Stuff for new sticky?

It just occurred to me that the stickied thread in this forum is over a decade old, and is totally outdated / pointless. We really should just make a new sticky that would be useful to people. So I'd like to hear some brainstorming about the sort of things that would be worth putting in it.

Ideas:

* Links to major editing tools (Doom Builder, SLADE, etc)
* Links to editing tutorials? Are there really any editing tutorials still online and active?
* A centralized list of suggestions for "finishing touches" type things that authors ought to do before releasing their levels, e.g., fully implementing skill levels, adding multiplayer-only stuff for coop or -solo-net, tagging lines to be invisible /secret on the automap, etc.

A compilation of notably instructive posts and threads, categorized by topic.

Other "skill hobby" forums have done this sort of thing and it's always a helpful resource. I've bookmarked a bunch of stuff that can be considered for inclusion (here's one example), and I'm sure others have too.

http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-editing/44143-essels-mapping-tips-and-tricks/

http://forums.zdaemon.org/viewtopic.php?t=4702

http://realm667.com/index.php/en/tutorials-mainmenu-138

I think some of those are pretty informative links. I think the sticky could offer a lot of useful links without having to add huge chunks of original content in the sticky itself.

Can't help but notice a lot of it [all?] is ZDoom-oriented...any chance of having other port-specific editing stuff?

Is there a thread that lists all vanilla "tricks" that went unused in doom1 and doom2? For example, dummy sectors for knee-deep water and "glass" floors, additional animated texture frames (like in Plutonia), 3D bridges, dehacked fuckery and so on? Considering there are still a significant amount of nilla/choco mappers, this could prove quite helpful.

I've been meaning to compile all nilla tricks into one notepad document for a while now, but just haven't gotten around to it..

The thing that really stands out for me is:
Test your vanilla maps with Chocolate Doom or doom.exe
Test your limit-removing maps with Doom+ or prboom -complevel 2

Doomkid said:

Is there a thread that lists all vanilla "tricks" that went unused in doom1 and doom2?

There's a bunch of those tricks explained here:
http://www.doomworld.com/tutorials/index.php

But it really helps to open up a map in editor (like say Iikka's town map from Requiem) and poke around. I found it a lot easier to understand than just looking at a static image.

Another all-around good resource (not actually tricks) is the old Tricks of the Doom Gurus book. It uses old map editors and tools, but the principles are the same, and the writing and explanations are very good. There's a PDF version bundled with this shovelware:
https://archive.org/details/cdrom-doom-level-master-2

Thanks for those links, those are basically exactly what I was hoping for :)

I always test my vanilla maps in doom2.exe, there's nothing more frustrating than downloading a map touted as vanilla that doesn't actually run!

an explanation of all the compatibility things would be suuuper handy. For a long time I didn't understand the difference between Vanilla/Limit-Removing/Boom/etc., even though the names are descriptive.

Things like this that aren't very obvious to newcomers. (maybe something with an explanation of vanilla's limits, and a recommendation for new mappers to start with Boom instead)

I think nobody understands what is limit-removing. Or rather, everyone understands it differently because it wasn't ever clarified what exactly is removed.

hex11 said:

There's a PDF version bundled with this shovelware:
https://archive.org/details/cdrom-doom-level-master-2

WTF, really? I never knew this.

Here's a direct download link: http://archive.org/download/cdrom-doom-level-master-2/Instant.Doom.Levels.-.Level.Master.II.iso/EBOOK%2FDOOMGURU.PDF