The DWmegawad Club plays: Micro-Slaughter Community Project & Haste

[FragsBunny]

MAP05: Marble in the Blood (98/100/100)

1.       Cyberdemon projectiles are seekers

2.       Demon may teleport to pursue the player

3.       Hell nobles may teleport away if in danger

 

With three portals in sight, I expected there to be three arenas, but instead there were two. The first arena is rocket launcher slaughter with revenants and hell knights, with two arch-viles as intermission, then repeated once again. And then… I guess you’re supposed to dodge cyberdemon rockets while dealing with hordes of imps? Because the imps could fly, it allowed me to make a quick escape from the first arena.

 

For the second arena, I had to fight a bonus Cyberdemon and the flying imps before pressing the switch that started to lower the walls. The arena is spacious, but the constantly raising and lowering damaging floor makes it hard to maneuver. And then I was given the BFG… to fight a horde of flying pinkies and a pair of cyber snipers. Couldn’t you find a better use for it? The portal that I thought would lead to a third arena instead made me to telefrag the remaining cyberdemons and finish the level. What could be easier?

[Nefelibeta]

34 minutes ago, Thelokk said:

Has anyone noticed how little popularity the 'techbase' aesthetic seems to have with slaughter mappers, and conversely how popular it is with more casual, adventure maps? Strange. 

Nosp series has lots of techbases. :D

[Thelokk]

1 minute ago, Nefelibeta said:

Nosp series has lots of techbases. :D

 

Thanks will check it out!

[Nefelibeta]

Just now, Thelokk said:

 

Thanks will check it out!

It's made by NoReason, so consider yourself warned.

[Tristan]

8 hours ago, DisgruntledPorcupine said:

The Eris Falling midi is a fast-paced and technical metal track with some very nice drumming.

 

tristan* please, but thanks :)

[Pseudonaut]

MSCP Map05:
I remembered this one being difficult, and actually died several times during my practice run. Then I watched the max by Dubzzz in 4:16, pretty much tried to copy that, and got this run on the first recording attempt. While I did learn some useful things from watching that demo, I was probably just lucky. In any case, this is probably the hardest map so far just because of that first timed arena. Unfortunately, the rigid timed progression really limits what a speedrunner can do here, and there are parts where even non-speedrunners may have to wait for the next fight to begin. Still, I did enjoy that encounter with the three cybs behind you and an imp horde blocking the portal. It can be solved by infighting or staying out in the open and directly rocketing the imps, depending on how dangerously you want to live.

 

 

Demo:

mscp05-443.zip

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

43 minutes ago, Tristan said:

 

tristan* please, but thanks :)

Apologies, fixed!

[dististik]

Another ultra early morning playthrough for me!

 

MAP05: Marble In The Blood by Liberation

 

Ahhhh, there's my doubt in my skill! I missed you buddy! Either this map is Fucking Hard™ or I'm not very good at this game... honestly, I'm willing to bet it's a combination of the two. First few attempts in the first fight I just had the wrong approach which made getting to the second wave of revenants and hell knights mega demoralizing and was making me start to hate the map. Then I started the level over, knowing what was coming, and focused as much as I could on killing the highest priority targets as quickly as I could. I had a LOT of trouble dancing around the revenants with what felt like a billion tracers following me at all times but once they were dead so long as each vile died in four rockets I could push through. The wave of imps at the end really was a relieving surprise. 

 

Luckily, I made the right call in keeping the last three cybers alive so I could use my left over rockets to kill off the second fight's barons and imps without cutting into my stash of cells and only needed to make a small withdraw to finish off the revenants. The raising and lowering damaging floor in this arena is a cool idea and I respect it but at the same time good lord I hated fighting in it. Thankfully, Liberation smiled upon my weak soul at the end with an extra supercharge just behind an easy to slice through wave of pinkies and I've gotten plenty of practice two-shotting cybers recently so the last three (not counting the telefrag victims) were a piece of cake.

 

I could see with enough replays coming to like this map a lot, but as of right now I'm in a salty mood having baby's first custom level revenant hatred being rekindled... Seriously, I'd rather fight a room full of cybers than another wave of revenants in that claustrophic as hell first arena.

 

Spoiler

 

[Liberation]

Marble in the Blood was my first real attempt at a slaughter map, I focused more on the gameplay rather than visuals (I was a bit constrained for time).

 

I think I got the 1st arena spot on, was very happy with how that turned out.

 

The 2nd arena I dare say could be classed as more causal, easier slaughter arena and a bit more what I find fun.  

[Worriedidiot]

MAP05 - “Marble in the Blood” by Liberation

Pretty interesting map with some cool gimmicks.

I like the visuals quite a bit. Especially the murky and bleak atmosphere in the first arena.

In the map almost every new wave of enemies is set on a timer which is a double-edged sword in my opinion. While, yes, it is an interesting gimmick and puts a lot of pressure on the player to play aggressively though it doesn't let you catch a break making it kind of exhausting to play.

The first arena is one heck of an adrenaline rush. I really like the archviles lowering one by one from the pillars. Really fun fight.

The second fight left me slightly disappointed. The constantly raising and lowering floor gimmick could've been slightly better executed. The red brick and the blood flats look practically identical from a distance. Also, having almost no stable ground to stand on was kind of... rough. At least I could mow down a hoard of pinkies with the BFG which was satisfying. Strangely enough, I had a lot easier time on this arena than I did on the first.

Not really sure what's happening in the sequence that happens when you enter the third portal.

Good stuff as usual.

 

Order of preference:

Spoiler

• MAP03
• MAP05
• MAP01
• MAP02
• MAP04

 

[finnks13]

MAP05 - Marble in the Blood by Liberation:

DEATHS - 3
This is the first map of MSCP that I found challenging, it's two fights are much denser and meaner than anything previously seen and the lack of armour (on UV at least) means that any mistakes are very harshly punished. Of the two big arenas in this level, I found the first one much harder than the second one as you're stuck with only the rocket launcher in a pretty small area. I initially tried to get the big packs of revenants and hell knights to infight, but it's quite hard to get this going and since every fight in this level is on a timer, it's far quicker (and easier) to just kill everything yourself. The archviles here are really mean, but the cyberdemon and imp swarm is pretty simple compared to the rest of the fight. I thought this was a fun arena, and I like that the timer forces you to play aggressively, all three of my deaths were in this section.

 

The other arena, I don't like as much, the floor lowering to be damaging on a timer is an interesting gimmick for a fight, but it's more irritating than actual threat here. There's also not much consistency to which part of the floor is going to lower, as some of the red marble does, but some of the green marble also does. I think if all the marble from one colour would have lowered, I would have liked this gimmick much more as due to not being able to tell what was going to lower on a moment's notice, I just ignored the gimmick and hoped for the best. The teleporters letting you go between both sides of the arena, and general size of this area made this fight pretty easy to tame after herding the initial swarm. The BFG wave is very easy compared to what has come before, but in this case, I think that's for the best as this arena was really starting to get on my nerves. A mixed bag overall.

 

RANKINGS:

Spoiler

Really Liked: 
Liked: MAP01, MAP03
Mixed Opinions: MAP02, MAP05
Boring: MAP04
Didn't Like: 

 

[tonytheparrot]

(Played on UV with pistol starts on Prboom+, saves are allowed)

Map 5: Marble in the Blood by Liberation:

100% kills, items and secrets

Time: 5:30

 

This map still ain't too difficult, even if I admit that it splattered me on my first playthrough. It is organized around a hub leading to 2 encounters based on a timer. The first one teleports you into a square shaped arena and gives you a RL. Activating the switch opens up 2 alcoves, one with HKs and one wtih skeletons. Then, 2 arch-viles appear one after the other around the center. After this cycle is repeated an other time, you get 3 cybers behind you and some imps blocking your way out. My strategy is to kill the skeletons, then focus on the HKs and Archies when they appear. After that, when the cybers show up, I try to dodge their rockets while giving them a helping hand against the horde of brown guys. Overall, its a really fun encounter and I prefer it over the second, which gives you a plasma, and opens a closet with 2 barons and imps, then an other one with revs and imps, and a final one with lots of pinkies and 2 cybers. The gimmick of this fight is that some parts of the floor sink from time to time to reveal damaging blood, which is clever, but pretty annoying as these floors are actually more dangerous than the monsters themsevles and almost every hit I took was from the blood (is this Limbo?). Also, the last group of monsters is a total pushover thanks to the appearance of the BFG, so I am pretty mixed on this encounter as a whole. Another problem with this map is that if you are too fast, you can wait a long time before the next group of monsters is revealed, which can get boring, but being too slow can make the encouters really overwhelming. Finally, kill the cyber who teleported in the hub, telefrag the last 3 cyberdemons from the first arena and you're done. Visually, the map looks great of course, with some nice shades of red, black and blood, and the music, an awesome remix of an HR2 track by AD_79, is even better for me since Hell Revealed 2 has one of my favorite megawad soundtracks. Overall, its still a pretty good map, despite my few issues with it, and I think that is is very good for a first real attempt at a slaughter map.

 

 

Rankings:

 

Spoiler

Love:

Map 3

Map 2

Really like:

Map 1

Like:

Map 5

Map 4

 

 

[Alaxzandarz]

Played with pistol-starts on UV on DSDA-Doom

 

Map 05 Marble in the Blood:

 

It's quite a tricky map. I like that the first fight has many phases and you have to be fast to not get overwhelmed. The second fight is a lot easier than the first, but still enjoyable. The shifting hurtfloor gimmick feels very inconsequential. I like how the map throws a cyberdemon at you in the end. I dont think the music fits the map, it just feels too large scale for a map this crammed. This map pissed me of the first time I played it, but I like it now.

 

My ranking of the maps:

Spoiler

1: Cherry Blossom

2: Marble in the Blood

3: Viridescent Synapse

4: Fire In Your Eyes

5: Floody Hell

 

[Arwel]

MSCP map05 - Marble in the Blood by Liberation

UV, 100% kills, 0 secrets

 

No saveless this time, the map is simply out of my league. It starts as a very pure and meticulous slaughter with multiple timed waves of enemies, and even after figuring the optimal strategy (which I believe is taking out revenants asap and using the alcove to gather and take out knights quickly) I have to die at least 40-50 times to succeed in this fight once, which takes quite some time. And the following cyberdemon-imps intermission is a great way to ruin that successful 51th try. The second fight is the first time I see this floor-is-sometimes-lava (or rather, a really bad blood?), pretty novel and refreshing, also way easier than the opener and honestly feels somewhat clunky after the bondage levels of discipline of the starting fight. First time I beat this felt somewhat cheesy, as I ran out of ammo and finished the second cyber using pistol from behind the iron box between cybies, so he couldn't reach me. The following optional 1x1 and sequence of free telefrags feels like a kiss on the cheek after a brutal but nevertheless consentual beating. Overall, good map and great practice material.

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

MAP05: "Marble in the Blood" by Liberation

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 0/0 secrets

 

Back to some pure slaughter here, scored by an awesome AD_79 metal midi. This map takes place in a hub and two arenas made up of black, grey, and blood red brick, and also some metallic textures. I really like the backdrops of the arenas, grassy caverns full of blood and dead trees, it's another very nice looking map. This one is often considered a difficulty spike from what I've seen, and rightfully so as that first area can be tough to handle. It's you and your rockets vs revenants and hell knights, a couple archviles, repeat those, and then close off with an army of imps with 3 cyberdemons shooting from the back. The goal here is to always start rocketing the grouped together revenants as soon as you can and then use their closet as a hiding spot. Really just maximizing the speed at which the revenants fall is the name of the game here, and doing it when they are packed together and haven't completely left their closet yet is the best way through this arena. The closing fight is about cutting a path through the imps while avoiding the cyberdemons, and then getting out. The cybies get telefragged at the end so no need to worry about them, and if you left any imps behind you can come back to get rid of them.

 

The second arena is a lot easier in my opinion. The hordes are much larger, but you also have a lot more space to roam. However, the arena also has areas that lower into damaging blood that you will need to avoid, and it's probably the biggest obstacle here. You get the plasma here, but I always start by using up any rockets I have leftover from the previous area before moving onto plasma. Eventually you get the BFG for a massive army of pinkies and some cyberdemon backup. Clearing this out greets you with another cyberdemon in the hub area, and then you get to telefrag the 3 left in the first arena before leaving.

 

Pretty tough one, I think this is the one that took me the most attempts when I had played the first 8 maps of this wad a while back. Once you figure it out that first time I don't think it's too bad, but it's still pretty challenging and very fun.

[Nootsy-Nootsy]

Map 5 was a step up in difficulty :(. At least the very first part of map with the revenants I was unable to shake the tracers depending on when they shot them, I could deal with that but because of the timer I may have been too focused on getting the revenants down early. Anyways I'm most upset about the very start of the map because the rest of it isn't bad. I could deal with the archviles before they zap me, and pre-firing the second revenant swarm nullifies them to a big extent. And then the second arena I just sort of ignored the gimmick and didn't come close to dying, and there's enough BFG to just long range the Cyberdemons. I guess it's nice that the difficult part is at the start, but mostly I'm confused.

 

Also the visuals are good, half the effort seemed to go into the areas outside the arena which are obscured by darkness. While not as detailed as map 3 at least it didn't burn my retinas.

[Gibbon]

GZDoom, ITYTD, w/no saves and blind run

 

Floody Hell - MSCP - MAP04

 

I can't say I liked this one.  It was very cramped and not very interesting with boring fights.  I died, so I can't say if it gets any better.

Spoiler

 

 

Marble in the Blood - MSCP - MAP05

 

This one I loved.  I played it 4 times and the strategy behind it is just fantastic.  But yeah..  I was caught by a cybie..  those pesky pesky cybies.  I guess I should get used to dying on a slaughter map.

 

Still, was really fun with great action and an amazing midi!

 

Spoiler

 

 

[NiGHTS108]

MAP05: Marble In The Blood

By Liberation

Kills: 100%

Items: 100%

Secrets: 100%

Time: 5:45

 

I was willing to reconsider my opinion on this one after the first time I played it, but sadly I just don't think I'm wild about this map, lovely Hell Revealed II remix from our good friend AD_79 aside, the first fight didn't really rub me the right way, maybe I just suck at it, sure, but the arena felt too small for the amount of Revenants and Hell Knights that were in the area, and I don't necessarily enjoy the damaging blood in the corner either, it's super easy to get trapped in there when you need more health as well because of sooooo many Hell Knights and Revenants! At least the rally of Imps at the end is good fun, I do like the second fight considerably more but I don't think it's perfect, the idea of the floor sinking into blood is very creative, I respect the hustle here but I still don't think it's ultra fun, the teleporters do make it an interesting fight more so and the ending Pinkies is pretty cool, I'm doing a lot of complaining here but I don't think this map is bad, it looks nice, has really solid ideas, and holy fuck that Remains Of War remix is SO epic, I just don't think it's necessarily my cup o' tea

 

Grade: B-

Difficulty: A-

 

 

[Yumheart]

map03 "Cherry Blossom" by Danlex

I love pink, just in general, and I think it's very underrepresented in Doom, which is mostly due to how Doom's restrictive palette makes everything pink look grey or brown at lower light levels, which doesn't look all too nice if you're not going for a fleshy, rotten kinda look. This map is mostly a bright pink, so it's obvious that I love it's visuals.
The combat is also great, the first fight caused me much more trouble than anything after that point, for some reason. The final battle is of course my favorite as I really enjoy BFG spam and it seemed to hit that sweet spot for me in terms of difficulty. One thing I've noticed is that I'm being drowned in ammo atm, even on UV.
Awesome map.

 

map04 "Floody Hell" by Lord_Z

Floody Hell is really chill in comparism to the last two maps, the combat doesn't feel all that slaughtery tbh, but there was still enough ammo conservation going on to make the fights not boring. The finale was particularly enjoyable, navigating around foes in tight-ish spaces while only really interacting with them passively is still pretty engaging to me. Visually, it doesn't feel as fleshed out as the previous maps, but the color coordination is quite nice and it does it's job as an early-wad warm-up.


map05 "Marble in the Blood" by Liberation

My favorite map so far. I tend to like it when battles have multiple phases, be that through the environment changing or the timed release of monsters - and Marble in the Blood does all of that. The first encounter was fairly difficult for me, but also exiting with it's four surprise Archviles. Second battle stood out to me for it's cool usage of damging liquids, though it could stand to be been a lot meaner, perhaps make the floor 20-damaging, I didn't die here at all.
The theme was also interesting, ominous marble temples inside a dark forest, and HR2 music is also appreciated, even if I don't like the remix quite as much as the original.

[erzboesewicht]

MAP05: Marble in the Blood by Liberation

 

The map consists of two arenas. The first one centers on two waves of revenants and hell knights each in a cramped space, with archviles released from time to time. The fight is tricky: if you leave too many enemies alive for infighting spectacle and get asleep circlestrafing, the viles and then the second HK/Revenant wave will be very difficult to survive as they will simply corner you, and the fight is rocket-only so that will mean certain death. The fight ends with an imp-cyberdemon wave; don't bother to kill the cybies here, and if you prefer to escape you can always return later to kill the last stragglers. The second arena is much easier, but has a nice concept: floors changing constantly from damaging to non-damaging, after a imp/baron introduction the main opposition being a revenant wave, followed by pinkies and cyberdemons (you get a BFG and lots of cells at the end of the fight). Before the exit, you'll be facing a lone cyberdemon. The map is still a bit basic arena stuff but alright, both fights integrate some nice ideas and are well timed. For now, I'll continue in the club :)

 

Difficulty: 5/10
Rating: 7/10

[cannonball]

MAP05 - “Marble in the Blood” by Liberation

 

Curiously I enjoyed the first fight more than the second, the first seemed doable with just a few poor damage rolls from trigger happy revenants, whilst archviles are cruelly released, they seemed more intent on undoing your rocket spam than actually targeting you. The triple cyberdemon threat was a real chortle moment and I am glad I handled this section as intended....

The second section... hmm I wasn't keen on this one. The fact is without the damaging floor this is a really easy fight, with it and the fact that most of the floor rises/lowers to reveal safe/damaging spots is more annoying than anything else. I died because of environmental damage more than anything else here. I don't think this works too well for me.

One last point blank cyber at the end, I ran out of cells so I legged it. Overall... a bit of a mixed bag here, just two big fights, the one with the rockets was more engaging for me. 

[PeceMan]

Level 5, Marble in the Blood, by Liberation

    I'm gonna stop mentioning the visuals, unless they are a lot better than those of the other levels (which is hard, since the bar is already very

    high), or unless the visuals are dissapointing. Here, the visuals are great. But that's the norm now.

 

    This is one of the levels I managed to beat in UV without cheating. But in HNTR it is a lot more fun, at least for me.

 

    I don't really care for the combat sections in hurting floors though.

 

    Also, I'd prefer to be able to choose myself what weapons I want to use for what confrontation, instead of being forced to use the one weapon

    the mapper thought would be appropriate.

 

 

 

Ratings:

Spoiler

Maps I loved:
        Map01, Fire in your Eyes;    Map03, Cherry Blossom

 

Maps I liked:

        Map02, Viridescent Synapse; Map04, Floody Hell; Map05 Marble in the Blood

 

Maps I found Ok:

        -

Maps I didn't like:

        -

Maps I hated:

        -

 

[Maribo]

MAP05: Marble in the Blood

Don't really have much to say here. First fight is a solid test on target priority and movement manipulation (revenants are a lot higher on the totem pole for "will this kill me if left unchecked" than hell knights), there's ample time to handle the viles, and the obstacle to leaving is easily disarmed by being mindful of the cybers. I've never been a fan of the 2nd fight, like cannonball I personally just find it... really easy and more irritating than difficult because of the damaging floor.

Max Demo / Speedrun stuff: link

[Solmyr]

MSCP MAP 05 "Marble in the Blood" by Liberation.
HMP /Pistol Start.

 

Kills: 100%
Items: 100%
Secrets: 100%
Time: 1:32:00

 

Interesting starting area, love the contrast between dark greys and black tones with the red sky. In this area there are three stairways, each leading to a portal, two of those are barred by thick red bars. I wonder what challenges lies ahead of these portals? Also this run made me drop the saveless approach, unfortunatelly i don't have much free time to play or do anything Doom related :(

 

Portal #1: Upon crossing it, the player lands on top of a Soulsphere in the middle of four pillars on what seems to be an underground mausoleum. There are hidden Arch-Viles inside each pillar, the whole mausoleum has five alcoves: Two filled with Revenants, two filled with Hell knights, and the last one has a horde of Imps with a portal behind them. Each alcove lies behind a black tiled wall, there's a switch in the main room of the mausoleum right in front of the player, a Rocket Launcher to its left and to its right a stack of rocket boxes, upon pressing the switch, two of the black tiled walls lower and their denizens start pouring into the arena. My priority was focusing on getting rid of the Skellingtons ignoring the slow approach of the Hell Knights at my back, after that, dealing with the Hell Knights was easy peasy.

 

After a while one of the four pillars lowered revealing the first Archie, which inmediately started ressurrecting two nearby Hell Knights after blastin all three of them, another pillar Vile appeared, and this one, upon waking up tried to kill me, but the only thing it got from me was three rockets to its face, getting rid of these Archies felt like a waste of ammo, a rocket tax. They could give the player a scare if it took too long to get rid of the Hell Knights and these stragglers can and will act as a meat shield to the Archie if they are close to the first lowering pillar.

 

After a while the remaining two black tiled walls lowered revealing the same occupants as before, only located in oposite directions from the first fight. This fight went the same route as the previous one, however while i was finishing off the remaining Hell Knights the last two pillars lowered with less delay between them in comparison to the first and second one, thankfully there was a Soulsphere on the third one to compensate the lack of cover. Fighting two Arch-Viles almost at the same time without cover and not much health avobe 130% made me panic.

 

After surviving this deadly encounter, three Cyberdemons emerged from the background on raised platforms while a wall lowered to reveal a horde of Imps, this was kind of tough due to having low health and constantly dodging incomming rockets from these Cyberdemons acting as turrets while getting pelted by some of the Imps fireballs, once the horde numbers were thinned enough i rushed to the portal at the back of their alcove.

Portal #2: The player teleports to a small dark grey area on top of a Soulsphere with a creepy looking switch in the middle, surrounded by energy cell packs and a Plasma Rifle. This area is located in the center of a large arena, surrounded by large grey brick walls at the distance, with what looks like a forest further away behind some dark marble castle like structures, the arena floor consists mostly of dark tiles and some areas with red tiles here and there.

Once the player activates the switch, a large section of a dark brick wall lowers revealing two platoons of Imps commanded by two Barons of Hell, they are easily dispatched with the remaining rockets from the last fight, so no need to even use the Plasma Rifle, however, the oposite wall from this section lowers, revealing a masive legion of Revenants and Imps, forcing the player to run away from the small central grey area, once outside of it, the player must stay on the grey areas to avoid getting harmed by the red brick floor that lowers from time to time and changes to a blood floor which deals 20% damage. It doesn't help the large circular grey area also lowers and changes to this floor type, leaving only two parallel circular rails. 
Thankfully the large size of the arena gives the player enough time to fire the remaining rockets and a stream of plasma at the approaching horde as the player retreats to the grey islands, and back into the large section where the Imps and Barons came from; in this area there are some stimpacks  and energy cell packs but also a teleporter to the area where the Revenants and Imps came from, i blasted at the horde while waiting for the Revenant fireballs to come close enough, then quickly back away at the last second avoiding certain death. 

Finally, an even larger section of the arena wall, lowers revealing a massive horde of Pinkies, thankfully a BFG 9000 teleported on the starting area of the arena, i think this fight's purpouse is to show the player how far and wide is the reach of the BFG tracers, the pinkies are so harmless in this situation, the floor itself is far more threatening than the pinkies. After cleaning up all of those Pinkies, i noticed two Mancubi each guarding a switch, they are probably there just to annoy the player because there's more than enough room to avoid their projectiles so the damaging floor is still far more threatening than these guys. These switches that those fatties were guarding when activated lowers two raised platforms to reveal a hidden teleporter which sents the player back to the starting area, only this time to face a Cyberdemon in close quarters, with a BFG 9000 and with that much room to dodge his rockets, this last fight so easy it hurts.

Portal #3: The player teleports to some green marble small rooms a couple of times, then the level ends. I wonder what's with that? I expected the player was supposed to telefrag itself wiht a voodoo doll somewhere on this teleport chain. I thought the culprit could be a compatibillity issue with PrBoom+, after changing the compatibility a couple of times, i got the same result every single time, i guess that's how the map's supposed to end.

 
Bottom line: Pretty cool Heretic like gothic style, kinda bichromatic with mostly grey hues and some red. Combat wise it pushes the player to not dilly-dally for too long and prioritize more threatening enemies while, also progressing into a more forgiving last stretch.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Edited April 4, 2022 by Solmyr

[sandwedge]

 

Still catching up with yesterday's maps.  Of course plenty of explanation in the video description and commentary but I'll supply some thoughts in the thread!

 

Played on latest GZDoom just with a widescreen hud mod, Ultra-violence, pistol starts, 100% because it was easy with these maps.  I did save but was surprised to find I didn't die after looking at the footage again lol!

 

Map 03: Cherry Blossom

 

It was funny because I read someone in the thread say the third level was somewhat easy, and the pink visuals (sooo pink!!!) and atmospheric music let my guard down a little.  If anything this felt like I was actually getting into some proper slaughter territory.  First fight is definitely an easier warmup, the cyberdemon fight is trickier.  I knew infighting would be important in this wad, but this map is interesting in how it puts your adversaries with their backs to you to assess the situation first.  Kind of an interesting introductory way to do things actually.  But anyway, I tried to get hellknights to infight the cyber so I was halfway there, but it took me a bit to realize that the imps were a very squishy wall to get through with the rocket launcher (or plasma I guess).  And the cyber infighting was very perilous to try to survive without waking up the imps.  Once I figured that out it was quite trivial.  Actually in another run the Hellknights absolutely obliterated the cyberdemon which I thought was hilarious... couldn't replicate that again, but maybe he got stuck.

 

The third fight is obviously the main show.  It took me too long to figure out the proper strategy, and I actually feel like the mapper threw out a bunch of red herrings to confuse me lol!  I think I tried to deal with the archviles first on the first couple attempts, and didn't quite get through because there are 9 freaking archviles on UV!  This has happened to me too much on some slaughter maps, where I try an obvious first strategy and when it doesn't immediately work I move on to something else when I actually just needed to execute the plan better!

 

Anyway, since the archvile plan seemed sketchy, I looked around the arena and it seemed like it was pointing out other stuff.  I ended up basically trying to grab the BFG and keep the archviles asleep, wake up the other enemies around the perimeter by proximity, and then run to the corner room furthest from the archviles while blasting BFG to de-caco and pinky the perimeter and stay hidden from the archies.  The hope was the pinkies and others would clog up the area, I could run out for a quick replenishment of cells and a megasphere (though the others were far away), and I had a huge stash of rockets in that room.  Those rockets wouldn't be there if they weren't supposed to be useful, right??  Well the problem is I almost got TOO far with that strategy, as I would knock out a good bit of the archviles and other detritus but end up running out of BFG.  I couldn't make it over open ground to the far end with archviles running around.  So I just tried to use a billion rockets to finally quell the middle of the arena... turns out a handful of archviles still running around a corpse carpet with only rockets to attack was a bad idea.  Not only that, but all the dead cacos formed a huge visual wall in front of me disguising incoming projectiles!  Then pain elementals would start shooting lost souls into the room which was a problem when all you have is a rocket launcher... yeah, it was a real bad time.  But it seemed doable if only the RNG for the archviles would work a little better...

 

After probably half an hour of this I realized that the archviles were just too much of a problem and I needed to go back to square one to take them out first.  There's just no way to deal with them once they get loose, rezzing and stuff... this is probably a basic, obvious problem solver but I haven't faced a ton of situations like this.  I played Rush as another intro slaughter wad and a few random maps here and there and that's about it.  Anyway, as you might see in the video, it's pretty straightforward to take out the archviles with so many cubbyholes available and the copious cells and megaspheres around.  Once they're gone it's pretty easy to BFG the rest... trivial but very fun!  Which leads me to my bone to pick... YOU DON'T NEED ANY OF THOSE ROCKETS.  Yeah like all 200 boxes of them.  All they did was serve to mislead me into the wrong strategy, which may either be a conscious design troll, an optional way to do it maybe for some people on HMP or something easier, or... possibly poor design?  I don't know if anyone messed up the way I did so perhaps it's on me.  Anyway, lessons learned about archviles - they are usually enemy #1!  Nice to see things heating up in this wad, for sure.

 

Map 04: Floody Hell

 

Did I say heating up?  How about a cold shower after that last one?  As people have said this doesn't really qualify as slaughter, and feels more like a palette cleanser after the last one.  The revenant fight at the end is a little threatening I guess but there plenty of room to maneuver.  At least you're rewarded with a cool effect at the end.  Unfortunately not really a lot to say about it, but it will be interesting to see if the difficulty curve continues to fluctuate so much... just like the water!

 

Map Ranking

1. Viridescent Synapse!!

2. Cherry Blossom

3. Fire in Your Eyes

4. Floody Hell

[Bauul]

Map05: Marble in the Blood

 

As Lib outlined above, this was his first time creating a proper dedicated slaughter map.  Despite having smaller, more intimate fights, the encounters pack serious teeth (especially the first one).  I picked it for slot 5 as it felt like it was a nice balance between the smaller scale fights of Map 04 and the bigger more overwhelming fights of the next few maps.  It's a ratchet up in difficulty without a ratcheting up in scale.

 

Incidentally, in terms of difficulty curves I feel like MSCP has four distinct "sections", each starting with a gentler map and building to a crescendo, and each curve ultimately ending bigger and harder than the previous one (with perhaps the exception of the last one).  They are defined as maps 1-3, 4-9, 10-14, and 15-16, so this map is basically the "map 02" of the second curve. 

 

I always felt peaks and troughs in terms of pace and difficulty made for a more interesting mapset than a straight linear increase in challenge, so tried to balance the harder maps with moments of "downtime" and a chance to catch you breath.   In practice it won't feel quite like that to everyone, as everyone will find the maps easier/harder than I did, but that's roughly how it fits together in my mind.

Edited April 4, 2022 by Bauul

[dac]

MAP 06 – Slaughter Factory (by Guardsoul)

Completed 03/04/2022

 

If anyone needs a small overview of how much I ended up loving this map:

 

a) I ended up replaying it to get a proper tactic down pat and not rely on mid-fight saves. Glad to say it was a success.

b) The replay was on Ultra-Violence. Definitely tougher, but also more rewarding!

c) God I wrote more than 666 words about this map, definitely passionate about it.

 

--

 

With that out of the way, let’s get to the main course. Aesthetically, the fragment of an icy techbase Guardsoul presents here is exactly the kind of environment I want to see more of – nothing too abstract, but still a place grander than nature. Having a megasphere ready to be taken also helped after MAP05.

 

And then I started playing the map. And I died. Then I died again. And again. And again. Over and over. Some of these deaths were prodding around to get an idea of the correct route. Others were attempting these ideas, some of them wrong, one of them right. And yet I tried again. Once more. Never feeling frustration despite all the failures. And it happened that the more I attempted, the more I got slaughter maps, on a more than superficial level. And yet it fells strangely close to my own personal definitions:

 

My victory would be more defined by good macro planning, than just by raw reflexes.

 

I could not wing this map, on a greater level than the maps that came before them. The finale of MAP03 came close, but it was a much shorter affair when you got the winning strategy, and it had only one important step; in comparison, I had to come into MAP06 with something a lot more detailed, with a lot more steps.

 

And it turned out the good plan was to take a risky route that ended up not as risky as I thought it would be, and one I could consistently do after a few tries:

 

Getting the rocket launcher first from the SSG/imps section. Yeah, this involves waking up two (on UV) cyberdemons at a really fucking close range, but a quick enough speed allowed me to get it and a bunch of rockets and escape northward before getting blocked in or getting a rocket in the face. A move for the plasma follows – if I can get the cybers to shoot and induce infighting with hell knights and mancubi then awesome, if not then it’s not really that big of a deal – then a clockwise movement to end up east of the woken up arch-vile plateau.

 

And then I start rocketing the viles. Not shooting before that point is important, to not wake up the massive cacodemon horde too early. Getting rid of the viles first is very important, as it removes a lot of dangerous spaces in the arena. And honestly, I’m a lot more comfortable with removing those viles with rockets than plasma or anything else.

 

That’s one step done. Second step was doing something about the 543987e+16 cacodemons flooding the map, and that’s a two part affair: holing myself up in the SSG corner (do not forget to shoot the secret switch!) and positioning myself to get the cacos’s incoming bullet hell into the cyberdemons, for infighting; and also a bit of rockets and plasma from my end. Just enough to thin the herd and create a pathway for a counterclockwise jaunt back to the mancubi platforms – get rid of them, then thin out the caco swarm some more. At this point I’m swinging from northeast to southwest picking out stragglers, doing more thinning of the cacos, keeping an eye on the cyberdemons and trying to get more infighting with them in, at least until they die. Got a bit dicey, but after a while the first phase of the level was done!

 

After that, the other revenants phases proved to be less harsh but still a bit tricky. Wonder how the final revenant and vile rush would go for those who couldn’t get the BFG though.

 

It’s a lot of words, mostly describing my thought process going through these fights. But I have to reiterate: I was not truly frustrated for one single second of this map. Sure, sometimes I got a bit miffed by the cacodemons and them being infinitely tall at times, but all it resulted into was a grit of teeth and trying out a proper solution to the swarm. The countless failures I endured did little but get me to redouble efforts. I wondered why there were slippery floor at places, but they never caused me real trouble. And when everything fell into place, as I threw a final BFG blast into that mass of cacos and lost souls and flipped the exit switch?

 

Elation. These are the moments that reminds me why I’m playing Doom mods in the first place.

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

MAP06: "Slaughter Factory" by Guardsoul

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 1/1 secrets

 

This one finds you at the exterior of a techbase (or factory I suppose), in a wintery dusk. There are small patches of ice on the ground that do have ice physics, but they are overall inconsequential to the experience. The factory itself also appears to have lava running through its walls in places. The midi, courtesy of Knightrider of Doom, is an 11 minute long metal track that gets hilariously technical at points with its guitar soloing. It's a great track that's sure to get your heart pounding.

 

As for the combat, I absolutely adore this one. It's so, so much fun and has a blistering pace of play. The whole map takes place in a single arena, beginning with weapons and goodies scattered all over, with the most notable monsters being two cyberdemons and 4 archviles on a center pedestal. After your first shot rings out, a large caco-cloud will pour in from over the surrounding cliffs. I like to grab a few rocket boxes, followed by the backpack, and then I dart around the perimeter to get all the weapons. I try to do as much damage to the archviles as possible before the cacos start overwhelming me, then I retreat to the SSG corner for some cover and also to foster infighting between the cacos and the cyberdemons. The rest of the fight I take as it comes. Once everything is dead except for either or both of the cyberdemons, I trigger the next waves which is a bunch of revenants and get the cyberdemon(s) to fight them, which the revenants tend to win, and then take care of what's left.

 

The next wave is just a few more archviles on the center platform, easy to take care of. The map then closes off with a horde of revenants and archies on one side, and then tomatoes, meatballs, and lost souls on the other. I duck behind the side of the rev/archvile door, and then peekaboo them with the secret BFG. Once they are all gone, the flying enemies are pretty simple to take down with the BFG, although you will need to scrounge up cells at points. This one is just extremely enjoyable, the arena feels awesome to run and gun in and the midi greatly suits this one's quick pace. Most likely my favourite map of the 8 that I have beaten.

[General Roasterock]

MAP06: Slaughter Factory

MSCP06.zip

  A title filled with subtlety, Slaughter Factory is a really cool setup all done in a singular space. I love maps that make use of snow textures, as I feel they're pretty sparse outside of the yearly holiday shitpost and occasional remembrance of Scythe. 

  I'll get the bad out of the way first. Ice physics, awful, get rid of 'em. I only found myself sliding slowly into an advantageous position for the early Arch-Viles. The beginning rush for the Rocket Launcher is just crossing your fingers that the Cybers/Hell Knights/Arch-Viles play nice, as they all very heavily clump around the weapon. Caco corpses block the waves of Revenant missiles travelling on the ground, and the random peanut gallery that's high above the second switch alcove seem like it's in the wrong map. 

  Everything else is fantastic, it almost feels like an antithesis to many slaughter conventions. It's all contained in one somewhat circular arena, with a great range of options as to spacing. The Cyberdemons are inconsistent to the point of untrustworthy, sometimes surviving to the end of the level and sometimes dying to the first wave of Cacodemons. The final clump of Revenants and Arch-Viles is just wide enough and built well enough to not be easily mowed down with the secret BFG, and the Lost Souls slipping by the kill count was something I haven't seen done on that scale. Of course it looks gorgeous, OTEX once again plays its part in amplifying a great layout. I hope there's more maps like this. 

 

Power Rankings:

1. Cherry Blossom
2. Slaughter Factory
3. Fire In Your Eyes
4. Marble In The Blood
5. Viridescent Synapse
6. Floody Hell

[Pseudonaut]

MSCP Map06:
I wanted to get this below 5 minutes, but that's much harder to do than just winning and I'm short on time at the moment. If you try to press all the switches as quickly as you can, you'll need a lot of cooperation from RNG to survive the resulting chaos. The arena starts to feel tiny as it floods with cacos and revs, the archviles aren't really possible to dodge consistently with such limited space (especially if you spawned the second batch), progression depends heavily on whether or not enemies randomly get out of your way, etc. So I pretty much took everything one fight at a time. In that case, the fights aren't really a big deal as long as you route it properly: silently grab the RL and plasma gun first, kill as many viles as possible before the cacos flood in, clear the arena before using the first switch. Know how to get the secret BFG.

 

There are a few things that annoyed me even without trying to go fast. The viles in the center are pretty good at dodging your rockets, so there's no guarantee that you can kill them all in time. The icy floors usually aren't a problem, but sometimes are, and there was one case where I couldn't take cover from an archvile because the icy floor interrupted me. In summary, it's a good map, but awkward in places, and I don't think it holds up as well when you want to max it in under 5 minutes.

 

 

mscp06-852.zip