WAD: abyspe59
Map: 12
Skill: 4
Category: UV-Max
Exe: Dsda-Doom 0.29.4
Time: 4:53

Author: 	Kinetic
Demo Date:	December 9th, 2025
Attempts:       30
Practice:	1 hr+ over the months
Grind:		9 min
Goal:           First Exit
Satisfaction:   :D :D :D

- complevel 9

Comments: 

Holy SHIT! I was on the fence about putting in a suggestion to make this map DOOMED before I ran this. The platforming is just insane. The first pass through is just really hard to do, then the way back blind would take so much grinding of muscle memory to get a bead on, that it made the idea of running this map sickening. Not to mention the RNG check in the only combat part of the map, just totally insulting towards demoers, there's no other way about it.

I was spontaneously studying the platforming to see if this could be taken down for some reason, and at first I was playing around with using pistol shots as a rhythm to signal where you are at on the platforming and thus informing you when you need to turn. Like, 4 pistol shots after getting on the platforms before the first turn, 3 after that for the next, etc.. That was slightly helpful but still really hard.

I suddenly began to study the map in the automap, where I had textured automap on for some reason. I dislike textured automap, so I turned it off. But then I realized that with it off, there were no lines or anything in the map, but when it was textured I could see the sector shapes. So I then had the idea to use textured automap to guide me instead. But I wasn't sure if it was still legal in demos anymore, so I loaded up my E1M7 batch file and I could not enable textured automap there, so I thought I was foiled.

But then I had another idea. Since I was thinking about the automap, I decided to pull out some black magic: using map markers. This is only the 2nd time I've had any use for them, and the other time was a blind playthrough of 1x1 Map32 to cheese a maze puzzle in it. But here they came in very clutch. The idea was simple: just spam map markers on the platforming to leave a trail that you could use on the way back to guide you. But another issue came up: Using the straight up automap to make map markers while platforming made the first pass through the platforming basically impossible. But luckily, I remembered that dsda-doom has an Overlay feature for the map, which I combined with the Rotate Map and Follow Player functions to make it so I could use map markers while platforming on the first pass through, and have a stable frame and path to follow on the way back.

The final piece of the puzzle was figuring out which key to use to plant the map markers. I originally had it bound to M...not really ideal trying to spam that key while platforming. So I rebound it to RMB initially, which was my Use key. It turns out that automap keybindings are separate from non-automap, so if you bind RMB to it in automap, you can still use RMB for other things when you're not in the automap. So I tried this and it was ok, but spam clicking RMB while platforming was kind of throwing my platforming off, I think it was just weird for the little muscles in my hands. So I swapped it to LMB instead (the standard button for firing your weapon), and that felt better. I think platforming/moving while firing is a common thing to do in maps, so that's why it felt more comfortable. So now I was all set: toggle map overlay, have Map Markers bound to LMB, and spam-click LMB while platforming to make the trail, then follow it on the way back.

This was a totally surprising result. Even though I developed this new strategy, I thought the map was barely more tolerable than before. I just booted up demo attempts because I wanted to play something for a little bit, and welp, I got it in 9 minutes of trying. This was the first attempt to make it past the first pass through the platforming. I was somehow able to follow the trail on the way back without falling on this first attempt, then I got the necessary RNG for the end. I almost die at the end several times, but RNG blessed me, and I escape with a UV-Max of this map with likely the bare minimum effort required thanks to RNG. Rather merciful, I must say.

First time I ever found Map Overlay useful btw, it never made sense as a feature to me. But it was useful this one time for me.