The DWmegawad Club plays: Plutonia Revisited Community Project

[Cipher]

6 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

That's what happened to me on my first run, I thought it was dickish to place pain elementals there until I found out about the bridge, it didn't prevent the soul spamming but I was in a better position this time.

The best way to prevent soul-spamming, as far as I found, was to take cover in the chaingunner alcoves that open up by the entrance and let them float up to the door. Since they can't see you most of the time, you can just pop out for point-blank SSG shots with minimal Lost Soul-spitting. A little slow, but safe.

 

I mentioned it in my post on the map, but I didn't catch onto the invisible bridge for my first few attempts either. I was riding the lefthand Arachnotron lift up.

 

Anyway:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Map 09: “Ruined Kingdom” by Tatsurd-cacocaco

PrBoom+, UV, Continuous, No saves

 

Unfortunately we’re at the point where my meager skills will no longer allow me to pistol-start every level and be sure I’ll finish the wad in time, especially with some busy days toward the end of the month. I wasn’t good enough for this level. I did try pistol-starting a few times, getting past the Arch-Vile room, but I just wasn’t consistent enough at those early portions, and the level’s quite big and filled with challenging encounters where one slip-up means you’re dead. Would’ve taken quite a bit of practice. This was the first time in the set I seriously abused continuous play, and I’m talking BFG blasts where I shouldn’t have had them. I genuinely find the back-to-back double-Mancubus-double-Arch-Vile rooms at the start harder from a pistol start than anything Map 08 throws at you.

 

So it’s a little harder to comment on. I might go back for the pistol start later, but in general I don’t think it’s a style that’s quite to my liking regardless. The initial few challenges are good, but there’s a lot of back-and-forth here, and the level of difficulty fluctuates throughout in a way that made repeated attempts feel a bit grindy both on continuous and on my pistol-start attempts, even just with the initial three rooms. (Which is to say, there are rock-hard encounters here and others that feel like filler, which isn’t a kind of pace I love.) It’s not quite a Plutonia-esque feeling, despite the difficulty (outside of maybe the original’s “Tombstone”). It isn’t the more compact series of solvable traps the Map 08 was, or even, say, Scythe episode 3 is. Instead it’s just one brutally demanding, movement-based encounter after another, with bits of slightly more incidental combat in between. That’s probably Tatsurd-cacocaco’s style. I’ve only encountered his first-episode JPCP levels up to this point. Regardless, I wasn’t ready for it and at this point don’t feel like a fan, though I can easily see why someone else would. It’s not bad, but not my cup of tea.

 

Plutonia homages:

 

• The level is based around “Realm,” from the entrance into a base containing dual lifts up to a stone-and-water area (this time delivering Arch-Viles instead of Barons), to at least one sequence chaining together Mancubi in a dark, watery hallway. The entire centerpiece and its branching paths are taken straight from that level, as is the final Revenant-double-Arch-Vile encounter, here given a few additions. Despite that, I find it flows quite differently from that level as a whole.
• Hallways after the Red Key grab resemble the Red Key area from “Well of Souls.”
• The Mancubus trap prior to opening the path to the Blue Key recalls an early encounter in Dario Casali’s “Baron’s Lair.”

 

Final tally:

 

(Not sure what's up with my total time; might be off from a mix of continuous and pistol-start play? Or from switching save slots at one point?)

 

This level brought me great shame. 😔 

Edited October 9, 2017 by Cipher

[SGS Man]

MAP09 – “Ruined Kingdom” by Tatsurd-CacoCaco

 

 

Unlike the previous map, this one modifies the original scenarios from The Plutonia Experiment rather than combine them. The opening is very reminiscent of “Realm”. Instead of the pool of water descending to some monsters, you take a lift to the top. You are greeted by an army of Imps, Sergeants, Chaingunners and a Hell Knight. This is followed by a couple of Mancubi and Sergeants, where you obtain a Super Shotgun.

 

The next area is probably the most interesting of the map. It takes the two descending Barons of Hell from “Realm” and replaces them with Arch-viles. You are given enough cover, but you cannot afford to make an error. You rise to face a group of monsters against the classic exit backdrop of “Realm”. There is an ambush as you approach the Rocket Launcher. You then proceed to the next section of the map.

 

Similar to some maps in Plutonia (especially “Speed”), you have a combination of Revenants and Chaingunners, except, in this case, the Revenants are used as turrets, while the Chaingunners meander about on the ground. This section reveals this map’s tendency to take set-pieces from Plutonia and flip the monster placement. Unfortunately, this approach backfires as it often ignores the idea behind the design of the original encounters. The combination of Revenants and Chaingunner-turrets worked wonders in Plutonia, because the Chaingunners would rip through your health if you moved out of cover, while the Revenants would tear through you if you stayed in one place. This forced a ‘dance’ as you moved in-and-out of cover to maximize the chances of your survival. On the other hand, Revenant-turrets don’t make much use of the speed Revenants have while moving and scattered Chaingunners remove most of the danger they pose by removing most of their line-of-sight.

 

The corridor through here has some monsters for you to eliminate, namely Demons, Cacodemons, Imps, Sergeants, Chaingunners and an Arch-vile. The hitscanner-closets were rather interesting additions. The next section is clearly inspired by “Baron’s Lair” (and “Impossible Mission”). However, the mere flipping of monster placement ruins the intended design. In “Baron’s Lair”, you were ambushed by Arachnotrons as they could rip through you in a matter of seconds. But, they were used instead of Chaingunners so that you have an opportunity to react (and recover). Similarly, Mancubi were used in the tunnels of “Impossible Mission” because of their erratic fire. This forced you to move in and out of cover, but you could always try dodging your way through. However, in this map, you are ambushed by Mancubi, which, frankly, aren’t all that great as an ambush (unless you are surrounded by them, like in “The Crypt”). Following this are the Arachnotron tunnels, which is basically a game of hide-and-shoot, due to their ferocious accuracy. You finally obtain the blue-key with which the first half of the map is over!

 

You can now pick a Plasma Rifle up and then be ambushed by Revenants. After clearing the army beyond the blue-door, consisting of Hell Nobles, Cacodemons, Imps and Pain Elementals (and Lost Souls), you drop down a chute to another fun section of the map. You need to activate four switches to access the red-key. Unfortunately, they are guarded by Hell Knights, Cacodemons and Chaingunners. You must eliminate them while being extremely conservative with your ammo (even with the “secret” stash). You then face a barrage of Revenants, Arch-viles, Mancubi and an Arachnotron, as you desperately try to escape.

 

Then the final section of the map begins in all its glory. In an almost comical exaggeration of the end of “Realm”, you face an onslaught of Revenants, Mancubi and Archviles. This ending, despite being conceptually easier than the ending of “Realm” due to all of the cover available, is particularly lethal due to the ammunition starvation you face till this point.

 

One of my biggest issues with this map is the sheer lack of powerful ammunition coupled with the abundance of hefty monsters. Even with the secrets, I found myself having extremely low ammunition by the end. My successful run through this level had me conserve all my rockets and plasma so that I could survive the final encounter. You are basically required to use the Super Shotgun for most of the early scenarios. Since the scenarios after you get the Rocket Launcher are tedious even with it, this forced ammunition conservation really hampers the overall experience.

 

Interestingly enough, I think most of the scenarios of the map are easier than their Plutonia counterparts, but their difficulty is ramped up because of the forced Super Shotgun usage. To say the secrets were essential is selling them short. Frankly, I think this is one of Tatsurd-CacoCaco’s weakest maps (given that I thoroughly enjoyed his maps in the Japanese Community Project, clearly due to his additional experience as a mapper). While I do think this map is a better homage than MAP03, it still has multiple shortcomings that really ruined it for me.

Edited October 9, 2017 by SGS Man

[lirui1001]

Oh just finished some achievement hunting stuff. Back to video post.

 

Map09: Ruined Kingdom by Tatsurd-cacocaco (aka Realm v2.0)

 

Wait, nobody said something about the armor problem with this map??

 

 

It takes a little longer time to finish this map because there is ONLY ONE BLUE ARMOR in this map. That is, there is NO ARMOR before the red key room!!! So you have to use a very conservative way to run this map.

 

Personally I disagree with the ridiculous idea that someone designs a map and its main difficult part is only very few armor or none at all (yes Scythe, you are one of the list. And burabojunior, you are very mean on armor in JPCP).

 

Map10: Bloodbath by JC

 

Not a hard small map. There is an invulnerability, so you can run the red key trap smoothly.

 

Another "knowing secrets means easy mode" map.

 

 

[Cipher]

Okay, not to be outdone, I looked up the secrets, went back this morning (national holiday in Japan) and pistol-started it. Apparently it took me a whole half-hour, playing cautiously (and getting stuck with the secret instructions at one point), but it's done:

 

 

Thoughts remain about the same as above, though it's a little more fun this way. I still feel like I lucked by the double-Arch-Viles at the beginning, which makes starting this (and learning it blind) a drag; I just got a round where they were kind with their movement. After that, it opens up immensely, though I still don't love its enemy placement. SGS Man articulated some of the issues there quite well above. I find the complaints about ammo so far to be a bit exaggerated, but only if you know where all the secrets are. I used the Rocket Launcher throughout.

 

Armor stinginess is not something I have a problem with.

 

EDIT -- OMFG, you can just leave the Arch-Vile room and fight them from the doorway or through the bars. Wooooow, I'm dumb. There's a significant issue with this map revoked.

Edited October 9, 2017 by Cipher

[baja blast rd.]

Map 09 

 

Yeah, action tends to be grindy even if you force the issue. The early caco-and-PE setup in the area with the exit sort of epitomizes why I don't like these much. You have lots and lots of ammo, and lots and lots of space, so it's just cleanup from the beginning. Even if you didn't have lots of ammo, you could just find a spot to hide and wait for the PEs to drift over so you can pick them off without them giving birth too often. So in casual play it doesn't really work for me. And in the context of maxing a map, sometimes a PE decides to make a mess, and it's an irritating form of RNG whether those souls will get in the way in that current fight, or particularly later on. So, I guess I don't get the appeal. *shrugs*

 

I'd like the encounters leading up to the red key better if the area were scaled up by 1.5x or so, making it less awkward to do all the fighting up close (as is I safely killed a couple of HKs and cacos from the adjacent little room first). That would make the vile and rev fight more fun too. As is, it's mostly a jump scare, and then you retreat and harmlessly pick them off thanks to the monster-blocking lines that bisect this area (I'd argue those shouldn't exist either).

 

On the bright side, though, the map itself is quite solid as far as design, progression, and the flow of movement, probably the best in the set so far in those regards. Some maps are pleasing to look at despite not really having a professional polish, and this is one of them. I'd attribute that here to the persistence of water, and also the use of colors like white and green. In a continuous playthrough, I think I'd enjoy this one thoroughly. It's a shame actually that there's no BFG. This map is a really good one for it, because it's hard for any single BFG shot to neutralize any encounters -- in all of the tougher encounters, stuff is too spread out or too far away for tracers to do much. But what it'd do is reduce the SSG grind a lot and give many of the meaty monsters a purpose.

 

Edited October 9, 2017 by rdwpa

[Spectre01]

MAP09 - “Ruined Kingdom” by Tatsurd-cacocaco

Nice... You spend the majority of this level sitting at a max of 100 HP with no armour. This is all while fighting Chaingunners and mid-tiers that can easily 2-shot you while having the SSG as your best weapon. Yeah, nah bruh, this is bullshit. No, I didn't die, but I sure as hell played really slowly and frequently backtracked across to map to keep my HP near 100 so I don't die to a single Rev rocket. Sickening insta-pop near the keyed switches too, dude! More ammo and a green armour early on would make this level significantly more enjoyable. Otherwise it ranges from alright to lame. 

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP09: Ruined Kingdom

 

Other have pointed out the Plutonia homages here; I'm insufficiently familiar with the IWAD to recognise those immediately and instinctively, so I'll just say that I really like the atmosphere here, between the borrowing of one of Hexen's most haunting music tracks and the various castle, temple, and tunnel environments through which the player's route winds.  Unfortunately, as windy as it is and as much as it crosses back over itself or loops back to its central hub, there's still only the one route to take here; it's a very linear map, as if the early ascent-and-descent introductory section didn't clue you into that already.  Perhaps because of that linear nature, the combat encounters consist heavily of opposition arrayed in front of the player to be picked off at your own pace and with your own choice of tools, at least as far as the map's ammo balance and measured release of weapons will permit.  Based on the atmosphere and architecture I wanted to like this one more than I ultimately did; the grindy combat and inflexible progression really didn't charm me.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP09 Ruined Kingdom

 

Opening shots like this are quite nice, give us some detail before we get caught up in the combat. Then again, I could care less for first impressions given how many maps I've both played and completely analyzed. So a TSCC map with design and inspiration from Plutonia MAP08, honestly one of the more forgettable maps in Plutonia, despite the water running and central area, not a whole lot stuck out about that map. Tat's map plays similar to it, certainly. The watery opening, dealing with the initial opposition and the tube monsters before reaching that hub. And it plays pretty much linearly afterwards, a few nasty traps on the east side, and a WOS-style switch press on the west, all wrapping back to the hub. Fighting the last few monsters proved more bothersome than expected, its hard to fire rockets across the gap sometimes. Still I could rush through this map pretty well.

[rehelekretep]

*couldn't care less*

[gaspe]

MAP09: It was a rather nice re-imagination of "Realm", with a couple of other homages tossed in the middle. I liked that the map offered a sort of a more atmospheric trip done in Plutonia. If the level would have been more "sophisticated", especially on the visuals, I could have thought that this map was made by Eternal.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP09: Ruined Kingdom

100% kills, 3/3 secrets

 

I like the peaceful setting at the start, and the dual AV fight at the beginning is nicely designed. Unfortunately I didn't like the rest of the map as much - the (completely untelepgraphed IMO) instapop rocket launcher trap soured me, and the map is very extremely linear. Worse than being linear though is how the monster are usually arrayed shooting gallery style - one way into the room or hallway, with the monsters being unable to move, basically necessitating the player door camping. I was able to have a bit of fun with the blue key room (running in and hitting the switch to release the mancs, and then let them clear out the revs for me) but the red key room is really a lesson in tedium with the hellknights, cacos and player having nowhere to move. A few more lame instapop traps and shooting galleries for good measure and its over.

 

I don't remember Plutonia too well so I loaded up "Realm" after playing this one and wow-ee a lot of this map is homage bordering on rip-off. Thankfully there's some parts of it's own to it as well (the two key wings), and some I'd say is a good improvement (the double AV fight beats double barons any day), but still. I guess I would've expected the AV pop at the very end had I remembered Realm, but the first two instapop traps are still lame.

 

 

[Paul977]

Map 09, Ruined Kingdom

 

I'm quite fond of map 08 of Plutonia (not like the author tho, but now I want to replay it) and I really like this map. I've completed this map quite recently so I don't have any issue with the difficulty, which I found well balanced for my taste and in line with the level from which it takes inspiration. Excellent visuals of external areas such as internal areas, with my favorites being the red key segment and the exit area; but I like every parts of this map.

I also like the gameplay, linear but with a very well thought out progression; I completed the map at the second try without using the plasma rifle this time, so there is more ammo then necessary (having foreknowledge has helped me, I actually think this map is on the same step of Plutonia on UV not above, for what concern the difficult). Also the midi is great and fitting.

Good job Tatsurd !

[galileo31dos01]

14 hours ago, lirui1001 said:

Wait, nobody said something about the armor problem with this map??

I will!

 

------------

 

I'm going to adapt my comments to look like my thoughts on the reviews section. I feel like I haven't said enough in my previous comments...

 

MAP09: Ruined Kingdom

Death Count: 4

 

 

Tatsurd-cacocaco this time, their (don't know the pronouns) contribution here is a map featuring homages from Realm mainly, and a little bit of Baron's Lair. It looks quite appealing to me, the rocks texture is one I like a lot from Plutonia, specially in the first caves, combined with water which blends really nice. Lots of unreachable places for visuals, something I really liked. 

 

Gameplay is, as you can see from my time, pretty slow, I had to be very careful, more than the usual, only because of the lack of armor for the first 3/4 of the map. All my deaths went in the first quarter with the barbecuer brothers, so I finally decided to ignore them and ride the lifts. I'm not good at fighting two or more archviles at the same time with only a SSG and a small room, I always end up cornered or blind by double fire. Anyway, several pop ups serving only for jump scares, such as the family protecting the RL or the trio protecting the red skull (fun fact, you'll see this trio again in a future, on HMP at least). The two barons are only ammo sponges this time, which is a let down. Talking about let downs, two berserks in the map, yet the incidental pinkies come before. The lack of armor is another let down, and it really intensifies in the Baron's Lair trap: retreating is the best (if not only) option, and that's not all, walls won't protect you enough, so I had to retreat a lot and see fireballs clipping walls. You get rockets too, but like I said, without armor is too risky to go for them with the mancubus there. Apart from that, once you get the blue armor, the subsequent fights aren't that dangerous, and I barely got hit, so I'm guessing it's for possible mistakes with, archviles maybe? idk...

 

Two of the secrets are very powerful, rockets and plasma are particularly necessary for the last monsters. Without them, you'd probably have to resort to infighting or bullet/shell spamming. I didn't remember exactly how many monsters would teleport, so I used rockets very carefully throughout the map... On another side, the midi is quite good (I forgot to add that map 08's music is really smooth).

 

Ammo wise, which is something I rarely talk about, yes there is a lot of ammo, even if you casually want to punch a few stuff, you won't feel any sort of scarcity, except you are not fond of heavy bullets/shells action, in which case rockets and plasma could be presented earlier, only as an option for speedrunners, as aside from a few particular scenarios, monster placement is basically in front of the player.

 

Yeah, overall, I still liked the map, thumbs up, subscribe and shut down notifications. 

[Archi]

MAP10. Time: 10:52. Kills: 100%. Secrets: 100%.

Pretty small and enjoyable map. A bit chaotic enemy placement is usually a lot of fun.

prcp_arch_10.zip

[bioshockfan90]

MAP09: Ruined Kingdom, by Tatsurd-cacocaco|7:41|100% kills|

 

(No screenshot for this one. Beat the map beforehand and didn't have one ready. If anyone liked looking at them, don't worry, I'll have one for MAP10

 

 

I'm torn on this map. On one hand, it looks fantastic and the atmosphere in some bits is great. There are some fun encounters too- namely the "staircase room" with the revs and mancs, how the shape of the room changes. There's even some cool tough setpieces near the end to deal with! But on the other hand, the layout is incredibly linear and the combat outside of those moments I listed tends to fall flat. I really wouldn't know what to say other than this, I do recognize Tatsurd's design, and some of his editing quirks, but that's about it. I've rambled on long enough. :(

[Endless]

Plutonia Revisited Community Project
MAP09: Ruined Kingdom
HMP Difficulty, using GZDoom and Brutal Doom.
10/9/2017

I think I can understand the reason why it is called this, because from the beginning it gives a feeling of desolation, in fact, I was worried because I had the feeling that it was going to be a massive ambush, a gigantic trap that would kill me in seconds , but no. It's just a little '' enjoy the scenery '' at the beginning, after that we activate an elevator and the fight starts. This map felt as if everything was in a straight line, which is not as bad as you think, even though it has the section of '' In this room you need 2 keys, go and bring them ''.

 

The map I feel was nothing special, nothing out of this world, other than that I felt a strong sense of Heretic, I like it, I enjoy it, I think it can be improved a lot more, something simple is, except for the areas where there is attacking the Arch-Vile from afar, though nothing out of the ordinary. The map is very good, entertaining, it fulfills its duty. The atmosphere of the prince I must say that it felt great, I really believed that I would be surprised with 50 monsters at a stroke, and then if they did, but not in the way I expected, and in fact, I'm not very fan of ambushes.

 

 

0 secrets, yup.

[bioshockfan90]

MAP10: Bloodbath, by JC|9:22|100% kills|

 

 

Trying something new out tonight, so bear with me. 

 

So we start out in a cramped, tiny room. Not exactly the best starting position, but I'll bear with it. Some nice scenery outside, and a peek of what I assume to be a secret. Off to a good start so far. Computer paneling lines the halls of this brick structure (an odd choice but sure) as we blast past some low-tier baddies and pick up the RL and start shooting down a horde of cacoes outside. I find it really odd that for the red key door, they're using the skullkey texture to notate it, but the blue door uses the regular keycard texture. Clever mixture of Plutonic and techbase? Or am I looking into this too far? Most likely the latter. 

 

 

The imps out by the bridge don't really seem like they need to be there, it's just this one big horde that can easily be shot down and ultimately serves no purpose in stopping you. Up ahead there's a giant-ass building with some clever switch accent texturing and a manc sniping from up above. I tried falling into the blood after nothing seemed to click for me, and thankfully it wasn't harming. On the other hand, however, there was a pack of spectres waiting for me along with some much-needed SSG ammo. Down here we can find the first secret, nothing too hard. I think the invul's a bit too OP this early on, but it really doesn't get you that far aside from being able to take a more careless approach to taking out any monsters that stand in your path from the bridge to the building. 

 

 

The BK room has a great enclosure trap, having to rocket your way around some revs and hellknights. Nothing special here. I should also mention that the notated textures for the yellow key door look wonky as fuck. A rather pointless AV guards the BK door once you get back, nothing of note to see here. Once you get to the YK, things change quite a bit. The trap that opens up felt suuuuper easy at first, but then out of nowhere, an AV showed up on the other end of the bridge. And with it, a whole barrage of monsters. It wasn't anything too difficult, but it added gravity to the encounter, I suppose. Still don't know how I feel about that trap in particular.

 

 

Once we get to the YK room, the author seems to put.... a whole row of chaingunners like a target range at a carnival? Probably the worst design choice I've seen in this map so far. They have no purpose to be there. And... another trivial AV encounter? This WAD really keeps throwin' em at ya. At least the RK trap makes up for it, with a huge onslaught of monsters funneling in from all angles. From there, it's a cinch. Not much to say.

 

 

 

Overall, it's a damn good map with some odd design choices, like the inconsistent key door texturing (which is just nitpicking), the strange choice of putting AVs in easy situations or behind doors, and the fucking chaingunner row. But other than that, the layout's good, it looks good, plays good, has its difficult moments, and... Yeah, overall I enjoyed it.

 

 

that was tooo much effort augh

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Spie812]

map10 'Bloodbath'

GLBoom-Plus - UV pistol start - saves

^{[rip screenshot]}

This map was pretty damn good. The beginning started off a bit slow, picking off numerous cacodemons and whatnot through a pretty small doorway. Passing that, though, the level is all uphill from there. One thing that I noticed was that this level was full of traps. Not like map09's instant pop-up ambushes (although that does happen once too), but rather "hey, you're now locked in a tiny room with two revenants and two hell knights, have fun!" and I loved every bit of it. However, some of the traps can be extremely vicious if you aren't ready for them, such as the chaingunner line. There's also the occasional arch vile released on the other side of the map to cause you some serious grief when you realize they just resurrected everything while you were off looking for a switch or something.

 

One thing that I enjoyed was the red key ambush (I think it was. It is the key after the chaingunner line but I can't be bothered to check what color) Staying in that room and fighting everything instead of retreating to the bridge makes for a fun battle if you are interested in that sort of thing. Anyway, I enjoyed this level quite a lot.

Edited October 10, 2017 by Spie812

[Magnusblitz]

MAP10: Bloodbath

100% kills, 2/3 secrets

 

Well the name is apt, with lots of monsters packed into a relatively small amount of real estate. I found the start to be a bit boring, as you need to clear out most of the monsters outside (especially the cacos) with just an SSG and a small amount of rockets, so you pretty much need to wait for them to come to you. The starting area keeps the player pretty well protected so there's no real danger while you thin out the crowd. The yellow key fight is instapop nonsense. There's a nice swarm on the red key, which I ended up fighting from where the blue key was, abusing the doorway in what is probably the coward's way out. I think this map overdid it on the AVs, specifically the ones in the key switch cubbies could've been left out.

[Spectre01]

MAP10 - “Bloodbath” by JC Dorne

I enjoyed this one, aside from the questionable death pit around the blue key, correct me if I'm wrong here. Early backpack, green armour and enough rockets and cells made blasting through the enemies a lot quicker. The map itself is very small as far as playable space goes, and it's quite easy to retreat across the bridge from the bigger teleport traps. I thought the blood would be damaging too for some reason. The visuals are clean and functional, although there's little in the way of memorable detailing or architecture, which I something prevalent for the majority of this set.

[baja blast rd.]

Map 10

 

Fun little map. Gameplay is tailored more towards satisfaction than challenge. You get tons of rockets and cells, and a few pretty generous secrets, including an invul. The secret soulsphere also gives you a nice vantage of the fortress.

 

Bonus content is a couple of cool runs of this map. First Looper's pacifist. It's a short run with three separate tricks, an SR50 jump + thing run (SR50 alone doesn't seem to be sufficient), a glide, and an AV jump.   

 

 

Then a -nomonsters run by Cacatou involving two RJs and the glide. 

 

 

JC is a speedrunner himself so these tricks were no doubt baked into the map.

[Obsidian]

MAP10 - Bloodbath:

 

SITTING ON AN ANGRY CHAIR-

 

Ahem, sorry. I think I like this map: it's got a good structure to it, but the gameplay feels a bit....well, it flits between camping and ambushes. Half the time you're hiding away taking potshots (the start being the most egregious) and the other half you're trying to wade through a crowd of snarling abominations without getting your arse bitten off. I have my doubts as to whether or not this map is possible without foreknowledge in places, which is kind of irksome: maybe that's my lack of skill talking, but even so it isn't much of an excuse. On reflection, I think the only bit that truly soured the experience for me is the final key ambush: I ended up using the hidden invulnerability just to not get reduced to giblets by the Revenants that spawn in. If I were to take a crack at it I'd probably diversify the teleporting a bit: maybe have the Revs teleport onto one of the outside walls and have the chaingunners in the pit, something like that. Still a good map, just not quite my sort of thing.

Edited October 19, 2017 by Obsidian

[Cipher]

Map 10: "Bloodbath" by JC Dorne

PrBoom+, UV, Pistol Start, No saves

 

My basic thought is…that’s it? I can’t believe this came after Map 09. The difficulty scaling is all out of whack, as this is an intimidating-looking but genuinely toothless level. Apparently the author is a speedrunner, so I'll assume that's intentional. My issue then is less with the level itself, and more with where it falls in the megawad.

 

I died once on my continuous attempt due to falling into the inescapable nukage surrounding the blue key, having forgotten to press one of the switches, then beat it on my second attempt deciding to check it out from a “pistol start” (it hands you an instant SSG).

 

This level is way too generous. Ammo and health are plentiful, enemies are never positioned too dangerously, and it even hands you an Invulnerability to use at your leisure through a very telegraphed secret, though no encounter particularly demands it. I was shocked to find, upon finishing, there were still two secrets left for me to find, even after checking with the Computer Map. I can’t imagine what they could have been.

 

The Revenants by the exit can be harmlessly picked off from the balcony of the blue key room, and even the hordes from the level’s climactic red key ambush can’t cross the central bridge, meaning you’re completely safe once you deal with the Arachnotrons on the other side.

 

The map also drops a Plasma Rifle and a hilarious amount of ammo on you to take care of a single Arch-Vile and two Revenants at the end. What the purpose of the Partial Invsibility in the final area is, I have no idea, as you’ll be done with all the hitscanner combat by that point. Maybe it has to do with a secret I missed.

 

It’s fun in a kind of breezy way, but so simple it’s not very satisfying. No one who’s finished the original Plutonia is going to have to think twice about anything happening here.

 

Plutonia homages:

• Non-damaging blood floors as a general Casali staple
• The pillar with the Revenants and the exit is straight out of “Impossible Mission” (as it was straight out of “Suburbs” before that.)

 

Not a Plutonia homage:

• Being totally easy

 

Final tally:

 

 

Speaking of schizophrenic difficulty, map 11 from a pistol start is fucking insane. Will definitely have to do a carry-over run to get done in time, though it may be a few days.

 

Re: @Obsidian: "I have my doubts as to whether or not this map is possible without foreknowledge in places, which is kind of irksome."

 

It is. Minus the one time I stupidly threw myself into the nukage by forgetting a switch, this is the only level so far I finished on my first try.

Edited October 10, 2017 by Cipher

[Obsidian]

Heh, maybe it's my playstyle: I tend to be rather cautious and generally can't deal with more intense maps. I am rather shit. :P

[Cipher]

11 minutes ago, Obsidian said:

Heh, maybe it's my playstyle: I tend to be rather cautious and generally can't deal with more intense maps. I am rather shit. :P

Ah, no worries. I'm garbage-y too. I was just surprised to hear that comment directed at this level of any in the wad so far. Different playstyles, I guess.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP10: Bloodbath

 

Compared to the preceding map, this one is much more focused on a single playing area (in this case, a fittingly Plutonia-esque jungle gym of a castle) into which waves of reinforcements are repeatedly shovelled to oppose the player's progress.  The divided bridge that spans the central blood pool neatly stops most of these troublemakers from getting close enough to cause serious harm, so long as the player is agile enough (or possesses sufficient foreknowledge, perhaps after reloading following a gory demise) to scramble around each new battalion as it arrives; assuming this tactic is employed, the arachnotrons that appear in the southern node of the map can form quite the cheeky surprise for a player who lets their guard down after escaping the torrent of monsters that teleport in as the red key is snatched.  Mostly it feels as though each new ambush or encounter will claim at most a single pelt before the player is wise to the forthcoming trickery and has an opportunity to defuse or defang it by escaping to another part of the playing field; I'm not sure how the onslaught that ensues at the red key might play out should one choose to stick around and tackle the demons on their own terms, I'm too much of a lazy coward to attempt that when there's an easy way out available.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP10 Bloodbath

 

Another rocky Doom remix song, cool. And a map from JC, an unsung setpiece mastermind who doesn't get mentioned a whole lot in terms of setpiecers who do slaughter. A nasty level we have here, one where I sort of stick around cramped areas trying to attack enemies from afar. Never did like doing that, because snipers. A secret invulnerability makes things a whole lot easier. The yellow key trap is an obvious standout, hitscanners people. And there's at least two big teleport ambushes, after two keys, so some attention is certainly required for those. This one can be pretty rough to play at a breakneck pace.

 

err...screw it. I'm gonna stop playing this.

[rehelekretep]

why's that?

im interested because i mentioned a similar Plutonia fatigue @ map06

[lirui1001]

Map11: Will you be my NME? by Darkwave2000

 

 

Another map designed by authors of speed of doom. 

 

Do you think this map is NME v2.0? No. It is actually hunted v2.0.

 

Try to remember every single trigger point of arch-viles.

[NuMetalManiak]

2 hours ago, rehelekretep said:

why's that?

im interested because i mentioned a similar Plutonia fatigue @ map06

Because I played it before, and it more or less is just another Plutonia megawad. To be honest, it was probably the most boring of the Plutonia wads I've played, and I don't feel like replaying it anymore. Got a whole lot of shit to do this month in the meantime anyways.