The DWmegawad Club plays: Speed of Doom

[paymentplan]

MAP10 - Vile Pain

 

What a beautifully absurd concept executed excellently. If someone posted a map for feedback here and the description included "most of the enemies are pain elementals and arch viles in tricky ambushes" I would say thank you, no. But Darkwave0000 again excels at this kind of open combat. There's never just one way to get through an encounter. There are usually optimal ways to tackle them, but the player is never overly punished for walking into a room unprepared.

 

I was worried after talking so much about Darkwave0000's style that he'd change things up, but if anything he pushed the envelope even further. The stakes are often a lot higher than in MAP06 and MAP08, as the arch viles can make quick work of a careless player, but the flow of most combat encounters is the same. Lots of monsters accost you in a large room and you get to play it to your strengths. Better at tackling things head on? Confident in your SSG shots? Darkwave0000 has your back. Want to sneak back and pick off things as they come to you? Also covered. 

 

It's really hard to force a player to play a certain way through map design and monster placement. Usually this just ends up alienating certain players. Better to leave room for the player to decide their own way to play through your creation. Letting the player be creative and rewarding them for whatever playstyle will lead to much praise. 

 

The visuals are again top notch. I particularly liked crawling on the side of the cliff past the red skull door. Always nice to throw the player some eye candy. Makes the map feel more like a journey. Darkwave0000 also incorporates some easier encounters where the player has more ammo than necessary and can just go to town. Rocketing apart the horde of pinkies and spectres was a nice change of pace from the tense arch vile encounters. And what a perfect cathartic ending wasting all the arch viles with the invulnerability and whatever ammo was left. Just fantastic.

 

Kills - 100%

Items - 78%

Secrets - 40%

[Spectre01]

MAP11 - “Transcension” by Joshy

 

The finale to the first chapter of Speed of Doom is not nearly as impressive as the level before it. There's a silly start here involving a Vile and some Cagegunners which then transitions into eliminating various annoying snipers on the perimeters of the map. The only Green Armour is also in a fun spot so you get to enjoy playing naked for a while. Also don't run in there or this might happen. In your face pop-in Revs strike again! There's some caving too and the only real surprise there are the two Viles that show up and have a good chance of reviving some crap. I assume this Spectre pit may also be annoying with infinite height. Eventually you release a Cacoswarm and a wall made of Imps that are neither threatening nor particularly interesting to fight off. But hey, at least the exit view is cool.

 

E1 Thoughts

I haven't payed attention to the authors when playing before but now I can say I enjoy Darkwave's maps a lot more than Joshy's at this point in the wad. And even thinking ahead, the even slots continue to be stronger offerings than the odd ones.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP11 Transcension

 

Never ever do I want to start with the arch-vile facing me, no matter how much I could get supplied, these things in an earlygame piss me off. And, well, this whole central building I start out in sucks too, those chaingunners in the cages for one, and it's general congestion. Outside it's much better, and I make a beeline for those mancubi first since they are so annoying. Everything else is pretty much handled accordingly and methodically, without too much fail. Again, mowing down a certain horde in a line (this time a horde of imps), stood out as the most fun.

 

Death exit, yet at the end, says "SURVIVED". Have some consistency please. Okay music track, it apparently got a remix or so in the one called Technoprisoners.

[DAZZER]

MAP11: Transcension
Time - 8:58

 

I love the setting in this one. This little Castle on this green field is a cool touch :) The Gameplay is awesome too. Fair and quick. Maybe this Chillax type start wasn't the best Idea but I got it on my first try and its really not that hard. The whole Map kinda remind me of MAP07 from Plutonia "Caughtyard"... I had some serious munition Problems in the middle of the Map ! For me thats one of the biggest Fun Killers ! But towards the End and its big Endfight I got filled up with everything I wanted ^^ The Endfight was awesome and a good Final to Episode 1 :) Oh and again Awesome MIDI !

[Demtor]

 

MAP11 - “Transcension” by Joshy

gzDoom - UV – pistol start

 

Wow, I guess there’s insta-porting enemies and then there’s INSTANT showing enemies. WTF. I know a few times in the first 10 maps guys would come up from the ground incredibly fast but this is insane now. If you don’t have the right weapon or enough health at all times you risk getting cut down hard. Ugh. Not sure how I feel about that yet. Seems pretty cheap and this map was full of them.

 

It was fun going through the caves to get the first key before you started running all over the base unleashing all sorts of shit, lol. Things get pretty crazy if you don’t clear guys out ahead of time but that was half the fun with all of the pretty lights from the crossfire infighting.

 

The design of the smaller starting base was kind of fun to run around on too. Up, down and around, run run run. Soooo glad the toxic green doesn’t damage here. This level would’ve been an annoying tedious experience otherwise. Instead it was a blitzing frantic scramble wherever there wasn’t enemy fire coming my way.

 

Liked the tie in ending with the story. Looking forward to getting away from all of the natural environments and seeing what these two do with a hellish landscape setting.

[baja blast rd.]

MAP11: Transcension

 

The start scenario might appear to have a bit of RNG without escaping via shoot switch, since there is no cover if the vile gets to the center of the room. But viles are one of two monsters with neither a melee nor ranged attack, so you can essentially just block the vile from moving forward all the way, likely incurring only chip damage from the chaingunners in the process. Monsters also are more likely to target you when you are very close to them, which helps fix it in place further. The lost souls trickling in over the walls are cool, and I always like GR switches in the middle of an active combat area. Maybe I'm weird, but it's amusing how they clank and clank as you fight things. Overall a fun start.

 

After this, the map can be split into two contrasting halves: the close-quarters combat in the caves, and the pair of fights in the central courtyard. Quite a few instapops in the former. THAT hell knight is probably going to stand out as a dick move to anyone who still has a melee weapon out, which is pretty likely since there was a row of spectres just prior. Ordinarily I'd say, 'it's a good idea to have a ready weapon out while approaching remotely trappy', which here, is the plasma rifle, and for which there is enough ammo to defang nearly all of the map's dangerous traps with proper use. But that hell knight trap springs just a little earlier than expected, not at the switch, not even at a linedef trigger in front of the switch. This whole sequence is a good spot to get some awkward Tysoning practice in if you are up for it. Even the mancubus seems to show up in the right spots for easy punching in ports with the blockmap bug. The only thing I dislike about this leg is the two viles. It's very hard to kill the monsters that seed this area with corpses anywhere else, even with foreknowledge, and since this part was a loosely disguised corridor shooter to begin with, extending the run time with more meat rubs me the wrong way. 

 

The fights aren't as interesting on their own as one might expect in a strategic sandbox. Neither wave has anywhere near enough pressure for that. The main appeal to me, and probably for Joshy as well, is mixing them together. As someone who does UV-max runs for fun sometimes, I think one of the more important qualities of a 'set everything loose' sort of sequence is the resistance to the player's string-pulling being carefully tuned. The ideal is somewhere between effortless and frustratingly suicidal. Here I think it's well balanced -- on the effortless side in practical terms, but very compelling cinematically. The cacos should be on your tail by the time you grab the red key and reach the bars. Then a cluster of pinkies shows up as if to try to stop you, futilely of course, and then there's showdown with an angry nest of chaingunners, the map's last stand against your mischief, and by the time you've vanquished them with plasma the whole courtyard has erupted in chaos. The slime river is largely a nonfactor when the map is played at a conventional pace, but it's surprisingly relevant during this melting pot fight because it's a good spot to stay if you want to maximize infighting between the cacos, which ordinarily hover over all the other projectiles whizzing around, and everything else. 

 

Anyway, loud death exit aside, I think this is the strongest of the E1 Joshymaps. 

 

Edited April 11, 2017 by rdwpa

[NecrumWarrior]

MAP11: Transcension

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rmggh9xtneoaq4l/SoD_M11_Necrum_GZ24.lmp?dl=0

Kills: 83%

Items: 87%

Secrets: 50%

Time: 9:01

 

Starts with an agro'd Arch-Vile. Not a great way to get on my good side. I did managed to beat it on my first try but come on, what's with the insta-fights? I find them very cheap and if someone didn't beat them the first time they can get to be very stressful. Prison life ends in a big yard surrounded by enemies. Clearing the first wave was on the whole not all that difficult. The side paths are where things really become threatening. You get the Rocket Launcher and Plasma Rifle pretty early on thankfully. When you start into the caverns a group of Hell Knights tries to ambush you. Unfortunately this comes right before some Revenants that would have made for a great infighting session, but the area is so cramped that it never looked like a viable option. Maybe if the Revenants weren't on a higher level. The Pain Elementals were trivial at best. Further along you find yourself trapped in a room with a Hell Knight, something I really don't care for. It set me back a fair bit when it killed me the first time. It's another really cheap trap. I don't have a problem with traps but this one in particular was bullshit. Grab the yellow key, grab the red key, then the clusterfuck begins. My god, every time I think that they have hit their most ridiculous level closer, they manage to one up themselves. You can pick off the Cacodemons before everything else, but it exhausts pretty much all of your ammo. I have a feeling there was probably a BFG in a secret here, but given the death ending I would think this might have been a great place to stick a normal BFG to have some fun before the close of this episode. Instead I ended up just speedrunning for the exit as fast as I could and not really feeling all that satisfied with the ending. This map could have been really great but I think that it ended up as a missed opportunity.

 

And then we get some text describing pretty much exactly what just happened instead of giving us anything interesting. Awesome. We know that we stepped on the fucking portal, why do you need to write about it in detail? Anyway, we begin a brand new theme tomorrow in an unknown location that may or may not be Hell.

Edited April 11, 2017 by NecrumWarrior

[galileo31dos01]

MAP09: Ok, challenge in every corridor. Looks like fun, doesn't it? Well let me tell you something... IT IS FUN! Thankfully those pinkies served as walls for me, but there is something I've noticed. It's harder for me to dodge baron's and hell knight's fireballs with PrBoom+ than with Crispy Doom, here the gameplay is smoother, and with PrBoom+ feels quicker, ergo, they run down my entire health in seconds, ugh... Anyway, techbase right? I like this texture, and the red carpet-like floor totally suits. The horde of zombiemen was fun to execute. Oh and the other time I died, was in the last chaingunner trap, I was expecting enemies coming from the corridor, not from the damn walls! Well this was a very good level. I forgot to see my time, twenty minutes I guess...

 

EDIT

 

MAP10: Wow, a Hunted remix ft. Pain Elementals, that's interesting. Urania has another one but with revenants and zombiemen. This looks more like a "Will you be my NME?" remix actually. At first I thought "oh these bitches are going to hurt me so bad", but they actually weren't the problem, the others were... Along some of the archviles or PE that teleport in, other enemies like arachnotron made my play miserable. On the positive side, no archvile killed me, hooray I'm getting better!. I liked the wall of pinkies/spectres. Legally, I found 4/5 secrets, one of them leading to a green armor and several pick ups had an archvile teleporting, if I didn't have the BFG, I wouldn't have a chance to survive, that seemed a little unfair to me. The remaining secret was the chaingun room, even if the small ledge is down, the linedef is still there. So, great map. Time: 44:18

Edited April 11, 2017 by galileo31dos01

[paymentplan]

MAP11 - Transcension

 

This map was fun as hell. Easily the best of Joshy's first episode maps, as others have opined. My biggest gripe is the starting room/area. It's so bland to just start in a room, especially considering how cool the outside area is. I thought I would hate the first fight with the arch vile and the chaingunners, but it ended up being pretty fun. Joshy does a bit of a bait and switch here, having the cramped starting area. I thought it was going to end up being like MAP03 or 09 or something and was already formatting my complaints. The outside area is really what makes the map.

 

It becomes this playground of increasing threat. As the player progresses through the map, more and more monsters teleport in, making the final rush for the exit thrilling. I could feel a revenant rocket sizzling through the air behind me as I stepped on the teleporter. The open area works a lot better here than what Joshy attempted in MAP01. There's more things to see and do. Coming back to the familiar area after a harrowing bit through the caves in the back was quite welcome. Until the monsters started teleporting in.

 

This is also one of my favorite of Jimmy's midis.

 

So Episode 1 is over. Never any real low low points, nor any really high high points. Interested to see what Episode 2 will bring. I'll also continue paying attention to the differences between Joshy and Darkwave0000 and their respective mapping styles. 

[galileo31dos01]

MAP11: When I saw the archvile (and the chaingunners) there I thought "well there's got to be somewhere to hide". Yes there is, but after two deaths I found out I had to shoot a switch, ugh... Ok, let's progress, imps, mancubus, more imps, more mancubi, more annoying chaingunners, revenants, hell knights, nice layouts by the way, then these two fucking archviles constantly reviving the death corpses, later ambushes of cacodemons, everything is fun, I really don't enjoy instantly-pop up-enemies but these were ok (well, except the hell knight, I agree with NecrumWarrior here) . Across the red bars, pinkies teleporting from both sides, that gave me a hard time. Leading the last enemies to infight was fun. I legally found 1/2 secrets, getting the megacharge (thanks to wiki) at the end was satisfying, then I went happily to the exit, and I exploded into pieces. :)

About the ending text, which marks the end of the first episode, I think other words would have been better than just repeating what just happened. 

Good map. Time: 30 minutes

 

Oh my god, I forgot to mention about the midi in map10, I loved to hear some heretic music in Doom! 

Edited April 12, 2017 by galileo31dos01

[NecrumWarrior]

1 hour ago, galileo31dos01 said:

MAP11: When I saw the archvile (and the chaingunners) there I thought "well there's got to be somewhere to hide". Yes there is, but after two deaths I found out I had to shoot a switch, ugh...  

I actually got very lucky here and kept hit stunning it with my super shotty. 

[paymentplan]

37 minutes ago, NecrumWarrior said:

I actually got very lucky here and kept hit stunning it with my super shotty. 

I found it to be a pretty fun little encounter. I had it a few times where the archie kept getting stunned by the chaingunners and then blasting them instead of me. 

[galileo31dos01]

1 hour ago, NecrumWarrior said:

I actually got very lucky here and kept hit stunning it with my super shotty. 

Keeping an archvile stunned with super shots til death is something that happens one in a million times. He actually wasn't the problem for me, he fired me a couple of times, it was the chaingunners, they finished to drain my health from to 0%, all in my first attempt, pretty embarrassing... The second and third attempt went better.

[Cynical]

26 minutes ago, galileo31dos01 said:

Keeping an archvile stunned with super shots til death is something that happens one in a million times. He actually wasn't the problem for me, he fired me a couple of times, it was the chaingunners, they finished to drain my health from to 0%, all in my first attempt, pretty embarrassing... The second and third attempt went better.

37% chance = one in a million now?

Edited April 12, 2017 by Cynical

[NecrumWarrior]

56 minutes ago, Cynical said:

37% chance = one in a million now?

Hitting 37% chance repeatedly til it dies is one in a million :P

[Spectre01]

MAP12 - “The Meat Grinder” by Darkwave0000

 

An excessively trappy map with nearly every room offering either a pop-in or teleport surprise. Quite a few in your face Hell Knights and plenty of Mancs spawning behind you to punish retreating. There's a micro-slaughter fight in the meat grinder room as well as a spacious encounter with some 'trons and Pinkies before the exit. Both fights are low pressure and you can either run circles or do whatever. The secret Plasma Rifle cavern stands out visually as something Erik Alm would give a thumbs-up to with red rock everywhere. Oh, and we're not really in hell. E2 is mostly more techbases and shit but with less green.

[Surreily]

I missed yesterday because I was busy, so here's two.

 

MAP11

 

A fairly small map taking place in and around several small structures. There's a cave area with some fairly simple encounters, which then loops back to the outdoor area we saw earlier. There's a pretty nasty soulsphere secret that took me a while to find.

 

I didn't have any trouble in the first area (like several others did), I guess I got lucky with the arch-vile (or maybe I got hit by him, can't quite remember). At several points in the map, Joshy sends a load of monsters into the outdoor area for us to deal with. I loved the part near the end where a load of imps pop up, providing a great opportunity to use our rocket launcher :)

 

It's a decent end to an episode, but I was hoping for something more epic for the finale. A death exit takes us into...

 

MAP12

 

After sliding down a flesh tunnel (wheeeeeee!), we are dropped into the first room which contains a super shotgun and a pretty memorable and fun encounter. The map takes place around a giant pit with windows leading out into it, and eventually we are able to get out there too via a neat silent teleporter effect.

 

The "meat grinder" room is a giant circular hallway surrounding a large central room, and is my favorite part of the entire WAD so far. As soon as we pick up the key, a whole load of demons spawn in and the central room becomes a crusher. If we don't go into the crusher, the demons will surround us quickly, so we are forced to dip in and out of the crusher room a couple of times until things begin to calm down. Thankfully, crushers don't care what they crush, so we can lure the monsters into the central room and save a ton of ammo (except for the barons of hell - I got bored waiting). Fuckin' brilliant.

 

The encounter at the bottom of the pit was pretty neat too. During this encounter, I think I ran too close to the exit area and activated a couple of arch-viles, making the fight much more interesting. Without the BFG, I had to plink at them with my super shotgun while dodging fire from everything - including the viles. After making it through, I noticed there was no way back to the top, which is my only real criticism here. I was very lucky that I had found all the secrets and killed every monster in the above areas before coming down here.

[baja blast rd.]

MAP12: The Meat Grinder

 

Cool map. Set pieces are the order of the day, but except for the red key crusher showdown and final cinematic plunge, these are mostly unmemorable and tend to follow the same formula: infight-prone mixed mobs with a few select turrets or ranged oppressors. That lack of memorability and variety is usually not a winning recipe for a standout map. Even the small connective skirmishes tend to dip into the same wells: imps, single viles, or clusters of HKs. Why does this map work? The combat is inherently satisfying, and there is a strong undercurrent of exploration holding everything together. The theme is surprisingly odd and mishmashy -- tech-retrofitted gothic castle ruins? -- with assets I don't really love, but I think it's compelling anyway, probably because Darkwave is so good at atmospherics. :P Also helping: escape mechanisms in fights tend not to be very restrictive, so the map flows smoothly with foreknowledge, and you have the option to leave encounters while infighting happens if you want and clean house later, which adds some replay value. 

You remember how map04 had that hidden inaccessible troll BFG? It seems to be one of Darkwave's recurring jokes, because you can find one in this map too, right before the drop into the final area. Wait, silly rdwpa, that's where the red key door is. Almost, but not quite. There's a silent teleporter right after that door, craftily creating the impression of 3D space, and if you look back to where the red key door was -- and IDCLIP out of the map (lol) -- you can see this. Under normal circumstances, if you back up, you'll cross the silent teleporter, and go right back to the red key door. But with a boost from a well placed face rocket, you can skip the teleporter line and grab the BFG, which can be put to use in the final fight. That's what the max record by BTSX superstar @dew does. It's unreliable and painful, but, hey, it saves time.

 

 

Edited April 12, 2017 by rdwpa

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP12 The Meat Grinder

 

I feared this type of forced pistol start would rear it's ugly ass head in. This one starting room sucks so much because there is just no fast way to kill the enemies in this room. It's at least wide enough for proper support, but I still hate it. For this matter, getting out of there and continuing was a lot better. We get a quicker killing tool in the rocket launcher, and some actually good combat, plus a chance to surprise an arch-vile is one I can take anytime. That one room where the doors lock and you have to fight a baron (it was a hell knight on my setting) didn't make much sense, but okay.

 

Two real highlights, the first one is obviously the meat grinder itself. Yes, a glorified crusher, but at least it has its fun in that you can at least lure the gullible monsters under there. One tactic I did was to run to the plasma rifle secret quickly, then back, most of the enemies are on the southern side while I ended up at the north. The second memorable thing is the sense of 3d scale going on. Once we get the red key, we are home-free for the exit, or so it seems. That lovely outside vista seen from the circular sectors has a huge ground floor beneath, and via silent teleporters, we end up on ground floor, opening the ground walls for demons and arachnotrons and hightailing our asses outta there. Aside from the beginning, an overall interesting and fun level.

[DAZZER]

MAP12: The Meat Grinder
Time - 13:40

 

After I got teleported through a flesh tunnel ᵈᵒᵒᵐ ³ in the starting Room i thought "wow this is going to be a demonic castle with this brick texture and blood over the floor..." well no... after i got out of that room i saw its again a tech Base :c It looked like the creator wanted to make a demon castle but then reminded that hell stuff should be part in the last episode ^^ The structure of this Map is explained pretty easy... You have 3 big towers. In the first one you need the red Key, in the second one the Blue Key and in the last you get the rocket launcher and after lots and lots of traps the blue key. In the Blue Key area after again lots and lots of Traps and a freakin cool crusher Arena Fight you get the Red Key. The Red Key Area plays at the bottom of the Towers and isn't very hard... just some arachnotrons and Demons. After 2 more Arch-Viles you can exit... I think saving will be a better and better idea in further Maps :)

Edited April 12, 2017 by DAZZER

[gaspe]

MAP11: This is a rather cute castle level that feels like a mixture of different influences (Alien Vendetta, Scythe, Hell Revealed), which are well mixed together. I really liked the archway to the exit.

 

MAP12: Interesting visuals and atmosphere with it's gothic setting combined with the electric lights and stuff. The combats, except the crusher area, are a bit unremarkable but this is still a solid level on the whole.

[Cynical]

11 hours ago, NecrumWarrior said:

Hitting 37% chance repeatedly til it dies is one in a million :P

One flinch is 78% chance.  Four hits kills a Vile at point-blank.

[NecrumWarrior]

MAP12: The Meat Grinder

https://www.dropbox.com/s/et7r6o097zeukmj/SoD_M12_Necrum_GZ24.lmp?dl=0

Kills: 96%

Items: 78%

Secrets: 40%

Time: 19:44

 

So we're thrown right into... a bunch of enemies looking at the wall? What's so interesting? Is there something written in the cracks? The imps literally have their faces against it. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND! Anywho, I really appreciated the chance to sort of strategize this time around instead of having the fight start immediately. It took me a couple tries but ultimately it wasn't an overly difficult fight. In fact, this map feels very balanced despite being filled with a lot of mid tier enemies. I had lots of room to maneuver in the enclosed spaces and initiate in-fighting. I don't recall there being many hit-scanners aside from Chaingunners. A good few Arch-viles here, but only one really pissed me off which is the one when you go back up the elevator. I was not expecting it at all. Kind of funny how this WAD and No End In Sight have maps called The Meat Grinder and The Grinder respectively, and both maps have only one crusher. Seems like if you named your map after a feature, you would use it more than once. It took me a long time to finish this map, but I actually enjoyed it a lot. It felt like a map out of Ancient Aliens but with more green. Another Heretic midi, which is awesome. I actually was playing Heretic a bit yesterday so the track stuck out to me immediately. Finally I have a map that I can put on the favorites list.

 

Favorite Maps:

1. MAP12: The Meat Grinder

[galileo31dos01]

2 hours ago, Cynical said:

One flinch is 78% chance.  Four hits kills a Vile at point-blank.

What we are saying is that it's very rarely to see an archvile flinch in every supershot until he dies. I only saw that only once and so far I may have killed 500 of them.

[Cynical]

That means you aren't hitting with all of your SSG pellets (probably because you're not usually trying to flinch it to death -- in most cases, you're going to fight it the traditional way, which will inevitably be less pellet-efficient).

 

If you're actively trying to get it to flinch out, and you do it correctly, you have a better than one-in-three chance.

[NecrumWarrior]

It really doesn't matter what the odds are, it was just some friendly comraderie (I don't know if I spelled that right...). 

[Paul977]

Map 12 The Meat Grinder

 

For quite some time this map has been one of my favourite from this author in SoD, tho after replaying it I bit changed my mind (thats why is cool to replay maps). The strong point of this map for me is the layout and the visuals which are amazing; particularly the three circular towers and the last arena fight at the bottom of the canyon. Gameplay was for the most part enjoyable, tho I liked more Vile Pain on this aspect, maybe because this map is a bit too linear. Standout fights for me are: the starting one, the blue key door trap and the final fight. 

Cool hellish cavern where the PR can be found: maybe a taste of what we will find in the later maps ?

Edited April 12, 2017 by Paul977

[baja blast rd.]

MAP13: Lucifer’s Tears

 

I have a feeling this map will be pretty divisive. I actually ended up liking it (well kind of), but not until I resolved to get rid of the apparent RNG of the earlier stages. At first, it seems like the 'zerk is mandatory, what with the pinkies and imps converging on you and not enough shells to handle them. But as seems to be a Joshy trope, this is entirely illusory. That forms the lynchpin for beating this map cleanly without much annoyance.

 

'90s style walkthrough: 

 

Spoiler

 

Step 1: As mentioned, the 'zerk isn't needed as a weapon early on. Pick up the single shotgun, wait for the pinkies to come stomping through, and then slip around them. Deal with the shotgunners that materialize from the solid floor. Hold off on using too many bullets.

 

Step 2: In the next room, stir up some infighting between the mancs and the hell knights. You don't need to hoard ammo, which will become apparent later, but every bit helps.

 

Step 3: Pull out your chaingun, hit the switch at the back, and immediately run to one of the sides of the room, at roughly the midpoint. Hold down fire while pointing at the teleport destination nearest you. If you have to shoot one of the shotgunners in the middle of the room, position yourself so that your bullets pass through this closest teleport destination. One quirk of the code is that freshly ported monsters have lots of pent up rage to release and are very prone to firing immediately. A shotgunner point blanking you with no armor won't be pleasant. (By the way, there is basically no armor in this map.) Some of the shotgunners teleport in late, so keep your ears open for them. This room will now serve as a nice armory if you ever need to restock on shells. 

 

Step 4: Apparently this map was hosting a big shotgunner jamboree or something. Open the door and take care of the mess outside. If you have enough health to forgo the berserk pickup, you are golden. Otherwise, pick it up, but be careful.

 

Step 5: The next area can be cleared out very cautiously if you want. There is one asshole chaingunner eavesdropping into the window above the spiral stairs; make sure to kill him. You can wake up the mancs and kill them safely from below. (But don't forget there's a baron behind the bars, too.) The imp platforms can be used as shields against the arachnotrons and revenants. There is a plasma rifle, but save your cells for the next part.

 

[If I weren't lazy, a screencap of a chaingunner, with a square at the bottom saying "Pro Tip: Kill these things" would go here.]

 

Step 6: Hit the switch, kill the chaingunners. After the drop into the blood canal, a bunch of monsters show up (guess how). With your plasma rifle, clear out the spectres to the left first, and then take care of the revenants that show up. Around the bend there are a couple more rude chaingunners, and that's basically it in the way of potential threat in the map. Collect your prize in the soulsphere secret, which has arrived a bit too late to be of much practical use. Try to make the basic SR40 jump in fewer than five attempts. :D

 

 

If you make it back to the berserk with lots of health, you can clear out the yellow key area somewhat aggressively, but I really don't like eating beefy projectiles when I have no armor, even with a reset to 100% HP to fall back on, so on principle I wasn't in the mood for it. It's a bit odd how softballed the very end of the map is. A victory lap, I guess. I'd rather the map give me a green armor but also make some of the dangerous parts mandatory. I don't mind playing this sort of map every once in a while, but I'm hoping not much else in the set is like it. 

 

 

Edited April 13, 2017 by rdwpa

[galileo31dos01]

MAP12: Ok, second episode, gothic map with some green nukage here, techbase there, nice buildings, seriously I like how these guys build their maps. Heretic music, probably the most memorable, cool! This is a map in which we continuous players don't have a choice, we have to start like a pistol starter, and that's fine. I like these kind of tunnels where you are thrown into a teleporter. The most usual ambushes I've seen so far in this wad include imps, revenants, hell knights, cacodemons, and arachnotrons, and this map is not an exception. Also, from time to time an archvile will appear to make things spicy. None of them represented a big trouble of me, I guess I'm getting better, yay

I died two times, and both were in the exact room crossing the blue door, ugh too many enemies scratching my body to death. The red key trap got me running for me life the whole time, I wasn't expecting that crusher, still it helped to eliminate a lot of the monsters. Oh wait, the level's name is "The Meat Grinder" oooooooohhh now I get it... About the secrets, legally 4/5, the only one I missed was the blue armor one, so, idclip to the top (in my opinion there should be a teleporter, at least a hidden one) and guess what, there was a BFG in the middle of the way, what was that doing there and how can I legally grab it?? "reads other players opinions", so it's kind of a joke, no I haven't seen it in map04, but in Scythe's map31 there is one unreachable BFG. Now I feel like I shouldn't have grabbed it, but it's a BFG, hmm... I take back what I said...

My favourite secret was the plasma rifle one, such a beautiful scenario, all red, Scythe vibes! 

So far, this is one of my favourite maps. Time: 47 minutes, or 49, idk

Edited April 12, 2017 by galileo31dos01

[paymentplan]

MAP12 - The Meat Grinder

 

Seems like Darkwave0000 didn't get the memo about the new episode! Feels like a natural progression from the author's last entry in the WAD, Vile Pain. Focusing more on architectural interiors than massive looming cave structures, The Meat Grinder is a map with encounter design and monster placement that approaches the ideal.

 

I was struck by how doable all the encounters were for me. Darkwave0000 makes excellent use of perceived difficulty starting from the very first fight. When the player sees ammo, armor, and a bunch of dormant monsters, they can assess the difficulty of the fight. Based on experience and various play styles a player can genuinely determine if it is going to be hard or not. The first fight seems like it's gonna be a tough one or at least it has the potential to be a tough one. Shortly after aggroing all the beasties, some arachnotrons start giving covering fire, usually causing more problems for the monsters than the player.

 

Darkwave0000, pretty early on in this set, showed a knack for creating potential infighting scenarios. Infighting plays a lot into the perceived difficulty vs. practical difficulty. In the first encounter it's harder than it seems because the arachnotrons are hidden. In practice, the arachnotrons help whittle down all the other monsters, giving the fight an easier practical difficulty than perceived difficulty.

 

The fight in the titular Meat Crusher Grinder is another masterclass in this perceived vs. practical difficulty thing. Perceived: player's motion limited by grinder, monsters swarm in from both sides including high health barons, motion is further blocked by waves of pinkies. Practical: mixed monster population contributes to infighting, grinder actually helps the player more than it hurts them (if mindful of movement). This fight is an absolute joy to play through and stands up quite well to multiple attempts.

 

The final fight in the dark verdant pit is a bit of an outlier in the map. The perceived difficulty is low and the practical difficulty is low. It's more of a denouement than a big climactic encounter. Darkwave0000 sprinkles in some inventive secrets, never floods the player with too much health or ammo, and continues a superb display of his detailing and visual panache. 

 

Kills - 107%

Items - 55%

Secrets - 70%