                       The DSF Slayer Demopack
                       -----------------------

Recorded by Adam Hegyi, Cameron Prosser, Esa "Espi" Repo,
Chris "Ryback" Ratcliff, Anthony "Swedish Fish" Soto, and Xit Vono.

This is a collection of recorded demos (lmps) for all 11 levels
produced Richard Wiles' excellent pwad Slayer. Demos were recorded on
skill 4 (Ultra-Violence), ending with at least 100% kills and 100% secrets
("Max" style).

To playback these demos, go to your doom2 directory and type: 

        doom2 -playdemo SL??-uv -file slayer.wad
	
where ?? is the level number.

As an added bonus, we've also put together a collection of speedruns. These
are named the same as the normal demos, except the time is included at
the end. As Slayer is quite a hard, monster-packed pwad, these demos
include a lot of special tricks to make life easier. Don't blink or
you'll miss them :)

If you don't already have the wad, you can get it at

http://thefish.8m.com/slayer.htm

Want to join our demomaking team? Go to

http://www25.brinkster.com/mrdisturbed


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


Adam Hegyi
ha211@hszk.bme.hu
competn.cjb.net
---------------
A pack of very-well designed levels, I think Slayer is a
strong candidate for the "Best of 2001" prize :)


Esa "Espi" Repo
espib@luukku.com
http://www.newdoom.com/hosted/espi/
-----------------------------------
[none received]


Chris "Ryback" Ratcliff
jaranbue@yahoo.com.au
---------------------
Hmm. This project was begun so far back in the mists of time that I don't
even remember whose idea it was. Might have been Opulent's though: certainly,
he uploaded the first demos. Then me and Espi did some. Virgil put together
his (incomplete) demopack, but we had Adam Hegyi join our group. Then
Xit decided some levels could be speedrun, Cameron came along with some
more incredible tricks, and Anthony beat one of my runs (bastard :). Anyway,
that's the story of the demopack.

About Slayer: well, I'd have to agree with Adam here, it definitely gets
'Best of 2001' from me. Why is it so good? Well, you've got the novel (and
dangerous) gameplay ideas, a *consistent* look to the levels (eg, Hell
Revealed, Plutonia), and some stunning architecture married to original
concepts. Map10 may be the most beautiful Doom map ever.

Alas, even Slayer has problems with monster teleporters (the only blemish
on this wad). WHY is building a good monster teleporter so hard? If I ever
make a level, I'm gonna put in the perfect monster teleporter, and you
can all copy it as much as you like :)


Anthony "Swedish Fish" Soto
neworderdatabase@hotmail.com 
http://thefish.8m.com/
----------------------
What an excellent wad. I've playtested all the maps before release and
it's just become more clear to me as I've got more time to play it. 
Rich has got a great variated but matching mix of texturing, combined
with old school design, and vicious difficulty (all reminicient of 
Plutonia). All maps are great, but if I had to pick my top 3 I would 
choose MAP03, MAP08, and MAP10. Really remarkable when you think only 
one guy has put this together. A crowning achievement.

Slayer as a competitive wad is really great (*hint* Compet-n *hint*). The
demos here are not shabby at all but still vastly improvable. It's because
Slayer has plenty of enemies and plenty of ammo. Also, Slayer has proven 
to have plenty of tricks (especially with speed). Most maps could be 
improved anywhere from 20 seconds to 2 minutes. 

Really it's great to sneak into a demopack with such good company. Plenty
of diverse and talented names. =) I'm also glad I asked Adam Hegyi if he 
had any demo to contribute. I think the quality of Slayer wad is what 
ultimately sold him on the idea. DSF's finest work to date. 


Cameron Prosser
allgoodnamesrgon@hotmail.com
----------------------------
Not much to say really, since my computer has blue smoke coming out the back 
and that lovely molten silica/solder smell I am reduced to a bit of a cameo 
role with a couple of trick demos. Overall it's great to see level sets like 
this still coming out. Nice levels and nice demos, a -fast demoset will 
be fun... 


Xit Vono
xit_vono@yahoo.com
------------------
I had a couple of other speedruns, but all of those got beaten. Now the
only ones left are my slow demos. It's all cool, because Adam's map05 and
map06 runs kick ass.


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

Level       Speed          Max
-----       -----          ---       
01          5:21 -Xit      7:29 -AdamH
02          0:32 -Cam      4:15 -AdamH
03          3:58 -Xit      8:47 -Espi
04          ----           9:07 -Ryback
05          0:45 -AdamH    2:06 -AdamH
06          1:23 -AdamH    3:27 -AdamH
07          ----           3:54 -Ryback
08          ----           8:28 -Anthony
09          3:56 -Xit      8:20 -Ryback
10          0:21 -AdamH    6:50 -AdamH
31          ----           8:29 -Ryback


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

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


MAP01 Max (AdamH)
-----------------

A nice, moody tech base. Mostly linear stuff, but gameplay
is good. Not too hard though... I made some mistakes with
the mancubus/revs part and survived the rest easily.
The end room can be tricky sometimes :)

MAP01 Speed (Xit)
-----------------

I played this one very safe here. It's very difficult to survive when there
are monsters at the top of the lift, especially an arch-vile.


MAP02 Max (AdamH)
-----------------

This map could have been a very impressive one, but it's
plagued with a serious flaw: the cacodemon teleporter is bugged.
It wouldn't be a problem if they eventually teleported... but they
don't. It takes about a 5 to 1 chance to finish this map in
100/100 :(( I tried everything including risking slower routes
to make it work, but it seems it's beyond influence...

Also, putting pain elementals around a cyberdemon is a BAD idea.

With those aside, I think I managed to make a fair demo out
of it and show the beauties as well :)

MAP02 Speed (Cam)
-----------------

[none received]


MAP03 Max (Espi)
----------------

Thanks to Adam map03 time is 5 minutes faster than what I first did. 

MAP03 Speed (Xit)
-----------------

This is a difficult level, and I put the most effort into this one. It's
possible to avoid killing the pack of barons, but the level is hard enough
as it is.


MAP04 Max (Ryback)
------------------

At first glance this seems incredibly hard. But just about all of these
levels reward repeat play, and there are some simple ways of completing
the level without much bother. Still, this is too hard to worry about
a speedrun.


MAP05 Max (AdamH)
-----------------

Quite a fragfest. Lots of ammo and enemies to play with.
I like these :)

MAP05 Speed (AdamH)
-------------------

This map is not really for speed but I did it anyway :)


MAP06 Max (AdamH)
-----------------

Not really a favourite of mine (too much imp-chaingunning).
The rest is good, though :)

MAP06 Speed (AdamH)
-------------------

Nice trick here (Xit Vono's creation). Didn't want to make
it a double jump though ;)


MAP07 Max (Ryback)
------------------

I love levels that get better the more you play them, and this is
one of those levels :) Lots of monster in tight situations, with just
enough ammo for you to play risky. Actually I'm surprised AdamH let me
get away with doing this one...


MAP08 Max (Fish)
----------------

I'll be the first to say this is a whacky demo. The start area is the hardest 
to survive. So much flies at you from every direction. The doormat reads: 
"Welcome to Slayer. If your reading this, you're dead." I start off very nicely
getting creamed by a baron -> 4% health. Is it me, or, did that Mancubus fire
through that solid green brick wall after I hit the first switch? Anyways I 
proceed with my excellence in playing later on by getting hit by a revenant 
(-> 13%) and even later by an archie (-> 40%). Then the Mancubi area with 
the bfg area is pure panic. And unbelievably the whole point of this demo 
was to improve a major flaw in the previous demo (Chris's 8:34). Chris falls
off the platform going for a secret and had to circle one extra time. And I
make the same stupid mistake! Which, of friggin course, I never made in some
of the 40 previous attempts I made it that far. I don't know whether to laugh
or cry. I disagree with that computer map secret anyways because it forces
the player to loop the map twice which is slightly annoying. 

There are several obvious ways to improve this time. The most assured tactic
would be to get the bfg earlier. It's possible to hit the GR switch before 
getting to the upper level (not shown in this demo). Just aim at the barons
with the ssg a few steps in front of the stimpack. Later on you could 
take a risk running for the bfg switch and then using it on the Mancubi. This
tactic is scaleable whereas you can tradeoff time for risk by skipping more 
enemies to later use the bfg on them. As early as the revenants at start could
be skipped to be dealt with one bfg shot later. Although it becomes more of
a speedrun/pacifist until you get the bfg so you would have to be multi-talented. 

The other obvious blunder is that I exit with 13 rockets. It's because at 2 points
towards the end you get a cache of rockets which is not completely necessary if
you have the bfg. So I suggest using all your rockets before you pick up the bfg,
then use bfg to clear out the same area I did, and then finish with nothing but 
rockets. 

MAP09 Max (Ryback)
------------------
This is quite a good looking level, with well balanced ammo, the
only major problem (as in 02) is a monster teleporter that often doesn't
teleport all the monsters... With this in mind, I go off and do other
things while the imp teleporter *slowly* empties itself. My route earlier on
is risky, ignoring the archvile while I get the blue key, but it
usually works out well.

MAP09 Speed (Xit)
-----------------

I played this one very safely. The difficulty here is the arch vile jump.


MAP10 Max (AdamH)
-----------------

This map has a really interesting architecture and a good supply
of baddies. Quite a challenge with not much room for errors.
The archies in the end can get very tricky if you let them
resurrect monsters, so I chose the kamikaze way and hoped for
the best. Worked out pretty well ;)

MAP10 Speed (AdamH)
-------------------

Nice trick, again thanks to Xit Vono. I think I got pretty lucky
here...


MAP31 Max (Ryback)
------------------

A tight, underground cavern level, the main structure is a raised stone
circle. Start shouldn't be a problem, just jump to the rocket launcher
and then go for the SSG. The archvile trap is nasty, but if you have enough
ammo and use cover wisely it won't be as hard. Sorry about the
messing about at the end, I was still unfamiliar with the level when I
recorded this. That Archie at the end was a complete shock :)


***

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