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

[Demtor]

 

MAP06 - “The Other Side”

gzDoom - HMP – pistol start/saves

 

Good map. Enjoyed the slick looking distant castle (made the exit view look great as well) and the interesting torches around the starting area. Never figured out how to get down to those IV spheres though I suspect it had something to do with the barons in their sweet shrine perch. So without a hidden invulnerability to help somewhere, there was a lot of save scumming here, grrr. Fun battles though. Lots of PE’s mixed in to make things a touch more challenging/frustrating.

 

The climb up the stairs with a RL as the horde works it’s way down to you was a really cool concept and probably the highlight of the map for me. I would enjoy an entire level like that. Just one long stair case you have to work your way up, horde by horde. Just a really good design that fit perfectly for a small change of pace in this one.

 

The secret cyberdemon battle was kind of awesome as well. Though I don’t know if a little more ammo and a soulsphere is worth all that work, hah. Quite a pickle to get out of there with that megasphere % boost. However I suppose you could get the RL early that way. Huh… Interesting. I found it way too late to be useful but I wonder how that secret early on might change things. Perhaps try it on an UV run… there we go. Nice. I think it lets you skip through some of the map too because I was able to reach the exit without even going through the upper area with baddies on raised platforms followed by the stairway segment.

 

Great choice of music! Loved it. Secret of Evermore got a bad wrap for being sub par but it has some gems hidden in there.

[rehelekretep]

map03 fda

whoa nelly this is kinda intense. those mancubi at the start push you forwards and you have to carve out some breathing space within the floating space-base.

kinda reminded me of Sunlust 06 (Neo Gerouru) but in purple not green :p

i found the map progression towards the keys a bit annoying, but luckily this map is quite small compared with 02 so it wasnt such a drag.

midi was awesome as always.

Edited September 15, 2017 by rehelekretep

[Paul977]

On 13/9/2017 at 0:29 AM, Capellan said:

 

Looking back at last month's thread, voting numbers weren't high.  I think this won with only 6 votes, though I may have miscounted  (and only two of those voters actually seem to be posting)

 

 

You are right about this I'm one of them who voted and not partecipating. Unfortunatly I lack the time to play and write my thoughts about those mapsets. I've started, some time ago sd20x7, and reached map 02 the map looked very complex in the progression with secrets hidden extremely well so I gived up; also I saw that the later maps are even more complex and challenging and I need more time to play them; sorry for that :/

[NuMetalManiak]

if you vote for something please play it for the love of god...

 

Hey @rehelekretep who's that monster in the middle of your screenshot? lol

 

MAP08 Grand Ballroom

 

I like the Ribbiks maps that have many ways of doing things, this is one of them. With the whole sniper gallery shown, running is an option but so is getting around them and getting the weapons as I see right fit. Shooting the switch at the start gives me the anti-sniper and anti-horde weapon right away. The nonlinear aspect of this is one very enjoyable one. I of course employ the strategy of "mow down the small horde first", it works well. I hate that cyber at the start, but there were numerous ways of telefragging him so it was good in the end. A mancubus wall that can be crushed? I approve. The only thing that I really didn't like much was that western part, the one where you can enter it from two sides but have only one option of leaving (though I do get to telefrag the cyber that way). The part with the twin BFGs and the hell noble walls is a real standout point, certified infighting at the expense of being at the soul sphere's mercy (and the issue with that one resides in UV where there is only one megasphere).

 

Pistol Start: Of course I go for the weapons that matter the most, and the secrets. Good thing the RL is available early, and the cell weapons are actually not too hard to come by either, since there are several places to get them. The biggest issue with that east ring is getting past those monsters and establishing a good foothold of where you are, then keeping up with the pace and BFG'ing while the cybers infight. That chaingunner staircase is also some hard fodder, but apart from those, the rest of my pistol start run went pretty much the same. There is one secret I really hate getting though, the one with the fake wall, which really doesn't have any clues on it at all.

[dobu gabu maru]

4 hours ago, Paul977 said:

You are right about this I'm one of them who voted and not partecipating. Unfortunatly I lack the time to play and write my thoughts about those mapsets.

This month seems to be busy for quite a few people so I don't really blame folks for any sort of fatigue. Shame too, since Stardate is one of the best releases this year. I wanted to join in but I've just been channeling all my Doom time towards mapping rather than playing (plus I recently played the set a few months ago)

Edited September 16, 2017 by dobu gabu maru

[rehelekretep]

38 minutes ago, NuMetalManiak said:

if you vote for something please play it for the love of god...

 

Hey @rehelekretep who's that monster in the middle of your screenshot? lol

i used "/" x2 to get some free-look screenshots and caught myself in the pic; i liked it so didnt do another :D

[Tristan]

1 hour ago, rehelekretep said:

i used "/" x2 to get some free-look screenshots and caught myself in the pic; i liked it so didnt do another :D

I made it more realistic for you

 

[rehelekretep]

beautiful

[Magnusblitz]

Onto Stardate 20x7! HMP from the get-go for me.

 

MAP01: Sun/Moon/Stars

100% kills, 2/2 secrets

 

Purple's my favorite color, so right off the bat I love the vista. Combat is pretty low-key actually, only fight that gave me trouble was in the little 'dojo' type building that leads to the purple key, especially on different tries the monsters kept coming in at different times and so even with reloads it was hard to figure out the pattern. Aside from that, lots of bad luck with revenant missiles... something about the layout seems to really help them (also surprised how much the monsters liked moving through the area with the manc).

 

I wouldn't be surprised if this map turned a lot of people away right from the get-go, as it has quite a bit of puzzle-y bits and platforming. The yellow key in particular took me a long time to find, because 1) I didn't even see the yellow key for the longest time, and 2) the switch lowering the water isn't intuitive - okay, I get that it probably revealed something, but what it reveals is tucked away off in a little corner you had no reason to think about. Could've used some better symbolism to tie the two areas together, I think.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP02: Eastern Sun

84% kills, 3/4 secrets

 

Oh shit AVs! Oh good, they disappear. Gives me some time to look at the pretty scenery floating around the sky. Things were pretty easy going until picking up that little armor bonus and getting teleported into that purple key room. And like last map, more confusion and lots of wandering before finding the yellow key (all the way back at the start, in shadow!) Not sure exactly how the progression works here between the gates, the skull switch, and the two switches by the secret megasphere (I assume the latter switches lead to said secret sphere). Really cool effect with that big well drop near the end. And yes, I ran from all the stuff at the end...

 

[Spectre01]

MAP04 - “Velvet Blood Mission”

This is a fun one after getting past the rather tricky start. Looks great visually and the midi is spot-on. Not a huge fan of the limited resources early on, but once you get the SSG and RL things pick up. There's lots of interesting stuff here, like the quad Vile fight using the quirk of taking less damage despite not being fully behind cover. That fight is casual stuff compared to the fight surrounding the 2nd SSG of the map. Now, I ain't tryin' to brag here on nothin' but I got that down on the first attempt this time. Wasn't the case when I first played the map. What has worked best for me is to alert the PE and lure him into the hallway, possibly with a few Lost Souls, so his fat flying ass blocks the 3 Viles from instantly running into the Revenant room. If done successfully, you can plow through one side of the Imps and HKs with the Plasma Rifle and then burn down the Revs. All goes well, it becomes a matter of tossing some rockets down the hallway. The section leading up to the control room for the exit crushers is also surprisingly easy. The Imps cannot walk off the bridge nor shoot over the barricade so it's a matter of standing there picking off Cacos as they spawn and then using your weapon of choice on the Imps. The 2 Afrits at the exit were a cool surprise when I first saw them. Too bad they don't show up anywhere else in the set.

[Spectre01]

MAP05 - “Sphinx Rising”

Cool map with a very generous amount of Megaspheres throughout. Interesting part is how the hell hallway changes depending on whether you've acquired the BFG or not before going in. I prefer to grab the BFG as early as possible, otherwise that section just drains too much ammo despite having less crap in it. The finale is definitely worth a mention as the hardest setpiece fight up to this point. Cell management is very precise and it's very easy to screw yourself over for the final wave with 5(?) Viles. What worked for me was spamming rockets and pulling most of the dudes to the right side. That way I could approach the Vile spawn from the left and have them away from most of the corpses. Very tight encounter.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP09 Do You Believe

 

Thank god the Cher song didn't play...

 

And what's this? I'm standing on the gray sludge without taking damage? What gives with this? Usually it's treated like damaging slime in all other Ribbiks wads but this is a weird change of pace. Drop down, weapons in front, all supplies nearby, and the almost standard cyberdemon in front with setpiece-initiated monsters all around. I found killing the hell knights and running left worked here, but I bet going throgh the mancubi ends up being better for a pistol start route. What I do next? Well there's several places open, I go behind cybie first, pick up a megasphere, and in the chaos of imps and revenants, did you guess the chaingunner snipers in the distance are the most annoying thing? Wasn't expecting that. I basically hid out of their view and took down one side with all the firepower I could before moving back up, and then I decided screw it the cyber's going down now.

 

Alright red key, er, black key, you're up first. Getting the key is simple enough, get around mancubi and chaingunners and such. I got the key pretty quick. What's this? Oh god really a puzzle...actually it didn't take that long to figure out and there's probably more than one way to do it. Also found the first secret. And then the second one once I return to the hub, that black box for the key leads to an arena with demons imps, and a cyber in the back. Kill the demons, use the switch and reveal a lot more to weaken the cyber, which is exactly what I want in this case. What's next is very interesting, these eyes move down, and there's lots of soul spheres on the wall. Wonder why? I don't either, but then again, it looks like stepping on the red pads prevents them from teleporting and gets rid of the barricade to the next teleporter. Purple skull key! Now what?

 

This northern area of the map is quite interesting too. A few arch-viles, and then there's a BFG room (where the dark sludge actually damages this time), and a few hell knights that need to quickly be killed before the mancubus wall (fuck) comes down. There's a bit of me just BFG'ing walls to get rid of most of them, then I hide and shoot. Here's where I also realize I'm missing the blue...I mean purple keycard. It's on the right side, go figure, although getting a BFG and coming back makes that whole northeastern section a lot easier. I end up figuring a few more things out before continuing on. This is also where I come back to the BFG room to get the final switch, which opens the area to the far west here.

 

Well there's the majority of the kills all waiting for me. A hell knight and imp wall, compounded by arch-viles, mancubi, and barons. Have to get rid of the ground monsters quickly, then, well, there's not enough to take down an entire wall here. I assumed they would be taken care of by something later on. A revenant wall and a cyberdemon encounter later, the yellow keycard, and then two switches have proved my assumption correct. Yes!

 

What's this next? A final countdown thing? You better have some excuse for ripping it from Lunatic you bastard, oh wait, this one plays differently. Looks like a sequential setpiece slaughter, where sets of a certain monster spawn in but when the countdown goes down to zero, I assume an arch-vile spawns in each time. The questions lie in where each time. Don't have a clue what these switches do either. Either way, chaos and infighting ensue, where my participation involves mostly circlestrafing, and taking out the priority targets, the arch-viles, mancubi, and hitscanners all go first, then revenants and cybers (easily caught up by infighting). Finally the pain elementals, annoying by flying all the way up and fighting with its own spawn, but still the least threatening monsters here. And then I figure out the exit and, well I certainly had to shoot the large purple mineral.

 

Pistol Start: Not gonna do this since the level itself took so long. I just assume I get the weapons at the start, be a little more careful with munitions, and go the same route I went continuous. Also get the BFG early and then come back for the purple keycard area. Yeah.

[rehelekretep]

map04 fda

cool little map. i liked the start, the secrets (even the teleporter/mancubi troll that got me good!), and the SSG trap with the viles/PEs/HKs/imps/revs. didnt really care for the 4-AV bit; felt a bit too forced, like Ribbiks was going "try hiding behind the little pillars! try again, and again, teehee"

the end is just evil with the AVs, i missed loads of my rockets and died :(

what's up with the switches to operate the crushers? just a way to avoid getting splatted on the way out? why are there 3? can you make a little staircase with them to get a secret area?

[rehelekretep]

map05 fda

aha! now this is why i like Ribbiks; cold, menacing, esoteric/cryptic architecture that feels totally uncaring to your very existence and encounters that make you go 'how the fuck am i meant to survive this' on the first play. i got all the secrets on this somehow. the only issue was i felt a little shortchanged with all the megaspheres - im guessing a competent UV-max runner could really use them all to blast through this but i ended up wasting them and went into the cramped final fight with ~130 hp/ar which made it a lot harder than it shouldve been. god forbid you fuck up the rest of the map and have low health here, you'll be screwed!

final word on the dark midi which just is the cherry on the top, and the Hellish bit w/ the black key which managed with the texturing/design to feel unbelievably nasty and disgusting, id love to see more Hell maps in that style.

more like this please!

[Spectre01]

1 hour ago, rehelekretep said:

went into the cramped final fight with ~130 hp/ar which made it a lot harder than it shouldve been. god forbid you fuck up the rest of the map and have low health here, you'll be screwed!

Are you playing on hmp? UV has a Megasphere and max cells after you unlock the final fight, which guarantees full stats and cells going in. So what ends up mattering is conserving rocket ammo for spamming on those Barons.

[rehelekretep]

yeah im playing on HMP - never played the mapset before so i thought id go in on the recommended difficulty. i picked up the megasphere just before the end-fight switch and then backtracked somewhere else first :(

[Demtor]

 

MAP07 - “Lotus Keep”

gzDoom - HMP – pistol start/saves

 

Fantastic little abstract base map. I really dig the starry sky texture. It fits so well with the crazy designs and colors of this wad. Not to mention the music which again is killing it here. SoE with the flute and harp together? Fantastic! I need to revisit that game’s OST.

 

The opening entrance alone is snazzy not to mention the rest of the map. I can’t heap enough praise on some of this stuff. Every frame in still shot is like a work of art. Even passing views outside the windows are spectacular. On the whole, the level of difficulty in these maps can be a bit much for some but really I think average joes should play Ribbiks maps on lowest level of difficulty, just so they can take in the visuals. They are truly stunning sometimes when you slow down and take it in. Other maps more so than this one perhaps but still.

 

The main hub, of sorts, that first traps you in but later opens up after finally saving enough ammo to take on the barons was great. I had a really fun time getting to that point. Going from feelings of helplessness to awesomeness. The little cinematic moment with the zombie and dead marine before the black key was a nice touch as well. I like little story moments like that where you can imagine some sort of drama or story taking place.

[Paul977]

7 minutes ago, Demtor said:

 work of art.

This section give me a good The Soulscarred Universe vibe :)

[Ribbiks]

20 hours ago, rehelekretep said:

cold, menacing, esoteric/cryptic architecture that feels totally uncaring to your very existence

 

cheers. this is more or less exactly want I want to elicit with many of my maps, so it makes me very happy to see that I'm occasionally successful :)

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP31 Hopscotch

 

Well I'll pistol start this and the next one. We circlestrafe around the start as we fight our way through yet another setpiece amusement park. Loads to do, that area with the revenants coming from the center sticks out, rocket away! Several switches I forget what they do, but I get the yellow key relatively late and figure out the rest. That zoom pad is cool, as is the ascending stairs battle and the walkway one. But that one arena with the shifting red and purple squares was innovative and a load of fun, look out for the red floors and stay to the purple ones if you want to stick to the center, but then again he doesn't give a choice as much for the sides as they are even more damaging. I like it. I guess the low amount of arch-viles may help, and is that a souped-up SS at the end?

 

MAP32 Issai Perfect

 

*looks at playtesting list*

 

it was one of you.

[Spectre01]

MAP06 - “The Other Side”

This has to be my least favourite map in the set, excluding the secret maps which I have yet to play. The optional Revenant staircase fight inhales gargantuan mule schlongs. I've done the encounter as intended once and have no desire to do so again. Doom's wonderful autoaim + stairs = no bueno. There is a cheese strat for this which I found way back, involving running up the stairs and jumping down to the base of the tower. Autoaim is kind of crap from there so having the crosshair which lights up is great for not wasting rockets. If you pump your load of 50 brown dongs into the Revs, you'll have around 50 boners left when taking the teleporter back up which die significantly faster. The other setpieces are quite good though so I don't dislike this map overall. Don't like the midi either.

Edited September 21, 2017 by Spectre01

[Spectre01]

MAP07 - “Lotus Keep”

Really nice looking map here, starting with a full view of the keep like in SWTW map02. The encounters are consistently challenging, especially the wooden room with the Cyber near the end. I tried killing the first trap's enemies near the entrance this time, which is frankly a terrible idea as it gives the 3 Viles coming next more bodies to revive. The stair fight also bears mention as you plasma-spam your way through densely-packed enemies, being careful not to kill any Hell Knights above the Chaingunner towers. Much more manageable fight if you save up a good number of rockets. I've done it before with 2 or 3, not even enough to snipe the 2 second phase Revs, and it wasn't fun.

[Spectre01]

MAP08 - “Grand Ballroom”

Best midi. Best map. This is my favourite level from what I've played of 20x7 and the first actual slaughtermap of the wad. While the previous maps focused on either small scale, or movement-restriction fights, map08 lets you do some running around in larger arenas. The UV difficulty here is arguably easier than some previous maps due to very generous resources and a BFG that can be acquired quite early on. The HK maze, like in map02, makes another appearance. However, this time the goats are BFG fodder. Architecture is spot on, featuring the classic gritty metal look accented with the iconic purple. The floating floors and archways in the final arena probably stand out the most here. The fight itself is not too hard, although the arena can be rather disorienting to navigate (in a good way). Sick map.

[NuMetalManiak]

we were actually supposed to start Rush on the 20th, but due to low player turnout...

 

MAP01 Stasis Shock

 

I love hearing imps die as I start the level, though it gave me the feeling of fighting an arch-vile later on. I never found one. Apart from that, basic shotgunning of imps and demons, which didn't feel all too wonderful, but I would rather keep my secret rocket launcher for later. The two side rooms seemed identical somehow. The feel of a destroyed base remains. Lovely little ice theme we've got going too, and the secrets are definitely highlights, especially telefragging mancubi. Good example to start the pack off.

[Salt-Man Z]

I didn't vote this month, and wasn't planning on playing along regardless of the selection (and certainly not these WADs.)

 

That said, Ribbiks is still an absolute master, and looking at some of these screenies is making me drool. I did once play SWTW and the first half of 20X6 on HMP, but had to give up just from the sheer difficulty. But I'm going to have to get back into some Ribbiks goodness, probably next year, and probably on HNTR or even IDWTD. Worth it, though.

[Steve D]

@Salt-Man Z Well said. I only played 1 map this month because it's just one of those crazy months I keep having. What Doom time I have I've decided to devote mainly to mapping since I'm annoyed with myself for working on stuff that doesn't get released, so releasing stuff is now my #1 priority. I still might get a chance to play more Crumpets by the end of the month, though. I'm drawn by the possibility of actually getting through a Ribbiks map on UV instead of my usual HNTR. But as the Salt-Man said, it's still definitely worth it on HNTR.

[Demtor]

 

MAP08 - “Grand Ballroom”

gzDoom - HMP – pistol start/saves

 

These last two maps are filled with crazy awesome shit and are very similar in structure and style with a key hunt and their beginning hub areas. So many great ideas with small touches and good looking stuff to move through that you spend very little time in. (Fun with freeze mode: ZIP ZIP Explode!) Skipping from one piece to the next before you get a firm grip on what you should be working for. Couple of sneaky tricks here and there but for the most part I like to think I did okay getting through them.

 

The impressive looking area before the exit was easily the highlight. Visually, that is. I didn’t much enjoy the cat and mouse game with the Cybes and AV’s from one switch to the next and back again for the exit. The are felt too small and a bit silly running around. I prefer a good fight which is why I enjoyed the imp horde waiting above before the wall drops and unloads on your face with the next bevy of baddies. Doubly fun was the cacoswarm with the Cyberdemon in the water. Speaking of, lots of cybies to be found in these maps. Was fun getting to telefrag the one behind you at the beginning. Get it!

[Spie812]

Stardate was far too hard for me, but I'm jumping back in for Rush.

 

map01:

Gzdoom - UV Continuous (not that it matters at this point.)

 

Thrown pretty quickly into the action here. This map is definitely a berserk focused map, facing way too many monsters than you really have ammo for. The enemies aren't really threatening, mostly imps and pinkes/spectres, but inevitably my health did slowly get chipped off. I didn't find any situation to be particularly threatening, but I still had a bit of fun, I guess.

 

map02:

We open with a rather claustrophobic battle with numerous imps and pinkies, in which the super shotgun played a pretty valuable role. Then it's pretty easy going until the room with the manc/rev snipers (which probably makes UV-Max runs annoying.) The cyberdemon room was the hardest part for me as I kept trying to run forward and would either get hit by a rocket or the arch-vile on the other side. The last room can be completely ignored if you just run to the switch.

[Spectre01]

38 minutes ago, Spie812 said:

Stardate was far too hard for me, but I'm jumping back in for Rush.

Have you tried it on HNTR? I can't confirm but have heard that Ribbiks spent a lot of time to make that difficulty fun and accessible.