The DWmegawad Club plays: Community Chest

[Yumheart]

Map19 "Monster Mansion" by Gene Bird

This one definitely seems more advanced than Gene's previous offerings, showing an increase in verticality and detail. It's far better than Map32, but Map07 still feels snappier and more focused to me. This is mostly because of this map's beginning, which is kind of dull, once again just SSGing random stuff. There was a bit more verticality present though, most notably with the little skirmish by the RL, which I welcome. There was also the occasional good trap, and the "city" portion later on was pretty fun and made engaging use of snipers, almost comparable to the boardwalk featured in... well, The Boardwalk. As I've already mentioned, the visuals have gotten a tiny update, now featuring some nice doorways and beams, making the plain corridors look slightly less flat.

Overall, a decent map. I feel like there is still too much "whatever" between the legitimately fun moments, but I still had a good time.

Edited March 19, 2022 by Yumheart

[Poncho1]

Map19: Monster Mansion

Author: Gene Bird

 

I think "mansion"'s being too kind: more like a block of flats. In any case, we're back to the usual SSG mayhem that Gene Bird's a certified expert at. We've got rectangular, boxey rooms, a mish-mash of the expected zombies, Imps, Revenants, Hell Knights and Mancubi, and very linear progression. The start has an interesting area that kinda resembles a front garden; amateur as it is, it's kinda novel, I suppose. The whole beginning, sadly, reeks of uninspired combat. Seriously, Gene loves the SSG probably more than anybody else in the world of Doomdom. Upon breaching the fla - I mean, mansion, things certainly pick up, mostly since the gameplay gets a lot more cramped. In addition, there's some 90s-style Doomcute in the form of bedrooms, studies and living rooms. Gotta love that one room with a table and a pen, paper and candle. Towards the end is a small courtyard where the combat *really* picks up, forcing you to juggle fighting the lower enemies and others such as Barons, all in an area that soon starts feeling much smaller than one anticipates when first arriving there. The ambushes also teleport foes behind you every once in a while, none more notable than at the end in the caves when a wall of Imps and Revenants jump you on both sides while a Hell Knight spawns in behind the player. Gotta act fast! Not as focused or fast-paced as The Boardwalk, and I couldn't quite decide at first which between this and The Citadel was better, but the small bits of detail and the tighter action at the map's conclusion gave this one the edge. Not too bad, all things considered.

[PeceMan]

Level 19, Monster Mansion
    
    So you know how some levels are almost good, but are not actually good? Well this one's situation is similar,  but not quite the same. This one almost

    acceptable, but not actually acceptable.

 

    I don't usually like to be negative when taking a look at other people's levels. But this one really rubbed me the wrong way. 

 

    The level layout was excesively boxy, the decoration was scarce to non-existant, the aesthetics were straight up ugly, progression was unclear, and the

    gameplay was both simplistic, and severly unimaginative.

 

 

    I get that many of the tools we take for granted today weren't available back then. But this doesn't feel like the creator didn't have the tools. Instead,

    this feels like the creator didn't know how to use the tools they had.

 

    I get the sensation that the mapper had just figured out how the "create elipse" tool worked, and decided to show it off by making every other room

    an undecorated circle.

 

    Something similar happens with the level's Doomcute elements. Every once in a while there are Doomcute style decorations placed here and there.

    But it never conveys the feeling that the creator wanted to make their level a Doomcute styled level. 

 

    Instead, it feels like every once in a while, the creator felt like building some Doomcute stuff, so they added that to whichever part of the level they

    were working on, independently of wether it made the location look better or not.

 

 

 

    Now, all of these things should be forgiven if they were to come from an inexperienced mapper. But that brings me to the

    main reason I dislike this level:

 

    Comunity Chest is advertised as being a repository of maps made by good mappers. But Monster Mansion doesn't feel like the work of a good mapper.

    It feels like the work of an uninspired newbie.    
 

 

 

Rankings:
 

Spoiler

Maps I Really Liked:        
            02 Nullth Precinct; 18 Sudden Death

 

Maps I Liked:            
            04 Outer Base; 05 The Forgotten Prison; 07 The Boardwalk; 08 Battery; 10 Termination Center; 11 Mandrel; 14 Substation

 

Maps I found ok:        
            01 Pistol Panic; 03 Ground Floor; 09 Flow; 13 Another Dead Hero; 15 Infernal Reaches; 16 Methods of Fear; 17 Inflictions of Hate;

            32 The Citadel

 

Maps I disliked:        
            12 No Tomorrow; 31 Mt. Chaos

 

Maps I really didn't like:    
            06 Goin' Down; 19 Monster Mansion

 

Edited March 19, 2022 by PeceMan
Formating

[Book Lord]

MAP 20 – Technodrome by Stephen Clark @The Ultimate DooMer

PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves

 

The message at the start implied that Doomguy was not only entering MAP20, but that he had a mission to accomplish: find the bomb, arm it, and get out in 2 minutes. It sounded great, and I had just been granted a Megasphere! Pistol starters need to be in good shape, as they must enter the Technodrome and find the weapons, while being chased by many tough monsters and tormented by viciously placed Commandos.

Spoiler

The first task was to conquer the central hub, a well-detailed, interconnected, though very symmetric area that required continuous looks at the automap to find my bearings. All weapons were stocked on the upper level, including a non-secret BFG, and their storages were connected by a fake 3D bridge criss-crossing the central room, where more goodies could be found. Everything was needed to keep at bay the largest welcome committee seen so far in Community Chest. The whole map registered a major difficulty spike that I perceived even on continuous play.

Spoiler

Besides the orientation problems, Technodrome had a straightforward progression, that required exploring the branches at the four cardinal points in a linear succession, regulated by the key cards. To the west lay a warehouse with the BK; to the north was a mazey computer terminal concealing the RK; to the south, a caged labyrinth expanded over a blood reservoir and made me struggle a lot for the YK; to the east, the reactor core with the bomb was found. The Ultimate Doomer designed many challenging spots and interesting architecture, though he overused expedients like the 3D bridges and the voodoo dolls. The latter were obnoxious to have around because of the extended bestiary and of the projectile weapons, both more likely to damage the dolls than in Pistol Panic.

Spoiler

While some set pieces were positively chaotic, perfect to give the BFG a go (e.g.: the ambush at the end of the computer maze, and the side rooms in the southern area), other situations ranged from annoying to downright discomforting. The warehouse bridge was glitchy; the COMPBLUE labyrinth with Spectres and pulsating light might induce seizures; the switch puzzle in a caged walkway with Revenants, Arch-Viles, Arachnotrons, and merciless Chaingunners ready to shoot from incredible distances, was demoralising. I fought my way through these encounters, finding some secrets and resupplying at the hub; I respected the challenge, but the constant harassment took the bloom off the numerous qualities of the map.

Spoiler

In the radioactive core a shielding suit was required to survive the extremely damaging environment, where you must press three switches and get out. A Cyberdemon helped me destroy the horde guarding the reactor and increasing at every progression step. I went on a BFG rampage to eliminate the Pain Elementals and the cloud of lost Souls they spawned. When no demon was standing anymore, I saw my last radiation suit expire and did not know where to go for a while. The bomb was outside the reactor and was now ready to be armed. Doing so triggered a 2-minute crusher that blew up a hidden voodoo doll, so it was time to run for the exit in the warehouse. A lot of enemies appeared in the hub, but I disregarded them and recklessly sprayed plasma to living things getting in the way, until I reached a monorail. I blew a raspberry to the Arch-Viles trying to light me up and left. Stephen Clark worked a lot to provide a memorable experience, but Technodrome was filled with frustrating moments that ruined the pleasure. It was still one of the defining maps of Community Chest.

[NiGHTS108]

MAP20: Technodrome

By The Ultimate Doomer

Kills: 72%

Items: 96%

Secrets: 20%

Time: 15:48

 

The most original map in Community Chest has one clear goal to it, find the bomb which is impossible to miss, and escape within 2 minutes to save your life, great concept but this map still shares a few problems with MAP01, for example the voodoo dolls are back in their unsavoury manner, this time Ultimate Doomer adding Commander Keens to his repertoire to hide a Megasphere secret, and also he returns with the bridges, they're in ultra inconvenient spots too, they always make the monsters look absolutely ridiculous, especially in the central hub running from wing to wing grabbing weapons, I don't feel safe on that thing and I don't think the demons do underneath it! There's four wings to the plant, of them I think the nuclear reactor is my favourite, in a creative turn of events you actually have to wear a RAD suit around the reactor to avoid damage, how cool! My least favourite would have to be the cage maze however, I don't appreciate Arch-Viles and Chaingunners being in this hugely open space mind you, Technodrome isn't my favourite map ever, again it still shares that Pistol Panic DNA, but overall, not bad

 

Grade: B-

Difficulty: B+

 

 

9 days left.

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

MAP18: "Sudden Death" by Rex Claussen

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 1/6 secrets

 

Back to a map that's a bit longer now. This is a pretty large techbase, with a neat looking central hub area with a star on the ground. Visuals definitely stick out a lot here. The lighting is very keen and looks great, and the architecture gets pretty ambitious with the more unique and complex shapes often used. Even just glancing at the automap this one sticks out from the rest. Definitely up there as one of the visual high points of the set so far.

 

The combat in this one is alright, much of it is a bit more on the reserved side. It does throw some teleport ambushes at you which are mostly OK, I do think the first one in the star room with the pinkie horde is a bit grindy for your arsenal at the time though, could maybe have used less pinkies here. I also found that the teleporters in some areas in the map behaved a little oddly, with monsters seeming to have trouble teleporting in and coming in a bit of a staggered manner. Still things overall felt solid and balanced.

 

Pretty good overall, visuals are definitely the best part of this one.

[Gibbon]

RzDoom, HMP, no saves

 

MAP12 - No Tomorrow

 

Well there would be no tomorrow if I kept playing this map because I would have literally either died of starvation or thirst.  This is a dann long level that classes as a mini slaughter map on anything more than skill 1.

 

Too big for its own good and once I died I skipped.

 

I also skipped MAP 13.  Not my thing and just another bad level.  I like slaughter but I like good slaughter not the “haha you have no space and hey I’m going to lock doors behind you” kind of slaughter.

 

MAP 14 - Substation

 

A nice quick level to blast some monsters. Not really much to say.

 

MAP 15 - Internal Reaches

 

A huge map.  I enjoyed this one and found it clean and nicely designed.  I loved the traps and the obligatory hellknight fest.

 

After 22 minutes of fiddling with teleporters and keys, I died just after the nukage pit fight with the skellies.

 

MAP 16 - Methods of Fear

Well who doesn’t love a nice easy map with rocket launchers and tons of imps?

 

Really enjoyed this level.  Nice and simple and full of action.

 

MAP 17 - Infliction of Hate

Spoiler

 

This is one of my favourites.  Really enjoyed it and has just the right mix of Action vs Challenge with plenty of pickups.

Edited March 20, 2022 by Gibbon

[RHhe82]

MAP20: Technodrome. DSDA v0.24, HMP-PS, 282/343 kills, 1/5 secrets. Completion time 26:47.

 

I admit that I first read the instructions carelessly, and thought I had two minutes to find a bomb, which is why I tried pacifist style at first, and when the clock ticked at two minutes, I thought the level was broken. Sorry, my bad.

 

Still, bad first impression didn't clear away when I got the hang of it. Technodrome is a symmetric (meaning: confusing), piece of boring gameplay. Moreover, it's far too long for its own good. I don't like Commander Keens as a visible gameplay elements (unless it's graphically replaced by something more meaningful), I really don't like the 3D floors, a fashion I'm REALLY glad doesn't show up in contemporary quality wads anymore; and I especially don't like Player Starts placed visibly in level so that in the heat of the battle you suddenly find yourself at 0% health but not exactly dead, and... ugh.

 

On the plus side, it's prettier than MAP06. It's more competent and ambitious than the Gene Bird maps, but I'd rather play any of the CC1 Gene Bird ones we've seen thus far than this one. And to think I could have been playing Mayan Reynolds, finishing up my Ancient Aliens run, taking on Sunlust's map08, returning to Cydonia, all those beautiful and carefully crafted maps, but no.

 

I didn't bother with all the kills. I gotta wonder about secrets; didn't care for them either, but I would have thought to have found more than one (which was just a megasphere that suddenly was revealed, I don't know how).
 

EDIT: Admittedly, the fight at the silver reactor was cool, easily the best part of the map. It's nothing spectacular, but considering CC1's age, it's all good. Didn't help my sourness enough, though.

Edited March 20, 2022 by RHhe82
Found something good to say

[Poncho1]

Map20: Technodrome

Author: Stephen Clark (The Ultimate DooMer)

 

Well, this is certainly unique. We've got a full-on mission that goes beyond "kill-the-demons-and-exit". The set-up here is that the player must activate a bomb at the end of the map, and then exit with 2 minutes on the clock. I must say that this is a dramatic improvement over Pistol Panic. Of course, that isn't very hard to do, but Clark's second and final outing in Community Chest is a rather welcome one. I actually found the opening skirmish to be one of the hardest encounters: the concentrated mix of enemies - both on your level, above you, and congregating in the centre - is pretty lethal, and naturally Clark falls back on the stupid voodoo dolls that make BFG-ing the crowds much trickier than before. The central hub, by the way, is really neatly designed: I love the little power stations and panels in each corner where the weapons sit, and the fake 3D bridges, while still prone to malfunctioning, make traversing the top paths much quicker. After that, the map becomes a lot more linear: there's a crate maze of sorts with claustrophobic action, including one part involving a Mancubus and a voodoo doll right bang in the middle of a tiny area; there's a blue-panelled maze with pulsating lights and Spectres that isn't actually too aggravating to traverse, and makes for a good amount of suspense, too; then there's the "cage" area, filled with Revenant and Chaingunner snipers, Arch-vile traps, and a room with Pain Elementals that I would've BFG-ed in any other circumstance, but of course the room was filled with voodoo dolls! Plasma Gun's your best friend for that little encounter. The fourth quadrant is where the bomb is, located in a radiated zone (20%-dealing, by the way). This area's the most basic, and essentially comes down to a late-game slaughterfest... not that I'm complaining: Clark gives the player enough resources for each of these sections, and the secrets (bar the second Megasphere where you must run over a barely-visible square in the bomb room) are well laid-out, including one that opens upon killing several Commander Keens. I didn't bother with 100% kills, and I'm sure that was the intention, so I ended up exiting with around 88%. Clark redeemed himself with this effort, so well done, mate.

[Yumheart]

Map20 "Technodrome" by The Ultimate Doomer

Wow, now this map is a lot more elaborate than anything we've seen up to this point, both in terms of combat and visuals. The opening, where you're scrambling for weapons while being hunted down by Pinkies, HKs and Revs was a lot of fun - though that might be due to the fact that I didn't know about those bridges connecting the four upper platforms, which meant I had to jump down every time and maneuver around the monsters, I imagine balancing over that thin bridge three times is less exiting.

The wings following from that weren't quite as enjoyable. The crate area was fine, if a bit boring. That godforsaken blue, strobe lit maze full of Spectres, though, is a waste of time, eyesight and your punching skills: It's lazy and completely unengaging. The seemingly Caged-inspired room after that was quite fun, featuring some nasty traps and capping off with a HK / Archie / PE ambush, which made pretty interesting use of them shoot-through, impassible walls. The, I assume, nuclear reactor was easily my favorite part of the map, essentially just one big fight, which is surprisingly relentless with PEs and the leaky radiation suits were particularly stressful.

The ending is a bit disappointing, I think the concept could've definitely been expanded upon, giving the player some lock-in fights to clear out as quickly as possible for example would've been much more hectic than just teleporting a bunch of monsters in, who you have to run past. I guess I also have to mention the voodoo dolls, I didn't think they were too annoying, but I also feel like they didn't really add anything and they don't fit into a non-abstract setting like this.

A lot of people seem to dislike this map, and I 100% understand that, because parts of it are really annoying and it carries on for long enough to be exhausting. For me, the good outweighs the bad, though, and this is a massive improvement over UD's Map01. Overall, CC's second episode wasn't too bad, most of the maps were at least "okay" and some of these I really liked! From what I've heard, the final third will be very draining though, and I can only say that Map21 is a fitting introduction...

Edited March 20, 2022 by Yumheart

[sincity2100]

15 hours ago, PeceMan said:

    Comunity Chest is advertised as being a repository of maps made by good mappers. But Monster Mansion doesn't feel like the work of a good mapper.

    It feels like the work of an uninspired newbie.    
 

Well, that was the standard at that time..

[DavitW]

MAP20: Technodrome

The map starts off in some dark room with writing on the ground explaining the levels gimmick to you. If you have to explain how to play your level I feel like something went wrong along the way. About half of the level is good and the other half bad. The big symmetrical arena at the beginning is pretty nice and the warehouse area is decent. The blue maze with the constantly dimming lights is horrible and the cage maze thing on the other side is pretty lame as well. I died at that part in the demo, but the final part is a sort of nuclear reactor which is pretty cool and a good challenge. The area hurts you so you have to ration your rad suits out carefully for the fight. You then reach the 'bomb' which is just a cylinder with a switch in it. Does the bomb add anything to the map or is it just a gimmick? I feel like it's just a gimmick in an attempt to make the map stand out, either way it doesn't save the map from being an annoying and relatively exhausting piece of gameplay. One final thing, the author deserves a slap on the nuts for thinking the voodoo dolls were a good idea to include as a regular part of the gameplay.

cc20.zip

[kalaeth]

I have some time to kill, so let's do a couple of maps today!

 

MAP 19 - Monster Mansion : a shotgun, a super shotgun and a imp, and that's just the first room. Two imps in the next one and then a bigger room with more imps, another ssg, next room a chaingun and a berseker, and then we reach outside. Lava river, three doors ; yellow, red, normal. Also, lots of rockets. Normal door, small room, long room, outside with a switch and the RL. Switch opens three other switches. I go at them from right to left. 1 raises a lift to get out of here, 2 does nothing visible and 3 teleports some imps. Lift, big room is now repopulated, and outside the red key is showing, so I grab it and go to the red door. Small room, big room, library (with some weirdly passable columns). The library computers have a plasma and a switch that turns on the light. Switch lowers the bluesphere and reveals a switch that lowers a box of rockets, switch, backpack, and a small wave of imps and pinkies. Yellow key for grabs and let's go the big door. Big wooden cross corridor, where only one door is real, the bedroom. Entering it also opens a room with only one chair and a switch, that open up a room with one table and another switch, which opens up the final room, a sofa and a fireplace. and of course, a switch. It opens the way upstairs, where we have a HKs sleeping quarters, complete with his diary on top of a desk! Switch, we opened up a shotgunners room, switch, another shotgunner room, switch, a living room with many many screens, a chair, a table and a switch. More path, downstairs to some double doors that open up as I approach and.. Oh, it's the garage!   I'm now outside. There's a weird thing I have no idea what it is that teleports me next to a closed off wooden square, and then some steps into a room with two chairs, a fireplace and a switch. Switch open up secret box, and from there I'm 'ported to secret 2. Now door, and it's a tunnel, switch, wall opens to show blue armor, blue skull. The tunnel itself also opened up, another switch, another wall opening up, another switch, and I'm back outside. Blue door, tunnel, kill the remaining few enemies and it's the exit! But I am one secret short, so.. Ah, misaligned texture at the start. And that does it.

 

K/I/S : 100% / 100% / 100%

time : 20:39 / 7:38:04

deaths : 0 / 29

 

Strange level, way too many rockets and cells for a level with so little opposition worthy of it. I shot one rocket and the rest was SSG all the time.

 

MAP 20 - Technodrome :

This is a weird level from the start.. Find the bomb and press it twice?! Then it's a symmetrical level, each of the 4 spaces offering something different. There's that "players in easy to shot at places" trick, a series of at least 8 commander keens, a secret megasphere! A gift from the commanders? Probably. This cleared, time to go for the side doors. A crate maze. A dummy trap and a manc, an AV, steps up, bridge, another AV, blue key. Fake exit door, let's go to the blue doors. Pain elemental, tunnels! Eventually a room with a spider and a caco+rev trap, then a room with a spider that keeps jumping down and up and that almost kills me and rewards the red key. Then we have a secret with the automap, so now, red door. Revs and a AV, but worst of all, a invisible chaingunner that got me.. time for a break. Second try, enter the cages, rocket what moves, find a switch, opens one door, another switch. Pressing it brings the room down, wehn I get back up I find the chaingunners and kill them all. Another room, this one filled with blood and a switch. Switch, door closes, imp trap, switch, door opens and now the main switch is revealed. Surprise AV when reaching the switch! Switch, HKs, PEs and another AV. Room with three dummies, lift, yellow key. Also, secret teleport in the cagemaze to the chaingunners balcony. Time for the yellow door. Mancs, chaingunners and dummies! I go grab some health before entering the room but after clearing it from outside. Then, grab a suit, go down invincibility, BFG. Clear it all, press all buttons and the bomb has been found. Now I have to find the exit.. Oh, it's that fake door, it ain't so fake it seems. But it won't open yet, so... Plasma gun and let's run! Although.. I'm missing a pair of secrets. And I have the map. One in the crate maze, found. The other is another megasphere at the yellow door. Done. Now, I reached the exit. But I'm missing 20 monsters.. I tried once but I don't have enough time to go back and kill all so..

 

K/I/S : 91% / 100% /100%

time : 35:18 / 8:13:22

deaths : 2 / 31

 

Interesting level, not quite sure if I actually liked it though. 

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 20: The Technodrome by Stephen Clark

Music: None that fits but "The Doom World is Flat" by decino from TNT Midi Pack

Played from pistol start (what a mistake) with the Back to Saturn X class from Final Doomer

 

And here is where the shockingly long run of good maps comes to a screeching halt with yet another symmetrical map by Stephen Clark. Assuming a narrative, you went to some UAC guy's house in Map 19 and found the demons were at a hidden base that probably has biological weapons that'll turn everyone into zombies or something similar, this is where you'll end up.

 

The premise certainly seems unique: set the bomb and escape. Unfortunately, this is within the context of a Doom map that once again decides to turn up that ever-beloved grind. Teleporting from the start, you'll end up in either one of four corners and leaving said corners will inevitably cause you to run into hell knights and revenants on either side, whilst plunging (most foolishly) into the center will bring you into a fuckton of pinkies, along with some chaingunners shooting at you from the corners. So keep to the sides, don't loiter if you don't want enemy projectiles to strike the voodoo dolls that are actually far less of a factor here, and go up one of the lifts surrounding the center to take out a couple of former humans and enter the observation decks on either side, each containing a chaingunner and a weapon. To be absolutely clear, there is a lift on all four sides of this area, so you can take whichever one you choose. Although either way, the 3D bridges running through the center can be very dangerous so you should at least take some time for the chaingunners if you (undoubtably) decide to cross through this place.

 

I spent a long time running around the middle, shooting some enemies, pushing some switches which lower medkits in darkened areas shooting between pairs of Keens I found out will open a Megasphere closet when they alll expire and wondering where to go before finally spotting an unlocked door.

 

And this is where the map becomes downright painful. Granted, the warehouse area behind the locked door is probably the most interesting of this base's wings, avoiding Arch-viles and circling through some side hallways in order to reach the blue key. But the BK door leads to a cramped, darkened, and boring-ass maze stuffed with Spectres and encounters at the end which don't exactly make the whole damn trip worth it, the RK? door leads to a sort of caged maze a la Abandoned Mines where you have to head to the interestingly-textured sides to engage in some decently-interesting fights and push some switches in order to open the way to the YK and blow some chaingunners to bits with a limited amount of rockets but after you've taken out the Arch-vile that teleports in after....you starting to get the picture now? There's sparks of decentness but this manages to be considerably more tedious than even the sprawling bases of Use3D.

 

Ok, getting a rad suit for the reactor room and fighting a Cyberdemon and several other enemies is far from boring, but you could definitely use a little more cell ammo and the circular, yet-closed off design doesn't necessarily encourage the sort of infighting that makes these encounters fully worthwhile. While escaping isn't terribly challenging if you remember where the exit sign is, every extra step I took just felt burdensome. And the Arch-vile appearing to the side of the exit train came too late for me to bother with.

 

It's still better than the weaker maps in CC, but that's all I want to say right now.

 

 

Best maps (so far)

Spoiler

Map 15

Map 13

Map 08

Map 12

Map 04

Map 18

Map 31

Map 02

Map 16

Map 19

Map 10

Map 11

Map 17

Map 03

Map 20

Map 14

Map 05

Map 01

Map 06

Map 08

Map 09

 

Edited March 21, 2022 by LadyMistDragon

[PeceMan]

1 hour ago, sincity2100 said:

Well, that was the standard at that time..

One the one hand, yes. Standards were different back then. 

 

 

Counterpoint:

 

Compare Monster Mansion to the cohesive world-building in Nullth Precinct, or the solid encounter design in Sudden Death. Or even better, compare Monster Mansion to the beautiful boardwalk in The Boardwalk, a map made by the same guy.

 

If map 19 is the work of a good mapper, then maps 02, 18, and 07 must be the result of the joined efforts of John Romero and Jesus Christ.

[Silhouette 03]

Map 19: Monster mansion- Gene Bird

The mansion is only in the second half.

 

It seems that with this map the experience got better as you progressed. The first few rooms are flat, under detailed and uninteresting with a few mostly cannon fodder enemies. The second half of the map is where things get considerably more interesting. I could sum this up in one word: Doomcute. The latter half of the map is filled with Doomcute. What really caught my eye was the tekwall bed in two of the rooms. This section does a better job of establishing location, rather than being a mansion in name only. The latter half of the map is arguably the best half because it feels a lot more polished and, most importantly, fun to play.

 

I dare one of you to make a bed made of tekwall in one of your maps.

Kills: 99%

Secrets: 66%

[Jaccident]

This post is fairly long as it covers quite a few maps, so if I need to stick this in a spoiler tag so it doesn’t take up too much room, please tell me to.

 

Map 14: Substation

This map is exactly what I needed to get me back into the swing of things. Short, easy to navigate yet quite exciting. The combat, while nothing innovative, is very good fun, with my best strategy for the start being to use the imps as cover. Nowhere is safe yet you still feel like the fight is fair, and while this map required heavy plasma use, it gave me just enough to beat the map. I enjoyed fighting back through the map I’d just fought through, that was quite clever, but the simple layout absolutely worked in its favour. This map had a single thing it wanted to do, and did it well.

 

Map 15: Internal Reaches

At first I was very apprehensive of another Kaiser map after his last one was so awful, but I was pleasantly surprised by this map. It looks nice, it flows fairly well and the backtracking is always simple enough that it works well. My only problem is that sometimes the hitscanner placement goes from interesting and enjoyable things to work around to just plain dickish. Still, I quite enjoyed this one!

 

I have no idea if I should go play the secret maps, but given how far behind I am already I’ll save that dilemma for later (probably when I’m procrastinating playing map 29).

 

Map 16: Methods of Fear

Map 16 has the benefit of having a name that I think is quite cool, but not only that, it lives up to it. Its main method of making you scared is facing you off against a large amount of enemies, which certainly works for the two seconds of panic you have before realising that the fights are very much beatable. Still, the concept is cool, and the design is mostly quite good, although I got lost for a while because I didn’t step into a shadow (the ensuing fight had some great looking architecture though). There is some texturing in the map that isn’t great, but that’s more thanks to how poorly some of these textures look on tall surfaces. I did like the bloodfall, however. Overall, quite a fun map, nothing too amazing but nothing bad either.

 

Map 17: Infliction of Hate

Oh wow, another cool name. I criticised that last map for being a bit too easy, and boy do I look like a fool now! This was a bit more of a challenge, with some encounters that were actually a bit difficult, but the map gives you enough health to make it all fine. I was a bit annoyed that I had saved the supercharge at the beginning to take with me into the next level, only for here to be a megasphere right at the end anyway. Still, a fun map. So far I’d say community chest hasn’t been bad, on average.

 

Map 18: Sudden Death

I’m not too sure of my feelings on this one. To start off with I was worried I was going to have an awful sewer level, and then I was relieved when I left the sewer and thought it was just a bad intro to the level, and then I was annoyed to find out that there were more sewers. For the most part this map didn’t do anything for me, and while not at all bad, it failed to interest me. However, towards the end it started to win me over, with the fight in the dark with the revenants being a high point for the level. It ended on a bad spider mastermind fight, which is a shame, but generally I can’t say this level was particularly amazing or particularly awful.

 

Map 19: Monster Mansion

While this map isn’t great, it is interesting to talk about. This Gene Bird map tries its hand at many different things with varying degrees of success, and there are some parts that could even qualify as fun. My biggest gripe is that he basically copied a section of his map and pasted it, resulting in you essentially playing the same area twice to get two different keys. This area is also not great, with it mostly being a wide open space where you fight some enemies. I think Gene Bird was more interested in using interesting combinations of monsters rather than interesting monster fights, but even then the combinations are nothing that amazing. He also tries his hand at doomcute, and while it isn’t particularly amazing doomcute, its still nice to see, although tying progression to it wasn’t a great idea. Gene also ties progression to switches that aren’t actual switches, and while he does a good job at teaching you this at the start, consistently using that one texture would’ve been better than using different ones for different points. There was also a fairly cool animation of a door opening that I enjoyed. Still, this map felt like it couldn’t justify its length, and so the only thing I felt when I finished it was relief.

 

Map 20: Technodrome

This map is so awful I found I had to write stuff down as I went along, as there were too many different ways it was awful for my brain to keep track of. The result is this fairly long section where I complain about this map. It is a truly awful map, and some of you may enjoy reading my thoughts, but this post is long enough and I don’t want to force my annoyed ramblings on any of you so here it is in spoiler tags:

 

Spoiler

 

I absolutely despise this map. It is truly awful. It starts off fairly cool, and I like the idea of this gimmick map. The idea of being put into a base, having to find the bomb in an unknown area with possibly multiple ways of finding it, and other areas that could have ammo or other rewards that are unrelated to your main objective, is a really good one, and for all of two seconds I was actually excited to play this map. Unfortunately, this is an Ultimate Doomer map. I still can’t decide if I like the bizarre, crowded aesthetic of his techbases, but I certainly hate his moronic voodoo doll placement. I have died many times to this, from shooting a rocket and it missing my opponent and hitting a voodoo doll, to opening a door and seeing a sprite and shooting it out of reflex only for it to kill me. This cannot have been a good idea, and yet is only the icing on the cake of this atrocity. The map then starts with 4 identical areas surrounding a central area.

 

The Ultimate Doomer also clearly liked this area with chaingunners, hell knights and revenants because he forces the player to play this 4 times, and they flow so well into each other that you will frequently forget to save and be forced to play the area again. As a result, I played this area about 15 times in total, which is why it is such a shame it’s so awful. The enemies are not fun to fight as there are too many to focus on individual enemies but the area is too cramped to use rockets (alongside the voodoo dolls) so you’re stuck circle strafing and using a bunch of your SSG ammo, which is just plain boring. The chaingunners here are a slight nuisance, but when you go into the main area they get even worse. If you don’t take the time to go around the whole map and kill all of them before the main ambush, they will kill you in the ambush without forgiveness, but sadly doing this is nothing but a boring chore, devoid of any possible enjoyment. The ambush itself isn’t bad at all, but I’m glad I have my BFG, which is one of the few good things about this map as I’m a continuous player and get to keep it for better maps. The next fight, which takes place in a crate area, is cramped and unenjoyable, and I don’t have any good things to say about it. The Ultimate Doomer doesn’t seem to understand that being in small corridors that don’t allow you to dodge projectiles is absolutely awful, and so does this repeatedly. The section unlocked by the blue key is the best showcase of this, with pretty much all of it feeling cramped, even the final fight of the area, which takes place in a room that is far too small for the number of enemies. I found a secret where I killed a bunch of keens, which gave me a megasphere that I very much needed because there is barely any health in this map, despite there being so many chaingunners that there really really should be. The red key area is impressive in that the Ultimate Doomer finally manages to make an area that isn’t cramped, and yet it still sucks beyond words. The revenants are annoying and so far way that they’re almost impossible to hit, especially thanks to the large amount of midtextures in the way, which was a source of massive frustration to me. My attempts to get closer were thwarted by a squad of surprise chaingunners. Thanks so much!!!!!! There’s also an archvile ambush with zero cover, which was very considerate. The ambush where you press a switch and come face to face with enemies was very good, and apparently the ultimate doomer was so proud of it he did it twice, which is an unfortunate habit of his. It’s a shame both times you then get bombarded by the shittiest chaingunner placement known to man, he was so close to making a part of the level that wasn’t utter garbage. There’s then another fight with some pain elementals and an archvile that is made utterly dickish by the voodoo doll placement that stops you from using your BFG, even though there’s no cover for the goddamn archvile. The final fight before the bomb is decent, but suffers from the same problem the rest of the map does – it makes you play the same thing over and over again, this time a fight with arachnotrons to press a button, where an ambush then happens. I found killing all the arachnotrons and then pressing all the buttons was the most manageable strategy here. And then, finally, we get to the star of the show – the bomb! Once again, for about 10 seconds this is a cool, enjoyable experience, and then you open a door that leads to a tiny corridor with two revenants at the end and realise it isn’t going to be any better than the rest of the map. Still, nothing worth mentioning here, just a few awful cramped fights before you finally finish the map. The only possible good thing I can think of about this map is that it may have inspired many mappers to go “even I could make a map better than this!” and then very easily do so.

 

 

[brick]

Before going to today's maps I want to highlight something PeceMan said about MAP18:

On 3/18/2022 at 12:05 PM, PeceMan said:

Well decorated, but never cluttered. Varied, but not unfocused.

Aesthetics were not just "good", they were "consistently good", which is very important.

I agree completely with this, and it's a more concise (and clearer) expression of what I was trying to say when I was talking about the perils of overdetailing and why I liked this map so much.

Onto the next maps.

 

MAP19: Monster Mansion

I guess it's official, I am now part of the Gene Bird fanclub (population: 1?). The map starts strong with a great opening room, continues to ok with the symmetry, at which point I didn't really expect to like the map much. That it briefly dips into annoying (yes, I too got softlocked in that pit and had to reload a save) didn't fill me with confidence, but it then picks up exponentially. The library is where I started thinking this could end up good, but the actual mansion part with all the various rooms and living spaces is something else. Such a variety of doomcute, all done with the simplest sector geometry and yet it works so well. The comfy chair in front of the TV (complete with beating heart snack within arm's reach), the fireplace, little office computers, book and pen on a desk... and, of all things, a stupendously aligned PIPEWAL2 to simulate sheets running down the side of the bed. GENIUS. Thinking it over, the gameplay in this section is as crude as it gets, but opening each room and excitedly looking in to see just what crazy sector furniture and texturing I'd see next was so much fun, I could almost imagine the grin on his face as he designed all this. Speaking of gameplay, I think the best part is in the dark tunnels near the end (complete with teleport-behind-you surprise - I don't mind those when they're used sparingly, and as effectively as here). Oh and throwing the double doors open was another "wow" moment.

I think this is a great map overall. I think I understand why people don't like GB generally, but much as I like long and complex adventures like MAP18, when all 32 maps in a megawad are magnum opuses I just get exhausted. I need something easy and relaxing and full of lighthearted fun to break up the big beasts, and both this and Boardwalk delivered.

 

MAP20: Technodrome

I didn't hate this one, but it's a difficult map to like despite some really nice ideas. The voodoo dolls are incredibly obnoxious this time, much more so than in MAP01, and while I can appreciate that they're supposed to make you more careful when using the rockets and BFG, taking random damage from enemies you can't see and aren't even shooting at you is very annoying. I don't know if it's a GZDoom problem but the 3D bridges were more prone to breaking than in other maps, resulting in enemies that teleport up/down through them (and on one occasion me falling through one). I liked the reactor section the most, it's a cool use of damaging sectors that you don't often see. I also liked the idea of the bomb, and having to run like hell and ignore kills to get to the exit ASAP. The map also looks pretty good, with the almost octagonal star shape in the centre and various setpieces in each direction. I just wish some of the annoyances had been toned down, it could've been a really good to great map instead of a more mixed one.

One oddity: unsurprisingly I didn't get 100% kills since I ran without shooting anything after activating the bomb. But even after looking up the secrets I had missed, I see I barely got 25% items, and missed a good 50 or so of them. I have no clue where any of them could be.

Edited March 20, 2022 by brick

[PeceMan]

Level 20, Technodrome

 

    Its easy to see why a lot of people wouldn't like Technodrome. A lot of parts of it are objectively bad, and unfun. The weird blue maze, the

    confusingly laid out box area, the horrible, HORRIBLE passageway  through the red key door, the fight in a hurting floor, the large fight

    with excesive pain elementals and a time limit...

 

    Having said all that, I actually enjoyed most of my time in the level. I like franctic battles, and the level was well decorated. It also

    appeared to try to be a more "real" place. The bomb area was radioactive,  the box area had an outgoing door, and there were

    voodoo dolls standing around, doing... something?

 

    I also like the fact that the level has a story. Enter the reactor, place a bomb, and leave within two minutes.

 

    I'm not gonna pretend it was a good enjoyable level, but I still liked it.

 

 

 

Rankings:

Spoiler

Maps I Really Liked:        
            02 Nullth Precinct; 18 Sudden Death

 

Maps I Liked:            
            04 Outer Base; 05 The Forgotten Prison; 07 The Boardwalk; 08 Battery; 10 Termination Center; 11 Mandrel; 14 Substation; 20 Technodrome

 

Maps I found ok:        
            01 Pistol Panic; 03 Ground Floor; 09 Flow; 13 Another Dead Hero; 15 Infernal Reaches; 16 Methods of Fear; 17 Inflictions of Hate;

            32 The Citadel

 

Maps I disliked:        
            12 No Tomorrow; 31 Mt. Chaos

 

Maps I really didn't like:    
            06 Goin' Down

 

Edited March 20, 2022 by PeceMan
Formating

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

MAP19: "Monster Mansion" by Gene Bird

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 3/3 secrets

 

The third Gene Bird map, the layout of this one is very simple in the opening stretch but gets a bit wilder as you approach the finish line. The opening portion of the level centers around a cross-shaped hub area with doors that you take in a concrete order to progress, after the yellow key door though you are greeted to the titular mansion area, which is a lovely treat of rooms that have bits of Doomcute in them. Beds, furniture, computers, a fireplace, and a neat little writing desk are some things to note here. The progression with finding which rooms have opened and looking inside feels like it should be annoying, but it honestly wasn't too bothersome and I thought it was fun. On your way out you're greeted by doors that swing open as well, which is always very neat.

 

The combat in this one is quite straightforward at first, Gene's tendency towards SSG centered gameplay rings true here and you get a ton of shells throughout the level. As the level progresses though the combat improves more and more, with some clever teleport ambushes and you poking in and out of rooms like Scooby Doo. The climax of the map comes after the mansion area in the outdoor spot with buildings, quite a few monsters of all ilk greet you out here for an enjoyable fight. The map doesn't slow down much in the closing hallway either, cramming quite a few foes in here along with a nasty little trap that opens up the walls on both sides of you.

 

Quite a good map in my opinion! The initial stretch is a little iffy but the back half has some great stuff.

[Book Lord]

MAP 21 – Avenger by @Sphagne

PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves

 

This was the first of three submissions by Sphagne to Community Chest, all released as standalone and reproposed here with no changes. The level was set inside of a town invaded by demons, and the original WAD storyline presented Doomguy as the Avenger who must slay the hellspawn in vengeance for the town’s destruction. The area to explore was huge, and it pitted the player against significant enemy forces with limited supplies, quite an oddity for a map designed for pistol start.

Spoiler

The worst problem was the intended way of progression. The author constantly warned that jumping was equal to cheating in his maps; while I can surely agree with his point of view, he relied too often on impassable windows offering a view of unreachable areas, on barriers that must be lowered, and on steps too high for Doomguy to climb. These tendencies made the city hard to navigate and forced me to backtrack in its maze-like alleys, with the automap turned into a worthless orientation tool. After 40 minutes I had visited almost the entire map, killing more than 2/3 of the enemies, and I still was unable to find the YSK. Conversely, I reached both sides of a yellow locked door! How absurd. The YSK was inside an ill-conceived closet, that opened behind my back and around a corner. I found the plasma gun and rocket launcher secrets before finding the will to retrace my steps to that place.

Spoiler

In this twisted town nothing was as it seemed: turning right did not necessarily mean you will proceed in that direction, as the paths were manifold, convoluted, and largely counter-intuitive. It was a pity because I liked the representation of the town, as the buildings looked less boxy than typical and the layout evoked a middle eastern settlement, with separate paths at ground level and on the rooftops. I liked the lion archways that allowed alleys and upper paths to cross; they were better than the fake 3D bridges frequently sported by others.

 

Once the YSK was found, the map pieces instantly came together. I retrieved the BSK and the RSK in quick succession, along with the most useful secrets (two Megaarmours and other items seen through the windows). The final room with the exit held a combat set piece that might fall into the threatening category, considering that it surrounded the player with Barons and a wild Arch-Vile. The concealed Invulnerability sphere can trivialise it, if the player knows about it, and there was even a second one on the Cacodemon ledge of the RSK chamber.

Spoiler

Avenger had both a strong atmosphere and an intriguing blueprint at its side, but Sphagne was too eager to disorientate the player in his labyrinth to realise that the YSK was easy to miss. Good things come to an early end, so it was not sensible to repeatedly tease the player with unreachable spots. It was like the pit trap in the starting room: the first time you fall for it is ok, then you trigger it every time you cross that room, and it just gets irritating. Combat showed good intensity on a few occasions, but most of it was irrelevant (so many hitscanners and Imps around the corner). It was just too confusing and protracted to be a great level, and its qualities were deeply rooted in mapping habits from the 2000s.

[kalaeth]

MAP 21 - Avenger :

Let's avenge stuff! Starting with the zombieman in the room, and now.. 4 doors. I'll use the zombie's corpse as a guide, and start from his door. Barrels, imps, two side corridors. One has only a a view to outside, a wandering caco shows up meanwhile. Then a yellow door and the other side corridor, some steps up to a green armor, health and ammo. That's it for the first room. Now.. Anticlockwise. Oh, outside. The same outside! I go down and into a tunnel, and when I reach a dead end, find a secret teleporter. Invincibility, cacos, and then into a big half moon room with two teleporters to pick.. I go for the one with a backpack, and it's back to start. So now.. Next door. Stairs down, a pair of niches on each side and a opening to another room.. Ah, the big room from just before but the upper level.. A switch opens up a bit of the lower wall, so.. Back to there? Oh, new secret! Into another interior outside courtyard, leading to a lift into a room with only one exit : the roof. In it, a teleport to another roof area, a blue door, the door into the starting room, and I end up entering a smaller door, that appears to lead no where. Another small door, this one has a HK on a cage. On that same room, another small door that leads to a fake switch that is actually a 'port to the other side of itself. Or another like it. I am now in a maze on top of the roofs, eventually down some steps and back up and finally a switch. It opens a wall and gives the SSG. A small door next to it, enter, switch, outside, small door, and I'm outside again. Checking the map I pick a door I haven't entered yet, tiny marble room with a imp. Humm. Oh, look this secret should lead to that secret, right? Right! Blue armor and more rockets, back to halfmoon room, this time I take the other 'port, it just leads back upstairs. Back to first room, then to the room with the niches, I was pretty sure there was a secret here and indeed there was. First room, outside, I'm still missing stuff. Back to the roofs, a door I hadn't entered yet leads to two doors. One leads to a blocking face, the other to another tunnel, another door, a switch. As expected it opens the path from the other door, where a room has no way to progress and another has a fall that I fall into. Corridor, face that isn't a switch and a door into the library. At then of it a door leads outside to anotehr tunnel and it's the same one as in the start, but this time I can go up the stairs, and so I do. Secret plasma out in the open and then I'm outside. And then it's back to the roof, and to try another new door., Useless. Now I'm just walking around in circles... Oh look, this floor now collapses! Big grey room with a switch, that opens up a caco guarding the yellow key. Now.. Lift, yellow door, tiny room with a chaingunner and some rockets.Now, there's another yellow door I haven't entered, so I go there, there's a chainsaw and a door, a marble room! And a soulsphere, and the blue key. Back to the marble, switch, a wall falls. Other switch and the tiny marble room from before opens up. Up some stairs, secret berserker + blue armor! Now, there's the blue door that leads to the red key. Enter, switch, red key, and now there's only one place I haven't been to, because a block was barring the passage.. Oh! This one entry to the halfmoon room opens up a passage! A teleport into the face of a spider, and it's where I wanted to be! Invincibility, cacos, baron, revs and here's the exit! I'm one enemy short and 3 secrets short, at 44 minutes. So let's find them! One is this soulsphere. Another one is in a lifted platform inside a room I've visited.. There must exist a entry from the other side.. Likely from the library? AH ah! Berserker + RL. Now, two more. Ah! bluesphere : found. One more.. I gave up on finding it, even with IDDT the one place marked as s secret was a small dot in one of the niches I had already explored.. 

 

K/I/S : 100% / 100% /88%

time : 59:00 / 9:12:23

deaths : 0 / 31

 

Not a terrible level but way too big and confusing for it's own good.

[RHhe82]

MAP21: Avenger. DSDA v0.24, HMP-PS, 207/223 kills, 2/9 secrets. Completion time 31:47.

 

Ugh. Well. It's not like Avenger is a bad map, but it wasn't my cup of tea either. 'Twas confusing, at times I was suffering serious ammo starvation, I was just having miserable time with it, and once again it's hard to point out the exact reason. It's all so brown and uninspired.

 

At the same time I can't be mad at the mapper. He/She/They clearly have ambition, there were some very cool spots here and there that even reminded me of Sunlust (the spherical niche with a candle across a similar niche with HK). I guess we're once again facing the fact that modern maps have different sort of ideals. But is it that simple? I still enjoy IWAD maps, too (with some exceptions, including many Evilution maps), and I don't think it's mere nostalgia as to why they work for me, and maps like Avenger don't. It's not length either, although Avenger is clearly far too long. But then, there are modern endurance tests that I like.

 

Anyway, after MAP20 I was already thinking if I'd just quit CC1, there are so many other wads to play, other stuff to do, but I'll just try and hang on. As you can see, I let go of maxing out stats. I stumbled across the exit by accident here, and felt very little desire to go back and clear the level.

 

I guess I should point out that Avenger is, after all is said and done, a mid-tier CC1 map quality-wise; It's basically a competent outing, I like it more than MAP06 or MAP20, but I guess it blends in with the the rest of the lower mid-tier stuff. At least aforementioned two maps are memorable, even if not for the reasons authors probably would have liked.

Edited March 21, 2022 by RHhe82

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 21: Avenger by Sphagne

Played from pistol-start with Hellbound class from Final Doomer

 

Having seen MtPain's video, I admit having some slight concerns of ammo woes, but probably at least in part due to the mod I'm using, things proved perfectly managable, even if it took a few minutes to find a Berserk Pack.

 

Continuing the story I've invented for Community Chest like Gene Bird, Spahagne's maps were originally uploaded seperately), Doomguy found something at the base that the demon portal is located adjacent to a Middle Eastern town which you could say the setting of this map is. Lots of tan buildings and alleyways from whence many secret closets can be seen, Sphagne does a good job at making you feel you working for what you have. The only problem is that this layout can be quite confusing and it took me some time before finding the way to progress in the north. At least the yellow key fight, not to mention the exit fight, is pretty cool. Don't you just love the wild Arch-viles. But Sphagne's Map 23 is better than this, despite possessing many of the same qualities. Not too much else to really comment on, other than the teleport bridge at one point being rather disoritenting.

[Yumheart]

Map21 "Avenger" by Sphange

Calling this map confusing would be an understatement, this was probably the most exhausting one for me so far, and I'm honestly unsure if I'll be able to hang on, with holidays being over and so many huge maps awaiting us. (Also gotta study for a Math exam, woo ° m°)

Some positives: Good visuals, the architecture is a bit blocky, which becomes especially apparent in the tiny techbase portion, but there are some nice details and I dig that brown-brick, rectengular, castle-esque look in combination with the sky, it's a cool rendition of hell for sure. Ammo is tight, meaning a lot of oyur time will be spent punching, and the beginning will likely have you running around in terror, as you don't even have Berserk from the start and can't really engage with the numerous Imps, Pinkies and Hitscanners running around with so little ammo present, which I'd consider a plus, as it feels very deliberate here. Aside from that, the combat was okay, though the usage of turret or stationary monsters was pretty poor here. In a map as cramped as this one, they encourage camping more than kinetic movement.

Now the anxiety-inducing part: The progression. There are so, so many little nooks, side pockets and completely optional passageways everywhere, which reward you with health, ammo or even optional weaponry, which is cool, I guess, but dear lord does it make the progression confusing, because it's not non-linear, there is a strict path to follow, but it's really difficult figuring out where to go, and you can get sidetracked so easily. No kidding, I killed over two thirds of the monsters present here before even finding the first key.

This was not a good experience for me, I hope the maps following from here at least won't be as much of a maze. I can, however, see the effort and ambition that has gone into this and I wouldn't call Sphange an incompetent mapper or anything, but our ideas of a fun map are definitely quite different.

Edited March 21, 2022 by Yumheart

[Silhouette 03]

Map20: Technodrone- The Ultimate DooMer

Disclaimer: Egregious amounts of cussing was used in the completion of this map.

 

I don't have as much to say about this one as I'd like to as it all boils down to the map being very unfun and a chore to play. Areas like the blue maze and the caged area are prime offenders of this. Maybe it's just me, but I don't really like that key weapons are put in places the player won't immediately see, especially in the first few minutes of the map where they'll mostly be running away from enemies. Progression is fine and I have no real complaints there. I had a peculiar bug where on the 3D bridges enemies and corpses below would appear on the bridge when I walked across it. I was forced to use IDDQD to progress.

 

I vastly prefer Map 01 to this map though that was probably made clear after reading my post.

 

Kills: 71%

Secrets: 40%

Edited March 22, 2022 by Silent Wolf

[Poncho1]

Map21: Avenger

Author: Sphagne

 

As I understand it, Sphagne's three maps for this WAD - much like Gene Bird's - were standalone releases before being thrown into this, probably to get the whole package to 32 maps. Some great lead development right there, eh? For the first time in Community Chest, we have a non-Doom II music track! Wow! However, that little tidbit isn't enough to redeem this one. It's one of those "where-the-fuck-do-I-go?" kind of maps, and the author forces you not only to figure your way out through the samey-looking corridors, but also to Tyson a good chunk of the enemies. This'd be okay if the connectivity worked well, but alas it doesn't, mostly due to the fact that Sphagne uses the same goddamn textures for any particular section, so you'll be running around in circles before finding a really-hidden switch that lowers a wall to another switch, which in turn... and you get the point. A lot of the weapons are hidden, so Pistol-starters should be in for a load of crap, here. The SSG's in a well, and the Rocket Launcher and Plamsa Gun are locked away in secrets. Speaking of, Sphagne really hid them well, to the point of outright frustration. Trying to 100% this is probably* a nightmare (* - we'll get back to this point shortly). I mean, I suppose the idea's sort of cool: it's a Hellish village, what with the living quarters you can breach at times, the narrow alleyways, little details like the aforementioned well, and the caves that give off a rural impression, but any amount of nice touches don't save this map from its complete lack of pacing. I spent ages without encountering a single enemy about halfway through my run trying to figure out my next step, and I couldn't tell you what I did that made the pace pick up. I accidentally exited the map with 99% kills and a little over half of the secrets, breaking my UV-Max-esque rules; however, considering how long, boring and confusing this was, I bent the rules on this one occasion and simply continued without looking back. To me, this is one of the worst maps in the WAD.

[Book Lord]

3 hours ago, RHhe82 said:

Anyway, after MAP20 I was already thinking if I'd just quit CC1, there are so many other wads to play, other stuff to do, but I'll just try and hang on.

 

2 hours ago, Yumheart said:

I'm honestly unsure if I'll be able to hang on, with holidays being over and so many huge maps awaiting us. (Also gotta study for a Math exam, woo ° m°)

 

Don't give up!

I'll be lying if I say that it will get better, cause the MAP25-MAP29 streak has some real trouble, especially for pistol starters.

 

I am sure you know what lies ahead, thanks to Dean of Doom & the like. Since you have been informed that pistol starting is not feasible, play continuous before it's too late. It's better than not playing. Since you know what MAP29 is about, skip it or have a tour on IDDQD (beware, it might take hours even cheating). I think it's important for mappers to play this megaWAD, not only to see what they should not do, but also to understand what these guys tried to achieve 20 years ago, then failed to deliver, and why.

[RHhe82]

57 minutes ago, Book Lord said:

Don't give up!

I'll be lying if I say that it will get better, cause the MAP25-MAP29 streak has some real trouble, especially for pistol starters.

 

I'll try and hang on. Continuous play appears sound advice; I completed MAP23 earlier today, I guess I still have a chance to make the rest of the playthrough less painful* as it'd otherwise be.

 

(* -> what a healthy preconception I have here :P)

[NiGHTS108]

MAP21: Avenger

By Sphagne

Kills: 86%

Items: 63%

Secrets: 11%

Time: 28:10

 

The first of 3 sprawling spelunking spotlights from Sphagne, Avenger is an unnerving start to Community Chest's supremely inconsistent final third lent an aura of mystery from this Heretic MIDI, I think, a labyrinthine ancient metropolis of back alleys and hallways, wanna know how to win? One word, berserk, there are 6 packs in this map, punch everything physically possible, your weapons are hiding from you and ammo isn't swimmable, but you'll mainly need it for the final battle of Barons, Arachnos and Viles guarding the exit, you'll only have a chance if you can beat Mike Tyson in Punch-Out, thankfully this map isn't as hard otherwise if you do decide to conserve ammo, most of your time will go into rummaging through the long forgotten land, gathering keys and hitting switches in a desperate bid to blow this popsicle stand, I doubt you'll be eager to replay this one because of that

 

Grade: C+

Difficulty: B+

 

 

8 days left.