I played the Mars Core demo ... a lot

[Zemini]

I was given pretty much a unlimited time too explore the map and the different difficulties

 

-I found the slayer key - It is a purple key located within a air duct.

-I found the slayer gate which is to the right after you get the key.  It didn't open and is probably not available in the demo.  There was a medieval gate guarded by two Dog statues with the slayers mark.  A golden gores nest laid within.  I tried to bounce, jump and dash through the gate in a effort to clip through the wall.

-The Carcass can summon the energy wall from anywhere to anywhere in the map;  so be careful with the rocket launcher.

-Arachnotrons do not fuck around. I found my self dying to them more than anything else.

-Dread Knight - when he lands from his leap he leaves a damaging zone of argent energy.

-I tried to box a former human from full health - he still kicked my ass

-The chainsaw is just a attack button like the punch.

-The map is pretty much the same from the E3 demo.  Check out the B-Roll on youtube.

-There is a looooong tutorial at the beginning.  You can't skip it!

-No Tyrant at the end.  Once you enter the gate it fades out.

-Difficulties of Easy and Medium have some different monsters.

-Pain Elemental has two main attacks.  The first attack is regurgitating a lost soul skull from his mouth and tossing it at the player.  The lost soul doesn't explode but falls on the ground like a rock.  His second attack is a set of three or 4 lost souls that orbit him.  They follow him and you can destroy them one by one if you choose.  Eventually he will have all of them charge you at once like Doom 2016.

-The build from the Mars Core demo is actually old and from April of this year.  I think this was mentioned in the panel.

-You can easily break the shield from the shotgun guy with both the Plasma rifle and Chaingun.

-Took over 3 Blood Punches to kill a Fire baron.  I carted him all over the final arena farming blood punches.  He really is on your ass the entire time.

-You can not use the chainsaw on the Baron since he takes more than 5 fuel points to kill.  Maybe you can upgrade it later in the game.

-Flame belch didn't cause the baron to burn ... harder.  Must be immune.

 

Anyone else at QuakeCon?

 

 

Edited August 22, 2019 by Zemini

[DooM_RO]

Tell us about the level design. Is it long? Complex? Is there more of that Foundry goodness in it?

 

Hugo also mentioned there would be more resource management this time. What does he mean by that?

 

Long tutorial. BIG FUCKING NO!

[Zemini]

I am sure the tutorial is just so people know what the hell they are doing.  One poor gal I saw never got past it and had to get help from one of the team members.  They let her play a little more.  This map takes place in the second half of the game when the Doom slayer has pretty much his full arsenal.

 

Mars Core was linear with some hidden passage ways that open up when you do stuff - this is how I found the slayer gate.

 

As for resource management - it adds the element of getting armor from burning your enemies.

[Caffeine Freak]

2 hours ago, Zemini said:

Anyone else at QuakeCon?

 

 

 

I am. I'll be lining up for the demo early tomorrow morning.

 

I'm down to grab a beer if you are, btw.

[DooM_RO]

3 hours ago, Zemini said:

I am sure the tutorial is just so people know what the hell they are doing.  One poor gal I saw never got past it and had to get help from one of the team members.  They let her play a little more.  This map takes place in the second half of the game when the Doom slayer has pretty much his full arsenal.

 

Mars Core was linear with some hidden passage ways that open up when you do stuff - this is how I found the slayer gate.

 

As for resource management - it adds the element of getting armor from burning your enemies.

 

Now that is just SAD.

[MrHofmann]

@Caffeine Freak @Zemini or anybody else who is at QuakeCon.

 

Do you think we could assemble a list of simple questions (or just post them here independently) regarding Eternal for you guys if you can find Hugo and Marty or anyone from id to ask them? For instance a question regarding level design, how much linearity/non linearity can we expect compared to Doom 2016.

[deuce]

Got to play the demo at the London Quakecon and enjoyed it a lot. It felt like a natural progression from 2016.

Apparently it was on medium difficulty but felt like it was nearer something like ultra-violent.

Cacodemons (and actually most returning enemies) felt far stronger than in the previous game.

The whole experience seems well tuned.

Rushed through the tutorial to get more game time and wasn't aware of what was my flamethrower gauge and all that.

Final arena shown in demo kicked my ass. Died 3 or 4 times (after losing all my 1-up's). Didn't actually get to finish it.

BUG ALERT: Esc key wasn't working, perhaps something to do with having a controller plugged in? Asked a member of staff over to fix it but caused another bug with the game pausing rapidly. Staff call over one of the tech heads who accused me of alt-tabbing but I had the staff member back me up.

 

All in all very impressed and looking forward to getting the game on release

[Zemini]

Another thing to note is that the difficulties have some changes the enemy counts and/or types.  Playing on Easy removed most of the shield guys and made the arenas shorter.  I think on medium there are two barons in the final area.  Will have to confirm on my next play through.  The guys in the booth have been timing people and I am one of the fastest so far with 19 minutes.  Apparently someone beat it in 17.

Edited July 28, 2019 by Zemini

[Hunting4r2d2]

I'm just a bit curious about how the Pain Elemental functions, as well as how his summoned lost souls behave.

[Zemini]

It as hard to really tell.  He summons lost souls that gather around him.  Sometimes he will pick one out of his mouth and throw them.  You can shoot the lost souls that are orbitting him however.  At some point he maxes out on lost souls and they all turn and charge you at once.

 

If I get another play though I will test the Pain Elemental AI.  There are only two of them that spawn on easy I think.  Medium might have more.

Edited July 28, 2019 by Zemini

[Hunting4r2d2]

11 minutes ago, Zemini said:

It as hard to really tell.  He summons lost souls that gather around him.  Sometimes he will pick one out of his mouth and throw them.  You can shoot the lost souls that are orbitting him however.  HOwever at some point he maxes out on lost souls and they all turn and charge you at once.

 

If I get another play though I will test the Pain Elemental AI.  There are only two of them that spawn on easy I think.  Medium might have more.

Interesting seems like they're trying to keep the "the longer you let it live, the worse it gets" aspect of the pain elemental.

 

Anyways, don't worry too much about trying to answer my question, enjoy your time at QuakeCon as much as you can.

[MrHofmann]

5 minutes ago, hunting4r2d2 said:

Anyways, don't worry too much about trying to answer my question, enjoy your time at QuakeCon as much as you can.

 

[Zemini]

oh I am still going to test it.  I am really curious about him as well.

 

I just wonder if there is a NEW lost soul enemy in the game.  Lets face it ... lost souls were never fun to kill even in classic.  Maybe id will add the heretic Lich and create some super lost soul or something.  We shall see..

[DooM_RO]

I would make three kinds of lost souls. One is a fast and aggressive but weak melee variant, another explodes and the last does a lighter explosion and heals nearby enemies.

[The Nate]

Speaking of the Golden Gore Nest, it can be seen in the 30 second version of the story trailer:

[Mk7_Centipede]

i personally want to play as a lost soul in multiplayer.

[bj25x]

I played it twice at QuakeCon and it was great. Didn’t finish it my first time through because I was looking for every secret and door. Second time through I made it to the Slipgate ending, but sadly no Tyrant was waiting for me. 

 

- The HUD is not intrusive at all, and was helpful when I needed to glance at it quickly for info, which is what a HUD is supposed to do. I would love it if people would shut up about how much they don’t like it when they haven’t played it yet. Plus the devs said it’s already been iterated on since this demo was made in April, and it’ll be customizable for turning features on/off and adjusting brightness/opacity... 

 

- The Hell Knight is way tougher than 2016. He probably gave me the most trouble in the demo because I went at him like I would in 2016 but he didn’t go down as easy.

 

- The wall climbing is tricky... if you jump at a wall you have to use the melee button to cling to it, but if you dash at the wall it automatically clings on, so that took a few mistakes to figure out. It should probably auto cling every time you hit it...

 

- The Prowler’s teleportation and the Carcass’ shied walls are awesome additions, and I love these versions of the Arachnotron and Mancubus. The Pain Elemental took a bit to pop out of the sky while the demons on the ground messed me up pretty good... Eternal is way more challenging than 2016 and you see right away what Marty and Hugo mean by the importance of resource management and having more of a battle strategy. It’s pretty damn chaotic... once you zero in on a demon a bunch of other ones are surrounding you and it gets hairy quick.

 

- The weapons feel much improved over 2016, which were already good. The combat shotgun feels stronger, and the assault rifle is way better feeling, especially the sniper mod. And dammit if the meat hook isn’t the sickest mod ever. I’d like to know which dev proposed that idea. It did seem like the SSG reload time took a minute, but hopefully that can be upgraded. The biggest change is the rocket launcher which fires much slower but does a lot more damage. Definitely have to keep the splash damage in mind when using it in close quarters.

 

- Plasma rifle microwave mod is fun as hell but takes a while to finish cooking a demon... I took a lot of damage waiting for them to pop. 

 

- I’m not sure how much damage the flame belch actually does and I hope it’s not just used for the armor shards. Watching a demon crumble into a flaming pile of goo would be nice, then shoot the pile for armor!

 

- The shoulder mounted grenade launcher is cool as hell but a little underwhelming when firing... the grenade kind of just plops out a short distance in front of you. It might be better if it looked and launched more like the new combat shotgun sticky bomb, and the combat shotgun kept the 2016 explosive shot, which I loved using.

 

- The map design is epic and stunning. And we only played a few chunks of the full map. Can’t wait to see the final product!

Edited July 29, 2019 by bj25x

[whatup876]

Somewhat related but i found where they did the speedruns of the demo.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/458733989

At 08:05:32 i think.

 

The Dread-Knight has some sort of projectile attack that seems to be fast. (and reminds me of an implied alt fire for the Ballista meant to "fruit ninja" cut enemies)

And the PE does in fact throw 3 LS's at once.

[Zemini]

Pain Elemental

 

So I trained a Pain Elemental to follow me though out most of the entire level and I studied his every move.

 

He has two main attacks.  The first attack to to grab a lost from his mouth and toss it at the player.  The lost soul doesn't explode but falls on the ground like a dead skull.  His second attack is a set of three or 4 lost souls that around him in a circle.  They follow him and you can destroy them.  Eventually he will have all thee of those charge you at once.

 

He also seems to be larger that a Cacodemon.

 

FInally - on my 5th play through I had the game and its controls down.  Medium setting felt much easier now.

[Caffeine Freak]

I played it before I left this morning. I'll post my thoughts when I get a bit more time.

[Mk7_Centipede]

1 hour ago, Zemini said:

Pain Elemental

 

So I trained a Pain Elemental to follow me though out most of the entire level and I studied his every move.

 

He also seems to be larger that a Cacodemon.

 

 

hey buddy i am glad you enjoyed it.  in the interview they said the cacodemon was a lot harder than previously.  do you have any words on the loveable tomahtoe?

[Robo_Cola]

Was watching a twitch stream of the demo by some players and found this classic "spirit helm" armor pickup.

[Zemini]

43 minutes ago, Mk7_Centipede said:

 

hey buddy i am glad you enjoyed it.  in the interview they said the cacodemon was a lot harder than previously.  do you have any words on the loveable tomahtoe?

 

I do not remember.  If anything he might shoot and move faster.

[Hunting4r2d2]

2 hours ago, Zemini said:

Pain Elemental

 

So I trained a Pain Elemental to follow me though out most of the entire level and I studied his every move.

 

He has two main attacks.  The first attack to to grab a lost from his mouth and toss it at the player.  The lost soul doesn't explode but falls on the ground like a dead skull.  His second attack is a set of three or 4 lost souls that around him in a circle.  They follow him and you can destroy them.  Eventually he will have all thee of those charge you at once.

 

He also seems to be larger that a Cacodemon.

 

FInally - on my 5th play through I had the game and its controls down.  Medium setting felt much easier now.

Thanks for the info.

 

56 minutes ago, Mk7_Centipede said:

hey buddy i am glad you enjoyed it.  in the interview they said the cacodemon was a lot harder than previously.  do you have any words on the loveable tomahtoe?

I know he has a new attack where he fires a volley of projectiles. It can be seen in this footage:

 

[DooM_RO]

What about the pickups. Are they more meaningful this time? Are there hard to find secrets or just cracks in walls and small passages?

[Caffeine Freak]

4 hours ago, Zemini said:

 

I do not remember.  If anything he might shoot and move faster.

 

He definitely shoots at a higher rate.

[Deadwing]

It seems the game will be as good as its 2016 version, if not better, but it's kinda disappointing the linear level design.

[bj25x]

8 hours ago, DooM_RO said:

What about the pickups. Are they more meaningful this time? Are there hard to find secrets or just cracks in walls and small passages?

This was a demo made for E3 and QuakeCon back in April, so I don’t think the secrets (floating question marks) are representative of the final game. There were a few I couldn’t find easily. But from what Hugo and Marty said Saturday there will be way more secrets than in 2016.

 

The weapon mod pickups were floating green graphics of the weapon, which I also doubt will be the final version (probably will be more Ike the supply drones from 2016). 

 

The pickups are definitely easier to see now that they are brightly lit and color coded.

[Zemini]

Here is the default control scheme from the demo:

 

C - Chainsaw (however it is just a attack button and you do not actually wield the chainsaw anymore)

E - Punch, Blood Punch, Wall Climb, Use and glory kill.  The game will glory kill instead of blood punching a staggered demon in case you wondered.

R - Flamethrower

Shift - Dash

Middle Mouse Button - Lob Grenade

? - BFG and Crucible.

 

[DefilerPhil47]

On 7/29/2019 at 4:54 PM, Zemini said:

Here is the default control scheme from the demo:

 

C - Chainsaw (however it is just a attack button and you do not actually wield the chainsaw anymore)

E - Punch, Blood Punch, Wall Climb, Use and glory kill.  The game will glory kill instead of blood punching a staggered demon in case you wondered.

R - Flamethrower

Shift - Dash

Middle Mouse Button - Lob Grenade

? - BFG and Crucible.

 

 

Played the demo a lot at Quakecon, control scheme was the only thing that messed me up!  I had a lot of fun with it though and it hyped me up for release big time.