Why is nearly every surface a metal plate?

[Jaxxoon R]

I don't think I've ever seen anyone bring this up. Why is the UAC wasting resources paving the cafeteria in steel? They've got an entire planet literally covered in free sulfur concrete at their disposal. Considering all the broken pipes, it sure didn't help the structural integrity of the base. In fact, I think all the metal might've helped conduct the hell juice. Did Betruger conspire to waste the UAC's money with poor architectural design just to spite them?

[Gez]

If the base is largely built out of prefabricated on Earth, then metal is lighter and less cumbersome to ship.

 

Building out of local materials requires first setting up an industrial capacity for that; and the UAC is more interested in setting up an industrial capacity for weird science than for construction.

[Vermil]

Aren't space stations in most sci fi things made of metal or something that looks a lot like metal?

[Gez]

Metal, plastic, composites. Same reason: space stations are prefabricated on Earth and then sent in orbit to be assembled. Each gram you throw out of the gravity well must be paid for in rocket fuel, so you're not going to make a space station out of concrete.

[Jaxxoon R]

The concrete wouldn't be made on earth though, they'd make it on-site by mixing martian soil with heated sulfur.

[Blastfrog]

It was probably for the "cold, scary and dark space station" aesthetic and they didn't take practicality or realism into account.

 

6 hours ago, Gez said:

Building out of local materials requires first setting up an industrial capacity for that; and the UAC is more interested in setting up an industrial capacity for weird science than for construction.

I have my doubts;

 

 

[Deleted_Account]

Would wood be a better substitute for an off world research facility?

[riderr3]

As example Doom 2 taking place on Earth, when we see a lot of new brick, wood and panel textures, which absent from Doom 1.

Edited April 28, 2018 by riderr3

[hardcore_gamer]

It's very simple: Because they wanted to show off the graphics engine.

 

Graphics were a huge selling point for Doom 3, and they would not have been able to show them off them as well if they had just used some boring concrete instead of fancy looking sci-fi metal environments. Doom 64 had a more rational depiction of the mars base as it featured not just metal but also some concrete as well.

Edited April 29, 2018 by hardcore_gamer

[Jaxxoon R]

I just feel a little variety wouldn't have hurt the game any.

[hardcore_gamer]

7 hours ago, Jaxxoon R said:

I just feel a little variety wouldn't have hurt the game any.

 

Yea the whole game feels very similar though different parts do have different variations of the metal theme. Enpro looks fairly different from Alpha labs for example.

[NinjaLiquidator]

Cause they introduced normal mapping and fancy specular shaders and they wanted to utilize them maximally

[Tetzlaff]

BJA's custom level Lost Facility combines the UAC look with concrete walls and it works really well:

[Teder]

BJA's works are absolutely flawless.

http://bja-design.de/doom_dlc2.htmfile:///C:/Users/Computer-station/Downloads/molten_01.jpg

[Jaxxoon R]

Damn, I forgot how nice the later multiplayer maps looked. This guy does good work.

[MTF Sergeant]

They could have been highly galvanized to prevent rusting.

[Blastfrog]

On 5/2/2018 at 1:00 PM, Tetzlaff said:

BJA's custom level Lost Facility combines the UAC look with concrete walls and it works really well:

[pic too big to quote]

That really gives me a Half-Life 1 vibe. Then again, Doom 3 heavily mirrored that game's design, for better or worse.