Morituri [12 short vanilla maps]

[Tiramisu]

Deep within the bowels of Hell, sits the fabled Black Gauntlet - a chain of arenas so fearsome and brutal, that even battle-hardened demons feel a shiver down their spine at the thought of ending up there.

 

If one were to brave the arenas and come out victorious, untold riches will be theirs. But alas - nothing of this sort has ever happened. The gauntlet crushes challenger after challenger, their exploits and deaths viewed in real time by the richest of Hell's nobles.

 

Are you a prisoner, sent here as a method of execution? A gladiator, searching for a glorious death? An adventurer, drawn in by the promise of treasure?

 

It doesn't matter now. Now you are here - and the show's about to begin...

 

MORITURI is a set of 12 short, yet very hard and gimmicky combat puzzles, made using exclusively vanilla textures and music. A successful run of each map should take no more than 1-2 minutes, but the catch is, be prepared for a LOT of grinding to reach that point - because the maps are not only difficult, they are absolutely, unabashedly sadistic in their difficulty.

 

So heed my words when I say that this wad might not be for everyone - certainly if you don't enjoy getting your teeth kicked in over and over while you ponder whether it was skill issue or suboptimal strategy this time, then I think you should probably give this one a pass. If you're still not sure, you can check out the first map - if you can beat it while actually enjoying yourself to a reasonable degree, then you're probably good to go.

 

And if you are a very experienced player that eats such wads for breakfast, be warned that some of the maps have relatively high RNG compared to other challenge wads, as determined by high-level testing.

 

This wad is technically vanilla-compatible, but I do not actually recommend playing it in vanilla DOOM. The combination of low resolution, capped mouse sensitivity and vertical mouse movement might make some of these maps much more difficult (if not borderline impossible). If you still want to try, I strongly recommend skipping any maps that require platforming or precise movement.

 

IWAD - DOOM2.WAD
Map format - Doom (complevel 2)
Tested in - Crispy Doom, Chocolate Doom, DSDA-Doom

 

Included maps - MAP01-MAP12, plus two ending maps
Difficulty settings - not implemented

 

Jump/crouch/freelook - no
Pistol start - mandatory

 

Known issues - MAP09 is impossible in GZDOOM, due to an Arachnotron's projectiles activating a shootable linedef too early (even in Strict compatibility mode). In general I don't recommend playing this in (G)ZDOOM, if you do so then it's at your own risk.

 

Credits:

 

- Scionox and JackDBS for testing and feedback
- In-game text made using eevee's text generator
- Titlepic drawn by me

 

morituri-v1-0.zip

 

Q: What the fuck, Tiramisu?
A: I don't know!! This is not the kind of wad I usually make (or play), it just kind of came into existence as a result of experimenting with monster placement ideas. Once I had a few map's worth of content down, I decided to compile it into a new wad, and use it as a dropbox for ideas too out-there to put into regular maps. All in all, I can't say I din't have fun making this, but you're entirely justified in the initial question!

 

Q: Since these maps are so short, would you recommend playing them saveless?
A: That's a good question - on one hand, if you like that kind of challenge then go ahead, on the other, know that I personally didn't bother doing that. In most of the maps, I always saved between each major "phase", that is 2-3 times per map - and I think that's a good balance to follow. Just keep in mind that if a phase doesn't refill your health at the start, then it's sometimes worth going back to see if you can do better on the previous phase and carry over more health. I do not recommend saving mid-phase to micro-manage your luck (I just think that's not a fun way to play), nor do I recommend going saveless on a first run, before you've practiced the map enough to feel comfortable.

Edited April 13 by Tiramisu

[slowfade]

While I can't play them properly myself, I liked the designs. Hope to see how good players get through these. The Barrel is especially wicked, I think.

[Walter confetti]

Cheated the shit out of everything for playing this mapset but... a really intriguing work! Get until MAP07, really neat stuff!

[LadyMistDragon]

Just checking these maps out. Haven't seen much of your name lately so I assumed you were probably toiling in the community project mines.

 

 

 

[SleepyVelvet]

These are really fucking good.  Here's FDAs of total and utter success and/or patience.  noisy_morituri_funny_fdas.zip

 

(they are really fucking good, though)

[ByRntStarOEI]

Hey, I figured I would give this wad a shot, since I like puzzle like combat. I got to map 4 before I called it quits, not necessarily because I got feed up, but more so to take a break. But I did use the opportunity to figure out how to record demos in Dsdadoom. So here I present to you, my first two doom demos released to the public:

 

BSmori-Imp.zip

 

The first one is my second attempt, which got cut short due to a phone call. The second one I made it a tad bit further. I realized during the first play through of map 3 that I was probably suppose to pistol start these, so I kinda let myself die to do a restart. Although it's not in the demo, I managed to get to #4, but couldn't figure out how to advance in it very far.

 

Not really sure what kind of feedback I should give since you did warn it would be unfair. Frustrating at times, yes, but I will say it was a fun trying to pick apart each challenge that I've made it to, so far. Well maybe except for the start of map 4 and any part involving chain-gunners lol.

[jmac]

I managed to beat the first map after about 10 minutes of trying, and I felt pretty good about that. My pride fizzled out though when I realized it was titled "the warmup".

[Tiramisu]

OMG you people are out here doing FDAs and stuff when I specifically said these maps are not designed for saveless without practice! Oh well, if you like your masochism extra masochistic then who am I to say no? OwO

 

@LadyMistDragon

 

"Toiling in the community project mines" is an apt way of putting it lol, indeed PUSS events have taken up a sizable part of my mapping time for the remainder of last year. And this year I've been playing/mapping for DOOM a bit less so far, but I still got some WIP stuff going on like Freetonia EP2 and a few maps for an unannounced project!

 

@SleepyVelvet

 

That little bit of concern about the saveless plays aside, the demos sure were an entertaining watch - so much that I binged them all in one go, despite initially planning to only watch the first few for a start :P Here's some comments to most of them:

 

MAP01 - That was actually the first time I've ever seen anyone dodge a Rev so consistently - it's a skill I was never able to master myself! As you fought the second Revenant wave I thought "risky move, leaving the second SM like that", and surely enough my fears were confirmed :P
MAP02 - This sort of slow movement around the circle is how I always play the map.
MAP04 - Really exciting demo from the midway point onward, I see you figured out the second Manc fight just in the nick of time, and that Rev fight kept me on the edge of my seat :)
MAP06 - I was looking forward to this one, that was a really fantastic first attempt, just a bit too slow but you almost had it!
MAP07 - In this map I tend to run to the opposite side of the arena when the Manc phase starts, but clearing out one of the wings ASAP does seem like a better strategy. Also nobody expects the third Pain Elemental phase in MAP07 XD
MAP08 - This map is admittedly kind of not really fair until you get to know the layout. But I gotta say you are a lot better at sawing stuff than I am, I don't think I ever managed to clear out all the Lost Souls + PE before advancing to the second phase. :)
MAP09 - The start of this map is one of the hardest if not the hardest part of the entire wad, not surprised to see you have a hard time with it.
MAP10 - Perfectly normal reaction to MAP10.
MAP12 - Glad to see the Chaingunners doing their job, they're not actually that dangerous because of the Invis sphere but the real danger lies in not getting hit by a rocket while dealing with them :p

 

@ByRntStarOEI

 

I really liked both your MAP01 demos - you did great on both, and I'm also just glad to see how much each run of that map can differ! MAP02 was utter chaos, and on MAP03 I see you got intimidated by the HKs lol. As for MAP04, as Scionox said during testing it mostly just comes down to "practice vs Fatso", if you can dodge a single Manc's volleys consistently then you should be able to handle the various Manc configurations in that map as well.

 

And yeah, glad you liked it! "Picking apart each challenge" is the name of the game here, so I'm happy to see the wad is doing its job in that regard :)

 

@jmac

 

100% intended >:)

Edited April 13 by Tiramisu

[plums]

Fun little maps, enjoyed playing through them. Barrel Of Fun was an especially clever concept.

 

I do think you oversold the difficulty a little bit; they were hard, and I don't think they should have been harder, but they were fairly gentle compared to some similar stuff I've played recently like Science & Industry by @Portponky (very recommended, the difficulty is mostly in figuring out what to do), or @dashlet's Escape the Chambers. I managed to beat MAP03 on the first try, even. Kind of wish I had recorded my playthroughs now!

 

Also MAP04 reminded me of this silly thing by El Inferno. A little more enjoyable, fortunately.

 

Anyhow cool maps, well done.

[Tiramisu]

@plums Heh, I guess this just goes to show how relative the concept of "difficulty" is in DOOM nowadays - as I've already seen from some of the reactions the average player will not be able to touch these maps, and then you have people like one of my testers (you can probably guess which one lol) who basically finds them mostly very easy :P

 

From my experience, the closest thing you can get to actually describing the difficulty of a wad is to compare it to another one - however neither me or my testers have been able to find a good comparison for this one (if anyone reading this has anything come to mind, then that would be very useful to know!). So anyway, in the end I just decided it's the thought that counts and described the maps as "sadistically hard" because that's the vibe I was generally going for when making them ;)

 

That aside, thanks for playing, glad you enjoyed it!

 

^{(Also as for that MAP04/El Inferno thing dodging Manc volleys is peak DOOM gameplay, don't let anyone tell you otherwise 👍)}

[plums]

I started trying to do casual no-save maxes for these maps, but got busy with some other things so I didn't finish maps 8, 9, 10. I'm not likely to go back to trying any time soon, so here is what I did manage:

morituri-plums-casualmax.zip

 

I left the recording numbers in, in case you were curious about how many attempts each map took. No numeric suffix = first try, 00000 = second try, 00001 = third try, etc.

 

And yeah I don't know a great point of comparison for difficulty for these maps either, oh well!

[Tiramisu]

@plums Just watched the whole thing - great job on the set, very entertaining! I think the short map nature of this wad really makes it good for binge-ing demos too, lol

 

Anyway, here's some thoughts I had while watching:

 

Spoiler

 

MAP01 - Interesting how you took such a long time with the initial enemies - I mean, it makes sense to make sure the PE is dead first, but to be honest my preferred strategy is to just make it infight the Baron and then go straight to opening stuff (sometimes I even open all four gates immediately, that's always a hoot and with a surprisingly high success rate too, lol). Anyway I liked this demo, it shows me you have a very calm, tactical approach to playing! And also nice to see you got the spiders to infight, I love it when that happens XD

 

MAP02 - Like I said to SleepyVelvet, this sort of slow movement around the circle is how I always play the map. Not surprised this is the one that took you the least tries, I always thought it was the easiest one too (not counting MAP13, also maybe tied with MAP07).

 

MAP03 - I liked how you really prioritized those shotgunners and made sure the HKs and Cacos are infighting, that's a way to tackle the map that just screams efficiency to me.

 

MAP04 - MAN that was a close one with the Revs, I thought SleepyVelvet's was close but this just takes the cake (I was anxious even though I knew this was a successful demo lol)! Also just for the record, during the second fight I personally tend to just focus on one of the sides and dodge the other by sound.

 

MAP05 - Amazingly efficient run, I keep being impressed with how efficient these are. Love how you delayed the Megasphere to get the first phase done faster and skipped the SSG in favor of the plasma gun later on.

 

MAP06 - Another very entertaining one, I liked how you went straight to shooting the second set of switches while the Manc and Rev were still infighting, and then the last slime corridor at 5% health was just anxiety itself lol

 

MAP07 - Interesting to see you pistol and punch so much stuff here, it honestly didn't occur to me to do that but it certainly saves a lot of ammo (and those leftover SSG shots really do come in handy here)!

 

MAP11 - My jaw genuinely dropped when I saw you body-block that lift - in all my runs it never once occurred to me that you could do that! Also great infighting at the last fight - you really dismantled that one completely and utterly.

 

MAP12 - Surprised to see you get this one done in so few tries, I always thought it was one of the harder ones (it certainly took me more practice to master it lol). But this was just a very technically sound run - up until the halfway point at least, and then it started getting super intense with the chaingunners and all the action at the lift. Finally I lol'd at the stealth Imp at the end, genuinely no idea what happened there (maybe it somehow got stuck in the pillar?)

 

MAP13 - Watched this with a huge grin on my face all throughout, actually super hilarious demo XD I feel like the spider mastermind has just hit a new low XDD