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[MaiZure]

Here is an idea that would add an entire new gameplay layer accessable to veteran players and build specialists.
Champion Challenges

It starts off simple enough with our usual list of "Angel of X" challenges
Let's walk through the idea with Angel of Berserk

A veteran player has been able to beat AoB on HNTR, HMP, N! and finally wraps up his final difficulty level for that challenge by beating UV.
Well that earns him a medal, which we'll call the "Berserker Medallion". But that's not all. It unlocks a new challenge called "Champion of Berserk".

This challenge is 100 levels under the Angel of Berserk rules at either UV, N! or a modified difficulty level. Finishing this makes a player a TRUE CHAMPION of Berserk, which would probably include another unique medal and ultimately a badge series devoted to how many Champion Challenges you can complete.


Now from the start, even a fresh player should be able to read about Champion Challenges under the Challenge Game menu because there would be two columns, but Champion Challenges would always be greyed out until the Angel level has been completed on all difficulty levels. The challenge screen for a relatively new player with only 3 challenges open would look something like this:

Angel of Berserk	Champion of Berserk
Angel of Marksmanship	Champion of Marksmanship
Angel of Shotgunnery	Champion of Shotgunnery
Angel of Light Travel	Champion of Light Travel

...and so on

Not sure what to do about Ao100 - Champion of Eternity?


Anyway, I think if the gameplay were extended for veteran players in this direction, it would keep me coming back for a looooong time. That and it would give me a reason to do things like AoMr on HMP and other various challenge levels I wouldn't normally think about.

Maybe this would be a great time to direct your attention to my old bounty about Former Elites in those Champion game modes...:P


Let's see if we can make this in to an idea that works!

[thelaptop]

Well, since each "Champion of X" has 4 times as many dungeon levels than the last, clearly Champion of Eternity has 400 levels to go through ala Ao100 rules, but on steroids?

[ParaSait]

In Co100 you just play until you get a glitched split screen map at level 256.

Well, since each "Champion of X" has 4 times as many dungeon levels than the last, clearly Champion of Eternity has 400 levels to go through ala Ao100 rules, but on steroids?

*exits dlvl100*
Game: "This is only the beginning!"
Player: "WAT"

xD

[Game Hunter]

A veteran player has been able to beat AoB on HNTR, HMP, N! and finally wraps up his final difficulty level for that challenge by beating UV.

I just have to laugh at this because it's so true that AoB on Ultra-violence is actually harder than on Nightmare!. We need to fix this somehow.

The idea of having an enhanced challenge, as a result of dominating the challenge it enhanced, is pretty awesome for veteran players such as myself, though I can't say that it would make much sense for the average player unless N! was significantly easier. Just from the general vibe I got from UV players wary of entering N! territory, the gap was way too big for all but a few to really dig into it. Frankly I don't think it would be a huge detriment to this issue if we simply omitted N! from the necessary criteria. Since it won't be in until at LEAST .995, though, my opinion may change greatly after thoroughly playing the soon-to-be .994 release (which is to say, the game might be easier overall).

Even with this in mind, however, I don't think slapping on A100 to each of them is the right way to go about it. It would appear that there is a rather sharp divide between players who would love the idea of going down 100 floors EVERY game and players who will do it once just to try it and never do so again, if that. (Honestly I fit into the small category of "now and again because there's a huge potential for really ridiculous builds" but there is definitely dissent in the large majority of players I've talked to.) A better idea is to take each's challenge to the extreme in creative ways, although some general restrictions should probably include things like no special equipment (other than what you find in special levels) and no assembly-building, bringing it back to old-school DoomRL.

Some examples (note that, in cases where I have several suggstions, it could be any combination of them, not necessarily all):

• Champion of Berserk
  
  • No Berserk Packs (gotta activate it yourself)
  • Enemies deal 50% more melee damage
  • Angel of Death actually has Longinus Spear (or Azrael's Scythe) equipped (his ToDam bonus is removed to slightly compensate)
  • While zerked, all objects on map are unreadable (cannot use 'look' to know what they are) and all enemies are simply 'fresh meat' with M symbol
• Champion of Marksmanship
  
  • Levels are heavily dominated by former humans, and they get the same traits you do
  • All enemies have some form of bullet resistance
  • Cyberdemon uses two pistols and comes with SoG3/DG (or just change his traits/attack to emulate this)
• Champion of Shotgunnery
  
  • Levels are heavily dominated by former sergeants, and they get the same traits you do
  • Dropoff of your shotguns (not enemies') is doubled (also, if point-blank doesn't have 0% dropoff, change so that it does)
  • Cyberdemon uses 'chain-shotgun' attack, though it has a pretty significant reload
• Champion of Impatience
  
  • Can only reload when weapon is completely empty
  • Cannot use 'wait' command
  • Cannot use 'look' command
  • Limited messages (stuff like hits, deaths, what the item underneath you is)
  • Any time you pick up equipment it is auto-equipped (and takes that much extra time at once)
• Champion of Haste
  
  • 25 levels, but scaling is quadrupuled (so basically the way A100 scales)
• Champion of Purity
  
  • No items that weren't in the original Doom (Tracking Map, combat shotgun, combat knife, red armor, etc)
  • No special levels: red stairs just send you to an extra random floor
  • Actual benefits: start with 100HP, green armor is 50% resist all, blue armor is 75% resist all
  • Inulnerability Globe and Berserk actually work, but neither heal you and berserk's only effect is to amplify fist damage by tenfold
• Champion of Masochism
  
  • 0% chance of 'normal' and 'archi' levels to spawn (city/arena/cave/single-type only)
  • Tripled chance of level events

I'd probably prefer these sorts of changes over just four times the floors, and I'm sure a lot of people would too. (Besides, you can emulate most challenges by self-imposing restrictions in the first place and can potentially be tracked for medals.) I suppose I just don't see the fun in AoMC + A100, considering that AoMC starts to get boring near the end (and tacking on 75 more floors doesn't really change that).

[Shoop da Whoop]

Champion of Light travel: no half-of-inventory limit, but each non-empty inventory slot slows you down for .05 sec. Equipment slots are inventory too.

[MaiZure]

Some examples (note that, in cases where I have several suggstions, it could be any combination of them, not necessarily all):

These are premium ideas, Game Hunter! Yes, much better than Ao100 challenge spam - I would play this types of challanges religiously.
I'm in favor of ditching the N! requirement since that game mode is essentially a new style of gameplay from all of the others and it would pull some non-N! players in to the fun.

Champion of Light travel: no half-of-inventory limit, but each non-empty inventory slot slows you down for .05 sec. Equipment slots are inventory too.

Good start. I'm thinking more along the lines of Champion of LT would require you to auto-equip weapons and gear, meaning you couldn't carry spares around and had to improvise on the fly with what RNG generated. Possibly one ammo slot (or pack only?). This would also force you to ditch weapons for other ones on the fly as well because of ammo shortages. Maybe three inventory slots for utility items/mods only?


Still open for input on:
Champion of Darkness [upcoming mode .994]
Champion of Red Alert
Champion of Max Carnage
Champion of 100 (Eternity?)
Champion of Pacifism
Champion of Humanity (DAMN?)

Also think about medal names for beating all of the difficulties for an Angel challenge.

Becoming a Champion of a challenge should probably give you something as well.
Military elites tend to get to wear a colored 'Beret' in uniform, but that is more of a sign of expertise and training, not necessarily accomplishment. Still it could fit here:
Beating Champion of Berserk could award you a medal called "Berserker Beret" - or if we wanted to keep it military like, just call it a "Crimson Beret".

Everything is just an idea at this point, so let's hear more!

[ParaSait]

Game Hunter is a genius. I wish I could play his suggestions already :D!
(not that I've ever beaten any challenge mode on UV so far, though... :P)

[MaiZure]

Here is an idea for Champion of 100/Eternity:

• Cannot take the stairs until you feel relatively safe (everything is dead)
• Level events occur 75% of the time
• Game continues on and on until certain requirements are met (so a side challenge is to see who can finish it in the fewest levels)
• These requirements could be:
• Reach clvl 25
• Kill 500 creatures with each attack type (melee, pistol, shotgun, rapid)
• Find the DS (haha)
• Kill 12 Cyberdemons (three with each attack type)

EDIT Double Post:
Champion of Pacifism
Damnit, you forgot to bring that nuke along...but thats ok because at least three of the special levels have one somewhere (Armory stash, Lava Pit island, City of Skulls room)


Champion of Red Alert

• Nuke rule is the same
• Stairs will only appear if everything is dead OR there are less than 60 seconds left
• Is that an undroppable nuke in your pocket with a 20m timer on it? Oh hell...

Champion of Max Carnage

• Enemies get max accuracy and damage but you don't
• Enemies also get Scout speed buffs
• Trait effects DOUBLED for MAX++ CARNAGE muahaha! (Could also just double XP gain or pick two traits per level)
• Mod restrictions lifted for more MAX CARNAGE potential

Champion of Darkness
We don't really have a good baseline on the gameplay for this challenge yet but here is one way we could take it:

• Vision radius starts at 7 on every level but decays by one every 300 turns to a minimum of 2
• As vision decays, enemies change AI to HUNTING mode

This should lead to an interesting strategy of using your early vision on a level to find a place to prepare for the coming onslaught!

[Deathwind]

Champion of Pacifism
Pacifists shouldn't get angry - zerk doesn't work

[Fanta Hege]

Honestly I wouldn't mind if Champion of Eternity was unbeatable, neverending, like a gauntlet to see how far you can really get before it gets impossible.
I'd imagine the scalings to get impossible near 200's really.

Not to mention I wouldn't mind a Ao100 special modes, specialy for zerker rules, that would make me drool.

But hey;

Champion of Humanity
Angel Of Lightravel rules applied. What kind of normal human could carry all that stuff anyway?

Champion of Masochism.
Super charge every level up? Scratch that. Make it every 4 level ups. Now we're talking.

Champion of Haste
4x the speed. 4x the scaling. Good luck getting the gear and levels before cybie.

[MaiZure]

Champion of Humanity
Angel Of Lightravel rules applied. What kind of normal human could carry all that stuff anyway?

GH and I talked about this one on IRC.
First , I said that no Champion of Humanity could kill former humans. Their death could cause a penalty for you.
GH's idea was to get rid of formers entirely, meaning you'll be facing other foes right from the start.
Ammo drops would have to be upped accordingly

[Uranium]

Champion of Red Alert:
Whenever you use a health item, the time on the nuke counter drops a certain amount, depending on the item used - getting larger the more health it restores.

[Game Hunter]

This idea is likely going to be developed over the course of 0.9.9.5 (renamed Archangel). Suggest everything that comes to mind!

[rchandra]

Archangel of Max Carnage

• Hitting something you can't see is impossible instead of 50%
• Add Angel of Haste??

[raekuul]

Archangel Rule #1 - If an item isn't in the original DooM, you can't use it (Nukes excepted)

MARKSMANSHIP - A True Marksman can take down enemies with one gun, not two. Secondary weapon slot is locked.
BERSERK - Armor slows your movements down too much for melee combat. Armor and Boots slots are locked.
DARKNESS - Where there is light, there is also darkness. Out-Of-Vision enemies have an increased chance of respawning, no matter what difficulty level.
RED ALERT - Sometimes, even Nukes aren't enough. Only bosses will die from being nuked.
MAX CARNAGE - He wants your head on a silver platter. Every enemy always knows exactly where you are.
ETERNITY - Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Only ends when you die.
PACIFISM - The white flag is the most powerful weapon you've got. Nothing can be equipped.
HUMANITY - If you can't beat them, join 'em! You start with 1 HP instead of 10.

Other Mode ideas:

Demonic Onslaught - A good way to practice handling mobs. The only monsters that appear in normal levels are Demons, Lost Souls, and Pain Elementals - and the Demons will revive after a while!
Painfest - What did you do to deserve this one? Everything's carrying shotguns instead of their normal weapons!
Cybernetic Crossfire - Mancubi, Revenants, and Arachnotrons are everywhere - even at the Hangar!