New Player Guide?

Hey there,

Been lurking for a while but this is my first time posting. Basically, I discovered classic Doom after playing Doom 2016 and fell in love with the classics, as I'm sure many did. Since then I've played Doom I, II, recently 64, TNT Evilution, and am making my way through Plutonia right now (getting my ass kicked but really enjoying it so far).

Basically, I'm super excited, once I'm done, to delve into PWADS and that whole world, but I must admit I find it pretty overwhelming. There's just so much information. Apologies if this is obvious or if such a thing already exists, but is there a sort of introductory guide, or must play PWADS? I was gonna do Sigil next, but I'm just not sure where to begin. Are there advanced techniques you need to know? I imagine a lot of them are way more difficult than Plutonia, even. 

I went through the Cacoawards and naturally a lot of those look fantastic and I'm hyped to delve in, I just don't really know where to start. What do you recommend? Is there a list for newbies of mustplay wads and/or techniques? I should mention I tried searching, but the search function isn't currently working for me. Cheers and thanks! 

Actually a thread about must-play wads was just started yesterday:

Lots of great recommendations in there. Honestly, you can't go wrong.

In terms of actually playing the wads, GZDoom should play just about anything you throw at it, with a few rare exceptions. It has the widest mod compatibility by far.

If you want to get into demo recording or speedrunning you should look into PrBoom+.

If you want a more authentic 90s-ish Doom experience, you want either Chocolate Doom or Crispy Doom. Of course, these ports can run custom mapsets and mods, but none of the "fancy" stuff that GZDoom can handle.

There's a strong multiplayer component to classic Doom as well. If cooperative, deathmatch, capture the flag, etc sound like fun to you (and they are a lot of fun) I made a tutorial here which you can check out.

Now, in terms of actual strategies while playing, there are definitely some good strategy guidelines out there that some others might want to share, but I think the most important aspects of playing Doom are understanding how to the enemies work, and understanding how the BFG works. Two very short, entertaining vids on that here:

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Using all I've told you, you should be enjoying Doom maps and mods in no time, wrecking all the enemies with ease, and putting your skills to the test against other players if you're up to the challenge.

(We really should just have a big, universal "new Doomer who wants to get into the game" guideline-type post that we can always refer to for just such an occasion..)

This is great! I'll check out that thread. I should have mentioned, I actually am using GZDoom, and I've been playing on Ultra-Violence. I've never actually played multiplayer shooters in earnest other than with friends, beers, and a couch, but hey, I could always try out a Deathmatch, although I feel like I'd just get rekt by pros. 

To play a wad, you just drag it onto the GZDoom .exe, is that right?

Addendum: I do have the Master Levels for Doom II on Steam, it came free I think, but I've heard mixed things. Are they worth it? In any case, thanks a bunch! Excited to jump in - especially with so much free time these days.

If you're happy sticking with GZDoom then drag-and-drop should always work fine for any given wad. If wads come in a pack - say the levels and music are two separate wads - then I find simply selecting both of them and hitting "copy" then pasting them onto GZDoom does the trick every time. With some older ports you had to use the command line but there's no point messing with that for now.

The Master Levels are decent maps, definitely worth playing, but the community has made many maps that I personally find superior. I'd just describe them as your average pack of solid maps. I think just about all of the wads in the recommendation thread are "better" though. Not that the master levels are bad, they just give you more "plain Doom" without trying anything too new or interesting, hardly any new textures or music or any spice like that.

Some more information on the Master Levels on pages 4-8 of this thread (especially the last half of page 8 where the overall summaries are)

Cool, cool. I am pleased with GZDoom. Will check out all the good stuff. I'll save the Master Levels for later,  will jump into those fancy wads in the rec thread once I'm through with Plutonia, and I'll check out Doomkid's multiplayer tutorial. Pretty incredible how much quality stuff there is for this game. I'll tackle the Master Levels sooner or later.

1 hour ago, Doomkid said:

(We really should just have a big, universal "new Doomer who wants to get into the game" guideline-type post that we can always refer to for just such an occasion..)

I once posted about this exact topic, problem is Doom Wiki has an article already and newbies may not read pinned posts.

1 hour ago, Doomkid said:

(We really should just have a big, universal "new Doomer who wants to get into the game" guideline-type post that we can always refer to for just such an occasion..)

If i had the time i would write it altogether as a sticky. Maybe we can spar together about this?

Ofcourse, i would forfeit Rowdy Rudy's Revenge because we are aiming for good mapsets. :P

29 minutes ago, Rev'd Cherrycoke said:

Cool, cool. I am pleased with GZDoom. Will check out all the good stuff. I'll save the Master Levels for later,  will jump into those fancy wads in the rec thread once I'm through with Plutonia, and I'll check out Doomkid's multiplayer tutorial. Pretty incredible how much quality stuff there is for this game. I'll tackle the Master Levels sooner or later.

If there is one classic mapset i would want to recommend by default, it would have to be Adam Windsor's Demonfear.

Why?

• Its 32 levels.
• The maps are short, but challenging enough for any newbie player without throwing them off.
• They are just general fun.

Demonfear is not an exceptional mappack but it is charming because of its simplicity. It provides a very good blueprint of Dooming without doing anything irrational. Find it here.

Just now, TheNoob_Gamer said:

I once posted about this exact topic, problem is Doom Wiki has an article already and newbies may not read pinned posts.

What could be done is a real simple tutorial style post that for the general player (That is, a new Doomer that simply wants to play WADS) lists the most important mapsets/ports, preferably the classics and some new generation legends.

Such a post should be relatively easy to make, but would rely on a custom graphical headers that fit in line with the DW theme. I can produce content rather quickly, but i am a joke with graphical headers of any kind (The HARM project thread has some, but they look silly realy)

A video titled "SO YOU WANT TO PLAY SOME DOOM?" Has a bunch of mods and wads showcased for someone getting into them, you can check that out.

...The video has a part talking about piracy, which is not something that is encouraged here. I suggest leaving only the name for anyone interested.

@Senor500

Alright, I'll edit the post (although it isn't providing a way to pirate them itself and that's something that people who want to do will do anyway)

    You may also want to look into something like ZDL or Doom Launcher for easy management and launching of WADs and mods.

Here's another thread for when you decide you want to take your Doom playing to another level.

2 hours ago, lazy91geek said:

Here's another thread for when you decide you want to take your Doom playing to another level.

 

Yup, I find myself constantly linking to that thread for its awesomeness.

4 hours ago, lazy91geek said:

Here's another thread for when you decide you want to take your Doom playing to another level.

 

I loved that thread back when it was new. I didn't really use it for skill improvement, I just loved the format of the OP and seeing everyone discuss where they thought everything should go. I've been thinking about making a larger and more comprehensive difficulty ranking thread of my own, if for no reason other than I love to rank things.

29 minutes ago, Snikle said:

if for no reason other than I love to rank things.

Me too... I have all these Google Docs no one knows about of random rankings.

Thanks for all the suggestions, all! I'll start with Demonfear. 

That said, I have one last question. When searching for wads, is that in the Doom world Beta Downloads section or the idgames location? I see there's both? Is one better?

12 minutes ago, Rev'd Cherrycoke said:

Is that in the Doom world Beta Downloads section or the idgames location?

Go with Doomworld/idgames. The Beta section is fine but 

• The search engine on this site is currently broken
• Some newer wads can't be found.

If you however can't stand the design and graphics of /idgames, either have a look at gamers.org's /idgames archive or stick to Beta.

11 minutes ago, Rev'd Cherrycoke said:

Thanks for all the suggestions, all! I'll start with Demonfear. 

 

That said, I have one last question. When searching for wads, is that in the Doom world Beta Downloads section or the idgames location? I see there's both? Is one better?

The Doom Beta section is new, but it is not entirely stable. Stick to the legacy idgames location. :)

Check out @kmxexii's excellent guide for beginners on the classic Doom scene

https://onemandoom.blogspot.com/2018/12/source-ports-iwads-and-pwads.html

I'll use idgames. I have no issue with ancient UIs - it's functional and perfectly readable, at least.