What are you playing now?

[ironicmoustache]

Getting back into Doom after a long break due to work and horrible back pain and moving and other nonsense. Playing the 1000 Line Community Project right now and thoroughly enjoying it. Just beat MAP16, which was quite a doozy (in a good way, mind...). Good way to get back into Doom, I suppose.

Edited February 24, 2021 by ironicmoustache

[Dubbag]

Currently playing through "Valiant"

[Crusader No Regret]

Finally loaded up Hocus Pocus Doom even though it's been sitting there downloaded ever since the 2019 Cacowards.  Sometimes I get bored with shooting Doom demons with Doom weapons and this TC delivers a different experience from the familiar.  Fairly breezy to pick up and play a session, at first.  Then the platforming gets trickier.  It becomes too much for me to try to finish maps in one go so I resort to periodic saves (and sometimes more frequent ones at the harder bits) to make progress.  The simplicity of the combat also makes the mod very approachable when I don't want to think too hard about that aspect and focus on the exploration.

 

Also the Bugbears (and their similar cousins from other themes) turn pinky demons green with envy at how dangerous they are.  With monsters able to pass through the player and vice versa, they can pile up a lot of damage really fast even without projectiles of any sort.  Generated lots of swearing.  I've finished 3 episodes but not sure if I want to go for the 4th given how the platforming has been getting trickier and how much I've sworn at the game when failing jumps or getting chain hit by melee enemies.

 

Also finally going through Hellfire Dreams.  To mix it up, I loaded the Touhou Doom enemies and weapons mods to go with it.  The weapons have more raw DPS than the default Doom arsenal but the replacement enemies are also more aggressive so it's not like I took away the challenge.  Dammaku archviles and revenants are easier to deal with than original vanilla monsters but the lower tier monsters are upgraded and Gensokyo enemies can do a lot of damage at close range.  And because they have no alert sound and they fly and the maps tend to have lots of tight spaces, they get plenty of opportunity to sneak up on me.  Overall it's been more fun, especially given how long the SSG is withheld.

 

  Map 6 still frustrates me.  Obtuse progression, lots of tight spaces, and nukage thus entailing radsuit management all combine into a trek where it's difficult to make progress.  Earlier maps are on the shorter side so less trouble making progress.  Even if I die a few times.  I do enjoy the visual style but map 6 does suck a lot of enjoyment out.  Past it though and moving on.

[joepallai]

Started playing "The Concrete Octagon" by Leon Kelz, whom I'm unfamiliar with; but jugging by this level I will look at his other stuff.   It's a large complex map from '98 that ended up killing me halfway through due to poor risk taking on my part.   

 

Will go back to Dark Covenant as Map 7 onwards looks really good.

[Endless]

Returning to play Eviternity for my #50 review. One of the first megawads that showed me the true capabilities of modern mappers and how the Doom community was more than alive. I think it needs no further introduction. I'm on MAP20 and it's incredibly fun, just as I remember it.

[joepallai]

Went back to Dark Covenant, finally got past Map 07 from a pistol start and then blew through Map 08 and ended up getting killed on Map09.   Really liking the second half more than the first (Map 03 is still brilliant).   

 

Took a break from that and played The Rabbit Hole by Michael "Prower" Reed.   Pretty good '95 level with some visual bugs and ugly texturing in spots--fun level though, with a great set piece in the NE section of the map.   Lotta fun in that section and mappers could learn a thing or two there; I'm definitely going to re-examine that area as it was an intense rolling fight for me.   Overall I'd give it a 4 out of 5.

[Stabbey]

I'm playing Epic 2 and up to Map 15. I like the puzzles and secrets, but I am extremely tired of ambush-flag monsters around literally every corner. When you place an ambush monster around every corner, the player learns to expect that, and is prepared to kill them. Thus, they only serve to waste the player's time and inflate the monster count.

[galileo31dos01]

Recently finished up "Dark Scythe", a joke megawad which comprises 43 different dead simple knock-offs. Some genuinely creative and charming ideas to find, lots of simple but amusing twists for the lols, a handful very low effort memes that I personally didn't care much, and the occasional nope. I was in my best honest mood and wrote down random brief paragraphs as I was done with each map. All pistol starts, GLBoom+ for the standard 30 maps, including 31-32 a bit then switched to ZDoom for the whole segment 31-43. 

 

disclaimer: bare in mind these comments aren't always descriptive of what happened in the maps. If I didn't give you an image of what I expressed, you might have to go and play the maps on your own c:

 

Spoiler

01. Played this map alone before when DS was the DWMC's April's 1st joke and I was very hyped. Like reliving Alm's classic, even if I never replayed any of the Scythe map packs. Neat appetizer, his trademark gothic motif all around, chewy start and fun surprise midway (got me again this time!). Dismantled the SSG "secret" in one touch, heh. Finale was even more simple (:

 

02. Hmm, okay I get it now. Misalignments aside, the vista of the centre is kinda nice. Shoot stuff, strafe a bit, remove lost soul remainders, done, simple as that.

 

03. Egyptian texturing is a win in my book. Very nice twist to the core theme, wouldn't feel out if it were in AAliens for example. Like all AD_79, I expected archviles. You ask you receive! In the end I only used the BFG for one shot in something's erection.

 

04. Slightly cramped and surprisingly tight in ammo. Arachnotron phase was much more spacious and less thrilling, but fun nevertheless. Left with a handful bullets in my pocket and rotten pieces of archvile flesh on my fist.

 

05. Metallic cube courtesy of Cannonball. I'm sure if it weren't a dead simple rehearsal it'd be detailed in pipes and pistons and whatnot. Classic fun, with a few shallow archviles tossed in. Trying not to use the word "simple" too often...

 

06. Colorful, cyberspace theme is cool. Fights aren't much to talk about --it's dead simple with slightly less room than the original-- but worth noting it had actual safe spots to camp, the cubes with shells. Not sure if the ending archviles added anything but a time sink.

 

07. Gimmicky map in a way. Opted to digest all the blur spheres before killing the mancubus because I could. I thought the caged arachnotrons activated via voodoo dolls, but after a while I got the true idea, interesting mechanics there. The archvile phase was, awkward. I play with openGL for smoothest performance possible (for me) and the pitch black corridors were horrible, invisible imps sneaking out of nowhere. Guess you aren't meant to get 100% kills?

 

08. Enjoyed this one a lot. First room had an infight-centric mechanic similar to AD's map, a cyb and assorted flesh. Second phase featured some openness with lots of imps and few cacos, more infight basically though you can still go do something else. Structurally neat, kinda reminded me of the dead simple map in "Heroes' Tales" although both are very different. Good arachnotron placement, they killed some cliff imps for me.

 

09. An Inferno styled arena looking nice. Played somewhat similar to Dragonfly's map except it added other beasts in the arachnotron phase. That was a shit ton of ammo, dude. If Doom physics were like IRL the mancubi on the platforms would be constantly stomping over the ammo boxes and hurting their feet :p

 

10. LOL please that made me laugh so hard, thanks for that. So basically like a disco but without flashing lights and colours. Admittedly the arachnotron phase was by far the most fun part. Obviously no other song than the chosen one could have been more fitting.

 

11. Nice buildup in suspense. The mancubi phase was genuienly intense, carved through one corner to get rockets, then work from there (archviles synchronized to leave me badly exposed once). Not sure about the second phase: archvile spam was always too much for the little cover available, cyb usually got rekt too soon while I was killing arachnotrons as fast as I could. After who knows how many times roasted I couldn't be bothered anymore and prayed for a good vile-jump to the exit. Might try to bum rush them with BFG another time and perhaps win. After a talk with Aurelius it seems that's one way... (sorry for the rant!!)

 

12. Layout reminded me of JC's map 31 in "Survive in Hell", minus the theme. Lots of ammo for your amusement. Good first phase, alright second phase, some skybox oddities with the cacos. One fatso was stuck in a tree, lol.

 

13. Interesting plan. Main field has 10% damaging lava, rocket-centric with SSG/PR support. Second phase is exciting because archviles will very likely undo everything unless you opt for suicidal faceplanting.

 

14. More pain liquid pressure, good stuff. Soft damage though, classic phases without special additions, which might start to get old. Didn't get to use the secret BFG at all.

 

15. Weird map. Midtex not impassable, HOM on the start platform. Both phases were okay, second just added cacos. Those big arrows were kind of tacky, but it's supposed to be simple so whatever. Didn't bother killing that archvile spam without enough rockets so I left, only the secret exit took me to map16 (which I noticed much later). Troll move I guess. Meh.

 

16. Deceased complex, let's just say. Could swear the mapper was Dobu, but it's actually an_mutt, who went to overhaul the arena into a fashionable technological base of operation and raise its price to a good five million dollars. Movement is awkward on purpose. Got my first blur sphere death in the wad, five seconds in the map. Later on nearly died to archvile insta-fire. Not sure what that cyb was meant to accomplish though I suppose if you know of the BFG placement (lol) you can remove him quicker. This is when I noticed I wasn't on map 31...

 

17. Heh, superiors. I accidentally snagged the second invul after purposely snagging the first invul after accidentally snagging a blur sphere. Pressed the switch and it all paid in the end.  Shortest map so far I think. Also first map with no mancubi or arachnotrons.

 

18. Another quickie. Inverted flats, grass on ceiling, hurtful sky on the floor, and that's all there is to say. Nothing else was new, no twists to monster placement, which felt missing.

 

19. Ugh, that took over 40 attempts. Basically a "Run" tribute. No time to waste, get both phases cleaned up before your voodoo doll is squashed. Each and every single inconvenience is most likely a restart, whether your fault or not. Some better control over arachnotron movement rng wouldn't have hurt the map. Super easy to run out of BFG ammo and be fucked by auto-switch.  Though again, it's not that serious. Dig the fireblu sky.

 

20. Wow...

 

21. Okay that was, scary. Good thing the cybs can't leave their field. The spider colony was nerve-wracking. I must have bumped on every single SMM at least once. Getting the mechanic right in time helped immeasurably. Decided to skip the cyb grind, then came back and killed them slowly.

 

22. Dead simple only for hamsters. Really, ask the mancubi and arachnotrons if they agreed with the mapper's intentions :p

 

23. Neat puzzle. I was reminded of one situation in "H2H: Xmas" where I fell in a seemingly inescapable barrel trap and had to free myself by bullet tapping a barrel out of the way. Important key here: should not hit a barrel twice, because it can explode if first shot dealt +6. Past that, it ended in the classic spider shootout, with more revs and viles for flavor.

 

24. Uh, strange. The map broke a couple times, after the last mancubus died nothing else happened. Due to the overly expansive size of the map, you get lots of visual glitches, weird hitscan bugs, and voodoo doll turning into ghost, thus he skips all the triggers. Thankfully there's the option "fix clipping problems in large levels" in glb+ that seemed to save this, partially (exit platform raised, but no spiders reveal). Tried killing the mancubi in the centre and the walls did lower that time. So strange...

 

25. Noticed some additional shadows in the main field. Twist was a sizable revenant ambush on each doorway, nice and quick BFG spam.

 

26. Nah, it wasn't even funny.

 

27. Much better, at least I could tell where to shoot. Scary first phase though it works to line up the mancubi and kill them from the closest corner. Similar thing with the arachnotrons that get inside. Some ceiling height differences made revenant fireballs crash into the sky.

 

28. Fuck that's so many fat hitboxes. I got the gimmick but not how to lower the other weapons until it was too late. Had to grind the majority with SSG, hoping the arachnotrons would cooperate and not make a roadblock that'd kill me. Took some tries though. I then checked if I could arm myself better at the start, and it's nearly suicidal but doable. Oh well, not too bad I guess.

 

29. Loved this! Music was also super charming. Definitely a top 5 favourite candidate.

 

30. Also lovely. Noticed one of the screenshots in the gallery was a BFG in a corner --since there's no such gun in og dead simple, thought it was the "fake" one and it'd activate an easter egg or something. Still cute stuff all around. Appreciated the lack of an IoS. Personally I liked the 3rd place miniature over the 1st and 2nd (;

 

31. Start looked promising, finally a different aesthetic. The arachnotron was stuck in a hanging corpse, a sign that this was tested in zdoom. So, that reveal got me moving. Loud screaming everywhere, unobtainable helmets, lots of missiles coming from fake fireblu. Found a good amount of rockets, yet nowhere near enough to kill 800 revenants. Found a key, a fake exit with crushers, missing textures probably on purpose but not sure. The real exit was on the lowest floor, and that was it. I went back to check on iddqd what else was to do, but apparently there was nothing else, no ammo, no means to kill everything, literally nothing worth looking at. That was, weird, and kind of a letdown. It seems unfinished, possibly due to time constraints, so not much of joy here unfortunately.

 

32. Holy mother of, wow. From a second to another my frames dropped to 0 and never recovered from there. Still wanted to see how far I could get. And yeah, furthest I got was to the other archviles, and that's where it got unmanageable... Damn you, Scotty.

 

33. Despite being a low effort meme, it managed to be actually fun, kind of. Certainly less annoying than map 26. What sucked was the lack of extra ammo or weaponry. Barely had enough to pistol the last 5 arachnotrons. It was okay though.

 

34. This was fine. Felt like a parody of that statement about how doors slow down the pace (I've seen it in discussions). For me the funniest part was definitely when I expected the arachnotron reveal but it was another door reveal, lol.

 

35. Interesting. Not much to say, except everything is lifts and HOMs. Looks like the bonus maps stock most of the comedy...

 

36. Pretty details. That's all.

 

37. Was wondering when we'll see the crossroads of dead simple and IoS. Nowhere near as bad as the icon tends to make things, so good times.

 

38. Lol, well, admittedly enjoyed a lot this. Wanted to leave just one arachnotron do all the dirty work, as much as possible. The BFG was a surprise I didn't expect, maybe to cut the cleanup phase if that's what you wanna do.

 

39. Ay ay ay, never a zombiemen horde was this lethal. Blur spheres were useful for once. Sometimes I couldn't even make it to the closest blur sphere, or to the megasphere. Get lucky, but nothing to hate really. Now if those were sergeants...

 

40. A follow-up of the previous map, regarding zombiemen presence. Health got a little tight towards the end but luckily the spam was over. Chaingun got to shine here!

 

41. Corrupted dead simple, the way '95 "I made my first map!!" did. Amusing how space is tight first then there was one looooong hallway to the north. The several stuck arachnotrons added to the amusement. Silly sweet stuff, Xaser.

 

42. Not too bad, not so fun either. Mancubi with lost souls was fine, next one had revenants and arachnotrons teleporting everywhere in that same small-ish room, topped off with an archvile in the open. I camped and abused of a repetitive door til the clausterfuck cleaned itself, because with no good health and cover it didn't seem engaging.

 

43. Aww, what a wholesome theatrical performance to end this mapset!

 

Edited April 6, 2021 by galileo31dos01

[Gideon020]

Nova: The Birth with Trailblazer and Corruption Cards, and by vile grace and perfidious chance, I have made it to Iron Exuviae with a decent number of upgraded weapons and some manageable permanent effects.

 

Only playing the Hell On Earth Starter Pack with Hideous Destructor has given me more of a challenge.

[Rymante]

Currently in the middle of 'Ancient Aliens' and so far I'm freaking loving it, recently finished Map 13.  The visuals have been stupendous throughout, the music is incredibly catchy & the fights are action pakced, just the right level of 'mean-ness'......on HMP at least. ^_^

[ax34]

Adventures of Square

[RonLivingston]

Pokemon sword and shield

[Euphoricape]

Recently finished Going down which I really enjoyed and found very challenging in places. Currently about a third of the way through valiant which is also fantastic but much harder than I was expecting.

[Salt-Man Z]

Barely played anything since Jan (nearing the end of my Plutonia replay) but I had to give Heartland a try when I saw it. Absolutely amazing stuff, just have the final map to go.

[joepallai]

Still dying to Map09 of Dark Covenant...stupid revenant rocket in the last room got me this time.   Good map overall, classic styled '96 map.   Looking forward to the last two maps after I beat this one.

[terminator]

wad [abandon], map 07 [seething shadows]. so far, an immensely beautiful and engaging wad. kudos to the author and those that helped making it.

[Deadwing]

Mass Extinction by monti, really good IWADish megawad, divided in 4 episodes: E1, E2 and Alpha. I'm currently in E3, so I don't know what is the theme of E4, but I believe it will be a different kind of techbase lmao. Anyway, as expected from the author, it has his style all over it, but with notable differences such as shorter maps, monster appearance order, difficult, MIDI selection (more rock oriented this time) and a fun story.

[Jacek Bourne]

Valiant Map27

[Salt-Man Z]

On 4/7/2021 at 12:08 PM, Deadwing said:

Mass Extinction by monti, really good IWADish megawad, divided in 4 episodes: E1, E2 and Alpha. I'm currently in E3, so I don't know what is the theme of E4, but I believe it will be a different kind of techbase lmao. Anyway, as expected from the author, it has his style all over it, but with notable differences such as shorter maps, monster appearance order, difficult, MIDI selection (more rock oriented this time) and a fun story.

My brain suddenly wondered, "What would a WAD coauthored by Deadwing and Monti look like?" and I got a little shiver up my spine.

[Side-O-Fries]

Currently about halfway through my second playthrough of the Okuplok slaughter map.  I'm right before the infamous, BS revenant hallway.  

[Pirx]

some wads i didn't get to finish in the months the club played them. plutonia's re-re-replay, rudy2, 180 minutes. and some maps from eviternity. you guys map faster than i play.

Edited April 9, 2021 by Pirx

[dei_eldren]

HMP-maxing couple of maps of Doom Zero every day (the secrets aren't always dead simple, but still findable with a little effort - very nice design!), and soon to start episode 4 of Endless Torture.  And checked out first map of Deathless today which will be among the next few WADs i'll play (actually have a huge list compiled from some of the recent threads here.)  Generally, into stuff that i can play on MBF (which i recently discovered and got working with sound on two DOS computers) at the moment...  Oh, and replaying Si666il will be the very next thing (coz now i can play it on DOS environment)!

Edited April 10, 2021 by dei_eldren

[joepallai]

Just finished playing through maps 10 - 12 of Dark Covenant and it was a great mapset overall.   A couple of the earlier maps didn't age too well, but overall this was a fantastic overlooked mapset from the classic era of Doom mapping.   

 

Not sure what I'll play next, probably something newer or do a bunch of single levels.

[terminator]

just completed playing [geothermal zone] in uv. awesome new map with all its redness and gameplay. many thanks to @CrocketRocket and those that helped making such a delightful experience.

 

 

[Jacek Bourne]

Alien Vendetta.

[ax34]

Just finished Claustrophobia 1024 

[terminator]

just completed playing [the cage under site 19] in uv. so many deaths, though expected from a newbie. a big thanks to the author and those that helped making the map. love it.

 

 

 

 

[terminator]

just completed wading through map [why they die] in uv. a bliss playing it. a big thanks to the author and those that helped realized the map. like it lots.

 

 

 

[Walter confetti]

Almost finished Doom 2 the way ID did (playing on doom2.exe with DosBox), missing only the secret commander keen levels, it's a neat classic style megawad where the original IWAD feel as been get egregiously...

[Phobus]

I'm giving another random pick from Compendium a go - this time Dystopia 3: Rebirth of Anarchy. I'm 5 maps in so far an it's not been great. Health or armour seem to be low and the gimmick in MAP03 doesn't explain itself well at all. On the plus side, there's some nice Doomcute vehicles.