Talk:E1M1: Hangar (Doom)

Overall article layout
When I write something on a talk page (as opposed to Central Processing or a User talk: page), I get a reaction about one time in 50. Because these changes might conceivably be applied to hundreds of other articles, however, I thought I would make a few remarks.


 * The Final Doom walkthroughs (and some in Ultimate Doom also) have an "Overview" section which is never used. If general comments about the map's style or architecture are really necessary, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with putting them at the top of the article (as in E2M8: Tower of Babel, for example), since that part is so short.  Similarly, if general comments about the map's difficulty or population would be helpful, IMHO they can go at the top of the "Strategy" section (as in MAP32: Go 2 It) without significantly distracting the reader.


 * The walkthroughs for E1M1 (before I changed it) and MAP01: Entryway provide an instructive contrast in style. E1M1 grinds through each detail of every room and passage (occasionally even telling you which direction to shoot in), pausing to note the differences between difficulty settings, and mixing in all three secrets even though they are also listed in their own section.  This seems like it would really distract a neophyte player who is just looking for the exit, for example (and on a large level such as MAP21: Administration Center, no one would plow through the entire thing).  MAP01's walkthrough, on the other hand, makes no mention of monsters, secrets, or even non-secret caches like the green armor, but simply gives the route to the final switch.  Then it talks about the goodies.  I have tried this latter, "layered" approach here (and so do many commercially published walkthroughs, for the same reasons).


 * Fredrik is of course welcome to complain about my new map. :>


 * The numbering of paragraphs in the "secrets" section is now inconsistent with "one secret sector = one numbered paragraph". This is intentional, because that equation cannot be used on every level without leading to quite ungainly exposition (e.g. the long staircase in E4M3 and the buggy sectors in E4M7).  To make a virtue of necessity, IMHO, we therefore want to offer the reader lists of things to improve his life expectancy, as opposed to merely lists of things that will improve his secrets tally.  Players who wish to complete max runs can simply count off the bold-faced items.


 * I really don't see why we need actual articles about Unreal or Half-Life.


 * No, I couldn't think of a better name than "points of interest". :>    (I thought we needed a place to put, e.g., the soul sphere on the tall post in MAP17: Tenements.)

Ryan W 23:50, 12 February 2006 (UTC)


 * I like your changes. By the way, I think the statistics tables could be improved in many respects. I might work on that when I get some time over. Fredrik 13:00, 14 February 2006 (UTC)


 * "When I write something on a talk page ... I get a reaction about one time in 50". This is because your writing style is inappropriate for a talk page. You need to write shorter paragraphs, and fewer of them, and never ever complain about the audience or use the words "rather" or "awfully". Ashley Pomeroy 22:07, 15 July 2006 (UTC)


 * That first sentence meant, "When I make major changes to established articles, do our founding editors not react because they approve, or because they don't notice/care?" Not very clear, I guess.


 * You have suggested elsewhere that shortening articles is an end in itself, but I'm afraid I still don't see why, let alone how the same logic applies to talk pages. In general, I write long comments on talk pages for two reasons.  First, for the same reason that people write long comments in code: when someone reads the work years later, after we all have gone, and wonders why it was written as it was, the more information they have the better.  Second, I have found that when conversing in plain text with people I have never met, terse statements are far more likely to be misinterpreted as insults.  (Also, in this instance, I thought I had better explain myself quite thoroughly, since I was proposing that 300+ other articles be revised in the same way.)


 * When have I complained about the audience?   Ryan W 01:11, 16 July 2006 (UTC)


 * "In general, I write long comments on talk pages for two reasons". You are a narcissist who loves the sight of his own writing. When you complain that no-one responds to your questions, it sounds desperate and lonely. Ashley Pomeroy 21:22, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Paralyzing database lookups for COMPET-N tables
The parser times out when I try to load the article. Perhaps putting all Compet-N data in a single template isn't a good idea. Fredrik 09:27, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
 * I agree. This seems like a bad idea. Fraggle 11:50, 10 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Whoops, I didn't know that edit had even been applied! I'll try to fix it.
 * In the meantime, if someone has a better idea for how to avoid updating multiple tabulations of records in parallel, I'd love to hear it. :Z   Right now I'm just thinking about splitting Template:Competndata up by IWAD, which is more scalable anyway.    Ryan W 16:34, 10 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Update: even that was too large to load (or edit), so things have been returned to their original state. I guess we'll just have to update two sets of tables in parallel whenever Adam Hegyi posts new records.    Ryan W 18:07, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

Walkthrough demos
Today I replaced the demo (even though it was recorded by me) which shows how to get 100% kills, items, and secrets on UV. Probably nobody will notice, but for the record, here is some of my reasoning.


 * For inexperienced players, AFAICT, pausing in one's exploration to fire/dodge is much, much easier than picking people off on the fly. There was an awful lot of the latter in the original recording.  (Heck, it was fairly rare in COMPET-N recordings before Adam Hegyi showed up.)  Completely new players should probably not be playing on UV, but if they do, I show them how to turn their back to the windows without taking any damage at all, and how to always have cover whenever they face even one sergeant without the chaingun.
 * In addition to the careless frontal assaults I had used in all four skill levels, the original UV recording awakened far too many monsters away from the main "front" where I couldn't attack them, then ignored them until they suddenly appeared in non-reproducible locations (mostly in the computer room). Now, if a monster is moving, either he cannot reach me or I am running toward a place where I can shoot that monster.
 * I now use the extra switch to enter the courtyard from the west. My main concern at that point is to reach the medikit, in case the newbie is severely injured (so far there has been only 8% health to pick up).  The health at the end is guarded by many more monsters, and this route allows me to fight the two sergeants in the passage one at a time, instead of waking up the second one by opening the brown door.

Ryan W 21:27, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Revisions to walkthrough demos today. The highlights:


 * More forgiving footwork to reach the secret elevator (all four).
 * More logical harvesting routes (all four).
 * Better divide-and-conquer strategy in the zig-zag room (HMP and UV).

Ryan W 20:46, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

Impassable linedefs not flagged as impassable: can monsters pass through?
When standing in the start room, has this ever happened to you? So far I have only seen this (very, very occasionally) in PrBoom+/ultdoom_compatibility. If our engine mavens tell me I'm full of shit, however, I'll try to make a real vanilla demo. Ryan W 15:50, 5 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Non-deaf sergeant in secret passage climbs stairs into central courtyard.
 * Sergeant next to green armor descends stairs into start room.