The DWmegawad Club plays: Cydonia & Arrival

[Azure_Horror]

MAP17 - “The Cesspools” by Scotty

DSDA-Doom, UV, pistol start.

 

I would like to describe this map as brutal, but cute.

On one hand, many setups are pretty in-your-face, high damage ambushes appear often, and death pits complete the picture. However, no trap can be described as insta-death, and most fights are relatively straightforward. Of course, you need to be comfortable with typical Plutonian monster compostions, but this is pretty expected this late in the WAD.

 

Add to this a certain minimalism of layout - and you get a lovely miniature Plutonian level. I especially like the "Two Floors" structure of the map. Walls from the first half of the playthrough become platforms in the second half! I love when mappers do that.

 

Some random moments of note:

- 1-shot BFG from the start is a surprisingly versatile idea, and I wish it was used more often. It is pretty old-school approach, after all!

- Unless you are careful, jumping from the red key platform leads you right into the cyber deathpit. Dunno, if this is funny or annoying...

- Final room reminded me about Yellow Key area in map 29 of Doom - Negative One.

Edited September 17, 2022 by Azure_Horror

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 14: Deadlock

by Brayden "Plini" Hart
 

 

This came close to the sort of map that really bores me, but @Doomkid's flat-out awesome metal"Denied" keeps this from sinking into some sort of unfortunate gameplay morass. So there might be a spot where you've got to rocket some Revenants after picking up a rocket launcher and some other enemy placement that felt far too standard, but on the whole, the chaingunners and Arch-viles placed in some rather inconvenient places make this a generally worthy challenge. Although we're out of the jungle now, so the slime actually makes little sense. It's typical square-shaped Plutonia nonsense with the final area obviously drawing some sense of inspiration from Neuroshphre/the Inmost Dens without directly ripping that duology off.

 

Now combat here is quite difficult. There are no sergeants so we end up evading hell knights and failing to pick up the SS the first time around which was only partially responsible for our first death, to be quite honest. Otherwise, the biggest bunch of BS probably came from the Mancubus near the red key  which took a stupidly long time to die and was able to toast our hides near the very end.

 

The final area ultimately played out all right. The Imps near the edge were kind of a non-entity but the final Revenant/Cacodemon ambush did promote some frantic scrambling until everything was dead and we wander around for a bit, killing an Arch-vile we didn't notice before to the left of the entrance while trying to find the second secret. Turs out all we have to do is leap onto a ledge with Imps from a certain location and hit a switch which opens a hidden door to an alcove with some chaingunners we'd probably left alive for too long, although wehad no chaingun ammo. Guess the exit had already been opened whenwetriggered the last fight but we completely failed to notice before coming back from the secret. More fool me.

 

This is actually fairly free of the weaknesses of the usual Plutonia stuff. But also, around 45 percent of that is the midi, so you know :D)

 

 

 

 

lmd_cydonia14.zip

[Pseudonaut]

Map32 (practiced, 1 attempt)

I only played this once with saves before I started recording, and was surprised to get it on the first attempt. Much easier than map31 for sure.

 

 

Map16 (1 death)

Red key ambush got me. Progression was a little confusing.

 

Demos:

cy32-16.zip

[Monsieur E]

Map32- Get On It by Scotty
100% kills

No Plutonia wad would be complete without a action packed map 32, and well it does deliver on that. From the slow and puzzle oriented map31, this is quite a change. This map is just straight up loads of fun, it strikes back at every move, at every pickup and every area of the level is heavily defended by your demonic opposition, to which you have been given loads of ammo and powerups to let you take the bull by the horns. I liked the homage to map30 of Plutonia and in terms of visual, the fleshy gore aesthetic was a solid changeup. The usage of Jimmy's PL2 MIDI alongside these textures does make me wonder if Plutopia was another influence for this map. Either way, don't have a whole lot to say except I had loads of fun with it, great map.

Map16- Sasquatch by AD_79
100% kills

Just to get the negatives out of the way, what the fuck are those pillar textures, they look ugly and I've never seen them used anywhere else; oh and for some reason, that MIDI had kind of a christmas-y sound to it. They just looked really bad. Besides that however, this is a great map. I like the varied verticality of this level and I like how you have to raise the pillars to navigate around the map and eventually to the exit. The combat here is again pretty solid light ambushes but most of the challenge I found to be towards the opening where you don't have your guns yet. This map again flows really well since you can see the platforms rising whenever you hit a switch rather than going around searching for whatever rose. Just another solid map.

[DavitW]

MAP13: Chimera

These next two maps blended together for me. There's a very easy to find BFG secret near the start that will come in handy down the line. The only part that really stood out here was the Cyberdemon fight in the dark basement area. Even before you drop down into the pit you know you're in for some serious shit down there. You can run into the next room but will have to contend with an obstacle course of Baron's in there. Hopefully you can induce some infighting to get the Cyberdemon off your back for a few seconds.

 

MAP14: Deadlock

The MIDI here has some heavy 'Boots and Pants' going on. All I can really remember about this map is running over a lot of hurt floor and chaingunners sniping me from a distance. Not terribly frustrating but I can't say it's particularly well designed or fun to play either.

 

MAP15: Hatchet

My strategy for this map was running to the rocket launcher and start clearing out the enemies from there. There's a lot of effective traps in this one that never felt particularly dickish, and hey, at this point you should be expecting traps around every corner anyways. The secrets were once again a trivial affair here, with them all being connected to the secret exit in some way.

cydonia13.zip

cydonia14.zip

cydonia15.zip

[cannonball]

MAP17 - “The Cesspools” by Scotty

 

Either I am having a good doom day, or this was rather easy to beat. I like how the layout plays around with vertical layers, but a lot of the fights are actually pretty easy to defang. The archviles are pretty easy to deal with, though many of these offer a little tension. The yellow key trap provides probably the meanest offering, purely because some of the flyers can sneak up on you (Especially the pain elementals). However the cyberdemon is a little bit too helpless in his position, made even more so by the fact you can hose him with plasma from the ledge that you can jump to the yellow key from.

Overall, I felt pretty neutral about this one. It isn't a bad map, but it lacked that spice that has dominated Scotty's last few maps.

 

[tmorrow]

Cydonia map17

 

A fortress of sludge. Careful of those cesspools, several of them you can't get out of if you fall in. A cesspool death is definitely not a dignified way to for doomguy to go down. Cybie is stuck on a platform again on top of the yellow key. He's really got to find some better gigs. Fortunately he is easy enough to avoid as your doomguy explores everywhere that isn't near cybie. There's a few archviles, revenants and chain gunners preventing his progress but nothing he can't handle. Cybie's demise is a bit anticlimactic due to his inability to return fire effectively. Doomguy can spice things up by arranging for cybie to infight with the small cacoswarm that emerges when you collect the 2 cell packs on the overlooking ledge.

[Book Lord]

MAP 18 – Backlash by Alex Scott @Scotty

DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves

 

Here we have the quintessential Plutonia map, as embedded in the collective image: a jungle construction surrounded by toxic green slime, featuring relentless surprise attacks and hostile situations. While it evoked scenes and memories from various maps of the IWAD, Backlash did not replicate any specific texture scheme or layout, following a linear development through multiple challenging areas, requiring quick reaction times and wise Radiation Suit management. In fact, this turned out to be the archetypal Cydonia level, a believable rendition of the Casali style but with a modern take on combat and gameplay, removing all fillers and going straight to the essence of small-scale Doom action.

Spoiler

The interior was designed to deceive the player, with vines impairing the sight and ambushes at every important pickup. Additional care was given to the graphic result as well, since some areas looked pretty with their shadows and colour juxtaposition of brown, green and red from the sky. The RSK was gained almost immediately, after evading one of the many Arch-Vile traps Scotty had in store. The way to the BSK was longer and went through multiple hazardous floor segments, where Radsuits should be exploited to minimise the damage while repelling the frequent aggressions. Plenty of goodies could be found in the secrets or just along the way, but their position was not always suitable for the taking (e.g., the Megasphere in the middle of the slime river, that I saved for later).

Spoiler

The blue door was near the start and the teleporter took me to the last room, which looked a bit unfair at the first attempt, like the last section of Abattoire. A row of respawning Chaingunners made sure damage was unavoidable, while the two Arch-Viles in cages with invisible floor effectively limited my movement. Hell Knights and Mancubi increased the pressure, and dying a couple of times was necessary to figure things out. Backlash was a fast-paced, exciting, and varied level, exuding Plutonia spirit without quoting anything in special from the Casali’s legacy. A highlight of Cydonia and a truly remarkable creation by Scotty.

[tmorrow]

Cydonia map18

 

A green slime map with 3 main set pieces that I enjoyed. The map benefits from hindsight so you can set yourself up best for each encounter. Archvile encounters are becoming routine in this wad, so expect them at any time and you won't be disappointed.

 

The first set piece is on the way to the yellow key, where you are locked in for a fight with cacos, 'trons and an archvile on a ledge with chaingunners. This fight is cheesable because you trigger it and still get back out of the room before the door locks you in.

 

The second set piece is for the blue key. It requires some rad suit management to pull off comfortably. One of the secrets yields a rad suit that is quite useful here. Of course there are archviles to thwart doomguy as well as some revs, mancs and some pesky chaingunners.

 

The final set piece is a separate arena where the enemy are blocking doomguys exit. The slime pit here is inescapable and any slip is death. The chaingunners on the wall have to be ignored at first due to 2 archviles behind, ready to do the devil's work. They do leave their closet later. Another 2 archviles in cages out in the slime are a high priority and then there's the hellknights and mancubi lobbing missiles at you. Not a hard fight once you know what to do but can easily be fatal the first time you teleport in.

[TJG1289]

GZDoom/UV/Continuous/Saves

Map 17: The Cesspools - Scotty

100% kills and secrets

Time: 8:19

Deaths: 3 (2 to pits, 1 to the final fight)

 

I'm seeing comparisons to The Sewers here, but I honestly don't see it. This feels like a more original idea than that. The biggest threat in this map isn't the cyb guarding the yellow key that you can easily plasma/BFG to death with no worries, but the several inescapable pits, including the one the cyb/yellow key is in. Though the constant revs and occasional archie will have you backpedaling to safety. Make sure you have enough speed to make the jump to the yellow key, cause you can miss it. The final fight got me cause I didn't expect the 2 archie to leave the building they were in, and I didn't see the chaingunners initially. Oops. Other than that, this map is a bit of a breather. 

 

Map 18: Backlash - Scotty

100% kills and secrets

Time: 10:46

Deaths: 1

 

It's about time this WAD had a map that used the vine textures more. A good chunk of this map has you fighting in toxic slime, with only 3 rad suits to use (one of them is a secret). The only time I died was just before this behind the red door. This fight has chaingunners and an archie on a ledge above you, while cacos and arachnotrons rise from the outskirts of the arena. One of the chaingunners came down the lift and perforated me while I wasn't looking. Clever. The red and yellow keys get you the rocket launcher and the BFG, and you'll be able to use those quite a bit. The main slime fight behind the yellow door will use that BFG quite a bit; on 2 perched archies on the way to the main attraction, and the rev/pinky swarm. Keep it out as you head up the stairs, since a closet with 2 archies opens up as you get to the top. The blue door has a teleporter leading to the final fight, where you have hell knights, mancs, 2 archies, and a chaingunner wall that revives their fallen await. Hitting both switches teleports the archies behind the wall out to the newly opened door, allowing you to BFG them. Despite the fewer amount of deaths compared to the previous map, I think this one was a tad harder, just due to the monster placement in traps, and the rad suit timers. 

[RHhe82]

MAP18: Backlash. Played on DSDA v0.24, UV, PS. 96/96 K, 3/3 S, 3/3 I. Completion time 12:54 (on August 21st: 12:38).

 

Damn those archviles! The opening scene looked so unfamiliar to me, but as soon as I entered the first indoor area with the arachnotron, revenants and chaingunners, I remembered. Last time this one was challenging to me, and it still is. At each step traps are sprung, mostly lethal, and when I finally think I'm safe, there is a squadron of archviles closing in on resurrectable corpses, and I've run out of rockets and cells. Not to mention the final wall of chaingunners and four or five or some number of archviles in the final area. This one is not a breather, no. A great map still.

[Soll]

MAP18: Backlash

More like Whiplash. If you think Cydonia is still taking it easy, this map will brutalise you. If you come prepared, it’ll still brutalise you. Poison runs deep across these lands, so it’s a good idea to ration the few radsuits given to you. The Plutonic Trio are out in full force. Chaingunners, revenants and archviles are there to greet you at every corner. The archvile in the closet that opens up when you get the secret backpack can be blocked easily, but if you accidentally stumble in the secret too early when fighting the gunners then it can get pretty hectic. The plasma rifle surprise can give you a right jumpscare when the horde of moving bones scream into your earholes the moment you’re in their sights. It was hurting my ears so I had to turn down the volume here. The room behind the red door features probably the trickiest archvile to deal with. If you rush into the room, you’ll get shredded by the arachnotrons, and the archie and his green buddies don’t allow much moving space. You can snipe him off with the rocket launcher from outside the room, but he usually moves towards an angle that is hard to shoot, making it quite a war of attrition. Most of the time you spend at the area behind the yellow door will be on green nukage, so it is best you enter with a bfg and a healthy supply of cells, which make fights much more manageable and quicker. Towards the end you might notice that this map is quite generous with cells. You will need all of those cells. All of them. Why? 

 

The final room.

 

Archviles up high in The Final Frontier/Anti-christ-styled cages, hell knights and mancubi positions, and a wall of chaingunners constantly revived by another 2 hidden archviles. You’re a cornered animal in an Abattoire, so you’d best fight like one if you don’t want to end up on a meat hook. The panic sets in immediately, with monsters attacking you from all directions the moment you teleport in, while you barely have time to get your bearings. Don’t run off the ledges, there is nothing down there, and there is no way out. Bfg each archvile twice to make sure they’re dead, and rocket the hell knight and mancubi positions. You can kill some chaingunners to make your trip across to the second switch a tad less dangerous. Hitting the 2 switches unleashes the 2 hidden archviles. Hopefully you still have bfg ammo or at least some rockets left, without them you’ll be sent flying off to the deep end in a blink of an eye. When you’re done, you can finally finish off the chaingunners and leave the insanity behind you. Congratulations.

 

That final room was crushing, but it was such a thrilling ride, like an adrenaline shot straight in the vein. It got me stuck for almost a week, so when I finally beat the map I was physically shaking. The only other times I had the same reaction playing Doom was when I first killed the last cyberdemon in The Living End, and when I beat the last room in Plutonia MAP09. Imo, this is a great representation of Plutonia’s combat philosophy: you don’t need 100 cyberdemons to make a map hard, you just need to put the right monster at the right place. An outstanding map, and one of Cydonia’s best.

Edited September 18, 2022 by Soll

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 15: Hatchet

by Alexander "The Scot" Scott

 

Another boring-ass structure, a crappy name,  and a Primeval midi not really sounding like a remix of the Doom 1 track it's named for but I'm having trouble remembering it. Although there is a notable uptake in the abstract industrial derivation of the Plutonia variety. Though lots of brown brick and wood with hints of green, there is a sort of Doom 1 brown tech texture with a Supercharge not so far from the beginning, along with a cool little damaging blood pool in the southeast. And the darkened and frightening secret exit is just so inviting.

 

But of course, none of that can possibly mean a thing unless the combat is up to snuff. And does it deliver! Idk if you can stand still at the start and be mostly ok (though I've read some comments suggesting you can't) but in most parts of the interconnected central collection of hallways, you can't stand still because you'll end up falling to vicious enemy fire coming from many, if not most, directions. And of course, this is rather painful for pistol starters because despite the presence of a nearby SS, it's just not possessed of a high enough rate of fire to truly suppress most of your opposition. There are actually 2 different rocket launchers in this map, although the first one is protected by a murder of Revenants that we can't really handle at this stage. But the second one is in the middle of the blood lake in the southwest. Upon crossing said lake, we are ambushed in addition to Revenants and Mancubi, seemingly just one Arch-vile at first that can be escaped by heading up the stairs, but this results in crashing into chaingunners and more Revenants. That's still better than being roasted like a marshmallow over an open fire of course. The main issue is that there's actually another Arch-vile some distance behind the first one that will likely catch up to you. It was this one that caused our only death here because unless you head back to where you came from, you won't spot them until it's too late.

 

Besides that...there's more average Plutonia sadism. A platform with Supercharges leads to Pain Elementals and Cacodemons spawning right in front of us, almost. In a wooden fort room opened by a switch is respectably dangerous, an Arch-vile and some other crap possibly ruining out day. The stairs here lead to a large and linear ambush with a BFG, an Arch-vile or two and Barons of Hell, Mancubi and possibly 1 or two other enemies. In one of the closets, pushing a random wall will reveal a not particularly obvious hidden chamber with a red key.

 

The Cyberdemon at the end with the yellow key platform was expected but annoying since we'd already spent most of our cell ammo here at this stage. Getting burned by otherwise unseeable Mancubi in the surrounding hallway was also annoying, but shotgunning them after walking back seemed to work. Embarrasingly, we spend forever running the map before realizing the yk platform had to be run to.

 

A splendid Map 15 with a cool approach to difficulty. Maybe I'll demo Map 31, but I'm bad enough with AV jumps that I dunno.

lmd_cydonia15.zip

[KickAss]

Just have finished cydonia.wad right now. GZDooM 4.8.2, PB 3.0, HXRTCHUD-PB3_v8.3RC2e, PB_3.0_NeuralPack(BaseGame), Glory_Kill_v29b, SilentDoomguy, Flashlight, UV (-skill 4), continous play from map01 up to map20 and I haven't found any secret map but there is everything on doomwiki if you want to know more about cydonia. Playtime about 5 (five) hours. If you like the textures and the level design from plutonia this is a must have megwad and realy enjoyable imho too. I had fun going through it.

[Pseudonaut]

Map17 (8 deaths, DNF):
Maybe this is better with foreknowledge or saves, but I was really fucking annoyed by it under these circumstances. The worst part is the death pit surrounding the cyberdemon, which ended three of my attempts and is awkward to deal with even when you know it is inescapable (it really doesn't seem like it would be after the precedent set by most other maps in this wad).

 

Map18 (No deaths):
Heh, this is more like it.

 

Demos:

cy17-18.zip

Edited September 18, 2022 by Pseudonaut

[General Roasterock]

Map 18: Backlash

 

  I feel like people are undervaluing the opening shots for these levels. Allowing the monsterless atmosphere to settle in for Backlash while the MIDI is still winding up is very emotional. I have a great appreciation for maps that can set this up.

  On the other hand, this map is pain. If you’re like me and miss the singular Rocket Launcher on a jutted path in a room with six or so different directions of travel, you will suffer through the Arachnotron fight with the supporting Arch-Vile. The fights in this map are taught with roaming Chaingunners and Revenants, especially in the stretch of damaging liquid. The last fight in particular had no problem scraping away the loads of health provided to me before the teleport in the same way that I remember Abattoire being an issue. The Final Frontier caged Viles are here because The Final Frontier had caged Viles, but the appearances of these bastards in any other instance are lethal, usually getting a good drop on you in an area you don’t have constant surveillance in and arriving in pairs. Ammo is still pretty tight, except for the Rocket Launcher being able to level a small building with the supply it has. I did like the Darkwave midi though, that definitely worked with the lighting to produce some better mood, but I will never forgive anyone putting monsters with a hitscan attack behind a fake wall, that can go. 

 

Power Rankings

Spoiler

1. Night Terrors
2. Hopeless
3. The Cesspools
4. Fraughtification
5. Hatchet
6. Venomous
7. Volcanic
8. Sasquatch
9. Chimera
10. Amazon
11. Neurotoxin
12. Deadlock
13. Quetzalcoatl
14. Backlash
15. Carcinogen
16. Aggrandizement
17. Ritual
18. Viper
19. Get On It
20. Siege

 

Edited September 18, 2022 by General Roasterock

[erzboesewicht]

MAP17: The Cesspools

 

Those who played Memento Mori for sure remember the weird gimmick-heavy map with a similar name. Fortunately this map has nothing to do with it, instead we get again the most popular design trope of this megawad: ledges above damaging floors. Some similarities to MAP14, but this time, I think some of the "Cesspools" are unescapable. I like the progression: you have basically two levels of ledges, starting on the lower one and then climb up to two different parts of the upper level. The map hands out the most powerful weapons at the start, so it's mostly a fun romp. Cell ammo is scarce and should be saved for critical situations (which are not frequent because you've got often much space to run) and for the guardian cyb of the yellow key, although BFGing him is a bit awkward; but rockets and shells are abundant so you can simply push forward, not caring that much of infighting. The finale is a big courtyard with mancubi and viles, not too difficult, but they got me once because finding cover is a bit tricky without foreknowledge. On the automap, this one reminded me a bit of Tombstone with its round corners everywhere, but the map doesn't feel at all like it, and is also much easier.

 

Rating: 7/10
Difficulty: 4/10

MAP18: Backlash

 

Difficulty romps up again, and we've here Cydonia's equivalent to "Abattoire", even if the visuals aren't similar at all. But the structure and pacing of the map clearly has parallels with the infamous Plutonia map: Three major ambushes with plenty of baddies each, with some punchy incidental combat in-between, and the last of them being a difficult crossfire-enclosure-platforming setpiece. Viles are used generously and will molest you several times inside and between the fights, which is a difference to the original. I really liked the puzzle-y fight behind the red door with the arachnotrons backed by the vile and chaingunners, where my strategy was to start close to the chaingunner wall, take down the spiders which are inside of autoaim range, ideally inciting some infighting with the cacos, and then decide when the moment has come to run forward and tackle the vile and the remaining spiders which are outside of your RL's comfort zone. Maybe a solution could also be to plasma the vile ASAP and hide in the soulsphere secret, but I didn't try that variant. The BK fight is freeweeling Plutonic pre-slaughter encounter in the vein of The Omen with spiders blocking your way out (they're better "living doors" than barons, imo). The final fight finally shows some true madness: 2 + 2 viles (2 of them in "Final Frontier" cages), HK and mancubi snipers which can take just your remaining health if you're not wary, an invincible chaingunner wall, and an inescapable pit. While the last fight perhaps is a bit more forgiving than Abattoire's ragequit-inciting finale due to more stable ground under the feet and providing a relatively safe step-by-step route, I would rate the map slightly higher in difficulty due to the other fights. Really liked this map, is my second favourite until now.

 

Rating: 9,5/10
Difficulty: 7,5/10

 

(prboom+, UV, pistol start, sometimes with saves between fights. Difficulty scale roughly: 1-2 - easier than all of Plutonia, 3 - Congo, 5 - Genesis, 7 - Abattoire, 8 - Twilight/Go 2 It, 9-10 - harder than Plutonia.)

[Book Lord]

MAP 19 – Purgatory by Brayden Hart @AD_79

DSDA-Doom v0.24.3, UV, Continuous, blind run w/saves

 

The last third of Cydonia was dominated by Scotty’s submissions, with Purgatory being the last entry by AD_79. While the two authors succeeded at merging their respective styles into a coherent compilation of maps, Brayden’s levels distinguished themselves for their experimental nature, trying to export the Plutonia gameplay to different settings and layouts, while Alex usually walked on solid ground and on the Casali’s footsteps. MAP19 was no exception: even though it was not difficult in the real sense of the word, it featured a couple of tough spots that I could not figure out without being killed first. Of course, I am not mad at this playing continuous with saves, but foreknowledge was a frequent requirement to beat the maps from this author, while Scotty’s demanded more quick reactions and situational awareness.

Spoiler

Purgatory was a hellish dungeon with a few tech elements, showing a classic red & brown palette with harmless pools of blood or red ashes, used for the occasional light platforming. I found a secret Invulnerability at the end of a small series of ambushes to the east but was unsure of its purpose. I picked it up and ran through the caverns in the south, clearing them as quick as I could. There was no real need for such a power-up for that segment, and if I had known I could have saved it for either the YSK or the RSK rooms. The first was a quasi-symmetrical chamber split in half by a wall, where the player must use cover wisely to avoid being massacred by snipers all around. The chamber opened a bit more at every advancement, releasing additional monsters including a few Arch-Viles. After getting through that difficult part, the BSK segment behind the yellow door was more manageable.

Spoiler

The weirdest design in store was the RSK room, accessed by jumping from pillar to pillar up to the Soul Sphere. The power-up suggested some big ambush ahead, though the setup was the teleport (or the “parachuting”, thanks to the Z coordinate bug in Final Doom) of a varied host of monsters in a cramped space. Even though there were barrels to blow up, the safest approach required a plasma rifle a pistol starter might not have found at this stage. Beware of the teleport pads since they drop Doomguy over more barrels, and their detonation will be fatal. This was a dirty trick since I could not see those barrels until I was in the position to blow them up. The rest of the encounters was ordinary business for Cydonia. It must be noted that a shortcut allowed to jump directly to the BSK area once the RSK was acquired, thus skipping the YSK part. This was another oddity of Purgatory, a potentially great level that lost more than it gained by introducing puzzles, which required prescience over anything else.

[cannonball]

MAP18 - “Backlash” by Scotty

 

I think this one has that magic about it. The action is very stop/start, but works perfectly with the PRCP midi produced by Darkwave. Many of the fights in this one are like trying to tackle a chessboard with several pieces that you need to take out one at a time. The most prominent is the final room with multiple Plutonia references (Final Frontier archviles, the room resembles the gauntlet at the end of Abattoire and of course the continually resurrecting chaingunners). This room in the end is solved by clearing the perched monsters on the side you teleport into, then give the chaingunners enough time to see you and instigate infighting before dashing to the other side (After pressing the switch). Then again use the pillars as cover to leave just one or two threats, again take them out and then deal with the archviles that teleport onto your level. With them dead it is a quick clean up and finish.

The rest of the map flows really nicely with a mix of suspense and some tricky fights, I really like the one beyond the red key door, each monster is utilised by their position and the rest of the encounters never hit a bum note.

Overall this is in my opinion Scotty's best entry into Cydonia, and given the bar has already been raised pretty darn high, then that truly means something.

Edited September 18, 2022 by cannonball

[Monsieur E]

Map17- The Cesspools by Scotty
100% kills

A name like "The Cesspools" doesn't seem very inviting or enjoyable but to the contrary, this is a very good map. The texture usage here matches the title, filthy but thematically appropriate and helps distinguish it from its peers. The combat here is pretty cool, flows together nicely and providing sufficient but still controlled amounts of ammo, making you deliberate when best to pull the trigger. 

Map18- Backlash by Scotty
100% kills

There's a sense of apprehension this map channels throughout its runtime, no doubt benefitting from the MIDI selection. Rather than immediately lighting you up, Map18 goes a bit slow with its rebuttals to your progress but none of the less still hit hard. I found the usage of archviles here to be pretty prominent. The combat here is again, solid, with more of a prominence granted to damaging floors for parts of map alongside arachnotrons snipers. The lighting here feels more prominent here, not that it was lacking in the other maps but, it feels more moody relative to other maps with its darker areas contrasting particularly well with the blood red sky. Although, I think the RL could've been placed better with how essential it is to the map, nearly missed it until I found the excess of rocket boxes with no RL a little suspicious. Great map otherwise.

[tmorrow]

Cydonia map19

 

A facility with blood floors, non damaging in this case. That however is the least of doomguys worries. It's encounters at each of the keys that's going to get him killed. There's 3 keys and 3 vicious fights for them. The enemy does not give in easily. Doomguy can choose his route. Either the red or yellow key paths can be taken first and after that the other 2 key paths can be taken in any order. My doomguy chose the route red, blue and finally yellow key.

 

There is something odd about the 2 secrets on this map. The invulnerability secret seems to be mandatory* or you will be instantly killed by exploding barrels when teleporting to the ledge with the red key. The soulsphere secret on the other hand appears to be reachable only after you've essentially beaten the map and thus not useful at all. Note an early soulsphere secret pickup is possible if you are using a vanilla srcport like dsda-doom or prboom-plus that supports -shorttics where you might be able to pull off a (probably unintended) tricky zero press to bypass the yellow key completely. I spent a minute in a feeble attempt to do this in gzdoom but soon gave up and took the harder route where doomguy reluctantly resigned himself to the fact that he couldn't really benefit from that secret soulsphere.

 

The red key. Pickup the secret invuln and race to the red key area. This fight can still get nasty if the archvile enters the arena after your invuln runs out but otherwise the fight isn't that tough. Just make sure to take one of the 3 teleporters to the upper ledge while your invuln is still running or you'll be a goner. You can immediately drop back down into the fray again.

 

The blue key. There's plenty of chaingunners to worry about as well as a few revs and 2 archviles. It helps to use the pillar as cover from the chaingunners while you are taking care of the 2 archviles and revenants.

 

The yellow key. This area is accessed via teleporter and the arena is divided into 2 halves. The south and east sides of the teleporter take you to the megaarmor half of the arena. The north and west sides of the teleporter take you to the soulsphere half of the arena. Pick whichever side has what you need most. My doomguy found this to be the hardest encounter on the map. The fight is sequenced but there are multiple high priority foes that need to be dealt with all at once. Doomguy suggests not using either of the 2 skull doors until the current batch of enemies has been dealt with since they each bring 2 demons and an archvile to the raging party. Of course picking up the yellow key halfway through also brings more enemies too.

 

*Edit:

As @Andromeda points out, the invuln is NOT mandatory -  https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/131142-the-dwmegawad-club-plays-cydonia-arrival/?page=8&tab=comments#comment-2546192

 

Edited September 19, 2022 by tmorrow
Corrected thanks to Andromeda's post.

[finnks13]

MAP17 - The Cesspools by Scotty:

5:57/3 Deaths
The Cesspools packs a punch, though most of it's difficulty comes from the lack of space you have to move. Damaging floors and death pits are everywhere and the everpresence of them puts me on edge a bit when fighting and makes me more prone to making stupid errors - all of my deaths came from falling into a death pit, and they were all very avoidable. I don't think that this is a bad thing, outside of the slightly distasteful blind jump you have to make after getting the red key. I like that you get the BFG right at the start of the map, as you'll only have one shot for the majority of the map, so timing the perfect moment for it is an interesting decision.

 

The most entertaining parts of the map are the parts where you're scrambling for supplies against entrenched enemies that continually appear from monster closets, which made up the first few minutes of my playthrough. Other highlights are the little red key fights, and the finale which are both very claustrophobic but fun encounters. I'd say this is a solid map, but it does blend in with a lot of stuff here - the most memorable thing being the bizarre midi.

 

Spoiler

Something completely ridiculous happened in my successful playthrough - I got a one-in-a-million accidental rocket boost from the cyberdemon to make it over to this platform without having to open the red door! It's completely pointless and doesn't actually skip any progression but it was such a cool occurrence and I'm so upset I wasn't recording a demo. The best proof I've got is that the chaingunners in the monster closets directly south of my position are still asleep when you need to kill them normally to get up here.

 

^{Should save like 10 seconds on a UV-Speed demo of the map so get on it guys :P}

 

MAP18 - Backlash by Scotty:

8:55/3 Deaths
Fantastic map, I love the atmosphere and oppressive feel that you get right from the start. Archviles are a recurring theme in the level, they make up nearly a sixth of this map's pretty small monster count and the appear around every corner and in every ambush - it's fitting that PRCP Map11's midi was chosen as that map also features heavily on the archies! I played this map a bit out of order, skipping down to the blue key area by using the lowering rocket launcher platform as a step but this was definitely intended (extra triggers have been added so you can't softlock yourself) and I think actually made things easier on me since it let me take the fight one step at a time due to not hitting the triggers all at once.

 

Scotty is very generous with health here, I didn't end up needing the soulsphere and blue armour before the final area since my megasphere was still at full capacity (though that's because I sequence broke the map :P) and this lets you play aggressively which I always enjoy. The final area feels like a combination of various plutonia maps, Abattoire, The Final Frontier and Anti-Christ all mixed together into a rather mean arena as you can't get out of the slime pit here. Since you're given 300 cells beforehand, and a BFG earlier on, this part isn't too bad though you have to think and act quickly in order to not get fried by the archviles or mowed down by the chaingunners. This is an excellent map, one that definitely stands out from the crowd.

[RHhe82]

MAP19: Purgatory. Played on DSDA v0.24, UV, PS. 139/139 K, 2/2 S, 35/35 I. Completion time 18:31 (on August 21st: 21:13).

 

Purgatory might be my least favourite (regular) map of Cydonia. That means it's merely good. I guess it's because somehow, Purgatory doesn't feel like a Cydonia map, if we take Cydonia as something that pays homage to Plutonia Experiment, but more like a TNT Evilution tribute map. But then, I guess that's more visually speaking as there are a couple of "flaming" hot plutonic encounters I had the misfortune of running with too few rockets, without plasma rifle. Talking about the blue key trap, and the yellow key trap where my ammo situation was better, health situation worse.

 

The red key trap went much more swimmingly as I used the secret invulnerability sphere here. I don't know if I ended up doing a disservice to myself, because I reached the upper platform with suicide barrels while the sphere was still on. I mean I couldn't figure out how I'd reach the armor bonuses I clearly got less than a month ago. Had to double-check UDB to find out about the switch that had raised away already. Hmph.

 

The final plutonia squadron was a mere nuisance, it's the blue and yellow fights that really stand out.

[Soll]

MAP19: Purgatory

A fitting name. The bloodsoaked floors suggest that you are in the deepest corners of hell now. You can dismantle the arachnotron corral by prioritising rocketing one arachno at a time and not running in a straight line. Moving on you’ll come to a Scythe E3-esque cavern area, with enemy positions up high and behind corners. Rocket the gunners first and make your way out from there. I discovered that you can quite easily make the mancubus infight the revenants if you stand at the bottom of the stairs. Getting the ssg will allow you to raise a wall that you can use as cover for the ambush, as well as a platform you can jump off to get the secret invulnerability. Honestly, the green face is a godsend for the red key area. There are so many barrels here, and if you accidentally stand too close or walk on a teleporter before a monster does, you’ll get some barrels o’ fun in your face. Getting the plasma rifle and going into the teleporter will take you to 2 identical rooms opposite each other. I think which side you arrive in depends on which face of the teleporter you go in, but I’m not sure on this one. The low lighting and high population density make for a very disorienting experience. Don’t open any door early, you’ll only introduce archviles into the fray. For your own safety, save some plasma and at least 10 rockets for the 2 waves of enemies behind the yellow door. The first chaingunner trap can be disarmed with the plasma rifle. Opening the door will be yet another archvile along with his bodyguards, joined shortly after by more teleporting monsters and one more flaming martian. The plasma rifle alone won’t be fast enough to cut down the collective HP of this fight, you need the rocket launcher as only it has the high DPS needed to delete the archviles before all the monsters corner you. The final archvile/revenant pop-up is just ammo tax, if you’ve played this wad all the way through, you know to always expect one final ambush at the exit. 

 

This was a fun one, some pretty tense sections, especially those involving archviles, but nowhere near as frightening as MAP18’s last section. The visuals are also agreeable.

Edited September 19, 2022 by Soll

[Andromeda]

16 hours ago, tmorrow said:

Cydonia map19

 

The invulnerability secret seems to be mandatory or you will be instantly killed by exploding barrels when teleporting to the ledge with the red key.

There is a switch in the red key area that lowers a lift to a platform that's level with the teleport destination, so you can detonate the barrels safely from distance.

[cannonball]

MAP19 - “Purgatory” by AD_79

 

A bit of an odd ball compared to the other maps. In a way I kind of liked it. The yellow key is probably my favourite because of how it evolved in a rather organic and unusual way. The blue key fight seemed hotter than anything AD has thrown so far, but managed on the first attempt (Just). The red key again I survived first attempt, in the end I don't know whether it is just me, but I would consider an easy way out to be highly suspicious, it is an interesting quirk because the monsters will not teleport to that location, whilst the player would and become one with the blood that floods this map. In a way this is a little bit of a mean move, but there are plenty of moments like this in Plutonia - So all's fair in lead and revenant missiles :)

Overall this isn't the greatest map, but it carries the journey well enough and offers another solid experience. The progression and navigation was probably the weakest part, for example I found the invulnerability secret before the actual progression to the red key (Which use the same raised platform).

[TJG1289]

GZDoom/UV/Continuous/Saves

Map 19: Purgatory - AD_79

100% kills and secrets

Time: 13:52

Deaths: 1

 

As we approach the end of this WAD, we finally get a non-secret map with over 100 enemies! That doesn't mean we're going to get any slaughter-lite fights or anything, but there's a few instances were you'll get thrown into the deep end. This map appears to be a little non-linear, as I think the red key can be grabbed independent from the yellow and blue. I didn't realize that until grabbing the red key last and then taking the teleporter behind the red column to the blue key fight. You still need all 3 keys to exit though. Oddly enough, my only death came from the first outdoors room, as I got simultaneously shotgunned, manc'd, and 80 damaged rev missiled. Very unlucky. The incidental combat isn't too threatening here, but the key fights are something. You unexpectedly teleport into the yellow key room and have to gain your bearings while avoiding the few monsters that were aware of your arrival. If you cause some infighting, you can see the other monsters around this arena and develop a plan of attack. The doors in this room house an archie and 2 pinkies behind each, and they also open up some closets with chaingunners and revs too. Continuous BFG makes this not that bad, especially once you figure there's gonna be an archie behind this second door too. The blue key fight is also unexpected, as the floor lowers into it, but once again, big door = BFG time. Good thing I was ready since yes there is an archie, but also revs, hell knights, chaingunners, and more teleporting in, including a 2nd archie. Rough stuff. The red key fight is very interesting, and I'm pretty sure I did the "secret invul cheese" method. You don't have a lot of room in this arena, and if you step into one of the teleporters on the floor barrels are on, you'll telefrag even more barrels above you, killing yourself. According to a post above, there's a switch here that lowers a lift so you can ride it up to blow the barrels up, but I didn't see it. And as a continuous player, I appreciate the soul sphere secret at the end of the map! Solid map overall.

[tmorrow]

Cydonia map20

 

The final playable map, a fortress over lava. I had quite a bit of fun with this map and replayed it a couple of times using different strategies. The start is a bit frantic but there are several ways to handle it. The use of stealth (by not firing) to pick up a couple of weapons first helps quite a bit. After the initial onslaught, doomguy has the pleasure of picking off half the maps enemies before kicking things into high gear. First prepare the stage by picking up the plasma rifle and bfg.

 

The funtime begins when you trigger cybie when you reach the top of the stairs in the east and flick the skull switch on the ledge nearby to raise a floor out of the lava to the spider mastermind room. Don't take cybie out yet, he's got work to do first. To increase the fun even further, teleport to the soulsphere ledge and use the switch to reveal the yellow key room to the north, full of revs, some 'trons and mancubi. Meanwhile, side walls to the spider mastermind room have opened up as well.  With cybie and a spider mastermind stomping around and revenants, pain elementals and arcachnotrons roaming around looking for trouble, the infighting possibilities are endless. Nowhere is completely safe but some locations are safer than others. Doomguy has all the weaponry he needs to keep the enemy at bay and watch the enemy fight it out.

 

The chaingunners against the red background at the end reminded me of a room in plutonia's map12 "Speed".

 

---

 

Cydonia map21

 

An exitless, one room map to mark the end of the megawad and prevent players from entering doom2's proprietry maps. No credits, unfortunately.

 

---

 

Favorite maps. I really enjoyed most of these maps. Here's my top 10, 6 of Scotty's and 4 of AD_79's:

1. map31 by AD_79 - archvile jumping is hard but rewarding when you pull them off.
2. map32 by Scotty - slaughtery goodness.
3. map20 by Scotty - great finale.
4. map19 by AD_79 - the red key area is a barrel of fun and splat city for the unwary.
5. map10 by Scotty - invulnerabilities are not always free.
6. map04 by Scotty - spicy gameplay.
7. map07 by Scotty - cybies blood fortress.
8. map18 by Scotty - some fun set pieces.
9. map11 by AD_79 - a map of mean encounters with a nasty cybie ending.
10. map12 by AD_79 - green slime tech base with some tricky encounters.

[narrowtomato]

Finished up Cydonia.  Overall a very enjoyable experience, it stayed consistent in the short but intense combat design.  Encounters never felt unfair or slaughtery.

 

Map 20: Reaper - This one stood out to me the most out of the whole WAD.  It was the perfect blend of chaotic and intense combat, but with enough space, ammo and health to always have an escape and supplies to regroup and go back at it, but enough enemies that an escape was never a full retreat.

 

Final chunk of my playthrough below.

 

 

[finnks13]

MAP19 - Purgatory by AD_79:

11:33/3 Deaths
Both the longest, and most monster-dense map of the Cydonia's regular lineup - Purgatory is more reminiscent of the lengthy TNT-esque Tombstone or Bunker than the more commonly referenced earlier Plutonia levels. You have two choices of where to go from the starting platform, and like a lot of Cydonia, one path will give you a rocket launcher, the other a plasma gun. The surroundings are much more hellish than anything else in the wad, you're trapped in blood-drenched caverns for the majority of the level and this helps to give the map a sort of finality to it.

 

The combat has a few surprises in store, the red key area has a gimmicky fight involving barrels and teleporters and the yellow key arena unfolds slowly over time, removing walls and cover to become more and more dangerous. I liked both of these fights a lot, it proves that Cydonia isn't out of tricks in the combat department. There's plenty of powerups, including a secret invulnerability that's hidden in what I assume is a reference to TNT's Mill (you have to run through a demon marble face to get it, the same that you have to shoot to progress in Mill) but I forgot to actually use it in the end! I like that this map goes out of it's way to be very different from the rest of the set, which is reminiscent of how Odyssey of Noises is very different from the rest of Plutonia, and the solid combat makes this a very good penultimate level for the wad.