@Large-Cat Sorry it took me so long! I've been dealing with some personal issues on top of packing things up to move to a new house, so i haven't had the time to check it out until now. Here's a demo: mflargecatcloverdemo2.lmp
I hope this doesn't sound mean since you clearly tried but i feel like the issues i had with the map only got magnified, but let me start with the good:
-The SSG does definitely make me want to use the shells, even if still a bit rarely. I think you could get away with giving a few more shells and it wouldn't overshadow the chaingun much, though.
-The visual touch-ups are nice 🙂
-A proper weapon and armor to deal with all the stuff atop of the lift is greatly appreciated
-The chaingun encounter having an easy to get chaingun with plenty of ammo does probably make it better. I say probably because this run was way harder than my first, though most likely because i didn't get to kill the cyberdemon this time.
Though there's where it ends, because i feel like a lot of the changes you made actually made a lot of the issues i had with the map a lot less pleasant.
-The addition of a BFG is nice but i feel like the addition of keys makes this map a lot more chaotic and probably way harder for a blind player to tell what's going on, with all the things they need to keep track of.
-The plasma encounter does indeed feel more clever with how the archviles are an actual threat, though this makes the issue of tanky enemies 10x worse, since not only are you spending a very long time just cleaning it all up, you're also having to deal with them constantly being revived and ending up with way less ammo.
-The rocket launcher should in theory be clearer how to get now, but the switch blends in too much with the grass and is very hard to notice when you're being bombarded by enemies that can kill you in one second if you stop moving, made even worse by the fact that that area is still too hard despite the addition of the SSG. That area specifically has way too much going on and could be made way more digestible.
-The chaingun area does also suffer from being too overwhelming, though only a little less so. It feels like it has almost every demon in the game and they're released one after the other, so on top of hitscan it feels like a bullet hell where you're also having to watch out for stray rockets and the sour blossoms at the edges. This could greatly benefit from having only one, two or three types of demons at most.
-Despite the shotgun and armor at the start, dealing with those zombiemen at the start still feels like a chore and a health tax. I don't really like them there at all.
If it helps, i think this has the potential to be the best pure action map in the set, but you need to run with it. A lot of the criticisms i had and still do have just to do with the map having all the elements of a rapid action map but with a lot of things that slow the pace of gameplay in a very awkward way, or other times are too overwhelming to process in such a compact and aggressive map.
I know it doesn't feel the greatest to want really badly to keep certain things about your map but i'm just suggesting things to play to its strengths, according to what you said you want it to be (a short-ish and explosive map), if that helps to reconsider them 🙂
