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Era Di Cate

"Old" Doomers, how did you get used to reloadable weapons?

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That is, if you did try at all.

 

Asking because I am interested. I had basically grown up playing Half Life and I had managed to adapt to the reloading function quite quickly, at a cost of having a small temporary mental repercussion when trying out Doom for the first time.

 

So where did you first encounter reloadable weapons and how did you react?

 

EDIT: I guess I asked Doomers who's first FPS was Doom or Wolf3D. This may include people older than the game(s) and people who miracously haven't heard of FPS games til now and decided to start with Doom first.

Edited by Era Di Cate

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Does 29 count as old?

 

I just reload all the time. I've seen old Doomer and Wolfer don't even reload. I have some OCD to keep the magazine full even though some of the weapons I don't even try to emergency switch into.

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The first game I played which required reloading was Call of Duty 1. I didn't even know there was a reload button for a long while, so whenever I ran low I'd just waste the last couple bullets. After I finally found out about the reload button, I could never remember to use the darn thing. It wasn't until after we started playing multiplayer regularly that I finally got into the habit.

 

My little brother was even funnier: He would keep shooting until the guy finished the entire death animation and was lying still on the ground, spending ~20 of his 30 rounds. Then he would waste the rest because he didn't think he had enough to kill another Nazi. XD Yes, he spent an entire magazine per bad guy!

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Reloading wasn't much of an issue for me. Even though 26 certainly doesn't count as "old" either, Doom was the first FPS I ever played, and that set the baseline for me. Later when Doom 3 and quake 4 came out, the reloading didn't bother me too much, since these games were made so that reloading wouldn't be a problem. Making a habit out of reloading whenever I was certain I wouldn't need to shoot the next two seconds came naturally, but that aside I think Doom plays better without any reloading at all. ;-)

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Im not old either, Doom was the first FPS game I played (like 6 or 7 months ago, yeah, I lived a really boring life...). And I actually never noticed that you don't reload until someone pointed t out to me. It's a cool feature (or lack thereof, hehe) and it's absolutely needed in such a fast paced game like Doom.

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I'm old enough that I had played games without weapon reloading many years before I played any games with it, but young enough that I had no problem getting used to playing games with weapon reloading. The feature has a potential to slow down gameplay (bad) but also make it more tactical (good), so I don't have an absolute preference of it being or not being included in a game.

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Not that I'm an fossil, but when reloading was becoming a thing in games I used to just not worry about it, since autoreload is also a thing in most games. But eventually my older brother harped on me long enough about how stupid it was and I got into the habit of just always reloading asap. Personally, I feel indifferent to the thought of reloading in games, as while the "realism" is cool and all, most of the time it adds next-to-nothing to the gameplay beyond an extremely basic, tedious habit.

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After Doom, I got into FPS games on console which pretty much all had reloading. For PC though, it was that shitty RGA mod that put Call of Duty weapons into Skulltag. 

 

I could never afford PC gaming when I was younger. Doom was all my computer could handle. And when I saw that someone modded a fucking Intervention sniper rifle and I could 360 quickscope revenants from across the map, I was in awe. So yes, that was my first experience with reloading a gun in a PC FPS. 

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My first FPS was wolf3d (I'm 33.5).  I don't think I ever really noticed the switch for more than 2 minutes, and thought it was cool but didn't put much thought into it otherwise.  It was just another gameplay mechanic, like not using the spacebar to use when I went to Quake.

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I like reloading. It's another thing to consider. Doom was the first FPS I ever played and even at the time I thought it was kind of dumb that they didn't have reloading - despite having nothing to compare it to. I didn't understand the trope/cliche they were going for. I like it now, but I'm actually pretty excited to be able to play some more modern games when I get my new PC built.

Is it more realistic? Actually, I think it's about the same. Are you really going to throw almost an entire magazine away just to have 4 more bullets for the next encounter? Would it be insane for a game to have animations for reloading a clip? I think it'd be cool. 

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I first got used to reloading in the original Half-Life.  It added a sense of tension to combat situations, and encouraged quick decision making.  Do you reload the weapon you've got, or do you switch to something else before that vortigaunt can launch another attack?  Swap pistol mags, or pull the crowbar to bat the headcrab in mid-flight?

 

I know there are a lot of differing opinions on this, but I feel it adds a certain ebb-and-flow feel to combat.  Periods of high stress, followed by short bursts of reprieve and strategy (or, if you're unlucky enough to run dry in the open, extreme panic).  It's all up to the player, though, whether or not they enjoy that sort of thing.  I could take it either way, personally.

 

But I'll admit, when I'm playing vanilla Doom, I have a habit of pressing R after downing a couple of imps on occasion.  I guess it's probably better to have that reflex than not, though.

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I bound reload to 'R' in Half Life and had no problem at all.

 

I think the only issue I ever had was in Counter Strike, where I had to learn to switch to pistol to avoid getting gunned down while reloading.

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I think I came across it either in Half-Life 1 or CoD 1, after some time I got used to press the reloading button all the time even if the magazine is full.

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On 8/16/2017 at 9:30 PM, leodoom85 said:

reloading?.....what's reloading?

The 10 hour animation that plays each time you shoot the SSG.

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1 minute ago, Pegg said:

The 10 hour animation that plays each time you shoot the SSG.

That animation is what made me love Doom, and the SG animation of course :D

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Sorry, but this thread makes no sense. Reloading was always around and just because 90's id games decided to ignore the concept doesn't mean we weren't used to it elsewhere. The build engine games all have weapon reloads, except they're automatic. And my PTSD flares up whenever I recall reloading weapons by dragging ammo over them in the inventory panel in System Shock. Pressing R and waiting one second is casual stuff for impatient millenials.

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God system shocks UI is enough to give fps players nightmares. (This thread doesn't make sense because Doom has some reloading as well, If it said heretic or hexen players it'd make sense)

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I typically have no major issues with it. I reload probably a bit too much, such as after a fight without making sure its clear. gets me killed multiple times in Counter strike. But I always giggle at the new rise of the triad, where they literally put a useless reload function into the machine gun for people that are addicted to reloading.

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9 minutes ago, Memfis said:

I don't see any purpose in it other than to slow down the gameplay and annoy the player.

 

This. 

 

Reload is ok in more realistic shooters because those are slower. Doom on the other hand is so fast paced, even when you're not fighting monsters,  that reloading invariably means stopping before the next fight just to ensure your mags for chaingun, plasma gun and rocket launcher are full. In fact that's what I did while playing doom3 or half life: scrolled through my guns to check ammo after every brawl. It's more fun when you can fart 600 cells without checking that mag every second.

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It was pretty easy to get used to reloading. Just hide.

 

Arcade games had reloading.

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I honestly don't remember how quickly I got used to it or if I even had much trouble with it at all. I do believe Half Life was the first FPS with manual reloading that I played and since the game starts a little slow with mostly slow-moving headcrab zombies (if I recall), I'm inclined to think it was fairly manageable to comfortably learn to press the 'r' key before things in the game got really hairy.

 

I do know that by 2001, I was reloading video game guns like I'd never done anything else in my life.

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23 minutes ago, Memfis said:

I don't see any purpose in it other than to slow down the gameplay and annoy the player.

Example scenario: You have 2 weapons, one of which is more powerful, but compensates it by slower reloading, in a fight that leaves you fully exposed to enemy attacks for most of the time, but occasionally lets you take cover for a brief moment. The optimal strategy may turn out to be like this: Fire the more powerful weapon (to kill the most dangerous enemies) until the magazine runs out, then switch to the less powerful weapon and keep firing it (to painlock enemies so they don't hurt you, without causing much damage to them) until you get an opportunity to take cover, during which you reload the more powerful weapon and repeat the process. This fight could be fast paced, tactical, and feature weapon reloading all at the same time.

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In a game like Doom, where I am flying around the map and blasting demons in the face, reloading always feels like the dev putting a momentary stop sign in my face saying "wew lad hold on, let's see those totally sweet reloading animations". 

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Team Fortress 2 was the game that taught me how and when to reload. Okay, more specifically, when to leave shots left in the chamber in the case of guns that don't refill their entire clip instantly, but rather gradually - namely the Soldier.

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3 hours ago, Decay said:

Goldeneye, then came a more complex reload system, perfect dark.

I think this is it for me. Half-Life had it too, but I played a lot more Goldeneye. The shift wasn't too hard since Goldeneye was polygonal and grounded in reality. I can't remember if I noticed Turok didn't have reloading, though.

Also Duke3D's pistol has to be reloaded after every 12 shots so reloading wasn't a completely foreign concept to little child me.

Also also, I played a lot of Outlaws too, where every weapon had to be reloaded bullet by bullet.

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