[Stronghold] Final version 1.0 out!

[Kate]

To actually be serious though, I've actually not seen many people that aren't on quality control that have said it's hard. Maybe some people that are quite obviously new to the game, but the general consensus, including around my circle and from what I've seen around in general, says it's too easy. And I would personally agree with that.

It's really easy even on UV, monsters barely pose any sort of threat, especially once you get an auto-shotgun and above, there's almost none at times compared to the sheer size of some of the maps, they get stuck on walls in certain areas, and they walk in a single direct path that is utterly predictable (maybe have them choose a second node at random every once in a small while to force you to think twice about defending alternative paths?)

The proximity mines are next to flipping useless due to their horribly pathetic small range requiring monsters to literally step on them. They're more useful as grenades than they are as traps, which wound up consisting of 90% of my use for them until I got the rocket launcher. Then they became totally useless.

The reason I managed to lose all of my lives is not because of the monsters, but because of the environment. Particularly, I kept falling off of the bridges in Sigma 2, walking backwards like a bumblefuck. =P

[Demolisher]

Bug: Secret map 1 can be unwinnable, as it says there are 3 monsters left, when there are none. (Possibly related to the suicide bombers?) 3 reached a target.

[Jimmy]

The proximity mines are next to flipping useless...

They're landmines, not prox mines. Big, BIG difference.

To actually be serious though, I've actually not seen many people that aren't on quality control that have said it's hard. Maybe some people that are quite obviously new to the game, but the general consensus, including around my circle and from what I've seen around in general, says it's too easy. And I would personally agree with that.

... Quite obviously we've grossly underestimated the skill of the general Doom community. Jeee-sus, I mean, -I- thought it was hard as hell.

Is there any way we can address this? Obviously there are players who suck as much as I do at this mod (just go on any Skulltag server running it ) but the general consensus still seems to be that overall it's way too easy. Upping the monster count seems like a bad move, and redesigning many, if not all, of the maps seems like a lot of trouble to go to (although from the looks of the new and steadily growing to-do list in the developer forum, we'll be doing that anyway ). I'm still amazed that people find it easy at all.

Here's a crazy random idea for those of you who really want a challenge (at least for now): try adding -fast.

The reason I managed to lose all of my lives is not because of the monsters, but because of the environment. Particularly, I kept falling off of the bridges in Sigma 2, walking backwards like a bumblefuck. =P

Oh, dear. I hope that (besides the broken lives system) isn't the only way this mod is in any way difficult to beat.

[Demolisher]

If you read my earlier post, you'll see how some maps are OMGWTFBBQ easy, IE beaten in under a minute easy. (Overlord or something)

[Kate]

The proximity mines are next to flipping useless...

They're landmines, not prox mines. Big, BIG difference. :P

Well no wonder they're flipping useless! Still stands that there's no way to efficiently use them besides playing explosive Frisbee with your local zombie (yes, just one zombie). =P

[InsanityBringer]

Mine weapons are usually useless, but proxmines would be nicer in any case.

[esselfortium]

As far as the difficulty goes, I don't think increasing the monster count would really improve it. It'd just make it more of a slog. The problem is that, like Phucket pointed out, many of the maps' paths all converge at one single point, which means you've just got one spot to defend and the rest of the level may as well not even exist.

[Kate]

As far as the difficulty goes, I don't think increasing the monster count would really improve it. It'd just make it more of a slog. The problem is that, like Phucket pointed out, many of the maps' paths all converge at one single point, which means you've just got one spot to defend and the rest of the level may as well not even exist.

... they get stuck on walls in certain areas, and they walk in a single direct path that is utterly predictable (maybe have them choose a second node at random every once in a small while to force you to think twice about defending alternative paths?)

So obviously, I agree here.

[Cutmanmike]

As this appeared on a Sunday I was barely able to give it a go. I did a level but holy hot damn does it lag for me. 2 FPS while I'm in the main lobby. I can't remember it being that bad in the alpha versions? At least it picked up when I was (ironically) fighting tons of monsters. I enjoyed the gameplay so far though, as I did back then

[esselfortium]

I had some major lag problems on a few of the maps when I played through it for the first time, but midway through I messed with my settings and figured out that disabling 'shaders for colormap' fixed the speed problems entirely. This was on an ATI card from 2006; your mileage may vary.

[Orangewaggs]

Don't know if this was pointed out yet...

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On the Duke Nukem Level, On round 7 it gets stuck at one monster and "kill monsters" console command doesn't work

A decent work, wasn'e the biggest fan but good ntl

[Zippy]

The proximity mines are next to flipping useless...

They're landmines, not prox mines. Big, BIG difference.

Well no wonder they're flipping useless! Still stands that there's no way to efficiently use them besides playing explosive Frisbee with your local zombie (yes, just one zombie). =P

I didn't find them entirely useless (in singleplayer), but certainly not particularly useful or at least not as much as the devs seem to have intended them to be. Mainly I would pull them out and dump them along the path the monsters take as I was running to/fro the battlefield between waves. It let me ignore many of the demons at least.

[dljosef]

I personally don't use the mines unless it's to sufficiently secure single core passages... from those melee monsters anyway.

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I'm certainly glad I'm not the only one who thought that there could have been a better final boss, though the fact that I saved the last of my powerups for that anticlimactic battle was rather a moot point. The Molochs and Inferno Demons would have made for great midboss minions in the later levels, though, appearing at the last waves.

[printz]

I haven't tried Stronghold yet, but may I poke a suggestion? Try and increase monster AI, as much as it's possible without changing the source code.

[Cutmanmike]

The only change in AI is the fact they will try to walk towards the base, but also fire at you while doing so. Actually I'm still not sure how that was pulled off