Blood - From the workshop of Kevin Kilstrom, Plus mods/maps/launchers thread

[Unkillable Cat]

What's your major malfunction son.

I would pay good money to watch a video of you playing through one episode with KB only.

Rules:

Play through any official episode except the first on Well Done or Extra Crispy
Keyboard only
Record raw footage and upload file to Youtube
No quick saving/ quick loading, max. 7 deaths/ level restarts per attempt
Deadline: June 7, 2015

Prizes:
Dibs on anything I offer in the beg thread until the end of 2015 + €5 Steam game + brofist

Not to brag or anything, but I'm pretty certain that's precisely what I did to all the Build games back in the day. Blood on Well Done even.

Not so sure that I can do it today though, since it's been 18 bloody years or so and mouselook is a huge improvement that I've grown quite accustomed to.

Besides I suck at recording and uploading videos.

 

[Ovplain]

Blood, oh how I loved Blood way back when.=( And how overjoyed I was when my computer's ram got beefed up from 8 MB to a crazy 32 MB! And Blood stopped crashing on me.<3

Some say FPS games play well using pad too.

Some FPS do!

 

[DraQ]

Not to brag or anything, but I'm pretty certain that's precisely what I did to all the Build games back in the day. Blood on Well Done even.

Deliberatly using clunky and limiting input device when a superior one is available is mark of the consoletard and a major heresy, though.

Not so sure that I can do it today though, since it's been 18 bloody years or so and mouselook is a huge improvement that I've grown quite accustomed to.

Besides I suck at recording and uploading videos.

Demo then.

Some say FPS games play well using pad too.

Some FPS do!

Sorry, but it's for your own good.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Not to brag or anything, but I'm pretty certain that's precisely what I did to all the Build games back in the day. Blood on Well Done even.

Deliberatly using clunky and limiting input device when a superior one is available is mark of the consoletard and a major heresy, though.

Stop blabbering for once and look at the facts: Mouselook wasn't really a thing back then. People who jumped on it when it was first feasible (Quake, IIRC) were trailblazers and quickly showed the advantages of mouselook, but it wasn't an overnight change, it took a couple of years to become a de facto standard and then later became the standard. But with the Build games it just didn't feel right, so I skipped it. Maybe not the smartest choice, but there you go. I didn't play much of the first Quake and didn't play Quake 2 until sometime around the time Half-Life was released, but by then mouselook was a thing and it was good. But in the years between I made do with just the keyboard for "pure" FPS games and it's one of the reasons why I've never felt comfortable playing any of the Build games since: Because today I use the mouse. It's easier to aim and get around in Duke3D today than 20 years ago, but it doesn't feel the same to me. I last played Blood when I got my hands on the Plasma Pak expansion sometime in 1998-1999, I haven't touched the game since for precisely this reason; the controls wouldn't feel right.

 

[A horse of course]

I always wondered why the default mouselook operated so strangely in Blood

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

I always wondered why the default mouselook operated so strangely in Blood

Just play with mouse driver provided by Astral Rag, it works like a charm. The default mk is atrocious.

 

[retardation]

Casuals! Build games don't need any mouselook controls.

Then why do they support them?

I don't know. It plays just fine with a keyboard.

What's your major malfunction son.

I would pay good money to watch a video of you playing through one episode with KB only.


Rules:

Play through any official episode except the first on Well Done or Extra Crispy
Keyboard only
Record raw footage and upload file to Youtube
No quick saving/ quick loading, max. 7 deaths/ level restarts per attempt
Deadline: June 7, 2015

Prizes:
Dibs on anything I offer in the beg thread until the end of 2015 + €5 Steam game + brofist

Ha ha, fucking hell, I just saw this. :D I played the whole Blood on Extra crispy with keyboard. I didn't even know there's a mouse look at the time.
As a matter of fact, I still think keyboard is the most immersive way to play Blood.

 

[agentorange]

i played through a lot of Heretic with the control scheme that allowed movement by mouse (push mouse up to move forward, etc.) because that was the default. once you get used to it it's not bad, same holds true for most control systems (same with Thief with all the different movement options, I played through that with mostly the originally controls - which was like "run forward with W, walk forward with S, backwards with X").

 

[grudgebringer]

Some say FPS games play well using pad too.

I guess I should remind you that Romero still plays Doom with a KB.

What's your major malfunction son.

I would pay good money to watch a video of you playing through one episode with KB only.


Rules:

Play through any official episode except the first on Well Done or Extra Crispy
Keyboard only
Record raw footage and upload file to Youtube
No quick saving/ quick loading, max. 7 deaths/ level restarts per attempt
Deadline: June 7, 2015

Prizes:
Dibs on anything I offer in the beg thread until the end of 2015 + €5 Steam game + brofist

Actually, I can. I used to play through the whole Blood using only KB. I never even considered mouse as an alternative, as to me it feels natural to play Build games with KB.

The only real issue here is finding time for another playthrough. Maybe I should start with a couple of levels for a first take. So, you propose that I should play it in some kind of permadeath mode without any save/loading? It will be kinda hard, to be honest, but I shall try.

 

[potatojohn]

The build games were indeed playable with just a KB, thanks to the y-axis auto-aim (inherited from doom?)

 

[Astral Rag]

I know it's possible, especially if you save scum but it's definitely not the ideal way to play those games and I personally don't know anyone who didn't use the mouse to play Build games. I mean there is an entire section of setup.exe dedicated to the mouse...

The last FPS I played without using a mouse were Wolfenstein 3D and some shitty Wolf clones, I started playing Doom KB only too but I soon discovered the wonders of (horizontal) mouse aiming.

I still play Wolf 3D without using a mouse and I never enable vertical mouse aiming when using Doom source ports so I understand why some choose to keep playing games the way they learned to play them ages ago or the way they were meant to be played in the case of Doom.

That being said I think slow kb movement must be a real pain in Blood because of fast moving enemies, hitscan enemies, quasi instakill explosives etc.

/ capt. obvious


Anyway, good luck with the playthrough GB


edit:

Spoiler

from the official DN3D guide:

Now we know that the ideal way to play Build games is with inverted y-axis

(you can easily invert the mouse in Build games)

 

[Snorkack]

I just found the time to start this fucker up. Just finished the secret ghost house level, and this game is a blast, although it has its share of bullshit, too. Now I feel a bit bad for defending New Order in the other thread. Shooters back in the day were better indeed!

I'm wondering if the sequel is worth playing. I'm not a graphics whore, but I can hardly stand games from the era where sprites started to transition to low-polygon count models. But if level design and cynism are on par with Blood I, I'll put it on my list nevertheless.

 

[Astral Rag]

Shooters back in the day were better indeed!

I wouldn't recommend Blood 2 it was a pretty good looking game but a major disappointment on most other fronts and it hasn't aged gracefully. It also hates modern OS. I do enjoy some of the game's music.

 

[Snorkack]

W3D was still rather shitty

 

[ZagorTeNej]

I'm wondering if the sequel is worth playing. I'm not a graphics whore, but I can hardly stand games from the era where sprites started to transition to low-polygon count models. But if level design and cynism are on par with Blood I, I'll put it on my list nevertheless.

It's just not a great sequel, it's set in modern times and urban areas (offices, apartments, corporate buildings etc.) compared to wonderful gothic, horror-movies homage levels set in early 20th century of first Blood which results in a very different atmosphere, despite having first game's arsenal (even expanded with some new additions) it has far less satisfying gunplay and gore, it has some of the worst balance between difficulty levels I've ever seen (Easy/Genocide is super easy while Medium/Homicide turns enemies into bullet spounges), its level design is very straightforward with none of the 1st one's brilliance etc.

If you liked Blood, I think you're better off trying other Build Engine games like Duke 3D and Shadow Warrior (if you didn't play them already) rather than Blood 2.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Just finished the secret ghost house level, and this game is a blast, although it has its share of bullshit, too

Oh, really ?

Please share it with the rest of the class.

 

[agentorange]

the fire breathing dogs and the fucking crawling hands

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Indeed

The spider queens are making me rage everytime though. With their spawning abilities you really need to look out if you are in smaller rooms.

 

[Snorkack]

I'm wondering if the sequel is worth playing. I'm not a graphics whore, but I can hardly stand games from the era where sprites started to transition to low-polygon count models. But if level design and cynism are on par with Blood I, I'll put it on my list nevertheless.

It's just not a great sequel, it's set in modern times and urban areas (offices, apartments, corporate buildings etc.) compared to wonderful gothic, horror-movies homage levels set in early 20th century of first Blood which results in a very different atmosphere, despite having first game's arsenal (even expanded with some new additions) it has far less satisfying gunplay and gore, it has some of the worst balance between difficulty levels I've ever seen (Easy/Genocide is super easy while Medium/Homicide turns enemies into bullet spounges), its level design is very straightforward with none of the 1st one's brilliance etc.

If you liked Blood, I think you're better off trying other Build Engine games like Duke 3D and Shadow Warrior (if you didn't play them already) rather than Blood 2.

Played Duke of course, only played the Shadow Warrior remake, which was kind of meh. Thanks for the insight!

Just finished the secret ghost house level, and this game is a blast, although it has its share of bullshit, too

Oh, really ?

Please share it with the rest of the class.

I already got killed several times by a closing door. That kind of bullshit. Also fucking rats. They are more of a nuissance than a challenge. Also the optic distortion when looking up or down with free mouselook make me nauseos.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

I already got killed several times by a closing door.

It's not a bug, it's a feature in some Build engine games .

As for rats, not all enemies must be really challenging. In larger packs the can be really painful distraction from the normal enemies. Just ask Don Peste about that. As for the being nauseos, I really don't have that problems. There are many people who have that kind of reaction to specific fps titles. Guess I'm immune, although low fov give me a headaches.

 

[DraQ]

I just found the time to start this fucker up. Just finished the secret ghost house level, and this game is a blast, although it has its share of bullshit, too. Now I feel a bit bad for defending New Order in the other thread. Shooters back in the day were better indeed!

I'm wondering if the sequel is worth playing.

No.

I'm not a graphics whore

Still no.

but I can hardly stand games from the era where sprites started to transition to low-polygon count models.

Bullshitz.
Good visual design stands the test of time, so you are a graphicswhore after all.

Still no.

But if level design and cynism are on par with Blood I

No.

Just finished the secret ghost house level, and this game is a blast, although it has its share of bullshit, too

Oh, really ?

Please share it with the rest of the class.

I already got killed several times by a closing door. That kind of bullshit. Also fucking rats. They are more of a nuissance than a challenge. Also the optic distortion when looking up or down with free mouselook make me nauseos.

Rats are ok.
Optic distortion, well that's 2.5D raycasting engine for you. You can't actually look away from horizontal in such engine but it pretends you can with a perspective trick.

The only bullshit that is in Blood is that compared to cultists/zealots, stone gargoyles and hellhounds the other enemies are wussies.
Also, queen spiders are awful HP sponges.

 

[Riskbreaker]

I'm wondering if the sequel is worth playing.

No.

If you crave more Blood, and I'm not surprised if you do, then ya might wanna check some of those excellent fan-made map packs that were mentioned in this thread.

 

[agentorange]

Finished the Plasma Pak levels. Pretty disappointed with it. As far as level design goes the levels were technically very complex, most of them way larger in scale than the original Blood levels, but were extremely bland in atmosphere and visuals; instead of haunted houses, moving trains, shopping malls, we get construction yard, dock, underground temple - felt like a precursor to the locations in FEAR.

So far I'm having more fun with Cryptic Passage, screenshots below, which is the expansion not created by Monolith.

 

[A horse of course]

Level and environmental design is indeed a major part of Blood (and Duke3d's) appeal. The worst (and least memorable) levels were the caverns full of spiders or gargoyles in Blood, or the industrial levels in DN3d. Playing through those was like treading water. It's also one of the reasons many early 00s PC shooters were so shit.

 

[pippin]

Blood, oh how I loved Blood way back when.=( And how overjoyed I was when my computer's ram got beefed up from 8 MB to a crazy 32 MB! And Blood stopped crashing on me.<3

Some say FPS games play well using pad too.

Some FPS do!

I tried to play an FPS with an xbox-like controller once, and it was awful-nothing beats mouse aiming. Only some action games, platformers and jrpgs play better with a controller, in my experience.