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Ideas to make DoomRL even faster and furious'er

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Creepy:
In graphical mode, if you click a tile down the hall and an imp wanders into view while you're marching, you stop marching. It won't let you make long movements while an enemy is in view, so mouse-users don't get splattered if they click the wrong tile and send Doomguy marching across the level while in a crossfire. This is already a thing. And the pathfinding system it uses will route you around lava, at least when you're trying to navigate through a patch with 'islands' on it, making it easy to navigate around static obstacles like those safely. Since my laptop doesn't have a keypad and the Home/PgUp/PgDown/End keys are arrayed vertically, using the mouse is essentially the only way to navigate both safely and quickly for me. I find this helpful.

But I don't ram keys even when I use the arrows, because that's stupid. In Doom, you didn't last long if you got tunnel-vision and ignored things while running to the end of a hallway, and the game didn't stop you if an imp took a potshot while you were wandering around and not paying attention. Doom was not button-pounding repetition and the game wouldn't hold your hand if you didn't keep an eye out all on your lonesome. Situational awareness was a key factor.

If you're pounding reload a billion times and not paying attention to what it's going to do, you'll die here. You'd die in Doom for that too; there was no timeout while the shotgun reloaded, you dodged like a mofo or you died. Same here; you have to manage your actions yourself, so pick the right ones. This doesn't mean "play with patience". This means "don't zone out like a putz." Taking a quick look at the screen to see that an imp hasn't wandered into your line of sight doesn't take more than a split second.

You can TOTALLY do the "no patient planning" thing here; go running in without any idea of what badges/medals you want. Pick staircases when you see them instead of planning which levels you want to hit before you play. Grab your traits on what you think is cool right now instead of aiming at a specific build. All that stuff works; this isn't Nethack, you don't have to spend time planning your run or ascension kit if you don't want to.

But if you're reloading and zone out while pounding that 'r' key, you'll die. Not because you aren't patient, but because you zoned out.

RSO:
I play Intuition builds for basically this reason. It gives me more time to react to something when I'm rolling around carelessly.

Napsterbater:

--- Quote from: Creepy on March 31, 2012, 01:25 ---In graphical mode, if you click a tile down the hall and an imp wanders into view while you're marching, you stop marching. It won't let you make long movements while an enemy is in view, so mouse-users don't get splattered if they click the wrong tile and send Doomguy marching across the level while in a crossfire. This is already a thing. And the pathfinding system it uses will route you around lava, at least when you're trying to navigate through a patch with 'islands' on it, making it easy to navigate around static obstacles like those safely. Since my laptop doesn't have a keypad and the Home/PgUp/PgDown/End keys are arrayed vertically, using the mouse is essentially the only way to navigate both safely and quickly for me. I find this helpful.
--- End quote ---
Graphics. Ick. Mouse control. Ick. What I do with the laptop thing is I use standard roguelike keys. Sucks doomrl doesn't have a separate keymap for this, and that the binding language gets changed with every release, but at least you can do it. If you've never used roguelike keys before, you should definitely give them a shot. Once you get used to them, you'll never go back to a mouse. Then maybe you'll actually understand what I'm complaining about. I play fast. I try to be hyper-aware of everything, but my laptop screen sucks and sometimes I miss an enemy that shows up out of nowhere. Usually it doesn't kill me. But sometimes it does.


--- Quote --- Not because you aren't patient, but because you zoned out.
--- End quote ---
I don't zone out when I play. I just like to play on the edge. That means that every mistake has more potential of killing me. Most of the time this isn't a problem. No matter how sticky the situation, I can deal. Technicians can use medkits with no time, so unless I string together so many of them that I run out, I can usually stay alive a little while longer. It's the stupid mistakes that kill, for no good reason. I'm arguing that a lot of these things that we call stupid right now could be easily fixed with a bit of programming. Sure, it's stupid to hold your finger on the left key. But it doesn't have to be. That's what I'm arguing. It's only stupid because of the interface. Well, interfaces are easy to change. I'd do it myself but I don't have the source.

Think about it this way. What if holding your finger on the left key did the same thing the run button did? Moved you until an enemy came into view, then stopped you. Wouldn't be so dumb then, would it?

Creepy:
Here's where I think we're having a bit of a communication breakdown:


--- Quote ---It's the stupid mistakes that kill, for no good reason.
--- End quote ---

That's your statement, while my own (And most other DoomRL players, from what I gather) would think the mistake IS the reason you get killed. And that it's a pretty good reason. If you don't want to die, you learn to make less mistakes. None, preferably. It's not really an interface issue here; the whole "compensate for information which a player would never ignore were he really there" concept is already there, in that it gives you all the time in the world to examine the situation before acting. You simply aren't using it, because it's not your "style". You even acknowledge that it's a bad habit, but you do it anyway. You know it's a mistake and that the game will kill you for it, and that the game has a way to not have it happen, but do it anyhow because the game's solution isn't one you like. That... isn't really a flaw in the game.

MaiZure:

--- Quote from: Creepy on March 31, 2012, 03:51 --- That... isn't really a flaw in the game.

--- End quote ---

Yup that's what makes this Doom 'the Roguelike' - The hallmark feature of (fun) roguelikes is instant, unexplainable/unavoidable death.

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