How do you personally play doom?

[Deleted Account]

Reply with info on how you personally like to play. Like ports, whether you pistol-start or not ect.

I personally do continuous with saves, I use crispy-doom with everything as vanilla as possible (un-capped framerate as the exception :/ ) when the wad is boom compatible I use zdoom, I'm also a huge savescummer too. When I wanna challenge myself I do pistol start no saves.

Edited December 11, 2021 by Puncher_Sponge

[Pseudonaut]

DSDA-Doom whenever I can, pistol start whenever the wad supports it (it almost always does). Frequent saving most of the time, it's helpful for learning the map so I can comfortably play it saveless later on. I often record demos even if I'm not planning to post them anywhere because they're low-effort and slow.

 

By the way, "single-segment" means no saves. A better term for what you're trying to say is "continuous".

[BaileyTW]

I use Crispy Doom when I can and DSDA-Doom for Boom maps. I use the standard 90 degree field of vision cause that's what I'm used to though eventually maybe i should try widescreen. I always pistol-start, almost never doing continuous runs unless I'm doing episode runs of Ultimate Doom, or D2All runs of Doom 2. I also for the most part do not play with saves. If it is my first time playing a map, I like beating the map without saves, but I make exceptions for practicing hard fights of a map for preparation to beat a map without saves. If I've beaten a map before Ill still tend not to use saves but might do so to avoid doing a section I might not want to do every time I reset, or if I want to do a fight more than once especially if i want to try it out in a different less safe way i would otherwise not do in a saveless run. I always play with mouse movement on. I shouldn't cause I know you can have a toggle for that instead and only keep it on for the times I do glides, but I am dumb and keep it on and pay for it by messing up platforming sometimes, but maybe it helps just a little cause I dodge a bit with it sometimes.

Edited December 11, 2021 by BaileyTW

[zokum]

Chocolate Doom or doom2.exe

[RHhe82]

I haven’t set my ways in stone, but I try to do pistol starts by default, unless the wad in question is too hard for me (or if I just want to be done with it as fast as possible).

 

i use saves, but I try to avoid midfight saves or saving after each time I shoot an imp or avoid damage. This also depends on the wad in question. With IWADs I’ve been doing saveless runs lately, but with PWADs it’s not worth getting frustrated. If I die often, I instinctly increase saving frequency.

 

My port of choice as of late is DSDA-Doom, but I also like Crispy-Doom. GZDoom only when I have to.

[Remilia Scarlet]

It kinda depends on if I'm playing just vanilla Doom or a custom level.  If it's vanilla Doom (which is what I tend to play more of), then I use either K8Vavoom or Doomsday for my engine.  For custom levels, if the level calls for a specific engine, I'll of course use that.  Otherwise I use K8Vavoom.  Sometimes if I'm feeling nostalgic, I'll instead boot up Doom Retro instead, but that's not very common.  I almost never play with mods (that goes for all games, not just Doom).

 

I'll also usually play continuous, but am perfectly content when the wad expects/enforces pistol starts.  But if it's vanilla Doom, then most likely I'm just going to warp into the level I want to replay and pistol start it.  I almost always play on UV.

 

For saves, I almost always just use a single slot, usually named "remilia" or "alexa".  Sometimes I'll use two if I'm at a fork in the road, but it's rare.  If you watch any of my Doom videos, you're likely to only ever see a single save slot, regardless of level or port.  I quicksave fairly often, but not with the aim of beating a level.  I'm just paranoid I'll accidentally exit the game or that it'll crash and I'll lose progress :-P

 

With a few exceptions, I don't tend to play one game for a long time, Doom or otherwise.  I much prefer to switch things up constantly throughout the day, so I usually only play 2-3 levels at a time (and it's one reason I tend to avoid long levels).  When I was a kid I would do a "level a day" thing, where I'd pistol start a level in Doom 1 or 2 and beat it before I had to leave for school.  That's kinda stuck with me.

[SilentD00mer]

I use Chocolate Doom and DSDA-Doom as my main ports and play continuous (but I like to pistol start depending on the map and the challenge I want :D ), with saves if the map is too long or forces you to hunt for switches to progress (I try to avoid saves as much as possible, restart only with the pistol is part of the intended challenge of the game, for me). Basically it depends on my patience...

[Gaia74]

with my hands

 

Spoiler

Jk, usually with GZDoom

 

[Wavy]

I use GZDoom or From Doom with Love (fork of DSDA-Doom), just depends on my mood. For GZDoom, this is how I made it look using the Software light mode:

 

Fairly simple, but it does the job. For FDwL, I swap between 1920x1080 software renderer or the OpenGL renderer with the Shaders light mode.

 

When it comes to saving, I usually save at the end of each level but create another quick save mid-level depending on it's length/challenge. When I do make a save, sometimes I give it a funny name like "Mood 2: Electric Boogaloo" for Doom 2. Mid-level saves are also useful because I don't like playing a single game for a long periods of time a day, so using a mid level save allows me to continue where I left off.

 

Also, I never pistol start unless it's the start of a mapset (obviously). I like to keep things I obtained from previous levels.

[dei_eldren]

i use Chocolate, Crispy, Woof, MBF or doom2.exe, or PrBoom+ or ZDoom depending on necessity/situation - as vanilla as possible.  Always play continuous either on HNTR or HMP depending on expected difficulty.  Use generally 1-2h on Doom per day, it being the only game i play regularly at the moment.

[Biodegradable]

I use GZDoom with Vanilla-esque display settings (with minor exceptions) by following this video that @Dwars made. I have tinkered with other sourceports like DSDA-Doom, PrBoom+, Eternity and EDGE, but didn't feel nearly as comfortable with any of them as I do with good ol' GeeZee. Plus I've found it the most useful for my playtesting shenanigans since I have easy access to the console. I enjoy using cosmetic mods like weapon animation smoothers (Vanilla+ or PerK's Smooth Weapons Enhanced), Nash's Gore and a random status bar of choice from @NightFright's big PWAD Status Bar pack. I used to run more heavy gameplay-changing mods when I first started playing, but now I prefer strictly cosmetic stuff to preserve the important gampley stuff such as demon behaviour and damage output. I found this to also greatly minimize the risk of breaking map progression (usually lifts, doors or event linedefs) that a lot of mods tend to do.

 

I prefer to play Continuous, but have no issue with enforced Pistol-Starts. Difficulty-wise, I tend to play on UV but swallow my pride and bump down to HMP if things prove a bit too hard for me. 

[Valboom]

Crispy for Vanilla/Limit, GZDoom or Woof for Boom. Pistol start UV (HMP for too hard wads for me). I only use one save for the map.

Edited April 27, 2023 by Valboom

[MFG38]

GZDoom, no mods, HNTR, continuous, with saves - or rather, a save.

[RetroAkaMe]

I usually play with Boom ports like PrBoom-plus or DSDA. Tho, when I've not yet made something compatible with vanilla, I use Zandronum (or LZDoom on my phone). Doesn't pistol start, saves.

[INfront95]

Naked.

 

Spoiler

(GZdoom with AO, and dynamic lighting on)

 

[Remilia Scarlet]

5 minutes ago, INfront95 said:

Naked. 

 

😏

 

As a side note, I think I'm one of the few here who purposely prefer a non-vanilla look to the game.

[TenenteZashu]

Depends on how I'm feeling, some times I just want to blast away at demons so I load Project Brutality on GZDoom, other times I play thru the classic episodes on CrispyDoom

[Doomlover77]

I use Gzdoom & Zdoom to play doom on. They are excellent ports. 

[Bri]

DSDA primarily. I usually play continuously and save a lot when I first play a wad, but if I enjoy the maps I'll later try pistol starting and doing single segment. I also occasionally have a blast with mods in GZDoom.

[Gibbon]

I use my own ports (Pooch, ReBOOM, Sprinkled and RZDoom) and when not on a computer I use the Unity port on PS4.

[Horus]

DSDA-Doom, having recently made the switch from prBoom+. GZDoom for UDMF maps only. Pistol start, plenty of saves

[Zirtonic]

DSDA-doom only. Boom is as advanced as I enjoy and I don't want to mess around with multiple .EXEs. Typically UV, but if a WAD is known for being tough I have no qualms dropping to HMP. Pistol start unless the text file mentions that the set is balanced for continuous, but that's rare. I play all levels FDA-style unless I know going in that the map is huge and/or appreciably above my skill level. Playing like that all the time can lead to frustration but I enjoy the puzzle element it adds to the game play.

 

I'm currently taking an extended break from DooM so I can play some other stuff in my library but normally I'm rotating an easier/classic style WAD (Moonblood, Double Impact, Doomkid stuff) and a challenge (to me) WAD (most recently Entropy, with Haste and Swift Death in the queue).

[Lippeth]

DOSBox Staging with the original or Plus exe files and DeHackEd depending on the wad, DeuSF for the sprite fix wads, NoVert about 70% of the time (Hexen plays better without it), and a Sound Canvas for the choons, unless the wad sounds better with gm.dls

 

Crispy for wads that break when saving in DOS.

 

GZDoom and a launch manager for all the fun mod combinations and customization heaven. Most of the time I still play GZDoom in 4:3 with the vertical pixel ratio raised by 20%, capped framerate, no interpolation for the monsters, a custom lights.pk3 I made from the original that decreases the radius for all dynamic lights, another one that makes the secret prompt much less intrusive, hardware rendering with a file that uses the original palette but without all it's extra artifacts. etc, etc, etc.

 

Sometimes I get on a kick and download every version of every source port, and I like to have the latest version of everything already set up the way I like just in case I find myself in an impromtu multiplayer situation and need to quickly switch ports.

[thiccyosh]

Usually dsda-doom is my port of choice, but also play on GZdoom sometimes if there is a map that uses Zdoom features and looks interesting enough, or when I test my projects that use dehacked. The new unity port is also fun and I play Doom on it from time to time. I play UV only with saves, however if I have to playtest a whole megawad I try to save less and always will pistol start, the true way of playing Doom.

[Captain POLAND]

Gzdoom, UV, continuous, saves whenever I feel like it.

Edited December 11, 2021 by Captain POLAND

[robocaco]

GZDoom, UV and pistol start

[msx2plus]

badly

[Stupid Bunny]

My preference, when I can do it, is Crispy Doom with freelook enabled, the pretty brightmaps if there's no custom textures, colored blood because why not, and infinitely tall actors off because I hate getting penned in by cacodemons 200 feet above me.  If the map requires anything fancier then I default to GZDoom as a backup. I sometimes like PRBoom+ as well, but, again, infinitely tall actors...

 

I prefer not to save, but I'm also not afraid to if I'm playing a very large and/or difficult map.  If I'm playing a new WAD I'll usually start in HMP, although may go higher or lower depending on mood and any hunches I have about where the WAD sits on the insanity scale.  I would seriously consider playing Sunlust on ITYTD, for instance.  I can't even beat E1 on Nightmare! so that never happens.  I don't force pistol starts on a continuous playthrough, although if I pass a map I really like I'll often revisit it for a proper pistol start or three.

[tomas7777]

PrBoom+ or DSDA-Doom for most stuff; 1080p software renderer with uncapped framerate, SC-55 soundfont, and sometimes I toggle vertical mouselook; GZDoom for advanced mods; occasionally also play with other ports as well. I don't usually bother setting complevels unless I'm testing a map, or a map breaks at the default complevel (TNT MAP30...).

 

If I'm playing through an episode or entire WAD I do continuous play. Lately I've been trying to only save at the start of each map, but if I die and have to restart the map too many times I just end up save scumming, because it's no fun playing an entire map several times in a row and always ending up dead at some ambush in the end (or looking for optional secrets!). I default to playing on UV, sometimes UV-fast, though I don't usually play hard WADs.

[yakfak]

anything but GZ & skip to next level when I die. not against saving but I usually forget
i don't like the feeling of having fully learned a mapset, would rather dip in and out