What's your favorite multiplayer port?

Title says it all.

For me, some of you probably know the answer because i keep posting about it, i really like Odamex.

It has the most solid netcode of all multiplayer ports and is playable for up to 250ms, which is very impressive. It also has vanilla demo-compatibility and is a very fast performant engine, and even has a truecolor renderer. (Much simpler than the one in GZDoom, but still really good) It's extremely portable too only requiring SDL2 and libagar if you want the launcher.

Zandronum is a very close second, and it has still decent netcode and modern GZDoom features (well, modern 5 years ago lol) comes with many new modes for a good refreshing experience, it's also pretty customizable which is always a plus for me. Bots really suck but at least they are competent at fighting.

ZDaemon, i don't really see the appeal with this one. For one, the netcode is the worst out of all ports, people often praise it but it really sucks, i mean, an awful lot of teleporting around with 150ms?! There's heaps upon heaps of missed shots even though the target was so close i could count it's pixels by hand. The bots are terrible too, while their navigation is really awesome, they are very lackluster in terms of combat, and rarely (if ever) fire a shot.

The software renderer has the worst performance out of all ports, which is VERY suprising, considering it has less features than last ZDoom and still lags a lot even on relatively simple limit-removing levels. I guess the only real pros are the truetype fonts, very good customization and nice launcher, but that's about it.

While this topic is more generic, it contains some relevant answers.

I'd have to say Zandronum cuz the only time I've had issues is when internet connection was shit. Though I have heard good things about Skulltag, I didn't really play online during that time. GZDoom 3.7 is functional for the most part but when playing with more than 2 people you'll sometimes switch places between 2nd and 3rd after dying for some odd reason, other than that I have no complaints.

I've only tried Zandronum with bots so i do like that one. I needed to try Dwango5 and a few others to see what i've been missing out on and they were actually fun. I've downloaded Odamex and ZDaemon but haven't tried either of them yet. I do have Doomseeker installed as it came with my Zandronum.

I did have some issues with bots getting stuck in certain maps though, but overall they are okay i guess. They kept getting stuck in "id Map01", American McGee's DM map so i couldn't really play that one lol.

I wish i would of played Doom online during the Skulltag era. I heard that time period for online Dooming was just amazing!

Can't choose between Zandronum and ZDaemon, eventhough I don't use them very often I sometimes use Zandronum for some quick Jumpmaze rounds and ZDaemon because it's easier to find active classic survival servers there with no gameplay addons loaded.

I tried Odamex once but there was nobody playing, maybe because different timezones or because people don't use it very much. I used to play Skulltag aswell but came very late when the site was already promoting the developer's next project "Wrack", few weeks later and I replaced it by Zandronum, The master server of skulltag remained online for a while before it was shut down though.

2 hours ago, tempdecal.wad said:

I tried Odamex once but there was nobody playing, maybe because different timezones or because people don't use it very much. I used to play Skulltag aswell but came very late when the site was already promoting the developer's next project "Wrack", few weeks later and I replaced it by Zandronum, The master server of skulltag remained online for a while before it was shut down though.

People sadly are against waiting in an Odamex server so you have to go through the Odamex Discord if you want to get a match. However, i promise the experience playing is better than in any of the other ports, feels extremely solid and smooth, and also like Vanilla but even better.

Here's a link to the Discord: https://discord.gg/aMUzcZE

Thanks for the suggestion but I prefer quick and easy to pick up and play source ports, so Zandronum and ZDaemon will have to do for now :) It's easier and faster to find people there.

I have changed my opinion after spending more time on all 3 ports it is now
1.ZDaemon
2.Zandronum
3.Odamex
I'm down for a game on any port they all have strenghts and weaknesses.

I think online Doom is great just watch for events and you can get some on all the ports. 

Odamex seemed very fun from the two games I played in it. :P

For me it'd be Zandronum > Odamex > ZDaemon. If Odamex had some regular players I don't think I'd use ZDaemon that often. ZDaemon seems to have slightly less reliable netcode for me and I like Odamex's 32 bit color renderer. I think Odamex could use some community events to promote its usage.

I'm gonna have to say ZDaemon, though I'll admit it's out of nostalgia. Some of my first real Doom experiences are playing Invasion UAC co-op, and deathmatch on DWango5 and other classic DM wads on ZDaemon.

I tried to play some Ghouls vs Megaman on Skulltag or whatever, but it never stuck. I am trying to get back into it though on Zandronum.

As others mentioned, Odamex seemed like lots of fun, but sadly not a lot of people on there. I need to get one of those game browsers that does all 3 again. What does everyone use nowadays?

Just now, DuckReconMajor said:

I'm gonna have to say ZDaemon, though I'll admit it's out of nostalgia. Some of my first real Doom experiences are playing Invasion UAC co-op, and deathmatch on DWango5 and other classic DM wads on ZDaemon.

 

I tried to play some Ghouls vs Megaman on Skulltag or whatever, but it never stuck. I am trying to get back into it though on Zandronum.

 

As others mentioned, Odamex seemed like lots of fun, but sadly not a lot of people on there. I need to get one of those game browsers that does all 3 again. What does everyone use nowadays?

Internet Doom Explorer. Or some other people mention Doom Explorer, which i think is the same but continued development (or the inverse is true? dunno really)

Nostalgia is pretty powerful; my first match was with ZDaemon and had lots of fun, but that was when there were more people playing around where i live so i kept playing ZDaemon every now and then. Until lots of people left and most servers were pretty far away and so i got upwards of 100ms, which made me take off my nostalgia goggles and notice the netcode freaking sucks. Besides the very poor netcode and being quite redundant when there's 2 other ports that do basically the same but better, it's not really a bad port.