For the Doom 2 megawad/partial conversion STRAIN
Files required: STRAIN.WAD, STRAIN.DEH

Download link: ftp://3darchives.in-span.net/pub/idgames/levels/doom2/megawads/strain10.zip

STRAIN - Map 17 - Promenade

Skill: UV Speed

Kills        39%
Items        0%
Secrets      0% and Time 04:34


Plays back with Legacy 1.32 Beta 5 or Legacy 1.40 rc 1 (but not Legacy 1.32 Beta 4).

Description: Having spotted the AV jump to reach the exit, I realized that a fast-ish speedrun was possible on this map (UV max takes a long time). I was hoping for something a good deal faster than this, but it proved very tricky to optimize (might 3 minutes be possible?). The main challenge is to keep enough health to survive the AV jump, while also keeping enough ammo and provoking enough monster infighting to make fairly rapid progress. I tried some very risky routes near the start (e.g. running straight past the Baby Cyber and getting him to fight the Baron), and sometimes they proved a "partial success" - I'd be there, waiting for Archie to give me a hand up, but with something like 20% health... Obviously, you can just blow away the Baby Cyber and the Holobots, but that you leaves you very low on ammo. Killing the Baby Cyber but leaving the Holobots can lead to some nasty surprises later.
Anyway, with the AV jump, this is suddenly a very interesting map for speedrunners: there is plenty of scope for different strategies (to NFG or not to NFG? etc.) and plenty of challenge. Please try it!
A "-fast" speedrun should be interesting too, but I think it might have to involve some fairly "cowardly" play.

Graham "Grazza" Burgess
GKBurgess@compuserve.com
