Neglect of the Plasma Rifle

Now, I wonder if its just me...
I personally during a campaign typed mission tend to neglect it unless im < 25% hp

When you play a game, offline that is, do you tend to *not* use the Plasma gun if you have a BFG or expect a BFG?

Through threads all I see is people saying how they almost never use it because the BFG destroys everything, or they only use it in dire situations where they are about to die. Though, its such a good gun... why not use it? Sometimes people tend to just whore up the cells and later in the game they run over wasted cells.


Of course online is a different story though!

I actually use the plasma rifle far more than the BFG, and in fact it's the BFG that I only save for serious situations (with exceptions, like MAP26 of Scythe.) I've found the plasma rifle to be excellent for fending off large enemies, since its rapid fire will keep most from being able to attack much. It is also great for large numbers of cacodemons, demons, and spectres.

I also use the plasma gun quite a bit so long as I have ammo for it. If I end up with max ammo and find even more, the first thing I do is switch to the plasma gun so I can keep the ammo for it. IMO, if you have 600 plasma cells, you might as well make use of them. My plasma ammo is uasually around 150-200 since I make sure to get milage out of it, but keep some ammo in reserve to get out of an unforeseen tough spot.

Likewise, I tend to save the BFG for the tougher situations. It does miracles getting you out from being surrounded by tons of demons. I also use it to kill Arch-viles and Spiderdemons quickly before they reek havoc. I use it on Barons because it seems most efficient, and I otherwise use it against hordes of like enemies with no infighting potential.

I take care of the ammos/weapons placement as well as the monsters placement and then I mostly know how to use which weapons on which situation while playing... so I use the plasma gun if it's intended to be more efficient.
On doom2.wad, I'm a bfg whore fyi :P

Supposing I have all weapons, I use the PG when little monsters come in ambush, so the hitscann guns are too slow, the RL is suicidal and the BFG is wasteful.

It's the best panic weapon in Doom (2), still.

The plasma gun is probably the best weapon against the pain elemental when you don't have cover readily available. It's also handy against barons and mancubi. It's a bit too slow to tackle on arch-viles, though; and for the really big monsters it's a bit lacking. Arch-viles, cyberdemons and spider masterminds are the kind of monsters that get the BFG treatment. In the rest of cases, the two shotguns and the chaingun stay the weapon of choice, followed by the berserk fist or chainsaw. The weapon I really tend to neglect is the rocket launcher.

The problem of the projectile weapons (RL, plasma rifle, and BFG) is that they're not hitscans. So sometimes they'll be wasted as they'll impact a wall or decoration that a hitscan wouldn't have touched.

Gez said:

The weapon I really tend to neglect is the rocket launcher.

By this quote, Doom tactics already look like differing from person to person. So I can't imagine neglecting the RL myself, when I so often encounter clusters of revenants, imps or hitscanners.

By the way, I find that the plasma rifle is not recommended against cyberdemons, because it too easily covers their rockets, even by sound.

My vanilla mapset nilla.wad begins with the Plasma Rifle.

printz said:

By the way, I find that the plasma rifle is not recommended against cyberdemons, because it too easily covers their rockets, even by sound.

Approved... I tend to prefer the ssg if I can't blast him at a close range with the bfg (assuming I've created an infight between him and others monsters).

I use the PG when things need to die NOW and I want to conserve BFG shots

Since most maps tend to have both enough shells/bullets/rockets and easy enough fights, I usually neglect both plasma and bfg until I get into a tough spot. However if I were to use the plasma "freely" probably the only two monsters I'd think twice about using plasma against are lost souls and masterminds; cybies are really pretty easy with plasma especially if you get to circle strafe around them. Additionally the plasma can be pretty ammo effective compared to the bfg if for some reason you can't get close shots.

Personally my number one gripe with the plasma isn't that it's a projectile weapon or that it fills the screen. No, I absolutely can't stand that cool down time after firing.

And what's that, mancubi with plasma? Why, they are just as easy with the chaingun (read: both keep them in constant pain), why waste plasma unless there's a horde of them?

Gez said:
The weapon I really tend to neglect is the rocket launcher.

Is there a reason to neglect it? I mean, you can-- but wouldn't maps like "Go 2 It" be a bit hard without it?


I thought its good for taking down those irritating Revenants at long range (assuming they will fire something though)

printz said:

By the way, I find that the plasma rifle is not recommended against cyberdemons, because it too easily covers their rockets, even by sound.

That's an different play-style from me. Whenever I see a lone Cyb , the plasma gun tends to be my weapon of choice. If the Cyb's got other Cyb buddies, I use the BFG, and use the SSG on Cybs where space is limited.

Black Metal said:

I thought its good for taking down those irritating Revenants at long range (assuming they will fire something though)

I find myself going for 'best tool for the job' attack, especially with an abundance of ammo. The weapon neglected is the BFG, in most cases, I'll use the Plasma Rifle over it.

Use3D said:

My vanilla mapset nilla.wad begins with the Plasma Rifle.

I liked this; it was an interesting change from the standard pistol/shotgun/ssg or whatever that most wads do.

I think my favorite weapon when I have over 100% health/armor against the little guys is the Chainsaw, because its just so damn fun to cut dozens of demons down by kamekaziing into a large ground of undead dudes and imps.

Anyway, my neglected weapon depends on the situation.

If there's hitscanner guys on a distant ledge shooting at me, I'd neglect all projectile weapons and switch to the pistol or chaingun and use some tap-sniping to take them out. However, if they dont have very much room (like 5 chaingunners on a 10-20 foot long ledge), I'd prefer the rocket launcher over the tap-sniping since the splash damage would get them all.

Plasma rifle is just fun to tear through little guys and very handy against Cyberdemons if you know when and where the rockets are coming from (by memorizing the pattern and dodging accordingly).

I use it until I have less than 100 cells, then I stuff it away, because I always feel the need to conserve at least SOME cells instead of running out, especially when I have the BFG on me.

Plasma > BFG for cybies, especially on -fast (where all you need is a corner to hide round). It also needs less room to fire through a hole, so it's handy when you have to snipe.

I don't like to use the plasma rifle if there's a BFG in my bag, even though I have fun with the rifle and make good use of it when I don't have a BFG. This is just one of those silly traits I have, similar to obsessing over secret areas from time to time.

I tend to avoid the plasma rifle, whether or not it's an appropriate tool for the situation, because I simply cannot stand the sound it makes.

I don't like the sound particularly - I've tried to replace it before with little success...

However, the plasma gun is one of my favorite weapons. Like Use3d, I sometimes want to give it to a player before the ssg and such, in my own maps. It's excellent against most enemies you want to be in lots of pain (pun intended), due to having higher damage than bullets. It also looks way cool. I always thought the BFG looked like a huge turd that fires out green turds. Terrible! The plasma gun on the other hand is sexy and fires piercing blue death.

Anyway, I use all weapons when necessary. One of my main gripes when playing any wad is when I'm not required to use anything but a shotgun. I use fists on demons when A. I don't have a chainsaw and B. They are easy to bottleneck. If you get them to attack, they waste time stationary while the attack frames play through, and then you run up and do it again. The pistol and chaingun are great snipers, plus you might as well use bullets even if you have no CG. I use the chainsaw on cacodemons and sometimes barons (with proper cover). Rocket launcher on former humans in a group. Plasma gun on cybie, arch-vile, revenants, pain elementals/lost souls. BFG on YOU!

Im rarely use the plasma gun, mainly due to the obnoxious soundfx. The only monsters I find the Plasma Gun truely useful for is archviles and fleets of pain elementals. Not to say that it's not good at killing anything else, since it does damage moderately stronger than bullets, it's effective on everything. I often avoid using the BFG as well, because I fear wasting 40 cells on something that may not get the full effect.

I'd prefer to see more maps put influence on normally neglected weapons such as chainguns, rocketlaunchers, and chainsaws, and of course, plasma guns.

I think the plasma gun's sound is pretty cool; it really gives the impression that you're kicking butt (and the weapon is indeed pretty destructive). I do neglect it sometimes during exploratory play (before a first exit), as I tend to conserve energy cell ammo for ambushes or possible tough encounters, especially in multi-level WADs where I prefer to reach the next levels with some surplus equipment.

JohnnyRancid said:

I'd prefer to see more maps put influence on normally neglected weapons such as chainguns, rocketlaunchers, and chainsaws, and of course, plasma guns.

Use3D said:

My vanilla mapset nilla.wad begins with the Plasma Rifle.

It also made good use of the rocket gun in a few of the maps IMO. (I might as well take this opportunity here.) Use3D, I just want to let you know that I really like your mapping style and that you're one of my most influential authors. =)

I find the plasma gun to be my weapon of choice against Pain Elementals, as I just realized that when I hear their wierd sightsound, it's the first weapon I pull if I've got it (the second being the chaingun.) I think the chaingun is underrated. I often find myself opting to take out arch-viles with that weapon and it seems to work fairly well.

Of course, the SSG pwns all weapons. The player can fight practically everything reliably with that weapon except BFG9K-worthy slaughters.

The Plasma Rifle's a weapon I'd probably use more often if I was accustomed to playing with autoaim disabled. Don't like wasting ammo on enemies that are moving sideways or at a tangent. I like using it for medium to long range sniping duels with baby spiders or to kill something quick at close range.

The SSG is not a weapon...it is the Hand of God

Death-Destiny said:

I think the chaingun is underrated. I often find myself opting to take out arch-viles with that weapon and it seems to work fairly well.

I agree, except mapping with the chaingun is kind of difficult, since I find it pretty important to put shotgun guys in my maps because they are a considerably threatening monster, and any map with a shotgun in it will undoubtedly get players to switch to the shotgun.

However, making a map with no shotgun at all, and just a chaingun, it's difficult to arrange the correct amount of ammo. Because the chaingun is often an ammo eater because it takes 50+ bullets to take out arachnatrons and hell knights, you almost have to litter 3-5 bullet boxes in every room which looks kinda messy and mediocre. Unless of course you stuff the map full of zombiemen and chaingun guys.

With this in mind, I'm considering making a map called "No Shotgun" which ultimately forces you to have to use every other available weapon in the game other than shotguns.

Yeah, I think the chaingun can be pretty useful in various situations, but it's pretty ammo-hungry. Even with the standard shotgun you can fill yourself with 50 units that each inflict 7 hits of damage (a total of 350 hits), at a manageable fire rate, but the chaingun depletes its maximum of 200 1 hit units pretty fast. Not to mention the SSG, which can provide 1000 hits of damage with a dependable fire rate. Often you simply run out of ammo for the chaingun until you get to the next bullet cache, while the shotguns tend to last more for what they do.

The Spire 2 gives you the Plasma gun very early on and has heaps of cells all over the place at the start, the author described it as "very hard", but was probably expecting people to "save up" the plasma. Instead i just used it and kicked ass.

In another wad once, i warped to the secret level and tried it from a pistol start, despite it not being designed for pistol starts. I found the BFG in a secret by luck and was using it on individual SS guys (graphics where replaced by elves or something but the behaviour was the same) in order to get bullets... i finished the level in the end, but the beginning was very frantic

Heh, maybe there should be more bfg-start levels.