The DWmegawad Club plays: Japanese Community Project

[Kira]

Ah, I think you are right. I never saw 百分率 used in text either, I should have looked more into this.

[scifista42]

MAP01 - “First Assault” by Tatsurd-Cacocaco

Sweet map, small yet satisfying, simple yet beautiful, clean looking, easy-ish, fun little experience. Well, this kind of a starter map is nothing unusual for modern megawads, though, so I'm taking it as a hint that this wad will be more about routine design and careful polish than about innovation and artistic expressions with notably exotic vibes (which is what I slightly hoped for, but really just slightly so). Anyway, just my first impression, might be wrong.

[Pirx]

from the roster i recognize tatsurd's name, obviously, (although that's the first time i see something by him as a mapper, not as a speedrunner), and i think i saw masayan's name in the 1994 tune-up project. i'm playing in gzdoom with smooth and ketchup, uv, no saves as far as i can handle the action, let's see... and with the japanese status bar, for style, even if i have to guess.


MAP01 - “First Assault” by Tatsurd-Cacocaco

easy introductory map, a brick techbase with a bit of metal and marble, an interior courtyard, light opposition. one chaingunner spawns on a metal post where he's seen immediately, so no surprises here. i went pressing and shooting the faces on the walls too, coming from eternal doom. clever berserk secret with that jump, and i would have preferred getting it earlier to bash in the faces of those imps and zombies around, which imo makes a map even more enjoyable in most cases.



MAP02 - “Rural Mini-Base” by Tatsurd-Cacocaco

a small indoor techbase, with a series of rooms joined by corridors at 90°, with a low ceiling, and an outer courtyard. a PE teleports in there, but you have a chaingun to stun him. an obvious secret opens right in front of the starting point - with 1 rocket? the launcher is found a bit later in another secret. i found it after i had already killed everything, so it's possible to do it without, although slower. and there's a blur sphere to get cover from shotgunners. the manc at the exit and the chaingunners are a sure infight, funny.

[Capellan]

Map02
Looks-wise it's more vibrantly coloured than the last level, which I like (though it does get a bit gaudy at times). Gameplay is kind of drab though for much of it. I suspect it would be different if you go right at the start and walk into the courtyard of bad guys, but if you head left and do the base section it is a lot of "walk to entrance of room; shotgun down riff raff; hoover up goodies; repeat". I'd say at least throw a couple of non-deaf troopers or imps into the place to create some measure of unpredictability.

The courtyard fight is a nice pick me up if you first enter it through the red key opening as I did. Seems like it would be a lot less hectic if you went through the southern big door though (assuming you had the ammo to take it on, anyway). In that case, all the red key would unleash is a couple of mooks on the walls.

Notably this is the only part of the map where you aren't solely fighting stuff at your own elevation - the flatness of the level probably contributes to how static the level feels for much of its length.

Secret near the entrance wins the "most obvious" award. I quite liked the rocket secret though. Didn't get the blur secret, but it's a blur sphere, so I didn't really care.

Changes I would recommend: Add some non-deaf monsters to the base (which would possibly mean changing some doors to be not-openable by monsters, at least from certain sides), and put a catwalk on the SW side of the large western room so there's another time you fight monsters at a different elevation. For added oomph, make the doors to the courtyard D1 stay opens, and unleash more monsters into the courtyward and western room when the player opens the door to the room with the blue key in it.

[Dylan Jarvis]

MAP01

Quite a good opening map with your typical low tier enemies and good layout. Pretty good music to go along with it as well. I liked the detail used here as it wasn't over the top. The use of cacos early let us know that this will most likely be harder than Doom2. Good map to start.

[Dylan Jarvis]

MAP02

Damn! Another fun map. I liked this one as well. This one starts off relatively easy with imps and the like, but ramps up pretty fast as you enter the outside encounter which throws a plethora of different enemies at you. Luckily I found the invisibility secret before then allowing me to handle most of the gunners without issue. This one was pretty short, I almost completed it faster than the first. Good map, enjoyed it.

[Demon of the Well]

Alright, let's jump right in here.

Map 01 -- First Assault - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets - FDA (skill 4)
Yes, very traditional map 01 fare here, a quick shoot-n'-loot in a modest brick/mortar outpost nestled in some dreary polluted foothills, with a portentously grim overcast sky looming overhead. The layout is very straightforward, being a simple L-shaped main corridor with a few one-off side rooms attached by basic latches; the most notable quirk to the construction is that the whole thing almost feels taller than it is long, with a lot of up/down in the tail end of its traversal (and optionally early on for the security armor vest). On the whole, the presentation put me somewhat in mind of Erik Alm's "The Furnace" from CC2, probably a function of the base's heavy use of the grimy lichen-covered cistern-bricks (not that I'm complaining, mind, that's one of my favorite stock textures) and also the potentially claustrophobic ambush around the berserk pack which is accessible right before the level's exit.

Gameplay's okay, nothing distasteful but nothing of particular remark, either. For my part, I don't at all mind being compelled to use the pistol for fighting basic enemies on occasion, so pew-pewing through a handful of zombies and imps before getting a shotgun does not offend my delicate sensibilities here. The branches off of the back part of the main L-corridor are all clearly intended to equip you with a shotgun regardless of which one you pick first, which I suppose one might appreciate, although I felt having that many sealed one-entrance rooms so close together, even in such a short level, feels a mite inelegant....since the shotgun at the far end of the L is easily visible through the unobstructed threshold there, what I might've suggested would be to have all those doors fly open to allow their occupants to spill out as the player takes said shotgun. I did like the little trap with the berserk pack, however; a fun little dustup to end the level on something of a climax, and probably one that will leave cautious/methodical players feeling vindicated if those initially caged imps are dead beforehand.

Oh, yeah, I approve of the music selection. Good taste, tatsurd!

[baja blast rd.]

map02

Like map01, this isn't my cup of tea. It's even more awkwardly cramped in places, narrow passages and pesky bits of detailing precluding smooth movement. It's for maps like these I wish it was possible to attach the run toggle to a mouse button. I imagine that DotW will casually loaf his way through "Rural Mini-Base" without the recurring discomfort of grazing the walls of 64-wide passages.

I mentioned in my map01 write-up that this sort of map is more fun when designed for cinematic bloodshed. Well, there is a secret rocket launcher, but the encounters aren't really tailored for mass splash damage bloodshed. The deployment of enemies is quite pointilistic, both inside and out, monsters rarely congregating in splash-friendly clumps. I guess if you know the map, you can save most of the rockets for the fatasses huddled up in the exit room.

I've also noticed a general tendency in this mapset for an occasional closet secret to contain next to nothing, but I prefer that to the other extreme: that of a push closet giving you a free soulsphere or something without even a fight, which isn't too uncommon in mapsets old and new. At least warp in an arch-vile or whatever, I end up feeling -- don't screw with the balance so casually. This map's secrets are more proportionate, and hey, the blur sphere can actually be put to good use.

[Havoc Crow]

MAP02: Rural Mini-Base

Mini indeed! The base part feels very cramped, while its visual design is very polished... and very soulless, as if it was extruded from some standard template for "pretty" architecture. The outdoors yard saves things though, as it looks much more interesting.

I liked the nonlinear gameplay, and getting lost among the nooks and crannies of the base. The fights still aren't very difficult, though I died once near the end, killed by a chaingunner. The Japanese symbols on the health indicator seem to encourage riskier gameplay, as seeing a single 一 or even a 二 in front of your health count doesn't carry the same punch as seeing a 1 or 2... yet. This might change throughout the mapset as I learn to instinctively mentally map the unfamiliar numerals to familiar numbers.

The map names in this set seem quite off-beat. "Rural" is one of these words I'd never expect to show up in a Doom map name!

[Spectre01]

Map 02

Not much to say about this map as with map 01. I noticed a tendency for rooms to have a narrow entrance and 2 monsters, usually hitscanners, to the left and right as you enter. Still better than having teleport/monster closets behind you. This feels like a much more natural ambush when the map is mostly populated. I ended up finding the rocket launcher after clearing the map. Not much use for it in this one anyways but since I'm playing continuous it's pretty nice to grab.

rdwpa said:

At least warp in an arch-vile or whatever, I end up feeling -- don't screw with the balance so casually.

I've seen people criticizing trapping health pickups and I agree. It's complete bullshit when you grab a Soulsphere and end up losing more health than you gained from it.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP02: Rural Mini-Base

Tighter, twistier, and more intense than MAP01, but not thematically all that different; it's a classic techabse-and-courtyard setup, with a few of the bestiary's heavier hitters making their appearance here, though the terrain in which they're encountered casts them more as ambulatory roadblocks than serious threats. The extensive use of deaf monsters gives a bit of a scripted feel to most of the level's minor encounters, whereas I think the rooms and corridors of this map would provide opportunities for free-roaming monsters to spring some surprises on the hapless player, but that's a question of taste rather than proficiency.

[kuchitsu]

Capellan said:

Secret near the entrance wins the "most obvious" award.

Ouch. I didn't find it. :(

rileymartin said:

I've seen people criticizing trapping health pickups and I agree. It's complete bullshit when you grab a Soulsphere and end up losing more health than you gained from it.

Yea, I usually dislike such things. It's like the author punishes you for being adventurous and attentive. Just doesn't feel good.

[Octavarium]

Forgot to mention, playing on UV, as few saves as I can.

Map 02: I always like playing small maps where a lot of enemies wake up with the first shot and then wander around. Music was good again, except for that occasional dissonant note that I'm pretty sure was intentional. Anyway, a step up in difficulty from 01, good short level. Wish I would have found that launcher earlier to splatter stuff, but oh well.

I'll throw in two cents about the "punishing" secret health pickups though; as long as the rev/arch-vile/whatever isn't teleported straight up your ass and therefore unavoidable, I kind of like the idea of a surprise ambush to earn that soulsphere. Just finding a secret nowadays isn't good enough!

[scifista42]

MAP02 - “Rural Mini-Base” by Tatsurd-Cacocaco

Another techbase with an extremely Community Chest styled polish and generic-ness. Fun but not exciting, nice but not stunning, alright but not outstanding. I've found the Invisibility secret first, the RL one second, and lastly the one at the start after some random backtracking and wall humping. I'm fine with secrets containing just small items. Also, in regards to ambushes connected to secrets, I'm not against them out of principle, but I prefer when they are balanced in such a way that doesn't "feel punishing" (being more like a "fair trade" or a "casual twist" instead), and I dislike those that make me lose more ammo and/or health than I gained from them.

[tatsurd-cacocaco]

Wow! Japanese community project is selected in doomworld megawad club. It's a surprise for me. I would release final version of JPCP until the end of May, but it will be postponed to June for referring to DWMC's feedback.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to your feedback. Keep it up!

[mouldy]

I've been meaning to play this wad, even started it a couple of times. So now I have no excuse. UV pistol starts with occasional saves.

MAP01 - “First Assault” by Tatsurd-Cacocaco

A nice opener, short and small without being too simple. I like the little optional side rooms, thats something I always forget to put in maps. Got all the secrets and killed all the bad guys without falling below 80 health, fun stuff.

MAP02 - “Rural Mini-Base” by Tatsurd-Cacocaco

Cool map, died first time by leaping into the red key trap without first clearing that whole outside area. Nice how its kind of built in a ring shape so you have a choice of direction to explore. If i had one minor criticism of these first 2 maps its that the indoor areas are very square and boxy, but its no big deal.

[Kira]

MAP02 - UV - Pistol start - No save

Definitely a step-up from MAP01, difficulty-wise. A bit too cramped for my tastes but I liked the monster placement. I tried different routes and the flow was enjoyable everytime.

As for the different colors in panels, I think they were useful for navigation.

[NuMetalManiak]

hi

ITYTD, all 100% attempts, will note if things are unreachable.

MAP01 First Assault

Anything noteworthy to point out here? Cause this is pretty standard stuff. isn't bad though.

MAP02 Rural Mini-base

a bit more action, and a bit more cramped. still quite fun. and that seems to be the MUS version of Oww!! from Hell Revealed considering the off-pitch.

btw at some point this month I'll be vacationing in Florida so I'm probably not going to play this megawad all the way, but if you know me I like to come back swinging at the end of it all.

[tatsurd-cacocaco]

Budoka said:

Oh, and now I know what « 100% » looks like in Japanese, which all that really matters in this context. I couldn’t find all the secrets though.

Kira said:

Actually I never saw it like this. It would be 100%, 百分率, 100分率 or something along those lines. My guess is that it was the only way it would work with the HUD. But I am not absolutely reliable on this matter.

If tatsurd reads this thread he might shed light on the matter.

Kira, you are right! 1-9 in mumber was just replaced to 1-9 in Kanji on this HUD. There is no more meaning.

For example, "28" is actually NOT "二八" but "二十八" in Kanji. Calling "28" "二八" in Kanji seems to be calling "28" "two-eight" in English. Needless to say, "28" is "twenty-eight".
In addition, we usually don't express Kanji when we use %, so 100% is 100% in Japanese.

Btw, 0 is 零 in Kanji

[Kira]

説明でありがとうございます！ And now I realize why I am sometimes confused as hell when trying to read the HUD :P
Kanji for numbers in Japanese's HUD are uncommon after all.

[Naan]

MAP02 - “Rural Mini-Base” by Tatsurd-Cacocaco - UVMax on first try

Yet another compact opening map, this time with a consistent theme, no more optional rooms, lots of colors and a brighter outside. The whole thing was cramped enough for the secret RL to be kinda pointless, and I wonder how I triggered the invisibility sphere secret, it looks like I had to use a switch twice, which is a somewhat uncommon secret hiding technique. Opposition was not a problem as soon as the outdoors were cleaned up before grabbing the RK.

[antares031]

MAP03 - The Sign of Armageddon
ZDoom, UV - Pistol Start, KIS(%): 100/85/85

Now the game is getting more interesting. It's a small-medium size level with rocky environment and enjoyable layout. Monster placements are also well-balanced, if you're fine with some cacodemons at the beginning. But keep in mind that this level introduces some mid-high tier monsters, such as baron of hell and arch-vile. And you can't obtain the SSG yet, so make count your rockets for the right time. I also liked the secret placements, which were designed in a classic way, although I couldn't find one last secret in the dark cave. Not to mention that the background music spiced the level in a good way. By the way, I'm still concerning about the slime trail issue I mentioned earlier.

[Budoka]

As it turns out, the trial version of WinX limits output videos to five minutes, but you can get the registered version for free until May 10, which I did.

MAP03 : The Sign of Armageddon by Masayan & Skull Demon

That… was quite something. First off, the setting is rather spiffy, a vast fortress suspended over a lake. I just love it.

Now, the health and ammo here is limited, while the opposition is heavier than before, and much of the monster placement is kind of devious. The early enemies can potshot you easily as you’re exposed from everywhere (this a frequent occurrence in general in this map). The yellow key trap throws everything into chaos, which is appreciated even if it’s short-lived. The Spectre in the red key room is literally impossible to detect in my configuration, which is of course the point of Spectres. That monster configuration in the blue key room has « infighting bait » written all over it, but that’s provided you get out of the way quickly enough, which luckily I did. The Archvile, though… that trick blindsided me, but that’s fine since all in all it’s a completely fair fight (the second one on the other hand doesn’t work too well…).

Then, once I started figuring out the puzzle that unlocks the actual exit switch, I realized I hadn’t quite reached the finish line. To be honest, I don’t think any of the maps I’ve played before this have done something like that. I think it’s a great idea, and so far I’m utterly impressed with this mapset. It’s very well conceived, and better still, it’s thorougly refreshing.

Demo update : I watched Suite’s stream before recording this and he showed a few secrets, so this run has a somewhat different flavor than my blind attempt. Even then, I don’t think I pulled anything too cheap. Oh, and that duel between the Baron and the Arachnotron lasted way too long. Damn pillars…

Demo here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgCIcVJf_K4&feature=youtu.be

[Demon of the Well]

Map 02 -- Rural Mini-base - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets - FDA
Again, rather traditional early game fare, set in a squat relay base higher up in the hills (in my mind's eye I'm seeing a scattered breadcrumb trail of tiny outposts and checkpoints forming a trail leading up to the highlands, and hopefully something bigger). Quite fair to say the base is a mite flat, I think, but I reckon the level's short enough that one is as likely to parse this as simply a bit of character rather than any noted privation thereof. The overall scheme is something of a Phobos/Starbase E1 sample-platter mashup, which involves using quite a large number of texture assets together in rather a small space; for the most part, I didn't feel this to be too visually noisy, largely because a lot of the different colors used naturally complement each other (tans, greys, greens, etc.), although I would agree with the sentiment that all of the different colors used seemingly at random for light panels and the \/\/ insignias can feel a mite 'off.' The other noticeable departures are the marble basin which the red keycard overlooks, which seemed natural enough to me given the UAC's long history of smugly appointing even its most baldly utilitarian installations with symbols of opulence, and the custom textures used in the tiny start area, making it seem disused for a bit of flavor.

Gameplay, well....there are short halls, there are bends, there are doors, there are weaklings, you shoot them, and then there is victory. Not a whole lot to it. The red key setup is the obvious highlight of the action here, +50 bonus points for making a viable/sensible use of a blursphere there, cute the way it's put on display right beforehand. Capellan gives good advice about the issues of monster deafness and potentially doing a small restaffing of the grounds at some point, I think....the vast majority of the flavor here comes from the concentration of opposition in the yard around the RK's basin, and the possibility for going out there early on via an avenue other than the RK's perch potentially saps the action of most of its lifeblood. The answer to this, I think, is not to disallow the player from going in whatever direction s/he chooses, but simply to have more bad guys warp in to the base at some point, perhaps upon reaching the BK as suggested. On the issue of monster deafness, I don't see how reducing it would hurt much here, but I would like for the two imps in the marble basin to be deaf--one of them infinitely-talled me and spoiled my grand entrance. :(

*******

On the general subject of little item-cubby secrets, I've no inherent qualms with them, but would agree that if a secret is going to be paltry to find its material reward should probably not be particularly powerful, barring special circumstances. There is also absolutely nothing wrong with trapping a secret, perhaps not even in such a way that the physical risk could overshadow the material reward (danger is fun!), though of course it's important to balance things in such a way that the trap doesn't actually represent an unreasonable flat tax on resources or the like.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP02: Rural Mini-Base
100% kills, 3/3 secrets

I called last map small, but this one is even moreso, being mainly made up of 96-wide corridors linking a few small rooms. It's flat and boxy, but as Demon says, the level is short enough that it's not a huge issue. More problematic is that the small-corridor design basically just turns the map into a shotgun shooting gallery, with the exception of the red key fight. The level is less appetizer and more morsel.

Whereas last map used a wide variety of textures but still stayed with a general brown/green theme, this one is texturally consistent (techbase) but color-wise is all over the place. As others have said, the variation in the colors for the light panels and such is a bit distracting, would've been better to pick one color and stick with it throughout, or maybe try and use them for the different areas (i.e., red for the red key, blue for the blue key room, etc). Either way, it's another competent but unspectacular level, especially given how short it is... well-placed in the MAP02 slot I suppose.

[kuchitsu]

03 - FDA. Well, this is different. Reminds me of Whispers of Satan with these Hexen rocks. The music is nice but a bit repetitive and surprisingly energetic for a water temple level. Map10 of Whispers of Satan had a more fitting song maybe...

With no SSG and quite a few tough monsters, this map takes a while to finish. But at least you're offered some rockets and plenty of infighting possibilities, so I guess you can play it fast after you learn the thing placement. The soulsphere and blue armor secrets should help with that.

Possible improvement: make the red key trap faster by adding another teleport destination. For my maps I almost always put at least two teleport destinations to speed up the process.

[rehelekretep]

map02 FDA here!

well this is very nice! i liked the colours, and the music. i was a little bit disappointed to have to deal with HK/manucbi/cacodemons etc. without my trusty SSG, but i guess that's my fault for not finding the rocket launcher. had a few dicey moments in the outside area, and also when the mancubus hit me with a completely unexpected rocket to the face. i also think a lost soul got lost inside a wall in the outdoors bit!

im thoroughly enjoying blasting demons in the face this month: i found Eternal Doom a bit of a slog :(

[Pirx]

MAP03 - “The Sign of Armageddon” by Masayan & SkullDemon

a base, mostly rusty metal, in a rocky area near a lake, nice picture with those hexen rocks. the beginning was surprisingly smooth, the caco coming out of the cave with the yellow switch signals that there's more (a helpful box of shells) and a chaingun near the water. things got surprisingly violent at the yellow key pickup, as getting revs, knights and cacos to infight seemed easy enough, but some sergeants shooting at me from behind those walls spoiled the fun. it's advisable to keep the few rockets for the archviles. the last vile was no threat at all, because he stayed in the room near the exit without any corpses to resurrect, while i could shoot him through the windows. it would help if he teleports to the outer area instead.

[baja blast rd.]

map03

Since we're on the subject of soulspheres in push closets, yeah, this map has one, but the balance is so lenient to begin with, and the map so clearly designed to be played recklessly, that I'd call it a plus. See, I'm hardly a dogmatist! Every rule has numerous exceptions. Funnily enough, the secret containing the soulsphere is located in a secret that contains next to nothing (in JPCP-typical fashion). You have to hump twice to get the booty. Uh, phrasing.

I enjoyed this one. The berserk secret isn't too hard to find, and the monster composition is especially well tailored to a Tyson-centered approach, with only some chaingunners and mancs that are wiser taken out with ranged weaponry. A lot of entertaining bloodshed on offering: the yellow key trap, easily escaped from like all of the map's snares, quickly becomes one of those battle royales of chaotic infighting. This time, the hell knight survived almost unscathed, and was put to work on one of the cacos floating above the water. The only weak setup is around the blue key: it's a predictable trap, but also harmless and not very exciting. Escape is easy, and then the spider stirs up infighting, and then you clean up whatever survives. Even something as simple as a trio of chaingunners would play more smoothly.

[Dylan Jarvis]

MAP03

Alright this one is a step up in difficulty for sure. It almost has a Plutonia vibe. I really enjoyed it. For its small size it took me 17 minutes to complete it. There's a lot of re-exploring to been done in this map. I also punched out 2 AVs, that was cool. Good map cool music, liking this WAD so far.