The DWmegawad Club plays: Interception II

[FragsBunny]

MAP11: Slipgate Ex Nihilo (93%/94%/81%)

1.       Baron of hell throws a chain of 3 projectiles

2.       Sergeant hunt the player in silence

3.       Mancubus projectiles bounce off the walls

 

When I first played this map, I had a special card enabled “Arch-vile spawns with a small companion”. Because of that card, I used to be immediately attacked by the extra arch-viles at the beginning who did not teleport away like they were supposed to. I had to dash into the portal straight away. This time, there were no such madness, and I could calmly explore the opening and grab the first secret, one of the many.

 

This level is enormous! What started to be a trek through a Hellscape around the black void turned to be a journey across the massive techbase, embedded into a rocky landmass around the void. Expect many closet ambushes, teleport ambushes and just regular corridor and outdoor encounters. Ammo is plenty if you are good with secret-searching, same with health – there are many bonuses scattered around that would help you to keep yourself overfilled. I also found no less than three invulnerability spheres, two of which are not in secret location – the trick is on when to use them!

 

Typical of such large maps, you hunt for three keys and then search your way for the exit. Many unpleasant ambushes usually involve revenants, pain elementals and arch-viles – thankfully, you won’t see anything stronger here. Most of the hidden stuff, such as the mega-sphere, were taken out by shotgun guys. And I had to deal with occasional flock of flying imps. And killing respawned arachnotrons twice. Or, in one case, thrice, when one was reanimated by an arch-vile.

 

The computer map helped me to find most of the secrets, but I still ended up short of two. More importantly, I was not able to find my way to that largely unexplored area to the south – could not find the switch to deactivate the barrier. The bottom section throwed some nasty swarm at me, including one arch-vile from which it was very difficult to find some cover. I hope that missing secret had a BFG, cause that’s what I used against the horde along with rockets! With all said and done, all that was left is to step into exit teleporter and wait for the end…

 

…except that was not the end yet! The arch-viles that were seen at the beginning made their devious strike! Again, an encounter, that is best handed with BFG… I pity those pistol starters that were unable to find it…

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP12 - Deep Space Mine - Moustachio (92%K/85%I/42%S): 

This is the MAP12 TNT wanted to have, but didn't. As many have said, this map resembles a lot to TNT's MAP12, and with good reasons, a tech-base inside a crater, and a pretty old-school gameplay. Sadly I breezed through this map, as I carried a lot of ammo from MAP11. Gameplay is simple and unoffensive, but serves as a nice episode opener. Fun fact, I'm also playing through TNT: Revilution as I'm playing this, and I confused this map as level from the aforementioned wad at first. I like this one, but I think it is not as memorable as most of the maplist so far. This episode will be about space travel, hence the spaceship at the exit of this map, and the next one. But you'll find a lot of tech-bases here and there.

(HMP Playthrough - PrBoom+)

Order of preference:
 

Spoiler

 

MAP11

MAP06
MAP10
MAP09

MAP05

MAP04

MAP03
MAP07
MAP12
MAP08

MAP02
MAP01

 

At least for me, maps in this episode will come at first, at a lower punch, things will only get really good for the last maps of the episode.

[FragsBunny]

MAP12: Deep Space Mine (99%/97%/85%)

1.       Hell knight projectiles are partially invisible

2.       Hell knight slides around while moving

3.       Cacodemon fires triple projectiles

 

Now that we got out of the demonic dimension, let’s get down to earth. Except we’re not there yet. The next destination is more or less ordinary mining base on an unknown planetoid. Arachnotrons seems to be my main bane on this mapset cause of their occasional respawns. Arch-viles, on the other hand, now look less threatening while hell knight and revenants can no longer be resurrected by them – and one ambush at blue key did feature an arch-vile along with revenant entourage.

 

A small part of the base has a nukage section – but for a normal walkthrough, you only need one rad suit for your trip to the yellow key. Outside of that, you can spend your time in nukage searching for secrets – some of them, including the BFG, can be found in that area. There is also a hidden megasphere, but it does not come easy without spilling some blood. In the end, I was still missing one secret, but I found all the juiciest ones, so I can’t really complain! A solid map, as long as you can avoid the panic on outdoor area.

[TJG1289]

GZDoom/UV/Pistol-Start/Saves

Map 12: Deep Space Mine - Moustachio

100% kills and secrets

Time: 20:41

Deaths: 1

 

So when looking back on this WAD before replaying it, I could only remember 5 maps specifically: 1, 2, 6, 11, and 30. So I'm not going to remember these maps until I start playing them. Thankfully, once I ventured a little bit into this map, I remembered it, and I remembered liking it. This is a very solid opening map to the second episode, taking place in a lonely little techbase. There's a nice chunk of secrets to find here, and I'm pretty sure I didn't find all of them last time. The BFG is kinda useless though, cause by the time you get to it, the stongest baddie you'll fight is a hell knight, though maybe you could get it before grabbing the yellow key so it could work on the archie. Speaking of archies, my favorite fight is the secret one with the megasphere. You find a little pillar with a secret in it toward the top of the map. Open it to find an archie in with the megasphere, and as soon you try blasting it, tons more monsters spawn next to you. It's a surprisingly intense fight, given the close quarters you're in. And then once you grab the megasphere, more teleport in, including another archie. It's a fun fight! My only death came from a combo of rev rocket / face rocket / getting blasted into nukage just as my rad suit gave out. That was sad. Other than that, it was pretty smooth sailing. The giant imp encounter was fun too. Overall, very solid map!

[cannonball]

MAP12 - “Deep Space Mine” by Moustachio

 

This one was okay, reasonably pleasing on the eye, the layout was navigable and fairly open and the combat was easy going except for a couple of ambushes. Still you should be more than equipped enough to handle everything here.

Half the secrets in this map are very easy to find, and are very useful in making this map very easy. The invincibility was put to good use beyond the red door where I rocketed the imps/PEs at point blank range, the following fight for the blue key is probably the most threatening part here but for the first time in a while this was a map where I experienced no deaths whatsoever.

At the end of the day this is a decent map, but it probably won't live too long in peoples memories. 

[Krenium]

MAP12 - Deep Space Mine by Moustachio

PrBoom+ / Hurt Me Plenty / Pistol start / Saves / Demo

 

 

Ah, now this map is just the ticket. If MAP06 was the flashy dazzler and MAP11 was the epic adventure, this map is Doom umami: a palate cleanser. The sort of thing you'd want to have while curled up in front of a fireplace while it's snowing outside. I struggled with whether I liked this better than MAP04 or not, but in the end I decided I did. It mostly comes down to the setting, which I have a bit of a weak spot for. Mining bases are my thing. And at night with a starry sky? Possibly on an asteroid? Super cool. The spaceship at the end really cements it.

 

I found the map a joy to explore, particularly the outside area. I like how it gets pretty remote until you reach a dead end -- or is it? If you activate this secret early on, like I did, god help you. The ensuing fight was quite a ride for me, possessing only lesser arms and somehow a mountain of monsters between me and the archie with plenty more corpses for him to resurrect.

 

The aesthetics are spot on. Just lovely to look at. Not much to say here except Moustachio shows off just how competent they are at selling the setting. I like the way nukage was handled; you get a chance or two to mess up with the rad suits, but you're still pressured to 'figure it out' on a timetable. There's even a secret or two involved here (including the BFG) which was fun to discover.

 

The encounters on this map, though not generally difficult, are my favorite kind: a large mass of imps supported by other monsters who trickle in from ambushes slowly and are allowed to roam widely. This map elicited the feeling of 'fronts:' you might have some dangerous baddies you're dealing with in front of you, but you can't ignore the slow trickle of imps streaming in behind you at the same time.

 

In conclusion, this is just the thing to kick off a new episode. The slower pace and impressive setting combined to orient me to the wad's new direction. And I'm all on board.

 

Map ranking (favorite -> least)

6 11 12 4 2 8 3 10 9 7 5 1

[Dragonker]

MAP12 - “Deep Space Mine” by Moustachio

 

Woof!/GZDoom * UV * Pistol start * Saves

 

One of the most action-centric maps so far. It's made up from several bite-sized combat pieces, most of which happen indoors. Theme-wise, it's follows up the footsteps of the previous entry. Dispatching arch-viles and revenants quick are key to survive.

 

MAP12 was simple but fun—thanks to its abundance of supplies—, though the constant monster arenas make this one feel more cumbersome than its predecessors. My favorite area was outside the complex, where you have to shoot and run as you dodge several arachnotrons and co. 

 

The exit area is pretty doomCUTE.

[Doritos420]

Map12 - Deep Space Mine by Moustachio

 

This map was like wading into a nice jacuzzi after a long day at work. Pure dooming bliss. Familiar techbase with a good old fashioned key hunt. Toned down difficulty compared to what we’ve seen previous but not enough to be boring. Stand out moments are the army of imps guarding the rocket launcher, the outside area dotted by arachnotron, the secret megasphere guarded by an archville (this was a super devious trap, good thing I found it later on when I had the rocket launcher). Very fun, solid level with a great vibe. And you got to love the doom cute spacecraft at the end. Also as is customary, got to get the secret BFG once everything in the level is dead.

[RHhe82]

MAP13: The Habitat Ring. UV, blind, pistol start, DSDA-Doom, saves. Completion time 35:27, 218/218 kills and 4/4 secrets.

 

When I see the word "Habitat" in a map name, I get worried somehow. Luckily the first rooms promises interesting visual design (despite the techbasey implications), and Habitat Ring is quite good little map. Time to complete it took over half an hour for me, but I guess that's just my playstyle, quite slow. Looking for the secrets didn't affect that much this time, as I found the first 3 pretty much on the go, and fourth one (backpack one) at the end, with the help of computer auto map. Most of my time was spent looking for the red door, which I completely managed to miss despite going past it a couple of times. D'oh!

 

The level wasn't terribly hard -- this isn't meant as a critique, it wasn't easy either for my skills. Pistol starting Interception II map is shaping up to be a good choice as of late. I had difficult times with a simple fight at the beginning with the cacodemon/chaingunner/pain elemental ambush, and I don't know why. Had to try that a couple of times. Guess I just suck at Doom. The rest of the map was more of a smooth sailing, with a couple of silly deaths caused by me plunging for a rocket launcher kamikaze attack against revenants in the RK ice cave area.

 

Funnily enough, stats show that maps 10, 12 and 13 all have 218 enemies on UV difficulty. Coincidence? Probably, but seems such a low probability of happening by chance...

[finnks13]

MAP 13 - Habitat Ring by Moustachio, Stewboy, Pegleg and DFF:

I enjoyed this map quite a lot. We have taken our spaceship to some sort of habitat creation techbase and to get back to the spaceship (or something, I'm not sure if it's the same one and if it is, why the hell is Doomguy going through here, did he drop his keys in the arctic biome area?) and it features combat in the same vein as the previous map, but with much less space, which makes it a bit meaner generally.

 

I didn't like the start of the map to be honest, it was very constricting with explosive barrels everywhere and the thin corridors at non 90 degree angles made for an irritating opening couple of minutes, as doom's collision became the main enemy to fight against here. However, after this first area the map improves significantly. The first biome we visit is an underwater section which I thought was really cool, having the radiation suit function as an 'air tank' made the fights in this part fairly tense and I probably would have not survived were it not for the secret plasma gun. Admittedly, the blue filter on the screen combined with the palette made the cacodemons and pinkies look really awful but I suppose this is a limitation of the colour filter shenanigans employed and I thought that this section was cool enough that I didn't really care.

 

The red key fight in the snowy biome was fun - not sure about the spectre teleporting on the ledge above the key I don't think it can actually attack you - and in general, I think pain elementals were used very well throughout this map. I started to run low on ammo going into the woods biome as I only found the crate maze with berserk pack and soulsphere just before going here, so this area was a bit of a challenge as the close-quarters forced me to try balancing pushing through the mancubi near the entrance with not earning another death to face-rocket - this area alone added at least 2 to that count! The small set-piece with the exit switch was fun and it was a bit unsettling to have the lights go out, leaving the room in pitch darkness. This is the best map since Map7 in my opinion, I really enjoyed (almost!) the entire thing.

[Book Lord]

MAP 13 – Habitat Ring by Moustachio, stewboy, Pegleg, DFF

PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves

 

Mixing several design styles in a Doom map is always a gamble; placing the word “habitat” in its title may sound like playing Russian roulette. I am pleased to say that Habitat Ring won the bet and cleaned out the table, turning a potential Frankenstein map into a convincing environment, excessive variety into a resource, and different ideas into the multi-faceted portrayal of a futuristic reality.

Spoiler

This place was a sort of biodiversity safeguarding vault, divided in sections corresponding to various types of natural environments. I could distinguish three habitat types: sea, earth, and snow/ice; the rest of the base was made of control rooms, visitor hallways, service tunnels, a warehouse, waste drainage systems and a power plant. Most of these places were recognisable for their function, giving the whole map a sort of realistic vibe, that I liked. Exploration and secret hunting were the main features of Habitat Ring, with the combat taking the backseat for a while, being limited to incidental fights and sporadic ambushes. The worst situation was the one associated with the secret in the warehouse, with a pair of Revenants and 8 Spectres attacking me in a narrow space, trying to blemish my brand new 200% everything.

 

A necessarily short but memorable part was the underwater section, a trick which is rarely implemented in Boom maps. Radiation Suits worked as Duke Nukem 3D’s Scuba Gear, and both were required to complete the exploration and clean-up of the aquarium. I forfeited some bonuses since there was no time left to collect them. I noticed that Interception 2 makes frequent use of health & armour bonuses, sometimes in clusters or rows, sometimes scattered in annoying ways, making them annoying to collect and easy to miss.

Spoiler

The map flowed smoothly, I only hesitated when I entered the yellow door, because I forgot the icy cavern had its own entrance with yellow bars. There was an annoying use of hitscanners in this area, some of them hitting me from afar while I was in the control room, just to succumb later to infighting. The polar dome looked like a funny little monster on the automap and was crossed in two directions, to reach the RK and then the BK in the sludge drain. The final section behind the blue door looked nice, but the numerous hitpoints placed in front of me looked more like an ammo sink than a good challenge. There was plenty of supplies to deal with them, including an exaggerated secret BFG.

Spoiler

Habitat Ring showcased a creative and colourful design, sometimes a little too cramped for compelling combat to take place. As I said before, the focus of the mapping team was not the action but the graphic representation and interconnection between the areas, which was successful in both visuals and layout. A good map working as a breather as well.

Edited November 13, 2021 by Book Lord

[Doritos420]

Map13 - Habitat Ring by Moustachio, stewboy, Pegleg, DFF

 

Really loved this one. Very detailed with nice interconnectivity and some fun fights. I liked the diversity of the different biomes on display here. The water one was quite hectic as you had to make it through conserving your rad/scuba suites, and I like how there’s a little underwater building to explore afterwards. I also like how you had to make your way through the techy bowels of the ring, wading through the oil/diarrhea water or whatever. The ice area was great as well, and I like how you had to pass through it again atop the cliffs to progress. The ending area was very detailed but I wish the combat was a bit spicier here. Other than that it was a great level. I especially liked the detail of arriving and leaving on the spacecraft from Map12 and the fact that after you complete the level you can go back in case you missed any secrets. Miraculously I got all the secrets and kills on this map, without even using the automap. Quite a fun romp.

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP13 - Habitat Ring - Moustachio, Stewboy, Pegleg, DFF (96%K/67%I/50%S): 

First of all, I have to mention there is a SOFTLOCK WARNING here, as you can get locked forever at the secret plasma gun room, the one with the silo. It's difficult to get softlocked, but if you get outside the silo to the east side, where there is nothing, and you let the silo close again, you won't be able to escape without IDCLIP.

This is a sweet map, a little too overloaded with different textures for my taste, but it is a really nice tech-base map focusing around an artificial eco-system, hence the "habitat" name. The gameplay though, can be quite claustrophobic when navigating the different hallways. Also progression can be a bit convoluted, as there are several ways to tackle this map, but sometimes, in confusing ways. I liked the underwater effect, I did not know this was possible in Boom, but it is, and it is amusing. It's also amusing you can use the rad-suits to breathe underwater, so I can't even believe it even more, as I thought you could maybe replicate underwater effects but only cosmetically, and without changing the color palette. Cool effect.
You finish the map the same way as the previous one, getting inside your spaceship.

The map itself ends being a little bit more memorable than the previous one, but I think I still prefer the other one because of its gameplay.

(HMP Playthrough - PrBoom+)

Order of preference:
 

Spoiler

 

MAP11

MAP06
MAP10
MAP09

MAP05

MAP04

MAP03
MAP07
MAP12
MAP13
MAP08

MAP02
MAP01

 

 

[Moustachio]

I gotta say, all the praise that @DFF has received on MAP11 is well earned. It was the primary reason I asked DFF to join me in leading the wad, and they ended up being MVP. Especially during the times I couldn't do it alone. Hats off to DFF for consistently going above and beyond in their Doom career. Same goes to the rest of the E1 team, including @Big Ol Billy for MAP06, @joe-ilya for MAP07, @DJVCardMaster for MAP02, @Misty for MAP03, and @DMPhobos for MAP04 and part of MAP03. The work they did consistently goes above and beyond what they were asked to do, and the wad wouldn't be what it is without their help. I'd also like to thank @stewboy, @Pegleg, @NuclearPotato, and @Quantum Dranger for their contributions mapping, playtesting, doing music, or otherwise helping out with E1. With that said, we still have two episodes to explore, and I have been excitedly watching the club acclimate to the new environment.

 

Maps 12 and 13 actually share a bit of history together. The runabout at the end of MAP12 was lifted from MAP13 and was DFF's doing. I brought it into MAP12 as a way to maintain a bit of continuity. MAP12 as a whole was mostly a back-to-basics level. It was one of the last levels I did, and it replaced an earlier MAP12 that was a little less welcoming. I set out to make a good ol' fashioned Doom techbase with stock textures, hoping the breezy gameplay would provide a nice breather for the start of E2. I really enjoyed working on it though. The design unfurled very naturally, and as one of the last of many maps I did over three years, it was my personal victory lap.

 

MAP13 was an awesome collab map to watch unfold. I started it off with one room, similar to MAP09. But this time, a clear theme started to come about using all these different elemental biomes hidden in deep space. Each member wove pieces into earlier sections, which led to some cool interconnectivity. At some point, I needed to create a section to house the yellow key. I was reading on Boom effects at the time, and I noticed that the fake floor/ceiling effect can also change the colormaps on the fly. It was the colored bloodfalls in MAP04 that first tipped me off to this effect. The colormaps could have used a better underwater palette, but it's still a really neat effect. One that became forgotten with the advent of ZDoom. The inside of the sealab was my design, and I helped design the optional crate bay. As for the rest of the map, stewboy, Pegleg, and DFF all really brought it home with some creative theming and some cool voodoo-doll scripting near the end. DFF and I went through at the end and did bugfixes and ammo balance.

 

7 hours ago, finnks13 said:

...why the hell is Doomguy going through here, did he drop his keys in the arctic biome area?

 

Gotta fuel up the runabout.

 

2 hours ago, DJVCardMaster said:

First of all, I have to mention there is a SOFTLOCK WARNING here, as you can get locked forever at the secret plasma gun room, the one with the silo. It's difficult to get softlocked, but if you get outside the silo to the east side, where there is nothing, and you let the silo close again, you won't be able to escape without IDCLIP.

 

Yup, just verified that this happens. I'll push out a patched file on /idgames for any softlock-type shenanigans (and any other game-breaking bugs). Thankfully, only a couple softlocks have been found so far, so it's looking to be a very minor patch. I'll wait until the month is over to push it out. I'll also throw in @galileo31dos01's MAP28 patch for the sake of completeness.

[TJG1289]

GZDoom/UV/Pistol-Start/Saves

Map 13: Habitat Ring - Moustachio, Stewboy, Pegleg, & DFF

100% kills and secrets

Time: 21:19

Deaths: 1

 

Me upon starting this map: "Oh yeah, I remember this one. I died like 15 minutes into it and realized I didn't save anywhere and have to redo everything".

 

As a filthy save-scummer, I absolutley detest having to replay a big chunk of a level, so that definitely left a sour taste in my mouth last time. I couldn't really remember much about the actual design of the map though, and thankfully even with its 4 authors, it's still pretty solid. I learned my lesson from last time and saved more often in case of death, but thankfully my lone death came a couple minutes in thanks to the chaingunners and mancubus that got me. The name of the map gives a clue to the environments you'll travel through in this space colony. You've got your normal space station stuff, but there's some icy areas, jungles, and even an underwater section! It's not as underwatery as other WADs though, as enemies act normally, and you take damage instantly while underwater, unless you've got a rad suit on. Still, it's a pretty cool little piece. Action-wise, it's pretty tame all things considered. I think there's only 1 archie here, right after you get the blue key, and he's not really a threat. There's no real overwhelming ambush either. The closet may be the red key one in the icy room, but that is more a hodge-podge of baddies around the room more than anything. It's kinda surprising that there's another BFG secret toward the end, that really isn't necessary for anything. I used the SSG for mostly everything past the blue key door, and the BFG is in there, so... So the level is fine, but its highlights are more visual than combat. 

[DJVCardMaster]

14 minutes ago, Moustachio said:

Yup, just verified that this happens. I'll push out a patched file on /idgames for any softlock-type shenanigans (and any other game-breaking bugs). Thankfully, only a couple softlocks have been found so far, so it's looking to be a very minor patch. I'll wait until the month is over to push it out. I'll also throw in @galileo31dos01's MAP28 patch for the sake of completeness.

I've have also found one in MAP15 aswell. At the blue key room.

[cannonball]

MAP13 - “Habitat Ring” by Moustachio, stewboy, Pegleg, DFF

 

This felt a little inconsistent in parts, both visually and in terms of combat. Nothing wrong with the biodome-esque theme, though it felt visually inconsistent in terms of detailing. Some areas look pretty nice, whilst others are a little bland. The deep water section is pretty cool though and there are a couple of other neat special effects going on. Gameplay felt a little too cramped for the most part, though it never felt overly slow.

Overall a middling map in terms of quality with some neat ideas in places.

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

Apologies for missing a couple days, I've been suffering from a rather nasty illness and it left me pretty unwilling to do anything. Shame because I was really excited to play this next map. I'm feeling well enough now to play though, so I will do this one map for now and will continue catching up either tonight or tomorrow.

 

MAP11: "Slipgate Ex Nihilo" by DFF

UV, pistol start, saves

100% kills, 11/11 secrets

 

Played this one with saves right off the bat, knowing the supposed largeness of this map going in. So I tend to be a pretty big fan of these giant epics, which is not to say they don't have the potential to fall flat but they also have the potential to soar higher for me than anything else (I often cite Eviternity's MAP19 as my all-time favourite map). Something crucial to a huge map though is a midi that doesn't get old, and stewboy comes out with honestly one of his best midis IMO, a somewhat jerky 3/4 (or would it be something like 9/8?) piece that sounds brilliant. The map begins with a jarring shot of a blank void, a portal of wavy faces, and archviles that immediately teleport away. Beyond the portal the map begins as a linear adventure alongside some black cliffs, before you come upon the techbase area, which serves up a less linear keyhunt. I got a bit hung up on the red, but only because I was too much of a fool to notice the lift that takes you down to it. If I account for my screwups there, the non-secret progression is relatively easy and painless.

 

Combatwise, there aren't any specific encounters that are overly challenging here, but any map this long can be an endurance test, so the moments that do push you a little bit are felt a lot. One slightly dangerous area is the left path immediately inside the techbase area, which is a staircase riddled with hitscanners and other smaller foes and has some quite nastily placed revenants at the end and mancubi on the side, and the area beyond is no less crowded and dangerous. This map also loves its archvile traps, as the opening room heavily foreshadows. It enjoys teleporting them in an area behind you as you are making progress, where they will launch a sneak attack or resurrect some of the dead left in your wake.

 

This map contains an all-important secret area with enemies, and unlocking it involves finding 4 of the 11 secrets which contain lowering crates to signal their purpose. I would have been out of the map in about 50 minutes if not for this one, and my final time was an hour and 43! I found 2 of them quite easy, but the one labeled 3 took me some time, and the one labeled 2, hidden behind you at the start, took me so long that I gave up and consulted UDB. The secret area itself involves some platforming over lava with crushers on the platforms and imps on the sides. Not too difficult. Soon after this, you have to do an archvile jump ahead, and this brings you to a big pinkie punchout, and finally to a desolate yet very high-tech looking techbase. There is a monitor in the centre displaying a very eerie looking blue face with red eyes, and certain floor panels have some kind of corruption on them that damages you. There are no enemies here though, so you can grab the BFG and head to the exit. The final fight has you against the final 3 archviles in a dark void, simply dip behind one of the pillars away from their vision and take care of them with whatever you have.

 

This map was a monumental adventure, just like any epic-length map should be. Enjoyed this one immensely.

[Dragonker]

MAP13 - “Habitat Ring” by Moustachio, stewboy, Pegleg, DFF

 

Woof! * HMP * Pistol start * Saves

 

The theme this time is one am partial to: ecotech-base. The mix of nature and technology creates interest in both real life and DOOM, and this map goes beyond expectations with an underwater section. Now that's cool, yo. The progression is pretty clear this time, and the layout is great. Combat is easy, but treacherous at times due to how small some rooms are—I was made into a sandwich by a trap of two cacodemons near the red key door.

 

I didn't collect everything, but there's plenty of optional areas for those eager to explore.

[Book Lord]

MAP 14 – Murder Mountain Mayhem by General Rainbow Bacon, DFF

PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves

 

Seriously? @General Rainbow Bacon made a level for Interception 2 as well? The Doomworld member who came up with the original idea of the DWMC actually designed two of them, as we will see in the next days. Murder Mountain Mayhem was a joint effort with @DFF, but I cannot say in which measure each one contributed. I will not try blind attributions again.

 

Another tech-base built on a mountain side, its entrance was heavily guarded by a Baron of Hell on a tower, snipers on the cliffs around the river and the waterfall, then hitscanners, Demons, and Mancubi on the lower ground. Plenty of weaponry was available for pistol starters in the first area, and generally ammo was not an issue. There were more hit points than usual, but also adequate supplies to vanquish them.

Spoiler

Inside the base, I ventured in the corridors triggering several closet traps, then I climbed to the upper level and crossed many narrow areas, until a blue gate sent me to the Baron’s tower. The BSK was in sight on top of the cliff but trying to reach it made it disappear and revealed two groups of enemies instead. Believe it or not, picking up the apparently displaced BSK did not trigger the Arch-Vile that was supposed to teleport at the base entrance for a resurrection party, so I ended the level missing that encounter and not knowing it.

Spoiler

There were many blue doors on the map, one leading to an optional Cacodemon sanctuary with complimentary spread-out of the swarm, the other to a control room that opened the northernmost portion of the base. It was a cramped trench with nice, coloured lights and lots of Pinkies & Revenants, leading to a courtyard with the YSK. Backtracking to the locked door was straightforward, but I was not prepared for the Cyberdemon inside. The space was too narrow to confront such a deadly foe; I was trapped in a dead end, from which I carefully brought him down with the SSG, hiding behind every available pixel. I was killed a couple of times by his impromptu shooting, though.

Spoiler

Still recovering from that shocking encounter, I was lost until I remembered the cavern blocked by decorated bars near the beginning. A SP_ROCK/ROCKRED lava grotto transformed into a cramped combat arena, with assorted enemies appearing and trying to surround me. I found refuge by the sealed entrance and pumped rockets into the demon ranks, quickly thinning them out. The RSK was deep inside the cavern, guarded by an Arch-Vile. Exiting the caves opened the last areas of the map, which could be visited just for the sake of completion. I uncovered all secrets except the BFG, which I am not sure how to reach, maybe with a multiple AV jump requiring a lot of planning and foreknowledge.

 

Murder Mountain Mayhem was a good addition to the megaWAD, since it broke a long series of maps strongly influenced by the team leaders, bringing about a change of pace and alternate approaches. While several ideas looked a bit old-school, including the claustrophobic Cyberdemon fight that would fit perfectly in Hell Revealed, the polish and accuracy given to both layout and gameplay was very high and on par with Interception 2 standards.

[RHhe82]

MAP14: Murder Mountain Mayhem. UV, blind run, pistol start, DSDA-Doom. Completion time 50:06(!), 216/217 kills, 3/4 secrets.

 

MAP14 follows suite of techbase located in a mountainy milieu. Clearly Deep Space Mine suffered from being an episode opener, as I have somewhat warmed to the new episode. Are these latest maps really been easier than the first episode, or am I getting better at Doom? (Not a far-fetched option).

 

So, okay, Murder Mountain Mayhem does not actually live up to its name, the combat here is mostly quite relaxed (said he, savescumming at the time), ambushes are not designed to murder marines. Even in the fight for RSK the archieboy guards its pedestal with a couple of imps, not able to easily target player. But I don't mind, I'm not a doom god, and I'm sure Interception has nasty surprises ahead.

 

One fight I didn't care for was the cramped quarters cyberdemon. Without BFG* it was a chore to kill bolt by bolt after I had found the exit and killed the majority of enemies. But other than that, no complaints on combat.

 

My completion time rose up quickly, mostly by being lost a couple of times and looking for secrets, although I'm not sure if I left the game open while having a ten minute call at one point. And by looking for secrets I mean recalling some of the locked doors I had passed long ago.

*) I did find the BFG after I had completed the map. When I started writing this capsule commentary, I went back to see what I had missed. The BFG secret felt a bit random, On the other hand, I think I had to IDDT to see where it was, which is why I may have found it by accident, ie. not seeing an obvious clue as the wall had already lowered (you could open the passage far from below, where there is just generic stone/brick wall). I guess, in retrospect, it could have been found naturally... but I don't know. Unfortunately that didn't seem to trigger the final enemy, an archvile that was stuck in its closet and remains that way for now.

Edited November 14, 2021 by RHhe82

[FragsBunny]

MAP13: Habitat Ring (100%/100%/100%)

1.       Cacodemon spill acid blood when damaged

2.       Cacodemon may become a non-moving, self-respawning sentry

3.       Sludge rain will fall outside, slowing your movement

 

For my next card choice, we have… sludge rain! In space. Jokes aside, this is a well build level with green and overgrowth motif which you might miss on other levels following it. It is another amalgamation made by multiple mappers yet blending together so well. The deep water is one featured gimmick in this map – though I wish they would have remade the map in GZDoom with deep water effect enabled instead of mocking it. There are only 3 suits than can help you, but don’t bother looking for any secrets in deep water – you won’t find any, and the underwater area is only required to pass through just once.

 

The secrets themselves were not too difficult for me to find, and each is generously rewarding as usual. I had a full supply of cells through the map, though I don’t bother to spam them too much. The walkthrough turned to be quite relaxing, especially when compared with 2048 Unleashed, which I recently attempted to finish with twice the permanent cards! I remember than when I first tried CC on “Isolation” mapset with permanent card per 3 maps, it was quite a challenge, since some cards were broken back then! As for this level, great job, Moustachio and crew! Not too hard, but not too boring either!

[finnks13]

MAP 14 - Murder Mountain Mayhem by General Rainbow Bacon and DFF:

A darker, more sinister looking map than the previous ones. This is a techbase map set into (you guessed it!) a mountain, with the lighting kept very low for the most part. The start is quite harsh with the zombies everywhere (especially if you miss the shotgun like I did) but it's fairly manageable, especially when you're handed a soulsphere soon after. The first part of the map set inside the techbase itself reminded me of Map26 from Community Chest 2, as it featured a similar maze of tight corridors and doors in a section of that map. Thankfully, the outside areas in this map tend to provide more space to move around than the claustrophobic indoors which do help contrast the tighter parts of the map, making them feel that much smaller (and meaner in the case of one ambush in this level).

The fight to get the blue key was entertaining with the lost souls springing out from behind the walls, and while it wasn't too difficult, it was still fun. To be honest, that really goes for most of the ambushes and fights in this map - not that difficult, but fun and engaging nonetheless. I think this is because this map tends to be more strict about 'locking you in' to an ambush arena than the previous few maps, and so while the actual fights aren't that much more punishing, the locking in effect allows much less room for error.

 

The exception to this 'fun, but not too hard' ambush rule is the cyberdemon behind the yellow key door, which came as a complete shock to me as it seemed significantly more mean than anything else in the set so far! I'd expect something like that from Sunlust but not from this set! That being said, I did enjoy this part because there's something about really messed up parts to maps that I just like (maybe I've been playing too many slaughtermaps lately) and I did have plenty of ammo to SSG the cyberdemon so it wasn't too bad. I also want to highlight the red key fight as my favourite part of the map, as the teleporting chaingunners and the overlooking archvile presented a lot of pressure which I enjoyed. Overall, this is another pretty solid map in the megawad.

[FragsBunny]

MAP14: Murder Mountain Mayhem (98%/99%/50%)

1.       Looking at lost soul for too long burns the player

2.       Pain elemental shoves nearby entities on death

3.       All hell knight in the level are increased by one

 

The first walkthrough on this map was not quite pleasant, while the second walkthrough turned to be more pleasant than I expected - probably because I was running on easy cards this time. Thanks to the “stealing” monsters, many power-ups such us megasphere were given me as a freebie, and even then I accidentally picked it up while already having more than 180/180! Add to that my previous memory of this map, and 20 minutes later, the level is done!

 

That being said, the yellow key area was still as nasty as usual, even after I baited some flying imps outside. There is so much panic right after the blind drop (flyer swarm, pain elemental, mancubus) that the best thing I could do it to use the corner near the drop as my only cover. The close-range Cyberdemon, on the other hand was cheesed with SSG, because a statue of a previously slain Hell knight made him stuck in the area where he was! The red key area turned into an unpleasant ambush of chaingunners and other nasties, so the best thing I could do is to fight them near the blocked entrance from which I came in.

 

Because most of the goodies just came to me on their own, I didn’t spend much effort looking for secrets, only found half of them. Still, for a level featuring a lot of verticality and tight corridors, it is not that bad! I just wish there would have been more space to maneuver. The big question… which one of you two designed that ridiculous Cyberdemon encounter? Without a BFG to be seen? I doubt my skill to kill that thing with BFG, though.

[Book Lord]

9 hours ago, RHhe82 said:

an archvile that was stuck in its closet and remains that way for now.

Picking up the BSK should trigger his teleport, but there was a problem with the triggering linedef. It is a single line, not a box surrounding the key, so it is quite easy to collect the object without  crossing the line. Another small detail that could be fixed in @Moustachio's planned update.

 

As for the BFG, I located it but cannot find how to climb to that ledge. 

[RHhe82]

3 minutes ago, Book Lord said:

As for the BFG, I located it but cannot find how to climb to that ledge. 

It turned out the one of the grey pillars across the entrance to the general area is a lift you can activate, if run-jump across the gap the first. I found this by accident after discovering there was something above the ground level.

[Doritos420]

Map14 - Murder Mountain Mayhem by General Rainbow Bacon, DFF

 

Have a few mixed feelings about this map. Of course the midi, the detailing and the progression is on point as always, but I really disliked the cyberdemon fight in this level. Actually there were a few traps that were pretty harsh, in terms of limited fighting space. There’s a mancubus trap and then a revenant trap that do the same thing but I would say the cyberdemon fight was the worst, just too cramped, nearly guaranteed to get hit with some splash damage fighting him. Other than that nitpick the level was solid. I was able to find ¾ of the secrets (I looked up the BFG one and boy was it hard to get). My favorite areas were probably the wide open outdoor parts, the corridor fighting seemed a bit samey to me. I do like the detail of the spaceship outside at the beginning of the map. The ending set piece was also pretty cool, hoping to have the next level set on a train. 

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP14 - Murder Mountain Mayhem - General Rainbow Bacon, DFF (100%K/96%I/75%S): 

This is the first meh map for me, mixed feeling about this one, it is long, and its art-style does not keep up with the rest of the maps. I did not feel the punch of this map.
It's a tech-base inside a mountain, there are several maps like this at this episode, and I think this one is my least favourite so far. It also did not look aswell as the others. Pretty simple and orthogonal, I've also found it quite easy at times. I must say I liked the megasphere fight, but again, I was 200% health/ammo while reachign said megasphere, so I did not have any problems with this fight, nor the rest of the map.

(HMP Playthrough - PrBoom+)

Order of preference:

 

Spoiler

 

MAP11

MAP06
MAP10
MAP09

MAP05

MAP04

MAP03
MAP07
MAP12
MAP13
MAP08

MAP02
MAP01
MAP14

 

 

[Krenium]

MAP13 - Habitat Ring by by Moustachio, stewboy, Pegleg, and DFF

PrBoom+ / Hurt Me Plenty / Pistol start / Saves / Demo

 

 

Here we have another Frankenmap that ultimately isn't harmed by the number of authors because it's a space station (I think?) with different segments for different aspects of nature. It ultimately comes off feeling segmented like a space station would be. I appreciate the various details sprinkled around (like the one pictured above) that you can't really get to but can look at. This map has a few memorable sections, notably the drop-down section with cliffs (pictured below) and the underwater section.

 

Normally I would think parts of this map were a bit strangely shaped and textured, but instead of coming off as amateurish, they evoked memories of games like Descent. For instance, the area around the red door. The underwater section is impressive and something I didn't know was possible to pull off so convincingly in Boom. The pinkies with their blue horns and claws I found almost cute. This section is tense because you aren't sure if you'll have enough rad suit to complete it. Definitely got my blood pumping.

 

 

The snowy(?) section and the natural section near the exit were the two biggest loci of opposition, and I felt they both dragged a bit. The arachnotrons camping behind some obstacles up on a hill all but guarantee you'll need to clear out the rest of the cave before proceeding. All in all, I like this map. Its setting, details, and technical achievements make it memorable and a good time.

 

Map ranking (favorite -> least)

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

[DFF]

5 hours ago, FragsBunny said:

 

The big question… which one of you two designed that ridiculous Cyberdemon encounter? Without a BFG to be seen? I doubt my skill to kill that thing with BFG, though.

 

This was my fault. Perhaps too mean for most, bit for some reason I really enjoyed the idea of fighting a cyberdemon in a box corridor. It forces the player to be constantly peeking ad dodging to avoid splash damage from down the hallway. If anything in this was it was a guilty pleasure throw in. A free BFG probably should have been given due to the cybies high health. This was also during a weird time where I felt the BFG trivialized many map encounters.