The DWmegawad Club plays: Solar Struggle

[LadyMistDragon]

(Fuck it....it does have largely short maps)

 

+++The Rebirth

 

 

E4M7: The Tether

by @Engired

 

I remember Engired mainly for a particularly notable map that he made for the Half Moon project (one of the map 15s in particular comes to mind), along with a series of "re-creation of IWADs from memory" projects that will probably conclude this year unless he decides No Rest for the Living happens to be a good idea. All that said, The Tether proves to fit comfortably amidst the other maps of Solar Struggle, despite a serious difficulty spike and a mass of teleport ambushes that probably evoke E4M8. While it's a little hard to discern from first glance if we just happen to be working our way through the ruins of the residential area due to layout similarities, there's no doubt a huge battle took place here, as underscored by "Legion of the Lost". Human and monster corpses can be found basically everywhere and some things that look suspiciously like power lines run throughout the entire map, which also has a sewer and storage rooms in opposite corners. It doesn't exactly start out easy with the Barons and shotgunner masses that appear at just the wrong moments, but it's probably not until the switch in the building with the BFG is pushed that things really start to become insane. Don't worry too much about the Cyberdemon, he probably won't take lots of hits due to the veritable army that descends upon the central square. Although there is the risk of the teleportation coming off too much like a slow trickle. And with that, we have one more map left!

 

 

 

 

[Capellan]

E4M8

Conceptually similar to E3M8, but IMO much better executed.  A solid finale for the WAD.

 

 

[Book Lord]

E4M8 – Impact Site by @PinkFlamingo

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

 

PinkFlamingo took over the slot after CBM dropped out of Solar Struggle and delivered us a nice finale, staging a riveting trek on the volcanic surface of Venus that ended with a Spiderdemon confrontation, and more. As admitted by the author himself, he took inspiration from muumi's Space Elevator and placed the boss in the middle of the arena, out of autoaim reach. He arranged a path full of natural obstacles and tense ambushes around the huge crater, relying on shootable eye switches that raised both barriers and bridges, as explained by the clear tutorial in the second lava cavern.

Spoiler

The lava at the centre of the crater was inescapable, therefore players need to be careful and cannot fall into it, unless the map dictates otherwise. The danger of being hit by hitscan attacks was very high with -fast monsters, and keeping track of both Spider Mastermind and spawning zombies was a respectable challenge. I found the various traps and attacks fun and compelling; despite the number and the vicious use of Barons, I mostly died to the Spectres, invisible in the dark landscape, and to the darting Lost Souls that caught me from behind.

Spoiler

At first, I thought the final wall of monsters to be insurmountable with -fast monsters, since getting close to use the BFG efficiently was impractical. I noticed that pumping rockets and dodging the barrage of projectiles from afar was more viable, but I am not sure pistol starters have enough ammo for this. The Impact Site area looked gorgeous, and entering the corrupted meteorite was a fulfilling conclusion of the journey. This was the exciting end of Solar Struggle: the best boss battle in a megaWAD full of excellent boss battles.

[finnks13]

I'll do the rest tomorrow, promise!

 

E4M2 - Customs Office by Anarkzie:

18:06/0 Deaths
I'm not sure you're allowed to cut in line like that doomguy!

 

I have to thank dsdadoom's MIDI player for having such a good time with this map because holy shit it absolutely mangled the music in this level to a distorted mess that was absolutely hilarious. This MIDI is already pretty unhinged, being one of the weirder songs in Descent's already pretty weird soundtrack, but it is not this mad! The map honestly fits the energy of this MIDI, being a bizarre, hectic and very funny romp. There are a ton of very small, neat details everywhere and yet the map is textured very weirdly and often looks completely insane. I love the little suspended walkways, the non-midtex cage with a pinky inside and the warehouse that's full of Hitler portraits for some reason!

 

The gameplay is alright, there's a lot of barrels which make for amusing encounters combined with the very high monster count. The spiderdemon fight sags the pace a lot since you're having to peekaboo rocket it to death and I found myself wishing for an SSG quite a lot there. Thankfully you're given plenty of rockets and plasma to clear the rest of the map afterwards. The secret exit is a little odd, but I think it's cool that you have to scour the map looking for all three keys in order to open it, and that you see a little preview of E4M9 when you do jump into the exit.

 

E4M9 - Cult Headquarters by Mystic 256:

3:34/0 Deaths
Despite this unarguably being the most polished and effectively designed secret map of the four (and perhaps because of that), I found this map rather forgettable. It looks fantastic, the combination of BLAKWALL, METAL1 and REDWALL looks striking and I like the abundance of scrolling lines. Unfortunately, the map is just a fairly symmetrical arena with fights that are alright but not massively outstanding. The opening moments are probably the best bit, since you're running around gathering weapons and other supplies, but after that, the map kinda becomes a blur in my memory. I wish the "Cult Headquarters" title was more apparent in the level, since there's not really anything here that makes me think "cult" and that seems like a bit of a missed oppourtunity. It's a decent map, but it does feel odd that this is the map in a secret slot and not the far weirder one that led into it.

 

E4M3 - Commercial District by RataUnderground:

11:20/4 Deaths
I may have been fairly mixed on RataUnderground's first map in Episode 1, but this map absolutely makes up for any shortcomings in that because it's one of the best maps so far. Like a lot of the other episode 4 maps, this has a strong focus on trying to be an interesting combat set-piece first and foremost, and while this could have fallen foul of Doom 1's crap monster roster, the excellent use of boss monsters really helps to make this map shine. The best part of the map is the opening, where you're flung into a horrible situation, hitscanners all around you, pinkies teleporting in and only a berserk pack to defend yourself with as you try to outmaneuver the spiderdemon(s!) to get the plasma gun that's vital to taking it out. The map does slow down a little after this, and the blue key fight is a little bit lame, especially because you can just leave it without any trouble, but the finale does do it's absolute best to murder you, which is always appreciated. I do wish the red key switch was a bit less out of the way, since nothing really kills the rush of finishing a really fun map like looking for a switch that lets you exit for three minutes :P

 

I think the map looks fantastic, I really like how the abundance of drab concrete and BLAKWALL contrasts with the green grass and sky that's everywhere and I think the brutalist architecture really fits this episode's vibe. There are a few weird details in the middle of the map (the random flesh room is what mostly springs to mind here) and I wish someone had told RataUnderground how to stop their midtex railings from bleeding into the flats but these are pretty minor issues in the visual design because it definitely worked for me and drew me into the combat. Great stuff!

 

E4M4 - Residential Areas by DJV:

10:05/0 Deaths
This was an appreciated break in the episode after the rather mean previous map, though like E4M9, I found it rather forgettable. I like the visuals and the abundance of grey metal, it's pretty unique in this already unique looking episode and I always like exploring little houses for supplies - it's a shame more of these weren't enter-able! In what's becoming a trend for this episode, I think the opening of the map is the best bit since it's rather hectic and fun before the map lulls into that fairly relaxed, corridor-shooty Doom 1 style combat for the rest of it's runtime. The majority of the difficulty comes from the lack of health supplies, though this was something that only really started to catch up to me right near the end of the level. I appreciate the choice to put a chill map between the most difficult map in the wad and the most exhausting one, and since this appears to be the intent by DJV when making this map I can forgive it being a little bit dull.

[RHhe82]

E4M8: Impact Site. Played on DSDA v0.25.6, UV, PS. 127/127 K, 1/1 S, 36/36 I. Comp. time 13:11

 

We end the episode and the whole megawad on a high note. Once again I remembered playing this one before, and ammo scarcity was - once again - the foremost feeling. I'm certain I've completed this without being able to max the kills because the final horde couldn't be taken care of. Not this time, I had more than enough surplus ammo, even without trying to utilize infight (although I *did* try a bit, much of the completion time comes from trying to line up SMM with a baron, in vain.

 

Basic structure is the same as in E3M8, SMM guards the big volcano area from the middle, and you have to fight your way around it until you reach a good position to attack it. E4M8 doesn't end there, though, but the death of SMM lowers a wall revealing a final horde and a magnificent crater with a dome that looks like something from Dark Souls.

 

I came in prepared to feel lukewarm about the map, but it actually is quite good now that I was able to beat without feeling deprived of ammo.

 

Great closer.

 

*

Final thoughts on Solar Struggle:

 

Regardless of how my map turned out, I was and still am proud to have been part of this project. I wasn't that active on Discord or anything, but my impression is that the project was expertly lead - even when there (apparently) were a lot of ViolentBeetle project veterans involved, never once did I feel like me and other newcomer were ostracized, or "merely tolerated". And on the other hand it wasn't a hastily put "hey let's just make some maps lol" affair either, something you sometimes see on DW forums by well-meaning people who are not up to the task after all.

 

Subjectivities aside, I also feel like everyone, including us newcomers, gave their best. The end result is a cohesive and consistently good package. Even at its worst Solar Struggle, in my opinion, is good. If I were Dean of Doom reviewing this set, I'd probably feel bad about handing the dunce cap to any of the maps (but who knows, I'm certainly biased, so what do I know).^*

 

If there's something to criticize, it would be that 36 maps is a lot, and I was certainly feeling fatigue around late E3, early-to-mid E4. But I'm not sure Solar Struggle is to blame, but merely the fact that 36 maps just is a lot to take in one month, especially as levels got long around the time the fatigue started setting in. That happens with almost every megawad for me, anyway.

 

Doom 1 has limited bestiary, and it is clear the SSG rounds some rough corners. At times I also wished barons were hell knights, because then the limited monster variety could be used without necessarily relying too much on rocket launchers and cell weapons. The difference with punching and shotgunning these two is the difference between tedious and enjoyable gameplay. While the Doom 2 exclusive enemy types are missed, the absence of pain elementals and archviles also takes some pressure off - each shot down baron and lost soul is one step closer to victory, a step that can't be erased.

 

^{* Note that this part of final thoughts were written before the Dean of Doom episode. I disagree with his choice of dunce cap. If I were the Dean and I had to choose one, E4M4 would not even have been among the potential candidates. However, I don't want to single out these maps, either, because I always feel like the dunce cap is an implication of obnoxious, overflowingly tedious and/or zero-effort shit design, and none of the maps belong in this category.}
 

[Ralgor]

E4M8 - "Impact Site" by PinkFlamingo
MIDI: "Moaning Souls"
dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl3, UV, Pistol start, blind run
100% kills and secrets
Deaths: 1
Time: 8:52

 

Spoiler

The last team to come down here didn't make it very far.

I was hoping for a big finale. Something with multiple spider masterminds and cyberdemons. Something memorable. What this is instead is a pretty competently made spider mastermind boss level, but it isn't more than that. Like E3M8, the big momma is on a pillar in the center of the map where she has plenty of opportunity to snipe at you. This time all you have to is make it around the lava-filled crater rim by shooting a procession of eye-switches. Once you get there, grab the BFG and eliminate the spider, and then the avengers who teleport in afterward. Then you're done.

 

Spoiler

The final boss up on her perch.

The map looks nice. The bit at the end with the rising eye stalks is appropriately off-putting. It may not be the end I was hoping for, but it is a good map and I enjoyed playing it. Having some crazy end level would probably be a bad idea anyway, since I'm pretty sure we all have severe wad fatigue at this point.

 

Spoiler

This is pretty damn creepy, if you ask me.

 

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

||Zandronum || Continuous || Ultra-Violence || with Saves || Gameplay Mod
 

EPISODE IV: VENUSIAN VIOLENCE
.
.
.

 

(Screw the descriptions, I'll be short as hell on the vast majority of these levels)

 

→ E4M1 - "Docking Station"
I didn't like this place, the combat here is really disturbing, and I guess what's most interesting about it is the aesthetics and the structure of the level that are like floating islands or something, but personally, it was a stressful introduction and certainly worse executed than in the original E4M1 of Doom 1. By the way, it's in this episode where I start using the saves to avoid having to eat all the damn progress over and over again in each place that there was a key to collect.

 

→ E4M2 - "Customs Office"
I liked the theme that it raises from beginning to end, a pity that it is extensive as hell.

 

→ E4M9 - "Cult Headquarters"
Basically a combat arena that expands with each switch that is pressed until the final denouement with a cyberdemon and a lot of garbage to clean up.

 

→ E4M3 - "Commercial District"
A huge place that actually looked like a city but... something was definitely wrong, there were parts with flesh and blood and well... fights with two bosses right there and above all, it's widely confusing.

 

→ E4M4 - "Fusion Plant"
Is this a town or something like that? Anyway, it is extensive, confusing and a bit monotonous on the outside, although with interesting things inside each place (or at least most of them).

 

→ E4M5 - "Waste Recycling Facility"
I hate this place so much, and I'm not going to bother describing shit about this place.

 

→ E4M6 - "Mass Propulsion"
I have no idea what the hell this place is but one thing I will say... it's fucking confusing getting through every area of this strange place.

 

→ E4M7 - "The Tether"
I liked this place, it's short and it has combat but at least it's more entertaining than the rest I've been through up to this point.

 

→ E4M8 - "Impact Site"
An at least decent way to end the episode, with volcanic structures in each zone after the initial area, with the most lethal combats, a Spider Master Mind in the center of everything and finally, a path infested with demons that leads to a cave where several creatures stay watching the marine with their eyes and then proceed to cross a portal that finally teleports the warrior out of all that chaos that has happened.

 

 

 

 

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

 

Well, that concludes it all, thanks for paying attention to my extensive posts, and well... I doubt I'll be able to participate in this again because of how tight I am for time so, thanks for letting me participate and I proceed to withdraw from once and for all. this club. Take care, see you soon and have a warm night, or early morning.

[DJVCardMaster]

E4M8 - Impact Site - PinkFlamingo (100%K/94%I/0%S):

The end of it all, descending to the hellish landscape the venusian surface is, and I have to say, GREAT representation of the venusian surface, as the dim lights, the skybox, and the rock and lava combined, gives us a solid replica of what some of the pictures of the surface of this planet is in real life. The site of an impact crater, where the spider mastermind is, is our final destination. Kill her, and proceed to escape to the earth, finishing with the hellish invasion through the entire Solar System.
In terms of gameplay, this is what E3M8 should have been, rather than focusing only on how it looks, this one focuses more on gameplay, trying to slowly proceed, by blocking in a really interesting way the enemy fire, by shooting those eye-switches with your gun, and raising rocks up from the surface. It is a really nice battle, in which, you will end finishing the mastermind the same way than in E3, but with a nice build up, some interesting encounters, and a solid setup. Killing the mastermind, as we all know, is not enough, as this will make the lava fall lower, revealing a final horde of hell-spawn trying with their last breath to end your journey at the very end, but failing miserably. Doomguy has finally escaped this inter-planetary madness, without a sweat, and it's quite a thing to say, since we are on the hottest planet.
This episode and the megawad itself, ends on a high note, with the best M8 map, mostly because of the setup and how more interesting it felt against E3M8. The finale is well achieved, as it is difficult to come up with an interesting idea to finish your megawad. Luckly, Ultimate Doom has a 666 tag you can work on, instead of finish it all with an exploding Icon of Sin.

Order of preference:

Spoiler

E2M7 
E4M5
E4M1

E2M3
E2M6
E3M1 (Great)
E4M8
E2M8
E3M6
E3M4

E2M2 

E1M6
E3M2

E3M5
E3M3

E1M4
E4M3

E1M2 (Good)
E4M7 
E4M9
E1M3
E2M5
E4M6
E2M1
E1M8
E1M1 (OK)
E4M2 
E3M8
E1M5
E3M7

E2M4 (Average)
E3M9 
E1M9 

E2M9 

E1M7 (Meh)

E4M4 dunce-capped by MtPain27

 

1 hour ago, RHhe82 said:

Subjectivities aside, I also feel like everyone, including us newcomers, gave their best. The end result is a cohesive and consistently good package. Even at its worst Solar Struggle, in my opinion, is good. If I were Dean of Doom reviewing this set, I'd probably feel bad about handing the dunce cap to any of the maps (but who knows, I'm certainly biased, so what do I know).^*

Don't be ashamed to dunce-cap one of your fellow club members !
 

Edited May 31, 2023 by DJVCardMaster

[RataUnderground]

6 hours ago, finnks13 said:



I think the map looks fantastic, I really like how the abundance of drab concrete and BLAKWALL contrasts with the green grass and sky that's everywhere and I think the brutalist architecture really fits this episode's vibe. There are a few weird details in the middle of the map (the random flesh room is what mostly springs to mind here) and I wish someone had told RataUnderground how to stop their midtex railings from bleeding into the flats but these are pretty minor issues in the visual design because it definitely worked for me and drew me into the combat. Great stuff!

 

Glad you liked it! However, what do you mean by "their midtex railings from bleeding into the flats", a slimetrail that we missed?
As a curiosity, I'll also add that the first version of the map didn't have the meat room, but it was added at Beetle's suggestion to "corrupt" the place a bit, which I totally agree with.

EDIT: Oh, I see what you mean.
Yes, it is true that they have escaped me. I know how to avoid it, I just didn't realize it was happening.

[Book Lord]

Final Thoughts

Solar Struggle was the only megaWAD I played in Release Candidate status, giving feedback to the mappers. It has been an honour and a pleasure to cooperate, and its choice for the May 2023 DWMC event gave me the excuse to play the version uploaded on idgames to see how my suggestions affected the final product. I am amazed that after two years of regular participation I am still doing certain things for the first time.

 

ViolentBeetle and his fellowship of mappers have been under my radar since I was exposed to their second megaWAD, Skulltiverse. The team consists of talented authors, but it was always open to contributions from less experienced members, getting in touch through Doomworld or the partner PUSS server. Solar Struggle was inspired by Ofisil’s THEME-GAWAD project, from which it took the idea of sticking to a predetermined theme and gradually introducing weapons, items, and enemies, as typical of early team efforts like Memento Mori or Requiem. The project leader selected in advance the name of each level and the setting of the four episodes, taking place on different bodies of the Solar System, then asked the mappers to claim their favourite slot. With a few exceptions, every author contributed only one map to the megaWAD, leading to a great mix of styles, ideas, and mapping methods.

 

The protagonist is an unnamed convict imprisoned on the largest moon of Saturn, apparently an UAC mining colony. During the first episode, Titan Terror, a sudden demonic invasion allows him to escape the detention facility, but he must break through enemy lines to reach a spaceship that may carry him no further than the asteroid belt. The second episode, called Ceres Carnage, takes place in an underground base on the dwarf planet, hosting a secret research complex and an experimental teleportation gateway. The device sends our Doomguy to Earth’s Moon, right in the middle of the fight against the demons. In the third episode, he must survive the Moon Madness and kill the Spiderdemon guarding the space elevator. On the counterweight station, he encounters human troops that are still resisting to the invaders. The commander offers him full pardon if he accepts to travel to New Venice, a city floating in the Venusian atmosphere, to complete a dangerous mission. Once a utopia for human elite, it became twisted by the demons into their new headquarters in this dimension. The fourth episode, Venusian Violence, takes the wannabe hero from the overrun human settlement to the hot surface of the planet, where he will find a way to stop the demonic invasion.

 

The plot was outlined in the info file and expanded by the endgame texts, but as in most Doom adventures the environment and the gameplay tell the story. The episodes were defined by their custom sky and thematic choices as explained by ViolentBeetle in the development thread, and the mappers mostly adhered to the aesthetic guidelines, sifting them through their own sensibility. Homages to the IWADs were encouraged sometimes but were generally avoided, trying to achieve either a realistic level design, abounding in Doomcute, or efficient Ultimate Doom gameplay, proving that the limited bestiary of the OG can still bring a lot of fun in balanced and well-thought-out scenarios.

 

Solar Struggle targeted the casual Doomer, more oriented towards exploration and atmosphere than combat challenge. Having played both Hellevator and Skulltiverse, I knew many authors involved in this project. I also learned, at my own expense, what they are capable of when they want to give the player a hard time. Seeing certain people restrain themselves from going all-in against Doomguy, creating great atmospheric maps that were enjoyable even if played casually, was surprising and refreshing. This choice allowed their work to be appreciated by everyone, including players that were put off by their previous productions, and paired it with contributions from less experienced mappers that show remarkable coherence. There were many skilled people submitting their work to Solar Struggle, providing wonderful sights to admire while exploring the map set. My favourite levels are listed below, but it must be specified that every mapper contributed a worthy piece of the adventure, resulting in a full 36-map megaWAD without interruptions in visual flair or player enjoyment.

 

My RC test sessions were conducted on Ultra-Violence and Hey Not Too Rough, so for the DWMC I indulged in a guilty pleasure of mine: UV with the -fast parameter, using savegames mid-level (not during encounters). Given this premiss, otherwise manageable situations became a bit frustrating, but I have always found a way to overcome them without resorting to cheats or RNG gambling, except a single case in E3M8 that required many reloads. I considered switching to normal UV at the start of the third episode, as I felt ammo starvation was too penalising, but I stayed strong, relied on my deep knowledge of the maps, and played the megaWAD to the end with -fast. I do not think I am exceptionally good at this game; I play -fast sometimes because I like the aggressive behaviour of low tier monsters, and Ultimate Doom is where the difference really shines.

 

Secrets are more ingrained in Ultimate Doom than Doom II, and it should come as no surprise that they were an important feature of Solar Struggle. The goodies within sustained me against the inevitable attrition caused by -fast monsters, and I frequently scored 100% in the end-of-level tally. Conversely, secret maps were less detailed and satisfying than the regular levels, even though they became more substantial in the last two episodes. The soundtrack was a good selection of midis from other video games or created by the community, independently chosen by the authors and subject to minor changes by the project leader.

 

2022 was another great year for WAD enthusiasts and Cacoward writers, blessed with a pile of new releases to skim through. The fact that Solar Struggle was only a runner-up at the December award ceremony only suggests there were so many other amazing products that deserved higher recognition. It is one of the smoothest Ultimate Doom megaWADs I have ever played, leaving many past Cacoward winners in the dust. It proves that creativity, commitment, and a good project direction can lead to stunning and refreshing outcomes, by adding only a handful of custom textures to Doom and Doom II stock resources. Let us give a big round of applause for the whole team!

 

Best maps:

E1M2 – Admin Offices by @Peccatum Mihzamiz

E1M6 – Visitor Center by @Shawny

E2M6 – Transport Nexus by @Jark

E2M7 – Research Complex by @cannonball

E3M1 – Lunar Gateway by @LordEntr0py

E3M6 – Deep Crust Borehole by @myolden

E4M1 – Docking Station by LordEntr0py

E4M8 – Impact Site by @PinkFlamingo

 

Other standout maps:

E1M5 – Mining Complex by @RataUnderground

E1M8 – Huygens Spaceport by @ViolentBeetle

E2M2 – Storage Complex by @Wavy

E2M8 – Ceres Gateway by @Nefelibeta

E3M5 – Helium Refinery by @Captain Toenail

E3M8 – Space Elevator by @muumi

E4M2 – Customs Office by @Anarkzie

E4M3 – Commercial District by Rataunderground

 

Special mentions maps:

E2M3 – Stock Exchange by @DFF

E4M5 – Waste Recycling Facility by @MAN_WITH_GUN

 

N.B. The maps I list as “special mentions” are maps I consider important in the big picture of the megaWAD, even if I disliked them and/or I think they could have improved with only a few changes.

[Klear]

Another month, another wad. I'm going to take a break now, but I said the same last month, so who knows? It was definitely a good idea to join the club this month - Solar Struggle is actually very well suited for VR play and I had a lot of fun. Overall I liked episode 1 the most, with more maps embracing the "continuous progress through a very detailed world" approach I like. Here's my favourite maps, in the order of appearance:

 

E1M4 - “Mineral Processing” by @Death Bear

Playing in VR was at its best here, with great visuals, great combat and a lot of opportunities to use all six degrees of freedom without feeling cheesy.

E1M8 - “Huygens Spaceport” by @ViolentBeetle

Thick atmosphere and a ton of detailing made this an instant favourite.

E2M6 - “Transport Nexus” by @Jark

The best one. Great build-up, great ambushes, so many baron fights I enjoyed. I also remembered that in my first playthrough I got two barons to infight. I think that was the first time I ever noticed that happening in all my years of playing Doom too!

E4M2 - “Customs Office” by @Anarkzie

Such an off-beat map! Thinking back on it it really has a much different vibe than the rest of the wad, maybe except some of the Ep 1 ones. And it was a welcome breather amidst the later half of the wad which is deadly serious.

E4M6 - “Mass Propulsion” by @SMG_Man

I'm not a big horror fan, but I can appreciate it, which is why I played this one straight rather than making my life easier using weapons from continuous playthrough. It was terrifying. I really felt like playing Resident Evil more than Doom. I'm never playing it like this again, that's for sure, but this map has left an impression on me others in the wad don't even come close to.

[Azure_Horror]

Another semi-random assortment of map reviews from me

 

E4-M6 Mass Propulsion by @SMG_Man

First things first: defeating two cyberdemons with rockets takes too much time. This is major sour point of a pistol start.

An addition of some 120-220 Cells + Plasma Rifle would have made for much smoother first section of the map.

 

Other than that - Mass Propulsion is a curious and engaging map. If one comes for some kind of "standard" gameplay - this map is bound to feel weird. But if one likes unusual blends of exploration and combat, and does not mind slow-paced levels - than this map is quite memorable. This blend of Doom 1 resources and ambitious gameplay goals feels very fitting for episode 4 of a UDoom pWAD. The more outsnading levels from "Thy Flesh Consumed" were exactly like that, after all!

 

E4-M8 Impact Site by @PinkFlamingo

I like this miniature final map.

We have a wonderful nod to the ending of "Knee Deep In the Dead". We have nefarious SpiderDemon hitscan turret. And, last, but not least, we have an amazing Hellish scenery (less Hellish than IRL planet Venus surface, but still).

 

E4-M4 Residential Areas by @DJVCardMaster

14 hours ago, DJVCardMaster said:

Don't be ashamed to dunce-cap one of your fellow club members !

Eh, I think you are underselling your work, DJV. Residential Area may be not the most epic level, but it is still a very good map.

What I like about this level:

- It provides a break between big E4-M3 and humongous E4-M5. Proper pacing is very important for any megawad!

- The combination of different monster types plays very well together with the resources provided. Shotgunners provide firepower, while demonic beasts bring tankiness. Everything works very well together, the shotgun does not feel too boring, both the chaingun and the rocket launcher feel like good premium guns, and overall combat dynamics manages to match good Doom 2 - based gameplay. All in all, I'd call this combat design a success.

- The map being small doesn't feel out-of-place at all. Ultimate Doom Episode 4 had quite a lot of short maps, after all.

- The setting is very memorable. A hellified city block in the clouds is an unique location!

- Health balance may be extreme, but it is also very on-point. Limited health + cool setting is good old Doom mapping tradition. TNT: Evilution is filled with similar maps. More recently, 2020 pWAD 180 Minutes Pour Vivre also included some similar maps. Both map 20 and map 21 of 180 mpv are small, evocative levels with outright disgusting level of resource deprivation and very beautiful settings. They feel right at home in their respective slots, despite being placed right between Slaughter-Style maps 19 and 22. E4-M4 fits a similar mold in the Solar Struggle progression.

- Last, bur not least, Residential Area level geometry appears pretty boring at first, but it leads to very fun engagements. It reminds me a lot about @Deadwing's WADs.

(BTW, I decided to follow @Book Lord's footsteps for a bit, and re-played E4-M4 on UV -fast pistol-start. The map felt very fair to me, despite the minuscule amount of health and abundance of hitscanners. It seems that for any hitscanner crowd, there is an appropriate piece of cover somewhere nearby)

 

In conclusion: I like this map sincerely, and nobody can stop me!

 

 

My thoughts about Solar Struggle as the whole:

I can see two perspectives on Solar Struggle:

1) Solar Struggle as a re-imagining of the Ultimate Doom.

2) Solar Struggle as a quality modern community project, which aimed for Doom1 IWAD for a mapping challenge.

 

As far as my opinion goes:

From perspective 1), Solar Struggle feels like a partial success. Solar Struggle is a nice, well-crafted WAD, but for me personally it loses to Doom the Way ID Did, Doom Zero and/or Knee-Deep-in-KDiZD in Doom1 IWAD nostalgia department.

 

However...

From perspective 2), Solar Struggle has surpassed my initial expectations greatly. Maps from Solar Struggle make an astounding job of approximating Doom2-style pWAD designs with purely Doom 1 resources. Turns out, one can still have a lot of fun without revenants and archviles, even when aiming for 'modernist' design concepts. This is a HUGE discovery and a HUGE deal.

 

Doom 1 IWAD has two definitive advantages over Doom 2: more map slots, and also much more flexible episode structure. UMAPInfo does help with those aspects nowadays, but it is still not universally adopted.

 

For this reason, it very nice to discover huge un-explored design space for Doom 1 pWADs. In this aspect, Solar Struggle reminds me of Rekkr. The Rekkr version for Ultimate Doom already showed the sheer depth of Doom 1 de-hacked wizardry possible. And Solar Struggle demonstrated that even un-modified Doom 1 gameplay can be made much closer to Doom 2 than the skeptics think. The Valiant/Uprisng/Antaresian_Legacy style partial conversion for Doom 1 IWAD looks the logical next step. I would gladly play such a WAD!

Edited May 31, 2023 by Azure_Horror : missed letters and words added

[Anarkzie]

8 hours ago, ElPadrecitoCholo said:

||

→ E4M1 - "Docking Station"
I didn't like this place, the combat here is really disturbing, and I guess what's most interesting about it is the aesthetics and the structure of the level that are like floating islands or something, but personally, it was a stressful introduction and certainly worse executed than in the original E4M1 of Doom 1. By the way, it's in this episode where I start using the saves to avoid having to eat all the damn progress over and over again in each place that there was a key to collect.

 

I know you said you did not like it but your playthrough of this level looked so cool. Particular highlights were the way you softened up the cacos with the rocket launcher and finished them with a single shot from the pistol. This was some John Wick style stuff.

Edited May 31, 2023 by Anarkzie

[cannonball]

Overall thoughts;

 

It is hard to not compare this to the other full megawad by Violent Beetle et al, in this case SKulltiverse. Overall I found Solar Struggle to be less of a quality rollercoaster compared to the boom compatible adventure involving blue skulls. There were less bad maps, but at the same time there were less maps that grabbed the player and blew their socks off, though potentially that is as much as an issue that are out of the mappers control here. In the end the maps tended to range between okay and pretty darn good with only a few exceptions either way. The biggest strength of Solar Struggle is its variety and how this is achieved without really sacrificing and general sense of narrative and the overall quality of the wad. This is reflected well in the fact that people's favourite map choices vary quite a bit, which goes to show that this wad is a good fit for a variety of different tastes. 

 

Score - 3.5/5

 

Favourite Maps - E3M1 and E4M8 (both achieved exactly what they wanted to do and were pretty much flawless in my opinion)

Honourable mentions - E4M1 + E1M1, E1M4, E1M6, E2M6, E2M8, E3M3, E3M5, E3M8, E4M3 (E4M1 I rated slightly higher than the rest of the block, but I really liked all of these in general).

 

It was a pleasure to submit one map to this, and I hope that my little cameo added something to this wad. Playing through this wad was good fun, though I must confess to feeling a little frustrated at some maps that didn't really change much during playtesting (Well the period when I did some) and it seemed that many of the flaws remained. In the end the wad could have been helped to have a little more quality control (Though I am not exactly one to complain, given I am currently achieving the opposite where a project is taking forever to finish). I do feel that this is definitely one of the better Ultimate Doom megawads, and I do believe that comes from the rich variety of talent that was involved in this and it certainly adds value to this project to have mappers who specialise in dark/brooding atmosphere and those who take a more light-hearted approach.

  

[LadyMistDragon]

E4M8 - Impact Site

by @PinkFlamingo

 

Thanks to CBM (an iterant mapper whom I'm somewhat familiar with, and oddly enough, not because of his membership in the Clippy crowd) dropping out, the boss slow ended up getting picked up by this essential unknown. Reportedly, they'd just made something similar to the last boss map....but the atmosphere is entirely different! Featuring a grim Jimmytrack and the only setting in Solar Struggle that can be considered full-on hell (it's obviously the Venus surface but you know), we start in a cave with basically every weapon before moving out into a vast open area that one might also compare to Crater Lake except instead of a volcano, there's a Mastermind, much too far away to hit effectively at this point but sure is capable of hitting us! Hey, you wanted a challenging boss fight right.....although we can't kill her right away. We have to first travel around the massive lake here, dealing with various teleport ambushes and hope we aren't too damaged by the close quarters combat (as if, Snake would have our asses) but eventually, we pick up a BFG, and reach a slight overhang which brings us just close enough to the Mastermind that we can blast her a few times with the BFG....but the fight is not over! In a break from the original E4, a wall some distance behind us opens and an entire kitchen sink of barons, several Cacos and some scattered Lost Souls are unleashed upon our pathetic asses. Due to using too many cells earlier, there were still a fair few Barons left alive and afterwards, we were almost out of everything. We would've had enough shells for the last Caco but they were too far away so we then descended into an incredibly creepy tunnel, enter a shrine of sorts....and pass through another mysterious portal! The way the intermission screen acknowledges that is really nice! Good conclusion too!

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

 

Well, since the "....ranking things is fun" guy has just done an episode on this (which I haven't seen yet, kekw), elaborating would be a waste of time and I also have other priorities in either case. But basically, Solar Struggle started from the basic premise of making an episode replacement wad not bound by the limits of DOOM thematically, despite custom texture usage in most maps being limited, and in that aspect, it succeeded masterfully. Throughout this cross-planetary journey, the attempt at creating a sense of place hardly faltered, even if some maps were almost too abstract to resemble their pre-placed names (a characteristic probably borrowed from the project Literalism). And better yet, practically all of the maps were effective at using the basic monster roster to help achieve shockingly high quality. Not sure how to wrap this up, so I'll just move on the favorite maps.

 

 

E2M3: Stock Exchange

E2M6: Transport Nexus

E4M3: Commercial District

E4M1

E1M2

E1M8

E4M9

E4M8

E4M6

E3M1

E4M2

 

 

middle of the road stuff

 

E3M4

E1M5

E3M5

E4M5

E4M7

E2M2

 

 

maps that just plain stunk 

E2M1 - I can't think of anything as generic as this in the entire megawad, even E2M9. Oddly enough, it was probably a personal favorite episode

Edited June 1, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[Anarkzie]

E3M1 - “Lunar Gateway” by LordEntr0py

What's to say that has not already been said. This is a great opener from the moment you literally shot the switch to open the door to the levels end. This levels charm lays in its sense of adventure, you feel as if you're exploring an actual crater or some kind of natural formation that has man made structures embedded into the the rocks. You're being shoot at from all angles and the level topography has you taking advantage of the changing verticality which makes for a dynamic level. it's big for an episode opener but that's not a bad thing.

E3M2 - “Tranquility Terminal” by RHhe82

This levels interiors has a very clean look, with really nice ceiling designs that have a layer effect. The outdoor sections are also pretty cool.

 

The early combat sections remind me of Cheesewheel's Uprising wad, they both feature solid walls with sections cutout that allow enemies to shoot from other rooms. I like how Cacodemons outside take advantage of the windows, popping into firing range, spitting at you, and then flouting off for a bit, as you're having to deal with what's in the room with you. My only criticism combat-wise would be that there are a few too many Cacodemons early on, having to shotgun multiple numbers of them at the start can be a bit of a drag. There no real memorable ambushes or anything like that, but you get an increase in  appearances of barons, which makes it harder. Not bad stuff, for some reason my main memory of this level was the ambush featuring the Baron raising out of the floor in the middle of those four computer servers but it still managed to jump scare me. I also got killed rushing into the exit teleporter.

E3M3 - “Deep Space Observatory” by Dac

Very short and easy map but easily one of my favourites, you're tasked with finding 3 keys to activate 3 switches, there are 3 paths leading to 3 interesting scenarios. These paths are diverse in concept and unique in terms of game play. One has you climbing up a small cliff and mountain, another sees you walking along a booby trapped walk way while the final one has you shooting it out in some kind of structure. The traps and set pieces are all really good and you tell imagination went into constructing them

The secrets are cool as well. I like when a secret leads to a new fight and that's what you get with the plasma gun secret. Teleported away to an arena to duke it out with some imps, Pinkies and some Barons. The combat in general is really good

The visuals are good, the use of that red texture on the building stands out In a positive way.

E3M4 - “Fusion Plant” by BluePineapple72

This another one of the those richly detailed maps by one of the pro mappers in the community, this time it is BluePineapple72. In a similar vain to Violent Beetle, BluePineapple uses a lot of Doomcute to not only give the impression of a real place but also for environmental story telling. Here we see a base that is literally going to hell with demonic blood streaming down the walls.

Is interesting how he throws so many contrasting textures together and they still look really good, like the room with all the cages encasing all the computer equipment and stuff. It should be a mess but like I said it looks fantastic. If you take your time while doing this stage you will also notice little details like that massive pool of blood by the yellow key feeds into the blood fall that goes to the blue key.

There's some clever level design here as well. Like the way you navigate the bath room sink, which is just pure genius. I really like the final room with the cyberdemon. Navigating your around him and the obstacles is cool. I'm glad I did not kill him as you find a crusher switch that does it for you.

E3M5 - “Helium Refinery” by Captain Toenail

I honestly have no idea how helium is refined, or even how we come by it. If someone were to say it's farmed from magical fairy farts, I would have no counter argument. With that in mind I have no idea if this is an even remotely similar to a refinery or not but it has a lot of really visually impressive gas type pipes. The large outdoor ones look phenomenal.

I also have no idea why I enjoy the combat in this map so much but I really liked it. Its not my usual style at all. I killed myself multiple times because I just got carried away not taking it seriously and rocketed myself against a wall. I can provide no meaningful breakdown of this aspect of the level and will only say that it is really good. It feels like it would make a really good death match stage. That might be it, there's not a lot of doors and each room flows into the next making it easy to run around killing everything.

Really good level. What's the explanation for the UAC guys at the end?

E3M6 - “Deep Crust Borehole” by myolden

This maybe the best chapter overall in my opinion, I'm finding that there is a consistent momentum between maps. This is another really good level, I liked the overall combat in the last level better but this one has two standout set piece fights that even it out. The first is the lift decent and then the imp and Baron fight right before the exit. I loved the way the level looped back around on itself that took me by surprise. I don't have a lot more to say about it but don't take that to mean this was not really good.

E3M7 - “Freight Terminal” by MemeMind

This level has a hot start. As you jump down all I could think of was poor Doomguys knees. This is an explosive start to a level, having everything firing up at you as Cacodemons ascend to your position. This works well in continous play but I imagine this would be hard starting with just the pistol. There's a clever parkouring section using the train in fact this level features a number of cool sections like this that require you to assess the location to move forward.

I'm not going to lie and say that it's the best looking level but it's far from a bad level and features a number of good and dynamic fights. The final train yard, where you're making your way down under a hail of imp fire, Baron projectiles and the Sargent buckshot sits with some of the best the wad has. The level flows very well however it does end a little abruptly.

Aside from visual polish I would say this is a good level.

E3M8 - “Space Elevator” by muumi

I have to laugh, as soon as I started half the Imps and Pinkies immediately turned around and started firing and running at the SpiderMastermind, she's such a douche. First the visuals, this stage looks incredible, the massive sci fi structure housing the boss looks epic.

The concept of this stage is brilliant, having to make your way around the arena while all hell is breaking losing is a million times better than what we got in the original IWAD. It plays like one of those chaotic scenes from Game of Thrones where the camera is following one guy who gets killed then the next guy and so on and so on.

I had demons charging at me only to turn on their comrades, my priorities were constantly switching second by second as the battlefield situation changed. All the while trying to activate these switches. When I finally got to her she was to busy shooting at one of her mates to notice me. So I shot her in the back like a coward, don't judge, I was sent to prison for a reason.

Fantastic end to a fantastic episode. Like I said before, as a whole this is probably my favourite episode in the wad. E3M1 starts strong with a great level but the action just keeps building as it goes along.

Edited June 1, 2023 by Anarkzie

[finnks13]

E4M5 - Waste Recycling Facility by MAN_WITH_GUN:

40:22/2 Deaths
I talked about how marathon maps with magnum-opus written all over them live or die for me on their memorable moments a while ago (come to think of it, that was back in Interception 2) and while my opinion on that has stayed mostly the same, I didn't mention something that really annoys me about maps like this. It's their total disregard for the wad's pacing and flow, as if to say that it's more important for their map to stand out and be noticed for just how big and impressive it is, and completely disregard the project leader's request for shorter, ~10 minute maps - it just feels really disrespectful on the part of the mapper to me, because who's going to receive something that's obviously had so much work and effort poured into it and reject it? I certainly wouldn't have the heart to. So even if this were the greatest map I'd ever played, it being twice as long as the next longest maps in the wad would have annoyed me, however I did not enjoy this map at all either.

 

To get the obvious out of the way, the visuals in this map are impeccable. Maps that have this incredibly high level of detailing often look busy and unfocused to me, but that is not a problem with this map. Pretty much every part of the map looks nearly perfect for this high-detail style, and while it does feel a little more Knee Deep in the Dead than floating city a lot of the time, I don't think it feels out of place in the episode at all. The shot of the floating islands in the distance with the buildings on is absolutely breathtaking, and I love how midtextures and forced perspective were used to create this effect, I wish part of the map took place out there.

 

The main area this map falls down for me is it's gameplay, while it looks nice, it plays merely "fine" and that's not enough to sustain a map of this length for me, especially when you only have the Doom 1 monsters to work with. The plasma gun area was my favourite part of the map, having to tackle a bunch of heavy enemies in the dark - I went here first and it really gave me hope that the map would be full of fun combat set-pieces like this, but it isn't. Most of the map is a procedural sleepwalk. My least favourite part of the whole wad so far is the crusher section, which is just awful, if the crushers were *slightly* higher up it might be better, but it's just annoying in it's current state - my only deaths in the entire map were here and both of them felt arbitrary and unfair. If the map at least led to something cool then it would have redeemed it a little, but it's a dull circle-strafe fight where you're under no threat because everything's going to be trying to murder the cyberdemon instead of you after you've completed one lap. I really do hate panning a map that has clearly had so much work put into it, but small irritations add up much faster when I've been getting lost in a map for nearly an hour.

 

E4M6 - Mass Propulsion by SMG_Man:

19:30/0 Deaths
Oh no. I've been talking about how I wish that more of these maps attempted to make more interesting combat set-pieces than you'd expect from a Doom 1 megawad, and this map certainly is going for that. The problem is that it really doesn't work for me here. I knew since this was E4M6, I should expect some cyberdemon fighting to take advantage of the tags, but the first section of this map throws two cyberdemons at you in a mess of corridors & small rooms that feel completely impossible to actually rocket duel them in. SMG_Man seems to know this too since you're given an absolutely ridiculous number of invulnerabilities to use, and this takes out any of the challenge this section could pose and turns it into a dull mess of waiting for a cyberdemon to teleport to you, and then standing still while holding the fire-button down. I don't think this area is inherently flawed for this concept, and potentially see that if you were only given BFGs and the invulns were removed then this game of cat and mouse might have been quite a lot more engaging.

 

The other large problem with this first area (and the map as a whole) comes from navigation. Of the 19 minutes I spent playing this map, 12 of those were trying to figure out how to escape the first area. While enemies do start flooding in after you grab the key, just figuring out how to get to it, and then what it could be used on was very unintuitive. There's tons of yellow skull bars everywhere that you can't activate (WHY!) and the teleportals that lead all around here do a fantastic job of making me incredibly confused. Once you escape this area the map kinda just keeps going for a bit afterwards, with none of these areas being noteworthy other than  the fact that the secrets in them are weirdly completely in the open. Visually, the map is fine and I did find the floating STARTAN techbases amusing. I can appreciate the attempt at something different here, but it's just not fun.

 

E4M7 - The Tether by Engired:

6:07/2 Deaths
Exactly what the doctor ordered. The Tether is a fun little arena that doesn't overstay it's welcome and propels you into the finale with speed. I really like this map's visuals, the little town in ruins that's surrounded by a load of strange looking moonrock buildings(?) looks great, and has a sense of unreality about it, as if the whole city is falling apart at the seams. It's notable that "The Tether" is without a doubt the most abstract title in the wad and I wandered what it referred to for a lot of my playthrough - I assume the odd looking structure we jump into right at the end is The Tether, but I could be wrong about that. There's a lot of shotgun guys in this map, and very little health so the map is not as easy to clear it first seemed, and the partial invisibility you can find is actually very useful for once which is always nice. Not too much more to say about this, it's a fun map that is perfectly placed in the wad.

 

E4M8 - Impact Site by PinkFlamingo: 

6:04/2 Deaths
An absolutely fantastic finale, Impact Site is one of the most visually breathtaking maps in an episode full of gorgeous maps. After spending so much time suspended in the air, we're finally able to get to the volcanic surface of Venus to find out what's been causing all this commotion. As a little sidenote, I really liked how the intermission screen gets more and more distorted the further we got into this episode, with the signal of doomguy's location being completely lost as we get here. I love how dark the map is, with the only light sources being the lavafalls that run from the mountains to the large lake in the centre of the map, it looks incredibly striking.

 

Gameplay wise it's similar to E3M8, in that it's a little gauntlet of gearing up to fight the spider mastermind that is at the centre of the arena. Though unlike E3M8, this map is almost entirely linear and I think this works in the map's favour as the encounters that take place within feel much more structured as a result. I really like the little section where the lava level falls and you have to fight a bunch of enemies before your radsuit runs out, while under fire from the spider. I think the nature of E4M8's triggers works well for this kind of map, since it's not completely ruined by continuous players' arsenal of guns or enthusiastic players trying to kill the spiderdemon before they're meant to. Once you've dealt with the spider, all that stands between you and victory is the Bruiser Legion that can be BFG'd into oblivion with all the cells you're given. I honestly don't think the wad could have ended on a better note, what a great map! 

 

Overall Thoughts:

Solar Struggle is one of the most pleasant surprises I've had this year while playing Doom. I had my eye on it after seeing the acclaim it gathered, and because of it's interesting episode themes (well E3&4 themes at least :P), but I did not expect to have this much fun with a Doom 1 megawad. Perhaps my expectations on gameplay were a little lower than normal, but the vast majority of these maps are fun in spite of Doom 1's limited roster and are able to use what is there very effectively. I do think there is something charming about Doom 1's simplicity and the general focus on atmospheric maps that was helped out by the map titles being pre-selected and all being physical locations, meant that this charming nature found it's way into the maps themselves with the majority of them attempting to create some semblance of a real location (that was still pretty doom-y of course!)

 

As far as episodes go, the first and fourth were my favourites. Episode 1 was the most consistently solid, with Episode 4 having higher highs and lower lows. I think the incredibly cool theme of Episode 4 makes it my favourite one overall. That being said there were excellent maps in every single episode and while there were maps that I didn't like, I really don't think there's a bad map here and even the weakest ones often had interesting ideas. I think that Episode 1 and 2's themes were a little weaker than the others and while I guess the underground theme of E2 is at least something, Episode 1 does feel rather generic. Though maybe that's intentional so when the wad gets weirder, it catches you more off guard.

 

Solar Struggle has catapulted itself to the top of my favourite Doom 1 wads alongside Nihility:Infinite Teeth, I think it's absolutely fantastic and definitely something I'll be recommending to people who fancy playing something a little weird.

 

Top 5 Maps:

E2M6 - Transport Nexus by Jark

E3M1 - Lunar Gateway by LordEntr0py

E4M1 - Docking Station by LordEntr0py

E1M6 - Visitor Center by Shawny

E4M8 - Impact Site by PinkFlamingo

 

Overall Rankings:

Spoiler

if you must see how i arbitrarily decided to order the maps rather than reading the paragraphs then here you go i suppose

 

Really Liked - E2M6, E3M1, E4M1, E1M6, E4M8, E4M3, E1M2, E3M3, E1M9
Liked - E2M7, E4M2, E4M7, E1M7, E3M8, E2M8, E1M4, E2M3, E3M2, E1M5, E2M9, E3M6
Ehhhhh - E2M5, E4M4, E2M4, E3M5, E1M3, E1M8, E4M9, E2M1
Didn't Like - E3M7, E1M1, E3M4, E3M9
Really Didn't Like - E2M2, E4M5, E4M6

 

[DJVCardMaster]

Solar Struggle - ViolentBeetle et al.:

ViolentBeetle proves us once again he is really good at managing community projects, this time, with an Ultimate Doom project. Every map name was given to the mappers, so the mappers had to think about a map based on its name. The entire mapset feels solid, with some ups and downs here and there, but overall, most of the levels where nearly at the same level. If you ask me, I would still prefer Skulltiverse, only because of Doom 2's beastiary, but some levels at Solar Struggle proved us gameplay in Ultimate Doom can be almost as equal as fun as in the second game, some examples will show you how battles are done. Others, will show that it's actually difficult to make an interesting Ultimate Doom level, and most of us failed. Most levels relied of thinking a little bit outside the box with gameplay and monster placement to make things spicy. The megawad starts taking big steps at the second episode, and it is at this point where it goes a little bit down and stays most of its play-time at the same level.
Solar Struggle is one of the better Ultimate Doom replacements out-there, not the best one, but one of the more modern and refined, and you should play it at least once if you like Doom I gameplay.
 

Best maps:
E2M7 - The honeycomb shape of all of its halls, combined with its inter-connectivity and aesthetics, makes it for a really enjoyable map, that flows with its encounters. It came clear that, Cannonball would deliver, as he was the biggest mapping veteran at this project, and he did not dissapoint. Over all it was the most solid map.
E4M5 - The Magnum Opus map that every megawad needs to have, wether you like or hate it a lot, because it takes one and a half hour of your time, this map is big, and always engaging. It is Doom Gameplay but extended into an endurance mode, so I understand it can get old after so many minutes of gameplay. That's why it's not, for me, the best map of the bunch.
E4M1 - The best episode starter of them all, solid gameplay, beautiful landscape, and engaging combat. Layout-wise, it was interesting, as it had somewhat of a circular layout, and you could do many laps over said level to manipulate combat and caco placement a little bit, and clean your way through the exit. 

Worst maps:
E1M9 - First secret map, and it feels like it remains secret just because it was under par. There are some things you may like about this one, but feels like a novice attempt
E2M9 - Second secret map, this behaves as a "secret map" but because it feels a little bit dumb, and not because it feels like a nice level, same as E2M9, but I liked this one's gameplay the less. Nothing special or game-changing.
E1M7 - This one felt totally under-par, combat was grindy and packed, the layout was totally symmetrical, and the looks pretty basic, you could easily cheese most battles as well. Some examples as E4M2 or E3M7 had more solid arguments although they were similar to this one in terms of overall quality. For starters, a non-symmetrical layout, and a little idea here and there, E1M7 not, sadly.

Dunce-cap:
E4M4 - Yes, I got dunce-capped. Reasons this could be the worst map are clear, this map is quite polarizing, this implies not everyone is going to hate it, but if you don't like it, you will, most likely despise it over the rest. Gameplay feels stale and never pumps it up after the start, also, item management is quite over the place. I feel some may notice the lack of effort on this one.

Score: 72/100 (Good)

It's been good to work yet again in another project, sadly this was the last map after my year-break at mapping, since I've noticed right after development of E4M4 that I was running out of ideas and I needed to take my time for more later.

[Ralgor]

Final Thoughts

Solar Struggle was on my radar before it even released, as it looked like a wad that would be fun to play. But like most wads, they end up in the "I'll play it one of these days category", which means it was likely I never would have played it. Luckily it was chosen by the club for this month, and while I was originally thinking about taking a break, seeing this chosen convinced me to give it another go. I'm glad I did, since this wad was great. The concept of having a theme for each episode, plus a pre-chosen name, along with other restrictions, gives this wad a cohesiveness that is missing from most community projects.

The only downside is its length due to the number of maps, but that was really only a problem because I had other things going on that kept me from being able to focus on it. There were times I wasn't sure I would make it to the end, but thankfully I did. I definitely felt some pretty extreme fatigue at the end, which is something I didn't feel in the previous months. This is not the fault of Solar Struggle, but more that I've been playing a lot of Doom the last six months, so it's about time for a break.

No map in this wad was truly difficult, which gave it a casual feeling. I'm really glad for that, since last month's was a little too hard to immediately follow with another difficult wad. I feel like this wad was a little bit on the easy side, but not so much that it became boring. A few of the maps did manage to kill me a few times, but ultimately it was E4M6 - "Mass Propulsion" by SMG_Man that killed me the most. That rocket duel with the cyberdemons in the beginning was probably the most difficult part of the entire wad for me, since I was playing blind while pistol starting and had no idea which way to go.

I don't think I'm going to try to make any kind of coherent list, since all of these maps are worth playing. I am going to mention a bunch that I think are memorable in one way or another. I felt that E1M1 - "Detention Facility" by myolden, E1M2 - "Admin Offices" by Peccatum Mihzamiz, E2M3 - "Stock Exchange" by DFF, and E3M8 - "Space Elevator" by muumi really made you feel like you were in the place that the title described. E2M1 and E3M4 - "Fusion Plant" by BluePineapple72 had the best doomcute. E1M8 - "Ceres Gateway" by ViolentBeetle and E2M6 - "Transport Nexus" by Jark had great oppressive atmospheres that put me on edge. E3M1 - "Lunar Gateway" and E4M1 - "Docking Station", both by LordEntropy, were great episode starts that made use of resource constraints to really delay you getting control the map, forcing you to scramble around until you found your footing. The cyberdemon fight at the beginning of E4M6 was terrifying and is not something I'll forget soon. And of course the massive E4M5 - "Waste Recycling Facility" by MAN_WITH_GUN was a great adventure that could have stood on its own. I could probably go on about other little things in various maps (the cave secret in E1M5, the nifty barrel design in E3M5, etc) that are memorable, but I'm worried I'd end up naming most of the maps at that point. There seems to be something for everyone here.

I had a lot of fun with this wad, and it really shows what an Ultimate Doom wad can actually be. Everyone involved did a great job here. Like last month, I've discovered yet more map authors I will have to watch.

[SMG_Man]

15 hours ago, Azure_Horror said:

An addition of some 120-220 Cells + Plasma Rifle would have made for much smoother first section of the map.

 

Spoiler

I figured it would be a little more difficult and inherently risky for the player (and unfortunately tedious, as you highlighted) if only Rocket Launchers were openly available from the start, considering the rather claustrophobic layout. Part of it was that I'm admittedly a sucker for rocket-dueling Cyberdemon(s), but it was also a matter of balance - I didn't want cells immediately available in the event that continuous players came into the map with a BFG. The "compromise" I settled on was making one of the Plasma Guns on the map reachable early via a secret along with some extra ammunition (MtPain27 highlighted it in his Dean of Doom review for my map).

 

That's the logic I used there. And of course, I appreciate you (and everyone else in this thread!) taking the time to play and share your thoughts on not only my map but the entire project. I wasn't exactly new to mapping when I signed on for Solar Struggle, but I'd never participated in a community project nor really published my works before. It was a great learning experience at the time, and even now getting a boatload more of comprehensive feedback on my map has been invaluable. Thanks once again!

Edited June 1, 2023 by SMG_Man

[LadyMistDragon]

2 hours ago, DJVCardMaster said:

 will show that it's actually difficult to make an interesting Ultimate Doom level, and most of us failed. Most levels relied of thinking a little bit outside the box with gameplay and monster placement to make things spicy. The megawad starts taking big steps at the second episode, and it is at this point where it goes a little bit down and stays most of its play-time at the same level.

 

I disagree somewhat with the first part of your statement. Chances are if that's the opinion one has on Solar Struggle, then the more limited monster roster is probably a massive hurdle to climb that we may not succeed in. But outside of a few situations, they were always used effectively and in many cases (E1M8 or E2M6), the atmosphere helped to lift the quality up greatly.

[FistMarine]

Short write-up about Solar Struggle's first episode, Titan Terror. Sorry for taking so long!

 

E1M1: Detention Facility

A nice intro map that's mostly on the easier side. I recommend finding the Green Armor early on, so the traps later won't pose much of a problem. The SoulSphere secret is also very nice, even if I had intended to save it for the end, the sphere was winking at me and decided to grab it for the final ambush, as I knew there would be a nasty ambush at the end. I still had 152% health remaining in the end, maybe I would have more if I decided to run away instead of standing still but I didn't know I could just go back this time, as I thought the door got locked. Which meant standing still and dodging projectiles was a problem in the narrow space. Other than that, it's mostly an easy map that shouldn't pose a problem.

E1M2: Admin Offices

A nice office themed map. It's also fairly easy, with a few traps and the only tricky one is again at the end when you get the yellow key. I really liked the design and those water bottles, you press on them and get about 10-15 extra hp, reminding me a bit of drinking water mechanic from Duke Nukem 3D. Those four water bottles are also the response to get another green armor in the Yellow Key room.

E1M3: Barracks

Another easy level. The ambushes weren't difficult at all. There was a bit of a challenge at end with the last key but I think finding certain secrets was a bit more challenging. The secret exit is found right in the same room as the normal exit. I won't spoil how to get it.

E1M9: Excavation Site

The secret level is a bit more challenging, mostly due to higher amount of enemies and a few traps. Nothing is truly difficult, with the exception of the star room ambush that is inspired by original E1M9 Rocket Launcher ambush. Circle strafing was the winning move, combined with heavy shotgun/chaingun usage (I didn't feel like using RL too much). I took quite a bit of damage from hitscanners but since I had 160 hp (plus blue armor) prior to that, it wasn't difficult to survive, partially because the Ult Doom monsters don't pose as much threat when compared to the Doom 2 monsters, so the ambushes/mini slaughter end up being a bit trivial. Not a bad thing and I appreciate trying to make use of the existing monsters but I kinda miss the Doom 2 bestiary at times, as those monsters put more pressure on the player. The only dangerous thing in first Doom is getting cornered but that usually doesn't happen, thankfully. At least when you are playing continuously, especially when using the weapons wisely and saving the powerups for the end to start the next level with as much health and armor possible.

 

Fun fact: DTWID E1M9 had the exact same name. When I first read the map's title, I got reminded of that map! And both these maps are way better than DOOM E1M9. Yes, I never liked Military Base that much. Didn't help that I couldn't find the secret level in Doom shareware when I was a kid, so I don't have nostalgia for it.

E1M4: Mineral Processing

A level that somehow turned out much easier than expected, with barely taking any damage at times. Like having around 180-190 hp most of the level, even the ambushes weren't difficult at all. I got curious and read earlier about a certain RL ambush being dangerous but it wasn't bad at all to me when I played the map. Same to the ambushes at the end. Standing still and unloading shells/bullets into the spawning monsters resulted in taking little to no damage. I managed to repair the lost health/armor with just the bonuses alone. I still picked up the Soulsphere secret (after killing the spawned imps, who were the last kills) to get 100% everything obviously.

E1M5: Mining Complex

A slight difficulty spike. This level puts more accent on the Rocket Launcher usage but since I prefer to play safe, I stick with the shotgun & chaingun usage. I rarely used the RL, because there were points with monsters appearing immediately in my face (sometimes even a spectre) and I didn't want to risk blowing myself up, so I ended up sticking to the basic weapons and that seemed to be the winning move. I understand on a pistol start you are probably meant to use rockets often but considering how bad it hurts to shoot a rocket nearby, I didn't want to take risks.

 

The most interesting things about this map are the barrel trap halfway and the secret fight with the lost souls and a few spectres thrown in the mix. You are given extra soulspheres for the effort if you find the secrets. I think this is why the level contains so many powerups, to make up for the higher difficulty, I think. Either way playing continuously made it much easier, as I never struggled with health and armor.

E1M6: Visitor Center

A nice map that very much reminded me of the author's contribution to Skulltiverse megawad. I knew this map seemed very familiar to me but thankfully unlike that particular Skulltiverse map, this one is quite easy, as I rarely got hurt and I repaired the missing health/armor points with just the bonuses laying around. As with the rest maps in Solar Struggle E1, the traps are commonly used but they aren't very threatening, as the smart players will easily overcome the challenge.

E1M7: Traffic Control

Don't worry about the high monster count. Most of those 340 or so monsters are just zombies and imps, with a few demons/spectres (and five cacos) thrown in for good measure. It won't take very long to complete, as the progression is mostly clear. The groups of zombies don't pose much threat and are fun to kill with your shotgun/chaingun. There are also a couple interesting traps as well when the monsters just suddenly pop up. Nice map overall.

E1M8: Huygens Spaceport

Interesting finale. There are a couple teleport traps but you shouldn't have much trouble dealing with them. The final battle is quite interesting, though take into account there is a point of no return, so you are encouraged to grab everything before dropping down, including the map's only secret and the Soulsphere (even at 200% health, like it was my case, just to get 100% everything). The final battle isn't very difficult. I'd suggest to get rid of the teleporting lost souls first. The imps and cacos won't pose much problem and you can run in circles around the barons, sometimes even stepping into acid in desperate times to avoid their shots or if they are trying to corner you. Just be careful with the RL and you should be fine. I still had plenty of health/armor at the end when I finished.

 

The new text screen showed up fine, although part of the text at the last row "ON YOUR OWN TERMS" was cut off (yes I know, I use the original Doom Format aspect ratio to stretch the screen on my monitor) and afterwards, it looks like the credits screen kept melting if pressing SPACE. Probably a bug with DSDA-Doom 0.25.6 or something like that. I will upgrade DSDA-Doom at a later time after I finish Solar Struggle, then I will see if the bug keeps happening. :P

Deaths (E1): 0

 

Screenshots (E1M4-E1M8):

Spoiler

 

Overall, Solar Struggle is very promising so far. The level design seems very nice (with lots of DoomCute thrown in), which motivates me to keep going. I only wish I had planned my time better, as I was busy with no less than five megawads in the same month: Memento Mori II (currently at MAP21), Ancient Aliens (still at MAP09), Deathless (first episode done), Doom Zero (revisiting for third time, currently at MAP21) and Solar Struggle I've started last week and only recently beat the first episode, as I didn't want to miss it entirely. Better late than never, I guess.

 

From what I noticed, the first episode has been really easy. There weren't many dangerous traps and most of the time I had very high health and armor, as well as lots of ammo. I admit I haven't used the RL too much to avoid blowing myself up, so I spend a lot of time with 100 rockets unused in the inventory. As for health/armor, in half of levels I didn't even drop below 170% or so. I think some of the levels are even easier than the original Doom levels.

 

Maybe I should have pistol started the first episode? The later episodes might get a lot harder, though. Not saying that as a bad thing, I enjoyed the maps, as it felt like a relaxing casual experience.

 

Anyway, I will be sure to join properly for The Rebirth. I will see you there! Have a nice weekend!

[sanfrisco]

I hope it ain't too late to give my final thoughts on E4 and the WAD overall. While I managed to finish my playthrough on time, I always underestimate how long writing these reviews take me. E4 has probably the most divisive set of maps and I have a lot to say about most of them, so let's jump right in:

E4M1: Docking Station [UV; pistol start; no saves; 5 deaths]
Easily one of the best, most cohesive opening maps I've ever played. The idea is simple: Run past all enemies til you find a weapon, then fire away. But the execution couldn't be closer to perfection.
The scramble for a proper weapon at the start was probably my favourite opening of the entire WAD. The new Venus background and floating structures connected through teleporters make for a stunning location. But the real deal is the gameplay, with just the right amount of non-linearity as well as perfectly placed enemies trying their best to hunt you down, blocking your path if you give them too much time.
Once you grab the rocket launcher, your only weapon for the entire map, the action kicks up another notch. Having only a rocket launcher at hand is a neat power balance. While you're able to easily clear out big numbers of enemies with ease, once you're surrounded, there's nothing you can do. At multiple points throughout the level you're practically swarmed by monsters teleporting in. There's enough ammo to hold down the fire button, taking out large quantities of imps and pinkies within seconds. This is exactly what I'm looking for when playing Doom. Bravo!

 

E4M2: Customs Office [UV; pistol start; no saves]
What the hell did I just play? The music seems to think the same. I can't say I didn't enjoy my time though. While I does feel a tad amateurish and all over the place at times, the map is undeniably creative and unique. The start already had me laughing and the good mood stayed for the rest of the level. Certain sections and rooms were rather cramped and awkward to fight in, but since the majority of the level wasn't all too challenging, I mostly didn't mind it. The only bit I really didn't enjoy was the Spiderdemon fight.

 

E4M9: Cult Headquarters [UV; pistol start; no saves; 3 deaths]
Seems like I enjoy me some accessable slaughter. Though quite possibly the most simple map in the entire WAD, the map is mindless, action-packed fun. Especially the Cyberdemon fight got my blood pumping. The combat does a great job at looking terrifing at first glance, offering quite possibly the highest monster density of the WAD, but actually being very fair and managable if one does not panic. Playing aggressive and getting monsters to infight by circling the arena worked well for me.

 

E4M3: Commercial District [UV; pistol start; no saves; ~20 deaths]
Man, this map broke me on saveless attempts. The map is essentially one huge, interconnected arena, allowing for nearly infinite ways of tackling the map's tricky encounters. The routes I've seen in other playthroughts of the map for example vastly differd from my approach. But no matter what I tried, I couldn't find any reliable strategy for the first wave. All but one of my ~20 attempts ended there and I had to admit I did feel kind of frustrated after a while, because the Spiderdemons were too damn good at blocking off large portions of the map, leading to me being overwhelmed by the army of other enemies. 
The route I found gave me the best chance for survival was immediatly heading for the Cyberdemon after grabbing the soul sphere and plasma on the way. I don't exactly know how the Spiderdemons spawn in, but if they spawn right next to you while grabbing either, the run is pretty much over. But even if they don't, they remain by far the biggest threat, drastically limiting the space you have to work with, in order to stay out of their sight. Once things start to calm down the Spiderdemons should either be already dead or on fairly low health. The other two waves also keep the pressure high but aren't nearly as problematic.
Looking back though, even if I struggled a lot, I found the combat to be fantastic and overcoming a challenge in this WAD has rarely felt this good.

 

E4M4: Residential Areas [UV; pistol start; no saves; 2 deaths]
While I would consider this to be probably the least memorable map in E4, I think it benefits a lot from its placement in the WAD. After struggling quite a lot with E4E3 and not yet knowing the horrors that would await me in the next map, looking back, M4 feels like the perfect breather map. Not overly difficult, yet with quite a few interesting tricks up its sleeve. The tight ammo at the start fortunately works in the map's favor, requiring you to prioritise which enemies you want to use your shells on (it's always the Shotgunners). Moments that positively stood out to me were, exploring the opening area, the huge number of shotgunners spawning in after grabing the rocket launcher and the final trap. Visually I have to admit the map doesn't do much for me.

 

E4M5: Waste Recycling Facility [UV; pistol start; 1 save; ~10 deaths]
The moment I saw the monster count I knew I was in trouble. Being by far the largest map in the set and the only I have yet to beat saveless, this could have easily been an exhausting, repetitive or a clash of ideas. The words 'magnum opus' have been mentioned quite a few timesm, deservingly so in my opionon. I would agree with calling this an outstanding adventure map and one of the WADs biggest highlights.
The first playthrough can be overwhelming with multiple optional areas and fights being available from the very start, yet the difficulty somehow feels perfectly balanced. If you go for the plasma early on, you have a tough fight ahead of you early on, but an easier time in latter fights. It's more than impressive how one map can have an episode's amount of memorable fights and setpieces with such consistantly top notch quality. Yes, the level's enormous duration works in its favour, yet none of it feels like filler. There are too many highlights to list them all, but the fight for the plasma gun, the entire computer maze section and the final fight.
Really the only section I'm not fond of, that I've also seen others mention, as well as being my only death on my proper attempt, is the crusher section. Whereas the rest of the level allows or even encourages a fast and aggressive playstyle, this section brings the pacing to a halt, requiring a tedious amount of precision. Luckily you are at least granted a free soul sphere and the final fight easily makes up it.
This is one map I'm sure I'll return to, not only because I want to beat the final map saveless, but also because I can't wait to experience some of the combat encouters and section again. I'm fairly certian I'll love it just as much again.

 

E4M6: Mass Propulsion [UV; pistol start; no saves; ~15 deaths]
I really want to like this level, as I do think it easily qualifies as one of the WADs most creative maps and I do enjoy most of the ideas it presents. Playing it wasn't a fun experience though:
My first impressions of the map weren't all too positive, with my first attempt lasting a good five seconds, ending with me catching a face rocket the moment I left the starting area. During the next few attempts I explored the map thoroughly in an attempt to find a way to progress. Turns out I wasn't aware of the Cyberdemon tag exclusive to E4M6 maps. That's on me I guess. Hunting down or rather being hunted down by the Cyberdemons was just as tense as it was tedious. While I love the sense of dread and horror this encounter entails, I hate the random teleportation and layout of the map. If you, like me, were too stupid too find the plasma secret, you need to start off by grabbing as much rocket ammo as you can find. Then grab one of the many invicibilties and head for the nukage outdoors area. Usually at least one of the Cybers is here. Once I managed to take one out, most of my time was spent trying to track down the other one, only for him to teleport away seconds later.
I love how the whole map with its many monsters comes to live, after collecting the red key, but I really don't understand what's going on besides that. There were tons of switches I hit throughout and I couldn't figure out what most of them did. Muliple pain sectors don't look like pain sectors at all, and some require you to take forced damage, before granting you an environmental suit. Some of the enemies take ages to spawn in and since they're also effected by the teleporters used for the Cyberdemons, monsters can be in every corner of the map, making a full completionist attempt of this map sound like a nightmare. And then there was the odd choise of having multiple, entirely different routes to the end of the map: The brownish sewer section with crushers is super short and doable, with the only issue being the forced damage I mentioned eariler. The difficulty of the, what I assume to be main route, is very depended on how many enemies you decide to snipe prior to talking the teleporter. The labyrinth section within was no fun at all. I'm sure I missed a lot there. Maybe there was another route to the finish hidden there, and all the switches I pressed throughout probably unlocked even more paths to take.
In conclusion: Very fun and creative ideas but the execution unfortunately wasn't my cup of tea at all.

 

E4M7: The Tether [UV; pistol start; no saves; ~10 deaths]
Having you finished TNT prior to playing this, I appreciate hearing one of my favourites from it again. The map's difficulty feels very balanced, as even though combat is tough, the map is rather short. Essentially this map boils down to two encounters you can tackle in any order, for which you're stocked up with every gun but little health. One is a Cyberdemon encounter, I died to more, than I'd like to admit. 
Secondly, there's a farily large wave of enemies, including a bunch of hitscanners who'll slowly fiddle away your health with medkits being rather sparse making it all the more tense and exciting. My only issue with the map is that, compared to the rest of E4 it feels rather generic. It plays very well, but that's all it has going for it.

 

E4M8: Impact Site [UV; pistol start; no saves; 2 deaths]
A very worthy final map and yet another brilliant take on the Spiderdemon boss fight. There are some similarties to E3M8: Once again the Spiderdemon is not the major attraction but rather acts as a clever way too limit your movement options and add pressure when there's no way to hide behind cover. To make things more interesting, this level adds the neat gimmick of shootable switches raising craters for additional cover. Visually the map is magnificent. I love the atmosphere at start, the wide volcanic landscape and the rising and lowering volcanos and lavafalls. Truely stunning. My only real gripe with level hasn't to do with the level itself but with its placement in the WAD. Out of all the closing maps I probably found it to be the easiest (aside from that one Baron trap early on) and shortest. Even though none of that had any negative impact on the epicness and grandness of the setpieces and atmosphere, as well as my enjoyment of the combat, it kind of left me expecting more.

Episode 4 Maps Ranked:
E4M1 (9.5/10)
E4M5 (9/10)
E4M8 (8/10)
E4M3 (7.5/10)
E4M9 (7/10)
E4M7 (6.5/10)
E4M2 (6.5/10)
E4M4 (5/10)
E4M6 (3/10)

 

In conclusion Solar Struggle offered everything I was looking for. A varied, beginner friendly WAD making good use of the limited Doom 1 enemy roster. All maps offered an excellent mix of top notch combat with fair and clever challenges on saveless playthroughs and stunning visual themes and structres. Even the maps that didn't quite do it for me offered tons of ideas and sections I could appreciate on their own. I'd love to thank everyone involved in making this WAD, y'all did a fantastic job.

 

I did a few minor adjustments to older grades I've given out, now leaving me with a final ranking of the maps I'm satisfied with:

Spoiler

E2M6 (9.5/10)
E4M1 (9.5/10)
E4M5 (9/10)
E2M8 (9/10)
E1M4 (9/10)
E2M7 (9/10)
E3M1 (8.5/10)
E1M6 (8.5/10)
E2M3 (8.5/10)
E2M2 (8.5/10)
E3M6 (8/10)
E3M3 (8/10)
E3M8 (8/10)
E4M8 (8/10)
E4M3 (7.5/10)
E1M2 (7.5/10)
E1M5 (7.5/10)
E2M5 (7/10)
E4M9 (7/10)
E1M9 (7/10)
E3M2 (7/10)
E1M1 (7/10)
E4M7 (6.5/10)
E3M4 (6.5/10)
E4M2 (6.5/10)
E1M8 (6.5/10)
E3M5 (6/10)
E1M3 (6/10)
E3M7 (5.5/10)
E2M1 (5/10)
E4M4 (5/10)
E1M7 (4.5/10)
E2M4 (4.5/10)
E2M9 (4/10)
E3M9 (4/10)
E4M6 (3/10)

 

[LateNightPerson]

Yo, e1m9 guy here. Glad ya'll enjoyed it (or found it mediocre, that's fine).

 

Fun facts:

- the e1m9 we all got is the second attempt at the map (ViolentBeetle mentioned this), mainly because I felt that the original version was terrible after truly dissecting it. The final version was made with VB's criticisms in mind, as well as not speedmapping it (yes, I speedmapped the original e1m9, which was a huge mistake).

- the midi used was chosen mainly because of the name.

- the main priority with (the current) e1m9 was "just make it fun", although I probably should have spruced up everything else, too.

 

I can post the original e1m9 here if you would want, but trust me, it ain't good.