D0M0

Well that's rather odd. I've replayed the demo to confirm my suspicion on the MacOS build for DSDA v0.24.3 and it does infact say that I have all 100% kills on the extended HUD. I have attached a photo in the spoiler just for proof of this.

Map 02 (UV-Max in 2:30.77) junk02-230.zip Map 04 (UV-Max in 1:32.69) junk04-132.zip Map 06 (UV-Max in 1:47.46) junk06-147.zip Map 07 (UV-Max in 2:07.43) junk07-207.zip Map 08 (UV-Max in 4:02.69) junk08-402.zip Map 14 (UV-Max in 1:47.63) junk14-147.zip Map 16 (UV-Max in 3:38.03) junk16-338.zip Map 19 (UV-Max in 1:12.71) junk19-112.zip Map 20 (UV-Max in 2:00.40) junk20-200.zip Map 37 (UV-Max in 3:45.09) junk37-345.zip

Swim With the Whales Map01 (UV-Tyson + Solo-net in 57.97) YT Link: https://youtu.be/_vJI-UZRMAQ swtw01sn057.zip

Haste Map 04 (UV-Max in 5:15.83) YT Link: https://youtu.be/e73phiMyLuk has04-515.zip Map 05 (UV-Max in 5:04.23) YT Link: https://youtu.be/NmpSku87zG0 has05-504.zip Stardate20x6 Map 01 (UV-Max in 6:07.31) YT Link: https://youtu.be/thqulI-44gk std201-607.zip

Map 01 (UV-Max in 42.06) tlm01-042.zip Map 03 (UV-Max in 1:37.66) tlm03-137.zip Map 04 (UV-Max in 2:22.69) tlm04-222.zip

Crumpets 2 Map06 (UV-Max in 5:03.86) cr206-503.zip YT Link: https://youtu.be/ZI6LUTHyIIo

Crumpets 2 Map05 (UV-Max in 3:48.57) cr205-348.zip YT Link: https://youtu.be/xc2LNrSx7Qk

From my perspective of things as someone that used to play a lot of pokemon before pursuing speed demos: Zombieman + Shotgunner + Chaingunner + SS - Pure Normal Imps - Pure Fire Revenants - Fighting and Steel Mancubi - Normal and Steel Arachnotrons - Bug and Steel Demons - Fighting and Dark Spectres - Pure Ghost Cacodemons - Flying and Poison Lost Souls - Flying and Ghost Hell Knights + Barons - Fire and Fighting Arch-Vile - Fire and Fairy Pain Elemental - Dark and Flying Cyberdemon - Steel and Dragon Spider Mastermind - Steel and Psychic Icon of Sin - Pure Normal

Crumpets 2 Map04 (UV-Max in 3:22.06) cr204-322.zip YT Link: https://youtu.be/SV7v9LTBPH4

I personally find that the Ribbiks WADs I have managed to play and complete have made me significantly better at doom (for references, Crumpets, Stardate20x6 and Swim with the Whales are some examples of the incredible art pieces made by Ribbiks). A lot of the maps these WADs have to offer contain some really tricky maps, in which you need to plan thoroughly in order to get through it. It teaches you a lot about monster prioritisation, crowding enemies so you can manoeuvre easily, platforming, encouraging the use of infighting. You begin to see deeper meaning in the game’s mechanics and how you can manipulate that to your advantage. Therefore, it makes you better at strategising fights, planning your way through maps and even potentially being able to beat them in a single segment through enough practicing. Even though I speedrun through these maps after casual play through, i’ve noticed that after playing through some of these WADs that it has transformed my skills and has ultimately led me to become a better player at the game. Even if Ribbiks WADs seem highly unapproachable on UV, I highly recommend if you wanna get better at the game that you try them out, even if it’s on lower difficulties.

Crumpets 2 Map02 (UV-Max in 2:09.31) cr202-209.zip YT Link: https://youtu.be/OyS5QA6xpv4 Map03 (UV-Max in 2:11.94) cr203-211.zip YT Link: https://youtu.be/sVHdP8GGkIA

Very interesting, I am honestly surprised you can even compare both the difficulty of HR and Plutonia. From my experience, Hell Revealed is quite a lot harder than Plutonia, and really this comes as no surprise to most people. When playing both casually for the first time, I found Plutonia was enough to stomach. There were some parts that caught me off guard and others that I found genuinely tricky to overcome, but overall it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Hell Revealed on the other hand was so obnoxious that I gave up halfway through the WAD and never touched it after.

TNT map 01 has to be my favourite IWAD opener. I love the map layout, it's simple and nothing too complex. It immediately offers a berserk to you, which in a sense is unique compared to the other IWAD openers, mainly due to the fact it can expand on the creativity of how you approach the map. I always approve of tyson-friendly maps even if I am not a big fan of maining the berserk over a weapon. Not only that but the pacing and the progression of the map really pacts a punch. It's not as oppressive as Plutonia and E4M1 yet it's not stale either and offers a fair challenge for the most part. But really, the icing on the cake here is the MIDI. It is an absolute headbanger, it's metal and it's aggressive; all being things that really fit well with the pacing of the map. It's a shame that I feel as if TNT kinda burns out towards the end because I was expecting something wicked with an opener like that. It may have my favourite opening map in any IWAD, but it's my least favourite of the IWADs due to later maps.

Crumpets 2 Map03 (UV-Max in 2:29.31) cr203-229.zip

As several people have echoed throughout this thread, RNG is always black and white. In other words, you could argue both ends and make valid points. Personally, I love the whole concept of RNG. The idea that something like damage rolls could be integrated into a highly skill based game and can make a pretty significant impact on the gameplay itself is pretty jarring to me. As someone that used to play Pokemon, attempt to do several nuzlockes and even shiny hunt (all of this being under a different alias), a lot of what I did was all somewhat based on RNG. If everything was too formulaic, things would get pretty stale fairly quickly. Another thing that's obvious is that the more you play doom, the more fond you become of RNG within the game. Likewise with speedrunning (which has been countlessly mentioned since I assume a large part of the community is based around that), many speedrunners will take RNG more into account that the average doom joe. This is simply because many speedruns require good damage rolls, good monster movement, good monster attack patterns, etcetera. You won't need that kind of precise thinking when you're just casually playing Doom II or TNT, simply because it's pretty unnecessary for the most part. Coming back to your question. To an extent I do blame RNG in my runs, but ultimately I like the idea of a slightly unique experience each time I play a level. I like all the goofy stuff that can happen solely because of RNG, it's the sort of thing you only see once and you laugh at it for how stupid it is. Therefore I can say that RNG (as well as damage rolls) play a bit part in my enjoyment for this game.