What are you playing now?

[SleepyVelvet]

12 minutes ago, Andromeda said:

Good luck, for me MAP20 was the hardest level in Sunlust and it's not even close!

Oh really?  That's the one I gave up on.  I haven't actually beaten all of Sunslut.  Maybe I should give it another go.

[Lucius Wooding]

15 minutes ago, NoisyVelvet said:

Sunslut

Not sure if this was intentional but it's very fitting. I'm not in a big hurry to play map 20, the start is fairly annoying and it seems very hard to create good infighting in most spots. Most of the fights aren't too huge or slaughtery (which is what I'm mostly kinda bad at), they're just tough as nails and it's a very long map if you play slow. Not to mention you generally need to be disciplined with routing health and ammo usage and I usually need to figure that stuff out for myself even if I know what to expect.

 

I certainly advocate revisiting it from time to time as you improve your skills; I skipped around a bit here and there since mostly every map after the first 3 has been somewhat grindy for me. However doing UV max saveless and pistol starting can be a bitch, particularly at the start of most maps. I stalled out after map 8 my first time around and I'm definitely not ready for the last few maps but if I can clear map 20 I could probably see myself through to the end eventually, even if it takes a month per map. As tough as that WAD can be, there's nothing more rewarding than the rare times I've found nice exploits and strats to give me a leg up. Many fights simply kick your teeth in for trying to be clever, unfortunately.

[ReaperAA]

4 hours ago, NoisyVelvet said:

Sunslut.

 

This made my day. That's what I am going to call it from now on.

[Crusader No Regret]

Bloodstain with Gun Bonsai beaten.  Even with 40% damage reduction and various other effects in my favor, still died around 15-20 times before succeeding.  Shudder to imagine how it would be under vanilla conditions.  My ending weapons levels were BFG Lv 35, rocket launcher 25, plasma gun 19, shotgun 18, SSG and chaingun 15, fist 4 (didn't use berserk much) and pistol 1 (might as well have been 0).  Didn't have a save to check chainsaw but I believe it was at Lv 8 before the map 25 death exit stripped all the guns. (I cheesed map 20's with a saved invulnerability, the carryover making 21-22 easier to tackle)

 

  Realize I could have played smarter and tried to provoke infights between the cyber and the afrits earlier.  Which would serve a dual purpose of softening up the cyber and letting it dispose of some of the afrits while I ran around gathering the keys.  Most of my deaths were afrit induced though the random spawns claimed a few pelts.  Trying to plasma the cyber at long range probably contributed to a few failures too.  Getting it distracted and plugging it with close range BFG while it's focused on something else is probably more consistent.  Had a few deaths at times where I reached the firing platform too so I needed to adapt my approach some before winning.

 

  Bloodstain general gameplay seems to reward my methodical playstyle.  And with monsters usually having low mobility, infight baiting with minimal risk proved especially lucrative.  This turned out quite amusing on maps like 9 and 18 where infighting from faraway monsters would thin out a crowd long before I navigated my way over to where they were.  So I likely have a more favorable impression of the WAD than someone with different gameplay preferences would.

[Votterbin]

I've been doing a UV run of Ultimate Doom while getting 100% kills and 100% secrets, since it's something I've never done before; I'm halfway through Inferno/episode 3 right now.

I know this game way better than I thought I did, and I only died in the first couple levels of episode 3. Yep, still hate this one.

 

EDIT: Update, I beat it, I was worried I wasn't gonna be able to do it in one day like I did episodes 1 and 2. Still hate the second half of episode 3, but the secret level is pretty sick

Edited January 26, 2023 by Votterbin

[Lila Feuer]

The Aliens TC by Justin Fisher via Woof! and some personal cosmetic addons (altered playpal, new statbar, sky replacement, reduced ammo values via dehacked) for the first time proper, onto the third map. This is a must-play in my opinion for Alien fans and has aged shockingly well, definitely recommend to turn the music off and just take things slowly as you navigate. I'm also playing with fast monsters on because I figure, they're Xenomorphs, you've seen how fleet of foot they are in the films, so combat feels very intense, especially down in the Alien infested bowels of Hadley's Hope.

[baja blast rd.]

On 1/24/2023 at 4:33 AM, Lucius Wooding said:

Finally beat Sunlust map 16 single segment UV max. Took me forever, and I was sweating over having only 200 cells going into the ending but I'm proud of this one. It was one of the more interesting maps with solid music that looked doable, but it completely bitchslapped me until I revisited it recently. The cells ended up being very tight since I wasted about 80 on an accidental pickup but there was only 1 archie left when I ran out. I had good safe strats for every fight except the last 2 which caused me no end of grief. Even though I was seeming to copy others who had no trouble, I always managed to do things subtly wrong I guess. In the end I got amazing infighting from the first cyber and spiderdemon and they both died instantly, as well as being so healthy I saved 2 berserks, a soulsphere and 2 green armors.

 

That is one of my favorite Sunlust maps. The final area has always felt quite scary to me, a spike in an otherwise more lenient map, but I've found the keys for making it feel softer are: 

 

- doing this sort of zig-zaggy pattern in front of the pillar to clear out some HKs while being safe from the archies downstairs (angling BFG to the left a bit is good for catching stray revenants)

- looping around the left half of the HKs (this is pretty valuable for getting past them)

- once you have the mega, realizing you are in the clear. there's a huge deal of mistake tolerance at that point; so it's possible to win even if you somehow have a vile or two left in the horde and have to stop using BFG

 

You can accidentally pick up the 200 cells in the red column very easily in the main fight, and avoiding that is a good idea because it messes with mental math. The last viles are always kind of frightening, but really they aren't so bad as long as you get BFG shots that damage a lot of them at once.

 

I didn't want to replay the map so here is just me IDKFA'ing and then going down to low amounts of resources. It's kind of neat how subtle this fight is tactically despite being simple in construction and appearance.

 

 

[Lucius Wooding]

29 minutes ago, baja blast rd. said:

That

 

Yeah the final fight was not nearly as bad as I thought initially, over time I just figured out which of my assumptions and instincts were causing me to screw myself. For example, trying to make super efficient BFG shots, trying to rush for the megasphere too early in the fight, and trying to either squeeze past or full clear the HK wave before passing them. Then on the other side I definitely died once because I forgot it was time to care about the archviles again, not the revenants in my face.

 

That final fight is a combo of having good resources going in, not choking at the end of a longish map, and changing your priorities as you work through the situation. As for the last few archviles, honestly they're the least scary ones (though very punishing) in the whole map if you have any decent amount of cells and health at that point. Although the temptation is to block the entrance and be aggressive, I believe once they get reduced in number you should be able to stay in the corner to the right of the doorway and they'll be likely to get stuck inside or at least funnel out one at a time. Due to the compactness of the layout in this one, there are a lot of instances where you can use lures and monster pathing to neutralize threats. Almost every fight is about positioning.

 

The one fight I still don't understand is the whole area with the 2 spiderdemons. I tried for a little while to archvile jump over the switch behind the scenery and try to make that work, and I think it's definitely safe up there but very unsuitable to kill everything. I also tried considerably to run for the elevator on the side which is also safe, but killing the archviles from up top only works for half of the turret ones and the roaming ones are more or less impossible to hit from there. Then once you teleport down, even if you kill all the loose enemies, the other turret archies tend to just murder you instantly. The only way that works seems to be just running like hell with the BFG and trying to get the archies isolated on the outside, and exercising good overall crowd control which I'm still fairly bad at. Sometimes it goes really well but the archviles really spoil it for you sometimes by being random and aggressive.

 

Other cool strats I came up with for anyone interested:

Spoiler

-For the first fight, camping by the armor is recommended for a couple reasons. For one thing, you can easily hide from the archviles and both will come right out at you in this position. It will also trap the imps and hitscan pretty reliably in their cubbies. The main thing you want is to kill most of the spectres away from the armor, since the archies will constantly revive them in place and you'll waste tons of shells. You can hopefully get the mancubus (who is your only friend in this part) to hit a few before you start firing but it's fairly luck based, and the hitscan filtering out will force you to start shooting. The other option is to grab armor, SSG and shells and then run back to the start to door camp, but it's similarly annoying and the hitscan and ammo scarcity come heavily into play. If you do this I recommend leaving the shellbox near the start until you're desperate and have to pop back out.

 

-The RL revenant ambush was super annoying at first, I'd try to run around and funnel them or fight from below but always die or lose tons of health. I eventually realized you can just run for the hallway to the left from the stairs, kill the revenant that spawns from the SSG area, and hide where the 3 rockets are placed. The revenants can't shoot you and get 100% stuck. Simply shoot rockets through the cage at a 45 degree angle and backstrafe away from the splash damage, then SSG the rest. You can also take out the teleporting ones when you enter those cubbies in the same way without any risk of damage if you don't want to punch them. If you're paid by the hour, you can even spawn and lure the 2 mancubi by the yellow key door before going for the RL, and they will very slowly infight while you camp. Saving lots of health and shells made the first half of this map a lot more simple for me so if you struggle to get runs past the cyberdemon I recommend this stress-free method.

 

-As I got better at the map, I decided it's better to not trigger the mancubi but let them trap half the monsters in the cyberdemon fight. Open the door, run past and fire your SSG to wake stuff, then slowly kite and kill some pinkies while the cyberdemon goes to work. Make your way down to the SSG platform, try and attract mancubus and cyber projectiles down the long hallway. Once stuff starts getting closer, you can run for the stairs since the HKs will be thinned out and busy; staying by the SSG for a minute or so lures them towards the fray. Then you can easily grab the ammo and plasma or health near the stairs, and focus on SSGing the cyber once everything else is dead. This really helps save plasma since the cyber can even die really quickly without your help like he did in my run. The mancubi tend to help gum up all the monsters and make the fight a bit less one sided than just HKs, which the cyber tends to easily kill.

 

[baja blast rd.]

Got curious about that one and it's possible to isolate one archvile pretty consistently by veering off to one side ASAP (and shooting at a reasonable time). Two has happened, but that is down to luck. It's pretty likely to get one vile embedded in the horde of revvies. (In the video I'm kind of curious about the isolation approach, but with only one vile in the horde it should be safe to start taking out the revs instead.) 

 

 

First one here shows two viles, and the others iirc got one. Part of what makes this work is that the six distant viles can't target you until you get to around here and closer, which gives you plenty of wiggle room to work on the front side of that area.

[Lucius Wooding]

Yeah that's definitely a better method. I was usually keeping the spidermamas alive infighting one another, trying to do 2 big BFG shots on the revenants before making runs to either side, and hoping stuff would infight. With the spiders dead you don't have nearly as much ground to cover to turn the corner and therefore going around back with pinkies in front and 500 homing missiles close behind is not nearly as dangerous.

 

I knew you could go around a little towards the far side of the room but I never wanted to take the risk of doing the fight from that side, and a few people I saw play the map never did and just let their superior slaughtering skills carry them. I should've opened the editor and seen exactly where the archies spawn; I assumed they were in the middle of the sea of revenants and not in the very back. With them dead, even if you take a couple zaps, you can switch to rockets safely a lot sooner and save maybe 4-5 BFG shots for the ending.

[pantheon]

I recently finished The Diseases, and Casualties this year being 1632 which uses a 17th century cause of death ("jaundies", "teeth", etc.) as inspiration for each map. I was really intrigued by that premise and enjoyed each level though some are pretty devious toward blind single segment attempts. Definitely worth a look and it would be awesome to see some new interpretations come out. Certainly there's no end to "interesting" ways to die historically. Now I'm on Vigor, having enjoyed the other Squonker WADs, and it continues their tradition of intense, punchy, but thoughtful and digestible design. It has also had the benefit of curing my fear of arch-viles because those red plasma marines are so much deadlier. It's actually a relief to hear the AV squeal instead of that unf-unf-unf in the distance... pretty sure each encounter with them killed me the first time around. But it is what it is. I'll be looking forward to their new WAD Tetanus next and also have my eye on 180 Minutes Pour Vivre since I really liked the Japanese Community Project.

Edited February 3, 2023 by pantheon

[Lila Feuer]

Reached MAP12 of A.L.T. after someone mentioned it in here a few pages back. What an absolute sleeper hit of a megawad, I had no idea this thing existed and have been thoroughly enjoying it. Not sure why the new sounds were so panned, they're fine to me, I've certainly heard worse, and the mapping is very creative, expansive and with a great atmosphere.

[SilverHurling]

 

Been enjoying Psx Doom quite a lot lately, the best port outside Pc imo, it even has new maps exclusive to the psx

[TheSlipgateStudios]

Played and finished Pathogen. Right now going through Doom The Way Id Did, and after this one going to play Switcheroom 1!

[TheEyeOfStone]

Alien Vendetta and Hell Revealed

[Ar_e_en]

I finished playing Batman Doom (sadly without the mac version molotovs, because I couldn't figure out how to apply the patch), it was a really good time! I then went through Requiem, it was also pretty good. And the last one (that I just recently finished) was Alice Clancy's Shattered Dimensions - it was great, but I wish there was more of it, like 5 or 10 maps more at least.

[bigfloppa7271]

i have been playing litdoom and its pretty fun but also pretty dang hard. you guys should check it out it has a cool crafting system to it.

[InfernalMonsoon]

Been making my way through a replay of Strange Aeons, which I've been streaming as a way to chill and chat to my usual online friends. After all these years it's still pretty good!

[Mr. Alexander]

I've been playing Ray Mohawk 2, and, when I hit the big difficulty spike at Map15 of Ray Mohawk 2, the new Squonker joint, Tetanus. I'm not a good enough player to figure out how to beat that first huge melee in RM2 Map15 with any consistency, though I suspect I could use the teleporter to the boat as a way to clear revenant missiles if I wanted to play as safely as possible.

 

I beat Map05 of Tetanus today and really enjoyed it. It's an undersea base that uses "underwater sections" as hurt floors. After a few fights in the central complex that feel like they could offer a fair amount of scope for clever routing, the blue key gives you access to six or seven radsuits, which I guess are really scuba gear in this wad, and those radsuits allow you to venture out into the sea for the red and yellow keys. One route presents more of a maze, requiring you to remember your route back home, while the other one just throws a heap of monsters at you and expects you not to lose your sense of time in the middle of the fight. I've had a great time with both wads, and look forward to beating Tetanus in the next few days, unless it spikes all of a sudden and turns into a Stardate 20x7 type deal on Map08 or something.

[Catpho]

Completed Darkwave32 for the first time today, and had tons of fun — there's that freewheeling combat-potential soup he's always so good at mixed with some fantastic bits of choreography (the teleporter fight is worth the hype, what little there is on this forum anyway :D). It might be the pinnacle of his sprawling slaughter landscape maps he's been doing post-SoD. Really, of his 3HA & 180mpv stuff I only remember "Monument en Béton” giving me more enjoyment, despite being the easiest of his French stuff and a bit of a different beast iirc. To be fair, it's been some time since my last visit, so I secretly hope that someone comes out of the woodwork to rank these levels. Real treasures, they are.

 

[RHhe82]

On 3/2/2023 at 4:14 AM, Mr. Alexander said:

 

I've been playing Ray Mohawk 2, and, when I hit the big difficulty spike at Map15 of Ray Mohawk 2, the new Squonker joint, Tetanus.

 

I’ve been meaning to restart Ray Mohawk 2 when I got sidetracked when it was in the DWMC some time ago. But what I’d also been waiting for is Tetanus idGames-release. Really love Squonker squad outings.

 

What I have been playing after HMP run of Sunlust is Speed of Doom on UV. I like this wad as well, but lately I’ve had feelings of fatigue - some of the maps feel a bit stressful. I guess it’s easier than Sunlust, but for example MAP18 (Silent Hour?) was somehow more exhausting rather than diabolically difficult. Next two maps were more fun, but I’m dreading the next map, MAP21, as I heard it’s a tyson map. Also, Dean of Doom has me really dreading MAP23 which is nearing inevitably.

[Budoka]

"Resurrection" might well be the most obnoxious Tyson map ever released. It's easily the most frustrating one I've ever had to play through. Poison Ivy II I actually like a lot, but yeah, its approach to gameplay is certainly... more than unique. Overall, as much I do like Speed of Doom, I definitely think Resurgence is the better of the two. 

 

I've made some half-baked attempts at playing UV Solo-Net Plutonia lately, as I do from time to time. It actually plays really well, but dang is it intimidating.

[MemeMind]

On 2/22/2023 at 9:11 PM, bigfloppa7271 said:

i have been playing litdoom and its pretty fun but also pretty dang hard. you guys should check it out it has a cool crafting system to it.

Its such a good mod. I love the gameplay loop so much. The presentation and animations is also amazing. 

[RHhe82]

23 hours ago, Budoka said:

"Resurrection" might well be the most obnoxious Tyson map ever released. It's easily the most frustrating one I've ever had to play through.

 

Ugh, yeah, just finished it, and I didn't particularly like. Visually nothing to complain about, but, ugh.

 

Although I did have a significant surplus of ammo at the end. This is a problem I have with tyson maps, or maps that suggest relying on berserk: I refrain from using available resources because I get a feeling they'll be needed for something unpunchable or hard-to-punch at the very least. This time I insisted on punching even the mancubi because of that, and trying to land hits on them mancubi is frustratiing.

 

Also, another thing maps that dress like tyson maps make me do: savescum, and I really mean it. Saving when one punch lands on a mancubus and I get to withdraw to safety. Rinse and repeat. Whenever I play a "normal" map I'll berserk-punch imps and pinkies, revenants, and why not hell knights on occasion without similar behaviour. I'm not sure why those situations are different from playing Resurrection, for instance.

[nrofl]

Currently am playing Struggle, and damn is it fun! A lot of really fun encounters with great level design and visuals behind it. I am currently on map11 and am looking forward to make some time to finish the wad

[Midway64]

Games I've recently been playing are PSX Doom and Doom 64.

The dark soundtrack and sound design from Aubrey is what makes them great accompanied with their technical advancements like colored sector lighting, slight room-over-room and high resolution sprites (latter two only in Doom 64).

[baja blast rd.]

Fun stretch of Scythe 2 m27 with lots of amusing events (I have a save about when this video starts).

 

 

Afrit almost kills me but I get to telefrag it as revenge, which is really unlikely. This encounter with its long-range combat possibilities is really good. Then in the final part, the baron is the one to survive in the midst of all that chaos and even snipes the cyb kill.

[Yousuf Anik]

Heretic Shadow of the Serpent Riders. Of course, on DOSBox, it's real fun playing this thing here. Last played it on 2013 so it's been a long time!

[RHhe82]

On 3/6/2023 at 8:43 PM, Budoka said:

Poison Ivy II I actually like a lot, but yeah, its approach to gameplay is certainly... more than unique.

I played Poison Ivy II a few days ago, and… Well, I didn’t hate it, in fact I think it’s a likable, most of all because I really digged the aesthetics, but I suppose it is a bit overcrowded. If I were a person to force upon himself to play saveless, I’d probably suffer some sort of stroke, and if I’m replaying SoD, I wouldn’t dread reaching this one, but I can’t fathom myself not savescummin’ my way through it.

 

Then again I’m prepared to change my opinion if it turned out I just didn’t find a proper strategy for Poison Ivy II.

[holaareola]

On 11/24/2022 at 6:26 AM, ducon said:

Is there a Conway’s game of life WAD?

But of course!