Good Doom/Heretic/Hexen WADs

[Average Manatee]

Never had problems with GZDoom performance even on slaughtermaps with my shitass PC. Even the mods I've tried don't seem to tank performance that much. I'm entirely inclined to agree with the devs.

 

[Average Manatee]

Me, with 1300 enemies/corpses on the screen and a 120 FOV, a CPU from 2011, a GPU from 2016, and 8 GB of what's probably the slowest DDR3 (not 4) memory available back in 2011, running in 1440p. You probably can't buy a new PC that isn't at least 2x as powerful unless you live in the third world. Map is sunlust 24, dying on cue ending.

Just fucking run normal doom without a million ugly shaders and other effects and don't play shitass mods. You'll probably be unable to run Windows sooner than you're unable to run GZDOOM.

Also yes, nuts.wad runs fine too.

 

[HansDampf]

Try to play map 31 from Antaresian Reliquary (The Eclipse of Betelgeuse) in GZDoom. I could measure my framerate in seconds per frame and had to switch to PrBoom+.

 

[toughasnails]

If you want utter insanity
https://www.doomworld.com/forum/top...d-heavily-detailed-boom-map-otex65k-linedefs/

I also remember this being borderline unplayable for me with GZDoom back in the day regardless of what I did


It would probably be alright today and as they said it would run fine in PrBoom, but the framerate is the main thing I remember the map for. If you watch the vid, at one point they get to the set of ersatz 3D tables, when you see HOW they were done you'll get how much the author gets that filthy Western capitalist "optimization" thing.

But these are really the problems with over the top maps rather than with GZDoom. Other examples would be some gameplay mods ruining maps with huge monster counts, or TCs like Solace Dreams (the OG everything is voxels version) or some maps in BoA.

 

[gerey]

I've never seen Vos (the ashes creator) parroting any woke stuff. He's also good friends with Zan (the Hedon dev) who has a pretty antagonistic relationship with most of the SJWs over at the GZDoom forums.

And coincidentally, those two are some of the most talented, productive and creative Doom modders around.

Also, ReformedJoe, that worked with Vos on Ashes Afterglow (and made the expansion for 2063) seems to be pretty chill - I haven't really seen any hint of the mind virus, though incapable of committing to one project and finishing it, but I like both the mech mod he's working on, as well as the immersive sim mappack he's developing.

The Trenchfoot devs all seem to be non-woke Christians, and if the most recent little Trenchfoot cartoon (about the Master Templar beheading a heretic) is anything to go by, they may be much closer to my neck of the woods ideologically than most modders.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Is Heretic bad?

I've finished the first episode and it's been very disappointing compared to Doom. Enemies are not challenging in the slightest, the sound design and music leave a lot to be desired. Weapons lack that oomph that Doom's had. Level design is rather unimaginative. It is pretty much what I expected Doom to be before I played it, i.e. a boring game where all you do is go into a big room and shoot lots of enemies.

I loaded up Plutonia Experiment after that and beat the first three levels. I know Plutonia is meant to be difficult, but even Doom had you play to the game's strength of movement and strafing, so my criticism of Heretic applies both in comparison to Plutonia and standard Doom. Part of the problem I have with Heretic is that this doesn't really happen. More often than not I sit still in one place and blast at enemies.

Maybe the game is meant to be played at the highest difficulty?

To me, Heretic is not 'bad', but it's still lacking in many ways.

I'll give some anecdotal evidence: I played Doom (2) and enjoyed it very much, to the point that I have some residual memory of pretty much every map in the game, even 30 years later.

Now with Heretic, I've played through all five episodes at least once (a LONG time ago) and the only maps I have any residual memory of, are part of Episode 1 - the shareware episode, and the boss fight at the end of Episode 3. Everything else is a blur, and I'm not interested in revisiting any of it ever again.

Compare that to its 'sequel', Hexen - where I can, again, make recollections about pretty much every map of the game, all these years later.

I'm not gonna diss Heretic's music, simply because I can't remember any of it. Hexen had some thematic tunes, but not good enough to be remembered outside of it. Meanwhile much of Doom's soundtrack has become timeless classics, even though much of it is based on earlier rock works. :/

 

[Sigourn]

Unkillable Cat
I see.
I read about The Wayfarer's Tome, which is meant to port the gameplay tweaks from The Wayfarer into the base game. I'm still not sure if I should try it out. I'll probably give it a quick try next week.

 

[Lagi]

Unkillable Cat
I see.
I read about The Wayfarer's Tome, which is meant to port the gameplay tweaks from The Wayfarer into the base game. I'm still not sure if I should try it out. I'll probably give it a quick try next week.

wayfarer episode maps are much better than anything in vanilla. Plus the monster encounters are much better. Not sure why you want to replay base maps. Wayfarer maps are not key/switch hunt - dont worry, they quite straight forward combat maps - i really enjoy them.

 

[Sjukob]

To me, Heretic is not 'bad', but it's still lacking in many ways.

I'll give some anecdotal evidence: I played Doom (2) and enjoyed it very much, to the point that I have some residual memory of pretty much every map in the game, even 30 years later.

Now with Heretic, I've played through all five episodes at least once (a LONG time ago) and the only maps I have any residual memory of, are part of Episode 1 - the shareware episode, and the boss fight at the end of Episode 3. Everything else is a blur, and I'm not interested in revisiting any of it ever again.

Compare that to its 'sequel', Hexen - where I can, again, make recollections about pretty much every map of the game, all these years later.

It's the opposite for me, I don't really like Hexen, but enjoy Heretic. Hexen has shallow combat, respawning enemies and long levels, not a good cocktail IMO, it's to the point where I can't even play it without spicing it up with something like HexArcana. But I understand why people like it, it's very immersive and gives you a good sense of adventure, I don't know if similar games exist at all. There are some good wads for Hexen though, I played through Shadows of Chronos, which I found to be excellent.

I'm not gonna diss Heretic's music, simply because I can't remember any of it. Hexen had some thematic tunes, but not good enough to be remembered outside of it. Meanwhile much of Doom's soundtrack has become timeless classics, even though much of it is based on earlier rock works. :/

After playing Doom for years I've developed fondness for MIDI soundtrack in general. Nobody (or barely anobody) uses it in video games now, but I feel like it's a waste, because it sounds very unique, could've fit certain games perfectly. Some of the stuff people create for various wads is truly great, check it out:

 

[toughasnails]

I suspect that the paucity of Hexen wads might have something to do with the scripting being required for creating Hexen-style hubs. You can create intricate af maps in Doom Builder without ever writing a line script or knowing how to. It's probably safe to say that you have many long time mappers with lots of vanilla and limit removing releases who are like that.

Speaking of wads for hexen btw this one was really good but I bet it's broken under more recent GZDoom as these older zdoom wads tend to be.
https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/hexen/v-z/wolfen

 

[Curratum]

Oh man, I remember this thing... Made by someone called LittleWhiteMouse who was supposed to be a girl.

Back then being trans wasn't really a thing unless you were a sex industry worker, and I never assumed, but seeing how things turned out, in retrospect...

Mouse's content was great though. I remember one more thing Mouse made, a Heretic-based city-dungeon-hub shooter thing, I really don't remember much apart from it being very cool.

Yeeep, all the signs of them being trans are there:

https://forum.worldofwarships.com/t...s-angry-youtuber-review-pan-asian-destroyers/

Plays military action games.
Has 13 000 posts on World of Warships forums.
Has anime girl avatar.
Uses words like "gudbote".

Jesus Christ, that's some grade-A unfiltered autism. 30-minute video reviews of ships.

Yeah, girls totally do that. Just like Lilura, who is also totally a girl, right! :D :D

 

[Echo Mirage]

Can anyone recommend some WW2 themed maps, or at least something with that kind of aesthetic?
I'm using the Doom Incarnate mod with Kriegsland enemies and want to pretend that I'm playing Bloodrayne 3.

 

[toughasnails]

Not WW2 themed per se but at least the period matches.
https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/120132-dbp33-rainy-days-in-casablanca/

Maybe you could try Voodoo Guns too, the first map iirc was a huge & detailed early 20th century style cityscape.
Otherwise I can't think of many wads with believable environments set in specific historical period that at the same time aren't TCs. Maybe you should just search the idgames database for the related keywords and see if you stumble upon anything interesting.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Can anyone recommend some WW2 themed maps, or at least something with that kind of aesthetic?
I'm using the Doom Incarnate mod with Kriegsland enemies and want to pretend that I'm playing Bloodrayne 3.

It doesn't come with any maps, but WildWeasel Presents: Nazis! is pretty good, not his best though. There's also WolfenDoom and Blade of Agony. Some of the original scenarios there will probably fit what you want.

 

[toughasnails]

This could be promising, looks a bit like Ashes with a darker, body horror-infused vibe.
https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/129951-deluge-gzdoom-standalone/

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Dissing Heretic's music seems like such a bizarre complaint to have, especially in the ompf department. Do you not like fantasy music or something? Despite loving the game more than Doom, I do get the complaints about monsters and weapons, to a certain extent, but I've never played Heretic and felt like the music was lacking anything. Its like one of the greatest FPS soundtracks of all time.

Always loved the music in E1M1. As memorable as anything in Doom, imo.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Yo dawg, I heard you like playing Doom, so now you can play Doom while you're playing Doom.



The first ~9 minutes or so are technobabble, but after that you can watch the in-game results.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Sadly there is only a beta version. Now I want to replay original Crusaders.

 

[Strig]

Sadly there is only a beta version. Now I want to replay original Crusaders.

Too bad, I'd like to see them match the enviroment interactivity of the original.

 

[Tacgnol]

Sadly there is only a beta version. Now I want to replay original Crusaders.

Dev also hasn't posted in nearly a year.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

I have been playing Blade of Agony since 2 days ago. An older version of the complete release before the developers decided to revise it because of some online backlash.
I am still in the first two chapters of the game so I have not seen anything that would be considered controversial yet though I know of the concentration camp that appears in Episode 3.
Main reason why I have not played this game earlier is because it just suffered a lot of slowdown on my old computer, even if I turned effects low or off.

When the game was in development years ago, this was even before the release of episode 2 and the first episode was not even finished yet, I remember looking really forward to this game as it seemed to be more the Wolfenstein experience I wanted than what Wolfenstein TNO and NC, being much closer to the atmosphere of RTCW and Wolf 2009.
The Old Blood, despite trying to be like RTCW felt more like it wanted to do away with the Indiana Jones/Hellboy vibe I had with these previous games.

The first chapter works relatively fine, this being more refined than the first versions I played years ago, but the stealth mechanics in the first level of episode 2 is simply a mess. I had to restart the level because I missed out on an optional objective and at some point I had done something that kept triggering NPCs to go into detection/awareness mode.
I left the area where I must have caused it but guards in other parts of the prison would also now go into detection/awareness mode despite there being nothing to trigger them as this mechanic seems to be level wide, or I ran into a bug
My theory is that one of the NPCs that walks around kept running into a NPC that I killed, activating the alertness script.

The stealth system sometimes feels very luck based rather than using clear rules that define when you are seen and enemies are triggered into awareness as I have had situations in which a guard walked me by while I was in full view and it did not do anything, while in another situation in which I was relying on stealth and tried to stay outside the lights and cone of view of enemies and I am still detected.
Even when I reload the detected script goes off despite the reload point not being anywhere near NPCs.

The patrol script or planned path is also sometimes flawed because I have had a few times that NPCs who are suppose to walk around a cell block, the playing having to wait until they pass by so that the player can follow them, instead turn around when they run into something and remaining stuck on patrolling.

It is very impressive that people have been able to get so much out of the Doom engine, expanding the basic Doom 2 engine into something that can be expanded with new effects and modern gameplay mechanics, but BOA makes it clear that the engine just does not play well with these.
Maybe it can be made to work better with more expanded scripts but I think modders would be better off by using a much more modern engine for that.

 

[Bigg Boss]

I stole the POW sprites from that for a version Googlydoom. They are awesome.

 

[Sjukob]

If you like brutal doom and want some spice on top of it then check out doom schism


It is supposed to have 3 playable characters: doomguy, sorcerer and paladin, but sorcerer is the most unique of the bunch and is probably the most feature complete too. Cryomancer

 

[Jack Of Owls]

It is very impressive that people have been able to get so much out of the Doom engine, expanding the basic Doom 2 engine into something that can be expanded with new effects and modern gameplay mechanics, but BOA makes it clear that the engine just does not play well with these.
Maybe it can be made to work better with more expanded scripts but I think modders would be better off by using a much more modern engine for that.

Yeah, I love the idea of a working and satisfying stealth mechanic in a doom engine wad, but it's not the Dark Engine. Some of these modders just stretch and stretch that ancient engine until its just a long string of sticky taffy that just breaks away and gets in your beard and sticks in your craw.

 

[HansDampf]

Nirvana talking with skillsaw about Vanguard, Valiant, Ancient Aliens, Heartland, etc. for 2 hours.

Also, unrelated: Any recommendations for WADs that are similar to Sunlust and/or Fractured Worlds in terms of combat and difficulty? I've already played the Stardates. Need more.