The DWmegawad Club plays: 180 Minutes Pour Vivre

[TJG1289]

Map28: Inhumation - JC

100% kills and secrets. Time: 32:31

Deaths: I didn't even bother keeping count.

 

This was the one I was dreading. The first straight up slaughtermap. There's no arguing about it. With over 1,000 enemies here, you're going to get your butt kicked from here to next Tuesday. You start out overlooking most of the map, and you can see the difficulty you're about to face here. You're given the lower 4 weapons and a Megasphere on this starting platform, but the RL and plasma are on opposite sides of the arena wall, so you'll need to get there. Here's what I did to get to them both without dying: Jump off the platform and head to one of the doors on the ground WITHOUT FIRING YOUR GUN. Open the door, and get in the room, making sure not to fire until the door is closed. Kill the 2 hell knights here, take the lift, and kill the other 2. Open this door, and hightail it to the closest end to get your perspective weapon, then start running toward the other end. The revs and archies on the pillars will see you, but still don't fire yet. You'll head into a structure with some imps and chaingunners, but keep running. Eventually, you'll get to the other side and grab the other gun. Now whenever you're ready, you can fire. This method not only keeps most of the enemies asleep, but the revs that teleport in when you grab the big guns won't do so until you fire too. Head back to the imp/chaingunner area to plasma a cybie and grab the yellow key. Now hightail it to either yellow door. as all the stupid flying fools are flying over the arena walls. Both yellow door areas are pretty tough, but it's honestly not as bad as the main arena. You'll still die a lot though. One has 3 ledges with revs, an alcove with mancubi, a few barons by a teleporter, and 2 archies on the floor. Taking the lift up to the mancubi spawn in imps. Hit the switch up there to lower a wall with a ton of hell nobles and 2 archies by those barons. Cross into this new area to spawn 2 more archies. When you're ready to teleport, head in and hopefully telefrag a cybie and grab the blue skull. The other yellow path is bigger and gives you more room to run around when the inevitable archie/nobles/rev trap springs. At least both give you Megaspheres and enough ammo to take care of everything. Telefrag this cybie and grab the red skull, and make your way back to the imp/chaingunner hall. You can now lower the wall by the exit. Both of the rev pillars have invuls on them (they're both secrets), so if it's safe, rocket the crap out of them and strafe-run to them. Jump down and kill as much as you can, then repeat. If you don't feel like doing that, just run for the exit once you grab the invul.

 

This level is VERY HARD. I died a lot, and I mean a lot. I didn't think I'd be able to get back up on the arena wall after getting the blue skull, just based on the opposition on the floor, the amount of archies around, and my health. After many, many tries, I was able to get back up and head to the red skull path. Once I was in the process of getting the invuls, some Cybies had spawned on the ground and were doing some great infighting, and I was able to do clean up without too much trouble. I did die right after killing the last enemy though, lol. This level was nowhere near as frustrating as the last one. I really liked the look of this one, being a red arena in a void, and the MIDI was great. 

[PeceMan]

map 29

 

This one was hard, really hard. In fact, too hard for me to finish. Not too hard for me to enjoy, though.

 

I managed to reach the final arena, but then i had to go to the bank IRL, and when I came back I wasn't in the mood for the fight. I gave it like 3 attempts, and then just accepted my defeat and entered degreeless mode.

 

Like other people have mentioned, this one is beautifull and huge. It doesn't look like it was made in 3 hours.

 

Let me confess: I don't like the BFG, and I dislike BFG spam gameplay. So subjectively, I didn't enjoy much of the level after the BFG was introduced. But objectively, the level was beautifull. I didn't have fun not beacuse it was poorly made, but because it wasn't for me. It was made for a different type of player, and it was made well.

 

9/10.

[PeceMan]

I think I've figured out the differences between a slaughter map I'd enjoy and one I'd hate: 

 

Enough Ammunition,

Enough Health,

 

And safe spots: resting places between fights, to catch my breath.

[BoxY]

Still behind. It's gonna be past the end of the month but I'll try to get this wad done for the heck of it.

 

map25

Pretty savage map as you could expect from this phase of the wad, mostly because of the two main fights with the rest of the map feeling like a breather by comparison. Megaspheres are now provided as standard, however each one usually has to last through multiple fight phases so health and armour can still end up feeling quite tight since there aren't many other items to patch yourself back up. I screwed myself hardcore during the end fight after saving with 50 hp and spent what felt like the next half an hour being constantly one shot by the awful fucking viles on the upper ledges. I enjoyed the design of the fights but my patience started running out and I was definitely happy to see the exit.

 

map26

I found the opening room pretty unfun, mostly because having to snipe the viles crammed inside the wall of mancubus lard with only plasma/hitscan was just terrible. It's cool to make a map without a common weapon like a rocket launcher, but then if you also use monster placement that's a perfect textbook example of a situation where having that weapon is a good thing then it feels like you're wasting the gimmick. I got so unlucky with the vile movements that I ran out of plasma completely and had to kill the cyber with a chaingun or something...not cool. Fortunately the fights after that were worth the hassle, particularly the huge crusher room was a lot of fun. The exit fight was pretty nuts, I have no idea what the intended method is but I sorta just crammed myself into a corner and spammed the viles and cybers down by what felt like mostly luck, but that's good enough for me.

 

map27

This kind of Roofi map still isn't for me but I did enjoy this one a lot more than the mind-numbing blandness of map23's fights. Running rings around respawning turret monsters for what feels like an eternity is still a snore but the fights had more personality for me. The vile and cyber party at the end was just so ridiculous I couldn't help but like it, and it was satisfying to find a way to finally kill them off (because they actually stay dead).

[continuum.mid]

Noticed that nominations were open, so I have two:

 

+++ Perdition's Gate

 

One of the two megawads created by Wraith Corp, and released exclusively on WizardWorks CDs. Few WADs of the time paid as much attention to their story as Perdition's Gate, and the custom textures are pretty great also.

 

+++ Freedoom Phase 2

 

This free/libre alternative to Doom 2 is still incomplete, but it's surprisingly good in its current state, and definitely worth playing.

 

+++ Doom Zero

 

Someone else nominated this, and I'd gladly play it, it's a pretty interesting looking WAD!

Edited March 30, 2021 by northivanastan

[xX_Lol6_Xx]

Hi, sorry for not playing, school had me dead

 

+++Freedoom phase 1. It has good music and good maps IMO

+++Freedoom Phase 2. It's rather good

Edited March 30, 2021 by Lol 6

[LadyMistDragon]

I'd like to nominate +++Base Ganymede. A surprisingly impressive Ultimate Doom megawad for something created by one person and with largely base textures. Also, they're speedmaps and I think I'll do a Wadazine feature on this in May, so I'd be so down with this. Otherwise, ++Perdition's Gate because I really don't like Doom Zero that much, though I'll probably play it.

 

 

Edit: You know what? We should give @MtPain27 a chance to try it, so another vote for +++Heretic!

 

Edited March 31, 2021 by LadyMistDragon
forcing Mtpain27 to play Heretic

[LadyMistDragon]

11 hours ago, Walter confetti said:

+++ Heretic

If you're 555, I'm 666!!(sorry, couldn't help it, lol)

[dei_eldren]

A lot of good suggestions, i think, but i'll cast my votes for these:

+++ Base Ganymede

+++ Doom Zero

+++ Endless Torture

[ReaperAA]

I know I haven't participated, but if Heretic gets chosen, i will certainly participate in the next month so

 

+++Heretic

[dei_eldren]

MAP30 (HNTR, Pistol start, Blind) - Despite the monstrous monster-count i wanted to give this a little shake.  i like the unique idea of the cave-system, and i really enjoyed the contents of the first cave, as it was as tough as one would expect, but enjoyable for me without slaughter. Wasn't so lucky with the second cave, though.. i got through the first section, actually, but stopped enjoying it at some point, and when the second slaughter-part came, i decided to save my nerves... i could've got through it in few attempts, probably, but without any sense of accomplishment, so i didn't get to see what the rest of the caves offered.  The structure and general idea of this final level was really good, though.

 

For me about 70% of the wad was various degrees of fantastic, while the rest was frustrating and just couple times disappointing.  Still, most classic wads, unless wholly thematic, also have incorporated into them levels i don't enjoy so i won't let this bring the wad down too much - thus shooting directly somewhere in my top 8.  Am a better and more contented Doomer for having played this.

[WH-Wilou84]

Base Ganymede and Heretic are both solid choices, but since you've met a Raven-made monster this month, it makes sense to pick Heretic as a follow-up.

+++ Heretic

Map30 is quite long (both the regular map and the bonus one actually), so I suggest taking breaks mid-session.

[Walter confetti]

Aren't Base Ganymede already played in the club? Or i'm confusing with another thing?

[Ofisil]

*prays to Satan that someday these people will play Doom: Damnation*

[SiFi270]

+++Heretic

[Biodegradable]

MAP30 - Celui-Qui-Voit-Les-Mondes

HMP | Continuous Play with Saves | GZDoom + Dead Marine

 

Of the last batch of maps, surprisingly enough, this was one I actually performed pretty damn well or, at the very least, by my own standards when it comes to slaughter encounters. I only died a handful of times on the trek to the big fight at the end. The majority of my playthrough was surprisingly fun and I enjoyed myself immensely. I feel like this WAD overall has no doubt sharpened my Dooming skills at least to a certain degree, and I think I'm allowed to be stoked about that, don't you? Hehehe. Each of the 5 sections you're teleported to has a unique charm and challenge to them that were nail-biting, but actually felt fun to play and I can't stress enough how much that felt good for me as a non-slaughter player. I can't say if I have a particular section in mind that stood out to me, but sincerely, I found the majority of it good fun. Unfortunately, the IoS fight is another story.

 

I couldn't do it. I tried. I managed to figure out the progression but I just couldn't beat it. My original footage is 2 hours long, that second hour is spent on this fight. I had to throw in the towel for my own sanity, I'm sorry. It was all just too much and I couldn't for the life of me get enough rockets (seems to be more than three) to kill The Great Eyeball Wall. I feel a bit deflated with that experience given how well I did for the majority of the map and I guess there's nothing stopping me from feeling some sense of accomplishment in that at least. Lord help me I tried, but I just couldn't hack it, kids.

 

 

Now to list out my favourite maps of the megaWAD in their chronological order:

1. MAP02 - “Yttrium” by [WH]-Wilou84
2. MAP06 - “Complexe Cendé” by JCD
3. MAP07 - “Chaologie Quantique” by Datacore, [WH]-Wilou84
4. MAP08 - “Ruée vers Laure” by Roofi
5. MAP09 - “Pour une Vengeance” by [WH]-Wilou84
6. MAP15 - “Feinte” by [WH]-Wilou84
7. MAP16 - “Sur le Chemin de Satan” by Nemo06
8. MAP17 - “Etat D’Urgence” by Oxyde, [WH]-Wilou84
9. MAP20 - “Infernale Résurgence” by Datacore

 

Conclusion

180 Pour Vivre is a beautiful and deadly collection of mapping prowess from our colleagues in the French Doom Community that is a sight to behold, feared and greatly respected. While I found it aggravating at certain times, I also found it immensely fun and feel stronger as a Doomer for having played it. It introduced me to my new favourite mapper, Wilou, who's work I will no doubt be exploring in my own time, and is a great example of what can be achieved through speedmapping when you have the right talent behind it. It'll beat the living crap out of you and you'll be begging for another punch. It's sickening! ...and I have nothing but great appreciation for it. I will revisit it some day soon and will be treating as my own personal sparring arena to practice my approach to this style of mapping.

 

As for my vote, I've changed my mind. Terribly sorry for any inconvenience to our gracious host, @dobu gabu maru. Instead, I'd like to add to the tally and nominate +++Doom Zero if you'd be so kind. This was a fun month, you guys. :^)

Edited March 30, 2021 by Biodegradable

[Moravectomascb]

Who play in Glboom+ and can help me?

In bonus map 30 in first hard room, when I use that switch, Cacademons will come to that room, but I watched video, and Cacademons can telegrafed each other, but not in Glboom+. They will still spawn and it will make imposiible(or not?) to kill them, because Archvilles will come. :( I tried to have 1 spidermastermind alive, but it didnt helped me.

And this map is harder than other map from this map. :/

Edited March 30, 2021 by Moravectomascb

[Azure_Horror]

Map 29 Xanthophobie  (by [WH]-Wilou84)
GLBloom+; UV; Pistol start (Why there is no BFG start option?)

The map begins with a corridor. A corridor of death. Why "of death"? Well...
This is one the most difficult encounters on a very hard map. Either the player will die, or lots of demons will die, no third option. The goal is simple: to punch through many layers of monsters. The rocket launcher is your friend. But there is a twist: there are 5 cyberdemons behind your back ;) . So you must position yourself carefully to avoid their rockets, while holding the advancing demons at bay. And surprises do not stop there. Eventually 4 Nightwatch cacos will also attack you from behind. Those fiends have enough HP to distract you for some time. And monsters in the corridor will use this time to advance! The whole encounter demands a good strategy and precise positioning, because you are blatantly being attacked from two opposite directions. Also, the homing revenant missiles in this encounter are terrifying.
 
After the corridor, there is a big stretch of relatively easy encounters. But the player should be vigilant. After all, this is map29, nobody promised that there is no archviles teleporting into the recently cleared hallway... or corridor...

 

The BFG room contains the ultimate revenant battle. Lots of space, lots of skeletons and lots of plasma. Sounds easy, right? Wrong! The fight is not as difficult as the corridor of death, yet it is still a very hard fight. The trick is to start a big circlestrafe, but this is easier said than done: there are just so many revenants in that room! There is also a side goal of preserving plasma. Wasting plasma is very bad, because, you will also face off against cyberdemons, archviles and nightwatch cacodemons in this same area.

 

The last fight on Xanthophobie feels like the hardest fight of all 180 Minutes Pour Vivre. There are many, many waves of monsters in one open room with golden columns. This is a very hard BFG gauntlet. Ammo is not a problem, but everything else is. The first phase begins with revenants and barons, which is already hard enough. But soon the archviles start joining the fray... I don't remember the fight in details, because it is insanely intense. But I recall around 3 waves of archviles, at least 2 waves of revenants, one (or two?) wave of cyberdemons, and many other demons: nightwatch cacos, Heresiarches, pain elementals...
 

Visually, Xanthophobie is beatifully designed and looks distinct from everything that comes before it. The place looks like some fortified, yet richly decorated castle/palace. It provides a battlefield worthy of all the glorious and difficult combat.

Overall impression: this whole level goes very well with "The Grand Cathedral" soundtrack from Serious Sam: the second encounter. The map is all about the combat, and it has insanely good combat. The combat is also harder than everything which came before in the 180 Minutes Pour Vivre. I feel that I am not skilled enough player yet to truly appreciate the UV difficulty of Xanthophobie. Nevertheless, I enjoyed completing the map. The last fight is definitely my favourite part of Xanthophobie. I think, even taken alone, the last room could have been a very good doom map.

Edited March 30, 2021 by Azure_Horror

[Endless]

Time to wrap this up!

 

MAP27: Sable Brûlant by Alexis Jeanson (Roofi)

I have to say that I am a bit biased by the visuals of this map. I love the type of color used and the textures work wonderfully to bring a sort of classic life with a modern twist. A small map with a simple premise and brutal combat. Cool as heck. 4/5

 

MAP28: Inhumation by Jean-Charles Dorne (JCD)

A beast. A real beast that will probably break many. This is a huge map in terms of the number of enemies, offering brutal combat in every sense and a very entertaining gameplay for slaughter lovers, unfortunately, I'm not one of them. 3/5

 

MAP29: Xanthophobie by William Huber (WH-Wilou84)

Gigantic, fatal and amazing. A massive adventure of more than 1000 demons where we face in a scenario of infernal proportions. Challenging, punishing and definitely one of the hardest maps in the set. 4/5

 

MAP30: Celui-Qui-Voit-Les-Mondes by Maxime Bisiaux (Datacore), Alexis Jeanson (Roofi), Franck Livolant (franckFRAG), Jean-Charles Dorne (JCD), Arnaud Florian (Oxyde) & William Huber (WH-Wilou84)

I'm pretty sure this titan was made in over 180 minutes. A huge, gigantic map that is as full of demons as it is varied rooms. With a system of teleporters to different arenas/combat zones, this behemoth feels like a complete odyssey. Absolute beast and a magnificent piece of work. 5/5

 

Secret maps:

Spoiler

MAP31: Dictes Moy Où, N'en Quel Pays est Sérana, la Belle Doomeuse by Jean Bon (Jambon)

A simple map with a funny layout based on two bases connected by bridges. Short, with somewhat lackluster visuals, but decent. 3/5

 

MAP32: Rêve Brisé by Alexis Jeanson (Roofi)

Small map with a more gothic and claustrophobic design, featuring a variety of traps and interesting paths. Unique aesthetics and a quite appreciable mood. 4/5

 

Was a very fun megawad and one that deserves all the praise it gets. Some of those final maps were an absolute blast! Anyway, time to vote... and looks like Heretic is going to win! Nice, I like that.

 

+++ Heretic

+++ Base Ganymede

[TJG1289]

Map29: Xanthophobie - [WH]-Wilou86

100% kills and secrets. Time: 36:10

Deaths: nowhere near as many as last map, but still a lot.

 

This may be my favorite map in the set? Idk, but it's one of my favs when it comes to slaughtermaps, as this one is pretty fair. I mean, the very first fight of the map features roughly the population of mid-size high school, but it's not actually hard. I beat that fight first try. You get a ton of rockets so just go to town, switching to plasma when the tougher enemies get close. While that fight wasn't bad, when a bunch of archies spawned back at the beginning, that's when I started dying. This is a map where every encounter is going to be tough. Just going down a set of stairs nets you 2 hell knights. But its giant arena fights are where things get tough. After going through a big lava room with not much issue, even if it did have a cybie in it, you grab the BFG and get ready to fight a horde of revs, with like 5 cybies on a ledge that you can easily not get in sight of. A ledge of archies guard a blue skull which are easily taken out with peek-a-boo rocketing once all the revs are gone. Now that you have the blue skull you can go back to the beginning of the level, with only a cramped Cybie in that chaingunner lava cage being added. Hitting the blue switch at the beginning allows you access to the ledge that those 5 cybies at the beginning where shooting you from, and with the BFG you can take them out from afar. Grab the yellow skull and get ready for another fight at the other end of that opening corridor. Now in the red skull room, it's time for the biggest fight in the set so far. Roughly half of this map's monsters are in this fight, and I think I had like a count of 1800 total enemies in the map by the time I got here (thanks archies and pain elementals). There's a switch you hit that starts the first wave, so once you're ready hit it. There's not much to say here other than BFG the crap out of everything while constantly strafing around the outside of the arena so you can use the pillars as cover. There are 2 skull switched that when hit will lower the 3 invuls in the center for a short time, so use them wisely. I used 2 in this wave: once when the cybies showed up and another when there seemed to be too many baddies here. After all the carnage stops, you can hit the 2nd switch that's now been revealed to start the final wave. It's pretty much more of the same here, but a bunch of Heresiarches are part of this one too which could be great for infighting. Eventually, the wall revealing the exit will be revealed, but will have a lot of barons blocking it, so keep mind of their projectiles as you avoid everything else that's spawned in.

 

Beating this makes me feel that I can actually do some slaughtermaps. Granted, I have to save a lot, but I can do it without cheats. Level looks fantastic. Love the gold and red. Very well detailed. MIDI is fine. Secrets were kinda easy to find, but the one in the cubby after grabbing the red skull can be easy to miss.

 

Map30: MAP30: Celui-Qui-Voit-Les-Mondes - Datacore, Roofi, franckFRAG, JCD, Oxyde, and [WH]-Wilou84

 

Alright, let's get this out of the way: this is a monster of a map whose final room I can't beat on UV, and I'm not taking down the difficulty for one fight. I also don't really have time to replay this level normally as I want to do the bonus map 30 tomorrow. So, for this one, I am playing in God mode, just as a refresher for me, as I do want to talk about the level. I should be able to remember what fights gave me trouble last time. I will be taking the path closest to the start first, then working my way up.

 

First path is a nice stone path with some branching areas with lava abound. Thankfully, there's no actual slaughter parts to this path, but plenty of tricky areas. There's a long hallway that feature a ton of chaingunners that can be taken out carefully by not charging in. There's a big area that's at first just filled with zombies, but then a cybie shows up. Kill him, hit the switch, and ANOTHER cybie pops in. The final part to this path has a bunch of imps that need to be taken care of before a teleporting archie comes in to make stuff not fun. Head back to the beginning of this path to hit a switch, opening up some rooms with barons and mancubi, while revs and a cybie show up in the path. Use the archie's pillars for cover and try to take the cybie out from afar. Hit the teleporter and one path done.

 

Second path starts out easy enough, but ramps up once you get in the fort. You've got a large area with damaging floors here. There's rad suits, but they're down a path with a bunch of crushers, so there's time wasted. You have to drop down to find a switch that raises some platforms, but the path to it features a pretty nasty trap complete with a Heresiarch that will block your path back. The most annoying part of this path is a Cybie that is in a small area with a bunch of trees. It took many tries for me to kill him. Then you step on the pressure plate there to lower the damaging floor and ANOTHER cybie comes out of the wall, so you have to fight a second one here. Also take into account the archies, flying enemies, and the ones spilling out of the newly revealed paths down below, and you got a tough one.

 

Middle path is where things start to get slaughter-y. You can ignore that stationary cybie and just head to the end of the path with the Megasphere. You'll be put into an arena with a cybie and some hell knights that are just spectators. But soon after, archies come out of a wall, pain elementals come from behind the stands, and a few more cybies and a Heresiarch teleport in. You don't have a lot of room to maneuver here, so expect a lot of pain. Eventually you'll be able to hit a switch allowing for you to head down to a small alleyway with a cybie guarding a green armor. Take care of him, and now you're ready for the big fight of this path. That opening corridor will now open up, revealing enough revs, imps, pinkies, nightwatches, cybies, Heresiarches, and archies to fill a football arena. There is an invul here, so put it to use. Once you open up the telelporter room with too many archies, blast them away and get out of there. This one is a very tough one, but I'd say the first fight is the toughest since it's in a smaller area.

 

Fourth path continues the slaughter, going into a castle or fort now. Your first battle ain't nothing as it's just 2 archies and some tough guys, but nothing to crazy. Though crazy will soon happen as a switch lowers some archies and opens up areas with hell knights, imps, pinkies, and a cyb (revs too?). Nothing some rockets won't fix. Next area is similar, starting with little opposition before hitting a switch reveals cybs and archies, and more. Head back up the stairs to find a secret invul, as it's kinda needed. The final passage looks like it's just a long windy hall, but get to the end with the archie to open it up to a imp, hell knight and rev party with a cyb bodyguard. This fight is actually pretty easy, especially once you take care of the archies in this room, then you can just rocket everything.

 

Final path I think may be the most balanced. It's a marble fort with quite the opposition, but it's designed in a way where you can take your time and not rush things, so you can take out whatever you need to before rushing in to the next area. There are quite a lot of tough fights in this, and the only fight I would consider to be a slaughter is in a big enough room with enough ammo that it's actually one of the easier parts of the path. Also, there's 3 secrets here but I only figured out how to get to 1 of them. It's a fun area.

 

Time for the final area. The path leading to it will show how to make progress during the fight. Some fleshy walls will open that you'll need to rocket to progress. 2 of them are in this little path, and hitting both will open up the bars to the BFG and the final teleporter. Now you're in the final area, and in the hardest fight in the WAD. As I mentioned, I can't beat this. There's enough revs here to fill Wyoming, and there's also a few cybs, a ledge full of mancubi, some arachnos and flying enemies, and most annoyingly, a modified demon spitter than only spawns lost souls. Good luck. What you need to do is lower the cyb pillar closest to the mancubi ledge and jump to it. Hit the switch there to open 2 flesh walls you'll need to shoot from each cyb pillar. Once you do that, an alcove opens up with 2 archies (just what was needed here) and another switch. Hitting this will open up a final flesh wall part with a Romero head with extra health, so rocket the crap out of it quickly. Idk how you are supposed to do this without cheating, since I don't think this fight is fair at all. This ending is literally the only bad part of the WAD I feel, as there's not a big enough variety of monsters for infighting, and it's a relatively small arena.

 

So yeah, that is one beast of a level. I enjoy all 5 paths leading up to the final fight, and they're all unique enough to be interesting. MIDI is pretty good too. All that's left is the bonus map 30 that I haven't actually played yet. Hopefully that doesn't take absurdly long, but there is more than 2000 enemies...

[Andromeda]

7 hours ago, Biodegradable said:

MAP30 - Celui-Qui-Voit-Les-Mondes

 

Unfortunately, the IoS fight is another story.

 

I couldn't do it. I tried. I managed to figure out the progression but I just couldn't beat it. My original footage is 2 hours long, that second hour is spent on this fight. I had to throw in the towel for my own sanity, I'm sorry. It was all just too much and I couldn't for the life of me get enough rockets (seems to be more than three) to kill The Great Eyeball Wall. I feel a bit deflated with that experience given how well I did for the majority of the map and I guess there's nothing stopping me from feeling some sense of accomplishment in that at least. Lord help me I tried, but I just couldn't hack it, kids.

Aw man, all you had to do was follow the damn train, CJ stand near the hole and fire a couple of BFG shots :(

[Doritos420]

I'm not caught up at all, been busy with school and work (I have a bit of time off for Easter so I hope to catch up).

Anyway I'm here to cast my vote.

 

+++ Doom Zero

 

It's a shame, but most of the megawads I wanted to nominate have already been featured in the club.

[BoxY]

map28

I'm fine with a good slaughtermap but this isn't my type. It really leans heavily on the HR2-style "spam a giant heap of monsters on raised areas so it takes as much time and ammo as possible to get rid of them" school of monster placement, both in the outdoor areas and the smaller fights inside, which is and remains incredibly boring to me. The indoor fights were a bit more interesting but I still found them pretty grindy (revs in the corner of the BK room that teleport back in 2 waves being the worst offenders) and a lot of the viles placed inside masses of enemies were pretty obnoxious - in the RK room second fight the ones crammed back in the hell knight/rev wave combined with the ones in the west hallway were so annoying that I ended up beating the fight by just standing in the one small corner where neither could see me and spamming everything down with plasma, which feels unintended but was the only non-RNG solution I could find and basically wasted the appeal of the whole fight for me - why spend time building a nice arena if the player can't move around in it?

Also, the most inexcusable thing in the map for me - the teleport destination isn't properly targeted on the cybers on the pillars with the keys, there's too much room for them to move so when you teleport to the key there's like an 80% chance you teleport next to them and just instantly fucking die for no reason and the only way around it is spamming saves until you get lucky (or being psychic and knowing in advance that you have to kill those guys before getting the keys I guess, which is just as bad). Considering that even a beginner mapper would be able to fix this in 5 seconds, it makes me disappointed that such a dumb mistake would end up in the final version of an otherwise quality wad.

When I was done with the key fights I dropped down to deal with the final wave, which was disappointing because the number of viles mixed in with everything at this point was too large to actually move around in the open for more than 2 seconds so I just went in the little cubby with the soul sphere and spammed everything down with rockets - another fight where just standing in a corner and holding left mouse button is the best strategy, which was a really underwhelming way to finish off the map.

[LadyMistDragon]

22 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

I'

 

Edit: You know what? We should give @MtPain27 a chance to try it, so another vote for +++Heretic!

 

Wahaha, everyone agrees with me (except for Doom Zero)!

 

[ironicmoustache]

I went back and ground my way through MAP29 on UV; still died more times than anybody reasonably should at the start to Cyberdemon rockets from behind followed by a homing Revenant missile, but whatever. The final room was definitely crazier, but having everything in plain sight meant it felt less frustrating than the opening, even if it was technically harder.

 

Crispy, UV, pistol start.

 

MAP30 - Celui-Qui-Voit-Les-Mondes

 

Quite a map, this. I chose to tackle the sections starting from the switch. So possibly the reverse order intended, but I don’t know.

 

Section 1 - I’m presuming this is JC’s section, as the marble-heavy texturing does bring to mind Vanguard MAP01. A lot of heavy resistance here, but the encounters are mostly straightforward. No real need for 360-degree spatial awareness as the fights generally come at you from straight ahead.

 

The big battle was hairy but relatively merciful; supplies are plentiful throughout the map so you can save the Megasphere for later, and there’s enough distance to utilise rockets to chunk down the onrushing enemies and some of the Cacos. The final room was hairy but nothing out of the ordinary. Good start.

 

Section 2 - Unsure whose section this is, but the first big fight kicked my ass more than a few times. Dispatch two AVs, trigger some infighting between the Cyberdemon and the Baron + HK mass, hope you don’t get blocked, dip in for a Soulsphere before running across to the other side of the map to grind enemies down with rockets. Fun, if quite tiring to get right. 

 

The rest of the map went relatively smoothly. Sure, the encounters were just as bruising, but there was generally enough room to manoeuvre and/or just spam rockets downrange, like with that nasty switch trap. Short, sweet, and with enough teeth to rip you a new arsehole: very likely my favourite of the sections.

 

Section 3 - Definitely franckFRAG’s contribution. Despite trying to make it harder than MAP29, it’s not all that hard… after a few tries at that first room with the four (or was it five?) AVs and Cyberdemon. The Invulnerability Sphere in the second half of the map gives the player enough time to carve a path through the monster clusterfuck towards the back of the area. After that, it’s a matter of carefully placed rockets, some monster surfing, and periodically scooping up one of the many, many Megaspheres. Maybe I got lucky with monster movement, but I’ll take it.

 

I really disliked the AVs guarding the exit teleporter. They felt like a tedious waste of ammo more than a challenge. I can see using the AVs as a way to drain the player’s supplies, but cells and rockets are plentiful in the arena, so it’s easy to get back up to 100/600 (or very close to it).

 

Section 4 - Roofi’s, I presume. It’s relatively low-key (but then, anything would feel low-key after franckFRAG’s slaughter-fest) but still packs a few punches for the careless player. I appreciated the Rad Suit angle and enjoyed trying to get through the crushers as quickly as possible to maximise my time with the powerups. I, for some godforsaken reason, had more trouble with Roofi’s final fight than franckFRAG’s. It’s probably got something to do with actually having open space to run into Revenant rockets and get blasted by AV attacks, haha. 

 

Section 5 - Moody stone and lava section, probably meant to be played first as there’s not much to it beyond that annoying final Rev + Cyberdemon corridor; I’d run out of cells and rockets by then, so it was a real grind. Probably the only time I felt a bit of frustration creeping in going through the sections. The two bog-standard solo Cyberdemon encounters before that were particularly dull.

 

IoS section - I tapped out. Well beyond my capabilities on UV. I checked it out on HMP, and, well, it was, conversely, a bit easy with the Invulnerability Sphere and much-reduced enemy count. Progression is fine, if slightly obtuse. It's a logical end to the WAD, and I appreciated the fleshy twist to exposing the IoS, but the enemies... phew. Not for me, at least not on UV.

 

Most of it is one of the best MAP30 experiences I’ve had. Each path is enjoyable, unique, and satisfyingly challenging. The final room left a sour taste in my mouth on UV, but that’s entirely on me. I don’t think I’m going to try the alternate MAP30.

 

---

 

As for 180MPV itself, it definitely stands out amongst the WADs I’ve played as an exceptionally high-quality offering. With only a few duff maps—and even then, they were dull rather than outright bad—and a whole lot of bruising, manic fun, I enjoyed almost all of my time with it. It's undoubtedly a bit above my skill level here and there, but that’s nothing to do with the WAD and entirely on me.

Edited March 31, 2021 by ironicmoustache

[Aaaaaaaahhh!]

I've got nine maps to finish, and I will. Again, sorry for not giving a write up of each map but 've had a lot of fun with this .wad. Looking forward to more material from everyone involved in this project. There was not a single map that I hated, a few that gave me a fair share of trouble and frustration sure. They were all well made and I felt the passion that went into each one. Thanks for this treat France, I was not disappointed! 

[dobu gabu maru]

Heretic is at 7 votes, Doom Zero at 4, Basy Ganymede is at 3. Last chance to get in your votes people!

 

[baja blast rd.]

I'll cast the tie-breaking vote for playing +++Alpacalypse 32 times. 

[WH-Wilou84]

6 hours ago, ironicmoustache said:

MAP30 - Celui-Qui-Voit-Les-Mondes

 

Section 2 - Unsure whose section this is [...]

Here's an overview of who made what in this map :





@Moravectomascb IIRC there's an option to allow monster telefragging in map30 in the Options Menu.
I'll provide a screen once I can access my home computer.

Also there's no Spider Mastermind in 180mpv. The Heresiarh is a replacement boss.
Are you using a mod or another wad on top of 180mpv.wad / 180mpv_b.wad ?
 

[ironicmoustache]

Great, thanks for the info @WH-Wilou84!