cannonball

MAP03 - “Sonder” by Dragonfly The three key hunt has been replaced by a three grotesque artifact hunt. The incidental combat is fine, nothing too strenuous, the fights around the gore nests are a little hit and miss. The former corporal is simple and fun, the caco nest is too slow to break down without fining the secret SSG and the demon/sergeant trap sits between the two. The final fight is good fun. I don't know whether I was having an off day but a couple of secrets I kind of just bumbled into (The invulnerability seemed to open by itself for instance). A solid map with a slightly different take on the theme so far. MAP31 - “Redshift” by Afterglow, Dragonfly The biggest flaw this map has is that I struggled from time to time to figure out where I was supposed to go. The map sort of sprawls from the start in a way where you can miss something important. The highlight fights involve both of the big guns, the perforator fight with the mass of imps and the barons who seem to only exist to demonstrate how powerful this weapon is (That's fine), the Blue key/BFG secret is good fun too. The rest is fine, though I can't help but feel that it is lacking something to make it feel special. The locale is different but I am left feeling like I played a normal(ish) map where the super weapons were shoehorned in a little because the rest of the combat can be handled with the SSG/Rocket launcher if so needed. Overall it is a fine map.

MAP01 - “Elysium” by Tristan Clark So we start quite literally where we left off, a map that is pure lore and virtually nothing else and in all honesty it sells itself superbly. The once pristine and bright heavenly realm is now dark, gloomy and grey. There isn't any real threats in this level apart from the sole astral cacodemon there to remind you that this realm isn't devoid of all life and unfortunately any remaining lifeforms are going to be hostile. So relax, take in the atmosphere and plink the caco, which isn't too tough. This map exists for one purpose and it does it perfectly. MAP02 - “Vestige” by Bauul, Dragonfly The first proper map is a real looker, reinforcing the style of the previous map. The map is unsurprisingly open planned, thanks to the ruinous nature of the buildings, but Bauul and Dragonfly do a good job at steering the player around the ruins. The combat is a little so-so but that isn't really a complaint given this is map02 and the map is always going to play a little soft. I should add that the pistol feels well balanced to work on most of the monsters present here, pistol dominated combat is always a risk but here it works nicely. Overall very solid and it is nice to see some of the surroundings of the next map being present here for continuity.

Hmm, I am not convinced by this, maybe a UV Tyson demo of this could win me over ;)

As 2023 ends and a New Year begins (Though for many it is already 2024). I thought it would be nice to draw a line in the sand and list some of your personal goals in the Doom community for the next 12 months. It can be anything, from learning how to speed run to creating the next Cacoward winner and everything in between. For me; 1) Compile all the episodes of Return to Hadron into one complete megawad. 2) Return to making maps for Atomic - An on hiatus megawad where the first 11 maps were released a few years ago and I haven’t done much since. 3) Partake in a few other projects, but try to make sure that I don’t overload myself with maps to make. I hope this is okay and J look forward to what others are planning for the year ahead.

Well I had not made anything specific for this, however I do have a map to donate that has been in development this year, it was supposed to be map13 of Atomic but given continued soul searching, I thought it would work here. Name - Vermillion Vestry Author - Cannonball Format - Limit removing Difficulty settings - Yes Co-op - Starts added Deathmatch - No Music - TaraNTulas by Bucket Build time - N/A Tested - DSDA Doom Textures - Lavafall textures added, note that they don't animate at the moment A fairly short map with plutonia level difficulty. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/o3iwmbprxqrtbcjktu16r/Vermillion-Vestry.wad?rlkey=mugep5rxyacc93tz3olxjeg4n&dl=0

Final thoughts; I raised the question of how far you go when remastering an old megawad such as Realm of Chaos, and that question still remains because it is completely honest to say that the level of work done of each map was not equal, some maps really had work done to them whilst others not so much. Now there were some maps where there were hardline concepts (Map26 for example) where you would need to remake the entire map to make any difference. As such there is quite a difference between the old version and the new one, in particular some mappers who had some quite shocking entries originally had new life breathed into them, some to the point where they went from being quite awful to being some of the best maps in the set. Now the big win on this remaster is of course the midis that Cammy made, that in itself is a crowning achievement, especially as the all felt right at home in their slots, this in turn doubles down of some of the personality that this megawad had as a whole. ROC was lost somewhat in the void, overshadowed by projects led by other groups of mappers, so it was great to play something left-field in 2013, and it is great that effort has been made to highlight this set because it does offer something a little different to the likes of Memento Mori, Hell revealed etc, I would say that this set fits nicely between the two, it is still rough but the original mapset had the likes of Steve D who was very unappreciated back in the day. Now I don't know whether digging into the maps was a good idea, because when you start, where do you stop? But I will say that this megawad is now a better product compared to the original release. That said it still shows its age and of course it has been bettered by many the megawad, however there is a lot of charm embedded in this, not least that we get some subtle sprite edits for items which makes the set a little more unique. In the end my overall opinion is to play this and go in with low expectations and then be surprised by some of the more quality maps that reside within. Overall score - 2.5/5 Favourite map - Map18 Honourable mentions - Map16, 20 and 25 Last note - This of course will not be the end of the Realm of Chaos journey, there is still in development a sequel that I will hope will be released in 2024 (I can't be blamed for slowing this down now Steve), I assume this will be covered by the club too eventually, so expect another Realm of Chaos in the near future.

Right I have played the rest of this (Just was unable to use the laptop to properly write these up). MAP27 - “Venom” by Steve Duff Last time This time; This map is a pretty slow plod for the first half (It improves a little when you get the SSG, the trap for this offer the best fight in the map). The map tries to pick things up beyond the red door, but even these are a little clunky and not overly hard to dismantle with a bit of patience. Note the BFG is soft-lockable if you end up like I did dropping from the upper ledge after the fight in this room, you can get stuck behind the torches. The final fight initiates nicely but given that it is easy to spend all of your cells before the archvile quartet, the possibility of screwing yourself over is quite high here. There maybe be some value in redistributing ammo in this room to try and minimise this. Overall the issue I have is that the first half is probably the slowest and dullest of Steve's outings, it isn't as obnoxious as other maps which means I don't rank this at the bottom and in the end this still sits in the middle of pack. MAP28 - “Fortress of Death” by Slava Pestov Last time This time; I think the negatives outweigh the positives here, the start is aggressive but honestly the only real viable strategy was to quick nab the SSG and return to the start lift, the map doesn't really encourage aggressive play as the walkway/open area set up makes being slaughtered quite easy. A lot of this map involves some quite annoying design decisions, including those platforms you can manipulate and the narrow corridors, these are not particularly fun. Add to this the fact that some fights are ruined by other elements of the map design, for example a warp in of monsters after hitting one of the yellow key switches where many of the monsters are cacodemons/lost souls that of course cannot reach you in those walkways. The blue key fight is another cyber triple threat, not bad I guess but not exactly the most inspired choice, especially as this was done earlier in the wad after a relatively prolonged period of quieter combat. Overall this one wasn't that good, though I guess some elements can be salvaged by a few tweaks. There are worse maps in this wad. MAP29 - “The Fountain” by Rob Berkowitz Last time; This time; A bit of an oddball and unfortunately still falls into the dud category. The start has some nice lighting, but there isn't much going on and combat is pretty simple. It is worth noting that it is very easy to miss stuf unless you use the automap to spot the knooks. Beyond this is probably one of the worst hubspoke designs I have seen, the fact you need to ride a lift to reach the centre each time (One that is devoid of interest) is not a good progression tool. Then you have the wings, the first is a marble room where you need to build a series of platforms to open up the one meaningful fight, it is slow and not particularly interesting. The big fight itself is pretty chaotic and having the masterminds behind blocking lines means that they can actually pose a proper threat, again an oddball design choice are the side rooms that have mid-textures on one side. After this and a return to the "Hub of doom", we get a fleshy section, the monster looks cool but the room beyond this still isn't great to deal with, then a gotcha rehash and a laugh out loud moment for the exit room. The map just let me slightly baffled by its design choices, it isn't particularly difficult and its worst bits are not obnoxious than challenge. MAP30 - “Apocalypse” by Rob Berkowitz Last time; This time; This is thankfully a rather easy map to beat once you know what to do. Three switches, all need to use 3 annoying lifts, three commander keens, another 3 annoying lifts and finally one more for the ICON itself. Luckily despite the fact that a lot of monsters will spawn in, the fact that the lifts are quick guarantees enough time to get a clear shot of the demon spitter hole. The only way of failing this is poor archvile RNG. In the end this gets an average mark but at least the map avoids being annoying by not having a timed element on a lift for instance.

MAP26 - “Above and Below” by Rob Berkowitz Last time; This time; Yeah this gimmick pretty much results in a pretty awful experience and without basically removing the map entirely and starting again, there isn't many ways of salvaging this. You have two objectives that can be done in any order, the first on the upper level revolves around building walkways to reach the exit that is locked by two keys, the second objective in the lower section is to get said keys. Well given that I fell almost immediately, I thought it would be prudent to clear the lower levels first, you get just the shotgun and chaingun to do this unless you head for the red key where you can grab the SSG. Said fight has just two monsters and it is awkward and rather annoying, funilly enough the blue key is also awkward and annoying, but you can easily flee from this trap and never waste any more time n it. The raising platform section is slow and even if you get the SSG from the lower levels, you will find progress to be slow. Later on the rocket launcher and plasma gun can be earned, but honestly the progression still felt stilted and flat. From a "what can be done to improve this" perspective, you could change the raising floor action to the fast variety and you could hand out the higher tier weapons in the lower levels with the cost of offering tougher fights, that said you get no armour in this map outside of the secrets and health is thin on the ground. Both of these suggestions could make the upper level play a little better, but unfortunately I get the feeling this map isn't going to shine regardless. As it is, the map is rather dull to push through, but is also frustrating given how late the better weapons are required and the general lack of health and armour.

The Spirit world isn’t in my opinion Sandy’s best work, but it is fun to play and if you know how to route it. Then you can blaze through most of this with a bright white screen obliterating everything with the BFG. By todays standards Sandy could have been meaner but back then the map is just good fun and harks back to the aesthetics of some of Inferno’s maps. PS thanks for writing this, it is always great to see someone put their passion so eloquently into words.

+++Abscission +++Nostalgia A very soft +++Eviternity 2 (we haven’t done an in house play testing thread in a while, but I suspect this wad is a little too much for the start of the year).

Disturbed is not the word I would use to describe most people’s reactions to the Doomawards. More slightly baffled and a little sad about how the whole resulting package looks like. I like many others would have been delighted to see something authentic, even if it was rough around the edges. In the end it just doesn’t come across as if your passion for the game and the wads you liked were the top priority and your first sentence in your reply absolutely doubles down on that mindset. It is a shame because this could have been a great alternative perspective on this years doom output, but alas. I get the feeling that this forum is not going to be the only one where you need to justify your actions to. In conclusion, be better than this, be authentic and passionate. Writing quality comes with experience but if what you produced has the heart behind it, then people will take notice of what you are doing and this alternative awards ceremony might get some proper traction.

MAP24 - “Burnt Guts” by Slava Pestov Last time Now; Well the baron snipers remained for some reason, okay the only secret crushes them, but frankly they offer little to the proceedings. Most of the map is pretty ho-hum in how it pans out, the yellow key trap being pretty awful in terms of execution (Looks like this was mostly unchanged). The blue however is in a different league, pretty striking to look at and offers not one but two "Oh shit" moments. Overall this is slightly above par, but mostly because of that one area which elevates the map above mediocrity. MAP25 - “Castle of the HellKnights” by Antoni Chan Last time This time Fair play, I actually enjoyed this one a lot this time. Okay so we still have the starting area and going through the mouth of the Icon of Sin, beyond this is the kind of flesh horror that I last experienced in Skulltiverse, it actually pops nicely and the encounters in here are not exactly hard, but more amusing, the highlight for me was managing to get all three barons crushed at the same time. The final room offers the most resistance, I wouldn't exactly say that this room is well designed, because it is flawed but how everything panned out was a real mess and I am thankful for the recovery items in here that would be deemed generous by modern standard. Another mark here is for a mastermind that actually carry a sizable amount of threat, mostly because the safe spot at the exit isn't immediately available, other cover is the bare minimum and achieving distance between yourself and the spider queen is hampered by mid-tiers coming from every other angle. Overall this is one of the most striking maps in the set and finally offers something more than that opening vista, good job Cammy. Note - Technically I have played map25 on Christmas eve (It has just gone 11pm here), but I thought I would get a pass because it is Christmas. Enjoy yourselves tomorrow.

Funnily enough as someone who worked on this project, I have the complete opposite feeling. There is a lot of regret, not only for my own work in this but also the fact that it was a project that was undertaken at the wrong time by people who needed a little more experience. That said Map31 by Xaser is absolutely worth playing, it is on another level of quality and deviates so strongly from not only the rest of the wad but offers something I haven't really seen anywhere else, whilst remaining completely vanilla compatible. It is probably the closest to an example of the OP's question I can give, purely because I don't believe that a tiny percentage of an entire megawad can throw the general experience that much either way.

MAP23 - “Ancalagon” by Steve Duff Last time; This time; This map probably has the worst start of all of Steve's maps, the first five minutes or so is spent with just the chaingun/shotugn and there is quite a bit to clear out. The rest is very hit and miss and there is some hefty backtracking in places. The blue key area was my least favourite area by a mile and it is worth mentioning here that both cell based weapons are in secrets. The mass of pain elementals are a real pain to clear with limited rockets and shells and it is quite possible to run out of ammo. There is also a soulsphere that requires an awkward jump to reach and this is most likely to be necessary to pick up to survive this area. The yellow key is a bit of a non-event in comparison. The red key is pretty fun, but archviles always bring a nice level of spice. Again the map ends with a big fight, though goodness knows how you get through this without picking up the secrets for weapons 6 and 7. I guess the fight itself is fun enough, but I had said secrets. One last point is the very varied take on secrets, you can probably guess which ones have been tweaked (A couple of nicely nested shootable switches) and ones that haven't changed since 1996 (Some are literal wall-humps). In the end this is more cohesive than map09, but I get the feeling that this will be my least favourite Steve D map.

MAP22 - “Nova Akropola” by Steve Duff Last time; This time; I didn't have too many issues here, okay there are chaingunners in the outdoor area but these were dispatched fairly swiftly. The rest of the map kind of wants to be this epic, but it doesn't quite manage that level at any point. Also the doors into the blue key area are marked strangely (I think this carried over from the original version). The blue key fight is probably the highlight here, you just need to use the BFG wisely (Or essentially when you see an archvile). Not much to say really, the map is fine but lacks the cutting edge, oddly the heavier combat felt similar to the last map, but that one had that starting sequence that elevated the map as a whole.

Given I tentatively expressed interest before in Map09, I might make a claim for Map07 now if that is okay?

MAP21 - “The Prison” by Rob Berkowitz Last time This time Well the start is truly something, I mean again props to proposing this concept because it results in a rather panic-inducing start. The map calms down somewhat after the initial couple of rooms, you get all of your weapons to fend off the hordes that come at you from time to time but in the end nothing really compares to the start, the ending is a little bit of a letdown given the earlier moments, the combat isn't too difficult and there isn't much stopping the player from rushing to the exit. Odd really, it appears last time that this map started bad and improved as you progressed, this time the opposite is true. In the end though this is a decent map on the whole, just don't expect the early gimmick to last and get settled into the usual business from around a quarter of the way through the map.

Given that the Doomawards was created essentially in bad faith (Anger at being snubbed in the cacowards), it isn't a surprise to me to see this flop badly. There is definitely scope for another awards ceremony from another group of people, but they need to share the same passion and work ethic as those who volunteer to write up the cacowards, it cannot be like the "Well, I'm going to make my own awards ceremony, with blackjack and hookers"approach (Futurama reference), because like in said reference, the person in charge has seemed to lose complete interest to the point where the write ups were essentially made by a computer.

MAP20 - “Teleporter Central” by Antoni Chan Last time; This time; Either I vibed with this map more or Cammy has really lifted the gameplay and visuals in this one, It is your not so typical hubspoke where you have 6 teleporters to chose from (2 for each area where you need to use both to get access to the key). There isn't too much dead air in this one, full of action and for the most part the map plays very well and is consistent in high(ish) octane action but a relatively relaxed difficulty. The exception of course is the exit room where you get 4 archviles and a load of pillars that lower and raise. Honestly this is a great effort and will catch most off guard. I think there is a reasonable way of dispatching this, however it is very easy to panic and the loss of visuals via the archvile flames really doesn't help. But this fight feels fresh and it only took a couple of attempts to beat. I don't think this is my favourite map but I suspect this is the most improved of the batch so far.

Ah I have had this happen before (I think my Jamal Jones map also had monstered submerged into the floor). Unfortunately this will probably be a case of trial and error to remove this issue, from what I recall I had to in the end move some linedefs around until the problem went away. I guess this does need fixing, especially as this issue might behave differently depending on the port too.

MAP19 - “Port Fury” by Steve Duff Before; Now; I think this one lacks the edge of the previous map, the start and yellow key room is fine and the initial drop into the Port is quite something, but there is probably even less threat here than the last map. The red key area is of course strange with the SS usage being a complete out of the blue moment (At least in map09 we had wolf3d textures). The cacoswarm wants to be menacing but instead turns into a massive pop the balloon exercise with the BFG. The rest is pretty forgettable, just remember to stock up on cells/rockets for the exit push. This one is okay, but that is all it is.

I am tempted to make a second map for this, so a tentative claim of map09. However if someone who hasn’t claimed a map is interested, then consider their claim as trumping this one.

MAP18 - “Dead Radio” by Steve Duff Last time; This time; I will assume that some of the layout issues have been sorted. Just a note - a revenant closet didn't open up for me in the blue key area, as such I could not get 100% kills. Fair to say that this one does the same thing as Map15, but with much better results, the big fights do take place in large areas, but they are smaller and more nuanced, as such the fights become pretty darn hectic, though I will say that despite the bark, the bite isn't too bad if you are used to more modern wads. In the end this one ended up being pretty darn fun and Cammy's improvements see this one head towards the top of the pack. In short the map is just good fun once the party dtarts in the blue key room, and yes I crushed both of the cybers in that room, which of course saved ammo to spam at everything else later on.

E6M7 - Some impressive scale to this map, it is a shape that everything else appeared to be thrown under the bus here though. The pacing was very slow in this one, and whilst the pace hasn't exactly been quick in the other maps, this one also lacked that sense of dread and fear that something could get you at any moment. There are so many moments in this map where was questioning why said construction or element of progression was here to the point where the red key section made me roll my eyes pretty bad. Mazes, those lifts that everyone hated from E2M3, some sigil switches that opened secrets yet others were also mandatory for progression that were hidden better than the ones for secrets. In short, this is probably going to be my least favourite map in Sigil 2, at least E6M2 was short. Sorry. E6M8 - The name is a little fitting, okay I will give it one point for being better than the straight up tiny arenas of E2M8 and E3M8, but still and again the use of those lifts make for a experience that I didn't want to be a part of, I simply got the mastermind to infight with one of the cybers and hosed the other one. I left the map before the squabble had even come to a conclusion. Overall - I must confess that I have not been a particular fan of Romero's mapping style since his return to the scene. That said the fact that Romero still wants to make maps for this 30 year old game is a great shot in the arm for the community. Whilst the man is clearly a legend, I think we perhaps try to pedestal certain mappers too much, after all Romero was out of action in terms of Doom maps for around 20 years. In the end Sigil 2 continues the design ethos of the first Sigil and as such if you loved Sigil, then you will love this, however the same can be said for those who disliked Sigil, however there are a few new things brought to the table. Mixing in more techbase elements prevents the fatigue of playing nothing but hell-themed maps and there are also some new textures here and there to add an extra layer to the visuals. On the whole the visuals were solid, however there is a real variation in quality from some maps that truly stand out to some that looked below the standard of Romero's maps from 1993-1995. There were some other questionable additions, maps had those fireblu secrets and also timed ones that had to be reached quickly from the start, these felt like adding things for the sake of adding things (Many of these secrets held very little reward apart from "Congratulations, you found that one fireblu texture that I hid etc etc", I don't know maybe I am being overly harsh and have regretted playing the final two maps together which were rather disappointing. In the end Sigil 2 felt like a bit of a mixed bag, there are some maps that show that Romero still has that midas touch, however on the other hand there are a couple of duds in this one. The most sadistic moments sometimes hit the spot, sometime they didn't however it is noteworthy that my least favourite map tended to lack this killer edge in a compromise to the larger acreage of the map. Overall you can only compare this to other works currently being released and Sigil 2 probably sits around the middle of the pack, Romero still continues to build maps that feel different to other pwads being released in the community and I guess that is a bit of a double edged sword, still I really do hope that we see a Doom 2 wad appear (Even if it is just a few levels), just to see if any design decisions change based on the Score - 2.5/5 Favourite map - E6M6

MAP17 - “No Escape” by Antoni Chan Last time This time; Well there is still a lot of dead air in this one, like the entirely first section of the map, and the area behind the red door are simply there to grind meat. The section beyond the blue door offers a shock as the mundane and rather bland corridor shootout is interupted by first the archvile gauntlet and then a caverns room that feels like it was ripped from a completely different universe. The ending is nerfed hugely by the very obvious BFG secret. Overall this is an improvement on the original but ultimate so much of the original mapped was at the point of being un-salvageable, so we have probably the best case scenario without having to rip the whole map to shreds.