Shanoa

Lust for improvement - Part 2

MAP05 - Sol
Deaths - 3

A small update today on my "journey through hell" only a single map.

I feel this is where the mapset start to become tricky.

Although an easy beginning once the main large room is
cleared i was free tackle the level in any way i wanted.

There're 3 zones, each zones contains a key and a mean ambush
in each of them. Red Key had me face a few revenants upon
walking a short distance. Once they're dead, i hit that
switch and here comes some cacos, a pain elemental and a
bunch of Chaingunners, care is needed here as the ceiling is
high so, some Lost Souls got the drop on me but after an
annoying, ammo wasting fight i moved on.

Yellow key is originally guarded by a single Arch-vile,
nothing big here. When the switch is pressed tons of revs
pops out but because i'm a coward i ran back to the start and
shot them "safely" from there, the ambush also includes some
fatsos and an arachnotron who kindly battled a rev for me.

Blue key's a short but mean encounter, the walkway led to a
small circle-shaped sector with the key and 2 Medkits...but
the sector also sink temporarily, forcing me to trigger a
switch. Upon doing so, the floor goes back up, two revs spawn
behind me, two chaingunners on two distant platforms and a
buncha Imps. This here was my second death caused by me
losing my cool and shooting plasma here and there and taking
unnecessary damage, even though it's hard to leave unharmed.

With the three keys in hand i ran to the last room and what a
room that was. Originally the monsters don't notice you, 6
revenants are in the room, 3 on each side and a mancubus in
the middle. After pressing the switch the fight begin. As the
mapper expected from the player i ran back at the entrance of
the room, feeling slightly safe. BIG MISTAKE: An Arch-vile
spawn over time, right up in your face. I thought i was dead
but nope, after taking a massive explosion to the face i
panic-ran to the Megasphere. Still in a state of panic i took
a lot of damage and barely survived the room with only 7%
left, thankfully a few medkits and stimpaks were left in the
map for me to take.

Then i finished the level. I say it was a rather mediocre
performance by me, i made use of the Soulsphere and both
megaspheres. I even entered the last room with 160% but still
blew through that MS and the one the room give you. Rather
shameful i'd say. ._.

That said, i look forward to MAP06 BUT, i'm starting to see a
familiar pattern with the monsters usage. It will probably be
an unpopular opinion but i'm not a fan of overuse of
Revenants, even less so in every ambushes. I saw the start of
MAP06 when saving and i feel this will go down the "revenants spam"

road which i've seen one too many times. I know there's so

much one can do to make challenging encounters in Doom, but i also

lost count on how many mapsets made usage of the beloved boneheads by the thousands.

I guess we'll see.

Deaths so far - 9

With my previous "status update" i mentionned how i felt i had hit my "ceiling" as a doomer. I'd like to thank the folks who responded to it and those who have taken the time to read! Following one of said responses i decided to put on the big girl pants and jump straight into Sunlust with no background whatsoever on it beside the description i was provided with on the idgame archive. The following line was all i needed to dive-in: UV is designed primarily for ubermensch doom-gods. Oh good, that oughta be fun! Thus i introduce:

Lust for improvement - Part 1 of ? 

No. of deaths (so far): 6

Yeah not the best name but basically i'll use these handy little status updates to chronicle my journey through Sunlust, will i finish it? Will i abandon it? Do you even give a shit? Feel free to chime in and follow-me along this brutal journey. I will provide my opinion of each maps and how i managed to complete them. Of course, i will try to keep it short. I will be playing it on Ultra-Violence, with a continuous playthrough. Pistol-start would probably be recommended but i don't hate myself enough yet!

MAP01 - Chasing Suns 

Death: 1

On the get-go, while looking at the superb scenery around me, i know i'm in for a tough times. I can almost hear the starting area ushering to me "Once you get past that first door, there is no turning back". And sure thing, amongst the small group of former humans i can hear a Mancubus in the distance and to my right 2 chaingunners on ledges. The room also dares teasing me with a Soulsphere right up in my face, Sunlust really doesn't give a fuck. I used the fatty as a killing machine for these early imps then dispatched him with the shotguns, same for the chaingunners. Beside that, i haven't encountered any potent issues, some solid ambushes (one which killed me) but it was a good opening to what will be a violent megawad. Also, the Berserk pack was much needed, killed a few pinkies and hellknights with my fists.

MAP02 - Down Through

Deaths: 2

Ominous start, especially with how you hear things warping in. Arachnotron joins the fight and a few Arch-viles tries to ruin the day. The coveted Rocket Launcher and Plasma Autorifle shows up too! I will say i enjoy the usage of monsters corpses decorations as a mean for an Arch-Vile to resurrect during an ambush. My first death was in the room with an AV, a bunch of shotgunners, a mancubus, 2 chaingunners and a revenant. My 1st death was due to the surprise attack that followed the activation of the switch in that room. Gotta say, that Plasma ambush was mean, not only are you stuck behind bars for a few seconds but you're forced to witness an AV resurrecting two Revenants in a slightly cramped room. Thankfully i survived and left the room equipped better. The rest of the level went well and i ended with the coveted 200% health.

MAP03 - Forbidden Shrine

Deaths: 3

Huh 1-2-3, i'm seeing a pattern in those deaths here! This level, this level was something. I loved each encounters, especially the major ones with switches and keys. The level was carefully crafted so every single one of those fights had no easy-escape for firing safely at the horde of demons (i've a feeling this design will return throughout the whole thing). The blue key encounter was rather panic inducing due to being surrounded by a few imps, an hellknight, a rev and a chaingunners with the latter one being your utmost priority, using the RL is extremely unsafe here as well. Same goes for the army of imps that are connected to the blue switch, a convenient hellknight is guarding the damn switch so you better start dancing, also pain elemental. One of the last room, beyond the yellow door, was another example of "you step in you can't leave" except you're stuck with 4 resident fatsos and some floor hazard that eat 10% of your health. Sadly, i didn't manage to leave with 200%, despite the 2 Soulspheres, i got too careless with one of them and i simply didn't grab the 2nd one because of that room with 4 plasma autorifles. Funny enough, this was probably my favorite room due to how the floor is designed like a spiral which also hints you on how you should handle the room, by causing infighting while spiraling around.

But i sucked at it so i chickened out.

This conclude my first time with Sunlust, Map04 is looming over my head and i'm excited to see what's in store for me. Sooner or later i'll add +20 deaths with only a single map, you can bet on that! Thank you for reading and sorry for the length of the post!

I often wonder if it is possible to reach a "ceiling" in term of skills when it comes to DOOM. For the longest time i've considered myself a decent doomer, at least until i started watching other doomers, but i've never really managed to tackle on the more "notorious" megawads. I feel i reached my "ceiling" as a doomer and i'm not sure how i could improve from there, there're so many good maps released but it seems i often comes to a "wall" that i cannot surmount when i play...most of them. 

We're not talking "pistol start" playthrough but continuous ones (where you keep gears from last map, etc) considering some of these levels are hellish even with "continuous" i can't fathom how i'd pull it off from pistol start.

I always play on UV, without save but yeah...i feel like i've reached my "potential" as a doomer and do question whether or not it's possible, for me, to improve further. Gotta say, my ceiling is pretty unimpressive.