Doomworld Forums - What Makes A Good Pwad

Doomworld Forums : Powered by vBulletin version 2.2.5

Doomworld Forums > Classic Doom > WADs & Mods > What Makes A Good Pwad

Pages (2): « 1 [2]

Author

All times are GMT. The time now is 17:39.

Kagemaru_H
Banned

Posts: 422
Registered: 09-09

Gameplay (again) - I would really like it to emphasize exact tactics, where if you make one wrong move and you're fucked, instead of "Okay, 50 Revenants, 10 Cyberdemons, and an assload of ammo and weapons. Let's do this! LEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY JENKINS!" I also don't really mind the detail level as long as it's not plain or ugly. I would probably make some cover in the map09 boss in my project, complete with little "windows" for shooting.

03-05-10 23:54 #

Profile || Blog || PM || Search || Add Buddy

IP || Edit/Delete || Quote

pinata666
Warming Up

Posts: 12
Registered: 02-10

Gameplay: There's nothing more frustrating than a prolonged key/switch hunt, especially if a key is on one side of a level and the door it opens is way over on the other side (in wads with small maps like Scythe, this obviously isn't a problem... but if the map is huge, it gets annoying real fast). At any rate, the game is called a first-person shooter, not a first-person switch-flicker or first-person door-opener. I want to shoot things... to me, that's gameplay, and it's the only aspect of gameplay for this particular game. I use IDKFA whenever I see a keyed door and no corresponding key in the immediate area, and IDCLIP to get around things that have to be activated with switches. No exceptions.

As for focus on one particular type of monster... yes, that is aggravating, but it's very rare in the pwads that I've downloaded. Of course, maybe as much as 70% of the pwads I've downloaded are from the x-rated section so my custom dooming experience is probably different from most other people's.

Design/detail: I tend to like pwads a bit more if it looks like a little effort went into them (Doom II Extreme, Webgrrlz, Trinity College). I also like seeing things I've never seen before in a Doom game, and tend to seek out wads that sound like they match this description (hence my tendency to download x-rated wads).

Challenge: Too hard, and I get frustrated very quickly. No plasma gun for more than five levels (or no plasma gun before encountering a Revenant/Hell Knight/Baron of Hell), and I get frustrated very quickly. But since I'm an experienced (15 years) doomer, my idea of "too hard" is probably on the higher end of the learning curve. Not saying I'm really awesome, but I can get through the first 10 levels of Doom II on UV without using IDDQD. So I don't mind a little challenge, but if you go crazy with it you can break a level very easily.

Tricks/traps/obstacles/ambushes: I don't mind them, but some people rely way too heavily on them when designing a wad... I've seen some otherwise very good levels get broken by having too many "Oh shit" moments.

03-06-10 06:40 #

Profile || Blog || PM || Search || Add Buddy

IP || Edit/Delete || Quote

Jodwin
Forum Staple

Posts: 2556
Registered: 02-05

pinata666 said:
...(no plasma gun before encountering a Revenant/Hell Knight/Baron of Hell), and I get frustrated very quickly. But since I'm an experienced (15 years) doomer, my idea of "too hard" is probably on the higher end of the learning curve.

heh

As to what makes a good wad, gameplay, including such unspeakable pagan rituals as designing good monster placement, good layouts, good ammo and health balance and good flow. Good theming and architecture also help. It doesn't matter what enemies and how many of them a map uses as long as they're being used well.

03-06-10 06:43 #

Profile || Blog || PM || Homepage || Search || Add Buddy

IP || Edit/Delete || Quote

pinata666
Warming Up

Posts: 12
Registered: 02-10

Jodwin said:

As to what makes a good wad, gameplay, including such unspeakable pagan rituals as designing good monster placement, good layouts, good ammo and health balance and good flow. Good theming and architecture also help. It doesn't matter what enemies and how many of them a map uses as long as they're being used well. [/B]

Hey, don't knock pagans. You'll make me perform an unspeakable ritual on you. :P

As for what you said, I agree. Balance is necessary, without it gameplay sucks no matter how profound the carnage is. That was why I mentioned the key item for dealing with certain types of monsters (the plasma gun), which you seemed to find funny for some reason.

03-06-10 07:05 #

Profile || Blog || PM || Search || Add Buddy

IP || Edit/Delete || Quote

Pirx
Member

Posts: 522
Registered: 11-04

ArmouredBlood said:
Revenants make good challenge enemies, as you can fit a ton into the space a manc or arachno takes, and take quite a bit of skill to dodge in small places. They also go down a lot quicker, although bfg tracers seem to have a pretty mediocre hit rate on them. I'd much rather face 5 revenants than 5 chaingunners in perfect position to slaughter me.

this. and it makes a major difference in gameplay imo. you can fight revs at close range dodging their shots, even punch them out (unless one of the damn things fires a missile in your face point-blank for no reason), while fighting hitscanners is mostly a boring affair of sniping them from behind corners. much like these slow, modern games with lots of insta-hit guns which i've never found appealing because of this lack of movement involved.

03-06-10 14:53 #

Profile || Blog || PM || Search || Add Buddy

IP || Edit/Delete || Quote

Gez
Why don't I have a custom title by now?!

Posts: 6458
Registered: 07-07

Torr Samaho said:
this. and it makes a major difference in gameplay imo. you can fight revs at close range dodging their shots, even punch them out (unless one of the damn things fires a missile in your face point-blank for no reason)

Not for no reason. Revenants, and every other monster with a missile attack, will start a missile attack as a retaliation when hurt.

The thing is that most monsters have a combo attack -- the same codepointer will result in a melee or a missile attack depending on the the target's distance. Whereas the revenant has two very different attacks, with actually separate melee and missile states. So it's easier to notice that they use missile attack for retaliation with revenants than with other monsters.

Even more so given that they also have a special code to "enhance" their melee range to incite them to close in and punch the player if they're nearly, but not quite, close enough for melee. So in normal circumstances, they don't shoot at close range.

(This behavior can be abused. It's possible to put revenants in cages at a position such that they're too far away for a melee attack, but too close for a ranged attack. Then they will only shoot you as retaliation when you hurt them.)

03-06-10 15:06 #

Profile || Blog || PM || Search || Add Buddy

IP || Edit/Delete || Quote

Pirx
Member

Posts: 522
Registered: 11-04

thanks. it came to my mind since i have been playing plutonia 2 the last couple days and exactly this happened. i like berserking whenever i can, i probably missed the rev's meelee distance by a hair.

03-06-10 16:44 #

Profile || Blog || PM || Search || Add Buddy

IP || Edit/Delete || Quote

gun_psycho
Member

Posts: 477
Registered: 03-07

To be honest, when it came to playing those super-hard wads in scoredoom with the addon pack, those revenants became the least of my worries, especially on UV. (Even maps with small monster counts can be nasty with the addon pack, considering that a lot of the replaced monsters are much tougher than their regular cousins.)

Edit: One thing that balances the add-on pack's difficulty out are the powerups, and they're a godsend in those particularly brutal maps (Scythe 2's map30 for instance) if you use them correctly.

03-06-10 20:32 #

Profile || Blog || PM || Email || Search || Add Buddy

IP || Edit/Delete || Quote

All times are GMT. The time now is 17:39.

Pages (2): « 1 [2]

Doomworld Forums > Classic Doom > WADs & Mods > What Makes A Good Pwad

Show Printable Version |

Email this Page |

Subscribe to this Thread

Forum Rules:

You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

HTML code is OFF
vB code is ON
Smilies are OFF
[IMG] code is ON

< Contact Us - Doomworld >