Terra-jin

Incredibly cool looking!

You found that out the hard way didn't you? :D "let's see if I can -- MOOOO!!! *splatter*

That problem could be overcome by the following. Normally, hitscans in excess of the monsters health go through to the next enemy. What if you'd get these 'excess hitscans' to still do damage to the first monster, but also surviving through to the next. This way, the behavior would be exactly the same, but you'd have the added cosmetic effect of monsters gibbing from excess hitscans. Would this be feasible?

A valid question! In ZDoom, you can toggle respawning monsters on or off, but this only works on UV. I use this feature to tweak the gameplay a bit. Here's how I prefer to play: The game begins at UV -fast -respawn. The objective is to reach the exit, only after I've collected all items and visited all secret areas to spice up the challenge. This phase is all hectic and crazy. When I finally do reach the exit, I turn off respawning so I can clean out the level at my leisure and survey the carnage I wrought. The calm, calculated gameplay of this phase feels like a nice reward for surviving the Nightmare. This way, things at least seem remotely fair. I do still have to find a way to include the reduced monster reaction time. That way, the first phase will be a pure Nightmare experience. PS: Thanks BaronOfStuff & Gez, that explains it.

I've been playing UV with -fast and -respawn (and double ammo for good measure), patting myself on the back that I can do Nightmare. However, in this thread, they say that Nightmare also removes the 8-tic reaction time of the monsters. Is this true? I've tested it out on ZDoom (E1), but couldn't really see any difference. Is this true for vanilla Doom? Would this make Nightmare significantly harder? PS: I've also learned that crushing a monster's corpse will prevent it from ever respawning again :O it's amazing how you can learn new things about a game that's two decades old!

Ah yes, ghost monsters. Cool bug. What I meant however, was respawning. Apparently, crushed monsters do not respawn. So theoretically, you could lure every monster under a door / crusher and empty out a map on Nightmare. Hmmmm... I've tested this on ZDoom, and crushed corpses seem to persist, whereas normal corpses or gibbed corpses are eventually respawned. Perhaps this is unique to ZDoom..? I never realised this. Is there a command line option or something that can change monster reaction time? Something like -noreactiontime? It does seem a little strange to me... why wouldn't the faster reaction time be included in -fast monsters? Seems like something that -fast would encompass. Odd (but cool in a way) that this feature is unique to Nightmare. As for the double ammo, ZDoom has an option for this in the menu. For vanilla, I don't think it's possible.

Yeah I remember the first time that happened. I was playing one of my own WADs and in the middle of a fight everything... changed. Really weird experience. Took me a while to realize that I was a ghost myself... kinda my own personal Sixth Sense moment :P

All those hitscanners make this pretty difficult! I'm playing each level getting 100% secrets and items, and when I reach the exit, I switch off respawning (it's actually UV with -fast and -respawn). This way, I can clean up the level and switch from the hectic, nightmarish playing style to a more relaxed, careful approach. I realise that the extra health and ammo I can then get makes it a bit easier, but then again collecting all the items before I turn -respawn off makes up for the challenge. It's really fun this way and just wanted to share this with you, and maybe hearing a few strategies you guys use when playing Nightmare. Currently I'm doing E1M7, which is rather hard due to the large numbers of shotgun guys and many items to collect. After this, I'll take on the ultimate challenge: E4 Nightmare! I'm wondering if this is even possible with my mode of gameplay... but we'll see..!

I agree, although some maps are simply impossible to play the legit way... I usually play DOOM1 ep 2 and 3, because these maps are pretty doable in Nightmare. You don't need elaborate escape routes and luck to complete them. What I really like to do is getting 100% secrets and items, then make my way to the exit - and when I reach the switch or linedef I don't actually exit the level, but toggle respawn off and go back to the map to clean up any remaining monsters. For this to work, you have to actually play UV with -fast and -respawn, or else you can't disable respawning mid-play.

Nightmare's cool :) you just have to play DOOM in an entirely different way. In fact, one of the most challenging modes of play, I think, is to get 100% items in Nightmare. That way, you have to visit even more parts of the map than with NM100S.

Once you learn the trick to avoid the homing missiles, you should be able to deal with revenants. It makes gameplay more interesting because, as others have said, you have projectiles that require more than mere side-stepping. Not to say that I haven't cursed the bastards often enough when I got stuck at something with a missile on my tail, though :P but it's what makes them interesting. Also, ever noticed that they don't fire in close quarters? You can drag Revenants around when you keep them close enough. This way, you can very well punch a whole horde of them to death. And if there's plenty of them and plenty of room, you can actually 'collect' their missiles and use them to your own advantage! <3 Revenants :)

Hooray for DOOM! 17 years... there's got to be a fair share of players who are actually younger than DOOM now :)

We have a winner!

Nope :P you'll see it :) I'm not giving any hints hehehehe

Cool finds! I've got two more for you: 1. Look closely at the last frame of the barrel's death state. See something familiar? 2. The Pain Elemental's wake-up sound is a distorted version of the Spiderdemon's wake-up sound.

After years of playing AV and HR with UV -fast, I've finally picked up the courage to try Nightmare! I had tried it a few times before, but was toasted instantly. I'm generally capable of finishing any level at UV -fast, but Nightmare! requires a different approach altogether... My style of playing was always to carefully pick fights and take my time to weed out all the monsters in the map. This doesn't work as well on Nightmare... I've been trying out new styles of play and I can manage the three original episodes of DOOM. It's incredible how this not even remotely fair skill level can turn DOOM into a whole new game! Anyway, the purpose of this thread is to find out what your views/tactics are on Nightmare. Especially E4 & DOOM 2, let alone Plutonia, AV etc... how do people survive those wads on Nightmare??

Agreed, I've tried E1 but I haven't succeeded yet, whereas I can pretty much survive indefinitely in some maps of E2 and E3. It's the hitscanners, indeed, that make it difficult. Then again, the zombies do provide you with an eternal ammo source. Another factor is the sound sectors. By this I mean the area in which monsters will notice your sound, separated by closed doors or sound blocking linedefs. If these areas are big, they'll all come looking for you. There's some maps where this becomes a real problem.

Haha yeah, I remember a quote from Romero about such a speedrun: "It's just gotta be impossible..."!

Having DOOM dreams? You're a fast learner! http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18082-dreams-of-doom-help-gamers-learn.html

C&C: Red Alert C&C: Tiberian Dawn FreeSpace series Quake 1 Dungeon Keeper StarCraft GTA 2 Though DOOM is the only game I regularly play. The other games I just play once in a while; they remain good if you keep from them some time. DOOM is the only game that's just always good :) although I will say that Red Alert is still my all-time favourite game.

Yes... died there... :o also once in the poisoned water area of E3M3 Pandemonium :P

It makes sense that all things disappear with skill 0, because each things can be toggled to appear at skill 1-2, skill 3 and skill 4-5. This means that any thing can at most be present at skill 1-5.

I've got one for audio: having to listen to You're Beautiful by James Blunt. It'd drive anyone insane after a relatively short time. Also, Fuck Your God by Deicide should do the trick.

Ah yes, that bit of the map has an excellent mix of monsters and is small enough to ensure that everything gets caught in crossfire. I usually weasel my way out of it by being silent and lure the initial monsters out of my way ^^

@Kyka: Huh, you don't see that everyday. I remember I saw a zombieman get shredded by an Imp. I stopped for a while because I didn't think it was even possible :| I had seen former humans get gibbed by Demon-bites, but this was new to me.