Is there any point in having a "easy mode" difficulty for levels?

[General Rainbow Bacon]

I wish there were some way to actually limit the size of each level on each difficulty. Like on the earlier difficulty settings portions of the map just wouldn't be there and the contents would be put somewhere else if it was stuff necessary to complete the map.

[myk]

Well, you can't eliminate part of the structure, but you could certainly block areas off using solid decorations that appear only on the lower skill settings. Another way would be to use an early teleporter to place the player in different locations according to the skill level, where on the lower skills you'd miss out some parts that are not physically accessible (or even visible) from their teleport destinations.

[Phobus]

You can do that, but the blockages, shortcuts (i.e. key positions) have to be Things based if you're not using scripted source ports.

[wildweasel]

I must be an oddity, because I am almost always playing on skill 3 and no higher. Some maps are just plain beyond my skills.

[Szymanski]

General Rainbow Bacon said:

I wish there were some way to actually limit the size of each level on each difficulty. Like on the earlier difficulty settings portions of the map just wouldn't be there and the contents would be put somewhere else if it was stuff necessary to complete the map.

You could shut off areas according to difficulty by having a different start area, eg an extra door which only lower skill players start behind. Once the player crosses a linedef some sectors will close, these could block doors or prevent access to outside areas.

You could simply clone the whole map just for one skill level.

[Melon]

General Rainbow Bacon said:

I wish there were some way to actually limit the size of each level on each difficulty. Like on the earlier difficulty settings portions of the map just wouldn't be there and the contents would be put somewhere else if it was stuff necessary to complete the map.

Make a dummy sector a conveyor belt and stick a voodoo doll on it, with a linedef action that closes off some areas of the map when he moves over it, then if you don't want that to happen on a certain skill level, stick an evil eye thing in the way so it can't scroll over the line.

[myk]

Szymanski said:
You could shut off areas according to difficulty by having a different start area, eg an extra door which only lower skill players start behind. Once the player crosses a linedef some sectors will close, these could block doors or prevent access to outside areas.

You could simply clone the whole map just for one skill level.

I failed to mention in my earlier post that player starts are unaffected by skill settings, at least in Doom and probably in Boom. That's why I gave the more contrived idea with teleporters. (This topic had come up in an earlier thread and had been investigated.)

Melon said:
Make a dummy sector a conveyor belt and stick a voodoo doll on it, with a linedef action that closes off some areas of the map when he moves over it, then if you don't want that to happen on a certain skill level, stick an evil eye thing in the way so it can't scroll over the line.

Yeah, that's interesting. In vanilla, one could place a door or lift that can only be activated from a remote sector, and an adjacent lost soul available only on higher skill levels that can see or hear the player through sector hacks. Once awoken, the lost soul would periodically activate the door or lift, letting the players get through. Otherwise, one can use the barrel and voodoo doll method.

[Szymanski]

myk said:

I failed to mention in my earlier post that player starts are unaffected by skill settings

I didn't know that o_0 , I was relying on that behaviour in an old map.
I suppose I would have found out soon enough.

[darkreaver]

Szymanski said:

I didn't know that o_0 , I was relying on that behaviour in an old map.
I suppose I would have found out soon enough.

Yeah, I tried that once. Failed.
You can simply use an imp to walk over tagged linedefs with the desired actions.
Don`t know if monsters can activate linedefs in vanilla, but they can in Boom.

edit: then have the imp teleport somewhre into the map so it can be killed.

edit 2: or use a Lost Soul

[doomguy64]

Some people just can't sit there all day and practice.

Personally, I'm a sucker for pain, will ramp it up to UV, no way I'm doing Nightmare! until I can beat regular DooM on that one.

It lets everyone play and enjoy themselves, I guess.