Ola J

Fun stuff!

Will download and play once I have some time on my hands. Love the dbp's, always interesting and distinct, with just the right number of maps to get through without it feeling like a slog.

Good idea!

Fun project! E1 is a maze with several teleporters, and a secret door. The teleporters can lead to wherever necessary, maybe E5 and A3, for instance. Feel free to ad a few more as well. The secret room should contain a good weapon, maybe a plasma gun, and some ammo. Monsters roam the maze as well, ofc.

Wow, this didn't get much attention, and nearly slipped by me. I'll dl and check it out!

Spent about 15 minutes on Skyewood, looking at the two first levels, but no, really not my cup of tea. Hanging Gardens was interesting, though. Never played any slaughter maps before, and I don't think it'll ever be "my thing", but had a bit of fun figuring out how to best approach the massive amount of monsters. Nice environment as well, altough I would've like a bit more variety to the surroundings, since I lost my orientation several times and couldn't quite figure out where everything was in relation to each other. I died at least fifty times before finally finishing the damn thing, but all in all a fun hour and a half or so spent in Skillsaw's garden.

Doom City Well, that was pretty fun, a 25 years old level that doesn't really offer very interesting gameplay, but has its focus squarely on being "realistic", and succeeding a lot better than Sandy Petersen et al did in the city levels in Doom 2. I played on UV and didn't feel particularly challenged at any time (altough I managed to die once because of carelessness). The environment and the exploration of it is the highloght of this level, with Burger Hut manned by a Mancubus and the church of the Cacodemon both putting a smile on my face, and also the phonebooths and ATMs and the interior of the 7-eleven, wich contained the super shotgun that I didn't find until I had wasted all 88 monsters on the map. Didn't manage to find that last secret, though, wich just might be enough to make me come back one day and look for it. Took me about 15 minutes to fully explore at a fairly leisurely pace, and I can now cross of one of the "classic" pwads from my (theoretical) to play-list.

Cheers! That gives me some pointers to start with, and maybe I'll make a separate thread later, as you suggest.

Wads for Doom2 with episodes? Currently playing through Eviternity (awesome!) and I really like the fact that it's divided into episodes, despite being a Doom2 MegaWad. I haven't checked, but I think maybe Scythe 2 is also divided into episodes this way? Are there any other (good) wads (for Doom2) that are episodic? By episodic I mean "episodes selectable from a menu when you choose New Game", btw. I know that Doom2 itself is sort of divided into episodes, but that's not what I'm after.

Map 4, Chillwell Ominously starting very snowy, and very quiet. I soon realize I'm in way over my head, play-wise, and I spend a lot of retries before I beat this map. My final time is a bit over 44 minutes, and. The numerous hidden switches eludes me, and even though I like most parts of this map, this is too long and too hard for me. There also seems to be some new-ish map conventions that I'm not familiar with, and that I guess have developed over the years. I'll play a few other, "classic" wads first, and then return to Akeldama at a later date, I think...

Map 03 Renegades HMP, GZDoom, Continouous A fairly short and compact map. Nice details and textures, again. Lots of traps in the form of monster-closets, wich keeps me on my toes. The Super Shotgun makes its appereance, something that never fails to put a smile on my face. Two Cacodemons taking a slightly unexpected route and coming up behind me is the standout moment for me (happens both times I play through the level, so I guess they will choose that path sort of consistently). I suck at secret-hunting, but I don't feel like spending too much time on it either, so I never get to the soulsphere (the blue sphere, I'm not entirely sure what it's called) I can see through the grate. A solid level, fun to play through, but not very memorable. Probably because the sense of place is not as present here as in the two first maps - I'm not left with any clear image in my mind of what this place actually is, or how the different rooms "go together", so to speak.

Map02: Knights of Ilasac HMP, GZDoom, Continouos Another good-looking level, with lots of lovely details and a good sense of place - I can grasp the geography and layout of the map and it feels somewhat like I'm exploring a real, existing space and not a construct solely made for battles. Even if it clearly is the latter. And fun battles there are, as well. I especially like the section with the gangways hunting for the blue key, but it's all pretty good, in my book. The teleporter/elevator trap kills me quite a few times before I figure it out, but beacuse what has come before has been so enjoyable I don't get fed up and quit, wich has happened in quite a few other wads I've been trying these days. A very solid, enjoyable map.

New member of Doomworld here, have been lurking for a bit and reading some of the old megawad club-threads. I played Doom + Doom 2 a lot way back in 1994 and 95, and have played for a bit every few years since then (mostly episode 1, I guess). I like playing in short bursts, for half an hour to an hour, just a few maps at a time. I haven't really played any pwads before, apart from a few levels here and there (I seem to remember a Star Wars conversion that I played for bit, sometime in 95 or 96). I just played Episode 3 for the first time in at least 20 years this week, and played the first two levels of episode 4 Thy Flesh Consumed for the first time ever yesterday. So I don't know any of the influences or what tropes and conventions of mapmaking that Akeldama is building on. Just to give you a bit of background to where these comments are coming from - an old player, but a newcomer to the world of Wads. A full 32 level MegaWad seems like a daunting prospect to play through, but I'll give it a shot and see if I can last the entire month ... Playing gzdoom on HMP, continous. Map01: The Generator Wow, snow! I like the icy start a lot, accidently drop down to the water, wich proves to be a blessing in disguise. And it's a large level! I roam the hallways, running like a madman, getting the monsters to infight. This is seriously fun, run n' gun play exactly the way I like it. When most of the monsters are down I stop and admire the detailing of my surroundings. Really good looking stuff! I wonder if this is the current standard of detailing that people expect, or if this is something special (on reading other comments on this thread I gather that this is a bit above and beyond). There is also a strong sense of place here, I get a feel for my surroundings and how the different parts of the map are connected (unlike a lot of the levels in E2 and E3), wich is a quality I appreciate a lot. At the end I have 100 % kills, somehow 0 % on items (??) and 50 % secrets. I find myself wanting to charge ahead into the next level, to see what awaits me.