bioshockfan90

I've been playing Fallout 3 in attempts to beat it lately, and the molerats always surprise me. No footage that I care to dig up, just imagine being in a sewer and you hear weird noises and turn around only to see a giant molerat screaming in your face lunging at you. Fun times.

In other news, my writeups are going good. @brick was mostly right and things seem to have settled down a bit. I wish all club members good luck on the rest of the WAD, you'll need it.

MAP14: Los antros más íntimos 100K | 100I | 100S Jimmy must really like “The Inmost Dens” as this is the 2nd month in a row we’ve played a map of his in reference to the MAP14 of fame. This is also a famous map, at least in my eyes, probably being the 2nd most recognizable map from the WAD as it was written in the cacowards about some heart-shaped bedrooms and the funny translation it stems from. This isn’t quite the comedic powerhouse that MAP06 was but it’s nice that we still get some humor and the fun MIDI to roam around this in. And I do mean ROAM. There is a very hot start here, you need to be very careful about how you get your weapons and what order you do everything in, and it can even be a bit confusing to navigate to find the first key, after which most navigation should be trivial. The secrets here are pretty easy for a change, something I like as I was able to 100% complete the map. Difficulty-wise, on HNTR I did not have too much of a hard time but I can definitely see how some higher difficulties could get mean with monster placement. Most threats in the map can be dispatched after you either A. get the SSG or B. get rocket ammo, you do get the plasma gun but it’s kinda pointless on this difficulty. The layout is superb, showcasing Jimmy’s talents as a mapper and how interconnected he can make layouts play. As I said earlier, just due to the sheer size of the map and how many different paths you can take, it can be easy to get lost but you never feel like you’re stuck in some Spanish maze. I should probably also take the time to mention, although I haven’t written about it the theme of the past few maps has returned to the browns and silvers of the first few maps. Which I am fine with, just interesting that we’re going back to the “E1” theme after getting a new aesthetic in some of the earlier midgame maps. This gives MAP06 a run for its money but at the end of the day I gotta hand it to the wine crusher, yet again. God, what a great map. 4.7 out of 5. MAPRANKS:

MAP13: Centro de la ciudad 100K | 96I | 0S This is an interesting one as for the most part it would fit right at home in something like Doom 2 the Way id Did, maybe without the custom textures or some of the more grueling fights but this is pretty tame for what has been a moderately challenging megaWAD thus far. It also has all the great hallmarks of a Doom 2 city map - open layout, lots of places to go, platforming, and the overall *vibe*. It is still challenging though, don’t get me wrong! After getting the rocket launcher you’ll have to be careful and use it sparingly (as well as your plasma ammo when you get that) and make the most out of the health around you. The red key ambush is borderline cruel, you’re likely not gonna have that much health when everything spawns in and you can EASILY take a bunch of revenant missiles if you’re not careful (like I did). I got down to 2HP in this level and died quite a few times beforehand. It is a flesh-cutter, but again nowhere near the hardest. Should also mention I may be a bit biased here as this is an AD_79 map and I tend to like their maps a lot. Really good, Makes it into the top 3. 4.8 out of 5. MAPRANKS:

I'm on the Hell maps right now, and all I can say is... I WANT SPAIN BACK!!!!!

MAP12: La Fabrica 70K | 40I | 0S I probably should’ve explored this one a bit more, but I wasn’t really feeling it and decided to go as it was. This is a breather in a similar vein that MAP04 was, but seeing as it’s later in the wad it is naturally harder. Actually not too bad except for the horde of cacos and 2 PEs that pop up in the hub area. We’re still in green nukage, red accents, and metal textures and this general Memento Mori inspiration ‘episode’ if you wanna call it that. Geometrically, there is a lot of interconnectedness, and it does the sinky liquid thing I was talking about in my MAP02 post that I like in Doom maps, this time to a greater extent. There’s also a lot of platforming and returning to the hub area, with I believe a required SR40 jump in a narrow corridor that I kept failing. It’s light-hearted, as most of this WAD tends to be - and is pretty fun, but I’ve just seen such better sights earlier on in the WAD that even maps like these - maps that I would normally consider great - fall short because of what surrounds it. I dunno, it’s still really good - just below MAP09. 4.6 out of 5. (yes, I’m aware there’s an inconsistency in the rating, I don’t know how to explain it other than it be like that sometimes.) MAPRANKS:

MAP11: Círculo de la muerte 97K | 100I | 66S This feels similar to MAP07 in that there’s a central platform made of metal in the center guarding your ticket to the exit and lots of damaging floors around it, but there’s a lot more padding to this one and exploration. Very nonlinear as well, you can pretty much go any way about this and still end up with a well-balanced experience. Picking up the rocket launcher from the start is probably a good idea though. Blue key gives you yellow key, YK gives you access to 2 health secrets and a little sequence that takes you to telefrag the mastermind to get RK, and RK door is exit. In truth though, there’s so much more to this map. There’s a little desert area with cacti and a truckload of arachnotrons and revenants, there’s a “The Living End”-esque section with an archvile looming over you in a far off tower as you make your way up along the ledges, another tower (this time that you can platform out of to backtrack)... It’s pretty fun and I do like the chaotic nature the combat forces on you at the start as you scramble to get weapons, but on HNTR even I felt ammo other than shells was very limited and the plasma gun, beyond its initial ammo, had no ammo in the map. Maybe I missed a secret, maybe it would’ve been too OP in the map so this was an intentional decision, but some of the balancing here just felt off despite it still feeling rather fun and well-crafted. I made the MAP07 comparison earlier and this is easier than that and not as exciting so for that reason I will place this map below it in my rankings, but it is slightly better than MAP09 as more things are going on. 4.7 out of 5. MAPRANKS:

MAP10: Base de reabastecimiento 94K | 61I | 100S This is such an oddball, weird map and I adore it for that. Easily my favorite so far and I’ll divulge into why. You’re started with a PLETHORA of supercharges and megaarmors, but you get a hunch right off the bat you probably won’t be returning here. Maybe the 1 secret in the map takes you back here after a long fight? Nope. Just early plasma. Then BAM 3 archviles blasting away at you, and lemme tell ya, folks - you NEED to get past them unscathed or you will pay the price, as the only health after those soulspheres is in the form of health bonuses and 1 berserk pack you unlock as part of the OPTIONAL BFG route. Yes, you heard me - after getting the red key and barely any kills on the counter, you are technically free to leave should you want to. But right by the exit switch are 2 other key doors, and a whole other route to explore. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is face off against a gauntlet of nasty traps, archviles, and precarious cliff-hugging all for… a BFG and a choice encounter with like 6 AVs? Yeah, I don’t get it either. Maybe there was something I missed, but I had long since wanted the adventure to be over watching my health slowly drop from a pristine 200 close to the 50s. I had *enough* kills and decided, eh, screw it, let’s just leave this. I’m curious if there is any benefit to taking this long optional route other than a BFG for continuous players. I guess I’ll find out. I could talk about aesthetics and how cool this looks or go more in-depth with the encounters, but I’m in a storytelling mood today. Fight me. 4.9 out of 5. MAPRANKS:

MAP09: El Pozo 100K | 97I | 75S This map has been driving me cuckoo batshit bananas over the past 2 days and I’m glad to say I finally beat it. A majority of my deaths have been to the map’s grueling long start and slow wind-up of action with a bunch of fat (quite literally) to cut through to get all the D2 weapons and some secret powerups. I’m not quite sure why there needed to be a bunch of Mancubi scattered around the courtyard, but they do their job well as there’s plenty of imps and hitscans around to make dodging their fireballs even harder. Once you get a good start, it’s important to take out the Cyberdemon guarding the red key from afar with plasma before you even get a chance to get close to him. I am aware that it is possible to go up the lift and dodge rockets, but I tried it a grand total of 1 time before deciding this was the better, safer route to take. Once you get past Ol’ Cybie, the map peters out and just kinda flows from point to point with a couple keygrabs and maybe the only interesting part past the start, a horde of hell knights to take out with some rockets. Yeah, this map starts off strong but it loses momentum after you grab the blue key. Problem is though, said start is so good it’s probably one of my favorites in the WAD so far. It is the true definition of ‘run-n-gun’. I finally connected the dots on this particular part of the WAD’s influence, BTW. After seeing Memento Mori door textures I realized what it was going for and was able to appreciate it all the more. As for the architecture - well, I’m no expert, I’ll leave that to Catpho or Tarnsman to elaborate on, but I found it visually striking and appealing. Top 3 material, above map02. 4.8 out of 5. MAPRANKS:

MAP08: Trucos y trampas 100K | 75I | 0S A bit of a breather from the last map, ‘Trucos’ gives you a bit of wiggle room at the start to relax and enjoy some incidental combat before throwing a nasty archvile at you with practically no room to dodge unless you know it’s coming, followed by a rather mean blue key trap that admittedly makes for some fun situations with teleporting away to safety as HKs and Barons teleport in to the main arena of the fight. Aesthetically, the metal/Spain theme from MAP07 remains, almost feeling like something out of Plutonia yet again. Are we *sure* this isn’t Plutonia in Spain Only? I mean, the thing placement certainly feels like it. Not much to say on this one. It ends on a bit of a weird note with just a quick trek down to the beginning area’s nukage pit after hitting a switch to access the exit. I was genuinely expecting more gameplay until I noticed I had all the kills and hit the switch. So, it’s a bit short for me but definitely far more approachable than IWAD MAP08. Aside from a few nasty moments it isn’t the hardest in the set so far, nor is it anything that special. I would probably put it below MAP05 but above 03. 4.1 out of 5. MAPRANKS:

MAP07: Facil de muertos 100K | 100I | 100S If I had to guess what the translated title is, it’d be “simply, you’re dead!”. This map is mean-spirited, man. A good majority of the barrels, especially at the beginning, feel elaborately placed so that the tiniest mishap on a monster’s part will have them all detonating at once and sending you into the abyss. Traps are EVERYWHERE on this map, with it almost becoming comically absurd at one point in the map with a honeycomb-like space gradually lowering all its parts, then those parts lowering in on themselves and looping together like some sort of Gordian knot and every time you press a button, there’s more monsters either teleporting in or monster closets being opened and I just found it funny is all. The core of the map is honeycomb-like in nature as well, actually now that I think about it most of it is hexagonal in general. We get a break from the browns to a more Plutonic-guac green and metal, and I don’t just mean plutonic in color, I mean it in combat as well. While on HNTR there’s only 1 archvile; at that, he doesn’t pose that much of a threat - there are LOTS of chaingunners and revenants strewn throughout the map, as well as the standard Mancubi and Arachs that would populate a MAP07. I did not take the time to figure out what it is exactly killing them does, but if I had to guess it would have something to do with opening the exit up. On my first dozen or so attempts at the map, I hit a wall and kept dying over and over to the brutal start. Then I noticed a megasphere at the beginning, put two and two together and after successfully attaining the megasphere secret I was able to get through the map in my next 2 or 3 attempts. Do I feel like it’s possible without grabbing said secret? Absolutely, people are Doom gods out there, I’m just not one of them and therefore am grateful that the mapmaker decided to throw us casuals a bone. Is it just me or are SR40 jumps just part of playing Doom now? I don’t find it particularly hard, and I even use it in some IWAD maps to speed things up. I digress, I’m getting off topic. ‘Facil de muertos’ is cruel, hilarious, absurd, and striking in its design and aesthetic, both in terms of visuals and combat. It’s my second favorite of the WAD so far (sorry wine crusher, you stay at the top for now) just in how much of a departure from the prior maps it is while still sticking to its roots of a more ‘Vanilla+’ approach to its whole schema. 4.7 out of 5. MAPRANKS:

MAP06: La trituradora 94K | 95I | 33S This map is fairly long, with it having taken me around 8 and a half minutes to beat. Not long by any stretch of the means, but at the least medium-length. This is where things start to get funny, and it goes beyond a simple “Doom 2 in Name Only” approach, at least strictly speaking. There IS still a crusher in this map, only it’s being used to crush grapes… er… intestinal grapes to make wine. You walk around in the wine basins that damage you, there’s caskets EVERYWHERE in the map and barrels full of what I presume to be wine, this is a wine-lover’s dream right here! Beyond the humor this map offers on a surface level, we’re treated to a rather fun incidental combat ‘roamer’ (as I like to call them) with lots of fodder and the occasional mid-tier to SSG down. I’m glad you’re given an SSG at the start, it really speeds up the pace of things and depending on which path you pick, it could be vital. There are 2 options to go from the beginning. Either stock up on weapons and go hit the yellow key which is needed to access the giant wine crushing machine and face a rather trivial archvile trap, or roam the main courtyard the map is mostly composed of and face off against all sorts of baddies up in cages on balconies and strewn throughout the earth. Option B is a lot harder, and you will end up getting the YK no matter what as it is needed for progression, but there are some goodies in the courtyard area that can make your life a bit easier if you grab them earlier on. Nothing in this map screams ‘mean combat’ to me, it’s just very fun and approachable classic design with that newschool flair, a ‘Vanilla+’ if you will, a term I liken to the TWID series among other things. The humor is the cherry on top but stay for the tight punchy gameplay and fun combat. Excellent, top of the list. Bonus creativity point to that SLAPPIN’ MIDI! 4.8 out of 5. MAPRANKS:

MAP05: Los Tuneles de Residuos (forgot to get totals on this one) We’re back to a more realistic, albeit very exaggerated view of this fictional world containing a massive sewer system with multiple layers and crannies for you to explore, with a warehouse full of crates containing god-knows-what (judging by the later maps, probably wine) and a couple computery, basey sections. Most of the map is spent wandering on the outskirts of the giant pool of hazardous sewage water as there are no radsuits to my knowledge in the map, and collecting keys, going to areas, experiencing pop-up monster closets, rinse repeat rinse repeat. On HNTR there are a couple mid-tiers to spice things up, but for the most part you’ll be fighting hitscans and imps. This is fun on a primal level, but I feel like I can’t give it its flowers when it’s something so simple… then again, Catpho’s writing tends to reveal things I had never even thought about before when it comes to map design, so maybe in the simplicity there lies grandiose design and elaborate placement of everything. To me, it just felt like the Venice Canals but full of shit. Well, what I presume to be shit water anyway. Not bad, but nothing particularly capturing the magic of maps 01 and 02. Still better than 03 though. 4.2 out of 5. MAPRANKS:

Progression from a sketch to a finished map, all in 1 day. Been good getting back into mapping and having that spark.

Gameplay video of the first map in a planned project of speedmaps, 1st map made entirely in 1 day (today). Couple bugs, but I figured I'd show it off.

MAP04: El Foco 100K | 80I | 0S Finally, a breather! El Foco is a nice change-up from the quickly building action of the first 3 maps, and it mostly hides its danger in more of the mud/dirty water we saw in MAP03, and only so many radsuits to go around. I didn’t find myself in too much danger, and the minimal monstercount makes it easy to deal with chance encounters with the odd caco or two. It seems that the griminess of the prior few maps is taking on an abstract feel, with the architecture of this being more rooted in Doom mapping than reality. Overall, yet again my least favorite, but it’s not that it’s bad - it just doesn’t have a lot going for it. 3.9 out of 5. MAPRANKS:

Map Name: "Empty Wake" Author: bioshockfan90 Midi: "Lake Bodom" from Children of Bodom @ metal-midi.com Format: Boom Doom 2 Build Time: 59m30s Co-op Starts: Yes Difficulty Settings: No Gimmicks: Darkness!, Gore n' Bones, Going Down! Comments: first speedmap in a long time, yet alone 1h. nonconsecutive mapping, took a few quick breaks and it was coming down to the wire. secret added literally last-minute, couldn't do much with the darkness gimmick but it is technically in place. forgot to add animal and did so after all was done. overall really fun and I'd participate in one of these again should the time allow it Screenshots: EDIT 1: fixed 2 missing textures, there a few minor tweaks I want to make but I will probably wait until after being given the green light by project leads to do so as I am unsure if that goes against the spirit of the session or not.

Gave this a go and posted about it on my Tumblr blog to hopefully increase visibility. Got all kills and items on HNTR, do wish there was a secret chainsaw or something of the likes, but it's 400 linedefs, not much room to work with and what's there gets the job done just fine. Thanks for the WAD! Gave me something to break up monotony of other WADs and I think it deserves a bit more recognition. If you're reading this and you haven't played it - do so! It only took me about 5-6 minutes to beat and it's pretty damn fun.

MAP03: Las Vias del Tren 89K | 68I | 0S Ramping up the difficulty by quite a bit, this map03 will test your knowledge of weapon swapping and ammo usage, as well as dealing with on-the-fly encounters with this map feeling like 1 big pop-up-book of monsters as each corner you turn opens up another monster closet. There is a rocket launcher in this map, but I feel as if it doesn’t really accomplish much, at least on HNTR. I found it useful in clearing out the spectre hoard that guarded it but not much beyond that. This is possibly the most derelict-feeling map yet, almost feeling like a slum with flaming barrels and what is either dirty sewer water or mud. The map’s tight, constricted feel adds to this as well, making every fight feel somewhat claustrophobic. This map was home to my first death, then second, then third… you get the idea. It’s a big jump up in skill requirement. There are a TON of hitscanners in here and most of them are bolstered by projectile-shooting backups that can really put a dent in your plans. The beginning is particularly red-hot, giving you a berserk followed by 2 chaingunners, but the best course of action is to circle back to the beginning and punch out the Sarges to get a shotgun, 9 times out of 10 you’ll just get mowed down by the Chainies without it. The rest of the map does gradually get easier, but you’ll still feel the pressure in this grimy corridorfest. Least favorite so far, but it’s still quality. 4.0 out of 5. MAPRANKS:

MAP02: Salas De Debajo 98K | 50I | 33S Continues building on the wacky tone set by the prior map in a fun way, turning Tyson skirmishes into run-and-gun shotgun mayhem with a bit of Underhalls DNA in there at the very end, implemented in a different way than what you’d expect. The MIDI here helps keeps things feeling very light-hearted, although in my playthrough I was constantly on the verge of death. I just blame that on poor gameplay though, this map kicks ass. Water returns in this map, looking (I presume) pristine and clean, and part of the map even sinks into it at a point which is something I always love in doom maps (the immediate example that comes to mind is the sinkhole map from E1 of Ancient Aliens). The beginning is a bit of a ‘hot start’ with no real easy shotgun pickup for you to nab, at least that I noticed. I was forced to fight for my shotty and ammo early on in the map until I got a foothold. Again, newschool design, this stuff is expected and I welcome it. There are a couple simple monster closets as well to keep you on your toes, but nothing too advanced you’d think it was Boom format (which I should clarify, it’s not. This is all vanilla/limit-removing to my knowledge). Fantastic MAP02, I can feel the demons of CLAU1024 leaving my body and having this pharaoh's curse of quality mapmaking being breathed in by Tarnsman et. al. 4.8 out of 5. MAPRANKS:

Confused Dobu's OP on UDINO with UDTWID. Can you tell I just woke up? Anyway, it's funny, before I got involved with the club last month, I was playing a lot of this and got up to MAP31 but hey what the heck I'm willing to go through it again for the sake of it all. I personally was in my Non-Doom phase around the time this came out, but I did read the cacowards writeup on it and it sounded fun. I guess this is pretty thematically appropriate seeing as I finished Doom 2 the Way id Did for my own sake recently, and this is sort of a spinoff on that. You really can't go wrong with high budget names such as these. GZDoom, proper compat settings, HNTR pistol starts, saveless unless it becomes a slog, in which case I will attempt to drop down to ITYTD and beat the map on that before stepping it back up (but to be honest, I'm not expecting that for this one). Heeere we go! MAP01: Entrada 95K | 100I | 50S| A good Tyson map is something to cherish, and Tarnsman makes you feel right at home with the immediate tone set of this wad. Doom 2 the Way id Did? Fuck that, salsa midis and stucco city textures as if you’re in a crumbling Spanish grotto. There is a bit of hope in this deserted area in the form of a water pool that guards the key, but on the whole this is very brown and very dry. First-time players will be confused at their monstercounts upon reaching the exit (unless they are savvy secret hunters), and in my case, have to go back to find the secret chaingun and shotgun earlier on in the map. Screw that, back in my day we had to fight for our shotgun! No but really, this is super fun and super airy in its presentation and flow. Anyone that plays a map from the BTSX team/any respected mapper with that “newschool” design knows what to expect with clean geometry and sectors geared towards fighting. This is a MAP01 that is not afraid to put a bit of pressure on you and expects you know the basics of Doom before tackling it. I’m not gonna bother with any of the mismangled translated English titles for the maps as I assume others are going to take care of it, but from what I remember there are some funny examples later on in the wad. I can’t imagine being there for release and being shortly confused followed by “Ohhh, you got me!” and immediately being absorbed into this fantasyland. But yeah, this map is really damn good for a MAP01. Only 1 slot to put it into, but it’s most certainly at the top for now. Bonus creativity point for the whole WAD :^). 4.4 out of 5. MAPRANKS:

I plan on getting it around mid-October. Never been a fan of the TES series, but I respect the hell out of it and love the first-person Fallout games (sans 76 for obvious reasons). From what I saw in the gameplay showcase it looked fun, as someone in the thread said Fallout in space and it looks kinda cool. I'm expecting lots of bugs and general jank, but on the whole I'm very excited to check it out. First big AAA release I've bought in a while (excluding Dead Space 2023 but I have yet to play that. Can anyone recommend that to me?). Well, hopefully it's a good one and even if not I'm sure I'll get some enjoyment out of it. Should last me until Mario Wonder and then the Super Mario RPG remake, when they come out that is. Those are the main releases I'm paying attention to for the rest of this year.

Cool, right on! I should have some time yet today to go through phase 1, I'll let you know what I think about balancing.

FINAL POST - Below is maps30-34. Spoilered to condense post length along with final thoughts and top 5. I just wanted to say thank you for allowing me to participate for the first in a long time and I can't wait for next month! Cheers! :) MAP30: Thanatophobia MAP31: Skyscrape IV MAP32: Oil Rig MAP33: Nil MAP34: **NULL** FINAL MAPRANKS: Final Thoughts + Top 5 Maps:

It's okay, I will be patient with the release. Thank you for responding! :)