The DWmegawad Club plays: 99 Ways to Die & Troopers' Playground & Talosian Incident

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP02 Intrusion

 

Mappers of old tend to really like placing shotgun guys around, especially on HMP difficulty. This one is more engaging, has bigger enemies like mancubi and barons, and is actually quite cramped in a number of spots. That one thirty-second ambush sucks though, nothing good out of it really. Getting an SSG will help for the last few parts of the map.

[gaspe]

MAP02: Visually it's allright even if it's a bit bland, I liked more the previous level. The gameplay and progression was more interesting. The path is linear and everytime you meet a dead end to get back and go to the next area you must activate a trap. I only hope it doesn't get overused in the next levels.

 

4 hours ago, Roofi said:

The whole reminded me of Hell Revealed 2 for some reasons , maybe because the layout is very squarish and also the abundance of brown and metal textures used.

 

I thought a similar thing, the map gave me a feel that wasn't so distant from HR/HR 2 though of course the map isn't as brutal as those wads.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP02: Intrusion

 

This one's a pleasantly brown brickbase that earns its name, the player's route taking the form of a staged progression through a complex gated into sequential zones by locked doors, though the path of intrusion is not a straight one but instead a coil that brings the invading marine almost back to the point where they started, albeit a level higher.  There's a sense that the exit passage here ought to lead above the entranceway, that the whole map was a barrier or a series of locking mechanisms designed to slow an intruder's progress through this node, a tough nugget of meat that has to be chewed thoroughly before the next mouthful can be taken.

 

Health seems more generous here and there are plenty of situations where the player might find it bled away, whether that's another close-range encounter with an evil marine who's all too happy to wait behind a door and tear into whoever opens it with his chaingun, or a foxtrot about an all-too-small locked room with a cacodemon and a hell knight for dancing partners and only a shotgun and chaingun to keep them at arm's length.  The WAD finally gives up the super shotgun here, along with a suit of blue armour tucked away in what's probably the last secret of the map, but the big guns are still out of reach.  Most of what you'll be facing off with here consists of zombies, imps, and other fodder suitable for this lighter end of the Doom arsenal, but there are enough slouching mancubi and strutting Barons of Hell around that there are definitely times when the available toolkit feels frustratingly inadequate for the task at hand.  It's not difficult, mostly, just slower and grindier than is fun.

[tmorrow]

map03: Simply Dead..., by Matthias Worch
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

Simply Dead, an apt map description. There is plenty of non linearity on the map that you can use to your advantage but the key pickups occur in order red then blue. Some nasty traps can ruin your day. Your first fight is with a pain elemental and a couple of lost souls with a shotgun and nowhere to hide. This is your warmup exercise. There are many chaingunners and other snipers that are keen to see you do the cha-cha.

One of the more dangerous rooms contains a crusher with switches lining the back wall, with several caged barons around the room objecting quite strenuously to your actions. Fortunately there's a hidden partial invisibility secret nearby that can make your job easier. Another dastardly deed is wrought upon the player as they pick up the blue key and are forced into fighting one of the Evil Troopers while stuck in a cage in the green slime.

There are 5 secrets to find. The soulsphere, megaarmor and partial invisibility pickups are the juiciest pickups.

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

Is it just me, or does it seem like fewer people are in this month's club than last?

Regardless, I'll post my own review of Simply Dead in a few hours, after I play it.

[tmorrow]

1 minute ago, Aquila Chrysaetos said:

Is it just me, or does it seem like fewer people are in this month's club than last?

 

Ebbs and flows I think. Last months wad was made in 2017 and several of the mappers popped in for comment. This month we are playing 20+ year old wads that many veterans have played before. The wad choice often results in a different profile of players, for example a few months ago we played TimeOfDeath's ESP wad, a notoriously difficult mapset that attracted more players who are up for a challenge. I noticed we have had several new people join the club this month though which is great to see.

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

Such as myself. Cool beans, then, I was just curious. I know @rehelekretep and @Catpho are sitting this one out, either due to choice or outside circumstances, so it seemed a little strange that about six or seven people were consistently reviewing instead of what looked like fifteen to twenty.

[Spectre01]

MAP03 - “Simply Dead…” FDA (misses one secret): ttp03-S01-2214-FDA.zip

This map's relatively generous with health and ammo, assuming you find some of the secrets. That blue armour is also a must, or you'll be in for a bad time, especially against that custom trooper which makes a brief appearance. I do like the overall design, and there is plenty of variety in the visuals and gameplay. The crusher room with the caged Barons stands out as the most memorable gimmick, and I actually enjoyed flipping those switches while dodging the ceiling.

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

Just a tad later than usual, but I was reading a book. Shame on me.

 

MAP03: Simply Dead

GZDoom 3.4 pre-298, UV, continuous run, manual saves

 

Screenshots first.

Spoiler

O nu, the attack of the Skelly Kings!

 

Liked this room.

 

Bastard chaingunner trap.

 

Saved here before going in.

 

Barely survived this round.

Another fortress-type, thing one with a rather sharp difficulty curve. A nonlinear map that doesn't manage to get the player lost very easily, this one grants you a rocket launcher toward its end. After grabbing the red card, you can finally go into the dark hallways of ultimate darknitude and get the blue card you spy long before. But as soon as you grab the blue card, the Trooper has come out to play! This time, unless you feel like suffering damage from the floor, you have to stand your ground and hope like hell that he doesn't completely eviscerate you.

 

After killing him, you venture back only to blunder into a trap with the foul shotgunners in it. The gods were watching me today, because I managed to squeeze through at a measly 3 health. Finally, on the flip side of the blue door, you get your rocket launcher. I believe there's a blockmap error here, because some of the barons' projectiles collided against empty space. Regardless, passing them leads you to a spectre trap just outside the exit.

 

I should really start looking harder for secrets, because I only found two, and neither were the soulsphere or blue armor.

[Roofi]

Map 03 : Simply Dead

 

 

Difficulty : Medium

Death(s) : 1

 

DEMO

 

After you intruded the brownish castle , you try to find a way to get out but traps become more frequent and deadlier. Your dexterity will determine if you will be victorious or simply dead...

 

I died once because I tried to reach the blue armor by doing a (failed) straff50 over the lava. "Simply dead" is the harder sequel of "Intrusion". The progression still consists to navigate through square rooms in a brown fort. Secrets were more useful because you can grab the soulsphere and the blue armor earlier. However , those secrets were still tricky to find so I found them once I killed all ennemies again.

 

The surroundings get more dangerous. You actually start on a bridge located in a quite big slime pool. The green liquid  fortunately deals you only 5% damage , picking up the few items doesn't represent a great danger. However , keep in mind that some pits are deadly because unescapable. There is a hole in the cross-shaped room and don't take the risk to reach the blue armor without activating the secret bridge. There is also a crusher room which can hurt you badly if you are too slow. A lot of switchs must be pushed in this particular room in order to kill the barons more efficiently. However , some are really far which force you to run very fast !

 

As in the previous level , we are very weak because of lack of armour and ammo outside secrets. The encounters become more dangerous and unexpected. The first pain elemental and hitscanners can kill you very quickly , be careful ! The SSG facilitates greatly the progression but you can early obtain  only it if you  take the good path and as said before , there are multiple paths...

2 special troopers populate the map. One of them can be found in the blue armor's secret. This one does not pose too much of a threat. However , the second one when you grab the blue key can kill you in few seconds (also add the dangerous liquid if you forgot to take the radiation suit). I almost died in this part.

 

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP03: Simply Dead...

 

...is not an arena map that's arrived four slots early.

 

What is is, instead, is a dungeon-like crawl through a variety of traps and combat encounters in rectilinear rooms; I'm pretty sure you could transplant the map itself into the late '70s, give it an appropriate module number, swap out the zombies and demons for orcs and dragons and have a great time doing it.  Although the keys enforce some sense of a fixed order on the proceedings, there's a good bit more freedom to roam and to pick your own route here than in MAP02, with different options as to which particular order you handle the traps in.  I think this is the first occasion on which, on Hurt Me Plenty at least, more than one evil trooper puts in an appearance over the course of the level?  One lurks in the walk-in closet next to the lava pit and the blue armour, while the other stands ready to ambush the player at the blue key, and I think it's the latter that's given a better, meaner opportunity to strip away several layers of your skin, with a wall closing at your back, acid eating through your boots, and nothing to hide behind when the relentless chaingun fire starts up.

[Rene Mori]

Welp, couldn't write my experience yesterday, since I was pretty busy and was mapping during my really short spare time. So here we go:

MAP02 - "I'm too tired to write something witty"

So, there are several things to note here. First, these levels seems like to be designed around pistol start, which I'm really glad it's the case. And second, still no clothes for our doom guy. This level is alright, fairly challenging, decent architecture, several intense encounters. I don't know why, but only during this level I realised, that these poor monsters have to wait in these cramped dark boxes, until doom guy comes to absolutely decimate them. I guess their existense is surely pure hell. Anyway, can't say much what wasn't already said. Moving on.

MAP03 - "Science of reverse door engineering"

Spoiler

Placing door, which opens side walls. This is like pulling fridge door just to open bathroom, what kind of mad man would design it like that?

Anyway, really fun and challenging level. Has various encounters, like 4 chaingunners in room without walls (I praise to god that this is not going to multiply by 10 in next maps), room with buttons which are activating baron jam maker (pretty convenient, I might add), and 2 evil troopers who are making you into the swiss cheese within seconds. Quite intense, and yet, pretty fair since there are plenty medkits laying around. Visually it's also pleasing, but nothing really outstanding.

Gameplay info: UV, Pistol start, Other difficulties: existential crisis since I ran out of coffee. I had to drink nuclear mess called: "3 nasty packets of tea in one cup" to wake up properly. Also, now I crave for some baron jam. Actually, nevermind, that's disgusting.

 

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

3 hours ago, Roofi said:

Map 03 : Simply Dead

 

*Map*

So that's how you get to those secrets! Now I feel like an idiot. Still, I managed to finish with 100 health, so let's see how MAP04 goes.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP03 Simply Dead...

 

Oh you want traps, huh? Well this has a ton of those. And more hitscanners like we really need a hundred more of those. Yeah, there's quite a few traps involving keys and pickups. The center room where the red key is has hitscanners warping in a few times. There's also the crusher room, which looks pretty darn iconic. But were their chaingunners on higher settings here? I could've sworn it might actually be barons on higher settings there. Anyways the skull switches in the back can be used to crush them provided you avoid the big grated crusher as well. End game isn't much to write about.

[gaspe]

MAP03: Not so different from the previous level, you have some more freedom to decide where to go. It's quite playful with tricks and stuff like that which is cool. Visually is simple and polished, it doesn't look bad but it's underwhelming.

[Woolie Wool]

MAP03: SIMPLY DEAD...

Time: 9:49 | Kills: 81% | Items: 94% | Secrets: 0% | Deaths: FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

No FDA this time, I gave up and savescummed my way through.

 

Doing this map saveless is not worth it; every room has a dicktrap and every one has to be executed perfectly or else you die, unless you find all the secrets, and I found none. There is just barely enough health and ammo in the open to go around, and as usual, no armor. Even the first encounter with the PE will likely kill you from a pistol start the first time you attempt it. However, with saves it's not too difficult, just a matter of trial and occasional error. The crusher room is the worst; I rarely get the timing of it right, and when I do I often get hit by a baron ball so I still don't have enough health left to survive the subsequent chaingunner gangbang. There are a variety of ways you can take this level, but no way of doing it really seems easier than any other way; each room has its own special way to fuck you. If I had more of a nose for secrets I probably would have done a lot better here, but I found this map kind of obnoxious, especially the evil trooper where it is entirely possible to die without a chance to do anything, as you are locked in with him and must shoot a switch--while in full view of him--to escape. Visuals are acceptable but nothing to be excited about, it's just boxy rooms joined by boxy hallways, but at least with more flair and height variation than 99 Ways to Die.

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

22 minutes ago, Woolie Wool said:

Deaths: FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

I heard that! It was nothing short of a miracle that I managed to pull through on a continuous attempt.

That trooper trap was the absolute worst, I hated it.

[Pirx]

the 99 troopers incident, hilarity.

 

on 99 ways:

 

i'm still here, and the good part about this classic combo is that it can be played very quickly if you don't have much free time. so after reading how poorly optimized map02 of 99ways is for pisol start, i just went and played it on continuous, the common way of playing back then, as well as my habit back then when i probably played this wad for the first time (at least, the opening view with the shotgun on the stairs seemed vaguely familiar). anyway it's not like i missed any challenge, as the first maps throws mostly imps at you, together with blue armors and soulspheres to compensate, so out of the 99, the only possible way to die is probably ignoring the chaingunners behind midtex windows. progress is a bit weird or not well calculated overall, as you can just run into the exit on map01 and ignore the section behind the yellow door, or not even notice the archvile that appears on map02 when you're already at the exit. then on map03, the big lift to the broken teleport (thanks for the fix!), another gimmick inspired by that lift in quake's "dismail oubliette" i guess, loaded with smooth doom, suddenly slowed to a crawl when the shooting started, froze, and then i was standing again at its bottom, wtf. the map set that was ok for its time, but shows its age. the most obvious visual was the abundance of browns, and now i have to ask, why was everything so brown in old maps? just because mappers thought they had to mimick quake? (which has more varied browns, btw). one can argue how people had simpler tools and less experience, but still, everyone who builds a bunch of maps and then plays them should notice if they're brown from the start to the exit.

[tmorrow]

6 hours ago, Woolie Wool said:

Doing this map saveless is not worth it; every room has a dicktrap and every one has to be executed perfectly or else you die, unless you find all the secrets, and I found none.

 

Beware of the up and coming map07 then. All of the wads this month are fairly modest in terms of difficulty, not many maps would even rate a 1 in this thread -

 

[Woolie Wool]

I just got finished with map27 of Valiant, please do not condescend to me about how haaaaard this wad is. I am more than capable of doing it, the question is whether I can keep up my artificial self-imposed challenge of FDAing it under vanilla physics with no saves. With saves these maps are quite easy.

[tmorrow]

map04: Going Down, by Matthias Worch
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

Oh no, we're Going Down and Matthias wants to make sure of it by skimping on both weapons and armor provided. The player is stuck with shotgun, chaingun and a measly 5 armor bonuses for the entire map. With 2 Evil Troopers on the map and a bunch of hit scanners, you have to tread cautiously and make your shots count. Fortunately ample health has been strewn around to compensate for the lack of armor.

Matthias sure finds ways to make demons and spectres scary again by springing them in cramped quarters.

Progression is mostly linear but you can often see enemies through bars into other rooms and can decide whether to take them out right away or wait until you reach the room through normal play.

One of the secrets is right near the end and gives you a backpack, not so useful for the pistol starter. The other secret is a welcome soul sphere.
 

[tmorrow]

5 minutes ago, Woolie Wool said:

I just got finished with map27 of Valiant, please do not condescend to me about how haaaaard this wad is. I am more than capable of doing it, the question is whether I can keep up my artificial self-imposed challenge of FDAing it under vanilla physics with no saves. With saves these maps are quite easy.

 

I wasn't being condescending so knock off the defensive act.

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

MAP04: Going Down

GZDoom 3.4 pre-298, UV, continuous, saves, blah blah blah

 

Was really tired doing this one, so I'll be brief.

First, screenshots.

Spoiler

An unwanted chaingunner trap.

 

The aftermath of the second trooper battle. He didn't stand a chance.

 

Mister Baron is deeply upset with Mister Caco, here.

I played this a little recklessly, but I managed to get by all the same. Your first challenge is figuring out how to defeat the first room. After getting out, you will find yourself within the grasp of the blue card, but don't jump down to get it, because that spot inexplicably does 20% health damage. Instead you have to raise the platform to grab the card, and your reward for getting the blue card is a trooper on the flipside of the blue door. After killing him, you venture about some more through this little fortress until you can get the yellow skull. With that, you can move on to the next area, where you'll fight some monsters, including a revenant, and ultimately, a second trooper, but your double-tap chaingun can take him out with minimal damage to yourself. Finally, in the last room, you can find a false wall and discover the backpack secret previously mentioned. I was paying attention this time and managed to get the soulsphere secret and so exited the level with 200 health for the first time.

 

Not as destructive as the previous map, this one maintains the challenge without edging into unfair. Pistol start, however, is an extremely different story, one that I cannot tell.

[Capellan]

Starting the catch-up.

 

Trooper's Playground

Usual approach: PrBoom+, HMP, continuous, frequent saves, no music.

 

 

MAP01

This is a solid mid 90s switch-heavy map.  It's rather square, and the action tends to all be on the same vertical plane (or near as makes no difference), but it's a decent introductory course for the WAD.  The Supertrooper is a pretty nasty monster replacement.  Got pretty badly battered the first time I ran into him.

 

 

MAP02

Considerably more use of the vertical axis here, though this map is if anything even more square the first one.  Worch's affection for HKs and Barons is shown off, and the resistance in general is markedly more challenging.  The "shoot the walls" caco bash after the supercharger, and the yellow key room are probably the stand-out moments.  Particularly the latter, which uses a PE to good effect.  I quite liked the block monster line keeping the revvie from roaming, too - it's a good way to nudge the player toward using the pillar as cover and understanding how to fight the skellybobs.  A decent idea when you're on an early map like this one.

 

The monsters that teleport in to guard the red key and SSG are rather less successful, as they can't threaten a player who just hangs back from the edge and whittles them down.  Which is a cheap way to approach the fight, but of course is exactly what I did!

 

[Spectre01]

MAP04 - “Going Down” FDA-Max (1 death): ttp04-S01-1804-FDA.zip

Hey, who knew the hole in the floor containing the first key was an inescapable death pit? Round 2 went much better, although I did play it extra careful on the account of 0 armour. Also, I don't feel like this map benefits from excluding an SSG. Since there isn't even a melee alternative - all you have to work with here are the Shotgun and Chaingun; the latter better saved for tapping down ledge snipers, which there are plenty of. So while the map was fine, I didn't really care for shotgunning Cacos and Barons. This, of course, is remedied by playing continuously like a normal well-adjusted individual.

[Roofi]

Map 04 : Going Down (TTP)

 

Difficulty : Medium

Death(s) : 0

 

DEMO

 

While you are going down into the infested castle's dephts , the difficulty doesn't stop going up.

 

TTP reminds me definitely of Hell Revealed but also Requiem because of cramped layout and lack of ammo. I'm not surprised due to the fact that Matthias Worch participated in Requiem. This level was hard because it imposed a double restriction : no armor and no SSG at all. I think that TTP was made for continuous play. Indeed , there are rockets but no rocket launcher and a secret with a backpack is placed at the very end of the level.

 

The lack of ammo was critical such a point that I had to punch some chaingunners to pick up some useful bullets... The map was still enough large to allow you to manage the traps but the first trap with the pinkies was maybe the deadliest. They can easily surround you and devour you. Surviving with a simple shotgun required some luck... The second half of the level was more straightforward because the ammo tend to be less scarce. 2 special zombies must be killed but they were not a big threat compared to the previous level.

 

The architecture become more hellish near the end of the level. The room with the special zombie teleporting on a pillar reminds me a lot of the second episode of Ultimate Doom. The detailling was also more sophisticated than the previous levels. The slow-paced gameplay allows you to observe closely every room .

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP04: Going Down

 

This is one that's definitely engineered with continuous play in mind, with armour and certain weapons excluded, supplies provided that you won't have a use for unless you're carrying over tools from a previous map.  Other than that I'd say what stands out to me its its smallness of scale and relatively cramped confines; MAP02 and MAP03 both had some relatively spacious chambers incorporated into their layouts, but here the action is very focused on small rooms and relatively small numbers of enemies against which the supplied chaingun and shotgun are just about enough (though the Baron of Hell in the home stretch of the map becomes a plodding chore without a super shotgun or rocket launcher to quickly reduce him to ground beef).

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP04 Going Down

 

While it has nothing on mouldy's badass mapset of the same name, this is another cramped level with lots of hitscanners as usual. Interesting trick with the blue key, tempting to just drop in, but you'll just die (at least I think so on the repackaged edition). Lots of interesting roundabouts to go around here for getting each of the keys. Most of us are used to this kind of thing after awhile.

[Capellan]

Back from vacation but off to the theatre tonight, so only one map done today.

 

MAP03

Boy, it's getting very 90s in here, perhaps most notably exemplified by the multiple switches that do something, somewhere, and the latticework crusher surrounded by barons.

 

Architecture remains square and mostly brown, but there are clear signs of some growing visual maturity, with the odd touch of curvature, and more use of lighting and other details to spruce up some areas.

 

Difficulty here largely comes from traps, with the blue key being quite delightfully dickish.  I'm less enamoured of the rocket launcher battle, though: there's nothing all that fun about chaingunners placed too high for you to see them.  Other than the traps most combat is fairly simple (on continuous, anyway), though again I get a sense of growing confidence as we start to see some light re-population of previously cleared areas.

[tmorrow]

map05: Underground Temple, by Matthias Worch
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

A map with green marble is a welcome change from the brown. Our marine has found himself in an Underground Temple and not the nice kind. The hanging cadavers in the hub room tell a tale of pain and sorrow. Just what kind of rituals have they been performing in this temple? This map takes a step down in difficulty.

A linear romp, the west side of the map is progressed via several switches that finally leads to the blue key guarded by an archvile. Depending on where you dropped the enemies, there's probably nothing for the poor archvile to resurrect making for an easy blue key pickup.

The east side of the map changes up the scenery. The first half is a fight through the temple for the yellow key. The yellow key opens the second half and leads us into a cave for some baron/cacodemon action and a catwalk over lava to hit the switch that both releases monsters in the cave and remotely opens the way to the red key back at the start. An easy fight for the red key then allows you to get to the exit under only minor resistance.

I enjoyed the layout and look of the map but was disappointed with the fights. If you pick up all the secrets, you have much more health and armor than you need given the opposition. Even the Evil Trooper was a letdown, easily enticed into a one-on-one with the mancubus and posing little threat.