The DWmegawad Club plays: Three is a Crowd

[AFallingObject]

MAP03: Bang Head

I feel disoriented. Is this what you were going for, Scypek? Rocket launcher at the start? Obvious secret doubly subverts my expectations (torch reveals barons, pad reveals mega-armor)? Weirdest crusher I've ever seen? Way more zerk packs than I actually needed? Good stuff. I got the secret SSG and wanted more ammo for it, but that just pushed me into using the zerk at close range. It's more practical here than in either of the two preceding maps. RIP difficulty curve. Good job on that bit.

 

93% Kills 60% Secrets

[tmorrow]

map04

This map consists of six or so islands over a lava bed. There are 10 rad suits and so rad suit management is not a big factor, in fact you could probably do the entire map comfortably with only 2 rad suits or less.

The only gimmick is the yellow key island. Firstly, you are trolled by 4 yellow keys you cannot reach south of the central island. Your task is to find the intended way to get into the yellow key area. In theory you could grab a rad suit and simply run to the area but that turns out to be a really bad idea. You find that there are cages of chaingunners that each have a dedicated archvile to resurrect them in the room behind the cages and any attempt to get at the yellow key will be met with your marine being shredded in the worst way. In order to take care of the archviles and then the chaingunners, you need to find a teleporter that takes you to the yellow area. In a further act of dastardly sneakiness, there are actually 2 ways to enter the teleporter, each taking you to a different location in the yellow key area and only the sneaky one will get you into the archvile room.

The secrets are quite useful to find, one has an invulnerability and the obvious place to use it is in the archvile room or possibly on the cacoswarms that turn up after collecting the yellow key.

Edited November 4, 2020 by tmorrow

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

MAP 03 (BANG HEAD):

 

Status:

*Deaths: 0

*Saves: none

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A solid map, with many explorable areas, and an extremely interesting architecture, the truth is that it has a lot of cloth to cut, and it turns out that at the beginning of the level, they show you a decent architecture, as if it were a strange temple to the that you are going to enter, after that a small labyrinth follows with a repeated texture of that face carved in stone from Doom 1, although in the center there was a huge square that prevented the view of the labyrinth, something that on the walls you could see torches Although there was a different color, but I'll talk about it in a moment, when we reach the end of that mini-Labyrinth, we find a huge place that is totally darkened, but it turns out that there are several ways to choose to go to a totally different room, each one with decorations, wall textures and architecture very different from the rest, in addition, in a specific room, we will find crushers traps (although this time they will not be so much in our favor) that we must avoid to leave that area alive, and that vitality or armor is not removed at any time, the different keys are found in areas very far from each other, for example, the yellow one is obtained in a room that It is falling from another room that has many Imps, Pinkys and a few Hitscanners, when you kill them all, you will see a space through which to fall, and voila, obtained yellow key, but instead with the red key, you just have to go to the area where the crush traps are, avoiding some demons that appear there and going down some steps that are also there, which by the way, something that I found interesting about the map, is the fact of having an invisible Crusher, which You can only get to detect if you look on both sides, from there on, everything that this map has offered me visually I liked a lot.

 

Now moving on to the difficulty, the map also becomes really hard if you are not careful with the decisions you make, for example, the torch trap is a clear example of paying the price for being curious and thinking that there was a possible secret there, but the most important thing is that among the enemies that we can find here are: Imps, Hitscanners, barons of Hell, Mancubus, Cacodemons, Pinkys, Revenants, Lost Souls, 1 Pain Elemental, 1 Archvile, and 1 Arachnatron, fortunately there are no Hell Knights here, but anyway, I could say that among the most interesting areas that I liked about this map were the encounter with the multiple Cacodemons, the other area that follows after that battle (before getting the yellow key), and the area where they are the Crushers, it was really very entertaining although somewhat complicated, but fortunately, the marine triumphs once again before the constant demonic threats that are presented to him.

[Egg Boy]

Map03: This one felt a bit like an adventure, lots of twists and turns and a bit of non-linearity thrown in for good measure. Lots of really memorable rooms. I especially like the one with the rising lights on the ground. This room, and many others made me realize how Sandy Petersen inspired this WAD has felt so far. I didn't really like the wall you had to walk through on your way to the yellow key, it felt unnecessary, almost a mandatory secret. Its funny that the past two maps were focused on stripping away most of the player's arsenal, while the first immediately gave you everything, definitely an interesting choice, and 100% intentional on the mapper's part. 

[golbeeze]

Map 03

This one outstayed its welcome just a bit. I enjoyed it but I had to backtrack a lot because I missed little things here and there. It had good atmosphere, though. I thought I could exit and only realized a moment later the level wasn't ending because I didn't have the key. Whoops

[Omniarch]

MAP04: The Mantle - 100% kills 100% secrets

Honestly, I don't have that much to say about this one, except that it is basically E3M6 but actually good. I must admit that I'm not the biggest fan of large outdoor maps, especially if they feature large numbers of flying enemies or revenants. The Mantle does have some stand out set-pieces and encounters that put it above the average for this kind of map, however.

 

The first of these is the fireblu building in the far east of the map, which is probably the most entertaining fight in the map. I like the style of encounter where each successive wave is enemies is locked behind a door or switch, ready to be unleashed at your discretion. I also enjoy having to balance damage output between various lanes of attack, whilst also having to deal with incoming fire from beyond the arena, so the combination of the two here is most welcome.

 

Spoiler

 

The second is the strange archvile-infested skin construct in the south west of the map. It looks interesting from a visual perspective, and the Plutonia-style immortal chaingunners make it far more threatening than one might expect. The race to the top of the yellow key tower is subsequently made more interesting, especially with the archvile and pain elemental traps impeding your progress. When I played the map a second time, taking the teleporter in the afore-mentioned fireblu building and killing the archviles and chaingunners in advance actually made the encounter far less interesting.

 

Spoiler

 

The exit building and the suspiciously-familiar green building were also enjoyable each encounters.

 

Spoiler

 

The main drawback of The Mantle is the open-air combat. The combination of cacodemons, pinkies, specters, lost souls and the occasional zombieman in vast open spaces does not make for engaging or difficult combat. Theoretically, the super-lava on all sides ought to constrict your freedom of movement while allowing monsters to roam as they will, but in practice the vast number of radsuits dotted all over the map trivialize the sea of molten rock. Again, this could work, if the opposition was beefier and the radsuits more limited, but as is, the combat ends up being fairly forgettable. Not boring mind you, just forgettable.

 

The texturing is good enough, if a little one note. The sky is still amazing, and the midi works well enough. One gripe I do have with the aesthetics is the lack of contrast in the lighting, indoor or out, but that is difficult to avoid in this sort of map.

 

Overall, competent enough, entertaining at times and never really boring. The worst you could say about The Mantle is that it fails to stick in the mind.

[kalaeth]

MAP04 : SSG some imps and press the button to lower the walls and reach a teleport. Skulls say hi, SSG says hi back and we clear the first island. Now, pressing that face brings us back to the start, so I'll need to go to another island, so I follow the raised trail of rockets into a baron. And imps, and another port brings us again to the start. This time I follow the white rock path, enter the building where trying to open one door opens the other and gives the SSG some work, a blue armor and a blue sphere. Next white rock into the next island.. This one requires a yellow key, so next. And a pain elemental. And a rev. And a fireblu building opens up! Inside we press buttons and kill monsters. Until I press the backside of a switch and open up a teleporter. Damaging floor, resurrecting chaingunners, this is an evil part of the level. With the yellow key in hand I leave, find the map and a cacoswarm descends upon me! Many rockets after I return to the button I pressed only one side of, more cacos on the way and back to the yellow door. Inside, a lift and upside an arch, swiftly dealt with. And the exit is here. Quick tour around the map for secrets! Bluesphere : done! Invun : done. Chaingun : fuck the chaingunners that respawn so, not done.

90% kills, 66% secrets, 0 deaths and 16m51s.

 

Totals : 1 death, 1h02m17s

[Phobus]

MAP04: The Mantle

This is Mt. Erebus on vanilla compatible steroids, with a dash of Plutonia around the yellow skull. I got the chaingun secret and the invulnerability - didn't find the third secret. On the other hand, I did a lot of exploring, picked up a lot of powerups and left the map having forgotten there was a spare blue armour lying unattended in an easily accessible room. Something that would've been handy, as my radsuits had been leaking pretty severely on may many trips through the lava to explore, grab rockets and take the fight to the enemies. Music is a little discordant (in an "intentional" way, if that makes sense) and visuals are very bright and hellish, with lots of CRACKLE and a big dose of lava and some FIREBLU, so the atmosphere is interesting here. I did a lot of saving, but only died a few times, mostly trying to clear the bit with the Arch-Viles behind the chaingunner cages. The challenge here leans towards trial and error, which to my mind encourages save game usage. All told, it's another enjoyable map. Not as unorthodox as the others, as exploring islands in a damaging sea is pretty standard fare.

[tmorrow]

map05

A really fun map. None of the fights are overwhelming but you have to stay on your toes for the duration of the level. The main gimmick is the large room with the octagonal stars. They can be used for the bfg and megasphere secret and for an ammo stash and a soulsphere. This time there are red and blue key paths that can be explored in either order. Both paths involve some setpieces of modest difficulty.

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

MAP04 (The Mantle):

 

Status:

*Deaths: 0

*Saves: none

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A really interesting map, the environment is very hot hahaha, hm... literally speaking, there is a lot of lava everywhere, it really is a very good gesture on the part of the creator of this map to have put a lot of anti-acid suits for prevent dying quickly from walking on lava, there are quite a few "islands" so to speak, in which each one presents a very different challenge from the previous one, there are quite a few enemies that are hidden, and others that will only make you lose valuable ammunition, Either way, the structure used in each of these places has really been very interesting, in fact, I could even say that it makes a small tribute to one of the levels of episode 3 of Doom 1, for which, it is already perfectly understood what What should be done in a situation like this, go find the only key that this level presents, grab enough anti-acid suits, and look for the exit as soon as possible, the details on this map are not correct To a great deal, you can compare it to the level of the aforementioned episode of Doom 1 and there will not be so much difference in the details, although there are slight exceptions but again they are not a big thing, it still works very well for the environment. With the difficulty, here if it is a little higher than the first map and the third, but without exceeding the second, although unlike the previous maps, here if much more freedom is shown for the player when entering battle Without taking into account the risk of losing health due to the lava, at least here the fighting is not so intense, up to a certain point, since Archviles if they are present at this level, in fact, the enemies found here They are almost all the normal enemies of Doom II, except for the Barons of hell that are not present, but that anyway, does not mean that the difficulty is a little easier, since you have a good round of flying enemies (Cacodemons), and to the sides, enemies that shoot at a distance (Arachnatrons and Mancubus), there will also be areas with some danger that, as I mentioned before, will reduce the ammunition of your weapons, in this case, being the ammunition of the Rocket Launcher the that pays the consequences, but anyway, no combat becomes so hard if you know how to carry out a good strategy, keep the distance between the enemies and the Marine, and have an anti-acid suit near you to move away towards the lava and do combat a little easier with the large space that you have at your disposal, although another alternative would also be to have the prizes that secrets grant you, such as finally having another weapon like the Chaingun, getting an extra Soul Sphere, or also an invincibility that would serve well for some combat in which you have no alternative but to use your fists or the Chainsaw. In general, I found everything very entertaining here, and I really liked the concept of this map.

[golbeeze]

Maps 04 and 05

Map 04 was wide open except for the damaging floor all over the place. I had some leaky radiation suits which is always irritating. The level lacked direction and it wore out its welcome. I ended up noclipping because I didn't feel like dealing with the floor anymore.

Map 05 was a lot of fun, though. I agree with tmorrow's assessment. The fights keep you moving, but nothing overly difficult. I finished the level before reading the above comments and went back for the BFG.

[Egg Boy]

Map04: More Sandy Petersen worship with a map that could have easily been titled "Mt Erebus 2" (if suburbs hadn't already had a monopoly on the concept). This is a little map with lots of open space, interesting shapes, and interesting, multilayered encounters. The fireblu building is probably the most interesting with the "choose your own adventure" type encounter, where each switch opens a different monster closet. Props to the caco horde as well. Probably my favorite map so far. Interesting. 

 

Map05: I'm going to stop talking about how "Sandy Petersen-y" this map set is, because by this point its so clear that that was the intention that there's no point in saying it anymore. On to the map, this one was kind of confusing, again, with the obscure progression, and a lot of separate gimmick rooms. Its kind of like a city map, but if instead of seperate buildings you can visit at your leisure, the puzzle boxes are separated by groups of corridors that can get a bit annoying to navigate. To be honest, this is probably my least favorite map so far, its not bad by any means, and there were a number of memorable moments, but it didn't quite have anything tying it together, a number of these rooms could be swapped in and out for any number of ideas. A bit of a hodge-podge.

Edited November 7, 2020 by Egg Boy

[kalaeth]

MAP05 : the murder machine is about to murder me! But before, a few rockets get rid of the cacos. And now excuse me while I chaingun some imps into a room with a view outside and switch. What can go wrong? Mancs from behind. And after we get rid of those, an archie and cacos. I survived, and went down the hole to SSG some pinkies. Then lost souls, then cacosm then pain elementals and revnants. It ends up being one of those that kill me. I'll attempt a different approach, back to the start, and eventually I reach a room with a lot of big starts that double as stairs. Now, I'm savescumming my way up, since I suck at platforming.. Got the bluesphere and now reached a secret backpack! Yey. Now, a teleport to a marble room with some lava hazard in the middle. Doors open to reveal some imps and I grab me a blue armour. And back to the star room, where I teleport into the sight of a manc, that I dispose of quickly and then enter a room where I find the first shotgun of the wad! In the hands of a shotgunner but he gave it me. That's my story, he gave it to me. I explored the various corridors and turned the stairs on, so up to the 'port on top now. And it's a room with monsters on the walls so I use the best tool for pest control : the rocket launcher. Switch one : mancs. Switch two  :spiders. Switch three : Revs. Switch four : advancement, and the red key! We port back to start and maybe it's time to explore the other side again... And the revs and PE are dead. I went back to find a manc protecting a switch that freed more cacos and the path to an arena looking room. One quick lap around the central building and a PE dead, I'm ready to press the skull. And a labyrinth! With HKs.. And a switch to release HBs. And a crushing path to the BK. Now, back to the star room and the red key. Creepy corridor is creepy! And then a SMM kills me. Back to the star room I notice the arrow, and I know what to do, so BFG it is for me! So the SMM goes down easily, but the pain elemental I wasn't expecting. Done. 2 deaths, 25m53s, 99% kills (not sure what I missed), 100% S/I.

 

Total : 3 deaths, 1h28m31s

[Omniarch]

MAP05: Murder Machine - 100% kills 100% secrets

This is more like it. Another large, non-linear and abstract map, Murder Machine picks up the slack from MAP04 by transporting the player into a hostile hell-tech fortress, with many imaginative rooms and encounters, though some of these are better in concept than execution.

 

I'll start off with the map's aesthetics. Murder Machine is quite attractive, mainly due to extensive use of high-contrast lighting and an effective colour scheme consisting of various browns contrasted against hellish red highlights. I'd say its one of the more visually appealing levels so far.

 

Spoiler

 

The map also features a number of hellish, abstract decorative rooms:

 

Spoiler

 

The latter image reminds me of E3M4. I wish mappers would do this sort of thing more often. Having visible spaces beyond the play area really helps with immersion, making the world feel larger than the play area would imply.

 

 

In terms of layout, the map is essentially linear, revolving around the acquisition of the red and blue keys. Each of the key paths consists of a linear series of gimmick rooms, and, though you are free to choose which to pursue first, which one you go for first doesn't really matter (unless you know how to access the map's only two secrets, in which case the red key path is probably somewhat faster). The thing to note about this layout is that it doesn't feel linear at all the first time around. The eccentric nature of the progression obscures the map's linearity, making the player's initial experience disorienting and confusing. Subsequent runs will quickly shatter this illusion, however.

 

In addition to being quite linear, Murder Machine is also quite bitty. Despite a degree of visual consistency, the map doesn't really cohere in any meaningful way. Take the map's largest (playable) space, the large, dark room to the east of the starting area as an example. When I first encountered this area, I thought it was going to form a sort of secondary hub, due to its size and position. But, apart from a small window overlooking the area, accessible from the red key path, you never really return to this area except to open the path to the final confrontation. I feel as though this room, despite how visually and conceptually interesting it is, wasn't really used properly. It does contain the map's two secrets, one of which is barely a secret. The BFG/megasphere secret is good though, taking advantage of the strange platforming stars and integrating them into the puzzle.

 

This pattern repeats itself all over the map, with many good ideas just kind of existing in isolation from each other. Worse, not all of these good ideas are well executed. Take the series of dark rooms to the west, for example. Visually, very striking, bright  red contrasting the deep shadows, but in practice the encounter is quite annoying and not really challenging. I think fighting specters and chaingunners in the dark just made the whole thing a chore. The revenants and cacos released later are far more entertaining to fight in that space, and bring out the room's strengths.

 

The next room along the blue key path is another example of this. The odd little temple in the middle with the grid of wooden doors is certainly interesting in theory, but having to grind down two cacos, two hell knights and a baron in that tiny space is a bit of a grind. The fight afterwards is also a tad mediocre, involving a lot of running and pinky punching.

 

Some of the encounters are good in both concept and execution, however. Like this room:

 

Spoiler

 

An interesting and engaging encounter that affords the player with a degree of agency and a clear goal. It is also very visually striking, using the map's palette to great effect. The opening room and its ring of corridors is also a great encounter, putting a great deal of pressure on the player whilst never resorting to cheap tricks. The mega-armor room, despite being the shortest encounter in the map, does a good job of giving the player a quick jolt to keep them on their toes, while also looking good:

 

Spoiler

 

The last room is caught somewhere between good and questionable in execution. On the one hand, its an original encounter that simultaneously keeps the player under constant pressure whilst affording freedom of movement, while on the other it can be frustrating and fiddly. Unless you have the BFG of course, in which case its over in seconds.

 

Overall, a good, if somewhat meandering map. The standout part is definitely the large room in the east, with the weird platforming challenge.

[Phobus]

MAP05: Murder Machine

As is becoming a bit of a trend here, we've got two "lobes" of the map to cover in pursuit of two skull keys. Despite the initial symmetry (and a clear texturing fuckup on the MARBLE blocks at the start) the rest of the map goes off in wildly different directions. I went blue skull key first (not by intention) and had a bit of an uphill battle against my starting with low health and not grabbing the green armour. I think my preferred play style of "play like shit and take a load of unnecessary damage" didn't help either, but I did manage to avoid dying. Going the red skull route seems to gift you with a soulsphere, a blue armour and a relatively easy secret with a megasphere and BFG. It also houses the (seemingly very easy) backpack secret, which means I'm now lugging around a ton of spare ammo and only missing a plasma rifle from my complete set of weapons.

 

Visually this map is very abstract, with liquid ceilings and sky on the floor, plus artistic lighting (a big thumbs up from me!) and weird sharp triangular stairs that totally tripped me and my autorun up. Still, I got the hang of it and generally made good progress. I think the best thing about this map is that it's Doom through and through, but it revels in abstraction and having stuff trigger unexpectedly. This all came together quite nicely to make an enjoyable map. Music is, once again, weird, in a way that fits and feels pretty acceptable.

 

I feel like I've got a lot of the same comments for each map, but I suspect that's because they all offer familiar patterns of progression, wrapped up in quirks and abstraction. I can see why this megaWAD has been slept on a bit, but is generally praised when people play it.

[Pechudin]

Well, I have not contributed in a long while. I thought myself to check what the club's playing, and upon seeing this WAD I thought I'd join. I have not played it, mind you, but I did hear it compared to A.L.T.

 

Which is my most favourite WAD ever.

 

So I'll be playing this on Hurt Me Plenty, trying to No Mid-Level Save. Do not really care for 100% completion, though.

 

MAP01: Under Control (Deaths: 0)

    Opening reminds me of the screenshots from the Alpha version of DooM, with the marines playing cards. Right off the bat, the conventions are broken. The halls are strangely empty, but we are provided with a SSG, Plasma Rifle and Blue Armour? Too generous! Well, the game starts to throw heavy enemies at you off the bat, so the provisions are actually needed. I was at one point almost short on ammunition as well, this is probably much more tight on UV skill. I do like how the map detail-wise looks like a 90s style beginner map with the BFG dished out comically early, but that only aids to the weirdness and uniqueness of the map. I loved the hallway falling in, further breaking your expectations.

 

    Level of detail is quite low, but the map is not too sparse. Only thing I did not like was the choice of MIDI. I feel like the music just did not fit. Or ... was that intentional? It very well could be. Also, I liked the TITLEPIC, it seems like Lucifer is playing with three unfortunate souls ...

 

Verdict: Cards on table. Straight off the bat, the WAD starts with weirdness. No introductory maps with small glimpses indicating that something might be amiss. Is this a good move? We will see.

[Pechudin]

MAP02: Empty Handed (Deaths: 5-7)

    I'll admit I dropped down to ITYTD for this one. I do not particularly enjoy these kind of maps, and here I was deliberating if I would skip this map alltogether. I did give it a fair few tries, and thought about the strategies (the Invulnerability sphere is the key here), but in the end I managed to do it on ITYTD. The enemy density on other skills is just too high to just run around them and reach the exit easily.

 

    The visuals did nothing for me. It looked like some Inferno or Shores of Hell map, which would pair nicely with the overall crampedness of many of the corridors.

 

Verdict: Decidedly not My Cup of Tea. Not much else to say.

[Pechudin]

MAP03: Bang Head (Deaths: 1)

    From now on I shall play this on HNTR. I think this may be more of my paygrade for this mapset.

 

    Well, the visuals are not really improving (and I shall adjust my expectations from now on). So, ... Hell. What should Hell feel like? Play like? I think this map does Hell justice. Hell is confusing, nonsensical (sky crusher), and in general does not follow human conventions. Except, sometimes it does, but in an uncanny valley kind of way. What was started in '93 with the Petersen's vision of Hell (confusing, large, uncaring and sometimes cruel) is really encapsulated well here. Still, Hell is going to give you a chance, or at least a resemblance of a chance. I was tense while exploring these halls, tension helped in a large way by presenting the player with a Rocket Launcher as the only viable weapon (and a Berserk) and making encounters mostly in cramped halls, with hidden doors popping open all around, ready to catch you off-guard while you had the RL out. This is a trope I liked to use in my maps as well. High risk, high reward.

 

Verdict: Petersen's Hell. Nonsensical, and dripping with malicious atmosphere. This is evident right at the beginning, with the lowering platforms.

[Pechudin]

MAP04: The Mantle (Deaths: 0)

    Mt. Erebus ...

 

    ... was my first though upon opening this map (or maybe Gotcha?). This time the player has oodles of space to move around, or at least this is what I though at first. Majority of the map is covered in damaging floor. I liked how the room with three doors from the previous map repeated here, but pressing on one door opened the door opposite. Again the Hell influence seeping in, playing with our mind.

 

That being said, this map is noticeably less quirky than the first map, or maybe the first two. Maybe the comparisons to A.L.T. were unwarranted.

 

Verdict: Getting normal-ish. This was almost a normal map. The quirk better come back soon.

[Scypek2]

MAP03: Bang Head

"Bang head" is a name for headaches caused by nitroglycerin exposure, but as soon as I saw it, I thought it sounded like a great map name. So I wrote it down, and finally got to use it on this rocket launcher-centric map with lots of opportunities to blow yourself up.

 

It's one of the last maps I've finished, but the starting area and the E4M1 homage afterwards was made much earlier. I was spurred to do it when I learned about a recent Doom re-release removing NIN from the NIN secret for legal reasons, and I wondered what else they could've done besides just leaving the baron trap completely empty.

 

My favorite area has to be the caco swarm room, because of how it orchestrates an ambush without a single tag or action. All the cacodemons are simply facing away from you, and sitting behind double soundblocking lines. This also means some of them might get alerted early if you or an enemy shoots one of the marbfaces. But when you get on the marble balcony, you cross another couple of soundblocking lines, into an area that's connected to all the caco-closets through a dummy sector! And if you shoot the two cacos from the outside, all the others will start flooding in, which in turn can clue you in that the marbfaces are all intangible (though, if you miss that, you can also notice it on the automap instead). When you know that, you can advance to the next room right away, as nothing was ever physically preventing you from doing so. It's pretty obscure progression (and so is the sinking wooden pillar puzzle right after, to some degree), but pretty fair I think, considering it happens right after taking a one-way teleport, so you can't just give up and wander off to hump walls at the opposite end of the map.

 

This map also has what might be my favorite exit room in the mapset - rather than being a "room", it's more like a balcony protruding into the void, with the exit switch floating in midair. I'm also proud of my idea to crossbreed blue torches with marble pillars - their sprites seem to have just the right heights to overlay each other nicely.

 

MAP04: The Mantle
The map I thought was going to be the last to make... but then I thought of one last gimmick, and decided to add a secret level after all. But that's another story ;)

 

The starting area is a thingy I made a long time ago, and it has little to do with the rest of the map. I wonder if it wouldn't be better to make the player start out in the open, and turn the starting building into another optional bit to explore.

 

One bit I'm a fan of but haven't seen mentioned already is the burning sections of the cracked rock, inspired by the floor cracks in Romero's E1M8 remake. Damaging sectors that are parallel to the surrounding floor instead of below it are extra devious, as they can damage you as soon as your radius overlaps them, and not just after you're completely inside. Here, they're much less damaging than lava, but force you to choose between taking damage and taking the long way around. Unless you have a radsuit of course, but I don't think they're that plentiful here... not super scarce either, but you still have to think about what you're using them for.

 

I almost forgot, the MAP03 throwback! Yeah, it opens the opposite door from the one you're trying to use, but the trap is actually even gimmickier than it seems on the surface. You see, neither the cacos nor the revenants have any doors or other moving sectors keeping them away from the teleport lines! Instead, the cacodemons' teleport destinations are simply obstructed by demons in the monster closets, so they can't spawn in until said demons see you and either move out of the way or get killed... but the real fun part is, the cacodemons are also blocking the revenants with their bodies, so the revenants can't teleport in until the cacos do! Well, in practice, I ran in some vanilla bugs and had to replace the cacos' W1 teleport lines with WR, which messes with the effect a bit. But in fun to think about how many different things can still be done with mundane vanilla features, such as monsters being stopped from teleporting on top of each other!

 

MAP05: Murder Machine

Again, one of the last maps I made. I was just making that water-filled sladwall room and thought, okay, I need to make sure it's not just a marble-covered techbase! And thus the spiky cog room was born, with crazy sharp angles that in any other context would've been regarded as a noob mistake. The resulting structure was fun to climb (and not too difficult, as long as you take the correct path you take pretty much no risk of falling), but still potentially frustrating so I made sure that all non-optional areas are accessible via other means.

 

Having that in place inspired me to push the "industrial hell" theme further, though I ended up not adhering to it too closely. I really like how the final arena came out, with simple but elegant architecture and the monster-powered lowering lift sequence that forms a switch-revealing staircase, but it does have pretty much nothing to do with the rest of the map. Same with the red key fight, with fancy panels and marble instead of gritty metal. I guess it's the employee breakroom.

 

[Omniarch]

1 hour ago, Scypek2 said:

My favorite area has to be the caco swarm room, because of how it orchestrates an ambush without a single tag or action. All the cacodemons are simply facing away from you, and sitting behind double soundblocking lines. This also means some of them might get alerted early if you or an enemy shoots one of the marbfaces. But when you get on the marble balcony, you cross another couple of soundblocking lines, into an area that's connected to all the caco-closets through a dummy sector! And if you shoot the two cacos from the outside, all the others will start flooding in, which in turn can clue you in that the marbfaces are all intangible (though, if you miss that, you can also notice it on the automap instead). When you know that, you can advance to the next room right away, as nothing was ever physically preventing you from doing so. It's pretty obscure progression (and so is the sinking wooden pillar puzzle right after, to some degree), but pretty fair I think, considering it happens right after taking a one-way teleport, so you can't just give up and wander off to hump walls at the opposite end of the map.

This here is why I love vanilla (limit-removing or not) mapping. It makes even seemingly simple set-pieces exotic and interesting, at least if you know the limits of the vanilla specials. It was the combination of novel concepts and vanilla-compatibility that drew me to 3IAC to begin with. Also, I really appreciate it, as an aspiring mapper myself, when wad authors come to the DWMC and give a little context for each map. It goes a long way helping me understand the craft.

[Cheesewheel]

MAP04 - I found this tough, very difficult to get done saveless with very good routing. It plays like e3m6 but is a lot more dangerous.  Always seemed to be under mancubus fire or hunting archviles. Interesting again to see how much I am using beserk in this megawad so far.

 

MAP05 - Really enjoyable visuals here, especially the weirdo spinning pillars with some cool fights. I especially enjoyed the progressive battle to raise the lift. Secret Megasphere and BFG really tipped the odds in my favour though and made that spider mastermind trivial.

[Snikle]

Damn, went out of town and got a little bit behind. I've been wanting to play this WAD for a long time though, so I'm not gonna let it stop me.

 

MAP03 - Bang Head

Bang Head, huh? This was a rocket map, but not a traditional one. Lots of dark areas, tight spaces, enemies close by, environmental factors dictating movement more than your own weapon use. I found the SSG secret, but there wasn’t much in the way of ammo for it after a while. The ‘zerking and rocketing was fun as hell, and the map looked really cool in a way I don’t know how to describe. This WAD so far is trending into some interesting “otherworldly” design and I’m digging it. The layout was also very interesting to look at, almost ‘90s in a way, but it still played like something new. @Omniarch covered a lot of the fun visual tidbits and oddities that made me love this level.

Edited November 5, 2020 by Snikle

[tmorrow]

map06

A huge building emerges from the earth! WTF? Clearing out the outside and inside of the building takes some trial and error to develop a path that picks up the necessary weapons and ammo to handle the foes. Watch out for two encounters that involves pairs of archviles, they are much easier if you've picked up some cells prior and the bfg.

The final arena is unlikely to phase any doom veteran, involving cybie, a couple of revenants and a small cacoswarm but with plenty of room to move and couple of obstacles to use to block rockets as required.

Edited November 6, 2020 by tmorrow

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

MAP 05 (Murder Machine):

 

Status:

*Deaths: 0

*Saves: none

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A really interesting map, with a very well made structure and with different spaces where to go to explore in a non-linear way, although this in turn means total confusion because it is not clear where each key is located or where it is. You must go exactly, but what is true is that this map has one of the best constructions and very well achieved structures that were not seen in previous maps, and that this really means that the visual improvement is quite noticeable at each level that one is accessing. With the difficulty, I dare to say that this map is not as complicated as it seems, despite having all the normal enemies of Doom 2, really the fights do not become annoying or unfair, in reality you can say that you fight here They are well achieved so as not to die so quickly if you are very careful where you walk and keep your distances very well, in addition, finding the secrets are also very helpful, since you get from a Mega Sphere, to another weapon for the inventory, the precious BFG, which will be very useful in future maps, so I had a great time here, and I had a lot of fun with the kill offered.

[Omniarch]

MAP06: Emergence - 100% kills 100% secrets

A short, tight, punchy map with style to spare. Visually appealing and extremely cohesive, Emergence takes its core concept and runs with it.

 

Opening with the most impressive set-piece in the megawad so far, the map makes a strong first impression. A giant, green-brick cube rises out of the earth (though technically its actually the floor that's moving), unleashing a horde of cacodemons.

 

Spoiler

 

This aerial host serves a vital function: it forces the player to abandon the ash-covered outdoor area and enter the foreboding main structure, not on their own terms but on the map's. This creates a sense of tension, making exploration of the interior far more exciting.

 

Right off the bat, the player has four ways of entering the building, though only one of these (the southern entrance) allows access to the real meat of the map. The other three are located on the northern side, and only the central one has any material impact, since it gives you the BFG and green armour (and an archvile 'surprise').

 

Spoiler

 

The fight in the main entrance is probably the most difficult. The combination of outside pressure from the afore-mentioned caco swarm and the lethal arachnotron, pinky/specter and shotgunner cocktail on the inside makes for a very tricky fight, especially if the mancubus and chaingunners in the left-hand room decide to join in. Side note, the set-piece with the shotgunners emerging from behind the pillars when you fire the first shot after opening the door also makes for a nice effect.

 

Spoiler

 

Once the player has gained a foothold within the main structure, the next challenge is figuring out how to progress. The first time I played the map, I didn't even notice the teleporter in the northwest section, so I had no clue what it was I was doing. That's actually something I like about 3IAC in general. Hell shouldn't make sense, and un-intuitive progression really helps solidify that feeling. Anyway, the actual goal is to find the two switches that will unlock said teleporter. Both of these switches are found in the eastern half of the building, the paths to both branching off from the east hallway.

 

Spoiler

 

The northern of these two switches is located at the end of a peculiar set of interconnected rooms, and pressing it initiates an even more peculiar encounter. When I first entered the room, I immediately noticed that the marble pillar things were forcing me to move in a zig-zag pattern.

 

Spoiler

 

I thought to myself "Ah, there are definitely going to revenants, and I'm going to have to run through that room quickly before any tracers are launched". I was only half right. After pressing the comp-blue switch a closet of sniper revenants is opened, but so is a closet full of pinkies and cacos, which promptly flood the escape route. The revenants then become the least of my problems, as they can be simply sniped from around a corner. The real concern is running out of ammo grinding through all the meat blocking my escape route. Needless to say, I found this choice to be a bit... odd. Not bad, just odd.

 

Spoiler

 

The southern switch is reached via a lift, which has two pinkies and a pain elemental on it, all of which are easily treated with precision rocket strikes. Another side note, I really like the little doom-cute button that lowers the lift. Nice touch.

 

Spoiler

 

The first half of the southern switch encounter consists of shotgunners and an arachnotron, easily dealt with. After pressing the switch however, two archviles are released. If you have collected the BFG, the fight is trivial, but can be quite brutal if you are low on ammo and somehow missed the SSG and the BFG (like I did on my first run).

 

Spoiler

 

After that, it is a simple matter of figuring out that the north-west teleporter exists, and teleporting to the 'roof' of the building. The roof encounter is fun enough, nothing exceptional, just a matter of waiting for the Cyberdemon to kill all the cacos and a) SSG-ing it to death (if you're me on my first run and still haven't found the BFG) or BFG-blasting it (if you are a normal person). Either way, the wide open space makes the fight trivial.

 

Spoiler

 

Emergence is not quite done, however. In order to get the blue key, you have to get into the green well (which took me an embarrassing five minutes to figure out) and take a teleporter to an odd room, and grab the blue key from a window overlooking what appears to be the Icon of Sin. Foreshadowing, perhaps? If the text-screen at the end of the level is to be believed, then yes.

 

Spoiler

 

Once the blue key as been acquired, you can finally exit the level, but not before disposing of a hapless pinky and chaingunner duo guarding the exit switch.

 

I didn't mention the level's secrets, since they are generally more obvious than the actual progression, but they are good enough and quite useful, vital even in the case of the backpack.

 

My overall impression of the level was very positive. It had a nice feeling of progression, starting the player off caught between a rock and a hard place, limiting their resources and putting them up against strong and varied opposition, before gradually empowering them to the point that by the time the Cyberdemon falls you feel like the king of this green-brick castle. It is always very satisfying to feel as though you mastered the map, a feeling that 3IAC will not hand out so willingly in the future (as my future write-ups for maps 7, 8 and 9 will not doubt prove).

 

TL;DR

Good map, imaginative, cohesive and fun.

[kalaeth]

MAP 06 : We are outside. A building rises from the floor. Cacos swarm the skies. An entry into a small courtyard and we find a BFG, just lying around, a sign from the god-mapper that this wont be an easy trip. Two more doors on the backside lead nowhere but have health and invisibility. Taking advantage of that we march into the front door. Now, it begins. On the one hand corridors, a switch that opens a switch that.. does something we have to believe.On the other side a room with pillars and a bluesphere at the end. We pass some damaging floor on the path to the switch and by the time we are back into the room of pillars, pinkies and specters are roaming. Switch, lift, spider, switch, revenants, switch, lift. But before, secret. A blue armor. Switch, down, switch, down. Back to the switch that opens a eye that opens a passage, cell pack, back pack, I'm packing! Back to the corridors, where a path anew is shown, a port is open and thrown into an arena. The cow falls prey to my BFG ray, the cacos shotgunned fall into the floor, tomatoes squished of life. Jump into the well, grab a key and the icon of sin stares at me! BAck to the port and away I go! 0 deaths, 11m08s, 100% K/S/I.

 

Total : 3 deaths, 1h 39m 39s

[Phobus]

MAP06: Emergence

A neat visual effect, with the castle emerging out of an empty space. Difficulty is very up and down, with two dual Arch-Vile encounters being the harder points (particularly the one with the BFG, which can catch you very unaware the first time) and the rest of the map being pretty light and breezy, even with a Cyberdemon and a decent-sized wave of Cacodemons. The monster count is about half that of the previous few maps, and you've got early access to the rocket launcher, chaingun, SSG and BFG. I missed out on the secret that didn't have a backpack in it, which deprived me of a few kills, but otherwise got through it all just fine (a couple of deaths early on due to the unexpected BFG ambush were my lot).

 

I like the story element here, with the glimpse of an IoS and the altered intermission text to follow it up. Nicely done.

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

MAP06 (Emergence):

 

Status:

*Deaths: 0

*Saves: none

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A huge building (or castle?) That comes out from the depths of the earth, everything really strange from the beginning, without a doubt what is inside this place is more interesting, and there is a lot of decoration everywhere Inside this site, among them we can find things like some pillars made with that known texture from Episode 3 of Doom 1, there is a Crusher in one of the rooms, there are elevators, next to the Crusher there is an area with many small pillars that They serve as a blockade and that form a very narrow path to another place with a small lagoon of toxic blood, and another with water, and up to the top you can see how high this site is, and we can also realize that access to the roof from that place is quite fast, which makes me really question the size of that great structure, but hey, the truth is that I quite liked all the visuals of that huge site. Now with the difficulty, I really must say that the difficulty here is a bit ugly, there are quite a few enemies throughout the interior of that site, among them we find the Hitscanners, Revenants, Archviles, Cacodemons, 1 Baron of Hell, Mancubus, Arachnatrons, Pinkys, Imps, and finally 1 Pain Elemental, we also have the Cyberdemon as the only boss on the roof of the structure. Something that I should highlight about this map is the fact that it spends a lot of ammunition at the beginning, therefore, coming very full of ammunition is the most ideal to have a good start in the face of the threats that are approaching, such as multiples Cacodemons that fly to the outskirts of that huge place, also, another thing to highlight about this place, is the low supply it gives to the BFG, leaving you with a horribly limited ammunition, but I don't think it is as ugly as very close encounters with the Archviles that inhabit this building (castle). In spite of all that, I had a great time, although with the concern raised to the ceiling by so many Hitscanners that I found in the game.

[tmorrow]

map07

An excellent and fun map taking place in a red carpeted manor with chandeliers. The "Dead Simple" map triggers for mancubi and arachnotrons are used. Killing the mancubi lowers a section down to some arachnotrons and a switch the raises the area back up again as well as opening the upper balcony area.

There is a void tunnel with a switch to lower the blue key and release cybie and friends in the red carpeted area below. The path to the exit is out in the void as well, lined with candles taking you to an inverted cross exit.