Dazel

I suppose this serves me right for reading the deadline as 11:59 PM and not 11:59 AM

Do you have any specific idea what's happening? I can't seem to get any errors on it on my end, and I've not seen such from any other playtesters, but it's possible something's broken inbetween builds.

If I'm mapping for this thing, I'm not sure that quality is the biggest concern.

And yet with a name like that am I not expected to make slaughter

I'm in for this for sure! Only question is, if I'm making an early slot map, should I balance difficulty accordingly, or can I crank it up how I please?

E2M4 (GZDoom, UV, Pistol Start, Saveless) Death Count: 1/13 Now this was fun. A death exit in the previous map forces a pistol start, and once you see the berserk in the starting room, it becomes apparent as to why. It's a Tyson map, and a decently fun one at that, at least as much as a Doom 1 Tyson map can be without the fun of fighting Revenants and the mapper being more willing to splash down Hell Knights instead of being limited to Barons. The progression is decently fun, the traps keeping you on your toes without being unmanageable, and holy moly the detailing for hell this episode has been cranked up a notch and then some from E1, this level is gorgeous. The only real negative I can even think of is that the Cyberdemon can be telefragged basically just moments after he shows up, and it might've been interesting to deal with that threat for longer. That aside, stellar map, very fun. Rating: 3½ 🟊🟊🟊✭☆

E2M3 (GZDoom, UV, Pistol Start, Saveless) Death Count: 0/12 Well this was an annoying map. Not one or two but at least three fights are coverless hitscanfests, with the player more or less reliant on luck to not get cut to pieces time and time again. The level's progression is interesting, chasing the player off from a red key by blocking it with more barons than you have ammo to kill, and only giving enough to accomplish the task after dropping them down without the ability to backtrack until they've pushed through the rest of the level. Ammo distribution is a bit annoying, sending in a flight of Cacodemons once you get the rocket launcher you'll want to kill the barons with, but not giving enough ammo to take care of both, essentially asking the player to resort to the shotgun to deal with one of the two threats. Where this map gets annoying is that once you go through the red key door, you have no way of going back for cleanup, and if you missed some monsters or secrets and want to max the level, you'll need to start all over again, which I did. Rating: 2 🟊🟊☆☆☆

Are they banned, or is the idea to just wait a few maps before the difficulty gets dialed all the way up?

Here's the updated MAP01, I added some pre-ambush monsters to the Yellow Key room, a soulsphere secret with its own ambush, and modified the exit a tad. https://www.mediafire.com/file/bikvsocggizkszq/NEGATIVETWO+v0.17.wad/file

Didn't Vladguy have MAP02 reserved?

Not exactly. Taking this map for example, there's not much that really can be added to it, at least without branching off in unintuitive and awkward ways. The detailing is so dense in most places that you can't do much to modify what is already there, and it's so firmly webbed together that it's hard to remove anything to make room for something else either. That being said I'm reserving MAP01

It might be a good guideline to always try to keep in mind how someone can build on and modify your own contributions, what literal and figurative doors are open for changes to be made, in regards to submissions, especially ones of essentially 'completed' full maps.

E2M2 (GZDoom, UV, Pistol Start, Saveless) Death Count: 0/12 The problem with using the same gimmick over and over in your monster encounters is that after a certain point, they become predictable, and Khorus's popup cacodemons have become that and then some. If you don't see them coming, this map might give you a few thrills, but for me, I was praying for a rocket launcher, not because pacing side to side and shotgunning 20 imps and 2 cacodemons is hard, but because a rocket could do it in a tenth of the time. Khorus is downright generous with health, and even if he doesn't give rockets, there's more than enough shells and bullets. Visually there's some good stuff going on, it's a lot sharper and more interesting to look at than E1, with a special shoutout to the concrete alcoves that later lower down, but we're also right back into mandatory nukage sections that you get more than enough radsuits to never be pressured by, which is again, why? Continuous players appreciate that end room secret berserk I'm sure, but for me it's just there to tick up the counter. Rating: 1½ 🟊✭☆☆☆

E2M1 (GZDoom, UV, Pistol Start, Saveless) Death Count: 0/12 We're right back to KDITD aesthetics, and nukage remains a common feature. Difficulty's been dialed right back down from the tail end of E1 as well, and weapon progression with it. Plenty of peashooting zombiemen and imps to start off here, with a chainsaw thankfully making short work of the few Demons. The map's main challenge for me was figuring out where the heck I was supposed to go and what to do, with the shootable switches taking me far too long to figure out. After that, the map's shotgun trivializes the rest of what it throws at you, with the things of most note being a popup Cacodemon and two respawning sergeant turrets easily dispatched. Visually there's a lot more focus in the detailing than in E1, although I'm slightly disappointed to see us circle back around to the same visual style, and no skybox change. Rating: 2 🟊🟊☆☆☆

Added a few rooms after the Red Key door in MAP01 https://www.mediafire.com/file/ev04sm69unndne8/NEGATIVETWO_v0.05.wad/file @Mystic 256 you should be good to go.