ÆoD (6.06.02 (03-14-16))

[DBThanatos]

Hidden thing? WTF!!!

cough cough...


well, seems like after all, you arent limited to what a menu shows

[Arch-Valentine]

Soooo does anyone else get the weird Rictus sound loop? Can it be fixed? Cuz ever since I mentioned it I get a Rictus now in every level I play of Eternal Doom!

[DavidB1000]

Are you talking about the difficulty select menu, and the fact that there are two hidden options? I don't recall them being easy?

[Reilsss]

Are you talking about the difficulty select menu, and the fact that there are two hidden options? I don't recall them being easy?

You never really checked them out then...... and you may put your answer in spoilers.

[DavidB1000]

OKay, I'll go load up MM or something easy on those hidden difficulties. I'll spoiler my results when I get done with a few levels.
I'm sorry, none of these are easier. So, obviously someone's either playing a joke on me, or I'm doing something wrong. Is there a third? OKay, the second would be easier, if well, you'll see.

---

OKay, the first difficulty after Psycho should be called instant death from anything that hits you mode, because um, well, everything killed me in about one hit. Great for testing obituaries.

---

The second secret difficulty seems to easier. I don't take much damage from any attacks. I'll keep an eye out for more info. So, what is this difficulty called? Hey, wait a minute, everyone's ressurecting, and the damage is definitally not weakened much at all. Hmm, okay, the first time they attack it's weakened, greatly, but when they respawn, it's back to default damage I think. I mean, at first a shotgunner was doing maybe 6 damage, and some others were about the same, but when they respawn they became much much stronger..
So, this difficulty would be easier if it wasn't for the bugged uber-damage of respawned monsters, plus no respawning monsters. That would be nice.

[DBThanatos]

Spoilered because it is indeed an AEoD spoiler. Dont open it if you dont want to ruin some "hidden" aeod stuff.

---

What? decreased damage a little? "You gotta be kiddin' me"

No, really. I guess that proves that you are now completely disoriented with the real damages in aeod. I dont want to keep saying it, but Im somehow forced to. If you have played with "god mode" for too long (which seems like you have), you completely forgot about the damage the monsters do. I mean, how can you say that the damage decreased just a little when it actually went down 40%; even more than in the easiest skill.

In general, seems like you did not get what this skill is for. Is not intended to be a "skill easier than the easiest". Is intended to be a rampage mode. In case you didnt notice, which seems you did not, the amounts of ammo arent the same, now they're completely insane. You get 4 times the regular ammo. "What is it for?" you might ask. Add the facts: Low damaging monsters, lots of ammo and monsters that keep respawning. Simple, go nuts firing at anything that moves and dont worry about wasting ammo (with some exceptions). That's what this skill is for.

I personally find it extremely entretaining because it fills my need to shoot mindlessly to anything and not caring about saving ammo, yet not making it completely boring because Im just unkillable (ITWE); that's what happens to me when I use cheats. Once there is no challenge at all in surviving, it becomes absolutely pointless to play (in my analogy, is like playing chess against yourself, only that you'll play one of the roles being a complete suicidal idiot, while the other will be the pefect assassin).

My recommendation: keep on god mode if that's how you like to play it (since I have no power nor intention to stop you from doing that; why would I anyway? is good that you like to play aeod), but please, please stop saying how unbalanced the phoenix is just because it can break god mode.

[Reilsss]

I have to agree with every word DBT says. And he talks not for David but his words are for anyone that uses cheats... they also show up what problems cheaters created with there balance problem reports...

And yet yes there would be away to force players playing without cheats. But I guess it makes no point, and just more drama.

[zitro]

I have to agree with every word DBT says. And he talks not for David but his words are for anyone that uses cheats... they also show up what problems cheaters created with there balance problem reports...

And yet yes there would be away to force players playing without cheats. But I guess it makes no point, and just more drama.

haha yeah, please don't take away cheats. Every once in a while I might get really stuck and need to use 'idclip' to keep playing ... mostly on lvl7 in wads, but it seems that issue was finally fixed.

As for my reports, I'm usually speaking for good (but not incredible) players who play 3rd-4th difficulty and find the 5th too hard even on regular doom2.

I think I could say I'm not a big fan of the Eidolon change. I prefered for the powerful fireballs to not be homing, so that they are a danger primarily when he casts that bone prison around you. If you have to fight it in a map with no pillars, it could be too difficult without items.

[DavidB1000]

Very well, DBThanatos, I will keep playing, and not give you any particular balance points, unless someone else brings it up first, or it involves ammo usage.

I may be biased towards somethings though, because I play to have fun. God Mode allows me to relax and have fun. I don't know why Reilsss wants to convene the Hague war crimes Tribunal, but still.

I never knew having fun was a bad thing. I think that's what this boils down too. Also, you didn't explain why it seems like the resurrected monsters do much more damage.

[SoulCrow]

I never knew having fun was a bad thing. I think that's what this boils down too.

No, it means that different people like to relax in different ways.

Some people like to be lead by the hand with no difficulty and be in absolute control over the game they are playing (I know this sounds patronizing, my apologies but I couldn't think of anything else at the time), while others like to challenge themselves, and pit themselves against situations which they feel they need to work to overcome. I do use cheat codes from time to time, but playing the game, beating the enemies, and completing the levels without cheats feels so much more satisfying. When you finish a particularly difficult level, it's almost as if you've proven to yourself that you are capable of beating it at it's own game.

[DavidB1000]

Well, I assure you it's nothing to do with Hand holding. Growl.

I have no idea why anyone would assume it has to do with that anyway. It's not fun if it's insulting me.
Also, being in absolute control of the game is impossible. At least, there will always be something new and unexpected, well, at least with AEOD.

[evouga]

I downloaded AEoD for the first time a few days ago, and played through vanilla Doom II as well as Scythe on Hardcore. Here's a bit of feedback:

- Ditch some of the shotguns, say, all but two shotguns and two super-shotguns. By map10 I had four (!) different single shotguns and the Quake II super-shotgun - three completely useless weapons I had to cycle through to get to the super-shotgun. At a minimum, replace them with more interesting variations on the shotgun theme - for instance, the Heretic crossbow.

- The freezethrower seems to weak to be a chaingun replacement, due to its very poor accuracy, tendency of the ice balls to refuse to fit through small openings, and the fact that frozen enemies block the gun from hitting enemies behind them.

- The black hole generator: hell yes. I would never have beaten Scythe map30 without it. Other MVPs include the Wraithverge, Hand of Nova, and Boom Bunny (it's great fun to ambush the ambushers...)

- The Doom 3 BFG is way too slow for the damage it deals. I'd rather have a super shotgun.

- The spellbook is very cool, but the spells are too slow to cast to be useful in the heat of battle, especially since they have a chance of failing. Compare to the BFG or the Heresiarch's spells: for a similar wait, you kill one enemy or devastate an entire room, become temporarily invincible, launch long-lasting projectiles that hunt down your enemies, or summon help. These are worth waiting for! I'm not saying the existing spells are useless - but I wouldn't try using them in a tough fight unless they were much faster to cast.

- This mod needs discs of repulsion. Lots of them. As common as hearts, even. They would help balance the fact that almost all high-level enemies have projectile attacks that instantly kill you, or do extreme damage, and add an extra element of skill to combat.

- Varying the strength of the various replacements for each enemy type is definitely a good thing. However, some new enemies are way harder than the both the enemy they replace and the other enemies of the same "class," and are probably overpowered:
Alien
Predator
Duke Nukem
? - Cloud that "shows you the light" by killing you instantly from across the map with a white beam.
Death (?) - Guy with scythe that flies around and shoots homing white projectiles that do extreme damage.
Weaver of Darkness (?) - Red guy who teleports around and shoots very fast fireballs at you that do extreme damage.
Fallen Angel (?) - Flies around and "unpurifies" you by killing you instantly with a blue beam. Is invincible most of the time.

Some of the Cyberdemons and Spider Masterminds replacements are also ridiculous. Here's a basic litmus test: if it's completely impossible to beat a Doom II level (such as, say, The Crusher or Tricks and Traps) from pistol start if one of them spawns, they're definitely overpowered. Some examples from my playthrough: Makron, the big angel that has two forms and shoots dozens of homing fireballs, Mastema, and Eidolon.

Some bosses dropping special weapons is a great feature. I was definitely happy when I got the Hand of Nova!

[zitro]

---

I downloaded AEoD for the first time a few days ago, and played through vanilla Doom II as well as Scythe on Hardcore. Here's a bit of feedback:

- Ditch some of the shotguns, say, all but two shotguns and two super-shotguns. By map10 I had four (!) different single shotguns and the Quake II super-shotgun - three completely useless weapons I had to cycle through to get to the super-shotgun. At a minimum, replace them with more interesting variations on the shotgun theme - for instance, the Heretic crossbow.

I don't think that'll be a popular opinion, but I wouldn't mind having the shotgun with granade out of the game (not the q2 one, the other one)

- The freezethrower seems to weak to be a chaingun replacement, due to its very poor accuracy, tendency of the ice balls to refuse to fit through small openings, and the fact that frozen enemies block the gun from hitting enemies behind them.

It is better than you might think. The alt-fire is a very damaging and somewhat paralyzing attack. Not to mention that freezing prevents enemies from being brought to life

- The black hole generator: hell yes. I would never have beaten Scythe map30 without it. Other MVPs include the Wraithverge, Hand of Nova, and Boom Bunny (it's great fun to ambush the ambushers...)

- The Doom 3 BFG is way too slow for the damage it deals. I'd rather have a super shotgun.

It has its uses, holding power before a difficult part or before opening the door could get some quick devastation and then you switch weapons. But I agree that it's less useful than the standard BFG, even tho monsters are much tougher.

- The spellbook is very cool, but the spells are too slow to cast to be useful in the heat of battle, especially since they have a chance of failing. Compare to the BFG or the Heresiarch's spells: for a similar wait, you kill one enemy or devastate an entire room, become temporarily invincible, launch long-lasting projectiles that hunt down your enemies, or summon help. These are worth waiting for! I'm not saying the existing spells are useless - but I wouldn't try using them in a tough fight unless they were much faster to cast.

They are from chainsaw spots, not meant to be fantastic. However, I find them very good, with the exception of Terror. You can either make a weak unit bring little bugs after you kill him, convert one to chicken, make units fight against each other. Not bad for a few dark mana. The best one is lifedrain: a low-damaging lighting-gun kind of attack that absorbs a lot of health.

- This mod needs discs of repulsion. Lots of them. As common as hearts, even. They would help balance the fact that almost all high-level enemies have projectile attacks that instantly kill you, or do extreme damage, and add an extra element of skill to combat.

you gotta evade those attacks instead you'll get used to it once you learn what each enemy does

- Varying the strength of the various replacements for each enemy type is definitely a good thing. However, some new enemies are way harder than the both the enemy they replace and the other enemies of the same "class," and are probably overpowered:
Alien
Predator
Duke Nukem
? - Cloud that "shows you the light" by killing you instantly from across the map with a white beam.
Death (?) - Guy with scythe that flies around and shoots homing white projectiles that do extreme damage.
Weaver of Darkness (?) - Red guy who teleports around and shoots very fast fireballs at you that do extreme damage.
Fallen Angel (?) - Flies around and "unpurifies" you by killing you instantly with a blue beam. Is invincible most of the time.

Of course enemies replacing the original ones would be tougher. Weapons are generally 2X or 3X as powerful as regular doom, max health is doubled, amount of healing is more than quadrupled, but I agree that the Weaver of Darkness is a bit too much. The others are fine, Alien almost being too much but acceptable. The Fallen angel is easily killed with a machine gun. Death is not that bad actually: you wait until it becomes opaque, hit it quickly with shotgun or railgun, repeat and he's dead.

Some of the Cyberdemons and Spider Masterminds replacements are also ridiculous. Here's a basic litmus test: if it's completely impossible to beat a Doom II level (such as, say, The Crusher or Tricks and Traps) from pistol start if one of them spawns, they're definitely overpowered. Some examples from my playthrough: Makron, the big angel that has two forms and shoots dozens of homing fireballs, Mastema, and Eidolon.

start a random level with pistol? I think this mod is not designed for that kind of gameplay. If you play from lvl1, by then, you'll have a machinegun to paralyze them, some strong weapon, a low chance of a very powerful spell attack, and maybe some "Boss killers" like flayer gun, lighting gun, or scarab staff?

Some bosses dropping special weapons is a great feature. I was definitely happy when I got the Hand of Nova!

[Project Shadowcat]

Gotcha! is not meant to be played from a pistol start even in Doom II. You're asking to get murdered even if you let the two bosses fight each other because you just don't have a lot of hardware to work with for after that fight.

[evouga]

If we're talking UV max, I rarely have a problem with Gotcha!... you can get the SSG, chaingun, a Soul Sphere, and a lot of ammo before the Cyberdemon/Spider Mastermind/Archvile section. It's true you can land in big trouble due to bad luck - the Cyberdemon being pushed off of his pedestal and/or the Spider Mastermind surviving with a lot of health left, for instance - but it's less of a factor here than in the beginning parts of Barrels o' Fun and Living End (which are both much harder to UV max, IMO).