Trying to understand why I don't enjoy DM as mush as SP

1. The player sprites and sounds aren't that cool. In SP you have tons of awesome colorful monsters that make juicy pain sounds and die in very spectacular ways, but space marines look quite boring and similar. The alternate death where the doomguy screams louder is neat, but that's about it. The similarity problem is supposed to be solved by skins but most of them are either basic edits or clearly joke material.

2. I miss too much. Despite playing DM for over 10 years, I can't hit my targets often enough. And when I do hit someone, often it's only a fraction of my pellets that connects, which isn't particularly satisfying. Obviously the ping issues have a lot to do with this (there is nothing worse than clearly seeing that you just shot someone and yet no damage being registered), but I think the bigger problem is that...

3. The game is simply too fast. Everyone jumps through rooms like a lighting and the focus point of the fight changes every few seconds. It's all too chaotic and confusing to follow. Yes, it's true that the movement speed is one of the defining features of Doom's gameplay. But that's mainly because everything else is significantly slower, which means you have a lot of control. We all played Scythe 2 and know what happens when the enemies are given the same speed.

Well, I think I've said enough to expose myself as a lamer for now.

24 minutes ago, Memfis said:

2. I miss too much. Despite playing DM for over 10 years, I can't hit my targets often enough. And when I do hit someone, often it's only a fraction of my pellets that connects, which isn't particularly satisfying. Obviously the ping issues have a lot to do with this (there is nothing worse than clearly seeing that you just shot someone and yet no damage being registered), but I think the bigger problem is that...

This is a netcode issue with the source ports. All 3 ports right now are suffering from bad netcode, though zdaemon with ping higher than 50 is easily the worst, and has been the worst for unlagged since all 3 major ports had it implemented. Odamex for higher ping is probably leading the pack in terms of netcode right now but IMO even that's hit or miss if you're on wireless. Zandro 3.0 has been a HUGE downgrade in quality since 2.1.2 and there is no fix in sight yet. It's just something we all have to deal with (or simply not play). For ping based netcode judgement, summon @Doomkid

>The players/sprites aren't that cool

lol.

Maybe you need something like QC:DE to be entertained??????

>Game is too fast

Single player is too slow and boring. There are plenty of slow paced maps particularly for 1v1 (shotgun centric or fat maps like d5m1). Sometimes DM simply isn't for people who can't keep track of things, that's just how things go *shrugs*

The only thing I don't like about Doom Deathmatch is the ping and that's just an issue because Doomers are scattered all over the globe - we're often connecting to a server several thousands of miles away. Also as Decay said, each port certainly has room for netcode improvement, though I'd wager each has done the best they can with what they have. That shit can't be easy to code.

In deathmatch your opponent can think and strategize, that's what keeps me coming back. A clever SP map is a clever SP map but once you've "cracked the code", that's it, it just becomes a matter of how fast you can beat the map at that point. Not so in deathmatch - Replayability seems quite literally limitless, at least to me. Even the same person can be fun to DM against on the same map many times as they can change their approach, learn, improve etc and suddenly you find yourself on the ropes trying to figure out yet another way to use Dwango5Map01's layout to your advantage (to pick a random good map as an example).

The lag can be a buzzkill, but it's not that hard to get used to. I usually run my servers with simple doomguy variant skins just to keep things a touch more visually interesting, but I don't see it as totally necessary or anything like that. The sounds and graphics never bothered me, quite the opposite.

I still find myself having fun on deathmatch wads I grew up with all these years later. I certainly revere things like Memento Mori and Scythe and whatnot but the fact is it's been years since I've had the urge to run through them again. The charms of a well balanced DM map are made eternal by the fact that so many players can bring so many different styles/strategies/etc to the table. I first played Dwango5 in 2001, I played it again just yesterday and had as much fun as I was having 17 years ago. It's kept fresh because what totally owns one decent deathmatcher won't even work on another. You're always having to stretch your imagination and playstyle to get better against super skilled opponents or to find out what their particular weakness as a player is.

That's how I see it, anyway!

I also enjoyed SP more. I'm more of a casual gamer than a hardcore one and SP is just more suitable. When I played DM I got into it, but I agree that it is too fast. It's just frightening how skilled and agile some of the other players are.

I'm 50-50 on the issue. I enjoy how SP focuses more on "solving" a map and replaying it to improve time or RNG. However, DM is quite fast and I really enjoy that. DM also has a higher skill ceiling, since you need to understand Doom's nuances and also face a human opponent. I find marine genocide to be as cathartic as 2-shotting a Cyberdemon, so yeah...

But seriously, lag is a nightmare to deal with.

It's kind of an odd question, as the two are very different to each other.

SP is about exploration, progression, and victory over a system. The map author designs a challenge and you the player must work out how to defeat it. It's repeatable, learnable, and ultimately even the hardest challenge to be beaten through perseverance.

DM is completely the opposite. It's you and another person going head to head to see who can play Doom the best. There's no progression, just a series of opportunities to play Doom better than your opponent(s).

It's like wondering why someone who likes relaxed cross-country driving doesn't like taking part in drag races.

8 hours ago, Reaper8888 said:

I also enjoyed SP more. I'm more of a casual gamer than a hardcore one and SP is just more suitable. When I played DM I got into it, but I agree that it is too fast. It's just frightening how skilled and agile some of the other players are.

Same here, competitive games, modes, or whatever else that relies on a high skill level on the player's end to enjoy and experience to their fullest have never been my cup of tea, they're just beyond my level. Of course there's enough of hardcore SP stuff out there as well, but that's something I avoid since the entire experience tends to just turn into plain masochism rather than be fun and enjoyable.

So yeah, I prefer what SP had to offer over MP any time as well, regardless of the game, the latter never really worked for me, and can also be much more stressful.