continuum.mid

These definitely don't feel like Congestion maps... looks like the development thread said "square of between 2048 and 4096 units", which makes more sense. Owing to the sense of scale on some maps, notably yours and Death Bear's, I didn't even notice there was a limit!

Since I've already played this WAD's first episode, and quite recently at that, I wanted to mix things up with my replay. I first played on Crispy Doom, continuous, with Freedoom: Phase 1 as the IWAD, and beat most of the maps single-segment. That's what I'll likely continue to do for episodes 2-4, except probably switching to Woof for the UMAPINFO support, and maybe recording demos. (I'd record YouTube videos too, but judging by the complete lack of reaction to my almost-finished playthrough of Tetanus, they're definitely not good enough for anyone to care.) The first thing I tried to mix things up was Voxel Doom: It was pretty, but it the framerate was noticeably choppy. Plus, I really don't enjoy using GZDoom, and even these voxels don't quite share the retro charm of the old billboard sprites. Afterwards I tried screwing around with Doom 4 Vanilla, the only vanilla gameplay mod I know of. I'm surprised it even works for The Ultimate Doom or Freedoom: Phase 1, but it does for both, and fairly well. I kinda wish Solar Struggle had map titles in DEHACKED for Crispy Doom lovers like me, but that does allow for custom DEHACKED mods. E1M1: Detention Center (myolden) Woof 10.5.1 (Debian 12), Freedoom: Phase 1 + Doom 4 Vanilla, UV (or in this case "Nightmare") practiced, pistol start Kills: 90%, Items: 100%, Secrets: 0%, Save Count: 0! A simple, short, respectable opener. Like Freedoom's E1M1, it's a nicely detailed prison area, but it's noticeably more green and grey than that map. Find the blue key, then the red, and then exit. Not much to say, really. Doom 4 Vanilla completely neuters the main challenge here, which is not getting worn down by hitscan, by taking the guns away from zombies. So for the next map, I tried the Antaresian Reliquary gameplay mod. E1M2: Admin Offices (Peccatum Mihzamiz) Woof 10.5.1 (Debian 12), Freedoom: Phase 1 + Antaresian Reliquary Mod, UV (or in this case Extreme Carnage), practiced, pistol start 95% Kills, 64% Items, 0% Secrets, 6:43, Save Count: 0 First off, excellent MIDI choice. I think this one's from Ancient Aliens Heartland and it's just a beautiful track. Secondly, Peccatum Mihzamiz is an absolute master of detailing and Doomcute. Admin Offices is a believable office building with a sense of scale far exceeding its actual scale. Every office and cubicle is believable, and the water fountains providing health bonuses are a nice addition. The main setpiece is the yellow key room, a square arena with a beautiful fountain in its center, where pressing a switch to lower the key fills the room with all the standard Doom 1 enemies, from the zombieman to the imp to the spectre. The combat is still pretty easy, and I have never died once in this map despite getting pretty low on health in this attempt, but Antaresian Reliquary doesn't trivialize it - if anything giving zombies a fast projectile attack makes it more fun.

I'm thinking a revisit month once a year. That way we make it a special event, and there's still 11 months of the year for new WADs. A second parallel club would split us up needlessly, I think.

Added some thoughts on E1/E4M9. All we need for a first release candidate is that track, and for E1M3/E4M2 to be finished. So if you have any ideas please contribute!

Screw it, I might as well post my final thoughts early. MAP30: Stargate BP-9 (Death Bear) dsda-doom 0.25.6+dfsg-1 (Debian 12), Doom 2, Ultra-Violence, blind, pistol start, saves Kills: 100%, Items: 84%, Secrets: 12%, Time: 5:33, Save Count: 0 A quick and easy credits map that isn’t out to challenge you. The monster count is nonzero, there’s one fight involving a Revenant and some Pinkies, another involving Cacos and Guardians, and then you’re sent, one last time, to Death Bear’s familiar hub, which now has no enemies apart from two zombiemen and two imps, and is surrounded by UFOs from throughout the WAD. Once you’re done admiring the legends that made this project possible, head to a teleporter in one of the buildings, and fight the last stealth aliens of this set. The whole project ends on a beach with some very well done mapper-themed towels, and an ad for the next PUSS collaboration, “Summer of Slaughter”, serving as the exit. I thought there might be more to this map as I missed 7 secrets and AA map30 is famous for having a whole secret route, but apparently, all of the secrets are just extra fun facts about the mapset. By the way, why does Zorglo have an iPhone? Final Thoughts 2016 was one of the greatest years in the history of Doom. It brought the return of John Romero to classic Doom mapping, a whole new official Doom game by Bethesda, an excellent rare megaWAD from Japan, and the endlessly creative and memorable Ty Halderman Tribute: Threnody. But most importantly, it brought us Ancient Aliens, the undisputed masterpiece of stylistic Doom mapping by Paul “Skillsaw” DeBruyne. A unique combination of textures and an unusual palette, full of cool colors and neon, made AA look like nothing else. Stuart “stewboy” Rynn was called upon as the megaWAD’s sole composer, and concocted a suitably unique jazz fusion soundtrack. The talented Skillsaw perfected a range of styles from sprawling adventure maps to mini-slaughter. And despite his flexibility, the guest maps, from creators like stewboy, Joshy, Pinchy, and especially lupinx-Kassman, stood out even more. As fate would have it, five years later was 2021, another of the greatest years in the history of Doom. A year with so many Cacoward shoe-ins that the Doomworld writers had to expand the list to 12 winners with 12 honorable mentions, and the awards were still controversial for leaving out so much. And in May of that year, a team of mappers led by BluePineapple72 set out to create a second megaWAD with Ancient Aliens’ texture pack as a fifth anniversary tribute. This was PUSS IX: Mapping at Warpspeed, and it brought some new ideas: an alien main character named Zorglo, a central hub common to one bear’s contributions, secret maps based on some little-known 2016 video game, and was full of great ideas, from simple newcomer maps, to Hell Revealed remakes, to a lengthy Arch-Vile chase, and a series of zodiac-themed slaughtermaps. It all came together in the final stretch, a collaborative map bringing together all the talents of the team into one great long burst of fun. “Mapping at Warpspeed” wouldn’t actually release until this year, when it caught the attention of the DWmegawad club. Doomworld user continuum.mid was getting back into Doom at the time, had fun playing alongside friendly folks like LadyMistDragon, Book Lord, TJG1289, Celestin, RHhe82, Klear, and many others. Continuum loved it so much he even wrote overbloated, pretentious final thoughts in which he referred to himself in third person at the end of their map30 review, most of which was written two days early. But that’s because they loved this WAD, for being a fitting tribute to Skillsaw full of charming and unique creations, and making them feel powerful after managing to negotiate all of its biggest challenges. Continuum will certainly recommend this WAD to anyone else looking for charming speedmaps with great visuals and finely tuned combat. And they might even play it again if they’re looking for quick and fun slaughter practice.

Tangent: I wonder how MtPain will weigh the "difficulty of combat" vs "difficulty of finding the exit without watching a playthrough" in the Eternal Doom episode, assuming there's one in the pipeline. That would be an interesting digression.

It might honestly be best to just download some old WADs and listen to their soundtracks, maybe look through DoomWiki pages on various prolific Doom composers, etc... because I don't know of a resource like this and I'd love to see someone make one. A few of my own observations: The earliest WADs either had no music or used MIDI versions of popular pop, rock, and metal songs. Songs from other games that used MIDI music were also very common - especially Duke Nukem 3D, Rise of the Triad, and Heretic. An much broader selection of video game music still regularly makes up WAD soundtracks today. These artists contributed original music to many early WADs, especially those under the TeamTNT umbrella: Mark Klem, David Shaw, Jeremy Doyle, L.A. Sieben, Jonathan El-Bizri, Rich Nagel, and Tom Mustaine. More recently, I've noticed these names pop up more in soundtracks: Stuart Rynn, Esselfortium, James Paddock, Lippeth, Doomkid, Varis Alpha, Tristan Clark, Cammy, PRIMEVAL. The kinds of MIDIs common in WADs have diversified with time. Early WADs might have been all metal, but more progressive styles, even jazz or pure ambience, make regular appearances in anything with a bespoke soundtrack nowadays. The best composers in the community have rallied around numerous MIDI pack projects replacing the soundtracks of all official releases of Doom and some PWADs like Alien Vendetta - in particular, a lot of these were created between 2020 and 2022.

so glad you appreciate that album, it's super underrated boing boom tschak. boing boom tschak, peng. boing boom tschak. tap taptap tap tap ahhhh

Kraftwerk - Computerwelt (Computer World in the US) - Pretty much any Kraftwerk album could go here, but this one is a perfect representation of the inner life of a computer, and how computers affect the lives of humans. Iglooghost - Neo Wax Bloom - Chaotic energy from start to finish, it's a really fun listen. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King - Probably the most normal pick on this list. I like the dramatic arrangements, the solos, and the attention to detail with its medieval theme. But back to weird electronica: Skee Mask - Compro - A perfect icy techno album to kick back and relax to. Autechre - Untilted - Slowly morphing and evolving electronic drum patterns, occasionally with minimal melodies on top but far from conventional. An absolutely fascinating listen. I must be the only Doomer who's this into electronic music. Oh well, I love being the weird one anyway.

I'm a hobbyist musician and lately I've been getting back into creating MIDIs. I license my music as permissively as possible, in this case under the CC0 (equivalent to public domain). Basically, feel free to do whatever you want to with these, commercial or non-commercial, with or without attribution or permission (though I would appreciate attribution). Constructive criticism of the MIDIs would be welcome. Everything linked is on OpenGameArt, a site dedicated to publishing free-to-use game assets. If you'd like to release your music under CC0, CC-BY, or even GPL, I recommend creating an account and posting there. Here's my account page there, so you can see everything at once: https://opengameart.org/users/northivanastan Included in MIDIocrity: Included in Bedroom Productions: Included in The MIDI Continuum: Not on an album yet: Just Say No To Yes - Initially created during a speedMIDI session with Dragonfly's MIDI Challenge, then slowly chipped away at over the following months, since what I ended that session with sounded like the intro to a prog rock epic. Named after a meme, but also after the fact that I was just listening to the band Yes before going into the session. It is indeed a small epic, almost 6 minutes of varied medieval-ish sounds. The original speedMIDI is a bonus track on "The MIDI Continuum" Gods of Trance - A short burst of energy built around the beat from Kraftwerk's "Nummern" (or "Numbers") and Afrika Bambataa's "Planet Rock." Intended to eventually be part of a Kraftwerk tribute album I'm working on. Liberate the Stars - An electric tune to open up the first level of Double Impact in the Double Impact MIDI Pack. Will be uploaded to OpenGameArt when the pack is done, til then you can download it from the thread. The Deepest Secrets - A rather sinister tune that builds up from horror ambience to hard rock. Also created for the Double Impact MIDI Pack, and can be downloaded from that thread. If you want me to make original music for your project, send me one DM containing a download link for what you have so far, some basic information, and any ideas you have regarding the music. If it interests me at all, I will try to play or at least explore it and see if it gives me musical inspiration. Make sure you understand the following, though: There is no guarantee that I will make anything. I will make music for maps that inspire me musically, and those are likely to be the exception and not the rule. Even then, I can't guarantee satisfaction with my music. The music will be released on OpenGameArt under the CC0. This means that nobody will have any exclusive rights to the track, and it will effectively be public domain. I am willing to wait to release my track until your map has been publicly released, though I still reserve the right release it myself if I feel that progress has stalled for too long. If you must have exclusive rights to the music, ask someone else, and preferably pay them. A non-exhaustive list of things I won't make for you: Original music for commercial projects. If I work on a project that makes money, I expect to receive some of that money. Most kinds of original non-MIDI music. I do not have a studio to record music in. Remixes and arrangements are a grey area. I typically cannot release these under CC0, and it's not easy to transcribe just about anything, some have some rather challenging sound design nuances. I love making these as a way to push through creative block, but if I'm making them on command I would rather do something more original You might be interested in my Bandcamp page where I post a lot of music that's also free to use in anything (the Bandcamp stuff is CC-BY because that's the most permissive license Bandcamp lets me use).

I know it's been over a year, but I've decided to start updating this thread again in hopes of better self-promotion. I've uploaded five MIDIs to OpenGameArt in the past year and a half, they are: The Berggren-Malde Complex (for Alien Vendetta MIDI Pack) Railgun Rain (for Theme-gawad #1) The MIDI Continuum (original four-part track) Just Say No To Yes (original) Gods of Trance (original Kraftwerk tribute) I'd love for these all to be used in more projects! And as always you need no permission, but I'd love if you let me see what you're working on.

World 29: Mapping at Warpspeed (see below) dsda-doom 0.25.6+dfsg-1 (Debian 12), Doom 2, Ultra-Violence, blind, pistol start, saves  This WAD's title map is a series of mini-levels, linked by teleport sequences based on the mappers' avatars, contributed by numerous members of the Pineapple Under the Sea team. Given the nature of the map, I thought I'd do a separate paragraph on each section, with a separate timer and save count. Death Bear: Starting off with a bang, Death Bear's contribution is a small slaughterfest amidst black and grey rocks. The initial pop-up cavalry of Revenants, Hell nobles, and Barons, with Chaingunner snipers, would be enough, but as soon as you fire a shot, imps teleport onto the starting pad, and a wall slowly lowers to reveal Ancient Aliens exclusive enemies. Let the Cyberdemon kill everything then use the BFG lying in the middle of the arena to take him down. A second wave of Guardians and Cacos appears when pressing a switch, then walking up to the exit reveals Revenants, and finally, an Arch-Vile guards the portal to the next room. Time: 3:48, Save Count: 0+1 (for the beginning of the next section) Myolden: This room is beautiful, the blue and beige bricks contrast perfectly and the maze-pattern floor is dazzling. After gathering all the ammo and pressing a switch, a Cyberdemon appears, and Revenants fill the ledges in all four corners of the room. Cybie will do most of the work, but still, be careful of fireballs! Pressing two switches after that leads straight to the next section. I did this all on the first attempt, and I'm pretty proud of myself for that. Time: 3:00 (6:48), Save Count: 0+1 Muumi: I knew Muumi would have something up their sleeve, and indeed, as soon as the teleportation sequence finished and I saw the chaingunners under a crusher, I went "oh no..." Indeed, this is an expanded version of a fight in Alien Tartarus, with too many revenants for even a full cell pack to deal with. You'll have to make good use of the crushers to deal with them. Then press a switch for another wave of Revenants, with triplets of Arch-Viles hiding on opposite sides of the map! After several attempts dying to either of those first two fights, I decided to break my short-lived streak of not saving in the middle of segments. I ended up needing all five megaspheres and that was after a dozen or so attempts and saving after the first fight. There is one fight after this, but thankfully it's "only" eight trapped Arch-Viles. Just BFG and rocket at them and duck behind cover whenever you're targeted. Side note: I wonder if there were invisible boxes of rockets here, it seemed impossible to go under 100. Time: 5:22 (12:10), Save Count: 2+1 Lemonlytical: I was hoping for a break after Muumi's section, but Lemonlytical refused to provide me one. His segment is a hallway filled to the brim with monsters - chaingunners first, then Revenants, then Hell Knights, then Mancubi. Nothing to do but go YOLO with the BFG and then rockets, and hope I survive. I did, but had only 66% health at the end. Thankfully after pressing the two exit switches this section is over. Time: 1:19 (13:29), Save Count: 1 (I saved before the exit because I thought there would be another fight. Thank heck there wasn't.) Doomcat: This part would've been way more fun if there were a megasphere at the start. A lift raises up to a small rainbow room with two Cacos and a Pain Elemental, and Hell nobles and a Cyberdemon around the edges. Cyber splash damage easily killed me, so after about a dozen attempts I realized it was probably best to focus all my fire on him. Once I'd done that I pressed the switch to open up the final portal, shot the Chaingunner, and stubbornly tried to go for 100% with my remaining shells, but accidentally stumbled into the portal to Danlex's section while circle-strafing and didn't feel like loading a save just for the numbers. Time: 1:21 (14:50), Save Count: 0+1 Danlex: This is a sort of fusion of Lemonlytical's room with the look and feel of Danlex's map Zero G Station. It's a rainbow spiral staircase where you must BFG and rocket your way to the top. There's a layer of Pinkies, then Imps, then Revenants, then Hell Knights, then Barons, then the Cyberdemon. Careful movement back and forth on the staircase will prevent a lot of damage, but it's still difficult to withstand the onslaught for as long as is necessary, and Arachnotrons snipe from the sidelines to make it extra hard. (How were the spherical cages done, by the way? They look awesome.) Absolutely beautiful section. Time: 1:27 (16:17), Save Count: 0+1 WeirdSandwich: Wouldn't have guessed WeirdSandwich's contribution would be the hardest part of the map, though I'm not surprised it's the most elaborate, with four phases instead of just one short battle. The first phase is the easiest, just spray the sargents with plasma, and rocket or SSG the Cacos. There are two switches on opposite sides of the area, and whichever one you hit first, the next wave will raise a small army of Revenant snipers and Mancubi on the ground. It's hard to say which one's more of a threat, but I ended up BFGing the revenants and rocketing the mancubi - I could just as easily have done it the other way around. The second switch will reveal a Pinky brigade, a Cyberdemon, and two battlements full of imps. I used rockets to clear a path through the Pinkies, SSG on the surviving ones, then relied on the Cyberdemon to deal with the Imps. After picking up the SoulSphere and MegaArmor from where the Imps were, I used my three remaining BFG shots and one SSG shot to take down Cybie. I actually beat this fight using a different strategy earlier, but I thought it was over and didn't save - nope! The final fight has you battle four Archviles, a bevy of Barons, and the Spider Mastermind. I focused my efforts on grabbing the cells in front of Mama Spider as fast as I could then BFGing the Arch-Viles before they caused too much damage; from there the Barons handled the Mastermind and I could take the rest down with rockets. Time: 4:39 (20:56), Save Count: 3+1 Chookum!: I did beat this section first try, but it didn’t feel very easy. Chookum contributes a colorful symmetrical arena, with a Cyberdemon in the center, groups of four Revenants perched on computer panels, and Imps on the battlements. Don’t be afraid to use your cells and you should be fine here, there’s plenty of health and Cybie infights with everyone. After almost everything had died I was amused to see one lone imp among the last surviving monsters. Time: 3:59 (24:55), Save Count: 0+1 NotTyrone: For some reason I mixed up Chookum and NotTyrone’s sections and thought the previous one was out of character until I saw someone else’s review. Turns out that, fittingly, someone other than Tyrone contributed a nice break section to this map. Punch a switch to find a platoon of Chaingunners and Revenants running around the outside of a small techbase. It’s as simple as running around and spamming BFG. Even if you take lots of damage from the Chaingunners you’ll easily recover with the Supercharge and light armor outside the entrance to the base, and the base itself is sparsely populated (relative to the rest of the map) with Hell nobles and Revenant snipers. Even the two Arch-Viles at the exit won’t do you any harm - they’re just an 80-cell tax. Time: 2:07 (27:02), Save Count: 0+1 Peccatum Mihzamiz: Holy Hell Revealed, that's a lot of zambies. You'll have to spend a good while rocketing, plasma-ing, and/or BFGing them from the central courtyard before it's safe to enter the outer ring, where three Arch-Viles, respectively surrounded by four Pinkies, four Hell Knights, and four Revenants, await. Thankfully for you, they won't all activate at once and they'll be distracted by all the corpses on the ground. Press three switches to open the exit. I think the scientists overlooking the courtyard are a nice cherry on top. It's a shame Peccatum didn't contribute a full map to this set. Time: 3:25 (30:27), Save Count: 1+1 BluePineapple72: The Pineapple Lord takes us out by doing what he does best: a big, climactic slaughterfest. I expected to have a lot more trouble with this battle than I did, but with four of BluePineapple's maps under my belt it was no sweat, just take out the Arch-Viles and weave through the crowds, and I am very proud to say I beat it first try! Once everything was dead I could take in the scenery, which seems to be a UFO surrounded by small areas based on the visual motifs of the earlier Zodiac maps. Press switches in each of them to open the exit. Time: 3:13 (33:40), Save Count: 0 Final Stats: Kills: 100%, Items: 86%, Secrets: 0%, Time: 33:40, Save Count: 16 That was super fun. I was planning on beating half this map on the 28th and half on the 29th, but I got through the whole thing early owing to the mappers' sheer ability to keep me engaged, with all kinds of blistering combat. The formula of "Hot Potato" collabs works well for closing out community speedmap projects, as NOVA and 180 Minutes Pour Vivre have shown before this, and the MaW team handled it just as well. I've already played the last map, but I'll keep with the rules and save my final thoughts for the 30th.

honestly? I just have a giant folder named "doom" and extract every ZIP I'm potentially interested in directly into it alongside all the IWADs. It has subfolders for "testwads" (unreleased things I am either playtesting or contributing to), demos, and a few specific things that had way too many files. And Doomkid's Vanilla WAD Pack is also a subfolder. I have considered improving this system but the only issue it's really caused for me is command completion being slow. Which wouldn't be much better if I had an intricate system of subfolders.

Sorry to hear! I'll open up D_VICTOR for another mapper to take on, and if this project ends up without a D_VICTOR that's perfectly fine too, as both versions of Double Impact have original tracks there.

Accidentally hit post when drafting something for tomorrow...

World 28: Planet Chasers (Death Bear) dsda-doom 0.25.6+dfsg-1 (Debian 12), Doom 2, Ultra-Violence, blind, pistol start, saves  Kills: 100%, Items: 86%, Secrets: 50%, Time: 23:42, Save Count: 14 This is the final appearance of the Ursae hub; its usual low-tier enemies are replaced with Mancubi and Hell Knights, its usual chainsaw is replaced with a rocket launcher, and it's scored by this WAD's intermission music. Putting all that together, I expected Death Bear's ultimate challenge here. I wouldn't call this his ultimate challenge though, so much as his most dramatic map yet. The monster count is higher than either of the Ursae or Electron maps, almost by a factor of two, but the fights in which they appear are pretty easy. Certainly its placement weakens it as a dramatic sendoff - compared to BluePineapple72's maps, Planet Chasers feels downright trivial. Regardless, it's still quite a bit of fun. The map starts out in a hub with three UFOs, two locked behind the red and blue keys, leading to different sections. You start in a small base filled with mostly lower-tier enemies, but also some Mancubi and Revenants. After finding some switches, a teleporter leads outdoors to some Hell Knights, Mancubi, and crowds of Imps and Demons which you thankfully get a berserk pack, and tons of rockets and cells for. The hardest part is the ambush triggered when crossing a linedef close to the yellow key. It releases two large crowds of Imps and a few Revenants that can quickly kill players who have poor movement. Plus, it teleports an Arch-Vile back inside, who will resurrect several enemies. I opted to snipe him with rockets and cells from outside, but that was a tedious waste of ammo. I suspect I was supposed to teleport back and find him there. The yellow key unlocks the blue key and teleports in one last big ambush to finish off the section, and the blue key leads you straight back to the hub. The next UFO leads to a grand slaughterfest amongst deep red rocks. There are at least three Cyberdemons and a Mastermind, and multitudes of most lesser enemy types, from Stealth Aliens to Pain Elementals. It's on the easy side by far, since there are no Arch-Viles, few hitscanners, and more than enough space to circle strafe; I took a lot of damage but thanks to the two megaspheres I never died. Atop the cliffs surrounding the arena is a cave with some Arachnotrons guarding the red key, where pressing a switch further opens up the cliffs, leading to a portal back to the hub, which is guarded by the aforementioned Mastermind and a red key switch. After BFGing the remaining boss monsters, I went back to the UFO hub. The last UFO is not the exit, despite the signs; it's another challenging final fight in a void arena. There are two Arch-Vile snipers and I wasn't able to take them out first because they only appear after the player makes a sound. Still, once I defeated them, the main threat remaining was the damaging floor of the void. I just had to throw rockets into the crowd of enemies until the exit portal opened. I managed to resist my urge to exit immediately and kill all the remaining Cacos in the end for 100%. After some confusion as to which portal was the exit and which one led back to the hub, I could be done with this map. In the context of Death Bear's contributions to this set, Planet Chasers makes for an exciting penultimate map, and in the set as a whole, it's a great way to let off some steam after the frustration of the last three maps. It's probably the best map the Bear has contributed so far, but I'm excited for the finale - it doesn't seem to open on the Ursae hub, but there is one portal yet to be opened there... The final portal is a spirit animal teleport sequence featuring a strangely drawn bear, possibly Death Bear's logo, that leads to a preview of his section of map29. I'm pumped for that one. I anticipate it'll be big, so perhaps I'll play some of it today.

yes.

The penguin is Tux, mascot of Linux, as he appears in the game SuperTux. I added the Freedoom rocket launcher behind him. If you're looking for a platformer with a cool fan community, I recommend it.

@R0rque. hey! I've played through E1M3/E4M2 and I think I have some more ideas from the MIDI. The combat in this map feels designed to wear the player down, with lots of hitscanners and not a lot of health pickups. It's also got a lot of dynamic lighting in sections, to bring up that intimidation factor. I think the sound to go for is "sinister" or "intimidating" - taking from the darker side of Knee Deep in the Dead's soundtrack - but not too far in the ambient direction, considering that this map still brings some high-octane action and that's still the focus.

World 27: Of Waves and Woe (BluePineapple72) dsda-doom 0.25.6+dfsg-1 (Debian 12), Doom 2, Ultra-Violence, blind, pistol start, saves  Kills: 110%, Items: 94%, Secrets: 0%, Time: 12:59, Save Count: 13 And finally, we have the epic conclusion to the Zodiac series by the Pineapple himself. Instead of a series of big setpiece fights separated by fairly lightweight incidental skirmishes, this map is one massive fight, with the zodiac symbols triggering added waves of enemies. Different areas of the map are revealed via draining water, starting with the first fight, and again in two other fights. Infighting will do most of the work here, but a good ability to dodge attacks and avoid being pinned is also mandatory, and Arch-Viles that appear throughout will occasionally target you. Thankfully, the map is full of cells, shells, and rockets, and there are just enough Supercharges and Megaspheres laying around that a player more competent than me won't have a hard time. All the while, you'll have to seek out three skull keys. The yellow key opens up the area where the red key is - alongside a teleport ambush of Shotgunners, Stealth Aliens, and Hell Knights. The red key unlocks the second half of the map, once you defeat two Arch-Viles. The blue key is locked behind another massive teleport ambush that starts with a wave of Shotgunners and Imps, then Revenants, Hell Knights, Barons, and a surprise Arch-Vile, all spawning at opposite ends of a small room. I opted to focus on the sargents for the first bit of the fight, plasma-spamming them as they teleported in, then switch to the BFG, and never take my finger off mouse1 until the floor finally rose to allow me to grab the key. After clearing a path to the exit I initially decided to just end the level there, with 84% kills and a time of 7:48. But then I realized - the megasphere and cells right in front of the switch opening the UFO were telling me something. BluePineapple was daring me to go for 100% kills. So I did. Most of the enemies had already died to infighting, but a Cyber and Vile remained, alongside a huge Hell Knight/Baron crowd in one area. After BFG-spamming all of those down, I found all the remaining enemies (three wandering Hell Knights and two Revenants on a cliffside) on my way back to the exit. Seeing 818/818 Kills on the automap, I could exit with pride. Pretty solid sendoff for our project leader. I think if BluePineapple were to make a solo WAD, speedmap-based or not, it'd have Cacoward potential. His maps have all the carnage challenge junkies expect, and all the visual style that I tend to expect, without ever feeling lazy. Sometimes they get a bit too challenging for me, but rarely so much as kill all potential fun. Can't believe the month's almost over - all that's left is two Death Bear maps bookending the final collaboration in map29.

I love The Stanley Parable, and Ultra Deluxe, so naturally I had to give this a spin.

I don't know about all of them, but a lot of Freedoom's unique textures are from Aquatex, which can be downloaded here:

World 26: Clandestine Cumulonimbus (BluePineapple72) dsda-doom 0.25.6+dfsg-1 (Debian 12), Doom 2, Ultra-Violence, blind, pistol start, saves  Kills: 95%, Items: 84%, Secrets: 20%, Time: 22:13, Save Count: 21 Out of the three zodiac levels thus far - it seems the one after this will close out the series - Clandestine Cumulonimbus is easily the one I had the most fun with. The setting is an entrancing combination between World 23, and lupinx-kassman's famous guest map for Ancient Aliens, "Culture Shock." The incidental combat here is no less fun than the big zodiac setpieces. There's a "village" area leading to two of the fights that contains the Super Shotgun, and it's full of stealth aliens, alongside some Mancubi and a Hell Knight. Another hallway with a Rocket Launcher, which I'm not sure is required, locks the player in with three Revenants on one side and three Mancubi on the other - taking damage is almost inevitable, but when I started prioritizing the Revenants, who guard the switch that opens the hall back up, I managed to win handily. There were a bunch of stray Cacos in the areas just below the opening room, and fearing that I'd run out of ammo I essentially let them follow me all around the map. Eventually I wandered into a library area and killed them there, then realized that I was locked in and would have to complete the first of the zodiac setpieces to exit. The library fight is tougher than it seems - it teleports Arachnotrons and Hell Knights on the four sides of the room, and it seemed at first that clearing a path and running around was the ideal solution. Problem is, the gaps between the wall and bookshelves are just small enough to be blocked by one Arachnotron, or sometimes two Hell Knights. So after numerous attempts, I managed to win by sticking behind one bookshelf, strafing back and forth while firing at the incoming Arachnotrons, then once I could get past the bookshelves, keeping back the incoming hordes from the opposite side of the room, until I ran out of rockets, and dealt with the remaining (somewhat manageable) quantity of Hell Knights with the SSG. Celestin's review spoiled me the BFG secret in this room, but I was too unobservant to find the switch until I returned to the area much later in the map. Opposite the door to the library is another sequence of setpiece fights connected by teleportation gates. First, in a room with purple nectar slopes, picking up a plasma rifle triggers a flood of fodder enemies that must be dispensed of quickly. Next is a perched Cyberdemon and a large crowd of Revenants in a room with erratically raising and lowering bookshelves. Navigation can prove difficult and I needed to clear out some of the revenants to avoid getting stuck. But after a while, with Mr. Cybie's help, I got rid of the revenants, and then I dealt with Cybie himself using trial, error, and the super shotgun. (I also accidentally went back through the teleport gates a few times, which was annoying.) For some reason I missed the soulsphere in this room til I went back to look for secrets. Then comes the biggest setpiece. Shoot a switch that looks not unlike the ones that appeared in Muumi's Alien Tartarus, to release an Arch-Vile in the village area alongside some heavies, guarding a teleporter to a big arena. Pick up the Rocket Launcher and three Viles teleport in, who I opted to spend all my BFG ammo on, because I couldn't afford to be dodging them when the flying enemies closed in. The Guardian missiles kept catching up to me and ending several of my attempts, while the Pain Elementals filled the area with Lost Souls, and all I could do was circle-run, save-scum, and wait until the platform raised back to a Supercharge I'd left behind and the teleporter back to the center. At this point a Vile and a Cyberdemon had been released there, but I was feeling cowardly, so after rocketing the Vile to death, I just ran to the exit. My decision not to go for 100% does not affect my evaluation of Clandestine Cumulonimbus, however. It's a work of brilliance that manages to make all of its hardest challenges fun and get me excited to play another BluePineapple map. Top-tier stuff.

More Tetanus. For some reason this is still scaling down to 360p when I upload it to YouTube, even though I made sure OBS and Kdenlive exported in 720p...