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dylux

Slaughterfest WADs: Pro or Anti?

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I am not understanding the attraction of playing a "Slaughterfest" WAD as single player.

 

To me, playing them is nothing short of just plain suicide. The last one I played and actually completed was Unholy Realms and it seemed like all I really did was kill 10 monsters, save game, then after your dead, load saved game and kill 10 more. Repeat until end of Map.  

 

But there are many who seem to love a good Slaughterfest WAD. In fact, that's all they'll play. What is the attraction here?

 

Are you Pro Slaughterfest WAD player or Anti? Please tell us why.

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Pro, because getting gangbanged by waves of demons in a creative way is fun. It's the struggle against something that's unfair at first glance that makes them worthwhile from my POV.

 

But, that's also one if not the main reason why they're a niche genre, their concept, although more complex and at the same time not very well defined apart from some key traits all wads which fall under this category share, will make them unappealing to others. So, my point is that just like all things, it's something you must experience for yourself and based on that make your own mind.

 

I've been there myself, a few months ago you'd see me saying "this looks ridiculous yet fun at the same time, but why would one spend their time playing this?" And the answer to that question is something I had to discover on my own, which is why I, at least, am unable to provide a solid answer to the question of "what's the attraction here" (or, something else than what I've said in the first paragraph anyway). If you're unable to enjoy your time with them and find something great while exploring their territory it's probably best to move on to something else.

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Thank you for your input, Agent6 :) It's interesting, for me, to read a "Pro" perspective and its whys. 

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I love slaughter levels cos you get to see a totally different skill set in action in the demos people record for them. i'm terrible at them myself but the levels are often beautiful and mysterious and often closer to my doom-y aesthetic than traditional maps are. i don't bother tackling them with saves or anything either, I feel like the bestest way to play them is to save sparingly and not in the middle of an encounter

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I will agree with you, yakfak, that the majority of slaughter WADS are among the most beautifully designed WADS out there. Thank you for your input! :)

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I like Ancient Aliens, if it counts. The rest can go jump IMO.

Although this is coming from me, who has a 2000+ monster secret level in my upcoming personal project.

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The carnage and being attacked from all sides is fun. Scale and spectacle is another factor that you don't really get in run of the mill maps. Challenge is only a small part of it... i have played many difficult maps that have under 100 monsters.

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Slaughterfest type beats are the only way - but it's about the music, that's something that is going to be missing.

The original wads are like a skull of the real beast, realize they were strapped for time and money and especially computer power, whatever they produced would probably break the users computer because it would just be too much, even nowadays, anything about 5000 monsters can be a strain, but they should tend to steadily increase in number until the average map plays 1 million or more monsters. So the original levels are a little pin prick of the gory demonic reality behind them.

 

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Neither exactly. I can see the appeal of slaughterwads for some people, but I have trouble enjoying them myself.

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Probably the way to actually "play" it is not to just save spamming. Also, save spamming doesn't always get you out of the problems. I am not against save spamming if you are actually in a dire situation, or you want to know the map before running it. Don't force yourself into the play style of other people. Like speedrunners, they do anything in single-segmented. Doing single-segmented while grinding for a good run is not fun for most of the players. However, when you feel save spamming is only thing you're doing while playing a map (usually slaughter map), you probably should stop doing that since it's not fun, like you said.

 

I would say slaughter maps mostly require fore knowledge before playing it. Just think of solving a puzzle with detailed methods to each part. I guess this is the proper way to approach this discussion.

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1 hour ago, GarrettChan said:

Probably the way to actually "play" it is not to just save spamming. Also, save spamming doesn't always get you out of the problems. I am not against save spamming if you are actually in a dire situation, or you want to know the map before running it. Don't force yourself into the play style of other people. Like speedrunners, they do anything in single-segmented. Doing single-segmented while grinding for a good run is not fun for most of the players. However, when you feel save spamming is only thing you're doing while playing a map (usually slaughter map), you probably should stop doing that since it's not fun, like you said.

 

I would say slaughter maps mostly require fore knowledge before playing it. Just think of solving a puzzle with detailed methods to each part. I guess this is the proper way to approach this discussion.



Also playing like that, will make more and more better with the encounter, the first to last enemys to pick, and with a good game flow, map like slaugthfest are full joy.

And a pro is u can go all commando with gameplay mods and try OP things without fear of being OP.

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tbh, i found only one way to enjoy such maps: find somebody on youtube who beat a map, and watch a video. i am a very slow thinker, so i cannot plan my tactics while under constant attack. heh, i sux even in DooM RL: it is too fast-paced for me.

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Depends on who made the map for me.

I don't dislike slaughter maps, but I haven't enjoyed most of the ones I've played.

Ones that are my favorites are usually made by Ribbiks or MrZzul, because they strike me as incredibly fun.

So you can put me down as "pro side."

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I enjoy them from time to time. I think a lot of people dislike the whole concept because of the trope/reality of megawads becoming slaughter in their latter levels. Which can be frustrating because it doesn't match their expectations, and isn't always done skillfully.

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Just now, whirledtsar said:

I enjoy them from time to time. I think a lot of people dislike the whole concept because of the trope/reality of megawads becoming slaughter in their latter levels. Which can be frustrating because it doesn't match their expectations, and isn't always done skillfully.

 

I don't care for that, either. I think it works best to set slaughter maps as secret levels in MegaWADs that aren't slaughter-focussed. 

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I tend to prefer normal maps, however I have come across maps which seemed slaughter(ish) to me and I have enjoyed them.

 

I personally don't have the skill set required for actual slaughter maps and find the need for sides over a type of map style irrelevant.  

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i like it, is funny combine the slaughter maps with mods xD

and op mods need this type of wads

although removing that, I try to pass chillax to the legal, and reach level 21, it's frustrating, but the fun is that it's a challenge!

 

my opinion: pro

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I don't like it. Usually, these maps are way too much focused on large fighting for me. I prefer short-mid size maps that focus on exploring with some incidental combat and occasionally deal with more elaborated setpiece.

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I really don't understand the point of threads like these.

Don't like slaughterwads? Don't play them. Do like slaughterwads? Play them to your hearts content. Being pro or anti whatever makes no sense since you have the option to choose what type of wad you want to play. Why do people think you have to choose a side? What about people who occasionally play slaughterwads but not often, and vice versa? There are too many grey areas to be completely pro or anti slaughter. This just seems like another roundabout way for someone to say "I don't like slaughter" without actually having to say it because they know it's a contentious subject.

People are going to like what they like. If that confounds you, then I dunno what to say.

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I haven't played alot of them aside from TNT and Plutonia (if those count as slaughterfests), but I just don't think slaughtermaps are my type of thing. I'd rather have fun playing the game than torturing myself.

 

A challenge is fine for me if it's fun and doesn't go too far. Making the game so hard that it's next to unplayable or way too repetitive for the casual gamer doesn't fit my personal liking. Sorry.

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Depends on what type of slaughter.

 

The first time I encountered slaughterwads I was just amazed by the sheer amount of monsters and therefore destructions you could cause. It was exactly what I was looking for, especially Slaughterfest2011.wad and Slaughterfest2012.wad. Those were really good, fun and challenging slaughterwads in my opinion. Just the massive amount of monsters aaaaand most importantly being put into really unusual, maybe stressful situations which just didn't happen in the original Doom1 and Doom2 levels.

 

Basically what others already said lol. But I feel like I am kinda drifting towards the middleground though. For example, wads like Chillax are not enjoyable for me, way too much grinding, only enjoyable with Coop or TAS, but TAS is surprisingly difficult too on Chillax…. freaking archviles man :P

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When I first read the thread's title, I thought, "Here we go again." Thankfully, though, this thread hasn't devolved into one side bashing the genre while the other side claims that it gives life meaning.

 

To answer OP's question:

 

Personally, I am in neither camp. I'm not anti-slaughter because I admire the design and construction of a well-made slaughter map and the skill involved in playing one. However, I don't have the skill set to play slaughter maps, so I don't particularly enjoy playing them as a genre, so I wouldn't say I'm pro-slaughter, either. I will say that I have found them to be most enjoyable (to watch, at least) when there is planning and thought behind the monster placement, instead of "get the rocket launcher, hit a switch, a wall rises to reveal 50 imps arranged in rows and a BFG, get the BFG, a wall rises to reveal 40 revenants arranged in rows, repeat."

 

By the way, on the advice of Benjogami (I think it was him) during his interview with Alfonzo (the one that NIH referenced), I tried Slaughtermax. Again, I lack the skill set to do much of anything other than die rather quickly, but it doesn't mean the maps weren't good. You may want to give them a try. You may not enjoy the maps, but you can say you've tried them.

 

As has been said, if you don't like slaughter, don't play slaughter, and don't worry about whether others love or hate the genre.

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Can someone name any slaughtermaps that don't go too far? Like ones that can be challenging, but not too overwhelming and it gives you enough time to breath?

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