The DWmegawad Club plays: Avactor & Deadly Standards

[rehelekretep]

very cool map - very Eternal (in design and midi). couldnt find the last soulsphere/enemy secret.

map01 fda (glboom+ uv, saves)

[Snikle]

MAP03 - Gythop’s Pyramids

 

As usual the level was great. As usual my writeup is not. I played this level over the course of a week, so the beginning of this map kind of blended into my memories of the other maps. Anyway, I liked the rocket launcher room and the cyberdemon fight (I didn't kill the cybers though). I only found 1 secret, but it was the BFG secret, so good on me for that.

 

Finally on page 2 of this thread.

[dac]

Catching up, I learned my lesson and will vote for something less imposing on the 25th. Not a dig, Avactor is extremely good overall.

 

So:

 

MAP 06 – Mount of Steel

 

Ever wondered how those demonic civilizations had access to machine guns and fortified turrets? Well they’re made here, in this giant forge! And of course, the forge is snug inside a volcano.

 

After what I assume is us activating the forge and taking a chunk of the environment in the process – an early highlight, even if I’m not a fan of parkouring pillars – it’s time to put an end to demonic activities. This map’s strength was in mixing elements I’d usually hate, like fighting in lava, with stuff I love more. The red key fight and its lead-up is a strong example: the elevator skirmishes segue into a stealth showcase featuring all the big demons (Cyber, spider, BFG brain and a gaggle of arch-viles) as you go and flip switches to transform the space into a huge lava arena, albeit one you could mostly avoid by getting the red key and hopping in the teleporter.

 

Special mention to the final fight: After an arduous scuffle in flows of lava (see my write for map 07), fighting in descending platforms, hopping from one to the other as monsters warps in. It is one of the better end for a map in this set, and ensured I’d leave this behemoth with a positive impression overall. I had a positive impression of the map in the first place, as exhausting as it could get, but this assured it.

 

 

MAP 07 – Europhan’s Hall

 

I never was a fan of fighting in whatever damaging floor the setting demands, juggling radsuits and having this nagging pressure behind moving and slaughtering demons. This map is not really an exception; it’s manageable, fine, but it’s carried by a strong opening, climbing a spire into an open place, demons attacking you from three directions at once and having to footwork your way out of it all. And then I grab the red key, get forced into a lava-filled detour; grab the blue key, and straight into a lava arena I fall into; grab the yellow key... Well in this one the lava-and-crusher combination is fortunately optional and in a secret place. The main section still features precarious ledges and crushers though.

 

It’s a shame, because this map ticks a lot of boxes otherwise. I mentioned the initial fight, implied the terrain transformations, but thing is, this map just flows well, from its main areas to its optional areas. Excepted the silent teleport revenant secret, anyone who 100% this map knows the one.

 

 

MAP 08 – Violent Geometry

 

(Disclaimer: I made my life a lot harder by completely forgetting I had a BFG until the very end of the map. I’m like that, yeah.)

 

One danger with big sprawling adventure maps in my eyes are them overstaying their welcome and becoming a slog to push through. I touched on it a little when we were doing Eviternity, specifically its MAP19 but also generally, and it’s a combination of factors: pacing, a good first impression, making sure the set pieces flows well, remove as much frustration as you possibly can from the map while keeping a bite to it all. I know it’s hard, and I have to commend Eradrop for undertaking a mapset that consists of just that, completing it and end up with a very high quality product.

 

It’s fun, because my opinions so far runs the entire scale: there are maps I adored, MAP05 and MAP06 among them. There are other maps I was lukewarm but still went through fine, like MAP07. Even the maps I was critical of, I could still find some good things about it (MAP 03 was written quickly just to get something out, which is why the good was “yeah, rest of the map is good”).

 

Then there is this map. Right from the start, an almost open field with turrets plinking at my health isn’t my idea of a good time, and it coloured the rest of the map rather negatively. Whereas I was fine with detours into lava in the last map, it wasn’t so here, even if the section is much shorter. Parkour sections weren’t my favourites, and the should-have-been-straightforward one in this map tried my patience. The constant ambushes were tolerable before, but here they were grating.

 

Everything comes to a head in the final set piece of the map, a pit with giant weights we raise, one by one, to obtain the blue key. It’s a piece that lasts way way WAY too long for how much it offers: flip a switch, kill the demons and try to dodge the projectiles, find the next switch, repeat too many times. I came out of that room with a seething hatred of cacodemons and their faster projectiles. Getting to the ending with relative ease soon after was less elation, and more relief.

 

...Yeah, not the highlight of this set, that’s for sure.

 

 

MAP 09 – Overflooded with Ideas

 

This is the highlight. The map’s title set expectations at a high level, and Eradrop exceeds them with ease. From the given map alone I could tell this was going to be an adventure and a half, and by the time I reached the exit boat I had the good kind of exhaustion weighing on me.

 

The one idea I felt was the highlight was in how non-linear the map felt while, well, not being exactly that. The goal of this map is to raise all parts of a stone bridge, and while I spent time getting distracted by a demon cache to clear before proceeding, raising the bridge itself was well ordered, each switch following another, each detour leading into the next switch. Even in the general red and blue key areas, I was only a warp away from a switch to raise, which would inevitably open up a new area in the place I just warped out of. Sometimes it makes for a confusing adventure, but one worth going forward. And sometimes backwards, sideways, in every directions.

 

The adventure itself is an amazing one, but it wouldn’t be good without a presence to slaughter. The initial open area is a joy to clear, piece by piece. The arenas are original and evil, from the crusher arena which took me a few tries to get through, to the cyberdemons fight which was the same. A special note to the yellow key area, which is true to the map’s name: ideas, over and over until the key is accessed.

 

Basically what I’m saying is I wager this map alone would have gotten a Cacoward all by itself. The rest of this mapset just solidified it.

[Magicana]

MAP09 - Overflooded with Ideas

 

I remember loading up this map, seeing 1286 monsters, and just going "Holy shit".

 

This is an absolutely sprawling map. It is big. I got lost, a lot. There are giant statues which I like to think are of Harambe. Lots of incidental combat, lots of set pieces. I absolutely loved that bridge that you slowly unlock. There was even a secret which told me I was good at hide and seek. Fantastic map.

 

 

 

MAP10 - Critical Crossing

 

This map turned the difficulty up to 11. I really struggled with a lot of this map. It's a key hunt (All six) with a real bite to it. It's the only map I did under par, mostly because I was racing trying to survive.

 

 

[Eradrop]

Thank you all for the invested comments!

Please keep up posting :)

[Snikle]

MAP04 - Rest of the Sages

 

This is my favorite map in the set so far. I loved all the little buildings in the town, they were fun to explore and the town looked cool as hell on the automap. The starting area was chaotic and fun, both when you were there at the beginning, and at the end after you get the yellow key. I found a few secrets, like the plasma gun in the pyramid in that beginning area, but I never found the red key. I assume that was a secret as well? Eh, no matter, these levels take long enough to beat without extra time spent secret hunting.

 

MAP05 - Calculating Under Pressure

 

Here we have a large arena surrounded by some open town-like areas. Pretty much everything here was great, only part I didn't like was the lava room near the end with the four switches. Just going around the room and doing the same thing four times isn't really my thing. The arena was great every time I was there, though. What was that BFG spider head all about? When do I get to fight more of those? Less awesome were the tan pinkies, but I'm sure they'll be in plenty of fun situations later on as well.

Edited April 20, 2019 by Snikle

[Magicana]

MAP11 - The Final Theory

 

What can I say about this map. A giant arena with six pyramids. I could just tell from looking at the massive area that it was going to be a variety of IOS map.

 

I'm a massive idiot and it took me awhile to figure out how the map actually worked. It would have been helpful if there was a wall which said "Shoot me" so I knew what the hell I was doing... Oh.

 

 

I looked at that wall... I realised it was shoot to start the fun, and I proceeded to turn around and shoot the air. It woke everything up, but it sure made the map hard (Seeing as the trigger to drop the barrier for the first pyramid is to shoot that wall). 

 

On my first run through, I used an arch-vile jump to bypass that silly requirement. Luckily I got smashed by a cyberdemon rocket about 4 keys in otherwise I would have been pretty shitty trying to work out how to finish the level. Much easier when I realised you could just shoot the wall that the map tells you to shoot. In terms of IOS maps, it's pretty good. Helped having no gimmicky Romero head to shoot, which made it closer to a normal map. 

 

 

MAP12 - Back to the Surface

 

I still didn't beat the par on this map, and that makes me a rage.

 

 

Overall, great map set. Would have loved to have seen this as a 32 map megawad - Although I'm honestly not sure with the size of the levels whether that would even be feasible to map/play. Lots of fun, amazing detail. Highly recommend.

 

Just as an aside, with the customer monster set, if you warp past the final level and keep going, you can get some very interesting maps to play. Map 32 was even better with the brains/Cyber fight.

 

[riderr3]

And now we got to the Deadly Standards.

E1M1
I thought this map will be shorter. The music track is pretty motivating.
Initially I leaved starting area to the narrow corridor, because imps almost made a BBQ from me. I realized that this place looks like a dual hangar, with one opened hatch in the ceiling.
There are many semi-cramped corridors, but with the low-tier opposition this is not a problem.

The outside looks like a bombardment area - the craters in the floor, imps shoots from the cliffs and from the windows. I used the pit with chaingun to hide from group of pinkies.
A single baron behind red door is a surprise for me, though he don't go too far because of the lowered ceiling.

Secrets on this map are fairly easy, though I found the chainsaw one after re-checking the map. I leave a couple of imps on a cliffs to save some ammo.
Excellent memorable map, I like the monster placement here, the outside and hangar-like area.

Also this wad have some neat music remakes of Doom1 by PRIMEVAL, who made music for Plutonia Revisited.

Edited April 23, 2019 by riderr3

[dac]

MAP 10 – Critical Crossing

 

Final island! Difficulty takes a sharp hike here, although I’m not sure if it’s really that or just me deciding not to deal with the cyberdemon on the ship.

 

The optional quest of finding all six keys, embarking on the ship and being whisked away straight into the battle in the distance resumes Avactor well enough. You could play it straight and enjoy a fine adventure, or pay close attention and really enjoy the ride through all the intricate secrets. Not that the beaten path isn’t good on its own, just that this is a mapset perfect for 100% runs more than any% runs.

 

 

MAP 11 – The Final Theory

 

It’s been a while since I had a good Icon of Sin fight in Doom, so this end is most welcome, and the most hellish environment of the set. Even if t most of the fights were ended by BFG – everything to end fights quickly and not be overrun by the monster hordes. I admit I panicked a little bit once I nabbed all the keys and wondered where to go. Back to the gates, it seems.

 

MAP 12 – Back to the Surface

 

The End. We have escaped hell, and we take the final boat out of here into somewhere. A plain outro map, with not much to say about it other than a few backpacks to collect.

 

 

POST MORTEM

 

That was exhausting, in a good way. I’m not sure I could take an entire 32 maps of sprawling islands adventures lasting more than an hour, but a dozen maps is just fine.

 

 

FAVOURITE MAPS

 

Map 05 – Calculating Under Pressure

 

The maps generally got better over the mapset, but this multiple arena fight was the first highlight.

 

Map 06 – Mount of Steel

 

A change of environment most welcome, and a good adventure overall.

 

Map 09 – Overflooded with Ideas

 

Best map of the set, a grand adventure that is true to its name.

 

 

---

 

 

Alright, time for a small break, then it's time for Deadly Standards! Hopefully the thread will move faster and the mapset will be more brisk.

[Spectre01]

Nice to see Deadly Standards got picked, which I contributed the final map to as well as some lore! I'll drop by to post about it if/when it gets played. Hopefully the Megawad Club isn't dying out with only 2 pages of posts nearing the end of the month. 

[Capellan]

I think that Avactor's maps may have just been too enormous for most folks.

 

I enjoyed the opener for Deadly Standards when I played it during the WAD's development.  I remember the 'craters' in the outside area being very bumpy in their original form; from the look of the video that got posted, that is still the case!  The exterior is probably the best area in the map, if I recall it correctly - plenty of crossfire opportunities and a good variety of enemies to engage.

 

I will doubtless blather more extensively about e1m2, after more of you have had a chance to play it :)

 

 

[Eradrop]

Thank for playing my wad, I guess its too massive for most of the players and its totally fine, got some things to work on thanks to the posts here.

goodluck for the my partner wad "deadly standarts".

[Magicana]

E1M1 - No Crates on Phobos

 

An Episode 1 replacement - I've not played many Ultimate Doom wads, and I have to say I enjoyed this one. It's a lot tougher than the Ultimate Doom that I'm used to (Although E4M1 is still the hardest intro map I've played outside of slaughter wads), but quite enjoyable. Really felt like an Episode 1 map. The only problem I had (And this is me being nostalgic) is the outside areas - As an E1 replacement, I'm big on outdoor areas being secrets and not part of the progression - But that's just me.

 

I really enjoyed the map.

 

[Roofi]

I will just copy-paste my review of Deadly Standards I wrote a few months ago.

 

just finished the whole episode in one sitting. It was great. I had a lot fun discovering each mapper's style in relatively classic Ultimate Doom limit-removing maps. Indeed , each mapper offered more detailed and more complex maps than the original IWAD. Whereas the three first levels were rather classic (good but not really interesting) , the later levels were more unique , especially the last ones.

 

Here is my personnal top 3 maps :

 

 

1) E1M7 - Eden Log by @Angry Saint

 

A really intriguing and unusually curvy tech base. It reminds me of Nicolas monti's maps but with aligned and carefully chosen textures. It was the most beautiful map for me . I really liked exploring it despite the fact that the gameplay was very basic. A few more secrets would not have been too much too. By the way , I loved this map because I saw you tried something new.

 

2) E1M8 - Obliterate Anomalies @Spectre01

 

Hum... That map was just completely chaotic and psychedelic lol. I really loved the visuals , you definitely have an unique style. You have the best representation of hell : A mess of nonsensical textures but with a massive and detailed architecture. I found your map diabolically beautiful. I liked the gameplay but I was not really prepared for slaughter. It's bad you gave up your map for Deadly Standards 2.

 

3) To The Surface by @riderr3

 

It's maybe one of the only maps I liked more for its gameplay than its aesthectics. The level was quite beautiful but I above all enjoyed the progression and especially the part with the huge elevator. This map has a more pronounced adventurous aspect due to fact you must go up to the surface. It's a good gimmick to make more height variations in a Doom map.

 

Honorable mentions

 

E1M5 - Third Moon Lab by @CarpetolA : An aesthetically pleasing level with light gradients and fine details. I only regret that some brick textures are poorly misaligned.

 

E1M6 - The Inner Port by @mrthejoshmon : A quite short level which manages to give a creepy atmosphere. The lack of armor (except in the secret) keeps the player on stress

 

E1M4 - Research Station by @The_SloVinator : An interesting mixture between action and darkness. teleporting lots of different monsters to the same place is simple but effective !

 

You can watch my demos : DEMOS

[Catpho]

@Eradrop Sorry for not being able to participate! Your wad definitely deserves more than just two pages :P

[dac]

Alright, recovered a bit, let's see how good Deadly Standards is.

 

 

Play Info

 

Source Port : GZDoom 4.0.0

Difficulty : Hurt Me Plenty

Saves : Counted.

Restrictions : Pistol start.

 

 

E1M1 – No Crates on Phobos

Saves : 0

 

...Barrels still count as crates, Liberation! Or at least that’s how I remember the Start to Crate rules. (0 seconds, by the way)

 

Joking aside, that was a bit meatier and tougher than I would have thought from an Episode 1 inspired map set. Mostly how this opening waste no time getting to the action and forcing me into some close quarter skirmishes. One death so far, panicking at getting plinked away by shotgunners, running into the open and getting eaten by a demon. Second run was much smoother, meaning I found an armour by going the other way. And once I found a chaingun and the soulsphere secret, the rest of the map was a breeze. Even the final ambush, even the baron of hell in the red key room.

 

Doing something different with this map set by counting saves. I tried this challenge with map sets outside of the megawad club, and liked it well enough to go for it with Deadly Standards. Let’s see how it goes, and hopefully maps won’t get too long. (Getting comfortable enough to record demos is the end game here.)

[riderr3]

I'm not only one who play on HMP, but with PRBoom-Plus and continuous play.

E1M2

Probably the only disappointment here is lack of the medikits, the map have scarce quantity of stimpacks and couple of potions.

It have nice layout and monster placement but lack of medikits is ruined 60% of fun for me, it's making map more grinding because you'll need to proceed more slowly and carefully but even this not really helps. Each visit of new area throwing to you a group of roaming low-tiers, even a zombieman bullet can become a last nail in the lid of your coffin.

Especially stressful instant trap when opening red door and you even didn't notice how you get a point-blank shotgun blasts from the left. Alas, even in this monster closet are no medikits.

All what beyond red door is just not fair gameplay-wise, because in situations like this it's better to provide more bullets for chaingun which is most needed weapon here, along with providing medikits in closets, where monsters coming from.

In the end I found secret in nukage tunnel with green armor. Actually I have enough armor and this secret is best place for soulsphere instead, I finished map with 39HP.

Edited April 24, 2019 by riderr3

[Magnusblitz]

Yeah, Avactor looked cool but there was just no way I would be able to make it through those size levels given how busy April has been.

 

DEADLY STANDARDS

 

Just being playing usual ZDoom (mouselook/no infinite height), UV, pistol starts, save as I feel like.

 

E1M1: No Crates on Phobos

100% kills, 2/2 secrets

 

2 hours ago, dac said:

...Barrels still count as crates, Liberation! Or at least that’s how I remember the Start to Crate rules. (0 seconds, by the way)

 

It might be called that for brevity's sake, but barrels are absolutely not crates. Crates are rectangular, barrels circular. There's a chain store called Crate & Barrel. If they were the same it'd make no sense. YES I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL

 

Anyways, even though this is in the M1 slot, it could easily have been a mid-episode level, with 150+ monsters, 2 keys and a decent amount of ground to cover. The layout is a bit more cramped than I would normally prefer, and it also limits how much the monsters can really flank you, making things pretty easy combat-wise. Aesthetically it feels a bit busy to me, though I suspect part of that is due to the cramped size of things where it seems like every 24 units there's a texture/architecture change. It's a decent enough map, although maybe a bit generic in that modern style. Dig the music track.

[Salt-Man Z]

Okay, let's do Deadly Standards. GZDoom/UV/continuous/saves/keyboard-only.

 

E1M1: No Crates on Phobos

14:29 | 100% Everything

This one was a lot of fun. Absolutely loved the layout; lots of nice-looking 45-degree corners, tons of windows for sniping at later areas. The sector scenery outside the playing area looked great, too. Lots of action, mostly just mobs of imps and zombies, which is always a lot of fun (especially once nabbing the chaingun.) Maybe a few too many doors and hallways, but really overall I just adored this map.

 

E1M2: Janus Complex

18:33 | 100% Kills | 100% Items | 71% Secrets

And wow, this one is just nonstop action from start to finish. I found myself just constantly blasting forward, which on the whole was not the best strategy given the absolute dearth of health to be found here. But I couldn't help myself. As a result, though, I was down to 16% when I reached the red door, and the dickish ambush there killed me once. Then it took me half a dozen attempts to survive the hitscanner-heavy exit door ambush on account of such low health. (Then imagine my delight to see a mandatory nukeage run to get to the exit switch! Thankfully, I managed to avoid any damage there.) Again, mostly a very fun map, but the lack of health almost (but not quite) soured me on it. I did miss two secrets, so I can't help but imagine/hope one of them was a health stash.

[dac]

E1M2 – Janus Complex

Saves : 0 + 0 = 0

 

That one was WAY tougher than I thought it would be. Two deaths, both at the start until I realised I should be playing a safer game than the usual. The third run had me at a whopping FOUR health points when I flipped the final switch, from around 50 HP entering the red key room. Nasty one with spectre cutting your retreat and shotgunners ready to kill you as the wall drops. The final sewage section was a cherry on top, in the “OH COME ON” sense.

 

Thank heavens for pistol starts resetting my health back to 100, also fuck you pistol starts for I did not start this map with 150 HP and a chaingun.

 

I’ll echo @riderr3 with how stingy this map is with health. The sole full medikit of the map on HMP was one behind two consecutive secrets, both missed in my run. Of the few stimpacks on the map, three were in secret places. Combine that with a mass of hitscanners, and while this isn’t an exact recipe for disaster, it makes for a less than ideal trawl through rooms, corner peeking all the way.

 

But hey, third time was the charm and I didn’t get far on the first two attempts, so overall this map isn’t really evil when looked that way. Not doing it on UV though.

[NaZa]

Not ethically correct of me to vote considering I have not participated, but would be a nice followup to Avactor as a more relaxed set. 

 

+++ 1000 Lines CP

[riderr3]

E1M3

Progression on this map reminds "The Citadel" from Doom 2, most who played it call it too cryptic. Especially the search of red key, where even the automap not really helps, because you need to watch carefully on the walls and balconies to figure out how to get to the red key room.

There are many repeatable visits to areas, especially the lift in the computer room.

Finding secret exit seems more easier than overall progression.

There is small chance that somebody can fall in large water containers with cacodemons, without using the switch in the front of exit door. Initially there should be a bars which prevent early access, but for mysterious reasons they are already lowered.

A longest map in the whole mapset, no doubt.

Edited April 25, 2019 by riderr3

[SiFi270]

+++ Master Levels, Raven

[Magnusblitz]

E1M2: Janus Complex

100% kills, 5/7 secrets

 

Hey Capellan, you know what health packs are right? Just kidding, but damn if this level isn't stingy with the health. The first few rooms are quite wide open with a lot of windows and ledges, creating plenty of angles for the enemies to attack if you stray into the middle of a room. I ate quite a few potshots and found almost nothing to patch up with, leading to quite a few deaths at the start of the map. I tried playing safe but still just kept eating too many bullets from far-off zombies. I eventually ended up settling for just beelining immediately to the chaingun and green armor, but still spent most of the level in mid-to-low health and finished at 21%. Looking in DB, there's only one medkit (in a secret I didn't find), nine stimpacks (some in secrets I think) and ~12 bottles, which means you will not be finishing this level at full health. Aside from the health embargo, the layout is a pretty well inter-connected E1-style layout that creates a nice pace and incentivizes action with the large amount of open hallway connections and windows constantly showing new monsters to kill. Just a shame that the lack of health somewhat punishes aggressive play.

[Roofi]

 

+++ Deadly night of destiny (The wad compiling Death-destiny's maps for TNS) , Mayhem 2018 Orange Edition

Edited April 26, 2019 by Roofi

[gaspe]

Deadly Standards

 

E1M1: The opener offers something different from what I would expect from an E1 replacement, and especially M1. There's quite some ground to cover starting from a cramped techbase until you get outside and the quest for the 2 keys takes place in another building you have to explore. It's very well detailed and the landscape looks really cool. I think that after you pick the BK the things get too quiet in the building, while the music is more fitting for some more continuous action. The baron was an unexpected but welcomed surprise.

E1M2: Like the others already noted it's a very stingy map with the health provided. It's plenty of secrets of secrets and many would look underwhelming in other maps but finding stimpacks and medikits in them was very helpful here. The various rooms and areas are quite tricky with monsters that are all scattered in the various corners and often put at different tiers of height. We got also a RL that doesn't have so much place in this map with mostly closed rooms and spread out monsters. It was more useful in the bigger fight before the exit. The RK courtyard was my favourite area and I liked the small sewerish parts.

[Magnusblitz]

E1M3: Main Reckon Facility

100% kills, 8/9 secrets

 

Not sure what the title's supposed to be... wrecking facility? Recon facility? Either way, after the lean and mean KDITD-style E1M2, this one is a big shift going to an exploratory castle-type map, with lots of emphasis on figuring out your way around by figuring out how to jump around and access different ledges and such. Definitely gave me some trouble, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out how I got on the south wall originally (thankfully I had raised the ladder do it so I could just ride that up once I had the blue key). Speaking of which, that blue door definitely threw me off for the longest time as I thought I would need it to get the red key, heh. Combat isn't too tough with lots of room to roam, lots of it is just clearing out lone enemies as you explore, though the central chamber can maybe pose some threat if you get locked in. The battle at the bridge works well. I can definitely see the puzzlesome progression turning some people off but I liked the exploring.

[Capellan]

20 hours ago, Magnusblitz said:

Hey Capellan, you know what health packs are right? 

 

Fun fact: one playtester actually suggested removing the secret medikit :) 

 

So there were two things i was exploring with E1M2 (other than depriving you of all the healths).

 

Options: In two different ways; firstly, in that I wanted to make a map where plenty of content was optional.  You have to do the start room, the red key courtyard, and the stuff behind the red door, but how you get from the start to the courtyard is deliberately left wide open, and there's no other room you must enter in order to finish.  This led to the second kind of optionality, which is that many (though not all) rooms have three ways in or out.  There are exceptions, of course, but as much as possible I wanted to maximise the occasions where the player has two new options of ways to move forward, rather than backtracking.

 

Roaming Monsters: I wanted to maximise the use of roaming monsters.  The many connections of the map are absolutely a contributing factor to making that work, and I deliberately tried to keep those connections relatively easy to navigate, since let's face it, Doom monsters aren't too bright!  As soon as you start shooting, multiple clumps of monsters in multiple parts of the map start pathing toward you, and your own movements will then affect how they roam, so they could pop up from anywhere at any time :)  Block sound lines are also used to create 'quiet pockets' where the roaming monsters will only be awakened later, creating a fresh wave of roamers just in case the earlier one(s) were starting to run thin.

[Roofi]

/

 

Edited April 26, 2019 by Roofi

[gaspe]

E1M3: It reminds a bit a Citadel first with a main block of bricks and the puzzling progression but the structure here is more elaborate with walls and turrets too. It's a good looking military fort, the theme is tech. The inner parts of the central building are quite nasty with cramped rooms and various hitscanners. Lots of secrets around and fun exploration to do.

 

E1M9: This has a pretty cool journey, starting from a dark nukage pit to an underground techbase where a big elevator takes you to see sky again. My favourite part was the area with the twin doors at the chaingun with some nice secrets to unravel. The vine room was good too and that was a very neat usage of the action to lower the pillar with the RL and raise the nukage pond. In a similar vein of E1M3 here there's also a big fight that is saved until you have almost finished the level.