SirPootis

This word was very prevalent in me and my friends' humor and lingo throughout most of my late childhood. In a different note, it's funny to see who knew TF2 and who didn't when meeting people in Discord or other voice chats by the way they pronounced 'Pootis' in my username. A majority of people opted for 'Poo-tiss' or 'Poo-tus' but the few who knew TF2 immediately pronounced it the same way Heavy did :P

One of the big ones for me was Crystal Castles. I only first heard of them in 2012 or so, right around the time they released their third album. Their sound was an entrancing juxtaposition of glitchy bitcrushed synth melodies combined with Alice Glass' strained and emotional vocal delivery. High school me fuckin loved Crystal Castles. And then when they broke up in 2014, I was confused and saddened but figured they did it out of creative differences. I wish I was right. Hearing of the allegations of Ethan Kath sexually, physically, and mentally abusing Alice Glass on a seemingly regular basis during their tenure sickened me so much so that I couldn't (and still can't) get myself to listen to their works without thinking of the pain she went through while making those tracks.

No.

MAP20 of Ray Mohawk 2

Copy-paste of Aledoom's -Insanity Tower- map. Aledoom's screenshots (taken straight from their thread, unfortunately I can't directly compare the map files themselves since their DL link no longer works): OP's 'map' screenshots from UDB (note the filename matching the file in OP's download):

MAP28 - Thresholds Beyond 100% K | 0/1 S | 10:31 completion time This one's another nice map. Emerging from the void you entered last map, you're now in the depths of the hellish abyss. Essentially a massive arena split into three main sections: the rocky cave, the red brick room with the rocket launcher, and the massive blood pool below where the most obvious Spirit World inspiration is located in the form of a gang of arachnotrons and two spider masterminds. Overall, I found this map to be not much of a challenge, especially since you're bound to stumble into the BFG pretty quickly, either in the cave area or on an elevated walkway accessible from either the platform in the cave section with the plasma gun or from the fake-wall red rock tunnels in the red brick room. Combined with a small handful of backpacks in the blood pool area and plasma ammo scattered around, all it takes is a slightly disciplined trigger finger on the BFG and you can get through this map relatively smoothly. The big moments are the red brick room, where you've got a few pain elementals flooding the room while an archvile and a gang of hitscanners pincer you from opposite sides, and the red key fight, where after a teleport fake-out you're back in the blood pool, but this time a horde of arachnotrons, revenants, and hitscanners supported with mancubi teleport in. As long as you don't go too crazy with the BFG in the earlier sections, you should have at least a few shots to cull the swarm. I feel like this is map is a nice little romp that the wad allows you to go on before the finale. Enjoy it while you can. MAP29 - Epiclesis 90% K | 1/1 S | 9:41 completion time Playing through this map, it just seemed like a beat-for-beat remake of The Living End, and for the most part, it is. It's still got some new life to it, having you carefully hike along narrow paths and dip and duck through corrupted locales of humanity as you knew it. The map progresses along nicely yet familiarly, first having you dodge some mancubus bullet-hell before running into what seems like a piece of a techbase ripped from its earthly origins and slotted haphazardly into hell's foundation, like a toddler trying to jam the square block into the circle hole. After contending with some imps, shotgunners, and an archvile, you drop down into the tightrope area, with a more ferocious bite than it's spiritual predecessor. Then comes the 'three-prong' room, with three branches of shotgunners and a different monster waiting for you. So far, this looks like a pretty yet formulaic re-imagining, but then. As you climb up the staircase to the central platform, you hear the icon of sin stir to life. Something's off. You get to the top, duel the cyberdemon and finally kill those mancubus bastards harassing you all map, and then you see the blue key, and a stairway back down. Lap 2. It's such a simple, yet really fun way to add a twist to a Living End-style map. Having to run through the map again, this time refreshed with monsters from the Icon and the entire arsenal in your pocket, it's hard to tell if it's supposed to be a final challenge or a victory lap. Either way, capping off the map with the scene of the giant flesh pillar being crushed down makes for both a satisfying way to end the level and a preview at what's to come for the finale. MAP30 - A͏̛bs̸̷̛͜͠c̡͢i̴̸͏̕s̸̢͘͡s̀͟͟͢ioǹ̸̢͜ 92% K | 1/1 S | 8:56 completion time Wow. What a great finale. You are in the belly of the beast, metaphorically and almost literally. You first fight your way out of the last shreds of civilization you'll ever see, a remnant of a tech base and slime facility. After getting the red key, you open the door, and find yourself in the gaping maw of the hellish abyss that's been eating civilization alive. The source of suffering you and humanity have endured now lies just before you. What follows is a gauntlet of a fight. Throes of every demon in the enemy roster, including at least three(?) cyberdemons, two spider masterminds, and three archviles are in this massive cave. I love this final room. Pathways are both wide enough to let you roam around and sparse enough that you will occasionally be forced to make a push through a mob of demons to progress, all while you hear the void cry out in anguish periodically. Let me also say the music is perfect for this map. It's loud and dramatic, something you haven't heard much in this wad at all, while also having these tinges of hopefulness, like it's encouraging you, "you can do this." It's so good. (Also, side note, I gotta see if there's some map hackery that I'm missing because in certain sections I can hear phantom fireballs being thrown. I can't see them or hear an impact. Maybe it's a side effect of playing in GZDoom. hm.) (Side note to the side note: I have now realized this level has invisible decoy monsters that replace Commander Keen that do nothing but make fireball sounds and block rockets [which it did at least once to me in this map]. That's evil. I love it). To get through to the end, you'll have to find the yellow and blue keys, which are placed on opposite ends of the cave. Ammo is only slightly abundant. Rocket launcher enjoyers will see their weapon of choice get a lot of mileage in this map thanks to the amount of rocket boxes scattered around, although ammo for everything else is not tight also. I just happened to find myself running out of BFG ammo often, but that's probably more of a personal problem with wanting to lean on the BFG too much for a fight of this magnitude. Once you nab the final two keys, you can then climb up and into the black heart of the beast. Seeing the incomprehensible red void in the methaphorical aorta of the beast ties everything together for me: it's the sign of hell's corruption. It's the very first thing you see in Outer Plane when you first enter the Sarcophagus. It's what permeates the last two-thirds of the wad, both as the sky and in actual textures placed against some ledges. I may be reading too much into this, but it's what I'm interpreting it as. After seeing yourself inches away from the void, you reach out and pull the plug, ending everything, including yourself. Rest easy. You won. -- Final notes: Like I said when I first started posting in this thread, I am a sucker for ambience, including dark ambience. Ambient music is one of my favored genres of music to listen to, and I find it really easy to immerse myself and imagine a world around each song. Seeing this wad and finding out that it emphasizes moodiness and dark ambience drew me immediately. The wad is a masterclass in atmosphere while staying within the confinements of Vanilla-compatible Doom. Sure, it's easy to make a levelset in UDMF and have all the tools of colored lighting, fog, dynamic lighting, sound effects, etc. but to make something I can immerse myself into that well and also being able to be run in doom2.exe is amazing. The music is a huge factor in this as well. The songs are perfect for the wad, a selection of dark ambience that really defines the feel of each level. Like I said in some of my notes, some maps actually get a 'cold' or 'hot' feeling mainly from the music. I love this wad so much, and it's one of my favorites of the past few years. My favorite maps of the wad (no particular order): MAP03 - Hydroelectric Grid MAP10 - Industrial Crypt MAP16 - Cold Ascent MAP26 - Igneus MAP27 - Maligned Annex This was fun! Despite life throwing curveball after curveball after curveball at me this month, I'm happy I was able to take the time to revisit a wad I thoroughly enjoyed and write out my feelings about it.

MAP23 - Hazard Pay 100% K | 1/1 S | 7:50 completion time MAP24 - Abyssal Refuge 100% K | 4/5 S | 20:15 completion time MAP25 - Exsanguination 100% K | 1/1 S | 6:48 completion time MAP26 - Igneus 100% K | 1/1 S | 8:59 completion time MAP27 - Maligned Annex 100% K | 2/2 S | 16:27 completion time

MAP19 - Phosphene 100% K | 3/3 S | 14:45 completion time MAP20 - To Hieron 100% K | 1/1 S | 4:10 completion time MAP21 - Of Flesh & Fission 96% K | 1/1 S | 8:48 completion time MAP22 - Mausoleum 100% K | 2/2 S | 5:19 completion time

So happy to finally see this released! I had a lot of fun working with @Muusi's SoftFX resources and seeing what the others came up with has been a blast.

got sidetracked with things this past week, so here's my catching-up. hopefully i can keep up the rest of the month. MAP12 - Outer Plane 100% K | 1/1 S | 7:00 completion time MAP13 - P̡̤͈͢ͅ҉̨̺̮͍́͟r̶op̴̶̡̛̞͚̗̙͇̭̤͜h̀͠ȩ̴̶̞̘͖̥͖͢͢t̻ì̘̬̭̲̦͇̭̺̱͙̕͟͡͞͞c͏̧̡̢̪̗͓̠͔̀͞ͅͅ ̴̳͎̜́͜V̡̢̲̦͇i̷̢̧̢͔̬̱̠͖̫̯͝͞͠sio̱̘̖n͟ 94% K | 3/3 S | 8:42 completion time MAP14 - Oasis 100% K | 1/1 S | 5:45 completion time MAP15 - Collapse 100% K | 5/5 S | 11:07 completion time (switched to dsda-doom for this and the next level) MAP31 - R̕͏̵͟ea̵̡ǹ̛im̷̵̢̨͢a͜͝҉̶̶́t͏̨̀͜͟͝͏͜͠or̛͏ 153% K | 1/1 S | 3:41 completion time MAP32 - B͠͠é̶̸́́̀͠d̛͜͡ ̀͢ǫ̶̛f̶̶̴̸̕͢͢ ̷̨̀́̕͠Cr̷̷̨͜͞͝e҉a̡͘҉̡ţ̸́҉į̷̴͟҉ǫ̵͞n̸̵̢̨̕͘͟͜͝ 0% K | 1/1 S | 0:29 completion time (back onto GZDoom, software renderer for the rest of the wad) MAP16 - Cold Ascent 100% K | 1/1 S | 7:43 completion time MAP17 - Predation 100% K | 2/2 S | 11:38 completion time MAP18 - Elder Shrine 98% K | 2/2 S | 9:38 completion time

Hey, so sorry, life loves to just keep getting in the way of creative liberties. I've gotten started on the map, and have some screens of the starting area:

MAP09 - Hadal Facility 99% K | 2/2 S | 16:48 completion time To be completely honest, I didn't enjoy my first playthrough of this map. I felt it dragged on a bit, and the hub-like structure felt too limiting. Now, having played this for the third time around, I've grown to enjoy this a lot more. From an atmosphere perspective, this level feels great. You're diving deep into a long-forsaken underground base that's brimming with those who likely trashed the place, and all you can do is try to find a way out. Imps flood the ruined sections, putting just enough pressure to keep you moving through the minimal platforming sections. Shotgunners and chaingunners harass you from the outskirts, and cacodemons decide to take the fight to you, getting in your way and providing floating cover for the hitscanners flinging pot shots at you. I really appreciate the doomcute in some of the spaces, the few tables in the meeting area and mess hall, the cafeteria serving up its slop of the day, and even the improvised fortifications that leave me visualizing the scenario of resistance fighters sandbagging the main hall in preparation to ward off the demonic force, failing, and then the demons themselves using the same tactic against anyone coming through with any more fight in them. The final fight is a great way to play off the last room of the Pit, which I usually just run past the wall of mancubi and exit. The final fight caps off the musty romp through a dilapidated techbase with a nice slugfest under that same night sky. Just like with Slag Dump, seeing that sky after 15 minutes in the ruins... I can almost feel the cool air hitting my face. It's refreshing. The music again is great. The juxtaposition of the constant drums in the back with the melancholic, yet almost soothing synth pads give an interesting dynamic of what the place used to be compared to what it is now. The only thing I'm not a fan of is the medkit closets. This is the third time I've played this level, and it's the third time that I realize I can just open the bars when I'm already at least 10 minutes into the level. Other than that little nit-pick, another solid level. MAP10 - Industrial Crypt 96% K | 9/9 S | 14:26 completion time This one's another banger. It takes Refueling Base and turns it into a breezy trek across this abandoned nukage facility. Unlike Hadal Facility where you're making your way through a completely destroyed underground base, Industrial Crypt's facility is undisturbed. It has this unsettling-yet-serene feel to it. This map is on-level with Hydroelectric Grid for me, with how it takes its inspiration and improves it on essentially all aspects. The high points are the hitscanner hallway fight and the red key nukage fight. Who would've figured that throwing in a single cyberdemon would turn up the intensity of an already-popular fight to 11. What a blast. The nukage fight is also great fun, giving the player the RL and throwing them into a massive pit with pain elementals, imps, revenants, and pinkies while having to manage radsuit usage. While radsuit management is not usually something I enjoy, it's executed well here. The nine secrets are not too difficult to find, with maybe the exception of the invuln secret, although that's probably just from me not even noticing it atop the pillar until I'd already killed basically everything. The SSG secret is great fun. I remember surviving the secret fight in the nukage and almost completely passing it by until I noticed the TP pad in the corner, and thought "wait a second". A tiny bit of parkour in the background scenery is always fun, especially for a payoff like that. The ending staircase down is such a chilling visual to end the level. This stairway, narrow enough for a person but tall enough for a titan, beckons you down, further into the abyss. The bodies strewn all over only add further questions. Where the hell am I going? MAP11 - Sarcophagus 100% K | 1/1 S | 4:28 completion time If you thought this map would give you an answer, you'd be dead wrong. The Sarcophagus is a circular arena that screams into your face from the word 'go', smattering all kinds of demons at you, with a cyberdemon acting as a turret from the center. That is, until the slime eventually raises, then he's after you too. We see the first arch-vile of the wad in this fight also, which is appropriate given the inspiration. So far, this is shaping up to be a short and sweet boss arena fight, which already is a good time. But then. You grab the red key, open the door, march forward, and.... Seeing the massive pillars flickering in the distance of the gaping void filled me with equal parts awe and dread. You're in uncharted territory now. Grabbing the blue key, cleaning up the last few enemies in the main arena, and leaving through the red key door, I just stop and look into the distance. Such a simple, yet grabbing scene. Another great level.

MAP06 - Slag Dump 100% K | 3/3 S | 9:06 completion time MAP07 - Corroded Ruins 100% K | 1/1 S | 1:46 completion time MAP08 - Demon Core 100% K | 3/3 S | 6:49 completion time

sorry i'm a bit late to the party, but i've always wanted to contribute to something like this, and what a wad to dip my toes into the DWmegawad club! i've played it twice so far: once last year shortly after RC1 dropped and again earlier this year in co-op with my brother, who also loved it. i've always been a sucker for rich, dark, moody atmosphere and this has it in droves. combined with the referential yet increasingly desolate level design, this is very high up in my favorite wads of the past few years. anyway, time to catch up, haha. i'm playing on gzdoom (until we get to the secret levels, i'll switch to dsda-doom for those), pistol-starting every level on ultra-violence (unless i mention otherwise). MAP01 - Arrival 100% K | 2/2 S - ~1:40 completion time MAP02 - Water Purifier 100% K | 1/1 S - 3:43 completion time MAP03 - Hydroelectric Grid 100% K | 3/3 S - 3:12 completion time MAP04 - Service Tunnels 100% K | 1/1 S - 3:42 completion time MAP05 - Sludge Conduit 100% K | 2/2 S - 4:36 completion time alright, it's the middle of the night and i'm tired, so i'll catch up more in the next day or so (hopefully). this is fun, writing little blurbs about a whole megawad one level at a time. :)