The DWmegawad Club plays: NOVA III (Download RC2b)

[gaspe]

MAP29: I agree with @TheOrganGrinder that this moon theme where both the landscape and the techbases are all grey theme is starting to get stale. I had some mixed feeling for this level. It starts nicely and the hyping mood of the music fits well for the 29th slot. The road to the YK wasn't so exciting due to the uninspired combats, and even the trap at the key fell rather flat. Though I must say that amok showed some cool boom tricks in the map. The surprise spiderdemon when you come back from the BK was my favourite part, one of the best "scripted" encounters for me. The flying saucer was cute somehow but I have seen it done better and the fight inside wasn't so interesting. Now when all the monsters teleport to the starting area is the moment the map took a turn for the worst. Not giving the RL is a bold choice but it turned the combats in that part into an awful grind, especially to enter in the central tower where all the monsters will clog the choke points. And couple this with a slight arch-vile spam. Then it seems that a secret is designed to be a shortcut for the BFG, which is cool and also gives an easy chance to skip everything and sneak to the exit if you wait that the spiderdemon gets distracted by the infighting.

[Andromeda]

MAP29: Deep Space 9mm (NOVA III)

PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4, HNTR-PS, no saves, 100% everything

 

We've now reached the penultimate level, will it be an epic as usual? Not really, but it's still quite large. The monster population is low compared to the size of the level, so you can blaze through most sections easily. Cell ammo is given in large quantities so you can use the cell weapons for pretty much the whole level, which makes it go by even faster. As is usual in this particular episode, you start in a large open area, surrounded by enemies.

 

The plasma gun is not too far away, so you can grab it and start killing stuff. There's a lot to see as you make your way to the keys, such as a room with four large pools filled with a golden liquid that gives me a Perdition's Gate vibe, a broken corridor where you appear to be floating in space, the UFO that collects the blue key, not to mention the chambers that lock you in while you wait for the door in front to open, cool stuff.

 

In terms of fights, there's two big moments - the surprise Spiderdemon in the lift as you escape with the blue key and the optional fight for a BFG9000 at the end of the level, with a Cyberdemon, an arch-vile and some revenants and hell knights. You exit the level through a launch vehicle that will lead you to the final destination. Most of the secrets are unlocked via shootable switches and are quite generous with supplies. One thing that could've been better is the blue key fight, with only a Cyberdemon and a couple of revenants, hell knights and demons in a large circular room, especially since you're given an invulnerability. Either way it's a great level and I enjoyed it a lot, especially the ending sequence.

 

Levels in order of preference:

Spoiler

MAP05: Blood Eagle

MAP07: Cannibal

MAP19: Ancestral Domain

MAP17: Khmeer Agul Tan

MAP10: A Partner of the 49th Day

MAP18: Napkin Math

MAP09: Scarlet Syzygy

MAP13: Tomb of Solitude

MAP23: Lunatic Dais

MAP15: Megiddo III

MAP28: Mare Crisium

MAP25: Alpha Scorpii Supercluster

MAP14: El Dorado

MAP32: Fireblu Palace

MAP06: Fury Begins

MAP20: Ritual Horror

MAP29: Deep Space 9mm

MAP04: Calm the Fire

MAP03: Dante Allegory

MAP08: The Crow Comes Last

MAP22: Lunar Comms Station

MAP01: Port Murder

MAP27: Beta Three

MAP24: The Ship That Wore A Mask

MAP12: Beautiful Agony

MAP11: Terramin

MAP31: Solar Powered

MAP26: Armstronged

MAP21: Platform Base

MAP02: Death Crypt

MAP16: Dregs of a Bitter Cup

Edited January 30, 2020 by Andromeda

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP30: Into the Unknown

 

And so NOVA III ends, rising to a crescendo of violence as the player arrives at the nexus of UAC's lunar base and delves into the black abyss that festers beneath its roots.  As with MAP28 I'd characterise this level as a three-act play, beginning with the player's descent to the brink of the abyss, and then a side trip to collect keys and disable barrier, and finally a return to the now-accessible abyss for the final confrontation, which eschews the traditional MAP30 Icon of Sin encounter for a battle against a staggering cacodemon swarm that I'm going to dub "ketchup factory" for the sheer number of tomatoes you're called upon to pulverise.  Overall it's a pretty gruelling experience, in a way that the level in the MAP30 slot can get away with where other maps might not, as you carve your way through what are generally large-scale but discrete combat scenarios, incidental confrontation all but abandoned as the map sets in front of you one carefully orchestrated movement of monsters after another.  The music choice makes it all feel a bit less in-your-face and overwhelming and rather more introspective as you may your way from one battlefield to the next; it's quite, understated, and seems to be reassuring you that you can take things slow and careful if you wish, that no-one outside of yourself is putting pressure on you to rush in and throw yourself frienziedly, futilely, and repeatedly against whichever of the map's various demonic flesh-walls lies ahead.

 

I think there's always a risk with big, lengthy levels separated into discrete encounters and self-contained scenarios that the player may start to question why those components are all bound up together when functionally and thematically there's little need for it; this was one of my complaints about MAP25, for example.  Here, the higher difficulty and intensity of individual encounters is offset by frequent breaks that give you a chance to catch your breath and result in a more deliberate overall pace, and the layout itself teases you with hints of what's to come; you can see the structure where the middle movement of the map takes place from your start point, albeit at a great distance, and on your first descent beneath the lunar surface you can look out over the abyssal arena where the final throw-down takes place before the path of progression takes you briefly back toward the surface.  In combination with the music this creates a foreboding experience in which every new encounter or successive escalation leaves you wondering if this will be the point at which the map finally cuts loose and disgorges the as-yet unseen portions of its monster population onto you.  And when that finally happens, it's glorious.

 

...So, when does NOVA IV get started?

[Roofi]

+++DOOM II: Hellscape

+++Preacher

+++Deadly Standards 2

Edited January 30, 2020 by Roofi

[gaspe]

MAP30: And we end with another collaborative effort. Maybe you can gues who did what also based on how the map is clearly composed of 3 different parts: the 3-keys area which was directed by Paul977, the Sunder-esque finale and north-east area are by Scotty while the star is the work of Eris by exclusion. I thought the map was very unified on the whole and there weren't drastic shifts which helped to create a stronger mood. An the map is very atmospheric with the music, starting with the usual bright techbase and discovering the horror in the dark, gloomy depths. The previw of the last area was really good for that. Despite the silent intro shows from the first encounter what kind of challenge you'll get here. I appreciated how the secret BFG is hinted behind the row of pillars. The 3-keys area would be the main part where each key has its share of devilish traps and encounters, the YK was my favourite. On the north-east part you can pull a Trick and Traps reference ans use a cyberdemon against a groups of nobles. Then the highlight is the final encounter with a seemingly endless swarm of cacos, which was very satisfying. The last appendix with the arch-viles and going back to get the skull keys didn't feel so necessary, I would heve ended the map after the cacos swarm. In that area some monsters will teleport too but the groups share the same destinations and the monsters will telefrag each other leaving only the last, I think it's a reather big oversight if it wasn't intentional. It was also comical to watch which was jarring for the mood of the map. Leaving that minor thing aside it was a great way to conclude the wad.

 

This is the best of the Nova series (so far?) for me and I was glad to find a lot of "soul" here, in retrospect I think I overrated a bit Nova II. Shame about the not so big activity, usually these community projects got more hype here :S

[Tristan]

Today is MAP30 day - I figured I may as well post some stuff since the map has my name attached to it but as you'll see I played very little part in the maps creation.

I started this map in early 2016; at this point I barely had anything to show for my mapping despite having been around the community for over three years - just a lukewarmly-received vanilla map in an even more negatively received community project, two negatively received Boom maps, and..that's it. In hindsight I can see why every attempt I ever gave mapping ended up getting scrapped, I've no beef with anyone of course but you either take that stuff to be demoralising or motivating, and in an already difficult period of my life it was the former.

 

The same was true for when I thought I'd give NOVA 3 a go. Same old story, I made a start area, laid out a distinct visual motif I wanted to roll with in the form of huge supports lined with red lights, and even progressed to a couple of rooms and even a small cave section! But all this took me most of the year to do and by October or so the map was abandoned, and it looked like this:

 

Spoiler

 

I posted it in the thread saying anyone could do what they wanted with it and called it a day. I didn't think anyone actually would... Scotty asked me a few times if I intended to go back and finish it or if he could do some stuff instead. I remember him sending an edit which had a couple of extra areas - one of which is still present. I never heard more about it until I saw teaser NOVA 3 screenshots, including one that had my pillars in a black void! Naturally when RC1 dropped the first thing I did was download the WAD and play MAP30 because I wanted to see what had been done with what little I'd left off with. I was very surprised to see that all of what I'd made was still present, and with only minor changes. As for the map itself, I really enjoyed it, good music choice, challenging but very fair combat (imo), had the absolute shit scared out of me by some certain cyberdemons towards the end. Great stuff, thanks again to Scotty and Paul977 \m/

[FrancisT218]

@gaspe I think NOVA 2 is indeed the best one when considering ONLY the quality of the levels, BUT a lot of that is because many of its authors were only somewhat (ie a few years of experience) as opposed to entirely new to the scene. So it is easier to have that extra bit of 'polish' and fewer of the (particularly gameplay-related) issues that are seen often in authors' first works. In some ways, NOVA 2 could be Community Chest 5 almost as much as it is NOVA 2 (still without the very long time authors though). When considering that aspect, NOVA 3 is much more like the first NOVA and has higher quality overall than that IMO so that does make it the best in the series as far as 'being a NOVA project' is concerned.

[Spectre01]

@dobu gabu maru Got a vote tally for next month? :P

[dobu gabu maru]

Hell Revealed 2 & Hellscape/Preacher/Deadly Standards are at 2 votes each, Doom the Way id Did is at 3 votes.

[galileo31dos01]

@dobu gabu maru Are you taking part next month? :P :P

[Capellan]

I won't vote for Deadly Standards because I don't like voting for stuff I was part of, but I do have my fingers crossed for it. :)

[Steve D]

I'm less shy than Adam. ;D

 

+++DOOM II: Hellscape

+++Preacher

+++Deadly Standards 2

 

[dobu gabu maru]

2 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

@dobu gabu maru Are you taking part next month? :P :P

 

Considering I'm still like 20 maps behind on NOVA 3, I'm gonna hold off for now.

 

With Steve's vote, the two other noms are tied

[galileo31dos01]

I shall change my vote, in hopes that the trio wins, Preacher deserves paragraphs of love and praise.

[Andromeda]

MAP30: Into The Unknown (NOVA III)

PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4, HNTR-PS, no saves, 100% everything

 

Time to finish the NOVA adventure! It is eerily quiet for the first moments in the level, even after collecting a few weapons and finding a secret. After pressing a switch, surprise - the floor lowers instantly, placing you between a group of hell knights and some revenants. This encounter foreshadows what will follow, as this level is full of nasty traps. Fortunately, there's lots of cell ammo and if you find the secret BFG9000 it will be your weapon of choice for pretty much the rest of the level.

 

Shortly after we find the first out of five Cyberdemons, along with a large group of imps. Let the boss take out its minions, then kill it. The next section is evil, you'll have to follow an invisible path to a switch, while heavy weapon dudes try to snipe you and an arch-vile by the switch tries to immolate you. Tread lightly! After this more quiet moments follow, where you'll be able to take a gander at the vastness of the last area.

 

Take the teleporter to be dropped in a different area, holding three keys. There's a Cyberdemon perched on a high platform, so beware as you're killing the enemies at ground level. Don't bother wasting ammo on the boss as you'll be able to telefrag it later if you find a secret. The first key to collect, the blue one, shouldn't pose much trouble. The real challenge, in fact the most challenging section of the level is at the yellow key, with some midtiers but above all two Cyberdemons and two strategically placed arch-viles that will prove a real nuisance to kill.

 

Thankfully there's enough space to move around, so try to focus on the arch-viles first before tackling the Cyberdemons. The red key trap is nothing to scoff at either, but there's a secret invulnerabilty that will help to deal with the three arch-viles that are released. You can now access the last area as some blocks rise up from the pit and light up, connecting the two platforms - cool effect. If you take a peek at the automap now you'll notice there's still over 300 enemies to kill.

 

Indeed, the main fight here is a cacoswarm comprised of over 300 cacodemons! There's lots of cell ammo here, so equip your BFG and go to town! It's extremely satisfying to whittle the crowd down bit by bit, to me this is the highlight of the level. It's not over yet, as the portals from where the tomatoes came from lead to a weird, alien like area where you'll have to step on a touchplate to lower three skull keys in the previous area.

 

Grabbing each key spawns some monsters, including a Cyberdemon but you shouldn't have trouble to dispose of them given the large space. With all six keys you can finally reach the switch that kills the final boss, after an audible barrel chain reaction. About aesthetics, everything here is well crafted and really pleasant to look at, but one area stands out from the rest which is where you fight the massive cacoswarm. Not much else to say, an excellent level with well thought out design and challenging combat, ending NOVA III on a very high note.

 

Final thoughts:

 

32 levels that come in all shapes and sizes yet you'd be hard pressed to find a dud here, especially remarkable given that some (most?) of these were made by new mappers. Playing on my difficulty of choice which is HNTR, I felt it was reasonably challenging - most levels despite not managing to kill me had some very tricky moments, especially in the last episode. I was worried that the newcomers would have trouble balancing their levels for the lower difficulties potentially making skill 2 a cakewalk, however I was pleasantly surprised that's not the case. Well, I had a blast throughout!

 

Levels in order of preference:

Spoiler

MAP05: Blood Eagle

MAP07: Cannibal

MAP19: Ancestral Domain

MAP30: Into The Unknown

MAP17: Khmeer Agul Tan

MAP10: A Partner of the 49th Day

MAP18: Napkin Math

MAP09: Scarlet Syzygy

MAP13: Tomb of Solitude

MAP23: Lunatic Dais

MAP15: Megiddo III

MAP28: Mare Crisium

MAP25: Alpha Scorpii Supercluster

MAP14: El Dorado

MAP32: Fireblu Palace

MAP06: Fury Begins

MAP20: Ritual Horror

MAP29: Deep Space 9mm

MAP04: Calm the Fire

MAP03: Dante Allegory

MAP08: The Crow Comes Last

MAP22: Lunar Comms Station

MAP01: Port Murder

MAP27: Beta Three

MAP24: The Ship That Wore A Mask

MAP12: Beautiful Agony

MAP11: Terramin

MAP31: Solar Powered

MAP26: Armstronged

MAP21: Platform Base

MAP02: Death Crypt

MAP16: Dregs of a Bitter Cup

Edited January 31, 2020 by Andromeda

[obake]

I won't be able to finish all the maps in time for the thread. Oh, well. What I will do is at least give notes on my own map, and its creation.

 

Dregs of a Bitter Cup by Obake

100% everything

Forgot to write down the time

 

The map's title is reference to scripture, particularly from the Book of Mormon, speaking of the wicked: but they are cast out, and consigned to partake of the fruits of their labors or their works, which have been evil; and they drink the dregs of a bitter cup.

 

For those who do not know, cemeteries and crypts are one of my fascinations. I always wonder about the people buried in them, who they were, their lives and dreams. Thus comes this map, which plays upon that idea, pitting the player inside a derelict crypt, filled with crumbling tombs of those long forgotten. Each burial here is designed to be unique. The idea is that they reflect the lives of the buried, some rich enough to afford long lasting, ornate marble, while others reside in misshaped wood coffins.

 

The music is from the YouTuber NatureWorld1986, an ambient musician who is a master of their craft. I am grateful the track was allowed in, as it reflects the intended mood perfectly.

 

Overall, Dregs is my favorite of all the maps I've made, due to the detailing and setting.

 

Thanks to everyone on the Nova team for allowing me to be on this project, and to everyone who have played and reviewed the maps!

Edited January 31, 2020 by obake

[obake]

Sorry for not getting to you earlier, @TheOrganGrinder.

 

As for the cell question, there was never a BFG in the map, but there was at one point a Plasma Rifle in one of the secrets. For whatever reason, it was replaced (likely for balance, because it made the rest of the map too easy.) The ammo must have been forgotten about entirely, thus staying in.

 

Thank you for your review in particular. You are an excellent writer!

 

 

 

[gaspe]

On 1/30/2020 at 8:53 PM, FrancisT18 said:

@gaspe I think NOVA 2 is indeed the best one when considering ONLY the quality of the levels, BUT a lot of that is because many of its authors were only somewhat (ie a few years of experience) as opposed to entirely new to the scene. So it is easier to have that extra bit of 'polish' and fewer of the (particularly gameplay-related) issues that are seen often in authors' first works. In some ways, NOVA 2 could be Community Chest 5 almost as much as it is NOVA 2 (still without the very long time authors though). When considering that aspect, NOVA 3 is much more like the first NOVA and has higher quality overall than that IMO so that does make it the best in the series as far as 'being a NOVA project' is concerned.

I agree with you. Nova 2 is the more consistent and polished of the series but it was also lacking a certain charm that you could find in the first one, I always thought that Nova 1 felt a lot like a true modern TNT in spirit. Nova 3 got back at being a dedicated project for newbies where they can get a guidance to make a map while they also keep the idiosyncrasies of the amateur.

[bltzkrg22]

Hello, it’s my first post here!

 

When I played Ancient Aliens for the first time last year, it was very fun to read through the archived posts and compare my experiences. I wanted to take part one day, but was too shy. Midway into January, I decided to try. As I was already far behind schedule, I wanted to create one big effortpost at the end of the month. But it took me much longer to actually finish. I didn’t want to scrap the work already done, so a here it is, a week after deadline.

 

The document with my ramblings is here (it’s a pdf on Onedrive): https://1drv.ms/b/s!AqVoOrA3wV_UiGbPyHBJfd9_fgAt?e=xili3Y

YouTube playlist with my playthrough: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpywUL4PZVspEc-1wVKCbJtqkLBuWdUU8

 

I’m a casual when it comes to megawad scene, so I can’t truly compare NOVA III to anything. It had a few amazing levels, and some not-so-good ones, but that was to be expected, I guess. I’m definitely checking out maps from @DMPhobos in the future.

 

A short and inaccurate summary:

• It was a pretty difficult megawad overall.
• My favorites: MAP06, MAP14, MAP22, MAP27.
• My absolute worst: MAP21.
• Not my style: MAP08, MAP18, MAP23.
• The most challenging: MAP30 by a long shot, MAP28.
• The bullshit award: the Megasphere secret from MAP17.
• I found a silly way to skip most of MAP32.

[Vasily_Degtyaryov]

On 1/10/2020 at 9:09 PM, Octillion said:

I went back to look into the fireblu switches and well.... It's quite something alright...

 

Registered here just because I can't find that secret. Do you mind spoiling it for me?
Shoot me a PM please if its not wanted ITT.

[Vasily_Degtyaryov]

Will try 1 bump, since we;re on page 4.

[dobu gabu maru]

WARNING

A huge review

code no DGM03

"DOBU DOES NOVA3"

is approaching fast!

 

MAP12: Sincity’s stuff is very reminiscent to me of early NuMetalManiak’s works gameplay wise: monsters crammed into every nook and cranny so that you’re forced to fight at weird angles at the top of steep stairs. Since a decent amount of the foes are revenants, the gameplay stays hot but it’s not particularly fun especially since most of the ammo supplied is shells. There was a decent amount of cell but alas, the plasma gun was locked away somewhere I couldn’t reach, so I had to painfully crawl through this map and carve out safe spaces sector by sector. The map looked alright—a bit too much beige—and the rev warp in when you’re trying to scoot past the cyber was smart, but besides that I wasn’t a fan.

 

Gameplay wise, I’d highly recommend just cutting out a lot of the pinkies/specters and at least providing the player with a non-secret plasma gun somewhere past the red key door. Seriously, there’s no reason for the player not to have it come cyber time. More rockets would be much appreciated for carving through the HKs and barons too. Only other major thing I’d recommend ditching are the insta-pop arachs near the red key door, since if the player jumps down there to fight the revenants (like I did) they’ll be impeded by the arachs and destroyed—this is a prime example of why I hate insta-pop monsters and consider them cheap most of the time.

 

MAP13: What a cool map! This is a relatively slow tempo, gentle level that bares some really nasty fangs at the player once or twice, which keeps them on edge as they excavate this forgotten crypt. I liked the use of lighting and how the map kept looping back on itself to lower walls and reveal more areas. I was particularly thrilled by the S1 switch that opens a nearby pathway but also shows you the red key switch (a favorite trick of mine) and that there was a hidden blue key nestled into a neat little side path. The sense of exploration was my favorite part, but I also really liked the big cyberdemon brawl, especially when I mistakenly summoned three archviles into the fray—now that’s the kind of difficulty I love. Unfortunately, three cybies and no barons means it took a while to whittle their health down (I didn’t realize the BK switch summons a BFG until after they were pulvarized), but that’s a low point of the map that I can accept. Really excellent job here; there’s a lot I personally love.

 

Gameplay wise, the only thing I’d suggest is like, maybe put the cell pack that’s next to one of the switches at the final arena somewhere out in the arena, but it’s not a major issue.

 

MAP14: A decent map that pulls off some really nifty silent teleport tricks—I did a double take a couple of times, before remembering that this was a Boom compatible set. Combat isn’t anything to write home about, but at least it wasn’t overly packed like MAP12 was. The most interesting thing about MAP14 was the past/future teleporting to the blue key & red key zones, but nothing was really done with that outside of vegetation edits in both zones. An ok map, but I fear it’s not going to stick in my memory by journey’s end.

 

Gameplay wise, I’d recommend putting some rockets into the cubbies that the revs come out of at the red key trap (like 3 rockets each cubby) just because the revs are a waste of time to fight as-is (the player can simply run away), so you may as well make it a little more fun to fight them.

 

MAP15: Ah Megiddo, it’s so nice to see your nasty face once more! I like that even though this is the third rendition of this concept, it hasn’t appeared in the same map slot yet. While I wasn’t sure if the MAP15 slot was correct for it, I think cutting the number of contributing mappers from five to three works wonders, as it makes it an half hour journey instead of a full hour finale. I also like that the secret keys are used to find the secret exit, though that section is a bit… tepid? A single cyberdemon is hardly a threat, and I’m way more of a fan of the regular exit brewhaha, considering that it’s not too often that you tangle with a mass of PEs.

 

My journey through this monstrosity took me from the southeast, to the west, to the east/south zones, which if I had to hazard a guess I’d say are Paul, A2Rob, and Pegleg respectively, leaving Scotty for the hub. The southeast was definitely a prickly affair, one far more punishing than Paul’s previous map, as the ammo got a bit tight in some places. Still good though. The western section was the most fun for me, largely because the player was practically tripping over cell and rockets, plus I always love big brawls with the boss monsters. My favorite part definitely had to be the invis fight because I feel like the predictable twist would be to throw in some imps or HKs during the zombieman warp in, but instead the player gets to ride out the invis sphere feeling like a boss as they splatter lowly hitscanners. The east/south section was my least favorite partially due to how samey it looked (btw Scotty the hub is goooorgeous), plus the insta-popup revs cheaply cost me a life. A really cool map that I’m glad made it into NOVA 3; Megiddo is the first conceptual idea that I’ve been able to see handled by a new team, and it makes me very happy :)

 

Gameplay wise, the only major change I’d suggest is making the tall sector with the teleporter on it in the BFG area at the southern Pegleg section a more obvious “activatable” switch (like make it look like a lift), because support doesn’t scream “lift” to me so I got stuck for a while running around wondering where to go.

 

MAP31: I like a lot of the ideas behind this map, but booooy does a lot of the map geometry get in the way. This wouldn’t be so bad if you were just fighting imps, but there’s a number of close quarters battle with revs that kinda forces you to dance around various sector steps, and I’ve never particularly enjoyed that. Some of the fights aside though, powering up this ancient machine was fairly fun, especially once I started to get a lay of the land. The final fight was pretty good, and I wound up discovering what to do to get to the secret exit with a smidge of noclipping (I found the switch that allows access to it only after I was looking for hints to the teleport puzzle). It’s a really inventive map that perfectly embodies the entreupenurial spirit of NOVA, and I adore how Big Ol Billy makes the machine turn "on" after every switch (nice work with the tek pistons at the beginning btw)

 

Gameplay wise, there’s not much that can be done about the awkward rev scuffles (besides just removing them), but I did spot this HOM error in the switch #1 room (and there were also 3 other HOMs all by the candles in that room) 

 

MAP32: And people thought The Given was taxing on computers :P This is a pretty neat map that’s thankfully not as demanding as it first appears (when I saw that there was 80 cell per tower, I thought it was going to be 69 cyber 2-shots in a row). But outside of blasting those first two cybers, the player should have enough ammo to tackle everything that’s thrown at them, especially that somewhat pitiful archvile parade at the yellow key. Still a cute, kitschy map that’s a good break from all the brown of E2.

 

No gameplay suggestions.

 

MAP16: obake is our one returning alumni to NOVA III and he definitely makes his contribution count this time around. I think what really carries this map more than the other maps I’ve played by him is the strong lean into a dark atmosphere. There are some suuuuper dark hallways for the player to crawl through, and since health is relatively scarce, Doomguy will feel every hit that he suffers. This keeps the player on edge for a large part of the map—even if the enemy placement continues to be obake’s weakest point—and the various coffin & crypt imagery only adds to the atmosphere. A really cool map that’s easily my favorite effort by obake yet—the multiple drops at the end made me really tense.

 

Gameplay wise, I’d say that you should add a second archvile to that one AV cage that lowers after the YK, and I’d probably swap out the imps at the final crypt area at the south (near the tall drops) with revs or something… that area is kinda vestigial and pointless IMO. Also I’d recommend marking these walls as “secret” so that the player doesn’t know they’re immediately going to fall away like I did.

 

MAP17: We return to a proper egyptian outdoor level that provides some good combat, though it doesn’t blow my socks off. I was surprised that despite its diminutive size, it actually took a while to get through, mainly because I had to run laps around the main complex in search of keys and switches (I must’ve run around here a dozen times or so). It’s got a clever G1 switch at the start and I like that it throws some heavy armaments at the players to contest with the cybers. I definitely feel like the progression could’ve been more clearly denoted (like, put some YK bars around the room to the dual cybers or something) but otherwise I had a decent time.

 

Gameplay wise, I’d seriously consider removing those trees in the dual cyber arena as they just impede the player’s movement constantly. I mean, that might be the point, but I wasn’t a big fan of them. Also there’s some kinda useless enemy hordes (like the cyber & friends that pop down at the RL and the barons & imps that follow you through at the dual cyber room), but I suppose they make decent cannon fodder. I’d also suggest moving the two shotgun shell boxes near the dead shotgunner on the altar elsewhere, since if the player doesn’t notice them they’re literally missing 40 shells for the first half of the map. Maybe keep one there but move the other out elsewhere.

 

MAP18: Ah, so I see we’re continuing the MAP04/MAP09 theme of hyper-tough hyper-short maps that demand precision or the player dies. I like this one less than the other maps for two reasons: 1) it’s as brown as the day is long, and 2) it pulls one trick out of its bag over and over: SSG revs at close range. The start is a little neat but fairly rude once you realize the weapon you’re looking for is behind you, and the final fight is solid but the blood obscures where the AV teleports to (and I guarantee everyone fell into the blood pit the first time they got down there). Not my cup of tea.

 

Gameplay wise, I there needs to be a second medikit before the final room, and at the very least a medikit near the exit after the fight. If I was playing continuous, I wouldn’t have appreciated going into a Paul map with only 17% health!

 

MAP19: After the ass-whooping the start of MAP15 gave me, I was ready for Paul to bust out the big guns here… but it’s a surprisingly tame map. The start is perfect, asking if you want to chance getting cornered in order to take out the starting PE, or pick up a nearby rocket launcher at the cost of summoning a second PE onto the battlefield. Great amount of enemies there too. The rest of the fights—barring the one with like 20 revenants—are pretty lenient, especially the last fight, where you can zip behind the rev pillars and use them like cover in NES Cabal. A fine level nevertheless. I like Paul’s use of lightning and texture choices, though I am interested in seeing what he’s capable of in a non-Plutonia palette.

 

No gameplay suggestions.

 

MAP20: A really cool map by Scotty that was giving me some AD_79 vibes here and there (I tend to think of his stuff as soon as I see a bridge raise/lower to provide access to a nearby balcony). I was surprised to see that it was one of those maps where the player could finish it in about fifteen minutes with only half of the monster repertoire deceased… had to do a lot of sniffing around for the secret fights, and even then I ended up giving up and just clipping through some walls. The fight at the southern end is my absolute favorite, as it has a nice vertical layout and uses pinkies, HKs, and arachs to deny the player space, pushing them out into the nukage. The BFG arena was also really cool, primarily because it’s a great asymmetrical island that really forces the player to play inside of it, as they don’t want to take damage looping around the outer ring (though the nukage is light there, so it’s not that bad to run around the green goo if you need space). I liked quite a bit of the traps, though sometimes they’d oscillate sharply between “psh gimme a challenge” and “oh no I’m being sandwiched”. A really good map however, that only further proves that Scotty knows his stuff. Enjoyed the space station finale too (though I feel maybe it would’ve made more sense to have the player hop into a spaceship at the end of MAP31).

 

Gameplay wise, I don’t have anything gameplay wise, just two minor errors. One is these stray lines on the automap, and the other are a bunch of untextured bits of land that are in all the cubbies in the secret area. I’d also recommend making the torch next to the lift out of this fight a different color, just so it catches the player's eye and they know they need to go there to exit—I waded through a lot of nukage looking for how to get out of here!

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP21: Ooof this map. It’s kinda neat seeing a “my house… in space!” but it suffers from the problem that a lot of older maps suffer from: switch hunting. Knowing where to go once you grab a key is easy enough, but running around and hitting a switch can leave you absolutely clueless as to what it did. That’s why when the player hits switches, I like to follow these rules: 1) The sector being lowered/raised should be nearby so the player can see it, and if not 2) put obtainable goodies (health bonuses, armor bonuses, rockets) as a breadcrumb trail past the open door to show the player where they haven’t been yet, or 3) put a distinguishable icon next to the switch so the player can find it near the door they’re looking for (like a MARBFACE at the switch and one at the door). The map is not that long but it takes a long time to complete due to all of this, becoming kinda the sloggiest map along with MAP12.

 

It’s not terrible—I wouldn’t personally pull it from the project—but its progression can definitely be smoothed out, and I’d honestly consider opening most of the map up (that is, making every door activateable besides key doors). It's possible I'm more sour on the map than usual because I hate the midi used and had to suffer it for like 22 minutes. I did like all the cute sector art and some of the small details like flushing the sink of its water—that stuff is neat.

 

Gameplay wise, I’d delete the two specters at the bottom right side of the “outside” map (the ones in that service shed) because they don’t do anything besides block the player’s movement on infinite height. I’d also add an armor past the blue key door in the room overlooking the northern area (the one that releases the PE & rev) because that fight is tricky to do without some plating (unless I missed a secret armor somewhere). I think the SSG should also come sooner in the map, but it’s not that egregious since the player can just run past most of the heavier monsters anyway.

 

MAP22: This was a cool map that I made way, way worse on myself by missing the SSG for a good 70% of it (I only grabbed it on the way to the exit). That meant that while I wanted to go hogwild and rush into rooms to dispose of chaingunners and revs, I instead had to zip around them or hope the chaingun could stun them long enough to allow me by. It was definitely a case where I was wondering if I had missed an early SSG or if DMPhobos really likes their shotgun-focused gameplay. Besides that though, this is a fairly good map with a decent layout that lets you loop around to dodge monsters. The final elevator battle is neat too, though nowhere near as hectic as DMPhobos’s MAYhem 2019 map. I liked how ammo was alotted throughout the map too. Nice work.

 

Gameplay wise, I’d suggest making the doors to the SSG lit up or something, so they catch the eye easier. The SSG is a near-critical weapon to have, so the player really shouldn’t miss it!

 

MAP23: WHAT is up with the start of this map? That is one really mean setup that really pushes the player to make their shots count, especially with the AV at the top of the stairs. Holy cow. The rest of the map is tricky, but it’s more fun than punishing, especially at that big fight with the SMM and the HKs that just go to town on one another. This is a lot more of what I was expecting from Paul, where encounters are tighter and taking a single rev rocket can spell doom for the player in the middle of the battle. I like the lighting and moodiness of the map (probably due to the Eris midi most of all), and had a good time despite getting my ass handed to me so hard at the start I had to resort to save scumming.

 

No gameplay suggestions.

 

MAP24: Alright! Now this is my kind of map! We venture over to yet another spooky, quasi-abandoned facility, but this time we get some hell dimension high jinx that were a lot of fun. The silent teles were mildly clever, though not anything more complicated than we’ve seen from Albertoni before, but holy cow those scrolling textures! I haven’t seen them used like that before. I also really liked the light/dark interplay between the dimensions. Combat was alright for the most part—still a bit rev heavy for my tastes, but I really liked that arach/manc arena, even if it took a while to subdue them (how often do you see a Dead Simple style fight in a non-Dead Simple map?) More hellish trickery in Boom pls.

 

Gameplay wise, I’d consider putting a plasma gun up on that one platform that has like, 30-40 rockets (right before the cyber fight), just because nobody wants to fight a cyber with rockets/SSG in a relatively simple arena.

 

MAP25: First off, that midi rules.

 

Second off, woah nelly this is quite a map! Antares is our veteran photobomber this time around (though I guess he was new when NOVA 3 started?), granting players a 45 minute odyssey through a lunar station that’s overflowing with baddies. Having not played Struggle, the two antares quirks I can identify are: 1) He leaves items laying around like a hoarder leaves trash around their house, and 2) while people from the Insane_Gazebo school of thought largely alternate between a two textures (or in Ribbiks’ case, a bright color and a muted color), antares lets a loooot of similar textures work together. Like, right from the start of the map he has a dozen or two dozen white textures that are all different but blend together as you zoom around the map. It’s a unique style of mapping: on one hand, it makes the maps look absolutely gorgeous and flush with detail around every corner, but on the other hand it makes every room that doesn’t have a different core color scheme feel… similar.

 

So for instance, I spent the first 10 minutes kind of just running around confused, repeatedly thinking “have I been here before?” I even opened the RK area and thought it was the start! I think the first half was relatively slow for me just because it took a while to find an SSG (or one that wasn’t heavily protect by baddies), and I found the rockets in high demand until I entered the golden city area. Which, sweet jesus antares, that was really impressive. The dome at the end of the map is gorgeous due to all the layering on the ceiling, but that city was something else. Upon first seeing its vista, it actually made me audibly utter, “Oh wow, how many long nights did this take to make?”

 

From here is where the action seriously ramps up, and we start getting into a lot more chaotic scuffles. It’s funny thinking about how antares had once said “I don’t like slaughtermaps” because the dude has the one actual slaughter-y map in the set that’s riddled with so many foes your eyes kinda glaze over as innumerable caco corpses fall from the sky. The final dome encounter was a big mess of corpses too, especially when all the imps come out to be rocket fodder for the three AVs. It’s a really cool map that I proooobably shouldn’t have played right before bed, as I’m beyond tuckered out now. Gorgeous architecture, crazy fights—good stuff all around.

 

No gameplay suggestions. Suuuper happy you have multiple of the same weapon within this map—thank you thank you thank you! More mappers need to do this!

 

MAP26: A pretty neat map that was giving me some skillsaw vibes—could’ve been the open layout, could’ve been the lunar shadows, could’ve been the music. Either way, the map lets the player explore and run around at their own pace, ducking out of a section if the heat gets turned up too high (I got a lot of revs mad at me in the eastern section so I decided to mosey on over to the southern part). Despite being a very open playground similar to MAP25, it’s much more controlled and… sane, shall we say, as the player gets steadily stronger as they clean out the map. The worst part about it is all the random switch hitting a la MAP21. There’s at least some lights to give you an idea of what key the switches are unlocking, but it took me forever to find the switch on the eastern side of the map, which really dampened my mood. It’s still probably my favorite E3 map, but I just really, really wish the switches were more direct and elegant (for example, the big fight at the south should give you the BK, and the AV arena to the north should be where the exit is—much more natural that way).

 

Gameplay wise, I spotted this misalignment, and I’d suggest making it a lot easier to notice the switch that starts the YK unlocking chain at the eastern section. I’d also recommend making every side of the PG platform activatable, as I missed that I could be lowered from its eastern face and thought I had to find a switch elsewhere.

 

MAP27: dt’s second map is an excellent non-linear base crawl, that’s surprisingly stingy with ammo. I really like how the key corridors are constantly denoted by color here, as even when I got lost I could look around for a color and follow that hallway to its corresponding key. I went yellow -> blue -> red and had to punch out a number of pinkies and HKs, until I got to the red key and skipped that big ranged arena, since there was no way in hell I was wasting more rockets on revs far away. After that I BFG’d my way over to the exit, expecting a bigger battle but instead getting an… escape pod sequence? Neat.

 

I really enjoy dt maps: they start slow, have a lot of moody lighting, and possess a really smart layout that surprises me as I crawl through them. dt is smart about signaling where switches and keys are, and the traps are prickly but not crushing. Really cool stuff I look forward to seeing more of.

 

No gameplay suggestions.

 

MAP28: Ah, so I see we’re continuing the tradition of having one really hardass map in the last stretch of NOVA. I’m not certain, but I believe I playtested this map at some point… or maybe it was another map for the end of NOVA 3. Regardless, Benjo puts in the effort here to pressure the player at every single available opportunity, whether it’s a narrow corridor with revs flowing out of it, a cavern with masses of enemies hounding you, or a big outdoor area where a cyberdemon and two archviles work together to guarantee your demise. It’s a tough map—not overly tough, but far more punishing than anything else in NOVA 3—and the only encounter I didn’t like was the plasma gun one, as I played it like a dozen times until RNG rolled in my favor and I could push through the lost souls successfully (those barrels are MEAN). I’ve played other maps of Benjo’s that I like more than this, though it is neat seeing one of his earlier efforts. The outside area looks nice :)

 

Gameplay wise, I know Benjo probably likes the difficulty as-is, but I’d absolutely add a soulsphere for that final fight to buffer some damage, and maybe remove a few enemies in the plasma gun room. Seriously, trying to outmaneuver in that fight is like dodging spikes while inside an iron maiden.

 

MAP29: This was a pretty wild journey that rubber banded back and forth from being simple to pretty punishing. I haven’t played an Amok map before, but boy howdy is the work they put in here impressive. I feel like by our 9th “moon map with shadows” it can be a little difficult to parse how aesthetically different one map is from another (especially since Valiant seems to be the primary source of inspiration for E3), but I feel like this is visually one of the most impressive maps from E3 along with MAP25. You got UFOs (both inside and outside), raising liquid shenanigans, a miniature model of the map, a warehouse replete with boxes… lots of cool stuff.

 

And better yet is that the gameplay doesn’t suffer from any of the small sector work, as it’s pretty engaging for the most part. It starts and ends somewhat brutally I’d say: I was aching for ammo at the start, then proceeded to steamroll most of the fights from midway through the southeastern base, and then ran out of plasma ammo as FOUR archviles ran around resurrecting the whole map at the end. On one hand, I have to applaud Amok for making a map without a rocket launcher (it was really cool using the plasma gun for almost the entire latter half), but on the other, I’m… not sure what the benefit is of the BFG fight. The player has most likely locked down the spider mastermind and her minions, and the BFG fight warps in more enemies than the weapon is worth on its own (seriously, you gotta have a lot of cell saved up). I guess maybe it’s a bonus difficult fight, or meant for if you come through the back passage, but I can't see how it isn't more trouble than it's worth. Great map though—a nice, action-packed finale.

 

Gameplay wise, I spotted some midtex clipping up here, and in a shadowed sector to its left. Remember with midtextures that if you have 1 unit of height difference or 1 unit of light difference between sectors (like, brightness 128 and 129), you’ll never get this clipping. I'd allllso probably suggest removing one archvile from the big warp in at the end, as they can be tricky to take down without rockets, and they have a high chance of resurrecting some really bulky, annoying enemies.

 

MAP30: Our explosive finale is… surprisingly low key and quiet, in both midi form and for the map. It’s still tough as nails now and then—I’m sure Paul is to thank for that, as any time a pain elemental would appear I knew it was his handiwork—but there’s no real OOMPH climax per se. The final scuffle that’s here is novel—I’m not sure I’ve ever seen “cacoswarm” as a final boss—but then it kinda… drunkenly stumbles on as the player hits the three key switches and mops up the rest of the map. I guess the additional fights are there so that the player can rush their way over to the exit, but the map felt like it was building towards a finale that was never delivered (I was wondering if we’d see a new final boss, until my hopes were dashed by the sound of a dead john romero).

 

The map still played and looked good (that final arena and the steps leading to it are lovely), I’m just not sure how I feel about it as the “closer” to the whole experience. It definitely felt a bit disjointed—the western facility is literally its own map—and the 8-10 AV fight was leagues harder than the rest of the map. I liked the combat in the western facility, but I can’t get over how vestigial that whole trip over there kinda feels. I think it's more natural that once the player delves into the main facility’s onyx depths, they’d move on to the cacoswarm fight (and maybe unlocking the exit unleashes a boss or something).

 

Gameplay wise, what… is… up with the telefragging here? Is it intentional? I get that it’s MAP30 and unavoidable, so it has to be intentional, but it frequently comes off as a joke, or a “it wasn’t supposed to work like this but I don’t care enough about the map to make individual closets for each enemy.” It’s really strange—maybe it was only tested as MAP01.

 

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Overall I really liked NOVA 3—I think my only reservation towards it is that the project is so polished that you don’t get that much “peculiar newbness” outside of a few maps (there’s the strangeness of MAP03, the speedmap quality of MAP04, cluttered nature of MAP12, and the focus on realism in MAP21). The stuff by Scotty, A2Rob, dt, and Paul are scrubbed clean to lustrous shine, and a couple other mappers (Amok, Big Ol Billy, Kurashiki) produce such excellent work that it’s hard to tell whether this is their 1st or 30th map. I still enjoyed it though—the new episode themes were a great addition, and keeping it Boom compatible allowed folks like Albertoni to really flirt with typical Doom expectations. It has way more strong maps than weak maps, and not a single map in the set was grueling to get through.

 

An unfortunate thing is that, like Scotty said at the end of Suitepee’s stream, Joy of Mapping has basically supplanted NOVA as the “newbie megawad” niche, as that’s a much better project for amateurs to try their hand at mapping without the long, long term commitment of remaining attached to a megawad project. Still, I like seeing what core groups form around each of the projects, and was glad that this one avoided having a surplus of “EvilNed” maps (though Paul certainly came close—he’s kinda like me in that he seems adamant about fixing other maps). Good work team, and excellent work Scotty on sticking through this. IT’S NOT EASY TO LEAD A PROJECT, IS IT?

 

Favorites: MAP05, MAP13, MAP26

 

Least favorites: MAP12, MAP18, MAP21