What are you playing now?

[Marcaek]

ducon said:

Jump on the ledge on the left and grab the key?

Jump? I tried running off the bridge at the closest bend but I couldn't make it after several tries. I don't have ZDoom "jumping" enabled.

Giving UAC Ultra a try.

You'll love it :)

[Shanoa]

Marcaek said:

You'll love it :)

Up to map10 so far, solid mapset but map10 makes me rage a bit. :P

[Marcaek]

Well Plutonia 2 picked up again. The teleporter ambushes are tolerable and the atmosphere has returned. Played some single map wads, and a strange wad called 000emg with some very short but structurally sound levels.

Barrel2 is both aggravating and intriguing.

[DeathevokatioN]

Just finished my first playthrough of STRAIN. An awesome set of levels! The new enemies are fun to fight, and that Spider Mastermind replacement is really badass. I remember 1 level not being so good, but overall the levels were pretty solid, especially the ones made by Iikka Keranen, Anthony Czerwonka, and Andy Badorak.

[aldiboronti]

Just finished MarsWar. I love this old megawad, it's pitched at just about the right difficulty level for me on UV, not a slaughterfest but no cakewalk either.

What I especially like (and it's something I look for in all megawads when I judge them) is that even if a particular map looks horrendously difficult, and even impossible, there's always a tactical way round it.

As for minuses, some maps disappoint a little, but that's true of most megawads. And the usual two things that bug me, not specific to MarsWar but to Doom itself - why the hell did Id make the Spider Mastermind such a pussy, there's never any sense of achievement in killing it, if you give it an angry look it'll curl up and die. And I hate the Icon of Sin boss, I never enjoy final maps with that sucker in, they're never fun, just something you feel obliged to slog through for the sake of completion.

[vdgg]

DeathevokatioN said:
Just finished my first playthrough of STRAIN. An awesome set of levels! (...) overall the levels were pretty solid, especially the ones made by Iikka Keranen, Anthony Czerwonka, and Andy Badorak.

I just checked the Doom Wiki Strain article. Iikka was somehow involved in the project (mentioned in strain.txt), but he made no maps for it, am I right? (someone confirm this, please) Personally I found maps 1-9 a bit dull (maybe except of MAP07), but then some real gems appear.

[DeathevokatioN]

vdgg said:

I just checked the Doom Wiki Strain article. Iikka was somehow involved in the project (mentioned in strain.txt), but he made no maps for it, am I right? (someone confirm this, please) Personally I found maps 1-9 a bit dull (maybe except of MAP07), but then some real gems appear.

I don't have the map list but I thiiink he re-used some maps from Dystopia3 with re-worked layouts. One of the later maps had everything I'd expect from an Iika map, but I could be wrong.

[Lila Feuer]

1994 tune-up challenge 2nd alpha release, starting MAP15. Bughunt! seems like it could of used more work on it, it doesn't seem that overly different from the original, it had the same item and enemy placement and everything.

[Marcaek]

Obituary is pretty neat. Proof that custom monsters don't have to suck if used right.

I love the Rocket trooper. Went up a lift, turned around, BOOM. They're pretty scary at first, but too slow.

[DeathevokatioN]

Marcaek said:

Obituary is pretty neat. Proof that custom monsters don't have to suck if used right.

You should give STRAIN a try. :)

[kmxexii]

Marcaek said:

Obituary is pretty neat. Proof that custom monsters don't have to suck if used right.

I love the Rocket trooper. Went up a lift, turned around, BOOM. They're pretty scary at first, but too slow.

They're telegraphed a lot of the time but like any enemy circumstances can make them much more dangerous, like in MAP10. Then again practically everything in the beginning of that map is pretty rough. I was expecting the tech trooper to show up a lot more but as of the end of MAP10 I've only seen him twice. Then again he was done to death in MAP07 so whatever! Also getting Rocket Troopers to splash themselves is plenty of fun in and of itself.

I'm happy with the quality of the mapping and the difficulty so far. I think it's interesting that the flamethrower trades the vertical height of the plasma rifle for increased damage (at least, I THINK that's how it's working).

[Marcaek]

I'm actullly playing WITHOUT the added weapons. I prefer Doom's standard arsenal.

You should give STRAIN a try. :)

I plan to. It looks pretty neat.

[kmxexii]

Marcaek said:

I'm actullly playing WITHOUT the added weapons. I prefer Doom's standard arsenal.

Except for the flamethrower, I don't see the weapons functioning any differently, which actually makes the pistols and chaingun weaker than they sound (two bangs one bullet / three bangs two bullets). I haven't played with the BFG yet but I'll bet that excluding cosmetics it functions similarly to the vanilla BFG.

My only true misgiving is the Kick. I don't dislike it for what it is, but after hundreds of levels using the Fist, the Kick's timing feels graphically off, though I know fundamentally it's the same.

[Birdbrain]

.

[ducon]

Marcaek said:

Jump? I tried running off the bridge at the closest bend but I couldn't make it after several tries. I don't have ZDoom "jumping" enabled.

Neither do I, I run PrBoom. Try from the beginning of the bridge.

[Sp00kyFox]

I'm in the middle of uac ultra. really nice wad, the new textures give this campaign a unique atmosphere.
after that I'll probably look into speed of doom.

[DeathevokatioN]

Megamur said:

On the topic of Icarus and Perdition's Gate, does anyone have any recommendations for other space travel-themed MegaWADs?

Ummmm.. sorry for spamming. But have I mentioned STRAIN enough? A total old school space themed megawad mindfuck! ;)

[gun_psycho]

Ok, I'm up to map15 on my run through Community Chest 1 with Scoredoom. The only two maps that slowed me down significantly were maps 12 and 13.

Edit: Make that up to map21, with both secret levels done.

My biggest complaint with map20 were the voodoo dolls. Because I had smart bomb, I would die as well if I used them, so I skipped out on 100% kills once I set the bomb on that map.

[ducon]

So do I, I hate finishing a level with less than 100% everywhere.

[Grain of Salt]

[vdgg]

As for Obituary BFG replacement, it is stronger than BFG. Base damage from the BFG is 100-800 HP, the Sonic Blaster base damage is doubled. Then comes tracer damage which I think is the same, hence you may have not noticed any difference.

[gun_psycho]

@Grain of Salt - Even without Scoredoom, I still would not have liked putting up with those voodoo dolls sprinkled about in the Technodrome level anyway.

Edit: I'm currently up to map23 now, and so far those final maps were ok. (Map21 was a bit confusing, whilst Map22 was rather short but sweet)

I'll also make a short, personal recap of every map in the first CC as soon as I finish the megawad. (that is, without gameplay modifications into the mix)

[DuckReconMajor]

playing Scythe 2 for the first time, just killed Mr X

[Grain of Salt]

[kmxexii]

vdgg said:

As for Obituary BFG replacement, it is stronger than BFG. Base damage from the BFG is 100-800 HP, the Sonic Blaster base damage is doubled. Then comes tracer damage which I think is the same, hence you may have not noticed any difference.

Oh, cool. I haven't actually played around with it but that'll be good info for the last 5 + 1 levels. I believe I found one in MAP11 but it wasn't very useful as all best things to use it on had already up and died!

[gun_psycho]

@Grain of Salt - Even though the voodoo dolls are in out-of-the-way spots in Map20 (except in a few areas), using the bfg can still mean you take damage anyway. (considering that any damage done to them hurts you as well)

Killing one of the dolls can kill you as well even at 200% health and armor, so that gave me the major incentive to be careful in that map.

Anyways, I'm up to map26 now. I'm definitely looking forward to map29.

Edit: I'm now taking on the epic map29... and it's gonna take a while. (Magikal, you have been forgiven for that awful map06)

[DuckReconMajor]

Okay I hit MAP23. Playing on skill 1 still getting my ass kicked.

[gun_psycho]

Ok, I finally finished my scoredoom run of the first Community Chest Megawad. Man did Map29 take me a long time to complete. (almost two hours, not counting reloads)

Anyways, I'll take on CC2 next a little later.

[Marcaek]

I was under the impression Obituary was only 11 levels. Up to 12 now, can't complain about more :)

On map29 of PL2, it's quite intimidating. The circular gate at the end of map27 was impressive.

[kmxexii]

Marcaek said:

I was under the impression Obituary was only 11 levels. Up to 12 now, can't complain about more :)

Yeah, I initially thought it was a single Doom II episode sort of thing, but after a little research I saw it was pretty well laden. Currently stuck on MAP12, not because it's especially difficult, but because of a series of stupid fuck-ups on my part. There's like two spots I should really have the flamethrower out before I trip them, yet every time I go down with the SSG in hand like a moron. The time it really got me was right before the end. The lesson I've already learned, but keep forgetting: The Plasma Rifle (and its equivalents) is the premiere weapon for exploration.