The DWmegawad Club plays: 25 Years on Earth

[Phobus]

@loveless having just seen your demo, there's a Zombieman bouncing up and down on the lift whilst you fight the Cacodemons :P

 

MAP25: Middle Management

I missed a BFG shot on one of the Arch-Viles at the end and got blasted into the inescapable blinking lava pit :(

 

Still, other than that it was a high-octane experience that having loads of plasma, rockets and the BFG for only served to make more intense, which was nice. As others have noted from the text file, part four of this tetralogy of metaphorical corporate nightmares embodies the infighting, back-biting and jockeying for position that comes with trying to climb the greasy pole. You'll be managing the low tiers whilst keeping the big boys at bay, and the best way to thrive is to brazen it out.

 

The little loop you go through on the imp ledge in the starting room actually houses the trigger for the rising stairs, as well as a very helpful cell pack. I think that tiny section of the map uses up at least three line actions, which is nice for me, whilst other parts of the map use up things like a one-time walk-over fast lift line and the 16-unit switch-activated stair builder. That mixed battle after you drop down the hole took a fair bit of balancing and tweaking, as my initial draft was very difficult to survive. I think I added the soulsphere in the end, just to make it easier for myself, as running around in plasma gun panic-mode often involved soaking up a lot of stray hits from the ledge imps and hit scanners, even if you manage to avoid taking hits from the Revenants, Pain Elementals and Arch-Vile. Probably one of the more chaotic fights in the map set, exacerbated by some of the monsters being flagged to ambush the player as they emerge from the three little corridors that link the two rooms.

 

The finale is more of a sting in the tail than a genuine threat (unless you take a lava dunk, like me...), but those two Arch-Viles do have a lot of potential fodder in that room to work with, and the two Hell Knights barring the exit can keep you from hiding near to where the AVs teleport to if they decide to stay in there rather than coming out to play.

 

I quite enjoyed making this map, and I think the MIDI had a lot to do with it. I'd already assigned a fair bit of the music by this point, and had tried to space out my choices so that you didn't have solid blocks of any one band. I think In Flames are the only band that got back-to-back maps (20 and 21), which is mostly down to how many MIDIs of theirs I found that I liked.

 

 

Well, you've all got MAP27 to take on tomorrow. I'm braced for some strong opinions, but do remember that those of you playing in demo-compatible ports do have a demo showing you most of the solution as DEMO2! ZDoom and GZDoom users are going to have to figure it out...

Edited June 26, 2020 by Phobus

[ironicmoustache]

48 minutes ago, Phobus said:

Well, you've all got MAP27 to take on tomorrow. I'm braced for some strong opinions, but do remember that those of you playing in demo-compatible ports do have a demo showing you most of the solution as DEMO2! ZDoom and GZDoom users are going to have to figure it out...

 

If only I'd have known/remembered this earlier... hahaha!

[Alper002]

MAP26:Upper Management is the third map in a row where you are incredibly close to or able to see the exit from the start. Of course, you can't so easily access that exit, because otherwise there'd be no point :)

There's a few one-time chances for things to happen on this one, like skipping a whole trip around a hallway you'd normally have to go through if you didn't capitalize on the door opening. There's also the one-time secret that I could say I cheated a little on, by way of reloading my save from the start of the map. The short length makes such restarts not too annoying, especially when you have options in how you tackle the early part of the map. Pretty fun.

 

I am curious what I'll think of MAP27. If Destination Defenestration is any indication I'll probably like it.

 

Map ratings:

Spoiler

Maps get rated on different lists (which I'll add as I deem necessary) depending on which part of the map I liked most, and the placement on said list is dependent on what I think of the map as a whole.

Maps I liked for their simplicity:

MAP26:Upper Management
MAP08:Constriction
MAP01:Drop Pod Excursion
MAP22:Power trip
MAP07:Rat Run

 

Maps I liked for their aesthetics(visuals & music combined):
MAP19:Fester
MAP13:Caldera
MAP17:Entrance Made
MAP02:Bunker Buster

 

Maps I liked for their sense of place:
MAP31:Holiday
MAP15:Spaceport
MAP16:Unruly Cargo
MAP03:Urban Renewal

 

Maps I liked for their creativity:
MAP18:Meat Grinder
MAP06:Destination Defenestration
MAP04:Wasted Luxury

 

Maps I liked for their gameplay:
MAP21:Security Station
MAP11:Bloody Denial
MAP32:Waiting Room
MAP25:Middle Management
MAP24:The Front Line
MAP23:Corporate Hell
MAP05:Skyline
MAP14:Water Treatment
MAP20:Reclamation
MAP12:Emerald Fluid
MAP10:Haste Keep
MAP09:Skulking Death

 

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP26: Upper Management

 

I guess this makes it a trilogy of short-and-spicy, "start near the end but work your way around circuitously," kind of maps in the middle of this third episode?  It's a neat idea and @Phobus has thoroughly explored it without any of these maps feeling at all "samey" despite the fact that they're largely iterations or variations on the same concept.  "Wooden Hell" is about as clasically Doom as themes come and offers a nice twist on the notion of top-tier, old-school management in their oak-panelled offices, although the number of actual "managers" (i.e. high-tier monsters) here is minimal, it's still mostly fodder types.  Close quarters and an environment thick with surprising triggers allow these low-tier threats to make the most of their potential, and I ended up burning through the whole of the soul sphere's extra 100% health I'd carried over from the preceding map before I was done with this one.  I didn't get the blue armour until I'd cleared out the level, though, so I'll be starting the next map with that as a buffer between my skin and whatever new horrors await.

[Andromeda]

MAP26: Upper Management (25 Years on Earth)

PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4, HNTR-PS, no saves, 100% everything

 

We start some mere steps from the exit, just like the previous levels. At this point one wonders whether this gimmick is starting to get stale, but that's not the case as the levels don't have much in common other than that and the fast-paced gameplay. I took more damage than I expected here, spending most of the level under 50% health but I also played even more recklessly than usual, finishing it in under 3 minutes. I didn't mind the predominantly brown aesthetic, as the textures used are among my favourite stock ones. 

 

The "difficulty filter" is a neat idea though it seems to do the opposite of what seems to be intended: it activates slow crushers on UV and fast crushers below UV. It makes sense as slow crushers are far more lethal while the fast crushers are "only" a nuisance. Moving on, with the SSG and RL in hand the rest of the level is at your mercy, as you speed through the corridors killing everything on your path - the secret megaarmor is a godsend to be able to sustain more damage. The RL doesn't see much use due to the cramped nature of the level, but it happens to be the perfect fit for the last trap as it can clean the room in a matter of seconds. Cool level, with some random walkover triggers that make it feel as if the structure is moving on its own.

 

Levels in order of preference:

Spoiler

MAP32: The Waiting Room

MAP09: Skulking Death

MAP17: Entrance Made

MAP06: Destination Defenestration

MAP14: Water Treatment

MAP19: Fester

MAP08: Constriction

MAP13: Caldera

MAP12: Emerald Fluid

MAP22: Power Trip

MAP11: Bloody Denial

MAP24: The Front Line

MAP18: Meat Grinder

MAP04: Wasted Luxury

MAP20: Reclamation

MAP26: Upper Management

MAP07: Rat Run

MAP05: Skyline

MAP25: Middle Management

MAP31: Holiday

MAP02: Bunker Buster

MAP15: Spaceport

MAP01: Drop Pod Excursion

MAP23: Corporate Hell

MAP21: Security Station

MAP03: Urban Renewal

MAP10: Haste Keep

MAP16: Unruly Cargo

[DuckReconMajor]

6 hours ago, Biodegradable said:

6 hours ago, Phobus said:

@DuckReconMajor I'm hoping the internet woes yesterday were a temporary state of affairs, so for convenience I'd prefer the continuation of videos! I can watch those on my phone over breakfast or whatever, or even multi-screen with those, plus I can go to mobile data and watch them even if the internet is down, whilst the demo download requires internet access!

I've been really enjoying watching Duck's playthroughs as well. He's inspired me to start recording my own and will be doing so for my entries in next month's megaWAD. 

Thank you for the feedback!

If anyone's trying to use prboom-plus -viddump and is having issues setting it up, feel free to send me a PM or something.

 

MAP26 - Upper Management

prBoom+ 2.5.1.7um, skill 4, continuous with saves, no complevel specified

 

The description in the text file of the thing placement affecting crusher difficulty had me imagining evil-eyes staring me down as I am reduced to mashed potato. Every time I heard that noise I'd sprint backward, but in the end I made it through.

I did reload my save to get what looked like a one-time secret, as Alper002 did.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[gaspe]

MAP26: Maybe it's just me but I think that wad started to lose its narrative sense in the last few maps, seeming more like a random collection at this point, though I guess that Phobus was more subtle in his approach to keep the story going. Upper Management gave me a better sense of advancing into what could be the Hell HQ, using wood as main textures that gives it a more prestigious feel and takes you back to Doom 1. I would have liked to see more tech blended with the place, like at the SSG and the RL, as I thought it was a little too plain overall but it has some nice tricks (even a one-time secret!) to make this very short level more interesting.

 

+++ Akeldama

[Phobus]

@Andromeda Ah, it must be working as intended and I just forgot which way round it was. The logic of "more lethal" being higher difficulty does make a lot of sense!

 

@gaspe I think, thematically, this stretch of maps isn't very visually consistent, but does hang together a lot more closely in terms of how the maps work. From dropping into the hole at the end here, I think you can imagine the remaining levels piecing together again like they did early on, though.

[Snikle]

MAP26: Upper Management

Another shorter level without too much memorable stuff going on. This one felt very simple, very ‘90s, as opposed to the doomcute-heavy offices of the first episode. The theme here seemed to have been single-use switches, they were everywhere. I think the blue armor is tied to one of them, I never found out how to get it any other way. I didn’t look too hard though, the level was over pretty soon afterwards. The fight in the large room with imps, demons, and a cacodemon being flanked by 3 shotgunners on either side was the standout encounter. Just like the last level, the start and exit are right next to each other. I always enjoy that sort of looping layout.

[loveless]

@Phobus  it's a trampoline, DIY or die!

[golbeeze]

I still have to upload map 26, but oh map 27. The only map I needed to record in two parts. If you haven't played the map yet, you likely won't correctly guess why. Hehe

[loveless]

prboom+, no saves, uv pistol starts  
map 26 

 

this one was a bit too short for me.  the quick ssg grab was too convenient for what it was.  i'm not even sure what the preceding area is like, never saw it.  i'm also not sure if skipping that side of the map forced me to play ammo strict. 

25years-26-loveless.7z

[Summer Deep]

MAP27

 

So, this is the map that's been given so much advance hype! It's definitely one of the most distinctive in appearance and gameplay, and perhaps the most memorable level in the wad. I wouldn't say it's in any way unfair or even controversial though.

 

After a couple of false starts, I managed to complete the map in two very different ways. Firstly, from an HMP continuous start, it was possible to release the Hell Knights from the Yellow Key room after going through the crusher maze, then annihilate all or virtually all of them by funnelling them up the longish passageway into the plasma gun room, which creates enough of a bottleneck to make it manageable. After that, the handle at the end of the room can be activated, and the player can dash through the now empty yellow key room and towards the exit. Trouble with this strategy is that it's only feasible for a continuous player with plenty of ammo - I used up 600 plasma cells and around 70 rockets, didn't kill every HK, and would've had nothing left with which to confront the second wave of monsters, so had to settle for 56% kills.

 

The second approach, which is probably regarded as the 'correct' one, is illustrated in the video below. This was a UV pistol start, the main difference on UV being apparently the replacement of HKs with Barons. Here you lock the Barons into the central room, activate the lever, and dash to the control room, where the Barons can be crushed and you have enough resources to mop up afterwards. I actually couldn't be bothered to work out exactly what the various switches in the control room did (or maybe just panicked), and pressed them rather haphazardly, thus probably exposing myself to unnecessary danger. That took a bit of the gloss off what was otherwise a very solid performance. But I shouldn't really be grumbling about getting a UV MAX in around 10 minutes...

 

 

 

Edited June 27, 2020 by Summer Deep

[Capellan]

MAP27

Hard no from me.  No interest in trying to complete this.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP27: Press Gang

 

...Is this going to be a crusher map?  Because that name sounds like it belongs to a crusher map.

 

Okay, so.  Yes it's a crusher map in both its central mechanism and the first leg of the player's journey toward their yellow-key goal.  That said, the way crushers are used and especially presented here elevates this particular hazard above the level of a gimmick and instead makes it the centrepiece of the closest thing to a narrative experience Doom can deliver with its limited storytelling toolbox.  Very quickly you're presented with what is an impossible, overwhelming horde of monsters, one you can't hope to beat with the weapons on hand and the supplies available, and so it becomes apparent that you have to deal with this particular threat some other way.  As you make your way toward that solution, you're compelled to rush forward and slam violently at the buttons that keep the horde sealed away for just a little longer; it's something you have to do once, twice, and then on the third go-round the doors close as a standard and leisurely pace rather than the near-instant slamming of shutters that you've previously enjoyed, and the foremost teeming ranks of the throng can't help but escape and add another dimension of pressure to the experience.  It's delightfully crafted, though I'll admit that the presence of a megasphere and the option of saving it as leftovers until the map's dangers have been neutralised and it can be put to use patching up the player's wounds as they proceed to the next map went some way toward soothing my frustration at my apparent inability to devise a proper solution to the messy encounter in the northern room.

[Endless]

MAP26: Upper Management. Played in UV with Brutal Doom and LZDoom.

 

It follows the same theme as always and remains stable in terms of overall quality. Nothing new but that doesn't mean that it's a bad thing either, it's entertaining, short and sweet (uh) with a few traps that offer good surprises and a bit of a bloody challenge if played on UV, the right way to play. Little by little this megawad will come to an end and we'll see what kind of a pin it closes with. So far, it's great, fast and intense. My kind.

[ironicmoustache]

Crispy, UV, continous.

 

MAP27

I don’t quite know how to feel about this one. As something of a gimmick map, it has its charms, but I’m not sure how strong of a gimmick it is. That said, I did admire what I interpreted as an attempt to confound the player with the last set of Baron doors with the big battle outside; if the player hasn’t been paying attention and reflexively rushes to the switch in order to stop any Barons from entering the fray, expecting the doors to open “automatically” (like I did the first time around), then that act of rushing in pretty much guarantees their doom. Granted, it only worked on me once (or twice haha) but I thought it was clever. So maybe that one touch makes up for it not being the strongest gimmick individually?

 

I thought the crusher control room was somewhat unintuitive, and, honestly, a pain. I think it’s possible for the player to softlock themselves here if one makes the mistake of raising the floor instead of lowering the crusher. You think it’d work since you do hear some pain sounds, but there’s no way to lower the floor even though that switch can be used multiple times. It also took me a while to figure out that it was possible to crush the Barons in the centre without raising the floor since the first few times I tried it I raised the floor before I used the crusher switch.

 

Granted, I was a dummy and didn’t put two and two together after hearing all the Baron pain sounds, but I don’t think I’m the only one that made that mistake, and will make that mistake. I also have no idea what the switch next to the door did, and why it disabled the floor control switch after being used. I get that it’s probably, again, part of the WAD’s conceit, but I felt it was a real pain and really brought to mind crane/etc sequences/puzzles in videogames, almost all of which I dislike.

 

I kinda like some of it, kinda dislike some of it, and kinda appreciated one little touch. As ever, I find a way to be equivocal about a map that seems to engender very strong opinions, but hey. Story of my life.

[golbeeze]

Maps 26 and 27

Map 26 was short and sweet. Nothing spectacular and certainly not difficult. It was forgettable, unfortunately.

 

Map 27 was a strange one. I thought it was just a big fight until I ran out of BFG ammo and there were way too many barons left. Then I figured out how to do the level correctly. That's when I pushed the crusher button and my FPS said "no." Yeesh

Take 2! ~kill monsters

Then I can complete the level! My PC can't handle the crushing of dozens of barons at once, apparently. I think it would have been a fun level if my PC didn't give up.

 

[head_cannon]

-Crispy Doom, UV Continuous

 

MAP27 - Press Gang

 

At least Doom 2 put Tricks & Traps in slot 8. Players who fail to figure out the map and wreck themselves are only set back a minor distance compared to the ones who exercise poor save management here. Imagine getting all the way to 27 before overwriting your only save on this level. Players who get themselves stuck here are faced with a choice of abandoning all their stuff to pistol start -vs- a very long walk back to here from Map01. This is why I always leave a safety save from the beginning of the map, just in case.

 

It may be that I'm just dense, but it took me a while to grok this map's intended progression method. I didn't grasp the magnitude of the threat because my first instinct was to dodge into the hallway just past the armor. That only led to a key-locked door and a death for being cornered. Oh well, back to start.

 

So I just said, "Well, I don't need that armor then" and proceeded into the crusher gauntlet. And when the second puzzle room with a Baron Button arrived, I didn't know to press it yet. I thought I was supposed to dodge into the hallway and chaingun/plasma down any monsters that blocked my path in order to flee from the minibosses. Similarly, I thought that the way a switch lowers you down into the next battle was supposed to be an escape-hatch to render the Barons unable to pursue me. So I thought I was making a save to fight a boss battle against a horde, but had instead softlocked myself. Oh well, back to start.

 

So, this time I understand that this series of trials is built around the concept of never letting that door open for longer than half a second. I keep the minibosses penned in, navigate around the map, tackle that horde battle (without the million Barons added to it), and finally reach the control room where, unless I'm misunderstanding, you have to make a blind guess which of the 4 switches progresses the map, and which render it unwinnable. The blue-bar switch is clear because it matches the light-bars around those doors which this whole puzzle has been built around. But why are there two additional decoy buttons? One of them, as far as I can tell, did nothing whatsoever. One raised the floor of the Barons' chamber up, making a barrier and softlocking the save I made once I (with the assistance of that quirky possessed crusher-door) chewed through all the remaining rabble. The horde was removed, but the small amount of Barons that slipped through the door took a while to grind down to 0HP, and it sucked to have a locked door and a raised barrier mean that all that time spent was for nothing. Oh well, back to start.

Spoiler

Ok. So. This time, I refine that "bully your way into one of the four monster closets to gain a chokepoint" strategy I'd been using on the horde battle, reach the control room, press the correct switch, and I finally get to leave this place and turn off that mocking disco midi.

 

It was a painful slog to get there, but the final payoff of witnessing the industrial-strength blood sacrifice did have a catharsis to it. The crushers really do have a character here. They're spiteful, hateful, ever-hungering things. (And the extra grief you have to go through in order to reach the crusher-gauntlet's optional button and claim its prize is a good use of them too.) Considering the mass of the crusher plate and the mechanical force that must have been required to compress thousands of tons of bulletproof demon flesh, it is rather remarkable that that keycard is still intact.

 

The other thing I like about the level's finale is the reveal that - remembering that their release meant inevitable death at their hands - what had seemed like the gods of these monsters ended up actually being their slaves. The whole "infernal machine" angle is something I find compelling, and I wish I liked this level more. After all, fiddling with the machinery to get where you want to go has been a clear part of this megawad's identity. So, wanting to use a puzzle room as a boss room makes perfect sense. (And probably most will not make such a consecutive string of wrong guesses as I did.) But still, this one ultimately didn't land for me.

[Biodegradable]

MAP27 - Press Gang

Not gonna lie, this one got me rather angry. I had performance issues with this because of the big crusher, so when I'd hit the switch to squish the giant horde of Hell Knights, it caused GZDoom to crash on me several times and also created severe lag which caused me to die quite a few times. I ended up having to sort of scum-save at several different increments just to make it fair, but I'm not sure how much that's Phobus's fault for putting so many enemies in a small section combined with what's happening on the screen and how much is the sourceport's fault. It ruined my experience with this map to the point that once I finally had the yellow key and everyone was dead I didn't want to stick around and quickly saved over to the next map. I'm going to have to revisit this again at some point, perhaps using a different sourceport, because I really liked the concept of the level and how you can keep pressing that middle switch to prevent the horde from getting out, but my aforementioned issues really fucked with my ability to really appreciate the map. :^/

[Phobus]

I find it improbable that the map on it's own is tanking your performance on GZDoom. Your enhancement or gore mods are likely to blame, or my PC has enough power to cover the performance hit that the giant simultaneous crush is causing!

 

Likewise, unless there's a bug I'm unaware of, you're not being softlocked by the floor crusher. The switch by the crushing door lowers that floor again. I actually prefer to only use the floor crusher, as then I don't have to contend with the ceiling when I go to get the key!

 

I don't think I'll have a chance to catch up today, as I'm busy, but I thought I'd poke my head in and at least read what's been said so far!

[Biodegradable]

13 minutes ago, Phobus said:

Your enhancement or gore mods are likely to blame

 

Yeah, that's probably what it was. I don't know anything about this technical waffle, Phobus, so I essentially regard you as a mighty technowizard who possesses knowledge I can't even begin to understand.

 

13 minutes ago, Phobus said:

Likewise, unless there's a bug I'm unaware of, you're not being softlocked by the floor crusher. The switch by the crushing door lowers that floor again.

 

Oh no, I wasn't softlocked. No, I just meant that I didn't stick around to look for some secrets or anything, I just wanted to get out of there lol. 

[Phobus]

Sorry @Biodegradable - the bit about softlocks was for the Crispy Doom players. Sounds like that port might have trouble with the lowering floor switch... Which is odd, as prboom+ was fine with it in complevel 2.

 

As for your performance issue - are you loading anything like golbeeze is? Not necessarily a weapons mod, but something like Smooth Doom or nashgore, that enhances the blood and gibbing? Golbeeze's FPS drops off a cliff because Argent adds to the blood effects when enemies get damaged. Doing 100-odd enhanced damage effects all at once, repeatedly in a short space of time, isn't something these mods are often optimised for. If you're just loading the map set and GZDoom, then it may be down to my computer having enough power to smother the processing hit, so a lot of people might experience that problem.

[Biodegradable]

Nah, I reckon it's BD that I've been using this whole time because of the gore effects. I know @Endless is also using the mod as well, so if he experiences the same issue, that'll confirm it. If he otherwise has no issue, then I'll try experimenting at a later date by playing said map Vanilla and perhaps with different mods to see if there's any difference. I think that's the crux of the issues because I have a pretty strong setup.

[Phobus]

Oh yeah, Brutal Doom will definitely be the cause there. It'll be trying to chuck gore and blood all over the place, presumably processing collisions for most of it too. That's that mystery solved!

[Alper002]

19 minutes ago, Phobus said:

Sounds like that port might have trouble with the lowering floor switch... Which is odd, as prboom+ was fine with it in complevel 2.

I experienced this in prboom+, but it seems my save was not using the right complevel? That's my hypothesis for the issue at least, since when I tested just warping to the map regularly it worked flawlessly. When loading my save, the crushing floor didn't stop to make sure the barons took as much damage they needed to in order to die. Instead, it just raised, dealing damage as it went, and then made the sector stuck, unable to be moved.

 

Other than that weird mishap I found MAP27:Press Gang quite an interesting map to play. There's a horde of barons to contain, lest you get overwhelmed and die. That's not to say the map itself isn't tough without them, but it's essentially impossible if you let them flood the map. It's quite satisfying to then crush them at the end, even if it behaved a bit more oddly than intended. Overall enjoyed it a lot!

 

Map ratings:

Spoiler

Maps get rated on different lists (which I'll add as I deem necessary) depending on which part of the map I liked most, and the placement on said list is dependent on what I think of the map as a whole.

Maps I liked for their simplicity:
MAP26:Upper Management
MAP08:Constriction
MAP01:Drop Pod Excursion
MAP22:Power trip
MAP07:Rat Run

Maps I liked for their aesthetics(visuals & music combined):
MAP19:Fester
MAP13:Caldera
MAP17:Entrance Made
MAP02:Bunker Buster

Maps I liked for their sense of place:
MAP31:Holiday
MAP15:Spaceport
MAP16:Unruly Cargo
MAP03:Urban Renewal

Maps I liked for their creativity:
MAP27:Press Gang
MAP18:Meat Grinder
MAP06:Destination Defenestration
MAP04:Wasted Luxury

Maps I liked for their gameplay:
MAP21:Security Station
MAP11:Bloody Denial
MAP32:Waiting Room
MAP25:Middle Management
MAP24:The Front Line
MAP23:Corporate Hell
MAP05:Skyline
MAP14:Water Treatment
MAP20:Reclamation
MAP12:Emerald Fluid
MAP10:Haste Keep
MAP09:Skulking Death

 

[gaspe]

MAP27: It's allright but I think that something like this heavily based on a single gimmick doesn't fit so well near the end of a wad. It can happen that few barons can escape from the room before you manage to close the doors. The best part was the fight at the RL/PR room when the floor lowers. Watching the barons getting crushed was satisfying at least.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 26 -- Upper Management - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets - FDA

This is the third episode's breather map. Other than the final ambush, which has theoretically high pain potential but is also very heavily telegraphed, here we see very light, almost quaint action, even borders on feeling a little patronizing to me, but that's a very subjective read, of course -- the concept of a breather map is a valid and often useful/wise inclusion no matter how your episode or megaWAD is pitched and who your target audience is (even if that audience is just supposed to be yourself, I'd warrant), and when short/casual is your modus operandi your breather map is going to be extra short and very casual, natch.

 

Apart from feeling like it's tuned more in line with the E1 maps, in other ways this still very clearly belongs to E3, both in the leering, brooding woodcut texture theme and in the sense that the building itself is, again and still, toying with us; once again the exit is teased from the outset and then pulled away, there are a lot of one-time motion triggers which tempt you with goodies only to withhold them if you show even the slightest hesitation (permanently, in the case of the single official secret), and the back hallway is another crusher-run. Satan knows what the execs use this for....the coffee machine probably used to be in one of those dark closets, and they'd make the junior partners make gofer runs through there, that'd be my guess. Anyway, a Sunday stroll this might well be, but Kansas it definitely ain't.

 

In the FDA, I make it into the SSG/switch room on the lower floor before the door closes, albeit more on accident than by cunning intent. Presumably most players are supposed to get shut out here, but being able to get in there early reads to me as something that the author very much planned for and was willing to allow -- apart from the early SSG, you can also go through the rear hall 'backwards' from here, which apart from the slight changes in encounter timings also saves you having to deal with the crushers (their actuation trigger is shortly after the start of the 'normal' route). This is a neat idea, from a progression perspective. IIRC I also actually reach the one-time blue armor secret, which actually *is* the result of me using my brain for once (i.e. I beeline for it as soon as my brain registers it because I've already seen lots of one-time actions in the map by this point).

 

Map 27 -- Press Gang - DNF - FDA

This map breaks fatally (in prB+ -cl 2) if the player triggers the floor crusher in the 'control room', and a baron (or dozens of them) is caught on the crushing sector. What happens is that this type of crusher does not do enough damage to kill a (healthy) baron, and so they will become stuck, still alive/solid, in the ceiling, which functionally 'jams' the mechanism, i.e. the (one-time) switch which is supposed to lower the sector back down fails, meaning you can never reach the yellow card or leave the area. Depending on if you try to press the switch for the slow-crusher in the ceiling before or after activating the switch meant to lower the floor-crusher back to ground level, the slow-crusher will either activate or fail to activate, but activating it would also jam the mechanism if it weren't already so, and so the map is uncompletable either way. Confused yet?

 

This is what happens in the FDA -- I tried the map twice, and broke it in the same basic way both times because I didn't yet understand the problem (you can see me repeatedly hammering impotently on switches that obviously aren't going to do anything because I was confused by the ceiling crusher activating on the first run but not the second). Presumably, this issue does not occur if whatever gets caught on the floor crusher is actually killed (and thus, rendered non-solid/crushed) by it; I'm not very conversant with how damaging this effect actually is, but I know it's fairly weak, often failing to kill a player (at 100% health) if s/he is armored at the time of being caught, which incidentally also causes a dead game state. The Eternity Engine reportedly autocorrects the malfunction as seen here under standard settings, and I would assume (G)ZDoom does as well.

 

Here is another (crappy) demo, showing what is presumably the intended map solution.

 

This is played in -cl2 as well, but the map doesn't break because I don't touch the floor-crusher; the slow-crusher alternative neatly makes Philly goatsteak of all the hell-meat, and everything else works fine. Note that the floor-crusher and the slow-crusher are mutually exclusive effects; if the slow-crusher is activated first, the floor-crusher cannot be activated, and no harm is done if you try -- the floor remains at ground level, and you simply zip under the crusher, nab the yellow card, and continue on your merry way.

 

Bugs aside, the map's an interesting concept, and a clever piece of scenario-craft, though I imagine it's going to be problematic and perhaps mildly infamous to some degree. I think the general solution is fairly intuitive (and the map is small enough that you can work it out with a little experimentation even if the whole scheme's not immediately clear), though this ironically might be because I'm accustomed to pistol-start play: from pistol-start, it's crystal-clear that you don't have the ammo to defeat the barons in direct combat, and so you need to seek an alternative solution. A continuous player carrying a lot more ammo and weaponry might feel that they are meant to fight the barons (not the least of which, if you'll pardon my frankness/sass, because habitual continuous players are likely more accustomed to getting away with/stubborning through whatever the first plan to come to mind is as a general rule), which is probably not especially entertaining, and certainly a disservice to the map.

 

Also, even when functioning as intended, the double-doors setup is a little fucky, and occasionally quite a few barons will squirt out even if you do exactly what you're meant to do. This can be precluded to a large degree with a bit of metagamery: don't ever fire a shot when the barons can hear you, and few if any of them will have the chance to get out since only the ones that can actually see you as you dive for each switch will awaken. However, the sound propagation in the map doesn't play quite fair/consistently, whether by design or oversight -- the barons can hear you if you fire anywhere in the floor-lowering trap, even with all the doors closed -- which adds an extra layer of jank.

 

I like to see this kind of thing, myself, and I absolutely think it should be left in the set and all that -- it's certainly memorable, certainly clever, and once you understand it you can pull it off consistently, no sweat. The question is if everyone will have the patience to work out how to do that, and I don't think it would be unfair for someone to feel that it's kind of 'off-brand' in some significant ways vs. the rest of the mapset. I guess giving away the answer in the demo loop (which you mention in the textfile) could be taken as smoothing this over, but....yeah, good luck with that, s'all I'll say as far as that goes.

 

Whatever the case, I think it's a neat map, but definitely needs some rejigging and fine-tuning, though, suffice to say.

Edited June 27, 2020 by Demon of the Well

[Endless]

MAP27: Press Gang. Played in UV with Brutal Doom and LZDoom.

 

Small, compact, but fed up with enemies with a twist interesting enough to become a ''mechanic'' gameplay wise, that gives some flavor to the whole map. At this point, it seems to be the law for a megawad to have a map in the style of "Dead Simple" or "The Crusher". In this case, we have the latter, although it's been pushed to 100 and done much better than any other iteration. Very fun and quite a bloody map.

 

@Biodegradable I did have small perfomance issues with the crusher as well, but only lag that lasted for about 2-3 seconds. While my PC is no powerhouse (a simple ASUS office laptop) it never crashed once in the entire wad. Taking into account that, yes, I'm using Brutul Dewn and a HUD addon, it's quite the miracle for me. Take into account that I have my game set at the most ''perfomance'' wise settings, with blood and gibs at 500 and wall decals at 512. Maybe that helped a bit but I'm not sure.

[DuckReconMajor]

MAP27: Press Gang

prBoom+ 2.5.1.7um, skill 4, continuous with saves, no complevel specified

 

I am one of the lucky ones, I made it through without triggering the softlock, based on the beginning of Demon of the Well's DNF it seems I pressed the switches in an order/tempo that avoided the sequence break? idk

I had no idea if I was doing it right during the run, though. I watched DEMO2 twice, and not being familiar with the level and not sure what I was looking for, I'd just get distracted by the great MIDI rendition of kiss's disco jam.

 

I really didn't want to leave the level without the megasphere, but figured I missed a 1-time trigger somewhere so I gave a last check in doombuilder to make sure. But I was wrong, and i was still able to get my illicitly-gained megasphere.

 

I think this level is super cool and hope that the issues can be resolved. Maybe blocking the floor-up switch until the other one's pressed somehow? idk.

 

Spoiler