Sethlab 79461813

* GZDoom - UV- Pistol Start - Blind - 100%K any%S - Saves allowed (no cheese) * MAP14: Lockdown Right away I'm happy to see that the snow textures were not a fluke and are, in fact, the aesthetic for episode 2 as a whole. This map takes place in a vile prison facility, with countless human corpses a testament to their grisly torture and demise at the hands of the demons. It evoked feelings of the Quake 2 prison complex in that the demons have no issue with just murdering humans outright as well as assimilating them into their army. We return to Cheesewheel's familiar and signature mapping style, with tightly packed and efficient techbase layouts. Unfortunately, we're still encountering mostly incidental combat throughout the majority of the map with the only real setpieces being the introduction of two new enemies: The cybercaco (?) which is just adorable. I like to think he strapped on his late 90's spy gear visor to read secret messages from his friends that he launches with a wrist mounted dart launcher. I love how dorky he is. it's no pushover though, being a fair bit chonkier than the regular caco and the manc/rev combo whilst flying makes for a very nasty monster. We are also introduced to the chungus (I didn't read the readme as to be surprised so they all have nicknames) who essentially functions like the annihilator from eviternity but is much, much tankier. I like them. They feel like a demon/human hybrid experiment that sells the world well. The pistol start ammo economy is something I think that the mapper is very aware of; making each pickup feel significant and secrets being much more desirable. However, I'm finding the tuning of said economy something I'm not jiving with. I'm typically not a huge infight or chainsnipe-peek kind of player and pistol starts on these maps really feel ammo starved. The ratio is just off for what I'm used to. This is the first wad I've played in a long time that makes me feel like I should play it continuous. The Jimmy midi is amazing. I could go on forever about it but I think we all know his midis are great. I would love to have a chat with the guy about music. It seems like he and I use a lot of similar motifs and ideas in our riff writing. Some of his call and repeat lead lines, the stumbling 7/8 measure groove and the way the electric guitars are charted makes me think that perhaps he plays guitar or another stringed instrument. It sounds shockingly close to midis that I have tabbed out for old metal bands I was in back in high school. He's my favorite midi artist by far and this is a track of his I have not heard before. I think it wants for a more adventure focused map though, and I find this map (and none so far in the wad, for that matter) to be fitting of these kinds of tracks. I loved every second of it, but it made me want to venture off and explore exciting vistas, not stumble around and get lost in areas filled with slain demons. MAP15: Communications I'm gonna be honest, I don't have a lot nice to say about this map. This marks the peak of my frustration with cheap enemy placement in the wad so far. The opening into the main courtyard took me over 10 attempts to get right. The amount of projectiles flying at you, at different speeds and movement patterns, from areas you cannot shoot at, nor afford to based on your ammo, therefore forcing you into narrow areas filled with enemies that do not drop more ammo for you, is too goddamned high. I have not raged at a doom map in literal years. I had to go take a walk after save scumming my way through the entirety of the map until I got the rocket launcher. Every death on this map did not feel earned or important, I learned nothing, and I walked away not feeling like I had improved in any meaningful way. I felt worse about myself because the only way I could complete this map without raising my blood pressure to dangerous levels was to play it like an absolute rat. When the map was over, I breathed a sigh of relief; I was not relieved that I had endured a compelling and challenging battle. I was relieved that I could stop playing doom and go play another video game. That's not a good sign for me. My bias aside, the map is competently made with clear thought made to enemy placement and encounters, even if, in my opinion, that thought is "I hope the player dies to this when they aren't aware it exists". The final fight, the YK area, was a very well done and fun combat encounter that actually gave you ammo (but not enough that you can be reckless) room to move, and infighting opportunities. It's the only fight of its type that I can recall since map 9's cyber/caco cloud and subsequent imp/vile swarm. These fights are amazing and I want more of them. Their drip feed inclusion in the wad is confusing when the vast majority of the fights are so different. I'm excited to play the secret maps. Can we talk about those yet?

* GZDoom - UV- Pistol Start - Blind - 100%K any%S - Saves allowed (no cheese) * MAP13: Sci-labs This map is an excellent study of atmosphere and tension as you work your way through the dark and sinister halls of this UAC testing facility. The chilling midi combined with great lighting and enemy placement makes for a really immersive experience. The incidental combat really works here; hiding hitscanners in dark corners or just beyond your reach creating ambushes that, combined with some of the harsh spikes in the midi, made the hair on my neck stand on end. I'm disappointed to see that we didn't continue the snow theme from the last map. Instead we get texturing and environments more reminiscent of The Shores of Hell (as someone in this thread pointed out) with some of that episode's excellent atmosphere to boot. The prevalence of red is starting to pick up with some of the textures. As a Revilution fan, red/blood/tech stuff really works for me. What doesn't really work is the texturing style of this map. It's a bit too disjointed and haphazard for me with geometry of rooms making no sense and entire floors and walls that look a little too abstract in my opinion. I would have like to see some primitive doomcute to help build the world of the UAC performing these horrible experiments you're presumably experiencing. Instead, your mind is supposed to fill in the blanks based solely on the fact that you're in a spooky area that has flesh and tech. I didn't feel immersed in this environment or that it was trying to be a real place; an outlier in this wad which has, so far, taken great pains to make believable maps. I also found that any fights with real teeth in this map could be neutered in seconds with accidental and simple infighting. It's almost as if Cheesewheel is too scared to take the kid gloves off for fear of making the wad too hard. I see potential for interesting mashups and environments in these bite size previews and I feel like the mapper should not be so reserved because they are capable of really engaging and difficult combat.

Man, I really want to like Icarus. Its standout moments are too few to put up with the absolutely horrible maps sprinkled in.

I love this story. Thanks for sharing your experience :)

*GZDoom - UV - Blind - Pistol start - Saves allowed, no cheese* MAP10- Outskirts This map opens with 3 very different angles with which to approach the map. I found going down the right path to the yellow key pillar and further running to the SSG and instigating a large infight was the best way for me to get geared up on this map. I found ammo economy incredibly tight here. I would recommend pistoling everything in the opening area and sniping the plasma guys on the cliffs to the right (they have a tendency to end runs very abruptly from seemingly nowhere). I'm starting to really not like some of the *cheaper* placed plasma guys. It feels more like a "gotcha" moment every time I die to one because it's generally because one that I didn't know even existed across the map took a lucky shot. What this means is you really can't afford to slow down in this wad at all, which is perfectly fine. I'm just having a hard time with some of their placements sometimes. This map was the first time I really got upset about it. Cheesewheel's maps are starting to feel like a gearing up puzzle which is actually a pretty unique and fun idea. This map, however, felt like I was at an extreme disadvantage, ammo wise, unless I took the aforementioned path. To me, this level felt a little restrictive and irritating. I love all the secrets on this map. I love Cheesewheel's secret philosophy in general. You can almost always see the item in question, they intrigue you to explore, and if you think just a little outside the box, you're rewarded (usually with a mega or SS; nothing broken or necessary to complete the level). These are my favorite types of secrets. The midi suits this map well with the sauntering sort of confidence that you're ready to take the fight straight to the demons. The harmonized arpeggios were a nice hook; I found myself humming this tune as I mowed the lawn later that day lmao. MAP11- Shipping Zone I started to notice @Cheesewheel's distinct mapping style here. Their map are compact, boxy, and efficient, with intersecting pathways and lots of height variation. Looking at the automap reveals an extremely efficient use of space and wanting to keep the player moving throughout a familiar environment the entire map. This one really reminded me of Scythe 1's sort of small and mean boxy maps. The texturing is very familiar and comfortable. It's reminiscent of Knee Deep in the Dead and the first half of TNT but with the familiar red twist. The worldbuilding here was very nice. I loved the ship encounter in the center and the cargo areas. These areas combined with the previous map's cargo areas reminded me of Blood's E6M3: Public Storage. Good stuff. I find that I'm finding most of the secrets in these maps but I ended this map with 15 bullets, 5 shells, 6 rockets, and 40 cells. I'm finding the ammo just a smidgen too short in these maps. I feel punished for jumping into fights with my guns without prior knowledge of when I should be infighting or not. There are some stretches where I feel like I pickup a shotgun and 8 shells and then don't see any more shells for like 5 minutes. Maybe I'm bad, maybe it's a style I don't like. Either way, I'm strugglin. I love the ending of this map with the tiny submarine. The midi here was serviceable but I don't remember a lick of it. It didn't stick out as annoying, so that's good. MAP12- Bunker Bust Here we have an excellent continuation of the last map's ending. You arrive in your submarine at a distant UAC base, greeted with unaware zombies and imps. Coupled with the spy/espionage sort of midi opening really set the stage nicely here. The mild enemy count also suggests they were not ready for your arrival. The building chord progression is like a ticking bomb inside the hero's chest. There is a new enemy introduced in this map, the flying plasma drone thing. Not a fan. Take my already least favorite enemy in the wad and make them fly. Blech. Not looking forward to any potential abuse involving these guys. I legitimately said "WHOA" out loud like a 90's totino's commercial when I saw the snow textures. Snow maps are some of my personal favorites so I'm extremely excited about what we may see in the next few maps. Overall, this map was a fun power fantasy and excellent world building. It's extremely easy, but with the midi choice, it all culminates in a fun intermission before the next big encounter. I will say, though, you can consider my jimmies sufficiently rustled if the next map has no snow.

I'd say if you're on a mission to play "classic" wads or really want to see a snapshot of what a custom texture pack looked like back then. I'm playing it because I love everything TNT and some team TNT members worked on it.

The reason I stopped using BD was when I tried to play Ancient Aliens and the dehacked assets didn't work. It's still a fun one to mess around with from time to time.

my personal favorite "vanilla" enhancement is Beautiful Doom. I don't think it's been updated in a few years but it's still compatible with GZDoom at least. It makes everything look a lot smoother, nicer lighting and particle effects, much improved gore and sounds. It has some options for enhanced versions of certain weapons but you can turn them off. The only thing I did differently was open the .pk3 up in an editor and removed the status bar. Was really not a fan of BD's status bar.

My man just went full John Madden on this doom map. 😳 excellent work!

eh, It's not great (kind of like Icarus) but I can appreciate it for what it is. I'm having fun so far.

Yeah I considered amending my post to reflect this as I don't think I would have been able to beat it first try without the secret either. I just found it right before I jumped into the teleporter so it didn't even register that the fight would be VERY different without.

there's a secret invuln in the main sort of lobby area that made the rocket fight a lot more manageable.

I got it up and running and the settings about as close to where I can stand it. It definitely feels closer to GZDoom in the mouse and WASD movement but it's still a tad too floaty to use as my main port of choice. I do feel, however, that dsda-doom is infinitely more playable than prboom+ for me. I think for wads that really require the horsepower of dsda-doom, it's a mild concession I have to make to play that small percentage of wads. thanks for the help everyone.

Hey thanks a lot. I know it seems like a silly question. I just didn't know since it was such an old megawad and since it had so many asset replacements, I figured you had to create the .wad file out of all of the loose files. I got it working though. I'm super excited to experience some more TeamTNT action!

*GZDoom - Blind - Pistol Start - UV - 100% Kills - Any% Secrets - Saves (no scum, no cheese)* MAP 09: UAC HQ If the question posed by the previous map was "wait, that's it? I don't have any more ass to kick?" Then, MAP 09 answers with kicking my teeth firmly down my throat. The absolute hottest start of the wad so far, for better or worse. The map opens in an unassuming cave connecting to a sort of service entrance to the UAC facility. It seemed to me to be maybe a kind of adventure map to world build the UAC, judging by the enemy count and the tepid opening. Once you enter the teleporter next to the sign marked "WARNING DEMON THREAT EXTREME" you will be thrust immediately into complete bedlam. Once I died a few times and took a breath and a sip of my coffee, I jumped in with my resolve slightly more steeled. The fight isn't nearly as bad once you start some infighting, doubly so if you can get a foothold in the outside hallway. Once you survive the initial ambush, what ensues for the remainder of the map is a light-hearted bloodbath that will put reckless doomers in their place if you don't respect it. The opening is the only section that killed me (even if it was around 7 times) but the dense packs of dark imps and hitscanners will cut static players to ribbons. This map reminded me of Going Down right away. The rooftop battle surrounded by the burning city skyline made me feel as if, somewhere, in one of those distant buildings, Mouldy is fighting through his own skyscraper. This map isn't nearly as cruel as that wad, but I'd say this is the most difficult map of Uprising so far. The texturing and architecture didn't really make me stop and marvel, but it serves the battles well, which is the star of the show anyway. The red Cybie was well done, imo, if a little bit corny and on the nose. I grinned like an idiot when I saw it because what other color would it be? Some may groan at the abundance of red. I find it self-aware, earnest, and damn consistent with the theme. You may find black and red a trite combination, but for me, I've not seen another wad that looks quite like this one. I felt that this map was a nice uptick in activity after MAP 08's more somber and exploratory experience. I think that once I've completed this whole wad and can look at its composition as one work, this map will stand out as a pleasant map I will look forward to playing again, but not one that I would tell others they absolutely MUST experience. As a TNT apologist, the midi choice got my bias rock hard. As anyone else playing the map, it's a complete throwaway. I actually think that the spooky lich/clown atonal harpsichord sort of licks I was griping about from MAP 04's midi would be a neat little homage to Going Down here. I think I may be way overthinking it. Either way, vanilla midi tracks always make me groan in the end.