NoXion

Archviles, Chaingunners and Shotgun guys are my priority targets because of the threat they pose. Especially Archviles, hateful things especially if the mapper is being a dick about their placement.

Well, it depends. If I grab a key card and three of the room's walls drop down each with a horde of monsters behind them, then I have a range of options ranging between fighting them all right there, and fleeing like a yellow coward, depending on my current health and ammunition status. But if I'm trapped in a deadly situation I can't fight or dodge my way out of, how is that fair? Especially if I've already had to butcher my way through a tough crowd to get there. I'm not sure that's a good comparison. I find platform/shoot'em up enemies to be a lot more predictable than Doom monsters, for although they're far from master tacticians, their movements dynamically emerge from events in the game rather than following a path more or less dictated by the level designer (compare the movements of a lowly Zombieman with that of say, a Techbot from the first Duke Nukem game, or an enemy ship from Tyrian). The terrain is also significantly different; environmental hazards in Doom are fewer and further in between, or are at least no more than a secondary threat. Being killed by a lava pit or a crusher feels like a much cheaper death than being nobbled by a horde of demons, because at least with them you can take some of them down with you. You can't do that to a wall or a pool of toxic slime.

Speaking as someone who plays maps but has never built one, I would agree that inescapable pits that don't kill you are a total drag. If I fall in one I won't ragequit or reload my game, but I will noclip my way out of there and then resume playing as normal. That sort of thing is not usually enough to make me stop playing but I will definitely think less of the mapper if it happens, because being forced to use things like noclip or god mode takes me out of the game somewhat. Unforeseeable insta-death traps are dick moves as well. I should be able to see the threat coming and react accordingly, even if I only have just a split-second to do so. I should at least in theory be able to play through a map to completion (i.e. hit the end switch) without having to die even once. I also hate it when maps railroad the player into specific tactics or playing styles in order to beat them. This is probably more a personal preference of mine rather than something all mappers should try adhering to, but I also intensely dislike maps that have a low ratio of weapons and ammunition to monsters; if I wanted to play a game where I'm forced to desperately go over areas with a fine toothed comb in order to procure sufficient ammunition and health items, I'd play Resident Evil, not Doom.

A, A, A, C, B Apparently I'm a Nomadic Cocky Corporal of Butchering. In movie terms I reckon I'm the brave young Lieutenant who gets killed in the second act by the Wehrmacht sniper/daemon hordes/scary dogmatic aliens.

Downloaded the latest demo. I've never played the original game, but this is looking very good indeed. Very pretty, and I didn't know that GZDoom supported actual 3D models. Considering how brown and gloomy the first level of Doom II looks, it's impressive how bright and colourful this mod is. I look forward to its completion!

It works now. I think I like the way the randomness of this mod seems to creep up on you; when I first started I didn't notice much difference except for the weird way the pistol seems to work and the way the enemies jump when you shoot them. Then I died when I pressed the first end of level button. lolz. In the next map, the enemies were all invisible. Nuts. Get to end of level, hit button, die again. Is this always going to happen? The third level is where it really starts screwing with me. Sudden inexplicable night vision? Okay. Then it changed to this dark blue shit and OH GOD I CAN BARELY SEE A stat counter pops up, for seemingly no reason at all. Hit end level button, die AGAIN. Next level: it's still dark, which is probably why I die quickly. At this point I stopped playing to post my first impressions here. Overall, I think this has the potential to be hilarious, although having the level end button always be lethal could get tiring quickly. I don't think players should be forced to always do pistol starts, even in a silly mod.

Doesn't work with my version of GZDoom. I get this: unnecessary gigantic paste

I've played a few levels of Vanguard in Vanilla, up to the one called "13 Angry Archviles". I was doing well up until then, I resurrected myself multiple times on that map. Given that I find it easier to lose health in Brutal Doom (for example, I'm pretty sure that BD's equivalent to "Hurt Me Plenty" has monster numbers at "Ultra-Violence" levels), I can't see myself having too much fun on difficulty levels harder than "Power Fantasy". Which is a blast but you can really notice the difference in terms of taking damage. So it feels more suitable for a run-and-gun for stress relief rather than really challenging your FPS skills. But I'll give it a go with BD, on difficulty "Full Ultra Violence" and then I'll report back.

That's a good point, and I can appreciate that there are those who prefer vanilla Doom. In fact I myself have recently gotten into the habit of trying out new WADs with vanilla GZDoom first. This helps me decide what mod it might be good for (since there are mods apart from BD that I play) as well as keeping me familiar with the way vanilla plays. Thank you for clarifying. I guess the over-the-topness just doesn't bother me, in fact it can sometimes be bloody hilarious. I like the finishing moves, they remind me of Brutalities from Mortal Kombat and it's interesting to see that kind of mechanic implemented in an FPS, although I do think it could with tweaking. Perhaps make it give you a bigger health bonus? The chatter from the rescued marines is amply compensated in my view by the fact that they're actually quite useful and worth rescuing, even if they tend to get themselves killed when going up against large numbers of powerful monsters. As I understand it the player only talks if the player decides to. With regards the feel and general "attitude" of BD, if there can be said to be such a thing: I guess there are qualities and elements that I like in games that I would find despicable or annoying if I encountered them in real live people. You know, there have been a couple of occasions when playing BD where I've missed a switch because it's covered in blood, but as I remember it the blood definitely came from more than one monster being killed in quite a confined space. I don't think Brutal Doom is as bad as you say in that respect. Now that I'm aware of that possibility it is something I try checking if I end up getting stuck while playing. But I guess if there are multiple things about the mod which don't jive well with someone, then it's another irritating fault to lengthen the list. I too am disappointed by the attitude both of the pro-BD and anti-BD sides. The subsequent shit-fights end up doing a disservice both ways; for the militant pro-BD folks their defensiveness prevents them from recognising BD's real imperfections (since it ain't perfect), while the vocally anti-BD people waste their own precious time talking about a mod they don't like.

HMP, continuous play with GZDoom. Saving occasionally Rylayeh - Map01: The Dock Finished the level on: 40 (or was it 70?) Health No Armour Kills 82% Items 53% Secrets 20% Time: 14:03 The level looked good, but felt somewhat lacking in ammunition. I'm not a fan of mappers putting monsters high up on ledges, especially when I'm ending up using the pistol for quite a while. The sinking submarine was a nice start but I think the mapper should have done a bit more to bring it to the player's attention, since I only just caught it. I can understand why Getsune Fune is reminded of Shadow Port. This map could have done with better monster placement and more interesting fights.

I don't entirely understand the "balance" argument. Mapping styles in Doom vary, from small rooms and narrow corridors filled with small numbers of monsters and not much ammo, to massive open slaughterfest arenas with crowds of monsters and ammo in heaps everywhere. I don't think it works as a general criticism of BD or any other mod, although I accept it that it might be a good argument for recommending or avoiding certain maps or map-packs. For example, if one tried playing Holy Hell using the mod Hideous Destructor, it would simply be impossible for anyone who isn't a god of FPS to finish the map. But Doom The Way iD Did? That might be more reasonable. Similarly, DTWiD would be far too easy for most players if played with the mod Russian Overkill, but it goes well with HH. As for Brutal Doom's supposed "bro-ness", that seems to me to be a subjective observation, since I don't get that impression at all. A bro is something like what a highschool jock grows up to be, right? I don't see any popped collars or spraytans or whatever the fuck it is that's supposed to signify bro-ness (as a Brit it's foreign territory to me as far as I'm concerned). I instead see demons getting killed in bloodier and more spectacular ways than in vanilla Doom, with the entirely optional choice of adding literal insult to mortal injury. I have something of an appreciation for lowbrow humour so occasionally giving demons the finger can be amusing, especially if the enraged demons in question end up causing worse infighting. Look, if you like BD, that's great. So do I. But could those of you who do like it please stop and think before you reply to those who don't? Calling them names isn't going to change their minds and just reduces to shit what could otherwise be good discussions.

Don't know whether this really belongs here, but... If I die, I more often than not "rage quit" by exiting the game entirely and doing something else for a while. I've gotten into the habit, for some reason even I can't fathom, of starting wads right from the beginning again after quitting, rather than loading from a saved game. I guess it enables me to get familiar with the first few maps of a wad and thus blow through them on a later date. Also, I have a tendency to try wads out with different mods, to see how the mods change the gameplay and atmosphere of the wads in question. The mods I use are Brutal Doom, Aeons of Death (V5 since I can't get V6 to work), Eternal Damnation is Doomed, and Real Guns Hardcore.

I meant the latter, in an attempt to represent them going "I smell something, where is the fucker? Maybe he's over here!" *blam* "damn, nope".

That's interesting, because I always thought the BlurSphere was completely useless. It seems to me to make no difference whatsoever. I use GZDoom. I reckon it would be a much more useful powerup if while it was active the monsters could sense the player's presence but not actually see the player (can't monsters hear the player without seem them? Maybe that code could be used, I dunno), maybe have the monsters fire blindly in random directions as well.

Oh man, this sort of shit is like mental catnip for me. Hope you all don't mind: Why do you feel this way? Because it makes absolutely no sense to me. If it's intangible, how can it possibly be known to exist? And what do you mean by "energy"? As I understand it, it's a property of objects transferable via fundamental physical forces, which rules out absolute intangibility (as opposed to merely being intangible to our bodily senses but detectable with instrumentation, e.g. radio waves). Thing is, the distinction between "traditional" (I take it you mean classical) physics and quantum physics is one made up by humans for our own convenience, not one that inherently exists in nature, i.e. in physics as it actually happens rather than as it is described in textbooks. They are one and the same. They coexist and interact in the same universe. That assumes that there is some eternal unchanging quality which can meaningfully be labelled "humanity". Considering that humans are an evolved species subject to natural selection, this again simply does not make any sense. There's no clear dividing line between "humans" and "pre-humans", so why should there be one between us and "post-humans"? Even if the transfer is mediated by technology rather than evolution, an uploaded human personality (and a society composed of same) is still going to have many human traits, at least in the early stages of its existence. If consciousness is a process contingent on there being a body to express it, as the continuing lack of evidence for such things as a "soul" or a "life-force" seems to strongly suggest, then terms such as "consciousness stream" are extraneous, and add nothing to our understanding. In other words, different "streams" reduce down to different bodies, since "stream" and body amount to the same thing. It depends on what you mean by "conscious continuity" exactly. Remaining conscious during the process? I would think not, since the body is destroyed during the process. Are you the same person stepping off the teleporter as you were stepping on? A trickier one to answer. I'm inclined to think it would make no difference unless there is some as-yet undiscovered property that is not being transferred along with everything else. But since you are positing (unless I'm getting you wrong) that the person who's getting off the teleporter pad has the same memories, personality, and so on and so forth as the person who stepped on the pad, then what exactly would be missing in any case? Nothing that really matters so far as I can tell. Of course, the above also assumes (for whatever reason) that this "soul" or whatever is non-transferable. Why should we assume this? If souls can be stolen or sold as per many human mythologies, then why can they not be transferred technologically? Well, first you would have to rigorously define what this "stream of consciousness" is in the first place. It's a fascinating topic and you're not stupid for wondering (woah, just had some deja vu as I was writing that. That's the human brain at work right there!). I'm hoping that further research by scientists will solidify our understanding of consciousness. At present, I am 99% sure that consciousness is a process that is entirely contingent on physical processes of some kind without recourse to souls or life-energy or similar pre-scientific concepts. Our pre-scientific intuitions about the universe were that the world was flat, that the sky was a dome covering it studded with tiny points of light, and that gravity was an unidirectional force pulling everything on earth in a specific direction. But it turned out that the world is a spheroid, stars are massive collections of fusing gas flying through a seemingly-infinite void, and gravity is omnipresent and pulls in all sorts of directions. If we could get such basic things about the universe wrong because of our intuitions, then I think that it's likely that our intuitions (as opposed to what we know through science) about consciousness are similarly wrong.

Gore is not an essential component of the Doom gameplay experience, but it is a significant contributor to the atmosphere and setting of the game as a whole. You're playing a game in which the material universe gets invaded by homicidal demons; if there aren't any splashes of the red stuff to be seen, then I for one think that something has gone wrong and find it much harder to get into the spirit of things. The fact that gore causes certain self-appointed "moral guardians" to clutch their pearls in horror is a nice bonus, though. Having said that, I would agree with the one who compared gore in games to cake icing; the more elaborate and involved the better (see; Brutal Doom), but a confection made entirely of icing is no longer a cake.

Very impressive, particularly the cars. They're the best I've seen yet in Doom.

Look at it this way; if Ebola is contained before it reaches US shores, then that's money well spent, surely? It's not as if viruses are in the habit of respecting the arbitrary lines in the sand that we call international borders.

Is it just me, or are imps not as much of a threat as shotgunners? I find their fireballs really easy to dodge, but if a shotgunner gets a shot off then at the very least they can shave a tiny bit off my armour/health. Unless they're at a long enough range that they can easily miss, of course. But even then they can get a tiny bit lucky whereas classic doom imp fireballs travel really slowly and are ludicrously easy to dodge at long range, unless you somehow get hemmed in by a ridiculous amount of them.

I've played Halo 1, 2, 3 and ODST. While none of them struck me as particularly innovative (and thus I cannot consider them "ahead of their time"), they nonetheless provide a solid FPS experience that's best enjoyed in split-screen mode. Nothing quite beats humiliating your friends and flatmates in the same room by teabagging their dead bodies!