who're your favorite mappers

Tip-Top is Pavera.  Arrival encapsulates everything about Doom I love, perfected.

After that (in no particular  order) EggBoy, Doomkid, Antares031, Myolden, Eternal, RonnieJamesDiner, and Ribbiks. 

I have no idea if I previously posted in this thread, and dont care to comb through multiple pages, so I'll potentially repost, as opinions change with more map exposure

• Sverre Kvernmo, aka @Soundblock. His publically released Cabal series were amongst the first pwads I ever played; they were on a shovelware disc I was given, and were the best things on the disc that I found. Imagine my surprise when I learned later that not only was there more Cabal out there, but that he was one of the people from the Master Levels (Sadly, I grew up on the PS1 Doom and Final Doom, where none of his levels made the cut). Years later when I got the Master Levels off Steam, and later on the PS3, his levels were the best of the Master Levels. In addition, ive enjoyed ALL of his other work greatly, from his Hexen wad Deadlock, to stuff like Echelon and Plasmaplant (which I got to help test; people say 'never meet your heroes', but im glad I did). Without Sverre's Cabal maps, I likely never would have looked online for more good maps, which eventually led me here. If only the full megawad had surfaced :p
• Jim Flynn. While he's sadly no longer on this earth, hes the other Master Levels designer who ive been a fan of from the very first play of his work. Ive since exhausted all of his other maps, except the Eternal Doom ones (I really do need to finish that), and I loved all of them immensely.
• @NaturalTvventy. We've all heard the Xaserian song and dance about END1, and for me at least, it was no exaggeration. The 'Beginning of the End' series is a thing I downloaded after seeing one too many Xaser posts about it, and I gave it a full play after beating the first episode of No End in Sight, which was authoured by those two and Lutz, after hearing END1 was referenced in it in a later episode. Ended up playing all three episodes of the END series and enjoying every bit of it (I just wish END2 had named levels, its my only criticism!), and going on to play the rest of No End in Sight, and the rest of NT's single level releases. I particularly enjoy the way he makes secrets, getting 100% secrets on his maps is often a very fun challenge. One day I hope for END3 and NEIS2.
• @valkiriforce. While so many today seem to want to redefine what Doom is, Valk's work is often more classic-oriented, with a large amount of vanilla megawads that reference old mapping styles and particular classic megawads and authours. I'm a huge sucker for 90s era Doom stuff, and Valkiriforce's body of work never disappoints me. His smaller work 'Oceanside' in particular was amazing, and even his collection of rejected maps, Pulse, I enjoyed. I'll likely be playing his entire back catalogue in the following years.
• @Lainos and @BeeWen. When I load up a Lainos or BeeWen map, I know im in for a lengthy adventure, lost in some kind of atmospheric world and in for a good time. These two are often together in wads, and I look forward to their maps every time.
• Azamael. His levels in A.L.T. were absolutely amazing, and I wished he had gotten to do all 32 maps for it.
• Eternal. I'm not sure if he comes to this forum, but I always greatly enjoy his work. I was really happy when I heard that Revilution got an Eternal map, and a lot of the artwork in the wad is from him as well.
• Drake O'Brien. With only three very divisive maps to his name, its hard to include him here, but these three maps made a big impact on a younger me and cemented my love of TNT. Back then, I didn't know 'Team TNT' was a thing and assumed Final Doom was id's work (We need to make a custom CREDIT lump for TNT and Plutonia that gives them proper credit!), but these three maps were always my favourites in the 32. Much of my dooming tastes can be traced bake to Drake's maps
• @Kyka. Cant leave him out, without him taking on an untested newbie to help test out early Devilution, I never would have got the job working on Terraria, and all the life experience that brought. Most of his work is tied up in the Devilution/Revilution/Convilution development hell, so its not too fair for the rest of you, but I always enjoyed his work. A lot of it was 'Drake on Steroids', with grand exploratory maps with huge setpieces, massive adventures that left me exhausted but satisfied upon beating them. I'm curious to see how his style has evolved once we *eventually* get the curse of Devilution and its ilk dispelled.
• The Casali bros. While they generally stopped mapping after Plutonia, the small amount of maps they did before that generally had a lot of professionalism and always kicked my ass as if I was playing Plutonia. For some reason. They also did almost all the 'hard' maps in TNT too.
• @pcorf and @Kristian Nebula. Its hard to separate this duo, as they work together very often. Ive played a huge amount of work from both, both ancient and modern, and even the silly jokewads that pcorf probably wants to forget about. Its always a pleasure to play new stuff by them.
• @t.v. and @Scientist. These two bros have made a ton of stuff I enjoy, and it took me *forever* to realise they were related. Did you know that back when Revilution was in the planning stages, TV was one of the people making concept art ideas of the original final boss for us? If the development never shifted hands, his art might have been in the final release.
• John Romero. It may be 'cheating' to list him here, but given how much I liked his four unofficial pwads, im rating him as a modern mapper and not as a co-creator of the game. As he is today, his maps are right up my alley, and im looking forward to Sigil II and anything else he makes.

Also a shoutout to Scott Harper, Tom Mustaine, Chris Klie and John Anderson. If Scott had replaced Tim Willits, I'd have a perfect Master Levels lineup.

EDIT: Also a mention to @Mechadon; I havent played too many of his maps, but the few I have, I love the giant exploration theme they have going for them

34 minutes ago, Devalaous said:

I have no idea if I previously posted in this thread, and dont care to comb through multiple pages, so I'll potentially repost, as opinions change with more map exposure

 

• Sverre Kvernmo, aka @Soundblock. His publically released Cabal series were amongst the first pwads I ever played; they were on a shovelware disc I was given, and were the best things on the disc that I found. Imagine my surprise when I learned later that not only was there more Cabal out there, but that he was one of the people from the Master Levels (Sadly, I grew up on the PS1 Doom and Final Doom, where none of his levels made the cut). Years later when I got the Master Levels off Steam, and later on the PS3, his levels were the best of the Master Levels. In addition, ive enjoyed ALL of his other work greatly, from his Hexen wad Deadlock, to stuff like Echelon and Plasmaplant (which I got to help test; people say 'never meet your heroes', but im glad I did). Without Sverre's Cabal maps, I likely never would have looked online for more good maps, which eventually led me here. If only the full megawad had surfaced :p
• Jim Flynn. While he's sadly no longer on this earth, hes the other Master Levels designer who ive been a fan of from the very first play of his work. Ive since exhausted all of his other maps, except the Eternal Doom ones (I really do need to finish that), and I loved all of them immensely.
• @NaturalTvventy. We've all heard the Xaserian song and dance about END1, and for me at least, it was no exaggeration. The 'Beginning of the End' series is a thing I downloaded after seeing one too many Xaser posts about it, and I gave it a full play after beating the first episode of No End in Sight, which was authoured by those two and Lutz, after hearing END1 was referenced in it in a later episode. Ended up playing all three episodes of the END series and enjoying every bit of it (I just wish END2 had named levels, its my only criticism!), and going on to play the rest of No End in Sight, and the rest of NT's single level releases. I particularly enjoy the way he makes secrets, getting 100% secrets on his maps is often a very fun challenge. One day I hope for END3 and NEIS2.
• @valkiriforce. While so many today seem to want to redefine what Doom is, Valk's work is often more classic-oriented, with a large amount of vanilla megawads that reference old mapping styles and particular classic megawads and authours. I'm a huge sucker for 90s era Doom stuff, and Valkiriforce's body of work never disappoints me. His smaller work 'Oceanside' in particular was amazing, and even his collection of rejected maps, Pulse, I enjoyed. I'll likely be playing his entire back catalogue in the following years.
• @Lainos and @BeeWen. When I load up a Lainos or BeeWen map, I know im in for a lengthy adventure, lost in some kind of atmospheric world and in for a good time. These two are often together in wads, and I look forward to their maps every time.
• Azamael. His levels in A.L.T. were absolutely amazing, and I wished he had gotten to do all 32 maps for it.
• Eternal. I'm not sure if he comes to this forum, but I always greatly enjoy his work. I was really happy when I heard that Revilution got an Eternal map, and a lot of the artwork in the wad is from him as well.
• Drake O'Brien. With only three very divisive maps to his name, its hard to include him here, but these three maps made a big impact on a younger me and cemented my love of TNT. Back then, I didn't know 'Team TNT' was a thing and assumed Final Doom was id's work (We need to make a custom CREDIT lump for TNT and Plutonia that gives them proper credit!), but these three maps were always my favourites in the 32. Much of my dooming tastes can be traced bake to Drake's maps
• @Kyka. Cant leave him out, without him taking on an untested newbie to help test out early Devilution, I never would have got the job working on Terraria, and all the life experience that brought. Most of his work is tied up in the Devilution/Revilution/Convilution development hell, so its not too fair for the rest of you, but I always enjoyed his work. A lot of it was 'Drake on Steroids', with grand exploratory maps with huge setpieces, massive adventures that left me exhausted but satisfied upon beating them. I'm curious to see how his style has evolved once we *eventually* get the curse of Devilution and its ilk dispelled.
• The Casali bros. While they generally stopped mapping after Plutonia, the small amount of maps they did before that generally had a lot of professionalism and always kicked my ass as if I was playing Plutonia. For some reason. They also did almost all the 'hard' maps in TNT too.
• @pcorf and @Kristian Nebula. Its hard to separate this duo, as they work together very often. Ive played a huge amount of work from both, both ancient and modern, and even the silly jokewads that pcorf probably wants to forget about. Its always a pleasure to play new stuff by them.
• @t.v. and @Scientist. These two bros have made a ton of stuff I enjoy, and it took me *forever* to realise they were related. Did you know that back when Revilution was in the planning stages, TV was one of the people making concept art ideas of the original final boss for us? If the development never shifted hands, his art might have been in the final release.
• John Romero. It may be 'cheating' to list him here, but given how much I liked his four unofficial pwads, im rating him as a modern mapper and not as a co-creator of the game. As he is today, his maps are right up my alley, and im looking forward to Sigil II and anything else he makes.

Also a shoutout to Scott Harper, Tom Mustaine, Chris Klie and John Anderson. If Scott had replaced Tim Willits, I'd have a perfect Master Levels lineup.

Based.  Valkiriforce and Pcorf are underrated and underappreciated, IMO.  Romero is excellent too. 

In no particular order, 

@Doomkid : His maps are incredible and i always enjoy the new assets or cool dehacked stuff used in his wads. Rowdy Rudy & The Sinister 7 are great inspirations for something im currently working on

@Clippy : His maps are really fun and the community projects he host are always a blast to map for, and he's just a really cool guy in general.

@Arrowhead : I love his deathmatch stuff, really fun to play with friends

@Clippy  His maps aren't for everyone I suppose but I love his sector manipulation abilities.

@Cacodemon187

@muumi

@WH-Wilou84

@pavera

@Jaska

@RonnieJamesDiner I would say a possibly top ranked one for how well he crafts surprisingly deep combat encounters without feeling blandly overwhelming

@lunchlunch

@AD_79

There's plenty of other people that aren't active but that's best left for other threads. Except for BPRD. He is immortal, if not perfect.

Does anyone know if Henk Gierveld is still alive?

Christen Klie and Gene Bird!