Pseudonaut

Inspired by Arbys550's video of map07, which made it look easy, I played it again and produced this demo: UV-Max in 14:24 Looks like I'll have to take back much of what I said before. Once I had a good plan, it wasn't that hard, and it wasn't tedious at all. I had a lot fun trying to speedrun it. Seems like it's much more punishing with cautious play than aggressive play. Also, I actually like the midi. Map08: Two deaths, all kills, 2/3 secrets, FDA in 23:48 (excluding time spent on the two runs that ended in death) Challenging, generally fast-paced, and fun. I like the arch-vile near the start; simple to remove when you know what to do, but if you don't, you have no choice but to run quickly in that area if you don't want to be incinerated. I felt the pressure when running for the SSG, not realizing I could telefrag the arch-vile immediately, even though I had done it on previous runs; I guess I assumed the teleporter appears later. Either way, it's a very fast and fun start. This map unapologetically uses larger numbers of tough enemies, including some decently-sized packs of revenants, a good fit for a map with a rocket launcher that's easily obtainable immediately.

Map07 UV-Max in 14:24 I expect it won't take long for someone to beat this. ak07-1424.zip

Map07: FDA including 5 deaths, no exit. After this, I gave up on recording and finished the map with saves. It seemed like I could scarcely move an inch into unexplored territory without taking loads of hitscan damage, and health was scarce by comparison. I'm gonna have to agree with Phobus that this is trial-and-error. One particularly egregious example was found near the end of the map, after I stopped recording: suddenly, the player is dropped into a tiny room surrounded by four mancubi. Sure, it's possible to survive something like that when playing blind, but how likely is it? Maybe I'm just a scrub, but I don't like this map on UV. When my UV-Savescum playthrough was finished, I gave it another (partial) try on HMP, and while it is less punishing, I think it suffers from most of the same problems (or maybe I was just very tired of it), primarily an overabundance of hitscan. Too many fights are best handled by peekaboo shooting. Maybe there's some kind of speedrun route that avoids this problem, but I can't imagine what it is. This is my new least favorite map of the wad.

It seems to me that slaughtermaps in general are offensive to people's egos.

There never was a Doom. This whole site is a lie.

Map06: Deathless UV-Max FDA in 43:45 The maps continue to get longer. More cautious play, and still maintaining the deathless streak that started with map02. There are a few moments in this demo where I stop moving for a couple of seconds; it's because I'm looking at the automap. I eventually found the computer area map, without which I wouldn't have found all the secrets. The rocket launcher was the last thing I found, and this run probably would have been more fun if I found it as soon as possible. My health got pretty low at the start, but overall I'd say this map isn't as hard as the previous one despite its length. Actually, I think the combat is a little bland sometimes. Maybe I'd feel differently if I found the rocket launcher sooner. Anyway, this is my least favorite map so far, but still an okay map. My favorite is map04.

I wouldn't call it the best secret level in Ultimate Doom, but I like E2M9 as well. It's a pretty fun map if you take full advantage of infighting between the barons and cacos. I'm not sure what people are complaining about unless they're trying to kill all the barons first before opening the room with the cacos. Also, Plutonia is the best IWAD. And TNT's map22 "Habitat" is the worst IWAD level.

Category 1, died on map03 after finding the exit and then backtracking to explore. pnrl2ironman.zip

Map05: No deaths UV-Max FDA in 23:55 I played pretty cautiously here because I wanted to maintain my deathless streak that started with map02. It worked for now, and it was an enjoyable challenge. This map is harder than map04, and if things get much more difficult than this, my streak will definitely end. If I'm remembering right, this is the first appearance of several tough monsters; a mancubus, a couple of barons, a pain elemental, and many revenants (though I think the previous map had a revenant in a secret that I didn't find at first). There were several instances where I had to slowly grind down mid-tier enemies with the regular shotgun, but not enough that it bothered me, and I think this problem can be avoided by the player with better routing. The secrets weren't too hard to find, and without the secret soul sphere, I certainly would have been killed by a very high damage roll from a revenant projectile that happened soon after I grabbed it. Anyway, good map.

Map04: 148/153 kills, 3/8 secrets, no deaths, FDA in 26:54 This one is probably painful to watch after a certain point because of the amount of time I spent wandering around looking for the missing secrets and monsters. The map itself is the longest so far, and maybe the hardest, but I think the first map is harder to survive on a first try in a 'blind' run because of the chaingunner trap near the beginning. In this run, the ambush at the exit is what had me feeling the most alarmed, partly because of some unexpected chaingunners again, but the rest of the run was fun too. As others have stated, it's great that there are so many viable options for a route through this map. I did an unrecorded second playthrough with help from the wiki to find all the secrets, and a few of them are particularly clever, like those colored buttons that blend in with their surroundings. There are a couple of weak enemies hidden in corners that made for a nice little surprise on the 'blind' run, but on the second playthrough, I think it made the map a little annoying to max. Forgetting about them (as I did) can lead to a lengthy search. After I found the last secret, there was one enemy left, and I spent like 15 minutes trying to find it before I eventually gave up and typed IDDT twice (I won't do this in any of the FDAs) to see it on the automap. Turned out to be a zombieman in a cave with health bonuses which I'm pretty sure I found on the first playthrough, but forgot about.

Recently, I've been playing wads that challenge me. Something fun that may also make me a better player. For this reason, I've been playing "easy" slaughter wads like Rush, phmlspd, and Newgothic Movement 1. Time taken to finish a wad is all over the place for me. When I played Cyberdreams, it took a day or two because the maps were short, usually not very hard, and fun/interesting. On the other hand, sometimes I play a map or two, stop playing that wad for weeks while I play other things, then come back and play another few maps, and it's eventually finished. It was probably several weeks ago that I started playing Newgothic 1, and I still haven't played half the maps.

Map03: No deaths, UV-Max FDA in 6:35 It's probably the easiest map so far, as once I found the secret soul sphere, I don't think my health dipped below 170% for the rest of the map. I can see the value of having so much health on the map, though. Probably allows for more reckless and interesting play by speedrunners. It's also the most action-packed map so far, and perhaps the most fun. Even so, I'm not sure if it's my favorite, since I'm a sucker for snowy aethstics in general like in map01, but it's definitely cool.

Map28 of Hell Revealed only has big monsters in it, and it's easier than most of the things mentioned in this thread.

map02: All kills, 1/2 secrets, No deaths, FDA in 14:09. I realize my first playthroughs are very slow. I actually replayed the first map and part of this one just to find the secrets, and both of the secrets that I missed seem really obvious once you already know where they are. Especially in this map. Since I somehow missed the secret chaingun, I was stuck with a shotgun for the entire map, and I wasted enough ammo that I eventually had to use the pistol briefly to finish off some mostly-dead hell knights. Still enjoyed it. I like how this map's secrets are similar in how they are accessed.

Now I'm imagining that whenever you stunlock a demon with the chaingun, it's actually just being tickled.