Favorite tropes in WADs?

[Deadwing]

- shorter maps with nice non-linearity

- "normal" maps with a big/slaughter-lite setpiece

- multi-stage setpieces

- nothing happening when you pick a key/weapon, etc

- easy to find secrets

- secrets that changes the environment (that is more than a sector with an item)

Edited January 3 by Deadwing

[volleyvalley]

Big and expansive secret areas.

[fruity lerlups]

Hellknight vs Revenant Brawl Sessions, the sounds are so satisfying, bony fists and scratching claws, missiles and magical fireballs swooshing and hitting each other, the sounds if skeletons crumbling and agonized screeches of Hellknights.

[Ravendesk]

- You hit the switch, nothing seemingly changed, you turn around and you are in a completely different area.

- Other silent teleporter usages to create illusion of geometry otherwise impossible in doom.

- Secret fights or just secrets unlocking new large areas. Any secrets containing gameplay really.

- When certain fights change if you found a secret bfg before reaching them.

[Sneezy McGlassFace]

When a combat scenario makes you multitask. When you have to watch out for damaging floors/platforms, or keep a timer on more monsters teleporting in, or carefully managing ammo not to pick up big box of shells/cells without backpack, stuff like that. Two little challenges that would be simple on their own but get difficult together. 

[ShallowB]

13 hours ago, DoomGappy said:

When you can see the exit to the map from the spawning area.

 

I don't think I realized until just now how much I actually love this, and oddly enough I think it's partly because I haven't seen it too much.  Every time is a cool little treat!

 

Also one I really like is when a room rearranges in some way and becomes a completely different room. Usually this is when a hallway's walls drop away to become a big arena, but there are other variations where a room turns into something else.

 

And a big one I like it when a wad has thematically-appropriate weapon/monster/status bar/HUD face replacements.  Doesn't happen often, and they're not always the best quality, but I love them every time!

[Novaseer]

7 hours ago, DoomGappy said:

I like the subversion of that, a key that doesn't spawn enemies, or maybe only one, as a way to mock the player. I'm working on a map like that.

that bit from TNT Map31 where the wall lowers in that giant outside area to reveal one zombieman

[DoomGappy]

4 hours ago, ShallowB said:

 

I don't think I realized until just now how much I actually love this, and oddly enough I think it's partly because I haven't seen it too much.  Every time is a cool little treat!

It's also really good to be able to see a whole area or just a single place where you have to go from the beginning of the map. Very scenic.

 

I also like that concept of the place you've been to having changed a lot, Also have some ideas for maps like that. Damn, I should do some solo levels.

Edited January 3 by DoomGappy

[DoomGappy]

4 hours ago, Ravendesk said:

- When certain fights change if you found a secret bfg before reaching them.

I want examples of that.

[Pechudin]

54 minutes ago, DoomGappy said:

I want examples of that.

 

I actually like to employ this trick (got some unreleased maps). There's a central fight which, depending if you pick up a PG, adds some PEs into the fight (if you don't then you only got the SSG and the PEs get crushed).

[Cutman 999]

12 hours ago, DoomGappy said:

What exactly do you mean by that?

When the monsters just come out the floor, instantly.

[Treehouseminis]

54 minutes ago, Pechudin said:

 

I actually like to employ this trick (got some unreleased maps). There's a central fight which, depending if you pick up a PG, adds some PEs into the fight (if you don't then you only got the SSG and the PEs get crushed).

That's a really good idea.  I might implement something like this.  Start of the map pick a shotgun or a chaingun and the first fight changes depending what you pick.  

[DoomGappy]

34 minutes ago, Treehouseminis said:

That's a really good idea.  I might implement something like this.  Start of the map pick a shotgun or a chaingun and the first fight changes depending what you pick.  

I want to make a project like that, but instead of just the enemies changing, the terrain ans map layout change. I'm still not proficient enough to have a proof of concept map yet, but it will come.

[Roofi]

Not only in Doom but supplies rooms/areas always give me the satyisfing feeling of being rich as if I won the lottery

 

Edited January 3 by Roofi

[Ravendesk]

2 hours ago, DoomGappy said:

I want examples of that.

Stardate 20x7 map 05 changes black key fight if you got bfg earlier, most of Fractured Worlds maps change secret fights if you found bfg before accessing them, Dimensions map 03 changes some fights if you got bfg before beating them.

More examples from less known wads: 1x1 09, Poogers 25, Alcazar 04, finnks13's map in Jamal Jones, el inferno's map in 12moredays.

Also Sepia 18 and Wormwood5 03 go several steps further and change all of the fights based on your route in the map.

[Pechudin]

45 minutes ago, Ravendesk said:

Stardate 20x7 map 05 changes black key fight if you got bfg earlier, most of Fractured Worlds maps change secret fights if you found bfg before accessing them, Dimensions map 03 changes some fights if you got bfg before beating them.

More examples from less known wads: 1x1 09, Poogers 25, Alcazar 04, finnks13's map in Jamal Jones, el inferno's map in 12moredays.

Also Sepia 18 and Wormwood5 03 go several steps further and change all of the fights based on your route in the map.

 

Replay value!

[DoomGappy]

Some more that have come to my mind:

- gigantic areas that you can't access and just provide scenery

- monster blocking a teleporter spot that only unlocks when you kill the demon

- opening a room and seeing many monsters only for them to be scattered around the map

- big maps that are very atmospheric and varied (like bauul's foursite)

- silent teleporters shenanigans

- telefragging a cyberdemon 

- maps that make you "learn" them before you can beat them

Edited January 4 by DoomGappy

[Shepardus]

Secrets in secrets in secrets in...

[faceplant641]

20 hours ago, Roofi said:

 

 

What wad is this?  Chaingun looks beefy, I'd also like to carry around 800 bullets at a time.

[Hydrus]

On 1/3/2024 at 3:27 AM, BeachThunder said:

Yeah, honestly, I much prefer the subversion to this. I feel like 90% of keys I've ever picked up (in Doom wads) trigger some kind of ambush. It's only really surprising when it doesn't happen.

 

One thing I'll add to the big list: outdoor areas where there's a cool-looking megastructure visible in the background. 

 

Example from Solar Struggle:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

What about indoor areas so massive that they nearly qualify as outdoor areas with cool-looking megastructures?

[Shepardus]

On 1/4/2024 at 6:59 AM, faceplant641 said:

 

What wad is this?  Chaingun looks beefy, I'd also like to carry around 800 bullets at a time.

Disturbia

[chomorkuz]

i'm a big fan of the "tiny, hard to notice switch on a wall that opens a secret nearby" type of secret

[Plerb]

-Short punchy maps
-Atmospheric maps
-Lighting with harsh contrast
-Windows, and being able to see areas before you can access them
-Environmental storytelling
-Pre-rendered 3D stuff in 90s WADs
-Altered palettes that are more colorful than Doom's stock palette
-Implied room-over-room
-Flood lights
-Billboards

-A lack of damaging floors

-Starry nighttime skies

Edited January 6 by Plerb

[DoomGappy]

1 hour ago, Plerb said:

-Short punchy maps

I love shorter maps, wish it became more of a trend. 

[OniriA]

The one where it suddenly gets dark, strobelights turn on and closets open up revealing imps in BDSM suits approaching you.

 

Kind of an underused trope to be honest.

Deserves a bit more.. spotlight.

Edited January 6 by OniriA

[DoomGappy]

- When a structure in the level makes a little face.

[treulosetomate]

Drawing shapes on the automap.
 

Spoiler

Wormwood EU

 

Sunlust

 

Magnolia

 

 

FCFF

 

NERF

 

 

 

[Antroid]

I dunno if this qualifies as a trope, but I like when a big portion of a level is set on various platforms, cliffs, pillars, etc. in a big damaging floor area, and the damaging floor is deep enough that you don't just see it all perfectly from the playing area. Since I usually don't end up thoroughly exploring what's down there in the lava/acid, it always adds a feeling of mystery and secrets and the level being bigger than the route you take from the entrance to the exit.

 

Also, I just love big big cavernous areas. If it's giant and fully indoors it gets automatic points from me no matter how bad it looks.

 

This makes me like the Chasm, but nobody's perfect.