The DWmegawad Club plays: MAYhem2048

[Solarn]

MAP01, "Unorthogon" by Jimmy. Played in prBoom+.

Really nice starter map, makes good use of space to last much longer than you'd think a 2048x2048 map could last. I've seen people struggle (and have myself struggled) with the same kind of concept in 1024x1024, but this size seems perfect for it. The textures are nice and inoffensive, resulting in a pleasantly retro-looking techbase. I love it. It was also pretty tough for a first map, presumably setting the tone for the rest of the WAD.

MAP02, "The Dark Tower" by ChaingunnerX. Played in prBoom+.

Okay, first of all, I hate the blue textures in this map. I don't know if it's the (way too low) light level or the textures themselves, but they looked ugly and blotchy to me. The design of the map also isn't nearly as good as the first one. I often got stuck on the architecture while trying to manoeuver around enemies and the fight with the imps below the stairs was a nightmare. The outside area was better, but the random rocks along the sides still impeded my movement a bit too much. Overall, a short and intense map with some significant shortcomings.

[Steve D]

Map02 - The Dark Tower by ChaingunnerX - Kills - 91, Items - 100, Secret - 100. Death Count - 3

Pistol-start, UV, GZDoom.

First SteveD pelts go to ChaingunnerX. I wish I could say I enjoyed this map, but the darkness and the fiddly detail I kept getting stuck on, plus that final switch which is really hard to find in the dark, made the challenge feel too annoying to me.

CGX really puts those Dark Imps to work in a nearly pitch-black room at the bottom of the stairs. As usual, I refused sissy increases in the gamma. Damnit, I'll slug it out the way the mapper intended, even if I have to proceed by braille! As a result, all 3 of my deaths came in the Imp fight.

The Green Armor being inaccessible even though you walked over it was just silly. Thanks, Boom. ;D

Good thing I found the Plasma Gun, which came in very handy when the Hell Knight teleported in.

I had very little trouble in the courtyard, except I was not amused plinking at Dark Imp snipers that were damn near invisible against the night sky.

I had no ammo issues, either. The health/ammo/monster balance seemed right.

Unlike Jimmy's map, this one seemed very small and cramped. All those boxes outside, WTF were they for except to irritate me? ;D

An occasionally intense map, not bad, but a little on the aggravating side.

[mouldy]

Map02 - “The Dark Tower” by ChaingunnerX

This map get a few things wrong in my opinion. Firstly the navigation is awkward and cramped, like they tried to stuff a bit too much map into the space provided. Then there was the darkness, which makes the awkward navigation even more elbow bruising, and the switches dotted around the place that didn't appear to do anything were a bit confusing. But the biggest crime was putting hitscanners in the darkness that pretty much rendered them invisible. So you can't see shit and something is knocking chunks of health off you, and there's nothing you can do about it cos there's no way of knowing where the shot came from. Its hard to say much about the visuals as most of it was hidden in darkness, but the walking through fire at the exit was a bit weird. Oh and the exit is unmarked, which is a minor point but adds to the list of annoyances.

[joe-ilya]

MAP02

Nice little space-tech map with an exciting outdoor area with some exploration
5/5

[Phil1984]

So I thought I'ld join in on the fun this month. My understanding is that MAYhem2048 is a community driven project so I'll be pistol starting each map from UV-MAX with no saving allowed using pr-boom plus.


On the actual map set Overall I think 2048x2048 is a pretty cool gimmick/limitation and certainly I hope will provide more scope for decent levels than the 1024x1024 craze of a few years ago. Unfortunately I am not as big a fan of the new sounds, textures and that damn dark imp.

Map 01 - "Unorthogon" by Jimmy
Deaths - 1
Kills - 100%
Secrets - 50%

I really enjoyed this map. The open and interconnected nature of this map, coupled with a decent struggle to find suitable ammo to dispatch the foes attacking you from all directions kept me on my toes right from the start. The level does however become quite easy once you are on key finding duties and could have benefited from a few monsters teleporting in towards the latter stages of this map. Still, overall I thought Jimmy used the space available to him to great affect and created a fun map01.

Map02 - “The Dark Tower” by ChaingunnerX

Deaths - 3
Kills - 93%
Secrets - 100%

Blurgh. To give the level its credit, the level does look quite good....when you can see what is going on. The level is simply too dark for my tastes which is bearable on its own, but when combined with unnecessary detail that gets in the way of movement (trees, I'm looking at you kid), and these dark imps and it just created....unpleasant gameplay in my opinion. Wandering around for 5 minutes trying to find that last switch to open up the door probably also soured my opinion on this map (seriously how did i miss that!).

[Magnusblitz]

MAP02: The Dark Tower by ChaingunnerX
91% kills, 0/1 secret

Yeah, not to pile on, but not really my cup of tea. Unlike last map, which had a great layout and used stock textures, this one has a questionable layout and uses plenty of custom textures, some of which are quite garish and out of place to me. I like some darkness (it's a really a defining part of the first Doom) but the imps are basically invisible here, which is just annoying rather than scary. The only really dangerous part of the map is the early hell knight, especially if you trip him in without having any shells, as I did. Once outside, there's a bit of a switch hunt, which just feels like padding. There's also a SSG just sitting there in the open with nothing to kill with it. Open the door and run into the flames... ah, been awhile since my last unmarked exit! One of my pet peeves returns!

[Steve D]

In the interest of fairness to ChaingunnerX, I should confess that I was quite the jagoff with Dark Imps, too, albeit to a lesser extent. Pot. Kettle. Black. ;D

[cannonball]

Map02 - “The Dark Tower” by ChaingunnerX

This map isn't bad but it does have its issues. It uses rather niggly bits of detail and some of the navigation is a little wonky. I like the atmosphere though.
One hing to note is that 4 monsters did not teleport in. On checking iddt they seem to have not woken up so probably a bug of some sorts which is an easy fix.

[Steve D]

cannonball said:

Map02 - “The Dark Tower” by ChaingunnerX
One hing to note is that 4 monsters did not teleport in. On checking iddt they seem to have not woken up so probably a bug of some sorts which is an easy fix.

I checked the map in DB2, and the monsters aren't deaf, so assuming I looked at the right monsters, maybe the sectors weren't merged correctly for them to hear sound?

[Memfis]

03 - Wow this was bad. Shitty friction sectors serving no gameplay purpose - inexcusable. Annoying arch-vile room where you just have to hope that he doesn't start attacking too soon. At this point I run out of ammo (oh god, I really hope this is not going to be a theme in the wad) and have to leave some monsters in the main area. Even more monsters appear, still almost no ammo in sight. And then the classic "fuck you, here is an arch-vile appearing in front of you in a room with no cover" moment. Didn't finish as the yellow switch didn't seem to do anything at first sight and it was kinda tricky to find the way with 10 hp left and monsters roaming everywhere. Terrible, this one is going to be hard to beat in terms of badness. Liked the seaweed.

[Obsidian]

:(

Kind of wish someone had pointed this sort of stuff out in the thread, but whatever.

[Marcaek]

I haven't got around to writing about map02 yet, but Memfis is exaggerating pretty damn hard.

[Phobus]

MAP02
I like it, but there's two caveats to this... #1 - I seem to have my brightness relatively high in ZDoom, so I could see things well enough; #2 - the bugs I noticed (4 missing monsters; no inside lower textures when the box containing the green armour lowers; missing tag for sky transfer up the top of the first lift) had no impact on my experience. Enjoyable, pretty easy (although with the potential to take a fair bit of damage) and once again I didn't work out the secret. Plunged headlong into the fire after a quick look to confirm that, yes, I'd found everything I was likely to and went on my way. Quite an atmospheric darkness to how I saw the map (which looked great, IMO), although the ridiculous number of stars in the sky does look pretty odd.

[Solarn]

MAP03, "Outpost Delta" by Obsidian. Played in prBoom+.

Another short map, much nicer looking than the last one. It plays better too, although I was plagued by a severe ammo shortage that made me take stupid risks resulting in a chronic lack of health, not sure if that was my lack of skill or if the ammo really is that tight. The "quicksand" sectors were cool, but not utilized to any particularly interesting purpose. Overall, I liked it much better than MAP02.

Also, Memfis must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed today.

[Phil1984]

Map03 - "Outpost Delta" by Obsidian

Deaths - 1
Kills - 100%
Secrets - 100%

I actually really enjoyed this map and is my favorite so far. First time I loaded it up I went through the wrong door and missed the green armor and shotgun shells which made the rest of the level super difficult. Racing around, barely avoiding death countless times until I finally ran too low in ammo to deal with the Arch-Vile stuck in the stasis field or whatever and died a fiery, painful death when I hit the switch to finally release him.

Second time I played it, I found the green armor and the shotgun shells, and with a greater idea of what was coming, and ensuring that the Mancubi and Hell Knight did a bit of infighting with the Cacodemons, I cruised through the level with plenty of ammo to spare. I guess my biggest complaint with Map 3 is the same I had with Map 1; once you cleared out the main area and you are backtracking to get keys and unlock key doors there is really nothing left to kill. Some more monsters that teleported in would had been really handy IMO. Still a very solid effort with some nice Boom effects thrown in for good measure.

[plums]

MAP02: Dark, cramped, low ammo. First time a hell knight killed me, subsequent playthroughs I never saw him again. Don't know what happened. It wasn't bad but didn't wow me at all. Also PSX flames as midtextures are less than convincing.

MAP03: Liked this one a lot more. Obsidian reminds us that we are indeed playing a Boom mapset, using friction and deep water sectors. I like the way the armour is placed on a friction sector to let the player know what's going to happen on mud textures, in a spot where there's no danger from it (assuming the imps at the start are dead, anyhow). Feels much less cramped than the past two levels, which seemed to try to pack a normal-sized map into a 2048^2 area. I played without saves and died a whole bunch. Low ammo at the start again though, needed to get infighting between the hell knight and the mancubus going at the very least. Favourite so far!

[Seele00TextOnly]

Map03 - "Outpost Delta" by Obsidian

Ammo problems in this map are severely overstated, and I'm pistol starting on UV because I'm hardcore and that's how I roll.

Started the map off finding the easiest flashing 'click here click here' secret I've seen in a while, nabbing me a Soulsphere.

Definitely not a fan of the quicksand effect, that contributes nothing to gameplay almost any time it's used in my opinion. Didn't care for falling into the water (the water is damaging? wonder why) but got out soon enough with the key.

The Archvile isn't intented to be killed, I guess. That would be my one ammo complaint since I like to 100%. Indeed the setup felt pretty strange, for the Yellow Switch makes the start the exit, the last thing I would've expected. So the Archvile is basically a non event in the intended playthrough from what I can tell.

So final verdict I don't have the highest praise for this nor do I have much in the way of scorn.

[plums]

Seele00TextOnly said:

Started the map off finding the easiest flashing 'click here click here' secret I've seen in a while, nabbing me a Soulsphere.

Bah, can't believe I missed that. Certainly makes the map a whole lot easier.

Also I forgot to mention before, I like the exit level forcefield trick.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 03 -- Outpost Delta - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
Not particularly fond of this one. Earlier I said that I liked the Eternal texture resource except for a few specific parts of it, right? Well, the part I don't like is summed up very concisely by this map's first building--some kind of horrid off-brand Dr. Who bathroom-tech pillbox. Things are very drab and ugly outside, as well--fullbright, orange sky, and beige everywhere, not a good combo. The incongruous ultra-blue pond (with Getsu Fune tribute in its depths!) adds some color, but since it's the only colorful thing in the map other than the sky it just clashes badly. The beam-out effect used for the map's exit is pretty neat, though....I wonder if lots of folks will have trouble figuring out that they need to step on the teleporter pad where they started in order to leave again? Several had that problem in Epic II's UFO map, as I recall.

As to the question of ammo balance, I reckon it has a lot to do with whether or not you go into the first building's side yard (the one overlooked by the platform with the haz-striped railings) before you head outside proper or not. I didn't, and without the twenty shells to be had out there I did indeed experience a severe ammo problem at one point, which I resolved through infighting and evasion. This isn't something I'm inclined to hold against the map, mind you...I like to be pretty much out of ammo once in a while, makes you think on your feet. I assume the very tight/problem-prone balance here is to encourage players to treat the arch-vile as a stationary turret of sorts until he steps out of the main teleport pad at the end of the map, and fair enough, I've got no problem with that. Other than this one idea, though, there's really not much to talk about here as far as combat goes, and so the main impression the map has left with me is that it kind of hurt my eyes a little.

Edit: Oh yeah, and I concur with the others that movement-slowing terrain is not a good idea 90% of the time--definitely not in the form of the arbitrary patches of it seen here.

[dobu gabu maru]

Phil1984 said:

UV-MAX with no saving allowed

You're going to sorely regret this midway through the mapset ;)

MAP03: Obsidian flexes some cool technical muscle when you dive into the small lake in the map—I really enjoyed that part. Otherwise this was a rough map with some pretty evil monster placement until you pick up the SSG. I was amused by the ending as well, since it built up the lore that this outpost was a mistake to visit and you had to get the hell outta there. Good stuff as always from this mapper.

[Demonologist]

Map03 - “Outpost Delta” by Obsidian
I'm with Memfis here. I have to confess - I really dislike Obsidian's maps, especially in this mapset. Gimmicky as all hell, with extremely annoying gameplay and visuals that are mediocre at best, his maps provoke nothing but vexation in me. Playing them was a chore without any semblance of pleasure or enjoyment. I don't see a point in writing anything about his next two maps here since my thoughts are identical, I only have to say that map30 was really a fucking bastard and felt like a mockery to the whole mapping activity. Damn, I can only hope I'll never run into a map by Obsidian again, otherwise it'd be very hard to avoid being entwined by anger and homicidal desires. Even memories of those make me angry.

[Obsidian]

0_0

Uhhh.....

Um...

Well then.

...

Shit.

[Solarn]

Seele00TextOnly said:

Started the map off finding the easiest flashing 'click here click here' secret I've seen in a while, nabbing me a Soulsphere.

I... actually missed that secret. I am now hanging my head in shame.

Oh, also, by the way, I'm doing every map on UV from a pistol start. Forgot to mention that.

[Phil1984]

dobu gabu maru said:

You're going to sorely regret this midway through the mapset ;)

I reserve the right to sit in the corner and sob quietly when that moment comes.....and then drop the difficulty if need be!

[joe-ilya]

MAP03
I like the map's creative layout and the use of cool effects like that deep diving water thing and the quicksand but the gameplay is ridicilous, it's like the 'Kaizo Mario' ROM hacks; you to be precice as a bot to get through those unfair ammo challanges. At least the start was kind of normal, I quited in the end, it's like his "Countdown to extintion" megawad type of map.
In concusion:The map has wierd gameplay after you open the blue door but it got a hell of a layout, the map wasn't even tested it was just thrown to show how beautiful and clever tricks it has, that's it.
2/5

[Tuxlar]

Only thing I'd (physically) change about map03 is a non-teleport way to exit the lake, a more intuitive map exit, and a bit less backtracking. It wasn't stellar, but I had no problem with the tight balance, personally. It can't be that hard to poke around for a bit of extra ammo, or hold off going for 100% kills on first playthrough (especially on UV).

Not sure I understand this negativity...

[Wordy]

Map 03 -- Outpost Delta - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets

I liked the aesthetics and level design. I hated the map balance and ammo issues. Obsidian's style needs a little tweaking to make it more fun and less frustration, but otherwise there's some good bits here.

(ps fuck the exit)

[mouldy]

Map03 - “Outpost Delta” by Obsidian

Interesting map. I like the jazzy tech textures, was a bit weird being able to shoot monsters through a glass window though, especially when there are also smashed windows around. Funnily the very first thing I did was unlock the soulsphere secret, I'm pretty glad I did too, as there was so little ammo about that I ended up having to leave a lot of beef wandering around. In fact I'm not entirely sure if there is enough ammo to kill everything, but anyway I made it to the exit. The underwater bit was certainly a cool surprise, but I have to minus points for the slowing floors which bugs me in any map. Messing with the controls of the player is just annoying. But besides that and the low ammo its pretty fun. Come to think of it, that exit might confuse or annoy people, I was lucky enough to stumble into it when I was ready to leave the map, but I can imagine others wandering around for ages not knowing what to do, or exiting before they wanted to. Would have been fairly simple to have the yellow switch open some kind of exit sign to show the player where to go.

Reading some of the other comments I can't say I feel the same hatred, but its worth noting the ammo shortage can really annoy players if done in the wrong way. I think this map could have benefited from a chainsaw/berserk just to give people an extra option if they run out.

[Steve D]

Map03 - Outpost Delta by Obsidian - Kills - 97, Items - 100, Secret - 100. Death Count - Zero

An obviously polarizing map! I'm not a huge fan, even though I can appreciate the technical skill with which Obsidian employed his mastery of Boom tricks. I guess I'm not a fan of such tricks, being more a Doom purist, thus preferring maps that are basic Doom style but with the limits – including infinite tallness – removed. Infinite tallness is one of the main reasons I seldom play in Boom, and is why my map will likely be polarizing, too.

This map displays some odd, but not necessarily game-ending behavior in GZDoom. The main problem is that players can and will sink into the floor around the Archie's force field at various times. Luckily, I was able to grab the Yellow Key during a period when the floor was solid. If Obsidian failed to check the map in G/ZDoom, I suggest he do so, since that is most likely how Suitepee will play it, among many other GZDoom fans.

I died 5 times learning the map on GZDoom before gettting stuck in the floor when I made a gameplay error by coming back to the Archie teleporter after pressing the Yellow switch, so I started a new game on GLBoom to make certain it would function properly, whereupon I learned that while the Archie is inside the force field, you can't him him but he can attack you, which didn't happen on GZDoom, obviously. IMO, that is totally fucked, especially since you have to run behind it to get a box of shells. Plus you have to skitter past it up stairs to get the red key and if you get hung-up on something, you'll take a blast. It's also the case that I really hate playing on GLBoom because it feels so much less smooth for a keyboarder than Risen3D -- the ultimate -- or GZDoom. If I'm not mistaken, Obsidian is also a keyboarder, who unlike me has apparently come to terms with the Boom feel. But has he ever tried Risen3D, which is completely Boom compatible but many times smoother?

I eventually got to a point where I couldn't stand the Boom feel anymore, so I went to the aforementioned Risen3D, where the map worked correctly and I was able to beat it without getting killed, but it took a lot of save-scumming to accomplish that. I really disliked all the times I had to replay getting the shellbox in the Archie room, as well as the red key. I admit that these are subjective gripes based on my playstyle.

As for the gameplay itself, it was mostly a PITA owing to the super-tight ammo balance, which led to long, drawn-out efforts to run away from monsters and tease them into infights. This wasn't easy because the monster count was relatively low and it often takes a long time to get a Hell Knight to fire into a crowd of Cacos, so it was really, really boring to me. It just took so long for anything I wanted to happen to actually happen, but I knew if I just started blasting away at monsters I'd only get myself into trouble later on. But, for the sake of fairness, I have to admit that I did a map once with a very similar idea, called Elfkill, where you don't actually have enough ammo to kill all the monsters unless you find the secrets, so you have to run for the exit at the end. It was not terribly well received. ;D

It's also worth noting that if you grab the Red Key before the Blue Key, you can have a better set-up for infights.

The low ammo problem was only magnified by Obsidian employing The Meat Game, which is to say, using primarily monsters that are not hitscanners. Because these monsters are difficult to kill, they soak up a lot of ammo but, unlike hitscanners, they give you nothing when they die, so unless the ammo is relatively plentiful, The Meat Game leads to Ammo Stress, and if the player uses too much ammo they simply have no way to recover, except to re-start the map or play again and again from a better save point. In my final go, I kept trying to lure the last 2 HKs into battle with the Revvies to avoid blasting away at those ammo sinks, but I couldn't make it work so I had to kill them all myself, as a result of which, after I fought the PEs and obtained the Yellow Key, my arsenal consisted of exactly 2 shells. Therefore, I had to haul ass.

Which brings up another problem -- the unmarked exit. Based on reading, or in this case, misreading other comments, I thought the exit was the Archie teleporter, so I pressed the Yellow Button in the start room, ran like crazy from the Archie who teleported in, went back to his teleporter, and discovered to my horror that -- no! -- this isn't the exit! :D This is also where and why I got stuck on GZDoom. Anyway, this meant I had to run back across an open field where Archibald was busily resurrecting monsters, and return to the start. I was able to do it by making use of a curve in the rock wall for cover, afterwhich I scooted past the Archie and up the stairs before he could target me. Yay. ;)

BTW, some commenters have been annoyed by the damaging water, and I wasn't a fan, either, but I'll give Obsidian props by saying that in this case, the radsuit should be considered a diving suit because you can't breath underwater, and the damage, I'm guessing, is meant to simulate drowning.

So, to sum it all up, first, Obsidian is far too experienced a mapper for unmarked exits. Boo! Second, the map has issues on GZDoom. Third, it's more clever than fun. And yeah, those subway tile walls look awful. ;D OTOH, the map is well-constructed. One thing that could make the map better is a Zerk so we don't have to waste shells on Pinkies, at least.

[Salt-Man Z]

SteveD said:

It's also the case that I really hate playing on GLBoom because it feels so much less smooth for a keyboarder than Risen3D -- the ultimate -- or GZDoom.

My apologies for going off-topic (I'm taking this month off from the Club to try to finish off some old megawads and work on my own map for NOVA 2) but I couldn't help but address this comment:

I'm so glad it's not just me! I'm a keyboard-only dude (as Steve knows) and GZDoom is my default port. I recently finished off Eternal Doom, but GZDoom could not figure out how to properly render MAP28; I beat it anyway (with some help from Doombuilder) but loaded it up in GLBoom+ to give it a second run-through. GLBoom+ rendered the map flawlessly, but I couldn't help but feel that my movements weren't as smooth as I was used to: I kept getting hung up on corners and edges and stuff. I eventually adjusted to it (more or less) I guess, but it was certainly noticeable at first! I had to wonder whether it bothered anyone else or not. I'm glad to see that it does. :)