The DWmegawad Club plays: Super Mayhem 17

[baja blast rd.]

1 hour ago, Demon of the Well said:

I might never have guessed this was one of Walter's maps

 

On 4/4/2018 at 10:06 PM, dobu gabu maru said:

MAP05: This is a map I honestly did not expect out of NuMetalManiak

 

Dirty pigeonholers. :@

[Demon of the Well]

I am always very careful to add lots of tasteful qualifiers and hypotheticals to my crass stereotyping, I'll have you know! Just because one's going to be a dick doesn't mean one can't also be a gentleman at the same time.

[cannonball]

MAP07 - “Groovy Hills” by Walter Confetti

 

Well this has a lot of tropes seen in many Walter C maps, the atmosphere is generally relaxing througout, though you could also call this map a little goofy at times as well. The pain elementals are really obnoxious and a real pain to deal with considering the lack of weaponry available. 

The cyber fight was a bit of a joke with the BFG plus cells handed to you.

Oh well this wasn't too bad, I can't say I hated much except for the pain elementals of course. :P

[tmorrow]

map08: the oasis, by Eris Falling
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

Eric starts us out in the oasis, some pools of water, waterfalls, some pretty trees and pyramids in the background. Unfortunately there is only one small skirmish in this part of the oasis and you are soon whisked into a cavern of sorts.

Following the path through the cavern first takes you out to another part of the oasis, a scenic location with trees, plants, a couple of small ponds, some buildings and a partial pyramid. Sadly your visit here is shortened by another small fight for the red key.

You move back towards the cave to raise a super mario approved, platforming pipe bridge that is used to reach both the central tower and traverse the entire cave span to reach a small tunnel on the other side. If you are pistol starting don't be tempted to snag the yellow key in the tower yet or you may not have enough ammunition the survive the trap. Instead take the tunnel path out to a our third beautiful scene, a grotto complete with cascading waterfalls through vines from the ceiling, forming a large lake on the grotto floor. The idyllic scene is only marred by a large number of irate enemies attempting to to separate you from your limbs and you only have time to grab a badly needed nearby super shotgun and go to work.

The final battle is the hardest and takes place at the central tower where you collect the yellow key. The ultimate trap involves an archvile, pain elemental, revenants and other lowlife and can be quite challenging with limited weaponry and ammo. Take your hard earned keys to the pyramid exit and enter into the final reveal, an iconic super mario sanctioned exit room complete with stairs leading up to a flagpole.

Note the following non official secret:
 

Spoiler

At the top of the plateau with 2 buildings. Opposite the opening to one of the buildings is a small door to the other building. Opening will reveal a long tunnel to 2 question mark blocks. Shoot the blocks to throw out a berserk pack that slides toward you and lands in the doorway.

 

[bioshockfan90]

MAP08: The Oasis, by Eris Falling|100% kills|100% secrets|

 

 

Aptly titled, Eris. Aptly titled indeed. 

 

This is a pretty condensed desert landscape with caves, towns, and pyramids, pretty easygoing affair to hop through. A sizable portion of this map is optional strangely enough, with the only real prize being a SSG, ammo, and health to prep for the final ambush with the YK. 

 

Also there's a really weird amount of item propulsion here. Like, at least more than usual, anyway. The only secret of the map has you flinging armor off ahead, and there's a really weird moment with a house and hell textures and a... P-wing, you'll see it when you get there. It's surreal. 

 

Overall, a pretty nice surprise after the prior 2 maps being mostly setpiece-oriented, you get to explore and relax. 

 

also: dumb question I've had since I've seen it- @Demon of the Well, is your PFP's demon giving us the "OK hand" on his right side? I... I assume it's just a clawing hand coming out of the well, but with the recent surge of the meme I had to ask. 

 

 

[Tristan]

3 minutes ago, bioshockfan90 said:

Also there's a really weird amount of item propulsion here. Like, at least more than usual, anyway.

 

As I noted in a previous post, my only experience of the Mario games is one of the New SMB series (and a bit of one of the Mario Karts), items would slide off ? blocks when they rose out of them, and slowly try and make a break for the edge of the screen, so it's basically an exaggeration of that behaviour. I like in-map conveyor belts, we don't see enough of them - but indeed it doesn't help that PrBoom+ and the ZDoom ports differ in their handling of conveyors :( My approach is to make sure it at least works in PrBoom+, but whatever it does in the ZDoom ports is my intention as that's the port I play in - in this case the armour neatly comes to a stop in the entrance to the building opposite the start instead of anticlimactically grinding to a halt on the sand.

Obligatory plug of this GIF since I loved making this secret so much I decided to later deploy monsters the same way :P

 

 

The berserk tunnel looks like some weird tacked on thing but it was supposed to be a secret, but I couldn't see a way of triggering it under that setup. I had hoped if I launched a voodoo doll in a dummy sector that could trigger a secret, but they're not capable of that it seems >:(

[Killer5]

Demos for first 7 maps:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x6r37up1khxxv7p/Mayhem17_1_7.zip?dl=0

 

Map01:

A fun map. Map01 with revs, PEs, and viles which is a change of pace.

 

I only had two real observations when playing this map:

1. It was unfortunate that the map hurt itself a bit when the viles spawned in at the end. One of the viles simply ran into this.. area connected to the rl room. Made that part way more trivial than it should have been.

2. The revs at the end are just there. No real reason to ever fight them up close so zero threat here.

 

Enjoyed the rest of the map though.

 

 

Map02:

A pretty standard map tbh. Nothing much for me to take note of. If you want to beat this map really fast you can jump into the window where the supershroom is from the raised area where the rl is. This allows you to skip the entire map.

 

 

Map03:

This map looks really cool. But gameplay wise it is pretty standard again. Not too much to say.. dudes appear.. you shoot them.. a vile appears.. you kill it and win.

 

You can jump onto the ledge behind the exit pide and rocket jump into the exit. if you want to skip the map.

 

 

Map04:

This is an open map with a couple groups of mass zombies. The zombies make up 100% of the threat in this map (at least that is how I felt) so once you get out of the start and also get out of the boat area you should be good.

 

There was a curious vile guarding the ssg that I simply shot to death with the shotgun. I guess if you want to play this part quickly the vile makes it a bit more interesting but casually I don't see myself doing this.

 

The boat area and the whales are the standout areas of the map for me. I thought the whale tails were actually hearts instead of.. a whale tail at first :P. But the effect works really well.

 

I think the map is really cool from an aesthetic point of view but gameplay wise this one really isnt my thing. Mostly because I have simply started expecting some sort of giant group of zombies in pinchy maps.

 

 

Map05:

Never played a map from NuMetal. Apparently NuMetal doesnt make maps like this so it is interesting to step out of your comfort zone.

 

The start is incredibly obnoxious to clear. Hide behind a wall.. snipe dudes sort of ordeal.

 

The area with the rk is pretty standard. I could definitely see someone eating a face rocket because of the delayed pinky spawns.

 

The area with the yk looks neat but I found myself wishing I had more to do there. This area felt like it should have been a quirky secret area or something.

 

The area with the bk is the entire map. You can just run out which takes away any teeth this area once had which is unfortunate.

 

Cyb finale is prolly my favorite bit. Fights where I need to keep my mind's eye on a primary threat while having to kill other stuff are always a favorite of mine.

 

 

Map06:

Like the start. But I dont really like the two inside bits. I kinda wish this map was given the same treatment as Benjogami's map received (the you can make a map outside of the size limits as long as it makes sense sort of deal). I would have liked to have seen more of the interior of the ship. I have always seen these ships as massive things on the inside as a kid playing mario3.

 

I enjoy the final fight and the looks of the starting area but I didn't enjoy the two interior bits that much.

 

 

Map07:

Different map compared to everything else I played thus far. More of an.. exploration map. The standout bits for me were the inescapable pits as well as the teleport doors.

 

It was odd teleporting out of the secret area in that blue area because I had left and decided to go back in to finish checking out the rest of the area. I couldnt remember the location of the zerk exactly so teleporting back out wasnt very intuitive.

 

Interesting map but it isnt really my thing overall.

[baja blast rd.]

Eris, 

 

Voodoo dolls can trigger linedefs that change sector effects and give a secret effect to a sector in the playspace. This won't have the unwanted effect of creating a new secret and leaving an inaccessible secret in the voodoo doll closet itself, because the maximum secret count is determined at the start of the map and remains constant regardless of how many secrets are generated.*

 

 

*Which is what makes this possible. 

 

 

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP07: Groovy Hills

 

I like the aesthetic that's on display here, the strong contrast between the brilliant lighting and bright blues and greens of the ourdoor areas and the brown earthen walls of its shadowy underground spaces; it's the kind of cartoonish exaggeration that really works with both the relatively low fidelity of the Doom graphics engine, and the overall style of the Super Mario art assets repurposes for this WAD.  This isn't a project that benefits from being excessively subtle, is what I'm saying; the visually and architecturally bold are both quite at home here, and this level's a good example of that.  The doors-as-teleporters mechanic takes a little bit of getting used to; fortunately the map isn't especially large or that's an aspect of its design which could have been tedious or confounding.  Somehow I managed to completely miss out on the whole "you can climb the vines!" mechanic, which left me taking the long way 'round through the water a few times and also left me bereft of replacement armour beyond the generously scattered handfuls of individual bonuses.

[Tristan]

That end result was just as I hoped, nice stuff haha :D

[tmorrow]

6 minutes ago, Killer5 said:

Demos for first 7 maps:

Thanks for the demos and perspectives on the maps @Killer5, they were very entertaining! I eagerly await your pistol start uvmax for your killer map11 in a few days time. Your map certainly killed all of my attempted runs, it's beyond my skill level!

[Killer5]

@tmorrow

I already made a max demo for my map back when it was released. You will need the texture pack for the wad and that specific version of my map in the same post as the demo.

 

Here is the post:

 

[Walter confetti]

Thanks for your impressions about groovy hills, here's some pointless trivia that nobody wanted but i'll give you the same!

 

- Lots of people actually make me noticed even during testing about the problem with instant vine invisible lifts and to change them with invisible stairs instead, i was thinking that this problem was been fixed from marcaek (i recall to have read in some compiling beta session that this problem was fixed, but looks like i read it totally wrong), the fault is in me being the old lazy ass that i am.

 

- This and the other map are been crafted with hard influences of original mario games in mind, let's say a personal 3D re-creation of the classic 2D worlds that i got more in mind at the time, including a heavy 2D fell that affects the level geometry, too. (negatively, for the big part of the reviews for map07 T_T)

 

- The berserk room have hellish doom textures because... it's a secret section, i know that looks weird, but it's intentional guys.

 

[Poncho]

(Still on a continuous run)...

 

Map04: Marina Moonlight

The beginning is somewhat rough; it's an open area with quite a few hitscanners, but besides the Chaingunners, they shouldn't be too much of an issue. Honestly, I think the traps and such are mostly nice. The only enemy I dislike is the second Arch-Vile. It seems that it can hit you even when using the switch pillar as cover. Also, the secret was much easier to obtain than I imagined. Oh well. VERY early BFG, though. Weird.

 

Map05: Painfully and Elitely Rustled

The area to the north is fine, but everything else is agitating. The quadruple Arch-Vile trap is nothing short of bullshite, even with a BFG carried over from previous maps. I suppose you're meant to run through the lava area, but the amount of Cacodemons (along with the Viles, who will most likely follow you) just makes it a pain. Funny thing: I reached the end, and I was about to kill the Cyberdemon two-blast style, but I ran into the exit. Whoops. Oh yeah, the sky lightning effect started to hurt my eyes after a while.

 

Map06: Airship of Doom

Not a bad level; I was only getting annoyed because of my weapons doing their bare-minimal damage. The design is cool (a boat!) and the enemy placement is mostly good (though the ending room can simply fuck itself). The only secret isn't really well telegraphed either, meaning you either have to look on the automap, or know beforehand where it's at. Oh yeah, and the lightning effect still sucks.

 

Map07: Groovy Hills

My favourite level so far. It looks large on the automap, but doesn't feel that long and isn't at all difficult (except for maybe the fact that there are inescapable pits). The layout is quite interesting in that you can use the teleporters to make backtracking a non-issue. The only part I don't really like in the Pain Elemental part (but I think that's unanimous amongst all players). The Cyberdemon is pretty much no issue either. Great map!

 

Map08: The Oasis

Like Map06, the secret is a know-it-or-don't sort of deal. The map itself plays nicely (I also like the choice of music), with a low body count that actually proves to be threatening. However, the platforming section is strangely difficult, since the distance between some of the platforms are quite a reach. Also, a combo of an Arch-Vile, a Pain Elemental and several Revenants isn't too pleasant. An okay map overall.

 

I've already gone through Map09, but I'll wait until I play some other maps.

[tmorrow]

55 minutes ago, Killer5 said:

I already made a max demo for my map back when it was released. You will need the texture pack for the wad and that specific version of my map in the same post as the demo.

 

I was unable to find the texture pack so I just tacked your v3 wad onto the end of the official release of mayhem17 and your demo ran perfectly. Damn that's some fine play! I haven't been able to master the final room yet and your demo shows exactly how it can be done. Many thanks.

[Catpho]

MAP08 - “The Oasis” by Eris Falling

A delight, even if it was too short (thats saying alot considering this mapset's standard). The oasis visuals were plesannt, easy on the eyes, having relaxing/cozy feel :) Water fall usage was spot on Eris! Gameplay was relatively peaceful for the first half of the map, only a few enemy to gun down. The path to the YK provided a surprises turn however, with dat archvile. Some nitpicks: whats with the doom textures in that building? And why was there a theme change for the flagpole? Also those black textures on the ceiling is off putting somehow O_o

Gotta highlight the "?" block moment though, that was awesome :D And nice map

Some screenies:

[Tristan]

Something else I observed in that one Mario game was that you could have an entire stage with one theme, but then the last screen would just be a normal forest.

Doom textures in secrets are fair as Easter eggs imo. Black cave ceilings because all the flats looked like shit when spread over such a large surface.

 

 I'm glad I finished something that wasn't total shit because that's a first but meh, I want to make something with more substance. Maybe this year.

 

oh and archviles, not sure what I was thinking there, I think any future map by me will contain no more than 0 of them :)))))

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP08: The Oasis

 

First up, the music track here, Desk Lamp by Stuart Rynn, has got to be one of my favorite pieces of the Sunlust soundtrack, even though I'm more used to thinking of it from its reappearance in MAP04 of Ancient Aliens.  It's nice to hear it being put to use once more, especially when it so well fits the environment of this map, with its caverns and its temple-structures and nice balance of surface and underground areas.  It's got a pretty compact footprint and short running time, but compared to the winding caverns and the teleport-doors of the preceding map, that relatively straightforward gameplay and environment that actually conforms to regular topography isn't unwelcome.  The secret items that get kicked out and go flying are a nice touch and an entertaining callback to the source material even if they're especially, ah, energetic here.

[cannonball]

MAP08 - “The Oasis” by Eris Falling

An Eris map, well that is a pleasant surprise and actually this one is a nice, breezy and fun map to play. I got really unlucky on picking up the yellow key as I had pretty much taken down everything when a revenant on the lower floor managed to squeeze a 80hp rocket and kill me from a seemingly impossible angle. That trap is a large difficulty spike on what is overall a rather easy map. 

Overall it looks nice, plays nice and is easy to navigate, not really much to complain about and that stewboy track is one of my all time favourite midis so it is welcome to see it appear here. :)

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP08 The Oasis

 

lol Eris beat me to writing secrets. And these maps seem to be getting a whole lot easier? Why isn't this MAP01? It has an AD_79 layout and does it better than AD_79, and combat for the most part stays rather slim. Oh community projects, always putting hard levels ahead of those that seem to be easier. At least when it comes to both the official and non-official secrets, there's some hilarity to be had. Yep, smack the block in the official secret and watch the armor skyrocket towards the front. Same with shooting the other ? block, which basically means you get "berserk punched" by the berserk pack. Funny shit, easy level.

[Catpho]

Just now, NuMetalManiak said:

MAP08 The Oasis

 

lol Eris beat me to writing secrets. And these maps seem to be getting a whole lot easier? Why isn't this MAP01? It has an AD_79 layout and does it better than AD_79, and combat for the most part stays rather slim. Oh community projects, always putting hard levels ahead of those that seem to be easier. At least when it comes to both the official and non-official secrets, there's some hilarity to be had. Yep, smack the block in the official secret and watch the armor skyrocket towards the front. Same with shooting the other ? block, which basically means you get "berserk punched" by the berserk pack. Funny shit, easy level.

THE BURN

This review is a highlight :)))))

[gaspe]

MAP05: It looks bare but the map it's more focused on its tricky encounters, the archiviles coming back at the route for the BK was the best moment.

 

MAP06: To me it's a good attempt to transpose the airship levels in Doom, even though the gameplay in the inner areas was tiring with a bit too much repetition.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP08: The Oasis

100% kills, 1/1 secret

 

A pleasant little map, one that I agree is maybe a bit too short. The health/ammo balance feels a bit off to me, too much of the former and not enough of the latter. Even using the berserk pack a bit I was running pretty bone-dry on ammo at the end, if the the AV or PE had added a few more enemies or I missed a few more shots it would've been rough. The secret is hilarious.

[Nine Inch Heels]

21 hours ago, Demon of the Well said:

Just because one's going to be a dick doesn't mean one can't also be a gentleman at the same time.

The term you are looking for is "gentledick™ ;-)

[Demon of the Well]

Map 08 -- The Oasis - 105% Kills / 100% Secrets - FDA

Never mind the crypt trap in Sunlust m20 or things like that. The green armor secret here, THAT is true terror.

 

Anyway, like just about everything I've seen by Eris (most of which is fragmentary, sadly), this is an unassumingly lovely little map with a very well-chosen music track (stewboy!) and a great deal of care put into its atmosphere. Depicted is a modest step pyramid and some outbuildings near a small cave complex, evidently just before dawn, with a mild shady look to everything that smooths the new assets and belies some of the eyestrain that's to come, an oasis in more ways than one.

 

Perhaps fittingly, some might argue, it's also quite gentle and seems understated or even a mite shy, somehow, with its approach to combat, though the smaller scale that defines most of the terrain helps to focus the action somewhat, particularly in the cave, where the main ambush and climax of the level can be handled in a number of different ways. My impromptu approach was to finish platforming along the series of blue pipes to see where it would lead, which turned out more or less okay, though in hindsight I don't think this is the wisest choice (mostly simple luck the arch-vile didn't attack me through the floor-level apertures while I was in the SSG grotto, I suspect); probably most practical to simply blast the vile with the rocket launcher from atop the YK's perch as soon it emerges and be done with it. On that point, while I didn't have trouble with running out of ammo as some have reported (only punched the last imp in the level as I recall, and by choice rather than necessity), I did think that just a handful more of rockets would've added to the festivities in a positive way, maybe a total of 7 or 8 shots instead of the bare minimum 4 needed to kill the vile.

 

It also struck me that this is the smallest level thus far (and, I strongly suspect, the smallest level in the set), and while what's here hangs together well enough and offers a more or less 'complete' interlude-type experience, it did seem as though the level was originally planned to have at least a bit more to it but ran afoul of the time allotment for mapping, with nothing inside the locked pyramid but a lone imp and a pretty but conspicuously empty water-shrine, with another adjoining outdoor area (also empty) where the actual exit is found. This sort of anticlimax doesn't really negatively affect the level precisely because it's short enough for the YK fight to naturally read as the climax, and is arguably a perk of the level's particular mood, though nevertheless I do wonder what might've been.

[Tristan]

iirc, time wasn't an issue, I was even going to try and make a second map, but maybe I ran out of map area, because I think it was pretty borderline as it was since I'm not very efficient with my use of space. There was supposed to be more map inside the pyramid, with some passages or something leading off of that water shrine, but tbh it's also very likely that I also ran out of ideas at that point, so I just stuck the exit on and called it a day ^_^

[bioshockfan90]

MAP09: Curse of the Mummy's Sister, etc...., by Impie|100% kills|0% secrets|

 

Didn't know Impie had an entry in this! From what I've played of his stuff, this doesn't seem like something he'd make. Either that or all his other work masks it well enough with the custom GFX. 

 

This is a very smartly made level with a bit of a puzzling element I was too dumb to see when I first played it (hence getting stuck and forgetting about coming back to it) revolving around opening different-colored entryways one at a time to slowly gain access to areas you previously hadn't. For example, let's say you go through a door via the red guntrigger, giving you access to this balcony. Up ahead, you'll see some sort of room that leads to a key, but it's only accessible if you shoot the green guntrigger. If you shoot the green trigger, you're gonna lose access to the red door to get there in the first place. But never fear! There's a switch that deploys a staircase to and from, no longer needing the red trigger in the first place.

 

That sounded like a madman's ravings but once you see it in action, you'll get it.

 

 

Aesthetic-wise, we're still in deserts and gold-brick Egyptian trappings. I like how these logpoles form bridges. Placement's the only area where it's not the best for me, something about things just being kinda sparsely packed in. There's some pretty fun rocket-blasting to be had, however, like the corridor with the P-wing. 

 

The final ambush of the map is pretty much downright evil if you get caught by the lost souls, as had happened with me. Overall though, a nice level that flows good and plays good as long as you figure out the gimmick. 

[tmorrow]

map09: curse of the mummy's sister's etc., by Impie
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

Impie teases us at the start of this egyptian themed map by placing the 3 keys on top of high pillars right in the middle of the courtyard. After a bit of exploration you will notice that you are blocked from opening most doors and that there is mysterious shooting gallery on the north of the map with a red, green and blue switch across some water. You will find that some pains have been taken to allow the map to be a non linear experience.

By solving a fairly simple puzzle element critical for progression, you can open all locked doors, clear out the rest of the map, and find and action the switches to lower the keys back at the start. There's a tricky secret that is well worth finding as well.

The final fight is with a teleporting archvile, what joy! The exit turns out to be a plumbers paradise, a nice shiny green pipe to leap into.
 

[Demon of the Well]

Map 09 -- Curse of the Mummy's Sister's Something-or-Other - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets - FDA

My relative disinclination towards the project's theme/assets swelled into actual distaste here, for the first time: looking at this for the 10 minutes or so it took to play through saw me squinting the whole time, and somewhat eye-tired and in want of a break afterwards (usually I'm good for a lot longer than that before I need a break). All of those glaring, cartoon lemon-yellow planes bending and merging into one another, with almost literally nothing in the way of lighting variation (great majority is fullbright, maybe a couple of the earthen side-passages are slightly dimmer?) did a bit of a number on me, it seems. Projectiles were quite hard for me to see here, though with the level being spacious/open as it is the practical effect of this was minimal in this case. Thank goodness for the simulated contrast and nice soft blue sky, else I might've needed some eye-drops!

 

Garish visual unpleasantness aside, which of course is a subjective experience on at least some level (though I'd argue that the nigh total lack of lighting is a more objective disservice in this or pretty much any other theme/resource), I do want to stress that the map itself is a perfectly reasonable proposition with a sort of 'mid-megaWAD' feel, casual action all around but enough to keep one occupied, with height variation and visual interchanges and a variety of possible routes contributing most of the flavor rather than placement/fight design per se. The primary conceit is that different stretches of the map's inner reaches are gated off not by the traditional key-locked doors but by a central impact-trigger mechanism, with color-coded settings corresponding to similarly marked door-slabs in other parts of the level. The rub is that only one color can be 'cancelled' at a time, meaning that fully navigating the level requires a number of trips back to the mechanism.

 

There are doubtless a variety of more and less elegant ways of navigating the level, depending on foreknowledge and/or intuition, but fortunately most of the side branches feature unlockable permanent shortcuts to facilitate faster progress should backtracking become necessary, ala building staircases up to higher landings or the like. The climax beyond the single three-keyed lock into the inner mastaba chamber is a mite tamer than it needed to be, I thought--maybe two viles instead of one, something like that--though the fight has some cinematic flair by virtue of its concept and so is serviceable enough in that regard. Perhaps the biggest missed opportunity as far as a the gameplay goes, I thought, was that the central part of the level never really gets repopulated (maybe a couple of the peripheral ledge snipers only appear midway through progression?), which might've added an extra sense of pleasing bloodiness to proceedings, seeing as one needs to head back to the central switch mechanism at least a couple of times as is.

 

edit: Oh, and @bioshockfan90 , the pinky demon in my avatar has his hand in the standard position for one of his ilk, as far as I know, but you'd have to ask Jaws in Space to know for sure, as he's the one who captured the image. :)

Edited April 8, 2018 by Demon of the Well

[Crusader No Regret]

Map 4: DNF

 

    Really dig the setting.  The pacing gives off the same vibe as Circle of Destruction in that surviving the first minute or two can be quite daunting but once overcome, one is very likely to complete the map.  Died a lot just working out something survivable but since it's early, didn't lose lots of progress.  When I did live long enough, I used the approach of staying silent for a while and going for shotgun and some running around to stir up trouble and infighting.  The lighthouse with a perched archvile (and SSG) was my main place to take temporary refuge.  I put the spiders to work taking out various hitscanners.  At some point, decided the crowd had thinned out enough to do cleanup.  Ammo ran low while taking out the perched opposition even with all the infighting that I baited so more trigger happy players may wish to pick and choose their targets early on.  Though not necessary, I enjoyed getting the motley crew of the cove ship taken out with more infighting.  Plasma gun alteration got me grinning; perhaps if it was a fire flower sprite, the reference would be more clear.  That rate of fire would be gamebreaking in a Mario game.  Seeing the whales from Mario 2 also brought on a smile of recognition.

 

     Choked and died in the central lighthouse setup.  I was too quick in assuming it would be a leisurely dispatch of hellknights with SSG that the archvile caught me out.  I guess dying at the spiderdemon would be even more humiliating for someone who made it that far.  It can happen if RNG is feeling mean and/or tracers get blockmapped.

 

Map 5:

 

     I enjoy how the area behind the red door unashamedly screws with player expectations.