The DWmegawad Club plays: Eviternity

[Budoka]

MAP09: Decrepitude by Jimmy
-----------------------------

 

Jimmy gives us something longer, more obtuse and generally more exacting than the previous few levels here. Progression is linear in the temporal sense (blue key - red key - yellow key), but not spatially since how to get to where you're supposed to is never obvious from the get-go. Much like MAP06, a lot the paths you complete end up reconnecting with each other, not that you really even need to take advantage of that, but you can.  How very Metroid...

 

 Actually, wait a minute. Pain sectors everywhere and a limited number of radsuits to figure out how to get through those ? Extremerly limited health and ammo supplies ? Heavyweight enemy types scattered about in low numbers but dangerous positions ? A lost cousin, perhaps, of Erik Alm's "Dust to Dust" ? Except, of course, being much earlier in the mapset, this map isn't nearly as tough as that little nugget, nor should it have been.

 

 Anyway, these kinds of ressource-starvation based levels normally aren't my favourite style of gameplay in Doom, although I have nothing in particular against them as long as it doesn't get too ridiculous. Either way, I think this is easily the best level so far. Besides, those big underground caverns are really cool.

 

 Also, a lot of the "secrets" in this level aren't so secret are they ? How odd. That is BFG is certainly well-guarded however...

Edited March 7, 2019 by Budoka

[tmorrow]

chapter: Automation, map09: Decrepitude, by Jimmy
uvmax, 100% k/i/s obtained

Jimmy contributes a large, decrepit tech base, the facility is riddled with caves, caverns, elevated outdoor slime falls and slime tunnels mixed in with some more civilized sections where switches and teleporters are still operational. Our marine surveys the area in disgust. "If I've said it once, I've  said it a thousand times. Never let your techbase fall into disrepair or bad  things WILL happen. Nobody listens"!
 
Progression can by quite tricky due to the confusing map layout. Sufficient rad suits are provided but you don't want to squander them. Furthermore, there's a whopping 7 secrets to track down. The rewards for finding the secret areas include 3 soulspheres, berserk, megaarmor, plasma rifle, lite amp goggles, and a bfg. Beware that the act of swiping the bfg does not go unnoticed.

Another of the secret areas is heavily guarded. The astral cacodemon makes his debut. This gray horror moves like greased lightning, has a violent swerving dodge and fires a spread of mancubus fireballs as well as a cacodemon projectile. Sad to relate, our marine needed some smelling salts, a new pair of underwear and a nice lie down after meeting the astral cacodemon for the first time.

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP08 "Stench" - Joshua O'Sullivan (100%K/98% I/50% S):

A map that in DB looks bigger than it is, because half of it consists on MAP09 starting area, and MAP07 ending area at the beginning. This is a pretty short keyhunt map, which makes me say: "Maps are actually pretty short", well, at least for everyone but MAP04.
This map sure stinks, it's a sewer map, but I say is like an expensive cheese, some people won't like it because it is stinky, but those who have a refined taste sure they'll like it. In my case, it left me with some mixed feelings, the red card area is pretty short and feels totally unrelated to the main concept of a sewer. Nothing to annoying to dislike on the gameplay department, maybe the RK part a little bit. 


Death counter: 21

Maps in order of preference:

MAP06 (Great)
MAP04
MAP07 
MAP03
MAP01
MAP02
MAP08 (Ok)
MAP05
 

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP09: Decrepitude

 

I think this is the largest map we've seen so far, physically at least, and the combination of toxic slime, winding caverns, and embedded fragments of a grimy techbase puts me in mind of the first episode of Back to Saturn X as much as anything.  This is the first map I ended without at least trying to get 100% kills and secrets; I took stock of things with 6 out of 7 secrets and (I think) 159 out of 165 kills, and decided I just didn't have the gumption (or a big enough stockpile of unused radiation suits) to scour the maze of toxic slime for the last remaining secret area and its guardians.  That's not a decision made out of any dislike for the map, mind you; indeed, I can very much see myself revisiting this one in the future.  The interconnections are masterful and there's a distinctive change of pace and atmosphere as you move from the techbase-dominated northern and western portions of the map into the much more labyrinthine caverns of the southeaster, full of ledges that can be accessed only circuitously and opportunities to have fire rained on you from unexpected directions and elevations.

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP09 "Decrepitude" - James Paddock (98%K/83% I/71% S):

Jimmy brings us a really long level, and you can actually tell the difference here in between Dragonfly and Jimmy's mapping phylosophy: Jimmy's maps are longer, and harder.
This map got in my nervs because of it's size and difficulty, so I started doing some save-spamming. Gameplay consists on low resource gameplay, giving you a chainsaw and a well hidden Berserk at the start, which would help you a lot. Even though I "tysoned" a lot on this map, still felt really low on ammo. I don't like low resource gameplay, but hey, this doesn't mean the map is bad, I just didn't like it personally.
I managed to find most of the important secrets here, like the BFG, the Plasma Gun, and the well needed RL to progress through the end. I also found a secret that introduced the player a new enemy, the Astral Cacodemon (Or just gray caco) and I got scared at this part by its sound queues. It's basically a slightly tankier cacodemon that throws you mancubus projectiles. This one only appears once in UV gameplay, and in a secret area, so you would not see this until later in the mapset.

Death counter: 41

Maps in order of preference:

MAP06 (Great)
MAP04
MAP07 
MAP03
MAP01
MAP02
MAP08 (Ok)
MAP09
MAP05

Changing gameplay this way was a direct hit for me, from short, somewhat difficult maps to a large, really hard map in which you have to think to save ammo, I think it was quite nasty, but hey, MAP04 was somewhat difficult aswell, and long, and I still liked it more. Mixed feelings about this one though.

[VanaheimRanger]

 

[Catpho]

MAP04 - "Regicide" by Jimmy and Dragonfly

Huh, never thought the name would get so much scrutinization. A silly thing to dwell on, but the level's visual presentation certainly does invite such musings! "Regicide" has the carefree, cheeky "idtech1 realism" approach to it's construction, with the modest blocky exterior hiding a castle brimming with detail and charm. Many castle mainstays make an appearance such as throne rooms, and also a... model of a throne room. It has a spirit that wouldn't be out of place for a quirky 90s author. Impressive layout work as well, as specialty of Jimmy to smooth and stylish traversals!

The combat get's a much appreciated speed boost with the return of the good ol double barreled beauty in the player's hand and it's friend the rocket launcher! The traps also packs more size and cuts more space, but still lacks enough bite to chew through the player's much more potent firepower and dangerous mobility. It's all much more exhilarating, at least!  This could be the reason why the level won over so many members of the club, but i'm still in love with "Drain" ;P

Some screenies:

 

[Tristan]

MAP09: Decrepitude - Jimmy

12:46, 95% kills, 57% secrets

 

First death! First three, in fact. I'm quite glad I'm not playing this for the first time today - despite this being the first time I haven't done this map from a pistol start this map didn't want to play nice today it seems. I prefer my spectres not fully invisible thanks! Anyway, despite my mood being soured a bit I know the map reasonably well enough to look past this and give a Fair and Balanced review based on my previous experience with it.

 

Decrepitude is the first guest map proper, designed without any (or at least any significant) input from Dragonfly. It serves as an extension of the sewage theme that was explored in MAP08 and is probably the longest and most difficult map in the set so far. It's not just the monsters you want to watch out for here, there's a shitload of damaging floors that can really drain your health away and they're really quite abundant throughout the entire map, though the caves are the most dangerous section. Radiation suits are given out but I wouldn't say Jimmy was particularly generous in this regard, unless you know exactly where you're going you may well end up having to do some unprotected runs across the sewage, but the navigation of this map never felt the most intuitive to me, and it was indeed the caves in particular that I often found disorientating, and even now I can still get a bit lost, so if you end up stuck in a bad situation I can see how the death count can start to rack up here. To an extent.

 

That note about navigation is also a factor in why I tended to look forward to this level slightly less than others in the post-RC1 testing - as I mentioned before we had to obtain 100% KIS, and oddly enough despite only 12 items I'm not the only one who has struggled to get all of them, and if you're missing one at the end of this map, you've probably missed one of the light visors which is quite easy to just go unnoticed. Props though, not often you see those show up and they definitely have their place here. Some of the secrets are very obvious and those are the ones I got but there's a couple I don't remember so I didn't bother going for them here. Most importantly I got the BFG which might come in handy next map. I think it's quite a testament to the astral cacodemon that it's replaced by an arch-vile on HMP, haha.

 

I must admit, the concept doesn't really align with my taste in maps, and while I believe there's nothing majorly wrong with the execution, navigational qualms aside, I think I was only ever going to get so much enjoyment out of this. Visually it is of course, very on point, the diminished light extending to even the outdoor areas really sells the waste theme and we get to see some more ranges of the OTEX rock textures, which we really haven't gotten to see much of in this episode, so it's definitely a standout of the episode in many aspects, but - without sounding like I hate it because that's not the case at all - it's the first map I don't feel massively positive towards. Like a 7/10 or something.

[dac]

MAP 09 – Decrepitude

 

Nothing tastes more like sadness than doing pistol starts and getting a BFG at the very end of the map. Sure, you get to vaporise one lone arch-vile on HMP, but it ain’t enough-

 

58 minutes ago, Eris Falling said:

I think it's quite a testament to the astral cacodemon that it's replaced by an arch-vile on HMP, haha.

 

Okay, maybe it’s enough. God I can’t wait to see this infamous astral caco in action!

 

I’ve used more saves than usual on this map, for a few reasons. For one, it’s a long map – the first true guest map of the set – with a confusing layout and a ton of toxic waste, and it’s easy to get lost and outright die. For two, this map is even nastier than the previous one. I got sniped a few times by enemies far away, and the environment doesn’t make it easy to handle everything.

 

Like Eris, these kind of maps aren’t to my personal tastes. Perfectly fine, if a bit unmemorable outside of my navigational woes. Navigating sludge is a bit too much pressure, I guess.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 08 -- Stench - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets - Somewhat smelly FDA, 0 deaths

Traversing deeper into the plant, our hero here enters the 'grey water' stage of the line. Operating on a gravity-sifting method, the wing is dominated by a large open-air settling tank, wafting eye-watering fumes aloft. The variously ripe and acetic aromas of semi-treated sewage and industrial disinfectants are joined by a subtler but no less disquieting scent, of blood and longing and directionless hate--the stench of evil--as the sordid creatures from beyond have turned the filth-caked canals and sluiceways into a nesting grounds and poolside resort.

 

The "wow" factor of the OTEX resource and colormap changes here reassert themselves after a couple of comparatively understated outings in m06 and 07. This part of the complex is grosser, grungier and more dismal than they by far, but the shift in scenery, perhaps unexpectedly, really brings out the richness of the color palette and the texture of the textures for uncannily attractive presentation. In the interplay of shadow and light (again it seems some considerable effort has been made to 'source' this largely from the actual sky) the different shades of green--military primer-paint, toxic sludge, sizzling flyblown neon--seem to radiate a vibrant sickliness, and the wonderfully animated liquid textures roiling and cascading in the half-light of the inner reaches is quite striking indeed.

 

I quite enjoyed the music track as well, particularly the string break after the initial buildup, quite evocative of sunset-soaked urban desolation (interesting to hear it's apparently a Heretic track, of all things?). I'm sure I've heard it somewhere before, perhaps in a short/small map of some sort where it didn't have time to set in (not that this one is very large itself, ofc), but pleased to make its acquaintance once again. Ditto the m06 track which I think I forgot to mention at the time, equally fitting for the sort of languid 'sunsetting industry' feel which seems to be a background theme of this episode. Sometimes I think I've spent more elapsed time reading Alfonzo belittling his own work in this field than I have actually hearing it play in maps, which is a shame--he has the knack for these groovy little pieces that are moving, yet understated (perhaps in part because they are understated) when he puts his mind to it.

 

Play! Well, the somewhat cheeky revenant lording over the settling tank and the later mini-swarm of cacos communicate a design that seems to move in a little bit more of a mean/aggressive direction, though I'm not shaking in my boots just yet--the markedly vertical nature of the map (esp. in the eastern half) means the monsters often have relatively good immediate influence over space and superior firing angles here, but the player in turn is never really pressured to fight from any particular position, and so if you're good at thinking on your feet you can often outflank/flummox them with ease. I didn't play so well here, but still came out of it smelling like roses, leaving the (frankly superfluous, I thought) non-secret soulsphere behind despite several mistakes/gaffes. Like many of the other Club players, I felt that the eastern/YK part of the map felt a lot more interesting/fleshed out than the RK half, both visually and in terms of gameplay, with its over/under traversal and striking contrasts in space/scale over a short period.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP09: Decrepitude

100% kills, 7/7 secrets

 

First true guest map, and it definitely stands out as much longer than any of the previous eight. It's also very much a classic Jimmy map with a romp through base areas and caverns. I found the combat to be pretty breezy for the most part, with the main difficulty stemming from figuring out the progression without using up too many radsuits. The first half of the map flows quite well but the latter half, especially near the yellow key section, had me taking wrong turns and forgetting which areas I could climb staircases out of and which ones I had to jump from, for example. It also probably didn't help that the design of the yellow door building, with its big windows and enemies inside, was a bit annoying to deal with since I was constantly taking fire by enemies I could barely see. The radsuit amount is actually pretty well-tuned, since I always felt like I was in danger of running out but never quite did. The goggles on the other hand felt pointless, the map isn't that dark and the fullbright just ends up making the map look washed out and ugly. Lots of secrets, which is fun, and a couple of them have a few surprise spikes in difficulty... though to be honest, I actually was surprised at how easy the astral caco went down, given all the other comments about it I've seen. Part of that might just be the setup - it sorta bounced between the other two caco buddies without firing much, and the manc behind it can also help out... so I don't look forward to fighting multiple of these guys in an open area.

[Snikle]

9 - Decreptitude

Ahh, another nice level in a set full of ‘em. This one yet again reminds me of BTSX, but for whatever reason I enjoyed this one more than some of the previous levels in the episode. Maybe because it’s a more exploratory map? The modification to the light-amp goggles was really well done. The only main bad part of the level was running around the sewer area trying to find the right switch while the last available radsuit runs dry. The last fight after opening the yellow door was kind of a wash since the mancubi killed every other monster there before the door was even open all the way.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 09 -- Decrepitude - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets FDA, 0 deaths (more than a little smelly)

Egh, the last third or so of this FDA is pretty embarrassing. I didn't play very well at all, and was basically only carried by the largess from finding all the secrets--without them I reckon I probably would've snuffed it somewhere in the caves beyond the red door (though of course this underscores the value of looking for secrets for those who can't normally be bothered!). This is definitely the toughest map so far--tougher than m05 by a pretty decisive margin I'd say--and it's interesting that it achieves this not through hi-octane/highly choreographed heavy action or any really deadly traps, but simply through a rather tight balance. It's not quite into what I'd call serious 'austerity' territory, though maybe I'd have had a different impression if I had used less melee/more ammo earlier in the map (using the chainsaw at the start could've very easily gotten me killed as well, incidentally). The most immediately noticeable aspect of the balance for me was not the radsuit/waste-wading issue (I found this was judged quite well, provided one is mindful/tactical with their usage), but the really conspicuous lack of any kind of armor until quite a ways into the flooded out station makes the first third or so of the map deceptively dangerous. Without secrets, seems like the overall balance only allows a rather limited number of mistakes in comparison to the abiding generosity of earlier levels, and a real risk of just sort of petering out into general decrepitude in the later reaches without consistently tight/methodical execution, just like the dilapidated waste-storage wing itself.

 

The change in authorship is quite noticeable, then. It's good to see Jimmy make a Doom map like this again, I felt. His mapping in The Adventures of Square notwithstanding, most of his recent work for Doom has been decisively in what I'd call the "map 01 genre", which is fine enough in and of itself, though usually not to my personal taste writ large. Apart from what felt to me like some knowing nods to the style, setting, and layout type of The Darkening II (and how could an anniversary set which so prominently features OTEX not make this reference at some point...?) "Decrepitude" also puts me in mind of the comparatively roughneck/rough-and-tumble days of Jenesis, executed with all of the many years of experience and honing of craft between its time and now.

 

Also of note, another of Eviternity's new monsters, the much-vaunted "Astral Cacodemon", makes its debut here. I think it's really cool that this monster makes its first appearance tucked away as something of a jumpscare in a secret that many players will realistically never see, but from this brief first meeting I didn't get much impression of what the creature is actually capable of, other than it being dangerously quick, just like the Nitedog. I don't think it actually attacked me at all before being killed (dying in a somewhat undignified manner to a ball-lightning belched by one of its compatriots), which in combination with the relatively infamy it already seems to enjoy suggests that it's probably something of a glass cannon, not too hardy but perhaps possessed of a nasty attack? Time will tell I suppose, quite curious about its "official" debut after this.

 

Potentially fatal bug: As seen at around the 12:40 mark in the demo, in the soulsphere secret where the astral cacodemon makes its surprise debut, the player can straferun diagonally southeast from the landing of the 'secret' lift to the similar one just across the way, which skips the floor trigger causing the astral/other cacos (and presumably the mancubus farther in) to rise out of their pit in the ooze. At best this is a minor illuso-pit gaffe, at worst the unwitting or willfully perverse player can fall into it and be unable to get out.

[Tristan]

4 hours ago, Demon of the Well said:

(interesting to hear it's apparently a Heretic track, of all things?)

Specifically, it was one of four (or five if you count the title screen) MIDIs Alfonzo composed for Realm of Parthoris back in 2015, where it was used on E1M3, but I'm not sure where else you may have heard it, between this and its origin map I only know of Fomalhaut and Man on the Moon which aren't on the smaller side!

 

MAP10: Creation - Dragonfly + Afterglow

10:49, 99% kills, 100% secrets

 

Wooooo Motion Machine, that's a pretty epic MIDI there, feels a lot more upbeat than what you usually get in Doom but it totally works here. Conceptually, the second episode closes off the way it started, bringing things back to life - this time we're restoring power to the hugeass generator that spans the centre of the map which holds the gateway to the next realm of our journey. To do this we have to make our way around the outskirts of the map, clearing out the biggest number of demons we've seen so far on this journey, nearly 200 on HMP, and hitting the switches in each area we visit, but despite that raised monster count, I'd say this is significantly easier than MAP09 because the environments here are much more spacious and less sewagey, and at least on HMP, the lower-tier monsters at least feel like they're making up a larger proportion of the population and this map is really quite kind with health, for example, there's a secret early on with 50 stacked health bonuses, and a soulsphere not far away, and then another secret with a megaarmor right next to it, all of which are close to the berserk pack, so that's basically a free 200/200 and then some. On HMP there's also 26 stimpacks, though on UV there's only half this amount, so you might want to be a bit more careful on that skill. I'm not entirely clear on what Afterglow's involvement on this map actually was. I recall it being mentioned as Dragonfly built the map and then Afterglow did a detail pass, but I thought it went further than that, according to the pre-RC1 progress spreadsheet, the map was also based on some old prefabs that Afterglow provided for Eviternity and then the map was designed around those? Either way, if the Doom Wiki page has complete info, this would be the first released map with Afterglow's name on it since 2006, so that's pretty neat. Damn, 13 years... I was 8 years old :P

 

One part of this I found particularly interesting was the blursphere encounter. As we all know, blurspheres tend to be either a blessing or a curse, but here we seem to have a case of it being both which I can't say I've seen often, if at all? While it helps us out in the hitscanner-dominant ambush that accompanies it, it later becomes a hindrance as we escape the area only to run into our projectile-based mid-tier friends, one of which is a mancubus. I feel like this double-edged sword setup could have gotten a bit more mileage if these two encounters had a bit more meat to them, brushing aside the fact I'm playing on UV, something that properly sends you from "wow, thank god for that blursphere!" to "fuck blurspheres," heh.

Another standout is the crusher room. When that inner section opens up to reveal a horde of zombies and barrels, we're treated to the glorious and memorable sight of corpses flying off the platform in all directions - like the model throne on MAP04, this is a trope Dragonfly picked up from D64D2, though for me it will always bring back good old memories of the start of Console Doom's Phobos Anomaly. The Spider Mastermind is a bit of a non-threat here as the switches you need to press in this area are close enough together it doesn't really get enough time to fire for long enough to do really heavy damage, and it's more that you end up waiting for it to just die already so you can get to the centre to get the switch for the main objective in this area, as well as pickup a lovely amount of shell and bullet ammo from the zombies that died here. I just used the time to go and collect some resources from outside.

 

To finish things off, once the power is all restored, we're granted access to the centre but we're not getting into the portal without a fight, and a fairly large one but it's pretty easy to deal with, we're provided with rockets and plasma to use against it in the run-up to this part, the real purpose here is to introduce us to the next custom monster. Replacing the baron of hell is the annihilator, a variant of the cybruiser that's become relatively popular in recent years (thinking Valiant, ZDCMP2, 50 Monsters..), what sets this one apart is that ones it's fired a rocket it switches to a chaingun attack. This pisses a lot of people off but while this isn't my favourite custom monster in Eviternity - certainly no plans to use it myself in future, I don't mind it as much. Because it's not actually immune to blast damage (in Valiant + 50 Monsters it replaces the SMM instead of the baron), it takes full damage from rockets, and having only a little more health than the original baron, this means it goes down fairly quick, or better yet the plasma gun is a good choice, because chances are it'll get painstated often enough that it probably won't manage to use its chaingun.

 

Episode 2 has been fun, but it's now time for us to move on. Hope you guys got coats.

06 > 10 > 08 >= 07 > 09

 

Bug: 1 monster failed to teleport in for me on this run. It never happened during our tests, but the carousel teleporter setup was the bane of my fucking existence when making post-RC1 fixes to MAP29 - one fight consistently broke no matter what I tried to the point where I just completely rebuilt it with a different setup, and it seems the same issue spread to other maps where 1 monster sometimes gets stuck on the inside dropoffs in the scrolling box, so sadly I can't say I'm too surprised by this. gg no re.

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP10 "Creation" - Joshua O'Sullivan and Derek MacDonald  (99%K/100% I/100% S):

Here we have our second slaughter arena, and as before, it servers as an episode finale. This one in comparison to MAP05, is bigger and better designed on an overall aspect, is better to play around this one. Of course, this one is way bigger than MAP05, that could be finished in 3 minutes, this one took me much more time.
The map consists of 4 areas, 3 of which, are going to be revealed through progress. There is a really nasty encounter with some hitscanners that are bodyblocking some carefully placed barrels to kill them all. When you manage to do it, you are going to be closed on a really small area where a Spider Mastermind appears to try and take you down. It can just be killed by pressing switches that activate crushers. The goal is to make the entire map open, thus transforming the map into a really big arena, where our new enemy makes its first appearance, the Annihilator.
The Annihilator is a new type of bruiser demon of a gray color and a Cyborg appearance. They replace the Baron of Hell (So you'll never see them through the entire mapset), and they are essencially a pocket version of both the Cyberdemon and the Spiderdemon, since they can alternate attacks between shooting rockets or mowing you down with a chaingun. I don't know if they have a melee attack, but I wasn't willing to test it. They are pretty effective infighters, they can even infight with themselves if they shoot a friend with their chaingun, so use this as your advantage.
In my opinion Annihilators are way better than Barons of Hell, since those are only pink, tankier versions of the Hell Knight, and they serve not too much purpose at all, so they are really welcome.

Death counter: 48

Maps in order of preference:

MAP06 (Great)
MAP04
MAP07 
MAP10
MAP03
MAP01
MAP02
MAP08 (Ok)
MAP09
MAP05

This episode had me with mixed feelings. None of the maps were bad, in fact the best map yet is in this episode, but MAP08 and MAP09 were some kind of a letdown. The first one overall was more consistent than this one.

[Budoka]

MAP10: Creation feat. Afterglow
---------------------------------

 

Wait, there's an Astral Caco in "Decrepitude" ? I've certainly never seen it, I think I'm going to have to go look for it when I have a chance. A lot of you did find it it seems, so I guess I just wasn't clever enough. Speaking of the previous level, scratch what I said about it. "Creation" is the best level yet. I like they way the structure slowly opens up as the player progresses, some inspiration from Mechadon perhaps ? Although, the way it works in this map is much more straighforward by comparison. Personally, I actually don't think there is much "slaughter" gameplay at alll in this level. Even the prototypal slaughtermaps of the 90s and early 2000s packed a much, much stronger punch than this.

 

We get somewhat meatier combat than in earlier Dragonfly maps here, which is good. I'll especially note the vicious use of higher-level monsters such as Mancubi, Pain Elementals and Archviles. Revenants, by contrast, aren't so dangerous here, but oh well. Nor is that poor Spiderdemon, who never really stood a chance between all the infighting with other hitscanners and those crushers, the activation switch of which is right next to the player as soon as the Spider spanws (the other four switches that serve to unlock further progress actually aren't needed for this). I mean, it's a cool scene to watch, but from a gameplay standpoint it's a rather silly setup. Which is a perfectly fine thing to have from time to time, I suppose.

 

Anyway, I assume "Creation" refers to the Annihilator itself, which is clearly an artficially made creature. It seems that some people have been complaining that this enemy is excessively dangerous, but I like it. It brings new dimensions to the gameplay, and with some practice it becomes manageable enough. I like it more than the Cybruiser from Valiant, which was basically just an undercooked Cyberdemon, although that worked well enough for that megawad's purposes. But the Annihilator's two-phase attack is just way more interesting to play with.

 

The second episode is overall more compelling that the first I feel, not that I had many complaints about Chapter 1 either. The next one I have a lot of fondness for, but I'll get to that when it's relevant.

[General Roasterock]

MAP 09: DECREPITUDE

There's a lot of opinions on this map here that are just the complete opposite of mine. First of all, I never found this map to be that hard, especially not harder than Map 05. Maybe the beginning segment could take some chunks out of you if you're not paying attention, but there's enough recovery items to shake it off. I also feel like the map is more than properly set up enough to keep the player from getting lost, and I didn't have any problems navigating aside from the occasional backtrack.

That being said, it's still a really good map. I could honestly see something of the same layout being right at home in Square. It's definitely the largest map so far, and has cave pathways that are mazelike enough without being confusing. Weaponry balance is dealth with well for the environment, and I feel Jimmy is one of the last people on the planet to actually hold their tongue when it comes to Revenants, which will always receive points from me. It's unforntunate that the BFG is at the very end, but for the first BFG in Eviternity, it's definitely a memorable area.

Now I need to get to the important introduction.

 

Astral Cacodemon:

These guys are my favorite custom enemies in this wad. The Poe recolor looks good, the sounds provide a distinct terror for recognizing them, and they are absolutely brutal. One full shotgun of two Mancubus balls and a Cacodemon ball can do a max of 168 damage, and these enemies are designed to close in with horrifying accuracy. My only problem with them is that the amount of times they can dash forward seems to be randomized, as I still have no idea how far forward they can move before attacking.

Horrible opinion, but from all the time I've fought them, I feel the nerf wasn't warranted. Sure, a 384 shotgun of 6 Manc balls is much less than 168, but in most cases, an Astral Cacodemon will slaughter you up close, RC1 or not. I might just have to replay RC1 again just to change my mind. 

 

I also really hope that there's a development post from Eris that's along the same length and content that the Nightmare Demon was. I'd love to hear the story of this powerful demon's creation.

[tmorrow]

chapter: Automation, map10: Creation, by Dragonfly, Afterglow
uvmax, 100% k/i/s obtained

Our marine has stumbled into a warehouse of sorts, a collaborative mapping effort. Is this anywhere near the enemies central HQ? We must be on to something if the monsters are trying to kill us! The start is fairly brisk and is probably the most dangerous part of the map with a possible exception of the final fight if you are caught unprepared.

The 3 secrets contain 50 health bonuses in a tight stack, a megaarmor and a soulsphere. The ammo and health on this map is overly generous but our marine ain't complaining. At the end you pick up a huge amount of rocket and cell ammo.

The poor hapless spider mastermind puts in a brief appearance at last before being crushed ignominiously by 4 plungers and toxic waste barrels surrounding his spawn point.

In the final showdown we meet the Annihilator, the baron of hell replacement. In fact our marine thinks he needs glasses quite badly because he's seeing not double, but quadruple as 4 Annihilators enter the fray. Our marine asks one of the Annihilators: "Hey, is that a rocket in your pocket"? The Annihilator replies "Even better. It's a rocket and a chaingun. Run! Bwahahaha!" This cyber-baron, armed with a rocket launcher and chaingun starts off with the rocket launcher and switches to chaingun to mow you down as you seek cover or trigger his pain state. The good news is that unlike cybie, the Annihilator takes rocket splash damage which can often be used to full advantage.

The chapter ends as our marine steps into the mysterious and shiny portal. I wonder where we are going next?

Edited March 8, 2019 by tmorrow

[Roofi]

Map 10 : Creation

 

 

I said that I didn't like the fifth map a few days ago. However , I really loved this map at the point it's my favourite for now.Like map 05 , it can be considered primarly as an arena map but we can explore many places here ! As you can see on the layout , there a lot of rooms and corridors next to the large yard with a four-pointed star-shaped structure in the middle.

 

I love this map also for its lack of symetry . In the southwestern side , you will meet the classic "Crate maze" trope. In the southeastern side , there is just a litte cliff with an interesting trick with middle textures. I will not describe each place but everything is memorable for me.

 

Creation contains an unique theme contrary to "Demon". (I compare with this map because both conclude an episode). The abundance of beige color  mixed with blue gives a very smooth rendering. All the map is pure eye candy.

 

The most exciting sequence may be the last fight where the curved walls near the centre lower and reveal the new enemy and hordes of classic monsters. Nonetheless I have to admit that it was quite badly designed. The cybruisers (It's how I call those monsters) can be killed just by infighting and camping. I remember that the cybruiser was way more clerverly used  in the last trap of map 12. (It was the first time I died in Eviternity) . It was fun anyway so it's not a big problem for me.

 

Also , I have to say it's the first level with an outstanding music. The soundtrack of Eviternity is good but I tend to forget the melody. Some wads have soundtracks which stay stuck in my head (HR2 for instance) and others not (Eviternity and many others wads).

Edited March 8, 2019 by Roofi

[Tristan]

7 hours ago, General Roasterock said:

I also really hope that there's a development post from Eris that's along the same length and content that the Nightmare Demon was. I'd love to hear the story of this powerful demon's creation.

 

Alas, I was only involved with the nightmare demon so I can't talk about the other monsters like that, actually from my perspective the astral just appeared one day, but I will say that it's one of the best, if not the best custom monster I've ever run into and I was in the minority that opposed the post-RC1 nerf. It reminds me a bit of the arch-vile in that when it shows up it tends to really shake up the dynamic of the gameplay and becomes a priority target, but the archvile's line of sight based attack, which can also be limitless in distance, has always had a tendency to aggravate me, so it's become that monster for me; whenever they're used "effectively," I end up just wanting to quit the game instead. In contrast the astral is simpler to deal with as it goes down a lot easier and the best tactic is to simply try and avoid being too close to it because its movement can be so unpredictable, yet the sense of danger is not lost for me. I'm sure Eviternity won't be the last time we see these guys.

Edited March 8, 2019 by Eris Falling

[VanaheimRanger]

28 minutes ago, Eris Falling said:

I was in the minority that opposed the post-RC1 nerf.

I am in that minority as well, theat weaksauce middle ball is just out of place.

[VanaheimRanger]

 

[dac]

MAP 10 – Creation

 

After a few maps of run down facilities encrusted in caves of sludge, this episode’s grand finale bring us a different kind of tech: grand, sleek white concrete and blue lights, with patches of verdant green and a few crates because why not have crates. Our goal: the teleporter in the center of the map, and the four blue switches that opens it. And with nearly 200 monsters in HMP and one kick-ass music, it’s the perfect environment to stain with demon blood!

 

For this non-linear map my first run was more methodical: clean up the eastern base area first (switch 1 and 2), then move on to the north (3) and finally the southern section (4). Pacing-wise, it seems like the ideal option, ending with the spiderdemon’s appearance and destruction, into the final fight with annihilators and their hordes. Only negative is I didn’t realise the center area had opened up until monsters started pouring in, but that’s just me not being perceptive enough.

 

Annihilators, who seemingly replaces the baron of hell (after their removal in Struggle, I think nobody likes those bags of meat anymore :( ) caught me off guard a bit. I mean, I don’t really expect both a rocket launcher AND a chaingun on a monster, but that’s what this guy got, and it’s nasty as hell. Thankfully they don’t seem to be that healthy and are prone to infighting in this final fight.

 

With all that, my personal highlight of this map happened early on in my run: the invisibility sphere section leading up to switch 2. As Eris mentioned, it’s both a blessing and a curse unless you are willing to wait; it saves your life in the initial ambush, but makes it a lot harder as you press on and fight non-hitscan mobs including a mancubus. It’s a memorable moment and a fun way to use the powerup.

 

And with that, chapter 2 is done! This map was my favourite, with map 06 close behind. You know, maybe I have a thing for non-linear switch hunts... Upcoming, an environment I love to hate up north: snow.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP10: Creation

 

The concluding map of this episode allows the player to set aside caverns, grunge, and toxic slime, and instead to rampage across a wide-open playground of gleaming white concrete, sinuously undulating passages, and blinking electric-blue lights.  It's an arena map, ultimately, but about the first two-thirds of the map is spent building and opening up the arena, moving from quadrant to quadrant connecting power supplies and lowering the barriers that initially prevent access to the park, fountain, and storage yard portions of the complex; only once that's all taken care of do the central walls drop to expose the escape portal device and unleash the horde that stands between you and freedom.  Playing a starring role in that horde are the cyborg Barons of Hell that love to punctuate their chaingun chatter with rockets slung about the place; I remember these guys from Valiant, though they seem squishier here, maybe having softened themselves up some through infighting.

 

I was more aware of the "reconnecting the power" narrative journey through the level here than in MAP06, perhaps because I've been prepared to recognise it now, or perhaps because the critical switches that form the stepping-stones of that narrative journey are positioned in a much more structured fashion and in places of greater prominence, allowing you to witness the effects of your actions from on high.  It's certainly neat to be revisiting that theme at the end of the episode, and it creates a sense of having traversed the underbelly of the greater facility to get from one portal to another, when perhaps a more direct route would have been available if not for a hopelessly potent horde of demonic opposition blocking that path.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 10 -- Creation - 99% Kills / 100% Secrets - FDA, 0 deaths

Now at last the nature of this sprawling, largely unmanned complex becomes clear--a sort of massive hydroelectric generator, bent to the purpose of harnessing the enormous amounts of energy needed in the creation of the interdimensional gate at the center of it all. Closing out this minor 'narrative' arc, the goal is once again to travel the grounds to reactivate the tripped breakers and restore power to the portal, just as in "Reconnect" from the start of the episode. From what I could tell, the sequence is linear in this case vs. the true non-linearity of m06, though the airy yard-type layout and presence of some optional bits (ala the crate-run sequence for the plasma rifle) once again create a fairly effective illusion of greater openness.

 

Yes, it's a looker, for sure. There's something fresh about this combination of spartan buff/beige industrial concrete and flashy, iridescent blue sci-fi circuitry, again very reminiscent in a way of certain parts of The Darkening II, only much brighter and cleaner and less dystopian-looking than anything in that set. As has been the case with a fair few of these levels thus far, the actual texture scheme and theme are both fairly simple and fairly conventional, but the overall effect is strong, both owing to the quality of the textures themselves and to flair in architecture and lighting. The architecture here is particularly assertive, larger/taller in scale than anything seen previously, and stylishly contrasting broad, simple planes with spots of more ornate flourish, ala the terracing and cornice detail crowning some of the peripheral structures. Also tying the whole together is the looming presence of the central portal array, clearly visible from each of the map's four quadrants.

 

On that note, I would resist categorizing this as an "arena map", as only the southeastern quadrant with its sort of 'rock garden' and moderate complement of monsters really functions as one, perhaps save the final fight (more on that in a bit). Instead, after an entertaining running start of sorts (first in the set unless we want to count the distant imp gawkers at the start of m02), the action tends to play out as a series of short/bite-sized concepts, ala the pair of blursphere fights early on or the colorful but largely harmless Michael Bay barrel explosion/spider-squashing platform in the southern building. Given the prominence of the central/outdoor space in the layout, it's surprising how little of the action actually takes place there rather than in the interior/peripheral spaces, perhaps intended to lend more gravitas to the final encounter.

 

Said encounter, which sort of casually breaks out in the immediate area around the central portal once it's finally reactivated (and all of the initial barriers between the four quadrants have been removed), is most notable for introducing another new enemy, a cybernetics-augmented hell noble here called the 'Annihilator' (which many of us will have seen in other WADs in recent years) which apparently replaces the standard Baron. This guy has a pretty stylish-looking two-pronged attack, first firing a rocket with one arm-attachment and then opening up with his hi-speed chaingun on the other, making him a powerhouse among rank and file demons, as one might expect.

 

This is not a particularly strong introduction, though, I felt, and as a conclusion to an episode and a big bold-looking map reads as something of an anticlimax. The actual number of creatures which appear around the portal is conspicuously modest given the new size/openness of the area, and most of these are mere imps and demons, who promptly infight and are largely decimated by the Annihilators in their midst. They have no real way of reaching you (you're on an elevated area at the time the final switch is activated), and there's nothing to flush you towards them or make the situation seem particularly urgent to deal with, and the sparse covering of creatures is easily flanked or pushed through to reach the portal if one is so inclined. I'm not sure how many Annihilators actually appear here, but I only killed two, who were obviously already badly wounded when I first met them close-up; any others died in the general infighting (I suspect they're not immune to their own rocket-splash). Pretty limp. IMO this last fight really needed a lot more kick to it, much more in the way of general chaos and sheer bodycount (if not actual difficulty), especially considering all the heavy ordinance scattered around the portal which goes unused (and then is promptly erased in the episode transition). C'est la vie!

 

Bug: As with Eris's playthrough, 1 monster failed to teleport in, stuck on an inside turn of the southwest carousel-closet.

[Snikle]

10 - Creation

Holy fuck this was great. Best map of the episode for sure. The level slowly opens up with each push of a blue switch, going from a small starting area to a large arena over the course of the level. I moved to pistol starting, which I’ll do from here on out, a change that’s probably for the better and I don’t know why I wasn’t doing it already. Lots of fun fights in this level. One highlight was the Mastermind room, where there were thankfully crushers so I didn’t need to use a bunch of ammo to off her after everything else was dead. The best fight was the one at the end, as intended. The baron replacement was really cool, providing projectile and hitscan damage.

[tmorrow]

1 hour ago, Demon of the Well said:

Bug: As with Eris's playthrough, 1 monster failed to teleport in, stuck on an inside turn of the southwest carousel-closet.

 

That is unfortunate and since it struck both you and Eris, it seems it's not uncommon. I checked my demo (gzdoom3.7.2) and was fortunate that the problem did not occur for me. This will put a spanner in the works for would be uvmax demos. I hope no other maps have the same problem.

[General Roasterock]

MAP 10: CREATION 

I can easily say that this map has blown all of the others out of the water when it comes to overall enjoyment. First of all, the track for this level is so jovial that it almost seems out of place, but nonetheless gave me a feeling that plaything this was some sort of heroic action. The amazing lighting style from Reconnect comes back with a much greater focus on activating every piece of technology you can find. Each of the encounters had an actual individual strategy for them, and I have never been so satisfied blowing a dozen zombie corpses off of a platform with barrels. It's unfortunate that the first boss monster is another crusher gimmick, but it still serves a purpose and adds some timing for the switches. My only actual problem with the map are the new guys, and it's probably not the reason that you're thinking.

 

Annihilator:

These guys are complete dickheads, and this map doesn't do enough to show how much complete dickheadedness they're capable of. 

The Annihilator is the only enemy I've ever seen in a Boom wad that is capable of all three types of damage (Projectile, explosive, and hitscan) from a single source. In this level, there's only four in a group of Imps, and the combination of fireballs and splash damage from their own rockets usually ends up killing two without any intervention. I feel they definitely should've had a much more intimidating presence. 

From this level onward, I can't say that I'm impressed with any usage of these guys. They're either stuck in the middle of an infighting mosh, set up in long hallways, or placed out in fields with little to no cover, and for a monster with a rapid shotgun (It's A_Spos to my knowledge so it's a Shotgun, not a Chaingun) I honestly couldn't believe some of the situations where I found these guys. 

The sprites for these guys are pretty good, and the update for the darker shotgun arm that Xaser came around with is a nice detail. It's really fitting that their shotgun arm is belt fed out of their asses, since some of the angles they can pull off hitting you from really are shit. 

I don't have a problem with these monsters as enemies, I really just feel like they could've been used better, and as a sprite guy myself, I don't like seeing any good design go to waste. 

[Tristan]

Time for the third chapter! Another radical change of scenery here as we swap the techbases at sunset for a journey through forests and castles in very cold land. It's a bit like chapter 1 but with snow, and bigger, more difficult maps! Right folks, the first two episodes are just a warm-up, if your skill level of choice has been giving you problems so far, now's the time to consider turning down the difficulty, this WAD is done playing around.

 

MAP11: Wanderer - Dragonfly

10:03, 103% kills, 66% secrets

 

Ohhhh my god that MIDI. One of my favourites in the WAD right here. I remember the first time I heard it I didn't think much of it in the first few seconds and then it got going. It's so simple but so beautiful and thinking about that intro it now reminds me of pieces that start off from virtually nothing then just build their way into something glorious, and come to think of it, it's been a long time since I did anything like that myself. Also [music language] there's major seventh chords all over this and they're like my addiction at the moment so I have to award bonus points there [/music language]. I guess my only critique is that it relies a bit too much on one melody that repeats itself quite a lot towards the end of the loop, that could probably be made to be a bit more interesting. Dial-Up-For-Murder, known on the forums as Jimes is pretty new and distant face in the Doom music scene, besides this I'm only aware of them doing work for the Rebirth MIDI Pack, but based on this piece it would certainly be nice to hear more!

 

So, Wanderer starts off the ice episode with a three-key stage that's...actually quite long for an opening map, but it's to be expected at this stage as we're going to start seeing much longer maps than we have already in this episode, it's quite a pivotal map in the set because it introduces yet another custom monster or two! For those that didn't find the secret on MAP09 or are playing below UV like myself, this map introduces the astral cacodemon which guards the yellow key, and if you're on UV you're treated to two of them! I remember when I first played this map I somehow didn't notice them and carried on after they started coming after me. Needless to say, I was swiftly taken care of, and my reaction was genuinely "whoa what the fuck was that?" Even though there's just the one on lower difficulties, it's still a pretty hairy moment because we're introduced to them at such a close range which is exactly where you don't want to be with these guys. Not sure if I would have introduced them with the baptism by fire method myself, but I can see why one might choose to do it this way.

The other new monster is the former captain which starts to show up on the way to the red key. These guys' sprites - a teal-coloured hat-wearing edit of the chaingunner, were brought over from Struggle I believe (I confess I still haven't gotten around to playing it yet, sorry antares! D:) but the attack is one I've seen before in Mayhem Purple - every now and then it fires a short burst of bullets, so in a way it's more akin to an ultra-shotgunner. Remember folks, those are plasma rifles these guys are carrying, for the love of god don't run at them head on like you might with traditional zombies.

 

Visually there are prettier maps in this episode, so on that front it doesn't compare as highly with what MAP06 did for episode 2, but it's a solid-enough looking introduction all the same, and hey, we don't see many ice-themed maps in Doom, so this is very welcome imo. There's some real nice touches to be found here like the thawed look of the cave interiors, something which was taken further with the placement of torches around the map, not only is the thawing implied on the ground but you can even see it on surrounding walls that happen to be nearby some torches, through the use of specially-made edits to the OTEX snowy rock textures we can see that the torches have completely melted the snow within a short radius around them, really neat. Something we also see here is the use of ice physics which is a rare sight in already rare snow maps. I've personally never struggled with movement on these so I don't have a problem with their usage, and that includes the platforming segments - hey, finally something about playing Doom that I'm good at! It leads to some amusing moments as well, at one point I turned around to see a sergeant rather rapidly sliding towards me, heh. A similar thing can be observed with the final manucbus, which I don't know if I'm remembering this wrong but I think it might have been placed partly for the comical factor of good ol' Fatso on Ice™. The imps that populate the platform below in the final fight felt unnecessary to me - more of an inconvenience for a max run than anything else.

 

edit: Unrelated but I'm curious as to when exactly in life I became verbose enough to write DotW-length posts. This is fun!

Edited March 9, 2019 by Eris Falling

[Tristan]

2 hours ago, tmorrow said:

 

That is unfortunate and since it struck both you and Eris, it seems it's not uncommon. I checked my demo (gzdoom3.7.2) and was fortunate that the problem did not occur for me. This will put a spanner in the works for would be uvmax demos. I hope no other maps have the same problem.

 

It's a very strange quirk, the case in Elysium failed every single time, but only in connection with the last fight, other carousels in the map worked fine. I don't think it can happen in GZDoom. It's a shame because at first it seems like a very good method of creating fail-safe teleporters as it avoids breaking by line skips or blocked destinations, until you realise that it has its own unique way of failing. From now on I'll probably just use the maze-like setup an_mutt suggested. In general, during post-RC1 testing it really started to feel like there was some supernatural bullshit going on with this project and failing teleporters, quite impressive :D