The DWmegawad Club plays: Doom 404

[TheOrganGrinder]

Wow, I totally failed to get the whole 'O' of Destruction! reference with the OO layout, so thanks to those who've pointed that out.  :)

 

MAP12: Machine Code

 

I'm a little less sure what to make of this one, which has a very evident automap gimmick that perhaps constrains its gameplay in ways that aren't always conducive to fun, no matter how clever the idea itself might be.  Compared to the frenetic action of the preceding map it's a very stop-start affair, with gameplay built around ambushes in a way that leaves the player constantly checking over their shoulder (or paying a steep toll in health for failing to do so).  Each secret has a rocket launcher stashed away so I guess the idea is that you'll have that particular toy to play with as long as you're paying attention at some point?

[obake]

MAP12 - Machine Code

Surprisingly not as difficult as previous maps, though the spectres that pop out at the end managed to corner me by surprise, when I was trying to run away from the last flock of Revenants. The map is fairly cramped at points, and has a number of Hell Knights in small areas, so heavy weaponry/strategic use of barrels is recommended.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP12: Machine Code

100% kills, 2/3 secrets

 

Main thing that struck me about this one was the stingy ammo, as I used the chainsaw on some of the demons/spectres and still was down to 4 shells, no rockets and only a bit of bullets/plasma at the end despite finding two of the secrets and getting the hell knights and revs to infight at the beginning.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP13: Bugged

 

So this is a nice little cave map that's much more pleasant to look at than the automap-centric gimmickry of the preceding level; it's a twisting, hostile, living environment with a near-constant influx of new threats from unexpected directions over its brief running time.  The title is of course a reference to the numerous arachnotrons that play a prominent role in the map's encounters, though the overall nature of the map, all twisting caves and short lines of sight and abundant corners to duck behind, means that they're not deployed in a way that lets them wreak their worst upon the hapless player.  Once again I found this to be a map with a very intuitive delivery of secrets.

[Hells Kitchen]

MAP11

A fun-sized "Circle of Death". Right off the bat, I was down to about 35-40% in the initial hitscanner hell around the infinity island. It took 2 attempts, then reading the comments here, to figure out how the hell to deal with that caco epic. I grabbed the suit, then ran around the nukage collecting goods, then flipped the switch for the blue key, then ran into the blue door room. Most of the cacos congregated at the arachnotron cubby, with the spider giving me a bit of assistance. When the spider died I just emptied the rocket launcher into the bottlenecked swarm, while at the same time keeping a lookout for sneaky stragglers that wondered in through the blue door. I think this map crossed the line between creative monster usage and slaughtery spam, I felt the gameplay to be lacking compared to some of the other maps we've seen so far. 

 

MAP12

Short and not the most threatening map we've seen. I'm playing continuous so didn't have issues with ammo. Pretty much everything is infront of you, except for the spectre trap which can corner you ready for the revenants to instagib you. The spectres didn't get me as I wondered back out the red door for some reason lol. Fairly ho-hum affair in general, basically just rocketing or hosing down stuff infront of you with plasma. The 2 of the 3 secrets I found both contained a rocket launcher. Hmm. 

 

 

 

 

[Spectre01]

MAP13 - “Bugged” FDA-Max: d404-S01-13-FDA-Max.zip

It's bugged because there are spiders showing up whenever you make any progress. Pretty fun underground cave map and the midi is nice as well. Rather laid back as well on the gameplay front since I was able to comfortably retreat and not find myself in any tense situations.

[gaspe]

MAP13: Funny level with many changing bits that keep to repopulate the cave area. Catchy music and visuals are allright.

[Phobus]

MAP13 - A nice cave map that I found remarkably dangerous, for some reason. I think, in being presented with 2-3 lines of fire to begin with, I just didn't pay enough attention to them and kept getting attacked from the side. It's over pretty quickly and the secrets range from intuitive through to clever, but to get that foothold cost me quite a lot of health and armour. I then found myself taking unnecessary hits later as well, leading to the overall effect of me wondering how I was being so shit.

 

Also, another "you probably already got this" bug report:

 

The black there would be a HOM in software rendering, I expect caused by a missing texture or incomplete sector, but I'm not sure as it looks like the texture just arbitrarily cuts off about a quarter of the way down.

[Capellan]

What port are you using, @Phobus?  It doesn't look like that in PrBoom+ 2.5.1.3

 

I think I know what was causing it (floor height of the sector is higher than the ceiling height), and have fixed that.  Download link updated.

 

[Phobus]

GZDoom (3.5.1) is my weapon of choice these days. I think OpenGL rendering generally doesn't do HOMs, instead opting for blank spaces like that. I have to admit I'm surprised that a floor clipping into a ceiling has had that effect, though, as in software rendering that's absolutely fine to do!

[Magnusblitz]

MAP13: Bugged

100% kills, 3/3 secrets

 

After some fiendish maps this one was much more straightforward and almost, dare I say it, a breather map - pretty much all the reveals were slow and usually in front of the player (aside from some enemies coming from the start early on) and there's plenty of walls to use as cover... I actually took most of my damage from getting lazy and letting a hell knight take a chunk out of me while trying to get it to infight with a 'tron (as @TheOrganGrinder notes there aren't actually great sightlines for the spiders). The only real threat is lack of health, as there's no medkits and 11 stimpacks on Hard, so if you take chunks of damage you might be stuck with it.

[Hells Kitchen]

MAP13

A pleasant cave map which didn't really put the pressure on, despite the number of arachnotrons. That doesn't mean letting your guard down as it is all too easy to get a sneaky hell knight up your ass. I just progressed slowly, new parts of the cave opening up as you proceed. The monsters pouring out of the starting area after finding the revenants was a nice touch, making backpedalling that much more risky. I usually don't like cave-themed maps as they are often dark and cramped with excessive narrow corridors and confusing layouts. This was a nice breath of fresh air. Found 2 of 3 secrets.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP14: Recycle Bin

 

Oh, berserk pack right in front of you at the start, that's not a promising sign for those of us who never were good at Tyson maps.  Fortunately there are other weapons made available quickly enough, including an early bonus plasma gun, but even so, it's a somewhat hairy start that sets the tone for the level going forward; this is not a map that really lets up from beginning to end, especially with an arch-vile released into the "great hall" area to steadily return casualties to the field while the player scrambles around its looped layout trying to get back to the start before the monster medic can get to any of the heavy hitters.  It's fun and a little bit frantic, with more of a wicked sense of humour on display than has been evident in other levels until now.

 

Also, I think it's possible to sequence break this one if you jump down off the blue key platform without collecting the key itself; I ended up diving off the platform in a panic and gunning most things down from the floor, making my way through the primary loop of the level, and returning to the blue door before I realised I hadn't collected the key, and when I went back to the room I didn't have the patience to figure out the particular position and angle to straferun across to the blue key platform without the green marble block to launch myself from.  (I also think it's possible to break the sequence in a much less show-stopping way by using an arch-vile jump to hop back up the way you came in and skip the looping section, but that's not a problem, just a point of interest and a fun alternate approach for those willing to take the hit.)

[Phobus]

MAP14 - It's a good way to introduce the Arch-Vile to have a couple resurrect the (now familiar) waves of enemies around and from the starting position. It's a much less good introduction to have one pop out right next to you on a platform that seems very difficult to get back onto, but has a switch you'll need to use for progression if you're not AV jumping out of the area and running for the exit. The map is fun, with a good ambush at the start, a reasonable two-pronged attack shortly after and a few interesting rooms to continue on with. I died at the first AV reveal and decided to use some of my 300 cells to just hose him down as soon as he appeared the next time, which worked nicely. The frequency with which rooms seem to fill with enemies from all directions was quite exciting, as they were mostly the sort that can be pushed through with concentrated firepower. Indecision seems to be the real killer in these maps! The map seems surprisingly big compared to the others and the secrets were very intuitive this time around. Either I'm used to the style and have gotten comfy, or it's good and I'm enjoying it.

[gaspe]

MAP14: This one doesn't have strong theme, like many other levels before. But it was very fun and the arch-vile is introduced in a nice way. This time the secret were helpful and came at the right time and contrarily to the lo ammo trend of the previous levels the ammo was generous here (I suppose because the arch-viles can resurrect a lot of monsters). We are also at the middle of this "Virtual Life" episode but I'm getting so much of it in these maps, outside of the puns with the titles, they look like generic levels so far. I think that Icarus with its simulation levels did a better at presenting a similar concept.

[obake]

MAP13 - Bugged

Crowded, yet fun to run around in. I like that even with the limitations of the mapset, there are still secrets.

 

MAP14 - Recycle Bin

More fun than the last. I like the variety of rooms and encounters here.

[Capellan]

10 hours ago, TheOrganGrinder said:

MAP14: Recycle Bin

I think it's possible to sequence break this one if you jump down off the blue key platform without collecting the key itself

 

Why would you do that? :)

 

More seriously, I'm glad this was identified.  I've made the jump from the western end of the room easier to prevent anyone getting stuck here.  Download link updated.  There are also very minor updates to maps 11, 13, 18 and 20, and a slightly more notable one for map 17.  Previous file is still 100% playable though.

 

[Magnusblitz]

MAP14: Recycle Bin

100% kills, 3/3 secrets

 

This one was a doozy. I decided to run away from a lot of the enemies early on, which while it helped with the ammo (none wasted on guys who would only be resurrected later) also meant I missed the early plasma gun. I died repeatedly over and over on the blue key vile because I ran into that room with 50 health and he kept refusing to be stunned (or the cacos would get me). Finally ended up beating it with 3 health only to find no health in the area or next area which was a bit of a pain... nothing like timing your run across sludge to open up an ambush just so you can grab the lone medkit inside. So yeah, ammo was fine but the way the health was doled out really made things borderline, but I'm starting to figure Capellan prefers attrition rather than letting the player heal up after every big encounter. The pincer near the end could also get nasty depending on how well the starter room enemies figure out the staircase (and again, no health in the closet that opens behind you) but I liked that as a challenge.

[rehelekretep]

On 10/7/2018 at 12:57 AM, Spectre01 said:

MAP08 - “Random Access” FDA (misses one secret): d404-S01-08-FDA.zip

Where is @rehelekretep by the way, the usual FDA guy? ;)

ive been trying to play other games than doom, and actually wanted to play Sunlust, seeing how its constantly referenced and demo'ed. once i complete it (im on m29 at the moment) ill probably be back in the club :D

[Capellan]

Oh yeah, for those about to do MAP15, don't forget that the secret maps each get their own day this month, rather than being done at the same time as MAP15.

 

[Summer Deep]

 

MAP12: The critical encounter here comes after picking up the red key.Survive this in half-decent shape, and the rest is not much of a problem. Surviving it was bloody difficult though - the Hell Knights really need to step up to the plate and take out at least a couple of the Revenants. Having the Mancubus in on this battle would've been interesting (and made the arena an even more perilous place), but I thought it best to take him out beforehand. 

At the red door, I rocketed the Revenants on the platform, then chainsawed most of the inhabitants (including the PE) as they emerged, at the cost of a significant chunk of my health. The SSG was usefully placed to dispose of the remaining Spectres and Revenants. Once again, I found a lot of ammo and health once all the killing was over. 100% kills, 2/3 secrets.

MAP13: Woohoo! Completed this at the first attempt in 15 minutes. This does suggest that it was the easiest map for some time though. The Arachnotrons obligingly disposed of a number of enemies, and the chainsaw, helpfully provided near the start, was useful against demons and one or two imps, otherwise there could have been ammo shortage issues. Was so elated at blasting through the level that I forgot all about secrets....

100% kills, 0/3 secrets.

MAP14: Didn't enjoy this one very much at all. The opening room felt like a contrived gimmick - I'm not much good at multitasking when faced with two or three enemies, so being assailed by twenty-odd of them at close quarters from 360 degrees was about as bad as it could get, and it took a good few attempts to survive it. Not impressed also at being expected to play so long without armour (again) in a tough level, then finally there was the unsubtle trick of having the Archviles revive a large roomful of monsters while the player is engaged elsewhere. Relieved to see the back of this.

144% kills (!), 2/3 secrets.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP15: Password Protected

 

I feel as though this one suffers for being thematically less than clear; yes, there's kind of a division between technological and natural areas, but unlike the looping, cyclical layout of the preceding map and the way the arch-viles can be thought of as restoring deleted data when they return enemies to the fray, there isn't much that I found particularly suggestive of a password or protection here - until the entrance to the secret level is accessed, anyway.  It's got a layout that branches perhaps as much as is possible within the confines of this project, but something about it felt unintuitive to me.  Could be that I'm just coming at it in the wrong frame of mind.

[baja blast rd.]

10: FAT32

 

Silly map. Had some fun racing through this one. 

 

 

11: Infinite Loop

 

A fun one. One recurring element of Doom 404 is roaming monsters that can control a lot of space. This shows up in many forms, from small groups of monsters that waltz across the map to greet you all the way up to hordes and swarms, like Infinite Loop introduces. Another element is that routing makes a big difference in difficulty (which is quite atypical for maps that are comfortably easier than hardcore slaughter stuff). That is something I enjoy because Doom maps are part action, part combat puzzle to me. 

 

The 'survival' route in this map actually happens to begin just about identically to the 'quick UV-max' route: loop around and grab all the stuff on the periphery, including that crucial secret radsuit, and then empty lots of rockets into the gasbags that have now bunched up. All of that is pretty safe. The main difference is that in the survival route, you can take it easy after entering the blue key door, as I do in the video below. 

 

 

Edited October 14, 2018 by rdwpa

[Spectre01]

MAP14 - “Recycle Bin” FDA-Max (1 death): d404-S01-14-FDA.zip

This map was surprisingly difficult, but not in a way that I enjoy. I've mentioned this many times before, but I dislike extended sequences of gameplay while sitting at a maximum of 100HP and no armour while fighting enemies that can potentially one-shot you if you take other damage. I'm also not sure how the first Vile at the blue key is supposed to be handled, short of praying for a plasma stun before he roasts you. Can't really retreat or the Cacos will block and bite you so there isn't much in the way of cover. The rest of the map was fine, and I nearly died again when getting sandwiched between the Vile reviving enemies in the main room and a monster closet from behind.

[Capellan]

We need more rdwpa videos in this thread.

 

[Spectre01]

MAP15 - “Password Protected” FDA (misses some dudes): d404-S01-15-FDA.zip

This is a fun map and I quite like that switch puzzle for the secret exit. Speaking of secrets, I've found all of them but still ended up with a few enemies missing. Lot's of good infighting opportunities to exploit and make life easier for yourself.

[Phobus]

MAP15 - I enjoyed this map a lot when it was a single-shotgun rampage around an E2-looking area with nothing bigger than a cacodemon to shoot. Once I found the two Revenants round to the right (I went left first) and started taking hits, I found myself uncomfortably vulnerable to damage. I think I'd like more armour, ideally, as the one green armour doesn't last long and health tends to be reasonably tight in these maps. The puzzle for the secret exit is cool and enjoyable, but accessing that room seemed slightly illogical, as I seemed to be required to use the automap to notice that one bit of decorative architecture was shown whilst the other wasn't, to then access a switch to access a very obvious secret opening. It was a noticeable difference from the usual method of hiding secrets, albeit hinted at with the secret computer area map.

[gaspe]

MAP15: It's an allright tech-base level, the cave area sticks out in a weird way and it clashes with the rest of the map. I would have considered this another filler level but the gameplay was fun and engaging so that "saved" the level, plus there was also the hunt for the exit exit with a cute puzzle at the end. I liked the elevator near the RL, it does nothing but it can trick the player into thinking it's related to the secret exit. At the end I had some enemies missing so I went back to search and I discovered that a monster closet opened in the north-west room, in the editor I saw that you open it with the switch in the cave but you are able to keep going without alerting the monsters in there, I guess they are supposed to repopulate the area and get at your back. I would reveal that closet earlier when it's more effective.

[Capellan]

1 hour ago, Phobus said:

MAP15 - I seemed to be required to use the automap to notice that one bit of decorative architecture was shown whilst the other wasn't

 

Nah, you're supposed to notice that one of them is lit up (though the automap is a back-up way to find it).

 

 

54 minutes ago, gaspe said:

I discovered that a monster closet opened in the north-west room, in the editor I saw that you open it with the switch in the cave but you are able to keep going without alerting the monsters in there

 

 

I have moved this monster closet.  Download link updated.  The new version also removes a sneaky infinite tall trick rdwpa used on map21.

[Hells Kitchen]

MAP14

Fuck me sideways this turned things up a notch. Must be a doozy to pistol start here. Came in with 300 cells but I used the chaingun to clear the starting room, which in retrospect was probably not a good idea as chainguns and demons don't mix. Luckily the blue key archvile kept flinching under the plasma stream so he didn't roast me. Now the real fun comes after the plasma rifle room. That bloody mancubus just refused to fire at the revenants and hellknights making their way down the passageway. Useless sack of donut batter. Ah yeah, there's an archvile resurrecting all the killed riff raff, I thought I was safe on the ledge and would kill them from there. Next thing I know I am seeing flames, what's this, TWO more archviles roaming around. And they were hard to get to coz all those bloody resurrected cacos, knights etc just kept getting in the way. Eventually I was just overwhelmed, this wasn't gonna work, so sought refuge in the blue key door which turned out to be the exit. Oh well, left the mosh pit behind. I quite enjoyed this map, there's an air of panic and it feels like the forces genuinely want you dead. 

 

MAP15

To me this is an underground tech facility. Some fun infighting in the cave right of the bat, with the mancubus, baron, demons and the cacos all getting involved. A demon even got to kill a caco. Compact, short and pretty good fun. The lift at the rocket launcher was curious, was thinking was related to a secret, but nope. I'm guessing the super shotgun is supposed to be a secret, but never got the ding. The pinky trap has the potential to be dangerous, if you camp in the passage picking them off, some of them can come around behind you via the server room. Left with some enemies alive, but they never appeared. Did not figure out the secret exit, I actually forgot I was on map 15 and by the time I remembered I had already exited.