Reloading

What do you want to see in reloading animations in Doom 3?

This reminds me, apparently a use key is too complex for Doom but a reload key is not.

Realistic reloading and clipsizes should be a part of the game, and so should the use key.

Dunno, I want realistic reload animations that look cool (like they do in RtCW), but I dunno about clipsizes and such. So far, I'm ok with what I've seen (I expect the machinegun to have a reload animation too - it wouldn't make sense if it didn't).

I guess the reload thingy was something Carmack did only redundantly, however there ARE also strong arguments that point to reloading not being a gimmick. Reloading adds to the suspense, it adds a lot to the scare factor, because you might empty a clip in the midst of a firefight and will have to change it before dishing out more damage - and in the meantime you'll have to dodge enemy attacks (which is difficult due to stamina limits and reduced speed).

Heh.. that reminds me Counter-Strike..

The BFG is going to come back in Doom3, right? If so, how would it's ammunition look like?

The_Tonx said:

Heh.. that reminds me Counter-Strike..

CS wasn't the first game to have reloading y'know.

How will the BFG ammo look like? Possibly the same as the plasma rifle's (yess! The PC Gamer called it a plasma rifle
:-P) which I hope to look cool, but not over-bright and over-colourful (like pretty much all of Q3A's and Q2's cell ammo).

hmmm reloading eh?
it will add to the suspense, but having said that it would seem kinda awkward at first to see some of the big guns actually reloading(never in the other id titles except rtcw was their reload). Question: In doom, when you fired the plasma gun repeatedly, Did it pause as a cool-down or simply it a simple form of reload?
m4a1...remember that gun? It kicks ass with that silencer. Makes me want to go and play some counterstrike.

doomedout said:

hmmm reloading eh?
it will add to the suspense, but having said that it would seem kinda awkward at first to see some of the big guns actually reloading(never in the other id titles except rtcw was their reload). Question: In doom, when you fired the plasma gun repeatedly, Did it pause as a cool-down or simply it a simple form of reload?
m4a1...remember that gun? It kicks ass with that silencer. Makes me want to go and play some counterstrike.

The Tesla gun in RtCW never needed reloading.
Besides, we don't know if ALL the Doom 3 weapons are "reloadable".

dsm said:

CS wasn't the first game to have reloading y'know.

How will the BFG ammo look like? Possibly the same as the plasma rifle's (yess! The PC Gamer called it a plasma rifle
:-P) which I hope to look cool, but not over-bright and over-colourful (like pretty much all of Q3A's and Q2's cell ammo).

I know, but it was the first game where I payed attention to ammonation (and reloading) system..

And yea, Q2 and Q3 cells sux..

I just hope you don't have to refuel the chainsaw.

There is one right?

And either way I don't care, I mean, reloading is cool and bad. Not reloading is both cool and bad. So yeah. Meh.

Wow, everyone likes reloading! I wasn't expecting such unanimous results.

/edit: oh, only 8 people have voted. hardly everyone :P

I want the realistic loading but the clip sizes I voted don't have to be "realistic" in terms of presents day expectations cuz Doom3 takes place in the future after all.

Yeah reloding kick ass. In real life you have to re-load or your dead so it can't be a gimmick like opening a drawer. It will become (I'd say) an integral part of the gameplay.

Imagine unloading a full clip into an arch-vile with just enough time to run for cover and frantically reload in the darkness not knowing if he will turn your corner or trick you somehow. These situations will be prevalent but without a reload function alot of natural tension would be wasted.

YO YO YO YO YO
QUESTION: Didn't ID hire a professional writer to compose the story and incorporate it into the game?
Well it is a remake of doom isn't it, so what aspects of the story need changing, or need to be there, or need to be refined? Im wondering because after reading the pcGamer I could not help but think what new things will surface and what old things would be retained. What is your take on this?
Reload is GOOD IMO, and no it is not a gimmick...

reloading adds realism and this is quite good - but i dont wanna see that i have to reload my minigun/chaingun. reloading will make sense for the pistol, sg, ssg, sub machine gun and maybe for the plasma rifle.
imagine you have to do a oil change and refuel for your chainsaw ;)

@doomedout:
i think the prof. writer will construct the scripted scenes, puzzels, background infos, eastereggs, gimmicks, storybook and so on. he will be most likely take the role of a director.
i hope that the story will not change much. it's plain and simple and should stay so.

Agreed with UniQ here, reloading should imo be for the pistol, the two shotguns (provided that the db shotty is there too, which I'm 95% sure it will be), the machinegun and the rocket launcher - the rest should just be old-school.

agreed with uniQ too.

if there will be super shotgun.Reload scene should be as close as original (but realistic-looking).
and i want doomguy stil be able to carry 50 rockets.l
overheat for chaigun should be back.
like Q3A,plasma gun and BFG should have self-damage.

Dark-tenshi said:

agreed with uniQ too.

if there will be super shotgun.Reload scene should be as close as original (but realistic-looking).
and i want doomguy stil be able to carry 50 rockets.l
overheat for chaigun should be back.
like Q3A,plasma gun and BFG should have self-damage.

Overheat for the chaingun? No. But, say...jams for the Chaingun (which would make it so you had to sorta reload but you could switch weapons, though if you tried to use the chaingun again, you'd still have to unjam it), that IMO would be cool. Plasma rifle reload makes sense. Just slap in a new 100 round battery and booyaka! BFG splash damage? Hell yeah.

So what do we mean by reloading when we talk about the rocket launcher? Do we mean a Quake2 automated rocketlauncher reloader, or do we mean crack open the barrel and slide another rocket into place by hand?

I think that Doom3 will still be fun and action oriented enough game that we will have some sort of mechanical, auto loading animation rather than a more "realistic" and more difficult reloading process that a combat simulation game would have.

I'm trying to picture sneaking through those dark hallways of doom with my shot gun and pistol, machine gun, etc.... would a rapid fire rocket launcher really blend in with the other weapons? Would a 3 shots per minute manual reload fit in better?

Thoughts?

bigbadgangsta said:

BFG splash damage? Hell yeah.

Hell no. If there was something that pissed me off about Q2, it was the BFG's splash damage. I hope id keeps it out.

To me, nothing is more badass than quickly reloading a pistol/SMG before entering a tough firefight. Something about it just oozes machismo. So, yes. Reloading kicks ass.

Crix said:

So what do we mean by reloading when we talk about the rocket launcher? Do we mean a Quake2 automated rocketlauncher reloader, or do we mean crack open the barrel and slide another rocket into place by hand?

I think that Doom3 will still be fun and action oriented enough game that we will have some sort of mechanical, auto loading animation rather than a more "realistic" and more difficult reloading process that a combat simulation game would have.

I'm trying to picture sneaking through those dark hallways of doom with my shot gun and pistol, machine gun, etc.... would a rapid fire rocket launcher really blend in with the other weapons? Would a 3 shots per minute manual reload fit in better?

Thoughts?

I was picturing a belt fed rocket launcher that occaionally needs a new belt inserted into the feeder. Either that or a boring drum fed rocket launcher where you have to shift drums each time you empty it.

There isn't a realistic clipsize for a chaingun/plasma rifle/BFG/Rocket Launcher....

then lets call it semi-realistic, i.e. not 1000 shots per plasma magazine but 50-75 would be fine.

Yeah, I agree. 50-75 round of plasma. Maybe 10 advanced super tiny but super high explosive rockets just to make it realistic that you can carry these things around.

Hey... question: Do we know if the stamina meter will be affected by weight and stuff you're carrying? Or does just the sprinting affect it?

Overall, more realistic numbers for what the most bad-ass earth-saving soldier could carry :)

In TFC you reloaded the rocket lanucher and shotgun one rocket or shell at a time, but unlike single player Half-Life (and as I found out the hard way, not in Team Fortress either), you don't need to wait until the weapon is fully loaded before being able to fire it again. This means that there is less of a reload delay, but if you did fire it prematurely, you would have to reload it sooner.

Maybe something like this could be done for Doom 3.

Personally, I wouldn't want the plasma rifle and BFG to have reloading - they're energy weapons that can store up to 600 cells (at least in the old game) - the energy cells are just battery charges that you use to add more cell charges to the weapon's main energy pool.
I have before tried picturing a reload mechanism for these weapons that were cool and made sense and I've found it thoroughly hard to come up with something decent.
Of course, I'm not a game designer, but I think the best solution for Doom 3 would be to have some weapons that require reloading (the more 'conventional' weapons) and some weapons that don't - because I remember from this forum's earlier days (when I was just a meager lurker) that some people did not want to have reloading in the game.

It'd be nice to have a golden middleway.

Admittedly, I like weapons to have reloading, but sometimes it's nice when some weapons don't require reloading at all.

MRB_Doom said:

Realistic reloading and clipsizes should be a part of the game, and so should the use key.

i think reloading would be automatic, as soon as you fress the fire button with an empty clip

Of course the game should have reloading, and there should be a seperate reload key, not the fire key when the gun has been fired empty, in case you were pumping out rounds like no tomorrow and intended to switch guns instead of reload when the current gun was empty. Hold the fire key in a split second too long and you haveta wait till ur done reloading (which may take significant time depending on the gun) before you could simply switch to a different gun with enough ammo to waste whatever you were firing at when your gun went dry.
I also agree with what dsm said about the plasma rifle and BFG. Picking up cell packs just charges the gun, ur not plugging the pack in, u just charge the gun with the pack. So no conventional form of reloading would apply. The only thing they might be able to incorporate would be the time it takes to transfer the charge from the pack to the gun.

The_Aeromaster said:

The only thing they might be able to incorporate would be the time it takes to transfer the charge from the pack to the gun.

i.e. reloading. If that were the case, Plasma gun ammo could not be drawn from BFG ammo and how would you know which gun was charged? I don't think that such weapons would be designed to hold massive quantities of ammo (charge) either - just to deal maximum damage. The solution would be to have some sort of charge backpack which both weapons could draw ammo, but that would be too cheesy imo, so I doubt it'll be addressed.