Patrol1985

So we played on Friday and on Saturday (with one more session today still pending) and to be honest... it was awesome! :o Please note I do not mean it was my best deathmatch experience ever or anything, but given the expectations I had and how it turned out I have to say it was definitely worth it. As long as we had 5-7 people on the server the problems with finding each other were non-existent. E1M1 is indeed the best map for deathmatch from the ones I listed above, but the others were not that bad either! If I were to pick the worst ones, these would be E3M6 (it's a bit too spacious despite its openness) and E3M8 (only one gun is viable really as most spawn points are in the arena, it takes too long to get to the rocket launcher and it's honestly not worth it, so everyone just tries to grab the plasma gun). Nevertheless, we still had fun on them too! Here is one example round from yesterday so you can get the grasp of how it all went :)

Thanks for your feedback guys! Sadly, it confirmed my original observations that the stock maps don't really work with multiplayer compared to numerous other titles released after Doom that did it correctly (cause they usually featured maps created with deathmatch in mind). That being said, I would still like to do the experiment to see how it works first-hand. I looked through the stock maps, ran around them a bit, took their complexity and available weaponry into consideration and created a list of maps to be used during the session. We will play the following levels: E1M1 E1M5 E2M9 E3M2 E3M6 E3M8 E3M9 After the weekend I will try to provide an update on how it went. Many factors come into play here which may affect the overall feel of the session, but I will hope for the best :) And if it turns out fine, then the list above may serve as a reference in case anyone would like to play with such conditions as well.

Next week I am organizing a local deathmatch session as a follow-up to Doom's 30th anniversary. I would like to stick to the original Doom - preferably to episodes 1-3. So my question is: which levels (if any) from the standard IWAD would you recommend for deathmatch? I tried "dry running" some of them and noticed that they often weren't adjusted for multiplayer at all (at least to my mind). For instance, E2M8 might seem like a cool arena for the mode... but the map features literally a single rocket launcher as its only weapon available for pickup, so I can see in my imagination a bunch of people running around with pistols and a guy camping the RL room for easy frags. I know it all depends on the number of people (I don't know how many will attend the session, but the server limit will be set to 16 - I doubt it will be reached though) and I haven't looked at all the maps yet, but from what I managed to observe it seems that E1M1 may actually be the best deathmatch map from the original Doom - it has a simple layout, but with plenty of options to hide, attack from an ambush and what not. There are also some additional weapons scattered around the map in deathmatch mode, which in total mean two shotguns, a chaingun and a rocket launcher - a very decent lineup! So do you have any experience with these maps? I was thinking that perhaps E1M3 and E1M5 would also be viable, but I wouldn't want the layout to be too complicated so that people don't look for each other more than they actually shoot. Please note some attendants may not be familiar with the layouts either (which makes me think that E1M2 may not necessarily be a good idea due to the "dark maze" portion, where one could get lost). I read about the "deathmatch craze" that Doom caused plenty of times and how attractive it was, so I assume the people who played it back in the beginning of 1994, or so, had to have some favorite maps, which fit the mode nicely. I appreciate any feedback you may provide on the subject.

Guys, my last post on this forum was in August of 2021. I logged in now just to write that I tried playing MyHouse and with 30 minutes thus far on the clock I consider it to be a masterpiece. I didn't read other posts in this thread and don't intend to until I have finished the level myself, but I just wanted to encourage everyone who hasn't tried it already to do so. Play it!

Has anyone else had problems with accessing the DoomWiki lately? The page does not open for me at all (connection timeout error). Is it just me or has something more major happened to the wiki? :/