40oz
diRTbAg
Posts: 6,105
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Post by 40oz on Mar 12, 2023 14:14:11 GMT -5
I saw this video recently by a YouTuber named Any Austin where he talks about unremarkable rooms in half-life. I thought it was funny that he chose half life for the video considering that all of Doom is Unremarkable rooms: The game. Starting with E1M1, Hangar, which is already strange because the game features no physical appearance of any vehicles whatsoever, and the map in its entirety doesn't seem to feature a single thing that would prove helpful for the storage of aircraft. Of course, the rest of the game bears many suggestions but absolutely no promises for the functional purpose of the rest of Doom's concrete and metal structures from beginning to end.
The four rooms Austin documents in his video are inconsequentially odd areas of halflife and are mostly chunks of (seemingly incomplete) set dressing and layout padding that sort of bridge the gap between being a real functioning place to a functional linear narrative experience. Doom is pretty much all of that to a T.
I suppose the way halflife is remembered for its resemblance to corporate/industrial realism in its appearance helps illustrate the point better though.
Use this thread to post some of your favorite 'unremarkable rooms' in Doom or comment on the video.
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40oz
diRTbAg
Posts: 6,105
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Post by 40oz on Mar 12, 2023 14:32:28 GMT -5
I always liked this room in Doom 2 MAP13: Downtown. Since I first saw it I always pretended it was one of Dooms first and only bathrooms. I always pictured it with rusty cast iron pipes and water leaking from the walls and ceiling. I'm not sure why the bathroom directly connects to the outside but the room is pretty much entirely optional except that you can drop into here from a 'ventilation shaft' from the upper floor of the office building above like in goldeneye 007 in the facility.  |
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SilverMiner
You're trying to say you like DOS better than me, right?
Posts: 1,342
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Post by SilverMiner on Mar 12, 2023 14:37:35 GMT -5
ah, it was bathroom
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Post by hex11 on Mar 13, 2023 8:44:46 GMT -5
Yeah the Doom maps are way to abstract for rooms to resemble much. But E1M1 does have those stairs that lead to some kind of flight control tower or whatever.
Who came up with the level names anyway? Tom Hall was doing the design before they kicked him out, and he had plans for lots of details.
Also the intermission screen shows the levels (kinda).
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dn
Body Count: 02
the motherfucking darknation
Posts: 1,762 
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Post by dn on Mar 13, 2023 10:45:04 GMT -5
A blueprint of a bathroom doesn't really look much like a bathroom either. From an architect's perspective, doom is probably less abstract than you'd think.
Also, when it comes to naming, I'd guess the plan was to use recognizable military tropes in E1 and contrast them with the biblical / Miltonian / Dantesque concepts that come up mid E2 and continue into E3. The player is on a literal decent from sci-fi normality into hell, after all: I imagine Tom Hall came up with the names, and they never changed them after he left, because it was actually a Good Idea.
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40oz
diRTbAg
Posts: 6,105
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Post by 40oz on Mar 13, 2023 10:51:41 GMT -5
Tom Hall was doing the design before they kicked him out, and he had plans for lots of details. Spawning Vats being haunted by Tom Halls leftovers imo probably takes the crown for unremarkable rooms in doom. The crate warehouse coated in the mysterious GRAYTALL wallpaper is especially eerie. What gets me the most is that it has a thousand flourescent lights in it but it still looks so dim, but not dark enough to suggest a power failure.  But my favorite is this one. Theres something about this odd machine that i really like. Its one of the most detailed computer machines in the entire game. It gives the illusion of significance yet this lonely one-way room has no functional purpose in the map's design other than a blue armor and some various items.  |
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Post by JadingTsunami on Mar 13, 2023 13:28:14 GMT -5
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walterc
Doomer
Hell Knight Best Grill
Posts: 417
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Post by walterc on Mar 15, 2023 7:54:57 GMT -5
But my favorite is this one. Theres something about this odd machine that i really like. Its one of the most detailed computer machines in the entire game. It gives the illusion of significance yet this lonely one-way room has no functional purpose in the map's design other than a blue armor and some various items. Totally agree, is pretty mesmerizing while been pretty pointless as the whole in the map. Well, looks like Tom Hall and Sandy Petersen wanted to have a "realistic" supercomputer in the level. I'm agree as well as the sentiment to E2M7, it's a weird but neat map. Talking about Hangar lack of vehicles, you know that it was made using mf EdMap, that ancient NexT editor? For that matter, there's no vehicles in any of the first two original Doom, having some of them shown at firstly only in user made maps (yeah, i include Evilution as well, since it was originally crafted as a "Community project" like Memento Mori, so no MAP19 Ty's secret truck) like Doomsday of UAC or Deimos Subway. About "realism" in Doom engine games maps, see Heretic "The Docks" as example of it, also the computer room you shown in Spawning Vats and some building design for Doom 2 city maps like Downtown and Industrial Zone give some hints of what this game can do for these kind of situations... |
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