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DoomRL => Discussion => Topic started by: Satatik on October 30, 2005, 03:28

Title: Tips
Post by: Satatik on October 30, 2005, 03:28
Place your tips in this thread.

TIPS: Hit tab to set tactics, I usualy have mine on cowardly, don't know the difference but it seems to make your person more carfull. I.E. Blow up a barrel and he moves to dodge it.

SHOTGUNS: They have KNOCKBACK! Pinkydemons are medium speed and can keep your pace. Use the combatshotty to fire and then retreat 1 square to load a shell, then fire again, you will quickly outpace him. Shotguns are easily the best weapons in the game if you use cover properly. Single and double shotty pale in comparason because of combat shottys tactical usefullness.

Save your rocket launchers for later, those baron of hells and hellkngihts are a bitch, often taking more than 3 rockets to kill, while you get 6 fireballs in your face in the process.

TRAITS: The cateye trait is the most important trait you can have, it increases your sight range. With it at its highest level, you can outrange those pasky former human captains and thier pesky chainguns, and see HUGE threats before they supprise YOU.

SOUND: Sound is very important in this game, with all the original doom sounds imported, and with directional relevance, listen.... even stop and hit the '.' button to wait a turn, just to hear the sounds. Listen for strength of sound, direction of sound, and type. If you hear a baron of hells roar real close and to the left a bit, and your near a door... back away... FAST, and hope they don't hear you or open the door.

Clear levels, don't just skip to the next one if its right in front of you. Try to get all the nice weapons.

Always enter the red stairs to go to secret levels. Like hells arena, and the chained court, and..... the WALL (OMFG HARD)

HELLS ARENA: Never enter it unless you have a combat shotty, with usualy 3-5 pinky demons, and 5-7 lost souls, and also 1-2 coacodemons, you better be able to move while shooting, helling dodge and outrange. This is very hard considering its available often just only on the second level....

Chained court: Very simple, grab a berserker pack, OWN PEEPS, gab another to heal to 100% rinse and repeat.

The WALL: OMFG AVOID UNLESS UBER EXPERIENCED. comes at around level 7-15 this is a very deadly place. When you enter there you are outside in a hellish area, with a wall in the distance covered in blood gore limbs and pools of blood below with the screams of hell knights in the distance... multiple ones... At first theres no way for them to get to you, but with a rocket launcher that can be solved quickly... Blow open the wall about 4 times, they will rush out. Almost 100% of the time completely owning you. 2 hell knights and 1 baron of hell I saw...

Phase devices: save these and use when in a SOL situation. But it may just put you right back into one.
Title: Tips
Post by: Kornel Kisielewicz on October 30, 2005, 21:02
I LOVE this idea :-D. Please people post. Maybe some friendly individual could then compile it into a DoomRL strategy guide? *hint, hint*

I won't give away my tacticts, cause they'd definitively be spoilers :-/

I will only note on the tips that might not be valid in the future:
CatEye -- will be less usefull when the monster AI is upgraded, and the monsters will always attack a player if he shoots at him.
Title: Tips
Post by: JimmyJ on October 30, 2005, 23:36
I always do hells arena on level 2 with just a pistol and a shotgun and i win...its NOT that hard
Title: Tips
Post by: Satatik on October 31, 2005, 02:53
Not that hard? Pfft, yea right, try having 3 pinky demons rushing you, with a coacodemon 10 squares away, and 1 lost soul charging you with more around the corner and you only have 78% health. Then tell me you can win with a normal shotty and pistol. Rofl I know its possible, you just need to be stealthy, make sure fewer than 3 monsters aggro you.

With a normal shotty you are anchored in 1 place, you move and you cant shoot, you still need to reload, but with the combat shotty, run in a panic and shoot, then do it again. Retreat but still take them out. With a normal one you get killed to easily, you are to stationary.

But in my experience its impossible to outrun the fireballs, but you can dodge them, but it seems 8/10 times the people shooting you with the fireballs shoot at your feet for splash damage and they never go past you.

And Devs, can you please explain the effect of the tactics?
Title: Tips
Post by: Satatik on October 31, 2005, 03:02
Not to double post, but yes, I wouldn't mind compiling a strategy guide :)

cratermaker@charter.net

AIM: Satatik

Just get a hold of me and we can discuss how you want to set it up and what format etc. Then we can proceed on doing a professional version for future releases.
Title: Tips
Post by: Chris on October 31, 2005, 03:30
Fire a couple of shotgun shells into areas you haven't explored yet. If there are enemies in range you can hit them, usefull both because of the damage you do and because you can tell whats out there via the sounds. You can use any weapon with this really, but the shotgun is most usefull because it spreads out.

With a shotgun, because it spreads out, you can sometimes hit creatures that normally would be protected by a wall if you were to use something like the chaingun.

If you know or suspect that there are creatures close to the other side of a wall, push a couple of barrels next to it and then blow them up from a distance away. Even if you don't get them all you can still stand aways away and shoot offscreen to try to get them.
Title: Tips
Post by: Satatik on October 31, 2005, 05:28
Wow nice tips there.

ENEMY TIPS:

Zombies: Kill from a distance to avoid shotgun fire and these guys are simple to take out. Dont worry to much about them, stay away from doors if these guys are near and lure them out because shotty upclose to the face isnt realy a good thing.

Pinky demons: Keep moving and keep your distance, use shotty to kill and slow them down from ever reaching you with knockback. Simple.

Imps: These suck untill about level 6 when you start to get better  levels and also better equipment. Try to stay close with the shotgun so they wont shoot thier fireballs but will try to charge you. 1 shot this close will ususaly take them out. You must hug walls and keep your fronts of battle close and in controlled directions, having to watch for enemies to the north and behind greatly helps. So hug walls to eliminate 1 direction of battle and make things easier. This is how you sneak up on imps so you can shotty them up close. Your second option is to stay far away and attempt to dodge thier fireballs, or take them out before they fireball you. Either way its generaly going to hurt you a bit. So try to use the first method, its harder but saves your behind alot better if you do it right.

Lost souls: no problem for a combat shotty. They usualy come in swarms and can close in on you FAST, they sort of charge like in the original doom. Shoot them and they tend to stop right in front of you or close from the knockback and dont hit you. 1-2 hits take them out. just walk backwards to load a shell, shoot and walk away again to put more space between you and them.

I don't know how to kill the tougher enemies they seem to hard. Ive only killed 4 hell knights before, and i almost died each time. maybe somone could help me there?

-----------------
General tactics and logic.

1. Bottlenecks- stand 1 tile to the left of a door that is opened or locked for instance and make sure you cant see to the other side. Wait or fire off a few shots and wait a few turns. let them come through 1 by 1, it makes things 100000x easier for you when only 1 can hit you at a time. Same with corners stay by them and let them turn around it 1-2 at a time.

2. Stay away from containers when near enemies with explosive attacks or spray attacks, or you are using a shotgun. You will die quickly.

3. close all doors in rooms you know are clear so if they open again you know somone is there. This is of course optional and depending on how dangerous things currently are.

4. Don't hoard ammo, it makes you waste time, and i think it might slow you down somehow, I kinda noticed it a little. And theres almost always enough ammo for you to not grab all of the ammo lying around everywhere.

5. Use the weapon selection hotkeys. 1-9 selects weapons like in the original doom. Use them for quick access.

6. Too many monsters in the next room? Fire and hide behind a wall then wait. But dont let some monster flank you from behind, it will force you to move, and if they destroy the wall you are near the monsters on the other side will aggro you too. Not good either way.

7. You will often fight multiple monsters, so prioitze. Is that imp at the edge of your view the most dangerous? or is that former human sergant with a shotty right next to you the most dangerous?.

8. Some people prefer weapons that allow superior mobility and spread for max hits over multiple enemies. I.E. Combat shotty. And some like weapons with superior rate of fire or dmg with long range accuracy. I.E. chaingun or double shotty. Use both for different situations. Bunch of former humans in a group near you? Use shotty to hit the middle one 2 times and they usualy all die. Use chaingun and such for single realy difficult enemies where you are generaly at long range and need to move around in open space.
Title: Tips
Post by: Corremn on October 31, 2005, 05:40
Quoting: Satatik
So hug walls to eliminate 1 direction of battle and make things easier.


Hug wall against imps? I dont think so, perhaps you mean 2-3 sqaures away from the wall.

My only tip is keep your health up, dont wait for a heath bonus.  I always die conserving health packs.
Title: Tips
Post by: Thomas on October 31, 2005, 07:48
Here as some handy hints of my own (or possibly som1 elses, great minds think alike!)

LV2: If you plan on getting the chaingun, not the dbl shotgun (they're both almost the same anyway) then pick up 60 shells, no more, no less. Hell's arena usualy takes 30-50.

Special levels:

Hell's arena: Always go in. 90% chance of winning.
Chained court: Always go in. Easy XP anyone?
The wall: Don't be a chicken! But don't be stupid either. Go in with a RL, 20+ rockets and a tubload of HP packs.
The halls of carnage: Oftenly go in, 75-80% of games. Reasons to not go in:
1. Low ammo. You need a fair amount (unless u have a dbl shotgun)
2. No health packs. You need a few, maybe 5 max.
The armoury: I've only gone in once out of the 1 game I've seen it. So, always go in :D! Pretty good rewards.

Inventory priority:

MOST IMPORTANT
Your current gun
The first 2 stacks of your current ammo
Health packs
Armor
The BFG9K (only if it's not your current gun)
Future ammo (Unless also curennt ammo)
Future guns
The next 3-5 stacks of your current ammo
Phase devises
Spare armor
The NEXT 3-5 stacks of your current ammo
Melee weapons
Obsolete ammo (Unless also current ammo)
Obsolete guns
Any more current ammo

If you have a small health pack and replacing with a large:
1. Use the small health pack! It's not wasted that way :)
2. Is there anything more useless than the small health pack you could waste instead?

Learn the monsters, if you know how much damage you're gonna take, you know EXACTLY when to use a health pack and who to attack first!

Let the monster's kill themselves.

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
.  .  .  .  h .  .  .
.  .  .  .  c .  .  .
.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
.  .  .  . @ .  .  .
.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

Walk downwards, and watch the demon die. Then take out the Former whatever it is with a strong gun! No damage, only 1 shot done.

That's it for now, my head hurts!
Title: Tips
Post by: PotatoEngineer on October 31, 2005, 10:51
Wow, lots of good tip here.  Here's a few more:

* Finagling the aim.  A chaingun is capable of shooting everywhere a shotgun can; just alter the aim point manually to shoot past your target, and the spaces you shoot through will change.  Tweak it enough and you'll avoid that pesky pillar.  (Doesn't work perfectly at extreme ranges.)

* CatEye is your friend (until the next release, anyway).  Shoot enemies who can't see you.  If you get both levels, then you can see them, shoot them, and they STILL can't see you even if they random-walk in your direction.  Stay just barely in viewing distance and you can even take down the Wall.

* Conserve ammo in the lower levels.  Cacodemons and Arachnids never leave you interesting things, and knights and barons only occasionally give you the ammo you wanted.  Don't use rockets or plasma unless you're being threatened.  (In the upper levels, of course, you get everything you ever wanted.  It's like Christmas for ammo!)

(Random guess on how tactics work: coward = less likely to be hit, but lower hit rate.  berserk = more likely to hit or be hit.)
Title: Tips
Post by: Thomas on October 31, 2005, 23:22
Nearly forgot this one:

When using a gun that can fire more than 1 bullet at a time (plasma gun, chaingun, dbl shotgun) that is also capable of killing an enemy without using all shots, then try this:

.  .  .  .  .  h .
.  .  .  .  .  .  .
.  .  .  .  s  . .
.  .  .  .  .  .  .
.  .  .  .  .  .  .
.  .  @ . .  .  .

Aiming at: Stone wall
#### X#
.  .  .  .  .  * .
.  .  .  .  *  .  .
.  .  .  .  *  .  .
.  .  .  *  .  .  .
.  .  .  *  .  .  .
.  .  @ . .  .  .

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!
Both dead.
Title: Tips
Post by: JimmyJ on November 01, 2005, 01:04
Nice, I think you are clear on taht, and if you arent, we get nice lil' pics to help ;)
Title: Tips
Post by: Kornel Kisielewicz on November 01, 2005, 03:39
My! This section is getting better and better :-D. When enough material is gathered, then please compile it into one ordered text file... I will then repost it here and we'll comment on it again :-) -- afterwards it'll be available for download on the main site.

Quoting: PotatoEngineer
Finagling the aim.

That won't work in the future :-/
Title: Tips
Post by: Malek Deneith on November 01, 2005, 03:54
Quoting: Kornel Kisielewicz
My! This section is getting better and better :-D. When enough material is gathered, then please compile it into one ordered text file... I will then repost it here and we'll comment on it again :-) -- afterwards it'll be available for download on the main site.


I have better idea - I'm setting up an wiki for Doom RL - but after I get my sleep :P
Title: Tips
Post by: Krishh on November 01, 2005, 15:37
Quoting: Kornel Kisielewicz
That won't work in the future :-/


How come? I really like doing that. Won't you be able to aim manually anymore?
Title: Tips
Post by: groteski on November 01, 2005, 18:34
Use the double shotgun when you know there is a tough creature, like a baron, aroud the corner. First set tactics to coward, as I think it increases your speed and defence. Then go around the corner, blast the enemy and then immediately retreat to safety to reload. You should never reload a the 2xshotgun when there is an enemy in sight, as it often gets two free shots at you.

The Wall rarely seems very dangerous to me if I have proper ammo and weapons. After digging the wall away shoot a couple of additional rockets at the same direction (you'll know you've made a breach when you hear an ear-shattering screech of ten barons simultanauously), though aim a little up or down because the reward at the other end of the hall might get destroyed. Then switch to a shotgun and keep shooting. If a baron enters you POV step back and swich back to rocket laucher. This way seems pretty safe, thought may take a little extra ammo.
Title: Tips
Post by: Malek Deneith on November 01, 2005, 18:46
So I've made us DoomRL Wiki. Feel free to add any info - be it about the weapons/enemies/etc. or strategic hints.

NOTE:
Current wiki host has 2 major problems - ads that interfere with default wiki skin (had to change to not-so-good-looking skin) and it tends to crash at times (usually for an hur or so). If anyone knows a FREE host that could support the wiki please tell me (must be free, have MSQL database and support php)
Title: Tips
Post by: Kornel Kisielewicz on November 01, 2005, 19:27
Quoting: Malek
So I've made us DoomRL Wiki. Feel free to add any info - be it about the weapons/enemies/etc. or strategic hints.
NOTE:
Current wiki host has 2 major problems - ads that interfere with default wiki skin (had to change to not-so-good-looking skin) and it tends to crash at times (usually for an hur or so). If anyone knows a FREE host that could support the wiki please tell me (must be free, have MSQL database and support php)

Impressive :-D. Ok, I may host it if you wish. The wiki will be faster than the forum I hope, cause it will be on a different server. You need just to help me set it up -- I'll give you admin rights on it too. As for the skin, I can make a DoomRL one :-].

As for the wiki idea -- it's nice. Although I still would like someone to take all content from it from time to time and form it into a plain manual.
Title: Tips
Post by: Malek Deneith on November 01, 2005, 19:37
Great! How can I contact you to help you set the wiki up?
(Judging from name ... and e-mail ... you are probably from Poland. If so than you can catch me on Gadu-Gadu number 9565244. If I'm wrong or If I'm right and for some reason you can't/won't use GG than leave some other method of communication :D )
Title: Tips
Post by: JimmyJ on November 05, 2005, 23:22
I don't really like WIKIfacation, a manual would be preferred by me too, but if a wiki is all we get, i guess i can stick with it ^_^
Title: Tips
Post by: Malek Deneith on November 06, 2005, 09:31
I think that Kornel will prefer having both wiki AND manual :P I've contacted him and wiki will get moved to a more stable server once he has time :)
Title: Tips
Post by: JimmyJ on November 06, 2005, 22:03
YaY!! Good news
Title: Tips
Post by: Turgor on November 15, 2005, 16:43
My tip:
Pull those levers in the first couple of levels. Sure, you may end up in the middle of a pool of acid, but that doesn't happen too often in my experience.
Make sure you push all the barrels clear from any weapons, ammo and powerups you might wish to pick up later (and offcourse from the lever you are pulling) in case the lever blows them all up.

reason for pulling levers is purely for xp: find the switch that makes baddies appear, pick baddies off, repeat. as long as you do this on the first levels, the enemies will drop much more ammo than you spend. and you get a couple of shots in before any enemy even starts to move:
former humans etc wait for about 6 turns (shooting with chaingun)
lost souls for about 3
imps and demons about 5

you can usually kill every spawned enemy before they even start moving!

edit: here's some pics
Title: Tips
Post by: Zephyre Syx on November 20, 2005, 05:50
Heh, I used that exact strategy, though I called it "playing slots".  In addition though, when you do find a lever spawner make sure you leave berserk paks, health globes, and junkery around for obvious reasons.
If you also lucky to find a lever that fills the level with water, note the spawn points are on the spots where there is no water(sometimes), and that's where you plan your assault.
Title: Tips
Post by: JimmyJ on November 21, 2005, 01:40
Yes, enemy spawners are good, plenty of experiance really early }:)
Title: Tips
Post by: Obscillesk on November 22, 2005, 01:38
Tactics I'm not too sure on, perhaps we could get some light shed on them? :D

Generally though, I'm a hellrunner addict so I'm in coward the whole time, I avoid being in aggressive at all costs (unless I'm getting a berserk pack out of the deal) I've found eagle eye works well with cowardly and hellrunner and backing it up with son of a bitch makes any weapon a nice long range killer (chainguns can kill a demon in a single volley with maxed SOB)
Title: Tips
Post by: JimmyJ on November 22, 2005, 02:46
Chain Guns can kill a demon with a single volley anyway....oops, when I read demon, I intepreted it as IMP, lol, how crazy is that 8-)
Title: Tips
Post by: Kornel Kisielewicz on November 28, 2005, 18:42
WELL WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, GUYS! CHRISTMAS?? :-P

Go to the Wiki Website - doomwiki.chaosforge.org, REGISTER, and input these ideas from this thread!

The most active wiki-users will have their names/nicks in the credits section of the packaged DoomRL manual :-]
Title: Tips
Post by: Malek Deneith on November 29, 2005, 18:33
Quoting: Kornel Kisielewicz
WELL WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, GUYS! CHRISTMAS?? :-P

Hah - hah ... loved that ..

Quoting: Kornel Kisielewicz
The most active wiki-users will have their names/nicks in the credits section of the packaged DoomRL manual :-]


Just remember I did most of the original weapons/items descriptions ;)