The DWmegawad Club plays: Going Down

[Gordon]

After playing through a few of the maps before, this is my first playthrough of the entire thing.

MAP01: "Going Up"

This a good opener. I like the opening section of going up in the elevator, kinda emphasizes the scale of the building you're exploring through the wad. The gameplay is brief, hectic, and very enjoyable. It introduces a horde-based sense of combat that will come into play in later maps, while easing into it by just having you fight zombies.

[mouldy]

I've actually played this wad before a few times, but I'll try and join in anyway by attempting to max all the maps without saves and recording the results, while saying anything interesting I can think of about the making of them.

map01 The pistol and zombies map
http://www.mediafire.com/download/lxfdrff84n4gh62/gd-mouldy-01.lmp

This was a homage to the mercy hospital roof-top finale of left4dead, it was originally going to be pistol only for the whole map, but I soon found out how dull that would have been. I also wanted to try and use zombiemen in a way that made them threatening, which turns out isn't too hard when you have a million of them and only a pistol. People who hate that gun as much as I do will be glad to know they probably won't need to use it again.

[Steve D]

cannonball said:

I died to the final monster in my first attempt and then proceeded to take every single zombie bullet from then onwards. Somehow they learnt how to aim properly.
Probably around 5 deaths.

Thanks for the info. Natch, I asked mainly because you gloated over the high death counts you expect of me in this megawad, and I'm sure you won't be disappointed! ;D

[Steve D]

plums said:

A word of warning Steve, this map starts off fairly gentle but the difficulty ramps up steadily, and by MAP09 gets rather chaotic on UV. I might recommend dialing it down a notch... then again you can always pistol start, or even just restart the wad if you're not too far in -- the maps are all relatively small.

I fully expect absolute chaos. I already know from the Memfis video to expect hordes of teleporting Doom critters. But I am taking mouldy's advice and playing continuous, which should help some. Besides, I've managed to beat some of my own insidious maps -- Realm of Intensified Chaos Map04 and Map05 respectively, on UV. I may have died over 50 times in each, but I did it. ;D The most recent versions of these are nastier than Amiga Demo Party or Heat Miser, for comparison. But if I reach a point where it's unendurably difficult, I'll probably drop to HNTR instead of HMP, since I don't have time this month for all the savescumming involved in spectacular death counts. I'd be bummed about depriving the esteemed cannonball of some fun on that score, but some things can't be helped.

[Gez]

Cell said:

My trump card beforehead used to be strafing. On an IBM laptop and Windows 7 installed thereafter, however, every time strafe combination (Alt+Left or Right button) gets a third, random key involved, it makes my screenview switch orientation or how shall I put it, which not only affects gameplay, but also fucks up my icon layout on the desktop. The question is: how the hell can I disable this to occur every fucking time I just desire to strafe?

Right-click on your desktop. In the context menu, look for some submenu named like "Graphic options". Within that submenu, there should be something called "Rapid Access Keys", and in that, choose "Disable". You are now free.

If you don't find that, go to the control panel. Look for an Intel graphics & media option (may have a slightly different name). Run it, choose "advanced mode" to be sure to have all options, go to the "help and options" tab on the sidebar, and from there you can change or disable the keyboard shortcuts.

[dobu gabu maru]

SteveD said:

I fully expect absolute chaos.

Ahhh, there will be chaos. IMO, I think you can definitely do the whole megawad on UV—it gets frantic but mouldy always leaves options open to the player if things start to get too hot, and only a handful of levels are likely to break your spirit. Oh and MAP01 also always kills me so you're definitely off to a decent start.

[Pure Hellspawn]

plums said:

That's fine and all, but
dobu gabu maru said:
What levels am I allowed to post about?
Whatever day of the month it is, is the upper limit for the map you can post on. So if it's the 6th, you may discuss up to MAP06.

so i guess MAP32 cannot be discussed or if MAP31 is 16 and MAP32 is 17 than MAP30 is 32. So either way one map cannot be discussed if that logic is true.

[Steve D]

Pure Hellspawn said:

so i guess MAP32 cannot be discussed or if MAP31 is 16 and MAP32 is 17 than MAP30 is 32. So either way one map cannot be discussed if that logic is true.

Secret maps are the exception, and are usually done on the 15th -- in Doom 2 months -- by the people who find them, or who feel like playing them even if they don't find them. So welcome aboard! :)

[Steve D]

dobu gabu maru said:

Oh and MAP01 also always kills me so you're definitely off to a decent start.

There's an old saying known to us boxing fans, "Styles make fights." In my case, this is demonstrated in the most painful way possible any time I play an Archie-fest Tarnsmap. Preview -- I ended-up God-moding my way out of the 5-Archie Twerkfest in Perhaps Now The Vultures. Damned keypad! :D

[Demon of the Well]

mouldy said:

I've actually played this wad before a few times, but I'll try and join in anyway by attempting to max all the maps without saves and recording the results, while saying anything interesting I can think of about the making of them.

Cool, I'm interested in seeing how other clubbers play, but hard data is generally only forthcoming from Veinen, Suitepee, and Demonologist, when he's around. That you presumably know the maps better than anybody else leaves me hopeful of seeing a few clever tricks. By the way, are there any major differences between UV and solonet for the set?

Dobu's right, you can do this on UV, Steve. Mouldy hurls a ton of shit at you but he also gives you lots of ammo and artifacts and stuff to compensate. Definitely consider pistol-starting, too--a few of the maps will lose some of their unique gameplay flavor if you come into them with a full arsenal, including the one that was my favorite on my first playthrough.

[Inkie]

MAP01: Going Up (Hey Not Too Rough, Continuous)

We start on a well decorated rooftop, populated by pistol people players must perforate to pass. There are a handful of imps and shotgunners tossed in to round it out a bit. Running about too much can trigger traps with more enemies to shoot, but also contain goodies.

The mass of zombiemen can be quite hazardous to your health. However, the armor and blur sphere blunt the secondary teleport assault.

At the end, we are greeted by The Elevator, whom will travel with us through most the map set. He brings shotguns and health for us.

[Steve D]

Demon of the Well said:

Dobu's right, you can do this on UV, Steve. Mouldy hurls a ton of shit at you but he also gives you lots of ammo and artifacts and stuff to compensate. Definitely consider pistol-starting, too--a few of the maps will lose some of their unique gameplay flavor if you come into them with a full arsenal, including the one that was my favorite on my first playthrough.

Doing continuous is really more about saving time. Savescumming through the BTSX Butcher Shop took a looooonnnnng time when there was so much meat to kill, and with 3 mapsets to prepare, plus a big project I'll brag about in PMs if it pays off, I simply don't have the time to give Going Down a risky pistol-start playthrough if I end up getting killed 50 times or more in the toughest maps. No disrespect to mouldy, of course. I may do a few maps both continuous and pistol-start, like I did with BTSX E1, and I might even fire up the dreaded PRBoom with its horrid keypad feel, just to make an occasional demo and show off my mad-pathetic keyboard skills. For sure, let me know when we're approaching the map you're talking about, and I'll do a pistol-start on it.

Just don't call me DSP! ;)

[Cynical]

One thing about Going Down is that the levels are very short, so time shouldn't be much of an issue.

[scifista42]

MAP02 - "Evil Admin" - a well structured map, and still gives a vibe of a simple early map. Still not hard, unless you panic when ambushed by monsters - fortunately I already know the map well. I like the gameplay here, even despite all the hitscanners and imp spams.

I have to say, after seeing further Going Down maps, this early maps have rather unpolished visuals, which (in case of this megawad) I don't mind at all! I can take mouldy's mapping progression as part of the megawad's overall thematic progression, and enjoy watching and experiencing it as I advance. Normally I probably wouldn't be impressed by so many GRAY textures and sharp color/texture cutoffs, but I adore the design in Going Down so I'm all comfortable with it in this map. The atmosphere and the semirealism (furniture, toilets, ventilation shafts) work very well for me.

[tourniquet]

2: "Evil Admin"

Alright an office complex and for the first time toilets, which we will encounter a lot more later.
Lots of hitscanners but the furniture provides many spots to take cover.
The YK teleport ambush can be quite lethal if your too careless or too unlucky with the hitscan RNG, still a rather easy map.
Again a lovely vista of the surrounding buildings.

I decided to join some of the folks here and play all maps on UV, pistol start and no saves, this will definitly get interesting in some of the later maps.

Here's the demo for Map02.

[mouldy]

Demon of the Well said:

By the way, are there any major differences between UV and solonet for the set?

Unfortunately I didn't have the time to add solonet stuff, I figured a lot of the maps would just get a bit grindy with more monsters (and not necessarily more difficult) so i'd have to put more thought into it than that, which would be a lot more work and playtesting. There's also the problem of multiplayer mode putting you back at the start when you die, which poses some additional gameplay problems in these maps (i've attempted to minimise any problems for co op players, but its still going to be a bit messy at times).

If anyone has any suggestions for solonet/co-op then I'd be happy to hear them though. I never play those game modes so it won't bother me what kind of shenanigans are going on in there

[The_MártonJános]

MAP02: Evil Admin
I don't occasionally learn from my mistakes. I just got accustomed very tightly to the fast straightforward exploration style God Mode encouraged me in the past like 10 years. This almost got my corpse held down onto the beige carpet of the Evil Admin Corporation's funderfully designed offices.

I really like how mouldy gets his potential expanded as we get into the building. The top-floor administration office is a common idea of most administrative complexes like the one we've got here, and is extremely well implemented. Great representation of seats, desks and computers, and I generally like the idea of the water tank being replaced by an exploding barrel, the elimination of which releases a couple of Imps. :D

Battling was relatively easy, the only one who's blatant and renitently lame is generally me in this domain, mainly because after following Gez's instructions, I needed to take up strafing again, but I still stuck to rearing sideways most of the time. Neither is really efficient against hitscanners, but the former is an advantage when you confront with Imps, or in our very fist case, a Hell Knight (Is the map named after this only meaty hazard, respectively? :) ). I got a bit more on strafing when this potential foe turned up, troopers through the corridor windows did more harm to me than he actually did until I blew a lethal hole into his chest, then I got to deal with the pests interfering into my life-or-death fight. Huh.

Again, very nice visuals, a little slower paced than the previous level - mainly because it is edged to a HK fight as well -, generous amount of health and ammo, and a gorgeous panorama through the windows - mainly because most authors don't care about exterior, just lock the entire view with a skybox and call it a day -, truly according to what is seen in the first map from outside. The central corridor's design might be a little purist, but most office hallways don't give much for decoration, so it's OK.

Overall, a great - both aesthetic and gameplay - experience packed in a brief office breakthrough. Looking forward for continuing it.

[40oz]

MAP01

Pistol Panic themed map.

I almost pissed my pants when I almost accidentally ran right off the roof of the building but the impassable lines saved me. I think the attention to detail on the buildings really helped suspend disbelief that I was in less of a Doom level and more on top of a skyscraper :)

Anyway, the first map was about to make me upset with all the zombiemen poking around every corner and no guns to kill them with. For some reason there must be like 10,000 guys with guns on the roof of this building! It was a miserable experience at first but after dying once I found the armor and the partial invisibility which made it much more managable. Perhaps an HMP run through this will keep me from getting needlessly frustrated.

In a wad with 32 maps, I suspect the author didn't want to give away any valuable resources on the first level, unlike wads like Hell Revealed 2 where the super shotgun is handed to you on a silver platter right at the start, and TNT: Evilution gives you a Berserk before you even see anything to kill. Not sure if there's a really correct approach, but I think this map is actually harder than most MAP01's despite the lowest tier monsters being used.

MAP02

I really didn't think I was going to like this wad from the looks of it, the theme seemed kinda strange for what I would want to play, but I gotta admit, I'm in love with it! Reminds me of Genemp corp from Hacx, or the little 'realistic' features in ksutra.wad. The barrel water cooler thing made me lol. The office cubicles and bathrooms are not things I would think would work strategically for planned encounters and traps, but the gameplay is great so far, and the office-like details should make each area easy to identify.

MAP02 is a bit of a hitscan hell, but after my first death I made use of the Partial Invisibility in the restroom and that saved me a lot of lost health early on. I had a great time with the surprise traps and the evil hell knight bosses. I wish I was able to make better use of that berserk pack though. Oh well.

Also I was short 16 monsters when I exited. I could hear the imps somewhere outside the building but I couldn't figure out what triggers them to come in. Otherwise I had a great time and I can see myself liking this wad more and more as we move on.

[kmxexii]

40oz said:

MAP01
Also I was short 16 monsters when I exited. I could hear the imps somewhere outside the building but I couldn't figure out what triggers them to come in. Otherwise I had a great time and I can see myself liking this wad more and more as we move on.

did you blow up the watercooler thing? i found that that triggered some kind of imp drip-feed fight.

[tmorrow]

A couple of guesses on what you might have missed:

1. In the area with office partitions, there is a barrel on top of a small white filing cabinet. If you shoot it, 14 imps will teleport in.
2. Collecting the green armor brings down 2 pillars, each with an imp.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP02: Evil Admin
100% kills, 1/1 secret

Ah, the old office cubicle floor. I agree with scifista that it looks a little plain compared to some of the stuff that comes later, but I think part of that is on purpose - it's supposed to be a banal-seeming level, hiding the horrors that will be shown lower in the tower. That, and, Doom doesn't exactly have a lot of vivid textures for office buildings. I think the sector details here and pretty good without being too tacky, and there's some creative use of PANEL2 to make the desks.

Gameplay-wise, it's hitscanner hell, and it can be pretty difficult to avoid a death or two if you're going in blind. The invisibility sphere does a lot to help the opening drop down into the first cubicle area, though. Not sure why jumping on top of a desk lowers two columns, though... maybe the alien subversion is worse than we thought! There's so many imps after grabbing the yellow key that it's possible to run dry on ammo if you don't peek your head out to grab some ammo off zombies. The instapop chaingunners appearing on the desks was sorta weird.

[Steve D]

@Cynical, nah, I'll play continuous. I need as much time as I can get this month, so it's a good thing the maps are short, or I wouldn't have time to play at all.

Anyways, I had to replay Map01, because . . .

Map01 – Going Up – Kills – 100, Items – 100, Secret – 100. End Health – 100, Armor 81. Death Count – 3. Shells – 17, Bullets – 200

UV continuous, GZDoom, frequent saves, keyboard-only, end-ammo counts because this is technically playtesting a beta megawad

Oopsey! I accidentally played Going Up the first time on HNTR! No wonder I had that zero death-count. Well, I hope cannonball is happy that I died 3 times when I did the UV run. It turned out that killing the sniping Imp on the column immediately was key, since I'd been damaged by that jagoff while backing away from hitscanners, with Mr. Imp doling out just enough hurt to make me easily killable. After I figured that out, I died once more while trying to camp the blue key trap from the Sergeant's shed. All that accomplished was allowing the zombies to converge on me. I took a lot of them out, getting 2 – 4 with each shotgun blast, but was finally overwhelmed. Luckily, I saved before pressing the switch, so I was able to dash out of the shack and engage in open field running, shooting, hiding behind sheds, and so on. I might have dropped to 40% during this fracas, but overall it was nice and fun, though definitely more stesssful than HNTR. ;D

BTW, my first clue that something was wrong came when watching mouldy's demo, and the place where I grabbed a Blue Armor had only a Green Armor. Blue Armor might be excessive for HNTR.

Edit: On this occasion, I fell off the roof by fleeing onto the lift and stumbling through the gap, whereupon I learned that you can indeed bring it back down and return to the roof, so why the impassable line at the roof's edge? To keep the player from escaping hot combat?

Map02 – Evil Admin – Kills – 100, Items – 100, Secret – 100. End Health – 100, Armor 36. Death Count – 1. Shells – 22 Bullets – 48

More giddy-up action with tons of hitscanners! It's Hitscan Heaven, Part 2. You can't stand still when the hordes teleport in, or you'll be toast. I spent a lot of my time in this map running like crazy from one shooting spot to another. Historically, there is nothing more lame than a map based on office spaces, because they become a series of rectangular rooms with room-hall-room construction and a butt-ton of skinny doors. Mouldy makes it work thanks to small size, big windows and a shitload of monsters.

Having seen the Memfis video, I went straight for the bathroom Blursphere, went through the ventilator and then it was “happy time!” as I took advantage of the opportunity to engage in heads-up conflict with with an office full of Sergeants, Zombies and Imps, with occasional Pinkies. I died in this fight when I backed into the corner near the door with a Chaingunner on the other side, guarding a switch. I was planning to grab his weapon soon, given that I had 200 bullets, but I got distracted by monsters in the hallway and in the room across, and suddenly I heard a Chaingun unloading. Next thing I knew, I was dead. I hadn't realized that a Chaingunner teleported onto a nearby desk. Nice trap! It was one of those, “So much shit popping everywhere that I missed some of it” deals.

After that, it was hammer-time. Glorious side-stepping as I fanned my chaingun at a hallway full of Imps, then ran into the next big room to battle more hitscanners, and then Imps that teleported in after I blasted the toxic water cooler – good catch by scifista identifying that one. Then it was time to take the yellow key from Big Boss Man and face another teleporting horde of Imps. I turned to go back into the repopulated workroom after killing all the Imps, and got hit in the back because slow teleporters delivered even more Imps! It's one of those, “They just keep coming!” maps. It's pretty clear that these maps will not allow you to stand around with your thumb up your ass. I'm expecting a track meet on every floor. Big fun.

BTW, thanks for that Zerk at the end!

[Inkie]

MAP02: Evil Admin

We are confronted by the deadly horrors of daily cubicle pencil pushing and public bathrooms. There are demons, too, but the former is the real threat here.

It is a lot like the first map, just with more shotguners and imps, and a couple chainguners and pinkies appear as well. A second crowd of minions ports in after the key is acquired. A berserk pack near the end heals you up and allows the punching of any stragglers.

The water cooler 'trap' is humorous, but I'm not sure why.

[dobu gabu maru]

SteveD said:

Blue Armor might be excessive for HNTR.

Aha, I actually told mouldy to put that one there. I like it just because I don't think anyone playing on HNTR wants to die to fucking zombiemen on the first stage.

MAP02: Ironically the last & only "normal" office building map of the set, as we start to get into some weird territory on our descent. I definitely like this more than MAP01 just because we get a SG to play around with, and they layout is a tad more memorable/easy to navigate.

[cannonball]

MAP02 - "Evil Admin"
Not overly enamoured by this one. Visually it's pretty sombre for the most part. The partial invisibility is your best friend here as the hitscanners can tear you to shreds. 2 deaths here.

[mouldy]

Map02 - open plan office hitscan crossfire

Difficult to go crazy in this map without the hitscan cutting you to ribbons, but I had a good go at it:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/dnb7inirou64adk/gd-mouldy-02.lmp

Loosely based on an office I used to work in, I always knew this would be a visually dull map, so I got it out of the way in the number 2 slot. The design of some of these early maps is a bit hampered by the building scenario, but this one is probably the worst off in that respect. I was very tempted to use some better textures for the desks and stuff, but then I'd have to make a similar effort on all the other maps, and I'd already made a decision to only use stock textures for some reason. The only ammo you get is from the corpses of your enemies, so those chainguns out of reach on the tables are a bit annoying, but still its a fun few minutes. And of course there are toilets.

[Gordon]

MAP02: "Evil Admin"

Yeah, this isn't the most visually impressive. In terms of gameplay, though, it works very well, I think. Unlike some other maps I've seen that imitate real-world scenarios, the aesthetic of the office solidifies the map's difficulty. It's quite cramped, with the windows and cubicles giving hitscanners a chance to sneak up on you. It's not just "Oh hey, it's realistic~", that sort of aesthetic really helps the map. I like that.

Things are getting a little bit harder, with chaingunners and a couple of hell knights thrown into the mix. I just ran past the one in the elevator.

[Veinen]

Very casual UV-maxes for 01-03, just because: https://www.mediafire.com/?0nu2cs4t0vbrkfg

Map01: Going Up

Pistol vs an army of zombiemen. Pistol wins. Nice looking cityscape though.

Map02: Evil Admin

Generic office floor map, ugh. Wait, that's not a very generic theme at all. Some classy doom furniture here, especially the water cooler thingy. Also the most efficient water cooler repair patrol ever as they literally crawl out from the walls. Their repair techniques are rather innovative and questionable though... Very hitscanner heavy map so running around headless chicken style will get you killed very swiftly. With some caution it's not too bad and we get to operate mostly with the SG and CG so the show is over pretty soon. Grabbed the berserk through the wall because doomguy doesn't do the laws of physics. The berserk itself is just a healing item basically since punching Sarges and Commandos is not very healthy in the long run. You can dance with the two HKs to save some ammo though. Decent level.

Map03: Crawl Space

A tyson map, boo. Must've got an overdose of tyson gameplay when playing Resurgence or something since lately I haven't been enjoying that type of comabt very much. And yeah, this is nothing but chainsawing and berserk punching. At least the chainsawing part went with as little annoyment as possible since none of the Pinkies managed to bite through the saw. And that Hell Knight definitely deserved to have his legs chopped off, however cowardly that tactic is. The layout is confusing as hell too, I played through this twice and still I'm not sure what is where exactly. Some suspicious Adolf imagery in one of the corners of this office floor, that (and the water cooler in the previous map) is the kind of humor I like in my doom maps though so you get the bonus points from me for that. This map doesn't really hit the spot for me overall though.

[durian]

Map02: Evil Admin

Heh, fun! It's impressive what mouldy can do with such a small simple layout and objective structure. The steady combat kept me on my toes, and within the first few seconds of the YK trap I took major pummelling, reducing me to 5% health - I mopped up the remainder of the ambush in an incredibly cowardly manner, and then realised there'd been a beserk just around the corner the whole time :/
Toilets are done well - mouldy nails the scale.
I get the impression I will have to switch from keyboard to mouse shortly...

[mouldy]

Veinen said:

Grabbed the berserk through the wall because doomguy doesn't do the laws of physics.

Sneaky! Thanks for the demos by the way, (and to everyone else who posts demos and videos), no more punching maps for a few weeks you'll be glad to hear.