quakis

Congrats on release, my worries about this update changing what I enjoyed about v2.0 might be lost were unfounded, the atmosphere and slower paced gameplay I adore is still intact while adding more to the experience; the PSX/64-like ambience really helps and the new enemy sfx emphasis the concept of stepping into unknown territory. I do enjoy the new areas, especially the rainy sections and hunting down the nodes. Made it to the secret ending, the music change and "BFG" romps here were a satisfying powershift dynamic compared to your near-dead position initially entering Eraser. Great update honestly, I'll need to do the same for my review making note of the v3.0 changes. Reporting a few minor issues/notes I spotted during my playthrough in the spoiler below;

The original Braham Manor built for Vavoom was amongst one of the earliest wads I played when getting into the Doom scene and was a relatively new release at the time, so seeing this again hit me with some nostalgia. Even went ahead to give the original another quick spin out of curiosity to remind me after all these years before jumping into the remastered edition demo. Demo was short, here are some brief thoughts and suggestions, feel free to take from this as you please. Hiding these behind a spoiler tag just to be safe:

Above changes are now live! Should hopefully provide you with a better representation how it looks on the main tracker list, the "OPEN" header pops out while scrolling better than plain white text did.

Firstly, I've been considering another change to the format so editing entries when slots re-open involves less tedious moving around and simplified to small tweaks. The idea is to remove the subheaders "Unfulfilled" and "Fulfilled", merging the two lists together and adding a different distinction. One quick glance should be enough to tell you "oh this project is accepting maps". Hopefully the colour choices will be suitable, though I might rephrase the text to something along the lines of "Positions Open" and "Fulfilled", so both their colour/text length can be used as a distinction. Every project will be listed by order of deadline as normal and whenever a slot opens up, I'll just make a quick image and text update without the hassle to move them between lists, that's always been a nuisance on the editing side. The only time I'd need to shift their position going forward is during deadline and status updates. I'm looking to implement something like this before the month ends. Here's what I have in mind: Community Project #001 Lead: Name | Started on Jul 9th 2024 | Edited on ... DOOM2 Limit Removing 2 Slot(s) Available Deadline: [19th Jul 2024] Status: (Active) - 3 out of 32 Maps Completed Community Project #002 Lead: Name | Started on Jun 20th 2024 | Edited on ... DOOM2 MBF21 Open Submissions Deadline: [14th Feb 2024] Status: (Active) - 10 Maps Submitted Community Project #003 Lead: Name | Started on Feb 11th 2024 | Edited on ... DOOM2 Vanilla No Slot(s) Available Deadline: [1st Aug 2024] Status: (Active) - Secondly, while I don't believe the nature of this thread will change much, with community projects now having their own subforum, are there any other adjustments or additions I should consider to the list format? Feel free to use this opportunity to suggest anything I might be missing out on to take into consideration.

Seeing a thread like this made me chuckle, I've made a similar rant a long time ago from a player's perspective. While my stance has changed a bit since then, I still share some concerns even today. Commiting to 32 maps can be quite daunting, especially without knowing what to expect for later levels should they get increasingly longer and longer. I don't like having too many sessions in progress either so I'd like to finish what I started before moving onto something else. Sitting down to one map a day has worked to get through projects like this, as it wouldn't be too different from playing 32 individual maps any other time, except there's some differences with 32 level megawads. Occasionally I've had trouble sticking through the whole thing for many reasons; too many similar themes/styles in a row; levels that honestly feel like filler; the odd map that drags on and on far longer than it should. 32 maps is simply arbitrary and forcing that number can be the cause of having some weaker levels being included. Certain levels in the pack might serve better as a single release due to their length. Less is more. I've enjoyed behemoths like Eternal Doom, Going Down, Ancient Aliens and Eviternity which feel like exceptions to the rule for me, instead often leaning toward picking up shorter releases to play from single maps to episodes like Miasma or Overboard. As for community projects, Xaser pretty much boils down many of my thoughts. Keeping the tracker up to date has allowed me to see so many projects just fizzle out despite having a good number of submissions for release status. The whole point of that thread was also to help such projects meet their goals by having visibility on available slots when they open up, but I do believe these projects need a clear stopping point. Deadlines. I recommend leads stick to a deadline and compile what you get. Too many times I see a deadline pass (or lack thereof) and overtime the project will meandre with less activity before fading away. Community projects don't need arbitrary level counts to succeed. 50Shades was a fun project to be apart of, Marcaek did a great job at quality control and capping it at 18 entries so the final thing wouldn't be too repetitive. From a Duke3D mapping perspective on the rare moments a community project takes place, it's typically a single map contributed by many authors. Over on the Quake side, you'll find mapping jams with any number of levels being contributed and packaged up.

I've always wanted to join in on these from time to time, I might however have to be strict about what to play when rolling a random wad, probably sticking to single maps or short episodes unless a megawad takes my interest. That rules out a lot of stuff but time is limited and of course there can be exceptions. Since I write reviews primarily for my site, my thoughts will likely be posted up there if I have enough to say about a wad, otherwise those that don't quite fit the criteria these threads will be a perfect place to drop some lighter thoughts on something. I hope this first contribution counts however as it was covered twice during ER/IWA #79 which was what tempted me to download and check it out. Only recently got around to actually playing it though. The Secret Path (1996) by John Graham Crispy Doom / Ultra Violence I have a soft spot for older levels that try to put in their best effort, so although THEPATH is an unpolished experience, the environment does work well at establishing a sense of place. While linear there’s a kinetic flow across three distinct sections that paces itself well from key to key, returning you back to a central hub for ease into the next leg of your journey. Combat was too flat and simple without allowing monsters to perform to particular roles and become fodder to infighting, with a surplus of supplies or strange enemy behaviours making the whole process easier. THEPATH was Graham’s single output for DOOM and is a decent romp with fun showcase of effects and showed potential should they have continued their mapping career. Full review here: https://taw.duke4.net/2024/06/doom2/thepath/

Nice list, have many of these either in my library or wishlist so need to get around to actually playing them. I'm now kicking myself for not bringing up CrossCode for my initial list, excellent game that one. I love the tight parity between action and puzzle aspects, how it introduces a new mechanic and goes real indepth with it during the dungeon runs. Game expects you to get a good grasp on these abilities especially once it mixes them up with other mechanics and things get a lot more difficult. Really looking forward to their next work. How is Islands of the Caliph? I've tried one of their earlier work, Star Explorers, which felt a little undercooked and too simple overall when I played it, so have been hesitant on jumping on this one for now.

Void Stranger, is one of my favourite games from 2023 and without a doubt one of the best games I've played in a long while. It looks like a simple Gameboy style Sokoban puzzle game, but has so many layers and layers brewing under the surface, it was an incredibly satisfying experience figuring everything out. Stellar soundtrack too. La Mulana and La Mulana 2, puzzle/action platformer series where everything around you could be a vital clue to solving a mystery be it in the current area or several hours from now. The games feel ever more increasingly complex as time goes on as puzzles are narrowed down, while many are left unsolved across the many areas. Combat/Bosses can also be quite tough and unforgiving. There's no other games quite like what the La Mulana games pull off that feel like an indepth archeological adventure. The second game might be a little easier for newcomers to get into with its quality of life improvements. Sekiro, while not obscure when speaking of FROMSOFTWARE in general, it's one game of theirs that often gets forgotten about amongst Dark Souls, Bloodborne or Elden Ring discussions. I consider it their best work with highly satisfying combat mechanics and great boss fights. There's some really nice locales to explore without going overboard with world scale which put me off playing most of Elden Ring. Sekiro a much tighter focused game. Will also vouch for both Cruelty Squad and Caves of Qud already mentioned from earlier posts. There are others but these are the most notable from the top of my head right now. I've never agreed with the "games aren't fun any more" notion, always finding something neat coming out every year and it's typically from the indie scene. Haven't given much attention to the vast majority of the AAA scene and the major publishers for many many years now and honestly don't miss any of it.

@Matt Eldrydge Neat level! Enjoyed my time getting lost within its halls. Wrote up a review you can find here: https://taw.duke4.net/2024/05/doom2/eraser/ Came across one issue during my first run but I haven't been able to replicate it since (played version2 using DSDA): I hope you'll consider an /idgames upload, it would be a shame to lose this one to temp hosting services.

MAP21: U-Turn the Tables, my entry as part of the Alphabet Doom community project which made its /idgames release recently.

I might have to drop out for MAP17. I've been stubbornly commited trying to make an idea work out but just haven't been able to make any significant progress nor satisfied with any of my results so far. It's reached a point I've stopped having any fun mapping at the moment, especially as the deadline now closes in and my mind is elsewhere right now. Apologises for leaving it so late with this update.

An adjustment for the txt file, MAP21 midi credits: Darkess.mid by pcorf

I usually check up on project threads periodically and update accordingly (at least once or twice a week minimum). As long as your thread is up to date that should be enough. Do feel free to message me if the tracker info remains out-of-date for too long or I've missed a significant update (such as deadline changes or the project's release).

I love checking back on these threads to find some nice curiosities like this one here, went and played the entire Escape series and had a good time with them, Natas especially. Thanks for bringing this one to my attention! It's too bad these three seem to be their only wad releases. See this encounter becomes more fascinating than it appears at first. My initial run wasn't much different than yours, I wouldn't have enough ammo to deal with this army so opted to run and that leads to them following into the starting area and potentially block up the final hallway, a really neat concept on its own. However there were many seemingly "useless" features across the level that didn't quite sit right with me and gave the level another spin after checking some suspicions out in the editor. Curious design and choices at play here:

Good news to see we've hit RC1, I still need to check out MAP22 though. Out of curiousity will you be creating a new release thread separate from this dev thread eventually?