LadyMistDragon Posted April 6, 2023 I hate this shit..... Map 06: Ursae Majoris by Death Bear We are once again greeted with the same canyon as the last map (or is it?), this time greeted by sergeants facing their backs. We also encounter them when we teleport to the central canyon (along with the corpses we'd seen earlier!). Apparently, there had been some vague idea early on of having a hub but that seems to have been quickly scrapped. But you can still pick the chainsaw up from behind the building here The base this time around isn't too dramatically different. We're once again along the outside edges. After telefragging an Arch-vile, we pick up a chaingun and go to town on the nearby sergeants standing most carelessly next to a barrel. Though perhaps that's not too important because shooting 1)causes more enemies to teleport in and 2) sets of the barrels at the Mancubus tower, making the elimination of him to pick up the rocket launcher little trouble. Heading inside, there are chaingunners lurking in the back, on the way to a switch that unleashes a predictable but incredibly nasty trap chock-filled with hitscanners, a Pain Elemental from either direction and a Hell Knight guarding an SS. Heading for the SS immediately is not such a bad idea, although perhaps running back and rocketing the hitscanners might be a better option.The Pain Elementals proved to be a serious thorn though, and we felt quite satisfied we were able to chainsaw one (after being killed by a Lost Soul the first time around). Anyways, the switch also opened the way to a bridge, from whence Guardians emerged from the distance on the right to enact another bloody chunk sacrifice on the interloper. Hitting them was difficult with the lack of chaingun ammo. We also missed the secret in the previous building (a shootable switch, I think). Heading toward the far chaingunner, we went over a texture that sent us sliding into the purple drink below whilst Arachnotrons teleported in. Quick movement was required to survive their barrage, but we missed at least one plasma trooper that snuck up from behind and put an end to our weakened selves. The replacement of the dead Arachnotrons was also not appreciated. To continue, we have to climb along a ledge that runs to the left from the entrance, and hit a switch which grants access to the blue key, as well as unleash a double-pronged trap consisting of a murder of Revenants and an Arch-vile near the key and a mass of hitscanner on the ledges. Charging toward the latter isn't too difficult, but the Arch-vile had a way of catching us in empty ground. Knowing their spawn point probably makes things easier though. The next room has Revenants on some surrounding ledges and raised platforms, some Cacodemons along with Hell Knights and Barons below and a Cyberdemon in the middle. Infighting is easy to provoke but there's plenty of ammo, although the Cyb being built like an Imperial Star Destroyer didn't exactly make things easy in a number of ways. The switches open a couple of areas: a boring blue hallway until (sigh) a switch is hit and reveals a nasty ambush of Cacodemons and Revenants with a Spider Mastermind hanging in the back that we expended much ammo here. This is also the location of the exit. The other room unlocked by one of the switches near the Cyberdemon in the previous room opens up a room that....might have some alien tech but seems to otherwise be a natural landscape with scalding hot alien liquid that slowly dissolves the guts of foolish aliens into an ever more potent and vile brew and another Cyberdemon gazing on, whilst a pack of Cacos, several Pain Elementals, and just enough Ancient Aliens custom enemies to give us no end of grief attacks. At a certain point, we leap down prematurely, seemingly cutting us off from the RK. After some more wandering and collecting the non-secret BFG, we were inevitable humliated by the Cyberdemon who was the last enemy in the map, including that idiot pack of pinkies that emerged from this room to beging with! I liked Ursus Minoris better. The combat is certainly on a larger scale but even without the replacement Arachnotrons, it just seemed like a map that did all the things (and the Arch-vile near the blue key worked great!) but in the latter half, things sort of devolved into more bland large scale. It's still probably the second best map so far, but it's probably good we're getting a bit more Sunlustian for the next couple of maps! lmd_pussIX06.zip 7 Quote Share this post Link to post
continuum.mid Posted April 7, 2023 (edited) World 6: Ursae Majoris (by Death Bear) dsda-doom 0.25.6+dfsg-1 (Debian 12), Doom 2, Ultra-Violence, blind, pistol start, lots of saves As the title implies, this map continues the style of the previous, but at a greater scale. The starting area is reused from Ursae Minoris, except with shotgunners instead of zombiemen this time, and no green armor; after the second teleporter is a much bigger and more fun colorful techbase-type area than in the previous map. The combat is no easier, with two of the fights involving Cyberdemons and one involving a Spider Mastermind; I had to use mid-battle saves a few times. Knowing the previous map's shenanigans helps, as sniper Arachnotrons are once again used regularly and once again ought to be dealt with as quickly as possible. There's a hidden chainsaw that turns out to be very useful, in exactly the same place as the last map, and it's almost essential to pick up the early rocket launcher, available by killing a perched Mancubus using exploding barrels, then platforming to his position. Guardians are used in very threatening ways all throughout the map, I probably took at least as many, if not more, deaths to them than to the two Cyberdemons. Well, Death Bear has outdone himself. I can confidently say this map is the best in the set so far, and it's scored by an equally excellent James Paddock MIDI (also from the Alien Vendetta MIDI Pack). Also: the story text is hilarious. Edited April 7, 2023 by continuum.mid than->then 6 Quote Share this post Link to post
Ralgor Posted April 7, 2023 MAP06 - "Ursae Majoris" by Death Beardsda-doom v0.25.6 cl9, UV, Pistol start, blind run w/ saves, then single segment w/ demo 100% kills and secrets We start in the same spot that we did last level, but this time the armor and troopers are replaced by a shotgun and seargents. We have to go into a different building this time too, and that building has seargants and a cacodemon inside. Behind the building is a secret chainsaw, just like last time. You can even see the dead troopers you killed earlier. Once we go through the portal though, the simularities stop and we end up in a completely different area. We come out of the warp on top of an arch-vile, just minding his business. Unlike the last level where we teleported into a hot area, this time everything is asleep waiting for us to make our move. The design of this area allows for you to get surprised by monsters roaming around, or from getting sniped by the mancubus. Making any noise will cause a lot of monsters to warp in as well, most of them hitscanners. The fight is pretty chaotic, but still fun. Cleaning the blue key room out the first time is pretty easy, but then you have to do it again once you hit the switch by the blue key door. The difficult part comes when you hit the second switch in the opposite corner. A number of revenants and hitscanners flood the area, along with an arch-vile. This fight is somewhat difficult since you can easily get cornered down below, and up above it's easy for the rockets to keep following you. All the while you're getting zapped and shot at. The best way to deal with this that I found was to use that rocket launcher and start shooting before they even start to warp in. This fight is kind of malicious and very unfriendly to blind players. It's much easier if you know it's coming. There's a secret here where you can step onto the ledge out of one of the windows into space. It's kind of neat to be able to walk around the perimeter, but it also takes a long time and is kind of boring. I realize some of it is to keep the goodies out of sight, but it's still a bit annoying. At least you can teleport back once you grab the yellow key at the end. Going through the blue door we have another somewhat malicious arena. A cyberdemon turret keeps overwatch on most of the room, and across from us are three barons guarding a BFG. Well, they are guarding it until they see you, then in their hubris they will walk over to you. Once you kill them you can hit the switch on the first pillar, grab the BFG and then the plasma rifle, and then you can kill the cyberdemon. Keep in mind that grabbing the plasma rifle causes the pool of damaging liquid to rapidly lower, and the cyberdemon can attempt to shoot you while down there. It's another very blind player unfriendly bit of design. There's a switch up an elevator, and going up the elevator causes a bunch of hell knights and revenants to warp in. This part is actually pretty fun, since there is plenty of cover but still oppotunity to screw it up. Once you flip that last switch and kill the cyberdemon, you can now open all of the doors in this room. Opening the far doors will release a ton of pointless pinkies into the room for you to SSG down. They are deaf so you have to make sure to get them all before moving into the next room. There is another cyberdemon on a platform, but also a bunch of arachnotron turrets. You're forced to run around to avoid rockets and plasma, but that will awaken a bunch of cacodemons and a couple of guardians as well. This part is pretty fun, since getting stuck can be deadly. The yellow key door is here too with plenty of cells for the last fight. The last fight just begs for BFG spam, and doing that makes the fight fun. Overall I liked this map, with a few complaints. I felt like some of the colors kind of clashed. Some of the design elements were a little frustrating when I was playing this blind, especially the pool that lowers right next to the cyberdemon. While the yellow key secret was a lot of walking with nothing going on, and the chainsaw wasn't terribly useful, I think the secrets themselves were excellently placed and hinted. Grade: B MAP06 - 21:11.20 (21:11) K: 257/257 I: 112/132 S: 5/5 ralgor_pussixmaw06.zip 7 Quote Share this post Link to post
RHhe82 Posted April 7, 2023 (edited) MAP07: Holodeck. Played on DSDA v0.25.6, UV, PS. 237/237 K, 1/1 S, 3/3 I. Comp. time 17:30 Back to Myolden maps, and while Death Bear's two previous outings were not easy as such, here we once again are bumped to MAP02 kind of difficult. And while I get my ass handed to me here a couple of times, I really do like Myolden's maps, this is a quality map, although unlike MAP02, this doesn't feel as much an original AA map rather than a map using its resources. (This is not a complaint, just an observation). The circular arena was probably the hardest for me. I mean the waves are not difficult as such, but the final archvile wave can take you by surprise, and I flunked it a couple of times; once by running out of the arena unprepared, once by being roasted by a vile, once by trailing revenant rockets. The round shapes in the arena allow revenant rockets steer irritatingly well :P There's a later archvile ambush when you get the blue key; That didn't prove as troublesome, but it could have been. Guess I got lucky. The final pathway to the exit UFO I had to retry a couple of times, mostly because the first wave mancubi. Great map. * (I'll be unable to post these capsule reviews I've prepared in advance - I'm already on MAP14 - until sunday evening, but boy am I curious to read about upcoming maps, especially saturday's :P) Edited April 7, 2023 by RHhe82 8 Quote Share this post Link to post
Ralgor Posted April 7, 2023 MAP07 - "Holodeck" by Myoldendsda-doom v0.25.6 cl9, UV, Pistol start, blind run, single segment 100% kills and secrets I know I've mentioned before about how I was worried that people would think I was too harsh with my grades. But finally a level has come along that justifies my grading strategy. I knew I would eventually run into a map that would completely break my grading system if I wasn't honest about every map, and this is it. This map technically doesn't have a hot start, but as soon as you pull the trigger the first time you'll be fighting for your life. And once the level starts, it never lets up. You clear a space, then push a button and enter a new space with a new fight. Every fight is well-designed and manages to ride that line between too hard to beat without prior knowledge and too easy to be exhilarating. It has enough of ammo that you don't have to be too worried about running out. The round room with three waves of enemies is probably my favorite part of the level. It's natural to get into a flow around the space to avoid revenant rockets. The arch-viles can be trouble-some, but there's enough health and armor around for it to be survivable even if you get zapped once or twice. There's one secret in this map, but it's well telegraphed, and the backpack is very useful. This just a fantastic map. The whole map was a rush, and once it was over I felt some weird combination of sad and elated. It's also a good looking map. I think it's the best map I've played all year. I somehow managed this demo on my second attempt ever, and that first death was very early in the level. So this is truly a blind playthrough. Grade: A MAP07 - 15:32.66 (15:32) K: 237/237 I: 3/3 S: 1/1 ralgor_pussixmaw07.zip P.S. I only just started reading stewboy's thread. It's definitely given me something to think about when it comes to how I play these maps, but I don't know yet whether I'll change anything. 8 Quote Share this post Link to post
Helm Posted April 7, 2023 World06 - Holodeck by Myolden I am listening to Coroner - Mental Vortex I have turned off my extended HUD and map stats and I will only turn this back on if I ever want to *actually run a map* not just to check how many fucking steps I've done today. If I'm not training there is no point to it. Now to the ongoing fantasy! Zorg arrives unnoticed on this blue techspace floating in space. Demons line the outside perimeter, all looking the wrong way. Sucks for them! Hitting the switch they're protecting allows entrance into the techbase, but not before a floating potato teleports in front of you as you try to push in the lobby. While facehugging or ass-pushing that PE (your choice, Tyler) make sure to action-grab up the chaingun, and it'll serve you well for the first compounding encounter. I ate an early death acclimating, but had a much more expeditious flow to progress with Zorg clone #2. Even this first encounter tells the tale about the level of difficulty involved. Nothing insane, but precision and quick problem solving required. I had to move around like a smart person and aim well and all that stuff for the whole duration of the map, I don't like having to do it because I am not actually smart nor do I comfortably know how to play this game, but boy do I love it when a map makes me do it just from sheer flow! After clearing out the lobby I push through to a boxy three way split, one leading to a mancubus and window dressing imps, another leading to a back of impy hooligans and a third straight through leading me to a juicy plasma rifle out there in the open. All these ways around have an elevated perimeter with mixed enemies, including chaingunners so which ever roundabout way you go it's not going to be completely painless. Myolden does verticality (not talking huge showy verticality, just two tier elevated combat layout complications) well. It's part of why they do not need slaughter-level hordes to pressure me. I elect to go for the plasma and forget the nobody gets plasma for free sign and get zapped by the vile trap. On the next attempt I leave that part for last and just zoom around pacifying everything else with the SSG beforehand. Second time works out. Note: something in me compels me to go from the top and do the first encounters again all the way up to that vile. I only mention this because whenever it happens I think it means I'm playing a good map. Found a candle backpack secret! On my very own! Felt good! Felt good to not know how many secrets on this map, or the kill count. Can't believe it took so long to reconsider the kill and secrets counter for casual play. After I clear out that plasma rifle revenant ambush (which for a second leaves me at 1%) we are shown blue door, and we have to loop around and collect blue key and return. There is actually a choice, I could have gone for red key area instead. The other arena we have access to for red key involves a circular space with circular tall fat columns, some spheres and resources to lower over the incremental waves you trigger in this lock-in. This is a really fun fight and I really didn't mind or feel it cheap to replenish it with new monster comps on switch press. This is the first time in this set we get two floor viles teleporting in on a arena fight, I think. But they are (or were for my playthrough) staggered so you had time to clean the first one before the second makes a mess. I theorize madman speedrunner play in this map involves running through everything and flipping every switch as fast as possible so that's probably the most fun / hard way to experience these encounters. Ammo balance was really good too. This arena grants us red key (and RL of course). I could have come here first and dealt with the plasma rifle vile with rockets! Blue ingress gets us an open sky courtyard with turreted revenants, an imp swarm facing us and a little elevated horseshoe railing periphery. This is a more quiet encounter, and even the booby trap PE and revs cannot stand up to the prior tension of 20 living enemies in an arena and 2 floor viles roaming. However every trigger teleport ambush and every monster closet that opens up even in these more minor parts of the map shows a very sharp knowledge of monster composition. Myolden has played/looked at Ribbiks encounters closely I feel it's safe to assume because that's the monster comp vibe here, no fat nothing wasted, pretty lethal but not certainly still on the fun side of the equation still. At the climax of that horseshoe railing encounter we do get two viles one spawing high, one low. The low one gave me curiously hard of a time trying to plasma it from above. This vile felt really beefy (and therefore zapped me when I thought it should have been plasma melted by now) I think shooting at it from above was invalidating some of my shots by hitting the floor or something? As far as the climax of the map storyline goes, the final thing is to escape on a new flying saucer but to do that we need to get locked in on literally the final hallway stretch and flip two switches to get two monster comps in that corridor before we can go. Sadly - although I was happy with how I played the rest - the four mancubus final trap got a bunch of deaths out of me. It's not even hard to plasma 4 mancubi if they're gonna teleport in stagger like but I manage to fail a lot there. Excuse the bad play at the end there if you watch the footage. This aside, I did quite good I think! Final screen stats feel completely different with no tracking. Old emotions, forgotten in decades. Young helm seeing he somehow got all the kills and secrets on his very own, just playing the thing, they come back to the surface. Weird ambiguous feelings come up when I see 101% kills and I know an archvile messed up my stats so I don't *really* know if I got 100% kills or not. I don't even know *how many in total* enemies were in this map regardless of whether I killed them all, which I find fascinating. I think I'll continue playing like this. If I want a proper 100% run, ok. If not I will not look at my stats anymore. I have enough metrics and numbers oppressing me in my life as it is. Thoughts on this map in a higher level: I think myolden (at least for this map) doesn't care about the world warping overall narrative hook or to extend the wanderlust experience here with open vistas like map03, they care about monster comp, good layouts, map making sense, tough encounters and ammo balance and it flowing well, heh. In this sense this map if you take all the texturing away could have been in many other map packs and be considered an excellent map in any context. This is totally fine with me and I look forward to a dynamic between 'this is serious play this map asshole, can you survive you little shit?' and 'I do not know how to map for super high skill but check out my terrain or weird sector ideas!' in a community project. Keeps everything fresh! 6 Quote Share this post Link to post
RHhe82 Posted April 7, 2023 1 hour ago, Helm said: I have turned off my extended HUD and map stats and I will only turn this back on if I ever want to *actually run a map* not just to check how many fucking steps I've done today. If I'm not training there is no point to it. I did this too, and I’m having a word on this, too, next week; turned off extended hud and automap and see if I can shrug off blind playthrough maxing ocd. DoomLauncher still saves my stats, though, so I’ll know afterwards if Archviles messed up kill count :P 4 Quote Share this post Link to post
Klear Posted April 7, 2023 (edited) Mapworld07: Holodeck by Myolden QuestZDoom, UV, blind, pistol start, saving all the time Spoiler So. Many. Goddamn. Revenants! Spoiler Fine, I'll go into detail. There's a noticeable uptick in difficulty - as expected - but the semi-hot start doesn't pose much of a problem. I have to replay certain ambushes, but it's fine with the right approach. I really liked how after dealing the ambush around the plasma rifle which reveals the blue doors you see the blue key ahead of you as you leave the area. This helps me with navigation quite a bit. The arena with the rocket launcher and the red key has some tough fights, but is open enough for me to fly through. However, I find myself lacking firepower to deal with the big horde of revenants who block my way upon leaving and, which is worse, no ammo to get through the fight behind the red door after bypasing the skeletal horde. I try a couple of things, but get my ass kicked every time. Pushing forward is not a option, staying on the lower level and fighting it out doesn't work either. I realise I've been spoiled by generous ammo pickups in the previous maps and that I need to start from scratch and save up. The second time around I try to use infighting as much as I can, save my cells and play it safe. I do lose a bit more health than the first time around, but health pickups are more plentiful than ammo, and this time I don't accidentally run over the second soulsphere in the red key arena. I do end up using up my rockets and have to bypass the skeleton horde again. The area behind the red door is tough, but the cells I saved allow me to get a foothold and I make steady progress through the many ambushes that lie ahead. I run into some trouble almost every step of the way, but it's a matter of adjusting my strategy rather than banging my head against the wall hoping to get lucky. When everything dies, it's time to deal with the skeleton horde blocking my path. I chip away at them using a shotgun from the balcony, depleting almost my entire supply of shells, then rocket the stragglers. At this point I spent a little bit of time searching for the worldmap's sole secret, but end up empty handed. Seems it held a backpack which would have been useful, but alas. I only find a linedef which opens something, but I'm not sure if that's a part of the secret or a remnant of one of the ambushes. All that remains is a multi-stage fight on the way to the UFO which goes surprisingly smoothly all things considered. I blow myself up one time, but other than that, thanks to a few lucky damage rolls and heavy firepower, I manage to clear it. All enemies does, road to the UFO unblocked. I raise my fist to the sky - home free. Despite giving me quite a lot of trouble, this is obviously an excellent map. The difficulty is on the higher end on what I can manage in VR - I suspect I would have a lot more fun playing on HMP, but then again the catharsis when I conquered this was amazing. The visuals were great and varied, though nothing in the level really felt like a holodeck to me, which is a bit of a shame. I decided to give baby arm mode a go. You may think the weapon models look great (and they do!), but the visible arms attached to them are about third of the size they should be when viewed in VR. This pack is obviously made for flat Doom, not VR. It's a shame, since I really like some of the models (especially the chaingun). Eventually found myself in an unwinnable state and had to do the map from scratch, switching to voxel weapons in the process. Skip to 15:57 for the successful run. There is one more place where I stitched two videos together, this time it wasn't for technical reasons but because my boss came into the room as I was playing, so I had to take a small break (it's fine, she's cool). Edited April 7, 2023 by Klear 6 Quote Share this post Link to post
Mr. Alexander Posted April 7, 2023 (edited) Map07, "Holodeck," by MyoldenDSDA-Doom, UV, pistol start. No advanced HUD. This one's short, but intense, and I liked it a lot. You go from arena to arena, collecting keys and fighting well telegraphed waves of enemies. The one ambush that really surprised me was the revenant swarm that tries to stop you from leaving the circular red key arena. The combat design forgives a lot of mistakes and lets you just blow stuff up. The level design gives you lots of room to move, and it gives you lots of soul spheres, so keep moving and win. The pair of arch-viles who try to keep you from leaving the blue-key plaza stressed me out a bit, but once you get within sight of the next UFO, you're made in the shade. Just step lively and kill off the revenant turrets before they give you too much trouble. You don't really need to conserve your ammo, but just the same, you'll want the secret backpack behind the wall with a little candle in front of it in the main concourse. You should never congratulate yourself for finding secrets with the little candles, because, like the little yellow battery icon, mappers use them so often to indicate interactable walls, but I enjoy finding them all the same. I love Stewboy's "Gold Rush," and it works great here. This is a fitting tribute to Ancient Aliens's second episode. I had a much easier time recording a demo for this map than for Map06, which I'm still working on as of this writing. LadyMistDragon said these next few levels would feel more like Sunlust, and while the combat definitely has the Danne-Ribbiks polish to it, without any monsters getting Boomed off their perches or teleportations arriving within a certain margin of error rather than at a specific time, it's much more forgiving than even the early levels of Sunlust, which I'm glad of. Maybe tomorrow's map will be a real ball-buster. Casual playthrough: puss0907-casual-mralexander.zip Edited April 7, 2023 by Mr. Alexander 6 Quote Share this post Link to post
LadyMistDragon Posted April 7, 2023 Map 07: Holodeck by @myolden Here's a map I fucking hated the first time I played it. The combat is not unlike that of Alien Covenant, but the difficulty was turned up a few notches and I ended up having an absolutely awful time, vastly preferring Myolden's next map, which is a little more furious from the jump but isn't quite as vise-like ultimately. This time though....great stuff! So starting out, we have shotgunners and Imps facing away from us in a circle which proves ultimately to be the tiniest of mercies, along with zombies and Imps firing at us from some platforms we guess. Anyways, the stimpacks here probably exist to shield up from the initial BS. After entering one room, encountering a Pain Elemental because myolden takes a sick pleasure in forcing us to fight off a Pain Elemental with a single shotgun whilst harried by hitscanners and fighting off some more enemies including some rather nasty plasma troopers, a switch lowered the Super Shotgun and opened the way to the rest of the complex, a sort of outdoor tech-y thing a little bland in the walls but with that wonderful series of void platforms like something out of Wormhole Junction kind of in the center between the various structures. Not like we can really enjoy it at first because at either side of the entrance can be found a Mancubus on the right and an Imp or two on the left, along with Revenants waiting in the wings that makes hesistation very unwise. We'd suggest targeting the Mancubus first, but honestly, they can be liquidated later because this is a terrible place to make a stand. Running past some more Revenants and Hell Knights, we come into another area with some critical supplies that locks us in and forces us to contend with a number of enemies such as Mancubi, Revenants, and an Arch-vile! While there might be some room to hide, we were as surprised as anyone to dispatch this latter the first time! Eventually we can exit and handle the Revenants, Hell Knights, and Mancubi pair that had bunched up in the meantime. After easily spotting a secret with an invaluable backpack, we took thhe only other available path leading through a wide hallway lined with power tanks into a circular arena that screams 'predictable ambush', several central structures, along with some raised platforms containing Supercharges, a rocket launcher and a red key. Thankfully, we can pick up the RL almost instantly, and we'll really need because we're fighting off three different waves of enemies. The first are some shotgunners start teleporting in almost instantly, along with Revenants which basically serve to keep up moving. Second consists of some Cacodemon and Pain Elementals (I can't say Myolden has quite the same fondness for them as Angelo Jefferson but at the same time, he always seems to have a few of them around in most ambushes!) whilst finally the third contains two arch-viles, as well as Hell Knights and Revenants! Thankfully, the structures here are sufficient enough to avoid the psychic flame attack of the viles. The way back throws an incredibly nasty Revenant trap that killed us a time or two when we first played this, but here, backing up and hiding proved to be an easy solution. Although we were somewhat disgruntled to find that we should've saved our rockets against....some of the enemies earlier because we were resorting to a shotgun after a little bit. Behind the red door then are some pop-up turret Revenants, that thank the alien gods do NOT have replacements, and an Imp mob that makes dispatching the former a teensy bit more difficult. Hell Knights, Mancubi, and more Imps await on the second floor here, but they're here mainly to take up space. The real encounter comes when we reach a certain point, we're trapped, and then 3 closets open up right next to us, containing shotgunners in the closest, a Pain Elemental in the next one (see what I mean?) and a Revenant in the far cubbie. Enemy placement seems a touch random in that respect, but they succeeded in whittling down our health, to the extent that a Revenant pair we hadn't even spotted would end up killing us after emerging from a closet in the direction we'd entered this area. At any rate, we barely had any health to contend with the last trap here, two Arch-viles, each spawning at a different level, along with several small groups of Revenants. The closest Arch-vile was not so difficult to handle, but the one at ground level proved to be quite difficult indeed. Quite apart from our own health, there's a decent chance that they'll get stuck behind a Revenant or two which leads to some rather BS RNG situations. The series of fights at the end then isn't quite as difficult as this, but the path isn't so wide that we can really feel completely safe, especially at the end when Pain Elementals prove to be quite a pain. At this point, we'd really like to call Holodeck the best map so far. It's a different style from what Death Bear does perhaps, but Bear played to my combat preferences particularly in Ursus Minoris. However, I can see why some people would really like this map because I'm one of them! This time at least. lmd_pussIX07.zip 9 Quote Share this post Link to post
Celestin Posted April 7, 2023 MAP07: Holodeck by myolden Spoiler Like myolden's previous map, this one is also full of traps, which block off the player's escape routes and forces them to fight their way through. Here, however, they are much larger and more complex than in MAP02. The three-stage teleport ambush triggered by grabbing the red key is the best part of the map, culminating with the arrival of the archvile healers, which immediately begin to revive casualities of the previous two waves. The push towards the blue key was also fine, again, with archviles repopulating the rooms on your way back. That being said, a triple ambush right before the exit is a low blow. It isn't hard (except the second wave, with mancubi on both ends of a walkway), but come on, just let me finish already. That nitpick aside, Holodeck is a great map. I keep getting impressed by the Ancient Aliens texture pack. Neon lights, alien writings and clever use of sky texture brings an unique look to this extraterrestial techbase. 7 Quote Share this post Link to post
DisgruntledPorcupine Posted April 7, 2023 World 6: "Ursae Majoris" by Death Bear UV, pistol start, no saves 100% kills, 1/5 secrets The second half of this Death Bear double header starts much the same as the first. We're in the same moon area, only this time the liquid is purple and we have shotgunners to deal with instead of zombiemen. Venturing into the next area, the building we entered last map has seen better days. Doors are lodged partially open, a bear figure can be seen inside, it's seeping purple liquid, and its platform is isolated off by a starry death-pit. Looks like you really did a number on it in your last adventure. Zoom off through a different building to another colourful techbase and get to work. This one was a bit more difficult than the previous one for me, although the only secret I managed to spot was the chainsaw so that might have caused me extra grief. While this techbase is spacious, it's more confined to rooms than the previous one is, so each arena is more distinct. There's heavy use of turret monsters here, lots of arachnotrons, revenants, and hell knights on platforms trying to make life a bit more difficult for the player who doesn't keep moving. To compound this, we have some cunning spectre usage, scattering them about in rooms where they are tough to spot if you aren't looking for them, making them both easy to run into and a huge facerocket hazard. Otherwise notable we have 3 boss monsters in this map with two cybies and a mastermind. Make them infight to your hearts content until you can get up to them and BFG them. And lastly I'll mention the alien guardians, who were the cause of multiple deaths for me this time. The first ambush with them I didn't even notice them bearing down until there was a stream of homing missiles right next to me, and in other fights they can cause trouble in the open rooms. I was coming up on low health a fair bit in this map, but again I didn't find any secrets that would remedy this so that's probably a factor. I think I prefer this one just a notch over the previous one. Lots of enjoyment to be had here. 7 Quote Share this post Link to post
Azure_Horror Posted April 7, 2023 (edited) Gotta be quick today. Maybe I'll add more detailed descrptions later DSDA-doom, UV, pistol start, -complevel 9 Map 03 Trespasser by @notTyrone I absolutely love playing Trespasser. I am not joking! The map is very simple, but it really resonates with me. Some further investigation may be required... One thing clearly bears mentioning: I love how Trespasser introduces Ancient Aliens custom monsters! Those monsters are quite special, so introducing them in low-stress, mundane environments feels like a very smart idea. Makes understanding their basics much easier. As a bonus, this creates contrasts with AAliens wad, where the custom monsters were introduced in highly choreographed encounters. (I played all maps of Ancient Aliens, but only now, after playing some Warpseed levels (maps 03-09, to be precise), I really wrapped my head around the mechanics of AA custom bestiary. I think, it is fair to say, that Warpspeed does develop Ancient Aliens gameplay in novel directions. This is a real achievement, given that Ancient Aliens is one of the most legendary WADs of all time!) Map 04 Oberth Malfunction by @notTyrone This map feels a under-developed. However, this under-development resonates very well with the map's setting. There is some trans-dimensional weirdness at play at this lonely pile of space rocks: - To leave the place, it is necessary to reach a weird portal-like instalation. - Disabling the portal messes everything around. The techbase immediately goes into disrepair, and the sky lights up with with countless meteors. - On top of that, there is a strange pile of ruins, which seemingly disappears after the techbase goes dark... - Oh, and there is also the weird science dude, who behaves like he owns both the place and Flying Saucer we are driving... In short - the map feels very memorable due to its strangeness. The imperfections in level design empower this strangeness further. The seeming flaw of the map becomes a strength instead! Bravo, notTyrone! Map 05 Ursae Minoris by @Death Bear Maps 03 and 04 are both breather maps. Now we are back to something more hardcore... I see this map as a stepping stone between mainline Ancient Aliens maps and the Gray Dwarf (Ancient Aliens map 31). We have a sprawling space station with many subsections and a some episodes exploration (Gray Dwarf), however the main spotlight is put onto fast-paced action (AA mainline). @Death Bear managed to include almost every type of monster! And every single one of them feels important. I especially like how both Stealth Aliens and Alien Turret Drones play out here. The web of long interconnected passages really benefits those enemy types! Map 06 Ursae Majoris by @Death Bear Ursae Minoris felt like a stepping stone between Ancient Aliens mainline level design and the TNT-esque Gray Dwarf. Ursae Majoris feels like a middle ground between Ancient Aliens and Go 2 it. Once again, Death Bear manages to steer AA design tricks into an unexpected direction. This time, the player needs either a lot of caution, or a sharp understanding of secrets to succeed. Just like on Go 2 it! The Ancient Aliens resources create a wonderful atmosphere, while also allowing for some intersting combat designs (Turret Drones once again perform quite well in the semi-open space) MAP07 Holodeck by @myolden By the standards of Ancient Aliens, this is very mundane level. So, by general Doom satndards, it is wonderful! In my opinion, this map comes the closest to Skillsaw's design from Ancient Aliens. Only one thing is a bit off - the archvile set ups. Skillsaw's archvile deployments felt notably more fluid to me. But this difference is minor at the end... TLDR: I played 5 more maps, and each one felt awesome in its own way. This is great! Feels very fitting for a hypothetical Ancient Aliens sequel... Edited April 7, 2023 by Azure_Horror 9 Quote Share this post Link to post
Klear Posted April 7, 2023 (edited) Worldmap08: Moon Funeral by Myolden QuestZDoom, UV, blind, pistol start, I now have a dedicated quicksave button - Hey, Klear! Which was the hardest, most punishing fight in PUSS IX so far? - The one with a ton of revenants. - Which one? - The one that starts by picking up a rocket launcher. - Which one? - In a map by Myolden. - Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?! Spoiler Yeah, even before I got to that point I knew I was trouble. In fact, even before I started playing. As long as I was looking towards the magnificently sculpted map I saw a significant drop in framerate and I haven't even started recording yet. I turned the draw distance back down a little and that barely helped, but thankfully it wasn't all bad once I got in the midst of things. Just most of the time. I jumped into the teleporter and I knew I was in trouble, part 2. Oh well, let the games begin. The action starts frantic and it doesn't let up. First death came quickly, but in my second attempt I managed to carve myself enough space to dare a quicksave and pushed a button to open up the next area before the start was even remotely clear of enemies. I'm pretty sure it was just me being nihillistic, but to my surprise enlarging my roaming space actually helped a bunch, even if it replenished revenant numbers. I even found the map's sole secret which gave me a bunch of ammo I couldn't use and a sorely needed soulsphere. That raised my spirits even more. Finding a relatively quiet spot (and there are only very few of those), I noticed the beauty of the architecture and that looking at buildings leads to rockets being violently inserted into your head. Sightseeing was going to have to wait. I had revenants to die to! The rocket launcher fight was tough. Really tough. I tried a bunch of strategies hoping for a break, but I kept dying. I was seriously considering dropping down to HMP, but I wanted to at least kill the revenants even if the hell knights or a stray cybie rocket got me later. At that point it wasn't about me winning. I wanted the revenants to lose. But then I saw I somehow did it. I'm still not sure how, but getting the megasphere ASAP was a big part of it. Still halfway to go, but the biggest challenge was behind me and I was rewarded with the kill on the first two cybies. For the next fight I figured the optimal strategy early - hold down the fire button on the newly-found plasma and never let go. Oh, and run away like a coward as soon as you can. I was feeling good when I was safely back in the area no longer dominated by cyberdemon and pushed the quicksave button. Less so when I realised my health was in single digits. But it was fine. Ignoring some deaths from cybie splash, carefully returning to the now mostly dead arena was quite simple and I got to collect the megasphere and telefrag two more cybies. You'll note I took each of these teleporters twice. I can't get enough of the effect. The next area had a BFG and I went straight at it despite expecting a nasty ambush upon picking it up. It was time for a payback. The largest group of revenants yet came and I had a great time melting their bones and crushing their skulls. At that point I realised I'm absolutely terrible with using the BFG in VR, shooting balls over their heads multiple time forcing me to wait for the tracers to come - I really should get in the habit of shooting the thing under my feet. And after the last map, I was a little bit worried about running out of cells given my inefficiency, but it was more than fine. Time to telefrag the last of the cyberdemon. Somehow I was left standing on the first pillar after the kill. Not sure if it's because of VR, because of the low FPS or just a tiny mistake in what I had to remind myself was a speedmap. I wanted to take the opportunity to look around the level from this vantage, but then I noticed a rapidly approaching volley of rockets and just barely dodged it. Sadly, I couldn't stay on the pillar on my second try. Seems like the giant cyberdemon ass in my way was part of the magic. When everything was dead, I finally took a few moments to look at the architecture and walked to the final bridge. The teleporters down in the water intrigued me, so I jumped down and got stuck... One noclip later and I got to see the level from the sea level. Pretty nifty! And teleporting back, I got a kill on a final hell knight who got lost somehow, so the detour was worth it. I wanted to examine the doomcute boat that serves as an exit a bit more, but by that time my alarm was ringing, alerting me that the video might be getting too long, so I just ended the level (it was fine BTW, not even 3GB yet. I need to increase the timer next time). Oh, and I accidentally skipped the score screen, but a frame-by-frame analysis confirms I got 100/100/100. Hell yeah. This map is beautiful. Amazing that this was done in 10 hours. Gameplay wise... don't get me wrong, it's excellent, but given my chosen mode of play, it's a bit too difficult to be my favourite. Appearance-wise this is easily the best one so far. No contest. It has character, it's varied yet consistent in its theme, it looks nothing like the rest of the maps so far. I love it. Like a number of other players I changed my HUD for today, but for a different reason - previously it was only showing ammo for the equipped weapon and I probably wasted a ton by picking up ammo when almost full. I'll still have to tweak it, though. The numbers are too small to quickly read in the heat of battle. I also enabled a transparent map, set up a quicksave button (me not going into the menu every five seconds should make for a better viewing experience) and turned off sprite smoothing. No idea how it's taken me so long to do that. Edited April 7, 2023 by Klear 7 Quote Share this post Link to post
Celestin Posted April 7, 2023 MAP08: Moon Funeral by myolden Spoiler By the time this map is over, many demons will be laid to rest. The eight cyberdemons seen while teleporting to the level proper will harras the player througout the map with their long-distance rockets. Luckily, picking up each of the three keys allows the player to telefrag some of them, as a reward for overcoming the challenge. Moon Funeral is a hectic map, set in an ancient ruin, lost in the vast cosmos. The combat is centered on three fight for the keys, each locks the player in an arena with a direct view of at least two cyberdemons, while monsters appear around the player. The fight for blue key gives them a rocket launcher to eliminate a wall of hell knights and revenants. The plasma rifle trap locks the player with teleporting hell knights and grants a red key for surviving. The last one is the yellow key fight, where the player slaughters a ludicrious horde of revenants with a BFG. The maps ends not with an UFO, but a rowboat instead. Is this allowed? Moon Funeral is the best map of PUSS IX so far, a 10 minutes rush of adrenaline in a truly magical place. 11 Quote Share this post Link to post
TJG1289 Posted April 7, 2023 GZDoom/UV/Pistol-Start/Saves Map 06: Ursae Majoris - Death Bear 100% kills and secrets Time: 20:52 Deaths: 1 Another Death Bear map that I had a much harder time with when I first played it. This map plops you back at the beginning of the previous map, with some aesthetic changes, and shotgunners instead of zombiemen. When you get back to the main hub, you'll notice the building we went to last time has the corpses of the zombiemen we took out still there, but now another building has opened, this one with shotgunners and a caco. Grab the secret chainsaw that's behind this one and jump in. This map is bigger than the last, but can go at a slower pace once you get past this opening part. Cause as soon as you fire, zombies, imps, and pinkies teleport in, along with the other monsters already in the area being alerted to you, including a manc. This took me a surprising amount of tries my first playthrough, and that was continuous. This time, got it first try but almost died. Grab the RL by the manc, hit the switch in the building, and get ready for an onslaught. Closets open filled with hitscan, one has a hell knight and the SSG, and 2 pain elementals are teleported in. This also took me a few tries before, but got it first try here. We hit another switch that opens up the area a bit, leading to another building with the blue key. While there's already baddies here, there's also 2 switches that you need to hit to grab the key, each spawning in more baddies. The one by this RL is the one that got me this time, as that spawns in revs, zombies, and an archie. Oof. However, you can turn the tides a bit by finding the multiple secrets outside the building. One of the windows has no collision, so that allows you to wander around the outskirts of the building, gaining access to a backpack, rockets, cells, a megasphere, and the yellow key. Make sure to go all around the building. That megasphere did come in handy for the fight that killed me initially. With blue key in hand, you can proceed into the next big room, this one with a cyb and a few other stragglers. Going for the plasma rifle drops you into a slime pit, so watch out. More switches with ambushes here, though the BFG is makes an appearance too. 2-shot the cyb, then take a look at the 3 switches here. Idk what the center one does (probably allows backtracking). The left one takes you to another big room with a cyb, arachnotrons, cacos, guardians, and revs. The red key is here, along with the yellow door, which houses a ton of health bonuses and 3 bulk cell packs. Nice! The right switch opens up another room that seems relatively barren, but opens up to an imp swarm, with cacos, guardians, revs, and a spider mastermind. BFG = win. Make sure to hit switches in both of these big rooms to reveal the exit, which needs the red key. Overall, another solid map. idk which of these 2 Death Bear maps I enjoy more, but they're both very solid in terms of gameplay and texture use. MIDI was ok, but some of the chugging guitar parts didn't fit the aesthetic. The intermission text in this WAD is pretty charming. Really honing in on the alien feel. Map 07: Holodeck - Myolden 100% kills and secrets Time: 12:26 Deaths: 1 (face rocket) While myolden's first map was AA E1 themed, this one is E2 themed, so we get a nice change of scenery for this one. Like his previous map, this one has a few set piece fights that are the main draw, but there's more incidental combat than before. You have to fight for your weapons here, so whenever you see one, expect some resistance. First off is just some Doom 1 enemies to deal with, but the chaingun adds the stealth troopers to the mix (plus a pain elemental blocked your way into this building). You can miss the plasma rifle before going for the red key and rocket launcher, but I would make sure to grab that first. I did almost die to this ambush, as it's hell knights, cacos, and an archie (maybe revs too, idr). Before heading to the red key arena, check the wall by the candle for the backpack. This arena fight is the highlight of the map, as each switch adds more and more enemy variety to the arena. First it's fodder plus revs and hell knights, then it's all the flyers, the 2 archies. Heading back to the red door will also teleport in a herd of revs just asking to be rocketed. Heading to the blue key isn't too bad. The ambushes here are small, but can pack a punch if you're not ready. Especially the one that locks you in unexpectantly in a small area with revs, fodder, and a pain elemental. Getting the blue key opens a hell knight closet, and that initially seems like it. But as you return, you'll see 2 archies have teleported back into areas you already hit, reviving everything. Plasma the one level with you, then rocket the one below by the blue door. Going through the other blue door will start a multi-stage fight on the pathway to the exit UFO. Rocket forward for the win. Overall, this one is a tad easier than myolden's first map in this set (hence me only dying by a face rocket), but it's still pretty fun and solid overall. Really uses the E2 textures well to boot. Plus, this is a killer AA MIDI pick. 7 Quote Share this post Link to post
continuum.mid Posted April 8, 2023 (edited) World 7: Holodeck (by myolden) dsda-doom 0.25.6+dfsg-1 (Debian 12), Doom 2, Ultra-Violence, mostly blind, pistol start, limited saves The Star Trek reference only really applies to the title, but I approve nonetheless. This is another step up in quality, a neon-tinged space platform a la Ancient Aliens episode 2 with a number of blistering fights Skillsaw would be proud of. I got a few spoilers from people who played the map before me and they made me expect that this would also be the hardest map in the set so far, but I find that I'm much more easily able to get on myolden's combat tempo than Death Bear's, and while I died plenty of times, I was never tempted to save mid-fight. Every fight was fun and memorable - notably, the second room with the hitscanners and stealth aliens, the sequence of increasingly difficult battles in the circular room leading to the red key, the blue key room and subsequent double Arch-Vile appearance when picking up the key, and the three ambushes at the end. These maps keep getting better, and I hope the quality arc continues (even though most of the maps were placed in submission order). Myolden's maps combined with the Dean of Doom review make me want to finish my playthrough of Nostalgia, I already beat the first level via Freedoom. So many WADs, so little time... maybe I'll vote for Nostalgia for next month so I have an excuse to play it. Edited April 8, 2023 by continuum.mid 6 Quote Share this post Link to post
SuyaSSS Posted April 8, 2023 MAP07: “Holodeck” by moylden(?) Played On Nugget Doom, HMP, Pistol-start Getting real difficult now. The fights in this map are honestly not my jam. I think the fights are good just not my style. But, the map looks very very good which was expected since I have seen some really cool things from this mapset. One thing this made me wonder was what a more detailed Nostalgia would've looked like. I mean that thought alone elevates this map a ton. One fight I will mention is the final fight which had you fighting on a bridge while being surrounded by revenants and teleporting foes who spawn after you press a switch and you have to press another switch to open another switch on the other end with more enemies teleporting in. Wasn't really a fan of that fight. Other than that most other fights were quite fun. Grade: B 6 Quote Share this post Link to post
Helm Posted April 8, 2023 World8 - Moon Funeral by Myolden I am listening to Camel - Mirage Zorg wakes up in pitch black, surrounded by burning blue torches and cyberdemon ass x 8. It was one of those nights, huh. There is a vague recollection percolating in Zorg's hangoverbox that, when he beamed down... on the moon? Must have been the moon... that he took his best 200 200 black tuxedo and an SSG with him just in case. Crackling, zero-hydration voice politely inquiring as to the current arrangement only sends the cyberdemons teleporting away. Curious. Let's take the teleporter. Zorg gets bear-ported straight to the action, no time for resorb. Running around like a maniac taking potshots at hitscan in a mix of low and mid tier while turreted revenants all over the place complicate my racetrack is always fun. Map looks gorgeous as well with the rocky texture combos and the fitting blue sky meshing with the darker grey and deep blue accents of the central pillar-dome. Beautiful sense of scale. And on a speedmap! But there is no time to enjoy the vista, as mapper puts two distant cyberdemons from the 8 that teleported away to overwatch the initial fray. There is another candle secret afterwards! Going through conveyor belt teleporters that drop you with all that forward momentum back on the map is a doom feeling that never gets old. Securing the opening location allows for some minor branching, but ultimately the thing that is revealed is that the rest of the cybers will be overwatching the whole shebang. This is a gimmick one has to surrender to and accept some splash (or even a full face rocket) will happen here and there and mapper left health and supplies to recover from these mistakes. There are lot of 'hold at intersection, rockets x-ing' which probably was the whole desire of the mapper, so well done! Rocket launcher trap is a proper Sunlusty thing and it has the predictable effect on me because I try to fight it and die to it many times until I stop trying to fight it and let it infight so I can just get the fuck out. This is the first fight in this set where this concept is utilized so strongly, I think, and as such a good reminder that holding mouse1 isn't always the answer for the mapset. I'm sure some of the other marines will just kill everything in here, this fight can work out. But I am also anticipating some movement-based infighting solutions. I am anticipating many deaths, heh. Our reward for our lightfoot is teleporter chain to take care of 3 of the cybers. The map clearly explains that I will be telefragging all the cybers. Tune in on the footage to see if I waste ammo on them even in full knowledge of this, lol. The imp/knights/delayed revs fight is my favorite fight in this mapset but the next three coming up are also amazing, so this makes this map my favourite map from the early part of the wad. The upcoming plasma rifle fight is gorgeous, the set is beautiful, just some of the better layouting and inspiried abstract detailing we've seen in here so far. Strafe-fest for a moment while cybers overwatch the central temple, then it opens up for little circuit races with added revenants. Infighting and patience are skills but on a timer because eventually you *will* catch an infighting rocket or splash. Myolden ensures this map is playable by idiots like me by putting down a lot of additional health for this section. As if this map needed even more sickness, there is a BFG next on top of a mayan ziggurat and the assorted final fight is really fun as well. After lots of patient and solid play I go try to snipe a few enemies from what I thought was a safe corner and I catch a rocket to splat me on the wall. Never stand still I guess! Besides that death, things felt fair and worked out for the most part. The revenant deluge that floods the ziggurat once the BFG is a go is the first proper moment of 'hehe I'm in danger' for me in this set and the play is scrambly but exciting and I make it through because of that additional mega the revs lower. This layout is so fun because it almost got me killed many times but I found ways to reverse course. With cruel mapping it's all about the illusion of being in more danger than you actually are. The layout lifelines and straight up health drops on this map show a considered and deft approach to 'here are 40 revenants in an arena where 4 cyberdemons overwatch'. Big, big fun, this map. Speedmap? Can hardly tell. Additional experiential thing: the cyber telefrag sequences fill you with reward-dopamine as you telefrag but additionally you get a high vantage, total view of the whole map and it's gorgeous. This reward+reward makes for an organic highlight that doesn't just have to do either with atmosphere nor with combat but something in the alchemy in-between. At the end after Zorg's brain has been rattled by a few cyberdemon rockets he finally remembers what last night was all about. He intercepted an radiowave message that he was cordially invited to a funeral on the Moon. Incensed by the mystery of who of his close friends could have died and would want to be buried in such a shithole place like the Earth's moon, lol Zorg took the stolen saucer there. It was a trap. The demons wanted to stage a funeral on the moon, indeed and they had counted on my corpse filling their casket. It was their funeral instead. 10 Quote Share this post Link to post
Maribo Posted April 8, 2023 Map08: Moon Funeral is myolden flexing their slaughter chops, complete with a classic revenant horde sandwich at the very end. I largely wrote about Map02 a week ago because I wanted to contrast the difference in Cyberdemon lethality here: There are significantly more cybers, they still play purely turret roles, but they are much more deadly (and much more useful, provided you don't get pegged). Their presence keeps you moving because you'll be hard pressed to find a spot in any of myolden's fight setups where you can stand out of the way of multiple cyber line-of-sights while also not being pressured to keep moving from meat-y and/or particularly deadly monster packs. Map is primarily focused on space constriction, turret rocket dodging aside. You need to know how to land rockets for efficient splash damage and do a bit of weaving in and out of monsters while you let the cybers do some distraction work for you. Being able to tango BFG tracers with a revenant horde will also be to your advantage. Cool map with an adorable exit. puss908m437.zip 12 Quote Share this post Link to post
continuum.mid Posted April 8, 2023 World 8: Moon Funeral (by myolden) dsda-doom 0.25.6+dfsg-1 (Debian 12), Doom 2, Ultra-Violence, mostly blind, pistol start, limited saves Yep, I finished this one early. This map has a great gimmick to it: after entering the first teleporter, Cyberdemons teleport to perches surrounding the entire map! They act as a way of keeping the player on their toes, and always moving, as while there is cover in this map, very few spots will protect you from all of the snipers at once. There's an opportunity to telefrag two of them early, but it won't help much. They present the real challenge in most of this map's fights - to kill all the enemies without staying still for too long or moving too predictably, lest you catch a stray rocket. The plasma fight, in which the walls temporarily trap you in a small area with hell knights as Cacodemons close in, might have been threatening without the Cyberdemon, but the only issues I had were getting caught on the Cacos and then shot by a Cyberdemon. The exceptional case where I actually routinely died to the lesser enemies, was the pile-on of 100 revenants protecting the yellow key. They close in from both sides, and very quickly run past the megasphere that the player is clearly supposed to grab for the fight, requiring quick footing and good BFG aim. Curiously, a switch behind the revenants reveals a teleporter that lets you telefrag most of the Cyberdemons, but one of them eluded me - maybe his telefrag is secret, or I'm supposed to kill him from a distance using plasma. In any case, I didn't bother. Moon Funeral is another example of myolden's mastery of Doom combat; I think I liked Holodeck better, because it's prettier and the Cybies made Moon Funeral a little too stressful at times, but this very nearly matches it. It appears that instead of an exit UFO, we end on a boat and paddle. I wonder where we're rowing to... 8 Quote Share this post Link to post
Mr. Alexander Posted April 8, 2023 Map08, "Moon Funeral," by MyoldenDSDA-Doom, UV, pistol start. No advanced HUD used. After Map07, I wasn't sure what LadyMistDragon had meant when she said that the next few maps after "Ursae Majoris" would be in a more Sunlust-type vein. Map07 was short, punchy, and full of monsters, sure, and you couldn't snooze through it, but it didn't seem that tough. Map06 had given me a much harder time. This map begins by giving you a megasphere, a super shotgun, two boxes of shells, and a backpack, and then it sends you to a blank void with eight cyberdemons and a button you have to shoot to teleport them away and exit back to "reality." That's about as clear a "challenge map" opener as you'll ever get. Mind you don't accidentally shoot the cyberdemon behind the switch, lest you trigger its pain chance before it can teleport away, and get a rocket to the face. When you come back to the main level, you're thrown straight through a crowd of monsters at top speed. It's a nice callback to Ancient Aliens Map01, and Myolden places the monsters so that you don't really have to navigate or shoot through them. It's very slick, but you won't have much time to admire it. The cyberdemons have teleported to high pillars overlooking the combat zone, a series of vaguely circular islands which call to mind a miniaturized version of Sunlust Map28, and while you can get a good infight going while you run to the next way-clearing button, you can't rely on it to save you. The first setpiece battle in the imp valley, which presses you into a corner as hell knights crowd you from one side before revenants pour out from the other, is a real kick in the teeth. I can't get it to be consistent yet, but fortunately it's very early in the level and the battles after it are a little more free-form and forgiving. Between that fight and the huge revenant slaughter at the end, I now see what LadyMistDragon meant about getting into Sunlust country. Fortunately, in classic Ancient Aliens fashion, you get to telefrag those cyberdemons if you just keep the presence of mind to hit the switches that lower the relevant teleporters, and you get plenty of health and ammo. It's still a Map08, after all. I like the chilled-out tracks from later in Ancient Aliens, and the pairing of "Alien Forest" with that wad's Map25, "Xenoarboreum," is a good association for this map to call to mind, though the combat in that map was quite a bit less set-piecey and spectacular. Casual playthrough, now with bonus pretentious text file: puss0908-61409.zip 9 Quote Share this post Link to post
Ralgor Posted April 8, 2023 MAP08 - "Moon Funeral" by Myoldendsda-doom v0.25.6 cl9, UV, Pistol start, blind run w/ saves, then single segment w/ demo 100% kills and secrets For this map, I turned off the advanced hud and automap stats for my initial run through the map. I'll leave it on for my single segment attempts. In my blind run with saves, I only missed a single revenant that had fallen off of a pillar. It took a lot of deaths to get there, since it took me a while to get used to all of the rockets saturating the air due to the excessive use of cyberdemon turrets. I have to admit I haven't played much of Ribbik's work, but this map really feels like one of his. Several cyberdemons will be shooting at you from tall towers scattered throughout the map, which means you can never stop moving, except in one of the few safe zones. As you collect keys, you get access to teleporters that will let you telefrag the cyberdemons, while also allowing you to move to the next area. You only telefrag the cyberdemons in the areas around the key, so the next area will still be filled with rockets. The combat is pretty good, although I could do without the cyberdemons. Having them infight can be a blessing and a curse, since if they are infighting you have a higher chance of getting hit by a rocket. It's impossible to track every rocket so you just have to keep moving and hope for the best. The fights themselves are pretty fun despite that though. The worst is the fight after getting the plasma rifle. I'm usually so focused on not eating a rocket here that I don't bother even trying to fight anything until I can escape to safety. (And I usually fail anyway... even in my demo I take a direct hit right off of the bat!) The last area includes a horde of revenants that are more annoying than difficult. You have the entire map to retreat to and a BFG, so it's just a matter of knowing when to push and when to pull back. My favorite fight is probably the very first key fight, since you just have one cyberdemon sniper, and it requires more precise footwork than the later fights. It's pretty brutal though, and the megasphere that is available when the revenants come out isn't optional. I rarely come out of this fight with more than 100 health even when grabbing the megasphere in the middle of the fight. I love the layout of this map though. It's lots of very natural looking rock formations out in the middle of some sort of massive body of grey water. This is the kind of map that just wouldn't be possible without using a limit removing port. Everything is well detailed, although you'll be hard pressed to notice while dodging rockets. I have no idea how Myolden managed to build this in just 10 hours. Grade: B MAP08 - 12:36.43 (12:36) K: 291/291 I: 6/6 S: 1/1 ralgor_pussixmaw08.zip 9 Quote Share this post Link to post
Azure_Horror Posted April 8, 2023 (edited) DSDA-doom, UV, pistol start, -complevel 9 MAP08 Moon Funeral by @myolden This maps is the first dedicated Slaughter-y endeavor of the Warpdspeed WAD. Overall structure somewhat resembles the final episode of Eviternity: - Prominent cyberdemons. - Relatively spacious arenas (for the most part, at least). - By the slaughter genre standards, the monster count is definitely low. - Nevertheless, monsters are numerous enough to speak about "fluid dynamics" of monster hordes. As far as the map difficulty goes, this level felt less cruel (and less 'Sunlustian') than "The Gift of Denial" from Ancient Aliens. Once again, the difficulty curve feels on point, despite pretty scary map contents! The map is choreographed, complex, big and detailed, despite being a speedmap! This what impressed me the most about this level. I think this is my favorite map so far. 6 hours ago, Maribo said: Map02 a week ago because I wanted to contrast the difference in Cyberdemon lethality here: There are significantly more cybers, they still play purely turret roles, but they are much more deadly (and much more useful, provided you don't get pegged). I felt the opposite about the cyberdemons. Apart from the rev crowd part of the Rocket Launcher fight, I don't remember any prominent cyberdemon threats. It is easier to keep moving on Moon Funeral than on Ancient Covenant, because map 08 has more spacious arenas and also doesn't include any archviles. And this is despite map 08 including 8 times more cyberdemons than map 02! Edited April 8, 2023 by Azure_Horror 8 Quote Share this post Link to post
Maribo Posted April 8, 2023 3 hours ago, Azure_Horror said: I felt the opposite about the cyberdemons. Apart from the rev crowd part of the Rocket Launcher fight, I don't remember any prominent cyberdemon threats. It is easier to keep moving on Moon Funeral than on Ancient Covenant, because map 08 has more spacious arenas and also doesn't include any archviles. And this is despite map 08 including 8 times more cyberdemons than map 02! Can't quite say I agree. Good movement is a valuable tool, of course, combining it with ample awareness of your surroundings is something that can defuse a lot of otherwise dangerous situations. In the rocket launcher fight, there's a cyber behind you that can cause trouble if you don't move in a pattern that will keep his rockets spaced out (provided he doesn't splash a hell knight when you're on your way in and start infighting), and there's another far off cyber that can actually send some shots in through the way you entered. The caco + hell knight box has a multitude of cybers that are mostly dangerous if they start aggressively infighting cacos, they can splash on you from targeting them and make the fight a bit of a headache if they're particularly aggressive and the cacos insist on floating towards the middle/center of the actual box. If you don't rush straight to the revenant horde, hanging out around the BFG temple for a bit puts you in a bit of a weird crossfire if you didn't telefrag the cybers before heading over for the BFG, though this isn't really likely on a casual playthrough, I suppose. My primary point in contrasting them is that I feel like their potency is a lot higher and that you have to be significantly more mindful of them. Map02's cybers were very non-threatening in all of my handful of playthroughs, 08's were not necessarily the causes of my deaths or errors, but they were a lot more impactful due to their own setups + the much more slaughter-y map design. 6 Quote Share this post Link to post
Klear Posted April 8, 2023 (edited) Mapworld09: Alien Tartarus by Muumi QuestZDoom, UV, blind, pistol start, saves Spoiler After seeing a glimpse of the map having finished the previous one, I thought this was going to be medieval-ish map, very grounded. When I started playing in earnest I saw I was completely wrong. There's a lot going on, especially those scrolling pillars. Love it. The map has a lot of tricks and traps up its sleeve, makes me think it should have come a slot earlier. The first ambush takes me a few tries, until I learn to use the provided garbage disposal more efficiently. I'm also constantly running out of bullets. The flying revenant things give me the most trouble. Eventually I make my way into the catacomb-like area with a bunch of crusher traps and a ton of revenants lying in wait. I really like the texturing on the traps - I immediately knew what's going on (though I was expecting spears to come out of the walls, impossible as that may be). What I didn't realise was that the traps don't reset and pretty soon I find myself locked out of access to the rocket launcher, no more traps to use and a horde of angry skeletons. Time to take a break and then start from scratch. The first part goes much better this time (though it's still not without incident) and I finally figure out (and promptly waste) the berserk secret that's been taunting me previously. I also grab the secret SSG I didn't even notice the first time around and I'm ready for round two against the revenants. This time I have a good strategy, though it takes me way too many attempts to execute it correctly. And I only manage to use the traps to kill a handful of enemies, though having the RL is the big gamechanger. The blue key ambush gives me more trouble, until I find out that half the ambush force doesn't get alerted if I don't cross their line of sight. Very useful. I'll deal with them later. I died in this area more than almost any other place in the wad so far, but it never got frustrating since I knew the whole setup was a kind of a puzzle. When the final piece clicked into place, I dealt with the two doorman mancubi and continued. The blue door held another stumbling block - a bunch of archies, some of them very eager to fight. After a few deaths I decided I should maybe go scrounge for health so I don't die in a single blast, checked in on my reventant friends (still waiting), and then I noticed the solution to both problems - a BFG. A little bit of searching bore fruit and soon I was returning with my prize to take care of business. The viles fell easily and then it was back to the catacombs. You may think I hate revenants, but they are not all bad. For example, I love the sound they make as they're vaporised by the biggest fucking gun in the universe. Another 100/100/100 finish for me. Another long video due to one restart and some skill issues. Successful run starts at 14:31. Edited April 8, 2023 by Klear 7 Quote Share this post Link to post
LadyMistDragon Posted April 8, 2023 Map 08: Moon Funeral by Myolden Breaking from the blatantly speemappish simplicity of his two previous Warpspeed maps, Myolden presents to us this collection of raised mountains floating in a void with the occasional tech outpost and an appropriately haunting AA midi playing in the background Well, maybe "hot start" isn't really accurate since you're teleported twice before being thrown straight into a dangerous situation, but the welcoming committee of Imps and Hell Knights, along with some cute 'ol turret Revenants on the sides and shotgunners and Mancubi bringing up the rear, along with those Cyberdemons you saw in the void for no reason before arriving is a highly intimidating one. And honestly, this is one that I thought was harder the first time around, but on the other hand, there's just enough room to move that RNG shouldn't be too much of a factor beyond the odd Cyberdemon shot. That didn't happen to us this time and I don't even think it happened last time either. We do recall taking slightly longer to find the secret though and considerably longer to find the switch that lets us out of here! Then comes the only place where we suffered our only death: the Imps and Hell Knights in the ravine with the Supercharge don't really seem all that hard to dodge, but then, the nearby switch which lowers the rocket launcher unleashes a Revenant sandwich, which unfortunately is highly dependent on RNG since if there's less infighting which occurs, there's that much less room to move! Stay as far away as we can and moving along the outside seemed to work eventually though. The next arena comes in this sort of gazebo place that locks us in when stepping in the center and for 60 seconds, we must hold off Hell Knights in the interior and and Cacodemons on the outside (the latter being no easy feat) before the barriers lower and we can pick up the red key after blasting some Imps to shreds. After this point, we can then teleport and telefrag around half of the Cyberdemons before being deposited into another area with Imps and Hell Knights on the surrounding ledges and just enough Arachnotrons in a rather small space to make dodging all these fools, and the Cyberdemons more difficult. We don't die, although we do take a nasty rocket from a Cyberdemon (or was that actually the previous arena)? And this is basically why I liked Moon Funeral almost the instant I started playing it because there actually is some room for error, though not a lot. At a certain point, we wonder if we're seriously supposed to rocket all the Imps and Hell Knights so we wander to the far end of this location behind the pyramid, hit a switch and find ourselves confronted by yet another Revenant murder sandwich! It's fine though, there's a BFG on top of the pyramid and it seems like infighting is the main method to thinning these guys out, although there's still enough that zerg-ing should be instant whenever we're in front of a group of a half dozen or more. It certainly wasn't error-free, but we succeed in extingushing them, then moving on to the YK and the next teleporter where we take care of all but two? of the remaining Cyberdemons for some reason. Teleport lines had a very odd sort of funkiness as regarding contact with them here. Maybe we walk off in certain directions? Nevermind that, we're brought back to the arena, where we open the yellow bars and sail off I guess. Because that's what you do with your loved ones remains. You're saying you don't? Well, you're a liar. But no matter that, this is easily the best map so far! Monster composition and a more adventurous layout that might take a cue or two from Sunlust's Maelstrom or something similar push this above literally everything else Grade: A- lmd_pussIX08.zip 8 Quote Share this post Link to post
Celestin Posted April 8, 2023 MAP09: Alien Tartarus by Muumi Spoiler What did the previous inhabitants of this temple need all those crushers for? Some mass sacrifice? Maybe that's where the poisonous blood came from? And how the dinghy from the last map made its way here? So many questions... The first thing the player notices is a group of zombies beneath a crusher, demonstrating the gimmick of Alien Tartarus. The first arena feels like a tutorial, showcasing how they can be activated with shootable switches. While it can be completed without using the crushers, I'd recommend getting used to this mechanic, it will come useful later on. The next room is noteworthy only for a super shotgun secret, which can be found with a bit of ledge walking. The fight for the blue and yellow keys is also clever, the player can choose between crushing idle enemies or luring a horde of revenants into traps to have them pulverised (I chose the latter). The next arena is the most memorable part of the map to me. You are sandwiched between imps and plasma troopers teleporting from both sides of the place, with crushers used to kill the enemies and block the rest from reaching you, giving few seconds to fight the foes that managed to reach the centre of the room. There's one more fight in the first arena (this time with an archvile and friends) and three viles in a corridor and the end that are no threat if you found the secret with the BFG, but I consider those a wind-down after the climax. Alien Tartarus is another map I love. It looks great and the combat is clever. 7 Quote Share this post Link to post
TJG1289 Posted April 8, 2023 GZDoom/UV/Pistol-Start/Saves Map 08: Moon Funeral - Myolden 100% kills and secrets Time: 9:59 Deaths: 4 When I first played this WAD last year, this was the first map in the set that I felt didn't really feel like AA. It really felt like a different sort of beast that happened to use the AA textures, and that was what I liked about it. Myolden crafted an AA map with Ribbiks-style combat puzzles in it. Now while his map 02 of this was also like that, this was the first one where it totally felt like it, mostly since this map also has the visual leanings of those type of maps. Looking at the entire map from the starting point reminds me so much of looking out at environments in those styles of maps. Could be a mini Sunlust map, retexturized with all of AA's glory. This is most evident in the RL/first key fight. Just getting to this fight is tough enough, as several of the 8 cybs you woke up at the beginning are targeting you, so you have to avoid them while dealing with the lot actually down with you. My first death came from trying to take out the revs by the blue switch in this initial go-around and getting smacked by a cyb rocket. You really have to be aware of what those cybs are doing at all times. Now once you get to the RL fight, you can immediately see it's a combat puzzle. The environment has all the trappings of it. RL on column, boxes of rockets nearby, a wall with a megasphere on it just asking to be lowered. So you smack the switch and unleash the first fight in the WAD that is decidedly un-Skillsaw. Imps appear on the ledges above, hell knights swarm from the now blocked entrance, and eventually when that wall with the mega lowers, revs show up to say "hi". All with a cyb turret on you. This was the first fight to give me a lot of trouble in my initial playthrough of the WAD, and to my surprise, I didn't die this time! Got it first try! Took me like 10 tries before, at least. Focus on whittling down the hell knight swarm as fast as possible so you can deal with the revs once the wall lowers. Just avoid the imp's fireballs as best you can for now, then take them out when the bigger threats are mostly gone. Easily the best fight of the WAD, though the other 2 key fights aren't too bad. Once you telefrag 2 cybs to exit this area, you can head to the plasma/red key fight. Once again, you get locked in under this pavilion with hell knights and cacos teleporting in, all while several more cyb turrets are aiming at you. Just run around the area until the walls lower, and book it as even more enemies will teleport in now. Get those cybs to do the dirty work for you. Another key and telefrag sequence later, we're at the final section. This is a BFG-the-revs-fest for the yellow key. It's easily the most slaughterish part of the WAD so far, as there's a ton of revs here, and the ledges around have hell knights + imps, not to mention the 4 remaining cybs going for you. The rest of my deaths came from this, trying to get the cybs to help me, but ultimately I just ran back out to the BFG pyramid once to lure some revs out, then BFGd my way back in toward the yellow key. Once a good chunk were just piles of bones, I could rockets some revs in relative safety, then telefrag the final 4 cybs. It's a tough fight, but the ammo and 2 megaspheres help quite a bit. Overall, this is Myolden's strongest map in the WAD. Pretty tough, but fun. Looks fantastic, and his a great AA MIDI pick. 8 Quote Share this post Link to post
Azure_Horror Posted April 9, 2023 (edited) 9 hours ago, Maribo said: My primary point in contrasting them is that I feel like their potency is a lot higher and that you have to be significantly more mindful of them. Map02's cybers were very non-threatening in all of my handful of playthroughs, 08's were not necessarily the causes of my deaths or errors, but they were a lot more impactful due to their own setups + the much more slaughter-y map design. In my case, it was the opposite. Map 02 cybers were constantly foiling my strats for the corresponding fights, while almost every map 08 cyber-setup required little more than staying on the move constantly. I did replay both maps again, and my earlier observations still held for me. Dunno, what to say... Different strokes strats for different folks, I guess? Edited April 9, 2023 by Azure_Horror 2 Quote Share this post Link to post
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.