and it all comes down to placement. For anyone who tells you that lower tiers can't pose a threat, tell them to play Map 02 and pay attention to the way the lower tiers are placed and used. That is how you do it.

Absolutely, stellar use of low tier enemies - surprised I almost managed to exit MAP02 on my UV run all things considered!