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dobu gabu maru

The DWmegawad Club plays: Reverie

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Reverie.jpg

 

What is the DWmegawad Club?

This is a place where we settle down, have a cup of tea (or drink of your choice) and take a month to play through a megawad on our own, together! Any keen observations, criticisms, or frustrated ranting about it goes here in the discussion. As long as you want to say something about what you've played, feel free to speak your mind.

 

Can I join?

Sure. The only rule is that you have to play at least some of the levels in our monthly megawad to contribute, but you're generally encouraged to finish the whole thing, even if you've played it before.

 

What levels am I allowed to post about?

Whatever day of the month it is, is the upper limit for the map you can post on. So if it’s the 6th, you may discuss up to MAP06.

 

Do I have to post an entry every day?

Nope, not at all. This is only for our more enthusiastic members. As long as you play through it with us you’re part of the club.

 

When do we vote on the next month’s megawad?

Voting begins on the 25th of the current month. Remember to add one “+++” before your vote to make it easier to count. For example:

 

+++ Ultimate Doom

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>>>DOWNLOAD REVERIE HERE<<<

 

Remember the classic PWADS of old? Well valkiriforce does, and out of that yearning came Reverie, a valkiriforcian nod to wads like Memento Mori and Icarus. Expect some delicious vanilla-compatible gameplay, as well as an occasional puzzle or two!

 

Maplist:

MAP01 - “Stratos Gate”

MAP02 - “Soldier’s Stand”

MAP03 - “The Cup of Wrath”

MAP04 - “Divine Judgment”

MAP05 - “Substance”

MAP06 - “Sledgehammer”

MAP07 - “Lazarus”

MAP08 - “Triplet II”

MAP09 - “Fracture”

MAP10 - “The Tech Towers”

MAP11 - “Hello, Cybie!”

MAP12 - “Armageddon Valley”

MAP13 - “Stronghold Earth”

MAP14 - “Tyranny”

MAP15 - “Blade Runner”

 

MAP31 - “Metal Mansion”

MAP32 - “Deadlock”

 

MAP16 - “Dark Zone”

MAP17 - “Fatality”

MAP18 - “Sleeping Spirits”

MAP19 - “Dusk Town”

MAP20 - “One Such Reverie”

MAP21 - “Sunrise”

MAP22 - “Egyptian Plains”

MAP23 - “Cyclone Rider”

MAP24 - “Sewer System”

MAP25 - “Sever Tomorrow”

MAP26 - “Fallen Angel”

MAP27 - “Godspeed!”

MAP28 - “Turbine Accelerator”

MAP29 - “Salvation”

MAP30 - “Final Doom”

 

BONUS CONTENT

DSDA

Doomwiki

kmxexii’s review

Newstuff review

----------

OLD THREADS

 

Edited by dobu gabu maru

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I have heard good things about reverie, but never played it. I might consider doing a write-up or two, if there's a map that captivates me for some reason. :-)

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Reverie stands out as one of the most passionate megawads that I know. You can really feel the author's love for oldschool mapping while going through these levels, and it's clear he was having tons of fun imitating the styles of different classic level designers. There is very little filler content, very few maps that seem lazy and uncreative, which is an amazing feat for a 32 level mapset made by a single person. It's a big source of inspiration for me as a mapper, something I can always return to and get some new ideas from.

 

Btw valkiriforce, HAVE YOU EVER HEARD ABOUT THE BLOCK SOUND FLAG? I've always wanted to ask.

 

01 - well, it's hard to get excited about a Map01 remix. The secret hunting makes it a little more interesting. Good memorable starting view, pleasant enough texturing.

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PrBoom+, vanilla settings, HMP, continuous, frequent saves, no music.

 

MAP01

For all that this is a wad ostensibly inspired by classic PWADs, we start with a homage to the Doom 2 IWAD opener.  It's a solid piece of work within that paradigm, but Entryway isn't a map I have much love for, so the riffs don't do much for me.

 

The window view in the west (with the tech columns just outside) doesn't work very well, I have to say.

 

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I will participate this month. I play with DOSbox , UV , No save.

 

01 - The first level is quite similar to the first level of Doom 2 , it could have been a good first level for D2TWID. But , on the other hand , there are chaingunners whereas there are only from the third level and after in the original Doom2. The layout is a bit more complex too and quite symetrical , you must press some switchs to access to the teleporter leading to the exit. There are also more details and the architecture looks more realistic.

I don't know what to say about the gameplay : just some weak monsters to kill ,  a green armor to grab in a room with blue carpet , the traditional elevator filled with imps protecting a switch and more elements which remind Entryway.

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Map01 "Stratos Gate" [UV pistol-start] - 95% kills, 50% secret

 

Swapped to chocolate Doom for this one, so come all sort of vanilla weirdness. 

Unsure what I was getting into when loading the map, but the opening shot certainly gave an impression of what the difficulty of wad will be like. Outside of that, the map felt heavily like a remix of Doom 2 map01, which was kinda funny. It is certainly serviceable first stage with some weaklings to kill with shotgun and chaingun. Music track was pretty nice, although bit overwhelming - for the action of the map, it was pretty good. 

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map 08 owns it belongs in the good doom maps bible

 

but i'll shut up about it for a week

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map01: Stratos Gate
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start

A short, soft, crisp, entryway like opening to valkiriforce's megawad. I failed to find the timed secret the first time through and had to try a second time to achieve a uvmax after consulting a map editor.

A small rant. I have a dislike for "Door Close Stay (after N seconds)" secrets. They usually involve players wasting a lot of time trying to do the impossible to trigger them, not knowing "the time ran out" and the secret is unreachable. The first time I saw this kind of secret used was in doom2's map27 "Monster Condo". The next time I saw it used was in "2002 A Doom Odyssey" map e1m9 "Lugano Base ZR-X" where I had to resort using a map editor before I could work out how to get the "5 minute" secret. Fortunately these kind of secrets appear to be reasonably rare in most wads, I sincerely hope it stays that way.
 

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All right, let's give this a shot.  ZDoom, Hurt Me Plenty, continuous play, with saves as and when I feel I need them.  For what it's worth I've played Revere before, up to about... oh, level 20 or 21 or something?  That was some years back and I don't remember it well.

 

MAP01: Stratos Gate

 

I will echo @tmorrow's sentiment re: doors tagged arbitrarily to close after a timer expires, since it's a mechanism that's sufficiently rarely used as to be unintuitive; I spent quite a bit of time flailing about in the exit room here trying to work out if it was possible to straferun out of a window and down into the outside area beneath, before a combination of other people's playthoughs of the level on YouTube and a quick peek at it in a level editor clued me in as to what was going on there.  Other than that... well, it's a compact level that's full of MAP01 Entryway flavour, so it's nothing to complain about, but similarly, nothing to get excited and write home about.

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7 hours ago, Memfis said:

Btw valkiriforce, HAVE YOU EVER HEARD ABOUT THE BLOCK SOUND FLAG? I've always wanted to ask.

Whoops - a question was asked I didn't answer previously.

 

I think so? I tend to rely on deaf monsters most of the time. I should mix it up once in a while though.

 

31 minutes ago, tmorrow said:

A small rant. I have a dislike for "Door Close Stay (after N seconds)" secrets.

Same actually, but that was one linedef action I wanted to scratch off the bucket list for some time.

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:D My first time being a member of the Doomworld Megawad club!
Here's my review of Map01:
Map01 start's off in an outdoor area but after stepping into the base it's obvious that the entire map is going to be a homage to Map01 from Doom II by just looking at the creative combination of the starting and ending area of said map in one single room!After getting the shotgun and having some classic Doom combat you leave the room and are confronted with 3 ways leading into different rooms,one being a lazier Map01 homage,the other being just a room with a switch and finnaly the final room.After clearing those rooms you beat the map!Well for a first map in a megawad the length and gameplay are average though i liked the small details a lot making it a simple yet effective Map01.

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Alright then, I'll try to see this one through (given my magical disappearance after MAP14 of PRCP... wonder why?)

 

MAP01: Stratos Gate

Eternity Engine, UV-Max, Pistol Starts, Saveless

 

Reverie begins with a short opener that combines aspects of MAP01 of Memento Mori and Doom 2. It sports a rather symmetrical layout but the detailing is quite nice. The timed secret was the best part of the map as it wasn't too annoying to get to. Fun start as a whole.

Edited by SGS Man

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Never played any valkiriforce maps before...guess now's a good time to start. In fact, I've played through MAP06 just out of impulse and really like it so far. I'm playing with PrBoom+, UV, KB/M hori, pistol starts, and occasional saving.

MAP01: Stratos Gate

Choose-your-own-pace Entryway tribute also echoes a bit of TNT MAP01 influence with chaingunner closets, extra button panels, a loop-around berserk pack secret. The music helps, too, and it all comes together as a map borrowing just enough from Romero and Mustaine but with an order and polish through which the author shines. That said, it's a pretty barebones opener, aiming to hit a balance of many fundamentals and set initial difficulty. I don't necessarily like the timed door secret, but it never occurred to me that there was one at all...this WAD seems extra cautious with obvious secrets so long as that doesn't hinder players.

The map trades out surprises and complexity for something less easily achievable: a player subliminally feeling, through just the first map, the author's purpose and what the WAD ultimately suggests. I noticed the asymmetric, oddly shaped player-start sector and wondered how something like this could end up right at the beginning. The relative boxed-in feeling I get from not achieving an exit to the outside unlike in the IWAD, joined by the climactic teleport foreshadowed by the lack of geographic continuity right from the start, brings up a notion that the player's taking control in the midst of a journey. True to its themes, Reverie made me ponder (just for a second) the quantum mundanity of the worlds Doomguy fights through, now that he's numb to endlessly iterating maps but excited regardless. This could be a kind of commentary on classic Doom gaming as somnambulism, or just a fun megawad story promise...why not both?

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It's the first wad by valkiriforce that I've played. It makes me very nostalgic, the wad really captures the heart of the iwads and many other classic old wads while it delivers its own things too. Worth of mention is the cool custom soundtrack.

 

MAP01: Not so much to say, enjoyable opener plenty of callbacks to Entryway.

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I first played this (on HMP) a number of years ago. Made it to MAP31 and was just stumped. And I hated that, and refused to take the easy way out, and just let it sit for a year or two. By that time I had upgraded GZDoom (still had the old versions, though) but figured I'd bite the bullet anyway, and pistol-started (which I hate doing) MAP16 back in early 2015 before finishing the WAD that year. It was fun, though I remember a couple of the larger levels getting rather confusing, in a what-the-heck-do-I-do-now? sort of way.

 

I'll be tackling this on UV this time, and GZDoom/continuous/keyboard-only as usual.

 

MAP01: Stratos Gate
4:12 | 95% Kills | 62% Items | 50% Secrets


I actually really dig the Entryway homage. Kinda working it backward, which I thought was cool the first time, and still do. Nothing too taxing here, other than making sure not to get shotgunned right away (I used a combo of chainsaw and letting them kill each other) and that one trap with the chaingunner closet (where I had been wavering on picking up those health bonuses because I was at 90+%, and then I was suddenly down to 50% anyway...) Pretty fun enough for a MAP01, but it already features two of my least favorite mapping decisions: one-shot (timed or not) secrets, and exits that aren't clearly marked as such.

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I haven't participated in any DW megawad club threads before, I remember playing through Reverie on co-op with a friend several years ago and this is a nice wad to start with.

 

MAP01: Stratos Gate

Played on Crispy Doom and UV difficulty

 

A nice opening with some chainsaw action and luring the first shotgunners to kill each other. I died once to the chaingunners but breezed through the map on my second try. There are no real complaints on this opening level, although I do share the opinion on the timed secret (not a fan of it).

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UV, pistol starts, recording demos!

i may well continue with just posting the demos for now; unless a map really excites me and i have to write something down (hopefully positive! :D )

 

map01 fda

its a doom map! i liked the chaingunners; they add some bite to a normally dull map01.

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Reverie, good one. It hasn't been so long since it came across to me, so I still have fresh memories of it. My settings: Crispy Doom, UV, pistol start, 100% everything without cheats (iddt), tally in spoilers, pictures maybe, and saves every 10 or so minutes if needed. I'll also take the opportunity to help with the secret-hunt (NuMetalManiak, hi) in spoilers, since I recall having serious troubles to find them. 

 

MAP01: Stratos Gate

UV/Pistol start/No saves

Deaths: 0

Spoiler

DOOM05.png.82c7c4ab2571767a2132479fb45c2d67.png

 

Nostalgic midi for the menu screen, brought me back to last summer when I was dealing with the iwads. The tally's background is funny, too good for the zombie I cannot pew pew him. Ok, very simple and nice Entryway-ish map, with a nice midi. IIRC there are zombiemen at the beginning and no chaingunners on lower difficulties, so the chaingun is obtainable here on UV. I liked the exit little room, makes maps have a sense of continuity, something not common this days. Not much else to say, you can tell by the texturing that is going to be a journey to find all the secrets, always look for the same piece of structure that has a slightly difference from the others. In this case:

 

Spoiler

1. In the room with the green armor, look for the texture that has 2 blue triangles. Open it to find a berserk and the switch to open a stairway with bonuses and imps, leading to the first entrance room.

2. In the exit room, hop on the ledge of a computer panel (either are ok) and straferun through the window to fall on the grass (took me a while). There's a shotgun, shells, and several bonuses, as well as a couple of imps. After reading some comments, it seems like there's a timed small opening to find this secret earlier (though the other method takes you to this opening, as the return to the main building).

 

Edited by galileo31dos01

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Map02 "Soldier's Stand" [UV pistol-start] - 100% kills, 100% secret

A relatively nasty welcoming committee, but rather manageable. Weirdly enough map uses bunch of arrows on floor to point progression, which I personally think is bit lazy way of handling conveying such information to player. 

Outside of that, I don't have much to say. 

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MAP02

The blue key fight is easily the most memorable part of this map. A good example of how to create a tense and dynamic fight with only E1 enemies.

 

Progression feels a bit odd and arbitrary. It's easy enough to work out, it just doesn't make any sense as an actual place someone would build.

 

I am not a fan of the one-way teleport to the exit.

 

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map02: Soldier's Stand
zdoom2.8.1, uvmax, pistol start, no saves, first time played

I got stuck for a while on this map wondering what one of the switches was doing and being confused by the player start lifts clunking away as they repeatedly kept going up and down. The computer map secret was very well concealed and took me some time to find. The most notable fights were at the beginning of the map and the blue key trap.

 

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02 - very good Map02. The crater theme is surprisingly fresh and results in a unique outdoor view. The texturing is nicely rich everywhere (straight walls with multiple vertices on them). I especially like the room with Plutonia bricks. The midi's composition is a little too simple maybe.

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I don't know how to insert a quote into another post.

1 hour ago, floatRand said:

Weirdly enough map uses bunch of arrows on floor to point progression, which I personally think is bit lazy way of handling conveying such information to player.

I have a feeling the arrows were added after some playtesters complained about obscure progression. I remember at some point valkiriforce said he started to feel like the project was becoming something it wasn't meant to be due to other people's input.

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Map 02 : Soldier's Stand

 

591px-Reverie_MAP02_map.png

 

This map takes place in a tech base isolated in a desertic area. There are more monsters to kill but the bestiary is still very weak , so the level is not hard at all. The layout is very symetrical like the first map , but backtracking is  needed to finish this level. There are plenty of ammo but the scattered barrels shall help you to kill those little freaks (but don't kill yourself...) Along with the first map, the level also ends with a teleporter. I think this is a interesting little gimmick from Reverie , why not. The music is perfect for a chaingun massacre !

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MAP02: Soldier's Stand

Another swift hitscan squad awaited me, giving just enough opportunity to grab the shotty and conserve ammo by lining up blasts. Efficiency's the goal in this map, with key steps in progression hiding away in forgotten cubbyholes while the base stuffs itself with hidden rooms. This bunker doesn't expect visitors, nor does it give much to its keepers. Imps bide their time below the pillars and the Monolith stands guarded by apes, observed from afar by curious soldiers. Perhaps they sense how odd this backwater outpost has become.

It plays quite well for its size and simplicity, with a cool encounter in the pillar room and more barrel fun elsewhere. The symmetry loosens up here with distinct parts of the compound serving different purposes (contrary to the bizarre crusher-like door lifts). Computer secret has totally evaded me, so I expect the WAD to have even more cunning secrets later on.

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I liked @valkiriforce's vispire and oceanside a lot, so I'll probably play through this one too.

 

Map01: I like how the first map I play after posting in the "Opinion on secrets Blocked off" thread is a map where a secret gets blocked off and waste time because of it.  Thanks valkiriforce!  Okay map though.

 

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MAP02: Soldier's Stand

 

This one's a bit more substantial, though the lion's share of its real estate is given over to a mostly-cosmetic vista that the player only sets foot in at the very end of the map, approaching and entering a spooky monolith rising from the middle of a barren moonscape in a shameless but entertaining riff on 2001: A Space Odyssey.  Most of the accessible footprint is a small base, built into the edge of that lunar landscape and stretched out from east to west, through which the player has to travel in search of a teleporter toward that distant-but-visible monolith; it's a nice bit of visual storytelling and guidance.  On the other hand, I'd agree that the pointing arrows feel a little bit odd, or perhaps at odds with the disguised lifts that they point toward; I'm not able to discern the mapper's intent with this conceal-and-reveal strategy and it leaves me feeling a little disoriented as I make my way through the back end of the level.  I did like the nesting of the second secret (or at least the means to access it) within the first, though.

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Not day 2 here but whatever.

 

MAP02: Soldier's Stand

UV/Pistol start/No saves

Deaths: 0

Spoiler

DOOM06.png.66043d5f23b5f824ae098ba2968b16ee.png

 

Another short simple map, where the playable area is maybe 1/3 of the whole map. I didn't have much troubles aside from the start with the zombies, it's still low-tiers with the regular shotgun and chaingun, yet former humans are still the only danger. Arrows in the automap start to appear, yeah Reverie has a lot of indications in the form of arrows or colours to point out. I don't see any harm in providing some help, after all this is a mapset in the style of the 90's, maybe the arrows shouldn't have been there and let the player explore empty cabins and expect to be taken downstairs automatically. Whatever the way, I still like it. The midi reminds me to the intermission screen midi in Doom I (E2M3), only this one seems to be longer(?), I liked it. For the secrets, well one of them requires perfect observation skills, because it's hidden like a chameleon, and I had to resort to a video (on my first playtrough) to see it. The other switch requires the player to have at least one eye working:

 

Spoiler

1. At the start, go to the central area with a switch in the middle. Look at the left, between the texture with two triangles and hinges(?), there's a small square in the middle. Hit it and flip the switch inside, then quickly take the lift next to it. Step on the teleporter, which takes you to a room with a computer map and other goodies.

2. In the small room from secret 1, shoot the panel with flashing lights. It opens a door in the same room which contains a mega armor. 

 

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