The DWIronman League dies to: Scythe

[Alfonzo]

December, 2019

 

> Download Scythe
> NaZa's unofficial leader board

 

Leaderboards

Spoiler

Standard

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Prepared

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What is the Doomworld Ironman League?

The DWIronman League is a monthly competition in which participants aim to survive for as many levels as possible in the given map set, preferably in one sitting. Click the spoiler tag below for a detailed list of rules. Players of all levels of ability are welcome. It could change the way you play Doom!

 

In December 2019 The Doomworld Ironman League is visited by The Ghost of Christmas... Death?

 

@Erik Alm's Scythe is one of the quintessential Ironman WADs. Speedrunners will call it breakfast, but for a young and sprightly Alfonzo it was the gateway to a new mode of play, and a terrible thing to behold. Amazingly, using some shameful combination of cowardice, corner-camping and good luck, I managed to Run For It! all the way to MAP30 in 2010... only to chicken out and abandon the save game file for months out of fear I would cock it all up. Which, of course, I did, in the end. It was my one and only attempt, and it became a spectre of defeat that dangled over my head for almost a decade. Dangled like a scythe!

 

Now, then, at the turn of a new decade, it is time to put this matter to bed.

 

It is also time for me to step down as convener for The Doomworld Ironman League. Commitments elsewhere in life have completely pantsed all possibility of my upholding standards, here. @NaZa, who has essentially been running the joint for the last six-or-so months and been my right hand statistician for much, much longer, will step into the role to keep things ticking over. And I'm sure he'll do a stand-up job! While I continue to enjoy thinking up fun ways to entertain the league each month and watching the demos roll in (and, uh, occasionally the demos themselves), the task demands more attention than I can spare, for now and into the foreseeable future. Now seems the right time to make a move, with 2020 around the corner.

 

I want to thank all the participants who have made this such a successful staple of the Doomworld forums. Not just the evergreen survivalists, but everyone who kept rocking up up damn near every month to charge into death, time and time again; those who have dipped their toes in to test the waters; those who have surged in like a storm front and ripped the competition a new one, only to disappear and never be seen or heard from again. I can't name one person or I'll end up naming them all... so a great big group group hug to @everyone! It's been real.

 

Good luck to all in 2020. I'll participate where I can and die screaming with the best of them. Blind, too, maybe! Isn't that exciting?

 

Essential Info

• Doom 2 as the IWAD selected.
• Compatibility level 2, or "(Doom (strict))" for ZDoom derivative ports.
• 32 levels total.
• Death exits on MAP10, MAP20.
• Blind players can punch their cards at MAP28, which will kill you if you have not practiced the map.

prboom-plus -file scythe -complevel 2 -warp -skill 4 -record my_demo

 

Spoiler

• There are two competitions: Standard and Prepared:
   
  • To compete successfully in the Standard competition: your first play of the selected WAD(s) constitutes your one and only attempt for the month.
  • To compete successfully in the Prepared competition: your one and only attempt for the month is determined BY YOU immediately before play and may follow any prior number of plays that are strictly for practice/inspection purposes only. You cannot compete in the Standard competition after submitting a run to the Prepared competition. You may submit the first of your practice attempts to the Standard competition.

   

• UV only (excepting 1CC format). No pistol-starting.

• Demos (PrBoom+, GLBoom, Eternity or Chocolate), stream highlights and video recordings are the only accepted proofs. You must link to these runs in the thread. 

• No additional WADs may be loaded.

• No inspection of the WAD(s)'s content in an editor if you are submitting a Standard run.

• No cheat codes and no features that result in behavior beyond what is possible in the intended source port (e.g. freelook, jumping and crouching in a boom set). This includes dynamic lights and brightmaps. If streaming or recording videos using an advanced source port with compatibility options, you must display these settings on-screen before your run. In ZDoom derivative ports, "Doom/Boom(strict)" will suffice.

• If you choose to stream/record your run for video rather than provide a demo and you die before completing a single level, either on MAP01 of a set OR because a single level was selected for the month, you must display the number of monsters killed/remaining in the level before you quit.

• You do not have to play the secret levels in order to register a complete run. However, a player who finishes the game having completed more secret levels than his/her competitors will rank higher than them.

• You cannot load a game having progressed past the save point.

• You cannot consult Doom Builder during your run to check for map details.

• If the recording of your official run is interrupted due to technical difficulties, you are not permitted a second attempt. Any surviving recording may be used to register a DNF result.

• Accidentally restarting a level before a death exit takes you to the tally screen will disqualify your run.

• If you are competing in the Standard competition, you are required to affix one of three numbers to your run informing the League of your degree of familiarity with the map/set played. Note that your evaluation should only take into consideration the content covered in your run (e.g. if you remember only one part of a level in a set you haven't played before but never reach that level, you should list your run as a [1] instead of [2]):

   

  1. This is a blind run. If I have played or watched any of the level/set being played before, I cannot remember any details that would offer a reasonable advantage over truly blind players. *
  2. This is not a blind run. I have played the level/set before, or watched it being played, and can remember some details that would offer a reasonable advantage over blind players.
  3. This is not a blind run. I have watched the level/set being played via stream, demo or video after it was announced as this month's challenge.

 

* "Reasonable" in this instance asks you to consider whether the details in question are worth committing to memory. As in, you would thank the person who gave you this information with a straight face and not expect to be laughed at for being an utter berk.

 

Previous Threads

 

2016
Jenesis (winner: Demon of the Well)
Crusades (winner: Ribbiks)
Nilla Doom (winner: Demon of the Well)
Khorus' Speedy Shit (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
Perdition's Gate (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
UAC Ultra (winner: Bloodite Krypto)

 

2017
Jade Earth (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
Legacy of Heroes (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
Back to Saturn X E1 (winner: dew)
Mapgame (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
Vae Victus 1 & 2 (winner: Demon of the Well)
Disturbia (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
Insertion (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
Unholy Realms (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
Osiris (winner: Demon of the Well)
End Game & End Point (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
Oscillation (winner: Ancalagon)
Doom The Way id Did (winner: kmc)

 

2018
Combat Shock 2 (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
Coffee Break (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
Warlock's Hearth (winner: Demon of the Well)
50 Monsters (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
Double Impact (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
Rush (winner: WH-Wilou84)
The Darkening E1 & E2 (winner: Veinen)
The Plutonia Experiment (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
Interstellar Sickness & Shaman's Device (winner: leodoom85)
Doom 64 for Doom 2 (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
TNT: Renascence & Resistance (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
Ultimate Doom The Way id Did (winner: Bloodite Krypto)

 

2019
Hellfire: Dreams (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
Fomalhaut (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
Stardate 20X6 (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
Base Ganymede: Complete (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
SIGIL (winner: leodoom85)
Vanguard & Lunatic (winner: Bdubzzz)
2017 Collection (winner: an_mutt)
Revolution! (winner: NaZa)

Monster Hunter Ltd. 1 & 2 (winner: Bdubzzz)

Abcess (winner: Demon of the Well)

Edited December 1, 2019 by Alfonzo : Actually updating the winners table

[Catpho]

Best of wishes to your endeavors Fonz. All hail overlord @NaZa!

Gotta make time for this momentous Ironman.  Wanna see how I can handle Scythe years later :)

[Alfonzo]

Let's see if we can rope in some fools for this end-of-year Christmas massacre. I want everyone and their dog dead on the dance floor. Heads will fucking roll, ya hear?? Black metal shit! Rivers of blood so wide they flow out of the front page and into whatever Wonderland tea party the DWMegawad Club kids are having over there, with their plastic cups and tailcoats.

 

Merry Christmas! With a bang!

[NaZa]

Alfonzo, you did really well with picks for Ironman and even if the leaderboards weren't always updated it was still well organized. Hopefully I'll be able to be a worthy successor! Thank you for this opportunity and it is sad to see you relinquish it, honestly. 

 

As for Scythe... Yeah, I haven't played it a lot. I've seen footage of the first five-six maps and some of MAP28 and while I intend to watch footage of said map, I honestly doubt I'll even get that far. Technical category 2.

Edited December 1, 2019 by NaZa : After getting to MAP06 I realized I also saw it played at Stru's. Map length must have deceived me!

[antares031]

@Alfonzo Much appreciated for hosting the Ironman League for the last three years! It's been a great time to participate the league with other people from the community, and read the comments about the participant's attempt from the leaderboard for fun. To be fair, that's one of reasons that I joined the league. :D And I'm glad that @NaZa, who has been managing the unofficial (well, I think that now it's safe to call it "official") scoreboard of Ironman League. Congratulations!

 

For the wad of the month, I played Scythe a long time ago. All I want to say is that I hope I'm fast enough to survive the infamous MAP28... come to think of it, let's hope that I manage to reach MAP28 during the attempt. That'd be more important, hehe.

[Alfonzo]

1 minute ago, antares031 said:

To be fair, that's one of reasons that I joined the league. :D

 

Ah, that's great to hear! Thank you! I really wish I could have kept pace these last few months if only for this reason. Obituary writing was one of the most attractive parts of hosting for me, too. I'll make sure I cover each and every run before December is out :)

 

On a related note, I think it's important that character continues to play the biggest part in this "comp". That's why folks like @Pegleg are so great to have on board, and why having something like the Britbowl naturally emerge out of the League is so heartening. @TMD used to throw caution to the wind in his old runs just for the audience, so his runs were among my favorite to watch on-stream in 2016/17.

 

If it were all just about placement and numbers, it'd all be a bit of a dirge. I think we've managed to avoid that and there's a big future for this thing, yet, the more we focus on the fun asides like streaming and rivalries.

[Horus]

I’ve not been playing Ironman long but it’s fun to do and thanks for hosting @Alfonzo! And thanks for taking up the reins @NaZa! 
 

Very interesting pick, a set perfect for something like this. Doubt we’ll see many (any?) Cat 1 demos this month

[Steve D]

@Alfonzo So sad to hear of your retirement from hosting Ironman, but I can truly sympathize. Not only am I still catching up on watching the Abcess runs -- a mere 6 maps! -- but life commitments mean I only get time for about 10% of the DW activity I'd like to do. Having tried from time to time to watch more than a couple Ironman demos per month, I long ago realized just how much work is involved in staying on top of this, especially in months with super-popular wads that draw in 20+ players, half of whom are very familiar with the mapset and thus go deep into it, or even survive. That's a lot of hours watching demos! I couldn't have done it, I know that. 

 

As with @antares031, a prime reason for me participating in the League was the obits. Nothing like a good-hearted, wry observation on our flailings to make the day go better. :) But I also wanted to test myself, to see if I could move from being a savescummer to a survivor. Well, I haven't survived a single mapset so far, but that day may yet come before we go ice-skating in Hell. ;D

 

So thanks, Alfonzo, for coming up with this great idea. It's been a blast, really my favorite thing on DW, and perhaps even moreso now that I plan to do both Blind and Prepared runs. My sympathies to @NaZa, but look on the bright side, my Blind runs will be very short. ;D

 

Lastly, Alfonzo, I hope your life commitments are of the fun and enjoyable kind, and perhaps very lucrative, and I look forward to seeing you around as a participant as often as possible. :)

[Xymph]

1 hour ago, Alfonzo said:

Previous Threads

 

2019

[...]
2017 Collection (winner: an_mutt)
Revolution! (winner: NaZa)

Followed by:

 

Monster Hunter Ltd.

Abcess

[ReaperAA]

Oh boy oh boy. It's THAT wad

 

I bet i am (and probably many others are) gonna get roasted on map 21 ;D

[Horus]

I’ll be amazed if I get to map 21. I fear I might panic and die on the dropdown on map 06, and if I make that, I think I’ll struggle on map 11

[Magicana]

Scythe? I might actually join in for this one. I don't know how to make demos, I presume a continuous video is fine? It's mostly irrelevant because even having played the maps several times, I'll probably die on map01 still.

[Leszczynek]

Since this is complevel 2, am I supposed to finish my recording in one sitting? I'm not good, but if I were, would I have to play through 32 maps in one playing session? I've tried looking around the forum but all I could find were confirmations that yes, it is one playing session indeed.

[duvel]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/s7rwze27x2hj3vx/scythe-im-dec2019-cat2.lmp?dl=0

 

No stream for this one. Scythe is one of my favorite megawads but the ambush at the end of MAP06 still kicks my butt :(

[NaZa]

5 minutes ago, Leszczynek said:

Since this is complevel 2, am I supposed to finish my recording in one sitting? I'm not good, but if I were, would I have to play through 32 maps in one playing session? I've tried looking around the forum but all I could find were confirmations that yes, it is one playing session indeed.

Yes, indeed you'll have to sit through it all.

[Pegleg]

@Alfonzo

Thanks for coming up with this idea and carrying on with it. I second Steve D's comments are your upcoming real world commitments. We hope to see you back here from time to time.

 

@NaZa

Congratulations on taking over as caretaker of DWIL. I suppose this essentially just makes official what has been the practice for the last several months. I suppose this now means you'll have to maintain both the "Blind" and "Prepared" leaderboards.

 

One more thing:

7 hours ago, Alfonzo said:

SIGIL (winner: leodoom85)
Vanguard & Lunatic (winner: Bdubzzz)
2017 Collection (winner: an_mutt)
Revolution! (winner: NaZa)

Monster Hunter Ltd. 1 & 2 (winner: Bdubzzz)

Abcess (winner: Demon of the Well)

 

It's nice to see variety at the very top of the monthly leaderboards.

[NaZa]

^{Speed 15 because demo playback.}

 

dwironman_scythe_naza.zip

 

SCORE: Died on MAP22 after only an hour of play. Don't get to say that often!

CATEGORY: 2. I have watched the opening stretch (up to MAP06) on Stru's channel a year ago and a MiniDoom playthrough (also the opening few maps - didn't have the patience to decode what's what after about two minutes) three days ago. I also watched a couple of MAP28 runs, but having not made it there, my category shouldn't be 3.

TIME TAKEN TO REACH MAP22: 1:01:12

SATISFIED? Yes.

 

I'll gladly say this was my best Ironman run yet. Everything after MAP06 was blind and I'm really, really happy to have survived some of the nasty setups this set offers. I was lucky a few times to get away with little damage. In particular, surviving MAP11, 20 and 21 I'd say were extremely satisfying, blind, and surviving MAP22 would've been as well, although I may have called it quits after surviving it because time constraints. The whole of MAP22, after the Revenant 50 damage roll, was incredibly lucky, I'll admit; I should've died numerous times, the screenshot showing the most unlikely escape ever (yes, I SURVIVED THAT!), similar to Eris's escape back when Coffee Break was played. In the end, having 15 or so HP, I attempted to rocket an Archvile but hit a Hell Knight a bit closer to me, which I reckoned would've left me with 2 or so HP; but Doom didn't bother with maths and just rounded it up to a zero.

 

As for the set, I really enjoyed it! I think it suited my play style a lot, with quick pace and nasty setups but also a lot of leeway to allow you a bit of risk, and by having a lot of powerups I was able to channel my inner Veinen (not really) and blitz through a few setups, particularly the opening bunch which I think I did a sub-5. I'd also like to apologize to @Steve D for my unkind remarks about Abcess last month - I've retried the challenge up to MAP06 and I must rescind my words as it was more enjoyable than I wrote in the post.

Edited December 1, 2019 by NaZa : Category clarification

[SleepyVelvet]

Salutations, Alfonzo.  These Ironman threads are some of my favorite things on these doom forums, and add more entertainment & structure to playing doom than just picking up miscellaneous maps from Wads and Mods.  I'm glad you started this monthly event.

 

Also...

DEAD: Map04 (cat 2)

hasty play, quick death. at least its dinner time.

noisy_scythe_ironman.zip

[Magicana]

Standard Run, Category 3. I have played these levels before. I have watched playthroughs of them. I've opened some of them up in DoomBuilder before (Not during or in preparation for the run - Just highlighting how well I know the maps).

 

 

 

Dead Simple apparently isn't so simple. Died on Map07.

 

Biggest struggle for me was having to turn freelook off! Had a lot of trouble controlling Doomguy because of that mouse movement.

Edited December 1, 2019 by Magicana

[Crusader No Regret]

The witty obituaries are a big part of the draw for me.  My dominant train of thought on seeing the torch pass on is "about time."  No criticism intended; it takes quite a lot of energy to administrate these, I imagine.

 

Wrote a fan obituary for an-mutt's 2017 Collection run to acknowledge the accomplishment - Survived: an_mutt - "For the first time in the history of the league, creator takes part and surpasses all challengers.  Hats off to an outstanding performance."

 

Would ya' believe I've never played Scythe?  Part of me is not inclined to but some other part is interested in producing a blind attempt for the fails collection.  Stay tuned.  (or not, considering my sluggish pace in an unprepared attempt)

[Spectre01]

Though I normally don't do Ironmans, I thought to myself a while back that if Scythe gets picked, I'll have to participate. It's the megawad I've casually replayed the most times and a good introduction to playing without saves. I haven't done a proper playthrough in months so this run is my first take:

 

Cat 2: Survived in 3:29:08 (How not to play Fire and Ice Edition.): S01_ScytheMan_32908.zip

 

Why is it so damn long!? I played carefully and did all kills and secrets on every map except for 28, because I sure as hell am not risking attempting a max there. Also, there should be a completionist category or bonus for us non-speedrunners. Enjoy!

Edited December 5, 2019 by Spectre01

[Kaido]

Oh boy! Oh boy! What joyous fun. I am definitely gonna participate for this :D

 

 

[Anima Zero]

Awesome mapset here!  That means it's time for yours truly to just speedrun the sucker and see how long it takes for me to die.  Being half asleep when attempting this doesn't help though.

 

Despite all that, I made it quite far rather quickly.  Made it to map 20 before a giant ass goat demon blocked me, then said hi with a rocket to my face.

DWIronman_Scythe_AnimaZero.zip

[ReaperAA]

17 hours ago, ReaperAA said:

I bet i am (and probably many others are) gonna get roasted on map 21 ;D

 

Well I managed to get 3 maps further than I was expecting.

 

Demo: scythedemo.zip (Category 2)

Used: Glboom+ 2.5.1.7um (Complevel 2)

Dead on: Map 24 (reached at around 1:30:00)

 

The moment I met those horde of revenants on map24, I kinda knew I wasn't gonna survive. Still I am satisfied with my performance considering that the last time I played this was about 3-ish years ago.

[Roofi]

I died in map 24 (I did the two secret levels).

 

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/638860117298905100/650972870083739648/roofi_scythe_im_24.lmp

 

I'm pretty satisfied of my run. I was expecting to die in map 28 because of its gimmicky gameplay.

 

It's been a long time since I played Scythe (2012/2013). There are some levels that I remembered very well and others that I had totally forgotten. Unfortunately, I couldn't rediscover my favorite map (map 26)

 

Category 2

 

 

[Fairweather]

Pretty happy with how far I got considering I'm a massive newbie to playing Doom stuff, especially on PrBoom.

Never played Scythe, which I know makes me a bit of an outlier here, as I've heard the name thrown about long beforehand.

There were some total shit-your-pants moments in that run, I'm very surprised I survived the Chaingunner trap in MAP08. The drop-down on MAP06 was also pretty brutal, and that was one of the most cramped Dead Simple remakes I've ever played.

 

Died in MAP10 to the death exit, which for whatever reason did not work for me, that sucks!

I did like that I never truly felt safe, every button and item pickup was just seeping with the feeling of dread. A lot of them felt perfect for this kind of ironman style deal, quickly acclimating to seemingly completely overwhelming odds felt great.

 

Demo: (Category 1)

Used: PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4 (Complevel 2)

Dead on: Map 10 (at 00:21:28)

[Spectre01]

21 minutes ago, Fairweather said:

Died in MAP10 to the death exit, which for whatever reason did not work for me, that sucks!

It looks like you pressed the use key after dying, which restarted the map. Scythe's death exits take around 4 seconds to end the level properly. It's unfortunately a common problem with longer death exits where a player can accidentally restart the level.

[Pegleg]

1 hour ago, Fairweather said:

Never played Scythe, which I know makes me a bit of an outlier here

 

I, too, have never played Scythe, so you have some company. Scythe (and Scythe 2) were recommended to me in response to a statement I once made that I typically don't play megawads because it takes a long time to play through 30 levels, so I'm looking forward to playing it this month.

[Horus]

25 minutes ago, Pegleg said:

 

I, too, have never played Scythe, so you have some company. Scythe (and Scythe 2) were recommended to me in response to a statement I once made that I typically don't play megawads because it takes a long time to play through 30 levels, so I'm looking forward to playing it this month.

Scythe 2 takes much longer to complete than Scythe

[cannonball]

So I made it to map13, then realised that I really should be going to bed and rushed a little too much.

Call this a category 2 for the sheer fact I haven't played this in a couple of years.

scythecb.zip

Edited December 3, 2019 by cannonball : Shocking write up error... for shame