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[smgamer240]

Hello. I'm new to the boards, but been playing DoomRL for a long time. It's a really great game, if kind of hard at times. I've managed a few Standard Wins on I'm Too Young to Die and Hey Not Too Rough difficulty. I've gotten a lot of Medals, Bronze Badges, and even a couple Silver Badges. I haven't beaten any challenges though. To aim for the higher level badges, I've been starting to play on Hurt Me Plenty difficulty.

The difficulty curve from HNTR to HMP is crazy. I mean Hell Knights start appearing before the Phobos Anomaly. They even appear in Hell's Arena and The Chained Court. That's the first two special levels of the game. I usually always go for the Marine Shotgun build. I first take points in Reloader to access Shottyman, which is quite a useful trait. Then I usually put points in Badass because I like having doubled health and the Knockback reduction is quite nice too. When the time comes, I then opt for the Army of The Dead.

I also assemble a Tactical Shotgun, which is pretty effective at killing hellspawn and is my main weapon for the entire game. The problem is that it seems on HMP I usually
can't assemble one in time before Hell Knights and stronger enemies start appearing in the first episode. Fighting one with just a regular Shotgun is kind of hard as it takes a lot of ammo to kill it. If possible I try to assemble an Elephant Gun which helps nicely, although not as much as the Tactical Shotgun. In a few playthroughs I've even been fortunate enough to find the Jackhammer. It's powerful, but eats up ammo fast, so I save it for the big guys. Most of the time if I make it to the Cyberdemon I use the BFG 9000 to kill him. Sometimes I'm fortunate to be granted an invulnerability power up, while other times I'm not so lucky. I do the same to the Spider Mastermind.

I know about being able to go into running mode as well as corner-shooting, but Hell Knights move fast and if I can fire only one Shotgun Shell at a time, they often are able to get within shooting range of me before I can kill them. This is especially true in Hell's Arena as the walls in that level are kind of short and hard to hide around.
In most games (in HNTR or lower) I'm able to complete the following special levels; Hell's Arena, The Chained Court (both types), Military Base, Deimos Lab, Phobos Labs,
Hell's Armory, The Wall, Containment Area, Halls of Carnage, City of Skulls, Spider's Lair, Abyssal Plains and even The Vault.

Anyway I would just like some tips from some of the better players here on playing on HMP+ difficulty. Anything that might give me an edge. Oh, and one more thing.
How do you Rocket Jump with the Rocket Launcher? I understand you use the Alternate Fire, but how do you target where you want to jump to? I've usually been
blowing myself up in the process, not to mention leaving myself weakened and surrounded by other monsters, which then results in death. Anyway, I'll end my post now.

[thelaptop]

Zeroth principle of HMP+: You will die.  A whole lot.  A whole fantastic lot compared to HNTR/ITYTD.
If you play rationally, you can win almost every HNTR/ITYTD game (or at least > 70% of them that you start).  On HMP+, expect to die.  The RNG never forgives; the RNG never forgets.

Primal principle of HMP+: Don't get hit.
Most of the time, this means staying behind cover more often than you might do in HNTR/ITYTD.  It also means making a break for cover if you know that your current cover is going to be blown wide open (oh hi there, Mancubus, I see you sneaking about).

Second principle of HMP+: Speed >> tankiness.
The very best N! tamers almost always opt for speed over tankiness.  This means upping firing speed, movement speed and reload speed.  You can only take that much damage before dying -- it is a fixed and really low number compared to what the mobs can do to you.  But with greater speed, you can do more within the same amount of time, which vastly increases your survival.  Never discount speed.

Third principle of HMP+: Choke points are your friend.
You can't take on all of them at one go.  No way.  HMP+ doesn't work that way.  You lure them.  You isolate them.  Then you unload all that you have on them till they are dead.  Rinse, repeat.  This is more than just firing from cover -- it involves choosing that cover carefully to begin with.

Fourth principle of HMP+: You can't hoard supplies.
Use all the supplies you have on hand.  A small medpack might be "useless", but if it buys you enough time to get into cover, so be it.  Don't save that large medpack for "the big one" -- if you are going to die in the next turn without a heal, that large medpack is useless anyway.  Have a look at your inventory after each death.  If you find that you have lots of healing items or teleport items left over, you should reconsider how you are using your resources.  HMP+ is less forgiving than HNTR/ITYTD -- always remember that.

[LuckyDee]

Although by no means I consider myself part of 'some of the better players', here's a few pointers based on your post:

1) Shotguns lose their value quickly against tougher monsters, since damage drop-off due to range and higher monster armor (which counts double against shrapnel damage) increase quickly. Unless you want to play a shotgun build every single game, try different weapons as well. And even if you do want to play shotgun builds every game, still do not underestimate the value of carrying other weapons, especially when ammo for your main weapon gets scarce.

2) Learn to appreciate DPS (Damage Per Second). As thelaptop mentioned, speed is a key factor. Shotguns do massive damage at close range, but the combined fire and reload time is pretty high. A normal pistol isn't too powerful on its own, but with a fire time around a tenth of a second (multiple levels of SOG and/or FIN) the amount of mayhem it can cause within just one second is tremendous.

3) Rocket-jumping isn't about jumping to somewhere, it's about jumping away from somewhere. You don't aim where you go to, just in which direction you want to evacuate your current position. If you aim to your right, you'll jump left; if you aim up, you'll jump down, etc. I usually just fire at a tile right beside me, although it's quite possible to aim a little further away I guess.
Thus this is most sensibly used by firing in the opposite direction of where you know you'll be relatively safe(st), which would be the direction it hurls you in.

And @thelaptop: thanks for your Principles, there's actually some useful stuff in there for me, too.