The DWIronman League dies to: Combat Shock 2

[Big Ol Billy]

Working on prepping a run, but honestly not enjoying the wad very much in this format. Finding myself feeling compelled to play in the least interesting and exciting ways to try to make it through. I'm also surprised that some DW reviews have praised this for having little in the way of boring clean-up for a slaughter wad--if that's the case it's really not a good advertisement for the genre. (Let it be know though that I suck--haven't made it past Map02 yet and blew through all 3 lives on Map01 during my blind attempt.) Feels like the polar opposite of DTWID, where I think the Ironman format made the set an especially good experience.

 

Still, I want to persevere. I've only dabbled in playing slaughter style wads and fairly often find them as underwhelming in terms of fun as they are overwhelming in terms of monsters. Even so, I really appreciate mappers who want to explore the extremes of scale, difficulty, and so on, which seems essential to pushing Doom mapping forward. And obviously there are a lot of slaughter maps that look gorgeous. So I'm hoping I come out of this experience with either a better appreciation of this (style of?) wad or at least maybe a little skill bump that will help me enjoy slaughter maps a bit more.

[Scotty]

I made it to map04! Really stoked with that one, perhaps my best showing ever in an ironman. Demo. Died in that fight after you get the BFG, natch.

 

UV only attempt. Cat 2, played this before, admittedly i know some map02 much better than others from this wad having played it for fun a few times (it's more fun when you can play quickly without having to worry about dying), although it didn't stop that final fight in 02 from being incredibly nerve wracking. Map03 seemed to be made way easier by playing continuous because you can ignore that dangerous rocket launcher room.

 

I can see why some might have been pissed off with this one because that very first area of the wad can be quite overwhelming given the weaponry you have (indeed, i nearly bit it here, falling to only 2% health), although i personally got pissed off with the other exteme in DTWID, to the point where i couldn't be bothered to continue with it. Knowing that death was unlikely, being up against the timer with the priority being switch hunting for progression, was immensely frustrating to me as i don't think it was so much a test of skill and avoiding death, more just a memory test of knowing where shit was. I really hope nothing as easy as that appears again.

Edited January 25, 2018 by Scotty

[Beginner]

That was disappointing. Category #3. Death on map03: fumbled critical switch press and, as a result, took a rocket to the face.

The rest of the maps seems like they're manageable but pretty tiring.

[DeletedUser]

Survived in 2:40:37

 

DWIronman_c-shock2_BlooditeKrypto.zip

 

Category 2 run - You should know your classics when you see em ;)

 

I was half asleep then woke up at the end of MAP02, Cyber had his karma come back on him ten fold at the end of MAP03 :) then the caffeine started to kick in to sustain my alertness. Very cautious on MAP05 and MAP06, a slow and diligent pace, just want to make it to the end, followed by a cataclysmic outing on MAP07.

 

Congrats to Mrzzul on his survival, well done!

[Benjogami]

Category 2, 1-3-5.

 

I've watched a few people stream Combat Shock 2, but I don't always pay attention, and my memory is pretty bad even for the parts I did pay attention to. I didn't really know anything about map 1, must've not watched that one at all. ;(

 

I like the 1CC rules! Difficulty settings need more love.

 

benjo_c-shock2_dwironman.zip

Edited January 31, 2018 by Benjogami

[dt_]

Just as the door is closing I bring you this:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bkj7iqy713yvyph/dtcs.zip?dl=1

 

category 1 run, UV to map02, HMP to map03, and HNTR to map05

 

I didn't do my weekly big shop mid demo this time, honest

[an_mutt]

hi i'm here

 

demos

 

stream

 

Spoiler

A win! I don't know if this is a cat. 1 or 2 run, as it was pretty much all blind aside from the opening archvile of map 01, the ending of map 03, and the beginning of map 04.

 

[xvertigox]

I couldn't do this run properly (prboom+ being a bitch with a mouse bug ;/) so I'm excited for next month. I tried running it in Crispy Doom but the switch in the first level that lowers the blue key doesn't work in Crispy.

 

A few questions regarding this, do most people just do one maybe two runs and submit or do people grind till they can finish the wad then record a full run? My impression is you go in more or less blind and see how you do then submit that?

[WH-Wilou84]

Hey, I'm here too, on the 25th hour !
Couldn't miss that one even though January has been a busy month for me.
 

 

I died on map 05 on UV, then finished map 05 on HMP and had to give up due to time constraints and lack of sleep.

These runs belong in category 2 - I've been watching the UV Max demos of this wad for years, and have fond memories of playing it back in 2012.

Glad I made it through map 05, it's the most memorable Combat Shock 2 map to me (along with 04).
Couldn't remember where the Invuln sphere was at the end, and I didn't want to risk dying in the lava while the Revenant hordes were ganging up on me.

There were a lot of close calls, particularly in map 05.
The demos will surely be boring to watch, as I played very slowly and carefully as usual - even though ultra-hard wads like this one tend to encourage aggression and punish careful play.

The 1CC ruleset is perfect for this kind of wad. Congrats to all of you who dared to try, and to the few usual suspects who managed to survive !
See you guys next month.
 

C-Shock2-Ironman-Demos-wh.zip

Edited January 31, 2018 by WH-Wilou84

[Demon of the Well]

Almost didn't do anything for this one--other things I really ought to have been doing (read: horridly mundane IRL stuff)!--but didn't want to be a spoilsport, so here I am.

 

Died on m04, same place as Scotty.

 

Category is 2, I've played the WAD through before at least a couple of times in the past, but haven't seen it in years, and didn't have time to watch others' streams or the like this time, so was operating purely on memory/instinct.

 

This is an absolutely textbook case of death ensuing from a nasty case of "Too Good to Use Syndrome." That fight's really not that hard, in hindsight, but I guess in the moment I felt compelled to NOT fire my ultra-powerful weapon of relentless evaporative death for.....reasons? Trying to be more ammo-efficient? Trying to leverage infighting more? Trying for a more aesthetically pleasing show, so help me? Whatever the case, I got what I deserved.

 

Don't have the time available for retries on lower skills atm, but I'm glad that's there as an option in the future. Requisite shout-outs to Zzul and Krypto, natch....Shock2 is not the hardest mapset in this genre, it's true, but I think it's also certainly more dangerous (esp. without detailed intel) than Zzul has recently given it credit for, particularly maps 05 and 06 (m07 is more of a "don't choke, don't choke!" sort of deal).

 

More than that, I'm very pleased to see so many give something in a genre with a reputation (not entirely deserved...?) for being inaccessible a try, and hope to see you all back again next time Alfonzo gets saucy and picks something in this general vein.

[Steve D]

No surprises here, I went 1-1-3.

 

http://www.mediafire.com/file/cea6lhabs4fupv3/ShockedAndSlaughtered.zip

 

Cat 3 run, and I still ended-up tying Jaws, unless I'm given credit for lasting longer in Map01 on UV. But that hardly seems fair, since I did 3 practice runs including 4 tries at the mass Revvie/Pinky/Imp fight, which is where I died on both UV and HMP. Sneaking into the Zerk room had worked real well on my practice run after every other tactic got me killed, but with good old Real Run Flop-Sweat, I failed to check my 6 and died like a jagoff. This was especially embarrassing on HMP, because when I watched the demo, It was clear that I could have survived by fighting it out in the open. I had plenty of health waiting for me throughout that area if I got bad hurt. 

 

Obviously, my main strategy in Map01 was to stay away from that first shotgun on UV. I had killed the Archie on one of my practice runs, but it was too big a risk when running for a real shot at beating the map. I played in Safe Mode on UV, but after dying, I felt a bit looser, so I played more aggressively on HMP. After suffering a surprise death, I attacked even harder on HNTR -- all those Megaspheres and Soulspheres kinda encourage that ;D -- and for once the demo looks more like I actually play when I'm savescumming. More like, but not exactly the same. ;)

 

Map02 was super-fun. I liked it on UV, too. Neither of these maps is ultra-hard by my standards when I'm savescumming. I think I only died about 6 times on my UV practice run -- I never practiced any other skill level -- but it was definitely a challenge to try and kill All. Those. Revvies. But overall I thought it was a blast thanks to the nice big open spaces that this keyboarder loves. My biggest problem was Dat Mastermind, because me and the Cyb had killed all the Revvies behind it, so I damn near got fully ventilated before I figured out I wasn't gonna get any infighting help. The exit setpiece battle was sooooooo much easier with a Baron instead of the Cyb. Of the 6 deaths I suffered on my practice run, 3 were in this fight. All in all, this is a good-looking map that's a blast to play.

 

I came into Map03 cold, because I didn't practice this far, figuring there was no way I'd get through Maps 01 & 02 on UV, so why bother? I did watch Suitepee play it on his livestream, though. The thing that got me about this map is how gorgeous it is. Massive, beautiful spaces and incredible verticality. It wasn't as obvious when I watched Suitepee play it, but when you're in it, it's a wowser. I had a lot of fun playing it, too, except for the platforming section. Funny thing is that I made it on my first try, but then I tried to corner camp the Mastermind, but backed up and fell in the water. It must have taken me 10 tries to make it across again. Curse you, @dannebubinga !!!!!!!

 

I survived the Mastermind fight and then the Elemental/Imp/Arachnotron battle, but at the final fight -- I didn't realize it was the final fight at the time -- I went in like an idiot without grabbing the Soulsphere, foolishly thinking I could tank some damage. My screen turned bright red and stayed that way, and then I saw a Megasphere, but there was a Cyb close to it. I figured I had no choice but to go for it, so it was a race between me and the rocket to see who'd reach the Megapshere first. Thus came my tragic end.

 

This was a cool mapset, at least what I saw of it. I should savescum through the rest of this puppy sometime. And unless Dobu takes The Keyboard Kup at the last minute, maybe me and Jaws can go at it again next month. ;)

[Big Ol Billy]

Late submission! It's up to Alfonzo whether he wants to officially include it, but posting to give myself closure.

 

bob_cs4.zip Category 3 run, embarrassingly. Went 2, 2, 3.

 

I appreciated the first level more and more as I ran it, and getting to the point where I could beat it reliably actually ended up being a really great skill-building experience. Perhaps it would have been the same with the subsequent levels, but I wasn't able to put the time in. Map 02 actually seemed to become more annoying the more I ran it. Lost soul usage is borderline criminal, IMHO. The space is so huge you can never be sure you've tracked them all down, and as long as they might be lurking about it feels way dangerous to use the RL and risk blowing yourself up, so you're pushed towards the SSG and infighting to take down the horde. Yawn. Feels less like I'm slaughtering demons and more like I'm being forced to mow the lawn. Tried to ignore basically everything and dash through it on HNTR, and I was glad to get it over with. Map 03 looked cool although some of the fights felt pretty sloggy. Fittingly, my final death came when I got bored and careless during the clean-up phase of a the projectile hell/2 cyber fight (admittedly a pretty cool setup).

 

Overall, I'm glad I pushed myself a little with this one. Some of it grew on me, some of it I started to hate more the more I played it. Probably still the least enjoyable slaughter experience I've had so far, but still glad Alfonzo decided to mix it up with this one.

[rehelekretep]

@Big Ol Billy as far as i know you dont have to repeat the maps before the one you died, just restart on the map you died on :)

at least you got something positive out of it though!