What are you playing now?

[P41R47]

in between exams, after long hours of study fu*king classic guitar, i'm ending TNT: Revilution for the second time around.
I'm having a blast! Only five levels to beat it!
By now, one of the most story driven wads out there, as a TNT succesor had to be.

[Rince-wind]

Doom II In Name Only RDC (@BigMemka, @Chaingunner, @Memfis, CWolf, @BeeWen, Dragon Hunter) - The Russian community's take on the "In name only" project and it's quite interesting. The main thing that got my attention was the atmosphere of the levels. They don't feel like they're set on Earth, they seem like a dark and melancholy version of the Ratchet & Clank planets. They're moody, massive and sprawling, some levels have 600+ monsters and yet they still feel desolate. The difficulty, if played on continuous, shouldn't hinder the experience. I'd recommend this to anyone who's up for a gloomy journey.

 

Map01

 

Map04

 

Map05

 

P.S. don't jump into that maze at Map04, you'll get stuck

P.P.S. If anyone can tell me the name of the music track for Map01 I'd really appreciate it

[galileo31dos01]

Currently playing an old wad called Insertion, by a couple members of the Memento Mori II crew and some other people on board. The set has 11 maps and I'm on the last one. It's been good quirky fun in general with the exception of map 10, which had very obnoxious parts. I reckon not knowing the maps in beforehand is costing my patience more than I thought, that since like MM or wads of the era, essential goodies (armor!) tend to be tucked in secrets, and sometimes there's only one chance to find them. Reminds me of Hellbound when I used to uncover that hidden SSG or BFG after everything was dead. I could work my way through map 05 cutting a big chunk of the meat to half with a trusty chainsaw, and map 08 gradually got nicer once I got a secret green armor, but man was map 10 an endless chore, starting with a symmetrical crossfire of chaingunners, to one of the worst lifts puzzles ever, and secret death traps and so on, all on 0% armor and for the most part under 40% health. I hope the end map is kind enough to give me armor or not shitty parts, but we'll see. 

[Salt-Man Z]

Just about ragequit Alone (HMP) during the final battle of MAP05. Glad I finished, though I do wish more was made of the ALIENs ambiance. Those facehuggers can fuck off, though; they're way too fast and strong.

 

I'm also in the middle of Mass Extinction (UV) which I also had to set aside for a while due to high difficulty. I'm on the third episode: MAP15 was fine, a forced pistol-start tyson map; not a fan of the secret requiring a long-distance shootable switch in a map with no ammo. MAP31 was hard but mostly fair. MAP32 has been basically impossible to gain a starting foothold on, so I haven't played it in like a week. Definitely dropping to HMP for episode four, if not sooner.

[Tartlman]

Going through Eviternity right now. I'm on map31, and enjoying that skillsaw sadism that i've been deprived of for a while now. I really like eviternity so far, it seems like what people say about it is true.

[Ribbiks]

played through the list of funky wads that grazza was kind enough to compile in that avant-garde thread.

 

THE ANA'S DREAM was a standout. quite moody, mysterious, vaguely unsettling. great map.

 

SKYEWOOD is also a lot of fun. I need more of this sprite in my life:

 

[Salt-Man Z]

4 hours ago, Tartlman said:

Going through Eviternity right now. I'm on map31, and enjoying that skillsaw sadism that i've been deprived of for a while now. I really like eviternity so far, it seems like what people say about it is true.

That's where I've gotten to. I saw the monster count for MAP32, and set it aside for some other time when I could devote a good chunk of time to it. That was uh a number of months back...

[Horus]

Map 32 of Eviternity takes forever, because not only does it have a huge monster count, it is also very much non-linear, inevitably leading to a lot of retreading of worn ground whilst you work out what to do next

 

I have been replaying Scythe 2 (been quite a number of years since I last played it and my memory of it is not that great at all), just got up to the jungle episode (lol). Prefer the first 20 levels of Scythe 2 to the first 20 of Scythe, have a feeling that will be more than offset by the last 10 levels.

 

Having a couple of weeks’ break from Doom before I tackle those

[Lila Feuer]

Playing Ultimate Doom with Doom Delta, really cozy!

[Crusader No Regret]

Finished up the Alfonzone.  Started it at the beginning of the year, got to about episode 3 or so, didn't touch it for months, picked it up again.  The later maps held my interest enough to push through on and off.  So many little interesting ideas that I've somewhat forgotten though rising acid and the low gravity map still stand out.  It is hilarious killing a former human and watching its ammo drop float up and descend slowly finally hitting the floor 5 seconds later.

 

Well "finished" in the sense that I got as far as I could on my skill level.  Thought the slaughter finale of E10M4 would be beyond me but intentional crowd-herding prevailed.  It did require upping my slaughter game though.  E10M5 is too much though.  At best, I make it to wave 5 (out of 9) where I get smothered by cacos if I avoid getting shredded by chaingunners.  Previewing the later waves with cheats, I don't picture making it through.  With upgrading GZDoom and the old save not compatible, highly unlikely i'll go back to finish off the last map.

 

Got around to starting up Golden Souls 2.  For some reason, I struggle with this one more than Simon's Destiny.  By the third map, I'm already resorting to saves beyond the checkpoints provided.  Precision jumps are my bane and it's quite easy for me to slip into one of the many instant death pits.  Going to keep going on and off with this since the saiity saves let me make progress.  Lots of new enemies to slap down and occasionally direct profanity at.  Lost souls that channel the Boo ghosts from the Mario series are just one of the references awaiting.  I didn't even realize that some of the scripts didn't work in GZDoom 2.4 since I could still progress and finish levels.  When I upgraded GZDoom to run Eviternity, could start using the shops.  Mind blown.

 

Got around to Eviternity more than 6 months after most of the rest of DoomWorld did.  I'm inclined to write lots of words about it which I may go ahead and do so in its MegaWad club topic.

[joepallai]

Started playing Abcess after hearing about in the DWIronman League.   This is another one of those mapsets that I managed to completely miss upon its release.  So far I like it.

 

Other than that, just a couple of throw-away levels from the early days.

[galileo31dos01]

Thought that aside from replaying stuff, it'd be refreshing to try out various wads that contain no more than 11 maps. So far, got Insertion done a week ago, then picked Abcess by Steve D for the Ironman, first time joining the league although not something I'd be a regular, it was a good new experience nonetheless. 

 

Then, Osiris, a partial conversion techbase/egyptian themed from oof last century. Solid maps, sprawling layouts and superficially corridor-shooters, just escaping the monotony, for the most part. Heavy on atmosphere via sound effects, very dramatic ambient noises, specially the hell knight's alert, gotta listen to that lol. Really liked some of the new sprites, the black imp was my favourite though sickle sergeants and archvile pharaohs looked sick too, oh and bats instead of lost souls, with less health(!), pretty cool. The shotgun marines are hard to forget, since their french blue suits shined in every nook. 

 

Next, End Point by Eternal. Good claustrophobic fights, versus unexciting open areas. Intense pistol starts, his balancing is the style I like the most, where you got to keep an eye on resources, and secrets always feel rewarding. 

 

And currently on TNT: Resistance by valkiriforce and various mappers, map 05 at the moment. So far so good.

[CBM]

gzdoom.exe -iwad heretic.wad -file freedoom2.wad heretic.wad quake.pk3 hoom_complete.pk3 hgx.pk3 PsychoPhobia.pk3 MMDCXIV-Debut.pk3 "C:\Games\Brutal Heretic RPG HD3D\Psycho.pk3" PsychoPhobia_3d/*.pk3 hexen_widescreen_hud_v01.pk3 %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9 PsychoPhobia_3d_monster/*.pk3 psymonrnd.pk3 enhanced_beamflashlight_zan_0.2.pk3 boltgun_q3_mod_0.0.7.pk3

 

and

 

gzdoom.exe -iwad heretic.wad -file freedoom2.wad heretic.wad quake.pk3 hoom_complete.pk3 ShadowWarriorBackup.pk3 SWMapPack.pk3 ShadowWarriorMusic.pk3 "zbloody_hell_v198.pk3" hgx.pk3 deadonarrv1-6.pk3 PsychoPhobia.pk3 MMDCXIV-Debut.pk3 "C:\Games\Brutal Heretic RPG HD3D\Psycho.pk3" PsychoPhobia_3d/*.pk3 MetroidDreadnought-levels-v1.1.pk3 UDV_v2.13_A_BASE.pk3 sof_models.pk3 %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9 PsychoPhobia_3d_monster/*.pk3 psymonrnd.pk3 enhanced_beamflashlight_zan_0.2.pk3

 

Im playing psycophobia, "shadow warrior" and "blood"

 

and trying to get the 3d boltgun to work with all the other mods I am running.. the hoom_complete is a heretic optimized version of doom_complete with much more than just all doom wads added

 

 

 

[Rince-wind]

Thanks to @kmxexii's Onemandoom blog I've found some pretty good wads, like Beta Labs 1 & 2 (@Serious_MOod, @Chaingunner, @Brain)

Both are episode 1 replacement with the Doom Alpha aesthetic, the second one having more abstract level design than the first.

 

E1M1 - Hangar 2

 

E1M5 - Mouse Holes

Edited November 19, 2019 by Rince-wind : Added link to Onemandoom blog

[Lila Feuer]

Finished UDoom with Doom Delta, I had to modify the Unmaker's properties so that it would actually not be weak and also rip through strong enemies that weren't the two bosses. Seems to be something wonky going on in GZDoom?

[slush59134]

my wad that developing now...

[Malurek]

Going back to vanilla Doom 1, every once i a while to speed run E1M1.  I never was good at strafe running in that game, (without the shift key in gzdoom), but I can do it on Ultra Violence with strafing sideways, (regular speed), in 19 seconds.  Any percentage, start to finish.

[galileo31dos01]

Played Beta Labs immediately after looking at the screenshots @Rince-wind posted above, can't resist a striking status bar. I found the maps to give solid action, if also persisting me to use the economic rifle, a pistol replacement that shoots at faster rate, which was effective all things considered. I liked the several eye candies the mappers sprinkled around, such as treasure bonuses, swivel chairs, or that kind of emergency lights cop cars and ambulances have, little details that added personality to the set. Big fan of the skybox too. The texturing was marvelous, gotta learn those tricks from the mappers. And also surprised to hear doom 2 midis, not feeling out of place, though I believe that "Monster Condo/The Courtyard" midi was in lower quality. Recommended, rifle starts might seem rough around the edges for people less used to strict resource management, but far from impossible. Some maps do hide their weapons til almost the end, when there're no enemies left, so that's a minus, the only downside to be frank. 

 

Later picked Ultimate Doom the Way ID Did, been on my list for quite a while and kept putting it off for no reason. I gotta say, definitely a blast, like two tiers superior than the OG episode four, and while I'm not very well versed on the TWID whole concept (sure, mappers put themselves into the minds of the original mappers, but recognizing each particular style is what I know little to none, save that Romero likes his shotgunners), many times I asked myself "is this really strict vanilla?", "were the original maps THIS beautifully detailed?", because Xaser's they all looked very polished, barring intended misalignments. So it was no joke, although what killed me the most was lava, lol. It is definitely worth a check, specially since harder doom 1 wads are so overlooked in general. 

 

And now on Combat Shock 2, close to finnish it all I guess, depends on how long maps 6 and 7 take, and we are nearing summer so my laptop is not appreciating the thousand monsters and ginormous rooms. I do so it better resists :P

 

In addition, been replaying Realms of Chaos, an ancient megawad by the Macintosh team. Possibly Mars War next or some other relic.

Edited November 21, 2019 by galileo31dos01

[Rince-wind]

8 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

can't resist a striking status bar

 

I never tought a status bar would be the selling point of a wad

[NeedHealth]

For the first time this year I had time to do a casual playthrough of the first three maps of the pwad "End Game"  by "Swedish Fish" et al. Demo recording done in prboom is included.

 

Will play the rest of the maps some other day. Year.

 

Map01: Arctic
Not an FDA. Simple but effective detailing. Not going to mention the weapond progress but the map is okay, though after the red key the progression is a bit off. Forgot about secrets and, the baron of hell.

https://easyupload.io/u0wgnb

 

Map02: Old School
FDA. Not as detailed as the map01, mostly green, but checking the doom wiki the map name however is "Old School" so it might be designed with this in mind. Effective Chaingunner placements. Not really much else stands out in my mind and I have watched this demo at least twise before I wrote this. Forgot about secrets.

https://easyupload.io/pkzqap

 

Map03 Morsel

https://easyupload.io/e0zo2c'
FDA. This demo is s a bit of an embarrassment. I got distracted at a critical moment and I forgot that I had seen what I believe is the path to the blue door key.*Poof!* Other highlights is me confusing the yellow key for the blue key and missing a switch to lower a set of bars to somewhere. At least I found a secret. I also had to consult the automap a few times due to the layout of the map, but that might be me. Details are back to normal aswell compared to map02, but there is a sector bleed that is also obvious in the demo at one point.

 

[Andromeda]

Just played through Requiem. Favourite levels, in order:

1. MAP24: Procrustes Chambers
2. MAP23: Hatred
3. MAP27: Cursed Kingdom

[Horus]

1 hour ago, Andromeda said:

Just played through Requiem. Favourite levels, in order:

1. MAP24: Procrustes Chambers
2. MAP23: Hatred
3. MAP27: Cursed Kingdom

Did you play it on continuous or pistol start?

[Andromeda]

30 minutes ago, Horus said:

Did you play it on continuous or pistol start?

Pistol start.

[Horus]

30 minutes ago, Andromeda said:

Pistol start.

Holy smokes, the ammo-starved Map 24 is your favourite on pistol start. I’m guessing you found the ‘mandatory’ secret cache pretty quickly

[galileo31dos01]

1 hour ago, Horus said:

Holy smokes, the ammo-starved Map 24 is your favourite on pistol start. I’m guessing you found the ‘mandatory’ secret cache pretty quickly

 

On the subject of concepts/gimmicks, it's a favourite of mine too. I kinda wished my earliest experience hadn't been softened by the magic of carryovers, but once I pistol started the map it kicked my ass with no mercy, as I had to learn a route and maximize chainsaw usage, even while remembering the hidden ammo. The whole map in one piece, including the pointless barons outdoors, four pain elementals you better camp outside til they come one by one, no substantial armor except in a secret which quickly turns the player in the Almighty, and how dull it'd play with carryovers, is sub par to many others imo, though nonetheless memorable, really Adelusion got my respects for bringing something "out of the norm", as I suspect was a novelty back then.

 

--------

 

Oh also I finnished Combat Shock 2. Man, that last bonus map lol, pretty weird choice to put a traditional simple map in a box of slaughter, I liked it. Map 06 was great, those red stripes and tubes to decorate rooms was a beautiful touch. I kinda want to make maps in slaughter flavor, much like I wanted Gusta-ish maps a month ago and got lazy very fast :X

 

I don't know what to try next, might be time to continue with the doomerboards projects, or maybe something for Doom 1...

Edited November 23, 2019 by galileo31dos01

[Andromeda]

14 hours ago, Horus said:

Holy smokes, the ammo-starved Map 24 is your favourite on pistol start. I’m guessing you found the ‘mandatory’ secret cache pretty quickly

Yes, I'm a sucker for ammo starved levels :) I did study the level beforehand as I usually do so I knew about the ammo cache, otherwise I'd have to berserk punch more than a handful of revenants :P

[Salt-Man Z]

16 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

how dull it'd play with carryovers

Man, I play continuous and always run out of ammo on that map...

[Horus]

21 hours ago, Salt-Man Z said:

Man, I play continuous and always run out of ammo on that map...

Yeah I play continuous and the previous map Hatred really sucks out a lot of your ammo so I didn’t start in a great ammo position either. In fact Andromeda’s top 3 were the 3 levels I most struggled with ammo on

Edited November 24, 2019 by Horus

[galileo31dos01]

On 11/23/2019 at 3:35 PM, Salt-Man Z said:

Man, I play continuous and always run out of ammo on that map...

 

Well, yes, but that was most likely the idea when playing with carryovers from the previous map, you ought to start in good shape (unless you wasted to your last rocket on map 23, I can't remember if that happened to me back then), and end empty or not depending on your moves. It's a very different scenario on crude pistol start, which I highly recommend to check if you haven't yet.

[Gez]

Just finished Speed of Doom. Mostly enjoyed it, but felt increasing fatigue in the last few maps. MAP28 (Twilight Massacre) was exhausting, took me over four hours not counting reloads (so probably twice that in fact) over several days of maximizing infighting and weaving a path through humongous crowds. Got so fed up that I did the last two levels in god mode, just to get it over with. Also used "remove bosseye" quickly in the last level (there were 40 of them, wtf, that's terrible (and as many as four tens)) just to keep perfs at an acceptable level because the constant flood was turning it into a slideshow.

 

Should have stopped at level 25 or so, 30 is too long when the maps just get thousands of monsters including dozens of cybies.