cannonball

Regarding E4M6 I think I must have accidentally unflagged the damaging floor effect on that sector. Oh well I guess that isn’t the end of the world in the grand scheme of things. Thanks for the kind words and I am encouraged by your choices for E3 because these two were some of the most tweaked maps from the original release (I regretted how they turned out almost immediately in a sense that I was trying to force things to get the episode completed). Hopefully Atomic will become a full reality someday, though I am in a bit of a trough in terms of mapping at the moment. I was hoping to get up to map20 by the end of this year and I have essentially some broad ideas for most of the slots, it is just a case of getting them into the editor and making them real.

+++ Pirate Doom 2 +++ Abscisson +++ Nostalgia 2

IDgames link https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/Ports/megawads/uhadron The only change is the implementation of demos for each episode. Thank you everyone and enjoy.

Nice, hopefully I might get inspiration this time to make something after promising and failing to offer something to Interception 2.

Hopefully this will be the final release candidate https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/1qptpjq26eedj5vu24kxv/uhadron.zip?rlkey=plqt8buq0dv2t8kk0e3ogmqhv&st=huxwcfou&dl=0 The only map tweak was for E1M3 otherwise unchanged. New title pic, tweaks to the status bar too. I will do demos for the IDgames release with anything else people spot before the end of next week.

Thought I would play through this; Map01 - Yeah I don't have any problems with a set up like this being thrown straight away. I'm guess damaging floor is going to be very prevalent. As such the start is probably the hardest part of the map because the hitscanners can really nail you. The pressure eases to something more akin to a early map for the rest of the duration, even if you do get an archvile thrown in at the end. This was really solid. Map02 - This is even more cramped than the first map, some seriously efficient use of monsters, particularly archviles that can cause some real trouble. The only real complaint is the fact that you have to ride the same lift a couple of times that slows things down. Another solid map. Map03 - Deceived by the monster count, devious indeed. Yeah that map is full of lost souls that can cause some real aggravation. I actually like that the beefier monsters don't actually have to be dealt with and if you want to deal with them you can simply find the secrets. I like this one, the more open plan layout works well against the more constricted Map01/02 without sacrificing the core themes in those maps. Map04 - Well just as in Daylight District, T Will produces a map that can rub you up the wrong way. The mandatory damage sections are a lot more stressful than previous maps. That said the only bit that bothered me was the platforming to the red key and even then it was mainly the first jump where you can easily bump the bordering wall. I really like the final fight by the way, that was panic inducing but actually quite beatable. Good job. Map05 - Not as hard as the previous map, but probably the one I enjoyed the most so far. I like how you slowly construct the blue key area ready for the big showdown that occurs here. No issues with this one, a good map. Map06 - Right straight off, the teleporter in the final room that allows you to go back to the rest of the map needs to be moved (Potentially to behind the exit door). When playing through this I accidentally took the teleporter, this isn't help by the fact that the flat used is the one used in other areas of the map where it isn't a teleporter. I make this point because if you do hat I did and there are still 20 or so monsters left then you might as well restart the map because they bottleneck at the entrance point to the final room. I think this is probably the weakest map so far, it is a little too cramped and slow and some of the fights are quite grindy. The rocket launcher fight is a real shock because it is very unlike the rest of the map, I had to break through the lines and used the rocks as cover, which seemed to work. The final fight is messy and quite fun, but again I will reiterate that the teleporter out of there needs to be move to somewhere where accident prone souls like myself will take it and effectively make finishing the map impossible. Map07 - I don't know about this one, this is one of those really unfriendly maps to play first time, you really need to act fast to get through this one because of the radsuit situation. I also cannot help but feel that adding more radsuits would be a good move for lower difficulties (I accept that UV is what it is and was surprised to see that most items are the same on all skill settings). Overall I really like this one, most of the maps felt concise and the fights tended to not outstay their welcome. Map07 was beyond me tonight, but I accept that I will need to give this another try at some point in the future. My favourite map was probably Map05, but there wasn't any map that I particularly disliked. I will note that there were quite a few occasions where I experienced episodes where projectiles went through walls (Either my own or amusing monsters, the highlight being killed by a revenant rocket on map06 that went straight through a solid waterfall. I am not sure what caused it). Anyway, thanks for making this and keep squonking.

I will probably be back for June. Taking a month off was going to be the plan for me anyway.

Overall thoughts; Doom 2 In City Only is a rather exhausting experience. I will get one thing off my chest now, the difficulty ceiling of this wad is too high. Now I know there is the "DOn't play on UV" argument, however I will say that given the wad's objectives, seeing stuff that could fit into the later levels of something like Hardfest or equivalent is going to alienate people. Add to this the caveat that a large number of these maps are long and require up to or even exceeding 1 hour of playtime for casual play is quite a grueling ride. Now there are a couple of maps that you can't really do much about (Map20/23 and 36 come to mind), these will kick your backside and you will have to simply take it. However there are other maps in the second half where frankly the experience would have been far better if the BFG was available earlier, I get that the superweapon can make combat much easier than desired, however not many people want to grind through hundreds of mid-tiers with rockets and plasma. Yes you lose a couple of difficulty points but some maps would have been far higher up in my view if they simply allowed the player to cut loose a bit. This wad despite my grievances, does have some significant high points and players will be rewards at times for their hard efforts, but I would not recommended playing this in a short timeframe. In terms of the episodes E1 - This episode suffered the most from the common city map negative tropes (Often little details took priority over the bigger picture), however in the end I found some enjoyment from most of the maps in this episode and I get the feeling that a second playthrough would make some of these look quite comfy. E2 - This was a better and more varied episode, A couple of maps here stood out in particular and even though I disliked map09, I will say it offers a decent break between Map08 and Map10. E3 - Probably my favourite episode, one plus point is that the maps on the whole were quite short, with one exception that happened to be the highest point of this megawad. Despite the grandeur of Map13, the final map justified its endgame status and capped off probably the best stretch of the megawad. E4 - This one was okay, You get two longer maps, though Map17 is more exploratory and the first real example of a map that could have yielded a bit to the whims of the causal doomer. Map20 is a real hike in difficulty, though I would say that it just about justifies sitting in the map20 slot. E5 - Probably the most tragic episode in my view, purely because it feels the most uneven in terms of feel and progression. You have the biggest and possibly baddest map in the set and a map that feels perfect to open the episode is also stuck in the middle. I regret not pushing harder to potentially swap my map and Taviow's maps, a few tweaks of my map in the map23 slot would have made for a smoother ride, the same could be said for swapping Maps21/22.As it is, this is the episode that will likely end people's playthroughs of this wad. E6 - The issue with this episode is that a couple of maps feel too grindy for their own good, not a positive coming from the hell city episode - Map27/28 both share the issue that I stated above where an easier acquisition of a BFG would have resulted in a far more positive experience. Overall, this is worth a go and some will absolutely love this megawad, however for me I felt more relieved than anything else after beating the Icon of Sin. Score - 3.5/5 (The quality embedded in this wad short not go unnoticed but this isn't a wad to binge through) Favourite maps - Map10, 13, 22 and 35 Honourable mentions - Map01, 08, 11, 16, 20, 23, 29 and 36 I have been leaving some notes on the relevant thread in the PUSS server, and I hope that the feedback in there has helped at least a few to make some adjustments for the better. I am not sure whether I will join in next month, I think I need a break to focus on mapping related objectives.

MAP29 - "Void Masquerading As Matter" by myolden A solid penultimate map, you visit each theme with its own distinct set of fights. The Modern and Futuristic city segments were fine, but the Egyptian theme area felt very sluggish to clear thanks to the revenants that can teleport to the outside, this is more annoying than anything else. Once all three keycards are obtained you can proceed onwards. The underground section takes a little bit of time to get used to, but aside from the flood of archviles when you open up the blue skull, this isn't too bad. The Hell city segment isn't too bad, none of the fights here felt too harsh, even the cramped double cyber/hell knight section. The final void section is the hardest part, mostly because of the phased notion of the set piece and you can easily screw yourself over, the flood of archviles when the yellow skull was revealed felt like too much, but I managed to get an exit from here quite quickly. This isn't perfect, some parts had some sluggish cleanup, the progression and health distribution allows for a sizeable chance of screwing yourself over, maybe placing a couple of medkits by the teleporters from the underground/hell sections to allow players to heal a little but might be a good idea. All said and done, Myolden did a solid job for utilising the Map29 slot to present a compelling adventure that revisits all of the themes of this megawad. MAP30 - "Sin City" by NecrumWarrior It isn't the worst ICON of Sin I have seen, however I would be lying if I said it was painless. For a start, if RNG rolls an archvile, you are pretty much restarting because many of the rooftops are small enough to result in you being thrown off the roof to your death. Secondly there is one section near the end where the players eyes will be drawn to a walkway, that if you take it you will almost certainly die because it is a dead end and you will get shelled by everything that has teleported in. Finally of course once you get to the shooting spot, aiming can be a little tricky and again you pray that not too many flyers have teleported in to disrupt your shooting. In the end this isn't fail worthy, but I didn't particularly enjoy this map.

Here is RC2 - Thanks to Skeptcist for the bugs/visual errors you spotted as well as the replies on this thread. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/j5h2grb0sy2sq2lspsim6/uhadronRC2.zip?rlkey=oqhi7kwmsnkt9zfqfih3rf193&st=fnv0dfrf&dl=0 Edits to a few maps, removed some softlocks and visual errors. Altered the E1 end text to reflect the megawad progression. The plan is to work a little bit more on the artwork before proceeding to the final release, any further errors/bugs please report so they can be squashed before uploading to IDgames.

MAP36 - "Anti-Life" by muumi Yeah I am a bit hot and cold about this one. Some fights I really liked, some I had to brute force but appreciate the creativity and some that I absolutely hated. I really liked the start, the cold, sterile environment invites this sort of little combat puzzle, the plasma gun is good fun too. However later on, the red key path presents a rocket launcher and a fight that killed me dozens of times. I just kept getting horrible luck with monster movement, poor RNG etc, this felt too luck based. The following fight is great, the mechanics and a mastermind fight that feels fresh and engaging. The blue key path is less creative, the rocket launcher is much easier to obtain and keep hold of, there are a couple of fights to the main event that feel like you can only brute force by grabbing a BFG on a different path, that said the main fight is again good fun. The BFG is necessary to pick of the archviles and save two shots for the cyber. Now there is an optional area that rewards you with a megasphere and invulnerability, but obtaining it involves another unique little murder box, I must confess to brute forcing this too, but I can see how that can be beaten, I will say that again you can get unlucky. The final fight isn't too bad, sure it looks like an unbeatable mosh pit, but you have the BFG, infighting basically starts itself and you can get space quite quickly. This wasn't too bad to beat and of course you can de-fang a large proportion of the fight with the optional area. In the end this was a little too hard for me, though in reality it was a couple of spots that felt too close to being BS, that said this is an imposing and atmospheric map that will stick in your head. The platforming wasn't too bad (I say that as a keyboarder). I preferred Muumi's other map but I suspect other who lik their maps spicy will get a kick out of this one.

Heh it is always strange to see map names that come from places I know very well (In this case Southampton Docks, I was a student at the university of Southampton). Building a whole megawad from scratch as a first project is ambitious, the fact you did this in two months is on one hand impressive, but on the other a little concerning as to how the maps will play. Looking at the screenshots I can see a lot of large areas that are a little lacking in detail, on the other there are some quite interesting ceiling details. I will say that even a quick glance through some of the maps (Yes I did IDCLEV12 :)) and yes of the maps I saw there seemed to be a real lack of height variation that could prove to be a negative. I'm also guessing that Southampton is referenced because it was a starting point of the Titanic's maiden and only voyage.

MAP28: Village and Void by NinjaDelphox Did not finish Honestly the first five to ten minutes were good fun, but then I picked up the yellow key and to be honest things went downhill quickly. It seems there is another BFG you can get early, I never found it and to put it bluntly the blue and red keys absolutely mandate having that BFG because you will be incinerated by the traps in both and there is squat you can do (Plasma/rockets will run out without removing the archviles and there dozens of mid-tier meat shields. At this point nearly 1200 monsters in with two fights I could not beat, I decided to call it a day. Worth noting that the blue key is accessed by a switch in a lava pit (With plasma gun) that is miles away from the wall it lowers. It is fair to say that the red key progression is also shall we say rather risky as you will likely have monsters roaming around that can block the player via infinite height. This is the second map in the set that I have had to admit defeat and I am usually pretty stubborn at getting through things (For note I got through Haste for the DWMC and whilst I had my ass kicked, I never felt like this). Again the big issue is that this wad was supposed to be pretty open where the aim was to make city maps, this one would challenge some of the hardest wads going. At the end of the day, the traps that ended me here would have been much easier with the BFG but after over an hour, I had not found one and I don't have all of the time in the world to track it down. Edit - Both BFGs are in secrets (Just looked in the editor), yeah that is way too mean in my opinion.

MAP27 - "The Consumed Metropolis" by ABearInThaWoods This was a slog, not helped by the fact that I only got the BFG at the very end of the map (Final fight), this map is just hard (Not X tier this time), but it is relentless and clearing masses of mid tiers with the rocket launcher and plasma gun isn't quick enough to make any of the fights feel satisfactory. Even the final fight felt like going through the motions to some degree. I know that not finding the earlier BFG fight meant that the punishment was partly my fault, not only that but given how some of the fights panned out, I also missed the blue key and actually took a while to collect the red key, it felt too easy to miss the keys when they often weren't entirely clear on their location and could sometimes be obscured by the mass of corpses that were left. In general some fights were too easy (The techbase square with the forcefields was a simple circle strafe), some were a chore to clear (The red key area in general is a bullet hello), the blue key area has arachnotrons that are difficult to clear, the yellow key can get very claustrophobic and again the BFG would have really helped here. As a result, I ended up feeling very indifferent to this map, it was just long and relentless, it lacked the gravitas of some of the other big maps and I think that is where the map falls down somewhat. PS - In the blue key fight, once the floors raise upon grabbing the key, there are some sections where you can get stuck and softlocked.

Well that is just embarrassing from my behalf. Yes those should definitely be impassable and will be fixed in the next update. I pondered this for a while but I felt that it felt a little unnecessary to make a new thread given that this was the planned update from the last one.