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The DWmegawad Club plays: Solar Struggle

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2 minutes ago, Book Lord said:

Nobody does this and it's not a requirement in any project that I am aware of. I am not complaining about my choices at all, just telling people how a map plays out with -fast monsters, which is quite an uncommon feedback to receive

 

Heh. Now I'm thinking about the potential for an entire project that's designed for -fast.

 

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17 minutes ago, Capellan said:

 

Heh. Now I'm thinking about the potential for an entire project that's designed for -fast.

 

 

A new user tried to initiate a Community project based upon -fast monsters last year, but the silence it was met with was rather discouraging. His ideas needed some tuning, but it's an interesting concept for mapping. "-fast" is a parameter that can be added to every skill level, not only on UV like the Compet-N speedrunning category, so I am surprised that the Doom community has not already made any experiment with it. You cannot use your usual design tropes for encounters with -fast monsters: their speed can either jeopardise or make a standard setup unbearable. The perfect example is the Arch-Vile behaviour: a -fast Arch-Vile will attack on sight and playing peek-a-boo with him is a good way to remove him from the board, while a standard UV Arch-Vile is more mobile, can easily dodge attacks and charge towards the player. On the other hand, elevated AVs used for area negation are a chore with -fast. You have to get rid of them or you won't sneak past their nose just because you can straferun.

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11 hours ago, SMG_Man said:

 

regarding E4M6 (my contribution to the megawad),

  Hide contents

When designing the level I really expected more people to be aware of the Cyberdemon trigger on this map,

There are few people that have played the OG so many times and have studied it enough to know it like the back of their hand, especially Ultimate Doom which tends to be dismissed as outdated and limited. Consider how many do not know the slots that hold the exit to the secret levels!

 

Mass Propulsion is quite mysterious in its use of the Cyberdemon trigger, as you cannot be sure of what happens if you kill the Cybers. I do not think the players will have an easier experience if they know about Tag 666; they still do not know what it does and will have to find it by searching. It's quite a cryptic map under many aspects, but you were kind to make the sewer shortcut which could lead players to the exit without forcing them to explore the whole map. The rest is there for completionists, and there are a few curious spots to uncover in the hidden parts.

 

MegaWADs like Solar Struggle have the great merit of showing the community there is a lot that can be accomplished with the standard resources, and that along with the next iteration of "X secs/Y lines/Z monsters" it could be worth exploring the possibilities of the limited Doom bestiary. The texture pack here contains Ultimate Doom + Doom II textures, 4 new skies, and only a handful of custom textures (water falls from Plutonia and moon rock originally from Duke Nukem 3D). How many convincing environments have been designed with these quasi-vanilla resources, and how many good fights have we been through?

Edited by Book Lord

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E4M6 Mass Propulsion by SMG_MAN

Spoiler

woof0054.png.31b328821c642ab958c0b21a78c06f54.png

I have no fucking clue what's going on here.

 

Mass Propulsion starts in a cramped base, which quickly turns into a fight against a pair of cyberdemons. While those bastards teleport around and can greet you with a rocket to the face after opening a door, there are tons of rockets scattered around and more invulns than you need. Once they died, I wandered around for a bit until I pressed a switch that unlocked the yellow key. It opened a number of bars throught the map and spawned more demons. Remember the monster-only teleport lines I mentioned? Yeah, they just throw stuff around, making it harder to track them down.

Spoiler

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After this, little of note happended - mostly incidental combat, a bit of secret hunting, a change of scenety into a demonic fort and the map ends. For a novice's work, it's not bad, but I think in a project this coherent, Mass Propulsion's experimentation feels out of place.

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E4M6 - Mass Propulsion - SMG_MAN (50%K/75%I/50%S):

Another map made by a man with a gun, this time it is an SMG, and this time, the map does not feel like a behemoth, luckly, still, it is quite gimmicky. We have here a really decent Ultimate Doom layout here, with tons of corridors. The idea here is to escape cyberdemons that roam around the complex, until you get enough resources and an invulnerability sphere to face-rocket at least one of them. I don't know what the 666 line triggers here by killing all of them, I just knew I had to do it. After doing so, you can proceed with the yellow key. After the yellow key the map gets infested with low/mid tier enemies. There were many things to explore, that I did not explore because of how exhausted of playing I became after E4M5, so I have to say sorry I did not appreciate SMG Man's map a little bit more, so I quickly exited this one.
In terms of looks, it does look quite amateurish at times, but nothing too ugly and certainly not the worst we've seen in Solar Struggle. In terms of gameplay, fun, but quite gimmicky, I would have totally accepted this as a M9 because of its nature. Fun idea. But I hated every time I was dealing with the cyberdemons and they teleported somewhere else, you will never feel calm after that.

Order of preference:

 

Spoiler

 

E2M7
E4M5
E4M1

E2M3
E2M6
E3M1
E2M8
E3M6
E3M4

E2M2

E1M6
E3M2

E3M5
E3M3

E1M4
E4M3

E1M2
E4M9
E1M3
E2M5
E4M6
E2M1
E1M8
E1M1
E4M2
E3M8
E1M5
E3M7

E2M4
E3M9
E1M9

E2M9

E1M7

E4M4 unrated (own map)

 


 

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E4M6: Mass Propulsion. Played on DSDA v0.25.6, UV, PS. 210/210 K, 12/12 S, 65/68 I. Comp. time 42:39

 

I have mixed feelings on this one. The initial cyberdemon duo that haunts your wandering is supposed to conjure feelings of being hunted down, but I was merely stressed, and dealt with them by snatching invuln sphere and then spread my rockets onto them. Not exciting, especially after running out of invulns, and having to dodge (read: save, try, fail, load, try, ...) the rockets. Once you're done with them, and obtain the yellow key, the more conventional going ensues, and I can relax a little. From this point onward Mass propulsion becomes a decent level, but a bit basic. It's like Doom II map, but with the Solar Struggle E4 twist of being a little confusing to navigate with all the teleporters. (and better visuals than in Doom II).

 

Mass Propulsion suffers from its placement right after mammoth map. Also, we're in the final stretch of four episode, adding to the fatigue alraedy felt by the player, it was always going to be at a disadvantage, especially for someone insisting on UV-MAXing.

 

I totally forgot the special E4M6 tags, *even* on this third playthrough, *even* when I instinctly get you have to kill the cybies for the map to really get going. This has me slightly confused, especially since the locale is expansive, and the teleports disorient you further. Without these grievances, Mass Propulsion would be more enjoyable. Maybe I need to replay it separately one day in a refreshed mood.

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E4M6 - "Mass Propulsion" by SMG_Man
MIDI: "Cry of Desperation" by Tristan Clark (Eris Falling)
dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl3, UV, Pistol start, blind run
100% kills and secrets
Deaths: 5
Time: 41:58


This level has the most terrifying opening to any level in Solar Struggle. On UV, you're thrust into a game of cat and mouse with two cyberdemons (three if you're in multiplayer!), and you're the mouse. You have to hunt around a bit for the rocket launcher, but the real problem is finding enough rockets to take them out. Luckily there are plenty of invulnerability spheres around to help you out. Those spheres are the only thing that makes this part fun, since if you get in a bad spot you can always grab one for some breathing room. Still, hearing a cyberdemon open a door or teleport in near you is still scary. This part of the level is by far the best part of this level. You have to kill all of the cyberdemons to get access to the yellow key that will let you progress. On lower skill levels this level is completely different and I can't speak to that.

 

Spoiler

sstruggle46-01.jpg.d4e76d230c7848d5de36238ca9308d8f.jpg

The hooves of the cyberdemons echo in this dark hallway


The massive teleport ambush when you grab the yellow key is pretty fun too. They teleport all over the level that used to be empty, which is exciting since you'll not know what's around each corner. Unfortunately, after this point the level gets kind of boring. I kind of wish it had just ended here... I would be praising this level as one of my favorites.

 

Spoiler

sstruggle46-02.jpg.043fc70b3a30acf0cf65a1c69bdff302.jpg

Another part of the cyberdemon mouse hunt maze


Unfortunately that's not to be. After hitting the yellow key switch you have three different paths to the exit: one involves hunting down a few switches across the level, another has you wading through damaging sewage while dodging crushers, and the last has you hunting down an obscure switch in a lava maze. All three of these options kind of suck, although the standard switch hunt is probably the least objectionable. The progression of the level past this point is just needlessly obtuse. The sewer path is the easiest to navigate, but is miserable to deal with. The switches for the switch hunt are all over the map and a couple would be easy to miss since you will explore the area long before you can flip them. There are several other switches which have mysterious effects that you won't be able to divine. The lava route is practically a secret. Getting 100% kills is obnoxious since you have to follow all three paths. I get that levels don't have to be designed for that, but I feel like I'm missing out or did something wrong if I don't at least try. I guess that's my problem and not the map author's though. The main reason that this bothered me so is that I went through the sewer maze first, and then to get back to the rest of the level you have to backtrack through that mess. None of the combat of these paths come even close to how fun the first bit before hitting that first yellow key switch was.

 

Spoiler

sstruggle46-03.jpg.60fa17cff9c957155b0fcea83dcc9a41.jpg

A large outdoor area showing a few different types of structures


The map did look good, although it was a bit incongruous as well. There are a few different architecture types in this level, and they seem to be almost just thrown together without much thought. It did at least make each section stand out so you knew where you were. Not that it helped as much as it should have due to the number of teleporters around the level. The secrets were reasonable to find, and I think I only needed help on the BFG secret (which I had found the switch and hit it already, I just never figured out what it opened.) Most of the secrets weren't hard to find if you got into a habit of just hitting every switch you see. I really didn't like the lock-in at one of the soul sphere secrets though... it was just a waste of my time.


The initial cyberdemons don't exist in difficulties under UV, and they instead appear in an arena that you enter at the exit teleporter. I love it when different difficulties have these kinds of differences. The yellow key is in a different spot too (the UV version is only available behind some bars that open when all cyberdemons die). I'm extra excited to read anything from someone that played this on HMP.


Overall I'm really conflicted about this map. The opening was fantastic, and the difficulty design is great. The back half of the map just isn't fun though, mostly due to the lackluster combat, obnoxious damage floor mazes, and obtuse progression. I really like the non-linear design in theory, and probably would have loved this part if it wasn't for the other problems.

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It looks like @MtPain27 (intentionally or unintentionally) decided to become an honorary member of the Megawad Club this month, since he posted a new video showcasing Solar Struggle. It starts about halfway through the video (the first half is a different Ultimate Doom wad), and of course he goes through all of the maps. I had already finished all of my write-ups for the month, so I wasn't worried about spoilers.

 

 

 

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Just now, Ralgor said:

It looks like @MtPain27 (intentionally or unintentionally) decided to become an honorary member of the Megawad Club this month, since he posted a new video showcasing Solar Struggle. It starts about halfway through the video (the first half is a different Ultimate Doom wad), and of course he goes through all of the maps. I had already finished all of my write-ups for the month, so I wasn't worried about spoilers.

 

Indeed. I was thinking early in the month that wouldn't it be cool if Dean released Solar Struggle episode this month. I knew he had played it, because he mentioned in the the Top WAD voting thread. Still, a nice surprise! (and while my measly map missed the honor roll, I'm really and unironically flattered by him calling my level "sophomore Skillsaw major's midterm project" <3

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Well I guess this project has now hit all of the main Doom community mile stones, Thursday night multiplayer thing, Caco award mention, Book club and now Dean of Doom video.

 

Well done guys!

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E4M6 - “Mass Propulsion” by SMG_Man

 

Some interesting ideas, but ultimately I left the map with only 50% of the kills after ending up in the damaging floor/crusher route to the exit and to be honest I cannot really say much that is positive about this map. Any sense of foreboding about the cyberdemons faded quickly as I wandered around aimlessly looking for them, until they inevitably appear on the upper section of the map where you can pick up an invulnerability and use rockets. After this you have a steady stream of monsters and a choice of routes to the exit. The general presentation of the map felt a little too chaotic and messy for its own good. I think a simpler layout and ditching the multiple choice exit route would have made this a lot easier on the player in ways where progression doesn't need to be made difficult because the concept of being chased around whilst be under-equiped should be enough (And throw a big secondary throw-down afterwards).

In the end this will probably be at the bottom of my list for Solar Struggle, sorry. I do think there is potential in some of the ideas thrown out in this map though, so not a complete lost cause.

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E4M7 – The Tether by @Engired

DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV-Fast, Continuous, non-blind run w/saves

 

The last standard map of the fourth episode was set in a small village built around a sky hole in the floor, with a cable disappearing in the clouds below. The Tether in question kept this place connected with Venusian soil and jumping in the hole constituted the exit, as per project requirements. Engired designed quick and bloody encounters among this handful of buildings, which might represent a settlement under construction. The scheduled gameplay included an early Cyberdemon, and wild teleport ambushes taking place whenever a key or a progression switch was approached.

Spoiler

10793940_SolarStruggle_E4M7_01.jpg.4e2b9c1da9dabf3b62124d53e5ffa13c.jpg

The level was very short, and the real hostilities started when I picked up the YK in the slime tunnels. The appearing boss could be exploited to kill other enemies, but to stand a chance against him Doomguy must gain control of the warehouse to the east, where he might collect the plasma rifle, bulk cells, and the BK. Beware of enemies emerging from crates! When the Cyberdemon lay dead, the main threat came from enemies teleporting slowly and randomly, especially hitscanners. They moved back and forth inside their elongated closets; looking at the map in the editor, the slow teleport design seemed deliberate.

Spoiler

1328792777_SolarStruggle_E4M7_02.jpg.025711eb92480ae5f8b6b3b3a49726db.jpg

The BFG did not serve any purpose against groups of low tier creatures, and I controlled the chaotic situation outside by shooting rockets from the safety of the southern building. The Tether was an ok map, probably better on pistol start than on continuous play, showing a stark contrast between the almost over-detailed playing zone and the abstract landscape made of floating concrete cubes and metal pillars, maybe the foundations of an unfinished New Venice district. Time to leave the city in the clouds and set foot on solid ground to see how the Solar Struggle ends.

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E4M6: Mass Propulsion

by @SMG_Man

 

Here's kind of an unusual map! So basically, there's no enemies to confront us beyond 2 Cyberdemons in some quite uncomfortable close quarters. We do get to use some Invulnerability Spheres though, and there's plenty of rocket launchers! The only trouble is finding one and the success of finding one quickly might be hit or miss. Once both Cyberdemons are dead though, the bars blocking the way to the yellow key will lower in accordance with the E4M6 tag, and we can....not open up the yellow key bars right away. So you know what really grinds my....no, we're not going down that road again (holy cow)! But seriously, the location which opens all the yellow bars is random enough that I couldn't tell you its location. Although it is kind of cool in a way because we can then stumble into the exit after having taken a couple of teleporters after having failed to pick up a plasma rifle we probably don't even need. We did go back, but it was kind of a waste of time as it happened. The good news is that we took zero deaths after scuffing a little with the Cyberdemonds near the beginning. The teleport traps are great at keeping tension up but of course, finishing with 100 percent kills is quite difficult here. On the plus side, some nice visuals sit side-by-side with some rather odd choices such as the frequency of STARTAN and odd-damage floors (the E2M7 homage and the cracks over a void). The spectre ambush was incredibly unwelcome though.

 

 

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EPISODE II - CERES CARNAGE

.

.

.

 

→ E2M1 - "Piazzi Spaceport"
I don't know where the hell the Marine got to but all he can see is a free area, the odd cave, and a place that can be accessed through the door, where he allows us to see inside that he is certainly leaving without taking into account It counts the demonic invasion in turn, but you can also see another area that is outdoors, and that has more caves to explore, and that after grabbing the red key that is right there, and we go to the red door, what? what does the Marine find?, indeed... more caves to explore and structures that seem to have fallen into ruins over time, or something like that. I honestly thought that this map would turn out to be interesting when you arrive for the first time, but looking at it again, I feel that the route is somewhat monotonous, because of how simple everything looks, and that it is only about exploring caves as if the Marine were a mining, and having mud pools is not that it improves the experience but hey, at least I appreciate one thing, and that is to have the Plasma Rifle from the beginning, huh.

 

→ E2M2 - "Storage Complex"
I felt this episode exactly like in the original Doom, although later I would see the great difference that it would have with its original counterpart, and that is that here, it is more extensive and somewhat more confusing too, especially the part where it seems that you have to climb a lot boxes, but the point here is the following... I feel like it's unnecessarily long, and it's not because I don't like the map itself, it has pretty cool areas like the part where you go in the direction of the blue key, or the stairs set in a way that reminds me of Donkey Kong from Arcade, but... I really didn't like that the level was so long, and this is my only problem with most of the Doom maps, which are quite long and then Things start to get difficult when you need to go to the exit quickly, because I am more of looking for action and some secrets without complicating my life too much, instead of thinking about how to guide myself through the whole site or solving puzzles just for a secret that isn't even worth it, and well, outside of my complaints, I will say that the map design is excellent, but its duration could have been reduced and I don't think much was lost with this adjustment.

 

→ E2M3 - “Stock Exchange"

A map that looks like a hotel almost like in the first episode, but the difference here is that it's too long and... a bit tedious to have to go through, each of the places that this map has... do I really care? Will I bother detailing everything that is here? No thanks, I would rather say that I liked the aesthetics of each area, some are really good and others are regular, the only area that I found interesting was the one with the red floor and it is extensive In size, the way that area was made intrigued me a lot and also the secret area that was related to a mine, unlike what was shown in the first map huh, but well let's move on to the next map.

 

→ E2M4 - "Air Filtration Plant"
What is this place supposed to be? A laboratory? A factory? I really have no idea what the hell it is but... I am certain of one thing... its confusion is worse than from the previous map, because there are much larger areas, others that are extremely narrow like the part where the marine must get into some ducts with a few Lost Souls waiting for him, and well, I would really say that the structure of certain parts are interesting, but getting lost here is pretty guaranteed, and I really hate this, it's not for nothing that I make my opinions short, because there's so much to say that I don't have enough time. The part where the water is drained was definitely the worst for me, and I almost died in that part.

 

E2M5 -  "Abandoned Tunnels"
Hey, finally a short and action-focused map!, and no wonder, in fact, I quite enjoyed this map although it did bother me a bit not having found the secrets the first time, but anyway, the combat here Yeah, it was really cool and very entertaining, just like the map in general, there were so many different textures and it wasn't just one monotonous one, which really shows the variety here huh. The place where those cubes or boxes are was also great even though it was plagued by a lot of Shotgunners and imps (Rogues too but they were few), and in the end the said secret exit to go in the direction of the mysterious level of that scenario.

 

E2M9 - "Artifact Storage"
This place is... just strange, because there are so many things here that don't seem to make any concrete sense, as if it were something that I took from my imagination, there are cascades of blood and technological things in a space that is small, and in other places that... it just leaves me feeling that something is not right, leaving the usual demonic decoration, the way the map is designed just seems unusual to me in some way. The yellow key area is a bit creepy, there's a happy face on a wall, and at the end of all the combat, what else is next? by an elevator to show the exit door guarded by 4 cacodemons, interesting, don't you think?

 

E2M6 - "Transport Nexus"
An abandoned train station with lots of areas to explore and meaty areas where the grotesque is rife, and the combat gets frustrating at every turn... well, do you expect me to go into more detail about this place? Hah... by the way. Of course not, its excessive length of progress ruined my patience.

 

E2M7 - "Research Complex"
Huge map with closed areas and strongly focused on combat, that almost at the end of everything the doors open to reveal even larger areas than the one already seen in the initial building, but the only one that matters is the one with a huge elevator that leads to the next map, do you want me to be more brief when detailing this place?

 

E2M8 - "Ceres Gateway"
I'm going to be direct... I thought that this final zone would be as memorable as the one in the first episode, but the truth is that he was left halfway to achieve it, and this is because its duration is long, very long, so much I was wondering where the hell I would see the Cyberdemon, and among so many turns around certain facilities and lava pits next to some areas that were outside and a secret that was the only interesting thing about the whole journey, I finally got to the elevator that went to the final encounter, where that Cyberdemon was guarding that would completely end the chapter, and after a brief but hard fight, I finally managed to finish it, concluding this map with interesting aesthetics and varied textures but with an ass longevity only for a confrontation that Luckily the Marine could win if there weren't so many demons keeping that huge cow company.

 

 

 

 

==================================================================================================================================================================================================

 

 

EPISODE III - MOON MADNESS
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.
.

 

→ E3M1 - "Lunar Gateway"
The Marine arrives at a space base, and it won't be the only one that he will visit because literally all the levels will have to do with it, space colonizations, random structures all over the moon, the truth is not something that matters but anyway, this map would be better without excessive length, that I really don't enjoy the tour because I'm going around a lot and not knowing where to go, without taking into account how complicated it is to get all the secrets because they are so well hidden huh.

 

→ E3M2 - "Tranquility Terminal"
Small Lunar Base, it is not as big as the previous one, but it is appreciated that its route is not as confusing as the previous one that I mentioned, in addition to that you can listen to the music of "Hate Machine" from the SIGIL Wad (By John Romero ), that made the map quite fun to walk through, even though this happened twice due to a mistake I made thinking there was a secret, but still the walkthrough was good, and I enjoyed the combat here, by the way. At least it was better than the previous one, although unfortunately not all the secrets can be found.

 

→ E3M3 - "Deep Space Observatory"
Another lunar place, only weirder compared to the previous maps, here I really disliked the design of each area, I mean it could have been a little better done and not just put large structures or narrow places for no reason, since having climbed up so many steps until reaching the top of a structure with several spaces in the form of doors, until the one that has the demons ready to attack the Marine if he is not equipped with the Soulsphere, and that fight with the barons of hell in that last elevator, really everything could have been better, except for the area that is a secret, I really liked that because of how it looks, but for the rest, the truth is decent.

 

→ E3M4 - "Fusion Plant"
What is this place supposed to be? An abandoned factory?... anyway, the truth is that how everything looks here is interesting, I would say that it was almost credible if it weren't for the abundance of certain somewhat strange details such as blood in excess, areas with toxic liquid or places with meat and viscera, was there so much killing here before?, but hey, if it weren't for how extensive this map is, I would have enjoyed it better, and the fight with the Cyberdemon was good but ... It doesn't quite convince me in the end, and yes, in an area where everything is covered in lava, but in the end, what I liked the most was the secret area that has the map hidden there, just that.

 

→ E3M5 - "Helium Refinery"
Another lunar base, this time rarer than the previous ones because you can go outside and that doesn't seem to affect the Marine, but the experience here felt horrible anyway, because somehow I didn't feel like I had enough space to be fighting and that there were too many Hitscanners enemies as well as Imps that did nothing but drain the Marine's health quickly, added to the fact that there are not many armors or medikits for really complicated moments, and I still do not enter because in a certain part of the "Moon" it hurts feet when standing on top, but anyway... the level could have been better.

 

→ E3M6 - "Deep Crust Borehole"
Long and confusing... too confusing, being another space base or I don't even know what the hell it is at this point, and all I wanted was to get out of here through the secret level I accessed thanks to a Rocket jump, huh.

 

→ E3M9 - "The Dark Side"
This site is bizarre... I don't understand anything about what has happened or why so much travel just for a stupid blue key and so much shit to fight... Was it honestly one to put so much science into this? Damn... I've noticed That this map was focused on the fights but seeing it done this way, it was really unpleasant for me, and I didn't feel like I was enjoying anything at all, it's also important that I didn't kill 100% of the enemies.

 

→ E3M7 - "Freight Terminal"
Another long as shit map, but now focused on trains... trains in space because yes, because you really don't know what else to give to space other than just rockets or space bases so... non-functioning trains, and a confusing and horrible route, long train stations and without much visual variety, finally I will say that the area with visors and blood was something that I did not expect on a map focused on trains and roads but well... it was at least what more interesting than this area had.

 

→ E3M8 - "Space Elevator"
Fight on the total moon, I suppose... A huge Spider Master Mind in the center of everything, only using the shotgun and the Plasma rifle, and losing blood every moment due to miscalculations that I made during several moments of the fights that I have had, but at the end of the day, it was an excellent final battle huh (although of course, I preferred to kill that monster from a distance and not use the Doom 2-style elevator to defeat the final boss.)

 

 

 

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E4M7 - The Tether - Engired (100%K/100%I/0%S):

Everything feels end-game, everything feels abandoned and somewhat devastated, the TNT Intermission music helps to give this feeling of, everything is gone, for some reason. The map starts up a little bit empty, some houses and hangars, aswell as the tether, which is the leash that you take down to descend to Venus surface. For some reason, someone needs a rope to go to venusian surface, not that it is 400ºC hot, not that it rains sulfuric acid, and not that it has 9 earth-atmosphere pressure. But oh well. 
This is a nice "horde" map in which you explore, find your guns, monsters starts appearing in swarms, you mow down every single one of them, fight some bosses, and in five minutes you are done.
The map has a really interesting floating town-square vibe to it, with some Doom II city aspects to give the impression, as with E4M4, that this is a place where people used to live. 
Luckly this is not a behemot map as you would expect it to be, being at the last spot before the final level, as I got really exhausted after E4M5 and M6 together. This kind of maps are really welcome, but I could have placed a map like M5 at the seventh slot and switch slots with M7, not possible by the project rules/standards, though.

Order of preference:

Spoiler

 

E2M7
E4M5
E4M1

E2M3
E2M6
E3M1
E2M8
E3M6
E3M4

E2M2

E1M6
E3M2

E3M5
E3M3

E1M4
E4M3

E1M2
E4M7
E4M9
E1M3
E2M5
E4M6
E2M1
E1M8
E1M1
E4M2
E3M8
E1M5
E3M7

E2M4
E3M9
E1M9

E2M9

E1M7

E4M4 dunce-capped by MtPain27

 


A tether is actually a chain that bounds the floating area to the ground, but well, someone had to do the hard work of attaching things to the nasty Venus' surface.

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Hi everyone. I couldn't participate this month because I was already busy finishing playing other wads I've had in progress since the past few months, such as Memento Mori II. I also haven't read many posts in this topic to avoid spoilers, as I have never played Solar Struggle before.

 

Last week, I started playing Solar Struggle for first time, using DSDA-Doom 0.25.6 (cl3) on UV skill, continuous with saves, getting 100% in each level. So far I have done the first couple of levels (including secret level). I reached E1M4 last evening and hope to finish the first episode at least, to have something to write tomorrow.

 

I had briefly considered doing pistol starts this time but since I have never played the wad before, I stick to my continuous run rule. Either way, I have to say the maps seem promising so far, as I had a lot of fun playing them. Because I haven't written much in my text file about the maps played so far, I instead offer my votes for the next month and a couple screenshots of E1M1-E1M3 and E1M9.

 

Votes:

+++ Claustrophobia 1024
+++ The Rebirth
+++ Remain 1 & TNT: Renascence & ICAR2015

 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

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Have a nice day!

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E4M7 - "The Tether" by Engired
MIDI: "Legion of the Lost" from TNT
dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl3, UV, Pistol start, blind run
100% kills and secrets
Deaths: 3
Time: 11:39

 

Spoiler

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A view of the outdoor area where most of the fighting takes place.


This level is pretty small and quick compared to the last two, and is mostly just a series of large teleport fights. There's a bit of a puzzle involved here, in that you need to realize that you want to grab the blue key before the yellow key, since the yellow key will cause a cyberdemon to teleport in. Plus the blue key grants you access to the BFG. The level isn't that hard once you realize that fact, and know to properly hide from massive numbers of hitscanners when you need to. My first two deaths were just from that cyberdemon since I didn't have the appropriate hardware to fight him, and the last was just due to hitscan attrition because I wasn't being careful.

 

Spoiler

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Overall this was a pretty uninteresting map. Fighting things in doom is always fun but it didn't really offer more than that. While I'm sure that "tether" is where you exit the map, it looks kind of weird. I enjoyed the break though after the last two maps, so despite all of that I was still happy to play it.

 

Spoiler

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The architecture is a bit strange here.

 

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E4M7: The Tether. Played on DSDA v0.25.6, UV, PS. 220/220 K, 0/0 S, 30/33 I. Comp. time 6:48

 

For some reason I remember struggling in this one, too, when I first played it, but this time it's pure fun! It's a microslaughter map in a Ultimate Doom kind of way, as it avoids any sort of tediousness by being short, and a power fantasy all the while not being a pushover (for me). This is just the sort of map I needed after two long ones. Only the dark nukage corridor feels a bit like "let's put this here"-sort of place, but I guess it is needed so that the nice courtyard can get re-populated with hordes and cybie.

 

Me likes. (I can't remember how the final map is going to turn out, but as far as difficulty curves go, I actually like there are breather maps near the end. It makes me feel like a runner entering the final stretch, the finish line already in sight, and you can already feel like you've made it.)

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E4M7 - “The Tether” by Engired

QuestZDoom, UV, blind, continuous, saves

 

Spoiler

 

I must say I was slightly disappointed with the visuals here, since the name, "The Tether", intrigued me ever since I read it in the maplist at the start of the month and what we got here looks more like a well, really. I was expecting something significantly more massive. Though I have to say that the impossible space "hole in the sky" effect visible from the start looks great, especially in VR. Impossible hits different when presented in a very immersive way.

 

I like the dismal atmosphere, though, with bodies strewn everywhere and very fitting music.

 

I forgot I left the previous level barely alive, only noticing my low health when I peeked into the nukage area, and I left that area for much later. I actually forgot the exit door had a yellow border and thought I was done with the level having survived the big fights when getting and using the blue key, and only went to explore the sewer section because I wanted to gather more resources for the final map. Well, I got a cyberdemon in my face instead. I wasn't going to waste my ammo on him, so I just ran past him (made it on second attempt) and exited.

 

 

 

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E4M7: The Tether by Engired

Spoiler

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The penultimate map of Solar Struggle is a brisk, 5 minute slaughter, taking place on several floating platforms. The name implies this is what connects the Venusian colony to the surface - our ultimate goal. 

 

Raiding a nearby warehouse gives you a plasma rifle and a blue key (which opens another building with rocket launcher and a BFG), but also spawns most of the map's enemies. You are loaded with ammo, but I recommend saving up cells for a cyberdemon, which appears once you head for the yellow key in the sewers. And that's it. It's a rather short map, but loaded with carnage. It's a decent momentum builder before the finale.

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On 5/29/2023 at 10:18 AM, Book Lord said:

There are few people that have played the OG so many times and have studied it enough to know it like the back of their hand, especially Ultimate Doom which tends to be dismissed as outdated and limited. Consider how many do not know the slots that hold the exit to the secret levels!

 

I recall giving my father a Doom 2 level to test that involved mandatory commander keen killing to unlock a door, he had no idea how to progress as he had never played Map 32, nor knew the interaction the keens had with tag 666 or that you could even kill them - when I told him he said "That doesn't make any sense!", something to consider, who is your audience? Is the map / wad for a specific niche of players or does it need to be as accessible as possible? Playtest often, get other people to play your maps, though as much as I want to say I can think of most things a player will try to do / navigate, playtesting always proves me wrong.

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E4M7 - “The Tether” by Engired

 

A rather frustrating map for me, the limited amount of health creates serious risk of dying due to poor luck (Effectively being nailed by several hitscanners from any range), which is exactly what happened to me. A little more health and maybe some actual secrets and this map could have been pretty fun. The shortness of the map does make it more bearable to brute force though.

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E4M6 is very ironic because any reasonable casual player would just kill the cyberdemons and called it a day, but all of us are now hardcore and try to be clever about it.

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After watching the Dean of Doom ep, I decided I wanted to finish replaying through this at some point. I do not have time to play through 18 maps in 2 days, so instead, while using that video as a refresher, I'll just do some small write-ups for each map based on my original continuous playthrough from mid December.

 

E3M1: This was a fun one to explore. I liked how you have to use the pistol quite a bit here; there's not a lot of maps made that focus on that. The secrets were fun to find. I was missing 1. I did find the shootable switch mentioned in the video pretty easily tho. Looks fantastic as well

E3M2: Sorry RHhe82, but I don't really remember this one too much. Doesn't look too bad tho.

E3M3: This one I just barely remember. Mostly I remember the secret plasma fight being a fun one. Great Skillsawish visuals. 

E3M4: This was one that was kinda hard to navigate at first. I think there were a few times I wasn't sure where to go. Looks absolutely incredible tho. The blue key fight was a highlight, as was the whole cyb fight area.

E3M5: I liked the outdoor areas of this one, but that's all I really remember.

E3M6: Another great Myolden map, and another map where I couldn't figure out 1 secret, even though I knew where it was. Fights are always fun with interesting setups. Surprisingly fun MIDI too.

E3M9: This one was ok. Seemed way less subtle than everything else. I remember some of the fights here being tougher than normal. 

E3M7: Not too bad for a newish mapper. I didn't really have any complaints about it. It works and it got the job done. I also enjoyed seeing the Doomcute toolbox. 

E3M8: Surprised it took this long to see Muumi here. I really like the openness to this one, since that means you're in sight of everything and they will all try to kill you. I like how the mastermind is used here. It's far away enough where you can't really hit it until you can get it on its level, but it can hit you. Didn't realize it until watching the DoD ep, but both mastermind maps have similar circular layouts with the mastermind in the middle. 

 

E4M1: This was the only map I specifically remembered before replaying this WAD. Favorite visuals of the WAD. I love seeing structures floating in the sky as a theme. I remember this one giving me the most trouble in my playthrough. You aren't given a lot of ammo at first, so you need to hustle through the map to get the rocket launcher so you can actually deal with everything that has spotted you. But there's not a lot of room to use said rocket launcher so you have to make sure you don't kill yourself on accident. It's a very nice challenge.

E4M2: This was a quirky one I really liked. Absolutely love the opening waiting area. There's a lot of visual charm to this one, like the weird storage area, and the narrow walkways under the buildings. The office that turned demonic was a cool visual set-piece as well. It took me way to long to find the secret exit. That rune on the floor got covered by a corpse, so I didn't see it initially. I also really like all the optional stuff that you get on the way to said ending. Makes exploring and looking for secrets highly rewarding. 

E4M9: Fun arena map with nice visuals. Couldn't figure out the secrets here. Not much else to say!

E4M3: A pretty big and open one that gave me a little trouble. I had low health during this one quite a bit. The minimal texture variety makes this map seem pretty imposing. I forgot there were masterminds in this map. Despite its size, it's still a fun one

E4M4: I actually liked this one, but I play continuous, so that negated some issues. I don't recall having any problems with it, but I also don't really remember anything special about it either. 

E4M5: I'm glad I played this one at the beginning of a play session, cause I did not expect it to be a magnum opus. Despite its size, I still really enjoyed this one. Lots of visual and combat variety throughout. The crushers were annoying yes, but I think that was the only complaint I had with it. It's not something I would look forward to replaying if I don't have a lot of time, but it's still an incredibly enjoyable map. 

E4M6: This is an experimental one that I'm not sure I enjoyed or not. Everything about this one is abstract, from the visuals to the combat design. Playing on UV, I got the wandering cybs immediately which were a constant threat. I forgot about the E4M6 tags on this one, and didn't notice that they did anything. I guess I just assumed a switch or something caused whatever the tag was responsible for. I'm interested in seeing this one on the lower difficulties now that I know that it plays completely differently on them. I definitely respect this one for doing something different

E4M7: Kinda surprised this one was the penultimate map since it was small and easy. I did notice the lack of health, but playing continuous and coming from the previous map with extra health made that a nonissue. Kinda think this should have been earlier in the ep.

E4M8: A incredibly solid WAD ender. Love the volcano aesthetics. Needing to shoot switches to raise cover from the mastermind while dealing with the common enemies is a good way to do this boss map. The end room makes it seem like this story could continue on at some point, which would be cool. Just sayin'...

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E4M8: Impact Site by PinkFlamingo

Spoiler

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I have conflicting feelings here. Impact Site looks appropriately dramatic for the megawad's finale. It takes place around a large lake of lava, which contrasts nicely with burnt rocks, kinda reminding me of UAC Ultra. This is paired with Jimmy Paddock's hard rock MIDI, a adding up to a perfect combo to cap off the entire set.

 

There is just one problem. I didn't enjoy this map as much as I would want to. Like in E3M8, there is a centrally mounted spiderdemon, but unlike that map, where she only appeared at the end and usually ended up infighting something, in Impact Site, she is a threat from the very beginning and there is far less opportunity for her to get distracted. The map revolves around shootable eye switches - some create cover to shield you from mastermind's machine gun, others open a way forward. Meanwhile, you'll be dealing with enemies that appear out of nowhere and excells at blocking your path - mostly spectres (in a mostly dark map - fun as hell) and barons. This make the map feel like it promotes trial and error gameplay over quick thinking, I think this is the one map where I died the most, despite its rather short runtime.

 

Fortunately, the later parts of the map redeem it somewhat. The good stuff start with a sinking floor that forces the player to tackle cacodemons and barons, while avoiding lava. If you survive this, you can finally reach a spot to spray the spiderdemon with a stream of plasma. Once she kicks the bucket, be prepared for the most absurd fight of the entire wad - a corridor chocke-full of barons behind your back. I can't see it any other way than PinkFlamingo letting the player to take it out on the most annoying enemy in the entirety of Doom 1. Once they (and some cacodemons as a support) are dead, you can reach a crashed meteorite that apparently started all of this mess.

 

I think this is the weakest of episode enders of Solar Struggle, lacking the atmosphere of Huygens Spaceport, adventure of Ceres Gateway and action of Space Elevator. It is still a decent map, but far from my favourite.

 

Conclusions

 

I initially wanted to say that playing Solar Struggle was the most fun I've ever had playing an Ultimate Doom wad. While this statement is factual, it feels somewhat condescending. I can't deny that Doom 1's combat is outdated, with far less monster variety and a lack of mid-health opponents. That being, said, I expected oft-mocked killing barons with a shotgun and I haven't seen that much of it. At its peak, the Solar Struggle contributors use the limited bestiary to create combat scenarios that, while not as elaborate as those in Doom 2 wads, still feel satisfying to overcome. Or focus on map design, which makes the wad rather comfy and laid-back for most of its run.

 

As far as individual chapters go, Titan Terror was fine, though by the project's rules it was also the most restricting in terms of what monsters and weapons could be used. I think because of this, it favours visuals and environmental details over gameplay, as seen with Mining Complex, Admin Offices or Huygens Spaceport. Ceres Carnage felt very uneven, but its peaks, like Stock Exchange or Transport Nexus, were really high. By constrast Moon Madness was my favourite episode. It felt the most consistent in quality, offered the most entertaining difficulty level, plus, as I've said before, I'm a sucker for the Moon maps. Venusian Violence was the hardest, sure, but also the most tedious to play. Most maps here tend to feature some combination of limited resources, damaging floors and barons, which is not a way to make a difficult map I enjoy. I think it's not my thing, but I can see others enjoying them. I did enjoy Customs Office, which had this visuals-first approach of earlier episodes, and the grand Waste Recycling Facility.

 

All in all, despite its limitation, I enjoyed my time with Solar Struggle. It's a well thought-out wad with some quality maps that represent Ultimate Doom at its best. Many thank to ViolendBeetle for leading this project, the map authors for their works and the club members for picking this one, as well as their insights. If it wasn't for the club, I would probably passed this one over. That being said, I'd be happy to reacquaint myself next month with revenants, archviles and a super shotgun.

 

The 5 best maps are:

1) E3M6: Deep Crust Borehole
2) E4M2: Customs Office
3) E3M4: Fusion Plant
4) E3M3: Deep Space Observatory
5) E2M3: Stock Exchange

 

The weakest map:

E4M6: Mass Propulsion

 

See you all in June.

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E4M8 - “Impact Site” by PinkFlamingo

QuestZDoom, UV, practiced, continuous, saves

 

Spoiler

 

A great ending to a great wad. And another map I had to re-record, though I did keep my save at the beginning of the level this time. My blind run actually went about the same as this one, just a tiny bit slower. I even died at about the same place and the same way in both - fell into lava and couldn't find a way out in time.

 

I really love the music here. In my video it starts to get going exactly the moment I shoot the first eye switch. Meanwhile in my blind run it faded out just as I first approached the ominous structure housing the exit portal. Neat!

 

When I first reached the surface, heard the mastermind and saw that my draw distance won't let me see the far side, I was afraid this would be an awkward finish for me much like E3M8, but it posed no problems and my framerate was stable throughout.

 

The ending text left me a bit disappointed, since it gives no closure on the story. I know, I know. I shouldn't really be looking for a story in a Doom wad, but still. It does give us a bit of a cliffhanger though, so that's promising... 

 

 

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E4M8 - “Impact Site” by PinkFlamingo

 

Decided to get this one over with a little early....

It is fair to say that this megawad ends on a really high note. An absolutely fantastic finale where the mechanics are shown right at the start, we have a Mastermind that poses a serious threat, but is also easily dispatched when the time is right. The map is really well calibrated and designed, even to the point where stragglers you run from can teleport to the area behind the lowering wall. This isn't the biggest challenge, but it is fun, engaging and the visuals are some of the best this wad offers. Hats off to Pink Flamingo, a great send off.

 

I will give my general thoughts tomorrow.

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