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Qafqa

Strategy Doom Megawad

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I got inspired by this thread: http://www.doomworld.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=34776

We all know how fun it is when the Doom monsters fight each other. We have the "summonfriend" command and we can modify the "thing_hate" factor, but these are still mostly used for quite ordinary dooming. I believe it might be interesting to develop the "monster battle" idea further. I also believe that we have all the incredients available, almost.

Here's my idea: Strategy Doom Megawad

Strategy

1) Add friendly monsters to the level
2) Start battle
3) Player can only observe the battle (with a walkcam)
4) Goal: To kill all enemy monsters in the level using the minimum amount of friendly monsters (No need for any kind of resource points or money for purchasing monster units.)

Doom

1) All original Doom II monsters available, normal and fast
2) Funny, fierce and violent battles
3) Demo recording & competition!

Megawad

1) 32 levels with 1-1000 monsters in each of them (no need for detailed art maps)
2) Mostly arena and fortress type maps with easy access to all parts(?)
3) Imagination is the limit

There are hardly any modifications that need to be done to make this idea reality. All we need is

1) A bunch of levels suitable for this
2) Better ability to add monsters in the level before the movement begins
3) Restricted friendly monster start sectors, to avoid immediate face-to-face or monster-inside-monster abuse
4) Better hate relations, so that the enemies immediately target friendly monsters
5) To make all this demo compatible
6) What else?

Why to do all this?

Doom is one of the best games ever made, and we all love Doom monsters. The point is to add a new(?) dimension to dooming. The most interesting monster battles are the most rare ones. Everyone could complete Strategy Doom Megawad by adding enormous amount of cyberdemons, but who can find the most intelligent minimum combination of monsters for each level? This would allow competition in monster knowledge. The main goal is to have fun and watch interesting monster fights in interesting battlezones.

The bad thing is that I have hardly any knowledge about Doom modding, but I believe all this would be very easy for some experienced Doom guys out there. I might make one or two simple arenas for the megawad. I might also be willing to host some kind of Hall of Fame or SDM Demo Database, like...

LV01 - Imp Arena
Enemies: 10 imps
Completed using: 2 shotgunguys
Demo by Qafqa: SDM01.lmp

LV29 - Warzone 666
Enemies: various...
Completed using: 3 cyberdemons, 8 imps, 13 barons
Demo by Qafqa: SDM29.lmp

...

So, is this a cool idea or what? Is anyone interested in a project like this? Comments, please.

Edit: Some more thoughts. 1) Pain elementals should possibly be disabled. 2) I might actually make 10 or more of the maps. 3) Maybe some slightly modified original Doom/Doom2 maps could be used too.

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You are right, this is going to be fun like hell. I really enjoy planning the levels. However, it would be great to have maps from different authors to have variation. This megawad has no need for a consistent theme. Feel free to make levels immediately, if you are interested.

Here's some planning...
We need small and large maps. Too complicated maps won't work, because the monsters probably wander around aimlessly. For example, I've made a square arena map that's going to be LV02 and it has 4 imps in it. I guess a good amount of monsters in each map would be 5-50, but level 29 needs to have about 1000. Something very interesting should be planned for levels 30-32. And LV07 needs to be a Dead Simple clone. ;)

The goal is to complete the levels with as little monster power as possible, so we need some kind of basic system to judge the value of the summoned monster team. The optimal score for each level is obviously: 1 zombieman. I guess it would be something like...

Best) 1 zombie
2nd) 2 zombies or 1 shotgunguy
3rd) 3 zombies
4th) 4 zombies or 2 shotgunguys or 1 imp
...

Actually, we don't need to have exact values for every monster unit. The entertainment value of the recorded battle is more essential. The same level can possibly be completed with different, but equally interesting teams of monsters.

I guess the most relevant issue is the following. The Zdoom "summonfriend" command is awkward for our purpose, because the enemies are already moving, and friendly monsters are not targeted by the enemies. I have no idea what kind of things are easy to code, but I believe there exists a simple solution for this problem. My suggestions: Start game in some kind of pause mode, add friends & unpause. We need the system to be demo compatible, hopefully that doesn't cause too much trouble. Help is appreciated a lot!

Anyone is free to make suggestions. If you have any idea how to make Strategy Doom better, please share your thoughts. For example, could anyone invent a better (more Doomish) name for this project?

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I like the idea. I'm not sure if Zdoom record when you use the summonfriend command, hopefully it does.

About the scoring system, you'll drive crazy creating a logical and cohesive system, just common sense should work. If you're lazy to create the maps, just some of these deathmatch compilations, with some minor modifications (to help monster moves) may work. That, or creating a simple ring like map, and then add diferent monster placements.

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Great! Shotgunmasacre2, you can make any kind of maps you like. Some basic guidelines would be:

1) Don't create huge maps.
2) Make clear start sector for friendly monsters. Let's use FLAT14 as a standard texture for start sector floor, to identify it. You can make more than one start sector.
3) Use monsters interestingly. Think a lot about the monster placement.
4) Use imagination
5) Have fun!

Vegeta, you are right, we don't need any kind of scoring system.

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Qafqa said:

Pain elementals should possibly be disabled.

Noo!!! all they do is create lost souls so they should be worth a bit more than cacodemons.

There should also be secret spawn spots that can be used if found.

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Secret spawn spots? Maybe, but only after the basic stuff has been made to work correctly.

Edit: Hey, there actually exists "freeze" command already! Is there a way to make the game start in freeze mode? We are closer to the final product than I thought. :)

Edit: I tried to record a demo and use "summonfriend", but the demo recording stops when you bring down the console screen. Does anyone have an idea how to avoid this happening?

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This project has the potential to be awesome as long as you put enough effort into it. A lot of WADs with interesting ideas seem to fall flat on their faces when they finally come out. *cough* DRE *cough* Anyway, I look forward to seeing this in action.

(PS: I like your new avatar, DLD.)

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Thanks for the advice. Currently this project is only a bunch of ideas + 2 unfinished maps.

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Apothem, what do you mean? (Do you mean that there should be, for example, some clickable icons for "summon" and other (what other?) commands, or what?)

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Wasnt there this little zdoom engine mod called DoomWar? Cant remember the exact name, though....

Why dont you pick that dude up and finish it?
Would be way cooler than making a new one from scratch.

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Well, lets see. You're trying to make a Doom RTS, correct? And that means you need to be able to controll the units, correct? Well, you can't target objects and issue them commands. The AI doesn't like that all too much. On top of that, without making the whole thing uber confusing, you'd need a set of GUI buttons to work with. Basically, you'll need a whole new interface to do this. A doom RTS, in doom, is currently impossible. ACS does not support cursor commands nor will doom ever I don't think. I believe it might be best to do this for doom 3.

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The point is not to control the units. You only add your monster team to the level, then just watch.

Qafqa said:

1) Add friendly monsters to the level
2) Start battle
3) Player can only observe the battle (with a walkcam)

The only GUI related thing I'd like to have is easier/quicker way to summon monsters in the beginning of the game.

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So you 'just' want some semi inteligent monsters that fight for you.

That wont work. (TM)

You need to give your monsters orders.
Would suficy following 3.
1. Hold this position
2. Attack this monster
3. Explore

That should be scriptable with ACS.

Any comments from some ACS gods?

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I wonder. With ACS you can script a monster to follow a patrol route. They will follow this path until they come into contact with an enemie. So, if you manipulate this some way, they you could get the monsters to roam until they come into contatct with an enemie. If that doesnt work I dont know what to tell you. I still want to try though.

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Mivalekan is right about getting stuck. Also, arachnotron might get stuck by trying to shoot some enemy that it can't hit. Good level design should minimize this kind of possibilities.

I have no experience using ACS, but I think that we don't need very complicated stuff for this. Let's start very simply.

1) all monsters ignore player completely (I guess this is possible already?)
2) monsters wander randomly & seek enemies (if someone has ideas for good seek method)
3) monsters change their target if X (I have no idea what X should/could be.)

It would be cool to have some amount of predefined routes for enemy monsters to add more strategy feel to the game. Overall, the level design is very important. Anyway, I suggest this project to be as experimental as possible, so that we find what really works. Any simple ideas are worth testing.

Edit: Bastet Furry, you are also right, getting stuck is not THAT big a problem.

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My only scepsis is about that this will ever leave planing state.
I am happy with suggesting things, but i dance on enough weddings. (I hope that saying is valid in english too ;) )

EDIT:
Make something for us to see that you are not only a planner but a doer.
Make a working sample, ie, grab yourself a map creator and make a showcase example.

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