The DWmegawad Club plays: Crumpets & Stardate 20X7 & Rush

[rehelekretep]

5 hours ago, Demtor said:

 

MAP06 - “Masquerade”

gzDoom - HMP – pistol start/saves

 

Holy hell! I had to double check the difficulty settings before starting this. Quite a scare with 4 barons and a manc staring down at you when starting out on HMP. Crazy start for a crazy little map.

 

Lots of spacial challenges and tricky positioning in tight confined spaces. The sandstone brick with hues of brown looks really good with the spots of red. Good stuff.

 

Getting the BFG at the start is always interesting because you wonder when to use it. Tempting to fire that baby right at the barons right away, but I chose to run around them and save it for the cyberdemon I found later. I appreciated the extra ammo by the exit doorway behind him. Sigh of relief here.

interesting - as you can see from my screenshot, the enemies are the same but Ribbiks is kind enough to give you 2 guns earlier :D

[Killer5]

Map07:

I don't like this map. There is nothing in this map I found particularly fun to play.

 

The start seemed cool. But then I realized that I can just grab the ssg and run into the room with the imps/bfg on pillar. All you really need to worry about in this room is getting tagged by a chaingunner until the entire first section is dead.

 

The next bit with the av/revs/imps/manc. This part seemed cool until I realized I can just sit in one spot and chill until I am forced to do something. Sometimes if a rev gets hit by the manc the rev wont even shoot. It just runs back and forth for ages. I really didn't enjoy this fight tbh. Also you can easily get shot through the wall by the manc. Also if you want you can run behind the baron pillar. The baron wont hit you as long as you hug the pillar.

 

The fight with the 2 PEs/hks/av. You can just run out of there and snipe everything from the previous area with the av/revs/imps/manc. So there isn't really any threat here. The block lines make this super simple.

 

There is a megasphere bfg thing after hitting the switch in the area where the PEs/hks/av were. I liked the idea of shooting a shot of bfg prior to jumping down and then shooting another bfg shot right when grabbing the mega. You can kill almost all of the chaingunners every time doing this meaning you only get hit one time normally (most often from a chaingunner that doesnt die). This fight seems like it is just a little bfg party but with no threat. I think if I found that area without bfg or something first I would have found it more fun.. but I never really tried the PE/hk/av fight the 'intended' way of staying up in that small arena. I also found out you can shoot some rockets between the rev perches into that mega area. Sometimes you can kill a few chaingunners behind the wall prior to jumping down. I didn't bother researching a consistent setup for this though.

 

The yk area is easily dealt with without taking damage pretty much 100% of the time. Just creep around the corner and pick off each chaingunner. After that you just need to run out and lure the 2 AVs/revs into your healthily supplied bfg. Then snipe each av with the 20 rockets beneath them.

 

So reality on this map requires you to get past the manc shooting gallery thing and especially the megasphere bfg spam thing. I couldnt really get the megasphere thing consistent.. maybe I'll grind on this map for an hour a day or something until I get an exit. Because reality is definitely possible if you can get lucky at that mega area one time.

[Spie812]

map07

Gzdoom - UV Continuous

 

Like the previous map, this starts off getting swarmed by numerous enemies. However, this time there's weaker enemies on the ground while the tougher enemies fire on you from above. The only requirement to beat the map is a battle with a swarm of revenants and arch-viles for the yellow key. However, the rest of the map provides weapons which are invaluable to surviving that fight.

 

The visual theme of this map isn't really a surprise, but it still looks really good. I also enjoyed the music choice. The start of the level is a royal pain to pistol start (I did try) and some of the fights are straight up unfair if you don't grab the weapons laying around (I don't know why anyone wouldn't.) Overall, I don't think this will be my favorite map in the set, but It was still fun to play.

[Spie812]

Accidental double post again why does this happen to me

Edited September 6, 2017 by Spie812

[paymentplan]

I played through Crumpets pretty soon after it was released and enjoyed a lot of it. When I saw it was going to be the first mapset for the club I thought about replaying it. But for some reason I could only really think of MAP06. I watched @rdwpa's video for it and remembered why. I think it took me the better part of a week to finally get through that map! 

 

I'll probably hop in for SD20x7 in a few days. Ribbiks maps have a special place in my heart. When I first got into PWADs, I happened across Spoons and bashed my head against the first little bit of map one for hours one day. I made note of its creator and swore never to play anything by Ribbiks ever again. Now I'm like "I'll give Ribbiks and dannebubinga a million dollars to make Sunlust 2. I already suck at Sunlust, but give me another one to suck at."

[baja blast rd.]

Map 07: Frog and Toad

 

This one is a lot like 06 with its start-stop flow. I liked the second fight, but after that it's not really too compelling. On the plus side, it has cool design and a nice layout. The second fight uses tight ammo to prevent the most 'obvious' cheese (running to the exit room means lots of goats blocking you in).  

 

The early strategy here is to grab the armor and move around the imps for the chaingun, waiting a bit for them to walk forward. You are safest in the left corner of the area where the chaingun is. Nothing can really hit you there. In the right corner, a turret baron can see you, but it's still safe to be there for short periods. Ignore the soulsphere for now. After that, run out and grab the SSG, and move back a bit to pull some revenants towards you, which gives you enough time to charge into the imps and down into the windowed enclosure containing the switch, where you can easily set up infighting. Getting some infighting going is quite useful, because otherwise you'll have to maneuver around the goats. Ideally, you'll want to do all of this without dropping down below 40 HP or so. After some basic clean-up and stocking up, including the soulsphere at the start, take the teleporter to the upper level.

 

We'll do the backfacing fight with the vile and turret mancs. Coming here with lots of health removes much of the nuance; just get the manc to shoot at stuff. Things can go wrong if the vile wakes up early and then gets hit by an imp, after which it'll set its sights on you, so if you see a vile targeting an imp, start fighting revs ASAP. But again, The area behind the elevated baron offers a lot of safety as long as both revs and the vile aren't alive.

 

That's it, basically. After this, you really are massively overpowered for the rest of the level, with lots of mistake forgiveness. The optimal approach in the chaingunner orgy involves shooting first down the middle, but I experimented with other firing patterns for science. (Spoiler: those patterns suck.) The trio of turret viles is harmless if you hug the wall (and don't get caught in detailing at some point), where they won't be able to see you, and you can clear them out before hitting the switch. You will have a ton of BFG ammo, so fire with abandon.

 

 

[Capellan]

MAP07

Not one of my favourite maps in the set so far.  Quite stop-start, set-piece oriented design with a couple of (optional, I think) encounters that were basically wood-chopping: the herd of HKs from the (secret?) baron teleporter, for instance.

 

It does still look very nice, though, and I like the way that the exit is presented to you almost straight away - you just need that pesky yellow key first!

 

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP07 Frog and Toad

 

A bit of a devious start with these big monsters around me it looks like. I found the first safest option in those imps, then I used what I could to get the rest of the monsters. Proceeding to take the yellow key was the hard part with the revenants and barons, but after that that seems to be it, wait what? Looks like half the map involves reaching a teleporter to get another SSG along with a plasma gun or something, alright. The huge debacle with the chaingunners and such warranted an invulnerability making it survivable.

 

Pistol Start: Map's still easy, and I use the same tactic as before, heading for the imps first. Amusingly I missed the BFG near the exit, mostly because in continuous I had one, but apparently there was another one with a megaarmor nearby the yellow key that I decided to pick up. I also get all the things around the yellow key but not the key itself, saving it until after I blow through everything. I think this is what he had in mind. Still easy.

[Spie812]

map08:

Gzdoom - UV Continuous

 

The opening fight in this level was really hard for me. I ended up just running to the blue armor area and shotgunning the numerous enemies from there. Save the soulsphere. I sure needed it by the end of that fight.

 

Most of the other fights in the level are still tricky, but not quite to the same extent as the opening clusterfuck. However, definitely the most difficult part for me was the group of hell knights and arch-viles supported by a cyberdemon and revenant snipers for good measure. For one reason or another I kept getting distracted and then getting blasted to bits by either a rocket from the cyberdemon or a missile from a revenant.

 

Pistol starting this level is a nightmare. i just cannot survive the beginning for the life of me.

 

Overall, Once I managed to get a foothold I found this level to be super fun. 

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP08 Shamu

 

The only bad thing I can think of for this map is that it is entirely setpiece-based. There's actually no real surprises that this one offers, you get the weapons and the close-quarters combat that follows, each one can be practiced as is until you pretty much got it down. The best thing to do is to head for the rocket launcher room first, and from there, drop to the bottom where the cyberdemon and others are. I am glad for that secret teleporter so I can telefrag the thing.

 

Pistol Start: Only major problem here was dealing with the three chaingunners in the far distance. Otherwise, I just went for the weapons that I knew the whereabouts of. Interesting how there are two rocket launchers nearby. I didn't use them that much. The SSG secret was quite juicy too, and the imp/arch-vile combination was a bit harder to handle. The ending part with the dropping floor and cacos also comes to mind, but they are of course more setpieces.

[Demtor]

 

MAP07 - “Frog and Toad”

gzDoom - HMP – pistol start/saves

 

Grrrr. Maps like this give me anxiety. Running around room to room without the ammo to handle all the shit that’s waiting for you. It becomes a puzzle of survival where you have to find the next “key” to survival with very little room for error. Not the most fun but as always… very neat looking. Little less so than the last map but still interesting designs.

 

At least there are multiple weapon pick ups so there are options available past the initial brutality. Even the BFG has two different spots.

 

My favorite part of the map was the megasphere trap. A wall of CG’ers and HK’s. AHH!! I did not make it out with better numbers then what I went in with. Hilarious scare. I knew something was coming, but god damn!

[rehelekretep]

wow map08 is the most rage-inducing map to try and one-shot that ive played in a long while. 104 minutes and counting >.<

doesnt help that i got a new mousepad just before playing it...

Edited September 7, 2017 by rehelekretep

[baja blast rd.]

Map 08: Shamu

 

Yeah this map is pretty messy. There's a relatively generous amount of health (once you are past the somewhat vicious start, that is), but it's hard to get through the map cleanly.

 

At the beginning you can in theory pick up some stuff and immediately rush for the area with the berserk pack en route to the blue armor, but sniping away at the vile from somewhere else gets boring, so I stay and fight. En route to the blue armor, you can get the manc infighting hell knights but it's not really mandatory; killing the manc and then grabbing the secret SSG for the HKs also works. This map is actually relatively lenient with ammo as a whole (but not necessarily on every route -- some routes will see you run out quite easily). Be careful not to fall off the ledge. It's quite easy to accidentally do so. 

 

Hit the switch at the start and get the cell packs. In the teardrop rocket launcher section, it's four rockets for the pains, standing back so that you won't face-rocket on a kamikaze soul, and then plasma spam. The circular vile setpiece should be fled from. It'll take a bit of time for monsters to bunch for optimal splash (which is really satisfying), so in the time being we'll grab the berserk and fight its guardians, and then come back and clean up.

 

Just an aside: as demonstrated in my video, if there is a two-sided raised sector between a vile and you and you are directly against that sector, you won't take splash damage from the vile attack, only base damage. It's not necessary here, but it's really useful to know -- I've played a few turret vile encounters that become quite a bit easier when you can willingly tank only 20 total damage.

 

Time for cheese. From the vile area, the cyb can be made to start infighting all the stuff down below. Have to be careful, though, with all the revs hanging around (I kill at least the two highest ones, to reduce the interference I get when fighting the cyb later). This cheese isn't too important for survival, but it makes the map about a minute and a half shorter, with minimal risk (just don't fall off lol). 

The penultimate fight along this route is a cool game of cat and mouse with a vile and lots of backup. You can hide in the 'horn' shaped area opposite the trio of chaingunner turrets, but cacos will descend on you from high above, so that isn't the safest area to go first. Clean everything up (make sure you have a bunch of rockets and cells picked up before killing the cyb!) and that's it.

 

 

Edited September 7, 2017 by rdwpa

[rehelekretep]

beautiful. your tactics are so much better than mine. coincidentally this is why i love most of what Ribbik's has put out. its bastard hard, but it makes you think, which i dont have to do this extent in most other mapsets :D

edit: @rdwpa i thought about punching the AVs on the pedestals to save ammo but i was too scared id bump a wall escaping their little cubbies and die :'(

Edited September 7, 2017 by rehelekretep

[rehelekretep]

map07 fda

i really liked this. never gives you a moments rest, lots of tricky tight bits, i actually skipped out on the teleporter fight by accident - didnt even realise i could!

 

map08 fda

skipsec to 33:29 if you dont want to watch all my 500+ deaths ;D

glboom-plus -iwad doom2.wad -file crumpets.wad -playdemo crumpets08fda1420part2 -skipsec 33:29

this is a cool map. rage-inducing, but its cool.

i actually 'discovered' some cheese, whereby if you trigger the switch on the ledge with the baron, you can deal with everything in the water all at once, use the cyber to distract and kill off stuff, and then pick off the viles that spawn in after the cyber dies at your leisure.

the midi is fantastic as well, full of menace.

Edited September 7, 2017 by rehelekretep

[baja blast rd.]

Map 09: Crackerjack

 

Without foreknowledge this is one of the tougher maps (somewhere around 05-07 -- because 08 stands above everything else). But if you compare the difficulties of maps assuming a good amount of foreknowledge of all of them, 09 is closer to 03-04 than to 05-08. This is because the secrets are powerful, removing those pesky masterminds and giving you lots of health on top of an already generous balance. 

 

First off, we silently go around telefragging masterminds and stocking up. (For the teleporter in the slime, only one of the four lines will lead to its telefrag chain.) Turn right from where the SSG is and deal with the viles. Block-in tactics aren't consistent here because one of the two viles can attack and force you to give up the blockade, but you are guaranteed to get in three shots on a vile by starting this way: at least two with the blockade and one while you are retreating behind the switch. (I got caught on detailing in the video. :P) On the way to the other side, take care of all the monsters loitering around but make sure not to kill the hell knight too close to the yellow pad. Now it's time to cheese the yellow key fight.

 

Normally, when you see railings, they are impassible lines. But that has the severe downside of restricting flying monsters, which makes just about no sense visually. Instead, Ribbiks used invisible sectors set to the same height as the bars. But what this allows you to do is outright leave the yellow key fight using the archvile that teleports on to the yellow pad. This is a very easy vile jump too, so it fits in our 'methodical play' approach. Basically, my main goal with this map was to minimize the messiness of the ending by saving as many cells for it as possible, and this vile jump fits into that methodology because it's hard to survive the fight the normal way without using some. But it also happens that the vile jump makes the fight easier too. Come back around, get the cyb to infight stuff, and there's a secret way to telefrag it when you are done.

 

The barons in the starting area have a walkover line between them that raises steps to the side areas when you have the yellow key (cool mechanic). Grab one of the partial invisibilities on the east side and take care of the fight on the west side. There's also a switch behind this structure that lowers a secret megasphere. This fight is incredibly lenient with healing if you go there with an invisibility, so I only use a single BFG shot and clean up the other vile with the SSG. That vile is highly likely to be distracted by something anyway.

 

At the end, you should be basically topped out on health and armor even before grabbing the secret megasphere. That allows you the luxury of surviving a cyb rocket, which is always nice to have. Lure cybs and pain elementals to the right side and try to get some infighting going (the idea of cyber-PE/soul infighting is pretty funny but it works lol). You can see why Ribbiks didn't want to use impassable railings to allow you to rush into the building and cheese the pain elementals. You can still do that to some extent, but it's still pretty messy and more importantly doesn't look like a silly cheese. After some herding, you should have an opening to sprint to the left of the mess and hit the four switches, which free up lots of cell ammo and allow for a tidier cleanup. If there are still lots of PEs and souls alive, don't stay in there after hitting the switches -- come back out and lure them away again. If you take moderate damage while doing any of this (something that drops you to 144/144 health/armor or below, which is in range of a possible cyb one-shot) -- you should consider running over for the secret megasphere. Not that it's essential, but there's no point in saving that megasphere because the lost souls won't hurt you too much with the right approach, so you might as well get yourself 'accidental rocket' insurance.

 

Edited September 8, 2017 by rdwpa

[Spie812]

map09

Gzdoom - UV Continuous

 

Unless you know how to telefrag the spiderdemons, this map becomes a hitscan nightmare. Even when you do, there's still numerous chaingunners to deal with. The yellow key trap is rather exciting if you don't have a bfg with you. Given the red key trap, I just ran in and back out and then headed toward the exit. The exit trap puzzled me a bit, because I personally find it harder on HMP with the two archviles, than I do on UV with the pain elemental swarm.

 

I also tried pistol starting this map, and it is considerably easier than the last few maps to get started.

 

Overall, I feel like this is probably my favorite map in the set. All the encounters are memorable, it equips you rather well for the job, and the scenery in this map is super cool especially with the building in the background.

 

map10

a little circle with the text "TY!" and some cool spinny walls.

 

 

[Spectre01]

MAP06 - “Masquerade”

I actually really enjoyed this map compared to map05 and found it far more intuitive to no-save through "blind". Had the worst death possible on my first good attempt, as I ate a rocket in the back while going for the Megasphere, with only two Cybers remaining. Really fun midi too.

 

MAP07 - “Frog and Toad”

Didn't see either unfortunately. This is another tough one until you die a bunch of times figuring out what does what and where to go. I slammed the switch near the turret Viles and then funneled everything to the exit room. Since Hell Knights can't get through there, they did a good job infighting with everything, including the Vile(s) which I body-blocked. Once you grab some weapons and ammo you can have some fun. Trivially melting everything with the BFG at the Megasphere was good times.

Edited September 8, 2017 by Spectre01

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP09 Crackerjack

 

Goddamnit Ribbiks that's seven secrets I have to find? Good lord. The worst part is I managed to find all of them which surprised even me, but getting those last few ones had still left me quite sour. Anyways, this map is made to be as ungrateful as possible with lots of chaingunners in bad sniping positions, and some very interesting usages of spiderdemons, something actually not seen often. Gotta give the poor wide monster its credit somehow. Unfortunately even I think that a turreted usage of a spiderdemon isn't exactly a great way of combating it, especially when the secret's main gimmick simply involves telefragging them. The main building to the north is a basic setpiece-o-rama, made much harder by the hitscan snipers of course, but even without them its hard on its own. It took me a bit on what to do next, because I ran around from hitscans until I realized the yellow key was used for a walk-over line, something I really don't ever see much either. The left side, I have a feeling this one is utterly ungrateful on higher settings. For some reason, due to how these chaingunners are laid out, there might be an arch-vile on higher settings in a hidden block nearby, resurrecting them Plutonia-style and making things just unbearable to deal with. That didn't happen here, although there were two of those guys waiting to ambush, a BFG9000 to the face solves all of my troubles. The endgame fight was certainly the closest this mapset will come to slaughter, with archies, pain elementals, and a rather annoying cyber to fight down. Had to kill the bigger ones first, the pain elementals aren't honestly that hard to deal with though. We got an invisible staircase leading to the end.

 

Pistol Start: The best part about those spiderdemons though? Once you know where the secrets to telefrag them are, you can kill every single one of them without making a single sound. The section just to the right of the main building can be reached from the top of the stairs where the plasma gun is, so you can get up to five secrets there. This makes things much more manageable. It's also possible to get the soul sphere and megaarmor right away too. After that, I get the plasma gun, do my business in the main building, get a chaingun and make potshots at our unfriendly neighbors to the left, then deal with that accordingly. Yes, I fought the finale too, not liking having a rocket launcher available when it's better to use a different weapon against these guys. While fighting I did find an alternate exit which is probably only possible through arch-vile jump.

 

That's it for Crumpets I guess. Closest Ribbiks has to a completely normal set and I like it.

[Demtor]

 

MAP08 - “Shamu”

gzDoom - HMP – pistol start/saves

 

Nasty at first but pretty fun moments overall. Lots of challenging situations from start to finish but with plenty of armor and a health afterwards if you make it through them. Also, you can get the PG right away which is awesome.

 

I liked the use of brown water just kind of all over the place. The use of liquid in all of these maps is really well done. The notable Cyberdemon centerpiece next to the rev pillars with a gang of nobles across the way was enjoyable. Infighting aplenty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

MAP09 - “Crackerjack”

gzDoom - HMP – pistol start/saves

 

Some really nice architectural designs on display here. Large massive structures in the distance for decoration as well as the giant tower structure open to explore. Excellent use of the SMM’s and playing visual tricks with the distance and size by having a smaller arachnotron on a platform by the YK.

 

I actually made it through this map without too much trouble. Lots of tricky AV’s to deal with but overall things were doable with the PG/CG combo I stumbled upon right away.

 

I was very happy to have invisibility spheres readily available for a change. I missed all of the secrets but the most obvious one with the megasphere. Yikes. I went back later and found the telepads for the telefrags. Hah, wish I’d have found those earlier.

 

I just ran for the exit as soon as I could. No way in hell I was going to stick around with all of the PE s and Lost Souls flying about. Yeesh. Sad there wasn’t something a bit more substantial to force me to stick around in this well crafted space for a bit longer. As is, the 4 switches for the exit are easily attainable.

 

 

 

 

 

There’s no end?

 

MAP10 - “Thanks for Playing!”

gzDoom - HMP – pistol start/saves

 

Heh, well that’s that I guess. I don’t know what to say. You're welcome? This doesn’t feel like a complete wad really. Just a handful of well done maps. I guess that’s why it’s called crumpets. Not a main course by any means. Not even really an appetizer. Just kind of there for your enjoyment in little bite sized moments.

[Magnusblitz]

Got busy and you guys started without me! Well, hopefully shouldn't be too hard to catch up with Crumpets at least. I've finally had two months in a row I got all the way through, would be a shame to stop now... though the other two WADs this month might well stop me.

 

Anyways, onto Crumpets. Usual settings for me...Zdoom, mouselook, save/reload as I feel like, UV, pistol start.

 

MAP01: Earl Grey

 

Okay.

 

MAP02: Flutter

100% kills, 0/1 secret

 

First things first... the colors are really bold and vivid, is it due to a custom palette or just readjusting after a month of Moonblood's paled-out palette?

 

Anyways, first impressions are that it's gonna be one of "those" WADs with a lot of exceptionally tightly-constructed fights and setups, often trapping the player in a series of arenas. On one hand I like them because a lot of care is given and there's interesting setups... but on the other hand, sometimes it feels a little too manufactured, or perhaps stilted... basically, it feels like any freewheeling is taken away, and the player pretty much has to approach things in a certain order and do the fights a certain way. And there's a lot of 'learning' the map to figure out how to deal with every trap sprung. I definitely had a bit of trouble on the yellow key fight, eventually beating it with only 5% health remaining (though it probably would've helped had I found the green armor before everything was dead), only took me a few tries thankfully.

 

Oh, for what it's worth, it's possible to get stuck here.

 

Playing MAP03 a bit... hmm. Might need to lower things to HMP and give it another crack tomorrow.

 

EDIT: Oh for some reason I didn't realize Crumpets was by Ribbiks too, that means UV is meant for the experts not the first playthrough-ers. Didn't notice since the text file was all garbled. Don't mind me...

Edited September 9, 2017 by Magnusblitz

[Magnusblitz]

Ok, on HMP now.

 

MAP03: Tiramisu

100% kills, 0/1 secret

 

Certainly a lot more on my difficulty level here. Still cramped, and still parts where you kinda need to let the level railroad you (there's not enough ammo early on to take out all the enemies, gotta just run). Not much else to say.

 

MAP04: Bocuma

100% kills, 1/2 secrets

 

I liked the silent start letting me poke the monsters to wake them up one by one and get them infighting. After that, this one has a bit more room to roam, but the monsters are still mainly perched on emplacements without having anywhere to go, giving it much of a shooting gallery feel for the most part. Did like jumping from perch to perch though. The secret/optional fight near the end for the soulsphere felt a bit oddly placed since the maps are intended for pistol starting. Spied the BFG but no idea how to get it.

 

MAP05: Mint Chocolate

100% kills, no map secrets

 

Died far too many times in the super shotgun corridor... for some reason (shape of the corridor maybe?) I just kept dodging into the manc fireballs over and over, quite silly. Died a couple times to the rev/AV trap too due to those stupid torches getting in the way.

 

I agree with Capellan that I think this map may be a good example of going overboard with the circles... after awhile they start to just all blur together and feels a bit confusing, at least to me.

 

 

[Capellan]

MAP08

I suspect Crumpets will be the only mapset I get to this month, but it seems that I'll make it to the end of it, at least.  Been distracted for the last few days with finally finishing up Fallout 4's main quest.

 

This is a pretty nice map, though there's a risk of being infinitely-talled in certain parts of the level.  I managed pretty well on the whole, mostly by exploring carefully before hitting triggers.  Liked the caco/imp/PE fight in the eastern area, and that you've got freedom to go in many different directions after the initial manc/rev encounter at the start.

 

[Spectre01]

MAP08 - “Shamu”

This was tough saveless. My successful run was 25 minutes long due to employing every possible safe/cheese strat known to man. The general order I did things in was: Grab the PR, kill the Vile, flip the switch and kill 2 Revs on it. After this, I went for the Berserk and then camped the upstairs platform with the Blue Armour and two helpful block lines. After maximizing infighting and all other manner of cheese, I went through the pit with the RL and then abused the lift switch to punch all the Imps on the stairs. If you peak over the ledge, you can bait the Cyber to take out the double Vile party below. After this it was just a matter of cleaning up the Chaingunner/Rev turrets and then doing the Caco fight, which I nearly screwed up.

 

Good map, though I ended up switching the lighting mode to GLBoom+ and using gamma 2 since I couldn't see shit with default Shaders.

[Spectre01]

MAP09 - “Crackerjack”

 

The last actual map of the wad is largely trivialized by having foreknowledge of all the secrets. Or at the very least, copying the first 30 seconds of Angalagon's UV-Max gives you an enormous head-start over blindly walking into the fortress with an SSG and no armour. I am not a fan of this type of mapping style, which was largely absent in the rest of the maps. The hardest part of doing the whole "don't shoot secret chain" was getting infinite-heighted and pushed off the wall by that stupid Mancubus in the pit. I got fed up with that jump and cleared that area out before hitting up the Chaingunner Castle. Overall, this map was more enjoyable when I played it blind+continuous about a year ago.

 

MAP10 - “Thanks for Playing!”

I'll put my final impressions here. Overall, Crumpets is a highly enjoyable set of small but challenging maps with low monster counts. The short length also makes it fun to blast through without saves, for some additional challenge and palm-sweating pressure. Overall rating: 4/5

Hits: maps 04 and 06

Misses: map09

[Capellan]

MAP09

Nice to see a map where blur spheres are actually really useful items, though I can't say I am a fan of hitscanner snipers as a general rule.  Much of this level was quite good fun, though progression was not exactly obvious.  Not much of a fan of the red door horde.  I ran away, waited for them to filter out into the map, and then sprinted in to hit the switches.  Was pretty easy to hide until the exit area opened (though I actually spent most of my time looking for said exit area).

 

 

[NuMetalManiak]

So no one decided to start Stardate 20X7 yesterday? well...first!

 

MAP01 Sun/Moon/Stars

 

The purple sea is back, in something that takes all sorts of things that would fit in DVII's MAP03 and such. Not a very big monster count, but I would highly highly highly highly prefer that the first map start out with a low monster count anyways. Ease in the player, which is what this does. And give the weapons too, there's the shotgun, there's a neat little setpiece involving the chaingun, and there were two rocket launchers, one in secret and one nearby. Apparently UV makes it into a plasma gun, the secret one that is, and I am not sure if it would make the fight inside the left building any harder unless there was a lack of ammo (i play on low setting so i don't no*). Actually I hate that left building since I couldn't find my way out of there for quite a while. The issue of course, the timed switches, and what triggers them.

 

Well I figured it out, now I'm better, except I'm still missing keys and I had no clue where they are? Actually, got yellow key rather quickly, the little bit involving the yucky sludge stumped me until I found the armor in the north part. Then I figured out a switch which allows me to get the weapons from the chaingunner towers (I always hate to see hitscanners used as such since you can't get their weapons) but not much else. I think that is this level's problem. You can wander around aimlessly to your leisure, but if you want a good time, most of this stuff ends up optional. It's hard to notice indented switches sometimes, and a backtrack to the left building revealed that I completely forgot one switch on that lower left ledge. Yes, it led to the blue key, you needed both, and there's a cool but easy setpiece encounter there.

 

Gah, I feel dumb for getting horribly lost everywhere, it's not a very speedrun-friendly map either. When the combat is there, it's good, and it has it's moment. I bet Ribbik's didn't plant a SSG tree anywhere in this map though, we'll see. Oh yes, and there's that awesome Gothica music track from Secret of Evermore as the intermission music. Everyone here, please listen to that whole game's soundtrack if you have not already it's awesome.

 

Oh, and I punched the first caco with my bare hands. I'm that much of a badass to do so.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP02 Eastern Sun

 

Maybe I would've liked this level somewhat if it didn't get me so fucking lost. Seriously, this map does not give me any sense of direction. I can go, shoot stuff, find an easy-to-get yellow key and fighting the ambush that came afterwards. Only I find out you need a keycard instead of a skull key. I can also reach the blue key area, apparently a weird board-style setup, but this one isn't entirely chess-based, it's got some sort of racing minigame involving hell knights who are active along with a cyberdemon who will mince them at my leisure. Too bad the arch-viles from the left side completely spoil the fun. And then there's the stealth portion, which I handled exceptionally well for some reason. I don't know exactly what he wanted us to do here, but I believe he left plenty of room for error.

 

So those are the really good things about this map. If it didn't take me about seventeen fucking minutes to figure out where I was going though, I probably would've enjoyed them a whole lot more. Also, finding these secrets were a nightmare to do, one of which I think even permanently closes off but gives almost no indication as to what permanently closed off. The other thing I can think of is that you intentionally made this a completionist's nightmare. Two soul spheres are decoration only, not really that annoying, since you did this in MAP27 of Sunlust. What is with this particular imp? I couldn't care less if you have the poor imp praying or what in front of a tombstone, it's Doom and we are supposed to kill it.

 

Pistol Start: Managed to do it much faster, going quickly for chaingun near the yellow skull and SSG, but still getting confused as to how things work. That aforementioned secret that can be permanently closed off? I found out the switch that closes it off also actually opens the way to it by lowering the arachnotron platform, as well as access the other switch that lowers all the bars blocking me from the other areas. NOW that's a dick move. Then I found the only way to reach that soul sphere secret in all honesty was to actually find a hidden switch that clearly wasn't a switch near the arachnotron platform, which only lowers it briefly. Goddamnit, do you want people to look up how to legitimately get your secrets? Because that's how you get people to look up how to legitimately get your secrets. Or to get people to cheat for them.

 

I forgot to mention those two areas blocked off by bars. The first one is that dark room, with the nice touch of pads that light the room up when you step on them but stepping off of them darkens it all again. Plus teleporting imps and the hassle of turrets makes it quite fun. The other one is almost technically a secret area in its own right in how to get it, although having to strafejump over there is the worst thing that can have. That area had imps behind a waterfall getting resurrected by arch-viles, while other enemies come into play. All this before the barred area, but from there I had a choice of getting one of two keycards, yellow or purple. Had to go for yellow, due to how annoyed I was at not being able to use that skull key earlier. You can also strafejump to find a hidden teleporter to a plasma gun, although there might be an alternate method of reaching that. The dark room actually teleports you to a much more legitimate yellow key area.

 

Still don't like this map much. As a completionist and someone who wants to find best routes of things, it hurt me a lot.

[Killer5]

20x7 map01:

Enjoyed this map. I really liked how the switch that exposes the yk (on uv) lowers into water to give the player the hint of the yk's location. There are a lot of opportunities to punch stuff in this map so I enjoy it a lot.

 

I do miss the cyb in the arena prior to the exit teleporter and the purple key arena.

 

I really like the more quirky maps in this wad in comparison to the usual slaughter arena stuff. Map02 is probably the map I revisit most in this wad.

 

Here is a low effort speed in :20

https://www.dropbox.com/s/d1kgned3r9vyqsg/20x7_map01_speed_cl9.lmp?dl=0

[Magnusblitz]

Continuing Crumpets...

 

MAP06: Masquerade

100% kills, 1/1 secret

 

This one felt a bit annoying to play, partially because the terrain kept getting in the way (especially the platform the manc sits on at the start) and partially because I kept trying to figure out if I had enough ammo to use on the sniper towers or not. Always hard to know with these style maps, whether I should be saving or using ammo, what will be in the next little arena, etc.