Filename : alms1m1317.lmp, alms1m1317.txt
Date     : 03.12.2024
Iwad     : freedoom2.wad
Pwad     : alms2021.wad
Game     : Doom2
Exe      : DSDA Doom 0.26.2 -complevel 2
Category : UV-Max
Map(s)   : MAP01
Skill    : 4 (UV)
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Nickname : alexsa2015sa
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Map 01 - 13:17
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Description:

Total attempts: ~500, +170 to improve results by 1 minute

A bad run through a terribly unfair level. Forked on paper, any route that isn't the "intended" one is an exercise in your ability to survive deathtraps on no ammo and without a berserk pack. More than that, every single fight starts with a bunch of something sufficiently nasty appearing somewhere they'd rather not, and typically compounds with an archvile walking over the corpse pile at some later point.

The thing I had to learn is that a) trying to rush isn't improving success chances if I don't have the movement skills to actually glide past pinky chaos and b) pillar doors are abusable as heck. I'd rather use the midbar "transparent" cage doors these days, it costs one sector instead of bajillion nodebuilder subsectors everywhere too (Doom isn't Hexen, can't do fancy)

Additionally, SSG teleport trap is slightly fragile as the Hellknight closet will lock up if the teleport spot is blocked immediately upon trigger by your rocketing body (all three move just in sync to never cross the teleport ever since). Lost a 14:xx attempt to that.

As far as the difficulty spikes go, every single archvile release is that, but the thing which *actually* ended more of successful runs is the baron teleport trap. The only way - not even "the fast way"! - to reach the plasma secret is by teleporting after you reach the blue switch and blue armor, with the best route requiring you do that immediately; and uhhh, killing him, four revenants and a hellknight while on a 192x192 tiny L-shaped ledge is not particularly easy even from 200/200; wall and raised ledge both help but any tiny mistake snowballs fast. You can't even afford to drop down, which the baron has a nasty habit of enforcing via impacts of 80-damage if you dodge particularly wrong - this happened twice! Nasty door with health is nasty. It's possible to wake him up by shooting through the narrow gap, but while it incites infighting on your arrival it actually makes the encounter unpredictably worse depending on whether the sixth monster blocks your way out; you might actually have no options to dodge attacks. I wouldn't gamble my 5-minute worth runs on that, but then again I'm risk-averse enough I have only tried once. Thr first attempt landed me in front of a hellknight and yes, I did telefrag someone, but it didn't help the SSG limited burst damage; that attempt handled damage poorly and at 100ish health I couldn't survive long enough.

By comparison, you "just" need to kill archviles fast at first opportunity. That is harder than it sounds for the second and third ones who spawn in after you are shut in yellow skull trap and not only lurk among two dozen meatshields in the open field, but also have a nasty tendency of unpredictably teleporting south-east sometimes. The light goggles spot is an absurdly deadly trap (which triggers three times in total) which demands you either not drop corpses there at all, or use the teleport secret again to approach it from favourable terrain. It's two pairs of archviles released on your way back to the blue switch before and after you press it; your rockets are going to be *needed* here if you litter.

And finally, why Freedoom? Have you *seen* how oppressively tan this level is? I can barely see tan imps on tan brick corridors in tan rock under the tan sky over tan floors as it is, and dark spots are even worse at that. Now, the movement is not really difficult to detect, but there is just something about red-tipped wormy tentacle horrors that fits this particular map's design better that the stock Doom2 sprites and textures.
