NM-Lite Contest: Scythe

[Plut]

November, 2023

 

The NM-Lite Contest is a competition in which participants aim to survive for as many levels as possible in the given map set, preferably in one sitting, playing on skill 1 (ITYTD) with -fast and -respawn flags (NM-Lite). Unlike Ironman League, there are no different categories: it doesn't matter if you play blind, played the WAD before or watched it being played, if you examined it in an editor. The only thing that matters is that you haven't played it on NM-Lite.

 

In November 2023 the competition will take place on Scythe: a classic 2003 megawad by Erik Alm and Kim "Torn" Bach. Runs will be accepted until 4 December.

 

Essential Info:

• Doom II (doom2.wad)
• Complevel 2 (only complevel 2 compatible demos are accepted)
• 32 maps

 

dsda-doom -complevel 2 -iwad doom2.wad -file SCYTHE.WAD -skill 1 -fast -respawn -record nmlite-scythe-yournick.lmp

Download Scythe

 

Rules:

Spoiler

• Continuous recording.
• When submitting a run, provide this information: your time of death (or your totaltime if you survived till the end) and the map you died on.
• Complevel 2 compatible demos are the only accepted proof (DSDA-Doom, Prboom(-Plus) or any other port that records demos you can play in DSDA-Doom -complevel 2). You must link to these runs in the thread.
• No additional WADs may be loaded. Cosmetic WADs are fine if they're purely cosmetic.
• Freelook is forbidden.
• You do not have to play the secret levels in order to register a complete run. However, a player who finishes the game having completed more secret levels than their competitors will rank higher than them.
• If the recording of your official run is interrupted due to technical difficulties, you are not permitted a second attempt. Any surviving recording may be used to register a DNF result.
• You may post a run here if you've already played the WAD on NM-Lite, but it's going to be out-of-contest and you will not show up in the leaderboard.
• If there are multiple participants who survived the same number of maps, the shortest totaltime (after last survived map) wins.

 

Note that there has been a change in the rules: it's no longer required to post the kill count at the time of death and it will be no longer included in the results table as it doesn't have any influence on the competition's outcome.

[Plut]

Dead on: MAP03.

Time of death: 1:36.

Totaltime: 0:55.

 

F.

nmlite-scythe-plut.zip

[kmc]

Dead on MAP30 in 32:12

So close D:

nmlite-scythe-kmc.zip

[4shockblast]

Well, I did a silly on map 11 in my first attempt because I totally forgot that the death slide is free. Anyway, I did another attempt and survived in 15:45, unofficial rip.

scythe_nmlite_shock.zip

[SCF]

Dead on Map05 after 8:25

 

NMLite_23-11_scythe_SCF.zip

 

I really should refresh my memory before jumping into nightmare. Slowly died to attrition as I spent over 3 minutes aimlessly wandering around a map with a mere 21 enemies.

[Anima Zero]

Made it to map 19, died around the 20:27 mark.

 

Things said 5 seconds before a GJ ANIMA moment: "Ok, I have ~129 health and no armor.  I can just unga bunga rush past the mastermind at the exit I'm sure."

 

 

DWNMLite_Scythe_AnimaZero.zip

[Li'l devil]

Not only I've never played on NM-Lite before, I've never even played Scythe before, so this went as terrible as expected. I got dieded on map 02 in 1:36. At least I beat map 01, that's something.

 

Damn, NM-Lite is so hard to play on even in DOOM2.WAD where I know where to go. Respawning enemies and fast projectiles are so overwhelming.

 

nmlite-scythe-lildevil.zip

[Horus]

Dead on map 3 at around 3:50

F.

 

horus_nmlite_2023_11.zip

[Asbadagba]

dead on map21
dead at 26:10
map21 entered at 25:38

 

nmlite-scythe-asbadagba.zip

 

commentary edition:

Spoiler

 

 

[RjY]

dead on map05, 3:39+2:21
 

Spoiler

  map  stat   dead     time  total  sec
MAP01  EXIT   8/15  0:24+18   0:24   54
MAP02  EXIT   9/18  0:42+09   1:06   65
MAP03  EXIT  12/27  1:21+24   2:27   85
MAP04  EXIT   7/18  1:12+17   3:39   83
MAP05  DEAD  12/21  2:21+01   3:39   98

I replayed the first few maps a bunch of times on non-fast non-respawn skill 2 in order to go into this with a fresh memory of from where potentially problematic monsters may appear or any other useful route choices.

map01: fairly straightforward, do not spend too much time killing monsters unless they are in the way. I was happy to be able to hit the exit switch with 100% health.

map02: I planned ahead to (a) not touch the berserk box, to avoid releasing a number of annoying fast demons, and (b) go via the slime tunnel to get the green armour. There is a strafe jump to the exit switch but I was not able to do it consistently so I did not try.

map03: This one can be quite frantic. Thankfully I managed the opening jump to the first shotgun without having to lower the platform first. I had memorised the locations from which a few sergeants would appear to shoot them before they could attack me. After lowering the blue key switch I tried to orbit around rather than dive straight into the middle, there are always too many demons in the way. Note the many occasions, throughout this demo, but in this map in particular, in which I demonstrate my shockingly poor ability to aim at nightmare-speed demons.

map04: A little more roomy and sedate. The lost souls might cause a problem were they better able to get through the windows, but they just bang their heads on the frames constantly, it is sad. I had trouble with an unexpected spectre at the end but otherwise this went well.

map05: Despite revising the layouts of an already-very-familiar wad, I reached a map on which I was not sufficiently briefed. Thus, having managed the running jump to chaingun, I inevitably, in my panicked haste, took the wrong turn. Also, too late, realising I had not collected a radiation suit before entering the slime. Thus I was forced to traverse the tunnels multiple times, taking damage, and downing the same obstacles repeatedly until my ammunition supply expired. I do not like how I kept making the wrong choice of route to take, in too much of a panic to think ahead. Still, I had the exit door open and was a stone's throw from the end when I succumbed, and might even have hit the exit switch had I not backed off, incorrectly believing there was a monster behind the door blocking it.

(map06: I would have strongly preferred to have reached map06, but had I reached it I do not think I would have got past the end. But I do not think this was quite the disaster of last month.)

I dislike the constant feeling of panic doing NM-Lite. Ironman is much more civilised.

 

 

[No-Man Baugh]

what's a good way to get the time of your demos without having to play the whole thing over?

[No-Man Baugh]

nmlite-scythe-nomanbaugh.zip

 

Died on: Map 11
Time of death: 0.11.37
Total Time: 17:47

 

Love Scythe 1, so I knew from the outset that the first episode would be a shoe-in but as soon as i get to the second i'll get the boot; and that's exactly what happened

Some notes from certian maps I found interesting:
 

Spoiler

 

Map 03: Never knew how to get to that secret berserk, and I still don't. just lowered because I was going too fast

Map 04: Don't mind the slick frame-perfect shotgunner kill round the bend behind the red-door, honest to god missclick

Map 05: Usually I know the route of this map pretty well. But rather than going to the right side like I usually do I get distracted by a specter and went right into the left path, guess going off-script really throws me in a loop and I got kinda lost

Map 07: So far the enemy distribution on easy has been pretty similar to UV, and then here comes the tag-team with just 2 mancs and ONE baby spider... huh

 

 

This was my first time playing on NM-Lite, and it won't be the last. this was a pretty fun and thrilling way to play Doom and Scythe was the perfect introduction to it

See y'all next month (i.e. next week I guess)

Edited November 30, 2023 by No-Man Baugh

[SCF]

59 minutes ago, No-Man Baugh said:

what's a good way to get the time of your demos without having to play the whole thing over?

 

I don't know if there's a better way, but dsda-doom lets you bind a key to "game speed up", and you can use that to zoom through the demo at 1000x speed. You just have to pay attention to the progress bar at the bottom to see how close you are to the end and slow down in time.

[No-Man Baugh]

Just now, SCF said:

 

I don't know if there's a better way, but dsda-doom lets you bind a key to "game speed up", and you can use that to zoom through the demo at 1000x speed. You just have to pay attention to the progress bar at the bottom to see how close you are to the end and slow down in time.

Thanks, I basically did that with Woof on my run

[RjY]

18 hours ago, No-Man Baugh said:

what's a good way to get the time of your demos without having to play the whole thing over?

17 hours ago, SCF said:

I don't know if there's a better way, but dsda-doom lets you bind a key to "game speed up", and you can use that to zoom through the demo at 1000x speed. You just have to pay attention to the progress bar at the bottom to see how close you are to the end and slow down in time.

For future reference here are some other alternatives (using PrB+: I assume dsda-d retains the facilities)

• Press key_demo_endlevel (by default bound to End) to skip quickly to the next intermission screen, as many times as needed
• Use -skipsec -30 to fast forward to 30 seconds before the end (note that the argument is negative) then read the on-screen timers
• Play back with -levelstat (also with -nosound -nodraw -timedemo to inhibit rendering and run as fast as possible) then read levelstat.txt

[Andromeda]

1 hour ago, RjY said:

Use -skipsec -30 to fast forward to 30 seconds before the end (note that the argument is negative) then read the on-screen timers

Negative skipsec doesn't work in DSDA-Doom, unfortunately.

[Pierrot]

Dead at 25:22, map15.

 

I had this moment during map11 when I strafe-jumped past the blue door to get to the red key, but without the blue key to get out,
I was like "did I just trapped myself ?" Thankfully there was a hidden doorway.

Heh, funny how you can unintentionally take shortcuts under pressure.

 

nmlite-scythe-pierrot.zip

Edited December 4, 2023 by Pierrot

[Plut]

RESULTS

+-------+--------------+----------------+-----------+---------------+
| Place | Name         | Maps completed | Totaltime | Time of death |
+=======+==============+================+===========+===============+
| 1     | kmc          | 29             | 31:31     | 32:12         |
+-------+--------------+----------------+-----------+---------------+
| 2     | Asbadagba    | 20             | 25:38     | 26:10         |
+-------+--------------+----------------+-----------+---------------+
| 3     | Anima Zero   | 18             | 18:17     | 20:27         |
+-------+--------------+----------------+-----------+---------------+
| 4     | Pierrot      | 14             | 23:43     | 25:22         |
+-------+--------------+----------------+-----------+---------------+
| 5     | 4shockblast  | 10             | 3:57      | 4:21          |
+-------+--------------+----------------+-----------+---------------+
| 6     | No-Man Baugh | 10             | 17:36     | 17:47         |
+-------+--------------+----------------+-----------+---------------+
| 7     | RjY          | 4              | 3:39      | 6:00          |
+-------+--------------+----------------+-----------+---------------+
| 8     | SCF          | 4              | 5:10      | 8:26          |
+-------+--------------+----------------+-----------+---------------+
| 9     | Plut         | 2              | 0:55      | 1:35          |
+-------+--------------+----------------+-----------+---------------+
| 10    | Horus        | 2              | 2:09      | 3:49          |
+-------+--------------+----------------+-----------+---------------+
| 11    | Li'l devil   | 1              | 1:23      | 2:58          |
+-------+--------------+----------------+-----------+---------------+

Congratulations to kmc, Asbadagba and Anima Zero! Download the demos - nmlite-scythe.zip.

 

I will now stop hosting these threads as I have decided to step away from Doom and commit fully to real life affairs. Anyone who wishes is welcome to pick up the format (and good luck to you if you do!).

 

[Li'l devil]

2 hours ago, Plut said:

Anyone who wishes is welcome to pick up the format (and good luck to you if you do!).

Heh, I'd like to host an ironman contest just for one wad I'd like to see people try. Problem is, I honestly dislike NM-Lite format. I hate respawning enemies and I'm not a fan of -fast parameter either. Nor do I want to create a knock off of two existing ironman competitions, because that'd be pretentious, especially given that I'm mostly a nobody.