Need some opinions on proper ammo and health balance. If there is a tool within GZDB that calculates ammo : monster health, it'd be great (i thought there was).
How much ammo should each map have? Should there be enough that, at a default-weapon start, the player should just have enough to kill all monsters, and maybe some left over if he finds the secrets? Or should he be allowed to run and gun all the way thru? How will you adjust this depending on difficulty. Do you make higher difficulties have tighter ammo limit, or do you only balance it based on the health to monster-damage ratio? Do you prefer maps where the player has just enough if he played conservatively, or do you want the player to be able to run and gun his way thru the map?
How much health do you distribute? Is it balance for monster damage, or do you give a certain multiples of 100 based on pick-ups, and then adjust monsters accordingly? Should the player always be expected to be able to have 100 health at the next map, or is that not important to you?
Opinions regarding ammo and health balance
Re: Opinions regarding ammo and health balance
Well...this can be a pretty complicated question, and depends on many factors, but I'll try to write a somewhat useful answer.
- In a general, Average Joe level, I'd put ammo and health sparingly. Some, but not too many - because the big powerups would be hidden at secret areas! If the player is in great need for more, he should look for secrets. This is the most common, and was used from Wolfenstein 3-D. If you wanna be even more effective, put the amazing goodies behind bars, a fence, or some impassable object, which the player can see thru. Another good method is putting these stuff on high elevators, which must be lowered by a certain switch somewhere else in the level. If the player is persistent enough, he'll find a way to reach those yummy stuff. If not, he'll have to be contented with the minimum supplies lying around.
- Special levels require special conditions. If a level has no weapons whatsoever, and everything is taken from you, excluding melee weapons, there's no reason of putting ammunition, except maybe if you wanna set up a trap for the player, or he can grab a weapon for the ammo at the end of the level. There can be lots of special levels with such special conditions, possibilities are limitless. In my previous game, I used this kind of thing for the Challenge levels, where the player must navigate thru the ENTIRE level with only a knife.
As for health, survivalist-type maps can do extremely well without health powerups. At the start of the level, you can grab health boxes, Megasphere or anything, but there won't be anything else on the whole stage, you must prevail with your current health level. A fine example is E4M1 "Hell Beneath" or the first super secret level in Tristania3D titled "Greed". You can put a few powerups on hidden areas, though. Portable medikits can work unimaginbly well in such stages.
- A regeneration area is an extremely good investment. I used this a lot in my game. There are only minimal health supplies on the stage, but there's a Regeneration Artifact which can be used unlimited times. Quake 3 Arena also had such thing on the level "The Nameless Place", and it worked out pretty well. AFAIK in Doom, you don't even need a static object which replenishes lost health, you can set any kind of surface to do the same, just like lava or green snot can lower your health.
- You must also take enemies dropping more ammunition into account. For instance, if the player is going to face a huge number of Shotgun Guys, putting 4 shotgun shells or box of shotgun shells on the level is a dump thing to do. If there'll be tons of Heavy Chaingun Dudes, the same thing goes for bullets. Rockets and energy ammo is fine, as long as you don't have a special enemy which might drop those as well.
- Before bossfights, you should have plenty of ammo and weapons around. And health of course
the only exception is when the boss requires a special method to kill, and conventional firearms won't do much good.
- Bonus levels and secret levels should have more ammo and health items than regular ones. It also should introduce advanced weaponry much sooner than the player could pick them up in the campaign.
- In a general, Average Joe level, I'd put ammo and health sparingly. Some, but not too many - because the big powerups would be hidden at secret areas! If the player is in great need for more, he should look for secrets. This is the most common, and was used from Wolfenstein 3-D. If you wanna be even more effective, put the amazing goodies behind bars, a fence, or some impassable object, which the player can see thru. Another good method is putting these stuff on high elevators, which must be lowered by a certain switch somewhere else in the level. If the player is persistent enough, he'll find a way to reach those yummy stuff. If not, he'll have to be contented with the minimum supplies lying around.
- Special levels require special conditions. If a level has no weapons whatsoever, and everything is taken from you, excluding melee weapons, there's no reason of putting ammunition, except maybe if you wanna set up a trap for the player, or he can grab a weapon for the ammo at the end of the level. There can be lots of special levels with such special conditions, possibilities are limitless. In my previous game, I used this kind of thing for the Challenge levels, where the player must navigate thru the ENTIRE level with only a knife.
As for health, survivalist-type maps can do extremely well without health powerups. At the start of the level, you can grab health boxes, Megasphere or anything, but there won't be anything else on the whole stage, you must prevail with your current health level. A fine example is E4M1 "Hell Beneath" or the first super secret level in Tristania3D titled "Greed". You can put a few powerups on hidden areas, though. Portable medikits can work unimaginbly well in such stages.
- A regeneration area is an extremely good investment. I used this a lot in my game. There are only minimal health supplies on the stage, but there's a Regeneration Artifact which can be used unlimited times. Quake 3 Arena also had such thing on the level "The Nameless Place", and it worked out pretty well. AFAIK in Doom, you don't even need a static object which replenishes lost health, you can set any kind of surface to do the same, just like lava or green snot can lower your health.
- You must also take enemies dropping more ammunition into account. For instance, if the player is going to face a huge number of Shotgun Guys, putting 4 shotgun shells or box of shotgun shells on the level is a dump thing to do. If there'll be tons of Heavy Chaingun Dudes, the same thing goes for bullets. Rockets and energy ammo is fine, as long as you don't have a special enemy which might drop those as well.
- Before bossfights, you should have plenty of ammo and weapons around. And health of course
the only exception is when the boss requires a special method to kill, and conventional firearms won't do much good.- Bonus levels and secret levels should have more ammo and health items than regular ones. It also should introduce advanced weaponry much sooner than the player could pick them up in the campaign.
Re: Opinions regarding ammo and health balance
Balancing ammo might be easier, as you can calculate how much you need when performing well. For example: 1 Revenant needs 2 meatshots with the super shotgun to die, 2 direct hits from a rocket launcher and so on. You can give the player a more, depending on how stingy you want to be. It all depends on who you want to target: Pros who want to be perfect at the game, or casual players.
Health is unpredictable, though: Technically, it should be possible to avoid most damage. However, not everybody has the necessary monster-placement-knowledge and skill to never take damage.
For me, the best way to find balance is to simply play it a few times, and hand out a bit more ammo/health than I need, since I kinda have an advantage over people who do not know my map.
Secrets, to me, are supposed to give the player a bigger advantage, but the player should not be required to find them in order to beat a map. Of course, certain secrets can make a map a lot easier. For example: Providing a secret which telefrags a cyberdemon that would otherwise consume a lot of your ammo.
Ammo/Powerups can also be used as a "spoiler" in a map. For example: When I see a megasphere lying around in plain sight, I often think: "This is gonna be something".
Health is unpredictable, though: Technically, it should be possible to avoid most damage. However, not everybody has the necessary monster-placement-knowledge and skill to never take damage.
For me, the best way to find balance is to simply play it a few times, and hand out a bit more ammo/health than I need, since I kinda have an advantage over people who do not know my map.
Secrets, to me, are supposed to give the player a bigger advantage, but the player should not be required to find them in order to beat a map. Of course, certain secrets can make a map a lot easier. For example: Providing a secret which telefrags a cyberdemon that would otherwise consume a lot of your ammo.
Ammo/Powerups can also be used as a "spoiler" in a map. For example: When I see a megasphere lying around in plain sight, I often think: "This is gonna be something".
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Matt
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Re: Opinions regarding ammo and health balance
Always err in favour of more ammo.
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The Ultimate DooMer
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Re: Opinions regarding ammo and health balance
One thing that afaik has never been mentioned before but I've thought about for a while is this: shells and shotgunners screw up ammo balance. Reason being that 4 shells go a lot further than 5-10 bullets, and 20 shells go a lot further than 50 bullets...yet every map seems to treat them as equals. The vast majority of maps I've seen with too much ammo is always because of shells and shotgunners. (esp. in Doom 1 where chaingunners aren't around)
I'd disagree there, but one thing that would be better is having chainsaw/berserk easily available. (melee in Doom doesn't work without both)Always err in favour of more ammo.
Re: Opinions regarding ammo and health balance
Shotgun ammo is pretty abundant on most levels, ye, and since a shotgun (even the single one) is considered to be stronger than a chaingun, no wonder most people use it. Super shotgun is essentially a rocket launcher without splash damage.
In these cases, use enemies which are troublesome to kill using shotguns, and chaingun would generally be a better choice, for instance, 3-4 Cacodemons. Taking them down with chaingun is reasonable, as it keeps'em in constant pain. However, with shotgun, you'll be forced to strafe their plasma balls one after another.
In these cases, use enemies which are troublesome to kill using shotguns, and chaingun would generally be a better choice, for instance, 3-4 Cacodemons. Taking them down with chaingun is reasonable, as it keeps'em in constant pain. However, with shotgun, you'll be forced to strafe their plasma balls one after another.