The /newstuff Chronicles #163

[sargebaldy]

Yeah, crampedness is hardly something to be proud of as a theme, since it basically just cuts out from the "skill" part of playing a map. Even the greatest doom god is going to need some breather area to maneuver. Not to mention it's just not a comfortable position to play in for very long at a time. Claustrophobia was really good in some ways and really annoying in others. But Virgil's on the right track and I'd like to see what he'll be able to come up with next.

[SyntherAugustus]

virgil made the best damn zdoom wad ever (and the hardest). I easily recognized the tyrian music in the "cast of monsters".

-note that it needs a longer review than 3 damn lines.

[Ichor]

Lower your resolution if you want more than 3 lines.

[SyntherAugustus]

What I meant is that it should of deserved a better review.

[Udderdude]

I have to agree about Claustrophobia. I played it, and the levels make Schlagwerk look enormous by comparison :P I felt like most of the battles were determined by wether the enemy got a shot in before I could kill it. Alot of save/loading, alot of unfair traps in 64x64 tunnels, and eventually I just turned on God mode out of frustration. And left it on. It felt like the boss fights were meant to be watched instead of played. OOH FIREWORKS!!! I felt like I was playing Dodonpachi or ESP-RA-DE (Manic 2D shooters with a zillion bullets). The story was pretty cheezy too .. but that's just my opinion :p

[Virgil]

Sigh.. :| I should've known you guys aren't even half as good at doom as me. :D In that case, play it on Not Too Rough, or even ITYTD or something. And YES, the bosses do shoot less fireballs at lower skill levels. (If you look in my scripts, you'll see lots of 'what_skill' variables and such.) They also tend to spend less time using spells and being invulnerable on lower skills.

Control-wise, these levels are a cinch on skills lower than 4 if you use wasd+circle strafing+aiming+common sense. I don't know, maybe I should ask you all how good you are at doom. I don't know whether most doomers can kill a baron with a berserk without getting hit or not, etc. So I'll ask you now so as to try and avoid making my future wads too easy/difficult. You can pass this around to all fellow doomers you know. This is basically a poll. Email me with your answers.

My email is: Virgil_32@hotmail.com

1) Can you kill a cyberdemon in a 1024*1024 room with 100hp, 0 armor and a shotgun + 70 shells?

2) Can you berserk a baron of hell without getting hit?

3) Can you beat all of Ultimate DOOM, DOOM2 and Final DOOM on UV without using cheats and saving no more than 3 times per level?

4) If there was a, 64*64 hallway with some retreat space, would you be able to dodge a hell knight, baron, cacodemon or imp consistently by sidestepping from one wall to the other right after each fireball is fired?

5) Can you consistently dodge a mancubus or an arachnotron in an open space while they are about 5-10 meters from you?

6) What do you do when there's a crapload of monsters and you can't retreat and the space is rather cramped? Do you: a) run around the perimeters of the place, getting the monsters into a neat little circle, b) run into the fray hoping you have enough health or c) panic and get turned into caesar salad?

7) How do you walk around corners? Let's say you're at the end of a hallway at a T-intersection with some other area. Do you quickly peek out and then backpedal to see if any monsters were in those unwelcome spots? Do you just choose right/left and rush in? or do you do some other technique?

8) How good are you at knowing when monsters are going to fire? For example, for me, I can see their first firing frame a mile away and, by instinct, dodge as soon as I see it. Because of this, even if I'm point-blank, I still dodge them.

9) How often do you play doom? (Once a day? 2 hours a day? Once a week? etc.)

10) How good is your aim and how fast is it? For example, do you waste 100 cells or 20 shells on a baron of hell and he's still not dead or do you kill him in 50 plasma gun shots or 5 non-stop, super shotgun blasts? Do you, within a fraction of a second, turn your gun towards that imp that just appeared somewhere on your right? For me, it's usually between 1/4 and 1/10.

[Virgil]

The Ultimate doomer: Did you or did you not read the text file and play Claust on skill 3 (HMP) or lower?

You all read the text file, right? The gameplay tips and difficulty settings crap and everything? Please tell me you did. And NO don't lie. :)

[SyntherAugustus]

is the tyrian music in the end a midi? if so I'd like to know where you got it. :)

[Virgil]

That Tyrian track is an MP3, converted to OGG. I have all of them as MP3s. Tyrian's "Composition in Q" is what gave me the idea for that endpic. It's a great game. Pity it wasn't as popular. The music alone is worth playing it.

[Cyb]

I played on skill 3 :(

[mewse]

i played on skill 2 and i ended up quitting in frustration, i didnt think that was appropriate to say that in the review because difficulty is always a touchy subject.

[Virgil]

mewse said:

i played on skill 2 and i ended up quitting in frustration, i didnt think that was appropriate to say that in the review because difficulty is always a touchy subject.

Oh, god.. You're THAT bad? That can't be.. Haven't you been playing doom2 for several years? I get into fistfights with multiple revenants for fun. How can you be that bad??

[SyntherAugustus]

why not record a demo of you playing through your wad? :D

[Grazza]

Yay! /newstuff flamewar! We live for this stuff! Nice job.

[Virgil]

Fine, I'll record one. It'll be on HMP. UV, even for me, is tough.

[DOOM Anomaly]

Virgil said:

Oh, god.. You're THAT bad? That can't be.. Haven't you been playing doom2 for several years? I get into fistfights with multiple revenants for fun. How can you be that bad??

Not everyone has to be masterful at it no matter how long of play, it is just a game after all and just because we are not as good as someone else doesn't make us any less of a person. :D Please don't fight. :)


On a side dish, I look forth to playing these, I haven't played HeXen in some time so LilWhiteMouse's wad will be fun. :D

[Erik]

Virgil:

There is one more thing to consider, I almost always play better in my own maps and thus tend to underrate the difficulty in them. This is probably the case for most authors. There are two main factors that create this effect:

1) you know the maps in and out and know all the traps, quirks and secrets.

2) The maps are usually suited well for your own playing style.

I find it a LOT harder to play maps which I haven't played through several times with iddqd first (which I do in preparation for demo recording). If I know where the baron is I can always kill him easily with a berserk, but if he appears from behind without warning he could take a good 64% health off before I can counterattack.

Well, anyway, if you aren't playing on skill 1 you aren't really entitled to think it's too hard anyway, that's what skill levels are there for!

[mewse]

Virgil said:

Oh, god.. You're THAT bad? That can't be.. Haven't you been playing doom2 for several years? I get into fistfights with multiple revenants for fun. How can you be that bad??

this makes me so glad i gave you a good review

[Grazza]

I was surprised that Cyb didn't mention that Kansam's Trial was created by the same guys as The Sky May Be.

[Cyb]

haha, I thought the author names looked familiar

[Virgil]

mewse said:

this makes me so glad i gave you a good review

Sorry. Didn't mean to insult you. I was simply surprised.

Eric: You have a very good point about that baron of hell thing. I don't know the full extent to which my knowledge of the levels helps me when it comes to ambushes. I've demoed the 1st 2 levels on HMP already. Here they are:

http://www.geocities.com/jomgobar2/cldemos1.zip

P.S. That's the last time I make a claustrophobic wad. :D

[læmænt]

um cyb
where's my wad?

[Schneelocke]

boris said:

Cyb, why didn't you mention the great use of ACS in Claustrophobia with any word? Ok, the maps are horribly cramped at some places, but I don't think anybody ever used end bosses like that before.

Oh, and good to know that illegal mp3 are not accepted in /idgames, but illegal ogg are :P

Actually, looking at README.INCOMING, it seems that *no* mp3s are accepted at all: "Do not embed MP3s as music in WADs. Besides the obvious copyright infringement likelihood, we simply can't be an MP3 storage area."

Hmm. So if I record an MP3 adio track for a WAD and embed it, I'm more or less automatically a pirate, no matter what music the file actually contains? Sad.

[SyntherAugustus]

Virgil: that was fucking hilarious (Those demos) cant wait to see map03 and map04!

:D

[Virgil]

Here's map03 demo. If you died too many times on NTR, watch it. Read what I type. Learn the advice I give. You should already know it.

http://www.geocities.com/jomgobar2/cld3.zip

I can't do map04 yet because I'm playing all the new wads I didn't play when I was spending time building Claust. Also, I got work in the morning and I haven't written that presentation I was supposed to write. I'll have it for you, possibly tomorrow. It's an easy map.

I'm seriously doubting whether I should make my levels easier just because you guys can't strafe. Somebody make me a demo of your attempts at beating Claust on HMP or NTR. Please.

EDIT: P.S. I made Claust for those who love doom2. If you can't beat it even on NTR, then you're not spending enough time playing doom2. I mean, cmon, if I made it any easier, I'd start crying.

[sethsez]

Wow... you're really full of yourself, aren't you? If someone can't beat YOUR wad on NTR, then they must not like Doom 2 enough? Give me a break.

It's nice to know you're not mad, though. Wouldn't want that.

[sargebaldy]

I thought this was difficult as hell, but admittedly I don't like Doom II at all.

[Sharessa]

Virgil: you're a flippin loony.

[Virgil]

the_Danarchist said:

Virgil: you're a flippin loony.

/Virgil knows... Virgil knows all too well...

sargebaldy: If you don't really like doom2, why do you continue to play it? Habit?

[sargebaldy]

I don't like Doom II but there are certainly some excellent pwads for it.