If you could ask any of the original devs a question, what would it be?

[MrGlide]

If you could ask any of the original devs a question, what would it be? Weather for For Doom 1,2 or 64. I would like to see if we could come up with some cool doom related questions in a respectful and mature manner and then see if we could get those questions answered by some of the original Doom cast. What do you guys think? what would you ask?

[Linguica]

• Why were the missing enemy rotations removed from the game?
• If it was for space reasons, why were they never re-added in a later patch or something?
• What was your process for adding new line actions to the game? Was it ad hoc as you came across a situation where you wanted them, or did you ever draw up a list of a bunch of things you knew you wanted to put it?
• What was the motivation behind adding fast doors in Doom 2?
• What was with the scrapped blob monster that jumped out of walls or whatever? How far did its implementation get?
• On that note, were there any other monster ideas that got thrown around but ended up being scrapped? Did any others get so far as to have artwork or code made for them?
• What was the story behind the Lost Soul’s drastic redesign near the end of development?
• Whose idea was it to remove “gamey” elements like one-ups, a points counter, etc, in the middle of development?
• I’ve read that Sandy Petersen’s first ever Doom map was E3M6. Is this really true?
• Where did the donut pillar action come from? Was it first inspired by E1M2 or E2M2?
• In one of the early alphas, Tom Hall’s levels all had boundary markers drawn around the outside. Was there a specific reason for doing this? Was it important to keep the levels inside a defined space for some reason?
• We know that before production began, Carmack experimented with voxels a bit. How far did that go?
• Why was the rifle replaced with a pistol during development?
• There’s a very specific and somewhat arbitrary subset of line actions that monsters can activate. What was the process behind deciding which ones were included?
• Why a line special for scrolling walls in only one direction?
• Was there ever any discussion about making the rules of armor more clear in the game? (I.e. green takes ⅓, blue takes ½, although most people never figured that out.)
• Why was the max health limit changed from 199 to 200? Was it when you conceived of the megasphere for Doom 2?
• Why wasn’t the armor max originally capped? Was it never really noticed, or not considered important?
• Surely id noticed that the pitched sound effects were broken in later versions. Why was this not fixed? Did you just not want to deal with the sound code guy more than you had to?
• On that note, was there a specific reason for adding support for 22050 hz sound effects? Was it just something the sound guy added in, or did you specifically request it?
• Why did the Final Doom executable preserve player height when going through a teleporter? There must have been some reason why the code was changed like that. Was it left in by mistake?
• You’ve said on previous occasions that the Doom monster AI runs at 10hz, which isn’t true, at least for the final version. Was that the case at one point during development?
• You have also mentioned a timer running at 140hz, pushing sound to the sound card four times per tic. Was that a DMX thing, or what?
• Did you seriously have a cell phone in 1994?
• Who was responsible for cutting down the maps for Jaguar Doom?
• Beyond that, why were the maps retextures to look more, Doom 2-esque? Mt. Erebus doesn’t even have a shred of FIREBLU in Jaguar Doom which is a travesty.
• Who came up with the new monsters for Doom 2? Were any scrapped ideas from Doom 1, or were they all totally original?
• So you were executive producer for Heretic during 1994. What did that entail, exactly? Were you on location in Madison a lot? I’ve never really read much about that arrangement.
• How and why was the 20 Lost Soul limit added?

[leodoom85]

A question...Why Doomguy has not a proper name to end the debate and theories and fan-made things once and for all?

[42PercentHealth]

3 minutes ago, leodoom85 said:

A question...Why Doomguy has not a proper name to end the debate and theories and fan-made things once and for all?

That question has been answered, I think in the Doom Bible. One of the devs said they scrapped the idea of naming the marine so that the player could more easily insert himself/herself into his shoes (hmm, trying to stay gender-neutral got a bit awkward there). The marine is supposed to be you.

[Jaws In Space]

-In one of the early alphas, Tom Hall’s levels all had boundary markers drawn around the outside. Was there a specific reason for doing this? Was it important to keep the levels inside a defined space for some reason?

 

I've explained this one before. This has to do with Tom Hall's realistic take to designing his maps. As many people know Tom Hall drew the below intermission screen for the Doom 0.5 Alpha. What people don't usually know about his image is that Tom Hall shaped his maps the same way the the buildings in this image are drawn.

 

For example Contr, which is a weird sided Octagon would later be turned into Pandemonium by Sandy Petersen. Likewise Waste, which is tepicted as a trapazoid, would later become Refinery. Most of the other buildings are drawn as rectangles, which is why so many on Tom Hall's maps are rectangular in shape. So all of those boundary markers around the perimeter of his maps depict the true exterior walls of his buildings.

[leodoom85]

1 minute ago, 42PercentHealth said:

That question has been answered, I think in the Doom Bible. One of the devs said they scrapped the idea of naming the marine so that the player could more easily insert himself/herself into his shoes (hmm, trying to stay gender-neutral got a bit awkward there). The marine is supposed to be you.

Still there are people who call it by many names, you know :)

[42PercentHealth]

2 minutes ago, leodoom85 said:

Still there are people who call it by many names, you know :)

"It" -- that's the word I was looking for! ;-)

[axdoomer]

I can answer a few that I know the answer. You can call me captain obvious if you want.

 

> Why were the missing enemy rotations removed from the game?

 

Space.

 

> If it was for space reasons, why were they never re-added in a later patch or something?

 

No time to waste making a patch when you have more urgent bugs to fix.

 

> What was your process for adding new line actions to the game? Was it ad hoc as you came across a situation where you wanted them, or did you ever draw up a list of a bunch of things you knew you wanted to put it?

 

During development, John Romero found out new things that he wanted to do in his levels and he asked Dave to add some special sector effects. The bridge on E1M3 is one of them.

 

> What was the motivation behind adding fast doors in Doom 2?

 

They wanted a different door for diversity.

 

> What was the story behind the Lost Soul’s drastic redesign near the end of development?

 

Adrian thought the new sprite was better.

 

> Why a line special for scrolling walls in only one direction?

 

Because they wanted a scrolling walls, but never asked for more directions than one.

 

> There’s a very specific and somewhat arbitrary subset of line actions that monsters can activate. What was the process behind deciding which ones were included?

 

There was no process. If it looked fine that a monster could activate it, then they did it. Some other sectors effects are meant only for the player.

 

> Why was the max health limit changed from 199 to 200?

Because the armor was capped at 200% and they wanted both to be capped equally.

 

> Surely id noticed that the pitched sound effects were broken in later versions.

 

There were more urgent bugs to fix and the error was so simple, no one noticed the swapped function parameters and it was easier to blame the sound guy.

 

> Why did the Final Doom executable preserve player height when going through a teleporter? There must have been some reason why the code was changed like that. Was it left in by mistake?

 

Someone though it wasn't required to place the player on the floor of the teleport destination. They may have tested quickly and the bug is not a problem with 50% of teleporters.

 

> You’ve said on previous occasions that the Doom monster AI runs at 10hz, which isn’t true, at least for the final version. Was that the case at one point during development?

 

Don't they run at 15FPS? I've read this somewhere.

 

> How and why was the 20 Lost Soul limit added?

 

Surely because they didn't want hundreds of thousands of lost souls in a level. They've chosen a limit as low as possible where they wouldn't notice a problem with the Pain Elementals. If we notice problems in the original levels today, it's because they didn't do enough testing after choosing this arbitrary limit.

[Nine Inch Heels]

Why, for the love of all things right and good, did you have to put that stupid safety pin on the BFG and the Rocket launcher? WWWHHHHYYYYYYYYYY??!??!??!!

[42PercentHealth]

10 minutes ago, Nine Inch Heels said:

Why, for the love of all things right and good, did you have to put that stupid safety pin on the BFG and the Rocket launcher? WWWHHHHYYYYYYYYYY??!??!??!!

I think this one has been answered -- it's so that you think twice before accidentally spending 40 cells or killing yourself. But I agree that we'd be better off without it.

 

The closest Doom comes to "hand-holding." It stinks.

[galileo31dos01]

48 minutes ago, Linguica said:

Why did the Final Doom executable preserve player height when going through a teleporter? There must have been some reason why the code was changed like that. Was it left in by mistake?

I've been wondering the same for months ...

[fraggle]

I'd like a definitive answer to the question of which heavy metal song (if any) was the inspiration for E1M1's music.

 

Why does Doomguy wield the pistol in a left-handed way when the shotgun and plasma rifle are wielded in a right-handed way?

 

How was Doom's palette designed?

 

How did Fuzzy Pumper Palette Shop work?

 

Why were some of the textures changed between Doom 1 and Doom 2?

[Nine Inch Heels]

27 minutes ago, 42PercentHealth said:

I think this one has been answered -- it's so that you think twice before accidentally spending 40 cells or killing yourself. But I agree that we'd be better off without it.

Yeah, right... It's not like the supposed player could possibly be arsed to remember which weapon is on which number on that bloody keyboard in front of them... That shit pisses me off to no end, and I'm not even exaggerating. When stuff like this makes it into a game, it makes me wonder how many times the devs were annoyed by that crap themselves, which brings me to the next question: Why leave it in the game, when it obviously sucks?!

[42PercentHealth]

1 minute ago, Nine Inch Heels said:

When stuff like this makes it into a game, it makes me wonder how many times the devs were annoyed by that crap themselves

Not defending the decision, but they weren't playing slaughter WADs. They were only playing the IWAD. Plus they knew where everything was, so they weren't going to be surprised by something that they wanted to BFG quickly. It probably didn't affect them as much as it affects modern players of more difficult PWADs.

[40oz]

Considering most of the monsters, in terms of behavior and attack patterns, seem to be like off shoots of one another, I'd like to know the story behind the archvile. Its just so unique and bizarre with the burning flame reticule, hitscan 1-hit kill attack, carries the most HP for a non-boss monster, moves lightning fast, and resurrects monsters. Why did this particular monster get pimped out with so many dominating features compared to the rest of the beastiary?

[Nine Inch Heels]

5 minutes ago, 42PercentHealth said:

Not defending the decision, but they weren't playing slaughter WADs

That doesn't change anything... Play the iWADs fast paced, and see for yourself how often you need to spam-click the shit out of your mouse to get a shot off ASAP

[42PercentHealth]

9 minutes ago, Nine Inch Heels said:

That doesn't change anything... Play the iWADs fast paced, and see for yourself how often you need to spam-click the shit out of your mouse to get a shot off ASAP

I'll concede. I don't get into speedrunning, but I know it was a thing back then.

[fraggle]

1 hour ago, Linguica said:

• What was your process for adding new line actions to the game? Was it ad hoc as you came across a situation where you wanted them, or did you ever draw up a list of a bunch of things you knew you wanted to put it?

 

This can be partially answered from the DoomEd source - it was possible to add new "specials" to the editor from within the DoomEd interface.  So it was a case of: write the code for the new special type, hook it into p_spec.c and recompile Doom, then a few clicks in DoomEd to start using it (no recompile or even restart needed there).

 

Quote

• Surely id noticed that the pitched sound effects were broken in later versions. Why was this not fixed? Did you just not want to deal with the sound code guy more than you had to?

 

It was discovered recently that this was actually caused by a change to DMX's API during development and Doom's sound code just wasn't updated to match.

 

Quote

• You have also mentioned a timer running at 140hz, pushing sound to the sound card four times per tic. Was that a DMX thing, or what?

Various bits of the DMX source code appear to use this value, so I think yes.

 

Quote

• How and why was the 20 Lost Soul limit added?

Because otherwise the Pain Elemental can fill an entire level with Lost Souls and crash the game? This one is obvious.

[silentzorah]

Why did the Machinegun evolve into the Chaingun?  Ditto for Rifle/Assault Rifle into the Pistol.

[NinjaLiquidator]

About the fast doors: they wanted the gameplay to be fast paced as possible and as simple as possible. Note the evolution of design - Doom has doors activated by key, but Quakes have doors opened automatically - faster, easier. Doom has swithces activated by key, but Quake2 has them activated by push - easier. Quake2 has elevators but Quake3 has mostly jumping pads - easier to design plus it saves boring time of waiting to a player.

 

I would have question about Quake - how they made AI fast without predefining traces? All that visibility checking raytraces and collision detection must be slow in full 3D maps...

Edited May 2, 2017 by NinjaLiquidator

[Megalyth]

2 hours ago, Linguica said:

What was your process for adding new line actions to the game? Was it ad hoc as you came across a situation where you wanted them, or did you ever draw up a list of a bunch of things you knew you wanted to put it?

I remember reading an interview/article with John Romero where he mentions this. He said that he programmed all the actions in the game and essentially added them as needed.

[40oz]

I like how this thread is like 10% questions and 90% non-devs posting speculation.

[Memfis]

Which core element of the game is missing in most custom maps?

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

What I'd really love is more behind-the-scenes answers from the Raven devs, who on a whole seem to have been quieter about development stuff than the Doom ones (Romero in particular).  Some that come to mind:

- Who or what is Martek and what is the significance?  The best speculation I've heard on the topic last I've brought up is that it references a D&D campaign called "The Lost Tomb of Martek", but even if that's so there's still the "why's that specifically significant to you?".

- Was the cleric flechette+repulsion trick in Hexen put in on purpose or was it unexpected?

- Was the hidden "Maze" level in Hexen's initial release intended to become a "real" level that was cut and unfinished, or was it just an experimentation thing?  Was "Armory" in Deathkings conceived as a fuller realization of the idea behind it?

- Is there any truth to the theory that the final design for Korax was originally the riding serpent rather than the "rider" himself?

- ...and was the Heresiarch-like demon at the end scroll of Heretic supposed to be Korax, or were they planning to introduce a twist even then (making the player think when they got to the Heresiarch that he was the end boss)?

- Who was the voice of Korax?

- Were the extra cutscenes/level flavor texts in the console versions of Hexen created by the Raven devs, or by the porting team(s)?  (How canonical are they?)

- Was the map "Darkmere" named in reference/homage to the Amiga game by the same name?

- What about "Hydratyr"?  A lot of the other Heretic/Hexen maps are named for real but obscure words, but this one doesn't appear to be a real word.

- Why'd Hexen II have all sorts of unique lore in the manual that was barely referenced and sometimes contradicted in-game?

- ...and why did the character who's supposed to be from the Mesoamerican realm have a distinctly Egyptian-styled fourth weapon?

- What was the unique Castle of Grief boss that was alluded to in an interview supposed to be?  Or was the idea cut even before a concept was finalized?

- Do the Deathkings and Praevus have backstories, or were they only thought through to the degree of "expansions need a villain"?

[Voros]

Dear former Midway employees,

 

Would it be possible to release the sources of Doom 64's assets someday? If they aren't lost, of course.

 

====

 

Similar to how Romero released that asset dump, I'd like to see Doom 64's 3D models, base pictures, etc to be released someday, either for modding purposes or historical purposes.

[Nevander]

3 hours ago, fraggle said:

I'd like a definitive answer to the question of which heavy metal song (if any) was the inspiration for E1M1's music.

I'm pretty much convinced it's Metallica's No Remorse. It would have been a popular song around the time the id guys started work on Doom, and it's no secret many of Doom and Doom II's songs were based off popular early 80s and 90s metal music.

[Doomkid]

3 hours ago, Nine Inch Heels said:

Why, for the love of all things right and good, did you have to put that stupid safety pin on the BFG and the Rocket launcher? WWWHHHHYYYYYYYYYY??!??!??!!

Shitty little delay caused by that has caused me many "split second too late" deaths in DM :(

[geo]

Stand back! I'll ask the real questions!

 

Did you steal Bethesda VR code or tech to take to Oculus Rift?
Did Oculus Rift have to be sold to pay for your salary?

[MrGlide]

6 hours ago, MrGlide said:

doom related questions

 

[drygnfyre]

6 hours ago, Jaws In Space said:

-In one of the early alphas, Tom Hall’s levels all had boundary markers drawn around the outside. Was there a specific reason for doing this? Was it important to keep the levels inside a defined space for some reason?

 

I've explained this one before. This has to do with Tom Hall's realistic take to designing his maps. As many people know Tom Hall drew the below intermission screen for the Doom 0.5 Alpha. What people don't usually know about his image is that Tom Hall shaped his maps the same way the the buildings in this image are drawn.

 

For example Contr, which is a weird sided Octagon would later be turned into Pandemonium by Sandy Petersen. Likewise Waste, which is tepicted as a trapazoid, would later become Refinery. Most of the other buildings are drawn as rectangles, which is why so many on Tom Hall's maps are rectangular in shape. So all of those boundary markers around the perimeter of his maps depict the true exterior walls of his buildings.

 

Wow, that's actually really neat! I never knew how realistic Tom Hall attempted to get with his maps.