New Doom 64 speedrunning category "WMD-Max"

[HeadshotTAS]

There's been an unexplored area of Doom 64 speedrunning that, over the past few months, I've tried to explore. The idea of a "WMD-Max" category has been in the air for a while now, but no actual runs have ever been made. To rectify this, I've made an individual level TAS of Staging Area that follows the category rules.

(If you're wondering why the secrets counter shows as 75%, it's because it's actually completely impossible to get 100% secrets in this map. It's a common misconception that the secret exit to Hectic is the fourth secret, but this is not true; the undiscovered secret is the switch sector in the soulsphere secret, which the mappers forgot to unflag.)
 

While we're still very far away from getting a full run accomplished, tool-assisted or otherwise, this category is actually quite promising. The slower overall pace, I think, makes it more accessible than the standard categories, especially since most of the difficult skips aren't required. This also means we can obtain the demon keys and fully power the unmaker, which should make later portions of the game much easier, especially with The Absolution being cut short. On the flipside, there is no advanced HUD, so you have to rely on your own intuition to verify that all the monsters were really killed before exiting. Given the game's compact map design, this shouldn't be too much of a hassle, especially if you're already well versed in UV-Max speedrunning. I also think that since we have a category for the lowest difficulty, Be Gentle, this category could easily exist for that difficulty as well, same rules apply.
 

There are a couple of notable differences to keep in mind for this category:

• While most secrets are based on touching the sector, and will thus notify you that you got a secret, there are multiple secrets that are counted by touching certain things (these can be found in MAP06, MAP10, MAP11, MAP14, MAP29, and MAP30.)
• Unlike classic Doom, lost souls count towards the kills% in all cases.
• When entering Hectic from Staging Area, the game doesn't show the intermission screen. This means we have to rely on video alone to verify that the run actually fulfilled the requirements for beating the stage.
   

Here's the ruleset we decided on for full-game runs:

• Kill all monsters and find all secrets in each map unless impossible, in which case get the most possible.
• The features menu must be unlocked, but can ONLY be used during the end sequence after beating The Absolution to warp to Cat and Mouse. All other usage of the features menu is banned.
• The run ends when Playground is finished; time stops upon the start of the bleeding effect.
• Spawn prevention IS allowed, and avoiding monster spawns when possible is also allowed.
   

The decision to require completion of the fun maps was kind of difficult, as without them, not all of the game's content is showcased in the category, which seems counter-intuitive; with them, the category isn't exactly consistent with typical Doom speedrunning rules, and you would need to unlock the features menu, which has cheat capabilities. I ultimately decided in favor of requiring the fun maps after The Absolution as I think it better suits the intentions of a max category, and there weren't any strong arguments I could think of against including them. This does mean that you will have to get the secret exit in Hectic to finish the run. You will also lose your weapons after beating The Absolution in warping to Cat and Mouse.
 

With this in mind, you may be confused as to why spawn preventing enemies (and avoiding enemy spawns when possible) is also allowed. There is some merit to the idea of killing as many monsters as theoretically possible, but there's a major problem: Dark Entries. The blue key puzzle in Dark Entries can actually be repeated indefinitely as long as you don't get the blue key, and at the end of the macro, it spawns some lost souls. Since lost souls count towards the kill % in the game, this is a problem, because the map would take literally forever to complete, because you'd never reach the theoretical maximum amount of monsters that you could kill. Therefore, the best option is to reach the maximum amount of kills by however many are currently present on the map. This way, a feasible and consistent definition of 100% can be achieved. There are also cases (such as in Watch Your Step) where spawn preventing at least one monster by way of another could easily happen by accident. So doing it this way just saves a lot of headaches for the run.
 

I would love to hear what you all think about this. Personally I'm very excited for the possibilities this category brings to the game, and even if it's not 1:1 with the standard classic Doom speedrunning rules, that's just a consequence of this game being a unique Doom game to begin with.

[Dimon12321]

The idea is good and predictable. I made a quick research and found no 100% speedruns of Doom 64. UV-Max speedrunning outside PC Doom is a rare opportunity, so it's a matter of time when someone makes a step towards it. And still, I begin to wonder if you'll be the only player working on this case.

[HeadshotTAS]

I talked with ZELLLOOO about it. He said he would be willing to run the category when he returns to the game, so I don't think I'll be the only one working on it. That said, routing has yet to be done, so it could still be a while before we get an actual run.