The DWmegawad Club plays: Doomer Boards Projects 26, 7, 19

 

What is the DWmegawad Club?

This is a place where we settle down, have a cup of tea (or drink of your choice) and take a month to play through a megawad on our own, together! Any keen observations, criticisms, or frustrated ranting about it goes here in the discussion. As long as you want to say something about what you've played, feel free to speak your mind.

 

Can I join?

Sure. The only rule is that you have to play at least some of the levels in our monthly megawad to contribute, but you're generally encouraged to finish the whole thing, even if you've played it before.

 

What levels am I allowed to post about?

Whatever day of the month it is, is the upper limit for the map you can post on. So if it’s the 6th, you may discuss up to MAP06.

 

Do I have to post an entry every day?

Nope, not at all. This is only for our more enthusiastic members. As long as you play through it with us you’re part of the club.

 

When do we vote on the next month’s megawad?

Voting begins on the 25th of the current month. Remember to add one “+++” before your vote to make it easier to count. For example:

 

+++ Ultimate Doom

 

Note that you can only nominate up to three separate wads for a single month, and the wads must contain at least three maps each. The winning wad must receive at least four votes for a thread to be made. Ties will be decided by RNG.

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>>>DOWNLOAD DBP26 HERE<<<

>>>DOWNLOAD DBP7 HERE<<<

>>>DOWNLOAD DBP19 HERE<<<

 

As the year comes to a close, we’ll finally be playing some projects to come out of the mapping scene’s Intellectual Dark Web, the Doomer Boards! We’ll be starting with a revolution in France with DBP26: The City of Damned Children, then engaging in some holiday cheer with DBP7: The Merry Christmassy Doom Project, and then kicking back and opening up some xmas cards with DBP19: A Doomer Boards Christmas Carol. Known for their vibrant textures, humorous design, and impressive development times (1 month each project!!!), these maps are guaranteed to send 2020 out with a BANG! 

 

DBP26 runs from the 1st to the 11th, DBP7 runs from the 12th to the 16th, and DBP19 runs from the 17th onward, playing TWO maps a day (the odd numbered maps are intermission maps).

 

Author & Maplist for DBP26: The City of Damned Children:

MAP01 - “Arrivée” by Big Ol’ Billy

MAP02 - “La Rue de la Haine” by Vertigo, glenzinho

MAP03 - “Sécurité” by 40oz

MAP04 - “La Bidonville” by Scrangus McBrickdad

MAP05 - “Phare” by Big Ol’ Billy

MAP06 - “Dans la Machine à Rêves” by Big Ol’ Billy

MAP07 - “À l'Intérieur de la Machine” by Zedonk

MAP08 - “La Gare et la Maison Impie” by Gaspe

MAP09 - “La Mort de l'Innocence” by glenzinho

MAP10 - “Choisis ton Camp, Camarade !” by Big Ol’ Billy

MAP11 - “La Tour” by Big Ol’ Billy

MAP12 - “Notre Heros” by Big Ol’ Billy

 

Author & Maplist for DBP 7: The Merry Christmassy Doom Project:

MAP01 - “An Unexpected Visitor” by Big Ol’ Billy

MAP02 - “Empty Present” by SuperCupcakeTactics

MAP03 - “Evil of Snow” by Scrangus McBrickdad

MAP04 - “Coal For Christmas” by Scrangus, glenzinho

MAP05 - “Yule Probably Die” by Big Ol’ Billy

MAP06 - “-endmap-” by Big Ol’ Billy

 

Author & Maplist for DBP 19: A Doomer Boards Christmas Carol:

MAP01 - “Christmas Eve Pt. I” by Big Ol’ Billy

MAP02 - “Hornaments” by Big Ol’ Billy

MAP03 - “Christmas Eve Pt. II” by Big Ol’ Billy

MAP04 - “Festive Neighbours” by Phobus

MAP05 - “Christmas Eve Pt. III” by Big Ol’ Billy

MAP06 - “The Pilgrim and the Hermit” by Gaspe

MAP07 - “Christmas Eve Pt. IV” by Big Ol’ Billy

MAP08 - “Surprise!” by Glenzinho

MAP09 - “Christmas Eve Pt. V” by Big Ol’ Billy

MAP10 - “Winter Wonderland” by Phobus

MAP11 - “Christmas Eve Pt. VI” by Big Ol’ Billy

MAP12 - “The Nut After November” by SuperCupcakeTactics, glenzinho

MAP13 - “Christmas Eve Pt. VII” by Big Ol’ Billy

MAP14 - “Two Sizes Too Small” by Doom_RO

MAP15 - “Christmas Eve Pt. VIII” by Big Ol’ Billy

MAP16 - “Christmas Tree Mountain” by Scrangus McBrickdad, glenzinho

MAP17 - “Christmas Eve Pt. IX” by Big Ol’ Billy

MAP18 - “Xmasphobia” by Thundercunt

MAP19 - “Christmas Eve Pt. X” by Big Ol’ Billy

MAP20 - “Krampus Anomaly” by dmdr

MAP21 - “Christmas Eve Pt. XI” by Big Ol’ Billy

MAP22 - “Where Cyberneezer Hid Christmas” by joe-ilya

MAP23 - “Christmas Eve Pt. XII” by Big Ol’ Billy

MAP24 - “Realm of the Christmas Time” by Big Ol’ Billy

MAP25 - “Christmas Morning” by Big Ol’ Billy

 

BONUS CONTENT

TBA

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OLD THREADS

 

 

Edited May 8, 2023 by dobu gabu maru

Ho ho ho! I'll be back tomorrow (oh-oh)!

This has been a great year for vanilla/limit-removing wads. Glad to see it ends on a limit-removing-centric series, and with triple feature!

Whoa, that's a lot of DBP content for one month! Y'all better not find any bugs after we just got done finalizing 19 and 26 -_-

Speaking of bugs :D

 

A warning about map 03 in DBP7, the yellow skull setup breaks in Crispy Doom (or cl2 in prboom+) so it's unreachable unless you use idclip. There is still another possible route to the exit, unintentional probably, but you can afford to leave the map anyways and much earlier iirc. I suppose zdoom users won't need to worry about anything.

Hell yeah. My favorite WAD series in the DWmegawad Club. This december is going to be a good december.

1 hour ago, Big Ol Billy said:

Whoa, that's a lot of DBP content for one month! Y'all better not find any bugs after we just got done finalizing 19 and 26 -_-

You're just in luck then! I managed to get stuck down here besides the wall you run down to get the blue armour secret.

 

I haven't played any of the DBP's yet, but the screenshots always looked cool. Also, I've been meaning to get back to posting in these threads. PRBoom+, UV, Pistol Starts, saves when I feel like it.

 

MAP01 - “Arrivée” by Big Ol’ Billy

Now that's an opener; took me just over 40 minutes to thoroughly explore! The brand new resources from Doom 64 and more makes this really feel like a gameplay conversion, despite (what I assume is) most enemies maintaining their vanilla behaviour. The mini-spider Chaingunners in particular threw me off, as they were the most distinct visual change (and also much shorter). It's all good stuff though, and the massive outdoor layout reminded me a lot of Bloody Steel's decayed industrial maps, including the use of similar textures. I do think the combat was slightly under-cooked for the map's scale, most of which consisted of removing perched Imps with the Shotgun/Chaingun. I would've liked to see at least one major encounter. In some ways, this feels like early map gameplay inhabiting what looks like an endgame level.

 

As promised, I'm back! I'll be playing in GZDoom (4.4.2, because I've not gotten round to updating yet) on UV, with mouse look, continuously with saves. I've also got Doomid's skins pack loaded, so I picked out the eyeball for this set, to match a motif!

 

I've played this a couple of times already, as I did mean to map for it, but never quite got something started. Instead I did a lot of testing, including taking part on the Zandronum co-op test (we add Cyberdemons...), and made the GLDEFS, which was my most thorough lighting definitions change for a DBP ever, as everything needed matching both to the new palette and the new sprites from Doom 64 (and in the style thereof). This is a really thorough work by Billy, and I'm glad to have managed to get a fingertip on it, even if not a whole hand! The other mappers really stepped up with this one too, with perhaps one or two exceptions that we'll get into later on down the line.

 

 

MAP01 - “Arrivée” by Big Ol’ Billy

In any project with significant changes and a major theme, it pays to set out your stall early. Billy does exactly this, setting up a big level that demonstrates most of the changed enemies (although it's quite easy to miss the ghostly Grim Reaper Arch-Vile replacement), introducing most of the weapons (I missed two secrets, so I can't remember if the rocket launcher shows up or not... It probably does) and having a lot of the new textures and theming, including the damned children, barrels that burst to set loose mechanical spiders and other tricks like the pickup sprites flashing bright to help them stand out in the moody palette.

 

The level itself has plenty of little side areas and nooks and crannies to poke around in, usually furnished with health and armour bonuses or little ammo pickups, making it a joy to explore. The difficulty is quite mixed, as the space is generally wide and open, but there's just enough hitscanners to have you scrambling for cover, plus the Imps and Nightmare Imps firing from afar might catch you out and land you more damage than you'd initially expect. A background of "silly French accordion music" is quite a lot of the soundtrack, helping establish the surrealist nature of our dystopian steampunk adventure.

 

A nice part of this map is that Billy, who often maps the projects he leads with an eye on the bigger picture, incorporated elements of later maps that have story significance here. You'll see what I mean as we progress, but suffice it to say that the views are often functional. A very strong opener, IMO, although in keeping with a lot of Billy's mapping, progression is a little obscured and often involves exploration or light puzzle-solving, which in a big open space with a lot of optional side parts can make for a bit of confusion and potentially a long play time.

Really looking forward to starting this tonight!

 

I have never "been a part" of this club...

 

Sounds AWESOME!

 

 

JR

Son of a bitch, im in. Will report back in tonight

MAP01: Arrivée - 94% kills 25% secrets

Ah, the start of a new wad. Since I have never played any of the Doomer Boards Projects before, this ought to be an interesting first for me.

 

I will be playing on HMP (I will move up to UV if I feel the wad is too easy), pistol starting each map and using Crispy Doom as my source port. Completion is not a priority for me, so many secrets will be (sadly) missed.

 

Right, on with the wad!

 

The first thing that stands out to me about this wad is, unsurprisingly, its style. I don't just mean the maps, either, the entire look and feel of the game has been drastically overhauled to serve a specific vision, with new SFX, music, menu graphics, sprites, textures and flats. This feels to me like a partial conversion, with the 'partial' being decidedly questionable. I am going to go out on a limb here and assume, based on the menu alone, that strong, original themes and rigorous attention to detail are to be expected going forward.

 

Starting up the first map seems to confirm my suspicions. The starting area, a pseudo-realistic cargo ship, is devoid of opposition, or a clear path forward. I don't usually pause to look around in Doom maps, but here I felt compelled to examine my surroundings. Strangely, this didn't seem to aid my comprehension of what I was looking at one bit. The texturing is quite brilliant, both surreal and evocative. The midi adds to this dream-like atmosphere, both cheerful and vaguely menacing.

 

After a bit of aimless wandering, I eventually found my way down to the docks, and encountered the map's first opposition. The new zombieman and imp sprites are quite odd, indistinct and almost ethereal. Very appropriate. I'm not sure of the source, though I recognize some of the SFX from Doom 64 (which I have never really played), so I presume the sprites are from there too. Regardless, the guns sound and feel good, so I'm not complaining.

 

Now, I'd like to take a step back and talk about the architecture of the level for a minute. The impression I am getting from the map is that of an abandoned, post-industrial port, overrun by poverty and neglect, with a touch of dark carnival perhaps? The map's many small structures are all in various states of decay, with corrugated iron and fabric awnings patching up the many holes. From a mapping perspective, this effect is damn impressive, making extensive use of mid and lower textures and clever geometry to sell the idea. Giving the impression of realism, especially the more asymmetrical kind, is incredibly difficult to pull off in Doom, and this map knocks it out of the park on that front.

 

This attention to detail made the non-linear progression very enjoyable. Exploration and simple sight-seeing provided ample entertainment as I wandered around, finding keys and advancing the plot at my own pace. I also found the way in which the player interacts with the geometry of the map to be highly creative, particularly the chimney-running section or the strange, haunted off-map red key area. The casual, almost random combat compliments the progression well, providing a constant source of stimulation while never distracting the player from the core appeal of the experience.

 

Overall, Arrivée is a very interesting and expertly crafted level, which makes a strong promise for the rest of the wad going forward.

MAP01: Arrivée - 100% kills 25% secrets

 

Super exciting and VERY challenging for me even on "kitten level" as I like to call the lowest difficulty!

 

Love the arrows that helped with getting through the level and some of the secret areas.

 

Love the Wolfenstein(?) guys, a nice added touch. 

 

Creepy kids sprinkled throughout made it nicely weird! 

 

This map was really great fun!

 

 

JR

MAP01: Arrivée

 

Awesome introduction. From posters and medium stalls to trucks and sewage, all aspects really work together to deliver this sense of urban desolation that, along with its music track, made me feel nostalgia -- like seeing your hometown brought to ruin by the corrupt.

 

Love all the little touches: french on the UI, the Doom 64 textures, the fire walls, etc. Both the ghost imp and the spider chaingunner felt nice and fair. The latter scared the crap out of me, though.

 

Overall, the map opens with a great vista of the city, but quickly becomes hectic after you get to the main courtyard with missiles coming from all sides. Then it's a matter of cleaning and of exploring all sections and crannies. There are few ambushes, but nothing dangerous; this entry focuses on giving a taste of things to come.

I already recorded 7 and 19 for this month, but I am saving 26 for when I get there in order.  Will try and remember to post my videos here when the day comes up for each one.

 

@galileo31dos01 How does MAP03 fare in PRBoom+ with other complevels?  Is it just cl2 that has the bug?

MAP02 - “La Rue de la Haine” by Vertigo, glenzinho

More compact than the previous map, but still featuring the industrial city aesthetic. While I wasn't sure what the custom ghost enemy did last map, aside from eat my Shotgun ammo, it appears to be a flying Archvile with no ranged attack. The Doom 64 PE shows up as well, but I assume summoning 2 Lost Souls is outside of dehacked's capabilities. I liked the fight near the end with 2 Arachnotrons attacking through windows while Imps and a Baron warp in. Found one secret area with the blue armour and custom Caco decoration.

Now that I have some more free time, I figured i'd come back in to play some more monthly doom.

 

Map01: Arrivée

Kills: 100% | Items: 89% | Secrets: 25%

GZDoom|No Mods|UV

 

A preface for those at home not playing along. Not exactly sure what I was expecting with this WAD but to me it is a strange one, I must be missing something. This WAD carries a very odd but interesting art style with it, giving me strong Blood vibes with is duller and semi-realistic texturing and palette (and not because of the tchernobog revenants). It also chose to use Doom64 sounds, enemies, items, and weapons to achieve a more grim and moodier setting. Its an odd assortment, since there is definitely color and varied texturing, but it all has a rather drab and muted loot to it. That and it has some sort of French connection, with French level titles, difficulty setting, and French monster names.

 

The first map invites the player into a rather grand shipping and processing yard along the coast, giving a quite fantastic view and a large playground to explore in. Difficulty feels fine for a map01, and detailing is sufficiently good throughout, opting for a more down-to-earth details like realistic rubble, pot-holes, uneven fence lines, large drilling pumps, ect. Flow feels good with its non-linear nature and while a tad confusing at times, never felt disorienting.

Gameplay as stated was moderate for the first level, introducing the player to majority of the monsters they will see in the first level, mostly standard fare with some new interesting baddies to fight: the nightmare imp from doom64 (albeit with a fuzzy effect rather than translucent), a melee wraith like the one from Blood, and just as tanky, and weird machine gun bots with zombie heads (almost a chaingunner stand in) but some I think can be disguised as barrels, i may be mistaken, During my gameplay I somehow managed to skip the yellow key and going straight into the red arena by walking along a small sector (535) and squeezing between a gap behind the giant curtains. A complete accidental skip I found because I thought I could run through the curtains (since monsters were shooting me from behind them). The gap is just big enough for the player to enter and is between sectors 1194 (red caco container wall) and sector 540 (pillar with torch). I still went back and got the yellow key anyways when I reached the exit and realized I skipped some map.

This was a well done and pretty map, but i'm not sure I necessarily liked it. Don't get me wrong its a great map, but it did feel rather airy for me, which can happen hen a grand scale map is made with a low monster count (not that it needs to be a slaughtermap, which i'm thankful its not). I also think the texture choice here detracted a bit from my enjoyment of the map itself, texture were used well, but the drab nature of it all gave me a very same0y feel to all the areas of the map. I shouldn't fault Billy for this obviously.

 

Overall, a great into map with a rather memorable view and setup for the WAD. The palette will get some taking used to, and the children are kinda creepy.

Rankings:

 

While I'm waiting for the video to upload and render I'll go ahead and give my thoughts on Map 1

 

Map01: Arrivée by @Big Ol Billy

 

Playthrough Video

Technical Info

Played on GZDoom on Ultraviolence 

Using the Hight HD Soundfont Synthfont (Download Here)

 

First Impressions

Hold up one second, before I can even speak about map one itself I have to take a moment to appreciate the menu image and the music/sound choices made for this wad, I just love the feeling this thing gives off from the very start. Obviously the French influence is there but the entire wad has this leisurely confidence to it that really grips you. There are so many deliberate tasteful decisions here it's hard to capture them all in a single pass. 

 

Sounds and Music

Heading into the map you are given free reign to walk around a ship that has slammed into the docks of the titular City of Damned Children. The desaturated color pallet and smooth spy-like tones of the midi give a very moody atmosphere to the moonlit sights. If you have a sharp ear you'll notice that the sounds have been replaced with Doom64 weapon, elevator/door, and monster sounds. The sounds from Doom64 are much lower on the register than the traditional Doom sounds so you get this balance of bassy grumbles and groans that allow the music track to shine over the top of them.

 

Visuals

The sprites have also been replaced with their Doom64 counterparts, giving you more aggressive and metallic looking weaponry and larger, more humanistic, targets to shoot. The monsters function exactly the same as they normally do but they give off this feeling of being beefier than your traditional demons and zombies. The weapons look heavy, with the Chaingun being the most obvious and drastic visual overhaul to the arsenal. The aerated barrels combined with the beefier sound giving is a punchier feel than you normally get with the weapon. The plasma rifle has also been giving an overhaul which makes it look completely different than normal. I like the changes to it less and that's more of a Doom64 problem than a DBP26 problem. The guys were working with what they got. 

 

Map Walkthrough

The map itself is a tone-setter that gives the player an easy opening but will present a challenge if you are careless. The first house you enter is a cramped space that can prove deadly if you stand next to barrels and are careless. Health is hard to come by early on and you'll be grabbing every 1HP potion and 1Armor bonus you can hold for much of this map's runtime. The map is designed as an open expanse giving the player the freedom to move around as they wish, but ultimately progression is forced through key chokepoints. Getting the Blue key is an easy task that you must do in order to move into the city from the docks. Your next goal will be to acquire the yellow key, stationed on a box just below a settlement. Getting the key will end up leading you to the Super Shotgun if you look carefully enough and will end up in an encounter with an Arachnotron. After tiptoeing across a set of smokestacks you find yourself dancing over stone slabs in order to reach the red key, where you are set upon by Cacodemons. The Doom64 Cacodemons always unsettled me but I think it's their little arms with the chains. When you clear that threat you are transported to a bizzare realm of floating children and a massive magician's head, or at least that's what I thought I saw. It didn't take long before I was tossed out and in front of a pair of Mancubus guarding the exit. All you have to do from there is flip some switches and run down a hallway toward a lost child and the map is over.

 

Critiques and Thoughts

The entire mood of this map is equal parts intriguing, unsettling, and confusing. The textures look great and the actual construction of the world is excellent, there are some places that genuinely confused me though. There's a building to the right of the blue key gate that has several shotgunners on it. I spent so long trying to understand how to get up there because it looks like you can just climb up. It wasn't until I went around to the other side that I finally noticed the elevator. The optional areas were interesting and the Grim Reaper/Archvile replacement had me genuinely scared and confused for a while. For that enemy to be changed into a flying monster but have his same movement speed was terrifying. Especially considering that he had the ability to raise enemies from the dead but did not have his Zap. He felt like a brand new threat and I got some flashbacks to Gauntlet where the only options were to run away or sacrifice a lot of health trying to fight it. 

 

Secrets

The map secrets were really well hidden but I would say the first one on the ship is kind of useless. You get 4 shotgun shells but spend 3-4 bullets blowing up a couple of barrels for it. It can be easily missed and having it doesn't really affect your progress as you don't get a shotgun until later. The chainsaw secret was very nicely hidden, almost too nicely hidden. I never would have figured it out for myself if I didn't see another player accidentally stumble into it. The other two secrets on the map were far more typical, only requiring a little bit of health sacrifice and some minimal platforming skills to aquire.

 

Final Word

Overall I'd have to say this is a fantastic tone-setter for the wad and I can't wait to get into the rest of it. 

Edited December 2, 2020 by ABearInThaWoods

MAP01: Arrivée

LZDoom, UV

 

 

A noir trip to a forgotten world. Rotten by industry and torn from all spirit, welcome to the city of the damned children! The first map definitely sets the whole mood that will follow with the rest of the maps. We leave a kind of ship, like rebels arriving at Sodom, ready to purge. We enter through some well stylized docks until we reach the center of some kind of industrial complex, or a port. The atmosphere is black, gray, with a touch of coal in the air and the most disturbing monsters of the saga. A perfect start to a black and white movie.

DBP26/7/19 are excellent choices for this month and wads I haven't played before. I'll tag along with the club but I'm not up to making detailed reviews this month, fortunately I can see others are already into the season spirit though and have posted some excellent map reviews already.

srcport used: gzdoom 4.5.0
game mode: uvmax, seeking 100% k/i/s (yep, items too), pistol starts, reverting to playing with saves if a map is too hard
game play style: cautious, suspicious, determined, violent - doomguy wants to survive, he hates waking up with his face in the dirt

map01

Doomguy starts on a ship, moored by the docks. He has to find his way onto the dock and then onto land. There's a large area to explore as he acclimatises to new surroundings, especially all of the new non doom-like graphical resources. Some of the monsters are different too and doomguy has to test himself against several of them on this map. I like the archvile replacement, a spooky, but somehow cute grim reaper that floats quickly around and resurrects but doesn't immolate and has a bitchslapping melee attack. There are a lot of items to pick up, it took me a while to hunt them all down.

I notice that the intermission screens have the french titles while the automap uses anglicized titles.

map02

Doomguy has wandered onto the aptly named Hate Street. A lot more mid tier enemies are thrown at him and meaner traps are sprung. Doomguy has decided that that he doesn't like the wofensteinss replacement, the tiny spidery, hitscanning s.o.b. with a human head. The 2 secrets are chained and contain plenty of health and armor and ammo to help make the end battles easier.

MAP02 - “La Rue de la Haine” by Vertigo, glenzinho

The music for this map is, frankly, ridiculous. I love it. The map itself mixes a more traditional Doom interior (with looping progression) with an exterior section that's drenched in the industrial squalor of the set. This latter section killed me, as I completely forgot about the Mancubi until it was a bit late. Fortunately I'd saved before stepping outside and could exact revenge quickly, my rampaging eyeball monster protagonist not happy with my poor playing. I made it up to him by finding both secrets, although the nested soulsphere seems unnecessary when there's at least 50 health potions in the main secret. This is my first sighting of this DBP's benevolent(ish) overseer, the Tomatoman64. Something of a mascot, these Tomatomen, although only since DBP18.

 

This map is, as desired by glenzinho, "Doomy". You're into the action straight away and things move along at a decent pace, with the level reacting to your progress, pitching more enemies at you as you go. Good times, with plenty of personality.

 

 

One thing I have noticed on this play through is that the black centre of the Mancubus projectile (when seen face-on) is being rendered transparent in GZDoom, which is pretty distracting. Fortunately the fire around it is nicely visible still.

MAP02 - “La Rue de la Haine” by Vertigo, glenzinho

 

The text file promised accordions, and here it delivers! MAP 02 is a neat little map that is not so little, actually -- took me 11:07 mins to beat. You start in a warehouse and end on a industrial tower after passing through an alley. Progression is classic and circular and most rooms are tight.

 

Aesthetics are on point. Something I really liked is the amount of detail given to non-playable areas; the vistas you get on top of the industrial tower are a treat.

 

Ambushes play a vital role on this map, as it does the ammo; sometimes you need to enter spaces occupied by monsters to get enough to beat them. The author rewards this endeavor, and that's nice. The best example is the cacodemon-hell knight trap on the main room, where careful maneuvers can net you a SSG, which quickens the dispatching by an order of magnitude.

 

Not much more to say. Didn't find any secrets.

MAP02 - “La Rue de la Haine” by Vertigo, glenzinho
100% Kills, 61% secrets

 

Super fun again with some nice twists, an "asylum feel" in some parts and some tough enemies.

 

Really liked surprises that popped up from time to time and the Wolfenstein guys proved to still be a tough little surprise enemy.

 

Very fun.  Onward!

JR

another month, another DWMC :D 

This time 3 mapsets I have never played, but I have played a couple of the DBPs and I know what to expect : pretty and hard maps. 

So, Pas Trop Dur! difficulty, continuous with saves.

 

MAP01 : A boat is on fire and we are stowaways inside a container. Leaving it we can see a huge city, and that's where we want to go to, so grab your guts and run through the fire! On the next pier there's a secret chainsaw and before we leave the docks there's still a building with the shotgun (and some enemies and the blue key). The main city gate is closed, but the blue key will make it less of a problem, and also get me killed. Another run, another approach, we go by the side entry. And get killed by an HK. No problem, we go again and kill him. And then again. Lots of saves later, I got me a yellow key! And the SSG, the chaingun and the plasma gun. A short stroll through chimneys leads me to a new area, to be killed in several different ways. And then I get the red key, kill the mancubi and it's done!

32m29seconds, 25%secrets, 100% kills and I'm not gonna keep a death tally for this one. It would be embarrassing. 

 

MAP02 : A street of hatred.. And we start inside a house, with lots of moving parts. Eventually we reach outside, and the rocket launcher is added to our arsenal, kill more and end the level before noticing we were exiting..

8m12s, 98% kills, 0% secrets.

 

be back for more tomorrow!

MAP02: La Rue de la Haine - 100% kills 100% secrets

Decidedly shorter and more linear than the last, this map continues with the poverty-stricken, post-industrial theme of the wad, and executes it with an appropriate level of style and confidence.

 

Once again, the texturing and lighting is brilliant, though in a somewhat different way to the last map. Since La Rue de la Haine is quite traditional in layout, the wad's signature style had to be adapted to fit. Instead of decaying shacks, bizarre abstract monuments and rusting port infrastructure, rotting concrete, flaking paint and exposed machinery dominate the map's orthogonal halls. Progression is a lot more clear this time around, due in part to linearity and small size, but also because the more grounded layout helps to establish an easily-understandable visual language. I found it much easier to understand which textures meant what when contextualized in a more Doom-like fashion. This is a great choice given the map's position in the wad, acting as a follow-up to a magnificent but slightly disorienting opener.

 

Since I did not find the Grim Reaper secret in the last map, this was my first time encountering DEATH*. The grey-robed gentleman gave me quite a shock when he just appeared out of thin air and started resurrecting everything in sight. Thankfully, with the aid of the lovely D64 chaingun, I was able to encourage the reaper to *ahem* retire from active duty. I prefer the dead to stay as such, thank you very much. Mortally-challenged individuals will be treated with an ample dosage of fast-moving lead, the most effective known cure.

 

Probably my favourite part of the map are the two secret areas. Initially, I just assumed all the structures surrounding the main play area where simply decorative, until I noticed some health potions surrounding a star-shaped fountain. After a bit of good ol' fashioned wall-humping, I discovered the secret teleporter required to reach said area. After a bit of exploration outside I also found the second secret, which is similarly obscure to the first, and serves little tactical purpose, though definitely adds to the intrigue factor. I also noticed a hideous two-eyed cacodemon to the north of the titular street, just floating there, menacingly. At first I thought it might be inactive, then a decorative thing, before finally realizing it was just a texture. Unless this is some sort of reference to the source material, I cannot imagine why this was included except maybe as some sort of easter egg. I approve, though someone should definitely post that texture to the Cursed Doom Images thread. No caco should have two eyes, especially not conjoined Mobian** ones.

 

Overall, this map is a good thematic continuation of the first, which helps teach the player the wad's unique visual language. It is also fun to explore and progress through, with competent combat and interesting secrets.

 

*Discworld fans will understand.

**Sonic fans will understand.

Cool to see all the plays and comments, y'all.

 

DBP26 was a bit of a passion project for me. Maybe too much so—I've tried to focus on being more of a team player in months since. (I felt kinda bad rejecting two maps when I have five proper maps in the project myself, though I think it did end up being the right choice at that point in development.) The germ of inspiration here was "let's do a steampunk theme with Thief 1/2 textures," but it got a lot more elaborate as the resources developed. Thematically, I feel like I put a lot of myself into this one. I'm a teacher (among other jobs), and a lot about pandemic-era schooling here in the USA was deeply uncertain during July, when the project ran. So I feel like I can see in the project's themes a certain amount of my own anxieties and hopes about the younger generation and the world they're growing up in.

 

The film The City of Lost Children, of course, was another major reference point for images and visuals motifs. For those wondering, we're not attempting to adapt the film here or set something in the same "universe"; the idea is more along the lines of riffing on and remixing some visual and thematic ideas from the film to make our own standalone thing. In a way, the hope was that the world here would be equally strange and mysterious to everyone regardless of their level of familiarity with the film, which is a somewhat deep cut and fairly imagistic anyway.

 

MAP01: Arrivée

 

My opening map was a big gamble, and it's been pretty interesting to see how it fared with different players. Given the "city" in the title and the surreal/mysterious vibe that I hoped to pull in from the film, it seemed like a traditional straightforward MAP01 wouldn't really cut it. I had done larger-than-average and multi-part opening maps before (DBP16 and 21), so I wanted to see how far I could push that kind of elaborate opener, putting the player in a world they could get a little lost in while soaking up the vibe and the many new resources that keep popping up in area after area. Although a map is ultimately only as good as peoples' experiences playing it, I still feel reasonably proud of this one. For better or worse, the elements that rub some people the wrong way here at least feel consistent with my overarching goals for the map and the project, mostly. Although those critiques are certainly food for thought for future maps! The skip that @DFF discovered hurts a little, though, oof...

 

MAP02 - “La Rue de la Haine” by Vertigo, glenzinho

 

This is probably one of my favorite MAP02's from the DBPs. Once I figured out that it "wanted" to be a MAP02 the whole sequence pretty much fell into place, in fact. I think it plays off the openness of MAP01 really nicely. Assuming you didn't bail on the opener, this sort of acts as a nice reward for making it through the previous map's more adventurous journey, giving you some good ol' Doomy action that just feels satisfying and guiding you through the progression with a much surer hand. I really like the proper introduction the reaper gets here (though UV players had a chance to encounter him, less threateningly, on MAP01). He actually turned out to be quite a fun and useful monster, imho, since it lets mappers explore the combat possibilities of the AV's resurrection ability alone, in a somewhat intensified form. We'll be seeing the other half of the AV's abilities later in the set in another monster...

Being a partial glenmap, it's also appropriate that we meet the horrendous visage of Tomatoman64 here! Since DBP18, every DBP has had secret thematic Tomatomen lurking around in out-of-the-way places. This one, which of course had to be based on the Doom64 caco, is a particularly ugly mofo that was pretty fun to make. You'll see more of him if you keep hunting around. (And when DBP32 comes out, you might see a whole lot of Tomato-related action happening.)

 

Edited December 2, 2020 by Big Ol Billy

map03

Doomguy has wandered into a high security zone. Most of the battles occur on the walkways over and around 2 pits as you work out how to lower the yellow key in order to progress to the final area. The 2 secrets contain a super shotgun and a soulsphere.

There are 2 non official secrets on the map containing health and armor bonuses respectively.

Map02: La Rue de la Haine

Kills: 100% | Items: 100% | Secrets: 100%

GZDoom|No Mods|UV

 

Other than some beefier enemies, this feels much more like an expected introductory map; A lot smaller and easily digestible. This does make it a rather good follow up map to the first though, with the first being a tone setter and eye pleaser, being followed by a simpler but meatier map.

 

This was a fun map, combat was good, flow and pacing felt good, and had the player circling the main map a few times, constantly opening and evolving to keep it interesting. While I say its a simpler map, the detail here is very fine and does help me visualize myself in an abandoned factory in the slums/town, and not just some abstract human/hell building. The ending sequence was a nice little trap aswell. Not terribly difficult but enough to keep me moving, and the wall trap gave the ending a nice touch, especially since it felt like the first arena trap was the end. 

Overall I rather enjoyed this one. I maybe enjoyed it a bit more than the first map, but the scope and effort of the first map makes it a better map in my eyes, since the enjoyment between the two is marginally different, but the size and design levels are much different.

 

Also as I figured, the aesthetic is starting to grow on me and feel a lot better, just needed some getting used to.

 

Not sure if it makes sence to rate these maps like other CPs, but I figured I might aswell.

Rankings:

 

 

MAP02: La Rue de la Haine

LZDoom

 

A gloomy urban meltdown between industry and apartmants. Pure dread await thee. From a fantastic starting area to the final switch, this map introduces both new enemies and new encounters for us to enjoy.