Ultimate Videogame Topic 3: The Next Generation

[Ythan]

I wanna make Doom wads anyone ever done that?

[Nero Cain]

Chaingun's better than shotgun.

I'm not so sure, shotgun is awesome too.

checkmate

[Ythan]

Yes I would like all the fusion cores you have in stock.

[Gamma Emerald]

Just got Kirby and the Forgotten Land last weekend, it’s aight

[Ythan]

Doom level e3m9 is very cool.

[Ythan]

I just figured out how to get in there lol.

[Somnus]

I wanna make Doom wads anyone ever done that?

I briefly messed around with Ultimate Doom Builder a while back. Would not recommend unless you want to dedicate a significant amount of time learning not only how the program works, but what makes a good Doom map. And that's just the beginning. If you want to make a playable 32-map WAD, especially with no prior map-making experience, say goodbye to all of your other hobbies and accept that this is going to be your life for the next couple years. I very quickly decided it wasn't worth it. YMMV though.

Doom level e3m9 is very cool.

Yes, Warrens is fantastic, and having it come right after Mt. Erebus is nice. Two fantastic maps in a row. Most of the secret missions from the official/licensed IWADs are pretty "meh", but Warrens is one of the rare great ones.

[Ythan]

Spoiler: doom spoilers

I seriously wondered whether the level may have been removed from the Switch release for some reason and replaced with a duplicate of mission 1 and then Cyberdemon.

It's also very satisfying to learn tricks like that rocket jump from Mt. Erebus, or like the secret area in e1m9 with all the difficult to reach items on the columns.

[Somnus]

I've recently been teaching myself how to do all the maps from Doom 1 and 2 from pistol starts on Ultra Violence. I can't see myself bothering to learn all of the TNT: Evilution or Plutonia Experiment maps from pistol start. A little more time than I'm willing to invest.

Just went and did Warrens for the hell of it though from scratch. It's an easy enough map to do from a clean start since it has literally every weapon in it (including the BFG) and 2 invulnerability spheres. Up until the Cyberdemon, the only other tipoff that it isn't the exact same map is that they use different music tracks.

As far as I can recall, the secret entrance to Warrens from Mt. Erebus is the only instance of a mandatory rocket jump in the official classic Doom games. There's a pretty sick one in Map 29 of Doom 2 (The Living End) that you'd realistically only see in speedruns, and plenty of strafe-running, but the aforementioned rocket jump is the only mandatory one I can think of.

[Ythan]

I tried and was sure that wasn't it but I was just doing it wrong after all.

[Somnus]

Forgot that you can technically strafe-run to the aforementioned exit. I’m kind of just ok at strafe-running though and always just rocket jumped into it after grabbing one of the invulnerability spheres. I still play Doom keyboard-only like a weirdo.

[Ythan]

I did it without invulnerability because I wasted them all before I figured it out. I obviously ate a bunch of splash damage, repeatedly, but did get there.

[Ythan]

I've 100%ed the original three episodes~

But this version also has Thy Flesh Consumed so~~

[Somnus]

Yeah, Ultimate Doom is basically the defacto version of Doom 1. Thy Flesh Consumed is significantly harder. I've never 100%'ed E4M1 because there's barely any ammo and it requires taking out 4 Barons at the end if you activate the NIN secret. The only health in the map is 9 tiny health bonus potions.

As hard as E4M2 is, it's an easier map to 100%. Episode 4 is interesting but has some problems. There's 2 untaggable secrets in E4M3 and 1 in E4M7 (you can get them with no-clipping turned on though). E4M6 is just a nightmare in general. A lot of Romero's maps go a little overkill on damaging floors.

[Ythan]

After reading a but about e4 I think I'm gonna play Doom 2 first since it's older. I'll take a peak though before I pick that up.

[Ythan]

I made it to Against Thee Wickedly and died in a lava pit I couldn't find an exit to. What a cool episode it's definitely harder and there's definitely too many damaging floors.

[Ythan]

When I heard that cyberdemon I ran so fast back across those gaps to hide in the plasma gun room, very pleased how natural and smoothly that went and what a neat addition those hops are in general. Oh and I got that bfg from the little tightrope puzzle.

[Ythan]

Enemies teleporting behind you is such an uncomfortable feeling.

[Somnus]

Ways to tell if the map you're playing was designed by John Romero: half the floor is lava or poisonous slime.

If you can do E4M6, you can do any map in Ultimate Doom (the final 2 maps of Episode 4 are two of the easiest in the episode for some reason), and more or less any map in Doom 2. There's going to be a learning curve to Doom 2 though because of some additions that aren't in the first game.

While Doom 1 is a lot of small rooms and corridors for close combat, Doom 2 has a lot of out in the open maps (in the style of Mt. Erebus). This gives you a lot more room to work with, but you're also going to be pelted by a lot more nonsense, face a higher monster count per map, and have a lot of secrets/routes to memorize. Doom 2 is harder than the first game (minus the 4th episode), and in my opinion, the highs are higher and the lows are lower. Most of Doom 1 is pretty consistent. There's very few really bad maps. I'd say 1/3 of the maps in Doom 2 are incredible, 1/3 are good enough/enjoyable, and 1/3 should have been scrapped during the planning stages.

[Ythan]

I feel dumb I didn't know any weapon can be fired continuously by just holding the button. Move pistol up to F+.

[Somnus]

It can, but it's not always a good thing. The pistol and the chaingun (and I believe the plasma rifle) will hit with 100% accuracy on the first two rounds fired (as long as your aim isn't way off). After that, holding down the fire button will give you less accurate results. So the proper way to use the chain gun is to fire it in short bursts (just a few bullets at a time). Hold the fire button for a couple shots, release, quickly hold it again, etc.

So in, for example, maps in Doom 2 where there are enemies far away on rooftops, you can take them down with 100% shooting accuracy with stuff like the pistol or chaingun by doing quick bursts instead of just holding down the fire button continuously.

I'm playing through Ultimate Doom tonight start to finish. Somehow missed one item in E1M6 and couldn't find it even after circling the whole map twice, so just moved on. I know it was some miniscule health or armor bonus, but I can't find it. Other than that, I 100%'ed all of Episode 1 so far. On to Episode 2. There's a handful of maps in E2, E3, and E4 where I don't remember how to get all the secrets.

[Ythan]

I did know that about the pistol but I had no idea it applied to the automatic weapons as well thank you.

And I would bet the item you missed is in that annoying area with the identical rooms with cruciform walkways through nukage. Or maybe one of the health bonuses in the blue room with all the yellow doors.

[Somnus]

Yeah I thought for sure it was in the maze somewhere. Couldn't find it in there. Then checked the room with the yellow doors, then went back to the trap room where you get the red key. I have no clue lol.

[Ythan]

I know that exact feeling now, very frustrating.

[Ythan]

Ever encountered a gun activated switch you can only hit with the vertical spread of the super shotgun?