The DWmegawad Club plays: PUSS IX: Mapping at Warpspeed

[Veeda Vidlak]

Map12 “Spirit Fracture”

 

Another short outing, Lemonlytical’s lone solo entry is a pair of energetic arenas with some extraneous extracurriculars at the very end.

 

What are you waiting for? Get into that portal! Your animal companions (and Tsoukalos) welcome you to the Spirit Fracture, our far-out rave venue for the evening. The illuminati fever dream scene has a colorful host of low to mid-tiers and with no armor it’s surprisingly easy to die here, lots of glass cannons and blocked pathways. There’s a small side event down the road with the blue key that locks us in for a bit with slow teleport cannon fodder. Take care of business then hit the switch back in the main pool to proceed. Make sure you have 109 kills before continuing, some blue key ambushers like to be fashionably late.

 

Another trippy segue takes us to the main event, a large ziggurat overflowing with enemies. We’ve got arachnos, imps, a cyber, an immense swarm of guardians… you name it. While an intimidating setup, we’ve got all our psychedelic friends cheering us on from above, so we’ve got this. As long as you open up with the BFG immediately to create space there’s actually not much that can touch you. Once able to move the only critical threats are the lone vile in the back and sometimes the mastermind chilling at the top, depends what mood she’s in.

 

The level should have ended here imo but we have a listless denouement to take care of first. Cross the void bridge to reach a brick warehouse structure with a switch that releases your UFO so you can leave. Or just walk around the pillars supposedly blocking it off.

 

Short and sweet, Spirit Fracture was a fun ride, the sluggish finish isn't a big deal. I liked this level and found the mind-expansion visuals appealing. Side note: For a route I’d check out Helm’s post, he listed a good one. Just be aware of key kill count numbers (on UV, 109 after the first arena, 272 after the pyramid) to avoid wasting time looking for wanderers.

 

warpspeed12.zip

Time: 3:40   Kills: 296/296    Secrets: 0/0

 

Map13 “Electron Avenue”

 

We’re back to the hub, now with damaging floor and chaingunners. I notice we’re going to a different building each time, with the corpses from previous forays still there. Something to think about, along with why there’s a secret chainsaw behind all of them.

 

This time in the Death Bear combatpalooza we have what I’d describe as circus act ostentatiousness. The visuals here are very… aggressive compared to what’s come before and the gameplay is messy and grandiose to match. Again, I’m reminded of Cyriak with the way enemies are time-released and how the level gradually opens up. That said, despite everything going on as long as you stay on top of things this turbulent donnybrook will be firmly under your control. There’s plenty of rockets to go around and each emerging group of enemies can be annihilated in their pens, keeping the fight nice and sane.

 

Once we’re done with the opener (and found some secret cells for our BFG), go up the lift to the east and grab the yellow key on the ledge. You need to lower the gate to the north, which is done by hitting the switch by the other yellow key gate. There are a couple strategies to proceed from here but I prefer to kill the cyber on the ground level now, as well as the vile in the little hut to the west. Both those enemies cause problems later and the cyber infighting isn’t worth it (we also want to stock up on the cells in here now).

 

Now we can head back up the lift and drop down to the right. Kill the second cyber (without advancing too far) and cross the bridge to trigger the final fight. Four (deaf) viles in cubbyholes, a ton of imps up here and on the lower floor, lost souls, and a clump of revenants released upon grabbing the blue key. I recommend being very aggressive here and doing the following.

 

1.     Immediately BFG the two viles released in front of you, charge down the walkway to the west, and hold the trigger down to burn through the spawning imps and eliminate the two viles on that end.

2.     Turn to run over the blue key and get the jump on the revenants being released due south. If you’re quick, they’ll be exterminated before they can spread out.

3.     With only imps, lost souls, and stray cacos left the danger is over. Perform the necessary key sequence and leave.

 

Electron Avenue is very flamboyant. It’s bombastic, over the top gameplay and visuals differentiate this map from Death Bear’s previous two (three counting the megawad opener). I prefer map06 but appreciate the stylistic variety we’re getting for these hub levels. I’d much rather see this than the same overall map rehashed 4-5 times.

 

warpspeed13.zip

Time: 6:41    Kills: 281/281   Secrets: 2/2

Edited April 14, 2023 by Veeda Vidlak

[Book Lord]

MAP 14 – Electron Boogaloo by @Death Bear

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

 

Starting the level while floating through the spirit warp tunnel from last map was amazing, just as the freebie Megasphere. The action resumed immediately, allowing to pick up a respectable arsenal in the first courtyard where a multi-stage teleport ambush was about to happen. The chaotic hellspawn ensemble comprised hitscanners, flying monsters of all kinds, and the usual Imp grunts. Attrition damage was guaranteed in such a context, and Zorglo’s exposure to the hazardous purple liquid must be balanced correctly to survive. I liked this mess and I think it was the standout moment of Electron Boogaloo.

Spoiler

The rest was a benevolent, fast-paced slaughter map, offering another early BFG and no actual reason to use it, except against the various Cyberdemons or to speed up the annihilation of the hordes. The path to the BSK was the only Plutonian deviation, with Death Bear successfully surprising me with an Arch-Vile behind my back. The blue-coded lever in the northern courtyard opened various closets and triggered a Cacodemon teleport, which soon degenerated into total chaos that I promptly escaped by running to the westernmost ledge. The three Cyberdemons happily destroyed most of the other monsters, giving me time to collect the ammo and the Megasphere guarded by two Mancubi. I thought the bosses could still be useful, so I ran past them and entered the round courtyard they came from, and the central structure lowered to expose the YSK along with its defenders. The Arch-Viles received a BFG facial treatment, while the teleporting Cacodemons were left to the Cyberdemons.

Spoiler

At that point, I must kill my infighting champions and backtrack to the yellow lever, which opened a structure with the RSK but also released a final tide of Imps, together with a Cyberdemon and two Arch-Viles in the BFG building. Despite the impressive number of critters, I was swimming in ammo and had no trouble sorting things out. Strangely enough, it took me some time to find the red door, a level feature that I failed to notice during the whole playthrough. Electron Boogaloo was an accomplished speedmap with good implementation of voodoo doll effects and Ancient Aliens’ second episode visuals. It played smoother than most of the author’s previous maps, but I found it a bit formulaic and somehow less memorable, with the exception of the opening fight.

[Helm]

World 14: Electron Boogaloo
by Death Bear

I am listening to Exises

We forego the hub this time and just drop straight into an orange nebula sky and pink and grey and green and red and blue and yelow accented techbase. The initial arena has hurtfloor but it was so thick with the its wave of enemies I didn't even notice that the hurtfloor was contributing to chip chip chip me out. Second time around I do a bit better and establish control of the opening space. This is another slaughter-lite offering that gives us an indication how the rest of this dance will go. 

All the guns besides a chain and a BFG will be found during the starting fray. Decked out but bleeding and miserable, Zorgo continues on to the next area. Pinkies start teleporting in, a couple of barons, some tall tech pillars.. a bit of downtime. We spot all thre coloured doors/switches for later. Sidepath gives us the chaingun, and on the switch flip we get an unattended BFG just sitting there. This means trouble is coming in large amounts.

And indeed as we continue searching for progress now we get archviles strolling up to us to see how hot plasma gets... but no horde. There are some revenants on pedestals... it's all suspiciously quiet for the hardware I'm holding in my purple hands tbh. Zorglo doesn't like how this situation smells. 

Blue key is a strange sidejump onto an energy platform, but in any case we yoink. Using it on blue switch makes a lot of cacos teleport in on some raised pedestals but more importantly lets loose Pain Elementals, pinkies and a few cyberdemons. Ah, the horde to match the gun. This is again, slaughter stuff, and you have to use the cybers to some benefit and then herd them in good open space to two shot them. I don't have a lot of two-shot practice (I train in Sunder and there is no early BFG in there so in Sunder terms I haven't earned my BFG stripes at all even, lol. Thankfull Rush is there for some gentler BFG practice). I two shot a couple and I sloppily take care of the last one. 

If you're playing legit this map is substantial, the fights are hard and the cyber and archie challenges will take some work. If you're doing this with saves you might feel 'well, there's a couple of hairy fights but so what'. Doing the whole thing in one segment would probably give the legitimate thrill, especially if one actually wants to be economic with cells. I also did a rewind after catching the cyberdemon rocket as I hadn't saved in a long time, hopefully it'll be excused, for how hard this shit is I only had like 2-3 deaths I think? Not a bad showing.

All this work nets us the orange key. This map is not done! Another cyberdemon behind orange gates and a deluge of imps to SSG and rocket right behind him. I could have let him kill all the imps, actually. I never consider the infighting choice first, but don't worry, eventually Sunder will teach me that as well.

A couple of archviles are controlling the space from a far vantage, so after the imps we rocket and SSG them and the map is kind of done! Red key is just for egress. 

Lovely map, the one before it was stronger but I had lots of fun. I wonder if we're gonna get even harder stuff than 13 by the end of the set... Footage
 
edit: Veeda Vidlak 3:40 on Spirit Fracture? That is sick my dude. 

Edited April 14, 2023 by Helm

[Klear]

Mapworld14: Avenue 2: Electron Boogaloo by Death Bear

QuestZDoom, UV, blind, pistol start, saves

 

Spoiler

 

I almost played this map continuous, given how flows directly from the previous one. I kinda wanted to keep the BFG too, but pistol started it in the end.

 

At this point I'm still using the increased move speed and it makes it very tricky to stay off the hurtfloor in the first arena. I think it's maybe dealt me more damage than the monsters and there's plenty of those all over. If it wasn't for the need to precise footwork, this kind of fight would have been very thrilling in VR. Useful note for my future projects.

 

Still paranoid since last world, I move slowly, but there are not monsters for a bit, just a very early BFG. Scary. But for now it's just managable snipers and a mostly lone vile. I also find a trail of health bonuses in the void reminiscent of a similar one leading to the secret BFG in Ursae Minoris, but it doesn't seem to lead anywhere this time. Have I been bamboozled? And the blue key requires a jump which gives me trouble even though I have a higher than default move speed, so I guess it was good for something at least.

 

The blue switch fight finally gives me a reason touse the BFG and more than a bit of trouble. I need to deal with the reventants ASAP, but they actually spread out on the high ground quite fast making it hard to get them all in less than quite a few BFG blasts. I bet there's a lot more space for infighting, but aside from trusting the cybies at the far end of the first room to keep busy until I make time for them, I opt to just kill everything.

 

Yellow key fight is a bit toothless if you come ready with a BFG, despite the early archie. The cacos could be a lot tougher if the arena wall closed behind you, but I'm not complaining. Mosters teleporting in around the red key are also quickly dealt with, but it's always a treat to rocket a horde of imps.

 

Overall I enjoyed this much more than the previous map, though the pacing felt off. I very much prefered the Ursae duology (which I think is still sitting at the top of my list) than this one. Part of it was certainly the trouble I had with movement and a part of it was that I played a bit more, trying to build up a buffer of videos before the secrets maps come, so I wasn't in the right frame of mind, but I wasn't very thrilled by either of the maps.

 

 

Audio is out of sync a bit again today, sorry about that:

 

 

[Klear]

On 4/13/2023 at 11:23 AM, Helm said:

Also it's funny you say you're too lazy to playback demos, it's really easy to do, try it! I watch Ralgor's stuff nearly every time and a lot of the other demos posted in these threads. The proper saveless exits are the most fun to watch!

 

Ah, different kindof lazy. I do watch demos occasionally, but clicking a video is just easier and after that I'm satisfied. Funnily enough, same way you're interested in seeing the maps from a VR perspective, after playing in VR I want to see how the maps looks from a normal perspective.

 

I think I'll go through most of the demos at the end of the month, when it's time to sum up the whole wad, just to remind myself.

[continuum.mid]

World 14: Electron Boogaloo (Death Bear)

dsda-doom 0.25.6+dfsg-1 (Debian 12), Doom 2, Ultra-Violence, blind, pistol start, saves

End stats: 100% Kills, 81% Items, 0% Secrets, 16:02

 

Couldn't resist playing this right after World 13. It seems like a direct continuation, what with the map being linked by a bear teleporter, the title being that tired old Breakin' 2 meme, and the pace of combat being about the same, with two or three major slaughterfests separated by a few incidental encounters. After dealing with a couple Sargents and a small group of Pinkies, a shootable switch triggers monster teleportation on all sides of the opening room; make sure to pick up all the ammo before shooting the switch, and it's a nice plasma/rocket fest. The blue key can be picked up from one of the perches of the agitating skeletons in a side room opened with a switch, and it opens up a rather excessive fight with three Cyberdemons(!) that will easily deal with all the threats, though you shouldn't get complacent about the two Archviles surrounding the yellow key, which you'll probably have to leave the room to avoid getting zapped by. I opted to plasma all those Cybers to death after the fight, because the next fight adds another one, and the Imps that appear alongside him aren't enough to kill even one Cyberdemon.

 

It seems that this is really a package deal with Electron Avenue, and in combination I think they make for two of the WAD's strongest maps. I'd say this makes a great culmination to the Death Bear saga, were it not for the fact that he also made maps 28 and 30, the opening of 29, and his son made 21. I'm excited for those.

Edited April 14, 2023 by continuum.mid

[continuum.mid]

oh, and I've decided to start keeping a running ranking of the maps, from favorite to least favorite. I've enjoyed all of these so far, by the way; they're all at least good.

 

Spoiler

1. Another Glance at the Paradise - Muumi
2. Holodeck - myolden
3. Electron Boogaloo - Death Bear
4. Electron Avenue - Death Bear
5. Moon Funeral - myolden
6. Spirit Fracture - Lemonlytical
7. Ursae Majoris - Death Bear
8. Oberth Malfunction - notTyrone
9. Ancient Covenant - myolden
10. I Skillsawed the Aliens - Death Bear
11. Trespasser - notTyrone
12. Lagrange Disruption - notTyrone
13. Ursae Minoris - Death Bear
14. Alien Tartarus - Muumi

 

Edited April 14, 2023 by continuum.mid

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 14: Electric Boogaloo

by Death Bear

 

Umm, this midi kicks ass!

 

No, but while one can point out the rainbow-colored architecture being a little bit more grand scale and roughly as open as Wormhole Junction, we may have tuned out a little bit. It's well-rendered visual poetry but the amount of open space contained herein push that aspect down a notch or two. Funny that we only died around the time the yellow key was accessed. Basically lots of large-scale encounters, with the opening being one of the toughest as several sections will plunge down into alien slime and we were advised to avoid them (poorly). There are just enough Guardians to cause frustration.

 

Next major fight basically involves a Revenant murder with some Imps on the other side in wide-open space that's not too difficult with rocket/BFG combo. We end up missing the Megasphere, which might be why we had to rewind later, honestly. At some point, a Cyberdemon trio attacks in the central arena when that structure in the middle lowers. We no two-tap, don't even ask, so we run to the arena with the yellow key which will open, revealing Barons of Hell, Cacodemons and a couple of Arch-viles. The latter's not exactly threatening at almost any point this map. Provoke some infighting, but holding off three cyberdemons is something they needed significant numbers to have any success so um, yeah.

 

Yellow key then opens a room that seems to only contain the red key, but a mass teleport trap consisting of Imps and a Cyberdemon is triggered and two arch-viles are revealed this side of the opening arena. We would've been excused for taking the red key and running at this point. The latter Arch-viles are the only ones that are threatening until they're discovered I suppose. After failing to kill the Cyberdemon in 5 hits, that was that. Ending is really nice I guess. We teleport out of the open rainbow void into....well I guess we'll see. Probably prefer this to Electron Avenue though, mostly because being constricted sucks, probably.

pussIX14.zip

[Ralgor]

MAP14 - "Electron Boogaloo" by Death Bear
dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl9, UV, Pistol start, blind run w/ saves, then single segment w/ demo
100% kills and secrets

Unlike Death Bear's earlier maps, this one starts with us exiting the portal we entered at the end of last map right into the fight, rather than having the little intro the previous three maps had. This map is organized into a linear series of fights, with the first one in the room you start in. The fights are varied, with the first one being the most fun, and the one with three cyberdemons being the most difficult.

The first fight has a dozen portals open up, and each starts spewing monsters at you. The most dangerous ones are the guardians and the pain elementals, but the numerous hitscanners have a tendency to chip away at your health too. I tend to prioritize the pain elementals first, then go for the rest. This fight is very hectic and movement is essential.

The fight after hitting the blue key switch is pretty tough. Three cyberdemons come at you from one side, and trying to fight them in that area is probably suicide. So you have to try to enter the room on the other side of the switch and clear the revenants before the cyberdemons make it that far. It doesn't feel like a timer (like that fight from last map), but it does give a sense of impending doom. Fighting the cyberdemons at any point in this area is going to be difficult since there are three of them. I had fun figuring out how to do this fight consistently, but it still wasn't as much fun as the first fight.

I like the look of this map better than the last one. The main two fights are really fun and energetic, although some of the other areas aren't as good. The final mass of imps is more of a delay than a fight. Still, this map isn't long, so the calmer portions really just served to give the player a break between the two main events.

Grade: A

MAP14 - 10:25.60 (10:25)  K: 305/305  I: 48/48  S: 1/1

ralgor_pussixmaw14.zip

[Celestin]

MAP14: Electron Boogaloo by Death Bear

Spoiler

No icy planet this time, instead the warp tunnel throws the player directly into action. The courtyard with damaging liquid at the edge is quickly filling with monsters, while the player is unarmed. Running around looking for guns and dodging enemy fire is my favourite part of this map. Once this is done, I recommend going straight into the building with a sniping chaingunner. A switch here turns on a lift to the BFG.

 

The way to the blue key is nothing special - just a single archvile and 3 revenants in the distance. The yellow key fight, though, is a different story. Once the blue button is pressed, a ton of monsters gets unleashed, along with 3 cyberdemons. The key itself is guarded by a trap with 2 viles and teleporting monsters. It's a bit tight in here, but a BFG blast can open an escape route. With blue and yellow key, the only thing left is a final fight. Like in MAP11, it's a flood of imps plus a cyberdemon (there are also 2 archviles in the building where the BFG was, but they are harmless). You should be loaded with cells and rockets, so have fun.

 

I enjoyed my time here, it's a welcomed wind down after MAP13. A jazzy tune gives this place a rather chill vibe.

[Azure_Horror]

Map 10   Lagrange Disruption by @notTyrone

- This a short beautiful level in a style of AA episode 1.

- Like previous maps by notTyrone, Lagrange Disruption serves as a breather level. A very welcome map after a series of difficult maps 05-09! The Ancient Aliens Wad itself comeletely lacks breather maps in its episode 1. I almost dropped AA due to that... Mapping at Warpspeed avoids such a pitfall!

- Nevertheless, the final cyberdemon fight is a bit tricky, and fighting Stealth Aliens in the dark corridors is a fun challenge too. The action is easy, but still very engaging.

- Finally, details make this map super memorable. Firstly, the starting UFO is crashed. Very appropriate detail for a spaceship, which was accessible through the world of the dead in map 09! Secondly, the sneaky Illuminanti Scientist is once again watching. And finally, the wormhole shenanigans continue: the ending and the starting locations look exactly the same, but they include completely different UFOs!

In short, this is a wonderful small map, with a perfect position in the WAD progression!

 

Map 11   Another Glance at the Paradise by @muumi

When I first saw the map, I thought to myself - this looks like one of those oldschool Slaughter-ish Maps, like Punisher.wad, Hell Revealed 1, or slaughter levels from Alien Vendetta. And guess what? This level references a particular Hell Revealed map! Big thanks to @Celestin for pointing this out!

 

Essentially, Another Glance at the Paradise feels like a wonderful blend of Ancient Aliens, Hell Revealed, Scythe and Valiant. I never thought that such combination of styles is possible, yet here we are! Muumi is a true Doom artist. I also like the length of the level: the longer runtime feels like a nod to AA Nectar Flow map. Spiderdemons, archviles in the semi-open terrain, and cybers also feel reminiscent of AA map 09.

 

My favorite parts of the level are the central hub area and the cage setpiece. The central hub is very big, and can be described as 'barren', but it absolutely does not feel empty, thanks to clever monster placements and beautiful blend of AA textures. And the cage battle is a very scary Stealth Alien setpiece. Really showcases their power!

 

Map 12   Spirit Fracture by @Lemonlytical

Another brilliant pacing decision! This short level is almost pure action extravaganza. The eclectic visuals really set the stage for the combat on this map. And the swarm of Rocket Defenders is a real sight to both behold and to fight.

 

MAP13  Electron Avenue

MAP14  Electron Boogaloo by @Death Bear

Essentially, those maps are two halves of the one huge super-level. Of those two halves, Avenue is more bombastic, while Bogaloo is a bit more subtle. But both those maps offer many perils, some cyberdemons, many action setups, and an interesting design approach.

 

This design approach blurs the line between Arenas and more liminal parts of the map. This idea is not new: Going Down outright revels in such mapping schemes, and the good old Go 2 It also uses such design a lot. Despite that, such approach to layout is relatively rare in modern mapping. Nice to see it implemented well!

[BluePineapple72]

When do y’all usually leave comments on Map31/32? On the 15th or the end of the month?

[TJG1289]

GZDoom/UV/Pistol-Start/Saves

Map 13: Electron Avenue - Death Bear

100% kills and secrets

Time: 11:25

 

 

We're back to Death Bear's moon hub for this one. This time, the liquid here is purple and it hurts you, and we have 2 chaingunners here to deal with. Once we get back to the large multi-building hub, we get a surprise SSG and deal with a bunch of pinkies coming out of our new open entrance. Grab yet again another secret chainsaw behind the building, then head into the teleporter. After dealing with 3 hell knight by way of a new RL, we start what is the most frantic fight in Death Bear's maps so far. There's a lot to take in immediately here, with a little bit of everything all around shooting at you, but pay close mind to the passage that is filled with hitscan. When you get close to it, a wall lowers with a ton of imps. A little while later, another wall around the corner lowers with revs. A little while after that, ANOTHER wall lowers with an archie and stealth troopers. Just keep your rockets trained on that passage so you're prepared for each wave. Your reward is the BFG, which you can use to kill the archie that guards the way by the lift. Once this initial multi-stage fight dies down, so does the map surprisingly. There's 2 soul spheres in this area (one you have to platform to), and the only other secret in this map has a few bulk cells. Rockets are kinda hard to come by, but once you get the BFG, the map kinda expects you to use that. Behind both yellow barred areas is a cyb, so get some 2-shot practice on them. You can lure the lower one into a spot where you don't have to worry about getting sniped by the elevated one. Now it's just time to get the blue key. The elevated path will spring a pretty easy ambush on you. 4 entrances open with an archie each, while imps teleport onto both your ledge and the main floor below, along with some lost souls to boot. Thankfully, the archies are deaf, so if you stay put and don't run ahead, you'll probably only alert 2 of them, allowing for easy BFG use. Wait until most of the imps are dead before taking out the other 2 archies one at a time. Approaching the blue key will unleash a rev wave on the floor below, and open an alcove with an archie and pinky. Thankfully, you can take out the archie and pinky ahead of time since that alcove has a window you can see into before it opens. By the time this fight is over, the map is pretty much done. There is literally no opposition behind the blue door leading to the red key, so grab that and head back up to the red switch. I didn't need the megasphere at all, so I grabbed it on my way out so I could leave with 200% health and armor! At least I would have, if the floor in front of the red switch was damaging for some reason. Overall, a frantic opening salvo, that turns into a semi-meditative BFG fest at the end. Killer visuals one this one, easily the best of Death Bear's so far. Great use of the more sci-fi aspects of the AA textures.

 

Map 14: Boogaloo - Death Bear

100% kills and secrets

Time: 9:56

Deaths: 2

 

Guess we're not going back to the moon hub for this one, as the spirit warp from last map shoots us immediately into danger. At least we start with a megapshere and chainsaw. But if you don't shoot that switch in front of you, you'll be immediately eaten by pinkies. This map wastes no time. The 3 structures in this arena open up a bit, allowing a bunch of stuff to teleport in. You can find all the guns except the BFG here, so quickly grab them, then focus on things such as the guardians and pain elementals. Like last map, the purple slime hurts, so stay off it the best you can. Once everything has ceased to exist, you can finally get your bearings a bit. In the next area, make sure to hit the switch the chaingunners are guarding, so you can ride a lift to grab the BFG. The path next to that switch will net you the blue key after dealing with an archie and friends. This will also open a wall back to the starting arena, which I'm sure would be bad if anything was left living there. Next up we have the toughest fight in the WAD. Hit the blue switch to lower several walls. The one directly behind the switch has a ton of pinkies and revs, the one opposite this room's entrance has pinkies and a pain elemental, and the one directly behind you as you hit the switch has 3 cybs. Fire your gun, and cacos teleport in. It's very easy to get hit by stray rockets here, hence my 2 deaths. What I did is BFG the pain elemental, then head into the room with the pinkies and revs. It's pretty big so there's lots of room to move around to dodge. There's also a megasphere here guarded by several mancs. Once everything died down, you can head to where the cybs came from to fight a mini-staggered fight for the yellow key. The yellow key fight is pretty easy. It's one cyb and a ton of imps, tho 2 archies appear in the BFG spot. Those archies aren't a threat. Let the cyb mow down imps for you then 2-shot it. The path that led to the lift switch should have opened by now for a secret soul sphere too. Once that's done, all that's left is to grab the red key and leave the level. Overall, I think this may be my least fav Death Bear map so far, but it's not bad. Just seems relatively normal. Visuals are fine, but nowhere near as varied as before. Combat is ok too, but aside from the opening fight and having to deal with 3 cybs at once, it didn't seem to have much teeth. Great jazzy MIDI pick tho! We won't be seeing Death Bear for a while now, as now we have some new mappers coming in for the most part.

[TJG1289]

14 minutes ago, BluePineapple72 said:

When do y’all usually leave comments on Map31/32? On the 15th or the end of the month?

We can start doing that on the 15th. Some people do save the secret maps for the end of the month, but most just post on the 15th.

[Klear]

Worldmap15: The Atropal Jaws by BlooberryPi3

QuestZDoom, UV, blind, pistol start, saves

 

Spoiler

 

Literal hell yeah! Finally a map more suited for VR. A lot of cover, a lot of shotgun fodder... which would be better if I had any shells. Pretty soon I find myself pistoling imps and fisting a caco. Err.. punching. Yeah, let's go with that. But it's not a big problem, neither is the spider overseer in the first room. What is a problem is a mandatory platforming sequence across some... teeth, I guess. I make it across on my fourth try. Waiting for infights to happen slows the early pace for the map somewhat which I find to be a good thing - it suits the decor just fine.

 

A vile ambush claims my first life, though of course it's a revenant that deals the killing blow. As ammo stores rise, so does the threat, but things are still quite managable. Having returned under the nose of the spider mastermind, I find it's fun to play hide-and-seek and deny her a slean shot. What I don't find fun is that I have to do the platforming section again. Having practice from before, I make it is *five* attempts this time.

 

And we have some crusher teeth! Those things look great in VR, though I manage to avoid examining them from the inside. The fight around the yellow key leaves me nearly dead and I get killed by the hurtfloor as I try to grab it. No weapon-bobbing tricks in VR, unfortunately. Not that I can really use them in vanilla Doom anyway. I'm thinking I should start emulating weapon bobbing with my arms when I shoot the next video, though. Could be funny. Anyway, the second attempt goes better by whole 14 HP and that happens to be my life total when I enter the best room in the map.

 

It's... it's Quake. The room is a Quake room. And not just because of the Quake buttons. It just screams Quake. More specifically it reminds me of the Chthon fight, only substantially improved so it doesn't suck now. I love it. And die a lot. But the deaths are fun. The arena has about twice as much room to move than the similar one from Lagrange Disruption, but there are extra enemies who can as easily block you as well as save from a rocket, and two crushers that reduce your capacity to just mindlessly circlestrafe further. These can block your path in just the right moment, or allow the cybie to get the drop on you as they go up, and of course the cyberdemon will never step under them. Most of my deaths here happened because I wasn't in sync with the crushers, most of the rest were me being too cute and trying to cause some infighting. A bit of a breakthrough was when I realised I have to plan my moves ahead based on the position of the crushers rather than just evaluate their position when I come across them.

 

Then the cybie stepped under a crusher and freaking died. What the hell, was that allowed from the start? I guess the strat is "kill cybie by the crusher" then, maybe.

 

A relaxing stroll outside gives me the blue key, blue key lets me telefrag the big spider and turns out she was guarding the exit UFO. But *hold on*. This is map 15. So I spend the next four minutes finding three out of the four secrets I missed. Thankfully the secret exit was one of them. I'm not the best wall-humper out there.

 

 

The vid for worldmap31 is up too, but I'll post the writeup "tomorrow". And I still have to play 32. So much for building up a buffer...

 

 

Edited April 15, 2023 by Klear

[RHhe82]

MAP15: The Atropal Jaws. Played on DSDA v0.25.6, UV, PS. 215/215 K, 4/4 S, 12/12 I. Comp. time 19:51

 

The Atropal Jaws is a real change of scenery! It has the AA episode 3 feel to it, I suppose, but still I feel it's a departure from AA style. No matter, I still quite enjoyed it, despite being constantly low on health until the cyber-arena fight, which was the highlight of the map, also in terms of difficulty. I found the best way was to try and release everything to keep cybieboy busy, and then take care of it with SSG, since shell boxes are a plenty at this point.

 

Funnily enough, I found the secret exit long before the level end, could almost have exited there had I not remembered the SMM was still lurking there. I suspected we could telefrag it, and true; there was still a lot of enemies left at that point. My only gripe with the map was the pathway to the blue key, and particularly the pain elementals. They felt like a chore to take care of. Wish we had a plasma rifle at that point, SSGing them is a work, and in such wide open spaces they'd spit far too many lost souls to my liking.

*

 

MAP31: Lazarus Labs. Played on DSDA v0.25.6, UV, PS. 321/321 K, 2/2 S, 35/35 I. Comp. time 26:09

 

I'm amazed that I'm still getting full stats -- especially since this level immediatly evokes memories of Grey Dwarf, the AA map 31 slot, with its great number of secret, many of them hard to find. That map's the point of origin for this extended-hudless experiment I'm liking thus far.

 

That's beside the point. Once again I'm amazed a map like this could be made in 10 hours. I mean, okay, it's not overly detailed, it's not nearly as big as, say, Grey Dwarf, so I guess looks can be deceiving. Be that as it may, I have hard time to find anything wrong with this one, either. It's not very difficult, although I'm surprised I survived the one arena early on where you first meet mancubi.

 

The ambience is also a bit like Grey Dwarf, although the first one felt like a derelict giant spaceship, this one is more like a science facility (as the name would imply - surprisingly small amount of archviles here considering it, though) where something has gone wrong.

 

A good map nonetheless, I enjoyed it thoroughly. I wish the last arena would have been slightly more spacious to allow more monsters to infight the cyber, which had to be taken care of afterwards, it was almost unhurt at that point despite me trying to incite infights there.

 

*

 

MAP32: Blood Swamps. Played on DSDA v0.25.6, UV, PS. 235/235 K, 2/2 S, 22/22 I. Comp. time 20:02

 

First things first: I have never attempted Mucus Flow, and yet the choice of music fills me with dread. I am immediatly set with an expectation that this gon' be hard as nails. Muumi's previous maps were not easy as such, although not quite hardcore tier either.

 

Luckily Blood Swamps isn't quite such an ordeal, although Zorglo is put through some tight spots here. I chose the blue key path first. That swamp area with funny clouds scrolling around -- ugh! I didn't hate it, but I'm glad this sort of areas which limit the view by midtex obstacle but also by shallow liquid, isn't that common. I'd waste my rockets and hope for the best, and too many times I was hit by a revenant missile appearing from behind a cloud.

 

The red key path proved some interesting designs with player being kept in a small area thru floor becoming hurting for a not-as-brief-as-one'd-hope period of time. This is something you don't see everyday (although Fractured Worlds did take advantage of the hurting/non-hurting floor transitions).

 

Gameplay-wise the highlight for me was the fight that commences once you press the blue and red keys. Good ol' arena match with arachnotron turrets - nothing fancy, but effective and fun.

 

But there are other highlights. First the cloud in distance you witness as you enter the plateau with the blue/red switches the first time. It looks fantastic. Even more fantastic is when you enter the cloud fortress. I wish there'd be MAP33 continuing on from this.

 

Good map; not my favourite, the first stretch of the map is a bit plain (elevated by the ominous soundtrack though), and I suspect the gimmicks grow old upon repeated playthroughs, at least the swamp fight.

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

MAP13: "Electron Avenue" by Death Bear

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 2/2 secrets 

 

Death Bear returns, and brings a familiar introduction with him. This one starts off in the same moon-hub as his previous two maps, only now the water is magenta and hurts you, and we've upgraded to the strongest former human type for a greeting. The bear portal takes us to another colourful techbase, this time more compact in its layout, with some light platforming that you can use to acquire some extra items. We have our first non-AA midi since MAP06 as well, a driving synth-heavy tune from the AV midi project by Mr. Freeze and Cammy. It slaps.

 

Despite the smaller feel of this map's techbase, this one boasts the highest monster count of the DB moon-maps so far, so you know it will be action-packed. And it definitely delivers on that promise. After you're through the bear portal and you take down those opening hell knights, you open up into a room full of monster, with timed doors unleashing more over time. Your start off with a bunch of zombiemen, then shotgunners, then imps, then revenants from the main row of doors. But mixed in with those timers are some zombiemen teleporting onto platforms, cacos coming in from the distance, and finally at the end you get a pair of archviles with some stealth trooper buddies. This is a hell of an exciting fight, very doable once you learn it a bit and the doors feel so perfectly timed to maximize the action and enjoyment. 

 

After this fight, grab your BFG and move on your way to a guardian jumpscare. Got me every time. You'll soon be putting that BFG to good use against two cyberdemons, and then after some switch-hitting and lift-raising, you trigger the big final fight. Four doors with archviles open up (plus another lower down), and the area below starts to flood with an army of imps, with some fliers bringing up the rear. I used the BFG to melt the archies as quick as I could and rocketed the rest. Grabbing the blue key will unleash one last swarm of revenants, which you should easily have enough cells to take down. Clean up any stragglers you might have left (like those arachnotrons), and make your way out through a bear portal. This map doesn't end in any unidentified flying or floating objects, ending partway through the portal.

 

This map rips. Possibly my favourite so far, or at least on par with MAP08.

 

 

[Ralgor]

MAP15 - "The Atropal Jaws" by BlooberryPie
dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl9, UV, Pistol start, blind run w/ saves, then single segment w/ demo
100% kills and secrets

I would say this level takes place in some huge monster, given all of the flesh and blood that makes up this map. But there are also buildings made of brick here, so who knows what it is. Maybe a giant monster has eaten a castle? It definitely looks striking. Luckily this map is a bit of a break from the previous two maps difficulty.

The hardest and most fun part of the map is the room with the cyberdemon. You get to choose how much chaos you want to unleash. One wall will drop down revealing pinkies, and you have to flip the switch to reveal another compartment. You have to do this a few more times to exit. At some point you will want to kill the cyberdemon that gets unleashed when you enter the room, but you can do that whenever. Given the layout of the room I tend to go for him after opening up all of the pinkies so I can get the first green armor. It takes a while to kill the cyberdemon with just the SSG, but at least you have plenty of ammo for it.

The run-up to the blue key has several pain elementals you'll have to deal with, along with imps that will block your way to dealing with them. This area is actually really well designed to make the pain elementals live up to their name without just spamming them. There's plenty of ways for the elementals or their children to catch you off guard. I won't say I really enjoyed this part, but it was effective.

This level really likes closing off sections of the map so you can't backtrack. I'm not sure why. Most of the level remains accessible if you don't mind jumping into the damaging blood to take teleporters, and in fact you have to do this to take the secret exit while getting 100% kills. It would be better to just let the player backtrack. I was actually afraid at one point that getting 100% kills while taking the secret exit would be impossible, and it took me a bit to figure out the trick, but I'm willing to bet many people will be using the noclip cheat here. It's just a frustrating design choice that brought down my opinion of the map quite a bit.

Grade: C

MAP15s - 14:26.43 (14:26)  K: 215/215  I: 12/12  S: 4/4

ralgor_pussixmaw15.zip

[Book Lord]

MAP 15 – The Atropal Jaws by @BlooberryPi3

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

 

MAP15 is typically entrusted to ambitious and experienced editors, so that they could hide the secret exit in a large, complex, and conceptual level. Mapping at Warpspeed took a maverick approach by not telling the authors which slot they were mapping for; consequently, the task fell on the unknown BlooberryPi3. Their only contribution, The Atropal Jaws, was a relatively short trek through narrow rooms and corridors, resembling the entrails of a gigantic creature, occasionally interrupted by odd inserts of artificial, violet brick structures. A Spider Mastermind appeared in the first room and forced me to go left and trigger a closet ambush, nudging me in front of the barrels of dangerous hitscanners.

Spoiler

Combat was always a bit cramped, but it mostly felt balanced. The closet ambush motif continued until I picked up the rocket launcher and then entered a gate, sending me to the western part of the level. From that room, the player could only open the small door and explore more gut-like rooms, eventually returning to the Spiderdemon chamber and triggering new closets, including one with an Arch-Vile that was strangely deaf to the noise in the nearby rooms. The way to the southern tunnels was now open and I travelled across crushers that reminded me of chiselled teeth, squishing hellspawn for my amusement. The YSK was found at the dead end, where I had to come back for the secret Soul Sphere.

Spoiler

The next chamber was probably the standout event, sealing the player inside with a Cyberdemon, Pinkies emerging from a closet and crushers disrupting evasive manoeuvres. The best option was to press the switches hidden in the closets, releasing more monsters for the Cyberdemon to kill before finishing him off. The yellow pad sent me to the west again, this time to find a telegraphed secret with a Berserk Pack and a switch that revealed the secret exit nearby. The ordinary path headed northwards and around the outdoor starting area, presenting frontal mobs of Pinkies, Imps, some Revenants and Pain Elementals around every corner. This part was a bit tedious if played cautiously as it usually happens in blind attempts.

Spoiler

The BK found at the end was used to access a teleporter, telefrag the Spiderdemon and find the normal exit. Doom Slayer symbols appearing in the dimensional travel to the secret maps could only mean some special stuff inspired by recent Doom games. As for The Atropal Jaws, it was an average outing which worked fine as an easy-going exploratory map.

[Helm]

This is a long post so I will spoiler the text.

World 15 - The Atropal Jaws
by BlooberryPi3

Spoiler

I am listening to  Secrecy - Art in Motion

I tested this one out a bit last night so this isn't a blind playthrough, but neither is it a proper saveless run. I got stuck on my blind run in the crusher teeth room and reloaded too much to keep the recording. I still get stuck there for a moment in this run, you will see why, but I make it through in the end. Everything after TEEFS trap (you'll know when you're there) is fresh to me.

But let's talk about this map from the top because it's quite a departure from what we've had so far, and also I really liked it!

Zorg beams down on red planet, this time. This place is very red and purple mansory breaks up the martian ambiance as it were. We get given both shotguns before we enter this fleshy and teething palace to cruelty. Immediately inside around huge white teeth (there's a map in the Delerium beta I wish every doom player would have played that this reminds me of) we are assaulted by imp, hitscan and pinky but behind them all is a turretted spider mastermind. Zorg has to move fast and capture some space and ammo because Zorg has played this before and he knows playing defense in this start is a death sentence. More and more imps and demons follow him as he carves a leftward route towards some chaingunners and some teefy platforming. Eventually we pacify the opening space, get a chaingun (painfully) and then enter the purple structure proper, momentarily leaving fleshland behind.

In the purple structure we take care of some imps and perched chaingunners for ammo and most importantly grab a descending rocket launcher. Exit from this little purple spoke involves flipping a switch, releasing more imps but more importantly cruelly reupping the perched chaingunners. So if you don't know, you will be chipped. I knew and I got chipped.

We make it back into the fleshy sprawl on an elevated plane, back to where the spider mommy is overwatching the inital corridor. Falling back down releases an archvile two revenants and a lot of imps from one of the big white teeth descending. The situation is a bit hairy because I have to SSG the whole group watching for rev ressurections or zaps but it works out. Should have saved some rockets. Back through the fleshy teeth and over the jump we see chaingunners have replentished as well... This map has a bit of a fetish for reupping every area you pass through again. 

All this is well and good (and I actively like it actually) but then in the crushing teeth corridor the pace really slows and not for much result... the teeth are offset by slowly (slowly) crushing living enemies so by the time you're looking at the yellow skull key and you're trying to time two crushers so you can yoink the key and skip fighting a PE and knights in tight quarters around a crusher, you might find yourself SOL because the crushers ended up in opposite oscillations. This is what cost me a few needless deaths, here and generally this is the only part of this map I would sanitize / soften up a little bit. In the end I just hug the PE and get on with it but I really do believe this isn't the best use of this setup.

With the YSK we enter the cyberdemon arena! A total change of theming in this arena makes it quite a distinctive occassion. I like this fight, I like the crushers on the sides, I like that you can trigger reinforcements at your own pace, and I left the cyber alive until much later when I returned to have a little SSG duel with him at the end of the map.  He does poke me with a rocket at one point but what can you do besides play better, you know?

Teleporting out of the cyber arena we're back in the flesh of things. We find a zerk secret and a switch that reveals the secret exit, but we have more work on this map. 

Tracing the perimeter red rock that was around the opening shot of this map (nice touch) we find the mapper has arranged a little craigy hike for us with 4 pain elementals and imps imps imps that you really should have a bit of a plan for tbh. Save some correct ammo, take it easy with triggering too many at once. Easily the most aggravating part of this map but honestly it was due to user error. Raging at PEs is an old hobby for doom players, let's not be cliche. They're not unfairly placed it's just a matter of ammo conservation because if you do not deal with all 4 of them exactly correct and any of them spill out there's really not enough ammo necessarily to get things tidy again. Eventually we are blessed with telefragging the inital spider mommy and we can kill a few arachnos to take the normal exit if we wish. But instead we take blood teleporters in a convoluted fashion to retrace our steps, kill a cyber, and go for the secret exit.

I didn't get all kills or all secrets, but I for sure had great fun playing this map. This is a speedmap? This took 10 hours? I am very impressed with BlooberryPi3 eventhough I'll pass on the blood...berry pie if that's what's suggested there. Disgusting. Good mapper. Disgusting, though.

This map has a completely different feel from what we've played so far. This is a (beefy) adventure map, with big changes to theme as you conquer different parts of the route, very strong theming in the fleshy teethy parts, awesome red rock galactic adventure opening (and interweaving horseshoes) and the egyptian cyber arena! It's very fortunate to get fresh blood at the 15th map on a set because Death Bear and Myolden have been rocking our shit for a while, but they certainly are going for something quite different from The Atropal Jaws, here. What a cool map! Thank you BlooberryPie for sharing your creativity with us for free, it's a very caring thing to do! One of the highlights of the set!

...but since I found the secret exit on my own, I deserve a little map31 treat, don't I?

Before that let's look at the intertext. I haven't caught map7's info so this is the first time I get some canon information about what Zorglo is really up to. 

Let's see, what do we learn? Globnectar is apparently a potential delicacy we're after. Do we get it from demons? Or will we get it at the end? 
Zorg is apparently a bört man, I didn't expect anything else you little freak. but Plermts? That goes beyond the pale for me.  Disliking the bard probably is a Pineapple thing, I think I have gathered as much. I have no opinion, the classics we rage against in my part of the world are Plato's Politeia and such. The last bit we get out of this is that a Cheesewheel map is coming up! I've never played a map or mapset by Cheesewheel I haven't thoroughly enjoyed so that bodes well!

footage for both maps

World 31 - Lazarus Labs 
by Cheesewheel

Spoiler

I am still listening to Secrecy

Completely different look and feel. Sprawling grey techbase with humming colour accents mostly provided by redshawn and slowly hori-scrolling monster vats. Later on the blood starts overflowing.

Foreboding, abstract and structured around a huge round reactor setpiece... Perhaps this lazarus lab is actually cheese-shaped and cheese-based but we do not have to concern ourselves with high (and silly) concepts at the moment as Zorg will have to be quite sober to parse this open ended layout. Actually in reality, because Cheesewheel knows what they're doing, I didn't really get lost or confused anywhere on this map and that is a huge testament to mapping skill as this place *looks* confusing.

I find an SSG, a timely soulsphere secret and take care of all the small encounters up to that point without much worry. Playing two maps in a row on the same day, and since the teef map wasn't a pushover as well, I'm coming into this warm and it makes a difference. The whole run from the sphere to the rocket launcher is uninterrupted run and gun. This map has a little bit more of a skillsaw vibe in sections if not in totality, perhaps in totality it is closer to a btse techbase, but Cheesewheel is their own mapper in the end.

I finally make it to the vat labs themselves (shaped like a set of fallopian tubes - one of the classic unintentional symmetric shapes that show up on doom maps :P ) and have myself a glorious scramble and the only reason I make it through on first go is all the health the mapper graciously left behind. I appreciate it! Really fun chaotic fight in there.

This drops me down another switch/arena symmetrical fight, one which at the end has a pretty slick archie+sarge end point. Finally we have taken care of all the traps and protections in this hidden lab and we have breached through to.... an ancient egyptian sarcophagus. What on earth are the scientists doing with this relic? Is this where I will get some of that good Globnectar?

Demolishing further resistance in a minicheesewheel, we take a teleporter to suddenly red-corridor that leads to a gruesome demon church. We get the obvious soulsphere secret. Was this map also made in 10 hours? Jesus christ. The grey base overflowing with blood theme is sick and finally making it to the reactor centere cheese is a great environmental storytelling reward in itself. There's nothing more pure in doom play than 'I see that in the distance / I want to get closer to it / I got up close to it!'

The chaotic fight that ensues around red cheese reactor is probably the highlight of the combat on this map, a map that rewards a solemn kind of explorative eye as much as it cares about giving you fun encounters to entertain yourself. That's a Cheesewheel thing I have noticed, a kind of solemnity to the techbase crawling part of the doom experience, reminds me often of Marathon, this mapping style.

For the finale we have a cyberdemon / plasma duel and then a reup of mancs and other stuff. Marathon doesn't have those! I should have let loose the mancs on the cyber, but it was fun to take care of everything myself.

I can't believe this represents 10 hours of creativity by the mapper, it's quite intense. I loved it, also a highlight and this makes the middle part of the mapset very strong! I didn't find the map32 exit naturally on my own so I will leave the second secret map for end of month!

footage for both maps

 

Edited April 15, 2023 by Helm

[Book Lord]

MAP 31 – Lazarus Labs by @Cheesewheel

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

 

The first secret map should take the player back to a familiar place, encountered while playing the 2016 edition of Doom. I have never played recent games of the franchise, so I took for granted that Cheesewheel did his best to recreate the layout and main features of Lazarus Labs with all the limitations of the old engine. Considering the size, the detail, and the complexity of the progression, I would be surprised if MAP31 had been designed in 10 hours as the other speedmaps.

 

After a short preamble against hitscanners in narrow rooms with low ceiling and awkward angles, Zorglo could see for the first time the huge glowing core of the laboratory, resembling a big red cake with the YK and demon snipers on the upper floors. My wanderings brought me to a cargo bay to be ambushed by lurking zombies, and it happened again with mid-tiers after pressing the switch near the SSG. I followed the perimeter, collecting the rocket launcher and being constantly flanked by spawning zombies. Down the elevator I found a hall full of monsters which was quite fun to clear. It was meant to represent the dissection lab, but the Mancubi on the large gory table were more alive than ever.

Spoiler

The journey into the depths of Lazarus Labs presented some strictly frontal opposition in the next room with Egyptian panels and brought me to an empty chamber with a glowing column at the centre, representing the containment device of the Helix Stone. The plain depiction of such an important feature belonged to speedmap context more than the previous areas, which I found neatly detailed in comparison. The nearby room should be Olivia Pierce’s office and pressing the switch inside released monsters in the round chamber, which could be faced in the open or funnelled at the office entrance.

Spoiler

It was not obvious that the lava circle acted as a teleporter. When I entered it, I was sent to an unholy chapel and through a series of bland rooms, until I reached the core. I pre-emptively killed all the enemies on the central structure, which was probably a good idea since the bottom was swarmed by reinforcements. Running around in circles was the way to sort the situation, keeping an eye on Demons blocking my path. Manually lowering the giant cake layers like elevators required a suspension of disbelief, and it was the intended way to collect the YK. The RK was also found immediately, and the author was so kind to send me right in front of the corresponding doors.

Spoiler

Even if I did not play the original Lazarus Labs, a duel against a Cyberdemon was expected after seeing the plasma gun. I was uncomfortable in that square chamber, so I pressed the switch to see if someone would join the party. Monsters poured from all directions for an entertaining finale. The two Soul Sphere secrets were relatively easy to find along the way, so I was sure that there was no normal exit. I was wrong, since the super-secret exit was signposted nearby; the crucial switch was not where you would search for it though, and it was not revealed by secret tags. It is embarrassing this was the first Cheesewheel map I have ever played, considering his extensive production. Without counting the 2016 Doom references that I understood after checking Doomwiki, it was a nice submission betting on the atmosphere and keeping the gameplay to mundane levels, which was a good choice for a secret map.

 

MAP 32 – Blood Swamps by @muumi

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

 

Muumi pushed himself even further by attempting the recreation of the namesake level from an expansion of Doom Eternal. I ventured into a dark and gloomy marsh ready to be attacked before putting my hands on something better than a shotgun, not knowing what to expect from the super-secret level. I trusted the author and enjoyed his world building prowess while I explored ruined buildings, hopped on stone pillars, and saw my health constantly dropping because I took more damage than what I could replenish. I unveiled the access to the secret Soul Sphere, only to be caught off-guard and terminated by the Revenants.

Spoiler

Blood Swamps started to look impressive as soon as I reached the other side of the building, where the incredible view of an arena dominated by a floating white island in the sky left me in total awe. I could not guess these were supposed to reproduce the Trial of Maligog and Ingmore’s Sanctum, I had no idea what these places meant in Doom Eternal, but I could do nothing but stare at that colossal sector art in the distance. If muumi wanted to impress everyone, he surely did with this magnificent scenery.

Spoiler

The wonders were not over yet, as the trial required two keys to be unlocked (two halves of a shield in the 2020 videogame). They were found after a series of challenges, encountered following either of the two paths branching out of the arena. I chose the right one first, where a reassuring spirit wolf led me through an empty canyon until I saw a green torch. Approaching it triggered a chain of Boom-powered effects, drastically changing the area around the brazier: a force field marked the safe ground, and outside of it the place became dark, damaging, and teeming with monsters. The heavy presence of hitscanners and Revenants, shooting unseen behind the force field, turned this into a harrowing fight. I died once, I retried, and foreknowledge saved me from further deaths. The second brazier battle followed the same rules, but felt more reasonable thanks to the plasma rifle, the rock that acted as cover, and the absence of hitscanners. A scientist at the end rewarded me with the RSK.

Spoiler

The left path dropped me in a foggy deep-water quagmire, ready to be assailed by hellspawn hiding in the mist. Just as with the first brazier fight, I was killed once because I did not imagine that so many enemies were about to appear, including Revenants and Arch-Viles. Rockets should not be saved because the next encounter was about to be an ultra-cramped affair to sort out with plasma. I gained the BSK and missed the secret Soul Sphere, but I returned there later to check for missing items and monsters.

Spoiler

Everything was ready for the last battle. The coloured switches initiated the sequence, completed by pressing three more switches that released two waves of monsters, and eventually revealed a BFG and the mystic portal to the floating isle. The first wave was manageable, but the second got me because I was not expecting two Cyberdemons and I was in the worst possible place when they arrived. Arachnotrons spawned on the nearby pillars and must be thrown out of their position as soon as possible. Blood Swamps required to know the encounters to have any hopes of survival, but my failures were certainly compensated by the terrific landscape and grim feeling of this otherworldly place. Reaching the celestial Ingmore’s Sanctum, a true Doomguy paradise with the plethora of power-up spheres, felt like a real accomplishment. Despite ignoring the Doom Eternal references, the resulting adventure was a great concept for an amazing MAP32. If this was even done in less than 10 hours, hats off to muumi.

Edited April 15, 2023 by Book Lord

[continuum.mid]

Time for the secret maps!

 

MAP15: The Atropial Jaws (BlooberyPie)

dsda-doom 0.25.6+dfsg-1 (Debian 12), Doom 2, Ultra-Violence, blind, pistol start, saves

99% Kills, 100% Items, 75% Secrets, 18:09

 

With all due respect to BlooberyPie, who was clearly trying their best... I did not have much fun with this map. Ammo and health are placed such that there are times where there's an absolute excess of them, but most of the time I'm trying to ration things and avoid damage because they're weirdly scarce for long sections of the map, and heavies appear at times when there's no way to deal with them, including a Spider Mastermind in the central room that warrants avoiding for most of the map. It's an experience where every health point counts and any mistake can kill the run or force you save-scum harder, and secrets are almost mandatory. (Thankfully, the Berserk and Supercharge weren't too hard to find.) There's an ambush at the end of the crusher room that I think I was supposed to deal with by herding enemies into crushers, but on sight of both a Baron and a Pain Elemental in tight quarters I picked up the yellow key and ran out as fast as I could. The Cyberdemon fight, indisputably the map's climax, is mostly just comprised of avoiding attacks til the Cyberdemon clears out the enemies, then pressing a button to release more until it's possible to exit. The fight could have been made more fun if there were ammo with which to kill the Cyberdemon in one of the monster closets, but all those will give you are green armor and medikits. I basically just had to sneak past him.

 

The progression is pretty straightforward up until the end of the map, where finding the secret exit seems to require re-entering the Cyberdemon room and going back through the teleporter there. Based on other people's reviews, the normal exit involves telefragging the Mastermind, but I never found the line that lets you do that. The one positive thing I can say about this map is that it stands out visually; it manages to seamlessly blend the colorful tech textures of Ancient Aliens with the reds and greys of Doom E3.

 

I don't know why, but this is explicitly a MAP instead of a WORLD as seen on the automap, and so are MAP31 and MAP30. Maybe it's a lore thing, considering that the text screen references Doom Eternal and ascribes to Zorg some oddly human characteristics. Or maybe the author of the DeHackEd patch just forgot.

 

MAP31: Lazarus Labs (Cheesewheel)

dsda-doom 0.25.6+dfsg-1 (Debian 12), Doom 2, Ultra-Violence, blind, pistol start, saves

100% Kills, 97% Items, 100% Secrets, 23:10

 

Now this is a quality map! Lazarus Labs is a very cool looking techbase engulfed in the flames Hell. It starts off with some simple corridor shooting with the pump-action shotgun, and I found it fairly easy for the first ten minutes but felt like it was just waiting for the right moment to bare its teeth - and indeed it did, when a lift revealed a room with two Mancubi in the center, and Revenants and fodder around all sides. I took several deaths here, and a few rooms later a circular arena appeared, where a teleport ambush fills the room with Revenants, Hell Knights, Chaingunners, and Imps. It can get cramped, but it's still an incredibly fun fight. And after it, travel through a stunning red hellway with a demonic church to reach a platform from which you can jump down to the centerpiece of the map - a Hell Knight/Revenant slaughterfest around a circular tower with Imps on one floor, Revs on another, and the yellow key at the top. This leads to the red key, a small skirmish with some Mancubi, and then the final battle with a Cyberdemon followed by the last 40 monsters in the outer ring with the exit. I was a little confused as to where the secret exit was, but eventually I found a switch behind the exit sign disguised as a step, a trick the map had used earlier for a soul sphere secret.

 

You know what? I doubt it'll be a popular pick but is my favorite map in the WAD so far. A unique setting, top-tier combat (dare I say Skillsaw-esque), impressive detailing and scale (that makes me suspect this wasn't really a speedmap), and one of the best MIDIs in the Ultimate MIDI Pack, @NeilJohnRips' "Siege Mentality", propelling it along. Nice work, @Cheesewheel.

 

I'm saving Blood Swamps for later, because I associate Muumi with experimental maps, and I associate the MIDI with elaborate and punishing maps like Miasma, Water Spirit's "The Shrine of Water Spirit Part II," and CC2's "The Mucus Flow". So this seems like it's gonna be a big one. But I have to say the text screens continue to be hilarious. (Where does Mock 2 fit in the Doom timeline?)

 

Map ranking:

Spoiler

1. Lazarus Labs - Cheesewheel
2. Another Glance at the Paradise - Muumi
3. Holodeck - myolden
4. Electron Boogaloo - Death Bear
5. Electron Avenue - Death Bear
6. Moon Funeral - myolden
7. Spirit Fracture - Lemonlytical
8. Ursae Majoris - Death Bear
9. Oberth Malfunction - notTyrone
10. Ancient Covenant - myolden
11. I Skillsawed the Aliens - Death Bear
12. Trespasser - notTyrone
13. Lagrange Disruption - notTyrone
14. Ursae Minoris - Death Bear
15. Alien Tartarus - Muumi
16. The Atropial Jaws - Blooberry Pie

 

Edited April 15, 2023 by continuum.mid

[Celestin]

MAP15: The Atropal Jaws by BlooberryPi3

Spoiler

What I think happened here is someone found a giant creature intertwined with cave network and constructed a series of chambers for a purpose long forgotten. The Atropal Jaws doesn't look as flashy as some previous maps, but I still find its aesthetics appealing.

 

MAP15 combines several gameplay styles into a single level. It starts with a cramped fight against imps, pinkies and hitscanners, with round 2 adding revenants and an archvile after returning with a rocket launcher (there is also a mastermind turret, but she is harmless). The route to the yellow key leads through a crusher hallway, this part is a bit of a break, since you can just activate a trap and back out.

 

The fight past the yellow door is where the map peaks - a chamber with a cyberdemon and several waves of other enemies. I mean, who wouldn't want to have a rocket launcher-wielding cyborg as their bodyguard? Clearing all waves opens up a teleport pad out, leading into a small red room with two fleshy walls. The right one can be lowered, the left one couldn't, so I was somewhat curious if it was hiding something. I found a secret in the very next room with a berserk pack and a button. It opened that one wall, revealing a secret exit. For once, I didn't have to spend ages looking for the way to MAP31.

 

The rest of the regular progression is weak - a brief trip through the rocks to the blue key, interrupted by pain elementals and groups of imps. Being honest, I don't think this adds much to the map. Blue key in hand, the player returns to the locked door they passed a moment earlier, telefrag the mastermind and either leave to MAP16 here, or jump to the teleporter in the damaging lava and make thier way to the secret exit, which warps them through a tunnel of Slayer's symbols from Doom 2016. Interesting.

 

It's not a bad map, though two things annoy me. The aforementioned blue key path and a confusing route you need to take if you want to backtrack to the secret exit.

 

MAP31: Lazarus Labs by Cheesewheel

Spoiler

I had to refresh my memory a bit after this one, because I haven't played Doom 2016 for a while and Lazarus Labs is based on a level from that game (the only thing I remembered was the cyberdemon fight at the end). Cheesewheel managed to recreate most of its setpieces (which is impressive, considering time constrains and liminations of Boom engine), but the combat doesn't resonate with me. I think this has more to do with different gameplay styles of Doom 1993 and Doom 2016, with maps being designed around them. Modern Doom embraces verticality and high mobility, while in the original game, Doomguy couldn't jump.

 

As a result, Lazarus Labs: PUSS IX Edition feels flat, with fights that quickly devolve into running in circles, making stuff infight and unloading your SSG or rocket launcher to get this over with. The "Helix Stone" arena (no actual Helix Stone involved) and the pyramid with the yellow key are the worst examples of this. The fight I enjoyed the most was the examination room, with a mancubus sniper and not enough place to move. The obligatory cyberdemon at the end is a joke in a wide open room, though you can open the doors to invite more enemies to the party. Like in MAP15, the secret exit was easy to find, it's opened by a switch behind the regular one.

 

The visuals are a mixed bag here, most of the map is made of gray corridors. I know this is how it looks in Doom 2016, I just don't think it translates well into simplier geometry and textures of OG Doom. I do like the sacrificial chamber and the room with ancient murals or the exit area, which is a creative way to emulate being warped to hell. Also, Siege Mentality from Ultimate MIDI Pack sounds like straight out of new Doom. Great choice of music, even if this is not my thing.

 

Overall, Lazarus Labs is one of the weaker maps of the set, though, as I've said earlier, I blame this on the source material rather than the mapper.

 

MAP32: Blood Swamps by Muumi

Spoiler

Easily the better out of the two secret maps. According to Doomwiki, this one is inspired by a Doom Eternal level. I haven't played that game, so someone else tell how close to the original it is. To me, this is a strong map, regardless of inspirations.

 

First of all, it looks completely different from the rest of the wad so far. As the name implies, the map is set in marshlands, with some ruins along the way. The Mucus Flow track gives this place an aura of mystery. Gameplay-wise, it's a linear path until reaching a large hole with a platform in the middle and two ways to go, both leading to some rather creative fights. The left path drops the player into a swamp and throws an ambush with two archviles and company. Normally it wouldn't be a threat, but deep water effect and vapour clouds blocking the view makes it more challenging. Beat this and cramped ambush in the pit, an the scientist will reward you with the blue key. The right path, marked by a spirit wolf, revolves around a safe space around a pillar, with darkness, 20% damage floor and teleporting monsters outside. Two rounds of this (the second one being the hardest fight of the map) and the red key is yours.

 

With both keys comes the final fight, a two-stage teleporting ambush capped off by a pair of cyberdemons. Nothing a bit of infighting and a BFG can't handle. With this part done, the player can warp to the top of the white tower that's seen in the distance and exit.

 

My general opinion about remakes, homages and other derived works is that they should be able to stand on their own feet and simply be good, regardless of one's familiarity with the original. That being said, Blood Swamps is a great map whether you've played Doom Eternal or not. Muumi is quickly becoming my favourite mapper of this whole project.

[Klear]

Mapworld31: Lazarus Labs by Cheesewheel

QuestZDoom, UV, blind, pistol start, saves

 

What a world! What a map! You know what? I'm calling it now - this is The Best Map of the set. It's amazing how it does everything right where almost every other creator failed, sometimes on a very basic level. For VR play, I mean. This map right here follows almost every rule of making a good map for VR Doom: there's plenty of corners to take cover, single shotgun plays a huge role for most of the map, there are windows to shoot through, difficulty is just right and the bigger arena fights are easy to navigate with no corners and stuff to get stuck on. What do you mean this wasn't designed for VR? Nah, Cheesewheel knew. It's made just for me and I appreciate it!

 

Spoiler

 

I knew I was in for a treat at first glance. Even the basic pistol feels good when you can lean out of cover to use it. There's a fairly low amount of ammo initially, but not low enough to feel oppressive, and I'm not an my most efficient. The layout is somewhat complex with some backtracking loops but somehow I never really felt lost. I take a small break in a room with blood pouring in from the ceiling to confirm what I always suspected - I'm not a good pole dancer.

 

A neat detail I want to highlight is the first soulsphere secret (5:09 in my vid). Sure, extra 100 health is nice, but more importantly it opens up an alternate route allowing you to take out some threatening enemies from safety rather than being dumped in the middle of them via an elevator. I'd say the secret would have been valuable in itself even without the powerup, which is cool.

 

For the most part the map consists of corridors and such, which is something I really enjoy. There's a sense of exploration and the tacit promise of a cake. The first arena-ish room with two mancubi in the centre looks more punishing than it is and looks great! Multiple height levels connected by a bunch of stairs, lamps, incubators and the occasional bloodfall, and yet again very easy to navigate. Perfect.

 

Another arena fight I sort of unintentionally cheese. Despite hearing teleporters outside after pressing a switch, I linger in the small room because I need to examine the sarcophagus in close detail. And then I find I've missed my chance and the enemies are already pouring it. I was expecting this to be a fatal mistake, but I manage to plug the leak with lead and emerge to find only a bunch of low-levels trapped in the middle. I have a feeling the fight plays out in a much more interesting way if you manage to leave the supply closet in time.

 

Teleport brings me to an ominous temple where surprisingly nothing bad happens and shortly after I finally get to have my cake and shoot rockets at it too. Back in World02 I mentioned shooting rockets behind my back was not the way to go. Well, it works for me this time. I'm aiming more to the side, about 60-120 degrees from where I'm looking (and going), depending on my direction at the time. It's probably because there's more space, so there's less of a chance of splash getting me if I'm careful, and it helps me a lot. Until I run out of ammo, that is. No matty. I raise my fist to the air and at least cheer at the demons as they try to rip each other to pieces.

 

Onto the final fight! Well, first I have to deal with another cybie using plasma, but it's easy with more space to move. Then the real party starts and I realise how selfish of my it was not to invite the cybie. Well, nevermind. I once again end up with 100/100/100 but hold up, I didn't find the secret exit! Well, I only noticed that after reviewing my footage, so I'm just going to warp to map 32, but I'm curious where the proper exit is...

 

 

Video for map32 is up too, but I need to lie down for a bit, so I'll post that writeup in yet another post.

 

 

Edited April 15, 2023 by Klear

[Azure_Horror]

Map 15  Atropal Jaws by @BlooberryPi3

 

Between, some chaotic evil monster placements, narrow corridors, tight ammo budget and the crusher subsection inside the flesh-covered pits, this map gave quite a lot of Going Down vibes. But that's not all. The mountain part and the orange-colored gothic-ish cyberdemon arena remind me of Tangerine Nightmare. And of course, we have some notable Ancient Aliens goodness. (think map 19 mostly, but some parts of map 32 or map 16 are also felt here)

 

I never thought that 3 (three!) such distinct and memorable mapping styles can coexist in one compact speedmap, but what do I know? Mapping at Warpspeed continues to surprise me!

 

The map may have used some more polish, and its approach to gameplay is far from my favorite, but I still had a good time playing that level.

 

Map 31  Lazarus Labs by @Cheesewheel

Welcome to Doom 2016, GentleHumanoids!

Were do I even begin describing this map?

 

1) The gameplay - recreating the feel of Doom 2016 setpieces through purely non-modified classic Doom and Boom tools sounds like an impossible task. Yet @Cheesewheel managed to achieve exactly that, IMO. The "garage" arena, the mancubus Augmentation Lab, the Helix Stone demonic presence breach, and the first stage of the 2016 Baalrgar Cyberdemon fights feel uncannily close to their 2016 counterparts!

 

2) The theme in the context of Warpspeed: Ancient Aliens plot centers around either a Native American smoking pipe, or around an UAC super-conspiracy. Mapping at Warpspeed seems to imply that super-conspiracy does indeed exist. It also adds a lot of "wormhole"-style dimension-shift stuff into the mix.

 

And let me tell you: hopping from Ancient Aliens UAC-demon-illuminanti conspiracy straight into Doom 2016 UAC-demon-Cultist conspiracy feels like a brilliant development! The choice of Lazarus Labs in particular also feels extremely appropriate: Doom 2016 Lazarus Labs is both filled with ancient artifacts, and it is also a heart of UAC cultist conspiracy. Both themes resonate extremely well with Ancient Aliens narrative elements.

 

3) Connection between Atropal Jaws and Lazarus Labs. Atropal Jaws (map 15) is an odd level. Sure, it is full of different stuff, including ancient artifacts, techbase elements and many flesh growths everywhere. But why those elements are all found in the same place? Well, the text screen between map 15 and map 31 implies a surprisingly coherent answer: Atropal Jaws is a place of some derelict Alien-run Laboratory! Something has gone horribly wrong, and now the Demons have taken over the place.

 

Some less savory Alien Overlords do work together with UAC and Illuminati in Ancient Aliens lore. Thus, the parallels between Lazarus Labs and the Atropal Jaws research facilities are obvious. And the sudden jump from one to the other does make sense in the context of all the wormhole shenanigans, which happen in the Warpspeed WAD! It all makes perfect sense now! Literally!

 

4) Lazarus Labs in the modern Doom2 mapmaking.

@Cheesewheel made many Doom projects, including two 32-level megawads and a cacoward-winning Malevolence Episode 1 WAD. Lazarus Labs from Warpspeed feels very much like an Uprising level. Exactly like a short Uprising-themed speed-map in fact! Well, Uprising and Doom 2016 do have a lot of common ground: they both take place after a demon invasion have fully taken over some place, and they both combine power fantasy, grim determination and over-the-top silliness in equal measure.

 

5) In the end: Warpspeed has a very good secret map 31! True, its gameplay may feel a bit alien (heh!) to Ancient Aliens formula. However, the themes of this secret map are brilliant. On the super-meta level, this feels like yet another celebration of all things Doom, including the most modern 2020-ies pWADs and the current official Doom games. And in the context of the Warpspeed WAD itself, the Lazarus Labs resonates very well with "conspiracies everywhere", "the demons have taken over", and "everything is connected" themes.

 

2 hours ago, Celestin said:

fights that quickly devolve into running in circles, making stuff infight and unloading your SSG or rocket launcher to get this over with.

Running (bunny hopping?) in circles and unloading SSG (Full Mastery) and RL (w/ Remote Detonation) is literally how I tend to clear most fights of Doom 2016 Lazarus Labs, including the Helix Stone battle. For me, the fights felt very authentic in the Warpspeed interpretation. (Well, the 'Helix Stone' fight could have used some more flying monsters, but it is still fine as it is now, IMO.)

Edited April 15, 2023 by Azure_Horror

[continuum.mid]

World 32 - Blood Swamps (Muumi)

dsda-doom 0.25.6+dfsg-1 (Debian 12), Doom 2, Ultra-Violence, blind, pistol start, saves

100% Kills, 31% Items, 50% Secrets, 16:04

 

This is another map that starts off easy and bares its teeth later on. The early fights aren't trivial - after jumping down into the first slime pit Cacos and Mancs will appear, which necessitate the Super Shotgun at the far end of the pit - but they're easy enough that my only deaths were dumb mistakes rather than a result of high difficulty. The map starts to get difficult once you reach an area with red and blue switches and a series of boxes protected by forcefields. You can travel down two alternate paths here - the first is an incredibly clever sequence where you follow a spirit wolf to reach a pair of challenging battles, in which a circular forcefield surrounds the only area where the floor won't quickly kill you, and hordes of monsters teleport just outside. Dealing with both of these fights, especially the second, requires good movement to avoid getting pinned, and prioritizing small monsters so as to make more space for yourself. Once the forcefield (and damaging floor) go away, there will be plenty of space to run around. The other path leads to the worst fight of this map, a battle with skeletons, imps, and two Viles in deep water where your line of sight is constantly obscured by cloud textures. It's still fun, just has more of annoyance factor than the other fights. Following that is a much more reasonable fight in a cramped circular room, where Sargents, Imps, Revs, and Hell Knights fill the hall as a pillar full of more heavies descends. With the two keys in hand, it's time for the final battle - a slaughterfest where most of the Doom 2 roster teleports in. Rocket the four Arachnotron snipers, and you can just walk around from there. Eventually, you will probably need to press a switch on one of the boxes to grab a Supercharge and some ammo, which brings back the snipers for you to kill again, alongside two Cyberdemons and some Barons. Let the Siege Cows handle the siege, and open up the final box to grab a BFG and finish them off.

 

The final room is a heavenly area that I suspect was meant to have more to it but was left unfinished due to time constraints. There's an automap that ended up revealing nothing but inaccessible monster closets, and a grand arena with Megaspheres, Soul Spheres, Invisibility, and Invulnerability, but no monsters, and the invuln just raises the exit. Huh.

 

Unfinished bits aside, somehow this map followed up Cheesewheel's entry just about perfectly! Though it's a very different style, both visually and gameplay-wise, it's still rollicking fun with a high body count. It turns out a be an entirely fitting use of The Mucus Flow MIDI, despite being entirely manageable with some practice. Blood Swamps is another favorite of the WAD.

 

Oh yeah, and I didn't realize that the secret maps were de-makes of Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal levels respectively, until someone mentioned it in a review, but it makes sense. I'd say this makes me want to play Doom 2016 and Eternal but... I'd rather not pay for those and go through all the trouble of getting them to work on Linux. However, if some folks used Doom 4 Vanilla to make "Doom 4 for Doom 2" and "Doom Eternal for Doom 2", I would play the shit out of those.

 

Map ranking:

Spoiler

1. Lazarus Labs - Cheesewheel
2. Another Glance at the Paradise - Muumi
3. Holodeck - myolden
4. Blood Swamps - Muumi
5. Electron Boogaloo - Death Bear
6. Electron Avenue - Death Bear
7. Moon Funeral - myolden
8. Spirit Fracture - Lemonlytical
9. Ursae Majoris - Death Bear
10. Oberth Malfunction - notTyrone
11. Ancient Covenant - myolden
12. I Skillsawed the Aliens - Death Bear
13. Trespasser - notTyrone
14. Lagrange Disruption - notTyrone
15. Ursae Minoris - Death Bear
16. Alien Tartarus - Muumi
17. The Atropal Jaws - Blooberry Pie

 

Edited April 15, 2023 by continuum.mid

[RHhe82]

Wow, I have to admit I didn’t make the nu-Doom connection with the secret maps. Doom Eternal I never finished, but I quite liked Doom 2016 and played it quite a lot back in the day, and yet I remained oblivious to the remake aspect here. Not even the map title rang any bells.

[Klear]

Worldmap32: Blood Swamps by Muumi

QuestZDoom, UV, blind, pistol start, saves

 

Spoiler

 

Another beautiful map with a completely different vibe from the rest, this time with a green sky contrasting with mostly brown-and-gray geometry. The levitating flat teleporter texture is the only blemish on a beautiful opening. I tried emulating the Doom weapon bobbing for a bit, but gave up at the sight of the first mancubus. I will need to focus to get through this one for sure. And I don't. A missed chaingunner causes an early reset. A few extra deaths due to the chaingunner/demon ambush. The SSG is not the best weapon to use here. I miss the secret soulsphere because my eyes are glued to the support beams on the ceiling so I don't see the candle at my feet. No matter.

 

I spend some time taking in the sights at the central arena - also trying to be careful of an ambush, but no monsters here. Yet. There's towering gray structure beyond, which I sadly can't see too clearly due to limited draw distance. There is a choice of two routes and I embrace my inner Homer and follow the space coyote. Is he leading me to treasure or a trap? A bit of both, I suppose. An interesting fight ensues reminiscent of the cage match from the previous Muumi map, but this time you're free to leave the arena if you can survive the damaging floor outside - hint: you can't. Plus monsters can now enter the cage without an issue, making it harder to navigate. The initial spawns are quite tame, but once the revenants start showing up, things heat up considerably and I run into issues. The forcefields lining the cage make it difficult to see what's being spawned beyond and I tend to run outside the arena on accident, costing me valuable health and usually my life too. After a few attempts I decide to give up and return when I can get a plasma or a blue armour at least. As it happens I eventually end up with both.

 

As an aside, I was recently toying with a vaguely similar setup, although my beacon was keeping enemies out and providing the player with a much needed shelter in a very ammo-starved part of the map. This one works way better than mine did, though, and I ended up scrapping it altogether, after failing to integrate it into the gameplay in a satisfying manner (and I was afraid players would feel compelled to painstakingly melee the stuck spectres rather than run from shelter to shelter). So kudos for making a similar idea work nicely.

 

The second route gives me some trouble too, but it's not as bad. First of all, I love the deep water effect in VR. It looks great - as long as you don't duck under it. The clouds of steam are a bit more problematic, obscuring your vision while not looking too great up close. I think the encounter would look much better (and be a tad easier) if they could be set to transparent, but then they couldn't move around. Still, I think that would be a good trade-off. A combination of transparent and moving ones could work too. Anyway, I fire blindly into the mists, do a cheeky quicksave as soon as I hear the archie died only to realise thing are getting out of hand with another archie being busy the whole time.

 

I'm rewarded with a plasma rifle and another tough fight, this time in a tight circular room. The heavy-hitters that soon join the fray once the the middle section lowers are surprisingly not the worst problem. That distinction goes to the fodder enemies that teleport in at the radius, bloking my movement at the worst possible times. I beat the room, but it feels like it was more due to luck than skill. And hey! It's the scientist guy! He's offering me a key, but I still want to punch him in the face. He dodges, teleports me away and I have to backtrack to get the key I didn't even pick up. Jerk.

 

With the extra goodies the forcefield cagematch goes much better. I also realise I was quite close to beating it the first time around. The fight gave me the impression it's going to be a bit longer. The encore fight provides some cover which in theory makes it easier, but keeping enemies around for infighting soon leads to the small arena being hopelessly flooded. Killing everything ASAP proves to be a much more prudent option. The scientist gives me a red key this time. And this time I try pistol, but he's got a personal forcefield or something so he doesn't even flinch.

 

Time for the final fight, which I had to reset about half a minute in because my recording-is-starting-to-be-too-long alarm went off. I've spliced the videos at the push of the button. It's a fun little run-and-gun affair, teleporting in basically the same composition of monsters you face in the rest of the map with some extra sniper arachnotrons. The second round adds some extra beef to the mix. Seeing that only the barons and one cybie (didn't realise there were two at that time) are left standing, I opt for an increase in chaos, but pressing the third switch only gives you a refill and a BFG. Works for me! I take the final teleporter and HOLY SHIT!

 

The final area is gorgeous! It looks positively angelic, especially coming from the drab and noxious swamp. I take my time taking in the sights and thus find another scientist offering me a computer map this time, and a teleporter to backtrack. And yes, this is the place where I finally have to acknowledge that these guys are a number of scientists rather than a single guy teleporting around, which was my preferred explanation. I was hoping the map was going to reveal a message or something like that on the automap, but seems like this is just a completionist feature, which I really don't care about much. I do check it out and get one soulsphere at least.

 

I finally make my way to the floating guy, eat up the powerups like candy (Oh my god! I'm invisible! I have no arms, no legs, no body, just a floating gun!) and trigger the invuln. I like being invulnerable in VR, it's trippy. And the effect of the UFO landing above my head is insane! Well, until I realise it's actually the ground going up, but still. The ending is awesome.

 

 

 

Edited April 15, 2023 by Klear

[Ralgor]

MAP31 - "Lazarus Labs" by Cheesewheel
dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl9, UV, Pistol start, blind run w/ saves, then single segment w/ demo
100% kills and secrets

The first secret map is a long, breezy romp through a tech base. Most of the map is just run-and-gun action with a few set-piece fights in it. There's plenty of ammo and health, making this one of the easier maps in the set so far. I nearly managed to complete it with demo blind, but one misstep ended that. Both secrets are easy to find as well.

The level has you starting in the east, and you travel counterclockwise around a central arena, which is visible from a couple hallways. The arena itself has the principal fight, which is a collection of hell knights, revenants, pinkies, and chaingunners. You get plenty of rocket ammo here to kill everything, so the main sounce of difficulty is not getting blocked by monsters or stuck on one of the pillars on the edge.

A little later you have to fight a cyberdemon with a plasma rifle in relatively close quarters, but in practice it's a much easier fight than the map 15 cyberdemon. After you hit the switch here there's another short set-piece fight, but then the level is over.

 

My original demo had me going out the normal exit, instead of the secret exit. It wasn't until the next day I realize I completely forgot to even look for the secret exit, since it's not marked. That was disappointing. I rerecorded the demo, which I didn't mind so much because this level is pretty fun.

I liked this map. It was hard enough to be fun, but not hard enough to really challenge me. After so many of the previous maps being challenges, I was actually pretty happy this one wasn't. I like the look of the tech-base too. My only real complaint is it seems to drag on a little too long for what it is.

Grade: B

MAP31s - 16:48.80 (16:48)  K: 321/321  I: 35/35  S: 2/2

ralgor_pussixmaw31.zip

P.S. I completely missed the fact that this was a homage to Doom 2016. It's been a long time since I played that game, and I did think the strange symbols in the portal to this map looked familiar. Luckily the other posts on this map clued me in!

[Klear]

Worldmap16: Mors Palus Aliens by LateNightPerson

QuestZDoom, UV, blind, pistol start, saves

 

Spoiler

 

I like how the UFO beams us down at the start. Pretty cool. This is another breather episode, despite the ominous vile sounds heard throughout most of the level. It's short, the combat is fairly easy and the visuals are decent, though nothing spectacular. I think I've gotten spoiled by some of the recent maps.

 

I'm happy I make the jump on the lowest level of a ziggurat (fourth already, I think) and grab some early rockets, but there isn't much fighting to be had there yet.

 

There's a neat little fake-out near the rocket launcher - after being given this weapon, you'd think you'd face some tough opposition but no, only a couple of imps. Nevermind! Arch vile and a bunch of revenants bust out right after! Luckily the archie gets distracted by the fresh imp corpses, so the whole thing gets cleaned up easily. And we come to my favourite part of the map - a very steep spiral staircase. I have no idea why but it's just pleasant to climb those in VR. I take two attempts at jumping to the soulsphere on a pillar even though I'm not sure the jump is even possible, but at least I get to climb the stairs again.

 

The ziggurat gets levelled and even though I'm ready for what I know is a final fight, I miss two BFG shots in a row and almost fall to an arch-vile. I make it through without deaths in the end though.

 

This is probably the weakest map yet, though that's more of a testament to the kind of quality the rest of the maps have to offer. It has some weird progression and lacks a memorable fight, but it's still a fun ride.

 

 

Edited April 15, 2023 by Klear