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

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

MAP01: "The Barbican" by Scotty 

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 0/0 secrets 

 

The first map of Haste brings a blood red fortress, with the outdoor area having non-damaging lava and cliffs with dead trees. It's heavy on the vanilla textures, so already looking quite different from the previous set. True to the set's mission statement, it's a compact level with two very short branching paths at the start that give you each key, and meet up at the switches to use them on. The final fight being behind the starting area.

 

We start off with mostly smaller scale fights here that make you deal with the map's relatively small amount of space and ammo resources. The chaingun and rocket launcher, and later the shotgun, are what you'll be taking through most of this map. There is a berserk at the start which you'll likely want to use to deal with lots of the revenants. The final fight can be quite an intimidating sight for a beginning map, but isn't so bad at all. The cyberdemon mixes it up with the barons quite easily and you can take care of the imps and revenants on the sidelines without too much hassle once that starts happening. Just keep moving around the perimeter and don't wander into the crushers. The map isn't super tough overall, but it's definitely a bigger challenge than your average first map.

 

So far, off to a good start.

[Alaxzandarz]

Played with pistol-starts on UV on DSDA-Doom

 

Haste

 

So couple of things I want to say about this set before getting to the fitst map. I really love that this wad uses a lot of iwad textures. Most combat puzzle maps heavily use custom textures so it is nice to see maps with mostly vanilla look in the genre. Also I find it interesting that this set shares five of the six mappers from Flotsam. Because of that I sorta see these two as being linked together in a weird way.

 

Map 01: The Barbican

 

Starting of with a hell fort. Nice semi-tyson action in this one. Ammo is sorta tightish. I like that you can trigger most of the fights when you want and they are not just thrown at you. The double archvile fight is mean if you wasted your rockets. I hate that the map has non-damaging lava. The final fight is imposing, but enjoyable and suprisingly easy. Visually I like how the map looks, I would describe it as clean and deliberately simple. I really love the usage of the DORED texture. It's one of my favourite TNT textures. It's a fun map.

 

[cannonball]

MAP01 - “The Barbican” by Scotty

 

Well this is certainly tougher than the opening of MSCP, resources are pretty tight, meaning the berserk will required, notably on the first of your two treks to collect keys. The second trip should be easier as the earlier berserk usage should leave you with sufficient ammo to deal with everything. The eastern section is the hardest by quite a margin with the archvile thrown into the mix. You do have sufficient cover (Though there is a clear issue with potential softlocking I believe if you squander your bullets. The western section is easier with just a small number of monsters in a tight space. I got a weird issue when flicking the two switches that required keys, one of the archviles didn't teleport in for some time and caught me out (Not sure what the issue was there). The ending is quite nasty, however some light footwork and clearing the monsters on the ledges to allow safe passage around the perimeter is all you need and the rest should slaughter/crush itself. 

A solid opener and sends a message that this wad will not be a walk in the park.

[Book Lord]

MAP 02 – The Wheelhouse by @Insane_Gazebo

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

 

I have never played a map by Insane_Gazebo, not even the first chapters of Sunder. I am not the guy to look for slaughter maps, even though I enjoy large-scale arenas from time to time. The release thread informed that difficulty levels had been implemented, and while this might be true for easy skills, I feel a bit duped after choosing Hurt Me Plenty. It led to almost the same experience with minimal monster changes and the same item placement, but I hope it will save me some extra pain in later maps, as disclosed by the project leader himself.

Spoiler

The Wheelhouse referred to the level hub, a grandiose flower-shaped hall with four doors, leading to the side areas. Three doors were open and led to smaller set pieces, each one ending with a skull key pickup. I proceeded clockwise from the locked door, firstly collecting the BSK from the smallest of the arenas, which I also recall as being the hardest due to the limited space. I did not realise how to properly gain the secret Berserk pack, but I was able to strafe jump to it. The next area contained the RSK and was the only one where the HMP setting mattered, as it removed a nasty Arch-Vile and even left the southern platform empty, thus reducing the attack fronts to consider. The YSK was protected by the highest number of monsters, but there was enough space to evade them and promote infighting, notwithstanding the looming Mancubi and the patches of damaging floor.

Spoiler

The final showdown was on another degree of insanity. The arena was big and unfriendly, with numerous environmental hazards to cope with, while a hundred of monsters were released at the same time. I have no problem dealing with such numbers of Revenants and Hell Knights; the five Cyberdemons were my gravest concern, as they tended to concentrate on me even with all those projectiles flying around. I tried the encounter many times before succeeding, and most of my deaths were caused by stray rockets hitting me, or even being caught by one of those devilish crushers. A pure slaughter experience, not something I really look forward to. Extremely competent and ominous to look at.

 

Time: 13:19    Deaths: 12

[Bobby :D]

MAP01 - “The Barbican” by Scotty 

Scotty's forte in the slaughter scene is his dedication to scope and spectacle; gargantuan behemoths both in combat in architecture, as seen in works like Criticality. For 2021, his focus on small, compact and concise mapping underscores the trend of the past few years of a split in the scene for Sunder-level butcher shop constructs vs. a more plutonic focus on map design. The Barbican as the opener of Haste explores the concessions of a smaller design in it's ability to drive "punchier"; combat is a semi-tyson bloodbath of crimson popcorn doom set in an equally striking viscera laden landscape. The fork design of the map contrasts 2 subsistence encounters, one shooty, one punch-a-tootey, with one final encounter that foreshadows the WAD's erratic tendencies to let rockets fly. Difficulty remains moderate, the overwhelming appearance of each encounter is doubled by it's dismal backdrop. Those in tune with this levels more accessible form of explosive encounter design and expressive setpieces and architecture will be happy to know that they can look forward to more of the same from Scotty.

[brick]

Still on GZDoom in Truecolor Software, Boom compatibility, ITYTD, continuous with saves, blind.

 

Haste MAP01 - "The Barbican" by Scotty
Yep, I'm still here. Some people never learn.
Or maybe I did learn some tricks, since I seem to be having a much easier time here than I did starting MSCP. That might just be Easy here being easier than in MSCP, even though the wad is probably much harder on Hard.
I found ammo very tight and had to really pay attention (and even berserk punch at a point), something I haven't seen much in slaughterwads. The monster count is relatively low, and most of the fights are manageable. Surprisingly none of the floors are damaging, not even the lava; thank you Scotty! I like how the various sections of the map are all open to each other and you can see what's ahead and where you've been. All in all I liked this one and it's a pretty good warmup map.

 

Haste MAP02 - "The Wheelhouse" by Insane_Gazebo
The opening room looks great, though I think some of the prettiness of the ceiling is lost on those without mouselook. You go into 3 small arenas getting the keys, with fights that are more Hell Revealed than slaughter, though the 4th and last section definitely goes there. In all cases the gameplay is very cramped and claustrophobic, which I'm not a huge fan of. Ironically I got stuck after the last fight, trying to find the 2nd switch, and had to look it up in DB. I just did not see that side passage no matter how many times I passed by it.

[RonnieJamesDiner]

MAP02: The Wheelhouse, by Insane_Gazebo

DSDA, pistol start, HNTR and UV

 

Here we go! The Wheelhouse wastes no time picking up where The Barbican left off, trusting that I learned a thing or two about situational awareness, and eliminating much of the resource scarcity in exchange for bigger, bloodier battles – the contrast was immediately appreciated. I always love the RL/SSG combo, and loading up with rockets and shells as I charged from one skull key arena to the next – like three delicious appetizers – was good fun. Encounters seemed to provide a bit more room to move and time to think, on HNTR, with the jump to UV really beginning to raise the monster count, and reinforce the idea of crowd control. Safe to say, there was plenty of satisfying carnage to be found on either end of the difficulty spectrum.

 

And then, the main course hit the dinner table like a big, bubbling bowl of demon soup. As the premier “giant wave of monster closets” setpiece of the project, and that sweet, sweet introduction of slot 7, this just hit the right notes for me. In similar fashion to the finale of MAP01, my run on HNTR seemed to work just fine with blind panic, while my attempts on UV found me bumping headfirst into a wall before I finally stopped to put my thinking cap on. Eventually, I began swinging like a pendulum between the Revenants and Hellknights, using the Manc platform to shield myself against the Cyberdemons, firing the BFG when necessary, and simply waiting until the room had condensed into a moshpit towards the middle. At that point, the larger space opened up for me to safely access the pocket of Cell ammo, and begin operation clean up.

 

I really enjoyed finding a consistent UV route for the final arena, and I seemed to come away from each encounter in The Wheelhouse with a big, goofy grin on my face. I think the most cruel thing to be found here were the 20 health bonuses inconveniently individually placed in each and every point of the star-shaped hub room (stares motherfuckerly at IG). Beautiful map!

Edited April 16, 2022 by RonnieJamesDiner

[Jacek Bourne]

On 4/14/2022 at 9:38 PM, Bauul said:

MSCP 2

 

Will you accept tyson slaughter?

[RHhe82]

MAP02: The Wheelhouse. HNTR, PS, 171/171 kills, 1/1 secrets, 29/44 items. Comp. time 10:45 (precisely the same as MAP01!).

 

So, I got back to Haste MAP02 only after completing MSCP. I remembered the hardships of MAP01, and also the hardships I had on some of MSCP maps. Haste is the ”intermediate” map. That said, The Wheelhouse on HNTR wasn’t so bad. I wouldn’t want to complete this saveless, but the fights (with the exception of the final arena) felt almost tame.

 

In that sense, The Wheelhouse follows the pattern of The Barbican. The first arenas serve as warm-up, and the final arena is a difficulty spike within a level. I don’t know if MSCP prepared me for this, but I found the final battle, although clearly more difficult than the rest of the level, rather enjoyable despite dying a few times (but: no midfight saves!). Whatever the case, I think the end fight is easier than in MAP01. Cramped quarters slaughter doesn’t suit me that well.

 

I love the visual outlook of the level, although I think hardware acceleration makes it too bright. That aside, the level reminds of Sunlust and Sunder (latter of which I haven’t played at all), although my experience on modern pwads is limited.

 

No matter. The Wheelhouse is a great level, and I should play it on HMP as well. Some day.

 

-> And that day turned to be the same day. HMP was considerably harder, but what’s interesting is that in the smaller arenas difficulty doesn’t just increase enemy numbers, but enemy composition, as far as I could remember a couple of hours back in time.

 

I’m not sure how the final arena changed, I guess there were more revenants, and certainly there were more archviles revealed when pressing the switches. I also didn’t have enough cells to deal with the cyberdemons, and I had to finish them off with an SSG when everybody else was dead. This was harrowing, but in the end I prevailed without midfight saves!

 

MAP02: The Wheelhouse. HMP, PS, 229/229 kills, 1/1 secrets, 44/44 items. Comp. time 12:02.

[Nefelibeta]

14 minutes ago, Jacek Bourne said:

 

Will you accept tyson slaughter?

MSCP2: Death-Destiny Edition

 

(It would makes sense to make the sequel harder though)

[erzboesewicht]

Catching up with MSCP. Will finish it but I don't know if I have time for Haste.

 

UV with saves, trying to avoid mid-fight saves. Difficulty scale (Slaughter Edition): 1 - Doom2 MAP16; 3 - Plutonia MAP32/Speed of Doom MAP28 - 5 Alien Vendetta MAP26 - 7 Sunlust MAP30 - 10 Okuplok

 

MAP10: Metal Head by Walter Confetti

 

The second "nano-slaughter" map after MAP04 - like there, the only (mildly) threatening situation is the last fight. I like however that the map gives you two paths at the start: one with the SSG and one with the rocket launcher. The RL path is faster but also more risky due to the pinkies, although the cornering risk is low as you get a convenient teleporter to escape. The first three cyberdemons will be killed by the environment so don't waste rockets or plasma ammo on them (not that there was any scarcity in this map). Some chaingunner encounters at least prevent you to fall asleep. The blue key fight is the standout encounter and the only one with some real slaughter elements: after you achieve the initial (very basic) herding, the main danger here are the pain elementals due to the lost souls' ability to block you when you're close to a cybie or revenant missile. The aftermath with the archviles is easy as you can take them out from total safety. A breather map with good, but not outstanding visuals.

 

Difficulty: 2/10
Rating: 6/10

MAP11: Team Rocket Slaughter by Dragonfly

 

A very small map which is however pretty tricky due to to the high monster density. It's a herding and rapid weapon changing (BFG to rocket and vice versa) exercise, and above all in the latter part I'm pretty bad. So this map took me a lot of tries to succeed. I may however also employed a bad strategy: I tried first to carve a relatively secure hole with the BFG and then attacking the nobles with rockets from there; according to a walkthrough I saw later the approach to run in circles and start with rockets switching to the BFG for the noble waves may be much better. The noble waves begin light (with mostly HKs) with the baron density increasing with each wave. The last fight with the viles turned out to be the easiest. One interesting aspect is the question if leaving revenants alive is beneficial or not; they do definitively incite some infighting and can distract some of the nobles but also are dangerous as their projectiles can reach almost anywhere. Well balanced, basic but satisfying map.

 

Difficulty: 6/10
Rating: 7/10

 

MAP12: Crossroads of Destruction by Remmirath

 

We return to "freeform slaughter", the map is a relatively easy mix of MAP06 (not-too-choreographed bigger fights with some cover) and MAP10 (nano-slaughter). You first go through the biggest setpiece, which can be tricky to start, however the HP density is low. Then a series of smaller encounters follows, where some herding is very helpful. The most difficult part was the pain elemental/AV wave; first I tried to trigger it too early, but it's much easier if the revs and HK snipers are already dead as you then can concentrate to find the optimal rocketing spot. Some nice "nanoslaughter" bits were the surprise imp/manc/AV fight where I was once scratched to death, and the pinky herding exercise later with the two viles, although if you have enough cells left the latter is easy. Don't use the megasphere too early, later you'll find only one green armor.

 

Difficulty: 3/10
Rating: 8/10

 

MAP13: Technocratic Terror by Bridgeburner56

 

This map plays in a beautiful castle or fortress and its surroundings, with much purple used. It map starts with an easy prelude with imps, zombies and pinkies, followed by a beautiful outdoor part where you get two keys, but gameplay is still on "nanoslaughter" level. In one of my tries I went here on an exploration trip and got locked out of the map's playable area, but there's an inescapable damaging floor pit to provide a suicide mechanism. The blue key fight is a bit more threatening than the rest of the skirmishes if you get too sloppy and get burnt by the silent AV, but also easy. The keys give access to the main arena. The biggest challenge is the first fight because of the quantity of enemies from distinct classes which can block you, and the presence of Pain Elementals, but if you find the secret BFG you can simply mow everything down, and you can use all three megaspheres present in this area as there will be more later. So I would rate the fight even lower on difficulty than MAP11. The rest is easy if you don't eat a rocket: first a mix of HKs, two cybies, respawning mancubi and fodder which is almost entirely an infighting exercise, and then in the outskirts you'll have to mow down some revenants, two more cybies and at the exit proper six archviles. I may retry this map triggering both waves at once which should be even more exciting. Observation: You can kill some of the exit revenants from the blue key area with rocket splash damage which is quite fun. With exactly 1000 monsters it's the biggest map until now, but difficulty-wise it's average. This is, together with MAP06, my favourite map so far.

 

Difficulty: 4/10
Rating: 9,5/10

 

MAP14: Crippling Legion by Bdubzzz

 

Uh, this map. It was the hardest one until now, but strangely in my case not because of the last big fight - which was really fun and even pretty short - but due to the two "warmup" encounters. I went first for the blue key, which is an extremely cramped rocket/SSG fight with imps and revenants. The strategy which brought victory for me was to first rocket only the imps of one side leaving the revs alive, then break through, SSGing the remaining imps, and first U-strafe and then circlestrafe around the revenants while killing them with the RL. In the yellow key fight, I survived by savescumming (two mid-fight saves, hate to admit it) and pure luck, I think - I first rocketed the PEs, but I was always too slow and the AVs approached me so there was no cover by the big pillar anymore (only by the small pillars, but using these required too much precision for my skill level). So I finally YOLO straferan to the switch and back hoping for the zombiemen to distract the viles, and eventually it worked.

 

Well, so I tackled the last fight with the infinite BFG (didn't know this trick was possible with Boom, feels cool). It took me several tries but eventually I found a strategy which allowed me to progress almost consistently: first damage the mancubi a bit, then go to the revs/cacos, thin them out a bit too and hoping them to aggro the mastermind (which worked almost always, the mastermind was the smallest problem for me), and finally entering the mancubis' room. In the run where I finally won I had still 130/130 left so I could break out once more to create more chaos until taking the megasphere. Then I crossed to the weakest foe group - the rev/caco horde - and finally was able to carve a path around them to begin the circlestrafing. Then it was all cleanup. Due to a cybie's rocket I ate when almost everything was dead (D'oh!) I went down to +7 health and 0 armor and almost gave up, but it held. I had killed erroneously the rev group which fought the mastermind, so due to my extremely low health I killed her from _very_ far away with the slow "use the BFG ball like a rocket and hide behind a pillar" method :) Also killed the last archies from total safety, and it was done.

 

My impression of this map is mixed. I think in the first two fights RNG plays a too prominent role (at least for my skill level), and visually I didn't like it, too basic and square. But the last fight was really fun, so I was well entertained, and it's likely I'll replay this map eventually. Although due to the first two setpieces I don't know if I'll achieve a saveless run here, but I would like at least to savescum a bit less :)

 

Difficulty: 7/10 (about on par with Sunlust's God Machine, I think)
Rating: 7,5/10

Edited April 16, 2022 by erzboesewicht

[Jacek Bourne]

1 hour ago, Nefelibeta said:

MSCP2: Death-Destiny Edition

 

(It would makes sense to make the sequel harder though)

 

Death Destiny and Ribbiks are some of my favorite mappers with the latter being my absolute favorite.

[FragsBunny]

MAP01: The Barbican (100/100/100)

1.       Hell nobles slide around when moving

2.       Revenants are able to fly

3.       You will be attacked by the Specialists - Vengeance Lords!

 

This map… either it is naturally hard, or my head was not cool enough to finish it! I need to maintain my composure if I am to complete this set as a whole… As for the opening itself, I was given a rocket launcher with just 2 rockets, a chaingun, and a berserk pack – and while the opening is easy to clear with this set-up, I quickly found that I need to conserve as much ammo as possible. Don’t make the same mistake as I did by jumping down to one of the sides without picking the berserk first!

 

Even so, neither side was a good place to be – you have to fight revenants and cacodemons in both areas, and then either an arch-vile or pain elemental. All with just berserk and bullets! Sure, you’ll get a shotgun and more rockets once you’re done with at least one of two paths, but even then, rockets will be incredibly precious after collecting the two keys – otherwise, killing the two arch-viles in the following wave will be a long drag.

 

Finally, with the blue key in hand, its time to tackle the finale. It is another tough combat puzzle in an incredibly cramped space! You’ll be running from your life from Barons until you can make them to infight with the Cyberdemon – while clearing the trash mobs from the sides. Sure, crushers can do the dirty job for you, but drawing Cyberdemon fire away from you is more important than anything else, as even a stray rocket can deal splash damage to you! And only in the final arena you can finally grab the Super Shotgun, the best weapon to use in such areas!

 

If the previous mapset’s tradition was the Surprise Cyberdemon, then this time we have the Specialists. For some odd reason, they only spawned after everything else was dead. They consisted of:

1.       A flying zombieman

2.       A spectre with a damage shield

3.       A beefed Lost Soul

4.       A baron with hitscan attacks that also bleeds poison on hit

And those four will harass me for the rest of the set! Fortunately, only the baron poses a real threat. With a healthy ammo supply, they should be much more manageable on future levels compared to first one. But man, I can feel that this is going to be much tougher than Micro Slaughter!

[Yumheart]

Hello! I just wanted to say that I'm, unfortunately, dropping out for the rest of the month, which is a shame, because I was told that Haste is the even better-er wad of the two we're having this month. This is simply because I need to do a lot of stuff for school in the next few weeks, and I can't really afford to have the megawadclub as an additional source of stress, as fun as it is. I wish y'all a great time playing Haste!

[FragsBunny]

MAP02: The Wheelhouse (100/40/0)

1.       Pain elemental has increased movement speed

2.       Looking at pain elemental for too long burns the player

3.       Imp spawn with a small companion

 

We have a much better start, comparing to previous map – the SSG and RL are all I need to handle the key arenas – and they can be tacked in any order. The first arena is a congested fight against a pain elemental (which should be killed first), several revenants and hell knights. Given the available number of rockets, there is no need to make them infight.

 

The second arena puts you against a revenant, an arch-vile (again, first to kill), a pack of cacodemons and pair of arachnotrons. It is so hard to fire rockets when those puffballs are taking away your maneuvering space! And you have to watch out from two more arch-viles waiting in ambush as you go for the skull key.

 

The third fight is where the imp card started to kick in. Twice the number of imps, twice the slaughter! But the first targets should still be the revenant horde, as dodging homing missiles in an open arena is quite a hassle. There is also a switch that activates the crushers against the mancubi, but on an attempt where I pressed it, I blew myself off one of those crushers with a rocket when the arch-viles came in.

 

When I came to the final arena, I gleefully picked up the BFG, but my grin quickly subsided once the monster hordes where revealed. The megasphere should not be conserved before the encounter – once the slaughter starts, it will be very difficult to pick it back! It’s quite hard to escape the encirclement of revenants and hell knights – but once you blast your way towards the other side with cell packs, the rest of encounters can be completed with circlestrafe while you BFG the cyberdemons. But even that is hard when the brown sludge is damaging and distracting crushers are everythere! And there is obvious final arch-vile pack before we’re done.

 

The Specialist did not spawn at all, which might be a good thing. On a side note, those health bonuses scattered around the edges of the starting area only waste one’s time. And how you are supposed to pick up the berserk pack that is teasing you?

[finnks13]

MAP02 - The Wheelhouse by Insane_Gazebo:

DEATHS - 3
I'll get the obvious out of the way - god damn that ceiling in the hub looks sweet! As expected from basically anything Insane_Gazebo has worked on, this map looks fantastic. You have a choice of three fights that you can complete in any order, I started with the fight in the north western corner of the hub, and this is the smallest of the three, in both monster count and arena size. The north eastern arena contains a large number of imps that need to be dispatched quickly to carve a safer space to dodge the mancubus fireballs, this is probably my favourite of the three. The south western area was the easiest, as the ledge that an arachnotron spawns on is quite hard for monsters to get to so you're free to kill them all from above. They're all fun, and use the limited space well since you want to rocket stuff as much as possible, but the lack of space may lead to a lot of splash damage.

 

The finale hands out the first BFG of the wad and is contains the majority of the monsters in the level, I found the best strategy was killing the perched archvile as everything else slowly made their way to the centre of the arena, and then waiting for the cyberdemons to inevitably destroy everything, while trying not to eat too many rockets. I did die once when cleaning up the last cyberdemons, which was a real shame cause I was hoping to first try the map! This fight is very fun though, so I didn't mind redoing it a couple of times.

 

The arenas being slightly offset from the normal grid looked cool on the automap, but I'm not sure if it helped the gameplay as I found myself getting snagged on walls much more than was necessary. The archvile usage in this map is quite boring as they're incredibly predictable since some are released at the end of every fight and with the exception of the north western arena, they didn't really do much beyond being a small ammo tax. Overall though, I think this is a pretty great map, that looks fantastic.

 

RANKINGS:

Spoiler

Really Liked: 
Liked: MAP01, MAP02
Eh:
Didn't Like:

 

[Pseudonaut]

Haste Map02:
Many different solutions may exist for the fights here, they're great at not forcing you to do a particular thing. The yellow key room is a good example: you can prioritize killing the revenants since they're the most dangerous enemy, but you can also prioritize the imps to make space for yourself quickly. The fastest strat for max seems to be rocketing the imps to press the switch right away, starting the crushers as soon as possible (I didn't do this). There's also height variation everywhere, sometimes essentially a bumpy floor, sometimes not, and it's consistently interesting to move and fight in.

 

There was a weird problem with my strat for the blue key fight. At first this room seemed easy, but then I started facerocketing myself when there was apparently nothing in front of my face. I can only assume it had something to do with the pain elemental behind me.

 

I didn't take the time to figure out a consistent method for the final fight, just threw attempts at it and ended up maxing this map three times out of about 40 attempts, mostly dying on earlier fights. From what I've seen in various demos, it seems that there are multiple unique strategies that can work, and I appreciate that kind of depth. Awesome map.

 

 

Demos (two again):

has02.zip

[Gibbon]

I’ll have to skip MAP15 and MAP16 as both ran absolutely terribly on my Linux laptop.  We’re talking into the 10’s here.

 

From what I played of MAP15, it was damn hard even on skill 1.  I won’t really review it because I know this map isn’t my kinda thing at all.

 

MAP16 was pretty but the performance was awful.

 

Ill be onto Haste then.

[tonytheparrot]

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

Map 2: The Wheelhouse by Insane_Gazebo

100% kills, 54% items and  100% secrets

Time: 8:06

 

This is the first Insane_Gazebo entry in the set and I can guarantee that you won't forget about it. The detailing is jaw-dropping, the atmosphere mastered, the TNT:Revilution music perfect and the fights don't disappoint. The map is organized around a hub leading to 4 encounters, which gives it the shape of a... well, wheelhouse. I like to start with the arachnotron and cacos encounter, just kill the archie, dodge the cacos and spider plasma and ice the 2 archies guarding the key. The second one I like to play throws a few revs and hell knights, a pain elemental, and an archvile guarding the switch lowering the key, just kill the pain elemental and make some space for yourself. That room also has a dumb secret that requires you to jump through a fake wall after getting the blue key, giving you a berserk which you will probably never use as the health boost isn't necessary since each one of the first 3 fights contains a soulsphere and you probably won't punch anything. The last one of the first 3 fights has a horde of imps, revs and sniping mancubi, it's just crowd-control, then crush the mancubi (don't get pancaked too!), release the archies and take the key. The final fight requires all 3 keys and is my favorite. A BFG, an open area, an hidden archie, 5 cybers and lots of revs, hell knights, cacos, pain elementals, mancubi and imps, just some great BFG action. Then, finish off the last archies guarding the exit and you're done. This map is pretty, really fun, scored terrifically and represents along with map 1 a difficulty spike comapred to MSCP.
Footnote: It's a missed opportunity to use only 2 arachnos while the music is called “TaraNTulas” and was originally used on a map called Spider Colony, there should be more arachnos and some masterminds Gazebo!

 

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

 

Really like:

Map 2

Map 1

 

 

[Thelokk]

Haste MAP02 - The Wheelhouse by Insane_Gazebo

HMP / 100% kills / 1 secret

 

One of the many, many unpopular opinions I hold is that Sunder is, in fact, Insane_Gazebo's least interesting work. While the cultural and historical importance of that in-progress monument can't be denied, I also can't help but feel that Gazebo has, over time, pigeonholed themselves a bit in a formula of their own making, which I find to be increasingly hit and miss (yup, I'm looking at you, MAP20). On the other hand, their work outside of Sunder has been consistently good looking, mechanically perfect and, unlike their magnum opus, simply fun.

 

Haste is no exception, as it actually contains my favorite Gazebo map of all time. It's not this one, but The Wheelhouse is still a delightful romp that wouldn't have been out of place in MSCP. From a hub of delightfully intricate design, we are tasked to retrieve three keys from three separate mini-fights, all of them centered around negotiating micro-slaughter like horde of enemies in cramped spaces and based roughly around the same formula: trigger popups, get the key, trigger more popups. The fights are rather simple in planning and execution - I actually remember Insane_Gazebo mentioning on decino's channel that this was originally a speedmap of sort; if it is so, it's a damn good one.

Then, once we have all three keys, comes the final 'room', with I_G's signature crushers and a more wide open area that helps the fight feel like more proper slaughter. Then a bunch of archviles topping the cake, and we're out.

A very fun map overall, to whom I feel I can levy a single fault: the central room looks great, but it's essentially useless to the map's economy. Would have been nice to see it the stage of one final slaughter fight!

Edited April 16, 2022 by Thelokk

[NiGHTS108]

MAP02: The Wheelhouse

By Insane_Gazebo

Kills: 100%

Items: 38%

Secrets: 100%

Time: 8:49

 

This house keeps the wheel rolling! Unlike MAP01, this map is more relaxed and open, but still keeps the medium difficulty at this point, after admiring the gorgeously impressive hub room you start in you'll enter three rooms to leave, there's definitely a formula here to be honest, have the key locked behind bars when you enter for the first time, have a fight, then press a switch and some Arch-Viles enter the area and you can get the key, this works, sure, it is fun to play, but ends up with some parts of this map getting forgotten in my mind sadly, all you really need to know for these fights is the yellow key has Mancubi turrets, Imps and Revenants, the red key has Cacos and Arachnos, and the blue key has Revenants and Hell Knights, the final fight of this one is where the map shines however, you've got a mass of Hell Knights, Mancubi, Pinkies, Revenants, flying foes and Cyberdemons, I suggest not to go too far with the BFG here, at least in previous experience of this map there's less ammo than you think here and you'll need it for those Cyberdemons, just let them all infight and soon enough only the mecha-goats will remain, then hit two switches, one of them pretty well hidden, and mop up a gang of Viles and leave

 

Grade: B+

Difficulty: B

 

 

Edited April 16, 2022 by NiGHTS108

[Arwel]

Haste Map2 - The Wheelhouse by Insane_Gazebo

UV, 100% kills, 1 secret

 

Beautiful level with elegant dynamic layout and multiple independent fights, all sharing some minor structural similarities. The central hub is art, like many already mentioned, but combat rooms deserve just as much love, in my opinion. Systemic use of texture outlines and numerous subtle layout shifts create very unique look and feel. Main combat skill I've been practicing here is taking out top priority targets as fast as possible, which in these fights means getting rid of main threats and claiming enough room for further maneuver. Overall, great and unique map, memorable and highly replayable.

[cannonball]

MAP02 - “The Wheelhouse” by Insane_Gazebo

 

Well it is a hub where you require three keys from three rooms off the main hub to access the final fight. All of which contain a bespoke fight with slightly different threats. The one containing the only and rather pointless secret is the easiest. I killed the pain elemental immediately and sat back in his closet and pumped rockets into the revenants. The caco/spider wing was next, this one offered more of a fight as you need to kill the archvile before making enough space for you to move around. The final key room is by far the bloodiest with imps/revenants and the mancubi on the ledge. Again nothing major to deal with here. All three rooms unleash some archviles, which honestly don't provide much of a threat, which is somewhat surprising. 

The final fight looks intimidating, but once you get your bearings, the biggest threat I had was being slowly chipped away by the damaging floor. Again the final set of archviles really are not much of a big deal, even with six sprung at once.

It is a fun map, a rather simple layout but it feels very much like Insane Gazebo was letting the player ease into this megawad, even more so than Scotty's effort in The Barbican. Some odd choices and surprisingly ineffective archvile placement on the whole with the exception of the once included in the Caco/Arachnotron fight. 

Overall it is a map easy on the eyes, but perhaps not as thrilling as the opener, but we are talking a small amount here.

[General Roasterock]

Map02: The Wheelhouse

Haste02.zip

  If Haste has been able to do one thing, it's create fantastic imaginative locations. In the starting room, The Wheelhouse is beautiful, and putting the arenas on an angle is impressive on a technical level. My only problem is a preference I've had for a lot of the Gazebo catalogue; all of the fights are rooms comprised of overlapping quadrilaterals with groups of high tier monsters in closets. This causes a lot of his discography to bleed together in my head to the point where I don't even remember exactly what the fights in this map were made up of. The incredible layout is enough to separate the map from the mass of others in the world, but I'm unable to visualize them apart from each other outside of playing the map. It's an unfortunate downside to Gazebo's immaculate detail work as he approaches the limit of layering the lines on. 

  I did like the fights for the most part. No one is attempting to destroy my spirit yet, and seeing that this map had the potential to absolutely wreck its players, the artistic restraint is appreciated. Leaning on the Rocket Launcher for such closed off spaces encourages actually being smart with it. I wasn't a fan of the fact that the last fight turns this into BFG spam, but there's not enough cells to treat the fight mindlessly so it definitely is done intelligently. I saw the final Arch-Vile rush coming from miles away, mostly on account of the previous points, so that factored in to the map honestly being easier than The Barbican.

  Thank you Gazebo for keeping it short, and definitely sweet. 

 

Power Rankings:

Spoiler

1. The Wheelhouse
2. The Barbican

 

Month Power Rankings:

Spoiler

1. Technocratic Terror
2. Beluga Sanctuary
3. Sanguine
4. The Three Kings
5. Cherry Blossom
6. Slaughter Factory
7. October Skeleton Appreciation
8. The Wheelhouse
9. Fire In Your Eyes
10. The Barbican
11. Marble In The Blood
12. Viridescent Synapse
13. Duel
14. Crossroads of Destruction
15. Floody Hell
16. Tarnished Luster
17. Metal Head
18. Crippling Legion
19. Team Rocket Slaughter

 

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

MAP02: "The Wheelhouse" by Insane_Gazebo

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 1/1 secrets

 

It would hardly be a Gazebo map without a wowing visual moment, and man that hub room's ceiling looks cool. I love the general shape of the area too with its curved stairs, just a great little opening spot. The rest of the map also looks nice, Gazebo likes playing with the floor height variance a ton in the areas he constructs and it definitely gives things a unique feel. The midi is a Bucket track from TNT: Revilution, and it's a very good tune. Love the disorienting sound of those arpeggios. 

 

The first three fights can be taken in any order, and they give you each of the three skull keys. In my experience, red > yellow > blue is the order from most to least difficult so that's the order I went with. The red key fight does feature an archvile right on the ground and in the thick of things, but I actually found out taking down one of the arachnotrons first and using its area to camp was the approach that worked most often for me. From there you can rocket the caco horde and eventually get the archvile down. These fights are pretty forgiving with rockets, so if this results in you wasting some it's not the worst thing in the world. Each of these fights have a closing archvile or two, this one had two in a small closet. You can actually get them stuck and safely SSG them if you are quick enough. 

 

The yellow key fight is by far the busiest of the opening three fights, but it isn't so bad. It features a ton of imps, and from the getgo you should focus on blasting the imp groups with rockets so you have space to move around. The revenant homing missiles can be nasty here, but with the help of the soulsphere you should be able to tank some damage. The mancubis on the ledge can be saved for last, they aren't too much trouble in my experience. The closing two archies in this area teleport right down in the pit of monsters, so they can be a bit of a hassle. The blue key fight is the simplest one, rocket the pain elemental in from of you, then focus on the revenants, then the hell knights. There's just one closing archvile here, and you can again get him stuck with the SSG. The final fight is the biggest slaughter of the wad so far by quite a bit, and you get a BFG for it. It's not super hard really, but you do have to be mindful not to BFG spam too heavily, as it is possible to prematurely run out of shots if you're too wasteful. I focus on trying to make a dent in the revenants right away as the walls lower, then just try to carve out enough room to freely circlestrafe. Once I'm not feeling too pressured, I just stop attacking and let the cyberdemons infight everything. Then I have enough BFG shots to easily deal with both the cyberdemons and the final archvile wave.

 

Second map and I already had to practice a decent bit to beat it saveless, which probably doesn't bode well for me down the line, heh. This was a very good map in any case, had a lot of fun with it.

[RonnieJamesDiner]

MAP03: Snoutish Pug Nose, by Ribbiks

DSDA, pistol start, HNTR and UV

 

Ribbiks plays with the difficulty variations in some really fun ways here, and seemed to hold a lot of his punches on the lower skill. Even the intro corridor turned from an innocent warm-up, into an honest assessment of my dodging skills. I really dig the changes in the first arena though, shifting the Cyb from being locked into position on HNTR, to free-roaming on UV, with a neat trade-off that even swaps the teleport destination of the Imp horde on the lower setting. The whole opening felt like it was full of surprises, which was awesome.

 

The second arena hit me hard on UV, with the absence of some very key players allowing for my HNTR run to feel fairly quick and painless, by comparison. The new turreted Cyberdemon at the rear (or front?) of the arena on UV meant an ever-looming threat of rockets careening past me, and the fight now featured two of the most persnickety gaddang Arch-Viles I’ve encountered in recent memory, perched on a ledge in one of the monster closets (with a third AV just mucking about, stirring up trouble, tailing a healthy dollop of Revenants sent in to replace the Pinkys). Eventually... I managed to find a mostly consistent strategy, but that success seemed to rest mainly on quick, moment-to-moment decisions as everything unfolded. 

 

It felt great to beat this one on UV, and the shifts between difficulty settings were particularly fun. Fantastic level!

[Thelokk]

Haste MAP03 - Snoutish Pug Nose by Ribbiks

HMP / 100% kills / no secrets

 

Pretty good stuff! After a porting cyber sequence - a trick that never gets old in triggering that looming sense of dread - we have to deal with two death squads of revs and hk trying to pinch us from both sides of a cramped corridor, which eventually opens into the first arena of the map. A fairly easy one, as you're given a BFG and you can instigate a lot of infighting simply by circlestrafing, but wandering arachno bolts can still spell trouble. Be on the lookout!

The comes the meat of the map, a very large arena with plenty of ledges from which hell nobles can snipe you, and a variety of threats on ground level - don't uderestimate the pinkies, they can pin you into a corner and make short work of you. Some poor mancubus is tasked with guarding the exit pit: a thankless job, so I made sure to show my appreciation with a rocket to its face. Yes, I'm that nice of a doomguy.

Very good map, not on the level of The Wheelhouse maybe, but still better than The Barbican.

 

Also, is the map name a reference to the cyberdemon's face? I always thought it kind of looked like a pug from a frontal view...

[FragsBunny]

MAP03: Snoutish Pug Nose (99/100/100)

1.       Revenants fly back further when damaged

2.       Arch-vile can carry other monsters

3.       Mancubus are partially invisible

 

Those revenants are constantly taking my personal space! So why I don’t pick up the card that would make them scatter away? I must have received more than I asked, as I had to deal with then in my first fight! Had to use at least one BFG shot for a breather here. Following that is another horde of imps and other tough mobs, plus the Cyberdemon that was seen at the start joins the fun as well. It’s not that hard to create some space, but I still died at least once while learning the encounter. The BFG called again, but the amount of cells… Oh, I wish I would have saved them for the final fight…

 

And the final fight is more than brutal. The circlestrafing is nearly impossible with the damaging floor on the side. The only seemingly good strategy is to push towards one of the side with what little BFG ammo you still have, after softening the imp horde with rockets, of course. The right side is more preferable, since it has only one arch-vile waiting in ambush and you can kill a pain elemental on your way. Then it becomes the matter of clearing the horde from safe cover and then sniping the two arch-viles on the other side. By the time I killed the Cyberdemon, I exhausted all my cell and rocket supply. Which should be… okay, I guess?

[Book Lord]

MAP 03 – Snoutish Pug Nose by @Ribbiks

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

 

I must be one of the few eccentrics on Doomworld that have never played a Ribbiks map. Let me bridge the gap then, since the reduced scale of Haste allows me to enjoy the work of famous creators of hard maps, without committing too much of my lifetime to the experience. The author might have labelled this place Snoutish Pug Nose just after completing it, because the shapes seen from the automap looked like the dog’s face, more or less.

Spoiler

The level was a small but serious slaughter business, set in decorated halls jammed with enemies. The Cyberdemon at the start was about to reappear just after dealing with the first Revenant squads: he dominated a chamber filled with harmful mud, and he was involved in less infighting than expected. Keeping my way clear from swarming Imps with the rocket launcher was the key to survival, until I snatched the BFG and owned the ground.

 

The finale was already in sight. I jumped down to find myself into a large arena, with two caverns full of monsters that could not see me through the cages. The switch released the mayhem and infighting ensued, but I could not just stand and watch because it was likely to get hit by the Cyberdemon rockets or to be overwhelmed by the monster number. I won the fight when I stopped pressing on towards the chambers; I let the monsters spread out instead, limiting my attacks to the nastiest actors like the Pain Elemental. When infighting was at its peak, I conquered the eastern cavern (without Arch-Viles on HMP), then it was easy to do the same on the other side. The Cyberdemon politely vanished to be crushed elsewhere. Snoutish Pug Nose was very polished, professional, awe-inspiring, good-looking, and thankfully short. It is impossible to get exhausted with maps of this length and I wish Ribbiks and the like could make more of these for ordinary folks to enjoy.

 

Time: 7:40      Deaths: 4

Edited April 17, 2022 by Book Lord

[Alaxzandarz]

Played with pistol-starts on UV on DSDA-Doom

 

Map 02: The Wheelhouse

 

A Gazebo machine map. The starting room is pretty and I like that there are no fights in it. Peaceful hubs are cool. The fights themselves are short and enjoyable. The archies that appear in every room after it is cleaned might annoy some people, but I like the sorta rythm they create. The final fight is a bit tense, quite a lot of cyber for a somewhat small space. The fight still isn't too hard. The slopes create similar jank dodging problems that they do in old Sunder. The crushers are suprisingly dangerous in the final fight, not for crushing you, but for blocking your movement. I like the usage of the mossy rock flat, it adds a nice tone to an otherwise artificial looking map. The slight rotation of the map (seen in automap) pisses me of. Liked this one.

 

Map 03: Snoutish Pug Nose

 

Sorta abstract templeish map. The first fight is fun and forgiving. The second fight on the other hand is a rough one. A sniping cyber, archie space denial, lots of demons (a lot of them revs), a ton of damaging floor and limited ammo. This fight got a bit on my nerves. This map has only three archviles, but they are so much more painful than the ones in map 02. I like that the map gives you a berserk before you have to fight the cyber, it's just funny. I like that the map has only two fights, it makes the map feel really small and sorta intimate. It's also aesthetically pleasing. Also liked this one, but the second fight was annoying.

 

My rankings:

Spoiler

1: The Wheelhouse

2: Snoutish Pug Nose

3: The Barbican