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[Krenium]

MAP14 - Fortress of Catamarca by DJV

PrBoom+ / HMP / Continuous

 

Screenshot:

Spoiler

 

Fortress of Catamarca starts you off in a sunken alcove with monsters above threatening to box you in. It's not too threatening on continuous though, especially coming off the previous map with excess cells. The opening area is visually impressive (by far the best view in the map), with a self-contained gray fortress off to the left and a big red one in front of you. Texturing mostly consists of bricks, which while simple, is definitely fort-like.

 

The aesthetics and layouts become much simpler after leaving behind the opening area. You're mostly teleporting from arena to arena, which doesn't feel as disjointed as it could, since you can sometimes see other arenas from your destinations. At one point, I found a secret with a lot of cells just kind of sitting there and it didn't seem secretworthy to me. I wonder if I somehow managed to trip the secret out of sequence without realizing it.

 

The gameplay is where Fortress of Catamarca shines for me. Not too hard, not too easy, not too many ambushes, not too many monsters being overused; everything was just right. It was a sort of Doom umami if you will.

 

Map ranking (favorite -> least)

9 10 3 8 5 13 4 1 14 11 2 6 12 7

[DFF]

MAP14: Fortress of Catamarca by DJV (94% kills/100% items/100%secrets)   Deaths: 6

Blind Run|UV|Continuous|ProjectBrutality3.0

 

A rather cool map, definitely got that eerie sort of atmosphere. The game play is fair, good traps and fun, some of these fall a bit flat, as the difficulty here feels harder early on and easier later. The beginning was a tricky situation with the walls and the stairs guarding several high target baddies, and the first key room had a lot of demons and caco's to contend with. this was the hardest part of the level for me. Later on the traps got a bit more stale. The blue soulsphere room was rather ineffectual, as the aracnotrons are blocked in by walls, making them a basic non-threat, and to top it off grabbing the yellow key summons caco's into the same space which made for some easy infighting to get rid of the aracnotrons. Just feels easily cheese-able or unnecessary to deal with. The blue key room was a simple arena+narrow ledge affair, but here having 3-4 revenants spawn all from the same spot feels like a rather weak and easy trap, especially compared to the red key's large caco+demon trap. Overall it was fine and fun, but this map could have gotten away with some more bite at the end.

Detailing was also fine, while odd I like the inverted switch scheme, and the castle vibe is done well, however a lot of the castle walls feel very bare, and I feel this map suffers from some others in this WAD with slight "monochromatic" syndrome. Feels like there needs to be more color interjected into parts of the map to make it pop/stand out better. Perhaps mixing some more gray marble textures into the red areas, and red into the gray. 

 

Overall, a fun map, just felt a bit inverted with difficulty versus progression, and some areas need more eye relief.

 

Spoiler

MAP03: Town Square

MAP10: Type A

MAP13: Gotcha Now!

MAP07: Ground Beneath

MAP09: Steep Drain

MAP11: Arch-Enemy

MAP14: Fortress of Catamarca

MAP04: Stormdrain

MAP08: Gateway

MAP12: Ambrosia

MAP01: Ebb

MAP06: On the Block

MAP05: Demolition Zone
MAP02: Flow

 

[VanaheimRanger]

 

[Endless]

MAP14: Fortress of Catamarca

LZDoom + UV

Catamarca is the name of one of the various provinces of Argentina, and is also home to the biggest volcano in the world, that being the reason of why I knew this (I like mountains). Anyway. This map is nurtured in a dark fortress, with a sombre atmosphere that launches us into remembrances of E4M1. This map is nurtured in a dark fortress, with a sombre atmosphere that launches us into remembrances of E4M1. A great design in my opinion; this is one of my favorite styles, the one that creates dark scenarios that remind us more of the true desperate and helpless nature of hell. An interesting and fun gameplay that is diversified in different varied encounters that offer enough challenge to keep us awake, while entertaining us. It is not as difficult as the previous 3 maps (a break) but it is not extremely easy either. This map stands out, in my opinion, because of its dark design and gloomy atmosphere. Red fortresses surrounded by infernal mountains under a bloody sky, give me that and I'm happy. Now as the maps get more and more complex, I start to forget the main theme of the 1k lines, which is not a negative point, on the contrary, it is a proof of how the theme is fading inside our minds until it becomes something natural. Now here we are, embracing short yet tight maps that need to make clever use of different design choices so they can stand out. This one did for me, mostly because of how infernal it feels.

 

[Capellan]

MAP15

Decent little cavern crawl.  Does a good job of showing that you can manage to put both a decent amount of visual flair and a decent amount of gameplay into 1000 lines - it is most definitely not an either/or proposition, as some maps have seemed to treat it.

 

Found 3 of 4 secrets which was apparently enough to reach the secret map.

 

 

MAP31

It appears you can't return to the first half of the map which means that if you miss the secret switch early on, you're locked out of map32 for good.  Minus eleventy thousand points for that decision.

 

Other than that ... meh.  Lots of linear corridors with small arenas at the end of them, and some annoying lack of consideration for infinite height.  Don't tell me you're vanilla compatible if you haven't bothered to test for that.

[DJVCardMaster]

1 hour ago, Endless said:

Catamarca is the name of one of the various provinces of Argentina, and is also home to the biggest volcano in the world

 

Not the biggest, but the highest, Ojos del Salado, falling 100m. shorter than Cerro Aconcagua in Mendoza (which is the highest mountain in America). There is also Incahuasi, at 6600m. But other than high volcanoes, Catamarca is a void.

[Endless]

14 minutes ago, DJVCardMaster said:

 

Not the biggest, but the highest, Ojos del Salado, falling 100m. shorter than Cerro Aconcagua in Mendoza (which is the highest mountain in America). There is also Incahuasi, at 6600m. But other than high volcanoes, Catamarca is a void.

What would you consider the difference between bigger and taller? Genuine question. I know Ojos del Salado is the highest volcano in the world, but what could be considered bigger? Mauna Kea could be considered bigger even though it is less tall, or also Teide, which even though it is not taller from sea level, it is higher from the seabed.

 

As for Catacarma, I've always had a special place in my heart for desolate places. Maybe it's because I live in a pretty tight country with not much space. Similar places, like the Atacama region, are one of my favorite locations in the world.

[DJVCardMaster]

1 hour ago, Endless said:

What would you consider the difference between bigger and taller? Genuine question. I know Ojos del Salado is the highest volcano in the world, but what could be considered bigger? Mauna Kea could be considered bigger even though it is less tall, or also Teide, which even though it is not taller from sea level, it is higher from the seabed.

 

As for Catacarma, I've always had a special place in my heart for desolate places. Maybe it's because I live in a pretty tight country with not much space. Similar places, like the Atacama region, are one of my favorite locations in the world.

Yes, big for me is in terms of surface, that would be Mauna Loa/Mauna Kea. Not to mention both have their surface starting at the sea. But yes, it's indeed debatable.
So I see you are a neighboor in terms of countries, that's nice. I got surprised somebody knew about Catamarca, not gonna lie.

[Endless]

3 minutes ago, DJVCardMaster said:

Yes, big for me is in terms of surface, that would be Mauna Loa/Mauna Kea. Not to mention both have their surface starting at the sea. But yes, it's indeed debatable.
So I see you are a neighboor in terms of countries, that's nice. I got surprised somebody knew about Catamarca, not gonna lie.

Pretty far neighboor, all the way up to Central America ;)

But its always great to find some latin doomers and even cooler, mappers. Hope you keep up with it, I really liked the style of Fortress of Catamarca.

[DJVCardMaster]

1 minute ago, Endless said:

Hope you keep up with it, I really liked the style of Fortress of Catamarca.

Yes, thanks for the reminder, something to mention, thanks for the reviews and feedback as for today and the past month, I really like seeing my maps being played.

[Horus]

MAP15 - “The Nest” by Pcorf

 

Oh god, this map made me painfully aware of my skill level in Doom. Nothing about this map is unfair, but I died a lot. Ammo is heavily rationed, but it’s not too little, you have enough for all of the encounters if you are sensible with your weapon choices.

 

Still, with the amount of mid-tiers and complementary low-tiers packed into cramped spaces, there are so many things able to harm and kill you. Hell knights, cacos, revenants, mancubi, hitscanners, they all ripped me to pieces. The secrets helped, but they weren’t game-changers. A very finely balanced map, for sure.

 

Usually I have trouble finding secret exits, but this time it was easy enough, thankfully.

 

MAP31 - “Among the Stars” by Aquila Chrysaetos

 

The start plays differently from a pistol than continuous, for sure. Especially if like me you spotted the rocket launcher before the SSG, so I utilized a lot of infighting between the caco and the imps to clear a path to the rocket launcher.

 

I really like the plasma gun secret, with its nook just about visible and accessible via some precise platforming.

 

I really don’t like the fact that the secret exit is only accessible via a very easy-to-miss switch in the first section, if you miss it before teleporting through, no secret exit for you. Likewise the infinite height issues with the imp battles for the RK and BK (so basically, what Capellan said).

 

However, the arena battles themselves were pretty enjoyable. In the BK battle, the mancubi teleport to a spot that stops mindless rocket spam to the revenants and imps up above (as I found to my cost…). Hell knights flank you on all four corners in the RK battle, and so are pretty threatening. The YK battle is relatively serene, but nonetheless fun to tear through the clumps of imps and supporting cast with the SSG. The normal exit arena has a lot of different species, but the monster count is high enough in a small enough space that infighting alone doesn’t really cut it.

[golbeeze]

Well, I felt the need to beat that battle on map 11 with combined arms and I forgot about the invulnerability. I ended up using the console to give myself three BFG replacers and finally beat it. Now I can move on to map 12...

[Krenium]

MAP15 - The Nest by Pcorf

PrBoom+ / HMP / Continuous

 

Screenshot:

Spoiler

 

Wow, what a map! It's gorgeous, the gameplay's great, and it managed to squeeze in four secrets and a secret exit to boot. I like the focus on incidental combat here — that's something we haven't seen a whole lot in this wad, but Pcorf proves it can work with tight limits. I like that the ambushes we do see only have a few monsters at a time. This map was a bit of a respite for me. I also enjoyed all the platforming. Really, there's not a whole lot here I *didn't* like.

 

Incidentally,

Spoiler

I never felt the need to use the BFG. I wonder if it's a gift to continuous players for the upcoming secret maps?

 

Map ranking (favorite -> least)

9 10 3 15 8 5 13 4 1 14 11 2 6 12 7

 

MAP31 - Among the Stars by Aquila Chrysaetos

PrBoom+ / HMP / Continuous

 

Screenshot:

Spoiler

 

Among the Stars starts you off inside a portal where it's dark. When you exit, it's still dark, but this time you're greeted by the stars and dark tunnels. This map plays quite a bit differently on continuous, where the beginning is non-threatening, but from a pistol start it requires a mad dash to look for weapons and ammo. It's quite easy to get waylaid by fireballs from these dark tunnels. For the most part, the tunnels aren't too much to look at, but I really enjoyed the pillared areas. The grey and blue color scheme is appealing and I like the way holes have been busted through the walls.

 

The gameplay is serviceable for the most part, although it's kinda easy to get mobbed. If you find the plasma and you know what's coming when you go through the teleporter, it's not too bad though. Speaking of the secret, that platforming is tricky but satisfying when you finally pull it off. The room where the hell knights come at you from the four corners was pretty fun to me. It really requires you to keep moving. The blue key trap, on the other hand, was a dud for me. The teleport trap works super slow so while I was blasting the revenants up top with the rocket launcher, I had a mancubus teleport in front of my face and nearly kill me 20 seconds after I thought that trap was done.

 

I'm going to have to mirror Capellan's concern about how this map functions — being locked out of the super secret map is no good. In my case, I found the super secret map straightaway and was locked out of the rest of the map, including almost half the monsters!

 

Map ranking (favorite -> least)

9 10 3 15 8 5 13 4 1 14 11 2 6 12 7 31

Edited August 15, 2020 by Krenium

[DFF]

MAP15: The Nest by Pcorf (100% kills/100% items/100%secrets)   Deaths: 2

Blind Run|UV|Continuous|ProjectBrutality3.0

 

I very much like the catacomb atmosphere present in this map, combat is good, visuals and detailing is consistent and very pleasing. not much to say here, just overall pretty nice.

The secret bfg felt a bit much, and I'm not sure about having the double secret being there when its really just 1 secret. I feel this could have been just clipped as 3 secrets in total. Also personally not the most engaging secret exit i've seen but oh well.

Otherwise, pretty decent map, rather short but feels fine.

 

 

MAP31: Among the Stars by Aquila Crysaetos (100% kills/100% items/100%secrets)   Deaths: 7

Blind Run|UV|Continuous|ProjectBrutality3.0

 

If there is one thing i'm a sucker for: its ambiance, and void themes. I really, really like the theme of this map, reminds me of deepest reaches from TNT. A very somber and magical place surrounded in the dark reaches of space. That is why sadly I felt really disappointing with this map.

 

It feels like a decent attempt at something along those lines, but after progressing a bit, the map feels very bland, and feels about as lonely and lacking as the void its in. The cavers feel very bare, with only the slight space to break the rock textures, and some small brick sections. The beginning area promised me so much that I felt was not paid off. 

I found the random switch, felt very tacked on and I agree about it being a bad choice to be necessary for the secret exit, but impossible to backtrack too. I didn't get the redwall either as it wasn't a recurring asset, feels out of place. Personally not sure why the ground was black instead of more F_SKY1, but that just a minor issue.

As for the combat, it was spotty. The arena segments were pretty decent, some better than others. However the cavern segmrnts felt very boring as it was just halls with demons, halls that got repopulated in some cases, but never changed. The cyber demon secret fight was entertaining, and the blue key was tricky. The spider final trap was fine too. The red key I felt was easily cheesed but otherwise would have been way to difficult to fight in the arena. The yellow key felt like it was jut put there for the sake of having a 3 key exit. I understand the maps in this wad have a 1K line limit, but one odd peeve I have is when keys are thrown in for no real purpose other than to have them. The yellow key in this instance could have been completely removed and would not have affected game play much. (EDIT: After reviewing the map in doombuilder, the yellow key does spawn in more monsters just into the main hub, perhaps without a set peice area I neglected this and did not realize. I will apologize for that, but i'll keep this point in because I still felt the yellow key was unnecessary.)

 

This map has some cool things, some good fights, and some nifty design techniques present, but I felt like I was going to get a lot more out of this map and was left wanting. I think its perhaps there was no expansion on the caves and it felt like it was there to service as the bare thematic minimum to link keys/arenas. and those could have been skipped or deemed useless without the first switch. I wanted to enjoy this map, and its in no way a bad map, but I feel it could have been a lot better. Incidentally I feel to make this map more interesting, the arena set pieces would have to be done away entirely. I think a focus on cave sections, void vistas, and maybe a central castle would have been a cool layout for this map. I may be being harsh, but It just missed it for me.

Rankings:

Spoiler

MAP03: Town Square

MAP10: Type A

MAP13: Gotcha Now!

MAP07: Ground Beneath

MAP15: The Nest

MAP09: Steep Drain

MAP11: Arch-Enemy

MAP14: Fortress of Catamarca

MAP04: Stormdrain

MAP08: Gateway

MAP12: Ambrosia

MAP01: Ebb

MAP31: Among the Stars

MAP06: On the Block

MAP05: Demolition Zone
MAP02: Flow

 

[loveless]

prboom+, no saves, uv pistol starts  
map 14
deaths 0

@DJVCardMaster no anger here, this map was pretty easy going.  ammo wasn't exactly in abundance but there was no shortage whatsoever.  block line usage added to the alleviation of any pressure that could've existed. 

 

map 15 

deaths 0 

the bfg is as baffling as it is frustrating....what would've required this? 

 

1k lines cp demos 14-15.7z

[Biodegradable]

MAP15 - The Nest

HMP | Continuous with Saves | GZDoom + Zagemod

 

This one was great fun. I loved the map's progression and they way it opens itself up in all sorts of nooks and crannies for surprise encounters. I also really dig the theming/texture work as well as it was very neat and consistent for the most part in the sort of lived-in underground caves the demons have carved out for themselves, kind of like a nukage & blood spa resort and here I've come to spoil their R&R time hehehe. I don't have too much else to say other than this map is slick, gritty, creative and a blast to play. I love it.  

 

Gameplay:

Spoiler

 

 

*I thought it'd be best not to record the secret levels to avoid spoilers for those who might want to go into them blind, so I'll be keeping my words to a minimum on both entries as well. 

 

MAP31 - Among the Stars

 

We meet again, Aquila, and you're just as dastardly and brimming with Romero-esque cruelty. The map's layout is interesting with it having a sort of central point and then presenting you with these branching out points. Collecting the blue and red keys was a bit of a struggle and you managed to cream me a couple of times, especially with the blue key. Oh, how I despise Revenants. And that megasphere ambush? Ooooh, OOOOOOH you bastard. Thankfully, infighting came in handy and I found those switches to aid my mistake and bottleneck the stragglers. The only thing I really hated about this map was, once again, putting a Cyberdemon in an enclosed space with the very slowly lowering bars to the exit. That was REALLY fucking mean of you, mate lmao. Thankfully, I had found the secret BFG from MAP15. Took me a few tries, but I had just enough plasma to land those direct shots to get rid of him and could catch my breath while I waited for the bars to finish lowering. Until we meet again, you menace to society.

 

MAP32 - Rocket for My Valentine

 

This map made me want to tear out my maxillary canine teeth and jam 'em into my eyes, fuck you lol.

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP14 - "The Nest" - Paul "Pcorf" Corfiatis (100%K/I/S):

I had no problems with this map's difficulty, and I have to blame my map for leaving me this packed for this marvelous map. Great map overall, sweet layout of a cave, cramped with enemies, yes, fights were difficult, but I did not feel as much of a problem for previous said reasons.
There is an easy BFG grab in one of the secrets, this has no use in this map, but sure it has in MAP31.
I almost miss the switch that raises the secret exit floor. Other than that, I had no problems trying to find the secrets. Really nice Inferno-like map. The only downside is that it may feel a little bit short and straight-forward, nothing too complex.

MAP31 - "Among the Stars" - Aquila Crysaetos (99%K/100%I/100%S):

Advantage: the ambiance, I really like how the map feels like you are on the moon, the skybox does marvels here. It gave me ten times more of a better atmosphere that my map or any of the others did.

Downside: everything else. Layout is pretty cramped, it consists of small corridors with arenas that have little to no space to deal with enemies, and this is a big problem if you expect me to use the RPG 70% of the time. Ammo is limited, and I'd suggest you to save the plasma rifle not for the final fight, but with the secret fight.
No consideration for infinitely tall characters in a Vanilla map hurts both the blue and red key grab, aswell as the PG secret if you awaken the Cacodemon first. Not to talk about that secret, which if you fail to do the platforming right, there is no way out.
Keys only serve the purpose of getting to the secret exit, so you can skip to the exit as easily as you can. The regular exit fight is a pretty nasty but somewhat enjoyable swarm of mid-tier demons, and a bullshit mastermind if you are on UV. Luckly I'm on HMP.
Easy to miss switch at the start of the level that works to open, apart from the keys, the secret exit. I did not miss it myself, because I playtested this back in the day. I did mention during that time that you can't go back if you miss it, and the gray teleport does not work back, but well, nobody fixed this. On purpose or not, this will lower my score a lot.
The worst thing is not the above, the worst thing is the TIGHT Cyberdemon fight at the secret exit. Do you seriously expect me to fight in this room, a Cyberdemon, WITH ROCKETS? Sadly I wasted my plasma ammo, even knowing that i would have to deal with this cunt. 20 of my 23 deaths in this map where trying to pointlessly kill him, I said fuck it, and tried to wait for about a minute for the walls to lower and get out of this trap. Not to mention, again, that you get enclosed in this room and you can't exit it by any means.
There is an excuse, it's a secret map, so it's not that bad, but it is an example that aesthetics are not the only thing that makes a map. How good it looks sadly does not compare to how bad it plays sometimes. 


Deaths: 45 (HMP Playthrough - Chocolate Doom)

Order of preference:

 

Spoiler

MAP10
MAP11

MAP09
MAP15
MAP13
MAP14
MAP04
MAP08

MAP03
MAP06
MAP07
MAP05

MAP01
MAP02
MAP12
MAP31

 

[golbeeze]

1 hour ago, Biodegradable said:

.

 

MAP32 - Rocket for My Valentine

 

This map made me want to tear out my maxillary canine teeth and jam 'em into my eyes, fuck you lol.

With a description like that, I wonder if I should go to the secret levels at all!

[klaymeb]

MAP15 - The Nest

UV / Pistol start / GZDoom

 

With the SSG in plain view from the start, I had a good feeling where this was gonna go! And it did... sort of? Tough monsters and very few resources for the first rooms of the map, made for some good fights. Then the first secret presents itself, which would make the next few rooms a cakewalk, and after that the second big secret, and I don't want to say that the rest of the map was trivial, but it was close.

 

I went back and played the map without the secrets, and that made it a lot more interesting, tense and challenging. I like when secrets are helpful and give you a small boost, but these seem like they were over the top. The search for the secret exit was nicely done, and there were a few steps to the puzzle to raise the bridges.

 

The first cave with the nukage pit and the exit (which then turns out is the secret exit) make for a good tight quarters fight with a few rounds of spawns. Then it opens up into some more regular room, and into the open for the final fights. I really liked the design and visuals of the map, as it goes from room to room and still keeps a nice cohesion of theme.

 

 

Edited August 15, 2020 by klaymeb

[DuckReconMajor]

This may have been asked and answered, but when are we doing maps 33 and 34?

 

MAP15 - The Nest

glBoom+ 2.5.1.7um, skill 4, pistol starts with saves, no complevel specified

 

I liked this one right from the start.

I still don't know what the radsuit in the slime pool was for. I don't think it's needed to go in there?

I was proud of myself finding the red key, but then the stupid platform to the red bars never rose! I gave in and looked in the editor.

 

MAP31 - "Among the Stars"

glBoom+ 2.5.1.7um, skill 4, pistol starts with saves, no complevel specified

 

Another in a line of otherworldly, beautiful MAP31s.

The repeat of the imp hall was confusing to me. Idk if that was supposed to be a deja-vu moment or if they are 2 distinct areas and I was supposed to be able to go back to the first one.

My guess is it was supposed to be that the imp hall wall 'blew up' and revealed the bars to the super-secret.

Yet again after trying for some time to figure out that first set of gray bars I gave in again and looked in editor. One of those cruel "do this tiny thing at the beginning or you're screwed" so I restarted once I'd died.

 

MAP32 - Rocket for My Valentine

glBoom+ 2.5.1.7um, skill 4, pistol starts with saves, no complevel specified

 

Nice hell-cave fiasco with the cyberdemon turret in the middle.

Ammo was surprisingly scarce here, but gave good opportunities for infighting. 

Mostly that crazy encounter after you open the blue bars, I had to go slalom-ing through monsters several times to make multiple trips of shells and rockets. The arch-viles would have been taken out by infighting had I waited long enough so I think I probably wasted a decent amount of ammo there.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[DFF]

MAP32: Rocket for my Valentine by Kaito (91% kills/100% items/100%secrets)   Deaths: 35-ish

Blind Run|UV|Continuous|ProjectBrutality3.0

 

Ooh boy, this was a fun doozy. I like the style of the map, mixing the previous space theme with hell, and creatine a very nice arena/layout. For a map32 I really liked this one. It a standard fare challenge map, but unlike a lot of map32s which go for the plutonia semi to full slaughterfest, this one is just filled with lots of nasty and well placed traps, there was just enough hiding spots to make do, but a lot of places were covered so it was tight. I had a lot of fun and like the circular winding design around the main pillar. Color was good, detail was good, combat was fun. Overall very nice indeed.

My one big issue was the final arena, where I gathered 80% of my many deaths. The fight is very hard, the only thing that makes me say too hard is the damaging void sectors present. Detail wise its a very nice, connected piece of detailing that makes this map pop, but for combat it was really hard trying to avoid cyberdemons when the only pillars to hide behind often require the player to chunk their health by 10-20 every time they circle the arena. Good style wise, very bad and unfair combat-wise. I also feel like a megasphere could have been needed here instead of a soul but thats just me. Either way overall very nice and fun.

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

MAP03: Town Square

MAP10: Type A

MAP32: Rocket for my Valentine

MAP13: Gotcha Now!

MAP07: Ground Beneath

MAP15: The Nest

MAP09: Steep Drain

MAP11: Arch-Enemy

MAP14: Fortress of Catamarca

MAP04: Stormdrain

MAP08: Gateway

MAP12: Ambrosia

MAP01: Ebb

MAP31: Among the Stars

MAP06: On the Block

MAP05: Demolition Zone
MAP02: Flow

 

[Horus]

@DuckReconMajor I would say levels 33 and 34 at the end, as five levels in one day is a bit much

[golbeeze]

Well, I tried twice to record maps 12-14 but for some reason it just won't do it, so here goes a description sans video:

Map 12

I really liked this as an episode opener. There were lots of shot gunners in the start but not so much that I was worried about it. There wasn't a lot of health to be found (until the megahealth anyway), but it kept me near full throughout the map. The revenants before the red door startled me both times I played the map! I left most of the barons alive, because they weren't really an issue. I even had the BK ones shot by chaingunners so they weren't even interested in me. I kept falling down the elevator by the YK, so that was annoying. A lost soul got a cheap hit in because I had to wait for the elevator to bring me back up. Overall, I like this one. I think it ranks 2nd best so far.

 

Map 13

This was one of the hardest three maps for me. The surprise cyber demon caught me off guard when I picked up the key, but he didn't end up damaging me. The archvile also startled me, because I was expecting more of a break before the next nasty enemy. The two barons on the elevator were ignored as I sailed away into the sky. The next big fight took me a few tries and I definitely was killed more than once. Eventually I just took it slowly. First the chaingunners and then the mancubuses. The imps and barons were just annoyances compared to the others. I didn't care for the switch activated door that was so far away. None of the enemies were a challenge inside the Gotcha! room, except for the bosses. I was able to shoot up the cyberdemon before having them infight so the SM eventually won. However, it barely had any HP left so it went down easy. Then I just fought off the barons and jumped into the blood hole. This one was so-so in my mind. It was challenging, but I didn't find it to be all that much fun.

 

Map 14

I liked the design of the map, but I didn't care for the combat so much. For some reason I don't really have much to say about this one. It felt pretty easy throughout. I sniped some shotgun guys and an arachnotron through a window. I punched some spectres. The arch vile at the end alerted me immediately with the resurrection noise so I darted back through the teleporter and blasted it before it could rez more than a single baron.

 

Hopefully I can record 15+ tonight / tomorrow.

[VanaheimRanger]

 

 

[Capellan]

MAP16

Whoever had this map in the "NOPE" pools gets a point.  I have no interest in trying to finish this.

[loveless]

prboom+, no saves, uv pistol starts  
map 16
deaths ??? 

 

high key didn't have fun. i enjoy challenge but this was dogshit. 

 

map 31 

deaths 9 

bruh, testing is important.  elastic collisions shouldn't account for 6 of my deaths. 

 

 

[Horus]

MAP32 - “Rocket for My Valentine” by Kaito

 

This was a lot of fun. Despite using the same starry sky, visually it is different from the last map with deep hellish shades of red. Gameplay-wise, it is another challenge map with perhaps a hint of slaughter towards the end. The key to what makes this fun is the cyber that together with the geometry and traps in other areas of the map, require a significant amount of quick-thinking and movement. There was also a good use of a small pain sector in the teleporter with the hell knights and mancubi to prevent camping. Towards the end, things ratchet up in difficulty. The revenant horde with the archvile is quite hard to deal with, and the final battle was ridiculous with the three cyberdemons. Maxing the map must be a challenge.

[Horus]

MAP16 - “Virulent Well” by AD_79

 

Here we have a map with extensive use of the 'pain sector with no radsuit' gimmick. As a result, my first successful clearance of the map required a fair share of savescumming. I still died a lot, but not ridiculous amounts. The only thing I thought was that egregious initially was the 20% pain sector.

 

The pain sectors were architects of many of the battles. The tri-archvile battle, for example, the central area provides safety from the archviles, but you need to move outside of that into the poison to kill them, with many enemies on the ground, who can be resurrected if you let them get too close. Again, with the revenant-archvile-mancubus combo, you would love to drop down to engage them from safety, but doing so launches you into a 20% pain sector and certain death. These two were probably the best constructed battles of the map.

 

So having completed this once, I mentioned on Discord that this would be insane to do on UV pistol start without saving, and AD said it wouldn't be too bad once you learn the routing. So I decided to be a glutton for punishment and actually try it :D 

 

And eventually, I succeeded, the victorious run below. And sure enough, it was pretty damn hard. But you know what, this might just genuinely be the most fun I've had in Doom all year (or at least up there with Xaser's MAYhem 2020 map and Aurelius's 1k2 lines map). It was fun learning the strategies and immensely rewarding to complete it. I had my fair share of outtakes (including one where I died to the last two hell knights!), but again not a ridiculous amount.

 

So yes, in conclusion, the new best map of this wad so far!

 

 

 

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

So, about map 31 (and 33), those two maps are easily the worst ones I've made, and I'd rather they'd have been cut instead of shipped with the wad to stain it. I did test 31 in Chocolate, though I can see why many (if not all of you) suspected otherwise. I don't know why I thought it was acceptable to submit it in that state, and it should've been cut entirely. I wanted to try to capture what Eternal did in two of his Epic 2 maps (and I'm sure a couple of you saw some amount of inspiration in 31), and that did not work in the slightest, so I just want to apologize for the sorry state of 31, and 33 whenever you get to that.

Today I'd like to review map 16 properly.

MAP16
Eternity Engine

I'm going to start by saying that I neither like nor dislike this map, but I do respect what it is.

It's a map that tries something new, and while I think AD steered slightly too hard in being stringent on rad suits, given the mandatory damage from the hurt floors, and some of the subsequent damage from hitscanners will definitely wear the player out, it does reward perseverance later on by allowing exploration of the main initial space.

The setpiece fights and traps that are sprung on the player are my favorite aspects, each one is unique and only one is done in conjunction with the hurt floors, and while the center of the room being entirely safe is clearly an error, I feel it works very much in the fight's favor.

With the resources being used earlier, the return to the main space at the end has some intensity to it when the player must navigate the hurt floors again without a radsuit (or possibly with one if the secret I missed was the radsuits in the cubby holes), and I even found myself briefly at 1 health.

Ammo is stringent early on, but much more generous once the player moves into the second major space, resulting in a sort of early game hell (assuming pistol start), but also rewarding perseverance with ammo for powerful weapons like the rocket launcher and plasma rifle, both of which are instrumental later on when resources are tight once again and the workhorse weapons are running dry.
So while the map isn't my favorite, it is the most interesting to me, and I praise AD for it.

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP32 - "Rocket for My Valentine" - Kaito (100%K/96%I/0%S):

A map from yet another unknown mapper. Another hard map that luckly is somewhat more duable than MAP31, again feeling like you are in space, in some asteroid of some sorts, that was invaded by hell (Mining? I guess). There is a big ammo problem here aswell, again, noticed this when I playtested it. So I had to use my continuous save to have more ammo and guns to pass through the first part at least. 
The layout consist on going around in a ring shapped scenario with a sniper Cyberdemon in the middle. I'd suggest trying your best to dodge misiles and not to kill him early, as he will help you with your ammo shortage problems.
I really enjoyed some of the things this map has to offer, apart from visuals, layout and some good sections.
The map died for me with the ammo shortage at the part before the final fight, when you open the key doors and free some revenants and AVs, and talking about the last fight, it was yet again on a tight room, a bigger one, but this time, with two Cyberdemons, tons of Revs, and some holes that defy reality, that actually hurt you. This is not unfair by the way, again, a challenging situation, and the one I enjoyed the most of this map. The map ends in a weird spot, by the way, that random step with yellow rock textures.
Visuals are yet again a high point.
I like when mappers out of nowhere make something as visually pleasing, honestly.

MAP16 - "Virulent Well" - Brayden "AD_79" Hart (Skipped):

I did not know AD_79 was also a mapper, and let me tell you, WHAT A LETDOWN. Layout-wise, and visual-wise, this map was godlike, it felt like an Akeldama throwback, it was a really good layout. But forcing me to go take a blind swim without any radsuits, should be illegal, I'm sure this is not legal at least in one state or province, like, let's say, Catamarca. I don't care how much health do you encounter in your way, this is not a metroidvania, forcing me to get one radsuit after the YK, once I died many times trying to "learn" the layout and the safe places to stay, is not by any means fair. And I have to apologize this time with AD, but this map had the best layout and visuals so far, even comparing it with MAP10. Sadly this gimmick straight from 1996 ruined the map totally, at least for me. I prefer this ten times over MAP31 honestly, but yet, I can't finish it, I don't have the patience. I lost it when trying to take a breath to dive once again the nukage pool, as if I was a little child trying to swim for the first time in the local kids pool, when I was sniped by a lost Revenant fireball and I don't fucking know where that came from. That was the drop that spilled my glass.
This map was bad but for sad reasons, as this had great potential, two radsuits at the start would have totally fixed this level.

Deaths: 54 (HMP Playthrough - Chocolate Doom)

Order of preference:

 

Spoiler

MAP10
MAP11

MAP09
MAP15
MAP13
MAP14
MAP04
MAP08

MAP03
MAP06
MAP32
MAP07
MAP05

MAP01
MAP02
MAP12
MAP16
MAP31

 

Should you skip the secret levels? If you don't want to rage, yes indeed. I did not skip them for the sake of completion and analysis. But it's usual for secret maps to be experimental and gimmicky on purpose.

Also, Kaito's name is wrong at the mapper list in the OP.