Lane Powell

Thanks for all the replies so far. As expected, plenty of stuff to chew through, and some WADs I recognize but whose origins I didn't take note of. Cheers!

Today I took some time to clean out and organize my PWADs folder and take stock of what classics I haven't tried yet (so many)... and admire the sheer size of the community (-ies) that have kept this game alive. And a thought occurred to me: one way to find new projects to check out would be to emphasize the international scope of the Doom scene, so I ask you to name any notable WADs from Doomers outside the USA and the Anglosphere more generally. - the works of the Clan B0S crew (Russia/Ukraine) - Kama Sutra (Czech) - Bloodstain (Czech) - Japanese Community Project - Water Spirit (Japan) ... and there are probably others I'm forgetting or whose authors I didn't make note of. Recommend away!

Vanguard - skillsaw Sacrament and A.L.T. - Clan B0S Going Down - mouldy Thy Flesh Turned into a Draft Excluder and Return to Hadron E1 - cannonball Monument - Chris Hansen

Played the first three maps on UV, pistol starts. Some general comments: - It was a good idea to start replaying the set right after playing the last several maps. - All three form a sort of narrative continuity. Plane-crash site-nearby city. - They exemplify what I think of as distinctive of the Clain B0S stuff I've played: an uncanny mixture of "realism" and more abstract trad-Doom aesthetics. It's an "off" spin on the typical techbase progression where Hell's architecture progressively creeps into the grey techbase interiors. This time it's lo-fi Half-Life being invaded by techbase and Hell at the same time, as if the maps are playing in three keys. - The plane wreckage in map02 is so weird. The damaged back end that you have to crawl over is as convincing as you can get in Doom, but then the rows of seats you see at the start of the level are laid out nice and tidy, like a part of the landscape. - Wildly different layouts and progression throughout all three. It's pretty unusual to have a big sandbox level where it seems like half the map is skippable in the map03 slot but by map02 it's established that this WAD is thoroughly flouting established conventions of progression. After a big organic map that's deliberately time-consuming to explore thoroughly, I'm as ready as I'll ever be to plunge into a tricky interconnected downtown district. - I normally dislike platforming in Doom but I like it here. It's interesting and makes progression feel somewhat organic, and so far isn't terribly tricky or difficult. - Recurring pirate motifs? I'm enjoying my return to A.L.T. Overall I feel like what I just played was the introductory sequence: two combat-light maps that introduce something of a narrative, but with a strange and possibly alienating mixture of aesthetic devices and progression sequences. If you've playing Sacrament, B0S Clan's previous WAD, it's very similar, but the first two maps of that WAD are more ghost-town. More later.

I've never joined one of these before but I might do so this time because I need an excuse to replay this WAD. I actually finished it very recently, but I started it a very long time ago, having been forced to stop a couple of times due to normal megawad fatigue (I actually prefer the episode format in general for my Doom), but also because certain maps just lost me. I'm normally pretty good at keeping myself oriented in large, complex maps, but I have a harder time with puzzles and the like. There were also a couple of times I resorted to noclip--not to cheat through some labyrinth I couldn't navigate, but more because on certain levels it does seem you have to backtrack through some maze in order to progress (or if you just happen to fall off a ledge). But from what I saw, and can remember from the earlier maps, this is a WAD that deserves a proper playthrough from me. I started playing it back in the day due to a combination of ella's advocacy (after reading her first article about the WAD) and because I had already played Sacrament, which I consider an all-time favorite WAD. If ALT isn't an all-time favorite, I want to give it another chance just in case my lower level of enthusiasm for it wasn't due my broken-up playthrough. Looking over what been posted so far, I have to agree that the actual combat isn't the strongest suit of B0S WADs. It is what it is. I mean I would slightly prefer it if they were a bit more...hardcore?... I mean I imagine that if I made a sizeable Doom episode it'd maybe be something like Sacrament in spirit but with meatier combat, for sure. But on the other hand, there's something to be said for the nearly monster-less opening levels of Sacrament, for example, which do a better job of setting up the WAD's atmosphere and "story" (for what it is, anyway) than any amount of flavor text. Aside from things like that, even if the moment-by-moment gameplay is not terribly exciting at time time, there's usually something strange and exciting, if not downright uncanny, just around the bend. It's like those games that may not have terribly great gameplay but have strong art/sound/world design that keep you immersed. Only in this case it's not immersion but...something else. I'll have to wait till tomorrow to actually get re-started, though. One thing I'd like to see less of: "drugs"/"acid". Look, I'm not a prude, but there's plenty of wild stuff out there made by sober people, I assure you.

If you don't mark your body with a stigmata of cigarette burns every time you die, you're not playing Doom properly.

Never bothered. Quake on Nightmare is totally different. It keeps the spawns from Hard, but ups the enemy attack rate and makes them harder to stun. (The entrance is also hidden in a secret rather than selectable from a menu.) I don't usually play Quake maps on Nightmare, but sometimes I'll do so for an extra challenge if I consider a particular map too easy on Hard. I would never do that with a Doom map.

Rylayeh's awesome. Glad it's getting recognized. "Good for its time" fuck that shit. There are a lot of more famous megawads and episodes I've played through that are a total blur in my memory (in some cases blurs with distinctive color schemes, in all fairness). Rylayeh is something else. I'll never forget maps 2 and 3.

I mean I'd love it if everyone and their pet snake made a Doom map, but by the looks of it Hall's just delaying his.

What I'm really hoping for is for Romero to release a complete Quake SP level for Arcane Dimensions.

There's some great pwads for Ultimate Doom...including Romero's. (No, they are not the hardest/greatest Udoom pwads of all time, but that's hardly a reason to get bent out of shape lol.)

Alien Vendetta has the same place in Doom WAD history that Leaves of Grass has in American poetry.

Whoops! I voted for Shamblawards. :P