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I hope during the weekend! :)

Doom64 always reminded me of the Alien film which is quite Lovecraftian in the cosmic unknown horror sense. Thus I would recommend Dawn of Reality That is a realistic map though. Not sure if that qualifies.

Finished. Didn't run into any issues after map20. Favorite maps 8, 10, 18, 20, 29, 31, 32. I will play this again in coop in the holiday season. Hopefully RC2 is ready by then :)

MAP20: You can get stuck in sector 345 You can easily bypass the blue bars from the right side and exit the level:

A couple of more issues in MAP19: Overall this was the hardest level so far. Not because fights were too tough or lack of resources but because I got lost and frustrated multiple times. There are so many switches it's easy to miss one and feel confused for a long time. Or you just can't figure out what the switch opened. Also the floor buttons were sometimes hard to spot. One example was this switch: It took me more than two hours to finish MAP19. Two hours is not bad per se, in fact it took me even longer to play MAP32. The difference is that I wanted to stay in MAP32. I wanted to figure out the secrets. MAP32 was complex but it was so well interconnected and you could often see to the other side of the map. I knew where things were, and reading the map made sense. In MAP19 I sometimes got stuck even with the map. I wanted to get out as soon as possible after the first hour. Visually MAP19 is stunning. If it weren't, I would have probably skipped it after an hour. I hope it can be tweaked to be a little less confusing. Or maybe I'm just tired and don't know how to play.

MAP19: Near the beginning you can get trapped here, no way out.

Is this the author's face?

I like the silver Cacodemons. First time I heard the shrieking it went all the way down to my balls. Now I'm just scared in a milder way. If they kill me, they are just doing their job and I'm not doing mine. This experience is on HMP. I want to say I really like the secrets in this megawad. You can almost always see them and then you just have to figure out how to get them. Some can even be reached in more than one way. I don't like "I'm a secret wall, go hug all the walls in the level to find me!" ie. Wolf3D kind of secrets. Those are boring.

I have finished the first three episodes on HMP (including secret levels). The massive fight on MAP05 was the worst so far. The last fight on MAP14 was hard but I accidentally ran to the exit, so it could have been harder than the fight on MAP05 had I stayed in the level. The yellow skull key fight was pretty tough on MAP15 but manageable if you took cover at edges of the area and relied on infighting.

In MAP32, is this tiny strip of conveyor belt intended to be here? It moves the player quite fast.

Another issue in MAP32:

MAP32: Is it really intended that there's BFG here only for UV? Damn, this is a beautiful and complex map.

MAP31: This torch is too close to the edge. It might fall over and set the whole level (or even the whole megawad) on fire. Please adhere to fire safety regulations while crafting maps.

MAP13: linedefs 1138 and 1140 (grills) should be impassable

That's correct. Romero said on his Twitch stream that there's no limited amount, only the two week time limit.

Played the first ten maps so far. MAP08 is my favorite for now... or maybe MAP10. Hard to decide. I just hope these maps would never end and I'm starting to fear the exits. On MAP10 at the very beginning you can run across this fence via a crate. Not sure if intentionally left for speed running.

Oh boy, this was such a lovely detail! (Don't have to wonder what that switch did!)

When can I place a pre-order for a $166 limited edition physical copy (including a pewter statue of Dragonfly's head on a spike) of this free megawad? How many can one person order? If it's only two per person I'll take two $166 copies and one $39.99 standard version, thank you!

Enjoyed this a lot! Sweet spacious tech-base with well interconnected areas. Didn't get lost at all, switches opened always something you could see or very close or the enemies or design lead naturally to the new area. The texture set looks great and you made good use of it. Also the MIDI sounds good and fits the level. I played this on HMP and it was a bit too easy (too much ammo, too few enemies) and then tried it again on UV which wasn't noticeably harder. I feel UV should definitely be harder. For example the Cyberdemon fight is way too easy because you can kill it from the higher platform near the beginning without any resistance. Need some more pressure there (Cacodemons?).

Very accurate description! It was hard to stop testing this! Played the first three maps with GZDooM. On MAP03 you can press linedef 1076 from below

I'm getting 404 maps. "That file isn’t here anymore", says Dropbox

Yeah, I think that would help. I switched the alternative HUD off when I noticed it's causing issues, so it didn't bother me that much afterwards. But if you want to make it even more explicit I guess a constant glow (same as in the firing animation) could help the player remember the powerup? By getting stuck I meant that in some level I didn't notice the bombs until I had killed the big fight without them and then I saw the bombs following me. I tried to take them with me (read: make them follow me) to another area but they got stuck in a wall somewhere. Those changes sound good. Forgot to suggest that some treasures would also lure the player in for sure :) Is the new version available somewhere? Oh, didn't realize there's a teleporter/portal. I don't know how portals work so my suggestion might suck but is it possible to move it further back the stairs to a point where you can't shoot Trolodon from the other side of the portal? How about making the brick wall that leads to the golden key floor button a single brick thick wall like this:

I watched a friend play the first level. He has never played the original Hocus Pocus and he didn't know about the destructible walls and consequently didn't figure out how to finish the first level until I told about the walls. I think a wizard could tip about those bricks or you could make a "tutorial" wall, e.g. a destructible wall that has half the bricks already missing and then you see enemies behind and when you try to shoot the enemies you'll realize the walls can be shot. I actually got into a similar situation in map40 with the laser walls. It took a while until a accidentally realized I can shoot the lasers. If the "Rabbits stink" signs in the very beginning of the level were replaced with those lasers, I think it would help the player to learn they can be destroyed. Speaking of map40...

Thanks for the suggestion. It's not AA though. There's definitely a Spider Mastermind there right at the start.

Player start is at the edge of a large circular area with light gray walls. Sky is visible. There's a Spider Mastermind in the center. Not enough weapons and ammo to kill it so you need to activate a crusher or just ignore it. You can exit the area by running at the corridors at the side of the circle. After leaving the circular area you come to a large open cliff side with brown rock textures and water at the bottom. You need to go to the other side on the ledges to get a key and then enter a narrow hallway and somewhere there's an exit. The exit is in smallish cavern with brown rock and water. I think it's a pretty recent map. Played it this year. Can't remember if there were other maps in the WAD.