The DWmegawad Club plays: 25 Years on Earth

dobu gabu maru · June 1, 2020

What is the DWmegawad Club?

This is a place where we settle down, have a cup of tea (or drink of your choice) and take a month to play through a megawad on our own, together! Any keen observations, criticisms, or frustrated ranting about it goes here in the discussion. As long as you want to say something about what you've played, feel free to speak your mind.

Can I join?

Sure. The only rule is that you have to play at least some of the levels in our monthly megawad to contribute, but you're generally encouraged to finish the whole thing, even if you've played it before.

What levels am I allowed to post about?

Whatever day of the month it is, is the upper limit for the map you can post on. So if it’s the 6th, you may discuss up to MAP06.

Do I have to post an entry every day?

Nope, not at all. This is only for our more enthusiastic members. As long as you play through it with us you’re part of the club.

When do we vote on the next month’s megawad?

Voting begins on the 25th of the current month. Remember to add one “+++” before your vote to make it easier to count. For example:

+++ Ultimate Doom

Note that you can only nominate up to three separate wads for a single month, and the wads must contain at least three maps each. The winning wad must receive at least four votes for a thread to be made. Ties will be decided by RNG.

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>>>DOWNLOAD 25 YEARS ON EARTH HERE<<<

Do you like short, fun maps? Do you like metal music? Do you like Doom? Then may I present to you 25 Years on Earth, a limit-removing 1-person megawad by Phobus! It uses every single line action and special sector available in Doom 2, and is *gasp* encouraged to be played continuous! Let’s see what Phobus has in store for us, shall we?

Maplist:

MAP01 - “Drop Pod Excursion”

MAP02 - “Bunker Buster”

MAP03 - “Urban Renewal”

MAP04 - “Wasted Luxury”

MAP05 - “Skyline”

MAP06 - “Destination Defenestration”

MAP07 - “Rat Run”

MAP08 - “Constriction”

MAP09 - “Skulking Death”

MAP10 - “Haste Keep”

MAP11 - “Bloody Denial”

MAP12 - “Emerald Fluid”

MAP13 - “Caldera”

MAP14 - “Water Treatment”

MAP15 - “Spaceport”

MAP31 - “Holiday”

MAP32 - “The Waiting Room”

MAP16 - “Unruly Cargo”

MAP17 - “Entrance Made”

MAP18 - “Meat Grinder”

MAP19 - “Fester”

MAP20 - “Reclamation”

MAP21 - “Security Station”

MAP22 - “Power Trip”

MAP23 - “Corporate Hell”

MAP24 - “The Front Line”

MAP25 - “Middle Management”

MAP26 - “Upper Management”

MAP27 - “Press Gang”

MAP28 - “Broundry 3”

MAP29 - “The Armoury”

MAP30 - “Final Test”

BONUS CONTENT

TBA

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OLD THREADS

Spoiler

The DWmegawad Club Metathread

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Edited May 8, 2023 by dobu gabu maru

Rince-wind · June 1, 2020

Wow I'm early, just wanted to congratulate @Phobus for this wad, I played it a while ago and can assure everyone they won't be disappointed (if you like short punchy maps with midi renditions of metal)

Biodegradable · June 1, 2020

Been looking forward to this. I was a bit too late to catch up with everyone regarding last month's megaWAD so I played it alone while keeping an eye on the club for the announcement of this month's megaWAD so I can participate. Honestly, I didn't like Mars Wars all that much, so I had to rinse my palette with UAC Ultra.

I'm hoping this one will prove to be a better experience and a hearty congratulations to Phobus for completing it.

Egg Boy · June 1, 2020

I'm actually nearly done with this one, so would it be fine if I just posted my thoughts on each map each day?

Phobus · June 1, 2020

Well, this is a good month to be me! Hopefully my ego survives the month... Thanks for the votes and to @dobu gabu maru for posting the thread. I'll do my first full continuous UV GZDoom play through alongside everybody else, but post each map retrospective a day late so as not to spoil anything. I might try and offer some insight, where I have some!

Manapro · June 1, 2020

GZDoom UV continuous play:

MAP01 starts in a small yard of somekind, there are lots of trees and most importantly, a fountain! That an imp thought it'll be a good idea to be on top of it,

the map goes on with shooting a bunch of imps and small hitscanners, and there's a great secret that gives you a chainsaw.

This map overall is nice, but not the best.

Edited June 1, 2020 by Wneaf : removed map02 info

Pechudin · June 1, 2020

6 minutes ago, Wneaf said:

*stuff*

Just FYI if you did not know about the rules of the club, you are not supposed to post, for example, about MAP02 until 2nd of the month.

Sooo, this WAD. I actually played it up until MAP17, but hey, why not replay it with the club. I liked the maps a lot, and even on UV I did not die until MAP11, in total about 2 times. So this should not be too hard for anyone, which I like. Congrats to @Phobus!

Endless · June 1, 2020

Short maps with some metal music in ? Thats my jam. Im in.

Biodegradable · June 1, 2020

MAP01 - Drop Pod Excursion

A very quaint, but neat start. Its layout is certainly interesting and I liked the use of Doom 2 assets to create an apartment building with a TV and minibar. I thought that was a nice touch. :^)

Deadwing · June 1, 2020

MAP 1

From all the 6 maps I've played so far, I would say that the first one is the least interesting, mainly due to the squary + furniture house layout which is usually boring and predictable and the invisible walls blocking you from exploring the rest of the street. (a visible blockage such as boxes, cracters, midtextures, etc would work better)

On the other hand, the entrance vista is quite memmorable and I got myself dead once playing carelessy lol, which IMO are definitely good things.

TheOrganGrinder · June 1, 2020

I'm in! ZDoom 2.8.1, Hurt Me Plenty, continuous play with saves.

MAP01: Drop Pod Excursion

Short and sweet, this one drops you off (quite literally) in a little public park before sending you through a well-realised MYHOUSE.WAD interior to a backyard bomb shelter. I like the underside of one stair that you can see and the little sneak-peek around the bookshelf into the broken-open back room; neat little touches that suggest a larger structure than the Doom engine can actually model. On the other hand the blocking lines that prevent access along the street feel arbitrary and heavy-handed; I get the intent to funnel the player smoothly and directly forward, but it's not usually done in quite so naked a fashion as this. I haven't really been following this project so I'm looking forward to where it might take us next.

gaspe · June 1, 2020

A one-man megawad with only the stock textures sounds interesting in 2020, the Doom 1 textures are included to help and there are few custom ones but it's all very "stock-friendly" stuff.

Not so much to say about MAP01, straightforward gameplay without substance like the usual opening map but things get more complex already in the next maps. I like the simple and cute visuals that shows a very good attention to the details.

kalaeth · June 1, 2020

since I am already plying this one, I'll join too.

Playing on ITYTD, GZDoom, continuous and using ANTA_MOD for the weapons.

MAP01 : excepting that invisible impassable line, short nice map.

ironicmoustache · June 1, 2020

Crispy Doom, UV continuous, saves.

MAP01: Nothing too special, but has some Doomcute going for it. Does what it needs to do as an opening map I suppose. Not sure whether I like the choice of MIDI (good song though, just not sure it works for a Doom level), nor the invisible impassable lines.

Edited June 1, 2020 by ironicmoustache

Alper002 · June 1, 2020

I was saying "next time" a few times last month, so I'm naturally expected to actually follow through on my promises.

This wad looks like it has a more classic leaning, difficulty-wise, so I'm going to guess that UV will be the right difficulty for me. If I end up guessing wrong, then I'll lower it down. I'm also going to play continuously because I like to play that way.

MAP01:Drop Pod Excursion is a short starting map, with nice details and a good sense of being in a real-ish place. Not much to explore, the presence of invisible walls are a bit of a shame even if what's behind them can't be expected to be explorable. Even then, the secrets in the map still reward exploration a bit, rather than being truly "secret". Simple and fun map all around.

Map ratings:

Spoiler

Maps get rated on different lists (which I'll add as I deem necessary) depending on which part of the map I liked most, and the placement on said list is dependent on what I think of the map as a whole. I'm no good at putting number scores, so ranking/rating them in this way should work better for me.

Maps I liked for their simplicity:

MAP01:Drop Pod Excursion

Pechudin · June 1, 2020

PrBoom+, UV, Saveless, let's go! From what I've played thus far (up to MAP17) this WAD is about my level skill-wise so I'll feel pretty good if I keep the number of deaths to a minimum.

MAP01: Drop Pod Excursion (Kills: 100%, Secrets: 2/2, Deaths: 0)

Interesting start, the 'drop pod crashing into the map' idea was something I was planning to do as well in one of my maps. I guess the trope is not that uncommon, with Icarus MAP01 starting you in a supply box and various others in teleporters. From where did we fall, is there a text explanation? Did we launch ourselves from Deimos or were we sent here?

At any rate, the opening is rather nice to look at and the opposition is light. Supposedly the demonic horde already passed trough and all that remains are a few feral demons, far away from their swarm. Isolated and few in numbers like that they pose no problem to our fists, shotgun and pistol. This time I knew to pick up the Berserk, so I am going into the next map with more ammunition than first time I played. Music is rather chipper, but I do not quite recognize the source material for the MIDI. Those invisible walls were an odd and jarring choice though.

As a final note, if I ever start making DooM II maps this is probably the style of mapmaking I would employ.

Andromeda · June 1, 2020

Hey @dobu gabu maru, it looks like Hell Revealed II is missing from the previous threads :P

MAP01: Drop Pod Excursion (25 Years on Earth)

PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4, HNTR-PS, no saves, 100% everything

Short and sweet. It features a secret behind the start (a mapping trope that I love) which allows you to go berserk and kill all your opponents with ease. Visually I'm reminded of Kama Sutra's city levels (even featuring the impassable lines) but obviously much less brutal in terms of difficulty. I liked that both secrets give melee weapons and that the chainsaw appears at the end unlike Entryway. After going down a small stairway we find the exit switch, on to the next level!

Levels in order of preference:

Spoiler

MAP01: Drop Pod Excursion

ironicmoustache · June 1, 2020

Quote

Music is rather chipper, but I do not quite recognize the source material for the MIDI

MAP01 music is Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back in Town" in case anyone is wondering. It does possibly make some sense thematically since the player is (back) in town and blood will indeed spill. But I imagine that little touch would be lost on anyone who doesn't recognise the song. Hell, I "got" it and still am not sure if it's all that great a choice for a Doom level, but hey.

Edited June 1, 2020 by ironicmoustache

Phobus · June 1, 2020

The two text files (particularly the "_MAPS" one) should answer questions about "story", some loose trivia and also what the music is and who it's by! Although I've only been able to credit the source websites rather than the actual MIDI authors, I did at least know what song and original artist it was.

Also, I originally said that I'd upload to /idgames a week after release, which has already passed. I figured that this month is likely to find any outstanding bugs more effectively than anything else, so it can wait. It's not like I'm not already late!

Snikle · June 1, 2020

MAP01: Drop Pod Excursion

Not much here, but I liked what little I saw. Abstract but realistic environments are always fun. And it also seems that each level comes with an “identify the song” challenge too. Classic rock in a classic game. Combat was fine, nothing much again. I found the secret berserk pack, that made things go a little more smoothly, ammo-wise.

EDIT: Also @dobu gabu maru, the list of previous WADs is missing HR2

DuckReconMajor · June 1, 2020

MAP01: Drop Pod Excursion

glBoom+ 2.5.1.7um, skill 4, continuous with saves

Learned today that -viddump respects -skipsec so I will be trying this out UV continuous, with no complevel specified so i can save too.

Also playing in software this time.

This map is another "city levels can look awesome with stock Doom tex dammit!" looker.

I of course loved the MIDI, this song is one of my favorites, despite making me feel very 30-year-old-boomer.

The vocal line when played in Fluidsynth/default Windows does sound like Phil Lynott was turned into an out of breath goose.

OPL ended up sounding better to me so that's what's in the video. I may change back and forth per video. I heard the next song too and I'm excited for it as well.

Spoiler

Edited June 1, 2020 by DuckReconMajor : typo

Summer Deep · June 1, 2020

Back here again for the June Megawad jamboree....

Playing UV continuous in GZDoom - for some reason my usual sourceport, GLBoom+, just won't run with the setup I'm using right now (Dell Latitude E5530 with Windows 10 Pro): anyone got any ideas why that might be (it runs PRBoom+ fine)?

MAP01

Lots of room to run around in the opening arena (which looks quite nice), with very little opposition to prevent you from doing so, but you might as well make the most of it, as the rest of the map is pretty claustrophobic. I'd have liked to punch and chainsaw my way through this, but missed the Berserk secret and the motorized masher came along a bit late in the day. A very easy and straightforward opener.

MAP02

A bit tougher, but not by much. The large room with the red and yellow keys is pretty lively and you need to watch out for the barrels, but the main potential for loss of health comes from hitscanners lurking in the smaller rooms and passageways. The blue key room features an odd mechanism whereby part of the structure behind the key seems to rise up and descend rather erratically - I thought initially it might be some sort of 'reverse crusher', but it doesn't seem able to damage the monsters and I think it's just there to provide a surprise by concealing then revealing them.

The map is laid out very logically and with some degree of symmetry, meaning that it's easy enough to work out how to progress. Even so, I failed to locate the final two monsters, who were presumably in a secret area, though I did get the Soulsphere. Decent fun, no complaints.

Edited June 2, 2020 by Summer Deep

Horus · June 1, 2020

@Andromeda let's just forget that month ever happened :P

Going to play this one on UV continuous (increasingly these days I play pistol start, but this mapset is designed for continuous so that I shall do). Since this is a new mapset, some video recordings of my playthrough to come too (prB+ cl2).

MAP01 - “Drop Pod Excursion”

This is a short opener where the player literally starts from a drop pod, viewing a large garden. I do like the road design, that’s pretty cool, I’m somewhat less enthused by the early invisible wall though, they are always a pet hate of mine (plus it would have been nice to explore the outskirts of the other properties).

The indoor myhouse.wad is nicely done (and certainly more modernized than the version we saw in ‘Marketing’ in Mars War), with enough monsters to keep you occupied. Not wholly convinced by the music here and I wonder if I will think that throughout the megawad, but I respect the mapper’s choice.

MAP02 - “Bunker Buster”

This level generally has a look and feel more like an IWAD level than the opener. The soulsphere secret probably saved me a death here, the hitscanner and imp area with the water and poison was fairly intense (to be fair, Underhalls from Doom II was also fairly intense in that regard). Enjoyable level, if not particularly memorable

Edited June 2, 2020 by Horus

TheOrganGrinder · June 2, 2020

MAP02: Bunker Buster

Decent map, not quite an arena but it's mostly constructed around a central open space, which can make facing down the thronging hitscanners here a bit of a "dead by a thousand cuts" sort of situation. I burned through the soulsphere quicker than I would've liked (chalk that up to slugging reflexes and poor situational awareness) and the secret chaingun feels like it comes too late in the map's running time to be put to good use - I didn't find it until after I'd cleared out the rest of the level, and I don't want to claim that's a typical experience but off the top of my head it seems like the player will have killed something like one-half to two-thirds of the map's monster population before picking it up unless they know where it is and prioritise quickly grabbing it over killing the monsters on the way - not always practical when so many of them are hitscanners! And mowing down zombies, shotgun sergeants, and imps with sustained automatic fire would've been so satisfying, versus the steadier pace of the pump-action shotgun. Ah well. Aesthetically it's pretty solid, with an engineered feel to its various spaces that strikes a good balance between playability, detail, and verisimilitude.

Magnusblitz · June 2, 2020

17 hours ago, dobu gabu maru said:

Do you like short, fun maps? Do you like metal music? Do you like Doom?

No I hate all those things

Looking over the WAD thread it seems Phobus plays on settings pretty close to my own (ZDoom with mouselook but nothing else) so should be good. I'll give it a spin on continuous, see how it goes - I always like the concept of continuous but usually pistol start as I find most Doom WADs seem better balanced that way, so hopefully one designed to be continuous, made in a modern setting, works.

MAP01: Drop Pod Excursion

100% kills, 2/2 secrets

Really short intro map here, only 30 enemies and serving more just to set the scene, which is (unsurprisingly) on Earth, in a residential area to be exact. I liked the implication that the drop pod door violently flew off and crushed a zombie to death, the sort of thing that would fit the Doom Slayer. The myhouse.wad area is decent enough, but the giant invisible walls were off-putting. Music doesn't quite hit for me either, I get the obvious theme connection, but (at least on my MIDI renderer) it came out a bit too jazzy and upbeat. Likewise, the menu music didn't make a good impression either - the opening notes sound more like hissing or an audio error.

Horus · June 2, 2020

Here's the video for maps 1 & 2 in spoiler. I found it jittery when video recording (as you can see from the video) so I switched to GZDoom from map 03+, which runs far smoother for me

Spoiler

Biodegradable · June 2, 2020

MAP02 - Bunker Buster

A pretty straightforward map, which I honestly don't mind after playing through a lot of maze-like maps since I started playing community WADs has gotten a little exhausting after a while, so it was a nice change of pace for me. This one had a more meatier challenge with all the zombiemen/shotgunners around which made it feel a fair bit more intense, especially the center of the map, that was a fun shoot-out. You didn't manage to kill me, Phobus, but you did make me sweat a little hehe.

Endless · June 2, 2020

MAPO1: Drop Pod Excursion. Played in UV using LZDoom and Brutal Doom.

A small yet fun start that gives me a good impression of the whole wad. I love the MIDI music of famous metal/rock songs, thats already a big plus. Nothing much to say, simple yet fun map that starts well enough. Im kinda expecting something like Scythe, but lets not get my hopes to high yet.

Capellan · June 2, 2020

HMP continuous, frequent saves, no music, prboom-plus.

MAP01

Mostly inoffensive, though I was not a fan of the wide open streets you apparently can't walk down. Doomcute furniture was quite well-executed.

MAP02

I thought three keys was overkill here; this was a one key door map in terms of size and would probably have played better that way, with more opportunity to explore optional content. I would have appreciated more opportunities to splatter things with barrels, but I had fun with the chances that were given.

Egg Boy · June 2, 2020

UV, pistol start, saves, prboom-plus

Map01: Not too much to say, a basic opener, I like how the ending is directly connected to map02 because its a bunker. I don't like the invisible walls, I feel like there could have been something like rubble, or traffic cones (like in kama sutra map01) to make it clear the player can't go there, but other than that, its got that Doom 2 city map atmosphere that I adore.

Map02: A pretty fun second map with a more tech-base-y feel. The long hallways surrounding the map remind me of underhalls, which is also map02 of Doom 2. We also get our first taste of some puzzle-like elements with the blue key area and the raising and lowering platform, later, the set will go on to have even more puzzles. A good map, but not one of my favs.

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The DWmegawad Club plays: 25 Years on Earth

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