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11
on: December 21, 2024, 03:51
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| Started by glitchyme - Last post by Kornel Kisielewicz | ||
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At the moment there's far bigger chances for a DoomRL DLC for that. To do it JH-style would require a lot of time/money for assets, which is a hard ask for a non-commercial niche mod :(
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12
on: December 20, 2024, 14:43
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| Started by glitchyme - Last post by glitchyme | ||
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Been waiting since DRL days for a Heretic or Hexen version. I would love to see DLC for Jupiter Hell for either of these. Such a dope universe
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13
on: December 20, 2024, 09:26
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| Started by Kornel Kisielewicz - Last post by Kornel Kisielewicz | ||
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You know the drill!
There's a lot of fixes in this release, both compared to BETA 1 and 0.9.9.8. Three major additions are new fluids, minimap improvements and a new audio configuration scheme (that should improve a lot of stuff going forward). The fluid improvemets encompass a lot of stuff - all fluids now slow down non-flying entities by 20% (mud by 40%!) so watch when running around the level not to get double shot at! While mud will appear early game, the new blood fluid is a dedicated late game one. In regular games it appears only in Limbo and rarely in deep caves. Far more often in Ao100+ though, where fluid variety has also been additionally improved. Blood is pretty nasty - 16 plasma damage, and DOESN'T affect enemies! To add a bit of respite there's some plasma resistances added to a couple boots and a new dedicated exotic pair of boots! Tell us what you think about these additions! Also report any audio assignment issues/requests and minimap issues - this is the best time! DoomRL 0.9.9.9 BETA 2b Windows LQ (critical bug Code: [Select] 0.9.9.9 BETA 2b |
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14
on: December 14, 2024, 23:48
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| Started by Tormuse - Last post by Tormuse | ||
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Well... I didn't *actually* win, but it was good enough for the Diamond badge, so I guess it's worth sharing. :)
The difficulty ramps up pretty ridiculously in this challenge; at a couple points, I encountered enemies that, according to their stats and my calculations, were capable of doing up to 240 damage per shot! :o You basically need to be able to avoid getting hit at all, or with my Survivor build here, be able to take a hit. :) This seed (from last week's Gauntlet) was generous with stations, and I took advantage of that to fill up on stimpacks and medkits, which are important for emergencies. The auto-repairing medi-fibre armour may seem redundant when Survivor provides its own health regen, but this challenge is so loaded with large quantities of enemies that having that extra bit of regen was very welcome, especially since the medi-fibre armour continues healing you if you're on fire, unlike Survivor's health regen. (Not sure if this is an oversight, but I took full advantage of it) :P I was doing fine up until the storage room on level 47, which forced me to burn through every single stimpack in my inventory, (nine of them!) due to close quarters combat with hordes of enemies coming at me from two directions with only a single pillar for cover... and then levels 48 and 49 didn't have a single station among them, so I couldn't replenish my supplies. If not for that, I could have won this. Up until the last level, I had 100% kills, so it would've been a pretty sweet victory. :| But I got the badge, so... yay, I guess? :P Tormuse, level 46 Marine, |
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15
DoomRL / Discussion / Re: My mortem dump thread and progression record to as close to 100% as I can get
on: December 14, 2024, 21:08
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| Started by Omega Tyrant - Last post by Omega Tyrant | ||
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N! AoP + AoRA run for the first ever verified Inquisitor Angelic badge, as well as picking up Inquisitor Diamond
Just like with getting Eagerness Angelic in the 0.9.9.9 beta and wanting to get it officially without having to wait until 0.9.9.9 properly releases, I booted up 0.9.9.8 once more to claim the first ever official Inquisitor Angelic badge. I incidentally get Inquisitor Diamond too, which I would rather do a pure run for like other badges, but considering AoRA makes it so much harder and it gives you no benefits in AoP, I suppose I "proved" enough that I don't need dual angel cheese to get that badge. For the full writeup on this run, go see its own Post Mortem thread. Aside from getting the big second Angelic, I also now exceed my 0.9.9.7 Diamond badge count, and get my "completion percentage" into the 40s. I think this could be it for 0.9.9.8 though, I might go get Quartermaster Diamond again and Quartermaster Angelic since those don't require N! and thus likely won't be changed much for 0.9.9.9, and I'm on an AoRA kick as is, might as well solidify myself as the AoRA master. It'll depend on if 0.9.9.9 starts seeing more progress soon. Badge count - [26|26|26|18|6|2] Medal count - 44/50 Score - 618/1500 (41.20%) Spoiler (click to show/hide) |
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DoomRL / Nightmare! / [N!|AoP + AoRA|66%|YAVP] - First official Inquisitor Angelic Badge! (with video)
on: December 14, 2024, 20:37
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| Started by Omega Tyrant - Last post by Omega Tyrant | ||
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I recorded this entire run, which you can watch in this Youtube link.
I previously posted about obtaining Inquisitor Angelic in the first beta for 0.9.9.9 to test if the badge actually needed any nerfs despite nobody ever winning it prior in the 11 years since 0.9.9.7, but I don't consider obtaining badges in the beta versions to count, and like with Eagerness Angelic, I didn't want to wait around until 0.9.9.9 launches proper to get the badge officially. So I went back to 0.9.9.8 once more and was able to obtain Inquisitor Angelic there to officially claim being the first person to have verifiably won it. I would recommend reading the linked thread about my 0.9.9.9 beta Inquisitor Angelic run, for my thoughts on the badge and my general strategy, so as to not repeat myself here. The differences compared to that run is that I lead off with Finesse instead of Hellrunner, to increase the chances that I kill the Sergeants in Phobos Base Entry without them using the Small Medkits, and since I'll get Hellrunner very shortly into Phobos 2 anyway. Then in the lategame after getting Berserker, I end up just getting as much Ironman as I could and even a level of Tough As Nails, rather than Fin2 + Whizkid, since I was perpetually short on medkits and had no good armor in the later half, desperately needing all the extra survivability I could scrounge up. If you're interested in reading the floor-by-floor breakdown I wrote up rather than watching the video (or even read it alongside to see my thoughts throughout), you can find it in the spoiler tags: Spoiler (click to show/hide) Curiously, while in the 0.9.9.9 beta I could consistently make it to Deimos and then kept losing there, taking me 12 attempts overall (not counting the runs I Q+Y'd on Phobos Base Entry), here in 0.9.9.8 I kept dying in Phobos, but then the first attempt I make it to Deimos I end up going all the way, with it taking 8 attempts instead overall (again not counting runs that were abandoned in Phobos Base Entry). Maybe corpses not respawning in sight does help a bit with making Phobos more consistent even if you're rushing through levels, or maybe I just had a good run of luck in the beta and bad run of luck in 0.9.9.8. Overall for this specific run, my level and item luck was pretty mixed (the Super Shotgun and Laptop Boots were very nice, as was being able to go into Deimos with several Large Medkits, but I would have really liked a second Red Armor and another Power Mod), and I was often teetering on the knife edge there in the later half, but not having ideal luck makes succeeding in such a difficult challenge all the more sweeter. Now for the first mortem to officially have the Inquisitor Angelic Badge! (And a cool Inquisitor Diamond too, which isn't a badge you see all that much either, granted the Marine's buffs does make that badge quite a bit easier now, definitely wouldn't try to double it up with Inquisitor Angelic back in 0.9.9.7). -------------------------------------------------------------- |
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17
DoomRL / Discussion / Re: My mortem dump thread and progression record to as close to 100% as I can get
on: December 08, 2024, 19:10
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| Started by Omega Tyrant - Last post by Omega Tyrant | ||
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N! AoI + AoRA run for the first ever verified Eagerness Angelic badge, as well as picking up Quartermaster and Longinus Platinum
Ok so I'm not quite done with 0.9.9.8 yet, and well, what an unexpected badge to suddenly post as my first official Angelic. When testing out the first beta for 0.9.9.9 and finally playing some Nightmare in it, I got the urge to test if the previously never won Inquisitor and Eagerness Angelic badges really need any nerfs as has been proposed, and found them to be very winnable. Wanting to claim Eagerness Angelic officially and not wait for 0.9.9.9 to finish, I decided to boot 0.9.9.8 back up, and was successful in being the first to officially Eagerness Angelic. I also incidentally picked up Quartermaster and Longinus Platinum; the latter is a freebie once you play N! so it's whatever, and I was planning to do a pure AoRA run for the former, but if you can do Eagerness Angelic, is that really necessary? Anyway, the full writeup can be read in its own Post Mortem thread. Having an Angelic after never getting one in 0.9.9.7, and exceeding my 0.9.9.7 Platinum badge count, my 0.9.9.8 file has indisputably exceeded my 0.9.9.7 file. Badge count - [26|26|26|18|5|1] Medal count - 44/50 Score - 570/1500 (38.00%) Spoiler (click to show/hide) |
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18
DoomRL / Nightmare! / [N!|AoI + AoRA|94%|YAVP] - First official Eagerness Angelic Badge! (with video)
on: December 08, 2024, 18:37
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| Started by Omega Tyrant - Last post by Omega Tyrant | ||
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I recorded this entire run, which you can watch in this Youtube link
In DRL since version 0.9.9.7, there has been 17 Angelic Badges, the highest tier badges available. Of those 17 badges, 7 have never been verifiably won by any player since 0.9.9.7's release back in 2013, which are; UAC Angelic (beat the standard game on Nightmare with no damage), Demonic Angelic (beat standard N! with 100% kills and no damage), Speedrun Angelic (beat standard N! in under 4 minutes), Pacifist Angelic (beat Archangel of Pacifism with only one enemy dying, which must be the Spider Mastermind), Inquisitor Angelic (beat Angel of Purity + Angel of Red Alert on N!), Eagerness Angelic (beat Angel of Impatience + Angel of Red Alert on N! with 90+% kills) and Masochist Angelic (beat Archangel of Masochism on N!). Of those 7, the formermost 4 have been deemed to be outright impossible without cheating, and the lattermost is considered possible though extremely extremely difficult. The middle 2, Inquisitor and Eagerness Angelic, while not intrinsically impossible like the aforementioned 4, were thought to be so absurdly difficult that they were bordering on impossibility and would require esoteric cheese with rare items to obtain (namely for Eagerness Angelic, finding an early Trigun and getting an Invuln chain that allows you to nuke most of the levels, or finding a Dragonslayer with Vampyre, surviving a nuke with Invuln, and then farming the infinitely spawning Nightmare Demons for a long time to buffer your kill percentage a huge amount), so me and Icy have been proposing to easen their requirements alongside the unwinnable 4. Then the first beta version of 0.9.9.9 dropped, which made some big changes to Nightmare in response to most players finding it unfun and avoiding the difficulty altogether; these changes are enemies will not respawn in your vision, respawns do not drop their inventory (and so cannot be farmed for ammo), and most importantly, respawns no longer count towards the kill percentage. These changes still don't make the unwinnable 4 humanly viable, and don't affect Inquisitor Angelic that much, but they are significant for Eagerness Angelic; the main reason it was thought borderline impossible is the fact that the time limit of AoRA makes meticulous corpse disposal unfeasible and so all the respawns would inevitably prevent you from maintaining such a high kill percentage of 90%, thus allowing you to ignore them entirely and not have them affect your kill percentage makes the badge a whole lot more viable. There was still concern that requiring 90% kills, in conjunction with the restraints of AoI (which most importantly prevents you from carrying medkits to heal on demand), was still too much, but to be sure if the badge still needed nerfing, I tested getting it in the beta (as well as tested Inquisitor Angelic), and was able to win it (link goes to the Jupiter Hell discord). However, when looking at the winning mortem and calculating the kill % with respawns factored, it came out to... over 90%... so I would have still won the badge even without the aforementioned kill % change with respawns, meaning this badge was very possible all along. Since 0.9.9.9's official release is still likely a ways off and wanting to claim this badge first in an official version, I decided to go boot up the official release of 0.9.9.8 and win the badge officially. When it comes for the build to use for Eagerness Angelic, Blademaster seems to be the clear best shot, as no other build can clear floors faster, and Blademaster's ability to make every killing blow an instant action gives you the capability to farm kills to make up the large amount of kills needed, namely from Pain Elementals as Blademaster can wipe out a whole swath of Lost Souls instantly (and indeed I would do a bit of Pain Elemental farming throughout this run, but it would end up proving unnecessary, as even if you removed all the Lost Soul kills, I still would have had over 90% kills). As for trait order, I leadoff with Hellrunner; since most of your actions will be just moving, the trait that makes your movement take less time is invaluable when you're on a time limit for every floor (while Hellrunner is also just great in general). I immediately deviate from Blademaster's prereqs however by taking a level of Reloader; just surviving early Phobos on Nightmare is very difficult as is without any combat-boosting traits, and getting Brute doesn't help much yet when you don't got a Chainsaw, while of the available traits, Reloader gives the biggest boost when you're relying primarily on Shotguns. Since you're doing so much reloading, making your reloads 30% faster saves you a lot of time too and thus gives you more actions to work with on each floor. I then deviate once more to get a level of Intuition; powerups are very important on N! when they're doubly effective, but especially so in AoI where you're unable to store medkits in your inventory, so you are very reliant on powerups to keep your health up, and especially especially so in AoRA when Invulnerabilities allow you to survive nukes, making immediately knowing where all powerups are located on each floor crucial. However, I do not get the second level of Intuition, as being able to detect enemies outside vision isn't too helpful when floors are so enemy dense and they're often on top of you immediately, while you desperately need to get yourself stronger ASAP, so I go for the second level of HR instead to get even more speed. At this point I'll be getting the Chainsaw, making it time to get two levels of Brute and then Berserker; Berserker is especially important, as being berserked speeds you up significantly, and when Berserker triggers from you being hit, berserk's +60% resistances get applied before damage is calculated, giving you a big defensive boost against the hard hitting VMR (or I can trigger it intentionally at nearly any time with a face rocket whenever I need said boosts). It is then the third level of Brute, and finally Blademaster. After Blademaster, I get a level of Finesse to farther increase my offense and overall speed, then I get Juggler since I'm swapping around weapons so much (especially handy when I use rocket jumping to get in an enemy's face, or to swap between my Shotguns and Chainsaw as needed without taking a hit). Then it's another level of Finesse for yet more DPS/speed, and then Whizkid to get more mods on my stuff instead of letting mods I find go to waste (though I don't take the second level, as I wasn't coming across enough mods to make it worthwhile). I finally take some levels in Ironman to give me some lategame assurance, since I could always run across some levels that deprive me of health. Now for the actual run. With Phobos Base Entry, I just employ my usual tactic of immediately running to the base, and if Shotgunners come out early and I take a lot of damage, I Q+Y out. Otherwise there's not much to say about it, except you don't need to be fussed about trying to get the medkits as you can't bring them with you anyway. You can try to wait around and farm the respawning formers as much as you can within the time limit to both get more ammo + beef up your kill count a little, but it's not really worth doing here, and since you'll probably end up dying soon after, it's often a lot of wasted time. With the early Phobos levels, your immediate priority is to locate the stairs and kill whatever is in the way. Once you find the stairs, you can go around and kill more enemies to both get that crucial EXP and bolster your kill count, as well as grab any armor and anything else helpful that you can within the time limit (such as the Power Mod I found in an early vault, that was really helpful for my Shotgun). This early on, don't be too plussed with your kill %, you're unlikely to maintain 90+% at this point, so worry about buffing your kill count later and leave levels early if they get out of hand. For the early special levels, you absolutely have no chance of beating Hell's Arena with this challenge combination on N!, but you can dip in, clear out the first wave for extra EXP + some help for your kill %, and then immediately dip out (if you're feeling ballsy, the second wave could be doable, but you'll likely either get yourself killed or leave yourself in a crippled position if the next floor doesn't start you next to an uncontested health source). The Chained Court is then mandatory, having the Chainsaw and being a relatively safe place to get some more EXP before the really nasty enemies start showing up, yet I nearly botched it here and had some bad respawn luck with the Barons that prevented me from leaving in good health. Fortunately the next level I was able to get a health globe early and the level was about as easy as you can hope for a late Phobos level to be on N!. Phobos 7 then looked good at first, including having a Rocket Launcher at the start that is a key weapon for this challenge, and it had a very good Invuln spawn too, but when I tried getting to the Invuln as time ticked down, some Barons that picked up armor and other items nearly ruined the run, yet I was able to avoid letting the Baron blow up the Invuln and grab it just in time. Thanks to the Invlun and having just picked up Berserker, the extremely deadly N! Phobos Anomaly ambush was a nonfactor, without the Invuln I would have had to run back to the starting room and hope I can outlast all the Nightmare enemies without losing all my armor. The Bruisers can be bypassed, but with a facerocket to trigger Berserker, they can be killed without taking much damage for that sweet EXP. Any run that makes it to Deimos is in a serious position to succeed, but Deimos 1 went rather awful, being near death at one point as I had to get a Berserk near barrels while a I could hear a Revenant, Mancubus, and Hell Knight lurking around. I managed to secure the Berserk without it blowing up or me dying, but I get banged up as I try to exit, and end up taking the stairs to Deimos Lab with my Red Armor damaged and my health in not too good of shape. I could have just exited Deimos Lab without issue, but I decided to take the risk to explore the rest of the level as the crates could have health and Blue Armors if I'm lucky, guaranteed Supercharges, a guaranteed Shell Box, two mods, and the weapon cache could have a very helpful weapon. It did get dicey but the risk mostly paid off as I exited the level in better shape, and one of the mods was a very useful Technical mod to speed up my Chainsaw, but I forgot the guaranteed Blue Armor, the weapon cache ended up having nothing good in it, and the other mod was not a Bulk mod to restore my Red Armor as I was hoping for. Luckily Deimos 2 started me next to an Armor Shard that wasn't too contested and so I got my Red Armor back in good shape, while this was the point I got a fortunate stretch of floors that really bolstered this run. Aside from that convenient Armor Shard, Deimos 2 had a vault with a Bulk mod and a Combat Shotgun, as well as an Invuln. Deimos 3 had more mods that allowed me to make a Tactical Shotgun and another Invuln, which I take advantage of to clear The Wall for a lot of EXP and a big rocket stash while taking little damage (without that Invuln, I wouldn't have entered The Wall, as with no means to heal and being on a timer, trying to clear it would have killed me or left me crippled). Then Deimos 4 gave me a very easy Pinky cave, as well as a nice Phaseshift Armor and a Power mod for it (plus another Onyx Armor I didn't need). I also fortunately got City Of Skulls instead of Abyssal Plains, which I enter as Blademaster has a very easy time with it and it allows me to rack up a huge amount of kills at little risk to buffer that kill %, being worth taking some minor damage. Deimos 5 and 6 were typical Deimos levels that weren't bad, but when playing a bit recklessly on Deimos 6 I took a concerning amount of damage, while an Invuln I was banking on got destroyed, leaving me in a not so good spot health-wise as I entered Deimos 7. Deimos 7 turned out to be an Island level, not good as a melee build when you don't have lava immunity, but in yet another fortunate turn, I happen quickly upon some medkits that were mostly uncontested, as well as another Invuln. With the rest of the floor being easy enough, I save the Invuln to take out the Cyberdemon with no damage and enter Hell in a very strong spot. Deimos 7 had a Firestorm mod too, not that useful but I slap it on my Rocket Launcher as I was unlikely to find the Bulk mods to make a Tactical Rocket Launcher at this point. When you make it to Hell in good shape, your chances are very good that your run will succeed, but when you're unable to carry medkits, I can easily die if I overextend too much, or if I get a very nasty maze level or Arachnotron cave. The first two floors of Hell were on the easy side, and Hell 2 had an Invuln, which ended up being especially useful as Hell 3 did spawn me in an Arachnotron Cave that could have been potentially deadly without it. Hell 3 itself had an Invuln too, which I take advantage of to clear the Unholy Cathedral with no damage and secure the Longinus Spear, setting me up to finish the run. I keep the Chainsaw though to kill Pain Elementals without gibbing them as the Spear would (gibbing Pain Elementals prevent them from leaving Lost Souls behind, not that I really needed to squeeze those extra few free kills, but I just wanted to be sure I built a very good buffer in case I had to leave any preceding floors quickly). The remaining floors of Hell wouldn't threaten me and it was pretty smooth sailing the rest of the way as I blew through floors ridiculously fast, while Hell 5 even had a Sniper mod so I could make a Plasmatic Shotgun, the best weapon for destroying corpses (not that I really needed it at this point). Then there's Dis, where in AoRA, you can just wait out the nuke timer and take the partial win, which will still award the badge, but it was simple enough to run in berserked and smash the Mastermind's brains in. Overall this took me six attempts, as well as a few more I Q+Y'd on a bad Phobos Base Entry... which isn't quite as much as you would expect to need for a badge thought borderline impossible for over a decade (and all those runs died in Phobos, with only one of them making it past The Chained Court, which died in Phobos 7). Granted, Reloader's buff in 0.9.9.8 was a big help, and 0.9.9.8's enemy reveal on the final three enemies is another advantageous factor, but this badge still should have been possible with my Blademaster strategy in 0.9.9.7 (if I tried this in 0.9.9.7, I would probably however go with Finesse for the second level and avoid Reloader altogether, and hope I get blessed with early Shell Boxes). As for the level luck, I had some pretty bad Phobos floors (that nigh-immortal Phobos 7 Baron would have haunted me if I didn't reach that Invuln in time...), but it's hard to ask for much better Deimos floors than what I got, and I had a great run of luck with not getting a single maze (those are run killers in Nightmare normally, let alone having to do so when you're under a timer and trying to kill most enemies). The item luck was pretty nice too, namely getting that early Power mod and a Rocket Launcher before Deimos were key to this run, as well as those well-time Invulns before crucial levels (it can't be stressed enough how good getting a Phobos 7 Invuln is). Very happy with how this run turned out, and better yet that it didn't require a big grind to get. Now here is the mortem with that shiny badge never seen officially in a mortem before! -------------------------------------------------------------- |
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DoomRL / Nightmare! / (0.9.9.9 Beta 1) [N!|AoP + AoRA|66%|YAVP] - Inquisitor Angelic is very possible
on: December 05, 2024, 20:28
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| Started by Omega Tyrant - Last post by Omega Tyrant | ||
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So of the seven Angelic badges that were never verifiably won in over a decade of 0.9.9.7 and in the few months 0.9.9.8 been out, Inquisitor Angelic was one of them, and as a result, me and Icy have been proposing to nerf its difficulty requirement. 0.9.9.9's first beta brought some huge changes to Nightmare! however; namely enemies can't respawn in vision (without the aid of Archviles that is), respawns don't count towards the kill percentage (so you no longer need to dispose of every corpse to get 100% kills, but also can no longer cheese a respawn to puff up your kill count for any badge that requires less), and respawns no longer drop their inventory on death (so you can no longer farm infinite ammo off of formers). With these changes, I've been playing N! a lot in testing out the beta, and it got me thinking about how they affect these unwon badges. Masochist Angelic becomes a bit more doable, as it'll make getting through Phobos Base Entry without getting hit less luck-based and you can now more safely kill things if you find a nice camping spot, allowing you to get more crucial levels (and perhaps make surviving long enough to get Vampyre viable, so someone should definitely eventually win this badge). Eagerness Angelic becomes actually realistic now without have to cheese with an early Trigun or a miraculous Dragonslayer, though its 90% kill requirement may be still a bit high (so we amended our proposal of lowering it to 75-80% instead of the 50% we proposed before these changes). UAC Angelic becomes slightly more realistic, but I still think it's virtually impossible without save scumming (and so the proposal of nerfing it to UV remains), and Demonic Angelic becomes a lot more viable in theory, but considering how ludicrously impossible it already was, still absolutely no one is getting this without lots of save scumming (and so the proposal of changing it to 100% kills + Untouchable Pin or Medal remains). Then Speedrun Angelic is virtually unaffected, while Pacifist Angelic didn't require Nightmare anyway, and so both remain just as impossible, direly needing their requirements to be changed to something more realistic.
That leaves Inquisitor Angelic, which isn't really affected by these changes all that much, as kill percent is irrelevant, and since it's AoRA, you're typically not staying around in one spot for long nor sticking around the level long enough for respawns to start becoming frequent, so easier to manage respawns isn't much a factor. Thinking it through though had me questioning if that badge was as impossible as it was hyped up to be; while AoP + AoRA is a very nasty combo (you lose most of your healing in a challenge where you're forced to rush and thus take a lot of damage you can't easily heal off, can't use Maps to find the stairs and other useful items, can't use Berserks to speed you up and lessen damage, and can't use Invulns to avoid damage or as a mulligan if running out of time), there's nothing that makes it inherently impossible unlike the other unwinnable badges, you must simply play quickly to beat the nuke timer and survive well enough to make it to Dis. No having to avoid getting hit a single time while regularly dealing with 50+ respawning enemies, no having to kill more cumulative enemies in AoRA than what Quartermaster Diamond requires on top of them respawning and being unable to heal on demand, no having to beat the game in an inhuman time limit while desperately trying to push through WTF enemy density, and no having to run through 24 floors with no traits while praying not a single enemy dies to infighting or kills themselves or spawns on lava. So why has no one won it, was it really that inhumanly difficult, or was it that few people, if any, actually gave it a real serious grind because they were that spooked by the combo of AoP + AoRA? Seeing how Angel of Purity is one of the least popular challenges, if not the most unpopular, I was wavering towards it being the latter, and so decided to give this badge a real try myself to ascertain if the badge really needed nerfing. Right away, while it was certainly very tough, I got a feeling it was doable, as I was able to make it to Deimos without that many tries. I was unsure of the build, and I was initially trying Scout + early Intuition, but after a few deaths that couldn't make it past mid-Phobos, I ruled Intuition out; the first level practically does nothing, as knowing where powerups are is worthless when you can't use them, and since floors get so dense on N!, you can't avoid enemies anyway and they're often on top of you, so it was much more prudent to improve your combat and speed than being able to detect enemies outside vision. After I made it to Deimos 1 with the Scout and quickly died, I decided to try a Marine instead; this sounds unideal when speed is everything in AoRA and when AoP makes the Marine's powerup bonus irrelevant, but the most often cause of failure by far is simply running out of medkits and then health when you can no longer heal by powerups nor can keep armor in good shape, while punching through lots of enemies is the much greater obstacle than just finding the stairs, so having extra HP and those inherent 20% energy resistances makes a big difference here. Once I started using the Marine, I was able to consistently make it to mid-Deimos, so I knew this was the play if I could just be a bit luckier with items and floors. As for traits, I naturally lead off with Hellrunner when it's AoRA and I want to limit whatever damage I can. After that it's Reloader + Finesse, you're relying on the Shotgun a lot, and this combo greatly increases the reliability of corner shooting, while giving you a lot more shots you can afford to make on each floor (you go from being able to do 150 shots + reload with the Shotgun per floor at maximum to 193). I was initially going for Rel2 too, but I found it wasn't too necessary and other traits were more imperative. Then you need Hellrunner 2 ASAP; aside from all the big advantages of HR2, you need it to reliably get through Phobos Anomaly without a Phase Device or Rocket Launcher that you often won't have, and even with HR2 you can end up burning all your medkits in the Anomaly if you're unlucky, so you can't risk making it to Anomaly without it. After HR2, I then go for Bru2 and Berserker; you can't really use melee much early on when healing is so limited and having HR blocks getting Vampyre, but when you can't repair armor, Berserker (that stacks very nicely with the Marine's resistances) is a major survivability boost once VMR start popping up (while you can then utilize it to quickly kill tough enemies when it makes sense to do so). After Berserker, I get Ironman to get some desperately needed HP and to better stretch out my few medkits I often have left by mid-Deimos (while slightly reducing physical damage is a nice plus too), and then I got another level of Fin when I made it far enough. As for the special levels, they're mostly a skip unless they let you more quickly escape a level and can be run through without much danger, but I did find it helpful to dip into Hell's Arena and kill some enemies, as with HR + Fin + Rel, you can do so without taking much damage and that extra EXP is helpful. The Chained Court is also mandatory; aside from the value of the Chainsaw itself, its Berserk on pickup still works, so this is essentially a free guaranteed full heal that you often really need, while you can also pick up some more EXP without taking much damage (I wouldn't complete the level though, I would just run through the right, pick off the formers there and kill the two Barons before leaving, that one free Berserk lasts just long enough for that and the two mod packs aren't worth burning your very limited medkits). When I got Deimos Lab, I would also take the opportunity to kill some enemies there as the beginning area gives you a very safe opportunity to do so and you can easily flee once time starts running low (it may even be worth going into the teleporters and possibly getting some medkits from the crates + the two mods and a nice weapon from the cache, but I never risked it as you can easily end up getting plasma'd by a Commando after teleporting or have to punch through a bunch of Cacos at awkward angles). After making it to mid-Deimos so consistently, I knew this was completely doable, and after 12 attempts (plus about another half dozen or so I Q+Y'd on Phobos Base Entry), my theorycrafting about the badge would be proven correct. Finding a Phaseshift Armor in early Deimos was huge, and getting luckier with a random Nano mod in late Deimos was even better (which I put on the aforementioned Phaseshift Armor to ensure I always had decent armor in conjunction with Berserker and was very fast), while the RNG blessed me with late Phaseshift Boots too. That is not to say my luck was amazing though, I did get some really nasty floors in Deimos, including an Arachnotron cave in mid-Deimos that destroyed my armor reserve before that Nano mod and most of my medkits, and this very nasty maze at the end of Deimos, which I wouldn't have survived without Berserker. Hell started me off with another maze + barrel event, but once again thanks to Berserker, I am able to get through it. First half Hell was a bit shaky, as I only had a couple large medkits, and so I skipped Unholy Cathedral as a result despite how useful the Spear would be. When Hell 4 gave me those aforementioned Phaseshift Boots though, I also found a Homing Phase after killing a Baron and got a bunch of medkits from crates, at which the point the run was sealed. Once you make it to Dis you automatically won, as you can just let the timer run out and get the partial win, but since I had a bunch of medkits and very good armor, I go in and smash the Mastermind to bits. Unfortunate this was in a beta and so it's not really "official" (which is why I didn't record a video of it), but I still found it worth posting as the first Inquisitor Angelic Badge, and to show that it is indeed possible. This is only the first beta of 0.9.9.9 and so things can end up changing quite a bit by the official release (such as N! possibly adding back a universal speed bonus for enemies that will make this a bit more difficult), but I can't see anything that can be changed that would make this badge impossible, so I'll be removing the proposal to nerf this badge's requirement to UV (and when 0.9.9.9 releases proper, I'll be sure to record a proper run of this badge). As for doing this badge in prior versions, as the Nightmare changes aren't a big difference to this badge as explained prior, this should be fully doable in 0.9.9.8. As for the possibility of this badge back in 0.9.9.7, I did use the Marine here, whose inherent 20% energy resistances did not exist then, and this run certainly wouldn't have succeeded without those resistances (that aforementioned Arachnotron cave that nearly killed me would have done me in for sure, and those resistances crucially stretched out my medkits as explained prior), but this should still be very possible with a Scout if you get good enough item + floor luck (I was able to get to Deimos with a Scout after all, it was just less consistent than with the Marine). Doing it in 0.9.9.7 however, would mean that Deimos and Hell have a bit less enemies (due to 0.9.9.8 modifying the danger formula to get higher values in Deimos and Hell, with the difference being most pronounced on N!), so that is one way this badge would be slightly easier there (and seeing how most of my runs were failing in Deimos, that could be meaningful). With that all said, here's the glorious mortem: -------------------------------------------------------------- |
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on: December 05, 2024, 16:07
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| Started by LuckyDee - Last post by Icy | ||
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Do I count as an oldie? :D I suppose I'm more of a middle era player, although I mostly just lurked for years.
I've mostly been off and on with DoomRL, along with doing various other gaming and non-gaming otherwise. Within DoomRL, I've written a bunch of guides, got lots of cool mortems, and had fun with pushing ideas for the newer versions with Omega Tyrant. Life's pretty good on the outside too! |
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