Ezo Fuzz

Hey, amazing work my friend! I will start using this from now on, it does just about everything I need it to do. There's one thing I would change though: I prefer the alternative HUD without the grey bar. But only being able to see the ammo for the current weapon, not all weapons, is a little limiting for higher skill maps. Other than that, pefect <3

Hey fellow boomers, I am a proud new owner of a 49'' 32:9 Ultrawide gaming monitor. Naturally the first thing to do with such a marvelous piece of technology is to play a 30 year old demon slaughter simulator ;) I use GZDoom when I want to play fullscreen and prefer to use the alternative / minimalist HUD that GZDoom comes with. The problem is the HUD elements are in opposite corners of the screen, making it difficult to glance at them while paying attention. I've tried the mods "Mortal HUD" and "Undead HUD". The first had no centering option and while the latter promised it, I could not get it to work in my version of GZDoom (Relies on SBARINFO, maybe deprecated now) Besides the obvious "use the classic HUD, duh", what mods / options exist for a transparent / minimalist HUD for Doom, that is centered on the screen / orients itself around the center. TL;DR - Help me find a good centered HUD for GZDoom

Thanks a lot, but I won't be able to participate in this new one, sadly. How does the point system work anyway?

WAD#05 - Shovelware Adventure! Title : Shovelware Adventure! Filename : shovelad.wad shovelad.deh Release date : September 2016 Author : Doomkid (Doomkid92 on steam) Email Address : [redacted] Maps : (1) - MAP01, (2) - MAP02 (Victory Screen, No Gameplay) Enemies : (1) - 724 Secrets : (1) - 11 Tries Needed : 2 (HMP) Playtime : 01:17 (Hour:Min) Link : https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/s-u/shovelad ::-------------------------------------------------------------:: Maps: MAP01 ::-------------------------------------------------------------:: Screenshots: ::-------------------------------------------------------------:: Thoughts & Rating: I was surprised to find one of doomkids levels via the random /idgames functionality. Not only have I played multiple of his maps prior to this one, but I've been a fan of his doom-related youtube content for many years as well! With the deep knowledge this man has to offer others about the inner-workings of doom and the methods for making dehacked, vanilla compatible mods / wads, I was sure he would deliver something great here. And that was not far from the truth! After spawning, the player looks into a lit up window, giving a sneak peak at a few of the custom enemies / sprites. After hitting tab to open the automap, I was surprised by the high enemy count, which quickly proved to be one of the running themes of the map. To make it vanilla compatible, not too much intricate sector-detail was placed in the map, allowing for larger open areas, instead of small, yet detailed ones. Beyond the functional, yet rather typical doom map layout, the new enemy types really add something to the experience. From Plasmagun-wielding foot soldiers to marines equipped with rocket launchers, the overall flow of the map, and the familiar dance you typically play with enemies changes more than one would expect. Especially the aforementioned rocket launcher marines gave me some trouble, as I had to manually adjust my gut-reaction when faced with foot soldiers. Even though enemies were littered across every hallway, their placement was certainly not random and made for many interesting fights. One downside of making such a large map with intersecting paths is remembering the route you took to each area. For a while I knew I needed the red key, and I knew where I saw it before continuing to explore, but I just could not remember the correct path to get there. After aimlessly wandering around for a while, I finally found it. This might just be my own problem in terms of orientation, but the map was more sprawling than it really had to be. Finally, the map ends with a classic Spider Mastermind vs Cyberdemon fight, with a lift in the center, allowing the player to shoot rockets into an inverted fire-blue cross, which houses romeros head. Upon killing it, the level ends. While a little confusing, unforgiving and not very visually impressive, this map was a lot of fun to explore and get lost in. The custom enemies really kept me on my toes and many neat ideas were worked into the map, that made most areas memerable enough. One thing we can't forget, is that all of this is done using just WAD editing and a DeHacked file, making this map vanilla compatible. The technical challenges that come with this old approach make this map a lot more technically impressive than a comparable ZDoom map. As such, the ranking falls slightly higher than just maps quality itself would be rated at. 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⚫

WAD#04 - DUBAI_UP Title : Dubai Filename : dubai.wad Release date : Dec 2012 Author : Didy Email Address : moontrader@gmx.de Maps : (1) - MAP01 Enemies : (1) - 139 Secrets : (1) - 1 Tries Needed : 2 (HMP) Playtime : 38 min Link : https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/d-f/dubai ::-------------------------------------------------------------::  Maps: MAP01 ::-------------------------------------------------------------::  Screenshots: ::-------------------------------------------------------------::  Thoughts & Rating: This has to be one of the best random picks I have ever drawn from /idgames, period. I was unfamiliar with the creator up to this point, but right from the get-go the quality of this map stunned me. After using a lift to exit the starting area, the player is thrust into a beautifully detailed arena with lower tier enemies. This WAD only extends the base texture set with small additions that perfectly blend into it's architecture. After killing most enemies here, a switch can be found in a maintenance room, opening the two doors on opposite sides of the arena. While one of the doors leads directly to one end of a large facility-like room, the other takes a few branching paths and expands into a few more areas, before allowing access to the same facility room, simply from the other side. It's the first branching area here that made me realize the great pacing at play: After making many rounds in the initial circular arena, the first time you enter this new room, both paths throw a higher tier enemy at you: A mancubus and a hell-knight, which are still tough with the players current arsenal. Add to that the abundant imps and hit-scanners, and sure enough, the player keeps their ground and fights the badies, instead of rushing through. This makes the player focus a lot more on the surroundings in the new room, making it more memorable, which is required later. Many more tricks are employed that help the player build an instinctive knowledge of how all the rooms connect, as if they figured it out themselves. After a few larger fights, a cramped hallway allowing access to the rocket launcher the quest for the red key began. It sat waiting on a few pillars in the main facility room, with no obvious way to access it. A hallway close to the rocket launcher location allowed the player to view an upcoming arena and ride an elevator that seemed to do nothing. In said arena, accessed from the branching-path room, an archvile fight and a few items await. One switch here raises an L-shaped elevator platform to the red key, which lifts one of the walls inside the previously pointless elevator. The foreshadowing worked, as the player immediately recognized the path they need to take, even if it is quite a long and winding one. Finally a red-key switch is activated, opening the large exit door with a mancubus inside. After this, the door inside this room opens to the outside. That feeling of finally seeing a skybox was incredibly well timed and relieving. But just as a curve ball, the creator added a custom enemy that hangs from ceilings and spams fireballs. (This replaces the cacodemon, see top part of map). They are easy to kill and just there for a quick ending chuckle. The architecture, overall level design, pacing and true non-linear nature of this map was phenomenal. Every small part seemed to have multiple uses and meanings, nothing was unaccounted for and every part of the map eventually *clicked* once you were exposed to more information. The ending was relieving and a little cheeky in the best possible way. The only possible bad thing: Only 1 really easy secret. Would have loved to come back and find a few more. Still a brilliant map that deserves more players! 5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

WAD#03 - X_INGS Title : X_INGS.WAD Filename : X_INGS.WAD Release date : 05/27/94 Author : Stefano Biefeni Email Address : - Maps: : (1) - E2M1 Enemies: : (1) - 286 Secrets: : (1) - 9 Tries Needed : 2 (Quicksave used once) Playtime : 29 min Link : https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/v-z/x_ings ::-------------------------------------------------------------:: Maps: E2M1 ::-------------------------------------------------------------:: Playthrough: The map begins with a series of three rooms, all encapsulating the last, forming corridors around the perimeter of each new room. Immediately the player faces a horde of former humans and shotgunners around every corner he turns. Finally a switch is found at the outer left edge of the rooms, allowing the player to prorgess. Describing the coming rooms is honestly quite hard. With how early this map is and how little was established about best practices at this point, many decisions about how rooms connect, how doors are textured, etc. end up being quite wild and unorthodox. The rooms following the beginning are varied, but tho themes stick out: Marble hallways with marble collumns and the titular "Crossings". The latter is very unique for the time and consists of four tiny walkways, leading to an empty drop down into a slime pit. It was counterintuitive at first, as the player will expect to run across to the opposite side, but is actually teleported 90 degrees to the right walkway. Walking back and forth essentially teleports the player counter-clockwhise between the paths. After fighting a horde of cacodemons, this mechanic/theme repeats. Only this time it's in the shape of a big ol' swastika. Not sure why, propably just bordedom of the creator. Finally a cavern entrance opens up, leading to a fight against a spider mastermind, gurading the exit switch. ::-------------------------------------------------------------:: Thoughts & Rating: While this loopy, strange map has many shortcomings, especially in terms of player direction and pacing, one can not ignore its creation date in Mid 1994. Scrutinizing such an early WAD in the way we would a modern one is simply not fair and should receive a bit of special treatment, in particular when quite some effort must have been spent on it. Even with all nostalgia and appreciation, the map has a few problems, not all maps of the period had. Doors necessary for progression are often textured as regular walls, strange lift constructions make it hard to continue on the required paths and enemy placement is honestly boring, because corner-peaking a horde of hit-scanners couldn't have been very fun or challenging back then either. The saving grace here is the titular "Crossing idea" and a few nice sections, that made me give it the benefit of the doubt, considering the age. 3/5 ⭐⭐⭐⚫⚫

Wait, is this one over already? I'll post my remaining ones for this one here. Might join in on one of the next ones as well.

WAD#02 - JUPCARN2 Title : Jupiter Carnage 2: To Hell And Beyond! Filename : JUPCARN2.WAD Release date : 31st May 2016 Author : Bzzrak Ktazzz Email Address : bzzrak.ktazzz@yandex.ru Maps : (1) - E4M2 Enemies : (1) - 94 Secrets : (1) - 4 Tries Needed : 2 Playtime : 21 min  Link : https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/j-l/jupcarn2 ::-------------------------------------------------------------:: Maps: E4M2 ::-------------------------------------------------------------:: Playthrough: After spawning in a hexagonal blood room with a red star ceiling, the player can grab a chainsaw behind the spawn door. The main door leads into a dimly lit corridor with specters waiting to attack. After defeating them (hopefully) with the chainsaw, the corridor leads to a somewhat narrow hall with two doors. One is yet another corridor with specters, leading to some health to pick up. The main door leads to a square froom with 4 doors. The first accessible one to the right allows the player to access the ledge visible in the previous room. After hitting a switch, a staircase lowers into the previous narrow hall and a lost-soul fight ensues. Thereafter, a door on the ledge opens, leading first to a hell-knigh fight, followed by an invulnerability sphere and berseker pack. This is used to punch a whole room of imps to death, in which the red key is located. Back in the square room a new door can be unlocked, leading to extremely tight corridors in an arrow shape (left edge of map). Eventually the player reaches a narrow arena with two barons, guarding the blue key. A few nice raising and winding staircases behind the next door lead to a teleporter. From here the player has to face two more arenas, with very simplistic design. Finally a switch is revealed behind a wall, opening the exit door. ::-------------------------------------------------------------:: Thoughts & Rating: In all fairness, the overall quality of the map could be described as sub-par. The spawn room and certain bits of the following rooms do look quite visually appealing and employ good usage of dooms mechanics (raising staircases, teleporting enemies, ...). However the overall flow of the map is very choppy and noticably badly thought out. The narrow winding corridors all over the place and cramped arenas don't lend themselves well to the dooms arsenal or play style. Other bizzare design choices seemed to have been made purely because they looked nice in the 2D Top-Down editing view, while being horrible to play (arrow maze). However some neat ideas did shine here and there, even considering the substantial drop in overall level quality after the first room. The last two arenas were actually fairly good, if basic. Many of these complaints might be harsh, if this map was made in the mid 90s, like many of the /idgames archive maps are. However this map was made in 2016, so even for a beginner mapper some of these pitfalls were easily avoidable. 2/5 ⭐⭐⚫⚫⚫

WAD#01 - Aquafina Title : Aquafina Filename : Aquafina.wad Release date : 08/09/05 Author : Jacob H. Orloff Email Address : slathedoomer@gmail.com Maps : (1) - MAP01 Enemies : (1) - 50 Secrets : (1) - 3 Tries Needed : 2 Playtime : 20 min Link : https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/a-c/aquafina ::-------------------------------------------------------------:: Maps: MAP01 ::-------------------------------------------------------------:: Playthrough: The player spawns in a small room, being given a shotgun immediately. The switch facing the player lowers the diagonal wall to reveal armor and some ammo. The door on the other end finally opened the spawn room and faces us with a chaingunner. This level starts with green armor, shotgun and chaingun, which felt like the next room was about to get hard, not so much however. This room acts as the main room connecting the next areas. The two diagonally stacked sectors act as crushers, which allow access to the red key when activated. The outer rim of the room acts as a lift, occupied by Imps. I had to use autoaim here to hit a switch up above, allowing me to access the lift. This seems to be an oversight, see below. Up on the rim, one of the doors opens, revealing a room with a switch and a few enmieis. The switch opens a small door and starts spawning Pinkie demons, forcing the player into a small janitor closet, in which an imp waits. This was a fun fight, if a little cramped. The switch inside this closet opens the door opposite in the main hub.Inside this room the player has two more paths to take. The right door leads to a strikingly blue room with a few undefined textures. After killing grunts, the switch underneath a crusher allows to ride a lift behind the fence with imps. A switch here opens the door opposite in the last room. Here you first fight against two imps and two revenants, hidden inside pillars. The switch here lowers a wall in the hallway, leading to a square room. Here multiple switches keep opening up walls filled with hellknights and one baron of hell. Finally the last switch reveals a switch on the hip-high wall in the red room. This switch finally starts moving the crushers, allowing the player to grab the red key. Here I had to "idclip" to get back up on the rim.This key allows to access the red door behind the same hip-high wall as the previous switch. This room is finally filled with two imps and an archvile. Not a hard, but cramped little fight. The switch inside this room ends the level. ::-------------------------------------------------------------:: Technical problems: Had to "idclip" up the rim of the main hub, because without aiming vertically the required switch is only shootable with enemies near it. Missing textures inside the blue room Once the player knows the red key switch location, this can be activated while still inside the floor, skipping two areas. ::-------------------------------------------------------------:: Thoughs & Rating: This certainly wasn't a bad map, just a little small, bland and short. The begining area looked quite nice, but the rest of the map is quite basic, yet functional... for the most part. Having to use cheats on the first lift of your level kind of sets the tone sadly. But the next view encounters were nicely paced, the pinky/imp encounter described was very frantic and fun. The rest of the level was simple but good enough. The revenant reveal was nerveracking as it should be and the hell knight fight was a bit long winded but did its job. After grabbing the red key, the same problem as before occured, with there being no way out of the pit, unless mouselook is enabled. Finally the archvile behind the last door killed me once, which made me discover the problem with hiding switches in raising floor sectors yet again, see above. All in all, an amateur level that had a simple theme/premise (crusher + key) and stuck to it. It wasn't well thought out, kinda small and certainly janky at points, but it was a nice short level that doesn't overstay it's welcome either. 3/5 ⭐⭐⭐⚫⚫

What a great concept for an event! Had to finally register on here to participate. Catalyst looks quite fun and polished. I'll start with a map tomorrow, maybe stream it. I wish all other adventurers some good /idgames RNG ;)