The DWmegawad Club plays: THT: Threnody & No Rest for the Living

[Tristan]

Guys, there's no R in Fomalhaut :)

I'll write about the map properly later because it's probably going to take up the best part of the evening, but it never struck me as being even close to slaughtery, though perhaps that's because there's several hundred monsters between UV and lower difficulties :P

[baja blast rd.]

I just copied ileymatin's heade. :D

Even on UV, it's mostly not a slaughtermap. It has slaughtery elements, but only a couple of the larger encounters are dense enough that the monsters threaten your space (and with a bit of strategy, that element quickly falls away). The very last string of encounters is a "make your own slaughtermap" sort of deal, where you can set everything loose and get some formidable cacoswarms -- but played casually, the monster density isn't high at all, and you can freely retreat at any time, I mean zero resistance whatsoever, so [100 monsters / a whole map of this size] is actually quite sparse. The encounters with the revs (pre plasma rifle, and pre red skull door) are something one might see as intersitial encounters in a modern slaughter map, and ironically it's the BFG encounter with nothing more than two chaingunners and two PEs that is most a pure and unavoidable slaughter fight, although a very minimalist one.

As much as I hate the term, "slaughter lite" is an apt categorization. Like many maps these days, it's just a regular map that has many monsters, unless we want to start calling half of the maps in Valiant and Ancient Aliens slaughtermaps too.

[Tristan]

MAP10: Fomalhaut - Mechadon
Time: 38:00 (02:29:31) | Deaths: Dunno, last fight sucks.

The king of big and beautiful maps himself steps forward to deliver, if I'm not mistaken, the biggest map in Threnody. I don't know maps 15-19 well at all so I could be wrong by labelling it like that, but it certainly dwarfs all the other maps in its monster count, which starts out at 753 on HMP. As if by coincedence, one of my few prior DWMC appearances was 50 Shades of Graytall, a megawad similar in length to Threnody, and it just happened that I crashed out of the playthrough at the tenth map, which was also by Mechadon, and the largest map in that WAD. I didn't even dislike the map, it was just too much for me to play at that specific time, sadly. This time I'm going to actually finish a WAD in DWMC, and that means going through this gargantuan.

First thing that stands out about the map is the music selection. Gutter Penny is one of my favourite Fonzomidis, but funnily enough when I actually played Realm of Parthoris (where it originates from), I completely failed to notice it, so it was only when I first played Mech's map that it really caught my attention, and wow, great song. Definitely one of the best in Threnody's soundtrack, if not top of the bunch.

Looking for things to talk about in this map, I noticed the rocky section that the map begins in, and others like it encountered throughout the map, they're all made out of a single rock texture. First off I thought it would have nice to have more rock textures to enhance variety a bit, then when I got inside the base, it finally struck me this map is 100% stock textures. Holy FUCK.
Truly a stunning piece of visual design that just went up in my estimation now I've discovered that there's no custom texture stuff going on here. I just replayed BTSX-E1 in full and I'm sure I see some similarities in the design, so I guess this is a bit of an insight into what BTSX would look like without the custom textures and stuff. And none of those damned vanilla limits.

In addition to the techbase built into a rocky mountain range, which I assume is what this is going for, the later stages of the map plays with less technology driven styles. Traces of a past civilisation inhabiting this world are present with the marble structures, some of which have collapsed either due to the sands of time, or some really pissed off demons. This all seems to have been cleverly thought out beforehand as this map breaks a common convention seen in large Boom maps, rather than needing three keys or six to complete the map, you need four. Three of those are keycards found and used in the base, the other is a skull key found in this temple section, so they all fit nicely in place...provided you look past the fact that the skull key is used on a modern-looking door inside the base. Almost nailed it, but I can't help but think that the exit should have been in a different place, heh.

Having now played it, I do agree on the whole with dwpa that the map isn't very slaughtery. When I think of slaughtermaps, I think of like millions of monsters (slight exaggeration) bearing down on you at once in such a way that the difficulty is propelled to intolerably extreme levels of bullshit (not an exaggeration, imo). This map includes some pretty large fights, but all of them except the last one stays far away from those bullshit levels of difficulty. I only died on the last fight, but once I die once in these kinds of fights, there's basically no hope of me getting past it with my sanity intact, forcing myself to play BTSX-E1 on UV over the weekend just gone taught me that. Eventually I lost my patience with it and just tried running straight to the exit, during which I was promptly knocked straight off the exit bridge, and spent a few more attempts dying while trying to just skip the last fight. This was too irritating for me to bother counting past 5, so I dunno, 10 or 12 deaths, maybe? Next time I play this map I'm just not going to even bother trying with that fight; it's the one that without question, comes closest to a slaughtermap style encounter, close enough for me to outright say I don't like it. It does at least partly redeem itself by the fact that you can skip it, and a BFG definitely helps with that.

Overall, Mechadon delivers no less than his usual with this truly epic piece of work. Stunning visuals that is the absolute highlight of Threnody's nighttime maps, great music to accompany it, and generally great gameplay, though slightly tarnished by that..thing at the end.

9/10

As a side note, I got my arse absolutely torn to shreds in that BTSX-E1 UV playthrough, in pretty much every map past 10. Very frustrating at times because that was way beyond my normal skill level, but they're hardly slaughtermaps. Most of those arse-shredding encounters only involved like five monsters at once, just arranged in a really savage way.

[dobu gabu maru]

rdwpa said:

I just copied ileymatin's heade. :D

... which was copied from my maplist, which I had spelled erroneously--sorry about that! When I type out the maplist I usually sound out the map name phonetically, which is where all the errors come from (like "Hanger" instead of "Hangar")

rehelekretep said:

it was definitely an interesting map - although i had forgotten about that maze - bad dobu gabu maru! >:|

Hey man, at least it's optional!

[Suitepee]

https://www.twitch.tv/johnsuitepee/v/94171178 = No Rest For The Living playthrough, covering all the maps. (UV, continuous)

4 out of 5 in conclusion, an enjoyable mapset with a huge emphasis on finding secrets.

I won't spoil too much since the rest of the Club is still playing through THT, but all I will say is REALLY be prepared to hunt for secrets a lot throughout NRFTL (the first map will make a huge point of this!), as there's some fun encounters (and rewards) to be had.
Also pistol starts seem to be encouraged on most levels, and it might make the final map a bit more trickier to boot. A few sloppy Baron placements but otherwise was fun to play throughout, with some creative ideas thrown in here and there and good visual variety & detailing.

I look forward to November's choice, although for the moment I don't know what to vote for myself on it.

[Demtor]

MAP09 - “Forgotten Reaches” by Doomkid
UV - gzDoom - Pistol Start

This was my favorite of the 3 maps Doomkid presented here. Tough start like the others, but once I got rolling things fell in to place. Great Metroid music to fit the dark and spooky atmosphere. Good choice.

After finishing Sunlust recently, I've really become experience at dancing toe to toe with Cyberdemons. The two in this map were pretty fair and doable.

The exit ambush was a welcome test of skills. Especially after fighting your way back to the start with newly released Revs and a lone AV. Fun stuff.

Only complaint was that I had a real hard time seeing enemies at times. I don't mind it every now and then but it felt a little excessively dark at times.

MAP10 - “Fomalhaut” by Mechadon
UV - gzDoom - Pistol Start

Oh my, I LOVED this map. My favorite so far. I didn't even noticed the high enemy count until my first little slaughter-light experience with the YK switch Caco invasion and subsequent floor drop into the awaiting horde below. Fun stuff with juuuust enough room to handle things. Never found the secret BFG so the whole map it was just me and my rockets pretty much. I must have killed myself at least 5 times, ugh. Still though it was fun to try the encounters over again and again getting better each time.

Things got a little smoother once I got the plasma rifle, but barely. The big difference was when I got the SSG about halfway through and felt a little more confident being able to hand pinkies quickly while trying to run from tight spot to tight spot.

The whole layout was very cool. Climbing up rocks and waterfalls to reach the back door of this beautifully designed base. Exploring halls and passageways before then heading back outside again to find ruins and cool other smaller complexes. Plus, great music.

rileymartin said:

Map 10: Formalhaut

My prediction yesterday was indeed spot-on as this bic boi took a good 1 hour and 13 minutes to clear. Not unusual for a Mechadon map though as I learned from BTSX E2's map25 opus.

Glad I wasn't the only one. Whew. This is my first Mechadon map and I am very impressed. Looking forward to more. I just reached Map 11 with BTSX and can't wait for 15 and apparently E2's map25.

[rehelekretep]

map09 - fda here

really enjoyed this offering of Doomkids. easy enough for me to find my way - i liked the early teaser of the YK-door - it stuck in my head so that when i finally picked the YK up i knew exactly where to go; good trick!

the surprise librarian-cyber was a fantastic touch, after playing AV you can almost sense when a cyber was going to pop up so it was nice to have a (fair) surprise!

only things i would say i didnt like were 1) it was a bit too dark, 2) the mancubi lift 3) really hard to see what the hell was going on in the prison room. something about the darkness and the textures, i could barely see the imps :x

map10 - fda here

beast of a map! i didnt actually spot the author of this map until the stats screen at the end (i just increment my batch file every time i finish a map and play the next) so was interesting that as i was playing i was reminded of the only other Mechadon map ive played: 50 Shades MAP10 - "Big Dwayne’s Orbital Concrete and Propane Emporium” (great map name btw).

highlight for me was the RK teleporter horde, got me a few times. the end fight is a little anti-climactic, as you can hop off and spam rockets at the idiots gathered on the cliff side, and you only have to watch out for rogue cacos

the semi-mandatory BFG is a divisive choice. the map is already lengthy so i cant imagine trying to get through it without; at least there are a lot of rockets.

[rehelekretep]

Demtor said:

Glad I wasn't the only one. Whew. This is my first Mechadon map and I am very impressed. Looking forward to more. I just reached Map 11 with BTSX and can't wait for 15 and apparently E2's map25.

would recommend map10 from 50 Shades :)

[Pirx]

MAP06 - “Cut Throat” by Doomkid

another oldschool base map by doomkid, similar to map05, but i have to agree with cannonball: it didn't flow so well as the previous one. for example, the ssg should have come earlier. it was in a secret (which i noticed because the dumbass chaingunner walked out of it, the pump noise masked the door opening sound) and as i picked up the blur sphere with it, i didn't even notice i had the ssg until i fired it. then some barons and knights in a corridor were rocket fodder. in the room with the 2 cages there's a large group of them again, teleporting in. from here, i was left wondering how to open the door to the final area, whose switch is easily overlooked. that last area is apparently a hellish dimension inside the base, and from here we exit.


MAP07 - “Fort Halderman” by Gothic

@ rdwpa and demon of the well, thanks for the walkthrough and the comment regarding the red key, because i missed it precisely because i killed the monsters preceding it and then ran away, thinking there's nothing more to get. the map is large and very empty, indeed, filled mostly with enemies that can be brushed aside. it's ok from a technical point of view, a mix of rocks with techbases built into them, and the warehouse is the best part, but overall the map is large enough to make one spend a lot of time trying to find that key, which happened to me, hence i felt rather frustrated in the end. the spider was also a case of hide and seek and shooting it from behind the pillars.



the storage area, and one imp fell on the fork


MAP08 - “Fightnancial Crisis at Enwrong” by dobu gabu maru

pure insanity. a mix of whatever texture dobu could click on, it's hazmat hazama from jpcp turned into a jokewad. cramped in places and assembled from the wanton 1994 cruelties. the gameplay isn't spectacular, it's mostly managing tight spaces and finding a way through that chaos. a task that tired me a bit tbh, but still, the map will be remembered for its originality.

[Demtor]

rehelekretep said:

would recommend map10 from 50 Shades :)

Never heard of that one, thanks for the suggestion!



...aaaand my eyes are now bleeding. Wow, that was crazy good. I get that the concept of that Wad was supposed to be out there, but those textures... @_@ my god.

I think now I've got a play list to start checking off one by one in between wad of the month maps of the day.

[Capellan]

Map05
This is a map with pretty constant pressure everywhere you go, particularly at the start. If I hadn't begun the map with over 100 in both health and armour, I would have struggled a fair bit I think. That stock certainly took a pounding over the course of the map, though I only died the once, to a long range chaingunner.

I like that the map pressures you from multiple angles almost all the time, and the way that you often first see an area from one direction before entering it at another level you could not previously reach. The interconnectivity as the map unfolds is good too. Always nice to open a door in a late room of the map and see earlier sections so you can quickly hoover up any ammo or health you skipped before.

Good stuff.

[baja blast rd.]

Demtor said:

Never heard of that one, thanks for the suggestion!

http://i.imgur.com/knReHNP.png

...aaaand my eyes are now bleeding. Wow, that was crazy good. I get that the concept of that Wad was supposed to be out there, but those textures... @_@ my god.

I think now I've got a play list to start checking off one by one in between wad of the month maps of the day.

Unfortunately most of those are deathmatch maps. But the good news is that the six-map Vela Pax will be easily as big as a 32-map megawad full of substantially sized maps, and half of it is done already. :)

[Marcaek]

I'll recommend his map in 32in24-14 as well since everyone seems to forget that WAD exists.

[rehelekretep]

rdwpa said:

Unfortunately most of those are deathmatch maps. But the good news is that the six-map Vela Pax will be easily as big as a 32-map megawad full of substantially sized maps, and half of it is done already. :)

gets excited

sees OP post date

2010

Six (6!) years in the making and its not finished! :'(

[baja blast rd.]

I think a lot of people incorrect end up using larger intervals of time as a proxy for effort invested. E.g. anything made in a week seems to be regarded as a speedmap, despite the fact that one person might spend no more than ten hours on a map in a week, and another might spend forty without compromising design quality! But with maps this large I guess it's really the case that one must not work so hard continuously, to avoid burnout and running out of steam. So I get the sense that people are going to jizz over the build time (9+ years!!!!!!), but I guess for once it is acceptable. :)

[baja blast rd.]

Map 11: Parallel Dimension

This is a well designed map. It felt cozy and warm, like I'd actually want to live there if it weren't so full of spiders and stuff. Like any mapper influenced by the Eric Alm lineage, Antares's maps tend to have lots of recurring pattern detail, but what makes it work is that just about every design idea clearly has some thought put into it, and there are plenty of noteworthy one-off features that keep the map from being a cold and featureless collection of detailed rooms. This is in contrast to the lifeless detail spam approach that I feel afflicts many modern maps. In other words, let's make sector furniture a thing again! *starts drawing a boat in GZDB*

Progression involves a few trips back and forth between the dimensions, and the shared features quickly start to stand out. The cool thing is how dynamic changes in one realm affect the other, for example with the goody closets that open and the step ladder. It's rarely the static similarities that are most interesting in these maps. In fact it's often better when the shared form is masked heavily, not just by the difference in texturing but by the implementation of narrative ideas, which we'll see even more of in map 12. So, to spice it up, there are many rooms that exist only in one realm or the other, or that have been twisted significantly by the effects of spooky magic or something.

Combat is the one front where the map is something of a letdown. Spicy start and ending, a few nice traps scattered around, but once you've caught your bearings at the beginning, you are unlikely to be bothered too often afterwards, and there are a lot of meaty monsters that don't really do much but slow down the pace of play, most notably the group of spiders and the arachnotron in the alternate realm library. I don't get that at all. The beginning works best when you don't find the rocket launcher secret. It has an engaging ammo starvation element. At one point in my first playthrough I had zero ammo and had to run past one of the chaingunners (on low health!) with only faint hopes of resupplying, and I stumbled across the super shotgun guarded by the pain elemental and revenants, and then pinkies showed up behind me! Would have preferred to see many of the beefier monsters sent in to repopulate areas during the journey. (Not the viles, though!) As usual I'm not a fan of the thing decorations in the final set piece, but I enjoyed the encounter; simple set pieces that take place in topologically simple areas aren't really so interesting to me these days -- they all bleed together in a way, as if they are a member of a limited set of encounter types, dressed up with different monsters -- but I felt the design and multi-stage nature of this one made this one quite cool.

Here is a video. I didn't find the map any more confusing than 07, which has a much faster paced demo. The difference is that I rerecorded 07 when I spent too much time lost, but I'd rather not replay this map more than once, due to the high concentration of frontal combat. Case in point: I ended up throwing out an attempt on 09 when I spent too long remembering where a secret was, and another when I decided that I'd rather try to find a more exciting way to handle the prison area, and now there is no video at all (for now!).

[Tristan]

MAP11: Parallel Dimension - antares031
Time: 20:15 (02:49:17) | Deaths: 1

Enjoyed this one immensely. You can infer from the title that this map is a tribute to Wormhole from TNT, but rather than go for a straight up remake of the map, which we'll come to tomorrow, this just takes the basic concept and runs with it, something that I personally don't think we see enough of, it's a very cool concept indeed. Outside of Threnody, the only map in my memory that plays with the wormhole theme is Transduction from TNT: Revilution, which is sort of halfway between an only conceptual take on Wormhole and a straight homage. Transduction still remains top of my list thanks to dobu's genius edits to the map, but it's lovely to see more tributes to Wormhole, conceptually speaking.

If the original Wormhole really missed anything it was having to repeatedly travel back and forth between dimensions; you paid a short visit to an alternate reality, be impressed by the idea of a darker and differently textured dimension, then you go back and the map's over. Antares, however, capitalises on the idea very well, and has this map require the player to travel between the two worlds several times over the course of the level. I confess I got a bit carried away with this and when I took the yellow key I immediately rushed back to that same area in the other world only to realise the yellow door is actually right next to where you ACTUALLY get the key in the first place, oops!
The two worlds contrast very well in their appearance. The first world that the map starts in has a very modern look to it, consisting primarily of techbase elements, including lifts, computer panels and all that jazz, although there's some more rustic elements incorporated too, such as brick corridors. It's also using the same nighttime sky used in every map since Fort Halderman, though this episode of Threnody is shortly coming to a close. The second world looks much more archaic, looking more like a stone castle, decorated with statues and the faces of gargoyles and marble blocks/tiles inset into some of the walls. This world serves as a teaser for the final episode of Threnody, as it marks the first appearance of that beautiful orange sunset sky. We don't get to see the sky in all its glory here, but the time will certainly come for that, not least in the other map from antares, which closes the WAD.

As well as back and forth warping between the two dimensions, the map's other core idea for progession is that what you do in one world will directly impact the other. This is first made apparent by the little supply alcove that sits next to the tunnels you go down to actually get to the wormhole; it's opened in the second dimension, but doing so will also open the first. The same idea is deployed in obtaining the red key, where you press a switch which appears to only lower this statue on a tall plinth, though of course, the same room in the other dimension also contained such a plinth, which had a red key sat on top of it and sure enough, that lowers to the ground too. It's not a message that's clearly conveyed to the player and I'm not even sure it can be, so there's a chance of getting a bit lost here on a first playthrough, but the more attentive player shouldn't have much trouble in figuring this out.
Beyond that, it seems to also be the basis for at least one secret area. There's five in total and I only got two, but one of these was by opening a cupboard in the castle-world, and the same cupboard in the base-world was holding a soulsphere, which was much needed for the later stages of the map.

The gameplay is very fast paced, and the great music here definitely contributes to that. Not so challenging compared to the larger fights of MAP10, but the difficulty of the WAD is slowly but surely going up now. The increase in pace and difficulty is down to this map's fairly high monster density, and higher proprotion of mid-tier monsters, but health and ammo is given out in quantities enough to get through it without any major hassle. Had a bit of a slip-up when I went for the blue key, as I wasn't really prepared for what that room had in store, but cleared it out effortlessly with the BFG on the next attempt (continuous players, YMMV.)
The final fight is probably the most difficult as you are completely surrounded here and have to be thinking about all directions as the platform lowers, but the one saving grace there is that the downward motion of the platform seems to cause a lot of revenant missiles to fly too high to actually hit the player, so the dodging needed isn't nearly as extreme as you might initially expect from such a setup. Skipped the last four cacos.

All in all, a really great map. Definitely top 5 from this WAD.

9/10

[The_SloVinator]

Map 11 - Parallel Dimension

Switching back & forth between dimensions was a really neat idea in my opinion. Though those who dislike backtracking, won't enjoy it.

Music though. It's ok but it doesn't fit the level at all.

Decent level, overall.

[rehelekretep]

map11 - fda here

pretty cool little map, with some backtracking but its kept interesting with the slight differences between each version of the same area.

played atrociously throughout most of this fda so after i spotted a chance to escape after the keep walls disappeared (neat trick!) i was outta there!

[Pirx]

MAP09 - “Forgotten Reaches” by Doomkid

the start is surprisingly suspenseful, you run into a chaingunner and immediately use his weapon against some imps. a long spiral staircase leads to a sort of underground station, it has a decayed deimos look, and down there is a library where most of the action takes place. including a cyber who takes a break between the bookshelves... easily the best moment, as i didn't expect one here, so soon, and didn't have much ammo to put up with him, i had to collect the ammo first in the room with the cages. however, with most encounters being frontal, it took just some door kung-fu to shoot the cyb. later you get a bfg that turns the encounter with the second cyb into a 2-shot exercise. the bfg comes handy against some archviles, including one with some companions at the exit, i charged him and all was over in 2 shots. some simple action indeed, but i still liked the forgotten place under earth.

now to map10, it's awesome and i'm busy with it for over 1 hour already...

[Spectre01]

Map 11: Parallel Dimension

Very unambiguous name that gave me a clear idea on how the map would play out after seeing it. Seems like this one and the next are the tribute maps for Wormhole from TNT. Here you've got your relatively normal techbase and a medieval version with a similar layout that uses tons of custom assets. (Is most of that stuff from Heretic? I remember seeing a bunch of those textures in Demonic Hordes.) The decorative sprites, like the statues and chandelier are especially neat.

Anyway, the gameplay consists of warping between dimensions in order to obtain keys and open up progression paths in both. Quite a contrast to Wormhole where I believe you could exit the map without visiting the other half of it. I thought the gameplay was pretty spot-on and disagree with the notion that every monster's placement needs to be highly thought-out and calculated, especially in a more casual wad such as this. I say, if you want to spam a bunch of spiders, go for it! Perhaps the Pain Elemental use was a bit on the heavy side but I was drowning in Plasma ammo in the 2nd half so it's no biggie. The final setpiece in the void was quite the surprise but all the decorations blocking projectiles in GZDoom made it more annoying than it should've been.

The detailing wad fantastic though, especially the main hub of the Gothic realm. (Disregard the X/Y clipping sprite pillars.)

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP10: Fomalhaut
1:40:50 | 99% Kills | 99% Items | 88% Secrets

Ho-lee crap. This was epic. A frigging masterpiece. I kinda knew what to expect from a Mechadon map, having played MAP15 "Tricyclic Looper" of BTSXE1 (one of the standout maps of that WAD) and also tooled around in Vela Pax's MAP01 for a bit. But this was just insane. The first third or so was just amazing how it really walked you through: you hit a switch, the wall in front of you lowers, then you watch the wall across the room lower immediately afterward; very cool scripted reveals. Later on as the level opens up, it becomes much more exploratory; the search for the red skull key in particular consisted of a lot of time wandering through the caverns. Combat had a gradual but steady increase in difficulty, and I was amazed how easily the unleashed hordes could just wander into and around inside the base. There were a few times I retreated to what I thought was safety only to find that, no, they'd infiltrated. Secrets were a blast; no wall-humping or guesswork to be had, just simple exploration. A lot of "I wonder if I could hop over there?" jumps that turned out to reveal goodies. The early BFG secret in particular was just fantastically constructed. And speaking of secrets, the "Thank You Ty" memorial was beautifully done. In two hours' time I still managed to miss the soulsphere secret near the exit ramp switch, as well as two baddies that I have to assume are still wandering around out there somewhere. And on top of everything, the MIDI made a great soundtrack for an epic, sprawling nonlinear adventure. Amazing level.

[Spectre01]

Map 12: Wormhell

Well... this is quite the map for sure. Thinking 10 was a big one, this one ended up taking an hour and a half to finish and I was still missing around 40 monsters and more than half the secrets. Whereas the progression in the previous map was rather straightforward, I honestly can't explain how this map works exactly and how I managed to get to the exit. I think I only grabbed the yellow key from one of the trucks. The number of large, distinct I was teleported to was quite overwhelming and I always felt as though I didn't fully explore the previous dimension. The visuals and attention to detail is phenomenal despite a lot of the sections looking like different maps entirely. Big fan of the cemetery before the end, probably my favourite area.

The gameplay is more challenging than the previous maps and full of cheeky traps and silent monster teleports. Some of the Archvile use is rather annoying like the ones jumping between the Revenant balconies. The hardest section is probably getting trapped in the "Disaster Area" car garage with a Cyberdemon. I wasn't supercharged at that point and didn't have any plasma weapons so I ended up trying a few times to flawlessly dodge the rockets and splash damage while using the SSG. The BFG reward was well worth it though for all the upcoming Viles. Surprisingly, the final encounter with the dual Cybers is easily avoided by running past them to the exit switch and the inclusion of the IoS is a real headscratcher. One of the most technically and visually impressive maps I've played.

[Tristan]

MAP12: Wormhell - Z0k, Fonze
DNF, 6 deaths, 115/273 monsters killed.

idclev13 out of 10


--
EDIT to at least explain why: I wanted to like this map, really. It's obvious a lot of work went into the visuals, and the music is great, but fucking hell the gameplay just undoes that. I go into this fuck off tiny room, pick up a shotgun off the desk and HEY HERE'S A HELL KNIGHT RIGHT IN YOUR FACE, GG RIP.
The crate warehouse started off ok, but then I warped to the other dimension, and oh my god it's full of barons, which is a terrible design choice in itself, and also revenants, who weed their way around so they completely surround you, and the detailing in this map just gets in the way so you can be sure that most projectiles will hit you. GG RIP PART 2.
Oh and heaven forbid you should try and use the RL as it's the best weapon for such fights normally, have some more detail that you can blow yourself up on. gg rip the third, bye.

Simply put, I don't have enough patience to die again and again and again thanks to some crappy map design which stacks the odds completely against you. Difficult gameplay is fine, but bullshit can fuck right off.

3/10

[Demtor]

MAP11 - “Parallel Dimension” by antares031
UV - Pistol Start - gzDoom

Interesting and enjoyable. Loved the look of the second half with use of Heretic textures and colorful banners on wood. Pretty cool visual with the spiral staircase and the statue platform you lowered. I'm glad it was smaller map so running back and forth wasn't such a chore. The last falling trap section was pretty cool. Didn't see that coming.

MAP12 - “WormHell” by Z0k, Fonze
UV - Pistol Start - gzDoom

Ugh, the worst. Maybe it's the mood I'm in this morning but I hated this map. It felt like it wanted to be an annoying Duke3d level. Not my style at all. Same concept as Map 11 but loooooonger. Not Mechadon good-long either. Just bad with multiple dimensions. All equally boring. Cyberdemon death trap in a workshop garage of all places was a real eye-roller. Oh look, switches that make you go squish, how cute. So many rockets. My god, rockets everywhere! Why? You almost never run out. I wasted so much time going around picking up single rockets littered everywhere. Blah. Any time you had a difficult encounter or made a mistake that cost you life just retreat back and pick up any number of the 100 or so med kits lying around. Terrible. All that and the gloomy music made me want to kill myself.

The overuse of Archvilles was tiresome too. Not even good usage either. Who's that hanging out in the corner? Why it's an AV! Sitting on a throne, doing nothing? Another AV. Cleared out the same invisible teleportation area around the RK a few times? Spawn another AV in the exact same area. Hey, is it too dark in this graveyard? Cool beans, have another AV right behind you. AV in corner, the sequel. Need an AV to host your demonic sermon in the mausoleum? AV got you covered. Had enough of that? Have another. Fuck you.

[The_SloVinator]

Map 12 - Wormhell

Wormhole wasn't my favorite map in TNT & its music was mediocre. I liked the dimension switch, like I've stated in my previous post.

This one is improved & more entertaining than the original map. Architecture is better, sweet ambushes, awesome teleporting tricks & conveyor belts.

It's action packed the way I like. It's challenging if you aren't careful & balanced well.

Second map that became my favorite.

Oh & music is a remix of the original but done better.

[baja blast rd.]

Map 12: Wormhell

This map has a lot of cool shit in it: the conveyer rooms, which use portals convincingly and have a lot of sliding mancubuses (!); the way actions in one region directly affect others, for example the TNT trucks, which are open in the alternate realm (with bigger baddies, too!) only if you open them in the first area; the healthy dollops of sector detail (lol @ the bucket in the hell region).

Combat as a whole is a mix between quite forgiving -- free space to backtrack, lots of health packs -- and quite dickish -- tense cyberdemon confinement! and UBIQUITOUS INVISIBLE TELEPORTERS!! and that ICON OF SIN!!! and that DEATH PIT!!!!!!!. Luckily it seems like the archviles all appear eventually, so you don't have to kill them on those ledges. Whoever owned this place before it got corrupted by the forces of evil apparently [I]loved[/] their rockets, which means that you should go against your programming and use them to kill straggling former human troopers and pinkies and stuff, lest you run out of shell ammo later on when only lost souls are around, which happened to me in a pre-club playthrough. Also I distinctly remember a beta version containing a shitload of archviles in the Disaster Region. I ended up AV jumping out of the cyber pit, after grabbing the soulsphere and blue armor, making it a net win, despite not grabbing the BFG. Or maybe the map's mindfuckery caused me to hallucinate this memory. RL-centricism applies to the cyber fight too; a rare fight where it's tactically best to RL spam the cyber in tight quarters!

Main criticism of the map are two areas: jam-packed crate rooms in both realms, which have too many mid-tiers, and the tomb area in the hell region, which is very awkward to enter and exit, given the mass of monsters that appear to block your path.

It is also quite long, and I decided that maxing it would be too exhausting (over an hour long even with foreknowledge, and with monsters that appear in the map via mechanisms that won't be obvious without an investigation in GZDB) so I recorded an impromptu run simply trying to exit quickly (by the standards of this map) by skipping what I felt like skipping. It was my first unpracticed attempt, so I was very tense and nervous (and there were some #clutch survival moments!)! Also I didn't realize until now that the cyber fight at the end takes place in the first yard you visit, mostly because I had previously only GTFO'd.

[cannonball]

MAP10 - “Formalhaut” by Mechadon
For such a large map the navigation here was pretty well done, the visuals are fantastic but in the end the gameplay perhaps wasn't as engaging as I hope it would be, especially towards the end but I guess I got a little frustrated at how long the map was taking so I couldn't enjoy the long ride as much as I should have done.
It is a fantastic map but perhaps I am not one for long epic journeys compared to others in this thread. I encountered no arch viles in this map which was a surprise, it certainly helped to keep a more relaxed pace in between the bigger encounters.
In the end I left the map with 200 monsters still alive.

[rehelekretep]

Soldier993 said:

Map 12 - Wormhell

Wormhole wasn't my favorite map in TNT & its music was mediocre.

Oh & music is a remix of the original but done better.

[⏒ ͟ʖ⏒]

[Pirx]

MAP10 - “Fomalhaut” by Mechadon

oh, the epic map. sure, it's the biggest map in threnody. but while almost anyone can build big maps, this one unfolds as you play through it. it starts very low key, a base built into a mountain, with a shotgun for some rabble. but then the scale changes, the fights get more intense, and what makes the map stand out for me is how organic it grows, like a single, great, complex place, that took me over one hour to play through, and i didn't even find everything in it. all while listening to a beautiful midi.

and it was for the first time that a map was really trying to kill me, by flooding the place with pinkies to deny space, cacos to chase, and revenants and chaingunners for the kill (but no archvile!). i don't see those fights that come later as "slaughterish", ok they force you to pump rockets into a sudden mob swiftly, so you don't get overrun, but the pace remains civilized and rather exploratory. plus, the bfg can be found pretty early, so by the end i had collected 600 cells for it and there were more. nice trait: monsters can follow you through the map pretty well and don't get stuck on dumb blocking lines. just the red key fight can be cheesed so hilariously that i assume this was intentional, i mean standing on the key balcony until the revs had beaten everyone else silly and then went all on the mastermind's ass.

btw, even the night sky is highly accurate, for doom, judging by the images of fomalhaut's dust ring in the article eris linked above:






dust ring in the sky!




lol cheese 4 u


MAP11 - “Parallel Dimension” by antares031

a tribute to wormhole from tnt. i had no idea what this is about until i stumbled upon the eternal doom switch... and found a copy (it's just similar, not identic) of the techbases i started in, but set in a medieval world, making good use of eternal resources. yes, the modern day part had some ammo starvation although i found the rocket launcher, i used the berserk fist on whatever i could, maybe just for fun. i had enough rockets by the time the viles appeared. but i was pretty stacked with cell ammo when i reached the parallel world. that arachnotron room was indeed an exercise in door camping. so, there are two keys, and the corresponding doors are in the parallel dimension? cool take on the wormhole theme.




missed that switch, see why...