The DWmegawad Club plays: Back to Saturn X E1 & Favillesco E1

[cannonball]

MAP06 - “Mix Up The Satellite” by Iori
Again mixed feeling about this, perhaps leaning more negative than the last map.
This is a map which has decent ideas but then just totally kills the interesting idea in a variety of ways.
The rocket launcher area, looks fun doesn't it, yes it is but there is a huge problem which I must say (especially given feedback to the megawad I've recently made). There is way too much health! There is 4 medkits, 2 stimpacks and a mandatory berserk pack. This kills all threat in there as I leave the area with full health and feeling bad about the 3 medkits I left behind.
From there until the archviles it's all straight ahead, no real surprises, then the archvile reveal. Again an interesting idea but like hurricyclone experienced, the archviles attacked on sight, given the shape of the alcove you can actually take over 50% of the health off them before they even remotely pose a threat.
After that there are a few reasonable traps, I died once in the red key area as I was stuck between a missile and a fireball, both caused instant death so meh.
The exit room, big revenant reveal, again an issue, I could stand in the hallway facing them with the knowledge that there was absolutely no threat from behind. Another battle which seems to have it's teeth forcibly removed.
Meh, disappointed with this one in all honesty, easier than the last few maps and certainly undermined by over abundance of health and poor execution of interesting ideas.
Edit - I had no issues with the blue armour secret, I instinctively attacked that panel and got into it on the second attempt by judging the pace when leaving the above platform.

[mouldy]

MAP06 - “Mix Up The Satellite” by Iori

demo

Think this is the last demo I'll do as the maps are throwing in more archviles now - gonna have to start saving. The one that killed me in the demo totally sneaked up behind me. I normally play with saves anyway so its business as usual now.

Having said that my following attempt went without any deaths. Its an interesting map, for the most part a winding linear path that loops around on itself here and there. It feels a lot flatter than is actually is for some reason, mostly fighting stuff at eye level, so can feel a bit repetitive at times. This is one of those maps I had absolutely no memory of since the last time I played. All the while I felt like I was being tooled up for a battle that never really came, particularly in the last room. Enjoyable enough though.

[NuMetalManiak]

Urban Space Cowboy said:

Here's an idea for a trap: Place lots of monsters, blow them up with a domino chain of barrels, then loose a bunch of arch-viles...yikes...

So it was a chain of barrels that killed all those monsters before the YK? Wow. Don't really remember how the barrels blew up though.

Also still wanna know why the archies attacked me before teleporting. Must've gotten affected by the barrels and they blamed it on me :|.

[Tarnsman]

The barrels blow up at the very start of the level. The same trick is also used in E2M24 and E2M26 for different setups.

[ClonedPickle]

Urban Space Cowboy said:

Oh, that secret alcove with the mega armor is a pain in the ass to get at. (In addition to being flagged entirely invisible, a chronic problem with the latest update, of which there are far too many examples to recount here.) Run for it, you hit the ceiling and fall down. Walk for it, you fall short. The only apparent ways to get in the damned thing are to either (a.) strafe-walk for it at just the right angle or (b.) run off the lift at just the right moment, and really, the prize isn't worth the effort of either of these since there's a megasphere/soul sphere/invincibility sphere (depending on skill level) sitting right out in the open nearby and another soul sphere in the other secret. Please move this alcove up or down or make the ledge in front of it a lift or something. :(

I had a problem with that until I realized "hey. how did the mapper design this to be accessed? probably in the simplest way" so I just held forward with autorun on and landed on it perfectly.

Anyway, MAP06! (100% kills at 14:38 with about 50% health/armor, 5 minutes later I had 100% items/secrets and 200/200)
I died! That vile trap sandwich is fearsome. Not too bad when you're expecting it, though. But yeah, no one's gonna complain about "rewarding camping" on this map. I didn't expect that last trick up the map's sleeve at the exit, but it wasn't too hard to avoid. But yeah, hella viles; I almost thought this was a Tarnsman map. I liked pretty much everything about it, but there was one door not too far in that had blue lights beside it that confused me for a few seconds thinking it was a blue key door; it's the only door to progress, so it wasn't that hard to figure out, so maybe I'm just a dumb. Otherwise, good shit, and the gloves are definitely off at this point.

Also: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/84200934/Screenshot_Doom_20130806_120305.png
(screenshot is ZDoom, happens in PRBoom too)
You can see this blood splat through the top stair. Kind of weird looking.

edit: Oh, yeah, on my second time through I realized you could hear the archvile in the vile/spectre trap and that's great.

[punnyone]

Map 06 - Mix Up The Satellite - Iori - K/I/S - 100% - HMP skill

This level is another one that thematically stands out. It's the largest in the set so far, which helps balance out the smaller opening maps. It's texturing is fantastic. Its environment is very dark, and sinister , reminding me heavily of the tech base-side of Doom 64, and the music track (one of the best ones in the set) pushes that envelope even further.

The best looking areas are the very Doom 64-esque starting room (which was teased by essel when BTSX was first announced back in 2011), and the non-orthogonal south east section, which Iori must've turned off the grid to make, looks nice as well. The windows (in which one can see distant buildings) are a nice touch for this area as well.

"Satellite" is also another ramp up in terms of difficulty. This level is all about traps and most often it was either the arch-viles or near the end, the cluster of revenants that got me. The former in particular make this a brutal level in parts. The area below the elevator in the north-east was the most brutal fight as there's so many enemies and spectres in particular that ensure there's little to no place to hide.

[Veinen]

Alright then, time for map06. I played maps 06 and 07 back to back the other day and somehow managed to beat both on my first attempts. Especially on map06 I thought I played pretty concentrated so the resulting FDA is half-decent I guess.

Map06: Mix Up The Satellite

UV solonet FDA in 19:19. Missed 2 monsters and found no secrets.

Well, I'm probably sounding like a broken record here but I thought this was a pretty enjoyable level once again. It has it's share of minor flaws but the overall quality was good in my opinion. In this map and the next one the texture theme changes slightly to a more brownish and organic one, feels like we are moving from the newly built tech-stations of the earlier maps to older and more timeworn ones in these two. The look is a bit more primitive here but it's not necessarily a bad thing since it just creates a different kind of atmosphere, or at least that's the way I felt. Once again, the map is rather straightforward but wraps around to an earlier area a few times, something that seems to be a recurring theme in this wad.

Gameplay was centered around Archviles and there were quite a few of them present. None of them were overly threatening in their respective setups though, apart from the last one and perhaps the one that is accompanied by a handful of Spectres. The RL room is fun although avoiding the Archie is very easy due to so many corners to hide behind. I agree with cannonball that the berserk pack is pretty pointless though as there's enough health to go by even without it. The resurrection room has an interesting idea but in a room full of corpses, I always expect an Archie to appear so the encounter didn't really come as a surprise. The setup does keep the player on his/her toes so I guess it works. But yeah, they probably should teleport first before attacking so that the player would have less time to think.

Then there's the AV/Spectre trap which is admittedly potentially dangerous. But I happened to hear the AV as I approached the doorway to the larger area so I took a more cautious approach and backed off quickly when I woke up a Rev. Lucky me since at the same time the AV ambush opened and by then I was safely out of harms way. The RK section has two more easily disposable Archies along with a variety of other bad guys, not much to else to talk about there. Out of all the bigger battles, I liked the finale the most. It's also the one that punished me the most as I got battered by a few Rev missiles during the scrum. When approaching the exit, I heard the wall behind me lower and saw that it had revealed a pack of Revenants, so naturally I ran forward and of course there had to be a final Archie hiding behind a pillar. There is little room for cover so he is pretty dangerous but thankfully it seems like he's also easily distracted by a Lost Soul or whatever other enemy resides in the area. Actually I think the Lost Souls in this room are a plus, for once, since they make maneuvering and dodging the incoming projectiles a bit harder.

Next map, we stumbled into the annual Spider Mastermind meeting of Saturn X. Awesomeness ensued.

[Capellan]

Tarnsman said:

The barrels blow up at the very start of the level.

Not in my playthrough - I got to the room and shot one, swtting off a chain reaction to kill all the monsters there.

[Guest DILDOMASTER666]

pizzabob18 said:

the music track (one of the best ones in the set) pushes that envelope even further

I'd like to take this moment to be a self-absorbed dick and say thank you for this comment, even though IMO I totally don't deserve it. :P

[Tarnsman]

@Capellan

Line skipping fuck yeah!

[esselfortium]

Capellan said:

Not in my playthrough - I got to the room and shot one, swtting off a chain reaction to kill all the monsters there.

Oops. Hopefully that should be basically impossible in the next version. D:

[dobu gabu maru]

esselfortium said:

any layout-related similarities between the first four maps are probably mostly coincidental.

Ah, my mistake then. I was probably seeing connections that weren't there.

MAP05: Forgoing the BFG was a pretty grievous mistake on my part :P

This one was quite a bit of fun since it had a unique catch—fickle ammo placement in the trenches below with hordes of projectile slingers above. Even playing on continuous I was starved for shells in the red key section which led me to play it cautiously and dodge the light show from the perched parade. Cleaning the balcony up was pretty easy (although the blur sphere made fighting arachnatrons pretty dangerous) but the battle I enjoyed most was the large cyber cage. Pavera did a really good job designing that arena and throwing in the appropriate amount of enemies; the archvile’s placement is a brilliant one, really forcing the player to make some quick decisions as they bob & weave. Overall a fun level with continually striking visuals and enjoyable balance.

MAP06: This is a more linear affair with less interconnectivity than the other maps, primarily pushing the player forward through its halls. Happy to say I got through this one unscathed, having a couple of close calls with the grim reaper but no handshake. I think this was largely due to the abundance of health that was lying around, where I could backtrack and easily patch up my wounds with whatever I had missed. The traps themselves aren’t particularly too notable outside of the cool use of barrels to create a graveyard behind the player’s back, but even that went smoother than I felt it should’ve for me. The end could’ve been interesting with PEs rising from the horizon and baddies at your back, but it was too easy to loop around them and use the hallway as a RL chokepoint—mancubii would’ve helped to keep the player stuck in the exit arena.

It was enjoyable overall but nothing wow’d me like the stellar cyber room from Pavera’s map... most of the heavy enemies felt kinda thrown in.

[Urban Space Cowboy]

ClonedPickle said:

I had a problem with that until I realized "hey. how did the mapper design this to be accessed? probably in the simplest way" so I just held forward with autorun on and landed on it perfectly.

"With autorun on"? Pray tell, did you jump, too? Maybe using mouselook helped? Or maybe ZDoom's physics are that much different from vanilla's, I don't know.

I assume "forward with autorun on" is the same as "hold forward + run keys", which as I already said results in hitting the ceiling (clarifying, I mean the wall above the alcove) and falling down. My marine is getting migraines from all the times I've tried this damned thing. >:(

[dew]

Playtester's War Journal, day03: The Room Taking Shape (skillsaw)

YouTube: UV SoloNet Max in 2:57

Ah, a skillsaw map. Do we get an arena? Yes we do, all is right in the world. The YK area truly makes the map, that is obvious. It's both witty and pretty with its vertical element and rather unorthodox crusher shutters and also being on the verge of visplane overflows. It's really fun, although only the highest difficulties truly test your might and make you realize the BFG was placed there for a reason. Watch the demo, it's just so satisfying to splat those big groups of mid-tier baddies. Moments like these are some of the best entertainment in Doom, so I think it would be a mistake to take the BFG out completely.

The problem here isn't this map, or the BFG, it's map05 with its nice stash of cells that wait there just for the continuous players - who happen to have the BFG. That was a mistake on our part for not testing continuous gameplay properly. BtSX maps started out balanced for pistol start, of course, then they were strung together into some sense-resembling order. Anyways, measures have been taken to fix this issue without compromising skillsaw's original idea for UV. :)

Such a short map is definitely dominated by such an intense fight (which gets reeeeally busy in coop), but I like even the less stingy RK fight and the PE ambush right at the end of the map. That corridor is my Good at Doom place and I almost repeated that in the demo, which was fairly hardworked to make the crusher room action look as sexy as possible. It's not entirely smooth and has some Obi-Wan vs Darth Maul moments from SW Episode Bad, but the BFG shots were delicious.

Fun fact: skillsaw self-admittedly sucks at placing secrets, hence the plasma "secret", which was one of the running jokes during the development. At one point you could actually get stuck in the corner with the switch, haha.

[ClonedPickle]

Urban Space Cowboy said:

"With autorun on"? Pray tell, did you jump, too? Maybe using mouselook helped? Or maybe ZDoom's physics are that much different from vanilla's, I don't know.

Yeah, jeez, maybe you do have a migraine. No need to be so hostile, sorry I skimmed your post. Jumping and mouselook are off (how would mouselook affect air control?) but maybe it's different from vanilla. Maybe you're running from too far back. Maybe the platform should be moved to allow easier access, maybe it shouldn't because it's a secret. I dunno!

Edit: loaded up prBoom and got it first shot. Stand just behind the warning stripe and hold forward (and don't be walking, of course).

[esselfortium]

If it's any consolation, I can basically never make that jump either.

[Moustachio]

MAP06:

Please, keep in mind that these videos are just my first impressions, as I didn't have the time to think over my opinion. However, now that I've had time, I think I'll do a quick write up.

Opinion wise, not much has really changed; I still think it's a pretty enjoyable map, even if it is a bit easy for my tastes. As far as the visuals go, I still think they're great. Although, I'd maybe want to retract my point that they're the best in the wad (I do really like the color scheme, however). The music is still great, as always, and it plays a huge role in building the atmosphere of this level. Despite it's low difficulty overall, the few challenging ambushes helps keep the map from going stale.

Overall, I'd say it was a solid effort; 7/10.

[Crusader No Regret]

Map 3: 100% kills, 100% secrets, 1 death

I die in a really stupid way. I panic at the end trap and get taken to nearly nothing. Planning on introducing the chaingunner to my chaingun, forget it's out of ammo, and die right after the unexpected weapon switch. Even though my winning run had less health at that point, I used excessive force with the BFG here. Ended the map with 0 armor and 104 health having used every health item on the map.
Both key traps are interesting setpieces with monsters coming from 4 to 6 directions. In a show of mercy, the red key can be run from and taken on from afar. Cool heads will prevail at the yellow key.

Map 4: 101% kills, 50% secrets, 0 deaths
I take way too much damage from revenant missiles and the group behind the yellow key door but at least succeed on the first try. The red key battle is quite interesting with lots of weaving between cacos to stay out of an archvile's sight. Took a slow and cautious approach so early tower revenants took some time to remove. Triggered the mancubi by the red key door early so removing them without SSG or rockets felt a mite tedious.

[Demon of the Well]

Schweet demo of map 03 there, Dew. That's what I like to see, a demo that pays some consideration to style, and not just pure, efficient speed. Style's what I usually aim for myself, optimal speed not really being my strong suit (I just tend to screw around too much).

Map 06 -- Mix Up the Satellite - 108% Kills / 100% Secrets
This is one of those maps that manages to seem/appear a little more violent and dangerous than it actually is. I believe it's also the flattest/most corridor-heavy BTSX map thus far, which does mean that more chokepointing is naturally bound to occur (as some have mentioned), although it also features a few setpieces to keep the action from being too one-note.

While Quake is one of the most-cited aesthetic influences for this mapset, this is the first map where the impression of any real pronounced similarity struck me--the dominant brown/tan color scheme with some rusty metal elements and yellow light-textures does have the feeling of a slipgate base from the original Quake, and the pronounced lighting contrasts in some areas also help in this regard. Like map 05 before it, it's not really a flashy map in this sense; the various corridors have some basic detail elements to add interest--lights, joists, little nonsensical UACisms like instrument panels with wire mesh covering them, etc.--its overall aesthetic impression eliding more from its overall shape (a lot of unusually specific/non-standard angles are at play here) and the aforementioned lighting. I also noticed on a replay that, if you look closely, you can see snatches of diorama-style detail outside of the playable area, depicting other parts of the facility, including a prominent relay antenna at one point. The more I see of it the more this is becoming one of my favorite ways of adding visual interest to Doom maps, here in BTSX and in other WADs where it appears, so this certainly works for me. The most striking scene here is a simple one; the lone gnarled tree, silhouetted against the sky, on the rocky mound near where the red key sits. Oh, yeah, I agree with whoever it was that complimented the BGM, as well--this is another excellent tune, particularly in its less dramatic parts.

As has been said, significant portions of this map amount to simply traveling down corridors and clearing out occasional clogs of monster flesh that show up in front of you, but there are some highlights, nearly all of which involve arch-viles, which appear to be the demon du jour for this map. The first vile appears in an area that's fundamentally fun to fight him in, or at least it is if you do what I did and run for the berserk pack before clearing out the demons and revenants that appear from the side closets when the first 'Lock' switch is activated. Perhaps the vile (and his HK bodyguards) shouldn't be deaf? A player could very well clear out the revenants and the like before heading towards the back of the room to wake him up, which would no doubt result in a much less pressuring/fast-paced fight. I do like that it's apparently possible (and likely) for the monsters to follow you through the teleporter out of the area if you try to just juke them, though.

Similarly, the setup with the pile of pre-made corpses near the yellow key is a really cool idea, but I reckon the punch was pulled too much--there are only a couple of viles, and the way the monster corpses are placed makes it so that you almost have to intentionally try to get them to resurrect more than 1-2 before they're taken down (although on my first time they did manage to get a bit more than that, granted, although my poor rocket-throwing tonight probably had something to do with it). Maybe this could be addressed just by changing the corpse positioning, by adding additional corpses near the back of the room where one of the viles teleports, by adding a third vile, who appears in the antechamber to the keyroom, etc. The free soulsphere here seemed a bit superfluous to me, as well, but I suppose I did find the secret one right before. Also, one of the hell knights seems to almost always survive the barrel explosions that set the scene before the player arrives, although he is usually heavily weakened by them. Not sure if that was intentional or not.

I thought the part that j4rio called bullshit on was fine, myself, although you can see in the FDA that I don't even really realize the relative severity of the situation (read: I didn't know there was another vile, although I probably should have, given that his chortling can be heard before he appears) until after I've charged forward into the water pit to fight from there. This sort of thing--a curveball to jar the player out of his/her possible state of complacency--is something I want to see more of in BTSX, personally, although of course it doesn't always need to be done in this specific way. The end fight repeats the same idea, but not as effectively, because the corridor is long enough that the revenants used to pressure player out into the the open space where the pain elementals can be awoken can fairly easily be eliminated before they can fulfill their function, given the stockpile of rockets available by that point.

Still, a fundamentally solid map whose only real problem is that, like several of the other maps thus far, does seem like it forces itself to use kid gloves a bit too much. For the record, I have also been trying the maps in solo-net mode after my initial UV forays, but I'm holding off on commenting on how I think this approach to establishing another difficulty setting fares until I've seen more of the maps. Oh, and I made that jump on the second try, myself, so it's not broken-hard, anyway.

Here is my FDA for map 06. This one was done intentionally.

[Steve D]

Map06 (Continuous) – Mix Up The Satellite by Iori – Kills – 100, Items – 98, Secret – 100. Time 46:36. End Health 100, Armor 58. Death Count – 8

It had to happen, the first map I didn’t like. Keep in mind that I felt a bit tired. I usually like long maps, but this one just numbed me somehow, and I couldn’t wait for it to be over. It had sensational looks and all kinds of cool angles, but unless Archies were present, it seemed like the map had no ‘A’ Game. It was also all linear corridors with some loop-arounds, and although it looked fantastic, thanks in no small measure to some fabulous grey and concrete textures, with wonderful use of fences in windows and also to enclose various panels, nothing could really hide that this was a linear corridor crawl. Or maybe slog is more accurate, because this map tilts towards the meat-lover’s game that I tend to find much more dull than the hitscanner game. I know I’m somewhat unusual in that regard, so be it.

All my deaths were at the first Archie trap, most of which could have been avoided if I’d realized sooner that the Archie was deaf, or if I'd grabbed -- or even noticed -- the Green Armor, or gone straight to the Zerk. Instead, I kept waking Archie's ass up with my large dodging motions trying to avoid the Revvies. When I first played this mapset last year, this is where I stopped. This is just the kind of room that owns me, and is the kind of trap I never enjoy, which I truly dislike on a deep, visceral, irrational level. That is my caveat for all that follows. One thing I dislike about certain meat-lover traps, and which I discussed with cannonball when playtesting Concerned, is that they tend to restrain me, as in this case when shooting rockets at Revvies, and while backing up I get hemmed in by Demons, or end up in “Good at Doom!” moments, killing myself when a Pinkie walks in front of my rocket. That happened twice. This room isn’t as horrible as the Plasma Gun Insta-Lift trap in Map23 of MM2, which may be my least favorite moment in Doom history, but it’s pretty bad to my way of looking at it. Even though there was a lot of health, I spent little time looking for it, though comically I kept missing a Medikit I tried to grab near the Archie’s hangout. On top of all that, the RNG hated me, and it was one of those times when every Revvie rocket was a homing missile. I couldn’t catch a break with any ballistic missiles. In the end, refusing to be defeated, I was able to kill one Revvie and at last find an open path to the Archie, who I rocketed while slime flew all around me. Once Archie was dead, the rest was easy, though Iori had one final jagoff move at the Zerk where he played with the player’s expectations, and instead of unleashing Demons he hit me with Chaingunners while my fists were up. That one earned a smile. I like that kinda shit. Kinda like my Flower Trap from back in the day. ;D

After this locked-room trap, the rest of the map was a corridor slog. Lots of shots required to kill heavy meat, but almost never any danger in the encounters. Spent some time noticing how gorgeous the map looks. Then there was a place where I turned off Risen3D’s aggressive auto-aim to rocket some Revvies across a long gap, and thereafter I noticed that I could turn auto-aim back on, look over the guardrail, and kill a bunch of monsters down below. The mapper gave me this opportunity, so I exploited it.

The other main thing of interest was the Blue Armor secret. I actually made a perfect jump to that panel by accident on the first try, and after I dropped down to the water, I thought, “Now that’s kinda fishy, a narrow platform I can stand on just might hide a secret.” I went back and pressed the wall below it, and lo and behold, the panel was a lift. It then took me 3 million more tries to make the jump. I finally did a strafe run for it. Fuckin’ hilarious! ;D

Thanks to also finding the Soulsphere, I was well prepared for the Archie Charnel House. Creeping along one wall, I noticed some Archie fingers poking past an edge. Out comes the RL and the battle is on! I took a fair amount of damage because, as I’ve said before, I suck, but it didn’t take long to quell this disturbance. Then there was yet another Archie trap at the red key. The little sleazeball managed to resurrect 3 Revvies and a Chaingunner before I was able to SSG the bastard through a window. It was kind of a cool-looking area, like an island with a tree in the middle of a mall, but at this point I was more than done with the map and I simply was not enjoying myself.

The exit area – nice job distracting me with those imps while The Bigass Revvie Closet opened behind me. The combined roar of all those Revvies got my attention! I immediately exited stage left and rocketed them all to death. I had about 850,000 rockets at this point, so I didn’t hold back. ;)

I personally do not recall seeing an Archie or any PEs in the exit area. It was dismayingly easy. Playing on Risen3D 2.2.18.

Overall, I found this map to be rather boring, but then, this is not my type of thing. Still, it seemed like sequential corridor killing, with monsters released in dribs and drabs and mostly all ahead of you. I needed more traps opening to my sides and behind, since otherwise, when presented with high-HP monsters ahead of me, I go side-to-side, door camp, “advance to the rear,” and so on, though I do like to charge nobles. This is my typical reaction to the meat-lover’s game, so basically, aside from changing the monster mix and throwing in some traps, there’s really nothing that can make me like this map. That said, I do admire its many strengths, its beauty, and its execution. But after the continuous play, I decided to forego the pistol start, at least for now. And cheers to Darkhaven for the sweet music track.

[cannonball]

MAP07 - “Metal Mothers” by Vader
This was a fun map, quite tricky in places too.
As the name suggests you get to confront a lot of masterminds here. Ammo is pretty tight and partial invisibilities are your best friend here so use them wisely. Gameplay was pretty brisk with a good non-linear layout which looks great and is fun to explore.
The mancubus secret is a nice little novelty here though I had an oh shit moment being teleported to the three masterminds by the red key door. Luckily they all fought each other instead of turning me into Swiss cheese.
I thought the bfg secret was a little harsh on the player, too many enemies really which waste what little plasma you get out of that secret, yeah you get the bfg but it killed me once :P
I was going to leave the revenants in that trap but I discovered a cell pack by the exit switch after toying with the revenant in there (I enjoy punching them), so I went back and obliterated the horde with the BFG without taking a hit and then left.
Good map and the one which took me the longest time to finish, but unlike map06, I was never bored with this one.

[Tarnsman]

Tarns commentary? Tarns commentary. In order to view the levels in a new light, I decided to abstain from my usual play style of blitzing through everything and turned run off and took a nice brisk walk through the park. As doing things like dodging revs rocks is very difficult without run, I turned the difficulty down to HMP.

Map 01: Back to Saturn X Radio Report by Some Douchebag and Double Hitler
I really, really, really like the dead start and end of this map. BTSX E1 is more about locale and atmosphere than the actual gameplay and the slow opening and ending really add to that. I don't mind the size or complexity of this map as the normal route is extremely quick and straight forward. For those curious about who did what. Essel did the hub area and the stuff up to the bridge (sans the chainsaw room) and I did everything post bridge up until the room directly behind the door opening to the BK. (We both did minor touch up stuff to each others areas). As for difficulty? My brisk walk was not interrupted in the slightest, and I had a wonderful stroll through the pumping station.

I give this map a ham sandwich out of 11.

Map 02: Postal Blowfish by The Reason I Threw Out Those Jeans and Double Hitler
I honestly wish there was only rockets on this map. It's nice and short and seems like the perfect excuse to just let the player gib stuff for a couple of minutes. I have no problem with the keys not being trapped and the exit fight not being anything special, in fact I appreciate it. (At this point tough fights following key objectives are like the bad guy getting up after you think he's dead at the end of an action film, I'm bored to death with it.) For those curious about what did what. Torn did the layout which mostly remained in tack and Essel did most of the detailing while adding some minor layout changes (IIRC in the original version of the map the YK involved some really odd backtracking) and adding in stuff like the vent secret. As for difficulty? My brisk walk through the shipping and receiving area was not interrupted despite the most rude demons. P.S. The crates are filled with deflated Cacodemons.

I give this map sixteen yodeling yetis out of the letter 'b'.

Map 03: The Room Taking Shape by Convenient Power Tool
I love the color scheme, the shapes, the short pace of the map, and the track. I wouldn't mind the BFG on this map if it 1. wasn't so obviously easy to get and 2. there was like maybe 80 cells in the next three maps. I love the crushers (because crushers are awesome and if you don't enjoy crushers you're just objectively wrong) and the YK area in general makes the first real set piece fight of BTSX. As for difficulty? I had a lovely stroll through what was supposed to be the computer bank before the demon invasion superheated the substructure and caused it to partially melt, happily and totally uninterrupted.

I give this map John Lennon out of the Planet Jupiter.

Map 04: A Good Flying Bird by Double Hitler
I like the layout, the keys are slightly less useless in this map than normal Essel keys (it's okay we still have to wait until E2M10 to hit peak useless-essel-keys). I really like the outdoor area and the cool midtex trickery used for the slopes (for those curious, at one point about a year ago, those were sector slopes and looked gloriously terrible). There is some cool jumping stuff going on in this map and the new secrets are nice. As for difficulty? My walk through the lovely upper courtyards was uninterrupted.

I give this map A C Note out of 2.31 pounds of butter.

Map 05: Total Exposure by Chuck Norris
MMMMMMMMMMMMMM SPACE! I walked through Walker's map quite well, with enough room to stretch and slowly creep across the massive spaces with projectiles totally unable to hit me. I really love the change in scale with this map from the previous. As for difficulty? My sojourn through the submarine pens was interrupted once by a rambunctious revenant. (I did have to run to make 1 gap.)

I give this map ZIMMER3 out of a .wmv file.

Map 06: Mix Up The Satellite by A Sad Donkey
The Hallway directed by John Corridor. (Thankfully we don't get to The Hallway 2: Reckoning until E1M18) As much as I dislike this style of layout, I do like that it's both a visual and architectural change up from the previous maps. I like the shapes used for the architecture (I think this and ed's map have some of the most distinct shaping in E1). One complaint would be that it would be nice to be pushed into the exit area (it actually looks like an arena, so I wouldn't mind a big final fight). As for the difficulty? My walk was repeatedly and consistently interrupted. (Although I did manage to just squeeze through most traps, it was rev snipers that got me most of the time.)

I give this map Matlock out of Columbo.

[Capellan]

map07
Other than that, this is a solid map. It looks nice and has an interesting layout. It's perhaps a trifle longer than I would like, and I thought the double key was a bit redundant, since you got the red so soon after the blue. I'm sure some people will complain about the lack of a 667 tag given all the arachnotrons on this, though honestly that doesn't worry me (I wouldn't care if the 666 was missing, but since it is present I must admit I am perplexed as to its purpose. Unless I am missing something, it seems impossible to trigger?)

I liked that this level gave us some rocky outdoor areas to give a little wrinkle to the visual theme.

The level seemed a fair bit easier than map06 to me.

[cannonball]

Capellan said:

map07
I'm sure some people will complain about the lack of a 667 tag given all the arachnotrons on this, though honestly that doesn't worry me (I wouldn't care if the 666 was missing, but since it is present I must admit I am perplexed as to its purpose. Unless I am missing something, it seems impossible to trigger?)

Spoiler

There is a mancubus which you can see through a small hole in the underground cavern area of the map. Shoot him dead and a wall nearby lowers giving you the automap secret. I think it was a neat idea.

[Capellan]

Thanks cannonball.

[Alfonzo]

I somehow managed to lose my copy of BTSX after the WAD? streamthrough last week, but I've heard from a couple of folks outside the community that the BTSX themed short story collection, Back to Saturn X: Short Stories and Trashed Aircraft (published by SL Books, 2013), is superior to the game in every possible way. I guess I'll be doing the write-up reviews based on the story counterparts instead, then.

Story01: Back to Saturn X Radio Report
Written by Michael Mancuso and Richard Frei

This was a pretty good read, although I was initially confused by the unusual formatting. Apparently you can get through the entire story in about 50 seconds if you know which words to read first, but there's so much optional text that it feels a lot longer than that. I'm not sure if that's suitable for a first story in a collection this large, but I guess it didn't bother me too much.

Anyway, Radio Report tells the story of a deranged waste disposal expert called Basil whose home brand knowledge of microbiology causes him to cross swords with his supervisor, Dan Levitz, formerly of retail. They literally cross swords as well, which I thought was a nice touch. There's a radio that serves as a symbolic centrepiece for the action, although the significance of it was lost on me after the authors started talking about the pitfalls of Italian Democracy, which I thought was a bit out of place in an otherwise decent science fiction story.

I was impressed with the quality of the prose, and the fact that the first 3 pages of the story don't have any words at all. The blank, heavily palletized paper helped build a great sense of anticipation that kept me guessing as to when the book would actually start. I was also impressed with how, after page 14, the book prevented me from reading any of what I'd gone through ever again. Some people have complained about this, saying that there were a couple of words they missed and wanted to re-read afterwards, but I honestly don't see the problem. Just buy another book? It's not that hard.

***

Story02: Postal Blowfish
Written by Kim Bach and Michael Mancuso

Most of the words in this story are written using block capitals and accented with terrible punctuation, which I think is a welcome change from the usual 'case and commas. "BUT HE IS A PIOUS BEEFCAKE!?!.", etc.. One drawback to this approach, and as I discovered through SL Books before this review, was that this dominance of upper case wording thickened the end product by about 20 pages, contributing chiefly to the book's failure to work back the cost of publication. This is a shame, because it's stories like Postal Blowfish that deserve more praise.

I won't say much of what it's about, except to mention the explosive action and upper shelf quality. Not the sort to found in the bargain bin of your local library though, that's for sure.

***

Story03: The Room Taking Shape
Written by Paul Debruyne

This is a wonderful little existential story, only 5 pages long, about a boy whose love for his father is manifest in the flank of a swelling pig. At least I think that's what it's about, because the font is all squiggly and meshed together and there aren't any right angles at all. Even the edges of the pages for this story are cut into strange, haphazard shapes which make them difficult to turn and quite dangerous to handle (twice I cut myself trying to fumble at the edges).

The story makes a single, strong reference to the Watergate scandal, if you look closely enough. A few heads will probably be shaking over that one, and I guess I can't blame the people who own them -- such a reference usually comes in by at least the seventh story in a collection of this length, anyway -- but it does still make for a unique arrangement.

Having said that, I'll still have to read this one again when I get a new copy. I accidentally bled onto the final paragraph and so can't make out the ending.

[mouldy]

MAP07 - “Metal Mothers” by Vader

This was a cool map, very non linear and action packed. I seemed to pick a route that left me without a SSG for most of it, and was really scraping for ammo at the start. Then around the middle I was flush with ammo and weapons and by the end I was so low again I was literally having to punch spider masterminds to death. Think maybe I was wasting a bit... As usual I didn't find any secrets and missed about 20 enemies that I assume were hiding in them. Still its a great map, really complex and varied, my favourite so far I think. The cheesy music is starting to grate a bit now though.

[Jayextee]

MAP07 - METAL MOTHERS

Fuck, fuck, fuck, did I love this one. As a rule, I think Masterminds are very hit-and-miss in maps; and although not entirely threatening in this map, the presence of a half-dozen of the fuckers felt damn good.

I loved how circular, interconnected and non-linear this map is; objectives were mostly clear, and the layout not confusing -- a series of well-landmarked areas saw to me not ever having to open the automap, not once, to find my bearings.

The threat level was lower than it looked; ammo was plentiful enough (although I got close to exhausting my cell ammo, that I've been pretty much hoarding since MAP03) and the main challenge came from either the Arachnotrons or Revenants; with the occasional sneaky chaingunner that managed to circumnavigate a crate or similar structure to blindside me.

This has defintely been the finest map so far. They're getting better - BTSX is on a roll. :)

[esselfortium]

Tarnsman said:

For those curious about what did what. Torn did the layout which mostly remained in tack and Essel did most of the detailing while adding some minor layout changes (IIRC in the original version of the map the YK involved some really odd backtracking) and adding in stuff like the vent secret.

The vent secret was actually there in Torn's original version of MAP02. I mainly handled thing placement and visual design. The only layout changes/additions I made were to allow for the relocation of the red key door to a place that didn't require backtracking up the lift and across the entire level to get to it.

Capellan said:

map07
Other than that, this is a solid map.

This post seems to begin in medias res.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP07 Metal Mothers

No 667 tags? WTF?!

Just kidding...not a fan of the 667 tag anyways.

Ran around like an idiot on what seems to be the perimeter of the level killing things. Outside area up north where the rocket launcher was had a few things that annoyed me. The teleporting monsters always seem to teleport late. Seems to happen in other parts of the level too. I dunno if it's a deliberate trick (and if it was, then good shit there) or just bad design. Lotta spiderdemons in this one, meaning running up to each one and using the BFG for the continuous player. I'm fond of my spider enemies, and like how they get front-row seats as the main monster here. But the zombies don't let up, and I finally got to use a blur artifact to hasten some chances. I like how after getting the red key from the spiderdemon, there's another one behind a newly opened wall, and even more later. Cute, and could prove quite a challenge. {this sentence was deleted, dammit cannonball beat me to it!}. This level could be tough challenge dud to hitscanners (this includes the spiderdemons!) and arachnotrons around, it definitely got me. Final Time 7:44.