IronEagle Competition 12: A Taste for Blood

[Pegleg]

Hello and welcome once more to the IronEagle competition, the Ironman challenge accepting all competitors, from seasoned veterans who laugh in the face of a violent death to newcomers who are still learning the ropes. Yes, in this Ironman challenge, you get to choose your level of difficulty, not have it chosen for you! For those of you who are back for another month, welcome back. For those of you who are new, allow me to be the first to bid you a hearty welcome! Enjoy your stay.

 

Last month, competitors faced off against a reimagining of Doom 2, told from the point of view of an older Doomguy sent back in time to thwart the forces of Hell before they were able to wreak untold destruction. This month, we will remain in the world of Doom 2, and participants will challenge themselves against A Taste for Blood, the 2012 mapset from our friend and compatriot @waverider. A Taste for Blood tells the story of a Marine sent to battle the demonic forces who have returned to ravage Earth and have brought with them a curse that infects humans, turning them into mindless, blood-thirsty savages. Your mission is clear: fight through the hordes, stop the demons, kill the bloodcursed, and prevent them from harming any more of your fellow members of mankind.

 

A Taste for Blood starts on Map 01. Survival is considered to be completing Map 06.

 

The rules are basically unchanged from last month, except that freeload is once again allowed. Either demos or streams are permissible.

 

Rules:

The basic rule is that you submit a demo/stream played at a particular difficulty level (HNTR, HMP, or UV) and you play without saving and reloading. Further rules are below.

Spoiler

 

• Submissions (except for streams, as described below) must include a demo from one of the listed available ports.
• The first actual attempt must be submitted, there are no do-overs (with very few possible exceptions which I will address as they arise).
  • You may practice a mapset if you want, but these practice runs should not be submitted as your official entry, and your run would be Category 2, unless there are exceptional circumstances (such as described below).
• A run must be done in a singular sitting with no saves. (With room for breaks. This will be addressed below.)
• If we do a WIP wad, make sure you are using the latest available version to minimize demo desync issues.
• Stream and video runs are accepted if and only if a demo of the same run is provided.
• Secret levels are treated as extra credit.
• Freelook is allowed this month. Jumping and crouching must be disabled.

 

 

Submissions (except for streams, as described below) must include a demo from one of the listed available ports.

The first actual attempt must be submitted, there are no do-overs (with very few possible exceptions which I will address as they arise).

 

Accepted Ports (any of these are acceptable; there is no preference):

PrBoom+

ZDoom

GZDoom

 

Category System:

Category 1: Blind run.

This explains itself. You have no knowledge of the wad and have not played/seen it before.

Category 2: Non-blind.

If you have played the wad before and/or possess any foreknowledge, your run is non-blind. Basically, anything that is not Category 1 is Category 2.

 

I'm happy to be lenient on this, to a degree.

For example, if, during practice, you die in the first 10 seconds of the first map and you see virtually none of the mapset except some part of the first few rooms, I'm happy to say that the playthrough you submit as your run was Category 1.

If, during practice, you die 10 seconds into Map 02 and then and go on to survive the mapset, something like that would still be Category 2.

 

Difficulty System:

You may submit a demo/stream for only one of HNTR, HMP, or UV. Choose only one, because subsequent submittals will be rejected (i.e., if you submit a HMP demo, the HNTR demo you then submit will be rejected). We're not using the 1CC rule set here.

 

Only runs from the same difficulty will be pitted against each other. Each difficulty will be graded separately. 

 

When you submit your run, please the include the following information:

The category (1 or 2)

The difficulty

What map you died on (if you survived, just say so)

How many kills you had on the map you died on

The time elapsed when you survived/died (even if it's only approximate)

 

You may include the port you used, but that isn't necessary. You may include a commentary about the maps or details about them, if you want to (e.g., how you thought the demon rush would do you in on Map X, but it was really the circle of hitscanners on Map Y). If you do include specific information about the map, please put it in a spoiler, so that people that want a completely blind experience won't be tipped off.

 

Breaks:

Everyone gets tired. Sometimes people do better than they expected. Nature calls. Every now and then, there are family emergencies. Needing to take a break shouldn't necessarily end a promising run. However, there are some general ground rules:

Spoiler

 

• You are free to take a quick break when needed.
  • Intermission screens, if applicable, are the best time to do this.
• Multiple demos cannot be accepted, barring exceptional circumstances.
  • An example would be that you can only record/stream for a certain amount of time, so you are forced to split up long demos/streams.
  • You may split up demos at death exits.
    • If you reset the map before going to the tally screen on a death exit, you must either end your run or play the map again.
    • If you die going back around, your survival of that map will count, but your run will end there.

 

 

Attempting to max the maps is not necessary to win.

Ranking for this mapset will be determined by:

Survival

The map on which you died

Total time elapsed

Total kill count in the map upon your death

 

All mods used during play must be merely cosmetic.

If you die, please wait a few seconds before quitting.

 

If you don't know how to record demos and don't want to stream, I recommend getting a launcher (such as the ZDL launcher), which may make your life easier (at least, when it comes to recording demos).

Once you have the launcher set up to find your IWAD's and ports, you can use the field at the bottom entitled "command line parameters" to record your demo with ease.

 

Template for PRBoom+:

Spoiler

-file atfb.wad -complevel 9 -skill <x> -warp 01 -record <IEatfb>

 

Template for ZDoom:

Spoiler

-file atfb.wad +compatmode 6 -skill <x> +map map01 -record <IEatfb>

 

For either command line, x = 2 for HNTR, x = 3 for HMP, and x = 4 for UV. Also IEflashtohell would be replaced by whatever the name of your demo is.

Obviously, remove the angled brackets.

 

Using the ZDL launcher will allow you to select your skill directly and skip the wad selection and warp by immediately starting you in MAP01 on launch.

This wad uses complevel  or Boom (strict).

 

When recording in ZDoom, double check your compatibility settings. When the compatibility is set from the cmdline, it doesn't always stick, so open the port in an IWAD map and make sure to set it to Doom (strict) to be sure the compatibility settings are correct. ZDoom will remember the settings next time you start it.

 

Happy Dooming!

 

 

 

Previous IronEagle Competitions

 

2018

Scientist 2 (Winners -- UV: leodoom85   HMP: n/a   HNTR: Liberation)

Vanguard (Winners -- UV: Bdubzzz   HMP: n/a   HNTR: Liberation)

Crumpets (Winners -- UV: NoisyVelvet   HMP: n/a   HNTR: Pegleg)

 

2019

Dark Covenant (Winners -- UV: kmc   HMP: n/a   HNTR: Pegleg)

Brood of Hatred (Winners -- UV: Bdubzzz   HMP: Crusader No Regret   HNTR: Pegleg)

Riot Control (Winners -- UV: Bdubzzz   HMP: Walter Confetti   HNTR: Pegleg)

Scimitar (Winners -- UV: Bdubzzz   HMP: Crusader No Regret   HNTR: Pegleg)

Bauhaus (Winners -- UV: vdgg   HMP: Crusader No Regret   HNTR: Pegleg)

Bloody Steel (Winners -- UV: Bdubzzz   HMP: n/a   HNTR: Pegleg)

The Brotherhood of Ruin (Winners -- UV: leodoom85   HMP: n/a   HNTR: Pegleg)

Flashback to Hell (Winners -- UV:    HMP: n/a   HNTR: Pegleg)

[Bdubzzz]

Category 1

Dead on Map 05.

Kills: 36/153

Time taken: 56:30

Some thoughts about the play-through:

Spoiler

Well started out going for speed on the first 2 maps which seemed reasonable to do with lots of room to run past monsters.. Map 03 on the other hand bitch slapped me for trying to go fast and by the end of it it was just full survival mode.. going in to Map 04 with low armor/health it was still full survival mode and a search through a demon city for some fooking armor..managed to survive on through at a pathetically slow pace and wasted a bunch of time trying to get a secret.. Map 05.. wtf was that trap - no1 is surviving it blind I would have to guess. I played the map afterwards out of curiosity if i missed a BFG or something but nah its easier to survive then it looked if you do it right... checked out Map 06 afterwards and that map was a joke so 05 was the real last difficulty hurdle 

IE-atfb-dubz.zip

[NaZa]

Had little trouble clearing up the first three maps (aside from one or two tense moments). MAP04 must have sensed that so it spawned a spectre into a rocket not heading towards an autoaim-immune archvile. A comedy of weirdness. Category 1.

ironeagle12_naza.zip

[Horus]

Category 1

Skill 4

Dead on Map 02

Kills: 87/95

Think time was around 20 minutes

 

ironeagle_horus.zip

[Pegleg]

Difficulty: HNTR

Dead: Map 02

Kills: 27/74

Time: 15:37

Category: 2

 

ie_pegleg_atfb_hntr.zip

 

Revenant rockets to the face hurt. That is all.

[Suitepee]

Difficulty: UV

Dead: Map 03

Kills: 171/202

Time: 21:54 (roughly)

Category: 1

 

https://mega.nz/#!3AJSGaYa!5Gk4nDkNCyR4mV0gwDcdZ1xefU9FM2MzAU9ED8Kb-rE

[leodoom85]

Death found in map 05 in the yellow key trap.

76/153 monsters and in a time of 1:21:09. Going well until the revenants left me agitated enough to die with a rocket. Fuckers.........

 

Demo: dwie_ATFBLD85.zip

 

EDIT: Forgot to say that was all blind. Never heard or played this set.

Edited October 31, 2019 by leodoom85

[SleepyVelvet]

oh crap, i missed this, hold on, one second.

[SleepyVelvet]

oh crap, i missed this, hold on, one second.

 

edit: DEAD: MAP02: noisy_atfb.zip

[Pegleg]

Thank you to everyone who participated and challenged themselves against "A Taste for Blood" this month! I hope to see you all back next month, and bring some friends.

 

Without further ado, here are the standings for this month.

 

UV

1. Bdubzzz (Map 05)

2. leodoom (Map 05)

3. NaZa (Map 04)

4. Suitepee (Map 03)

5. Noisy Velvet

6. Horus

 

HMP

None

 

HNTR

1. Pegleg (Map 02)