The DWmegawad Club plays: Demonfear & 1000 Lines 2

[golbeeze]

I am playing UV continuous, LZDoom, no mods this time (but still excessive use of my noclip hotkey, no doubt).

 

Maps 1-4

1 and 2 are pretty simple, straightfoward, and best described as DOORS.

 

3 ramps up the difficulty with an archvile that killed me repeatedly. I had to learn not to let it loose until my rockets were ready to go down its throat. With Archie down, the level went smoothly.

4 was such a satisfying shooting gallery. I need more maps like this one. This one is already a favorite of mine.

 

[jmac]

I'm playing HMP pistol start, using the midi pack, no mods. 

My comments will be coming from the point of view of someone who's played very few wads in general. I played Doom 2 obsessively as a kid, but I somehow had no idea there was a community like this until relatively recently. 

 

Map 1: Wolves in the Kitchen

Starting with a secret is odd, I'm assuming that wasn't intentional. I enjoyed the level. Despite how short and simple it is, enemies using the doors all over the place made it feel more dynamic than most levels I've played. The switch opening the broken doors at the end was cool, even if it was useless for me since I'm not playing continuous.

 

Map 2: The Colonel's Car

I had fun with this level as well, though I'm starting to get sick of the constant sound of doors opening and closing. Some of the enemies seemed to be stuck in some narrow hallways and small rooms. The red key being used to open a garage door was weirdly funny to me. 

[plums]

2 hours ago, Capellan said:

 

It's more that 320x200 is a lot more forgiving :)

Actually this just reminded me of an article I read a while ago about how switching to high-definition video affected the adult entertainment industry, in that the increased detail reveals imperfections in the actors' makeup and, uh, other features.

 

Anyhow I watched your video commentary and appreciated the insights. Don't be so hard on the maps though, we all know they were made in a different age :)

[SulfurOccult]

My first time joining, too! I'm playing Demonfear on UV, continuous.

 

Map 1 & 2

Well my first foray into the wad wasn't great. I'm not a fan of it when map authors try to represent "realistic" settings or furniture in Doom. I suppose given the age it was created in it probably was quite novel and impressive for its day. The constant sound of doors opening and closing is getting grating. Combat difficulty has been pretty mediocre so far but I did manage to dip low a few times thanks to the shotgunners. Flush with health and ammo pickups thus far.

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP03: Gettin' Gas (HMP/continuous)

2:43 | 100% Everything

Well, this is a nasty little map! I was in danger right away from getting pinned in by baddies in the dead-end alley by the exit room. When I escaped I managed to keep getting pot-shotted by the knights on the other side of the fence. Things were pretty dicey until I remembered I already had a rocket launcher (and an SSG, which I still haven't used yet!) This map has a very oppressive feel to it, with the "outdoor" area having a low rock ceiling, and the house being even more tiny and cramped than previous levels. The downstair/upstairs bit worked quite well, despite the unavoidable teleporter giveaway.

 

MAP04: Transport Nexus (HMP/continuous)

4:19 | 100% Everything

Aaaand, here's where I first die. Shotgunners everywhere!? I stepped out into the courtyard and immediately began getting my butt kicked, so I thought retreating to the start area might provide some protection, but nope! Every time I killed a shotgunner, another one would come up and pop me while I waited for my firing animation to cycle. It didn't occur to me to use the chaingun until my second attempt, where I quickly got to the high ground and started mowing down dudes in the hallways. Still not a lot to the progression here, just blindly stumbling around and randomly coming across keys. The only time I stopped to wonder what to do was upon collecting the yellow key, but I had merely forgotten about the yellow door tucked away in the corner. I did enjoy the multiple ways up out of the courtyard, though I always opted to run up the stack of crates (much quicker than waiting any of the three lifts!)

[Capellan]

The ceiling on map03 is supposed to evoke the image of lightning in storm clouds.

 

 

[VanaheimRanger]

MAP03: Gettin' Gas

Who let an archvile loose at the gas station?  That is some kind of fire code violation...

 

 

 

MAP04: Transport Nexus

Someone else said "Courtyard full of hitscanners"...I will back this assessment...also more doors.

 

 

Edited October 2, 2020 by guitardz

[Biodegradable]

Demonfear: MAP03 - Gettin’ Gas

UV | Continuous with Saves | GZdoom + Final Doomer

^{No footage for either map, I forgot to turn on GeForce.}

 

I must've forgotten to put on demon repellent, cos those bastards could smell my flesh right away and I got swarmed, so there's my first death of the run. First AND second death, actually lol. Things got much easier once I had a good lay of the land, nabbed the rocket launcher ammo I needed and got rid of the Archvile and the Revenants. Not sure why there's a teleport animation at the top of the stairs that doesn't take you anywhere.

 

Demonfear: MAP04 - Transport Nexus

UV | Continuous with Saves | GZdoom + Final Doomer

 

Oh good lord, I've stumbled into the Annual Zombiemen Convention. Fortunately, I've got plenty of Chaingun ammo. This was a fun, but also challenging shoot-out as the place is just crawling with hitscanners of all classes, even a couple of Imps managed to sneak inside without paying for their tickets.

[Capellan]

The teleport takes you 'upstairs'. Doom does not support room over room, remember.

[Pseudonaut]

Map03: UV-Max in 2:58
This map caused my first death. The demo is kinda slow because it's my first exit of this playthrough, and I remember actually struggling with this map a long time ago. Didn't feel like trying to improve my time. I really like the troublesome arch-vile at the beginning, but I don't like that you have to try and snipe the revenants with your remaining weaponry if you want all the kills, especially since their hiding spots are dark and make them hard to aim at. Some rockets in the exit room or near the keys would be nice.

 

Map04: UV-Max in 1:57
Probably the best map so far. The abundance of hitscan drops your health down low at the beginning, so you have to scramble for health which is mostly doled out in mere stimpacks until you find the secret soul sphere. After that point, you've basically won.

 

Demos:

DF03-04.zip

[Phobus]

MAP03: A fairly open space here, which, combined with your continuous loadout, allows you to overcome the surprisingly high-level opposition comfortably. The Revenants up out of the playable space in the dark were the nastiest surprise, although one of them pissed off the Arch-Vile for me, meaning that he was distracted for quite a while. Taking cover behind the house let me kill the Demons, Imps and half of the Lost Souls before the AV was finished with the Revenant. I then took out the AV, mopped up outside and got my bearings. I'd already stumbled across the rocket launcher and blue key in my initial run forward to stir up the main area, and I knew there weren't too many enemies left, so I checked out the house. A rudimentary room-over-room effect was on display here, as were some seriously deep sofas! I like Capellan's idea here, with the brown liquid flat trying to represent a roiling stormy sky - particularly as the lighting on that flat animation is so strange. It doesn't stand up too well when you know what the flat is, and when you're looking at it in 4k, but I imagine it worked nicely at the time!

 

MAP04: Unlike the last map, I chose to camp the starting point here and try not to soak up too much damage. I got down to about 25% health picking off the shotgun guys as they poked their heads round the corners and the enemies at the opposite end of the square took pot shots at me, but I started with under 100 bullets for my chaingun and stuck to the shotgun as a result. In a lot of ways, this felt like a miniature take on Military Base from Evilution - at least, to start off with. Upstairs the abundance of doors into small rectangular rooms and the low remaining enemy population took me back to the 90s in a more general sense, and I stuck to my shotgun. The floating soulsphere secret was nice (and very welcome, putting me up to over 150% health), and the mechanism to get the rocket launcher was pretty cool. I had assumed I'd get outside into that little area out of the windows upstairs at some point, but both secrets were elsewhere and there was no door! A high-pressure map, which is fun when you know it's only small, that then sets you up nicely for the next one. In a way, it felt like a 2048 map might... In fact, this whole set so far has had the vibe of being made under a space limitation.

[kalaeth]

HMP, continuous and with saves :

 

oh, yeah, I forgot to download the midipack since I play without sound, but I might just have to get it later (or so) for the map names and such.

 

MAP03 : Another house! I'll try not to say that I love the doomcute in every map, but I do. Some harsh reception outside the house but I had some rockets for the hell nobles (although autoaim ended up wasting half of them on the wall instead of hitting the HKs in the sniper nests, so that I had to finish them up with the chaingun). So, a bedroom, a kitchen (I guess?), stairs up and no silent teleporter invented yet I'm guessing so a not so clear transition from floor 1 to floor 2. Oh, a imp on the corridor! And rockets on the bed. And I'm guessing, by the disposition of the rooms that the room with a lamp is a bathroom or a closet. Empty either way, except for the stimpacks. Always important to have first aid kits in your home! 3 imps in the master bedroom and a.. interesting choice of decoration. And that's that for monster. Now for the secret and the exit. Oh, secret found. No way someone can miss this secret. And I'm done. Zero deaths, 4min 2 seconds, 100% kills.

 

MAP04 : You start facing a courtyard. But not any courtyard no, HitScanner's Paradise Courtyard! Some quick legwork and shottywork cleans up most of the riffraff  and now let's go open doors! And I open a door to find a flying megasphere, there, teasing me just outside of reach. Now, there's a button but I must confess to fearing for my safety before pressing it, but what work must be done, must be done... Oh, no trap? Mildly anti-climatic. Open ythe next door and.. It's MORE HITSCANNERS! yay. Next door. Oh, I wasn't expecting tha.. nah, I lie, I was totally expecting that. However I wasn't expecting that instead of the chaingun lowering to the floor I would be risen into the air! Clever and cute. Next door. A room with a barrel. Call a hater, a barrelcider, but I must not allow one to stand so, kaboom he goes. Out into the courtyard and into the next door.. Healthpack. Door. More healthpacks and more doors! Let's put this blue key to use. And a red key, just there with little protection.. Don't mind if I do. Lowering computer boxes to get some ammo and let's go to the other side and open that red door, shall we? Oh, what a very metallic room. Now I have the yellow key, so let's go across again to the YK door.. A couple of chaingunners an the exit. But first! Let's see if I can find out how to lower that sphere.. No, I can't 'cause you teleport there! Clever, again. And now.. There's one more secret.. Let's hump walls! Found. More ammo for the shotty, good, I think I missed a couple barrels. Done. Also, I like that you can actually climb the boxes up instead of taking a lift. Done, 7mins 26 seconds, 100% K/I/S.

 

death count : 0.

 

Also, I will be out for the weekend (which includes the Monday, since it's a holiday here) so I'll probably only play again on Tuesday, which will mena I'll have to play 8 levels in a go! That's almost 30 minutes! 

[loveless]

prboom+, no saves, uv pistol starts  
 
map 2
deaths 0
this map was very dark. 

Spoiler

 

map 3

deaths 2

that vile was hilarious, had a genuine laugh with this one. 

Spoiler

 

map 4

deaths 0

that was a lot of shotgunners, just sayin.

Spoiler

 

demonfear demos 2-3-4.7z

[DSC]

BTW, how optimized is Demonfear for pistol starts?

[Pixel Fiend]

 

I will speedrun 1000 Lines 2 Map09 Stone Steel on video if someone is willing to do that also.

 

Speedrun rules: UV-Speed

 

I'll get a better time than above. Do you accept the challenge?

[tmorrow]

1 hour ago, DSC said:

BTW, how optimized is Demonfear for pistol starts?

 

I was able to uvmax every map. Some maps are a little tight on ammo depending on the route you pick but overall ammo is sufficient. I expect the same for lower difficulties.

[Cheesewheel]

MAP01 - Relying on the pistol is never fun but the ability for the cacodemons to roam the map makes it quite engaging. Excellent sector urinal.

MAP02 - Great sense of place with the darkness outside, found the ssg redudant as everything was dead by the time I got it. Another great sector toilet.

MAP03 - Single archvile makes the open space a lot more difficult having to use the building as cover. Once the archvile is dead the rest is straightfoward.

MAP04 - Fun, high pressure map. I used the normal shotgun much more than the ssg on this map. Need to move quickly and grab the green armour to avoid being shot to pieces.

[P41R47]

Little improvement to the stat screens text, guys!
Now they can be read on most ports (vanilla, chocolate, crispy, DoomRetro, PrBoom+, G/L/ZDoom, EE)
Here the link for who ever want to made use of it ;)

Next version probably will add a new status bar, so @Capellan is there a motif that would you like to see on the status bar?
i think a green status bar that somewhat resembles Doomguy marine outfit, with scratches and a little blood would be fitting for your wad, but if you has a suggestion, i will gladly try to work it out ;)

[galileo31dos01]

Okay, being actually serious this time. 

 

01. Instead of myhouse, it's mylittlebase. Cute beds and bathroom, including a moment where an imp caught a trooper with a hand on his junk in a cubicle. Cacodemon outside was immobile. I pistoled enough and hoped that was it.

 

02. House time! Pretty dark, cool. Had about enough shells to get inside, snag the SSG and whatever, kill the HK and leave.

 

03. Fun fact, 42PercentHealth once streamed this for an Ironman on twitch and this is where he died, so my memory of a hot start was there. Definitely hot for a third map of a 90's megawad. No big deal nowadays, though the sniper revs had more space than they should have, considering the low rocket count, autoaim had a bad time registering them with bullets. Teleport trick in the house is still cute.

 

04. Kind of "stronghold" vibe here. Guess rng was on my side for once, since shotgunners gonna shotgun but they barely operated. Cute soulsphere. This midi has like an echo in Crispy's default soundfont and it makes me think the music is coming not from my headphones. 

 

BTW, I thought the music choices enhanced my playthrough so they're all good imo. Majority of the maps went in 3-6 minutes at my pace of a turtle so I got to listen to them to the end. However, what concerned me was the texts at the tally screen, for some maps there was no text, and for many latter maps the supposedly corresponding text said something completely off of what the map actually was about - like when it said "you grab a shotgun from a dead zombie and..." but I didn't see a single shotgunner in the map. So that may need some fixing. 

 

EDIT: ah nevermind heh

Edited October 2, 2020 by galileo31dos01

[P41R47]

32 minutes ago, galileo31dos01 said:

BTW, I thought the music choices enhanced my playthrough so they're all good imo. Majority of the maps went in 3-6 minutes at my pace of a turtle so I got to listen to them to the end. However, what concerned me was the texts at the tally screen, for some maps there was no text, and for many latter maps the supposedly corresponding text said something completely off of what the map actually was about - like when it said "you grab a shotgun from a dead zombie and..." but I didn't see a single shotgunner in the map. So that may need some fixing. 

 

Glad you like the music, pal! :D
Strange that you are experimenting no text on some maps, only maps that shouldn't show text at the stat screen are map06, map11, map15, map31, map20, and map30, and thats is because i used the default text screen to depict them.
In what maps are you experimenting no text?
As for what the stats screen text said, well i wanted to use the story Adam himself wrote, so i didn't touch it up in respect to his work (save for map26 as it was too much text and i had to rewrite it to fit better on the limited vanilla space. Sorry about that Adam, its the only text i had to compromise a little).

Edited October 2, 2020 by P41R47

[SulfurOccult]

Demonfear UV

Map 3

Died to the archvile once. Fun map, shame its really only the one battle and then over with. Best level in the wad so far, wish there was more to say about it.

Map 4

I hated this one! Hitscanner fest, small bit of pressure to find cover early on, then it becomes trivial once you have it. The layout is symmetrical and has lots of small rooms connected by many doors, so we again return to the continuous door open/close sounds throughout the whole map. Find the key, run to one side of the map to open the door. Inside is another key, so you run back to the other side again (at this point, all the enemies are dead btw). Inside again is the last key, so you make a third run back across the empty map. BORING.

[galileo31dos01]

1 hour ago, P41R47 said:

In what maps are you experimenting no text?

 

Could be in those you mentioned, I can't remember exactly :l

[Snikle]

MAP03 - Gettin' Gas

This was certainly something different, and also better. Less doors! But for the Jim Morrisons among us, have no fear, they’re still here. It’s just that this is a more outside map, so the only doors are in the two little buildings. There was an Arch-Vile (On UV at least, I don’t know about the lower difficulties), which was quite a fun thing to deal with this early on. I only got 2 rockets, and I wasted them on small fry, so the archie had to be hitscanned and infought. Luckily I was able to do this, and I only tanked one hit. The lost souls were an interesting thing to have in the mix, and reminds me how rare it is in modern WADs to have them placed alone, rather than having them come from PEs. I enjoyed this one a lot, more than the first two maps.

 

MAP04 - Transport Nexus

Didn’t enjoy it as much as the last map (I usually prefer outdoor maps to indoor ones), but this was still pretty good. It’s a little courtyard area with some halls above it, and more rooms on the other sides of the halls. All connected by doors. Back to the doors. No revs or AVs like in the last map. This one did feature a rocket launcher again, but I don’t think I ever used it. Another fun little map.

[DSC]

MAP02-The Colonel's Car

This one, just like the first map, also doesn't give you much ammo at the start. You have to conserve your shells well and only kill a few imps and pinkies before entering the house. Oh, and watch out for the hell knight! He really surprised me the first time I played. This isn't Sunlust, but it isn't kidding around either! As for the house itself: loved it! Myhouse.wads are the perfect DoomCute material. And that car at the end really made me laugh. Not in a pejorative sense, its just the shock of seeing something that, while obviously nowadays quite outdated, shows that you didn't stop to do what you wanted even with the resources at the time. Thats pretty admirable.

 

 

MAP03-Gettin' Gas

The level genuinely looked great this time. IMO the aesthetics are pretty unique and hold up well even today! Gameplay-wise, the scare I got from the arch-vile made the one from the previous map look like a cheap horror C-movie jumpscare. I wasn't expecting THAT for sure! Thankfully, you can quickly run to the backside of the building, kill a chaingunner, take a RL and use it plus some infighting to kill the archie. Doing that was actually the most fun thing I've done yet in the wad! The building itself is yet more good cuteness, and the teleporter in the stairs made me laugh just like the car from the previous map! Although, this one case in particular made me curious... @Capellan, Boom had silent teleporters and was already out by then, wasn't it? Then why didn't you use the source-port if you wanted 3D floors?

 

MAP04-Transport Nexus

Loads and loads of hitscanners! Reminds me of that TNT map, except much more downscaled and manageable. For the first time ammo and health wasn't a problem thanks to all the dropped weapons and the secrets. Oh, speaking of secrets, the two from this map are the first real ones in this wad. I found them without much trouble thankfully, but I wonder if things are going to get harder in that department... Oh well, nice little techbase anyways!

[Salt-Man Z]

3 hours ago, P41R47 said:

Strange that you are experimenting no text on some maps, only maps that shouldn't show text at the stat screen are map06, map11, map15, map31, map20, and map30, and thats is because i used the default text screen to depict them.
In what maps are you experimenting no text?

In GZDoom 4.0.0, so far on maps 1-4 I've gotten the story text, but the level names have all been missing from the tally screens.

[P41R47]

2 minutes ago, Salt-Man Z said:

In GZDoom 4.0.0, so far on maps 1-4 I've gotten the story text, but the level names have all been missing from the tally screens.

Yes, i used the level names patch to show the story Capellan wrote instead.
I tried to include the name of the map on the patches, but space limit is really making it difficult.
I'm starting to think that it would be better to include two different wads on the zip, one from almost all ports and one specifically for zdoom base ports.

Maybe adding UMAPINFO for crispy onward :D, that way everyone will be able to select from what episode start ;)

[DJVCardMaster]

21 hours ago, Capellan said:

MAP01 is a military base, not a prison.  It's in the level text file :)

 

Also, only the last 5 maps are made at the end of the millennium.  Everything else is from 1995.

Did not know that, thanks, it makes sense now looking at this maps, more ahead of their time in 1995.

[Capellan]

6 hours ago, P41R47 said:

@Capellan is there a motif that would you like to see on the status bar?

 

Your idea sounds fine to me!

 

5 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

it said "you grab a shotgun from a dead zombie and..." but I didn't see a single shotgunner in the map.

 

Not sure which map this is - there's nothing like that in dfearlvl.txt that I can see.

 

2 hours ago, DSC said:

@Capellan, Boom had silent teleporters and was already out by then, wasn't it? Then why didn't you use the source-port if you wanted 3D floors?

 

All maps except 26-30 were made and released in 1995.

 

I'll post a video for maps 06-10 later today, so you can marvel at all the design decisions that were based on "I didn't know how to do this other thing, so I did this instead" :)

 

 

[jmac]

 

Map 3

This one caught me off guard with how rough the start was, and I had my first death. Once I knew what to expect my second attempt went a lot more smoothly. From what I'm reading here, it sounds like the difference between HMP and UV in this wad is pretty drastic. I didn't encounter any archviles or revenants. I might bump up the difficulty down the road, depending on how things look.

 

Map 4

IDK if this is an unpopular opinion, but I like maps that use a lot of hitscanners. This one was probably my favourite so far in terms of gameplay. Whatever the megasphere was sitting on had a broken texture, but I don't see anyone else mentioning it, so it's probably a problem on my end.

[Pseudonaut]

45 minutes ago, jmac said:

 

Map 4

Whatever the megasphere was sitting on had a broken texture, but I don't see anyone else mentioning it, so it's probably a problem on my end.

Sounds like you're talking about a hall of mirrors effect. This happens for me if I play the level in GLBoom+, but not in PRBoom+. It probably has to do with the differences between a software renderer (as in vanilla Doom) and a hardware renderer.

Edited October 2, 2020 by Pseudonaut