Polri

As a kid, I've always played the iWAD's on continuous, so only now, while replaying some classic levels on pistol start, did I realize that some of the larger levels, including Tricks & Traps, Downtown, Industrial Zone and Tenements don't include the SSG.

Ultimate Doom E2M5: make the path to the secret level more convoluted, involve some of the optional areas in the map (like the plasma gun area) in the process of unlocking it E3M5: change the music to something more church-related, for instance by involving organ sounds E2M8 and E3M8: switch the boss fights: Spiderdemon in E2, Cybie in E3 Doom 2 M01: connect both outdoor areas, possibly with a secret path M29: make beating the cyberdemon 29 mandatory to finish the level (or at least more challenging to skip) TNT M12: add a challenging fight in the crater area, instead of just one Baron Plutonia Plutonia is perfect as it is.

Doom 1 Favorite: E2M4 because of the atmosphere and replayability Least favorite: E4M4 because it's an uninspired filler map Doom 2 Favorite: Map 15, because it felt epic at the time, and finding the secret chain to secret exit was very rewarding Least favorite: Map 30 because it's ugly and anticlimatic (no new boss, just a wall spawning all the monsters we already know) TNT Evilution Favorite: Map 20, because it felt like an epic adventure at the time Least favorite: Map 24, because it's short and pointless Plutonia Favorite: map 23 because it feels like The Shores of Hell on steroids Least Favorite: map 31, because it's basically doing the same Cyberdemon fight 4 times in a row + some uninspired progression in between. Arguably the least inspired of all official secret maps. (together with E4M9)

How about Hellscape by Christopher Lutz?

My sincere apologies for misgendering a map author, I corrected my post.

Esselfortium for her large adventure maps. Luppinx Kassiman for being the guy who manages to make that one super special map even in megawads where all the other maps are already excellent. Sverre Andre Kvernmo for those maps that made my jaw drop more than 20 years ago (and still do). Darch for all the fun and laughs his two wads brought me while I was bored during the covid lockdown. Xaser for his incredible layouts and sadistic gameplay (Enigma Helix, I'm looking at you). Skillsaw and Dragonfly for being the driving forces and main mappers behind the two best megawads of the last five years. NaturalTvventy for all the magic he brought to No End in Sight. Blueeagle for creating the only wad that ever really scared me. Jaska for literally creating an entire world within the doom engine.

For me, I would say the "Russian-style" megawads like A.L.T. and Sacramant. I just don't think that Doom works as a platform to explore complex psychological themes, and that's what these wads are pretending to do. To me, they feel incoherent, usually having a handful of regular levels, with in between them many levels with bizarre progression, repetitive gameplay, weird texturing etc ... Basically stuff that would usually get you negative reviews, but which gets a pass in these cases because the wad is expressing the emotional state of someone stuck in an endless loop between life and death or something whatever. :)

I like it when a secret also feels like a secret place in-universe. Possible examples: - a techbase level where the secrets feel like maintenance areas which would normally be inaccessible - a castle level where secrets are hidden behind wooden panels, paintings etc - secrets you can only reach by travelling quite a distance through damaging floors, away from the regular playing area, conveying the message that "you're not supposed to be here"

btsx ep2 map 15, in a way.

Sure, but they actually had two iwad precedents to work with: the "3D staircase" at the end of Industrial Zone, and the invisible bridges in Plutonia maps 2 & 3. So probably at some point someone had a "Eureka!" moment when he realised what you could achieve by combining these two techniques?

Map 29 from Plutonia 2 = basically map 29 of Plutonia on steroids, it really feels like you are conquering a gigantic city gone to hell. Map 09 from Preacher (the ios map): vast and nonlinear, feels like a huge satanic church complex and has a nice, epic buildup to one of the few enjoyable iOS fights in doom history. Map 25 (Unstable Journey) from Back to Saturn X episode 2. It's gigantic and non-linear, but you never feel lost, nor bored, nor frustrated, and the visuals are top-notch. Maps 20 and 21 from Community Chest 4: the kind of maps where you are wondering: "how can this possibly be made on a game engine from the nineties?" Also: that space station map from Deus Vult 2.

If someone from Bethesda (or whoever owns the rights to classic doom at the moment) would read and screenshot this thread, they probably already have enough legal ammunition for a cease & desist. I mean: your concept art for the monsters explicitly names all the original ones and then tries to create an almost similar equivalent to each. I'm affraid that your entire idea of making something that is both very similar to doom ànd avoids being a copyright infringement is simply not possible.

Map 29 from Hellbound.

For a beginners guide to playing doom wads, you could link here: https://onemandoom.blogspot.com/2018/12/source-ports-iwads-and-pwads.html

Scythe 2 map 17 Alien Vendetta map 11