MAP25: Forgotten Town (Memento Mori II)

MAP25: Forgotten Town is the twenty-fifth level of Memento Mori II. It was designed by Denis Möller and uses a music track by Mark Klem consisting of two songs: "Time Runner" (ending at 2:20 into the song) and "Dredge (Extended Version)" (starting at 2:25.) It contains a separate area for multiplayer competition.

Mission briefing
According to both the text file and the Infopack:


 * Sector 25 used to be a residential district. Since most of the working places on this planet seem to be attacked by the evil hordes, we are anxious about the civilians living in sector 25. We didn't send any scouts in it, because this region always was very safe and there are still no known security problems.


 * The picture was taken by the local camera system about 10 hours ago - the missing enemy movement and the silence of this area shows that it should be no problem for you. We need to get all humans out of this sector before any enemies try to attack.


 * Mission objectives: get in and evacuate all civilians. Seal all doors and leave the sector.


 * There's no doubt that this will be your easiest mission, there are no plans for fighting - if you encounter any enemy troops, retreat immediately.

Walkthrough

 * Letters in italics refer to marked spots on the map. Sector numbers in boldface are secrets which count toward the end-of-level tally.

Secrets

 * 1) Near the ledge that opens the path to the red skull key is an alcove (sector 513) with a berserk pack. On your way to raise the bridge to the key, head to the southeastern platform and do a running jump from there to the railing surrounding the first switch. From the railing's north do a running jump to the east into the alcove to obtain the berserk pack.
 * 2) Following the red key door you eventually reach an elevator. Ride it up and the next one down to shoot one (on medium skill) or two (on hard skills) chaingunners and one (two on hard) sergeant through the gaps in the southern wall. Return to the first elevator, ride it down, leave it and let it raise again. Standing right in front of it, look to the east: this portion of the brick wall is misaligned. Open it to find a secret room (sector 162) with another sergeant (in the south) and a plasma gun. Press on the block to the north to exit.
 * 3) Exit secret #2 and descend the stairs to the north: at the northeast of the map is a stairway leading to a platform with large railings, near of which is an alcove (sector 512) with a computer map. You can walk on the outer side of the railing; so do and do a running jump from the western edge into the alcove to obtain the computer map. This jump is a bit tricky to pull off, and may require some practice. In addition, it is easier to reach this area through strafejumping than with normal jumping.
 * 4) In the northern room (west of the lava pit with the teleporter) with the metal pillars, one of these has three health bonuses and bears lightning bolts on its western side. Press on that side and it will lower to reveal a closet (sector 482) containing two clips, two sets of shells, a medikit, a backpack and a green armor.
 * 5) After obtaining the blue skull key, return to the bridge you raised to get the red skull key, lower it and enter the room west of the bridge. Look to the south to find that a new room (sector 362) has been opened, containing (skill dependent) two/four/six sergeants and a green armor.
 * 6) Once you repair and cross the gap following the blue key bars, you are ambushed by two/two/none sergeants and none/two/six chaingunners. Return to the building where you found the blue skull key to find that a doorway has opened upstairs, revealing a hell knight on easy or an arch-vile on medium and hard skills, guarding a staircase down to a caged-off room (sector 467) with two stimpacks and a BFG9000.
 * 7) In the room where you find the yellow skull key, the westernmost metal pillar (sector 437) has piping on its northern side. This pillar can be pressed upon from any side to lower it like an elevator, revealing a pathway with a backpack. Enter the pathway through this secret elevator, and you can access the platform west of the star-shaped walkway, where you can get a box of bullets, a box of shotgun shells and a medikit.
 * 8) Once you lower the exit teleporter, do not enter it. Instead, head back outside, circle around to the bridge lowered east of the exit and push the button to raise it again. After this, enter the lowered teleporter from its eastern or southern sides. Instead of ending the level, you will be taken to a compartment (sector 487) in the northwest, where you can obtain a soul sphere.

Bugs

 * Boom, PrBoom, PrBoom+, the Eternity Engine, and ports in the ZDoom family alter the behavior of Shortest Texture floor. This affects the linedef (1289, Type 30 - W1 Floor Raise by Shortest Lower Texture, Tag 26) tagged to sector 274 in this map, which relies on the original engines behaviour to function properly. Triggering the line with a port that has altered this behavior will cause sector 274 (a teleport) to rise to its upper side, preventing the player from entering it. Fortunately many of the above mentioned ports feature compatibility options to restore the original engine's behavior in this circumstance. Users of PrBoom and PrBoom+ must turn on "Use exactly Doom's linedef trigger model" and Eternity players need to toggle "Use Doom's linedef trigger model". Starting with version 2.3.0, ZDoom automatically detects the correct compatibility settings for this map, if using an earlier version of the port the option to set is "Find shortest textures like Doom."
 * When playing the game in no monsters mode, in the room where you find the yellow skull key, you cannot use the room to the east to go outside and head to the yellow key door; instead, you must backtrack to where you opened the blue key bars and open the door there to do so. The eastern room requires the presence of an imp (Thing 51) in an inaccessible room (sector 463 and 464) to trigger a linedef (2089, Type 88 - WR Lift Lower Wait Raise, Tag 43) which causes the floor (sector 454) below you to lower. This linedef is opened to the imp by shooting a switch (Linedef 2078, Type 46 - GR Door Open Stay, Tag 44). Attempting to use this path to the yellow key door in no monsters mode will trap you inside the room, as the imp will not exist in this mode. Your only method of escape in this case is to use the idclip cheat.
 * In addition, the inaccessibility of the aforementioned imp makes 100% Kills impossible by normal means, although one can make it 100% by killing enemies resurrected by an arch-vile.
 * Not only that the usage of the switch (Linedef 888, Type 101 - S1 Floor Raise to Lowest Ceiling, Tag 14) south of the exit teleporter (sector 209) is not needed, if it is pushed after using the switch (Linedef 911, Type 102 - S1 Floor Lower to Highest Floor, Tag 14) west of the exit teleporter that lowers it (almost) to the floor, it is raised again to high to enter it.
 * Six shotguns, two super shotguns, a chaingun, a rocket launcher, a plasma gun and a BFG9000 are placed in the deathmatch arena of the map and thus unreachable in single-player game mode, but are not flagged as multiplayer-only.

Current records
The Compet-N records for the map are:

Trivia
The theme song of this level resurfaces in Community Chest as the theme of MAP25: Blood Demesne. The author of the level, Will Hackney (credited as "Archvile46,") used the song with Klem's permission.