The DWmegawad Club plays: MAYhem2048

[General Rainbow Bacon]

If you guys are seriously considering moving my map to a regular slot, I suggest replacing "Puff" with my map. Puff seems kind of gimmicky to be in the main set and is even less detailed than mine. Also, my map is way too hard to replace a map in the map04 slot.

[Steve D]

Obsidian said:

ULTRA POST!

You still gonna play my map Steve or do you loathe IoS maps like some weirdos around here? :P

I do loathe IoS maps, but I played yours twice. ;D Just fell asleep before i finished writing it up, so be patient, it's coming. ;)

[Steve D]

Map30 – Bloodstained Glass by Obsidian – Kills – 131, Items – 66, Secret – 0 Death Count – 6

UV pistol-start, GZDoom and then Risen3D

So now we come to the second-to-last entry in SteveD's Skyscraper of Text on MAYhem2048.

There is probably nothing I hate more in Doom 2 – aside from Archie-spamming – than IoS maps, thus putting me on Obsidian's list of “weirdos.” ;D I agree with Seele, the IoS is a terrible boss monster, and further, I dislike boss monsters and boss maps in general. Remember that dumbass, nearly-unkillable giant prince in Return To Castle Wolfenstein? Damn near ruined the whole game.

The gameplay here follows a tendency Obsidian has shown in this mapset, and I'll make an attempt here to talk him out of certain habits and proclivities, while at the same time noting that I have no problem with Obsidian being Obsidian. So out of his 3 maps, 2 of them had unmarked exits – I'm not counting the IoS – and 2 of them had weird switches for opening doors or revealing passages necessary to proceed in the maps. The unmarked exits issue hardly needs to be spoken of, as it seems to be the overwhelming consensus of the community that unmarked exits are a total bummer. Players end up leaving maps they may have wanted to explore further. I have been a major offender on this issue in the past, but I've been swayed by the arguments against this practice.

The second issue, where simply making any progress in a map depends on a puzzle aspect, can bring us to the Map09 of Realm of Chaos phenomenon. People let me know about that one in the DWMC thread. Yeah, mandatory secret door necessary to find yellow door after getting yellow key. Failure to find means quitting the map. Of course, I thought I had practically put a neon sign there to indicate the presence of said door, a texture offset of at least 16 units. How could anyone miss that? But people did, which brings up the question, “If people are supposed to see this big texture offset in order to find the door, why not just put the fucking door there in plain sight?” And when continuers reached that map, and in those days the MacDoom community was basically 100% continuers, if they failed to figure out the secret door, it meant they were done with the whole megawad. Can you hear all the other mappers saying “Thanks, Steve?” ;D That's not so much a problem nowadays in a community where it seems a majority of players are pistol-starters, but it will impact your maps if people bail on them because you just had to make ordinary progress be a puzzle. In this case, it was a texture with an X scratched on it. Seems simple enough, but even modern players missed the gigantic and IMO far more obvious texture offset in my map, though in that case, it may have been because of the seemingly widespread belief that mappers in the '90s were a bunch of spit-drooling pithecanthropoid morons, so that any texture offset in a room with a consistent ceiling height must be the sheer incompetence of those silly '90s people. ;D

None of this means you need to give up your trickiness, which I think would be impossible anyway, since I don't believe it could even be surgically removed from you when it's such a bedrock characteristic of your mapping. I'm just suggesting that maybe you save it for parts where it really matters, and leave it out of parts where people just say, “Why can't I open this door? This map sucks!”

So onto the gameplay. As usual, Obsidian manages to achieve a dark, menacing atmosphere, although the map is a mostly harmless rail-shooting corridor crawl. Using a Hell Knight as a blocking obstacle on a steep stair was probably the nadir of that approach. The coolest part was that Lost Soul/Imp trap guarding the SSG that gets revealed, because you can go back to the window looking into that room and start a lot of infights while you just laugh and watch the carnage from complete safety. I thought that was pretty cool. I also appreciated, somewhat earlier, being able to show my shoulder to one of the 2 Cacos guarding the Chaingun, lure it to me for summary execution, and then show myself in the room to start an infight between the second Caco and the Chaingunner behind it, leaving the Caco dead and the Chaingunner easy prey. This is the kind of thing you get in an Obsidian map, so if you have a taste for such things, you can enjoy stuff you seldom see in other maps. As far as the early fights go, my favorite was actually the first one, riding the lift down to be ambushed by Imps. Make a mistake and you can get badly hurt in this one.

Then you have the red key battle, again a remarkably easy exercise, though you can get hurt if you're impetuous. I should mention here that I am not including the insta-death lines in my death total, only death in honorable combat.

That honorable combat occurs at last in the double-Archie surprise. Again, it's not unusual to encounter a dickish, desperate fight in close quarters when Obsidian is calling the shots. I always surrender pelts in Obsidian's maps, usually because of encounters like this one. It's my nature to always charge an individual Archie with the SSG, but when faced with 2, I always back away and unholster the rocket launcher, which can earn you several “Good at Doom!” suicides in this room, depending on the motion of the lift or how rapidly one of the Archies can close on you. I found that Obsidian was kind enough to place a Soulsphere in the Archie room, so bold action can carry the day if you grab it before getting torched, especially if you've already faded one Archie.

At that point, it's a bad idea to hang around, because there's more Archies, or at least one, rezzing dead stuff in the corridors behind you, and they'll start piling in, sometimes with Archibald McJagoff himself. Hitting the switch in the Archie room raises the lift one more level, to where a Plasma Gun awaits, but rather than go back and kill everything, I hopped through the Stargate.

Now I had a chance to go fight the IoS. When I played on GZDoom, I became confused, because my attempt to cross the cubes and enter the flaming barrier led to death after death. I mistakenly assumed that the map was somehow malfunctioning on GZDoom, because I had crossed the cubes easily enough at the start of the map. It didn't occur to me at the time – well after 2 AM – that this was actually a platforming element, and any mistake in negotiating the platforms led to instant death. Perhaps I was just lucky at the start, because I simply charged straight ahead with no problem.

With Risen3D enlisted for a potentially more accurate Boom compatibility, which as we all know resulted in a major fail on Map16, I soon learned the reality when I got zapped again and again at the start. But I still had a sneaking suspicion that there might be something different about the path to the flame barrier, so I carried on, and then died again and again trying to enter. I thus finally realized that this was a platforming element, and behaved accordingly.

Once I finally reach the IoS room it's, “Hello, Cybie, so surprised to see you.” I died on my first go because I was so stunned, but after that dusted him off.

And now it's time for the moment we've all been dreading, “What will the trickster Obsidian do now that he's finally got his hands on an IoS map?” No doubt he's been dreaming of this day, his devious mind clicking over strategies to confound and enrage players from Chicago to Calcutta, from Jakarta to Maracaibo. What underhanded strategy will he unveil?

Fuck if I know.

I figure it had something to do with the cages that disappeared. I tried shooting from straight ahead, even through the switch. I tried standing inside where the cages were. I tried standing on the raised edges of the cages. I shot rockets, I shot plasma, and nothing worked. ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz.

Okay, I'm done. I clipped to the cube as did many others just to avoid the DNF. So yet another unfun IoS map, at least from my perspective. I guarantee that if I'm ever the project leader on a megawad, IoS maps will be verboten. :D

It wasn't such a bad map otherwise, but it seemed to build up to some scenario where you had to be pixel-perfect to win, and let's face it, I'm a run 'n gun player. I want wild melees in interconnected areas, not some business where I'm forced to find just the right spot to slay a monster I can't stand anyway.

I hope Obsidian has some run 'n gun maps hiding somewhere inside him, because if he applies his trickiness to maps with a more combat-oriented design, it could result in something really cool. As for this map, it shows his expertise as a technician and a master of Boom tricks, and it has some decent moments. Too bad about that IoS part gumming things up.

Now imagine this, folks, if it hasn't happened already -- Obsidian and Eternal work on a mapset together. Oh, my! ;)

[Obsidian]

SteveD said:

Now imagine this, folks, if it hasn't happened already -- Obsidian and Eternal work on a mapset together. Oh, my! ;)

I'd have a rictus grin on my face for at least a week if that actually happened. :D One can dream...

[Steve D]

Final Thoughts On MAYhem2048

Or at least, final thoughts on the MAYhem2048 beta, since this has been a valuable DWMC playtest of the megawad, and several maps have been revised, some more than once.

And it's a surprisingly solid megawad considering that the whole thing was done in a month, and some mappers – cannonball and Obsidian – demonstrated their speed by contributing 2 and 3 maps, respectively.

While it's a solid megawad, only a few maps seemed truly memorable to me, though many more are notable in some way. And we had everything from super-easy maps to maps of soul-crushing difficulty.

We also had a few maps that were wildly, crazily odd, such as CorSair's Balls on Fire. I'm still scratching my head over that one, but not in a bad way. ;)

My favorite map is The Axe Murderer's Domain by Chris Hansen. Probably no big surprise given my oft-stated preference for run 'n gun, highly interconnected maps, and the rather obvious fact that I'm a big fan of Chris Hansen, to the point where I may have been the only DWMC member who was completely stoked about his infamous E3M6 damaging-floor spectacular in 2002:ADO. Here, Chris turns in a masterpiece in the Romero-influenced style. There's all kinds of nifty passageways and overlooks and approaches to the fights. There is tons of action and plenty of danger – many SteveD pelts were handed-over to the axe-murderer himself. The map looks fantastic, too, and makes amazing use of the space and the entire resource wad. Nice, tricky secrets, too, but not too tricky. Most of all, however, is the excellent balance of features. This is the work of an experienced oldschool mapper who knows what he's doing.

Breathing right down Chris Hansen's neck is Memfis, who proves in Serenity In The Air that “oldschool” is not synonymous with “easy,” and that “serenity” has a whole new meaning. This is another superbly balanced and fantastic-looking map, and a bit more dickish than Hansen's here and there, though I'm not holding that against it. Indeed, it's one of my favorite features of the map. ;) I've made no secret that I think Memfis is one of the best mappers around, and rather a paradoxical one, given that he's an elite player who seems to enjoy slaughtermaps, yet when he sits down with DB2 he's all about the oldschool, even to the point of doing fun maps in honor of the Ultimate Doom megawad Heroes. Which is fine by me since he's so damned good at making such maps.

Some of the other notable maps include;

Unorthogon by Jimmy. Really sweet layout that's fun to run around in.
Sheltered Outpost by an_mutt. Some great-looking areas and some fun gameplay.
Sligenous by Getsu Fune. I'll be the outlier here. This map isn't much to look at, but for me, it provided fun, hard-nosed gameplay. It's still growing on me, too.
Death Dungeon by pcorf. A little easy, perhaps, but a gorgeous map with fantastic layout by another master of the oldschool style.
Besieged by Obsidian. My favorite of the Obsidian maps -- even though it had by far the most irritating opening -- this one has tremendous atmosphere, numerous tricks and a couple decent fights.
Palace of Chaos by Plut. A map that challenged my hatred of tight battles and won me over, at least to some extent.
Aberinkula by tourniquet. Quite possibly the best-looking map in the megawad, and the gameplay is solid, too, even if tourniquet himself seems a bit disappointed. Tourniquet also saved my ass by fixing a looping problem in my BGM. Much appreciated.
Unfair And Square by cannonball. I'm a major cannonball fan, because he reliably delivers great-looking, action-packed maps. This one loses steam after the opening, but still a very solid entry.
Cold Seep by dobu gabu maru. This might surprise some people, given the trauma I experienced in this map, but that wasn't the map's fault, it was mine for playing it on UV. The fact remains that this map is a remarkable piece of work. That Dobu put this all together so rapidly, with so many sectors and such ingenious pathways, and so many different styles of gameplay, and on top of that was nice enough to make the most brutal path (yellow key) completely optional, earns my respect. When I play on HNTR, I'm sure I'll have more fun, too.
Imago Mortis by Demonologist. Perhaps another surprise, but this is a list of “notable” maps, not necessarily the maps I had the most fun in. I can tell that this is quality work all the way, and now that it has difficulty settings, I look forward to giving it a whirl on HNTR. Something tells me I'm gonna have a shitload of fun.
Crypt of Unsilence by General Rainbow Bacon. If you're sitting around and can't think of anything to do, but you have a sneaking suspicion that getting your ass kicked from one end of a Doom map to another will brighten your day, then GRB is your man. Fire this up and leave pieces of yourself all over the landscape. It'll be good for your soul.
Aeternal by Eternal. Included more for its beauty and atmosphere than its gameplay, this is another trick-box by a famous trickster. It is also a real masterpiece of construction. Indeed, it is so good in that respect that it is worthy of study and emulation.

And now, my most controversial and most surprising picks for notable maps.

First, the controversial one;

Canyon Village by joe-ilya. Seriously, folks, I had a good time playing this map on continuous. Yeah, it has some hideous spots, and some cheapo tricks, and whole armies of monsters rising through stone, but it's also, IMO, nowhere near the worst map in the set, and it's so over-the-top wild and crazy that I couldn't help smiling. Good on ya, joe.

And now, the most surprising one;

Black And Blue by Marcaek. Oh, this map is evil, and it's never gonna be my favorite map, though a lot of what makes it unfun for me is the huge expanse of damaging floor, which is just nasty, and not the same kind of thing Chris Hansen did in E3M6 of 2002:ADO, so I'm not being a hypocrite. However, I do have great respect for Marcaek's skills, and will give this a go sometime on HNTR and PM him the results. All that said, the fact remains that this map has, for me, the single most memorable moment in the megawad. It occurred when, after 85 million tries, I finally negotiated the platforms to run away from the Cyb to the exit path. At last, freedom! Escape! But no! The entire ginormous Cyb platform rose to my level and I was rocketed to death while laughing over the sheer genius of this move. Allow me to emphasize that I was not laughing at Marcaek and his map, I was laughing over how much fun this incredibly cool move was. It was like being in some insane horror movie where you're trying to escape the mansion of an evil scientist, and just when you think you've made it, when struggling through the weeds you see lights on the highway ahead, out of nowhere the mad scientist appears with his giant, shambling henchmen, and says, “Oh, laddie, did you really think it would be that easy?” The henchmen grab you, take you to his dungeon and torture you, and then you're eaten alive by cannibal midgets. That was the kind of moment this was to me, and I really enjoyed it.

As for my experience, I'm probably not cut out for designing size-limited maps. I was disappointed to the point of being crestfallen when I tested Heat Miser and only died 3 times, because even though I tested on Risen3D without infinite-tallness, I knew this map would not get me the long-sought DotW pelt, whose acquisition is a primary goal of my mapping these days. ;D I knew from experience that DotW would not be stopped by infinite-tallness, and so it came to pass with his successful FDA, and even his second play without getting killed. I was also mortified when plums mentioned that he camped in the opening room, even camping Archie in there, because I had made those bars one-way to prevent that from happening, but if you're quick, you really can get back in there. So yet another failure. Now, I don't hate this map, and I'm glad that some of you enjoyed it, and for me, the sight of all those Cacos boiling through the windows is worth all the disappointment that followed. But the fact remains that you can camp the horde in the Archie room, and it's basically mandatory to do that on any port with the word Boom in it. That's not what I'm about as a mapper. Oh, well, live and learn and move on to the next map. I hope DotW hears those footsteps behind him, because I'm not going to stop until I achieve my goal. ;) BTW, I have prepared a special Jagoff Edition of this map where, in place of the Cyb that teleported in front of the exit to block the player, I teleport an Archie into the middle of all those corpses in the first arena. Heh. Maybe I should teleport 3 on UV. ;)

So that's all, folks. At last, SteveD will shut the fuck up! ;)

[Demon of the Well]

Nah, I liked Chris's E3M6 in 2002:ADO as well (although his E4 maps were better). His contributions were generally the high points of that WAD, I think.

Also, you already got your pelt, Steve! But just as I suspected, you want to get one when people are watching, it seems. Well, it'll be soon enough, I'm sure, at the rate of escalation you're going for these days. ;)

[Steve D]

Demon of the Well said:

Also, you already got your pelt, Steve! But just as I suspected, you want to get one when people are watching, it seems. Well, it'll be soon enough, I'm sure, at the rate of escalation you're going for these days. ;)

I'm glad you mentioned that, DotW, because I decided it was your call to make. It took like 26 maps for me to get that pelt! ;) So now that the cat's out of the bag, I just want to say that after all the heavy monsters I've thrown at DotW in Doom 2, I finally got him with some little guys in an E4M1. I've known for awhile that I'm better at making Ultimate Doom maps than Doom 2. Just don't have as good a feel for that Doom 2 Meat Game. I'm still trying, though, and DotW is cordially invited to the next Amiga Demo Party at some as-yet unspecified date in the future. But before that, Realm of Intensified Chaos will be rolling in. Then again, those are just some nice, friendly maps from the '90s. Nothing to worry about because as we all know, every mapper in the '90s was clinically brain-dead. ;D

And now, absolutely, no more posts from me in this thread. Enjoy Stomper everyone, and I'll see you in September for BTSX E2.

[Breezeep]

I guess I learned something mapping related after you played my map. I'm already improving when I made wads that I never finished for some reason and my entry for Plutinya 1024 But still, I am a little proud of this map.

[dobu gabu maru]

SteveD said:

completely stoked about his infamous E3M6 damaging-floor spectacular in 2002:ADO.

Demon of the Well said:

Nah, I liked Chris's E3M6 in 2002:ADO as well

I'd ban both of you guys from the club if I could. Chris needs to pay penance for that map.

[Breezeep]

I wonder if a 2048 mapping project (minus the eternal resources) will happen.

[Lingyan203]

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgS1ZoidySwMmXkzGg31Xqe6B5VjmRP5U

Mayhem 2048 playthrough if anybody is interested!

Sorry if I'm bumping the thread