The DWmegawad Club plays: MAYhem2048

[Seele00TextOnly]

Map13 - “Death Dungeon” by pcorf

As others have been saying, this definitely starts off fast and furious. I opted for that old standby, the circle strafe, to get rid of the opening Cacos and their Revenant friend. I'm a bit iffy on the blocklined Hellknights stuck next to the Yellow Door; they seem a little helpless, but I wouldn't know what to suggest. I just took the ammo in front of them and ran for now.

Up the stairs and through a crowd of Chaingunners and across a bridge of pillars, I got surprised by a couple Revs that seemed to come out of nowhere then got the Blue Skull. Was almost disappointed to so immediately afterwards get the Yellow Skull, with a fairly easy fight of 1 Mancubus and some riffraff. Maybe make it 2 Mancubus on UV? There's room in that monster closet for more baddies too.

This is followed by an even more tepid spawn-in encounter when one hits the switch in the closet; I feel this could have been tougher as well. Through the Yellow Door and it's time for another Manc and some surprisingly effective Demons, followed by Cacos and a PE. As one heads up the stairs to the Red Key, Imps spawn in; they got some hits on me but it was a drop in the bucket, maybe an Archvile would have been better (there's plenty of pillars and corpses in here now).

Anyway it's back across the pillars to the Red Door, where a Hellknight and some Imps along with a cramped-no-room Mancubus are crowded at the door to try and stop me from Exiting; they're not up to the task of even being a challenge. An Archvile gives a fun brief encounter just prior to the Exit.

Didn't find any secrets, didn't look very hard though. There's some really nice visuals and texturing going on here, I kind of wish the map was harder on UV though beyond the start.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP13: Death Dungeon by pcorf
100% kills, 3/3 secrets

A solid little dungeon here. As others have said, the opening is the toughest part, as it's both filled with enemies attack from multiple angles and a bit of ammo shortage. Once the initial area is dealt with, though, not really a problem going forward (although the Vile at the end was a bit problematic since there's no cover in the last room, gotta retreat to the door). The Heretic/Hexen textures always look good, and the map has a nice look.

It's a bit short though, and a look at the minimap shows why - a huge chunk of the upper left of the map area is completely unused! Now, I'm not saying that Paul should've forced himself to fill the available space at the cost of screwing up the layout, but when given such a relatively small canvas it seems like a bit of a missed opportunity. Also, I was only able to grab the comp map at the end, which seemed a bit of a waste (playing from pistol starts, at least).

[Phil1984]

Map13 - “Death Dungeon” by pcorf
UV pistol start on pr-boom+ 2.5.1.4.test
Deaths - 0 / Kills - 100% / Secrets - 100%

So I kinda like this one. It certainly looks nice with its Hexenish theme and some nice attention to detail. It's just outside the first area with the caco's, reverents and chain gunners raining bullets from up on high the gameplay is pretty pedestrian with stupidity being your main chance at death. Found all three secrets (thankyou automap secret for letting me find the soul-sphere when it meant absolutely nothing!), but the plasma gun was VERY useful in taking out the pain elementals. I also agree with Solarn that for whatever reason this feels much smaller than 2048x. Overall I'm just not feeling this map. It was an inoffensive map but it never wowed me.

[Steve D]

Map13 – Death Dungeon by pcorf - Kills - 100, Items - 97, Secret - 66. Death Count – Zero

One of the cool things about the Doom community is that a guy like Demonologist, who makes a totally over-the-top slaughtermap like Ex Tenebris, turns out to also be a pcorf fan. It's not a connection one would immediately make, which is why it's cool.

I've been a pcorf fan for years because he's a master of the classic, oldschool style of mapping, and Death Dungeon is a good example of that. It's a beautiful if relatively easy map, and I concur with all of Seele's suggestions on how to fortify it for UV. That said, it's also nice to have a little breather after the past 2 maps, which were stressful for me in their own ways.

I admire the construction, lighting and detailing of this map. I especially like all the detail outside the 2048x2048 box. Paul has been known for outer wall detailing ever since Death Tormention, and it adds a sense of size and place to this quick little adventure.

My favorite single area was the one with the big Caco/PE/Lost Soul fight where the glass breaks and out they come. I was killed my first time through here in the playtesting phase, and you can see me waiting for the flood in the demo, and being kinda scared. I think this area looks really fantastic and it was a fun place for a wild melee to break out.

I didn't play this map again today, instead I'm using the results of my demo playthrough. The version of the map I played is, IIRC, the same as the one in the mapset now. So, for the amusement of any who might be interested in laughing at the Keypad Kommando in action, I provide links to the demo and the specific map below – the demo will not play with the mapset. BTW, I take 2 embarrassing hits from Hell Knights, and generally play a bit like an ass, but I blame that at least partly on how numb GLBoom feels to a keyboarder. If Salt-Man Z is still reading the thread, yeah, you're not alone! I'll send you a PM, too. Anyway, I had a very hard time controlling my movement in this demo, even though it looks much smoother than it felt at the time. ;)

The only secret I missed was the one in the open, the Computer Map. I'll have to figure that out someday.

In summary, another damned nice map by pcorf.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/67v3yezs9vlvvns/pc_2048.wad

http://www.mediafire.com/download/48mqr6puo9a7ckh/pcorf2048.lmp

[Phil1984]

SteveD said:

I probably worded that wrong -- I am not physically 1-handed, but I do all my movement in Doom with my right hand on the numeric keypad. I do all my shooting with the index finger of my left hand, using the 'A' key. And I've played through Quake, Quake 2, Half Life and most of Doom 3 this way, without ever using the mouse except when I had to find a place to snipe at a high monster. ;)

Holy crap!

*Ring Ring Ring Ring*
Uh hello?
Mhhmmmmm Mmmmhhhmmmm sure, I'll just let him know! Cheers!
*Hangs up*

Yeah SteveD, 1996 just rang and it wants its fps control scheme back.

Seriously I can't even imagine trying to play a '3d' FPS without mouse support. Doom is possible obviously although I still prefer the mouse because it lets me turn quicker. I wonder how much Mac Doom is to blame for your control scheme given how ridiculously limiting it was back in the day? Well whatever works for you I guess :)

SteveD said:

BTW, I watched your UV-Max demo of my old Realm of Chaos map Machine Gun Etiquette (Map09) a couple days ago. Two thumbs up, dude, it was very entertaining. The Realm of Intensified Chaos public beta, with all those old RoC maps revised and nastified, is coming soon. Yeah, I love to pimp my shit. ;D

One last thing, since you enjoyed Realm of Chaos, keep those memories alive when you reach my map in this set. It might go hard on PrBoomers . . .

Wait, one last, last thing, didn't Espi play with 1 hand because he was actually 1-handed?

What can I say, you are basically my God of Doom. So glad you enjoyed the run! I remember following ROC through its website back in the day as it got closer and closer to completion. Blew my little mind that Mac users could create doom levels. The like 90 minutes it took to finally download it when it got released (90's net was very cruel), was more than worth while. I'm very much looking forward to Realm of Intensified Chaos and look forward to being able to play the final release!

Speed Running is something I do enjoy doing, although I do rather feel like I'm a turtle at the 100M Track event at the Olympics. Sure Bolt finishes in 9.67 but damn it my 1 minute 35 second was a PB for me damn it!

And yeah, I believe I saw a video or a picture or something demonstrating how he played Doom with one hand. Very clever from memory.

[cannonball]

Map13 - “Death Dungeon” by pcorf
Yeah the start was the difficult part here, but just pushing past the revenant and clearing the chaingunners gives you the breathing space here. This looks good and places decently too. Found al the secrets too, the plasma gun being useful at the end. A fine map and yes it's very PCorfy

[dobu gabu maru]

SteveD said:

One of the cool things about the Doom community is that a guy like Demonologist, who makes a totally over-the-top slaughtermap like Ex Tenebris, turns out to also be a pcorf fan. It's not a connection one would immediately make, which is why it's cool.

Funny how that works out sometimes; for me, the two authors that inspired me to start mapping were pcorf and Phml. I didn't take many of their traits with me as I began work on my own stuff from what I can tell, but I think I learned various things through admiration, and can still appreciate their works today.

MAP13: Corfiatis always makes reliable maps in my opinion. He continues to do so here, throwing us a map that keeps you on your toes but never outright punishes you for any mistakes. It’s well made and a lot of fun. Also, fantastic work on that exit gate illusion, it’s my favorite visual effect of the megawad so far.

[Magnusblitz]

dobu gabu maru said:

Also, fantastic work on that exit gate illusion, it’s my favorite visual effect of the megawad so far.

Wow, I hadn't even noticed that before... just thought the portal was a flat non-transparent midtexture. A closer look shows that it is a pretty nice effect.

[joe-ilya]

MAP14
That's some very green map, green outdoors green liquid and green barracks, is this some tribute for plutonia? The start was neat, but you can push the second switch even when it isn't revealed so just make the first switch appear with some trap.
4/5 Knocking off a star because it used the invasion thing.

[Solarn]

MAP14, "Emerald Gardens" by Breezeep. Played in prBoom+.

Meet my new favourite MAYhem map. It looks gorgeous and plays really well from start to finish without any repetition, even though it's mostly symmetrical. One bug though: in the pillar rooms, if you run immediately to the side room as you enter and push the switch there, the inner pillar won't lower correctly and will hide the switch inside it. You can still push it, but it just doesn't look as good.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 13 -- Death Dungeon - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
Hmm, I haven't really made it a secret that I'm not much of a fan of a lot of PCorf's mapping (mainly for monster placement/gameplay-related reasons), but this one's not so bad. Leaving aside the somewhat dicey usage of fluorescent lightstrips around the various stained glass windows and perhaps the little wooden crates used as structural textures, it's otherwise quite effective aesthetically: the dark Eternal cathedral bricks and the various demonic/mystical face reliefs and other gothic trappings fit well together, and it's nicely mood-lit in a way that plays well to the Doom engine's simulated contrast effect. There's also some simple but effective scenery beyond the playable area near the exit, and yes, I will add my praise to that of the others, that exit portal really is genuinely cool-looking. Pleasant low-key BGM as a bonus, it fit the mood quite well.

Gameplay starts out on the right foot--you have to bust your way out of the opening chamber, which wakes up most of the neighbors and requires you get a move on in order to avoid being hemmed in. The combination of cacodemons, the revenant jailer, and some former human commandos in the main hub can be legitimately dangerous, especially if the cacos happen to be infinitely-tall. The action does tend to peter out pretty rapidly after the opening 90 seconds or so, shifting to favor straightforward closet-snares and some toothless teleport attacks using mainly fodder-class monsters (a lot of the imps that teleport around the stairs leading to the red skeleton key beam in too near the bottom, and so tend to get stuck/can't contribute), but the map's too short for any of this to really become genuinely boring, so I'd say the monster placement is generally serviceable, if basic. The hell knights trapped by the laws of Doom-physics necessary to create the 3D bridge would probably beg to differ, though.

Edit: Oh yeah, I like the computer area map secret--it's pointless, but it's also fun to get.

[mouldy]

Map14 - “Emerald Gardens” by Breezeep

Those switches in the starting room didn't make much sense at the time, but in hindsight I'm guessing they are there to introduce the general theme of symmetry that is going on in this map. Its painfully symmetrical, almost to the point where you feel like you are playing the same map twice, which is a bit of an odd choice when the space is as limited as it is. Its like the author thought thats way too much room, I only need half. So anyway, I can live with it as a concept, and the map is nicely constructed and looks cool. It just seems a shame that the opportunity wasn't taken to subvert the symmetry by trying to do something different on each side with the same space. The monsters that warp in at the switch ambushes are different sure, but you fight then in exactly the same way - in my case standing by the switch and hold down fire, strafing slightly to avoid enemy missiles. There is no pressure to come out of that alcove. The same goes for the fights with the archviles, just stay in the doorway shooting everything until its dead. The fighting was kind of unimaginative on the whole, which reflects badly on the map (pun intended), since you have to wonder if the mirrored concept is also down to a lack of imagination. I'm prepared to think that its more of an artistic decision though, as the map itself is well built and visually interesting (although it feels very square). The final 2 switches are pretty redundant, just wasting your time a bit by making you jump back down the hole. The final archvile fight was perhaps the most dangerous encounter for me, as I was down to chaingun bullets and I didn't feel like running away to get more cover (or past him to the exit), but luckily I survived.

[Breezeep]

Solarn said:

MAP14, "Emerald Gardens" by Breezeep. Played in prBoom+.

Meet my new favourite MAYhem map. It looks gorgeous and plays really well from start to finish without any repetition, even though it's mostly symmetrical. One bug though: in the pillar rooms, if you run immediately to the side room as you enter and push the switch there, the inner pillar won't lower correctly and will hide the switch inside it. You can still push it, but it just doesn't look as good.

Glad you liked my map!

[Phobus]

MAP14:
Plays well enough that I didn't mind mostly doing a large part of it twice, but looks absolutely brilliant. Uses the Spork- or Torm-alike style (largely orthogonal, lots of trims) well with a solid green colour scheme. The ending room feels like it came straight out of Toxic Touch in Alien Vendetta, whilst the jungle-y music and Tango-pleasing-level of vine coverage make it feel more like a late Scythe 2 map. A few too many switches for what actually needs doing, IMO, but that's the biggest drawback I found playing through this time. Continuous play doesn't change much here, other than allowing a BFG slap on the final AV to stop him causing any trouble and a reserve of ammo to go panic-mode with if you play the traps poorly.

[Demonologist]

Map14 - “Emerald Gardens” by Breezeep
My thoughts pretty much echo mouldy's, though in the end I enjoyed this map, very nice Scythe2-like theme and plausible gameplay. Still a good one, I remember expecting it to be worse, honestly speaking. Not bad.

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP14: A really solid map by Breezeep. The only problem with it lies in the general symmetry (though some fights are different) and that there’s a lot of passageway-styled chokepoints that you have to abuse (like when fighting the AVs in the starting courtyard), but it’s an absolutely gorgeous map that feels a bit like Sunder’s MAP01 in theory, just with a bit more untainted water.

[cannonball]

Map14 - “Emerald Gardens” by Breezeep
There are some poor design choices here, mostly due to the symmetry and also needing to dive into both sides of the tunnel to raise pillars to the exit room, that is a little too much.
The visuals are lovely though and the gameplay and decent enough, though the corridor like gameplay does allow a lot of chokepoints. The main advise would be to try and create larger and more interesting rooms in fuure work and try to avoid the constant use of corridors, you seem to have the visuals sussed and the gameplay will sort itself out if you create better layouts and rooms.
Overall I fought this was decent though a bit of refining would have made this a really good map.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 14 -- Emerald Gardens - 101% Kills / No secrets
For the most part I also agree with Mouldy. The map has a very attractive visual theme and color scheme, all lush vegetation, damp masonry, and deep blue water, with heavy shadows in the leech tunnels under the building. It does have the issue of appearing a bit untowardly orthogonal at times, but this is mostly only an issue in the side areas behind locked doors that feed back into the starting area after getting each key--the terrain depicted here is mostly natural (grass, pools, waterfalls, hedgerows, etc), and so its boxy aspect is a little more noticeable. For the most part it's a map that's easy on the eyes, though....its main issue has more to do with the nature of the layout than its surface aesthetic.

It is symmetrical to a fault, to the point where its copy-pasted nature becomes evident in ways such as the same specific texture misalignment being replicated on the lefthand wall of both small staircases leading up to the lion switches in the mirrored southern alcoves. Some effort has been made to differentiate the two sides--for instance, the inset slimefall detailing near the lost souls takes a different shape on the two sides of the map--but the similarity is nearly 1:1 in most aspects, and only differs in purely superficial ways. Of course, a symmetrical structure is not necessarily a problem in and of itself; what's more likely to be an issue is symmetrical combat/gameplay, and that is very much what we get here. Much like the detailing, the monster deployment is mirrored nearly 1:1 in the map's two halves, with some slight differences that are essentially cosmetic in terms of how the fights play out (e.g. the demons and caco that appear near the SSG switch are fought in pretty much exactly the same way as the nobles that appear near the RL switch). Again, this might be less of an issue if the fights themselves were dynamic/pressuring, but they're generally not. Most involve standing your ground and holding down the trigger for a minute or two, ala the arch-vile + weaklings warp-in fights in the starting area; I believe the biggest surprise I had in the map was a lost soul floating over the top of the dividing hedgerow while I was camping the opening (which again, is the only real option for handling the fight, as opposed to something I'd normally choose to do) and nibbling on my ear a bit.

Overall, inoffensive, but also a bit bland. Not hard on the eyes, at least. I suspect this might be a map that's suffering as a result of the space allotment (that is, maybe it would've been a better 1024 map, or a better normal map), but I've seen the same mistakes made in full-size maps before, so it's hard to say.

[Breezeep]

I know my map isn't the best and has flaws (i.e. poor layout, cramped, etc.) but I could improved if I had the knowledge to.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP14: Emerald Gardens by Breezeep
99% kills, no secrets

Ah yes, Emerald Gardens, another one of the handful of maps I tried out back in beta stage. It seems a few tweaks have been made here and there (mainly to change some of the symmetry), though these changes were minor.

For the most part, it does look very nice, with lots of Spork-like trim details, as Phobus mentions. Lots of good use of vines and a color scheme that hangs together well (though I probably would've just completely left out the slime and made all the liquids water). Only downside here is that the orthogonal walls are a bit noticeable in the 'natural' areas, and there's still quite a few texture misalignments in the bricks. Gotta use that vertical auto-align!

Gameplay-wise, yes, it's very symmetrical, and even having different enemies doesn't do much, as it doesn't change the gameplay (hide around the corner, fire, hide, repeat). There also seems to be too many switches, and the colored switches at the top opening the colored switches at the bottom just seems redundant.

Still, it's a pretty nice looking map, and the gameplay is more bland than offensive, so can't complain too much.

[Phil1984]

Map14 - “Emerald Gardens” by Breezeep
UV pistol start on pr-boom+ 2.5.1.4.test
Deaths - 0 / Kills - 100% / Secrets - NA

I consider this to be rather like Map13. An inoffensive map thats looks nice enough but the game-play never seems to put me in any danger whatsoever. It was simply a matter of finding a good corner to snipe from and then rinse and repeat for the next 8 minutes or so.

[Seele00TextOnly]

Map14 - “Emerald Gardens” by Breezeep

Well I'm late to this one, the symmetry has all been spoiled for me in the comments so that just makes it all the more apparent. I chose the left path first, doubtful that it makes much difference. Did run into some trouble with about 5 or 6 Chaingunners I had to take down, though their infighting and the presence of a narrow pillar kept things to my advantage. Get an SSG, kill some Demons, a Caco, and Revs.

Get the Red Key, through the Red Door, and it's an Imp Ambush. ... An Imp ambush? Really? You just had me face down 4 Revanents and now it's time to break out the 4 Imps super team. I'm kind of at a loss there. But there is next an Archie at the start, so we're not completely off the rails yet. It's actually a pretty decent encounter if one doesn't door camp and instead darts back down the hole for cover to have to loop back around as he keeps resurrecting things.

So, now it's on to the right hole. Chaingunners and a pole again, this time I get a RL and some HK's, a Baron, and Mancs. Blue Key and soon enough I have a couple more HK's to get through, and well it's an Archie at the start again. This time I don't even have to run from him, now to see what these Key switches do... Hmm, just some more spawn-ins of small fry at the start. The Exit is guarded by another Archvile.

This map was just kind of plain and boring, I'm sorry to say. It's just best to stay away from symmetry, really. Gameplay suffers and it can feel tedious. If this map is Harvey Dent, Breezeep ought to consider turning it into Two-Face. Make the gameplay, texturing, and layout more radically different on one of the sides and take away the choice at the start so that the second side can be truly tough, maybe even downright evil.

[plums]

MAP13: A pcorf map with Raven textures is guaranteed to be enjoyable for me. Start is HARD and killed me maybe a dozen times before I got my bearings. After that, it slows down a lot, but like Demon of the Well said, it's too small to become especially boring. Agreed about the end portal looking great; Boom's transparency is a much-underused feature I think.

MAP14: Well it sure is symmetrical. Once again I agree with DotW: this probably would've been better as a 1024 map, going through it only once instead of essentially twice in a row. But both halves look nice and play OK, so I didn't mind too much.

[joe-ilya]

MAP15
Fine piece of map, had fun everywhere because the monster placement was smart the design was smart and that pile of lost souls at the start was cool too, just the secrets aren't very hideous but that's fine, it doesn't matter as long as the map itself was good, that's all you gotta know.
5/5
MAP31
That's a frenzy map, almost reminds me of MAP07 of this megawad and some of my early works in a detailed way, yet again; smart and stuff, I didn't find out how to get into the waterfall to the secret exit without cheating.
5/5
MAP32
What a horrible map, I don't know where to go, and when I search for stuff I run out of ammo so then I run helplessly with the useless pistol and just shoot high-tier monsters, isn't that fun? No.
I just quited this map due to having no idea where to go, I was sitting half an hour and the thing I mostly did was running around in circles, the only good thing about this map is how everything is placed and the detail, but the gameplay sucked, I ended up using Zdoom to make some jumps and still got nothing to do, just got lost.
2/5

[Solarn]

MAP15, "Titan Mining Complex" by Walter Confalonieri. Played in prBoom+.

So is it a mining complex on Titan, or are they mining up the mythical ancestors of the Greek gods here? Jokes aside, this was a pretty good map. Walter definitely seems to shine in a limited environment. It was a tough map, with very few places to hide from enemy fire and a lot of enemies to fire at you. It also had the first Cyberdemon in the mapset, put to great and terrifying use. The progression was pretty clear, at least to me, and it never became boring or same-y. Good use of midtextures, by the way. Especially the opening corridor looked fantastic.

In conclusion, another strong showing from Walter.

MAP31, "A Calm, yet Frank Discussion of Your Life Choices" by ClonedPickle. Played in prBoom+.

Simplistic, easy and confusing would be the three words I'd use to describe this map. Large, empty rooms with minimal detail housing very few monsters, with some more teleporting in after the yellow key. The confusing comes in because I could find simply no way to find the secret exit without actually opening the map in an editor to check. Just because it's the secret map, it should not be allowed to be terrible.

MAP32, "Aeternal" by Eternal. Played in prBoom+.

I LOVE THIS MAP. It's just amazingly made, atmospheric and very tough, especially at the start. It actually reminded me of Sunder's Map 06, The Grinder, in the way the player starts off with basically an entire map's worth of monsters aggroed on them and doesn't really get a safe spot until they clean out a good portion of those. The library side area was also pretty difficult, but not unfair (although the secret there was a bit bullshit) and the final fight against a Cyberdemon (the first you have to fight fairly) in the small exit room really got my blood pumping. If there is one thing I'd change about this map, it's that I'd make the switch to raise the first set of stairs into a small raised column instead of a sector flat, because nobody ever looks down.

[Walter confetti]

Thanks for liking my map! BTW I'll expect more feedback today, and i'll fix out the bugs you find...

[mouldy]

Map15 - “Titan Mining Complex” by Walter Confalonieri

Interesting space-port style map, navigation feels a little bit cramped but its not too big a deal. Seems daunting at first with all the meat on display, but its not as dangerous as it looks. There are so many doorways and corners to camp that the biggest risk is from playing recklessly. The cyberdemon was a surprise, but you can safely shoot at it without its missiles reaching you. The most dangerous moments I can remember were maybe a couple of point blank revenants, and maybe an archvile that involved jumping down and emptying plasma into its face in the hope that it wouldn't have time to blast you. The visuals are cool, though some of the textures look a bit weird to my eyes. I like the way its laid out, you don't notice the square limitations thanks to the way it curves around itself, but it does feel like it wants to be bigger than it is. I didn't find the secret exit somehow, even though after checking in doombuilder it should have been blindingly obvious. Ah well. Looked like some texture mis-alignments on some of the window frames, also I think i remember a door frame wasn't lower pegged. I'll check out the secret maps later.

[Demonologist]

Map15 - “Titan Mining Complex” by Walter Confalonieri
Gameplay in this one is pretty dull, it's packed with monsters, yet each and every encounter can be camped/cheesed/whatever. Still, it more or less worked for me, somewhat entertaining, even. I like the visuals, reminded me about Hell 2 Pay with its planetary levels. So in the end - not a bad map, even though it's nothing really exciting. The secret exit is very easy to find.

Map31 - “A Calm, yet Frank Discussion of Your Life Choices” by ClonedPickle
Very basic-looking, but not a complete waste gameplay-wise, there's some fun to be had in here actually. Mediocre map, but nothing really offensive and downright displeasing, so it's okay. Secret exit is quite tricky to find, and of course I failed to do so without checking the editor, but the fact that I obviously played the super secret map before it was submitted saved me from trouble.

Map32 - “Aeternal” by Eternal
I don't quite follow TMD's logic here, if the map is that good - then why not to show it in the main lineup? Secret slots are for something less conventional and all that.
On the map itself - honestly speaking I didn't like it much at first since I'm not a big fan of being exposed to layers of hitscanners and distant turreted tower defenders sniping at my humble self from the get-go, but eventually, after figuring out all the things needed to be done and advancing further, I changed my opinion. Eternal Doom surely becomes much more attractive to me when it's this small. Very nice design, full usage of space (it may still feel pretty cramped in places, but it combines lots of interior travel and elaborate exterior part masterfully, so no problem at all) and considerable length plus some cool tricks (it's Eternal after all, the great trickster). One noticeable concern though, I'm pretty sure there's not enough ammo to clean the place up without finding the secrets. On the other hand - secrets in here are easy, just look closer and you'll find everything. Great map, this is the Eternal Doom I like, not that ass huge mindblowingly obscure atrocity (I remember making Eternal angry by telling him that the best remake of ED is em116, hahaha, but that's another story).

[Magnusblitz]

MAP15: Titan Mining Complex by Walter Conflaonieri
99% kills, 2/2 secrets

Back to the old-school design with Walter C. While there's a bit of texture salad here (every room/area seems to have a different texture used), the greys and tans tend to hold together pretty well and definitely convey the idea of a lunar mining base. There's some tricky monster placement here and there, such as the pack of lost souls at the start or the Cyberdemon which guards the exit but shows up as a surprise much earlier. Aside from those though, gameplay is a bit stale, and basically requires camping from a window. I also started getting a bit frustrated with how the windows and railings worked - some of them blocked stuff, some didn't. As mouldy mentioned, there are some texture alignment issues on the window frames and one unpegged door frame. Solid map on the whole, nothing great, nothing terrible.

MAP31: A Calm Yet Frank Discussion of Your Life Choices by ClonedPickle
100% kills, no secrets

Hmm. The title made me expect something avant-garde, but the map itself is actually very blocky (I don't think there's anything but 45 and 90 degree angles) and basic. The start is somewhat interesting from a pistol start, not knowing where the SSG was, but the rest is pretty easy - almost boring - going. The only really notable thing about it is the secret exit, which requires a couple of headscratchers to find (I admit I likely wouldn't've found it had Joe Ilya not clued me in to look at the waterfall).

Oh, and why no secrets? MAP14 was the same, although that map actually had none - this one has several areas that could be marked as secret, but seems the author was just too lazy to do so.

MAP32: Aeternal by Eternal
100% kills, 1/3 secrets

It's tough, and good-looking on the whole, but I wouldn't say it's tops in either of those categories. The start is difficult, especially from a pistol start, because the player needs to run around under fire from hitscanners and revenant turrets to gather the weaponry (took me forever to find the SSG, hidden under fatty's girth). The secret RL also feels practically required, I'm not sure how I would've done without it given how low I was on shells for most of the map.

Also frustrating was the difficulty in figuring out where to go - I'm looking at you, floor switch! Didn't want to activate the first time I tried it, so kept looking in vain before coming back to it. Once finding that, it's a fairly simple "hit the switch, go up the new staircase, repeat" for most of the map, moving from tower to tower, and it's remarkably easy aside from a couple of bullshit ambushes (such as teleporting two chaingunners on top of the player at the red key). The end battle with the Cyberdemon is pretty fun, though.

[mouldy]

Map31 - “A Calm, yet Frank Discussion of Your Life Choices” by ClonedPickle

Very basic map that looks like it was whipped up in a lunch break. Nothing outstandingly terrible, nice little teleport ambush. Super secret exit was a bit of a wall-humper, but there aren't that many walls really.

Map32 - “Aeternal” by Eternal

There is no denying this map is a looker, however there are a few things that served to really annoy me from pistol start. It puts you in a very exposed situation where you have to fight for both ammo and cover, but with the amount of opportunities to catch a stray missile from something half way across the map (or an archvile that you can't even see) then it also becomes a constant fight for health. With no armour I found myself dying over and over again because it only took 2 or 3 hits to wipe me out, and added to this was getting hit by stuff too high up to see without mouselook. So after a really tiresome period of clearing out all the snipers while save spamming on low health I finally felt like I was allowed to start playing this map, even though half of it was dead now. There was a soulsphere on a pedestal that would have helped, but lowering the platform made it rise up to the yellow key and out of reach. Is that a bug? When I finally got the yellow key I also discovered a secret mega armour right at the start. Dunno if that was always available, but I would have traded it for a non secret green armour at the beginning. So now that I had max health and armour the rest of the map passed fairly easily, apart from a bit of annoying round-the-houses navigation. The switch in the library that didn't do anything apparent made me figure it opened something somewhere else in the map, unfortunately I eventually discovered it had uncovered a completely redundant switch in the same bloody room. I also discovered it is a pain in the arse getting back to that room from the ground floor, and I discovered it again when I walked through the now-open passage and fell back down to the ground floor and had to go all the way back up again to jump the gap properly. I can blame that on my own clumsiness, but that route back up could have done with a shortcut.

I've probably moaned more about this map than it deserves, thats just because it pissed me off so much at the start though. Its actually a decent and well crafted map, and with a green armour and a bit more ammo at the beginning I'd have enjoyed it a lot more I think.