Holy smokes, thanks a ton for that guide! It was a great read, and while some if it was somewhat common sense, there were some amazing bits of info that I didn't know about that will make the game play SOOO much different.
First off, I didn't know abut the "auto-walk" feature, and even if I read about it somewhere else, I'm sure I wouldn't have assumed you can "auto-wait"...Not only will this obviously save me from taking damage way more often since I currently just wander around and often take stray hits from enemies shooting at me as I move towards them in visible range, but it will make gift dropping an option that I will no longer feel too tedious to worry about at my current level of play. This alone I'm pretty sure will more than improve my game by an entire difficulty setting at LEAST.
'Run-on-the-spot' is extremely important in playing doomrl. 'At least' indeed! You'd perhaps be under-estimating it's importance if you were only attributing it to a single skill level increase. ;)
That, and while I personally have been telling myself to use running mode more often, this guide will certainly help. Before I've had the bad habit of using running mode only for situations where I'm in an enemy's shooting range, and have no cover nearby,
Actually, that sounds about right. If there are no enemies in shooting range, or you're in cover, then there's no real reason to use running mode, since you can't be attacked. :)
I knew that it helped dodging alot, but I guess I forgot how much it helps you avoid attacks by enemies simply "missing". Also you said it reduces damage too, did you mean simply because they miss more often? or do the hits you take deal less damage as well somehow? I can't find that info on the wiki, do you know how much it is reduced by?
I also had no idea -4 meant their 50% chance to hit becomes 9%, I'm seriously dumbfounded.
Running mode doesn't reduce damage when an attack hits you, no. That's a point I need to clarify in the guide.
I see you've been doing research! Yes, going from 10 (former humans) to 6 accuracy reduces chance to hit from 50% to 9%! It's worth remembering, though, that while the effect of running
is in the region of -40-50% to hit for most enemies, it usually isn't so dramatic a change, because an 80% chance to hit will go down to 35% or so - still less than half what it used to be, but not the 4/5ths reduction that you get against formers!
It's really worth mentioning the *dodge* bonus here though. You can rely on that 9% miss chance when running against former humans, but against bigger monsters, dodging is much more reliable than relying on enemies missing. Bullets have 10% dodge chance, plasma has 20%, and the fire/acid/plasma balls that some enemies throw/spit at you have 50%. You also get in the region of 20% added on to that for every 5 squares away the enemy is, so standing 5 squares away from a hell knight actually already gives you a ~75% chance of dodging - he only lands 1 in 4 attacks!
Running mode increases this by a further 20%. That might not sound like much, but when you're running for cover, your expected turns to run before being hit just jumped from 4 squares, to 20 squares! When you add on hellrunner (+15%) or tactical armour (10%) dodging starts to become a lovely, reliable option to avoid taking damage!
Cover is much better than fighting while running (you know this, but...), always consider that an ideal cover situation should equate to 100% damage reduction, and wastes far less ammo than firing while in running mode, so seek cover! You don't need to be fighting while dodging, if you can dodge your way to good cover.
Any player that has taken the 'dodgemaster' trait already knows how good dodging all those shots are, but it takes a bit of experience before you realise that most characters are capable of achieving similar dodging frenzies with the right items or tactics!
I also already put rocket launchers to adjust my surroundings to my favor a few times, however I never thought about doing it for chained court + to deal with dem hell knights. I don't know if I EVER would have thought of that... Likewise, blowing up those teleporters for spider nest.
I'm not sure whether you still can blow up the spider's nest teleporters. I'm suspicious that it was removed.
The chained court+ strategy, though, took me a long time to come up with, with at least a couple of threads on these forums dedicated to throwing about ideas! I wouldn't be surprised if somebody hadn't found something even better, this is a strategic game and good players come up with some ingenious ideas that I had not thought of (like luring the demons out of their tunnels on phobos lab using rocket explosions), so soon enough you'll trump my ideas for tackling levels with your own. The chained court+ though, in particular, was a lovely one to finally 'crack'. :D
Not only that, but by knowing how to auto-wait, I'll feel far more comfortable running around in tactical armor (I always made tactical boots). The speed boost will be great.
+Speed items (tactical armour & boots, among others) only decrease the time it takes to move, not to stand still. If you want to stand still safely, either be in a position where no enemies will be able to shoot at you the turn after they first see you, use 'z' to switch weapons (0.8s per turn), fire a fast-firing weapon (SoaG can get a pistol down as low as 0.1s)(there's a lot these 2 tacticas going on in the first few levels of that youtube game I posted earlier) or, if you're *really* desperate to get that first turn, start to drop items on the floor (0.5s each). It's very rare, though, that such extreme measures as dropping items or wasting bullets are necessary, and they carry with them their own risks!
The main point of +speed items (and they're probably the most powerful items in the game) is being able to get to cover without taking any damage.
(Also refer to the hyperblaster section in the guide concerning speed)
It's hard to imagine the guide isn't finished... I hope you understand how excited I am to put what I learned into practice!
Awwww, that's a lovely first bit of feedback on it! It's not finished though, no (as seen with the confusion about running damage reduction, and spider's lair teleporters), and there's a *lot* of content to add about challenge modes, nightmare strategy, character builds/traits, and best build paths and mod choices per weapon!
The original version of that guide was written to be quite short and punky, but it's grown into a bit of a hybrid now, and has a lot of growing to do before it's comprehensive. Nice to see that it's still well-received though, after all these years! :D
Thankyou ever so much.
