Capellan

Mayhem 2048 MAP13 Quite an aggressive start on this one, which I mostly neutered by using my continuous firepower. Once the start was cleared, this was all pretty straightforward monster-chopping, with ample cover to give you a heavy tactical advantage and generally fairly lightweight teleport traps. The usual pcorf exit baron was replaced with an arch-vile. He’s a good candidate for hosing down with the secret plasma and the ample additional ammo that comes with it. That was the only secret I found. I suspect most people will locate it, as it’s a pretty obvious one. I think pcorf’s visuals are often more dynamic than his combat, and this is no exception, though I’m pleased to say that the combat would have to be pretty darn good to match up to the visuals: this is a nice-looking level.

The megawad club has kind of got me in the habit of mentally composing short comments about the levels I play. I need somewhere to put those comments. Thus: this thread. These are not proper "reviews". I'll leave that sort of thing to more conscientious folk like kmxexii. They're also just my opinions, so it's totally fine if you have a different opinion (and there will be times you do; I don't like Shaman's Device, after all). Feel free to post your own views, especially if they are different to mine. I find that sort of conversation interesting. How I Play WADs PrBoom+ (infinitely tall actors are ON) HMP difficulty Continuous Frequent saving No music Goal is to finish; I don't care about 100% kills or secrets There will be spoilers, should that matter to you. List of wads (alphabetical order, not chronological) Community Chest (starts in this very post) Community Chest 2 (starts here) (stopped on map27) Favillesco E1 (starts here) Kamasutra (starts here) (stopped on map17) Mapgame (starts: here) Mayhem 2014 / Mayhem 2048 (starts here) NOVA: The Birth (starts here) Realm of Shades (starts here) Sacrament (starts here) Scythe (starts here) Unholy Realms (starts here) Whitemare (starts here) Zone 300 (starts here) Community Chest I figured I'd give this a go since (1) the only CC I've played was the latest, and (2) anything that spawned three sequels ought to be worth a look, right? Map01: Pistol Panic ... and this is really not what I expected out of the first level. It's a lot larger than a typical map01, uses all three keys, is festooned with voodoo dolls for some inexplicable reason, and has a somewhat experimental feel to its gameplay. Full disclosure: I'm not generally a fan of experimental gameplay in Doom levels. I play Doom to shoot monsters, not to solve puzzles, engage in first person platforming, etc. So this level starts out with a black mark from me. And gets another one for the voodoo dolls, come to think of it. I don't like gimmicks. It's also a worrying choice for a first level, IMO. I think map01 ought to showcase what your Doom project is going to be about. Admittedly, that can be a hard thing to do with a community pack, but if you have a megawad that's full of slaughter maps, for instance, then I recommend you make your map01 also a slaughter map (an easier than average one, yes, but a slaughter map nonetheless). So either this experimental feel is a common theme to the levels of the set (in which case I will be less than thrilled about a lot of them), or it's not a good choice as map01 because it doesn't give a proper feel for the style of wad you've made. Anyway, enough tangential WAD theory. On with the level, which is at least honestly named. Because this level is all about the pistol. For room after room after room. Pistol whipping imps. Pistol whipping troopers. Pistol whipping an arachnotron and a mancubus. Oy vey. It's not like the manc or 'tron are tough fights, you understand. They're easy fights, thanks to plenty of cover and the monsters being restricted in movement. They're also really dull fights, because plinking away with the pistol is time-consuming and tedious. With the 'tron, you might be able to use a crusher to kill it, but I was playing blind and didn't know said crusher was an option. I did use the crusher on the imp ambush that followed. It was almost like a moment of fun! The other fun part of the level was chainsawing a caco. Which is damning with faint praise if ever I saw it. I used the saw because it would be quicker than using the pistol and - thanks to the caco's high pain chance - relatively safe to do. Anyway, I plinketty-plinked my way through the monsters on the map, found all the secrets, finally got a shotgun, and headed to the exit. There's nothing very interesting in this, gameplay wise, nor is the architecture especially memorable. There's a secret which feels like a bit of a nod to the iwad map01, and several elements that recall the original map02. Those are nice touches, but they don't save the level from the tedium that is actually playing it. The pistol focus forces the enemies to either be weak, or nerfed in some way, and that makes for dull fights. Put more interesting weapons in this, and tune up the resistance, and it might have been fun.

Mayhem 2048 MAP12 I like the visuals of this map a lot, and I also appreciated the comparatively relaxed tempo of much of the gameplay. While there were many teleport traps, they were generally only a small number of monsters, and often lower tier ones, at that. Not for this map the familiar “have a bunch of revenants and an arch-vile or two coming behind them!”. I was less a fan of the switch-hunt nature of progression. I didn’t feel it needed quite so many incremental steps. To a significant extent, it felt like the mapper was intent on making sure you visited every last one of the map’s 2048x2048 units. Personally, I think making some of those areas optional, but desirable for health/ammo/armour reasons, would have been a better experience. Still, overall a pretty good experience, this one.

Mayhem 2048 MAP11 This is a decent, if not particularly memorable, chasm map. I suspect this lack of memorability is because it’s been wholly designed for and tested on pistol start. In that scenario, I suspect it would be quite high tempo, as you would be forced to push forward to collect weapons and ammo. On continuous, though, it’s very easy to use the cover provided by the chasm’s multiple pillars to slowly whittle down the monsters high above you. Trading out at least some of the HKs for a slightly larger number of cacodemons would help, I think. Obviously every map is better with more cacodemons, but particularly so in this case, as the big, friendly tomatoes would be able to float down to the player and force them out of cover. The ending of this one also felt a bit abrupt; I didn’t expect the exit switch to actually be the end of the map.

Mayhem 2048 MAP10 This map makes a good juxtaposition with MAP09, because whereas Scypek2’s map is one I disliked because it’s not my kind of thing, this is one I disliked because, despite it being more traditional in gameplay, it’s got some fundamental design flaws when played with “classic 90s” Doom settings like I do: No allowance for infinite tallness, so you can get blocked by monsters you can’t see, or – even worse – ceiling decorations you can’t see High, very steep staircases that monsters can’t navigate, so they can get stuck. This is bad for non-hitscanners because they become largely useless, and for hitscanners because they can end up stuck in places you can’t see them to shoot them, but they have no such limits It’s also, frankly, pretty ugly. Fortunately it’s fairly simple on continuous play, so it didn’t take long to blast past it.

Mayhem 2048 MAP09 Scypek2 and I are on very different wavelengths when it comes to map design. I can appreciate that this is the map they intended to make, and that it is competently constructed to that end. I didn’t enjoy playing it, though.

Mayhem 2048 MAP08 I enjoyed this. It’s a nice-looking space with plenty of content packed into the 2048 box. It also features good use of various vertical levels to provide multiple, varying combat experiences out of the same basic area, as you frequently encounter new threats in areas you have already cleared before, but are now returning to from another elevation. Also a plus: I do like a secret that provides not just some goodies, but also has a tactical element. The automap secret in this level does that well. It lets you engage the spectres nearby without risk, and also to snipe an arachnotron.

Mayhem 2048 MAP07 Best automap ever! This is a pretty straightforward map – honestly it’s a bit one-dimensional, in its gameplay – but I find I can forgive that when a level is as breezy and as whimsical in its design as this one. It certainly doesn’t hurt that it’s relatively short. It’s also a map07 that riffs off Dead Simple by *not* riffing off Dead Simple. By that I mean that it’s wholeheartedly a gimmick map (literally, in this case, since it is the map that’s the gimmick) but it completely eschews the whole mancubus/arachnotron thing. If you’re going to do a map07 that doesn’t use the 666 & 667 tags, this is a good way to do it.

Whatever number it gives you when you insert it :)

Good find! @Steve D this Thing should be south-facing, at X -3200, Y 7680

Mayhem 2048 MAP06 A solidly fun castle-based romp, this. It looks nice and plays well. Didn’t get either secret; and even after looking in the editor, I’m not sure how you reach the backpack. The yellow key trap looks like it would be pretty rough on pistol start. A revenant (2 on UV) and a PE when you’re stuck in confined space with no cover and few weapons is quite the nasty combo. Fortunately for me, on continuous I had plenty of firepower to deal with it.

Don't worry. Map07's totally chill. B)

My recommendation to players is ... pace yourselves. There's a lot here, and taking breaks is healthy behaviour.

Congrats on the first public release @Steve D! I know it's been a battle!

Mayhem 2048 MAP05 There appears to be an entire room with the walls set to a texture that doesn’t exist in the WAD. How the heck did that happen? Map04’s nonsense meant I started this on 7% health, which – given the many hitscanners here – is a really bad start to enjoying this map. There’s very little health early on; though late in the map there’s quite a lot. In fact the plethora of health in the back half of the map makes “here’s 4 potions for finding a secret!” a bafflingly stingy thing to do.

Mayhem 2048 MAP04 Everything I disliked about the 1024x1024 maps I’ve played, just in a slightly bigger area, and with a Spiderdemon shit sandwich on the top. Do not want.

It's already the 31st here, so Happy Halloween :) Tetanus MAP11 The gameplay-free MAP11 finally pays off on that inaccessible BFG on MAP01, for I guess certain definitions of “pays off”. I’ll admit to being mildly amused. Tetanus Overall I feel most of my early concerns about this set were born out. The lack of anywhere to go for difficulty but “more monsters”, plus the very same-y aesthetic of every map, makes a lot of this blur together for me when I look back on it. It also reduced my moment-by-moment enjoyment of the set, because it all felt very same-y. That said, each individual map is solid from a level design perspective (a few minor things like some floating objects in map09 aside). Even the maps I didn’t find any specific nice things to say about were still solid to play: there just wasn’t anything materially new or different about them to what we’d already seen from the set. I think Tetanus would work best as something to dip in and out of, rather than the play back to back like we’ve just done. With more time to breathe and reset between the maps, I think it provides plenty of entertainment value.

Mayhem 2048 MAP03 Much happier with this map. I could do without the “sticky mud” sectors – I think the speedy movement is one of Doom’s strengths as a game – but the other effects like the deep water are well integrated into the map. Though said deep water was quite a rude surprise when I tried to run across the lake the first time! Gameplay is fairly simple and straightforward, but I always appreciate some judicious use of HKs, which I think we get here. Fun map. My enjoyment was certainly not hurt by finding the secret soulsphere early on!

Mayhem 2048 MAP02 Not a fan. So dark that I spent most of my time getting health plinked off by hitscanners I couldn’t even *see*, and then a frustrating switch hunt when I finally did kill them off. Flicking each of the 4 switches appears to release some monsters; I completely ignored the ones from the last switch and just ran to the exit, because I was thoroughly ready to be done with this map.

Mayhem 2014 / 2048. I'm so up to date and with the times.

Tetanus MAP08 I’m not generally a fan of “rocket launcher maps”, despite having made at least one, myself. But this threads the fun needle, for me. There are plenty of rockets, and generally enough room to use them without it being wholly suicidal. There are also plenty of barrels, which I always appreciate, especially when they come with swarms of riff-raff to gib in big clouds of gore. Thumbs up for that. Thumbs up also for the liberal distribution of health potions and (to a lesser extent) armour shards. I like it when there are plenty of those scattered about to hoover up. Probably my favourite of the set so far, mostly because I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did.

Mayhem 2048 This is the 2014 mayhem, so I am only 10 years late to the party! Which means there are only 24 years to go until this wad’s name becomes an issue for anyone still making Doom maps by then. I’m playing on the PrBoom+ fork with UMAPINFO support. No idea what that means vis a vis the 3 maps that are in slots outside the normal 1-32 range. If I can’t get to them continuously, though, I won’t be playing them. And as always, if I don’t find the secret maps, I don’t play those either. Continuous HMP, no music, as usual. While I expect all maps were designed first and foremost for pistol start, if you put ‘em in slots 1-32 (or 35, in this case), I’m going to play them as a single journey. Also, I’d probably get frustrated and quit a lot earlier, on pistol starts. The set uses the limitation “payable area must fit withing 2048x2048 map units”, so essentially a slightly less strict version of the original 1024x1024 concept. It may be a surprise coming from someone known as a “small map” author, but I’ve not generally enjoyed my brief taste of 1024x1024 projects. They often tend to be too heavily structured in terms of their encounters, and often have “quirky” progression. I guess we’ll see if I warm more to the slightly greater amount of freedom allowed here. Mayhem 2048 MAP01 Solid tech base opener. I suspect Jimmy intended me to use the chainsaw more than I actually did, as ammo seemed quite tight. The backpack secret feels of limited value; you’re never going to be anywhere near over-filling the base ammo limits. Of course, it’s also easy to get that it’s almost not worth calling a secret. Not initially impressed by the set’s cosmetic changes (these include darker imps throwing different-looking fireballs, and new zombie alert noises).

Tetanus MAP07 It’s not a Dead Simple clone, so that’s something. I would have liked it to use the 666 and 667 tags in some way, though, since it had no other distinctive gameplay elements to separate it from the rest of the set ... but it was not to be. I liked the semi-flooded tunnel leading to the exit area. Also the “the yellow key is optional and is in a secret, though you can easily see it” concept. I’m not so sure the yellow door is actually worth opening, though, on a health and ammo cost/benefit basis.

Tetanus MAP05 I like the concept and visual execution of the ‘underwater’ sections; they’re both a neat idea and a welcome aesthetic variation from what has gone before (and what most of the rest of the map looks like). I also appreciated that the map was relatively generous with radsuits, though I do think the lack of extra suits in co-op is a problem. If you have 4 players, there aren’t enough for you all to go after both keys together. And if you have some bad luck on your first attempt, you may be trying to do an entire wing with constant damage going on.

Tetanus MAP04 I quite enjoyed puzzling out the soulsphere secret – I liked how it made it easy to *know* that there was a secret there, but not how to unlock it. The actual mechanism for which was pretty fun, actually. I liked how its access/activation was ‘covered’ by the map’s main progression. I’ve also I think come around on the exclamation point flats and down arrow walls. It seems quite playful, on the whole; “I’m making it *really* obvious there’s a trap here, but you better be ready for it!”. That’s certainly the case with this level!