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

[FragsBunny]

MAP08: The Cradle (100/100/0)

1.       Monsters being hunting players from the start

2.       Cyberdemon may teleport to pursue players

3.       Imp showes nearby entities on death

 

This level, like everything IG used to offer, is very hard, but becomes considerably easier with carryover weapons like BFG. For the first claustrophobic clusterfuck with imps, I just rushed to the outside and nailed two arch-viles first, followed by the rest. Battling the first horde is just the matter of making them infight and crowd then in the central area, though if you are playing with only plasma, it will naturally be harder.

 

Same goes for the baron quartet and a revenant in an extremely tight claustrophobic scenario, which again can be trivialized with BFG. It will follow with other similar tight-quarter encounters, where the rocket launcher is heavily discouraged, until you get the blue key. I missed a secret in this level – could it hide a BFG? Later one, it leads to easy but rather stretched platformer section, until you trigger the final fight, which is just a Cyberdemon and six revenants surrounding you on perches – again, with very little space to maneuver! Is this IG’s new mapping trend?

 

MAP09: Infinium (100/100/100)

1.       Arachnotron receives damage one second later

2.       Hell noble projectiles explode on impact

3.       One monster is cursed. Killing it resurrects other monsters

 

Another abstract level, with three different arena to tackle and a cyberdemon along with a bunch of chaingunners to oversee them all. It can be telefragged, but I found that out only after clearing 2 of the 3 arenas. And boy how many times I died!

 

The blue key offers all the major arms except for BFG. It’s a horde of revs, cacos, knights and… another chaingunner gallery? Not to mention those PAIN elementals. Took me a lot of running to start that shit out, made even more difficult by the slowing rain. The red key is a two-piece fight. First up are barons, revs and imps. Was a complete pain because the latter two kept scattering the horde around with death shove. And I still haven’t killed that cyberdemon overlord yet! The second part is the hardest thing. It’s a matter of time to snipe those two arch-viles behind the baron flesh wall, all the while cacos and soul blots the sky and mess with your rocket aim.

 

The yellow key area is pure BFG spam, with SSG breaks as well. It wouldn’t have been so hard if not for those stacking cards! Not to mention a trollish horde of pain elementals behind the yellow door. And the finale is plain revenant spam – there were so many of them that I almost ran out of rockets! Brutal run on UV, and with cards too!

[Arwel]

Haste Map11 - Wanderlust by Archi and Insane_Gazebo

UV, 100% kills, no secrets

 

This map takes on palette and vibe of the previous map, and brings in some sophisticated architecture and tightly structured combat progression. Speaking of the latter, I really enjoy most of the fights and consider the way invulnerability powerup is used a really smart and refreshing move (I personally prefer to run a circle or two before picking it up to not only safely make my way to the button, but also manage to ride the elevator and grab some popcorn watching the rest of the crowd killing itself), also the peekaboo shootout in the latter section with all the columns, felt quite unusual in this context and reminiscent of a more adventure-oriented shooters. But, I also see some problems with other fights. For example, after using the red key, the wall behind opens, and the monsters (including multiple archviles) will always greet you in completely random positions, because by that point they will be long awake, which means you need some luck to get soulsphere and rockets. Overall, playing with saves between fights was lot of fun, encounters really managed to grab my attention, and visually map is great.

[FragsBunny]

MAP10: The Green Mind (82/92/100)

1.       Former human will electrocute nearby players

2.       You will be attacked by the Horror Force!

3.       Revenant slides around when moving

 

Do you know how to make a map even more infuriating? Insert it into a slaughter megawad but turn it into a platformer with inescapable pits! The Green Mind? More like “The Sick Mind”...

 

With carryover weapons, it’s rather easy to clear the trash mobs and refund your ammo. But when it comes to platforming section… I pity those who try to do so under a watchful gaze of a Cyberdemon. Me, I just sniped it with whatever ammo I still had. Before that, I made numerous tries to rush for the blue teleporter, hoping it would give me a blue key but instead I got a lousy supercharge… Getting past the Cyberdemon is only half of the suffering. On a island with just plasma gun, you are supposed to fight against four arch-viles, with the first two already boxing you! The battle for the blue key is just another mess caused by multiple cards, and trying to squeeze the maximum out of my remaining ammo. In the end, I just ignored the leftover horde and went for the exit. Not my best experience here…

[cannonball]

MAP11 - “Wanderlust” by Archi, Insane_Gazebo

 

This is probably the first map so far where I must confess to having mixed feelings about. In general the first half of this map was fine. The red key door fake-out is unexpected and caught me out (Ha-ha). The yellow key fight is absolutely insane but the free invulnerability allows you to use the rocket launcher in the most inappropriate fashion. It evens the rather overwhelming odds, once it has worn off you will still need to be light footed as a lot of heavy hitters will still be wandering around. 

The second half of the map is not so good. The room with the blue key.... the whole set up just seems to encourage the player to gradually clear out the room. It is pretty easy to lure monsters out gradually and then remove the turret archviles one section of a time. In short this section just doesn't work for me. The following fight was okay, the BFG almost isn't needed in all honesty as again the cybers will deal a lot of damage on the rest of the hordes. The ending is pretty much a nope from me, given how even the nuttiest fights had a clear strategy, this was a battalion of archviles with cyberdemon support and no cover. How is your luck with the BFG. The irony is that you could have ended the end earlier (After the blue key fight) and not even needed to place a BFG and the map probably would have been better for it.

Overall - It is still an ok map, but it felt like a bit of a stepdown in quality and no amount of dressing up from the master of visuals can change that.

 

Upon revisiting this, I realised that I could have backed away from the final fight around the perimeter of the castle structure, however this doesn't exactly improve the experience in any way.

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

MAP11: "Wanderlust" by Archi (layout) and Insane_Gazebo (detail)

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 0/0 secrets

 

One of two maps in Haste that are a team effort. I_G returns again to do the "detail" and the "layout" is the work of Archi, who I recognize as the creator of the wad Rush, an extremely solid set for people just getting into slaughtery stuff. The map is an overgrown demonic fortress in the middle of a big ocean. The water even has some boats in it, which is always a fun detail to see. The midi is a rendition of a Nightwish song, a band that I haven't heard in quite a long time. It is a great midi though.

 

Right off the bat the red key is just to your right down the dock, along with the SSG. Grabbing these unleashes a small ambush with imps and spectres in close, and revenants and hell knights backing them up. It's tempting to run from this one, but doing so brings an archvile to the party, so I found it best to just tough it out in your corner before going back to take on the archie solo. The next ambush is the ol' "door that actually opens the wall behind you instead of the door itself" trick. Very likely to kill whoever is playing this one blind. The monsters behind the door include 3 archviles and more revs and HKs. As soon as you trigger it just run out of the area and far down the dock, pumping in rockets from afar. I usually am able to take down 2/3 archies this way, and the other one tends to take a hit from one of the other monsters and get distracted, so I can safely run back to where they came from to restock quickly before finishing them off. 

 

Venturing inside the fortress now, you'll have some trivial mobs to take down, but the number of goodies inside the building should let you know that danger is coming. Hitting the switch on the small mezzanine above ominously lowers the front gate, and leaves the yellow key open for the taking. Reaching for it results in the once empty ocean filling up with a bunch of spider masterminds, as well as an army of more monsters in the distance. Behind you, the fortress area starts filling with a ton of monsters that teleport in from the back group. Grab the invuln and the plasma rifle, but switch to the rockets and have some point-blank rocket launcher fun until the invuln wears off. The ocean monsters usually tend to be a non-factor in this fight apart from a spider mastermind sneaking around the corner on occasion, everything out there will infight each other while you take care of the fortress monsters. This is one of the most fast-paced and hectic moments of the wad up to this point. The invuln will allow you to put a nice dent in the enemy forces with safety, but once it runs out it's a mad dash to avoid getting blasted by a cyberdemon or cornered by the other foes. This fight is so, so much fun, one of my favourite fights of the wad so far. Remember to clean up any mastermind stragglers though, there will be at least one left since they die via infighting.

 

Beyond the yellow key door is a cross-shaped room with arachnotron turrets and revenants, with archviles at each of the ends. This room does feel a bit too sluggish in my opinion, especially because the door only closes behind you if you go a certain distance in, giving you more than enough room to deal with the revenants once they come for you. After you take these guys down, you can wake up the cyberdemon on the throne. He doesn't really move anywhere though so he's not a huge threat, and I noticed if you push him back enough with the plasma he gets immobilized. The next part is fun though, grab the megasphere and hit the switch to lower the blue key and unleash another slaughter. The blue key will net you the BFG right away, so make good use of that against the two cybies and their buddies. If you run low on cells though, you can hit the switches and leave the room and come back later, which I did in my successful run. Teleporting back, the wall in front of you will lower to reveal a bunch of cells, but also 6 archviles and 2 cyberdemons. Well actually, funny thing about those archviles, they tend to get themselves killed a lot of the time? I'm guessing what happens is the spider masterminds accidentally hit the cyberdemons, who start firing back at the masterminds and inadvertently hit their archvile friends, who either get killed by the blast or deal blast damage to themselves via their own retaliations against the cyberdemons. I had a run get here where every single one of the archviles except the one blocking the exit was already dead. Real funny stuff. If they don't die though, this fight is definitely very mean. 

 

I kind of agree with cannonball that this map is a bit front-loaded, what a first half that is though. That yellow key fight is one of the highlights of the entire wad so far for me. The back half doesn't quite live up, but it's fine, and overall this is a good map.

Edited April 26, 2022 by DisgruntledPorcupine

[sandwedge]

Hey how does voting work, you can literally pick any wad?  I might just let others decide because I don't really know what I would choose.  Though I recently played through the ray mohawks so I would prefer something else.  Any way to minus vote? 😆  I mean they're so good they should get some extra exposure anyway.

[Book Lord]

2 hours ago, sandwedge said:

Hey how does voting work, you can literally pick any wad?  I might just let others decide because I don't really know what I would choose.  Though I recently played through the ray mohawks so I would prefer something else.  Any way to minus vote? 😆  I mean they're so good they should get some extra exposure anyway.

 

The voting system is explained in the first post of every DWMC thread. Thankfully there is no option to cancel votes from others, it is hard enough for old releases to get picked here. As for recent releases, the community output has long since surpassed the DWMC covering capabilities.

 

Edited April 26, 2022 by Book Lord

[sandwedge]

1 hour ago, Book Lord said:

 

The voting system is explained in the first post of every DWMC thread. Thankfully there is no option to cancel votes from others, it is hard enough for old releases to get picked here. As for recent releases, the community output has long since surpassed the DWMC covering capabilities.

 

 

Yeah thanks, I read the first post but it wasn't clear to me, I thought a few would be chosen to vote on like in some other threads, wasn't sure if they were listed in a post I didn't see.  Canceling other votes was a joke, hence the laughing emoji.  And I didn't really say anything about recent releases, obviously the thread can't cover everything released.

 

Anyway, looking forward to what everyone picks!  Maybe I'll see what's on my to-play list and come up with some votes.

[FistMarine]

Hey everyone! I didn't join this month initially as I'm not much of a fan of slaughter gameplay. Although my first "slaughter" experience is from back in 2009 or so with Skulltag invasion wads (such as Alpha & Delta Invasion and Armageddon Invasion 2), so it's not like an unknown concept to me. And I greatly enjoyed playing those wads back then.

In the end, I thought that I might as well give it a try. Finished MSCP almost two weeks ago. I don't think I will do Haste for this month, unfortunately. Here are my thoughts about MSCP:

 

Micro Slaughter Community Project - PrBoom+ 2.6.2 (cl9) - UV 100% - Continuous with saves!

 

First thing I notice is that when the first "demo" finishes (there are no new demos for either of the two megawads), it crashes with the error: createPatch: Unknown patch format CREDIT.

This is a bit different in old PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4 where this error shows up after the second demo! I guess there is no CREDIT lump included in the wad or a glitchy one that PrBoom+ doesn't like or something like that.

 

As for the maps, I try to be as nice as possible and talk about the positive stuff and the highlights of each map. Even if some maps really frustrated me! All my thoughts are into the spoiler.

Spoiler

 

MAP01: Fire In Your Eyes
Nice introduction map. The fights are relatively well designed and they set up the later maps well. I even found the soulsphere secret (with a bit of help from Doomwiki.org, I admit), which is found in the last area and greatly helped me in the last part (with the revenants and mancubi), though I would have probably survived without the extra health. I got lucky to not get surrounded. Took a bit of damage every now and then and I finished the map with 142% health.
Pretty good opening map with interesting fights.

 

MAP02: Viridescent Synapse
What the hell is this? OK I know what to do at beginning with making the cybers get infight with the knights! After getting killed around 3-5 times, I passed the first part of the map with 97% health and 100% armor. I wish I saved the megasphere for later but even with the extra health (and green armor) from the previous map, I would still get 1-hit killed by the cyber's rockets, so I ended up grabbing the megasphere earlier (would have probably helped if I entered second part with 200 h/a).
But the second part...even with savescumming it seemed impossible at times. All I have access to is the RL with many rockets and about 120 bullets for the chaingun from the previous map. I kept getting surrounded, no matter if I tried killing the 4 barons or the demon horde, with or without grabbing the megasphere, the result would be the same of blowing myself up or killed by demons (sometimes by barons as well). Only after 20 deaths I managed to somehow get through and believe me that I tried to stand in almost every corner and yet I would get surrounded.

One time I got to the exit without killing everyone but then reloaded and tried until I got all kills, I didn't want to leave this map without 100% everything!
I'm sure I must have missed something but there seemed no clear/consistent strategy to deal with the last part, at least to me. No matter how fast you are and where you are shooting from, you will get surrounded by demons from either of the sides. It's complete bullshit. Only by luck I got through (after killing the first 2-3 barons and then trying to run away and then run around the arena shooting rockets, then switch to chaingun if surrounded to kill the few demons that block you) and with save-scumming. Only then I was victorious!
Hated this map. Hope the next map is better.

 

MAP03: Cherry Blossom
Didn't like this map too much but at least it was better than the previous one. The first battle was annoying due to starting with 37% health from the previous level, though the soulsphere helped a lot to stand a chance against the monsters. I did some mistakes and got killed a few times (around 3 times) until I got the first room right.
The second, I knew what to do but sometimes the cyber wouldn't cooperate, costing me another 5 or so deaths from various reasons.
And then the last part...seemed a bit impossible at times until I got it with save-scuming. I don't have much else to say.
I think the map was just ok but not really my cup of tea. It was definitely better than the previous map and hope the next map is even better.

 

MAP04: Floody Hell
Another nice, short and easy map (why wasn't this the first or second map? ok I get the second map was placed early because of its exclusive use of RL but still, the map order doesn't make much sense). I know I kinda abused the plasma for this one but sometimes I used the SSG and Rockets as well. However, first time I missed the berserk secret (it's found in one of the two small rooms, on the bridge you find SSG at beginning), so I replayed the map from near the beginning part.
In both times I ended up with a little over 100% health (not much health lost in this map thankfully) and around 90% armor (blue). I ended up replacing the armor with the green one since it was below 100% (yeah, I know, it's a personal rule where if there is no other blue armor to replace my used one, I replace it with the green armor). While it might seem disappointing I didn't end up saving that leftover blue armor, it's probably for the better, as the next map has no armor pickup at all and the green one lasts longer compared to the 94% blue armor I had left...
Overall, I liked this one, even though it wasn't very slaughter-y. I just wish it was placed much earlier in the wad!

 

MAP05: Marble in the Blood
There were some annoying parts (especially the last part with the random lowering platforms/damaging floors) but at least the fights seemed somewhat easier and I knew what I had to do in the situations. At beginning I got a bit annoyed after the first couple of deaths but realized I need to quickly kill the revenants, then the hell knights, then watch out for the archvile pillars, look out for the second wave (revs + knights), the last part with imps and cybers. Ignore the cybers (most of them get telefragged later), once you kill everyone, then teleport away.
At the second part, yeah the fights themselves weren't too difficult thankfully but screw those damaging floors, as the health was scarce and I just needed to concentrate to dodge all the shit coming at me, not have to additionally worry of stepping in the wrong place.
Then at end after killing everyone, you get to kill an extra cyber before the exit, then telefrag the last 3 and then level complete!
Not bad! I liked the fights, they were creative but we could have done without that lowering platform into damaging blood, as the player is most likely nearly dead at this point. Still much better than MAP02 (imo that one seemed a lot harder than it should have been) and MAP03 (mostly the last part).
As for deaths, I guess 15-20 in total. I stopped counting the exact amount of deaths. :P

 

MAP06: Slaughter Factory
I liked this one as it felt a lot more fair. The fights were actually pretty fun. I only wish I hadn't eaten a rocket to the face (and later shoot a rocket right in front of a revenant) since all this wasted health/armor would have been useful a bit later.
To access the BFG secret (yes I consulted the Doomwiki for information), shoot two switches with the SSG, one close to the beginning (where I was hiding earlier from the caco cloud), other was near a switch.
Died twice at the very last swarm, I didn't expect to see more archviles. And of course one time I took a rev rocket to the face that did 80 dmg, leaving me with just 20% health and desperate to look for health. I saved the last soulsphere and blue armor for the end, so I get to start the next level with maximum health and armor!
And of course I'm grateful for the megasphere at the very beginning since I only had 11% health left from the previous map.
I enjoyed this one, probably one of my favorites so far. Interesting how this map felt easier than most of the previous maps...

 

MAP07: Tarnished Luster
I feel very happy to have done this one without dying. There seemed to be clearer strategies to deal with every room and it felt good to take on many monsters at once, especially the 6 cyberdemons that I left alive and they helped clear the last room, once I learned that you can backtrack, I went back, then ran around from one side to another while trying to get caco cloud infight. Then once done, taking down the 6 cybers myself and the last few mancubi/arachnotrons in the last room. I also ended up pretty much fully maxed, strangely with just 5 shells short from having 100 but nothing to complain about, as I am very happy how things turned out, even if it took me about 47 minutes to finish the map, as I did at my own pace.

And for the damaging floor at the end, sometimes I had to endure damage while circle strafing to kill the remaining couple of monsters in the last room. As well as grabbing those bonuses, before grabbing whatever megasphere I had left in the level.
The secrets were easy to find, though the Doomwiki mentions that the first secret contains a soulsphere, instead for me was present a blue armor? At least on UV skill. Not the first time I noticed the Doomwiki having some wrong information about what is contained inside secrets. It helps to look at the statistics below, at the information in the table and what shows up on any skill level, so I can get an idea of what is present in a map.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this one, as it felt a lot more fair and more generous with health/armor supplies.

 

MAP08: The Three Kings
Not sure how to say it, it was ok but some parts seemed a bit impossible at times, so I had to bring my plasma/BFG to get through this mess. Still died a couple times at beginning but the part that killed me a bunch of times was towards end with revenant + knights/barons horde until I got it right. Was getting a bit annoyed at getting killed in 1-2 hits when I had only about 60% health left due to bullshit RNG rolls (while I was trying my best to avoid homing rockets and other random projectiles) while shooting rockets at the horde but eventually I got it down, it wasn't very difficult and the last cyber probably helped for a while before he died.
I don't remember how many deaths, probably around 10-15. Not as hard as other maps and I think it was just ok, nothing special to wow me. At least I managed to save a megasphere for the next map.

 

MAP09: October Skeleton Appreciation
It's not October and I don't like revenants to be quite honest (at least not in large groups). Oh yeah and this map has exactly 400 monsters, about 300 of which are...you guessed it, REVENANTS!
At the beginning, I found a pointless secret that gave me a health bonus. Then I tried to kill the revs normally and died because dodging their missiles seemed impossible. After 5 failed attempts, had to watch decino's video to get past the beginning because somehow I didn't think to shoot those switches, despite the fact I thought about doing it!

Still took me a lot of attempts to get it right, I swear almost everything went wrong while playing this map, I would almost always eat homing rockets or get flamed by archviles. And was getting pretty frustrated (additionally, I've missed the red key because on my successful attempt to dodge all that crap, I missed it and had to clear that horde of revenants with my chaingun/shotgun once the rockets and cells were exhausted) until I pulled through. With help of Doomwiki (as has been the case with every level), I found the secrets and I grabbed the secret radiation suit that helped (maybe?) for traversing the middle parts of the map, then teleport to a room containing arachnotrons, clear it and then prepare for the final part, which required a fair amount of save-scumming to do it but thankfully it was the best part to take on all these revenants and cybers (though they would get infight and cybers helped clear the rooms) and it was satisfying to kill large amounts of revenants or even get cybers to infight with them.
Eventually, after a bit of save/load spam, I did it. I appreciate that the author was generous with the resources as there were many megaspheres, soulspheres and blue armors, so that removed quite a bit of frustration.
Overall, while I didn't enjoy the map too much (and it made me hate revenants even more!), I really liked the design!

 

MAP10: Metal Head
Thankfully this was one of the easiest maps in the wad. I died once in the blue skull key area/ambush (don't remember how I died, probably got surrounded and quickly killed, despite having 200 health and probably around 100 armor) but the rest of the map went by pretty smooth.
I also liked that you were given the choice between SSG or RL at beginning and there was an interesting BFG secret (that didn't count towards secret tally, I guess) to find.
I thought the map was nice overall. Sure, it could have been a little bit harder but I rather prefer maps like these than those brutal ones.

 

MAP11: Team Rocket Slaughter
Another easy map that doesn't put much pressure on you, circle strafing seemed the best strategy and that way most monsters wouldn't hit you. Plus the map has plenty of soulspheres and blue armors to keep you alive!
Still managed to die once by getting surrounded by barons/knights at one point and I ran out of cells (ouch!), in fact I only had 20 cells left which wasn't enough for a BFG blast and once they closed in, it was pretty much over.
Reloading the save, decided to conserve some cells, focus on using more rockets on those leftover barons/knights before the last part with the archviles (I expected the archviles to show up at one point!), BFG them, survive their blast and the map was pretty much over.
Like the previous map, it was a nice "short break" to prepare you for the last "episode".

 

MAP12: Crossroads of Destruction
Another map I completed nicely without dying, though one time I came close to dying but managed to pull through.
For the beginning, yeah I pulled my BFG (though I found the BFG secret on my own later), then ran in circles to take on those revenants and knights with rockets. I ignored the cyber for much later in the level, thinking he might help with infighting but he didn't seem to serve much purpose, so he had to go eventually. Makes me wonder how I didn't eat any rocket, I guess I got very lucky with minor splash damage taken near where I was hiding at one point.
As for later fights, they seemed to pose a decent challenge. I was lucky to avoid that archvile ambush by pressing the switch and running back, then picking the monsters carefully from there. The part that nearly got me was right after that, when I was busy killing imps and revenants carefully around the corner, only for a revenant to eventually teleport behind me and screw me up, eventually leaving me with 2% health and having to flee, take the elevator, then go find medkits and grab the green armor I saved earlier (I used the two blue ones by that point, the one I started the level with and the one given at the beginning of the map) and then get back to action.
The last part is a bunch of chaingunners easily killed with a BFG and the archvile that sits in front of the exit (its head could be seen), so I immediately grabbed the soulsphere just to make sure I survive the eventual blast and while the archie managed to resurrect a few chaingunners, I eventually took care of them. And the reward was the megasphere I saved earlier, so I have an easier time for the next level.
Overall, it was another nice map.

 

MAP13: Technocratic Terror
This is one of the most interesting maps in the whole wad. It has excellent architecture, excellent visuals and the gameplay is mostly good. It's also got exactly 1000 monsters (on UV at least). Sadly, there is one huge flaw in the map that I will mention shortly. The fact that there is NO WAY back once you make it past the middle part of the map (with the crazy fights). I was very disappointed when I eventually finished the map and there was no way back to get to the secret soulsphere I missed (I saw the pink sector on the automap but at that time was most likely at 200 hp already, so I didn't get it knowing it was a soulsphere/megasphere), as well as the remaining 50 monsters (that apparently were supposed to spawn when grabbing the rocket launcher but I didn't get it because I already had mine from the previous maps)

Thankfully, I had a backup save before the big fights, so eventually I explored, killed the remaining 50 monsters, got that soulsphere, blue armor, etc and was in a better shape for the fights. To make sure you've got everything, you must have 181 monsters killed, 46 (or 48?) items collected and 2/3 secrets found.
Once ready, step into one of the two teleporters and prepare yourself. The problem with this first fight is it seemed a bit impossible at times, I would get surrounded or eat many projectiles, not even the megasphere (and that's IF I could reach it) could save me sometimes. I couldn't find a consistent strategy until I eventually made it through with a bit of save-scumming and BFG spamming. Sometimes I would also run out of cells at worst possible moments and monsters loved to block the much needed pickups. The rockets were unreliable when near monsters (very easy to blow yourself up).

Thankfully the next wave is much easier that you shouldn't die (or maybe one death from a cyber rocket?) and the rest of the map is a breeze, since it gives you plenty of resources to deal with the monsters. There is another secret megasphere to find after you get to the last area. On my second run from the map (from the backup save), I managed to get a cyber stuck by pushing him off ledge. I was tempted to just punch him to death but since I had no berserk, I decided to just BFG him.
I think in total I must have died like 20 or so times, though I'm only counting the deaths from the proper playthrough of the map, not from both as otherwise I would end up with about 40+ deaths.
Overall, the map was definitely great (I can't hate it just because of that bad time I had in the first big wave) and it's one of the highlights, I only wish there was a way to backtrack to the first part of the map, once you reached the exit. All I found was inescapable pits and a teleporter that sends me back up. Oh and MAYBE, there could have been a single invulnerability present in one of the secrets on UV skill, considering HMP gets 2 invulnerabilities and easier skills get 3, according to Doomwiki stats.
I'm happy I ended up fully maxed because it is much needed for the next map!

 

MAP14: Crippling Legion
How I should say this without sounding too rude? TBH, I hated this map. I absolutely hated it! There was nothing that could redeem this map for me. The first two fights weren't too bad (I used the BFG at the archviles/hitscanners and then did the second fight with SSG/rockets with a couple deaths and eventually surviving with 1% health) but absolutely fuck the final fight in its deepest pits of hell! There seemed no clear strategy how to deal with all that crap, despite the fact you are given infinite BFG ammo (with voodoo doll trickery). You can hold the BFG to clear a bunch of monsters at one time and still die a lot of times (from various reasons), mostly because there isn't enough fucking health to get through this mess! I have no idea what was the correct strategy but the first thing I did when the arena lowered, was kill those mancubi and when getting low on health/armor, grab the megasphere, then run in circles and try to not get surrounded or blocked by some fucking monster, while watching for homing rockets, other projectiles, the archviles, the caco cloud and other bullshit flying around me.

And besides a few more medkits placed around the arena (probably in the corners of the place with the archviles), there wasn't much health left. Trying my best to kill those archviles quickly resulted in lots of deaths (and having to save/load often) because either I would get flamed or finished off by a random projectile. Not much you can do when very low on health (at one time I got down to 1% health again and even save scummed like that, which resulted in even more deaths and frustration). Most of the monsters would kill each other over time, so like I said, I tried my best to deal with the priorities, the archviles and also the caco cloud as soon as possible. I don't see how I could have done any better. Eventually I made it with lots of saving/loading, with 8% health left and probably around 40-50 deaths in total. Was a very frustrating experience and something I don't want to do again!

As a final insult, a megasphere was placed in an inaccessible part of the map, so you couldn't get 100% items, just 85% items (I think). According to the comment section in decino's video on YouTube, I read that the extra room is only accessed in coop mode, so I don't see why that extra megasphere wasn't tagged to appear for multiplayer only or whatever. Just plain dick move to screw the completionists, TBH.
I was curious how other people handled the map, so I watched decino's video on YouTube to see how he did it and it only took him like 7-8 attempts, which is very impressive. To me it looks like he also killed the Spider Mastermind early (actually there's TWO of them), which is interesting because I thought the spider would help with infighting but sometimes she killed me, mostly towards the end because I was very low on health (while killing the last bunch of enemies remaining).
I'm sure I'm missing something and maybe I didn't "get" the map but to me this is the kind of slaughter map I utterly despise, not giving you enough resources to deal with the monsters. The map wasn't even that greatly detailed. It was just a large pink (or was it purple? forgot already!) arena and that's it. Other than the voodoo doll trickery used (which is very much appreciated, as the map was already difficult enough with the lack of health), this map just didn't do it for me. Hope the next map is better!

 

MAP15: Sanguine
I will say this map was definitely much better! Though not without the issues. For the first part, I took a look at the environment and see an archvile teleporting ahead of me (thankfully not facing me) and a cacodemon standing on a much needed megasphere. I BFG'ed the caco, grabbed the megasphere just before getting blasted by archvile and work my way through the level. I killed the cyberdemon earlier than I should have (something that I regretted later) and then eventually get to the exit. The last part (revenants and a few archviles thrown into the mix) killed me quite a bunch of times (about 10-15 times or so) until eventually making it, I admit that was quite a nasty surprise (even with the extra megasphere given during the battle) but the rest of the map was a much needed break from the previous bullshit MAP14.
Getting to the secret exit is quite clever. Watched decino's video to help solve the "puzzles" to unlock the secret exit. Now I realized why I should have kept that cyber alive, though at least I got a laugh out of that teleporting cyber corpse, I didn't expect his corpse to still get teleported. It turns out he would have been sent near the exit and would have helped with the revenant + archvile horde at the end.

Once you get to the secret exit path, be careful with that cyber. His rockets can knock you out in the pit that causes the level to exit and send you to MAP16 with low health. This took me a few attempts but I'm not going to count these as actual deaths, since there were no deaths involved, thankfully. Plus it was easy to fall off, so a bit of saving was necessary to make it to the end. Platforming and ledge walking aren't Doom's strongest points, I must confess.
Oh and about flaws, yeah I missed my chance to get those 60 armor/health bonuses. While watching decino's video, I realized that you were supposed to archvile jump to get that. Yeah, not going to replay the map just for that, I guess I will just leave this level as it is. At least that didn't count as an actual secret, so much like with previous map's missing item, it still counts as an UV-Max!
Overall, this map was quite interesting. It wasn't particularly tough (except for the final fight) and it has some great secrets to find/unlock! I recommend finding the secret level, it's worth it!

 

MAP31: Duel
A nice short map. You may look at the map and notice only ONE enemy present? What could it be? A zombieman! That's it? Don't make me laugh! He actually hit me once (though he only did 3 dmg) before getting BFG'ed in the face. Noticing the BFG and many cells and a megasphere, made me wonder what could happen next. After pressing the switch, you get to fight around 1000 lost souls! Don't underestimate them, they can actually do quite a bit of damage to you. I'm happy I brought my megasphere from the previous level, as eventually I had to grab the one to keep myself alive on my last 30% or so health. Eventually I won the battle (with around 125 health and 130 armor), pressed the 4 switches and unlocked the exit.
Not much else to say. It was a funny short map.

 

MAP16: Beluga Sanctuary
Now that's a proper finale map! I enjoyed the challenge this level offered me, with only the final fight actually killing me a bunch of times, as expected.
For the rest, kill the cyber + archie at beginning, grab the goodies, grab the secret megasphere (thanks Doomwiki for informing me in advance!) at beginning on the ledge in left side, then prepare for the big fights!

Now these fights actually had a clear strategy to do them. You would mostly run in circles and let the infighting taking care of, at least for two rooms (the one with the imps had a slightly different strategy but still easy to figure out). There also seemed enough health (probably even more than needed) to deal with encounters, that before stepping on last portal, I ended up grabbing soulspheres (and I guess 1-2 megaspheres) while I was already at 200 health/armor.

For the final fight, yeah I died about 10-15 times (one time my corpse telefragged the four cybers standing) and while there seemed a clear strategy, I only wish either you were given more radsuits on UV skill (at least having two present instead of just one) or making the damaging floor only 10 dmg instead of the 20 dmg one (I hate the radsuit leak so much!).
But yeah, my strategy (once I figured out) was killing at least one cyber quickly, press the switch, watch out for ambush, try to kill archviles or even another cyber, press a switch, by that time most of the horde should just die and then grab more supplies, etc. It's hard to describe correctly what exactly happened but eventually I made it after a couple of minutes. I had to burn a bit of health/armor to get the remaining monsters and even grab other supplies that were down here but overall I'm satisfied with how everything ended.
It was a better map than the author's previous MAP09 and was a great finale to the wad.

 

MAP17: Epilogue Tour
The credits map. You get to visit all maps you finished so far. Not much else to say other than it has no exit and once you hit the last portal, it loops back at the beginning.
Interestingly, I noticed some floors are still damaging, at least on the one from MAP03 I tried touching, I didn't try each one of them. That is interesting because it is actually possible to die in this map. I don't think it was intended but I thought I'd mention that.

 

 

Micro Slaughter Community Project - Total Deaths:
MAP02 (20-25), MAP03 (10-15), MAP05 (10-15), MAP06 (2), MAP08 (10-15), MAP09 (20-25), MAP10 (1), MAP11 (1), MAP13 (20-25), MAP14 (40-50), MAP15 (10-15), MAP16 (10-15)

Total Deaths: ~180-200

MSCP Overall: I didn't have many expectations when playing the wad, I knew it was going to be hard/intimidating from the start (though some maps seemed much easier than I expected) and in the end, I think it turned out pretty good, I must say. Most maps impressed me and I am happy to have played the wad.
But then a few other maps (MAP02 and MAP14 mostly) just frustrated the hell out of me and it wasn't worth the suffering. As there seemed no clear strategy to deal with them without save/load spam until I eventually did it. Yes I know I could have just done on HMP at least but from what I read, some people mentioned that there aren't many differences between skill levels in some maps, so I ended up doing it on UV entirely, just to get the complete experience.

I must say it is DEFINITELY possible to beat them on UV without cheating and even scoring 100% everything (except MAP14 and MAP15 where I couldn't get 100% items).
I may not have as much slaughter experience as other people but I think I handled most stuff just fine, though the difficulty of the maps varies a lot, which I am mostly neutral about that. I generally prefer maps that are offer a good challenge and not those that seem impossible until you save/load spam until you win. These are my 2 cents about this!

 

I don't feel like doing Haste any time soon, so instead, here are my votes for May (votes MIGHT change at a later time):

 

+++ Hexen: Beyond Heretic
+++ Number One Kill (9 maps) + Number One Kill Extra (1 map) + Number One Kill the Next Generation (22 maps)
+++ Ray Mohawk's Manic Monday & Ray Mohawk 2: Ray Wrecks Havoc!

 

And as bonus, I will upload my gameplay screenshots from MSCP in a zip file (I forgot to take screenshots of MAP14 and MAP15). I think some of them would look nice on Doomwiki. ;)

MSCP_Pics.zip

[SiFi270]

+++ Number One Kill (9 maps) + Number One Kill Extra (1 map) + Number One Kill the Next Generation (22 maps)

[Book Lord]

2 hours ago, sandwedge said:

 

Yeah thanks, I read the first post but it wasn't clear to me, I thought a few would be chosen to vote on like in some other threads, wasn't sure if they were listed in a post I didn't see.  Canceling other votes was a joke, hence the laughing emoji.  And I didn't really say anything about recent releases, obviously the thread can't cover everything released.

 

Anyway, looking forward to what everyone picks!  Maybe I'll see what's on my to-play list and come up with some votes.

 

The rules allow anybody to come up with their votes, as you might notice in previous DWMC threads. There are some limitations like three WAD nominations per month and that they must be at least 3 maps each to be part to the "megaWAD" category, I suppose. This prescription is frequently violated for practical reasons.

 

I understood your joke, I should do something to improve my reactions to humour and be more cheerful. It touched a minor gripe I have with the voting system of the DWMC; even though it was implemented for almost 10 consecutive years, there are inherent problems. This is not the place to discuss them, there is a DWMC meta-thread for that. You are welcome to submit your votes like anybody else, either for WADs that have been already mentioned, or to post your own suggestions (either recent or dated material).

[Book Lord]

MAP 12 – Thrown to the Wolves by @Scotty

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

 

The fifth and last submission from Scotty was the most faithful to the tropes of slaughter gameplay. Right from the start, the player must deal with limited resources and large numbers of enemies trying to invade his living space. The Arch-Viles in the middle of the long hall must go down first, then it was all a matter of creating a path with rockets through the Imps ranks, avoiding splash accidents and short-range attacks from the Mancubi.

Spoiler

I killed the Spider Mastermind because I cannot tolerate noisy demons around, but the progression went in the opposite direction. The outdoor area hosted a second Imp horde, combined with more Arch-Viles and fatsos on a ledge. I died once while developing an approach, but it came down to shooting rockets quickly and accurately at the usual priority targets. The BFG pickup triggered a massive Revenant teleport, and once again I preferred rockets. Pre-firing towards the building entrance held them back for a while.

 

The RSK in the Spiderdemon chamber was now accessible. Picking it up summoned a Cacodemon cloud way too large for that room. I instinctively retreated to the long hall to engage the Cyberdemon newcomers, then I turned around and fired rockets to keep the red swarm at bay. This strategy could not work for the final ambush, involving a Cyberdemon trio on one side of the hall and a closet chock-full of Pinkies and Hell Nobles on the opposite end. A classic bar mechanism locked me in, exposing me to rockets and to the concrete risk of being cornered by bulky hellspawn. The objective was reaching the YSK behind the enemy ranks, and it required letting them spread out of the closet a bit, then creating an opening through the crowd. Once the meat wall was breached, it was easy to turn around and finish off everyone with unwitting Cyberdemon help.

 

This was one of the most vanilla-looking maps in the megaWAD, putting the familiar marble, flesh, and metal textures to excellent use. It was a classic hellish fortress with superior architecture and good lighting of the interiors, presenting fights that were neither overwhelming nor exceedingly simple. I can only commend Scotty for the amazing work he did for Haste, and especially for Thrown to the Wolves, a level featuring precise progression, good combat escalation, and large-scale combat puzzles that I always found entertaining.

 

Time: 14:26    Deaths: 6

[RonnieJamesDiner]

MAP12: Thrown to the Wolves, by Scotty

DSDA, pistol start, HNTR and UV

 

God I love how oppressive the darkness is in this one. I feel like that initial blind playthrough evoked the best experience I was going to get from this map, timidly cowering in the dim light of the opening hall as the hordes crept in, and never quite feeling sure how the rooms connected or unraveled until I had finally passed through them several times. This was awesome!

 

Even with foreknowledge of the layout, I really enjoyed Scotty’s final outing for Haste – diving into his last attempt at bludgeoning me to death with swarms of monsters in cramped spaces on Ultra-Violence. The atmosphere played a big role for me here, and the adjustments between HNTR and UV felt as finely-tuned and deliberate as I was hoping to find. The former run felt reserved without sacrificing the core fight mechanics, while the latter managed to knock me down a few of times before I finally started learning from my mistakes. That backpack available on the lower skills had a far greater impact than I would have guessed, and the Caco cloud doubling from 48 to 96 between HNTR and UV was malevolent! They just keep coming... from the walls... from the darkness... and I absolutely loved that fight. It claimed the vast majority of my lives, and I had a good time just figuring out how to deal with this floating mass slowly consuming the area.

 

A series of slaughter setpieces, centered around the RL and BFG, and drenched in a delightful coating of ambient horror? Yeah, I dig it. This was a lot of fun, and I thought it was a great tip of the cap for Scotty’s terrific (mapping) contributions to the project.

[kalaeth]

it's tuesday but for me it's a monday, so let's do this! 

 

MAP 09 - Infinium : 

This started well.. I took a step back and found myself immersed in imps. I had the plasma gun selected so I just killed them and then took cover on the side of the door. I then ran and wen't down, found the weapons and eventually died to the tons of roaming monsters that step out as soon as you press the switch. Ok, next try. I went to the other side, got the BFG, cleared the HKs and revs, cleared the mancs and then BFGed the cow to death, and then died to the next cyberdemon. 

 This time I'll go down and release the cyber to cause some infighting.. He didn't do much but I got to the yellow key. Then it's back through the PE elevator, and off to the other side. After 4 tries I reached the blue key, ran down, door, lift, platformed into cells and the blue armor, saved again and ran towards the barons and company. Managed to clear them on the first try, then went ahead and got rid of the cybercow snipping from the start of the level, saved and pressed the switch. Oh wow, that's a lot of cacos! BFG until the herd is trimmed and then rocket the last ones, refuel on cells and grab the bluesphere, switch. Path, rockets on the AV, switch, steps, red key and oh look, so many revs! Found the secret switch/teleport, too late to telefrag the cow. Save, open the door, a steady stream of BFG shots and then step into the exit.

 

100% K/I/S, 13:48 / 1:55:42

 

MAP 10 - The Green Mind :

Soothing music, lot's of green and many assorted resources but only a SSG in the middle of 4 shotgunners. I grab it, kill them, do a tour around the main island, kill all that I can reach and only then do I go for the red key. Grabbing it releases a manc and several revs that I SSG to death, and after... Hum. Maybe the yellow key? Save, discover it IS an inescapable death pit down there, and then try again. And again, and again and after some 7 tries I decide to try a different road first. I try the path to a teleport but after failing some 10 times I use fly to get there. It's a 'port to the soulsphere and the level's only secret. It's only then that I realize the chaingun and green armor are actually reachable so I go for them and then take care of the small army that pops up. After that I use fly again to reach the YK island, grab the plasma, remove the HKs, pinkies and AV and now.. What? Ah, a pair of color coded switches. I press them both, releasing a wave of imps and nobles. Run to grab the RL and blue key, and then I shower the newcommers in rockets. Refuel, blue switch that raises the platfor so I can reach the other switch, whre I wasted more time than I'd care to admit, and then.. I'm missing three enemies, IDDT shows 3 revs in closets but I can't make them come out so..

 

97, 100, 100% K/I/S, 14:10 / 2:09:53

I would have liked this map if it wasn't for the unforgiving mandatory platforming. 

 

MAP 11 - Wanderlust :

Oh, a castle! I enter, grab the SSG and the red key, remove the enemies, go for the rocket launcher, kill the AV, and the fake red door almost kills me! I survive, go to the corner and clear the several AVs and HKs, then go grab the much needed health and blue sphere, kill the mancs, press switch. Enter the door, kill, lift, switch. Go, grab the YSK and.. HOLY F5ck! I've tried it some 5 times so far. Even with the BFG (that I don't "legally" have) I can't win this!

 So after a ton of failed attempts I just went god mode and finished the level.

N/A. 10:07 / 2:20:00

 

MAP 12 - Thrown to the Wolves :

A big room with many rockets and as soon as you fire one, which I did to one of the mancs, many targets too. First the imps, then the barons. After that we have two choices. Some steps up or a side corridor leading to a switch. I go switch first, and pressing it I'm teleported outside where many more rockets await. One one side, mancs. On the other a ton of imps with a AV chaperone. I do the imps, then the mancs and then the switch. It lowers a BFG that I grab, and use to clear the skels away. Then I go press the hidden switch, grab the blue sphere and it's back inside. Up the steps, BFG the SMM, run for the RSK and then die to the cacoswarm. NExt try, this time I use rockets to get rid of the SMM and mancs, run for the RSK and switch to BFG to deal with the cloud of tomatoes. As soon as I realize that a cyber is waiting back on the start room I switch back to rockets for the rest of the swarm, kill them all, find the stash of cells, refuel, and go fight the cow. But not before saving. Oh, it's not one but 2 cows. By some accident of fate I managed to kill them. Now, the red switch. Oh yes, pinkies and HKs on this side, THREE cows on the other. I somehow managed to get outside after suffering a while, then back up but there's no more health and I'm nearly dead! Killing the three cybers wasn't that hard once there were no more roaming monsters but I exited with 3% life! 

100% K/I/S, 11:57 / 2:31:58

 

That's all for today but I kinda wanna try this last level again, so I might but not just right now.  

[tonytheparrot]

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

Map 12: Thrown to the Wolves by Scotty

100% kills, items and secrets

Time: 8:01

 

“Thrown to the Wolves” is a appropriate title, as it perfectly captures the feel of this map. This dark marble castle boasts a sinister atmosphere, helped by the Final Fantasy VII midi and the sombre lighting. When you associate the visuals, atmosphere and combat, it feels like a fight for your life. This level is closer to map 1 in a way as you are not showered with supplies, there's much less space to work with and the atmophere is more sinister. You start off by getting a rocket launcher, but you have 4 archviles in front of you, and a ton of imps and mancubi in the sides, and you won't have enough rockets to kill everything, so try to clear out some of the enemies and sprint outside to the west to trigger the next fight. You get a lot of arch-viles and imps while 4 mancubi snipe you. While this encounter is not bad, pressing the switch opening your way back inside and to the red key teleports a ton of revenants, and despite all the rockets available and a fully stacked BFG, you will never have the ammo to kill them all, so try to make some space for yourself and sprint past them. After that, enter the red key area, kill the mastermind, and grab it before fending off tons of cacos, 2 cybers and the enemies you left alive from the previous fights, which is trickier than it sounds due to the strict ammo balance and pretty cramped arena. After that, activate the final fight, which spawns lots of pinkies, hell nobles and revs on one side and 3 cybers on the other,. Just make everything infight, make up some space for yourself, BFG and rocket when necessary and you will be fine. The combat is really fun despite the limited ammo and space, running past big groups of monsters is incredibly satisfying, and the sinister atmosphere is mastered, a great final for Scotty.

 

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

 

Love:

Map 9

Map 6

Map 8

Map 4

Map 12

Really like :

Map 5

Map 11

Map 2

Map 3

Map 1

Like:

Map 7

Dislike:

Map 10

 

 

[RHhe82]

MAP12: Thrown to the Wolves. HNTR, PS, 367/367 K, 1/1 S, 17/17 I. Comp. time 15:50

 

I guess it is a bit easier than Wanderlust, but dang, even on HNTR, I don't think I'm up for a midfightsaveless run. Almost, closer than in Wanderlust, but not quite. Anyhoo, what a lovely level, with fun, slaughtery fights. The first one I did without mfsaves, and I guess I could have done the outside area with imps and mancubi at first, but with the revenant wave my nerves got the better of me.

 

But the fight with the cacocloud and two cyberdemons patrolling the central hall. I kind of, well, not disliked that fight, but the cacos and cybies would keep out of each other's skins; Cacos wouldn't enter the hallway, and cybers wouldn't enter Cacos domain where mastermind once resided. Not even when I had cleared cacodemons and was chaingunning cybers from there.

 

The final fight was fun, too, but suffered from the fact that I had to take care of the three cybers personally. Maybe I just failed at inciting enough infight, but that's how it went.

 

But what's with all this negativity, when in fact Thrown to the Wolves is a top tier map in a megawad that has had only very good to great maps. Besides, does the map use stock textures only, except for the sky and a couple of support textures? Love it when author's are able to do that.

 

It's official, from now on I'll be on the lookout for Scotty's maps, bearing high expectations. 

[finnks13]

MAP12 - Thrown to the Wolves by Scotty:

DEATHS - 15
An accurate title, that. I really disliked this map, it seemed to intentionally be designed to put me in a foul mood and is the only map so far this month that has actively frustrated me. I will admit that poor strategy on my part led me to have a death loop at the revenant horde, which annoyed me further and just ruined the rest of the map. I kept trying to fight them outside, when there's just not enough health and space to do so, where I should have been trying to survive for long enough to run back inside and pick them off from there. The spider mastermind + caco cloud section went on for rather too long, you've got enough rockets and health in the main section that they're more of a time-sink than actual threat, and this is not including the two infinite rocket dispensers you have at your disposal.

 

I have to give credit that this map looks absolutely phenomenal, using almost entirely vanilla marble textures to fantastic effect (the only non-vanilla texture I saw was a grey marble flat on the outside section) - it's the best vanilla, green marble fortress I've seen in a while and the atmosphere is great. While it certainly adds to the feeling of dread, I don't like the MIDI, I have no nostalgia for Final Fantasy 7 and after the first couple of loops I just found it annoying. I did also like the opening fight of imps and archviles, and the finale is pretty fun too, but the revenant swarm got under my skin and ruined the map for me. Unfortunate as I expect with foreknowledge of a strategy, I wouldn't have minded it.

 

RANKINGS:

Spoiler

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

 

[FragsBunny]

MAP11: Wanderlust (99/100/100)

1.       Mancubus projectiles are partially invisible

2.       Mancubus respawn once per death

3.       One monster is cursed. Killing it duplicates nearby monsters

 

I was hoping to play three more maps this evening, but got exhausted after this. Like the later levels in the set, this one quickly escalates from micro to macro slaughter. While I was still short on ammo from “The Green Mind”, I still had access to BFG, which quickly substituted the plasma gun in the first major fight. You are given an invulnerability sphere, but due to simultaneous pressure from three Cyberdemons and all that shit that comes from outside, there is no choice but to use it almost immediately. I chose to use the invul time to rush at least two Cyberdemons, but that made me getting nearly overwhelmed by a large cadre of Hell Knights. After clearing the main arena, only two Spiderdemons needed to be cleared.

 

The second arena is not that hard if you simply aggro most of revenants outside – while there is a linedef that locks you in the arena, you can kill the revs before crossing it. After that, just snipe the spiders and viles with RL, followed by cyber on a throne. Don’t forget to kill the bunch of revs behind the throne! In the actual encounter, you can use the area with BFG as your foothold, smothering the horde with green rays until it is safe to circlestrafe them.

 

And then there is the unexpected finale. Just several Cyberdemons and a large number of arch-viles. While the final megasphere should be grabbed ASAP, to restock on cell ammo you must somehow get past viles and cybers – and the author tactfully seals the only other passage to them! Man, I must be getting too old for all of this…

[Alaxzandarz]

Played with pistol-starts on UV on DSDA-Doom

 

Map 12: Thrown to the Wolves

 

Another vanilla marble castle. This map too has very efficient use of space. Most of the fights are a bit unintuitive, generally killing the enemies yourself in the last two fights is easier than having the cybers do it. I'm very thankful for the chaingun that is given to the player in the second fight, rocketing surviving imps is a pain. UV has no backbag, not too much of a problem but the BFG usage has to be a bit more careful. I like the midi but it gets annoying after couple of loops. I liked this map.

 

My rankings:

Spoiler

1: The Cradle

2: Concrete Vice

3: Wanderlust

4: Floodplain

5: Thrown to the Wolves

6: The Green Mind

7: Infinium

8: Firebug

9: Magma Templum

10: The Wheelhouse

11: Snoutish Pug Nose

12: The Barbican

 

[xX_Lol6_Xx]

While I won't play Haste cuz I don't have much free time now, I must say that Micro Slaughter was one of the best wads I've ever played, you can see it in my posts.

I still think that Map 09 is the best map, but overall, the wad has very solid gameplay, even on ITYTD

 

And before leaving here are my votes :-)

 

• +++DBP37: Auger;Zenith
• +++HeXen: Beyond Heretic
• +++Ray Mohawk's Manic Monday & Ray Mohawk 2

Edited April 26, 2022 by Lol 6 : Added the +++

[cannonball]

MAP12 - “Thrown to the Wolves” by Scotty

 

The early stages of this map probably contain some of the most fun combat seen in this wad, the second half is by far the most breakable......

The starting area and the outdoor section is absolute carnage, who doesn't love annihilating imps. The archviles offer sufficient pressure but it is never overwhelming. The mass of revenants is a bit of a ballbuster, but essentially you need to be fully stocked on rockets and try to prevent them from entering the outdoor area, because that is when they are likely to kill you. Getting the BFG is not the priority here. Despite some comments above, I really enjoyed this fight.

The section from getting the red key carries a problem, mostly that you can easily skip the mass of cacodemons and essentially lock them out. o you have two cyberdemons in the start area which you can then use to infight with the horde behind the red key switch (I don't think this is entirely intentional). I was left with a handful of barons that I could clear with the BFG before grabbing the yellow key (Which allowed the cacodemons to enter the central section and of course they immediately start infighting with the cyberdemons by the exit). Mopping everything up from here is pretty easy, so much so that I had one megasphere to spare by the yellow key switch. 

I am a little torn here, there are fights that I loved in this one (Essentially the first half), and there wasn't anything I actively disliked. However the second half of the map is too open to abuse, and as such means that the encounters can be reduced from high-pressure slaughter to trivial fights. 

Heh was there a spider mastermind? Come to think of it, I think it perished without me even seeing her...

[LadyMistDragon]

oh fuck it ;p)

 

+++Hexen: Beyond Heretic

[Arwel]

Haste Map12 - Thrown to the Wolves by Scotty

UV, 100% kills, 1 secret

 

Remarkably grimy atmosphere of this map contrasts with how much joy its combat bring. For me, the keystone idea here is mancubi-imps-archviles interplay. This combination worked really well in two encounters based on it. Other fights have more conventional monster compositions but also some unexpected interconnection opportunities, such as kiting revenants from soulsphere area to others or having an option to either bring cacos wave to the hallway asap or leave them behind the locked bars until the latter. I also appreciate the opportunity to infight the first cyberdemon to unawaken backwards facing crowd gradually. Overall, great map with some amazing fights and freedom to experiment combining waves together.

[NiGHTS108]

MAP11: Wanderlust

By Archi & Insane_Gazebo

Kills: 100%

Items: 100%

Secrets: 100%

Time: 9:35

 

Another real heavyweight at the bat here, Wanderlust once more mostly consists of a few distinct fights, but man does it have some bite, the hardest fight easily is when you pick up the yellow key, the entire castle will immediately fill up with demons of all sorts, and you can't wait by the Masterminds because even though they infight quickly, some of them don't and you CAN get caught in the crossfire, I suggest here spamming rockets until the Invuln runs out, then using plasma and rockets only when you can, with enough luck you should be okay, I like the fight after that too, the throne room of the castle contains a surprisingly threating Revenant swarm, so stay frosty with those Viles, and especially when the throne arms lower, adding more of them to the ring, then get the blue key, a late BFG, blast your way out of there, and endure one last fight with another mob of Arch-Viles and Cyberdemons, they infight if you're lucky, not much else to say, another solid crackerjack from Haste

 

Grade: A-

Difficulty: A+

 

 

For voting?

 

+++ Judgment

+++ Ray Mohawk I + II

 

I couldn't really care less for Hexen and Number One Kill but I'll still be here if they win, might use my third on Auger or TNT2, they're both cool but I don't know what I want right now

[cannonball]

Before I forget, I will actually make a wad choice this month.

+++ Judgement

[RHhe82]

MAP13: Rotting Under the Foot of Time. HNTR, PS, 190/190 K, 0/0 S, 16/17 I. Comp. time 12:39

 

This is the sort of level I just don't get. I see levels like these played religiously on some YT channels and Twitch streams, so I'm sure levels like Rotting Under the Foot of Time have their target audience and that they hold them in high regard. It's just not for me. This is different from Nirvana's Haste levels, where even if the levels are not for me, I can see why someone would love them, and even I can see a lot of redeeming qualities in many departments.

 

RUtFoT seems in part like an (intentionally) amateurish map (except for the BSK area, that's a cool one) with weird texture misalignments, HoM effects (at least on hardware renderer?) and stock soundtrack. In many ways a sharp departure from what we've seen so far.

 

On a more positive note: the map title is one of the best I've seen, I already mentioned the BSK area, the weird fireblu pillar (I take it that's the "foot of time") is captivating. The automap (checked with IDDT) looks curious, is it some sort of tank on fire?

 

I don't know. I guess the artistic core philosophy on this mapping genre is that the presentation is trivial, it's the combat puzzle that counts.  Like some movies don't even pretend to take place outside a stage with actors acting upon it.

[brick]

Haste MAP11 - "Wanderlust" by Archi, Insane_Gazebo
Right off the bat the opening view took me aback, so much detail and impressive looking architecture. The boats in the distance once again gave me that Minecraft vibe. The music eventually got on my nerves, I think it works well with a short and quick map, which this isn't in any way. The sights though! Getting inside the citadel is one thing, but the great hall behind the yellow door is beautiful, with tons of detailing, and it even manages to make Fireblu not look out of place. Unfortunately, the combat kept knocking down my appreciation for the map with every encounter. I'm rather proud of myself as I managed to make it all the way to that great hall without cheating, and with all 3 cybers unleashed I just made a dash for the exit... which isn't one of course. That's the point I just cheated my way to the real exit. Looking at the monster count on the wiki, I'm baffled at the one-skill-only approach to difficulty in a wad that had so far been so remarkable for making ITYTD/HNTR so accessible to slaughter babies. Shame, because with some difficulty balancing this could've easily been a map everyone agrees is awesome. As it stands, slaughterers will probably love it but I'm only capable of appreciating it from a distance, so to speak.

 

Haste MAP12 - "Thrown to the Wolves" by Scotty
I was enjoying myself until the cybers teleport in and the cacos swarm, at which point frustration started settling in. As before, figuring out the "puzzle" is easy, but getting the enemies to behave the way you need them to gets exhausting. Then I got the 3 cybers and the wall of demons/knights/barons coming behind you, and after another series of deaths trying to get the cybers to shoot at the right time without getting mauled to death by everything else I felt that the map had indeed thrown me to the wolves. I feel bad not playing it fair, but I just didn't have the patience; I gave up and cheated. Looking at the enemy placements was a bit strange, while the other 2 big fights have great balancing for different difficulties, the last one is almost identical across all three.
While going through this map I really appreciated the difficulty curve Bauul discussed and the frequency with which MSCP implemented breather maps. Haste is more relentless IMO, though slaughterers will probably appreciate this more.

 

Haste MAP13 - "Rotting Under the Foot of Time" by Benjogami
Another breathtaking opening view that made me wonder for a second if this was truly "just" a Boom-compatible map. Thanks to some simple yet very clever sector setup and texture (mis)alignment, the optical illusion briefly made me think I was staring down a true slope. The map itself plays a bit strange at first, there are all these side rooms with small encounters and a ton of healing (soulspheres and megaspheres), most of which I saved for later, and two exits through lava floor. The red key is a gauntlet of sorts where you run across a thin zigzag ledge dodging archvile fire, face more archviles at the key (I didn't quite understand what those died to), then run back. The blue key is a more traditional slaughter, with a choice beforehand of which of the 3 bonuses you want (annoyingly, the 4th option drops you in an inescapable pit). It's a strange map with some design decisions I'm not a fan of, but overall I liked it.

[RHhe82]

11 minutes ago, brick said:

I'm baffled at the one-skill-only approach to difficulty in a wad that had so far been so remarkable for making ITYTD/HNTR so accessible to slaughter babies.

 

Are you saying that it makes absolutely no difference whether you played Wanderlust on HNTR or UV? (ITYTD has double ammo in any case, but that would have made only a small difference).

[brick]

1 minute ago, RHhe82 said:

Are you saying that it makes absolutely no difference whether you played Wanderlust on HNTR or UV? (ITYTD has double ammo in any case, but that would have made only a small difference).

Unless the wiki page for the map is wrong, there's no difference in item placement, everything is flagged to appear in all difficulties. Though as you pointed out the engine-inherent changes (half damage and double ammo on ITYTD, fast and respawning monsters on NM) will still apply. Mind you there are other very highly regarded wads that do this, Sunder being the first to come to mind. I think it's just down to expectation, I know Sunder is so far above my skill level I haven't even tried playing it (one day, one day...), and it surprised me in Haste because the earlier maps were so nicely balanced for lower difficulty too.

[Thelokk]

Alright, sadly I'll be opting out from the rest of Haste because, honestly... it's just not that great. Or, at least, after not really enjoying four maps in a row it probably means I have little meaningful to contribute to the conversation.

 

My votes are: 

 

+++ Anomaly Report

+++ Old Still Life