The DWmegawad Club plays: Super Mayhem 17

[tmorrow]

map20: transformation palace, by Argent Agent
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

What a wonderful castle Argent Agent has constructed. Chessboard tiled floors, highly durable stone walls that go way up high, pools of water and fountains, rows of pipe columns and even a spiral staircase of sorts leading up to the final room. It must cost a kings ransom to maintain this joint.

The progression through the castle is clear except in one area where you might get stumped for a few minutes wondering where to go next. Argent Agent has used enormous marine sized question mark blocks to provide new weapons or to open new areas. The earlier battles are fairly easy due to ample cover and having a lot of space to move. The two major stumbling blocks are the two large battles, the first occurs halfway through when you release the the first cyberdemon and his buddies and the second is the battle finale in the exit room.

The first major battle is a real challenge for pistol starters due to severe ammo starvation. It is possible that this restriction is deliberate to force you to use the layout as efficiently as possible. My main criticism of this battle is that there does not seem to be enough ammo to get through it without severely limiting play options. You have go to great pains to maximise as much infighting as possible. A cybie, revenants, archviles, cacodemons and pain elementals are involved. They are all confined to certain areas except the floaters that are free to move anywhere on this huge map and who cause real problems if you are not positioned in the right room at the right time. You need to rely on the revenants to take out several of the floaters while you, in order to save ammo, are limited to berserk fist and some super shotgun to take care of the rest. Next you need cybie to spiflicate the revenants which is not always as easy to arrange as you might think. Then you need to trigger the 2 archviles and let cybie take out both of them and their resurrections. If you don't do this you will likely run out of ammo before you can take out cybie, then the hellknights and barons blocking your path on the other side of a bridge.

The next hurdle is a large spiral staircase that you must ascend in order to reach the exit room. You need to learn the safe zones or high up archviles will have a blast at your expense. Once you reach the top you enter the final room for the second major battle, the big finale. Once you hit the last marine sized question mark block you will unleash a huge number of enemies including 3 cybies and a bunch of archviles. Is is probable that with this much incoming damage and without bfg your only way to survive is to beat a hasty retreat and take out as much as possible from the doorway. Even then, it is likely that you will be driven back further to another part of the spiral staircase to take the cybies out from a distance before returning and cleaning out the rest of the room for a well deserved exit.

Don't forget to pick up the secrets, always a worthwhile pursuit, in this case you will net a backpack, megasphere and some ammo and health.

Edited April 20, 2018 by tmorrow

[Magnusblitz]

MAP18: C'mon Peach, You've Got What You Want, Now Give This Plumber Cake!

100% kills, no map secrets

 

Like Walter's other offering (MAP07) I can certainly see what it's going for but there's a few things that needed more work to make the level appeal to me. The start is interesting, with plenty of hitscanners and no cover, instead relying on the invulnerability to give you time to clear them out. It actually took me a few attempts before I even realized that the blocks contained powerups and that was the central idea, but once you know where to run it's easy to clear out (which I'd argue actually isn't great game design, since it pretty much makes it a binary "do you know how to get the powerup" outcome).

 

The middle parts of the map are pretty forgettable, maybe with the exception of the small 'maze'. Again, didn't get the concept right away due to the silent teleports, actually wondered if my game was glitching at first. Regular teleports I think would've worked better. The demon horde released near the start is completely ineffectual and most of the threats for the rest of the map are in front of the player. The cyberdemon battle is a nice little surprise, but side-stepping on the bridge isn't too hard once you expect it.

 

An admirable effort at recreating the Bowser's castle levels from SMB but it also means a pretty dull-looking level in terms of color... just lots of grey suspended in black.

[Endless]

20 hours ago, dobu gabu maru said:

MA31 (for reals): Similar to my 50 Shades of Graytall submission, I purposely went with something unconventional because the texture set was so baffling to me that a normal map would not suffice. Ya see, traditional 8-bit Mario has a difficult time transitioning into 3D properly. I don’t think it’s too difficult to tie a Super Mario 64-style level to Doom’s open gameplay, but since the textures primarily reference the NES games, how the hell was I supposed to accurately translate Mario’s 2D design and philosophy to Doom’s gameplay? The project being Boom-compat meant that jumping wasn't even allowed—how do you make a Mario-style map with no jumping?!!

 

Captain Toad to the rescue! For those not in the know, Captain Toad is a Wii U title that has diorama-styled floating cube levels and is a game I enjoyed immensely for its look and feel—and since the little fellow can't jump, his style of gameplay naturally lends itself to the Doom-space. I decided to try my hand at it, and stick as close to its principles as possible. Namely: 1) A floating, cube-like design, 2) A focus on puzzles over foes, and 3) 3 Green Stars and hidden mushroom.

 

A lot of the puzzles came quite naturally—I myself am quite fond of the 3 colored lego blocks and the sinkysand pyramid (which helped me engineer the main mechanic in a future map hehehe). The hardest part about the design (besides making sure the mechanics worked properly) was trying to piece everything together. The layout required a lot of thinkin', since I had to first decide what the level flow was going to be (namely, lower cave sand -> P-switch -> Tele puzzle -> pyramid), and then to find clever ways to force the player traverse the environment multiple times. I don't think I kept the notes that I jotted down unfortunately, and I haven't retained any particulars about the design process. There's only two parts that I want to talk about, since I'm quite happy with the rest of the map and will gladly let it speak for itself.

 

The first is that the warp pipe maze is... probably still too taxing? When I initially designed it, there were like... 3 more islands? They were mainly just A->B teleports, but it added an unnecessary layer of confusion to the section when it was already quite maze-like and repetitive. I cut down the unnecessary filler but the maze still requires a lot of memorization in order to realize that you have to make like, 4 loops around the central waterfall platform. Plus this definitely shows my thought process when approaching problems; I always start with "what is the goal I'm trying to accomplish here" and as I mess around I slowly check off what clearly doesn't work. So for instance, the entire "left half" of the puzzle section (where you enter via the red blocks) only serves the purpose of lowering the blue blocks—so hey, you never need to go there again! But watching FDAs, there were a lot of people that would leave the "main" puzzle play area and go back to the start and take the left half section again, only to get confused and feel as though they've made no progress... which was true, because they started the whole puzzle over again! I don't mean this to come across as a condescending "wow people sure are dumb!" remark, but that the sequence is perhaps too specifically catered for my style of play, whereas everything else on the map is more lenient and works much better.

 

Well, except the second green star. You see, this is one of those purposely anti-fun decisions; it was actually a last minute addition to add some pattern to the ceiling as a act of mercy on my part. The way you're supposed to get through it is by literally bumping up against the entire path and trying to memorize via touch. I added this stupid section because a lot of the NES era had some really obscure and annoying designs (walk-through walls in Zelda anyone?), and I wanted to channel that philosophy even at the loss of enjoyment. But the more I think about it, the more I think the "counter-culture" decision is... just bad, really. It's kinda funny whenever I read about people defending artistic intent even when said intent is belligerent/rude/alien etc., because I feel like people don't understand how... pliable? design work is. Had I got a lot more pushback on this idea I think I would've scrapped it for something else, and though I'm too far past it now to wring my hands anxiously over how it'll be received, it's definitely a case where I can point to an idea and go "yeah, my bad". So, sorry about that.

 

Um, not much else. I'm suuuuper happy with the 3rd green star puzzle, since it was a nightmare trying to figure out how the hell to add a second solution to a pyramid I had already designed (and didn't really have room to add more stuff onto). I would've loved to work on an even harder version of the 3-colored lego blocks, as it can be quite easy to luck your way into the solution, similar to the eastern shrine in The Given. Lastly, the island to the top right is called "Marcaek Island" because he added it to block the unaligned scrolling sky texture, and I both love him for adding the "floating in the clouds" theme to the map (initially the map had a sky as its bottom, a la Captain Toad), but I also hate him for it because THE REST OF THE MAP IS SQUARE EXCEPT FOR THAT GODDAMN ISLAND

Quality right here. 

[Magnusblitz]

Something I keep forgetting to mention... that pause before the menu music comes in drives me nuts every time I open this WAD.

 

MAP19: Your Princess is in Another Fort, Asshole

100% kills, 2/3 secrets

 

With a name like that a rude start should be expected, I suppose, and this one certainly gave me trouble. With only a rocket launcher and then a chaingun, it's of utmost importance to quickly eliminate the actual threats (chaingunners, Pain Elementals, 'trons) and leave the rest of the monsters for later. Once you get upstairs, get the SSG and more rockets, you can clear out the top and things quiet down. There's are some possibly-tricky AVs later but I definitely found the start to be the toughest part.

 

The map does a good job with a small footprint, reusing space and moving some thing around to change up the battlefield. I wasn't wild about the use of the lava floors here, while it does help add to the franticness of finding a safe spot and forcing the player to move around (especially once the cyberdemon pops up) I didn't like having the switches behind it, especially with only one radsuit. Also, for what it's worth, I managed to grab the mushroom from a running jump from the red key platform instead of later waiting for the 'intended' way (platform later rises).

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP19 Your Princess is in Another Fort, Asshole

 

TMD is incapable of making any sort of joke. Except this map. This map is a joke. A fun joke in a number of ways, and an unfun in a few others. Mid-tier fighting is quite fun at times, as is "cybie in the middle games and roundabouts every once in a while. Layout honestly isn't fun though. Secrets are annoying to find. Loving the never-ending staircase reference. Also the frog suit being the radsuit is cool. There really should've been sprite replacements for the barrel and the backpack after all.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP20: Transformation Palace

 

We're back to the castle theme here, with this level presenting a cavernous, gloomy, and more Doom-like environment for the player to explore.  The layout emphasises forward, upward motion, with a single path twisting spiralling its way toward the map's shadow-shrouded rafters; with its overgrown scale, this is no simple traverse, but instead feels like an ascent of truly Herculean proportions.  Coupled with this is a careful arrangement of combat encounters which start out small in scale before steadily increasing oiver the course of the level's progression... right up until the player arrives at the vaulted apex of the climb and all Hell rather ferociously breaks loose in a sudden upswing in difficulty and violence.  I knew something had to be coming, I just didn't anticipate the scale of it.

 

Past that point, I think the map gets somewhat weaker, as the player moves from that single chunk of multi-level real estate, functioning as a carefully constructed and cleverly thought-out playground for multiple encounters, to another tall room with a winding ascent to scramble up, followed again by a large-scale battle at its apex.  Second verse, same as the first, but smaller, more heavy-handed, less satisfyingly devious, I felt.  The return teleporter that opens up once the player triggers the climactic encounter is a nice little convenience, though, providing a handy shortcut for a player who's fallen back to the earlier areas in search of health and ammunition but doesn't want to bother with the second half of the winding ascent just to get back into the fray.  The fact that it perhaps enables the evasion of some small portion of the demonic horde (or, if your luck is a little different, might drop you right into the middle of said horde to be mercilessly splattered from all directions) is just a bonus.

[gaspe]

MAP17: It was kinda fun, quite some monsters but it flows fast. I'm not fan of the visuals, it looks like the author just scribbled with few random textures.

 

MAP18: This tries to bring the SMB 1 Bowser castles levels in Doom, with a result that is rather weird. The small maze with silent teleports was cool and a nice reference, I recall that some of these were hard to figure out in the original game. Too bad we don't see the cyberdemon drop in the lava at the exit.

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP17: A short map with a really, really violent start. I actually did not like a majority of the BK area—I typically hate when pop up monsters are used for cheap attacks, and dislike the lack of cover along the upper portion of the map, since it forces you to jump down below to avoid rev rockets (or at least it did so for me). Add in the fact that enemies just constantly teleport in through the map are spontaneous rates & places, and despite some solid placement by rdwpa, it comes off as very, very grating on the initial playthrough. The invul room was actually a lot of fun, though that's because there's enough room that you won't risk getting slapped to death by hell knights. I liked that encounter, but it seemed too easy compared to the onslaught I was forced to survive beforehand. Clearly not my favorite map of the set :P

 

MAP18: Walter map, take two. I think this map handles much better than his first effort, since this is an action-packed obstacle course that pushes you to keep your foot on the pedal. There's no section I thought was poorly designed—the invis maze is a little disorienting but it's super short—and I really liked the map's use of the black texture to give the floor this uneven, floaty vibe. Even the end is fairly well done, with the cyber applying a bit of pressure to the player on that tiny bridge. Shame though, that peach popped up instead of a toad, especially given the next map's title. Good work walter.

[tmorrow]

map21: rainbow road, by Scotty
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

Uh oh, I think Scotty has been snacking on super mario's magic mushrooms. You've heard of the yellow brick road, well our marine gets to follow the rainbow road. As you load Scotty's map your eyes are smacked with an explosion of color on a night sky background. As your eyes start to recover and you move around you notice that the map is divided into 7 separate islands, one for the start, one for the hub, 3 for the blue, red and yellow key areas, one for the 2 cybies, and one for the area with the exit. Of course, each island basks in a kaleidoscope of color.

Scotty decided to provide bfg, rocket launcher and berserk for weapons and a small enemy count but of the deadliest kind. Yes, this party has a beefed up monster guest list with 2 cybies, a spider mastermind, archviles, hellknights, mancubi, arachnotrons, revenants and a handful of low tier enemies. As you might expect, once you trigger the monsters on each island, they have full visibility of every other island and quite a bit of crossfire can and does take  place. The cybies are in a particularly foul mood today and deadly rockets will sail in your direction where ever you go.

The map progresses in tried and true fashion. Visit an island, beat up all the monsters, hit every switch you find, steal their key and return to the hub. Repeat this for the other key islands. Once you have all keys, open the teleporter to the cybies and try to have a civil conversation with them over the dangers of rocket abuse. Fail to convince cybies so beat them up instead and head for the exit island.

Note the map contains super mario's "super stars" or invulnerability spheres as decorations on the map. There are 10 super stars out in the void that can't be reached without resorting to cheats. This means that only 5/15 items can be obtained on the map.

Edited April 22, 2018 by tmorrow : correct strange spelling of cybie

[Poncho]

Map19: Your Princess is in Another Fort, Asshole

Goddamn, even the titles are attacking us! Anyway, I wasn't too fond of this map. It starts off okay, I suppose, but once the main area gets filled with lava and a Cyberdemon roams about on the central pillar, it just becomes a bit too much, especially when you throw a couple of Arch-Viles into the mix. The secrets are a bit daft, if I'm honest. Also, I swear you can get stuck in this map if you fall in the wrong area once the lava appears. Yeah, not a fantastic level.

 

Map20: Transformation Palace

The only transformations I see are the creation of stairs! Huh? Anyway, some of the encounters are okay, and others just aren't cool. The first Cyberdemon and all those Revenants aren't bad on their own (though thouse Cacos and PEs can suck it), but the double Arch-Vile trap is honestly uncalled for. The next room, with a couple of AVs on high ledges is also a pain. After that, it isn't too bad, even with 3 Cyberdemons (though, maybe I was lucky since, they came in single-file). The Arch-Viles in the final room are just there to resurrect the bigger monsters, so they're just a bit of a ponce, but nothing dreadful. So yeah... another average map.

 

In regards to Map21 and Map22...

 

Edited April 21, 2018 by Poncho

[baja blast rd.]

Map 19: "Your Princess is in Another Fort, Asshole" by TMD

 

I think this map is okay, and probably above average for the set, but that it also fell very far from its true potential, through a seeming lack of effort more than anything.

 

Issues from start to finish are: 

 

- The start is annoying but without being truly dangerous. There are perched chaingunners, and a couple of pain elementals, but realistically speaking, you're just going to take chip damage that feels largely random and fall back to the multitude of stimpacks and medkits to heal. The pain elementals are also going to make a mess unless you stay silent for about ten seconds and your first engagement is killing them quickly (starting with the rocket launcher).

 

- Yeah I bitch about pain elemental use a lot, but this is just another example of where the pain elementals can never really be more than a source of cleanup. There is so much space, so the lost souls won't get you, and there is a lot of ammo in the map too so they aren't really exciting as a source of ammo deprivation either: in my first playthrough I never used a single bullet and left with bullets at full capacity, so even if the PEs made an ungodly mess, the worst that could have happened was me tediously plinking away at lost souls for a minute or so. I just think 'modern mapping dogma' is bad at pain elementals. I'm not sure which 'influence' to blame. Erik Alm? I guess part of it is that when I watch streams and such, it's not uncommon to see someone desperately charging and losing awareness of all other monsters in an effort to get rid of similar types of pain elementals, not stopping until they are dead, in a sort of frenzied gasbaglust -- when you can often calmly drop back for short periods (1-5 seconds) and accomplish the same with much less risk. So it might be a case of people mapping around that sort of (often irrational) approach to tackling PEs. Because I suppose this sort of PE placement can be fun if you act as if every second they are alive, even offscreen, they are draining money out of your bank account . . . Maybe that should be a mod. 

 

- This is sloppy. Either the whole thing needs to be traversible or it should be effortlessly readable that only the right half can be crossed, with the horizontal border on that step too. 

 

- This first lift is situated poorly. Monsters (especially 'trons) clump up below, at angles that are awkward for fighting. If you get an unlucky bunching you have to just drop back down. Sniping all the monsters from the ledges is a lot less fun for me than point-blank jousting. One thing about this map is that it LOOKS like it'd be fun to play aggressively and set everything loose, but it actually sucks for that, largely because of shit getting in the way at awkward connections in the layout.  I also think people overuse lifts in these types of 'pseudo deathmatch' layouts. Lifts slow down fluid movement. Since this juncture has to be crossed at LEAST twice -- three times if you decide to finish off the cyb, and and possibly more if you don't take a maximally efficient route through the map (unlikely in a first playthrough) -- it should be a set of stairs instead. 

 

- The meatwall mancubus behind the red key door. Given that the player can avoid the upper-level combat by just dropping off at any point, and it's not like it's a choreographed set piece, I don't see why it's necessary to put an obstacle to rushing past this way. This manc annoyed me more than any other monster because it's so blatantly just 'meat in the way'. 

 

- The two arachnotrons on the ledge past this door in the drop off are also awkward if you didn't snipe them earlier, since they can bunch up below the drop.

 

- The 40% health bonus secret, just before a non-secret soulsphere. This is easily made redundant. You can get there with 100 HP (especially after the nearby medkits). Since postponing the soulsphere pickup afterwards in the most dangerous fight in the map is not a good idea, a very likely possibility is that you just go 100 -> 140 -> 200. And if you save the health bonuses for later they are pointless at that point too, since the map will be practically over. This secret should be a backpack instead. There are lots of shellboxes around. 

 

At this point the map hits its stride. I really enjoy the vile + other stuff skirmishes with the turret cyb in the middle. But still: 

- The third PE. For me, it started infighting the cyberdemon offscreen while I was unaware (this being possible at all is bad design). It made an ungodly mess too. But I still had enough shells and bullets scattered around the map to kill everything. Apparently what is happening is that the PE can hear you from the other side of the map after hitting the switch (e.g. if you hit the switch then kill a manc). And then off it goes ... somewhere. 

 

- Those mancubi on the lift cubes. These don't do anything gameplay-wise, really. In fact the only thing they can really do is interfere if you decide to take the elective fight against the cyberdemon up close with the SSG. Since fighting the cyb this way is among the most fun one could have in the map, I wouldn't give the player a reason to go around the map again (to dispose of the manc first). That would require yet another circuit around the map, and again the lift and the deceptively poor flow of the layout would show itself. (I say 'deceptively' because it looks like a good, fluid layout, but again it has too many flaws for that.) 

 

Anyway, this feels like a three-hour speedmap, with at least two of those hours going to map design rather than gameplay. It could have been a genuinely good map after lots of refining. It feels really unpolished to me. But on the strength of its best fights and skirmishes, it's okay. 

 

Ah another thing that I'm a fan of: you have the option of skipping the skirmish triggered by the YK switch, if you want to go past the cyb instead. Might as well do both, since they are among the more fun things in the map, but I like that kind of structuring. 

 

Map 20: "Transformation Palace" by Argent Agent

 

What I liked: the fact that you can run out of ammo and it's really a good idea to choreograph lots of infights. (Training the cyb on stuff, particularly that goat horde and the cluster of revs, is pretty fun.) The layout and its transformations are cool too. I'm also a fan of that extremely inconvenient redundant soulsphere NOT being an actual secret. 

 

What I didn't like:

 

- Caco/PE horde. The area is way too spacious to make them a threat. Also realistically speaking you aren't going to run out of ammo due to the PEs, but rather you're either going to use infighting well elsewhere and have lots of surplus ammo, or not use infighting at all and run out of ammo because of that. The PEs's particular mode of deployment (in a pack among a horde of cacos) ends up having a smoothing effect on how much the PEs can realistically do, because lost soul spawns are suppressed to some extent, and some lost souls infight each other or are killed by cacos. Cacos slooow lofting fireballs also do nothing in such a giant space. It exists just for show, and I normally wouldn't mind that tbh, but the rest of the map ends up being grindy enough that this particular grind is not something I appreciate. 

 

- Ascension up Mt. Vile. This either stonewalls you due to lack of ammo or it's a tedious and awkward grind. 

 

- The baffling secret distribution. Why is the backpack, which you really could use in the first 90% of the map when there are lots of cellpacks and such to pick up, all the way at the end, after which you don't really need it since you can just empty your load of 300 cells and then stock up conveniently again? That should be in the first secret instead. Furthermore, why is there no BFG9000? Three cybs vs. a PR here is the sort of thing that might be tolerable once when you are FDA-ing the map and don't want to die so there's some degree of excitement. And then it completely ruins the map's replayability (in a max context), because objectively it's a dull fight. A saving grace is that it's easily skippable.

 

- The lack of a BFG. x10000. Probably the map's single biggest problem, actually, even before the ending. There isn't a fight in the map that is actually interesting due to having the plasma rifle (with lots of cells) in lieu of the BFG (with fewer cells), rather than just 'a lot longer'. Designing the map around the BFG (somewhat later than where the plasma rifle pickup is, perhaps after the mastermind) would have been better. The same potential ammo scarcity angle would have been possible to pull off.

 

Anyway not a bad map though, despite what I think are numerous flaws -- the design is cool enough that I'll go through it in -nomonsters again. 

Edited April 21, 2018 by rdwpa

[Catpho]

Review dump incoming!!!!!!!!

MAP31 - “Sinkysand Switchland” by dobu gabu maru

Tired of wiping out demons? Well this self described "wrong turn at Albuquerque" got you covered, oh and prepare a thinking cap or too: this one substitutes The high octane shooting for brain tickling puzzles! The enjoyment level is purely based on how much you like people straying away from doom's fast paced fps gameplay, which luckily i do, as this one is quite well executed. Its got good looks, with colorful, vibrant detailing and a nice, whimsical setting that goes along with the name (apparently its inspiration is this "Captain Toad" game, but i kept getting the super mario galaxy feel). The puzzles arent really obtuse, but they sure do give a good workout. I do recommend the secret exit route, some bonus puzzles are always cool as you get to see how creative the mapper gets. The level literally sinks and uses switches to build itself in many amazing ways!

Must play if you enjoy people taking this game in new eccentric directions. I know i did!

Some screenies:

[Catpho]

MAP32 - “Return to the Birabuto Kingdom” by Death Egg

While dobu's map is unconventional in gameplay, Death Egg's secret entry is off the wall in its visual presentation. The gameboy asthetic gimmick looks like it could really have potential, but while the map does have plenty of cute sights and generally is a respectable execution, but some parts look flat and a bit bland. I guess it really take something more (this project's limitations and the doom pallet doesnt really cut it) to make something special out of Super mario land looks. Gameplay promised to be harrowing at the start, but was mostly easy going later.

Eh, an "ok" secret map. Gameboy stuff is novel, but not much else. That music is heart warming tho.

Some screenies:

[Catpho]

MAP16 - “Skyward Vivarium” by Pinchy

All aboard the Pinchy ship! My was this a pleasant one to play. Instead of gothic's intimidating interpretation in MAP06, Pinchy's is filled to the brim with bright colors, campy visuals and all around happiness (yes, im describing it like that). Its layout looks simple at first, but the enemy placement does a great job at making the player sweat. Barrels as effective road blocks, traps are well done and hitscanners packs, you gonna add hitscanners packs. Ending is super depressing tho, prepare for them tears.

A good short map, nice break from the previous epics.

Some screenies:

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP20 Transformation Palace

 

Well I sort of predicted what the name would be. Staircases rising, ? blocks being main triggers, cool shit. There don't seem to be any monsters under a cacodemon. We have plenty of mid-tiers and a spiderdemon roaming around this one. Combat really doesn't hit its stride until after the red key and after rerunning back to where it was. This is where we see not only a cyber, but many other enemies that teleport in like hell knights, cacos, and revenants, plus a couple of arch-viles. The southern room looks great when created, too bad sniper viles and arachnotrons are not as fun here. I like the gimme keys at the exit room coupled with the really hard fights there too. I would've liked it better if there was a BFG9000 here though (at least in the lower settings). One thing I really hated? Thing 123. FUCK THIS ITEM. I must've loaded my game about 313 times or so before finally giving up on how to reach this. The only assumed way I can reach this supercharge is to run across the pipes, but it seems that getting on the pipes is troublesome enough, getting on one then stopping means you can't build any sort of momentum without falling down and HAVING TO CLIMB ALL THE WAY BACK UP.

[tmorrow]

17 minutes ago, NuMetalManiak said:

I must've loaded my game about 313 times or so before finally giving up on how to reach this. The only assumed way I can reach this supercharge is to run across the pipes, but it seems that getting on the pipes is troublesome enough, getting on one then stopping means you can't build any sort of momentum without falling down and HAVING TO CLIMB ALL THE WAY BACK UP.

 

I had a lot of trouble with that soul sphere too. The method of dropping down from the revenant room onto one of the lower eastern pipes and then trying to get up the speed from a standing start to skim along the pipes to the west didn't work very often for me.

 

The method that worked best was to get to the north east side of the revenant room in from the edge and aim at an angle west and a tiny bit north straight for the penultimate pillar before the soul sphere and then run straight at it, coming off the north west edge, sailing through the air and onto the penultimate pillar and then straight over onto the soul sphere. You need to aim a little to the right of where part of the building juts out or you will hit it and fall.

[baja blast rd.]

See, that thing is annoying. :) 

 

Bonus content is that nomonsters run. This would be cool to watch from someone with actual good movement like 4shockblast or Looper.

 

 

[Catpho]

MAP17 - “All the Monster’s Teeth are Perfect” by Angry Saint

If you dont like reading through a rant, i only liked the sorta hectic gameplay and only a few encounters, everything else is "meh" worthy

I cant say i liked this tbh. The music and that really dumb sounding name (sorry but wat) is just foreshadowing my mixed feelings with this level. Gameplay designs are somewhat alright, theres a good amount of chaos happening, but obnoxious pop up and teleport traps just makes me not fully able to enjoy it. Visuals are random blocks thrown into each other, making a very disorientating look. Theres some wacky architecture thats way too "upbeat" for its own good. Invul star was a highlight, but like what dobu said as a final it doesnt live up to the rest of the map.

This is obviously not one of your best efforts Angry Saint :/

Some screenies:

 

[Catpho]

MAP18 - “C’mon Peach, You’ve Got What You Want, Now Give This Plumber Cake!” by Walter Confetti

I cant not see the title's typo in Dobu's opening post now XD

Anyway, second meeting with Walter. I think there's less salt in me about map07, i eventually warmed up to some aspect of that map. Still, like this one, has interesting ideas but an execution that kinda lacks a little something. The beginning makes a good hot start, all them hitscanners really putting you under pressure. Everything after that was forgettable tho. Maybe the cyberdemon fight was decent, but then i skipped for the axe to see what would happen, and it just... ends. Bowser fortress theme is what really makes it memorable, complete with the track! But then it looks monotone and a bit dull. The gimmicks are a nice touch. Is it valid if i use the invul to get to the next part? I couldnt find any switches.

Its really just on par with what i feel about map07. There are interesting points but ultimately not so enjoyable.

Some screenies:

Edited April 21, 2018 by Catpho

[Catpho]

MAP19 - “Your Princess is in Another Fort, Asshole” by TMD

Where are your manners!

TMD makes a TMD map. Which means: tricky monster placement and plenty of exposure. And this map is all that: you gotta have to be precise, or you wont have a breath to catch. 86 monsters have never been so troubling with a mix of doom2 mid to high teir baddies (including Pain lost soul spawners!). Your environment hates you too: your combat zone is a brick fortress designed to murder you, as with every Bowser and koopaling hideout ever (seriously, i dont think they can live in their own house!). Its architecture helps the demons, and eventually its floor is nothing but boiling hot lava. Ammo must be used wisely too. Welp, at least its stark simplicity makes for decent visuals. More awesome analysis can be found at your friendly neighborhood @rdwpa

Its an above average one. The ending is some cool stuff.

Last catch up for now

Some screenies:

 

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP21: Rainbow Road

 

This couldn't be more different to the preceding map and its gloomy and atmospheric castle interior; here, the player gallivants about a series of primary-coloured platforms of neon light scattered amidst an endless starfield, dizzying in its scale and depth.  The actual layout quickly reveals itself as a fairly conventional hub-and-spoke arrangement, albeit one that's connected via teleporters rather than hallways; progression depends upon retrieving keys from the three spokes/pockets, each of which is guarded by its own squad of monsters, though they don't pop into place until you make your way to the pocket in question.  And while all of this is going on, you've subjected to Cyberdemons strutting about as though they own the place and raining rocket on you from afar.  It's a very structured sort of gameplay - here's your toolkit, here's your playing field, have fun! - but enough effort and expertise has gone into it to make that structure a fun one.

[rehelekretep]

trying to catch up!

i liked map15 so much i did a uv-max run. its a first exit so not very good, but i want to move on to other maps and not spend too much time on it.

map15 uv-max 11:33

[tmorrow]

map22: chocolate starfish islands, by Benjogami
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

Another favourite! This map consists of a starting area, an icy building, a lovely ice rink, 2 more islands jam packed full of fun and of course the, er, chocolate starfish exit. What could be more fun than this? Nothing!

Progression through the level is a linear affair. Yes, Benjogami your tour guide has insisted that activities take place in a strict regimented order, otherwise the smack will come down hard. Well actually the smack comes down hard anyway, no matter how you play it. This rule is reinforced if you attempt to fire upon the first revenant that appears as you try to climb the icy building. Consequences are immediate with fatal repercussions.

The most frustrating part of the map is the climb up the icy building and it is unfortunate. By design there are several enemies on the surrounding islands that take shots as you climb. If you are hit, you take damage but you are also pushed and can easily be knocked off the narrow ice blocks. You need to time activities. Especially along the two long edges facing an archvile who is a plaform that rises and falls. A perfectly good idea, but there is a problem due to non responsive and inconsistent keyboard controls (mouse seems fine) you end up with a variety of inexplicable and annoying results. I'm not sure whether it is the way keystrokes are buffered in doom or what but your controls become retarded. For example you can press forward and get no movement, then when you press forward again you race forward at lightning speed. You seem to bounce off invisible blocks. Sometimes you can't slide around a 90 degree bend. Contrast this to the next section, an ice rink where the keyboard controls work perfectly and you can speed up or slow down with far more control.

The most enjoyable part of the map for me is the square ice rink. You slide around the ice biffing demons with berserk fist and avoiding the revenant and imp fire. Benjogami's only mistake was not to make the rink 4 times bigger and add more demons. There are 3 switches to hit to lower a rocket launcher in the middle and it feels really good to use it immediately on that damned remote revenant even if you have to deliberately jump into a pain sector to get a lock on the bugger.

The next section is an island with a pond and you can finally get your revenge on the archvile, hellknights and imps that were using you as target practice during the icy building climb. Be careful going into the pond here since it slows down your movement.

The last area can be quite nasty. You stand in a pool of water nearby 2 pillars. In the distance are several waterfalls and channel in front of you. Enemies start to appear near the waterfalls and slide down the channel toward you. The enemies that reach your area can teleport to one of the 2 pillars or back to the base of the waterfall. Later on items appear and slide down the channel toward you. There are 2 archviles in the mix and they are extremely dangerous, especially if one manages to teleport onto a pillar.

Finally you have the pleasure of speeding up a set of stairs, flying across the water over to and landing on the chocolate starfish island to exit the map.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 15 -- Ziegenhaus - 105% Kills / 100% Secrets - FDA

Graves. Cellars. A darksome chuckling drifting up from filthy stormdrains, and from the squalid shadows in the back alleys. A wretched old crone in a withered toadstool cap scrabbles unwholesomely at your shirtsleeve, imploring you not to come 'round, not to go down, down to Xaser's town.

 

IIRC, I spent about twice as long playing this map as anything else in the set, so the FDA's rather long. I think I dropped a save at the very end, after all of the combat was done, because at the time I wasn't sure which was the normal exit and which the secret exit (though it's plainly obvious/telegraphed in hindsight, if I'd used my little brain for a second). Other thing of some minor note to this first playthrough is that I fight and defeat the cyber-twins "straight up" without ever disrupting their teleportation spell, after a host of sphincter-clenching moments (...which is also part of why the recording is as long as it is, come to think of it). Far from being a consequence of bravado, this is quite the contrary case, my never seeing the hint text because I was trying to be a cute little bastard and stretch the V-star into an "obvious" setpiece fight. :)

 

Time well spent! I found the map to be thoroughly enjoyable, from start to finish. While there seems to be a fairly clear conceptual theme established early on--gameplay based entirely around the RL and PR, and a rogue's gallery featuring entirely the heavy hitters from among the Doom II additions (with two very notable exceptions)--the proceedings have plenty of surprising twists and turns and intriguing developments along the way. I was never quite sure what to expect, and every time I began feeling comfortable, there would arise some startling flash development to jar me from my complacency, a sort of rollercoaster of feelings which is quite compelling. I wouldn't describe this as a terribly hard map--the powerful/devious monster composition is neatly checked by a power-focused thing/weapon balance to keep the player equally powerful at most points--but it absolutely keeps you on your toes at all times.

 

Much of the action is based around traps or ambushes driven by sudden changes in the environment, as simple and as relatively intuitive as doors flying open/slamming shut to larger shifts much more difficult to foresee given the complex and occasionally uncanny architecture--walls dropping, floors descending, staircases suddenly collapsing. Given the nature of the monster composition fast reactions are paramount, and many of these traps have the potential for rapid lethality, but at the same time, the level is laid out in such a way that the player is often afforded more benefits than those arising from simple reflex alone; several of the nastier ambushes are telegraphed by sound if not by sight, and most areas have more than one entrance, some of which are liable to be vastly more tactically advantageous to the player than others. In theory this means that someone who knows the map well could take a decidedly 'softer' route through it than the average; in practice, during blind play, it helps to keep the pace varied and in establishing that entertaining up/down/up/down swing between tension and momentum. The final battle, in what is presumably The Ziegenhaus (as opposed to one of the many humbler goat houses), serves as an excellent capper by giving all players a more controlled/set challenge, and is one of the more effective (as opposed to merely 'novel') bossfights using stock monsters that I've seen in some time.

 

The scavenger hunt for the red coins, which I think I was sort of vaguely aware of as a Mario 64 Thing, is an entertaining way of handling the secret exit, openly presenting it as a straightforward optional objective rather than trying to make matters as obscure as possible, which is a nice contrast with how these things often tend to be handled. A couple are tricky, but most of these coins (I think there were 8 in total?) are not too terribly difficult to locate for the exploration-minded player, and neatly underwrite the geometrical complexity of the setting, coloring it as something a little more nuanced than a series of venues for monsterfights. As a general observation, I find that many of my favorite maps feature this conceit of giving the player more than one distinct fun activity to do over the course of progression (i.e. have engaging fights + have an amusing scavenger hunt), and this map certainly achieves that ephemeral balance of emphases.

 

Great fun, easily a set highlight.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 31 -- Sinkysand Switchland - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets - FDA

A Dobu Gabu Maru puzzle map, from a year of Dobu Gabu Maru puzzle maps, where these seemed to be his dominant fascination. That being the case, it's difficult for me not to compare it to its siblings in some sense, which IMO is not entirely to its favor (read: I'm going to be a grumpy stick-in-the-mud about the whole happy-happy joy-joy please-sedate-me-again Mario thing some more, if you like), though it certainly has its merits.

 

Of the strong points, the map is impressively economical with its space : content ratio. I think this is the second-longest FDA for the pack (m15's is still significantly longer!), and while I had some headscratching periods I feel like I made fairly consistent progress throughout (eventually reaching the super-secret exit in due course). It's small, but there's a lot to do, and the environment is often more complex than it initially seems, with few topographical features existing purely as scenery, though many of them initially appear that way. Different elements and features of the level will often factor into more than one puzzle solution at different stages of progression, and the overall challenge involves not only figuring out particular mechanics or conceits in isolation, but also seeing a bigger picture, where actually moving between different parts of the level while keeping different elements in proper alignment takes some lateral thinking and the occasional spot of athletic ingenuity. In comparison to a more epic undertaking, ala The Given, which is comprised of a sprawl of otherwise largely self-contained (if arguably more robust) elements, it's impressive how intertwined many of the various puzzle threads are here, both physically and conceptually. Must've taken quite some deep planning.

 

The puzzles of the 'main' progression are fairly straightforward (by Dobu's standards, I mean). As far as these go it's usually pretty clear what you're trying to do, with the main wrinkle being more how to physically do it while keeping this or that mechanical element in proper alignment (usually one of the binary red/blue walls), often involving some circuitous physical traversal to solve otherwise conceptually simple problems. The pyramid is certainly the best of these, IMO, very Jim Flynn (R.I.P.) with its combination of moving parts with really weird/janky physical adjacencies. By contrast, I thought that the whole middle sojourn involving the magic port-a-pots on the peripheral islands felt largely like padding, being based more on simple trial-and-error and rote memorization (vs. inductive reasoning or lateral thinking) than Dobu has typically allowed himself. For what it offered, I thought this bit was slightly too long; interesting to hear it used to be longer still.

 

Most of the best ideas involve the secret green stars, which are all in plain sight yet reached through devilishly circuitous paths, usually involving an additional layer of lateral thinking, inception-style, about physical traversal on top of the lateral thinking you're already doing in that regard vis-a-vis standard progression. The easternmost star is something of an exception, being accessed through a self-contained puzzle behind a mum pushwall, and so reads as something of that one part that wouldn't quite fit naturally once all else had been assembled. The little puzzle itself's effective enough, though; ironically, I could tell that there was something going on with the pattern in the ceiling that was supposed to be a hint of some kind, but without mouselook I couldn't actually see it very well, and so I ended up solving it in the way Dobu had apparently originally intended: in the FDA you'll see me walking around in the sand bumping into the invisible platforms after falling off for the first time, mentally mapping the room out in my head.

 

So, the puzzles are decent enough, on the whole. Why the slight tang of sour grapes, then? Simple: Mario. Speaking for myself, I think that for a puzzle game, or a puzzle game in which the player inhabits a virtual body in a virtual world, at any rate, the ambience/atmosphere of the game world are disproportionately crucial to immersion/involvement in that world, whereas in Regular Doom more of the weight is shouldered by the more inherently pressing demands of combat, certainly not to denigrate the value of atmosphere in that realm either, mind you (technically this map does have combat, of course, but it's trivial to the point of functional meaninglessness, and I assume is meant to serve a purely aesthetic purpose reminiscent of the source material, though I did briefly entertain the concerning notion that he was going to make me keep one or more imps alive to access some of the secrets or something....). To the extent one agrees on that point, at least, well....all I can say is that I don't find the atmosphere of this aggressively, almost saturatedly sunny, cheery place very compelling, and so I wasn't personally drawn in as in some of Dobu's conceptually similar maps elsewhere. I will replay those because I find them compelling places to be; I will not replay this. Your mileage may vary wildly, of course.

 

A worthy piece from the community's reigning Riddlemaster, which should certainly appeal to fans of that particular niche, provided at least their aesthetic tastes are somewhat less grim and frostbitten than my own. ;)

[Demon of the Well]

Map 32 -- Return to the Birabuto Kingdom - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets - FDA

THE YEAR OF LUIGI NEVER ENDS

 

Chilling words. Somebody hold me.

 

I was not impressed by this one. I never personally owned a GameBoy, but my sister had one, and so I did recognize the setting/reference here: "Oh yeah that one Soviet-imitation-looking Mario game with the weird music." To be frank, I think the reference is really what this level banks on, and since that involves faithfully imitating a very 'limited' aesthetic it can only carry it so far. Nostalgia notwithstanding, aesthetically it's quite dull, blocks and black and olive-drab with no lighting and a prop or two, forming a stage route not much more complex than an old portable sidescroller it so actively invokes. From a gameplay perspective it's most practically similar to m10, being an action corridor of sorts (even including a similar loop, though this one is markedly less practical/snappy from a flow standpoint), and in that regard it offers combat that is serviceable at best, dull at worst. A brief spate of uncertainty regarding ammo balance at the outset gives way to a sequence of ledge-clearings and a turgid surprise or two; none of the fights is very flavorful (the cyberdemon in particular being a non-event, only of practical interest to completionists) individually, though to its credit the map at least doesn't try to make things seem more involved than they are by trying to add "challenge" via privation, instead offering the player a lot of ammo/supplies to make quick work of its opposition, underscoring that its real point is presumably the moment of "oh yeah I get the reference."

 

Map 16 -- Skyward Vivarium - 102% Kills / 100% Secrets - FDA

Didn't really care for this one either, I'm afraid, didn't seem to have anywhere near the spirited liveliness or imagination of Pinchy's earlier map. Symmetrical and yet with a strangely daft sense of flow (the most practical route apparently being stepping into the central room, far enough to lower the vile platforms, and then fucking off back out to do the rest of the level with the RL and PR before returning at the end?), both placement and progression struck me as being uncomfortably and awkwardly improvised, "making the best of a less than ideal situation." Apart from the sudden attack at the end and the brief mindless catharsis of the zombie-squads on the side decks, none of the combat here has much zest, being comprised disproportionately of perched or otherwise immobile enemies with limited fields of fire, most of which have very little practical bearing on proceedings for players who don't insist on trying for maxkills.

 

I wouldn't call the action trivial--the ammo : monster HP balance is deceptively tight, and indeed certain sequences of events can probably see legitimate ammo problems develop vis-a-vis working through the few ground-level groups of monsters which are legitimate obstacles. Likewise, healing is in deceptively short supply versus the damage potential of the opposition, which skews mostly towards heavy hitters and includes a lot of incidental chip damage to boot (I think the complaints about the "unfairness" of hitscan gameplay is more credible here than it would be in something like m04, where the hitscannery is much more fluidly worked into the concept, though I think the visceral satisfaction of massacring the zombiemen here is still more than worth the Philosophical Issue). This is as likely to contribute to the generally dry and joyless nature of the fights as it is to the engagement of tension, though, so in the end it's a wash, at best.

 

[tmorrow]

7 hours ago, rehelekretep said:

trying to catch up!

i liked map15 so much i did a uv-max run. its a first exit so not very good, but i want to move on to other maps and not spend too much time on it.

map15 uv-max 11:33

 

Well played @rehelekretep! Did you know there's a non official secret to a green armor on the map. I notice you could have used it but didn't pick it up. Fortunately you prevailed without it!

 

Spoiler

Enter the north door of the 3 door goat house. Turn around and action the wall on either side of the door to lower both walls and the ledge to the north with the green armor on it. Run over to collect the green armor before the ledge rises again.

 

[Catpho]

MAP20 - “Transformation Palace” by Argent Agent

For the map20 checkpoint, we get one large, ominous and imposing castle from Argent Agent. Being very tall, having gloomy lighting and the pressure raising music (it actually sounds like a really intense dance track :P) is what makes the tension of this map. Beautiful too, bricks complement well with the checkerboard floor and torches, as well as having exquisite architecture. The map's namesake comes from its "transforming" gimmick, can really create some nice scenes. Im less than ethusiastic about its gameplay tho: lots of HR2-esque grinds, infighting not remedying a whole lot. Worst offender was the archvile stair climb, i would shudder to think of how may tries just to force myself through that place. The rest is very big spectacle fights, but sorely lacking in threat. For such cool visual and layout designs, gameplay is flawed.

Not bad, but there are many areas that could have been better.

Some screenies:

[rehelekretep]

5 hours ago, tmorrow said:

 

Well played @rehelekretep! Did you know there's a non official secret to a green armor on the map. I notice you could have used it but didn't pick it up. Fortunately you prevailed without it!

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Enter the north door of the 3 door goat house. Turn around and action the wall on either side of the door to lower both walls and the ledge to the north with the green armor on it. Run over to collect the green armor before the ledge rises again.

 

aha! very good! i was having a look at it and thought it might have something to do with wall-running/SR50 across but gave up as seemed impossible and not a 'likely' route to a secret.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP22: Chocolate Starfish Islands

 

Oh wow, this was one just super annoying to me, with its highly artificial combat scenarios arranged back to back with the expectation that the player will jump through the map author's hoops and dance to their tune or else die wretchedly.  It's creative, it's varied, and it definitely kept me on my toes, but I can't say that I found the style of gameplay present here to be fun.  On to the next!