Ravendesk

Actually finished e4 faster than I expected so here are the rest of the fdas: udino-e4-fdas-part2.zip Once again, recorded with dsda-doom 0.26.2 -complevel 3 on udinorc2 and should be played back on the same dsda version. A few thoughts on individual maps (nothing particularly useful there except for maybe e4m7): e4m3: e4m4: e4m5: e4m6: e4m7: e4m8: Overall enjoyed e4, but e3 is still my strong fav. UDINO definitely managed to surprise me quite a few times during the playthrough, there are some real gems in the set and some very creative fights and setups, I totally did not expect ultimate doom wad to be able to pull all that off. Great stuff, thank you all for making these maps and congrats on the release. I would say top 4 maps for me were e3m6, e1m8, e3m2 and e1m7, but there was much more memorable stuff that I already mentioned.

Playing at a slower pace now, so will post fdas in parts. First part is e4m1-e4m9. There are two fdas for e4m2 because I restarted after a few minutes. Recorded with dsda-doom 0.26.2 -complevel3 on RC2 version: udino-e4-fdas-part1.zip A few thoughts on the maps. e4m2: e4m9: Hopefully can finish the rest of the maps quite soon, and I'll post some final thoughts (bro who asked) on e4 and the wad as a whole.

We literally just had this topic:

Damn, I clicked because I thought it's a cool wad name.

Crate section actually felt like the only sensible part of that map to me lol. The solution was really intuitive unlike many other progression parts of the map that are kinda random (not that it's bad).

Might look like this: There are tons of interesting setups that can be done with quad definitely, but unfortunately a proper quad seems to be udmf-only thing, so for boom/mbf21 you have to make do.

If we only compare the iwads themselves then Plutonia is obviously a better wad than TNT, however if we consider what both of them have inspired, then we must take into account the fact that TNT3 is obviously better than Plutonia 2. Seems like a draw overall.

It's the former. The first runner posts the demo, then the next one continues from it. Saving frames is not even really needed, you can simply use "-recordfromto" option and then join the demo on the intermission screen to get in control from that point on. So we couldn't work on runs independently, but had to pass the demo over for each next map. Basically it's like one continuous run, so the health and ammo are preserved between the maps and we had to account for that a few times (for example, map 09 end is quite rough and then map 10 is an avj and then map 11 also starts with avj, so the health margin was quite tight in that part, and you also don't want death exits).

Oh, I forgot to mention that, but I also was very confused by that part of the progression. In general agree with your notes, architecture is grand but fights feel underwhelming for that scale. If you are just a bit off from the safe spot you can squeeze out of the slow crusher. Additional health allows you to survive small mistakes like that.

I have replayed e3m6 on HMP and HNTR out of interest. I think HNTR balancing is really great, keeps the fights very close in spirit but at the same time makes them much easier. However, differences between UV and HMP seem very subtle. If I just go through the fights: In the first fight with 2 barons and two imps the changes on HMP are great - one imp is removed and is teleported to a different location and that makes a huge difference. Second fight with berserk and imps seems to be the same on HMP and UV? It's not hard though. For the next fight (arguably the hardest in the map) I didn't notice any difference on HMP when I played, then I checked the editor and it's just two less cacos, I think? While that really helps if your strategy is to run to the back of the hallway (as opposed to trying to get past the barons), the main hazard (cyber suddenly changing targets from barons to you or just in general misbehaving) is not really mitigated. Two less cacos make it easier but barely so, to me it still feels easier to just squeeze through the barons than to do the fight properly. This fight in the ring arena also felt completely the same to me. I then checked the editor and I think there are no changes between UV and HMP? Unless I missed something. This fight can be very hard if you come here with little health and don't manage to run back past the barons into the previous area. Overall HNTR feels like a great HNTR to me, but HMP feels overcooked aside from the very first fight with two barons. Also, I noticed that HNTR/HMP teleport you to a different area for green torches platforming compared to UV, but I didn't notice any difference in platforming itself. I'm curious, what's changed there? Edit: nevermind, I found the change, the ledge walk sections are shorter, that's actually very neat. Didn't realise that when played, just thought I got good at this part xdd. Also, one thing I forgot to mention for e3m6 first time, but got reminded by replay. This particular lava lake on the right is not marked as damaging. Coincidentally I used it to check if lava hurts or not in my blind playthrough and concluded that it doesn't. And later was a bit surprised in the fight with imps xd That's very minor though.

Alright, so I finished episode 3. Here are fdas with saves: udino-e3-fdas.zip. Plays back with dsda-doom 0.26.2 -complevel 3. There are two fdas for e3m8, I'll elaborate on that below. I actually have more to say this time. Overall episode was simply great, easily my fav of the three and I really enjoyed most of the maps. e3m6 is now my favourite of all three episodes, incredible map. Other strong highlights to me were e3m2, e3m3, e3m7 and e3m8 (although I'm a bit mixed on the last one). Thoughts on some of the individual maps: e3m2 was amazing, great atmosphere and oppressive fights. Love the lost souls bonus area. I wish it was an opener of the episode instead, it really sets the mood greatly and it's best enjoyed pistol start, so people playing continuously wouldn't appreciate it as much I think. But, well, original names decided otherwise. e3m3 was also great, cool hot start, but progression was a bit confusing. e3m4 was horrible to play, but it totally lives up to its name. This is a house of pain if I ever seen one. So I guess fair enough. e3m6 I mentioned before as my strong fav in the set so far. Absolutely amazing map. e3m7 was a beast. However, some parts were a bit confusing to me as well: And, well, about e3m8: Great episode, looking forward to e4. I honestly had some doubts half-way through e1 if I'm going to finish the wad or not, but now I definitely will and I'm glad I decided to stick with it.

Finished playing episode 2, here are fdas: udino-e2-fdas.zip (dsda-doom 0.26.2 -complevel 3). The second episode was somewhat closer to what I like the most in doom in terms of combat, I even started to hope that I'm going to get a map that just starts with RL as the first weapon and I kinda got it in e2m8 (you get shotgun before RL technically, but you only need it to blow up the starting barrels and RL is immediately after). I'm wondering if e3 is going to ramp up even more. Highlights for me were e2m1 (for atmosphere, also great midi choice), e2m4, e2m5, e2m9 (I guess?) and e2m8. A few thoughts on individual maps. e2m4: e2m9: e2m6:

No I mean the changes themselves might be controversial. There are a few universally loved dehacked enemies and weapons, sure, but on most of them opinions are very mixed.

DIY was very cool, but I feel like if there is a sequel it kinda needs to be different in some way so it's not "the same thing all over again". One way to go is the changed palette. I think that can work extremely well when you only have plain colours in your wad (and when you are planning to replace the sprites anyway) - you can literally go wild with palette changes. The other way is changed weapon/enemy roster although the latter may be controversial.

Played through e1 today, here are fdas with saves. Recorded with dsda-doom 0.26.2 (-complevel 3), so should be played back with the same version. udino-e1-fdas.zip Also please don't consider this "playtesting", I did not max the maps, and only hunted for secrets a little bit where I felt like it. I also don't think I can provide any useful feedback, however hopefully fdas are still somewhat useful. The big highlight of the episode for me was e1m8, the baron fight was super intense, and visuals and midi added a lot to add to this feeling of fighting for your life. Awesome map overall. e1m7 was also very interesting. In e1m7 I think something broke for me (?) or I just missed something obvious: Also a small note about the lifts puzzle in e1m7:

Soon the thread will be renamed to "Cacowards 2023 Mentionation Thread: You Don't Need To Post DBP59 Again" :D Before that happened I would totally agree that dbp59 sets a very high bar for adventure wads. Amazing work all around from sick cl2 tech (and the way this tech is used) to actually great gameplay and visuals. Playing though the set feels like one continuous journey and you even start to empathize with main character's goals as goofy as it sounds for a doom wad.

Just finished playing through the whole thing (played continuously because no way you are taking away my SSG, I paid £90 for it). Amazing wad. Sick rpg stuff and cute story presentation. Considering it's cl2 - super impressive. The dialogues can be slightly wonky sometimes but it's all very minor. Maps themselves are also great, good layouts and very nice flow. Visuals as well, very cool texture usage and unlimited doom cute. The finale is epic. This is easily my favourite dbp now, huge congrats to everyone in the crew on this release, that was amazing.

As said above, making a single hk-rev pair infight saves at least x8 as much shells as switching to shotgun every time you see a lone imp. Not to mention single shotgun is not 100% consistent at 1-shot killing an imp, and SSG can kill like 3 in one shot if they are grouped nicely. With a chaingunner it's even worse and with shotgunners you risk getting more chip damage because you couldn't kill the whole group in one shot. To kill a zombieman it's even more ammo efficient to use pistol (or fist) but nobody is giving that advice for some reason. Switching to SG every time for low tiers can just be a bad habit that ends up wasting you more ammo and health.

Yep. Please read this post for more elaborate explanation why: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/post/2669033 Just kill that single imp with SSG (it feels good!) and ignore everyone in this thread who advice you to use SG to save shells or to snipe enemies when you already have SSG/CG. They are trying to make you have less fun.

This thread is pretty hilarious. Everyone is praising doom game desing for making every weapon useful but pretty much the only example people provide for why shotgun is still useful is basically "uhhh I guess you can snipe enemies off sometimes if they are really far away" which is probably among the least interesting parts of doom gameplay. Trivial in case of low tier snipers and a waste of time in case of mid tier snipers and honestly with rare exceptions is something mapper could have improved by providing opportunities to get closer to the snipers or just giving some rockets. Single shotgun really shines in high pressure situations when you need to hold off a high threat like a revenant in a tight combat but you cannot kill him quickly because you don't have an ssg so you also have to move. It is an interesting weapon on its own, but not because it has unique niche in doom2 weapon roster, but because it allows very unique encounter situations that other weapons would trivialize. Except for some oddly specific situations single shotgun is completely useless when you have an SSG. But there is nothing wrong with it being completely useless when you have better weapons, it does not make doom combat worse and its up to mapper to create a great experience for the player with the way they handle weapon progression, to make interesting single shotgun combat and then reward a player with a SSG (or with a BFG). To love single shotgun you don't need to inhale copium and try to remember both maps where you are surrounded by very exact amount of zombies where shotgun will clear them faster due to reload and not ssg due to just killing x2 zombies per shot. Just embrace it for what it is. You are mistaken, the range is the same. Regular shotgun just doesn't have a vertical spread.

I've been meaning to write exactly that but you put it into words much nicer than I would have. OP, please pay attention to that post, this is the best advice you can get imo.

slaughter and platforming of course, what else

Session 55 Map 02 UV-Max in 1:44.00 - abyspe5502m14400.zip Edit not to double-post: Also Map 03 UV-MAX in 0:47.69 - abyspe5503m4769.zip

Session 55 Map 01 UV-MAX in 0:34.34 - abyspe5501m3434.zip