The DWmegawad Club plays: 10x10, Heartland, Sigil II

dobu gabu maru · February 2

What is the DWmegawad Club?

This is a place where we settle down, have a cup of tea (or drink of your choice) and take a month to play through a megawad on our own, together! Any keen observations, criticisms, or frustrated ranting about it goes here in the discussion. As long as you want to say something about what you've played, feel free to speak your mind.

Can I join?

Sure. The only rule is that you have to play at least some of the levels in our monthly megawad to contribute, but you're generally encouraged to finish the whole thing, even if you've played it before.

What levels am I allowed to post about?

Whatever day of the month it is, is the upper limit for the map you can post on. So if it’s the 6th, you may discuss up to MAP06.

Do I have to post an entry every day?

Nope, not at all. This is only for our more enthusiastic members. As long as you play through it with us you’re part of the club.

When do we vote on the next month’s megawad?

Voting begins on the 25th of the current month. Remember to add one “+++” before your vote to make it easier to count. For example:

+++ Ultimate Doom

Note that you can vote for up to three separate nominations in a single month, and every wad must contain at least three maps each. The winning nomination must receive at least four votes for a thread to be made. Ties will be decided by RNG.

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>>>DOWNLOAD THE 10x10 PROJECT HERE<<<

>>>DOWNLOAD HEARTLAND HERE<<

>>>DOWNLOAD SIGIL II HERE<<

LunchLunch, skillsaw, and John Romero—our unholy, February trifecta! Our first experiment is The 10x10 Project by LunchLunch, a mapset that essentially limits every map to 10 flats and 10 textures. Afterwards is Heartland by skillsaw, a partial conversion for the Eternity Engine that has plenty of shiny new weapons and nasty monsters up its sleeve. Last is Sigil II by John Romero, which needs no introduction.

10x10 starts on 2/01, Heartlands starts on 2/12, and Sigil 2 starts on 2/20.

Maplist for the 10x10 Project:

MAP01 - “Ten by Ten”

MAP02 - “Lockjaw”

MAP03 - “Salvia”

MAP04 - “Hey! This Is Library”

MAP05 - “No More Zoomer Girls”

MAP06 - “Sad Bastard”

MAP07 - “The Zzul Method”

MAP08 - “Cocoa Puffs Breath”

MAP09 - “Abuse Me, Darling”

MAP10 - “lunchlunchlunchlunch”

MAP11 - “No Exit, It’s Over”

MAP31 - “The Anna Dream”

Maplist for Heartland:

MAP01 - “Subway Sandwich”

MAP02 - “Bruce R. & Son Construction Co.”

MAP03 - “Reservoir Dog”

MAP04 - “Routine Flaring and Flailing”

MAP05 - “Titan of Industry”

MAP06 - “Get Shafted”

MAP07 - “The Beating Heart”

MAP08 - “Arrhythmia”

Maplist for SIGIL II:

E6M1 - “Cursed Darkness”

E6M2 - “Violent Hatred”

E6M3 - “Twilight Desolation”

E6M4 - “Fragments of Sanity”

E6M5 - “Wrathful Reckoning”

E6M6 - “Vengeance Unleashed”

E6M7 - “Descent into Terror”

E6M8 - “Abyss of Despair”

E6M9 - “Shattered Homecoming”

BONUS CONTENT

Doomwiki: The 10x10 Project | Heartland | SIGIL II

DSDA: The 10x10 Project | Heartland

SIGIL II’s website

Dean of Doom: Sigil II

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OLD THREADS

Spoiler

The DWmegawad Club Metathread

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

Eviternity II

Edited March 1 by dobu gabu maru

Insaneprophet · February 2

10x10 by lunchlunch (dsda doom, uv)

Map 01: ten by ten

A short tech base starting level that plays fast paced and loose but is really all about how visually stunning it is. Intriquately detailed despite its self imposed limitations, Im almost surprised by the shear variety of ways these textures can be put to use. Whats created is a very cool slick futuristic style. Fairly easy difficulty wise but it is map one and does try to throw some heavier demons at you with some revs, viles and even a manc. My favorite part was easily picking up the chain gun, that shits just fun!

Map 02: lockjaw

This map is decidedly meaner than the first even though theres about a quarter of the enemies. A little trap heavier and boasting tougher opposition the fights are still on the easy side, they just try harder to wreak your day faster. The high light was a small room that lets vile after vile out intending you to kill each before the next emerges and you become overwhelmed. Again though, the texture work is the center piece and this ones theme had me believing I was in the torture chambers beneath Vlad The Impaillers midevil castle.

Edited February 2 by Insaneprophet

Celestin · February 2

Woof!, -cl 9, pistol-start with saves

The 10x10 Project was a wad I was intrigued by after I saw MtPain27 covering it (hence it's not a blind playthrough, though I know mostly the maps' atmosphere, rather than any specific encounters). It's a mapset I had on my backburner since, so I'm glad it was chosen for February. I've played some maps by LunchLunch, mostly from DBPs, and enjoyed most of them. I have really high expectations with this one.

MAP01: Ten by Ten

Every map in 10x10 uses two sets of stock textures and flats: essential that are shared between levels (doors, switches, teleporters etc. - you can check them if you no-clip out of the starting room and go east) and 10 unique to each map. In case of Ten by Ten, they consist of gray walls, computer panels and blue circuitry. What we end up with is a rather cramped techbase. The place is very detailed, but also completely abstract if you think about its purpose. Like, there's a room at the end where you can take a look outside and see this bizzaire place under the unnatural blue sky. Like really, what is this place? The knocking midi adds to the uneasy atmosphere.

Despite this being an opening map, Ten by Ten isn't afraid to put the player in some hairy situations. The super shotgun trap is a wake-up call, a small room that sets loose an archvile with several pinkies as meatshields. The fight for the blue key was the standout moment of the map, as you need to avoid the gaze of two archviles standing on a balcony and being chased by pinkies at the same time. You can take cover in the alcoves on the sides, but the skybox here damages you, so it's better to limit your time camping there. By contrast, that horde of zombies that protect the yellow key is a fun display of excess without being harmful. Also, the secrets for some reason hold Nazis inside. It's one of the quirks of 10x10 you just need to get along with.

Solid opener that presents what 10x10 is going to be, demonstrating the project's philosophy and setting the expectation for the difficulty.

MAP02: Lockjaw

The dominating colours are red of blood and pink of flesh, accented by wood. Kinda reminds me of LunchLunch's map from Skulltiverse, that one also went heavy into body horror, but Lockjaw feels more like a corrupted building than intestines of a living being.

Compared to MAP01, Lockjaw is more deliberate with resources and enemies. It's one of those maps that are calibrated to give you just enough ammo and health to make it to the end. It favours quality over quantity, with mid-tiers that pose a challenge, especially in the early parts. The room with cacodemons and a pain elemental was surprisingly tricky, there's a side corridor here that you can use to outrun the monsters, but it's in a full view of a pair of mancubi. Then you reach a round room with a column in the middle. It should be obvious what comes next - archviles. Three get released one by one, if you are confident with an SSG, you should make it without a loss of health. The first time I've tried, I wasn't quick enough and had to fight two at one. They dropped my health to 13%, so despite surviving this, the next fight killed me quickly. I reloaded a save, killed the viles without getting hit and I've also found a secret supercharge - a switch was cleverly hidded within some tech textures.

The final fight contains an archvile that is the top priority, elevated projectile-tossers and some trash on the ground that takes up space. Kill the vile first, run for the rocket launcher and start eliminating threats - the fight should be over in no time. Overall, a tougher map that the previous one, it killed me a couple of times, but manageable. I prefer the gameplay style of Ten by Ten, however Lockjaw is by no means a bad map.

RHhe82 · February 2

It looks like that I can never join the club for only month at a time, it's at least two months. But 10x10 and Heartland are all wads I've been meaning to play (among so many others, though) for quite some time, so how could I resist... Although, I'll probably skip Sigil 2, because I already played it. I'll join only at the final day to sum up some of my thoughts on it.

The top post is still unwritten, but I'm assuming we start with 10x10, so here goes.

*

MAP01: Ten by Ten. Played on DSDA v0.27.4, UV, PS. 200/200 K, 3/3 S, 69/69 I. Comp. time 12:31

Actually I started 10x10 when it was released, but I think I only played the first map. I liked it then, but I guess something else came by at the time, and I could never return to MAP02.

And yes, I still like the first map very much. It's a slick grey techbase and just goes to show that you don't need that many materials to craft a map that looks unrestricted. You might never know something is up, if Lunchlunch didn't present this particular map's cuisine.

Map itself is, I guess, on the easier side. At least I remember it being far harder, especially the blue key area. Granted, I think I had a bit of luck with the pinkies behaving, so that the archies couldn't aim at me, but still. The secrets were also not that obtuse; I didn't remember them from my first time around, at least I don't think so. The SS troopers guarding the secrets feel funny, I don't know why; usually I'd consider them glaring inconsistencies or just plain stupid, but I guess the wad somehow feels just the right amount light-hearted for them to fit here... also they fit this particular map's visual motif, the blue carpets. (The music also a plays a part in setting the mood; to me, it resembles Going Down soundtrack, like some sort of distant cousin of GD music).

I loved the zombieman slaughter scene; It's silly, but it's funny. I knew the blur sphere would be far more useful here than somewhere where I ended up wasting it.

At the end I had 198/200 kills. Went back and found a blue armor, which would have been useful much sooner. After that I found out you had to pick up the chainsaw to unleash the final caco D:

*

MAP02: Lockjaw. Played on DSDA v0.27.4, UV, PS. 61/61 K, 3/3 S, 55/55 I. Comp. time 13:43

Indeed, I hadn't played this one before. I wonder if I ever tried it, if I was somehow scared away from it... I don't remember. In any case another great choice of stock textures used in a map, that's noticeably harder than the last one. Berserk at the start always makes me fear of ammo starvation. That's not the case here, but better to punch out the first batches of enemies. This plan backfired a bit in the blue key area, with one of the revenants hitting me once with an intense damage roll.

The hardest bit here must be either the cramped-quarters foursome with archviles, or the battle for the red key. I'm voting for the three archviles, even though it's a short encounter; I managed it only by killing first of the archies, panic-hitting the two switches and Just Leaving™. It still left me less-than-stellar health/armor situation, making the big room fight more hairier than it should have been. Good stuff!

Speaking of stock textures: 10x10 seems to be a great example of a modern wad not needing custom textures. At least I assume they are absent here. OTEX and 32x24 and others sure can make maps look and feel fresh, I have absolutely nothing against them; but if someone thinks they are required for a 2020s WAD to be worth anything, then look no further than 10x10 (or wads such as Arrival).

Edited February 2 by RHhe82 : Added MAP02

stephyesterday · February 2

Yeah I'll jump on this one. All three of these wads have been on my backlog, so here's an excuse to actually play them!

I play on Nugget Doom on UV, pistol-starting each level. I try to only allow myself a single save with each map, but I'll break this rule if things get out of my pay-grade, which will probably happen with 10x10; I've watched the Dean of Doom on this one so I know what to expect and it gets a tad hot. I'll give it my best shot, though.

MAP01: Ten by Ten - Fully Maxed (102% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets)

What a beautiful start. Map 1 really hits home on the concept of the wad- the way lunchlunch takes advantage of the 10 texture and 10 flat limit is really stunning. Every wall and floor is incredibly detailed, but not noisy enough to make traversal confusing. The way secrets and alternate paths are tucked between wall details and greebling is wonderful, looking for every monster felt like hunting for extra secrets. The stair fight filled with a metric ton of zombiemen was great but i would have loved to blast through it with a rocket launcher. Knowing what comes after, though, I understand why that wasn't given to the player. :p

The archvile pinky fight is so so good. I'm very easily swayed by archvile setpiece fights, and while this one isn't too tough, it's for sure a fun shock the first time around. By this point the areas with windows to the "outside" start opening up, which I think are the most stunning parts of the map; they give you a glimpse of the distorted world outside the techbase, showing you that there's no escape, as the world out there is just as much grim concrete and metal as it is in here. Wonderful first map.

DJVCardMaster · February 2

10X10.wad - The 10x10 Project - LunchLunch:

This is a short mapset of ten maps, made in a really short time span (8 months) by LunchLunch, showcasing his amazing vanilla texture usage. The restrictions are simple, only ten textures and ten flats are going to be used at each map, in addition some extra textures are allowed to be used for making doors and light sources, aswell as key indicators.
At first I thought this was a community project, as that would have been a great idea for that, but LunchLunch decided that he will make everything by himself, demonstrating that he is quite a beast of a mapper. Maps are mid to hard in difficulty, and mid in length. The idea is to showcase the power of using only ten textures and ten flats, and also to demonstrate the power of the vanilla textures, which they don't deserve the love those should get.

MAP01 - Ten by Ten (100%K/98%I/66%S):

Right from the start you will get overwhelmed by the amount of detail a man can place in a single map with only 10 textures and 10 flats, LunchLunch certainly has some talent for this. Not only because the map looks really nice (the looks give me mid 2000 vibes), but it also plays really well, giving you the impression of "first map of the set" but without falling into the "easy first map" category. Already giving us a hint that, 10x10 is not a mapset of easy maps, and you will see this later.

Again I loved the attention to detail and the layout given here. Sweet starter map.

MAP02 - Lockjaw (100%K/I/S):

Again, maps will start getting harder and harder. This one is short and simple, but setpieces here will start showing you no mercy. I had a difficult time with this one. Specially on the blue key room, for some reason. After beating it I felt stupid.

The map shows a totally different environment with the texture choice here, already a hellish landscape in map two. I feel like the combination of wood and flesh textures are one of the safest choices to make a map, as those are quite complex themselves to make a really nice looking map without overusing textures. That vertical wood texture trims it all and it's great.

Nice map, but I prefer the first one over this.

(UV - Playthrough/DSDA Doom)

Order of Preference:

Spoiler

MAP01
MAP02

Klear · February 2

Hell yeah! I've been waiting on Sigil II hoping it will be featured soon, so of course I'm gonna jump in. I haven't played Doom much for a while and I've been meaning to finish my Going Down and Claustrophobia 1024 playthroughs, but I guess I'm doing this now. We'll see if I can keep up for a change...

MAP01 - "Ten by Ten"

QuestZDoom, UV, blind, saves

What does the name mean again? Texture limits? No idea what you're talking about. This looks like a normal map to me.

This was a fun little map. Best part was the first arch vile fight. I'm a big fan of design where you gain a new weapon just before it comes in very handy. Another example is the staircase with a throng of zombies, welcome fodder for the newly acquired chaingun. I just wished the map gave you a rocket lancher at that point instead, though maybe it's in one of the secrets of which I didn't find a single one. Speaking of rocket launcher, it subverts this trend by immediately flooding the room with pinkies which I found hilarious, thought the fight itself felt like it lacked bite, despite my abysmal movement. Maybe I got lucky.

Spoiler

...and I'm already running late, since I'm just about spent for the day. I'll try for maps 2 and 3 tomorrow and then perhaps try building up a buffer.

Cutman 999 · February 2

35 minutes ago, Klear said:

Hide contents

Mad man playing diet sunder in VR, mad respect m8.

stephyesterday · February 2

MAP02: Lockjaw - Fully Maxed (100% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets)

ohh boy, haha. this is already a bit nastier. TASTEFULLY nasty, mind you, so I still really enjoyed this one. I thought the first manc was gonna be a big issue until I got the backpack secret from a silly schutzstaffel. The low monster count lulls you into a bit of a false sense of security, bet each one is carefully placed to be a pain in the ass. The triple-archvile pole-dance routine in particular was really rough on me, those fuckers would NOT flinch.

Excellent texture usage as per usual, and as most have said already, it's not quite as inspired as the previous map, what with all the flesh-hell content already made for doom countless times over, but still extremely clean and visually cohesive. I await tomorrow's next ass-kicking with open arms : )

arlinsae · February 2

Ultra violence 100% kills/secrets, Pistol-start, Using saves
Played on DSDA Doom v0.27.5 -complevel 9

Map 1: Ten by Ten - 13:21

And so commences my third playthrough of this amazing wad. The first map isn't too challenging, but it's pretty much perfect from a technical standpoint. Despite it only using the 10 textures/flats shown at the beginning and so called "universal textures" (which can be seen by noclipping to it in this map), it looks better than most techbasey maps I've played. There's also a point in the map where you can see the skybox, which is just the blue wire-grid texture (idk what it's actually called) used extensively in the map. Pretty cool. Two combat encounters I really dig in this map are the big wave of zombiemen right after the red door, and the demon/archvile fight right after the yellow door. The latter of which is a creative if fairly easy space management fight. I don't really get idea behind the wolfenstein guys hiding in the secret sectors, maybe a reference to something or just a funny gag. If I had to nitpick one thing about this map I don't really like it was having to SB shotgun a few mid tier enemies, though it's not an issue if you find the secret berserk (or remember to check the lift to a super shotgun at the very beginning of the map...). Also, enjoy the laid back difficulty while it lasts, some of the later maps get pretty tricky.

* Side note, this WAD also uses fast lifts a lot (i.e a much lower delay on a lift reaching the bottom and going up) which I love and wish it was more common.
Difficulty: 2/15

Klear · February 2

I ended up playing a second map today, though I forgot to set the difficulty before level warping in order to pistol start and only realised halfway through the recording =/ Maybe I should have taken a nap I was planning to instead...

MAP02 - "Lockjaw"

QuestZDoom, HMP, blind, pistol start, saves

The map feels very similar to the first one, despite the visuals being completely different. Not sure if it's just lunchlunch's general style, or if the wad is going to evolve into something way different in time. As it is I felt like playing a twisted version of the first techbase, rebuilt with wood, meat and skin. I'm not complaining. The progression feels pretty good in both, and at any rate the specific encounters are completely different.

Playing on HMP on accident, the difficulty drop was significant. It wasn't boring, but I think I can take more punishment. We'll see if I'll be saying the same thing by the end of the wad. And I found all the secrets this time!

Spoiler

2 hours ago, Cutman 999 said:

Mad man playing diet sunder in VR, mad respect m8.

Diet sunder you say? *gulp*

But I did survive Mapping at Warpspeed in VR somehow already. I think I'll manage.

stephyesterday · February 2

4 minutes ago, Klear said:

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Watching someone play doom in VR is really something to behold, genuinely impressive. You've got a stomach of iron, this would for-sure make me puke my guts out a minute in

Celestin · February 2

MAP03: Salvia

Okay, warm-up is over, 10x10 starts getting hard. Salvia (a type of herb - I don't see how this relates to another corrupted building) starts hostile, placing revenants, chaingunners and pain elemental in a starting room. This took me a couple of attempts and is easily the most difficult section of the map. This is because the rest of the map lets you arm yourself properly, so you can deal with the key fights.

First one I've completed was the yellow skull one. You have a rather small room with two barons, two archviles are running around below your line of sight and there are also some peripherial imps. Nothing spectacular here and the viles are awkward to kill. Don't worry, the rest of the map is much better. The red key is a narrow loop that sends pairs of hell knights and spectres to surround you, while crowds of imps fire from the sides. With SSG as the only viable weapon, this one can get tense, as you try to eliminate threats advancing from two sides without taking too much damage. Then there is the yellow key room. It starts with just some spectres and imps, until you press a switch and the place transforms. Hell nobles and revenants appear on the sides, severely limiting your movement in an already cramped room, while a cyberdemon appears in the centre. Quick question: why is he wearing leather pants? This seem to be the only altered sprite in the wad, so it looks a bit out of place. This is also a tough setpiece, with too many opportunities to catch a rocket or get within a splash damage range. There's a plasma rifle here, so choose wisely whether you want to spend your limited cell supply to eliminate the cyberdemon first or to cut through the obstacles and have more room to breathe.

The final fight for the red key is a kitchen sink of an arena with a number of mid-tiers and a cyberdemon for a good measure. It wasn't that bad, I killed the archvile watcher first, then started running, provoking monsters to infight and eliminating whatever stood in my way. Soon all that was left was the cyberdemon and he was no match for a fat stack of cells.

I just like this map, it flows really well, with telegraphed setpieces connected by incidental combat. The visuals are fine, with wood, skulls and gargoyles as the main textures used - it all gives me mid-Plutonia vibes, an association strenghten by the music choice. That's probably the easiest way to get my approval, but even discounting this, it's a strong map with a healthy dose of challenge.

brick · February 3

What a convenient selection! I can play along until halfway into the month, so I was hoping for a multi-wad Club like this. I only discovered LunchLunch when we played Ad Mortem back in 2022 but enjoyed both maps back then (especially Checkmate) and 10x10 has been on my radar since. I love Heartland but it's not been that long since I played it, and much as I loved Sigil the sequel left me a bit cold.
Doing this with GZDoom, Boom strict compat, software, HNTR, blind, continuous with saves.

MAP01: Ten By Ten
An excellent opener, not too large but still substantial, not too difficult but still fun. The very start sets the stage for the wad's gimmick, showcasing the 10 textures and 10 flats that will be used in the map. It's a testament to the careful use of such a limited selection that I very quickly forgot the limitation because everything looked so good and consistent, if I didn't know better and someone tried to convince me that there's no limit and these were just the best choices I wouldn't bat an eyelid. This is a techbase and a very good looking one, despite the predominance of greys the colour scheme still feels soothing thanks to the blues, and the detailing is very nice. I don't know if it's the way the textures are aligned or just the way they are put side by side, but there's a richness to the visuals that I didn't feel should be possible after just seeing the 10 textures side by side at the beginning. Difficulty balancing is beautiful, the map is relatively easy on HNTR despite fielding over a hundred enemies. Very promising start.

MAP02: Lockjaw
We're in a more hellish look now, with bones and wood and blood dominating; no more cool blues, everything is an angry red here. The map is smaller and I think easier, though with some fun secrets to hunt, and watching the area open up after using locked switches is entertaining. I want to comment on the use of the SS, now that's obvious they will only (and always?) be found in secrets, it feels a bit odd but I guess it's a humorous use that LunchLunch likes, I remember them being used similarly in Ad Mortem's Norwich Lane.

Zirtonic · February 3

I'll join in for 10x10 and Sigil 2, but I'm going to skip the Heartland portion (sorry Skillsaw). Woof, UV, pistol start, and I'll try for 100% kills/secrets but I'm not going to bumble around for 10 minutes looking for an enemy or fake wall. I'm also going to keep my reviews short so this doesn't feel like work by day 4.

MAP01: Ten By Ten

I like how weird this map feels. The texture choices imply techbase, but even for a DooM map Ten By Ten is another level of abstract. Rooms serve only to house demons, and the few glimpses outside suggest that this base is in the midst of a wormhole expedition. The chaingun fight is a nice laugh and the Archvile/pinky fight makes sure that you're paying attention in a MAP01.

MAP02: Lockjaw

Huge props to mappers who can use gore textures without making them look chintzy. The combat here is very Plutonic: petite enemy count bolstered by deliberate positioning and a weapon (RL in this case) just enough out of reach to make you a little uncomfortable grabbing it. It's about that level of difficult too, which is to say not very.

The revenant hallway is a highlight. It's enjoyable to move through and the berserk ups its fun factor.

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I don't want to bring this up every day so I'll just put it here: I relate heavily to the ketamine-inspired visuals. I've never done that specific substance but experience with PCP and a variety of psychedelics add another layer to this wad. The cluttered interiors and orthogonal detailing are very reminiscent of a strong trip and LunchLunch is exhuming some emotions I haven't felt in a long time.

RHhe82 · February 3

MAP03: Salvia. Played on DSDA v0.27.4, UV, PS. 191/191 K, 3/3 S, 87/87 I. Comp. time 26:26

"Salvia by unf." says DSDA upon entering the level on the message line, but on the automap simply Salvia.

The difficulty rises up a notch again in this map that visually resembles MAP02, but has even less techbase influences. Somehow, I found the start hardest part :-D Scrambling for weapons, chaingunners and revenants and a pain elemental closing in... The combat setups we come across later are harder and more sophisticated, but at least I'm equipped :P The cyberdemon in cramped space was a surprise, and a clear indicator it's not going to be a cakewalk. Overall I'm somehow reminded of Haste, I guess by the visual motif (wasn't there a Ribbiks map that had similar texture choices?) and by the combat setups.

Anyway, this is the very sort of map I like. It's demanding but compact.

ReaperAA · February 3

I am definitely participating this month. Out of the 3 projects, 10x10 is the one I am most interested to play. Heartland I love, but it's still fresh in my mind so I am in no rush to play it (but I probably will). And Sigil 2 is one which I am not sure if I even want to play yet. I will wait to see if it receives any patches (like first Sigil did) before I play it.

As far as 10x10 is concerned, I am not sure what to expect. Cutman 999 calling this a "diet sunder" does scare me a little bit. I know MtPain27 has reviewed this and Decino is also playing this, but I haven't watched them yet. All I know is that it's made by Lunchlunch and each map uses only 10 types of floor textures and 10 flats. The only other Lunchlunch maps I am aware of are those in Auger;Zenith. I am playing each map with pistol start on UV

So, anyway lets get started.

Map01: Ten by Ten

Right at the start of the map, you get a view of which 10 textures/flats are being used in the map before getting teleported to the main map area. This is something that each map seems to do.

The first map seems to be using mostly techbasey textures. And makes really good use of them. Not once did i feel that textures were limited in anyway. As far as the layout and gameplay is concerned, the map is a pretty good opener. Mostly light combat in corridors with a few hair raising moments (though not really that hard at all) such as the part where you use pillars to take cover against perched archviles while fighting pinkies.

I really liked the part where you get to mow down like 100-ish something zombiemen with chaingun at one part. I saved the partial invisibility in a secret just for them :)

Speaking of secrets, they seem to have Nazi SS in them. I guess they are added there for the lulz :p

Map02: Lockjaw

Unlike the first map, one seems to employ hellish textures. As for the combat is concerned, this one has less enemies in it and the combat is slightly slower, but consists of more higher tier enemies on average. Still, the combat is mostly on the easy side so far. There's a part where you have to kill 3 archviles in a small room where you get yellow key (they reveal one by one so not that bad) and then you have to fight another archvile mixed with other fodder and perched turret mancubi, revenants and hell knights in the final fight.

Map03: Salvia

Okay, this map is where the difficulty definitely picks up. Infact, this is a really big jump all things considered. As Celestin said, warm-up is indeed over.

While the incidental combat is not so tough, It has a variety of nasty setpieces and I can definitely see some early Sunder style in a few of the combat setpieces. Most notably in the two setpieces in involving a cyberdemon in each of them.

The fight in the yellow key area in particular is definitely nasty one because of the mix of cyberdemon + mid tier enemies and how restricted the area is. The final fight of the map containing the red key is also somewhat tricky, but if you take out the archvile and do some good herding without getting caught by cyberdemon rocket, you should be alright.

Speaking of cyberdemons, they seem to have a modified sprite.

I am surprised I managed to beat the map without dying, but I have a feeling my saveless streak is not gonna last long.

Klear · February 3

I just found out Heartland runs on Eternity and I don't think there's any VR support for that. I might be tempted to play through it flatscreen, though knowing myself by then I might be falling behind so maybe I'll just take advantage of it, skip Heartland and make sure I'm up to date on Sigil II.

Also I think I might have to turn off voxel doom going forward. The audio in the recording got desynced, which is something I usually fix in post, but didn't have the time to do today. Sorry about that! I want to see if the issue disappears without voxels. More importantly, I want to see cyberdemons with pants, as LunchLunch intended.

MAP03 - "Salvia"

QuestZDoom, UV, blind, pistol start, saves

This one was great! The beginning is pretty scary, though luckily the revenant decided to go on a little trip, giving me time to get my bearings, come up with a plan, stop myself from panicking. And he even blocked the dying pain elemental from spawning lost souls! Other than that the map is tough but fair. It feels like it's trying to give you challenge, not that it's trying to kill you and I appreciate the subtle difference. I had a little trouble in the yellow key fight, since I was trying to be sneaky and snag the key without fighting anything. It would have actually worked the first time, had I noticed I managed to grab the key. Instead I returned back and eventually ate a rocket. After some more try investigating how exactly the room works, it ended up being pretty straightforward.

My favourite part was definitely the room with the yellow skull key, with archies sniping from windows just above the ground level. Great stuff.

I got stuck a bit figuring out how to lower the red key, but other than that got through with little trouble.

Spoiler

Sorry for the audio desync!

Edited February 3 by Klear

DJVCardMaster · February 3

MAP03 - Salvia (99%K/97%I/66%S):

Another "hellish" map like the previous one, sacrificing some meaty textures in favour of more wooden ones. This one, though, was far better and longer, and this is where you start actually recognizing this wad is not for regular doomers, as fights here get cramped and spammy against you. The yellow skull key fight was quite painful to deal with, as there is not a good place to hide from the archviles while avoiding the two barons placed just to block the tight are you are in. The cyberdemon battle at the yellow keycard was also painful, as, terrain is quite bumpy and tight and it becomes a pain to hide from the cyberdemon, the best is to first make them infight with the monsters that are conveniently giving you their backs.

I can see why Cutman said previously this is Sunder lite. I remember some maps using vanilla textures this heavily in a nice but monotonous way, and also it combines it with tough gameplay. The last bit of the map turns some of the main areas of the level into a big arena for you to fight against a massive horde of demons and, yet another cyberdemon.

You can see now some quirks and gimmicks, like hiding a SS Soldier behind every secret, fun gimmick, but it just makes my kill counter not be 100% if I don't get all the secrets, which triggers my OCD.

The better map so far out of the first three. Enjoyed this one.

(UV - Playthrough/DSDA Doom)

Order of Preference:

Spoiler

MAP03

MAP01
MAP02

stephyesterday · February 3

MAP03: Salvia - Fully Maxed (100% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets)

haha oh man, i am in TROUBLE folks

My one-save-per-map rule is out the window for this wad. This month is going to be an interesting test to see how much I can handle; I'm not good at doom by any stretch, but I'd for-sure love to improve, so maybe this will end up teaching me something? or make me miserable. Either way, I really liked this map.

The start was pretty nasty but nothing humiliating yet. By far my fav part of the map, running through multiple layers of the area, waking up a bazillion demons to HOPEFULLY get some infighting going, hiding in a secret door while chaingunner fire echoes through the cave, great stuff. Speaking of the cave, this is easily my favorite map visually; I absolutely adore natural landscapes in doom, more than anything else. Some well-placed round sectors with ASHWALL and I'm yours. The way it cracks and carves through the wooden dungeon is beautifully done, so at least I had something nice to look at while dying.

There's a bit of a sausagefest-themed lull in the middle of the map what with multiple imp-centered fights that bloat the monster count, which I appreciated. Nothing boring, almost as if the author is rearing up to slap you in the face with the best cyberdemon sprite edit I've ever seen. He might have the wrong door, as the leather club's two blocks down, but he's absolutely the boss of this gym. This was the fight that embarrassed me; well over 2/3rds of my deaths went into this fight alone. I'm awful at cybers... but maybe I'll learn soon.

I was REALLY about to cut my losses and book it for the exit once I realized there's a second fucking cyberdemon but my maxer brain wouldn't let me. Glad for that, as it wasn't too hard to handle comparatively. Great, excellent map, just beyond my skill level, but I persevered. Hoping to continue to enjoy my experience as the difficulty continues to climb.

arlinsae · February 3

Ultra violence 100% kills/secrets, Pistol-start, Using saves
Played on DSDA Doom v0.27.5 -complevel 9

Map 2: Lockjaw - 12:06

Lockjaw casts us into a bleak slaughterhouse full of mid-tier demons and not full of supplies. The textures and flats this time are a mix of blood, guts, wires, and wood. Ammo is going to be pretty tight, especially if you don't find the secrets. You do get berserk at the start but it wasn't as helpful as I had hoped due to a lot of perched enemies and generally a lot of encounters that are unsafe to use berserk in. I do enjoy this map as a whole, but it feels like I should have the super shotgun earlier and the combat kinda bores me. That being said, I do really like the yellow key room: three archviles are released one at a time in a small room with just a pillar in the center for cover. One gets released at pretty much the exact rate it takes to shoot with the SSG 4 times, so inaccuracy will lead to you dealing with two or god forbid three archviles at a time. Also, make sure to take note of the red door to the right of you as you enter the map too, it'll potentially save a couple minutes of confused wondering looking for the exit. Lockjaw is, again, entertaining overall but not as memorable as some of the maps coming up.
Difficulty: 3/15

Cutman 999 · February 3

3 hours ago, DJVCardMaster said:

I can see why Cutman said previously this is Sunder lite.

5 hours ago, ReaperAA said:

Cutman 999 calling this a "diet sunder" does scare me a little bit

Gee, I wonder who that handsome devil may be...

Spoiler

Btw, mtPain didn't mention some people called 10x10 "diet sunder" in its review? Or I'm misremembering?

Celestin · February 3

1 hour ago, Cutman 999 said:

Btw, mtPain didn't mention some people called 10x10 "diet sunder" in its review? Or I'm misremembering?

IIRC he compared MAP04's visuals to that of Sunder.

ReaperAA · February 4

8 hours ago, Klear said:

I just found out Heartland runs on Eternity and I don't think there's any VR support for that. I might be tempted to play through it flatscreen, though knowing myself by then I might be falling behind so maybe I'll just take advantage of it, skip Heartland and make sure I'm up to date on Sigil II.

While Eternity Engine probably doesn't support VR, I would still recommend to give Heartland a shot if you haven't played it. Imho, it's one of the best mapsets ever made.

brick · February 4

MAP03: Salvia
This one continues with the wood, flesh and blood theme, though with some of the textures being different. It's even more detailed, with some impressive architecture and some cool-looking use of scrolling textures and "suspended" structures. It's also a significant step up in difficulty, though still very manageable on HNTR, there are a couple of hairy fights (the ones around the red key were the most involved) but there's plenty of health to offset any damage. All the maps have that modern combat design of making you hunt for successive hidden switches to open the way out of an arena, I intensely dislike this but this is the only map so far in the wad where I found this irritating. I enjoyed the map otherwise even if I can't think of much to say about it.

MAP04: Hey! This Is Library
Exactly as you'd expect from the title, this uses predominantly the more "fancy" wood textures, lots of bookcases, with the dominant primary colour being green thanks to the toxin flats and falls and those green panels in wood. There's ominous and slow music that belies the frantic combat that accompanies most of the map. I wasn't a huge fan of the revenant wave, they come from everywhere and there's very little cover unless you stick your head in one of the tight passages, where they can easily corner you instead. The big fight in the library proper is trickier in some ways but I also found it more fun, I tried pummelling the nobles with rockets whenever possible and switching to the SSG whenever demons got too close so I wouldn't facerocket. The twin archviles at the end took me by surprise and I panicked a little bit, fearing a wave of resurrection, but I managed to take both down without too much trouble, there are plenty of things to hide behind to avoid turning into BBQ. Fun map, and very beautiful, especially in that main library section.

RHhe82 · February 4

MAP04: Hey! This is library! Played on DSDA v0.27.4, UV, PS. 281/281 K, 3/3 S, 35/35 I. Comp. time 21:20

No loitering in my library, Mr. Vile!

Someone in this thread called 10x10 "diet Sunder" -- which is fine by me; Sunder is way beyond me, but a "diet" version for me, oh yes please. Sadly, the opening of this map indeed brings to mind the only map of Sunder I've played, MAP01. How's that? I remember it starts with you taking care of archviles with a single-barrel. The first room lunch²'s library is not that difficult, but my movement skills are just finicky enough to so easily fall in the viles' sights. As soon as the first one dies, the fight on the other hand is over. (Not that it stopped me from making a midfight save right there).

Fortunately the my experience improves greatly after that first room. We've got a choice of always reliable zombiemen slaughter behind one door, and a library hall behind another. I took the zombiemen route first to load up my chaingun. The cramped hell knights and spectres -chamber with the soulsphere secret I missed until after the ending fight is a bit on the routine-y side of things, but the rest of the encounters I thoroughly enjoyed. Although the archvile squadron... I'm amazed I survived with only one retry (first try was wasted on being surprised by the lot).

Doozy starting room, but a great map.

Edited February 4 by RHhe82

ReaperAA · February 4

19 hours ago, ReaperAA said:

I am surprised I managed to beat the map without dying, but I have a feeling my saveless streak is not gonna last long.

And.... i managed to die on the start of Map04

Map04: Hey! This Is Library

Right at the start of the map, you tasked with fighting 2 archviles using only the regular shotty and having on a few narrow pillars. Not really hard per se, but juggling between 2 archvile can be a bit tricky. Though you do get a green armor, soulsphere and also a secret berserk in that starting room, so it's not too bad.

Surprisingly, other than the starting room, I think that rest of the map actually felt easier than Map03. The yellow key area fight is not that hard, just focus on clearing the floor containing the RL. The blue key fight is cramped, but firing a few rockets and then using the SSG can get you through it. The red key area fight gives you rockets and plasma and the area looks intimidating (definitely old sunder-ish architecture), but just focus on revenants and once they are dead, you can camp there safely.

The only somewhat tricky fight was the final area's fights. First having to deal with a horde of imps and pinkies supported by barons, hell knights, revenants. Good crowd control should get you through. Once you have the red key and use it on the exit door though, a group of 6 to 8 archviles are revealed from the exit area to undo your hard work. You should have enough rockets for them by this point though.

While I did die, I ultimately managed to beat this map without saves.

Insaneprophet · February 4

Map 03: Salvia

A cavernous mineshaft that bleeds the planet dry of resources but instead of exploiting veins of gold, copper or iron ore, the demonous workers deep in this shaft, quarry down and tap directly into veins of blood! Level 3 significantly raises the difficulty with tight combat in close quarters. The texture set here led me to be entirely confused for half my play time but towards the middle I figured out that once the area was cleared of opposition, I had a few deadly trapped little room size arenas to deal with to get my keys and make my exit. The final fight, though the most populated, proved to actually be the easiest as a larger area had opened up and infighting took care of most everything without my help, where in the ealier ambushes, space was so tight, I had to kill everything just to survive long enough to dissarm the main threats. I never found any of the 3 secrets but find myself feeling enough warm fuzzy feelings towards the map that I believe I'll replay it before moving on.

...My second run was just totally fun as hell. Knowing the layout and whats in store made every single encounter actually very simple to diffuse. I was able to find all 3 secrets and treat the map like a playground where I was a 5 yr old on a jungle gym.

Edited February 4 by Insaneprophet

Insaneprophet · February 4

Map 04: hey! this is library

The name says it all, its a library, and though by no means ugly or pourly constructed, quite the opposite in fact, I felt it did lack the interesting levels of detail achieved in the first three maps. Now on to the combat, I was in no way disappointed but I really did expect, probably due to the third lvl and reading the earlier posts, it to be far harder than it proved to be. Somehow I didnt at any time feel a sense of danger, I loved all the setups and had a blast blasting everything away but there was nowhere that made me scared. Dont take this as a bad review, I probably liked this map the most so far, but my expectations and what I recieved were in vastly different places. I am in fact glad it took the turn it did because I have more fun when I'm enjoying myself than when I am being forced to figure out the one way to do things. So I say bravo for subverting me and Im sure there will be far more challanging things to come that will not only put the fear of death into my soul but make me curse your name and damn the lives of your decendants.

Celestin · February 4

MAP04: Hey! This is Library.

Well, this is indeed (a) library. This time the LunchLunch chose bookshelves, beige walls and... slime? I thought it doesn't fit here at first, but in hindsight, the green pulls this whole thing together, I especially like how the sludge flows from behind the paintings. It makes little sense, but so does scrolling bookshelves. Library feels like a completely alien place, merely decorated with familiar elements. It just feel so wrong, yet the map is the most impressive visually. Look at the floor in the final arena, how two alternating flats create this aesthetic as hell pattern. It's simply amazing and if you weren't sure why 10x10 is being called "diet Sunder", you should understand now.

Regarding the gameplay side, this is the first map of 10x10 that leans towards slaughter style. The start feels like something from a challenge wad, where you are given a shotgun, placed in a room with two archviles and told to solve this puzzle. You can either patiently eliminate them with a given weapon, or open the doors, running past revenants and arming yourself with an SSG (there's also a zombie horde, but they will thing themselves out). Whatever tactic you choose, the yellow key arena is next, where you can get the super shotgun and a rocket launcher to eliminate revenants and hell knights. You generally are getting a lot of rockets, so you can already see where the map is going.

Not immediately, though. After this display, Library slows down for a while, the blue key fight is a cramped room with hell nobles that's not hard if you are aware of your surroundings. The red key arena has a lot of room to dodge and use rockets with little risk. All this lets you catch a breath and prepare for the final fight, a teleporting masses of imps, hell nobles, revenants and pinkies. The plasma rifle in the middle of the room lets you rip a hole through weaker monsters if you get cornered and rockets deal with the crowds. It's easy to get blocked here, in my case, I was low on health, relying on scattered medikits to stay alive - there's a megasphere that would be helpful, but for some reason, the bulk of enemies were grouped here. If you want to exit, six archviles are released. While they all emerge from a single point, they will quickly spread out, reviving the dead and attacking you from different angles. Hunt them down, kill what's left and the map is done. Hey! This is Library. is the best map up to this point, with great aesthetics and the combat that provides a challenge without being frustrating.

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The DWmegawad Club plays: 10x10, Heartland, Sigil II

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