Caffeine Freak

Holy fuck. How did you do that, exactly? I'm assuming you loaded each map into the editor, but only loaded the worldspawn brushes?

Speaking purely from personal experience: The 11-12 year old version of me who beat Doom II for the very first time thought it was... a little excessive in the number of levels. At that point in time, I could've agreed that it became a bit of a slog. Later on in my teens, I thought Doom II was quite manageable in its length (not because I had been playing it constantly, but because I had more of a capacity to appreciate games at a later age). I know that one time when I was 17-18, I went through the whole game in one day, and thought it was a perfectly appropriate and manageable length of an experience. I really think it comes down to how much you expect from a game of that type (early-mid 90's fast paced FPS), combined with how much exploration you do, as well as how you handle a certain degree of open-ended level design, and how much time you take inspecting various aspects of the game and searching for secrets. If you're the kind of person who wants an action FPS to always be obvious with how it presents routing information to you, Doom II might feel like a slog with some of the more cryptic/sprawling levels. The fast action can fool you, but you really do have to use your brain and keep locations mentally bookmarked while playing. When you do that, the gameplay flows much better.

Yep, totally agree. As a Millennial in his late 30's, many of the Zoomers I know are FAR less hypersensitive and fragile than they are made out to be, and I think a significant chunk of the hypersensitivity and other nonsense that's often spoken about is much more prevalent in the younger half of Millennials, especially the chronically online ones you're talking about. But since there's not a distinct line between younger Millennials and Zoomers in many people's minds, it often gets overly blamed on Gen Z. I think every generation gets too much flak for being lazy, overly sensitive, fill in the blank. That's not to say there isn't a degree of truth to the accusations, but it *always* gets turned into a stereotype. Regarding the player speed, it mostly looks adequate to me, though I didn't get the impression the player was moving at top speed throughout most of the trailer. It would make sense if they chose to have him move slower in the trailer simply for the sake of a more coherent presentation. I'm really curious if they're going to dial up the player running speed from what it was in Eternal since they're going for more grounded gameplay along the lines of classic Doom, as opposed to the more verticality-focused design and gameplay of Doom Eternal.

Another piece of Doom history has been preserved! Hell yes!🤘

I already gave my initial analysis and reactions to the trailer in the other thread, and I'm sure I'll have more thoughts when I sit down and do a more detailed dissection of the footage later on, but for now, this is a good trailer breakdown/analysis:

Guess the rumors were true. Here's my immediate reactions after having just watched the trailer once: awesome visual style with the medieval take on the weapons and enemies. Gameplay looks pretty rock-solid, and if they really plan on slowing it down from Eternal's pace, I'm personally all for it. In terms of the story and setting, it's a pretty ballsy move to switch it entirely away from Earth and Mars and pivot it to the worlds that have only been recently touched on in the series. I can totally understand it though---even if Earth and Mars have been central to the series since its inception, you don't want to just keep rehashing the same settings and stories, even if a sizeable chunk of your audience probably wants it. I can respect that. Flying footage was kinda meh. I dunno, just not terribly interesting to me. But I'll have to wait and see when they reveal more of it. All in all, I'm psyched and looking forward to seeing what sort of bold new direction they can take the series in. :D

Correct!

It's with a great deal of excitement and relief that I present to you Episode 3 of Phobos: https://www.moddb.com/mods/phobos/downloads/phobos-episode-3-v30 I'm more proud of this episode than either of our first two releases, as I think it represents significant advancements from all of us in terms of level and combat design, visuals, story-telling, atmosphere and pacing. There is a tremendous amount of new content in here, and even some old stuff that had been placed on the backburner for years. For me, this episode represents some of the hardest work I've ever done in my life---scarcely a day has passed in the last 3 1/2+ years since our Episode 2 release that I haven't worked on one aspect of this project or another, and I think the same could likely be said for my team mates. The beginning of 2024 in particular has marked a period of constant work and relentlessly stringent testing. This isn't to say there aren't still bugs in this release, but I'm confident that those who've enjoyed our past work will love this even more. I hold a great deal of satisfaction now that it's finally out, and that we all can present it to a community as creative, innovative and inspiring as the Doom community. Personally, it's an honor for me to give something back to the community that has given me so many countless hours of gaming enjoyment over so many years, and undoubtedly has many more of the same to give. Have fun.

There is nothing I dislike in this sentence.

Sounds like it has a shitton of potential. I always think back to Hugo's comments about how he'd like to have the next Doom game feel more like a monster truck than a Ferrari. If they are indeed going for a more medieval feel, I would conclude they probably plan on slowing things down a bit, assuming they do away with the Meathook and the dash. I'm totally open to that. Personally, I've always wondered what a Doom game would look like post-hell On Earth---the fallen Icon of Sin, the ruined cities everywhere, the fractured Moon, Mars being cratered, all create a fertile setting for interesting gameplay and lore. But I'm totally down for them going to a new setting and time period. We shall see what awaits us.

Eternal Doom (1996) is an incredibly ambitious, lengthy and well-executed WAD that is worthy of any Doomer's time and shotgun shells. I didn't play it until late 2008-early 2009, but I can safely say it's one of the stronger WADs I've played from the mid-90's.

If you're not doing it already, try doing Pistol start with every map. Once I started doing that, Doom (both the base game and custom WADs) became a lot more challenging and fulfilling for me, regardless of how much I saved. And if I get myself into an unwinnable situation, welp, guess it's time to start the map over and try again! The game is often much better that way, and gives you a better appreciation for the gameplay balance and design of every level. I'd suggest playing Pistol start unless the readme of a particular WAD states it's not designed for it.

@Rykzeon Have you tried to make sure the wire connecting the power button to the motherboard is securely connected at both ends? I had a similar issue with a PC over 10 years ago where, after I had disassembled it for an upgrade, it would consistently turn off/restart before it got to any of the boot-up screens. Turned out that the problem was the wire connecting the power button to the motherboard had been jostled loose very slightly; as soon I made sure it was snugly connected, the problem went away.

Yeah, the Korax fight feels like something Raven had to crank out in a week's time at the end of the project. On paper, it's an interesting concept---the boss rapidly teleports to different destinations around the arena and shoots concentrated rings of projectiles that are basically an insta-kill if they hit you, also he summons waves of enemies from locked rooms. But with the way the fight is executed, about the only unpredictable element is where Korax teleports next, and he's not hard to track down. The waves of monsters end up being mere mana absorbers and Korax himself has no defense except teleporting away, since he's practically stationary otherwise. Occasionally, the fight gets spiced up a little when he releases the Serpents/Bishops, but the probability of him getting a chance to do so is low. The only class where the fight potentially poses somewhat of a challenge is the Fighter, otherwise it's basically a shooting gallery. There's not much interesting about the level except the traps and the architecture. The D'Sparil fight is FAR superior.

In all honesty, yeah, I think it is. I've criticized it bluntly on this forum before, in spite of having been a fan of the game for over 25 years. Yes, the Castle of Grief hub and Seven Portals both have some rather convoluted puzzle progression; the other 3 hubs of the game have much more cohesive and clear puzzles. If you play on the higher difficulties, there's some rather poorly designed combat situations to overcome in the first hub, (there's a couple areas that SPAM you with Wendigos and Chaos Serpents, so good luck if you're the Fighter)---that being said, the weapon progression also means that the combat difficulty peaks right around the end of the first hub, though the enemy spawns do get a little ridiculous in the Castle of Grief. Yeah, Hexen can be brutal and cryptic at times (again, I chalk up some of that to the classic difficulty you almost have to expect from 80's-90's games), but I genuinely think people make it out to be worse than it actually is. The thing to remember is that you can't play it like it's Doom. Heretic could easily be classified as a re-skinned Doom; Hexen, despite being a sequel, very much isn't.