The DWmegawad Club plays: STRAIN

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP11: Command Control

cooler to look at and to play too. first major part: yellow key room. very puzzley area, having to use a lift to reach the top as you figure out how to get the yellow key, plus at least three secrets. the whole southeast area takes the cake however. Two keys to get, and the blue key requires several invisible barriers to be lowered. interesting mechanic. And the flying discs have a spectre variant! that key requires several switches, one of which is behind the red key door, and a lot of combat and exploring make this one rather tedious. a lot of enemies appear in the hub once the blue key is available. Prepare for an arch-vile on higher difficulties. And finally, the end of this map segues into the next one.

[Capellan]

gaspe said:

Interesting to hear, now I understand many things of MAP12. If you remember some other things about the development please share them :)

If I do, I will, but my involvement in STRAIN was fairly peripheral. I remember this, and Charlie being really excited about the concept of the "vacuum demon" (which never actually got used), but that's about it.

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP11: Command Control
27:15 | 100% everything

Pretty fun. Lots of: wander around, hit dead end, backtrack, find a switch, hit it, backtrack again and see if did anything. But there was usually plenty to do along the way. Took me a while to find the last secret, as I had already gotten the switch coming from a different direction (without lowering the secret-flagged wall.) I liked the red "forcefield" protecting the blue key.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP11: Command Control
100% kills, 5/5 secrets

Pretty fun little romp, and while I still think the IWAD names are stupid, this one at least fits as it has somewhat of a Phobos vibe to it - both in the textures used in the middle area and some of the window/sector design. The start is pretty toothy on pistol start, forcing the player to run across a coverless plain to shotgun a couple of chaingunners, then moving on without much ammo. I ended up using the chainsaw quite a lot in the yellow key segment, especially to thin out all the rainbow souls. Pretty fun little area, though, especially jumping around to find the secrets.

After the yellow door, things become a bit less linear, but much easier as armaments and ammo become plentiful. Lots of wandering around clearing out stuff, mostly riff-raff but there's a fair amount of semi-visible holobots in the crate area. I admit, while I like the holobots, I don't think invisible versions of them really adds anything, oh well. The AV at the end adds a nice little spike of difficulty, though it's probably too busy resurrecting zombie corpses to really be a threat. Still nice placement though, pretty fun map all-around in the old-school style. Unlike others I actually found the length perfect, mowing down zombies is much more fun than tediously blasting through hell knights and mancubi.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP11: Command Control

Ooh, this is a fun one. Very classic Doom gameplay and the introduction of the transparent security 'bots is a nice touch; they seem to move faster than their visible counterparts and they're actually threatening, especially given lots of horizontal and vertical freedom of movement as they are in the cement/crate area further into this level.

Anyway, the lion's share of the gameplay is stuffed beyond the yellow door but most of the secrets seem to involve le parkour in the yellow key holding area; as compared to the E1/E2 feel of the inner segments of the map, this first, unkeyed wing of the map feels like it's closer to Star Wars in an entertaining way. Pass through the yellow door and things get a bit muddier; it never stops being fun, but there's a lot of wandering around the corridors and control rooms surrounding the main cement/crate warehouse, pressing switches that don't always (or even often) have immediately observable results. I do wonder which of those switchpresses were strictly necessary, which were helpful, if any actually hindered by releasing extra monsters or the like; I get that it's intended to provide puzzle gameplay but I don't think it provides enough feedback on the results of your actions to fully qualify for that title. On the plus side, after you get the blue key you're treated to the debut of the archvile, starring in MAP11 just like his Doom II IWAD counterpart. I think I had an easy time of him when he made a nest for himself just behind the grating to the left as you emerge from the yellow key door; he didn't really have any ability to apply pressure and I was never denied the opportunity to easily duck back into cover, so it was really just a matter of blasting away and hoping that the various zombie grades I was gunning down with each SSG blast would result in a net gain rather than net loss of ammo from that particular encounter.

On a side note, as far as the borrowed IWAD names go, I generally don't mind it as long as the name fits the level somewhat and describes a real (or potentially real, or at least appropriate) location or structure. Build a refinery-type level and there's only so many variations you can go through before you either loop back to Refinery or Toxin Refinery or your naming convention starts getting really strained.

[vdgg]

I somehow knew about Bill's gigantic map split into two and I'm also glad it was done, as we have at least one good map now...

MAP11. The player start is carefully aligned EAST, I believe, so you have black portion of the sky in front view. There is lots of forgotten oldschool detail, especially those blinking lights, the atmosphere is superb. Plenty of sharp angles which we like (extra effort, not boring), easy to miss a corridor due to this design.

The monsters are the easy ones, plus SSG is very early on. Except of the area with plenty partially invisible holobots. And cacodemons. That's the trickiest area, perhaps, but still not hard at all. I like key placement, you can't get the blue key, but there is a red key nearby, so you don't enter this place for nothing. One of the better looking maps in the set. Nice music...

MAP12. Service tunnels leading into side areas with switches. So boring. Pistol start is just obnoxious, chainsawing all these 217 HP demons... The map looks is competent, but it just drags. Onto the next...

[Capellan]

Map12
I remember finding this map a real struggle the last time I played STRAIN, but this time I found it a very toothless affair. All you need to do is play calmly and there's nothing here to threaten you. Certainly nothing like the invisible holo-bot antics of map11. I only recall getting tagged once in the map (by a hitscanner) and exited with 80 more health than I went in. I'm sure the map has more bite in UV and/or on pistol start, but I doubt many 2015 Doomers will be thrown off their stride (they might get chainsaw RSI though).

Originally slated as the second half of map11, as I mentioned yesterday, IMO this map suffers from feeling a little undercooked both visually and in gameplay. It seems like a good half of it is just wandering around dark pipewall tunnels knocking over (super-)imps and demons. Not exactly pulse-pounding stuff (and it's made even less so by hoovering up all those health potions strewn around the place).

There are a number of spurs off the pipewall area, each fairly short and tame. A couple have some nice lighting and texturing though: I particularly liked the BSTONE area in the south with the unofficial secret backpack. Much better than the bland central, northern and north-western areas.

I also liked the early red key tease near the start, before you finally pick it up in a different room at a much later time.

Historical trivia: I made the exit room (after the teleport). It was originally meant to be the end of map11 and start of map12, back when I was going to do the map for this slot.

[SoundofDoomDoors]

And I thought the pistol start for 11 was bad...I might not play 12 at all if it's any worse. Being pitted against the chaingunners at the start of today's map was downright offensive. You can kill them with the shotgun, but then you're down to your fists in the next room. That's how my first run ended. After locating all the secrets in the yellow key area, (would some ammo in a few of those have killed the author?) I tackled recording again. In one of my unrecorded takes, I actually found the SSG, then I forgot on camera. I only remembered when I was reading through the thread. This is attempt #4, the first time I exited. http://www.mediafire.com/download/dzbvlicirfat02n/strain_map11.lmp

I miss plutonia. Earlier today, I played the first 10 levels of it on UV for the first time (I've beaten it on HMP). That's what playing greatness feels like. This wad? I consider it a mixed bag, leaning negative, especially given what I've heard map12's going to be like. Sunlust next month should be better, at least.

[4shockblast]

Map 11: Kills: 102%, Items: 0%, Secrets: 80%, final time: 17:35 (0 deaths)

I've heard the midi for this map before, and it's one of my favorite midis by Klem, so that already meant the map would be an enjoyable experience. :D

Midi aside, this map is pretty cool anyway in my opinion, somewhat tough start and some tough areas (particularly the area with the invisible circle enemies), but not too bad, and the gameplay was pretty fun. Invisibility doesn't make the flying enemies any stronger, though, so it might have been a poor choice to make them invisible instead of normal demons; regardless, that fight was pretty good. Some confusing switch hunting and backtracking as well, though I didn't mind it too much (it was less confusing than some previous maps anyway). Also spent a good deal of time searching for secrets in the yellow key area, which paid off (I like platforming and gameplay on ledges so I thought that area was pretty cool).

FDA here.

[mouldy]

MAP11 - "Command Control” by Bill McClendon

Quite a bold opening, facing off against 2 distant chaingunners. Pistol start was rather painful, thanks to hardly any ammo or health. Things got a bit easier once I got the yellow key, speaking of which, the lift that is required to get it seems quite easy to miss. Anyway, thereafter we have quite a sprawling meandering network of rooms and tunnels, with a lot of mystery switches to press and not have a clue what they did. I did enjoy exploring all the nooks and crannies though. The blue key was weird, I could see it there on the floor but an invisible wall stopped me grabbing it. Eventually i must have found the remaining mystery switch that needed to be pressed, and oh yes, there's a new enemy introduced: the invisible rev-bots. Not as bad as they sound, I can imagine them being quite nasty in the wrong hands perhaps.

[purist]

9

Finished this one off. Not a bad level with an OK layout and straight forward enough progression outside of the yellow key confusion - which was completely pointless by the way, why not have the yellow key just be there! The most striking impression the level gives me is that the shape and size of some of the rooms could have housed more interesting fights than we have here.

I've read comments about the moon exterior looking dull. Whilst I agree, I think it's appropriate for the surface of the moon to look bland and it adds to the atmosphere of the level in my opinion.


10

Well it starts with a bunch of long hallways full of low tier baddies and then ends with a sort of arena hub with some minor puzzling involved. I quite liked the murder tunnels, the section didn't go on too long and it's a nice bit of relief to run down corridors moving down lines of zombies with rapid fire.

The part beyond this I quite enjoyed too at first and the theme of the RL tease was cute but I think this section outstayed it's welcome to a degree. It also has probably the first section I could describe as a HP grind when you fight the cacos and nobles prior to finding the RL. I quite liked the look of the vine area as well. Reminded me of Doom II abstractness.


11

Ugh, 40 minutes on this bastard. I just can't appreciate a level as confusing to progress in as this. Half the map spent figuring out where to go next sucks all the fun out of play and my everlasting memory will be of frustration and boredom. The worst part for me the blue key which started raised and was lowered but somehow blocked off. Exasperated after checking the whole large map several times I checked again and just walked over the key - answers on a post card please.

The map actually looks pretty good in parts and there are some of the more difficult encounters found so far here. Jury's still out on the spectral floating rev things, they're not much of a nuisance here but I can imagine them easy to place badly.

I started up MAP12 and picked up a blue key within moving about an inch, will be interesting to see what the purpose of this is but it feels like karma after the trials I had picking it up in the previous level!

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP12: Power Station

Starts where the previous map left off, even giving a blue key right on my starting point. rather nonlinear once you get into the gullies, with a lot of places to explore. At the northern end, there's a non-secret armor through a hidden door, but an armor that is somehow behind a switch with no way of reaching it. (?) A few other areas have plenty of barrels, especially around the yellow key, which help. I have to say, combat is very slow when you're slow, the enemies don't really surprise you at all here, and most of my annoyance here has to do with the demons, who are RNG-nightmares with the SSG if you haven't noticed already. everything else just feels a bit lax. I do appreciate the continuity of the map, even heading back to the beginning and using the red key to leave.

[gaspe]

MAP12 - Power Station

Kills: 93% | Items: 100% | Secrets: 100%

A continuation of the previous map. We start in the area where the previous map ended, and we return to an area of the previuos map to end this one, and we start with blue kye too. Actually more for a pratical reason than a desired thing as Capellan explained, but still I think it's really interesting.
There are some nice bits of exploration, the main flooded area look smore like an homage to underhalls. Compared to the rest the central area looks pretty bland. Difficult is quite tricky on pistol start as ammo is low when we make our first steps in the flooded-pipes area and the demons drain lots of ammo. Worst of all (always on pistol start) is that you won't find a rocket launcher on hard. This was really stupid as there are many barons. I just skipped half of them from the central area and just rushed to the exit in the last 2 rooms. On the other hand there are 2 green armors and a red one, okay. I think is better to do MAP11 and 12 on continuous.

[Sui Generis]

MAP12 - "Power Station” by Bill McClendon
So onto the third McClendon map, and happily it resolves some of my criticism about the previous map featuring a few too many corridors. Sadly it resolves them by being more crude and less interesting. There's still a 'formula' of exploring and going on several switch quests in no particular order to get a central objective. And though the single big waterlogged cavern does at least help prevent them feeling a bit too divorced, it really brings down the level by how crude and bland it is.

Gameplay remains low-burning with mostly dispersed low-level monster encounters. Occasionally a room will have more monsters in or hazards (the barrel-strewn baron room comes to mind) but these are separated by stretches of trivial combat and virtually always come down to forward-facing monster threats.

I was also disappointed with the aesthetics, which are bland and also have little association with the level name. Beyond the ending room and some isolated areas, the rump of the previous level seemed more fitting to the name, than the bulk of this, which seems to be some sort of sewer. Yes, I acknowledge most iwad levels were like this too, but they at least had some abstract intimation that they were that sort of place and Strain is a wad that seems to take the story and theme more seriously than some. Finally the slow-paced music (which I've heard before, I think it's Doom 2 Reloaded Map01 new music) really doesn't enamour the level to me. I'm a little bit surprised that the backpack didn't count as a secret.

This level is not offensive, but just isn't very interesting or adroitly themed, and is not particularly memorable.

purist said:

...
11

Ugh, 40 minutes on this bastard. I just can't appreciate a level as confusing to progress in as this. Half the map spent figuring out where to go next sucks all the fun out of play and my everlasting memory will be of frustration and boredom.
...

As per my comments, I think maps by this author do improve on replaying. I'd previously played ahead a few maps when I first played this, so having had a few days and some other maps to distract from it I decided to replay it to find the remaining secrets. This time I had a good idea of where to go and this transformed the experience and made it a much more fun level with a better pace. My complaint of it being slow-burning deserves to be lifted.

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP12: Power Station
24:52 | 100% everything

Not bad. I'll agree it's pretty bland, but I still enjoyed it. The baron ambushes got a little wearisome and predictable, but whatevs. It also initially bugged me that that the blue door wasn't yellow like it was in the previous level, but then I went back and saw that they were in different locations. I think it would have been amusing to still have the yellow door from MAP11 but never provide a yellow key. (Has anyone done something like that before? I'd almost have to think so.) The most obnoxious part about this level? Missing a single stray health bonus and knowing I was going to have to search the entire waterway before finding it.

[purist]

I was surprised at how positive peoples reactions to MAP11 were in contrast to my own. Either my orienteering skills are below par or I have a lower threshold for frustration that others. I'm. Or exactly enthused to know that MAP12 is the 2nd half of MAP11 although at least it's good it was split.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP12: Power Station

We pick up pretty much directly where we left off before the intermission text, in a jagged, cavern-like space, but the gameplay pretty quickly shifts to focus on a flooded lower level - a sewer or maintenance space? - and the rooms and spaces that branch away from it, all part of a grandiose mechanism to unlock access to a central core and the red key contained within.

If there's a weakness to this level and to MAP11 it comes from the combination of a relatively open, free-roaming layout and the lack of information provided to the player as to what any given swtich-press actually achieves. It's very easy to find a switch before encountering the chunk of environment that it modifies and thus be completely in the dark as to what it did or, in "big picture" levels like these two, what you're supposed to be building toward. Here at least it's plainer thanks to a layout which places the switches around the edges of the lower level and a fairly obvious door or barrier towards the middle of that section; if nothing else, it's at least ambitious even if Doom rather lacks the tools to communicate the gameplay properly.

[Varis Alpha]

i'm just gonna jump in and say that map11's music is frigging phenomenal and one of the best tracks i've heard in a Doom mod before.

[Capellan]

Map13
Now this is a level that actually makes a show of wanting you dead. Unfortunately, it is more show than substance: while the opening melee is potentially quite chaotic it also would be fairly easy to cheese. Not as easy as the yellow key "trap" though (at least not if you're pistol starting – with continuous resources it's easy to defang). Worse, after that trap it becomes the most corridory of corridor shooters, with only one trivial arena battle to significantly break up the 128-wide monotony (and even that you can camp half of).

Said arena battle debuts STRAIN's Cyberdemon mini-me, the Minister of Pain, in less than thrilling circumstances. He's confined in place and easily rocketed, while posing little threat himself.

One bright point in the gameplay: the baron + doppleganger fight for the blue key, where old goatlord actually poses a threat thanks to his clownfaced buddies getting in the way. Or he would, if it wasn't for the unavoidable megasphere right before the fight. Sigh.

One last complaint: the author apparently had never heard of texture alignment. Which is a shame, because I rather like many of the textures he chose to use.

[mouldy]

MAP12 - "Power Station” by Bill McClendon

I have a feeling I made this map more interesting than it needed to be by failing to find a rocket launcher. I say that because I spent the whole time scraping for ammo while finishing with about 40 unused rockets, and most of the danger came from dodging around barons without the necessary tools to take them out. This is actually a pretty effective use of barons, narrow or awkward spaces with low ammo, and the maze of passageways means bumping into them later if you leave them alive. With a rocket launcher barons would have died on the spot, so definitely will be a different experience on continuous play. I also have absolutely no idea what I was meant to be doing in this map. There were a ton of switches, none of which had any obvious effect. One of them must have lowered the red key, god knows what the others did, or if they were even necessary. Design-wise its pretty flat eye-level rooms and corridors, but the dingy atmosphere and non-linearity makes it work somehow. I also liked the way it joined with the previous map, though knowing now that they were once one map kind of explains it. (and thank christ they were split up)

[Capellan]

mouldy said:

I have a feeling I made this map more interesting than it needed to be by failing to find a rocket launcher.

On UV there isn't one. :)

[40oz]

MAP10: Entryway lol doors closing in your face XD Fun Baron usage and linedef actions. The crushing pillars around the blue key look cool.

MAP11: Command Control Another long confusing map, took me over 20 minutes with this one. Its pretty cool otherwise, but crazy how puzzley these maps can be. It makes me wonder how I ever beat this map before if it took me this long today. That Yellow key in particular took me a while to figure out. But goddamnit that music makes it all worth it. This is the track I think about when I think of STRAIN.

MAP12: Powerstation Pretty confusing with some dickish ammo famine towards the end. Had to peck a few Hell barons to death with a chainsaw just to get through. One second away from 20 minutes, but of course another baller music track to keep me engaged. The music really did save a few of these maps. If this map were in a single map PWAD with D_RUNNIN music, I doubt I would have stuck it out. A very attractive organic mapdesign though particularly for such a techbase + bricks n metal type map.



MAP13: Ruins pretty cool map. It's nice to have a foreign but nice brick n metal map in a wad that is otherwise known for its techbases. Introduction to the mini cybie is a little weak honestly but thats okay.

[Sui Generis]

MAP13 - “Ruins” by David Rotramel
After the continuity of exit areas on the previous two maps, this level initially seems a bit of a jarring change of scenery. David Rotramel is not an author I had heard of previously, which is a pity as this map is pretty damn good. The opening vista looks good and is surprisingly busy. I initially made the mistake of leaving the sanctuary of the starting area and succumbed to buckshot and a rain of fireballs. It's debatable as to whether it's good that the map lets you dodge this by sheltering at the start or not, as it makes for a good fun hectic start, but this is up to the player.

Further on the map keeps a consistent brown brick theme and has more fun gameplay, with the circular arena with an almost Plutonia-ish teleport in with chaingunners and the subsequent arena with imps and super imps firing from afar. The new mini cyberdemon, or 'minister of hate' (or is it pain?) makes it's debut here. It's rockets pack the same whallop of it's full-sized cousin (albeit not fired in threes) but without all the health, so it makes a potentially dangerous mid-level enemy that doesn't require the same firepower or time as the cyb to defeat. I agree that it's introduction on a turret does cripple it. It's not just large open areas where the map shines though, as there is a good claustrophobic fight with barons and a few doppelgangers in a smallish room.

Finally after all the keys are obtained then you exit the ruins and another good reveal shows you are now in a techbase. I'm quite pleasantly surprised by David Rotramel's mapping here and he seems good at creating action in varied scenarios and making interesting scenarios. This is a good level and easily among the best Strain maps so far, in my opinion.

[mouldy]

Capellan said:

On UV there isn't one. :)

So cruel. Managable without the RL, but cruel to dangle the hope that there was one somewhere.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP13: Ruins

now this music track is a real underrated gem. and so is this map. very interesting ruins style map that isn't large or overbearing on traps. simple and sweet, the way I like it. really, it's a great map.

[SoundofDoomDoors]

I knew it'd be bad, but I made it. MAP12 is by far my least favorite map of the wad so far. It's obvious it wasn't meant to be played like this. There are rockets everywhere, probably for the launcher from the previous level, but not nearly enough shotgun shells to make up for the fact there isn't a damn launcher on UV. After I got the red key, I completely gave up on fighting and made a run for it. If I hadn't made it, I wouldn't have attempted what would have been my third try at the level. It was nearly unbearable. This needed more playtesting after it was split in half!

In my demo, I made heavy use of the chainsaw. In my FDA, I went down the SSG route first and ran out of ammo halfway through. You can't go that way and actually expect to be able to use the SSG and still finish the map. If Bill wants me to use the chainsaw, he shouldn't set me up to fail by giving me a 1 in 2 chance of finding the SSG first! This is attempt 2: http://www.mediafire.com/download/cnswfa1oz77fwg9/strain_map12.lmp

Some commentary on 4shockblast's map11: I'm amazed you were able to off the chaingunners at the beginning and not completely run out of ammo. You're even more careful with that than I am. At least 13 sounds promising. Is it too much to ask for more levels like 4 and 7 that don't overstay their welcome/strangle my ammo supply?

[gaspe]

MAP13 - Ruins

Kills: 100% | Items: 100% | Secrets: 100%

Another good map. We change the overall theme of the wad here, beign mostly tech. There's a really interesting fight at the YK pick up. The sewer room is quite tricky due to the space. The hallway leading to the southern arena reminds a lot of Plutonia's Aztec.
New enemy: the Minister of pain. A shrunken Cyberdemon with high pitched noises. It's kinda comical the result to me, but it was an interesting thing to see this monster changed.
It's really nice in the exit room how the persective from below gives the arches of the stairs a 3d effect.
The music track is beautiful, and overall all the wad has a good soundtrack.

[Pirx]

07- en route

nice spaceship map by adelusion. you'Re on board of a star trek type cruiser, as seen on the automap. the blue key in the central section can be grabbed without lowering you into the frontal part, so you go first clean the warp nacelles from zombies. the author makes good use of the strain textures here for creating an engine room with dark metallic engines with lights and a red railing. some zombies here can see you only when you're in front of them, not when you're at the gallery. you get access to the goodies that trolled you in the beginning because you get teleported away when trying to pick them up. upon clearing the engine rooms, you get down to into the saucer section where already having the ssg makes it easier to get those red demons and security bots out of the way. the bots are slow and their modified revenant missiles are even slower, so i found them threatening more as they're simply blocking the way as they move. tbh i would have preferred a dangerous, but rarely encountered robotic enemy, or just plain revenants. nice animated view at the stars from the bridge, then you teleport off the ship.


08 - hangar

apparently following a story line, you start on a landing pad (facing some crates) and continue to large square concrete structures with some chaingunners sniping from windows until you find the lifts and kill them. outside there's little opposition, some security bots and zombies. it's a large map to explore, with various sections showing a mix of strain textures, such as the dark blue maze, a room in pure 8 bit green and an outside view with building made of rusty metal and stones from hexen, something as if thrown together in an experiment. hexen textures and security bots, how fitting. granted i was playing tired but i found the flickering light in the dark blue corridor a strain for my eyes, what surprise. the fast imps look normally a bit out of place to me, but here they were put to good effect with their warping movement. that place could have used some more creative architecture than just corridors. also the landing pads, why fill them with demons with boosted health that can't even attack effectively so you have to line them up to save ammo... at least shells are provided by the box. the map took me some time to hunt down all 3 keys, overall interesting to look but lackluster fights.


09 - cargo bay

more enjoyable than the hangar, looks indeed like a cargo bay. adelusion has a kind of techno-gothic style, a techbase with various ornaments and these strain textures like the striped silver and brass panels and red railings we see in the beginning. the lower corridor and the red key room on the other hand are plain concrete with an unfinished looking exterior, especially against the dark sky. i got stuck too on my first playthrough because i missed the switch in the yellow key room or whatever caused the holobots to appear, giving me the key. so i jumped on the red key pedestal and left. played "properly" again later, shot the cacos and discovered the swith to leave the area buried under them. i expected a bigger attack to come from the cargo bay, but the red key caco swarm was the only notable fight.



10 - entryway

right, what's with these iwad names. the entryway is a techno corridor that reveals caged chaingunners at every corner, then the map starts trolling the player by denying the rocket launcher twice and closing bars in front of him several times in a large, roughly circular rocky area where you exit said corridor. there's a trap involving barons in close quarters, but simply running further reveals an invulnerability, and you should have the rocket launcher by then. also 2 bulk cells, couldn't find a plasma gun, but that's probably for consecutive play. fun map, i enjoyed the little riddles with the author saying "no, not yet" at every step.

ok, i should have the next 4 ready tomorrow.

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP13: Ruins
12:43 | 100% everything

This was kinda fun. Surprisingly short. Also marks the first appearance of the Hell Knight (on UV) if I'm remembering correctly. Oh yeah, also the mini-cybie, but he's just a goofy turret that dies to a couple missles. The imps and hitscanners are the real threats here. Even the AV was easy enough to handle, though the subsequent Baron/Doppelganger ambush was probably the most nerve-wracking encounter of the map. Weird way to exit the level, though, but very atmospheric.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP12: Power Station
91% kills, 1/1 secret

Capellan's note that this was originally the second half of MAP11, I think, explains a lot... most of this map is running around corridors flipping switches that do god-knows-what, with the keys tacked on (the player starts with the blue keycard, allowing him to immediately explore part of the prior level behind him, the yellow key activates a switch very close by, and the red key just opens up the exit area, also contained in the previous level section). Since last level already used all three keys, it makes sense that this one would be pretty non-key-using.

So, it's a lot of running around dimly-lit water-logged corridors, killing demons and flipping switches, which is alright if a bit banal until the baron spam and ammo deprivation set in. The main culprit here is the lack of the rocket launcher; I was sitting on 35-40 rockets and had no way to use them. A look in the map editor reveals one RL is set for HNTR/HMP only, and the second RL is only set for HMP, meaning no rocket launcher at all for UV pistol starters, wheee. So yeah, I got bored and left a lot of those barons in the dust.

So yeah, this map feels a bit undertested and could've used some tuning. I agree that splitting it up was definitely a good decision; this map felt sloggy on its own due to the baron spam, keeping it as the second half of MAP11 would've been really bad.