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1
Requests For Features / Badge Overhaul Brainstorm
« on: February 24, 2012, 12:29 »
I've been considering a number of possible changes to the game, some more radical than others. This is probably one of those more out-reaching cases. Unlike many of the decisions made during development, however, changing around achievements is almost entirely a matter of if the players find it preferable or better. This is why I'm posting it here, to see whether or not it's even a remotely likeable idea.
Right now badges are fun because they give you something to strive for: goals that are close and goals that are far. On the other hand, I find there to be two big flaws in the badge system:
With these things in mind, I'm suggesting that we do away with the current badge system entirely. The way I see it, there's a far more obvious method of the player keeping track of their victories, and that is to literally have a badge for each challenge, each difficulty, and each victory type. We already have something like this, something that you probably pass over every time you check your badges: the challenge/difficulty "spreadsheet" of wins. Part of the new system's implementation would be to expand the spreadsheet to include standard games, as well as keep track of each win type, and possibly round it off with the total number of attempts. Here's a quick example of what it might look like:
Obviously it'd have to be expanded vertically, but I think this would be a great place to quickly establish your overall experience with the game. With such an implementation, all of the current badge pages can be removed outright: as a matter of organization this makes the player info page a little more navigable.
The second half of this suggestion regards the badges themselves: that is, what you get in your mortem for winning a given challenge on a given difficulty with a given victory type. The idea here is to mostly use the names we've gotten used to for badges, but customize them entirely based on the aforementioned criteria. There are a number of ways to work with the naming scheme:
While a huge part of badges regards winning games, there are a lot of badges that don't. For these badges, it would be a matter of deciding if it's important enough to be considered an achievement on its own and, if it is, turn it into a medal. I really don't mind having a huge number of medals, and it retains their "achieveability", so to speak. The obvious keepers are the level-specific badges, whereas throwing out Technician/Armorer/Heroic series aren't that much of a deal.
Regarding unlocks: it's not too big of a shift to require that you collect so many unique badges and/or medals, possibly even particular ones. There are a few ways to make the unlockable system work with this new idea, which isn't within the scope of this topic. I should also note that some of the badges would essentially be "lost" (mostly on the Diamond end of the spectrum): as it stands, almost all (if not all) of these are known through challenge/difficulty/victory and a combination of medals, so I don't consider it a huge loss. If there are some that would be unexplainable through the mortem itself, we can see about including medals to reflect their status.
First and foremost, of course, is whether or not it seems better than the current system: if nothing else, let me know why it's good or bad relative to how we do it now. I'm mostly concerned that a change to the current system wrecks the compatibility of player data, but I believe that the suggestion laid out here is ultimately a better record of the player's achievements, which should be organized as well as possible before we move on to bigger things like an online record-tracker.
So let me know what you think! This is the kind of topic that doesn't require a person to be experienced with DoomRL to have a significant standing: everyone should feel free to respond to the idea and know that their opinion will matter.
Right now badges are fun because they give you something to strive for: goals that are close and goals that are far. On the other hand, I find there to be two big flaws in the badge system:
- badges are gained exactly once, at which point who cares if you do achieve the exact same thing any number of times
- the total badge possibilities indirectly limit creativity on the player's part to achieve something other than what any particular badge has to offer
With these things in mind, I'm suggesting that we do away with the current badge system entirely. The way I see it, there's a far more obvious method of the player keeping track of their victories, and that is to literally have a badge for each challenge, each difficulty, and each victory type. We already have something like this, something that you probably pass over every time you check your badges: the challenge/difficulty "spreadsheet" of wins. Part of the new system's implementation would be to expand the spreadsheet to include standard games, as well as keep track of each win type, and possibly round it off with the total number of attempts. Here's a quick example of what it might look like:
| Mode | E (ITYTD) | M (HNTR) | H (HMP) | U (UV) | N (N!) |
| Stnd | Pt 1 | Pt 1 | Pt 4 | Pt 0 | Pt 3 |
| St 5 | St 2 | St 1 | St 1 | St 0 | |
| Fl 0 | Fl 3 | Fl 2 | Fl 1 | Fl 1 | |
| Tot 15 | Tot 104 | Tot 87 | Tot 211 | Tot 358 | |
| AoB | Pt 1 | Pt 4 | Pt 0 | Pt 3 | |
| St 2 | St 1 | St 1 | St 0 | ||
| Fl 3 | Fl 2 | Fl 1 | Fl 1 | ||
| Tot 104 | Tot 87 | Tot 211 | Tot 358 | ||
| ... |
Obviously it'd have to be expanded vertically, but I think this would be a great place to quickly establish your overall experience with the game. With such an implementation, all of the current badge pages can be removed outright: as a matter of organization this makes the player info page a little more navigable.
The second half of this suggestion regards the badges themselves: that is, what you get in your mortem for winning a given challenge on a given difficulty with a given victory type. The idea here is to mostly use the names we've gotten used to for badges, but customize them entirely based on the aforementioned criteria. There are a number of ways to work with the naming scheme:
- Stick with what already exists. Keep the titles (AoMr = Marksman, AoPc = Pacifist, etc) and set Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond to be for ITYTD, HNTR, HMP, UV, and N! wins, respectively. For instance, a standard UV victory would be a UAC Platinum badge, an AoMC HNTR victory would be a Destroyer Silver badge. This doesn't include victory type immediately but we could probably include words (see below).
- Use a word for each criteria and the badge is a compounded form of those words. This could retain the challenge words, but we'd need special words for each difficulty and could include words for each victory type. Something like, a full UV standard victory could be a Masterful Brutal UAC Badge, and a partial HNTR AoPc could be a Heroic Neophyte Pacifist Badge. (Not saying those are good words, but I'm sure we can come up with something better.)
- Customize each badge individually. This would take a lot of work but there are a lot of us here to brainstorm for all 225 possibilities (not including any new challenges that might show up later on).
While a huge part of badges regards winning games, there are a lot of badges that don't. For these badges, it would be a matter of deciding if it's important enough to be considered an achievement on its own and, if it is, turn it into a medal. I really don't mind having a huge number of medals, and it retains their "achieveability", so to speak. The obvious keepers are the level-specific badges, whereas throwing out Technician/Armorer/Heroic series aren't that much of a deal.
Regarding unlocks: it's not too big of a shift to require that you collect so many unique badges and/or medals, possibly even particular ones. There are a few ways to make the unlockable system work with this new idea, which isn't within the scope of this topic. I should also note that some of the badges would essentially be "lost" (mostly on the Diamond end of the spectrum): as it stands, almost all (if not all) of these are known through challenge/difficulty/victory and a combination of medals, so I don't consider it a huge loss. If there are some that would be unexplainable through the mortem itself, we can see about including medals to reflect their status.
First and foremost, of course, is whether or not it seems better than the current system: if nothing else, let me know why it's good or bad relative to how we do it now. I'm mostly concerned that a change to the current system wrecks the compatibility of player data, but I believe that the suggestion laid out here is ultimately a better record of the player's achievements, which should be organized as well as possible before we move on to bigger things like an online record-tracker.
So let me know what you think! This is the kind of topic that doesn't require a person to be experienced with DoomRL to have a significant standing: everyone should feel free to respond to the idea and know that their opinion will matter.
2
Discussion / [WIKICOMP] Strategy Contest! (DEADLINE #5, Jun 17)
« on: November 02, 2011, 14:32 »Spoiler: Here's the original post (click to show/hide)
There's a lot of content missing from the DoomRL Wiki when it comes to strategy, so what better way to begin filling it than with a contest designed specifically for it!
Competition #5
Deadline: June 17, 2012
Topics:
- Hell's Arena (USD25)
- The Chained Court (USD25)
Information regarding the contest can be found on the Wiki.
I would like to especially remind everyone that strategies must be valid for the current version. Also, since this particular contest is two weeks long, I REALLY don't want any late entries this time: I feel that accepting these tend to be unfair toward people who spent the time beforehand to get things done.
If you have any questions about these rules, please reply in this thread as well. (Don't use this topic as a place to discuss the entries themselves. There ARE talk pages on the Wiki, after all.)
So, without further ado, get out your pencils, your pens, your keyboards, or your keypads, and get to writing!
3
AliensRL / [VIDEO] v0.8 Scout YAVP
« on: September 29, 2011, 20:54 »
Watch the run here: Scout
This run was pretty straight-forward albeit long and winding in preparing. Scouts can probably do a lot less of that.
Anyway, just thought I'd post the mortem and video link on the forums in case some of you who don't know about my channel are interested in watching some AliensRL as played by some guy. Might do some more: I'll keep with a few more DoomRL playthroughs for now but I'm interested in trying some other, non-Scout possibilities for this game.
-- AliensRL 0.8 Post Mortem ------------------------------------------
Name : Orion
Class : Scout
Rank : Veteran
Result : killed the queen and escaped
Score : 18186
Total experience : 14375
Experience left : 835
Game length : 72554 turns
Security keycards : 10
Military keys : 1
Armor : Gyro-stabilizer [0]
Sidearm : M4A3 pistol (12/12)
Primary : M42A scoped rifle (15/15)
Heavy : M56 smartgun (50/50)
Medpacks: 3
-- Graveyard ---------------------------------------------------------
######-######°....#..#a...#a.........#
.þ.þ........#.....#..#þ...#°.........#
...........þ#.....|..#...°#..°a......|
.......a%|.a#.....#..#°...#####-######
.........+..#....°#..|....|...#...°..#
.....þaþ.þ..#..°..#..#°..°#...#°....°#
##########-########..#þ...#...#..Ü...#
..................#..#...a#...|......#
..................#..#....#...#°.Ü...#
...............a..#..#þ...#...#......#
................a.#..#°...#...#......#
..........a.......#X.#..þ.#...#.°....#
################### #################
-- Skills ------------------------------------------------------------
Sidearms : master
Light weapons : basic
Heavy weapons : advanced
Technical : untrained
Medicine : advanced
Fitness : basic
Perception : untrained
-- Ammunition --------------------------------------------------------
9mm ammo : 329/400
.44 ammo : 150/150
M309 ammo : 500/500
M250 ammo : 68/500
60mm gren. : 40/40
12g. shells : 200/200
frag grenade : 4/3
inc grenade : 1/3
krak grenade : 4/3
-- Kills (939) -------------------------------------------------------
158 juveniles
117 warriors
75 elites
27 praetorians
117 scavengers
270 hunters
21 stalkers
122 drones
28 workers
3 overseers
1 queen
-- Messages ----------------------------------------------------------
Choose direction to run...
Choose direction to run...
Choose direction to run...
You enter the corridor. Entering
Medical Tower, level 1...
Choose direction to run...
Choose direction to run...
Choose direction to run...
Choose direction to run...
You enter the corridor. Entering
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This run was pretty straight-forward albeit long and winding in preparing. Scouts can probably do a lot less of that.
Anyway, just thought I'd post the mortem and video link on the forums in case some of you who don't know about my channel are interested in watching some AliensRL as played by some guy. Might do some more: I'll keep with a few more DoomRL playthroughs for now but I'm interested in trying some other, non-Scout possibilities for this game.
4
AliensRL / How to make AliensRL fun
« on: September 25, 2011, 14:49 »
(I should preface this by saying this is what "I" think would make AliensRL more enjoyable than it is now. It includes tweaks as well as completely new ideas. More than saying what's good and bad about my own suggestions, replies to this should simply assert the poster's own ideas. Also, this will be pretty wall-of-text, and the title came from Kornel, so there you go.)
Introduction
I've been playing AliensRL a fair bunch now, as I did in the past. While the game is fun, it tends to get tedious fairly quickly, especially since the combat mechanics aren't as fast-paced as in, say, DoomRL (and yet the need for its existence is just as prevalent). The causes of this tedium can be roughly summarized in the following:
With these things in mind, I present to this community a rather large number of wide-ranging suggestions that can alleviate or eliminate these concerns.
Tower Design
Perhaps the most important part of introducing any player to a game lies in the board on which the game is played. For AliensRL, this is the tower structure. As a whole, we have a layout like so:
Missions are, currently, non-existent, save the overarching objective of killing the queen (and then escaping). All locations in the game, on the other hand, are pretty much fully accessible, and you are limited by the requirement of two keys, security and military, although it is obvious that other possibilities are expected (given that there are actual placeholders for other keys).
To start, I would change the access-restricting mechanics from needing keys for every door to requiring clearance to a particular level of a particular tower. Depending on the tower, this will greatly change what you can actually explore, but personnel rooms will always require some kind of clearance (but tend to have pretty good stuff in them). There will be a number of possible ways to get past clearance (having someone else's clearance by means of their card, hacking/accessing the tower's data to give yourself clearance, brute-forcing doors open) so that all classes have some means to do so without relying on dumb luck to get what you need.
Some clearance will be more useful than others. Military and security clearance, for instance, will allow you to get into restricted civilian and main tower areas on roughly the same level, and sometimes you'll need engineering clearance to access, say, the boiler room (or whatever heating system is used), regardless of where that is located. There will be no storage clearance: instead, whatever tower is responsible for a particular section of the tower will have its own clearance.
Based on this, we can tweak a lot of things:
This changes the pace of the game, of course, but so long as clearance for the level above is guaranteed SOMEWHERE on the current one, it shouldn't affect things too much. (As I said before, the options to get through restrictions should be fairly numerous anyway.)
So there are probably a ton of ideas for missions. But let's generalize a bit to building plot devices for the player by scattering pieces of information about the base through typographical information: Bulletin boards, bloody words scrawled on walls, letters, terminals (active or need to be started up somehow). This will provide three awesome additions to the game:
At the start of the game, the player should have a clear thing-to-do when they get here, something that was ordered by their superior(s). This should be class-dependent and semi-random (so that a player isn't always trying to do the very same thing every time they pick a particular class). Details on possible missions will go into the class section of the post. However, the player will NOT know anything about the alien queen or that they need to kill it: to this extent, there could even be some soft barriers (e.g., emergency-activated turrets guarding special areas) to prevent the player from accidentally stumbling into something they probably shouldn't yet try to accomplish. For all the player knows, they were sent for some routine maintenance and/or debriefing.
As the game progresses, missions should revolve mostly on go-to quests, although they will most often be one-way (that is, your mission is to go somewhere to do something, not go somewhere to find something for something else). Depending on the direction of the game, we can have some NPCs that have managed to stay safe and want you to take care of some things (at which point you will probably be told of the infestation and its source), as well as some NPCs that are barely alive and are able to tell you what should be done before they die. Obviously none of the missions are "mission-critical", so to speak: failing to complete a mission won't ever screw you over completely. For this reason, missions won't actually give the player experience, although what you do during the mission may be worth extra experience here and there (manipulating objects successfully, fixing various problems in the base, maybe even finding an object of particular importance to the player).
Alternatively (or in addition to) the missions will come from what remains of the base's electronic system of data. Most of the computers will be separate from the server but should have information useful to the player (maps that show where high-clearance rooms are (nice equipment) or contain excess heat signatures (aliens)), while the few that are able to access the main server will give the player the majority of objects that they can do (finding ways to deactivate parts of the tower to avoid clearance, accessing storage for powerful gear, ultimately defeating the queen).
This is just a rough outline because a lot depends on the ability of the plot writers and the desired direction of development. The end result should be good regardless and making actual missions should come fairly easily once the background is determined.
Player Inventory and Environmental Utilization
Right now the current inventory is very, very limited. This mostly has to do with a lack of items in general but, even then, the restrictions on the player are forced in some areas. First and foremost, I suggest that the player's limit to three weapons is expanded so that lighter weapons can occupy the heavier slots. This would mean that a player could wield three pistols, or two pistols and an SMG, or a pistol and two SMGs, or a pistol, an SMG, and a smartgun. The fact that the player can't occupy these slots currently with obviously-smaller equipment is arbitrary: if there are problems with a player being able to use, for instance, all three sidearms, this should be addressed as a balance issue instead of a fundamental one. (The switching between weapons can still be the same, at least roughly, if that is the concern.)
One of the nicer results of this is that the player now have three "inventory" slots, rather than a slot for each weapon category specifically, which means that we can start to include some items that would go in one of these slots without actually being a weapon. Some obvious possibilities:
While we're on the subject of inventory-like changes, I think grenades should have a "total" count, so you could hold 9 frag grenades but none of the others if you wanted to. This lets the player stock up on more useful grenades later on.
The player should be able to interact with their environment a lot more than they can now. At the moment it's pretty much limited to opening and closing doors, destroying barrels, and collecting items from stuff that holds items. We can do a little better:
The terminals mentioned earlier should have ways to turn them on, accessed (either by clearance or "hacking"), and possibly used to control parts of the tower depending on their function. Having turrets controlled by the terminal is a good way to include them into the game, allowing the player to activate or deactivate them depending on their needs.
Class Development
As mentioned previously, the classes are pretty bland in terms of how they're different from one other. Based on the above suggestions, we can include distinctions such as:
This is the easy stuff. Naturally the plot can be pretty different for each class as well, as well as the kinds of missions that show up.
Alien Patterns
More of a list of potentials than anything else.
That's all of it, at least for now. Like I said, please add your own stuff, but I highly recommend keeping to simple and effective solutions (not ones that require huge changes to the mechanics, for instance).
Introduction
I've been playing AliensRL a fair bunch now, as I did in the past. While the game is fun, it tends to get tedious fairly quickly, especially since the combat mechanics aren't as fast-paced as in, say, DoomRL (and yet the need for its existence is just as prevalent). The causes of this tedium can be roughly summarized in the following:
- Relative aimlessness. Even if the game is set within a plethora of maps, you are still confined to it. Unlike many games that leave the story to your imagination (with only a vague understanding of the objectives), the plot in AliensRL clearly places you in a position to "do something", but nothing ever comes of it. The reasons for even expecting the current circumstances in the given setting aren't explored.
- Limited equipment. There are nine weapons in total, as well as six body armors (two of which are situational and the rest that follow an obvious upgrade progression), medpacks that are the only source of healing, and a few grenades of variable use. There are no utility items at all and no interaction with the environment (except for combat purposes) which forces the game to be all about combat, even though the atmosphere allows for much more than that.
- Lack of distinction between towers. From a gameplay perspective, the difference is quite clear: different enemy scaling, different rewards, different probability of a working elevator...and yet these aren't enough. Each tower has its own label, and it should be clear to any player, whether newbie or veteran, that they are definitely where they expected to be when they entered this location. Currently it is, more or less, a jumble of different-colored maps with a couple of defining features, and even those are only noticed when you are familiar with the tower.
- Lack of distinction between classes. The starting equipment and adjusted experience requirements are currently the only ways to distinguish between them, and in many cases these differences alter the game only marginally in the long run. In addition, some classes have clear advantages over others, although this stems from other problems.
- Predictable enemy movement. In a game where there tends to be plenty of open space, the fact that aliens ALWAYS charge at you makes the game's tactical mechanics quite limited. I have seen some cases where they don't (excluding the worker family of aliens) although it would seem to be either far too rare or altogether unintended.
With these things in mind, I present to this community a rather large number of wide-ranging suggestions that can alleviate or eliminate these concerns.
Tower Design
Perhaps the most important part of introducing any player to a game lies in the board on which the game is played. For AliensRL, this is the tower structure. As a whole, we have a layout like so:
Military Tower ----- Storage Tower ------------
| | \
| | \
| | |
Security Tower ----- Main Tower ------- Civilian Tower
| | |
\ | |
\ | |
------------ Engineering Tower ----- Medical Tower
The towers themselves are all of equal size and removing from one tower to the other takes no time at all. In addition, all corridors in the towers are built such that there are four equal partitions on each level of each tower, resulting in plenty of dead ends and some wasted space. We have a few possibilities for improvements here:- Between-tower areas their own maps. It doesn't have to be big, not at all, but there should be a sense that you are actually moving between towers and that there is some threat involved here. Part of the difficulty of moving from place to place could stem from there being debris blockage between towers, requiring either some explosives or just some time spent removing it (and in both cases, the noise would attract some aliens to the scene, or release aliens from the other side).
- Between-towers take time to traverse. That is, if aliens have movement that they do on their own, and if some pop out of vents, or whatever they do, this is given a time-jump whenever you have to go between towers. (For this situation, a confirmation that you're about to go between towers should be used, just so players aren't accidentally losing "half an hour" of game time.)
- Change the tower connections. Right now it's based on the fact that it should be easy to go from one tower to the next, but it wouldn't be too surprising to have a different setup. Take this example:
---------- Storage Tower ------------This would require a heavy change in the storage tower's general structure and size, but it makes a lot of sense from a more plot-based perspective: civilian tower is mostly isolated from the rest of the complex, and the storage tower contains practically all of the supplies and is reachable by the highest-priority locations (separated by clearance, but we'll get to that later). Security Tower has access to many places at once, as does the Main Tower, because of their importance to the base as a whole. This is but one example, and there are a number of possibilities we can use if we don't limit ourselves to the circular format.
/ | \
/ | \
/ | \
Military Tower ----- Security Tower ----- Main Tower ----- Civilian Tower
\ | | /
\ | | /
\ | | /
---------- Engineering Tower ----- Medical Tower -------- - Remove the corridor-quadrants requirement in most of the towers. In many cases they restrict the possibility of using tower space for other means, and it doesn't necessarily make sense to have it the same across all levels of all towers. The first floors of each tower I can understand (you need easy-flowing traffic on the base level) but the higher floors are probably less accessed, so a single, linear hallway would suffice. Maybe a change in where the hallways are placed is all that is necessary: for instance, placed along the boundary of the tower, where the rooms of the floor are based about the center of the tower.
- Vary the size and shape of the towers. To some extent, the lower levels can actually be bigger than the higher ones, though this isn't necessary. However, some locations will naturally be much bigger than others (storage tower comes to mind), and all should be presented in different ways. As some examples:
- Medical tower should have lower levels that appear a lot like hospitals. TBH this would end up fairly close to the current setup, the big difference being a great number of hallways and a lot of small rooms with a few big 'waiting areas'. The higher levels can be more of a laboratory setting.
- Engineering tower's rooms should be pretty dang big, since they're probably working with large equipment and it has to be moved to and from the tower.
- Storage tower should be one gigantic area, filled to the brim with crates and other containers (and pillars that hold up the tower, of course). For each tower that has access to it, the tower can be separated into that many "rooms", but the basic principle of "huge room, have to navigate through debris" is the theme. (Very small, secure rooms can also be there too.)
- Main tower should be closest to the current setup, although this would be the most ideal setup in my opinion:This gives a real "hub" feeling, and the elevators here can always be in the center (but guarded VERY thoroughly by aliens).Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Missions are, currently, non-existent, save the overarching objective of killing the queen (and then escaping). All locations in the game, on the other hand, are pretty much fully accessible, and you are limited by the requirement of two keys, security and military, although it is obvious that other possibilities are expected (given that there are actual placeholders for other keys).
To start, I would change the access-restricting mechanics from needing keys for every door to requiring clearance to a particular level of a particular tower. Depending on the tower, this will greatly change what you can actually explore, but personnel rooms will always require some kind of clearance (but tend to have pretty good stuff in them). There will be a number of possible ways to get past clearance (having someone else's clearance by means of their card, hacking/accessing the tower's data to give yourself clearance, brute-forcing doors open) so that all classes have some means to do so without relying on dumb luck to get what you need.
Some clearance will be more useful than others. Military and security clearance, for instance, will allow you to get into restricted civilian and main tower areas on roughly the same level, and sometimes you'll need engineering clearance to access, say, the boiler room (or whatever heating system is used), regardless of where that is located. There will be no storage clearance: instead, whatever tower is responsible for a particular section of the tower will have its own clearance.
Based on this, we can tweak a lot of things:
- Accessing the final level of the Main tower will require two levels of clearance: maximum Main clearance and one maximum of the non-Civilian towers. This means that you may have to ascend twice if you don't plan things out.
- Elevators will also require clearance. In general you'll be able to go higher on an elevator than you would have clearance for in a given tower level (say, elevator access up to level 5 but only room access to level 3), although these two numbers could be completely independent as well. As a result, fewer elevators will actually be broken (though Civilian should probably have pretty decent breakage chances anyway, since there will be almost no clearance for ascending on them).
- Keys can still exist for the purpose of accessing lockers and crates, as well as particularly-restricted rooms, but they will be far and few between. Might be best to keep them as items that are often surrounded by aliens, maybe even held by a smarter one.
This changes the pace of the game, of course, but so long as clearance for the level above is guaranteed SOMEWHERE on the current one, it shouldn't affect things too much. (As I said before, the options to get through restrictions should be fairly numerous anyway.)
So there are probably a ton of ideas for missions. But let's generalize a bit to building plot devices for the player by scattering pieces of information about the base through typographical information: Bulletin boards, bloody words scrawled on walls, letters, terminals (active or need to be started up somehow). This will provide three awesome additions to the game:
- It gives the player some background as to the past and current situations of the base, maybe even information about the aliens
- It warns the player of what's ahead (for instance, news about a radiation leak or power outage)
- It can give the player some clear goals (for instance, fixing said leak or outage), which will automatically appear in the mission tab when read
At the start of the game, the player should have a clear thing-to-do when they get here, something that was ordered by their superior(s). This should be class-dependent and semi-random (so that a player isn't always trying to do the very same thing every time they pick a particular class). Details on possible missions will go into the class section of the post. However, the player will NOT know anything about the alien queen or that they need to kill it: to this extent, there could even be some soft barriers (e.g., emergency-activated turrets guarding special areas) to prevent the player from accidentally stumbling into something they probably shouldn't yet try to accomplish. For all the player knows, they were sent for some routine maintenance and/or debriefing.
As the game progresses, missions should revolve mostly on go-to quests, although they will most often be one-way (that is, your mission is to go somewhere to do something, not go somewhere to find something for something else). Depending on the direction of the game, we can have some NPCs that have managed to stay safe and want you to take care of some things (at which point you will probably be told of the infestation and its source), as well as some NPCs that are barely alive and are able to tell you what should be done before they die. Obviously none of the missions are "mission-critical", so to speak: failing to complete a mission won't ever screw you over completely. For this reason, missions won't actually give the player experience, although what you do during the mission may be worth extra experience here and there (manipulating objects successfully, fixing various problems in the base, maybe even finding an object of particular importance to the player).
Alternatively (or in addition to) the missions will come from what remains of the base's electronic system of data. Most of the computers will be separate from the server but should have information useful to the player (maps that show where high-clearance rooms are (nice equipment) or contain excess heat signatures (aliens)), while the few that are able to access the main server will give the player the majority of objects that they can do (finding ways to deactivate parts of the tower to avoid clearance, accessing storage for powerful gear, ultimately defeating the queen).
This is just a rough outline because a lot depends on the ability of the plot writers and the desired direction of development. The end result should be good regardless and making actual missions should come fairly easily once the background is determined.
Player Inventory and Environmental Utilization
Right now the current inventory is very, very limited. This mostly has to do with a lack of items in general but, even then, the restrictions on the player are forced in some areas. First and foremost, I suggest that the player's limit to three weapons is expanded so that lighter weapons can occupy the heavier slots. This would mean that a player could wield three pistols, or two pistols and an SMG, or a pistol and two SMGs, or a pistol, an SMG, and a smartgun. The fact that the player can't occupy these slots currently with obviously-smaller equipment is arbitrary: if there are problems with a player being able to use, for instance, all three sidearms, this should be addressed as a balance issue instead of a fundamental one. (The switching between weapons can still be the same, at least roughly, if that is the concern.)
One of the nicer results of this is that the player now have three "inventory" slots, rather than a slot for each weapon category specifically, which means that we can start to include some items that would go in one of these slots without actually being a weapon. Some obvious possibilities:
- Crowbar: Forces open doors, lockers, etc. In general, this will only work when the object is specifically jammed but openable or has a relatively low clearance: high-clearance will be too well-sealed. It'll have a chance to break, but there should be quite a few lying around (most notably in engineering). CAN be used as a weapon but will always deal minimal damage, because aliens are tough like that, so it's really not worth it.
- Flashlight: Better vision in lowlight areas when equipped. Considering that you may actually want to force an area into lowlight yourself (because it'll turn off the locks on the doors) this could actually be quite useful.
- (some kind of) Sensor: Gives you some limited information in the surrounding area. There can be a few kinds of sensors, like those that detect heat (find aliens), detect radiation (ala Geiger counter), detect magnetic...stuff (find certain weapons, computers, etc). Maybe an all-around tracker that's connected to the server and is really good about a lot of things but is pretty rare and way later in the game.
- Light Clip: Like flashlight but goes on a weapon and not as good. When picked up, it automatically fits onto the weapon currently equipped (obviously won't happen with non-weapons), and when the weapon is dropped the clip is dropped with it. More late-game (or at least found in harder areas like Military Tower).
- In addition there should be some kind of device that carries with it a variety of tools that can be used to fix stuff as necessary.
While we're on the subject of inventory-like changes, I think grenades should have a "total" count, so you could hold 9 frag grenades but none of the others if you wanted to. This lets the player stock up on more useful grenades later on.
The player should be able to interact with their environment a lot more than they can now. At the moment it's pretty much limited to opening and closing doors, destroying barrels, and collecting items from stuff that holds items. We can do a little better:
- Jamming doors. This would also allow for more aliens to open doors, but still give you a way to close them if need be. Doors with clearance will automatically lock when closed: this works both ways when you manage to get into a room without clearance.
- Moving barrels. This is done in DoomRL and I don't know why we couldn't do it here too, although they should probably be more limited in where they can exist. (I think this is partially true now, but they should probably only be in Storage, Engineering, and Medical Towers, given the waste that can accumulate in those areas.)
- Fixing or manipulating various objects. Power outage? Find the break and switch out the bad plug (make it so there are spares at the circuit breaker). Broken elevator? Depending on the cause it may be a matter of getting the necessary materials (probably from engineering). These sorts of things tend to write themselves as the mission possibilities pile up. However, these sorts of interactions should take a good amount of uninterrupted time.
The terminals mentioned earlier should have ways to turn them on, accessed (either by clearance or "hacking"), and possibly used to control parts of the tower depending on their function. Having turrets controlled by the terminal is a good way to include them into the game, allowing the player to activate or deactivate them depending on their needs.
Class Development
As mentioned previously, the classes are pretty bland in terms of how they're different from one other. Based on the above suggestions, we can include distinctions such as:
- Each class has a particular clearance at the lower levels. Some are pretty obvious: Medic gets Medical, Technician gets Engineering. Marine/HW Specialist can go to either Security or Military, and Scout can pick up Main Tower (at a couple higher levels to compensate).
- Inventory can be changed a little bit: Scouts automatically get a light clip, Technicians come with a crowbar and fixing device, Medics pick up a heat sensor (looking for survivors).
- The starting mission is unique to each class. For the most part, they'll be ordered to report to the particular tower for which they have clearance, and do something like:
- Technicians will have something to fix. Maybe it's a heating problem or a leak or whatever, but they were brought along to deal with any particular maintenance issues (maybe there was a sudden shortage of engineers).
- Marines and HW Specialists will know that there are enemies to take care of and that they need to do what they do best: get rid of enemies. HW Specialist in particular might be given a key to a locker with a guaranteed heavy weapon from the get-go, though it'll probably be sort of high up.
- Medics will want to find people hurting and fix them up. Medical Tower will probably have the highest chance of someone being alive, and it's a good segway into the meat of the game.
- Scouts, being a lot like gatherers and reporters of information, will have been tasked with getting a hold of the situation. They'll want to report to the Main tower and get as much information as possible (either from people or from computers).
- Some sort of special ability or trait is in order. Scouts can sprint, Medics can fire an aimed shot (surgical precision!), Technicians are fast fixers and quick switchers of their inventory, Marines can 'zerk into ignoring pain, and HW Specialists can hold two heavy weapons (with armored support, of course) and aren't slowed down by inventory unless they're doing just that.
This is the easy stuff. Naturally the plot can be pretty different for each class as well, as well as the kinds of missions that show up.
Alien Patterns
More of a list of potentials than anything else.
- Above all, aliens need to know how to run away. The drones, scavengers and juveniles should retreat (increased movespeed when doing so) when their brethren are dying. In the case of the stronger aliens, if they are aware of nearby friendlies then they should retreat into a group.
- Hunter-class aliens should try to hide in blind spots if it's appropriate.
- Currently aliens can't figure out how to move if you're in vision and there are no adjacent squares that can reach you. This ought to be fixed given how frequent this sort of situation can pop up with beds and tables (maybe just let them crawl over them at a reduced movespeed).
- Non-workers should be able to react to sound (this usually happens as the result of an explosion). Non-workers should also be able to follow their own movement patterns.
- Vary the vision of non-workers. Stalkers and hunters might actually have a BETTER vision than you, while warrior types could have it slightly worse.
That's all of it, at least for now. Like I said, please add your own stuff, but I highly recommend keeping to simple and effective solutions (not ones that require huge changes to the mechanics, for instance).
5
0.9.9.4 / [E|100%|YAFW] Filled to the Brim with Malice
« on: September 21, 2011, 20:14 »
Watch the run here: ITYTD Malicious Blades
Nothing fancy in this run, it's just a quick domination victory of Strongman Silver. Heck, given the state of this master traits I'm not surprised if Strongman Gold becomes pretty common of a badge. A few people were asking about melee-based runs though, so was a good video for showing that. (The strategy for engaging enemies, however, is quite different when using a Berserker-based master melee, so I'll probably need to do a real Angel of Berserk in the future.)
--------------------------------------------------------------
DoomRL (v.0.9.9.4) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------
Game Hunter, level 11 Imp Sergeant Major Technician,
nuked the Cyberdemon. on level 26 of the Phobos base.
He survived 69452 turns and scored 59046 points.
He played for 1 hour, 11 minutes and 1 second.
He was too young to die!
He killed 494 out of 494 hellspawn. (100%)
This ass-kicking marine killed all of them!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 7
Levels visited : 7
Levels completed : 7
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
Malicious Knives Cross
Explorer Badge
Medal of Prejudice
Conqueror Badge
Hell Champion Medal
Brick Bronze Badge
Strongman Silver Badge
Heroic Bronze Badge
Strongman Bronze Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
###########################################################
..........................................................#
..........................................................#
..........................................................#
..........................................................#
..........................................................#
..........................................................#
..........................................................#
..........................................................#
.......................................................X||#
........................................................|.#
.......................................................}..#
..........................................................#
..........................................................#
..........................................................#
..........................................................#
..........................................................#
..........................................................#
..........................................................#
###########################################################
-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 51/80 Experience 53941/11
ToHit Ranged +0 ToHit Melee +4 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +6
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Technician
Ironman (Level 3)
Finesse (Level 2)
Hellrunner (Level 2)
Brute (Level 2)
Dodgemaster (Level 1)
Malicious Blades (Level 1)
Bru->Bru->HR->HR->Fin->DM->MMB->Fin->Iro->Iro->Iro->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] ballistic shield [0/0] (21%)
[b] [ Weapon ] chainsword (4d6)
[c] [ Boots ] modified plasteel boots [2/2] (92%) (A)
[d] [ Prepared ] piercing combat knife (2d6)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] missile launcher (6d6) [4/4]
[b] fireproof red armor [4/4] (71%)
[c] nanofiber red armor [3]
[d] rocket (x14)
[e] rocket (x14)
[f] large med-pack
[g] large med-pack
[h] large med-pack
[i] phase device
[j] homing phase device
[k] envirosuit pack
[l] envirosuit pack
[m] technical mod pack
[n] agility mod pack
[o] agility mod pack
[p] fire skull
[q] hatred skull
[r] Arena Master's Staff
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
Bullet - internal 0% torso 95% feet 50%
Melee - internal 0% torso 95% feet 75%
Shrapnel - internal 0% torso 95% feet 50%
Acid - internal 0% torso 0% feet 50%
Fire - internal 0% torso 50% feet 75%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
85 former humans
79 former sergeants
10 former captains
62 imps
35 demons
130 lost souls
16 cacodemons
13 barons of hell
1 Cyberdemon
16 hell knights
11 arachnotrons
1 John Carmack
8 former commandos
3 pain elementals
6 arch-viles
12 mancubi
2 revenants
2 bruiser brothers
1 lava elemental
1 Arena Master
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
He left the Arena as a champion!
On level 4 he stormed the Chained Court.
On level 4 he found the Arena Master's Staff!
He defeated the Hell Arena Master!
On level 4 he assembled a tactical armor!
On level 8 he witnessed the Wall.
He massacred the evil behind the Wall!
On level 12 he assembled a chainsword!
On level 13 he ventured into the Halls of Carnage.
On level 15 he encountered the Phobos Hellgate.
On level 15 he assembled a fireproof armor!
On level 17 he found the City of Skulls.
He wiped out the City of Skulls.
Level 18 was a hard nut to crack!
On level 18 he found the Anti-Freak Jackal!
On level 18 he assembled a nanofiber armor!
On level 19 he assembled a piercing blade!
On level 19 he ventured into the Spider's Lair.
He cleared the Lair, kickin' serious spider ass!
He sounded the alarm on level 22!
On level 23 he entered the Lava Pits.
He managed to clear the Lava Pits completely!
Then at last he found Phobos Arena!
He nuked level 25!
He defeated the Cyberdemon and found the TRUE EVIL!
Then finally in hell itself, he killed the final EVIL.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
lost soul hits you. The lost soul hits you.
You hit the lost soul. The lost soul dies. The lost soul hits you.
You hit the lost soul. The lost soul dies. The lost soul hits you. The lost
soul hits you.
You hit the lost soul. The lost soul dies. You dodge! The missile hits the
lost soul. The lost soul dies. The lost soul dies.
The lost soul hits you. The lost soul hits you.
You hit the lost soul. The lost soul dies. John Carmack reloads his rocket
launcher. The lost soul hits you. The lost soul hits you.
You hit the lost soul. The lost soul dies.
You hit the lost soul. The lost soul dies.
You are hit!
John Carmack reloads his rocket launcher.
You hit John Carmack. You hit John Carmack. John Carmack dies. You feel
relatively safe now. Congratulations! You defeated John Carmack!
Press <Enter>...
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
5 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
3 of those were killed.
2 souls destroyed the Cyberdemon...
2 killed the bastard and survived.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Nothing fancy in this run, it's just a quick domination victory of Strongman Silver. Heck, given the state of this master traits I'm not surprised if Strongman Gold becomes pretty common of a badge. A few people were asking about melee-based runs though, so was a good video for showing that. (The strategy for engaging enemies, however, is quite different when using a Berserker-based master melee, so I'll probably need to do a real Angel of Berserk in the future.)
6
0.9.9.4 / [VIDEO] [U|AoMr|95%|21|YASD] No Love for the Martial Arts
« on: September 17, 2011, 09:31 »
Watch the run here: UV Gun Kata - Marksmanship
Not an awesome run, but I think it went pretty well. Obvious concerns:
--------------------------------------------------------------
DoomRL (v.0.9.9.4) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------
Game Hunter, level 12 Imp Sergeant Scout,
couldn't evade a revenant's fireball on level 21 of the Phobos base.
He survived 96752 turns and scored 184078 points.
He played for 2 hours and 47 seconds.
He was a man of Ultra-Violence!
He killed 764 out of 802 hellspawn. (95%)
He held his right to remain violent.
He was an Angel of Marksmanship!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 8
Levels visited : 4
Levels completed : 4
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
Hell Armorer Badge
UAC Star (bronze cluster)
Hell Champion Medal
Armorer Silver Badge
Marksman Bronze Badge
Gatekeeper Silver Badge
Arena Silver Badge
Arena Gold Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
#############======########################################
.............======.......#s.O..........................#.#
............R======|......#R.ss....[....................#.#
............VR=====......^#......................0......#0+
....0.0.....V======.......###+#############+#####+####+##.#
............======.......+#.......#.............^.......#.+
............======0.......#.&>....###########+###+#######.#
............======........+.......+^....................#.#
.............======.......###############+#################
}.............======......#........|....................#..
..............======......#.................##.^........#..
..............===^==....;.#.............##..##....##....+..
#+#############======+#####...X..##.##..##........##....#..
...............======.....#....R.##.##..................#..
...............======.....#......R...........0..........#|.
...............======.....#..R...RV...^..##.............#..
###############======######.##V....##....##........[.##.#..
..............+======.....#........##................##.#..
...............======.....#......R................0.....#..
###############======######################################
-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 0/70 Experience 68383/12
ToHit Ranged +2 ToHit Melee +2 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +0
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Scout
Ironman (Level 2)
Hellrunner (Level 2)
Son of a gun (Level 4)
Eagle Eye (Level 1)
Dualgunner (Level 1)
Dodgemaster (Level 1)
Gun Kata (Level 1)
SoG->SoG->SoG->DG->EE->HR->HR->DM->MGK->Iro->Iro->SoG->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] Shielded Armor [2]
[b] [ Weapon ] modified pistol (2d5) [6/6] (P1)
[c] [ Boots ] modified plasteel boots [2/2] (100%) (A)
[d] [ Prepared ] speedloader pistol (2d4) [6/6]
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] pistol (2d4) [6/6]
[b] Anti-Freak Jackal (5d3) [6/6]
[c] tactical armor [1/1] (100%)
[d] gothic armor [6/6] (200%)
[e] duelist armor [1/2] (47%)
[f] duelist armor [2/2] (100%)
[g] ballistic vest [1/1] (49%)
[h] 10mm ammo (x20)
[i] large med-pack
[j] technical mod pack
[k] Arena Master's Staff
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
Bullet - internal 0% torso 90% feet 0%
Melee - internal 0% torso 90% feet 0%
Shrapnel - internal 0% torso 90% feet 0%
Acid - internal 0% torso 0% feet 50%
Fire - internal 0% torso 0% feet 25%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
83 former humans
95 former sergeants
36 former captains
184 imps
47 demons
116 lost souls
37 cacodemons
34 barons of hell
30 hell knights
17 arachnotrons
18 former commandos
13 pain elementals
18 arch-viles
20 mancubi
12 revenants
2 bruiser brothers
1 shambler
1 Arena Master
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 3 he entered Hell's Arena.
On level 3 he assembled a high power weapon!
He left the Arena as a champion!
On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
He defeated the Hell Arena Master!
On level 5 he assembled a tactical armor!
On level 5 he found the Arena Master's Staff!
On level 10 he entered Hell's Armory.
On level 10 he found the Anti-Freak Jackal!
On level 10 he assembled a speedloader pistol!
He destroyed the evil within and reaped the rewards!
On level 12 he ran for his life from acid!
On level 13 he ventured into the Halls of Carnage.
On level 15 he encountered the Phobos Hellgate.
On level 18 he found the Shielded Armor!
On level 21 he finally couldn't evade a revenant's fireball.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
Fire -- Choose target...
You see : a former sergeant (unhurt) [m]ore | shotgun shell (x29) | You
You see : an arch-vile (almost dead) [m]ore | floor
The missile hits the arch-vile. The arch-vile dies. You dualreload your guns!
There are stairs leading downward here.
You close the door.
There is a Large Health Globe lying here.
You feel like new!
You open the door. You are hit!
You close the door.
You dodge! Boom! There are stairs leading downward here.
You enter Phobos Hell, level 6. The smell of a massacre...
You start running!
You dodge!
You dodge! The missile hits the revenant. You die!... Press <Enter>...
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
4 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
3 of those were killed.
1 souls destroyed the Cyberdemon...
1 killed the bastard and survived.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Not an awesome run, but I think it went pretty well. Obvious concerns:
- I didn't use Anti-Freak Jackal NEARLY enough. In addition to the high damage, it's also fire, which means it's basically a huge ammo-saver against Revenants. Factor in the splash and it just goes to show that I could have had a lot more ammo were I being careful in its use.
- Missing the bullet ammo pack at Hell's Armory really screwed me as well. An extra 250 bullets REALLY would have come in handy at the end there, and I wouldn't have had to rush down the stairs on the penultimate floor.
- New AI makes the Viles a lot more problematic on Hellgate. Next time I'll try the "traditional" approach with pistols and see how well it works...certainly it'll be better than what happened here.
7
Modding / Modding Tutorial (WIP)
« on: September 16, 2011, 11:32 »
To be honest, I'm not sure of the best place to put this, but it will hopefully receive appropriate attention here.
I've been working on a series of tutorial pages on the wiki for people wanting to mod but aren't really sure how to get started. It's a work-in-progress and only a few tutorials have been created so far, but there should be more than enough to begin creating your own work. At the moment, I'm looking both for suggestions on what kinds of tutorials should be written for this series and anything that's hard to understand in the tutorials already added. This isn't explicitly a how-to thread, but I'm fine with people straight-up asking things that they don't know how to do: either I or one of the other, more experienced, modders will give you an answer at some point. Eventually a FAQ will be added to the tutorial series and will address the more common misunderstandings sent here.
If you have the time and are interested in modding, please take a look at what's already there and reply. Feedback is practically mandatory if these tutorials are to be any good. (If you want to see the current documentation that is often referenced in these tutorials, use this link instead.)
I've been working on a series of tutorial pages on the wiki for people wanting to mod but aren't really sure how to get started. It's a work-in-progress and only a few tutorials have been created so far, but there should be more than enough to begin creating your own work. At the moment, I'm looking both for suggestions on what kinds of tutorials should be written for this series and anything that's hard to understand in the tutorials already added. This isn't explicitly a how-to thread, but I'm fine with people straight-up asking things that they don't know how to do: either I or one of the other, more experienced, modders will give you an answer at some point. Eventually a FAQ will be added to the tutorial series and will address the more common misunderstandings sent here.
If you have the time and are interested in modding, please take a look at what's already there and reply. Feedback is practically mandatory if these tutorials are to be any good. (If you want to see the current documentation that is often referenced in these tutorials, use this link instead.)
8
Modding / Mod Ports (from older versions)
« on: September 10, 2011, 21:54 »
There are a fair number of mods for DoomRL: unfortunately, almost all of them are made for versions prior to 0.9.9.4. Since I have a rudimentary knowledge of how modules work, I've taken it upon myself to update some mods to this version so that they can be played and used with "Custom Game". Below is a list of wads that I've finished so far (I've gotten permission from most of the creators; those people can ask me for the source code if they want to get at it):
Marine Base (by Battleguy)
Angel of Patience (by Simon-v) (in use by author)
Restless (by Gargulec)
Invasion (by you)
Metal Gear (source, by Simon-v)
Just dump these into your modules folder and enjoy! And also please report any bugs because they're probably related to the porting process. I just made sure that they played for a couple of minutes, not for the entire playthrough.
Marine Base (by Battleguy)
Angel of Patience (by Simon-v) (in use by author)
Restless (by Gargulec)
Invasion (by you)
Metal Gear (source, by Simon-v)
Just dump these into your modules folder and enjoy! And also please report any bugs because they're probably related to the porting process. I just made sure that they played for a couple of minutes, not for the entire playthrough.
9
Requests For Features / Lesser medals gained when better is achieved
« on: September 09, 2011, 10:37 »
Unfortunately there's no easy way to make this suggestion into a title, but the idea is extremely simple: for ANY medal set, whenever you gain a medal, you'll also gain any additional medals that would automatically have been granted. Prior to the Heroic series it didn't matter, but now that badges depend on getting a certain number of unique medals, it is probably a pain for players to have to grab Compet-n Silver/Gold/Platinum separately, especially in being conscious of having to specifically win the game between 20-30 (or 10-20) minutes.
If there is still opposition to this, I can't think of a good reason for it! Alternatively, we could fiddle around with the Heroic series to make it work with a specific type of medal (that would be added), and that those medals wouldn't come in sets.
If there is still opposition to this, I can't think of a good reason for it! Alternatively, we could fiddle around with the Heroic series to make it work with a specific type of medal (that would be added), and that those medals wouldn't come in sets.
10
0.9.9.4 / [VIDEO] [M|92%|24|YASD] Panic panic panic
« on: September 06, 2011, 18:30 »
Watch the run here: HNTR Entrenchment
Rather than having a mega-thread for these playthrough videos, I will be posting them on a per-run basis along with the mortem. Feel free to discuss anything at all about the run: questions, criticisms, the normal stuff. I'm not necessarily going to have walls of text here because the videos tend to speak for themselves (if you're willing to spend the time to watch 'em). This is mostly post-video comments, and I plan to post every mortem for my video runs, whether awesome or bad.
Beating Unholy Cathedral in the way I did was probably the best part of the run, even if it was through sheer luck that it became possible. I really don't mind, just score one for the Longinus Diamond possibilities.
What really killed me here, stupid mistake at the end aside, was how very unprepared I was for the changes in special level strategies due to the new AI. Spider's Lair, Vaults, and especially Mortuary all hammered me in unexpected ways and forced me to blow a lot of my stockpiles. (Well, that and missing the Armory. Armory is just so good and can be a game-changer if you're even a bit lucky.)
--------------------------------------------------------------
DoomRL (v.0.9.9.4) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------
Game Hunter, level 11 Imp Sergeant Technician,
let an arachnotron get him on level 24 of the Phobos base.
He survived 133911 turns and scored 83737 points.
He played for 1 hour, 32 minutes and 35 seconds.
He didn't like it too rough.
He killed 651 out of 703 hellspawn. (92%)
He held his right to remain violent.
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 9
Levels visited : 8
Levels completed : 6
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
UAC Star (bronze cluster)
Hell Champion Medal
Longinus Gold Badge
Arachno Bronze Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
###########################################################
#####..#.####==..=.==..==..====#.##.##.####################
#######."###..==.=.==========.=..#...##.###################
#######...##.=====..========..=..#......###################
######==.##.....=...==....====...#......###################
#####=.=.#\=..==..===.|.....|.|.........###################
####===.======.====}=.....+.............####==##==#########
####===...===.=.==..=.....=.A..........##=====#=###########
####...#....====.=...#....===..........#=======############
####.#.^#..=....==#.##.....#==}....[...#===#==#############
#=###.#.......###=##.#.>..#====.....#....====##############
#==#.#......####=###..X#....===.#.....#...==###############
###=#=.#.############.#...............###===###############
###==#...######.####..#...............###===###############
######..#..............#............#.#.==#################
#########.##..###.......#.......##......===################
###########...#......##..........##..A###=#################
##########.............##......#..##..#####################
##########..|....###.##.......########.####################
###########################################################
-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 0/60 Experience 56522/11
ToHit Ranged +2 ToHit Melee +2 ToDmg Ranged +2 ToDmg Melee +2
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Technician
Ironman (Level 1)
Tough as nails (Level 2)
Son of a bitch (Level 2)
Eagle Eye (Level 1)
Whizkid (Level 2)
Badass (Level 1)
Triggerhappy (Level 1)
Entrenchment (Level 1)
TaN->TaN->Bad->SoB->WK->WK->SoB->EE->TH->MSh->Iro->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] blue armor [1/2] (45%)
[b] [ Weapon ] modified assault rifle (2d6)x2 [34/40] (P1)
[c] [ Boots ] modified plasteel boots [2/2] (100%) (AT)
[d] [ Prepared ] 10mm ammo chain (x76)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] tactical shotgun (8d3) [0/6]
[b] modified tactical rocket launcher (6d7) [5/5] (P1)
[c] modified plasma rifle (1d7)x6 [40/40] (T2)
[d] assault shotgun (7d3) [6/6]
[e] minigun (1d6)x8 [200/200]
[f] nuclear plasma rifle (1d6)x6 [24/24]
[g] modified BFG 9000 (11d8) [69/169] (B2P1)
[h] gothic armor [6/6] (200%)
[i] Longinus Spear (8d8)
[j] shotgun shell (x41)
[k] rocket (x10)
[l] rocket (x6)
[m] power cell (x50)
[n] power cell (x50)
[o] envirosuit pack
[p] envirosuit pack
[q] power mod pack
[r] lava element
[s] 10mm ammo chain (x250)
[t] 10mm ammo chain (x250)
[u] rocket box (x20)
[v] power battery (x20)
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
Acid - internal 0% torso 0% feet 50%
Fire - internal 0% torso 20% feet 25%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
98 former humans
68 former sergeants
22 former captains
74 imps
72 demons
142 lost souls
37 cacodemons
36 barons of hell
27 hell knights
43 arachnotrons
2 former commandos
1 Angel of Death
8 pain elementals
9 arch-viles
3 mancubi
5 revenants
2 bruiser brothers
1 lava elemental
1 Arena Master
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
He left the Arena as a champion!
On level 4 he stormed the Chained Court.
On level 4 he found the Arena Master's Staff!
He defeated the Hell Arena Master!
On level 9 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
On level 14 he ventured into the Halls of Carnage.
On level 15 he encountered the Phobos Hellgate.
On level 16 he assembled a assault rifle!
On level 16 he invaded the Unholy Cathedral!
On level 16 he found the Longinus Spear!
He then destroyed the Unholy Cathedral!
On level 17 he assembled a tactical rocket launcher!
On level 19 he ventured into the Spider's Lair.
He cleared the Lair, kickin' serious spider ass!
On level 21 he entered the Vaults.
He cracked the Vaults and cleared them out!
On level 22 he was foolish enough to enter the Mortuary!
He managed to escape from the Mortuary!
On level 23 he entered the Lava Pits.
He managed to clear the Lava Pits completely!
On level 24 he finally let an arachnotron get him.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
The missile hits the arachnotron. The missile hits the arachnotron. The
missile hits the arachnotron. You hear the scream of a freed soul!
You quickly reload the assault rifle with 10mm ammo chain.
There are stairs leading downward here.
You are hit! You dodge! Boom! You are hit! Boom! You dodge! Boom! Boom! You
are hit! You dodge! Boom! You are hit! You dodge! Boom!
Chain fire (initial) -- Choose target or abort...
You see : an arachnotron (unhurt) [m]ore | floor
The missile hits the arachnotron. The missile hits the arachnotron. The
missile hits the arachnotron. You are hit! Boom! You are hit! You are
hit! Your blue armor is damaged! You are hit!
Chain fire (warming) -- Choose target or abort...
You see : an arachnotron (lightly wounded) [m]ore | floor
Fire -- Choose target...
You see : out of vision
You dodge! You are hit! You die!... Press <Enter>...
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
3 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
2 of those were killed.
1 souls destroyed the Cyberdemon...
1 killed the bastard and survived.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Rather than having a mega-thread for these playthrough videos, I will be posting them on a per-run basis along with the mortem. Feel free to discuss anything at all about the run: questions, criticisms, the normal stuff. I'm not necessarily going to have walls of text here because the videos tend to speak for themselves (if you're willing to spend the time to watch 'em). This is mostly post-video comments, and I plan to post every mortem for my video runs, whether awesome or bad.
Beating Unholy Cathedral in the way I did was probably the best part of the run, even if it was through sheer luck that it became possible. I really don't mind, just score one for the Longinus Diamond possibilities.
What really killed me here, stupid mistake at the end aside, was how very unprepared I was for the changes in special level strategies due to the new AI. Spider's Lair, Vaults, and especially Mortuary all hammered me in unexpected ways and forced me to blow a lot of my stockpiles. (Well, that and missing the Armory. Armory is just so good and can be a game-changer if you're even a bit lucky.)
11
Forum / Post Mortem Forum Reorganization
« on: September 04, 2011, 09:59 »
Being the moderator of all that is mortemy, I want to try something different with the organization of the Post Mortem forum and its subforums. Currently we have:
I would like to change the following:
I'm all for changing things right now but, if no one else wants this kind of change, there's really no reason to do so. Thus, I submit, to everyone that posts here, this request of aforementioned changes to the Post Mortem forum. Tell me what you think and maybe we can get this determined sooner rather than later. (And let's not allow this to devolve into an argument of which challenges deserve subforums...I'd rather drop any possibility of it, just to keep things orderly.)
- Nightmare! subforum
- Angel of Marksmanship subforum
- Angel of Berserk subforum
- Angel of 100 subforum
- Main forum (which holds everything else)
I would like to change the following:
- Add a sticky to the forum that keeps track of "the best" mortems. Specifically, the most valuable mortem from each challenge (and standard game) and a runner-up, as well as all diamond-badged mortems, will be preserved in said sticky. This is already added, but I'm going to count it as part of the "whole change".
- Remove all the challenge-specific subforums. Having them there, in my opinion, creates a stigma to post in them more often: placing all mortems, regardless of their challenge, in the same forum will hopefully provide a more uniform distribution. (We should keep the Nightmare! subforum if only because those tend to be held in higher esteem and any want to post there is offset by it being so freaking hard.)
- Add an archive subforum for all previous versions, maybe even sub-subforums for each version. This way we don't have an enormous backlog of pages in the main forum and people can easily find mortems from this version, without having to know exactly when that version was released. (I'll take care of the archive stuff.)
I'm all for changing things right now but, if no one else wants this kind of change, there's really no reason to do so. Thus, I submit, to everyone that posts here, this request of aforementioned changes to the Post Mortem forum. Tell me what you think and maybe we can get this determined sooner rather than later. (And let's not allow this to devolve into an argument of which challenges deserve subforums...I'd rather drop any possibility of it, just to keep things orderly.)
12
Post Mortem / Challenge Champions and Badge Hunters (last update: Feb 04 2022)
« on: September 03, 2011, 15:01 »
If you're looking for outstanding mortems, look no further! This post contains the best of the best you can find in DoomRL: the Challenge Champions and the Diamond/Angelic Hunters.
0.9.9.7 changed a lot with Dual Angel challenges, so the Challenge Champion criteria are still a TO-DO.
To become a member of the Diamond/Angelic Hunters, you need to do only one thing: gain a diamond/angelic badge. Every mortem containing such badges will get a mention here, ordered by date (first name on a list corresponds to the earliest case of that received badge). A name can potentially be up here as many times as there are unique badges.
Diamond Hunters
Angelic Hunters
Good luck!
0.9.9.7 changed a lot with Dual Angel challenges, so the Challenge Champion criteria are still a TO-DO.
To become a member of the Diamond/Angelic Hunters, you need to do only one thing: gain a diamond/angelic badge. Every mortem containing such badges will get a mention here, ordered by date (first name on a list corresponds to the earliest case of that received badge). A name can potentially be up here as many times as there are unique badges.
Diamond Hunters
- Technician: pressert, Tormuse, Sereg, Grimman007, Steve, Arron Syaoran, Const, Sereg, dunkelzahn
- Armorer: Tormuse
- Heroic: papilio, Tormuse
- Gatekeeper: Radagast, Klear, siwucha, Juice, TormuseMr. Magoolachub, papilio, Ridonk, Sereg, ih8regin, Andrew, iainuki, PsihoKekec
- UAC: Tormuse, Thomas, papilio, Tsigje, elynae, Ridonk, Sereg, the_scented_llama_of_doom, The DoomRLguy, iainuki
- Veteran: appuru, Evilpotatoe, felttippen, Neok, Aki, Sylph, Tormuse, wyvern, RogerN, papilio, elynae, Ridonk, khiijol, Mr. Magoolachub, Moray, the_scented_llama_of_doom
- Strongman: Q2ZOv, appuru, Sylph, Tormuse, papilio, Kapak44, Zuyl, Omega Tyrant, The DoomRLguy
- Elite: appuru, Evilpotatoe, Fanta Hege, Neok, Sylph, Tormuse, wyvern, papilio, scotherns, Moray
- Demonic: papilio
- Reaper: felttippen, Tormuse
- Berserker: appuru, Tormuse, papilio, Sereg, Ridonk
- Marksman: Rajhin, Cotonou, Tormuse, papilio, Sereg, elynae, Ridonk, the_scented_llama_of_doom
- Shottyman: Tormuse, appuru, Sereg, Neok, papilio, Tsigje, Sereg, scotherns, Ridonk, CaptainSublime, the_scented_llama_of_doom, Brickman, The DoomRLguy
- Lightfoot: appuru, Rajhin, Cotonou, Aki, Thomas, Tormuse, Sylph, papilio, papilio, Sereg, Ridonk
- Eagerness: Fanta Hege, papilio, Sereg
- Inquisitor: papilio, Sereg
- Quartermaster: appuru, Kapak44, papilio, Sereg, iainuki
- Hunter: papilio, khiijol
- Destroyer: felttippen, Neok, papilio, The DoomRLguy
- Masochist: Gooselord1, papilio
- Centurial: appuru, Neok, Tormuse, papilio, Basil, Ridonk, Sereg, CaptainSublime, The DoomRLguy
- Everyman: appuru, papilio, Tormuse
- Daredevil: Tormuse, appuru, Sereg, Neok, Juice, papilio, elynae, Sereg, scotherns, Ridonk, CaptainSublime, the_scented_llama_of_doom
- Arena:
- Longinus: appuru, SageAcrin, Evilpotatoe, ZicherCZ, 2birds1stone, Eyro, Tormuse, papilio, Const, Sereg, the_scented_llama_of_doom, Sylph
- Scavenger: AlterAsc, the_scented_llama_of_doom, Sereg, Fanta Hege, chag, Juice, Aki, Tormuse, Ridonk, Zuyl, papilio, The DoomRLguy, Brickman, rchandra, iainuki
Angelic Hunters
- UAC: 2DeviationsOut
- Veteran: AlterAsc, 2DeviationsOut, appuru, Evilpotatoe, felttippen, Cotonou, Tormuse, papilio, khiijol, Moray, the_scented_llama_of_doom, Sylph
- Strongman: Tormuse
- Speedrunner:
- Elite: AlterAsc, 2DeviationsOut, appuru, Evilpotatoe, Cotonou, Tormuse, papilio, Sylph
- Demonic: 2DeviationsOut
- Berserker: Gooselord1, Tormuse
- Marksman: Cotonou, Sylph, papilio, Tormuse
- Shottyman: Tormuse, appuru, SageAcrin, Neokpapilio, Zuyl, Sereg, khiijol, Ridonk, CaptainSublime, the_scented_llama_of_doom, The DoomRLguy, iainuki, ih8regin
- Lightfoot: appuru, Cotonou, papilio, Sereg, Ridonk, Tormuse
- Eagerness:
- Inquisitor:
- Quartermaster: Tormuse, papilio, iainuki
- Masochist:
- Centurial: Rajhin, appuru, Tormuse, papilio, Ridonk
- Pacifist:
- Everyman: Tormuse
Good luck!
13
Modding / HereticRL demo
« on: July 12, 2011, 19:02 »
I've spent a lot of time lately working on modding Heretic (wiki link) for the DoomRL sandbox. The completed version will hopefully incorporate several levels from the original game (especially episode enders), as well as all weapons, enemies, items, and special nuances. In the meantime, however, I'd like to present a demo version, just so you get an idea of what it looks like so far.
HereticRL Demo
There's a readme file included in the zip directory, just follow it (installation requires very few steps) and everything should run smoothly. Let me know what you think! (And in case I missed any critical errors, let me know ASAP so I can take care of them.)
HereticRL Demo
There's a readme file included in the zip directory, just follow it (installation requires very few steps) and everything should run smoothly. Let me know what you think! (And in case I missed any critical errors, let me know ASAP so I can take care of them.)
14
Nightmare! / [N!|AoSh|87%|YAVP] Shottyman Diamond
« on: June 20, 2011, 22:08 »--------------------------------------------------------------
DoomRL (v.0.9.9.3) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------
Game Hunter, level 15 Arch-Vile Lt. General, defeated the Cyberdemon
on level 25 of the Phobos base.
He survived 73203 turns and scored 728316 points.
He played for 1 hour and 28 minutes.
He opposed the Nightmare!
He killed 1467 out of 1681 hellspawn. (87%)
He was an Angel of Shotgunnery!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 9
Levels visited : 5
Levels completed : 2
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
UAC Star (gold cluster)
Fallout Gold Cross
Grim Reaper's Badge
Shottyman Bronze Badge
Shottyman Silver Badge
Shottyman Gold Badge
Shottyman Platinum Badge
Shottyman Diamond Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
###########################################################
...........................................................
...........................................................
...........................................................
...........###...........................###...............
...........###...........................###...............
...........###..........##...............###...............
........................##..............................###
................###.....##....X.................###.....###
.......###......###.............................###.....###
.......###......###.............................###........
.......###.............................###.................
.......................................###.................
...............................###.....###.................
...............................#>#.........................
.................###...........###.........................
.................###.......................................
.................###.......................................
...........................................................
###########################################################
-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 73/85 Experience 116090/15
ToHit Ranged +0 ToHit Melee +0 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +0
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Ironman (Level 5)
Tough as nails (Level 5)
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->TaN->Iro->Iro->TaN->TaN->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] Necroarmor [3/6] (43%)
[b] [ Weapon ] modified double shotgun (8d3)x3 [2/2] (T1)
[c] [ Boots ] modified plasteel boots [4/4] (92%) (A)
[d] [ Prepared ] tactical shotgun (8d3) [6/6]
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] nuclear plasma rifle (1d6)x6 [24/24]
[b] Trigun (3d6) [6/6]
[c] tactical armor [1/1] (26%)
[d] shotgun shell (x44)
[e] shotgun shell (x50)
[f] shotgun shell (x50)
[g] large med-pack
[h] large med-pack
[i] large med-pack
[j] phase device
[k] envirosuit pack
[l] envirosuit pack
[m] fire skull
[n] hatred skull
[o] modified steel boots [1/1] (100%) (A)
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
126 former humans
178 former sergeants
72 former captains
212 imps
57 demons
357 lost souls
79 cacodemons
59 barons of hell
1 Cyberdemon
46 hell knights
64 arachnotrons
35 former commandos
42 pain elementals
29 arch-viles
67 mancubi
40 revenants
2 bruiser brothers
1 agony elemental
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
On level 8 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
On level 10 he found the Hellwave Pack!
On level 10 he entered Hell's Armory.
On level 10 he found the Trigun!
He left the Armory without drawing too much attention.
On level 12 he ventured into the Halls of Carnage.
On level 13 he found the Necroarmor!
On level 15 he encountered the Phobos Hellgate.
On level 15 he assembled a tactical armor!
On level 17 he found the City of Skulls.
He wiped out the City of Skulls.
On level 22 he was foolish enough to enter the Mortuary!
He managed to clear the Mortuary from evil!
On level 23 he ran for his life from lava!
Then at last he found Phobos Arena!
On level 25 he finally defeated the Cyberdemon.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
You see : a Cyberdemon (severely wounded) [m]ore | pool of blood
The Cyberdemon fires! You are hit!
The Cyberdemon reloads his rocket launcher.
Fire -- Choose target...
You see : a Cyberdemon (severely wounded) [m]ore | pool of blood
Fire -- Choose target...
You see : a Cyberdemon (mortally wounded) [m]ore | pool of blood
The Cyberdemon fires! You are hit! Your Necroarmor is damaged!
You use a large med-pack. You feel fully healed. The Cyberdemon reloads his
rocket launcher.
Your weapon is empty.
Your weapon is empty.
The Cyberdemon fires! You are hit! Your Necroarmor is damaged!
The Cyberdemon reloads his rocket launcher.
You use a Hellwave Pack. The Cyberdemon dies. Congratulations! You defeated
the Cyberdemon! Press <Enter>...
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
Before him 182 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
155 of those were killed.
3 of those were killed by something unknown.
2 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 6 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
Some rumours though, say that the Cyberdemon was killed already!
Is he immortal? 16 souls claim to have killed him...
4 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
12 killed the bastard and survived.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Not in the mood to explain this one in the same way I normally do, so I'll make some quick bullet points:
- MAD and tactical shotgun both came on floor 8, really let me start to have fun killing everything
- Most levels contained Sergeants somewhere, so ammo was never a concern
- Trigun at Hell's Armory let me nuke a few levels, including Mort (but not without letting all the corpses respawn)
- Used Hellwave Pack to kill Cybie at the end
- Dragonslayer showed up, but for a few reasons I didn't pick it up (FFFFFFFFFFFF)
Good run, good fun.
15
0.9.9.3 / [U|AoRA|YAAM] Quartermaster Diamond
« on: June 15, 2011, 23:06 »--------------------------------------------------------------
DoomRL (v.0.9.9.3) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------
Game Hunter, level 14 Hell Baron Lt. General, defeated the Cyberdemon
on level 25 of the Phobos base.
He survived 57348 turns and scored 381884 points.
He played for 1 hour, 14 minutes and 32 seconds.
He was a man of Ultra-Violence!
He killed 906 out of 906 hellspawn. (100%)
This ass-kicking marine killed all of them!
He was an Angel of Red Alert!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 10
Levels visited : 5
Levels completed : 4
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
Cyberdemon's Head
Medal of Prejudice
UAC Star (bronze cluster)
Quartermaster Bronze Badge
Quartermaster Silver Badge
Quartermaster Gold Badge
Quartermaster Diamond Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
###########################################################
...........................................................
...........................................................
...........................................................
..........###..............#...............................
.###......###..............##..............................
.###......###..............#..........###..###.............
.###..................................###..###.............
......................................###..###.............
..................###..##..................................
..................##...##.............................###..
..................##...###.....................###....###..
#.............................X................#>#....###..
#............................|.................###.........
#............................|..###........................
.............###..............}.###........................
.............###................###........................
.............###...........................................
...........................................................
###########################################################
-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 99/90 Experience 93650/14
ToHit Ranged +0 ToHit Melee +0 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +0
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Ironman (Level 4)
Finesse (Level 2)
Hellrunner (Level 3)
Reloader (Level 2)
Dodgemaster (Level 1)
Shottyman (Level 1)
Fireangel (Level 1)
HR->HR->Rel->Rel->SM->DM->MFa->Fin->Iro->Fin->Iro->HR->Iro->Iro->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] nothing
[b] [ Weapon ] modified super shotgun (9d4)x3 [0/2] (T1)
[c] [ Boots ] modified steel boots [1/1] (100%) (A)
[d] [ Prepared ] rocket launcher (6d6) [1/1]
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] tactical shotgun (8d3) [6/6]
[b] napalm launcher (7d7) [1/1]
[c] modified BFG 9000 (10d8) [130/130] (B1)
[d] phaseshift armor [2/2] (100%)
[e] shotgun shell (x24)
[f] shotgun shell (x50)
[g] shotgun shell (x50)
[h] shotgun shell (x50)
[i] shotgun shell (x50)
[j] shotgun shell (x50)
[k] rocket (x10)
[l] rocket (x6)
[m] power cell (x20)
[n] small med-pack
[o] large med-pack
[p] large med-pack
[q] phase device
[r] homing phase device
[s] homing phase device
[t] envirosuit pack
[u] shockwave pack
[v] lava element
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
79 former humans
104 former sergeants
87 former captains
125 imps
74 demons
184 lost souls
49 cacodemons
51 barons of hell
1 Cyberdemon
14 hell knights
13 arachnotrons
15 former commandos
19 pain elementals
30 arch-viles
29 mancubi
28 revenants
1 nightmare imp
2 bruiser brothers
1 lava elemental
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
He left the Arena before it got too hot.
On level 6 he stormed the Chained Court.
On level 7 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
On level 9 he entered Hell's Armory.
He left the Armory without drawing too much attention.
On level 11 he ventured into the Halls of Carnage.
On level 15 he encountered the Phobos Hellgate.
On level 18 he found the Medical Powerarmor!
On level 19 he ran for his life from lava!
On level 20 he ran for his life from lava!
Level 21 blasted him with unholy atmosphere!
On level 23 he entered the Lava Pits.
He managed to clear the Lava Pits completely!
Then at last he found Phobos Arena!
On level 25 he finally defeated the Cyberdemon.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
The Cyberdemon fires! You dodge!
Fire -- Choose target...
You see : a Cyberdemon (severely wounded) [m]ore | pool of blood
The Cyberdemon reloads his rocket launcher.
The Cyberdemon fires! You dodge! Boom!
Fire -- Choose target...
You see : a Cyberdemon (severely wounded) [m]ore | pool of blood
The Cyberdemon reloads his rocket launcher.
The Cyberdemon fires! You dodge! Boom!
Fire -- Choose target...
You see : a Cyberdemon (mortally wounded) [m]ore | floor
The Cyberdemon reloads his rocket launcher.
Fire -- Choose target...
You see : a Cyberdemon (almost dead) [m]ore | pool of blood
The Cyberdemon dies. You feel relatively safe now. Congratulations! You
defeated the Cyberdemon! Press <Enter>...
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
Before him 151 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
129 of those were killed.
2 of those were killed by something unknown.
2 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 5 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
Some rumours though, say that the Cyberdemon was killed already!
Is he immortal? 13 souls claim to have killed him...
4 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
9 killed the bastard and survived.
--------------------------------------------------------------
This game was in some ways assured when I got the super shotgun, and in even MORE ways after I picked up the napalm launcher. However, there was no forgiveness near the end and even in my semi-godlike state, there were some close calls. But I'll get to that in a second.
- My Quartermaster Diamond build is Fireangel with Iro/Fin either mixed in or after. I was fortunate enough this run to not need either of them too early, so Fireangel came quickly (and boy is it useful).
- Started pretty strong, combat shotgun on dlvl2 and a fairly dense level. Ran Hell's Arena, cleared the first two waves but didn't have time for the second. Lucky me, the small/large med-packs were on the way to the stairs, the first of many lucky circumstances.
- Floors 3, 4 spawned no HKs, and floor 5 was a demon cave: made clearing them a hell of a lot easier. Floor 6 made up for it by sending four Barons and two commandos, and I had less than a minute reaching CC (which is easy to clear with the help of zerk).
- The next few of floors are pretty smooth, although shells are a concern. I manage to finally pick up a rocket launcher around floor 11 for wall-blasting when I need it. Mid-game contained two caves and two arenas which, for this particular challenge, are godsends.
- I went for Hell's Armory with invuln going in (used it to clear out many Cacos and the commandos). Revs killed the agility mod that I basically went in for. Halls of Carnage were a walk in the park, great way to get shells. BFG is picked up but never used.
- A couple of floors later, super shotgun. Just before Hellgate I get a napalm launcher, which I use to make the Viles very simple to beat (had I not already collected Gatekeeper Diamond I would have done so in this run). Super shotgun cleans house for most of the rest of the game.
- Things are continuing along smoothly but I am running low on health supplies over time. Several levels spawn me in the midst of Viles/Barons/Commandos all at once, a nasty combo even for my speed and MFa. I fall as low as 8% during an encounter with three Viles simultaneously, unable to run fast enough to avoid their fire. Fortunately the points in Iro pay off handsomely, and I manage to get out of each jam. (In retrospect, a quick napalm launcher would have made some cases easier, but I didn't have Juggler either.)
Fireangel against Cyberdemon is too easy. Went to Lava Pits, hoping for a nuke in the next level, although full win would practically guarantee no YAAM, so it's fine in the end. I MIGHT have been able to clear Mort (had good shells for it, unlike City of Skulls) but I'd rather not risk a Diamond badge THAT haphazardly.