Going Down was a mistake for me

uv is the hard difficulty, and it's only considered the normal one because of how id's games were balanced around the awful fps skills and controls that people had in 93-94
i suggest you play on hurt me plenty if you want something that provides a healthier challenge

39 minutes ago, Scuba Steve said:

Sharing legendary @Eevee drawing for new 'Going Down' players...

 

https://x.com/eevee/status/1473462051909488640?s=20

That is.. just insane! 

Real Going Down fan it seems.

UV with shotguns only? Oh, you are going to love Map 27.

I've only played a handful of maps from Going Down before it beat my ass enough for me to reconsider. But from the posts made in this thread I gather I'm going to love map [pick a random number above 15].

17

On 3/17/2024 at 3:17 AM, SleepyVelvet said:

No-Man Baugh's post is good.  Most custom levels are more difficult than the original Doom II by miles.   And even between different custom levels, the way maps exercise-and-reward different skills-and-playstyles vary vastly from one another.  Even advice like "just play on HNTR" is kinda scuffed advice for a hundred reasons.  GD is particularly hard and chaotic.  If it's your first time playing GD, I'd just play it casually with saves and on whatever difficulty, really, for GD at least.  It's just a really good mapset on it's own.  At the end of the day, I don't think anything should prevent you from at least trying a self-imposed challenge if you're in the mood for some reason, just don't sink your ego or soul into it too deeply.

 

Not always true.  There's the old Pacifist Player saying, "Don't shoot your shotgun at crazy"

I in general play with saves, is that bad?

Update: I am playing Plutonia now instead, my God it's SO MUCH EASIER. And I can play without SSG! Goddamn, I hope most custom WADs are Plutonia level difficulty because this is actually fun, Going Down made me kinda decent Ig but I literally can't get past map 19 sadly.

3 minutes ago, Griffonki said:

I in general play with saves, is that bad?

In general, most people do play with saves. It can be bad if you save yourself into an unwinnable scenario, but this only really happens if a player is saving a lot

2 minutes ago, Griffonki said:

And I can play without SSG!

When playing with self imposed condition like this it's important to understand the levels you are playing were not made with that condition in mind. If you end up having a hard time, it's not a fault of the level it's just a consequence of how you've decided to play the game. Tyson runners don't complain about lack of berserk packs, they know the life they chose

Something important to consider in your case is the ammo efficiency difference between SG and SSG. The SG fires7 pellets per shell, the SSG 20 pellets per two shells. You may find ammo balance to be tighter (among other complications) in levels where you would otherwise be using an SSG. If you're playing continuous this probably makes a lot less of a difference tho

Just now, thelamp said:

 

In general, most people do play with saves. It can be bad if you save yourself into an unwinnable scenario, but this only really happens if a player is saving a lot

 

 

When playing with self imposed condition like this it's important to understand the levels you are playing were not made with that condition in mind. If you end up having a hard time, it's not a fault of the level it's just a consequence of how you've decided to play the game. Tyson runners don't complain about lack of berserk packs, they know the life they chose

Something important to consider in your case is the ammo efficiency difference between SG and SSG. The SG fires7 pellets per shell, the SSG 20 pellets per two shells. You may find ammo balance to be tighter (among other complications) in levels where you would otherwise be using an SSG. If you're playing continuous this probably makes a lot less of a difference tho

Understood, I'll use SSG then, SG also has that weird firing delay, but yeah Plutonia is so fun!!! It's so much easier!

For all the shock it gives newer players, then and now, Plutonia's style of combat and resource management still lags behind the aptitude and variety of strategies demanded by most newer mapsets. All it asks is that you get used to fighting the heavies and unusually threatening monster combos more often. Fast but precise movement to keep yourself safe, all while herding monsters for infighting or to catch them on corners, becomes more important starting from Plutonia onward, and I think that megawad's great for teaching these skills. Still, from what little I've played of Going Down (once on HMP, later on UV), it's one of the more manageable "frightening" sets I've seen get a lot of attention. I've just cleared Congestion 1024 this month and am even more comfortable with nasty traps in tight spaces, so (Boom trickery aside) I'm ready for the likes of GD and similar releases.

2 hours ago, Griffonki said:

I in general play with saves, is that bad?

No shame in playing the way you do to heart's content. It all goes down to preferences and/or personal challenges.

On 3/17/2024 at 1:06 AM, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

I was considering going down, but when I got to the part with the pinky I had to stop. It had teeth, and there was blood all over the floor. With the help of steroids, I destroyed it with my fist and discovered it was too late to make a joke about it on a Doomworld thread. The wad is big, and the textures are divine, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.

17 hours ago, Scuba Steve said:

Sharing legendary @Eevee drawing for new 'Going Down' players...

 

https://x.com/eevee/status/1473462051909488640?s=20

Man, that is amazing. Somehow I never saw this before

Not sure whats going on in this thread, but just to confirm what people are saying: the intended way to play going down is however you want to, but i would suggest HMP continuous play with occasional saves. UV is more like end-game content for extra challenge. As far as self-imposed weapon challenges go, you are welcome to try, but each map kind of has its own built-in weapon challenge in the form of pistol start.

I wish for a sequel to Going Down or a spiritual successor, there really hasn’t been any other wad that has given me a sense of panic that Going Down delivers, on top of being funny in some areas

1 hour ago, VoanHead said:

I wish for a sequel to Going Down or a spiritual successor, there really hasn’t been any other wad that has given me a sense of panic that Going Down delivers, on top of being funny in some areas

Overboard bruh.

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/overboard

1 hour ago, Lucius Wooding said:

Overboard bruh.

true, but I mean like a full on 32 map sequel.

4 minutes ago, VoanHead said:

true, but I mean like a full on 32 map sequel.

I agree. Mouldy please please PLEASE make Going Down 2. I will worship you as the one true god of Doom mapping if you do it.

You can think of it as something of a meta joke; the number of maps also goes down in the spiritual sequel.

Personally I like shorter WADs to begin with. You get a lot less filler and are left wanting more, and it's a lot more likely for each map to be an inspired effort. And people are way more likely to play and remember all of them. I don't really give a shit if you have a brilliant idea for your map 28 if I have to suffer through 4 episodes of mediocrity to get to it. Frankly I greatly respect when creators let their work stand on its own without pumping out a highly demanded sequel. Not every great work needs the franchise treatment.

I think GD was one of those rare examples where it had a high percentage of memorable and fun maps since most of them leaned into some kind of concept or gimmick to make them stand out, many of which were very clever and original. The actual execution of the concepts doesn't get enough credit IMO; the combat and balancing are pretty unforgiving and most fights tend to get very hairy even if you use good strategy. It would have fallen on its face by comparison if it had either just the good ideas or just the good design. 

GD has been on my to-play list forever, but I missed the boat on it. While we're on the topic, where does it lie as far as difficulty, on a scale of Plutonia to Chillax?

3 hours ago, noisebloom said:

While we're on the topic, where does it lie as far as difficulty, on a scale of Plutonia to Chillax?

Between Plutonia and Hell Revealed I'd say.

On 3/19/2024 at 1:11 AM, PasokonDeacon said:

For all the shock it gives newer players, then and now, Plutonia's style of combat and resource management still lags behind the aptitude and variety of strategies demanded by most newer mapsets. All it asks is that you get used to fighting the heavies and unusually threatening monster combos more often. Fast but precise movement to keep yourself safe, all while herding monsters for infighting or to catch them on corners, becomes more important starting from Plutonia onward, and I think that megawad's great for teaching these skills. Still, from what little I've played of Going Down (once on HMP, later on UV), it's one of the more manageable "frightening" sets I've seen get a lot of attention. I've just cleared Congestion 1024 this month and am even more comfortable with nasty traps in tight spaces, so (Boom trickery aside) I'm ready for the likes of GD and similar releases.

My issue is really just the number of heavies later on, MAP19 was too much for me because I have no idea even with BFG how can I kill 100 arch viles in a big courtyard in only 30 seconds, and then  seemingly 200 pain elementals...

So, Going Down is one of my favorite megawads of all time. It heavily influenced multiple aspects of Dominus Diabolicus.

Playing it on UV with only the shotgun is a recipe for a bad time.

I wouldn't even say HMP is the best way to play it with a restriction like that. If you're absolutely married to that restriction, HNTR is possibly going to be your only option, and even that won't be viable in certain encounters.

The skill ceiling for Doom players is all over the place. I've had one person tell me everything is too hard even on HMP, then another play it on UV-Fast and say "eh, could be harder." The thing about Doom, particularly custom levels, is that you have a lot of control over the difficulty yourself as a player. You can adjust the difficulty level. You can use saves, or you can go single segment. You can turn on fast monsters, or you can even enable co-op monsters in maps that implement those. You can load up mods that beef up your arsenal.

There is so much fun in Going Down to be had, you just need to find the playstyle that suits that WAD and your tastes.

1 hour ago, bofu said:

So, Going Down is one of my favorite megawads of all time. It heavily influenced multiple aspects of Dominus Diabolicus.

 

Playing it on UV with only the shotgun is a recipe for a bad time.

 

I wouldn't even say HMP is the best way to play it with a restriction like that. If you're absolutely married to that restriction, HNTR is possibly going to be your only option, and even that won't be viable in certain encounters.

 

The skill ceiling for Doom players is all over the place. I've had one person tell me everything is too hard even on HMP, then another play it on UV-Fast and say "eh, could be harder." The thing about Doom, particularly custom levels, is that you have a lot of control over the difficulty yourself as a player. You can adjust the difficulty level. You can use saves, or you can go single segment. You can turn on fast monsters, or you can even enable co-op monsters in maps that implement those. You can load up mods that beef up your arsenal.

 

There is so much fun in Going Down to be had, you just need to find the playstyle that suits that WAD and your tastes.

Not shotgun only but regular shotgun over super shotgun.

The regular shotgun has worse DPS, though. It can't kill tanky enemies up close fast enough, and Going Down is very deliberate about providing you tools for the job.

22 hours ago, bofu said:

The regular shotgun has worse DPS, though. It can't kill tanky enemies up close fast enough, and Going Down is very deliberate about providing you tools for the job.

I know, I just like it more.

On 3/19/2024 at 2:38 PM, Logamuffin said:

Mouldy please please PLEASE make Going Down 2. I will worship you as the one true god of Doom mapping if you do it.

maybe if you bug the shit out of him every single day begging him to make the second one, he'll finally give in :)

14 minutes ago, roadworx said:

maybe if you bug the shit out of him every single day begging him to make the second one, he'll finally give in :)

That’s a great idea, I’m going to start doing that right now! ;)

On 3/17/2024 at 1:21 AM, Cilian said:

Relatable. Currently playing a megawad that is very hard for me but I'm not allowing myself to abandon the playthrough since I'm so deep into it now (currently map27). When I want to doom I want to play something easy, remember that I'm supposed to be grinding the hard megawad and end up not playing. That happens often but sometimes I do make progress, so, there's gonna be an end to this eventually... This was a mistake, but it's too late to stop

dunno how people actually play megawads trough to the end, i don't think i've ever done that

like even with my favorites i'll play it and get to around map18 or map20 at most and just kinda go "ok i'll keep going tomorrow" then literally just never play it again ever