/vr/ - Retro Games

>>11040805
>Doom Plasma Rifle
> + Melts every individual target decently fast, a super strong weapon
> - Generally superfluous once BFG is obtained except for sniping bosses
You wouldn't actually get the BFG until either secret area in E2, or later on in E3, so for most of the first game you just don't have it, and you'd mostly use the Plasma. Doom 2 changes this some, and it's an example of how Doom 2 would really have benefitted from episodic division, like the first game, so that the player's inventory would get forcibly reset a few times, so that some of the difficulty and scaling can also be reset.

>Doom 64 Plasma Rifle
> - Sucks ass
> - Nerfed so hard the buffed Chaingun feels better
> - Completely useless once you get the Unmaykr
> - Has no reason to exist
It exists so that you have a weapon which uses Cell ammo until you finally get the Unmaker (or BFG9000), which may take a while, depending on if you find secret levels or not (and depending on which passwords you might use you may not have the Unmaker from previous levels, but still finding the Plasma lying around).

The reason it's nerfed in rate of fire is probably for memory reasons, the rapid spew of projectiles would probably tank your performance in some situations, and this is probably why the Chaingun had its rate of fire boosted in return, to make up for that.
It's probably also to make the Unmaker weapon more distinct, as much of its deal is rapid fire.
Since the Unmaker uses hitscans with a very simple 3D laser drawn between the weapon and the impact, it's no even close to as memory intensive.

>>11041523
Yes, as said, most probably for memory reasons, it likely contributed excessive slowdown in some places and some situations. Imagine blowing out 50 projectiles quickly and they travel across a longer distance, that can add a lot extra for the game to keep track on when things are already busy, on a machine which just isn't as powerful and capable as a PC.

>>7830126
>>7830075
>>7829986
>>7830143
>>7830145
>>7830145
>>7830626
>>7830494
Doom's plasma rifle is a piece of a toy gun, they probably never intentionally copied the WH40k one.

>>4853680
>>4853673
It's better than the chaingun, you have a larger ammo pool, you have a higher rate of fire, and it does far more damage per shot.
In deathmatch, the volley of projectiles can actually be disorienting, as you can cover half your opponent's field of view with plasma.

It's pretty much the heavy machinegun role of Doom, and it's almost a shame it shares it's ammopool with the BFG, because it makes people hesitate against using it.

>>2828094
>Anybody know what was used as models for the weapons in Doom?
Toy guns mostly.

Pistol was a toy Beretta M9 or Beretta 92FS (same thing)
Shotgun was a Tootsie Toy 'Dakota'

Super Shotgun was actually painted, partially reusing the hands from the shotgun.

Chaingun was a toy minigun titled "Ol' Painless"

Plasmarifle was the front-end of a toy M60 turned backwards, pic related (they're green these days, but they were sand/tan colored back in the early 90's, probably because of Operation Desert Storm)

BFG9000 was a Chinese made toy raygun, flipped on it's side and mirrored (they also photographed a bunch of features and doodads on the thing and used those to create techbase textures for the levels, this was also true for the chaingun), it also used a modified muzzle-end from the M60 (plasma)

Chainsaw was an actual Eager Beaver chainsaw.
I don't think it's ever been revealed what the Rocket Launcher is, it could be the tube to a vacuum cleaner for all we know.

The rifles and the SMG from the beta I don't think were actually revealed either, I don't know if anyone even has those toys anymore, the only toy that I know Id still has is the Tootsie Toy gun, which they have on display in their lobby, along with a bunch of the monster models. I think Id might still have the chainsaw, or Tom Hall has it. I think it belonged to a girlfriend of his, she had left it when they split or something. It was leaking gas pretty badly so they kept it on a big glass bowl on a spread of newspaper.

>This is trivial bullshit but it's been fascinating me lately and I'd love to learn more.
You've come to the right place, I happen to be a scholar on trivial bullshit!

>Also, whose hands and arms are those? Was that ever revealed?
Kevin Cloud if I recall correctly, one of the artists. It was his gloves too.
The hexagonal steel tiles you see all over the game were actually taken from a pair of snake-skin boots of his.

>>1575394
>>1575398
Plasma gun was a toy M60 machinegun, that could be taken apart into smaller guns, it's the front end of this thing, held backwards.

The molded plastic heatshield would serve as the muzzle for the plasma gun.

This one is green, but the one they used for Doom was tan/sand colored, I think they had tan/desert camo back then due to the US being deployed in Iraq for the Gulf War, otherwise known as Operation Desert Storm (a much spiffier name than Operation Iraqi Freedom, don't you think?).