The DWmegawad Club plays: Realm of Chaos

[Memfis]

11 - -fast demo - very good effort by Antoni. It's a neat compact starport map loaded with monsters. I really adore this realistic style that still feels totally like Doom, no idea how people manage to do that. My attempts at realistic architecture turn out way worse than your average myhouse.wad.
I also made a pacifist demo in 31 seconds - http://www.doomworld.com/vb/post/1182638

[purist]

MAP09 - “Machine Gun Etiquette” by Steve Duff

An abstract mainly tech themed level which goes off onto surreal hellish tangents. The marble area excepted these abstract areas are less pretty to look at and less fun to play in.

Like Duff's previous map hitscanners are used moste prevalently and until I got a feel of how the fights work they felt badly or unfairly placed. A good example is the large outdoor where I did not notice there was a narrow catwalk that joins both sides of the nukage pool so I used the guardpost in the centre and copped with sergeants at close range. This caused a few deaths after which I elected to use saves but funnily enough I never died once I made that call - with the exception of a voluntary dip into the nukage in the marble area when I'd lost hope of finding a way to the yellow door.

The level-flow was easily the low point - mainly because of the hidden yellow door, which almost had me quitting - but also the uninspired, have-more-level, sections following the yellow key door. The level was long enough to have just ended it where the yellow key was and would have improved significantly if it had done so.

MAP10 - “Hollow Oblivion” by Jason Fowler

Short and sweet. I have a soft spot for short maps but this was done sooner even then I would have liked. It's interesting to hear Steve say Fowler was a professional level designer because it did leave a good impression on my despite it's brevity.

Actually, I take that back. I think I'd enjoy a megawad of similarly sized levels and I'd place this map alongside MAP05 and MAP06 as the best levels in the megawad so far. What's here has a nice otherworldy feel that I really dig and with maybe just one or two more equally nice areas and it would be out on it's own.

[Kristian Ronge]

Map 11 -- Mars Starport
A short and sweet techbase with great, violent gameplay. You're thrown right into the action and it never lets up until you're done with it. Lots of monsters for such a small area; most of the opposition is made up of groups of hitscanners and imps but there are some bigger baddies thrown in, including a flock of Cacodemons, who can float around the small base and catch you off guard, excellent... Ammo balance is superb -- you have just enough to get through without strategic play (e.g. provoking infighting). I dig the non-complicated feel of things here.

One secret, kind of easy to spot, gives you some additional ammo and a blue armour. You're not given any armour otherwise, which ups the challenge slightly, but it's manageable anyway. Note: If you jump down from the RK area you can find a rocket launcher (though this area is not marked secret!). Pretty darn good, this, the best map yet! --4/5

[Steve D]

Map11 (Continuous) – Mars StarPort by Antoni Chan – Kills – 100, Items – 0, Secret – 100. Time 12:13. End Health 100, Armor 184. Death Count - 2

Map11 (Pistol Start) – Mars StarPort by Antoni Chan – Kills – 100, Items – 0, Secret – 100. Time 10:38. End Health 100, Armor 200. Death Count - 1

Wonderful map by Antoni Chan, my favorite in the megawad so far. Short, sweet, disciplined tech base featuring remarkably mature work by a 15 year old mapper.

While small, the map is violent, with plenty of hitscanners and, if Capellan was to pistol start this on UV, enough of his beloved Cacos to make him smile. ;D

Not only is the combat violent, it is sneaky, because if you end up fighting Cacos in the starting area, you might get slimed by the Baron inside the building if you’re not careful, and if you don’t see Cacos at the start and go in to fight the Baron first, a Caco might sneak up behind you, as in the Memfis demo.

Antoni does some tasty little things in the map, such as the Blackwal2 arch beyond the blue door. I look at that, simple as it may seem, as a very nice bit of mapping for the era in general and for noob Mac designers in particular. Not only does it look cool, it provides cover for the battles I had against Cacos, a Chaingunner and some Imps in different versions of that campaign. If you go into the Revvie room beyond the lower yellow door, you’ll see some nice console work. And from the upper area where you get the red key, you can leap out and find a rocket launcher, not tagged as a secret, alas. I decided to go back up there to see if I could also leap onto one of the spacecraft so I could kill the Baron guarding the exit from outside, and I could! Yet more infantile glee for yours truly. ;D Alas, Antoni, realizing this possibility, put impassable lines in the Baron’s dog-run, so you can’t exit the map from there.

Memfis did a couple cool things by killing the Revvie in the lower yellow door room from outside, and then looped around to kill the Manc from outside, too. This is the kind of variable combat opportunities that make me smile.

My deaths on continuous came during the massive fights beyond the blue door. One time, I thought I had killed everything, so I impetuously turned a corner to get instantly torched by the Manc, who’d wandered into the hall. On another occasion I was caught at low health when I thought for sure there couldn’t be any more Cacos in this little map, only to have the very last one wander in and say, “Fuck you, jagoff!” On pistol start I died upstairs when I failed to kill the Revvie up there and it followed me into the side room and killed me before I grabbed the Medikit.

By comparison to modern maps, the lighting is bland, though for me this was a good feature because for once I could play a map in daylight. There’s also a shortage of wall detail and decorative Things, so it’s a bit barren, but IMO, once again Antoni does great work with tech textures and basic structure. His console work was exceptional, too, and the flow was impeccable. Great map!

[45th Parrallel]

MAP11 - “Mars StarPort” by Antoni Chan Demo

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP11 Mars StarPort

Hey look! Mars has grass! Thank you Planetform Inc.

Another quickie that's over too soon, although action at the beginning caught me off guard. Dancing to avoid baron splays didn't work out well either. Hitscanners, yeah, there's plenty, but only in about three or so areas. I find the area with all the zombiemen quite hilarious actually, it's pretty easy to cause a zombie civil war there (but watch out for the hellknights). The real trouble for me was actually the cacodemons, who would fly all over the place trying to reach you. Watching entryway's demo, I took that into account to avoid serious smites from those red blobs. Rest of combat was handled well, mostly SSG action. Good work overall, visuals were much better than most of the maps so far also. Final Time 2:36.

One thing I never knew about in this map was the hidden rocket launcher on the roadway or tarmac or whatever, revealed in entryway's demo (and also Kristian Ronge mentioned it as well). It's nice for me to find something new in a wad I've played before.

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP11: Another short map coming at us from Chan this time, and a bit of a breather as well. There’s plenty of pickups to heal wounds and an odd drought of ammo here, if only to force you to use the chaingun more than you’d like on the bigger beasts. The highlight here is the setting—it’s a starport with a processing facility, courtyard, radio tower… you name it. The facility is interesting to traverse and see all of these things as you clean it from the vile scum squatting there, even if it only lasts a little while. Charming.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 11 -- Mars StarPort - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
I liked this more than Chan's previous map, and more than the other small maps in RoC thus far in general. While it has the same 'realistic' texture usage and brief length as map 10, somehow it feels more complete than that map, which came off as little more than a fragment. Perhaps it has something to do with the setting, and it almost certainly has something to do with the pacing.

The setting is a tiny starport that, far from appearing to be a terribly complex and futuristic spacefaring hub, really resembles a quaint charter airport of the sort one might see a few miles outside an anonymous cowtown in the Midwest--more evidence that this particular operation is not one of UAC's flagship enterprises. While rendered in a simple way, the particulars of the setting come through quite clearly--there's a reception area, a baggage conveyor, a terminal, a control tower, and a couple of shuttles (bathrooms are conspicuously absent, though!). As in map 10, texture usage is pretty reasonable relative to what sort of structure/object they adorn. A few of the areas look very aesthetically undeveloped (mainly the baggage area and the starting yard), but functional details in the rest of the starport, like the gate for getting behind the reception counter or the consoles in the terminal, add interest and prevent the map from being persistently dull to behold. It's a perfectly decent-looking affair; with more lighting, it probably could have moved away from 'decent' towards 'good.'

Action turns out a bit better than I might've expected from reading about the monster placement on paper. While there are zero traps and monster placement is outwardly very straightforward, there's a surprising element of unpredictability (and thus, replayability) to the proceedings, as several of the monster groups are able to move freely about the environment in search of you. This is most readily apparent with the fleet of cacodemons, which might assault you at any number of different times and in any number of different places and ways--sometimes they appear as a swarm that piles in through the terminal windows, sometimes they accrue around the tower instead, and sometimes they split up and attack throughout the proceedings as individuals. Similarly, the monsters from the terminal and the 2nd floor sometimes cluster around the bottom of the staircase and create a substantial chokepoint, while at others they remain in their starting areas and make you come to them. The baggage area, by contrast, is generally quite static. In truth, I kind of wish the yellow card were in a different location (maybe on a console in the terminal or something), so that one could cleverly attack the baggage area late in the map by jumping from the roof's border to the shuttles, and then through the window into the baggage area. This can indeed be done, but because you have to go in there early on to get the yellow key, it's pointless to do so. Oh, well, not really a big deal.

Solid map from Chan, giving Mars its sendoff and setting up the Earth episode. Let's hope for more chaos ahead...

[cannonball]

MAP11 - “Mars StarPort” by Antoni Chan
This was pretty short, fun and violent. Died a couple of times due to bad luck with hitscanners or architecture. Short compact layout aimed with heavy ssg abuse which is always fun. I found the super secret rocket launcher too, but could only use it on the exit baron.
Very good map, second best in the set so far.

[Tompig]

Slightly off topic... are we allowed to use BrutalDoom whilst playing maps for the DWMC?

I don't mind sticking to vanilla like I have done. (Heck I even dropped the resolution and disabled mouse look.)

Just wanted to know your opinions on it. Cheers.

[Capellan]

Map11
Flying tomato monsters make everything better. They get to wander nice and freely in this map, though in my playthrough that didn't do them much good. They did me some good, though, killing a couple of chaingunners on my behalf :)

Texturing is fair. Architecture is a bit bland visually but well laid out for action (which is better than fancy but no fun). A solid entry to the wad, though relatively lacking in challenge on continuous HMP. I think I lost about 20 health in the whole map, and exited with 200 armor.

[Memfis]

Tompig: well, I'm playing with fast monsters and I wasn't kicked out of the club yet so I assume gameplay modifications are allowed. :D I'm also using mm2mus.wad because I don't want to listen to the stock music.

[Jayextee]

MAP11 - MARS STARPORT
by Antoni Chan

I liked this one. Sure, the lighting is even and bland and the texturing is nothing special; but it works. Some great flow to it, and the illusion of a certain amount of non-linearity with the yellow and red keys; plus the occasional sneaky sniping shotgunner or chaingunner. Ended up funneling most of the cacodemons in a small hallway though, but one of them still managed to blindside me - it's a great thing that this map was open enough with windows for them to do that, but at the same time not too open for the player. Baron of Hell was no surprise (saw him from above, earlier. Took a few potshots with the chaingun) and the end 'door' was a bit strange, but otherwise a pretty fun map.

[Tompig]

MAP11 - MARS STARPORT

Short but pretty awesome, detail was very good for a map of its age, what can I say the place looked like a working star port.

Corridor battles with cacos, and the opening with the hitscanners all meshed very well together.

I loved it, shame it was so short.

[Steve D]

Veinen said:

Map 09: Machine Gun Etiquette

This is a pretty fun map and although it's densely populated by two of the dooms most frustrating critters, chaingunners and lost souls, the annoyance-o-meter doesn't get too high at any point. Like MagnusBlitz said, the first "half" of the map is the superior one with the big outdoor area being the highlight of the map both visually and gameplay-wise. Really good enemy placement in that area as the player is being constantly assaulted from several different directions. The following room with the marble pillars is nicely designed as well and looks nice to boot. The only problem there is that sometimes a chaingunner or a revenant gets knocked down to the slime and then it's nigh impossible to kill it. Wolfenstein room looks really out of place but the Archie & the Chaingunners -encounter makes up for it a little bit. SS-guys after that were certainly an odd enemy selection but they are just there to be human shields for the noble so why not. The Pestov yard in disguise was a really lackluster finale though so minus points for that and another -1 for the mandatory secret door. Hmm, what else. Well the RL secret was pretty neat and as it is I like the way Steve design the secrets in his maps. They seem to have distinct rewards in them but you always gotta fight your way to get those rewards. Have to agree with others though that fewer powerups would have been better and especially the last megasphere seems redundant.

First off, thanks a ton for your killer demo. It's been an embarrassment of riches for me to watch all these demos, from the sheer determination of Memfis, the ultra-slick playfulness of DoTW, the impressive assault on the guardshack by mouldy, and now yours which attacks the map rather like Hitherto and goes through it in a hurry. Now if only I could figure out Sgt. Dopey's demos -- I probably have to command line those, or maybe he's using a different complevel than you guys.

Watching your demos and reading your comments, it seems pretty unanimous -- everything after the yellow door is mediocre or even bad compared to what went before. And there's way too much health and ammo at the end. At least two comments on the final room being a letdown as well. Your demo and the others prove the health and ammo comments, and I got bugged by that myself and took out the end Megasphere and even the one in the guardshack, replacing it with two Medikits, though I might put that one back. But if I do put it back, everyone who finds that secret will be all but unkillable for the rest of the map. I'd prefer to just give a bonus and fine-tune the regular play.

The explanation for all that health is that I used to attack the marble columns room very aggressively, so the Stimpacks and Medikits kept me alive as I charged straight ahead, blasting away. And all that health in the end room can be explained as, "I suck at killing Revvies." Not so much these days, though. Of course, the player is given the option of going for 100% kills, or just dashing into the switch room, raising the walkway to the Pestov Platform, and running past the Archie, thus ignoring every enemy. Tarnsman said in one of the recent shows that "Doom is about not doing things you don't wanna do." I also recently discussed the issue of player choice with cannonball, in that case more specifically about escape routes from seriously nasty traps. Part of what I wanted to accomplish in that room was to shock the player because once they teleport in, they hear Revvies and might already be getting riddled with bullets, and at first it looks like they can't get out, and if they hit the low wall in a panic, momentum will carry them outside and they'll be attacked by more Revvies. As I've said before, I love to do these jagoff things, but I can see that most players have no problem here, so it's not working as well as I hoped.

I'm thinking about what to do. I could take out the descending wall and the Archie, making it an open escape platform. I could put 1 Archie in there at Easy, 2 on HMP and 3 on UV so it's a lot harder to run past them. Or not. I could have a teleport trap delivering 4 or 5 Chaingunners to The Pestov Platform. We'll see. ;)

[Jayextee]

Put an Archvile in the guardshack with the Chaingunners.

Please. ;)

[Steve D]

Magnusblitz said:

MAP09 - Machinegun Etiquette

I don't even know what this is supposed to be. There's even freaking Nazis!

Thanks for your comments, Magnus! About that Wolfenstein room, the thing is, when I was a young lad, I was a big fan of the underground comix artist Richard Corben, whose airbrushed style used psychedelic colors. I really like psychedelic colors. And further, in the MacDoom community, there was the EEE-Vile 1 & 2 wad, which really got jiggy with the wildass colors and was very popular. So, you have my Wolfenstein room, and as I've said before, just wait til you see Map27, the second map I ever did, parts of which are a homage to EEE-Vile! ;D

I made some changes to the Wolfenstein room, taking out the scrolling textures and turning those areas into windows, and changing the open ceiling. On top of that, I used the E4 sky, so now, it's even more psychedelic! ;D

http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/steveduff2/media/Doom/DOOM90_zps53562f13.png.html?sort=3&o=4

[Steve D]

Jayextee said:

Put an Archvile in the guardshack with the Chaingunners.

Please. ;)

That's a cool idea. Should Archie be deaf and waiting for you as he guards the Megasphere, or should he be able to hear so he can come out and keep reviving the Chaingunners? That would make life hard for someone who doesn't attack the guardshack first. ;D

[Jayextee]

I think he should come out; there are corners of the guardshack that can act as line-of-sight blockers for his attack, meaning it'll be less 'safe' to pick off the chaingunners from a distance (as I did, tap-tap-tapping with chaingun myself).

Incidentally, new Wolfenstein room looks amazing. I'm never really sure about the tried-and-tested-blue-and-orange complimentary pair, but you pulled it off nicely. :)

[Steve D]

purist said:

MAP09 - “Machine Gun Etiquette” by Steve Duff

A good example is the large outdoor where I did not notice there was a narrow catwalk that joins both sides of the nukage pool so I used the guardpost in the centre and copped with sergeants at close range. This caused a few deaths after which I elected to use saves but funnily enough I never died once I made that call - with the exception of a voluntary dip into the nukage in the marble area when I'd lost hope of finding a way to the yellow door.

The level-flow was easily the low point - mainly because of the hidden yellow door, which almost had me quitting - but also the uninspired, have-more-level, sections following the yellow key door. The level was long enough to have just ended it where the yellow key was and would have improved significantly if it had done so.

About that narrow walkway in the guardshack room. On the one hand, it's the kind of jagoff move I love to make from time to time, but searching my brain for 1996 memories, I think that was actually a side effect of my desire to keep some Imps and Pinkies away from the player while they're battling the Baron and spiderbaby. My intention, IIRC, was for the player to blast the Imps and Pinkie from across that gap, using the Chaingunner platform for cover. However, it's not necessary for the walkway to be as narrow as it is to accomplish that, so this might also be an early Fava Beans influence, i.e., the path to the secret exit in E1M3.

I'm giving serious consideration to your idea of ending the map beyond the yellow door. I could easily put a teleport in there to the exit room. In general, I'm not the type of mapper who scraps areas. If they don't work for some reason, I try to make them better. However, no one really seems to enjoy the areas beyond the yellow door, and both alfonzo and Tarnsman said the map could be better if it was shorter, so the temptation is there to quit while I'm ahead. Further, this is currently placed as Map01 of RoIC, and The Flower Trap is now open for public view, since I want people to play it, and Map01 is the only way continuous players will get the full effect. Anyway, chopping off most of the end sections could really work well for Map01.

However, it came to me the other night that I could blow it out and have the marble columns room lead to an outdoor area that loops around to the downward lift. I had already opened up the Hell Knight corridor, putting in windows to an outside area where Cacos are added to the mix, and I also changed the texture in the Manc area to go better with the E4 sky;
http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/steveduff2/media/Doom/DOOM85_zps685c19f5.png.html?sort=3&o=8
http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/steveduff2/media/Doom/DOOM86_zps20c503ed.png.html?sort=3&o=6

I may do both versions just to see how players react, but your idea is a lot less work, which weighs in its favor. ;D

[Steve D]

Jayextee said:

I think he should come out; there are corners of the guardshack that can act as line-of-sight blockers for his attack, meaning it'll be less 'safe' to pick off the chaingunners from a distance (as I did, tap-tap-tapping with chaingun myself).

Incidentally, new Wolfenstein room looks amazing. I'm never really sure about the tried-and-tested-blue-and-orange complimentary pair, but you pulled it off nicely. :)

Just imagine the playtesting involved with having Archie come out, but why not give it a try? Players might need more bullets, though.

Glad you like the revised Wolfie room. I'm also considering a teleport trap in the Hell Knight corridor, so the player doesn't just blast ahead. In which case, I might make a fairly low-key outdoor area -- mentioned above -- as a breather before all the traps to come.

[dobu gabu maru]

Tompig said:

Slightly off topic... are we allowed to use BrutalDoom whilst playing maps for the DWMC?

Sure. Only thing is just to mention that you're playing with Brutal Doom so some readers don't get confused, but otherwise you can play any way you want.

[Kristian Ronge]

Map 12 -- Home Sweet Home
The storyline takes us back to earth, and so does Jason with this solid earth-toned map, filled with dirt/cave/wooden textures. The progression is nice, simplistic and easy to figure out without becoming painfully linear. Part of the progression involves areas changing appearance (walls and floors rise and lower), often with some trap being sprung. A lot of time is spent in one main area, parts of which transform many times as you progress. Excellent stuff. The latter part of the map contains a courtyard which is accessible through two separate entrances, allowing you to tackle the fights there differently. There are several great traps, including one where you are enticed to fire on some weak monsters with their backs turned, and in doing so not only fail to cause said monsters any harm, but get two Barons dropped on you. Ingenious. Difficulty is medium throughout; there are plenty of bigger monsters, ammo isn't too generous for the bigger weapons, and there are some tense moments e.g. a hitscanner teleport trap without much in the way of cover (unless you're lucky), and an AV beaming in "behind your back" to resurrect a bunch of monsters you've already killed (but you may well hear it and kill it before it causes you too much grief). I have only two minor complaints: the soulsphere secret is accessed through an unmarked door -- though, to be fair, the soulsphere is quite visible and does give the player the incentive to wallhump surrounding walls -- and there's a gratuitous megasphere close to the end which negates any challenge the final skirmish could have posed (which is a pity, as it's a surprisingly challenging trap). The rest of the map, including the other two secrets, is top-notch stuff. What a blast! --5/5

[Demon of the Well]

Tompig: Between all of us, there are a lot of different game configs in action, so I reckon one more wouldn't hurt. For RoC, I myself have been using two different configs (one my standard for leisure/private play, the other a very traditional setup for recording demos) as well as a couple of purely aesthetic WADs (the music pack from Memento Mori and a COLORMAP modification), for instance.

Map 12 -- Home Sweet Home - 102% Kills / 100% Secrets
Echoing Kristian's words of praise, I also enjoyed this map, finding it far more satisfying than Fowler's tiny-yet-disjointed map 10. It also does fairly well in portraying a more understated terrestrial theme, standing apart visually through its use of rocks/water/masonry, which I reckon is of some note, given that the "Mars" maps generally looked like Earth maps as well, apart from a bit of Phobos flavor here and there. This also features what is probably the best single-location combat setup in RoC thus far, that being the northerly yard with the large bunker.

Space is used and re-used well in this map. Looking at it on the overheard map, it's really not very large, but still feels like an adventure, achieved largely by sending the player all around the map and back again (e.g. you'll visit the watery subterranean cave where the exit is located long before you realize it's the exiting area), always with something new to see or do. It's not entirely smooth/fluid; for example, I'm still not quite sure what role (if any) triggering the last big attack on the bunker actually plays in reaching the map's exit...it seems to me like I could have exited long before doing this. I'd already seen the exit door and had the blue skull before triggering it, and all I really got out of the deal was maxkills and a soulsphere, which felt pretty strange, as it is by far the climax of the map's action. Yet, I reckon that not every map needs to have a slick, tidy looping progression, and I'm all about hidden bonus battles, so this isn't really a complaint.

While Fowler continues the tendency of RoC up to this point to rely a lot on hitscanners in his monster placement, Home Sweet Home feels different from most of the other maps in that it uses more heavy monsters, and in that many of said monsters are introduced through changes in the environment rather than via direct placement. The northern bunker area is an excellent example of this; the early going sees mancs and arachs encroaching on the bunker from behind lowering walls while a steady supply of imps beams onto the lookout post, while the final assault sees snarling nests of zombies pouring fire onto the fortification from firing ports that open along the outer walls as the cross-shaped causeway floor of the bunker collapses into the midst of a frenzied school of specters, all while an arch-vile overseer zips around the yard decorpse-ifying the spiders, mancs, and other malcontents from earlier. It's a great setup, creating opportunity for thorough use of every part of the bunker and the yard, and in so doing, making what is really a rather simple construct seem complex and nuanced while also making it feel like a particular location, as opposed to just a collection of sectors where some fighting takes place.

I agree with Kristian that the megasphere in the upstairs guardroom full of sergeants feels decidedly out of place (if anything, I reckon it should be where the soulsphere is instead), and what with all the dead zombies there are perhaps a few too many shells. On the aesthetic front, while lighting hasn't been ignored, more contrast probably would have benefited the map in places. Other than these niggling complaints, however, I really don't have many negative things to say about this. Arguably the strongest map thus far, though it has some stiff competition in map 06.

[NuMetalManiak]

In case anyone's wondering if I'm using modifications, all I have is a music replacement wad, prjdoom.wad, with rlmchaos.

MAP12 Home Sweet Home

Home? HOME!? This isn't no homecoming now! We've still got some 20 levels to go here! This level doesn't look like someone's house either! And yes, text screen, I have won, but only in the sense that I've only won 11 levels.

Name-nitpicking aside, this level is pretty neat, although once again spams the ever-loving shit out of hitscanners like many previous levels. I had a bit of trouble trying to get the red key, as I was unsure of what to do. I found it was in the crate area that I had cleaned out before where a lone chaingunner was.

Outside area: There's a pretty cool aqueduct-sort-of structure in the center, but the monsters kinda got on my nerves outside of it, so I cleansed them as quickly as possible. Exploring the areas only netted me some easy kills, until a switch revealing shotgun guys and arachnotrons. I just simply BFG'd them, then did the same thing to the roomful of hitscanners on the other side of the structure. After that I had a bout with an archvile, his resurrected brethren, and some caged imps, which with an SSG actually wasn't as hard as expected. The aqueduct-like thing lowered a bit revealing spectres and pain elementals. I came really close to dying here, as somehow I forgot to enable infinitely tall actors in the ZDoom options, and wasn't ready to berserk fist those invisible pinkies. Overall, this outside area was quite the challenge.

Second half: the stretch with wooden textures and lots of imps had me bulleted heavily by teleporting hitscanners, I swear their fire rate when they stop to fire is faster than any other monster in the game, especially the fucking shotgun idiots (and I might just call them that from now on). Those things got me REALLY close to dying again in the second outdoor courtyard (with two arachnotrons). I mean REALLY close as in 1% health. Grace is saved with the megasphere they guarded. And with that I exit that area without a care or trouble later, although the blue-key-guarding-archvile almost surprised me. Overall, hitscanner spam, nice first outdoor area, frustrating second half until the megasphere, and enjoyable combat. Weapon-wise, I use what I can to quickly kill enemies, big weapons even when unnecessary. Final Time 6:56.

[Obsidian]

Map 11 - Mars Starport

I kept having bad luck with this one, so I can't really bother. Seriously, 70 damage from one Revenant rocket? Screw that.

Map 12 - Home Sweet Home

MOAR CLEVER! Looks good and plays very well, if a bit evil at times. I somehow managed to beat it first try. :P The first outside bit is my favourite bit: there's just so much action packed into it it's ridiculous. The Archie at the end felt a bit awkward, as did the 2 Barons a little while before it, but those are the only hiccups I can think of.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP11: Mars Starport

Hmm, can't say I was too excited by this one, though everyone else seemed to have liked it. Like MAP10, it's a shorty, though thanks to a high monster density it's not as "blink and you'll miss it" as the last map. The monster density is probably the best thing it has going for it, as it covers up flaws. The realistic-styled design isn't great, but not bad for 1996. Texturing is a bit random (more of the New Textures Every Room syndrome), but the textures chosen do tie together more than other examples. Tons of the Floor Texture rule violations, though, and the bland lighting doesn't help. Not sure how I feel about the cacos being able to fly through the map - in my playthrough, I ended up just blasting them away by the BLACKWAL2 arch, which was kinda lame, but I do enjoy having monsters assault my position for once. 3/5

[Capellan]

Map12
Jason Fowler delivers a fun, old school Doom experience: one that makes me wish he'd got to finish map10 properly. This is a nice looking map with an extended sequence built around the arena following the red key door. Liked the way this area kept evolving as you found and flicked new switches. Lots of fun.

Post that we get a sort of temple area, I guess, with another courtyard off it. There are two ways to approach this, with the left hand route definitely being the better. Evidently Fowler follows the Dever school of adventure design. :)

The double baron trap is a nice surprise, but actually pretty harmless, while the megasphere does make the run to the end very easy (on the other hand, on HMP I'd left both the blue armor and soulsphere for later pick-up, so I wasn't exactly short on health or armor anyway).

The soulsphere secret is marked on the map, btw, so it's easy enough to go straight to the door.

Good map. Definitely vying for the spot of my favorite so far.

[Steve D]

Capellan said:

Map12
The soulsphere secret is marked on the map, btw, so it's easy enough to go straight to the door.

How do you mean "marked on the map"?

[Capellan]

SteveD said:

How do you mean "marked on the map"?

The far side of the door is not marked 'secret', so it show up on the automap as an upper texture. It's a pretty blatant clue where the secret door is.

I'm out of town and away from computers for the next few days, so I won't be posting about any more maps until Monday at the earliest.