How do you personally play doom?

[Yuki Senmatsu]

Outdated ik but, Skulltag with my YukiHUD Mod and for seasonal stuff, I have mods for that too (Current one is Xmas/Winter). I pretty much grew up with that port ever since I was 18 when I got DOOM back in Christmas 08'. To give myself more of a challenge, I have Fastmonsters enabled on UV, but I of course savescum. I'm also gonna try to play without autoaim

[Osmosis Bones]

I primarily use Zandronum but if i'm in the mood for a wacky super-advanced gameplay mod then I use GZDoom

 

I might occasionally use Chocolate Doom out of curiosity to see if it can run a certain wad

[djvero]

ZDoom. Continuous. Always on UV, no exceptions.

 

I do save in between (not in between monster fighting), but on every occasion. Even when I got out of a fight with only 3% hp or 1 rocket (or both) left; it gives my gameplay extra pressure (or frustration).

[sundog606]

ZDoom

Mostly play pistol start iwads when I'm not deathmatching

UV but got no shame in going down to HMP when I'm playing some tougher pwads

 

Play with a keyboard and trackball 

[Dasha W. Frost]

I play only with GZDoom for years and years now. I don't like overly difficult maps/mods and slaughtermaps cause my face to have a funny expression, so I usually play low difficulties just for fun and for the sake of appreciation of level design. And I love TCs... the more creative, the better.

... which is very weird, because TCs turn Doom into something else instead 0_o... But when I play videogames, my general rule of thumb is, "appreciate the game as art, as a whole. Games are not just for entertainment, they're products of art".

When I play levels or map packs (and TCs, to that matter), I might spend a lot of time simply running around and enjoying level design, custom textures and monsters, visual effects - this kind of stuff.

 

This might be a terribly unpopular opinion, but... I love ideas and creativity, and I play to admire whatever other people create for mods and how these mods complement wonderful id Tech 1 engine - or extend its capabilities thanks to GZDoom.

[Dusty_Rhodes]

41 minutes ago, Dasha W. Frost said:

 "appreciate the game as art, as a whole. Games are not just for entertainment, they're products of art".

When I play levels or map packs (and TCs, to that matter), I might spend a lot of time simply running around and enjoying level design, custom textures and monsters, visual effects - this kind of stuff.

This is a mindset I share a lot. I love running through maps of games I enjoy, solely to admire architecture, level design, music, sound design and ambience, etc. Games a medium endlessly fascinate me.  

[Naarok0fkor]

Ultra violence with double ammo & not too much of autoaim. Jumping & freelooks a must...

[Ludi]

I almost exclusively use the prboom+ UMAPINFO fork or Woof! if I'm feeling spicy, with the appropriate complevel depending on the WAD. I limit myself to one mid-level save per map, and I never save mid-fight, even for WADs like Sunlust. I never use GZDoom unless it's required because the innacuracy of the port to vanilla frustrates me.

[Ludi]

2 hours ago, sundog606 said:

Play with a keyboard and trackball 

Based 

[maxmanium]

I typically roll with DSDA-Doom, especially now that it supports widescreen lo-fi resolutions so I can get more than 50 FPS on my laptop at school.

[Doomkid]

I was using GZDoom a shitload this last year, but after realizing how much strain it puts on my hardware I think I'm gonna use DSDA-Doom even more than I already do.

 

I had GZDoom set as my "casual catch-all Doom app" and double clicking any wad opens it in GZDoom, but I'm just gonna have to change that to avoid wearing out my (already old) rig any faster.. GZDoom was using literally 10 times the resources of DSDA-Doom while running a standard Doom wad, according to Task Manager. I knew GZ ate more resources, but holy fuck!

 

In case anyone is curious, hardware: 16 GB RAM, 3.60 GHz processor - but just a lowly GeForce GT 710 graphics card, which may have something to do with it. GZDoom runs totally fine mind you, I just don't like having the hardware working so hard the whole time I'm playing.. Seems like a good recipe to slowly kill my rig.

[xvertigox]

I've recently been using Eternity in lieu of DSDA-Doom for Boom, limit-removing and vanilla wads and it's been working a treat. The crunchy software feel to it really jives with me, I like it a lot.

[xdude_gamer]

I usually use PRBoom+ or GZDoom, on either HMP or UV. 12 GB of RAM (9.92 GB usable) with a poor old AMD Ryzen 5 3500U and a Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx keeping it alive. They're integrated so I don't think I can replace them either, I'd have to get a new laptop all together. Maybe Christmas I can finally rack up thousands of dollars to buy RTX 3090 founders edition i9 laptop

[Dweller Dark]

I used to use Woof! for the more vanilla stuff (and for the crispy look) and GZDoom for the mod/game compatibility, but I swapped out Woof! for DSDA-Doom recently. GZDoom for mod stuff and Strife, DSDA-Doom for vanilla-ish stuff and Heretic/Hexen. It cuts out the need for more than two sourceports, but cover most of the things I want to have them for, so it's not a bad deal overall.

[The BMFG]

mostly gzdoom and a bit of k8vavoom.

[Kuro_mahoh]

GZDoom, Woof, or From Doom With Love. Though sometimes I use Crispy, choco, or Doom Legacy depending on the day.


And DOOM95

[Electro Rage]

PrBoom-plus, Pistol start. I save after fights, mostly because sometimes I'd rather NOT do an entire fight again (such as most fights in map 05 of Stardate 20X7) and I play very aggressively, or at least until I realize that it's stupid and then I play like a bitch... Self Awareness HURTS man...

[head_cannon]

I play on Crispy Doom (and PrBoom+ on the rare occasion I play something in complevel 9), keeping things as vanilla as possible. Doubling the resolution to 640x400 is really the only extravagance I allow myself.

 

I've got two modes I flip back & forth between, depending on my mood.

 

1: I play mapsets that are new to me on Continuous mode, with constant stagger-saving: I update my current save slot pretty much every single time I've cleared a new room and all is quiet, and I save in a new slot every time I'm about to jump into a point-of-no-return. The perfect morning for me is one where I brew some coffee, um, do something which is legal in Canada, and explore a new level or two before putting it away and getting on with my day.

 

The best part about Doom is that, no matter how familiar I get with HP totals & damage values, it never loses the ability to surprise me due to the neverending supply of maps. When you walk into a new deathtrap dungeon blind, you know that the level will attack you in some fashion, but you never know exactly how it will do that. And being able to indulge in simulated anxiety (when wondering what will happen) and simulated panic (when I finally work up the nerve to press the switch and find out) is a cathartic experience which I find very entertaining - I'm glad to have such a neverending source of cheap thrills.

 

2: Other times, I'm focusing on what I've already played. Just like you can only unwrap a present once, you can only discover a new map's twists & turns once, and after all the joy has been wrung out of novelty and spontaneity, what's left is often still quite mechanically interesting. Breaking down a level beat-by-beat and trying to find the safest & most consistent path to the exit is a satisfying process, and it's even more fun to solve these things when it's a nonlinear space that gives you a ton of options for how to go about collecting & spending its resources. Making practice runs and committing the route to memory makes for a meditative routine, and when a single-segment attempt finally makes it to the exit it can feel like a real triumph. (Plus, it's fun to stop neurotically hoarding ammo and actually spend it all for a change.)

[Skittle]

For most of my playing I use PrBoom+, play from pistol start with Ultra-Violence on, and try to get 100% kills and secrets. I also hope to get 100% items but finding them all isn't really a priority for me. I don't really like using saves, and so I've not used them in quite a while. For my scant heavily modded escapades, I use GZDoom with compatibility on Strict and freelook turned off, since I feel like freelook doesn't suit the way the game plays. For a good while GZDoom was my go to for any Doom related stuff, but after doing more research into source ports I decided on using PrBoom. I like to use the software renderer better than OpenGL, cause of dat sweet sweet lighting babey. I have actually heard good things about the Woof source port, regarding things like software lighting, so depending on what happens that might become one of my go to ports.

[Nikku4211]

I prefer to play in Chocolate Doom, but I'll use the minimum source port a WAD will require, if it's not vanilla-compatible. For limit-removing, I'll play in Crispy Doom at 320x200 with uncapped framerate.

 

Whenever I have to play a modern ZDoom-based WAD, I'll play in LZDoom in the truecolour software renderer in 320x200. For very old ZDoom WADs I like to play in the oldest versions of ZDoom that support them at 320x200.

 

I quicksave all the time. Whenever I get into a new room, F6. Whenever I get near a key item, F6. When I'm about to get my arse kicked, F6.

 

I play using a mouse and keyboard, no vert of course(unless the map is for a source port that allows mouselook), with WASD-based controls, Q mapped to 'Use'.

 

I've dabbled in speedrunning, but I'm no 0master.

[Thelokk]

Continuous on GZDoom with as much saving and savescumming as I like. I'm in a housing situation where I'm constantly interrupted, it's very rare that I have the chance to complete a map in a single sitting. 

[Skittle]

1 hour ago, Thelokk said:

Continuous on GZDoom with as much saving and savescumming as I like. I'm in a housing situation where I'm constantly interrupted, it's very rare that I have the chance to complete a map in a single sitting. 

That's a real shame, your housing situation. Hope it gets better for you in the future man.

[Rei is now real]

I don't play Doom, I LIVE in Doom

jokes aside though, I use whatever sourceport that I feel like using, though I usually use Crispy, Woof! and Eternity.

[MoreMending]

GZDoom when a map has additional textures in a separate wad file, PRBoom+ most of the time though. For both I play on "Hey Not Too Rough" on User-created wads and for ID wads I do "Hurt Me Plenty", I use plenty of saves and don't try to pistol start unless I feel like it and have already beaten the level.

[ZethXM]

GZDoom, continuous, saves where it makes sense to save, usually light cosmetic mods if I can get away with it. 

 

I like off-beat, exploratory and exploitative stuff, though fun "traditional" Doom is cool too.

 

[beast]

CrispyDoom with PrBoom+ a fallback for complevel 9 wads. I test my own levels in ChocolateDoom.

 

Pistol starts for all original levels. Always on ultra violence. For custom wads that are really challenging I may carry weapons across to the next level. I mostly save at the end/start of levels... mostly.

[JadingTsunami]

Modded PrBoom+2.6um (drop-down console, regen cheat, buddha cheat, quick-lift with use key, automap linedef/sector tag revealer).

 

Reasons:

- Helps me find 100% secrets which I enjoy.

- Don't have to grind difficult maps/areas but get feedback on "you would have died at this point"

- Can use regen when desired without any effort

- I hate waiting 2.9 seconds for lifts to raise

 

For skill, I default to UV and almost never bother to downgrade.

[WaKa]

I use GZdoom since it's the most flexible. Do I want to mod the hell out of the game? Perfect. Do I want to play vanilla maps? It works for that too. I'll usually disable jumping and crouching, only enabling it for newer pwads, and never ever use it in vanilla or old school maps. I'll keep free mouse look on all the time though.

 

Ultra-violence, Pistol start, Saveless, Final destination. I may lower the difficulty if it's a really difficult map, but it usually counts as practice until I git gud and I try again in UV. I also may use saves, but only for wads that are continuous only (as saves at the start of each map of course) or for ultra huge maps, using them as checkpoints. My rule of thumb is: Losing half an hour of progress sucks but you can live with that, anything more than that is insane though.

 

Despite using GZdoom I actually don't care that much for gameplay modifying mods unless they come with their own set of maps designed for them. I will always value good game design over flashy stuff.

[JTavares]

With GZDoom and, sooner or later, hate of hummanity.

[ForeskinJohn]

I was a GZDoom guy for a while, but lately ive learned to appreciate playing doom with PRBoom+ in 320x200 at 35 capped frames. I'd use chocolate or crispy doom but i can load so much more with boom, and it looks and plays just as faithful.