SSG Addicts Anonymous.

[SuperPecanMan]

I've made so many maps with the SSG either hidden in a secret or given to the player late in the progression, and every time somebody plays them, the feedback is always "give me an SSG sooner please, this is too tedious." It's so frustrating because if you do give people an SSG sooner then they'll complain that the map is "mono-SSG combat" and therefore boring. And god forbid you ever make an encounter where the SSG won't carry you; suddenly it's "too hard" and therefore also bad.

 

I know doom players aren't a monolith and you can't please everybody; I'm just ranting here. Damned if you do, damned if you don't, that's just the way of the world once you start dabbling in subjective art.

[ImproversGaming]

I have to say I do find myself drawn to the SSG. It is a great workhorse for pushing through a range of enemies. I like the way it works, looks and sounds, and even the reload.

I do like swapping to other weapons but often find myself thinking things like "I should use rockets/cells to save shells" but less often about "using shells to save rockets/cells".

[Lucius Wooding]

You can make maps where the SSG is discouraged by simply placing more long range combat scenarios. The same tactic certainly works for the BFG as well, since it becomes costly in terms of cells if you're not hitting many tracers, as well as the overall killing speed being outclassed by rockets at some point. Plasma, Rockets, Chaingun, and even single barrel all shine when the priority targets aren't up in your face in groups. Those types of close quarters high enemy density fights are usually the bread and butter of mappers since they get the player's attention, but forcing the player to switch weapons mid fight is an important quality IMO. Freely SSGing the pinkies can be the reward once you rocket the sniping archviles first.

[MtPain27]

22 hours ago, Doomkid said:

....I watch streams/recordings and frequently see them exhausting all their shells while they have 20 rockets and 200 plasma cells...

Holy cow, you're one to talk!

[DuckReconMajor]

I dream of a future where a single minute of Doom 2 footage exists without boom-clip-clop-clack

[Clippy]

love it

[whybmonotacrab]

5 hours ago, SuperPecanMan said:

I've made so many maps with the SSG either hidden in a secret or given to the player late in the progression, and every time somebody plays them, the feedback is always "give me an SSG sooner please, this is too tedious." It's so frustrating because if you do give people an SSG sooner then they'll complain that the map is "mono-SSG combat" and therefore boring. And god forbid you ever make an encounter where the SSG won't carry you; suddenly it's "too hard" and therefore also bad.

 

I know doom players aren't a monolith and you can't please everybody; I'm just ranting here. Damned if you do, damned if you don't, that's just the way of the world once you start dabbling in subjective art.

Yeah, I just watched someone playing one of my levels recently where I give the player the SSG and just enough shells to rush forward to the rocket launcher - the main weapon of the map. Rather than do this, the player literally just cheated to give themselves 50 shells and 200 armour instead. They still died, because that room is mostly mid-heavy tier enemies, at which point they just complained my map was stupid.

 

 In future I think I'll just make maps without the SSG entirely. SSG-less megawad, here I come.

[Arsinikk]

We need more maps encouraging single shotgunning Archviles to death.

[LadyMistDragon]

1 minute ago, Arsinikk said:

We need more maps encouraging single shotgunning Archviles to death.

Encouraging but not abusing.

[heliumlamb]

23 hours ago, Wyrmwood said:

SSG is the most versatile weapon in the game

similar train of thought: methamphetamine is the most versatile stimulant in the planet

Edited November 8, 2022 by heliumlamb

[Doomkid]

2 hours ago, MtPain27 said:

Holy cow, you're one to talk!

Hey man, take me in the arena! Take ALL of me!

 

No but seriously, if you think I’m bad about not spreading my ammo usage out (I’m totally not) I think watching some other players would genuinely give you a heart attack.

[UncleTito]

THIS IS MY SUPER SHOTTY. THERE ARE MANY LIKE IT, BUT THIS ONE IS MINE. 

[Stabbey]

On 11/7/2022 at 3:40 AM, Thelokk said:

After a recent playtest of one of my maps, I got an angry feedback rant because I tried to make my map chaingun-centric (asking to chaingun a grand total of ONE HK), and was 'holding back big boy weapons like the SSG'. The addiction is deeply rooted indeed. 

 

My latest map is non-linear, and I put the SSG only on one of the three paths deliberately (other paths have different weapons), because all the dynamics of the combat encounters would change if players had all the weapons at their hands - especially the SSG. They still CAN do those other paths if they go SSG-route first, but I find the encounters more interesting and challenging if they don't have the SSG.

[baja blast rd.]

The RL is the most versatile weapon. Good at close-quarters, good at long range. Has a really high ammo capacity yet every rocket is pretty powerful. And you can use it to damage both monsters and yourself!

[Murdoch]

Heh heh ssg go boom demon go splat heh heh... heh heh...

[Maribo]

21 hours ago, Arsinikk said:

We need more maps encouraging single shotgunning Archviles to death.

Just give me a berserk please. :)

[GarrettChan]

23 hours ago, whybmonotacrab said:

Yeah, I just watched someone playing one of my levels recently where I give the player the SSG and just enough shells to rush forward to the rocket launcher - the main weapon of the map. Rather than do this, the player literally just cheated to give themselves 50 shells and 200 armour instead. They still died, because that room is mostly mid-heavy tier enemies, at which point they just complained my map was stupid.

 

 In future I think I'll just make maps without the SSG entirely. SSG-less megawad, here I come.

 

Honestly I feel this is more like a player's problem rather than SSG's fault...

 

It's just like, players have some weird expectations to things, and if you broke them, they'll just say the map is bad instead of picking on their own problems. I guess it's kinda like a Dunning-Kruger effect on these problems. Of course I'm not saying a map without SSG won't be fun, but it obviously depends on how the maps play out. If you're force me to SSG 20 Mancubi without any threatening situations. Then this map sucks even with SSG.

 

I guess the other way to go is force the players to rocket PEs. This is also similar to what I said above because so many players expect that you're not supposed to use RL against PEs, but that's completely wrong. Then I can rant about this rocket against PE thing because so many so-called "new player advice" put this one as an advice, and it's a really bad piece of advice.

[baja blast rd.]

35 minutes ago, GarrettChan said:

... so many players expect that you're not supposed to use RL against PEs, but that's completely wrong. Then I can rant about this rocket against PE thing because so many so-called "new player advice" put this one as an advice, and it's a really bad piece of advice.

Yeah, related post I made.

[Eurisko]

Cant get enough of that BOOM!!! 

[IcarusOfDaggers]

On 11/8/2022 at 2:19 AM, whybmonotacrab said:

Yeah, I just watched someone playing one of my levels recently where I give the player the SSG and just enough shells to rush forward to the rocket launcher - the main weapon of the map. Rather than do this, the player literally just cheated to give themselves 50 shells and 200 armour instead. They still died, because that room is mostly mid-heavy tier enemies, at which point they just complained my map was stupid.

 

 In future I think I'll just make maps without the SSG entirely. SSG-less megawad, here I come.

Oh yes, count me in on that. Maybe make it a CP, we'd see some participation

[MoreMending]

I will make 2-3 maps for doom II that focuses on everything OTHER than the SSG to show how mid the SSG truly is, and how good the other weapons are.

[Pirx]

i also tend to use it a bit too much, to the point where i exit maps loaded with cells that would have made my life easier, but i kept them for the next big fight.

[Stabbey]

14 hours ago, IcarusOfDaggers said:

Oh yes, count me in on that. Maybe make it a CP, we'd see some participation

 

That's an interesting idea. I think though, that one of the gimmicks of the CP should be that every map has to show at least one SSG which the player can never reach. It could be through a narrow window, in a cage, on a pillar, on a pillar descending into a pit of slime/lava, through an opening which is just one unit too short for the player to enter, whatever, but it has to be visible and it can't be reachable.

 

You could call the CP "No SSG for you!"

Edited November 9, 2022 by Stabbey

[Doomy__Doom]

1 minute ago, Stabbey said:

that one of the gimmicks of the CP should be that every map has to show at least one SSG which the player can never reach

And then dehack romero head for map30 to be an SSG, put it in a glass cage and force players to destroy their precious :)

[idbeholdME]

Don't forget that it actually has magical properties. You feed it 2 shells, and it spits out almost 3.

 

But the main reason I use it is because 95% of mappers oversaturate most maps with shells, big time. That combined with the SSG math of 2=3 makes it simply too ammo efficient to not utilize. If they had made the SSG shoot 14 pellets instead of 20, I don't think people would be addicted that much.

 

I think they intentionall made it a bit OP to promote the "shiny new gun" in Doom 2.

Edited November 9, 2022 by idbeholdME

[Master O]

 

[xScavengerWolfx]

Someone who like using the SSG to blast through thicck walls of meat, i've grown to like the single shotty more and i'll tell you why:

 

You see when i started i though the SSG was the only weapons for me because it was over powered and can take down a imp with a rocket launcher. But i started to get bored with the fact that "Oh this shotgun is great....but it sucks at long range combat", so i started to use the single shotty for maps and you know what...the single shotty is better then the SSG. I've gone back to the simple days of no SSG's in maps i.e. Doom 1 and i got to say i'm glade i've been slowly kicking my addiction of the SSG, i still use it but when i'm using only the single shotty i go "Man i have to work to just to beat down this ugly monster with a shotty", but making it harder for yourself is better then feeling over powered with a weapon that can tear through enemies like a.....

 

So what i'm saying is as Micheal Jordan once said "Stop it! Get some help". Thank you for listing to my speech.

 

 

Now if you'll excuse me i got some spooky bone heads to blast with the SSG.

[calsaintski]

Stay safe, and be responsible. Winners Don't Use SSG shells and you shouldn't as well!

Just because the cool kids are peer-pressuring you into it doesn't mean you can't say no.

[IcarusOfDaggers]

10 hours ago, xScavengerWolfx said:

 

 

Now if you'll excuse me i got some spooky bone heads to blast with the SSG.

 

Hold up! Something doesn't add up here...

[wallabra]

On 11/7/2022 at 9:06 AM, Doomy__Doom said:

For when it's really needed (tm). Like consumables in RPGs.

 

Hey, I think there is a TVTropes article all about this! I wish I could remember the name...