Best enhancement WADs

Having searched through the forums, I don't think anyone has asked this question before. What are the best enhancement WADs available for Doom (gore wads, sound replacement/improvement, animations, textures, etc.)? I'm particularly interested in finding a WAD with sounds for the super and regular shotgun that are really powerful and satisfying. Thanks.

Brutal Doom has to be one of the best
Then i would probably recommend Project MSX

I'll second Brutal Doom.

I also like this Particle Enhancer Mod that may have what you're looking for, which is found here: http://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/57628-particle-fire-enhancer-mod-v0-8-for-gzdoom/.
Beautiful Doom could work as well, but I don't have a link for it offhand.

Definitely the two mods from Per Kristian:
> Smooth Weapon Animations (there is a ZDoom-compatible version in this thread)
> Hires Doom Sound Pack

With the weapon animations you have to be careful when using custom wads, though. If they replace weapons, you'll have to deactivate it since the mod contains additional frames for the weapons which will break mod support. For normal Doom or vanilla pwads, there's nothing better you can possible use, though.

sgt dopey wrote: Then i would probably recommend Project MSX

Yet I wouldn't classify it as a pure enhancement WAD, because it quite scraps the original gameplay system and arsenal to introduce a totally new one. Not that it's bad in any way, mind you... ;-)

Anyway, I would collect the most prominent enhancement mods in this list:

- GZDOOM Advanced (http://iddqd.ru/download?idclick=doom/mods/GZDA-RC1-B62.zip&title=ZDoom%20Advanced%20Mod&where=mods&what=%C2%E5%F0%F1%E8%FF%20RC1%20B62%20%E4%EB%FF%20GZDoom)
- ReDOOM (http://kinsie.helloiaminter.net/imgs/doom/redoom.7z)
- Beautiful DOOM (http://doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=16484)
- Brutal DOOM (http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=28920)
- DOOM Plus (http://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/42348-doom-plus-doom-weapons-blance-mod/)

In all honesty, a myriad of these has been made so that this list might be four of five times longer... But I'd dare to say these are the most prominent I can immediately remember.
I also made a couple ones, although they go a bit beyond the mere enhancement (don't know if it's really what you're looking for; also, they're getting upgraded):

- Revenge (http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=15913)
- DOOM NG (http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=16080)

So have fun... :-)

(EDIT) I thought I'd better clarify what I intended as "enhancement": to me, an enhancement mod is something that retains the fundamental DOOM arsenal structure (and possibly, aesthetics) and provides additional features to it, even slightly changing the gameplay. In the above list, you'll find mods that even add a reload feature...

What are the subtle differences between Beautiful doom and Brutal doom?

NightFright said:

Definitely the two mods from Per Kristian:
> Smooth Weapon Animations (there is a ZDoom-compatible version in this thread)
> Hires Doom Sound Pack

With the weapon animations you have to be careful when using custom wads, though. If they replace weapons, you'll have to deactivate it since the mod contains additional frames for the weapons which will break mod support. For normal Doom or vanilla pwads, there's nothing better you can possible use, though.

Seconded.

Both of these superbly enhance the Dooming experience, and are two of my favorites.

I'm glad this thread got posted, as there are a few mods I haven't tried, namely Doom plus and ReDoom.

Beautiful Doom is more of a graphical overhaul, with only small gameplay changes (alt-fire for weapons and minor behavior differences here and there). Brutal Doom makes enemies more powerful, changes several weapons and adds cinematic takedowns.

I haven't had much experience with either mod, that's just how I remember it.

I avoid these so called "enhancements" like plague, but the venerable Delirium patch by Denis Fabrice somehow worked for me.

Seeker_of_Truth said:

I'll second Brutal Doom.

I also like this Particle Enhancer Mod that may have what you're looking for, which is found here: http://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/57628-particle-fire-enhancer-mod-v0-8-for-gzdoom/.

Pretty much this. PFEmod has a lot of cool features that don't really affect the gameplay too much whereas Brutal Doom makes Doom...well, brutal, increases the difficulty quite a bit.

Someone posted these enhancement WAD links in another thread, but they're dead:

"enhance.wad includes:
-Perkristan's smoother weapon sprite animations (I made the pistol left handed again, the offsets are a little off but its hardly noticeable)
-the BFG from Z86's Particle Fire Enhancer Mod beta (has smooth animation) resized to more closely resemble the original
-shell casings (taken from above mod, but modified slightly) I also made it so that hitscan enemies eject shell casings
-Nash's Gore Mod, I removed all of the decals earlier because I play without decals
-new Zombieman sprites (holding pistol) taken from Beautiful Doom
-one new enemy, the Zombie Trooper (uses original Zombieman sprites and behaves exactly the same as the Wolfenstein SS) replaces Zombieman 25% of the time and the Wolfenstein SS
-an HUD with only Doomguy's face (it kinda sucks, I'm going to move the face to one of the bottom corners of the screen instead of the center and add a background for it)

music.wad includes:
-high quality version of the Doom soundtrack, no idea where it came from"

I looked up enhance.wad and music.wad but couldn't find them. Does anyone have working links for the above wads? Thanks.

Also, thanks for all of the responses so far.

Zero Tolerance is very polished.The pistols also rock.

I made a PK3 that disables ZDoom's default decals. I just find them terrible looking, personally.

Vdaxzter said:

Someone posted these enhancement WAD links in another thread, but they're dead:

"enhance.wad includes:
-Perkristan's smoother weapon sprite animations (I made the pistol left handed again, the offsets are a little off but its hardly noticeable)
-the BFG from Z86's Particle Fire Enhancer Mod beta (has smooth animation) resized to more closely resemble the original
-shell casings (taken from above mod, but modified slightly) I also made it so that hitscan enemies eject shell casings
-Nash's Gore Mod, I removed all of the decals earlier because I play without decals
-new Zombieman sprites (holding pistol) taken from Beautiful Doom
-one new enemy, the Zombie Trooper (uses original Zombieman sprites and behaves exactly the same as the Wolfenstein SS) replaces Zombieman 25% of the time and the Wolfenstein SS
-an HUD with only Doomguy's face (it kinda sucks, I'm going to move the face to one of the bottom corners of the screen instead of the center and add a background for it)

music.wad includes:
-high quality version of the Doom soundtrack, no idea where it came from"

I looked up enhance.wad and music.wad but couldn't find them. Does anyone have working links for the above wads? Thanks.

Also, thanks for all of the responses so far.

is it this one by ceejay?

http://www.wadsinprogress.info/?a=listwads&wad=1541

http://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/56312-enhanced-doom-for-edge/

the bad part, as it was hosted on megaupload i'm just getting an FBI banner when trying to download it ;)

otherwise, i use nashgore, perkristian's enhanced sound & music wad and sigvatr's palplus pretty much as a standard when playing doom maps.

beautiful doom and brutal doom are also often used, however they change also gameplay, especially brutal doom.

There is a way to use BrutalDoom flares and projectiles in a separate wad/zip file. When I play with models, the projectiles are very low quality

What about AEons of Death?

Katamori said:

What about AEons of Death?

No

There is a guy on this forum and various Doom forums (ZDoom, etc) making a complete sound replacement with his own work.