How to get back at doom again?

Hi there. It has indeed been a long time. So basically I took a break from Doomy stuff back in early 2021 up until now in pursuit of trying/playing out newer games and other franchises (Battlefield, Call Of Duty, etc). Well, it hasn't really worked that well, with the horrible releases many games that I anticipated alongside I just didnt find these other newer/modern franchises comparing them to classics such as doom and others,  I decided I wanted to go back and do doomy things, however, the crazy thing is... I honestly don't quite know how to start over again (I basically forgot everything and which programs to install) so here are some things I would like to know and recall:

-What are the best source ports I could install? (I already recall GZDoom)

-Where could I find the latest version of doom builder?

-What are the best WADS, Mods for my journey into doom?

-Other helpful tips and tricks? 

I'm really sorry if I'm asking these types of questions, I don't really have a good memory skills and I cleared a lot of hard drive that contained all my doom files, I would really highly appreciate to anyone who could recommend and help me with this, any form of help would be amazing, whether its advice, or youtube videos, or absolutely anything. I just really wanna come back to the doom community, and do doomy things again.

thanks guys and gals.

Welcome back to the Army of Doom

All of these questions are somewhat subjective so I'll offer my own 2 cents

• GZDoom is a good all-purpose port, since it plays pretty much anything (except for maps that have really weird esoteric vanilla exploits, but unless you're me that won't be a problem.)  I personally love Crispy Doom for anything that'll play vanilla-style maps, since it has a nice balance of simplicity, OG Doom purity, but also QoL stuff like freelook, colored blood, some purdy brightmaps, uncapped framerates etc.  I've been meaning to check out Eternity, too, which looks incredible, so maybe you can do that for me :p
• I recommend either Ultimate Doom Builder (which I use) or Doom Builder X (which I only use to swap linedef numbers, although it seems pretty cool).  The former is super rich in tools and good for UDMF/ZDoom type editing, the latter may be easier to pick up and use for vanilla/Boom projects.  And if you don't know already then you should use SLADE for asset management.
• I'm not the best for recommending WADs, I'm sure someone else will be game for that.  If you've never played Scythe then you should.  Scythe II and Equinox are my other favorites and the ones that probably influenced my mapping style the most early on.  (EDIT I thought of some more I like) Going Down is a relatively more recent one that is also readily in my top five, great for insanely creative, small, frenetic maps.  Thunderpeak is one I remember fondly that uses ZDoom-type effects really tastefully.  Sunlust, Eviternity and Ancient Aliens are all beautiful and worthy of all the praise they get (Ancient Aliens is especially creative, I haven't played much of it but it could become another favorite of mine.)
• When you release a single map for testing, replace D_RUNNIN with a different music track.  It doesn't matter what track that is, I promise people will instantly like your map 100000x more if you do this

1 minute ago, Stupid Bunny said:

Welcome back to the Army of Doom

 

All of these questions are somewhat subjective so I'll offer my own 2 cents

 

• GZDoom is a good all-purpose port, since it plays pretty much anything (except for maps that have really weird esoteric vanilla exploits, but unless you're me that won't be a problem.)  I personally love Crispy Doom for anything that'll play vanilla-style maps, since it has a nice balance of simplicity, OG Doom purity, but also QoL stuff like freelook, colored blood, some purdy brightmaps, uncapped framerates etc.  I've been meaning to check out Eternity, too, which looks incredible, so maybe you can do that for me :p
• I recommend either Ultimate Doom Builder (which I use) or Doom Builder X (which I only use to swap linedef numbers, although it seems pretty cool).  The former is super rich in tools and good for UDMF/ZDoom type editing, the latter may be easier to pick up and use for vanilla/Boom projects.  And if you don't know already then you should use SLADE for asset management.
• I'm not the best for recommending WADs, I'm sure someone else will be game for that.  If you've never played Scythe then you should.  Scythe II and Equinox are my other favorites and the ones that probably influenced my mapping style the most early on.
• When you release a single map for testing, replace D_RUNNIN with a different music track.  It doesn't matter what track that is, I promise people will instantly like your map 100000x more if you do this

Thanks! Really helpful stuff! 

1 minute ago, Oldschoolgeek32 said:

-What are the best source ports I could install? (I already recall GZDoom)

 

Depends on what you want 

Extremely accurate to the original game - Chocolate doom/Crispy Doom

Want to play most modern Megawads - DSDA Doom and Prboom um

Interested in gameplay mods - Gzdoom (and other flavors)  

Multiplayer? - 

7 minutes ago, Oldschoolgeek32 said:

 -Where could I find the latest version of doom builder?

 

Doom Builder 2 still works but I could also recommend Ultimate Doom Builder or Doom Builder X, if you have an install of DB2 I would recommend DBX because it imports your doom builder 2 configurations.

Ultimate Doom Builder

9 minutes ago, Oldschoolgeek32 said:

 -What are the best WADS, Mods for my journey into doom?

 

I would just look around the forum, or I guess you can look at Cacoaward winners.      

11 minutes ago, Oldschoolgeek32 said:

 -Other helpful tips and tricks? 

 

I would check out this thread and play them in order if you want to get better 

27 minutes ago, Oldschoolgeek32 said:

What are the best source ports I could install?

Recently I've been using Eternity Engine, it's a good port with vanilla demo support, and Boom, MBF etc support. So check it out if you're looking for source port that are in between vanilla and Boom. Also, skillsaw make make a new WAD for Eternity.

27 minutes ago, Oldschoolgeek32 said:

Where could I find the latest version of doom builder?

The latest version are Ultimate Doom Builder and Doom Builder X, mainly used UDB and only used DBX to correct minor things, but I honestly prefer DBX quality of life improvement (especially the one where it remember where you stored your resources)

28 minutes ago, Oldschoolgeek32 said:

What are the best WADS, Mods for my journey into doom?

Check out Cacowards I guess

29 minutes ago, Oldschoolgeek32 said:

Other helpful tips and tricks? 

Arch-vile usually go down with 4 rockets.

13 minutes ago, Stupid Bunny said:

I recommend either Ultimate Doom Builder (which I use) or Doom Builder X (which I only use to swap linedef numbers, although it seems pretty cool).  The former is super rich in tools and good for UDMF/ZDoom type editing, the latter may be easier to pick up and use for vanilla/Boom projects.

I disagree, I would say the distinction between the editors is that DBX is better for people who are familiar with DB2 while UDB is better for people who didn't extensively use DB2.  Personally I could never get into DB2 because I always had problems running it on my machine so UDB is better in that regard.  DBX supports UDMF and most Zdoom and even Eternity mapping stuff.   

7 hours ago, Oldschoolgeek32 said:

the crazy thing is... I honestly don't quite know how to start over again (I basically forgot everything and which programs to install) so here are some things I would like to know and recall:

 

-What are the best source ports I could install? (I already recall GZDoom)

-Where could I find the latest version of doom builder?

-What are the best WADS, Mods for my journey into doom?

-Other helpful tips and tricks?

The others have already made some really helpful posts, but if you feel like you're back at square one, maybe this will help, it's only a short read:

Just play it

Before the pandemic and me becoming a Youtube star I haven't touched the game in YEARS

Actually I have constantly been in and out until this community and me getting inspired to map again

Pro tip:  To kill the cyberdemon, shoot it until it dies.