Dooms story thoughts. - New Expansive Wad

I was playing Doom the other day and realized, this game is awesome, amazing and kicks ass, but I can't get immersed in its story. Even to this day Doom 3s story doesn't seem to satisfy me. I feel Doom should remain how it is, but in Doom 4 it wouldn't kill to expand the story a bit, for die-hard fans? Maybe some background information? I know Doom is all about kicking ass and shooting demons into oblivion, but why not take it to the next level by getting player totally immersed in this world?

And with that, comes my new mod project. Don't expect too much, for all it is a one episode expansion. The story takes place soon after the portals have been opened, and the UAC sends a team of marines to hells surface to find the scientists which first entered and arrived at the anomaly. You play a different marine then that of Doom 1 or 2, as your status bar no longer shows Doomguys face but yet just a marines helmet, the protagonist is never seen. Basically, its an episode of fighting through hell once again, but now its different in terms of gameplay as well. The story progresses on terminal screen around the maps, which, kinda like Marathon, will give player hints of whats happening on the outside world. The maps will be less puzzle-like and more wide open, detailed areas. And finally, the mod features new weapons, music and such.

Essentially, it will feel like your experiencing a different view of Doom, story and gameplay wise. Think of it as the ODST-esq expansion of Doom.

Now, I started this project due to the "What the fuck should I do these holidays?" question. Also since ASL was my last project I feel I should contribute again.

I plan to have screenies and maybe even video by the end of the week, but may take a couple months to finish, as I'm only doing the first mission and writing more story at the moment.

And finally, Doom is property of id Software, so this story should be considered NON-CANON as always.

Avery

That sounds promising. But make sure that it is a truly compelling story that doesn't interfere with gameplay, and doesn't feel like just another set of maps. Surprise me.

The best stories are those that are vague and get people talking. Why ruin a great thing like people's imagination with things like details?

One dimensional characters are the best, because then people can have fun pondering their other dimensions, like DoomGuy enjoys frothy rootbeer. DoomGuy's name is Sid. DoomGuy's bunny's name is Fluffy. The demons are from Hell. No the demons are from Mars. No the demons are mutated humans.

Proof that a vague story gets people talking is the fact that you've posted this.

geo said:

DoomGuy's bunny's name is Fluffy.

Daisy according to the episode 4 end text.

avery1555
ODST-esq

Truthfully, I never found myself immersed by Halo's storyline :P.

I doubt UAC would care about scientist that were sent through the portal. If they were that important to send a squad of marines to find them, they wouldn't send them in the first place.

Even if they didn't know what were the portals about, they'd never send important people first.
And even if somehow they did, they wouldn't bother about that when they're being invaded by demons. Also the portals would be filled with demons, they'd never have a chance to access them so freely.
Most likely they'd take scientists for dead, or they'd just don't care about them.


All this wouldn't be a problem for regular wads, but if you're trying to make a mod with a sophisticated story you should explain this.
Or may be forget about the scientists thing, and put the player in the role of one of the "volunteers" that were sent through the portal in the experiments, but still it wouldn't be easy to explain why you had the chance to survive.

I think the best that could be done is to represent a marine that was in the deimos base while it was absorbed by hell. Then you'd still have the problem about why the marine survived (in all classic DOOM games the doomguy is always somehow away from the initial carnage).

Never cared about the story...

even in bioshock I skipped everything story related I could...

lupinx-Kassman said:

Truthfully, I never found myself immersed by Halo's storyline :P.

Don't worry, I meant the type of expansion would be like that, like new weapons, gameplay etc. I wasn't trying to make that direct of a reference.

My favorite part about doom's storyline is the lack thereof.

I'm pretty sure if you personally interviewed every person here to explain what the doom story is, there will not be one pair of people that will give you the exact same answer.

My suggestion is to not bother and concentrate on aligning textures instead.

A different story from each person?

You mean like the monsters are from Hell? No wait, they're from Mars. I mean Jupiter, they flew in on a spaceship.

Space marines got taken out by demons, but you a single man can take them on. Go Master Chief!!! Anyone notice how the space marines look like Halo guys? The droids in Doom3 can mow down a hundred enemies without being destroyed... but no one else is alive?

Story is very unimportant. Maybe later on story is important once you have hooked the player, but pick up and play is much more important. If people want to play a game, they want to play a game.

40oz said:

My favorite part about doom's storyline is the lack thereof.

This. But my biggest reasoning is that having a story connects the game too much with both the story and its setting. In Doom, with no definite story, no one minds all the completely different worlds that mappers have been making. Just look at Scythe 2 or DV 2 for example, they have many different settings both and no one cares, while if Doom had a more specific story we'd have people ranting how these wads suck for not being all canon techbase or canon hell.

Lack of story is good in a game like this.

_bruce_ said:

Never cared about the story...

even in bioshock I skipped everything story related I could...

...What's the point, then?!

The point is to play a game. Not read a story. People that want story read books. Better yet, people that want story want characters MORE! Mario has Luigi, Toad, Peach, Daisy, Bowser. Tony Vercetti has plenty of characters. People latch onto characters more than they do with a story.

Here's an idea for Doom4 or a wicked Doom Open Source Project:
Little Big Planet Doom. Every player gets a jump ship that carries the player to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Every player / wad maker gets their own asteroid. Within the asteroid there is a hub from the landing pad for players.

From the hub the player explores the asteroid that the owner of the asteroid has made. More than the asteroid, teleportation portals on the asteroid that take the player to imaginary worlds or back to Earth.

Of course it would be impossible to do.

I think doom has an amazing storyline, especially because it IS in-depth if you take the time to think about it.
Doom's storyline also has the core element every good story needs to be a classic; the ability to be interpreted in many many ways. This is why Watchmen was such an amazing read, because it is left open to the reader.

However, since I hardly care what they do with the "new gen" doom games (considering I just gave Doom 3 a few hours of gameplay for the giggles, went through Classic Doom 3, and then never picked it up again) a deeper storyline may boost sales.

A deeper storyline didn't help Doom3. A shallow storyline sure helped New Mario Wii.

The Doom storyline is deep, but no one really cares.

- Doom was an Aliens game (like Metroid)
- Phobos is testing with teleportation
- Those that are teleported come back inside out or are zombified shortly after
- Marines get a distress call to Phobos and land
- Marine squad leaves you in charge of guarding the drop ship
- Marine squad is killed
- Deimos is sucked into Hell
- They kill your pet bunny Daisy

There's a lot more, but I'm strapped for time.