Game Mechanic Issues and Gameplay Suggestions

[The Seventh Soul]

I've been having some problems with the game mechanics. I'm gonna list them off one-by-one so it will be easier to address them:


-The Rocket Launcher is very unwieldy. It takes up a fourth of the screen when I use it, and this makes it even harder to use when you consider that it does a large amount of AoE damage. A smaller model for the Rocket Launcher, as well as the Triple Shotgun and Head Crusher, would make these weapons easier to use.

- A feature to toggle a way to always sprint, either in the options menu or with the press of a single key, such as Caps Lock. The latter would be better IMO.

-More apparent overcharge pickups. It’s apparent there are health and armor pickups that can overcharge your health and armor, but it’s hard to sort these out from the ones that don’t. A simple color change would be an easy fix to this- maybe make the ones that can overcharge your health glow white, light gray, or light blue instead of red and green.



Now that that’s out of the way, there are a few features that I think would make the gameplay better. Like before, I’ll list these off one-by-one:

-Centered Weapon Models, something that the original Doom and Quake games both had. This would also make the FOV easier when holding and aiming weapons.

-Alternate Fire modes for the Indolora and Basic Shotgun. Iron Sights weren’t something most shooters had during the 90s. The Head Crusher is also fairly imbalanced, as it makes the Fists pointless to use. Some suggestions I would have would be:
>a stun feature for the Basic Shotgun, where you would hit the enemy with the butt of your gun, making them unable to move or attack for a few seconds. Would only work for smaller enemies, like Hell Soldiers and Hell Knights (I’m assuming that’s what the Zombies are called).
> “superheated” shots for the Indolora, where you would fire rounds that deal extra damage and explode in a small AOE, making Crowd Control and dismembering corpses for Health and Armor easier.
>a one-shot feature for the Head Crusher, which would deal massive damage to enemies, severely wounding what it won’t kill. For this purpose, the Head Crusher would break after being used, and that would make the Hell Soldiers who drop Head Crushers less pointless later in game. Primary would swing at melee, Secondary Fire would throw it, using it in the process. This would make the Fists less useless, though they might have to be buffed if this feature were to be implemented.

-A codex of sorts for the various enemies, as I’m not sure what they’re called based directly on their appearance.

-Increased max ammo capacity later in the game, perhaps something like the Ammo Backpack from the original Doom, which would reward you with more ammo storage capacity as well as an equally-rewarded amount of every type of ammo.

-Make corpses easier to dismember, preferably with one hit from the Basic Shotgun or Fists, as breaking corpses with multiple shots seems a waste of the otherwise interesting feature of retrieving health and armor from them. Would also be preferable if breaking corpses always spawned pickups that could overcharge your health, but restore a small amount on their own.

-Health and Ammo overcharge more easily; later in the game gets tougher because there’s plenty of health and ammo pickups, but most don’t overcharge your health and ammo.



So, those are some suggestions I have for fixes and additional features. Please reply with what you think and whether or not these could be done; hopefully it’s do-able. Thank you.

[VanAlphen]

The rocket launcher does cover a lot of the screen. You could also see it as balance for a powerful weapon though.

An (optional) sprint toggle would be useful. Having to keep a button pressed is not ideal. I've assigned sprint to a thumb button on my mouse but it does compromise my grip on the mouse somewhat.

I haven't been able to tell the difference between regular and overcharge pickups.

I don't think your gameplay suggestions would improve the game for me. Sure the iron sight alternate fires are not really useful for survival mode but they may be for the campaign.

[The Seventh Soul]

The rocket launcher does cover a lot of the screen. You could also see it as balance for a powerful weapon though.

I'd agree with that if the Rockets and Grenades didn't hurt the player as well. The BFG from Doom, with the exception of Doom 3, didn't hurt the player when fired, even if at point blank. If a weapon is going to take up a lot of room on the screen, it shouldn't deal damage to the player.

[Semi]

Sprint toggle would be good.

Autofire (repeating) on the basic ranged weapon. Major mouseclick fatigue on the first wave and any time you fall back to it.

Larger or more visually obvious pickups. Maybe add a larger bright glow around them?

Better definition and contrast between enemies and the scenery. Not quite to the level of the exploding onions (pumpkins?), but a better bright/dark colourful/dull contrast.

A lot of gamers here played these games in the 90's and our eyesight isn't getting any better. :D