What are the features that a wad must have to be difened as hard?

[Lykos]

In the short time that i have been here i have seen that there is a lot of kind of wads and diferent preferences. In my personal opinion, i like hard wads with traps and with some slaughty fights. But i dont like to much or they are not of my preference that maps that have horde of monsters, a lot of traps and very longer. But i will like to see your opinios about what is the line that separate a wad or a map of been easy or hard.

[DynamiteKaitorn]

Generally, I mix hard and unfair together but a hard wad can be separate from unfair in my eyes.

 

For one, harder wads need higher tier enemies earlier on. I'm not talking throwing literal barons by MAP02 but more like "MAP04 and now you have to deal with Hell Knights!" or "MAP02 and cacodemons are already a thing!". Generally this should be balanced out by giving the player a chance to fight back without swarming them.

An unfair way to do this is just add a cyberdemon on MAP01... or force me to fight a Hell Knight with only the default pump shotgun or pistol. (Chaingun is better than nothing >_>).

 

Two, hard maps will likely have damaging floors but either A: 1 rad suit cleverly placed so I have to run across a small amount of the damaging floor but not too far in that I'll take multiple zaps just to reach it or B: provide a good amount of health to force the player to tank the damage.

An unfair version of this is sticking the radsuit at the end of the damaging floor, thus making the radsuit useless unless you want to do a return trip. Also not adding any health nearby if you have to force the damage is a bit of a dick move.

 

Three:

Hard wads likely force you to rely on other weapons aside from the BFG9000 to deal with boss enemies or a cluster of them. Of course they really should balance it a little bit (but you don't want to over-do the fairness, after all it's meant to be HARD, not easy ;) ).

Obviously the unfair method is pistol-boy-wonder VS Chad Arachnotron God Daddy 4000 (Kinda wish that existed XD).

 

 

[DOEL]

For me a WAD is "hard" if, from pistol-start on Ultra-Violence, one needs to practice its levels at least a few times before they can complete them without saves. It's relative.

 

If one can blaze through it and beat it in 1-3 tries, it's probably not too hard.

 

That being said, I like WADs that are on the cusp of "slaughter", EG Alien Vendetta or Scythe 2. "Slaughter" to me means, lots of monsters usually mid tier or higher, not a lot of room to move, and BFG spam.

[NuMetalManiak]

Monster and item placement are the big ones to consider. Think about the maps that starve you of resources and also make you fight off certain setpieces while limited.

 

Layout of a map can also play a major factor.

[Endless]

For me the difficulty of a map depends a lot on the design of the map and the placement of the enemies. Sure, we can add 100 chaingunners and call it a day, but I think that generates more of an artificial difficulty where the luck factor starts to play a lot instead of skill and map knowledge. I think that's the lazy way.

 

I think that a difficult map must fulfill the following factors:

 

-Intelligent demon placement.

-Items and ammunition are tight but not too scarce.

-Good amount of mid-tier enemies.

-Good use of certain gymmicks that make maps difficult, e.g. Teleporting demons, Well placed archies that respawn an enemy nest, ambushes, etc.

 

Based on these factors I can conclude that the perfect example is E4M1. Many people that have played it on UV can corroborate that it is a truly challenging map.

 

[Lykos]

Put the right monster in the right moment, sounds easy but maybe its one of most important things to do. Before the only thing in my mind was that a lot of monsters placement makes more difficult and funny the game. But now i realize that the truth is far away for that. Thanks for the answers, now im going to focus in the realistic game. Smart demon and items/ammunition placement, 2 spoons of traps and 1/4 cup of slughty (depending of the level).

[Doom-X-Machina]

I've always played with a cautious playstyle, as if I'm actually there fighting the demons. I try to limit stupid deaths to a minimum.

Probe a room, alert and see what's in there, quickly find some cover, work out the best weapon for the situation and let loose.

I'm one of those "ooo, red door... I have a red key.... quicksave" players. I'm happy to spend 2 hours on a map, reloading before a room

that's handing me my own arse over and over if I know there's a way to beat it (I just have to find it). I love a challenge, which is why I

play on Ultra-Violence. Bring me the whole WAD, everything it has to throw at me. The more shit I have to kill, the better :D

With that in mind, I've come to enjoy a decent balance of monsters/ammo/health : map layout. If that makes any sense?

I enjoy a challenge, so I like being forced to conserve my resources and be careful with ammo expenditure/health loss. In that sense, I

would say a feature that would define a "hard WAD" is a monster level/count that's just a little bit above the available resources which

means you can't just go apeshit and decorate the place with bullet holes. You have to make every shot count. Every bullet, shell, rocket, cell,

you fire needs to hit it's mark or you'll find yourself starved, overwhelmed and DOOMed. Smart map design that forces strategic play,

be it taking cover against a narrow tide in a corridor or strafing and whirling through a wide arena shootout is what makes a WAD "hard".

[DooM Bear]

As some other have mentioned, I think there is two types of hard WADs.

 

The first is the not fun, unfair bullshit kind - placing 100 chaingunners in line of sight with nowhere to hide or just filling the map with high tier demons and giving the player no weapons other than the pistol etc.

 

The second kind is the fun kind :-D - where you have to strategise, pay attention to your surroundings and use the right tool for the job etc.

 

I find a looot of wads fall in the first category as the second (I imagine) takes a hell lot more time and effort to create!

 

 

[Wagi]

Hard = Difficult to beat. All subjective.

Unfair = Bullshit traps with no warning, or those that require foreknowledge to survive.