Do you find the second difficulty in Doom 1, Doom 2 games quite unnecessary?

[Can't play on Nightmare]

I don't feel any difference between 1st and 2nd difficulty when I play Doom 1, Doom 2 games.  Same for Heretic, Hexen games.

 

I find the 2nd difficulty "quite unnecessary" in the games.

[Linguica]

Do you, uh, want a better username, maybe?

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

Kind of seems like a good question as to whether skill 1 or skill 2 is more "unnecessary".  1 does some extra stuff like make you take less damage and get more supplies from pickups, whereas 2 is just the thing placement flags.  I always felt skill 1 was the more unnecessary of the two, but I suppose the idea of a "training wheels" mode has some degree of merit.

[Killer5]

Na. I play skill 2 a lot in hard wads for a different experience.

 

Skill2 is fun to implement well.

[Doomkid]

I guess ITYTD could be eliminated but it does serve as a nice way to make superhard maps more bearable where the author couldn’t be bothered to implement skill levels.

[Kellson]

I don't think I ever played with 2nd difficulty setting.

[seed]

In the IWADs I find all difficulty levels below UV pointless since they're easy enough to beat on that difficulty to begin with. 

 

Granted, I do very much play on lower difficulty settings in hard wads made by the community. I've played magnolia on HNTR and usually playing slaughter on HMP for instance. 

[beanz]

Anything less than UV is pointless in my opinion, especially on the plain ol vanilla iwads.  I like a challenge, and I like seeing an improvement in my skills over time. If a wad is too hard to beat on UV, I'll either practice till I beat it, or drop it until I rediscover it or feel that I'm "better trained."

I understand that the lower difficulties are stepping stones for higher difficulties, and that everyone has to start somewhere, but I genuinely don't understand how anything less than UV is enjoyable.

[seed]

38 minutes ago, beanz said:

but I genuinely don't understand how anything less than UV is enjoyable.

 

Some of us are not willing to spend a century only to gain a slight improvement in our skill only to beat a map/wad, especially folk like yours truly who have never been great at video games in the first place. I'm a filthy casual :p. Besides, most modern community wads are pretty darn hard even on lower difficulty settings, so we still very much get a challenge, but perhaps experience less excruciating pain and frustration in beating them. 

 

The only instances where I might waste considerable amounts of time would be challenge series and stuff like that in various video games where you can't change the difficulty (the "wonders" of being a completionist...). In these cases, you either go big, or go home. 

[beanz]

1 minute ago, Agent6 said:

[snip]

Yeah. I guess I can agree on that. Games are meant to be enjoyed and what people find enjoyable varies between each person. I personally can't enjoy anything less than UV, so I guess admitting to a lack of understanding was a poor choice of words on my part.

[Nancsi]

In original Doom 1-2, both skill 1 and skill 2 were unnecessary. Go with HMP for the warmup, then UV next for the accomplishment, and NM for the hardcore players.

 

However I'm glad many megawads use these skills as they are ultra hardcore. Some of them aren't even easy on ITYTD.

[RightField]

It's useless these days but back when doom was released, the controls very unforgiving, no autorun, auto strafe, and mouselook and I was a kid so it was a really really hard game. ITYTD was more than welcome back then, it made me able to enjoy the game!

[ReaperAA]

To be honest, ITYTD is more unnecessary than HNTR. HNTR is actually useful for me for dealing with slaughter style wads.

 

ITYTD is only useful in cases when author makes a stupidly hard wad AND he cannot be arsed to implement difficulty levels.

[MFG38]

Depends on whether you're referring to ITYTD/HNTR or HNTR/HMP. In either case, no - I don't find HNTR or HMP any less necessary than any other difficulty.

[Can't play on Nightmare]

1 hour ago, MFG38 said:

Depends on whether you're referring to ITYTD/HNTR or HNTR/HMP. In either case, no - I don't find HNTR or HMP any less necessary than any other difficulty.

Either ITYTD or HNTR should have been taken out of the difficulty choice in the beginning since there is almost no difference between them. It doesnt matter which one is out. They are almost the same. I dont feel any difference at all when I play. 4 skill levels would be ideal for the games.

[MFG38]

2 hours ago, Can't play on Nightmare said:

Either ITYTD or HNTR should have been taken out of the difficulty choice in the beginning since there is almost no difference between them. It doesnt matter which one is out. They are almost the same. I dont feel any difference at all when I play. 4 skill levels would be ideal for the games.

 

Almost no difference between them? ITYTD gives you twice the ammo from pickups, and you also take half the damage. If that's not a difference between ITYTD and HNTR (or any other difficulty in Doom), then what do you call it?

[Gunstar Green]

7 hours ago, RightField said:

It's useless these days but back when doom was released, the controls very unforgiving, no autorun, auto strafe, and mouselook and I was a kid so it was a really really hard game. ITYTD was more than welcome back then, it made me able to enjoy the game!

 

I agree, you've got to look at it in the context of the time. Most people hadn't played a game like this before and the default controls weren't ideal. Today we're used to this kind of game and we have knowledge of more comfortable control schemes. HMP was a little too much for me when Doom was new and I was a kid.

[Juza]

11 hours ago, beanz said:

Anything less than UV is pointless in my opinion, especially on the plain ol vanilla iwads.  I like a challenge, and I like seeing an improvement in my skills over time. If a wad is too hard to beat on UV, I'll either practice till I beat it, or drop it until I rediscover it or feel that I'm "better trained."

I understand that the lower difficulties are stepping stones for higher difficulties, and that everyone has to start somewhere, but I genuinely don't understand how anything less than UV is enjoyable.

Relatable! I remember saying the same thing in another thread

[Bauul]

I don't think any of the difficulty settings are unnecessary.

 

I tend to play on HMP for most maps, but will drop down to HNTR if it's proving too difficult. ITYTD's half-health kind of makes it feel like a cheat mode, but can be extremely useful for maps that are just too demanding on higher difficulties to be fun.

[Can't play on Nightmare]

3 hours ago, Bauul said:

I don't think any of the difficulty settings are unnecessary.

 

I tend to play on HMP for most maps, but will drop down to HNTR if it's proving too difficult. ITYTD's half-health kind of makes it feel like a cheat mode, but can be extremely useful for maps that are just too demanding on higher difficulties to be fun.

The only difference between first and second difficulty is that when you fire the rocket in close distance, it takes more health of you and that when you are on toxic sea without the protecting clothes, it takes more health of you. Aside from them, there is no difference that I know. And these are not noticeable differences for me when I play the game. I don't feel any difference while playing. I start feeling differently as of Hurt Me Plenty since the number of enemies get higher and there is sometimes replacement between weaker and stronger enemies.

[Bauul]

3 minutes ago, Can't play on Nightmare said:

The only difference between first and second difficulty is that when you fire the rocket in close distance, it takes more health of you and that when you are on toxic sea without the protecting clothes, it takes more health of you. Aside from them, there is no difference that I know.

 

As MFG38 mentioned earlier, the first difficulty setting (I'm Too Young To Die) does a fair bit more than just that: it halves all damage from any source (not just the two you mentioned) and also doubles all ammo pickups (so shells give you 8, boxes of ammo give you 100 etc.).

 

It can definitely tweak the balance in your favor on difficult encounters.

 

If you thought all it did was reduce rocket and environmental damage I can understand why you thought it wasn't necessary!

[Can't play on Nightmare]

5 minutes ago, Bauul said:

 

As MFG38 mentioned earlier, the first difficulty setting (I'm Too Young To Die) does a fair bit more than just that: it halves all damage from any source (not just the two you mentioned) and also doubles all ammo pickups (so shells give you 8, boxes of ammo give you 100 etc.).

 

It can definitely tweak the balance in your favor on difficult encounters.

 

If you thought all it did was reduce rocket and environmental damage I can understand why you thought it wasn't necessary!

I didn't know about others.

[kristus]

On 12/15/2018 at 12:57 AM, Can't play on Nightmare said:

I didn't know about others.

Well, maybe you should read the responses in the thread you made. It has been mentioned several times now.

[snapshot]

No but I think the first one is, not that it's very different I usually never go lower than HMP, by that point might as well just give up and find something else to do.

Edited December 16, 2018 by tempdecal.wad

[Sparktimus]

None of the difficulties are unnecessary. I dunno where this attitude that anything below UV useless, but most wad makers try to configure for all difficulties. I know it's hard for some to believe, but not everyone plays on UV exclusively :P

[Nancsi]

On ‎12‎/‎15‎/‎2018 at 12:51 AM, Bauul said:

 

As MFG38 mentioned earlier, the first difficulty setting (I'm Too Young To Die) does a fair bit more than just that: it halves all damage from any source (not just the two you mentioned) and also doubles all ammo pickups (so shells give you 8, boxes of ammo give you 100 etc.).

 

It can definitely tweak the balance in your favor on difficult encounters.

 

If you thought all it did was reduce rocket and environmental damage I can understand why you thought it wasn't necessary!

 

He is just showing his e-penis size of "hey, I never take damage, I'm badass".

[Can't play on Nightmare]

On 12/14/2018 at 5:28 AM, Linguica said:

Do you, uh, want a better username, maybe?

It is to let other users know that I can't play on Nightmare :D 

Spoiler

 

 

[Can't play on Nightmare]

13 hours ago, kristus said:

Well, maybe you should read the responses in the thread you made. It has been mentioned several times now.

But while playing, I dont feel a difficulty difference myself. Since the number of enemies are low, you dont need too many ammos since you won't need to use them. Whats the point of going with full ammos in the game without being able to lower your ammos? They should have made it for Ultra Violence. A lot of times I have to use the chainsaw since my ammos finish.

 

In Doom 2 on Ultra Violence difficulty, in maps such as 10th and 16th, I am always left with no ammos. I finish the maps with chainsaw.

[Cruduxy Pegg]

I loved the first 2 skills when I was a kid that could barely use the command line to launch doom. So no they were not unnecessary. Don't forget there are people who played FAR much more than you and on the opposite, people who played way less. UV would be absolutely HORRIFYINGLY terribly balanced for someone new to video games. Just like there are people who can beat most Doom 2 maps without bothering to shoot once, there are people who can't rotate in time to shoot a few zombiemen on screen at once.