The DWmegawad Club plays: Hadephobia

cannonball said:

Sums up his work
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/?id=15937
good luck :)
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?search=1&field=author&word=Death-Destiny&sort=time&order=asc&page=1

OMFG!!!!!! :D

I hardly know what to say, so I'll say this;

Adam's Memento Mori 2, Map 15, is probably the most difficult and brutal map I've ever played from a pistol start and which I actually enjoyed. I died about 850,000 times in that map and I totally loved it, which is why I mention it fairly often. I never once turned on Always Run to beat that map, so it represents basically the outer limit of what I can play -- and, importantly, enjoy -- as a walking keyboarder, which I plan to continue being. ;D

In some ways, nochance doesn't seem extreme by the numbers. A mere 1,058 monsters on UV, 605 on HMP and 414 on HNTR. However, on UV there are 32 Cybs, 116 Archies and 418 Revvies. These are my Murderer's Row monsters. I would never survive.

I did a God Mode look at both UV and HNTR. I would rate HNTR of nochance as probably 20 times harder than MM2 Map15. At least it looks that way. Speaking of looks, it was a visually fabulous Hell map. Indeed, I often find that slaughter maps are exceptionally attractive, like Grime, or your own SF2012 maps (I watched several of your videos). It bugs me a bit that these maps are so cool-looking, yet so unplayable for me.

Basically, it looks like death destiny maps are not for me. I just suck too much to play them. :D

And you know what I'm waiting for. I hope it appears soon so I can address my concerns, do some playtesting, get smacked around, and end up crying like a little girl. : D :D :D

cannonball said:
I only bought a few games off steam and then gave up when they refused to play.

That's not my experience with Steam, but as MagnusBlitz notes, you can just copy the IWAD into your port of choice's directory.

Demon of the Well said:
About HYMN, truth be told, I'm not really much of a fan of Heretic,

I don't like Heretic as much as Doom, myself, to be honest. But since there's a current community project for it, I thought it would be good to support it. Ditto any future community projects for Doom (like Mayhem 2013, next month).

Demon of the Well said:

Concerning future DWMC features...

I played Fava Beans/Madness of Mergatroid approximately 1,676 years ago. I remember it being almost insultingly easy, even for my at the time much more inexperienced self, though of course, those were very different times, with very different standards. I also remember it did have an interesting aesthetic in places, and that Sean Birkel sounded very, shall we say, "self-congratulatory" in the text file.[/B]

I also remember that aspect of the text file. ;D Yes, the maps are easy, but it is the E1 essence, including the secrets/exploratory quality, that continues to make these maps so memorable for me, to the point where I've put in at least three homages in my current E1 project. All the greater pity that he blew it so totally on E1M8, which is almost as bizarre as Jan Van der Veken doing a mulligan on E1M5 of Dawn Of The Dead.

and Realms of Chaos, which, incidentally, I have also played long ago (I remember I really liked its IoS map if nothing else).

Rob Berkowitz strikes again! That was his map. IIRC, you only had to kill one of the IoSes. There were four of them. It doesn't pay to dawdle on this map.

Edit: Ah, Laz Rojas and his WolfenDoom Adventures. I had forgotten about that. I played several of those, too...I remember Astrostein, as a generality, being a bit too long for its own good (and coming from ME that ought to tell you something), and I remember liking Operation Eisenman and that one where you go into the underground treasure vault.

How big do you like maps to be, anyway?

I remember enjoying Laz's maps back in the day, although I always wished he'd do a few standard Doom adventures. Might as well ask the wind to stop blowing. This man was obsessed with Wolfenstein, so he followed his heart. I'm pretty sure Laz is -- by far -- the most prolific Mac-based mapper, and I'm not sure that many PC-based mappers have exceeded his output. pcorf has, he claims more than 200, and there's maybe a few others in that category. BTW, one of the WolfenDoom adventures I liked best was the one with ice effects, and I'm pretty sure Laz did the deep-water trick at least once.

On the issue of mappers who at least started on the Mac, there's esselfortium, and I mention his name in a tortured effort to suggest both Back To Saturn X Episode 1 and Doom The Way iD Did as modern megawads to consider. BTSX's shorter length, at 24 maps, can either allow some of us the option of a breather, or provide space to work in a shorter episode of 5 - 7 maps, in which case I would again suggest Osiris. BTW, I played the first 6 maps of BTSX and thought they were gorgeous, but again I got sidetracked. Without DWMegawad structure, I'd never finish a megawad. ;D On DTWID, I played the first two episodes, and honestly found E1 easier than Fava Beans, and E2 only a little more difficult. I dunno, this may not appeal to the hardcore players in the club. The maps are nice-looking, though.

How big do you like maps to be, anyway?

Well, suffice to say, I greatly enjoyed Kvernmo's and Coleur's maps from Eternal Doom, many of the great big maps from the Community Chest series, things like that. On the other side of the coin, one of the forthcoming releases I'm most looking forward to is Mechadon's Vela Pax, which promises to be full of similarly huge maps, as is his wont. Hell, I'd probably gleefully play a megaWAD full of Jade Earths, if some heroic mapper(s) ever made one....with the obvious caveat that they'd have to have virtues apart from sheer size (like all of the aforementioned examples do), of course. Alfonzo and Tarnsman were saying in one of their recent Hadephobia videos that they hoped the back half of the third episode of the WAD isn't packed full of huge maps (incidentally, they needn't worry, as they're all pretty concise, save one) and that's a sentiment I think a number of people share, but I generally don't get that kind of fatigue; I tend to like larger maps for the same reason I tend to prefer mapsets over single maps, that being that it's easier to feel immersed in them. Of course, I'm not at all averse to single maps or small maps on principle, and I'm perfectly content with megaWADs that alternate big maps with smaller maps as a pacing technique (e.g. Speed of Doom) it's just a question of 'if I had my druthers', so to speak.

I've played DooM The Way id Did. I rather liked its second episode and about half of the third (more than I expected to, actually), and found myself far, far less interested in the other half of the game, the first episode in particular. Strangely, I think its best maps are the ones that are, to my perception, the least histrionically id-like on a technical level. Most of episode 1 "sounds the notes but loses the music", in a manner of speaking; and in episode 2, it's the other way around, I felt. While the whole project was probably never destined to become my personal favorite thing ever by dint of its avowed basic design goals, I still liked enough of it that I'd probably play it again for the DWMC, or its sequel when the team finishes it.

I would be very happy to play BTSX E1, not to mention E2 and E3, whenever they'll see the light of day. The only reason I've not played E1 already apart from 3-4 maps I sampled is that it was my (perhaps erroneous?) understanding that the available version was subject to change and still had a lot of kinks to be ironed out.

MAP25 - SACRIFICE

What first appears to be another short and sweet hellish temple turns out to actually be somewhat of a gimmick map. Which isn't a bad thing... I actually liked the yellow key area with it's rising lava, as it provided a novel gameplay mechanic. A bit tough at first (I died the first time it started since I wasn't prepared, then died another time when I didn't have a weapon out to kill the Baron in the path quickly enough) but fun. It might well drive the max crowd nuts, though - not sure how easy it is to pickup all the items and kill all the monsters in that area. I also really liked the silent teleport leading up to it - a nice "wait a second..." moment when leaving the yellow key pedestal (which might have been a better shock had the new area had a completely different texture set than just being subtly different).

The rest isn't too exciting, though. The blue key area, after taking care of the arch-viles, is a bit of a joke. The red key area feels like an afterthought (especially with the key so near the door). Lighting throughout the map is very plain - there's a nice effect with the columns in the blue key area, but aside from that it's all very bright and very samey. So, overall, a bit rough around the edges - but the yellow key area was still cool.

Yes, yes, back on point...

Map 25 -- Sacrifice - 99% Kills / 100% Secrets
A fun little map, with quite a cool SFX hook/centerpiece, and a vaguely Hexen/Heretic-esque music track. It is a bit bright in places, but in some of those places that makes perfect sense (e.g. the aforementioned centerpiece), and apart from the room with the blue skull in it I wasn't distracted by the rest. "Cherry-red everywhere" is generally not one of my personal favorite Hell-themes, but I see nothing here to complain about in the looks department. There's almost no incidental combat in this map; every significant encounter is a specific set-piece, which works fine with a monster count of just 83. The first fight is a good exercise in multitasking and fluid movement within a confined space, with the monsters outside on the ledges by the bloodfall firing through the barred opening to add extra complication and keep you on the move; nice warmup (although I'll bet it's pretty rote if you don't pistol-start). The blue skull area is a couple of cheeky little "gotcha" traps. The first one caught me a little off-guard and got the 'ol heartrate up, but the second one was much milder than I was expecting. The yellow key area, which features an exciting upward dash to escape from a horrible fiery death in a massive magma cauldron, is certainly the highlight, and an achievement I reckon Melon can rightfully be proud of. Incidentally, given the way this area is actually built in engine terms, the monsters within it will ideally all die without you having to personally kill them (they'll be crushed, technically), keeping it from being a chore for maxrunners. It may not be foolproof, though...when I played, I actually missed a monster somewhere, but I'm not sure if it was something that somehow managed to survive being crushed here or if it was something else. The red key is just a basic straightforward little fight, but it's mostly just there for story, anyway (e.g. the altar in Baphomet's honor). I felt this was a fun, to-the-point little map with a good hook. If, in seven or eight years, somebody mentions the name "Hadephobia", I reckon that this is going to be one of the first maps that springs to my mind.

I should probably say a few things about my maps in this mapset.

I actually found Hadephobia to be an extremely difficult wad to map for, given its central premise. On the one hand, the maps leading on from each other helped stir the creative juices a bit and give me ideas based on the map I had to lead on from, but on the other hand a lot of the times it forced me out of my comfort zone before I'd actually found out what my comfort zone was. This made mapping incredibly frustrating at times. It should come as no surprise that every single one of my maps in this project was at one point completely binned and restarted from scratch, with the final results you see now being largely speed mapped to get them done before the week was over. You don't really want to see the maps that got trashed (funnily enough MAP25's archvile trap was actually salvaged from one of my previous map attempts). There might be a lesson here somewhere about being a new mapper and trying to take part in community projects too early on in your mapping career, but I'm very grateful for the opportunities Hadephobia gave me and they helped a lot.

It was funny to see Alfonzo and Tarnsman dub my MAP03 as "Sandy Petersen styled" because the texturing was just completely phoned in. I hate hate hate texturing my maps and it's the number one reason I've never released my own project. I just can't do it. Drives me crazy. MAP03 is almost entirely green brick, and MAP25 is almost entirely hot rock because I gave up trying to do anything that looked halfway decent. In an embarrassing admission, purist actually had to texture and detail a room in MAP28 for me because I completely gave up on trying to do it myself.

MAP25 here was actually initially a lot darker with some big lighting contrast, but then I played it in GLBoom+ with gamma correction down to zero and struggled to see anything. In hindsight I went overboard in upping the lighting to the point where it's all flat but at the time I felt it better to err on the side of caution and let people see what they're doing. I think in the future I shouldn't be so scared to put in to dark areas and more contrast and assume that people that don't like it are playing with gamma up anyway.

The rising lava room, it's true that the ceiling comes down and tries to crush monsters, but it'll actually leave them alive most of the time, which then makes 100% kills impossible if you don't kill them all on the initial run through. Here's the problem, to give the impression that the lava is rising rather than having the floors sink (which is what's actually happening), the ceiling comes down as well, but the lowest you can set it to is the height that the floor is at at the time the action is triggered. This means that in most parts of that area the ceiling stops before it reaches the floor. It only looks like it's all coming down because of sneaky tricks involving untextured linedefs and flat bleeding. What I probably could have done was have a voodoo doll constantly re-trigger the ceiling lower action over and over again but it would have likely made the ceiling come down unevenly and look horrible. In the end I had to make a concession somewhere and so I went for the easier low effort option, of course. :p

Interestingly, if you play this map on co-op you'll be routed to an entirely separate area of the map rather than the lava room because its one-shot nature doesn't gel with co-op. This separately area was, as usual, totally phoned in in 20 minutes and isn't very good, so sorry about that, but at least the map is finishable. You know what other room was phoned in in 20 minutes? The blue key room. Sorry about that too.

I'll lay off talking about MAP28 until we get there but all I'll say is that looking back, MAP25 is the only one of my three maps from this project that I still like. They're all flawed, but MAP03 is so easy and short it's inoffensive and MAP25 at least has a cool unique idea going for it. MAP28 is... well... all I'll say right now is that if you're going to pistol start it on UV, I'm really really sorry.

Map24 – Lifeblood – by purist – Kills – 100, Items – Zero, Secret – Zero. Time 40:28. End Health 100, Armor 100. Death Count – 4

This map is visually striking. From the very start, similar to Map09, you can see down and to the sides for a good distance. This intrigued me and made me want to see more. The lighting, as usual for a purist map, was exceptional and moody. I just love the way he contrasts light and dark. A real highlight was the ceiling work, all that Rrock01 with occasional Dem1_5 insets and Support3 surrounds, and the interesting patterns he created. Awesome stuff. Not only is this the best-looking hell map in this megawad so far, it is, at least in the central area, one of the best-looking hell maps I’ve ever seen.

I even liked the look of the maze, again with a great light/dark contrast and an interesting use of textures. The end area also looked very cool, especially when walls came down to reveal the ceiling pattern and sky. And Cyberdemon Hall looked good, too. All the way around this map exceeded expectations visually, and my expectations for a purist map are quite high.

But look at that death count. Here I am, a walking keyboarder of limited skill, and I only get whacked four times on Map24? Something’s wrong here.

Or at least, something’s right for me – cells everywhere. I BFG-slapped monsters left and right. I typically had the right weapon in hand to deal with the situation. For example, the obvious trap in Cyberdemon Hall, with the scale of the room hinting at what was to come, encouraged me to unholster the BFG and, for perhaps the first time in this megawad, I beat the Cyb on the first go, and all his little helpers, too, and I’m pretty sure I only took 2 bites from Lost Souls. Nice to feel badass for once. ;D

The Hell Knight maze was nice to look at, but not fun to play. Just a slog to kill one hapless HK after another. The best part was the tension created by the grumbling Archies. The anticipation was 10 times better than the ensuing fight, but the tension has real value, so I give this section props for at least creeping me out.

The unfortunate thing about the fights is that they were so un-memorable that I forget how and where I died, even though I played the map just 2 hours ago. I probably got killed by Archies and Revvies. That’s usually how it happens. I also remember being a bit annoyed over the way purist used the SpiderBitch. Not much of a threat, was she?

Still, I truly appreciate the effort to come up with something unique in the gameplay department. And the gameplay wasn’t bad so much as a bit too easy. The Cyb fight was my favorite simply because it was nice to slam Cybie on the first try. Doesn’t happen too often in my neck of the woods. :D

End-map ammo; 204 Bullets, 13 Shells, 13 Rockets and 600 Cells

Map25 – Sacrifice – by Melon – Kills – 100, Items – 100, Secret – Zero. Time – 22:56. End Health 180, Armor 38. Death Count – 9

I agree with DOTW and Magnus that this is one heck of a fun map. I might even go farther in my admiration for it. Reading Melon’s description of the design process was great, too, and it does seem that maps like this can often be the utterly crazy creations of new mappers.

I thought the blue key area looked cool with its stark lighting in the temple. The only light source appeared to be the eyes of Marbface2 glaring at you from, I dunno, the confessional booth? ;D

I was killed once by the Archies, as usual, and I had to do the blue key/crusher deal a few times to avoid losing health. I might have died once by Revvie after getting the yellow key, but all my other deaths came on the rocky road to salvation. Some of those were death by Baron, the others were either death by Manc, or death by lava. I frequently fell off the rocks into the lava because I soon realized I needed Always Run to make it, and my directional control at speed leaves something to be desired. I also freaked out over the switches, because there’s a place halfway up with two of them spaced wide apart, and I only pressed one. Not sure what the switches even did, but I was worried that I’d never complete the map without hitting both of them. Once I finally made it through, I had a real sense of accomplishment. It was an exhilarating run, and as DOTW said, is something I’ll always remember, like The Shaft in Memento Mori 2, but I liked this a lot better than The Shaft, it was more fun for me. I can also admire it as a technical achievement.

At this point in the megawad, we have – to my tastes anyway – 3 genuinely memorable maps; Map 10, Map 20 and Map 25. That may not sound like many, but IMO is actually a good count for any megawad. There’s also been a few solid combat maps, like Map07, Map09 and Map18, some good filler maps, and several annoying maps. Overall, quite a nice megawad so far.

End-map ammo; 282 Bullets, 83 Shells, 25 Rockets and Zero Cells.

Map25 – Sacrifice – by Melon

This map came about in quite a convoluted way. The slot originally belonged to Grain of Salt who made Scotch Bonnet but then asked me not to include it in the final megawad as she didn't consider it finished and she had something much more ambitious in mind.

Meanwhile, by the time the MAP30 slot came up TheMionicDonut needed to give it up so Melon was assigned it instead. Unfortunately, Melon was having difficulty making something for the slot and Grain of Salt's new imagining of MAP25 was a sprawling masterpiece of evil punishment - way out of kilter for the maps either side of his slot. My idea was for them to swap. Melon was going to have to scrap most of his level whereas a story re-write and a redesigned start and exit was needed for Grain of Salt's epic.

All that remains from Melon's MAP30 is the triple AV fight, which actually survived all three revisions! Even though Grain of Salt's MAP30 never transpired I still consider the swap a success as Sacrifice turned out to be a highlight of Hadephobia.

The earliest version of MAP25 is pretty much as you see it now except there was more spectres, no secret and no alternative co-op route. I think the progression worked a little differently in the first draft as well. All changes were improvement and, while I feel the pressure could have been more consistent (rather than spiking in the AV room and lava cavern) it ticks all the boxes for me.

I agree with Steve D that a megawad needs two or three truly memorable maps that come straight to mind when you think about it and the lava area makes this map one of those sorts of levels.

The story is pretty diluted in episode 4 and particularly light weight in this one. If anything this diverts from the story with only the Baphomet shrine nodding in the direction of the plot.

I'll tally up the votes for the next playthrough soon.

25 - SACRIFICE
...Your journey takes you into what looks like a Hellish chapel built on the precipice of a volcanic abyss on the verge of eruption. You find no further evidence of nukeage you found flowing into the Baphomet but you are convinced your earlier hunch is correct when you discover a demonic shrine in it's honour. You just about escape with your skin by opening up an exit through a gushing bloodfall...

MAP25: Something seems to be wrong with the music here, as it doesn’t play with FMOD but trying to change the midi device will crash ZDoom 2.5.0 on my mac. So now I’m left to play in an uncomfortable silence.

This map feels like an intermission-style map, as it’s pretty short and only has a handful of fights. While purist’s previous effort was quite interesting, coming into this with an assload of cell doesn’t really help with the balance, so I tried sticking to whatever guns Melon gave (although I did use an extra BFG shot for the triple archvile surprise, which would’ve been a bitch to get all three from with one blast personally). The big centerpiece here is the silent teleport into the rising lava section, which played out extremely well for me. It was tense, with a good mixture of enemies guarding upper platforms but allowing the player to zip around them if they brave the damaging magma. Unfortunately the map ends on a low note, giving you a handful of revenants and mancubuses right before the exit—nothing the player should be unable to handle at this point. But man, did that lava section get my blood pumpin’. It's probably the highlight of the final episode so far.

There’s more redrock being spotted so I suppose I’m really nearing the core of Hell now.

Map25
So I still check out the story segments for each map, but we've had a succession of pretty thin entries on that front, of late.

This is also a pretty thin entry as a map. It's redeemed by one, well-executed set piece (the yellow key run, which others have already talked about), but is otherwise a very basic affair featuring only a handful of rooms and monsters.

dobugabumaru said:

MAP25: Something seems to be wrong with the music here, as it doesn’t play with FMOD but trying to change the midi device will crash ZDoom 2.5.0 on my mac. So now I’m left to play in an uncomfortable silence.

I forgot to mention this in my review, but I had the same problem in ZDoom with no music playing. Usually when a MIDI fails to play, I can fix it by switching from FMOD to Microsoft Synth (even though it's quieter and not as good), but still silence for this one. Shame too, as playing in silence really ruins the experience, IMO.

Thanks for sharing your notes with us, Melon. I'm not surprised that the blue key room was a 20-minute late addition, as it did seem tacked on (and the textures somewhat random). Understandable. I'm still amazed at how the rising lava room works and how tough that must be to pull off, so one hasty room isn't a bad thing.

MAP20 - Ostoyae Anomaly

I didn't really like this map. I got what the author was trying to do, but to me the stress of having that monster spawner pumping out monsters wasn't a very positive one. Especially not since I (again) ran around in circles and trying to figure out what and where to go. This map does a lot of backtracking, which I do not mind, but it was tough to tell which part of the map had opened up or just generally where to go at times.

I never really got "stuck", but I did run back and forth a lot. And to be honest, much of the map isn't that interesting architectually wise. Again, I don't think that detailing is all that important, but this map throws you into the same spaces time and time again and some spaces seem very dull and empty compared to others.

But I did enjoy the Spiderdemon Cyberdemon fight. That was a good one. That whole area was great. I liked the aspect of killing the Keen-dolls as well. I think the map was non-linear (in a way) as well, and I always like that.

The map was very spacious, for good and bad. I think I'd have liked this map more had there been a great contrast between large areas and smaller areas, and a greater contrast between light and dark. It was pretty light all over, wasn't it? Anyway, not my favorite so far. I don't really like timelimits (as the monster spawner was a variation of).

MAP21 - Constriction

A small map. Felt like a speedmapping map, which it probably was. For what it was, it was a fun little map. Much tighter and smaller in scale than the last one. Navigation throughout was a bit random, and I found myself popping up at places I had previously seen through bars and stuff like that.

It had a good flow, I kept a steady pace throughout. Part of it reminded me of a smaller version of "Baron's Den" from Evilution, but also much, much better than that PoS.

However there isn't much else to say. As far as the high- and lowpoints of Hadephobia, this a mediocre outing. But a mediocre outing in Doom is always more of a positive thing than a negative one.

Thought some monster placement was a bit odd tho. Some monsters were put in constricted areas (hence the title, maybe?). The final arch-vile fight didn't really cater to the Arch-viles strenghts. The Cyberdemon fight was fairly easy as well. I let the cyberdemon kill everyone, then I killed him. But I liked the room itself!

MAP22 - Prime Mover

A bigger map that architectually reminded me a bit about the last one. This one felt a bit underdetailed, and it felt like a speedmapping attempt. There were some good fights and I liked some of the rooms. The Blue key room with the blood, guts and demons was a neat little corner of this hell.

Other things felt a bit empty. The red brick caverns held very little in the ways of detail. A few candelbras, that was it. This didn't really bother me, as the map itself was still kinda fun, but it did feel a bit 90's.

Also, the map was kinda flat. Not many rooms used any greater extent of traps, lifts or moving floors (or even height variation) to provide for different fights. It was all pretty much just straight ahead, barring a few revenants that popped out of bookshelves.

It reminded me a bit of the hell maps of TNT, as they too feel kinda empty at times. I like TNT, tho, so that's not a bad thing.

I would not mind playing a succession of episodes next time. I kinda like that.

HYMN is in the works, however I am bias as I've got a map in there (of low quality, if you ask me).

But there's gotta be a myriad of episodes of there.

Maybe DTS-T for a Megawad? When that wad came there was a lot of mixed opinions. Would be fun to give it a go now that the hype is down.

MAP24 - Lifeblood by purist
The whole picking up bfg and closing off a load of plasma seemed a bit pointless to me given there is more than enough without that extra supply.
Combat wise is a mixed bag of fun battles and some seemingly filler material. The blue key/ hk maze is a bit meh which the yellow key showdown is definitely fun.
It was interesting to see a different feel of map just like Purist's last map (map20)

MAP25 - Sacrifice by Melon
Speaking of something different, the part after grabbing the yellow key is fantastic. This part is always fair on the player whilst giving the player a sense of urgency and real fear as they scramble up the rocky path shooting everything in their path.
Rest of the map is fine, a couple of small hordes and some reasonably placed monster. Boom effects are piled into this map and used pretty well throughout.
Great map.

On another note hell seems to be tackling budget cuts by removing all exit signs, heh :P

MAP08:
Get Red Keycard, and... ahghsGRSSHSFKSGBSK. Having to walk around in fucking green shit. Well done. You broke it. 8 maps in and it finally fucking happened. And then you give me a Radsuit?! For fuck's sake!

Other than that, it was okay.



MAP09:
Great start.


None of these errors appear to be visible, but doesn't this sort of missing texture shite break Boom and some of its child ports?


Yes

This one threw us during the Survival attempt; the constant looping around and fucking about in the dark wasn't really something we were thinking of, and as such it took quite a while to eventually just... stumble through it all.

This time, not so much. I don't know why there's a Stimpack in the middle of that nukage by the Crusher/Blue Door, but at least you don't have to pick it up. Anyway, once you actually know what the fuck you're doing, this level does manage to flow pretty well with a better-than-usual case of backtracking. The ending's pretty abrupt though... a few lower-tier things to splat followed by what appeared to just be a big wooden/metal wall... which turns out to be the exit.

D:

Signs, please.




MAP10:
Jesus look at that monstercount. Well, let's go and cle-... Oh look, it's an immediate segment of insta-lift monsters.

http://youtu.be/FvT8jG1OVdI?t=1m46s

And it just goes on, and on, and on, and on... really, it's a neat effect sometimes and can be an effective jump-scare, but it's just fucking tedious when it's used as often as this. You walk into a hallway, turn a corner; stuff. You enter a new room; stuff. You get a secret Plasma Rifle, and by this point you already fucking know what's coming; stuff. Stuff like this fucking asshole:


And that's all I really remember about this. I started getting pretty bored here, which is a shame because visually and in terms of the layout it's really not bad... it's actually really quite good in those respects. There are a couple of neat 'elevator' effects in there too, but one of them goes all fucked-up if you look at it from an angle:


Now I don't know if this is because I'm using the software renderer, but yeah... I mean it's a minor issue, but an issue all the same. Pretty sure it was also present when I was playing this under OpenGL, but I can't say for sure. Must be a side-effect of all this unconventional elevator nonsense. Or ZDoom just doesn't want to render it properly.

Another detail issue is present toward the final skirmish of the map. Should we really be able to climb up this? It's really jarring to be sidestepping incoming fireballs and suddenly shoot up 30ft in the air.

Dodging 101...


Oh, shit!

And then...

Oh for fuck's sake.

20% damage too? Really? What the fuck goes through some peoples' minds during mapping?



MAP11:
Simple enough. Just blast the Spider Mastermind with a stream of superheated plasma bolts as it teleports around uselessly, get some keys, hit some switches, shoot some floating cretins, and leave.

No, really. That's it.



MAP12:
Bit flat, pretty easy. It certainly looks fine, but there's no real excitement here. A couple of "oh hi" moments crop up, but nothing to really make you spill your drink. Passover indeed. You can probably "pass over" this one (HAHAHAHA HU HE HI HO) without a hitch, except for...


Oh come on.


NO. STOP FUCKING DOING THIS.

Really, why does this happen so often as of late? As much as I hate the forced pickup in general, I'm actually less miffed about the Berserk being unavoidable as I can always utilise the strength of a thousand slaps -- so it can at least be used to work to my advantage in one sense -- but these Green Armour placements have simply got to stop. It's just taking the piss; what if you have 99% Blue Armour at this point? You end up sacrificing all that protection for no good fucking reason. You're being punished for making progress? What the fuck is this? For Christ's sake, give us the choice of grabbing these items. Put something else there, like... Lite-Amp visors or a Computer Map.

Aggh.



MAP13:
Jesus Christ the monster count shot up again.

An excellent runaround, with that perfect balance of action without tedious saturation. Even the visuals are impressive, everything just comes together for a 10-minute blast with the odd fiendish moment, but plenty of equipment to see you through. The paths also manage to wind around in such a way that you can occasionally take a few shots through a windowspace to clean out an area before you advance toward it, which is always a nice touch. The Cyberdemon almost killed me, but that was more down to me playing like a spastic and attempting to avoid the rocket by running in the same direction it was flying... oh what a fucking idiot.

Couple of weird things:
1) There's a completely harmless Arch-Vile here. Hit one switch and have some fun punishing him for all the shit his brethren have put you through over the last 19 years.
2) This switch:

What? Why? Maybe it serves a purpose but I sure as hell don't remember it.

Other than those, good work. The bars closing behind you at the end sucks though, I wanted to go back for some shells but NO! Just seems a bit unnecessary to close the place off like that, especially since the end of the map involves leaping off a steep ledge anyway.



MAP14:
Ohhh, now this one did give me something of a headache. It's not overly complex or difficult, but because it's somewhat open I kept running around seeing if whatever switch had performed whatever action -- it's nowhere near as cryptic as a certain "Interception" map though. Really, this one's an okay map, but then that's all there is... it's just "okay". Nothing really stands out for being great or shit, so that's all there is to say.

Some bullshit involving getting your feet soaked happens, but I can't be fucking bothered to rage about it this time. It's crap, it offers nothing positive, don't do it.

I guess the biggest problem in the scheme of things is the Blue Keycard. You can acquire it pretty early on, but it's literally useless until you fuck around finding the other two cards hit a switch to lower bars. Only then can you make use of it and actually get the hell out of this place. Seems a bit shoved-in really.

Oh, and that ending... uuuggghhhh, more toxic bullshit.

MAP15:
Ah fuck, not this one again.

Another headache of sorts, brought on by dim lights and green shit everywhere -- maybe using the Software renderer really was a shitty idea for this mapset. There are Radsuits, but unless you know exactly where you're going and when to go, you're probably going to suffer some radiation sickness at some point... but hey, at least the fucking things are there before you go exploring! Overall, it's not a bad map. Nothing really stood out for good or bad reasons, but it was involving enough and kept on luring you further until completion. And as tedious as it can be to wander around in near-black environments (by which I mean the largest area of the map, home to an unexpected Spider Mastermind), you are at least spared the frustration of taking hits from a thousand fireballs mysteriously appearing from nowhere.

...but just what on Earth was the Zombieman chamber all about? Bah, doesn't matter.

The secret exit being so obvious is refreshing, and ties in well with the story (duuhhh). XXXI? I'm going there.

Finally, am I the only one who didn't/couldn't get this pair of undead fuckbumbles to invade?




MAP31:
I got a BFG. I GOT A BFG.

This map's definitely worth finding, if just for the big toy. It's pretty simple to get through, but can and will slap you if you get too cocky.

Somewhat weirdly, the secret exit is 'easier' to find here. I guess this makes sense when you read the intermission text (and by Christ it is not exaggerating when it calls this exit a 'trap'), so there's no fault in that decision. I actually welcome it, and seeing the two 'survivors' slide off into the distance gave me a chuckle; quite the novel use of Voodoo Dolls.



MAP32:
512 monsters... well, this is going to be a long one.

Amusingly, you can fight the sweeping current at the start of the map if you SR40... does it get you anything? No. You can't even reach the door, but for some weird reason there's still some stuff behind it. Whatever.

A map divided into three main 'sections', each with different setups and calling for different tactics.

Section 1 - The 'conventional' section, with your standard style of killing stuff as you explore (or as it rounds a corner). There's a huge collection of crushers which makes no sense however you look at it (such is the influence of Hell I suppose), and... well, yeah. There are a LOT of Hitscanners in this section, but not in the sense that you're dropped into the middle of them all with no way to distance yourself. Go through a teleport, and...

...we're back in the river of blood. Now remember you can fight the current? This can do bad things to you here!

Well, fuck.

I guess it's my own fault, but that's how you're supposed to test things. By performing stupid and unusual stunts.

Section 2 - Ehhhh. This is somewhat reminiscient of Barrels O' Fun, but without the charm. The moment you open fire, stuff just fucking pours in. The nearby Invulnerability sphere is pretty useful for this section, and doesn't render the area harmless either (you probably won't kill everything before it expires -- I know I didn't). The dark pseudo-maze with the Cyberdemon was alright I guess, if a little easy. The Commander Keen replacements had me laughing my nuts off, this was a well-executed inclusion of these little bastards that really isn't used often enough.

Section 3 - Ah fuck it, just get the key and run! This bit is fucking hideous. It's all fucking lava, with platforms that raise/lower coupled with crushers above? Jesus Christ, someone didn't want to take any prisoners during the creation of this thing. In hindsight, the Invulnerability would have been even more useful here. Oh well. Tough to get through, and you've really got to keep your eye on things because all sorts of fuckers will swarm you if you take too long.

If you manage to survive that, then you'll leave here as one loaded marine. The way the map ends is ingenious too, and could have been very easily overlooked; we go back to the standard exit area of MAP15, with some new Hellspawn sitting around to waste. A brilliant if increasingly harsh (and suddenly nightmarish) map, and one with a reward that is very much worth the hardships endured.


MAP16:
With over 300 monsters spread over a pretty huge area, this one dragged on a bit.

Okay, I'll be specific; while I like a vast sprawling map every now and then, I'd prefer if the action wasn't seemingly so haphazard. Then there's the issue as seen in Interception; when you have to start using arrow-shaped floor lighting, you've probably managed to make something that isn't flowing in an intuitive manner.

The map certainly looks the part, I can't deny that, and it's not necessarily a bad addition to the mapset, but something about it was lacking in the fun department. I guess the pacing wasn't as tight as it could have been, I was wandering around on a couple of occasions just wondering what the fuck to do next.


MAP17:
Oh wow, talk about a drastic change of pace. The music sucked me in and I just kept shooting.

"Jesus fuck shit!"

That Cyberdemon scared the fucking shit out of me; I open the door, and there he is. No build up, no prior warning, no visible or audible clue to his presence, just a huge fucking shock, and a masterstroke of checking if you're actually paying attention, or just mindlessly going through the motions.

Major problem with the Blue Keycard. You're trying to make us pick up that Green Armour. MINUS ONE MILLION POINTS FOR SLOPPINESS.

And then things go more than a bit tits-up, because backtracking for any supplies suddenly becomes forbidden. Fuck that stuff; why does this keep happening? There's something dickish about this sort of design, it just feels like unnecessary punishment for not wanting to grab every item in sight. What, we're not allowed to be conservative with supplies now?

What the hell's wrong with you?!


MAP18:
This has an eerie feel from the start, right up until this point:

Now you just know that some heavy shit is going down here soon.

Another Cyberdemon appearance that had me shouting incoherently at the screen, but not for the same reason as MAP17's introduction -- here, the cunt opened fire immediately after being alerted, delivering a surprise rocket to the back of my head. At first I thought it was pulling the same bullshit as that cockfest MAP26 of Interception (Cyberdemon behind a mid-texture 'wall'), but no... he was just teleported way to the grand hall, or whatever the hell that big area which contains more than the bulk of the action can be described as.

Bastard.

Really though, this map fast became my favourite so far; well-paced, very atmospheric, a (nasty) surprise, and an opportunity to go back and get stuff if I so desired. Admittedly the repeated skirmishes in the same place become a bit tiring, but they end at around the right time to prevent any negative impact.

Oh, and those three Arch-Viles? Cruel but brilliant. A fine example of how to make something potentially very tough without being ridiculous in nature. Top marks.

Great to see you back, Baron! Now I'm not all alone in the world when complaining about unavoidable items. :D

I've been somewhat busy lately, but have at least managed to keep up somewhat regarding progress! Now if only I didn't take forever to write even a few lines per map, everything would be fine!

(And fuck unavoidable items, there's no excuse!)

Map 26 -- Pride of the Descent - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
This modest Infernal outpost with some sinewy tunnels running under it marks Cell's swansong in Hadephobia, not counting his bonus map 33, "Predestined Mortality", that is (incidentally, I've played the three bonus maps, but won't comment on them until near the end). His design philosophy remains just as stolid here as in any of his other maps, meaning it will again seem to some players to be a clash between aesthetics and practical gameplay concerns. The first area you come to is a small yard (although it's a big open space by Cell's standards), with heavy detailing on the ground, which I kind of liked when I stopped to look at it more closely--there's a layer of dirt over a couple of discrete layers of volcanic rock, which themselves appear to have formed over a fleshy substance, and deepest of all, some magma. It's a tiny detail, but it got me imagining the bizarre geolithic makeup of Hadephobia's depiction of Hell, which I enjoyed. But I'm rambling too much....anyway, the upshot is that the degree of detailing on the ground here renders the surface somewhat "bumpy" and uneven, thereby impacting the smoothness of the player's movement upon it, which I know drives some players up the wall, hence my comment about detail clashing with gameplay. Personally, though, floor-bumpiness is not generally something that irritates me a great deal, and it's not particularly pronounced here, anyway. The interior of the building is fronted by a small library, with a handful of anonymous marble/rock chambers beyond it, and a half-flooded tunnel system beyond these. Between bookshelves and stairways and tunnels it is once again an outing where movement space is at a premium, but unlike in map 19 I don't remember any particular instance of prop objects clogging up important passages or large packs of monsters needing to slowly teleport into a tiny space, so I have no real qualms with the design choices in this case. In terms of combat, it's a very straightforward and evenly-paced map, with no real spikes or lulls, and few real traps or ambushes. The library is reused as a combat space at least a couple of times, which works out pretty well for an area so small, again in contrast to the central hub of map 19, which was a boil on said map's ass. It's a pretty easy map--quite a bit too easy for a map this late in the set, I think, in fact. I can relate to the concept of 'breather maps', certainly, but ever since we got into Hell there hasn't really been much to take a breather from, I'm afraid. Still, on its own merits, it's a decent and fairly good-looking little map. Oh, yeah, dig that BFG secret...in fact, I like the way Cell always seems to put powerful items in these hidden little "shrine" areas, as a generality.

A more general comment, but I see that the somewhat above-average presence of dark/dimly-lit areas in several of Hadephobia's maps (which I personally feel is one of its good points) is continuing to draw very mixed reactions. This is expected to some degree--I've known for years and years now that many players don't care for a lot darkness--but it occurs to me to wonder how much port choice has to do with it, if anything. Most of you seem to use ZDooM or GZDooM (including Alfonzo in his videos, since he appears to use some kind of brightmap mod), with a few using PrBooM+; I myself usually use Eternity, and I have noticed that lighting in some maps does look a little different at similar gamma settings in this port in comparison to ZDooM (or GZDooM in software mode). In PrBooM+ differences seem less pronounced, and in some places not noticeable at all, although I still seem to see some distinction...but that might just be my imagination, in this case. If I recall correctly, Steve uses Risen3D, and he seldom seems troubled by the dark....I have never used that port myself, though, and so don't know what it looks like.

Map26
Plenty of Cellishness on display here, with heaps of detail and attractive if cramped architecture. Even the story text gets in on the action, with a bit more gloss added to the "it's a place full of monsters" routine.

This is shorter than the epic map19, though it may well generate some of the same criticisms. You're often fighting in pretty confined spaces. However, I thought this level was a little cleaner than 19, with fewer items and details to get caught on.

I do think that the preponderance of narrow areas would make co-op play pretty frustrating on this map. The water tunnels, for inatance.

Like much of the rest of 'episode 4', the action is a little on the light side, overall. I'd definitely characerise this as easier than map19, with the fights varying from straight-forward to busy enough to be fun, but never into the frantic category.

MAP26 - PRIDE OF THE DESCENT

I missed the title screen going in, but wasn't surprised at all on the exit screen seeing that it was a Cell map. Three maps and I'm already recognizing his style. Lots more cramped spaces. There's a lot of detailing, and like MAP19 it feels overly busy to the point of distraction. I didn't like the rock layers in the first outside area, for example - there's something like seven (seven!) different layers, all 8 high. Does Hell have the geology of a jawbreaker or something?

Gameplay is pretty meh, surprisingly not all that challenging despite being the MAP26 slot. Lots of zombies at the start with a few Doom 2 enemies, then slowly graduating into a few larger skirmishes but nothing exciting. The caco trap outside was particularly dull, as the cacos slowly teleporting in one at a time just became an ammo sink. And while many maps are linear in nature, the tiny cramped hallways really advertise the linearity, since all you can do is generally walk down a hallway and shoot monsters in front of you.

It's a lot shorter than MAP19, which is good (since I got bored), but I agree with Demon of the Well that it feels weird to have a short "breather map" here when most of the levels so far have been relatively short.

Demon of the Well said:

If I recall correctly, Steve uses Risen3D, and he seldom seems troubled by the dark....I have never used that port myself, though, and so don't know what it looks like.

Risen3D is wonderful, IMO, and I never have trouble with the darkness. Indeed, sometimes I worry that I don't get enough darkness. This issue first came up when a roommate played one of my old maps that, when designed in 1997, relied on some serious darkness to disorient the player and give some weak hellspawn a chance to kill them. It was designed to look the way it did in software-rendered Doom. It was dark, real dark, but you could see a little. He played it in GZDoom and it was pitch-black. Nothing was visible until a Sergeant opened fire and lit up the area for a sec. In Risen3D, it was dark but not quite dark enough, yet IMO, Risen3D is closer to default Doom gamma than GZDoom, which seems too dark.

Anyway, it's a free download. I've tried a ton of ports, including Eternity and even Vavoom (I liked both). I still use GZDoom from time to time. The one that's most fallen off the radar for me is Doomsday, which for years was my fave. Risen3D took over because it was faster on my machine than the others, though I nowadays find Eternity and Vavoom equally fast. However, Risen3D is now my playing and testing port, thanks in part to its excellent launcher. So easy to test map variants.

You should give Risen3D a shot. BTW, they recently added some effects, including splashes in water, and hissing sounds -- with a whiff of smoke -- when you walk on lava. The only thing that bugs me about this option is that, aside from Barons/HKs, all the fireball monsters now shoot the same Imp-style fireballs. Selecting "Basic Doom Mode" from the launcher makes everything nice and Doomy again.

Edit:One thing I forgot to mention is that sometimes Risen3D doesn't seem to display gradient lighting as well as GZDoom. I considered using GZDoom for Hadephobia because of that. I'll switch to Basic Doom Mode to check my own maps. My lighting style is quite similar to purist's, though I first stumbled on the technique in essel's Testing Facility map.

26 - PRIDE OF THE DESCENT
...you still feel the burnt ash of the molton lake on your skin, even during the brief fall into that mysterious pit with the bloodfall. Suddenly, you find yourself in a cave that overlooks a field covered in layers of dust, skin, and hellslime. You have lost trace of the nukage flow but hope the refinery which produces all the waste to resuscitate the Baphomet should lie this way. The way down is locked by a haunted fort opposing the cave. And not just the fort, the enemies. They're coming ceaselessly. Your time is taken.

The actual question now is your survival rather than the destruction of the drilling machine. It won't be an easy task to venture through the pure hellish fields and discover all the mortality of this hadistic-sadistic red brick library...

MAP26: Another formidable map by cell. This one has the same delicious obsession with detail as MAP19, but this time with less restricting gameplay which really helps out. I don’t have much to comment on other than I enjoyed it a lot, getting my ass handed to me every time I didn’t expect a trap coming. Love the look of this map too… especially the underground area with all the water and blue torches. While I did die a few times, the map still keeps up with a modest difficulty, which seems odd since I’m so close to the end… can’t help but feel like I’m exploring hell more than trying to surviving in it. And now reading through the comments I can't help but laugh that we've all echoed the same sentiment.

=========

MAY'S MEGAWAD(S)
I was going to tally up the votes but a lot of people didn't actually vote for a particular wad, instead just sharing thoughts. So here are the wads we're looking at:

~10 levels
HYMN
Double Impact
Coffee Break
Dark Resolution 2008
Fava Beans

32 levels
Vile Flesh
Kama Sutra
Rebirth
Realm of Chaos
Memento Mori 2

Personally, I think we should go with 3 ten level compilations next month, and follow it up with one of the 32-level megawads above. If no one has any strong objections to this, please pick three out of the five ~10 level titles the next time you post. For me, I'm throwing my votes to HYMN, Coffee Break and Double Impact (although Dark Resolution does sound alluring...)

I have no problem picking only from the 10-level sets. Since I don't have Heretic and I want to avoid death destiny slaughters (thanks for the warning, cannonball!), I vote for Double Impact, Coffee Break and Fava Beans.

HYMN, Coffee Break and Double Impact

Double Impact, Coffee Break, Fava Beans

Just finished watching alfonzo's playthrough up to map22. Got to take exception to tarnsman's claim that unavoidable items = not having to go looking for health. They mean exactly the opposite. If an item is unavoidable, you have to pick it up when you encounter it, which means it isn't there later when you actually need it.

An item set to one side of a corridor is just as easy to get as an unavoidable one, the difference is you only need to pick it up when you want it.

HYMN
Doom Resolution 2008
Fava Beans