The DWmegawad Club plays: Zone 400

[dei_eldren]

MAP10 - Katherine Space Security (HNTR, pistol start): K 89%, I 84%, S 0%, T 11:11, D 0 - If the last fight had not been cheesable, i can admit i would have not finished this map.  Too slaughterish for my taste, especially the ending, but on all my three playthroughs, i simply ran to the exit as fast as i could.  The level is frantic, and there are no casual encounters - even the breathers are more challenging than usual, or at least it felt like that to me. 

After i understood what's going on, i sort of liked the opening room, and the process of methodical clearing, first the Imps and hitscanners, then Revenants.  And then the time to release the Hell Knights.  On my second run i released the Hell Knights without clearing the room to get infighting, and it worked, but i preferred to take care of everything myself, as enough rockets were given.

 

The BK fight was insane, and i don't know how others manage it, but i simply stayed up there, firing at them from safety as the demons did a good job killing each other, and then went back and killed the Mancubi and Revenant who had appeared in the previous room, probably from the ammo/weapons closet that had opened up there.

The bridge behind the RK door on the other hand was surprisingly easy, only one Revenant first, and then two Cacodemons with a couple of Lost Souls, but not complaining!  And then there was the pandemonium after the YK, which i left behind.  i couldn't deal with the hordes and the Arch-Vile in the middle of them, i've no idea what could have been done there, so i just ran.  Also, i didn't like the constant teleporting some monsters did, the only good use of teleporting, in my opinion, was behind the RK door, with the Pinkies, that's the only one that made sense to me.

 

i didn't even have the presence of mind to look for the secrets or care about them, as i found this map rather stressful.  i guess BFG would've helped, which on continuous run i should have had if i hadn't stupidly missed it a couple levels back (possible it is available in a secret somewhere in this map).  A lot could be speculated about Katherine based on this level, whether she inspired the crushers (...), or the name (did she need space?), if she was all over the place, or perhaps she was a ninja, able to sort out any situation that presented itself, or perhaps she was happy to skip challenging things like i was at the end, hah!  i can't quite decide which of these features is the most exclusive to this map (crushers i don't remember being used before...).  (i do have a viable psychological theory for the next map, however.)

 

Anyway, not my favourite, though the structure is very nice, and i did enjoy most of the combat.  Just that this kind of quasi-slaughter is not my thing at all.  As this episode draws to a close, i hope MAP12 will again be less slaughterish. 

 

On the other hand, aside from all that, i'm happy with my 3rd run on pistol start (there were really no problems with ammo or health if one was just a bit careful) and here's a recording of it that makes me almost feel good about my game: dei-z400-map10.zip

 

EDIT: Oh yes, forgot the mention that the music reminded me a lot of John Carpenter's classic Escape from New York.

 

Also, those secrets were seriously worth the little trouble finding them took!  i found them, and played the ending properly (not hard to run to the AV closet and kill them with the BFG), and have to now consider replaying MAP11 since am in such good health and so well equipped...

Edited August 10, 2021 by dei_eldren
music

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 09 - Cath's Communications (UV, pistol-start)

 

 

I don't really feel like saying much but basically, I died a dozen times, nine in the poison sludge room and 3 after picking up the blue key. Cramped as the last map, only with considerably nicer visuals. Naturally, I didn't figure out how to unlock the secret until I was done with the fight. I would say try to target the Revenant because getting him to infight can be difficult with how quick he moves. It says something that the last large fight didn't kill me, though the Arch-vile placement is bad enough that things get tricky. I was running low on plasma, so I couldn't exactly do that. Idk, this may be the wrong time to play it(early to mid-afternoon), but I'm unlikely to lower the difficulty when this doesn't really stand out in any way that I'll do that now.

[Capellan]

 

[DuckReconMajor]

MAP09: Cath's Communications - dsda-doom - skill 4 pistol start - restart and several rewinds

 

Definitely needed the rewind help on this one, the monster placement in the first room proved very effective against me.

The space-station-y feel at the start kind of reminded me of WOS MAP06

I let myself get trapped in the starting area halfway through when a horde swarmed the first hallway. Fighting my way out was surprisingly exciting

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Book Lord]

MAP 10 – Katherine Space Security

Doomsday Engine, UV-Fast, Continuous, blind run w/saves

 

If these were former security headquarters, the hellspawn felt somewhat obliged to restore the garrison and max it out. Every nook and cranny were filled with opposition and reinforcements were deployed at every key pickup. I sensed a strong determination to hinder the player, instil a false security and then surprise him with attacks from multiple directions. What Katherine had to do with all of this, only the author can relate.

 

The first area was not so difficult, but a pistol starter has only bullets and chaingun to deal with a bunch of Imps, a Mancubus, and two sneaky Revenants. I refused to make my life so painful and took advantage of my carry-over SSG, but I decided to handle the subsequent Hell Knight horde only with the available basic weapons. This is a stipulation I made with myself. It required jumping down and moving swiftly, but it was a lot of fun. I adore killing Hell Nobles with SSG.

Spoiler

The pattern was similar to MAP08 (three coloured doors, areas opening into each other and filling with fresh hit points to mow down), with a couple of interesting variations. The first one was a double crusher, which caused my first death since I ran too fast and unprepared into the opposition ahead. I got surrounded and could not escape. On the second attempt, I rocketed the hitscanners and then cleared the adjacent room at my own pace.

 

The BK ambush released a hefty amount of demons in the starting area, but I preferred to retreat to the crusher corridor and use it as a choke point, which was a winning strategy. I also realised that the plasma gun and Soul Sphere secret could be reached with some cat burglar acrobatics (not the intended way though).

Spoiler

The path to the YK was ok for taking a breath, killing some frontal aggression and a group of Cacodemons & Lost Souls emerging from the pitch black of outer space. One last spread-out horde of monsters was unleashed to stop the player from leaving. My idea was to go for max kills and I found a safe spot by the red door. Monsters could not open the door and teleport lines prevented them from reaching me there. I was still gloating when the Arch-Vile raised a crushed Chaingunner as a ghost, who filled me with lead at point-blank.

 

So, how was Katherine? She showed persistence, stubbornness, and strength of will, but these qualities did not turn the scale in her favour. The map did its best to crush me with brute force, whilst succeeding with more subtle and even random tricks. It offered good gameplay with average visuals. I was also entertained by secret hunting, even though the map already provided plenty of resources towards the end. I do not understand which role the CompMap plays in this search.

 

Edited August 9, 2021 by Book Lord

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP07 - "Jerling" (100%K/I/S):
 

This was a high spike on difficulty, and kudos for it not being a dead simple clone, as it may be one of the easiest things to do considering you have such a low linedef limit to work with. A nice map by pcorf that felt bigger than it actually is, there are tons of infighting opportunities you must use to take advantage, as ammo here may be lacking at times. Every single area is rough, but the trap at the last part was just unforgiving, being the place in which I died the most. I really liked the part with the cacodemons and the spider queen, as you can use them as a meat wall for the spider's aggro. Effective map that made me rage more than one time, and is actually the reason I took 3 days to make a review of, as I ragequit 3 times.

 

Deaths: 10 (UV Continuous/Chocolate Doom)

Order of preference:
 

Spoiler

 

MAP04

MAP02
MAP07
MAP06
MAP05
MAP03
MAP01

 

I may retake the rest of the maps tomorrow, MAP08 made me ragequit once more.

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

MAP07: Jerling

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 1/1 secrets

 

I'm back, and I'm greeted with a marked difficulty spike. This one takes on a bit of a demonic marble fortress theme and doesn't really mess around, the monsters are laid out in formidable numbers in each encounter, and surviving demands a degree of caution and strategy. This holds true right from the starting fight, which features 2 mancubi and a bunch of hitscanners on the ground level, a hell knight in a branching off hallway, and imps on the ledges above. The best way to deal with this one is to foster some infighting between the mancubi and fodder enemies while you take down the hell knight, then perform some cleanup at the end.

 

Progressing further releases a large horde of pinkies/spectres, with a couple of hell knights to join them. I found the best way to deal with this one was to let some of the melee demons come to you and take them down with the chainsaw or SSG, then rush to where they come from for some ammo and a berserk pack which should help you deal with the rest. The fight for the yellow key pits you against a wave of arachnotrons with more big groups of hitscanners and a couple of mancubi. You also can get a BFG secret here if you're speedy enough.

 

After this I found the next little bit of the map a bit easier, but still fun. The yellow key door room kicks off with a nice infighting spectacle between a spiderdemon and a bunch of cacos. You'll be accosted by a couple nasty archviles too as the level winds down, and the final fight is a nasty hodgepodge of chaingunners, cacos, hell knights and revenants. You can sort of hide in the lower level which enemies tend to get to rather slowly though, so cheesing this fight is an option.

 

Very fun level, and the hardest up to this point by far.

 

MAP08: Natasha Ozone Research

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 1/2 secrets

 

The first of the space station maps, we have a silvery techbase with mostly dim lighting. It's a bit easier than MAP07 in my opinion, although still probably an increase in difficulty from any map before. This map, at least from pistol start, is friendly to a player that tries to cause as much infighting as possible. The level doesn't have much ammo overall and the fights here seem to lend themselves well to causing a ruckus among the demons. 

 

The first room is a pretty good example. What I liked to do here is take out the fodder, and lure the arachnotron out to fight the hell knights, and then the revenant to fight whoever is left after that. You can then perform the steps necessary to get through the blue key door, rush in to get the SSG, and clean out the starting room of enemies. Then, the blue key room itself is pretty easy to whittle down with infighting, further saving you ammo and saving you some annoyance later on. You also do get access to a berserk pack after grabbing the blue key itself, so you can always punch to save ammo as well. Saving ammo where possible was really the name of the game in my successful run, and contributed to a pretty smooth and easy experience.

 

Overall a solid map, that may have gotten pretty transformed by being played from pistol start. Guessing a continuous experience might differ quite a lot from mine.

 

MAP09: Cath's Communications

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 1/1 secrets

 

I quite like the look of this space station, and the midi has a real nice groove to it. I found the hardest part of this one was getting started, and after that it was a bit easier but good fast-paced fun nonetheless. I like to save the berserk in the opening room for health later, and leverage the barrels in the opening room to do as much damage as possible, and also let infighting happen where the opportunity arises. In the muddy room with the pain elemental, I take down the easy enemies and the pain elemental first, then try and break past the mancubi for the rad suit and reach the platform full of goodies in the damaging mud. After you've made it this far, the ammo problems that we've seen the past couple maps aren't so much present in this one.

 

The fight after grabbing the blue key and dropping back down to the starting area is a really good time. Walls open up revealing closets full of enemies, but you now have a rocket launcher and a plasma to rip through the hordes with relative ease, dipping back into the start room for the berserk pack if health is needed at this point. After you're all done, you can lower the lift you came from for the map's only secret which contains a chainsaw and soulsphere, then use the berserk to go to town on the spectres pouring out of the blue key room. The rest of the level is pretty easy I found with the arsenal you've amassed at this point.

 

I liked this one, it's probably visually the most appealing map so far to me.

Edited August 10, 2021 by DisgruntledPorcupine

[pcorf]

7 hours ago, Book Lord said:

MAP 10 – Katherine Space Security

Doomsday Engine, UV-Fast, Continuous, blind run w/saves

 

If these were former security headquarters, the hellspawn felt somewhat obliged to restore the garrison and max it out. Every nook and cranny were filled with opposition and reinforcements were deployed at every key pickup. I sensed a strong determination to hinder the player, instil a false security and then surprise him with attacks from multiple directions. What Katherine had to do with all of this, only the author can relate.

 

The first area was not so difficult, but a pistol starter has only bullets and chaingun to deal with a bunch of Imps, a Mancubus, and two sneaky Revenants. I refused to make my life so painful and took advantage of my carry-over SSG, but I decided to handle the subsequent Hell Knight horde only with the available basic weapons. This is a stipulation I made with myself. It required jumping down and moving swiftly, but it was a lot of fun. I adore killing Hell Nobles with SSG.

  Hide contents

The pattern was similar to MAP08 (three coloured doors, areas opening into each other and filling with fresh hit points to mow down), with a couple of interesting variations. The first one was a double crusher, which caused my first death since I ran too fast and unprepared into the opposition ahead. I got surrounded and could not escape. On the second attempt, I rocketed the hitscanners and then cleared the adjacent room at my own pace.

 

The BK ambush released a hefty amount of demons in the starting area, but I preferred to retreat to the crusher corridor and use it as a choke point, which was a winning strategy. I also realised that the plasma gun and Soul Sphere secret could be reached with some cat burglar acrobatics (not the intended way though).

  Reveal hidden contents

The path to the YK was ok for taking a breath, killing some frontal aggression and a group of Cacodemons & Lost Souls emerging from the pitch black of outer space. One last spread-out horde of monsters was unleashed to stop the player from leaving. My idea was to go for max kills and I found a safe spot by the red door. Monsters could not open the door and teleport lines prevented them from reaching me there. I was still gloating when the Arch-Vile raised a crushed Chaingunner as a ghost, who filled me with lead at point-blank.

 

So, how was Katherine? She showed persistence, stubbornness, and strength of will, but these qualities did not turn the scale in her favour. The map did its best to crush me with brute force, whilst succeeding with more subtle and even random tricks. It offered good gameplay with average visuals. I was also entertained by secret hunting, even though the map already provided plenty of resources towards the end. I do not understand which role the CompMap plays in this search.

 

 

Yes Kaherine invested in an orbital communications satellite which was unfortunately invaded by hellspawn. She relied on Doomguy to clean up the mess so she could reestablish operations.

 

You expect my maps to be easy. I'm out to prove you all wrong. Just wait till MAP11 but don't despair it gets more easy after that, you can breathe easy for a few maps of the next episode before it gets harder again as the enemies play new tricks on you and you also have an opportunity to travel way back to a time before the dinosaurs existed. But trust me, the day you beat Zone 400, you can feel proud about yourself for sure.

[Pseudonaut]

Map10: FDA in 18:04 (No deaths)

z410FDA1804.zip

I played a bit more cautiously this time and it paid off. The standout fights are the ambushes following the blue key and yellow key. Apart from the number of enemies, the constant and seemingly random teleporting kept me uneasy about the possibility of a monster catching me by surprise. I never quite figured out where the teleport lines were; the sneaky revenant heard at 7:47 made me think they could teleport in there too, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

 

The yellow key fight is notable because an archvile spawned surrounded by bodies it can resurrect, and I ran out of rockets. There was plenty of plasma, but no weapon that uses it, leading me to assume there was one in a secret I hadn't found. I found a computer area map soon after that and decided to go secret hunting mid-fight, but couldn't find anything. Still eventually killed everything.

[Biodegradable]

MAP10 - Katherine Space Security

UV | Continuous | GZDoom and Vanilla+

 

Hot damn, this was a fun one. I had an absolute blast with the combat from beginning to end. The way the centre area repopulates is done in a way that's great fun without feeling overwhelming and it's a credit to Pcorf for being a little nice and not needlessly shoe-horning in any Barons or one too many Archies & Revs to spoil my enjoyment. I think I'm also starting to understand his tricks on how he saves himself from drawing too many lines with his stylistic use of triangles. I still don't understand Doom mapping to a great extent, but I think that's one thing I've spotted... correct me if I'm wrong, please lmao. The use of teleporting the demons about the place was also thankfully fun and not irritating thanks to the placement of the portals which added an extra dynamic to everything. Great stuff!

 

 

[DJVCardMaster]

Episode 2 - Space Stations (Women PCorf dated (Before his wife)):

MAP08 - "Natasha Ozone Research" (100%K/I/S):

Was this map really that hard? or I'm just stupid? i died more times than I'd like to mention, I feel ashamed, but I had to start savespamming. Again, another map that feels longer than you would expect. First tech-base map from the catalog, and already I think it is the best one so far, it feels longer, fights make you run and hide behind other mid-tier monsters to cause infighting as always, and having to manage your constantly low health every second. Traps don't surprise you, at this point most of them are already visible, but still painful to deal, as you may find yourself low on armor at any times.
The map looks like your regular E1 tech-base, nothing too overwhelming. It's not awful to look at, but maybe I'm also a sucker for E1 tech-bases.
Again, I feel stupid for dying too many times  at this level, I hope I'm not the only one that suffered it.
My only grippe is that PCorf is reusing some parts, the interconnected layouts and the exit rooms, for example, and I feel it could start getting pretty repetitive, later on.

 

Deaths: 32 (UV Continuous/Chocolate Doom)

Order of preference:

 

Spoiler

 

MAP08
MAP04

MAP02
MAP07
MAP06
MAP05
MAP03
MAP01

 

I'll take another rest. By the way, badass move to mention your ex names, as a married man. I hope PCorf's wife does not notice, if there is a problem with it, haha.

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 10 - Katherine Space Security (UV pistol start)

 

I've NO idea what's up with my luck. I literally only died twice what in some ways was a considerably harder map than the last one. Though you can circle-strafe around verything, and the fact I was only able to discover the secrets after the fact. This is sure some fitting music though. I guess it's hard to feel anything else when you've been told you're not desirable anymore.

 

You might call this unforgiving I guess. Collect the blue key and far more hell knights than you'll want to shotgun will end up teleporting in. Basically, just run out of here, and pass into a room with red wall at the end. There is a Hell Knight close to you, and a Cacodemon 3 Imps on the ledge. I tried getting them to infight, but it took a couple of minutes for them to largely kill each other. Pass over the linedef at the other end of the room, and the Demons you see at the other end of the hallway will start teleporting behind you. Find a corner and chaingun them. I was hurt even more here, and I was below 20 health at this point. But proof of Paul's sadistic sense of design will be a Berserk Pack behind some meat down the corridor. Of course, ammo shortly starts to become plentiful after this, so maybe it's half-useless. There's really no reason for the crusher other than as a metaphor for his relationship if I'm gonna be honest. A

 

Pass through a room with a window behind which is a Supercharge (and a Plasma rifle as it turns out) but you can't access that. Target the Pain Elemental and the Chaingunners to control the force, move on and pick up the blue key, but not before you press the one side console obviously different from the rest to access the above-mentioned secret. The blue key trap opened up many chambers with enemies and led to my second death. Did I mention the map's first rocket launcher is located where you enter the room down to the left of the entrance.....Open the red door (or was it blue) deal with a situation like that behind the blue door, and shortly come across a pit of brown sludge. To the right of the entrance you can drop down and press a switch, which lowers a chamber between the rooms behind the blue and red doors containing a BFG. I didn't pick this up until I had killed almost everything. Yeah, I'm rushing now.

 

Press one switch in this chamber to open a chamber with Lost Souls and Cacodemons at that point I didn't feel like dealing with as well as raise a platform that leads to the yellow key. At this point, the genius Pcorf has shown for little maps like this opening up really comes to the forefront. If you misses the rocket launcher earlier, you'll probably be able to pick another one up along with a Supercharge and a Megaarmor. Finally, I was able to blast everything to bits and nothing could stand against me! The Arch-vile was a nasty surprise but he ended up going down easily enough. I finally ended up going back to find the secrets after I killed everything. The two demons at the exit were easily wiped out with a plasma rifle.

 

If you can figure out where to go quickly, this map should be a breeze. The secret plasma rifle can help matters, but that doesn't change hpw packed the main room gets if you miss the rocket launcher.

Edited August 10, 2021 by LadyMistDragon

[Book Lord]

7 hours ago, pcorf said:

You expect my maps to be easy. I'm out to prove you all wrong. Just wait till MAP11 but don't despair it gets more easy after that, you can breathe easy for a few maps of the next episode before it gets harder again as the enemies play new tricks on you and you also have an opportunity to travel way back to a time before the dinosaurs existed. But trust me, the day you beat Zone 400, you can feel proud about yourself for sure.

 

I am not complaining about low (perceived) difficulty, or anything else by the way, and I do not expect your WAD to be easy. Neither am I expecting it to become unbeatable at some point, but who knows. I am walking on thin ice by playing the maps on UV with -fast, so I wait for the moment where I am going to regret my choice and be forced to turn monster speed to normal. Actually, I found some of the early maps to be more on the harsh side, but this is typical of my experience: WADs play very differently with -fast monsters and what you devised for normal UV could be exploited in a different way at higher monster speed and aggressiveness (e.g. infighting). On the other hand, there are situations that are more hairy and lethal than planned.

 

I am noting down any changes and new approaches you are taking, so that I am better prepared for the future. I had no trouble with MAP11 and found it less engaging than the previous 3, as I will discuss later, but that does not mean it was bad or too easy for my taste.

[LadyMistDragon]

14 hours ago, pcorf said:

 

You expect my maps to be easy. I'm out to prove you all wrong. Just wait till MAP11 but don't despair it gets more easy after that, you can breathe easy for a few maps of the next episode before it gets harder again as the enemies play new tricks on you and you also have an opportunity to travel way back to a time before the dinosaurs existed. But trust me, the day you beat Zone 400, you can feel proud about yourself for sure.

I feel seen.

 

In all honesty, none of the maps other than 01, 02 and maybe 5 (despite me having to reload 3 times because of my ridiculous incompetence fighting the pinkies) can really be called easy. Granted, the vast majority of them no doubt become much easier when you know all the ambushes and secrets.

 

Map 32 sounds like what Mass Extinction should have been.

[dei_eldren]

MAP11 - Tanya's Cybernetics (HNTR, continuous, blind): K 100% (139/139), I ?%, S 100% (2/2), T 17:07, D 0 - Morphing layout of a map, as well as the repopulation of previous areas, invariably means an interesting and clever design, and this is no exception.  It's also ugly, but in an appealing way, and by far the longest one to complete, despite being, i felt, one of the most compact ones in the end.  The level is again slaughterish but there's less madness than with Katherine, as a couple of the fights are best done from the relative safety of remaining behind the door.  i was also armed to the teeth, thanks to replaying ending of MAP10 and finding the lucrative secrets, and didn't try this on pistol start at all - and don't really want to either.  At the start i launched a rocket at the group headed by a Chaingunner, and everything literally went according to plan from there on.

 

Only thing that really scared me were the appearances of Arch-Vile (luckily only one, and he didn't even target me as i rocketed his yellow ass) and Cyberdemon (whom you could also choose to run past, which i did on my first run).  Other than that, despite the frenetic action, despite the tens of enemies thrown at you once, it was i felt easier than MAP10.  Today my luck with the Revenants was also better, no rockets to the face and managed even to SSG them pretty cleanly.  My BFG work with the Cyberdemon was poor, but i didn't want to take any chances of catching a rocket, so did it from a respectful distance and finished him off with the SSG.  i guess it would've been possible to lure the demons to infight with him, but they were easy enough to take care of in the side room on my own.  i did die a couple of times on my first run, but they were stupid ones.

 

The secrets were easy, and to be fair, they were so in the preceding map too, but not complaining about that - they do provide almost necessary goodies to ensure that gameplay remains pleasant and no way i'm leaving any level from now on without discovering her secrets.  The author's dire warning of future challenges and potential glory does worry me a bit, but at least next map yet didn't present any unsolvable difficulties.  But hopefully that glory is reserved only for those playing on UV...

 

As for Tanya, this level was highly compartmentalized, and in the end all the compartments were shown to be highly interconnected.  If the inspiration was psychological, i'd say Tanya was a very organized individual, but not one-dimensional or predictable, and with hidden depths, perhaps also analytical.  And i favour this unlikely analysis over all the more mundane ones i could make this time.

 

Edited August 10, 2021 by dei_eldren

[TJG1289]

GZDoom/Blind/UV/Continuous/Saves

Map 10 - Katherine Space Security

100% kills and 50% secrets

Time: 13:08

Deaths: 1 (got a high damage roll from a rev missile)

 

This opening room is easier than the last several maps, but this time, we've got monsters already firing at you, so don't dawdle. Get on the lift to the upper platform, with a SSG and red key. Grabbing the key will lower 2 back corners filled with like 10 hell knights. There's a rocket launcher in one of those cubbies, so grab it, and use it on these hell knights that like to teleport around. Get used to them teleporting, since we've got more fights here. Through the red key door, we've got some paths that head back around to where you started, where the blue key was above you. You'll deal with the standard fare, plus some crushing ceilings. You'll spot a secret soul sphere, which you can access just before the blue key, by using the one side of the metal walls here that doesn't have the long blue lights on it (I don't know where the second secret is at all). Once you've grabbed the blue key, just fire a shot, and watch as a ton of enemies swarm the opening room and infight with each other, ducking back when you start getting aimed at. Once most are gone, jump back down. Head through the red door to another big room with toxic sludge and narrow passages. This is much easier than that yellow door room a few maps ago, as you can take out the barons and revs easily, then retreat back once hitting the switch that raises the path and reveals cacos and lost souls. Once you grab the yellow key, the gate opens up in front of you, and even more enemies appear from the cubbies that were unleashed in the blue key fight. An archvile is in the one directly next to you, so continuous players, rush in and BFG it. Everyone else, good luck, and don't get scammed by high-damage rev missiles. There's a soul sphere and mega armor where an arachnotron was lowered, so make for it when needed. Yellow exit door has 2 pinkies guarding the switch, and that's all folks.

 

Difficulty is on par with the last level I think. Map design is decent, and I've been liking how areas you've already visited open up with new enemies and items. MIDI was pretty good here too.

[Capellan]

 

[Fairen]

Map 10: Katherine Space Security - UV, pistol-start

 

I'm beginning to notice a pattern here with many of the recent levels...

 

The level starts off in a nice open room, with some imps overlooking and some revenants and mancubus lingering. Gun them down, ride the elevator. Annoyingly, it's best to grab the backpack before grabbing the key because you'll probably overfill on ammo if you grab all the shells up there before grabbing the backpack.

 

A bunch of hell knights later, you end up in a corridor leading around to the back of the main room, with a really janky secret along the way (obvious invisible platform is obvious). This culminates in grabbing a key upon a raised area, which triggers a bunch of monster closets that open in the starting room.

 

...but because you're up on higher ground, you can very comfortably stand back and let the majority of the monsters kill each other.

 

The red key lets you loop around in the other direction, bringing you to the yellow key on the side of the main room. And like before, this opens up a bunch of monster closets...except you're on the ground floor now.

 

...but it's incredibly trivial to run past everything and do the exact same strategy over again to deal with the horde. At least this time there's a few cacodemons and an arch-vile, but it's still a matter of "stay on the red key ledge, let everything kill each other, mop up the rest."

 

In fact, I decided to just stand there and see how long it'd take for the arch-vile to get killed via unintentional infighting. The monster count peaked at just over 350 (from a start of 180!) before the arch-vile died...not at another monster's hands, oh no. A lowly zombieman had drawn his ire, and Archie decided this insignificant grunt needed to die—and the blast killed himself as well. Arch-vile, resurrect thyself?

 

It's not a bad map and concept, but...the ability to just trivialize what should be hectic firefights is kind of a thing. Yet again.

[Book Lord]

MAP 11 – Tanya’s Cybernetics

Doomsday Engine, UV-Fast, Continuous, blind run w/saves

 

This was the second boss level and featured a similar gameplay as the previous maps of the “space station” sub-episode: clean a big room, flick some switches, closets open, and baddies will come after you. The main difference were the teleport lines, which were placed to create confusion and punish bold players charging the monsters all guns blazing. My typically cautious approach resulted in hearing a lot of teleport sounds and not even noticing that monsters were swapping from one side to the other of the first big room.

Spoiler

The monster count reached a respectable number, but most hordes could be cheated by door camping. This was true for the first two locked doors and especially for the yellow one, behind which an ominous army of hell was ready to charge but ended up annihilating itself with infighting. I really cannot see why those doors had to close. This was likely intentional because the author wanted them to stay open for the final confrontation instead, once the Cyberdemon was revealed in its red & blue (FIREBLU) private slaughterhouse.

Spoiler

The Arch-Vile encounter was the only point when I was caught between two fires. I was still shooting the hitscanners in the room when he teleported on the ledge behind me and started raising the dead. Still nothing major, and the static Cyberdemon was a piece of cake. I retreated to the empty eastern room, killed the reinforcements from there and fully retained my Megasphere stats.

 

I had a good time as usual, but Tanya’s Cybernetics felt a bit mechanical and monotonous, if compared to the rest of the episode. The METAL textures overspreading the whole environment, with only a few contrasting MARBFACE and TEKWALL inserts, did not contribute to variety. My final remarks about Tanya cannot be of the most flattering kind: a monolithic figure, awe-inspiring in her own way but without much flavour and distinction. As for the locked doors which closed at first and stayed open later, the repetitiveness of the action pattern might be a deliberate choice. Was this a nod to an unexciting romance?

Edited August 10, 2021 by Book Lord
fixed typo

[DuckReconMajor]

MAP10: Katherine Space Security - dsda-doom - skill 4 pistol start - restarts and a million rewinds

 

Holy hell what the heck was that!? 0 to a million just like that. Though I think the shape of the room was tripping me up a lot.

The central area unwrapped like a crunchwrap in a neat but vicious way

An altogether fun time once I got a foothold on the enemy configuration. I'm going to try to stay on Skill 4 the rest of the mapset.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[DJVCardMaster]

MAP09 - "Cath's Communications" (100%K/I/S):

A space base with big areas and big fights. Again, infighting is your best bet here, and the map starts interconnecting itself yet again. This one gives you a different feel than the previous one, and looks a little bit less E1-esque. The room with the spectres was dumb, and the music made it even dumber. This is not as hard as the previous one, but sure I enjoyed it more.
 

MAP10 - "Katherine Space Security" (100%K/94%I/0%S):

Good for the moment that every map just gets better, this one again feels bigger than others without falling into the "ugly" category, considering the linedef limit, yet again, an amazing work. Good fights yet again, now trying to abuse teleporting monsters a bit more than before (Considering it's the best tactic to save linedefs while mapping). The last fight almost got me, I was panicking because I found myself without ammo, but I took a faith room to the other side of the area, and found some supplies. Although good, you may find some recycled areas, just like the bridge with the revenants, a similar area found in MAP04 previously. And yes, as someone said earlier, you start noticing patterns in-between maps.
 

Deaths: 34 (UV Continuous/Chocolate Doom)

Order of preference:

 

Spoiler

 

MAP10
MAP09

MAP08
MAP04

MAP02
MAP07
MAP06
MAP05
MAP03
MAP01

 

I've said early, we will start noticing some recycling, and I hope it does not get repetitive, and maps are starting to feel similar in layout structure.

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

MAP10: Katherine Space Security

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 2/2 secrets

 

I'm quite fond of the structure of this one. The level has you hunting down 3 keys in order to progress through the level and, with each key obtained, you are returned to the beginning room of the level which in turn gets re-populated with opening monster closets while the monster teleporters dotted around disperse them throughout the room. The monster closets are also positioned in a way that they open up the room further, giving you more space to roam around.  The map sees quite a jump in enemy count with 174 demons, not including lost souls, and the previous highest count being MAP09 with 138, and the post-key battles are a large part of that.

 

The first key fight is straightforward enough, lowering a bunch of hell knights into the room. The second key fight is much more varied, sending in a large amount of hitscanners and several mid-tier monsters, and can be very hectic. Luckily with the extra room to roam around, you do typically have a safe space to regroup for a little bit of time amidst the chaos. The final fight pits you in a similar situation, only with a heavier emphasis on mid-tier monsters and an archvile to boot. With the very large amount of corpses already littered around the room, him resurrecting several monsters is nearly inevitable unless you find the BFG secret and immediately hone in on him with it. As for the combat otherwise in the map, it's not quite at the same height as these encounters, but it does do a good job of keeping the pace going through the map.

 

This is probably my favourite one so far. Just a really good time overall.

 

 

[Pseudonaut]

Map11: FDA in 18:11 (No deaths)

z411FDA1811.zip

 

I was really low on health for most of the level but was able to scrape by. There's some good combat in this map, but too much sitting back and waiting for monsters to kill each other from the other side of a door.

[Biodegradable]

MAP11 - Tanya's Cybernetics

UV | Continuous | GZDoom and Vanilla+

 

This map complements MAP10 pretty well with its similar layout and progression scheme, though maybe slightly more square. However, it well and truly makes up for it with its combat. The growing emphasis of monster closets that also open up the map more and more was exciting as I was kept on my toes wondering which walls would open/collapse next with each key grab. That Archie placement in this one... oooh, you cheeky cunt, Pcorf hehe. Not quite as awesome as MAP10, but still thrilling. I can't wait to see what's next!

 

 

[Fairen]

Map 11: Tanya's Cybernetics - UV, pistol-start

 

This map has a pretty simple set-up. Go through four rooms in order, kill monsters, get keys (kill monster-closet key-squad). There's varied encounters in each room, though with the key-doors it's easy to deal with everything via infighting. (In fact, with the second door, I spent a minute just opening the door for a half-second then closing it so all the monsters trying to snipe my feet would end up making their buddies kill each other. A cacodemon did manage to take the long way around, though. :P)

 

It's good combat, and doesn't have the problem a few of the previous maps had where you can stand on a high ledge and let everything kill each other. (The slight exception being the second key ledge, but that's actually high up enough that it's more tricky to get monsters to hit each other.) The oddity though—and this is something a few prior maps have done—are the invisible teleport lines. I suppose it's a way to get monsters spread through an area when you're limited in linedefs, but it is annoying to have monsters just "randomly" disappear at times. Or it can be funny if a revenant chasing you is just *gone*. (Or...painful if a baron pops into existence right in front of you after you fire a rocket...) The level is also a touchy too stingy with ammo, in that I nearly ran out of ammo at the second key door despite messing around with infighting.

[DuckReconMajor]

MAP11: Tanya's Cybernetics - dsda-doom - skill 4 pistol start - restarts

 

I was fairly close to getting out alive. Died near the end and accidentally respawned (which prevents rewind).

At which point I got super aggro and went crazy on rewinds. 

Both times I got major use out of the megasphere secret

I feel like this is a lazy comparison, but this was another map that gave me warm fuzzy whispers of satan vibes.

Good grungy tech atmosphere, and I liked the map opening, especially after pulling that last lever

 

Spoiler

 

 

[dei_eldren]

MAP12 - Dagon (HNTR, continuous, blind): K 100% (38/38), I 100% (19/19), S 100% (1/1), T 7:01, D 0 - A much awaited change of pace for me, as the beginning of a new episode in... Innsmouth?  Very interesting idea.  Still, on my first two tries i manage to let the bloody Revenant kill me from afar with his homing missiles, as i have trouble choosing what exactly to do at the admittedly low-stress situation, where only a few Imps and a few hitscanners are present.  Ok, let's shoot the hitscanners behind the corner first, let the Imps be, and then kill the Revenant guarding the YK with rockets.  The Imps must be killed in order to obtain the YK as they are guarding the switch to raise the stone-bridge leading to it.  If one is not attentive there can be a nasty surprise of being shot through the window by an Arachnotron.

 

After the YK we enter a temple of the Cult of Dagon, which fittingly has a stream of water running across the stone-floor.  The notable thing gameplay-wise in this room is almost a nod to Eternal Doom as there is a Revenant hiding behind a breakable painted window.  Behind him is the switch to obtain the BK for the exit-area.

The secret i found, but have no inkling what opened it.  i did look for it after the killing was done, and at some point simply walked by to find it open. 

 

All the encounters throughout the level, despite some Cacodemons and Revenants, are quite simple to handle on continuous play (mind you, to me this doesn't equate to boring or irrelevant, i very much enjoyed the playthrough), but to me the main attractions of this level are the architecture, location, and the theme.  Reminds me quite a bit of some levels of Eternal Doom, which convinced me using Heretic-textures in Doom is not heretical after all.  And it is truly impressive what has been achieved here with only 400 lines.  Also, as a portion of a city-map, this is just very fine work.  Also, i found the music in this one not only most fitting but also my favourite from what i've heard so far.

As for invoking the Dagon-cult in Doom (being a huge fan of Lovecraft, owning several editions of his books and having a portrait of his on the wall), i fully condone it when the map is this successful and thematic, as it were some outskirt of Innsmouth or a more distant satellite-location of the cult.

 

Spoiler

 

[TJG1289]

GZDoom/Blind/UV/Continuous/Saves

Map 11 - Tanya's Cybernetics

100% kills and secrets

Time: 10:59

 

The final map of the episode becomes quite the challenge if you end up rushing through things, and especially if you aren't playing continuous like me. We have the main starting room, and 4 side areas. One of them can be accessed now, the others need keys. The goal is to get them all and open the big bay door to the exit. Each of these side areas have different designs and are more about the fights within each one than repopulating old areas, though that does happen here too. I don't think there's too much for me to describe since it's some pretty basic progression, even if the monster combos are different. Basically each area boils down thusly: hit a switch to lower a lift, take said lift, grab key, deal with more baddies that either are nearby said key or back where you came from. The 2nd key will open up some walls, allowing access between the first 2 side areas, and the same happens when you open the big bay doors. This of course comes with monsters too. The toughest fights of course come toward the end, with an arch-vile teleporting in front of the bay doors at one point (I think when you grab the final key?), and the final fight, unleashing a ton of enemies all around, opening up the area a bit, and finally revealing the cyberdemon behind the bay door. The two secrets will help. Once you grab the final key, the monster closet right next to it will have a rad suit in it. Grab it, drop back down, and go behind the bay doors to find a megasphere. The final secret is right by the rad suit, but won't lower until the final fight, so make sure to head up and grab the plasma rifle there while avoiding everything. I almost died to the cybie when trying to 2-shot it with the BFG from an earlier map cause he nailed me with a rocket, but I still had 20% health so I was good. It's a pretty fun map. It's challenging, but you have a lot of room to maneuver, and plenty of health around, so it shouldn't be too bad. MIDI was pretty solid here as well. Texture-wise, I like the change of techbase style here to make it more visually distinct than the other 3. Anyway, it's time for the next episode.

[rehelekretep]

map09 fda

map10 fda

map11 fda

 

really enjoyed map09. map10 was OK. map11 a boring slog im afraid...

[Capellan]