ginc

Category 1, UV difficulty. Survived in 42:35. I took the scenic route on this one. With prior knowledge you could finish really quickly. Video:

Category 1 (blind). Entered MAP10 at 2:21:59. Dead on MAP10 with 118/170 kills. Means of death / comments: Video:

Category 1, UV difficulty. Died on MAP07 with 195/231 kills. Entered MAP07 at 1:03:18. Great WAD, kinda reminds me of Avactor with its not-Doom theme, custom sprites/textures, and general spiciness. Means of death: I just got too tired, and walked into a cyberdemon rocket completely unforced. Pretty much falling asleep as I type this / upload video. That's what I get for leaving this to the last minute. Video:

Category 1 (blind)... probably? Does having knowledge of DOOM2.WAD count? Survived in 39:45. Comments/spoilers: Video:

I was told that MAP08 is "yet another techbase map", but it is in fact not another techbase map. I won't spoil the rest. DM'd my feedback on Discord, but this is a good, fun, sometimes frustrating map with solid trolling.

Category 1. Kills: 158/766 (dead at 14:22) Means of death / comments: Video:

Pain Elementals and/or Lost Souls are only a problem (either boring or too oppressive) if the player doesn't have good weapons when you introduce them. They are collectively tanky (due to spawning 100HP Lost Souls), so dealing with them with anything less than a Rocket Launcher is just meh. There are a lot of WADs that nerf Lost Soul health (usually to 50), and while this change can make maps more "fun", they also make Pain Elementals much less threatening in every situation. Its one of the few areas where I'm a purist and prefer the default - just don't use them in a boring way. IMO if you're going to nerf the Lost Soul health, you should also make them more dangerous (ie. much more aggressive).

Category 1 (blind). I have played Rowdy Rudy 2 but not this one. Entered MAP07 at 36:54, softlocked at roughly 45:00 with 111/115 monsters killed and a pretty big health/ammo stack (fuck!) That being said, I definitely wouldn't have beaten asdadagba's time even if I survived, so there's no effect on the final leaderboard for the year. Dude clinched the gold with a solid run and frankly I'm lucky to be in second place lol. Means of softlock: When you cross a linedef that is part of regular progression, a wall is supposed to lower that allows you to enter the area with the red skull key. If you play on GZDoom in Doom(strict) compatibility mode, the wall sector gets permanently stuck trying to lower because there are items sitting on top of it and the sector height is too small. This bug does not happen on Boom(strict) mode, nor does it happen in DSDA-Doom -complevel 2 (otherwise everyone here would be complaining). If the wall does not lower, regular progression takes you up an elevator and leaves you trapped and softlocked. The WAD is fun, its Doomkid giving us some oldschool DeHackEd cheese. Video:

I don't have another test build yet and probably won't for a while, but I just wanted to report that MAP12: Acclimatization is in development. It is going to be the big boy map of the episode, and it is inspired by Metroid Fusion, which gives a clue about what to expect in the domes attached to this space station. There will be a MAP13 to end the episode, and if I don't run out of steam then I have some ideas for an Episode 4 to end the series (2-3 more maps). Hoping to get this done in 2024, but we'll see :)

Entered MAP16 at 20:16, DNF. 52/113 kills. Difficulty: UV Category: 1 (blind) Means of softlock / comments:

In my WAD Infested, which is a few years post-Hell On Earth: The quick and dirty lore is that the crisis united what was left of the countries around the world, which lead the UN passing a resolution to break up the UAC monopoly. They basically got the Standard Oil treatment where each division was spun off into its own company. The heads of the Mars Research division (that weren't transformed into demons/zombies) faced lawsuits and criminal trials. Demonic research was basically nationalized and heavily regulated, and teleportation was banned. Of course, those things would still take place in secret.

Category 1 (blind). Entered MAP05 at 1:22:10. Died with 333/462 kills (129 remaining). I forgot the "don't count Lost Souls" .pk3, but that's my mistake this month. Means of death / comments: Video:

So apparently MAP11's start is bugged if you come from MAP10, but if you just go directly to the map ("map map11" in console) it should work fine. You're meant to start floating in the air and land on that platform (there's a linedef there that turns gravity back on again), but I'm guessing that coming from MAP10 lets you fall for a short distance before the scripting starts for whatever reason. I'll put in a workaround, but for now you can still test the map itself if you like.

Also, I don't know if this would be considered cheese, but I've found 2 areas where the sound-blocking linedefs might need adjusting. There might be more. Basically, these areas have ledges where you fall into a combat area, and I think that the idea is that the sound-blocking lines are supposed to prevent players from waking up monsters before they fall in. The problem is that players can get close to the edge (so that the center of the player is actually over the line), use a weapon, and wake up a bunch of monsters before the player falls in. If the lines are moved to be 16 units (ie. player radius) away from the edge, that should fix it. This area in MAP15 with the altar with the fuckton of Archviles: (edit) Looked in UDB and figured out why its cheesable. The monsters in the back are supposed to stay dormant until a monster crosses the line next to the cyber, but if you wake up the Wickeds and just back out to the south, they'll fly over the line and wake up everything. MAP19 after you go up the elevator near the start: Apologies if these have already been pointed out by Velvetic or someone else

Hey Tango, congrats on the (beta) release, this is a joy to play and clearly a labour of love. All those Castlevania MIDIs in the extra maps of Paradise were definitely foreshadowing this :) Played through Extreme difficulty first, didn't find any major issues, but I wasn't trying to break things. Currently playing Ruin, found 2 cheesable fights in particular that probably also work in the regular maps: For this area of MAP17, if you follow the path along the right side and jump down you can skip the linedefs that trigger the fight and just move on. As a result, you can fall into this pit of dormant monsters and softlock. For this fight of MAP14: You can escape without hitting any switches by SR40'ing here: