The Official ZDF New Doom Thread

[Viscra Maelstrom]

i know about all of those things that have been mentioned, as well as the Dexterity upgrades for the Praetor suit. none of these things match up, though, as i'm seeing people flying around all the place outside of that. maybe it's an FOV/FPS thing?

edit: i found this part of the credits to be pretty amusing.

[Devianteist]

As I've found, Maelstrom, when you set your FOV higher (mine is at 110 on Xbox One), it gives you a feeling of moving faster. I've heard that higher FPS causes a player to move faster, but the only time I've seen that in the works is when my little brother is gutting Call of Duty: World at War to see just how brutally he can break it.

[Zanieon]

Well, the Quake 3/Quake Live "pro" players plays with FOV at 120 at least, some plays even at highter values.

[Viscra Maelstrom]

i wonder if playing at such a high FOV is advised if you just have a GTX 960 though.

[Viscra Maelstrom]

well, this is problematic. the crash at the end of Argent Tower seems to be linked to playing any difficulty higher than Hurt Me Plenty for me. which means that if i play the game on Nightmare or higher, i get perpetually stuck and cannot advance the game, as the crash will always occur. this seems like a silly reason for a crash though, and people have beaten the game on Nightmare and higher before, so... is there anything i can do to fix it?

[Viscra Maelstrom]

if you thought the shotgun pump animation in this game was weak, this 30th June update should make it feel a bit more attractive to use.

[SamVision]

I still have two problems with the game:

Backtrack blocking in the later levels
The checkpoint save system

Will these be remedied?

[shotfan]

How many Runes can you activate at once? Just one, or more? I cannot find this info anywhere.

[Hellstorm Archon]

How many Runes can you activate at once? Just one, or more? I cannot find this info anywhere.

You can have up to three runes activated at a time.

On-topic: I'm surprised that nobody's getting on ripping sprites based on the classic weapon placement.

[shotfan]

Thanks for the info.

As for the centered weapons - maybe people want to enjoy a bit the angled weapons first?

What is wondering me in turn is the fact that like everybody is quick to replicate Doom 4's weapons and their modifications for classic Doom, but there is no news about mods that would recreate the upgrade system in its entirety, including suit upgrades or runes. Or maybe I should not be so bewildered, since apparently a stat upgrade system is a bitch to code in GZDoom

[DoomRater]

We'd probably also want powersuit sprites as well for the player, as classic Doomguy is clearly not wearing power armor.

[Viscra Maelstrom]

also, if you look at the runes menu, you'll see how many runes you need to acquire in order to unlock another slot, which goes up to 3.

i've only played a bit with the centered weapons, but the pistol and shotgun is pretty cool. the Plasma Rifle and HMG aren't anything special though, and the chainsaw is completely unaltered. i'd guess the SSG might mimic the classic reload animation.

[Hellstorm Archon]

i'd guess the SSG might mimic the classic reload animation.

Unfortunatelt, it doesn't.

Anyway, Angry Joe has reviewed Doom 2016:

[shotfan]

I just realized: it would be nice on id's part if upcoming "Exodus" mode was (re)named to "Skulltag" (of course with flags replaced with skulls), only if just to tribute the Zandronum part of the Doom community. Also, considering how they promoted SnapMap's features, it would be extra nice if they included that tailor options for Skulltag (different number of skull pillars and their different placement layouts).

[Hellstorm Archon]

So it's been a while since I got the limited edition version of The Art of Doom, and I have to say, it's worth every penny. That being said, here are my findings and personal opinions, based on what this book covers:

Chapter I: Demons

Hell Razer (Hell Razor in the book)- Not many designs shown aside from the final version, although there's a rough concept of an alternate take on this demon, which looks more like a Possessed with some hellforged bits of metal and some sort of cannon.
What's interesting about this concept art is that it shows what a Hell Razer looks like with its arm blown off, and it shows that it was supposed to bleed molten rock instead of blood. Perhaps an oversight on the physics team's part?

Prowler- Oh wow, there are a ton of designs for this guy, including a rock-like demon, some malformed demon with blades for hands, and even a mostly-cybernetic demon that you would expect to find in Quake IV or some rejected Doom 3 concept art, although they all share the same characteristics of an agile speedster. The final design is good, although the cybernetic version would probably make for a good variant. It's a shame that these guys only show up in multiplayer.

Possessed Soldier (Hellified Soldier in the book)- Ok, this looks pretty close to the final design, except the arm cannon looks more deliberately placed and looks more like the plasma rifle, as opposed to being just a gun fused to the arm.

Possessed Security (Shotgunner in the book)- Basically the Possessed Soldier, but even more deformed and a different-looking gun, and different deformities. Seriously, why couldn't they use something like this in the final game? The decision to give the Possessed Soldier and the Possessed Security the exact same models escape me, when the concept art here looks different enough to give these guys a more unique identity.

Possessed Engineer (Welder zombie in the book)- A few designs for this guy, and the first one looks relatively close to the final design in the game, except he has a welder, and actually resembles the classic zombieman in terms of hair color (the final design doesn't even have hair). But what interests me are the alternate designs, which have variants, including two with a gas mask fused to his face, and two with the tank on his back blown out.

Unwilling (Unwilling hellified zombie in the game)- Pretty much the final design, not much to say here.

Mancubus- Out of all the designs we got here, the final design is probably the best, since some alternate designs depict him as some sort of rocky creature, a variant that looks pretty close to the Doom 64 fatso, and a design that just straight up looks like some sort of suit like the Hell Guard, and does away with the whole "fat demon" deal.

Cyber-Mancubus- This version of the Mancubus looks pretty cool as-is, and it's great that they kept this one in the game, but what interests me is an alternate design that resembles the original Mancubus the most.

Summoner- Not much in the way of alternate designs, aside from some shield FX, summoning FX, and some shifting FX.
It's a great design that gives off a very del Toro-esque vibe, but why, oh why, did they have to go for such a generic name like the "Summoner?" Why couldn't they just give it a more unique name, or make it the Arch-Vile, like the leaked alpha strings made it out to be?

Harvester- Quite a bit of designs for this guy, and the final design looks great. The alternate takes on it include a fat floating demon, a golem-like demon with a giant arm, a floating demon with some sort of scythe-like claw, and what resembles the hell-time hunter from RoE, only with three horns, a lower body, and some sort of demonic core at its abdomen.

Baron of Hell- The final design we got is excellent, although the sketch in which the final design was based on didn't have the same coloration as the final product. That's not to say the alternate designs are bad, though they share the same face, only with different horn placement (a few designs even give the Baron four horns). What's interesting to note here is that none of these designs involve the bull-face or pig-skull that the OG Baron has.

Gremlin/Abaddon- An unused demon/concept, which mainly involves a small snake-like demon with arms (or stingers). An alternate design is basically some sort of disgusting spider demon with eggs on its head, and some two-legged versions that evoke the same feeling as the spider-head from John Carpenter's The Thing. It's a shame that this demon never made it past the design stages, it would've been cool to see what he did.

Parasite- Technically, he does show up in the final game as that worm-like creature that pilots the Hell Guards, but a couple of alternate designs include some brain-like demons (no Arachnotrons here).

Lost Soul- The final product is pretty much the closest we got to the OG lost soul, although the sketch based on the final design looks much more elaborate and grotesque. Some of the alternate designs are actually pretty cool, mainly involving flaming cyber-skulls which evoke the same vibe as the Lost Soul from Doom 3.

Revenant- Again, the final product is not only the one closest resembling the OG agitating skeleton, but it's also the best and easily the most gruesome. The alternate designs here just look straight-up silly.

Cacodemon- The final design was originally supposed to have tendrils instead of horns, and it shows here. Plus, the coloration is vastly different, opting for a more gray and periwinkle color scheme, as opposed to the OG coloration that we got in the final game. Some alternate designs here are actually pretty creepy, what with the overall design being the same, just with bloodied eyes in different locations, including the hands, the sides, the bottom, the top, and even inside of the mouth. This could be a good design for the Pain Elemental that we never got.

Imp/Hell Knight- Nothing aside from the 3d renderings, with the former being the E3 version of the Imp.

Hell Guard (Twins in the book)- This is possibly the only monster in the game where id really dropped the ball in terms of making this demon look menacing, as it looks like something you would expect to see in WoW rather than Doom. But given the name found in this book, it appears that you were originally supposed to fight just two of these guys, as opposed to the three found in the final game.
Perhaps you could've called these guys The Trinity?
Anyway, one design has two straight-up demon guards with one wielding a spear, and the other wielding a massive hammer.
As for the biomechanical suit the art team was trying to go for, there were plans to have steam panels and some sort of cage (or a cockpit in an alternate design). But what really gets me is the choice of weaponry to give these guys, as the concepts show spears, tridents, axes, and warhammers. But nope, we have to get some sort of bell that we see in the final game. The best design for these demon suits was where instead of a glowing symbol in the final design, there are a set of burning eyes, with one glowing eye in the center, plus the shoulders look nowhere as ridiculous as the final design.

Pinky- The final design is good, but it should be noted that there are quite a few designs that resemble the OG Pinky, sans the body armor. Plus, there's an alternate design that not only looks scarier, but also resembles the OG Pinky even further.

Spider Mastermind- Almost all of these designs focus on having this demon having eight legs instead of the four the OG Mastermind has, plus a design that quite resembles the OG design. Admittedly, while most of them look pretty badass, the badassery is undone with Olivia's face stuck in the middle of the weapons platform. While the final design isn't terrible by any means, it looks kind of awkward with its brain and the decision to have it's plasma gun be stationed below the weapons platform, but it just kind of stings that they could've used a couple of these designs, and it would've felt like a more proper Mastermind. Let's just say that the Arachnotron could look kind of awkward.

Cyberdemon- The design that everybody loves to hate, and there's actually not a whole lot of deviating from this final design, save for the head. There are some head designs that look infinitely better than the "cybermoose" we got, with one even resembling the OG cyberdemon, or otherwise looking like a stereotypical devil. I do have to mention that the sketches for it look quite nasty, with an exposed ribcage, and some gore hanging from it's cybernetic bits.

Chapter II: Environments

Resource Ops/The UAC- While the concept art here doesn't deviate much from the final game, it's hinted that both of these levels were originally intended to be just one level. I do have to note that much of the designs here basically look like the areas shown in the final game, only cleaner.

Foundry- Again, pretty much resembling the final game, only slightly cleaner. This theory of The UAC and Resource Ops being just one level originally is bolstered by a statement around E3 by someone at id (I forget who), and they mentioned that the Foundry was the second level.

Argent Facility/Advanced Research Facility (Mars Surface in the book)- Much of what is seen can be found in the final game, except for an area called the "BFG Weapons Lab", as well as a "BFG computer room core." Here, it's shown that Samuel Hayden's office was supposed to be here, as well as the lab in which you get the BFG. Plus, a lot of the areas found in the Advanced Research Facility was supposed to be a lot brighter and cleaner (save for a few blood spatters).

Advanced Research Facility/Lazarus Facility/VEGA Processing (BFG Division and Lazarus in the book)- Aside from the whole BFG labs thing, there's actually a lot in this art that was left out of the final game, such as an artifact lab, a feeding room for demons, a "Lazarus concept" that shows more of the artifact lab, a Lazarus security station, an entire area dedicated to nothing but archives, and sublevels/containment panels that showed holographic projections of the demons, particularly the Cyberdemon. It's likely that you were originally supposed to destroy VEGA much earlier in the game to get to Hell, rather than fight the Cyberdemon, and that after destroying VEGA, the rest of the game was supposed to take place in Hell, judging by the "polar core" concepts. However, it does show a lot that made it into the final game, such as the surgery room, some of the combat arenas, and Olivia's office.

This next part is a little tricky, so I'll divide it as best as I can.

Kadingir Sanctum/Argent D'Nur (Blood Keep in the book)- save for landscapes involving chasms, and some traversal through demon bones, much of it is in the final product, save for the Argent D'Nur landscapes (namely the ziggurat-like building), which can actually be explored.

Titan's Realm/Necropolis (Hell Keep in the book)- Much of the art shown has made it into the final product.

Unseen Hell area/Argent Tower (Titan in the book, the former)- The part of Hell that was supposedly cut from the game was supposed to be some sort of "Hell swamp" which led to a labyrinth reminiscent of Lord of the Rings, plus a giant "Titan altar" that could be found in leaked alpha documents, giant towers, a trial found in the swamp section, and an actual city in Hell. Combine this with the Argent tower concepts which show all Hell is breaking loose (as well as some foundry concepts here for some reason).

This structure of the concept designs indicate that the Argent Tower was actually supposed to be the final level, peppered with involuntary trips to Hell, and the Cyberdemon would have been a recurring character, rather than just a one-time boss. As such, it's likely that the destroyed Argent facility was supposed to serve as the backdrop for the game's climax.

Chapter III: Characters

Doom Marine- Only one real concept for him, and it's basically what you see in the full game, except his armor is colored teal.

Olivia Pierce- A few concepts for her, a couple indicating that she was supposed to be using a cane due to her condition, as well as those cane concepts showing her with longer hair.

Samuel Hayden- Pretty much what we see in the final game, except there's no thin blue line on his face plate. There's an alternate concept of him, showing a different coloration, and a helmet that shows some sort of robotic face underneath a visor.

Male/Female NPC Concepts- Mostly unused, except for a select few being selected for corpses. Their jumpsuits either indicate either being for Resource Ops, Foundry, or the Advanced Research Division/Lazarus, as well as the male variants having different headwear (glasses, a gas mask, a surgical mask, goggles, and a UAC cap). There's also a hazmat guy we never see in the final product. This further ties in to a rumor that there were NPCs you were supposed to save during your time killing demons, and that was supposedly included at one point in development.

Multiplayer Armor- Basically the armor sets we see in multiplayer, save for a few name changes. A few Bounty Hunter sets included armor sets originally called "Nautilus," there are demonic armor sets (with a few unused concepts), Templar armor sets that are pretty much in the game, UAC armor sets (with more unused concepts), and the Utilitarian armor sets, which were originally called Tanaka.

Chapter IV: Weapons

Heavy Assault Rifle- No deviancies in concept, although there is a rendering of the HAR with both the micro missiles and the tactical scope.

Plasma Rifle- Although the design is not too different, the mods for the weapon are, namely, a "stun" mod (with a vastly different attachment), a "barb" mod (with a mod similar to the stun bomb mod we got), and a "napalm" mod (with an unused attachment).

Shotgun- Basically, the normal shotgun, the explosive shot (the "modded shotgun" in the book), and that's about it. No alternate designs.

SSG/Chainsaw- Pretty much what you see in the final game.

Pistol- There are quite a few alternate designs, to make it look more futuristic. Personally, the final design is pretty solid, nothing to complain about.

Burst Rifle (Repeater in the alpha, Bolt Rifle in the book)- While it looks good as-is, there are alternate designs that make it look more like a traditional assault rifle you'd see in a futuristic CoD title (namely, the iron sights) which are nonexistent in the final design.

Lightning Gun (Arc Cannon in the book)- No real changes or alternate designs.

Vortex Rifle- Aside from a few decal changes and some alternate scope designs, there's not much changed in the final design.

Chaingun- Based on this concept render, the chaingun was originally supposed to have three sets of barrels found in the turret mod, and the Gatling mod ended up being the base design in the final product.

Rocket Launcher- While the base variant and remote detonation mod looks about the same, the lock-on mod looks vastly different, namely a mod that you fit onto the muzzle of the gun, much like the explosive shot mod on the shotgun.

Static Cannon (Static Rifle in the book)- The final design is probably the best one, with only a handful of alternate concepts.

Gauss Cannon (Gauss Rifle in the book)- No changes, but there is no concept art of the precision shot.

Hellshot- a few alternate concepts here and there, showing more clip-based magazines, and each having their own unique look, but the final design is good.

BFG- While it looks almost like the final product, it's interesting to note that the energy it shot out was teal instead of green, and that two versions of the gun supposedly exist: a singleplayer version and a multiplayer version.

Chapter V: Props and Graphics

Archive Robot- Unused, and the name says it all.

Mining Bot- Technically in the game, just not seen from personal experience.

Freighter/Barge- These two concepts may have actually been combined.

Field Drone (Mod Bot in the book)- Pretty much in the final game.

Flying Forklift- These are actually in the game, and actually help you traverse the Argent Tower.

Rover- Static decorations found in the Argent Facility.

Loader Bot- Unused.

BFG Pod/Pod Arm- Basically what you see in the BFG room.

Surgery Bot- This is actually found operating on a mutilated Mancubus.

Echo Device (Echo Drone in the book)- Unused, but can be seen in the E3 demo.

Info Logs (Audio Logs in the book)- Basically, those pickups that give you lore. What's interesting here is the name "audio logs," which would've also indicated more voice acting would have been involved.

Keycard- While the final design isn't bad, these renders of keycards are actually far closer to the original games in terms of designs (namely, they're shaped like the OG keycards).

Exterior/Roof Props- Just a few props.

Emergency Console Switch- Basically a switch connected to a massive console.

Airlocks- Two are used in SnapMap, the other two are found in singleplayer (usually as doors you have to open manually).

Argent Filters (Argent Laser Filters in the book)- Self-explanatory, can be found in the Argent Facility.

Lazarus Archives slab crate/specimen crate- Both unused.

Drop Pod- An unused concept of an escape pod.

Health Station- Pretty much in the game

Argent Accumulator- Pretty much in the game, no alternate designs.

Goat Relief- A relief resembling the Icon of Sin.

Skull Renders- Pretty self-explanatory, with a few unused designs, and some unused statues, with one having blood pour from its mouth.

Altar- Basically the Wraith altars found in Argent D'Nur. There are quite a lot of alternate designs, and they all look great, perhaps some of the designs can be used somehow?

Sarcophagus- Unchanged from the final product, except the outer shell is covered in glowing runes and is grey.

Icon of Sin- The final design looks closer to the OG Icon.

Hell Trees- Seen in the final game.

Crucible- Quite a lot of alternate designs, and it was originally called the Talisman at one point, and it was originally a dagger before becoming the energy sword we see in the final game.

Runes- Basically demonic runes and symbols.

Powerups- Renderings of Berserk, Invisibility, Regeneration, Quad Damage, Haste, and Invulnerability. The Invisibility powerup is the only one that's changed, since it seems to resemble the Quad Damage too much.

Environment Decals- Some used (such as alternate UAC and MIXOM logos), unused (such as some DO NOT USE signs), and even some faction signs. This last part is particularly interesting, as it shows that at one point in development, there were going to be faction in multiplayer akin to CoD, and are listed as such: Magna (most likely UAC), Nautilus (most likely Bounty Hunter), Tanaka (Utilitarian), and Amon (Demonic).

Finally, we have a signage: "Union Aerospace: Building the Foundation for the Future."

This is all I've extracted from the Doom art book to the best of my abilities.