The Doom Confessional Booth

Not at writing stories though. 

I hate placing things and orchestrating effective monster fights.

The real reason why I'm working on a few Deathmatch maps right now.

5 hours ago, Nine Inch Heels said:

Difficulty concerns aside, I am always a bit confused that people point at these things as if they were mutually exclusive, when actually they all go very well together if the map in question is compartmentalized enough to allow all these aspects to "breathe".

 

I know someone's gonna roll their eyes when I say "Miasma", but there is no denying that Miasma accomplishes all these things and then some. Obviously not every map can be like that, but at the end of the day it serves as proof that these things can go hand in very well, they actually compliment each other. Another example for this exploration/challenge/slaughter mix is the God machine in SunLust.

 

I'm just sayin'

Very true.

5 hours ago, Agent6 said:

 

Well I most certainly enjoy a good challenge but not hardcore stuff like this :v , the casual of me will never survive. Truth be said competitive and hardcore stuff was never meant for me, I tried getting better a number of times but it didn't pay off in general. Guess I'll have to settle down for being a slightly above average player and watch other people play difficult stuff like this instead.

My point though, is that it doesn't stay "hardcore" if you practice at it. I consider myself to be a casual player, since I don't record demos or try to beat records or anything. I just stream on Twitch for fun. But after you've played enough WADs (assuming if you put a bit of pressure on yourself to get better), then you'll find that what was once "hardcore" is now EZPZ.

For example, I thought Scythe 2 was incredibly difficult once. Then I went back last year and beat over half of the maps saveless on the first try. I don't remember the exact number, but I think there were only 5 or 6 maps I was unable to beat saveless.

1 hour ago, 42PercentHealth said:

 

it doesn't stay "hardcore" if you practice at it.

It stay hardcore, but you feel it easy because you become a hardcore player

Nah... ask people around here if Scythe map 30 is hardcore. You'll get mixed answers.

Well, if it was "hardcore" to begin with, then it'll stay hard even with practice. If just looked "hardcore" and it turns out it was easy to figure out, then it wasn't actually hardcore, I think...

One thing is the difficult of the map and other thing is how you feel it with your experience, idk if you know what i mean

I suck at quake 3/Champions movement mechanics, i die a lot because of that

I've been writing a sci-fi novella, very loosely based on DooM, since .... ummmm ..... 2012, I think. It traces the paths taken by various characters, some driven by an over-reaching ambition, as they strive for human travel to, and exploration of, Mars.

(As a matter of fact, I don't even recall where I've saved my last iteration. Perhaps when my obsession with DooM modding fades, I'll return to my other obsession of writing.)

On 4/1/2018 at 11:33 AM, ReX said:

I've been writing a sci-fi novella, very loosely based on DooM, since .... ummmm ..... 2012, I think.

It turns out that I've been writing this since 2007. Here is an excerpt:

The creature emerged from the ventilator shaft, eerily disembodied and glowing unnaturally. Through the smoke and haze it floated, casting its gaze around for its victim, which cowered terrified under a damaged computer console. Gradually its form took shape to reveal a hideous skull with empty eye sockets, all enveloped in a hellish flame. It appeared to be grinning fiendishly, but how much of that was real and how much imagined by a feverish mind, the victim could not tell. And then the thing saw its prey, and stood still for a moment. Suddenly it darted forward with unnatural speed, easily avoiding the flailing arms of the crouching man, seeming to laugh maniacally as it seared its way into his very soul. He screamed once, a horrific sound that reverberated through the halls of that empty place, and then a sphere of darkness began to shrink around him.

-I really enjoyed (for the most part) Doom 2 In Name Only.
-I compulsively quick-save and load within maps.

-I have never really played on Nightmare. But only play on UV. 

-I care more about the aesthetics, atmosphere, and mood of a mapset than the action and gameplay. Don't get me wrong, the gameplay and monster encounters need to be great. But I will flat out not play a mapset if it's terribly ugly, even if the action is top-notch.

-I have never played co-op or deathmatch.

-I utilize the IDDT cheat always.

-I played Doom 2 a little as a kid, but then stopped playing for years. AltimaMantoid's LP's on Youtube were responsible for getting me back into Doom while I was in college. 

-I've never played Eternal Doom, Icarus, Hell Revealed 2, Scythe 2, 

-I'm an AV fanboy.

-I always play continuous play-throughs; I never pistol-start each map.

-In a 32 map megawad, I typically skip the secret maps.

Annnnnnnndddd...

-I like the Chasm.

On 4/1/2018 at 3:00 PM, 42PercentHealth said:

Nah... ask people around here if Scythe map 30 is hardcore. You'll get mixed answers.

Then you ask half of the "EZ map" crowd to provide a max demo and see what you get. :P

Back on topic: I cannot play with the default HUD and much prefer the info distribution and better vertical FOV when using an Advanced HUD. Having enemies/items/secrets always displayed provides great feedback in how I'm progressing through a map too.

2 minutes ago, Spectre01 said:

Then you ask half of the "EZ map" crowd to provide a max demo and see what you get. :P

complaints about bad Afrit RNG ;-)

47 minutes ago, Nine Inch Heels said:

complaints about bad Afrit RNG ;-)

The afrits were in Scythe 2. ;-)

11 minutes ago, 42PercentHealth said:

The afrits were in Scythe 2. ;-)

oh... right... yeah... then the map probably doesn't pose much of an issue with a bit of routing anyway

1 hour ago, Spectre01 said:

Then you ask half of the "EZ map" crowd to provide a max demo and see what you get. :P

 

I remember being locked at the spawn-point during a co-op run of 'Fire and Ice'. Pistol-restarting after all the revenants have been unleashed is quite traumatic. 

While ZDaemon being closed source still bugs me, for whatever reason I'm seriously considering playing it, and I apologize for everything I might have said against the port which went too far.

...maybe it's because of how dissatisfied I've been with Zandronum's servers? IDK

i just discovered the secret exit to MAP30 of doom 2 last weekend

Not sure if I've posted this to the thread before but I prefer Evilution to Plutionia. Plutionia has better gameplay but Evilution is more interesting. I like the weirdness, how classic it feels and all the sector furniture.

1 hour ago, tib_ said:

i just discovered the secret exit to MAP30 of doom 2 last weekend

What? I nocliped the shit out of that map but I don't recall finding a secret exit

53 minutes ago, xvertigox said:

Not sure if I've posted this to the thread before but I prefer Evilution to Plutionia. Plutionia has better gameplay but Evilution is more interesting. I like the weirdness, how classic it feels and all the sector furniture.

Yet some maps in TNT both look and play like trash, Habitat being one of the worst offenders.

The primary appeal of most wads for me is the atmosphere, the visuals, the design, the ideas, the 'staging' of encounters, and so on -- basically, things other than the actual fighting. In purely gameplay terms, I strongly prefer things like tight Ribbiksy setpieces and gratuitous 'low-HP relative to DPS monster spam' slaughterfests -- but most wads aren't like that, so I mostly load up wads expecting a vacation in the world itself. I've noticed that what I like most then in such maps is for the action to be unobtrusive and flexible and peppered with mildly satisfying moments (like barrels against low-tiers, clusters of small fry to be gibbed with the RL, 'zerk for punching stuff with small hitboxes, and so on) with occasional good traps and fights, and a minimum of combat that is just stuff to be killed with no particular purpose, and basically no monsters that take a few times longer to kill than a monster with their HP should due to their inconvenient placement. (<- Almost every time a map has like one or two PEs released in a giant space, or a single revenant is elevated but freely wandering on its cliff or perch. Modern tropes I hate.) Beginner maps are usually quite fun to play if, well, they aren't terrible -- you often see novel ideas for very rote things, which is refreshing.

Confession: I routinely save games after a tough encounter, or before I expect there to be one. I almost never play through a map without saving along the way. The prospect of playing through areas I've already cleared (sometimes having to play through those areas repeatedly because of premature demise) does not appeal to me.

6 hours ago, tib_ said:

i just discovered the secret exit to MAP30 of doom 2 last weekend

4 hours ago, Chezza said:

What? I nocliped the shit out of that map but I don't recall finding a secret exit

I assume @tib_ means either MAP31 or MAP32.

45 minutes ago, ReX said:

I almost never play through a map without saving along the way.

Me neither. I sometimes force my luck and try to be a sad loser badass and not save at all during some maps, until I end up in a nasty trap or get taken by surprise by an enemy and, welp, time to play the map from start to finish once again -__- , painful if the map is long and has many enemies.

Wish I could get rid of save scumming but it's pretty much the only way I can finish difficult maps/wads since I'm just a slightly above average player. "The DWIronman League Dies to" demos I recorded for this month and the last one's event are a very good demonstration of how I usually play Doom, minus saving.

1 hour ago, Agent6 said:

.... I'm just a slightly above average player ....

That would be me, as well.

Years ago, when I had the patience & the time, I'd play a map through several times (saving along the way) until I had figured out the optimal progression. Only then, would I try to play through the map without saving. Nowadays, I lack both time & patience, and have to be content with playing a map through with multiple save-games.

I'm falling in love with Doom retro and Crispy Doom

For those who don't know yet: I despise inescapable pits in Doom.

15 minutes ago, antares031 said:

For those who don't know yet: I despise inescapable pits in Doom.

I..... I dunno... at times I feel like "why the heck is this one pit there inescapecable, and nothing else?"

But other than that, they have their place. I like using them quite a bit ;-)

1 hour ago, Ledillman said:

I'm falling in love with Doom retro and Crispy Doom

Doom Retro is a pretty interesting port, but these little extra things it adds are not exactly something I enjoyed so I ultimately didn't stick to it.

I for one fell in love with PrBoom+ and most recently Eternity, it's been a month since I last touched GZDoom, I must say I didn't expect this to happen. I also checked out Choco Doom and I liked this one as well. Now all that's left if playing some co-op.