Endless

Was looking for some Doom images and found a PDF study paper with an interesting screenshot. Anyone know what WAD that is?

MAP04: Decayed Redoubt This one is probably the easiest so far, which is odd considering how the other ones were quite frenetic despite the low skill level. This one, on the other hand, seems to play more properly according to my skills lol. Anyway, 'tis a fun and interesting map that has some amateurish qualities to it that, I feel, are mostly on the way everything feels spaced out, as if there's a little bit more of empty space than needed, yet, of course, there's still a lot of good designs and lovely visuals. I love the starting area and the various caverns throughout the map. Adds a good jungle-ish vibe to it and the flow of the level is pretty damn good, in circular non-stop motion. Nice. MAP05: Against the Spirit Oh I really liked this one. An sprawling adventure through caverns, wood fortresses and turquoise rivers. The highest enemy count so far, but it is evenly distributed across the various rooms and areas from the map, in a balanced manner that guarantees non-stop action without fucking throwing 666 chaingunners at your face. Pretty damn good and I don't really have that much complains other than it does feel a little too lost at some sections. I actually missed the red key due to the way the switches are positioned, yet it was right in front of my nose, and the various changes in altitude can take things a little into the confusing territory, but, nothing major. I really liked this one and from the first five maps, this one is my fav.

If you check the .WAD file details, its last ''modified'' date is May 1, 1997.

MAP03: Murder Well Oh this one was quite a thrill. The staring area sports some fantastically old-school designs with a pretty little lake surrounded by waterfalls. The blue and the green hues go with beautiful synergy. The visuals of this map are more contained and the design tries to be less detailed but also much more structured. It is very consistent and simple, with a easy to follow layout that rewards speed. The gameplay is, on the other hand, much more brutal and it starts quite hot with a lot of enemies surrounding you, particularly archies. Some of the enemy positioning is done with a lot of care to ensure that you die, and that I did, first deaths already, but, it was manageable once you know where they'll come from. Not bad, pretty decent and fun.

Generally, a lack of effort. All those low effort WADs tend to be objectively shit, piss poor excuses to pretend you are something of a map maker yourself. It's even worse when you consider that Doom has one of the most accessible and easy-to-learn level editors out there. There's no excuse to release a WAD that plays like and looks like wow.wad in 2023. And no, you are not fucking funny because you made a "joke WAD" with 2 rooms, 1,000 cyberdemons and porn textures.

Ah, finally something I haven't played! Was kinda excited for this project to come. I remember playing the original PRCP years ago when I first started getting into some serious dooming. I recall it being quite difficult but also pretty fun. I already imagine a lot of these maps are going to be ball busters, so I decided to take it a little more gently at HNTR. My old bones can't stand the pain anymore. So, let's begin: MAP01: Inception Already starting pretty strong. At UV, this little map has 96 enemies, and at HNTR, it has 69, so we can already see a slightly noticeable difference, and I must say that even on lower skill level, it still feels quite spicy for being an starter map. But, let's talk about the visuals first. To begin with we have a great scene of multicolour and a variety of geometry that does an excellent job of creating a natural environment. I'm probably a little biased here, as I love exteriors with passion, and this one manages to create one quite effectively while maintaining a good level of modesty. The rest of the map follows a similar style by combining interiors with exteriors, always with an eco theme. From small hills to dark caverns full of roots. I'm not complaining at all. The layout of the map on the other hand felt a bit clunky. It's not bad per se, but the paths you have to take to reach the exit are quite small and easy to miss, and once you take the blue key, the path to the red key isn't as predictable so I got a bit lost, but it's a minor complaint, really. Now, the gameplay. From my point of view playing on HTNR, it's a bit hot despite being a low difficulty. It starts in a violent way by giving us a berserker pack to demolish our enemies, then gradually opening up, releasing more demons in more dangerous combinations. As I imagine, most of us expected, there are quite a few chaingunners and the use of revenants is a biased one, with a few surprises here and there. It's not bad, but I prefer when a megawad starts with something more relaxed, because, if the difficulty stays at this level in general, I think I'll get tired of it quickly. For a first map, I like it. The visuals captured me, but I hope I won't discover sadistic surprises later on. Oh, who am I kidding. This is going to hurt. MAP02: Medieval Evil I like the island style maps. They always have a rather ominous feel to them; seeing those eternal horizons stretching off into infinity reminds me of the beauty of life... until a million teleporting chaingunners ruin the moment for me. The style of the map is hub-like, where all areas are central to the level, and we have to collect keys to unlock the exit. Nothing wrong with that, and the visuals and map geometry are sweet, well done, and make good use of shadows, though they feel a little dark at times. My problem is the positioning of the chaingunners. It's just irritating to have to deal with chaingunners located in remote, well-covered areas that are difficult to access. Add to that an infinite teleporter of chaingunners surrounding an entire wall, and it's just something I don't appreciate. RIP vanilla users with headphones, the sound of teleports will be burned into your minds. If not for that, I would have enjoyed this map a bit more, but still, the style and layout is quite easy to follow and the gameplay, outside of the chaingunners, is entertaining and appreciable thanks to the aesthetically pleasing level design. Take a shot every time I mention a chaingunner.

The server upgrade is one of the best news we could have. It is also a testament the fact that the editors managed to fill the previous disk with so much content and activity. The Doom Wiki is IMO a great example of what well done gaming wiki can be :)

+++ Doomium +++ Plutonia Revisited Community Project 2 +++ Morior Invictus Really wanna play one of those three. Quite recent and seem to be pretty good.

Random, obscure 90s WADs can always have little rewards in them. Urbnbeta

It's been ages since the last relevant thread like this one was created. The last proper answer seems to be from this post all the way back in 2015: So 13k WADs around 2015, but it's been 8 years (oof) already, and in the last years since Doom Eternal release, the productivity of this community has skyrocketed, with almost daily releases. So, I was wondering, does anyone have any idea of how many current WADs are being hosted on /idgames? Going into a bit more less precise questions, it does make me wonder how many total WADs, including those not on /idgames, exist. It is quite an outstanding achievement for such an old game.

Surprisingly, the Doom Wiki doesn't have set criteria when it comes to what WADs are worthy for being documented on the wiki, as such, it is quite flexible as to what it includes, and I like it that way. It is, however, frowned upon to make an article for some shitty and totally unremarkable WAD from some old shovelware disk. Because of this generally flexible but also supervised system, a lot of the WADs on the Doom Wiki are quite noteworthy for a variety of reasons. Some are just pretty fun, and others are historically important for innovating design or being pioneers in some now common feature. I actually use the Doom Wiki to find stuff to play since there's no real modern WAD archive now, so the Doom Wiki does a pretty good in the meantime.

Where do you even find that info???

Oh wow! That is some terrific news. I might return to my old screenshotting duties in the Doom Wiki after all. It was my favorite little thing to edit there :D

Interesting numbers! Do you have something similar for /idgames archives database? At 93k for WAD Archive, that's a toooon, but I imagine a lot of them are duplicates and/or early versions of the same WAD.

Hell on Icannar: Old Nuclear Plant | 129th Visplane | 2013 A 2013 single-level WAD with a very 90s-reminscent style and texturing. Very old-school in essence, but plays well enough and has some modern variations added to it. Quite short and simplistic, and could probably be shorter but has some unnecessary time-extending backtracking that, while I don't mind, it is still noticeable and I tend to just go ''ugh''. Keep note backtracking mappers. I know you. I know where you all live. I know your families. I know your faces. I know you. FRAG SOUP ][ | Franco Ielapi | 1996 I imagine that's a picture of the author. Quite the way to leave your mark in history. This little deatmatch arena is, well, quite unremarkable. Pretty generic and a little too confusing to offer some actual good gameplay. I think the most noticeable thing about this is probably the picture itself. It even quite the eerie quality to it. It also includes some goofy new hurt sounds. DaScott 2 | DaScott | 1995 Another short DM arena. This one is marble-themed and has a slightly better layout than the previous one. It allows for a better flow of movement and thus better DM gameplay. It does have way too many items and a rather obtuse positioning. It also includes a few demons in SP mode so there's that. Nothing more to say here. It is just another of a bunch of old and obscure DM levels that lie quietly awaiting for someone to play them. Here, I vini, vidi, vici. CLASH.WAD | Steen R. Steiniche | 1994 Looks like today is the day of 90s DM levels for everyone. This one is another little DM arena with... uh, well, nothing, really. It is pretty basic and generic and doesn't offer much. At least the layout has something going on and the way the rooms are designed means the connect in a good circuit, which is a must for any good DM gameplay you wanna have. Other than that, that is it. Probably another noteworthy thing is the fact that the level is for Doom 1, which is rarer than Doom 2 DM level. VEX1.WAD | Unknown | 1994 Well, finally something SP after so many DM arenas, and this one seems to be a little lost forgotten level from 1994 by an unknown author. The WAD file was uploaded to the /idgames archive in 2006 by super_shotgun35@yahoo.com, so perhaps he/she is the original author, but other than that there is not much info, and as a matter of fact it only has one single review. From the title you would assume there's a sequel, but a quick search yields no results, so there's that to add up to the mystery. As for the actual map, it is a medium-sized level for Doom 1, replacing E1M1, and while it may look old, it doesn't look bad at all considering the massive dumpster that was the early 1994 stage of mapping. A lot of it is pretty entertaining and the visuals are quite detailed at some points, even including little abstract pieces of art, and it even as a ''parallel'' theme, with copy-pasted areas of the map with the same layout but different texture themes. The gameplay is a little tight on ammo, quite, actually, but other than that, I had fun with it and the mystery of its creation just adds up to the charm. How many more old, obscure, ancient little gems lie in the oceans of /idgames, I wonder?

No Remorse | Scorpius | 2019 Kinda have a strong case of déjà vu with this one. Feels like I've played it before but I can't quite put my finger on it. Anyway, this is a little single-level WAD for Plutonia designed around a circular base with an increasing and evolving difficulty level. Starting with a simple hit-and-run kind of deal with cyberdemons, and then throwing a variety of demon waves at you. It is pretty simple-looking and doesn't offer much on the visual department, but the gameplay is fun enough to guarantee a few entertaining encounters that can still offer a certain degree of challenge. Not bad but it is too short and simple to my own eyes. Feels like it would do better as a sort of ''intermission'' kinda of map in a mapset.

With the screenshots issue, last I was told is that it is better to focus on essential pics (like titlepics or other illustrative images) and map views, rather than screenshots for each map, since there's no sign of a server size upgrade in the near future, and they are dangerously close to full. And good luck!

Tried to bind it to ALT and it works fine. It seems that it only happens when using the ''tilde'' for the console, it types a | for some reason.

E4M1: Hell Beneath is my favorite Doom level from the originals, and it holds a dear place in my heart both for its gloomy visuals and simplistic yet bloody difficulty. I felt the itch of replaying it and then the inspiring fumes got to me and decided to make this little level as a tribute. It's also an exercise for a future project I'd like to do with a similar concept. With this level, I hope to capture the spirit of the original, while also expanding and adding some new encounters and areas that still fit with it. And, as you can expect, it is also pretty challenging on UV. Hope you guys like it! And be sure to leave a comment and let me know what you think :) » » Now on /idgames « « Info: Ultimate Doom Map slot: E4M1 Vanilla-compatible Tested with: Doom Retro, Chocolate Doom and GZDoom Skill balanced: Yes, UV can be a little choking New resources: No Duration: Around 5-10 minutes Screenshots: You can check my other released maps at my Doom Wiki page: https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Christian_Blair_(Endless)

Thanks for the feedback. I did some slight tweaks and made the secret rocket launcher area a little more noticeable while still being subtle enough. Misaligned the textures a bit and changed the lightning. Should make it a little more noticeable.

lmao your death reel at the end is the best. Glad you had quite the sadistic experience Bio! Like the original, if you don't find that rocket launcher you are in for a ride :P Would you say I should make it a little more obvious where the secret rocket launcher is?

Thanks for playing! The cyberdemon fight is indeed pretty uncomfy and I designed like that to encourage players to run away rather than fight him, but he is indeed doable still, if a little hard. Good point! I think it works like that too. I made the rocket launcher secret (but quite essential for some of the tighter fights) in a easy-to-spot area since I assumed that most people familiar with E4M1 would find it right away.

Chaingunner's wad pack | Chainguner | 2015 Now here's a lovely beautiful surprise that's right up my alley. Chaingunner's wad pack is 19-map megawad created for limit-removing sourceports launched by a soc alled 17-yo Russian guy. For all intents and purposes, this is the kind of work that I really enjoy and find myself smiling while playing. I don't know if the maps here were previously released, or are part of other projects, since it seems to be a collection without any set thematic, being just a bunch of different levels stitched together. What joins them mostly is that, while using some new textures here and there, they all feel very vanilla-ish and have quite the lovely design that prioritizes speed and compatibility over grandiose sets. Most of the maps are less than three minutes long, and ten for the biggest one probably. In a continuous playthrough, it took me around 1.5 hours finishing the entire set, and I was having quite the fun as I played. Most of the levels are really well made and have simple, Doom 1 reminiscent combat that feels smooth and great to play in a proper retro source port. Wink wink. There's not much to say other than this megawad feels and plays really good, and I can see vanilla lovers finding themselves enjoying these little set pieces that feel like fries in a meal. They are short but exquisite, and while pretty simple in scope, they succeed at complementing their own expectations. A really solid set that's worth checking out. Fun, doomy, vanilla-ish, and lovely. My kind of shit. In a way, it kinda reminds me of Memphis maps. Hmm. Go check it out.