The DWIronman League dies to: Alien Vendetta

[Daerik]

February, 2021

^{Surprise, it's not Sunlust (yet).}

Yearly leaderboard sheet

Standard Leaderboard

# Survived: Demonologist - Demonologist's expert demonstration of skillful and cautious play gets them through a lengthy journey.

# Map27: Daerik - If Arbys jumps off a wall, apparently so will I.

# Map27: Arbys550 - A promising run ended by mans inability to fly over demons.

# Map32: Vile - Vile had guts, but sadly found no glory.

# Map14: ReaperAA - Overwhelming odds couldn't stop Reaper, but a handful of trapped viles could.

# Map12: 4shockblast - Speedran himself to an early grave. It's a shame this wasn't a map13 death, because Suicidal Tendencies is a perfect title for this run.

# Map10: Bob9001 - Prematurely peeking an arch vile is not a smart move.

# Map09: Andromeda - The mancubus is not for hugging.

# Map08: Anima Zero -  Walls may be unable to stop you, but being unable to touch the exit switch did. All ghosts is a disappointing way to lose a run.

# Map08: Beginner - You've heard of Demon of the Well, but what about Beginner of the Well?

# Map08: Master Medi - Bullied by a door locking them in with a vile.

# Map08: head_cannon - You only get one shot, and you missed your chance to blow.

# Map06: Peccatum Mihzamiz - Followed in the footsteps of the Cacodemon and ate a rocket.

# Map04: Shepardus - Partial invisibility wasn't enough to save you from rocketing yourself on a teleporting demon.

# Map02: El Inferno - Had hopes of stealing the shotgunners shotguns, ended up eating a lot of shells instead.

# Map01: Aquila Chrysaetos - Don't drink and doom folks.

# Map01: Pseudonaut - Max damage Hell Knight fireballs are not part of a balanced breakfast.

Prepared Leaderboard

 

What is the Doomworld Ironman League?

The DWIronman League is a monthly competition in which participants aim to survive for as many levels as possible in the given map set, preferably in one sitting. Click the spoiler tag at the bottom of the post for a detailed list of rules. Players of all levels of ability are welcome. It could change the way you play Doom!

This month the DWIronman League dies to Alien Vendetta (-complevel 2). Alien Vendetta hopefully shouldn't need any introduction around here, but if you're not familiar: Alien Vendetta is a 32 map megawad initially started as a solo project by Anders Johnsen, that managed to help pave the road for high difficulty mapsets. It's frequently placed near the top of 'top wads of all time' lists, and for very good reason.

 

Being new to hosting the ironman, I'm hoping a well known mapset will help continue the insane level of participation we had last month.

Additionally, I'll be bringing back an old favorite: Obituaries. I can't guarantee they'll all be clever, but I hope people enjoy it nonetheless.

Essential Info:

    Doom 2: Hell on Earth as the iwad (doom2.wad)
    Compatibility level 2 for PrBoom+, or "Doom (strict)" for modern GZDoom.

    Difficulty: Ultra-Violence (-skill 4)
    Time estimate: 0-6 hours
    Number of maps: 32
    Deadline: February 28, 2021

 

DO NOT LOAD AVMOVFIX.WAD

> Download Alien Vendetta

 

prboom-plus.exe -iwad doom2.wad -file av.wad -complevel 2 -skill 4 -record demo_name.lmp

Rules:

  Hide contents

• There are two competitions: Standard and Prepared:
  • To compete successfully in the Standard competition: your first play of the selected WAD(s) constitutes your one and only attempt for the month.
  • To compete successfully in the Prepared competition: your one and only attempt for the month is determined BY YOU immediately before play and may follow any prior number of active (playing the set) preparation that is strictly for practice/inspection purposes only. You cannot compete in the Standard competition after submitting a run to the Prepared competition. You may submit the first of your practice attempts to the Standard competition.
• UV only (excepting 1CC format), continuous recording. No pistol-starting each level.
• Demos (PrBoom+, GLBoom, Eternity or Chocolate), stream highlights and video recordings are the only accepted proofs. You must link to these runs in the thread. 
• No additional WADs may be loaded.
• No inspection of the WAD(s)'s content in an editor if you are submitting a Standard run.
• No cheat codes and no features that result in behavior beyond what is possible in the intended source port (e.g. freelook, jumping and crouching in a boom set). This includes dynamic lights and brightmaps. If streaming or recording videos using an advanced source port with compatibility options, you must display these settings on-screen before your run. In ZDoom derivative ports, "Doom/Boom(strict)" will suffice.
• If you choose to stream/record your run for video rather than provide a demo and you die before completing a single level, either on the first map of a set OR because a single level was selected for the month, you must display the number of monsters killed/remaining in the level before you quit.
• You do not have to play the secret levels in order to register a complete run. However, a player who finishes the game having completed more secret levels than his/her competitors will rank higher than them.
• You cannot load a game having progressed past the save point.
• You cannot consult Doom Builder during your run to check for map details.
• If the recording of your official run is interrupted due to technical difficulties, you are not permitted a second attempt. Any surviving recording may be used to register a DNF result.
• Accidentally restarting a level before a death exit takes you to the tally screen will disqualify your run.
• If you are competing in the Standard competition, you are required to affix one of three numbers to your run informing the League of your degree of familiarity with the map/set played. Note that your evaluation should only take into consideration the content covered in your run (e.g. if you remember only one part of a level in a set you haven't played before but never reach that level, you should list your run as a [1] instead of [2]):
  • 1. This is a blind run. If I have played or watched any of the level/set being played before, I cannot remember any details that would offer a reasonable advantage over truly blind players. *
  • 2. This is not a blind run. I have familiarity with the set - played the level/set before, or watched it being played, and can remember some details that would offer a reasonable advantage over blind players.
  • 3. This is not a blind run. I have passively prepared for the competition - watched the level/set being played via stream, demo or video after it was announced as this month's challenge.
• * "Reasonable" in this instance asks you to consider whether the details in question are worth committing to memory. As in, you would thank the person who gave you this information with a straight face and not expect to be laughed at for being an utter berk.

 

Previous threads:

  Hide contents

2016

• 07 - Jenesis (winner: Demon of the Well)
• 08 - Crusades (winner: Ribbiks)
• 09 - Nilla Doom (winner: Demon of the Well)
• 10 - Khorus' Speedy Shit (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
• 11 - Perdition's Gate (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
• 12 - UAC Ultra (winner: Bloodite Krypto)

 

2017

• 01 - Jade Earth (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
• 02 - Legacy of Heroes (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
• 03 - Back to Saturn X E1 (winner: dew)
• 04 - Mapgame (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
• 05 - Vae Vactus 1 & 2 (winner: Demon of the Well)
• 06 - Disturbia (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
• 07 - Insertion (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
• 08 - Unholy Realms (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
• 09 - Osiris (winner: Demon of the Well)
• 10 - Endgame & Endpoint (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
• 11 - Oscillation (winner: Ancalagon)
• 12 - Doom the Way id Did (winner: kmc)

 

2018

• 01 - Combat Shock 2 (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
• 02 - Coffee Break E1 (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
• 03 - Warlock's Hearth (winner: Demon of the Well)
• 04 - 50 Monsters (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
• 05 - Double Impact (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
• 06 - Rush (winner: WH-Wilou84)
• 07 - The Darkening E1 & E2 (winner: Veinen)
• 08 - The Plutonia Experiment (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
• 09 - Community Chest 4 - MAP19: Interstellar Sickness and MAP20: Shaman's Device (winner: ledooom85)
• 10 - Doom 64 for Doom II (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
• 11 - TNT: Renascence & TNT: Resistance (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
• 12 - Ultimate Doom the Way id Did (winner: Bloodite Krypto)

 

2019

• 01 - Hellfire: Dreams (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
• 02 - THT: Threnody - MAP10: Fomalhaut (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
• 03 - Stardate 20X6 (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
• 04 - Base Ganymede: Complete (winner: Bloodite Krypto)
• 05 - The DWIronman League died waiting for SIGIL (winner: John Romero)
• 06 - SIGIL (winner: leodoom85)
• 07 - Vanguard & Lunatic (winner: Bdubzzz)
• 08 - 2017 Collection (winner: an_mutt)
• 09 - Revolution! (winner: NaZa)
• 10 - Monster Hunter Part I & Part II (winner: Bdubzzz)
• 11 - Abcess (winner: Demon of the Well)
• 12 - Scythe (winner: Spectre01)

 

2020

• 01 - Hellscape (winner: Bdubzzz - prep winner: Archi)
• 02 - No Sleep for the Dead (winner: Ancalagon - prep winner: Anima Zero)
• 03 - Baker's Dozen (winner: Bdubzzz - prep winner: Pegleg)
• 04 - Occult Secrets of the Third Reich & Biotech is Godzilla (winner: joe-ilya - prep winner: Horus)
• 05 - Bloody Rust (winner: Bdubzzz - prep winner: dt_)
• 06 - Vrack 1, 2 and 3 (winner: ReaperAA - prep winner: Bashe)
• 07 - Running Late 2 (winner: Roofi - prep winner: Pegleg)
• 08 - Epic (winner: Bdubzzz - prep winner: Crusader No Regret)
• 09 - Hell Revealed (winner: Roofi)
• 10 - Dark Resolution 2008 (winner: Roofi - prep winner: Austinado)
• 11 - 2002: A Doom Odyssey: 10th Anniversary Edition Episode 3 (winner: Bdubzzz - prep winner: SSGmaster)
• 12 - Eviternity (winner: Daerik - prep winner: Pegleg)

 

2021

• 01 - Sawdust (winner: Daerik - prep winner: an_mutt)

 

Edited February 10, 2021 by Daerik

[Daerik]

Reserved.

[Endless]

One of my favorites WADs of all time and one that holds special nostalgia chamber in my heart.

 

It's also hard af holy shit.

[leodoom85]

The most overrated wad in existence for an ironman??? The horrors of Misri Halek are still lingering...

 

Guess that this will be more of an endurance test than a proper ironman. Want a vendetta with aliens? Bring it.

[Daerik]

2 minutes ago, leodoom85 said:

The most overrated wad in existence for an ironman??? The horrors of Misri Halek are still lingering...

 

Guess that this will be more of an endurance test than a proper ironman. Want a vendetta with aliens? Bring it.

 

It /has/ been d2alled, so in theory someone insane like @Roofi could drop a survival.

[xX_Lol6_Xx]

I guess that, if I play in GZDOOM, I cannot use freelook. Am I correct?

[Daerik]

20 minutes ago, Lol 6 said:

I guess that, if I play in GZDOOM, I cannot use freelook. Am I correct?

 

Correct, no freelook, jumping, or crouching. If you're going to submit a run using gzdoom, make sure to include;

 

Quote

No cheats and no features that result in behavior beyond what is possible in the intended source port (e.g. freelook, jumping and crouching in a boom set). This includes dynamic lights and brightmaps. If streaming or recording videos using an advanced source port with compatibility options, you must display these settings on-screen before your run. In ZDoom derivative ports, "Doom/Boom(strict)" will suffice.

 

As this is a Doom set, you'd be using Doom (Strict), and showing that dynamic lights, jumping, crouching, and freelook are all disabled.

[xX_Lol6_Xx]

3 minutes ago, Daerik said:

 

Correct, no freelook, jumping, or crouching. If you're going to submit a run using gzdoom, make sure to include;

 

 

As this is a Doom set, you'd be using Doom (Strict), and showing that dynamic lights, jumping, crouching, and freelook are all disabled.

 All right then, thanks!

[head_cannon]

hc_ironman_av.zip

Category 1, Dead in Map08.

 

Spoiler

After so many moments where I by some miracle survived gauntlets where the designers would try to crush the player like a bug, I met my end in entirely mundane circumstances. I turned a blind corner and the Chaingunner was quicker on the draw than I was.

 

One thing I really like about this monthly event (and other events like it) is how, when there is just so much Doom out there to try, it provides an entertaining way to sample a mapset with its "just walk in and get killed by it :D" approach.

 

By Map04 this megawad's ethos of "what if Hell Revealed was as appealing as possible?" became clear. I have to give it credit for how it was able to spring "how about Too Many monsters?" setups upon the player while having relatively few moments where the player must tediously grind through a horde's hp. Alien Vendetta made a very solid first impression.

[Pseudonaut]

Category 2, I somehow managed to die on map01.

 

avironman-pseudonaut.zip

 

Edit:

Spoiler

I had to try again, so here's attempt #2. I guess it goes on the prepared leaderboard. Died on map09 to some infinitely tall bullshit spectres.

 

avironman-attempt2-pseudonaut.zip

 

Edited February 2, 2021 by Pseudonaut

[Andromeda]

Something that's not addressed (directly) in the OP and I think is important: Make sure not to load AVMOVFIX.WAD when doing your run.

Edited February 2, 2021 by Andromeda

[Andromeda]

Recorded on dsda-doom 0.10.0 -complevel 2, category 2.

Dead on MAP09, reached in 59:48  - Outwitted by a Mensa member mancubus.

 

im55_andromeda.zip

[tmorrow]

For the curious, the purpose of avmovfix.wad is explained in the av.txt readme file in the av.zip release. In brief it addresses a problem with demo recordings in vanilla on map20 and solves it by hacking out the large mountain area of the map. None of these problems exist in most modern source ports.

It has been decreed that thou shalt NOT use avmovfix.wad, the upshot being that thou must endure the onerous trek up map20 Misri Halek's mighty mountain (if you are lucky enough to even get that far of course). Clearly doomguy needs to wear his best hiking boots. Sadly, that's going to be the least of his problems ...

Another item no one has yet mentioned and the tough and mighty DWIronman probably doesn't give a toss, but you can include the external dehacked av.deh file (by adding "-deh av.deh" to your command line without the quotes). This will give the correct story texts and automap titles if you care about that stuff.

I'm going to be watching every demo submitted. I love AV, one of my favorite wads of all time. Have fun guys, I really hope someone survives all 32 grueling maps. I wonder what @Ancalagon has been up to lately ...

[Shepardus]

Figured I'd give this a try, but didn't last long. Reached MAP04 in 10:41, category 2.

 

Shepardus-ironman-av.zip

[Bob9001]

category 2, Got to Map 10 in 63:02 and panicked and died :(

 

 

avDWIronmanLeagueBob.zip (UV-Max attempt)

 

Edited February 4, 2021 by Bob9001

[ReaperAA]

Demo: ReaperAA_AVdemo.zip

Dead on: Map14

Time taken to reach the map: 2:06:12

 

If there was any scary map in the E2 of AV, then this was the map. I was expecting that this map would kill me. But its frustrating that even after a cyberdemon rocket and a failed vile jump for a megasphere, I still had managed to reach near the end of the level...

 

...only to die to the red key archviles.

[El Inferno]

Demo: av_el_inf.zip

Got to map 2 in 8:00 or something. Oh well

[Arbys550]

Category 2, dead at map27 in what was the most disappointing yet funny death of all time. I don't know about the time, it was at least over 6 hours.

 

arbysIronAV.zip

 

No secret levels

Edited February 5, 2021 by Arbys550

[Beginner]

Category 2 entry. Demo is available here. Died in one of the "cacos slowly rise from these corners" sectors in map08 like a dumbass.

[Vile]

Category 2 entry, went splat on map32.

 

vile-av-iron.zip

 

twitch vod: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/902596629

Edited February 7, 2021 by Vile

[Demonologist]

Survived in 7:36:27, category 2, no secret levels. Last replayed the entire thing in August.

 

av_ironman_demonologist.zip

[4shockblast]

Cat 2, rerecorded on map 4 because I accidentally launched with a separate texture pack and was seeing HOMs everywhere. Got a bit tired of it by 11 and went full on aggro, died on 12

av_Ironman_shock.zip

[Daerik]

Cat 2, mostly. Pretty familiar with 1-14, and basically blind on 16 onwards.

Died on map27 at 5h33m21s in literally the exact same manner as @Arbys550.

 

av_ironman_daerik.zip

 

It's been a very long time since I've done a proper playthrough of Alien Vendetta. A lot of the maps felt relatively grindy, being stuck in narrow hallways with only a comfortable amount of SSG ammo to get through, and I definitely started feeling burnt out after finishing map20. Felt like a solid pick for Ironman though, not too many insta-death gotcha traps if you're unprepared.

 

I'm aiming to have the leaderboard & obituaries written up by the end of tomorrow.

Edited February 7, 2021 by Daerik

[Anima Zero]

Got to map 8 and....you know, I'm not going to even question HOW I managed to make this one happen, heh.  May do a prepared run just because of this moment, we shall see.

DWIronman_AlienVendetta_AnimaZero.zip

[Master Medi]

Category 2, I knew bits and pieces from some early maps and I have seen 20+ and how they go.

 

Died on map 8 because I got spooked by an AV :(

 

av_ironman_medi.rar

[Peccatum Mihzamiz]

Standard, Category 1

Died on map 6, with 101/187 kills (darn that blasted Cyberdemon, I never saw it coming!)

Recorded with: Twitch live via OBS, played on GZDoom 4.5.0. with Doom (strict)

Video: (playthrough starts at 1:01)

 

This was a lot of fun! What a smooth feel playing these levels had!

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

imav-aq.zip

Here's a random drunken 5 minute "attempt."
Died somewhere on map01, category 2.
Recorded in PR+ 2515.

[David Asaad]

Map 1 sux :) 

 

11/48 kills

dead at 1:01

 

AVironman.zip

[Andromeda]

On 2/1/2021 at 8:39 PM, Daerik said:

# Map01: Psuedonaut - Max damage Hell Knight fireballs are not part of a balanced breakfast.

Little typo here, should be Pseudonaut :)

[Daerik]

20 minutes ago, Andromeda said:

Little typo here, should be Pseudonaut :)

 

This is what I get for writing that all up at 2am.

 

Standard leaderboard has been updated, and my meager attempts to be witty for the obituaries have been added.

 

I'd additionally like to throw out an idea; with the Uncle Bowl between Suitepee and an_mutt, and John having expressed interest in hosting a month, how would you feel about also hosting a month @an_mutt? The level of involvement could be as little as just picking the wad for the month and letting someone else post the thread. Suitepee mentioned wanting something in the summer so maybe have you both do June and July?