The DWmegawad Club plays: Estranged

[dobu gabu maru]

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

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

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

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

When do we vote on the next month’s megawad?
Voting begins on the 25th of the current month. Remember to add a “+++” before your vote to make it easier to count.

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>>>DOWNLOAD ESTRANGED HERE<<<

The resplendent beauty of stock vanilla textures await us in Foodles’ Estranged! While it appears to be a typical Doom fare through techbases and hell from a glance, but a massive adventure surely awaits! So strap on your hiking shoes and get ready for a journey!

Maplist for Estranged:

Quote

MAP01 - "Outpost”
MAP02 - "Waste Treatment”
MAP03 - "Survey Centre”
MAP04 - "Venom”
MAP05 - "Dust N Bones”
MAP06 - "Razor”
MAP07 - "Scream”
MAP08 - "Reptile”
MAP09 - "Torture Chambers”
MAP10 - "Deadlands”
MAP11 - "Baron Keep”
MAP12 - "Dig Site”
MAP13 - "Dark Heart”
MAP14 - "Fissure”
MAP15 - "The Floating Fortress”

MAP31 - “The Tomb”
MAP32 - "Void Walker”

MAP16 - "Battle Room”
MAP17 - "Twisted Realms”
MAP18 - "Crater”
MAP19 - "Haunted Mines”
MAP20 - "The Rift”
MAP21 - "Hell Hole”
MAP22 - "The Bloodworks”
MAP23 - "Eye of Misery”
MAP24 - "Scorching Back”
MAP25 - "The Depths”
MAP26 - "Valley of Defilement”
MAP27 - "Flame Peak”
MAP28 - "Astral Plane”
MAP29 - "Sheol”
MAP30 - "Chimes at Midnight”

BONUS CONTENT
DSDA
kmxexii’s review
Lingyan203's playthrough
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OLD THREADS
2012

• BF_THUD!
• Community Chest 4
• Jenesis
• MAYhem 2012

2013

• Memento Mori
• Interception
• 2002: A Doom Odyssey
• Hadephobia
• Coffee Break & Fava Beans & Double Impact
• HYMN
• Stardate 20X6 & Monochrome Mapping Project
• Realm of Chaos
• Back to Saturn X E1 & Favillesco E1
• Kama Sutra
• Unholy Realms & Zone 300
• Vile Flesh
• Ultimate Doom

2014

• Whitemare & Sacrament
• Scythe
• Epic 2
• Whitemare 2
• Sunder & Countdown to Extinction
• Doom 2 the Way id Did
• MAYhem2048
• Stomper
• Back to Saturn X E2
• Going Down
• Rylayeh & Crimson Canyon & Azagthoth
• Serenity & Eternity & Infinity

2015

• Resurgence
• Requiem
• ConC.E.R.N.ed & Draft Excluder
• Doom 2 Reloaded
• Valiant
• Scythe 2
• NOVA II
• STRAIN
• Icarus: Alien Vanguard
• Sunlust
• Plutonia 2
• Revolution!

2016

• 50 Shades of Graytall & Erkattäññe
• Hell Revealed
• Vanguard, Hell Ground, Bloody Steel
• Eternal Doom
• Japanese Community Project
• Ancient Aliens
• Bloodstain

Spoiler

http://www.lovethispic.com/uploaded_images/115031-Memories-Are-Made-With-Love...happy-Anniversary.gif?1

 

Edited May 9, 2023 by dobu gabu maru

[Spectre01]

Been refreshing to see the thread come up! :P

Playing with the usual Zandronum 3.0, loads of visual mods and UV-Pistol Start, since the text file recommends it. Also, since it claims to use vanilla textures, I can give the HD Texture mod a whirl. (Those rocks bruh...)

Map 01: Outpost

A rather typical map 01 opener here, complete with D_RUNNIN and a Chainsaw as the first weapon grab. I rarely tend to use it in wads but here I killed quite a few monsters with it since the map is packed with high pain-chance enemies weak to sawing, like Imps, Pinkies and Cacodemons. The Shotgun I skipped on using entirely, as the Chaingun with "infinite ammo" was considerably better here. I did like the trek to the mountain outpost with the yellow key, which kept it from feeling like a generic techbase map. The Berserk placement in the exit room is a bit of a head-scratcher as it would've been more useful as a Chainsaw alternative, maybe before the outdoor area with the Demon horde. I guess it's there to top up continuous players since I can't image needing it to punch anything since everything should be dead on your quest for the yellow key, unless you intentionally skipped enemies.

[baja blast rd.]

I'm planning on using a music pack with Estranged. Maybe MM2MUS or the like. At least with map01.

dobu gabu maru said:

Spoiler

http://www.lovethispic.com/uploaded_images/115031-Memories-Are-Made-With-Love...happy-Anniversary.gif?1

lol

[Salt-Man Z]

Well, I was looking forward to replaying AV, but! since this bad boy was on my to play list already, that works too. As usual, GZDoom/continuous/keyboard-only/saves, and since I'm feeling lucky, I'ma try this one on UV.

MAP01: Outpost
7:16 | 100% Everything

Right away we go from a lovely new title music to...D_RUNNIN. Normally I don't have anything against Ye Olde Map One Muzak, but it was pretty jarring here! As far as the level itself goes, it was pretty breezy. Only the revvie near the end gave me a scare, and I was able to stunlock him with my chaingun easily enough. Fairly nondescript locale to start, but it makes for a pretty nice MAP01. I liked the outdoor area, sparse as it was, and the secrets were decent. Overall, nothing too exciting, but it's nice and polished and bodes well for future maps.

[Suitepee]

I may participate in this month's DWMC, time pending. (never heard of Estranged before) I still kind of want to get down and dirty on getting my NOVA 3 map out, especially now that I've finally finished Fallout 4.

[sudo459]

I think I'll participate this round, since last time I couldn't. I'll do prboom, uv, continuous.

MAP01:
A decent opener. The detailing seemed bare, but adequate. Combat was entertaining as well, it's rare to play chainsaw-centric maps, though, I still used chaingun and shotgun more, as there was plenty of ammo. The mountainous area offered a few surprises. Seeing a rad suit, I knew to expect nukage, so it was a bit confusing at first to see none. But there was some. This area is also where the level really picks up. After beating the level, you are greeted with the exit room from the first level. As such, I might end up doing a continuous run, as, to me, it would feel weird with one level starting where the last left off, yet I only get a pistol. Hmm....

-Edit: changed from doing pistol starts to continuous.

[Steve D]

I should get farther into this mapset than I did with Bloodstain, which I played up through Map07, I just didn't do my last 3 write-ups. I was in a hurry to finish a project last month, which I've just delivered, so I'll finally have a little more free time.

As usual, GZDoom, UV pistol-starts, keyboard-only, savescumming like the scared little bitch I am.

Map01. First, hit IDMUS18 to clear away D_RUNNIN. Then, grab that chainsaw and carve up the Imps. This draws a few zombieboys that I also carved up, but there's plenty of hitscanners and as a result I, the turkey-carver, get well-ventilated, so I switch to Chaingun at my earliest convenience.

Architecture is orthogonal and blocky, with simple detailing, but that's okay with me. Some nice cast light here and there. The design is mazey but has enough height variation to provide windows -- 64 units across! -- for the hitscanners and Imps to target you without giving them too much of an advantage, so it's a bit of a snipey map but doesn't go overboard.

The only aggravating part is going outdoors. Distant, sniping hitscanners have already hit a bunch of Pinkys, which draws them to the cliffs and in the process draws your auto-aim fire so you can't shoot the snipers directly. Very meta-gamey, as DotW would say, using an engine feature to prevent you from performing direct action. You can always charge across the open field and hope for the best, but the sniper with the best vantage point is a Chaingunner, so that approach could put you in serious trouble. I chose to cower behind a cliff and pop away at the Pinkys, drawing 2 in to be carved and shotgunning the rest. Then I was finally able to exterminate the snipers. So this sequence, for me at least, was effectively a speedbump.

It was nice jumping around in the rocks above. Ended the map with a UV-Max and zero deaths, something i can rarely brag about. ;D Even though this map was easy, there are telltale signs that a hammer is waiting to come down ahead. There were certain little bits of nasty here and there, so I doubt this megawad will be a cakewalk.

[NuMetalManiak]

hey guys guess what I'M PLAYING THIS ON UV! I've actually done some testing on this whole megawad before it was released, and I did so on ITYTD and with pistol starts, now I'm doing this with UV and continuous and you probably think that I'm crazy or something. Well I'm always crazy so deal with it. Oh and more reason for me not to enjoy IWAD music here as I made my own music wad to play with it. I'm real glad we're finally playing it now since I can spill out the things I've noted.

BTW if anyone is playing ZDoom and has looked ahead into the maps, they might have noticed that there were some texture errors in a few of them. I'm not sure what was up with that and I hope it isn't an issue here since these errors popped up during my testing as well.

MAP01 Outpost

I actually DON'T remember the little chainsaw area to the side, I guess that was new, but yes, this is pretty typical. Getting the chaingun is pretty good, and I used it for much of the level. Those snipers are of course a pain and need to be taken out as quickly as possible. Overall, it works for an opener and that's that.

[Seele00TextOnly]

Gonna try to get back into this. Should've done last month but would've started sort of late, oh well. Gonna aim for pistol starts and UV.

Map 01

At first I sort of didn't care too much for the map, what with the tight right angle hallways and such. And I guess in general i'm not a fan of that sort of layout but I suppose i'm picky. Anyway the gameplay with the chainsaw and chaingun I liked a bunch; probably my two favorite weapons. I tried a few times to do the map without any saves but eventually gave in and saved anyway, though i only ended up needing to reload from there once. Liked the outdoors area personally, also liked having to pickoff hitscanners with the chaingun. Deliberately sawed through everything else which was nice. Hopefully the chainsaw is dropped liberally in other maps too though i understand if it's overlooked.

[thaquoth]

In an effort to play some more Doom, I'll try to participate in this as well.

Gonna play on UV, but continuously. Comfort zones and stuff. If that ends up being detriment to my enjoyment I might switch to pistol starts. If it ends up kicking my poor butt to smithereens, I might reduce difficulty. I'm probably not an experienced player enough to have any interesting frame of reference, but I'll try to have a few thoughts anyways. :)

Onwards, then:

Map 01 - Outpost

I usually tend to severely underuse the chainsaw, so having a map heavily incentivising its use was great fun. Nothing at all challenging or anything, but a fun romp. Good opener. In terms of visuals: pretty blocky, angular look in general, but seems to be executed with great intent. Not all 90° angles are created equal. Gives it a slight brutalist vibe that I dig.

[gaspe]

I have already played the wad not so long ago, and reviewed for the /newstuff Chronicles, so I won't join neither this month. For sure it will be interesting to hear your thoughts on it, it's very different from the wads you played in the past two months.

[grahf]

I'm going to attempt to play along this month, looks fun! Playing on UV with pistol starts and no gameplay mods in GZDoom.

Map 01 Outpost: Not much to say here. A very short techbase-ish level with some outdoor nukage exploration. You get a chainsaw very early which helps with a lack of initial shotgun ammo. Later in the level I was overloaded with chaingun ammo, so mostly I finished the level using that. Again, not a lot to talk about, a very quick and easy map at under 4 minutes. Visually, I can't see anything to complain about but nothing really exciting either.

[rehelekretep]

will try and stick with this for August! Bloodstain just wore me out :(

UV, pistol starts, no saves
-------------------------

demo here

perfectly acceptable little map; a little bit too easy if you ask me, playing on UV i expect something with some minor challenge, the revenant was the only real danger but i had 200 bullets by then.

as Foodle has managed to make a 32-map wad i can only imagine D_RUNNIN is an artistic choice!

i am guessing the berserk pack is so continuous and pistol-starters have 100hp when they enter map02?

[Benjogami]

I'm gonna try to do complevel 2 FDAs this time. This will probably result in some failures to exit when levels kill me a bunch. Or I might change it up.

MAP01: Outpost (100% kills 0% secrets)

Pretty cool level. My only complaint is that the non-linearity is superfluous: 50% chance of doing it in the right order, with empty backtracking as the consequence for not.

The midi is a choice that I respect. It sets a tone of "welcome to the start of something familiar." I had a peek into MAP02 to see what that midi was, and I also enjoyed the first look and sound of that one for similar reasons. Gettin good vibes at the start.

[rehelekretep]

Benjogami: afaik this is a complevel 9 wad (going by DSDA)

[Benjogami]

rehelekretep said:

Benjogami: afaik this is a complevel 9 wad (going by DSDA)

Ah okay, thanks. I didn't see anything in the thread or txt file so I assumed. :D

[rehelekretep]

yeah neither did i, the text file with the wad is particularly bad! no map names or comp level or anything, where did dobu get the info from?

[Spectre01]

When in doubt, pick complevel 9. When the text file says complevel 2, pick 9 anyways. :P
Moving on:

Map 02: Waste Treatment

I mentioned before, probably in the "favourite settings" thread, that industrial nukage maps are my least favourite in Doom. I tend to audibly groan whenever I see "Waste Processing", "Nukage Factory", "Toxin Refinery" or any combination of those terms in a map name. I'm just not a fan of that aesthetic. However, this map is quite short and linear so the green stuff doesn't overstay its welcome. Gameplay here is very straightforward with not much in the way of threatening fights. Unlike map01, you don't get a Chainsaw or Berserk here, which is a darn shame since the author sure loves spamming Demons and Spectres. Chaingun ammo isn't as plentiful either, so the majority of the map is spent 2-3 shotting those with the regular Shotgun. This is not exactly fun since they appear form the front and it's a matter of baiting a bite and stepping back repeatedly until 10 or so of them are dead. Repeat several times. Certainly feels rather oldschool compared to the usual you get in modern wads. The detailing is also very minimal and square, with the occasional computer monitors and whatnot but nothing that really stands out. Another ok intro map.

[baja blast rd.]

-complevel 2 is really irritating if you are ever going to, like, die. The way sounds cut each other off is cute, which is why I like holding down fire with the SSG in the blue skull room of "Courtyards" while picking up those health bonuses, but if you ever die in a big scrum, it's like, your screen just drops and you don't even hear what killed you, which makes it feel like the game glitched out.

It was the first third of this run (the part with running directly into the busy workspace of a couple dozen hitscanners and hoping they don't kill me) that made me decide to avoid -cl 2 as much as possible from that point on.

The secrets are hilarious though.

[rehelekretep]

maybe ill post this in the doom confessions thread; i still have no real idea what the differences between the complevels are :o

[Benjogami]

Heh, me neither. While I know it's more nuanced, in my mind 2 is vanilla is 9 Boom.

Now using complevel 9!

MAP02: Waste Treatment

This layout managed to confuse me somehow. I think maybe it's because I assumed the switch that lowered the bridge was nothing more than a troll, which I really enjoyed, but maybe it opened something that I didn't notice was closed. But in any case I stumbled successfully to the exit without much trouble. The troll blursphere helped a solo HK do some serious damage to me though. :D

The map was too generous with shells, and had me thinking more about how to not waste pickups than anything else.

[baja blast rd.]

map01

A pretty compact narrative/goal map: retrieve the yellow key from the outpost and escape from the abandoned nukage-overrun base. It hands the chainsaw to you early, but I'm weird: I don't actually enjoy chainsawing pinkies and cacos, the latter with their microscopic but annoying chance of avoiding painstun. I much prefer hell knights, pain elementals and their progeny, and sneaking up on an unsuspecting dickish chaingunner. But there is lots of bullet ammo, and the monster placement is casual enough for you to not kill most things, so it plays smoothly enough, except for the cramped geometry. Almost forgot: blah blah typical map01 blah blah.

[Aquanet]

MAP01: Outpost

Zdoom, HMP for now, continuous

I like how the first long walkway is submerged just below the level of the outdoors, so you can watch all the little pinky legs trundling by. The mazeyness is like Doom 1, but I didn't mind it as the twisting is part of filling out a base shape. The yellow key room was a breath of fresh air after Bloodstain - monsters are released in the next room instead of inside your nasal cavity. You have a chance to think about how you'll approach them. The chaingun-first ethic is nice. There's more going on with height variation in this level than I noticed on first playthrough, including some up-high murder holes manned by sergeants.

[grahf]

Map 02 Waste Treatment:

A nukage-laced techbase level that is once again quite short and easy. There are many more sniper spots than Map 01 but nothing difficult to deal with. Also lots of pinkies on this level so those playing continuous will appreciate the berserk at the end of Map 01 - for the rest of us with deal with them using plentiful shotgun ammo.

[Spectre01]

grahf said:

Also lots of pinkies on this level so those playing continuous will appreciate the berserk at the end of Map 01

The effect doesn't carry over into map02 though so that Berserk is pretty much there just to top you up to 100HP. But continuous players will appreciate keeping the Chainsaw which us pistol scrubs will have to do without. :P

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP02: Waste Treatment
8:39 | 100% Everything

I didn't even think to use my chainsaw on the pinkies; just spent scads of shells (of which there were plenty offered.) As a continuous player, I actually don't mind a bit of challenge coming from starting a level below 100% health; I think it helps balance out the carryover of weapons/ammo. Of course, it also all depends on how stingy or generous the mapper is with health pickups throughout the level. In this case, the berserk was nice on account of the mandatory nukage drop, complete with hallway-blocking demon and subsequent nasty sergeant ambush. I think I lost 40% in under 10 seconds right there.

I'm also not a big fan of nukage maps, but this one wasn't too bad. In fact it was pretty easy; I didn't even get a chance to save, I blew through it so quickly, and didn't even realize I was at the exit until I tried opening the final door. (Not a big of unmarked exits like that.) Fortunately I had managed to max out the level by that point, though I missed out on going back to top off my health and ammo. The only time I came close to death (and very close!) was early on, when I decided to snipe away at the turret revenants, and carelessly caught a rocket in the face. Took me down to I think 4% health, but I miraculously survived (after finishing off the revenants) to find a medikit. Enjoyable level, though I could go for something a bit more meaty/lengthy at this point.

[Steve D]

Map02 -- I quite enjoyed this one. Unlike rileymartin, I'm always up for a lovely nukage base, and this one does not disappoint. IMO a major improvement over Map01, this one has a sense of place and really feels like a spartan nukage refinery. Foodles sticks with the orthogonal architecture and shows continuing loyalty to the 64-unit grid. Detailing remains sparse, giving this map an enjoyable oldschool feel enhanced by the MIDI from E1M2, always a fave. In a way, the very sparseness of detail inspires one's imagination to fill in the missing pieces. I found this map very immersive.

Gameplay was notably less easy than Map01 thanks to more aggressively-placed snipers, especially the two Revvies. Lots of windows, too, so you'd best not tarry. My biggest problem came when I misplayed the Hell Knight after grabbing the Blursphere. I could imagine Foodles thinking, "Sucker!" :D I should have just run around the corner until the effect wore off, but instead I stayed and fought and got nailed thanks to the unpredictable angles of slime fire. I got dropped to 12% but still managed to survive with another UV-Max.

This was a fun map, but once again, the hints of nasty are there, and indeed much stronger than in Map01. I can smell that hammer Foodles is waiting to hit me with, and likely in the not so distant future.

[Nine Inch Heels]

Yaaaay..! Something I have not yet played. ♫ I'm so excited ♫

map 01 "outpost"

I like me a fancy little appetizer to get started. This one delivers a good feel of exploration, considering its size. The chainsaw is a welcome tool and a nice alternative to the beserk-fueling, that has been dominating Bloodstain, among other wads. A sweet shotgun/chaingun-/saw mix with just enough detailing.

4/5



map 02 "waste treatment"

Playing continuously already pays off... The chainsaw from M01 sure comes in handy, and despite having all secrets, I did not see a chainsaw in this one. Which is potentially annoying, because there is a lot of demons to plow through which can get tedious, and expensive when there's only the boomstick to rely on. Detailing is done with purpose, and it's just enough to deliver a sense of where we are at. The encounters almost feel a bit like a backdrop for the map as the MVP, because monster density is mostly low. This one serves well as a continuation for M01.

4/5

[baja blast rd.]

map02

Yeah there is an Ultimate Doom e4 amount of shotgun ammo in this map. Except for the turreted revenants and chaingunners and the crew of low-tier monsters across the river at the start, which can block you with their infinite height, everything is punchable, so I would have preferred a berserk pack. The shotgunners in the nukage river are also unexpectedly tall -- they could use a deaf flag.

Nukage plays a more prominent role here. Despite the relatively low-intensity combat, Fooooooodles is not shy about making you go for a temporary swim, and those moments of being off balance make the map feel more urgent and dangerous than it is. This is a typical psychological device in Doom; for other examples, see darkness (heh) and spooky music and cyberdemons.

That blur sphere is a funny one. I distrust that colorful blob these days, because giving it to the player in a projectile fight, usually with an initial wave of hitscanners that all but forces the player to take it, is one of my favorite dick moves. >:-D

Oh, hey, I know how to make videos, so here is one.

Unfortunately -viddump only allows this crappy soundfont. But it's not D_STALKS, thankfully. I can't say I'm in the mood for taco music.

[Seele00TextOnly]

Map 02

Wow I managed to beat the map without saving! That's not to say it was easy, it was a very jumpy affair. I suppose health was placed heavily enough that it didn't matter that I was tanking damage like crazy. I tend to prefer maps that make me switch weapons a lot; this time i pretty much used the shotgun nonstop, which was my choice i realize but tends to be a bit disappointing personally. Anyway this map had me pretty much, I thought it was an interesting layout. A real success. I didn't care for the dead end switch that lowered platforms and forced one to navigate the nukage; I feel very strongly that in quality modern wads switches should be rewarded with progress in at least some capacity instead of being a pure and senseless trap. But I realize many would disagree with me. Regardless, having a good time with this wad so far.