Favourite Slaughter WAD?

[Jiggahertz]

It could be a full on slaughter mapset like Sunder, it could be a single map like Okuplok, or it could be something like Sunlust which isn't all slaughter, but has some particular slaughter maps in it

 

My personal favourite is The Slaughter Spectrum, it has amazing looking levels , great music, and really fun gameplay all across the board. Also the final arena of it's map03 is still the only Doom map to this day that managed to drop my FPS all the way down to 10

[Diabolución]

Long Days - longdays.wad (Doom II) - WadArchive

 

My first user-made PWAD, indeed.

[DOEL]

Rush is a really nice "entry level" slaughter WAD. Certain levels in Sunlust, Speed of Doom, and more are slaughter.

 

I'm honestly not that familiar with the genre but I'm really interested to dip into it. I prefer if they're co-op compatible though.

 

Master of Puppets servers on Zandronum are a really good way to sample many slaughter maps.

[out_of_service]

NUTS.wad is totally insane.

[LadyMistDragon]

Cybersky is a single map, but the sense of progression and detailing are still pretty cool. I mean, it's Eternal even though he's not really known for slaughter in general. Maybe I'd like a Deus Vult map or two more, but I'm guessing Kama Sutra would probably end up being my favorite if I played, mostly because the modern stuff like Flotsam's is a little too sadistic.

[roadworx]

7 hours ago, PSXDoomer said:

NUTS.wad is totally insane.

is that really even a slaughtermap tho

Edited April 26, 2021 by roadworx

[Swalzi]

Survive in Hell by JCD.

I think I got up to map23 before I went on a gaming hiatus. Half of the maps in the megawad are dense with monsters and starting those levels seems daunting at first. JCD gives a lot of room to choose my own pacing with dense monster maps. Surprisingly, the hardest levels in the megawad are the levels with low enemy counts from what I remember.

Mars City, map21, is one of the coolest levels I've ever played and a great finale episode starter.

[dmslr]

3 hours ago, roadworx said:

is that really even a slaughtermap tho

"I recently watched MtPain27's video on Speed of Doom and he wouldn't consider nuts a slaughtermap."

[roadworx]

9 minutes ago, dmslr said:

"I recently watched MtPain27's video on Speed of Doom and he wouldn't consider nuts a slaughtermap."

i disagree with his definition of slaughtermap but okay

[Jiggahertz]

13 hours ago, roadworx said:

is that really even a slaughtermap tho

Slaughtermap = Map with overwhelmingly high amount of enemies (Per area/encounter/fight/however you wanna describe it)

[Bauul]

45 minutes ago, TheUnstableNutcase said:

Slaughtermap = Map with overwhelmingly high amount of enemies (Per area/encounter/fight/however you wanna describe it)

 

That's rather an oversimplification.  Simply having lots of enemies doesn't make a level a slaughtermap.  A good slaughter encounter is much more about manipulating the enemy AI en-masse.  It's about positioning, timing, and corralling the AI to act in certain ways (such as infighting).

 

That's why most slaughter encounters won't have enemy types mixed to begin with - guiding the hordes of enemies into positions where they ultimately fight with each other is a key tenet of many slaughtermaps.  

 

I think Ribbiks had one of the better slaughter descriptions.  He described a slaughter encounter as like playing "sheep-dog" - it's about herding and managing large number of uncooperative AI into the positions you want them to be to make killing them viable.

 

On topic, my personal favorites are:

• Sunder (for the level design)
• Bastion of Chaos (for the well balanced easier difficulty settings)
• The Micro-Slaughter Community Project (because it's the kind of slaughter I enjoy playing)

[roadworx]

1 hour ago, TheUnstableNutcase said:

Slaughtermap = Map with overwhelmingly high amount of enemies (Per area/encounter/fight/however you wanna describe it)

eh.....not really? that's certainly a part of it, but it's not the entire thing

 

like bauul said, slaughtermaps are more specifically combat puzzles that require precise movements, spacial management, and infighting in order to deal with a large group of enemies that would otherwise be absurdly difficult to kill. it's all about knowing how the game works and using that to your advantage

[Telemassacre]

Ludicrum. So many good ideas, such a good jokewad.

[Jiggahertz]

3 hours ago, Bauul said:

 

That's rather an oversimplification.  Simply having lots of enemies doesn't make a level a slaughtermap.  A good slaughter encounter is much more about manipulating the enemy AI en-masse.  It's about positioning, timing, and corralling the AI to act in certain ways (such as infighting).

 

That's why most slaughter encounters won't have enemy types mixed to begin with - guiding the hordes of enemies into positions where they ultimately fight with each other is a key tenet of many slaughtermaps.  

 

I think Ribbiks had one of the better slaughter descriptions.  He described a slaughter encounter as like playing "sheep-dog" - it's about herding and managing large number of uncooperative AI into the positions you want them to be to make killing them viable.

 

On topic, my personal favorites are:

• Sunder (for the level design)
• Bastion of Chaos (for the well balanced easier difficulty settings)
• The Micro-Slaughter Community Project (because it's the kind of slaughter I enjoy playing)

I think that's an overcomplication. Sure the things you mentioned are aspects of Slaughter gameplay, but I wouldn't say that they have to be there in order for the map to be considered Slaughter. Slaughter to me, and in the name Slaughter, implies just a very large amount of enemies, which results in, a Slaughter

[Bauul]

3 minutes ago, TheUnstableNutcase said:

I think that's an overcomplication. Sure the things you mentioned are aspects of Slaughter gameplay, but I wouldn't say that they have to be there in order for the map to be considered Slaughter. Slaughter to me, and in the name Slaughter, implies just a very large amount of enemies, which results in, a Slaughter

 

There is no absolute agreed upon definition for slaughter, but I will tell you straight up: it does not mean "just a very large amount of enemies".

 

That was agreed upon years ago.

[Bridgeburner56]

18 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

Cybersky is a single map, but the sense of progression and detailing are still pretty cool. I mean, it's Eternal even though he's not really known for slaughter in general. Maybe I'd like a Deus Vult map or two more, but I'm guessing Kama Sutra would probably end up being my favorite if I played, mostly because the modern stuff like Flotsam's is a little too sadistic.

Oh man XXXI Cybersky is one of my all time favorites. Absolutely stunning map and oft over looked. Not super hard so a good one to play if you're trying to get into the genre.

[LadyMistDragon]

22 hours ago, Bridgeburner56 said:

Oh man XXXI Cybersky is one of my all time favorites. Absolutely stunning map and oft over looked. Not super hard so a good one to play if you're trying to get into the genre.

Apart from that one walkway where's there's initially Cyberdemons on the sides, but Revenants teleport in later, and the Invulnerbility Sphere doesn't last long.....at least if you're playing keyboard only. Honestly, all slaughter maps should overload you with ammo like that one does. It was one of the first custom WADS I played, along with Hell's Grammar School and Icarus, so it's an easy reference point.

[Side-O-Fries]

I'll throw out my top three slaughter wads (in order).

 

#1 - Sunder: The original 14 levels are alright.  They definitely show their age.  But the new levels... AMAZING!  Seriously, I love how each level from 14-19 and 31-32 is incredibly varied.  As far as level design/layout, The Singing Void is the single greatest doom level ever, in my personal opinion.  That's right, I said it... change my mind.  The new levels make Sunder my favorite wad ever.

 

#2 - Okuplok Slaughter Map: Stupidly, stupidly hard.  The Revenant hallway is total BS and I hate that part.  But the rest of the map is just so much fun!  If it's just too hard and you don't want to save scum as much, play on ITYTD.

 

#3 - Micro Slaughter Community Pack: A new comer to the party.  I wasn't expecting much from this wad but I just love it!  All the maps are short and sweet and a blast to play.  If you like just plain fun, short, action-packed maps, check this wad out.  

[sapphics]

everything Bauul said up above is exactly right in my opinion. no need to expand on that topic :P

 

also my pick other than the aforementioned WAD's for me would be

 

NoSp2 by NoReason :  Just beat this mapset, and even though they're speedmaps, i think they capitulate on many of the core tenets of some of the best, and more difficult slaughter maps I've played. (don't let the short non-slaughter maps in here deter you) and even though i was frustrated at times, i came out of this awesome WAD experience a more skilled Doom player. Definitely give this one a spin. 

 

also all hail the infinite rocket launcher! :)

 

 

[pcorf]

That green map in Sunder with the Mucus Flow music. Spectacular. I think it is MAP31.

[Diabolución]

I had forgot another favourite one of mine.

 

areiddqd.wad - WadArchive

[Muusi]

Let's be real here nothing beats Drown in Blood.

[NuMetalManiak]

Phml's Mouse (SF2011 MAP26) is incredibly well-balanced for a long, epic slaughtermap and takes a lot of inspiration from Sunder's MAP11, but with more interesting encounters like chaingunner staircases and that one cacodemon area. I do prefer much shorter slaughtermaps, so Micro Slaughter is up there too.