Azure_Horror

Map 24 - Burnt Guts by Slava Pestov and Cammy A nice small map, which still hosts about 180 enemies on UV. Among enemies, there is a good balance of hitscan (who hurt) and demonic troops of all kinds (who bodyblock, and can hurt too). The encounters offer different combat situations too. My personal highlights: 1. The FIREBLU cavern, which is very conductive for all kinds of projectile combat and is perfect introduction for the Rocket Launcher as a result. 2. The baron turrets. I didn't expect to like the baron turrets of all things, but here we are... What makes them good on Burnt Guts? Simple - they provide an additional threat to most of the outdoors fights. Barons a beefy turrets, so eliminating them immediately is not worth the time on a pistol start, and still would require some focus on continuous. So - baron fireballs need to be accounted for in all the outdoor battles. This is a small fun gimmick, given all the histcan running around. - And as far as clearing the barons goes - there is both a secret baron-remover cave, and there is also enough rockets and plasma to clear the 1000 hp towers directly. The main baron related concern is fully accounted for! Conclusion - this was a very fun level. And a pretty memorable one, despite its apparent simplicity.

Maps 22 and 23, both by Steve Duff and Cammy I should really play the 1996 versions of those levels. The ROC-25 re-imagined maps both have 400+ monsters and also include many parts which outstay their welcome. Something feels out-of-place... But what is exactly out of place? I feel that I need more frames of reference to answer that question.

A random idea, how a "mercy" mode can be implemented for map 33: 1) If the player chooses the mercy mode, then the conveyor effect proceeds even after the "Conveyor Techbase" is left behind, and the player's dead husk can be pulled right through the finish line without any inputs! 2) Penalty for choosing mercy mode - something like 5-10 seconds delay during every stage change (can be done by either slower conveyors, or 10-second delayed Boom doors blocking the path temporarily). Effectively, the player forgoes any chance to get an actually good time on map 33 in exchange for a way to leave the level behind and proceed further even when not practicing the whole Laser-Dodging challenge. This will be a godsend for casual 100% Eviternity II d2all runs, while not penalizing masterful map 33 runners in any way, shape or form! And dying with Mercy active would still bar the player from getting the <SuperGun>, which is the main reward for continuous playthrough of this level!

Map 21 - The Prison by Rob Berkowitz and Cammy The Prison may be one of my favorite maps yet! The Art, Vibe and Feel. The MIDIs are consistently good in Realm of Chaos 25th Anniversary Edition. They tend to compliment the maps extremely well. But the harmony between the MIDI and the Map on The Prison is just on the next level! Even the crushers move up and down with the beat! It is quite a sight to see! The visuals use lots of simplistic elements to create something truly memorable. The simple-and-rough geometric shapes greatly resonate the theme of brutal and unfeeling location. Very fitting for the whole "Prison-in-Hell" level theme. The tons of "dead body" props and cage mid-textures also used very evocatively and fittingly. Also, this whole level really focuses on the old "Hell is a punishment not only for the sinners, but for the Demons too" motif. Are those monsters the prisoners? Or the jailers? Most likely - both. Hell defies logic and also sucks, you know? The Gameplay. The gameplay flow weaves brutal challenges with merciful periods of calm. The harder parts resonate with the grim atmosphere in the background, while the easier sections allow the player to fully focus on the art side if the experience. And they also provide some quite before the storm moments too! In general, the gameplay is very unprdictable. The map starts with some evil Cyberdemon turrets, than switches to Plutonian type of combat, than refocuses on an old-school slaughter in a Crusher-filled valley. The only common parts in all major encounters: relerless opposition and crazy inventiveness! Everything else varies. There are inconvenient archviles, a pincer attacks by arachnos and spiders, entrenched revanants, a caco cloud, a different setup of inconvenient archviles... This is all feels so refreshing! Conclusion: this is a really memorable, really creative, and really evocative level. A must-play map, IMO.

Re: Map 20 finale Played on UV I readjusted my mindset for things like your middle of the pack Fractured Worlds/Wormwood setpiece, or the harder elements of Valiant/Ancient Aliens/Struggle/Etc. With renewed mindset, I was able to beat the 4 archvile room in about 8-10 tries. It is just a DPS-race in harsh visual conditions, after all. Very demanding, but easy to understand the basics of. With a proper mindset, such a battle feels 100% fair game... But here lies the problem! If a mindset is adjusted to Fractured Worlds style of battles, even smaller and easier ones, the other encounters of ROC 25 anniversary feel lacking instead. All the map 20 outside the finale feels like an easy-peasy filler. Hell, 95% preceding WAD feels like an easy-peasy filler, when the player adopts such a mindset! Pick your poison: - Either faceplant into a skyscaper-sized difficulty spike in the end of map 20; - Or play the whole WAD, while expecting truly hardcore fights, that aren't actually there most of the time. Either way, there is a huge chance of dissapointment, which could have been totally avoided. The exit E1m8 trap finale is very neat peice from story-telling/artistic perspective. But if the player tries to UV-max the map, the trap is reduced to yet another merciless DPS race instead. Having two such races back to back, both without any prior warning, may feel like a harsh joke to the player... Such troll-y setups would feel kinda fun, if the whole WAD was aiming to reference Going Down, or some the more whimsical Ribbiks' maps. But I am not sure that ROC-25 aims for such references... Map 21 review - coming soon.

Map 19 - Port Fury by Steve Duff and Cammy Big, beautiful, Alien Vendetta-style map. The big arena does have prolonged clean-up stages, though... But I think it is not too bad. Personally, the clean up stages in AV Lake Poison final fight, or on Speed Of Doom Poison Ivy 2 map felt more grindy than the clean up of ship battle from Port Fury. All, in all, Port Fury felt like fun map to blast through. P.S.: The wolfenstein guys do kinda look like zombie security guards, I must say... And wolfensteins' threat level in large, vertical, open rooms hits a sweet spot between zombieman/imp and shotgunner/chaingunner threat levels. So dplyment of some sniping Wolfenstein Zombies on Port Fury is effective and smart, if unconventional. Map 20 - Teleporter Central by Antoni Chan and Cammy I) The ending hogged all my attention, so let's discuss it first... 4 archviles with no consisted cover, no reliable defensive pickups, no way to escape? This feels like a mapping error. Even with BFG, this setup would have been too extreme. But there is no BFG on the map too! In something hardcore-focused, this encounter could have been okay. Maybe. Depending on what level of hardcore is chosen for the WAD in question. But for ROC anniversary edition such set up is too much. If I understand correctly, the OG version had one cyberdemon in that yard. This would have been much better! Or, if the 4 Vile theme is to be preserved, than it would be better to start the room with only 1 vile, and some kind of nasty resurrect-able buggers (barons? chaingunners? Or plain old revs?) and summon viles 2, 3 and 4 when each of escape switches is activated. e1m8 exit setup with 4 mancubi also felt like a troll. This setup is a dedicated Max Kills b Gone, without a mega at least. II) Unlike the ending, other areas of Teleporter Central felt fun and perfectly finetuned to the rest of the WAD! I especially like the plasma section. This was a vile surprise done right!

Necromancer ghosts are face-rocket bait, this is true. But for plasma, bfg, or perforator armed player, the ghosts present very little threat. They feel like snowflakes in these circumstances. (Of course, there is the whole necromancy aspect... But this a bit different) Hugging necromancers does not require BFG. With a good health buffer, I sometimes found myself meleeing with a plasma rifle to increase my DPS against a necro... This is, of course, often suboptimal. But the fact that it is even possible feels wrong. Even a baron door, or a lone spider mastermind can really munch through a megasphere very quickly in melee. But the necro cannot! On map 28, a 200/200 defensive buffer is not guaranteed, and there are also those cacos flying around. So meleeing necromancer with a plasma does not work usually. But engaging him is still much less scary than engaging a Cyber or a Spider Mastermind in similar position. And he is still perfectly rush-able. My approach of plasma-ing necro first relied on hidding in a cave behind him. And, due to lack of backpack, some awkward plasma placemnts, I needed to run in and out of cave multiple times. And necromancer was helpless to notably harm me during those cave runs, despite me running right past him! With a cyber, a spidermastemind, an Annihilator, a Hell Duke, or even a lowly Doom2 mancubus*, such runs would be much, much riskier. *mancubus, of course, can be easily hit-stunned, or even destroyed totally, unlike the necro. But running blindly and point blank past a mancubus with only a green armor and less than ~120 health is a very dumb idea, unlike blindly running past a necromaster.

Okay, yesterday I - replayed map 29, and properly entered map 36 - finished map 36, - replayed map 30 after entering from map 36, - replayed map 25, because it is related to the whole 29-36 sequence. The finale of map 36 is such a cool spectacle! 1) First stage - the dread, as the whole place gets corrupted. 2) Second stage - the sense of relief, because those thousands of monsters in the monster counter are simply decorative zombiemen! 3) Third stage - the grim realization. A horde of endlessly resurrecting zombiemen, supported by Archviles and Necromancers, is not decorative at all! A real fight is unfolding right now! And those blurspheres are not for show either... I am also curious right now: - Is resemblance between CChest1 Citadel at the Edge of Infinity and Eviternity II map 36 intentional, or I am simply imagining things? Now, I found a bug, and also some potential flaws. - A bug: Entering map 30 from map 36 does not display intermission text. - A notable flaw (in my opinion, of course, but still): against the arsenal from map 36 at hand, the final boss feels completely helpless. Just shoot it until it becomes thin white mist. It didn't even had the time to summon the turrets! - A potential flaw number 1: I found that Necromancer do not command any respect from me. When a Necromancer is on the field, my first instinct is just to give it a hug and than shoot some big gun from point blank range! Necromancer's attacks feel less threatening than Baron's Claws, or Mastermind's Heavy Chaingun. This is so off for a monster, which is supposed to occupy similar weight class to the cyberdemon... Did anyone else felt in a similar way about Necromancers? - A potential flaw number 2: Whatever their power level may be, the Necromancers are under-utilized in general. There is no proper arena fight, where the player is forced to juggle their attention between Necromancer(s) and some high threat ressurrectable targets, be it Hell Dukes, Common Mancubi, Astral Mancubi, Chaingunners, VileImps, or other demons of similar abilities. The closest thing is the map 28 finale, where the Necromancer overlooks the battlefield, while the player fights all kinds of advanced cacodemons, but even there the necromancer feels more like an oveersized baron-door than a proper threat. And necromancy magics is only threatening due to limited ammo on map 28. When I was exiting the map, I was thinking that a pair of two sneakily deployed archviles would be more scary... - A potential flaw number 3: The final point about Necromancers, I promise! It felt very weird that the 1st Boss necromancer on map 25 was deployed without any corpses to use necromancy on... Something minor, like a trio of Former Corporals with a help of a single revenant would make that first stage much more memorable! To end the post on a positive note: You guys are awesome! Like really awesome! The Eviternity II megawad is huge, beautiful and innovative! Your team members managed to go above and beyond Eviternity 1. And the first Eviternity is a groundbreaking megaWAD in its own right...

Map 17 No Escape After completing Eviternity 2, I am back to the Realm of Chaos Anniversary edition. So: during the whole run of map 17, I couldn't help, but compare this map with final Eviternity 2 episodes. For the most part, No Escape, focuses on smaller rooms and simpler geometry. But this all felt very welcome after expansive Celestial Eviternity 2 levels. I love epic journeys in Doom, but compact and cozy battlefields are fun too. Yet, such smaller designs are often exchanged for grander things... And thus map 17 of ROC-25 arrived in a perfect time for me! It also helps that the combat feels extremely engaging on No Escape. The beefier monsters are quite readily deployed, yet they didn't feel grindy to me. Some elusive art of Doom-crafting is definitely involved here... My favorite fight is probably the toxic chasm after the Blue Door. Only a few monsters are placed there, but each of them feels dangerous: the gunners are immediate threat, the spiders and the rev keep the player moving, the flying cacos are ready to strike from an unexpected angle due to all the verticality in that location, and two Hell Knights add a little bit of additional beef to the whole encounter. A very fun place to juggle Super Shotgun and the Rocket Launcher. Another very notable sections are the Archvile Gauntlet and the 3-cyber finale. Both fights felt very Eviternity-ish, BTW! Like surprisingly so... All in all, this map was very fun, and it resonated surprisingly well with Eviternity 2 WAD, which I played earlier. After playing Eviternity 2 and No Escape, I keep wondering about deploying Eviternity 2 custom monsters on the smaller arenas... Those new 2023 Astral Arachnos could be surprisinly great in such maps... But I digress. No Escape is a great level! Map 18 Dead Radio A shorter text for now... For the most part @Cammy's version of Dead Radio feels like a Go2It-style map. There are some grand and terrifiying setups, but also a lot of liberty and resources is provided to the player. The pressure on the player can be alleviated by choosing correct strategies, and engaging the monsters in a right order. There is no hardcore modernist "Fly or Die" tests, despite the map including very dangerous monster compositions. Notable differences between Dead Radio and Go2It: - Unlike Go2It, Dead Radio is not a secret map. - Crucially, a lot of additional resources on Dead Radio are placed in secrets. Without secrets, the map becomes much more hardcore and demanding! - On the other hand, Dead Radio is notably shorter, and thus demands less endurance. Personally, I had a jolly good time playing Dead Radio. But maybe some adjustments could prove useful (like providing more non-secret healing overall, or 2-3 additional rad suits here and there, or a non-secret invuln somewhere in the Nukage Crossbridge fight). That said, the map does feel comparable to map 04 in overall difficulty (4 archviles at once > 3 archviles at once, and other stuff like that), so maybe the map is perfect as it is now... P.S.: By the way, this would be a perfect map for mixing in Eviternity 2 Astral Mancubuses, Hardhat Zombies (Former Corporals?) and Necromancers. Good old Annihilators and Nightmare Demons would also feel at home here.

I am still here, but Eviternity 2 happened... I'll need to catch up eventually, this is WAD is too much fun to drop.

I have reached the end of Eviternity 2. (Still need to complete some secret maps though... Map 36 is HUUUUUGE D: ) What can I say? It was a great journey! My favorite parts: - Maps 01 and 02 ( If I understand correctly, @Tristan finally completed his initial concept of Evit1 map29 ) - Map 32, (Lost Civilization + Anagnorisis in a same map! Sometimes, the dreams do come true!) - Map 34, (The coziest Doom setting I can remember. Like Tetanus with a touch of Eviternity 1 E6) - Map 11, (More Tetanus) - That One Fully Grown Up Warship from Struggle - Astral Cacos Everywhere (I Always loved fighting those buggers. Eviternity 1 has too few of them, IMO) - The Fact that Episode 4 returns to the theme of Eviternity 1 Episode 1, and brings some grand-scale maps for that theme. - The Blue Techbases from Episode 5 (surprisingly underused setting. Why is this?) - The Music and overall vibes from map 33 - The Music in general. - Those purple teleporting buggers. - The miniboss SuperCacos of all shapes and forms. - Edit: Oh, and I forgot to mention the special weapons... Be it floors, ships, or that one recurring secret thing... Now, I want to talk about custom enemies for a bit And some thoughts about the final boss

@m8f, I have one small question. Is there a separate discussion thread for whole top community WADs topic? Or all discussion is held in the same thread as voting? Also, thank you for your great work!

What a great surprise for every classical Doom player out there! Thank you very much! A spoiler question

I was playing the WAD along with the club, but it was kinda hard to say something definitive about the maps beyond "They're fun for me to play!". I was waiting for some map to truly feel distinguished and special, and map 09 is exactly this map in my book. So here some reviews of mine... One observation about the WAD as the whole: I must say, the custom-made MIDIs by @Cammy are a real highlight of this megaWAD, IMO. The wacky item sprites and the re-edits of 1997 IWAD-inspired levels are all good fun, but the music elevates everything to new heights. Map 09 - Machine Gun Etiquette by Steve Duff This name is on point! The hitscanners are everywhere, and thus the Chaingun is a crucial weapon. Bullets are not unlimited though. So deploying the chaingun smartly is important. One may say, that winning on this map requires a proper Machine Gun Etiquette. (Ba-Dum-Tss!) Highlights of the map for me: 1) The big Toxic Pit room, with multiple ways to traverse the area, and creative enemy placement. The geometry of the place makes the fights very memorable, IMO. Typically, the "hitscanners from above" trope is employed with the help of dedicated guard towers. But in Machine Gun Etiquette Toxic Pit area, the elevated positions are more than the simple guard towers. They are proper locations for the player to explore. This requires different geometry. And this geometry, in turn, leads to some non-typical monster behaviour. 2) The Marble Column Room. With its non-orthogonal geometry and custom dark marble textures, the room looks very modern. Yet, it does feel like an organic part of the map, at least for me. Cool room in itself, and a cool piece in the sheer variety of locations on the map. 3) The cragged toxic pool section closer to the end of the level. Jagged borders of the pools/ceilings really make this place feel special. And the fights there are also good fun. 4) The blue Wolfenstein Room. Not only it looks cool, it also deploys the Wolf-Guards as an proper monsters, rather an a mere easter egg! This is hard to do without sprite edits, but Cammy and Steve Duff did succeed in this task. The Wolf-Guards don't look starkly outlandish, and they also play a dedicated combat role, as relatively Hig_Hp/Moderate_Damage hitscan enemies. Common zombies would not be the same... 5) The way different parts of the map connect to each other. Best part - returning to the start of the level from the exit room requires a jump through the window. Truth to be told, the map is linear. But it didn't feel this way, when I was playing it. And such design is a good thing too, IMO. 6) Secrets. They were in general fun to look for, and they also were varied in difficulty, with some being pretty easy to find, while others - not so much. This is my favorite approach to secrets is a Doom level. All in all, this is one of my favorite Doom levels I played in a while. Really diverse, really well done, and really cozy in its old-school ways. Map 10 - Hollow Oblivion by Jason Fowler Like the name Hollow Oblivion implies, Map 10 is a very desolate place. It is a very small map too, with essentially only too proper rooms, each housing one combat encounter. But the fights themselves are quite lively, IMO. The map starts with a small, concentrated pandemonium of hitscanners (and imps, and 1 plasma spider), and the second battle is a dedicated pinky-fighting arena, berserk pack included. After the pinkies are dealt with, there are two barons to vanquis, one Exit-marked staircase to climb, and one final switch to flip. Hollow Oblivion is very small map. Arguably it is too small for its slot, given that the fights are not too hard too. However, I still like that one. I have a soft spot for tiny maps, I suppose... It also helps with pacing, as the previous few maps were much longer.

Is cacoswarm/Flying mastermind attacking from the outside allowed? Can inaccessible outside areas use floors lower than the limit for technical purposes? (Like setting up a squad of archviles to bring cacos from the swarm back to life?)