Help/tips for a disabled Doom player?

[DemonicSavage]

Hello.

 

I'm physically disabled (slow movements in my right hand) and been playing Doom a lot, recently.

I play E1 of Ultimate Doom on UV. I play some of Doom II in UV.

 

I recently started Plutonia and this game is kicking my ass, even in ITYTD.

 

My main problem is strafing. I cannot really dodge projectiles because of it. And the amount of Barons, Hell Knights, Mancubi and Revenants are staggering.

 

Is there something I could do to improve my Doom skills, apart from practicing a lot? Can any other Doomers with similar disabilities provide me with some tips?

[xvertigox]

Off the bat I'll say I'm not physically disabled so I'm just spitballing ideas:

 

- Could a change in controls help? If you have issues with your (presumably) mouse hand could you bind turn left/right to Q/E? Can you expand on what issues you have with strafing (I assume it's circle strafing?)

 

- A stopgap measure could be a mod to reduce the damage or speed of projectiles to give you a bit of leeway and allow you to practice a bit easier? (I can help with this if needed).

[DemonicSavage]

My mouse hand is the left one, the one without disability.

I (theoretically) use A and D to strafe. My problem is not only circle strafing, but strafing at all.

I can strafe, but too slowly to actually dodge projectiles.

 

I would like a mod like that, but I would like even more to make mods like that. I never did anything Doom-related and don't really know the GZDoom scripting tools. Any pointers on that?

Edited February 5, 2021 by DemonicSavage

[taufan99]

I suggest that you use this mod that slows downs enemies and all their attacks. On the minus side, your movement is much slower as well (but not your own attacks).

Edited February 5, 2021 by InDOOMnesia

[dmslr]

9 minutes ago, InDOOMnesia said:

I suggest that you use this mod that slows downs enemies and all their attacks. On the minus side, your movement is much slower as well (but not your own attacks).

OP is physically slow, not mentally.

[baja blast rd.]

If you have the means, an option is to buy a left-handed gaming mouse with side buttons, and bind those buttons to strafe.

 

(Some ports won't allow direct binding of extra mouse buttons to in-game actions. A good gaming mouse will solve that by letting you bind the extra buttons to keyboard inputs.) 
 

Edited February 5, 2021 by rd.

[maxmanium]

Yeah, if you're using a port that allows it you can try binding strafe to one of the mouse buttons (mine is MOUSE3, the mouse wheel, even though I never use it). Then instead of looking around you'll strafe with the mouse. Circle-strafing still presents an issue, though...

[taufan99]

16 minutes ago, dmslr said:

OP is physically slow, not mentally.

My bad. Apologies for my misunderstanding.

[leodoom85]

Wonder if, in the future, someone manages to make a Doom mod with voice commands....would be hella difficult.
The idea posted by rd is not bad, by the way.

[zokum]

If you have good mobility with your feet you could put one-two keyboards or controllers on the floor and just use left and right foot for strafe left and right.

Maybe two of these? One big toe on 0, one on Enter.

[DemonicSavage]

I've tried strafing with a mouse, but it is absolutely terrible. To be fair, my mouse has a very awkward layout, and it is a right-handed one.

I probably could afford a new one, but there's very few left-handed ones and they tend to be expensive. Especially since I live in a developing country.

 

My best bet would be modding, for sure. Is there good documentation for GZDoom scripting? I tried to find it but it seems very sparse.

[DemonicSavage]

1 minute ago, zokum said:

If you have good mobility with your feet you could put one-two keyboards or controllers on the floor and just use left and right foot for strafe left and right.

Mobility in my right foot is also limited.

[xvertigox]

7 minutes ago, DemonicSavage said:

My best bet would be modding, for sure. Is there good documentation for GZDoom scripting? I tried to find it but it seems very sparse.

 

ZDoom Wiki is what you're after:

https://zdoom.org/wiki/DECORATE

https://zdoom.org/wiki/ACS

 

If you need a hand shout out.

[zokum]

6 minutes ago, xvertigox said:

If you need a hand shout out.

I don't think that was the most appropriate response, given the circumstances... We all know you didn't mean it literally though :)

[zokum]

16 minutes ago, DemonicSavage said:

Mobility in my right foot is also limited.

There re still some configs you could try, it all depends on how dextrous your left foot is. Put them on edge, move the foot to the side to press the correct button? You never need to strafe both ways at once. A joystick could also work.

A unidextrous mouse or a south paw one could be a nice investment. Keyboards can often be had for free though. I know I have at least 2 USB ones I don't use that I didn't pay for. I haven't paid for a keyboard since 2001.

Doom requires so many buttons that putting all of them on a mouse would be tough to play with. You need shoot, forward, backwards, use, strafe left and right.6  functions and only 5 fingers :| It'll be hard to keep a grip and use all these functions.
 

[maxmanium]

47 minutes ago, DemonicSavage said:

My best bet would be modding, for sure. Is there good documentation for GZDoom scripting? I tried to find it but it seems very sparse.

 

I'd be willing to (at least try to) make something for you! Just need to know what you want out of it.

[Dubbag]

Maybe use A and D as Strafe and the mouse to turn thats what I do.

[fraggle]

Some prior art: here's Espi playing Doom one handed  with the mouse after he lost his arm to cancer. Sadly of course he eventually lost his battle with cancer. RIP

 

 

[Dexiaz]

1 hour ago, DemonicSavage said:

Is there good documentation for GZDoom scripting? I tried to find it but it seems very sparse.

 

1 hour ago, xvertigox said:

ZDoom Wiki is what you're after:

https://zdoom.org/wiki/DECORATE

https://zdoom.org/wiki/ACS

 

If you need a hand shout out.

 

ZDoom wiki is definitely you need here, BUT not Decorate. For such tasks it's better to use ZScript:

 

https://zdoom.org/wiki/ZScript

[dmslr]

53 minutes ago, fraggle said:

Some prior art: here's Espi playing Doom one handed  with the mouse after he lost his arm to cancer. Sadly of course he eventually lost his battle with cancer. RIP

True doomer. Rest in peace.

[Ralphis]

If you are satisfied playing regular Doom, Boom, and MBF wads (not crazy GZDoom wads), you could use Odamex and use the console to turn down monster damage or health. 

 

sv_monsterdamage .5 would set monster damage to 50%

sv_monstershealth .5 would set monster health to 50%

 

You could play with these values to still play on ultra violence but lighten up the intensity

[Shaikoten]

If you have movement in your head and neck, it may be worth investigating TrackIR or a similar head tracking solution. Similar, albeit less precise head tracking can be achieved with a webcam and a hat or headphones customized to track things.

 

To elaborate, the setup I would use in this situation is to control with a typical WASD with the left hand, set shift or something similar to fire, and control turning with the movements of your head--I've used it before and it works well with simple, subtle left and right motions which should work fine with Doom. It's also similar to the tracking in VR headsets.

Edited February 5, 2021 by Shaikoten

[Ralphis]

Another viable option would be something like this: 

[Azuris]

42 minutes ago, Ralphis said:

Another viable option would be something like this: 

 

Some like those or a Racing Paddles, they're normally closer together and you could switch faster between then.

 

Something like an Arcade Stick could work also, grab it between your Toes and use it to strafe.

 

[TenenteZashu]

Maybe you want to try Slow DOOM, as the moddb page states ''This is a simple mod that slows down Doom's combat. It's meant for players who are unable to handle Doom's combat speed, like the physically or mentally handicapped.''

[DooM Bear]

Hmmmm... I have to say my first thought is a joystick and mouse set up. Mouse for good hand and a joystick just for forward, back, strafe left, strafe right in your bad hand.

 

This does depend on your right hand though. Is the mobility issue mainly just with your fingers or does it also effect moving your arm (I’m thinking if it’s like arthritis in your fingers type situation that you might be able to comfortably use the joystick with shoulder and elbow movements)?

 

You mentioned your left foot is also bad so am guessing this might be a no go but don’t stress if that is the case! I am sure we will be able to work something out for you :-D

 

Also, welcome to Doomworld :-) Am looking forward to seeing you around :-)

Edited February 5, 2021 by DooM Bear

[Mayomancer]

Trying different configurations of key bindings to take off some load from the mouse hand might help a lot, or even playing keyboard only. Changing the way you approach encounters could also be helpful since in a lot of maps you can just manage enemy aggro and infighting.

There might be a configurations of keys that allow you to shortcut a circle strafing motion on a single hand for when you need extra speed dodging projectiles, but i'm not sure what would work best for you.

Overall, i think that a combination of clever key bindings, knowledge of how to manipulate aggro may give you a comfortable experience. Don't be discouraged though because plutonia is pretty tough and the encounters are really mean.

[Maes]

7 hours ago, zokum said:

If you have good mobility with your feet you could put one-two keyboards or controllers on the floor and just use left and right foot for strafe left and right.

 

There are actually full-sized pedal controllers (for gaming or even for office use, e.g. for shift + alt keys) that could be used for that purpose.

 

Edit: oh well, @Azuris beat me to it.

Edited February 5, 2021 by Maes

[Grimosaur]

If you're really only having problems with strafing then I'd say the simplest option would just be to bind strafe to the scroll wheel, but for some reason I can't get it to work on GZdoom. You might have better luck than me, I might just have some conflicting controls.

 

EDIT: Actually just read that you can't bind the scroll wheel to 'buttons' on GZdoom. I think you can probably still get it to work with external software though. http://www.highrez.co.uk/downloads/XMouseButtonControl.htm With this software you should be able to bind say mouse down to the A key and then you just have to bind A to strafe in GZdoom and you can strafe with the mousewheel.

 

Edited February 5, 2021 by Grimosaur

[leodoom85]

7 hours ago, TenenteZashu said:

Maybe you want to try Slow DOOM, as the moddb page states ''This is a simple mod that slows down Doom's combat. It's meant for players who are unable to handle Doom's combat speed, like the physically or mentally handicapped.''

If there's something more simple, I suggest grabbing GZDoom, open the console and type "i_timescale 0.5" (or whatever value lower than 1) to slow down everything. In this case, it'll be 50% slower.