The DWmegawad Club plays: Speed of Doom

[Spectre01]

MAP16 - “The Core” by Darkwave0000

 

After a short secret map detour, we're back at the core we descended to in map15. This one's very short if you pacifist your way into grabbing all the keys and then unleashing everything with the BFG in hand. The only issue there is you end up eating all the health powerups that are annoyingly placed over the keys, so after that Megasphere near the Cybers you're shit out of luck. I like how the core explodes and deactivates the lights around it. Short, fun map and the midi is on point.

[galileo31dos01]

I still can't finnish map32 and I already feel I need to take serious medication, because I'm about to have a heart attack e_e

 

Does someone at least agrees with me that this is a nightmare?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[NecrumWarrior]

2 minutes ago, galileo31dos01 said:

I still can't finnish map32 and I already feel I need to take serious medication, because I'm about to have a heart attack e_e

 

Does someone at least agrees with me that this is a nightmare?

You could always throw in the towel. Secret maps are optional after all. Assuming you have a save from a previous map.

[Spectre01]

19 minutes ago, galileo31dos01 said:

I still can't finnish map32 and I already feel I need to take serious medication, because I'm about to have a heart attack e_e

 

Does someone at least agrees with me that this is a nightmare?

Nah, everybody's pro here and already UV-Maxed it. :P You can safely skip it if you aren't having fun since map16 will give you all your weapons again if you like playing continuous.

[galileo31dos01]

12 minutes ago, NecrumWarrior said:

You could always throw in the towel. Secret maps are optional after all. Assuming you have a save from a previous map.

I will never throw in the towel, it's just that if I skip this map, the whole megawad experience will be incomplete for me, and I never let a map beat me. If others could, I can. But I need to calm down first 

[NecrumWarrior]

5 minutes ago, Spectre01 said:

Nah, everybody's pro here and already UV-Maxed it. :P

Um, oh yeah! Sure, I totally UV-maxed it... yeah... I definitely did that thing haha...

[galileo31dos01]

Ok, finally FINALLY

 

MAP32: Time 1:13:seconds 

I don't know where to start, this map almost gave me a heart attack. There is so, so much to kill, in such a small map. Ok from the beginning, I was in a cage with all kind of weapons and ammo, I thought "oh there are enemies surrounding me of course, let's get this started!"... over 20 attempts just to beat the first part. I quit many times but I wouldn't let a map beat me so tried again, and again, and again, and again, ok will I ever win this battle?... I turned iddqd on but it just felt wrong so at the end I managed to beat the first part leaving all the corpses there and hearing more and more battling from the other side. Then this cyberdemon popped up and I was like "oh come on after this you are nothing but a stupid obstacle" so yeah, killed him. I must point something, BFG is the most important weapon for the whole map, and yet from the beginning I run out of plasma so many times despite already carrying 600 cells from the previous map. I didn't need bullets or a fucking chainsaw, I needed plasma!!... anyway, moving on to the second part, things were incredibly easier than before, my strategy was to pursue as much of infighting as possible. Eventually, all the bosses on pillars exploded leaving me the revenants and the, nobles (is that how you call them?). From time to time I run around the pyramid so those guys could hit each other. Also corroborating the number of enemies killed was getting higher. Ok once everyone was killed I proceeded to the next part. On the bridge I saw far away an invulnerability "that must be the AV-jump everyone was talking about"... this is where I almost get a heart attack. It demanded so many tries, because whether the hell knights killed me first or all the archviles sent me so fucking far away, I couldn't grab the fucking sphere. Even when I could, trying to BFG all of the archviles was a titanic task. Besides, three cyberdemons and the rest of the hell knights, revenants, mancubus, that got me running for me life all the time. And even more, a PE-cacoswarm, I couldn't deal with all that in such little space... After like 50 tries I gave up and tried to calm down, I was exhausted and frustrated and blah blah, but I couldn't just let the map beat me. So I tried one more time, this time I was sober enough. Once again, let the archies throw me to the sphere, BFG them, got up that platform and saw a (shining) switch, that opened the path to fucking escape and oh yes I could deal with those flying balls calmly, well not so much but at least in a better position. By the time I off every meatball and flying skull, the cybers already dealt with everybody. I had to kill them, that was a little hard but they didn't stop me. The next part was to release the archviles on the sides of the pyramid. There was very little cover and BFGing them was also hard, but the next part was somehow unnecessary in my opinion. The pinkies only were there to bother me, plus the cyber wasn't too threatening, and the archviles ended up killing the SMM and they ended up being BFGed by me. I could breathe now, oh boy...

A couple of things I really need to say, this is the first map in this wad I mostly don't like, I would call it a fun-killer but other people seemed to like. Maybe they are nut... jk.

The other thing is about a place just behind the starting area, there are a bunch of bulk cells and two important spheres. I guess you could only grab them by AV-jumping but there is no archvile to do the jump, and those who appear on the pyramid cannot see me from that distance, so I didn't know how to get them and, in consequence, cheated. Now that I think, probably the archviles released on the sides could help me, but as one has very little time to find cover, it would end up me being burned in a matter of seconds.

Found 1/1 secrets, the starting point is the only secret, that's not very neat... Overall, fuck part 1 and 3 of this map, the rest is fine and challenging.

 

Oh and, those who UV-maxed it, middle finger to them, in good terms I mean (;

Edited April 16, 2017 by galileo31dos01

[Nine Inch Heels]

3 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

A couple of things I really need to say, this is the first map in this wad I mostly don't like, I would call it a fun-killer but other people seemed to like. Maybe they are nut... jk

Different people like different kinds of maps. There's nothing wrong with having a different taste than others do, and it's perfectly fine to say what you like and what you don't like.

 

3 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

Oh and, those who UV-maxed it, middle finger to them, in good terms I mean (;

<3

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP16 The Core

 

Okay, finally enough with the damn detours and the rage, let's continue with the "core" aspect of things. Pun sucks, oh well. Let's have some mild combat while getting weapons, as well as a secret outside the window there, oh look, an arena fight. Fits right with the monster count. A sort of mini-slaughter room, where pressing each switch reveals two of the same color key, as well as some enemies in front, but also enemies teleport to all the pads neaby. Do this three times to open the exit while watching out for progressive difficulty. And as usual the Dead Simple monsters prove to be the most annoying for me, so they should be killed first, really. The cybers also make or break the fight.

 

Yet then again, that six-key door at the very starting point probably warranted a measure. It actually makes you wonder if that's the real exit out of this level, because, you know, six-key door. Then you go back and it's a megasphere on a broken teleport. Wonderful. But maybe it's needed, because in truth the hell knight escapade right before blowing up the core actually somehow proved WORSE than the incidental combat in the arena. How exactly? By teleporting one directly behind me and surrounding the small hall with these fuckers. You bitch. If it wasn't for that I actually would've liked the level. Oh yeah, and there's arch-viles on a lift at the end, plus chaingunners on the lift to the arena, but uh, forget about those really, they are typical at this point. This music track for some reason actually reminds me of MAP09's track for some reason.

[DAZZER]

MAP16: The Core
Time - 13:52

 

This Map... is not good... This Map... is pretty bad... Why do we need another filler after Map 13 ? Its just a cave with hundreds of monster spawning in... If this would be the Episodes Final Map ok. But a random Map like Map 16 like this ? no. This looks like the creator had non idea what to do with this Map. Definitly one of the weakest Maps in the Wad for me :c

Edited April 16, 2017 by DAZZER

[rehelekretep]

map16 fda

very welcome breather map after the insanity of m32.

i liked the story aspect of this one - 'descent to...' and then this - although that is lost somewhat if you access the secret exits.

i missed destroying the core itself, which is a shame. how is that set-up? is it a romero head?

once you know what to do this can be completed very quickly, with the chief danger coming from making a mistake in your 800m sprinting round the track, or more likely vs the 2 vile appearances.

criticism would be UV-maxing looks pretty boring, the aforementioned circuit isnt exactly interesting to move around and youre just hoping for decent infighting (which the secrets encourage).

Edited May 9, 2017 by rehelekretep

[rehelekretep]

8 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

I still can't finnish map32 and I already feel I need to take serious medication, because I'm about to have a heart attack e_e

 

Does someone at least agrees with me that this is a nightmare?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

yup i disliked it. remember you dont actually have to finish these maps (for example i skipped av32 when the club played it).

there are no medals or rewards for 100% completion!

[baja blast rd.]

MAP16: The Core

 

This is not really to my tastes. It's not so much the balance -- lower-pressure horde-based rocket and BFG spam in a compact area is usually fun stuff. It's just that there is little in the way of potential for novel orchestration. Unless you find the secret rocket launcher early on, you are pretty much required to set the second wave loose, unless you want to bore yourself. That and the "six" key (imagine the word six in the biggest air quotes you can) megasphere really cultivates the impression that this map is designed for set-everything-loose play, as opposed to merely accommodating it like some of Darkwave's previous maps. But when you do, gameplay largely boils down to moving around the circuit and keeping your path clear and spectating infights, quite dull all around. The little bits of exploration and narrative elements are the highlights of the map, easily. Big fan of the core, and the peripheral areas, both of which elevate what would be a total stub of a map to a small map with passable atmosphere and intrigue.

 

Just for kicks, a casual -fast run. I think the map is better this way. Also, the intrusive detailing in the first area is very irritating.

 

Edited April 16, 2017 by rdwpa

[galileo31dos01]

MAP16: Time: 36:46

After the massacre in the previous map (32), this felt like a relaxing cup of café con leche in Plaza Mayor (it's a spanish joke, sorry). I mean, it's slaughter, but all the action happens in a big circular room, and there is enough space to run around letting the enemies off each other, so no sweating and no deaths. At the start point, there were two doors, one was the connection to map 15, not passable obviously, while the other one was closed and demanded all 6 keys to be opened, something I've never witnessed before except in videos. The first part offered some weapons and the only secret, which I found legally, so 1/1.  The second part was where the action began. Switch by switch, massive amounts of low and mid-tier enemies teleported in, the point was to run and run and run and only waste my ammo for the remaining monsters. The third horde was the most problematic as there were a lot of pain elementals, and here was when those trees started to bother me. I don't get bothered by detailing because it's usually nice, attractive, and realistic in some cases. But in this particular case, I hated them. Everytime I hit one of them, the lost souls suddenly surrounded me and drained my very well cared health. I had to off those potatoes with the plasma rifle and escape, I took the elevator and searched for health. There was nothing but a blue armor, which I grabbed because I needed it so much. I went down and killed the rest of those fuckers. Proceeded to release the last horde with only 54% health, and thank goodness there was a megasphere, I wouldn't have survived. The archviles got me a little anxious because it was hard to place myself in front of to BFG them and avoid getting burned. They still hit me once. At that moment, my health was very low, but luckily neither the hell knights or the other two archviles killed me. At least at the end the reward was a lot of health to recover. I loved that part where I had to shoot a rocket to make explode the central light generator, and to go back to that door (with another megasphere!) being all dark was really enjoyable.

The map is great, but I hope that the rest of the maps are not all about slaughter... I must complain about something, I didn't like that it was inevitable to grab those soulspheres the same time as the keys, and about the keys, I believe it should have been more interesting that one can grab the keycards normally but the skull keys in different secrets, because otherwise I don't see the point of placing two keys overlapped.  

Edited April 16, 2017 by galileo31dos01

[Spectre01]

MAP17 - “The Shrine” by Joshy

 

Short, Plutonia-inspired map with mostly small encounters and some radsuit management mechanics due to lava diving the keyed areas. It's hard to pinpoint anything else notable about it except that the midi is very catchy.

[rehelekretep]

map17 fda

great little map. i loved the revenant encounters; the small pillars at the start (and mirrored opposite) are really small but useful rocket cover.

av warps were sneaky and create some pace to encounters. the end AV sound had me flying into the teleporter in front of me, praying that it would lead to relative safety; fantastic!

the only things i didnt like were placement related; the chaingunners that can see you through the bars (locked by RK/BK) are obnoxious, chipping you randomly as you fight in the central arena.

the other thing is most of the radsuits are likely to get accidentally bumped when you return to said arena; they would be much better placed off to the side or adjacent to the key-switches.

Edited May 9, 2017 by rehelekretep

[NecrumWarrior]

I am sorry, Joshy, but I fucking hate all of your maps, lmao! They all look cool, but I yank my hair out on all of them and seriously why are they all instant battles at the beginning I am so frustrated! I'd probably like your more recent maps since this was like 7 years ago, but in the context of this WAD fuck your maps ugh!

 

Still trying to beat MAP15...

[NecrumWarrior]

MAP15: Descent to Core

Kills: 97%

Items: 40%

Secrets: 0%

Time: 13:25

 

Sigh... okay, so my previous post was, obviously, one made while I was very angry. I didn't really mean it the way it comes off. Joshy's Maps are brutal, whereas Darkwave's maps seem to be more in the balanced difficulty category. Some people like really brutal maps. I am not one of them. I would surely enjoy all of these maps if there was any proper lower difficulty, but as it is there is not.

 

This map seems designed to frustrate me. The fight as soon as the map loads is alone quite challenging. Why couldn't these demons be reading messages in the walls? Why not give me a chance to think as a player about what I should do? I wouldn't say that all instant starts are bad, but for the most part I find them to be a very unfun and unfair way of adding extra difficulty to a map. Fighting Mancubi from the bottom of a stairway is not fun. Running out to try and fight them in the open only to be incinerated by an Arch-Vile is infuriating. Having a bunch of monsters spawn in the middle of you traversing a bunch of crushers, a great majority of them being Pinkies blocking you, is annoying as all hell. A lot of other ambushes bugged me but I think that was mostly because I had already been pissed off by these particular situations.

 

I think this map is well structured in a deceptively compact fashion. You feel like you're going to distant locations but you never go too far from the main room. Visually I think this is a pretty sweet techbase. I do wish there was some hell mixed in by now but whatever, this is fine. I continue to have no idea where the secrets are, which doesn't bother me so much any more since I am getting more armor as normal pickups finally. I'm not a secret hunter. If I find them then great but I don't have the patience to look for them after I clear all the enemies. I may try the secret maps but I don't think I'm going to commit to finishing them.

[Nine Inch Heels]

1 hour ago, NecrumWarrior said:

I'd probably like your more recent maps since this was like 7 years ago, but in the context of this WAD fuck your maps ugh!

I would like to take this opportunity to turn you onto an exciting product:

https://onemandoom.blogspot.de/2014/10/resurgence-resurgewad.html

 

[NecrumWarrior]

16 minutes ago, Nine Inch Heels said:

I would like to take this opportunity to turn you onto an exciting product:

https://onemandoom.blogspot.de/2014/10/resurgence-resurgewad.html

 

I'll be honest, the screen shots look really cool.

[galileo31dos01]

22 minutes ago, NecrumWarrior said:

I may try the secret maps but I don't think I'm going to commit to finishing them

From player to player, if by any chance you decide to try the secret maps, especially the second one... take deep breaths, think it twice, and have a cup of linden tea before and after.

[Cynical]

LOL@the NIH/Necrum exchange.

 

Necrum, you should idclev to maps 27 and 28 of Resurgence, they're very relaxing and great for relieving frustration ;-)

[NecrumWarrior]

I forgot to mention how cool it was that MAP15 used a lot of Arachnotrons, since they're my favorite demon and I don't see them enough in WADs I play.

 

Me playing MAP31:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THERE'S SO MANY REVENANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited April 17, 2017 by NecrumWarrior

[galileo31dos01]

7 minutes ago, NecrumWarrior said:

I forgot to mention how cool it was that MAP15 used a lot of Arachnotrons, since they're my favorite demon and I don't see them enough in WADs I play.

 

Me playing MAP31:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THERE'S SO MANY REVENANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you're still in the black room, I share you my "strategy": Try to pursue the Spider Mastermind to hit some revenants but DO NOT wake them yet, and if you're playing from pistol start, try to grab all the rockets you find and now surround all the revenants, press that switch in front of all of them and never stop circling them (squaring actually) and from time to time and with enough distance, shoot 'em all but don't go out to the outside area before killing every revenants. Do never stop moving! Also, the other spiders will also help you.

 

Sorry I don't mean to tell what to do, it's just and advice, I hate revenants too ):

Edited April 17, 2017 by galileo31dos01

[NecrumWarrior]

1 minute ago, galileo31dos01 said:

If you're still in the black room, I share you my "strategy": Try to pursue the Spider Mastermind to hit some revenants, and if you're playing from pistol start, try to grab all the rockets you find and surround all the revenants, press that switch in front of all of them and never stop circling them (squaring actually) and from time to time and with enough distance, shoot 'em all but don't go out to the outside area before killing every revenants. Do never stop moving! Also, the other spiders will also help you.

 

Sorry I don't mean to tell what to do, it's just and advice, I hate revenants too ):

I don't hate Revenants, they're pretty easy to dispatch on their own. Revenants en masse tho...

[NecrumWarrior]

MAP16: Core

Incomplete

I am at a loss here. I was on board, I was having fun despite the difficulty as is usually the case in these Darkwave maps, but I reached an impasse and I have no fucking clue how I can get past it. In MAP14 we saw a slaughter sized army of demons, but they were not required to beat the map. You could easily skip right past them if you wanted. In this map, you drop into an arena to fight with an army of comparable size over three waves. And once you get a strategy down it's pretty fun. But then I got to the Cyberdemon wave, and I was having doubts that I would be capable of taking on like 4 Cyberdemons at once, so I tried to rush in. But what greeted me? About 6 or 7 Arch-Viles that trap you in place. Gee, thanks. So I took the time to work some infighting and eventually got the Cyberdemons down to just two. Then I ran out of ammo. Completely. None left in the arena at all. I had exhausted all of my resources. So I cheated and used GIVE ALL. It took 2-3 additional BFG shots per Cyber to kill them, meaning I wasn't even close to done with them. But I had ammo now so I gave the Arch-Viles another go. I have no fucking clue how I can survive that. Maybe I can bait them and run out, but even if I did that without the cheats I would have no way to fight them. So yeah. I guess I won't be finishing this one.

 

In other news, tomorrow is my 26th birthday, so hopefully I don't hate MAP17!

 

EDIT: After watching rdwpa's video, I see that the optimal way to take on the horde is all at once, instead of one wave at a time. Which kind of pisses me off, since I feel like the ammo reserves are not balanced for someone who wants to take it slower.

Edited April 17, 2017 by NecrumWarrior

[galileo31dos01]

6 minutes ago, NecrumWarrior said:

Then I ran out of ammo.

Have you found the secret rocket launcher? Maybe that can help you a little more, it's in the first area where you find the ssg and the cg.

 

And happy early birthday (?

[Spectre01]

@NecrumWarrior I just played map16 again casually releasing the waves and killing everything before flipping the next switch. If you do it this way you really have to maximize infighting, which basically translates to running laps for 1-2 minutes during each wave before actually killing stuff (aside from Pain Elementals which you want to remove). For the Cyber wave especially, you basically have to wait for them to kill all the enemies before finishing them off. The map should've had more rockets for sure.

Edited April 17, 2017 by Spectre01

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP17 The Shrine

 

Hello Night Run. After MAP17 of Plutonia 2, MAP11 of Bloodstain, and MAP07 of that Bicycle Mystery wad, it's cool to hear a classic Stewboy track. And with it, a short, lava-oriented map that can be run through rather quickly. Just make sure to hit those priority targets, in this case it's the arch-viles and hitscanners. And the wing after the blue key switch is perhaps the most malicious due to the chaingunners there. Also the blind fire that happens after any switch press gets on my nerves. Contrary to what some may think, the one secret here doesn't actually require an arch-vile jump.

[Paul977]

@Rant time

 

Yesterday I tryed to complete map 32 blind saveless and... I was pissed off to the extreme, mostly thanks to the fucking "hot start". In my best attempt I reach the seemed mandatory multiple vile jumps for the invuln (...) only to get blasted into another dimension. Then I tryed again but I went into rage-mood after dying so much at the start (ah if Joshy was in my in room in that moment!).

I'll give another try later if I'm OK

Edited April 17, 2017 by Paul977