Yholl wrote:VicBorAng wrote:All right, just finished with the WHITEMARE play trough. Those were some enjoyable maps.
Glad you're having fun. I've been quite enjoying reading your thoughts on the sets, thank you for writing them!
That is a relief to hear.
Alright. After finishing up with WhiteMare, i was a bit uncertain where to go next.
I still had TNT and Plutonia to do, and i wanted to get ready for Plutonia.
Ultimately i decided to make a full play´-trough of TNT/Evilution, then take a "break" a have a go with the basic Doom 2 weapon-set.
I'd finish up TNT, then finally tackle and
finish Thy Flesh Consumed (maybe on UV?) and see how long i can take a playtrough of Doom2 on UV + Fast monsters.
Before finally, at last, finishing with Plutonia.
Midway trough my TNT playtrough, however, i changed my plan a little.
I already went trough each map-set relative to each weapon-set, and witnessed them on (what i assume) the mapset they were "built for".
Now, once i finish with Plutonia i'm going to do a bonus round.
I wanted to test the weapons on the same, equal, ground. But i don't have the patience to do a full 32 maps, or even 15-maps playtrough. And couldn't decide witch map set would be best suited to give them all a fair opportunity.
So i decided to go trough an (specifics to be decided) Oblidge created mapset.
Anyway, the TNT weaponset right.
TNTguy.
I already tried to go trough TNT/Evilution once with this weaponset. I got up to "MAP:10 Redemption" before loosing steam.
But this time, this time i had the full momentum of this endeavor behind me pushing me forward.
And even then, boy this wad started to loose me by map 16. 17, 19 and 22 pulled me back a little, but the start of 19 was loosing me, and every map after lost me further and further. By 25 i was completely out of it, and only really got back for 29 and the final for MAP30.
So... The weapons right?!.
Right, One thing that i forgot to add in the other ones. Is how much i like that each weaponset seems to have it's own unique color scheme.
Gunmetal Grey for Evilution: TNT.
Wooden Brown and branches for Plutonia.
Greyish for Ancient Aliens, with the more colorful for the alien weapons.
Black and yellow for Alien Vendetta
And Orange/White/Yellow for Whitemare.
Interesting how the BTSX, JCP, and Hellbound weapon-sets don't
seem to have that. And yet do, in a way.
The JCP weapons are a bit less color coordinated. But the shotgun tier weapons do share a similar color scheme.
The Hellbound weaponset has cohesion in design, with practical realistic grey guns. And the Totenheim yellow accents.
and the BTSX weapons are more tied together in terms of everything being energy based. (But there is still an individual cohesion, the pistol and fist are both red and chargeable. The shotgun pickups seem to be designed with the Machreaper in mind, and the weapons that normally use the Plasma ammo are both blue themed.)
Now, about the Evilution weapons:
Halderman Device: I will say this. I put this chainsaw replacement in use a lot more in the beginning while i remembered that it existed. and at the end when i remembered it existed. The defense mode let me rush trough one of the final maps fair and square. The one instance i remember using this mod well was on an attempted UV playtrough of this mapset, where i used the Defense mode in the second map to make a mad dash to the Super Shotgun replacement to get better firepower. And it would have saved my skin in Map 14 to remember i had a Hazard Protection.
I can see how useful this replacement could be. But it was hampered by the fact i already had a flashlight mod with me, from the earlier playtroughs.
But the Illumination mode and the added defense is certainly a strategic benefit, as is the security of the Hazard mode of not having to worry about RadSuits.
A lot of strategic benefits that i wish i had remembered.
And even with all the other chainsaw replacements, this one sets the bar for having unique strategic tools, already a big change right off the bat.
(Actually, i know that this mod released with only TNT and Plutonia as weapon sets. But were they both developed in unison or one after the other)
Melee: This one is interesting, it's a combo type of melee similar to the ones from Hellbound and Alien Vendetta. With an extra powerful hit after landing two regular ones. Really fun to use when on a Berserk. Interesting to note how Alien Vendetta changed the formula to having the third hit always come out (or at least come out when hitting a wall). While TNT and HB both have to hit enemies first. The Uppercut added vertical movement was always fun to see when i managed to perform it.
Prototype Pistol: It's been interesting to note how the pistols have filled the niche of "unlimited ammo with reload" they have been given, witch alongside the BFG new charge system, have made for a pretty good addition to the standard Doom Gameplay. From powerful with a long load time, to fire as fast as you can, to chargeable, to silenced, to best method of igniting an enemy and pretty good light source.
The Prototype Pistol is a simple weapon, trading firepower for rate of fire and not as ideal accuracy (though it seems that the classic pistol having great accuracy is unintended)
One thing that has advanced alongside my playtrough of this weaponset are my own tools to analyse it. I started using spanwing enemies in frozen time during Hellbound, then moved to the kinstest map during some time after finishing it, and some time during or after WhiteMare i found a rather good DPS tester.
And from what i tested, the Prototype Pistol seems to have an average dps lower then classic one from Doom 2. But It's ability to stun-lock enemies with rapid fire makes it just as good.
Tactical Shotgun:
Oh boy. We've reached the one i have put the a lot of thought into.
It works fine, and the perfect diamond firing pattern does make it unique.
However, it seems to be outclassed by the Burst Shotgun in almost every way. the Burst Shotgun fires faster, and even at the most restrictive "no reloading even after swapping weapons" mode it still manages to beat it. I used it mostly so i could keep testing it out. The precise, unchanging diamond pattern would lead one to think this is decent for long range, but not so. After a while each shot gets so far apart that the only the middle one hits.
Now, i know that the shotgun is meant to be a up to mid range weapon. But this weaponset seems to have very few accurate weapons. The Dual Machine Pistols are anathema to accuracy, the Missile Launcher even being faster then a normal rocket still has a delay messing with aim. Leaving only the Maser to be the aim workhorse.
Even on the edges of mid range, I felt that sometimes the spread of the hitscan would be just unlucky so and the horizontal and vertical spread make it so that some of the edges shots would miss. Making for some poor damage.
Now, though i felt that it was weaker, i wanted to see if what i felt matched up with reality. I went looking and the vanilla doom 2 shotgun shoots seven pellets. Just as many as the Tactical Shotgun. And from what i calculated, the damage per pellet seems to be the same to the standard to the shotgun. And seems to be outclassed by the shotgun with the Final Doomer style balance toggle.
Now i'm just throwing it to the wind, but I feel like that maybe a tighter spread over a longer distance would help at least make this weapon usefull for long distance enemies.
it could use a buff of some kind. (two extra pellets, or a more consistent damage amount closer to the high damage to go with the theme of precision this shotgun has?)
It's interesting to note how other shotguns have gone trough what it seems this shotgun theme is, accuracy/consistency. The Scope Shotgun from Plutonia seems to have more clustered pellets but as the description says is no sniper rifle. And the Ancient Aliens "Ancient Shotgun" has an accurate slug.
Burst Shotgun: This one is a very, very, fun Super Shotgun tier weapon
. It's able to dish out loads of very fast damage and made it one of the most used weapons in this mapset, alongside the Maser. Very fun to use. and even the higher restrictions on reloading didn't take away from that. A monster on closed rooms, able to dispatch multiple weaker enemies very fast. All for the cheap cheap price of 1 ammo unit per shot. It's up there alongside my other favorite Super Shotguns in this weaponset.
This weaponset has a higher shotgun ammo amount the vanilla, and boy does it need that.
Dual Machine Pistols: With a massive ammo count, this weapon can dish out some good damage. With a lower average dps and a big spread, this weapon is useful on close range and as a spray an pray.
Missile Launcher: The delay in firing is offset by the speed of each missile and the damage they can dish out. It was fun to use.
Maser: Oh boy.
It's the Maser. The lord of accuracy with fast damage and continuous fire. With a large ammo pool, this weapon only limit is the fact it's range is not unlimited as i initially tough it was.
Very good. Can gib all the enemies that have a gib state, and can wipe out good number of weaker enemies in a short amount of time. Big Archvile deleter too.
the Maser, the Missile Launcher and the Burst Shotgun are the MVPS of this weaponset.
Incursion Annihilator:
Acquired halfway trough this mapset this is an interesting BFG. It can hold a decent number of shots, and smart use of it can both clear out a room of weaker enemies, or soften up the stronger ones. And you even have ammo left to delete Archviles, and cause big damage to the strongest, boss enemy types.
Next time. A "break" before tackling the dreaded Plutonia.