What WAD are you playing now?

Community Chest 2, MAP15: City Heat, wow wtf happened here? I don't wanna continue this trend of negative reviewing but this is what I'm starting to coin "crackhead mapping hours" while playing it because it's an absolute nightmare. Constant barrage of monsters coupled with resource drain, janky ass 3D bridges that monsters when crossing under will suddenly appear over, some absolute fuckery going on with a nukage maze that reduces your momentum to a crawl, making it virtually impossible to dodge projectiles (so, the purple stuff before Doom Eternal did it). I'm kinda at a loss as to what's going on or what I'm trying to accomplish here, but it's an absolute showstopper of a map and I already can tell I won't find the secret exit without a guide. So far this WAD is notably better than the original in almost every way, at worst there's a mediocre map as opposed to a legitimately painful one which was most in CC1. But this map is fkn awful.

E: Beat it in 40 minutes, felt longer, my reward for MAP16? Another Gene Bird map, oh joy! (sorry to anyone who likes his works I just find them to be 'nothing maps' because the theme, while consistent, doesn't seem to be any particular place, they're architecturally uninteresting and just go on and on and on and have 300+ monsters but never in a configuration that is detrimental to the player's survival).

Been making my way through Doom 64 after not playing it for like 7 months.

I'm currently playing Struggle: Antaresian Legacy and really digging it. I just beat Map06, which flings you into a glowing blue cave that looks nothing like the chunky, bright lighting of the techbases you've explored in the previous levels, and it introduces a couple of new Dehacked enemies in the process.

The new weaponry feels excellent and the modified enemy behavior complements it perfectly. I know the later levels will beat me pretty badly, but I enjoy playing to see how far I can get before I have to tap out.

To address my rudeness in my previous post, Gene Bird's offerings in CC2 are way better than CC1, I think I just didn't like the idea of CC1 throwing in maps that had nothing to do with the project. I still don't think they're amazing by any means but they are decent romps, if uniformly same-y in aesthetic.

I'm also playing Back to Saturn X ep2 on Switch and uh, well, I feel bad for the 12 people playing it on a gamepad on UV, I think I've seen more revenants than imps for the 12 and a half maps I've played. Missed opportunity to just call this Plutonia 3!

E: These maps are also fucking LONG and I'm not even halfway through. There are nearly 30 levels on offer and most of them are 40 minutes to an hour. Missed opportunity to call this Eternal Doom 5!

I was so disappointed with Halo Infinte so I bought another game for Xmas. I bought Assasin's creed: Valhalla. Played the first hour and so far it's awesome! Looking forward to playing it all winter.

I genuinely hope that blue armor isn't mandatory on MAP18 of Community Chest 2 because I can't survive with 53 health, even with the BFG, you get locked in with the armor and chaingunners/shotgunners and revenants will waste you in seconds! I also have no idea where to go even with all three keys...

E: Y'gotta run backwards as soon as you hit the switch near the armor to not be trapped. Pre-knowledge!

E2: Holy crap MAP23: Death Mountain. Yes, let's get the player stuck on geometry and funnel them into unavoidable damage at almost all times. I guess this is considered acceptable fun. Supposedly there's some good levels late in CC2 but sure is taking a long time to get to them.

E3: Not long at all, just very congested and it ends unceremoniously. Goofy. MAP24: The Mucus Flow though, at 879 monsters, is this what people remember? Damn, I'll start it later LOL.

E4:

Quote

Linedef 9094 (the switch opening the four doors outside at the north of the map) is located closely behind four linedefs (9956, 9957, 9958, 9959) that are of type 48 (animated wall, scrolls left) but are not set as PassThru. Thus, the switch cannot be activated, rendering the level impossible to finish, unless you are playing in ZDoom, or the noclip cheat is used. Users of PrBoom+ can activate "Use passes thru all special lines" in order to reach the switch.

That...is bad, even for the time. This map is annoying also. There's also no way to comfortably get past these doors without being obliterated soooo this might be where I step off with CC2.

E5: OK I'm a dumb ass you can clip into the switch and still use it, that's better. That said what's behind the door is certainly my limit of BS reached for one day.

E6: Can confirm the end of the journey, with a little under 300 monsters killed because uhhhhhh, no. At least I left with what's left of my sanity!

Not Doom, but still Id Software related. I played through Wolf3D, Spear of Destiny and the two additional campaigns of the latter via ECWolf.

What stuck out to me playing these is just how much of the stealthy aspect of the original two games is still there by ways of having pretty much only very damaging hitscan enemies excepct for the odd RL-lonly boss and guard dogs. Rushing in guns blazing gets you killed almost instantly, at least on the latter two difficulties (I've played on Bring 'em on!). There is a definite feeling of danger when you hear the doors opening and closing throughout the map.

Episodes 4 and 6 of the nocturnal missions left rather bad impressions on me. Hiding the key in E4M5 is a piece of shit dick move and replicating it upon death took me way too long. The ridiculous maze in E6M7 made me finally tap out in frustration. E5 with it's smaller, easier to navigate levels was much more fun.

Spear of Destiny was pretty good, imo. I expected much worse given that it is nowhere near as popular as the original Wolf3D. The level design here was even better at points.

The Mission Packs where decidedly less good but still quite playable. There is a certain charm to how gaudy these levels look. The obligatory pushwalls are annoying but after a while the player gets a feeling of when to look for them. They were usually located in dead ends previously locked behind keydoors and the like. While it wasn't a horrible experience at all the main reason I played these was simply to grab some screenshots throughout the campaign since there don't seem to be many for these expansions out there. I'm still unsure as to where I should upload them, so any suggestions are welcome. I thought of maybe starting some knock-off version of thekingofgrabs but I'm not sure if any free web providers or blog providers allow for such a thing.

Dieing to Rigel1 as recommended in this thread--I hate the music and sound effects but love the map; though it's completely unfair so far in a good way (it can't be me or my shitty playing...no no it's the map :P )   I always have some random shit-luck event happen if I don't succumb to poor planning first.  For music I've swapped out with MM2Mus track 09 as that fits better for me; giving it a more playful feel so I don't feel as inclined to rage quit or break my mouse and keyboard.   the sound effects are the typical 90's canned machine gun sound, so just barely tolerable.  

Gameplay is chaotic with lots of hit scanners and imps strategically placed to give you a hard time while avoiding everything else.   Monster placement is really good here.   Health is sparce, so use it well.  Ammo seems more generous, though it's easy to burn through unless you use the barrels and in-fighting to your advantage.  All said, it's a fun map.

Just beat 1997's Requiem and especially, mainly, the early levels blew away my expectations of how a wad that early could look like, expectations laid by Hell Revealed's relatively basic levels (basic levels I happen to like). Was a bit of a Downer (hehe) around the end, the last act is a bit of a slog and I was happy to be done with it by then. Returned to going through Plutonia 2 which I've been extremely off and on about through no my fault of my own (my stuff keeps breaking). Finally beat map 20, Lurking Fear, and now I am distracted from Plutonia 2 again. I'll finish it someday.

Just played Tough nut and CRESCENT.WAD from the wad list of stuff i have downloaded in this year. Of Crescent i wrote a review in the wad files, but not of Tough nut.

Both short, fun maps, Tough nut have a pretty good sense of detailing! Pretty cool stuff @Killerratte!

I'm playing through The Rebirth megawad. It plays nice as for 90's set, it wouldn't feel out of place in modern times too. 

Random Shovelware wads with my Xmas Mod that I made (ik Christmas has passed, but I'm using that mod while it's still Winter. I tend to decorate stuff based off of holidays and seasons, DOOM included............somewhat)

I finally beat (saveless uv max) Fire and Ice!

I did all the other Scythe maps in 2020, but for the MAP30 I switched to HMP. It's been on my mind to do it on UV and today I finally sat down and did it. What a beast of a level. After a megawad that's mostly pretty easy, the final level is harder than most Hell Revealed levels :D I think a lot of the difficulty comes from the fact that the map is so exhausting. At some point you get careless and eat a rocket, which almost killed me at the very end of the run.

I'm playing Plutonia, with the Corruption Cards mod, along with Ultimate Custom Doom. I've got the latter set to regenerate my health continuously, and give me a small amount of bonus ammo every 2 minutes, to mitigate the difficulty of the maps and cards somewhat.

On 11/11/2021 at 7:08 AM, rd. said:

Played Bad Religion by NaturalTvventy, who you might know as the genius behind the classic Ultimate Doom megawad 

 

My favorite "experiment" was definitely the familiar Doomsphere: a temporary 4x boost in power that obscures your vision with red haze, used a handful of times throughout.

Thanks for the write up! I do wonder if you stumbled upon one of the summon spheres...

Halfway through Ancient Aliens on ITYD. Easily the best decision I've made so far this year. There's enough monsters in modern WADs to sometimes catch me off guard, but it's easy enough for casually appreciating the levels and music without becoming frustrating. AA isn't going anywhere after the blind playthrough, so I'll turn up the difficulty some other time if I feel like it.

Also did the first six maps of Scythe with D4V on UV, but sadly the Map07 fix provided didn't seem to do the trick.

Supplice demo, almost done with the first of two(?) maps after nearly 40 minutes on "Supplice" difficulty, whatever that entails, I couldn't tell an immediate discernible difference between that and hard, maybe the enemies are just a bit more spongy, they do seem to react a little faster. Seems polished to a very high degree and I certainly look forward to the full release. @Mechadon @Cage

Sunder map19 *snuffs 100th cigarette of the day*

I've just reached MAP11 of Community Chest 4, prior to CC4 I went through CC3 again having last played it in 2009 and that one certainly lived up to my memories with much better map design than CC2. So far CC4 is amazing, I haven't had a single complaint and I was massively overdue for getting to play this but I'm certainly fortunate I finally did. So far my favorite probably had to be Dutch Devil's contribution on MAP10, this is how you do a big level without making it a slog or a confusing mess. I did more in 30 minutes then I feel like I did in an hour and something on CC3's Black Rain, and Use3D's contributions to CC1, and whatever the hell MAP15 was in CC2. I don't mind big long hard levels with sprawling design, but they are easy to mess up and make a chore.

Yesterday I completed Valiant. It seems that whenever I reach MAP22-23 or so in a megawad, I start to rush the end. Happened with Going Down before, happened with Valiant now. Needless to say, I really liked Valiant, although I must say that the hell/industrial themed episode rubbed me in a wrong way at times, and I started wishing this was over already. I guess some of the maps felt a bit overwhelming, and I still couldn't switch to HMP. I mean, Swept into Immolation was good despite really hot start, but the few following maps were a chore with all the arachnorb surprises. Luckily the final maps, Lunatic-themed, were a blast.

Because the latter part of Valiant felt a tad too difficult - not by much, but still - I'm hesitant to start up Ancient Aliens just yet, as I understand it's more or less the same level of difficulty. Some say it's easier, some say it's harder, I don't know. Thus, I brought back Eviternity from the "On Hold"-pile of wads, it definitely felt easier when I resumed my playthrough on maps 11 and 12, the first two snowy castle themed maps. What do you think, should I refrain from AA for now?

Aside from those, I'm doing:

- Crumpets (on HMP-PS): Especially after some long treks in Valiant and Interception II, I'm really starting to appreciate short maps. The first four maps on HMP have been challenging, but it sure feels doable, and I can count on the fact the maps don't take 30+ minutes plus reloads on the average (like it did on Valiant).

- TNT: Revilution (on UV-PS): Much better than TNT: Evilution, that's for sure! Some maps so far (I've reached MAP14) seem to irritate me for some reason whereas others are really fun, enjoyable, and just the right amount challenging so I don't feel the need for abusing save system, but rather save just before key pickups or very suspicious switches.

- Tangerine Nightmare (on UV-PS): Reached MAP06, and I really, really like this, even though last two maps (Bile Noire and Orange Juice... but especially Bile Noire) have been a tad too relentless on me. But never mind, the maps are visually beautiful, soundtrack is awesome, and the layouts are just about the right size for me, that's they feel compact enough as to not feel overwhelming or a chore.

Playing Cheesewheel's Uprising. The levels are relatively short and fun so far, and the changes to the weapons are minor, with some new snappy sounds.

On 12/18/2021 at 6:09 AM, Lila Feuer said:

Community Chest 2, MAP15: City Heat, wow wtf happened here? I don't wanna continue this trend of negative reviewing but this is what I'm starting to coin "crackhead mapping hours" while playing it because it's an absolute nightmare. Constant barrage of monsters coupled with resource drain, janky ass 3D bridges that monsters when crossing under will suddenly appear over, some absolute fuckery going on with a nukage maze that reduces your momentum to a crawl, making it virtually impossible to dodge projectiles (so, the purple stuff before Doom Eternal did it). I'm kinda at a loss as to what's going on or what I'm trying to accomplish here, but it's an absolute showstopper of a map and I already can tell I won't find the secret exit without a guide. So far this WAD is notably better than the original in almost every way, at worst there's a mediocre map as opposed to a legitimately painful one which was most in CC1. But this map is fkn awful.

 

E: Beat it in 40 minutes, felt longer, my reward for MAP16? Another Gene Bird map, oh joy! (sorry to anyone who likes his works I just find them to be 'nothing maps' because the theme, while consistent, doesn't seem to be any particular place, they're architecturally uninteresting and just go on and on and on and have 300+ monsters but never in a configuration that is detrimental to the player's survival).

I love CC2 and even I agree. Map15 is fun to me, but very insane. And yeah, Gene Bird has like one map that's decent and it's Map25.

I'am currently trying out Plutonia Revisited Community Project.

doom eternal and quake

Currently, All Hell, Icarus, and Struggle: Antereasian Legacy.

I was replaying Alien Vendetta with the Recently Released Midi Pack.
 

The zig zag path to the blue key in CC4's 16th map, The Forgotten Base, is the most annoying platforming gymnastics thing I've performed in Doom. I don't get it, the player momentum doesn't really support what the author wanted very well, the fail rate is way too high. Also this is the first lame map in CC4.

Playing @Doomkid and co.'s Ray Mohawk 2. It took a little while to click for me, but I've just hit Map 10 (Kalua Atoll) and I'm convinced it's a work of genius.

Mowing down popcorn hordes with the beefed up weaponry had been entertaining up until then, but GOTTDANG that flamethrower! At first blush it makes this level "hold down LMB to win" (HMP player, by the way), with barons in particular melting comically, satisfyingly fast.

But then it hits you.

The flamethrower-wielding enemies have been a pain in the arse for nine maps, but now you can't see their attacks coming because your screen is already filled with searing death. Cacos go down quickly, but they're not tissue paper, so still retain enough of their area control/physical blockage properties; just without the tankiness. And the modified Cyberdemons can be roasted with sustained fire, but they're still packing double the firepower compared to their vanilla goatbros. It's really difficult for me to articulate just how perfectly this combination of OP weaponry and altered bestiary enhances the traditional Doom experience - all the best bits, amplified - but I feel like this map/new weapon introduction just epitomise the entire project.

And while you can waste everything in Map 10 relatively easily, this is just the halway point of the community pack. @DFF gives you your cute little power fantasy - Postal 2 without the need for a piss break. But from here on out, how is the flamethrower going to be folded into your regular arsenal? How much nastier are the enemies and maps themselves going to become? You've got this shiny, new, ridiculousl-OP weapon, so you should be confident as all get out. But you're not. There's something bigger coming for Ray.

That right there is masterful production.
 

Just beat Base Ganymede and started the Master Levels for Doom 2.