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MH101

Running out of ammo

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One thing I've been wondering is that whenever I run out of ammo on one of my weapons, I always revert back to the shotgun automatically. Is there a particular reason why it's the shotgun the game reverts to instead of any other weapon or the weapon that comes before the weapon I previously used? And it's not like I ran out of ammo on everything else.For example, when I run out of ammo on, say, the plasma cannon or BFG, it always goes back to the shotgun.

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Probably because it's the most general purpose weapon. Chaingun is faster and more accurate, but relatively weak for the bigger monsters. Rocket Launcher is obviously special case because of the risk getting hit by your own splash damage, as well as the fact that ammo for it is rather rare.

Also, bullets and shells are most common because it's the only ammo dropped by fallen monsters.

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I think it has to do with how the game "decides" which is the "best" weapon.

Look at the last note here. Is that what you're talking about?

EDIT: Also, what Sodaholic said.

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I think to some extent it also depends on which source port you're using. Vanilla/chocolate Doom appears to favour the chaingun and will switch from BFG to plasma rifle if it's available.

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The weapons are ranked internally. Plasma Rifle is top dog, then SSG (in the Doom 2 engine), then shotgun, chaingun... I can't remember the order of the rocket launcher, BFG, pistol and melee weapons, but I know the chainsaw takes precedence over the fist and the game is very reluctant to automatically equip the RL.

So the answer to your question is "Because somebody at id says so".

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Krispy rapped:

Runnin' outta ammo man it ain't no thang
Find the black box stick it in the main vein
This one-man-army ain't lookin' for laughs
I'm a berserker-packin' motherfuckin' man-and-a-half!

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Zed said:

I think it has to do with how the game "decides" which is the "best" weapon.

Look at the last note here.

Thanks for the link, I knew there was an exact order, but could never figure out how it particularly looked like. It's interesting to see how RL is after chainsaw and BFG after the RL.

Although if I was in charge of setting up the order myself, I'd probably reverse these three. BFG9000 > Rocket Launcher > Chainsaw.

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Waffenak said:

Fascinating, maybe its because shotgun is all purpose weapon

Although later in the game the plasma gun becomes the all purpose weapon.

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I'm pretty sure the rocket launcher has the absolute lowest priority, with even chainsaw being above it. Probably to prevent situations where running outta shells or bullets would result in unexpected instant death when surrounded by monsters. I can imagine a lot of situations in e1 where that could happen to a new player.

I was hoping this thread was about thoughts on running out of ammo in game play, the challenge involved with rationing out ammo, and using atypical weapons for certain situations because you don't have the ammo for the preferred weapon. I've mentioned this before but sometimes I like to play doom with no hud. The trick being pretending you have infinite ammo for your weapons and 1% health at all times. It kinda gives me a more thrilling game play experience. It reminds me of those situations in movies where the character is shooting repeatedly in a panic until he unexpectedly runs out and keeps clicking the trigger or whatever. Its a cool "oh shit" moment. Heh

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scifista42 said:

Thanks for the link, I knew there was an exact order, but could never figure out how it particularly looked like. It's interesting to see how RL is after chainsaw and BFG after the RL.

Although if I was in charge of setting up the order myself, I'd probably reverse these three. BFG9000 > Rocket Launcher > Chainsaw.

That was done to ensure the player doesn't either blow himself up or accidentally waste 40 cells. In fact, when combined with the RL's and BFG's "safety", it's actually very difficult to do either of the two.

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It's because there is an eerie hoodoo curse on the shotgun. It doesn't want you to draw another weapon. It needs you, damn it. It needs your loving hands around it. Back when Doom was supposed to be a pencil and paper RPG, you had to take a Sanity test in order to use another weapon, even when facing Dark Young or Hounds of Tindalos, which resist physical damage. Losing the test meant you suddenly found yourself wielding the old single barrel instead of a BFG.

"I want to put the shotgun away and draw my chaingun."
"Right, sanity test first."
"Oops, I failed it."
"You realise that you never drew the chaingun and you lose three combat rounds while you bugger about. The He'll Knight hits you for 8D6 damage."
"Uh-oh, I'm dead."
"No, John, you ARE the demons."
"...Does that mean I'm dead?"
"Who cares? Get the PlayStation on for some DOOM."

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Some of the ports let you specify the weapon preference.

What I hate is when it decides that the RL is the next weapon, usually when the monster is within a few arm lengths.

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MajorRawne said:

It's because there is an eerie hoodoo curse on the shotgun. It doesn't want you to draw another weapon. It needs you, damn it. It needs your loving hands around it. Back when Doom was supposed to be a pencil and paper RPG, you had to take a Sanity test in order to use another weapon, even when facing Dark Young or Hounds of Tindalos, which resist physical damage. Losing the test meant you suddenly found yourself wielding the old single barrel instead of a BFG.

"I want to put the shotgun away and draw my chaingun."
"Right, sanity test first."
"Oops, I failed it."
"You realise that you never drew the chaingun and you lose three combat rounds while you bugger about. The He'll Knight hits you for 8D6 damage."
"Uh-oh, I'm dead."
"No, John, you ARE the demons."
"...Does that mean I'm dead?"
"Who cares? Get the PlayStation on for some DOOM."


X) You sir have earned yourself a gold star!

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I hate how most Build games have an overabundance of ammo regardless of high difficulty levels, a problem that Doom barely even has.

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I dunno, I always found DN3D to be somewhat scarce with ammo, including the Shotgun in early levels. Probably an issue as I never enjoyed using the Ripper chaingun in that game. Or really, anything that wasn't the shotgun or rocket launcher.

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I found Build games (DN3D, Shadow Warrior) very ammo lacking, even despite my attempts to explore every bit of a level for secretly placed goodies. Probably because I've never learned to use the weapons efficiently.

On that note (and on topic), I dislike when a game has too many weapons and each of them use a different ammo type. Then I found myself either always running out of ammo (if the maximum ammo capacity of the weapons is low, like in Duke3D), or always with overabundance of ammo (when the maximum ammo capacity is high, like in Doom 3). Doom gets it just right IMO. Well, I'm very used to Doom's weapon/ammo balance, at least.

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scifista42 said:

I found Build games (DN3D, Shadow Warrior) very ammo lacking.

I found Shadow Warrior including the two expansions have far too much ammo even on the highest difficulty level and the secrets increase it even further, I never ran out all that often.

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Simply the fact that I quickly run out of ammo of a particular weapon and that I am forced to frequently change weapons is enough to annoy me. I call it "running out of ammo" too.

I mean, when I can't have a lot of ammo for a weapon even if I try to save up for this particular weapon. I don't really mind changing weapons, or being forced to do so when the gameplay balance demands so. But when it's too much, it gets uncomfortable to me, if I have to care about how many (low) ammo I have for 10 different weapons.

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I can agree with DN3D lacking in ammo. I played through on Come Get Some recently and did not appreciate E3L7 being unbeatable because I'd used my only explosives (because of a lack of other ammo) and was required to destroy a crack in the wall to get the yellow key.

Oh. Well it's okay, there's a box of rockets in the cor- oh wait, no RPG.
Thanks.

Also, try pistol-starting E4L11. Brutal >:(

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Amph said:

you mean super shotgun right?


If that was directed at me, DN3D doesn't have a super shotgun, unless you're talking Duke Nukem Advance which has a quad-barrel shotgun. Again, scarce on ammo and there is never really much of an enemy worthy of its power.

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