RTA speedruns on Hurt Me Plenty

[MxCraven]

I am totally gonna get rekt for this one, but here goes.

Ultra Violence is too damn hard for speedrunners to learn, and there's not enough monsters to guide you in ITYTD.

 

For about a week I've been trying to learn and route FreeDOOM to get the ILs done on UV-Speed below the par times, but to practice I've been on Hurt Me Plenty and doing full episode runs. (FreeDOOMs Ep1 has a difficulty on par with Ultimate DOOM's Ep2) I've not been playing Doom long, but for most people getting into this game, even with RTA (Real Time Attack) runs allowing saves and loads (since it takes the full time from start to finish). I never finished Ep1 of Ultimate until I decided to grind it on UV because on easy (monster spawns) there weren't enough mobs to guide me to the next place (admittedly I suck at mazes, and no guide can help unless it's a big "Go here" on the map).

I know this probably isn't the perfect place to post this when the speedrun.com forums exist but I'd like to hear the more general communities opinion on <UV speedrunning to at least give people who suck a chance to get in. ITYTD is almost treated as nomon and UV is too hard for most players to start out with, and even for me after over 15 runs on HMP and being able to do it half with my eyes closed at this point. I can also quite happily beat Ep1 Ultimate Doom on UV with a bit of patience.

Speedrunning is an amazing way to experience this game, and Hurt Me Plenty is a difficulty that I feel most people can achieve (and it's usually the recommended starting place for new players). This never has to touch the demo side of running, since no deaths runs on that end should entirely be ran on the hardest difficulties especially when we're talking about single levels, but for episode long runs or full game stuff under RTA timings it'd be a good intro and learning place to compare if we had sets on lower places.

Just kinda wanting to get some input on this from people who've been playing for many years and have much more experience in custom WADs (I tried some Halloween stuff and ended up on Hey Not Too Rough after the first room, and that's with a secret armour and health stash (it was Tangerine Nightmare))

Cheers :3