Lorenz0

I feel like this is a bit too important to ignore. I find this wad really hard to play because of the old iwad midis, that I've heard a thousand times, running in the background. This community is full of talented musicians and finding some good and fitting music really shouldn't be that hard. You don't even need to commission any new pieces, since there's so much of it already. I recommend going through some of these collections by Jimmy, Psyrus, Eris, and using some of these in your wad.

Maybe I spoke too soon when I said this wad is accessible, map05 seriously kicked my ass lol I assumed this meant the remaining maps would be really hard as well, but no, map05 was the only one, so perhaps it's a singular case of sub-optimal balancing for hntr? I found the rocket launcher fight with revenants and hellknights to be the hardest. I beat the whole wad by now and enjoyed my experience a lot. MAP32 was insanely impressive from a technical aspect, even in a project full of technically impressive maps, though it was also much easier than what I had gotten used to, surprisingly. Except for the "shhh" encounter, which was a bit too tight and gimmicky for my liking. Idk how you can get through that without savescumming. Btw keep in mind I played on continuous, so my experience may have been different from pistol starters.

It's been a while since I played 20x6, so maybe I'm remembering wrong but I feel like Fractured Worlds is a bit easier than that, at least so far. Also when I said "more accessible", I didn't only mean the difficulty, but also the layouts. They're relatively straightforward and hard to get lost in, which I appreciate.

Incredible mapset. I'm 4 maps in, playing on hntr, and I'm having a blast. I think this wad could be described as a more accessible Stardate, which fits my taste so perfectly that I can barely believe it's real. I love setpiece-style fights and the visual theme a lot. All the detail and lighting effects only make it better.

So many great mappers to consider... I'd probably go with Tango, AD_79, and Deadwing. I feel like we could create a consistently enjoyable megawad together lol

The NOVA series can basically be considered the successor to Community Chest. Three entire cp's on a similar level of quality as cc4.

Pretty cool idea. I can't participate right now, but I like this mod, so maybe I would join another time.

One of the first: Unreleased One of the latest: Can be found here

@The Kingslayer I haven't started mapping yet, but I should be able to get it done in the next few days. I'll let you know then.

MAP30 - An Eye for an eye hmp/continuous What a finale. It's good to end a megawad on a high note once in a while. This whole map is essentially a big arena densely populated with monsters, with even more spawning in at every opportunity. The only time you spend outside of the central battleground is when you venture into the two key paths, which both feature unique gimmicks. One setpiece contains 4 archviles and a wall lowering, which makes it so you have to kill them quickly. Pretty cool idea. The other path has a much weirder gimmick, with floors and ceilings raising and lowering (probably not) at random. Interesting space limitation for the player, I'll admit, but having to use one of these floors as a lift to get on the platform above is really annoying. And I especially don't like it, because you're swarmed with cacos as soon as you get up the platform, so it's easy to fall back down and have to repeat the whole process. Every time I had that happen I just used noclip to save my sanity lol. The final fight when the Icon of Sin is revealed is the hardest in the map. It can be really difficult to prioritize the right enemies when they're all congested together. Especially because this map actually forces you not to use freelook! I guess it's to prevent cheesing the IoS, but it also makes all the previous fights harder, since your rockets never fly where you want them to. I can't believe some people like to play that way all the time, but I guess it's just a matter of preference. I didn't mind it for this one instance. Btw this is honestly the exact kind of difficulty I expected from a wad closer such as this. It's not as challenging as map28, but comes close. I also really like the midi used here. It's epic and dynamic. Very fitting for this kind of map. - - - So, about the whole wad; it's honestly better than I expected it to be. It's more consistently good than any of the Nova community projects, featuring a variety of maps similar to that of JPCP. It had its ups and downs but I'll always remember it fondly. It's also the first time I completed a megawad along with the DWmegawad club, so that's gotta count for something. So for the last time... Order of preference: I'll get to the secret maps in my own time eventually...

Okay, that makes more sense then. Very unfortunate mistake.

MAP29 - World's End hmp/continuous There's a chance it's just me being dumb, but I honestly think this map sucks at communicating progress. I felt lost at numerous occasions. Firstly, when I initially jumped onto the ship containing the blue skullkey, I thought the gap in the bars next to the key is where you need to go, but that just loops back into the spawn area. Turns out you have to jump from the side of the ship onto a different one, that's not immediately noticeable, since it's located lower than this one. Then I thought the wooden planks outside the ship lead to more progress, but no, that's just a very obvious secret. And another one on the other side. But okay, those examples are not big deals. Then after killing some monsters I found myself next to a yellow door and a switch. I assumed that the switch would lead me to the yellow key and that would be it, but no, it just lowers a lift leading to a small room with a soulsphere and nothing else. So what now? I tried exploring all available areas, found another secret and a mega armor hidden away in a corner. So where is the yellow key? Who knows. I took a noclip tour throughout the whole map and didn't even see it once, let alone find a way to get to it. I ended the map by noclipping through the yellow door to activate the final fight, killed some monsters and exited. When your secrets are substantially easier to find than the way forward, there's something seriously wrong with your map. This kind of lacking signposting seriously made me enjoy this map a lot less than I should have, since I think the fights are pretty decent, and the visuals are really good with all those ships floating around. That's a seriously cool aesthetic, but doesn't make up for the frustrating layout. Order of preference:

MAP27 - Last Ruin hmp/continuous I don't know what it its about those ruined buildings on the void horizon, as well as the strange red pillars, but when I first started playing this map, they struck out to me as one of the most spectacular sights of this entire megawad. Maybe it's the void theme that's giving you the advantage, but I think this whole level overall is one of the best looking in the wad. It feels so alien in a good way. Anyway, welcome to the hardest map so far. I guess it should be expected of map27, but the difficulty here ramps up drastically in comparison to what came before. There's usually not much space to move around and monsters are trying to overwhelm you at every opportunity. Pistol starting the previous map didn't leave me with much arsenal to deal with some of these encounters easier, so I had to restart a lot of them quite a few times. The fights are really well crafted though, so I'm not complaining. Maybe except the double key fight at the end. With barely any space to move around and walls lowering/monsters teleporting at random it's very unlikely for the player to get through those waves without knowing where and when are the enemies approaching. So a few restarts seem basically mandatory here. Excellent map overall though, definitely one of the highlights of Skulltiverse. MAP28 - Void Hydroprocessing II Anyway, welcome to the hardest map so far. ...wait a minute - This one goes full on slaughter, even harder than the previous map. I don't know how I would've survived some of these early fights without the bfg from Last Ruin. The rockets really don't seem to be enough for the hellknight/revenant swarm. After a brief period of reprieve, we go to the next and last big fight of the level. It's just cacos and a few cyberdemons, but I really like how this fight is designed. You're not locked in the blue key arena, so I initially tried escaping down below but that didn't turn out to be the right strategy. The number of cacos is simply too overwhelming. Staying where the fight started actually seems to be the most viable option. You have to make the cybs infight or you're gonna have a bad time. Visually speaking, the map is pretty good. The layout reminds me a bit of some of Ribbiks' work. Order of preference:

Skulldash There's also Jumpmaze for multiplayer.

MAP26 - Beyond Life Pistol starting this one felt right, so that’s what I did. A start of a new episode! The void theme is a very welcome change of pace, but even if it wasn’t, this map is not bad looking at all. Not spectacular, but does the job well. I thought it was pretty interesting to start the map off with setting the player’s health to one and having him scramble for survival. However as it turns out, that gets old pretty fast. Throughout most of the map I thought “the combat here is decently enjoyable but it would be a lot better if I could actually take a hit”. That gimmick feels like a failed attempt at creating a more sinister atmosphere. The midi carries it well enough, no worries. Anyway, I don’t hate this map, it’s just a bit annoying. I don’t know what lost souls did to this author, but he seems to love them a lot. Order of preference:

MAP24 - Pustule hmp/continuous What an intense hot start. Those archviles can be pretty terrifying while you're running around, trying to get a feel for the arena. Playing on continuous definitely gave me an advantage here. As for the arena itself, it's fairly simple - just a big room with some occasional cover near the walls. I don't think it justifies putting half the combat of the map in there well enough. After a while I just wanna move on. The encounters themselves are not bad though. Rocketing everything to death is usually the best solution and that's rarely unfun. Visually speaking it's also okay, but at this point I got a bit tired of this theme. I think the maps in this episode look a bit too similar, and by next month I feel like map22, 24 and 25 will all blend in my memory. MAP25 - Feeder's Digest This one tries to distinguish itself a bit more from the pack, despite having the same kind of texturing as prior maps. The difference maker here is the cool, serpentine layout, and a few more unique setpiece fights. The big flood of imps in one room, pinkies in another, the pillar room with revenants at the end...all of those were pretty enjoyable. I'm also very happy to report that all the midis in this episode's maps sound great, including this one. It really enhances the atmosphere. Order of preference:

I finished both of these maps a few days ago, but couldn't find many things to say about them, so here are my late reviews. I'm experiencing a bit of a writer's block it seems like, so that's why they're this short lol MAP22 - Yuggoth hmp/continuous Another good map that fully embraces the fleshy theme. The texturing and music combine well to create atmosphere in this one. The spine room looks really cool, but some of the other areas feel a bit too underdetailed. The combat here is pretty enjoyable. Just some ambushes and well placed incidental monsters. Pretty much Doom's bread and butter. MAP23 - Scream Bloody Gore This one's pretty high on enemy density and tight encounters. It's a pretty good challenge, so I don't mind in the slightest. The monsters are not as insistently focused on trying to murder you with every step you take, like in the previous map by this author, and the map flows better because of this. Visually it's good as always. I also appreciate the more compact layout. It's not necessarily better than something less open or interconnected, but it feels like a breath of fresh air, since there haven't been many of those in the wad thus far and it loops around nicely. Order of preference:

@Roofi I'm pretty proud of Skinship, as it contains a lot of ideas I really liked and executed well, but it's also really flawed. It's an experiment in many ways. It was my first time using custom monsters, which I had to nerf significantly from their original r667 versions, but they still turned out to be pretty strong lol Having swimmable water in your map is such an outlandish idea to most players that many gzdoom mappers don't even try to use that feature, as it's really hard to use well and I definitely experienced that for myself in this one. Its purpose in Skinship is mostly decorative, except for the big fight at the end of one of the paths where it's used for slowing down your movement during combat. I honestly love that fight, but I found the swimmable water gimmick too hard to execute well consistently so I abandoned that idea afterwards. It's not even consistent within this one map. I agree that I left some areas too underdetailed, or architecturally insufficient in general. The level looks good for the most part, but I couldn't nail the texture use everywhere. If I made this map today, I'd definitely find a better use for that cool eye texture you mentioned, for example. I think I grew a bit as a mapper since then, so if you're interested in playing more of my work, you could check out my recently completed wad Perpetual Powers. Though I know you're not a fan of OTEX, so maybe this one's not for you. Anyway, thanks for the review, it was a very welcome surprise :)

MAP20 - Cybertemple of Cyberdoom hmp/continuous I’m usually not a fan of bossfights in Doom, and this one is no exception. You get a rectangular arena with a cyberdemon in the middle and 3 waves of enemies gushing in from the sides. I didn’t mind this at first, but after killing the first cyberdemon and starting the second wave, I was like “This, again?”, and it basically was this, again. I find most of the combat here a bit too boring. The cyberdemon is somewhat awkwardly placed, since he can’t easily infight with most of the crowd below him, as he often hits the platform he stands on instead. Having to kill him with the plasma gun 3 separate times while he’s barely injured gets old pretty fast too. The third wave was pretty good though. Seeing the arena transform into a larger one with an additional danger of the damaging floor made me sigh in relief that at least something interesting happened in this map. I enjoyed this part of the fight quite a bit. Not a terrible conclusion to the episode, but could’ve been better. MAP21 - Fallen Dimension This map is excellent. Great looking all the way through (are those textures from Demonastery perhaps?), with an enjoyable midi in the background. The lowering and raising cyberdemon is an interesting idea, but I don’t really see what’s wrong with keeping him up on the platform at all times. Avoiding his rockets is not that hard. All of the combat in that area is pretty fun, coming at you in waves, kinda like the last map, but less repetitive. I was slightly missing the ssg at this point, so I was glad to see it appear right in the next area. The entire series of fights after grabbing the plasma rifle has to be one of my favorite combat scenarios in the whole wad. It’s very dramatic, progressively increasing in difficulty and monster occupancy. My only issue with the map might be its placement in the wad. It comes right after a similar ordeal of fights coming at you in waves, which is a structure that fits the end of an episode more than a beginning. Aside from that, Fallen Dimension is a big success.

MAP18 - Symmetry Bad hmp/continuous I don't really mind symmetrical areas in Doom if they contain some interesting architecture or detailing. A lot of real life architecture is symmetrical after all. Unfortunately nothing in this map is good looking enough to justify all this symmetry. So symmetry indeed bad after all. (the only thing I found fun to look at was the animated marble pog at the beginning, that was quite amusing lol) Is this level supposed to be some sort of sequel to map17? It continues the theme of weird traps and fake outs, but to a lesser extent. I'm struggling to say much more about this one. It's just so devoid of any fun. The fights are unpleasant to get through and the visuals are primitive to say the least. And how can I not mention that god awful music that made the whole experience even worse. MAP19 - The Crucible Or "Symmetry Bad" again if you look at the title displayed when you press tab. That probably should've been fixed before the idgames release. What a sudden increase in quality. The Crucible is filled with entertaining fights and looks epic as all hell. A lot of care has been put into making the map look bigger than it is, and with great effect I think. The whole structure looks very imposing. The encounters mostly consist of warp-in monsters coming at you from many directions at once, which is usually one of the recipes for enjoyable combat. The player's space to move around is usually limited by damaging lava, which is a sort of "soft" limitation that I like. It's not like you can walk on it freely, but it's often a better choice than being hit by enemy projectiles. Like a crescendo, the fights get increasingly more intense, with the final one being an explosive wave of nearly all of the Doom bestiary, that seems like the perfect closure to this one map long adventure. It's a real test of skill, but never too overwhelming to be unfair. It's worth mentioning that the midi used here is one of my all time favorites, so I basically have all the reasons in the world to like this map. It's close, but I think it deserves a number one spot in my rankings for now:

MAP16 - Hell of High Water hmp/continuous Violentbeetle’s previous maps were fun enough to make me forget how blocky they are. I think the name “Get Rectangular” would fit this map just as well as map03. Not a big fan of how it looks overall. I wasn’t impressed by the combat either. I found most of it to be a bit too mean, considering the many lost souls flying around everywhere, making me eat my rockets repeatedly, as well as the sniping revenants placed in spaces open enough to give them lots of room to dodge your rockets. I like how transformational the whole thing is though, with so many floors lowering and raising to change the whole area. The midi is also a plus, it sounds really good. But overall I’m really not a fan of this one. MAP17 - Marble Madness This map was better than I expected. The main thing worth mentioning here is the numerous traps, puzzle elements, and all the trolling done by the author. All of the above makes for a pretty entertaining map as it turns out, although it did encourage me to save every 30 seconds or so. I don't know how long it would take me to get out of the fake early exit that slows you down, without just loading a save lol. The gameplay in here is pretty enjoyable, but I just wish this map wasn't so utterly ugly. It's the worst looking one in the wad by a lot, and I think that's a shame since it contains some noteworthy content. Order of preference:

The wad has been updated for the final time! Changelog: map03 - added more co-op ammo, removed a softlock map06 - added a few more enemies, moved around clipping rocket boxes map11 - moved a walkover trigger line so that you can't skip it, removed a softlock map15 - the door after the plasma fight now closes and opens back up on a timer map16 - removed a softlock map18 - added slightly more co-op ammo, the teleporter inside the first secret area is now repeatable instead of single use map20 - marked the exit, slightly shortened some timers, the staircase at the beginning now lowers way later into the map - it was a cool atmospheric moment, but broke co-op too badly Thank you everyone for playing :)

MAP15 - A Crack in the Skull hmp/continuous What a terrible first impression for such a great map. I spent the first 5 minutes walking around in circles trying to figure out how to make any progress, and why some of the rubble doesn’t create stairs like it should lol. And I never figured it out. I ended up noclipping to the super shotgun, assuming that’s the correct way forward, and the level opened up smoothly from there. But honestly if I ignore that issue, then this map is pretty incredible. It’s such a well realized concept of a temple in two different points of time. The architecture is on point, as is the texture use. This level gives me the strongest sense of adventure out of all the maps in the wad so far. I’ve been giving points of comparison to other wads for all the recent maps, so I guess I’ll continue that with this one. When I first spawned, I immediately thought that the surroundings look like map16 of Sunder, but more rocky than wooden. The alternate version of the temple, that’s not ruined by time, on the other hand reminded me of the green section in Warp of Time from Hellground. The gameplay in this map compliments the atmosphere very well. It’s clearly not the main point of attraction, so it’s not really hard, but never a cakewalk either. It’s pretty sporadic, with a bigger fight once in a while. I kinda suck at finding secrets, so I never figured out how to get the optional keys. Oh well. I guess I’ll have to warp into map31 with a cheat. I still don’t know what makes the ssg room accessible, but I feel like once I figure that out, this map will just get better with every replay. It’s ambitious, good looking and fun to play. Order of preference:

MAP13 - Necropolis hmp/continuous Another hot start with this one. Just like myolden’s previous map, Necropolis seems to be focused around setpiece-type encounters, which is a structure I really like to see in Doom maps, but this time it’s a bit overdone, even for me. Because every single switch and every single trigger seems to activate some sort of trap, the map feels like it’s progressing slowly. And even though all encounters are well made and fun to play, they do get really repetitive after a while. Many of them are pretty similar and there’s not enough original ideas or gimmicks in my opinion. This whole level strongly reminds me of Crumpets by Ribbiks, but easier and longer. I was able to compare both of myolden’s maps to other projects, so I wonder if those were direct inspirations, or just coincidences. It’s fine either way. Despite the repetitiveness, the map is still enjoyable. Well detailed rooms and challenging, but fair encounters are usually all you need. MAP14 - Sanctuary of Horae I’m not sure about this map. Visually speaking it’s decent looking, with a fine amount of detail, but I feel like there’s a bit too much texture variety. There’s a lot of colors that clash with one another in negative ways. Combat-wise this level contrasts the previous one quite a bit, as Necropolis was a long series of small fights, while Sanctuary of Horae is a short series of big fights. And they’re not exactly that creative this time either, it’s mostly just monster hordes, and not much else. I think this level has a lot of similarities with JPCP. Maps by Burabojunior specifically, when it comes to combat design. Visually it’s a bit more chaotic, maybe kinda like Tooooasty’s maps? This map isn’t bad, but I find it kinda boring. I feel like it’s lacking some elements that would make it stand out, like maybe a more interesting layout. Order of preference:

MAP12 - Ruins hmp/continuous This one reminds me of Sunlust’s nature episode, at least visually. The pace of the combat slows down here quite a bit, in comparison to the previous map. It’s no less difficult though. I’d argue that it’s actually the hardest map in the wad so far (still not like insane though). The beginning includes a section where you have to watch out for attacks from many directions at once, while being careful not to fall down into the liquid. Afterwards you’ll face a few nasty traps with hordes of monsters, dangerously placed archviles, or both. You get most of the weapon roster to battle them though, except for the chaingun, strangely. One thing that annoyed me to no end were the yellow key bars and doors, as they didn’t care if you had the yellow key or not, and had to be triggered elsewhere. I notice that sort of thing in many different maps and I always find it incredibly misleading. Order of preference: