The DWmegawad Club plays: Fragport

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 19: Dockside

 

Once again, everything is brown, but honestly, I still like this better than the last map. Especially as you can pick up a BFG fairly early on the deck of the sub here. Although there's probably 3-4 situations at most where it's practical, it's fine. Some minor clumsiness with monster hordes that never goes overboard, along with buildings that may not all be the most detailed but nevertheless each have a specific purpose. The rad tank building and the leakage in one corner is quite nice. The dry dock office with the Baron, computer, and work case is another. Finally, the room with the metal that just randomly surrounds us doesn't make lots of sense, but also, I'm bitter because I didn't find the stairs which lead out of here until it was too late. Before that though is a large monster horde and a Cyberdemon/Mastermind you can triggering infighting of but they are around the corner from each other and there's plenty of BFG ammo so it's fine. We do wish we'd used it against the last group of Mancubi on the opposite end of the street leading to the train station. We would've had enough for the Arch-vile conductor at the end. Less memorable than Map 06, perhaps. The sub is a little bland here and the only trap we were caught off guard here was the one in the pen after acquiring the RK, leading to a death because the Arch-vile here is too tall for the boat here. No matter, we're now on a high note! And the theme also promises to change in the next map. Also, Depeche Mode works kind of well here.

 

PS: and yes, there's that old bad-taste and offensive. joke. I should probably point out that it's also British slang for cigarette, but....only reason I didn't notice it was not paying so much attention to the missing letter. I can't believe Steve wasn't aware of the more common meaning though

lmd_fragport19.zip

Edited March 19, 2023 by LadyMistDragon
add end

[DFF]

Map19: Dockside - UV, FDWL, Continuous

K: 100 | I: 67 | S: 75

 

Having fought our way through the town, we finally have arride at the seaport. Combat is focused around the several docked ships and the surrounding administration buildings. Combat here is more of the same we expect from Fragport; mixed monsters that tend to fill the space slightly too snugly, as well as the obligatory Archvile key guardians. The buildings have decent detailing throughout, with some workshop machinery and ship manifest computers scattered about. the drydock was a novel area, requiring manipulation of the command station to fill in the surrounding bay in order to access the ship stored inside, as well as having non-mandatory switches that open or close the dock gat, but were appreciated for their inclusion. Most of the buildings have good sense of purpose or detail, the green "F(r)agport toxins" building felt a bit empty, but was suffering from a toxin spillage and degredation of the nameplate into what i hopefully assume to be an ironic British pun about entering Cigarette town's poison refinery. The boats however provide more than enough exploration fun since we get a chance to go over, on top, and even into them in pursuit of keys and goodies.

 

The finale of the map features a cyber and spider double feature, with supporting cast of course. I liked this fight since you could let them infight for a bit but ignoring the big bosses meant you could get trapped in a building later, and having enough space for the mastermind to move helped make her more of an issue than a useless bullet sponge. Overall this was a decently enjoyable map, not sure if the best from the city set but better than the last few in my opinion. We finally board the train from map15 (presumably) at the station and head towards the spaceport, a much anticipated next step in Jody's Journey.

Rankings:

Spoiler

Map16

Map13

Map15

Map19

Map11

Map01

Map17

Map06
Map05

Map03

Map18

Map08

Map10

Map09

Map12
Map02

Map07

Map14

Map04

 

Edited March 19, 2023 by DFF

[Veeda Vidlak]

Map17 “Laser Quest”

 

Yay, laser tag :D

 

Laser Quest (British laser tag) is another brown outside, coolness inside building, which is par for the course in the city of Fragport. Unlike prior maps, nothing takes place outside (until the end). We’re playing laser tag the whole time baby!

 

So first things first, go west and pick up the computer map outside the quest center, it’s nice for navigation. Go inside and head up to the lobby, which gives us our first crop of doomcute. We’ve got a reception desk with switches that control the lights in the main playing area, there’s games all over, restrooms, a bar, a side room with drinks, an administrative desk (with a baron, obviously). Classic Fragport. The hitscanners here aren’t much of an issue and there’s an armory with megaarmor and all the guns just before the laser arena (representing where the teams get their equipment from). There are also two paths into the game zone, which helps with your tactics.

 

The main area. First of all, I’d highly recommend not turning out the lights like in an actual laser tag match. Not being able to see until you’re getting perforated with bullets kind of kills the vibe. Besides that, it’s a pretty good time, playing like a cover focused shoot em up against a bevy of hitscanners. The Ultimate Doomer spices things up a bit with some revenants and three arch-viles guarding the keys, and while the revs play well with the setup, only the first vile is meaningful. Once you’ve found the three keys (the red one took me awhile, stupid burning barrel sprite) head back outside and go north. The three doors here have switches that allow you to exit, just watch out for the telegraphed ambushes (save your BFG shots for this part).

 

A solid break map, clearly intended to be more recreational than challenging. Like Book Lord, seeing some of the details (like the flashing light ports in the arena, which you get points by shooting) brought back fond memories. Nothing special gameplaywise, but the theme carries this one just fine.

 

Fast Monsters: Hitscanners are always nasty on fast, nothing else to report

 

Map18 “Northgate”

 

Yet another Urban Wasteland like map. It’s not terrible but the concept is starting to get old.

 

Alright you know the drill. Wide open playing area. Spiders tromping around. Gotta search for your weapons. The SSG is on the edge of the center-west structure (a tad rude to hide it like that) but the red key here needs to be lowered to obtain. This one isn’t actually a sandbox as far as progression goes, so we’ll have to get this key first. To do so, head to the southwest building and hit the switch guarded by a baron. The other side has a plasma, which you’ll really want because this map is annoyingly deficient in rockets.

 

As is tradition, grabbing keys releases heavies (teleportation this time) and the hit point total is a little high methinks. I’d recommend ignoring these guys and just heading through the red door, though the chaingunners can be trouble if rushing. Here we have some crates hiding enemies and the green key, as well as a rocket launcher we can use on the nonsense outside. More enemies are released but they’ll just infight or get blown up, the biggest headache is the vile on the bottom floor.

 

Our last key is in the southeast building, a rather picturesque library complete with fireplace. Taking it releases cacodemons, and I wouldn’t ignore them, they can bother you at the next section. The northwest building has a switch that opens the exit area, and this one is kind of irritating. You can’t see the chaingunners very well and the far off mancubi are a pain. Try to save rockets for them, it makes things much simpler. The switch triggers one final heavies ambush, but it also lowers the BFG we saw earlier, with which we can demolish these clowns. Head west to the train stop to leave.

 

I can’t say I’m a big fan of Northgate, it felt derivative and added nothing to the wad. There’s not as much doomcute and it’s just another open, brown, urban meat grinder. I’ll admit it does look nice despite the palette, though I don’t know why there is a big lava crater in the middle of this otherwise affluent looking area (just #Fragport things I guess). I’m getting the impression The Ultimate Doomer was lacking inspiration to fill in mapslots, which is a downside of one-man megawads. The result is maps like this one, inoffensive and mediocre.

 

Fast monsters: Kind of aggravating. The sniping revenants suck and the mancubi at the end are a real threat now.

fragport17_fast.zip

fragport18_fast.zip

[Book Lord]

MAP 20 – Spaceport

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

 

I did not comment the FragMidiPack choices since I usually found them appropriate, but nothing more. The Final Countdown really helped setting the mood of Spaceport, the final chapter of Kill Crazy’s journey through the remote city of Fragport. Instructed by written memories found on a dead marine’s body on the train, he decided to get on a space shuttle and head for the artificial moon where the invasion began. The FAC (Fragport Aerospace Company) concrete building was controlled by enemy forces, so reaching the space craft required barging through a crowd of enemies. Pistol starters received an early rocket launcher, but they were likely to miss the SSG in the northern warehouse for a while. The sprawling corridors were stuffed with enemies, the toilets were filled by hulking Mancubi, and the waiting rooms were teeming with zombies expecting their flights.

Spoiler

Ammo was not a concern with all those dropped weapons, but I found myself in trouble when I triggered the RK ambush. I did not know that the key was in the central hall, and I was just exploring the Spaceport when I heard unsettling noises. A large group of monsters suddenly teleported in the corridors, with Revenants converging on me with shocking rapidity. It took some time to regain control of the surroundings, then I thoroughly searched the offices on the upper floor behind the ‘Reception’ desk. They contained the GK and all plasma weapons behind red doors, complete with a good ammo supply. The new Revenant closets consumed a part of it, but it comfortably carried me through the rest of the level. Two additional ammo secrets could be accessed by shooting concealed switches in other parts of the map, but my inspection would never have got that far.

Spoiler

The GK granted access to the ‘Control Tower’, hosting a mob of Chaingunners that was perfectly placed for BFG tracers. After killing the obligatory Arch-Vile guarding the BK, I finally entered the southern warehouse, almost a mirror copy of the northern one, and jumped on the conveyor belt bringing wares to the shuttle’s cargo hold. A Cacoswarm appeared as a last, feeble attempt at stopping Jody Russell from embarking. Spaceport was ok in my book: it was a credible futuristic travel hub with generally entertaining combat; it suffered a bit from excessive symmetry, a few grindy sections, repetitive props (a Lost Soul for every W.C.!), and the haphazard deployment of monsters while searching for the RK. Good, but it could have been excellent with more variety in the room design and monster placement.

Edited March 20, 2023 by Book Lord

[Helm]

MAP 20 - Spaceport

I left a death in, but imagine another 5 minutes of just faceplanting on every enemy there is the early part of this map, frantically looking for a gun. Everything good is further out so that's a desperate start and one where if you just simply go the wrong way and decide to waste your precious ammo on pocket vile or two you are literally SOL. It's one of those, how do people call them? "not balanced for pistol start", maps, yes.

Through trial and error there is a way through. You're supposed to kill the first squad of chaingunners awkwardly hiding behind their desks with the early RL, then go around the horseshoe from either side, avoiding arachnotrons and everything else to enter 3 spaceport lobbies that are littered with lots of hitscan and more, and somehow jump in there, survive, do this 3 times for the 3 different spaceport lobbies and now you'll have a red key that will get you better guns. Every spaceport you open replenishes enemies in the main space, per usual. Good luck surviving up to there with peashooter and 10 rockets or whatever, though. I think the intended way is to get just the red key (not the two backpacks immediately) go back through red key door and get equipped and only then return to open up the rest, but how would poor helm know? Cargo and Shipping is symmetrically rotten with Pain Elementals and mancs, but the SSG at that point makes patience out of stuff like that. Ultimately, there is a BFG for the cleanup at least.

Pistol start woes aside, there isn't much else to write in about. A continuous player would hardly even notice this map in the flow of the rest of it allo. It's as much of a spaceport as the last few were a dock or a town, you know? The amount of pistol starting beefy demon flesh on display is increasing as we go, though. It's such a simple metric for success for something like this that it's a bit embarassing to even put it so blatantly, but so much of how fun these maps are hinges on how close the guns are and how plentiful the ammo is. Shame this is the level of description we're at. footage

Edited March 20, 2023 by Helm

[Book Lord]

1 hour ago, Helm said:

Every spaceport you open replenishes enemies in the main space, per usual. Good luck surviving up to there with peashooter and 10 rockets or whatever, though. I think the intended way is to get just the red key (not the two backpacks immediately) go back through red key door and get equipped and only then return to open up the rest, but how would poor helm know?

Actually, only the no. 2 waiting room with the RK triggers an enemy replenishment in the main halls. You can take the backpacks and ammo dropped by the zillion hitscanners in no.1 and 3 without fear of reinforcements. Still, it is advisable to collect the SSG in the northern warehouse as soon as possible, the room can be assaulted with the chaingun and the chainsaw, and it also contains rockets and an easy Berserk secret.

 

The problem is: how can a blind pistol starter know where to go first? Try, die, rinse and repeat. That's a common problem of pistol start in older megaWADs, whereas "proper routing" has become a part of the challenge in contemporary hard WADs. Now the ambushes tend to be signposted; quite the opposite, Spaceport releases big monster groups in a seemingly random fashion. While it did not ruin my continuous experience too much, it still felt like an arbitrary way to attack the player.

Edited March 20, 2023 by Book Lord

[Celestin]

MAP20: Spaceport

 

The train from the ending of the previous level takes the protagonist to an airport, which seem to also carry orbital flights. Spaceport features probably the hardest start in the wad so far. You are greeted by chaingunner receptionists after entering the complex with arachnotron snipers on the sides, while you only have a rocket launcher with 7 missiles. My winning strategy was to kill the chaingunners with rockets, obtain the chaingun, ignore the spiders and run right, towards the cargo room. This is another tough fight, with two mancubi, a pain elemental, some spectres and arachnotrons arriving from the corridor, but there's a super shotgun and boxes of rockets to get a foothold. If you survive this, everything else is more of a matter of patience. 

 

The hitscanners-filled waiting rooms are best dealt with using a secret partial invisibility or just by doorfighting. The one in the middle holds the red key and also teleports hell knights and revenants along the perimeter. With the first key in hand, you can open supply closets on the higher floor of the airport, containing BFG, plasma rifle and the green key. They also open monster closets with revenants, but with heavier guns and more ammo, they are harmless. Same with the chaingunner ambush at the control tower, where you can also find the blue key. All there's left is to go to the second cargo room, kill the same group of monsters, climb on top of the conveyor belt and head for the shuttle. The final cacodemon cloud is, like in maps before, a pointless time sink.

 

I don't like this map. Aside from being unfriendly for pistol-starters, it's bland, symmetrical and repetitive. Details like non-moving conveyor belts or the shuttle can't save it. Also, this has to be the worst one when it comes to invisible walls. There are few more immersion-breaking things, especially in a wad like Fragport, where creating "realistic" environments is the main goal.

[Roofi]

Map 20 "Spaceport"

 

 

Spaceport has so much chaingunners that it becomes illegal. Casali Brothers would certainly be jaleous of course. If you figure among people like me which took a long time to spot the weapons located behind you in the spaceport, you're likely to spend an atrocious moment. But I want to reconfort you : this level is still abrupt with the few weapons in your backpack ! 

 

Actually, Spaceport plays more like a modern map than the other levels in Fragport. The limited ammo encourages or even forces you to select your aggressions and exploiting infights. Fragport's map 20 also has a rather open while symmetrical layout which allows you to move quickly and sneak up on the monsters.

 

However, the map would have been better if the ammo was more properly balanced because I went from suffering from severe ammo famine to oversaturation while I confronted the most devastating enemies just before, specifically the chaingunners and the arch-viles. Add to that , the secret ammo hidden in the vents which are that are impossible to obtain early.

 

I agree with other members about the unfriendlyness on this map for pistol starters. "Spaceport" is an exemple "Take the good path or you're screwed" trope. For exemple, why wasting all ammo on mancubus stuck in the toilets just to obtain some additional stimpacks? Pointless.

 

The omnipresent brown starts to get old for a transition from desolate cities to futuristic spaceships. The interiors of the spaceports look fine to me despite being too flat and symmetrical. The arrowed conveyor belts bring some "Doomsday of UAC" vibes, a legendary wad from 1994. Some tutti-fruttis rendered on the large spaceship you have to take , on the original EXE.

 

So, I can enjoy Spaceport for its fast-pacedness . It feels like a scene from an action movie where our hero manages to dodge many more bullets than is actually possible in real life. However, the poorly balanced ammo results nto a much rougher map than the rest of the megawad which is difficult to appreciate the first time.

 

Grade : B-

 

 

 

[Ralgor]

MAP20 - “Spaceport”
dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl2, UV, Pistol start, blind run, single segment
100% kills and secrets
Using the 2003 version of Fragport

The train we hopped onto last map has taken us to the local spaceport. The platform we disembark onto has a rocket launcher, but no other weapons. And that rocket launcher starts behind you, so it would be easy to miss. This doesn't bode well...

Entering the lobby, you're confronted by some very angry security. If you try to just use your rocket launcher against everything in here you're going to run out of ammo very quickly. My strategy was to let the chaingunner come to me and saw one of them down so I can take the chaingun. This sometimes ended very badly for me. If I can grab the chaingun quickly, I can usually then clear out the lobby.

Now, the smart thing to do after this is to head down the right hallway and enter the cargo bay area there to grab the SSG. But of course playing this blind I went left not realizing how much pain I was about to experience. Just getting to the first boarding area was a chore. At least the first shotgunner shows up and I can grab a normal shotgun. For some reason each boarding area has a door to an impassible line. That's a very odd design choice.

Taking the red key unleashes a large number of enemies into the level. By the time you have the boarding areas cleared and the reinforcements killed, you've already mowed through over half of the monsters on this level. And if you took the wrong path in the beginning, you did it all with a single barrel shotgun and a chaingun. This is just painful.

Now, if you just complete the circuit around the spaceport, you might decide to enter the cargo area with the SSG next. But I didn't because I missed it...

Up the elevator is a few nasty surprises. Each office has an arch-vile, which I did not enjoy killing with just the shotgun. Grabbing any of the ammo out of the closet will unleash a bunch of revenants to make sure you can't leave. The other office is the same way. One of the closets will have the green key, and the other a BFG.

At this point the rest of the level is pretty easy. I finally decided to explore the cargo area with the SSG only after I had most of the level conquered. The very end has a hapless caco-cloud that just takes time to take down.

I feel like this level could have been better designed for pistol start. The difficulty in either case is very front-loaded, leaving the last 10 minutes or so to be somewhat boring. I do like the setting though. The weird blocking lines in the boarding area felt bad, and the level as a whole is way too symmetrical.

Grade: D

MAP20 - 31:35.23 (31:35)  K: 193/193  I: 4/4  S: 4/4

ralgor_fragport20.zip

[TJG1289]

GZDoom/UV/Continuous/Saves

Map 20: Spaceport

Kills and secrets: 100%

Time: 17:36

 

The final map of the city levels takes us to the spaceport in a bid to leave this hellhole. I've always liked this map, as the difficulty does get brought a step up. There's a lot of chaingunners in this one, and a few encounters with them are kinda unfair. From when you enter the spaceport, to whenever you get to the top of a lift, you'll want to keep a cell weapon out for this. Taking on the main floor first is a good idea, since the red key is the first key you get, and it's in terminal 2. The design of the terminal area was always a favorite part of the WAD for me. I like the walkways with the colored arrows on them imitating moving walkways, and the 3 waiting areas in the terminals bring a nice sense of place. These waiting areas are filled with hitscan, but these areas are fun to chaingun. Getting the red key brings a ton of baddies to the main area that like to get stuck in the bathrooms, so make sure to check everywhere. The upper floor is filled with revs and archie traps, but at least pistol-starters get the BFG up here. The green door control tower could use that, as the chaingunner ambush at the top of the lift here is the most unfair one. There's also an archie by the blue key. Thankfully, that's about it for tough fights, as leaving the map brings you to another variation of the baggage area with the same baddies, plus a caco cloud that's easily displaced. Overall, this is a good one, and a nice way to end the episode. Pistol-starters may not agree, but I'm pretty sure this wasn't designed for that. 

[Book Lord]

MAP 21 – Spaceborne

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

 

With the Spaceborne shuttle flying towards its destination, our hero must do his best to not get himself killed while browsing supplies in the cargo hold. Every weapon was hidden among the crates, some of them lowering like lifts in an abrupt loss of realism, but there were also lurking enemies that could easily corner Jody Russell if he acted carelessly. The southern chamber contained the RK, the reactor engines, an Arachnotron and three Mancubi, one of them so tucked in a corner that I reached the exit before realising that I missed one monster.

Spoiler

The elevator behind the red door used a teleporter and some line trickery to simulate movement between floors in a real 3D spaceship. I liked the effect, and I also enjoyed the exploration of the cramped first deck, featuring labelled rooms with realistic details (‘Galley’, ‘Baggage Handling’, ‘Bog’, etc.) similar to the ones on MAP06. Pop-up Revenants gave me a heart attack, but I soon recomposed myself and cleared the ‘Bridge’ from the zombie crew and the Baron of Hell captain. Seeing the infinite space through the transparent windows was fascinating.

Spoiler

The acquired GK allowed to use another lift to ascend to the upper deck, reserved for the passengers. The groups of hitscanners, the Pinkies, the nearby Mancubus and the Arch-Vile near the ‘Shop’ applied some real pressure and prompted a quick reaction. I carelessly opened the toilet door, expecting some more fatsos and Lost Souls, and I was shocked to be assailed by three Arch-Viles! Picking up the BK triggered a transformation in various points of the map: from the windows I could see the space craft had landed, the bridge could not be entered anymore, and for some reasons three rockets had become accessible in the ‘Baggage Handling’. The short and spicy Spaceborne journey ended with the shuttle docked outside of a hi-tech city, the next stage of Fragport. This was a nice map on board of a ship, which I found more polished and purposeful than Ironclad.

Spoiler

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 20: Spaceport

 

Not forgiving to pistol-starters but at least we get a change of scenery! Although the interior is made up entirely of white walls other than the launchpad and the Doomcute is severely lacking. In all truth, we should've gone for the SS right away at some point but the hallways are hostile, filled with Arachnotrons and nowhere near enough chaingun ammo. The little terminal areas are all absolutely packed with hitscanners, a backpack in one, a red key in another and lots of broken dreams no matter where you go. It wasn't until reaching the storage room with above SS where we suffered our first death. Mancubi on either side, a Pain Elemental hanging in the middle and chaingunners just begging for the chance to tear us a new one. But there's really no excuse not to come here when it's found. Not the least of reason would be to pick up the berserk pack and punch several of the scattered pinkies here and probably a fair few of the Revenants we run into  as well. The bathrooms here are entirely inconsequential, other than the presence of Lost Souls.

 

After this, it was a matter of returning to some central offices we'd stumbled into before, killed an Arch-vile that had emerged from either side (not before suffering an unrecorded death to one of them) and thankfully picked the side with the BFG first because it made disposing of the Revenant closets that open when entering certain sectors in the last room much easier. Although it's probably not advised to have it out any time past that. It's in the other hallway where the plasma rifle and the green key are located. I should probably also mention a shootable switch in the SS room opens a little hallway about halfway up with some valuable goodies

 

After stumbling around at least in part because we'd completely forgotten the GK door's location, we headed into an outside area heading from the SS room to a control tower. Riding to the top revealed what else but Chaingunners! BFGing them no doubt saved some health but there's a much better use for it later on. The closet on the right might have something, but it's the one on the left containing an Arch-vile and the blue key!

 

From here, we head into the blue key room, fight combat very similar to that in the SS room and die to a Mancubus, then head outside again to be confronted by a absolute wall of Cacos running down the entire length of the platform to a spaceship! Why'd we spend the time to kill them? Who cares?

 

Kind of falls in the middle, though still positive more or less. But as other people have pointed out, invisible walls rear their ugly head again and they prove especially egregious here. I guess it probably just existed to prevent unintentional visplane crashes, but the result is a wholly unrealistic barrier surrounding empty space which could've easily been escaped with the placement of a teleporter or two. 

lmd_frasgport20-00002.zip

[Ralgor]

MAP21 - “Spaceborne”
dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl2, UV, Pistol start, blind run, single segment
100% kills and secrets
Using the 2003 version of Fragport

This map starts out in the cargo hold with a tyson section. You don't get any weapons for free; you have to fight for everything. It doesn't give you a ton of ammo either at first, so you need to saw or punch things in the first room until you get to the SSG. Often I kept punching things even after that because why not? I took me a few attempts to consistently get past this part, since I kept being surprised by monsters hiding in the corner. They are probably all stowaways too.

The opening is pretty spicy, but most of the rest of the map isn't too difficult. There are a few traps though that can be tricky if you don't know they are there. There are two spots with pop-up surprise revenants, the first of which is very close to the elevator exit. If you don't react right they can easily corner you. There's also a baggage handling room with two arch-viles. You should have the obvious secret BFG, and this is the perfect point to use it. Later is a bathroom with three arch-viles. If you don't have the right weapon out they can easily slip out and start to cause mayhem.

 

There are a ton of hitscanners for passengers on the upper deck, but I didn't find any of them (or their revenant stewards) to slow me down.

Interestingly, it seems we didn't start to cause a ruckus until after we reached our destination. That was probably wise.

I really like the setting of this map, but I'm not a fan of the incredibly cramped layout. Somehow this map feels even more cramped than Ironclad. The elevators have a bad habit of doing weird things as well. The pop-up revenants are also not something I particularly liked. The map was overall okay, but that's it.

Grade: C

MAP21 - 10:58.14 (10:58)  K: 98/98  I: 19/19  S: 3/3

ralgor_fragport21.zip

P.S. Seems I missed the starfield on the bridge. The whole level is so short I have a hard time wrapping my head around having somehow landed during it.

[brick]

GZDoom, Doom compat, hardware, HNTR, blind, continuous with saves.

 

MAP20 - “Spaceport”
Some fun detailing with the starting train station, the spaceport itself with its 3 runways, the control tower, the boarding gates, and of course the shuttle. It does feel a little too symmetrical, the main building is almost identical on its north and south wings, as are the 3 boarding areas. The biggest annoyance in the level is with the invisible walls, they are everywhere: at the gates in each boarding area, at the baggage handling on the north wing, but not on the south, for no reason other than it being the way forward. Dealing with the swarm of cacos on the south side was fun, with all the crates on the conveyor providing good cover but sometimes getting in the way of movement.

 

MAP21 - “Spaceborne”
A very cramped and claustrophobic map. Previous ones had sections in tight quarters (like the lower decks in the Ironclad) but this one is almost entirely like this. Feeling like a stoaway is fun though, as is dealing with the impish baggage handlers. The elevators use teleporters of course, but they're done very well and feel almost natural. The crew area has some simple doomcute like the rest area, the galley, and of course the bridge. The top floor is the most chaotic and cute, with a little duty-free shopping in the back, multiple rows of zombie passengers, revenant flight crews and demon trolleys. A clever use of flats and walls textures (no skies) makes it seem like you're in deep space while on the lower decks, and by the time you emerge on the top the shuttle has docked into the space city, a great bit of visual storytelling.

[Helm]

Map21 - Spaceborne

Jody's on a space shuttle! We have to clear the three layers of this here space vehicle that are connected through teleporters that can malfunction and put you under the ground, so starting with some strong doom machinery here. As you would expect, not a lot of room to breathe up here... and the top area has you making a turn on the passenger level and getting horde of hitscan, an archvile, 3 demons, 3 revenants and a mancubus inside the cramped walkways to come give you some flight service. Had I known that there is such a drastic bottleneck I would have ended up there in a different state. I lost many, many doomguys there. A more proper go would involve building up ammo and armor for that section but I'll wait for the single segment. In any case, by the time you clear up the top layer the shuttle will have arrived at the space dock for our exit, cool effect achieved with nearly nothing. Other than that, listened to some Motorhead, went to space, had some morning tea, all good. Hope your morning is good as well! footage 

Edited March 21, 2023 by Helm

[Azure_Horror]

Mods proved inadequate for addressing my gripes with Fragport mapset. Problems come not from the combat in itself, but from placement of that combat. Powerful and fun guns do not remedy this, sadly, unless they are super-overkill like in Ray Mohawk 2, or other stuff like that.

 

That said, I enjoyed playing map 15 and map 31. Map 32 is not for me, but Ultimate Doomer (the mapmaker) did explain everything during map 31, so no gripes about map 32 too. Other maps, sadly, felt more or less like slogs. Some, like map 17 or 19 were more fun than others, but my overall impression of them is rather grim.

 

Map 15

A very interesting and unusual map. For once, the weapons are readily available, but in exchange ammo is stashed far away from weapons. Lots of frantic combat-exploration shenanigans ensure! Enemy ambushes felt well balanced between “comfort food” stuff and spectacular reveals, like a multi-vile drop, a squad of cacos emerging from the parked train, or the cyberdemon appearing suddenly.

 

Secret exit is also quite nice. The secret exit hallway must be revealed by shooting a switch, but the exit itself is not unlocked quite so easily. To reach the secret level, you need to find every other secret on the map. Each secret is color-coded, and reaching them removes corresponding barricades on the way to the secret level.

Map 15 is an extremely fun level to wander around: there are quite a few cool-looking places to see (the train station, the storehouse itself, the control rooms), and the secret hunting minigame adds additional incentive to check every nook of the map.

 

Map 31 and map 32

Map 31 feels like a fun, enjoyable concept map. Its structure reminded me of maps from 2022 WAD 200 lines Massacre – there is a clear central idea, there is a lot of firepower, and there is a small gauntlet of different obstacles to dismantle. The map also has very colorful visuals. Those visuals felt reminiscent of Valiant map 31, 3 Heures d’Agonie map 32, or the maze section of 3000 lines 3 map 30. In total, map 31 was a pretty fine experience. Occasionally, it also felt surprisingly modern in its design approaches.

 

I really appreciate the whole super-secret level setup. The map 32 is extremely gimmicky, but the exit from map 31 to map 32 explains this in no uncertain terms. There is also a ready way to skip map 32 and go back to map 16 instead. Therefore, there is no sudden unpleasant surprises – if the player wants to experience map 32 with all of its gimmicks – they know in advance what they are signing up for. And if the player doesn’t want to deal with any super-secret shenanigans – they can simply go to map 16.

 

So, I didn’t play map 32, but I want to praise it nonetheless. Fragport megaWAD includes the best implementation of a super-gimmicky secret map that I have ever seen in a pWAD.

 

 

Maps 16-22 all feel constructed from a single set of building blocks. Sadly, a lot of those blocks are flawed… Of those maps I enjoyed map 19 the most, I think. I will try to write a proper description later today, or tomorrow.

[Roofi]

Map 21 : Spaceborne 

 

 

Ironclad but in a spaceship. Of course, the action doesn't happen in a battleship but map 06 and map 21 have the common point to take place in a massive vehicle.

 

Spaceborne is quite unfriendly for pistol-starters like the previous map because ammo is tight and the fact TUD didn't place the weapons in obvious locations. You"ll quickly spot a berserk fiercely placed on crates. Don't miss it in order to save an important ammount of ammo. Indeed, I consider Spaceborne as a moderate Tyson map since berserk users will be rewarded with a lot of saved ammo which will efficient against the trio of arch-viles guarding the bog for instance. However, I'm happy it didn't turn out to a full Tyson-map where ammo is so scarce that using the fists is not an option.

 

Spaceborne shares also the same crampy indoors than Ironclad but the usual realism and doomcuteness contributes to the charm and the feeling of adventure. You start in the cargo bay and you have and the lifts lead to passenger seats and exciting little cabins to explore. Due to the higher density of mid-tier monsters, Spaceborne lacks fluidity in progression and at times it is quite annoying. I'm thinking for example of the revenants that pop up for no reason.

 

But at the end, I spent a good time finding the most secure ways to punch the ennemies and shooting the undead armed civilians besieged in the upper part of the plane.

 

Grade : B

 

 

 

[Azure_Horror]

Map 16    City Centre

A big brawl inside and around a mall in the city of Fragport.

 

There is a problem with this map – the isles inside the mall are extremely cramped. Fighting inside the mall feels like a death sentence. But all the crucial resources, including healing items, armor and the big guns are placed inside the mall! The pistol start is extremely annoying, but I am afraid that continuous playthrough can also become unpleasant, if the player decides to enter the level with small health count…

 

Narratively, map 16 also felt strange. Why the heck should doomguy check a random hotel before going further into the city? Why not check the city hall? It is right nearby!

 

 

Map 17    Laser Quest

Before going further, the doomguy must play a deadly game of Laser Tag! Why? Because Laser Tag is fun! Another strange narrative twist, but ok, let’s do this.

 

Laser Tag arena proves to be a much more interesting battlefield than the mall from map 16. This time, the geometry seems to be designed specifically for combat, and thus there is no random un-passable gaps between level decorations. This leads to much better gameplay experience. Couple that with a unique visual design – and you get a pretty decent city map!

 

 

Map 18    Northgate

I described Fragport map 05 as Odyssey of Noises, but worse. Well, map 18 also fits this mold. Snipers everywhere, weapons stashed in seemingly-random corners of the map, arbitrary monster crowds refilling the area…

 

At least map 05 was a mining town. By contrast, map 18 is your usual rectangular Doom city-scape, exactly like Odyssey of Noises. The map feels utterly unoriginal in both basic concept and in its execution. It doesn’t stand out among Fraport maps either: maps 05, 14, 16 were all dedicated to a similar concept. And maps 12, 15 and 17 also are pretty close to map 18 in their basic building blocks. In short, I consider map 18 to be very forgettable.

 

 

Map 19    Dockside

A pretty good city map, all things considered! The chaingun is provided right near the start, this is new! And the rocket launcher is not far away! With such arsenal at hand, it is pretty fun to assault the city docks. And the docks contain a megasphere, a Super Shotgun and a BFG 9000! Now we’re talking!

With such respectable arsenal, running around brown buildings becomes pretty fun! Map progression once again tends to dissolve into a sequence of whatever rectangular buildings, but the combat feels pretty joyful for once. Add to that extremely diverse enemy roster and a fight sequence inside doomcute ship – and you get a pretty decent map overall.

 

The map is far from flawless, alas. There some softlocks near the end, and the city section once again looks like a set of brown boxes. But still, among levels 05-22, map 19 feels like one of the best. I like map 15 and map 31 the most, but map 19 is not too far behind.

 

 

Map 20     Spaceport

Others have already described this map in full. The change of scenery is very welcome, but the combat is very shoot-by-numbers-until-demons-die. Stuff gets boring! This should not happen, but it does! Sadness… And, like other club members noted, the placement of invisible walls feels especially arbitrary this time around.

Pistol start is unpleasant once again, but at the very least there is a convenient rocket launcher right at the map start. In total, this level is pretty important narratively, but the gameplay experience is lacking.

 

 

Map 21    Spaceborne

Let’s fight through a demon infested space shuttle! This should be fun, right?

 

Eh, it’s complicated. On one hand, playing a compact map is very nice after a series of long levels. On the other hand – the cramped spaces from map 16 are back with a venegence! Everything can hug you. But getting hugged by hellspawn is very bad for your health…

 

To add a few more wounds to the initial injury, this map once again is pretty stingy with crucial resources, and it also likes to hit the player with a nasty archvile and/or some pop-up revernant ambushes.

 

If the map had an inulnerabilty or a megasphere – then maybe I could dismiss all the annoyances above. But there is no cool defensive item for me... In the end, cramped starvation gameplay of much annoyance is not a fun genre, at least in my book.

 

P.S.: The elevator hall-of-mirrors glitches are annoying, but they seem to be purely cosmetic. Pressing 'Use' opens the cabin doors and sets you free, at least in DSDA-Doom.

Edited March 21, 2023 by Azure_Horror

[Celestin]

MAP21: Spaceborne

 

A 3-level orbital shuttle where the difficulty comes from cramped rooms, ambushes and lack of resources. The player starts in the cargo hold at the lowest level. It's a crate maze with deaf monsters, so grab a secret berserk and start luring them out one by one. It eases out a bit once you find an SSG in the corner, but it still isn't pleasent fight. Save the BFG from an obvious secret, you'll need it later.

 

Middle deck with crew quarters is a series of tight corridors with annoying pop-up revenants. The worst part here is the bridge with a combo of barons and hitscanners. If you're low on ammo, raid the luggage room (be careful with two archviles) and find a secret cells. 

 

Now comes the hardest part of the map: the passenger deck. There are monsters everywhere and not enough room to hide. Pinkies blocking your path, sniping hitscanners, mancubus covering the hallways with fire and an archvile in the back. Hoard cells for this fight and a trio of viles in the toilet. There are also hitscanners and revenants in the front, but thanks to ambush flags and sound blocking lines, they can be patiently eliminated.

 

I like the concept behind Spaceborne, but it was somewhat a chore to play, especially early on. Up to this point, Fragport was well balanced for pistol-start, but it's a second map in a row where I wished for guns at the start.

[TJG1289]

GZDoom/UV/Continuous/Saves

Map 21: Spaceborne

Kills and secrets: 100%

Time: 8:52

 

We've finally left Fragport and headed to an artificial moon. Why we're not on the actual moon, idk. But first, we have to make sure the demons on our shuttle don't kill us in transit. The shuttle is a 3-story one, and we need to fight up from the cargo bay to the passenger deck. The cargo bay has all the weapons in it, but there's a bunch of demons guarding them in this crate-dense area, making getting them for pistol-starters to be a little tough. The cell weapons are an easy secret to find. The middle floor just has some revs in halls, plus a few rooms with baddies. The key here is guarded by barons and chaingunners, and the luggage room has 2 archies, but a good chunk of supplies. The actual passenger deck is filled with hitscan chilling in the seats, with other monster roaming around, including an archie. Speaking of archies, 3 of them are guarding the blue key in the bathroom here, so have the BFG ready. The amount of hitscan here is worrying, and I did almost die to them. Thankfully, I escaped back to the middle floor to grab some health. After grabbing the blue key, hit the switch next to it, and when you exit, you'll notice the shuttle has docked. Time to explore this new area. Overall, the map is kinda cramped, but it's still pretty enjoyable. The difficulty is increasing, which is a good thing since we're in the final ep now. 

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 21: Spaceborne

 

For the first several minutes, we played quite terribly, repeatedly losing fisticuffs to several Hell Knights and Revenants. It was with this foreknowledge that we sought to use guns where it proved practical, though not against the initial 2 starting hell knights because accessing the nearby shotgun proved too problematic, but more so against the gathering of Revenants in the far corners of the cargo hold where the blue key is. And if you're curious, the berserk pack is basically visible from the beginning, but we might have to chansaw a pinkie or two in the process. 

 

The next room is a little different though. Past some red tanks and some scattered enemies is a lift requiring the rk. Proceed to teleport and lower to find an impressively Doomcute series of rooms, though with obligatory Lost Souls because that joke sure wasn't old several maps ago. BFGing the bridge while shouting "I'm the captain now.!" will never get old though.

 

Grabbing the green key taking out surprise Revenants with some concentrated chaingun fire (after having punched a previous pair) encountering some Arch-viles being stuck with baggage duty because they are the most human of demons I suppose, we take another lift down...to what I believe is the debarkation point. Here is a spaceport absolutely crawling with hitscanners, and a Mancubi and Arch-vile to our left when stepping out from the elevator. This is probably where Stephen Clark's unpolished combat starts showing its weakness. Though thankfully enemy numbers aren't that high outside of hitscanners, it's like the only thought went something like "Arch-viles= difficulty". And okay, throwing three of them in a bathroom at once was a nasty surprise considering the usual inhabitants! The BFG shot rang true and after one died, the others were disposed of fairly quickly with a shotgun/plasma combo, along with...Lost Souls.

 

Anyways, after someobligatory hitscan nonsense, we encounter more stinkin' Revenants, take them out though maybe with just a tiny bit of struggle and use the blue key to exit very unceremoniously. A good start to the third episode, actually!

lmd_fragport21.zip

[DFF]

Map20: Spaceport - UV, FDWL, Continuous (pistol start here)

K: 100 | I: 100 | S: 75

Don't know why but this was the map i most remember Fragport for other than the first map. Something about the spaceports map design felt rather unique and fun. Coming back to it there isn't much special about spaceport over the other maps aside from the fact that we get a rather nice reprieve from brown town. The grey halls are adorned with some plants, offices, and computer terminals. Detailing on this map feels to be on the better end of Fragport's designs. A good level of detail to create that sense of place, but not still minimally functional for map gameplay.

i had to pistol start this map due to being on my laptop, and this is a rather rough map as others have mentioned. funny enough the ammo reserves are low enough that i had to do lots of running and take specific fights in order to come out on top, refreshing as this was a difficult but not impossible map to conquer. The terminals full of hitscanners proved very tricky but vital to ammo replenishment. My only concern with the map is it felt very front heavy. Grabbing the red key unleashes a large wave of enemies that i had no chance to defeat but the red door offices had more than enough resources to beat the map. Afterwards the only real opposition was a caco cloud. Overall an interesting map design, balance was fun but meek towards the end.

Rankings:

Spoiler

Map16

Map13

Map15

Map20

Map19

Map11

Map01

Map17

Map06
Map05

Map03

Map18

Map08

Map10

Map09

Map12
Map02

Map07

Map14

Map04

 

[Veeda Vidlak]

Map19 “Dockside”

 

Dockmasters fear, legendary shipwrecker Jody is here! And they must have known in advance because right off the bat we’re under heavy fire from quite a few windowed hitscanners. The opening few minutes can be made easier with some knowledge of secrets and I have to say, this map is looking like a step up from previous ones. The docking area looks elegant with its sunken wharf and various cargo structures and the brownness is less distracting without the constant demon refills of the same area.

 

Dockside has some traits that make it feel a little more dynamic than the Downtown/Urban Wasteland assembly line productions we’ve been getting. While progression is technically linear, we can enter most areas immediately, just needing keys or switches to complete that part (permits more routing options). Stephen also gives us more interesting fights, such as the cacodemon/vile encounter at the red key and the cyber/mastermind horde that feels good to flatten with the BFG. I feel like I can play this level at a faster pace because we’re given enough heavy weapon ammo to use it more liberally, helping reduce dragginess. I do have one gripe though. I got softlocked strafing into the megasphere secret before the switch that “unlocks” it, which is unintuitive and unnecessary.

 

After some switch and key hunting that might waste some time on blind runs, we get to enter the blue door building with the sniping shotgunners from the beginning. A weird maze-ish timed switch opens a stairway leading us to the exit back at the railway station (and a couple awkward monsters to deal with).

 

I think you could make a mathematical function in which TUP levels increase in quality the closer in proximity they are to boats. Generally speaking, this level looks better, plays better, and has a stronger sense of adventure than most of the city maps we’ve seen. I’m also starting to notice some very nice continuity involving the train system looping through Fragport. The city theme is starting to go passe, but Dockyard did its best to keep it fresh a little longer.

 

Fast Monsters: Nothing special, though I’m actually pleased with my time for once.

fragport19_fast.zip

 

Map20 “Spaceport”

 

Oooo, we’re out of the city maps. Now we get generic techbase instead of browntown.

 

We sadly must say goodbye to our lovely train station, though turn around and stay a little longer to grab the weapons discourteously placed out of sight on the platform behind you. Without them this level is not a good time, ammo is heavily constrained for the first act. Head inside and be greeted by four chaingunners at the reception desk, and a pair of spiders. The first move should absolutely be to head right and go through cargo shipping 3 to get the SSG. Your initial armaments should be enough to kill every monster from the starting door to here, but its tight. With the SSG we can proceed west, though I would ignore the doors marked “bog” for now, the lavatories have mancubi that will drain our ammo.

 

We reach some wonderful doomcute on the west side, three boarding platforms connected by those horizontal airport conveyer belts. Good news: the TSA (barely) didn’t exist yet, so getting in each platform is easy. Bad news: the TSA didn’t exist yet, so everyone is armed. The passengers are not happy to have their flight interrupted and the partial invis secret (back in cargo 3) is actually really useful for dealing with all the angry hitscanners. Platform 2 has the red key, which is used up in the offices behind the reception desk (after a bunch of ambushers are dealt with). These must be the security offices, because there are two archvile attended armories up there… and entering each one gets you attacked by a bunch of revenants.

 

The green key found in one of the armories grants access to the control tower (which explains its defenses), so head over there through cargo 3. Standard issue equipment for air traffic controllers includes big ass chainguns, so ready the BFG at the lift. The vile supervising the place has the blue key, used to open cargo shipping 1 back in the main area. Clear out the carbon copy of cargo 3 and take the nearby lift up to sneak aboard the spaceship via the cargo bay. The caco cloud here plays about as well as the ones in Ironclad and Remote Island, nonthreatening and a chore to grind through (and rockets won't connect properly).

 

Fragport terrorism simulator is a map I enjoyed more than I expected to. It has generic techbase textures, lazy symmetry, pointless bathrooms, awkward impassible linedefs, and an ammo deprivation start. In all honesty, it’s pretty mediocre. Nevertheless, the narrative implied here is kind of darkly hilarious, making the map a lot more memorable to me than its gameplay would imply. It's also helped by the map ordering, not being a brown city level gives it an autoboost.

 

Fast Monsters: Make it to the armories and you’re good to go.  

fragport20_fast.zip

Edited March 22, 2023 by Veeda Vidlak
Added map20 review

[Book Lord]

MAP 22 – Tech City

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

 

The spaceship landed on an airstrip inside the Tech City, a futuristic twin of Fragport erected on an artificial satellite. The architecture displayed the same blocky buildings with minimum detail, though the shift to sleek computer hall textures was a welcome change to the established brown palette. The SKY3 texture was visible on MAP32, and it was the same as in the other episodes; to create the illusion of outdoor areas in a space location, The Ultimate Doomer used a black texture as the ceiling. The ample streets and squares of this sci-fi sandbox were huge indoor chambers, cleverly camouflaged to look like outdoor spaces surrounded by the endless void, possibly enclosed in a transparent dome.

Spoiler

The arrival was entertained by a bunch of zombies appearing out of nothing in a seemingly deserted waiting room. The spaceport hub should be explored thoroughly, as it contained everything a pistol starter shall need: the ‘Cargo’ section offered ammo and a secret Berserk Pack, while the executive office on the upper floor held the whole arsenal of powerful guns. With these resources, it was possible to gain control of the large main square and of the various alleys, infested by the ubiquitous Mancubi and Arachnotrons. The SSG could be found in a storage next to a small Doomcute shuttle, borrowed from UAC_DEAD and rightfully credited to Leo Martin Lim in the info text.

Spoiler

The next stop was a night club called ‘The Hexagon’, featuring the familiar METAL1 hexes on the walls, along with misplaced octagonal stools to sit at the bar. The dance floor with stroboscopic lights and starry walls was one of the highlights of Tech City, a place that filled me with wonder about the Doom engine and its versatility. The pulsating lights made the brawl against Imps, Revenants and angry Hell Knight bartenders look harder than it really was. The switch revealed the RK on the main square, where a lonely Spider Mastermind appeared to draw the player’s attention. Surely Stephen Clark did not think she could do much more against a loaded BFG.

Spoiler

Picking up the RK in front of the ‘Tech City Hall’ released a composite flock of cyclopean flying balls, one of the few that were compelling to fight, since the Pain Elementals must be prioritised to avoid an excess of Lost Souls in the large open area. I was unsure about where to use the keycard, then I noticed a small, unchecked alley to the north. It led into a residential district, containing four numbered flats with red security doors. The inside was chock-full of Doomcute and hosted essential sci-fi bedsits with a living room, a kitchenette, a bedroom, and a bathroom. Exploring them to find the GK was repetitive but not tedious, as they conveyed a clear message about extreme standardisation of living spaces in future world. A small Cacoswarm appeared on the way back to the main square.

 

The BK was stored in the last building yet to explore: ‘The Company’. Despite the basic visual representation, it recalled the headquarters of one of those mega-corporations seen in movies like Blade Runner: it must have been a horrid place to work in, considering the armaments carried by the employees. The Chaingunners were sitting in front of computer screens in their cubicles, that could be instantly transformed into a U-shaped conference table at the chief officers’ will (the two Barons). Picking up the BK summoned one last Cyberdemon that could be effortlessly killed or evaded. Tech City did not present the spiciest combat ever, but it was a dynamic experience in the believable reconstruction of a space age settlement, with plenty of different places to visit.

[DFF]

Map21: Spaceborne - UV, FDWL, Continuous (pistol start here)

K: 102| I: 100 | S: 100

The assault on the intergalactic cruise liner is a rather interesting map. Its cramped, its got very little health, and probably has the best world detailing and sense of place out of any Fragport map so far. The elevators are cute if not slightly jank way to emulate room-over-room, but the details were enough to sell me on the concept of moving through floors (the multi-level baggage shoot also was a great way to sell the room-over-room concept). The rooms had great detailing and verything flowed rather well. Despite the lack of space combat felt pretty good. The main issues faced here was limited health, and the main transport floor featured several archies and a bunch of hitscanners. I basically savescummed my way through this whole floor on 1 HP.

A great fun little map. Loved the room designs and the technical details of multi-floors and being in-space (the transition from in-air to landed was a great one for its time). If there was anything to complain about its that the secrets are basic, boring, and easy to get.

 

Map22: Tech city - UV, FDWL, Continuous (pistol start here)

K: 92 | I: 97 | S: 33

 

I'll give Stephen Clark one thing, after 2/3rds of the wad being mostly brown, the black and blue tech city really pops in contrast. The tech city is a much needed departure (or arrival into this case) into a new them and palette, having travelled to hell's artificial moonbase. Tech city is mainly comprised of the large city hall courtyard, the spaceport, and surrounding buildings. The locales are very fun and give good visual design, with the red key condos being rather homely, and the hexagon dance bar being a funny little sidestop in a club named after the wallpaper.

Combat on this map feels a bit empty and weak however due to the size. Spider momma makes a return in the large open courtyard. This was originally seen as a problem but the area is littered with pinkies, and enough of them got pissed off and ate her alive so another non-threat mastermind was taken care of. The later caco-clouds were easy enough to ignore, and the final cyberdemon fight had no weight, since you could ignore him or circle strafe to your heart's content. A refreshing setting change but there wasn't as much of a welcoming party as I would have hoped.

Rankings:

Spoiler

Map21
Map16

Map13

Map15

Map20

Map19

Map11

Map01

Map22

Map17

Map06
Map05

Map03

Map18

Map08

Map10

Map09

Map12
Map02

Map07

Map14

Map04

 

[Helm]

Map 22 - Tech City

This one's got some guns for Jody up front (if you practice and make the right turns, of course) but the ammo balance is a bit skimpy, especially if you end up wanting to fight this mastermind on your own and all those pain elementals in a wide open arena. After a few attempts she succumbed to infighting while I was dealing with other problems, we take those. This is another map that is both hostile for pistol starters (in a different way) and a map where if you don't know through trial and error what's gonna go down you will be left soaking up a mastermind's arsenal in a wide open field. The map is really huge and a bit sparse, but there's good use of arachnotrons to chop of some avenues, but in the end it's a running around the place, collecting as much ammo as possible and trying not to waste it on the wrong type of enemy... There is a contrasting section in the Red Key part of town, along with the hexagon bar and a little disco upstairs. Some doomcute, a key hunt, some humour, some encounters in open places with squads of same type enemies... our mapper has a style indeed. At the end there's a anticlimactic cyber... I should have killed absolutely nothing on this map until the cyber shows up...

The profile of 'difficulty' that is rising is not a profile I am that enthusiastic about, to be honest, as most of it relies on prior knowledge of the layout more than anything really reaction based or even the case for an on-the-fly strategem to save the day. 

Paradoxically (or perhaps I'm just overstating the case and there's no paradox) for the speedrunner that is looking to go through a map such like this as fast and expediently as possible I think this map would be more fun as it would be quite risky a route to go fast through a place like this. This speaks to the strength of the speedrunning concept in doom more than it speaks to the strengths of this particular map however. footage

Edited March 22, 2023 by Helm

[Azure_Horror]

Re: some more thoughts about map 06 Ironclad and map 21 Spaceborne

 

For me comparisons between those two levels felt a bit strange. I mean, I get that both maps are describing an assault on demon-infested vessel (sea ship in one case/space shuttle in another). But the vibe of those two maps felt pretty different to me.

 

So I decided to replay both maps, and look for things that I missed.

 

1) Ironclad.

When I was first playing Ironclad, I was pretty disappointed by the gameplay flow. I guess, the doomcute ship with multiple levels reminded me to much of @mouldy's 2022 Overboard. Levels of Overboard are pretty different, but they all involve some fast-apced run-and-gun gameplay. Suffice to say, Ironclad is not like that. However, after a re-paly, Ironclad does remind about one of the Cyriak Harris' maps. I am talking about Demonology, a map 23 from Going Down. Unlike all the maps from Overboard, and most of the maps from Going Down, Demonology is a relatively slow-paced and suspenseful level. It encourages careful exploration and never letting your guard down. And if you stepped into some deadly situation on Demonology - you should think about retreating into an explored part of the map, to better consider your options in a more safe environment.

 

And Ironclad has pretty similar gameplay flow. It also encourages slow, careful approach. And it too rewards the player for turning back when faced with too dangrous situations, like, say, entering the Bar area without big guns. And, by the way, resource placement on Ironcald is relatively generous. True, the big guns are all guarded by Hell Nobles. But you absolutely can shotgun a lonely Hell Knight. And if you are absolutely opposed to this idea - you can try slipping past the Big Goat, and grabbing a strong gun this way. After you aqquire your first big weapon, Ironclad opens up considerably. You happily defeat the other two Hell Nobles, and pick up the trio of SSG, Rocket Launcher and Plasma. With those weapons at hand, you can take on any challenge on the ship. You'll find enough ammo in the process. And health/armor are also placed pretty generouslu on Ironclad. True, you may need to backtrack a bit, but it is not a big deal in this case.

 

In short: After a second playthrough, I like Ironcald quite a lot. The resource situation is not dire at all, and the combat, while gruelling at times, matches the grim steel ship very well.

 

2) Spaceborne.

The map start is not a problem, IMHO. There is only a few tools available at this stage, but the section still has multiple solutions. You can Tyson your way through. Or you can rush for plasma, and use it to reach the SSG easily. Or you can shotgun some pesky revs, get the chaingun, and go from there. Notice also that monsters can easily get lost between the crates, allowing you to take them out one by one. All things considered, the storage area is tough, but pretty enjoyable.

 

My problems with Spaceborne come from 3 things: a) cramped spaces; b) limited resources; c) enemy placement.

a) It pretty hard to see at a glance, which gaps between boxes/seats/tables can be passed, and which are too narrow. Thus, ubless you finally learn the map by haert, you are prone to getting stuck in the geometry. This is annoying in the best of times, and it is outright deadly, when dodging by high-damage monsters.

b) Both ammo and defensive items are quite limited. It causes a bit of conundrum: pushing forward boldly endangers your health greatly, but it allows for more ammo. Carefully corner-camping everything is kinda safe, but what if you run out of gas before reaching the next pile of ammunition? Tysoning midtiers saves ammo, but if yiu get stuck in geometry - say goodby to a big chunk of your health.

c) Enemy placement. Sapceborne like two things: scary ambushes and hitscanners in fire support roles. Such combinations can be scary in the best of times, but they areespecilally dangerous in the narrow rooms of a spaceship. The entrance to the passenger deck is the most extreme case here: while you try to snipe an archvile and his chaingunner buddy, a mancubus is ready to abush you from a flank, defending the vile from all your big guns. And if you make a wrong move here - you will alert an additional squad of hitscanners, who will attack you from the back!

Considered together, the points a),b),c) can make your playthrough pretty miserable. That said, once I learned all the pitfalls, the map became much less scary than it was before. Still, despite its small size, Spaceborne is a tough cookie.

 

3) Comparing Ironclad and Spaceborne

I think that those two maps a pretty distinct in the end. The settings, the gameplay loops, the decorations - all those factors are pretty different between the two maps. That said, some of the building blocks are somewhat similar. Most notable, I think, is the use of implementation of multiple floors that makes the maps really come alive. As far, as my prefernce goes, I like Ironclad more. Sense of place, gameplay, scale, level of challenge, monster compossition - all those things make Ironclad into a perfect Evilution-sryle map, at least in my book. Spaceborne is a less well-rounded map, IMHO. But it is also pretty interesting in the end.

 

BTW, if you alert the arachnotron in the "Energy" room on the 1st floor of Sapceborne - you will be able to hear it stomping around, when you approach the locked "Energy" access door of the second floor of the ship. Did anyone else noticed that small cute detail?

[Celestin]

MAP22: Tech City

 

If you swap high-tech textures for brown walls, Tech City would fit right into the middle of Fragport's second chapter. It's yet another linear key hunt through a city block, with a large outdoor fight that can be easily dealt with infighting. I think the only place here I enjoyed was the Hexagon club, because who doesn't like killing demons on the dance floor? A switch here reveals the red key on the central square guarded by a mastermind, but she's not a threat. The apartments feel copy-pasted and finding a green key in one of them opens a cacodemon cloud. The last key is in some office building with chaingunners standing by the computers and two baron managers. The cyberdemon outside wouldn't be a problem, but you can easily get stuck on decorations and catch a rocket.

 

It feels like a transitional map, intended to move the story forward, rather than posing a challenge. It is somewhat shorter than previous city maps, which I appreciate a lot. Also, while I love Muse, I think "Uprising" is too recent of a song for a 2001 wad.

[Ralgor]

7 hours ago, Azure_Horror said:

Re: some more thoughts about map 06 Ironclad and map 21 Spaceborne

 

 

I think this some great analysis. I personally think Ironclad is the superior map of these two, and in fact I think it's still my favorite of the set so far.

 

I also have been wondering... does anyone else think that the difficulty of this wad isn't really increasing? MAP20 and MAP21 were both mildly difficult, but so were some of the earlier maps. The difficulty curve of this wad seems to be very flat so far.

[Azure_Horror]

14 minutes ago, Ralgor said:

I also have been wondering... does anyone else think that the difficulty of this wad isn't really increasing? MAP20 and MAP21 were both mildly difficult, but so were some of the earlier maps. The difficulty curve of this wad seems to be very flat so far. 

Just wait a few more days...