The DWmegawad Club plays: Going Down

[The_MártonJános]

MAP08: Hide and Seek
As many of the former reviewers pointed out, this map for Going Down is the same as Hunted for Plutonia. With the very exception that it doesn't exclusively hold Archviles for a lesser of threat.

Still, about two thirds of the monsters consist of them. Which can cause harder-easier difficulties for certain occasions - mind the double encounter in the very first place. As soon as you raise them stairs for the metal pedestal and go upwards, one does appear at the other end of the upper area, and - Surprise m********er! - one gets your back as well. Since not only this ambush caught my ass but also a massive lag occurred to my computer - I should never ever consider recording demos -, I soon found myself lying dead in the cellar storage.

Knowing this better next time, I succeeded to overpass the ambush in one piece, and had no mentionable difficulties for the other, since cover was willing to help me and ammo also didn't leave me burn alone. Still, some appearing flamebusters kept me on my toes, mainly since you don't know whether to expect another one in the middle of a fight with your current either-victim-or-killer or not.

Luckily, none of them became my killer after that ominous two-and-a-lag death, even though the Pinkydemon showdown resulted in about ten revives, which means about two per Pinkydemon if my calculations ain't wrong. With all this, I managed to blast the last Archie's skinny ass off and then went wandering all around the fucking warehouse to find a method getting back to the lift in front of which some evil carriage workers put a couple of 32x32 boxes. Help me, I'm too weak to knock 'em off myself! - would have shouted the marine(!!) if I could put some words into his mouth. A yellow line appearing on the automap eventually helped me find the right way.

Decent stuff to look at, it really reflects how a small warehouse just under the soil should look like. The thing I'm also fond of is that not only UAC crates populate the area (though they still overdominate the scene a bit, might let that wooden stuff be there a little more if were mouldy). This map is already the point where the author-designer eventially diverged from the kind of overdetail which mostly beginner mappers do to make their level look better and more beautiful, while small areas still remain somehow unbarren (mostly MAP01-MAP04 if you look at them), and this is a good turn.

Gameplay style is almost the same of most "Hunted" maps. You somehow awaken a couple of Archies who then will appear from various directions and places. Tight to execute, but not very difficult, and is more manageable than the aforementioned Plutonia level. Supply is satisfactory, and is, I suppose, still a bit too generous sometimes.

My underground adventures just begin there. Must proceed deeper.

[Tarnsman]

mouldy said:

Someone in suitepee's twitch stream asked why I didn't have half the maps above ground and half below.

Honestly going under ground as fast as possible is a good idea. I kind of which the E3 themes got brought up in E2 a little fast since the E2 to E3 underground stretch kind of drags allowing for E3 to play more with alternative themes like that Zimmer level.

[mouldy]

esselfortium said:

there would surely be an audience for a sequel episode featuring the magic elevator from Willy Wonka.

heh, i'm sure it wont be long before I forget the trauma of making a full megawad and start a new project.

[cannonball]

MAP08 - "Hide and Seek"
3 deaths, one of which was rocketing myself against a wall. Standard.
Cute map with some neat effects thrown in. The gameplay is pretty mundane but challenging enough. Certainly an enjoyable map though I must add.

[Pure Hellspawn]

Map 8 Reeeeeview

Hide And Seek

Spoiler

100% kills - gah i don't keep track of time - HMP

This map consists of a few small rooms with a lot of hiding spaces. There are only 15 monsters. Of these, 11 are arch-viles and the rest demons as fodder.

This map lives up to it's name. You will have to hide as you'll be up against groups of arch-viles with just an SSG at the same time (there's a rocket launcher if you get it). At the end, it's 2(possibly 3 depending on what you do) arch-viles plus 4 demons.

Advice for this map is learn your hiding spots and kill arch-viles as you see them (unless aiming for a record time). AMMO IS LIMITED and so each shot counts.

P.S: I'm hoping to see the apartments soon, mouldy.

[tourniquet]

9: "Broken Records"

Really diggin the visuals of the map, a mix of wood/bookshelfes and masonry with some decent lighting, simple but beautiful.
Surprisingly easy start with only a few imps wandering around but as soon as you step on the 2 switches the whole place gets crowded within seconds.
Difficutly wise still quite gentle as long as you're not too unlucky with the viles.

Max

[The_MártonJános]

MAP09: Broken Records
Ahw, what a sweet map it is to admire both sight- and experience-wise.

Starts with a semi-intense Imp encounter. You can bypass all of these fuckers if you remain quiet and choose to stock up for the meatier fights. That is adviced for pistol starters, who aren't keen on sharp challenges or simply don't like pistoling and then fisting a tad of Hellspawn. For me playing continous, it was an easy choice to just awaken all the douche and ritually finish them off within a few shots of it SSG *kisses the coolening barrels*.

Somehow I'm getting to feel that since MAP04, the mapset gets oriented mostly in rocket fights, providing enormous supply for the cannon. This case, the munition gets like "halfened" between the SG and the RL, but still, rocketing with a good sense of timing and spacing here comes as a vicious killer. There's plenty of cover you find between the shelves, if the area doesn't get floodened with the inwarping monsters all over, you got a winner's position. Also never mind a closer encounter firing from atop the shelves, sometimes it's the only way to get rid of 'em hellspawn down there.

General upturn in viciosity is experienced once you activate both buttons. I forget to mention they look superbly well-implemented, despite the contrast between anciency and modern technique, somehow I couldn't really care about "dissonancy", because it was executed so well that there isn't any. As much for the backdoor area, to which leads two curved stairways and a door which rather reminds me of a trek within a base... and I simply don't care whether it should fit or not, because in mouldy's execution, it simply fits, no contradictions, no excuses, no complaints. It. Looks. Right.

The rest of the visuals don't let me down either. I particularly like the library look and the emulation with grey flats showing sheets of paper spread onto the floor all over in the backdoor key room. I also quite dug the idea of the key pedestal's second highest sidewall with a shootable switch that lowered stuff and so. Implementation is impeccable as usual, and soon we progress to perfection.

Also my gameplay could improve within strafing - the only general health loss was due to a lag which deactivated Alt within a strafe'n'shoot maneuver, which resulted in me turning against a shelf and blowing myself right in the fucking face. Dear God I had near 200/200 at the meantime, which only resulted in decreasing my life around 130, and I still had potential to go on without dying. That's an improvement by all means. Or just the map was so generous in space, ammo and health that I could execute my way through relatively easily and harmlessly. Never mind.

There comes about getting one third done!

[durian]

And yet further behind - should try to catch up at the weekend.

Map 06: Painframe

After a quick exploratory sortie, I elected to switch back to keyboard for this one - don't know why, just felt like keyboard map :) It took a few failed attempts to get my bearings, but once I got a handle on the triggers my strategy was to trigger as much as possible within the first few seconds - so take each elevator, grab the SG then RL - and then use the ensuing chaos defensively; similarly for the two switch traps - the troopers and the pinkies more or less cancelled each other out. The pre-RK interlude was very pretty, but a little inconsequential, since it's doddle to just keep moving around the perimeter while the incoming hordes eat each other. The return ambush had more teeth, and I died a few times on this. Good fun!

[tourniquet]

10: "Trip Switch"

Oh hell what a trip!
First of all killer soundtrack, this song is my absolute favorite of all the genius tracks mouldy created, the song completely amplifies all the tension and the chaos you'll encounter in the map.
Absolutely beautiful mixture of the regular metal texture and the fawn spacewall texture.
The difficulty curve raises probably around 50% in here the start is still pretty ok but as soon as the trench starts getting filled with all kinds of hellspawn and super nasty viles the whole place turns into a madhouse.
Ah i love and hate this map at the same time.
I didn't count but it took more then ten tries to finally get a super sucky max for this.

ugh!

[mouldy]

Map09 - library chaos

http://www.mediafire.com/download/mcunfnwvcaov3a8/gd-mouldy-09.lmp
In my ongoing efforts to keep the player on their toes I decided to have the monster attack waves activate automatically on a timer, once you set the ball rolling by hitting the switches. Also monsters will randomly teleport in throughout on a drip feed, just in case you get lonely. The map itself is designed to be player friendly, with plenty of cover and avenues for escape, and a simple symmetrical layout that is fast to remember and easy to navigate. Then just add monsters.

The biggest secret on this map is that the book shelves in the east and west wings are also lifts. Not sure how much that helps with the gameplay, but its good for grabbing those stimpacks in a hurry.

[durian]

Quick thing to note re. MAP07 - the steps the megasphere don't raise properly under ZDoom's 'DOOM strict' compatibility settings. Not sure which compat flag is causing the trouble though.

[mouldy]

durian said:

Quick thing to note re. MAP07 - the steps the megasphere don't raise properly under ZDoom's 'DOOM strict' compatibility settings. Not sure which compat flag is causing the trouble though.

If "Find shortest textures like doom" is set to 'yes' (as it is in 'doom strict') then those steps won't raise properly. So either change that setting or if you want to be sneaky you can press that switch from the ground (but no lovely megasphere for you).

[Inkie]

MAP08: Hide and Seek

Hunted and E2M2 had a baby!

Seemed like a bit of an easy level, as there was plenty of cover around as well as the supershotty to deal with the Bad Dudes. It gave me an invuln sphere to deal with the final battle which was a bit too much.

MAP09: Broken Records

A good sized library map. There are two Big Red Shiny Floor Buttons to press, and doing so alerts the hoard. Bad Dudes slowly pour into the library floor in waves, and you can be overwhelmed it you don't deal with them as they come.

I do like how the layout is designed so that the enemies are able to follow you anywhere in the level.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 09 -- Broken Records - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
Going Down starts to get really good with this map, kicking off a long string of really entertaining maps that doesn't so much as sputter until map 19 (and no doubt lots of folks will get a kick out of that one, too). In layout terms, this is another one of Going Down's several more or less symmetrical arena setups, but in play terms it's very much its own thing, as we shall see moving forward. The term 'arena' really probably isn't the most appropriate one to use here, since the stacks and twists and other environmental complexities in combination with the still generally small overall scale make for a combat space with more layers and nuances than the typical open-field brawl scenario. The slightly undersized central chamber can serve as the traditional arena yard/bloodspilling focal point if you play things that way, but on a freeform playthrough the action is just as likely to center on one or more of the more architecturally complex side areas, which combine a lot of blind angles with a high number of traversal options (for both Doomguy and the monsters) to create a play space where constant, fluid motion is the order of the day, even with hellspawn inevitably breathing right down your neck once things start getting hot.

And indeed, the pace really does pick up here, compliments of the long series of timed monster warp-ins that introduces the plurality of the map's opposition. It's easy to be caught off-guard by just how busy the map ends up getting--it really doesn't look like it's designed to be stuffed full of hellspawn (not that this ever stops mouldy, as we'll see), and more to the point, you actually set off the trigger that allows the warp-ins long before they actually happen, which makes them even harder to predict, especially if you happen to set off some of the more immediate/direct ambushes around the red key at an inopportune time. On top of all that, there's the way throughways in the map either open up or come into direct play as the action unfolds (e.g. the doorways that lead up to the ledges with the red pressure-switches, the led-crossing teleporters that monsters start using more and more as things get more crowded, etc.), making for a chaotic engagement that's a little different each time you play it. Incidentally, I believe this was the first map where I was killed during my initial foray into Going Down, back when E1 first debuted, and it was here that I first started to really get onboard with the mapset. It all just comes together really well here, proof that a high degree of symmetry can be made to work very well if the action is lively/unpredictable enough.

Oh, and did I mention it's a library (well, technically it's an accounts/records archive, but same diff)? One of my favorite stock-texture themes, and always feels like a treat because it's still relatively rare (although it does seem to be catching on somewhat more of late, much to my delight). This is a lovely take on it, too--the symmetry serves the theme well, the brown/catacombs masonry adds material depth to the scene (one of main pitfalls of the library theme is the temptation for everything in sight to be made of wood), and the moody lighting is superb. I'm not so sure about the midtex-based electric chandeliers, but other than that, it's a very neat package. I even kinda like the music in this one, strangely enough.

Brilliant! In fact, I enjoy this map so much that on a whim I decided to join mouldy, tourniquet, and Veinen and record my own little casual UV-max for it. I had a concrete plan I was following in this demo, but the way this map works means that you inevitably end up having to improvise at some point. This was the better of two loose attempts, with the other one being around 30 seconds longer--the way the monsters can teleport around on the upper level makes some of them really hard to keep track of, which can potentially add a ton of runtime.

[Katamori]

MAP09 & MAP10.

[mouldy]

Demon of the Well said:

I decided to join mouldy, tourniquet, and Veinen and record my own little casual UV-max for it.

Thats an interesting tactic of letting the final archviles loose early, gives them less corpses to resurrect. I never think of doing that, but the fact that the pinkie swarm spawns later must mean I considered it while making the map, so you don't flood the place with pinkies if you grab the key early.

[The_MártonJános]

MAP10: Trip Switch
Viciosity gets a sharp upturn again.

The map title says it all. You don't watch your step for a split second and a rapid ambush gets revealed somewhere near you. From the very beginning it's a common feature throughout until there's no space this map can extend to.

The intense music foreshadows the similar style of gameplay, which provides merciless punishment for each and every single mistake you make. You trip a switch, you fucking do your job then or it will grow upon and finish you instead. Lots of tripping, tricking and dodging needs to be done within seconds, given the semi-tight places and the relatively tough enemies given.

As you proceed forward, you get to encounter a gathering of Barons on gate-pattern pedestals. DO NOT waste a single pellet on any of them (but if so, you could eliminate at most two of them to make your work a bit faster and less dangerous - as you feel it). Instead, bear them until you get to the mechanical corridor, get rid of some inwarping Imps and telefrag them one by one.

The hardest part is still yet to come - the entire sewer gets flooded once again. And your choice is yet again rocketing. Which is effective until some douches don't teleport right into your face, or side-entering Cacodemons don't interrupt your fucking maneuver. My favourite feature is still Autoaim - I just love to get my rocket aimed at the Revenant mob on the other side of the tunnel detracted by some Specter in the sewage, seen about the top 10 pixels, thus blowing my head off. Yay!...

Other than that, we get some guests in our cabin once again. A couple of Cacodemons wish their corpses to be dragged along as we proceed further into the core. They'll sure make some good fellow passengers as they get rotten and disembolished, cause stink and plague flies to come onto them.

Nice-looking level, though for a certain time I couldn't make head or tail of what it represents. Judged from seeing some fiery tunnels, this could be a metal furnace of some kind, although the former workers of this factory could have a bad time trip-switching doors to pass over areas. I quite like the execution in usage of the STEP1/2 flat(s), not only they're not used for elevator or stair texturing, but also they look superbly cool in their places, especially when some silver-cornered SKINSYMB gets paired to 'em. No complaint should ever hit anything on the aesthetical side, though.

The general roughness in gameplay is still just foreshadowing as I suppose to get downer. This time, I could make real good use of the Megasphere given. Even with this, I died about thrice and the fourth time I still barely survived.

I'm currently waiting for the next entrance while taking seat on a fleshy, comfy Cacodemon corpse...

[cannonball]

MAP09 - "Broken Records
The red key trap caught me out a couple of times due to the random nature of the teleporting monsters. Fun enough map again with good visuals.
MAP10 - "Trip Switch"
Tough old map, but just about fair, some of the encounters really get quite hairy in places, especially when the key is released and the place floods with monsters. Good stuff again.

[Veinen]

Speeding ahead here a bit, please forgive me.

Maxes for 10 & 11: https://www.mediafire.com/?ra52jkh1jc0hw54

Map10: Trip Switch

Indeed the difficulty seems to be on the rise as this was all of a sudden a little tricky. Thankfully my favorite "clear a corner to hide in and blast away" -tactic works here just as well as it has worked in the previous maps. About half of the Megaspheres health and armor gains were sacrificed in the process but it's not a big deal. Plenty of low health moments before that so the demo should be somewhat entertaining at least. Highlights include a classic fucking gotta catch em all -moment when I picked up the RL and absorbed ALL of the Rev rockets like a magnet, and a little later miraculously evading the Baron horde with 7% health en route to the Megasphere. The map functioned a little different on the default complevel on my practice playthrough (the door I repeadetly try to enter with no success was open, the ledge sure didn't lower like that) than with -cl9, which caused some confusion in the demo. Good visuals, nice midi. What's not to like?

Map11: Vivisection

Oh my, what is this now. The darkest secrets of this UAC office building are being unraveled as this floor is filled with some mystic torture devices and evidence of all kinds of gruesome pasttimes. The environment is rather claustrophobic and things can get a little hairy when the hordes start pouring in. Timing the Invuln right you can dispose of most of the ground level foes but that's obviously not the only solution. And I hope you enjoy dueling with a Cyber in a tight space since that's what you're going to be doing here. I liked the fight; the area is just big enough for me to be comfortable yet it's not too easy either. Good stuff.

[durian]

Map 07 - Bad Reception

Another simple but well realised layout, with a lot of monsters to shoot in it. The ambushes were a little less exciting than those in the previous map, I think more because the layout did not encourage such a dynamic style of play (at least in my case) rather than because of the monsters used (though perhaps these could have been more varied - some flying monsters might spice the final battle up a little). I found the opener more fun than the subsequent fights, as it forced me to keep on my toes. In the end, I elected to take out arachnos first, then all but one manc, hit the switch to teleport in the Mastermind, then kill the manc, just so the Mastermind was more or less perfectly blocking the stairs on the release of the revs and hellknights, for maximum infighting potential.

[mouldy]

Veinen said:

Map10: Trip Switch
The map functioned a little different on the default complevel on my practice playthrough (the door I repeadetly try to enter with no success was open, the ledge sure didn't lower like that) than with -cl9, which caused some confusion in the demo.

Interesting - that door is meant to open via a W1 line before the teleport chain, I don't know why it didn't work for you that time, its just an ordinary doom action. It worked when you crossed it a second time, so I guess you skipped over it somehow (never seen that happen before). The lowering ledge is just the map's way of giving you a few more monsters to play with if you run away from the final battle, that should also be fairly reliable, but its triggered by an imp outside the map so that might add a touch of unpredictability.

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP08: This AV centric map is perhaps my favorite from E1 because it's so dastardly. It has a great intro, cool reveal and slow burn until you really start dancing with the yellow devils. Plus it's pretty action packed for just how small/short it is.

MAP09: Nothing quite as homely as books and blood in the basement. UAC's stoney archive is another frantic monster party like MAP06, assaulting the player as soon as one of the switches gets depressed. On maps like these I'm both curious as to the inner workings and happy with my ignorance, as it makes the area feel more enigmatic. Fun stuff.

MAP10: I'm still not entirely sure how I feel with this one—I like the brutal nature of it but I still grumble when it comes down to the final assault, as the L-shaped area you're prone to fight in isn't really thrilling or accommodating (especially with the obnoxious 1 way teles against the wall). The rest of the map is well done though and thankfully this is the last time we're reduced to an uncomfortable space for the big monster warp in.

[durian]

Map 08 - Hide and Seek

As crate mazes go, this is a nice one - lots of little details in the arrangements make it one of the more realistic (in the DOOM sense) crate mazes I've seen. I really liked the way the AV box is blown open! Great touch. Combat wise, this map had its way with me until I'd placed almost all of the AVs, so it took a few goes. It's the first time playing this set that I've lamented not playing continuous, as the stocks are pretty low, and it would have been nice to have had the chaingun. I noticed the switch on the left hand side of the elevator on my first attempt, and went straight there the first time I emerged with the YK - figuring it might open a secret with some much needed health/ammo - and so accidentally bypassed the final group of AVs and the demons. I felt a bit like I'd cheated though, so replayed and did it properly.

[mouldy]

Map10 - the unfolding trap-a-thon

http://www.mediafire.com/download/k6b3q73y556yhm8/gd-mouldy-10.lmp
This is one map that I can't play at all recklessly, though it still forces a bit of improvisation now and then. I find the best tactic for the finale is to camp in the SSG corridor till stuff thins out a bit and then hide in the key room. This floor is the power plant that powers all the experiments upstairs, perhaps those barons are some kind of living batteries? Who knows..

[Magnusblitz]

MAP08: Hide and Seek
100% kills, 1/1 secret

A nice little crate maze full of Arch-Viles (and a few demons, which I think are actually a really good monster to always throw in with Arch-Viles). Despite the title, I actually didn't do that much hide and seeking, because navigating the crate maze in a combat situation usually ended up with me getting caught on a corner or such, so I tried to stick with just popping out of a corner or abusing an edge. The yellow key battle is probably the roughest, based on the placement of the AVs. Are the loud 'thunks' at the beginning just due to linedef activations, or are they intended to be a sort of 'player stepped on a squeaky floorboard' deal?

MAP09: Broken Records
100% kills, 0/1 secret

Ah, the stacks. Apparently even in a future far enough away to have teleporter technology, still have plenty of papers and books. Looks really nice (library theme always works) and shows what a good layout can do, even with a small area - there's plenty of room to manuever around the staircases and across the upper halls, I only got cornered once. I admit I wasn't really quite sure what caused certain things to open or teleport in - obviously the two switches open the door, but I'm not sure what triggered the central area with the manc, and the monsters teleporting in seemed somewhat random (on first playthrough, the AV teleported on top of the SSG when I first went to pick it up, on the second, it didn't teleport in until almost everything else was dead).

[The_MártonJános]

MAP11: Vivisection
I admit I cheated here a little bit: when I escaped from MAP10, I found the Revenant circling in the Armor cage too annoying, so I chainguned it to its miserable death. How painful: an outsider has the opportunity to crush and squeeze you, yet he chooses to blow a hole in your ribby chest.

This map is where extreme detail gets to an even higher extent than before. Particularly, I best love to look at this map from the entire second chapter, which is good because it means a worthful ending to it. The implementation of these blood buckets or howshallI, the torture chambers, the process... I have the feeling this might be either an underground slaughterhouse - which, to be honest, is kinda unhealthy, but we're speaking about Demonsville, to which nothing is sacred -, or a late outpost of Procrustes with well-equipped experiment labors.

Fear nothing, but rapid and cruel encounters all over the place. Let that Invinciblity sphere be in for your worst confrontations against the swarm, otherwise, your major crutch against it Cyberdemon. Oh well, I spoiled it already: a well-designed Cybie fight takes place right here. You might find the space ridiculously tight for this beast to even fit between the walls - no difficulties, though. Take advantage of the distances several doorways between rooms provide. Of course, he can proceed towards you as well, but there are plenty of roundabouts and panic escapes to choose from - basically you can lead the horrendous enemy throughout almost the entire map in circles, while rocketing/celling it rapid. Oh, my bad. I spoke too soon again.

The one and only secret - which has also a beautiful mechanism to look at, just experience it you yourself - holds the first Plasma Rifle in the entire mapset, but also gives you an Archie to balance the gratis. No sweat. You're experienced players by now, you know how to knock out a fucker of this kind. You're more in for the Cybie fight which takes too long already and consumes too much rockets, with your freshly gained Plasmarifle already empty. Impatient, I switched for the Super Shotgun, blew the giant right in his goat face, and suddenly, it evaporated. Naively I activated that switch in that blood cornertub the monster escaped from, and...

NO. NOT FUCKING REVENANTS. AGAIN.

Whilst taking revenge for their ruthlessly killed fellow comrade in the cage, these douches get halfened as soon as they escape the sludge corner they're locked in. Half of them continues their ridiculous dance-y move on the perimeter of the room, whilst others warp onto different sections of the map. Best if one of them can be seen in the semi-distance, you fire your rocket and suddenly green flash, red screen, knocked back rapidly - that hideous skull face just laughs directly into your severed head's angry expression before punches you mercy-killing in the process. After a certain period, I took all ten to a state they originally belong to, including the two one patroling in the lift. Hooray! Now I'm shipping with four corpses further.

Good map, gets the feeling of being tight, but actually advantage just provides itself being taken. Particular concern on the Cybie fight: just imagine some other mappers doing the cliché that it actually takes place in a temple or throne hall of some kind, all of which have numerous well-designed marble columns to take cover. Here you can implement your knowledge and techniques, matching all the doorframes and other kinds of "sector isles" for the columns. They're differently shaped, are of different size and general function, but if you think into just a little deeper, this just works the exact fucking same way.

Again to mention, probably one of the best-designed maps, if not so, at least in the base/vicious type of exterior aesthetic. I'm still quite fond of CEMENT maps. Supply didn't cause me sore headaches, though I ran low on rockets at the end of the Cyb, but then I realised I forgot to take a roundabout which holds plenty of rocket boxes around the METAL2 blood sink.

I guess it's my last time travel with the original lift in its current unharmed state. I'm now having some squeezed bloodpools around me. Are you fucking kidding me? I cannot get seated in these and my legs hurt! I'm beginning to have too much expectations for this goddamn shaft.

[mouldy]

Magnusblitz said:

MAP08: Hide and Seek
Are the loud 'thunks' at the beginning just due to linedef activations, or are they intended to be a sort of 'player stepped on a squeaky floorboard' deal?

Thats a linedef action that is meant to be silent. If anyone is using zdoom, there's a compatibility option: "Sector sounds use center as source", set that to Yes. Meanwhile I'm going to make a MAPINFO which will hopefully fix that, along with the rising steps on map07.

Good job people are finding this stuff, I'd have never known about that otherwise.

[durian]

Map 09 - Broken Records

From the name, I was hoping to see lots of old LPs in this one, and maybe a nice mouldy-esque turntable, but oh well.
Hmmm... Not really my cup of tea this one - reasonably straight-forward invasion. Infinitely tall actors messed up my initial attempts to skit over the bookshelves. When I realised the depressed switches opened the door to RK, I replayed, progressing to the key as quickly as possible, stopping only to rocket the majority of the cacos before they could make it out, and then on to the exit - this is definitely a case in which I'm happy to leave the monsters to it.

[scifista42]

MAP09 - "Broken Records". Good visuals and theme, elegant layout and simple (yet threatening) challenge. I used to hate this map because I didn't know WHERE the monsters came from and HOW to trigger them, and they always overwhelmed me completely. Now I've tried a couple times and got familiar with the map's mechanics. After some failed attempts, I figured a strategy to play it safe. First I grabbed all the ammo I could, and SSG'd out the imps. Then grabbed powerups, rocketed the archvile and consequently revenants. Went downstairs in the northern library and fired all my rockets into cacodemons. Then went upstairs in one of the side libraries and fired all my shells into the incoming monsters. Eventually a side path (with zombies) opened to me. I took it to grab the key, and then rushed to the exit ASAP, leaving monsters behind me.

I eventually liked the map. While relatively simple, it has a good replay value, at least for a non-expert player like me.

[tourniquet]

11: "Vivisection"

Glorious , I like Cement, though it seems to be a rather unpopular texture for the majority.
So props to mouldy for creating such a awesome and super gory map with this texture.
The cybie provides a good portion of chaos.
The difficulty felt in comparison to the previous map maybe a bit more gentle.

Max