Notes on Fore/vr/ Alone maps from dumbass Lead

2023/08/05
Normalize midis, check for non 2^n textures
Playtesting done on Nugget Doom, and dsda/Zandronum when necessary
I should have mandated a bedroom exit room, too much nice bedrooms in those maps.
next time, if any : mandate a demo of their map from each map maker, or be prepared for overly difficult slaughter unfun.

Beta 3 notes/bugs

Wad

Moving maps in different slots than 01 fucked up the skies, need correction via edit/mapinfo
Might need to move some easier maps later in the wad for some variation/breathing in difficulty.
Started fixing all non 2^n textures via textures/patch edits.
Temp midis need to be replaced with actual music.

MAP01: Outism

You can see the berserk/weapons through the floor on map01.

MAP03: Eto

Wrong credit. Fixed

MAP05: A Daring!! Escape

Midi looping issues.

MAP06: Unnamed Daina map

Missing music.

MAP07: Ass Massage

H_MANC2 texture needs correct dimensions Fixed

MAP09: Purgatori Reborn

Custom textures don't show properly Fixed by author.
Misaligned teleporter texture in BFG room.
Missing music.

MAP12: Hope for Tyranny

Map needs difficulty settings, it's quite hard right now for its slot.

MAP20: Crescent Moon Sortie

Urban Sky might not fit this map.

Pre-beta notes

The map order

---

1)AK-15

save 1-archie fight 2 loads (can cheese it by hauling ass, I don't do well with those Viles)
save 2-final fight 3 loads (cybie won't help me)
Two tough fights, easy start & middle section
Enemies in front of the elevator aren't ambush-flagged anymore ?
I don't get the SS, but neat secret
Done w/out save (and without dodging the archvile fight)
Mid length, early map

2)Akasha

I don't know what the best start strat is, I rushed the SSG and went for the arachnotron lift, then to the supercharge.
I lucked out, the arch-vile died from infighting and the cyber got stuck.
I just rushed the exit after 8 tries.
Done w/out save
Weird slaughter, late map

3)Chiaki

Harsh start when the fuckers all box you in.
1 save before the Pain Room (this sucks)
4 loads to the Pain Room (I like the way this sucks)
Face rocket with a lost soul x2/killed in the back by a knight/rushed the key and got shot to death
Done w/out save
One difficult fight (for me), mid map

4)Curly Brace

Do you want to leave the hom exit ? It stays in.
No difficulty spike, ssg-only gimmick without the panty secret.
Done w/out save
Short-packed map, early map

5)DainAss

Armor can be grabbed behind the starting door
First corner is misaligned.
Last cyber can be avoided by running
Done w/out save
Short gimmick map, early map

6)Filia

Too much spectres.
Viles in small hallways where you get stuck everywhere.
No ammo
No health
Only pain
Can't do it
Can grab the breast supercharge without triggering the secret.
Small sliver of ceilling left in the baron/specters area.
Last map, I don't want to play it ever again.

7)King Cai

I tested every version of this map before, so I might be biased.
Underwhelming final fight, not much risk (height variation like Shanalotte/Taihou fights would be better).
Nugget doesn't loop midi properly.
Done w/out save
Easy & quick, early map

8)Madoka

Save 1-before the switch in front of a caged baron (suspicious amount of ammo)
1 load (fucking vile)
Save 2-Arrows door (triple key door, useless save)
Save 3-Library (one vile down, but a dubious switch and super+ammo)
1 load (won the fight, died to a stray knight fireball right after)
4 loads (the successful first try was a fluke)
Save 4-After the Cyber (looking for the other keys)
Pink portal part of unfinished plans ?
I guess Madoka is included, but she is she really part of the playable area ? (might be outside the rules)
Can fall and softlock yourself behind the rising mancubus pillar
Done w/out save
Plasma heavy map with clear fight and no unfair traps, mid-late map

9)Madotsuki

Way past my skill level.
Blue<Yellow<Red in difficulty
Can manage one section or blue+yellow without dying if I get a good start.
Final fight isn't as hard as I thought at first.
Difficult all long. Late-Last map

10)Maka Albarn

Save 1-Rocket launcher (big weapon + switch = bad trap.)
Save 2-2nd switch
Save 3-3rd switch
Can get stuck on angles, like in the first room.
I still want to take those armor bonus before the wall lowers, and I got stuck at least twice.
Misaligned bleeding gargoyle on scythe teleporter
Many monsters, cramped rooms beginning
Could do with height variation on the couple first rooms, I think it's part of why I found the end better than the start areas.
Done w/out save
Big battles, mid map

11)Maki Nishikino

Missing texture on start TV, small issue that'll be fixed in compilation.
Not much height variation.
Could use a small encounter on the art area
Done w/out save
Short & easy, early map.

12)HDoom Mancubus

Mindless slaughter.
I probably can't and certainly won't finish this map.
Single huge arena, tried saveless from the start.
6 tries to get to the mancubus wave.
Gave up and saved after a correct run.
4 more tries to beat it with no health and ammo, saw even more monsters spawn and quit.
If this is fun for you, may any god of your choice bless you.
Just slaughter, Dead Simple gimmick, so MAP07 or late map with UMAPINFO actions.

Notes on rebalanced v3 :
Intro isn't a game of luck anymore.
Maybe add some blocking linedefs not far from the arena, it happened several times that a Pain Elemental floated far enough that lost souls became a major problem, more so than the mancubus wave.
Can reliably get to the mancubus wave (way more managable).
Missing the platform near the Arch-Vile is very frustrating and very punishing
Still don't see how you are supposed to finish the map, there's too many enemies and especially lost souls and Pain elems to use the final lift, that is if you still have health left dodging the spider and everything else. That baron on top of the lift was my breaking point, and I called it off there.
Clearly more reasonable difficulty on the early parts, still a brutal ending, MAP07 seems a good choice to start ramping up difficulty, but it might still filter people.

13)Merula

Shotgun room might be a wall for my nosave run (revs like to go around each side of the pillar)
Some walls textures are unpegged and some aren't making a weird effect when the shotgun room goes down.
Save 1-Red stairs door
2 loads (sneaky caco in the hedge maze/came back the next day)
Save 2-Red antechamber (first good run)
Save 3-Water pit (Fell into secret while dodging rockets)
2 loads (sneaky cyber/sky high caco block+rockets)
Several tries, not much health before big final fight, only strat is rushing the berserk.
Music change not working on nugget/dsda ? (Rocket secret does)
Why is there a blank midi file ? Anon finds a Chickenism during a community project, what's new ?

The blank midi is because GZDoom (at least 4.10.0) doesn't seem to recognize thing 14100, which should play the default midi with MUSINFO. To work around it I simply made the default midi silent and used 14101 as the default song which plays when starting the map. 14100 works with Nugget and Woof for some reason though but I went with that solution.

Difficulty would take a huge drop in continuous play, esp at the start.
Done w/out save (but not without either RL/BFG)
Huge map with tricky/cheap traps, mid-late map
(would probably be cool with gmota)

14)Mikazuki

Huge HoM visible at the spawn, what did you do anon
That HoM made testing on anything but Zandronum impossible (GZDoom could also work I guess)
Save 1-3rd? barrel (spawning revs above you)
7 loads (died by caco fighting archies x4/Tried rushing/went for rockets and triggered next fight)
Multiple Viles with no cover and hordes of demons in your ass, my favorite recipe for fun®
Save 2-killed the viles and ran away
5 loads (died going back in x2/face rocket in the imp/baron room x2/that super isn't accessible right now, dumbass)
Save 3-Kitchen, 7hp, good luck.
3 loads (of course there's a vile downstairs/no more rockets, get fucked by knights x2)
Gave up.
Do you think there's enough cacos ?
If is the map with the secret exit, that'd be one well hidden secret map.
Vile-traps everywhere, clouds of caco bought from the same discount store as Sunder, surprisingly low amount of rockets for such a map, late map.

Thoughts on v2:
HoM is fixed on nugget.
Save 1-Barrel after knight
Several issues with clipping textures

Save 2-Kitchen
Save 3-Kitchen again, but we got the red key now
Can grab the supercharge with some platforming, but this backpack can't be grabbed
Those middle-texture barriers aren't blocking, don't know if this is an issue or not for now.
1 load (Zapped and rev'd in front of the blue key)
What the hell are those blue and red keys locked sectors(?) that you just use, and then monsters spawn ? A switch is way more intuitive, my first thought was that those would lower/move when I found the corresponding colored switch.
This is where I lost my focus and just ran through the map: the specter-shielded Arch-vile isn't overly dickish, but I clear this zone, go up and there's yet another horde (and a sniping chaingunner that explains my random damages during the first part of the map) so I just go up again, and find two berserks and some cells and ... the exit ? What ? Is your moon barrel gimmick completely optional ? You don't even need some of them to finish the map ?
The docks kitchen and back area has some fine details, even if I'm not a fan of the gameplay, it does look nice.
Like the boat/docks aesthetic, it looks nice. Would have liked to visit that huge boat in the back, but hey, it is what it is.
So after going for all barrels, I got the yellow key. I think the wave of Revs and Viles going to the yellow key is unnecessary, and I just used the BFG to clean that up.
I regret wanting to go on the big boat, the crew clearly need some Vitamin C. I also don't have much more ammo after cleaning everything, so I ran to the teleporter and ignored those scurvy-ridden Viles.
Thank Shub I didn't find this secret boat defence encounter in my first or second playthrough, or I probably would have deleted the map seeing all those cacos.
Save 4-I won't go down with my ship.
1 load (I did.)
It's dumb, but those pictures in this (not-actually secret, second exit is still tagged "W1 Exit level") secret exit make me think I shouldn't have continued testing your map still tilted from other tests the first time.
However I feel about this map in a normal playthrough, I was able to finish it in 02:14 without firing a single shot. So it's beatable.
(Somewhat)Done w/out save
Long level with hard encounters, rocket-heavy, possibly the only secret exit map, late map.

15)Outis

First map to be submitted
Custom Texture issue in yellow room.
Hurting water, weird.
No exit room, using the door texture ends the map.
Some details to the side rooms to make them as thematic as the middle fleshy one could have been great.
Nice customs textures.
Short, easy and to the point, early map

16)Rainbow Dash

That blue armor is sneaky.
Save 1-Central lift
Is rocket-fighting pain elementals some kind of fetish for you people ? Cause I don't feel it right now.
Some slime trails on this part, looking towards the imps.
Save 2-Megasphere+ammo (downtown trapville)
1 load (didn't notice the right Arachnotron respawned)
Save 3-Cyber down, no cells
That purple rune switch is not obvious
"This attack will always hit the enemy as long as there is a line of sight between the arch-vile and the target by the moment when the explosion happens, and can be avoided by staying out of the its line of sight at that moment"
Save 4-Blue switch (I know it's a switch to Vile buttsex)
13 loads (died going upfront/died trying to snipe them from above/viles.)
"This attack will always hit the enemy as long as there is a line of sight between the arch-vile and the target by the moment when the explosion happens, and can be avoided by staying out of the its line of sight at that moment"
Viles were distracted enough so that I could go to the blue room.
Save 4-with 8 hp, now what ?
6 loads (that's what.)
Gave up.
For good measure, you still have fucking Arachnotrons waiting outside the area.
Author is probably blind, and thus thinks Arch-vile can't see him and attack.
Vile in your face/cramped rocket area-fights, Secret map.

Notes on rebalanced v3 :
Pink Switch is way more visible
Arachnotron outside got triggered early by a Lost Soul(?) right after Pain encounter, can't tell if it messed with anything.
Pain encounter works better now with single pain shielded by souls
Arch-vile after the garden door REALLY wanted to res things and followed me to the central room lift without attacking, but is way more manageable.
Blue key encounter plays better, still easy for me to lose sight of the Viles that manage to go up the stairs
Didn't write about it before, but it's the second map with random SS in it.
Still can't do that final encounter in UV, and from a ITYTD run, I can't see if it changes with difficulty, someone else will have to tell me if it's a skill issue or if I can't understand how to move here.
Where do you all buy those Cacos from ?
Props for rebalancing after (somewhat tilted) feedback without compromising your original design for the encounters.
Mid to Hard encounters, space-managing rocket-heavy fights, Secret map.

17)Shanalotte

Map seems pretty complete like the Madoka one, but mapper didn't say he was finished with it, so opinion could change.
I remember testing this one before, the Spider/Arch room will make testing a saveless run hard
Save 1-Before the orange crusher room
Save 2-Escaping the water room with 12 hp
Save 3-Avoiding going to the Spider room
Save 4-Rockets splash damage cheese done
I suppose this fight has you going down in-between the water containers to avoid the Spider and Viles, but I couldn't do it like that in previous tests, so I just camped upstairs and used rockets against the walls to kill anything down trying to get to me.
Save 5-Escaping the spider room without the secret
Switches outside in those box aren't easy to see at first glance (I might be blind tho.)
Cyber nukage floor doesn't hurt ?
Save 6-Toxic section done
Survived eating two rockets in the final encounter.
A+ integration of layout in waifu, bit sad that there isn't any herald textures
Done w/out save
Some tricky traps, nothing overly difficult (granted I knew of some of them), mid map

18)Purgatori

Still unfinished, but not alpha anymore

Small stairs in chaingunners room is one-way ? Fixed
Could be my fucked eyes, but those chaingunners up there are hard to see.
I don't get the quiz I'm dumb.
Weird linedefs textured on a single side in rev closets openings
Save 1-Yellow key get.
Tag 0 yellow door won't work on non-ZDoom ports Fixed
Unrelated note, why do Nugget Doom and Woof saves reference "Woof 6.0.0" ?
Save 2-Before the blue key
RIP /vr/ SNS
Can walk through the middle textures in front of the ban ?
The red door made me clench hard, good one
Save 3-Low health in the labyrinth
1 load (dumb face rocket while sniping the archies and hiding from the spider)
I can't get the BFG, but that seems intentional ?
I just hid behind a cyber's ass before going for the teleporter
All encounters seem reasonable, even the labyrinth gimmick is cool to play while it seems obnoxious on paper.
Done w/out save
No real death trap, little spikes on 1st rev and labyrinth encounters, early map

Additional notes on new version :
Weird alignment on door after Chaingunner quiz.
y indeed. (I don't get that lift.)
Pizza Pinkies closet back wall is missing textures.
The effect you went for in the vent of the pizzeria kitchen would be better with some silent teleporters (check the Curly map for a similar effect)
Can't really abuse the spider fight anymore.
Easier to get back to previous part of the map thanks to new paths.

19)Shantae

That barrel trap works, but I still don't get how. Nice one.
Revs hitting twice for near max-RNG feels fucking bad, had to redo that start.
Save 1-Orange switch in baron section
A+ custom textures usage.
Save 2-Rocket heavy section under right arm
Save 3-Pink Arachno room
That mancubus isn't really useful, I wouldn't have woke him up if I didn't miss the Plasma gun
Save 4-Big yellow switch after the arachnotrons
Save 5-Before the Cyber encounter
Not sure if that's intended, but that Spider pink room is way easier when you peek at the Spiderdemon from behind the re switch platform then cleanup the Arachnotrons.
Save 6-Both yellow switches done
Save 7-Infighting cyber and imps are all that's left.
2 loads (that's a LOT of Mancubus and Arachnotrons to dodge)
And I nearly fucked myself. I don't have a lot of health left after cleaning the arachnotrons, and I have to go to that lift in hurting pink liquid. It's only 5 damaging floor, but at 29 hp that's a lot.
I had to look around for a bit before noticing those teleporters that lead you above the cyberdemon.
Thank god you can rush those Archviles or I think that my tests would have ended here.
I feel that this map is too long for me to try a nosave run. The final pink room is above my skill (even if you don't miss the invul like I did), and I had too many close calls to want to try this.
Encounters of increasing difficulty feels good, rare use of Spiderdemons that aren't just turrets.
Like Shanalotte, amazing usage of layout in waifu.
Many huge fights, no unfair traps, late map.

20)Taihou

We have twenty+ maps, that's still insane to me that this project got so much love from you guys.
If not for the demo, I don't get how you can find the first secret.
I don't think I can hear that chaingunner getting there near the lava, nasty surprise.
Save 1-After cyber encounter
I guess it won't happen often, but the rising bridge from the yellow key switch cuts off the teleporter if you fall in the clear water on the outside.
Saving that invul was the right call, but I guess there's plenty of cover from that center Vile.
Good final arena, using the switches to control the flow is refreshing after some other hectic battles in other maps.
I managed to dodge a Vile zap using a small pillar, and several runs went well here. The lack of cover should bother me, but it doesn't.
I got 100% kills but fled the final fight with plenty of demons still alive.
I guess it didn't alter the gameplay, but why are so many of your linedef tagged as "WR Teleport" ?
It's possible to skip the final portal linedef, putting you in a pretty deathbox.
Nasty surprise as monsters can get through that portal too:

Done w/out save
Plenty of resources, mid-length map with well defined progression, mid map.

21)Toph

Small scale arena, breath of fresh air.
Sense of progression in such a small map is good.
Stumbled upon the plasma secret while searching for the exit.
Weird switches to end the map, they don't even trigger any monster or trap, you just have to get all 3 after the final fight.
Janky movement around the face area before you lower the supercharge.
Done w/out save
Good little map, no difficulty, early map

22)Viscole Dotrish

A bit unclear which doors you can open by using them and which require switches
Really nice looking castle for now, makes that green construct all the more alien.
Save 1-Before the dark labyrinth
The exit of this maze isn't linked to that green thing ?
The fact you can find the computer map before the green construct and that this barrier doesn't appear on the automap you get is a bit disappointing.

(gamma for screenshot purpose, I don't actually test on ZDaemon)
Save 2-Un-flooded room Yellow key Crusher
Wallrunning certainly helps with that room
It's great that the corners of this room are color-coded, I still got lost here looking for where to go.
I just noticed that those green things are linked teleporters, not unlike a Metroidvania quick travel mechanism, I like it.
Thank god you can see the Arch-vile hand poking out of that trap past the blue key door.
Clever idea for the backpack secret
I'm pretty sure I heard a quick door open from the green pressure plate in the flooded room, but can't find it anywhere.
I really liked the castle part, great details and atmosphere, bit disappointed that the Spiderdemon fight at the top is just a peek and hide fight using the BFG.
I remember testing the waifu part of your map in a prior version, so I remember parts of the layout there. Finding the Invulnerability and cleaning up a bit with the BFG makes it less difficult than it seems at first.
Ammo and health seem alright in that section, I still went for the exit rather than 100% kills.
Appreciate that you didn't put the central cyber that all slaughtermaps contain like it's some kind of rule.
Done w/out save
Great map with clear setpieces, reasonable difficulty with a spike in the waifu section, mid-late map

23)Betty Boop

Thats a lot of shotgunners to start a map, hope they don't have reflexes.
Save 1-After Keen
Save 2-Red key
Those stairs behind the red switch made me jump, goddamn.
Save 3-That blue key revealed some problems.
That chain-vile trap is fucking nasty if you ate a rocket or even some splash damage.
1 load (The hell knight on the other side of the teleporter out of the cyberdemon room instantly bit me as I got here. Not cool and not fair man.)
Save 4-This is a big empty room, and I can already hear a Cyber inside the wall.
I don't get what the switch behind the tombstone is supposed to do.
Some small texture issue here :

I didn't get that you are supposed to jump out the window to telefrag the Cyber, but it might be me being blind.
Done w/out save
Quite punishing map without being too difficult, early-mid map.