The DWmegawad Club plays: Japanese Community Project

[Demon of the Well]

kuchitsu said:

why are u playing with intercepts overflow animation?

It's called "being in denial." :D I think I was hoping to somehow find the exit, which would miraculously be one of those death-sector exits that I could hopefully use (I have no idea if you can actually use one while a ghost, for the record). But of course, I fell off the edge of the map. The rest is just me flailing about in a heady mix of sorrow and indignation.

Map 29 -- Hazmat Hazama - 95% Kills / 57% Secrets - FDA
One of Toooooasty's best qualities as a mapper, I think, is that he has a knack for establishing a rich sense of setting, which he demonstrates here in a map whose core concept is that it's a chaotic, irrational melting pot of many different worlds, some of which seem to be references to earlier levels in JPCP, some of which appear to be more 'classic' or fan-servicey in bent (e.g. the decimated visage of the original Icon of Sin), and a few of which are entirely new. As expected, the texture selection is a wide sampling of every major theme seen in the WAD thus far, tumbled and tossed together in a state of almost histrionic disarray, like some great cosmic piñata filled with the seedlings of disparate realities shattered in some unknowable cataclysm. The BGM track seemed similarly amorphous, like a blend of a number of different midis mixed and remixed into one--somewhere around the middle or so there's a bit that sounds terribly familiar, like part of a common (in PWADs) midi rendition of some popular/famous rock song from the 90s, but it's fleeting enough I couldn't put my finger on it.

If all of this sounds like just an unusually florid description of your standard Shores of Hell theme, don't let my lack of articulative ability lead you astray--Hazmat Hazama really is rather unique in look and feel, even if the general concept is something of a Doom staple. I would attribute this largely to the fact that toooooasty simply went full-bore rather than trying to show restraint, the result being a presentation that's so persistently inchoate that it seems to smack of its own fractured logic. The key to the immersion here, I think, is both that there is no particular convention used for the way different themes transition from one to another--that is, sometimes it's sharp/abrupt, prosecuted by a FIREBLU rift or the like, and others it's a smooth 'stepped transition (Hell-castle to Hell-forge to forge-base to base-in-space, etc.)--and that these transitions flow vertically as well as laterally, with many of the biggest changes occurring as you climb or (more often) drop from one tier of play to another. If there's a weak spot in the presentation, I reckon it's that the overall architectural sense is subtly but noticeably similar from theme to theme (no doubt the result of all being borne of one author's efforts), but there are some nice variations in area scale which help smooth this over, particularly the cement office 'overworld' near the end of the level as preceded by the deceptively tall and intricate stair-shift ravine, and the end area itself.

The action does not assert itself to anywhere near the degree that the setting does (which was perhaps the intention), featuring mostly light incidental fare with most of the few complications arising from distant/perched snipers of various types in some of the larger/longer areas, the largest concentrations of monster strength represented by a modest cacoswarm in the office-fragment and the cybertwins guarding the exit area. Very simple stuff, mostly, although I did notice that healing items are in surprisingly short supply, giving the proceedings sort of a slow-burn 'endurance' flavor, and moment-to-moment ammo availability could perhaps turn out to be a sore spot in some places if you don't find the backpack or some of the other secrets. To tell true, for the map 29 slot, the action here was really a bit more milquetoast than I'd personally like for it to be, but the level certainly has many exploratory virtues to help compensate, leading you on a psychedelic trip through sundry shades of reality as it does. One of the most interesting attributes of the design here is that the progression seems to be loaded with all kinds of skips (I got the red key conspicuously advertised at the start but never actually used it) via spidery little bits of parkour and the like, and yet none of these seem to truly break the level, a testament to how carefully thought-out its seemingly 'random' construction is.

I don't reckon this was my favorite of Toooooasty's maps in the set--not even close, really--but still very much a trip worth taking, methinks.

Map 30 -- Every Beginning Has an End - 507% Kills / 100% Secrets - FDA
I kinda like this FDA. On -cl 2 pistol-start there's a 'big little problem' where the plasma rifle and most of the cell ammo are unreachable by the player due to yet another instance of the floating item issue which has plagued the mapset, making the cyberdemon (who cannot leave his perch) much more of an issue than he otherwise would be. Still found a way to win, though--needs must!

Yes, it's a very traditional/standard-plan IoS fight to close with, doubtless to the chagrin of more than a few, although those players who simply cannot abide this kind of fight can take heart in knowing that there is no finicky timing trick involved in actually landing the rockets inside the Icon's skull--you simply have to survive long enough to hit the six switches to erect your firing point, and then brush away the bio-organic vagrant squatting on it before you can deliver the coup de grâce. For my part, I did have fun here, and I think the arena is probably suited for the 'survival challenge' I sometimes like to do with this type of map, although I suspect a disproportionate share of my initial enjoyment probably came from the impromptu challenge of surmounting the dysfunctional thing-balance, as there is little of note here in either concept or execution otherwise. I like for the IoS fight to have a lot more sense of spectacle to it, myself!

************

In many ways, this was very much in line with what one tends to expect from Community Chest-style mapsets, showcasing a wide range of talents and experience from the Japanese community and serving as a jumping-off point for what will hopefully be future mapping endeavors by its various participants. As expected (perhaps cynically...?) there were a handful of dud maps in the lot, but these were proportionately very minor and soundly overshadowed by the set's highlights. It's probably too early at this stage to start trying to make sweeping analyses of what the Japanese community's particular stylistic quirks might be (in comparison to something like the Russian scene, which is much easier to treat with in that way given its much larger body of work released to date) beyond an apparent affectation for technicolor visuals and a charming fascination with automap easter-eggs, but the most interesting tendency in the set as a whole that I saw (or thought I saw) was a penchant for blending oldschool and newschool design sensibilities together, whereas in the west these have a tendency to be treated as distinctly separate (and occasionally opposed) approaches to mapping, which lent the project an unusually unpredictable difficulty curve and a subtle feel to call its own. Hard to say if this will prove true of other Japanese projects, especially given the existence of more openly challenge-oriented levels like the one Masa posted a little a ways up, but I certainly hope we all get to find out in the weeks, months, and years to come.

My top 5 maps from the set, in no particular order, were:

Map 32 -- Blood Fund Gang
Map 10 -- The Odd Encampment
Map 28 -- HeLLport
Map 25 -- Cakravartin's Miscalculation
Map 17 -- UAC Energy Plant

[KBlaney]

Finished at work today... because, you know, priorities.

Map 29: As others have commented here, this map is all sorts of strange basically containing bits of all sorts of other maps together as if to suggest that the teleportation experiments have gone completely out of control. It, frankly, looks amazing and is the greatest “mind eff” level in this WAD second maybe only to Bad Morning.

Map 30: Fairly decent as IoS levels go. Forgiving amounts of health and a bit of cover useful to let the monsters kill the Cyberdemon. Also, the cherry blossom tree coming out of the IoS's head in the last scene is a nice touch.

Finished the WAD proper, but didn't have time to go back and cheat my way to the secret levels and play them from a pistol start, but that's okay. The maps that really stood out to me as having interesting ideas were 8, 13, 15, 25, 29. I also really liked the design of 6. I would have liked 28 a bunch better if I weren't worn out by some of the longer levels leading up to it. The slaughter with the Cybers and the Barrons while invulnerable was really good fun.

I'm happy to have finished. See you guys next month.

[Crusader No Regret]

Map 24: 100% kills, 8/11 secrets

When I saw the start room, I imagined that there were secrets in different areas that would lead to the goodies with the textures on the walls being hints to where the secret entrances would be. What the map delivers is rather different.

More automap art: who is that a face of in the crate maze?

I'm easily amused by areas that look like real places so the school with computer lab, classroom, living quarters (and a disgruntled janitor) put a smile on my face. It's probably for the better that the area is small.

Crate maze, who hasn't seen those a thousand times? I suppose every map author tries one of these at some point. Fun in that old-school way I guess. Most of the map's secrets are located here. I did feel a sense of accomplishment in finding most of them.

Village was inoffensive but unremarkable too. The 3x3 square I didn't care for as much. Navigation is inconvenient but it's the forced pickups which lowered my perception of the area.

Has that early 90's quirkiness present. The light amp goggles don't serve much purpose in this map and it's a bit of a stretch to use the blur sphere. Still meatier and more fun than some early Hell Revealed maps.

Issue? It's very easy to knock the archvile in the crate maze (the one used for an AV jump) off it's platform. Unless this is deliberate, maybe place monster blocking lines to prevent that?

Map 25: 100% kills, 3/3 secrets

I managed to die on this one from pistol start when scouting this map. Sad, isn't it? I hadn't found any armor but it was still clumsy to run into so many projectiles.

Focus is on exploration and atmosphere. The floor texturing that looks like power line add to the feel of hell combined with tech. Small additional details such as the power going out near the end add to the atmosphere. One of the few walls which don't darken is a hint for a secret, an interesting way of providing a hint. Imagining that the cell pack in the secret is powering that sector is another small detail that adds to the immersion.

Gameplay is mostly incidental but there are some interesting features when pistol starting. Weapons are placed quite a distance from each other so it takes some trekking to acquire them. Armor is far from the start. Nearly every area in the map can be reached from multiple directions (which led to me thinking about level design tips from "The Hacker's Guide to Doom.")

The lost souls that fly out from the exit surprised me since looking at my kill counter showed zero live monsters. Well done. Enjoyable map overall.

Idea: Have the secret with the cell pack darken upon entering it. With the power source gone, it makes sense.
Minor quirk: At the exit, black void where broken stairway would be doesn't damage. Since those are in inescapable death pits anyways, probably makes no difference.

[kuchitsu]

Oops, I meant to say EMULATION. Like, you can turn off intercepts overflow emulation in the settings so you'll never experience the problem again.

[Dylan Jarvis]

MAP25

When I first started this map I almost instantly recognized the song. Breaking Benjamin - So Cold. Not a bad choice. I liked this map for the most part, it was a fun nonlinear, circular map of death where you have to search for 3 keys to open up the middle which only shits out a handful of lost souls lol. No big deal it's a pretty good map.

[Dylan Jarvis]

MAP26

I don't know what to think of this map. At some points I like it, like the stair stair grid room that kept rising. Then there's annoying slog fest style stuff like the Archvile baron encounter. The map also felt way bigger then it actually was. One of the secrets seemed to require another monster to trigger the lift to get to it, wasn't a fan of that either. I am just glad I'm finally done with this one phew!

[Dylan Jarvis]

MAP27

Hello Sunlust. A nice visually impressive puzzle keen map. Not too difficult despite having a heavy arch-vile trap towards the end. It's fun but the keen hunting can be quite annoying especially one where you have to run down the stairs really fast, I failed that one many times. The first Cyber was also a pain in the ass to take down. Other than that this map was quite short and calming to get through. Not bad but not particularly my favorite so far.

[Dylan Jarvis]

MAP28

Alright I'll be more fair with what I thought about this map. The design is pretty good but the level is a bit symmetrical in a lot of areas so it kind of gets boring for me. The music I feel wasn't well suited for this map as it's not a smooth going map. It's actually quite difficult. There are so many moments with Arch-viles with barely any cover, there's also a lot of annoying pop up enemies used in this map. I'm sitting there trying to dodge imp fire balls then I accidentally trigger revenant snipers (which there were a lot of in this map). One of the secrets also annoyed me, you need a overly precise strafe run to get to it. This map kind of reminded me of Hell Revealed's the Path, but luckily this map is miles better in every way. It's just a very slow map with some annoying enemy placements that can be unforgiving at times but I'm glad to have beaten it.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP28: HeLLport

Playing the version of this that's included in JPCP_v1.1.WAD rather than the proferred updates.

This one doesn't do a lot for me. It's epic in scale, has a real sense of grandeur and a strong, consistent aesthetic theme to it, but the gameplay quickly becomes predictable and tedious, a succession of large-scale ambushes featuring an increasingly un-fun concentration of arch-viles. I can appreciate the work that's gone into it even if I find the gameplay unsatisfying.

MAP29: Hazmat Hazama

Big and ferocious, with a unique aesthetic in which multiple different environments have been broken up and now hang suspended together in a bloody crimson void, fragments of factories and offices separated from dungeons, caverns, and Hellish castles only by the most slender of chasms into vertigo-inspiring nothingness. This does make it a little tricky to navigate, with areas joining in unexpected ways, and lots of rough surfaces the player has to scramble up between floors of significantly different heights. There were quite a few points where I found myself wondering just where to go next. On the other hand, it's not nearly so overwhelming as the immediately preceding map, and this is an instance where the fusion of several vasty different aesthetics and architectural styles really gels into an incoherent but cohesive whole.

Fittingly for a level that's a mash-up of different parts, the music fuses Doom's E1M5 Suspense with Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit.

[Dylan Jarvis]

MAP29

.... You're kidding right? This map has so much hype around it and I just don't get it. It's a cool map idea and all but, it's fucking impossible to figure out where to go. As with all non-linear maps (which I hate with a fiery passion) there was no sense of progression here. The only difficult thing in this map is navigation. Every room just feels like jumbled mess, just like the idea of this map. I just don't think it is fun at all, and is not a sole reason to play this wad like some people have said.

MAP30

A pretty good Icon of Sin map. If only they all played like this.

[plums]

Demon of the Well said:

Map 28 -- HeLLport - -- / -- - FDA, DNF (see below). Uses map28_masa_v6_0.wad.

Ouch, how disappointing, right at the end too. Like kuchitsu said you can disable intercepts overflow in PrBoom+, there's really no good reason to have it enabled, unless you like the authenticity and/or living dangerously. Though sometimes when I watch your FDAs I think bugs are the only thing that could stop you! ;)

masajin8 said:

* As the project members told me, if I have more time, I might release this map in my wad, which could be no-mercy-maps project.

Your maps are great Masa! Please post on Doomworld when you make more.

[Pirx]

getting this finished before boarding the alien ship.


MAP28 - “HeLLport” by Masa

a hellish port in a sea of lava, complete with rusty iron docks and a ship anchored, a monumental sight. takes some time to complete. monster density is rather low for most of the map, as they're kept for the last battles, but still tricky because the open area allows revenant missiles to go in circles and hit you in the neck if you don't keep track of them. also, arch-viles are deployed pretty often, together with said revenants. you have to search the docks for the blue and yellow key, while resistance gets progressively stiffer, and then hell breaks loose as you approach the red one. nuke the 3-4 archviles quickly, the rest is mostly harmless. you're not done however, the corridor is an battle against archviles and a wall of imps (where demon of the well's demo ended, hilarious thing), and the following part with the cyber on a pillar and the teleporting viles killed me, after having survived everything until here, meh, that was a bit too many of them. i expected the map to end with me leaving port somehow.




launched him off the ship, now he's pissed ^^


MAP29 - “hazmat hazama” by Toooooasty

oh the map everyone seems to like, except for tactical stiffy. well, i like it too, because i'm a sucker for surreal maps. this one isn't just made of various themes mixed like in a beginner map, they're joined like in a unfinished puzzle of fragments floating in a red sky, with even the nirvana remix sounding like a demented version of something i recognized, and forming a consistent world, the corrupted reality before hell ends. gameplay-wise it isn't as hard as the previous map, seems more centered on resource management: i had little ammo in the beginning and had to make use carefully of the rockets i found. anyway, thanks Toooooasty for making this map.


MAP30 - “Every beginning has an end” by burabojunior

oh, your icon of sin map. but i'm glad they just made a good fight instead of some contrived way to launch rockets into a hole. you run circles around a cyb on a pillar (who infights with everyone else) until you can take his place and simply blast the icon in the face.


overall, i'm pleasantly surprised by the japanese project. many good maps, and if tatsurd said somewhere that many mappers are beginners in the project, then i can only imagine what maps they'll make in the future. good work, really.

[Dylan Jarvis]

Pirx said:

oh the map everyone seems to like, except for tactical stiffy. well, i like it too, because i'm a sucker for surreal maps.

Yeah I played Map25-28 all back to back so I may have been burnt out a bit from the long maps that when I got to 29 I was just ready to be done already. I'll probably go back and play it again to see if I feel differently next time.

[Demon of the Well]

plums said:

Your maps are great Masa! Please post on Doomworld when you make more.

Seconded.

Also, thanks memfis/Plums for the headsup about the disable spechits overflow flag or whatever it is. I'm still not entirely clear on some of the nuances of PrB+'s functionality (i.e. which command line-designated complevels override which parts of the user config settings and which don't, that sort of thing), but henceforth I'll toggle that particular flag, much obliged. The intercepts overflow bug is amusing in its way, but not quite so much near the end of a long FDA!

[plums]

As I understand it (and I'm very likely wrong about something) :

Everything under Options -> General is unaffected by complevels. Some settings (like jumping) are always disabled when recording a demo or playing a netgame. I think some command-line parameters can override these settings, e.g. -spechits.

I thought these settings weren't saved in demos (TimeOfDeath has a few demos where he specifies that you must disable intercepts overflow and enable all the other ones, or the demo won't work) but your demo "correctly" showed an intercepts overflow when I have that setting disabled, so maybe that's changed.


Options -> Setup -> Doom compatibility are affected by complevels. Only PrBoom+ complevels actually care about what is there, common cl like 2 or 9 override those settings entirely.

Some other choices in Options -> Setup -> whatever are affected by complevels I think, like best weapon selection, probably all the Enemies settings, etc.

[Crusader No Regret]

A few more maps to comment on

Map 26: 100% kills, 3/3 secrets

Secrets were the highlights for me. Early berserk secret is interesting to reach. Easy to access in multiplayer; single player mode takes some engine exploitation. I also found the false wall early and kept checking back when I passed through. "Is it open yet?"

"Legendary Beast" is the music track. Thought it sounded weird but when I fired up Epic 2 to compare, they sounded the same so blame PrBoom-plus for mangling the midi.

Ow, ow, ow, ow, this map isn't to my tastes. Gameplay is almost a polar opposite of the previous map and I enjoyed that one so this is somewhat predictable. Highly choreographed encounters dominate the combat with many of them locking the player into confined spaces. It also has my pet peeve of forced pickups so I end up wasting ammo. I bothered to count at least three blue armors but given the amount of pain the map dishes out, one is likely to use every one. The BFG arena with the imps and chaingunners with an archvile appearing on a timed lift is memorably vicious.

I do have praise for the obligatory end cyber. Seems like a simple hallway kill but the stairway makes things deceptively tricky when it comes to controlling one's movement. Also increased risk of eating splash damage.

There's a balcony to climb on at the ending castle bit but nothing to find up there. Was there something there during development? Seems like a neat hiding spot for something. Invulnerability for easy skill and cell pack on HMP and UV is what comes to mind but I'm not the mapper.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP30: Every beginning has an end

Solid as Icon of Sin maps go, with the cyberdemon's liberal shovelling of rockets into your wake giving rise to an entertainingly chaotic brawl as you charge your way from switch to switch. The scenery is nothing to write home about (stacked blocks of dark grey masonry) but it's hardly as if you'll have the time to stand around and appreciate it.

[Crusader No Regret]

Map 27: 100% kills, 1/1 secret

The setting and the exploratory gameplay wins me over, this ends up as one of my most memorable outings. (insert gushing over the visuals) Guess I'm in the minority here; the first thing I connect this with is "Green Madness" from Whitemare 2. The gameplay is very different from that map. Some handy design decisions such as a shortcut teleport so one only needs to solve the first jumping puzzle once, the candles, and not much required traversal of damage floors

With lots of islands over damaging ooze, I'm not inclined to search for secrets. Only found it near the end when I brought up the automap and happened to spot a purple line that marks a secret sector.

Is being exposed to revenant rockets while ascending into the temple with berserk and yellow key gate intentional? It's too far away to attack from that position; I lured a hellknight pair into removing that threat. Faraway monsters firing from out of range is a present factor early on but not really so much later.

With the environmental hints, I didn't have trouble locating the Keens. Only snag was losing count and determining which gate opened.

Found a safe position to cheese the first cyber near the Keen locked gate. There is a tradeoff as it is tricky to pelt it with plasma from the spot I found and ammo is tight enough to be uncomfortable on pistol start.

Map 28: 100% kills, 4/6 secrets

Played this before the update appeared. 4 monsters never appeared: AV resurrections are what produced the kill %. This map is a beast that will take time to conquer. My early impressions were unfavorable: many revenants in open space with almost no cover and primarily setpiece based encounters. Found the start disorienting and then coming under fire while the screen is still bright also left a sour impression. I second DotW in making the guns available before the forced teleport sequence. The setting and the music slowly won me over; turning point was seeing the waiting area with benches.

Several secrets appear to require AV jumps. There's one that appears to need one but actually doesn't, found that clever.

Having carryover BFG made life easier and more fun. There are some rather difficult encounters that took many attempts to win. Definitely glad for savegames; taking this monster in one attempt is beyond my skill level. The first cyber is quite the interesting encounter as this is one instance where I liked the partial invisibility. Still somewhat luck based but it's much more likely it will aggro monsters taking potshots from the dock. The red key brawl ended up fun and is one of the easier setpieces. I went with luring everything to the center and staying out of the cyberdemons' way while putting them to work. Almost did that first try and no damage but got greedy and got hurt by lava evading shots.

Part of what I found memorable is putting advanced skills to use I forget about. 6 Mancubi; 3 BFG shots (this is only available in continuous since it's before the BFG). I tend to forget that the BFG works even if switching weapons after the green ball is launched yet this is what I did in the setpiece beyond the blue bars so I could start laying down rocket fire earlier. At the very end, ended up launching a pre-empative strike by launching some rockets where archviles would appear before they arrived.

There are other fun encounters and I enjoyed finding exploits to make life easier or finding alternate paths to skip triggers. Climbing on the edges of a structure in the middle of the port, for example. Also discovered and alternate approach for the rush behind the red bars. Take an archvile hit that throws the player out a window then attack the archviles from the other side from a much safer position. Highly breakable map though that's a factor in my enjoyment of it too.

[Crusader No Regret]

And wrapping up...

Map 29: 94% kills, 3/7 secrets

Wow, what a trip. Reality breaking apart at the seams. With the wild a varied texturing, this could be a disaster in less talented hands. Here, it's pulled off with such style. Really is a sight to see. And to play with most areas having multiple approaches, invisible staircases (thankfully not on the required path), and kooky architecture. It's like some force ripped various areas from reality/other maps and this is the graveyard where they end up.

More automap art: Is that Doomguy with rabbit ears in that west secret area?

The setting is very much the star of the show. On HMP continuous, the opposition is a pushover. Somewhat more interesting gameplay dynamic from pistol start, more so if one doesn't find any secrets. Primary weapon is the rocket launcher with others acting more as backup for when rockets would be dangerous to the player. I didn't understand the point of the invisibility at the start at first until the first pain elemental shot a lost soul off to the side (and more importantly, leaving a line of fire for rockets). Ah. No SSG either, it's hidden in a secret. Plasma rifle too though not BFG (given the weirdness level of the map, it's fitting).

The secrets are another strong point. The required path isn't too hidden but it's very possible to not find any secrets. They're rather well hidden and even IDDT is not much help in sniffing out how to actually reach them. The means of accessing each one are varied. There are environmental hints though there's also a sense of mystery. I found the yellow key in one with no clue where to use it. I got to the exit with only three of them (as seen above).

Loaded up the save again because I stubbornly wanted 100% kills. Did find the way to the last monsters. The double lock room is an interesting curiosity. Unlocked the path to the backpack right when I was on the way to the exit after topping off. Still didn't discover where the blue key is used.

Map 30: 290% kills, 1/1 secret

as far as Icon maps go, this is inoffensive. No timing trickery is very welcome.

Overall:
Had no idea what to expect when diving into this, was pleased by what I found. Very playable and moderate difficulty (most of the time) provides a high "pickup" factor for casual play. Even the maps that felt derivative were at worst decent and had their fun moments. Favorite five maps for me are 8, 17, 25, 27, and 29. 15. 19. and 32 are worth checking out.

[Manbou]

Hi,everybody.I reflected your opinions in my maps.Some maps were thoroughly modified to improve the visuals and playing environment.When you play this wad again,I really hope you'll enjoy them and this wad will become your favorite one forever.

[rehelekretep]

sounds great! please let us know when you have the final release ready :)

[Lingyan203]

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgS1ZoidySwNS-JRrPM6t5yTwtAukgwJA

Here's my playthrough of JPCP if anybody wants to check it out!