The DWmegawad Club plays: Speed of Doom

[rehelekretep]

ah red herring then :)

[NecrumWarrior]

27 minutes ago, rehelekretep said:

what compatibility settings are you using?

None, lol. It usually doesn't occur to me. 

[Spectre01]

MAP07 - “Simple Prison-Yard” by Joshy

 

Well, this is the first time I've died in my saveless playthrough this month. Took a few attempts to get the hang of it. The Chaingunners didn't give me any trouble at all, just use cover and Chaingun-tap them back. That Cyber is a pain in the ass though when he decides to shoot as you run out into the courtyard and hitting that button is a bit of a crapshoot unless he's distracted by a Revenant. The mass Manc warp-in was the hardest part for me since it required me to a) not suck, and b) kill the ones outside first and then grab the Megasphere when needed. The 'tron wave is easy enough with sufficient plasma and is easily camped from the back of the building. One of the idiot spiders got stuck in his closet and never spawned in, forcing me to use the "kill arachnotron" command in console.

Edited April 8, 2017 by Spectre01

[NecrumWarrior]

On 4/5/2017 at 0:13 PM, Cynical said:

If you have any Dehacked skill, the best way to make SoD easier would probably be to make a .deh that applied the Skill 1 ammo/damage changes to all skill levels (if that's possible, which I think it should be).

I don't really have any experience with Dehacked. I am not finding all of the values I would need to enact this sort of buff, at least not while using WhackEd. Not sure if there's a better tool out there. I can change the damage values of projectiles, but I can't find any way to alter Hitscan damage. I tried one approach where I would just increase my maximum health to 300 instead of 200, but I can't figure out how to do it without also making it where I can heal with medpacks up to 300. If I set max health to 200 but max Soul Sphere health to 300, then for some reason I still heal to 100 naturally. If set to 300 and 300, then I can heal to 300 naturally. I do not understand. This seemed like the easiest way to make it easier and it's not working!

[baja blast rd.]

Since you are playing in a ZDoom port, you can use DECORATE. I made a wad that changes starting health to 150, max to 300, stimpacks healing to 15, medkits to 35, soulspheres to 150, megaspheres to 300/300, and increases GA and BA to 150 and 300 respectively. If you have SLADE you can edit this further quite easily. 

 

 

[DAZZER]

MAP08: Frenetic
Time - 9:15

 

This is a very good map. I like how every corner is used in this megawad. also the traps you activate force you to move back which activates other traps ^^ brilliant. The Endfight with the mastermind isn't a big deal if you get it to infight with the arachnotrons. It isn't a really big Map but manages to have 200+ enemies and not to feel filled up or slaughter.

[Spectre01]

MAP08 - “Frenetic” by Darkwave0000

 

Large underground warehouse with a comically inflated number of Imps used as fodder. Reminds me of one of the early AV maps where you'd open a room and there would be 20 Imps in there for whatever reason. I remembered there was some secret telefrag chain to the turret Mancs, but what's the point? They're a pain in the ass to leave up and there's plenty of ammo to just kill them with the SSG or rockets early on. Pretty chill map but rather filler-ish.

[baja blast rd.]

MAP08: Frenetic

 

Smartly designed simple map. It doesn't have any lock-in fights, but through a combination of the infinite pile of Darkwave Imps in the start area, which you don't realistically have the ammo to clear out early on so serve as a constant source of fireballs; the manc turrets, which are boring to get rid of even if you do have the ammo; and some skillful use of remote dormant closet AVs at the red key trap, which are placed to rez mancs if not dealt with bravely; it punishes panicky retreating, and makes standing one's ground the most viable option in almost every fight. I also loved the scenario that unfolded when I finally unleashed all the imps. Thanks to the calculated ammo balance, I was down to almost nothing, so of course I rushed for the row of rockets, just like Darkwave anticipated I would, and out came a warp-in archvile! Very clever. 

 

[gaspe]

MAP08: It's nice to have something with some character after that MAP07. So far I really like the secrets Darkwave0000 puts in his map. Best thing of the map is the big group of imps in the main area. And the final encounter with the mastermind.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP08 Frenetic

 

This is somewhat of a forgettable level, even if it was made by darkwave. The track, Drips, is a bit reminiscent of Duke Nukem's City Streets track, and, well, I've got nothing. Perhaps the real challenge of this semi-base map is avoiding all those mancubi. Normally I'd shoot all of them down, but being familiar with how teleporters are set up, I would find the secret that teleports on all of them instead for this run. Other than that, it's more like a faux-Dead Simple type of map, with mancubi on the turrets and arachnotrons once you reveal the final area, with the huge vat of imps and the teleport ambush at the exit, plus the arch-viles, actually providing the most of the combat.

[rehelekretep]

that's interesting! do you think Darkwave was responding to missing out on the 07 slot due to the odd-even split and wanted to try his hand/out-do Joshy?

[NecrumWarrior]

6 hours ago, rdwpa said:

Since you are playing in a ZDoom port, you can use DECORATE. I made a wad that changes starting health to 150, max to 300, stimpacks healing to 15, medkits to 35, soulspheres to 150, megaspheres to 300/300, and increases GA and BA to 150 and 300 respectively. If you have SLADE you can edit this further quite easily. 

 

 

Ah, cool! I'll test it out if MAP08 ends up being a problem for me. I want to have it on hand but not rely on it if I think I can beat the level. Not sure if I want to change ammo values, so far it's been pretty reasonable.

[NecrumWarrior]

I dug around in the WAD to find the first textscreen, since I realized I missed it. I wouldn't have realized that the theme changed had I not looked. The prison setting is actually a pretty neat one, and not something I am sure I've seen before. I will miss the caverns though.

 

MAP08: Frenetic

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ga4pftxdbtympyk/SoD_M08_Necrum_QZ.lmp?dl=0

Kills: 87%

Items: 100%

Secret: 33%

Time: 12:34

 

I fucking did it! I actually tried this one numerous times, and while I knew I should be able to handle it (really there isn't anything here that's super over the top til the end) I think I was being affected by some frustration from outside sources. Namely, my TV keeps cutting out. Something that happens occasionally and always at the most inopportune times. Seriously, it goes months without happening then BOOM as soon as I'm doing something that requires my attention it starts to blink. This was actually my second attempt to record because of it. Anyway, with the help of some dropped saves, I was able to push my way to the end. I am not a huge fan of the big open room with boxes in it. It wasn't really a fun place to fight. I guess the biggest issue with it was the enormous horde of Imps that would just peg away at you if you weren't careful. It wasn't terrible just annoying. Mancubi gave me some trouble but again I was feeling frustrated which makes it hard to think. The trek back from the Red Key was quite harrowing. I am very allergic to fights with two Arch-Viles, especially in areas that have dead Hell Knights and Revenants. It felt like I was being punished for killing them there.

 

It seems to be a running theme now that these levels end on some absolutely ludicrous encounter. This time:

it was a Mastermind accompanied by a legion of Arachnotrons. In previous maps, I have found these encounters to be overwhelming. This time, however, I played it smart and actively attempted to get them infighting to distract and maybe even kill the Mastermind. And it worked! However the horde of even more Imps sort of rained on my parade (seriously, were they that necessary?) but on my second(?) attempt I managed to squeeze by them and run for the exit.

 

The best part is I didn't even have to use that WAD @rdwpa provided for me. I'm sure I will at some point but that point is not today!

[Surreily]

MAP08

 

This is basically a MAP07 modified to work on a non-MAP07 slot. The first half of the map consists of a variety of enemies with some mancubi high up on platforms acting as turrets. Later, we get treated to a bunch of arachnotrons. There's also plenty of space to move around this time too (something I like about Darkwave's mapping style).

 

Thankfully, the map has more than just mancubi and arachnotrons. Because I am playing continuous, I had both the rocket launcher in my arsenal, so the huge imp horde at the beginning was no problem. My favorite aspect of this map were the arch-viles that spawn after picking up the key, pushing the player to make quick decisions (or just whip out the BFG like I did).

 

In my opinion, this map has fantastic gameplay, but is fairly weak in other areas. There's almost no exploration, the secrets are somewhat basic, and it only took me about 12 minutes to kill everything and locate every secret (compared to Darkwave's previous map where I was wandering around for almost an hour). Still a good map, but nothing spectacular.

[rehelekretep]

map09 fda

fun little AV-style techbase. hardest part is probably the start, unless you cheese it from the stairs like i ended up doing :D

the soldier-AV is hilarious, and the one near the rl almost got me good; dont know how i survived.

not sure about the cacoswarm near the YK as there's a nice little window to stand at and most of their shots cant hit you.

ditto the AV behind the HKs just after the YK, and the timed switch door which is just clumsy/annoying. if the mapper wants you to speed through it then Joshy should have made it close faster after the switch so you had to SR40 through it into the shotgun/cg ambushes.

Edited May 9, 2017 by rehelekretep

[paymentplan]

MAP07 - Simple Prison Yard

 

Where'd all the green go? What can be said that hasn't been said already? Not much. It's not an expressly bad map, just not very interesting once past the cyberdemon. Clumps of monsters spawn in while the player hits various switches. Mancubi, then arachnotrons, then archviles. Then it's done. The most fun was the fight leading into the prison itself with the chaingunners and revenants. A tough section to rush through, but once you've done it once it won't be fun to do again.

 

Going ahead and wasting the cyberdemon with the plasma rifle is the best bet for survival, but after that the map is all downhill. It's a short hill, but definitely a slump. Onto the next!

 

Kills - 101%

Items - 100%

Secrets - 100%

 

MAP08 - Frenetic

 

Short and to the point map name! This map is definitely frenetic. When I spawned in I ran around looking for weapons before looping back around to the start to find the SG, SSG, and green armor. Right behind me! The start is a dingy techbase like a giant warehouse. It's being guarded by a bunch of imps and overseen by some mancubi. The mancubi provide much of the pressure. Dodging the roaming monsters while also being wary of the sniping mancubi provides some hair raising gameplay. 

 

There's plenty of health and shotgun ammo everywhere, so there's no reason not to start blasting things away! Gone are the beautifully detailed slime caves from maps 2, 4, and 6. Darkwave0000 shows off this new environment with aplomb. Grabbing a rocket launcher reveals another horde of monsters, but being overeager with the new weapon can be a mistake. Once grabbing the red key, some archviles will appear. I made the mistake of letting them revive a bunch of stuff and was unable to fight back the zombies with just the SSG. Saving rockets for the archviles is the way to go. 

 

In the archvile's closet is a switch which takes the player on a mancubus telefragging adventure ending up with a berserk and that soul sphere that had been visible from the start. An incredibly satisfying secret! A dead marine on top of some computers gives away another secret: a green armor refill. The third secret I only found once the map was vacant but would have come in handy.

 

That silly room full of a hundred or so imps is the reward for finding the red key. Rather than being tedious, it's always fun to gib a bunch of imps with the rocket launcher! The archvile ambush behind them gave me quite a scare. The real terror is what's revealed when the switch the archvile guarded is pressed. A real fight with a spider mastermind! 

 

Darkwave0000 knows what makes a mastermind fight fun: having backup! A bunch of arachnotrons spawn in with the mastermind. Getting a few of them to train their plasma on the big spider equals a short fight. After that it's just cleaning up and stepping on the exit pad. Really fun map from start to finish.

 

Kills - 102%

Items - 100%

Secrets - 100%

[NecrumWarrior]

21 minutes ago, paymentplan said:

Where'd all the green go?

We're in prison now, boy. 

[Spectre01]

MAP09 - “Depredation” by Joshy

 

A rather cramped indoor map with a focus on traps and using that E1 wall texture. The Green Armour is given quite late, which makes the early stages somewhat annoying. A tricky jump to the Soulsphere secret mitigates some of that though. The in your face pop-in Revenant here is rather uncalled for, despite not taking any damage from him. The red carpet was nice though and will be fondly remembered.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 06 -- Dreamscape - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets

An aptly named level, I think. There is nothing on display here that's histrionically fantastical or otherworldly (at least not any more than is the norm for the idtech1 idiom), but there's a persistent strangeness nonetheless, some sort of subconscious math of subdued cave lighting, long leisurely sojourns in peace and quiet until coming upon isolated pockets of monsters going about their own unknowable business, and a superbly well-chosen midi track that fits the level perfectly. It's a purposefully surrealist presentation, and obviously a modern map in general form and function, but rather than being heavily stylized or hinging on really exaggerated or idiosyncratic visual/architectural ideas ala recent sensations, it's a fairly understated impression in a more old-fashioned idiom, using a wide variety of (mostly stock) assets freely to create a mixed theme at once nostalgic and yet in line with the rest of the episode's slime-dazzled look up to that point, a classic silver/blue clean techbase hidden in a slimy zimmer cave, along with other, more anomalous structures, ranging from an engine-bronze fort and barricade of wooden planks at the north end to a couple of strange modwall sheds. While it's a very far cry from genuine 90s freehand (i.e. it all color-coordinates nicely and pays mind to transitional/connective points), the laissez-faire combo of materials here is an interesting foreshadowing of Darkwave's post-SoD work, whereas the deeper we go in SoD itself the more we'll see him settle into a more identifiably Almian idiom of very focused, efficient theming. "Dreamscape" is not really on my personal faves list of the author's work, but it is one of the first things that springs to mind when thinking of his general aesthetic style, a showcase of a lot of his artistic signatures, many of which remain in some way even in his recent ventures into wide open 'topographical slaughter.'

 

This is not at all a difficult map, perhaps in line with its framing as a dreamlike experience, though it does communicate a definite sense of further escalation through the sheer number of bodies involved in some of the fights. Most of the major encounters conspicuously leave initiative entirely in the player's hands; in some instances you can freely see the monsters, inevitably with their backs turned, and work out beforehand what you're going to do in the context of the geometry you face, while in others it's merely obvious that *something* is going to happen (BK gazebo, RK outcrop, etc.), but in nearly all cases you are empowered to kick things off when you feel ready. This is something of a common trait in Darkwave's maps in SoD--he doesn't really have much truck with having wandering monsters seeking you out, outside of certain concept-focused scenarios--and it's something of a double-edged sword, in that so frequently giving the player initiative is an extremely powerful concession. On a number of occasions in SoD, and even more markedly in the work of later authors inspired by it, this has been used as a balance to leverage what would otherwise be patently unreasonable gameplay setups into nuanced combat-as-puzzle vignettes, where the numerical/circumstantial odds being stacked mountain-high against the lone, fragile player is heavily checked by his/her having the info needed to plan out a way to twist the vagaries of geometry and monster behavioral patterns in his/her favor.

 

Just as often in Darkwave's maps (in the first two thirds of the game, anyway), though, it simply alleviates danger and makes many fights largely recreational, cinematic, or, if one is less charitably inclined, merely padded out. The cool thing about this, though, is that in concert with the way Darkwave tends to build maps--spacious, long sightlines, lots of shared spaces between discrete encounters, etc.--the play is often highly amenable to the whole 'be super aggressive and run around and get a bunch of fires burning at once' playstyle, which is fun. In 2010 this was not nearly as much of a draw for demagoguery as it is today, mind you, and I don't think it'd be accurate to say that Darkwave planned out all of his maps so his different encounters would play off each other (on the contrary, he's a very single-focus encounter designer at this stage of his career, I'd say), but the possibility to blend big encounters presumably intended to be met in stages (i.e. combining the BK and RK hordes here) plays off nicely with the occasional scenario where brashness and/or detailed foreknowledge is directly catered to, ala the last bastion of enemies beyond the RK prox-gate, which is handily wrapped up by stepping just far forwards enough to bring the closet-goons into what initially appears to be a fairly cut/dry cyberdemon tagteam encounter.

 

Secrets here continue to be a highlight, as well. Nothing quite as deep/engrossing as the nested chain from "Sedgemire" in this case, but there's a wide variety of secrets with a wide variety of rewards hidden in a wide variety of ways, from simple pushwalls to weird micro-parkour skips 'out of bounds' to the now iconic 'tiny switch recessed in a dark corner' conceit, which humorously enough is arguably now the most influential of all Darkwave's mapping quirks (he hardly holds the patent for inventing these, of course, but SoD has had a huge role by proxy in popularizing them, I think). These are fun to search for, and fun once you find them as well, as many contain a little moving curio or mini-challenge in addition to a material reward, ala the sludge/Matrix-run puzzle for the backpack, or of course the BFG skinner-box. Cool stuff.

 

Map 07 -- Simple Prison-Yard - 100% Secrets / 100% Kills

Well.....I can't say I share the same burning enmity for this map that Cynical has--it takes a different type of map entirely to get that kind of reaction out of me, generally--but nonetheless I would say that it's arguably the worst map in Speed of Doom (though m33 is in that slot for a good reason, suffice to say), and probably one of the weakest in Joshy's fruitful career. While it is clearly a Dead Simple map, it's actually not terribly offensive or derivative in that regard; indeed, it's not even immediately obvious that it is a Dead Simple map, though sooner or later most players will realize that it's something of a loose conceptual mashup of the m07 entries from Evilution, Plutonia, and Doom II. The central issue is that it's a tiny and rather aesthetically bland map which nevertheless feels conspicuously padded out via some simple symmetry, and that it's prone to weird anticlimaxes and full of ugly, poorly-blocked out phonebooth choreography.

 

I don't consider the chaingunner-laden start in the bloody hills to be particularly remarkable or problematic, so I won't talk about it much, though I've seen years worth of people incensed by this alone at this point. The twin switches in the battlements have a palpable sense of padding, as aforesaid, keyed to identikit warp/closet encounters with some ungainly cacos (often they get stuck behind invisible lines along the battlements, but they can sometimes squeeze out around the edges to fight the cyb if you actively try to make it happen) The implementation of the cyberdemon and the 666/667 tags has something of the flavor of 10 pounds of crap stuffed into a 5 pound sack, like too much is shoehorned into a very small and very geometrically/aesthetically uninteresting space. The pistol-start balance lets you grind out the cyb almost from first blush if you insist, which I'd consider a failing straight out of the gate, but assuming you play along and let him live, you might be surprised to find how irrelevant he quickly becomes after nominally/inevitably distracting the first arch-vile--I find he usually dies in infighting vs. the mancubus wave without making much of an impact, leaving that encounter as the level's toughest fight--dodging the irregular spreadshot pattern fired from so many angles and with so little floorspace is not trivial (or indeed, wholly reliable/possible), to say the least, esp. when your best/most appropriate weapon also carries some self-risk.

 

The 'tron wave, by contrast, mostly makes all the impression of a budget whoopie-cushion, as the limited space  + wide hitboxes and a cyb pedestal which is tall enough to shield you but not tall enough to keep the spiders from impotently opening fire makes for a weirdly toothless battle where you simply plasma-saw through one enemy after another. Due to the attempt to cram so many of the aforesaid wide hitboxes into so squidgy a space, often one of the 'trons will fail to port out in time, something of a rake to the face/softball to the crotch moment for the heavy-handed Dead Simple gimmick (he often will eventually show up if you hang out in the back room and wait, incidentally, at least on -cl 9 or comparable port settings, which I suppose is slightly better than the map permanently breaking...?) The arch-vile coda is pointless, and reads like some kind of belated anti-rushing scheme (it also miscues badly if the cyb happens to live that long, of course).

 

I reckon this map simply tries to do too much at once with too little, and mostly fails as a result.

 

Map 08 -- Frenetic - 101% Kills / 100% Secrets

I mostly remember this map for the spider swarm at the end, and I imagine the same is true for most other folks as well. As Darkwave maps go, it's not as memorable a setting, though the presentation of a grimy warehouse garage dimly lit by a few flyblown halogen lights seguing into a minor mess of crates in the backroom beyond a concrete loading dock is serviceable enough as a change in scenery from the 'Andes mountains' theme of his past several offerings.

 

Not as memorable a setting or concept, perhaps, but fortunately it still plays well enough. This is a good example of a Darkwave map that's not only amenable to rushing strategies, but also appears to be actively designed in that way, with supplied loadout initially consisting of nothing but buckshot weapons and a stock of ammo not practically suited for killing off the warehouse's initial occupants designed to prompt you forwards to the RL's location on the dock (which of course has another ambush tied to it to further up the manic energy), from which point the name of the game is spending your limited rocket stock in stylishly and brutally efficient ways. The one-way BK leg is something of a hitch in the road designed to see you sandwiched between fronts, but the remedy comes simply enough if you keep in step with the frenetic pace to that point, rushing back out of the trap zone to nuke the viles which you probably at least half-expected to be there before they gain much momentum with the rezzing. Finish up with a comical, just-for-fun imp slaughter and a classic "Jerry Springer feat. the Arachnabergs" family feud scenario, and you've got a nicely stacked $5 value meal of a B-side map that reads like a second/alternate take on the Dead Simple concept, albeit a much less hamfisted one than actual m07.

 

Trying to play this like it's a WW1 sim, by contrast, probably doesn't make for a particularly engaging experience (though I'd warrant the imp-massacre is fun pretty much no matter who you are, at least), since most of the traps/placements only nest properly if you rush ahead (instead being mostly inarticulate shoot/clears if you move slowly), and from pistol-start wearying ammo drought is topped off by the frustration of eventually realizing you could've saved a ton of shells courtesy of the manco-telefrag/soulsphere chain. C'est la vie.

Edited April 9, 2017 by Demon of the Well

[galileo31dos01]

Catching up with this pwad, I don't why this new attempt to beat the first map was a pain in the ass. A few days ago when I tested it on Crispy Doom, then with PrBoom+, it was easy peasy, chainsawing the cacodemons in a couple of seconds, now I got almost dead at least 3 times and the

kinda dodged my chainsaw, what the hell... Anyway, I'm one of those few people who plays in HMP and continuous. I gave my opinion of the first map, now it's the turn of the next maps.

 

MAP02: I was better this time, there were a few bad movements by myself until I got the hang of them. Secrets are cool, I found 4/5 and last one I had to check the wiki page, turned out all I had to do is to use the lift to go down, oh ok stupid me... About the scenario, beautiful. The revenants and the mancubus gave me a hard time, so I got them to infight and I escaped through the lift, to be safe and hear the battle. Very good map overall. My time was 29:26

 

MAP03: Nothing special here, narrow corridors and many hitscanners as well as demons/spectres. Secrets are fine, 3/3 without cheating. There is not that much health and ammo, just enough. Good map overall. Time: 13 minutes 

[NecrumWarrior]

10 minutes ago, galileo31dos01 said:

Anyway, I'm one of those few people who plays in HMP and continuous. 

Fair warning: HMP is garbage doo doo in this wad. 

[NecrumWarrior]

I decided to switch my main port to GZDoom, primarily because I play with the GL renderer anyway, and more of you probably have GZDoom already which makes the demos more accessible.

 

MAP09: Depredation

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ximktqrb5sy0oc5/SoD_M09_Necrum_GZ.lmp?dl=0

Kills: 97%

Items: 50%

Secrets: 0%

Time: 11:50

 

Quote

Depredation

 

1. noun

the act of preying upon or plundering; robbery; ravage.

 

Interesting name. Not sure what it has to do with the level. Anywho, this map does not fuck around. You pretty much have to get right into the action, something that I am not a big fan of. I like having a chance to breath and just take in where I am for a second before I engage the enemy, especially when I have to restart the beginning a few times. I still have not needed to use the Decorate file, so yay! This map was really busy, but the only part that I thought was just totally unfair was the Arch-Vile that camps in front of the yellow door, which I ended up just running past to approach the ending area. This map kind of breaks the mold of the last few maps by having a fairly manageable ending room. The cage trap actually caught me off guard, so that was pretty neat. Ugh, we're just going to see more and more Arch-Viles from here, aren't we? Fuck my life...

[galileo31dos01]

1 hour ago, NecrumWarrior said:

Fair warning: HMP is garbage doo doo in this wad. 

Hmm, still prefer to play it in HMP since I understand it's the most balanced in terms of enemies and pick ups, despite everything I read here. Probably in a future replay I'll give it a try in UV.

 

MAP04: Bigger than the earlier maps, quite tough traps. Now I get the kind of traps in this wad: press a button, enemies appear in front of and behind you; walk a little bit in a quiet place, sudden enemies raise and make me jump (thank goodness I don't have heart issues); pick up an important item, run in circles to not get killed instantly. I need a backpack, where is a goddamn backpack?!?!... Telefragging the baron was fun. Found 6/6 secrets, the supercharge is a nice one. Still love the scenario. Nothing else, very good map. Time: 33 minutes and ?? seconds

[NecrumWarrior]

31 minutes ago, galileo31dos01 said:

Hmm, still prefer to play it in HMP since I understand it's the most balanced in terms of enemies and pick ups, despite everything I read here. Probably in a future replay I'll give it a try in UV.

 

MAP04: Bigger than the earlier maps, quite tough traps. Now I get the kind of traps in this wad: press a button, enemies appear in front of and behind you; walk a little bit in a quiet place, sudden enemies raise and make me jump (thank goodness I don't have heart issues); pick up an important item, run in circles to not get killed instantly. I need a backpack, where is a goddamn backpack?!?!... Telefragging the baron was fun. Found 6/6 secrets, the supercharge is a nice one. Still love the scenario. Nothing else, very good map. Time: 33 minutes and ?? seconds

Good luck with MAP05.

[Spectre01]

30 minutes ago, galileo31dos01 said:

Hmm, still prefer to play it in HMP since I understand it's the most balanced in terms of enemies and pick ups, despite everything I read here.

How can HMP be the most balanced when the authors designed everything around UV and then poorly and inconsistently made changes for HMP, which many people have pointed out.

[baja blast rd.]

MAP09: Depredation

I don't really get (much of) the gameplay. The start scenario and basically everything leading up to, maybe, the first archvile with its squad of former humans, are fine. The berserk pack placement is similar to map05's in that you might as well save it for health in case you get off to a bad start; the chaingunners will help you with the pinkies. It's amusing getting the first rev to infight with the two HKs on the other side of the hallway (comically inept infighting -- I left them alone for ages and they were still at it). Past those opening stages, however, most encounters are either telegraphed and monodirectional to the point of harmlessness (the rev-imp reveal that springs open a closet at the expected part of the wall and has no shot against the plasma rifle, for example) or just plain nonfunctional given the small quarters and awkward geometry allotted to them (the basically pointless gasbag reveal, which feels like just a time sink, for example). That instapop rev is tacky, as are the pinkies in the YK pit that are only an infinitely tall nuisance.

 

On the plus side, it's a cute looking base. Many of the design ideas are identifiably mid-late '00 era tropes, like the tiny borders, the micro insets, the strict adherence to a rectangular shapes in the floor plan, and the EXTREMELY modest architectural scale. But given those constraints, it's quite attractive. I really like that snazzy red carpet! Neat how a splash of color can give life to what would be a very utilitarian theme otherwise.

[Grain of Salt]

4 hours ago, NecrumWarrior said:

more of you probably have GZDoom already which makes the demos more accessible.

Different versions of gzdoom can't run each other's demos, though. Demos recorded in cl9 on prboom-plus can be watched on any (non-bugged) version of prboom-plus, plus a few other ports that support that compatibility level.

[DAZZER]

MAP09: Depredation
Time - 10:20

 

Wow ! What an awesome Map and what a epic MIDI ! These are exactly the Tech Bases I want to see from this Wad ! small, good layout, Challenging Traps with good Monster Placement and a fair amount of Health :) I didn't have any problems with the fast start or any archviles or revenants. I think there was always enough room and munition to fight them :) great Map and until now the best music I think :D Hope to see more of this ^^

[The Bandit]

I've played pistol starts/UV-Max up to like map 17.  I've yet to beat 32.  I usually beat 31 and 32 right after 15.  It's a great megawad but it does get ridiculously hard in the later levels.  I have already beaten the Ancal-level with BFG-spam all the way.  Map 27?

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP09 Depradation

 

Given the rest of the settings, this one seems rather out of place. Hooray for techbases, with windows because E1M7, or some shit. Nothing really sticks out here as much, but then again, nothing is really terrible here anyways. This easily seems like a speedmap, and would be a legit map for the AS sessions *pokes Obsidian*.