The DWmegawad Club plays: ConC.E.R.Ned & Draft Excluder

E1M5 - "Administration"

Similar traits and similar flaws as E1M9, but I felt slightly better about this level. I got unpleasantly stuck in an outdoor water secret on the east, when I've run over a chair out of a window. I liked the chairs and computer tables - on the other hand, they yet again emphasized the symmetry and repetitiveness ruling the map. Horde after ambush, ambush after horde... Alright, the map wasn't great, but not terrible either - OK playable and somewhat cleanly unified.

E1M5: Administration
100% kills, 4/4 secrets

A pretty straight-forward map that's basically fighting waves and waves of monsters, so how much you like it probably depends on how much you just enjoy straight-up shooting things. There's some good fight setups - the blue key one is probably the toughest, the red door ambush is good (I liked turning around to see the cacodemons emerge from the darkened cubbyholes, creepy) and the yellow key fight can have some teeth (although the secret in this area de-fangs it). I agree with scifista that it does start to feel a bit repetitive after awhile - another horde, another computer, etc. Any longer and it would've been a larger problem, but it's juuust about the right length to provide a good experience without being drudgery.

e1m5 - I didn't find it as engaging as the previous maps. This time we get a simplier layout and instead the level concentrates more on refilling the central area with new monsters several times. I'm usually rather skeptical of this type of progression: I would rather have five fights in five different locations than five fights in the same one. I don't completely dislike this idea of refilling but I feel like it can be quite tricky to pull off and imo this map doesn't succeed in that.

And two minor compaints:

- http://i.imgur.com/7az6R6V.png - I don't like sectors that are just a little bit too small for the doomguy to pass through. I want to be able to tell whether something is passable or not without actually trying to pass. Of course, as a mapper, I can determine that by counting the white lamp things (6 x 8 = 48 < 56) but that's not exactly good for the immersion.

- I have nothing against furniture in Doom but... wooden chairs in a futuristic base?

Capellan said:

This was a solid level, but there is a niggling worry in the back of my mind about whether cannonball can keep finding new and varied ways to challenge the player with Doom's narrow monster set, or if an element of 'sameness' is going to creep in after a while.

Heh, you ain't seen nothin' yet. ;)

mouldy said:

Have to see how much longer I can go without saving..

You can create demo files that use save/reload by setting PrBoom+ to complevel -1 (full feature mode). The biggest drawback to this complevel is that in it one tends to see a lot of vile-related stuck monster shenanigans due to a Boomism, but of course that won't be an issue for either of these two WADs.

dobu gabu maru said:

It always surprises me when we run into something you haven't played... sometimes I just assume you (like bdl) are a machine that's been programmed to consume all things Doom.

That would make me a significantly less refined machine than Brandon, I'm afraid--I'm willing to play stuff rated below 4.5 stars, and without the tacit or explicit approval of every notable figure in the community! In seriousness, though, it can be tough to find finished megaWADs that I haven't played at least once (I've even played that Garrulismo WAD Memfis mentioned last time, pretty obscure that one), although I never did get around to "Armadosia: The Mad Corridor." There are a fair few notable single-map releases over the years I've not played, though, which is why I'm generally not opposed to that single-map month idea that folks toss around every so often.

E1M4 -- Withering Gardens - 100% Kills / 75% Secrets - FDA
Hey, Requiem music. Quite the coincidence. I will agree with the others that the change in scenery to a largely outdoor setting is well-timed; given the rather homogeneous construction/architecture in many of these maps, aesthetic/thematic shifts are useful in maintaining player interest in the game world. Fortunately, it's again a very clean-looking outing (some bits of Doom furniture in the offices notwithstanding) with tasteful texture choices and pleasantly neutral outdoor lighting that is well-suited to the game's fake contrast; the open sky, the grey/green/brown color scheme, and the moribund bits of vegetation here and there give the landscape a cold, desolate feeling, first time I've gotten any really pronounced sense of atmosphere in ConC.E.R.Ned. Room/area shapes also begin to show a bit more variation here as well (e.g. not everything is a square or rectangle), important since this is perhaps the flattest map yet. Well, I suppose it's not really any more or less flat than any of the others, but it feels that way because the player experiences no variation in the outdoor topography beyond dipping his toes in the shallow pools, and most of the rooms in the buildings are essentially the same size (despite varying shape) and use one general-purpose and modest ceiling-floor expanse. Contrasting this with the previous map, E1M9 is really just as flat from a gameplay perspective, but it doesn't feel as obvious because the main corridor and large central area both use a generous vertical expanse, even though the player can't traverse on that axis.

Kind of seems like a map you just sort of lollygag around in until progress is made--I remember being surprised that the central building with the yellow keycard had opened, I didn't feel like I'd done anything in particular to cause that. Looking at the demo it's pretty clear that the switch in the southeast boardroom was involved, but given the degree of separation between switch and key the two elements don't feel tied together very well. Probably not a serious issue, though, given that one must cross the central courtyard a few times in order to finish up anyway. Action is serviceable enough, very KDiTD in its way (e.g. walk around with your shotgun for several minutes while shooting one target every other second as it haplessly wanders towards you) with a couple of pockets of slightly more pronounced opposition, ala the pool ambush or the boardroom teleportation attack. Nothing is very threatening on an encounter-to-encounter basis, but hitscan attrition could be a significant factor via leaving you vulnerable to attacks that you'd normally survive with relative ease--I probably should have taken it a little more seriously, in fact, it seems I was pretty badly wounded at a couple of points without really realizing it. Incidentally, I'm not generally a fan of the 'replenishing turret' device, but I didn't mind it here since Cannonball used sergeants, who can be consistently killed in a single shot. Baron usage is a little better than in E1M9 (mainly because there are only 3 or 4 of them in the level) but still a little iffy given the available movement space....I guess it's probably meet not to nitpick this issue quite as much in an OG Doom WAD as one would in a Doom II WAD, though.

E1M5 -- Administration - 100% Kills / 75% Secrets - FDA
Indeed, feels like a callback to E1M9. It has pretty much exactly the same skeleton, to whit; even the exit and start points are in the same orientation. I feel that this map is easily superior to that one, though: the fights in the side areas and especially the central area are better (height variation!!), the main access corridor takes on more of a life of its own by virtue of being repeatedly repopulated via sizable banks of monster-closets at natural/intuitive points during the level's progression. This element of repopulation also allows more interplay between the corridor and the discrete side-areas jutting off of it. Again, to use E1M9 for contrast: due to the way I played it I never really noticed the monster-blocking lines in that map, but it's not hard to see how they'll hurt the map's gameplay in scenarios where they come into play. Little risk of that issue in "Administration", on the contrary, in this map monster movement is essentially unhindered, and so should a player retreat from a fracas in one of the side areas s/he will quickly find themselves in the arms of Satan's 431st Broomcloset Infantry back in the main corridor. There's potential for a nice pincers scenario there, makes the action seem a lot more organic.

Given that the squareishness and other telltale aspects of Cannonball's earlier mapping continue unabated here, I don't find the setting here to be as interesting as in "Withering Gardens"--the overall theme is essentially identical to what was in that map (e.g. offices and boardrooms) but without the overcast outdoor area to situate it in a larger setting--but nevertheless it's not difficult for me to say that I felt this was the most enjoyable level in E1 up to this point. The fights here just work for me, I had fun with the caco-cluster in the space, the interplay between the corridor and the eastern offices, and the vaguely Phobos Lab two-pronged closet trap in the western office, nice and bloody.

E1M4 - "Withering Gardens"
This was quite fun. This open base with all the windows makes for some wide zones of fire for all the sergeants. I like that the level has clearly been designed around this principle with the teleport-replenishing sergeants on the central building. On continuous this was a breeze (although my precious 200/200 was significantly atrophied on finishing the level).

I decided to play the level from pistol start as well, and with foreknowledge it was clear to go pacifist and run for the nearest interior. Once you're in cover, you can whittle down the enemies as they approach you and the doors form good choke-points. Following this there's several nice ambushes in the side areas (and some sneaky teleporting barons coming behind you) and then it's done.

I like the concept of this map of having to take cover from the hitscanners, but once the initial population has been cleared I think the map is just a tad too quiet in terms of incidental, non-trap combat. I think the courtyards ought to be repopulated a little more. I don't mind about the teleporting baron at the end being simple to run past as I always want to kill everything anyway. I did find that one-use secret a bit annoying though. It's nice to hear Requiem map08 again too.

E1M5 - "Administration"
This map seemed a lot less inspired than the previous ones. The layout is yet another central arena with side areas containing ambushes and short key quests here. Running around the outside of a big square corridor chaingun sniping distant sergeants and troopers is not exciting or creative level design. It's more or less identical to E1M9, but in there the imps on the ledges provided a touch more variety. And the big reveals of monsters are advertised extremely obviously. Moreover the map uses a large amount of repeated Doom furniture which I generally am unkeen on. I suppose it at least makes for a coherent theme.

Gameplay wise this is better, as the big reveals in the central doughnut release a decent amount of monsters, but unfortunately I found it too easy to take cover in the side areas. So I sound quite negative about this map and I do think I liked it less than some of the others, plus the formulaic layout is getting a bit old. (Please give me something other than a central hub arena level!) But I did still find the level reasonably fun. I quite liked the subtle iwad E1M5 homage after the red key door And the secret in the central courtyard was quite satisfying to find, even though I found it last but it contained the computer map. It was a good clue, that I initially missed and then eventually worked out after finishing the last monsters.

I return! I just finished spending all day trying to get a Raspberry Pi to automatically mount a hard drive on boot, and it was driving me insane. Thankfully, I finally got it to work, so it's time for some good 'ol Doom!

E1M9: Atom Smasher - 100% kills, 100% secrets
Sorry to say this, but I didn't really enjoy this one very much. The huge ring hallway was very bland in terms of gameplay. The obvious traps are also getting a little tiresome now. On top of that, I didn't find the map's layout very interesting. One thing I did like was the central area, especially when the switch that opens the exit is triggered. The red key trap was pretty nasty, but I still survived - great job with that one! However, the other key traps were just too basic and didn't present any challenge (and I'm playing on UV).

E1M4: Withering Gardens - 100% kills, 100% secrets
Damn, this one has a rough start! I came very close to dying here at the beginning due to the hordes of hitscan enemies dotted around. I was able to recover slowly, but still spent the majority of the map on my toes. I would have appreciated an extra health pack at the beginning, but other than that, the difficulty was spot on. The map's layout is nice, but it's flatter than a pancake! More height variation would have helped here.

E1M5: Administration - 100% kills, 100% secrets
This is more like it! A little on the easy side again, but there were some ambushes I was not expecting, and few things feels better than sending a ton of rockets into a large group of enemies. The rooms were very similar to each other - more variation would have been beneficial, as sticking a bunch of blocky computers everywhere doesn't really add much to a map I'm afraid. Of all the maps I've played today, this one is the best.

And now for the bit where I close off my post. So far, there have been far too many instances where I run into a room and flick a switch/grab a key, immediately dart out the door, and a bunch of monster closets open or some monsters teleport in (or both). Because I am no longer in the room, I am able to pick off the monsters without any problems at all. So far, I feel that the maps here have relied too heavily on these basic traps. Anyways, I will be back in a couple days once I've played through the next three!

E1M5: Administration
100% everything. As magnus said: "how much you like it probably depends on how much you just enjoy straight-up shooting things." Well, I'm pretty much a fan of shooting things, so this level was a blast (ha-ha). Never really felt much pressure (though I got down to 30% or so at one point) but I was continually surprised by just how many monsters showed up each time the map was repopulated. Fun.

E1M5: Administration

Not a terribly interesting level to look at; there isn't much going on here visually that we haven't seen before in one of the previous 4/5 levels. The progression is similarly predictable to E1M9; from the start you have access to all three coloured doors and the only question is what order you'll pick up the keys in. On the other hand, it does a good job of repopulating the main corridor with progressively stronger opposition as you make your way through the map - the cacodemons and barons present a satisfyingly juicy opportunity to break out the heavier weapons. The secrets (4/4, and this time the computer map was the first one I found) had a solid logic to them, and I suspect "if it's a blinking light panel, shoot it!" is going to be a thing all through the WAD.

This is the second time I've screwed myself by pulling out my rocket launcher in preparation for an ambush (in this case, the opening monster closets after collecting the soulsphere in the red key portion of the map) so I think from now on my weapon of choice in that situation will be the chaingun or plasma gun... just because the WAD is so fond of using teleports to drop ambush monsters all around me and at uncomfortably, unrocketably close ranges.

E1M5 - "Administration"
I think it is clear to see that the gameplay is very forced here to try and get over the poor layout of the map. Not a moment went by where I came up with the now more obvious solution of merging the circular corridor and the blue key area together into one hub, and then build the rest of the map from there.
This is thankfully probably the worst non-secret map in the set and too be honest I hated this map before I even released this wad.
I do some pretty strange and nonsensical things sometimes. cough*E3M8*cough.

I did almost die near the red door area as general hitscan attrition set in, but knowing where all the secrets are for once is a good thing ;)

Back to E1M9
I think the video is self explanatory really

Everything after the start area is new. I tried to keep the initial premise or a circular hallway representing a small prototype particle accelerator, but make the area smaller and then allow a large ambush as the walls round the outside collapse to reveal a abandoned base with a mix of grey tech and brown vine textures. The gameplay was very much rocket heavy in the original and so I wanted that to remain in this.
The other premise was to give an early introduction for the plasma gun and the baron. I think this has turned out all right and is in a way a quicker and more frenetic map now.

Demon of the Well said:

E1M4 -- Withering Gardens - 100% Kills / 75% Secrets - FDA
E1M5 -- Administration - 100% Kills / 75% Secrets - FDA

These links are the same.

E1M4: I like this one. It provides a much needed change of scenery that E1s usually suffer from (since they’re usually STARx techbases) and is also a really tricky map from pistol start since the fortified central structure pushes the player out into battlefields with multiple attack angles. The first third of this map is spent just trying to get a good foothold so you can fight back against all the opening monsters, and then the other 2/3rds is just trying to survive every nasty trap. Granted I think one of the problems is that every trap encourages you to run away as fast as you can due to the number of enemies, but it’s still a fun experience nevertheless.

E1M5: I didn’t really remember much about this one as I was replaying it, but it was alright. I think the hubspoke nature of the room felt a little too similar to something like E1M9, though admittedly this one had much better traps and encounters. I think the amount of barons weighs down the gameplay however, and I found myself running for the exit as soon as I could.

e1m6
It probably says something about me that my favourite part of this map was the cheapest of cheap camping kills on the cyberdemon in the yellow door room. After ducking in there, flicking the switch, and bolting back out again, I sat outside the window in the entrance hall and shotgunned the top of his head through the opening. Took 80 shells, but I was easily able to fill back up from all the dead sergeants scattered around the level.

My second favourite thing about the level was the sense that cannonball really wanted me dead. Lots of fairly in-your-face monster closets and teleport traps. Nothing cheap, though: if you got caught with your pants down in this, it was because you weren't paying attention to the level's cues. I also liked that you alert the cybers well before you see them: that THUMP THUMP THUMP is always menacing even when the fight itself is not that tough. Or, you know, completely cheeseable if you are a shameless game-abuser like me :)

I also liked the secret within a secret for the red key, and the fact that what this got you was basically just pure power-ups (a couple of sergeants and barons is not really worth mentioning as opposition). I suspect that if I'd found that earlier, instead of after the whole level was pretty much cleared, it would have made a big difference to the way the level played. Oh well, at the end of the day, now I have a BFG.

e1m6 - I made a video commentary this time, dunno if people can understand what I'm saying but it's some English speaking practice at least.

Memfis said:

e1m6 - I made a video commentary this time, dunno if people can understand what I'm saying but it's some English speaking practice at least.

Your English is perfectly understandable.

The secret you thought a monster opened is actually shoot-to-open only, so you opened it, albeit inadvertently :)

E1M6: Laboratory
100% kills, 5/5 secrets

Eeek, Cyberdemons! I found the going tough in this level (from pistol start) because it took me so long to find the rocket launcher... missed the secret one at first, did the blue wing (which got me the plasma gun, but I wanted to save it for the cybers) and then the yellow wing, finally finding the RL after using up all my plasma and shotgun ammo on the cadre of Barons that was following me around the level. Bit too many Barons, for my taste... there's plenty of shotgun ammo, so the player basically feels like he just has to sit there and go through the drudgery of slamming 15-20 shells into the fuckers.

In the end, the Cyberdemons felt like a bit of a non-threat, plenty of room to avoid them and easy to keep them locked in their keyed-door cages. Still, I do appreciate that cannonball didn't hold back on teleporting enemies on top of the player, even though it's a bit spammy when it comes to the Barons. Also plenty of room for the enemies to move around and find the player and pincer him if the player gets lazy.

E1M6 - "Laboratory"

Another spam-map with generic layout and uninspired ambushes. It actually resembles an Oblige map, kind of - the map relies on all the same tricks that can be produced by an automaton. What's worse, it's not much different from the couple previous maps - except that I get overcrowded by Barons or teleporting monsters even more now. The first and only trait that stands out is the presence of Cyberdemons. Unfortunately, their placement is as random and generic as placement of everything else in the map. IMO, the best maps in ConC.E.R.Ned are always at the beginning of episodes, and the middle ones aren't that good. Still OK looking and well playable, though.

Demon of the Well said:

You can create demo files that use save/reload by setting PrBoom+ to complevel -1 (full feature mode).

Interesting, I might make use of that knowledge, but I'll continue trying to do these maps saveless just for the challenge. At least for this episode, I seem to remember later on things get a bit crazy.

E1M5 - "Administration"
http://www.mediafire.com/download/ih2uxtaoy7ko611/concern-e1m5-mouldy.lmp

Bit easier than the previous map, being mainly corridors so everything tends to come from one direction. Still there are a few surprises along the way. I'm still doing well with the secrets, and the traps are starting to anticipate cowards like me who run away. I'm really appreciating the invisibility sphere in these maps by the way, with most of the danger still coming from the hitscanners. Come to think of it we've seen all the doom monsters now save the bosses. Loving the doom furniture by the way. Map itself feels a bit too orderly and square in layout maybe.

Capellan said:

Your English is perfectly understandable.

The secret you thought a monster opened is actually shoot-to-open only, so you opened it, albeit inadvertently :)

Oh, thanks. I usually get to speak English only at English classes so I was worried about this.

Funny with that secret, I didn't realize that it is opened by shooting. I guess that could be considered bad design then: the mapper should make sure that people don't find secrets "by mistake".

E1M6 - "Laboratory" Kills: 86% Secrets: 2/5 Deaths: 2
This wan an annoying map TBH. Just like the other players, I'm really starting to notice how the first few maps of each episode are good and the middle ones are a bit mediocre in terms of gameplay. Well, atleast the map looked decent. I will definitely play the revised version of this wad when it comes out.

I thought e1m6 was one of the best maps so far. :) Lots of rockets and plasma = good fun. I wonder if there's also a BFG behind the red door...

Memfis said:

I thought e1m6 was one of the best maps so far. :) Lots of rockets and plasma = good fun. I wonder if there's also a BFG behind the red door...

I liked 6 better than 4 or 5, myself. And there is indeed a BFG behind the red door :-)

a few more words on e1m9:

it suggests a doom3 / half-life theme because of how you use a train to get to a scientific instalation. doom isn't good at depicting realistic places though. there's a soulsphere secret, you say? haven't found it, but there's plenty of health, still. i flipped the switch behind the triple lock so the baron mob could teleport in and have a party with the cacos. cannonball, if that's the improved version of atom smasher in your video, then i hope that you will re-release the wad some day.


e1m4:

requiem music, indeed what a coincidence. this and the sudden theme change to outdoor renewed my interest. the dead, decayed garden theme could have been explored a bit more, with some height variation. the building looked like a military compound with all those hitscanners sniping from the windows. those were the most dangerous enemies overall. luckily i found the armor in the southern building soon, which makes a difference with the constant attrition here. i didn't feel like gunning down all those respawning sergeants on the roof, so i ran past everything and into the exit, frustrating that teleporting baron.


e1m5:

another map with mostly square shapes. it played better than thought, i however, because of the ambushes. the one at the blue key was easy to foresee, so i grabbed the key and let the cacos eat rockets at the door... when the door fell shut and i blew myself up in the most embarassing manner. good fights, this map keeps you on your toes.


e1m6:

yep, it looks in parts like a computer generated map, lots of square rooms with the same concrete textures making navigation difficult. many barons, one can get overwhelmed by those numbers with demons in between to deny space. so, there's a bfg. i suspected that, but in the end, the plasma gun saved the day. the menacing stomping of the cybers is strengthened by the music (mill from tnt, iirc)

E1M6: Laboratory
100% everything. Woof! That's a lot of barons! And the cybers were...well, not a surprise, considering you could hear them right from the start (a nice touch.) Thanks goodness for the secret BFG. Actually, I only used it on the first one; the second one I left to infight with the baron mob. Anyway, I actually liked the first half of the map (collecting the keys) better: running from room to room with baddies filtering out from everywhere, and the occasional baron to scare the pants off you. Good stuff.

Man, it's only been 4 days in and I'm already falling behind? This'll be rough.

E1M3-The Cleanser: Nice and short map, that gets extended out a bit thanks to the secret exit. It took me about three tries on this map to find the way to the secret exit, since I'm not usually one to go secret hunting unless it's right in my face or something.

E1M9-Atom Smasher: I really like this name, for some reason. The level itself makes each separate area encounter brutal, but it doesn't completely dick you over with its various traps (unlike the next map, which I'll get to). An early plasma rifle is always welcome, and helped getting through the final area much easier.

E1M4-Withering Gardens: Fuck yer teleport traps. That is all.

Seriously though, this was a nightmare coming off of E1M9 with only 43% health. I can't keep track of how many times I had to reload on the yellow keycard access area alone. Technically, I haven't even finished the level yet, as I got ripped apart by that dick Baron spawn at the end (it is very gratifying to see Cannonball acknowledge this btw. Makes me feel like less of a whiny scrub :P). My dislike of shotgun snipers didn't help my feelings any, either.

I'll catch up with the other maps tomorrow, along with a less rage-fueled review of E1M4.

rdwpa said:

These links are the same.

Ah, sorry 'bout that. The correct link to the E1M5 demo is here. I fixed the second link in the original post to point to the intended file, as well. Thanks much for pointing this out.

E1M6 -- Laboratory - 98% Kills / 100% Secrets - FDA
Unholy shit, cyberdemons are tall--seeing the tops of their heads shuttling eagerly back and forth just beyond the windows into the twin transformer rooms got a smile out of me. Also, unholy shit BARONS. I'm tooling around in the lab, minding my own business and doing lab-type stuff (e.g. conducting experiments on the average reanimated corpse's physiological response to multiple lead-slug injections), and they suddenly show up in a rowdy gang, all varsity jackets and bad intentions, to ruin my day. One of them called me "Poindexter." That hurt. Almost as much as when they forced me into a corner and subjected me to all manner of 'indian burns' and 'wet willies' and 'purple nurples.' I was lucky to escape with my life after hurling my pocket protector into my nearest assailant's nose-ringed mug, momentarily blinding him and allowing me to slip away.

So, in other words, I had a pretty good time stumbling about and triggering the various key traps/waves in succession. Most of them include several Barons as the backbone of the attacking force, and since I didn't feel like shotgunning them to death after enduring the trauma described above, I just kept running away to save them for later, up until the point where I had quite the herd of them following me around. There are plenty of weapons and ammo around to kill them all with, but I apparently took a very suboptimal route and so didn't find the rocket launcher until quite late (and didn't manage to get the BFG until after the level was essentially over, what a kick in the teeth), and I felt compelled to save up on cells to deal with the two cyberdemons. In a sense, I suppose this level hearkens back to the debate from the BTSX threads about whether or not a mapper should be expected to micromanage the player's experience in order to ensure that s/he has a good time, or if it's acceptable (even healthy) to sometimes provide a simpler or more open-ended scenario and then leave it up to each individual player to go about doing things in a way that s/he will find enjoyable. I imagine that lots of people have probably played this map and found it very boring because they did stuff like shotgun aaaaaaallll the Barons or cheese the cyberdemons or whatnot, but I found it relatively enjoyable because it just happened to allow me to play in a way that I felt like playing (e.g. treating the Barons as a slow-moving but formidable stormfront of threat that I evaded/worked around until finally coming up with the armament to quell it more efficiently).

Ultimately, I felt that the Baron horde (and the BFG sidequest, to a lesser extent) lent "Laboratory" its own personality distinct from the other E1 maps, all too important because in broad form the level really is very similar to some of the others, yet again--in layout terms there are more close parallels with E1M9 and E1M5, in that this too has a highly symmetrical layout based around a central space and connected by an encircling hallway (although the hallway's presence is less assertive in this case because it's segmented by a pair of doors at one point), even preserving the same straightforward orientation of progression vis-a-vis the four cardinal directions. And, again, in play terms it is very flat--I believe the only time Doomguy really traverses along the vertical axis is in walking down the introductory stairway, and the only enemies to really attack from a different height level are the paltry pipsqueaks around the peripheries of the cybers' rooms. While the action is as of yet not suffering unduly (perhaps because this is E1 and so we're still sort of ramping up to full gallop)--honestly, I'm enjoying this more than I did the majority of Requiem so far--nevertheless it's very difficult not to see that there's a huge "comfort zone" effect going on in the general plan and shape of these maps. I will be interested to see what E2 and E3 are like (to say nothing of the later Draft Excluder), given that these episodes traditionally house the 'weird' maps in most OG Doom megaWADs.

Demon of the Well said:

Unholy shit [...]

I'm excited for your review of E2M6, as it's my favorite level thus far (with E1M6 closely behind). I always find it interesting how you comment on the lack of verticality—often when I map, I find your spirit nagging "there's not much vertical movement here" similar to mouldy's spirit sighing "this battle is impossible to defeat without foreknowledge" and Suitpee's spirit whining "there's too many revenants!". Somewhere is Memfis arguing "you're sacrificing originality for complacency!" but I tell myself he's too young to understand.

E1M6: My favorite map from E1. There’s two semi-symmetrical paths to travel down but there’s so many different ways to go about it, with rooms interconnecting in clever ways. On top of that there’s a mass of barons here that you’ll need help cleaning up with a bold E1 VIP—a cyberdemon (well, two to be exact). The presence of the big brutes makes this map a ton of fun as you can try and start a bunch of infighting or largely ignore them and hope you don’t get surrounded by the nobles. Really chaotic and really fun.

E1M6 - "Laboratory"
Doing this map step wise proved to make the map very easy indeed, of course I felt a little nervy about the cybers as they can kill you effectively in one hit but otherwise the traps can be rendered obsolete with a little dexterity, that said of course first time players will get swamped.
I think some scaling up making the map feel less flat in places would help here, I would be tempted to mobilise the cybers more, perhaps giving them free roam of the map as well, this could add to the tension somewhat, but I will come to that later probably. Personally I do like the level of carnage in the map and the layout is better than a couple of maps played so far.

E1M6: Laboratory

It finally clicked with me when I played through this level what ConC.E.R.N.ed's layouts so far have put me in mind of: a checklist of mission objectives. The overall layout of this map and the past few tends to quickly introduce the player to their goals and tell the player how the map is going to play out, it's all very orderly, all very readily broken down into bullet points. Which does work, for a techbase/facility map that one would expect to have a sense of order to it, but coming on the heels of E1M9, E1M4, E1M5... it's starting to feel a little bit "second verse, same as the first," and at this point I would welcome having the rug pulled out from under me and the mission objectives obscured from me in favour of a chaotic, jumbled mess of a techbase that hates me and wants to kill me, where puzzling out my goals is an ongoing process.

That said, I feel this is a more varied map that the past few in its visuals and its pace; there's a fairly dense monster population to clear out even before the waves of ambushes begin, and of course, this is our first introduction to the real 'heavy hitters' of the game in the form of cyberdemons, fought in spaces that give them plenty of freedom to move without presenting the player with an open arena where they can merely strafe at a steady pace and constant distance to eliminate the threat entirely. I didn't get the BFG until after I'd finished them off. Shoot-the-blinky-panel makes another appearance here. I'm just waiting for a map where shoot-the-blinky-panel is the trigger to a trap rather than a room full of goodies.