What to you Makes a Good WAD?

[reki107]

I was laying back one day, when suddenly it hit me - how can I make good WAD files when I don't know how people classify them?

I personally like a WAD that has a nice, clean feel to the map, plenty of weapons, little ammo and healthpacks, and of course, a sh*tload of monsters. However, I hate wads like this that are one map long. I like this feeling to last, like in Plutonia.

So I ask, what makes a good WAD in your eyes?

[wildweasel]

I like a level that doesn't have too many big monsters, using only a few for key ambushes, and tons of smaller monsters to mow through with a modest assortment of weaponry. I don't mind so much if there's not much ammo - I like playing "survival" style and conserving my resources - but a lack of health can be a bigger problem to me than most other level design gaffes.

That, and too many big monsters. That's not hard - that's just tedious.

[sparerib1968]

Lately I prefer wads without too many maps. I think Doom 1 length episodes are about my limit before I need a break. It has been years since I played through Doom 2 to completion, and I doubt I'll ever do it again. Megawads usually only work one time for me, unless they are exceptionally interesting in some way.

I don't need a lot of weapons, but I do need the right weapons for the monsters on the map. Fighting barons, archies, and revenants with only the shotgun or chaingun just irritates me. I hate being forced to fight cyberdemons without plasma weapons.

I like ammo and health to be somewhat proportional to the monsters I have to kill to survive. Even if I don't get enough ammo to kill every monster on the map, I want enough to secure my escape.

I don't like large mazes where all the walls look exactly the same. Some maps in Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny are boring as bat snot because the whole map is a maze of mostly identical walls. The computer maze in E1M2 gets it about right, and anything larger is likely to try my patience.

Interesting architechture, well done lighting, and carefully chosen textures can make an otherwise boring map a joy to play. It can be more than just eye candy if it fits the theme of the map and adds to the general atmosphere. You know you are playing a carefully designed map when the layout itself works against you without resorting to flashing light effects to blind you.

More than anything else, I love it when something completely unexpected happens. If the author can pull some trick I've never seen before I will enjoy the wad immensely.

[punnyone]

- For all my opinions, I'm not referring to any wads in particular. These are all examples.

For monsters - I don't really like a huge amount of them, and I get annoyed in maps that have monsters respawn every time I re-enter a room. I also like a progression in their appearances. Having a mancubus and archville appear in the second map rushes the enemy placement, and by the later maps, there are no new enemies to introduce (unless the bestiary is used).

For design - I have a taste for wads that tend to be mostly, or semi-realistic. Having a wad that takes place in a space station's living quarters that features an area with open slime/radiation tanks is very unrealistic, and unusual. Even then though, a wad that is realistic can be boring to (a map based on someone's school for example). Maps made with source ports have been my favorites for the last few years just because they can take the doom engine to new heights

For length - I have always favored megawads, or episodes. Hubs are also another favorite type of wad for me. I like finding 10 classic levels in a 32 level game rather than 5 in a 10 level game

[Eponasoft]

For me, having large rooms filled with zombiemen or shotgun guys that are easily mowed down with the chaingun...now that's fun. Nice architecture is cool and all, but most of the time ends up being too busy and I can't tell wtf is going on. Too many puzzles get boring; more straightforward gameplay is better, and non-linear design is always a major bonus. After all these years, I've come to expect and predict the usual enemy ambushes, so they really don't pack a punch anymore...it would have to be something completely extraordinary to impress me. And I agree with pizzabob on the enemy usage...having tough enemies too soon in the game dulls the progression curve and gives little room to grow in later levels...all you can do is throw in more of them, which gets boring after awhile. Having to BFG (or worse, hangun) a room full of Arch-viles in MAP08 because the designers put six of them on MAP01 in ITYTD is just yawnerrific.

[ArmouredBlood]

You guys wouldn't like map10 of my episode then =/

For me, I'm kind of between speedrun levels and atmospheric levels. I'll take a slower wad that presents itself well, but it has to keep my attention. I'll also try some of the hardest wads, but I've got to see myself getting somewhere, not dying 200 times after just 10 seconds in.

Defining WHAT is interesting for me in slower maps is kind of hard, not exactly different from everything else, it just has to be good I guess. There has to be some sort of demon population around most of the time, too many rooms meant for detail get in the way, but once in a while it's cool to just look around in a map.

The faster, heavily populated maps also have to keep interest, usually with fights that aren't incredibly repetitive. Which is one reason I dislike the SSG. That weapon makes EVERY fight almost the same; circle strafe, shoot, circle strafe, shoot; rinse and repeat. Find cover if fighting arch-viles, chaingunners, or spidermasterminds, and know where to dodge revenant missiles. If there's enough space and/or cover you can take down anything relatively quickly and boringly.

Mixing up fights is usually good too; I like the challenge of putting imps and hell knights between me and the hitscanners while dodging the random mancubus ball from above. Add the infighting potential and it gets really entertaining.

[Jodwin]

A lot of kinds of maps can be "good", but to be "great" they need to feel dynamic: Instead of just having static architecture and monsters standing still, add more and more ways of walls opening and closing, raising and lowering stairs, creating new routes or unexpected monster closets, teleporting in monsters (especially when unexpected), etc. You can have a purely static "good" map, but a "great" map feels like the map itself is alive rather than being a Doomguy's play ground.

[Dutch Doomer]

I like maps with fairly challenging gameplay, but I'm not an real fan of slaughtermaps to be honest. My crappy playing skills is probably the reason for that. Thats what you get if you spend 90% of your time into mapping and 10% into playing other people's maps. My playing skills seem to suffer from that I think :p

I like an good amount of interesting detail, but not overdone. I also can enjoy maps with hardly any detail at all, as long as the gameplay makes up for it. An good atmosphere helps as well. Non linearity and good lighting are also an plus. I can enjoy custom resources like monsters or weapons as long as the are well used.

I especially like large open levels with an good height variation. Its nice to see all the way to the other side of the map. Makes you wonder how to get into certain areas. Add some non linearity to that to give the player more options, let him explore an bit.

[Reevys]

I'd much rather play an Ultimate Doom WAD than a Doom II WAD, purely because I dislike a few Doom II monsters that feature heavily in most Doom II WADs (Chaingunner, Arch-Vile, Revenant). I would, however, quite happily play through a Doom II WAD that featured every monster bar those three.

I hate annoying ass ambushes in WADs. There's to many times when I've flipped a switch at the end of an empty corridor, only for about three Revenants to teleport in at the other end and rape shit of me with their missles. Even worse is when you kill all of them, only for an Arch-Vile to teleport in and then resurrect them all. Even worse than that is making it past them all with barely any health, only to get destroyed by a bunch of Chaingunners hiding in some distant and awkwardly placed section of the map. This kinda thing just does my head in.

Anyway, now what I do like. I like relatively decent sized maps, that require a bit of exploration. I also like nice complexes that are very maze-like in structure, with plenty of secrets. I really don't like maps like these that feature monsters around every corridor though.

I also really love the shotgun, so it always annoys me in maps when I have to keep changing all weapons all the time because the mapper insists on sending wave after wave of clunky skeletons after me.

So yeah, give me a decently sized map to explore, without the really dickish and annoying monsters, and let me bust some skulls with the shotgun, and I'm happy. :D

[Eponasoft]

Reevys, I think you would like my megawad-in-progress then. I am so not a fan of Revenant abuse, and Arch-viles don't even make an appearance until very late (past MAP25), and even then only one at a time. I don't like the heavy weapon dude/chaingunner either and use him sparingly (my MAP04 has two of them but that's it, and that's the first map they show up in). My maps are mostly just the classic DOOM monsters (especially zombiemen/former marines), and even as such, they are not in every nook and cranny of the map but placed in areas that actually make sense. There are some ambushes but nothing too hardcore; they're a little unpredictable but if my wife can play through them without cheats then so can anyone. :) The shotgun is my favorite weapon as well, followed by the chaingun...nothing's more satisfying than mowing down a room full of zombiemen with the chaingun and then blowing apart a bunch of imps with the shotgun or super shotgun.

But anyways...another thing I'd like to mention in terms of what makes a good wad to me is cohesiveness. Quake-style designing bugs me; I like maps to have some sort of flow from one area to the next. DOOM II pulled this off nicely, IMO, especially with the whole city theme. Also, going from tech to hell in the same map just looks goofy...it would make sense if it's tech map and then hell map...SOMETIMES...but not in the same map.

[Reevys]

Sounds nice, I'll need to give it a try sometime. :D

[Snakes]

A good ammo balance combined with nice traps and a nonlinear layout is pretty much golden to me. For single maps, I played Vrack2b on HNTR, and if the ammo had been just wee-more scarce, I would've called that pretty much perfect (still pretty much is, actually).

If we're talking megawads... WOS had pretty much spot-on difficulty for me. The maps should be, for the most part, of medium size, with a few large levels thrown in (preferably towards the end). And, of course, consistent theme is always nice.

[r_rr]

To me a good WAD is different that the bunch that come into the idgames database. A WAD that grabs my attention, and gets me "hooked".

[reki107]

I agree. A lot of the stuff that comes into the /idgames database is a kind of "Look, I can make a big room with AASHITTY walls and a giant HOM with a cyberdemon in it after giving you a BFG and a shitload of ammo!" (wow.wad)

[Eponasoft]

Haha, more like suckass.wad. Cyberdemon abuse is the #1 killer of wads, imo. And the BFG, like the Cyberdemon, should be used with extreme caution and for a specific purpose. Though I do have to say that even DOOM II used the Cyberdemon incorrectly most of the time...Cyberdemon's best usage was in the Tower Of Babel in the original DOOM. His appearance in Warrens was a walk in the park because of the invulnerability and the rocket crates everywhere. But I suppose that that was ok because it was a small, confined space. I rarely see a pwad where he is used properly...only once, really, but I forget the name of the pwad...it was a roundish room with a pillar in the middle and you had to sneak past the Cyberdemon to get a (blue?) key.

Having Barons Of Hell in MAP01 with nothing but the handgun is lame unless you're intent on making a map ridiculously tough. Even Hell Knights in MAP01 needs a damn good reason. I don't see an issue with using a single Hell Knight in MAP02 (hence why I did it) but hordes of the tougher monsters early in the game is just crazy. When you've got a room with 60 chaingunners, 20 Barons, and ten Arch-viles with no pickups except a single stimpack and a clip...ugh, pwad deletion.

[Captain Toenail]

Anything with original levels and some good new content especially new textures and monsters floats my boat.

[punnyone]

Another plus for megawads for me is when they have a good progression. For example, WOS gives me the feeling that I'm moving from one location to the other gradually and with good progression, rather than going from a toxic sewer base to a Gothic fortress suddenly. All of the Ultimate Doomer's wads are good examples of this as well. For fragport, I remember enjoying how the end of a level was also the beginning of the next, and so on.

[Siggi]

The quality of a WAD can be decided based on the number of Cyber Demons it contains.

[sparerib1968]

Siggi said:

The quality of a WAD can be decided based on the number of Cyber Demons it contains.

Would that quality be in inverse proportion?

[Siggi]

sparerib1968 said:

Would that quality be in inverse proportion?

It is, in fact, logarithmic.