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dobu gabu maru

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

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Alright got three maps to do, gotta go fast

 

MAP12: Thrown To The Wolves

By Scotty

Kills: 100%

Items: 94%

Secrets: 0%

Time: 11:03

 

Probably one of the more forgettable maps in Haste, Thrown To The Wolves is a standard marble hell fortress, but looks can be deceiving, it does actually have nice fights, early on there's quite a focus on Imps and Arch-Viles, and if I haven't said it enough this month, I love that combination, so naturally I am reasonably okay with the BFG court's first fight, then all the Revenants that follow, I'd suggest going this way first, as that BFG will help you liquify a Mastermind in the other wing, I also suggest saving one BFG shot for this, as most of the cell ammo is in the Mastermind's chamber, after a pretty okay Cacodemon and Cyberdemon ambush, you can start the final fight, if you kept that previously mentioned Cyberdemon alive, you can do what I did and have some fun infighting for half the playthrough, big goat fight small goat and it's fun! You get more than enough BFG ammo to slaughter these guys easily however, Thrown To The Wolves is good fun, but not the most remarkable in this wad

 

Grade: B+

Difficulty: B+

 

 

MAP13: Rotting Under The Foot Of Time

By Benjogami

Kills: 96%

Items: 75%

Secrets: 100%

Time: 4:51

 

Yes.

Take that weed, inject it into my veins, I don't care

I'm gonna cut the shit here, because frankly I've been going back and forth and I have no idea how I'm going to justify this reasonably, but Rotting Under The Foot Of Time is a masterpiece in my eyes, as stated in my MAP10 review, I love these crazy void maps that just break your mind to look at, the combat here isn't quite AS unconventional as some other examples from Benjogami, who is also one of my favourite mappers, but I think there's an indescribable special touch to it, obviously I'm supposed to talk about it here, but I'm struggling to describe what makes this map so special to me, I guess I love that maniacal geometry and texturing, the truth is not a lot actually happens in Rotting Under The Foot Of Time, but I'm still absolutely enamoured with it, it's something you have to play for yourself I feel

 

Grade: A+

Difficulty: A

 

 

MAP14: Athenaeum

By Bemused

Kills: 98%

Items: 100%

Secrets: 100%

Time: 17:36

 

This map is awesome, probably what feels like the longest and most complex map, at least so far, I really like the visuals, I haven't played much Bemused but this library theme, architecture and detailing reminds me of Insane_Gazebo's work, as for some gameplay highlights, the first fight I like is the opener, the SSG and barrels are used pretty well here to chop down all the Imps and Hell Knights, and the Revenants do a good job raising the pressure, next I really enjoy the good usage of Arch-Viles and Barons a little later on, you get minimal space here to dodge Arch-Vile fire, so you're made to balance a herd of walking roadblocks in a tight area, it's a really neat fight, I also like the later Cyberpalooza over a huge pit, make sure to make him infight quickly, or just get miraculously lucky like I did, the BFG fight is also pretty snazzy and I really like the ending, so basically I really enjoy all the fights, here my advice is to kill the Barons and Hell Knights asap and leave the Arch-Viles for later, then endure a few more Cybers in the hub at the end and you're free to go, I really like this map, if I haven't said that word enough here, it doesn't blow my mind like MAP13 but they're all super solid encounters, and sometimes you can't ask for much more

 

Grade: A

Difficulty: X-

 

 

Hopefully next month I'll be able to write more consistently, when I don't have a DWMoonwad Club to worry about

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Haste Map15 - Tell Me More by Ribbiks

UV, ~90% kills, 2/3 secrets

 

Another one really hard map, visually giving me some Duke Nukem or even Ion Fury vibes, even though it probably has nothing to do with both. Combat is lively and punchy and one thing that seems to be common behind its smaller scale encounters is they're all multi-phase and involve connecting crowds or radically switching involvement. Overall fights feel longform and intelligent, but also quite sweaty and intense. There are plenty of cyberdemons in this level, some of which are stationary turrets and the only time I ran out of BFG ammo needed to deal with one of them it turned out there is a secret to telefrag him, which I really appreciated. Overall, very fun, sophisticated and intense map. I'm yet to find the exit to the secret level, but I'm usually bad at these supersecrets, maybe I'll leave it for another day.

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37 minutes ago, Vrhrlv said:

 I'm yet to find the exit to the secret level, but I'm usually bad at these supersecrets, maybe I'll leave it for another day.

The secret exit is so hidden that it doesn't exist. Map 31 can only be reached through idclipping, so don't spend time looking for something that doesn't exist!

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MAP15 - “Tell Me More” by Ribbiks

 

This was surprisingly easy compared the horrors of the last couple of maps. Okay it is still hard but there isn't anything in this that wouldn't take more than a couple of attempts to beat. The final room is a prime example of the monsters tending to slaughter themselves, just clear the snipers and collect the hell knights and cacodemons in the middle to be shot down by the Cyberbarbershop quartet. The biggest issue you will find is early on because ammo is much more scattered around and as such you could end up short on just about anything, which of course makes combat potentially awkward. However if you keep your eyes peeled then you should be fine.

Overall the map was offbeat but on point with the combat, all in all this was really fun to blast through and a welcome relief as the dip in difficulty is quite noticeable. It is the stronger of the two Ribbiks maps in the set.

 

MAP31 - “Hibernation” by Bemused, Insane Gazebo

 

I think by now most people know that I am not that good of a player, however I died just the once here, during the second fight. It is definitely the shortest map and one of the easiest (I won't go full out here and say it is the easiest given that the previous maps may have improved my skills just a touch to make a difference).

As the the map, well it is what it is, a pretty but small landscape with two fights, the first is a case of luring barons into the sights of the cyberdemons and let them infight with only the mancubi to clear. The second is a mass of revenants, pain elementals and a couple of cyberdemons. Both waves have a clump of archviles overseeing a certain percentage of the playspace. However in both sections there is more than enough room to deal with all the threats.

No complaints from me, a solid map. 

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MAP15 - Tell Me More by Ribbiks:

DEATHS - 15
Another excellent offering from Ribbiks, this map feels very much like a cousin of an Italo Doom map - it's nowhere near as difficult as most of that wad, but it shares the intentionally silly vibe, with the ridiculous visuals (that I love by the way), completely ill-fitting MIDI and incredible doomcute smiley face. The start was the hardest part for me, while you've got loads of rockets on you and two infinite rocket dispensers to help, the walkable space in the first area is very limited, and it's very easy to take loads of damage from the lava. The revenant wave that arrives after this initial fight is probably only dangerous if you decided to kill the cyberdemons before that.

 

After getting the BFG, you're thrust into another small arena filled with imps and pinkies, with some mancubi (and from a distance, one cyberdemon) sniping you. I immediately got hit by a rocket, but there's lots of health here so it's easy to recover from mistakes. The fight on the closed off catwalk is fun, intense and requires you to be aggressive with the BFG, but not so aggressive that you waste all of your cell ammo. Being able to 2-shot cyberdemons is a huge help to save cells as you're basically forced to go point-blank with 3 of them. I like the secrets, they reward exploration and the feeling of "I reckon I could jump to there". The one secret that is more conventional hides an entertaining little ambush that lets you nuke a load of revenants. The finale is great, it just lets you go to town against a load of monsters - there's not much threat to you, but when the fight's entertaining who cares? I had a great time here, it fits perfectly into Haste while still feeling like it's own thing.

 

MAP31 - Hibernation by Bemused & Insane_Gazebo:

DEATHS - 11
Not too much to say here, this is a pretty short map consisting of two main fights, both of which are pretty fun. I was playing absolutely terribly in my attempts here which is why my very high death count seems to contradict everyone else's experience that this is one of the easier maps in the wad. The first fight involves getting a load of barons to infight with some cyberdemons while trying not to get fried by some overlooking archviles (don't try to kill them like I did, it won't work) and the second fight is a slaughter against a massive group of revenants, with a few pain elementals and cyberdemons sprinkled in for good measure. I liked the second fight more than the first, but I like spamming the BFG more than infighting so that's to be expected. The visuals are great, and it's a short, fun follow-up to the lengthy Map15.

 

RANKINGS:

Spoiler

Really Liked: MAP04, MAP06, MAP07, MAP08, MAP10, MAP15
Liked: MAP01, MAP02, MAP03, MAP13, MAP31
Mixed Opinions: MAP05, MAP11, MAP14
Didn't Like: MAP09, MAP12

 

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Played with pistol-starts on UV on DSDA-Doom

 

Map 13: Rotting Under the Foot of Time

 

Very abstract map, with nice automap art. This one has a lot of the same energy as Down the Drain. The infighting part is fun as long as the enemies agree to infight and don't open the wrong doors. I liked the ledge running part. Visually this map is absolutely wonderful, I have never seen anything like it. Especially the upside down anvil in the central room is visually striking. I find this map interesting and I definitely like it, but playing it pissed me off a lot.

 

Map 14: Athenaeum

 

Sorta library wood map. A lot of really fun fights in this one. I love the one with the stairs (which I managed to beat on my second attempt), the platforming one and the final one. I love the massive lift in the center of the map. Visually the map is pretty basic,  but I still like it. I really liked this one.

 

Map 15: Tell Me More

 

Ruins in a cavern. This one feels very much like the other modern Ribbiks maps I have played. The combat is a lot more open ended in this map. I like that you can telefrag the turret cybies. The final fight was for some reason really hard for me, out of any fight in these four maps it took the longest for me to beat. The Falco midi gets really annoying by the 15th loop. This map has some really nice texture usage, like using the Plutonia doors as walls. Liked this one.

 

Map 31: Hibernation

 

Red screen gaming. Cute map. I understand why it is in the secret slot. I like it.

 

My rankings:

Spoiler

1: Athenaeum

2: The Cradle

3: Concrete Vice

4: Wanderlust

5: Floodplain

6: Hibernation

7: Tell Me More

8: Thrown to the Wolves

9: Rotting Under the Foot of Time

10: The Green Mind

11: Infinium

12: Firebug 

13: Magma Templum

14: The Wheelhouse

15: Snoutish Pug Nose 

16: The Barbican



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Map 15: Tell Me More

  There could be no possible exaggeration in how much I love this map. There's definitely a hint of that dedicated to the use of primarily vanilla Doom II textures, or the infectious MIDI rendition of the Falco song, but I feel that what makes it so fun is that fun is the primary goal. It doesn't want to be this super intense blood flooded island, or construction of wood and metal suspended in the air, or anything else that the majority of this set is doing. Not to say that doing so is bad, but the layout for Tell Me More is freed from restriction by doing this. It feels really good moving through this map. I love the verticality of the walkways high above the slime, pretty much all of the secrets are movement based and placed intelligently in the progression of the map (though the secret Megasphere being overwritten by another one before the final fight is dumb), and the whole thing is wide enough for spectacle, yet small enough to not exhaust people running through it. 

  All the aggravation in the combat is frontloaded, having to rely on the Cyberdemons chopping down Nobles and Revenants, and the Arachnotrons at the start take up the majority of the space to actually get started in. Everything became second nature when I got off of the ground, and there's a lot of mercy being shown here when it comes to the Ribbiks's discography. The BFG comes really early, and playing the map with the intended path in mind defuses a lot of issues with things like the horde of Imps backed up by Arch-Viles. The final fight is pretty easy to disrupt by simply waking all the monsters up before the wall lowers. That is not to say that this map is easy, far from it, it's just crafted in a way where the solution is apparent and intelligent. It's really hard to describe what goes on, because it feels like one conescutive string of action throughout in a very natural way. This is the Haste map I want to play again someday.

  My thoughts on the other maps are neither constructive for anyone looking to judge map quality, nor appropriate for the current discourse. I stopped playing consistently after Map 08 cause I just wasn't having fun on any skill level, but I've had a great time reading the writeups from everyone else regarding how they've handled the difficulty.

 

+++Uprising

+++Judgment

+++Anomaly Report

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MAP16: Sepia. HNTR, PS, 1000/1000 K, 1/1 S, 30/30 I. Completion time 26:46.

 

Sepia immediately reminds me of MAP14, Athenaeum, and weren't they mapped by the same author? It's amazing how mostly stock textures (I think, perhaps apart from some SUPPORT-style textures and the sky) can make a level so good on the eyes and exciting to play. Then, I'm a sucker for E4 aesthetics.

 

I think Sepia is the hardest map of the bunch. Either this or Athenaeum with its platform fights, which is practically missing here (some regular running jumps are required), but to couunter that there are some really tight encounters. The beginning already is a bit of a tight spot for my skills, and the the second fight, the demon sandwich room, was already looking to be too hard, although I did that without midfight saves!

 

Then the U-shaped room. It really feels like the lessons of MSCP came in handy. Coincidentally I also met my old friend, Mr. Frustration, when I hit the hardest room, the one with yet another sandwiching encounter with hell knights and revenants, and a fuckzillion of archviles in a central platform denying you any movement in the arena. I had to look up Decino's playthrough, and with the same strategy and one midfight save I was able to do it, but hot damn.

 

The rest was (relatively) easy. I found about the secret before the last fight, which I was miraculously able to do in one go; I really got lucky there, I think, the AV didn't zap me when it easily could have.

 

 

***

 

 

MAP17: Thanks for playing.

 

Indeed! In the end it is obvious that Haste is above my paygrade, at least the last seven maps have been basically beyond my skills to play comfortably. That's not to say I haven't been enjoying my stay; I have, and I think if I keep playing Doom, I'll eventually revisit Haste (and MSCP) on a harder difficulty.

 

I wonder if playing both MSCP and Haste has made me a better player despite low difficulty setting and having casual attitude to saving. I completed Sepia on 27th of April (which is also when I'm actually writing this), so if I took on some wad with an easier reputation from my backlog, or even revisit something I've already completed, something harder than IWADs, but easier than Haste, would the experience have changed by this month? I'm afraid to try so as to not be disappointed by my performance*, but I'd also be amazed if this month hadn't made me at least a tiny bit better.

 

Needless to reiterate, but I really enjoyed both wads this months. Not the all the maps, but even the less suited for me have been decent. If I've had bad times with them, it's mostly because I'm underskilled, and some of them seem like an acquired taste sort of ventures, and not bad maps as such. Maybe a couple of mediocre ones, I guess, or maps that felt out of place in their mapslots or wads.

 

Both wads certainly have replay value for me. I know I can use MSCP as tutorials I can gladly repeat later on, and Haste is chock full of levels I'd love to revisit on a later date to see how far I've come since April 2022.

 

(* I tried on Alien Vendetta's MAP06 an hour later, which I initially, some months ago, tried on UV but had to tone down to HMP to survive. Now I was able to beat it on UV without too much hassle, without finding the cyberdemon secret. So, who knows? I used saves, though, not midfight, but still. I also retried Scythe's MAP26, the famous slaughter map -- It's hard to say, I played this in October, and even this time I used a couple of saves, but I only died at the beginning a couple of times, and a couple of times cyber-trios overlooking the area when I faced them. My completion time was half a minute longer than in October, and it's really hard to say how I felt playing back then, but this time it felt like a breeze. Of course, you only have my word on it.)

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Haste MAP14 - "Athenaeum" by Bemused
I hope you like revenants! Another map with no consideration for easier difficulty. I made it to the southwest arena where everything teleports in front, above, behind and next to you, and had to cheat my way from there. Even after having gone through MAP11 the northeast arena is a huge jump up in difficulty compared to everything that came before in the wad. There's some very clever sector machinery going, but the otherwise very interesting design is marred by switches and linedefs with non-obvious effects, and lifts whose textures blend almost perfectly with their surrounding. I was also not amused by the damaging floor exit when playing continuous, I think I'd have preferred even a death exit, starting the next map with 1% health (yes, 1%) pretty much guarantees I'll have to cheat again. The pros will probably like this one more than I did, but I would've appreciated better difficulty balancing.

 

Haste MAP15 - "Tell Me More" by Ribbiks
As expected I had to cheat through the hot start, there's no way this would go well with 1% health. I was doing ok for a while after that, then had to cheat again at the huge finale. I assume the map is perfectly tuned for UV, but although support for the lower difficulties is present, I still don't think they're well balanced, there's simply too little difference in monster count and composition. The map design is otherwise absolutely stellar in terms of how the space is used, how different areas connect, and how everything looks.

 

Haste MAP31 - "Hibernation" by Bemused, Insane Gazebo
It took a few restarts to fully understand the layout, especially where the AVs are hiding. The green grass is a really cool effect to see in Doom but it also makes it harder to distinguish sniping enemies. It took a lot of tries but I finally managed to clear the first wave, but the second one is much more difficult. Faced with another dozens of reloads I gave up and cheated.

 

Haste MAP16 - "Sepia" by Bemused
I'll be honest, when I saw 1000 enemies on ITYTD (a quarter of them revenants) I didn't even bother and just turned god mode back on. Nothing that I saw afterwards made me regret this decision (the ubiquitous revenant walls and the many enemies on very high ledges would've been a sore point for sure). There's not much point me commenting on the map, this level is firmly not for beginners, it's so far above my skill level and I'm clearly not the target audience.

 

Haste MAP17 - "Thanks for Playing" by Insane Gazebo
Just one very elegantly designed room to prevent you from going into the regular levels, with a pleasantly soothing MIDI playing.

 

I think my feelings about Haste are even more mixed than with MSCP. I had a much smoother start with Haste (possibly because of the practice I got from MSCP), and found the first half very manageable on ITYTD. I'd say the first 10 maps are all very well balanced for easier skill levels. At this point the wad doesn't so much have a difficulty curve as a difficulty cliff face (as one of the map titles put it, you're thrown to the wolves). The hardest maps on ITYTD are much, much harder than anything in MSCP, though the lack of difficulty balancing in some may play a role here. Visually they're an interesting study in contrast, MSCP features a ton of custom textures whereas Haste uses fewer extras that more subtly enhance the stock assets. I'm not sure if I prefer one over the other, both manage to create stunning vistas and very atmospheric levels with completely different aesthetics, and I enjoyed feasting my eyes on both. I still don't love slaughter, and I can't say I had non-stop fun, but I'm really glad I played both wads, I have definitely enjoyed a good number of the maps, and I sometimes appreciated the design and the visuals a lot even in maps whose gameplay was too tough for me.

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Will do MAP31 along with MAP16 tomorrow instead.

 

MAP15: "Tell Me More" by Ribbiks

UV, pistol start, saves

100% kills, 2/3 secrets

 

Ribbiks returns, serving up a map with lava, cliffs, and a mish-mash of the predominantly brown textures. The architecture looks cool and feels very huge in this one. The midi is ridiculously cheeky sounding, being a rendition of a Falco song. Feels like I'm playing Italo Doom with that in the background, I love it.

 

This map isn't quite as difficult as the previous one, but it also has less of a curve to its difficulty, pulling very few punches right from the start. This beginning fight was real rough for me, the room to move around is very tight, and often covered by damaging for or in view of archviles. My best idea for this one was to kill the imps first as they don't really do much for infighting, and then kill the arachnotrons because they take up way too much space. After that, I let infighting handle the rest. The two cyberdemons will always survive this first wave, but once you release the revenants they usually either die or come close to it. Either way this is a tough fight, for my deaths I would either get done in by the arachnotrons at the start or would have bad luck with the revenants and they'd box me in. 

 

The next little while throws some easier fights at you, some pretty simple archviles and a cyberdemon on pedestals, followed by several more archviles to BFG. Then an imp-filled SSG fest, with mancubi turrets stationed everywhere. A little while after this though, you find yourself on a tall maze-like structure (well, too small to get lost in or anything, just shapewise). The fights here are the next big hurdle. What I did was use my rockets to kill all the hell knights, then use their room as a foothold for the barons, pinkies, and cacos that would come in. Ammo is actually quite tight in this map, so you'll likely have to hit up ammo reserves elsewhere. Once things are relatively safe, I hit the switch in the hell knight room and kill the archvile. Approaching the cyberdemon will briefly lower a wall in the maze where you will find a secret: a relatively simple fight with a bunch of revenants and couple pain elementals, with an archvile ending. Your reward is a cyberdemon telefrag. You can then safely grab the yellow key and ammo that he's guarding and progress on, killing the army of imps. There's normally a bunch of archviles in the imp room, but once you get the yellow key they simply teleport away, so you'll be safe once the imps are gone. The yellow key switch triggers another relatively easy stretch. The cyberdemon is pretty simple to kill and the caco and zombieman hordes up ahead are as well. You eventually are faced with another cyberdemon that guards the red key, but running off the side and around the back through the damaging liquid nets you another secret telefrag, and this one comes with a megasphere! Now all that's left is the final fight.

 

A lot of spectacle in this fight. You start off with walls very gradually lowering, and admittedly it was so grandiose that I thought for sure it was gonna be something hilarious simple behind those walls like in Nuts 2. But no, it's a huge slaughter with a big floating smiley-face. This one took me a few tries to figure out, but I actually got it down quite consistently. First I go through one of the little side panels of the lowering door  to get out there early, then I start rocketing the imps on that side, and then duck back behind the rest of the wall panels as they lower for cover, keeping up a flow of rockets the whole time. Then I go back and start working on the other imps, then as the pressure starts ramping up I switch to BFG and force my way through the armies to one of the soulspheres/two cell packs. Once I get this far, the rest is pretty much in the bag. Circle around and BFG spam, going for cells/health as needed. There's a ton of monsters in this fight, but it's really not as tricky as it looks, I actually find even the first fight much harder than this one, heh. It's a lot of fun though, although cleaning up those 4 cyberdemons can be slightly tedious.

 

This one's another lengthy one, but again I don't mind as it was a very strong map. Definitely did have a Ribbiks stamp on it.

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MAP 16 – Sepia by @bemused

PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4, HMP, Pistol start, blind run w/saves

 

This is the day of reckoning, isn’t it Bemused? As the final map of Haste, Sepia ought to be the longest, hardest, and strictest slaughter map on offer. In English “sepia” is just a reddish tone of brown, obviously related to the ink derived from the cuttlefish, which will be the main colour on display along with some contrasting green, provided by damaging slime and sky. While the aesthetics were competent and aptly sinister, the main concern for the author was the gameplay, totally embracing the puzzle aspect of the slaughter genre.

 

Sepia was a linear series of stiff encounters of varying scale. The common trait was the requirement of a specific approach, obtained after the methodical analysis of every situation. This might be the very definition of a slaughter map, emphasizing the thorough breakdown of each combat scenario to come up with a reliable strategy, instead of testing the player’s individual skill. I abandoned this map twice during my attempt, as I was banging my head against an encounter I could not see in a different way. Youtube demos showed how other players overcame the challenges, and a never-ending streak of failures instantly turned into a success.

Spoiler

419459094_HasteMAP16_01.jpg.802759e4b9a2cb43e05091ebf64a6686.jpg

The starting areas were the ones I liked the best, as the enemy placement was more varied and without the BFG the solid line-ups were not ubiquitous. The first roadblock was the long hall with hundreds of enemies, where I failed repeatedly because I insisted on clearing the Revenant wing first. Sometimes I even succeeded, but there were no resources to repel the upcoming Hell Knights and Pinkies. On the other side, plenty of cells and two Megaspheres! I hated this design: it assumed that I knew the item placement and that I moved accordingly.

 

I used a trick seen in a video to alert the huge hosts in the lower chambers and made them infight a bit, before jumping down for the extermination. I played sloppily here and was killed by the Revenants a couple of times, thanks to the windows allowing homing rockets to return to their target, but it was not a big deal, just as the Cacodemon & Pain Elemental ambush around a deadly pit with crushers. After some quasi-incidental encounters, I met my second checkpoint: an Arch-Vile nest paired with Revenants and Hell Nobles. Clearing the Revenants first made the encounter a walk in the park; attempting other approaches, as I did for a good while, resulted in spectacular deaths, like being projected with unbelievable violence out of the building and into the sea of lethal slime.

Spoiler

1153088235_HasteMAP16_02.jpg.0881d0695d101610b23dcc781248e7e9.jpg

I wanted to leave this Sepia-coloured cenotaph of my slaughter ambitions as soon as possible, so I did not look for the secret and rushed into the last arena, unlocked by the RSK obtained during the journey. I left the upstairs Cyberdemon alive, so he could join the fray. At least the final encounter was more flexible, and I won at first attempt, notwithstanding the Arch-Vile that survived a BFG shot at close range and lots of improvisation from my side. I am sure that players looking for a challenge and yearning for proper slaughter will sing the praises of Bemused’s last effort in Haste, which was undoubtedly a quality map. As for myself, it reminded me of the reasons why I have always shunned slaughter WADs: their univocal approach to encounters, and the emphasis on deliberate schemes over standard Doom tactics. I like strategy in games that explicitly call for it but in an action FPS game like Doom is something I can absolutely live without.

 

Time: 27:33    Deaths: ∞

 

MAP 17 – Thanks for Playing by @Insane_Gazebo

 

A flower-shaped room with elaborate detail to mark the end of the journey, carrying its message in the map title. That’s it.

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MAP16: Sepia, by Bemused

DSDA, pistol start, HNTR and UV

 

After my colon cleansing on MAP14, and realizing that Sepia was penned linedef’d(?) by the same author, I prepared myself physically and mentally for this. MAP16 slapped me around like a pool noodle, but it was absolutely worth it; this is an extraordinary level.

 

When the monster count jumped from 1000 on HNTR, to 1023 on UV, this was everything I needed to understand that Bemused was surgical when it came to adding/removing monsters for difficulty settings. I don’t think I need to look much further than the larger horseshoe pincer fight, with the Revenants, Hellknights, Imps, and lone Cyberdemon, to get a clear sense of just how calculated these arenas really are. The differences between HNTR and UV in this encounter are 3 Arch-Viles in place of 3 Chaingunners – nothing more – but the impact is impressively effective. This is, for the most part, echoed throughout the entire level.

 

There are so many memorable fights here, and they all seemed to follow the same trajectory for me – hysterical outrage as I desperately racked my brain for a solution, followed by pure elation upon discovering it. Take for example what felt like the first major “combat puzzle”, the angled corridor featuring a gang of Imps backed by a horde of Revenants to the south-east, and a gang of Hellknights backed by a horde of Pinkys to the north-west (with Mancubus or Cyb turrets, depending on the skill setting). Simple enough, straight forward, but goddamn if this arena didn’t bring my entire existence into question. I must have thrown my useless corpse at this fight 20 or 30 times, convinced that I needed to clear the Imps, then clear the Revenants, before it dawned on me to try clearing the Imps, then use the Cell ammo to immediately BFG-burrow my way back through the HK / Pinky horde to the other side – and just like that, I beat the encounter in one shot after switching strategies. This "revelation" came as a huge boon for my ability to tackle some of the harder fights to follow, making it clear for me just how much intent went into their design, and simply inviting me to share that intent when it came to my approach.

 

It’s fights like that, along with so many others throughout MAP16, that made me feel like I had 300 IQ once I figured out the strategy. Let’s be clear, I don’t, but that to me is the magic of slaughter, and a testament to the outstanding result of Bemused’s labor of love here. The level is bookended by arenas featuring nukage floors, and by the time I came full circle on this one, I was wearing a near-permanent grin on the inside; I can’t imagine a more fitting finale for Haste.

 

I’ll remember this level for a long, long time. Brilliant stuff.

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Final Thoughts

 

April 2022 was the month of slaughter for the DWMC. Two similar yet different megaWADs were chosen, both promising a compact yet challenging take on the slaughter genre that had become a growing trend in Doom mapping. Most regulars of the Club decided to take a month of hiatus, leaving the scene to the fanatics of this peculiar type of entertainment, while others, including myself, decided to stay and take their chances, trying not to be just “lambs to the slaughter”, even though it could be thematically appropriate during Easter time.

 

Micro Slaughter Community Project (MSCP) was an early 2021 release that teamed up some well-known mappers, under the supervision of @Bauul, and aimed at creating short, beginner-friendly levels that could serve as an introduction to slaughter gameplay. While the relative inexperience of some authors showed up, with a few entries missing the mark or slipping in elements that felt awkward in the context (e.g., hidden resources, confusing progression, lots of secrets), the project fulfilled its instructional goals, thanks to compact maps designed to force the player into learning the tropes of the genre: herding monsters, instigating hatred between them, and creating a living space amongst a horde of hellspawn. Under the visual standpoint, MSCP offered generally pleasing environments based upon OTEX, emulating the scale of the typical slaughter arenas, but also trying interesting variations that both looked and played well, like some detailed tech-base settings and more original creations from talents like antares031, Bridgeburner56 and Aurelius.

 

Besides the genre and megaWAD structure (17 playable maps), there were not many affinities between MSCP and Haste, made public in September 2021 and winning a Cacoward before even making it to idgames archive. A brotherhood of acclaimed slaughter veterans united to design a series of short, challenging Boom maps, ranging from difficult to slaughter, with the second term apparently meaning “more than difficult”. The project was initially spearheaded by Scotty, who envisioned a hard but accessible megaWAD aimed at casual players. He still features as the main contributor with 5 entries, but the idea was brought to completion by Insane_Gazebo. The turnover slightly increased the map size, complexity, and length. One of the interesting traits was the prevalence of standard textures, showing that much can still be achieved with detail and sector magic. Regarding the gameplay, there was a rather balanced difficulty curve, with the first 9 maps being more lenient, even if compared to the same streak of MSCP, while the last ones suddenly got harder and demanded precise actions to overcome the challenges.

 

I followed the prescription to play each level on pistol start, but I decided to tone down the difficulty to Hurt Me Plenty to avoid myself too much grief, especially with the later maps of Haste. As usual, I allowed myself some savegames mid-level (not during encounters to cheat the RNG or to facilitate anything). I checked the changes between the various difficulties, and I noticed that UV had generally more Arch-Viles, placed in inconvenient positions to force the player out of areas that could be occupied safely on HMP. There were also more Cyberdemons and more monsters in general, though I do not think that this would have changed the gameplay that much, except in some cases. On the other hand, there was not a big difference between UV and HMP during the first half of both megaWADs.

 

I mostly had a good time with these sets, I found them interesting as a variation and useful to learn tactics that I am not very proficient with, such as two-shooting Cyberdemons, using the rocket launcher in tight spaces, and managing big crowds. However, towards the end of Haste I started feeling an unpleasant sensation of inadequacy. I faced some circumstances with pathetic awkwardness, and even if I legitimately overcame them with multiple tries, I convinced myself to be unfit for this style of play. True slaughter encounters have little or no flexibility, which is a feature I do not appreciate in Doom content; failing to figure out the required sequence of actions will invariably result in the player’s demise. There was always a reliable strategy, as I learned watching videos, but I asked myself a question: was it worth watching others play a map, just to beat that map myself? Probably not, as I am not trying to improve any record. Being a casual player with limited time, I would never beat the challenges in most of these maps without savegames, a fact that automatically ruled out any escalation of my lust for slaughter and ultra-hard levels in general. It is incredible that only the last maps of Haste showed me the truth.

 

I am sure that players who are going to like MSCP and Haste already know that and do not need extra recommendations to delve into these quality projects. On the other hand, the sceptics are not going to change their mind by playing these releases. While MSCP might have fulfilled his promise to provide a compact, gradual, and guided introduction to slaughter, it still strikes hard and merciless when it takes the gloves off (I’ll mention MAP09 and MAP14 as the hardest challenges in store). It was a successful community project and a good exercise for the mappers, to see how they handled themselves in an environment they were not all familiar with, but I would not wager that it will attract new players to the genre.

 

Haste was a totally different beast: visually charming and instilling false security in the first half, it might utterly crush the aspirations of novices in the second, unless they were determined to become slaughter devotees. Still, these small-scale maps from famous veterans were often a treat, as they looked gorgeous and were gratifying without asking for too much of my lifetime. I have  enhanced my knowledge and understanding of Doom editing during this month’s DWMC: I trod an uncharted territory, testing myself against challenges I normally find intimidating, though in the end I realised this is not where I want to settle. My favourite elements in Doom are not to be found in slaughter maps, so I need to look elsewhere.

 

Best maps of Micro Slaughter:

MAP 08 – The Three Kings by @RonnieJamesDiner

MAP 14 – Crippling Legion by @Bdubzzz

MAP 16 – Beluga Sanctuary by @antares031

 

Other standout maps of Micro Slaughter:

MAP 03 – Cherry Blossom by @Danlex

MAP 06 – Slaughter Factory by @Guardsoul

MAP 13 – Technocratic Terror by @Bridgeburner56

MAP 15 – Sanguine by @Aurelius

 

Best maps of Haste:

MAP 05 – Firebug by @Nirvana

MAP 08 – The Cradle by @Insane_Gazebo

MAP 14 – Athenaeum by @bemused

MAP 15 – Tell Me More by @Ribbiks

 

Other standout maps of Haste:

MAP 03 – Snoutish Pug Nose by Ribbiks

MAP 06 – Concrete Vice by Insane_Gazebo

MAP 11 – Wanderlust by @Archi and Insane_Gazebo

MAP 12 – Thrown to the Wolves by @Scotty

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MAP31: Hibernation, by Bemused w/ Insane_Gazebo

DSDA, pistol start, HNTR and UV

 

I have a long-standing tradition of playing secret maps at the end of a wad, whether I find the secret exit on MAP15 or not (call it an encore, I guess). With no actual secret exit that I could see, this was simple enough to maintain.

 

It pains me to say it, but my UV attempt at Hibernation broke me down into using mid-fight saves for the first time in this set. HNTR was surprisingly manageable, allowing me to concentrate on carpet bombing the AV cluster before mopping up the HKs, and the Invulnerability was enough to push through towards the second bushel of Viles before clearing the remainder of the Revs with my Cybie friends. I think I died once or twice on HNTR.

 

UV, however, just split my spirit in half somehow. I ended up having to very meticulously provoke infighting between the Barons and Cyberdemons, endlessly weaving back and forth and avoiding the Arch-Viles altogether (casually bumped up from 6 to 17, fucking yikes!), while dodging projectiles like a madman. I could see the strategy, but unfortunately, doing it in a single, unbroken attempt took a level of discipline and experience that I don’t quite possess yet – eventually, with the aid of 2 mid-fight saves, I finally cracked that beast. The finale on UV, despite added misery and no Invuln, still seemed to pale in comparison.

 

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this level, and really, it didn’t disappoint. Hibernation feels like all of the pain and intrigue, beauty and hard lessons from Haste distilled into a single arena. What else can I ask for from a secret map? Good stuff!

 

 

MAP17: Thanks for Playing, by Insane_Gazebo

 

To be honest, this room would probably make for an absolutely lovely slaughter arena (it makes me wonder if it started out in life with that intent, before winding up here). Very cool looking room.

 

Time to wrap this up...

 

I really haven’t played much Doom in the past 6-8 months, with my focus being drawn away towards IRL stuff, or working on Hellslinger, and taking the opportunity to kick back with Haste was like chicken soup for the soul. There wasn’t a single map I didn’t enjoy here; even if there were highlights that I’ll remember more fondly in years to come, I think everyone who contributed to this project brought something special to the table. The whole crew should be proud!

 

Despite it taking me a good few years to get into this niche, I hold slaughter mapping in pretty high regard at this point. This set skillfully demonstrates one of the main reasons why I feel that way, which is, so often I find myself in awe at the inventive and spectacular layouts, vistas, and general “worldbuilding” found in slaughter wads. The penchant that these mappers have for not only constructing these kinds of levels, but then filling them with fights that feel genuinely rewarding to beat is a recipe that I don’t believe I could ever tire of. Additionally, having made a few slaughter maps myself (for better or worse), I have some appreciation for just how much effort goes into designing, and testing these maps. Playtesting these kinds of levels over and over during development is exhausting, and I can’t sing praise loud enough for mappers who focus entirely on creating slaughter wads. You’re animals. Or... mad scientists. Maybe both.

 

Haste described itself as “compact, high impact slaughter maps”, and if I can call that a sub-genre of Doom mapping, it would certainly be among the tip-top of my personal favorite genres to play – Haste did a ton of leg work over the course of April to make me feel that way. Thanks for this set, it was awesome!

 

● ● ●

 

I doubt I’ll be participating next month, so I won’t throw any votes into the hat. But, as an aside, I’d just like to give a shoutout to everyone playing along with these, as well. This was my first DWMC ride along, and I gotta say, you folks who do this  e v e r y  m o n t h – and seeing some of these write-ups, they’re put together with a remarkable level of care and thought, and effort – it’s pretty unreal, that kind of commitment. I haven’t done this much writing in a while! It’s been fun to read through everyone’s reactions along the way. Cheers!

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

Map 16: Sepia by bemused

100% kills, 60% items and 100% secrets

Time: 12:24

 

What a finish! The second solo bemused entry in this set is probably the best final Haste could have wished for thanks to it's great action, high difficulty and kill count, mastered atmosphere and pretty visuals. bemused goes for a wooden fortress partly inondated with poison, which probably comes from the lake around it, and looks especially pretty with the help of the Speed of Doom-esque green sky. Sepia also screams final level vibes, not only thanks to the combat and atmosphere, but also the midi, which originally scored E4M8 in the Ultimate Midi Pack. This level is one of the hardest ones in Haste and the combat absolutely shattered me on my first playthrough, but foreknowledge can make it much easier, which is the reason why I think that map 14 is harder. However, don't get overconfident, this level is also the only one in Haste with more than 1000 monsters. You start off with an SSG, 3 revs in front of you, 16 pinkies behind the revs, and a few Hell knights blocking your escape. I recommend shooting the revs twice, and then running past the pinkies to get the hell out of this room. After that, grab the rocket launcher and start rocketting all the fodder while dodging other demons' projectiles. Then, maneuver your way around the cyber and start the hardest fight of the map in my opinion. You are surrounded between imps and hell knights, and going “too far” in their alcoves will reveal a ton of revs and 2 static cybers on the imp side, and a ton of pinkies and 2 static mancubi on the hell knight side. I recommend going through the imps with the rocket launcher, activate the second wave of enemies, and BFG through everything until you're close to the mancubi, kill them, and then all enemies who want to end your hasty journey. After that, you get to the fight that broke me on my first playthrough. A ton of imps, hell nobles and a few static archies on your right, a ton of revs and an archie on a wall on the left, and a static cyber in the middle. Just alternate between killing both groups, run past the revs when you can, kill the archie on their side, and camp here. After that, you get a pretty cramped fight with crushers, meatballs, tomatoes and hell knights, another ambush with a cyber, pigs, barons, chaingunners and revs, and another one with revs, zombies and archies before arriving to another tough fight. A mancubi on the center who gets replaced by a cyber if he dies, a lot of archies having a view on a big part of the arena, a ton of revs on one side, and a ton of hell nobles on the other. Go through the revs, camp in their alcove and kill the nobles before finishing off the archies, mancubus and cyberdemon. Finally, you will arrive at the last fight of this wad. The area drops down to reveal tons of obstructive meat, arch-viles and cyberdemons along with sniping revs and mancubi, all of this on damaging floor. While this fight is pretty tough normally, you can turn it into a complete joke with a secret invuln, but maybe you will feel cheap about it, if that's the case, don't use it. This map is pretty, a lot of fun, atmospheric and difficult, exactly how a final for a wad like Haste should be.

Footnote: Is it obvious that bemused loves skeletons?

 

Map 17: Thanks for Playing by Insane_Gazebo

 

It's a pretty basic credits map, a beautiful room, a peaceful midi and no exit, nothing else to say.

 

 

Final Haste Rankings:

Spoiler

 

Love:

Map 9

Map 16

Map 6

Map 14

Map 8

Map 31

Map 4

Map 15

Map 12

Really like :

Map 5

Map 13

Map 11

Map 2

Map 3

Map 1

Like:

Map 7

Dislike:

Map 10

Credits map :

Map 17

 

 

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Final MSCP Review:

MSCP is one of the best community projects I have ever played, it's idea is imaginative and the maps are all of great quality, even Metal Head. In my opinion, it is the best mapset for anyone looking to start playing slaughtermaps due to it's short run time, great visuals and atmosphere and relatively low difficulty for it's genre (outside of Crippling Legion of course). It's also nice to see some people who are not used to make slaughter maps stepping out of their comfort zones and making pretty good maps like Liberation for example. There is also a nice variation of themes, you have some classic ones like map 12's techbase and some weirder ones like map 2's forteress or Antares' temples which all look great. However, the difficulty curve is a bit less consistent than in Haste due to map 14 being way harder than anything else or the wad having some breathers like maps 4 and 10 in the middle of some pretty hard ones. While I appreciate the break, I feel like it needs to be mentioned. Fortunately, that doesn't prevent the wad from being full of creative, fun and highly replayable maps.

 

Final MSCP Time: 1:49:35

Final MSCP Rankings:

Spoiler

Love:

Map 14

Map 8

Map 16

Map 13

Map 3

Map 6

Map 2

Really like:

Map 9

Map 15

Map 12

Map 5

Map 1

Like:

Map 4

Map 11

Map 7

Mediocre:

Map 10

Nice chuckle:

Map 31

Awesome Credits map:

Map 17

 

Final Haste Review:

On the other hand, Haste is a much tougher, longer and consistent wad than MSCP. The maps are still not that difficult if you know what you're doing, but a beginner is gonna struggle a lot with them. This reason along with the longer nature of the maps is why I think that it's better if to play Haste after getting some experience with slaughter maps. The wad is more consistent than MSCP, especially in the difficulty side as even if they are some easier maps in the middle like 9 and 15, they are still not complete cakewalks like in MSCP and the difficulty spikes are nowhere near as absurd as MSCP map 14. However, I feel like the maps are a bit less varied than in MSCP. Don't get me wrong, some maps like 8,15, bemused or Nrvana's stuff are really creative, but I find MSCP to have more variety. Despite that, Haste grew on me a bit after this playthrough as I prefered MSCP before, but can't say now that any of the 2 wads is better. Both of them have their strengths and are worthy of a playthrough.

 

Final Haste Time: 2:35:38

Final Haste Rankings:

Spoiler

 

Love:

Map 9

Map 16

Map 6

Map 14

Map 8

Map 31

Map 4

Map 15

Map 12

Really like :

Map 5

Map 13

Map 11

Map 2

Map 3

Map 1

Like:

Map 7

Dislike:

Map 10

Credits map :

Map 17

 

On top of the Ray Mohawks and Devilution, I'm also adding a vote for:

+++Judgement

Edited by tonytheparrot : final version now

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Haste Map16 - Sepia by Bemused

UV, ~90% kills, no secrets

 

If you expect the final map to be huge and deadly, well, this one won't disappoint you! Doomguy's job today is to clear a magnificent metal citadel in the middle of the sea of toxic acid, and the monster count surpasses 1k mark. In terms of combat this level is a deadly cocktail of puzzles, slaughter, and even some sandbox, which serves as a nice summary for the mapset. There are so many fights and they're all so full of detail and delicate mechanics that I feel hopeless trying to highlight the best or the most interesting moments. Most memorable for me are probably starting pushy encounters that make player move constantly or the V-shaped fight with a crowd of revenants on the one side and crowd of hell knights on the other, both covering some archviles, and the crowd of imps with cybie in the middle. Most fights were hard but manageable but I admit I had to use midfight saves few times. Overall, big, diverse in combat, really challenging, but most importantly does a great job as a closing map.

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5 hours ago, Book Lord said:

True slaughter encounters have little or no flexibility, which is a feature I do not appreciate in Doom content; failing to figure out the required sequence of actions will invariably result in the player’s demise.

 

I'm not really an expert in terminology, but in my understanding, this is characteristic of "combat puzzle" genre. Sometimes two genres are combined like it was often the case in both MSCP and Haste, but in some other slaughter I played, a lot of maps are more of a skill-oriented "just run around crowds and react properly to new waves joining the fight". Often a relaxing experience, especially on HMP and lower.

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MAP16 - “Sepia” by Bemused

 

Well after this, consider myself to be added to the even lengthening list of "Bemused fans".

I think I got through this one a lock swifter than Anthenaeum, so either this wasn't quite as hard or I was on better form this evening. In fact most, if not all deaths came from me making mistakes than anything foul done by the author. The start is certainly tougher than Map14, no working yourself into the map, the incidental combat that takes you up to the first big fight is brutal. I prefered to get out of the starting room and nab the rocket launcher from the following area, this seems to be the intended strategy as here isn't any punishment for doing this and you can clean up once the following section has been openned up. 

The first big fight is a clever sandwich fight that initially appears as imps on one side and hell knights on the other. You need to be quick to clear enough imps and grab the cells behind then before the revenants appear. The punch a hole through the hell knights and demons behind with the BFG and you should be okay. The only snag with this fight is you can easily eat a cyberdemon rocket (Which ruined my second attempt where I had the fight basically beaten). Either way you get a great feeling when a seemingly impossible task is taken apart without too much of a sweat.

The second fight follows, a horseshoe with revenants on one side and imps/hell knights on the other with a cyberdemon sentry and archviles at the end of each wing. One thing that became obvious in this map is that one part of the strategy is knowing the right time to hit the fire button, this and a later trap show real importance to this. So essentially you need to draw the monsters into the centre and only use the BFG to break through the horde at its weakest point (The outside edge), a mixture of BFG and infighting with the cyber should see you through here.

Smaller scale fights follow these, again some nasty hazards like the Cacodemon/PE room where you have to tread carefully, a close quarters fight with a cyberdemon and a mix of others where you need to draw the demons out and essentially use them as a meat shield against the cyberdemon (I beat this without taking a single hit). Once the red key is yours, you get another sandwich/U-shape fight, this one is pretty straightforward, clear the revenants and let the nobles come to you (Rocket launcher is sufficient once the skeletons have been cleared). I did become foul of a cyberdemon here, mostly because the mancubi survived the carnage, I killed him as he was the last monster standing and then hilariously got a rocket in the back - Thanks Bemused :P

The final fight wasn't as bad as it initially looks, beat it on my second attempt. You can quickly grab the radsuit and then keep moving and the monsters should settle their personal beefs to the point where clean up is minimal.

When looking back at this, a real difference between this and Map14 is there are far fewer archviles used as sentries and there is less reliance on precise footwork (Like the BFG room from Map14). This might be a reason why I found this less hard, whilst others found it harder perhaps? Either way, this was an absolute masterpiece, it is tough, really tough. But every fight, every little scrap was brooding, explosive and utterly compelling. It was a proper climatic experience and finishes the wad off in style.

 

MAP17 - “Thanks for Playing” by Insane Gazebo

Essentially a stop map for continuous players. It looks very pretty though and certainly worth standing in whilst you catch your breath.

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Final thoughts:

 

Upon reflection, playing MSCP and Haste in the same month is a great case study about project development in the Doom community. One was a fairly open community project, the other developed with a core team behind closed doors. For me you could remove the project names from both and you could easily tell which one was which in terms of the development cycle involved. Haste is much more consistent in the quality of its execution in terms of combat, which isn't a surprise given the calibre of the people working on this. Haste is also in my view the superior of the two, whilst it is more modest in terms of resources, the execution is pretty spot on for the majority of the mapset. Compare this to MSCP, where there are a couple of duds mixed in with the top notch maps. 

Haste was in all honesty an awesome wad to play, sure it had some harrowing moments where I questioned whether I could persevere with this on UV, without clouding my judgement as to whether the combat was fair (Even as my corpses piled up). In the end though I got through the wall that seemed to be Map13/14 and actually surprised myself towards the end (Including almost beating the secret map in one attempt). Haste is probably the hardest mapset I have sat down and played (I am not one to regularly place this style of wad), however despite the ominous challenge, you can really feel the payoff as you push on, especially given the final three maps are all top notch in terms of quality. I really don't have much more to say, other than to thank Scotty, Insane Gazebo and the rest of the team for making this, it is absolutely worthy of the cacoward it received. In the end my favourite map was Map16, but there were three other maps all fighting for the top spot before this.

Final score - 5/5 

Like MSCP I did do a little grading system so here it is;

(A+) - Map16

(A) - Map06, 14, 15

(A-) - Map01, 03, 08, 09, 10, 31

(B+) - Map02, 04, 05,07, 12

(B) - Map13 (As I said, I had a horror show with this, but from a technical point of view there wasn't much wrong with this)

(B-) - Map11

N/A - Map17

 

For me this kind of sums it up, there was no map I considered average or below. 

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MAP16 - Sepia by Bemused:

DEATHS - 19
I've been fairly harsh on Bemused's work in Haste so far, so I'm very glad to say that they've knocked it out of the park on this one, it's really great. This map keeps the varied scales and intensities of the fights in Map14, but with more of a focus on damaging floors taking a starring role in the combat set pieces. The only part of the map I don't particularly care for is the beginning which takes just a bit too long for my liking, but after you grab the rocket launcher and drop into the first major combat set-piece the map keeps up the excellent standard of fight design.

 

I really like the aesthetics here, the green slime really pops compared to the wooden and metal structure and serves as an incredibly readable and obvious indicator during combat that it's damaging. There are a lot of instances where you're attacked on two sides, requiring you to push through the monster horde with the BFG to more ammo, but never safety. Archviles are used to block off sight lines very well in two of the horseshoe shaped arenas and these were my favourite two fights in the map.

 

The finale drops you into a slime pit with a few cyberdemons and a big pack of enemies. I had trouble with this fight, I initially tried to take out the archvile but kept getting killed by the cybers. Eventually I managed to find the radsuit, which helped a ton and allowed me to clear the fight very soon after I got it. I think this was the perfect choice to end off Haste, it's not the hardest map in the wad, but it perfectly encapsulates the creativity and interesting fight design that defines this wad for me.

 

MAP17 - Thanks for Playing by Insane_Gazebo:
Instead of a credits map as in MSCP, this map serves more as a stopping point so you're not just dumped into Tenements after finishing Haste. Looks cool, and the Crumpets midi fits it.

 

Overall Thoughts on Haste:

Haste is absolutely fantastic. I don't like every map in it, but as a package it just comes together excellently. Every author's style absolutely comes through in their maps for the wad - be it Scotty's small scale, non-linear intensity, Insane_Gazebo's grand architecture and fights, Nirvana's unconventional designs, Benjogami's surrealism, Bemused's harsh intensity or Ribbiks' self-aware insanity. This is my favourite thing about Haste, there's a real sense of personality that comes through in these maps that I sometimes feel is lacking from wads I've played recently.


Haste is the wad that cemented my love for modern slaughter and combat puzzley maps, it has all of the substance of challenging maps (that being the excellent fight design) with none of the fat that comes from the more common larger maps. If you're not enjoying a map, you can at least take solace in the fact that it's short and that keeps me wanting to continue playing and see what's coming next. I just wish there was more of it, though I think that the difficulty scaling and final couple of maps are pretty much perfect and there's nothing wrong with something leaving you wanting more. As I said at the start of my write-ups for Haste, it was my favourite wad of 2021, and this replay has definitely reminded me why.

 

If I had to compare Haste to MSCP, I would definitely say that Haste is the overall better set of levels - there aren't any duds like in MSCP and I think the best maps here are better than anything in MSCP. However, MSCP does have a significant advantage in that it's a far better introduction to the genre. It's shorter and more bitesize levels are also much more binge-able, I played Haste mostly to the days that I was writing about the maps, whereas I had finished MSCP before the 5th. I think both of these wads are fantastic and I would highly recommend them to anyone, even those who prefer a more classic-style of map.

 

Top 5 Haste Maps:

Map10 - The Green Mind by Nirvana

Map08 - The Cradle by Insane_Gazebo

Map15 - Tell Me More by Ribbiks

Map04 - Floodplain by Scotty

Map16 - Sepia by Bemused

 

Overall Rankings for Haste:

Spoiler

Really Liked: MAP04, MAP06, MAP07, MAP08, MAP10, MAP15, MAP16
Liked: MAP01, MAP02, MAP03, MAP13, MAP31
Mixed Opinions: MAP05, MAP11, MAP14
Didn't Like: MAP09, MAP12

 

Unranked: MAP17

 

Oh, and if I had to group the wads together for a Top 5:

Haste Map10

MSCP Map08

Haste Map08

Haste Map15

MSCP Map09

 

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Played with pistol-starts on UV on DSDA-Doom

 

Map 16: Sepia

 

Twisted fortress in a sea of poison. This map and the map 11 are the most slaughtery in the set. This one has a lot of really fun fights, especially the one in the long tunnel, the horseshoe one and the final fight. The map promotes a very agressive playstyle that I enjoy and has a heavy usage of the BFG, which I also really like. It has slightly confusing layout, but the progression is also really cool, with how it loops around. I love the slightly tilted architecture, with odd angles and a lot of windows to future fights. The music is absolute great. The map doesn't really feel like a final map of a set, it doesn't really have any huge end of a wad fight in the end (not that this is that much of a problem, it is my favourite map in Haste). Really loved this one.

 

I wish the map 17 was couple of times larger, would look better with larger scale

 

Final thoughts on Haste:

 

Really good set of maps, quality wise even the ones that I liked the least are good. There are some maps that I founded somewhat annoying, but even those had really interesting and fun aspects. It is pretty interesting what I ended up liking in the end. At the start I thought that I would like especially Nirvana's, Gazebo's and Ribbiks's maps and that I wouldn't really vibe with Scotty's and Archi's ones. In the end I ended up not really liking Nirvana's or Ribbiks's maps as much as I espected, and I enjoyed Scotty's and Archi's maps way more than I espected. It also came to me as a complete suprise that Bemused's maps were my absolute favourites. Really liked this set (especially the top 7), it absolutely deserved the cacoward it got.

 

My rankings:

Spoiler

1: Sepia

2: Athenaeum

3: The Cradle

4: Concrete Vice

5: Wanderlust

6: Floodplain

7: Hibernation

8: Tell Me More

9: Thrown to the Wolves

10: Rotting Under the Foot of Time

11: The Green Mind

12: Infinium

13: Firebug 

14: Magma Templum

15: The Wheelhouse

16: Snoutish Pug Nose 

17: The Barbican





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MAP15: Tell Me More

By Ribbiks
Kills: 92%

Items: 81%

Secrets: 0%

Time: 12:40

 

Tell Me More is amazing, I love this map, the layout, the visuals, the everything, absolutely wonderful, not even going to delay saying that, it's potentially got the smartest monster placement of the entire wad, the MIDI and map name almost imply this was some kind of Italo-reject, but I think it beats anything in that wad, the highlights are definitely the start and the end, I think the damaging floor is used exceptionally well here, as an obstacle but not obnoxious, and after you hit the switch by the BFG prepare for a mass of Arch-Viles, I suggest saving your BFG ammo for later on, get them infighting and/or rocket if you can, the 2nd area does manage to stay tense the entire time, hunting for the keys up top and never quite being out of the way of danger, it's great, this is why I suggested saving BFG ammo, I didn't initially so I had to go back, chances are you won't have quite enough rockets or shells to deal with the hordes of demons here, this map was already excellent but probably one of my favourite fights in the entire megawad comes at the end, a flaming horde of Imps, Hell Knights, Cyberdemons and whatever else, this fight presents an absolutely incredible balance of spectacle and difficulty, the walls lowering, that evil map smile, it's all incredible, Tell Me More is near-peak Haste content, the layout is amazing, it stays kinetic and upbeat the whole time, and the monster placement is incredible, 10/10 map right here

 

Grade: A+

Difficulty: X-

 

 

 

MAP31: Hibernation

By Bemused & Insane_Gazebo

Kills: 100%

Items: 100%

Secrets: 100%

Time: 2:55

 

There's not a boatload of words to be said here I will admit, this map is effectively just a few fights, after dragging the Barons out of their hole, prepare to pick up a BFG and duel with a mass of Revenants, Pain Elementals and Arch-Viles, there's not much strategy I will admit, just kinda don't die lmao, but I do really like this fight, it's almost a chill-pill from the lengthy odysseys we've gone through the last few maps, and I dig the visuals, kinda Lost Civilization-y funny enough?

 

Grade: A

Difficulty: A+

 

 

 

MAP16: Sepia

By Bemused

Kills: 98%

Items: 86%

Secrets: 0%

Time: 13:37

 

There is so much going on in Sepia, I don't know where to begin, I can't imagine a more fitting conclusion to a megawad like this, lots of variety here, there's Imp and rocket launcher, Revenant and BFG, medieval torture, it's all here! With a monster count over 4 digits, let it be known you won't leave this fortified wooden stronghold over a toxic sea of poison easily... there were several moments that looked like they were going to be "the fight" here,  but first I really really really like the architecture here, Bemused's sharp lines, height variation and lighting is absolutely beautiful here, there's not really a most notable fight, all of them are extremely good, I think my favourite is the Doomguy sandwich on Revenant, Imp and Hell Knight bread, I suggest getting at the Revenants right away with the BFG, that's what works for me, I also like the delightfully cruel Arch-Vile chamber and the last fight of the entire megawad, a dramatic pit that drops in various Revenants, Hell Knights, Cyberdemons and shockingly only one Arch-Vile, keep calm and BFG, I think it's safe to say Sepia absolutely knocks it out of the park, it's a delightful ending to Haste that presents everything it stands for wonderfully :)

 

Grade: A+

Difficulty: X

 

 

 

MAP17: Thanks For Playing

is a nice little flower-shaped room with a cool MIDI, nice

 

 

 

- FINAL THOUGHTS -

 

Y'know I was actually wrong in the Beluga Sanctuary post, I initially presented Haste as this pretty off-beat, inconsistent and generally strange wad, because that was the impression I received from the first six maps, but to my surprise it ended up actually more balanced overall! Both MSCP and Haste are excellent wads, even just for their incredible concepts, I love this idea of small slaughter maps, it's SO cool, MSCP overall is probably prettier, generally more refurbished and "mainstream" than the other, but I think it has more duds to be honest, Haste on the other hand is amazing! There are SO many strong maps here, when your weakest map is "pretty good" you have the stuff of legends among you, I love the unconventionality of it, that rawness, I think it all ties extremely well :), my final grade for MSCP is an A, it's a wildly entertaining mapset with swagger and thrills, everyone should play it, especially those not well acclimated to slaughter! As for difficulty, let's say A-, it's a pretty rocky road when it comes to this, overall it's pretty smoky but nothing super serious as a whole, for Haste? Well I didn't think it would get this far, but it's getting an A+, I absolutely love this wad, it's concise, enjoyable, beautiful and insane, everything I love in a wad, not much else to it! As for difficulty, we can say A+, Haste mostly peaks out early on and stays very consistent on the difficulty until act 3, still a rocky road but probably more consistent than MSCP

 

Whole playthrough

 

Now for the grand ranking!

 

Micro-Slaughter:

Spoiler

14: Crippling Legion :)
08: The Three Kings
13: Technocratic Terror
17: Beluga Sanctuary
09: October Skeleton Appreciation
03: Cherry Blossom
02: Viridescent Synapse
15: Sanguine
06: Slaughter Factory
11: Team Rocket Slaughter
01: Fire In Your Eyes
31: Duel
04: Floody Hell
05: Marble In The Blood
12: Crossroads Of Destruction
07: Tarnished Luster
10: Metal Head

 

Haste:

Spoiler

13: Rotting Under The Foot Of Time :)
16: Sepia
15: Tell Me More
10: The Green Mind
14: Athenaeum
06: Concrete Vice
04: Floodplain
01: The Barbican
31: Hibernation
07: Magma Templum
08: The Cradle
12: Thrown To The Wolves
02: The Wheelhouse
09: Infinium
11: Wanderlust
05: Firebug
03: Snoutish Pug Nose

 

Total month ranking:

Spoiler

Haste 13: Rotting Under The Foot Of Time :)
MSCP 14: Crippling Legion
Haste 16: Sepia
MSCP 08: The Three Kings
Haste 15: Tell Me More
Haste 10: The Green Mind
MSCP 13: Technocratic Terror
Haste 14: Athenaeum
Haste 06: Concrete Vice
Haste 04: Floodplain
MSCP 17: Beluga Sanctuary
Haste 01: The Barbican
MSCP 09: October Skeleton Appreciation
MSCP 03: Cherry Blossom
MSCP 02: Viridescent Synapse
Haste 31: Hibernation
Haste 07: Magma Templum
Haste 08: The Cradle
MSCP 15: Sanguine
Haste 12: Thrown To The Wolves
Haste 02: The Wheelhouse
MSCP 06: Slaughter Factory
MSCP 11: Team Rocket Slaughter
Haste 09: Infinium
MSCP 01: Fire In Your Eyes
MSCP 31: Duel
Haste 11: Wanderlust
Haste 05: Firebug
Haste 03: Snoutish Pug Nose
MSCP 04: Floody Hell
MSCP 05: Marble In The Blood
MSCP 12: Crossroads Of Destruction
MSCP 07: Tarnished Luster
MSCP 10: Metal Head

 

Edited by NiGHTS108

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MAP31: "Hibernation" by Bemused ("original") and Insane_Gazebo ("texturing")

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 0/0 secrets

 

The secret map is a lush green forest arena, very un-vanilla looking compared to other maps. Love the gigantic trees on the exterior of the arena, and the arena itself is this cool star shape. Definitely a real looker on the automap. This one is a very short one, just two short slaughters in this arena. The first one is probably the trickier one in my opinion. The main obstacles are a large group of barons that clog up the relatively small arena. On one of the star points are a huge amount of archviles, and many of my deaths were taken to straying into their sights accidentally. Another star-point holds a few cyberdemons, who are also a big threat. This one requires having a lot of awareness of your surroundings while being able to thin down the baron numbers, or have the cyberdemons help do for you. The second fight is a bit simpler, a giant revenant horde with some cyberdemons and pain elementals. A good old BFG spammy, move in a U shape and melt the revenants until you have enough room to circle strafe. There is another group of archviles on a ledge to be careful of though. After everything is dead, take care of the archies BEFORE hitting the switch to lower the exit. Much easier that way.

 

Beautiful looking map, and it's a fun and tricky little diversion.

 

MAP16: "Sepia" by Bemused

UV, pistol start, saves

99% kills, 0/1 secrets 

 

A rusted metal and wooden structure, full of green damaging liquid. And I do mean full, you'll find yourself stewing in nukage quite a lot in this one. The structure is also surrounded by a vast ocean of the stuff, and there are archviles in the map that are happy to give you a nice glimpse of it by blasting you straight out of the area! Very cool looking map in any case, as with many maps in the set the architecture is very on point and really makes the most of the vanilla textures. The midi is a nice one, quiet but intense. Fits this being the last true level nicely.

 

Oof, I did two runs of this one because I got my clock cleaned so thoroughly in the first one due to some poor resource management on my part. My second run went way smoother, still not sure how I found myself so starved for cells in the first run. My first run had me sure this was the most difficult map in the set, but the second time around it's a tough call (but definitely up there). You start off in a nukage-filled arena, with revenants on the ledge by the ammo, imps and hell knights ready to shoot you from above, and pinkies ready to clog up the area. You just have both shotguns and a chaingun to start, so it can seem overwhelming, but clearing it out isn't so bad. Take out the revenants as quickly as possible and allow the pinkies to swarm you, then do a rhythmic rotating motion so their bites miss you as you SSG them. Things can get pretty tight, but it's not so challenging. Then you can chaingun the imps and go up to the hell knights to SSG them. You then get the rocket launcher and can drop into the next arena. 

 

When entering here, I grab the megasphere, then sprint for all the rockets, then go up the stairs in the opposite direction. The turret monsters in this area are the priority, the mancubus usually starts infighting with some revenants, so you can take care of the other group of revenants and the arachnotron before getting to them. Then I drop down and get rid of the caco, and start rocketing the big horde of weak monsters. Once that's all done, you can work your way to cleaning up the rest. I save the cyberdemon for later though, you'll get a BFG and two shots to give him a try now, but he's easier to just leave alone for the time being. The next fight you drop into is triggered by a switch, and opens with a group of imps on one side of you and hell knights on the other. Start rocketing the weak imps first and then, after a few seconds, the wall behind them lowers to reveal revenants. I switch to the BFG as they start coming out, pick up some cells, shoot them once or twice and then grab the megasphere and force my way through the hordes in the opposite direction. Once you make it past everything the rest is simple enough, take out the rest as well as the cybies after you lower them down. You will want to save one of the megaspheres for after you've killed everything though, because the next fight is a brutal one.

 

This one drops you right in the thick of things. A cyberdemon on ledge with an army of imps and hell nobles to your left. Turning the other way you'll be greeted by a big group of a skeletons. This is the fight that took me the most tries to pin down, and even after coming up with a strategy I still really need to play well in order to execute it. Basically you want to completely ignore the imps here and head straight for the revenants at the start. Start spamming the BFG at them while trying to avoid their rockets as best as you can. You will inevitably catch some as well as take damage from the nukage in the arena, so once things start getting dodgy run back and grab the megasphere, and try to pick up cells as well. Now, you will want to run back to the revs, who will all be grouped together on the right side, so you will go left and spam BFG at them. Give yourself enough room to kind of make a round motion toward the left wall and back the other way so the ball of homing missiles doesn't hit you, and then go back to the imp horde to break up the ball of revenant missiles among the imps. Then repeat this until you are able to get behind the revenants safely, and finish them off from behind. Now get rid of the pesky archvile in that area with rockets, and you can watch as the hell nobles rip the cyberdemon apart before rocketing them and the other two archviles as well. Make sure you find the secret switch here hidden behind the regular switch near the two archviles. It's nice to have for later! You can go pay that other cyberdemon a visit after this fight as well before progressing to the next fight.

 

The next stretch of the map is pretty simple. For the next fight with the crushers and nukage, I just BFG my way onto the hell knight platform and then take out the flyers easily. After this one, the next fight is cramped, but not so tough. I just BFG my way through the chaingunners and behind the barons, and then get the cybie as he infights the revenants. In hindsight, going through the pinkies is probably smarter, but this way worked just fine for me. The ensuing red key fight is another easy one, just one BFG ball is fine to take care of most of the enemies (zombiemen, revenants, pain elementals), then I rocket the rest from near the switch. The pain elementals have a lot of trouble hurting you here because the goodies on the ground trip up the lost souls. The next fight is a bit tougher then these ones though. After hitting a switch, a mancubus appears on the platform behind you as revenants and hell knights come in for the pincer attack, and a ton of archviles appear in the middle platform. If you stick close to the switch you can rocket the mancubus without waking up the revenants, so I do that. Then I give the revenants a few rockets, grab the megasphere, and then BFG my way through them. Then I rocket all the hell nobles, then the archviles, and the cyberdemon that appears if you go far enough to the back of the revenant side can be BFG'd. You can now leave this stretch of the level.

 

The final fight is triggered by the red key switch. I kill the cyberdemon guarding it, but then I go to the area that was triggered by the secret switch earlier. You can now do this easy secret fight and grab the goodies, including an invulnerability. Then, sprint back to the red key switch and hit it. I did this fight both with and without invulnerability, and without it the nukage covering the entire arena can be very annoying to deal with. For as populated as the fight is though it doesn't require a whole lot of strategizing apart from stocking on resources correctly and making sure you get that radsuit. The invuln trivializes things greatly, you have time to put a hefty dent in the ranks and then grab the radsuit. Either way it's a nice fight, although I prefer the somewhat more puzzly nature of the earlier fights I think.

 

Great map and nice closer to the wad. Definitely confirms I need to play more of Bemused's work, I really love their combat design. I'm not quite as in love with this one as MAP14, but was still an awesome play.

 

MAP17: "Thanks for Playing" by Insane_Gazebo

UV, pistol start, no saves

N/A kills, 0/0 secrets

 

It was my pleasure!

 

Final Thoughts: If my overlong writeups didn't make it obvious, this month really taught me that I especially enjoy writing about slaughtery maps, I definitely had a lot of fun with this month's crop of maps. Haste was a really nice set to play right after MSCP, because this wad really feels like a "next step on the path" for people getting into slaughter. If you've gotten your feet wet with MSCP, or maybe something like Rush, this set feels like a logical next playthrough for someone trying to immerse themselves in the genre. It's an overall more challenging experience than those previous wads, but is mostly still pretty accessible in the difficulty department. The first 9 maps especially provide the thrills without really pushing the difficulty to too much of an extreme. Despite being overall harder than MSCP, I still didn't find anything to be as difficult as MAP14 of MSCP though, man that's a tough one. Also a note on the visuals, I really enjoyed the mileage the mappers got out of using predominantly vanilla textures in so many of these maps. It's tough to really make these old textures feel fresh, but this wad succeeded quite nicely in that regard. Definitely a very skilled and respected group of mappers worked on this, and it shows everywhere. Very fun set.

 

As for my favourite maps in Haste:

 

MAP14: My overall favourite map played this month. It's a big challenge, but man this one was a grand slam. Every fight in this thing just felt so fun, and I absolutely loved the aesthetic.

MAP06: Ironically one of my favourite looking maps in the set despite using a set of textures I tend to feel "eh" about. I_G really flexed the architectural talents here. The fights were also very exciting of course.

MAP05: Between the midi and the odd surreal visuals, I love the aura this map exudes. It also gets a lot of mileage out of relatively few monsters, and is quite a unique experience.

MAP12: I'm mentioning visuals a lot, but this is another gem in that regard, love the dark and brooding atmosphere here. The difficulty of the fights was also very my tempo too, so from a subjective standpoint it's nicely up my alley. 

MAP16: Obviously just wrote about it above, but a great and challenging closer, a perfect way to cap off the month.

 

 

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Haste Map31 - Hibernation by Bemused and Insane_Gazebo

UV, 100% kills, no secrets

 

Visually stunning forest map, with some amazing 3d trees and beautiful textures, something I don't think I ever played before in Doom! It's very small, almost a single "arena", but full of monsters. The funny thing about this map is how I first beat it pacifist! I simply slapped and lured away barons layer by layer, infighting to one of cybies to keep them busy, then after pressing a switch, yeah it took some saves, but running around the crowd enough makes it possible to both take the key and press the final switch, after which just run past archies and press the exit. Anyway, funny but a boring way to beat this, second playthrough I just annihilated everything which is much more satisfying and takes less patience to achieve! Overall, fun and beautiful little map.

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3 hours ago, Scotty said:

I am also finding that the community desire to rank and compare maps and mappers is something that i do not personally enjoy being the subject of anymore

I personally dislike rankings and never use them. I try not to directly compare maps and mappers, and although I end up liking some maps more than others (something inevitable of course) I always try to point out an aspect that I do like, or an appreciation for what was attempted, even in maps that I don't personally like. If it's any consolation, I'm a pretty casual Doom player and do not enjoy slaughter or "combat puzzle" or challenge maps normally, but when I played Haste for the DWMC the only one of your maps I had to give up and cheat on was MAP12. It's the only one that gave me more mixed feelings, while I ended up liking all the others. If you're making maps in a particular style, and someone who is not even the target audience enjoy 80% of your output (and even enjoys parts of the rest), I'd say that's a pretty good indication of quality!

 

Thanks for everything you did for Haste. It's not even the usual style I like to play yet I still had a lot of fun with most of it, and there's no denying the craft that went into every part of it.

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5 hours ago, Scotty said:

Perhaps just anonymously dumping things on idgames is the way :D

Pls, don't do that, I wanna play more of your stuff.

 

I myself definitely enjoyed all of your Haste maps and Floodplain was absolutely incredible. The whole wad was pretty inspirational. Big thanks for the maps!

 

Also really facinating to hear that the bonus maps from Event Horizon were originally for this project.

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22 hours ago, Scotty said:

Perhaps just anonymously dumping things on idgames is the way :D


I hope you don’t do that. I need to be able to find your maps so I can play them. I really liked map31 of Fractured Worlds and want to play more of your maps in the future.

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