TheCastle

Ah thanks for the link. ill be back after I play some more through. TTYL

Feel free :) Id like that actually.

I think we have a pretty good handle of the capabilities of the doom engine. Especially as far as movment and being able to find shortcuts ect. Though I am willing to bet after some work people will find unintended shortcuts and the like. uh.. well aside from just being a long time fan and designer of maps myself I hadn't really put much research into more modern developments with the community. For example I have just started up a game of knee deep in zdoom and holy crap its another game lol.. I actually am considering to start a thread asking peoples opinions about Knee deep in zdoom just for my own curiosity. If you want to know, the new episode came about because apparently my begging skill was high enough to proc an episode. :D Puppy dog eyes +1.. lol (Actually its Brandon is an awesome guy) As far as nightmare... I think the general consensus with nightmare is, although I am not speaking for anyone else, that its so hardcore that it would be a bad idea to encourage normal players to play it. Ah honestly, I am not sure if that's the right attitude. What do you think?

Yeah its confirmed and noted now. Anyone find anything else like this PM me or Squib ok.

How in the world did that get by?? *scratches head* Can anyone confirm if that is also a problem on the 360 version?

On the 360 it shouldn't be visible unless you flip the switch. hmmm Honestly I didn't think this would end up being so easily ripped from the 360.. o.O I am not in any way condoning this btw. Just saying ;P

I had made quite a few doom 2 levels a long time ago. Tons of sleepless nights. Sadly I lost my best work due to a hard drive crash. I lost my Duke 3d maps from the same crash. :( This was so many years ago but it still bothers me when I talk about it. And Duke 3d maps are comparable to modern day games in terms of effort to create... >< I think I have worked with nearly every major 3d engine though. edit: Strife was a really cool game too. Ill ask around we might still have someone. :)

This is really good feedback :) I agree with you on the teleport traps and I can see why you would feel that way. I think that traps where more of the map opens up tend to feel more coherent and rewarding as you progress. I guess one of the biggest challenges with doing a doom episode is making sure your encounters feel relatively unique. I have to admit that using chaingunners or any hitscan baddy in a fairly large open space is usually a pet peeve of mine too. My goal with that particular area was to give the feeling of climbing the side of a mountain. Fully linear sequences are a pretty unusual thing to see in doom 2. I view it as an interesting experiment where modern and old school design flows had a chance to meet somewhere in the middle. The snipers are used strategically as a way to force you to take cover from time to time. which in turn causes a kind of feeling of sensory overload making the first sequence longer than it really is. Causing you to feel as though the level is now just beginning as you reach the top. Interesting no? Anyway I have to pry myself from the forum for a bit because I find myself thinking out loud too often on forums like this. Super happy seeing this episode come out so I should probably stop talking so much hehe. Glad you are enjoying the episode. :)

lol yeah no doubt! And for your information I was only something like at least 29 days off! haha

ah man! I didn't want anyone to find that until months from now :P edit: I am not upset or anything lol. Just surprised!

One more thing regarding the wiki you might find useful. http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?story=63984 There is a thread here that explains why the episode is 9 levels.... "The reason why the new episode is 9 levels long is, in a way, to show homage to the first episode of doom 1 which to this day I still remember being one of my favorite experiences ever in a first person shooter." I notice in the wiki that it mentions the number of levels.

Yeah im one of the designers. What map did that happen btw? just wondering :)

One thing to note about the overall challenge of ultra violence. It was in fact a deliberate design decision for us to almost exponentially increase the challenge of each difficulty. We wanted to make sure that hardcore doomers would have something that reminds them how badass they are while not making the game unplayable by Joe normal. So keep in mind when you play, the gradient in challenge per difficulty setting is much larger than in previous iterations of doom. And if UV is kicking your butt that is probably why.

That is an awesome compliment. :) I am glad that you guys are enjoying the episode. And its important imo to read peoples opinions on the design so this thread has been really nice to read. For those who are asking questions about the designers experience. There are two designers with about 9-10 years industry experience. I started my level design carrier in DEU/Deth. I lived and breath doom for years and years. Yes we did increase limitations such as vis planes to allow more freedom to make larger open areas. We were limited by essentially original doom 2 limitations otherwise. The reason why backpacks were limited was because of the potency of the ammo increase. After focus testing we found that the effect it had on the game was that it created a situation where either ammo became a forethought or we were forced to toss absurdly hard encounters at the player. The goal was not to make the episode plutonia hard. Although it does skate that a bit in UV.