SPEED WEED - Happy 4/20 🌿

[Jimmy]

 

A bunch of shitpost-y Plutonia-style levels for the Doom 2 IWAD.

^{(Probably best experienced while chuffing back a fat dart or however it is you guys say it idk I never smoked)}

 

These maps arose from a few scatterbrained voice-chats back in 2022.

 

They have not been extensively playtested or balanced.

 

I don't know exactly why it's taken this long for us to put this out, but 4/20 seems as good a time as any.

 

Download "Speed Weed":

Dropbox Mirror

/idgames Mirror

Requires PRBoom+ or DSDADoom, -complevel 9.

 

Screenshots:

 

Name: Speed Weed
Game: Doom 2
Ports Tested: DSDADoom, GZDoom
Map: MAP01-10
Music: See readme (TODO: Make readme)
Gameplay: Single play only
Difficulty Settings: Maybe
Multiplayer Placement: No
Build Time: Like a couple days, tops
Requirements: Jumping/crouching/freelook not encouraged. (These are Boom-compatible maps.)

 

Maplist:

01 - 421 by @Alper002
02 - Maschine Gun Man by @RiviTheWarlock
03 - Green Speed by @Alper002
04 - Cabin of the Chunted by @KeaganDunn
05 - Under Pressure by @Kevansevans
06 - Alfonzoless by @RiviTheWarlock
07 - Bloodweed by @Jimmy
08 - Do We Even Smoke? by @Alper002
09 - Post-Nuclear Hopscotch by @RiviTheWarlock
10 - Crucified by a Ball-Peen Hammer by @RiviTheWarlock

 

 

lude deed wmao

Edited May 11, 2023 by Jimmy

[Andrea Rovenski]

tfw no bicycle day wad 😭 

 

looks fun!

[NeilForshaw]

LOL . Dat date. Very appropriate XD

[Bobby :D]

Finally the perfect wad to play while bumping the Chronic

Join along

 

[kevansevans]

I'm the reason this took a few days, because I can't speed map

[Superjustinbros]

These maps look pretty exciting with some challenging and chaotic encounters; I'll have to give them a run at some point.

[Lucius Wooding]

Oh yes, zooting and shooting are 2 of my favorite things.

[Shakariki Heisenberg]

11 minutes ago, Andrea Rovenski said:

tfw no bicycle day wad 😭 

 

looks fun!

WEED AND BLEED BABYEEE

[ShallowB]

BONG RIP AND TEAR!

[Lucius Wooding]

Tried the first map and it slaps. Going to blaze through the rest of it tomorrow, I look forward to it if it's more of the same style.

 

Also, I didn't have a timer onscreen but I finished the first map with a time of 4:19 ffs. Clearly a failure on my part.

[HorseJockey]

Well, I know what I'm doing at midnight tonight. Thanks Jimmy!

 

Edited April 20, 2023 by HorseJockey

[The Final Event]

I'm gonna rip a nutty bong

[General Roasterock]

Allow me to express my content that the majority of Plutonia style sets is shifting towards comedy. Very nice work, team.

 

EDIT: I retract my nice work, Jimmy made an actual map.

Edited April 21, 2023 by General Roasterock

[The Final Event]

2 minutes ago, General Roasterock said:

Allow me to express my content that the majority of Plutonia style sets is shifting towards comedy. Very nice work, team.

after all these years we found out what the experiment part in the plutonia experiment was testing

[kevansevans]

The real experiment was the plutonia we made along the way

[HorseJockey]

I had allot of fun with these maps. Played the first five but my recording for pressure didn't save, so here is a segmented run of the first four. Happy 20th.

 

 

[RiviTheWarlock]

I'm sorry in advance to everyone who's going to play my maps.

[RED77]

Play till map04. I found a softblock there. once you trigger the final fight you can scape before the door closes, traping you on the map start area

[ShallowB]

Only played about half of them, but so far it’s a lot of fun! It’s nice to have some short and sweet maps, I seem to have been playing a lot of sprawling epics lately.

 

Ammo is pretty tight in the first two maps, but if that’s the intention then it works. 

[HorseJockey]

58 minutes ago, RiviTheWarlock said:

I'm sorry in advance to everyone who's going to play my maps.

I really enjoyed Maschine Gun Man, the opening section was allot of fun trying to avoid dying when the monster closets open up.

[El Juancho]

Map 06 was my fav, cruel, short and fun.

[Lucius Wooding]

Overall this set really didn’t miss much and it’s definitely up my alley. I was expecting a fun novelty mapset but this is one of the better short and punchy sets I might recommend in general. Accessible enough, but with some teeth and mostly pretty blind friendly with the exception of the last 3 though I had deaths on pretty much all of them. Usually with speedmaps I find the combat either too easy or too chaotic but the layouts and monster placement were very nicely done. I only wish there were a few more secrets thrown in, although it’s possible I missed untagged secrets, and no doubt due to the short development they weren’t a point of emphasis.

 

Overall there was usually more restraint and good taste than most Plutonia based WADs, this and Plutonia 2 I feel are the 2 best I’ve played. It also fits in with a Coffee Break or Scythe 1 style WAD of short and fun maps in general. It captures the Plutonia vibe really well and doesn’t treat it like a meme or imitate too much. Also, each mapper had at least one that I really enjoyed; usually in any project with a handful of contributors will have at least that one guy whose maps I just don’t vibe with. Well done to all the mappers, and I’ll make some more detailed comments in the spoiler. I did find a couple sequence breaks and softlocks which are mentioned below as well.

 

Spoiler

Map 1:

The first revenant ambush was a bit alarming but I was able to deal with it by sniping with rockets from a good spot. I love the heavy use of rockets and the health is somewhat plentiful while the ammo is a bit more tight. I’d also say that this map tees up the enemies a bit more, while OG Plutonia tends to make a lot of them awkward to kill (like that damn archvile nest in map 1). This makes the map hum along nicely as long as you don’t whiff rockets and you make good use of your splash damage.

 

Nothing too mean here (I had one death since I didn’t go for RL early and also didn’t grab the soulsphere) and the architecture and layout are pretty utilitarian and make the business of rocketing stuff very manageable.

 

 

Map 2:

I like the chaingun gameplay as well as the fight after dropping down. I was able to make the mancubus infight one of the chaingunners which was nice given the ammo limitations. I like that I had to pick apart the various tricky enemy positions with only the chaingun, and got into a squeeze in terms of health and ammo if I didn’t risk moving forward. This map was all about good positioning and patience which is one of the traits I like about most Plutonia maps. If I hadn’t pistol started I imagine it’d be somewhat easier but I think the ammo was balanced just about perfectly. The final fight was also very true to Plutonia, luckily the secret RL helped me out. I had one death here but it was extremely stupid, due to the last revenant on the lower level and my own hesitation.

 

Map 3:

This map is a bit of trial and error, but I’m glad the floors don’t hurt at least. Once I found my way through the obstacle course I managed okay. I love the mix of pursuing and turret enemies and the abundant health, it’s clear you’re meant to run around and play this a bit pacifist until the RL which I’m down with. That fight was a menace and took some figuring out, and the final bit before getting the key is anxiety-inducing. It felt like I needed to figure out a fairly specific sequence of moves to solve it but at the same time it can turn to chaos very easily if you get aggressive monsters or drop speed. In general, the cacodemons are super annoying and the arena is well suited for them if they don’t infight; I had to dust off the shotgun and pick them off to claim the rocket launcher.

 

Fairly deadly map, but for non continuous it’s fine. I felt there were a couple sections you could take a breather and clear monsters for safety but most likely if the cyber infights well and you’re super fast, I bet you could clear this very fast just running through. It’s pretty punishing but I feel it’s still pretty fair. Also kudos for the fact that there was barely any mop up, the cyberdemon killed most things efficiently so it didn't drag on.

 

Finally, I was also able to skip one switch (that reveals a Hell Knight) with an SR40 jump which was possibly intended, but I ended up doing it normally since I wanted all kills anyway. Since that jump is fairly straightforward but requires a clear run up, it’s very unreliable with all the imps wandering around. For that reason it's actually a risk/reward element for UV Speed runners so it's a good feature to keep.

 

 

Map 4:

I like the concept of this one, it’s somewhat unlike anything I remember from Plutonia but it has the right kind of gameplay. Clearing out the main building is painstaking and I ended up running around in a panic with low health and having to fight cybers with no margin for error. The pop up chaingunners I dislike on principle, but they provide an essential element to chase you out of the key room and into the cyberdemon’s buttcrack. The megasphere and well distributed health are wisely placed, and I like that there were plenty of cells as well as some good camping points. One of the things I tend to like from Plutonia based maps is the ability to usually proceed at a slow pace through very awkwardly placed monsters. Usually to get an efficient kill you need to run into very dangerous places, but in most cases you can snipe off a good deal of the opposition in advance if you go slowly. And then there’s the very uncomfortable cyberdemon and equally deadly doors that make things tough around that section, especially since he can easily wander.

 

I did manage to softlock myself on my second attempt where I still got all kills. Since you obviously placed a trap at the end, I quickly ran back out the yellow door immediately after hitting the final switch. Unfortunately the door closed permanently and there’s no way back into the final area unless you can archvile jump perhaps. However you can retreat to the elevator and ride it up to make everything infight and then snipe or fire plasma or rockets from in front of the crater and kill both cybers that way with no chance of taking damage. I’d recommend perhaps making this door move quicker, give it a SR trigger instead of S1 (if you want to allow this cheesing), or you could make a different sector near the door raise up more quickly to block it once you get near the switch. If I’d known the final fight were so easy by comparison I wouldn’t have bothered, it’s mainly a U-maneuver fest while things infight and then don’t die like an idiot to the cybers, but it’s optional anyway. Overall a very solid little map with a few interesting curveballs.

 

 

Map 5:

Vaguely reminds me of Blood and Rockets from Going Down although it plays fairly differently and I suppose it’s more of a Baron’s Lair style. Cool fights in general, the room with all the lifts was an interesting one and really isn’t too bad but I managed to die twice there. Everything opening up for the cyber turret is a cool gimmick but there was a fair bit of cover throughout the map so it made it very menacing without being too oppressive. The ending fight with everything blocked by bars is a fun one, not too nasty to ruin your run but there's plenty of ammo and stuff to kill. The plasma is very good to have for that part but it seemed there was plenty of ammo without it.

 

I do kinda like the option to deal with the cyberdemon once you get the SSG since there are plenty of shells. BUT you can also grab the blue key without triggering him (it's precise but can certainly be done from the west side at least, and doesn't require mouse movement or anything fancy). This doesn't really break the map and removes him as a major nuisance. The problem is, if you do this and never reveal him before telefragging him, you'll softlock if you take the teleporter. Of course you could trigger the walls at a later point if you want all kills but it's clearly unintended.

 

Less of an issue and more of a cool strategy I came up with, you can keep the door from closing before the yellow key chaingunner trap by standing in the way, which helps a bunch since you can run straight out and avoid a bit of damage. I think running to one of the medikits there and using the chaingun is still very viable and doesn't cost too much health, but you can make it behind cover while the walls are lowering and prevent them from getting shots off while you're surrounded.

 

 

Map 6:

This one was a little bit tricky and certainly had some mean monster placements thrown in. It took me a while to figure out how to deal with the cyberdemon in the outdoor area; this was mainly due to my having lowish health which made it tough to BFG the archviles consistently and I also needed to avoid splash damage and green fireballs. Finally I had one attempt where that fight went pretty textbook and it was very fun to get right. The earlier fights were pretty doable and fun; you made them very scary looking and in tight quarters but due to infighting and available cover you could usually avoid the worst.

 

There seemed to be an untextured ceiling right by the SSG? Also I can grab the SSG without triggering stuff.

 

Map 7:

This was a bit different, more of an exploration based map that was very fun to clear out. I felt the difficulty was a bit lower than most of the WAD up to this point, but this was also much more slow paced aside from a couple ambushes. Probably the best looking map IMO with the classic architecture, and I think the decision not to use hurtfloors was good, it made the map go a lot more smoothly and it might have been a lot tougher otherwise. It reminds me a bit of Genesis or Neurosphere and has some nice long range combat. It also makes good use of lighting and decorations for something that was made fairly quickly. Its placement in this WAD is later than I'd expect, but then again I'm not certain if it uses MAP07 based tags since I didn't notice anything obvious.

 

 

The only flaw I could find is that there’s a misaligned gargoyle switch on the side of the raising bridge near the end, I think it's only on one side and can only be seen when it's raised.

 

 

Map 8:

Kill count after first group of imps: 4

Kill count after 2nd group of imps: 20

Total Kills: 69

Pardon me for being blunt, but with so many winners you were due for a map like this. I bet playing continuous you could rocket or BFG the archviles right after taking the teleporter, but with only a shotgun I just ended up getting sparked like a fat bowl. 

I tried passing the archviles around to the left but still got obliterated every time. It seems like there's a possibility of shotgunning all the imps while going side to side behind cover to cycle the archvile attacks. Once the imps are dead however, I have no idea how the HK wave can be triggered without a shitload of luck. Usually I can't even find a single spot to hide until both walls open and the powerups get revealed. Furthermore there are a shitload of archviles; too many to kill without the RL and it basically guarantees one or two will be aggressive and target you in an instant. With the health available it's pretty much guaranteed to be a 1 hit quitter room. And then the damaging bong water floors as well... For shame. Maybe with a megasphere you could just tank a few blasts and get the RL consistently before still having lots of work to do, but the cover available is very ill suited to dealing with 2 squads of archies and there's nothing but trouble in that whole area.

 

Perhaps there's some genius strat I'm missing, Alper's map 3 was legitimately very clever and balanced and map 1 was a fun opener so I was still impressed overall with said contributions. This one seems more sadistic and luck based, although probably still possible. I'm assuming the last 3 maps had a bit of humor behind them or certainly were meant to curb stomp the player a lot more than the rest.

 

 

Map 9:

This was a platforming map, with very nasty and cruel use of monsters. However I like the concept of having to hold ground on a bunch of islands basically; the monsters are very oppressive and there's limited supplies and even more limited space to move. The platforming isn't ridiculously precise or anything, but it's very punishing as is falling down. There are no ways back up that I'm aware of, and even taking a couple of cycles of damage would be enough to be run killing anyway. What this map has going for it is the fact that it's very short, and none of the fights seem that unfair though the terrain makes them very tough. It's pretty blind unfriendly which isn't that big of an issue. The main cause of this being that you cannot react to anything since there isn't room to dodge or switch weapons. It's very necessary to memorize each weapon change and fight and fortunately it's not 30 minutes long because almost any mistake will cause a fall or death. You can't really dance with the revenants or pinkies without being very sure of your position so you need to have a plan. Although I'm critical of this map, I do think it's pretty well done and came out how it was meant to be. Just a bit outside of my skills at the moment; it's frustrating and requires very good execution for the whole run without any real breaks. 

 

I found the secret to be pretty useless outside of getting 100% kills on map 10, so I assume that's the intention. If it's supposed to be for mopping up, I think this map encourages getting all kills very strongly so you won't be interfered with during platforming. It's hard to even advance in a lot of cases without clearing monsters since the islands are so small.

 

The barrels are somewhat awkward to shoot and don’t really work effectively most of the time. I love some good barrel action and I think they're underused in general. I bet there are a lot of clever uses for them in a map like this, as destructible invisible walls that can temporarily stop you from falling in certain places, as a hazard or a means of forcing the player to clear them first before moving on (while Doomguy is being chewed by lost souls), to weaken or slow an enemy wave, etc. 

 

Map 10:

This one had FIREBLU which makes it a winner in my book. 

 

Thanks to all mappers for their contributions, I think 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 were pretty equally my favorites which happens to be one map from each of you. Although you call them shitpost style, I think the majority are legitimately good for an off the cuff style project and better than many others where the mapper tries hard.

[Captain POLAND]

What's the music on level 8?

 

 

[Zonky]

"chuffing back a fat dart"

 

That got a hearty chuckle out of me ngl, never change Jimmy ^^

[Shepardus]

1 hour ago, Captain POLAND said:

What's the music on level 8?

 

 

https://jamespaddock.bandcamp.com/track/cyber-passage

The metadata in the MIDI says it's for the Plutonia 2 intermission screen, but I guess it wasn't used?

[Alper002]

10 hours ago, Lucius Wooding said:

Map 3:

(...)

I was also able to skip one switch

(...)

Not intended at all, but I don't care enough to "fix" it. People can enjoy that skip if they want!

 

Quote

Map 8:

Kill count after first group of imps: 4

Kill count after 2nd group of imps: 20

Total Kills: 69

I didn't even notice that first part! That's great! :D

69 monsters was definitely 90% intentional though! (monster count landed at 68 while making it so I added an extra one at the end)

 

Now, I can't help but want to explain things that confuse people, so...

 

Quote

It seems like there's a possibility of shotgunning all the imps while going side to side behind cover to cycle the archvile attacks.

You don't have to always go side-to-side, there's a little bit in the middle where you're safe from both arch-vile sets! It's even sort of marked on the floor!

 

Quote

This one seems more sadistic and luck based, although probably still possible.

It hasn't been thoroughly tested (though I did use a fair bit of speedmapping time to test it iirc lol), but I have a decently consistent way of completing it.

A lot of it revolves around realizing what areas are safe from the Arch-Viles' line of sight, (like the key platform, or the lil' powerup cubbies past the locked door) and then dealing with the Hell Knights first.

"Sadistic" is probably a decently appropriate adjective though, still. It's certainly not the kindest thing I've put out, and the damaging brown water was definitely for the sake of my own laughs.

 

Happy to hear you really enjoyed my other maps in the set, though!

[RiviTheWarlock]

WE'RE NOW ON ID GAMES PEOPLE:
https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/s-u/spdwd

Jimmy please update your download links I beg you