The DWmegawad Club plays: Going Down

[cannonball]

MAP26 - "Insanity"
This was really cool. The start and finish use silent teleporters to switch between reality and the location you play the map in. The latter sequence is really breath-taking. This is one of two excellent reveals here.
The start fits the title, a series of corridors with small silver booths all arranged in a regular pattern which appears to go on forever. Sort of like a place where you can never leave. You find the ssg and then the rocket launcher with a switch. This this completely reconstructs the map into a violent bloodbath, both literally and metaphorically.
A really cool and difficult map.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 23 -- Demonology - 116% Kills / 100% Secrets
Smack in the middle of the final episode now, we encounter this, probably the most 'normal' map from a progression standpoint in the entire WAD. 'Normal' is a relative term, of course, as there is still a heavily conceptual flavor to the action here, but in terms of pacing and layout it's a bit more slow-burn than anything else in the WAD; as opposed to the large snowballing horde-based battles and centralized combat spaces that define many of the other levels, 'Demonology' features a steady stream of opposition delivered via a collection of small, discrete set-pieces. Not to say that some of these battles aren't quite bloody, ala the siege on the subterranean cells to the west or the mass of hellspawn packed into a dark corner of the necromancy lab, but generally speaking on a fight-to-fight basis here we see Mouldy trying to do more with less. Whereas in previous maps the roiling chaos and nonstop pace of the action account for most of the danger, the room-by-room layout means that encounters here are much more specific in terms of monster composition and area of effect--most of Going Down is characterized by small spaces, but here moreso than in most maps one is aware of a relative lack of movement space and the point-blank deployment of monsters as the real source of danger.

This more setpiece-oriented flavor to the combat shouldn't be taken as meaning that the map lacks variability/replayability, however. You need seven yellow skulls to complete the black rite in the central ritual chamber, and these can be acquired in any order. As with most other maps in the set, there are no locked doors sectioning off parts of the level, so assuming you can locate some of the many hidden passages and back ways mining most of the sanctum, there are all manner of different routes available, which can change how encounters play out both as result of sequential considerations (e.g. whether you have a rocket launcher when you first reach an area, or a plasma gun, or neither, or both) and as a result vantage/positioning considerations--for example, the fireplace room plays out either as a sudden popup ambush or as a point-blank chokepoint fight depending on whether you enter it through its main door or through the secret elevator in the fireplace itself. Generally speaking, the fairly generous placement of health aids and ammo that has characterized most of the set continues here, although being really well-stocked is predicated somewhat on being able to find some of the secret passages, which shouldn't be too difficult in the sense that a lot of the mandatory progression involves uncovering 'secrets' (which I'm sure will offend the sensibilities of some, but I have absolutely no issues with it) anyway. That being said, I think the thing balanced has been tightened a little since the last version of the map I played: IIRC, the secret soulsphere used to be a megasphere, and it used to be a soulsphere instead of a security armor in front of the big spider, as well. Also seemed like there were more sorcerers in the final ritual fight than before, but maybe that's just my imagination.

Anyway, it's a good map, again different from anything else in the set. Not many complaints here, although I don't think the spider mastermind is really good for much other than the surprise of its initial appearance. I think the slightly stricter balance is just fine, and I guess those arch-viles behind the walls I may have mentioned last time look cool enough that I don't really mind their lack of effectiveness.

Very minor visual issue: In the 'forest of pillars' room, the wall with the upper closet that the gasbags come out of has its texture slightly misaligned where it transitions to the two adjacent sections of wall.

Map 24 -- Bridge of Blood - 100% Kills / No secrets
It sure is a bridge, and it sure is bloody. From the opening tableau of a tower with explosive barrels clustered around a phalanx of demonic troops (brilliant strategy there, Abigor) to the cascade of undead and other assorted malcontents that desperately try to keep the unstoppable Doomguy from reaching the elevator alive upon his triumphant return, this is a map that's all about bodycount and weathering tides of the damned. Nearly all of the combat revolves around variations on one simple principle, that being that the player is constantly caught in the middle (literally) of two large bodies of demons, usually with no simple extrication available. The most defining phase of the action IMO is the first battle that erupts on the bridge, where time is most fundamentally of the essence--Doomguy is caught between two moving waves of hellspawn, which will converge in the center of the bridge and annihilate him unless he quells the. It's a simple but effective exercise in multitasking: the force emanating from the southern tower is a much more pressing threat, compelling the player to focus more on them, allowing the weaker northern force to sneak up from behind and take a lot of shots at his back. It's a great scenario for blind-dodging, and playing it well by picking just the right time to stem the northern force without losing much ground to the southern one is quite satisfying.

The fights in the northern tower have been tweaked somewhat from the last version I played. Formerly, there were two spiderdemons (only one initially present) in the southern tower and two cyberdemons which crossed the bridge from the northern one; this time around, there's only one spiderdemon vs. three cyberdemons. This makes the situation in the southern tower a little more uncomfortable than before, because the lone spider isn't able to block up the entrance for as long as the pair from before were, and the extra cyberdemon means that at least one more mostly-healthy juggernaut is likely to start dominating that space eventually (the other two tend now, as then, to be significantly weakened by infighting with their own forces)--I had a nice two-on-one cyberdemon fight in that small space this time around, since unlike the spider the cybs can navigate the stairs around the southern throne, meaning that camping behind the switchplate and/or throne eventually becomes an untenable strategy. Surviving that, the final wave of monsters in the northern tower seem like hapless fodder in comparison, although one does need to watch out for one more sneaky attack from behind, neat that the 'pincer' concept is truly carried all the way through to the level's end.

It's a very simple level with a lot of 'hold down the trigger to win' gameplay, but its commitment to two-front warfare in concert with its sheer monster density (highest in the WAD other than map 28 if I'm not mistaken) makes it an entertaining outing all the same. Additionally, in case the hints of the blood-red subterranean towerscape from the past few floors weren't pronounced enough, this level also makes a point of driving the larger setting of this last episode home, making it one of the more visually striking levels despite its simplicity.

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP17: I told mouldy back during beta testing that this was likely the best map of the set and I still feel it stands. “Rest in Pieces” is my third favorite map due to the layout alone, discarding symmetry for an erratic connection of tunnels. It’s a bit similar to MAP16 in that every weapon is guarded by traps, though the key trap here is extremely formidable. The slow trickle of enemies ensures that you never really get a good idea of where the monsters are coming from, and you have to play it largely by ear, adapting your plan to whatever beasty you meet. Brilliant stuff.

HNTR comments: None—played perfectly.

MAP18: I always feel like this is the proper closer to E2, even though there’s still two more maps left. It’s an interesting one, something that I think gets better upon subsequent playthroughs. The first time you encounter it, it can be kinda confusing and constricting (especially if you fail to notice the teleporter), and there is a certain rhythm to the map. I still get lost occasionally, even if this is the map I wound up playing the most in beta.

HNTR comments: Since there’s no cyber on the UFO the player will probably spend a long time fighting the HKs down in the pit, which may make the janitorial cybers a more threatening & tough. I’m not sure the AV is a good idea since the map is pretty aggressive as is.

MAP19: Ah, the black sheep of the megawad… not even the secret maps get this crazy. It’s largely a love-it-or-hate-it affair, and the map largely speaks for itself. At least it’s not boring!

HNTR comments: Lord almighty this one is a pain on HNTR. The lack of the invul at the start (and the placement of it in secret areas/in the middle of the revs) makes this map unintentionally grueling. Definitely needs about 2 invuls scattered around, as the architecture is largely tunnel-based which makes dodging homing missiles a pain.

MAP20: Ah, another map that feels vastly different on continuous, as the imp horde isn’t nearly as terrifying. E2’s finale feels a little weird thanks to a slightly obscure objective and a lot of space to run around it. I think it's one of the more simpler maps in the set, though the imp horde is certainly charming in their own way.

HNTR comments: The player can actually finish this reasonably fast if they know what they’re doing. That combined with the plentiful powerups can make this map feel imbalanced, but I guess it’s nothing to worry about on HNTR.

MAP21: I think two Tyson maps in one megawad is uncommon, and for anyone that doesn’t like that style of gameplay, at least they’re pretty different. I’m always a fan of bloody, pulsating viscera so I quite enjoy this, although I never feel pressed to circle-strafe around the crushers for max kills.

HNTR comments: Not sure how HNTR players will react to this considering that their weapons are taken from them in the closing of MAP20. Plays fine, but I also knew the layout well and used the invul wisely.

MAP22: A level that’s all about lifts without you noticing it’s necessarily about lifts. I think MAP22 is the best “pure chaos” map there is, as at no point can the player really understand where monsters are coming from or where they’re supposed to go on their first run-through. It makes the level both flexible and frantic, and serves as great insight into moudly’s wild mind (from what I can gather).

HNTR comments: Map plays well, had no problems. I may have been aided by the fact that I knew where some traps were, but I think it’s a good challenge for those playing on HNTR.

MAP23: This is the last of the “normal” maps, harkening back to E1’s style of corridor exploration with a bit of E2’s crazy nonlinearity thrown in. If MAP22 showcases how zany the mapping in Going Down can become, MAP23 shows how clever the texture use can be. I don’t think anyone can go through the laboratory without being floored at the stock texture usage, and the borders around the paintings are a great implementation as well. Really solid map.

HNTR comments: Nothing erroneous here either—I actually came in with 574 cell so nothing really stood in my way. I forgot how funny it was that to get the YK in the lab section you have to run across all this fragile chemistry equipment.

[mouldy]

dobu gabu maru said:

MAP19

HNTR comments: Lord almighty this one is a pain on HNTR. The lack of the invul at the start (and the placement of it in secret areas/in the middle of the revs) makes this map unintentionally grueling. Definitely needs about 2 invuls scattered around, as the architecture is largely tunnel-based which makes dodging homing missiles a pain.

This is surprising, I find this map pretty easy on HNTR, though I know you are a keyboard player so that might make the difference with the missile dodging. I think with free invuls it would have no challenge at all, so not sure that would be the best solution.. be interested to hear what others might think, it may just be cos I know the layout so well and the best way to deal with stuff.

[Demon of the Well]

Trying to power through...

Map 25 -- Forbidden Fruit - 121% Kills / 100% Secrets
This is similar to map 23 in that making progress in the level again revolves around locating several demonic MacGuffins scattered over an essentially non-linear layout. This time the quest objects are a number of fleshy hanging fruits that need to be pulped before the blue skull will become available (they replace Keen, and thus can trigger a special action when all are destroyed). Most are hanging in plain sight (probably for the best to emphasize their importance to the player), but a few are festering away in some fairly obscure locations, although there's less of an aspect of secret-hunting here than was involved in finding all of the yellow skulls in map 23--just keep your eyes open and move along at a canter when there's a quiet moment, and you should be fine. As in map 23, you can move through the level in pretty much any order you want; it's smaller than that map was, and has a lower monster population, but requires more athleticism to navigate and tends to use its monsters in stronger suppressing fire/area denial positions, so if anything finding a route that works for you (to get the weapons you most want early, etc.) is more crucial than in the former map.

Oh, yeah, and there's an undead Ticket Oak mouldering away in the center of it all. Just when I thought that thing couldn't get any creepier....

Speaking of the central space, the main thing that differentiates the combat here from the otherwise similar map 23 is that 'Forbidden Fruit' focuses its bloodshed much more on the central space, rather than sectioning it off into setpiece battles evenly spread throughout the map--there is some killing to be done in the dank side tunnels, to be sure, but succeeding in combat more or less requires skilled navigation of the central space, given the crampedness and somewhat navigation-unfriendly terrain of the side areas, and the fact that arch-viles and high HP monsters are able to block passages off quite effectively, making it an inefficient use of resources to punch through them. That aside, the three main fights of the level all revolve around the central area in one way or another. At the outset it's a complicated killzone with monsters sniping from the periphery, and removing them involves jumping/climbing/tunneling around said periphery yourself while watching for incoming fire from the other end of the map.

The biggest fight is probably the two-pronged wave of cacodemons and pain elementals that descend from the towerscape outside of the map (incidentally, dig that reference to 'Bridge of Blood' visible from over on the redstone widow's walk); there are a lot of these guys, and their flight ability allows them to move through the area much more efficiently than the player can, so even if you try to hide in one of the side areas they are likely to be able to budge you out of it by attacking en masse or from odd angles, so you need to use the central space either to cut across the map and gain some distance to find a new angle of attack, or even better, use it as your own killzone, blasting the gasbags out of the sky with rockets once they've bunched up (made more complicated by the delayed reinforcement wave mouldy has set up, very nice touch there).

I may be mistaken, but it seems like the final fight has been beefed up a little bit from the last version of the map I played--the extra viles do a nice job of denying the player many of the safe areas that will exist at that point (more a result of their resurrection magic than their attack spells, seems like), while the revenants clutter up the central space and make it suitably inhospitable. Getting the blue key presumably causes another small injection of mages and skeletons, but it was difficult for me to tell since I went here before I'd cleaned much of the first wave on this playthrough. Whatever the case, I don't think the ending moments were as anticlimactic as they were the last time I played, which is good.

Minor aesthetic foible: When I went to exit, for some reason the elevator door didn't fastclose after I hit the exit switch, meaning that the illusion of the elevator descending to the next floor at the end was spoiled. However, I tried to duplicate this error a couple of times and didn't succeed, so I'm not sure what causes it or how likely it is to happen.

Map 26 -- Insanity - 102% Kills / 100% Secrets
This map surely won't fail to make an impression, got to give it that. Things start out surreal with Doomguy finding himself lost in a labyrinth of elevators, strewn here and there with visions of himself after having met a gruesome fate, and peopled only by bloodthirsty shadows. Odd as this is, the real kicker comes when this sinister transitory plane melts away into a blasphemous nightmare dimension of writhing flesh and great cascades and upswells and plumes of ichor that defy gravity as easily as they defy mundane standards of wholesomeness. I imagine that some folks will find the high-contrast juxtaposition of the silvery elevator housings with all of this shadow-soaked incarnadine topography to be shockingly ugly....for my part, I'll just say I'm very glad it's not fullbright. Upon finding the yellow key and making it back to the central elevator (the 'true' one all along) we are treated to a striking cinematic outro sequence (you can fight against the invisible current to some extent if you want to get a better look at it) as Doomguy's consciousness snaps back towards corporeal reality like a bungie-jumper's body at the end of the chord's extent. This is really, really cool--not the only time I've seen this idea before (Obsidian made a similar sequence in one of his RDC speedmaps earlier this year, for instance), but certainly the best execution of it I've seen recently.

So, anyway, as a spectacle this map certainly gets the job done, which is a good thing, because I still don't feel that it actually plays particularly well. Infinitely-tall monsters are a real nuisance in this one--they certainly don't make the map undoable or even particularly difficult or anything like that, but they do severely cramp your style and hinder navigability/flow over the highly irregular topography, markedly limiting the number of ways to reasonably tackle what to all appearances seems to be intended as a freewheeling, catch-as-catch-can pseudo-sandbox arena. Other than this, there's also no real climax or standout moment to the combat--the largest concentration of monsters is the horde of imps on the periphery which helplessly funnel through a natural chokepoint (the arch-viles behind them stymied by their irresistible compulsion to resurrect the mountains of leathery corpses they'll soon be wading through), the cacoswarm that appears to protect the yellow skull is surprisingly small and only really a threat if they infinitely-tall you while you're in one of the miniature 'canyons', etc. In my experience the biggest threat was actually the group of revenants on one side of the level; taking them out early is advised, both to keep them from hitting you with homing rockets at inconvenient moments and to prevent them from infinitely-talling you when you try to jump down from the optional BFG area.

Definitely not one of my favorites from the set, but I can certainly appreciate the special effects at work here regardless--the map's worth seeing just for the big transformation and for the outro sequence, if nothing else.

Bit of an aesthetic oversight in the current version: if, after causing the level to transform, you go to the upper peripheral area (with the big pockets of imps and arch-viles, and the BFG and soulsphere) before you go towards the yellow key, you're able to navigate around the periphery and eventually come to an elevator housing two squares east of the BFG's housing, where there are cacodemons trapped behind a crystal sector (which lowers on a trigger when you go for the key, setting them loose), which blocks your shots if you fire at them, and keeps them from even attempting to attack you. You can also see distant caco-pairs in similar setups in the housings on the eastern (presumably unreachable) periphery, and can theoretically fire at (and fail to damage) them as well, but perhaps these distant guys can be more easily hand-waved away as a side-effect of the general insanity.

[tourniquet]

27: "Hard Cover"

No cover might be a more fitting name for this black/red themed metal cage whose sole purpose is to annihilate the player as quick and vicious as possible.

Together with 28 definitly one of my favorite maps mostly due to being as merciless and harsh as nothing you've encountered in all the maps before. Slaughter at it's finest.
I bow to those who can play this map reckless, i plainly can't.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/2fy20y2uj4qwfqc/gd27_TNq.lmp

[Veinen]

23 & 24: https://www.mediafire.com/?7m96e8q7i7irveb

Map23: Demonology

Pretty cool hellish mansion type of a thing this. Really intricate "realistic" details everywhere (special mention to that laboratory room, how cool is that), some parts are kind of awkward to navigate due to the details and general small spaces but it wasn't that bad. The pillar maze part is kind of annoying since it's hard to say what trigger which pillar and whether all of them have been lowered. I have very bad memories of a similar pillar contraption in, I think, Reverie where it was fucking impossible to "solve" without foreknowledge. Arch-Viles are everywhere here, pretty much every fight comes with one of them attached. They're not a huge problem until the very end where they start rezzing stuff away from the players immediate reach. Combat is overall very set-piece oriented and heavily orchestrated; every setup is dealt with separately and there's not really much of the typical chaos included unless, I imagine, the player really wants it that way. Partly due to this it's also one of the longest maps so far regarding playing time and it took me almost 15 mins for the max. Granted, the route is all over the place and playing is pretty casual but still.

Map24: Bridge of Blood

And this is pretty much the polar opposite. It's a fun map for sure but it's as simple as it gets regarding gameplay. There's not a whole lot of pressure on the player if he/she just remembers to keep holding down the fire button and occasionally checking if something has spawned behind to avoid unwanted shots in the back. The second part begins with the player running around the stands on the other side of the bridge and cheering for the SM. Eventually she will crumble and you'll have to take matters into your own hands. There will be 1-3 Cybers coming towards you at this point depending on how well or poorly they fared in destroying the other mobs in the opening room. I played this a few times and the only time I had all three alive (yet weak though) happened while I recorded the demo. Wrapping up the bloodbath you get to splash some weaklings unless they hadn't been released previously. I had the Mega somehow left over at that point so suffice to say I wasn't very threatened. There's a metric shit ton of health both sides of the bridge so it's rather hard to die here unless you manage to catch a stray rocket or something. Fun stuff and the towers outside the boundaries of the bridge look really amazing.

Next up is awkward movement: the map. Ugh, I dread the thought of maxing that but I'll do it anyway ;)

[Suitepee]

http://www.twitch.tv/johnsuitepee/c/5380629 = part 3 of my playthrough (continuous), covering maps 20-30.

Back to Saturn X has a new contender for outstanding quality in a megawad in my opinion. This is easily one of the best megawads I've ever played (only Pirate Doom has that same feeling, and to a lesser extent BTSXE1) and mouldy deserves a Cacoward for 2014.

I particularly liked the ending and the final boss fight, but I won't spoil either. Needless to say Going Down starts well, continues well and ends well. Consistent quality in both graphical attention to detail and map variety. One map is never like the other, and all are fun to play! It's hard to believe at times how mouldy makes a map so visually interesting with just vanilla textures, let alone 32 of them.

Here's hoping mouldy makes many more great maps/megawads like this!

(P.S- I vote Alien Vendetta for next month's DWMegawad Club)

[dew]

Continuing with e2... also more demos. Had to split again because of attachment size. http://www.doomworld.com/vb/post/1317456

map12: Dead End

First e2 map breaking the concept again, huh. Cheeky idea as always. Anyways, this is a lovely arena, I'm only sorry I didn't release everything at once, that would've been awesome chaos. My biggest enemy was my own splash damage, although one of the archies at the plasmagun was a sneaky bastard and surprised me from behind. Again, many of my tense situations could've been avoided if I'd blast away with the launcher more liberally instead of juggling weapons for max eff. I've enjoyed it thoroughly, although that radsuit at the beginning and warning signs spooked me into believing the brown sludge is corrosive too and I've limited my movement too much because of it. I guess I was practicing for the next map. Btw, I dig your idea of slaughter - monster counter often states something like 200 and I get afraid it's going to be a lengthy hardcore battle for survival with nobles in tight space, but then I get to remove half of that count very swiftly by genociding throngs of zombies and imps in a very one-sided manner. There's almost no challenge in it, but it's so goddamn fun with the spam weapons...

Also a small issue that somewhat concerns many of your maps, not just this one. You place monster closets too close to the playable area and it's possible to hear them from some spots near the outer walls. Arachnotrons in this map's case. This may or may not be an issue. If you want to hide what monsters are going to be featured in the next ambush, or suspect it breaks the 4th wall (heh, riiight), hide it. If you like the "They're coming outta the goddamn walls" effect, keep it.


map13: Deep Trouble

I didn't like this map, to be honest. I dicked myself on the SSG by lowering it too soon, then I couldn't grab it to defend myself against the revs, ack. Then it basically became
1) crawl over a step's edge or pick an item
2) sandwich ambush!
3) run back like crazy with the big gun blazing
4) clean baddies methodically again on the descent.
It helped me obliterate the "surprise" vile with ease, too. Dunno, the final fight was a good change of pace and I had a nice 1% moment there (because I'm stupid), but the overly formulaic descent wasn't to my liking. I also expected more cacos to fly from the center, as some have mentioned. I guess you mainly experimented with those dummy sector randomizers, but it doesn't translate too well into the map. It's not a bad one, I just didn't enjoy it as much as the others. At least we got the elevator back. I beat that repair guy like he was lookin at my chav girlfriend.


map14: Secrets and Lies

See, this is where that "every switch and every other step releases an ambush" works better. It felt thematically more appropriate, but also those crazy little rooms were more appropriate battle arenas for them. The previous map was McGee design infused with Petersen gameplay, this one is Petersen all the way, in classic terms. :)

I still hate the map with burning passion, but the right kind of passion. That HK/manco sandwich ambush utterly ruined my shit and for a second or two I was ready to die, I even let go of controls awaiting the sweet kiss of death. Then I manned up and started battling not the monsters, but the map and the author out of pure spite. I will survive! That massive health loss made me super-campy and after a few very tense situations, I did manage to break the map in a sense. Linedef 393 is easy to trigger while still on the arach lift (sector 79), after which it's possible to kill out the entire hitscanner population that's supposed to sandwich you in the pillar room - and the arach reinforcement too. I'd say put that action a bit farther into the room after the player is properly trapped. I'd also say the wall that reveals the snaking hallway full of hitscan should be dropped a bit sooner. One has to commit to the spider fight to get it, I'd make it diffuse with the pillar room fight. Up to you though.

Oh and I totally expected the avs to come. It just had to happen, so I waited it out and they did arrive. I can see through you, you bastard! :P Oh and forgive the overdone wallhumping in the demo, I took the map name way too seriously and started expecting unmarked secrets everywhere or something, not really sure why I was doing that, heh.

Finally, afaik you don't need to worry about ghost monsters from crushed bodies. Boom fixes that behaviour.


map15: Gladiator

Oh yeah the pillars with weapons and tacticks and I like the map because stratagy and my sequonce was smarter than your dad's. So uh, this is probably my best (or worst, depending on the spin) FDA in the pack. I stare the arena down nervously for a minute, then I decide to grab the invul and swoop in like an angry Old Testament God. And then I kinda forget I need to press those stupid pillar switches, waste away most of the invul on like two demons, after which I activate three waves at once while the invul is fading. Mastermind first. Fucking ace, dew, you are the mastermind here. Watching it back, it's actually amazing I was able to walk away from that mess. I made the cyb part boring, because I just danced around and let him clear most of the audience, not very good showmanship.

Anyways, a great setpiece. Not groundbreaking, but well executed and nicely sold. I got my dose of tense action. The bonus toilet again reminds us that corp management from mid tier to the top do it for the glory of the Reich. I bet employees like company pantomime horses are made fight to death over who gets to keep their job in that arena.


map31: Stair Crazy

Oh my god, I'd rip this map a new one if it was a solo release or some community project submission. It's a sin to base the entirety of a map's gameplay around releasing sandwich attacks upon a player ascending stairs in a narrow winding hallway. Yet I loved it here, because the context, the story telling and the peeks into the previous maps help suspend disbelief and enjoy the concept as is. Gameplay is still suspect as hell, but it's part of the experience now. Doomguy's gotta get to that roof fast and there's annoying stuff in the way! I was angry at the monsters and not at the mapper, so congratulations for pulling off something rare, heh.

The only battle worth proper inspection is the final big one and I, uh, think I kinda broke the second part of it. Poor AVs couldn't work that magic some people mentioned at all, I'm wondering if you shouldn't add another teleporter destination (or actually two so it's impossible to block one by standing on it) around the part where I stood. Such a strong position is a bit too much. It was just routine "hold down M1 until your finger cramps or monsters stop spawning".


map32: Roof Rage

A proper slaughtermap! Solid fun. The first battle went smooth for me, but the outer circle was a big surprise that threw me off quite a bit, heh. That's good. I tried to use the cybs to fight the cacos, but I think the effort backfired on me, I should've just blasted away. My invul usage was stellar, of course. Oh and at one moment I forgot that very thin walls actually don't protect you from blast damage and I eat rocket damage in the PG hut. Careful, kids! I don't really have much to add otherwise, although it probably plays great if you posess your preknowledge and go for triggering everything ASAP, grabbing the invul and going BFG crazy.

edit: Monsters in closets can be heard again, this time it's cybers when you first enter the outer chain of roofs, just before they port in.


I'm tired from typing, so I'll split my megapost here before I go down again.

[tourniquet]

28: "Necropolis"

End of the line, down at the bottom and finally you can admire the full scale of this hellscape, so damn beautiful.
Seems like hell sends it's last desperate resort to stop you on your conquest, considering the overwhelming enemie count you'll face here.

I think this map is at least a hint less difficult then the previous one mainly due to the easy available Invuls and the easy to provoke mass infight.

Out of curiosity i tried to beat it without using any of the invuls, took me a few tries but wasn't as hard as i expected.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/451o0muv4mth8zw/gd28_NoInv_TNq.lmp

[dew]

Gotta get back to building that wall of text...

map16: Black Mass

A gothic cathedral - check. It's kinda by the numbers for people who've seen a number of these AND for people who went through your previous maps. The "every step releases an ambush" thingy is back and I controlled the fights one by one because of FDA carefulness, but it's much better if shit gets aggroed in big chunks. Better infighting, more rocket targets, faster gameplay... and resources for that are there too. Well, I have a reason to replay this one, 'cause it's fun. I also wasted the invul the same way as in map32, heh. Not much to say otherwise. Oh yeah, the central well can be jumped into, but I guess I'm glad I just skated over since it's an inescapable death pit. :p


map17: Rest In Pieces

A pretty catacombs map - check. All traditional themes, but they help keep the wad greatly diverse, really. Random ambushes every other steps run strong in this one again, but they feel more natural. Not just because they fit the theme better, but the hordes are more varied and spread around, not just another pack of tourists refilling the cathedral. The windows and dropped walls make sure there's less cover than one expects at first, so it's quite a battle of attrition, although there's always plenty of healing resources around. Just gotta get to them when health drops low.

I think I found myself a safe little corner for the main YK invasion and I could dismantle it with ease even without the BFG. Actually, getting the BFG caused my unceremonious death. Got too daring there and the cyb had none of my two-shot bullshit. Anyways, get some monsters to port up where I held fort with the PG/RL spam? Once the horde ran out of cacos/PEs, I was really comfy up there, and even the fliers only attacked from one vector that didn't work for them at all, heh. Really good, fun map otherwise. Possibly awesome for nice optimized Scythe-style max demoing.


map18: Buried Alive

Look, a plunger, I wonder what that thing does- oops. Cool invasion map. I thought I had a good plan, worrying about revs and arachs first, taking out fliers and avs whenever they trickle in... but then the saucer cyb got a firing angle and boom, I was in deep trouble. I'd probably die without the secret invul despite being able to clear out almost everything. Good stuff, good stuff. Not really anything to complain about. Oh yeah, monsters can be heard in the walls before the action starts. I'd say total silence would be creepier here.


map19: 200 Mega Hurts

Best map. Zero complaints. Will you marry me? I'd probably get tired of the vile theme if it dragged for any longer, or if the concept was exploited in more maps, but this was dosed just right for me. The PE part was hilarious. Also cool return sequence.


map20: The Mouth of Madness

Nice little slaughter. As far as the genre goes, this is pretty much babby's first slaugter with majority of the monster count being imps hilariously vomited by the demon head and all the lava doing minimal damage. A max for this map can probably go to ridiculously low times, I'd love some of the elite class slaughter maxers take a shot at it. The narrative part of the map is top notch. Cool vista, cool concept, good bye mr. Elevator. Oh and the last cyb got chomped to death by pigs, haha.

I feel this might be the strongest segment of maps in GD. Super-varied, all fun concepts, can't praise it enough. I'm getting lunch.

[mouldy]

dew said:

map16: Black Mass

Oh yeah, the central well can be jumped into, but I guess I'm glad I just skated over since it's an inescapable death pit. :p

heh, I couldn't remember if I made sure it was damaging in there. Good job getting out the window in map04 as well, I bet there are some other windows people could escape from in other maps too. And that map15 demo was quite hilarious.

tourniquet said:

28: "Necropolis"

Out of curiosity i tried to beat it without using any of the invuls, took me a few tries but wasn't as hard as i expected.

Wow, hard to top that. I could probably get rid of at least one of those invuls, but I like to give lesser players a fair crack of the whip.

So I should catch up with my words of wisdom on these maps...

Map26 - some crazy transforming shit

http://www.mediafire.com/download/j3wm2x6wcb5m4lf/gd-mouldy-26.lmp
For some reason every time I tried to record a demo I ended up running out of ammo, even though I must have tested it hundreds of times. Just about managed it this time, finishing with no ammo and one imp left to punch in the face. Anyway, in my quest to try something different on every map I decided for this one I would have all the monsters in place rather than teleporting them in, and drop the player into this living landscape to fend for themselves. As with any map like this, the challenge is going to start high and steadily drop as you kill more stuff, but I'm ok with that as I see the whole thing as a single battle to overcome. The mechanics of the transformation were quite a task of reverse engineering, and its fair to say this map represents the most work for the least gameplay, but its more about the spectacle in the end.

Not looking forward to maxing 27

[tourniquet]

I could probably get rid of at least one of those invuls, but I like to give lesser players a fair crack of the whip.

Don't think it's necessary to remove one of them at least for the sake of not frustrating certain players.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/j3wm2x6wcb5m4lf/gd-mouldy-26.lmp
For some reason every time I tried to record a demo I ended up running out of ammo, even though I must have tested it hundreds of times.

Probably depends on how lucky you get with infights, i didn't experience any ammo shortage there.
Maybe you could place a berserk somewhere, still better then fighting with bare fists.

[mouldy]

tourniquet said:

Maybe you could place a berserk somewhere, still better then fighting with bare fists.

dunno, i think its just me being wasteful. I know its possible, and its also pretty easy to exit without killing loads of stuff so I'll leave it as it is. There is also a problem with my version of prboom where all the items are black so it might be that I missed some ammo.

[The_MártonJános]

Oh shit, things have ran out of my hands quickly in the recent times. Gonna catch up ASAP!

MAP27: Hard Cover
I don't know whether this map is named after all the METAL2 panels, or because it's hard to take cover whilst playing.

Because sure it is. Movement restrictions fairly rarely rely on solid walls - minus the outline borders and some column-y formations inside - but rather on impassable lines a la MIDGRATE and shorter-higher height differences in both floor and ceiling. Most of the high peek spots are able to be taken advantage of, but sure, you're prone to get into a lethal crossfire at any time, especially right after activating some nasty ambush of the map's.

Nevertheless, with the initial Invul and enough replenishment given, you won't have a hard time eliminating the first encounter within a minute, the harder just comes behind all the height clusterfuck you're handed to. Mostly rather annoyance than deadly threat, since hitscanners are always welcome inhabitants since the very beginning, but don't be surprised to be greeted by an entire carriage of Revenants just on your way to pick up your well-deserved 2x200%.

About 85-90% of the map's floor flattexture consists of FLOOR1_6, which along with all the METAL2 around gives it an utterly unique look. I don't even mind that here aesthetics isn't as strongly pronounced as in any of the previous or following maps, because somehow I can accept that this is an tech furnace under the evil's occupation, and that the ethics consider red carpet to be a fitting floor design all over. The mere worthly exceptions are the shaft (no surprise), a Mancubus pedestal near the start and the central lift which gives access to certain tactical points in the map, one of them an unofficial secret leading to an official one, the other being the madatory pathway I missed out on hard playing this level first time.

Expect some roughly nasty masses of lowest-tier monsters to warp in upon activating the mechanism which frees the red key at your reach. They sure do their jobs to distract your attention from some demons in serious need of slimming diet, getting in fast to guard the skull. Get rid of all - with the appropriate equipment, it won't take a minute - take some roundabouts to find out how to get to that damn switch which opens the door back to the shaft, be proud of yourself, and wait for your reward deep down.

Again, I'm surprised of myself not even giving a f*** on how disharmonique red and shining black are, because here in mouldy's execution they just fit in like bread and butter.

Spoiler

Maybe this is the same process how really good hit songs are produced, because most of the hits broadcasted by radios are ought to be shit, with the very exception of some which failed to be dat in spite of the intention to be hated all over the Globe.

The bloodfalls and furnace alcoves also look nice, but the Hell I won't tell you what this map really wants to represent, 'cause I have no idea.

Did I just feel a jolt that is like the "no more floors below" stop signature of each and every elevator shaft? I guess I... won't survive this time... that easily.

[mouldy]

Map27 - the midgrate maze

http://www.mediafire.com/download/4vzk6phlvujh44z/gd-mouldy-27.lmp
Finally managed to beat this map without saves. Its a grueling 10 minutes, what I really like about this map though is how many options you have once you know it well. What I don't like is monsters shooting through the base of that damn midgrate texture where you can't see them. I considered adjusting it all to eliminate that, but with so much of the design dependent on ceiling and floor heights it was too much hassle. At least I decided not to have archviles running around the map, which would be too unfair with all the exposure. Storywise, this is one of the few maps that doesn't take place in any discernible location with any kind of logic to its appearance, its just pure abstract slaughter-space. I figured with the final maps being more plot orientated I could afford to slack off from the narrative with this one.

[dobu gabu maru]

FYI for tomorrow guys, you can play & report on both MAP29 and MAP30 (you'll know why when you get there).

mouldy said:

I find this map pretty easy on HNTR, though I know you are a keyboard player so that might make the difference with the missile dodging.

Mmmm I don't think that's necessarily it. I've been trying to gauge difficulty on HNTR based on how much I die and this was the only map that killed me more than twice (it was actually around 10 times). Fighting the AVs is a bit simpler since all you're looking to do is stay in cover, but when you open a door here you can't just run in and blast them, as you have to backtrack pretty far to avoid the homing missiles. Combined with the ungodly amount of revs in the middle, I think this is some really tricky maneuvering for someone that plays on the easiest difficulty. I think the first soulsphere could be an invul, or at least change the invuls to megaspheres, since running out of armor means insta-death in a lot of situations.


MAP24: A more apt name may be “Bridge of Bodies”. This one is all about piling up corpses, as the hotly contested bridge between the two structures quickly becomes a graveyard of blown-up bits. I think it’s alright—possibly mouldy’s weakest slaughter-based map in the set (this or MAP20), as you can spend a lot of time doing not much other than letting the other monsters infight. There’s a handful of really tense moments, and the visuals are stunning, but otherwise it’s down to rote clean-up.

HNTR comments: Man this one is a bit of a mess on HNTR. it’s not that it gets to hectic but quite the opposite—there’s continuously too many periods of silence. I think a lot of the difficulty in the original came from the playing trying to avoid getting cornered, but here you can kinda sit back and rocket everything that isnt a cyb or mastermind. To fix it, I’d suggest putting in some HKs in the starting area (almost everything there dies to the barrels), adding a few more bulky monsters on the bridge, and DEFINITELY removing the BFG—every creature crumbles before you once that’s picked up.

MAP25: As the last puzzle map of the set, this overgrown garden makes excellent use of the keen triggers. I’m always thrilled by exploration maps and though this one is cramped and bumpy, I still think it’s fun to wade through the foliage and battle monsters at awkward angles. It’s easy to get cornered if you’re not moving around quite enough, but otherwise I think this is a strong E3 contestant.

HNTR comments: Another decently balanced level. Coming out of MAP24 I was stocked to the brim, but there’s plenty of high-tier monsters to pose a threat if you’re not vigilant or careful. The loss of the BFG from MAP24 might make it a bit more exciting too (though you could throw it in as a secret here if you haven’t).

MAP26: The most artistic map of the set. "Insanity" has the coolest reveal that I've played all year, starting off as a maze of hallways and then literally descending into a bloody pit of hell. What's peculiar is that a large part of the variability comes from where you're standing when the floor gives way, and knowing where to go beforehand can definitely give you a leg up. Excellent stuff.

HNTR comments: I actually really liked this one on HNTR, mainly due to the lack of health. There’s not a lot of monsters, and quite a bit of them at the start are cannon-fodder, but down in the blood pit it can be hard to restock health if you’re playing carelessly (as opposed to MAP24 and MAP25).

[The_MártonJános]

MAP28: Necropolis
Damn, this reminds me that the the monthly copy of Necropolitan magazine is late this month. Better cancel my subscription.

I'm surprised how even this map isn't lenghty and illogically clustered, relative on how massive slaughters may occur here and there. Also, this is representative on the proof that mouldy haven't used any of the DEM1_1-4 flattextures in the entire Going Down mapset, because if there's a map to accommodate any, that would be this, or MAP16, or MAP24. But no, somehow it seems like mouldy isn't keen on the floor Icon of Sin panels, opposing me, who loves to over(ab)use them.

After all these irrelevant proverbs, time to talk about real concern. I admit that I rarely operated around with either not taking cover or using one of the Invinciblity Spheres, without those I personally don't find the acquirement of the blue skull manageable, to mention just one momentum required to reach the exit. Of course there are hardcore players who think and act different, but I never stated I wasn't softcore.

So here I speak, I've also made a blatant fault seconds after the Invul wore off: fled into the shaft, the entrance of which was spammed with angry foes within seconds, and I had a hard time without any cell ammo, wasting all on the mob in the BK room. Somehow I still managed to get out in one piece, since I took on the chance to eradicate that Archvile who was responsible of the swarm's quick reproduction. After all, some rocketing and some infighting did the work pretty well to escape to the battlegrounds again, replenish and start it all over.

Some of the Cybers which wasn't taken care of early toughtened my job, but it's just what their task is, and what's save and reload functions are for. The downground Cybs, entering just after pressing the huge skull switch in blue border, were easier to turn the majority of the mobs against to, but they still victoriously defended their honor, so it needed some invocatio to completely erase the arena by any kind of disturbing entity wandering around. After all this, the scene rather reminded me of an overly populated torture chamber, the aftermath of most slaughtermaps... but this is natural to me. I'm a warrior, not a touch-me-not.

The aesthetic, as we're speaking about a rather congested and detailful map, leaves sometimes desires behind, but I'm not that kind of detail-sensitive that I've used to be before, so I find it okay. Also, mouldy oughtta be keen on how to make entire hardcore maps to be playable for even kinds of the non-viable, like me, cause it took me only 17 attempts to beat it instead of a foretold amount of something like ten thousand. With all the replenishment and even my almost-fatal mistake to be made, I still made it, for which I'm proud of myself. *Bats chest*

We started off with the opposite, ain't we finishing with the same as well?! What's up with all this going up?! I'm already confused with directions, damnit, not this again...

[tourniquet]

29: "Demolition"

Haven't we been here before? Seems like somebody was kind enough to cram the whole place with explosives, time to start the demolition.
This isn't the first time that mouldy's grants the oportunity to blow something into pieces but this is by far the most impressive one.

It's a cool arena boss fight and since the IOS is not just a stupid, plain wall your supposed to shot at it's actually decent fun.
Cant help but the Super Spidey reminds me a lot of Red Skull from the Marvel Comics.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/6862w2lfq292cwz/gd29_TNq.lmp

[Magnusblitz]

Gah, fell way behind as I got busy, gotta try and catch up.

MAP19: 200 Mega Hurts
82% kills*, 0/8 secrets
*it was something like 656/200

I like the look of the spaceship and the alien world, but gameplay-wise, not really my thing. Just not that much fun running around with a giant black-and-white flame blocking my view for the whole map. As others have said, there's definitely more strategy needed than just grabbing the invul sphere and have at it, since you can get blasted into a corner with no escape, but meh. Didn't even really think about secrets until I got back to the outside of the spaceship and saw a 0/8 at the bottom of my screen, ah well. I might not have really given this map it's due, as I just tried to rush through it rather than clean it out, so for that, I apologize.

MAP20: Mouth of Madness
36% kills, 0/2 secrets

Another map that I didn't really give it's due, as I approached it somewhat like an IoS map... just hit the switches as quick as possible and blast to the ending. So, jump off the start elevator (nice trick with the bottom coming out), grab weapons, race up each 'staircase' to hit the switch, then tear through the imps with the BFG and jump into the mouth. As usual, it's a nice looking level, though I have to take umbrage with the enemies popping out of the solid rock. Ah, mouldy, I thought we had so much in common... love the trick with the eyes, though.

MAP21: Indigestion
54% kills, no secrets

A lot of people hate Tyson gameplay, but I like it for the most part... punching imps into bloody giblets never gets old. Now we're inside the monster's innards, so flesh and blood ahoy, and it looks pretty good for the most part - I really like details such as the horizontal spine texture on the inside of the ceiling of the demon pools, for example. There are a few places where it hurts, though, such as the baron fight (they have trouble stepping off the highest stair, which makes fighting them kinda a pain). Also, if infinite-tallness is turned off (which some of the other levels seemed to be designed with in mind) it's easy to walk over a rising demon too fast and get stuck. It also starts to get a bit pacifistic at the end (hard to fight hordes with a fist), but still, a decent romp.

[Gez]

Magnusblitz said:

It also starts to get a bit pacifistic at the end (hard to fight hordes with a fist), but still, a decent romp.

You just need to pass a fist through their face!

[The_MártonJános]

MAP29: Demolition
It's just funny to see the philosophy behind "If we couldn't conquer the entire depths, we'll just get rid of where it all starts"!

Brief showdown, no special need to comment on anything. You destroy office building, and from amongst the ruins, suddenly Spiderdemon arises with a few corporal protectors and legions sent forth. However, if you get rid of the Spider, its corpse sucks up all the Revenants around, dead or alive, and form a red-headed Romero Mastermind, enclosing all the potential of the Spider, the Revenants and - somehow - the Mancubi.

However, if you find out how to circle-routine around the ruins, the fellow comrades will certainly mean more annoyance than Tomatohead himself. And it's just up to you yourself whether to get rid of them or not. A couple of Archvile sneak ambushes are expected to come over as a matter of minutes, it only depends on how fast you finish the Mad. Once you did, all the foes around crumble, some buildings get blown away, the Moon explodes, your sight goes red, etc.

I admit I survived it first run, because I just lent myself along the flow, then I came accross resources of every kind when running low, killing the hellspawn diligently. I let the Romero Spider take off every living entity around, who of course fought back, and the ones in cover were my task to handle, then I just ran against, fired BFG twice, got myself lowered to 12% of life, then... win. Lucky bastard I am.

Now tell me what's up with my vision going black and then feeling like awakening from a long nightmare? I guess I'd just quote the first two lines from Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody...

Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?

Fate as I'm getting along with my new situation will eventually tell me anyways.

[Veinen]

Almost there...

Slow maxes for maps 25-28: https://www.mediafire.com/?0j2vetc2t1d965f

Map25: Forbidden Fruit

So yeah, I didn't really like playing this. Way too bouncy and uneven for my already terrible movement skills which just lead to deaths upon deaths and me screaming at my laptop like a lunatic. Then I decided to take it slow and cowardly and I still manage to die a few times with like 6-10 monsters left... The concept of hunting the fruits is neat though and admittedly very well executed in terms of visuals and mood.

Map26: Insanity

Another concept map this, this one being also really awesome looking and much less annoying to play as well. That "reveal" is really, really nicely done I must say and pretty unexpected the first time I played this. Combat is pretty easy once you get the hang of it but it's enjoyable enough. Surviving the initial attacks and gathering the ammo scattered around is the key here; after some of the baddies are taken out (most importantyl the one free Archie) it's just about cleaning up and trying not to die in the process. A lot of open space (yet the players movements are somewhat limited) so Revs and Cacos are pretty effective and need to watched out. Ammo is pretty well balanced and there's not much of it left once you hit the exit.

Map27: Hard Cover

Fuck yes, now this definitely hits the spot for me. Pretty much slaughter in cramped spaces, constant action with enemies firing from all directions and most certainly no abundance of cover here. Mouldy drops the player straight to the deep end and there is no choice but to face the hordes head on, or at least that's how I felt and certainly though that that's how it should be played for maximum fun. It's a pretty tough map too and the first parts (everything before I grab the Megasphere) took a few attempts to get right (still a first exit though). I develop a bit of a safe spot near the end there from where I can relatively safely rid of the Imp onslaught but I doubt that it's an effective enough strategy for a proper maxdemo. I wasted some BFG shots though and had only rockets and shells to operate with so keeping some distance between me and the foes is a very good idea in these tight corridors. Extremely fun map overall, top three map in the mapset for sure.

Map28: Necropolis

Fuck YES, and then some. Pure slaughter through and through in the most literal sense of the word and oh so much fun. The idea here most definitely is to let all hell break loose and jump right in with the BFG in hand. It's honestly quite an easy level since Invulns are supplied rather generously but it doesn't take anything out from the enjoyment for me. I probably don't even need to mention this at this point but the map looks fucking great too. Such a beautiful execution of the hell theme. So yeah, another top three map this for certain. 1100-something monsters in 4:30 speaks for itself.

[mouldy]

Map28 - the gratuitous hell slaughter

http://www.mediafire.com/download/4uca7jaotfean0w/gd-mouldy-28.lmp
This demo started off as me just messing about trying to trigger everything at once, and then somehow I survived, and somehow most of the monsters killed each other and it became a max demo. At 6 minutes its not breaking any records, but its amusing to see how even with no plan whatsoever its possible to come out on top.

This map was of course inevitable, but given that this megawad is more of a casual affair I wanted to make it more of a friendly slaughter map, so lots of health, invuls and above all space to run around. In fact, to show just how friendly this map really is, I recorded a demo where I exit in under 2 minutes without firing a shot:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/kniunumm1q7ibte/gd-mouldy-28-pacifist.lmp
although admittedly its because I didn't fire a shot that none of the hordes materialised. I could probably have fixed that somehow, but its a nice little challenge. Also none of the invuls appear unless you wake everything up.

So what does it all mean, what is this place, and what is that mysterious blue cube? God knows, but it looks cool.

Now I shalll watch Veinen's demos with a cup of tea.

[dew]

map21: Indigestion

A 'zerk map in slot 21. How tremendously shocking. :p Do not fear, though, I'm a big fan. I'm only sorry I was too afraid in the FDA and I've dealt with all the monster waves one by one, running around carefully punching the outlying beasties, navigating the rest into the crushing death. The monster counter scared me, but it definitely calls for running past the initial invaders if possible and triggering everything into one lovely clusterfuck of infighting and crushing. I have to say, I got insanely lost/clueless after picking up the RK, because I somehow forgot that particular switch is right at start and it doesn't really stand out well... can you please highlight it a bit more? Surely I'm not the only idiot with a goldfish's memory span out there.

The theme is most certainly weird, but it speaks to me. I see the Body of the Many from System Shock 2, I also see Thomas van der Velden's map21 (heh heh) of Revolution. I'm not saying you're even conscious of these parallels, just that the innards of the beast are something that clicks with me. Although I'm kinda scared shitless of the SS2 level, heh.


map22: Constipation Station

Err, interesting concept, but I couldn't warm up to it. I felt like I was getting dicked by evil linedefs more than by evil monsters. And of course, my experience was probably shaped most by fucking up the BK pickup, after which I got locked in a room without without the BK like the worst loser, wondering if I'll run out of ammo or not. After all your previous maps, I kinda opt to run away as soon as I hear the teleport sound, but this time the invasion came slightly before the fairly vital pickup. The SSG/soulsphere pickup didn't go well for me either. And to be honest, I didn't quite enjoy the busy visual theme either. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure I'd have a much better time now that I know how the map works, maxing it would probably be quite a bunch of fun. It just didn't work for me in the FDA. Props for the final vile fight, that belonged. Add one more if you dare. ;)


map23: Demonology

Oh wow, my longest demo. Funny thing, I thought I was pretty damn effective with usage of weapons and resources and whatnot, but I somehow played the map in a really stupid way that left me struggling a lot. The spider butchered me, that was my bad, but the plasma army? At that point I was in no shape to try and wrestle an AV-backed wall of meat with the PG, so I ran, which led to an even worse situation when I... "committed" to that fight still on low health. Ugh, sorry for that terrible show. And wow, that bedroom YK was just too cryptic for me, because picking a compmap is obviously not enough of a clue to use the automap for hints. Anyways, I dig haunted mansions, although it's tough to compete with valkiriforce's TRULY haunted mansion in Reverie.

The demo is not a good show, although it was fun to play, but perhaps it's worth it as a FDA just so you can see where things get nasty. Or where your design gets a bit confusing. Oh, right, I have a complaint: the hitscanners that port into the hallway right next to the bedroom do so in a terribly "ordinary" way... they just trickle in via one tele destination and if one happens to be there to welcome them, it gets rather stupid. More tele destinations will do wonders. Just don't place them in a line. :P Another silly thing I noticed, at one point (around 24min, I think?) I start solving a non-existent puzzle, because I hear some dummy mechanism working its magic, but sounding like a secret. Happens in the lab, dummy sectors definitely shouldn't be heard.

And yeah, awesome gimmick with the YKs. I totally made things more dramatic on purpose when I panicked about the invul lowering and almost destroyed myself before picking it up. So you wouldn't get bored. I'm an entertainer. Srsly I'm not bad, believe me.


map24: Bridge of Blood

Ha, that monstercount looks scary, but this isn't a hard map at all. Well, I went from hero to zero to hero to zero again a few times in the FDA, but that was mostly my unknowingness and also stupid risking. The hordes thin out themselves very fast and player shouldn't get as stingy with ammo as I did, it doesn't pay health-wise, heh. I'll say this map reminds me of Speed of Doom, what was it, map22. Except you run back and forth a little. Cool stuff with a lot of backstory I picked from your post, but completely ignored when I played the map. :)


map25: Forbidden Fruit

Yo this map is cramped and weird, but I approve. I like the theme and the gameplay and I also haven't noticed anything wrong. It's exactly the sort of madness I expected coming into E3.

[mouldy]

dew said:

map23: Demonology

At that point I was in no shape to try and wrestle an AV-backed wall of meat with the PG, so I ran, which led to an even worse situation when I... "committed" to that fight still on low health.

Have to say I never considered anyone dealing with that fight like that, although to be honest I never put much thought into what would happen to that battle if you run away from it. Its a weird one because the monsters you fight there are also the ambush for the laboratory YK, but taken from behind, so you have a choice of which room to kill them in. Very useful demos by the way, I can see how you like to try breaking things in maps, and these maps sure have a lot of stuff to break.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 27 -- Hard Cover - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
I think that at some point I described this map as a 'newschool take on oldschool zone-of-influence slaughter.' Its nearly 400 enemies are packed into one of the smallest maps in the WAD (just judging from the automap's default scale, I feel like only maps 01, 07, 29, and 30 are smaller, but I'm basing that on exactly zero empirical research), arranged in chunks and ranks here and there, with a sizable contingent waiting to teleport in from beyond just when things seem to have quieted down. While compact, the layout is very intricate, comprised of an Escheresque tangle of overlapping hallways and trenches connected by lifts and stairways at odd points. The single most defining feature of the scene, however, and the one that most informs the action, is that solid walls separating any given hall or chamber from its neighbors are a rarity--most of 'walls' are actually ranks of iron cage bars, meaning that any given point on the map is liable to be visible from the next several outlying sectors. This open-yet-restricted play space, in combination with the complex multilevel nature of the architecture and the very high monster-density, turn this floor into one big, bloody catskinner box. And guess who's the cat!

To hesitate is to die in the early going of this one; mouldy supplies a full arsenal at the outset, but once the walls come down and the monsters are revealed, death will be raining down relentlessly, and there will be nowhere to hide. The key to success (for me, anyway) is to go on all-out offense (the V-sphere is handy for this), using your high-powered weaponry to decimate a sector or two which you can then use as an erstwhile home base. Once you've got a foothold, it's not too difficult to systematically clean out the rest of the floor--the complex/numerous vantage points that didn't allow you a moment of rest in the early going will now afford you all manner of options for dispatching your enemies with extreme prejudice, especially considering that many of them are not particularly mobile, given the nature of the layout. This is what I mean when I make the reference to oldschool 'zone-of-influence' slaughter--as opposed to a giant cauldron of complex forces and counterforces where you are the focal point and subject of the storm (a broad type of action which I feel to be characteristic of many of the iconic 'modern' slaughterWADs), the action here takes the form of steadily expanding your territory, one discrete piece at a time (e.g. one pocket or encampment of monsters at a time) until you control the entire map.

Of course, mouldy inevitably takes a stab at toppling you from your hard-won throne when he has the rest of the monster population beam in right around the point where it's time to take the red skull and leave, but this last assault is a bit of soft touch, using mostly zombies and other lowlifes who are only really a threat if you've been severely weakened/depleted by the earlier action, or if they catch you in just the wrong spot on the map (e.g. one that can be attacked from nearly every direction at once, as opposed to just from 3 or 4). This is of course in line with Going Down's tendency to not be quite as savage as its appearance may suggest...'Hard Cover' will definitely kill you quick if you don't act decisively, but it's full of health, ammo, and less tangible player-aids that will comfortably carry you through all of its action if you don't dig too ridiculously deep a hole for yourself. I think the nastiest bit is actually the 'staircase revenants'--I remember during my FDA I brashly thought I'd calmly cast them aside with my BFG, only to realize I only had 38 cells or something at the time when I whipped it out. Embarrassed and undignified retreat rapidly commenced, but I was eventually able to battle back and win the day using a stockpile of rockets on the eastern half of the map (the half I had made my initial 'territory'). So, make no mistake, the map's a challenge of a different sort than anything else in the WAD (map 19 is probably closest in flavor, oddly enough), but eminently doable if you persevere.

Map 28 -- Necropolis - 103% Kills / 100% Secrets
The grand finale in the depths of the brooding crimson abyss, where the veil between dimensions is tattered and threadbare enough for the denizens of the Beyond to pour through into our world, perhaps drawn by the varied smorgasboard of earthly morbidities that we've been seeing ever since the awful modern art adorning the walls of the office floor in the UAC highrise untold miles above us.

Anyway, at heart this is an exceedingly simple map, essentially a series of big scrappy brawls that all center around the open yard dominating the center of the map, and I don't actually have that much to say about it (by my standards). Apart from the intermittent hordes that claw their way into our reality from the rune-gate on the west side, most of the monsters issue from various spawn points on the periphery. Usually the pressure will only actually be coming from two directions (sometimes only one, even) at once, but the rub here is the sheer amount of monsters that are involved in some of these waves--the small army that initially populates the place is just the tip of the iceberg. So insistent is the tide of necrotically animated flesh barreling in your direction that each battle will almost inevitably spill out into the central yard long before its conclusion, at which point your primary concerns will be to move around quickly and efficiently enough to stay stocked up, and to avoid allowing the ratio of animate:slain monstrosities to grow too high (e.g. to the point where you start getting pushed back out of the central space into another one of the side areas, in which case the situation can get very bad very fast, especially if monsters aren't done beaming in yet).

I feel that the most demanding point in the action comes squarely in the middle of the proceedings, that being the gigantic fucking skeletal TSUNAMI (with a few goatlegged surfers hanging four on the dusty wave) that erupts from the aether when Doomguy approaches the blue skull--there are just SO MANY revenants that it's not really possible to finish blunting the wave before the army of arachnatrons trickling in from back by the elevator starts to become a problem, representing the most effective bit of two-front warfare the map offers--even the late-to-the-party cybersquads, the periodic arch-vile incursions from the rune-gate, and the huge cacoswarm pale in comparison. My approach to this has generally been to stand face-to-face with the bony legions and hold the breach (read: keep them from getting off of the stairway) for as long as possible, e.g. until expending 100 rockets and 600 cells, at which point I dash for more cells and then launch an all-out blitzkrieg on the Wigglebots (<--you'll see. ;) ). Seems to work pretty well, but there are probably a lot of other ways you could do it--there are two V-spheres in the yard and a third one hidden, some side 'bunker' areas with a bunch of ammo where you could possibly hole up and weather the worst of the storm, etc. Again, despite the incredible bodycount, it's evident that mouldy didn't want this to be too demanding, evidenced again by his supply concessions, giving you more than you really need to make it out alive. In the successful attempt from my FDA, I ended up using the two main V-spheres mostly as a crutch to get me through the later stages (on this playthrough I used only one, having triggered the last couple of waves more or less simultaneously)--could've definitely managed without if I'd kept my nerve, I reckon. More tellingly, I recently saw John Suitepee claw his way through this map without using a V-sphere (although I reckon that was initially more a product of his not realizing they were there than of strategy or bravado ;) ), so it's definitely a workable proposition if you've got the right strategy or simply enough persistence.

I think I said earlier that I felt map 26 was really about the spectacle foremost, and in a sense I think that's true here as well--the fights are more large and intense than they are actually complex or strategically diabolical, and as has been the case with so much of Going Down, mouldy has supplied a highly navigable layout and more than enough tools for the player to get the job done, so long as s/he has the gumption to keep moving, fighting, and killing until all's silent. As it was in the beginning, so it is in the end.

[The_MártonJános]

MAP30: Game Over
Indeed it is, but not the ordeals... yet.

It was a great experience, and is till nowadays to see a full-furnitured house interior, with anything and everything included be made up by stock textures. The last time I saw something like... no, I've never seen anything which is even comparable with this represented here. And the sereneness along with it goes even further. Monstercount is 0, so what could go wrong.

I decided to get dressed for the conference being held today. Hope that new construction in the neighborhood won't hold up circulation that much. Oh, that unused blue suit hanging over there should definitely do it, thought I, just before I ended up in the toilet somehow. Seems like my own butthole does suffer of some MAP22-ish situation here. Now, upon completing my shitty task, all that remains is now to turn off the lights in my living room, and... oh geez, I don't remember those pictures to be a pair of squinty demon eyes, does it mean?...

*oremoR nhoJ em llik tsum uoy emag eht niw oT*

Rruuuuunnn! My own house gone mad and turned against me myself. Suddenly, alcoves I never knew of, filled with pink flesh open up, releasing numerous and numerous kinds of hellspawn, who then start to invade and forage my own sweet home. Fuck! My front door ain't open and I can't find my keys, that red skull doesn't fit either that I've just found beneath my PlayStation's screen. Oh, thank you for helping me out from the outside, Mr. Baron of Hell, I'm here no more. Before that pinkish purple bastard could do a single hand movement to slap me for being not so polite almost knocking him over, I was already on the other side of the elevator door, the shaft turned dark once again and I started my never ending journey down once more...

..., whilst I'm eagerly hoping Going Downer will be released someday. :D

[tourniquet]

30: "Game over"

...too bad, i would gladly play another 32 of those but well all good things have to end somwhen.
Very innovative way to conclude this journey and i'm not sure if i've ever seen such well created furniture in a doom wad, probably not.

Well what else can i say that has not been said before, bloody excellent job mouldy.
I hope we will see a sequel somewhen, sooner or later.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/3su6p9d2ddlwk0m/gd30_TNq.lmp

[Gez]

Cell said:

It was a great experience, and is till nowadays to see a full-furnitured house interior, with anything and everything included be made up by stock textures.

Nearly everything. The TV screen uses custom textures. (Also the billboard outside but it's not part of the house's furniture.)