PL2: Mordeth Award contender finally hits the streets

[GreyGhost]

myk said:

To each his own, though all I can think of in regard to CTRs nowadays is that they make good catapult missiles. DOOM scales nicely on my LCD and the color looks really fresh. I made the change and never regretted it.

I wonder, however; it might be viable to make brighter and darker versions of a WAD, since the brightness of monitors is of a relatively predictable difference. I remember my older monitor's gamma 3 in Doom was slightly darker than 0 on this one. If there's the demand...

I'm thinking about this because of a level set I'm making. Obviously I'll use lighting to suit my monitor, but might consider a brighter version for those who use darker ones.

Having just made the change to an LCD monitor (the focus on my CRT was starting to drift) the first thing I did was turn the brightness down. While that will make some maps too dark there are "Game" and "Night View" mode pre-sets I can fall back on to play them.
I have an idea - maybe impractical - instead of producing lighter and darker versions of a wad, provide interchangeable COLORMAP lumps that are optomised for brighter/darker monitors.

[Graf Zahl]

I haven't yet seen a single LCD screen on which Doom looked good. I could tweak all I wanted with the monitor's controls, the graphics driver and even the engine itself but it always looked dull and washed out - not to mention that the latency of most screens is still horrible and the image tends to smear.

[myk]

GreyGhost said:
I have an idea - maybe impractical - instead of producing lighter and darker versions of a wad, provide interchangeable COLORMAP lumps that are optomised for brighter/darker monitors.

Hmm, there are some already available ones*, but they kill the color range a bit much. A brighter** alternative palette is a better idea. This implies changing all of PLAYPAL, but I think inkworks can help with that.

* I used one for a while when I had a monitor that kept getting dimmer and dimmer with time.

** Brighter in my case, as someone with a darker monitor may also be generous to those with a brighter one and include a darker palette.

[Nuxius]

Of course, if more people made at least some attempt to properly calibrate their monitors, these types of problems would not be anywhere near as common. :p (well, outside of occasions like Myk's old monitor dying, but that's obviously beside the point).

[40oz]

Graf Zahl said:

Gusta's maps are definitely the best in here

I disagree. The maps themselves are pretty high in detail and pretty but the gameplay is annoying. I think every single one of his maps start with monsters who can already see you, so often when i start I'm aimlessly running around in circles in a map I'm not very familiar with yet. I'm dodging rockets and archvile flames trying to pinpoint which monsters i have to kill first. So many monsters are jammed in some of the most broad areas so if you make two more steps than you meant to you now have a hoard of cacodemons and hell knights on your tail.

Extremely frustrating for the most part but pretty neat maps.

I forget who the author was but Cosmodrome is the best map I had played in the wad.

[Creaphis]

JohnnyRancid said:

I disagree. The maps themselves are pretty high in detail and pretty but the gameplay is annoying. I think every single one of his maps start with monsters who can already see you, so often when i start I'm aimlessly running around in circles in a map I'm not very familiar with yet. I'm dodging rockets and archvile flames trying to pinpoint which monsters i have to kill first. So many monsters are jammed in some of the most broad areas so if you make two more steps than you meant to you now have a hoard of cacodemons and hell knights on your tail.

That's why I like them. This is a unique, interesting, complex challenge, as opposed to being predictably surrounded by one or two kinds of monsters when you grab a key.

[Butts]

gusta's maps were incredibly excellent, or so i found them to be. all maps have been fun to play, and i think map 11 is probably the best archvile only map in existence.

[40oz]

I hated map11 when I first played it due to the ambushes and lack of cover, but the second time I played it, it was a blast.

[t.v.]

I was just wondering if there were any reviews on Pl2 yet?
I can't seem to find any :-(

[GreyGhost]

Apart from the reviews here one's been approved for a forthcoming T/nC.

[40oz]

Hmm... I wouldn't say it's better than Scythe 2. Close but not quite.

[Jimmy]

I'm planning on doing a video review soon (hopefully this weekend). Stay tuned to my YouTube channel. :>

[Xaser]

Okay, I finally finished the wad. I almost regret ever complaining about the first maps, 'cause the last few redeem everything completely. Everything from 19+ was bloody genius in some way or fashion, and it all played great. Also, boss of win.


...

A few misc. replies:

My LCD monitor is great. I haven't had any troubles running games and while the color was a little odd at first, I've tweaked it to where I like it. Having ultra-big widescreen is awesome. I always have far too many windows open at any given point in time.

...

Something tells me I don't play Doom as much as 99% of you guys. Amazing how so many can spot the subtle differences in gameplay styles between megawads. It's easy to know they play differently, but it's a far different can of worms actually being able to say precisely how they're different. Crazy attention to detail, you crazy Doom freaks have. ;P

But whatever you would call the "surrounded and forced to run like a madman dodging hundreds of fireballs while seeking shelter from endless hordes of enemies at map start" style, I like that. ;P

...

I have to say I'm partial to Gusta's maps as well, for reasons mentioned above. Not to dock any other authors though -- they all turned out some top-notch effort (esp. van der Velden). Except for Map06. :(

...

I'm hoping to do a co-op run soon. I'm sure it will kill the hell out the original Plutonia. ;P

[myk]

Xaser said:
I'm hoping to do a co-op run soon.

Yeah, I'm doing that. Highly recommended!

[Gusta]

t.v. said:

I was just wondering if there were any reviews on Pl2 yet?
I can't seem to find any :-(

http://www.doom-wads.wz.cz/recenze-pl2.htm
Here you can find a review by Vasek "Damned" Havranek but knowledge of czech language is fair advantage for reading it :-)
I can ask him to translate into English anyway ...

[Pirx]

Graf Zahl said:

I haven't yet seen a single LCD screen on which Doom looked good. I could tweak all I wanted with the monitor's controls, the graphics driver and even the engine itself but it always looked dull and washed out - not to mention that the latency of most screens is still horrible and the image tends to smear.

that's true (perhaps except for high quality LCDs). i use a benq fp91gx. your discussion made me install my old CRT again for a test, and the colors appeared more vivid. too bad i simply don't have space for that big ugly box on my desk. doom's palette was made with CRTs in mind, and its speed is also not typical for today's games.

[40oz]

I'm on Map21. It's beginning to feel like a chore to find out what happens at the end without just skipping right to it.

[Lingyan203]

I'm just wondering, has anybody done a video playthrough of Plutonia 2?

[Mordeth]

Please don't bump threads from several years ago.

[Bloodshedder]

This is the news comment section, it's considered part of the main site, and the normal rules for bumping don't apply here.

[VinceDSS]

LingtheDoomGuy said:

I'm just wondering, has anybody done a video playthrough of Plutonia 2?

There are individual playthroughs of each map.

I would not expect a full video playthrough like Doom2 or Plutonia 1, for the very good reason the levels are just too hard and too long to complete in one sitting.