How do mapers generally use difficulty filters for monsters?

[Spaceman333]

As the title ask, I'm curious to know how do mappers generally use the "Thing Filters" for their maps.


Why am I asking this:
See, the reason I'm wondering about this is that I recently discovered that this whole filter thing exists, where lower difficulty levels do not spawn certain monsters that would otherwise spawn in a higher difficulty. Up until now, I had always been playing Ultra Violence, as I consider it the "true, fullest" gameplay experience. Meanwhile, Nightmare difficulty is something I dislike for the infinitely respawning enemies. I want monsters to permanently stay dead.

However, looking curiously through some mod folders, especially their difficulty definitions, I noticed that Ultra Violence uses the filter called "HARD" for spawns. At the same time, turns out there is also "NIGHTMARE" filter on some mods, but those do not have the respawning mechanic.

This lead me to think that the Nightmare's monster respawning mechanic and monsters amount defined by the "NIGHTMARE" filter are seperate things!

Point is, I like the maximum amount of monsters to shoot at. I also like the maximum amount of items and ammo to use on said monsters.


What I want to know:
So this makes me wonder how do Doom mappers generally treat the "NIGHTMARE" filter.
Do they usually contain more monsters and items than on the "HARD" filter or is it generally left the same as the "HARD" filter or do they perhaps even remove items and ammo?

So my question is, would I get generally more monsters and ammo if I use a custom difficulty that has a "NIGHTMARE" filter (but no respawning monsters) or should I just stick to standard Ultra Violence as mappers do not add more monsters beyond that difficulty level?

I'd greatly appreciate an answer, as this could mean I've been missing a whole filter worth of content on all the megawads I've played through if my guess is right!

[wildweasel]

What should be noted, first, is that in vanilla Doom, there are only three spawn filters: Easy, Normal, and Hard. Easy applies to both I'm Too Young To Die and Hey, Not Too Rough, with the former being easier by way of double ammo. Hard applies to both Ultra-Violence and Nightmare difficulties. The ability to consider skills 1 and 5 as separate filters is a ZDoom feature. To that end, I'm not sure any maps have taken advantage of this.

[Tapwave]

So my question is, would I get generally more monsters and ammo if I use a custom difficulty that has a "NIGHTMARE" filter (but no respawning monsters) or should I just stick to standard Ultra Violence as mappers do not add more monsters beyond that difficulty level?

Doom 2 and Boom compatible mapsets have the exact same spawns in UV and N! N! has double ammo, fast monsters and respawns. If you're playing a zdoom-only mapset, you could get extra things on N! that are not on UV, like Weasel said. As UDMF supports up to 9 skill levels, if I recall.

You could make your own "NV minus most of NV" difficulty by using:

Code: Select all

Skill NotNightmare
{
 Name="Almost Nightmare!"
 SpawnFilter = 5
 FastMonsters
 MustConfirm
}

This is identical to N! minus ammo & respawn. If you want double ammo, add "AmmoFactor = 2.0".

[Spaceman333]

Thank you both wildweasel and Tapwave, I appreciate the information and examples.

Since I'm going through old popular megawads, like the cacowards mapsets, I'm guessing most of those are unlikely to use these custom zdoom features for extra difficulty filters. So Ultra Violence it is then.

I think that AmmoFactor will come in handy if a particular mapset is too stingy with ammo drops for my taste, so I thank you for mentioning that one.

[Tapwave]

I think that AmmoFactor will come in handy if a particular mapset is too stingy with ammo drops for my taste, so I thank you for mentioning that one.

99% of the cacowards are boom-compatible mapsets, or vanilla-compatible. Usually, when it's a ZDoom thing, they harp on at length about how they shouldn't have nominated it because ZDoom.

You don't need to redefine a skill, because there is a gameplay option that gives you double ammo (and quadruple on ITYTD and N!)