The DWmegawad Club plays: Eviternity

[Demon of the Well]

Map 19 -- Dehydration - 103% Kills / 75% Secrets - FDA, 0 deaths, quite a bit of savescumming in the second half, I'm afraid

Another long one, this, and evidently one of the megaWAD's most divisive entries. With m32, I had known beforehand via hearsay that it was a big one, and so planned plenty of time to play/enjoy it to the fullest. This map didn't enjoy that benefit; I'd had no idea that it was this long, and hadn't really set aside enough time, hence my saving a lot (to avoid losing any progress) and perhaps being a bit mentally distracted for much of its second half. Perhaps this is not entirely fair to what is obviously another hardworked piece, then, but like many of you my experience of it was a bit troubled and eventually slightly exasperating.

 

Set in a complex water treatment (or hydroelectric?) facility of some sort, the order of the day here is a carefully detailed and proudly traditional techbase setting, which to me looked like it would've been more comfortable thematically in the "Automation" episode than in this generally more visually 'po-mo' "Brutalism" episode; perhaps it's here more for the sake of overall difficulty/size progression than for the sake of thematic continuity. While the visual idiom is quite conventional, OTEX again proves as reliable for this purpose as any other, and there are many fine details to give the presentation a personal touch, ranging from hoary old standbys such as waist-deep (and even neck-deep, at one point) water to give the inner works a literal sense of depth to much more lavish displays of sector-porn, ala the believably animated vent-fans over what eventually proves to be the final "arena." Sub-settings range from an airy dam area, a security grid, a toxic sift, and others, presenting a wide range of looks and physical scales, all credibly appointed; ultimately minor issue of the thematic schism aside, there's little to complain about aesthetically, unless one has some particular antipathy for techbases.

 

More of an issue is the map's approach to pacing, which seemed to me misjudged, both as a matter of maintaining drive through its considerable duration and in the sense that it seems like it had a lot of content added on to what was already a complete piece--somewhere around the whole mini-odyssey for the yellow keycard I started feeling that the level had lost momentum, and then it continued on for quite some time more afterwards, with a trek deeper into the toxic sieves followed by a conspicuously protracted series of switch-hits and micro-reveals to escape the final hydro-room, and then something of a wet fart of a final battle which after all that had gone before read like it was there mainly because the area was visually foreshadowed early on, and for no other reason.

 

From a purely action-oriented standpoint, the actual climax of the level comes quite early on, via the multi-front ambush where the player first claims the rocket launcher, which somewhat scarily takes a freer hand with Annihilators than anything we've previously seen. While I see no good reason to fault a level as a matter of principle for not closing with its biggest fight (or for not opening with its lightest/easiest, for that matter), there is definitely something "off" about how long the level continues after this high point, and how repetitive in framing it becomes from that point on, the same small collection of battle/reveal types repeated again and again even as the setting changes, largely independent of environmental factors like damage-floor (radsuits are so abundant these areas might as well be non-damaging) or the switchback/mousetrap potential of the laser-grid areas.

 

I get the feeling that, for the UV skill level at least, this level is perhaps laboring somewhat under the expectations of its mapslot; too early to really cut loose with fight designs, too late to feel right about ever being a stroll. As a result, there is something of a "no fun allowed" attitude towards thing-balance which becomes really pronounced after the aforementioned climax (and up until the oddly half-hearted ending), with consistent deployment of mid-tiers, hitscanner flanks, and fireball-lobbing peanut galleries played off against a very carefully (and mostly appropriately IMO) metered ammo supply and a noticeable scarcity of health and especially armor (it seems the last armor vest appears at about the halfway point, and it's in the secret that I missed in the FDA!). Make no mistake, this is effective for keeping the player honest or from becoming too complacent, and sort of conveniently 'homogenizes' threat level between an assortment of broadly similar encounters, since mistakes are costly, and there are so many opportunities to make them that you're bound to make a few--call it more of a test of endurance than a test of agility or tactics. Yet, maintaining this style of action/relative tension with so little real variation in either tone or style for such a prolonged period tends to overstring the nerves a bit, which can make progress feel more like a task, a Labor if you will, than an adventure (or this was certainly what I came to feel, anyway).

[Snikle]

22 - Viscera

Nice purple Hell. The level had two big fights on either side, one with Imps/HKs and one with demons. Both were great. There was also a cyberdemon that I didn’t kill. The layout was just a large ring of rooms, but it still felt cohesive and fresh. I liked this level, but it’s one of those that I don’t really have much to say about.

 

23 - Tribulation

Basic little hub-spoke layout, with the hub being a large purple triangle room. The annihilator fight on the left side got me a few times before I realized I could make them infight. That made it much easier. The right side wasn’t as memorable, but it certainly wasn’t bad. The archvile in the hub area was a pain, and I think I didn’t bother killing this cyber either. The visuals were pretty good of course, but I wish OTEX had more purple stuff in it. The purple areas all seem to share the same few textures, a little more variation would’ve been nice. Both for Eviternity and anyone using OTEX later.

[VanaheimRanger]

 

[tmorrow]

chapter: Descension, map24: Gossamer, by Mechadon
uvmax, 100% k/i/s obtained

Oh, wow! @Mechadon comes through with a wonderful satanic fortress made of wood and stone with a plenty of red. The layout is fairly open and Mechadon has generously arranged for a mostly linear tour through the facility, ensuring your marine is exposed to every threat and trap along the way. I am impressed with the way certain switches end up totally transforming a room and its connections to adjoining rooms.

As your marine progresses through the level, with careful play he can dodge most of the traps, mitigate the potential damage and even use his speed to get away. Two exceptions are the super shotgun fight in the blood and the harder plasma rifle fight in the jungle room that involves cacodemons, revenants and imps where our hapless marine is locked in for a fight to the death. The keycards are picked up along the way in the order yellow, blue and red.

The final area is reachable after raising a staircase of pillars to run across. I believe it is expected that you find the invulnerability secret as it would be difficult to beat the final enemy waves without it,  especially the final pit of 4 cyberdemons and revenants. Discovery of the invulnerability also allows you to cheese the final 2 waves. Our marine is appalled to think that anyone would resort to such methods of abuse and would never use such repugnant means himself to ruin the challenging ending. No, no, no!

 

Spoiler

You can escape the room by carefully running past the invulnerability without collecting it and dropping down into the blood. You can then finish that wave of enemies from outside and then take the pillar staircase to get back in. Now when you take the invulnerability, you have time to trigger the final wave and kill all the cybies and revenants before it runs out.

The map has a cunning suite of 7 secrets that contain an invulnerability, bfg and allmap, plasma rifle, berserk, 2 soulspheres and plenty of ammo, especially cells. The bfg and allmap secret took our marine a while to find.

Edited March 25, 2019 by tmorrow
fixed some grammar and misspellings

[dac]

MAP 24 – Gossamer

 

Doom’s 25th anniversary marked the first time in a long while I got really interested in its modding scene. On one hand, that’s a lot of content, maps and mods, to play and enjoy. On the other hand, it means my modding knowledge isn’t up to date, and what I DO know is bits and pieces of dormant memories combined with the sets I caught up on. Eviternity is a good mix of old memories, recent knowledge and the unknown; of remembering ukiro's work on Darkening E2, anticipating the contributions of both skillsaw and antares after playing Ancient Aliens and Struggle respectively, and being introduced to “new blood” like an_mutt in both map 13 and 18.

 

That is lot of roundabout words to say this map was my introduction to @Mechadon’s work. And damn, I’ll need to check out their catalog after this.

 

@Eris Falling namedropped Mechadon when talking about Stormcatcher’s map 19, so I’ll use that frame of reference. There are some semblances between the two maps in my eyes, mostly in that they seem larger than they are with a lot of twists and turns. Linear, longer than the norm even if Gossamer is slightly less epic in scope, with some decent architecture.

 

The main difference? Gossamer is so much better paced. After the initial confusion where I had to unlearn some phobias the last two maps gave me – blood in this map is normal blood and not acidic blood! – the map just flowed together like a charm, stringing together arena fights and small skirmishes with ease. I also noted how teleport traps in Dehydration drove me insane and while there are a lot of sneaky teleports and from-behind ambushes in Gossamer, they are a lot less annoying. A bit of it goes back once more to the pacing which made me a lot less irritated at the entire situation, another bit are how telegraphed they are and how much time they give you to react; Arch-viles and revenants either spawns from far away or gives you ample space and cover to move.

 

Of special note is the rising blood area, first an especially cool arena fight filling with low tier monsters as mancubi and arachnotrons takes potshots from above, then an extension of the blue key room, itself reused twice as an arena as you get both the blue and the red key, and finally as a part of the penultimate fight arena against captains, revenants, annihilator and demons. It is one of the coolest place in the entirety of Eviternity, and if this kind of recycling is something Mechadon does a lot in the rest of his oeuvre, I might have a new mapper among my favourites.

Edited March 25, 2019 by dac

[Catpho]

2 hours ago, dac said:

 something Mechadon does a lot in the rest of his oeuvre, I might have a new mapper among my favourites.

His work Counterattack is one of those mapsets that will blow your mind to smithereens, and you'll gladly put it back together just for more :)))

[FrancisT218]

It's the 25th!

 

+++Simply Phobos, Death Tormention 1-3 revised (dtpack.wad - includes all four episodes)

Edited March 25, 2019 by FrancisT18

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP24: Gossamer

 

I find myself in agreement with @dac about this map's similarities to MAP19 - namely, that each is a larger and grander affair than the other maps in their respective episodes - and also about the principle difference between the two being pacing.  On the one hand some of that may be due to the smaller monster population of Gossamer compared to Dehydration (a few handfuls shy of 300 versus a whopping 800-some) but I think there's more too it than that; compared to the monomental scale and orthogonal corridors of MAP19, the infernal fortress here is, conversely, perversely, an inviting environment, beckoning you forward with a coquettish mien, coaxing you ever onward into its vaulted chambers, its cyclopean battlements, its unsettling angles and blood-slick curves.  It's an environment so beguiling that I didn't especially notice the bodies piling up by the dozens, by the hundreds; indeed, when I picked up the red key it was with a sense that I'd only begun to peel back the map's layers, and a quick check of the automap kill tally at that point left me more than a little surprised at just how significantly their ranks had been reduced.

 

That's perhaps an especially odd reaction considering the map's favourite offensive play is to shovel in monsters by the dozens via teleporters; when imps and cacodemons so cram themselves into a room that they're squeezing out the air, you'd think I might have a better sense of carving out a statistically significant hole in the overall monster population!  You can, I think, put that down to presentation; who can count the metres of a roller coaster track when it's busy thrilling you with its loops and turns and vertigo-inspiring downward plunges?

 

If there's a single area that I want to write home about, it's the expansive and completely optional eastern wing of the map, accessed by shooting out a concealed switch; put your bullet in the right place at the right moment, and you can clamber down to the lake of blood that laps placidly at the base of the castle's walls, allowing you to snag an early plasma gun and a stock of ammunition for it.  It's a vividly realised and architecturally complex chunk of the level, a significant undertaking all on its own, and there's absolutely no need for the means of access to those secret areas to be as vast and as ornate as this is; but need, I think, has less to do with this than want, and the map's author certainly wanted to take the curious player's breath away with this foray off the beaten track and into the uninhabited but still menacing backstage and bowels of the level.

[VanaheimRanger]

 

[Snikle]

24 - Gossamer

 

This was one of my favorite Eviternity levels. It was large, but not overwhelmingly so like MAP19 or Mechadon's Counterattack. The fights were all fun as hell, and I think this is the best looking map in the episode. All the wood structures in Hell reminded me of Doom II and Episode 4 of UD, which aren't as often used as inspiration for Hell maps as the more traditional "fire and brimstone" aesthetic. I have an affinity for large areas with liquid floors and having structures built up around them, so the layout of this level made me happy as well. The raising red staircase area on the eastern side of the map was my favorite part. Really good map here.

 

+++Avactor, Preacher, Finely-Crafted Fetish Film

[Roofi]

+++ Eternal Slumber Party 2

[rehelekretep]

+++ ESP2

[Nine Inch Heels]

+++ RJSLAB

[baja blast rd.]

+++ thissux.wad 

[galileo31dos01]

+++ bcsm 

[tmorrow]

chapter: Descension, map25: Slave, by Dragonfly
uvmax, 100% k/i/s obtained

Our Descension chapter comes to a close. OMG! What an intimidating fortress to behold. The place is dripping in malice and evil. A great arena lies way below that you can see through the invisible floors of the bridge you must cross. Eventually the bridge itself is lowered into the arena.

This is a slaughter map, pure and simple. The good news is that this fight is usually over in 5 minutes. The bad news is that depending on your skills and luck, it may end with your marines battered face being pulverised and ground into the bloody floor at the hands of the vicious enemy.

The usual slaughter strategy works fairly well here. Here's a couple of tips for anyone having difficulty with this kind of map. Work out a couple of routes to circle strafe that don't backtrack too quickly.  Quick backtracking usually results in running smack bang into the inevitable swarm of enemy projectiles that will be licking at your heals. It also helps to avoid the bottleneck areas until the enemies have thinned to avoid the same said following projectiles from slamming into your marines back. On top of your movement path you will need to quickly read and dodge incoming enemies and projectiles as you trace out your chosen path. Finally, be smart about when you run to collect the health that you will desperately need. Don't forget to factor in the new enemies into your strafing routine, for example running straight at an annihilator or former captain is usually suboptimal. I only noticed one annihilator but he forced my marine to do an immediate 180 and race the other way even though that is typically a bad move on slaughter maps. Fortunately he got away with it.

Now where is that shiny portal going to take us I wonder?

Edited March 26, 2019 by tmorrow

[ReaperAA]

+++ Avactor

[dac]

MAP 25 – Slave

 

Sometimes I just make life a lot harder for myself.

 

Take playing those maps from pistol start: I could easily set up the Doom Launcher on a specific map on a specific difficulty, that would be the simple option. Nope, got to start on titlemap, then new game, then select difficulty, then IDCLEV my way to the map I want. Inefficient, but at least I still get the difficulty I want and the map I want. (And trying the first method gives me some cursor issues, so eh.)

 

Please act surprised for the punch line.

 

So anyway, after playing this map for the first time, I went back to it for megawad club purposes, in this case finding out if I wasn’t hallucinating and monster spawns were random in placement – I swore that errant cyberdemon came in from both ends of the map in two doomed runs. The usual difficulty this time, which was still Hurt Me Plenty. This is when I started to note weird things. I was having an easier time than usual replaying this map, and not because I was familiar with it. I faced no captains, whereas there were plenty before. And the monster count was different, lower, with nary an arch-vile or a pain elemental to pump up the co-

 

Oh dear.

 

Turns out, my initial run through this arena, this final map of the hell chapter, a one-shot with no saves during the entire fight, one that took me a few tries to survive?

 

Done on Ultra-Violence.

 

It’s a bit of a confidence boost, I admit. It’s also a bit humbling, a reminder that I could never do the same on more seasoned slaughter map arenas.

 

But enough about that, let’s talk about the map itself. This is a more cinematic piece than the usual, a slow and methodical beginning act with somber music, with ample space and time to gaze at the imposing architecture contrasted with the small arena under your feet. An arena we are dropped down into after opening the gates with a shot – waking up all the monsters – and flipping a few ominous switches on the other end. Even then, it takes one final switch activation for all hell to break loose and the slaughter to begin.

 

This is a chaotic fight, yet not that nasty (he says, having finished the fight with single digit health). Most of the danger and deaths in my UV run was the space behind the cyberdemon platform, with little manoeuvre room and always a captain to block my path and take out a chunk of health. Both cyberdemons and annihilators were defeated through infighting, and as mentioned before, there wasn’t an arch-vile to be seen, nor non-zombiemen hitscanners. The final revenant swarm made me nervous, but after a rocket ballet and a 100% in monster corpses, it was time to leave, take the portal to another world.

 

And thus ends the best chapter so far. I thought its strong map 21 opening would be the highlight, but map 24 came in and blew me away. Counterattack is downloaded, to be played at a later date. But for now, time to finish the fight in heaven.

 

----

 

First:

 

+++ Avactor

 

Second, I'll need some help with framerate drops on highly detailed maps. Specifically map 26: while the opening vista is something to behold (more on that tomorrow!), GZDoom struggle to even show it, and I don't want my complete run to be spoiled by choppiness. :/

 

[Tristan]

As ever with my DWMC attempts I'm beginning to lose steam so I'll keep these writeups shorter now but I'm determined to get to the end. Need to start thinking about what I want to say for 29 too.

 

MAP24: Gossamer - Mechadon

18:13, 101% kills, 0% secrets

 

Mechadon's Vinesauce 2 map, I believe, retextured for OTEX so it could be used in Eviternity. Some textures had to be made specifically for this map near the end of development and you'll notice there are quite a few OTEX counterparts to IWAD textures scattered throughout this map.

 

It's a bit on the shorter side than I'm used to seeing from Mechadon, pretty sure even Counterattack MAP01 took me a fair amount of time longer than this map, but it's got everything you would expect from this author, no mistaking it for someone else. Really fun stuff overall, bit miffed I didn't find any of the secrets this time around, apart from the invulnerability sphere at the end, which...I really should have used for the quad-cyb fight, egh. There are some really cool touches, like the rising blood arena which gets reused later on the map, and stuff like the candles teleporting in, my kind of boom trickery :P Another great bespoke MIDI by Jimmy in Ghostgrinders on this map, too.

 

MAP25: Steve - Dragonfly

3:39, 100% kills, 100% secrets

 

Mm, I preferred this when it had fewer monsters. MAP05's more punishing twin closes off the fifth chapter, an incredible sight greets us as we have to run over the arena which we'll be fighting in, and it's a few waves of mini-slaughter that feels like a massive difficulty spike considering most of Eviternity on HMP is really not that hard. It's saving graces are that there is some restocking of supplies present, with a much needed megasphere warping in later in the fight alongside more cell ammo, and there's at least no archviles coming in to ruin my day but I had enough detail snags and infinite height blocks that it almost didn't matter.

 

Oh well, on to the final chapter. Hey, now we're done with Hell, surely Heaven will be a nice walk in the park, that's how it works, right? Right?

 

24 = 22 > 21 > 23 > 25

[Catpho]

4 minutes ago, Eris Falling said:

MAP25: Steve - Dragonfly

3:39, 100% kills, 100% secrets 

Unsee this 

[Tristan]

1 minute ago, Catpho said:

Unsee this 

 

blame xaser

[antares031]

8 minutes ago, Eris Falling said:

blame xaser

 

 

Thanks, Xaser!

[gaspe]

+++ garrulismo

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP25: Slave

 

Well, that's an arena fight, isn't it?  To find a comparable level elsewhere in the WAD you've got to truck all the way back to MAP05, Demon, and though this is dressed up with a bridge that spans an infernal void into which you're lowered for the boss battle proper, it's very much a single space into which great waves of monsters teleport themselves.  There's cover, there are vantage points, and the invasion had several pronounced stages or waves - a pair of Cyberdemons and their mixed retinue, then cacodemons, then finally revenants - but ultimately this comes down to you, enough weapons and ammo to get the job done, and an uncomfortably large number of monsters crammed into a space in which they inevitably trip over each other in their bloodthirst and their haste to take a bite out of you.  The Cyberdemons are probably your biggest allies here, pumping rockets into the teeming hordes and offering themselves up as the nuclei of fratricidal clusters of infighting; the map is certainly easier when only half of its population is chasing you down at any given moment.

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

I didn't participate this month, but I'll cast my obligatory DTWID vote regardless.

 

+++Doom the Way id Did

 

Though I see Avactor is apparently popular, and that's a hella long wad for only being 11/12 maps.

[VanaheimRanger]

 

 

 

 

 

 

+++ESP2

Edited March 26, 2019 by guitardz

[riderr3]

+++ Deadly Standards, +++ Master Levels

[Capellan]

I don't generally like to vote for stuff I worked on, but I can get behind

 

+++ Deadly Standards, +++ Master Levels

 

 

[Magnusblitz]

Well, already another episode behind, might as well finish up this one...

 

MAP20: Convolute

100% kills, 3/5 secrets

 

Another aptly named map, because this one felt really convoluted and didn't flow for me at all. The first main battle for the blue key with the big reveal of the caco/chaingunner army felt normal enough, but after that it was a strange ride through sludge tunnels and just hitting whichever switches I saw and not really sure where I was going until the very end. I'm still not sure exactly what the blue door area opened up, except that there were suddenly monsters back up top to kill and after jumping around a bunch I finally found the door to the switch that opened up the pillars that lead north. Also an odd bit here where there's no radsuit but you're forced (as far as I can tell) to drop blindly into the slime that leads to the exit portal room. Taking a spin through it again, I see that there's both blue and red bars in front of the exit portal, and I had lowered the blue bars without even realizing there was a portal yet... so clearly some more 'choose your path' than I initially figured. Still lacks a bit of that tight cohesion that I've liked in most of the other maps so far, and doesn't feel like much of an episode ender, but I will say that this one at least gave me plenty of rockets to have fun with.

[General Roasterock]

MAP 24: GOSSAMER

     There's been a couple of times where the guest maps completely threw me for a loop in comparison to the norm, and Gossamer definitely did the same. I don't know how it happened, but this map made OTEX feel like vanilla textures. It could be the creative use of wood that gave me a vibe similar to how Hellbound was created, but there was definitely a much different visual style to the walls themselves.

     Easily the strongest suit here is the use of space. Many of the segments in this map get reused, with the geometry shifting to resupply the previous rooms. This did get me crushed once on a tiny edge in the rising pool of blood, which was just not fair. For the most part, though, these spaces were very intelligently stocked. Nothing felt horridly overwhelming, even for the duration of time where I couldn't find a single secret. Neither of the Annihilator fights made any sense, but I've just learned to accept that from this wad from here on out, and I do not forgive perched Chaingunner snipers, but the supply still felt appropriate. These secrets also actually feel like real secret areas. The Plasmagun area specifically shocked me, as it was such a wide open vista that was essentially empty. It really made me wonder if I was taking in my sights correctly, or if there were some other huge areas that I was blindly overlooking. 

     Too bad that Vargskelethor shroom is still in the automap, or else I would've been able to give this higher than a zero, oh well.

 

MAP 25: STEVE SLAVE

 

     The first time I started this map up and heard the guitar in the midi rev up, I was absolutely floored. I was quite the opposite of shocked to see that this piece was another score from Jimmy, but was surprised to see that it was a cover, which I presume is where the map got its name. It's gripping, foreboding, exhilarating, and perfectly transitions throughout the average playtime of the level. This track is what gives the map its power. Had it not been for the track, this map probably would've felt like just another slaughter level, but this song turns it into art. It audibly paints the terror of having to claw your way out of hell one last time, and the chaos that ensues in the meantime. It strengthens the already powerful air the monsters cut through, and constantly gives you the message that you aren't worthy enough to escape. Being able to construe all of that from a cover of an already existing song is raw talent, which I don't have to explain because, you know, Jimmy.

     The map itself does have a great flow to its combat, and I'd honestly say that maneuvering the columns and elevations in this environment is about as close to mimicing Doom 2016's gameplay as this engine allows. It's not a genius approach to an ending, especially after we've already seen Demon do the exact same thing, but it's stylized well enough to avoid being average.

     I want to have a lot more to say about this map, but I can't do anything without relating it to the midi, so just go listen to it right now, and also the original, because that's pretty good too.