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dobu gabu maru

The DWmegawad Club plays: Struggle

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Struggle.jpg

 

What is the DWmegawad Club?

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

 

Can I join?

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

 

What levels am I allowed to post about?

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

 

Do I have to post an entry every day?

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

 

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

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

 

+++ Ultimate Doom

 

Note that you can only nominate up to three separate wads for a single month, and the wads must contain at least three maps each. These are hard limits instituted for my own sanity.

----------

>>>DOWNLOAD STRUGGLE (RC2) HERE<<<

 

Are you ready to Struggle? Because Antares sure has! He’s painstakingly put together a beautiful, elaborate one-man megawad that features new weapons, new monsters, and enormous color-saturated locales! You better strap in for one hell of a fast-paced, action-packed ride!

 

Maplist:

MAP01 - “At the Entrance”

MAP02 - “Ready to Survive”

MAP03 - “3rd Supply Depot”

MAP04 - “Local Outpost”

MAP05 - “Sewage Treatment”

MAP06 - “Meet the Afriest”

MAP07 - “Point Foxtrot Tango”

MAP08 - “A Forgotten Base”

MAP09 - “Spectre Strikes”

MAP10 - “Cerulean Ophidians”

MAP11 - “The Indomitable Mastermind”

MAP12 - “Into the Danger”

MAP13 - “Military Base”

MAP14 - “A Ticket from Inferno”

MAP15 - “Teleportation Delta”

 

MAP31 - “Scorching Flames”

MAP32 - “The Leviathan”

 

MAP16 - “Return to Earth”

MAP17 - “Infinity Edge”

MAP18 - “Point Lima Foxtrot”

MAP19 - “Teleportation Theta”

MAP20 - “Chorok Yeonok”

MAP21 - “The Overture”

MAP22 - “Afriests’ Seminary”

MAP23 - “Rhabdophis Seminary”

MAP24 - “The Lost Temple”

MAP25 - “Druidia Borealis Sanctum”

MAP26 - “Leviathan’s Hideout”

MAP27 - “Legions Against One”

MAP28 - “The Antaropolis”

MAP29 - “Alpha Scorpii Monument”

MAP30 - “Ignis ex Antaresia”

 

BONUS CONTENT

TBA

--------

OLD THREADS

Spoiler

The DWmegawad Club Metathread

 

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

 

Edited by dobu gabu maru

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First Hello

 

Some remarks concerning the new features before starting my reviews of the maps :

 

NEW TEXTURES (and music) ! I saw a lot of screenshots of Struggle in Discord or in Doomworld and I expect really colorful maps. I can't say where they are coming from but they bring a unique atmosphere far from doom standards.

 

NEW GUNS ! I don't know how all weapons work for now but the pistol is way more useful with its new burst-fire mode. The rocket launcher has a slower fire-rate but is more powerful. The shotgun seems  towork exactly as the original  but I love its new sound/sprite. Every

weapon has a new sound and sprite which give the feel to play a 90' wad. I like it , it gave me a nostalgic vibe while playing the first level. However , you have a more limited

backpack.

 

New monsters ! Some monsters from DOOM's Iwads become more dangerous . The zombies have the same powerful pistol as yours. Revenants shoot their missiles at light speed. Imps and demons look more aggressive but I can't say more. I only played the first

level for now. :p

 

Configurations : UV-max , Prboom+ , FDA , pistol-start

 

Map 01 : "At the Entrance"

 

STRG_RC2.wad_MAP01.png

 

Difficulty : Easy

Death(s) : 0

 

DEMO

 

 

A very classic opening map with a punchy music which has been already used in KerberosComplex if I'm not wrong. As many first maps in a lot of wads , you have to fight against  imps and zombies , bunch of demons and a few of powerful monsters. This level lets you tasting the unique  atmosphere of Struggle and the new features I mentionned before.

 

It's pretty hard to believe but I managed to get lost in the first level because I took a couple of minutes searching the shootable switch. I found it once I realized that there was a drawing on the floor. I thought it was a secret at the beginning but it actually allows you to grab the

blue mandatory key. Some little puzzles enrich the progression in Doom maps but it makes the first level a bit complex on the other side.

 

As I said before , the colorful new textures  bring an unique atmosphere. The textures usage is very weird to be honest , I had the feeling to explore a base in a kind of a dream. It was fun to explore but I can't say it was really beautiful. The architecture stays quite simple with mostly square rooms and corridors. I would have liked a bit less cramped map but it's ok for a first map , I think the next ones will be way larger. :)

Edited by Roofi

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Struggle: Antaresian Legacy

 

Struggle is a single player mod for Doom 2 with limit removing compatibility created over 3 years by antares031 with release candidate 2 made public June 30, 2018. Not only do we get a full 32 map megawad but antares031 treats us to a bonus map33.

Since the project is still in final testing, I urge everyone to help out by raising any unreported bugs or oddities you may see so antares031 can make the final release as bug free as possible. The official thread for Struggle is here.


Struggle has borrowed resources from many places as noted in his readme. You may recognise textures from Alien Vendetta and Plutonia and sprites and sounds from Heretic and Hexen. Many of the maps are quite beautiful.

The mapset features new weapons and monsters implemented with a DeHacked patch. Some original monsters are also slightly changed. Refer to the text document for full details of the changes. Here's a summary:

  1. New pickup amounts and capacities for the 4 ammo types: 9mm bullets, shells, grenades, .223 cal. In general you can hold less ammo and need to pick up more as you play.
  2. All weapons except the super shotgun have changed to new ones that operate in a similar manner. Some weapons shoot faster, others slower but have increased damage. The new weapons are very cool and enjoyable to use.
  3. A bunch of new badass enemies and bosses to face. Watch out for the chaingun elite, antaresia variants, afriest variants, leviathan variants and final boss, the inquisitor.
  4. Several changes to existing monsters. Almost all enemies can move faster now and many have a lower pain chance. One exception is the archvile that is now easier to interrupt but gets to resurrect spider masterminds. Lost souls attack without delay, revenants have lost their homing missiles but instead fire 2 faster missiles. Arachnotrons are now hitscanners and the spider mastermind has learned how to shoot energy bolts and hitscan simultaneously.

The spider mastermind is delighted with these changes whereas cybie is not happy that he is no longer the biggest bad on the block!
 

A table of changes I put together to help me understand the dehacked mods.:

 

Spoiler

 


----------  ---------  --------
Ammo        Capacity   Pickup
----------  ---------  --------
9mm bullet  180 (360)  12 / 60
shells      36  (72)   2  / 10
grenade     15  (30)   1  / 5
.223 cal.   160 (320)  20 / 100
----------  ---------  --------  

                                
------------------  ------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Weapon              Change                    Change Details
------------------  ------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
hammer              replaces fist             twice as much damage but slower rate of firing
drill               replaces berserk          faster rate of fire
pistol              upgraded                  shoots in 2 shot bursts, accurate to aiming point
shotgun             upgraded                  faster rate of fire
super shotgun       unchanged
dual wield pistols  replaces chaingun         faster rate of fire
grenade launcher    replaces rocket launcher  slower rate of fire but projectiles have increased damage 20->50 and faster speed 20->30
assault rifle       replaces plasma rifle     projectiles have increased damage 5->7 and faster speed 20->35
leichenfaust        replaces bfg9000          like bfg9000 with better reaction time but less projectile damage, each tracer deals
                                              additional explosive damage. Hold fire down to keep firing without reload sequence.
------------------  ------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


---------------  -----------------------  ----------------------------  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Monster      Replaces                 HP      / Pain Chance         Description
---------------  -----------------------  ----------------------------  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
chaingun elite   replaces wolfensteinss   hp=80   / pain_chance=30.86%  More health and agility, shooting 4 super fast energy bolts.
antaresia        replaces baron of hell   hp=700  / pain_chance=16.80%  A cerulean ophidian, first shoots burst fireballs, then a deadly energy bolt. Won't
                                                                        infight with hellknights.
antaresia elite  replaces ???             hp=850  / pain_chance=03.13%  Only appears last episode. More heaviliy armored and faster. Drops blue skull relic
                                                                        once dead.
afriest          replaces ???             hp=540  / pain_chance=16.02%  1st boss. Dark bishop from hexen. A very fast and agile hunter with tons of magic.
afriest statue   replaces ???             hp=invulnerable               A statue made of cerulean marble from another world. One statue is capable of recalling
                                                                        a single monster from another dimension.
afriest turret   replaces ???             hp=invulnerable               Imbued with mysterious power, These statues are indestructable. Good luck!
leviathan        replaces commander keen  hp=12800/ pain_chance=04.30%  2nd boss. Heresiarch from hexen, a vicious sorceror with tough health and outstanding
                                                                        agility. He can incinerate anything that blocks his way. Also can spawn minions.
spectroviathan   replaces ???             hp=2800 / pain_chance=00.00%  Leviathan's managed to create transparent puppets to accomplish their goal much easier.
                                                                        Still, these creatures are unstable and fragile, compare to the originals.
the inquisitor   replaces boss brain      hp=24000/ pain_chance=01.56%  Final boss. Iron lich from heretic, ignis infinitus.
---------------  -----------------------  ----------------------------  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


-----------------  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monster            Change
-----------------  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
zombieman          Faster movement speed, lower pain chance 200->128, shoots constantly
shotgun guy        Faster movement speed, lower pain chance 170->100
heavy weapon dude  Faster movement speed, lower pain chance 170->100
imp                Faster movement speed, lower pain chance 200->128
demon              Faster movement speed, lower pain chance 180->120
cacodemon          Faster movement speed, lower pain chance 128->48, faster and more powerful fireball
spectrocaco        Rather than the invisible demon (spectre), the spectrocaco is an invisible cacodemon with reduced hp 400->240
lost soul          Charges attack without delay, half health 100->50
hell knight        Faster movement speed
arachnotron        Faster movement speed, now shoots with hitscan minigun
pain elemental     Faster movement speed, lesser health 400->300
revenant           Lower pain chance 100->80, shoots twin mini rockets that are faster but do less damage and are no longer homing
mancubus           Faster projectile speed
archvile           Greater pain chance 10->16, can resurrect spider mastermind
spider mastermind  Faster movement speed and reaction time, lower pain chance 40->5, more health 3000->3300, attacks with hitscan
                   machinegun and deadly energy bolts, beats cyberdemon in 1-on-1
cyberdemon         Faster movement speed, faster projectile speed and damage (same as player's grenade), can be defeated by spider
                   mastermind in 1-on-1
-----------------  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

map01: At the Entrance, by antares031
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

What? A demonic invasion has suddenly begun with millions killed in less than an hour! Our battle hardened marine is sadly accustomed to such developments. So much for the relaxing hot bath, cold beer and a cigar he was planning. Time to strap on the artillery. WTF? Oh baby! New weapons!

It's our first map and things aren't looking too good at UAC. It seems that the demonic invasion has reached the building before us. Now is a good time to adjust to the new pace of the game with faster moving monsters that shoot faster and do more damage. You'll notice that you can't carry as much ammo as you used to and you need to rely on picking up whatever ammo is lying around and use it up immediately.

I like the effectiveness of the the new pistol and its double tap rhythm. I prefer it to the new sped up pistolfor taking out tier 1 enemies in the distance. The shotgun is still good for close up work. I'm still getting used to the slower acting hammer, it's not as easy to slap down a fast moving demon as it used to be with fist.

The highlight monster encounters for me were meeting the first spectrocaco and the new and improved revenant with his evil, twin, non homing rockets. This time we meet them under favorable circumstances but you just know antares031 is going use them for absolutely evil ambushes and traps in the maps to come.

One of the secrets contains the grenade launcher that you can try on for size. Boom! Yep, very satisfying indeed but remember, cybie gets to use those on you!

Edited by tmorrow : fixed spectroleviathan hp to 2800

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2 hours ago, tmorrow said:

......but antares031 treats us to a bonus map33.

 

Aww, this is supposed to be a secret. :D

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Heh. I missed the vote for this month,  being abroad,  and as I see now, struggle won by a landslide, coming out of nowhere! I'm eager to play it, but won't get to before 10th or so. NiCe wad, from looking at the dev thread.

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Level 1

 

For the start of our adventure, we find a relatively traditional Level 1 here except it is a bit longer and more involved than most ones perhaps. It's clear something has gone wrong in this facility, too! Aesthetically, you're introduced to a fair bit of what you'll be seeing in the first two thirds of your journey, though there are some variations on the theme and/or levels with predominately another theme sprinkled throughout to keep things fresher. The combat is simple enough that you should focus on getting used to the modifications. Watch for the Specter Caco!

 

This map by itself really isn't anything special, but hopefully it is still nice enough to keep you going. It is understandable too - as it's just an opener, and it is the oldest level, dating to September 2015, with antares having virtually no released single player work I can find predating that.

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Well, here goes nothing. PrBoom+ w/ complevel 2, UV-Max attempt for each level.

 

 

 

MAP01 - At the entrance

PrBoom+, UV - Pistol Start, KIS(%): 100/100/100

 

At the entrance. This is the title that I used for every first level of my megawad projects, including this one. I'm glad that at least this one managed to see the light properly. So far, there were three other levels with the same name: the one from 2006, the other one from 2008, and the other one from 2009.

 

Anyway, this level from 2015 was designed to test some custom textures that I quoted from the website called CGTextures.com, currently known as Textures.com, such as some stone walls and simple concrete structures. This level also introduces some notable custom elements of this wad, including a revenant with two non-homing fast missiles (which makes sense, since it has a pair of shoulder cannons), a spectrocaco, which is basically a spectre version of cacodemon with less health, and even a grenade launcher in the secret area. Grenade launcher now shoots more powerful projectile with faster velocity, but with slower firing rate. And like @tmorrow mentioned, Cyberdemon now shoots the same grenade as yours, so keep in mind about that. Even if you have 200/200, Cyberdemon can still kill you in one-shot, if you’re unlucky. And don’t forget about that one-way door shortcut, which allows you to connect each area, once you open it from one-side.

 

Combat mainly features some imps and zombiemen, who fires his gun with the identical firing rate of the original pistol. Thankfully, the player’s pistol is now much more powerful, and you can easily kill a zombieman with a single burst-fire. Layout is pretty simple and straightforward, as an opener of a full megawad. But don’t get lost, by missing the shootable switch. :) In overall, it's not an outstanding level, but good enough to introduce some unique features of this wad.

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MAP01 At the Entrance

 

Good starting level, I'm gonna neglect talking about everything else and focus on gameplay changes.

 

Good pistol, good shotgun, okay rocket launcher? It does more damage, but then it's called a grenade launcher. Also horrible ammo counts. The zombieman change is excellent and makes him more threatening, I'm iffy on the revenant change though. Will the hammer be affected by the berserk pack I wonder?

 

Also oops I'm playing RC1, haha, gonna play this unless there's somehow a new level change.

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I don't know anything about this wad except for some screenshots I've seen on doomworld, but some of those were rather impressive so I'm going into this with high hopes.

I'll be doing pistol starts and playing on UV as long as I can.

 

MAP01: At the Entrance

 

There's a lot of custom stuff here, at least I've never seen these textures before, a lot of numbers seem to have been changed for the amount of ammo you can have and the ammo you collect, also the pistol is better, but I think the zombiemen have a stronger pistol too? the start of the map was a bit too intense to really get a grasp on all the changes.

Later there's a modified revenant that fires 2 faster than usual rockets that apparently don't chase the player, having it alone in a hallway is a very good way to help the player understand how it works. And it seems like we'll also have invisible cacos.... we'll see how annoying those get.

To get the blue key you need to shot a wall that I thought was a secret at first... this one was not too bad, but it makes me worry about the later maps as I'm not a fan of difficult progression, as for the visuals there seems to be a very busy high detail style which is not one of my favourites, but here it looks a lot better than it usually does, overall this was a very good first impression.

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I think the 2008/2009 levels might make a good map if combined into one and perhaps modified a bit. Thanks for sharing map images. :)

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woohoo i think i can finally come back to the DWMC

glboom+, uv, pistol starts (cl2 D: ) for as long as my patience/skill/interest lasts!

 

map01 fda

whew boy, this is a bit jarring. the pistol is a nice little upgrade on the usual pea shooter, but of course this makes the zombies more dangerous! i thought this was too safe for a map01 and is quite dull unless you are being crazy. didnt get either secret; i hope 1 of them is a berserk to liven this up a bit.

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ZDoom, UV, constant save/reload.

 

Skimming the changes, seems a lot of stuff was simply made faster, which will be interesting to see how it plays out in practice. I know that the regular Doom bestiary for the most part can seem somewhat since the marine can literally run circles around most of the monsters, but I suspect/worry that upping the speed too much will simply slow the game down by dint of forcing the player to use cover and corner/door camp more. Ammo pickups and storage are also limited; I suppose Antares is one of those "backpack ruins map balance" people. :)

 

MAP01: At the Entrance

100% kills, 2/2 secrets

 

A decent opener, taking place in the somewhat cliche open-air starbase, albeit one with part of the floor destroyed to create some verticality. It feels a little cramped to me, I think things could've been about a third-to-half larger, but maybe that's just me. It also feels a bit chaotic appearance-wise, even though on further examination the base is basically grey/brown/green, there always seemed to be a lot of other colors fighting for attention. The actual gameplay is pretty easy for the most part, the souped-up pistol zombies might catch you by surprise but the level is so segmented and there's so much cover from pillars that the most dangerous room might actually be the opening one. Oh, and the revenant too, as I tried to move in close and do my usual dance only to immediately eat two rockets to the face and die... we'll see how those work out later but I think it's a good example of how it'll require more cover-humping. Armor and health is too plentiful I think, three vests was definitely overkill (I found the first in the RL secret, the second I was still at 88 armor, then found the other secret one at 100).

 

All in all it's a pretty benign opener, but given all the changes made to the guns/monsters that might actually be a good idea to help introduce the new things.

 

Should we be playing this pistol start or continous?

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The opening maps in this wad are maybe a tad generic, but (I've played ahead) I think you'll find it working its way to more exciting levels. Struggle does look to begin very early in antares' career of publicly released single player levels (with hardly anything showing up on idgames up through 2015), but taking a look at his works for DMP2016/2017 should give you an idea about mapper advancement (even though those are Boom-compatible while Struggle is limit-removing).

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4 hours ago, Magnusblitz said:

Should we be playing this pistol start or continous?

 

Every level is doable with the pistol start. But feel free to try continuous, if you want.

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Map 02 : "Ready to survive"

 

STRG_RC2.wad_MAP02.png

 

Difficulty : Easy

Death(s) : 0

 

DEMO

 

 The second level takes place in a labyrinthic subterranean grey base. The difficulty doesn't rise too much but this map has more and bigger traps where you can experiment the new weapons. The drill is so cool , it's actually an upgraded chainsaw. Struggle deserves a cacoward just for this weapon and the hammer which both remind me of Postal Games. Melee fights become incredibly fun against low-tiers enemies. You can find two drills in the level so you will not miss them ! You can find also the SSG but it unfortunately doesn't have a new sprite or new characteristics excepts the new sounds.

 

However , the chaingun has been replaced by dual wield pistols which have a faster firerate than the original weapon ! They were cleverly introduced in a trap where you have to kill a little army of imps while dodging  revenant's missiles. The new weapons match well with the fast-paced gameplay so I hope that Struggle contain a lot of fights with many monsters as in Serious Sam games for instance. The second map is quite complex like the previous one. I had some trouble with the repeatable switch because it was quite difficult for me to identify which doors were opening. The level design encourages you to explore every corner of the level because the layout doesn't suffer of too much linearity. I always like exploring , even in maps with a fast-paced gameplay.

 

The second map is as classic as the first one with its boxy layout and the global narrowness. However , it brings more substance thanks to some larger rooms as the blue key's room or the onewhere you find the "antaresian sphere" in the invisibile cacodemon's traps. I didn't have any problem with ammo or health ,that's a good thing because I don't like difficulty based on items restrictions. Struggle gives you a large arsenal very early as in Doom2.

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MAP02 Ready to Survive

 

Well alright, it's another level to show off some extra things, mostly standard techbase.

 

I forgot to mention that the spectre is apparently a cacospectre now, same deal as before I think. Both cacoballs do more damage which is not good. The hellknight doesn't seem to have changed, but the arachnotron is like a mini-mastermind. Whether or not it was a good change depends on what other monsters I will meet in the future. The drill is faster which is cool, and the dual pistols end up being a mainstay weapon. Unfortunately, the SSG is like Valiant's SSG in that when no change occurs to the weapon, it's made obsolete by the ones supposed to be under it. So both the shotgun and dual pistols are already better than this weapon.

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Whats the policy of linking stream VODs instead of doing intense type-ups? I have full intent of playing through Struggle this month, but fear the essay side of things will bog me down. :P

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Let's give this one a shot.  ZDoom, Hurt Me Plenty No Rest For The Living, continuous play with saves.

 

MAP01: At the Entrance

 

Okay, so this is quite the different experience, isn't it?  With its tweaked monsters and weapons, scenes and encounters that look familiar at first glance turn out to be anything but; imps scurry faster, zombie men hit harder, there's an invisible cacodemon of all things and the revenant throws a blindingly fast one-two rocket punch, though the one that clipped me didn't seem to do much harm (I'm not going to count on that being anything but luck).  Health is pleasantly abundant here, which comes in handy when you're re-learning how to handle the what's-old-is-new-again revamped bestiary and armory; the grenade launcher that replaces the rocket launcher seems to pack quite a punch, as does the ammo-hungry, double-tapping pistol, though I didn't find that the shotgun felt particularly different.  As for the level itself?  It's a bit more cramped than I typically enjoy, with frequent changes in elevation further truncating lines of sight and fire, but it's very involved for its relatively compact footprint; there's a lot of gameplay to be had here within its confines.  I'm looking forward to just where this WAD might go.

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MAP02 - Ready to Survive

PrBoom+, UV - Pistol Start, KIS(%): 100/100/100

 

The second level of Struggle introduces more custom weapons of the wad. First one is a drill machine, which replaces a chainsaw, with 100% faster firing rate than the original weapon. There are two reasons that I selected a drill machine; one is that it’s the only available tool in my house that fits pretty good for a chainsaw slot. If I had a string trimmer with a metal blade, I probably picked that one. Second is that I just like my drill machine. :P The other weapon is a dual-wield mode, replacing a chaingun. Its firing rate is slightly slower than a drill machine, but significantly faster than the original chaingun. And of course there’s a grenade launcher, if you couldn’t find one from the previous level. Not to mention that this level has a berserk, allowing you to smash imps into small piles of putrid debris with your hammer. Keep in mind that this hammer, which was inspired by the movie called “Old Boy”, has 100% more damage than the original fist.

 

While the combat is pretty much same to the previous level, except some more mid-tier monsters around, this level has non-linear layout, making you to explore the whole level to figure out the right direction. And, in order to help the players to figure what those switches did, this level also introduces the “Unit 1, 2” signs. Better keep your eyes on those signs, since there will be more and more in the other levels. Oh, and here’s one thing that you may need to know: Cacodemon and Spectrocaco infight each other in this wad, since they’re technically different monsters. :P

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Hi everyone. I'm going to Russia to watch the semifinals of the World Cup this month. A dream come true for me, so i will have to sacrifice Doom time :P

So for now, here's a FDA for MAP01.

strg01.zip

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MAP02: Ready to Survive

 

I don't know to what extent the WAD is going to break down into thematic episodes but if these first two levels are anything to go by, the theme of the first chapter or level cluster is urban grunge with some techbase elements.  As with the first level this one's all about height variation and close-quarter combat, though the player is given the super shotgun (which seems to behave much as before) and the "dual wield mode" that replaces the chaingun and shreds monsters (and devours ammo) with stunning alacrity.  Again there's a lot of gameplay packed into a relatively compact chunk of real estate, and the close quarters at which encounters often take place don't really allow the player the opportunity to use the potent grenade launcher to its full effect; hitscan weapons are the order of the day here, so it's a good thing there are plenty of shotgun shells and 9mm clips kicking about.

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Back for some more Doom, Using Prboom, Ultra-violence, Pistol Starts with No Saves. Conditions may change depending on how hard things get down the line.

 

MAP01: At the Entrance

It look's like Doom Guy's decided to change up his Arsenal for this one. The pistol now fires in 2 round bursts and does more damage making it a much more useful weapon and the Shotgun's got a makeover but seems to be mostly the same. Some of the enemies are changed too like the Revenant with a new missile to fire and Cacodemon's which can now come in Spectre Varieties. As for the map itself it's close quarters and pretty straight forward but it's a good way to show off some of the gameplay changes to the player.

 

MAP02: Ready to Survive

This map is similar to the first one, Close Quarters, Techbase style and mostly Zombies and Imps in your way with a few more of the tougher monsters thrown in like the Revenants and Cacos. The gameplays opened up a bit with a more non-linear design and a couple of new features shown off as well. We can get our hands on a few new weapons here like the Drill Machine replacing the Chainsaw and Dual Pistols which are both given to you in traps fit to show you what they can do. I felt the amount of health and armor here might have been a bit excessive considering there wasn't anything too challenging here yet but overall a good map.

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MAP02: Ready to Survive

100% kills, 2/3 secrets

 

Another somewhat-dilapidated starbase, this one drove me nuts because I missed the blue key sitting in the blue room and wandered around aimlessly for far too long trying to figure out where to go. :) This one introduces the cordless power drill, berserk and dual pistols (chaingun replacement). I hadn't used the hammer at all in the first map, but it actually does kill zombiemen consistently in one hit, which is nice. The power drill is far more useful with it's souped-up rate of fire, I was able to consistently kill hell knights with it safely, which is definitely not something you can do with the chainsaw. Dual pistols are good but the lack of ammo is a big drawback.

 

The actual level is alright, similar to MAP01 in layout and progression. I did like the lights-out trap near the end.

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map02: Ready to Survive, by antares031
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

We're in a tech base facility, even more hostile than the last. Except for having to collect the keys in order, there's a fair amount of non linearity on the map, so you can pick your path. Fortunately, the facility has plenty of weapons, ammo and health strewn all over, as long as you can collect it before being mowed down by the enemy.

The enemy count is ramping up a bit and you get to meet the sped up cacodemon, bragging to his friends about how much faster he can shoot fireballs now and the new arachnotron, proudly stomping around, showing off his shiny new minigun.

To counter these new horrors, the player gets to pick up the drill and try it out on a bunch of demons that appear. The super shotgun becomes available too (I love that it wasn't changed) and dual wield pistols, both are extremely satisfying to use in the way you would expect.

My favorite encounter is on the way to the yellow key when the lights go out and some cacodemons appear as well as a spectrocaco. Atares031 could not resist the temptation to challenge us with spectrocacos in the dark. I dare not think what he's coming up with next.

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MAP03 3rd Supply Depot

 

After a bit I realize that these dehacked changes may not be all that good. This map is pretty good though, decent hub-style with mulitple paths of travel but that's about it.

 

It's the instantaneousness of certain things, like lost soul charging and barrel explosions, that are liable to throw me off a lot. Not to mention revenant animations don't look right when firing the projectiles. Also it doesn't seem like a whole lot of changes happened to some enemies, like the shotgun guy, chaingunner, and hell knight. All I see is faster movement speed for the most part. That's fine.

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BTW I should mention I was playing Beta 5 up through Level 24.

 

Levels 2/3

 

Both of these levels are nice early ones, maintaining your interest and gradually getting longer/harder as they should. Level 2 has the highlights I recall best - the Imp trap, first non secret RL, and the sudden darkness with a SpectroCaco. That's not to say it's the better of the two levels though - both are good early fun and if anything Level 3 is a bit more impressive. Aesthetics are good looking, with the theme being distinctly clear by now but you'll still get to see different variants of it.

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map03: 3rd supply depot, by antares031
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

Our 3rd supply depot. The enemy are multiplying. The start is quite frantic with tier 1 enemies attacking from all over but settles down after that to a map where you can control quite a bit of the action. I'm still finding the revenants to be quite nasty and try to plan for fallback positions as I uncover new areas. Once again antares031 is being generous with weapons, ammo and health. He's still trying to fool us into thinking this wad is all rainbows and unicorns but I'm not fooled for a second, having watched some of the terrifying map20+ demos.

I enjoyed the southern area outside with all the enemies on crates, the new pistol works wonders on thinning them out, sniper style. I'm liking the drill quite a bit too, especially on those hopped up demons that move like greased lightning.

I liked the map layout too although there was a bit of back and forth because I wasn't certain about the purpose of a couple of the switches. There are quite a few enemy and friendly bodies lying around, I thought for sure antares031 would spring an archvile on us at some point, but fortunately we are being spared such atrocities early in the mapset. I'm surprised that the red key was not booby trapped but to make up for it we are made to pay for the yellow key collection.

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Map 03 : "3rd Supply Depot”

 

STRG_RC2.wad_MAP03.png

 

 

 

 

Difficulty : Easy

Death(s) : 0

DEMO

 

An easy map where the gameplay is more focused on Duel wield pistols. I had a lot more fun on this than the previous ones mainly because the level has more diversified and larger places. This map has more outdoors areas to explore.

 

As the previous map , you will find many useful weapons : SSG , Grenade launcher , akimbo guns , the drill... and the abundance of health and ammo allows you to play aggressively. However , be careful of the few revenants because they can deal you a lot of damage with their turbo-missiles ! Monsters are in fact more numerous but they are almost no "real" trap and the bestiary mainly consists of histcanners , imps and some demons for now. I agree with tmorrow remarks concerning the revenants. I completed the sixth map yesterday and you should enjoy the fair difficulty of the first levels because you will start to "struggle" later.

 

I really liked this level because you feel so overpowered while slaughtering the poor monsters with your akimbo guns ! My demo lasts 50 minutes because I humped every wall before finding the door which hides the teleporter leading to the blue armor's secret. I felt a bit idiot when I realized how obvious its location was. However , there was absolutely no clues about the secret teleporter leading to the soulsphere's secret even if I found it first. The map has more various shapes in rooms but the whole stays very classic and could please old-school doomers. As I said before , the player benefits from wider rooms so that he can more easily run and gun with his powerful new weapons.

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MAP02 : Ready to Survive

 

So the fist and the chainsaw have been replaced by a hammer and a drill? Am I supposed to be a construction worker or something? Also the hammer seems stronger than the fist which I guess makes sense.

 

The map is very similar to the first one except more nonlinear and has a few more midtiers, also maybe it's just me, but that waterfall texture looks a bit weird next to that water flat, maybe I'm just used to seeing it with something else.

 

 

 

MAP03 : 3rd supply depot

 

Dual wielding the fast guns? It seems like they are stronger than the chaingun, they are cooler too.

 

Lost souls appear to fly a bit faster, actually a lot of things seem to be faster than usual, may be a bit difficult to get used to. This map was mostly really easy but I suddenly dropped to 10% health when I took 2 rockets from a revenant I didn't see, you really can't lower your guard around these things, they fire really fast.

 

Some of the secrets seem to be completely unmarked, the teleporter to the soul sphere in this map in particular I have no idea how I was supposed to find normally, I looked for a way to get it for a while after finishing the map until I decided to look at the map in doom builder and it seems like I was supposed to open some random wall on a different part of the map, how can that even be found other than trying every wall in the map?

 

As for the gameplay it seems similar to map 2 but now we're starting to get some actual traps, things seem to be getting gradually more interesting as we go but still nothing I would not describe just as "normal gameplay".

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