The DWIronman League dies to: Containment Area

[Vytaan]

Cat 1, died at 29:20 with 432/666 kills

 

dwironman-contain-vytaan-cat01.zip

For the commentated version, check your inbox @RjY

[dt_]

Cat 1

 

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qsrqa325hka8dk6358ct1/dtcontain.lmp?rlkey=b5njkwr8qdf90huq9ukt2s3jr&dl=1

 

Pasted by a cyber, maybe about 450 kills, fun map, what's this about sectors?

[RjY]

NaZa was kind enough to pass along three entries submitted out-of-band. These were from joe-ilya, Ludi, and Austinado (q.v.).

 

________

 

 

On 9/21/2023 at 9:34 PM, dt_ said:

Pasted by a cyber, maybe about 450 kills

 

I would not normally question this but since your estimate is significantly higher than the figure I obtained from playing the demo I am now concerned I have counted incorrectly. I have 344 kills for you, or 386 if resurrections are included (but I have filled in the leaderboard under the assumption that they are not). May I ask you and/or a third party to confirm these figures?

 

On 9/21/2023 at 9:34 PM, dt_ said:

what's this about sectors? 

 

Thank you for asking. Sectorcount is the number of unique sectors visited by the player. It is counted exactly the same way as the game normally counts secret areas, but applied to every sector in the map. It is an alternative to rank-by-killcount, devised as a self-imposed penance for gamesmanship ;).

I revived it because, well, since I'm doing this month, why the hell not. However unlike the map featured in the Ironman for which it was created, Containment Area has a more traditional monster placement which is not vulnerable to a strategy to boost killcount without venturing further into the map. So this time, not unexpectedly I have to admit, the differences between the rankings are minimal, and not worth talking about.

[I_Punch_Demons]

Cat 1
Died at: 19:22
199/666

 

Spoiler

Gaht Dang Crushers....Who else, who else died to that crusher, I just wanted to corner peak lmao. Nothing left but to laugh and do better. 

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1934503568

 

[dt_]

@RjY that kill count is probably right; I generally immediately forget how many kills I've managed on a run, I always forget how long they are, and sometimes even forget what level I make it to.  Quite often I will record my demo, die, quit the game, and forget to post it until a few days after

[RjY]

Thanks dt_, that is reassuring.

 

--------

 

Now, to those who have already played the level:

 

Spoiler

 

Do you think the crusher needs a warning in the initial post? (I_Punch_Demons: to answer your question, IIRC you are the third. The plasma cyberdemon has killed many more so far.)

I think the crusher is obvious enough to not need a warning:

• The ceiling slightly protrudes from its surroundings
• It is a different colour (green brick against brown techbase)
• There is a pit underneath, containing three squashed corpses
• There is a clearly-marked lift on the far side, IMO an obvious escape route

But, however, I know it is a crusher, so naturally I am going to see all the evidence that confirms what I already know. I am not in a position to be able to judge how well a blind player might recognise it for what it is. So I solicit opinions from the field. Thank you in advance.

 

 

[NaZa]

22 hours ago, RjY said:

Now, to those who have already played the level:

 

  Hide contents

 

Do you think the crusher needs a warning in the initial post? (I_Punch_Demons: to answer your question, IIRC you are the third. The plasma cyberdemon has killed many more so far.)

I think the crusher is obvious enough to not need a warning:

• The ceiling slightly protrudes from its surroundings
• It is a different colour (green brick against brown techbase)
• There is a pit underneath, containing three squashed corpses
• There is a clearly-marked lift on the far side, IMO an obvious escape route

But, however, I know it is a crusher, so naturally I am going to see all the evidence that confirms what I already know. I am not in a position to be able to judge how well a blind player might recognise it for what it is. So I solicit opinions from the field. Thank you in advance.

 

 

 

 

Spoiler

In my opinion, not really. You have enough time to react. During my run, I was very much caught out by it, but I had enough time to panically press the lift, hoping that it actually is one. It's cruel, but I don't think it's a blind killer. Very surprising and unexpected (as not a lot of players read ambient corpse placement well, judging by the amount that succumbed to the particularly obvious death teleporter), but not a guaranteed kill if you don't know about it.

 

[ginc]

Category 1 (blind).

Dead with 317/667 kills (350 remaining).

 

Means of death / comments:

Spoiler

 

Stepped on the no-no teleporter and died.

I'm a bit salty about this one. On one hand, I admit that I was dumb for not reading the warning in the OP that would have prevented this, but on the other hand, the warning was right below the leaderboard, which I make a point to avoid reading because I feel like reading obituaries goes against the spirit of a totally blind run.

 

For what its worth it was a cool map up until that point.

 

 

Video:

 

[RjY]

On 9/26/2023 at 10:35 PM, NaZa said:

[ spoiler ]

 

Thank you again for the guidance.

 

12 hours ago, ginc said:

Means of death / comments: [ spoiler ]

 

It seems any presented notice or warning will be ignored deliberately by a contestant who is determined to preserve the purity of a blind run. :) I am not sure what more I can do here. I have reordered the initial post, IMO much to its detriment. :/

[ginc]

5 hours ago, RjY said:

It seems any presented notice or warning will be ignored deliberately by a contestant who is determined to preserve the purity of a blind run. :) I am not sure what more I can do here. I have reordered the initial post, IMO much to its detriment. :/

 

Don't sweat it, I was warned and just didn't catch it. I was due for a silly death anyway. Next time I'll read the OP more thoroughly for deathtrap and softlock warnings.

 

If those kids could read, they wouldn't step on the teleporter.

[Master Medi]

Cat 1

57/666 kills

 

containIronmanMed.zip

 

Can't say it looked fun so I'm glad I perished early on but it's pretty funny how I only lasted about 1 minute and 30 seconds

[SleepyVelvet]

That went splendidly:

 

Dead: Map12

Category: 1

Kills: 37/666

Time of Death: 1:42

Download: dwironman-contain-NoisyVelvet-cat1.zip

[Pseudonaut]

Category 1, dead at around 52 minutes with 499/666 kills.

Spoiler

Killed 3 cyberdemons, then got lost, forgot about the warning in the OP, and stepped into the wrong teleporter.

caironman-pseudonaut.zip

[Horus]

Cat 1

Kills: 183/666

 

Spoiler

Got to love those kind of crushers... >:(

 

horus_ironman_2023_09.zip

[Horus]

On 9/26/2023 at 10:35 PM, NaZa said:

 

 

  Hide contents

In my opinion, not really. You have enough time to react. During my run, I was very much caught out by it, but I had enough time to panically press the lift, hoping that it actually is one. It's cruel, but I don't think it's a blind killer. Very surprising and unexpected (as not a lot of players read ambient corpse placement well, judging by the amount that succumbed to the particularly obvious death teleporter), but not a guaranteed kill if you don't know about it.

 

Spoiler

Not that it matters so late in the Ironman month, but having died to it, I agreed with NaZa. I had time to react to it...and I didn't.

 

[VeJean1]

First Try honestly was really really good :D but i softlock myself xD sadly a could end the map with that result but am pretty completist no 100% = no finished map.

Kills 662/666
Secrets 7/8
i "die" 46:56 idk if count as dead honestly your guys tell me hehe and in the video the minute of the softlock is in 51:58

If i break any rule say it in the comments of the video please thx.

 

 

[RjY]

Thanks to everyone who participated so far.

It's the end of the month tonight but I think since this contest started late on the 3rd it is appropriate to delay its conclusion until the 3rd of next month.

(If next month's host is ready and wants to start on time please go ahead. I see no reason not to run two contests in parallel for a short while. I believe this has been past practice.)

[RjY]

2 hours ago, VeJean1 said:

First Try honestly was really really good :D but i softlock myself xD sadly a could end the map with that result but am pretty completist no 100% = no finished map.

 

I'm sorry that happened. Unfortunately you are the second player to lose an all-but-certain survival to that mapping error. There was a note about it in the initial post.

Other than that I thought you did really well. Thank you for joining in.

 

^{BTW fully agreed re: necessity of 100% ;).}

 

2 hours ago, VeJean1 said:

i "die" 46:56 idk if count as dead honestly your guys tell me hehe and in the video the minute of the softlock is in 51:58

 

It counts as a death but is marked as DNF ("did not finish").

 

2 hours ago, VeJean1 said:

If i break any rule say it in the comments of the video please thx.

 

I noticed a jump at 1:35 (5:20 in the video) but it gained you no advantage, and as you clearly realised the mistake later and turned off the option, I see no further problem.

[head_cannon]

Ironman-contain-hc.zip

Category 1, Dead with 578 kills.

Spoiler

I'd read about the softlock in the broken conveyor-belt room, and didn't go near that decoration, but then I was attacked and I bumped into it in the course of dodging. A real shame, especially so far into the map.

 

Wow, this is a really cruel map. The early chapters were stressful because of the sheer amount of crate maze you have to traverse before you hit your first Berserk Pack to get to stop limping around at single-digit HP, and the lategame stages were just as stressful because of the roaming boss monsters blocking the way. The escalation was well-handled and this overlong three-key epic totally earned its extended running-time. Thanks for selecting it for this month!

[RjY]

Postmortem (spoilered for excess self-indulgence)
 

Spoiler

 

Thank you all again for letting me do this.

Sad no-one took advantage of the extra three days. Was hoping Bdubzzz or one of the other professional demo-recorders would post a blazer at the eleventh hour. It's sort of boring when the winning run stands unchallenged for most of the month.

But still very happy to get well over 30 players in the end. I get that it's not a wad for everyone. It is not amenable to speedrunning at all, it is firmly at the adventure end of the arcade-adventure spectrum. I have mixed feelings over the whole teleporter thing. I stand by my belief in the essentiality of reading the text file, but I acknowledge the operative points were deeply buried, and genuinely regret that it annoyed others.

Sad no-one else found Orrin. I was always vaguely fascinated by this bloke whose picture holding a Doom2 box while looking deeply concerned was hidden in the map. He was a US senator apparently. I heard he died last year. "Oh, the guy from the picture in contain.wad has died?"

Protip for future Ironman hosts: if you make a test recording to check your example command line is correct, don't get carried away and start playing the level to a point where it would be cheating if you didn't post the test recording as the real run. Proper stitched myself up there, didn't I?

I did a few rehearsals for a prepared run but never quite reached the sufficient level of confidence/assurance that I aim for. In particular, at least one of the cyberdemon fights always gets out of control. Ol'Plasmie is IMO the hardest fight in the wad, because there's no really safe place you can fight him from. But if ol'Plasmie behaved himself ol'Cratey would show remarkable intelligence for a Doom monster, and wander off down the factory to where the ceiling has fallen in to try to bait me out, instead of huddling up to the SSG crate like he's meant to. Or ol'Skulky won't come out of his wretched cupboard. The text file's suggested method does not work for me, he won't be lured down the stairs, he just goes back in his cupboard and sulks. Sulky Skulky. (I've watched and played this map enough times now that half the monsters have gained embarrassing nicknames. The fourth cyberdemon is called Cannon Fodder.)

I had vaguely planned to do some analysis and maybe make a couple of graphs but when I found the winning demo was full of join markers I kind of lost interest.

________________________________________________________________________________

dwironman-contain.zip

This contains all the demos I collected, the PrBoom+ patches I used to extract the results from them (and count sectors), and also a thing I used to help make the leaderboard. Perhaps future hosts may take inspiration from it. Run

python3 table.py < table.yaml

then paste the resulting blob of bbcode into the forums interface.