QuakeCon 2012, August 2 - 5

According to Carmack DOOM 4 might end up as a cross-generational title if the new consoles are near enough. It's not a launch title for new consoles so waiting for them doesn't make sense, but it might be compatible with them if needed.

Shaviro said:

I wouldn't be surprised if the "restarted" development somewhere about 09 or 10.

Why do you think so?

Touchdown said:

According to Carmack DOOM 4 might end up as a cross-generational title if the new consoles are near enough. It's not a launch title for new consoles so waiting for them doesn't make sense, but it might be compatible with them if needed.



Why do you think so?

Well, the leaked screenshots are from '09, the game's showings at QC 2009 and 2010 were cancelled, and Matt Hooper said those screenshots don't have anything to do with what we'll actually see in the game. Plus, right around the time the project would've been "restarted" is when John Carmack said Doom 4 would have 3 times the graphical fidelity of RAGE, which the version in the screenshots, of course, did not.

That's a stretch.

The plan that id had since QC08 was to go to the "vertical slice" with DOOM before showing it and I doubt they'd reach that point in a year or two. Nothing was cancelled, DOOM was simply not in a proper state and RAGE was the focus, not to mention RAGE, a new IP, would easily get overshadowed by DOOM talk.

Hooper's comment might as well be interpreted as "those are concept/prototype shots".

As for "3 times graphical fidelity"... That phrase was only used in 2008. More recently Carmack talked about "30 monsters on screen" and a lot more going on on screen than in RAGE due to framerate decrease. Furthermore, at one point he said that the framerate did not really provide a significant graphical boost so they just might have switched their concept early on from better graphics to more monsters.

Finally, all the 2008-2011 comments from id guys on DOOM were very positive on the progress.

Anyone else feel like Quakecon has lost it's flair?

It was THE event to be at for an ID fan back in the day. Now? I think ever since ID was bought out is has lost its charm that it once had. It feels like they don't care as much anymore, its more of a "show" then a big fan gathering.

Its hard to explain I guess

Still run by volunteers and free entry.

They haven't really made any major game announcements at Quakecon since 2007 (Rage) and 2008 (Doom 4, although they had already announced it on id's website a few months prior to that). That may be the 'lost flair' you're referring to.

Regarding them 'restarting development'... I would doubt it, but I know they had indicated were still learning the best creation pipeline for id Tech 5 when they had started on Doom 4, so there were bound to be setbacks, in addition to id's penchant for polishing things to the Nth degree.

I remember attending a level designer's panel at Quakecon 2010, with the panelists being Matt Hooper and a couple other guys from Zenimax-owned studios. At one point, Matt said "Honestly, I don't think any of the models we made in the first two years of Rage have even made it this far into the production."

I showed up for a bit. Didn't get to see much though since I was busy yesterday and most of today (how fun) and missed BYOC registration. But I was there-ish. :P

So is anyone going to Quakecon? There is a Doom 3 BFG demo and I would REALLY like to hear some opinions about the new levels and gameplay changes.Maybe they put more monsters in the game?

They only came to the most ridiculous conclusion ever that DOOM 3 is too hard so they've added (even) more ammo.

Touchdown said:

They only came to the most ridiculous conclusion ever that DOOM 3 is too hard so they've added (even) more ammo.

What?! Really? I never seemed to go under 200 shotgun shells in Doom 3, although chaingun ammo was pretty rare. I suppose it's because I've found most of the secrets.

Still, they should have added more monsters instead.

Yep, they've mentioned that a couple of times. That it's too hard and there's not enough ammo. Funny how I thought it was the exact opposite.

By the way, the keynote is up on YouTube.

Yeah.- my thoughts exactly. I was never even close to being out of ammo in any weapon. And health as well of course, since the monsters barely actually do any damage.

Only weapon lacking ammo was the chaingun. Hope there´s still some challenge on the harder difficulties.

chungy said:

Is that Shub Niggurath?

Looks pretty much like a fat-ass version of the Guardian to me.

Does anyone know where I can get a hi-res version of that badass new cover art?

Buy the new game and use a scanner at high resolution on its cover.

Touchdown said:

They only came to the most ridiculous conclusion ever that DOOM 3 is too hard so they've added (even) more ammo.

Yeah, I struggle to think of how they came to that conclusion. Most people I've ever talked to about Doom 3 agree that the game was made too easy from an overabundance of ammo and health, in part.

Seems to me like they're catering for the "casual" crowd (for want of a better term) by making it even easier.

As for the absence of Doom 4. Would have been really nice to have a 15 second teaser and/or a couple of PR screenshots to wet our appetite, but if the game is still many years away from release I think I'd rather not know anything at this stage.

Does anyone have a clip of Celebrating Id modding without the HORRIBLE echo effect? Or is there at least a summary somewhere on the net?

Here is the fix http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIqRQV39Jpk&list=UUaquFi5JOPWPFNwy11oPx2w&index=1&feature=plcp

Touchdown said:

They only came to the most ridiculous conclusion ever that DOOM 3 is too hard so they've added (even) more ammo.

omg how is this possible? With all the people working on the game, not to mention playtesting it..no one realized the entire game can be beat with the shotgun (aside the the cyber battle, natch)? Ridiculous.

Personally, I was always out of ammo in Doom 3, save for the pistol and the grenades. I hardly used the chainsaw, I don't have leet pixel perfect aim, I don't use manual saves, I don't hunt for secrets, and the closet scares worked on me. That said, I thought it actually added to the survival horror atmosphere they were going for, having to swap weapons until I would find something with enough bullets.

I haven't been to Quakecon to try out the new levels but honestly from the Lost Mission trailer it just looks more of the same. Really, if they wanted to make this a really tempting buy, they should've totally upgraded and overhauled the game like what the modding community has done with classic Doom with the mod Brutal Doom. That mod has totally put new life into classic Doom.

And yeah, not enough ammo? Please, there was an overabundance of ammo. Hopefully they compensate the ammo increase with an increase in the number of monsters.

Hey guys,

Getting to head up the commentary and be a part of the crew heading up coverage was a blast this year, with the unique opportunity to get the keynote and various panels out live. I was really impressed with some of the people coming out for the panels (like Brendon Chung, squee), so I thought it had a really great slice of developers talking about the nitty-gritty.

However, I have always been somewhat dismayed that the BYOC experience never really gets much love from an outside perspective. Granted, this is something that's really difficult to effectively get across unless you're actually there, but if I have one goal for the future, it's to a) get more Quake in the BYOC and b) get more of the BYOC to the outside world.

That first point is a big one, and something that a lot of outside viewers might not immediately get. Quake isn't played much at the BYOC these days. It's a simple fact. The BYOC makes up 90% of what the event is all about, and it is subject to the whims of the people attending. As a result, you'll see a lot of minecraft, dayz, tf2, cod, etc being played there, simply because that's what these people are playing these days. Could there be more Quake at Quakecon? Absolutely. Will it need to be injected in? Probably.

Depending on the status of the QuakeLive scene over the next 8 months, I may decide to shift my focus into organizing and covering Doom and Quake-centric content next year. This is something I've always wanted, and simply couldn't due to not knowing how to be two places at once.

BTW, checking in with Carnevil was a pleasure as always. :)

That sounds nice. CSN was of course there to broadcast from the BYOC area. But honestly, I found their stream to lack focus a bit. I couldn't be bothered most of the time. Though I always enjoy watching The GunRun get excited and it was nice they had HiRezBart in on their stream as well. Didn't get to see any Tribes or Quake when I watched though. But maybe they had that and I just missed it.

Did you get to try out the Occulus Rift thing with Doom3 BFG edition?

Much love for CSN, and I now feel bad for not mentioning them more in my first post. They really brought a level of interaction and structure to the BYOC that it hasn't had for a long long time. I was specifically mentioning that my personal drive is to see more Doom/Quake, including mapping and modding content.

The goggles stuff was too much of a timesink for me to sneak into, unfortunately, but I did catch the "Apogee" guys after-hours still kicking around their booth, so I got some hands on with ROTT. It's very early, but if they continue down the current path, I'll be very excited about it indeed.

The fact that they kept the Ankh coins from the original gives me confidence that they aren't looking to screw people over with some BS cashin on an old trademark. (Like Syndicate *cough*) Because it only makes sense to have those in the game if you want your game to be a game and not a new CoD.

Is there anything about DOOM |\/ or are they postponing it one more year again? Do you think it is vapourware?

printz said:

Is there anything about DOOM |\/ or are they postponing it one more year again? Do you think it is vapourware?

They don't want to release info too early like RAGE because people thought that RAGE was supposed to be like Fallout and Id never intended that.

DooM_RO said:

They don't want to release info too early like RAGE because people thought that RAGE was supposed to be like Fallout and Id never intended that.

This isn't the same.

People already know what to expect from a Doom game while Rage was a new franchie.

People are already making stuff up. If they had a screenshot there'd be countless cases where they'd say: "See that? It means DOOM 4 will have this and this and this!" And then it'd all turn out to be incorrect.

Info / media blackout means a slate as clean as you can get considering the size of id. They clearly want to unveil the game very close to the release to keep the media hype to the minimum and avoid years of anticipation and false visions of what it's supposed to be among the audience.

Don't believe anything until you hear it from the source. Even then...

I remember Bethesda making this 'tweet' in regards to Skyrim, and, since they and id were both owned by Zenimax, everyone started thinking that this meant the latest Elder Scrolls game would be using id tech 5. I mean, how could it mean anything else?

Nope. It was the same old Gamebryo engine that they'd used for Oblivion, Fallout, etc. Just a little more sexed up.

EDIT: oh hey, I'm a full member. *Exhales ceremoniously into party blower.*