My doom3 idea

[Guest dexter]

Ok this is my first post here so hi everyone. I have what i think is a good idea for doom3. Doom should go back to episodes like d1 and after every episode instead of having a text screen have a cgm/fmv. Also they should have these in certain levels and make shure they advance the plot. On the subject of the plot it should be an BIG part of the game as that would make the whole thing really cool.

[Shaviro]

Youre absolutely right Dexter! We need to go from the 1-level half-life to the more DooM-ish gameplay! With intermission screens ETC!

[Zaldron]

I was about to rise this topic.
Should DooM have cutscenes?
The cutscenes weren´t in DooM cause, well, they didn´t exist. Some people think cutscenes would ruin the scary feel by taking the player "out" of his character. I would really preffer interactive cutscenes sorta mixing Elite Force ICARUS system with Half-Life feeling.
About important scenes, like the game intro and outro (that´s a word?), they should made them at 640x480 Bink compressed. I don´t want them to be made with the DooM engine cause it´s a waste of time.
iD software always hired an external company to make the sequences. I really like Quake 2 and 3 intro animations. So iD should follow that way.

[EllipsusD]

Blasted thing did it again... deleted my post.
Anyway, the status screen would be good as long as it doesn't hinder continuity or believability.
Cutscenes (or however you want to do them) great, but I want less linearity when I play games.
And my own thoughts...
The progression of levels should be directly related to the difficulty level choses. Instead of a souped up version of an easy level, I would rather have a new, more difficult level. It takes time, and won't be included, but developers should at least consider this in the future.

[Eurhetemec]

Zaldron said:

I was about to rise this topic.
Should DooM have cutscenes?
The cutscenes weren´t in DooM cause, well, they didn´t exist. Some people think cutscenes would ruin the scary feel by taking the player "out" of his character. I would really preffer interactive cutscenes sorta mixing Elite Force ICARUS system with Half-Life feeling.
About important scenes, like the game intro and outro (that´s a word?), they should made them at 640x480 Bink compressed. I don´t want them to be made with the DooM engine cause it´s a waste of time.
iD software always hired an external company to make the sequences. I really like Quake 2 and 3 intro animations. So iD should follow that way.

I'd tend to agree, to a certain extent, intro and outro pre-rendered, and high-quality, the Q3A "Sarge" intro being obviously the watermark for quality.

However, I'd like different characters to be available, personally, and prefer non-linearity to pure linear "level by level" plot, so I'd prefer more variable cut-scenes, perhaps even with choices to be made in them (even if's just to shoot Marine Traitor X or let him go, or whatever, or to hide whilst Demon Horde Y emerges from the gate, and move through stealthily, or to try and take them out before going through).

I only played the demo of Elite Force, so can't really comment on that. I was less than excited by HL's pre-scripted events, though.

Rendered cut-scenes for all would increase game size, and limit plot very precisely, as well as forcing everyone to have the same character, but that's another thread, and I'll start that seperately (the character issue).

[Zaldron]

Unless you cloack the problem.
Look at Diablo 2 cinematics, they´re from the sweetest material I ever saw. Despite Diablo 2 had 5 characters, they made just 1 ending (by just depicting the HellForge Hammer and your gauntlet)
I love non-linear games, but, for the sake of production time, they allways have "plot crosses" in common. In those places they should make the cutscenes.
We don´t really need that much character customization/selection, but if iD add´s that, i suppose that evey cutscene will depict the Marine in his Standard Combat Armor (wich coincidentally covers his face).

[Jayextee]

Good point.

I prefer the episodal, not least because IMO players need satisfying 'milestones' to mark their progress.

I'd also like it to be non-linear, like Doom1 and Quake (Because this allows me, upon replaying the game, to get the crap out of the way first. Quake episode two, I'm talking to you!)

But the way FPS are going, it looks like we're stuck with one, long level, a la Half-Life. Not that HL is bad, or anything, it just bored the crap outa me.

[Eurhetemec]

Zaldron said:

Unless you cloack the problem.
Look at Diablo 2 cinematics, they´re from the sweetest material I ever saw. Despite Diablo 2 had 5 characters, they made just 1 ending (by just depicting the HellForge Hammer and your gauntlet)
I love non-linear games, but, for the sake of production time, they allways have "plot crosses" in common. In those places they should make the cutscenes.
We don´t really need that much character customization/selection, but if iD add´s that, i suppose that evey cutscene will depict the Marine in his Standard Combat Armor (wich coincidentally covers his face).

Yes, you do point out the commonest solution, and perhaps the most sensible one, which is to have the cutscenes involve the results of the player's actions, but never the player themselves (not visibly, anyway). Diablo 2's were particularly nice, and were one of the things that pushed me to actually finish it.

The other good thing about that is that you don't have to worry about what state the Marine is in, what armour they're wearing, and so on.

In-game, I still favour "game-engine" cut-scenes, with the PC being seen "as is", whatever weapon they had out, out, however injured they are, whatever outfit they have on, and so on. They take up alot less space too.

[NiGHTMARE]

If Doom 3 has cutscenes, which I for one think it should (they'd help the story no end), they should definately be made in the engine, for the following four reasons:

1) Help keep the "immersion" feeling. If you suddenly switch to a different graphical style, either pre-rendered or live action, it would remind you that you're playing a game. If you keep the same style, although you'd temporarily lose control of your character, it'd be more like you're still there.

2) The engine is supposedly going to be so graphically brilliant that it would be pointless not to utilise those graphics for things other than actually playing. It might even look better, plus it would probably be a lot easier, less expensive and less time consuming, to make them using the engine itself.

3) Hopefully the engine will have extensive scripting capabilities while you're playing, e.g. you come across a team of marines fighting ol' cybie and just as you think "ah, some allies at last", they get gibbed :) Again it would be pointless to waste this scripting when it could be used in the cutscenes as well.

4) This is perhaps the most important point. Add-ons! It would be far, far, far easier for people making add-ons to cutscenes if they could just make them in the engine rather than have to make .avi's or .mpg's or whatever. As Doom 3 levels will probably be something like 10 megs each anyway (at the rate FPS games maps are increasing in size), this would also mean much smaller downloads.

[Guest Lament]

I would certainly like to make levels for DoomIII. But if making a level means I have to make, beside the map, also a cutscene, a log with 'hand-drawn sketches' (as in another thread out here) and a plot to fill a medium-sized novel... I would probably commit a suicide. Even if the cutscenes are made with game engine :)

[NiGHTMARE]

Obviously you wouldn't HAVE to make a cutscene or logs or whatever, that would suck.

But it would be nice to have the option.