PM>  fly off into space.  Gives me vertigo -Duke3D doesn't do that, nor
 PM>  Descent.
 JF> But how many of those actually affect the essence of gameplay?  
 LS> All of 'em since they're all features :) 
  They're all features, but they mostly fall into the "more is better!" 
category.  Wouldn't you rather have things like HoloDukes?  You can even get 
a form of those in a Quake add-on... lure your enemy in, then detonate your 
hologram for a nasty surprise!
  
 JF> A well-designed Doom level (or nowadays, Duke or Quake level) can
 JF> overcome anything ROTT can put out.
  
 LS> WRONG! Doom could not match some of the cool stuff ROTT 
 LS> could do (I still like
 LS> Doom better overall but that's beside the point). Those 
 LS> transport pads were
 LS> really cool, there was a level with a set of them 
 LS> travelling all around the
 LS> sky (there was a little maze in the middle with lots of 
 LS> cool weapons, can't
 LS> remember the name), if you were carefull you could stay 
 LS> on them and look down
 LS> across the whole level (if you stayed on long enough) 
 LS> it was very fun aiming
 LS> down and firing at your friend from above and before he 
 LS> knows what's going on
 LS> you've travelled of on a platform, NOTHING in Doom 
 LS> could match that, or lot's
 LS> of the other things I liked about ROTT.
  All that really is, is a flying sprite.  If you were able to land on a 
Cacodemon or Lost Sould in Doom, you could do the same (albeit temporarily).  
It was just that id didn't think flying platforms like those inane little 
discs would make for a better game; they were right.
  In Quake, of course, you can do that - and more.  Since level pieces 
themselves can actually fly, you can shape something to be any kind of 
platform you want.  It can even have coordinated X-, Y- and Z-axis movements.
 JF> bosses, the Cyberdemon (a true terror) and the Spiderdemon. 
   
 LS> So? None of those were any smarter, they STILL couldn't 
 LS> shoot straight, but 
 LS> they had stronger weapons and therefore a larger error 
 LS> margin, tricking monsters
 LS> in Doom is easy because the AI isn't all that good.
  Well, if an enemy isn't threatening, then it isn't really an emotional 
game, is it?
 LS> Quake is comparable to ROTT and Doom only in the same 
 LS> way Doom is comparable
 LS> to Wolf3D, there is a huge difference in time between 
 LS> the two and you would
 LS> expect it to be a lot more realistic.
  Doom was still more of a realistic environment.  Most environments don't 
look like building-block skyscrapers, and don't all have one floor.
 
  
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