Thy Flesh Consumed with different progression?

[kildeth]

Hi everyone, long time no see!

 

I was thinking just now about how the fourth episode of UDoom has a rather strange progression, starting off hard until E4M4, when things become very easy before the difficulty builds up again for E4M6. It made me wonder if 'Unruly Evil' was originally intended as the first map of Thy Flesh Consumed before Id Software decided it best to throw some hard maps at the beginning to really showcase the bonus levels they created for the original Doom.

 

I haven't had a playthrough of this new progression yet, but I've quickly drawn up a more linear sequence for TFC and I was wondering what everyone here would think of it. Does anyone else think TFC would have been better off following a more traditional difficulty curve, or is it fine how it is?

 

E4M1 - Unruly Evil

E4M2 - They Will Repent

E4M3 - Hell Beneath

E4M4 - Sever the Wicked

E4M5 - And Hell Followed

E4M6 - Against Thee Wickedly

E4M7 - Perfect Hatred (entrance to E4M9)

E4M8 - Unto The Cruel

E4M9 - Fear

 

[SiFi270]

Someone else had the same idea and created a mapinfo patch for ZDoom. Their order doesn't completely match yours, but they do give detailed explanations for their reasoning.

[kildeth]

The MAPINFO patch had some interesting ideas. 'And Hell Followed' has a Cyberdemon in it and for that alone I'd put it a bit later than E4M2, even if from what I remember the Cybie isn't that hard to defeat. I've done a bit of a playthrough of my map order and I'd have to say that 'Hell Beneath' isn't THAT challenging when it is the third map in a set, it is still harder than the first two maps but it is nothing compared to what it is in the official IWAD. 'Sever The Wicked' also becomes slightly easier when in the fourth slot instead of the third, but it still has a sting to it. I still have to do a playthrough of the rest of the maps in the set I created to judge the whole thing though.

 

I have to admit though, 'Hell Beneath' has a prettier design than 'Unruly Evil', especially in the start location. The little wooden box where UE starts isn't all that visually appealing for the opening of an episode, which ID Software would have taken into consideration (probably).