The DWmegawad Club plays: Echelon & Mutiny

[Demon of the Well]

Not there in the writeups yet, but those two arch-viles are most definitely a case of "Leave It In" (TM), if you ask me.

[Killer5]

I noticed there were some months with not megawads =x.

+++ rush

[dobu gabu maru]

Demon of the Well said:

Not there in the writeups yet, but those two arch-viles are most definitely a case of "Leave It In" (TM), if you ask me.

You, rdwpa, and a few others are under my mental category of "probably ignore difficulty suggestions for community megawads" for this exact reason. Not that you guys provide useful information about difficulty balance (you certainly do!) but tasking a player to berserk punch several AVs is fool's errand for the 99%. I think if 40oz and AD are to keep the AVs, they need to ax two of them that warp in and try and make it more clear to the player that they need to outrun them to pick up more munitions. It's a clever idea but it's implemented so poorly (ie that the player can berserk them) that it does nothing but rile up frustration.

[Demon of the Well]

Wait, "several?" You mean sometimes all 4 of them come out at once right at the start of the map? I thought 40oz was referring to the first two fellows, who appear at the opposite end of the room when you first enter the main tri-level junction--those two showing up so early when you've not got more than, at most, 4 rockets, 4 shells, some bullets, and the fist is thrilling, IMO. If sometimes the dudes who appear around the start area near the end of the map can also somehow be activated at the same time, so there are 4 of them on your ass from the get-go, well....yeah, that's probably not so reasonable for a WAD of this type, hah (still sounds like fun, though!).

I guess I got confused because I only saw 2 active at first in rdwpa's video, which was the same experience I had during my FDA, with the other 2 not appearing until passing back through the start area with the yellow key, when I was much more readily equipped to deal with them.

[Magnusblitz]

Doubt I'll finish Mutiny but at least I can finish Echelon by the end of the year.

MAP24: Fumes of Alchemy

The first map in Echeleon so far that really felt like a real level with a non-linear/branching layout. Some good traps too, and varied - teleports, monster closets, monsters popping out of the water... kept me on my toes without being too rough. Not sold on the final fight though, there's not really any room to fight the yellow orbs in that room, so the player is pretty much forced to retreat, which makes it a joke of a fight.

MAP25: Bastille

The use of the dark building and yellow sky is striking, but the level is otherwise fairly unremarkable apart from throwing a fair mix of middle-end baddies at the player. Back to being so bite-sized as to be quickly forgotten, unfortunately.

MAP26: Inner Palace

Despite the small size and monster count, this is not one to be blasted through quickly. Lots of devilish little traps here for the unwary, starting with the three yellow orbs to the right at the start and an AV hidden in an alcove if you move for the green armor. The AVs guarding the yellow key are also probably certain death if you don't have a plan.

[Demtor]

MAP12 - “Wildcard” by purist, traversd
gzDoom (with a mix of the beautiful Doom mod here) - UV – pistol start


Beautfiul, but hard.

Mutiny, on a roll right here. This map is killer. Wonderful new red space background with purple stars. Explorable outdoor areas with loads of enemies and climbable cliffs that hide secrets. Hazard suits and toxic liquid cavernous base shortcuts and hidden structures. Another amazing music track from Jimmy.

What's not to love? Probably the difficulty? Starting with the very first area. Your patience will be tested with it's cubby hole hiding HKs, sneaky shotgun bastards, imps, lost souls, exploding barrels and eventually a couple of Revs for good measure. God damn. Tough start with only a shotgun and little ammo! I laughed at the closeable door to this mob. If you aren't quick on that switch, you'll be starting over QUICK. Take note of that invulnerability sphere. Soon.

So you could spend some time clearing a little bit of that area out if you wanted (there were a few boxes of shells to work with) but I think the decision to dash for the teleport is the wiser, prudent choice.

The outdoor areas aren't that much easier though you do get more room to move. Archatrons, Cacos, a PE, distant imps and shotgun guys. Woof. Though you could manage to grab both the chain gun and plasma rifle once you manage to kill some things and are able to avoid the hidden revs firing at you from inside of the building. The toxic stuff underneath is fairly challenging, especially if you try and rush things. Pinkies/specters slow you down, Cacos hunt you down and chaingunners tear you to bits as HK's and shottys snipe from above.

After that point, I think the level starts opening itself up with a few new tools at your disposal and a decent amount of ammo and health. Also, the RL is right around the corner in the next open area that you see from the start but you'll have to go through plenty more to get at it and the RK. A very tough beginning but manageable if you pick your battles wisely and skip things you can't handle until you can come back and deal with things later.

The return trip the first area with a RL and PR felt very satisfying. Who's your daddy now?! .... the AVs might have a reply for you, heh. Good stuff.

There are a few more inside areas with a really tough mix of Mancs, more Revs and hitscanners. There's also a dark room with a bunch of nastyness in it. And then these guys. Very painful.

All in all, this was a very in your face map without being too obnoxious. A variety of new challenges with every newly discovered area kept things fresh and left the player wanting more as opposed to grinding their will down to nothing by offering only pain and despair.

[baja blast rd.]

map12 might be my favorite map of the year. It's not as technically impressive as some of the maps that are also among my favorites but there are so many cool aspects of the non-linear design that are cropping up and I really love it.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP11: The Furnace

This is a tough one, with a generally low lighting level and a limited texture set which, in combination with its twisted-in-on-itself layout, contributes to a sense of being even tighter and more compact than it is. Combat is again kind of stop-start, with the opposition making you fight for every inch of ground you give up and an emphasis on ambushes and staged encounters rather than anything extensively incidental; there are moments that seem well-engineered to send the player fleeing in panic, bouncing around through previously secured spaces, falling back to one choke point after another as each is breached in turn. It's a level that makes me glad I'm playing this mapset continuously; from a pistol start, without a plasma gun and a stack of cells already in hand, I suspect I'd have found this more frustrating than fun even on Hurt Me Plenty. It's quite gorgeous, though, making strong use of its deliberately limited texture selection to push a consistent atmosphere of industrial decay and haunted gloom in perfect concert with the low-key, creeping choice of music track.

[baja blast rd.]

"Wildcard" (12)

Yeah, it was fun to replay this one and discover what sort of routes were possible, namely alternative ways of dealing with the revenants and the last group of monsters at the end. That is probably my favorite type of map: one that can play out in a surprising number of ways based on what exactly you do in what order, or even due to just pure pathing randomness.

The downside is probably that the combat is not so engaging once you discover everything, at least beyond the dangerous start. I suppose this is a necessary evil of designing a map where the 'easy way' is essentially a single shotgun and chaingun route garnished with a small number of cells, and where going the 'hard way' first allows you to become overpowered at an early stage once you pass the minor trial. (All in all, it's not particularly hard, the damage I took very early in the video notwithstanding.) I changed my mind months ago about secrets that noticeably soften up map balance. Those can be fun, especially when they subsidize aggressive casual or speedrun play, and besides, most maps aren't designed to maximize challenge anyway. But in this case it's hard to really use them to get yourself into big trouble, since the electric chainsaw melts all in its path, making even aggressive play very safe. Also I'm not entirely sure what all the ammo at the end is for. It's probably unnecessary if you can get it and unreachable if you need it (viles are alive, have rezzed lots of stuff, invul is wasted). I played this in -complevel 9; the revenant trio unleashed by picking up the secret rocket launcher doesn't appear on -complevel 2, and there is a cellpack floating in the air. Also two cacodemons never port in on UV in either complevel, because of a missing tag.

Despite those nitpicks, it was a total joy to discover everything about this map. I was gleeful when I saw the revs bunched up at the start for the first time, visible through the window, and realized they could be taken out at this point with a hail of rockets. So, favorite map of the year might be an overstatement, but being the rare map to make me feel a sense of wonder as I explored beneath the surface, it's certainly a top highlight.

Also, if map11's accident and map12's intended design don't make it clear, occasional bullshit is generally among the most fun things in Doom. :D

[Demtor]

Great video. Huh, a lot of that never even occurred to me. Didn't think it was at all possible to sneak past all of those Revs. Crazy.

[NaturalTvventy]

+++ No End In Sight (naturally).

[Magnusblitz]

MAP27: Fire and Brimstone

As others did, I enjoyed the twist on the hell levels being a "personal hell" instead of the typical "fire and brimstone" hell. This of course, switches to the latter. It's basically just a 1v1 cyberdemon duel, with AV turrets add a bit of spice to the proceedings... but not a ton, and they're really only difficult if you knock them off with the RL splash (remind me to turn that setting off in ZDoom).

MAP28: The High Places of Baal

Cool theme here, combining the green marble with lush green/blue/brown surroundings is an underrated theme IMO. The star is obviously the ziggurat, but I like a lot of the other details too like the winding river going off into the distance or the combo sector/sprite heart pillar.

Anyways, this is a lot of early fighting with key hunting at the end. The fights actually aren't hard, especially if you run around and rile everything up and let them infight. Some of the keys are a bit tricky to grab but eagle-eyed players will figure it out.

[Spectre01]

NaturalTvventy said:

+++ No End In Sight (naturally).

If the working class can mobilize and rally behind a single PWAD, I will gladly support the cause. The time to take down the commercial IWAD corporate fatcats is now comrades!

Map 10: Generator

It seems the map assumes that you grab the RL at the start, like many people here did, because being a maverick and grabbing the SSG punished me with an unpleasant experience. Nothing like sitting on 50 rockets and dick-all bullets, shells and plasma. I found myself frequently running low/out on the basic ammo and was forced to punch/saw Cacodemons in the latter half far more than I would have liked. There are like no shells or bullets in this damn map man! Yeah, nah bruh, this is the low point of the wad for me. The encounters are all fun/fair/balanced but I'm in no way motivated to replay from Rocket Start™. No bueno compadre.

[Jaws In Space]

+++ Plutonia

[dobu gabu maru]

Demon of the Well said:

Wait, "several?" You mean sometimes all 4 of them come out at once right at the start of the map?

Oooooohhhh now it makes way more sense why you guys approve of that encounter! I looked at the map in Doom Builder and found out that my experience was extremely unlucky—the linedef that lowers the AVs down is around the rocket launcher but your shots don't wake them up until after you hit the blue key switch, plus they're only able to cross the gap to the teleport linedef in my Zdoom 2.5.0 build on my mac (they remain on their lifts in PrBoom). I remember going back into that room to pick up the medikit and they triggered every time, so I must've saved as the lift was lowering or something... it was very unfortunate (I rescind my "I don't trust your opinion" critique a little!)

It reminds me of when I was playing Crumpets MAP07 and was absolutely blown away by how utterly ruthless Ribbiks had made that level, until after I finished it and explored around to stumble upon a massive cache of ammo that would've aided me immensely. Looking back it made for a helluva challenge, but it's not anything I'd recommend others try and attempt :P

MAP12: This map probably does the best job so far of mixing orange and green together across its landscape, as I was really feeling the visuals on this one despite not being keen on those colors. I haven’t played a lot (or any?) traversd maps so I couldn’t pick up on his additions, but purist can do no wrong in my book so I knew I was going to have a lot of fun with this one. Though the opening revenant shocker isn’t quite as telegraphed as I’d like it to be, it’s a neat gimmick to have to go around the level to pick up munitions and the invul to take them on, and the map has a really, really excellent interconnected design… it’s the kind of layout I wish I was proficient at creating! The opener is a bit of a white-knuckle rush for weapons, and after that the pace of the map slows waaay down and becomes a pretty leisurely stroll thanks to the amount of goodies sprinkled about, so much so that the AVs didn’t really stress me out (they were basically the inverse of MAP11’s bastards). I do enjoy a breather every now and then though, and this is a perfect example of “easy but still fun” gameplay. Brilliant work, guys.

(Also probably helps that the midi here is one of my favorites and is the opener to a project of mine : P)

[Linguica]

+++ Brutal Doom campaign

[Spectre01]

Map 11: Furnace

For some reason the Dehacked isn't working for me at all and I get the standard Doom 2 text and level names.

Anyways, this is a shorter map with a more hellish twist to the texturing with bright red rocks and a void sky (or a dark ceiling, who knows). The two Viles in the beginning are amusing I guess since you're forced to punch them out due to lack of everything on a Pistol Start. The majority of the map is a claustrophobic crawl through the metal interiors of the base with the occasional venture into red and damaging open territory. Gameplay is a good mix teleport/closet traps and ambush-flagged pairs of Chaingunners around corners.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP29: The Elder

What's this, an actually decent-sized level? A pretty nice-looking one too, in that halfway-abstract classic Doom sort of way. I admit I did leave a lot of monsters behind (didn't bother tussling with the cyberdemons or most of the guys guarding the blue key), but this was still a lot of fun. Wish the whole set was of this quality/size.

MAP30: Chance in Hell

Well, any good will earned by The Elder is quickly squandered with this wet fart of an ending. Fight three cyberdemons in a box (with cover), hit switches, game over. If you want to pacifist run it, it can be done in under 20 seconds on a first try. Woo.

Overall Thoughts

Pretty underwhelming with Echelon, for the most part. I suppose I see a certain novelty to the levels being so quick that you can blast through a huge chunk of the WAD in one small sitting, but that comes at the cost of most of the levels being incredibly insubstantial and forgettable. They simply don't have the charm or action needed to make a short set appealing.

I will say that the third episode sees a definite upswing in quality - MAP21, 22 and 23 are pretty good, and MAP29 would be a decent map in its own right in any mapset. There are definitely some cool-looking spots here and there as well, and I liked the new monsters (with some misgivings - didn't like the sprite or sounds for the Vipers, and the floating enemies never were placed in many interesting spots). So there are definitely some positives, but on the whole, most of it just feels like filler, which would lead me to assess the set as quite mediocre on the whole. Given that this is the guy who gave us a map like "Darkdome," like DotW I get the sense that a lot of these maps are really just repackaged old scraps.

[Demtor]

MAP13 - “Laboratory” by Egregor, 40oz
gzDoom - UV – pistol start



Options, options, options. A very free form map with lots of different paths. I probably played this one three times and each time I noticed something play out differently. There is an intricate interplay between all of the choices within this level. It's hard to explain but I noticed a sort of chaotic order to things.

The clearest example I can come up with is when you take a small one way elevator up and you'll be standing behind two un-aggroed pinkies looking the other way. To your right are a few exploding barrels. There is no easy way out of this, as just around the corner are two HKs and a few imps. However, if you decided to clear out the other area that wraps around and opens the door the two pinkies are staring at... you suddenly realize which way was the "easy" option and which was the "hard." THEN, right after that, you can go through the next door and you have the possibility to ambush a Rev and Shotgun guy on a ledge looking down to another other entrance on the other side of the map. Amazing. That kind of mentality plays out throughout this level and it really shines.

Visually, this laboratory has a lot of acreage and with it quite the variety in style. Even the small hallways have their own feel to them. If you're looking for overall cohesion in theme and style, I don't think this map is for you. There's orange, blue, brown, yellow, tan, white, green, red... it's all over but it works.

Right away the scenery to the side is impressive. Then it's on a Doom E1 type of entrance, but don't like it fool you. Things get heavy quick. Especially if you trip the ambush with the Revs and Imps before clearing out all of the shotgun/pinkies. Again, options. Make it easier, or run around like crazy and get everyone's attention!

Other areas had a good E1 feel to them as well without being too over the top. Then there's more modern stuff like the dark red area that holds the RK (imagine that) which is quite impressive. Fun fights to be had in there too.

The sewage parts were fresh looking and worked well. Loved the simple detail next to the large pipes. The exit room is flashy as all get out. Weird sort of choice with one last AV and then a no switch exit.


I'm out for a bit. Happy New Years everyone!

+++TNT

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP12: Wildcard

A relatively anonymous industrial facility embedded in a mountainside and squatting atop a thickly coursing river of slime, this one likes to vary its tempo and the scale of its encounter spaces constantly, making great use of shadows to communicate a feeling of menace and claustrophobia even in relatively open chambers. The player is free to tackle significant portions of the map in different orders, to hoard or expend resources according to the most currently pressing need or anticipation of future dangers - I'm glad I saved the invulnerability sphere to dead with the arch-viles that put in an appearance after the collection of the yellow key. Health is relatively plentiful, encouraging a daring, reckless playstyle (or forgiving a careless one, in my case) in which the player gets right up in the teeth of each encounter rather than looking for a way to dissect it from safety. The aesthetics are pretty stock for this WAD, other than the natural ourdoor areas which surround the base. And there are a lot of secrets, eight in all crammed into a relatively compact floorplan, of which I found a mere three, but the map is intense enough (and filled enough with damaging slime) that I didn't feel like retracing my steps to poke around for what I might have missed.

MAP13: Laboratory

Ooh, I liked this one. Compared to the last couple of maps it feels sprawling and free-flowing, with the map unfolding at a steady pace before you - sometimes through deliberate player action, but just as often through ambushes that open up new passages and doorways behind walls of advancing meat. The monster population is higher, but weighted toward the lower tiers; there's a lot of gleeful carnage to be had, punctuated by tougher moments that stand out all the better against the relatively easygoing bloodshed that makes up the bulk of the map. There's definitely a KTitD feel to the central spine of the map that grows less distinct as you move into its deeper reaches, where the map's own sense of style is more strongly assertive. I feel like I've been allowed to take a breather, as though I've reclaimed the initiative after a couple of rather more hostile maps whose demonic denizens had me constantly on the back foot.

[pavera]

TheOrganGrinder said:

MAP08: Compactor

This one is a lot of fun. It's another twisty industrial crawl in the well-established milieu of the WAD, but the relatively constrained texture selection pushes a more consistent visual theme than, say, MAP06, so instead of a sense of gradually unlocking separate sections and processes within the industrial plant, it feels far more like a journey through the oily bowels of a single vast and endlessly grinding machine. The "NOT POISON" not-warning signs suspended above extensive pools and canals of lava - traditionally Doom's most damaging material - is an early indication of the map's playful and pervasive sense of humour, and one that's easily enough missed by a player who's got other things to concentrate on, like not dying to massed gunfire; who really looks at all the hazard signs or reads warning labels, these days?

That playfulness is evident in the map's repeated use of massed low-tier foes to pre-emptively defang several traps and encounters; there's a moment where the path of progression leads the player to drop down off a ledge and into a pincer attack, for example, which could be pretty devastating if not for the fact that it consists entirely of zombie men. "I could hose you so much harder," the map chuckles, while staying its hand... which makes the genuinely tougher moments, elsewhere and later, that much more enjoyable. By playing fair, by going easy on the player at times, the map justifies its more devious and wicked encounters.

I really like the style of progression that's used here, a path that takes the player under, over, and around hazards and obstacles, granting early glimpses of spaces that won't be entered until much later, or re-using the same area by having the player pass through it in different ways (scurrying across the floor of a lava-filled chamber, then later crossing it via a catwalk above) or opening walls to let one area run into another once a crucial point has been passed. You're never truly at a loss - the number of actual branches is limited and they're all fairly short - but neither is your route ahead as obvious as "I'm at point A, and there, in plain sight, is point B," instead requiring that the player approach objectives via circuitous though ultimately logical routes.

Thank you for the lovely review of my and jmickle's map. I think you really nailed the concept we were going for by describing it as a "journey through the oily bowels of a single vast and endlessly grinding machine." The minimalism in the texture selection was meant to highlight the dichotomy between the clean, administrative sections of the level where the highfalutin science staff worked and the churning industrial jaws of the machinery they commanded.

As for the playfulness of the level, I think jmickle deserves the credit for steering the map in that direction. He was the first between us to place a pack of soft-shelled opponents to pummel through in a fit of gooey catharsis. I loved that idea and ran with it, adding the zombiemen to the "pincer attack" you described, as well as the pack of shotgunners and imps that confront you after you come back through the red door. The non-damaging lava was my idea, though the humorous justification for it was his.

This was a fun level to make, and I'm glad to see people having fun with it. It's a tad unfinished in places, maybe, but that doesn't seem to be diminishing its charm among these reviews. The HOM you discovered is evidence of that. Fun fact, there was supposed to be a switch in the Compactor Control area (just beyond the blue door) that gave you access to the left chaingunner ledge, granting you some more rocket ammo. I forgot to add it in, and you can see a small indentation next to the staircase where it was supposed to be. Leave it in, I suppose.

[Killer5]

Map 08
Demo: https://www.doomworld.com/vb/attachment.php?postid=1701015

And back into the swing of things. Hope everyone had a great winter holiday.

Midi:
I really enjoy this one. The scales used later in the midi remind me a lot of something that Steve Vai would use, also reminds me a lot of solo portion of the Dream Theater song 'In The Name Of God'. Another midi that is going on my playlist for sure.

Map:
The intro of the map is probably my favorite part - there is rarely a safe place to stand as there is grating which hitscan can nail you through everywhere. This design makes the player think about movement and positioning (which are two things that are always present in all of my favorite maps). After the intro there are many skirmishes with lower tier monsters and a few packs of viles and revs. These are not difficult but.. the way they are executed makes them a lot of fun. The player can find an RL and Plasma early which basically means these fights are giant bloodbaths. The map adds a few viles into the mix in close quarters and all of a sudden the player finds himself/herself thinking about positioning in order to be able to use rockets effectively.

The final area of this map is quite a cluster. There are many groups of chaingunners and rev snipers eventually leading up to killing a cyb. Part of me wished that the cyb would spawn in earlier. Pressuring the player a bit more in the final room, but I still had fun avoiding rockets in a tight hallway.

The aesthetic of the map is awesome. Everything is very grimy and made me think I was playing in a dirty trash disposal plant. The structures outside of the playable area were probably my favorite though. It really made the map seem much larger.. like I was playing in a location rather than a map.

Awesome map.

[rehelekretep]

fda here

goddamn that BK fight with the archviles really spanked my buttocks.
went with the SSG choice every time here as i didnt want to add self-rocketing myself to 'ways i died to the BK archviles'!
impressive amount of non-linearity to the map; you can get the other weapon you missed at the start really quite quickly, or go through all the map without it! the only downside is that meant i got really stuck looking for the YK
on that note: the triggers for the blueberry/armour choice are easy to cheese so i went into that fight with both :p

[rehelekretep]

fda here

adding to others; i really enjoyed punching out the two archviles (whether theyre intended or not). i didnt get 4 warping in, luckily! i think its balanced, as there arent any high-tier enemies for the viles to resurrect and there's plently of cover.
not a fan of the many turret-revenants; they really slow everything down. and the archvile up high in the outdoor area after the YK is just obnoxiously placed.
but apart from that, i had fun with this map.

[rehelekretep]

fda here

another really cool non-linear map. i near shit myself when i first opened the door to the revenant horde; credit to rdwpa for realising to sneak past them and pick up the ssg early!
the progression around the nuke area is a little obtuse but there are enough radsuits to make sure its not too punishing.

[rehelekretep]

fda here

freaking epic map. video is a little long but i hope its worthwhile as this is completely first-time only. some extremely close shaves!

[dobu gabu maru]

Plutonia is at 6 votes, TNT is at 5.

MAP13: When I think of the name “Egregor” the first adjective that springs to mind is “adventurous”, seeing as I don’t think he makes maps that take less than 30 minutes to tackle. His maps are usually quasi-linear too, allowing you to sneak around adjacent rooms on the main path but ultimately demanding you go through them in a mostly set order. This collaboration with 40oz was kinda… “meh” for me overall. I think the visuals are kinda neat (that tech cascade at the start Is rad) but there’s no rhyme or reason to the progression throughout the level, ending just because you accidentally cross an "exit level" linedef. Moreover, so many rooms are squares/rectangles that are stitched together at their cardinal coordinates that it becomes easy to forget where/how you need to move through the level to progress. While I think there’s a handful of quality-of-life adjustments that can be made (like making that door in the middle of the map stay open instead of requiring a switch to open every time), I think the map is simply of subpar design overall and there’s no quick fixes to truly improve it. I’ve definitely seen better from these two.

[AD_79]

+++ TNT

As much as I like Plutonia, I think TNT would be way more interesting to read about on a map-by-map basis.

[baja blast rd.]

"The Firewall" (14)

Goal was to improve over a 3:32 by some reasonable amount.

The start of this run is RNG city. It's all about rushing into the second area as fast as possible, so you have to hop across platforms and hope that nothing blocks you. Frequently there is a straggler on the bridge underneath (clearing some of the first monsters away helps), and just as frequently the big group of mid-tiers on the far side has gathered underneath there. The success rate, including deaths from normal fighting, is quite low. The good news is that IF these monsters are out of the picture, it's nearly always because they have started infighting the cyber, which is obviously good. Hearing the cyber roar for the next couple dozen seconds is always a good thing. The barrel sequence at the start by the way is quite slow, but sometimes I just get demoralized from resets, so I decided to continue.

In the next stage I clear out the spider with plasma and the rest with rockets and trigger the lift before picking up all the rockets, pretty routine. The third stage is another potential run killer, because the HKs can clump up and block you, or at least slow you down enough while rocketing one out of the way to get killed by something else. I played this map with Fonze in ZDaemon and apparently there is an archvile behind them on multiplayer, lol. I clear out the chaingunners, grab the BFG, and try to get the revs and chaingunners in one shot. That goes smoothly. Rockets on PEs come next, allowing all of the monsters to bunch up for some BFG shots. Good good.

But trouble again: usually an arachnotron and the two chaingunners are killed with one BFG shot, but the damn spider wanders out of tracer range and somehow the BFG ball only does 100 damage anyway. -_- Oh well. Here I don't have to prioritize the straggling gasbags too much (even the PEs!) because they will float over back to the start where they can be caught by BFG shots. I run back to the start, where I still have to worry about being blocked as I run across the bridge for the secret backpack, but the infighting went so well that one of the mancs has been killed too, probably by a chaingunner (lol). Anyway, great. THIS spider pair is obedient thankfully, and hooooly shit that cyber rocket. :O

What follows next is a mix of random panic and good instincts. I don't want to spend more than a couple of sessions on this run, because the start is kind of annoying, so I am really REALLY afraid of dying at this stage, and it shows with the first inefficient BFG shot after hitting the switch, and then random spazzy BFG shots. With the one shot that is a total waste against the chaingunner, I have a feeling gasbags might be hovering out of sight, and I get them both with tracers. :D The cyber goes down in one shot while infighting, which is one BFG shot back in my pocket, and probably several seconds since I don't have to two shot him. But this time isn't purely time saved, because I should finish off the cyber after entering the medkit secret, and I have to get the secret out of order (and the muscle memory of grabbing a medkit is so ingrained that I waste a second in there :D). Anyway, clear out a soul so it doesn't try to deepthroat a rocket at a bad time, grab the secret, finish off the rest, exit.

sub-3 should be possible with enough grinding, but I will not waste the time.

[Salt-Man Z]

Abstaining from next month's vote, BUT: Plutonia/TNT are probably my true Doom love, and I love them both for different reasons. I'd be equally happy playing either of them for the umpteenth time.