What are you playing now?

[Egyptian Guardian]

Currently on my second playthrough of the mod Arcane Dimensions for Quake since they released 4 new levels in the latest update and I couldn't finish all of them because it was somewhat incompatible with the darkplaces engine XD.

 

I won't play it with the official soundtrack though because that NIN composition is unnerving as hell. 

[Lucius Wooding]

Finally UV maxed Plutonia 2 map 25 after a million tries. It was a very slow run using a lot of infighting strats, the beginning can be awful to get runs going. Ended up just cheesing all the cybers as best I could and barely had the ammo to push through the end. It was one I liked in my first couple times playing the WAD, I only beat about half of the maps so far but this was one I felt like revisiting. And I finished after picking up every scrap of health and ammo; I ended with 101% health after picking up the final supercharge. There's a good amount of health and armor but it's very hard to avoid damage in some spots. I needed to go really slow.

 

I've lost runs to that invisible revenant hole in the floor right after the red door, even after knowing about it. Big flaw in the map in my opinion and a clear reason why I just don't use pop up monsters in any case. 

 

[namsan]

I was playing irkalla.wad, it's basically Episode 3: Inferno but remaked on Doom 2. I completed MAP 01 to MAP03 on HNTR and pistol start.

Can you remember the original E3M3's organic hallways? It now has lots of teeth and eyes! I liked them.

[Yousuf Anik]

Playing Doom 1 and 2 with Lasting Light mod. Oh, it's so dark!

[Palindrone]

Stopped like a third into my playthrough of Requiem a while ago. Fun WAD but I think I was alittle burnt out on DOOM at that point. Been busy creating maps for myself recently.

[HenKonen]

I'm dragging myself back to Doom after a lengthy hiatus. Playing through TNT: Evilution rn after replaying Doom2. It just feels like it sucks the joy of Doom out of the experience. Goddamn plethora of hitscanners everywhere, either only tight corridors or vast planes (populated with a million chaingunners ofc) and very sluggish map design. I feel like I'm spending like a minimum of ten minutes trying to figure out where to go - either looking for a needlessly well hidden key or trying to figure out what obscure route some switch opened. This has been my experience until map9 at least.

On the other hand it highlights what works in Doom2 and Doom95's map design and what it lacks in contrast. I feel like the originals have this beautiful balance between open areas that you can zoom around in and weave through enemies and tighter spaces, which more often feel complimented by monster placement and weapons available. I feel like a lot in evilution sounds good on paper (level design rooted in human architecture: tight spaces and all that, humanoid enemies more common due to levels taking place amidst human infrastructure etc) but the execution feels lackluster.

[Red Recluse]

Recently completed God Machine insanity map 30 Sunlust wad.At the moment doing TAS demo for tarachillax7 map 7.

[slowfade]

I found lies.wad (Tower of Lies) because of the reviews on the main page and I've played it like six times. It's just one map but it's of amazing quality and atmosphere. I've been brainstorming a pacifist run of it but I can't find a way past one corridor with imps blocking the way and just not getting out of the way. Might try to do UV-speed instead.

[Spectacles]

Yesterday I just finished YourOpinionsAreWRONG's The Thing You Can't Defeat, on a VC stream to a bunch of friends who only had a vague idea that I changed something about Knee Deep In The Dead. Their reactions were very entertaining, and the overall ambience of the WAD actually got my skin to crawl a few times.

 

After that, I started playing The Golden Souls Remastered as well, I ended up finding that secret level 1 exit during my first playthrough, but lost my shotgun before fighting the Cyberdemon in the secret stage. So since it didn't save my golden coins for some reason, I had to redo the entirety of level 1, and then go back to the secret to try to fight the Cyberdemon again.

I died, lost the shotgun, and when I came out my Golden Soul from the first level was gone.

...So yeah bit of a rough start there, I called it a night. I'm unsure if I set up something wrong with GZDoom or just encountered some bug. I will return to try again sometime soon though, I had a lot of fun with what I've played so far.

[WorldMachine]

Playin' through "Nostalgia", it's fun.

[Garlichead]

On 4/13/2023 at 3:52 AM, Somniac said:

I started on Nihility: Infinite Teeth last night, and I can't believe I only just got around to this. By the time I hit E2M3 I was certain this is just about the best Ultimate Doom wad I've ever seen. Awesome level design that feels like E2, but taken much further into abstraction and sinister atmosphere. The lack of music doesn't hurt it at all, the ambient sounds are really evocative and the dehacked adds a nice new layer of paint in places. Really unique and impressive stuff. 

I just started playing through it. Currently on map 4.

 

I love the new guns and enemies as they change the feeling of UD a little bit. Combat is challenging but fun, especially the lost soul replacement and the super-fast imps.

 

Very nice maps with cool secrets.

[MajorRawne]

On 4/23/2023 at 4:12 AM, Devalaous said:

I set up a 'now playing' tab on Doom Launcher to try and focus myself on certain mapsets, as a reminder of what ive set myself as a goal. Some of these I have already beaten in the past, and are being replayed to track the stats on Doom Launcher

 

My list right now is:

• Alien Vendetta
• Hell Revealed
• Memento Mori II
• Ancient Aliens
• 2022 ADO
• Sigil
• BF Thud
• Master Levels (as a 32 Map megawad)
• Vilecore
• Winter's Fury 2022
• Whitemare 2
• Slaughter Until Death
• Black Hell
• Infinity
• Sacrament
• Icarus
• Fragport
• Eternal Doom
• Community Chest 2
• Doom Zero
• Doom 2: The Way We Remember It
• DTWID: Lost Episodes
• Cleimos 2

The majority of these are running custom made quality of life patches (widescreen assets, UMAPINFO, bonus maps integrated into the main set, etc) that I'll probably one day post on DW; motivation to do so is usually pretty low though.

Now THAT is a proper list, gonna have to steal it!

 

Vilecore! Fragport! Cleimos 2! The nostalgia is real. But you forgot Biowar!

[D0M0]

Currently struggling to uv-max speedrun Rush map 12, it's the most difficult thing i've ever done in terms of doom

I think that says enough.

[Devalaous]

53 minutes ago, MajorRawne said:

Now THAT is a proper list, gonna have to steal it!

 

Vilecore! Fragport! Cleimos 2! The nostalgia is real. But you forgot Biowar!

 

 

Thanks for reminding me, given how its titlepic wound up in 2002 ADO's first release without the text and Chris Harbin and pcorf working together on Death Tormention and this, its something I also gotta play.

Edited May 9, 2023 by Devalaous

[Lila Feuer]

I started Hell To Pay, I last beat it for the first time in 2020, wanted to see if it aged as well as I remember. Been on a partial conversion kick since Aliens TC, Osiris and a second playthrough of STRAIN recently. Might do Obituary afterward since it's one I never got to really see.

[TheSlipgateStudios]

The 128kb challenge for Ultimate Doom - this one is a toughie but managable.

Illuminatus for Doom 2 - Okay it has some cool ideas but executed very, very poorly.

[Bugslide]

I just finished Nostalgia by myolden. I thought it was pretty good. I'm going through Moonblood by Deadwing now, I'll probably do both episodes of BTSX after that, if I'm still feeling Doom.

[Crusader No Regret]

Finished Mutiny and UAC Supply Depot.  Felt like Mutiny was missing something.  Something intangible that I'm not able to express in words.  Still a decent mapset and chalking this up to my personal preferences.

 

Supply Depot was impressively immersive even though it's mostly vanilla textures.  But with some custom textures and decorations; it did have that sense of place.  The use of Crusader music may very well be inflating my opinion of the map.  I do plan on revisiting it with a Final Doomer weaponset but not so soon after finishing it.  It's a long one and takes a time investment to see it through.

 

Now halfway through Hadephobia.  Playing with Final Doomer.  I set the starting set to random and ended up with the TNT arsenal.  Wish there was better documentation on what the weapons do; figuring out the deal with the Halderman device was a puzzle with no readily available documentation.  Once I did understand it, it has a lot of utility.  Defense mode dramatically reduces damage, a natural fit for my tendency for infight baiting.  Hazard mode stops damage from damaging floors, only balanced out by being unable to fight.  Vision mode is like lite-amps on demand, a boon when trying to navigate darkness.  This thing is so convenient to have outside of combat just getting around a map.

[TheShep]

Finished The Joy of Mapping 5 today, started Joy of Mapping 6 today. Got through all the secret levels, even if that 2nd episode 4 one was... rage inducing.

[sincity2100]

I finished Hell Revealed 2, and I must say.. this was a very long, tedious and grindy.. full with bad design choices, it's literally abrasive and not in a fun way, I gotta say this was the worst Megawad I've ever played in terms of a popular megawad.. No contest!

[MajorRawne]

3 hours ago, sincity2100 said:

I finished Hell Revealed 2, and I must say.. this was a very long, tedious and grindy.. full with bad design choices, it's literally abrasive and not in a fun way, I gotta say this was the worst Megawad I've ever played in terms of a popular megawad.. No contest!

Quite a few people have said the second is worse than the first. In terms of visuals the second one is better and I think the first half of HR2 (with the odd exception) is much better than the second half. I can honestly barely remember a single map of HR2 maps 20-30. EDIT: Except Beyond the Sea. *Shudder* We don't talk about that one.

 

In gameplay terms the first has this raw edge, it like was at the frontier of Doom mapping and it still feels like that today. And unlike some newer megawads, it actually plays like Doom. It's not just four set-piece arenas per map and you rarely repeat the same scenarios.

[Lila Feuer]

Yeah HR2 is nasty, apparently it's not as much of a slog on HMP but you know you fucked up a slaughtermap when you run out of ammo. Several times. The constant vile resurrections of enemies you already killed was, well, overkill. It is very tryhard design most of the time, artificially inflated difficulty because of course if you just dogpile the player they're gonna die eventually from overly long fights. That said I don't necessarily hate it and want to eventually give it another go down the line with a refreshed memory. I also think it overdid the tribute maps but did them worse than the originals. Agreed that the first half is much better in terms of design, though the latter did have some goodies sprinkled throughout. That said Beyond the Sea is garbage and feels very out of place when compared to the rest of the wad.

[Andromeda]

9 hours ago, Lila Feuer said:

Yeah HR2 is nasty, apparently it's not as much of a slog on HMP but you know you fucked up a slaughtermap when you run out of ammo. Several times. The constant vile resurrections of enemies you already killed was, well, overkill. It is very tryhard design most of the time, artificially inflated difficulty because of course if you just dogpile the player they're gonna die eventually from overly long fights. That said I don't necessarily hate it and want to eventually give it another go down the line with a refreshed memory. I also think it overdid the tribute maps but did them worse than the originals. Agreed that the first half is much better in terms of design, though the latter did have some goodies sprinkled throughout. That said Beyond the Sea is garbage and feels very out of place when compared to the rest of the wad.

Beyond the Sea is certainly a very divisive level, to put it mildly. It's probably the oldest level in the wad, since it was released in mid 1998 as MAP06 of d2200ep1 and was only added to HR2 to bump it to 32 levels before the release. It takes inspiration from the grindiest levels in HR (MAP11: Underground Base, MAP16: The Path, but above all MAP18: Hard Attack) and dials said "grindiness" up to 11. That said, I do jive a lot with it - every little foothold you gain is rewarding and it's an amazing feeling once you finally conquer this monolithic beast.

[Lila Feuer]

@Andromeda Would explain why you'd see maps from Dystopia 3 to fill in slots for STRAIN or some examples of Dystopia 3 style locations reused in Requiem, just something I never caught early on in my initial Dooming years. I had recently played Dystopia 3 and was disappointed to see maps I had already played in STRAIN but without the custom monsters and it was suppose to be the other way around!

[joepallai]

Was playing Bruised again.   

[PhoxFyre007]

Currently around halfway thru ep 2 of udoom

[joepallai]

Played Ziggurat for the first time in years (lots of interesting ideas but terrible gameplay).  Then was playing ABIGJOB but kept getting interrupted,   Finally started playing Altitude but need to start over (music is distracting and I'm just not up to speed--really liking what I've seen in this one so far).

[TJG1289]

Playing Hellbound for the first time. I watched a full UV-Max playthrough of that years ago, but thankfully I don't seem to remember any of it when actually playing the WAD. On map 12 now, and I'm liking it quite a bit. Maps are big, but the detailing is really nice. I can see why some people consider it to be grindy when you're presented with a hallway filled with, like, 30 pinkies. There's been a few fights like that, but it hasn't really killed the experience for me. 

[Lila Feuer]

Played Doom II with -coop_spawns in Woof! since I never tried it before. Outside of random Cyberdemon placements it was an underwhelming playthrough. So now I'm doing TNT with the same idea and to my surprise it's a lot more fun and varied with the extra monsters and early weapons that make some of the sloggish fights early on less annoying. Plutonia will be afterward and I recall that one being pretty nuts with co-op additions. I'm also relegated to start saves only.

[MissArgent]

Thinking about giving Grove a shot. Was considering revisiting Thatcher's Techbase, but i want some content that reflects the state of mapping in the '00s.