Chaingun Guy usage

[40oz]

ITT this thread we discuss the good and bad qualities and what are the best ways to use them in your maps.

I know people bitch about chaingun snipers perched at high ledges at the opposite end of the map quickly draining your health with "100%" accuracy. I think it's bullshit. In fact, I enjoy chaingun snipers. I like it especially when there are some kinda obstacle you have to endure like riding a lift, running up some stairs, meandering around a thin ledge, or fighting a high tier monster. This is only best of course if there are some kinda obstacles or something that you can use to obstruct his view of you. It's a cool panicky feeling when your busy focusing on what's directly in front of you, and you see random bullet puffs appearing around you.

I'd much rather a chaingun guy be distant only getting a few hits on me once in a while, than in a monster closet right behind me, turning me into swiss cheese from point blank. Especially since I typically use the shotgun against them, that doesn't always dish out enough damage to kill them in a single shot, and with them being so aggressive, they fuck your shit up if you don't kill them soon enough.

Chaingunners aren't even that dangerous if you're sporting some armor. I do however, dislike too many chaingun snipers at a time, in such scenarios where trying to get cover from one puts you in the line of sight of another, or how the only way to get in a position where you can shoot one means being in visible range of a few others that are also camping in nearby locations.

I like fighting chaingun guys when they are elevated some units above the player on a ledge where they have some room to move. The more distant they are, the less room they should have to move (so you can pick them off with some plasma or a rocket)

I also like fighting chaingun guys in tight hallways at ground level when they are mixed in with other middle tier monsters, especially cacodemons and hell knights, so I can use their firepower to my advantage. Using them together with high tier monsters such as arachnatrons, mancs, and hell barons is a little too much of a nerf, especially when you're trying to balance out how much ammo the player has in most scenarios.

I'm interested in hearing your thoughts about chaingun guys.

[Herculine]

IDK... seems like you've pretty much covered it, 40. I agree with you: as long as they're used creatively and strategically rather than in a cheesy annoying way, the chaingunners can really add to the urgent tempo of a map. Having them stationed in key positions in a medium or large area is good usage. Having the player teleport into the center of a dozen of them is bad usage.

[ArmouredBlood]

I mostly use them for traps and tight hallways instead of sniping more for the reflex test than for the hit-or-miss shots with a shotgun; usually the player will have at least the ssg or RL in my maps, or there will be plenty of extra infighting they can cause. When I do use snipers, I prefer imps for long range. They're seriously about the last thing on the ranged threat list - even former humans can do more reliable damage over longer distances. So no one expects the wall of fireballs ;) And then I use sergeants for medium range. They can do a lot of damage in one shot, making sniper battles more risky. And for extreme range, nothing beats a cyber rocket from 2000+ units away (SL map28 ftw). So uh, slightly more on topic, I try to place monsters in the most hurtful way to fight them if you screw up. And then give tons of health, heh.

[printz]

What about Double chaingunners? :P

[40oz]

Go post on ZDoom forums.

[Grazza]

They're good enemies so use them liberally, but in marginal cases it is a nice idea to playtest with -fast, just to make sure that it is physically possible (for a good player who knows they are there) to survive any unavoidable ambushes.

[printz]

40oz said:

Go post on ZDoom forums.

I'm fantasizing about encountering Double Chaingunners in a vanilla Doom 1 mod (I'm repeating myself with this).

Besides, the ZDoom.org guys hate my guts. A little mistake and they're all over me.

[Jodwin]

printz said:

I'm fantasizing about encountering Double Chaingunners in a vanilla Doom 1 mod (I'm repeating myself with this).

http://www.akinomori.com/stuff/dcg.deh

[printz]

Jodwin said:

http://www.akinomori.com/stuff/dcg.deh

No.

Play a Doom mod... Whew, this is a Doom 1 mod, no annoying Doom 2 crap like chaingunners! The developers aren't gonna copy something straight from Doom 2 into Doom 1, because it's illegal. Instead they're gonna use a free resource (bestiary). So what do we get now? Double chaingunners. Crap.