The DWmegawad Club plays: PUSS IX: Mapping at Warpspeed

[Celestin]

MAP24: Cryptozoophobia by Weird Sandwich

Spoiler

Cryptozoophobia starts slow, before gradually transitioning into a full-on slaughter. Each one-third of the circular arena is essentially the same set-up, but with stronger monsters and bigger guns: a hunt for switches, while monsters are teleporting in. Finding a key allows you to telefrag snipers and proceed further. Difficulty-wise, it's a decent escalation of threats, with the final part turning into a true bullet hell, but there is still a lot of room to run around and dodge. 

 

A full set of 3 keys lets you unlock the central part, stuffed with revenants and archviles. Most of the viles died infighting, the rest was killed with plasma. A secret BFG definitely would help here and with a cleanup, but I found it only after killing everything. There is one more fight, unlike the rest of the map, this one can get rather cramped. You are warped into the middle of a bridge, with armies of imps, revenants and cyberdemon reinforcements closing in to your position. If you haven't found a BFG earlier, there is one here, you just need to cut through the enemies. Look out for cyberdemon's rockets or surprise archviles and you can exit.

 

MAP24 is another high point of this wad, and even though I don't enjoy slaughter-style combat, I had a lot of fun with later parts. Also, the midi, "Trapeze" from Ancient Aliens, really fits here. It gives this mysterious vibe that I like.

[continuum.mid]

World 24: Cryptozoophobia (Weird Sandwich)

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

Kills: 101%, Items: 87%, Secrets: 0%, Time: 30:35, Save Count: 20

(Decided to add the number of times I saved to my stats, because I consider it a pretty useful stat, essentially correlated to a map's difficulty to length ratio.)

 

During my single-segment attempt, I felt like this map was going to be an easy series of infight parties that I could simply cheese by running around. I did not know what I was in for. "Cryptozoophobia" resembles the combat style of the easy-mode Hell Revealed that was "Another Glance at the Paradise", but dials it up to make even more of a spectacle. You'll be running from enemies, scrambling for weapons, and keeping fighting to a minimum for most of this map. The first three major crowds of foes are in sections of a ring around a central area that will be reveal later. Simply find the switches scattered around the arena and surrounding cliff to eventually grab a key that opens up the next area. There are respawning turrets of increasing weight class in each - Arachnotrons, then Mancubi, then Cyberdemons. Save them for the very end, as they're not worth the trouble now. Arch-Viles don't appear til you pick up the blue key, so a patient player could get to that point in pacifist mode, but I often found myself needing to take out hitscanners, enemies blocking the stairs to the outer walkway, and the two Pain Elementals guarding the first plasma rifle.

 

Behind the blue key door is a king's ransom of ammo, an extra plasma rifle in case you missed the last one, and a button that opens up the center of the map, which is absolutely full of Arch-Viles and Revenants. The crowd will disperse over time, and you likely won't need to put too much focus into the Viles because they will infight, but I made sure they all died before I advanced. Enter the UFO in the center of the map for Cryptozoophobia's final fight - a small diamond-shaped space platform with UFOs behind walls on two opposite corners, and a BFG and a megasphere guarded by switches in the other two. You'll be sandwiched between two crowds of Imps and Hell nobles, alongside four(!) Cyberdemons. Use the plasma to clear some space to run around; the Cyberdemons will do some work for you but it won't be enough on its own. When you're ready, press the switch with the BFG to teleport in two Arch-Viles. They'll infight the Cyberdemons and probably die that way but they're still likely to zap you or resurrect the crowds you just killed, so don't be afraid to grab the megasphere and fire the BFG in their direction. After a short while the UFOs open; the more extravagant one is the exit, but it felt wrong to leave so many enemies behind. So I beat the four Cybies in the exit area by spamming the BFG, and went back outside. The cleanup was rather tedious, and it involved killing something like fifteen Mancubi and Arachnotrons, and enough Cyberdemons to run me out of both cells and rockets. At the end I still only had 661/666 kills (nice monster count, by the way), but I had done what I set out to do and didn't feel like seeking out the three secrets. Time to exit.

 

Cryptozoophobia beats out Lazarus Labs to become my favorite map of the set. It's bombastic, explosive, and constant fun throughout its 30-minute (unusually long for a speedmap) runtime. It's also probably the truest slaughtermap of the set so far, though it's still quite manageable. Maybe I should play Rush for more of this kind of stuff.

 

That said, if this is easy compared to the remaining six maps, I dread playing those...

Edited April 24, 2023 by continuum.mid

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 24: Cryptozoophobia

by @Weird Sandwich

 

The dude with the weird-ass Beavis avatar has shockingly made a second map for a PUSS collection! The scale of the last few maps has been built on to create this series of large arenas, arguably more open than they need to be at first, but later on becomes ridiculously over-the-top and probably is meant to encourage secret-finding, but we're lazy and were a little distracted. But the only secret we found, the hidden SS, was obvious. Running through lots of places to hit some switches on the side sounds a little more rote than the map actually was. Still, the fact that more teleportation is triggered in the background while closets are opened close to said switches really helps to add to the chaotic scale! Then of course, the void spaces are seemingly devoid of air, although it's not logical to have health sapped from that. Second to last fight throws in something like half a dozen Arch-viles surrounded by a murder of Revenants under a ship, to say nothing of the surrounding chaos! One of these Arch-viles injured us quite badly. Last area is a circular arena, with Imps in front and behind us with Revenants and Cyberdemons bringing up the rear with mancubi on the sides. Our health was quite low, so the best way of surviving proved to be circling around and not picking the sphere or BFG right away. Perhaps we should've exited earlier, however, we whittled down a things a little more before glancing at the open exit and knew we didn't really feel like bothering anymore. At this point, I can't believe that the participants didn't know maps were being taken in the order of submission. This comes close to something like a magnum opus with its immense size and compartively lengthy combat.

 

 

 

 

[Celestin]

MAP25: Grab the Bull by the Horns by BluePineapple72

Spoiler

MAP25 follows a similiar structure to BluePineapple's previous map: a non-linear level with 3 zodiac fights that raise the way to the exit. I like this far less than the last one, though. The reason is simple: barons. Lots of barons. I get the title imples fighting a lot of horned monsters, but come on.

First thing to do is to clear the long hallway, which acts as a hub here. It's tedious with only the SSG, chaingun and a secret rocket launcher (which can be found in the pond behind the start). From here onward, you can tackle the fights in any order you want. As with MAP22, here's how I did it.

I started with Capricorn and I think this was a mistake. You are locked in a cramped cave network with a horde of barons, a cyberdemon guarding a blue key you need to exit (he's useless as an infighter), and are given a rocket launcher to deal with this. I wouldn't have problems if the barons were replaced with hell knights, but as it stands, this fight was grindy and unpleasant. I know BluePineapple can do much better. Taurus starts with a small courtyard featuring revenants, pinkies and a pain elemental, before the main attraction. Picking up a BFG locks you in a depression with a perched cyber in front of you and two flanking gangs of hell nobles. You can blast the cyberdemon right away (which is what I did), but in the hindsight, this might not have been an optimal strategy. You can escape the hole after few seconds and if you press a pair of switches behind nobles' backs, you can return to the courtyard and telefrag the cyber. The last fight is Virgo, a narrow lightbridge with teleporting pinkies and barons, plus arachnotrons and a cyberdemon on pillars. It wasn't that bad with the BFG, just make laps around the bridge, shoot BFG balls at anything that blocks your path and when the steps appear, return to the hub and telefrag the rest.

I'm not a fan of gameplay here, but the temple aesthetic and "Depth Charge" as soundtrack reminds me a lot of early BTSX E2 maps. Makes me wonder how its textures would be utilised in a speedmap.

As for my votes for May

+++ Literalism, Liminal Doom
+++ The Box of a Thousand Demons

+++ TPH 12.3: Part 1A - The Prequel to Part B Galaxy's Brink!! The Super Incredible Bulgarian Necromancer of the East!! Fight for the Combined Justice of the Planet Sphere - Earth!! (aka Tarnsman's Projectile Hell)

[Klear]

Worldmap25: Grab the Bull by the Horns by BluePineapple72

QuestZDoom, UV, blind, pistol start, saves

 

Spoiler

 

Well, the name doesn't lie - most of the time here is spent wrangling cows. The start is much more forgiving than last time, but I soon find myself awkwardly sharing a long corridor with a bunch of barons. From there there is a number of choices to go.

 

The fight on the rainbow bridges kicks my ass. A couple of barons spawn right in my face, arachnotrons are spraying me with plasma from the sides and there's a cyberdemon somewhere too. Somehow he's the least of my worries. It doesn't really look that bad in the video, but shooting plasma in close range in VR obscures my vision to the point I barely see anything. I get out of there through sheer luck, I think.

 

Back in the hallway I take the bad teleporter and get my ass kicked by some revenants and a pain elemental. That area will have to wait. The good teleporter lets me telefrag the stragglers from the previous fight, stock up on some goodies and die to a cybie rocket. Worth it.

 

I finally clean the hallway to get some time to think and try jumping in the water (which sounded like a risky proposition initially). I'm rewarded not just with a rocket launcher but also a shot at a vile that would cause me grief later.

 

Text fight I really like, even though I suck at it. There's a whole platoon of barons and a cybie who is less caged than I initially thought. It's all about maneuvering the herd to always have an exit path and I don't quite do it consistently enough, but I pull through. I can't find a way to telefrag the cybie though, and am forced to slowly shotgun him down.

 

Time to get revenge on the revenants I've been scared of this whole time. The fight is easy and clean and I only get hit once, so basically exactly the same thing that happened in the last pineapple map.

 

The last fight gives me a BFG and releases a cyberdemon. I know what to do, right? Wrong! The BFG is needed to carve the way out past either of the hordes of hell nobles that are coming from the sides. The cyberdemon rockets can be danced around (or you can hide in front of the cybie and only take minimum splash). It takes me quite a few tries to successfully pull off - the nobles are more viscious than they look - but the real challenge is still ahead of me. Yeah. The platforms are back. I was already considering increasing my movement speed when I decided to try straferunning and I guess it does work in the VR port after all! It feels weird in VR, but it lets me exit.

 

And I find another alien soldier like me standing on a weird squid thing. I'm not sure if this an easer egg or a part of some trickery I didn't see but I give him a friendly salute with my fist and exit the level.

 

If I were to compare this to Passions... well, I have no idea what to tell you. The levels are very similar, both with great visuals and some tricky fights. I think whatever I wrote there applies here too.

 

 

 

 

Also - my video/writeup for world 26 is definitely going to be late, as I ran into a rather nasty combination of technical and skill issues. Gonna have to play that one on PCVR, and I'm not sure how long it's going to take me to set it up.

 

Luckily it turns out it was just technical issues - the next map was simply impossible in VR with FPS around 20 throughout the map, which is why I got my ass kicked so hard. In the end I managed to get nice and stable framerate by lowering the draw distance. I should have been doing that in other maps before.

Edited April 25, 2023 by Klear

[TJG1289]

GZDoom/UV/Pistol-Start/Saves

Map 24: Cryptozoophobia - Weird Sandwich

100% kills and secrets

Time: 27:41

Deaths: 6

 

The weirdest of sandwiches has provided us with a giant arena-based map for their 2nd submission. This map is basically 5 giant fights. The first 2 aren't bad at all. The arenas have so much room to move, that you can easily dodge projectiles. You can find some weapons in each of these arenas, so just run around until you can find one (or tear one from the cold dead hands of a hitscanner). There's not a ton of opposition in the first 2 arenas. Just grab the keys, and use the turret monsters on the enemies that teleport in while using the weapons you find when needed. The take the spirit warps to take out the turrets. Look for the corresponding color walls toward the centers of these arenas. The red key teleport is behind a cylindrical wall in the center of that arena, which I think can be easily missable. You can find a secret SSG in the first area, and a secret rocket launcher in the 2nd. These are both well-hidden, so keep an eye out for something that looks interactable/shootable. The 3rd arena is where the action kicks up quite a bit. You can find a few non-secret RLs, and a plasma rifle here, though I think the plasma might take a bit to find. The turret monsters here are cybs, and there's a ton more enemies here as opposed to the other 2 arenas, especially as you hit the switches to unlock the blue key room. This blue key room is a spot of reprieve, as you can't really get hit by the monsters outside, so you can deal with the ones here solely. The 2 archies that appear when grabbing the key is the only traditional ambush in the map, and my first death. You can find the 3rd and final secret nearby, and I don't know what it did. There was a switch, and I don't know the purpose of it. I'm also not sure if there was an item in front of it as I was busy fighting stuff at the same time. "shrugs*. Once you feel comfortable spirit warping the cybs and cleaning up the rest of the monsters, you can start the 4th fight. Hit the switch behind the blue wall to open up the map entirely and lower the center of the map filled with revs and archies. This fight is where most of my deaths came from, since you want to focus on the archies, but there's no BFG here, so you need to rely on the RL or plasma. You need to get close to them to be able to hit them in the crowd, but that means you could possibly be in the open with no cover, causing you to get zapped. The megasphere you spotted earlier is now available if you need it (you will), so that's one positive. It took me a while, but I eventually managed to lure the archies away from the crowd so I could rocket them, then plasma'd the rest. Stepping into the teleporter in the center will take you to the final fight. This is a small, long arena with imps, revs, and cybs on each end, cacos flying in, and a few mancs guarding a megasphere and the BFG. Hightail it to the BFG and go to town. It's still easy to take a rocket to the face, so always be on alert. Definitely died a few times here. Overall, not a bid map. I wouldn't say it's a magnum opus map. While it's a big map, it's really just arena fights. If there were more paths and areas to explore like a BTSX map, then yeah I would consider it. The arena fights aren't too bad, and they do escalate in difficulty as the map progresses. Map looks pretty good with detailing in the actual arena areas. Great MIDI pick as well!

[Book Lord]

MAP 25 – Grab the Bull by the Horns by @BluePineapple72

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

 

The second map by BluePineapple72 was supposedly meant to do a much more effective “cyberbullying” than Ancient Aliens’ MAP21. Featuring a muscular cast of Cyberdemons and Hell Nobles, the encounters were designed to pin down the player and overwhelm them with brute force in a matter of seconds, unless they acted swiftly and resolutely. In other words, the project leader really wanted me to Grab the Bull by the Horns. Which one to grab when there are so many of them?

 

Before describing the gameplay, some words must be spent for the adorable overgrown tech-base hosting these cramped fights. Laying under an animated green skybox and swallowed by a lush alien rainforest, the location was as appealing as it was deadly. Weapons were given right off the bat, including a secret rocket launcher if you dare to dive in the harmless cyan lake. The map did not wait long before unleashing Barons of Hell at my heels, filling the central hallway with more meat than I was expecting a few seconds into the map. Like on MAP22, the nearby challenges could be tackled in any order, and each one contained a platform with a zodiac symbol matching our current flying object: Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn.

Spoiler

I chose the southern outdoor area with neon platforms and the Virgo sign as the first encounter. When I picked up the plasma gun, I was surrounded by Arachnotrons on four towers, Demons, and Barons of Hell. A Cyberdemon appeared in the middle tower for good measure. Controlling the closest opponents and the plasma turrets at the same time was tricky, but eliminating the closest ones was enough to survive. If I had known that the escape path was only temporarily blocked, and that a yellow pad was ready for telefragging the survivors, I would have skipped a difficult and tiresome fight with the Cyberdemon.

Spoiler

The Taurus trial to the north-east began with another cramped encounter where I spent some cells to kill the Pain Elemental and the skeletons. The L-shaped corridor ended on the zodiac platform with the BFG and some ammo; I was sure that Hell Nobles were about to come from the sides and that another trap was possible, but I was not ready to play cat and mouse with a Cyberdemon. I unloaded the BFG on him and was then killed by the other monsters, then I tried without success to dodge his rockets while shooting the Hell Nobles. I succeeded only when I eliminated the boss and saved a BFG shot to carve a path in the Baron ranks, conquering the end of a tunnel and then just turning around to pump rockets into juicy red meat.

Spoiler

The last fight was probably the hardest in store. There was a lurking deaf Arch-Vile that I advise to kill before touching the Capricorn pad, just to avoid an additional thorn in the side. The encounter consisted in killing 27 Barons of Hell with rockets and not much else in a narrow and intricate environment, partially off limits due to a trapped Cyberdemon that was still able to shoot from multiple angles. I like encounters where you are supposed to vanquish big groups of bulky opponents by shooting fast to create moving space, but as in the other two the Cyberdemon added a layer of difficulty and randomness that I could not handle with confidence. Grab the Bull by the Horns, says BluePineapple72, but he keeps pointing that rocket launcher down below! A hard and compact map with beautiful decorations and colour choices, it was a bit too hard for my skill, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I was also motivated to search and find all the secrets on my own.

[Ralgor]

MAP25 - "Grab the Bull by the Horns" by BluePineapple72
dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl9, UV, Pistol start, blind run w/ saves, then single segment w/ demo
100% kills and secrets

This map is similar to BluePineapple72's last map. There are three challenges, and each one is associated with a sign of the zodiac. This one is a bit meaner than the last one, although the opening is a bit easier. There are a ton of baron's in this map that take a while to take down, even with the rocket launcher.

The first challenge traps you in a little circular depression while a cyberdemon shoots rockets down at you. A single misstep means you eat a rocket. Generally, you should have enough health to eat one rocket, but two will kill you. Then you have to make it through a crowd of hell knights and barons, but that part is pretty easy. There will be a teleporter to telefrag the cyberdemon, so you don't need to worry about that at least. At least you have the BFG after this.

 

Spoiler

Like shooting fish in a barrel. And we're the fish...

The second challenge is in a cave and initially is filled with pinkies and shotgunners. There's also an arch-vile you absolutely want to kill first as well. If you don't you're going to die, and then you get to try again. Once you clear them out, you can grab the rocket launcher to start the fight, but you probably wanted to grab the secret rocket launcher at the beginning. Anyway, the mass of barons should kill the cyberdemon for you, but dodging the wall of meat while trying to thin them out can be difficult. They can easily trap you, and the passageways are narrow enough that a single baron can deny you the ability to move to the other side of the cavern.

 

Spoiler

Should this be marked NSFW?

The third one takes place outdoors on a pathway made of light. Once you trigger the fight, four arachnotrons and a cyberdemon take up sniping positions while two barons and a bunch of pinkies teleport down to you. There's very little room to dodge here. This is one of the most malicious traps I've seen in the wad so far, and I'm not sure it's possible to consistently succeed here. If the two barons or pinkies don't corner you, you still have to dodge the plasma and rockets. Luckily there's a secret megasphere in the previous cave that will make this fight easier, but it will still kill you sometimes.

 

Spoiler

Hello, darkness, my old friend...

I don't know what to think about this level. It's a bit grindy. It looks nice, and I did manage to get the demo on my first attempt (but my second playthrough, after the one with saves). I came close to dying in nearly every challenge, and it was only luck that kept me alive. It took me many tries during my first playthrough to succeed at these. I hope this wad doesn't get any harder than this, because I didn't actually enjoy this map. These maps are going beyond my skill level.

MAP25 - 11:12.54 (11:12)  K: 122/122  I: 90/90  S: 3/3

ralgor_pussixmaw25.zip

[LadyMistDragon]

Seems like I won't be here in the morning. Soooo....

 

+++Solar Struggle

+++ Th1rt3en (another PUSS set, almost all the maps are quite short

 

I'll save my third vote for later.

[RHhe82]

MAP25: Grab the Bull by the Horns. Played on DSDA v0.25.6, UV, PS. 122/122 K, 2/3 S, 89/90 I. Comp. time 21:07

 

Visually we enter another place, entirely; a jungly techbase with a hint of early Fractured Worlds. Love it. Gameplay-wise I feel this veers back into delightful Sunlust-territory: enemy counts are not that big, but we are put to solve combat puzzle situations, many of them involving a cyberdemon and hordes closing in on you. The blue key area I had surprisingly lot of trouble, and particularly with the barons. Cyberdemon not so much, as the Barrys stunlocked it.

The fight with the cybie in the corner and barons/knights closing from two directions I miraculously did on my first try, got lucky with dodging cyber rockets. I wasted my BFG ammo there, but should have guessed you could telefrag the bastard. Fortunately for me, ammo scarcity is not an issue.

 

Great stuff.

 

(The next day, after finding the MAP24 secret, I went to look for the final secret (the shootable switch) here as well. This one I should have seen naturally).
 

* * *

 

I have abstained from voting for the past several months, which is because I keep the option of not playing in the club open. If I voted, I'd be more obliged... but I guess that's just me being silly. So let's cast votes.

 

+++Solar Struggle (probably wouldn't participate myself, but I'd love to see this one played).

+++Tarnsman's Projectile Hell

+++Doom 2 in Spain Only

Edited April 25, 2023 by RHhe82
Swapped 3HA3 for D2ISO

[Roofi]

+++ Abscission

+++ Doom 2 in spain only

+++ Remain1+TNT:Renascence +ICAR2015

Edited April 25, 2023 by Roofi

[Catpho]

2 hours ago, RHhe82 said:

 

+++3 Heures d'Agonie 3

 

Sorry RHhe :P

[RHhe82]

26 minutes ago, Catpho said:

 

Sorry RHhe :P

Darn, I was sure we contemplated between 3HA2 and 3HA3 last year and just opted for the former and reserved trois for later D: I’ll adjust my later or just leave it be, an empty vote :(

[Book Lord]

Let's support

 

+++ Solar Struggle

 

again.

[SiFi270]

+++ Remain1+TNT:Renascence +ICAR2015

[continuum.mid]

World 25 - Grab the Bull by the Horns (BluePineapple72)

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

Kills: 82%, Items: 95%, Secrets: 0%, Time: 11:53, Save Count: 14

 

A worthy sequel to Passions Like Fire, this is another map full of weapons atop zodiac symbols triggering well-designed, but super painful ambushes. This time nothing is optional, as each fight has a smaller skirmish preceding it. The opening halls are full of Hell Knights and Barons that I did not have the ammo for, and thus saved for last. I avoided the plasma fight after a few failed attempts at it, so I went straight for a teleporter, from which I would be sandwiched between Pinkies while fighting off a Pain Elemental and a pair of Revenants. Enter the doors and you'll be locked in to the next room. playing so many maps, I cannot relate to the text "You found the BFG9000! Oh yes!" when it appears a non-secret area. It gets more of an "oh no" reaction out of me, and the teleport ambush it triggered vindicated that. I made the terrible mistake of trying to kill the perched Cyberdemon with the BFG. I couldn't have known I'd get to telefrag him later, so I save-scummed until I could kill him with all my BFG ammo, then rocketed through another Baron/Knight sandwich to barely make to the two switches opening the doors back up. What I should have done is attempted to survive his fire and BFG through that wall of meat much more quickly, then telefrag him later. Oh yeah, and I may have found a softlock in that room; there's just barely enough room to jump behind the Cyb's platform.

 

Going back to the plasma fight, I found that having the BFG and a little more health helped, but only a little bit. It's a cramped area that fills with Pinkies and Barons while several snipers including another Cyberdemon shoot from the sidelines. Just try not to get pinned until the walkway raises up so you can run the heck away. At least I got to telefrag the snipers. The final room contains a small horde of Pinkies and Shotgunners. Observant players will have been able to snipe some of them from the spawn area, and I did, but not nearly enough. Be careful where you move in this fight, as there's an Arch-Vile hiding behind some rocks. Despite making that mistake I managed to only get zapped once, but it would've been easier if I could have dealt with him one on one. Picking up a rocket launcher reveals a Hell Revealed of Barons. Half of them died to the Cyberdemon but I had to manually rocket and BFG the remaining half, and it took a few attempts (and mid-fight saves) to avoid getting pinned and get to a point where I could run around the arena without taking excessive damage.

 

Once I had the blue key I didn't feel like dragging this map out to get more kills. I just wanted to get it over with, so I ran across the exit platforms. The two medikits at the exit seem to be a gift to continuous players in line with what Skillsaw usually does in his maps, but given that this set is designed for pistol start it's probably either a leftover from when these zodiac maps were a miniWAD, or just pure Skillsaw tribute. I kinda hate this map, but that might just be because I wasn't seeking out a challenge, and wasn't in the proper mood to appreciate the difficulty. At least it doesn't overstay its welcome.

 

---

 

As for my May votes, here are three recentish megaWADs I would love a chance to play and/or finish:

 

+++ Nostalgia

+++ Solar Struggle

+++ Doom 2 In Spain Only

 

The first two of these I've already started on, so I won't be blind for the whole month, but I want an excuse to finish them. They seem nice and easy. I got the furthest into D2ISO but MAP32 absolutely CRUSHED me, so I will not be seeking out its secret levels again.

[Helm]

World 25 - Grab the Bull by the Horns
by BluePineapple72

I am listening to Soft Machine - Third

Zorg beams down around human zodiac carvings again.  Squiggly sentient purple hairs stand up on the back of his neck and cry together in a matted embrace for they know they are soon to be singed. We are placed near the exit platforms, there's three of them we have to raise with the corresponding signs of the zodiac before we can escape. As above & before so below, but also, inside we go

The overgrown space base has a big goat problem. It's a difficult to contain one and it spills out with extra tomato juice everywhere. What a mess. Just by the pace established by the first grind we must remark that a single segment attempt will begin *with the goats and cacos every time*. There is no right and wrong way to have a preference but I certainly do not have a 'at map start: SSG a dozen barons and cacodemons every time' listed in my fetlife profile.

After that we elect to go for the blue key trap. We get a rocket launcher and walls raise to let flow many, many barons while a cyber is constrained to guard the blue skull key in a little cub in the corner of the arena. Perhaps not the best idea to come here first, as I spend a considerable amount of time, like 25 minutes eating shit in there. Like big, big gobs of shit, again and again. Sometimes I make it out of the barons but I don't like my health or how things went and I try again, other times I make it to the cyber that - couldn't find a way to telefrag or anything, but he's not stationary enough for a telefrag - needs to be slowly grinded away with peek-a-boo SSGing.

The fight is fine I'm not complaining, it's a genuine skill issue but actually I worked through with many attempts. My solve involved finding circuits to evade the barons and slowly rocket them down. If you want to get technical, it's keeping track of the two bottlenecks I need to escape through and the 'liquid dynamics' of barons in small spaces. Slow work and it needs some consistency I don't have. Had I gone the other way that eventually gives a BFG perhaps it would be best to hit that before anything else. 

Anyway, 25 minutes of understanding how to Doom, I escape with the blue skull key. I don't mind or regret the grind, we are in the final stretch of the mapset and I expect things could get too hard for me even with saves on UV. 

After all that we go one of the other available ways via teleporter and we have a fun little open air encounter with a few revenants, pinkies and a pain elemental, just a breather compared to the goat hell I have been experiencing thus far. I still manage to just about kill myself in there anyway, clearly tilted by the 25 minutes of goat love.

Now for the BFG fight! I should have stumbled on to this one first but my ascendant virgo guardian angel did not bless me with good chakral alignment, what can I say, I usually pick the wrong door. This one's a fairly simple concept, you go for the BFG, two lines of goat open up and march toward you as the floor falls around the pedestal that holds the BFG, trapping Zorg in place. Oh, yeah, final thing, a cyber teleports right in front and above you, lording like Zoroaster over our small inchoate soul. So easy to explode little Zorg soul with rockets, look at little soul bits splatter over the goats! Oh well, we push our purple flesh around the silver bathwater until the timer goes and we can climb up and carve through. And by the royal we I mean, I, you and about 10 little quantum Zorgs that I killed until I got through the trap. This is a slaughter map for me, and it is I that gets the slaughtering.

After that we return to the floating energy platforms for the final fight in which we are trapped in with another cyber-auspice, but also flanked by 4 deviously placed arachnotrons and a line of teleporting pinkies... oh and 2 red goats of course because we are on theme. I throw away many more Zorgs here, but I do like the setup. I like all the setups, actually. This is like Sunlust or something like that, the amount of enemies is ok but the setups are all challenge wad concepts so this echelon of difficulty has jumped up significantly from everything else. With saves, whatever. But without that crutch one will have to practice every fight and have a solid preconceived plan to execute. Stringing these little plans together in a single segment would show what the actual pain points are on this map. 

There's something about these Pinapple maps. They're obviously expertly made and there is a dreadful sense that something extra is going on around in them, but at the same time they're kind of funny, like there's a sense of oblique humor to the excursion. But they're also balls hard. Pineapple is fucking around with us but he's not fucking around. I loved my experience, but with all the saving it was very surface. Something to return to in a few years with more skill. footage (and vimeo)
 

Edited April 25, 2023 by Helm

[TJG1289]

GZDoom/UV/Pistol-Start/Saves

Map 25: Grab the Bull By The Horns - BluePineapple72

100% kills and secrets

Time: 14:50

Deaths: 4

 

I was kinda dreading replaying this one since I remembered it kicking my butt six ways from Sunday. And I had played this continuous before! Even when bringing in weapons and ammo from other maps, this map is still a tough one. Mostly cause of the barons. As soon as you fire, barons teleport in from your starting position. Guess they were hidden stowaways on that UFO. And since these guys teleport in as you're dealing with the initial baddies, which include hell knights they can't infight, you're going to be at a serious ammo disadvantage. You can get some help by jumping into the ravine behind the start to find a secret RL, but you still won't have the ammo. Like the titular Pineapple's last map, we have 3 main trials to beat in order to raise the pillars to the exit. Each trial will give you a new weapon from slots 5-7. I recommend doing the one through the teleporter first. We have a mini-trial first, with some pinkies, 2 revs, and a pain elemental. It's a small area here, so it's easy to get cornered. I made it out with 10% health. Now it's for the actual trial. You get a soul sphere and a BFG, but you have to deal with a stationary cyb, while 2 corridors of hell nobles descend on you. Avoid projectiles as long as possible, then cause the cyb rockets to hit the nobles once the floor rises so you can escape. Don't worry about taking out the cyb, you'll telefrag him on the way out. I saved the BFG ammo, and rocketed/SSGd the nobles that the cyb didn't take out. I then did the RL fight. This was the one that gave me issues. Taking out the archie/shotgunner/pinky welcoming squad is easy enough (especially with the BFG taking out the archie). It's the fight when you grab the RL. 3 alcoves open filled to the brim with barons, with the one furthest away ALSO having a cyb. A cyb that doesn't like to leave its area, making it hard to get it to infight the barons. The cyb is guarding the blue key which you need to escape too. The only way that's consistent to get infighting I've found is to take the narrow path behind it, and get the waves of barons to hit the cyb. Only problem is there's no real way to avoid taking any damage from cyb rockets in this case. 3 of my deaths happened here, which is WAY LESS than my first playthrough. I managed to worm my way into the cyb's area to grab the blue key and managed to escape, grab health, then come back to take everything out. It was still tough. At least the cyb is also guarding a hidden switch that reveals a megasphere. The final trial is probably the easiest. You're in a light bridge area with 5 sniper towers. Grabbing the plasma rifle teleports pinkies and barons onto the bridge, while 4 towers get arachnotrons and the one directly across from here gets a cyb. The BFG makes this one trivial, but you can still get a cyb rocket to the face (death #4). You can telefrag the towers once you escape, as the other teleporter in the main hall is now open. I would still take out the spiders closest to the plasma rifle though. Also, make sure to look into the hall when telefragging, as you can find a shootable switch that opens a closet with a soul sphere and a few bulk cells. Not useful the way I approached this map, but maybe if I did this trial 2nd.

 

Overall, this map is a tough one. So many barons. The RL fight might be baron overkill, but it is doable. The other fights are less tough, but have nice set-ups. I do think this is one of the best looking maps in the set. The environment looks great, with a lot of nice texturework and environmental design. Plus, the AA MIDI is great. 

[Klear]

Mapworld26: Clandestine Cumulonimbus by BluePineapple72

QuestZDoom, UV, blind, pistol start, saves

 

Spoiler

 

I kinda like the start of this one. It feels much safer than the one in Passions (outside of the vile and cyberdemon sounds), but the stealth troopers have you surrounded and while they die fast, they pack quite a punch and it's very easy to get blindsided and cut down if you linger in the starting area too much. I do linger until I'm down to my last shell and then pick a side mostly at random and go into the fray to restock. I'm avoiding the rocket launcher since that triggers a revenant ambush which gave me a lot of grief in my original extremely laggy attempt (I noped out of that one in just a few minutes).

 

As I've mentioned that in my previous writeup, this map is for some reason the most consistently laggy one I've come across yet, and the difficulty is set so high that the lag made it impossible to make any progress. Messing around with the settings, I've found that significantly reducing draw distance does wonders for framerate, while sprite culling is not nearly as impactful, so at least I can see the enemies (and their projectiles) coming. It's a shame, really - the map is quite beutiful, but I'm forced into near-sighted mode today. I forgot to disable the FPS counter for a while - it's surprisingly easy not to notice in a 3D view.

 

The map follows the now-familiar formula of three major fights and the first I tackle is in the library, where I face arachnotrons and hell knights armed with a rocket launcher. This is great. I like the cramped-but-actually-large area where the fight takes place. My near-sightedness prevents me from seeing monsters in adjacent parts of the library, which might have actually played to my advantage - less distraction means less chance of a face rocket.

 

Next I pick up the plasma and after a long while this is a fight where playing in VR is actually quite advantageous - I can easily spray the whole room by waving my arm around and unlike the previous map, this room floods with easy to kill enemies, so spraying around me in a wide cone is exactly what's needed. Everything dies and I delight at the small wait until the door opens. Feels like I beat the expected time. Then again, I started the fight with 100 health and now I have 7, so maaaaybe I'm not such hot shit as I thought =D

 

The next stage is a lot harder, with revenants instead of foot soldiers and it shows. Oh, and there's a cyberdemon here too. I have failed to find the telefrags on two out of three cybies in the previous map, so I make sure to look around the room very carefully this time and sure enough there's a shootable switch. Hurray! Except, that only opens the door. Defeated, I let the cybie live and he's going to be a pain in the ass for the rest of the run.

 

Speaking of shootable switches, there seems to be a lot of them in the map. I even found some. Hell, out of the ones I've found, I even figured out what they did! But I have a bad feeling that more of them may have been hiding father than I can see with the reduced draw distance. At this point I'm not quite sure where else I can go (draw distance not helping) so I face the revenants I've been dreading for the start. Easy, barely get scratched. That's third time out of three. You know what? Tomorrow I'm going to purposefully seek out the revenant ambush and give it a priority. Fool me three times...

 

But that doesn't really help. I wander the map aimlessly. Find another shootable switch (and fail to figure out what it did), find an invulnerability thanks to my sprite-drawing distance is farther than wall-drawing distance, but no obvious way to get at it. Eventually I realise that there's not much danger around any more, so I crank up the draw distance again, which doesn't really help, but I get to admire the scenery, and *finally* come across a teleporter I haven't taken yet.

 

Wait, no. That's a newly-unlocked secret, not progression. Damn! Well, the resupply is a welcome sight, and even better - this allows me to start an infight between a cybie and two viles. Plus the yellow design of the secret teleporter helps me spot the real teleporter I'm looking for. Four viles in the centre and a horde of extremely annoying flying enemies from all sides. This one felt really great to conquer. I was ready and well-stocked. I can imagine this being way less enjoyable if it was the first fight I stumbled into.

 

It takes me some time to find the exit teleporter after the cleanup, but then it's time the confront the final cybie (the viles lost) and exit the map.

 

So... out of the three maps served by the pineapple man so far, I think I liked this one the most (especially the name), but it was kinda marred by technical issues and me getting seriously lost. There's a good chance the former caused the later though, and at any rate I could have shotgunned the first cyberdemon and claimed his map. Yeah. Now that I think about it, it was kinda dumb not to do that =P

 

I have some more thoughts about this map, but I think I'll wait until tomorrow and do a writeup on the whole pineapple quadrilogy.

 

 

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 25: Grab the Bull by the Horns

by BluePineapple72

 

So I'm vaguely aware Blue Pineapple tends towards the more difficult stuff but I've no idea if that's just a side effect of speedmapping. Death Bear and Muumi are a little less ruthless and vice-like though and while BP isn't too much for slaughter (the last Christmas collection notwithstanding) he really seems to have a thing for mini-hordes.

 

Which isn't to say this isn't yet another inspired setting by BP. From the synthwave void of the last map, we are plunged into a depressingly-green landscape, at a facility that can be only described as a decaying temple amidst a shockingly beautiful natural environment that honestly doesn't pair too well with an irradiated sky, but what do I know? We're not at Earth yet perhaps.

 

Entering the temple leads us to confrontations with Hell Knights and Pinkies on either side of the hallway, and a Baron or two in the wings as well. We end up concluding that the open teleporter's the best location to go. Was it?

 

.....well, we're boxed in. Horribly. The rock formation in front of us can't hide that in addition to small groups of pinkies, there's also a pair of Revenants and a Pain Elemental that will attack us as soon as we draw breath. Miraculously, we get through on the second try. Like yes, blast pinkies so holes open in ranks. Then we enter the temple to find a BFG sitting on a symboled platform which leads to platforms taking us to the exit UFO. It's quite fair to assume a nasty trap awaits and indeed, the revealed Cyberdemon you should probably abandon any hope of two-tapping, along with mixed groups of nobles being unleashed at either end of the hallway. Turns out it's best just to BFG one or more of these groups than burst through, hit both switches, head back to the teleporter which brought us here then telefrag the Cyberdemon. But we did it the hard way. To be fair, the nobles did kill the badly-weakened Cyberdemon. But breaking through with only rockets is probably a bad strategy.

 

Anyways, return to the central hallway, probably do something in the open air plasma rainbow platform with Revenants and Mancubi and apparently a Cyberdemon, but one can softlock themselves here it seems, so we wander some more, drop into the water of the starting location, find a somewhat hidden rocket launcher sitting out in the open, head back, take in that the people firing at us have to be somewhere then finally locate a small wooden door that leads to the most ruined part of the complex along with the filthy Imps and Sergeants firing at us earlier. There's also a symbol here, along with a rocket launcher. This opens quite possibly the map's worst trap, unleashing Barons in some cubes, along with a Cyberdemon at the other end of the twisty caves here. I think perhaps we use 1 or 2 BFG shots here if we have it to break through than lob some rockets at the Barons we know will can come from any passageway until their ranks are thinned, than we can safely circle around. We  just rocketed them though and got through mostly by luck. At least the Cyberdemon had been softened up quite a bit, though I wouldn't recommend entering his sanctuary unless you like getting blown to bloody chunks. Grabbing the blue key, we also spot a slightly hidden switch which also opens a small chamber with a Megasphere.

 

Unfortunately, seems like we still can't get back after picking the plasma rifle up so we had to end probably 6 minutes later. Too bad, things are getting more frantic which is strange because this has the exact same monster count as Pineapple's first map in the set. Maybe I'm wrong but they're shockingly close. Strange yet, he's getting three maps in a row! Although this doesn't necessarily work out for the better (check out the middle of March of the Speedemons as a demonstration why), at least the settings are probably different for each map.

 

 

 

 

[Ralgor]

MAP26 - "Clandestine Cumulonimbus" by BluePineapple72
dsda-doom v0.25.6 cl9, UV, Pistol start, blind run w/ saves, then single segment w/ demo
100% kills and secrets

This is another one of BluePineapple72's three-challenge maps, but this one is even harder than the previous two. It also has more secrets than any other map so far, with 10 secrets. My first foray into this map didn't go well, with many, many deaths. This is the sort of map I would normally just play on HMP, but since we're already 25 maps in on UV, I don't want to change it now. Luckily, finding the secrets makes the level manageable.

The opening fight is one of the hardest things in this map, until you figure out a path through it. There's a secret soulsphere near the shotgun, and in front of that is the SSG. Then it's a short run to a green armor. This should help keep you alive. You really want to delay firing a weapon for as long as possible, as a caco cloud will attack once you do. Preferably, your first shot should be in the rocket launcher trap near the beginning. Otherwise you'll struggle to have enough ammo to eliminate everything. I would also go ahead and trigger the plasma rifle trap, and there's a secret BFG and megasphere at the beginning that I would grab too. Did I mention there are THREE secret megaspheres in this level? And two secret soulspheres?

At this point you should have the three challenges left. The first challenge I tackle is the library in the northeast. The librarian is a cyberdemon, and he's not happy you're here. Luckily there's a secret invulnerability right before the fight! In my demo, I tried to use this to hit the secret switch so I could telefrag the cyberdemon, but he wasn't going to have any of it. He hit me with a rocket which launched me straight out of the arena. I guess that's one way to survive the fight. I'm pretty happy this happened during my successful recording since it was so surprising and funny. It doesn't seem like hitting the secret switch is possible during the fight, and once the revenants are dead, the cyberdemon isn't going to let you. It seems like it might have been a mapping error or something. Or there's something obvious I'm missing.

 

Spoiler

Away with you! This library is closed!

The easiest challenge is the great hall to the west. It's mostly just arachnotron and hell knights, but you're given enough ammo here to kill everything. There's plenty of cover too. I don't think this one killed me once.

 

Spoiler

Just another challenge room

The last challenge is in the ring somewhat outside of the level. The secret BFG is almost mandatory for this fight. First three arch-viles will appear, and then a thunderhead of cacodemons, pain elementals, and guardians will float in from the sides. You do not want the arch-viles to still be alive once the rain starts. I would also try to save a few BFG shots for the final cyberdemon, but don't get cornered here first.

 

Spoiler

The intergalactic weather service is forecasting an overcast sky filled with plasma shots and tracers.

Finishing all three challenges will also release a cyberdemon and arch-vile back in the original platform you started on. Hopefully you still have some BFG ammo, or failing that plenty of shotgun shells and rockets.

This map was really stressful, especially in my initial playthrough with saves. Finding all of the secrets made it much easier the second time though, and I was able to enjoy the map more. I'm not sure how I feel about maps where the secrets make the map so much easier. Either the initial experience is too hard, or the subsequent experiences are too easy. In this case, it was the initial experience that soured me on this map. It felt like beating my head against a wall. I can't say I'm looking forward to the next level at all.

MAP26 - 21:44.49 (21:44)  K: 186/186  I: 37/38  S: 10/10

ralgor_pussixmaw26.zip

 

[RHhe82]

MAP26: Clandestine Cumulonimbus. Played on DSDA v0.25.6, UV, PS. 186/186 K, 7/10 S, 35/38 I. Comp. time 25:55

 

This was made in 10 hours? Really? Are you shitting me in some other way too than just beating me to a pulp?

 

I believe we have the hardest map of the set at hand here, at least so far -- there is one final BluePineapple outing left. Anyway, this is the Culture Shock of this set, too. I don't know, I can't not like it, it's an outstanding map, but g-sus some of those fights. Or to be more precise: fuck those secrets. Fights are okay, but I can't fathom surviving the archvile-floating enemy plateau without a BFG I found only by shooting to some obscurity after a LONG while and a shootable switch just happened to be there, somewhere. I swear, I couldn't see anything, not even after I found about it. Something just lowers one of the building walls to reveal a Megasphere secret and in conjunction the BFG. I'm sure Doom Experts can fly through the map without it, but I'm inclined to call it mandatory secret BS.

 

That's a shame, because if the BFG would have been honestly rewarded at some point, I would just love the map. It's beautiful and intense, and doesn't feel one bit speedmap.

 

I'm still missing three last secrets, one of which is a megasphere on a pillar, I'm sure, and the other must be the indented wall in the library area. The third one I haven't got a clue, just as I don't have a clue how to access the two detected ones. Maybe shoot around the map and pray for the best.

 

</salty as fuck>

 

^{Note: this outburst was written in a heat of the moment.}

Edited April 26, 2023 by RHhe82

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

World 21: "Beyond" by Doomcat, Son of Death Bear

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 3/3 secrets 

 

Our young mapper serves us one of the grander maps so far. We start in a ravine with some alien architecture and our UFO way up in the sky, venture through some Egyptian style tombs built into some caves, before getting spat out into a giant arena with a pyramid. The midi selection fits quite nicely, an epic and atmospheric (no pun intended) Tristan Clark joint from TNT: Revliution. 

 

Despite its large size as well as boasting one of the largest monster counts so far at 494, this map is neither super long or terribly difficult, at least if you know what's coming in the latter case. The map does give you a not-so-friendly greeting, surrounding you with mid-tier monsters and hitscanners while you make a mad dash to scrounge up your arsenal. Bob and weave around the hell knights and revenants as they infight and keep moving so you don't get smoked. You have access to everything but the SSG and melee weapons in this fight, and the melee weapons come right after, so you'll be well armed to finish everything off. The tomb/cave section slows things down a fair bit, and you complete your inventory with the SSG here. I notice too that the teleporters that send in the monsters seem a bit finicky, which kind of has the funny side effect that you never seem to know when a random imp might sneak up on you.

 

The final fight has you against an all-out army, most notably a seemingly endless streak of alien guardians being fed in through teleporters. You have lots of space to run around, but don't catch a stray from one of the fight's three cyberdemons. You can telefrag one via a secret to make things a bit less dangerous. The cleanup in this fight can be a bit annoying, especially because the cyberdemons aren't in conveniently BFG-able spots, but it's still a fun one and rocketing big groups of alien guardians always puts a smile on my face. I like the backtracking teleporters, that telegraph where they take you with the architecture around them. I do notice some of the monsters do not teleport in unless you take the one with the purple alien pillars back to the start. Guessing that's a little mistake.

 

An enjoyable map, relatively easy going for its large population and the grand architecture is quite cool. Job well done!

 

World 22: "Passions Like Fire" by BluePineapple72

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 0/3 secrets 

 

The mysterious project lead finally makes a debut with a more non-linear and sandboxy sort of map than what we've tended to see here so far. It's a very nice looking map that draws on quite a wide variety of the AA textures, with the main skeleton of the map being lava-covered cliffs. For music we have the wonderful Birdsong, one of my absolute favourite Doom midis. Always love to hear it.

 

This map is relatively small and very chaotic. Right from the start you'll have an SSG, chaingun, plasma rifle, and possibly a regular shotgun from the shotgunners at the start, but with how densely populated it is seemingly everywhere you go you'll wish you had a rocket launcher. Unfortunately for you the 3 rocket launchers in the map will all require you to survive a dangerous fight if you want to leave with them, and these fights also will all trigger one of the 3 platforms you'll need to jump across to advance past this map. Before taking on these fights you might want to clear out most of the enemies anyway, as the archvile tends to travel around the level surprisingly well and the cacodemons can be very sneaky.

 

The easiest of the main fights in my opinion will have you against shotgunners on ledges, an arachnotron on the opposite platform (with an extra to replace it once it dies), and some imps and hell knights to clamp down on your space. It's not so bad, I went with killing the first arachno right away, then occupying the opposite end of the neon platforms so the other one mostly just infights the hell knights, and then I keep the shotgunners and other enemies in check. The second of these fights I tended to visit was in the other neon platform area, and I like to come into this one fully stocked with health and armour as it's quite tough to avoid damage here. I went with spamming rockets at the guardians and pain elementals immediately, then focusing on the archviles. The final fight (for me) takes place in a high-tech indoor area, and is triggered by a berserk pack. To start, pinkies and revenants come in from the two side areas. I just force my way into one of the alcoves and kill revenants and pinkies from there. The pinkies seem to have trouble getting down the stairs, so only the ones in your alcove of choice matter. After some time a cyberdemon and archvile come in with their shotgunner and hell knight buddies. I don't move out of my alcove until I've killed everything but the cyberdemon, which I plasma to death. Note that I did fail to find any of the map's 3 secrets, which contain two megaspheres and a BFG in total. My struggles were likely compounded by this.

 

This was a lot of fun. As I mentioned earlier, there's a more non-linear and freeflowing style to this one which is a cool change of pace.

Edited April 26, 2023 by DisgruntledPorcupine

[Book Lord]

MAP 26 – Clandestine Cumulonimbus by @BluePineapple72

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

 

Culture Shock is an outstanding level of Ancient Aliens, featuring 5th in the 2018 Doomworld article about the most memorable maps. Regardless of the quality work surrounding his single entry, Lupinx-Kassman left a strong impression with the “KS” set of textures that were exclusive to his MAP24, depicting a fabulous city in the clouds. Clandestine Cumulonimbus was technically still a speedmap, though BluePineapple72 managed to reuse most of Culture Shock’s marvels with good taste and accuracy, building a small non-linear environment with good fidelity to the source material.

 

The foamy white clouds, the fairy-tale bell towers with turquoise roofs, and the airborne sequenced teleporters were displayed prominently, bringing up good memories while still being amazing on their own. The time limitations did not permit to reproduce the most complex features, such as the illusion of multi-storey buildings, or to add mind-bending secrets; still, the level looked nice from every angle, showing better detail than ordinary 10-hour speedmaps, and concealed a total of ten secrets, some of them essential to beat the hardest challenges.

Spoiler

The structure followed the pattern established by BluePineapple72 with his previous entries: every area could be entered without completing other sections beforehand. Two minor encounters granted the most useful weapons: a Revenant & Mancubi sandwich just right of the starting point, and a rectangular room flooded by water, where Stealth Aliens and former humans were waiting to teleport. The first granted the rocket launcher, while the latter provided the plasma rifle laying on a fourth sign, corresponding to the alchemical symbol for Air. The SSG was found in the middle of the bucolic village, protected by a Cacoswarm, and health & ammo were scattered everywhere.

Spoiler

My exploration brought me to the north-eastern library with the Libra glyph and bookcases moving up and down, while the place was swarming with Revenants under the hard rule of an elevated Cyberdemon. MAP25 was a good training ground for cramped encounters, so I did everything right. The boss can be telefragged if the player is so cool to shoot the hidden switch while still in his sights; I carefully killed him with plasma instead. The Computer Area Map was the secret reward, but in such an open level it was almost useless.

 

My blind trip induced me to enter the teleporter leading to the Aquarius arena, a round dome wrapped in the clouds. As soon as Zorglo touched the zodiac symbol, three Arch-Viles surrounded him giving little hiding options, while pestering flocks of flying horrors appeared from two nearby platforms. Ignoring the Viles was not feasible, but even if I concentrated on them, I lost too much time and the other monsters got close, Pain Elementals spewed too many Lost Souls, and the result was being trapped by infinitely tall creatures. Moreover, if an Arch-Vile zapped me while on the perimeter, I was invariably thrown out of the circle and teleported back to the centre for a painful death. I could not win this fight without a BFG, so I reloaded a previous savegame and checked the third challenge.

Spoiler

The western library was larger than any other place, and I nicknamed it “the minster”. It was a well-designed encounter with many Arachnotrons and Hell Knights, but the space was broader. I think I played it as intended, moving along different routes, and clearing the monsters blocking my way. The YSK was retrieved on a balcony, but it was only there to enforce beating the Gemini encounter, which lacked a timed lock sequence. I noticed a glaring secret door in one of the central rooms and checked the bookshelves for a classic trigger: the loose book. I was rewarded with a BFG! The shiny weapon found good use to get rid of the Arch-Viles and allowed me to finally conquer the dreaded Aquarius fight. There were many other secrets with a second BFG and multiple power-ups, but I left them for another day.

Spoiler

If I must nit-pick, the monsters behind the force fields should not be able to see and shoot at the player while still trapped. The Cyberdemon hit me with a rocket when I was standing on the Aquarius roundabout, and an Arch-Vile attacked me while on the secret islet with the Megasphere. The “mandatory” BFG secret was a subjective matter, as skilled players would find better ways to handle the Aquarius fight, and there was plenty of alternative solutions, even an Invulnerability sphere. But why should I look for flaws when I liked everything in Clandestine Cumulonimbus? The map was great for the setting, the visuals, the secrets, and the encounter design, which was punchy and without fillers, in contrast to the original Culture Shock where combat was solid but not the highlight. BluePineapple72 should be proud of himself.

Edited April 26, 2023 by Book Lord

[Azure_Horror]

I'am not confident that I'll be able to participate next month. So here are some cool WADs that, I hope, would be fun to play for other club members.

Votes:

+++ Abscission

+++ Machete (Link)

+++ Tarnsman's Projectile Hell

 

 

Puss IX: Mapping at Warpspeed

Short reviews for now. Maybe I'll elaborate later.

 

Map 24 Cryptozoophobia   by @Weird Sandwich

It feels like @Weird Sandwich decided to fuse together two Ancient Aliens maps, when developing PUSS IX map 24

- Zoo theme and sky-floor feel like nods to Xenoarboreum (AA map 24)

- The choice of Music, and the whole slow-escalating Slaughter gameplay progression feel like nods to Illuminati Revealed (AA map 18)

(Illuminati Sign itself in is present too, but it is a bit less obvious here than on Illuminati Revealed)

 

The resulting level is impressive: large, mysterious, and challenging. 

My main gripe: the final stages can get pretty frustrating on a blind playthrough. Those encounters have quite many non-obvious deadly elements, related to non-trivial projectile angles. But I have the same complaint about Illuminati Revealed itself, so arguably this frustration is a part of the package deal in this case.

 

Map 25 Grab the Bull by the Horns   by @BluePineapple72

Aesthetics:

Really unexpected and memorable visuals. I would describe them as Ancient Aliens meets Ozonia. To me, it feels like one of the most memorable visual themes of PUSS IX.

 

Gameplay:

My first reaction: "Barons? Really?? Of all impressive Doom2 + Ancient Aliens bestiary, this map decides to focus on Barons?" But after the dust have settled, I feel that I do appreciate this map. The three main fights all have different flavors to them. And overall gameplay flow feels like polished and modernized take on Hell Revealed gameplay themes.

Cool and unexpected map!

 

MAP 26 Clandestine Cumulonimbus   by @BluePineapple72

Cons:

- playing this level without secrets is brutal!

- The start is cruel, and infinitely tall monsters are quite nasty here, if the map is played in DSDA or other strict-compat ports.

Pros:

- Visual theme is a memorable twist on Ancient Aliens "Culture Shock" level. Didn't think, that this is even possible!

- Finding at least one secret Mega and at least one secret BFG makes a huge difference. With those items, the gameplay becomes much more fluid.

 

Conclusion:

Ancient Aliens Culture Shock is wonderful map, all things considered. But its beginning sections always discourage me from re-playing the map. Warpspeed map 26 avoids this pitfall. Despite all the nasty surprises, start of PUSS IX Clandestine Cumulonimbus feels much more engaging to me! All in all Clandestine Cumulonimbus is an unforgiving, but charming and rewarding map to explore.

[Helm]

World 26 - Clandestine Cumulonimbus 
by BluePineapple72

Continuing with more BluePineapple72, I anticipate this one's going to be rough as well, so some killing fields music will help keep focus... Zorg breaks out the Bolt Thrower.

Another beautiful map, an ochre tinted skyfield punctuated by huge stationary storm clouds. Meshing with the browns and mustards and ochres of the texture selection itself. The shape is robust and interesting to zoom around on, and I didn't find any random softlocks this time. Did PineApple speedmap these at the end of the set the same way everybody else used ~10 hrs for theirs? Very accomplished space.

From the beam down we are in one of the BluePineapple open ended beginning areas that are going to be under assault in seconds as all the stationaries in the map start pull towards player location. You are elevated high up and you van see white misty pools of water, a lot of towers (with adorable tower roofs made with sectors) and a collage of inviting verticalities to explore. 

Running around will net a few deaths as we have to find at least an SSG when a lot of manucbi and cacodemon are converging. Nonetheless powered by crusty UK 90's death metal we capture the beginning space. This map has a different vibe to the last one, it's not so bent on your utter goat destruction, but it is tough. There's a bit of an action movie sequence to get my first chaingun, but before I know it I have locked myself in a blue armor fight where a huge amount of hitscan and plasma trooper teleports in. I lose a life but I gain a plasma rifle for my trouble. Zorg will have to go to intergalactic confession and talk about this long streak of self-abuse re: teleporting down UV Worlds and spending a LOT of replicator juice to keep re-spawning himself every time a cyberdemon splats his little green frame. Zorg prefers Marlowe to Shakespeare... We all have our proclivities.

We take some round-armed cross teleporters out of the blue trap room into another trap room! here we have ominous library tower with these slick rising library blocks... Imagine having a whole library under your flat that you pull up at the press of a button and the floor opens and ceremoniously your library lifts up so you can pick out your recipe book and make some fucking different avocado toast or something. Then you press the button and reverse-ceremoniously you observe your wealth of knowledge retreating, again, beneath your heated floor. Your avocado recipe is tight - not a single page of Shakespearean dross to be found.

Anyway, we get given a free megasphere and another RL, so when the revenants and cyberdemon teleport in on this library space nobody should be too surprised. I play bad but I survive the fight anyway. Either Bolt Thrower are helping or that one goat fight in the prior map was harder than all of the fights in this one combined, I'll read up on the rest of the reviews before I make up my mind. 

I try to escape the cyberfight by taking the cross teleporters but they're (ceremoniously) slow so I catch that lingering cyberdemon rocket just as I reach the door. You WILL excuse that one rewind, heh. I am versed on SSGing cyberdemon cleanup. Still by far not my favorite mandatory activity, though.

The libraries reveal their secret knowledge to me (meaning, I find a secret). I get a computer area map so really there should be no excuse to not tag all the secrets but 10 is a bit too much for me in any case anyhow, I find 6 out of 10 I believe.

Now for the other rocket launcher library fight! Looooong library space, two teleporter pads at both ends delivering packs of arachnotrons while the middle gets populated with a potpourri. I stood at one edge and plasmaed 4 arachnotrons, then starting making loops with the RL. This fight is a friendly nothing compared to anything and everything up in here, as long as you spawncamp and waste some plasma at the beginning. I will take accidental easy fight, I will take it, by God! 

Now we have a yellow skull key, which we immediately use on a yellow door. We go back out and deal with some main hub reinforcements, and finally we take the big multicolored teleporter pad to an open sky arena underneath a huge UFO. We get given all the guns (sans BFG which I would bet is in a secret) and then 3 arch-viles beam down, a few pain elementals start coming our way on the horizon line and a throng of caco and guardians converge. There's even an asshole revenant in one corner just so you get one extra homing projectile in all of this mess. I believe a cyberdemon is sniping from afar? I think they got distracted after the beginning of the fight. Anyway, I survive the waves and eventually the periphery lowers to allow exit and to give us a handy sphere as well.

Last couple of fights easier than the rest! Whole map easier than one fight of the prior map! Indeed after all that back at the center hub there is a cyberdemon (probably my sniper) now and two archviles and they could make a mess of a proper attempt right at the end but something tells me by where those enemies end up you can really set the cyber to kill the archies with minimal fuss. Thank you BluePineapple for giving us a bit of a respite (in this Sunlust-ian world, this is a breather compared to the last one), those of us that play with saves at least. For the single segment warriors I salute you. footage!

re: votes, after participating 3 months straight perhaps I should vote, but eh, whatever you all want to play is fine with me. I might do 4 months, why not? This is a good regiment and I am getting better at playing Doom as well. 

[Celestin]

MAP26: Clandestine Cumulonimbus by BluePineapple72

Spoiler

The third of BluePineapple's astrology adventures, this time it ditches BTSX E2-style ruins for celestial (pun intended) setting that brings Eviternity's final act to mind. It sets itself apart from the rest of the wad and is a welcomed change. Another thing is, there is a ton of secrets hidden around, so try finding at least some of them - they provide extra ammo and health.

 

I first tackled the Libra fight, which pits you against a skeletal horde in a room of moving columns plus a cyberdemon support. The cyber can be telefragged, but it's a hard and unpleasant process. You need to ride a column to shoot a switch in a wall and pray that cyborg bastard doesn't decide to blow you to pieces. Gemini room was next, a library with arachnotrons and hell knights teleporting in. I recommend investigating the bookshelves once everything is killed, there is a switch that unlocks the BFG - you'll definitely want that. 

 

The last arena, ruins marked by the sigh of Aquarius, starts with a trio of archviles followed by all kinds of flyers. It's not the end, though, as when teleporting back to the start, you are faced with two additional viles and a cyberdemon. Once this is over, you can finally exit.

 

I enjoyed a different setting and the gameplay is still solid, but BluePineapple's maps does suffer from a bit of formularity - open layout, three traps to activate and encounters bleeding into one another. Luckily the next one provides a completely different expecience.

[DisgruntledPorcupine]

+++ Solar Struggle

[Anarkzie]

***Solar Struggle 

 

I think everyone did a good job on this project and I would love to see it played here.

[LadyMistDragon]

Map 26: Clandestine Cumilonimbus

by BluePineapple72

 

It's strange to see BluePineapple, who doesn't release too many maps in PUSS collections generally, turn out precisely FOUR maps and seeimingly all at once. Although maybe he made one or two of these earlier and keep them in reserve.

 

In either case, anyone who was hoping to see the textures used in Culture Shock will get quite a pleasant surprise. Here they can be found, mixed with the AA ubiquitous purple brick and also containing 10 secrets, as a nod to the 5th PUSS event Clandestine Castle Crashing. We only found three of the secrets though. And the yellow sky and midi are really something else

 

Combat definitely isn't easy. Early on, we have to rocket Mancubi and Revenants on either side of us in a very small space. Definitely shoot what's in front of us (Mancubi) first. After this, we confront some Imps and Plasma troopers but with basically no shells for them, we end up dropping into a pool and picking up a secret Supercharge and shells that we then use to dispose of the remainder we evaded. Or so we thought! Because we'd then plunge into the town and end up getting killed by an Imp we thought we'd missed, but actually was hiding behind a building. Then we end up running into Mancubi that we have practically zero rockets for, picking up the SS and acting surprised when a mob of Cacodemons emerged from the behind the back ledge with the green armor. The rockets are probably best used on the Cacodemons. 

 

After some exploring and seeing that entering a building will lock us in, we then (rightly as it happens) head into the other building then teleporting ourselves to a building that seems empty. But step on the switch and we are confronted by a murder of Revenants and a Cyberdemon, with some Revenants teleporting to the floor from who knows where. The computer map suggests a telefrag is possible....but BluePineapple can be incredibly cryptic. Doesn't matter too much though. At least we could switch to plasma at times......

 

Seeing no shootable switches or anything, we then just leave, bumble around then wander onto a rainbow-colored platform which sends us to a shrine hanging in a void and a rocket launcher and Super Shotgun sitting next to each other. As one might expect, yet another trap is triggered! The three Arch-viles are hard enough as it is to rocket but at some point, Cacodemons, Pain Elementals, and Guardians start teleporting in at select spots in the surrounding voids. The rainbow-colored platform here is probably important somehow. We had 175 health when we entered though so we're not sure that Supercharge assumes other traps have been triggered or not.

 

In either case, we end up accidentally teleporting, then rocketing another Arch-vile, heading back, shotting some baddies, seeing more people in the main plac,e get disgusted, teleport and use up much of the remaining plasma on another Arch-vile that entered.

 

.....then finally enter the YK building and head to the center of this rectangular structure to be confronted by yet another combat puzzle with Hell Knights in the middle and Arachnotrons teleporting in from the ends whilst the remainders of the last big fight drift over. Target one of these groups and importantly, walk along the edge. When everything died, we found a yellow sitting outside, exited the building, picked up an Invulnerbility we only assumed was opened by a really obvious shootable switch, spot a Supercharge hanging on a ledge below the starting area on the town side, see a Cyberdemon, realize there's no obviousd amko stores that make killing him worth it, then cross all the platforms to the exit.

 

Good map, I suppose. No video this time though, because I was experimenting with capturing sound in a given window and well, probably won't be happening again.