The DWmegawad Club plays: Speed of Doom

[Grain of Salt]

No one else wants to darken? Aw :/

[Spectre01]

The best way is to be patient and keep voting until it gains some traction. Took like half a year to get Bloodstain played.

[gaspe]

MAP25: What an awful start. Even this map reminds a bit of Alien Vendetta with the mixture of different hell settings: red rocks, green marble + brown caves, and the wooden exit. Seeing the mastermind in its little cave from above was funny. Once you reach the bfg tower prepare for some arch-viles extravaganza until the end. The music was nice though.

[rehelekretep]

6 minutes ago, Spectre01 said:

The best way is to be patient and keep voting until it gains some traction. Took like half a year to get Bloodstain played.

and we all remember how that went D:

[Spectre01]

58 minutes ago, rehelekretep said:

and we all remember how that went D:

Yeah, it was awesome! Probably my favourite club playthrough along with Hellbound. Evident by me making a UV-Max demo for all but 3 maps after playing them normally in GZDoom.

 

Gonna post this slightly early while it's fresh. Pls no ban.

MAP26 - “Blessed Hellscape” by Darkwave0000

 

Fantastic map and in my opinion the best in the wad. Visually similar to Darkwave's previous map22, large red hellscape with some wooden structures and stone buildings floating in the crimson void, this is something of a sandbox-style slaughtermap akin to Sunlust map18. You're given the freedom to run around most of the map, unleashing hordes of Revenants enemies and opening parts of the map when grabbing key items. This really benefits blazing/speedrunning through parts of it and unleashing a bunch of crap. Although your infighting mileage may vary as, again, it's mostly Revenants. Grabbing the "any key" lets you lower the BFG pillar and warp into a cool grey marble void filled with boss monsters which are quite fun to pit against each other. Following the trail of helmets also leads to an invul secret that ports you back to the main area and lets you either clean up the giant horde you skipped or rush another key location. The map is not as difficult as it may seem, although it's still one of the hardest Darkwave maps in the set. Most encounters give you enough space to run circles for days and those familiar with slaughtermaps have nothing to fear aside from getting stuck on an Imp and eating a Cyber rocket or something silly like that. After familiarizing myself with the start a few times, my one death was to a Cyberdemon in the cool underground trap by the red(?) key. Everything else was dead and I cocked-up a two-shot. The final setpiece fight after collecting 3 keys pits you against a mixed horde warping in all over the place and a large number of Cyberdemons. Had a few close calls there but there is plenty of health to recover and cells to spam and make some space. There's also 22 Viles before the exit which won't bother you unless you try to run down there. Otherwise you can just snipe them from safety with rockets after the encounter. My one real criticism is the "too much red rock syndrome" this map suffers from, which both tiles poorly, and also what the hell is going on with that wood texture?

Edited April 25, 2017 by Spectre01

[NuMetalManiak]

10 hours ago, dobu gabu maru said:

... would it be wrong to vote for Urania just so I can take next month off? Because I'll do it :P

talk about taking the easy way out. You obviously did what I did last time. That being said, it shows the megawad club's awful voting tastes clearly. Also people who ended up hating Bloodstain and voting Urania are clearly insane people and should never be listened to.

 

Actually serious vote: +++ 2048 Unleashed (both episodes of this can be done simultaneously and both have their extensions of fun, plus we haven't played a simultaneously thing in fucking forever).

 

MAP25 Death's Nocturne

 

Hellish grotto with marble rooms added fits in for the last hurrah before we really get into the real slaughter meats of the megawad. Compact beginning, and even the outdoor areas feel rough. The lower outdoor section really gets me. I can remember at least one sneaky arch-vile, but that don't compare to the painful chaingunners beyond the blood gap. The marble library was nice, and the pain elementals were actually fun to play with too. And then the switch afterwards releases arch-viles around the outside. Good job, now all my work, especially the chaingunners, has just been undone. And what's up with that endgame? The consistently teleporting arch-viles never got to me. While it is the last non-slaughtermap here in my opinion, it still manages to be one of the nastier maps.

Edited April 25, 2017 by NuMetalManiak : wording

[Demtor]

 

MAP25 - “Death’s Nocturne” by Joshy

gzDoom - UV – pistol start

 

Oh hey guys. Can I get by you? Wouldn’t be a SoD map without a whack ass start and a few fists to the face. Lots of emphatic saving after surviving bits and pieces on this map. The opening stuff and the first open areas are rough.

 

LoL at the SMM hoarding all of the rockets. I pictured a daft odd ball monster with an obsession for killing space marines and collecting rockets for his little nest. You want some rockets? I got some rockets for ya, you son of bitch! I liked that the cave system opened up the way it did. This is a very small map, but slight environment changes like that can go a long way.

 

I used an AV to hop up the ledge early and grabbed the megasphere/BFG combo. (Look at me learning to abuse AV throws!) That was nice to have mid map as opposed to having to double back with the red key through the marbled library section later.

 

I appreciate that the pop-up Cyberdemon was a slower raising one instead of an instant freak out. In doing so, we get a half a second to react instead of having no chance what so ever. Thanks for that.

 

The final room AV constant warping around was kind of silly but eh, something different. I camped out with RL splash damage mostly. Fun map.

 

Forgot to mention in the last write up for map24, but Stewboy really shows off his musical range here with a few lovely harp pieces. Almost adventure game, Seirra-esque.

[DAZZER]

MAP24: Hell’s Honeycomb
Time - 16:22

 

This is pretty much a love letter to all arch-viles out there ! and I like it :D ! In a previous post i said I like fighting archviles and not much changed about that ^^ I was kinda surprised when I looked at the automap... nearly this whole Map is nothing more then hexagons with different hights. I love this setting cause it looks like more then it is. The only thing I didn't like is the Red Key Area... It was again a aggresive try to make the Map harder then the rest of it is :/ so pretty basic Map but for sure not boring ! :D

[riderr3]

+++ Urania

[rehelekretep]

looks like its going to be Urania then? see ya in June

[rehelekretep]

4 hours ago, Spectre01 said:

Yeah, it was awesome! Probably my favourite club playthrough along with Hellbound.

i liked Hellbound a lot but really there was too much meat (and bad midis) in bstain

[Salt-Man Z]

Let's see if I can start the ball rolling for +++ Perdition's Gate...

[Ribbiks]

5 hours ago, Spectre01 said:

this is something of a sandbox-style slaughtermap akin to Sunlust map18.

 

SoD 26 & 28 were almost certainly the largest source of inspiration there (relatively freeform, unapologetic insta-pop mobs). sl18 is definitely a bit meaner though, if only by how scaled down it is. Those SoD maps are a great time, as far as spammy maps go, but the "big & loose" design that becomes dominant here is pretty much the polar opposite of my personal preferences.

[NecrumWarrior]

MAP25: Death's Nocturne

 

Ugh. The intro of this map is stupid hard. I probably spent more time just trying to get past the hitscanners flanking you at the beginning than anything else. The Arch-Vile wave towards the end also took a while but I had the BFG at least. This map reused the central area way too much. I was fucking sick of it by the end. I don't really have much else to say. The map mostly plays well, I just didn't really enjoy it.

[baja blast rd.]

MAP25: Death's Nocturne

 

Honestly the start annoyed me at first because it seemed it'd be one of those where you'd basically always eat stray damage unless you got good firing and pathing RNG, but there is an approach that minimizes it, so I'm not so irritated anymore. Yeah there's a megasphere afterwards, meaning the damage you take 'doesn't matter' as long as you live, but I would rarely like forced hitscanner RNG even if every square inch of the map were covered in megaspheres. The most common exception is a well framed 'damage race' setup, where tanking damage and running from health pickup to health pickup to stay alive is the point and is pretty exciting. Here, though, it just seems like annoyance for the sake of itself. 

 

The rest of the action is pretty fun though, minus a couple of clunky parts. What I like is that there are lots of places to hold the breach with the rocket launcher against an advancing horde, or fight monsters with it in tight and awkward spaces, such as the group of revenants right before the BFG. That archvile wave was also pretty fun. This is the sort of 'vulture' vile setup that I enjoy: (1) it takes place in a complex environment, so it's not like 'throw a few viles at the end of a simple arena fight because it's 2012 and that is still fresh or it's 2017 and I don't have any better ideas'; (2) with the BFG, your DPS is higher than it was the first time around, so even if the viles get busy, it's not like you have to tediously kill everything the same way you did before; (3) the revived monsters meet you from a different angle than you first encountered them, so, again, it's not like 'the same fight over again but with viles thrown in'. I also really liked getting to lob rockets at the distant archvile over the blood that revived a pair of mancs. Those mancs acted like walls, allowing splash damage to get the viles. Not sure if intentional, but the convenience of it is cool.

 

The clunky parts: The mastermind, I guess. Its primary value is what @Demtor pointed out, the comedy. It doesn't really do anything else. The cyber at the end was awkward, too -- it would be a lot more fun if it stayed put in its initial pop-up spot, so that you could try to get a tight two-shot against it. The gasbag fights in the bookshelves could have had fewer PEs, since they mostly just added clean-up time. The exit vile fight wasn't much of a fight, but the silliness of using former human troopers as meat shields and face-rocket trolls redeems it, imo. :)

 

Edited April 25, 2017 by rdwpa

[DAZZER]

MAP25: Death's Nocturne
Time - 11:54

 

This Map was alot easier then the ones before... the starting Fight was easy if you use plasma gun and in the outdoor area the Megasphere was completly unnecessary... so I saved it for later :) I often got my 100 Rockets so It really wasn't a challenge killing Hell Knights or revenants. But it feels good when you dont have to watch at your munition after every Shot or Fight :) sure was a good choice to play continues. The Arch-vile part with the Cyberdemon at the End wasn't hard too with 600 Plasma munition for the BFG but I don't really get the last room ^^ Sure it looks cool but I just shot some rockets till they were dead from a spot they cant hurt me... So good Map but pretty easy.

[NecrumWarrior]

27 minutes ago, DAZZER said:

This Map was alot easier then the ones before... the starting Fight was easy if you use plasma gun and in the outdoor area the Megasphere was completly unnecessary... so I saved it for later :)

It's completely neccesary if you pistol start, in which case the beginning is fucking awful.

[Paul977]

Map 24 Hell’s Honeycomb

 

Beautiful. The mysterious atmosphere of this level is on par with maps 2, 4, 6 if not superior. The midi is great, fitting and gives a somewhat relaxing mood. 

I like the gameplay in the same way: single skirmishes against viles hidden in the cavern, are well combined with the other fights against the hordes or the one vs one with cyberdemons in small environment. 

The visuals shows the skill of the mapper since, with only hexagons, he managed to create an amazing hellish cave with a great sense of place combined with tech-gothic bases portions well amalgamated with the rest of the map. Brightness levels are also remarkable (take a look at the right section of the RSK for reference). 

So far my favorite level of the set

[galileo31dos01]

MAP25: Time: 57:54

This had it's ups and downs. The starting point was harsh, despite already knowing it from the demo and playing continuous. Yet they gave me a megasphere later so the important thing at the beginning is to survive. I tried to off the gunners, demons and revenants before running to the outside, that made things easier, and then grab the sphere and continue. I found this buddy trying to shoot the SMM:

Spoiler

No idea how he got hit by her, it was funny to watch him though.

Talking about the SMM, her spot was weird, like just a big pointless obstacle. The next enemies do represented a challenge. Teleporting archies got me nervous because of all the corpses, but everything went fine. Once I got the RK, proceeded to next area, successfully offed the enemies, and I heard something, like if someone was playing with a plastic bag:

Spoiler

Yep, those were the archies, teleporting like crazy... Anyway, I liked how the libraries were used here, although why there were libraries in hell? Perhaps the pain elementals from there like to read, idk 

The next part with those revenants surrounding me, which I actually handled very well, but in my opinion there should have been less of them. Proceeded to grab the BFG and the mandatory megasphere, flipped the switch, get the hell out of their sight, and kill everything possible from this spot, with all those stupid corpses blocking my view.

Spoiler

I ate a few homing rockets from the resurrected revefuckinants, but nothing to really worry about if you see the image. With the platform lowered, I jumped to the other side and hey OH HI OH NO WTF YOU DOING THERE?!?!?! Why a cyberdemon?? They only possible way was to get back to the other side and kill him from there, but that was just pointless and no fun at all. Ok, moving on, finally the crazy archies. There was this linedef that teleported me right in the middle of the room, and one of the archviles managed to burn me once. I still survived. I guess that this level wasn't so hard. Medium-hard would be the correct classification.

Found 1/1 secrets, no deaths. The midi is great. The map is cool visually.  

[Capellan]

12 hours ago, Grain of Salt said:

No one else wants to darken? Aw :/

 

It would need something else to go with it, since it's only 12 maps.

 

 

[NuMetalManiak]

6 hours ago, rehelekretep said:

i liked Hellbound a lot but really there was too much meat (and bad midis) in bstain

?

 

Don't all Doom maps have too much meat?

[rehelekretep]

short answer: no

[Spectre01]

18 hours ago, rehelekretep said:

(and bad midis) in bstain

I thought the soundtrack was pretty solid overall aside from the infamous Blur midi.

[NuMetalManiak]

2 hours ago, rehelekretep said:

short answer: no

haven't played as much as I have, it seems.

 

MAP26 Blessed Hellscape

 

This probably is my favorite stewboy midi in SOD. It's weird all right, but it fits in with the hellscape and the weirdness of the map overall. So darkwave does in fact give a not-so-merciless slaughtermap that proves to be quite fun. Yet again though, it's a hub map, get three keys before the finale as it was before with MAP24. Quite a few secrets to go about while doing so, notably the Deus Vult-style secret room accessible with any key that gives a chance for Gotcha-style infighting, as well as the secret armor trail that leads to the lovely invulnerability. The bridge fight for the yellow key was not as bad as I remembered. I think I had an invulnerability there when fighting arch-viles on higher levels, but neither showed up after getting the key and I fought hell knights only.

 

I used the secret invulnerability for the red key portion which I found rather annoying without it, due to being surrounded most of the way there. The blue key area had quite a bit of lift magic but was the easiest, so I saved it for last. Time for the three-key battle at the exit. It's certainly the hardest aspect, with enough projectile hell from various monsters. Having to watch out for a stray cyberdemon rocket is more than enough, even when getting infighting going on. The pain elementals, honestly, were the enemy I worried about the least, because I realize how annoying mancubi are in comparison. And I just BFG any distracted cybers to get them out of the way quicker. All this, while I avoid heading for the exit because of the arch-viles. There's rdwpa's wish come true.

[stewboy]

1 hour ago, NuMetalManiak said:

This probably is my favorite stewboy midi in SOD.

That is not something I expected to hear from anyone!

[gaspe]

MAP26: A small preview of what we will see on MAP28. It's our standard red hellish map, and the outdoor vista on the void with the bridge is nice except for that visual flaw. The red key is accessible by two different paths, can't tell what's the best but I guess that coming from the upper area as I did is the hardest since you don't have so much space to move there. The blue key has some dickish moments of cramped fights. The rest of the map is manageable and very fun with all the space you have to move in the big battles.

[Demtor]

 

MAP26 - “Blessed Hellscape” by Darkwave0000

gzDoom - UV – pistol start

 

Bit of boring snoozer musically. Too bad too because this map is filled with LARGE SCALE encounters and lots of rocket/BFG spamming. The end is just bananas.

 

The start is slow, for SoD anyways, but it doesn’t take long before you have waves of revs racing one another to be the first to punch you in the face. Lots of red caves with plenty of running room but at one point I ran myself into what appeared to be a dead end where they couldn’t reach me. Hah! I then spent a few minutes ducking out of cover and firing two rockets before ducking back in to cover. Rinse repeat. Not the most thrilling stuff but it got the job done. There are just too damned many of them!

 

Then I picked up that soulsphere and all hell broke loose, hahaha. 2 cybers and more revs with nobles. Gah! Only way to get out is to fight 10 or so AV’s too. Better hope you saved ammo to deal with them!

 

Collecting all the keys for the BFG was kind of cool. Lots of tough traps and interesting oddities like upside down crosses and a weird decorative tower that double as cover. Being ported away into the darkened “pi” monument and getting the SMMs to fight all of the cybers was a lot of fun.

 

Okaaaaay, there must be a big fight coming up? Yes. That was crazy. No easy exit from it either.

 

The actual exit was kind of weird looking beyond and not just because of the inverse architecture. Thanks for the armor?

[NecrumWarrior]

Jesus christ... Can someone please point me in the direction of the BFG?

[baja blast rd.]

Keep moving forward from the start spot (seriously). Once you have a key, you'll be able to activate that lift. There's a surprise waiting for you, though.

[NecrumWarrior]

41 minutes ago, rdwpa said:

Keep moving forward from the start spot (seriously). Once you have a key, you'll be able to activate that lift. There's a surprise waiting for you, though.

Not sure how I missed it sitting up there. Guess I was too distracted by all the demons.