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Topics - Sambojin

Pages: 1 [2]
16
Discussion / Initial opinions on 0.9.9.3 Easier or harder?
« on: May 04, 2011, 18:07 »
Another fairly long, rambling post. Just on my initial thoughts on the new version of DoomRL (0.9.9.3). In no particular order.....



The fact that boots are now less common and armour shards more common makes the game a little easier. Keeping your armour up used to be a major inconvenience, but now I find that I can rely on a bulk-modded red armour far more easily. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or bad. Maybe armour shards will become other power-up types over time.....

New power-up wise I've only gotten the Tracking Map. God-dammit this thing is powerful. So much better than INT(2) or anything else really. You know the whole layout, and exactly where everything is. It kind of makes the level a "gimme", you can fight your way through with perfect knowledge and tactics to suit or just scoot to the exit (again with perfect knowledge of what you'll face). So good it's stupid. Better than an invulnerability in my opinion.

The new tactical rocket launcher rocks. It is now better than the missile launcher in virtually every way. OK, except accuracy. But seriously, five rockets, quite nice accuracy and 0.8sec multi-reload? With no downsides at all. I juggler'ed my way with a TRL and a ML through the game quite easily. It might not be guaranteed like the ML, but it sure is nice. It's worthwhile a WK level just to dump your bulk mods into this. It's a game winner.

It might just be a difficulty level thing, but I'm having difficulty getting the Shambler lever to spawn in the armoury. There could just be new requirements. I tend to kill a skull as my last enemy (new AI makes them back off sometimes) so it could be this too. The level name turns blue, but no shambler lever. I'll work it out at some time.......

The new ammochain kicks just as much arse as the old one did. Sure you don't get a "free" juggler/WK combo, but it gives you a heap of options. DoomRL is a very random game (roguelike as it is) and therefore you might end up with something stupidly good early in your run. Dumping the first couple of levels into Reloader still gives you the option for MAc, MFa or MAD. Whatever your play-style, you don't lose anything, and you can let the game develop a little before you decide which master trait you want (if any). Really, reloader is now the player build equivalent of juggler. You don't lose anything and you can juggle your build depending on what the game throws at you (or sometimes even to you). Plus you can reload your weapons a little quicker while you're deciding. And take shottyman for a mutli-weapon build. It's not juggler, but now you can MAc with pride because it's now balanced. "Hail of plasma death" kind of balanced. With some buckshot to boot.

Crate rooms. I'm still undecided on whether these make the game easier or harder. Or pretty much just the same. They're a godsend when you're playing as a melee build, and situational in every other build. Sometimes you want a shooting gallery, sometimes you don't. The crate rooms themselves are a good thing though, just depends really.

Rivers are cool. They make the early game a little easier and much like crate rooms are a bit situational in the later game. I'm of the opinion that these make the game a little easier overall, just because they open up shooting lanes.

Strangely enough I've found the new skull and daemon AI to make the game a little easier. Mainly because sometimes they seem to want to back off or hide sometimes rather than the "charge-kill" AI we had previously. When they back off it just means another round of buckshot or two for their troubles. Daemons don't seem to lava-suicide as often, but overall they're actually a little easier to kill now.

Other than the TRL I haven't checked many other assembly tweaks. But overall, assemblies make the game a touch easier for all builds. With a couple a guaranteed assemblies and a good chance to make any weapon into "a good thing", it is a bit easier than 0.9.9.1 where it was a real limiting factor to not have WK levels. Now you sort of don't need them as much, and can still mod up some great stuff.


This is my initial thoughts on the game. What have other people found out so far, especially concerning the nature of the meta-game and difficulty of DoomRL? I mean, it's not as though N! is all of a sudden easy or anything.....

Opinions?

17
I've wondered why the HPW assembly can't be used for shotguns. Admittedly in it's current form it would make them far too good in the game. But can an assembly do different things to different weapons? Or different things to different groups of weapons?

I think that if HPW was made to only drop weapon ammunition capacity by 25% and was allowed on shotguns it would perform a valuable role in rounding out the assembly list. It could just be a catch-all assembly that just amps up any weapon slightly, but not over-poweringly.

Note that these shotguns use physical damage, and therefore are more effective against armour than regular shotguns. That's pretty much the point of these "High Powered Shotgun" type weapons.


High Powered Shotgun
Damage:   9d3/9-27 or 8d3/8-24, falls off linearly at 7% per square
Average Damage:   18*0.93 = 16.74 or 16*0.93 = 14
Damage Type:   Physical
Accuracy:   +0
Base Fire Time:   1.0 second
Base Reload Time:   1.4 second or 1.12 second
Clip Size:   1
Ammunition:   Shotgun shells
Alternate Fire:   N/A
Alternate Reload:   N/A

High Powered Combat Shotgun
Damage:   8d3/8-24 or 7d3/6-21 -5% per square of distance linearly
Average Damage:   16*0.95 = 15.2  or  14*0.95 = 14 point blank
Damage Type:   Physical
Accuracy:   +0
Base Fire Time:   1.0 second
Base Reload Time:   Reload - 0.7 second
Pump - 0.2 second
Clip Size:   4 or 5
Ammunition:   Shotgun shells
Alternate Fire:   N/A
Alternate Reload:   Loads 5 shells at once

Damage:   (9d3)x3/27-81 or (8d3)x3/24-72, reduced linearly at 10% per square
Average Damage:   18*3*0.9=48.6 or 16*3*0.9=43.2 point blank
Damage Type:   Physical
Accuracy:   +0
Base Fire Time:   1.0 second
Base Reload Time:   2.0 seconds or 1.6 seconds
Clip Size:   2
Ammunition:   Shotgun shells
Alternate Fire:   Shoots one shell. 9d3/8d3, 1.0 firetime.
Alternate Reload:   Loads one shell.

High Powered Assault Shotgun
Damage:   8d3/8-24 or 7d3/6-21 -5% per square of distance linearly
Average Damage:   16*0.95=15.2  or  14*0.95 = 14 point blank
Damage Type: Physical
Accuracy:   +0 (Shotguns ignore accuracy completely)
Base Fire Time:   1.0 second
Base Reload Time:   0.4 second
Clip Size:   5 or 6
Ammunition:   Shotgun shells
Alternate Fire:   None
Alternate Reload:   None

The different figures separated by "or" are for whether you put the power or bulk mod on first respectively. I didn't round the figures except for ammo where appropriate.  So what do people think? They're not really that good, just a little more oommph for your shotties against armoured foes. They're not as good as plasmatic shrapnel, or a plasma shotgun vs armour (and certainly not as good as MAD) but it's a nice little bridge between these levels of killy-ness. Might actually be a little too weak really, but as a jake-of-all-trades assembly, it gives HPW a little bit more scope in what it can do.

18
I've been playing a fair bit of the new version recently and I've noticed something. You are MEANT to nuke the Cyber-daemon. It's not random, it's not a maybe, it's a given. You have the items to do it every time as long as you do the special levels. And it seems that the levels to do it ALWAYS spawn.

Let me explain. Everyone knows how good the arena/chained court/the wall run is. You get some nifty weapons, a good melee weapon for berserkers, some very handy mods and a missile launcher/backpack. In fact, these three levels when all completed give you the weaponry and items that you have no excuse to not get to hell.

But now there's another run. It's the mortuary/unholy cathedral/lava pits run. In the mortuary you get a nuclear BFG and some angelic armour. In the unholy cathedral you get the longinus spear. In the lava pits you get the lava-element. Admittedly you can skip the cathedral if you're not a H2H character. This means that as long as you do the mortuary and the lava pits you ALWAYS have a nuke(overcharged nuclear BFG) and an invulnerability(lava-element) to nuke the cybie. ALWAYS.

Thus JC isn't just for that lucky "I got a white globe at level 24" kind of run. You are meant to kill him on every run if you can. There's no excuses any more. You've got the nuke, you've got the invulnerabilty, you've got some spiffy armour you won't need until JC and a good melee weapon if you want it. Nuke that cybie and kill some iDsoftware arse!

19
I hope this isn't against the forum rules, and if it is feel free to remove this post.

This post is to help the newbie player (which I am myself in a way) get used to/practice a couple of the more bitched about levels in DoomRL. It's not to show how great I am (I'm not) or to let people cheat their way through ranks/player profiles. It just gives a new player the equipment and abilities to practice these levels so that they can feel less intimidated by them when they go for their own runs through the game. I suggest that you use these saves in a fresh install of DoomRL, in a different directory from your normal copy to stop these saves destroying your own personal player profiles.

******IMPORTANT***********************
Each save is called save_*level_*difficulty_*buildtype.  Remove everything after "save" in the filename to use these. Keep a copy somewhere if you want to practice them a few times. You'll only be able to use one at a time, just select "Continue Game" on the main menu.

*************************************
Firstly a save for Ultra-Violence Hell's Arena.

Filename:  save_arena_hard_intuition.
Hell's Arena on Ultra-Violence

You start with two combat shotguns, some spare shotguns for switching/corner shooting, a chain-gun, some health and a bit of ammo. It's quite easily do-able, just grab some cover and blast away. The build is aiming for intuition (cheap and cheesy) with juggler already gotten to make it a little easier on you. Or go for a non-master build if you want. You start on 60% health, so that's the only real downside to it.

No things to do, no glory to win. And a funny/weird build to make it easy.

Things to Learn: Juggler/corner shooting, and learning how to hit multiple targets with a shotgun. And maybe which targets it is/isn't worthwhile using a chaingun on. I wouldn't bother continuing through the game with this one.......

*****************************

Secondly a very easy save for the Mortuary

Filename:  save_mortuary_easy_AoMC_ammochain.
The Mortuary on Angel of Max Carnage with an Ammo-chain build.

It doesn't get any easier than this. You start with 20+ turns of invunerability. And a firestorm packed Plasma-Rifle. And power/agility-modded Onyx Armour. And a missile launcher. And a bulk modded BFG. And alot of ammo. And a combat shotgun just for giggles. This is just to get rid of the fear that a lot of players seem to have of the Mortuary. You can actually take out the level with just the combat-shotty if you want. It really makes you cry when the game throws this much good stuff at you on an easy difficulty.

For bonus points, clear the Mortuary and take out the rest of the game with a non-AotD assault shotgun. Still very doable. Or go completely close combat for the rest of the game. You should get level 12 easily by the end. 16 hours of play time too. I went out for a day and left it running.............

Things to Learn: No fear. The joys of weapon/armour modding. Restock-retool-rebuild your character mid/late game if you want.  Just how good exotics/uniques are. You CAN take on the end-game with fists/knives and some health packs.



************************************

Thirdly the Mortuary on Angel of Shotgun with an Army of the Dead build. Hurt Me Plenty difficulty.

Filename:  save_mortuary_med_AoS_AotD
The Mortuary on Hurt Me Plenty, Angel of Shotgun, Army of the Dead build.

Again, it can't get much easier for a shotgun build. You have an assault shotgun already (which you can abuse with the shotty-man trait full reload) and a firestorm packed double barrel shotgun. 2-3 turns of invunerability (to phase if you want) and some ammo/health. You don't have much armour though, there's plenty on the level though.

Just to practice both open area shotgun fighting and let people REALLY learn the spread of their shotgun. It also highlights just how beautiful a level the Mortuary is for restocks of virtually anything you could need late game. You should never skip the level in my opinion. No 100% possible, I went to the Wall without thinking.

Things to learn: not much. A little bit of shotgun work. Taking out groups, learning how handy the "Run" button is in an active combat environment. Working monsters against each other.  Target priority. If you finish off the game then you'll learn a good bit about shotguns in late game and what you can take on with health/armour defence and what you'll need "active" defense against (moving/running like hell).

**************************

That's it for now. These are meant to be easy, just for training/learning purposes. You've got just about everything you could ever need. Don't abuse them for kill-counts/mode-unlocks. They're not that good for that anyway.

Have fun, learn lots.

PS I've never even seen a firestorm pack before these games. Then I got them both for these saves. You REALLY don't need them, but it doesn't half make these easier training tools.

20
Was a strange game for me. Started off with the pillared base map (no-medi-kits), got pasted a little at the start(lv2-5), then it turned into a cakewalk. I've always had a bit of trouble with shotty builds, but this one ended up a little too easy. Standard army-of-the-dead build BTW. Fair enough though, it was on easy, so no-problem I guess.

Found the assault shotty on 6th level (and kind of figured I'd have it in the bag from then on). After that the game kind of went crazy with the amount of power-ups, nice weapons and armour it threw at me. Found the Pancor Jackhammer on lv9. End of game. The hardest part was restraining my ammo-usage. Think I used about two large medi-kits from about lv14 onwards. Took out the spider lair, next 2 levels were spider caverns. Two blasts and they disappeared in a puff of spider-gribbly-bits. 2 arch-vile/4-5 mancubus rooms were't a problem. Cyber-daemon required no-tactics. I might have been able to punch him to death with the amount of armour and health I was carrying. Still, my first shotty win. Onto med/hard I guess.

I know my girlfriend doesn't read this forum, so I can say this. If she ever ditches me, I think my next gf with be a Pancor Jackhammer (jokes).

As an aside, does the Jackhammer work on ammo-chain builds?. ie: Triggerhappy and Ammo-chain. Would be a little too easy, but fun to watch the knockback.

--------------------------------------------------------------
 DoomRL (v.0.9.9.1) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 Sam, level 10 Cacodemon Sergeant, defeated the Cyberdemon
 on level 25 of the Phobos base.
 He survived 121610 turns and scored 89833 points.
 He played for 2 hours, 50 minutes and 41 seconds.
 He didn't like it too rough.

 He killed 462 out of 497 hellspawn. (92%)
 He held his right to remain violent.
 He was an Angel of Shotgunnery!


-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------

  UAC Star (bronze cluster)
  Hell Champion Medal
  Shottyman Silver Badge

-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------

  ###########################################################
  #..........................................................
  #..........................................................
  #..........................................................
  #.................................###......................
  #.................................###......................
  #...................X........|....###..........###.........
  #.......................###...|................###.........
  #.......................###...}|...............###.........
  #.......................###......###.......................
  #................................###.......................
  #..............###...............###.......................
  #.........###..###......................###................
  #.........###..###.......###............###.....###........
  #.........###............#>#............###.....###........
  #........................###....................###........
  #..........................................................
  #..........................................................
  #..........................................................
  ###########################################################

-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------

  Health 43/80   Experience 42856/10
  ToHit Ranged +0  ToHit Melee +0  ToDmg Ranged +0  ToDmg Melee +0

-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------

    Ironman          (Level 3)
    Tough as nails   (Level 2)
    Reloader         (Level 2)
    Badass           (Level 1)
    Shottyman        (Level 1)
    Army of the Dead (Level 1)

  Rel->Rel->SM->TaN->TaN->Bad->MAD->Iro->Iro->Iro->

-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------

    [a] [ Armor      ]   modified red armor [3/6] (28%) (P)
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   Jackhammer (8d3)x3 [6/9]
    [c] [ Boots      ]   modified plasteel boots [4/4] (100%) (T)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   modified assault shotgun (7d3) [6/6] (T1)

-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------

    [a] modified red armor [4/4] (137%) (B)
    [b] modified red armor [4/4] (158%) (B)
    [c] modified red armor [6/6] (100%) (P)
    [d] shotgun shell (x17)
    [e] shotgun shell (x50)
    [f] large med-pack
    [g] large med-pack
    [h] large med-pack
    [i] large med-pack
    [j] large med-pack
    [k] large med-pack
    [l] large med-pack
    [m] large med-pack
    [n] large med-pack
    [o] large med-pack
    [p] phase device
    [q] phase device
    [r] phase device
    [s] phase device
    [t] envirosuit pack
    [u] thermonuclear bomb

-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------

    72 former humans
    61 former sergeants
    19 former captains
    93 imps
    65 demons
    58 lost souls
    25 cacodemons
    8 barons of hell
    1 Cyberdemon
    8 hell knights
    29 arachnotrons
    4 former commandos
    2 pain elementals
    2 arch-viles
    11 mancubi
    2 revenants
    2 bruiser brothers

-- History ---------------------------------------------------

  He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
  On level 3 he entered Hell's Arena.
  He left the Arena as a champion!
  On level 9 he found Hell's Armory.
  On level 9 he found the Jackhammer!
  On level 11 he found the Butcher's Cleaver!
  On level 12 he ventured into the Halls of Carnage.
  On level 15 he encoutered the Phobos Hellgate.
  On level 19 he ventured into the Spider's Lair.
  He cleared the Lair, kickin' serious spider ass!
  On level 23 he entered the Lava Pits.
  He decided it was too hot there.
  Then at last he found Phobos Arena!
  On level 25 he finally defeated the Cyberdemon.

-- Messages --------------------------------------------------

 footsteps...
 Fire -- Choose target...   The Cyberdemon fires! You are hit!
 Fire -- Choose target...   The Cyberdemon reloads his rocket launcher.
 Fire -- Choose target...   The Cyberdemon fires! You are hit!
 The Cyberdemon reloads his rocket launcher.
 Fire -- Choose target... 
 Fire -- Choose target...   You are hit!
 Fire -- Choose target... 
 The Cyberdemon fires! You are hit! Your red armor is damaged!
 Fire -- Choose target...   The Cyberdemon reloads his rocket launcher.
 Fire -- Choose target... 
 Fire -- Choose target...   The Cyberdemon fires! You are hit!
 The Cyberdemon reloads his rocket launcher.
 Fire -- Choose target...   You hear the scream of a freed soul! You feel
 relatively safe now. Congratulations! You defeated the Cyberdemon!

-- General ---------------------------------------------------

 Before him 38 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 33 of those were killed.
 And 3 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 Some rumours though, say that the Cyberdemon was killed already!
 Is he immortal? 2 souls claim to have killed him...
 2 killed the bastard and survived.

--------------------------------------------------------------


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