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TheeXile

If you could have changed ONE thing about Doom, what would it have been?

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Say you were in John Romero's (or John Carmack's or whoever's) shoes right as Doom hit alpha. During this phase, you have the opportunity to see Doom changed in one major way before the beta. What would you make it (if anything)?



For me, I'm torn between either changing the pistol to be a somewhat less stupid weapon gameplay-wise, or else fixing the color palette where things with red, brown, or green colors end up bleeding together under dim sector lighting and looking ugly (if that is possible without making other color shades look ugly). Those have always been some pet peeves of mine with Doom.


Hmm. Between the two, I'd probably go with the pistol, really.

Scratch that. I'll go with the palette instead.

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Now that you mentioned it, I'd have to go with optimizing the palette. There's many duplicate colors and unnecessary shades. Is the violet range even used for anything but the commander keen sprites? What was its purpose in Doom 1?

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Espi said:

Now that you mentioned it, I'd have to go with optimizing the palette. There's many duplicate colors and unnecessary shades. Is the violet range even used for anything but the commander keen sprites? What was its purpose in Doom 1?

Cacodemon's fireballs have a bit of purple in them.

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THE SPIDER MASTERMIND

Otherwise all is ok, even the Icon of Sin holds some challenge.

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I'd probably give the pistol/chaingun a better firing sound. That popping noise always sounded way too wimpy for either weapon. Also, I might make it so the lite-amp goggles brighten a room, but don't set it to fullbright. Most of the changes I might make would be minor things like these...

I guess I'll go with the lite-amp one. As much as I don't like the popping bullets, I think that the lite-amp goggles aren't used often in custom maps because of how ugly the fullbright looks with them and that if this had been changed they might be more appealing as a powerup.

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Like others have said, I would probably have optimized the palette.

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Sprite support in PWADs without merging with IWADs or including all sprites. Dunno why/how they missed that one.

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I'd make the chaingun less wimpy sounding, and maybe just the slightest bit stronger.

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printz said:

THE SPIDER MASTERMIND

Was that in the beta release?

Mouselook - even if it was restricted somewhat to keep the sprites from looking like cardboard cutouts.

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I would have done the BSP tree, blockmap and things in 3D (while keeping all the other resources like the sector format etc. as they are) so overlapping sectors would be possible without much difference performance wise. This is a major limitations which still plagues all those source ports.
Well, 3d bridges were developed, which have their advantages, but also their own limitations since they don't add sectors. Dark Forces and Duke Nukem 3D have proven how well overlapping sectors can work without performance penalties in a 2.5D engine.

I remember RORdoom tried to do just that, but unfortunately was discontinued and no source code was release either. Also thing positions remained 2d so placing was too limited, which other source ports also solved with Hexen format maps, or with placing things via scripts.

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GreyGhost said:

Was that in the beta release?

If that beta/alpha detail matters so much, then probably that wasn't in the beta, but also there's nothing in the beta that I would have changed anyway. It's history.

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I would have included the /bubbies parameter.

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The TEXTURE1/2 lump format. I'd have changed it to cumulative TEXTURES lumps with a format that got rid of PNAMES and able to define switches and animated textures and flats.

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I would have possibly added some extra new demons and weapons. Then again, I was 4 when this game was in testing stage. Also, I'd increase the # of levels.

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have it so you start with just your fist. then make all zombiemen drop pistols, like shotgun guys drop their shotguns. this would add an even bigger survival aspect to the game, making you have to find a zombie and kill it by just punching it before you even get a weapon. im trying to figure out how to do this for my wad.

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Gameplay-wise, I wouldn't change anything. Thinking more about it, this is probably why I have stuck with Doom for so long, I consider the atmosphere, features and balance to be pretty much perfect.

One thing I wish they'd never done was the MAP02 changes from v1.666 to v1.9 of Doom 2. I played v1.666 for so long, blocking those Sargeants in and all the Thing errors really ruin that level for me. I guess the Johns were more focused on Quake by that time to really care.

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Super Jamie said:

One thing I wish they'd never done was the MAP02 changes from v1.666 to v1.9 of Doom 2.

Indeed. The removed door was argued that it confused people, but for all other changes in this map, they really are pointless. It's a post release change, though.

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Ultraboy94 said:

have it so you start with just your fist. then make all zombiemen drop pistols, like shotgun guys drop their shotguns. this would add an even bigger survival aspect to the game, making you have to find a zombie and kill it by just punching it before you even get a weapon. im trying to figure out how to do this for my wad.

Why would Doomguy go into the demon-infested base without any weapons?

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Make SKY3 of Plutonia actually resemble a cave/hive instead of, um...meat

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Super Jamie said:

One thing I wish they'd never done was the MAP02 changes from v1.666 to v1.9 of Doom 2. I played v1.666 for so long, blocking those Sargeants in and all the Thing errors really ruin that level for me. I guess the Johns were more focused on Quake by that time to really care.

What exactly was changed (don't answer if it's badly off topic)?

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Bashe said:

Make SKY3 of Plutonia actually resemble a cave/hive instead of, um...meat

You'd have to have been on TeamTNT for that change I believe.

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printz said:

What exactly was changed (don't answer if it's badly off topic)?

In the room in front of you, the Sgt on the left had bars (just a normal door) in front of his alcove. In v1.7 the bars had been removed, and he had been blocked into his sector instead.

The entire map also had its' co-ordinates moved three times (in v1.7, v1.8 and v1.9) and the thing locations changed slightly each time. In its final incarnation, at least two monsters stay stuck in a wall and a barrel.

Someone's made videos for the bars and thing placement, as well as many other changes over Doom history.

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I would have made the weapons feel better to use. The pistol becomes essentially useless as soon as anything else is picked up, the chaingun doesn't feel up to the standard presented by Wolfenstein's in respect to the crappy pea-shooter sound and reduced fire rate, and I never really liked the shotgun because there's not enough panic in its use. A little bit of randomness in its fire and animation rate would have made the weapon feel more interesting.

Okay, that probably counts as several things, but really, the weapons have always been my number one critique with Doom.

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I likely would have added more variants to the monsters in both games. I know that can be accomplished now, but back before I even heard of ZDoom and before Decorate came about, I was wishing they put in more monsters... or at least different variants of the same monster. (complete with different attacks, of course)

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