Nirvana

I'll second this. Can't help but feel that it's unfair to a lot of projects that took a huge amount of effort to make. The 'significance' of any project is subjective, a lot of people aren't going to be interested in these wads and yet they get special treatment and a lot more exposure than other mapper's work. The admin's opinions on which wad is or isn't significant shouldn't really have an impact on which wads get played more. Not trying to start a huge argument or undermine the level of work that went into this (or REKKR) but I felt like it is a precedent I don't want set and wanted to say something.

Fixed some stuff Bdubz mentioned in his post -namely the yellow key skip- and some other little things. Thanks for the feedback btw Dubz, useful as always :D Lilac Anomaly v4

You just did this exact thing to Heels for like 3 posts in a row... Having read all of your examples I still don't see why any of the implementations of difficulty you have mentioned would be considered 'artificial'. That is the part you need to define. Artificial seems to indicate that it acts outside of the bounds of some form of 'true' difficulty. If player skill is the determining factor for what determines 'true difficulty' then you have to find something that isn't a learned skill that is being tested by a map to call it 'artificial'. Foreknowledge is a skill because it involves learning the layout of the map (to say otherwise is to say that speedrunning in general is not skilful). RNG is a factor that is outside of the player's control but dealing with and mitigating RNG is still a skill - or dealing with the challenges that are put forward by RNG. I think a lot of what players determine as 'artificial difficulty' relies on their own presuppositions of what difficulty is supposed to be. This is the problem. The supposed 'objective term' is based on a number of subjective factors. It's ridiculous to determine this as 'objective', as if difficulty is some Platonic ideal that exists irrespective of human bias. You have your own personal assessment of what 'true' difficulty is and you are going into a mapset with that in mind, then it angers you when you die to things you perceive to exist outside of those truths. The fact is, 'artificial' isn't useful as a descriptor at all. Every mapper has their own definition of difficulty and so does every player. The problem seems to be when those two perceptions don't align, one of the two -usually the player- decries the other for being 'wrong' about what difficulty is. There is a reason Ribbiks constantly has to tell people not to play his wads on UV, because everyone has a preconceived idea of what UV is 'supposed to be' and it is very different to what he wants UV to be. These preconceived notions of what UV is 'supposed to be' need to go away so that mappers can feel free to experiment without being told they are 'wrong' when making wads that are of a difficulty level that they -and a lot of others- enjoy.

How did this trailer imply anything except 'there are new monsters and a new setting'. People get weird about video games...

New version that makes RSK fight harder to leave, fixes some midtex issues, rebalances final fight slightly and a few other touch ups here and there: Autumn Equinox v5

Also @Roofi if you could point out any texture misalignments that would be good -unless you just meant that the textures didn't match particularly well in your eyes, then that's a different story.

Yeah the version of my map that's in RC1 is totally broken. The masterminds block voodoo dolls and break teleporters, so likely not a great example of what the map is meant to be like :D

Hey @Obsidian RC1 has an old version of my map -a version that is entirely broken due to the resource wad being wrong. Here is the latest version: Autumn Equinox V4

Ok, used the correct resource pack for this one. Update is in my original post. Final fight has been tweaked as per Krypto's suggestions and some slight texturing changes have been made to the map as well. Thanks for the solid feedback once again Krypto, good stuff!

It shows up as a cybruiser in my map when using the Baron of Hell, so I'm not sure what to believe now.

Thanks for the feedback Krypto. Map has been updated with the issues you mentioned in mind, also added a little secret near the beginning of the map.

Added a secret fight to my map and fixed some errors. The secret fight is stupid on UV just as a warning.

Magnolia is an obvious candidate.

This guy just wanted to find different versions of a mod he likes, why did this thread turn into another shit-fest?

Yeah I'm aware of that. It still occurs after I edit the map irrespective of if I have added things or other player starts. If I save the map I have to add a new player start for whatever reason.