stuck on "MAP 07: OUTER STORAGE WAREHOUSE"

[droidavoid]

i'm stuck on "MAP 07: OUTER STORAGE WAREHOUSE". how do i get past this level?

[BeachThunder]

You have to kill the first four enemies, then a switch gets revealed in the top right corner. Then you have to kill the next batch of enemies and then the exit switch is revealed in the same area as the previous switch.

[droidavoid]

many thanks for getting back to me.  i wonder if we are talking about the same level, i may have identified it incorrectly.  the central area is square and there are four areas coming off that, north, south, east, and west.  each of these four areas opens simultaneously and emits a horde of monsters.

 

the problem that i am having with this level is that it is far more difficult than all of the levels that preceded it.  i don't have the skills to fight through all those monsters and i wonder if i missed something - maybe i should have picked up a better weapon previously, maybe there is a powerup somewhere that helps in the fight...

 

i would be grateful for any advice.

[BeachThunder]

Yeah, same level. It's only 4 enemies at the start on low difficulty, which is what I had it set to. I didn't realise you were having an issue with the combat and not the general level progression.

 

Anyway, there's a video walkthrough for UV (pistol start):

 

[droidavoid]

yeah, sorry, i did not explain myself well.  many thanks for your help.

 

interesting video.  the person who recorded that plays much better than i do, i would have to practice the level 100 times to get through it.  i can't remember which difficulty level i selected at the start of the campaign, i believe it was #3 ("bring on the pain").  i guess my options now are to restart the campaign on a lower difficulty level, or to use the good old cheat codes, which seems like a shame.

 

this level is waaay harder than anything that preceded it, until now i think i died like maybe once and that was me being lazy.  so it seems to me like the progression is inconsistent.  also i was able to play through the original game on difficulty level 4 ("extreme carnage"/"ultra-violence") without too much trouble, so it seems to me that this level of freedoom is much harder than anything i ever encountered in the original game.

 

couple quick questions for you...

 

1) how can i see what difficulty level i am on?  i'm not 100% certain of which difficulty level i chose at the start.  is there a command i can execute, or a file i can inspect, to get the difficulty level?  can it be changed mid-game?

 

2) how can i find out the "code name" for a level?  for example the level that i am stuck on right now is entitled "MAP07 Outer Storage Warehouse".  elsewhere i see level names in the format ExMy where x is the episode number and y is the level number.  how do i found out the name of a given level in that ExMy format?

[luckypunk]

3 minutes ago, droidavoid said:

2) how can i find out the "code name" for a level?  for example the level that i am stuck on right now is entitled "MAP07 Outer Storage Warehouse".  elsewhere i see level names in the format ExMy where x is the episode number and y is the level number.  how do i found out the name of a given level in that ExMy format?

The ExMy format is from Doom1 (Freedoom Phase1), you're playing Freedoom Phase2 and in that format the level is called MAP07.

[cambreaKer]

7 hours ago, droidavoid said:

1) how can i see what difficulty level i am on?  i'm not 100% certain of which difficulty level i chose at the start.  is there a command i can execute, or a file i can inspect, to get the difficulty level?  can it be changed mid-game?

you can type "skill" in the in-game console and that will show you which difficulty level you are on (for example, skill 3 is bring on the pain)

[droidavoid]

8 hours ago, luckypunk said:

The ExMy format is from Doom1 (Freedoom Phase1), you're playing Freedoom Phase2 and in that format the level is called MAP07.

many thanks.

1 hour ago, cambreaKer said:

you can type "skill" in the in-game console and that will show you which difficulty level you are on (for example, skill 3 is bring on the pain)

how do i open the console?  google tells me to press the tilde key (~) but i tried that (and also Shift-~) and it did not seem to work.

also, is it possible to change the difficulty level of a game that is in progress?

[erzboesewicht]

I am currently playing through Freedoom 0.11.3 and I think @droidavoid you are right, there is a notable difficulty spike in MAP07. While in the original Doom2 "Dead Simple" is also a little challenging, I think the Freedoom counterpart - on UV - is more in line with the difficulty of Plutonia (from Final Doom) or Alien Vendetta. The reason is that there is almost no cover.

 

The best thing you can do to beat it is simply stay moving and shot to the spiders until they are all dead so you take less damage, try to not consume the whole Megasphere until this phase has finished. Then try to kill one group of the Mancubi first so you get a little bit more of cover in their room.

 

To the mappers: I personally like the challenge level in this level, but to tone it down a bit I would suggest to add a single medikit in each room where the Mancubi are hidden. So the player has a little bit of relief if he already used all health before. I would not take out monsters or add additional cover because that would ruin the level's challenge level.

 

By the way: I would like to give feedback to the levels of Freedoom and my general impression of the playthrough, is there a specific thread for it here? Otherwise I could open a new thread for that ...

Edited March 24, 2019 by erzboesewicht

[droidavoid]

many thanks for that confirmation.  i will take another crack at trying to finish the level given your advice.

 

i also had the idea of trying to get some feedback to the authors.  i was thinking of commenting in this thread:  

 

    Is Freedoom too hard?
 

but i don't know whether this forum prefers for its users to start a new thread rather than necroing an old one.

 

if anybody here can tell me how to open the console, or how to change the difficulty mid-game, i would be grateful.

[erzboesewicht]

I think changing difficulty preserving your health, ammo and weapons isn't possible.

What you can do is: start a new game on a lower difficulty, and then use the cheat code IDCLEV07 to go to MAP07. However, you will start with only your pistol and fists, but that's not so much of a problem in MAP07 as you are given the SSG with plenty of shells in the lift already and on the floor of the level you will soon find a rocket laucher and a plasma rifle.

The console key depends on the port you are using. I think prboom/prboom-plus does not have a console. Zdoom-based ports have one. See this wiki article:

https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Console

 

[droidavoid]

thanks a lot for that info.

 

i'm on prboom, i think (or prboom plus, i can't remember - my freedoom was installed automatically by the ubuntu package manager).  if prboom does not have a console then that would explain why i can't find it.  so is there any way for me to find out which difficulty level i am currently on?  is zdoom better than prboom?

 

i don't think i will restart the game from scratch.  i will try to complete the level using the tips that you gave earlier, and if i can't do it then i will just use IDDQD to get through it.
 

[erzboesewicht]

Yep, I think the Ubuntu Freedoom package features prboom-plus, if I'm not mistaken. At least it's not Zdoom. The "~" key seems to be only the Zdoom console shortcut. That totally explains that you're not getting a console.

 

I don't know a command to display the current skill on prboom. But to see on which skill level you are, you can open the map with the Tab key and look for the number of monsters left (in the upper left corner). MAP07 on UV/Extreme Carnage has 27 monsters, "Bring on the Pain" (standard difficulty) has 19, and if the number is lower, then you're on low difficulty.

 

I personally like prboom/prboom-plus, it's faster and close to the original game. ZDoom/GZDoom has more features, but is also slower.

[droidavoid]

many thanks for all of your help, much appreciated!