The DWmegawad Club plays: PUSS IX: Mapping at Warpspeed

RHhe82 · April 30, 2023

1 hour ago, Celestin said:

PUSS IX: Mapping at Warpspeed put the series on my radar.

Same here. I mean, I knew about the series, I did play a couple of Imperfected Hatred maps when I re-started dooming in 2021, but already the second level there kicked my butt so hard that I let it be. Maybe the time is ripe for a re-evaluation of the series, I should be better-equipped by now, anyway… Any recommendations from the crowd, biased or otherwise? 😁

BluePineapple72 · April 30, 2023

2 hours ago, RHhe82 said:

Same here. I mean, I knew about the series, I did play a couple of Imperfected Hatred maps when I re-started dooming in 2021, but already the second level there kicked my butt so hard that I let it be. Maybe the time is ripe for a re-evaluation of the series, I should be better-equipped by now, anyway… Any recommendations from the crowd, biased or otherwise? 😁

Well personally speaking, I’d ask that you play more recent stuff not in RC1 to give us playtesting feedback. Like the Chilling Winds of Dis 😎

If not those, a few S-Tiers I’d recommend would be: Pac-Man Doom (9 maps, you can beat it in two sittings. Bite sized FUN!) Th1rt3en (Ultimate-Doom hell maps made in 3 hours), Lover’s Quarrel (our Valentine’s Day deathmatch/SP wad from earlier this year), Summer of Slaughter (title), March of the Speeddemons (our first Rowdy Rudy wad), or any of our Christmas wads.

EDIT:

OH! While not PUSS, Solar Struggle was a megawad who’s project was held on the PUSS discord. My server began sort of as a community project hub that was open to mappers of all flavors to come and start projects and have an easier way to communicate to project participants. PUSS started as a fun side Dropbox thing but quickly became the feature attraction after a year or so.

Solar Struggle is the third project ran by ViolentBeetle on that server following Hellevator and Skulltiverse. It’ll feature many recurrent PUSS mappers and a whole load of other faces. It’s not Speedmapping though so maps have lots of detail and polish. It also seemed to get voted for a lot so uh…

Edited April 30, 2023 by BluePineapple72

Klear · April 30, 2023

Worldworld30: Stargate BP-9 by Death Bear

QuestZDoom, UV, blind, pistol start, saves

So... it's done. Wow. What a ride. This map is a pleasant stroll through credits, so there's not much to say, other than that it looks absolutely gorgeous. And I didn't find almost any secrets. Here's the video, and let's talk the wad as a whole now.

Final thoughts

I'm a newcomer to playing pwads, in VR or otherwise. Before I joined DW a few months ago I played only a handful of community made maps, but I wanted to finally broaden by horizons to improve my own mapping efforts. Plus I'm still gathering data on what feels good and what doesn't when playing in VR. I joined the Club this month because as a speedmapping wad, I figured the maps will be small, short and relatively easy. And most importantly it looked fun as hell. The charity stream with myolden and Mr. Pineapple himself also helped put speedmapping on my radar, though it did make me apprehensive about the contributions of these two (rightfully so).

Was it a great choice? Eh, probably not great, but certainly good. I had a blast, even though there were some frustrating parts. Would I recommend the wad for new VR players? Definitely not, except for select few maps, but overall, for someone with the right amount of crazy, it was an amazing experience. I learnt a lot while playing this too, from sorting out technical issues to improvements of my gameplay. Every map in the set taught me something and Mapping at Warpspeed (the map) felt like a final exam. I did have to take it twice, but I eventually passed.

Some highlights, from the VR perspective:

Lazarus Labs by Cheesewheel was by far the best map. It just played perfectly. Some windows could be at a more convenient height, but it might be the map which translates to VR best out of any I've played.

Neon Desert by Chookum was the most chill. I don't know why (probably the music?) but it was such a relaxing experience.

Death Bear's maps, especially the Ursae, were the most consistently good ones. The difficulty was just a tiny bit too high, but overall I've found myself looking forward to his maps throughout the playthrough, compared to the abject terror I felt after seeing the name "myolden", "Mummi" or "BluePineapple72" =D

Archvile Arrival by Muumi. That was... something else. Frustratingly hard, as it relies on precise movement, but I still remember it with fondness and I expect it to be burnt into my memory for a long, long time...

I'm going to take a break now. This was a blast, but also quite the time-sink. I want to get back to sampling single maps as they show up. I've been eyeing Relic for some time, and I should also play through Going Down at last. If you enjoy watching my ass getting kicked in virtual reality, I'll be probably posting vids in relevant threads from time to time, and I'll keep an eye on the Club to see if there's something I might enjoy. I'm 100% jumping back into action when Lunacy gets featured eventually.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's been a pleasure playing alongside you.

11 hours ago, continuum.mid said:

By the way, why does Zorglo have an iPhone?

Probably a gift for his role in squashing the android uprising.

Edited April 30, 2023 by Klear

Peccatum Mihzamiz · April 30, 2023

I want to thank the organizers and participants of this month's DWMC. I followed this thread a bit off and on the past few weeks, and am so happy with this community that gives serious and light-hearted feedback and praise!

This project means different things to me personally. The resource pack is truly inspiring and I looked forward to making a map for it. I tried mapping for it and got stuck with a half finished map by the time I reached 10 hours. Just too ambitious for my small skill level and lack of knowledge with Boom mapping. Then almost a year later I was very involved with testing the set and was ever so slightly sad that I hadn't been able to contribute. It was so sweet of BluePineapple72 to include me in MAP29. By the time I was asked to do that, I had had a lot more experience and I was happy to make this kinda homage to 'skillsaw-esque slaughter light' mapping. I am humbled (and the opposite of humbled:p) by the positive reactions to my 1/11th of a map!

There were some great inventive things done in these maps. From Muumi's outstanding more gimmicky maps to BluePineapple72's tour de force, this megawad has some true gems in it. At times it does show that it is a speed mapping project but overall this set is a great gift to fans of Ancient Aliens that were looking for more.

I think this set and others like Intergalactic Xenology and Chookum's upcoming Headless Chicken show us that the Doom community is not done with this texture set, not by a long shot. Looking forward to more maps with them, and also looking forward to more of these kinds of rough yet polished projects, if that makes any sense.

Also looking forward to next month's Solar Struggle (is it finally happening?! :D)

Veeda Vidlak · April 30, 2023

I should be able to finish up level reviews later today, though I’ll probably have to do final thoughts Monday morning. It's been a blast playing this with the club and I'd like to thank Bluepineapple especially for taking the time to provide background on the project (and Death Bear, who has done the same).

Map26 “Clandestine Cumulonimbus”

The third zodiac map channels the excellent Culture Shock from AA, with its visuals and ring tunnel teleports. The homage is nicely restrained as the focus remains on the arena fights, backed up by nontrivial intermittent opposition.

First things first, the routing decisions are more sophisticated than in Bluepineapple’s last level. I’d argue the priority is to open up the BFG/mega secret pair but the weapons to grab beforehand and where to go afterwards is up to the player. For this reason alone, I already like the map more than Grab the Bull by the Horns. We have the traditional three sign arenas to complete the level, again accessible in any order. There are also ten secrets in this map (!), some of which are annoyingly hard to find.

The three arenas are… easier than those in the previous two maps, the reason being you’re overloaded with resources. I like to do the circular one to the southeast first, which ports in three viles while fliers converge on you. Without the BFG this fight is nasty, but with it the viles are toast and you can dodge projectiles until the lock in timer finishes (or just camp the plasma secret). The northeast arena, a library reached by jumping through rings, has a cyberdemon turret and a ton of revenants. It would be the hardest fight… except there’s an invul secret nearby that makes it lol (save it for this encounter). The last arena is another library themed room to the west, a long hallway divided by bookshelves that fills up with spiders and hell-knights. As long as you come in here nicely stocked it’s perfectly manageable, you can focus on clearing the spiders on one side then clean up as needed.

So that’s Clandestine Cumulonimbus, a fine level with a finer name. I find the zodiac maps formulaic but that’s clearly a stylistic decision so nothing wrong with that. This one differentiates itself with its Culture Shock elements, which I enjoyed along with the gameplay. I could do without ten secrets (especially with how abstruse some are) though at least they’re actually rewarding, and I appreciate this level being forgiving considering the ones around it. If nothing else, I remembered this map instantly from when I first played the mapset awhile back, which is a sign of clever, memorable design.

warpspeed26.zip

Time: 9:34 Kills: 186/186 Secrets: 10/10

Map27 “Of Waves and Woe”

Bluepineapple tosses the formula he’s been using in the dustbin, concluding his zodiac quartet with a glorious slaughtermap. Our “arenas” now consist of one location, which gradually opens up until we have hundreds of enemies chasing us around (not unlike map24).

This rocky, cerulean outdoor temple/canyon locale is the setting of arguably the hardest level in Mapping at Warpspeed. It channels Sinkhole Showdown, but with huge armies, starting right when you grab the SSG. We have keys, though they’re basically an afterthought, the little arenas they’re found in are sideshows to the main act. The blue key pit does technically serve as the final fight, and it isn’t too bad as long as you come in well stocked.

By the way, that teeny red key skirmish? Most of my deaths happened there. I have no idea how to win consistently just standing my ground, I just get pulverized by the slow teleport pincer attack. So I always just beeline for the exit, praying the spawning hell knights don’t block me.

Anyway, our first big fight is against a bunch of spiders, pinkies, a mastermind, and two viles. It’s tough, but you can take out one of the archies immediately from the starting pistol, after which I like to run up to the yellow key platform and fortify myself there. The second big fight comes after you lower the red bar, opening up a cyber with quite a bit of backup (including two more archviles). Truth be told, I’m not exactly certain what’s in these groups because I always swipe the BFG from under cybie’s nose and move on to activate the final arena (preferably after killing both viles).

Now we have our headliner. Grabbing the BFG opens the rest of the map and we find ourselves surrounded by a formidable host. Imps, revenants, hell-knights, and a couple cybers and archviles backing them up. A ton of guardians/cacos come from somewhere as well, they’ll arrive shortly. I don’t really have any specific plan here, I love slaughter so I generally just do whatever seems fun. There’s a secret megasphere to help the grind and watch your back for homing missiles, the flying guardians love to sneak them in.

This is my favorite of Bluepineapple’s maps, though I’m admittedly biased towards this type of gameplay. It helps that it deviates from the structure of the prior three levels, doing so in spectacular fashion. I specifically want to laude how the layout enhances the big finale, giving the demons opportunities to envelop Zorglo and the player multiple options to escape. It’s a good slaughtermap, and a good counterexample for the “slaughter is mindless” crowd.

Also, given the question was asked, I’ll give my opinion on how this map’s difficulty compares to other slaughter… which is that it’s in the middle-ish of what I’ve played. It’s far from easy, but I don’t find it as brutal as the genre can get for two reasons.

1. There aren’t many arch-viles. There’s a few, but their numbers aren’t high enough to demand aggression, you can play a cautious attrition-based game if you want.

2. You can cheese the big boy battle by camping on the mesa with the exit, just make sure to eliminate the revenant turrets nearby first.

warpspeed27.zip

Time: 11:00 Kills: 818/818 Secrets: 1/1

Map28 “Planet Chasers”

Death Bear, father of Doomcat returns to conclude the solo maps of Mapping at Warpspeed (except map30 I suppose).

We get our majestic Death Bear adventure map start for the final time, so say your goodbyes and move on to the level proper. We have a UFO teleporter hub, the first one of which takes us to a techbase section with both inside and outside parts. Nothing fancy but I find health to be in short supply, taking a lot of damage here can make things dicey. As long as we don’t die we’ll be fine though, there’s a megasphere at the start of the next section.

Now we have the big moment of the map, a deep red slaughterfest in a circular canyon. There’s plenty of room to move so getting surrounded shouldn’t happen, though the mastermind can be a pain (she should infight though). Heading up the steps takes us on the path to the red key, spawning in a second wave of enemies that love their homing missiles. I wish you didn’t have to jump back down to kill everything, but the terrain does favor the opposition, making this an exciting encounter of difficulty appropriate for the mapslot.

With the hard part behind us, we finish with an interesting damaging floor arena containing an odd mix of enemies (troopers, cacos, revs, barons, and two vile snipers). With the mega obtained on entry its not that hard. Use any remaining BFG cells to create space and rocket the remnants for the win. And don’t be afraid to linger on the damaging floor, you have plenty of health to work with.

While it fits with the design of the surrounding levels, I actually prefer the disorganized, amorphic action from Death Bear’s earlier maps to the more structured high-casualty fights in this one. Planet Chasers has trouble distinguishing itself, whereas levels like Electron Avenue certainly do not. It’s still a well-designed teleporter hub style speedmap and a solid (effectively) penultimate level. Now onto our finale, where we get to see all the friends we've made along the way.

warpspeed28.zip

Time: 9:11 Kills: 593/593 Secrets: 2/2

Edited April 30, 2023 by Veeda Vidlak

Ralgor · April 30, 2023

Final Thoughts

The first PUSS megawad (though it barely qualifies) I ever played was actually Twelve Days of DOOMmas. I played it since I saw MtPain27 and Doomkid playing it during their Christmas special late last year. I enjoyed it, but it definitely felt a bit rough around the edges (mostly due to the restrictions, and not the skill of the mappers). I still enjoyed it enough to consider playing more PUSS projects in the future. I also played CC1 and CC2 recently (while the club was playing CC2), and those are definitely rough. But because of that, the sheer quality of this one took me by surprise.

There was an incredible amount of creativity on display here. I really liked Death Bear's openings that slowly became more decayed as we went through the maps. The wildly differing UFO designs were a treat. Some of the UFOs were made by less skilled mappers, but that really just served to increase the variety, rather than taking away from anything. There's also BluePineapple72's astrological tetrology that has to be mentioned, taking us ultimately to a fight for every sign of the zodiac. Everything feels like it belongs here, despite being wildly different in character.

It is, of course, not without flaws. But I think the biggest flaw is just my skill level while trying to make single segment demos. It went well the last couple of months, but this one really challenged me and nearly made me give up with MAP27 and MAP29. At the same time, I'm still not sure if making these demos helps or hinders my enjoyment. I think it probably depends on the level. Right now I'm probably not going to continue trying to make a demo of every map for the club. I probably still will if a level really demands it and I have the time.

I also quit giving "grades" or "scores" in the middle of the month. Book Lord ultimately convinced me that it wasn't a good idea, but it took playing some levels where I could respect the quality but just didn't find fun to really get me started down that road. I was tempted at one point to edit all of my posts and remove them, but I feel like that wouldn't be a good idea either. The fact is that every level in this wad was fun and deserves to be here.

Congratulations to the team for making such a stand-out megawad, and thank you for spending your time to release this bit of entertainment for us. Everyone involved should be proud of the result. This megawad was advertised as a speedmapping compilation, but it certainly doesn't feel like it, as so many of these maps feel like works that took the time needed for proper completion. This is the best megawad I've played in over a year, and it's more fun than any retail game I've played in a while! I probably have to go all of the way back to almost two years ago when I played Epic 2, Eviternity, Valiant, and BTSXE2 all nearly back-to-back to find anything that would be better than what is here. At this point I'm definitely going to be seriously considering more PUSS projects for the club in the future!

Now we come to the hardest battle of this wad: figuring out what my top ~~three~~ five maps are. In the end I couldn't decide, so instead I'm going to list my favorite eight maps. I still feel like I'm leaving out some great maps, which really speaks to the quality of this megawad.

Favorite Maps, in no particular order:

MAP29: Mapping at Warpspeed, by Various
MAP20: Archvile Arrival, by Muumi
MAP22: Passions Like Fire, by BluePineapple72
MAP05: Ursae Minoris, by Death Bear
MAP07: Holodeck, by Myolden
MAP09: Alien Tartarus, by Muumi
MAP23: Neon Desert, by Chookum!
MAP14: Electron Boogaloo, by Death Bear

Oh, and I REALLY need to get around to playing Ancient Aliens now. If only I had double the free time...

Helm · April 30, 2023

Life events make it hard to focus on doom atm, the final map of PUSS IX is unfinished, but I played through most of it with saves and thought I'd come back and do it proper, but as I said, no time. I really loved this mapset, though... I loved my time with it and I will definitely return and play it again in a few years. It was fun to read everyone's thoughts and we also had some lovely interaction with the mappers and planners of the project, always great to get some behind the scenes elucidation. Great fun all around and I think educational, for me at least! I'll see if life events allow for participation in the Solar Struggle :)

Edited April 30, 2023 by Helm

TJG1289 · April 30, 2023

GZDoom/UV/Pistol-Start/Saves

Map 30: Stargate BP-9 - Death Bear

100% kills and 75% secrets

Time: 6:10

Death Bear ends the WAD with one of the most charming credits maps I've ever seen. Since there's only like 22 enemies in this one, it looks like he was able to spend the rest of the time on environmental design, as this is one of the best looking maps in the set! This opening area has the only really dangerous fight in the map, and even then, it's not dangerous. You get have a SSG and a few shells to take out some imps, pinkies, and a rev. It's more about making your shots count than getting killed. As you do this, you'll notice the text graphics hanging in mid air from map 1, bringing this nicely full circle. Hit a few switches to fall into a purple liquid basin, then take the teleporter to the other side with a few cacos, shotgunners, and guardians. You can open up a return route back the way you came, but you don't need it. Go through the teleporter behind the door, smack the zombies on the other side, then open up these doors to the main attraction, the credits! In this giant outdoor area, we have all the UFOs from the WAD just scattered about, while text graphics thank the mappers and play-testers. There's also the user icons from map 29 placed toward the center. But that's not all! There's also secrets in this area! Running on the void floor does not cause damage, so by doing so you can find stairs and teleporters behind many of the rock formations here that lead to some extra trivia about the set. It's very sweet! Apparently, 2 secrets were mistagged, so you can only find 6 of them, so once you've found them all and killed the 2 imps in this area, jump through the portal. You'll emerge in an area similar to the start of the first map, with the boat from Muumi's first map up ahead, a thanks for playing message, a chaingun, and some surprise stealth troopers. After taking care of them, it's one more warp to the disc from map 29, which leads us out to a beach featuring towels of several of the mappers, another SSG, a plasma, a soul sphere, and a tease for PUSS X: The Summer Of Slaughter. Head into the water to finish the WAD. Overall, this is a lovely final map that ends things on a sweet note!

Final Thoughts:

Coming from last month's WAD, this is a total change of pace. It's a 20-year gap from Fragport to Mapping at Warpspeed. Seeing just how far Doom mapping has come is insane. It's hard to some up with something to say about this WAD that hasn't already been said by the others in this thread. This is an incredible WAD that showcases some of the best new talent we have here. These being 10 hour speedmaps, it's really impressive seeing the level of quality in this! There's many maps in here that seem like they have to had taken longer than 10 hours to make. Even the maps that weren't as impressive were still enjoyable, and just really showed the diversity of the mapping team. I'm very glad the PUSS team decided to make a WAD using the AA textures, as they did a phenomenal job creating a WAD that put them to good use. I know there's more WADs coming using the tex, such as the new 30 Monsters and Chookum's megawad, so I'm very happy about that. As for the PUSS series itself, I really need to go back and play through the other ones. I know BP72 would like some feedback for ones still in beta like Dis, but there's only so much time in the day that I don't feel like I would be able to give any good feedback in time. Honestly, with the exception of playing a map a day for the club, I usually don't play games on days I have work. So I'll just carve some time to play some of the older ones as I wait for the others to leave beta. I mean, I waited over a year for this one, and it was worth it! Fantastic WAD, and a worthy successor to AA! I'm glad to see everyone else in the club had a good time with it as well!

baja blast rd. · April 30, 2023

On 4/24/2023 at 11:31 PM, RHhe82 said:

+++Solar Struggle

+++Tarnsman's Projectile Hell

+++Doom 2 in Spain Only

also mine

LadyMistDragon · April 30, 2023

Map 30: Stargate BP-9

by Death Bear

No video this time, there's no need. Basically just a journey through a sort of museum gallery locations that seem to have been cast-off bits from two other maps that were being developed by Death Bear and BP. There are enemies but they're only there because they have to be. Entirely the opposite of something like the last map of DBP35 which no one probably asked for. Towards the void are the list of the full contributors including the playtesters (speaking of, I've no idea who this "..MistyDragon" person is but they're probably hideous). Then finally, we are greeted with the sight of towels after a cave and the next planned PUSS collection Summer of Slaughter! The story text is not as funny this time around, which is probably why the Iphone crack at the end didn't go down so well.

Final Thoughts

1: Background

In September of 2020, BluePineapple72 would start a speedmapping session called "Pineapple Under the Sea" as a sort of way to keep busy during the stalled development of another CP he started called "Line in the Sand." This latter one would eventually limp to release several months later with a far less ambitious scope than had been originally conceived, but PUSS at this point had already long since become a monthly (now often bi and tri-monthly) series that starting with IV, became increasingly gimmick-heavy with a certain sense of zaniness DBPs basically almost never reach these days. Perhaps inevitably, this would soon turn to the aping of some of the more colorful Doom settings, of which it was probably a foregone conclusion at that point that Ancient Aliens would be among them. And so that would be the next setting that the PUSS crew would tackle after creating maps based off Rowdy Rudy's and The Adventures of Square.

2. Development

Not really very much to say here. Everyone was tasked with creating a map using Ancient Aliens textures in 10 hours or less which is not as short a development time as some PUSS sessions but also not as long as others. In addition to the mainstays of BluePineapple, Death Bear, Muumi, and Myolden, recurring contributors like Danlex and Cheesewheel, along with a number of newcomers that didn't end up returning for future PUSSs (I was quite surprised to see TheBFMG in the list because I thought he kind of paid minimal attention to that stuff).

Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances essentially regarding the integration of custom resources for certain of the sets, Mapping at Warpspeed would spend an eternity in development hell along with Speed Squared and Summer of Slaughter before at least in one of those cases, BluePineapple discovered some of the info for it on a flash drive and finally, it was decided to make six more maps and thusly stretch it out to traditional megawad length. This was the longest PUSS wad released up to that point! Of course, Anniversary and HellYeah! along with Summer of Slaughter and Th1rt3en at the least would go on to easily eclipse it....to say nothing of other PUSS projects currently in development hell like Pandemonium, Mysterious Mayan Mayhem, and the one based on Pirate Doom whose name keeps escaping me that I've had zero experience with because betas have different map orders so...maybe not the best thing to playtest that when there's too much else out there.

3. Reception

Somewhat unfairly, March of the Speeddemons was unfairly passed over, despite that I'd argue there was hardly a stinker in the bunch. But it's safe to say a significant portion of the Doom community had been clamoring for more Ancient Aliens-textured maps since the release of that megawad in 2016! And personally, the bisexual and synthwave color scheme is one of the most visually appealing things produced in a Doom wad not developed for GZDoom. But in any case, this got a loyal fanbase almost immediately and started getting Cacoward 'mentionations' almost at the same time. It didn't go on to win of course, because the competition was just too stiff, though perhaps there might be other reasons too.

4. Gameplay

This is kind of an interesting one because while combat could be said to comprise of the usual high-octane style that tends to feature in many speedmaps, there were actually a few different approaches that emerged. Death Bear essentially reinforced his developing versatility with his maps here. Some fell in the skillsaw school of combat, while others were actually all but full slaughter (the Electron duology for one). Myolden basically did the same Sunlust-lite thing that's the feature of most of his maps that aren't like Nostalgia or something like that, so despite having Moon Funeral under his belt, there's little reason to dwell on him.

But Muumi on the other hand......ended up turning out three maps that easily rank among the best he's ever done! As early as PUSS VII, it became clear that he was a talent to watch (actually, that came out the same month as the DMWC did Skulltiverse!). In particular, the incredibly entrancing Hell Revealed remake Another Glance at the Paradise and the gimmicky but shockingly engaging Arch-vile Arrival are the sorts of maps that could be described as filling the role with banner maps.

But of course, those three didn't carry the wad on their own. In addition to BluePineapple's utterly fantastic 4 maps that arguably reflect his height as a designer, there was the in-your-face adventurousness of WeirdSandwich, the fairly basic if undoubtedly dangerous entry of Danlex and Doomcat's somewhat unrefined perspective that kept the second half of the wad as strong, if not stronger than the first. To be honest, the latter development time of the later maps probably shows BluePineapple at least to be far more refined in his deadly and slaughter-lite approach.

5. Final Verdict

I've blabbed a quasi-Cacoward screed for long enough so I'll just come out and say it: this is fantastic! It was clearly made for people who liked Ancient Aliens but also for people who don't strictly adhew to the Church of Skillsaw.

At the same time, I might as well try to rationalize why it didn't get a Cacoward. Despite BluePineapple's strong right turn at the end and the presence of Another Glance at the Paradise, it suffers from the same problem as Skulltiverse in that there are few maps that can be considered as arty as BPRD or whatever. In the latter case it was really only Crack in the Skull and Terminal Decay that reached that particular apex. Granted, Mapping at Warpspeed overall follows a combat dictum that proves more engaging on the whole - but at the same time, it's easy to see why it didn't crack the top 12. Top 20 on the other hand though....I should probably play more Cacoward winners to know if that's entirely deserved or not. But I won't because I unfortunately have priorities of highlighting lesser-known wads.

If there's one takeaway from this, just go play it! Especially if you consider yourself at all a fan of Ancient Aliens.

Now might as well list some personal favorites

1. Another Glance at the Paradise

2. Mapping at Warpspeed

3. Arch-vile Arrival

4.Moon Funeral

5. Passions Like Fire

6. Cryptozoophobia

7. Electron Avenue

8. Of Waves and Woe

9. Grab the Bull by the Horns

10. Zero-G Station.

See you next month!

Edited May 1, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

DisgruntledPorcupine · May 1, 2023

World 27: "Of Waves and Woe" by BluePineapple72

UV, pistol start, saves

100% kills, 0/1 secrets

The quadrilogy of astrology maps closes out with the water signs. This takes place in a ravine filled with that beautiful blue water, where the water level soon lowers similar to Ancient Aliens' Sinkhole Showdown to reveal the fights. For music, we have one of my very favourite stewboy midis, the lovely Ocean Flute from Sunlust. I think this is the first map I've played apart from the map it debuted in that featured it as music, it's an amazing track.

If you were waiting for some true blue slaughter, you've found it here. Unlike the previous maps in the series, this one is a linear series of fights that get more and more crowded with each sign. Right off the bat we have the Cancer fight, which is a feisty one. The water lowers and you'll immediately hear the mechanical stomping of arachnotrons, and an archvile will run out ahead to welcome you to the map. I kill him first and run out, hiding in the corner he came from to trim down the rest. You don't start with a ton of ammo so you'll have to scrounge up supplies in this area, while you avoid getting boxed in by the arachnotrons. I also kill that spiderdemon when I get the chance, there's a chance she would do good for infighting down the line but there are a few parts of this level you'll be running through where she can annoyingly potshot you, which I don't like dealing with. The fight for the yellow key is a nasty ambush of revenants, chaingunners, and barons, and the following fight for the red key is probably the easiest fight in the map, featuring some fragile shotgunners and stealth troopers backed up by hell knights. Past the red bars and some unfriendly archviles and mancubi, you have the second sign fight.

The Scorpio fight is the first big slaughter. You get a plasma and stepping on the symbol causes the water level to lower again. Right in front of you is a BFG, but guarding it are a cyberdemon and a crew of shotgunners. Use this cyberdemon to do as much infighting as possible. If he stays in his little building, this is ideal as many of the monsters tend to come through there and get mixed up in his rocket fire. Anything that makes it to me I just rocket, taking out the BFG if things get hairy or an archvile approaches. Knowing how to do a horseshoe helps a lot here, especially with the large number of revenants. The cyberdemon should eventually succumb, so once he does take care of the rest and move on.

Finally we close off with the Pisces fight, which holds a much bigger slaughter. After stepping on the symbol, walls open up all over the level to reveal about 500 monsters. What I did was step on it, run away behind some oblivious hell knights, and let some of the revenants infight. I have no idea if this actually helped at all, but I did it. I then went back to the symbol area, BFGed through the big group of imps and revenants on that side to the wall with rockets, and then BFG'd back out. I hastily pick up all the cell pickups + megasphere if and when needed, then BFG the rest until I start running out of cells again. That's when I run up the center cliff, restock on cells, grab the megasphere up there, and then force my way out of this starting area. It took me a bit too long to realize, but staying in that starting area is a very likely death, at least at my skill level. With this method of escaping a bit into the fight I tended to pretty consistently be able to do this one. Since almost all the monsters have made it toward your position, the level behind them is comparatively empty and you can kill anything you come across, grabbing any health and ammo needed from the now emptied monster closets. After this chaos is over with, you have one more teleport ambush for the blue key to wind down with.

Fans of big slaughter will enjoy this, and luckily I am one of those. This was a hell of a good time.

World 28: "Planet Chasers" by Death Bear

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 1/2 secrets

Death Bear's moon series makes a return, this time the skybox is the blue falling star backdrop and the hub area is looking mighty worse for wear from your escapades. Your destination through the bear portal this time is another hub area, with 3 UFOs. You'll be travelling to a different world for each of them to make it out of here. Back to AA for the midis this time, it's Featherfall. Very good one.

It's another intimidating monster count, but this one isn't too tough surprisingly. The first UFO area takes place in and around an alien techbase and is quite simple, enemies come in droves but there are lots of globs of imps and hitscanners that you can easily destroy. An archvile will make one last effort to cause chaos inside the base when you get the key, but he's not too bad. The second area is the reason for the large monster count. You're on a red planet with a canyon and a lone hell knight, but as you approach the BFG the walls will lower to reveal a slaughterfest. Cells are plentiful and rockets less so here, so BFGing your problems away is encouraged. Dip into a cave full of arachnotrons for the red key, and travelling far enough out the other end will result on more enemies coming in. The pain elementals can be quite annoying here, my first run I left them to their own devices too long and there were an annoying number of lost souls to deal with. The final UFO takes you to a void realm with a small pyramid at the centre. Stepping on the skybox is damaging and it takes up most of the terrain. If you have a full BFG left and you left that megasphere in the damaging pit in the last planet for the end like I did, this area is a non-issue. Go crazy with the BFG and you'll have an extra megasphere if you take a chunk of damage. Stand atop the pyramid to trigger the way out.

This one was pretty good, visuals were nice and it was an easier sort of slaughter.

Death Bear · May 1, 2023

Hello, everyone! So, I admittedly wrote about 20 pages on Mapping at Warpspeed…on my own maps, its development, and my thoughts. I’ll share all of it in due time, and likely just link it here…but here are some thoughts I wrote up for each of the map I didn’t make for this set. This is the concise version. I tend to enjoy being ~~long-winded~~ comprehensive.

Map 2: Ancient Covenant by Myolden

Spoiler

Marrying Myolden’s signature style with an AAliens Episode 1 feel made for a cool map that was much harder than I expected it to be…except for the fact that I’d been a fan of Myolden’s mapping since Imperfect Hatred…and none of them have been easy. This is an enjoyable map that still gives me trouble today, having played it multiple times. As stated, I've been playing Myolden's maps since Imperfect Hatred, and I love his style.

Maps 3, 4, and 10: Trespasser, Oberth Malfunction, and LaGrange Disruption by NotTyrone

Spoiler

NotTyrone may not have made the longest or most difficult maps in the set by a long shot, but I enjoy them very much. As a consistent presence in the PUSS community, he brings a sense of mystery, darkness, and creepy atmosphere that I’ve come to know and love from his work. And as luck would have it, they do help the player breathe some. Also, we got the inside of UFOs in this wad, which we needed. If you liked these, I also recommend his work in Lunacy.

Maps 7 and 8: Holodeck and Moon Funeral by Myolden

Spoiler

Two of my top 5 maps of the set, I was stunned by these maps. I remember being floored, inspired, and discouraged by Moon Funeral. The aesthetics, the “Oh, shit!” of the initial room, and the constant overwhelming feeling as you progress is not something I can say I get often when playing a map. The dark beauty contributed to this experience. Moon Funeral is what I wished Majoris had felt like, and Holodeck what Minoris had looked like. Myolden killed it here.

Maps 9 and 11: Alien Tartarus and Another Glance at the Paradise by Muumi

Spoiler

There’s nothing in the wad like this. I remember Tartarus being the hardest map for me to beat the first time. A thing I love about a lot of Muumi’s maps are the gameplay puzzles and gimmickry involved…and this one was no exception here. Muumi created quite an epic here, even once I figured out the crushers. While not my favorite of the set, it has its place, and reminded me not to fuck around in a Muumi map unless I like dying.

One of my top 5, Paradise is in my opinion the hardest map for me in this set. This is EPIC. Admittedly, I had not played Hell Revealed, so I didn’t know the reference. It now makes more sense. I remember not being able to survive the cage fight on my first playthrough. I generally don’t enjoy long maps in the middle of sets because I’m old and get tired, but hot damn, this was cool. I enjoy it more every time I play it.

Muumi's work in PUSS continues to both amuse and challenge me, and I always look forward to what he has in store for us.

Map 12: Spirit Fracture by Lemonlytical

Spoiler

The first map I’d played by Lemonlytical, Spirit Fracture does some cool stuff with lighting and aesthetics that we don’t really see in the rest of the wad. I was not a huge fan of playing it on my first way through, but some of it has kind of grown on me…especially now with bugs fixed. It's solid and breaks from some of the tropes you see used consistently in the mapset. Visually, it’s sweet, and I think it’s placement in the mapset is good. I always hope with each passing event to see Lemonlytical return with something cool.

Map 15: The Atropal Jaws by BlooberryPi3

Spoiler

One of the earlier submissions, this is the only one not in “submission order” because they went ahead and built a secret exit into it. This stands alone visually and gameplay-wise, in my opinion…and is a fun and unique experience among the rest of the wad. I haven’t seen BlooberryPi3 since, but I appreciate this contribution.

Maps 31 and 32: Lazarus Labs by Cheesewheel and Blood Swamps by Muumi

Spoiler

I have not played 2016 or Eternal, but I enjoyed these maps. I’ve also only played them once, so at some point, I may have more to say. Cheesewheel’s map is good…I mean…it’s Cheesewheel. I remember them not liking their own map much, I think, but I think it is a lot of fun. Muumi killed me many times in Blood Swamps, but dang, did the scenery look great while I was trudging through.

Map 16: Mors Palus Aliens by Late Night Person

Spoiler

One of our earliest and more consistent contributors, Late Night Person brings us a small, spicy map that I enjoyed playing through. The dark canyon and ruins are really cool, and I like the use of height variation here. It’s not the flashiest or grandest contribution, but it was enjoyable, nonetheless.

Map 17: Zero G Station by Danlex

Spoiler

If I haven’t said it before, I’ll say it now…I’m a Danlex fan. Big time, for a while now. Visually, this was one of my favorite maps. It is spicy, not too long, and just overall great. And that UFO, hot damn! I put it into both the Intermission and Title Screens, because it’s so cool! Danlex is an AMAZING mapper, a consistent contributor to PUSS, and our local dehacked wizard and HUD artist. Also, PUSS X’s logo (seen in the credits map) was all him. Hell yeah!

Maps 18 and 24: Close Encounters of the Weird Kind and Cryptozoophobia by WeirdSandwich

Spoiler

Another consistent presence in the PUSS series, Sandwich brings us two big maps I enjoyed. Close Encounters was very hard for me the first two times I played it, but I loved the journey. The verticality and layout of the main arena area in particular was inspiring to me.

Cryptozoophobia was one of the final submissions for Mapping at Warpspeed before the deadline. This was our first 32-map event, and that was partially because we weren’t using UMAPINFO yet. That’s part of why I pulled my last contribution, Starlight Excellent...so that WeirdSandwich could have a spot for Cryptozoophobia. No regrets. Plus, it’s a MUCH better map than Starlight Excellent was, and while not insanely hard, it is the spectacle that the wad deserved over the bullshit that was Starlight Excellent.

Map 19: Hiding the Secrets by TheBMFG

Spoiler

A lot of discourse over this map this month. I have a lot of feelings about this map, but I’ll be concise and honest. This map is my least favorite of the set. That said, I don’t feel it’s a bad map. TheBMFG put a lot of effort into this and used only 8 hours of his time limit. I am disappointed only because with those two hours, he could’ve fixed the most basic issues with the map to improve it. That said, it has the bones of a good map, and for a new mapper to put out work to the public…that’s huge. I’m here because I took a chance on my map and submitted it to PUSS. And while we haven’t really seen much since from TheBMFG, I hope that if he’s still mapping, that he comes back and makes more maps with us. I celebrate this contribution…because this is why we do this. For EVERYONE to contribute and learn.

Map 20: Archvile Arrival by Muumi

Spoiler

Not the hardest, but one of the most memorable, Archvile Arrival throws the kitchen sink of yellow flames at you. Well done, Muumi! It intimidated me at first, but after committing to it, it wasn’t so bad. Also…Lunacy has a spiritual successor to this map. Check it out!

Map 21: Beyond by Doomcat

Spoiler

I’ve spent some time sharing already about this map and am not sure I have much else to add. This was my son’s third map, going back and looking, as he contributed to Clandestine Castle Crashing and Speed Squared prior to this. He’s actually been making PUSS maps since 12 Days of Doommas, but has yet to finish many of them…something we share. I’m proud of what he was able to do here, and maybe it’s not the strongest of the set, but I look forward to seeing what else he comes up with along the way.

Map 23: Neon Desert by Chookum

Spoiler

This is one of my top 5. It’s chill but not too chill, it’s got a wicked gimmick, and it stands out in my mind…especially with those force field cacti. This was Chookum’s first PUSS contribution, and we’ve seen him since…and I’ve enjoyed every map he’s made for PUSS. Just a great looking, fun map with a gimmick that’s unique to the set. Also, plug here…

If you haven’t checked out Headless Chicken, do it. I have so far enjoyed every second of it.

Maps 22, 25, 26, and 27 – The Zodiac Saga by BluePineapple72

Spoiler

I’ve written a few pages JUST on these maps. This is some of the best work I’ve ever played by BluePineapple72, and that’s saying something. These are standouts of this wad, in my opinion, and while they are more difficult, I knew what I was getting into playing a BP72 map…because that’s his style. Visually and thematically some of the coolest of the set, and with difficulty to match the ambition here. My favorite is Clandestine, for more reasons than one. We waited over a year for BP72 to get these finished. Worth it, honestly. I may have made more maps than anyone, but anyone of these is better than any of my work here.

I also am sharing some thoughts/ dev stuffs here on Maps 29 and 30.

Map 29: Mapping at Warpspeed

Spoiler

So, by the time we got here, development started to get weird. BluePineapple72 needed a break from mapping. I don’t feel like he’d mind me saying that. We all do that at some point. He came up with this idea later in the submission window, and most of us were like “Hell Yeah!”. Admittedly, it also took the longest…not in hours, but in wait time. Not everyone wanted to contribute, and that was fine. We also didn’t go in order the entire time. Passing the hot potato took a while…I posted the first section of the map on July 19th…and we passed it along its merry way until BluePineapple72 finished it over a year later, posting the connected version on August 5th, 2022. It was shortly after that we see the avatar warps for the mappers added…all done by Blue. This was a cool experience, though. Doing collab maps is something I think we need to do more of…and having opportunities in Lover’s Quarrel and Lunacy has been cool.

As for my section, I wanted to use that weird dark stone. Not sure why I decided on the moon setting, but it was a 1-hour speedmap, basically, and I just kind of went with it. I wanted something a bit different looking than what I had done already. I would eventually add this section to the end of (MAP28) Planet Chasers so that the lovely warp that was made for me would get seen. These warp textures would also make their reappearance in the credits map.

For Doomcat’s section, he kept it simple. I explained some about this in one of the posts prior.

Peccatum’s contribution. First, HELL YEAH! Second, our friend Peccatum Mihzamiz started but didn’t complete a map for this mapset. (When I wrote this, he hadn't shared that yet.) Who knows, maybe we’ll see it finished someday? That said, I remember on two separate occasions that he was disappointed in not having a map in it. So Blue and I get to talking, and here we are. We already had a few people NOT participate in the creation of this map, so getting Peccatum in here to supply us with a 1-hour addition to the boss-rush madness was a great decision, and I’m glad he accepted. Remember, also, the cycle for this map took almost a year. So, getting him in here near the end was awesome. I take great pride in knowing and working with Peccatum, and have been excited not only that he contributed here, but we got him in for Solar Struggle! Guess we'll be back tomorrow, maybe?!

Overall, MAP29 is quite a map, and I’ve since done two playthroughs of it. It’s awesome, and what a great way to end by all coming together to make a journey across the stars!

MAP30: Stargate BP-9 (Credits)

Spoiler

You’ve made it! You’ve braved the universe and finally come to the end of your journey. Hopefully the title reference is not lost on you sci-fi nerds. (I watched some SG-1 as a kid). Our title map WOULD HAVE been the very first Credits map in the PUSS series and was (in that respect) meant to be a reference to AAliens MAP30. I also “claimed it”, as in I was eager and wanting to do it and said that I was going to. I contributed a lot of work to this mapset, and I wanted to explore the idea of what we could do with Credits maps as a tradition. Because of the long development cycle, however, I didn’t start committing time to it until after MAP29 was completed in August of 2022. When I first led a PUSS event, being Trick and Tear 2 in October of 2021, I decided there would in-fact be a Credits Map. I then did one again in TH1RT3EN, and now it has become a tradition for MOST of our events. Since Speed Squared and Summer of Slaughter also had long development cycles, Credits Maps were added retroactively. Intro Maps also became a thing, starting with TH1RT3EN, and while not EVERY event has them, many do. I wanted to do this to set the tone for that wad…and had every intention going in to rearrange the maps if I thought I should. With that tradition in mind, BluePineapple72 went back and added the opening text to I Skillsawed the Aliens with my permission, of course. Stargate was not strictly timed within the time limit, but I can’t imagine it took more than the 10 hours…except for COPYING. EVERY. UFO. INTO. THE MAP. (That took a while.) Worth it. Typically, we don’t use a timer on Credits maps, with TH1RT3EN’s as a notable exception.

Stargate BP-9 has some enemies in it. I did that for three reasons…1. Because I like shooting stuff, 2. because Warp Sanctum and Starlight Excellent were originally maps, and 3. So it could be maxed, even if it was easy.

We have four areas in Stargate BP-9. The first is a scrap from a map BluePineapple72 started called Warp Sanctum, and became the setting for the intro. As I had planned with Starlight Excellent (the map I pulled from submission), I started adding all of the UFOs from throughout the mapset and including them throughout the MAP30 journey. Adding in the text, the logo, and the cliff areas surrounding the entrance, the rest was pretty much just the map Blue gave me. He did a second pass on the detailing after I finished.

The second area is Starlight Excellent…mostly. It's the original hub, broken and shattered...surrounded by the majority of the UFOs in the wad. It’s cut significantly from the original build, but you enter through the original purple building. Trivia, as is another thing we have added periodically to our credits maps since TH1RT3EN, is scattered in secrets around this section (mostly) of the map. You see names of mappers, playtesters, the credit avatars for MAP29, and our horde of initial playtesters and bug-reporters (that really came in three different waves…thanks to you all and anyone since!).

Stargate BP-9 shows a bit of honor to Intergalactic Xenology, as well, as I played that shortly after starting Warpspeed, and a few times since. Massive thanks to Dreadopp and Lord_Z for such an amazing set. The Stargate was an idea I got after playing the level with the arches and the Lightbridge that scrolls you into the map. I observed how it was built and emulated it some.

You enter the gate and pop out another side…a section that I built for this map specifically…to add in the boat from Alien Tartarus. I also ripped the portal from my section of MAP29 to take us to the final area.

This is the transition…this is where we go from PUSS IX to a preview of PUSS X. Again, this was done following a YEAR of events. What you notice here is Blue’s final zodiac UFO, leading into the starting area of one of my maps from PUSS X, Slaywatch. Also, you notice a bunch of beach towels here…these are all the beach towels made for the PUSS X Secret Map/ Credits map by the mappers that contributed to BOTH Mapping at Warpspeed and Summer of Slaughter. We each made our OWN towels and submitted them for PUSS X, and it was Blue’s idea (I think?) to include them. Then it ends with a run to the logo in the water.

(Sorry about the mistagged secrets. We came in to do some lighting stuff on the final pass and forgot to untag them.)

This was my most involved and massive Credits Map contribution to the PUSS Series to date, and I had SO much fun making it. I love getting the opportunity to honor all the people that work on these events and put them together and write their name in digital “stone” as a bookend to a set of maps. Getting to continually see and experience everyone’s passions and talents that they pour into this series is such a delight, one that I hope continues for quite a while. THIS. IS. WHY. WE. DO. IT.

Also, we love mapping.

I hope you enjoyed this.

I want to thank everyone again for playing through our work, and for all the write-ups and feedback. Know that much of it I will personally be referring to again. It is often difficult to get feedback on work as a Doom mapper, especially a new one, and sometimes it’s hard to know who’s playing it. Getting the constructive aspects of this feedback this month, even on work that for me is 2 years old, is wonderful, and has given me some things to consider. One thing it has NOT made me consider is quitting. Whether you like my work or not, I’m not stopping anytime soon. I have more writeups on my own maps...but for another time. Also, in a completely selfish tag...Planet Chasers will return.

I love this wad. It was an honor to share it with you all.

Edited May 2, 2023 by Death Bear

Ralgor · May 1, 2023

18 minutes ago, Death Bear said:

I’ll share all of it in due time, and likely just link it here…

Take your time, and I'm looking forward to reading it. I'm sure the rest of us are as well. :)

19 minutes ago, Death Bear said:

Worth it, honestly. I may have made more maps than anyone, but anyone of these is better than any of my work here.

Definitely worth it, but I'll have to disagree with you on that last statement. Everyone has different tastes, but mine tends a bit away from overly difficult or slaughterish works. I do like some difficulty and a nice horde now and then, and your maps generally hit that middle ground I like. But then I tend to rate mostly by my enjoyment while playing and not necessarily on the nitty gritty technical details.

I'd take "Electron Boogaloo" over "Grab the Bull by the Horns" any day, no offense meant to BluePineapple72.

One of the best things about this wad is I've found a bunch of new mappers whose work I can follow. The future continues to look bright for Doom. I've been playing it since 1995, and at this rate I'll still be playing it in 2095. Hopefully they fix that whole aging thing so I can keep playing!

Death Bear · May 1, 2023

35 minutes ago, Ralgor said:

Definitely worth it, but I'll have to disagree with you on that last statement. Everyone has different tastes, but mine tends a bit away from overly difficult or slaughterish works. I do like some difficulty and a nice horde now and then, and your maps generally hit that middle ground I like. But then I tend to rate mostly by my enjoyment while playing and not necessarily on the nitty gritty technical details.

Of course! That’s the beauty of it, right? That’s merely my opinion.

Veeda Vidlak · May 1, 2023

On 4/30/2023 at 10:52 AM, Helm said:

Life events make it hard to focus on doom atm

I feel that.

Map29 “Mapping at Warpspeed”

Due to time constraints I'll just write a couple sentences about each area. No demo this time.

1st: Death Bear

A cute black stone slaughter arena. Make sure you don’t get trapped and you should be fine. The vile/rev trap at the exit is probably the nastiest part so be ready with the BFG.

2nd: Myolden

Another arena in some techy temple grounds. I actually find the mancubi the most threatening force, their spread shots always hit me and they like to block my path. I’d BFG them immediately then circle strafe to start a good ole infight party.

3rd: Muumi

Muumi reprises his Alien Tartarus rev crusher fight by giving it steroid injections, upgrading the encounter into a menacing horde battle. Success will be determined by two things. Keeping the swarm in the center and ability to maneuver around straggling skeletons. Watch ammo use (it can get tight if you’re careless), don’t stumble over megas, and you’ll make it through. Don’t worry about the archvile heart attack at the exit, they’re stuck back there.

4th: Lemonlytical

Perhaps the hardest section, be aggressive with your BFG and blow through to the purple river hallway or suffer the wrath of homing missiles in a coverless area. I would try to save at least 300 cells from Muumi’s fight to make this one go smoother.

5th: Doomcat

Omigod, Doomcat’s lil cat eye transition is adorable, I have to watch that again.

So now we have a snug, colorful dance chamber, with a cyber sniper and his backup dancers ensuring you’ll play along. One BFG shot on the PE and cacos and you should be fine, just watch for rockets and enjoy the infighting. Note: it is possible for cybie to fire at you while the walls are still lowering and you can’t dodge, so move towards his location to lower his angle (he’ll shoot at his feet).

6th: Danlex

Ok so THIS is the hardest area of the map. A polychromatic staircase choked with enemies and a cyberdemon on top. Spiders in green Christmas ornaments snipe at you from the void, some of which are out of range from where you start. I find BFGing the closest spiders then cautiously hovering around the bottom of the stairs to be pretty consistent, you’re mostly covered from the remaining arachnos and the rev missiles won’t orbit you from the downward trajectory. The big danger is stray cyber rockets, which are hard to spot.

7th: Weird Sandwich

Jump through the Beavis gate and enter a spaceship with kind of a Duke Nukem vibe to it. Shoot the sentry then ready the BFG to clear out some hitscanners. The mancubi/rev wave next is dangerous if you dawdle (clear one of the fatboi chambers with the BFG ASAP) but the pinky/cyber/imp fight afterwards is good clean fun. The final fight can be sneaky, the mastermind/baron combo initially looks like a breeze. But Weird Sandwich deviously opens two closets with viles back by the pillars, so don’t fire right away, instead heard around and BFG the bastards to avoid a bad time.

8th: Chookrum

A small green/purple polygonal chamber. If you’re kl3v3r you can have the cyber clear some revenants and barons before firing a shot, but eventually the vile will force your hand. This one’s pretty sedate once he’s down, there are no fast enemies or pressing threats to bully you.

9th: notTyrone

notTyrone takes us to… I think the starting outdoor area in Trespasser? There’s a lot of revenants here now so BFG the initial chaingunners then run around until everything’s dead. Inside we have a surprisingly small scale skirmish that’s effortlessly disposed of with your loaded arsenal.

10th: Peccatum Mihzamiz

Oh hey Peccatum I didn't see you standing there. He brings us a grassy little circle surrounded by a hallway with masses of troopers spawning at the three doorways. Deaf archviles wait out of sight, so be prepared when trying to escape the crossfire.

11th: Bluepineapple72

Our final challenge takes place in a large four sectioned crater, one last slaughterfest to take down in this marathon level. Each area is themed after one of Bluepineapple’s zodiac levels, which is a nice touch. Truth be told, I find this area perfectly manageable as long as you make space. You want to make camp in the large, forested plain with the green slime so head to the watery map27 section, wait for a moment, then head around the converging army and into the open terrain of map25. From here you can kill everything from relative safety. Oh, and don’t head into the lava area until everything’s dead, it spawns archviles that will probably kill you if the zodiac forces are still kicking.

Final Thoughts

While Mtpain/Doomkid’s playthough of 12 Days of Doommas got me interested in the PUSS series, Mapping at Warpspeed was what got me hooked. The creativity and skill on display in this mapset are wonderfully displayed by the colorful cast of authors, and the differences in styles enhance the experience. Death Bear's chaotic adventure maps, Bluepineapple's imaginative quartet, notTyrone's gentler transition maps. And then there's Muumi, who made three bangers to go with his nifty crusher contribution. Compared to other community projects, I'm kind of stunned how consistently fun these maps are, and not just Mapping at Warpspeed. It's my favorite (and I'd argue the strongest overall) but there's quality all around this speedmap collection. Things like this are why my interest in Doom never seems to waver, there's always something new to play and people are always innovating, even after almost 30 years. Hats off to the whole crew and thank you for a fantastic megawad.

My apologies that I have to be so brief with the final thoughts and that I have to skip Death Bear's credits map (which I found wholesome). I wanted to at least get something in before the club moves on to Solar Struggle. I'd love to join again for that but this month was so mentally exhausting (not because of Doom) and I'm apprehensive about inevitably falling behind again around the 15th with the secret maps. Hopefully this malaise goes away and I'll feel up to playing along in the next couple days or so. Otherwise I'll see everyone in June.

DisgruntledPorcupine · May 2, 2023

MAP29: "Mapping at Warpspeed" by a whole bunch of people

UV, pistol start, saves

100% kills, 0/1 secrets

Here we go, the penultimate map, and the final big challenge. It comes to us in the form of a Megiddo style collab between many of the mappers we've seen so far, with a whopping 1533 total monsters to extinguish. It shares its midi with AA's penultimate map, also the final big fight of that wad. It's a midi that captures the feeling of a final heroic struggle quite well. Let's go through the sections.

Death Bear: The big scary bear face in the final teleporter in the previous map hinted that we were starting off with his contribution. It takes place in a small rocky moon arena, and features a nice busy slaughter. It's a cool power fantasy to start things off with as you are very well armed. Every time you think it's over, more teleport in and the action starts up again. Similar to his previous map, it's slaughter without being too oppressive and it's a great note to start things off on. Not too mean, but gives a high level of action to rope you in.

Myolden: The penguin teleporter shows that it's Myolden's time to shine. His arena is square and Egyptian themed, and once triggered unveils ledges full of revenants, with hell knights, mancubi, and cyberdemons causing trouble down on your level. You can stand atop the stairs with the megasphere at the center if you want a breather from the chaos a bit, but most of this fight will be spent running around the square trying not to get boxed in. It reminds me of the opening fight of AA's own MAP29 a little bit.

Muumi: Okay, this one won me over with the crusher gimmick. Thought it was cool but wasn't sure it was my thing in MAP09, but this fight was an absolute blast. We have a giant group of revenants, a lot of megaspheres, and 3 big slow crushers to lure them onto. Bounce around the room, luring as many as you can into the crushers while shooting the ones that decide they don't want to be turned into pancakes. You can lower the crushers again with a button at the head of the room, but the first time you do this you'll have to answer to some archviles when you go to turn them back on. The fight closes with some archviles stuck in a room that you'll have to mow down in order to leave.

Lemonlytical: A slaughter on a brown bridge over a black void with wolf spirits in the air. Just BFG your way through this one, using rockets will likely get you overwhelmed if you start off with them. This one goes by in a flash, but can be a bit dangerous with those stealth troopers on the sidelines, as well as all those revenants.

Doomcat: A colourful little space arena with monsters firing down at you from ledges, mostly hell nobles and imps with a cyberdemon. This one doesn't give you health so you may still be worn down from the previous fight, but you shouldn't get hit much as long as you keep circling around. The chaingunner will see you on your way out.

Danlex: On brand for Danlex, this one is a feast for the eyes. A beautiful curved neon staircase in the stars, with arachnotrons in floating green egg-shaped cages. The fight itself has pinkies, imps, stealth troopers, hell knights, and a cyberdemon on the stairs to BFG your way through, while of course the arachnotrons will pester you from the sidelines.

Weird Sandwich: Big ups to Mr. Sandwich, the tight time constraint did not prevent a surprisingly fleshed out arena from being offered up here. It takes place in a nice looking spaceship that continues to open up as you progress and hurl bigger and bigger threats at you, starting with loads of shotgunners and culminating in a spider mastermind with a bunch of archviles. You'll probably want to be careful with the BFG here, I was a bit overzealous with it at the start and ended up having to sneak into the spider's pen to yoink some cells so those archviles didn't torch me. Wonderful job done on this segment.

Chookum: Looks like a little park area suspended in space, very sci-fi. Imps, revenants, and stealth troopers will be pelting you from above, while a cyberdemon sits at the center and barons roam the floors with you. This one actually lets you telefrag the cyberdemon, so don't go wasting your cells on him. You have beefy barons to worry about (or you can let him infight most of them). Fun segment, and love the visual theme.

NotTyrone: This one starts in a courtyard at the foot of a techbase, not unlike MAP03. It is a lot more populated this time of course. You have a lot of room to move around so you should be fine, but shield your ears. There are lots of revenants and they tend to create a rather noisy ball of missiles for you to break up. After you go inside there's a smaller fight with hell nobles and revenants, and of course an archvile parting gift.

PeccatumMihzamiz: What's this, a newcomer? Here we have the lone contributor to not have their name on any other map in the set, and they brought gibs. This one feeds in enough former humans to populate a small city, with the odd caco to spice things up. After you've finished with the gibfest, there are archviles hanging out around the arena with some buddies that you'll need to take out in order to hit their switches and escape. Simple and satisfying, and I think those scientists watching from the sidelines think so too.

BluePineapple72: The project lead closes things out, serving up an arena with 4 quadrants styled after the elemental themes presented in his zodiac series. Each quadrant has its own host of baddies, and there are some traps as well. Going for the soulsphere in the fire quadrant causes archviles to join the fun, and you can trigger some more cyberdemons in the earth area. The earth area is the most spacious despite its damaging liquid, so you might want to hang out here a decent bit. Each section looks lovely and the action is great.

I've always loved these sort of megamap ideas where each mapper comes together with their own piece, and it makes for a very nice and climactic way to wind things down. Awesome work here.

MAP30: "Stargate BP-9" by Death Bear

UV, pistol start, no saves

100% kills, 6/8 secrets

A delightful little credits map. This one takes you through a variety of visual themes, lightly sprinkling a couple of monsters in, while showing you the credits. There are secrets hidden around that give some little bonus factoids about the set. I'm missing two, might have to go back for those. The map closes with a little teaser for the next PUSS project: Summer of Slaughter. Complete with a beach and lovely little beach towels bearing the mappers' marks. Hard to think of a better credits map than this one.

Final Thoughts: This was my first time playing a PUSS project, and this was a blast. Never really ceases to amaze me what people can create under these time limits. Got to play some wonderful work from mappers I'm familiar with as well as got introduced to some talented mappers I was unfamiliar with prior. I liked the way the AA theme was implemented quite a bit, there were lots of maps with clear influences from the set, and some that took the AA textures and made something that you would hardly associate with that wad at all. The midi selection was also a nice mix of AA tracks and non-AA tracks. AA probably has my favourite soundtrack for a megawad, so you won't ever find me complaining.

I think I found MAP11 to be the most difficult in the set, although it's a toss-up between that and MAP27. It's very hard to pick a favourite, but the top tier for me in order of appearance would be:

MAP08: Combat was fantastic and I loved the gimmick of gradually taking out the cyberdemons as you go. Visuals were also very cool, and a good example of a map that doesn't feel AA in appearance at all.

MAP13: Visually striking and just loved the pace this one had. Great action.

MAP20: Probably the best you could ever make a Run From It style map. The run itself is very fun and the finish is cathartic.

MAP26: A more twilit sort of Culture Shock take. Looks beautiful and plays very nice, and I have a soft spot for it showing me one of my favourite stewboy midis again which I hadn't heard in some time.

MAP27: The big slaughter. Loved the visuals and the fighting itself was very well designed and fun to take apart.

MAP29: Just loved it as a way to find things to a close. Nice and climactic, and lots of great little fights. Muumi's bringing back of the crushers might be one of my favourite fights in the set.

Great set, and I look forward to playing more PUSS entries in the future!

Azure_Horror · May 3, 2023

Once again, I hit a writer's block... Lets try to remedy things

Map 28 by @Death Bear

In a stark contrast with Astrological Maps right before it, Planet Chasers feels very much like Doom 2: Hell on Earth homage. This is wonderful idea, IMHO. Map 28 feels like a handshake between the IWAD which started it all and the Greatest* pWAD of all time!

(*Greatest according to top WADs of all time thread, at least)

Yes, I like Doom 2 levels. They may be occasionally clumsy, but they also have a lot of unique traits, which all rarely get imitated. In particular, I love a trio of Dead Simple - Tricks and Traps - The Pit. The Pit, for all its flaws, is proto-Plutonian, and feels like a natural development of previous two maps.

Ok, back to Planet Chasers: the level has 3 sections:

1) Alien-built Doom2-style Techbase

2) Big Old-school slaughter

3) Pyramids in the void

Section 1) felt memorable for its focus on plasma rifle vs hitscan/revs in combination with limited defensive items.

Section 2) has a really nefarious Spider Mastermind. Left to her own devises, she is a galaxy-sized 3000 hp chaingunner, and she really can reach you in most parts of the valley. She also instigates lots of Pain Elemental infighting, which messes the arena quite badly. The two megaspheres do get worn out down little-by-little, and all the flying mayhem makes dodging cyb rockets and Rev/Defender heatseekers much harder.

Section 3) is focused on damaging floor. There are safe islands in the damaging void, but the battlefield has only little cover. Wide and sweeping movements are encouraged, but they also involve running over the damaging void...

In short, I really, really love Planet Chasers. Like I said, this level feels like a handshake between Doom 2 and Ancient Aliens pWAD. I think, the manages to combine traits of both megaWADs. And it plays really well, too!

Edited May 4, 2023 by Azure_Horror

Weird Sandwich · May 6, 2023

I hope it's still okay posting this well into May, but I'm bad at writing so this took me a while. First up, thanks for playing through the wad and posting thoughtful comments and feedback everyone! It's truly appreciated and I enjoyed reading everyone's words, even when the reactions were more negative. Feedback like this is important to continue developing mapping skills, and is something that can be hard to find as the ability to formulate feelings of a map into constructive feedback is a skill unto itself.

Also need to give a massive thanks to skillsaw, Ancient Aliens is a masterpiece and MAWS obviously wouldn't have been possible without it. I played it in preparation for this project and it was the most fun I had gaming that year, and not just in Doom. A big part of that credit also goes to stewboy and his incredible midi soundtrack, just awesome stuff.

Map 18: Close Encounters of the Weird Kind

Spoiler

^{Sometimes I plan out maps beforehand on paper...... very roughly}

Tried to focus more on the combat encounters here, heavily inspired by the close-quarters setpieces found throughout AA (hence the map name) and all connected by a spaceport hub. Basing a map around discrete arenas helps in a speedmap, as one or two can be cut if running close to the deadline. I did also want to give the hub an interesting layout and originally was planning to have it open up to reveal new monsters upon each revisit, although I ran out of time to implement that.

The first submission of the map was actually a bit harder, with less shotgun ammo in the first half to force more rocket use in the rev/archie UFO, and even more barons in the archvile tunnel of doom. Death Bear is the only person I know for sure who was subjected to this harder version (Sorry!). That baron hallway is the fight I'm happiest with, though I was surprised that it was compared a few times to something out of Sunlust as I haven't played that.

Map 24: Cryptozoophobia

Spoiler

^{Not going to win any art awards anytime soon}

This map was made with knowledge that the next PUSS would be a slaughter project, so it was partly a practice attempt, resulting in: A slaughter-lite map made by a person who doesn't like slaughter maps, for people who don't like slaughter maps. So the focus was on trying to make a giant spectacle that wasn't actually too difficult, while also wanting to practice making a large geometrical structure. There was some discussion about whether this was a magnum opus attempt, and while I wasn't trying for one, I can see how the goals of the map can lead to that impression.

The final fight on the top of the structure was the first part of the map that was constructed, which then dictated how large the earlier areas ended up being and partly why they were so sparse (was also very stubborn sticking to the 666 monster total). This is where the speedmappiness shows itself, as there wasn't enough time to rework or resize the early areas to suit the combat better. This is the flipside to planning out the layout before you start, it allows you to very quickly slap down sectors, but it can also make you inflexible.

None of the secrets were in the original submission, BluePineapple graciously let me add them outside of mapping time after making some playtesting recommendations (along with quite a bit of bugfixes and balancing). This is probably why they're a bit awkwardly implemented. I wasn't going for La-Mulana level obscurity as mentioned by RHhe82, though I do love that game (and even used music tracks from it for some of my other maps). The visuals for the map were indeed inspired by maps 25 and 18 from AA, although the progression of the map involving circling around a central pillar that later opens up was inspired by Map10: Creation from Eviternity.

Map 29 Contribution

Spoiler

Loved being a part of this collab map, it's such an awesome way to finish off a project like this! And I think the midi was a perfect fit, really captures the feeling of making one last push at the end of a journey (which makes sense considering it's in the same map spot in AA).

I wanted to make a sort of combat puzzle for my section, so the first enemies you encounter all start facing away from you, allowing you to get into better position if you approach cautiously. This is why you teleport in facing the locked door dead end, it was an attempt to pause players a little bit so they don't start shooting immediately. From there I wanted to add a cyberdemon and mastermind somewhere, because hey the player already has a BFG anyway! It was kind of liberating to not have to worry about weapon progression here. In terms of building it in an hour, I'll just say that symmetry is a speedmappers best friend (and it came in very handy for the individual arenas in maps 18 and 24 too). The excellent AA textures also allow you to get away with using minimal sector detailing, no doubt my maps here would look much worse using the stock textures.

Comments on other maps:

Spoiler

-Death Bear's passion for this wad really shines through, not just because of the high number of maps but the clear effort put into constructing them. The opening map and the early hub maps set a consistency that holds together the first half of the wad, and are each fun in their own right. Planet Chasers is a perfect send-off as the final normal map, bringing everything full circle. Death Bear is modest about his maps as seen in his earlier comments in the thread, but it's truly impressive the standard of quality (in both gameplay and visuals) he's able to maintain with the high output he has.

Starlight Excellent would have been a great map too (and I still feel a little guilty about having mine replace it, no matter what you say!)

-Myolden displays a mastery of the AA textures here, bringing maps that are a joy to look at and play. I don't have much to say here, they're just really good maps.

-NotTyrone's maps are a welcome dose of breezy fun that keep the first half of the wad moving at a nice pace. They manage to convey a good sense of place without too much intricate detailing, with a bit of storytelling too.

-Muumi's contributions are once again excellent. He (along with Peccatum Mizhamiz) makes the kinds of map I wish I could make, having interesting and well implemented gimmicks without sacrificing fun gameplay or visuals. He has another banger map in What Lies Beneath, if you haven't checked that out.

-BluePineapple really outdid himself with this one, the astrology maps have an audacious ambitiousness to them that I love. They're uncompromising in every aspect (particularly Of Waves And Woe), which is a difficult achievement for a speedmap. Especially since they turned out so good.

The single map submissions from the other mappers, some familiar and some new to PUSS, were all fun and most importantly, each offered their own unique visual and gameplay identity distinct from the rest of the project. This variety is an essential part of why community projects are enjoyable, and each mapper provided a valuable contribution.

-Lemonlytical gives us a moody, dark map that stands out on it's own in terms of style. A fun contribution by them.

-BlooberryPi3 makes effective use of stock textures, blending them seamlessly into the map with the AA resources to create a unique experience to the rest of the wad.

-Cheesewheel's recreation of Lazarus Labs is spot on. These kind of demake maps are always fun to see, and Cheesewheel delivered beautifully.

-LateNightPerson, a PUSS regular, makes his appearance with a short but sweet cave map. A change of pace that I enjoyed.

-Danlex delivers a great looking map that utilises the AA textures to their fullest extent, and which plays well too.

-Although the simplest map of the set I do genuinely like Hiding The Secrets by theBMFG, it works as a nice breather map and some of the more quirky elements help make it feel more like a strange alien location. The chaingunner trap is also a good gag, that doesn't feel unfair because you'll be well stocked up at that point.

-Doomcat's map is a big adventure reminiscent of The Nectar Flow, I like it. Impressive work for someone so young.

-Chookum also brings us a unique environment, this time an alien desert. Cool visuals and nice use of some Boom effects to really sell the concept.

Random thoughts on project as a whole:

Spoiler

-This wad really felt like an important milestone for PUSS, not just for having 32 maps but for it's quality too. You can see the momentum building up from CCC in Jan, through MOTS and Speed Squred, into this. Just glad to be a part of it!

-I won't play favourites with the actual maps, but I will say that Another Glance At The Paradise might be my favourite map name. Putting aside the Hell Revealed connection, it's just a very evocative little phrase.

-It's always fun when a wad includes a new player character, so I love the creation of Zorglo for this.

-I never did get around to making a map for Summer of Slaughter. Cryptozoophobia was made right at the end of a very busy 6 month mapping period, and while that practice probably helped me achieve the scope of that map, I was also super burnt out by the end. I slowed down my mapping output afterwards and ended up missing that project. Speedmapping is fun, but too much can get stressful!

RHhe82 · May 6, 2023

1 hour ago, Weird Sandwich said:

I wasn't going for La-Mulana level obscurity as mentioned by RHhe82, though I do love that game (and even used music tracks from it for some of my other maps).

In hindsight I wonder if I was exaggerating a bit :-D The association I made for that game might (at least partially) stem from hieroglyphs and decorative textures from Ancient Alien texture set, as La-Mulana also features egyptian mythology among other ancient stuff... Anyway, I also do love^* La-Mulana, and if there wads using music from that game, I really want to play them!

^{* Although this love is an acquired one, and requires submitting to its sadistic puzzles and learning to love it; much like Dark Souls also had me go through originally :P}

Edited May 6, 2023 by RHhe82

Weird Sandwich · May 6, 2023

36 minutes ago, RHhe82 said:

Anyway, I also do love^* La-Mulana, and if there wads using music from that game, I really want to play them!

Well my map for PUSS XV: Mysterious Mayan Madness uses a track, since it was fitting with the wads theme of secret-hunting in temples. It's not released however, and I think the current download has an old version of my map, but keep an eye out for finished version when it releases.

^{Also with that last comment, I think we have similar tastes in games :P}

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