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NiGHTMARE

Atmosphere

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A couple of posts down, Whitenoise raised an interesting point, no-one's really talked about how ID should go about creating atmosphere. Well, time to change that... (note: I stray a bit from the actual points :) )

1) Lighting

Everywhere should generally be dark and moody (although obviously not so much that you can't see anything). If you're outside it should be night time, no daylight damn it :)

Of course there should be occasional exceptions to this, e.g. brightly glowing nukage areas, exposed lava, and of course various light fixtures.

As I said way back when, the light levels should effect the vision of the Hellspawn as well as the player, although maybe some of them should be able to see in the dark (the Imp possibly, it would be cool to see their eyes glowing in the dark).

You should also occassionally be able to pick up Infrared Goggles instead of the LightAmp visor (which IMHO is the worst power-up in Doom), although they should only be available when you absolutely need them, as with the Radiation Suit in the original games.

In fact, all power-ups should only be there when you absolutely need them. Although perhaps that's obvious, I dunno.


2) Space to move

A mixture of claustrophobic tunnels (enough room for roughly two people side-by-side), broken up by rooms (nothing too massive though, and don't have them totally empty except for enemies) and the odd outside area. Of course if any of the game takes place in cities, things would be rather different than this.


3) Music

The music should be two types of music. Creepy, Doom 1 style songs containg string instruments, bass and the odd piano or guitar rifts, and maybe some demonic sounding chanting and choirs for when there's not much going on, and more fast paced stuff when there's loads of enemies around, or for bosses. Dynamic music, as previously discussed, would be great for this.

I'd prefer industrial music, but that's just my tastes. But definately no techno or drum 'n' bass (since Trent's not particular well known for either of these two, that's pretty much a given anyway :) )


4) Sound effects

The hum of machinery, the sound of damaged circuitry, the sounds of the dying and the tortured, inhuman chanting, howls. roars and screams, maybe the odd sound of distant battles (hinting at other survivors, which you may meet only for them to be killed before your eyes), weather effects such as wind, rain and thunder, and anything else that might scare the crap out of you.

Anyone ever played Thief 1 or 2? Those ghosts scare me to death. Remember the library in a couple of the later Thief 2 levels? Man, that place is so creepy...


5) Monster placement

Monsters should be well placed so that often they'll suprise you with sudden roars, or they'll jump out of shadows or round corners at you, etc. Maybe you could even have them jump down from a ledge behind you and stuff.

There should definately be (IMHO) at least one "hunter" style level where you're low on ammo, or have only got crap weapons, and something tough and scary is chasing you. You'd occassionally catch a glimpse of the thing out of the corner of your eye, but you'd never actually properly see it until it's too late.

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Well, if you're outside and it's dark and there's no moon visible the scene would be pitch black.

How about a scene with nothing but fires and lava for lighting so everything has a deep red glow. Side rooms would be very dark.

Power-ups when you need them? Dunno, could help. Not much of a need for berserk packs on map03 if you think about it.

I like the idea of your hunter level, and I would like to again restate my idea of a level with no enemies... just lots of speed based puzzles.

BTW, anyone try Serius Sam Test 2? They fixed the performance issues on old video cards (now I just get missing textures, great).

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In one of Kurt Kesler's KZDoom levels (I think it's KZDoom 5), the whole of the final, hellish lava filled area uses red lighting, and it looks pretty cool.

Obviously it would be better in 16 million colours rather than Doom pallette :)

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deadnail said:

Well, if you're outside and it's dark and there's no moon visible the scene would be pitch black.

How about a scene with nothing but fires and lava for lighting so everything has a deep red glow. Side rooms would be very dark.

Power-ups when you need them? Dunno, could help. Not much of a need for berserk packs on map03 if you think about it.

I like the idea of your hunter level, and I would like to again restate my idea of a level with no enemies... just lots of speed based puzzles.

BTW, anyone try Serius Sam Test 2? They fixed the performance issues on old video cards (now I just get missing textures, great).

Well, on 1) I STRONGLY DISAGREE. Not everyone loves Nictophobia.

It sounds right, it's seductive, but I don't think it's the way to go. You will just make people go to sleep if it's ALL dark. You need reasonably well-lit areas. Levels all lit by coloured lighting (like red) are likely to drive people insane (find one of the DM levels with all-red lighting out there, there's got to be one. Play around on it for half an hour. Your head will REALLY hurt!).

Doom 3 will hopefully be about fear and atmosphere. That doesn't mean it has to be a psychological experiment in pain.

People don't like pain. They won't play a game that causes them pain. This is fact. It's Pavlovian, baby.

Doom didn't do this. Go play it again! 90% of the time it's bright, clear-ish, skies. Only in some parts of hell is it dark, and red.

It's interesting that Deadnail brings up Serious Sam 2. That features Doom-like gameplay, and huge and pretty and well-lit open areas, mainly outdoors. It's super-fun and easy to play because of it.

This feeds into 2) Claustrophobia - Don't do it! It's not only a cliche, but un-Doom-y! Doom has lots of open areas, which, by the standards of the time, are VERY large.

Claustrophobia should be used SPARINGLY, not ALL THE DAMN TIME (sorry, I'm getting all shouty, please take no offence, this isn't intended as a flame, I'm just passionate about this). Use it to create atmosphere, like in Aliens, where they have to crawl through the tunnels whilst pursued, not all the time, that's just depressing.

3) I'd prefer no music, but this is Doom. Personally I think NIN and Trent suck gigantic industrial ass, and I hope he ends up not doing the music. If there is music, it should be subtle, and original, not just mind-shatteringly boring industrial (which Trent specialises in). Use some instruments for god's sake! Proper orchestration is MUCH scarier than some sampled car-crusher or chainsaw being repeated at 30Hz.

Sometimes the music should just *stop*, because music defuses fear, unless it's building it, and it can't do that 24-7... Sometimes you should just be listening, feeling that "too quiet" feeling...

4) Sound effects - Here, I totally agree without. Thief scared the wits out of me. Definately the model to follow here.

5) Monster placement - Mostly agree, though it needs to be done realistically, and not cheatily (just how long can an imp stand on a 1ft wide ledge for? How did it get up there in the first place? Does have it a ladder?! Have the other monsters taken the ladder away?! :) Heh, you get the point), and remember, unless they randomize it somehow, or monsters move around, it'll only scare once or twice. Scares a waaaay less great when you're expecting something.

I like the idea of the hunter level, though it would be difficult to execute, especially considering it has to work in co-op (not impossible, and it would be very scary to have your friends picked off, one by one, and even with re-spawn they'd have to make their way to the exit point, across the level, all alone. Anyone who's played EverQuest and been bound in a dangerous place knows how scary that can be...

On Serious Sam Test 2 - Well, I was very impressed after I download that "Newscripts.zip", and used the 128MB and Geforce S3TC fixes (and then upgraded everything to 32-bit), that game is huge amounts of crazy fun. Reminded me of Doom, but really, it's "pulse-pounding", but not very scary. Except those bastard kamikazes, when I hear that screaming, I really get nervous...

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I liked how the outside looked on Sony Playstation on the Tower of Babel level, the sky was full of Inferno. I like dark moody stuff, but the bright burning inferno stuff is cool too.

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Eurhetemec said:

No one said that there should be levels that are coloured entirely red, so I'm not sure what you're talking about there.

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Guest JudgeDooM
Malice Rancor said:

I liked how the outside looked on Sony Playstation on the Tower of Babel level, the sky was full of Inferno. I like dark moody stuff, but the bright burning inferno stuff is cool too.

The walls where behind there's fire? I love it. It would be cool to find this again. Plus an orange sky or dark red sky (with flames).

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