Terminal Stages of Nostalgia - one map

[knifeworld]

Finished playing this earlier today!
Finding whatever kills and secrets were remaining after opening the exit was actually fun, fantastic work!

[D4NUK1]

Playing rigth now. 

[TJG1289]

Just finished. Got to the exit in 40 minutes, then spent another 15 finding the rest of the secrets and kills. Really fun! I liked how you hop between the slick blue future world, and the old-school nostalgic one. Plus, the slight change in the color palate was nice. The map felt like a cross between the IWAD, BTSX, and your map in Tetanus. Quite a few fights had a bite to them, that BFG fight was a thrill. I like how some ambushes after picking that up would have like 3 archviles in them, now that you have the firepower for it. It really was able to create a sense of panic as soon as the ambush starts. I liked how the megasphere secret had, like, an entire level's worth of chaingunners in it. And that one invul secret within a secret was very clever. I may have had to no clip to get to it initially, but I was able to reverse engineer it to figure out the actual way to get it after doing so. Probably wouldn't have figured that one out without doing so. And the MIDI was quite nice. Really good stuff here!

[Catpho]

Excellent map; glad to see more from you. Below are some of my reflections, and video playthroughs are found in the spoilers at the bottom of the post.

 

- I'll just call the blue carpet base the "alien base" (probably due to sd20x7 being bright in my memory at the moment) for convenience, and what lies beyond the nostalgia portal the "wood" section.

 

- The alien base is typified by flatter and low ceiling heights and consequent height changes. It also contains the map's most dense encounters, and the only part of the map with unapologetic barrel violence. The wood section, by contrast, is frequently precarious, having a multitude of walkways to fall off. The opposition here does not to be particularly dense out of both spatial necessitie, so there's more snipers and flyers to harass doomguy to fall off to compensate. They are unified by being fairly mild in attitude. The opposition can be hairy but so are the proportionate supplies and ways to defang the most pressing encounters (with a handy secret invul, or a well-placed bfg shot). In fact, this level is a great showcase of how to implement the BFG as a part of normal play without turning into an outright slaughter map, probably due to how the backpack is withheld for so long.

 

- Following up the point above, there's a really affecting contrast going on when you are essentially playing two maps with a similar style, but it never feels disconnected somehow. I suspect the vague but intriguing narrative framing is doing a lot of the heavy lifting, but also in graceful progression ideas such as the rising earth every time you visit the wood section from the alien base. It's a neat mechanic that gives you a sense that there is some nebulous connection between the two worlds. As the nature of Doom, the power of suggestion can go a long way in tying everything together, and it's cool to see you tackling this concept. 

 

- Speaking of connections and juxtapositions, a really fascinating association you've come up with for this one. The "Nostalgia" here seemingly refers to the metal / wood / rocks / D2TWiD-ish section, and it has this poetic quality when the map alternates between the two. It's not like the light world, dark world of the Wormhole tributes, or the concrete past present of the time travel levels. I wonder how much of this is dependent on my previous experience with your levels and community creations in general. I know you have built many levels of this theme and structure, which itself is based on a prerenal IWAD theme (the fact that the title screen is the Doom 2 logo as a blurry bouquet of blue is evocative), so the nostalgia connection here comes quicker to me, but I suspect even when one isn't familiar with this stuff can also pick up the dichotomy of smooth, carpeted alien-ish based with wood structures shakily spreading its roots in rocky lands. Still, the fact that I am familiar creates a unique intertextuality, a real sense of nostalgia.

 

- Really, combat-wise and visually, it represents continued refinement of your work, especially your Squonker levels and your Tarns comp map, again successfully pacing itself over half an hour average duration using the gameplay conceits I mentioned above. What’s really fascinating this time around though, is the fact that it unites ideas enough for two levels into a nearly seamless whole thanks to your grasp on Doom engine suggestion and pacing. The former discussed above, the latter is something I find a bit harder to define, but I really do admire how the map alternates between its two core ways of shaping combat with a natural rising and failing. The Alien base are the mini climaxes, while the wood sections are sort of the level’s incidental, building tension sections. Many of your recent levels have taken on a pensive, melancholy atmosphere, but here is probably the most interesting take on this kind of level yet. Fun, fast levels are my jam, and the level's combat setup and layout work deserves an essay of their own, but this time around I'm gripped by the peculiar mood. Really love these conceptual experiments similar to your more high concept works such as Salvage for Tetanus, or many IDOL maps.

 

- As a final note , +1 to the suggestion that the level lacks a climax of sorts. I don't mean a big fight, just something to make the exit feel different. Maybe there could be a ritual of switch pressing, operating the machinery related to the Nostalgia Terminal, or it could just be an evocative sector drawing or sculpture, or maybe an intriguing structure that's interacted with in a weird way. I think of something like Sunlust's God Machine opening, where you just jump on switches for no more reason than to build atmosphere. Of course, this is just a bow for this present you've given to us. It doesn't affect the substance of the level in any way if it ends like it does currently.

 

- As always, great midi. I dunno how to write about music; I wish I could experience the world with my ears :P As a side note, have you ever considered uploading these to youtube or soundcloud? I would love to have Aquifer (and many more) on repeat.

 

Videos:
 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

[Maribo]

Falling back in love with the color blue. Beautiful and well-paced. Thanks for sharing, and like you said, I hope this the first in a wave of more AD maps.

adnstlg_maribo.zip - FDA for the FDA enjoyers. -dsdademo format, plays back in v0.25.6

[Drakkhen5]

Great map! Had a lot of fun with this. Loved the color palette. I appreciated the liberal barrel placements; made for some interesting strategies during fights.

[princetontiger]

Woah! Nice work. I really loved playing this one.

[LadyMistDragon]

Finally played this one! So much other crap in June unfortunately that I had to play and this seemed a little long. As a solid magnum-opus-ish map, I couldn't ask for more.

 

 

 

[Endless]

This was a glorious experience! Great job.

 

Did a review for it on my blog if you want to read more: https://endlessquesting.wordpress.com/2023/07/12/wad-review-terminal-stages-of-nostalgia/