DoomCenter E1 Contest Wad - complete lmp collection
---------------------------------------------------

Recorded by Chris "Ryback" Ratcliff, Anthony "Swedish Fish" Soto,
Doug "Opulent" Merrill and Wim Vanrie.

This is a collection of recorded demos (lmps) for all 15 levels
produced for the DoomCenter Episode 1 Contest Wad. All lmps were recorded on
skill 4 (Ultra-Violence), ending with at least 100% kills and 100% secrets
where it's possible.

To playback these demos, go to your doom directory and type: 

        doom -playdemo e?m?-uv -file e1.wad
	
where ? ? are the episode and level number. Vanilla Doom can't handle
wads with more than eight character names so the name of your wad may
vary - put in whatever you've renamed the wad to. If you don't 
already have the wad, you can get it at

http://www.doomcenter.com/features/features.phtml?id=97526&language=en

Want to join our demomaking team? Go to

http://user.boardnation.com/ylmp/board.cgi


Comments about this project:
----------------------------


Wim 'The Mole' Vanrie (Wim.Van.Rie@pandora.be)
http://www.newdoom.com/hosted/themole
-------------------------------------
This is the fourth time i work on a demo pack, and it's still very 
fun. I think it's another great demo set which is sure worth watching. 
I've chosen to make less demos, but ensure their quality, by working 
longer on them.

The wad itself is average. It contains good and bad levels, as all 
level packs i suppose. Some of them (like E1M9), are very fun to 
record, but dont stand up as a single level. The winning level 
(E2M5) is the best of the set IMO.

Favorite Map: E2M5
 

Anthony 'Swedish Fish' Soto (Neworderdatabase@hotmail.com) 
http://thefish.8m.com/
----------------------
I think we bettered the 2001-lmp pack. Overall the contributors
were dedicated to bringing high quality demos to the better maps (some of
the lesser popular maps did not get refinement). Doug was such a devoted
soldier he did a one second improvement on e2m6 (7:35 > 7:34). Heh. I
suppose every second counts. We battled on his map with a modified route I
designed but he is the better speed runner. So he got it decisively. Chris
and I were fighting for control of e1m4 and e1m5.

Doom Center really did a great job with this contest. I think regardless of
how good/bad these levels resemble E1 they have some noteworthy gameplay and
a DOOM essence. The episode 1 feeling can be hard to recreate not because of
complex design but because different people got different things from
playing E1 and therefore the definition is broader then most realize. The
one problem I did have with most of the maps from this compilation was their
approach. Some authors apparently felt compelled to just copy areas verbatim
from the original episode 1. That is where I say: Innovation over
Duplication. It's fine to take your inspirations but develop them into your
own ideas. Maybe this wasn't the winning approach either - as I felt the
winning map was an obvious tribute to e1m7. All in all, it's great to see a
great collection of maps. Too bad they didn't undergo some post release
polishing. Kudos to Doomcenter and all the designers.

Favorite Maps: E1M6, E1M8, E2M5


Doug 'Opulent' Merrill (opulent@mindspring.com [temporary])
http://www.doomworld.com/sda
----------------------------
I took a quick look at these maps and was excited about
doing a demoset for them.  Most of the authors focused on gameplay and
designed tight, fast maps -- perfect for demos. Espi's e1m8 is one of the
very best Doom(1) maps ever made; that alone was worth having the contest
for. I'm somewhat embarassed that I submitted an incomplete map -- but
Bigdog at Doomcenter was nice enough to let me get it in there. Lastly, and
most importantly, I want to think the Speedrunner's Forum players for their
support and participation.

Favorite Maps : E1M8 by Espi was by far the best map.
                E2M5 and E2M2 would be my next 2 picks.
                (Swedish Fish only let me pick 3, but I think E1M4 and
                E2M6 are nice as well... with E1M5 and E1M6 not far behind.)


Chris "Ryback" Ratcliff (jaranbue@yahoo.com.au)
-----------------------------------------------
Well, this was pretty fun. The original idea for the pack came from
Doug. I stepped in and organised it, mainly because nobody else was. Since
all this involved was writing a couple of rules, it wasn't such a huge
strain :) Anthony did a lot of the work writing this text file, even. So
this was something of a group effort. It took some time to get anyone other
than me and Doug recording, but the second week saw some good competition,
and some rather drastic time changes. (One went up, but that's another
story :)

About this wad: well, the quality is mixed, as you might expect - some
levels are as good as any being released today, while others seem
to have been taken from a 'Worst of 1994' compilation. What's surprising
is how many maps have basic glaring errors, like unreachable secrets,
inaccessible monsters, inaccessible weapons, and even missing textures.
Few of the wads show much sign of being playtested. I guess the moral is
two weeks is not enough time to pull together a major wad... and always
get your creations playtested.

Favorite Maps: E1M4, E2M5. My list of non-favorite maps is much longer :)


-----------------
Level times table
-----------------

Level           Player                     Time     
-----           ------                     ----  
e1m1            Wim Vanrie                 3:07   
e1m2            Chris Ratcliff            10:42  *
e1m3            Doug Merrill               0:49  
e1m4            Chris Ratcliff             4:23  
e1m5            Anthony Soto               2:27  
e1m6            Chris Ratcliff             8:12  
e1m7            Anthony Soto               8:22  
e1m8            Anthony Soto               4:56  
e1m9            Wim Vanrie                 1:28  
e2m1            Chris Ratcliff            11:43  &
e2m2            Doug Merrill               3:31    
e2m3            Wim Vanrie                 0:46  
e2m4            Doug Merrill               2:41   
e2m5            Anthony Soto               5:21   
e2m6            Doug Merrill               7:34  


* = 100% secrets not possible
& = 100% kills practically impossible

Descriptions
------------

Level descriptions follow. Each description was written by the team member
who played the map.


E1M1 - Wim
----------
Not much fun at all, i think. I had only 4 to 6 succesfull runs 
of which this one is the best.


E1M2 - Chris
------------
Fun level, in the E1 mold if maybe a bit long. My complaints are:

* Some areas are much too large, in particular the arena containing
the six Barons. Plus you have to do some backtracking, so the route's
not perfect.

* Teleporters and very thin sectors marked as secret. WHY do level authors
do this? WHY? 71% secrets is the maximum.

* The line of monsters teleporting in is a bit tedious to clear.

Otherwise, nice work. This is a first exit, I had a shot at improving it
later but getting under 10:00 is harder than you might think. Good luck.


E1M3 - Doug
-----------
my map.  full speed the whole way. strafe50 trick at exit.  I had intended
many tricks when designing this map -- the barely grab-able blue key; the
strafe50 trick, the 56 high window, the switch from below, etc -- but I ran
out of time.  =/


E1M4 - Chris
------------
Another great Fredrik map. But even he is feeling the pressure, with
one secret sector badly marked (you have to ride the lift to get it).
The buildings look pretty, and there are no 'dead areas' you have to run
through. Size is also about right. I think the demo is pretty good, I had a
lazy 5:07 earlier which Anthony made me improve :)


E1M5 - Anthony
--------------
As of writing this I'm not sure if will even have the winning time. I suppose
if your reading it I've fended of Chris and his attempts to beat me.
haha ;-)

This map had some general design qualities of E1. I don't think any of the
areas were impressive though, with the exception of the final exit area.
That was very familiar to me, but everything else seemed too non-descript
and under developed. Another commendable gameplay map though.  


E1M6 - Chris
------------
I'm not a great fan of this map. There's nothing wrong with it, in comparison
to a few other levels, but ammo is tight and it's difficult at the start.
Probably too many imps at that first ledge. I made some mistakes later on,
but I didn't want to try again and nobody stepped in to improve it...


E1M7 - Anthony
--------------
The time on this one is pretty awful. Why? Well because I spend just 
about as much time playing the level as I do to kill 4 or 5 enemies in 
one hard to reach area. Originally Chris did a 95% kills demo in about 
4 minutes thinking the enemies couldn't be killed. I found a  way to 
draw them but it requires running across the map repeatedly.  

So I have a nice 4 minute run like Chris, plus another 4 boring minutes 
trying to kill another 5 enemies. Definately could be improved, but not 
worth the effort. The map is average at best, and what was the author 
thinking with that ridiculous tunnel system? 


E1M8 - Anthony
--------------
I thought this map was the best overall. While the gameplay has small
problems the architecture and layout are excellent. Not a pure e1 style map,
but definately done with a distinct doom feel. The gameplay problems stem
from a lack of health and ammo. (I don't even recall seeing a box of shells)
Without the secret areas it can be done, but never at a comfortable margin. 
A chainsaw or beserk in the beginning secret area would have been welcomed. 

The secret with the jump can be annoying if you are not aware of the angle 
needed to make the jump. The angle of the jump is somewhat extreme. You need
to jump from the right of the ledge to the left of the window. The area is
also erroneously marked as 2 secret areas which might mis-lead more casual
players (perhaps the author assumed the player would get the armor for sure,
but I've learned don't assume anything).

The run was lucky. I was happy with a time around 5:30 when I decided to do
another run for the hell of it. About midway through the demo everything
started falling into place. Barrels were all too glad to strategically kill
multiple enemies. I made the green armor jump on my first try which was also
a first. So to get it under 5 minutes makes me very happy. 

With the exception of gameplay, every other problem was rather minor.
Hopefully, we will see another doom style map of this quality from the 
talented Espi.


E1M9 - Wim
----------
This one is much better. Altough the design aint that good, i had much 
fun making demos of it. Those three imps can be a bitch, tho.


E2M1 - Chris
------------
Bad map. The texturing is all over the place, the architecture is annoying
and the whole thing looks as good as a dead dog. I'd probably have a better
opinion of this map if there was enough ammo, but a fairly basic error means
it's impossible to get the rocket launcher, making it and about eighty
rockets useless. As a result there's just not enough ammo to take out the
Cyber. I can only guess the author didn't do enough single-player
playtesting.

The trick to make the caco open the door was invented by Doug.


E2M2 - Doug
-----------
great e1 design. Toby pegged the item placement better than the others, I
think. simple run.


E2M3 - Wim
----------
Short, and good for recording. As a single level, this is bad, but it's 
fun for making demos. Otherwise, i'd never have reached that :46


E2M4 - Doug
-----------
unusual map; not like episode one at all, but I like it.
standard run.


E2M5 - Anthony
--------------
This was the winning map and it definately has some qualities of a winner. 
Although it was not my favorite (and apparently the public didn't agree
either) it was one of the top maps. Gameplay is fun with sufficient ammo
and plenty of cannon fodder. 

This wad could have used more time being polished. Plently of areas had
unaligned textures. More detailing work should have been put into the 
3 areas to the east. The crate room with the rising lift and the area
to the west were pretty plain and boxish rooms. I also thought the 
transition between the techbase and nukage pathways leading to the
red key was too abrupt. 

Not much to say about the demo really. I like the part in the
beginning where I mow down three troopers with one shotgun
shot and they fall next beside two of their buddies.


E2M6 - Doug
-----------
demo gets a bit tricky in parts, nothing difficult.  end room is nice...
would've been better if the walls had been a bit shorter.


***

This TXT file was made using the FDUVDEMO.TXT template.
