How do you play through Megawads?

[Phil1984]

I was just wondering how the people of doomworld play through their megawads. I myself play each level through, saving at the beginning at each level, and when I die, I re-load from that save point (hence keeping all my weapons, health, ammo and armour that I finished with on the previous level). But how do you guys play it? Saving constantly throughout the levels? idclev to the next level after you have finished the current level hence starting with just a pistol. Or prehaps you play it in another way which I havn't thought of?

[myk]

Phil1984 said:
I myself play each level through, saving at the beginning at each level, and when I die, I re-load from that save point (hence keeping all my weapons, health, ammo and armour that I finished with on the previous level).

I've played this way a lot, but find playing maps from scratch more rewarding; since saving (unless I've got to go and will return later) ruins the fun and the perspective of how the wad plays.

What I do if the wad doesn't seem too difficult, is play through per episode non-stop. With DOOM wads that's natural, but also with DOOM II wads, starting at levels 1, 12 and 21 (and if the maps are balanced for pistol-start games this works fine.)

[Ebon]

Normally I lose my interest if I die (and I quit) so I do have to save often. It gives a nostalgic feeling saving and loading, the same thing which was being done during the navigation of original Doom.

[leileilol]

idclev 30 I BEAT THE WAD!

[Hobbs]

I play until I get tired of playing, save, and pick up later. Often I play new megawads (and only megawads) on HMP so I can get a feel for the wad instead of getting owned suddenly in, say, MAP16 or so and have to start over.

[Vegeta]

Usualy I just jump to the final map, it's rare that a megawad atracts me enough to complete all the maps. I could put all the megawads that I completed, that wouldn't be a huge list. On these cases I save often and reload when necessary, if the wad really atracts me I avoid using much the strongest weapons, specialy with bosses.

Personaly I prefer what could be called "mini megawads" (3 to 12 maps), yet I completed Eternal DOOM, DOOM 64 Tc, Requiem (wich turned very boring half the way, yet not enough to drop it), and a few others.

[ducon]

Generally I play the entire megawad, and I don’t play pistol start. Sometimes I speed-pacifist-godmode-run, just to mess up a map for fun.

[Ichor]

One map at a time.

[Fredrik]

Start to end NM Tyson & blindfolded, in one sitting while holding my breath.

[Epyo]

just had this thread a month ago.

http://www.doomworld.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36057&highlight=how+do+you+play+through+megawads

sorry buddy, I would have given it 8 more months if I were you.

[LordK]

The same way I listen to music: all the way through from start to finish (although not on one sitting). I rarely do pistol starts, because I think they break the flow of playing. Congestion 1024, the 10 sectors competition and similar wads are exceptions, since they feel more like a collection of individual levels than a coherent whole.

I'm also a compulsive saver, since I hate to replay parts of levels.

I love good megawads. Single levels usually just don't do it for me and I rarely replay them.

[Kid Airbag]

I used to just play it like any game, all the way through, saving often because if I have to play through an entire level more than once I'll get bored with it.

Nowadays I so rarely have time to play anything, if there is a megawad that I absolutely have to play I turn on god mode and run through it so I don't have to worry about saving and dying and all of that.

[Deeforce]

I try to play through all good megawads and miniwads, while saving all the time, but without cheating... And after I have finished the wad, I play through it again and again and ag… if it is a supermegacrazy wad like “Pacman Doom 2”… Hey Epyo, where is "Pacman Doom 3"? :-P!

[Lizardcommando]

I usually play megawads using my own graphics/weapon mods (ICD-LIZARD). I just play them through from start to finish. If i die on a level too many times, I either skip to the next level, or just use IDFA and kill everything in sight.

[Grazza]

Each map from a pistol start, without any saves, and generally on UV (though I'll read the txt first to see if there are any special notes on the difficulty settings).

I don't particularly care about killing everything (but often when playing through a map without previous knowledge, you'll end up killing most of them out of necessity). If it seems that I can play the maps largely in pacifist or tyson style, then I'll often do that (though not staying strictly to those styles on an initial play-through).

I'll be on the lookout for any ideas that might make for an interesting demo too - and if I spot something, I might try to record something there and then, rather than completing the wad before recording anything.

If a megawad really isn't set up at all to be played from pistol starts (which I regard as a major gameplay flaw), then if I am nevertheless very interested in it, then I might grudgingly use a save at the start/end of each map. But more likely I'll abandon it and play something else.

With ultra-hard megawads I might use the odd save mid-level when trying to learn my way around it. I don't get much satisfaction from playing that way though - I only feel I have truly "played" a map when I have reached its exit without any saving.

[wildweasel]

I play maps in sequence. If I die, I restart from a pistol start (or if using GZDoom, from the last autosave). If I have to quit, I restart from the last known map with default equipment. I do this on HMP most of the time (but HR2 and other difficult wads are played on HNTR).

[scwiba]

With the exception of community projects like 2 Sectors and Congestion, I play straight through without pistol starts. Like LordK, I think stopping to idclev and do a pistol start ruins the flow of a megawad.

I almost always play in ZDoom, so I have the quicksaves at the beginning of each map. As for manually saving in the middle of a map, I usually don't. Of course, I make exceptions for very long or very hard maps.

I never use cheats unless I'm playing a megawad I've already completed. Well, occasionally, if the first few maps are really awful, I'll idclev forward to see if it gets better. If not, I move on to something more worthwhile.

[188DarkRevived]

If I'm playing a particular megawad for the first time then I complete each level in sequence without using cheats....
But I do rely heavily on the quicksave/quickload feature, because pistol starts are extremely annoying IMO.

If I'm playing a particular megawad for a second time or third time then I just warp around through the levels randomly, and I use the IDFA cheat to avoid the pesky pistol starts.

My preferred difficulty setting is either UV or HMP.

[Phil1984]

Epyo said:

just had this thread a month ago.

http://www.doomworld.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36057&highlight=how+do+you+play+through+megawads

sorry buddy, I would have given it 8 more months if I were you.

Whoops, my bad, I don't know how I missed that thread as I check doomworld forums fairly reguraly! My bad people, but thanks for replying anyway :)

[caco_killer]

I just skip around and play the levels that look interesting.

[kristus]

I play trhough a few maps until I die or just get bored, then I go back to working on my Doom3 map. :p

[Bucket]

IDDQD, IDKFA, IDDT, IDDT
Yeah, I'm not much into the experience.

Fredrik said:

Start to end NM Tyson & blindfolded, in one sitting while holding my breath.

That explains the brain damage.

[Graf Zahl]

The last megawad that held my interest to the end was TVR. Normally I do a quick scan, compile a smaller WAD out of the maps that look interesting and play that. Megawad is normally a synonym for random map compilations and that's not my favorite style of playing. I prefer something more strongly themed.

[Tango]

I actually never play a whole Megawad. I might play a few maps through until I die or get bored, then I just scan through the rest of the levels until I realize that I've been wasting time.
The only megawad that I've played through is Scythe 2, though I was using The Stranger weapons mod too. When I did that, I'd save every so often at times without fireballs flying at me.

[Nautilus]

I almost never play single player or coop unless it's an exceptional wad like Do-tims.

[Scuba Steve]

-nomonsters

...and then IDCLEV to all the levels to see what they look like.

[Epyo]

I love concept albums (episodes) like lateralus, or the moon and antarctica. Compilations (megawads) have no continuity, no theme, and are too long. Like Beatles 1. All the charm is gone.

Fragport kind of breaks the rule, but fragport is like a really really long episode.

I like adventures! Not messes of lines and sectors for 6 hours. And by adventures I mean the original doom or doom 2, or dark 7, or action doom, or even Evilution in my humble opinion. These maps have character!

Then there's messes of lines and sectors for 6 hours: Plutonia. Where's the character? Where's the charm?