The DWIronman League dies to: Oscillation

[SleepyVelvet]

I saw a memfis screenshot of TNS of the final room of map09 (from TNS presumably; titled "spot the doomguy"; pile of monsters that led me to think this was entirely slaughter).  Does that make my run cat2?  When Alfonzo announced the thread, I even made a conscious effort to avoid reading spoiler posts in this thread until my run, but was it all in vain :p

 

edit: this is sarcasm, i still presume that this counts as category 1, just thought it was funny.

Edited November 13, 2017 by NoisyVelvet

[Alfonzo]

1 minute ago, NoisyVelvet said:

I saw a memfis screenshot of TNS of the final room of map09 (from TNS presumably; titled "spot the doomguy"; pile of monsters that led me to think this was entirely slaughter).  Does that make my run cat2?

Cats are only determined after the run. Play past the point of interest and ask whether not having that knowledge would have made you perform differently as a blind player. If you're still not sure then you can probably just fall backwards into Cat 1, since you're otherwise trying to settle the difference in such a small space.

 

Knowing that a map has loads of monsters could affect the run before you even reach that point but frankly it becomes too big of a stretch if we're looking to separate runs on those grounds. Monster counts in automaps and hints in the OP mean that this sort of pre-knowledge is freely available at no cost, as far as the comp is concerned.

[Suitepee]

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/202431629 (BLIND run, category 1)

 

Died on map 6 to A DEEPER DARKNESS.....of an inescapable crack of a pit just before the final fight of the level. Turns out BFG greed (Barano in the Twitch chat suggested an "invisible bridge" might lead to the prize....EDIT: Turns out he was right!) can sometimes be a bad thing.

 

A shame really, since I felt I was doing quite well on this run and managing to overcome some of the tricky encounters presented quite comfortably. But it seems that happens to me a few times in Ironman runs past; I do quite well and then end up dying to something stupid. (Crusades to a DNF bug, two high damage Revenant shots on UAC Ultra...)

 

EDIT: Turns out there was an ACTUAL invisible bridge leading to the BFG around that area, as MrZzul just showed on his stream. The first Archvile area has a lowerable rock block that leads to it. FOR FUCKS SAKE, I WAS RIGHT BUT LOOKED IN THE WRONG PLACE.

 

Well, I can only hope an_mutt struggles earlier on.

 

Here's the place where the crack was that I fell into (screenshot taken AFTER my Ironman run), as a warning for others. (the rest of the area is blocked by invisible walls) It's kind of hard to fall into normally, but it's there as a DNF hazard.

 

Edited November 19, 2017 by Suitepee

[Forli]

@Suitepee I can't believe that happened, I tested it so much and left it on the forum for people to test for awhile, I was completely convinced that there were no gamebreaking bugs left. I guess if anything I've learned that using impassable lines in that way is not a good idea in general, I was probably asking for something like this to happen.

You played really well, I'm sorry that the run ended that way because of my mistake :S.

Edited November 18, 2017 by Forli

[dt_]

Blind run, flattened on map04 by some mean looking lattice shaped crusher

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sfektyy0w3el9fm/dtosc.lmp?dl=1

[Crusader No Regret]

Due to a typo in the command line, entirely failed to record my blind attempt.  So no record exists of me whiffing punches at a demon 8 times in a row because of blockmap nonsense.

 

Looks like my submission this month will be a catagory 3.  I played through several maps on a separate session after my attempt so I already have a bunch of advance knowledge, unintended as it may be.

[Alfonzo]

Sorry for the lack of OP updates; this month has been swimming in business! Will update in due course.

[grommile]

Blind run, enjoyed MAP01 (got quite close to dying a few times), then died early in MAP02 because I am terrible at dealing with arachnotrons.

 

DWIronman-Oscillation-grommile-1.zip

[NaZa]

On 11/9/2017 at 4:25 AM, DaIcemann76 said:

Ugh.

 

I only played this one once before, in ZDaemon TNS, so I thought I at least had an idea of what to expect.  I ended up panicking in the red key area on MAP02.

 

 

oscillated-2.zip

tried downloading this, found oscillation.wad, not an lmp

[SilverIce]

4 hours ago, NaZa said:

tried downloading this, found oscillation.wad, not an lmp

Whoops! here's a zip with the lmp:

 

oscillated-2.zip

[Crusader No Regret]

Catagory 3: One blind attempt that failed to record and some more casual playing through map 7.  Even if I didn't play a map more than twice before recording, it still took place after the month was announced.

 

An unceremonious end on Map 3: from my advance knowledge, I suspected the blue key room would do me in.  If I somehow survived that, then the clash at the big bridge would have buried my weary hide.  Didn't do any additional practice attempts; decided that wouldn't affect the final outcome.

 

My speakers were acting up in map 2 so I paused the game to deal with them.  Hopefully, the demo still works but if it desyncs, this would be the cause.

 

Double derp: Digging into my stash of 100 rockets would have likely raised my survival odds in the two big map 3 setpieces.  I just didn't think to deviate from my normal playstyle.

 

PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4 -complevel 9

dwiron_oscillation_cnr.zip

Edited November 26, 2017 by Crusader No Regret

[Scotty]

Dead in map04 to that noble/manc/etc trap with the lowering floors. Cat 1, while i did see the end of Archi's run on stream i think he was on later levels and regardless i can't recall shit about what i saw anyway.

 

I think there should at least be differentiation between having seen a stream or demo or whatever and having actually played something before, because the two are very different experiences. But really i think this categorisation business is a rabbit warren of potential nonsense because category 2 "familiarity" is an incredibly wide window of foreknowledge and i don't think it is possible to fairly segment that without creating multiple subcategories, and doing that would just be ridiculous. I will just reiterate what i have said previously about not personally giving a fuck if someone wants to prepare an attempt. More rules will just suck the fun out of things eventually.

[NaZa]

I agree with Scotty about streams - for instance, Suitepee, even though he goes in blind, has a huge advantage because of his viewers, who presumably played the set before and provide him with precious info during the streams. I'd say a stream should either be a category of its own, or a Cat 2 run. I liked it better when there were no categories - the categories are kind of a mess overall.

Edited November 27, 2017 by NaZa

[Archi]

Huge advantage? Are you serious about that?

[rehelekretep]

im really getting tired of people complaining about the categories; theyre really simple and help distinguish between the 3 basic types of run we'll get here, without overcomplicating anything or detracting from the overall Ironman challenge (ie, 1 attempt, dont die). most of the complaints here are so weird "the categories are a mess! we need more rules" or "too many rules, get rid of the categories!" you cant win tbh...

[guineu]

I had played Oscillation a few months ago so with the addition of the categories this month I decided to go all-in and practice to do a Type 3 run. I practiced maps 1 and 2 a few times... and then Nioh came out for PC and suddenly it's the 28th. Oh well, hopefully I'll get the 'most pathetic Type 3 run' award. Actually I'm happy having reached map 4 but disappointed on how I died. Fuck skeletons.

 

guineu ironman nov'17 Oscillation PRboom+ 2.5.1.4.lmp.zip

 

_____

PS: I like the addition of categories and I think it's a good way of dividing them.

Only thing I'd change is the possibility of participating in 2 categories: one for Type 1/2 and another for Type 3. The reason being how different those categories are. Type 1-2 need fast reaction, improvisation and general experience with the game, while Type 3 needs memorization, planning and experience with the maps in particular.

Edited November 28, 2017 by guineu

[an_mutt]

Hi folks, I almost forgot about this then recorded a demo. No stream this month, as I'm currently only on a shitty laptop that can handle basically nothing.

 

 

Died on map 07. (Beat Map 06 in 01:32:50) More specifically, died immediately at the beginning of map 07 because my laptop could barely handle the amount of linedefs and stuff on-screen, and the hitscanners around me picked apart what little was left of my corpse from the end of 06.

 

I knew the first 3 maps of this set coming in, so this can't be classed as a blind run. Maps 4-7 were basically blind for me though, with the exception of what of I saw from Suitepee's stream. My playing kinda falls to shit around the end of map 05, due to holy shit a Cyberdemon and their posse almost murdering me and putting me way on edge. Map 06 is mostly shit to watch (I assume), but the ending is something special and I suggest everyone watch it!

Edited November 29, 2017 by an_mutt
added time

[Suitepee]

An_mutt's result makes me a bit more mad I died this month to a technicality. Now I'm going to have to play extremely well to tie things up in December, gaaaaaah!

 

Also is the OP getting updated?

Edited November 29, 2017 by Suitepee

[RjY]

I died. It was always going to happen eventually. Despite knowing it all in advance, I couldn't do the blue key trap on map03.

Spoiler

MAP01  EXIT  197/197  0   86/86  2/2  8:40+26   8:40
MAP02  EXIT  231/231  0   26/26  3/3  19:01+29  27:41
MAP03  DEAD  67/155   88  2/2    1/1  4:07+23   27:41
MAP03  QUIT  69/155   86  2/2    1/1  4:16+34   27:41

Following some criticism last month that Ironman was turning into just another UV Speed contest I decided to revert to Sensible Ironman mode, playing slowly, using boring-but-safe tactics, and quitting while ahead.

 

Unfortunately this did not happen. I died basically at the first point where preparation simply wasn't enough: when map03 throws three archviles and a wall of imps at you. Obviously I knew this was coming. But I knew there was no way to dilute the encounter; it was all at once or nothing. I knew my only option was to hit both switches and get back out the door before I ran out of health. But as I said in the Disturbia thread, no amount of planning can compensate for my archeologically slow reaction times; furthermore it seems I had bad luck, as for me the archviles did nothing but attack, while others whose runs I observed were inexplicably ignored. I've really no idea how to deal with this kind of chaotic battle except by repeatedly attempting it until I get lucky. Sadly it didn't happen today.

 

The plan for this evening, had I actually been able to execute it, was to do up to the end of map05:

• map01 - more intimidating than it looks, the arena fight for the red key only appears to be dangerous until you set it off and find relatively few monsters in quite a large space.
• map02 - nastiest part is the blue key trap but it's quite easy when known in advance as the hellknight group will quickly fall to rockets and then you only have mancubi coming from one direction.
• map03 - you can start with 200%/200%, so the start isn't so bad. Just mind the linedef bullrushes. Sure they look nice but are protruding bits of architecture, bad for gameplay. The there's the place where I died, see above. The bridge fight afterwards, I was looking forward to demonstrating an exploit where you shoot the switches while they're still in the ground before triggering the cacodemon teleporter, which nullifies the entire battle.
• map04 - obviously the worst part of this is right at the end. Note the crusher grid is easily defeated by fighting from inside the secret, especially as there is a monster blocking line there. But the exit fight, the room is just a little bit too small to be comfortable, it's very easy to get cornered, or run out of room to spam rockets without splash damage.
• map05 - the one place I died here on first attempt was the final fight with the cyberdemon + revenants + cacodemons. However it turns out you can trigger the teleporter without dropping down, then just retreat as far back up the crusher corridor as possible. The monsters will then kill each other just out of your sight; when there's only a few left, run out and press the switches.
• map06 - I've yet to beat this one at all, my best attempt ended on the hellknight/vile bridge. At this point it was getting fairly late in the month so I decided five maps would have to do.

So yeah, first death. Even though I knew I wouldn't do well this month, I'm still very disappointed I didn't get as far as I planned for. Perhaps I would have got past map03 if I had practised it more. But then perhaps I would have died at the end of map04 instead. Sadly we will never know.

 

[Alfonzo]

OP finally updated.

 

It'll be interesting to perform a ctrl+f at the end of each month and see what the distributions are like between cats 1 and 3. You might expect to see more of the prepared runs bumping up against the ceiling of the leader board... but perhaps not. Some of the sorts of players who opt for prepared runs mightn't possess the sort of skill level that is necessarily covered for by learning the maps inside and out. Skilled blind or familiar players who have confidence in their abilities will still rank at the top of the table for most months, you would think — even in asserting a more even spread of category type runs.

 

Still waiting on some of the head honchos. Will ancalagon hold onto his spot? I suspect he'll be nonplussed either way :)

[Demon of the Well]

Here's me: Player vacillates; hesitates; self-annihilates.

 

I snuffed it in the Vile Grange Bureau's switch hoedown in m07, same as a number of other folks. Embarrassing thing is I just about had it handled, but then 'sploded myself getting a mite too twitchy and 'twerking a mite too enthusiastically with one hand on My Pocket Rocket. This was a category 1 run; never played/nor spectated Oscillation before, my prior exposure to it has been limited to a few screenshots and a few scraps of vague description via word-of-mouth.

 

Pretty enjoyable, must say, you've come a long way in a fairly short time, Forli. One thing though: the whole switch-release deal for getting out of fights is drastically overplayed here, after a point it started needlessly breaking flow, I thought. When you never vary your method of enforcing your will over the course of a lengthier set you can also after a point actually make it easier for players not to cooperate with your vision, I suspect (since they'll know exactly which child-lock they need to try to break) but it's a relatively minor thing, I suppose.

 

In the interest of sportmanship (and since other folks did it), here are the cats for my past runs, for posterity:

 

Jenesis -- 2. played through once before, also played one of the demo releases with the funky sector-head placeholder boss before that.

Crusades -- 2. always dig Rich Wiles, played Crusades a number of times in the past.

Nilla Doom -- 2. Ditto Use3D's stuff, again, played Nilla Doom several times before.

Khorus's Speedy Shit -- 2. Actually never finished this WAD before (something about it really puts me off somehow), so past a point the run was blind, but had played several of the early maps before. Might've been a "1.5" if I hadn't wussed out and quit halfway through, I guess.

Perdition's Gate -- Skipped. Perdgate sucks. :D. Would've been another 2 if I weren't such a stick-in-the-mud, for the record.

UAC Ultra -- Again, 2. Played this once when it came out in full, so remembered a goodly amount of stuff about it for the run, even though it had been a while.

Jade Earth -- 2. Or 2.5? Didn't do any kind of prep, but I've played the piss out of Jade Earth in my time, and so mostly know it backwards and forwards without having to practice (except for 'that' switch, apparently).

Legacy of Heroes -- 1, finally! As an aside, this remains probably the 2017 selection I most enjoyed playing. Thanks gaspe!

BTSX E1 -- 2, I think. I had never played this shiny new(er) version before the run, but I had played the older version for DWMC. A lot of stuff is cool and new in the current version, but not nearly so much as to render the past experience null, hardly so.

Mapgame -- 2. Again, played it once when it came out, never again after that before the Ironman run.

Vae Victus I & II -- And another 2. Played each of these more than once, by my recollection, but again, no formal practice.

Disturbia -- 2/2.5. Again, no formal prep, but it's a Death-Destiny map, so I've played it more than a few times before, suffice to say.

Insertion -- 2. This one still hurts. vdgg was right, I could've *totally* avoided that DNF with a fairly obvious infinitely-tall switchpress :( .

Unholy Realms -- 2. Played this for DWMC when it was new-ish, which wasn't that long ago, all things considered.

Osiris -- Again, 2/2.5. Highly familiar with Osiris, played it a lot in the past. Unlike with most of the other WADs above, it happened that I also spectated a lot of other players' runs beforehand in this case, so maybe that pushes this one over into 3 territory?

End Game & End Point -- 2. Played End Game a few times in the past, played End Point once when it first came out.

Oscillation -- The other 1. May there be more to come!

 

 

Edited November 30, 2017 by Demon of the Well

[RjY]

On 27/11/2017 at 9:33 PM, Archi said:

Huge advantage? Are you serious about that?

Having the author of the wad handhold you through the tricky bits? Yeah, I'd say that's an advantage.

 

9 hours ago, Alfonzo said:

Some of the sorts of players who opt for prepared runs mightn't possess the sort of skill level that is necessarily covered for by learning the maps inside and out.

Quite!

[BigDickBzzrak]

What a gay mapset. Stupid lonely hitscanners everywhere that you can't even see, stupid "surprising OMG" ambushes, no health to be found, like, anywhere.

Blind, died on map01 (bleh.)

Killed some 160 monsters.

dwiron_oscl_bzzrak.zip

[DeletedUser]

Here I am at the 11th hour!

 

DWIronman_Oscillation_BlooditeKrypto.zip

 

Crossing the finish line at... NOT! Dead on the final battle due to getting blocked from getting precious cell ammo, better luck next time chummer! :)

 

Spoiler

 

 

Category 2 run - I've played Oscillation twice shortly after it came out due to being captivated by the screenshots. The first was a standard, casual playthrough, the 2nd was a speedy one, going through the maps quickly looking for shortcuts.

I didn't intend for the run to be done today, I was tied up earlier in the month recording runs for Mystery1 then got raked into real life business and only remembered something important a day ago haha :)

Good Job Anc, it was about time you survived another Ironman :)
 

[NaZa]

Veinen, Ancalagon or one else? Unlucky ending for Krypto, RjY and Wilou, although everyone not surviving is pretty much unlucky heh. 

[Veinen]

Recorded my attempt ages ago but forgot to post it. The pace in this one is leisurely to say the least. Category 2 until uhh, map06 with the light/dark setpiece? I remember going there in my FDA, somehow getting butchered in there and not touching the wad after. So yeah, pretty much everything else in map06 is blind as is map07 and you can guess how that went. AV setpieces are kinda merciless for blind players... 

DWIronman_oscillation_Veinen.zip

Edited November 30, 2017 by Veinen

[Steve D]

http://www.mediafire.com/file/5tld091yq3cq3qc/SteveOscillates_3.lmp

 

Hilariously, this is a prepared run - 3. I successfully died on the same map in both my practice and real runs, and can proudly say I've joined The Dead On Map02 Club! :D

 

This is ugly even by my standards. I have literally played no other Doom this month. Thus, my skills, normally sharp as a butterknife, are now more like a spatula. Hilarious moment on Map01 when I try to battle 2 Imps with my Zerk fist but run between them, stop, and get fireballed from both sides. Oh, such larks! ;D

 

These maps are huge! Suffered severe RNG Hate about 80% of the time with all those damned hitscanners, including some beyond auto-aim range. Never had so much trouble killing Chaingunners. RNG Hell continued on Map02, where I nearly died at the start, and was constantly trolled by all those snipers. You'll see the auto-aim completely fail me when I try to kill a Sergeant dead-ahead. Oh, the agony!

 

The end came when the sight of 2 Revvies left me transfixed with terror and I cleverly backed up between 2 right angles. Needless to say, it didn't end well. ;D

 

 

[RjY]

oscillation-ironman-3157-TAS-7412
Now that the contest is long over: for my own edification, and the 0 others who care I re-recorded over my death and on to the end of map05 in a "this is how it was meant to go" demo. Counts as tool-assisted, obviously.

Spoiler

MAP01  EXIT  197/197  0  86/86  2/2  8:40+26   8:40
MAP02  EXIT  231/231  0  26/26  3/3  19:01+29  27:41
MAP03  EXIT  160/155  0  2/2    1/1  8:08+31   35:49
MAP04  EXIT  245/239  0  61/61  3/3  15:20+14  51:09
MAP05  EXIT  290/289  0  64/69  4/4  23:03+04  74:12

This demo is tool-assisted; it was recorded in two segments. I began re-recording on map03 from just before the place where I originally died.

Times for -skipsec:

31:20 - Re-recording starts from just after I open the red door on map03

33:50 - Neutralising the bridge encounter. Go forward until the doors close, but no further. Shoot towards a certain spot about halfway along the right cliff until you hear a switch press sound. Then shoot towards the far left corner until the doors re-open.

35:55 - Start of map04

36:55 - A hellknight survives three direct rocket hits (20+114, 60+111, 40+110, leaving 45). Not sure how rare that is, it seems unusual though.

44:25 - Safest way to do the crusher grid: wait until ceilings are rising. Press both switches, wait for crushers to move out of the way again, dash for secret, abuse the monster blocking line.

49:00 - The final battle of map04, another point in the wad where preparation doesn't help much. At least this time the monsters mostly behaved themselves.

51:15 - Start of map05

71:50 - Neutralising the final battle of map05. Creep over the edge of the dropoff, but don't fall down, then retreat back up the crusher corridor. The revenants will arrive first and block most of the cacodemons until the cyberdemon wanders over and starts a brawl. I sat there mostly just watching, until it was the only one left, then I burnt the top of its head with plasma from a position of nearly complete safety.