What happens when you exit a level?

[clamgor]

I like to think the switches can either be one of the following:
* Self-Destruct Switches
* Teleporting Switches
* Doors to a tunnel
* Activates some sort of tube-elevator.
* Opens up the floor beneath you to a tube system.

[schwerpunk]

Maes said:

Perhaps somebody should make a set of levels that tell the story of what happens "between levels", e.g. that all of Deimos' and Phobos' bases are connected by underground service tunnels or surface transport of sorts, and that even those are not entirely devoid of Hellspawn...

Now this is a megawad I could get behind. I imagine that the only parts that would appear like the original levels would be the part where you go to enter the next level (e.g. you'd see a grey door for arriving at E1M1 (from E1M0, presumably)), and perhaps part of the levels visible from outside of it (for more open, surface maps). Entrances to maps without a clear entrance could be teleporters, perhaps with surrounding archetecture in the style of the level that's about to be 'entered' (actually skipped over, so one can play the next in-between level).

The main change would be that we'd need "ENTER" signs to replace the "EXIT" signs, and would use enter-switches, rather than exit-switches to go to the next level.

Could be a Hell of a lot of fun! :^]

[Koko Ricky]

mouldy said:

I imagine upon hitting the exit switch doomguy and all the monsters immediately break character and stand around chatting and smoking cigarettes until the next map.

No one can top this.

[Daiyu_Xiaoxiang]

I been asking this question since playing Doom. But what I think is, the Doomguy teleport outside the map and then monsters will stay unharmed. Think of it, if monsters won't stay alive, then the Doom marines can just kill them using that exit switch/panel/lindef! How about the teleport exit? Monsters should stay unharmed too! You may argue about why monsters won't teleport even the Doomguy do teleport, I think this is something relate to Doomguy's armor. Perhaps the armor have some kind of "device" that let the Doomguy teleport. Doomguy's armor is just very special!!!

There's still 2 kinds of special exit, suicide exit and damaging exit. So how can the Doomguy exit? I may think of a "trap" or something, by giving monsters a false "image" that the Doomguy will melt to death, and then he will teleport when near death. The suicide exit is the same. When Doomguy died, he will probably teleport after a while. Where will he teleport? Perhaps the UAC Headquarters, marines will heal and revive him.

[Foxpup]

GoatLord said:

No one can top this.

I'll try:

Doomguy hits switch.
Referee: Safe!
Imp: What? Are you kidding me? I totally nailed him with that fireball!
Referee: No. He hit the switch first. He's safe.
Imp: No way, man, no way! I got him first! Check the instant replay!
Video referee: Safe.
Imp: Argh! I can't believe this!
Cacodemon: Dude, chill out.
Imp: No! This game is rigged!

[reality 2.0]

mouldy said:

I imagine upon hitting the exit switch doomguy and all the monsters immediately break character and stand around chatting and smoking cigarettes until the next map.

I read that and imagined that as a scene from a doom mockumentary.

[Maes]

Again, the problem with the "teleport exit" approach is that those don't actually appear until E3 (in the official IWADs, at least), and that humans (if you want to adhere to some sort of canon, at least) never really mastered teleportation to the point of making it such an everyday technology, at least in Doom's universe.

In fact, everytime they use it, they need bulky installations, tons of energy, and something always goes wrong: most of the "official" Doom backstories revolved around "teleportation experiments gone wrong" at dedicated facilities. So I don't see how they can be using it so casually for something so trivial as entering a building when it's obvious they can't still control it to a satisfactory degree. Demons on the other hand use it liberally, and E2 is littered with in-stage teleporters (E1 doesn't even have those, except in E1M8).

Even Doom II avoids using them so liberally (though there are those weird "sky hole" exits...I once read an interesting explanation of their meaning).

[Boingo]

My guess is when you hit the switch a large nuclear device goes off at the point where you are standing, vapourizing you and everything else within half a mile. A clone of you is then dropped into the next level with that stupid pistol.

[Fellowzdoomer]

Foxpup said:

I'll try:

Doomguy hits switch.
Referee: Safe!
Imp: What? Are you kidding me? I totally nailed him with that fireball!
Referee: No. He hit the switch first. He's safe.
Imp: No way, man, no way! I got him first! Check the instant replay!
Video referee: Safe.
Imp: Argh! I can't believe this!
Cacodemon: Dude, chill out.
Imp: No! This game is rigged!

Hahah!

Doom guy*sticks tongue out *

[Fellowzdoomer]

Seriously though. Maybe as you press the switch/take the teleport, the lift gets a bit of road runner in it, giving you a red bull just in case. The lift goes so fast, enemies wouldn't be able to pursue him.

Red bull gives you wings, meep, meep!

[joe-ilya]

The floor below doomguy quickly lowers to the next level and gets sealed from above.

[Fellowzdoomer]

EXACTLY!!

[Olroda]

On a related note:

Many years ago, when Wolfenstein was new, I wondered what the exit switches did in the shareware episode (I didn't have the full game).
I asked my friend, and he told me he thought they turned off the air.

Thinking about it now, that's really unlikely, since it is obvious that you are riding elevators between the floors...

On topic:
In DooM, there would be airlocks, possibly lowering or raising the floor when activated, and sending you to the next level. As others have noted, it is really likely that Our Hero would need to walk quite a stretch between them, however. Just look at the intermission map! Those installations aren't close to each other. If we're assuming that DooM takes place in the Stickney Crater on Phobos, which is 9km in diameter... Well. Travel won't be instantaneous at least. And the exit rooms wouldn't be Gateways(teleporters) in E1 or E2. I'm thinking that it would make sense if the installations are connected by a tunnel system.

[Foxpup]

Olroda said:

If we're assuming that DooM takes place in the Stickney Crater on Phobos, which is 9km in diameter...

Unlikely, since the intermission map looks absolutely nothing like Stickney. It bears a closer resemblance to the much smaller Drunio or Reldresal craters.

[Olroda]

Foxpup said:

It bears a closer resemblance to the much smaller Drunio or Reldresal craters.

Hmm... You got that one right. Out of those two, I'd say it resembles Reldresal most... Which is smaller than Stickney. Still, there would probably be some minutes of walking between each level, at minimum.

(Assuming that some form of service tunnels exist, or if Our Hero takes a walk outside, of course)

Keeping in mind that Phobos itself has the dimensions of 27×22×18km, lacks atmosphere and has only weak gravity, I'd really like to know how the UAC transformed the moon! Chinese mountains and earthlike gravity!

[Fellowzdoomer]

You people are all forgetting one thing! Not all levels have doors or teleports. How would you walk into Underhalls? Entryway? No sign of tunnel entrance is there.

Plus, I know a few maps in Thy Flesh Consumed that end on you falling into a sky hole then next level, you're at a door or some rocky cavern.

At least megawads like Flashback To Hell or even those Plutonia Series tells us that teleporters are how you get from one place to the other.

Unless those switches do some kind of disassemble \reassemble (healing dead players back to full health) to different levels.

[Maes]

Fellowzdoomer said:

You people are all forgetting one thing! Not all levels have doors or teleports. How would you walk into Underhalls? Entryway? No sign of tunnel entrance is there.

Underhalls actually makes perfect sense: in Entryway, you enter a small room with a switch that could lower an elevator or open a service hatch to the, well, underhalls. The vines there also tell you it hasn't been used/cleared in a long time.

How you get into Entryway itself has already been discussed: probably the balcony and empty courtyard at your left is supposed to be some poor-ass excuse for a helipad/landing zone.

Fellowzdoomer said:

Plus, I know a few maps in Thy Flesh Consumed that end on you falling into a sky hole then next level, you're at a door or some rocky cavern.

That happened first in Doom II, in many of the middle-to-final levels. I had read an interpretation of what these "sky holes" were meant to represent, I can't remember it. Something about Doomguy being crazy/hallucinating/dead.

Fellowzdoomer said:

At least megawads like Flashback To Hell or even those Plutonia Series tells us that teleporters are how you get from one place to the other.

Certainly, but those are Megawads, they can do whatever they please. But at least the original DOOM IWAD has a very consistent theme of not using teleport exits in E1 and E2 (only exception: E1M8 and maybe E2M9?) which I explained how it might fit into the storlyline.

[Fellowzdoomer]

So... what about the switch?