The DWmegawad Club plays: Sunlust

[baja blast rd.]

Map 11: Cave Culture (UV)

I thought this map was quite gorgeous. Danne's maps look pretty much exactly like conjoined grilled cheese sandwiches in Doom Builder -- particularly when natural formations and stuff are involved -- but are generally quite pretty and immersive in-game (q.v. Combat Shock 2). Apparently E2 features more of this theme, so color me excited. The "easiness" of this level was lost on me; perhaps I could have run away a lot more instead of insisting on digging my heels in the zimmer trenches and killing basically everything. I'm arguably the world's most apathetic secret finder during first playthroughs, so maybe I missed something useful. I enjoyed the AV hunt a bunch, despite -- or perhaps because of -- the narrowness of the surrounding rocky passages.

[SoundofDoomDoors]

MAP11: Cave Culture
100% Kills
66% Secrets
6 Deaths (23 total)

I really lucked out with the death exit last map. 23 hp at the start of this would have been reset/pistol start material if it wasn't enforced in the first place. I scrambled through the first half or so at the seat of my pants: single digit hp multiple times between the start and getting the secret soul sphere/RL. Even running from the skeleton ambush in the multi-tiered cavern leading to the yellow key didn't get me. I had tons of room to move it actually felt a little strange by this wad's standards. Good job varying it up and keeping me entertained.

The end got me good. After lucking out for most of the map, I died six times to chaingunners before I got out. From what I could see on the automap, there IS a way up to the supplies they guard, but I couldn't find it. Watching a video on youtube shows it open after picking up the RL. It must've closed later in the map, perhaps when I got the yellow key.

[Demonologist]

12: Dangeresque
I loved this map the very first time I played it, it was my favorite among all those I saw during playtesting phase back in the day. I had had a slight concern that something in public release will overtake this title, but it never happened.
This map is certainly not the best-looking in the set. It's not the most impressive nor original one, either. Yet its looks are a pretty innovative take on all this zimmer theme, all those curves look pretty unnatural but nevertheless fresh with this texture scheme, something interesting to look at; and its gameplay is where it really shines. Dangeresque is something that feels like "a Skillsaw map made by Ribbiks". It doesn't really overpower the player and you won't find yourself drowning in health and armor, yet in here you, and you alone determine the pace at which you'd like to proceed. Setpieces blend in with the rest of the combat, never truly sealing off all the escape routes, and basically the whole map lies open before you as a giant playground, with poor monsters serving as your toys. Play with them whichever way you like, approach the killing spree whichever way you desire. This is the thing I always appreciate, and this map executes it the best in this whole set for me. There will be another sandboxy stuff later on, and it's also cool, yet this one is a total blast on all accounts I think.
And the music, man is this track killer. Something like this isn't really fitting for maps with such theme per se, yet in here it's a 100% hit, this track accompanies the speed of gameplay like nothing else. Fantastic choice.
The only real drawback of this map is that it's very short, so all the fun ends too soon. Well, in any case, I'll bite. Outstanding.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP10: Maru
98% kills, 1/3 secrets

The last of the black-and-blue levels, this one feels a bit different as the initial setup is much more free-flowing and less about setpiece traps (though they do show up). The player is woefully under-equipped to start and has to spend a lot of time gathering weapons, though it does turn out that the hellspawn in the area actually aren't that numerous. The switch progression here is a bit confusing as it feels like there are a lot of 'extra' switches (including a red key one just to telefrag the cyberdemon), not sure how many are actually needed to progress. Things still feel a bit too 'artificial' in many ways (such as the revenants stuck on the pillars, or the chaingunner wall) but the final fight is pretty fun. Kinda wish there was a way back out of the ending area so I could go back and find secrets, pointless as it would be with the death exit.

[SuperCupcakeTactics]

Yeah map12 is the one map that I remember knowing for a fact that I enjoyed it alot :)

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP12: Dangeresque

I don't know if it's physically smaller than MAP11 but this is definitely a shorter map, focused mostly on a single flowing open space into which the player's progression feeds waves of enemies. I think the greatest danger comes at the beginning of the map where it's possible to wake up and lure out more opposition than you have the tools or breathing room to handle; as things progress and you secure more of the map's real estate, you find yourself in a position of setting your own pace and dealing with the incoming waves exactly where and when you please. Fun experience overall and the available vertical space means that cacodemons and pain elementals can rapidly find their way out of the ground-level scrum to rain lost sould and ball lightning from on high.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP12 Dangeresque

okay this one is much more my style. a little more war but a bit better killing power with the plasma gun. nevertheless, avoiding the northern switch helps since you don't want to wake everyone up. the key grabs were pretty cool, and imp killing is a pasttime I enjoy a lot. the big reveal to the north reveals some arachnotrons and imps, and the monsters that follow it. the best fights in my opinion, and a great map.

[Archvile Hunter]

MAP12 - Dangeresque [https://youtu.be/2oh_-Yln_T0]

Kills: 92% | Items: 70% | Secrets: 0% | Time: 7:31 | Attempts: 1

Now THIS is a great map. I absolutely love maps that just let you run around and destroy tons and tons of monsters, Sledge from Speed of Doom is another one of my favourite maps of all time. Yes, there are lots of nasties everywhere, but you can quickly get a RL, PG and Megasphere. Here YOU control the pace of combat. Also lots of Pain Elementals, but the PG absolutely destroys them. I did just leave the Cyber alive, because the only high-power weapon I had ammo for at that point was the RL, and there were Lost Souls everywhere. Too dangerous to try and kill him, so I just left. I hope we'll get more like this later on. My only complaint is that it was too easy. Seriously, this would have been a better introduction to episode 2 IMHO.

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP12: Not to be outdone by Danne’s zimmer obsession, Ribbiks tries his hand at some frantic jungle fun. Demonologists' description of "Ribbiks meets skillsaw" is pretty apt methinks; the pistol opener is a ton of fun, letting you cause as much infighting and chaos as you like while you sneak around and gather your armaments. I think this map is the proper “breather” segue from MAP10, as deaths came rarely and there was plenty of health & ammo for every encounter. Oh, and rocketing roaming packs of imps will never get boring. I did roll my eyes at the finale though—it’s manageable when you know it’s coming but goddamn did I have a forest of Lost Souls to wade through on my initial encounter. A lot of people seem to be enjoying this one (and for good reason, as the player is in charge of the combat), but MAP11 had the better encounters IMO.

A great change of pace nevertheless.

[purist]

12

This is a good balance between the orchestrated and locked in setpieces that dominated E1 and a more freewheeling run and gun approach. Each trap is still triggered and setup to be dealt with in a particular way but there is more freedom for movement and allowances for tactical improvisation. Most the action takes place in the green mossy clearing with monsters being introduced through elaborate monster closets so it has the feel of a playground - once I knew the way around I had a good idea where I could go and hide for breather, which was comforting.

The theme of the level is very similar to the previous level and suffers the same washed out appearance but there is enough skilled application of architecture to continue the feeling of a quality product. Layout isn't really a thing. The map is a kind of arena and once the starting monsters are cleaned up (aside from the HK snipers, I didn't want to waste ammo on them) It's just a matter of adding additional mobs to the mix whilst picking up the 2 keys required to open the exit gate.

I didn't find an SSG in this map and there is plenty of mid-high tier monsters so my RL and PR got a good workout. The oddest fight in the level is the first appearance (in HMP) of the Spiderdemon. I guess you are meant to let it take out all the imps through infighting but I got impatient and helped them out. This left quite a lot of imps still alive and after using rockets on the bunches of them I laboriously picked off the remnants with the shotgun. The biggest bane of this map are the Pain Elementals. They feature in a couple of traps and seem to possess the innate ability to cowardly hide behind other monsters when I'm tried to quickly dispose of them with plasma. Their appearance is key though as otherwise there would be enough space and familiar terrain to manipulate infighting too easily. That said, I thought better of trying to clear the final cyb/PE fight. Once my cells had emptied I made a dash for the exit.

[scifista42]

MAP11 - "Cave Culture"

I liked this - nice theme with less abstraction and less darkness, and using good moderate amount of Revenants and Mancubi, who were entertaining to fight, even if not difficult, and of course good layout, architecture, visuals etc. However, the ammo count was way too high even for a low skill level, as I've exited fully stocked up while I think I've left half the ammo laying behind me. Next levels might be out of reasonable balance due to this fact (again), but I'll see.

[mouldy]

MAP12 - "Dangeresque" by Ribbiks

Bloody fun map, acres of space and tons of monsters. And you have the opportunity to run around activating as many ambushes as you care to deal with, allowing for a gloriously unpredictable mess. I had a great time messing about with the first half, waking the mastermind and then letting it deal with the ledge snipers, then running back to get all the weapons before unleashing the army of imps against a pack of unfortunate revenants and whatever else was still alive. The mastermind had fallen by this time, no doubt crushed under the imp tsunami. I was wasting health pretty badly with all this chaos, so by the time I faced the final cyber/PE combo there was none left. Thats when things needed to calm down and get tactical, and after rocketing myself in the face several times I decided the best method was to retreat to a far distance and let the cyber come to me, wiping him out with plasma before the slower elementals could get there and cause trouble. Then a quick dash to another cave where I could bottleneck them through the doorway with rockets. I like a map that gives you so many options, think I'd have to place this as my favourite so far.

[Demonologist]

13: Ruins of Skania
Oh yes, I remember this music track, used to hear it quite a lot while playing dobu's map from DMP2014. In here, it does a decent work at creating a mysterious mood, while the map itself isn't dark by any means - it's still got that vibe that ancient ruins-styled map usually have.
More elaborate piece of work than Cave Culture, setpiece-based nature is more pronounced perhaps, but I don't think it hurts. Progression is basic, but the feel of some adventure is still there thanks to the setting, and combat scenarios are hella fun, especially the imp & mastermind wave. The penultimate fight can scare the shit out of the unexpecting player I suppose, it's quite a storm and can be quite lethal, though I don't remember dying there during all of my playthroughs. The finale is something different, just a cyber with some nasty backstabbers that can interfere with player's movement.
I don't really know what else to say here, this map's not very artistic perhaps, but it's still fun to play, atmospheric and polished enough to stick out in my memory at the very least. It reminded me of Combat Shock 2's earlier maps that were surely dynamic but relied on lesser numbers of foes, as opposed to the latter ones with their exceptionally high monstercounts. Aesthetic appearance is also something that can be compared in this perspective, so this fact only amplifies the impression of similarity/inheritance. Loved the map.

[Crusader No Regret]

Map 6: DNF, 0/2 secrets, 10 deaths, no saves

Never got a start I felt happy with so didn't bother saving. I'm just not into the gameplay here; it's a purely personal preference kind of thing. Farthest I got was the archvile on a column that I didn't discover until after I died.

Did have a cool moment of using a pain elemental to block revenant missiles so there was still some fun for me. I think the megasphere secret out in the open requires an AV jump.

Toured the map with god mode; the visuals of the exit are incredible wow.

Map 11: DNF, 2/3 secrets, 12 deaths

Start's not to rough. Using hellknights as shields works well enough for me. The caves section to the SSG claimed a number of lives. I got the SSG in only one of my attempts and the rocket launcher in the open twice. Speaking of which, both times I took the schmuck bait even though I had found the secret one. My tendency to climb on things paid off nicely and found it by mostly blind chance. If there is a gameplay theme to be had, it's probably charging ahead into the unknown to find an advantageous point to make a stand. Standing around where an ambush occurs leads to heavy damage or death.

[Archvile Hunter]

MAP13 - Ruins of Skania [https://youtu.be/oDPcDOzAA2g]

Kills: 97% | Items: 60% | Secrets: 50% | Time: 14:40 | Attempts: 2

A very enjoyable ancient ruins/caverns level. This is another "regular" map like map11, but it is still very setpiece-heavy, the two standout encounters of course being the Spiderdemon and Cyber fights. There's plenty of ammo and no real danger of running out, you do have to watch your health however. Unlike some of the earlier maps, you are also rarely locked in a confined space, and you are often free to just leave. Also this map is filled with Archies and Pain Elementals. Thought you cleared out the area? Here are some Arch-Viles to resurrect everything again. The final fight with the Cyber in the end seemed pretty straightforward at first until those Pain Elementals showed up. I can't even imagine how stressful that section must be with infinitely tall actors. Ended up leaving the map with 17 % health and a few lost souls and some HK's from earlier alive. I did not really want to die right before the end trying to kill a few lost souls with a relatively long map like this.

[scifista42]

MAP12 - "Dangeresque"

Finally I feel like getting decent excitement and fun. Camping was still possible, but not always, and there was enough mid-tier monsters to keep me moving at times, which I was glad for. I also appreciated how the item choices (Berserk/Chainsaw, Megaarmor/Soulsphere) allowed the player to end up with 100% item percentage if only he chose the correct items (even though I didn't, I got Chainsaw instead of Berserk, but at least I will keep it to next levels). Visually pleasing map with good music and fast-paced atmosphere too.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP13 Ruins of Skania

another pretty average level. gets quite a Resurgence-like vibe but is somehow much easier. love the red key thing with the spiderdemon and the imp horde. the rest isn't too noteworthy but good all the same.

[scifista42]

MAP13 - “Ruins of Skania"

Layout good, visuals excellent, gameplay OK, still rather boring (non-exciting) for majority of the time. The Invulnerability battle was pointless, such a wasted opportunity for a Mastermind battle that it seems like an intentional unbalance to give a feeling of power to players who don't care about being challenged at all, which doesn't satisfy me after all this professionalism I've seen in Sunlust so far.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP13: Ruins of Skania

Similar to MAP11 in aesthetics and gameplay, this is a fun romp through a mixture of natural caves and devastated areas where the architecture is just weird enough to feel alien, inhuman; it reminds me of the same feeling I got crawling through the better parts of Rylayeh. Areas are heavily interconnected for navigation purposes, though not so much that it turns the whole map into a single playing field/arena rather than discrete chunks of gameplay, and windows that let the player peek into areas long before they can access them are extensively present.

I felt like I kind of made a mess of the mastermind area, ending up trapped back by the stairs by a wall of imps and unable to blast my way through to the spidery beast itself; it was down before I even noticed the invulnerability. Fortunately that let me take on the subsequent arch-vile/pain-elemental flanking manoeuvre much more aggressively.

I'm surprised the level only conceals 2 secret areas; its intricate architecture in several places (the final canyon between the red key door and the exit, for example) seems like it'd be perfect for concealing switches, triggers, and hidden nooks amidst its lush geometry.

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP13: Ahahaha I know this midi! A bit strange hearing it to another map as its forever associated with Immundum due to how many times it repeated during playtesting. Anyway, I like the glaucous addition to the foliage here, shifting away from the typical green & brown theme. The mesh of organic overgrowth and ancient—yet metallic—temple is a great combination, and I think it’s perhaps the most atmospheric map since MAP07. Most of the fights here were solid too—the imp horde + Mastermind in particular was fun to weave around even if it wasn’t entirely threatening (though the PEs afterwards were a huge headache… damn you Danne!) A good combination of visuals and crafty battles; even the final fight had some excitement to it that I wasn't expecting.

[mouldy]

MAP13 - “Ruins of Skania" by Danne

This played like a more traditional map for the most part, a touch of exploration and incidental light action along the way. Later on things got a little more challenging, though not always enjoyably. Specifically the red key fight and the final dash to the exit were a bit annoying, both due to pain elementals. In the first case they were unleashed in a swarm with 2 archviles, using rockets was a total roll of the dice with lost souls rapidly filling the space, but its the only option to get rid of the viles quick enough to escape. There wasn't an option for dealing with the PEs at that point as I didnt have enough ammo, so had to just leave them for later. The valley of the cyber was a similar deal, plasma being not quite fast enough to kill him before the PEs start filling the space and making movement impossible. The only option I found was to lure cyber back and then run past him to the exit lift. It was totally down to luck that I didn't get a rocket in the face. In the end I think its just my hatred of pain elementals that soured the experience. We just don't get along.

[purist]

13

This is the easiest level in a long time. There was stacks of health, provided almost apologetically ahead of fights of any sort of note and the only sections that provided danger was the Spiderdemon/imp ambush where it's quite possible to get overwhelmed, the vile/rev fight just before the end if it takes you by surprise first time and the cyb fight if you don't like fighting cybs.

Judging by the start of MAP14 this is the last part of the pale green/grey theme and whilst I don't think it holds up aesthetically with the levels in E1, I have enjoyed the change in gameplay style. This style continues but some of the fun is watered down by the aforementioned abundance of health. I didn't find the SSG until after the red key and rarely suffered a setback despite this.

The layout is quite windy but does not feel stringy despite monsters encounters often being a piecemeal affair. Maybe because the level does a good job of showing areas still to come through the intricately built cracks in walls. Not the best map so far but not without it's nice moments and perhaps proof that Sunlust is a lot of fun even when it doesn't get out of second gear.

[gaspe]

MAP14 - Troglobite

Kills: 100% | Items: 77% | Secrets: 100%

A small and pretty cramped cave map. We have mostly brown here but it makes a great job on the setting and the map doesn't look dull. The start is hectic but there are some nice breaks between the big fights. There's a strong usage of the archviles, and the courtyard with the mancubi and the chaingunners was hard, luckily I picked the plasmagun before which was helpful there. I found the secrets as last thing.
The mood is cool and the FFVI music track fits very well. The place with the boat in front of the 3 giant rock pillars is really nice.

[Archvile Hunter]

MAP14 - Troglobite [https://youtu.be/hR4GGtNuumg]

Kills: 59% | Items: 33% | Secrets: 25% | Time: 5:01 | Attempts: 3

Uh, what? What did I just play? This is a weird level. There are just so many things I don't understand. Awkward is the best word I have to describe this. Not counting joke maps or concept maps, this is the strangest Doom level I've ever played. Combat is cramped, and there is damaging sludge everywhere and no rad suits (I absolutely can't stand forced damage like this). And it appears you can just skip half the level if you want? There's a lack of everything here, Health, ammo, room to move. Being trapped in a room with a bunch of Hell Knights and Revenants and not a lot of firepower is not fun. Also the music track is a little unsettling. I suppose this level will feel less weird if you play continuously, but still, I didn't enjoy it. My least favourite map in the set so far. In fact, I don't even want to go back and play it again to see what the other half of the map was like. At least there are some cool visuals, like the boat in the lake...

[baja blast rd.]

Map 12: Dangeresque (UV)

The stretch of maps from 11 to 13 has been the most visually arresting so far. "Dangeresque" puts to beautiful use textures that I had written off as ugly: the brown iwad BIGBRIK, and the bronze Plutonia square. It's a good lesson in the value of skillfully constructed architecture and having a complementary color scheme -- if you get those right, you can create good-looking stuff with textures that are downright vomitous in isolation.

"Dangeresque" is a map that's all about decisions, decisions, decisions: 'zerk, or green armor; soulsphere, or blue armor; unlock all of the baddies methodically, or rush through and piss almost all of them off at once. I personally decided to proceed methodically, as usual, because I had no idea what I was getting myself into, of course. There is generally ample space to run away from every encounter, but you are given enough provisions to make it far from obligatory. The start is probably the most lethal part: the hitscanners (a cluster of sergeants, not chaingunners, on UV (!), which should tell you a bit about the intended difficulty level of the map) can chip your health away quite fast, and if you try to camp the opening tunnel, you might find yourself in an embarrassing sort of infinitely tall jam. I fell in both of those fashions, lol.

As an aside, if you look the overhead view of this map, you'll be able to pick out parts of the human anatomy. A liver in the southeast, some distorted blood cells in the middle, a heart-looking sort of thing. And guess what the player starts in.

Map 13: Ruins of Skania (HMP)

I should probably consider reading the extra info text file, or maybe even this thread, before deciding to drop difficulty levels again! Anyway, I'll probably stick with HMP henceforth, unless someone tells me that more breather maps are coming up. Now this map truly felt Skillsawesque on HMP, what with the megasphere and two of the soulspheres serving primarily as mistake insurance for encounters that are fun but somewhat challenging to get killed by if you stay alert. In this case, I actually did commit one significant mistake, by accidentally rocketing a newborn lost soul at near point blank range in the aftermath of the spider fight . . . so woohoo for having max health and armor when it happened, I guess. I won't even blame it on being lulled into a state of carelessness by the map's easygoing nature. I'm just an idiot.

This map might be the best-looking in Sunlust thus far. It's close between it and maps 3, 7, 11, and 12. It has my vote for the "would be most willing to bring a tent to and set up camp, if it weren't for all the lethal hell spawn and stuff" category. The zimmer set is one of the most non-shitty families of stock Doom2 textures, and the Adelusion brick set of maps 11 and 13 is one of the most reliable and versatile groups of custom textures. So it's somewhat unsurprising to see them look so good in tandem.

[baja blast rd.]

Music Rankings:

Map03
Map08
Map07
Map04
Map09
Map01
Map06
Map11
Map12
Map05
Map10
Map13
Map02

[baja blast rd.]

ArchvileHunter, are you planning on sticking with UV 'til the end? Would be interesting to see the attempt count for map 30. I'm wondering how many players beat that on UV without saves on the first day they played the map.

[Demonologist]

14: Troglobite
This map marks yet another stylistic shift which may be seen as a logical continuation of the previous minisode, only with temple/ancient ruins theme being more evident and zimmer-based texture scheme traded for brown(-ish) rocks. As a result - this cluster is a bit more sombre and moody than the previous one, while it still retains an earthly feel with a bit plutoniac/Brotherhood of Ruin-like structures all around.
Troglobite, in a sense, is a further development of Total Enclosure's gameplay ideas; my feedback as a playtester for this one was pretty much nonexistent I suppose, as I had beaten it start to finish without paying attention to all the optionality and exploration (not on purpose, I guess it's a predictable outcome when one doesn't know the map he's playing), reached the exit with ~43% kills, said "...oh" and called it a day back then. It kept bugging me actually, so it was one of the maps on my "to revisit and explore more thoroughly" list. And so I did revisit it. While the "conventional" walkthrough is pretty easy - it's optional areas and secrets that hold all the nasty surprises this map has to offer. Secret BFG fight is an exemplary illustration of the aforementioned "cyb and shit in a matchbox" kind of thing, very cramped, very lethal but still fun (and funny). Archvile/ring of chaingunners scenario is also quite evil when approached without foreknowledge. I can't really say which usage for the invul is optimal, yet it can be used on more than one occasion, I personally prefer taking it into said BFG fight.
What else to say? This map feels like a result of sorts of those little experiments Ribbiks was conducting in Crumpets. More elaborate of course, but I think some parallels can be drawn here, in terms of both aesthetics and gameplay. Again, interesting stuff with "overtime" exploration taking the main role, pretty forgettable without all the optional stuff, and modestly challenging/fun with it. And yeah, nice boat.

[Archvile Hunter]

rdwpa said:

ArchvileHunter, are you planning on sticking with UV 'til the end? Would be interesting to see the attempt count for map 30. I'm wondering how many players beat that on UV without saves on the first day they played the map.

It would be a shame to back off from UV after going nearly halfway through the wad, but if I do stay on UV, I might not be able to finish the set before the end of the month. In that case, I guess you'll just get my comments a little late. I will beat it though!

[NuMetalManiak]

rdwpa said:

Music Rankings:

Map03

YES

MAP14 Troglobite

Hey it's that actually toxic liquid from Swim with the Whales. How ya been? NOT.

not as good as the previous, kinda boring actually. the yellow key helps get the optional BFG I missed so long ago, although the luck-based, megasphere-ridden combat at that place is pretty borkishmuck. when you think about it, it's required for every secret. The one area with the rocket launcher was most painful though, with several enemies being priority targets ruining my concentration. two ways to reach the exit, unfortunately, going for it makes it a one-way trip for the most part. I remember missing the secrets on my first go here, and not figuring it out for awhile.