Is a blood floor supposed to damage the player?

[Havok]

I heard somewhere that one of the game designers said it was supposed to be boiling blood or that it said that in the game manual. Can't find it in one of the manuals, perhaps it was a different manual.

 

If you know please give me a link for proof.

 

Also do any levels in the official classic Doom games or expansions have blood that does NOT damage you? Also if so, please mention the game and map if you know it.

[Super Mighty G]

Entirely author dependent. But I can't think of many instances where it doesn't damage.

[Spectre01]

24 minutes ago, Havok said:

Also do any levels in the official classic Doom games or expansions have blood that does NOT damage you? Also if so, please mention the game and map if you know it.

Off the top of my head, Plutonia's maps 12 and 18 are flooded with blood that's not damaging. I'm sure there are more examples.

[Roebloz]

I'd say its up to the mapmaker to make it damaging or not. Plutonia with its weird rules about liquid is definitely one of them. (For example you got safe blood and slime, but harming water?) I rarely make it non-damaging, but some people do put it as a nice effect. (For example, blood in a skin room can be a nice effect even if it doesnt damage you)

Edited February 13, 2021 by Roebloz

[Biodegradable]

4 hours ago, Havok said:

I heard somewhere that one of the game designers said it was supposed to be boiling blood or that it said that in the game manual. Can't find it in one of the manuals, perhaps it was a different manual.

 

Even in the old IWADs made by the OG id Boys, pain sectors were very inconsistent. Make whichever liquids you wants safe or painful, nobody really cares mate. Do whatever you want!

[inkoalawetrust]

As others have said it's entirely up to you if blood floors should damage the player, the only issue with using blood as a damaging floor is that you need to actually be consistent with it, so don't have one blood pool be harmless while the other one damages you.

Either that or have some way to distinguish damaging blood floors from non damaging ones, for example if you are making a map for ZDoom ports, you could just make bubbles and/or steam come out of damaging blood floors, along with even a boiling sound if you want, to pretty obviously indicate if a blood floor will harm you or not.

[Doom-X-Machina]

I have a general rule for myself when it comes to my maps...

Lava, slime and nukage cause damage. Blood and water do not.

[Stupid Bunny]

5 hours ago, Super Mighty G said:

Entirely author dependent. But I can't think of many instances where it doesn't damage.

My recollection is that blood in the Scythe episodes doesn’t usually do damage.

 

I myself always make blood non-damaging; just as a preference, I like it as a decoration and want to be able to use it as a regular floor a lot.  For shits my personal rule scheme that nobody else has to use is:

 

Blood, water, sludge: no damage

Nukage: 5% damage

Big glowing crackly rock: 5% damage

Small glowing crackly rock: well I’ve used this texture like once in all my maps and it didn’t damage then

Lava: glows and 10% damage

 

The main thing as others have said is just to be internally consistent within a mapset, or at the very least within a map. If you have to violate your consistency then there’s various ways of doing so: for instance I usually make water non-damaging, but in this one area I’ve (tried to) signal that it damaged by making it bright and trimming the water pools in FIREBLU.  I might also vary the above percentages some depending on the situation, that part is less important than whether they’re consistently damaging or not.

 

But yeah you can also make like the Casali Bros. and have no consistency whatsoever. People will complain but other folks won’t and at the end of the day just make it work with your vision. 

[purist]

If you think your damaging floor is not going to be clear to the player you could always put some in an easily escape place with a stimpack nearby so it's no harm no foul.

[Silhouette 03]

6 hours ago, Spectre01 said:

Off the top of my head, Plutonia's maps 12 and 18 are flooded with blood that's not damaging. I'm sure there are more examples.

Not much of an example since there are so may inconsistencies with damaging sectors in Plutonia. Annoys me to no end. Either make one liquid type consistently damaging or not.

[Alfwin]

I try to stick to a very specific pattern with damaging liquids, across all my maps, for the sake of consistency.

- Water and brown slime are never damaging

- Nukage does 2%-5% damage

- Blood does 5%-10%

- Lava does 10%-20%.

If another flat is used for a damaging sector, I'll try to make it as clear as possible from the environmental design that it's a hazard (Like the use of Flat22 as a damaging sector that looks like some sort of power conduit in Containment Area).

[Gez]

If the level isn't a pure Hell level (but instead perhaps a corrupted techbase or city), you can put a "POISON" warning texture near the first pool the player sees.

[SilverMiner]

1 hour ago, Gez said:

If the level isn't a pure Hell level (but instead perhaps a corrupted techbase or city), you can put a "POISON" warning texture near the first pool the player sees.

If the liquid is nukage or brown water, the statement is ok(but demons actually could try to at least rip off the warning signs from the walls). But if it's blood...

Before the level's area got corrupted and flooded with blood, it wasn't toxic there before so the "POISON" sign wasn't left by humans. But who left it there then? Demons. Why should they warn the Doomguy about something that can harm him? I dunno. Weird

[Cruduxy Pegg]

You can give tell tales that something bad might be going on with a blood pool. Elevated areas around it, Full of demon corpses, ashwall or other ruined textures around it. If a player still steps in they can only blame themselves.

[seed]

Only if you wish, the IWADs themselves have some maps where blood floors don't necessarily damage the player.

 

HR also had maps where extensive use of non-damaging blood floors was made, mostly near the end.

[Deadwing]

Sometimes

[Yugiboy85]

Any floor can be damaging, it's up to the mapper's choice really. I've seen maps where water is damaging for example. 

The only thing that I would say is a necessity is if the damaging floor texture is consistent throughout the whole map/mapset. I really hate it when a flat is established to be damaging in some map and then, some maps later (or in the same map), the same flat is non damaging. 
 

[94's the best style]

Usually I treat Blood and Brown Slime as the weak damaging floors, Green as the medium and Lava/striped flat22 as the very damaging floors. Though I also sometimes have the cracked flat with seams full of lava  as weak damaging, due to heat of the lava. Blue water should only ever be damaging if it's the level boundary, aka way to force players to turn back before they hit the invisible wall, though in maps that support it, I would have strong stream doing the same thing.

[magicsofa]

I never make blood floors damaging. I once used damaging water with the logic that it's electrified by the machinery around it, but to be fair to the player I put lots of warning signs and it's only 2-5% damage with lots of health bonuses around. However, blood is thick and not as electrifiable. The boiling argument is kinda cool though, and I think as long as you give indicators to the player then it's all good. I personally prefer to use it as decoration only. I can see why people might want to use it as an intermediary between 2-5% and 10-20% damage that's prettier than brown sludge. But seriously, 10-20% damage is just ridiculous. I do 2-5 for nukage and 5-10 for lava.

I thought there were no damaging blood floors in either of the original IWADs?

[Doom_Dude]

At some point I decided that blood causing damage didn't make much sense. The boiling argument would work if it looked boiling... I think a better argument is that demonic blood is caustic.

 

Lava and nukage hurts.

Blood, water and brown slime doesn't hurt.

 

and in a few maps I have custom textures like yellowish chemical slime that hurts.

[ViolentBeetle]

Normal blood doesn't hurt, but hell blood does. I generally go with what my level requires. On one of my maps blood has outright corroded the floor, so of course it hurts.

But I try to keep it consistent.

[idbeholdME]

What's all this talk about 2-5% damage? There is no floor that does 2% damage, only 5, 10 and 20.

 

Or do people mean some custom one?

[Doom_Dude]

50 minutes ago, idbeholdME said:

What's all this talk about 2-5% damage? There is no floor that does 2% damage, only 5, 10 and 20.

 

Or do people mean some custom one?

 

Behold Vanilla Sector Special Effect 7!

Edited February 13, 2021 by Doom_Dude

[Mr.Rocket]

I usually don't set a damage for blood, water or sludge, but I do for lava and nukage.

If you think about it though, if one was to swim around in blood, it would probably be pretty repulsive and may make one sick heh.

If it's for deathmatch, likely won't set a damage to any flats, depended. ~ it's the nope, you shouldn't have went over there scenario. :D

 

 

Edited February 13, 2021 by Mr.Rocket

[galileo31dos01]

16 hours ago, Spectre01 said:

I'm sure there are more examples.

 

Yes, Vivisection (NRFTL map 05), possibly map 06 has both safe and damaging portions but I don't remember well.

[Pirx]

4 hours ago, Doom_Dude said:

Lava and nukage hurts.

Blood, water and brown slime doesn't hurt.

 

and in a few maps I have custom textures like yellowish chemical slime that hurts.

 

its up to the mapper obviously, but the more important thing is to keep it consistent.

 

this being said, i think your choices are sensible, as damaging blood doesn't make much sense to me. you're supposed to be knee-deep in the dead. 

hot, radioactive and acid stuff hurts of course.

[Gez]

7 hours ago, SilverMiner said:

But who left it there then? Demons. Why should they warn the Doomguy about something that can harm him? I dunno. Weird

For the same reason they leave him a lot of medikits and ammunition?

[SilverMiner]

17 minutes ago, Gez said:

For the same reason they leave him a lot of medikits and ammunition?

Ammo is placed as a decorative symbols of violence and medkits are meant to make the Doomguy live longer and thus suffer longer

[P41R47]

1 hour ago, Gez said:

For the same reason they leave him a lot of medikits and ammunition?

Doomguy is yeezus and the demons seeks salvation through slaughter :)

[Mystic 256]

It depends of the wad author and sometimes the level theme / environmental story telling / visual contexts

 

Blood usually varies between wad authors if they are damaging or not

 

Mud/Sewage/Poopoo Water also kinda depends on the author if its damaging or not

 

Nukage is mostly damaging unless they are using it as swamp water for example instead of toxic waste

 

Lava is the only liquid you can be certain that it will be damaging across wads, any exceptions are kinda rare but they can happen

Maybe it could be used as non damaging cheese in a map where doomguy is mouse sized in giant restaurant

 

Water is pretty much always not damaging except unless its a ice level sometimes or the water is electrified by broken tech or something or used as a alternative barrier instead of a invisible wall on a ocean (because we don't have giant dope fish that can eat the player if they go too far out)