Looking for more megwad recs and suggestions!

[Xeogred]

I couldn't find a general suggestion thread so I hope this works. I'm getting sucked back into Doom and loving it, was hoping you guys could shoot me some megawad suggestions.

The ones I played years ago are Memento Mori 1-2, Hell Revealed 1-2, Community Chest Pack 1-3, and eventually Alien Vendetta which might be my top favorite. I was thinking of replaying Memento Mori 1-2, but I'm not sure.

I recently took a dive into the skillsaw projects and I have to say they were mindblowing.

Valiant is my favorite and something I love about the mapset, is that there's actually small compact maps. Sometimes less is more, so it didn't feel like a competition to make the largest hour long labyrinth or anything. I love huge levels, but not for a whole megawad. I'm wondering if Valiant dethrones Alien Vendetta honestly.

Ancient Aliens was pretty awesome too, but did have a few maps I didn't quite love, and I hate to say some of the neon did get to me after awhile. So I like how Valiant was a bit more vanilla in comparison.

Vanguard cool to see how skillsaw has developed from this. Real fun quick romp with this one and no complaints really. Hilarious final level.

Some megawads I'm thinking of hitting up:

Doom The Way Id Did 1-2 - 1 looks cool, but I really do get a bit more out of Doom with the super shotgun and 2's expanded enemies. But maybe 1 is really good?
Community Chest Pack 4 (looks really good, I loved the others even if they were a mixed bag)
Plutonia 2 (I kind of loathe Plutonia because of its boring brown textures and chaingunner abuse... but the level design is pretty good). I'm well versed in TNT and Doom 2 Master Levels.

My playstyle:
- I'll admit to being more of a continuous weapons kind of guy, non-pistol start. But there's no harm if the megawad is designed for pistol starts.
- I mostly play vanilla and with gzdoom right now, no mods, no mouselook, etc.
- I can do classic Doom episodes on UV, but for megawads I'm safer in the HMP zone and not too big on BFG spam levels haha.
- I like the base levels and episodes of Doom 1-2 a lot.

[kmxexii]

your prospective picks are great. i can't stick up for plutonia 2; i haven't played it yet, but i rarely hear people bitch about it.

i think you might really enjoy Hellbound, as long as you're mindful (per your Valiant notes) that it's almost entirely huge maps. HMP and continuous play should serve you well.

also, Pirate Doom 4 eva

[Xeogred]

Nice, I do seem to keep stumbling upon Hellbound... might be a sign. Pirate Doom looks funny and cool.

[Albertoni]

Small, slightly hard maps?
Going Down: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/gd

Whispers of Satan has some big maps with a few switchhunts, but overall it's another I'd highly recommend: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/wos

[Xeogred]

I'm having trouble with Plutonia 2's skyboxes/textures. When and where do I load the DEH file in gzdoom's config, if that's needed? Using latest gzdoom.

Wait... I guess I am playing via Doom 2 on Steam, so I don't know if I have the Plutonia 1 wad. lol

[scifista42]

The deh file is provided as a separate file only for the sake of less advanced ports that can't load it from within the wad. Another copy of the deh is inside the wad file, and ports like GZDoom will load it, so that there's no need to care about the separate deh file if you're using GZDoom, just launch the wad. In the IWAD selection window at GZDoom's startup, you should select Plutonia, though.

[Deadwing]

If you don't mind abstract visuals, I recommend Mano Laikas. It's not too hard and it has the best monster placement I've saw in a pwad. I've also finished recently Jiff Bag, which is a collection of small, easy and good looking levels, with a pretty good soundtrack.

[Not Jabba]

If you were a big fan of the classic megawads you mentioned, try Reverie and Jenesis. If you'd rather keep diving into the more modern stuff with cool detailed visuals, don't miss the Japanese Community Project, Back to Saturn X, or Sunlust. Plutonia 2 and CC4 are definitely worth playing too.

[Spectre01]

I'll recommend Bloodstain if you really liked Alien Vendetta. It's as close to a spiritual sequel as it gets. Plays well on continuous too.

[Nevander]

Xeogred said:

Valiant is my favorite and something I love about the mapset, is that there's actually small compact maps. Sometimes less is more, so it didn't feel like a competition to make the largest hour long labyrinth or anything. I love huge levels, but not for a whole megawad. I'm wondering if Valiant dethrones Alien Vendetta honestly.

Oh yea feeling the Valiant love. I too call Valiant my favorite megawad from skillsaw, and it's my personal belief it is his best work. The first time experience of going through the maps was quite the trip.

[Xeogred]

Nevander said:

Oh yea feeling the Valiant love. I too call Valiant my favorite megawad from skillsaw, and it's my personal belief it is his best work. The first time experience of going through the maps was quite the trip.

It was pure magic! Loved all the new visuals, the monsters felt completely authentic and like they could have been in an official Doom release, and the musical choices were great. Top notch.

The Japanese Community Project looks like a blast, I saw that one recently. Dang, lots of great recs here. Doom 4 Life. lol

[SArais]

Everyone mentions Hellbound, but Hellground is not to be forgotten either.

Echelon is a good mapset if you like "bite-sized" megawads (maybe we need a new term for these? Megawad doesn't quite seem appropriate when it's designed to be short-and-sweet but still 32 maps)

Not everybody likes slaughter-style maps, but there are a couple with really good visuals (sunlust, sunder, etc.)

Basically if you like Skillsaw, you should like Ribbiks, abeit Ribb is more of a slaughterwad lad

[scifista42]

SArais said:

if you like Skillsaw, you should like Ribbiks,

Both of them make maps liked by many people, but their mapping styles are very different from each other, IMO, so liking one doesn't imply liking the other. I actually don't like the "thousands of abstract single-color curves and/or tiles" visual style much.

[SArais]

scifista42 said:

Both of them make maps liked by many people, but their mapping styles are very different from each other, IMO, so liking one doesn't imply liking the other. I actually don't like the "thousands of abstract single-color curves and/or tiles" visual style much.

I always get the two of them mixed up, so that's just me.