How is a slaughter map unique from other types of maps?

[HiRon]

There are many different viewpoints regarding slaughter maps, both positive and negative. However, what can a slaughter map provide that any other type of map can't? How are encounters shaped because of this? How do those encounters influence gameplay? I would like to know your answers on this, regardless if you like them or not. 

[Alaxzandarz]

The way slaughter maps differ from non-slaughter ones is the amount of enemies you are fighting at the same time. The two big differences that come immidiately from this are

 

A: A larger group of enemies fundamentally functions differently from a small group. The enemies in a way stop working as individuals and become more of a  mass or a fluid. Enemies fully surrounding you becomes a constant threat and projectile density increases. This leads to skills like hearding monsters and predictively dodging the stream of projectiles becoming really important. You also have to make more long term choices during fights, as the fights take on avarage longer and you have to plan ahead on how you are going to perform hearding and infighting.

 

B: The player can be given bigger guns. Rocket launcher and plasma become the standard, and especially BFG becomes more used. It is really hard to make even somewhat engaging non-slaughter maps with heavy BFG-usage (and with this I mean maps where you basically main the BFG), as BFG requires a large amount enemies or really high threat enemies to stay engaging. The BFG is the weapon with the most depth in Doom, so if you want to push the weapon to it's full potential you are going to need a slaughter map for it.

 

In conclusion, a large group of enemies behave differently (which requires different strategies) and you can use the high tier weapons more.

[Nine Inch Heels]

What a slaughtermap can and can't do depends on how it's built, and what the respective design goals are... There is no "slaughter always does this, but never does that". You're gonna have fights tight on ammo, you're gonna have fights tight on health, you're gonna have fights where you're put at a disadvantage by way of load-out you have access to (ie fighting PEs with RL), you're gonna have pure BFG spam maps, and the list goes on and on... And all that depends on what the mapper wants to have in any given map...

 

As for what slaughtermaps can provide, most of them tend to be more difficult than IWAD maps, and they require a set of skills that isn't required when playing IWAD-ish stuff either...

 

That being said, the questions there almost warrant writing essays, which I'm too lazy to do atm... You're better off playing slaughtermaps and seeing for yourself if you want answers, because booksmarts won't get you very far...

[MrGigglefingers]

To me, slaughtermaps are maps where the engagement comes from fending off hordes and hordes of monsters rather than through level design. This isn't to say level design isn't important in a slaughtermap, but the gameplay is almost entirely derived from the enemies. This requires a different set of skills than a traditional map. For example, in traditional maps, rocket launcher and BFG usage is typically restricted by the terrain and by how much ammo the mapmaker gives you. But in most slaughtermaps I've played, you're using them all the time, and very rarely bringing out the regular shotgun or chaingun.

 

Have you ever played Serious Sam? That's a game comprised almost entirely out of slaughtermaps. It has a very different vibe than Doom or most old-school FPSs.

[Hisymak]

For me, the most important thing about slaughter maps is extensive use of infighting. Like, in normal maps, I would mainly actively shoot monsters as I go through map, however, in slaughter maps, my main strategy is to circle around and try to cause as most infighting as possible. Then I start using weapons once needed (i.e. infighting won't help that much any more, there are monsters of single type that cannot infight, the monsters are placed in a way that infighting is not possible etc).

I even played slaughter maps where I barely needed to fire any shot, but on the other hand, there were also maps which were extremely hard without effective infighting possible.

[sandwedge]

Slaughter maps are unique because they let you kill a lot of demons at once.  I like slaughter maps because I like killing a lot of demons.

[Hisymak]

And one more thing: I think that slaughter maps is something which is typical/unique for Doom and what makes Doom superior over other games from the era.

I did not see much of slaughter maps in games like Duke 3D, Quake, MDK, ROTT... these games don't work very well with slaughter, due to either engine or design limitations. Maybe someone could elaborate more about this.

Doom engine and doom monsters, weapons and mechanics are just very well designed that they work well with slaughter. That works also well in Heret ic and maybe Hexen, but those have more limited bestiary and weaponry so it's not as perfect as in Doom.

[Thelokk]

SHAWN, lots of it. 

 

As for why slaughter doesn't work as well in other boomer shooters, it generally boils down to either the lack of a big AoE gun, or a slightly more advanced AI that prevents effective herding. Slaughter in Doom exists because demons are idiots. 

Edited May 23, 2022 by Thelokk

[Sneezy McGlassFace]

To me, slaughter is usually fighting large group(s) of enemies in various ways, and you're acting more like a sheepdog herding sheep. If a sheepdog was actually trying to kill all the sheep before they eat him alive, that's where the metaphor kinda breaks down. Anyway, for herding larger groups of enemies, you need larger arena, just enough mobility to do what you need to do to not get dead. I'd say a big, open space with some obstacles. But there's no hard rules for what counts as slaughter, so there are no hard rules for what the map design is. So you can easily have a slaughter on a stairway, or 90 degree angle bent corridor. Or just a hallway. I'd say that big, bombastic encounters are the main meat and potatoes of slaughter maps. As others said, none hundred million skeletons act fundamentally different to a pack of five. And that makes it kinda unique experience. 

[Jacek Bourne]

The way I design my “slaughtermaps” isn’t based on the amount of enemies. Rather, it is based on how I design the majority of encounters and fights. Each encounter or fight is essentially a puzzle with the sandbox elements (weapons and monsters) as well as the terrain as the puzzle pieces. There is always a way to ‘solve’ the encounter which would permit you to survive that particular fight. Some fights may have one solution, sometimes multiple however there is always at least one intended strategy to beat the fight. If the map I’m making has a majority of its encounters designed as such then I would consider it a slaughtermap. Something you should keep in mind however is that there are multiple genres of slaughtermaps. The one I specialize in is what I would call Combat Puzzle slaughter. Since I’m not attuned to designing other types of slaughtermaps I will not explain them since I don’t fully understand them. You can ask other people about those other types.

[tsathoggua]

It's interesting to see how many people in this thread suggest it uses different skills than the IWADS and more IWAD-like maps. I'm very interested in slaughter but frankly just don't think I'm good enough yet, and assumed I'd get good through getting better at "normal" maps, but it sounds like the way to get better at slaughter might just be to play lot of slaughter?

[Maribo]

2 hours ago, tsathoggua said:

It's interesting to see how many people in this thread suggest it uses different skills than the IWADS and more IWAD-like maps. I'm very interested in slaughter but frankly just don't think I'm good enough yet, and assumed I'd get good through getting better at "normal" maps, but it sounds like the way to get better at slaughter might just be to play lot of slaughter?

Play slaughter and watch people who are better than you play slaughter. IWADs and IWAD-inspired maps usually won't be very helpful in teaching things like manipulating monster movement like lots of slaughter wants you to do. I would highly recommend Rush and a good portion of Micro-Slaughter Community Project as the two current best go-to introductions for slaughter.

 

Here is another good post by NIH in a thread that has an adjacent subject to this one, regarding skill and slaughter maps.

[tsathoggua]

15 minutes ago, Maribo said:

Play slaughter and watch people who are better than you play slaughter. IWADs and IWAD-inspired maps usually won't be very helpful in teaching things like manipulating monster movement like lots of slaughter wants you to do. I would highly recommend Rush and a good portion of Micro-Slaughter Community Project as the two current best go-to introductions for slaughter.

 

Here is another good post by NIH in a thread that has an adjacent subject to this one, regarding skill and slaughter maps.

 

Thanks a lot, this is super helpful! I'd actually downloaded and fired up Rush just before reading this lol, as I'd seen it recommended as a beginner slaughter map elsewhere.