The DWmegawad Club plays: Doom 404

[VGA]

lmao I shit my pants with the Archvile at the end, that was close

[Magnusblitz]

MAP28: Icon

100% kills, 2/3 secrets

 

Definitely a hot start, since there's a fair amount of dangerous monsters and you need to find supplies. I bee-lined to the building behind the Icon at the start, where the biggest threat was actually waking up the hell knights too early from outside and then getting immediately torn open at the top of the lift. @TheOrganGrinder makes an interesting point regarding the revenants, I tended to stay inside and deal with them first but that does give the AV time to run around and rez stuff; gotta choose when to leave the building safely so you don't get fried. After cleaning out the initial enemies it's pretty easy going.

[Summer Deep]

MAP28:  The toughest part of this map was at the start. It wasn't a viable option to deal with matters from the starting room, and emerging from there involved the high risk of being caught in Mancubus crossfire, with Cacos and a Baron joining in the fray, a scenario which found me out a couple of times. Thereafter the map fizzled out a bit, and definitely ended with a whimper and not a bang. Picking up the blue key had no consequences, nor was there anything at all behind the blue door.

 

As another reviewer suggested earlier, the author seems to have a penchant for subverting expectations somewhat - my interpretation of the presence of the IoS here was that he was formally discharging the obligation for the IoS to appear in a 32 level megawad, while dispensing with the actual mechanism. As the subsequent level was to show, that's not at all the way it worked out, but at least my own expectation was subverted......

 

100% kills, 1/3 secrets.

 

 

 

MAP29:  The first part of this map initially confirmed the impression created by the second half of the previous one, namely that the author might have 'given up' on the really difficult stuff which characterized maps 26 and 27 for example, but then came the IoS in all but name....

 

I strongly dislike the Icon of Sin, partly for the concept of infinite monster spawning, and partly for the sheer bloody impossibility of the situations that can be thereby generated. At least I know where I stand with the basic IoS deal though, but then there's the tendency of wad authors to baffle the player by messing around with it in the cause of innovation (or something). This example fulfilled all those requirements: I initially fired god knows how many rockets at the single red marker over the 'Exit' sign, then spent the best part of an hour trying to work it all out. Even when all the markers were showing red, I still ended up trying to kill the spawner by using the BFG on the central structure, as I assumed that was why it had been provided, whereas in reality just one more return to the platform was needed....

 

Very logical in retrospect, and you've got to hand it to Capellan, this was a very cleverly and imaginatively devised set piece. But I'm just a simple soul who likes my Doom to be straightforward most of the time....

 

136% kills, 0/3 secrets

 

Edited October 30, 2018 by Summer Deep

[Capellan]

I do try to give a clue earlier in the map as to what to do in the "IoS" room, but "shoot rockets at it!" does seem to be something of a Pavlovian response in the typical Doomer.  HAK3180 did exactly the same thing at first :)

[gaspe]

MAP29: What a bullshit start, no health, no ammo, hitscanners, AVs. I liked the IoS puzzle, it took me a couple of times to understand what was going on but it isn't something so difficult. Still no health (other than a secret soulsphere) but at least you are well supplied with ammo. I wasn't expecting a boss level on this slot.

[Phobus]

MAP29 - Man, Icon of Sin maps are shit. Like, the start of this map was pretty rough with the AVs and hitscanners, but eminently doable. Particularly on continuous. But then you've got an endless source of enemies coming out faster than you can kill them. So fuck looking for secrets, I missed all three. I worked out the puzzle and just used mouse look to rush and cheese it, because I have no time for the mechanics of an IoS. I grabbed as much ammo and health as I could and ran to the exit.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP29: Hellmaker

 

So maybe the theme for this particular mini-cluster of maps is "Things that look like the Icon of Sin, but aren'?"  MAP28 gives us the face but no brain; MAP29 here gives us the monster spawner, but the solution isn't as explosive as conventional Doom would suggest.  It's a fun and short little map, though I completely missed every secret except the rocket cache near the beginning, and even that was discovered mostly through a D&D-esque reaction to an empty space in the map geometry.  Again I find myself drawing a breath and waiting for the worst to happen.  :)

[Magnusblitz]

MAP29: Hellmaker

80% kills, 1/3 secrets

 

A lot of the maps have felt but tough but fair thanks to the health starvation, but this one is lean on both health and ammo at the start and felt like it might be tipping a bit too far towards the unfair side. The hitscanner/no health/no armor combo is just luck, but the real issue was having only 10 rockets to handle the 5 revs/2 AVs. Managing to scrape by that with 9 health, meant the next area took me quite a few tries to squeeze by the imps/chaingunners so I could get the SSG and actually be able to kill the next AV. (Didn't help that the only secret I found was the two large cell secret, useless for a pistol start). Thankfully the actual Icon arena is replete with supplies so you'll be fresh for it. This wasn't as hard, as the initial trick came across easy (though I did read Capellan's comments here about the suggested hint, so, not a good test). I was mystified about how to actually hit the core though until I realized I was hitting it inadvertently when I was using the BFG to clear out the monsters on the ground floor, and on second try was able to kill it with the BFG... not sure if you're supposed to ride the columns up again or what, but I couldn't hit it with rockets, and that also seems like a bad idea since the player might run out of cells killing monsters like I did the first time.

[Summer Deep]

MAP30:  This wasn't too difficult on HMP, and I completed it in two or three attempts. Infighting does most of the heavy lifting, and if you don't fancy running around in the main arena or the HK room, then the ravine leading from the starting point tends to be very quiet. It's not a complete surprise, and is indeed entirely appropriate, that the proceedings should end with a Cacoswarm.

Out of interest I replayed the map a few more times to set up confrontations between the Cyberdemon and the Spider Mastermind, and most often the latter prevailed. Also found it was possible to complete the level with around 70% kills without firing a shot. Finally took a brief look at the UV version of the map, but decided that I really didn't want to deal with any more Archviles for a while.... 

100% kills, 0/2 secrets

Overall I have mixed feelings about this megawad, though on balance the positive outweighs the negative. For me the best maps were those in which the layout, the selection and placement of enemies, and provision of resources provided the main challenge, such as in maps 6, 12, 15, 24 and one or two others. Less successful were the ones where the playing area was swamped with a horde of enemies, usually including Archviles, often leading to chaotic situations - this tactic was used too often for my liking in the second half of the wad and dealing with it could be a bit of a chore. The great majority of the levels, whether enjoyable or not, showed a good deal of individual character and imagination in their design. I'd definitely want to play some of them again.

 

Edited October 31, 2018 by Summer Deep

[Phobus]

MAP30 - I didn't like it. I'm glad it wasn't another Icon of Sin battle, but it was instead, basically, a miniature slaughter map. The best way to deal with it was to trigger everything and retreat to the chasm at the start, letting infighting take care of everything, before launching hit and run attacks on the switches. I ended up leaving two Revenants and the two cyberdemons alive when I ran back in, triggered the switches and escaped.

 

Overall, this is a pretty good megaWAD, but I stopped enjoying it in the last third or so. Impressive work on staying within the line limitation whilst making looping, non-linear layouts and relatively complex encounters.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP30: Terminal

 

Well, that was... a thing?  It's probably the single largest-scale battle the WAD has featured (even if you dive in to turn the Spider Masterwind and her accompanying revenant swarm loose early in the proceedings and don't clear up the Cyberdemon and entourage first) though it's not quite big enough to secure its own identity distinct from the likes of MAP25, the differences in scope and scale not quite enough for that.  So what you've got is, as @Phobus describes it, a "miniature slaughter map," and I'm not complaining about that, I'm not the world's biggest fan of slaughter gameplay so the fact that this one delivers some entertainingly large swarms of monsters to chew one's way through without actually crossing that line is not a thing of which I disapprove.  As a punchy way to round out the WAD, I like it, since the requisite Icon of Sin battle was delivered a day early in the preceding map and (outside of concept mapsets like "A whole megaWAD of nothing but Icon of Sin maps!") you can't really have two of those back-to-back without diluting and diminishing both.  This is as good and satisfying a climax as you're going to find.

[baja blast rd.]

29 

 

Quite a harsh pistol start, with a lot of stuff pouring in, numerous hitscanners, and no armor. The key to this one is making sure the chaingunner dies in a convenient enough spot, and above all, staying out of the line of sight of the archviles in the adjacent hallway. Fights deliberately conceived around making sure dormant monsters don't see you are actually pretty rare, to think of it. The secret cache of rockets makes the rest of the subterranean fights a lot smoother. And then we're upstairs. 

 

The soulsphere secret is well chosen, since it's sort of a buffer against potentially getting an archvile at an annoying moment. In this part the idea is to keep the arena clear enough that you can work safely, but not obsess about every stray until you lose momentum to further icon spawns. With infinite height on, monsters under the symbols are also of high-priority, especially fat ones. (Testing notes: It's possible to use the SSG's vertical spread to skip two cycles of lift riding. For illustration's sake, I used the SSG alone for hitting those symbols, and showed both skips. I think only the first is of any use, though. The other leaves you exposed on the lift for longer than ideal.) 

 

 

30

 

A small slaughtermap that definitely reads as more of a narrative / emotional send-off than anything too nuanced. In keeping with some of the mapset's tropes, the secret is arguably more useful for letting you camp and take out the gasbags than for the backpack and SSG. Thanks to the megasphere, this one is a lot more lenient than many of the other e3 maps -- and unlike many of the other e3 maps, it also gets easier with reckless aggression. 

 

 

 

[obake]

Quick rundown of the remaining maps:

 

Map 19: I like it. The crushers were fun to utilize.

Map 20: Very loopy layout. Run around getting as many of the bad guys as you can, and grab that SSG!

Map 21: Starts fine, but the raising platforms could be a bit easier to navigate without falling off.

Map 22: Despite the darkness, once you find the path outside, it's not too hard. The most difficult part is (again) the lone Pain Elemental.

Map 23: I have no idea how one could do this map without saves. Ammo is so scarce, and Viles aplenty. Still fun.

Map 24: Probably the most colorful map so far. Despite the abundance of Chaingunners, this is a fairly smooth ride. Lots of Cacos to take care of.

Map 25: Nice to see a more open map again. I like that Arachnotrons are utilized to great effect here, being free roaming. Even the Archies are not too bad to deal with, as the BFG and plenty of ammo is given.

Map 26: This one's odd. After the initial onslaught of pain (which takes a lot of trial and error), it's really not difficult, just tedious. It is split into small sections, full of Revs. The puzzle element is not too bad, at least, but the ending encounter is simply ridiculous.

Map 27: My computer was lagging bad during this part of the playthrough. However, this was still a fine map. Even if the Archie rush at the end was predictable.

Map 28: Short, to the point. Hard to run around in with various decorations suddenly blocking paths.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP30: Terminal

100% kills, 0/1 secret

 

I dig the start of this map, being the Icon-exploded remains of the last level's end - always like those level-to-level connections that tell a story. Infighting is really the order of the day here, and if you're playing pistol start you'll be pretty much forced to anyways since the weapons are placed in the monster closets. As usual, pick off the AVs first and just stay safe after that and let nature take its course. The only health you'll get is that megasphere, so any screwups will probably require a restart. The center area is maybe a mite too dark, but based off comments on the earlier dark maps I think I might just be playing on darker lighting settings than Capellan. I didn't find the backpack secret on my own (damn subtle clue) but I imagine it's actually more useful for having the extra corridor to use for mobility purposes.

[gaspe]

MAP30: Nice map, the original track was fitting and moody, more enjoyable than many other maps of E3. The ammount seemed absurd, most of the monsters will die by infighting without having to shoot a single shot. The secret was useful to give a side corridor where to run and to outflank the mess in the central cave.

 

The megawad was allright. The best thing is the work on the layouts, which was good given the limitations. It's weird that at the start there's a loose narrative going on, then that gets lost quickly. While progressing the maps become rather pesky with the health/ammo/weapons given.

[Capellan]

5 hours ago, rdwpa said:

29 

Testing notes: It's possible to use the SSG's vertical spread to skip two cycles of lift riding

 

I'm aware of and OK with that little trick :)

[Capellan]

Also, thanks everyone for playing.  If you have any additional feedback - the more detailed the better! - please share it here or in the playtest thread. I intend to make "Release Candidate 2" this weekend, but there is still time to make changes!

[Capellan]

The link in the OP has been updated to what I am officially calling "Release Candidate 2".  There's no new music yet, but hopefully soon.  It's much the same as the version from the start of the week, but with further tweaks to map29.  Mostly this is to move the ending of the map to where you've been looking all along, rather than somewhere new.

 

Please let me know if you run into any issues with any map, but especially map29 :)