The most realistic difficulty

[DuckReconMajor]

Nightmare, of course!

I mean, really, where do demons go when they die?

[eargosedown]

Nightmare is insane on a non-respawn port. However, the fast parimeter makes it quite fun.

I'd say, its more 'realistic' on the Inferno and Shores of Hell though, as the zombies wouldn't really come back on the first moon.

However, realistic and doom in the same sentence is an oxymoronical statement.

[printz]

Speaking of nightmare, funny thing is that I dreamt today a Wolfenstein mod where SS guys (coming in various types) were raising after a few seconds, indefinitely.

[WillWater87]

Definitely Nightmare for unfairness, ultra violience is realistic.

Technically monsters aren't real (Refering the fictional ones).

[GreyGhost]

Not being able to carry more than two weapons, having to restart from the first map - instead the start of the current map - when you die and no game saves.

[DaniJ]

tubers93 said:

Technically monsters aren't real (Refering the fictional ones).

That is one awesome quote, on so many levels.

[DeumReaper]

Nightmare to me is the 'hardcore' mode when Ultraviolent isn't that hard anymore, mainly since there's always enemies relentlessly after you, putting pressure on the time; it depends on the map though

So I think it's realistic in that it provides a 'hellish' challenge.

[myk]

GreyGhost said:
having to restart from the first map

The monsters repopulating the map just how it was last time, adding back every item while mopping up every corpse, reversing all the one-way triggers and removing every dropped item does not seem very realistic, even less so if it's done to more levels :p

Coop (or 1-player "network" mode) is a little bit more "realistic" in that sense, if you consider each player spawned to be a different person sent there from somewhere else.

[dew]

pacifist speedruns

[40oz]

this is hard to pinpoint because from how much I've played doom, there is the tiniest bit of real in Doom that I don't even think of realism when playing it. It's more just to see people's creativity in creating things that are visually appealing as well as having good gameplay. Especially in difficulties, which really just rearrange how much health and ammo is in the map.

But if you REALLY wanna broaden the spectrum of the debate, we can make all the people from the UAC suffocate due to lack of oxygen on Mars' Moons, remove easy access to weapons, the ammo you use for them, the health kits littered around, the radiation hazard suit that just kinda stands up, The monsters existing in the first place, the game saves, the ability to play at all after you die, and the executable you open to play Doom.

[eargosedown]

JohnnyRancid said:

and the executable you open to play Doom.

Now that, my friend, is a thorough examination!

[Pure Hellspawn]

If I had to say my thoughts on a realistic approach:

1. There would be no medikits, stimpacks, or other earth-items in hell (unless dropped by a dead marine).

2. Monsters would not infight or even be sensitive to pain.

3. Falling damage.

4. Demons alerting dormant demons if they see the player.

5. A little more variety of demons.

[DaniJ]

myk said:

The monsters repopulating the map just how it was last time, adding back every item while mopping up every corpse, reversing all the one-way triggers and removing every dropped item does not seem very realistic, even less so if it's done to more levels :p

You are assuming continuity. Another argument is that restarting a level or loading a save is a form of time travel.

[DuckReconMajor]

DaniJ said:

You are assuming continuity. Another argument is that restarting a level or loading a save is a form of time travel.

Heh, like so many stories where a person's Hell is reliving a certain event over and over again.

[Stupid Bunny]

As soon as I saw the word "realistic" in this thread title I knew it would be hilarious :D

Anyway...I always did kind of wonder why there were so many medikits and so much ammo in Hell. It really never made sense to me why the demons would want to stock their world of pain and brutality full of things to make people feel better. Also, it's interesting how the forces of Hell can completely overwhelm the UAC's entire colonial army on the moons of Mars, but have their asses repeatedly whooped by a lone marine.

I could go on...

[DuckReconMajor]

StupidBunny said:

As soon as I saw the word "realistic" in this thread title I knew it would be hilarious :D

I honestly didn't expect people to take this so seriously, but whatever.

The main thing that comes to my mind is that to make the gameplay fun, you have to make some pretty unrealistic architectural structures.

[GreyGhost]

myk said:

The monsters repopulating the map just how it was last time, adding back every item while mopping up every corpse, reversing all the one-way triggers and removing every dropped item does not seem very realistic, even less so if it's done to more levels :p

I was thinking more along the lines of having all but the first few rooms generated at random so the player can't rely on their memory to beat the game. :p

[Reevys]

StupidBunny said:

Anyway...I always did kind of wonder why there were so many medikits and so much ammo in Hell. It really never made sense to me why the demons would want to stock their world of pain and brutality full of things to make people feel better. Also, it's interesting how the forces of Hell can completely overwhelm the UAC's entire colonial army on the moons of Mars, but have their asses repeatedly whooped by a lone marine.

What about the fact that they managed to take over the entire planet Earth and kill billions of people, yet one lone marine kicks their ass?

[Udderdude]

The most realistic difficulty would be one where the Doomguy doesn't run at 30 mph.

[DuckReconMajor]

Reevys said:

What about the fact that they managed to take over the entire planet Earth and kill billions of people, yet one lone marine kicks their ass?

Well, there's this:

udderdude said:

The most realistic difficulty would be one where the Doomguy doesn't run at 30 mph.

and the fact that the monsters can't move and shoot at the same time.

[printz]

Nightmare isn't realistic, considering that any monster, save probably for the crushed Lost Soul (no %kills tally), respawns. It doesn't make sense that defeating any boss is treated as victory, when in theory they always come back.

[Strongbad]

He you want realism, stay away from doom, Wolfenstein would probably be more your thing.

[arrrgh]

Strongbad said:

He you want realism, stay away from doom, Wolfenstein would probably be more your thing.

If anything, I see Doom as more realistic than Wolf3D because Wolfenstein's theme is lighter and sort of cartoonish. It's hard to take it seriously, especially the bosses. Hitler in a robot suit? A giant, angry Nazi woman dressed in a pink jumpsuit with dual chainguns and a voice poorly done by a male? An evil Nazi doctor throwing syringes at you?

[printz]

In Wolf the shots were almost realistic; two close range hits and you probably died. I wish Doom 1 had equally powerful monsters (Doom 2 fixed it with the revenants). But the AI was rudimentary enough, and yet the same one-beats-everyone-off, to be any realistic.

[arrrgh]

That's true; but if the monsters projectiles, attacks etc were as powerful as they were in Wolf3d it would upset the game balance because in Doom there's a lot more enemies and they're a lot stronger hitpoints-wise.

[printz]

Good thing there's -fast; bad thing I can't save games with it. -fast ought to be the realistic difficulty, because by shooting continuously monsters are more like say, newbie players, who keep ctrl pressed while standing in place.

[myk]

printz said:
Good thing there's -fast; bad thing I can't save games with it.

Big deal, you can still use it as such. Just write on the save game name that it's fast, and then load it from the command line with the parameter instead of ingame. If you mean it discourages you from reloading saves after you die, good for you :p

[printz]

I've experienced lots of crashes on -fast and reloading. Not from command-line, but from the same game. At any moment after (or when) loading, Doom may hang.

[Butts]

Screw realism.

[myk]

printz said:
I've experienced lots of crashes on -fast and reloading. Not from command-line, but from the same game. At any moment after (or when) loading, Doom may hang.

Do you recall in what levels or game it occurred? This is a good subject for the Doom wiki.