The DWmegawad Club plays: Valiant

[dobu gabu maru]

What is the DWmegawad Club?
This is a place where we settle down, have a cup of tea (or drink of your choice) and take a month to play through a megawad on our own, together! Any keen observations, criticisms, or frustrated ranting about it goes here in the discussion. As long as you want to say something about what you've played, feel free to speak your mind.

Can I join?
Sure. The only rule is that you have to play at least some of the levels in our monthly megawad to contribute, but you're generally encouraged to finish the whole thing, even if you've played it before.

What levels am I allowed to post about?
Whatever day of the month it is, is the upper limit for the map you can post on. So if it's the 6th, you may discuss up to MAP06.

Do I have to post an entry every day?
Nope, not at all. This is only for our more enthusiastic members. As long as you play through it with us you’re part of the club.

When do we vote on the next month’s megawad?
Voting begins on the 25th of the current month.

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>>>DOWNLOAD VALIANT<<<

Valiant is an MBF megawad designed by skillsaw, started in 2012 and released this year. Due to the extensive DeHackEd work gameplay mods will not work as intended, and if you are playing in PrBoom-plus, you need to update to the current 2.5.1.4 build—ZDoom, GZDoom, and Eternity should work fine (as well as Zandronum through DECORATE). Now stop reading and start playing!

Maplist for Valiant:

Quote

A DIFFERENT BREED
Map01 - “Bad Reception”
Map02 - “No Rush”
Map03 - “Tiers of Pain”
Map04 - “Moonlit Stroll”
Map05 - “Aggrovator”
Map06 - “Engineering Disaster”
Map07 - “The Mancubian Candidate”

ABATTOIR OF THY MADNESS
Map08 - “Bushwacked”
Map09 - “14 Angrier Archviles”
Map10 - “Candlecove”
Map11 - “Yesterday’s Insanity”
Map12 - “Bane Capitol”
Map13 - “The Netweaver”

MEET THE NEW CORRUPTION
Map14 - “Implosion”
Map15 - “Screams Aren’t a Crime… Yet”
Map31 - “Cyberwar 7734”
Map32 - “The Ghosts of the Old Kingdom”
Map16 - “Toxic Traverse”
Map17 - “Precipice”
Map18 - “Crush Depth”

THOU ART ANNIHILATION
Map19 - “The Popes of Roam”
Map20 - “Swept into Immolation”
Map21 - “Skindustrial Zone”
Map22 - “Spiraling into Nether”
Map23 - “Genocide Motor”
Map24 - “None More Merciless”

NEW MOON, OLD GRUDGE
Map25 - “The Eagle Has Landed”
Map26 - “Blast Wave”
Map27 - “Rocket Zone II”
Map28 - “A Lightbridge Too Far”
Map29 - “Red Shift”
Map30 - “Electric Nightmare”

BONUS CONTENT
kmxexii’s review
Suitepee plays Valiant: 1 2 3 4a 4b
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OLD THREADS
BF_THUD!
Community Chest 4
Jenesis
MAYhem 2012
Memento Mori
Interception
2002: A Doom Odyssey
Hadephobia
Coffee Break & Fava Beans & Double Impact
HYMN
Stardate 20X6 & Monochrome Mapping Project
Realm of Chaos
Back to Saturn X E1 & Favillesco E1
Kama Sutra
Unholy Realms & Zone 300
Vile Flesh
Ultimate Doom
Whitemare & Sacrament
Scythe
Epic 2
Whitemare 2
Sunder & Countdown to Extinction
Doom 2 the Way id Did
MAYhem2048
Stomper
Back to Saturn X E2
Going Down
Rylayeh & Crimson Canyon & Azagthoth
Serenity & Eternity & Infinity
Resurgence
Requiem
ConC.E.R.N.ed & Draft Excluder
Doom 2 Reloaded

Edited May 9, 2023 by dobu gabu maru

[Tristan]

I'm definitely going to try and do this one.
Mainly so me and Nevan can argue about it's difficulty on IRC :V

EDIT: That being said, May/June are very busy months for me. I'll try to keep up if possible.

[Devalaous]

Thats a cool looking title thing. Might have to give this a try on a new computer.

[AD_79]

Aww yiss!

Suitepee's gonna love this one, heh.

[NuMetalManiak]

maybe I'll come back to this where I stopped last time around MAP23. yse I still have the ITYTD save and this WAD is really tough for me on that difficulty. all I can say is good luck to those dawgs who come to MAP31.

[Havoc Crow]

Finally, something with epic map names.
I doubt I'll participate this month though.

[Breezeep]

Ayy.

I'm definitely gonna play an episode or two of this!

[SyntherAugustus]

Ha! Knew it.

Anyway, I recommend using the Stomper Guns wad for this since they match the gun replacements better (They come from that pack, anyway).

[scifista42]

Zandronum 2.0, UV, continuous play.

Map01 - “Bad Reception”

Fancy opener, well demonstrating skillsaw's skill and quality of this megawad overall. Looks impressive, feels fresh, contains a lot of variation while staying stylistically consistent, and has balanced gameplay with several high-tier foes already thrown to the mix. Fun secrets, simply yet efficiently hidden.

I like the new imps and demons. On the other hand, I don't like the pistol on the whole. Sure, the sprite itself looks great and the speed improvement comes in handy, but the oddly uncentered gunsight + inaccuracy when repeated firing (while the barrel obstructs a sensitive part of my view) + weak sound, all of these traits make me feel that the gun is unsatisfying to use. I've made fast Doom pistol with 100% accurate aim using vanilla DEHACKED, and I like this weapon much more.

The non-secret soulsphere trap drained more health from me that it gave me, because I've stayed at place. If I had moved to a safer place, I would lose much less health. This kind of design encourages movement, and skillsaw knows it and deliberately makes such design. I like it a lot, and I know that I'm going to enjoy Valiant for this fresh dynamism, combined with great visuals and polished balance of the maps.

[Suitepee]

AD_79 said:

Aww yiss!

Suitepee's gonna love this one, heh.

I need to finish off last month's DWMegawad Club first! I just hope Valiant won't cause me to lose my sanity like Resurgence did.....

[AD_79]

Well, I don't think it'll be Resurgence levels of frustration :P

So I'm actually gonna try and finish a megawad club for once. I'll post my thoughts on MAP01 later today.

[SyntherAugustus]

Suitepee said:

I need to finish off last month's DWMegawad Club first! I just hope Valiant won't cause me to lose my sanity like Resurgence did.....

The only time Valiant gets a bit tedious/slaughtery is MAP31. Most of the time it's nice clean fun. Sometimes difficult though.

The main thing I liked about Valiant were the new monsters, especially the Pyroknight or w/e it was called. The arachnorbs might be a problem for some.

[dobu gabu maru]

I must say, I'm stoked to play Valiant. A secret shame of mine is that I've never played Vanguard—I'm more or less saving it for a rainy Doom day—but I greatly enjoyed Lunatic and respect skillsaw's designs as a mapper. His maps are the perfect combination of elegance and fun, and having a megawad of his works on my harddrive gets me all giddy. Anyway, standard playthrough from me: UV, pistol start, keyboard, saves aplenty.

MAP01: Decent start here—love the opening vista. I really like the change made to the imp, as it makes them a higher priority target since you don't feel safe with them wandering about behind you. The pinky is more-or-less the same. It feels a teeny bit too trappy for a first map, constantly placing enemies behind you, but otherwise we're off to a good start!

[Tristan]

Played up to MAP07 before this, but I find Valiant pretty difficult, so not played beyond that.

Playing in ZDoom, HNTR, continuous

MAP01: Bad Reception
| Kills: 118/118 | Items: 85/89 | Secrets: 1/2 | Time: 04:59 | Deaths: 0 |

Valiant shows off some of its gameplay changes from the very start. The pistol is still that one weapon that you really don't want to use longer than you have to, despite its increased rate of fire. That being said, one of the first monsters is a sergeant, so fortunately, you can swap to the shotgun very early on.
The imps have been given a very nice re-skin, and the fast fireballs is a feature that really brings the imp up to match the skill of modern players. It's easy to underestimate their effectiveness with this change, but I personally haven't struggled to adjust to them. Demons also have a pretty cool re-skin.
Personally I don't find the first bit of the map that interesting, but from that outdoor crate area onwards it becomes a seriously good map. There's some excellently placed barrels, and very fun rocket launcher action before the last room.

Visually, the WAD is off to a great start, and from what I've played of Valiant, and what I've experienced of other skillsaw maps, I expect this to hold up throughout. Nice sky texture being used here, and those trees are always a nice fitting addition to Earth-based maps.

9/10

[Steve D]

Map01 – Bad Reception – Kills – 100, Items – 98, Secret – 100. End Health – 100, Armor 4. Death Count – Zero. Bullets – 300, Shells – 50, Rockets - 9

UV, pistol-starts, GZDoom, frequent saves, keyboard only. For as long as I can, anyway, but if it gets too rough I'll switch to continuous, and if that gets too rough, I'll drop to HMP or HNTR. BTW, I'm adding my end-ammo counts in case the mapset hasn't been officially released yet and is still in beta.

This is a great first map. Looks fab, tons of action. I adore the new pistol. It makes the otherwise incredibly annoying fact that Chaingunners don't surrender their weapon on death bearable. I love the trees, too, they look wonderful and really update the appearance of our beloved old engine. I also appreciate the extensive height variation with its many interesting overlooks, and also the structure and detailing outside the playing area, which gives this map a strong sense of place. Further adding to this sensation is the attractive building with twin radio antennas outside the playing area. Really classy.

Action is fast and somewhat furious from the first leap of faith. Nothing out of the ordinary, but it keeps you on your toes, and the powerful new pistol makes mowing down hitscanners a breeze. The yellow key fight ratchets the violence up a few notches, and be careful of shooting those barrels. Their placement is not as player-friendly as one would hope. ;) This battle is notable for the number of fast-Imps, basically equal to -fast in terms of their firing rate. These Imps really liven things up and it takes awhile to get used to them. I took a fair amount of hits from these guys, and of course the Sergeants and zombieboys. None of the bigger enemies laid a glove on me, from Revvie on up. And yes, this is a Map01 that tosses mid-tier monsters plus an Archie your way. This is really the way I like it, since, as I've stated before, I share Tarnsman's belief that there's no need for a PWAD to have any easy maps in it, including the first, just because it's “old custom” to do it that way. I'm perfectly happy with all-out war from beginning to end.

And that's what Valiant delivers. I'm making it sound like I breezed through, but I took a lot of damage and had some close calls. I was able to survive because, having played it before, I avoided blundering into some of the nastier traps and knew where to go to establish clear lanes for rocketing hordes of teleporting enemies. I was also able to manage the Soulspheres to my advantage and choose when to grab the Blursphere. As a result, I barely survived the final big fight. But survive I did, and had a blast doing it. All in all, a rousing start.

[Magnusblitz]

UV, pistol starts, constant saving, ZDoom/mouse.

MAP01: Bad Reception
100% kills, 2/2 secrets

Right away its clear that this is what a high-end megawad in 2015 looks like. Great color balance (the new textures here fit in well), a nice UT-style music track, and architecture that is still straightforward but avoids feeling boxy by using lots of curves and non-90 degree angles. The vine textures add a nice touch too.

First changes to the gameplay are pretty obvious too - imp fireballs move much quicker (and I think they fire quicker, too), the pistol fires faster (but still isn't that great). It'll definitely take me awhile to get used to the imp change. Chaingunners also drop clips instead of chainguns, which is probably for the best since it allows more flexibility with their usage.

The balance in this map is a little strange... the RL actually takes center stage here. The individual revenant and mancubuses seemed non-threatening enough, so I used my shotgun shells on them, leaving me with nothing but rockets for the last few fights (large groups of zombies/imps) which made it pretty easy going, despite the high number of enemies. 30 of the enemies are tied solely to an optional soulsphere that I missed until I got to the end teleport and realized I was still short.

A decent start, all-in-all. Visually it gives a good example of what to expect, and gameplay, while not tough, also throws enough at the player to not be the typical boring MAP01 either.

[NuclearPotato]

Another month, another shot at completing a megawad. At least college is ending soon, so I'll have plenty of free time to go around. Playing this in GZDoom, HNTR, continuous saves.

MAP01-Bad Reception

Really good starting map, with plenty of early challenges. Got a little cocky in the yellow key area, and nearly bit the dust to the imps, but I managed to rebound and complete the level without any deaths. Really like the enemy and weapon replacements here, but that pistol is butt ugly imo. Secrets were pretty easy to find on this map; they'll get harder, of course, but this is just the first map, everything ramps up after this. Letting the imps and pinkies in-fight in front of the fortress entrance was probably my favorite part of the map.

100% kills, 2/2 secrets

[mouldy]

Great megawad this, I've already played it but not from pistol starts. Much as I'd love to try recording demos there is no way I can play these maps without saving and dying a lot, so I won't embarrass myself.

Map01 - “Bad Reception”

This first map does a good job of reminding me what a bastard this wad can be. Its easy as pie right up until the last moment when I'm suddenly trapped by spawning enemies and an archvile appears, and of course I hadn't saved. Luckily it only takes a few minutes to blast through it again, but my lesson is learned: expect the unexpected. Also, you know a wad hates you when it gives you chaingunners but no chainguns. Utterly gorgeous scenery.

[scifista42]

Earlier in this thread, I said I didn't like the pistol (actually to the point that I don't want to see or use it), and so I've decided to modify my Valiant wad to replace it my own pistol:



It always fires 100% accurately, with the same speed as Valiant pistol. The sprite is taken from Colt 45 from Realm667, and is shifted down on Y axis, so that the gun won't obstruct my view in the slightest while firing.

If anyone is interested, I can provide a link with sprites + DEHACKED + DECORATE for this gun to be used with Valiant as a PWAD addon.

[Marcaek]

That pistol is actually from Rise of the Triad.

[scifista42]

But not the hand and the muzzle flash! :)

[NuclearPotato]

I wouldn't mind if you posted the gun. Probably won't use it for this run, but I can see myself using it to spice things up for future runs.

[Breezeep]

map01 - "Bad Reception" Kills: 100% Deaths: 0
Great opening map to a great wad. Skillsaw, as usual, cranks out some neat eye candy with the custom textures and sprites combined, as it really pulls the level together to make a beautiful mountain base level. Some of the mid tier monsters make an early appearence too, which provides a fair challenge for the player. Also, bonus points for making the pistol actually effective.

[AD_79]

Alrighty, let's do this. UV, PRBoom+v2.5.1.4cl11, kb+mouse, not much saving.

MAP01: Bad Reception

Excellent opening map, definitely shows that a MAP01 doesn't have to be easy. It shows off a few of the gameplay changes that make Valiant what it is (the pistol, the imps, the demons). Visually it is very strong, and the layout is simple yet effective.

Also, I fully approve of there being a rocket launcher on MAP01.

[scifista42]

NuclearPotato said:

I wouldn't mind if you posted the gun.

Here you go: https://www.sendspace.com/file/iwsfxu

Use altpistol_valiant.wad with Valiant. If you want to use the gun without Valiant, use altpistol_normal.wad. More details in README.txt.

[cannonball]

Map01 - “Bad Reception”
Really cool map, introducing many of the nuances of this mapset, I can't have any real complaints here. The visuals are pretty darn good and the gameplay is good too, enough challenge without it being too difficult.

Map02 - “No Rush”
To me this feels a little generic with no real sense of place. The layout and gameplay though is solid though. The chaingun is really cool and it is really fun to plough through loads of weaker enemies with it.

[scifista42]

I've lost all my progress due to a crash. Zandronum is apparently unable to load a savegame of MAP02 (neither autosave, nor normal savegame), even though it can enter the map normally. When trying to load the savegame, it immediately crashes with this message:

[Gez]

dobu gabu maru said:

The pinky is more-or-less the same.

The pinky's bite deals damage much sooner than in vanilla, giving you less time to dodge and therefore making them a bit more dangerous, without changing their behavior or even animation speed (like playing in Nightmare skill does).

Eris Falling said:

Played up to MAP07 before this, but I find Valiant pretty difficult, so not played beyond that.

You're gonna like the starts of episode 2 and episode 4 then. :p

[skillsaw]

scifista42 said:

I've lost all my progress due to a crash. Zandronum is apparently unable to load a savegame of MAP02 (neither autosave, nor normal savegame), even though it can enter the map normally. When trying to load the savegame, it immediately crashes with this message:

I am not able to replicate this bug with Zandronum 2.0. I've been able to load saves on the map both with your pistol mod loaded and without.

[scifista42]

@skillsaw: Here are my savegames that cause the crash. I have gennodes and genglnodes CVARs set to false, which means that Zandronum shouldn't be trying to rebuild nodes. I don't know what's happening.

EDIT: I made a new testing savegame after warping to the map, and I can load this savegame without a problem, but the old ones still cause a crash.

EDIT2: New test: I played and exited MAP01 "legitimately" (only with IDCLIP and IDDQD), entered MAP02, played for a while, saved, and this savegave works fine too.

EDIT3: New test: I played MAP01, saved, exited Zandronum. Launched it again, loaded the save, normally exited MAP01 and entered MAP02, played, saved to the same savegame (which is exactly as I did with the corrupted savegame). This new savegame works fine too!