QuakeCon Synopsis.

Alright... I know that this is getting to you guys quite a bit after QuakeCon has ended, but the frustration of this having been deleted the first time I wrote it, as well as spending time with my friends before they go back to college, has kept me away from the computer until now. At any rate, the purpose of this post if for me to let you guys know all of the game related information about Doom 3 that I got from QuakeCon. Since this is going to end up being a rather long post I am going to be posting a section of it at a time. It just makes it easier for me that way.

*Update*
I figured that the next easiest section to do would be the enemies section. So... yeah...

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WEAPONS
There have currently only been three weapons shown in working form. These are the pistol, shotgun,and machinegun.

Pistol: Amazing as it may seem, the pistol in Doom 3 looks even less realistic than it does in the previous Doom games. Small, and oddly curved, the pistol emits a puff of smoke every time it is shot. Clips are loaded from the bottom, which is to be expected, and the weakness of the shots the gun fires reinforce the fact that it is the weakest weapon. It seems effective against zombies... but nothing else.

Shotgun: Simple combat shotgun. It seems to only fire one shot at a time... but double shot may still appear as a secondary fire (if such is included) for all of you who love Doom 2's SSG. The blast radius seems fairly concentrated, which makes this weapon somewhat better at distances than previous incarnations. Shells are loaded from the bottom at a quick yet realistic rate. Simply due to the fact that this weapon has a wider spread of attack than the other two shown weapons, it is safe to say that it will be one of the most used and effective weapons.

Machinegun: This weapon was rarely shown in action, and the reload animation has not been displayed. It does, however show the shots remaining in the clip on a small display on it's top... for those of you too lazy to glance to where the HUD tells you the same thing. The gun seems to be accurate enough... but it was only shown in close range combat so there is really no telling how well it will perform at a distance... thought it will most likely be a very accurate weapon. The power of the shots seems fairly high... it's true advantage over the shotgun being it's constant stream of bullets which gives enemies less time to dodge the next shot. The only problem seems to be getting the first shot to connect...

Though only these three weapons have been shown, it has been confirmed that the other weapons from the previous Doom games are in the design specs and should make an appearance. Yes, the means the chainsaw as well... though such an out of place weapon may be replaced by a more fitting weapon somewhere down the line. Though it is good news that all of Doom's weapons are scheduled to be included, the possibility of a railgun is also still up for debate among the designers.

As has been stated before, these weapons do require reload, which shouldn't come as any surprise. Both total shots and shots remaining within the clip are displayed in the HUD, and players shouldn't have much trouble as long as they reload between fights... the reloads are fast... but realistically fast, and it would not be good to be caught reloading.
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ENEMIES
So far only eight of Doom 3's enemies have been shown in-game. I'll start by giving a short description of each of these enemies.

Zombies: By zombies I'm referring to the two unarmed zombies types that many of you have seen in screenshots, the thin and fat zombies. They are both fairly slow and easy to dodge in most situations, though given the size of some of the hallways knocking them down may be necessary. The true strength of these guys seems to come from their sheer number, as you can easily get surrounded if you aren't careful. Their attack (at this point) is basically a swipe attack as the stumble towards you. A few pistol shots are all you need, but beware that you have to put them down twice before they stay down. For some fun, try standing on the chest of a zombie who's trying to get up. The rag doll status, which was used in the bathroom scene, is present in at least the fat zombie allowing such possibilities as watching the zombie slide down the stairs... something that got a huge laugh from the audience is id demonstrated. Those of you who have seen the video of the demon eating the janitor's stomach will recognize the exposed intestines, which you will be able to see by hitting the fat zombie in the stomach with a strong, well placed blast.

Chaingunners and Tentacle Soldiers: I decided to group these two together simply because the model they use is almost identical... they are almost variations of the same being. These are the only two "advanced" zombies that have been shown in action. The chaingunner carries a fairly large minigun supported by both arms. Luckily, the levels seem to provide a great deal of cover, and that, combined with the minigun's slow start time, should greatly help in dealing with these guys. The Tentacle Soldiers seem more aggressive as they do more to hunt you down than their gun-toting counterparts. Aside from calling out lines like "I smell human" and "I smell flesh", these guys seem to make their way towards you, using their tentacle arm to whip you backward. The tentacle has a pretty decent range, so I recommend attacking at a distance if you can. A couple of shotgun blasts will put these guys down.

Imps: The new version of the imp is considerably more dangerous than it's classic counterpart. I'm sure you all remember the fiend from Quake, right? Well, these guys act about the same. Though it really doesn't take that much damage to kill these guys, they move around so quickly that you may have trouble killing them without taking a bit of damage yourself. The pistol is definitely not the ideal weapon for one of these guys. At a distance, imps will throw balls of fire, but instead of flying straight into a wall, they seem to be affected by gravity and will hit the ground near where you are standing. When they get closer, the imps pounce at you knocking you back a step, momentarily blurring your vision. If you are close enough they will swipe at you with their claws, but if you have backed off some they will throw fire or pounce again. They're not slow either, and the video showed them appearing with as many as four or five in a single room. You'll definitely have to exercise caution around these guys.

Demon: It's some time since this guy was first shown to the public. You may think that because of their large size you'll be able to see them from a distance. That may sometimes be the case, but these guys will literally tear themselves through the walls trying to get to you. This new version of the Demon is considerably faster than the classic version, and you will have a hard time finding a save haven when going up against them. Instead of biting you, they use their massive size to run straight into you, knocking you a fair distance. The video showed the marine jumping on to a stack of boxes to get away from the Demon... just as it hit the boxes throwing the marine off of them. If any of you have played Neil Manke's They Hunger 3 you should remember the zombie bulls that would chase you down. Yeah. That covers the way these guys act pretty well. Three to five shotgun blasts seems to be enough to take them down.

Hell Knights: I honestly don't see how this guy looks like a Hell Knight, but people started calling it that for some reason. Who am I to argue? Anyway, the video showed only a quick glimpse of this guy, so I can't really give a decent description of him. When the marine fought him, he used only a pistol (by choice, not by lack of ammo) and was creamed with one might overhead slam of the Hell Knight. He's powerful, stands at least two or three heads taller than you, and not something you should fight unprepared.

Revenants: Yes, it's true, the Revenants are back. Appearance wise they haven't changed all that drastically... though they are a hell of a lot shorter now... only the size of a tall human and not some obscene giant. They also seem more high-tech than ragged, but you can clearly tell what they are meant to be. The twin rocket launchers are still there... though what the shoot seems more like grenades than rockets, and though they are seekers, it seems they are also affected by gravity as they hit the ground after too long. This also makes me wonder if the enemies prefer hitting you with splash damage as opposed to impact damage. If you think that getting close will help you then you'll be delighted to know that the old "one-two" punching attack has returned, and looks pretty much the same. Only one of these was shown and that was during id's Doom 3 demonstration.

Though I would love to finish this section at the moment, I have just received some... troubling news. I'll finish this later on tonight.

1. Why does the new Doom 3 look less believable than the old pistol???
The pistol looks futuristic and is still true to the old pistol's looks - and the game is set in the future isn't it?

2.

but double shot may still appear as a secondary fire (if such is included) for all of you who love Doom 2's SSG

I doubt that would be included for a number of reasons.
First of all, it's not id's style to add secondary fire to their weapons - and I doubt they will change that style. Secondly, the double barreled shotgun is too popular a weapon to be "replaced" with a lousy secondary fire mode for the sb shotty (Which would NEVER replace the full effect of the db - the double barreled shotgun is a sawed off, which means that it spreads the pellets even further) - the db will be there, I'm 100% sure. Just because it hasn't been shown yet doesn't mean that it's not there. You guys need to learn to stop assuming that stuff isn't in the new Doom JUST because you haven't seen it yet.
And finally, it wouldn't be true to Doom leaving the db shotty out.

3. Chainsaw out of place? Man, some of you guys don't own a friggin' imagination. Check out this thread about primarily the railgun, but there's also given reasons for why a chainsaw isn't out of place.

Isn't the reloading automatic as well as manual?

I don't know, I mean The shotgun was in doom, but the Double shotgun was in doom2....although, considering the revenant is in the new doom, perhaps this argument isn't valid...ah well, I'm positive the double shotgun will be there, EVERY id game since Doom2 has had a double shotgun.

What's wrong with the pistol smoke?

the smoke hangs in the arir to long.. and its to thick

dsm said:

First of all, it's not id's style to add secondary fire to their weapons - and I doubt they will change that style.

Previous to Doom III it wasn't id's style to have weapon reloads, a "use key", realistic physics and talking characters. A lot of things have changed, and I'm pretty sure a couple of the weapons will have secondary fire.

I hope secondary fire does not appear.

1. Why does the new Doom 3 look less believable than the old pistol???
The pistol looks futuristic and is still true to the old pistol's looks - and the game is set in the future isn't it?

Have you seen the new pistol? It looks more old fashioned than anything futuristic. It looks out of place. Anyway, I'm just stating an opinion.

I doubt that would be included for a number of reasons.

Fair enough.

You guys need to learn to stop assuming that stuff isn't in the new Doom JUST because you haven't seen it yet.

If you can quote me at all saying that the SSG would not make an appearance then this arguement will have some validity. I clearly stated that id has all of Doom's previous weapons in the design plans, all I did was state that combining both weapons could be a posibility.

Chainsaw out of place? Man, some of you guys don't own a friggin' imagination.

You do make several valid points about the chainsaw in your post, and I retract that it may seem out of place... but I still feel that something like a laser cutter would be more fitting towards construction in the year 2145.

Isn't the reloading automatic as well as manual?

It is but what I was trying to say is that it would be better to have a fully loaded clip than to have the game auto reload when you ran out in the middle of a fight.

What's wrong with the pistol smoke?

Considering how often you'll be using the pistol, not a whole lot.

Considering how often you'll be using the pistol, not a whole lot.

hmpf* jou need to save ammo for the bigger guns. You have seen what happened @ the doom gameplay demo.. the guy ran out of ammo for the bigger guns so he needed to fight a HellKnight with a pistol as a last resort. its a research facility.. no god damn army base where they have ammo liying @ every corner.. as stated in the interviews: they wont have lot of ammo.. and if you are wounded or out of ammo you must SEEK for a med kit or an ammo box.. they wont have them liying in big shiny rainbow coloured bubblegum spheres floathing above the ground at every 5 feet. get my point?

save ammo on the bigger guns, to save shiny arse when you need the bigger guns

therefore you would make alot of use of the pistol to handle the zombies and imps and al the smaller critters.. And you wont find better guns BTW untill you get to level 3 or so..

You do make several valid points about the chainsaw in your post, and I retract that it may seem out of place... but I still feel that something like a laser cutter would be more fitting towards construction in the year 2145.

without the chainsaw it wouldent be anything like the old doom.. they need to keep every weapon the old doom had and add some more..

I don't think the smoke is bad. Looks cool.

The only way I could see a double shotty in Doom 3 would be like in an
old weapons display case or something.I Just can't see a double shotty in such a futeristic eviroment.Not that I'm against a double barreled shotgun.Just thinking out loud.;)

I thought the people wow werw calling that monster a hell Knight had some fact that i didn't know but now that thare just saying hes a hell knight makes me happy i didn't like the new look i thought it shoughed look more like the orinal

Joe Doom said:

The only way I could see a double shotty in Doom 3 would be like in an
old weapons display case or something.I Just can't see a double shotty in such a futeristic eviroment.Not that I'm against a double barreled shotgun.Just thinking out loud.;)

Just because they can make bases on Mars doesn't mean they have made advances in weaponry ;)

I wonder what the Hell Knight's long-range attacks will be like?

Anyway, for a double-barrelled shotgun, they could make it in a futuristic style like the Deus Ex sawn off I imagine.

EllipsusD said:

Have you seen the new pistol? It looks more old fashioned than anything futuristic. It looks out of place. Anyway, I'm just stating an opinion.

I've seen the new pistol - it looks pretty damn fututistic to my eyes - just because its shape reminds you of a year 1700 pirate pistol doesn't automatically mean that the gun looks old fashioned.

I've seen the new pistol - it looks pretty damn fututistic to my eyes - just because its shape reminds you of a year 1700 pirate pistol doesn't automatically mean that the gun looks old fashioned.

The fact that it reminds me of a pirate pistol kind of does make me see it as looking old fashioned. But I'm not going to argue it with you anymore. Neither one of us is going to concede to the other person's opinion and that's fine with me. I am glad, though, that someone does see this gun as futuristic even if I can't. At least now I know that it's design has served it's purpose.

I cant see the pistol well enough to coment on it, but I do agree that it is too smoky. I tshould not produce that much smoke unless he just emptied the clip in one quick salvo. As for the DBS I also find it out of place on a mars base in 2145 but it is Doom so their ya go. As for an explanation as to why its there they can always use the Hicks explanation from Aliens "Its an old family erloom(sp?) that I like to keep handy for close encounters" basicly a personel weapon that one of the gaurds smuggled in. Well you will probably know it by the time you read this "no alt fire has been confirmed" from an excerpts on firing sqaud. There gose my hope for an assault rifle grenade launcher combo.

How can more than two imps show up in a room? wouldnt the extra lights slow the engine down to shit?

Why would you think that, Xian? The imp fireball doesn't seem to do any kind of light emission, at least in the E3 demo.. perhaps one of the differences between high/med detail is that lights are emitted from certain enemy projectiles?
In any case, don't think that D3's a game where you're only gonna run into one enemy at a time.. even at this early stage (as far as monster placement goes) there are many situations in the demo where 3+ monsters are attacking you at once, and that's towards the start of the game.
Also, keep in mind that the demo was recorded in god mode (except for the ending) and the player is clearly rushing around as fast as they can without ever really stopping to explore an area or admire the scenery. The enemy frequency is currently very high, you really don't have to wait more than a few seconds (entering a new room, rounding a corner) to find something else to fight. On top of that, they have a lot of variety in how you encounter foes.. very rarely do you find an enemy just sorta standing around waiting for you. When you do, their reaction times (especially the imps) are high enough that you really don't have time to think "Oh, look, an imp.. I should do _____ to avoid this one." It's more like "Sh*t! Imp!" as they leap at you and begin to tear you asunder with their claws.
Like one of the id guys said in a recent interview, they want the player to have very intimate fights and encounters with the enemies in this.. examples would be how many melee attacks there are so far (imps leaping into you and knocking you back, then slashing you to bits, the tentacle guy knocking you around with the whip, kicking you, the pinky knocking you flying, etc), how the physics engine allows you to do neat stuff like stand on the body of a fallen enemy to pin them down, etc etc.
One other nice thing I noticed was that this game'll have pain chance like in D1/2 (or so it seems). The zombies and such flinch as they get shot, but towards the end, that hell knight really doesn't give a damn that you're putting bullets into it.. it just keeps on coming. Perhaps they'll have the pain chance linked to how powerful the weapon you're using is? That'd be neat..
Speaking of physics for a second, I just noticed something neat that I didn't catch the first few(massive understatement) times I saw the E3 vid.. at one point the player has the assault rifle out (after the pinky bursts through the pipes) and is firing at a zombie on a platform a few feet above his level. The last round of the burst hits a metal sheet-like object (wiring panel it looks like), and as the player walks past, you can see it sliding to the floor after the impact from the bullet.. anyhow, thought that was pretty cool..
If anyone has any questions about the E3 vid (assuming you haven't seen it), feel free to ask.. the more often I watch it, the more little things I've noticed, and the more confident I become that D3 is going to be one hell of a good game.

*Note: According to EllipsusD, the pinky at one point knocks the player off of a box.. unless they recorded a new demo for that section, he's remembered it wrong. The player jumps onto a box, and as the pinky turns to charge, the player lands a fatal blow, and then jumps off the box into the area below.

Dslyecxi said:

The imp fireball doesn't seem to do any kind of light emission, at least in the E3 demo..

I'm pretty sure it does. It's clearly visible in the Legacy video, though I think the leaked vid is just too dark and washed out to see the subtle lighting differences.

Dslyecxi said:

and as the player walks past, you can see it sliding to the floor after the impact from the bullet.. anyhow, thought that was pretty cool..

Hmm, I didn't notice that one before. Though I'm not 100% convinced it came down because of the bullet impact... there's too much time between the impact and the reaction IMO.

And hey, welcome to the forums.

Ah.. forgot about the legacy fireball. Yep, guess they do have dynamic lighting being cast for projectiles.. still, after watching the part where the imp tosses a fireball at the player after the bathroom scene, it really doesn't look like it's emitting light at that point. I really do think one of the differences between high/med detail could be dynamic projectile lighting, but then again, only id knows for now.

About that sliding panel.. if it wasn't a bullet that caused it, what else could've? It seems like the last 1 or 2 rounds impacts it.. it could've been propped up in such a way that a good jarring would get it to slide to the floor. It looks to me like it jumps a little bit, settles, then starts to slide down. Regardless of what caused it, it's a neat little demo of the physics engine.

And it's nice to finally post here.. I've been lurking for ages, haven't thought to say anything until now. Thanks for the welcome, Flathead.

Watched the ATI Testimonials vid just now and saw a few things that I hadn't before.. one is that in the bathroom scene, the cieling is paneled, and half of them are drooping or in some way disturbed.. I have a feeling that they could be knocked out with gunfire.. anyhow, that's just a neat detail thing.. lots of polys, and it adds a lot to the reality of the room.
The other thing is a poster that hangs in that room.. it's of the Earth, at the bottom it says "UAC", above that and above the Earth it says "Mars Delta Labs: Leading the way".

Just some little stuff I saw, figured I'd pass it on..

*edit* Also, when you see the possessed tentacle guy outside the base, if you look at the sky, there's some kind of dust storm going on... perhaps they're in the process of terraforming Mars? Or maybe the storm kicks up after the rift is opened?

*edit2* Ooo.. another nice touch.. the swinging flourescent lamp in the bathroom seems to have some kind of.. I'm not exactly sure what the correct term for it is, but it has kind of a foggish light halo around it. As in, it's not a hard-edged light.. makes it look much more natural, gives it a soft, less distinct look, like you'd expect a bright, bare flourescent tube to look like.

I think that dust storm might just be steam escaping from a grate or a pipe or something. Hard to tell. Those ceiling tiles look pretty nice though I don't think they can all just be shot out.

The fluorescent light in the bathroom scene is pretty cool, and shows Carmack's new system of rendering more realistic light flares. The big smooth shadows are the result of a shader applied to a light - same thing with the grid pattern you see being cast over the Pinky demon in the last screenshot released at Quakecon.

Yeah, the poster in the bathroom scene is probably the coolest thing in the ATI vid that we hadn't seen before.

How much of the blood on the floor/wall do you think is decals as opposed to part of the textures? I'd like to believe that it's all dynamic stuff, but it looks so damn good that it's hard to accept that the engine's capable of rendering such exceptional blood effects on-the-fly.

the blood is dynamic.. and it loooks even better in the e3 and quakecon demo's.. real realistic splatters.. not just blurred smudges.. if you look at the bit in the gameplay demo where the player keeps on shooting at a dead mutant body the blood splats keep on coming.. just like in sof2 singleplayer

Has anyone thought of how good the physics system is going to be when you shoot a couple of bullets at the poster? ;)

I HOPE that the fire does generate light, it looked awesome in the videos

With the poster, I'm not sure if anyone noticed it, I haven't seen any comment of it, but on the picture that was released just before quakecon, the one where outside is visible, on the far wall near the guard is standing, it's hard to make out clearly but it looks like the picture above, with mars delta labs and all, but it has mars on it instead of earth. I wonder what that could mean, maybe it the story could mention the terraforming of mars.

I think that Mars is in the process of being terraformed and thus having a breathable atmosphere, but it isn't quite complete yet. Carmack made several references to the player being sucked out by an airlock in some levels and having to try and get back in before suffocating.

I'd imagine that the atmosphere is being held out by a force-field of some kind, until the atmosphere is in spec.