Levels making good use of Spiderdemon

[Jacek Nowak (jacnowak)]

Hi,

I'm looking for WADs with some interesting usages of Spiderdemon.
I think the Spiderdemon is a difficult monster to properly place in a level and it's very rarely used. Do you guys have any examples of WADs with particularly interesting fights involving the Spiderdemon or other creative usages of this monster?

Thanks

Jacek

[Memfis]

I like the one in The Darkening map04: you fight the spider in an open area with very little cover so you have to move well to utilize it.

I think I used the mastermind only once in my mapping and only because it was required by the project's guidelines.

[vdgg]

Caverns of Darkness MAP09: (drawing from memory)

|                 S               |
+------------+          +---------+
             |          |
             |          |
             |          |
        +----+          +------+
        |                      |
        |                      |  <-  rooms on sides filled with monsters
        +----+          +------+
             |          |
       ======|==========|======    <- 3d bridge with revs on top
             |          |
             |          |
             +--+   +---
                |   |   
                |   |   <-very narrow, very long corridor
                |   |
                | 1 |

1. you start here
S. spider

[purist]

Hadephobia MAP11 has an unusually employed Spiderdemon. I'll let you decide if it's placed well or not. Also the level Metal Mothers in Back to Saturn X features several.

[Marcaek]

It was used pretty well in D2TWID map29, where it's placed as a very effective turret, and Bedlam e3m8 used slow lifts as cover iirc to force the player to move while fighting it. It seems that the best way to use it generally is sniping at the player from a somewhat distant, temporarily inaccessible area.

The spider is even harder to use effectively than the cyber due to having similarly high HP and having a powerful hitscan atack, which poses the problem of being either too dangerous(usually in the open) or completely harmless if there's any cover around, so it really needs to be used as kind of a long-term area denial monster rather than a boss in an arena most of the time.

[joe-ilya]

'1monster' has a pretty puzzly map using only them.

[Pirx]

purist said:

Hadephobia MAP11 has an unusually employed Spiderdemon. I'll let you decide if it's placed well or not. Also the level Metal Mothers in Back to Saturn X features several.

oh yes. i remember how i posted in the btsx thread, i had not liked that map during my first playthrough because it forced me to ssg spiderdemons repeatedly, a tedious process. or so i thought. however, when i learned the map and played it again, using the bfg found there, it was a very different, enjoyable experience. against cybers you have to be careful when double-tapping them with the bfg as you might still end up with a rocket in your face, against spiders it's just running right into them and blasting them away.

[BlueFeena]

Okay, I'll say it: E3M8.

If you're playing it from a pistol start, the map is not a joke. There's very little cover, and the player largely has to rely on infighting, as there isn't enough ammo to take on the Spider Demon directly IIRC.

[Alfonzo]

In most cases I find that the best spiderdemon battle is one where there isn't any cover whatsoever, as even the tinniest sliver of solid wall will render her useless unless there are other monsters to force you out of hiding. Having a respectable number of provisions and ample space alone (a radius of 512+ or thereabouts) will make it much more interesting and prevent the fight from being reduced to a game of peek-a-boo. To illustrate, you can stand face to face with the spiderdemon using just the SSG and leave with up to 40% of your health intact provided you have some sort of armour. A partial invisibility is more or less an invulnerability for all the time the monster will have to shoot at you uninterrupted and the plasma gun will more often than not remove even the need for armour. The pain chance is just silly-high. There's no need to ensure the player finds some sort of barrier between the two.

Anyway, it's a deplorable map for lack of any balance, but 2005DAC's dac09.wad features the right amount of space and provisions to demonstrate a good fight in this way. I'd much rather see level designers incorporating spiderdemons like this where taking some sort of damage and picking up items to compensate is the intended setup.

[NaturalTvventy]

I like how NEIS e3m8 turned out, if I may toot my own horn.

[Dime]

Map 5 Speed of Doom

[Devalaous]

I liked Mionic Donut's use of it in his Devilution map 24...but that isn't released yet.

[jmickle66666666]

absolutely love the spiderdemon level in BTSX. hilarious and difficult.

maybe a room with a pillar in the center, a spider demon and an archvile would be Cool And Entertaining For The Whole Family

[Salt-Man Z]

Yeah, Metal Mothers was a blast. I also remember the final level in Sacrament that has an ambush where you find yourself suddenly pinned between two Spiderdemons.

[The_MártonJános]

DTWiD E3M8.

Or so called: the Ultimate You-no-BFG-me-direct-face Challenge against it main villain of E3!

[RottKing]

Map37 of TTV!Zone OBVIOUSLY

[pcorf]

Doom the way id did E3M8.

The ever moving platform and crushing ceilings and you think its easy to tempt the Barons into fighting the Spider. In fact you must fight it off all by yourself as the attacks from the Barons are mostly ineffective. With the outer areas crushing you need to be very careful when collecting the power ups and ammo from the outer.

[ClonedPickle]

RottKing said:

Map37 of TTV!Zone OBVIOUSLY

It is a goddamn shame that most people have probably not played Mega Spider Bitch. Play Mega Spider Bitch.

[Avoozl]

Oddly enough when I first saw the thread title I read "Levels making good use of Spiderman". :P

[Degree23]

On the basis of some comments here, I tried DTWiD E3M8 and would have to agree that it's one of the best uses of the Spider Mastermind I've ever come across. I beat it on my first go, but I ended the map with only 8 health!

One of the major drawbacks I've always found with this monster is that if you can get in its face, you can one shot it with the BFG and depending on any cover, this can often be done with minimal damage even if it fires immediately. Further, if it happens to be in amongst other monsters, it will invariably shoot a lot of them due to the spread of the weapon, and with its high pain chance it often gets overwhelmed by the number of monsters attacking it. This map had neither of these weaknesses.

[Memfis]

I found that dtwid map pretty annoying to be honest. Not being able to attack the monster like half of the time makes for a really unsatisfying fight imo. Reminds me of a boss in some crappy IWBTG fangame where you have to wait like a minute dodging projectiles, then you get like five seconds to shoot the boss once or twice, then it's back to dodging again.

[scifista42]

Memfis said:

I found that dtwid map pretty annoying to be honest. Not being able to attack the monster like half of the time makes for a really unsatisfying fight imo.

JUST NOW I've wanted to pop out in the thread to say the very same thing.

[plums]

DTWID E3M8 didn't thrill me either. I think it was a better fight than the original E3M8, but still kind of annoying and not all that hard. I'm trying to remember any spiderdemons in DTWID lost episodes, I'm sure there were some but nothing that comes to mind right now.

[Inkie]

I always find her too big and fat to really put anywhere good.

[scifista42]

Yeah, let's face it: The good use of Spiderdemon is to DEHACKED replace him with a custom enemy (boss or not), which will therefore inherit his immunity against splash damage.

[Pure Hellspawn]

scifista42 said:

Yeah, let's face it: The good use of Spiderdemon is to DEHACKED replace him with a custom enemy (boss or not), which will therefore inherit his immunity against splash damage.

obsolete due to DECORATE

[Da Werecat]

Pure Hellspawn said:

obsolete due to DECORATE

ZDoom is not everything.