What turns you off from playing a Doom WAD? (Questionnaire/Discussion)

[Wo0p]

Hey forums.

 

Hope y'all are doing alright.
Now, obviously there are as many opinions on what makes Doom Doom and what breaks its iconic package as there are opinions in general. But just like I wanted to gather some info on my mapmaking I thought I'd make a poll to see what people think about different aspects of Doom.
For me, I honestly enjoy most ways to play Doom, but I've been tainted by modern gaming too much for too long so sometimes vanilla Doom just doesn't do it for me. But I do enjoy its nostalgic feel and its playstyle is much different from say Project Brutality which can feel refreshing to me. But I'm by no means a hardcore vanilla Doomer and only play with uber restrictions on advanced features in wads but neither do I only play Brutal Doom or an equivalent variant.

So if you want, let me know what you think by taking part in the poll :)

What turns you off from playing a Doom WAD?

Enemies

1. NEW / CUSTOM enemies?

2. CLASSIC enemies with modified stats/aesthetics?

3. MOSTLY classic enemies but with an added custom enemy or two?

Armoury
4. NEW / CUSTOM weapons?

5. CLASSIC weapons with modified stats/aesthetics?

6. MOSTLY classic weapons but with an added custom weapon or two?

Mechanics

7. CUSTOM mechanics such as RELOADING, status effects, new resources to manage?

8. CUSTOM UI?

9. Something else I can't think of relating to mechanics?
Gameplay

10. Slaughterma-... nope. Not gonna touch that. 

10. OPTIONAL story elements? (Text logs, intermission screens, textfiles background etc.)

11. COMPULSORY story elements? (NPC interaction, cinematic segments etc.)

12. NO story

13. MANDATORY puzzles / secrets

14. OPTIONAL puzzles / secrets

15. Platforming

Textures

16. Frankentextures? (Classic textures mishmashed with script offsets to make new textures etc.)

17. CUSTOM textures?

18. Textures that strikingly stand out from the aesthetics of Doom.

Advanced Features

19. Slopes

20. Dynamic Lighting

21. Room over Room

22. Polyobjects

23. Custom MIDIs

24. Something else I can't think of relating to advanced features and/or music?

EDIT:
And just to be absolutely clear: This is not an attempt at figuring out how to make the most "successful" WADs of all time and get lots of virtual pats on the back for being a "superior" mapmaker. You'd have to be monumentally stupid to think a questionnaire could help figuring that out. I'm genuinely curious to see what people think and how they reason it the way they do. And also to get some pointers for myself because I easily get sidetracked when I make WADs but I also want to share them with this community. And if I make something that alienate most of the community with my "sidetrackery", I'm kinda working against myself as nobody will play them if they're too far removed from a Doom experience. Know "your audience" and all that.

I'll start to give an example if necessary:

Spoiler

What turns you off from playing a Doom WAD?

Enemies

1. Disagreed (NEW / CUSTOM enemies don't turn me off from a WAD)

2. Disagreed

3. Disagreed

 

Armoury

4. Disagreed

5. Disagreed

6. Agreed (I find the vanilla guns pretty boring and underwhelming for the most part, so I enjoy every opportunity I can get to use new weapons in Doom.)

 

Mechanics

7. Disagreed

8. Disagreed

9. ????

 

Gameplay

10. Disagreed

11. Agreed (Exposition dumps can buzz off. Let me play first then introduce story in short cinematic segments, intermission texts or optional text logs I can enjoy on my own time or doesn't bog the action down.)

12. Agreed (As much as I hate too much story I also enjoy a WAD a lot more if I have a reason for shooting the bad guy. (Inb4 "they're demons so therefore what more reason u need?" Yes yes, I know I know, so I'll settle for setting the stage or building atmosphere with a short intro or environmental storytelling))

13. Agreed

14. Disagreed

15. Mostly Disagreed (If limited, platforming can add refreshing flavour to a map but for the most part platforming in an FPS is just an exercise in frustration and tedium)

 

Textures

16. Disagreed

17. Disagreed

18. Agreed (I'm not a Freedoom kind of guy let's put it that way)

 

Advanced Features

16. Disagreed

17. Disagreed

18. Disagreed

19. Disagreed

20. Disagreed

21. Disagreed

 

Edited May 11, 2023 by Wo0p
Clarity?

[DNSKILL5]

1. If the new or custom enemies fit with the rest of the art and tone of game, sure.

2. If they at least look somewhat different, even if just color swaps, sure.

3. I’m fine with this if the added enemies don’t look really off, as in, the graphics and sound don’t mesh well with the classic Doom sprites, it will look out of place. 
4. As long as the weapons serve some sort of purpose, sure. 

5. Not really, though making the pump shogun shoot slug shots to make it more different from the SSG while still being powerful enough to stand on its own, that would be cool. 

6. Sure, but like with new enemies the guns should fit classic doom style.

7. reloading is fine if it can be manually done or stopped, but a lot of mods make reloading a chore, usually because the designer didn’t do any research and just thought shotguns take 70 years to reload when it’s usually more like a few seconds especially if you’re supposed to be a combat hardened marine…

8. Sure, but if you don’t know how to make custom AIs, get help. A lot of custom AIs are just too obnoxious or confusing. 

9. Making the items like inventory (like heretic).

10. I don’t mind slaughtermaps, in fact, I don’t mind any sort of map as long as it is fun and well designed.

10. Sure, but please, get a person to read over it especially if English isn’t your native language. Some mods have story elements like these that are hard to understand or borderline uncomfortable simply because they were too lazy to get some input first. 

11. I personally hate this, because it is usually just filler. I want to shoot stuff, not talk to random scientist and marines about Martian weather patterns. 

12. There should be at least a paragraph of plot in a text file at least to help people get a feel for what to expect, even in a single level WAD. 

13. I don’t care for these if they’re super cryptic, and it’s a great way to turn people off in general, puzzles can work but secrets are meant to be secret, making it mandatory isn’t really a secret anymore it’s just a cryptic way of blocking the player from completing a level if they can’t find it.

14. All for this, that’s what secrets are for, and puzzles that are optional can usually lead to rewards for the players willing to proceed. 

15. It really depends, but if you the designer struggle with the platforming in your own level, that’s a good sign that it doesn’t work. 

16. Sure.

17. I like custom textures, but again if they’re mixed with classic textures it looks jarring if they look too visually different. If all textures are replaced it’s less of an issue.

18. See above..

19. They’re nice.

20. Great thing to do.

21. If done properly, sure, but I’ve seen these cause visual quirks for being too over the top in design.

22. Not even sure what that is.

23. YES. For fucks sake, add a custom MIDI to your WAD. 

24. Make sure custom music fits level length. If a map takes 30 minutes to complete, a 1 minute looped track may get repetitive and even annoying. 
 

These are all my opinions. Nobody has to agree, I am not here to change anyone’s minds on these topics. 
 

edit: also, the title of this thread should probably be changed to something related to the discussion and not as random. 

Edited May 10, 2023 by CAM-7EA

[Wo0p]

Spoiler

6 hours ago, CAM-7EA said:

3. I’m fine with this if the added enemies don’t look really off, as in, the graphics and sound don’t mesh well with the classic Doom sprites, it will look out of place. 

7. reloading is fine if it can be manually done or stopped, but a lot of mods make reloading a chore, usually because the designer didn’t do any research and just thought shotguns take 70 years to reload when it’s usually more like a few seconds especially if you’re supposed to be a combat hardened marine…

8. Sure, but if you don’t know how to make custom UIs, get help. A lot of custom UIs are just too obnoxious or confusing. 

10. Sure, but please, get a person to read over it especially if English isn’t your native language. Some mods have story elements like these that are hard to understand or borderline uncomfortable simply because they were too lazy to get some input first. 

12. There should be at least a paragraph of plot in a text file at least to help people get a feel for what to expect, even in a single level WAD. 

13. I don’t care for these if they’re super cryptic, and it’s a great way to turn people off in general, puzzles can work but secrets are meant to be secret, making it mandatory isn’t really a secret anymore it’s just a cryptic way of blocking the player from completing a level if they can’t find it.

15. It really depends, but if you the designer struggle with the platforming in your own level, that’s a good sign that it doesn’t work. 

17. I like custom textures, but again if they’re mixed with classic textures it looks jarring if they look too visually different. If all textures are replaced it’s less of an issue.

24. Make sure custom music fits level length. If a map takes 30 minutes to complete, a 1 minute looped track may get repetitive and even annoying. 
 

edit: also, the title of this thread should probably be changed to something related to the discussion and not as random. 

 

Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions, and with added explanations no less. You bring up some very good points that I think could help improve the quality of a lot of WADS and my own also indeed. I especially liked your answer to question 15, it seems like a simple but effective way to "proofread" your WAD's platforming segments.

Also you're right about the title. I thought it was funny but for clarity's sake I've changed it :)

Edited May 11, 2023 by Wo0p

[Murdoch]

It's almost never one single thing but a composite of different things. Most of what you ask about is fine if done well. Even the ones I don't especially like the idea of like reloading or mismatched art, would hardly bother me if the rest of the package is good. The one thing I have zero patience for is irritating and dickish gameplay design. Like a switch whose action takes back tracking for ages to figure out what it did. Wasting the player's time, like making an important of point of progression really obscure or say flipping a switch, back tracking to find what the switch did, only to find another switch or keycard. Like, just put the keycard where the first switch is or you're just inflating the game length needlessly.

 

There is one thing that will definitely make me quit a map - resource deprivation, especially ammo and weapons. Being forced to micromanage and make sure every shot counts lest I run out of ammo isn't fun for me, it's tedious and annoying.

Edited May 11, 2023 by Murdoch

[Professor Hastig]

Here's my take:

 

1. sometimes. There has been quite a lot of these which are poorly designed.

2. no.

3. see 1.

4. no

5. no

6. no

 

7. reloading is a poor gameplay mechanic and often awkwardly done.

8. no

9.
 

10. no, these really can enhance a map

11. yes - these should be skippable. It is annoying to sit through lengthy exposition

12. no

13. yes

14. no

15. yes

 

16. no

17. no

18. only when mixed with the originals

 

19. no

20. no

21. no

22. no

23. no

24. ?

 

 

There is one thing not on the list that has been irking me a lot in recent years. The gameplay experience of many maps has become increasingly more staged, i.e. every relevant action triggers new monsters to appear, while the amount of freely roaming monsters is being kept low. I prefer maps where you can walk around and kill the opposition at your own pace. This has become the main reason by now why I prefer playing older maps these days which feature this trait to a far lesser degree.

[baja blast rd.]

I would be way less likely to play a wad if I knew it was focus-tested in a thread like this. :P 

 

Usually what I try to put together for a playlist is a bunch of wads that hit different, contrasting bases. E.g. some wads with no new weapons/mechanics, some with slight alterations, some with big changes; some wads with no story, some with light story, some story-focused. The same for every category. 

 

So if someone tries to hit some inoffensive average or "most liked" of all of that, then not only would each of those already be represented by the pool of wads I'm going to play, but it would suggest that the author had no real vision for what they picked, because after all they were fine with it being polled. So I get both something I already have and something not very inspired at that? No thanks.

 

My improvement tip would be to, instead of thinking about this, go play wads and learn from them. 

 

Just as an example, earlier today played Lost Civilization map11 again, and here are some good things it did, some that are big and noticeable, some more subtle and mundane (it is worthwhile to learn lots of mundane stuff too). 

 

Use of structures from a previous map as diorama.

 

 

One Lost Civ motif is bales of hay as arbitrary 'boxes' that are not crates/boxes. (I've always been curious about ways to do that without using boxes.)

 

 

Gorgeous scenery vista that is a bit of theme contrast too (this is not a lava map, and the city is full of these modest rectangular buildings, so that view is pretty damn different). 

 

 

A secret whose main point is arguably a non-material reward -- a really cool overlooking view of the city that you can't get anywhere else, and the only other time but the start you'll be inside a building in this map).

 

 

Also cool Doomcute (same secret). 

 

 

Simulating the passage of time with different skyboxes, which is a pretty fantastic effect (I didn't check if this was after a point of no return -- I don't think so -- but it would be even stronger if it was).  

 

 

Also the use of sector lighting plays that up even more.

 

 

 

Also in the left shot above, a solid lilypad flat is being used essentially as a liquid, which is unusual and added to my mental library of surfaces you can use as liquid flats.  

 

I don't really want to replay the map again for a post, I'll list some good/interesting gameplay things it did without screenshots: 

 

- Since so much of the map has these obstructive midtexture crops and vegetation, there are very few revenants used in the map, which probably would be annoying.

 

- Getting the most out of the layout by staging a bunch of the substantive combat in places where it will work and allowing the rest of the map to be lightly populated and empty. 

 

- Optional secret keys that can be used for actual progression rather than bonuses, which is an unusual/interesting way to do that (and a Lost Civ motif).  

 

Play through a bunch of stuff attentively and you'll have a mental library that has a lot of contrasting ways of doing stuff. And that is 100x more valuable than understanding what styles the voters seems to like more than others, which imo is not useful in making good maps at all. (And: "fuck what people like; I'll make what I like" is a very healthy attitude.)   

[Wo0p]

Some very good points from you all, thanks for engaging with the thread!

 

And I suppose I ought to specify, after reading Baja's reply, that this is not an attempt at gathering info on how to make the most successful or well-liked WAD ever. I don't make maps to garner praise or recognition, I do it because it's one of the few things that bring me a zen-like state of peace. But I see now how a thread like this could be seen as such!

I'll still do my own thing because it brings ME a sense of satisfaction but it also brings me great joy to have other FPS-lovers experience my work and critique and/or praise them or simply show me a playthrough of it.

Therefore there's an argument to be made for "know your audience." I don't want to alienate my works from this community by making WADs that are SO different that nobody will engage with them. I hope that makes sense :)

[Gez]

10 hours ago, Wo0p said:

What turns you off from playing a Doom WAD?

Nothing from your list.

[smeghammer]

Very generalised answer:

 

It depends:

 - if the texture/monster/decoration etc. usage is not aesthetic. This covers a multitude of sins from unpegged/misaligned etc., to much more subtle, probably objective, design choices. This applies to both completely vanilla and custom tex/things /behaviours etc. in the map

 - for me, high difficulty. I'm only a casual player, and I know the trend is for higher difficulties generally, but I see many glorious looking maps, that I can't play because of the ramped up difficulty. I know there is the GIT GUD thing, but that only applies if I have a lot of time TO get good, which I don't. So I think I am definitely missing out on the appreciation of said maps. And I don't really feel comfortable IDDQD or IDKFA etc. because i still want to actually fight in the map.

 

 

Edited May 11, 2023 by smeghammer
typo

[Remilia Scarlet]

Enemies

1. I'm fine with this as long as they feel and sound OK.

2. If they fit in nicely, then I don't see this as a problem.

3. This is awesome.

Armoury
4. As long as there aren't too many.

5. Not too big of a fan of this, but if it's subtle and works well, I'm OK with it.  Otherwise I'd probably skip it.

6. This is exactly my preference.

Mechanics

7. Almost certainly going to skip it unless it's very, very small additions (like a new powerup), or done very lightly.

8. Likely going to skip it unless it's just small extras added to, or a reskin of, the standard HUD

9. Avant-garde sort of things are likely a pass for me.

9.5. If it's a long map, or a huge set of maps, I'll likely pass it.  I prefer maps that take me 5-20 minutes.
Gameplay

10. Perfectly fine with this.

11. Generally fine with this as long as it's not overdone.  I don't want to play Strife, I don't want to play MGS4, I want to play Doom.

12. Perfectly fine with this.

13. A few puzzles are OK, sure.  But mandatory secrets will make me quit instantly.

14. Sure, these seem OK.

15. Not too big of a fan of this.  A bit of mild platforming is fine, but extensive use will likely cause me to not play it unless the wad has the movement physics of Quake.

Textures

16. Perfectly OK.

17. Sure. 

18. I'm more likely to look at the other aspects of the level(s) to determine if I'll play it.  Otherwise, cool.

Advanced Features

19. As long as they aren't overdone, I think these are fine.  I do prefer blockier designs overall, though.

20. LOVE IT.

21. Love it, but not if it's done with portals.  I will not play a map if it's portal heavy.

22. Sure, why not.

23. Sure, but I would REALLY prefer module music or mp3/ogg/opus/whatever.

24. Scripting the game to feel totally different: likely going to pass.  I still want it to feel like Doom at its core.

[Gregor]

Bad level/game design would be the correct answer in general. Any feature or design can be great if done right. And no feature or design concept can save an otherwise poorly made level.

 

One thing that is a bit of a turn-off for me personally is vanilla textures, but they can be done right. Going Down would be an obvious example of how to use vanilla textures in interesting ways. 90s wads get a pass in this regard.

 

I also don't like super megawads (32+ maps) in general. Just too many maps. I prefer shorter mapsets. 32 maps is the maximum i'm ready to commit to.

[RataUnderground]

Nothing mentioned in the survey is decisive for me because there are different styles of doing all that. But in general, if it follows the brutal doom philosophy of turning up the volume on everything to the max, I'm not usually interested in it.  That's why I appreciate that the majority trend is to separately create gameplay mods and maps that anyone can enjoy with their favorite flavor of Doom.
Speaking of maps, I usually prefer maps with constant progression and incidental combat rather than combat puzzles and setpieces. Ribbicks style design philosophy makes me abandon a mapset on the first death.

Edited May 11, 2023 by RataUnderground

[Individualised]

(I answered this as if "yes" is positive)

 

1. Cool, especially in the context of a TC

2. Depends, if it's modified sprites and sounds that fit in with the .WAD then sure, but if it's changing enemy stats without any clear indication then I don't care for it too much

3. Also cool

 

4. See 1

5. See 2 but with weapons

6. See 3

 

7. Don't really care for this too much apart from maybe status effects

8. Don't really care for this either

9. Custom power-ups are cool. Also nice to see custom mechanics implemented in vanilla via DEHACKED

 

10. Always welcome to see this. One of my favourite parts of Doom that many other people (even id Software themselves as seen by the Jaguar port) don't care about is the fluff stuff, like intermissions and story screens.

11. If it's not overdone then sure, but this is why I don't play modern games

12. Boring. Make a .WAD for the Jaguar version. One of the great things about classic Doom is how it paints a picture and builds up excitement with its uses of story screens and episode progression.

 

13. Can't really comment on this, it depends on the level

14. See above

15. See 13

 

16. Always cool to see vanilla assets used to create new stuff

17. Sure

18. Depends if it fits in with the .WAD, if it's a strange texture in the middle of a bunch of vanilla ones then no

 

19. Don't really know what to say, it's just an advanced source port feature that can be used in many ways

20. See 19

21. See 19

22. See 19

23. Don't really care for hearing the same tired old vgmusic.com covers of video game songs, but more accurate covers of game songs, original music, original music in the style of Doom, etc, I always welcome. I love hearing the MIDI format pushed to its limits so things you wouldn't usually expect to hear in MIDI like ambient music is fine.

24. Anything that pushes GZDoom to its limits

 

 

Edited May 11, 2023 by Individualised

[NieMaMordy]

Having to use mouselook is something I dont like

[Wo0p]

It's so cool to read all of your replies and see your explanations for why you dislike such or like that. Thanks everyone for participating and providing different perspectives on the various aspects of Doom :)

[bLUEbYTE]

 

[maxmanium]

On top of unnecessary resource deprivation, I'm not privy to maps which overly restrict the player's movement. At that point it feels like you are at the mercy of RNG; movement is half the game in Doom IMO.

[bLUEbYTE]

5 minutes ago, maxmanium said:

On top of unnecessary resource deprivation, I'm not privy to maps which overly restrict the player's movement. At that point it feels like you are at the mercy of RNG; movement is half the game in Doom IMO.

Agreed on both counts.

This is a game about shooting bad guys and it sucks if you run out of ammo.
edit: when a map wants you to chainsaw or tyson for a bit on purpose it's fine, when done in moderation.

And regarding your second point, I saw this mentioned in @Doomkid's "things to avoid when mapping" video and was like YEAH 100%.

Edited May 11, 2023 by bLUEbYTE

[baja blast rd.]

This thread did remind me that I am really in the mood for extreme resource deprivation, especially of ammo. Being forced to dance around enemies is super fun. Also makes it very easy all exploration, secrets, and optional content to feel worthwhile. 

[MFG38]

I'm not particularly picky when it comes to technical stuff/gameplay nuances in Doom wads. Ultimately, there are very few things that'll make me stop playing a particular wad, but I will say that one such thing is a recurring pattern of bullshit. Stuff like secrets mandatory for progression, unnecessarily obtuse puzzles, overly tedious switch hunting etc. - I can tolerate them in moderation, but do it frequently enough and the likelihood of me dropping and deleting your wad increases exponentially.

[Doomy__Doom]

A shower thought I can't exactly elaborate on at the moment - I can read the title question as either "What turns you off when selecting wads to play?" or "What turns you off while playing a wad you've selected to give your time to?", which will probably have different answers (basically pure expectations vs expectations not matching reality or something).

[Firedust]

I like pretty much every facet of Doom (slaughter? Yes! long maps? Yes! short maps? Yes! City maps? Yes! Hell maps? Yes!) except:

-Arthouse bullshit - I don't care how artsy your release is, if I'm not having fun blasting demons into smithereens, I won't like it

-Eyegouging colour palettes - this one's self-explanatory

-Lack of verticality and abundance of long flat corridors - pls don't do this unless you have creative ways to make these setups interesting and fun

-One-trick pony encounters - are 95% of encounters in your megawad teleporter-based? uh-oh! This is fine for shorter releases by the way. But if I'm playing a ten-map episode with long maps and it's all teleporter ambushes, I will likely get tired quickly.

-Mappers being focused on showing off crazy mapping tricks rather than making gameplay fun - yeah, you can cram as many midtextures and voodoo dolls as you like, but are your maps enjoyable? Obviously having both is great!

And now here's something I LOVE in Doom albeit it gets ignored by quite a fair share of mappers:

Visual storytelling - I love when Doom's abstract geometry evokes a sense of purpose. It enhances the feeling of progression across a level/mapset.

[Jacek Bourne]

24 minutes ago, Firedust said:

I like pretty much every facet of Doom (slaughter? Yes! long maps? Yes! short maps? Yes! City maps? Yes! Hell maps? Yes!) except:

-Arthouse bullshit - I don't care how artsy your release is, if I'm not having fun blasting demons into smithereens, I won't like it

-Eyegouging colour palettes - this one's self-explanatory

-Lack of verticality and abundance of long flat corridors - pls don't do this unless you have creative ways to make these setups interesting and fun

-One-trick pony encounters - are 95% of encounters in your megawad teleporter-based? uh-oh! This is fine for shorter releases by the way. But if I'm playing a ten-map episode with long maps and it's all teleporter ambushes, I will likely get tired quickly.

-Mappers being focused on showing off crazy mapping tricks rather than making gameplay fun - yeah, you can cram as many midtextures and voodoo dolls as you like, but are your maps enjoyable? Obviously having both is great!

And now here's something I LOVE in Doom albeit it gets ignored by quite a fair share of mappers:

Visual storytelling - I love when Doom's abstract geometry evokes a sense of purpose. It enhances the feeling of progression across a level/mapset.

What maps have you played that fit these descriptions?

[hybridial]

For me it can be a bit complicated but the one thing that I can say for sure comes down to performance, and the fact GZdoom is the only sourceport that offers everything I feel I need. So I guess I can add compatibility with that port as well. If a mapset can't run at a stable FPS at all times on my computer, then I pass. I think a good example of a quality mapset I had to stop playing owing to this is a couple of later maps in Valiant. 

 

Eviternity just becomes a slide show. 

Edited May 11, 2023 by hybridial

[Firedust]

30 minutes ago, Jacek Bourne said:

What maps have you played that fit these descriptions?

I'd rather not answer that because then it would feel like I'm dunking on specific people, which I'm not.

[Sneezy McGlassFace]

None of what you listed is a turnoff for me, it's all about execution.

You can have the best ideas in the world but the map can still be trash. Same with resources of any kind. There are some incredible works with the default textures, there's also plenty eye-sores. Same applies to OTEX or CC4tex and all the others. And the same applies to custom weapons and enemies. They can be really good, enriching or re-imagining combat scenarios, or they can be you know, not that.

I kinda love that Custom Midi is in Advanced Features. And I kinda love how rd is low-key sabotaging this thread.

 

Also, you may want to add custom sky to the list. I don't think that counts as custom texture.

Edited May 11, 2023 by Sneezy McGlassFace

[TheFocus]

the only thing that keeps me from playing a wad, is if it uses vanilla assets and music primarily, but doesn't push those textures or midis creatively. if all you're trying to do is make a wad that looks like it's from the early 90's, that's really boring and lazy in my opinion. i shouldn't be hearing Kitchen Ace in 2023 while playing something from 5 years ago.

 

[LadyMistDragon]

It's a combination of different things. There's never no one thing that will turn me off.

 

"Running From Evil"

monotonous brown

abominable lighting (places light that should be dark and dark that should be light more specifically

square rooms where practically every square centimeter is stuffed with monsters.

little ammo in a so-called 'slaughter' map.

painful linearity 

Baron excess.

[magicsofa]

None of the things you listed have an inherent effect on the experience. For example, a custom monster could be a zombieman that drops health bonuses, or a ridiculously spammy bullet-hell boss with 50000 hp. One of those would bother me, the other wouldn't... so to just say "custom monsters good" or "custom monsters bad" isn't comprehensive enough.

 

The main thing that turns me off from a WAD is if it will take a really long time to complete. That could be because it's insanely hard, obscure with its puzzles/progression, or just huge. Either way I don't have 3 hours to sink into a single map.

[BGreener]

I was going through the list answering ‘yes’ or ‘no’ before I realized that nearly none of these may prevent me from playing a Doom wad. I‘ll comment on a couple, though!:

 

Quote

11. COMPULSORY story elements? (NPC interaction, cinematic segments etc.)

Part of me wants to go “eek, yucky” on reflex when it comes to any sort of Doom-engined cutscenes or story elements like this, but Ashes 2063 was pretty good about it and it enhanced the experience. I also enjoy the quaint charm of older Zdoom cutscenes and camera pans.

 

Quote

Re: Platforming

I’m sure if I had to make a Doom “rocket jump” or cross some pencil-thin platforms just to progress a map I’d probably be turned off, but I don’t know of any maps that do this. Pencil-thin platforms for secrets I may be okay with.

 

Quote

Re: Ammo starvation

I may be okay with this as long as it’s done well. If there’s a zerk pack or chainsaw, I would be more than okay!