@kvsari Very cool map! Excellent job creating an immersive setting. The combat encounters were also well crafted. I liked having so many time bombs, especially together with the presence of sharp corners, which allowed for plenty of tactical opportunities. In general, I appreciated the liberal and intentional usage of items throughout the map. Favorite fights were the one after the first gate and the green key fight.
Here are some demos on Crispy Heretic. furnace_fd4.lmp furnace_fd3.lmp furnace_fd2.lmp furnace_fd1.lmp I ran into softlocks quite a few times and so gave up trying to record an FDA, and finished the map in DSDA-doom using the rewind function to get out of any softlocks. One of the demos ended abruptly due to Crispy crashing as I tried to use a tome (not sure why it does that sometimes).
The biggest issue I found was the aforementioned softlocks. They all occurred around the same area, with pits of enemies that are supposed to rise up later on. The problem is that it's possible to fall into them before triggering them to rise. (However, even if they are triggered to rise, it is almost as bad to fall into them and get stuck in a monster as it's still rising, as I did on the first recording). You could make some of these pits into regular teleport ambushes, or make sure that they trigger before the player can reach them. In any case, I'd also suggest bringing them up to a height that the player can walk over the monsters' heads just in case.
Again, the enemy placement was really well done throughout. I do have a few nitpicks, though. Overall, I found there to be way more health than necessary. I never really felt in much danger, other than when pushing gasbags around, because at any given time I was stacked with quartz flasks and knew there were lines of crystal vials lying around nearby if needed. I'd suggest cutting back on the amount of health pickups, at least for skill 4.
Second, I wasn't a fan of the maulotaurs at the end of the map, as it felt tedious to have to kill four of them, especially after having just gotten through 600 enemies over the course of the past 25 minutes or so. I felt the disciple swarm would have been a good finisher (or heck, even the big battle before entering the blue portal). Thankfully, it wasn't difficult to hit the switches to exit and walk past the maulotaurs, but IMO the map would be stronger without the maulotaurs in the first place.
Two more minor things: you might consider giving the dragonclaw earlier, as it did begin to grind a bit being stuck with the crossbow for so long. The phoenix rod definitely came at a good time and helped, but by the time I got the dragonclaw, I had pretty much no reason to use it rather than the hellstaff/phoenix rod. Why not hand it out earlier? Second, the two turret ghost undead warriors outside of the building that houses the green key seemed a bit unnecessary, as they never really posed a threat and were too big to exit their rooms when the wall opened behind them later on.
Aesthetically, the map had a strong, coherent theme, with some ending areas that provided an appreciated contrast. Really nice use of curves. However, you might consider breaking up the lavafall-textured walls that surround the boundaries of the map (using metal pillars, for example). I suspect that would help make the aesthetic pop more and make it less monotonous, especially around the beginning portion.
Overall, though, this map was solid and a lot of fun to play! Hope you find this helpful.
