The DWIronman League dies to: Return to Hadron E1

[PsychEyeball]

Category 1

Dead on E1M4 (104/188 kills, dead on 22:32)

Played on DSDA-Doom 0.23

Secret level missed...

 

Had a great time with this map pack until... it all went bad. I'll keep it at that to not spoil future runs of this. This was a very mean trap for sure.

hadron_psych.rar

[Rujasu]

Category 1

Dead on E1M1 (I watched the replay and still failed to note the time or kills)

PrBoom+ (not the umapinfo one)

 

Some might say trying a monthly challenge while intoxicated is a stupid idea, and they'd be right! I'm also not at my main PC, so I had to stop to change my resolution and prevent the laptop's touchpad from affecting movement. Obviously a stupid shotgunner death but I was swept along by the energetic music and all the shooting I was supposed to be doing.

 

Mapset seems neat though, might return to it on a later date.

Rujasu_DWIronman_Hadron.zip

[mhrz]

Cat 1, Died on E1M6 + Played the secret map

 

Spoiler

Facerocketed in the fight after trying to glide through every gap in the map :)

 

IMhadronf_mhrz.rar

Edited February 5, 2022 by mhrz

[AxeL]

Category 1, died on E1M5 because facerocket lol  

 

hadronfdwironman.zip

[Pegleg]

Here is my Category 1 run.

 

Dead on E1M3

Kills: 30/143

Time of death: 20:00

 

dwi_pegleg_hadrone1_cat1.zip

 

As expected given the author, this mapset is put together very well. The layouts are good, the detailing is well done and appropriate, the ammo distribution is good, and the health is abundant enough so that if you can make it through a particular wave of enemies, there is some health waiting for you on the other side. At least that's how the early part of the mapset appeared to me. E1M3 seems to be where Cannonball starts to turn up the heat. I decided to rush the situation and ended up back into a corner and then surrounded. Perhaps a more cautious approach will serve me better next time. This mapset seems like something I'd like to tackle again.

[Endless]

I think this is the first time I ever record a demo for the Ironman. It was a nice trip!

 

Category 1. (I did play Hadron a long time ago tho)

Dead at E1M4.

Recorded on Crispy Doom.

hadronIronmanEndless.zip

[Spendoragon]

Category 1, E1M9, 139/169 kills in 29:09

dwim-spendo-hadronf.zip

 

dies to bad judgement call (for going to secret level in ironman or handling plasma ambush poorly, you decide)

gaming

Edited February 6, 2022 by Spendoragon

[Shepardus]

Category 2

Died on E1M8 (exited E1M7 at 57:33, died at 59:50 with 3 kills)

Recorded with dsda-doom 0.23.0 (complevel 3)

ironman_hadronf_Shepardus.zip

Spoiler

It was fun to return to this wad (no pun intended)! I think I played this on HMP last time, because I don't remember there being this many cyberdemons... :D

 

In hindsight, I think I played more conservatively than I needed to in the early levels. I also wasted a good amount of time looking for secrets that I ultimately gave up on, though the ones I did get were helpful. I don't mind the wasted time, though, since survival was my priority and I'm pleased with how I did in that regard. I cheated death multiple times in E1M7; getting past that level was a real relief.

 

I recalled seeing a pacifist demo for E1M6 and wanted to replicate that, but had to abort when I realized I didn't know where I was supposed to go, and ended up just doing the level normally. I spent some time trying to do a glide in E1M7 but gave up on it; I can barely do even the easiest glides with practice, much less one in an unfamiliar situation that I hadn't even confirmed was possible, so I was just wasting my time there. Maybe I should have spent some time trying to get the BFG, it might have saved me at the end.

 

[Spendoragon]

There's actually quite a few glide opportunities in the wad and I appreciated those while I was replaying the wad casually after dying. It would have been fun to implement that for the ironman.

Edited February 6, 2022 by Spendoragon

[Maribo]

Category: 2 (I recognize some of these maps, so... I either played this or Concern, rather just say Category 2 to be safe.)

Survived + Secret map in 1:17:28 (77:28)

DSDA-Doom v0.22.5cl3

hadron_ironman_maribo.zip

Spoiler

This is actually a really slow and messy demo in general, I was playing it safe early but since E1M6 gives you all the time in the world, I decided to see if I could go for some of the glides.... Got two of them, but I couldn't get the third (which is an east, iirc? I'm not good at east and north glides, so... yeah). Could have gone quite disastrous since I had to do the map normally after, but.... yeah. Also spent a bit of time secret hunting, so uh... sorry for making it the most boring to watch map in this demo.

Also got the glide on E1M7, which I'm happy about.... I didn't actually know you could glide those bars, I just thought they looked about the right size, so I figured I'd go for it. Paid off, I think.
I really like this episode... I think I'll definitely do some runs for it, and go back and look for more glide spots and stuff. :)

Also my first IronMan survival, I believe.

 

[Master Medi]

Category 1

Died in E1M3, 40/143 kills in 6:22

DSDA-Doom v22.5cl3

hadron_ironman_medi.zip

Spoiler

111 damage in total from 3 shotgunners, 1 lost soul and 1 cacodemon over the course of 3 seconds. I guess I angered the RNG somehow

 

[Maribo]

I've been working on the UV-Speed for this wad a bit since I posted my Cat 2 run, and tonight I just said fuck it, I'll submit the next run I do as a Cat 3 to IronMan, so here:

Category 3

Survived in 20:09, no secret level.

DSDA-Doom v0.22.5cl3

hadron_ironman_maribo_cat3.zip

Spoiler

The real slowdown for this wad is Map04 and Map05, man.... the hitscanners hurt and barreling through everything feels totally fucked, you can most definitely bring this down to 15 minutes or less if you can cut out just the time spent in Map05 alone basically maxing it. You can also do the IL strategy for Map06 and shave off some time but idk man (or I guess do the north/east glides if you're actually good at them), it feels way more dangerous to do that than just do a couple guided glides and get the BFG for the easy exit + Map08 usage.

 

[Meowgi]

Category 1

Died in E1M3, 44/143 kills in 4:28

DSDA-Doom v22.5 cl3

DWIM_Meowgi_hadronf.zip

Spoiler

Second ever ironman, tried playing fast and got punished. Better luck next time!

 

[NaZa]

Board updated. What's quite interesting is that every possible result this month is already on the board. Survived +1, Survived +0 and every map was a killer of at least one competitor.

 

Guess it's not that easy to return to Hadron, huh.

Edited February 11, 2022 by NaZa

[ryiron]

Category 1

Died in E1M6, 83/242 kills in 62:00

DSDA-Doom v0.19.6 cl3

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Dc95u3NZg79owJfShv-on9kzY1boa-li/view?usp=sharing

 

Spoiler

This was my first time doing an ironman. Was lots of fun. Had a couple of near deaths early on due to playing a bit loose. Death was a bit unfortunate, I wasn't expecting quite so many enemies. I got surrounded, and accidentally switched to the rocket launcher instead of the plasma. By the time I got the right weapon it was a bit late :-).

 

My time is on the long side because I went for all kills and secrets (I enjoy secret hunting) on each map and played the secret map.

 

Edited February 12, 2022 by ryiron

[SleepyVelvet]

DEAD: E1M6
-Arrival: 45m29s
-Kills: 116/242
-Death: 48m10s
Category: 2

Port: prboom-plus (cl3 v2.5.1.3)

noisy_hadronf_ironman.zip

 

I didn't get in my head too much actually!  and while I'm disappointed to not find any softlocks, it's not the end of the world.  8 hours of sleep, and a coffee helped a lot.

 

I tried really hard through the whole thing to not face-rocket a spectre... and mostly succeeded up 'til Map06.  Cannonballs particular way of blending Ultimate Doom monsters into his signature soup is delicious but cruel.

 

[ClumsyCryptid]

Cat 2, I guess?

E1M8 got me, even predicted my own death.. practice run for a prepared run that I will do when I am not tired and looping between consciousness and sleepiness. I think I did fairly good, narrowly escaped a few deaths here and there. I have played this before and it stuck with me, mostly the secrets and whatnot.

 

After this I'll do a second run, but for the prepared leaderboard, hopefully won't take almost two hours. This is a long video to watch... Oh, and playing on PrBoom for the first time, not used to the quirky classic controls, lost time due to pressing 'e' instead of 'space bar' and the like.. and trying to sector hop... and trying to unrust SR50 for a little bit.

 

Video below should be available once it's done uploading. Internet has been acting up as of late so have to use the slower speeds provided by my phone to upload, should be done within a hour of this post.

 

 

[Poncho1]

Okay, I may now be able to actually record a demo for this. One last question, since I didn't see this specified in the rules list (unless I'm blind): does one have to go for 100% kills and secrets? I'm guessing that a completely blind run this isn't the case, but for one where you're vaguely familiar - or if it's a prepared run - 100% is recommended, or something? Not too sure...

[NaZa]

Not at all. Some players blitz through the maps as fast as possible and leave monsters alive, while some (like me) like to have everything killed before progressing further. Categories don't dictate the way you should play and you can leave however many monsters you want alive. Basically, all that matters is you try to make it to the end by whatever means is comfortable for you. While speed does matter if you survive - the true satisfaction of Ironman is surviving anyway, at least to me. Winning is an added bonus.

 

 

Great run btw @ClumsyWizard, I remember back in the opening years of Ironman you had a lot of misfortune so to see a run that puts you 4th so far is quite a great result and one for which I'm happy. Same with @NoisyVelvet, though that's yet another brilliantly caused death. This brings the number of GAD-assisted deaths to 5; 6 if you count Spendoragon, though Spendoragon masterfully recovered from that particular incident. The largest enemy seems to be a hasty finger on MOUSE1/Ctrl while pressing 5. (no discrimination towards keyboard-only players!) 

Edited February 13, 2022 by NaZa

[4shockblast]

Category 1, got to E1M6:

Spoiler

Glided into some meme closet where I couldn't really get out of until it was too late. :^) Maps seemed fun for Doom 1 overall, though.

 

hadronf_Ironman_shock.zip

Edited February 13, 2022 by 4shockblast

[ClumsyCryptid]

59 minutes ago, Poncho1 said:

Okay, I may now be able to actually record a demo for this. One last question, since I didn't see this specified in the rules list (unless I'm blind): does one have to go for 100% kills and secrets? I'm guessing that a completely blind run this isn't the case, but for one where you're vaguely familiar - or if it's a prepared run - 100% is recommended, or something? Not too sure...

 

I personally go for the 100% kills because it's satisfying, to me, to clear a level of all opposition.

 

I will say that doing the challenge at your own pace is recommended, whether it's murdering everything or getting through the fastest. I've been told in the past that time is usually held higher in scoring, but I am not sure if that matters anymore. Surviving is first and foremost the goal, the steps you follow to achieve that is up to you.

 

Edit: To @NaZa thank you for the kind words. I do want to participate more in Ironman this year and see if I can push myself closer to the top of the leaderboard. I've progressed a lot over the years in terms of personal skill. I think playing maps here and there casually with or without Corruption Cards has heightened my prowess to expect the unexpected in normal gameplay. That and watching Coincident and Decino on Youtube has given me an informative grasp on how better skilled than I people play the games.

Edited February 13, 2022 by ClumsyWizard
Added a second response to NaZa.

[NightTerror]

Category 1 survived in 1:10:51, secret map included

 

Upset about taking the slow way around near the end, thankfully it's fast enough for now, heh

 

nightterror-RtH-e1.zip

[cannonball]

I thought after watching Suitepee's stream that I probably should get my humiliation over with.

 

Dead on E1M4 (Exited E1M9 at 11:20)

 

For the sake of balance, consider this a prepared run, whilst I probably did not do the levels of preparation done by those who usually do runs like this, I am the author and by default means I should know every nook, cranny and trick to exploit. Alas none of those make up for competency when using the keyboard (With/without mouse).

So yeah.... I suck.... 

hadronee1cb1.zip

 

So in essence I was careful until the point where reaching the exit quickly would be achievable (E1M2/3/9 all were like this), E1M4 tends to get messy very quickly, especially as you can get a few unlucky damage rolls from the shotgunners. Still I think I wasn't patient enough with the yellow key and inevitably got sandwiched by spectres and that baron of hell.

 

I will say thanks to Naza for choosing this wad. Upon reflection there are a lot of good memories creating this and trying to right whatever wrongs were made with "Concerned". In fairness this is probably a very good pick with a modest run time (Around an hour(ish)) and difficulty. 

Edited February 15, 2022 by cannonball

[NaZa]

Nice to see you provide a run cannonball! Runs by creators did end up on the Standard board if no preparation was done, like when an_mutt beat his own set, when dew beat BtSX E1, or when Jimmy died to Jenesis/Steve D to Abcess/Dragonfly to Eviternity et al. In your case, watching Suitepee definitely means you're a category 3, but it's still Standard. 

[ClumsyCryptid]

55 minutes ago, cannonball said:

I thought after watching Suitepee's stream that I probably should get my humiliation over with.

 

Dead on E1M4 (Exited E1M9 at 11:20)

 

For the sake of balance, consider this a prepared run, whilst I probably did not do the levels of preparation done by those who usually do runs like this, I am the author and by default means I should know every nook, cranny and trick to exploit. Alas none of those make up for competency when using the keyboard (With/without mouse).

So yeah.... I suck.... 

hadronee1cb1.zip

 

So in essence I was careful until the point where reaching the exit quickly would be achievable (E1M2/3/9 all were like this), E1M4 tends to get messy very quickly, especially as you can get a few unlucky damage rolls from the shotgunners. Still I think I wasn't patient enough with the yellow key and inevitably got sandwiched by spectres and that baron of hell.

 

I will say thanks to Naza for choosing this wad. Upon reflection there are a lot of good memories creating this and trying to right whatever wrongs were made with "Concerned". In fairness this is probably a very good pick with a modest run time (Around an hour(ish)) and difficulty. 

Damn, thought you'd get further.

 

E1M9, E1M4 and E1M6 are my favorite maps for this set.

[Suitepee]

https://youtu.be/BEC4uNoas2Y

 

Category 1 run, starts at about 1:10:00 into this video. Died on E1M6. (did the secret map also)

[RHhe82]

By the way, I gotta say that I started replaying Return to Hadron… and I have to wonder how on earth did I make it past the third level thinking it was still warm-up :P Maybe pistol starting made a world of difference here, but I couldn’t re-beat the level on the first, on the second or even the third try :P The start feels much hotter.

 

(it could also have to do with me going for a different route now that I knew how to get the chaingun early, but still).

[Major Arlene]

 

Died: E1M4

APPROX kills: 195/208

APPROX time: 23:39 total

[Poncho1]

OK, let's see if I'm doing this correctly: a Standard Category 2 run. Played through the secret map ('cos it's fun as fuck). Died on E1M6 (in the most embarrassing way possible), so there ya go. Time was about 30:39 or something.

 

rth_ironman_poncho_feb22.zip

Edited February 21, 2022 by Poncho1

[Peccatum Mihzamiz]

Category 1
Played on DSDA 22.4, cl3, UV. 
Time: 20:57. Died in E1M4 with 41 kills.

Twitch stream with commentary over here
Demo file over here

Spoiler

This was lots of fun. Cool maps!