Action Doom: Rampage Edition

[MortisCausaDonatio]

Back in the day when thought scripts, dehacked and other stuff is nothing more than a witchcraft that some special people can use to hack the doom engine.

 

This mod blew my mind back in the day.

 

Really good to see this in a new light.

[Gregor]

In light of this updated release, i wanted to check out the original before jumping into the remake. However, using GZDoom, i couldn't get past the very first room (plane) because i can't put away the briefing file. I just stays on screen, even after pressing use. Nothing seems to work. I downloaded ZDoom and i can put the file away just fine in that. But i prefer not having to use an older port. Does the original Action Doom not work with GZDoom?

[Scuba Steve]

Correct; part of the necessity of a re-release was GZDoom's inability to properly interpret the DEH file that enabled most of the game's tricks.

[GermanPeter]

Question: can I still beat the game normally even on the lower difficulty settings? Because going through more than half the game in the original, only to be met with a "Haha you need to play on Hard to continue"-message was a massive slap in the face. Why even bother with other difficulties then if they won't let you beat the game?

[QuakedoomNukem Cz]

3 hours ago, GermanPeter said:

Question: can I still beat the game normally even on the lower difficulty settings? Because going through more than half the game in the original, only to be met with a "Haha you need to play on Hard to continue"-message was a massive slap in the face. Why even bother with other difficulties then if they won't let you beat the game?

Because that's how Konami's console games were back in the day, the most known one being Contra 3, where you would not get to fight the final form of the final boss when escaping the alien lair, and wouldn't show you the ending. In fact, most of their SNES games had their full endings locked behind Hardest difficulties (some of those being hidden, because Konami).

The mod is not really that difficult when playing on Contra Difficulty, just make sure you know how to beat the TLB, because if you don't, then it might take you a while to realize how it is meant to be beaten.

[Scuba Steve]

3 hours ago, GermanPeter said:

Question: can I still beat the game normally even on the lower difficulty settings? Because going through more than half the game in the original, only to be met with a "Haha you need to play on Hard to continue"-message was a massive slap in the face. Why even bother with other difficulties then if they won't let you beat the game?

I just start the game on the hardest setting, warp to map 03, and noclip to the lower right corner and then enable clipping and run the 'gantlet' and jump into the helicopter.

[GermanPeter]

1 hour ago, QuakedoomNukem Cz said:

Because that's how Konami's console games were back in the day, the most known one being Contra 3, where you would not get to fight the final form of the final boss when escaping the alien lair, and wouldn't show you the ending. In fact, most of their SNES games had their full endings locked behind Hardest difficulties (some of those being hidden, because Konami).

The mod is not really that difficult when playing on Contra Difficulty, just make sure you know how to beat the TLB, because if you don't, then it might take you a while to realize how it is meant to be beaten.

Yeah, and I'd say that's something from older games that shouldn't be emulated. A lot of NES and SNES games also intentionally placed enemies out of view or just spammed them so they'd get the jump on the player and steal their lives, but that's not something to copy either.

Replaying the game should be encouraged, not enforced. Getting a bad ending by only playing on Easy? That's fair. Missing out on a weapon or enemy or two, that's also okay. But not being able to even finish the game is pretty unfair. The player literally doesn't even get a chance of seeing the ending if they're not playing on the setting the game wants them to.

And I'd say dying in just a single shot is rather difficult. I remember not even being able to beat the WAD on the Contra-setting when I was younger. You can cheese it by save-scumming, but that's not fun, and neither is having to cheat to reach the rest of the game.

So again, what's the point of even having difficulty settings then if you can't even complete the game by playing on the easier ones? You're legitimately missing out on so much content, and that just sucks (even from a designer's perspective, because a lot of players might not even bother playing further and will quit before seeing all the hard work you put in).
Especially if there's not even a disclaimer or anything of the sort at the start that says: "Hey, this difficulty is just for beginners, you won't be able to see all of the game this way", so the player gets told they messed up well past the point of no return, at no fault of their own.

So I'd really recommend adding that and instead giving the player some sort of other "punishment" for playing it safe if you really think it's necessary (which I really don't), or just reward players for playing on the hardest setting by giving them a different ending.

Edited July 10, 2023 by GermanPeter

[Angelloproduct]

On 11/1/2022 at 9:22 PM, kevansevans said:

I should also try to reach out here. One of the longer outstanding bugs was getting the zscript hud to work universally across all players and settings, which I personally found incredibly difficult, and Steve is still looking for someone who can shed some light on a potential fix. If anyone is willing to help out in these regards, please contact me or Steve.

 

For anyone wanting a more immediate fix, you can open up the wad in Slade (or open the wad like a zip), navigate to ActionStatusBar.txt and change the number 3 to a smaller number for a smaller hud, or a larger number for a larger hub. It accepts decimals as well.

 

pretty late to this but if there's issues with the Hud, have you considered using SBARINFO since the source port has a scaling option in the Hud options