Hell is filled with sewer levels and made for space marines. Let's play DoomRL!

And that's why we love him.

Today, everyone's favorite roguelike champion dtsund is on the show as we suddenly become awesome, twice.

I guess dtsund isn't a spambot afterall

Voice synthesis software is so realistic these days.

Hey guys, I heard all the images are gone. That's OK, I'm going to bring them back sometime next week by re-registering the domain name that they were previously located at (my friend let it lapse).

Hope you're enjoying DoomRL! One of these days I'll try and have enough time to tell more stories about getting drunk while Kalir plays a video game.

Ha! Bet you thought we were dead again, huh? Sorry, this is DoomRL, not Duke Nukem Tactics!

Garrison as a guest commentator while we get a bunch of armor and clear out the City of Skulls.

I am excited for cyber demon times. You seem fairly indestructible at this point, how much of that is tactics and how much is you have acquired enough gear?

Honestly, the biggest factor in it is the Ammochain trait, followed by gear. Laser rifles WITH Ammochain are sexy enough, but the plasma rifle can afford to miss a few shots every now and then, and either way I'm obsoleting the need to expend power cells on those guns, which means more power cells for the BFG, which means HECK YES. The biggest weakness of this build is that it's heavily reliant on armor/mods for surviving things, since we're spending so little time dodging in fights.

Master traits are really powerful, and Ammochain was so good they had to nerf it in a recent version. You get it earlier, yeah, but you waste some of the prerequisite traits for your main weapon to get it.

I don't even think you get it earlier; it used to be SoB->SoB->TH->Fin->Fin->WK->MAc, now it's SoB->SoB->TH->TH->Rel->Rel->MAc. The extra triggerhappy is fine; you just end up wasting the reloaders.

It's annoying that there are no longer any master traits that incorporate finesse or whizkid; it makes it really hard to build advanced assemblies because you've really got to be gunning for them.

How are you guys on badges? I'm at 19/10/2/0/0, with several annoying deaths just short of others (AoP on level 24 was the worst).

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the new Ammochain requirement. If they had to change the requirements, I'd rather have seen something that actually plays into the Ammochain playstyle, like Ironman or Tough As Nails.

Regarding badges, I'm 19/10/6/1/0. Would be 19/10/7/1/0, but I cleared the Unholy Cathedral on my Linux partition, so it's not with most of my other games.

Tefari's joined us for the last installment of Doomguy's journey into Hell itself!

!!!!!

Way to ruin the surprise!

Congratulations on a nice run, but how are you going to get out of hell?

What does "He saved himself 4 times" and "He didn't like it too rough" refer to?

The latter line is the difficulty level. We played on Medium, aka "Not Too Rough".

The former... I have no idea, but it probably refers to situations where one wrong move could spell death.

Means Kalir saved the game four times.

Hi!

No new update today, sorry. Well, to be accurate, no new LP update. However, what DID update, as that last video indicated, is DoomRL itself, and what an update that is! In fact, it's such an update I'm going to devote a whole post to yammering on about it!

First, a few technical points out of the way. Ammochain got nerfed again, and no longer provides infinite ammo. But hey, now that means Reloader actually counts for something with it, minor though it is.

Second, there are now resistances to specific damage types in play. There's actually been six or seven damage types in DoomRL proper: melee, bullet, shrapnel (half as effective against armor), fire (blows up stuff like walls and corpses), plasma (bypasses some armor), acid (damages armor faster), and piercing (ignores armor). Now, though, various equipment types help to reduce damage from those sources.

But all that stuff is dumb and boring. Let's talk about the real thing to note for 0.9.9.4:

As of this version, yes, there are, past me! DoomRL now has three different classes to choose from! Each class has a few passive benefits to it, has one intermediate trait they can treat as basic, and has its own selection of master traits.

• Marines are the backbone of the UAC, resilient and hardy. They start with 10 more health points and powerups they use have a +50% duration bonus (+25% on Nightmare). They can select Badass as a basic trait.
• Scouts are agile and have the best intel. They are generally 10% faster and inherently know the location of stairs on any given level. They can select Intuition as a basic trait.
• Technicians are masters of tinketeering and equipment. They use consumables almost instantly and can hack computer maps for tracking data. They can select Whizkid as a basic trait, and they also start with a technical mod pack although the game doesn't tell you that.

As for the Master traits, well, if we just took pre-existing ones and divided them among these classes, that would be boring indeed. So now there's a total of 15 Master traits, with each class having a trait focused on a specific playstyle (melee, pistols, shotguns, automatic weapons, and then one extra one generally fitting the theme of the class). And because I have the free time to do so, I'll provide a rundown of ALL OF THEM RIGHT HERE OH MAN.

Melee Master Traits

• Vampyre
  "I crave for blood on this kind of night..."
  You hunger for blood! Each time you finish off an opponent you gain +3 HP.
  
  Requirements: Marine, Berserker (1), Badass (1), Level (6)
  Blocks: Hellrunner, Son of a bitch, Eagle Eye
  Who would take this trait: Marcus Fenix (Gears of War), if his crazy regeneration is any indication.
  My opinion: I dunno man. Health is rare in DoomRL and all, but I'm not too keen on a melee-heavy build. I did try this out once, mind you, but the benefit was mostly offset by my inability to play melee properly. Fortunately, Vampyre does work on all kills, not just melee ones.
  
• Blademaster
  "Aaah! Chainsaw! The great communicator!"
  You've mastered melee combat. Each time you finish off an opponent, you're immediately ready for another kill, and gain a free action!
  
  Requirements: Scout, Hellrunner (2), Brute (3), Berserker (1)
  Blocks: Tough as nails, Son of a bitch, Son of a gun
  Who would take this trait: Travis Touchdown (No More Heroes). Gamers don't have a lot of patience, see.
  My opinion: Again, I'm not much of one for melee builds. However, in a challenge game, I can only imagine how amazing this would be, especially if there's enemies like lost souls you can pick off to get closer to the big guys.
  
• Malicious Blades
  "Don't need a gun! Guns are for wusses!"
  Knives, knives, knives! You can attack with a blade in every hand at the same time, and while carrying a blade in your off hand, you parry 75% melee damage, and shield against 50% bullet, shrapnel, and fire damage!
  
  Requirements: Technician, Finesse (1), Brute (2), Dodgemaster (1)
  Blocks: Tough as nails, Eagle Eye, Berserker
  Who would take this trait: V (V for Vendetta). After all, ideas are bulletproof.
  My opinion: dtsund simply will not shut up about how good this trait is. The resistances mentioned above apply even if you just stick a combat knife in the off hand slot and cart around a plasma rifle or whatever, too! Two caveats, though: you can't take Berserker (VERY important to melee builds) and chainsaws aren't technically blades.

Pistol Master Traits

• Bullet Dance
  "Righteousness -- and superior firepower -- has triumphed!"
  Pistols are your game -- you can squeeze an additional shot from each of your pistols for each level of Triggerhappy at half the time cost!
  
  Requirements: Marine, Dualgunner (1), Triggerhappy (1)
  Blocks: Hellrunner, Eagle Eye, Brute
  Who would take this trait: Hoopz Barkley (Tales of Game's Studios Presents Chef Boyardee's Barkley, Shut Up & Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa)
  My opinion: Pistols normally have a max clip of 6 shots. Two levels of Triggerhappy equates to spending half a clip per shot. Which, don't get me wrong, that's six shots at once if you dual-wield, but I hope you have speedloader pistols or you're going to need to duck behind cover between volleys. A lot.
  
• Gun Kata
  "Not without incident."
  You've mastered the martial art of pistol combat. After each successful dodge you can fire your pistols in almost no time. Also, each time you finish off an opponent, you immediately reload your guns!
  
  Requirements: Scout, Dualgunner (1), Dodgemaster (1)
  Blocks: Tough as nails, Son of a bitch, Brute
  Who would take this trait: Con Smith (Killer7). Or he would if he didn't already have Critical Lock-On.
  My opinion: I don't even like pistols but I can see that this is an interesting trait. It's essentially Shottyman and Blademaster rolled into one trait for pistol users. This is probably my trait of choice if I ever play a pistol game.
  
• Sharpshooter
  "My cause is just... My will is strong..."
  You always hit where it counts! Each pistol shot you inflict deals maximum possible damage!
  
  Requirements: Technician, Son of a gun (3), Eagle Eye (3)
  Blocks: Tough as nails, Son of a bitch, Dualgunner
  Who would take this trait: Clint Eastwood. Long as he doesn't run out of ammo, at least.
  My opinion: Seems kind of underwhelming if you ask me. I did read on the DoomRL forums once about a guy who swore by the strategy of heavily-modded single pistols, though, so I dunno, maybe this trait has some merit to it after all.

Shotgun Master Traits

• Army of the Dead
  "Might makes light! And I feel mighty!"
  You're the fucking army of justice. When you fire your trusty shotgun, no armor is a protection!
  
  Requirements: Marine, Badass (1), Shottyman (1), Level (6)
  Blocks: Finesse, Hellrunner, Eagle Eye
  Who would take this trait: Ash Williams (Evil Dead). Duh.
  My opinion: In earlier versions, this trait was generally considered outright inferior to Fireangel. Now, though, shotguns that would normally be thwarted by high-armor foes like revenants and barons of hell can ruin these guys with impunity. It's a respectable trait to go for if you ask me.
  
• Shottyhead
  "Groovy."
  Shotgun is the gun on the move! While you can already reload on the move, this trait allows you to cut firetime to 1/3rd of the original!
  
  Requirements: Scout, Hellrunner (1), Juggler (1), Shottyman (1)
  Blocks: Tough as nails, Son of a bitch, Eagle Eye
  Who would take this trait: The Scout (Team Fortress 2). But he thinks roguelikes are for girls and novelists, so he wouldn't play DoomRL.
  My opinion: Like Army of the Dead, this trait severely increases your damage output. Unlike Army of the Dead, it's way more indirect about it, since you can shrapnelize most enemies before they can even truly react, and those that have high armor can be handled with the Juggler trait, switching to the rocket launcher or plasma rifle. I want to play a game under this.
  
• Fireangel
  "Woo baby, I'm burnin' out of control!"
  You love heat, you're the angel of fire! No explosion affects you, unless you take a direct hit.
  
  Requirements: Technician, Dodgemaster (1), Shottyman (1)
  Blocks: Son of a bitch, Son of a gun, Eagle Eye
  Who would take this trait: Bomberman.
  My opinion: This, alongside Ammochain, was one of THE master traits to go for in earlier versions. The reason is simple: just about everything in Hell uses explosions. You'll be moving constantly thanks to Dodgemaster and Shottyman. All your traits just line up perfectly into an amazing build. I don't know if it's still as good in 0.9.9.4, though.

Automatic Master Traits

• Ammochain
  "Hey, chaingun! The hell with respect!"
  True gunners do not think of such unimportant things like ammo supply! As long as you use your trusty rapid-fire weapons you only use up one ammo per volley!
  
  Requirements: Marine, Reloader (2), Triggerhappy (2)
  Blocks: Tough as nails, Son of a gun, Eagle Eye
  Who would take this trait: Robocop, or so Octoprime would have me believe.
  My opinion: This, right here, was THE trait I used in runs prior to 0.9.9.3. It's been heavily nerfed now, though, requiring Reloader rather than Whizkid, and no longer providing infinite ammo. Still, this lets you viably use the plasma rifle as a main weapon, so it's still solid even with the nerfs. Just mind your defenses.
  
• Cateye
  "Huh? Whuzzat? Whuzzat? I like what I see!"
  Your eyes are so sharp they could cut through concrete. This trait lets you see your enemies from two spaces further away - and that means more time to shoot them!
  
  Requirements: Scout, Intuition (1), Triggerhappy (1), Level (6)
  Blocks: Tough as nails, Reloader, Brute
  Who would take this trait: Pick any character that uses a sniper rifle. That's who.
  My opinion: This was actually my first 0.9.9.4 win! While Cateye advertises itself as a sniper sort of trait, in reality it applies to any weapon at all. It flows particularly well with chainfire weapons due to the Triggerhappy prerequisite, but the best part is that you can also use it to avoid or set traps for enemies who can't even see you.
  
• Entrenchment
  "Hoy, hoy, I'm the boy... Packin' 80 pounds of heavenly joy!"
  Once the barrels get rollin' you become one hardcore fighting platform... When chainfiring a rapid weapon you get +30% to all resistances!
  
  Requirements: Technician, Badass (1), Triggerhappy (1)
  Blocks: Finesse, Son of a gun, Reloader
  Who would take this trait: The Heavy (Team Fortress 2). I mean, he loves this doctor and all, but still.
  My opinion: Someone on the dev team likes me. You remember how I said the biggest problem with Ammochain is the lack of defensive traits? Yeah. Ammo consumption is still a problem, as it is with any chainfiring build outside of Ammochain, but if you can answer that, you're invincible.

General Master Traits

• Survivalist
  "You want a piece of me? C'mon, c'mon. Come at me with it!"
  You're the mean motherfucker who gets through every predicament! Half the time you completely shrug off damage that would graze others and you heal over 100% using simple medpacks!
  
  Requirements: Marine, Ironman (3), Tough as nails (2), Badass (1)
  Blocks: Hellrunner, Son of a bitch, Berserker
  Who would take this trait: Bill (Left 4 Dead). Or he would if he wasn't dead. Spoiler alert.
  My opinion: I have no idea what the first part of the trait is supposed to do, but anything that lets you ignore damage must be good. But no, the real gem is the overheal from medpacks. Do you have ANY idea how many medpacks you waste over the course of a single game? This is good stuff, right here.
  
• Running Man
  "Movin' right along."
  You're the man on the run! Not only can you run twice as long, but you do not suffer any aiming penalties while doing so!
  
  Requirements: Scout, Juggler (1), Dodgemaster (1)
  Blocks: Tough as nails, Son of a bitch, Dualgunner
  Who would take this trait: Sam Gideon (Vanquish). Jetsliding around on your knees is LIKE running, right?
  My opinion: As you know, running is generally used when you're in a bad situation and need to get to cover, medpacks, whatever. This trait turns it from an emergency maneuver into a staple technique to ruin enemies while running, even if using a melee or chainfiring weapon. Plus, since it lasts extra long, it'll still be active if an emergency situation comes up!
  
• Scavenger
  "I do need a gun. I need a big gun. I need a really big gun..."
  Whether it's a unique, exotic, assembled, or modified gun, you can always make use of it! Just Unload it once it's fully unloaded and you can scrap it for a useful mod pack!
  
  Requirements: Technician, Intuition (1), Whizkid (2), Level (6)
  Blocks: Berserker, Dualgunner, Triggerhappy
  Who would take this trait: Angus MacGyver.
  My opinion: I can't decide whether to love or hate this trait. On the one hand, using this it's quite feasible to get the master assemblies, and it doesn't block any basic traits. On the other hand, Eagle Eye and Whizkid are awful for earlygame, and this only works on weapons, not armor, which is what I'd really love to scavenge. It might also have something to do with the game I ran that gave me like five sniper weapon packs. That's three too many, at least.

Guys guys guys Malicious Blades is such a powerful trait. I killed the boss of the Unholy Cathedral with it while wearing unmodded red armor and only taking about 25% damage! Who cares if you can't take Berserker when you already ignore most of the damage you take anyway and can dual-wield?

Also Fireangel is still good, just not broken like it used to be. It used to block a crapload of damage that it really shouldn't have, because bugs.

Okay here's a real update.

Beat's gonna be joining us for the next adventure of IKA, the toughest Bl.MAGE in all of time and space!

Booyah!

And crazily enough, here is another update! Oh man it's like I have a sense of schedule again!

Sorry but this has really been bothering me. - That's not how you prounounce melee!

Tactical boots >> tactical armor. You never need to worry about boots again! Tactical armor is prone to getting accidentally destroyed, and besides, you want blue or red eventually.

There's actually two agility mods in the Chained Court, in the NE and SW.

Man, save all those berserk packs for the end of Chained Court! And at least eat the leftovers! You can get almost two levels worth of berserk that way.

Huh, I always go Shottyman first in Fireangel games. By the way, I don't think Shottyman lets you reload shotguns instantly on the move, but I could be wrong on that. I think it adds reload time and move time when you move and reload simultaneously.

Also, you carry a lot less armor than I usually do. I usually have at minimum two blues and two reds, but that could be because I always mess up tactical defense.

Good show overall. I rarely watch video LPs because of the time commitment, but I'll have to try to make an exception for this one.

Thank you.

It's been bugging me too, but I didn't want to be That Guy.

Blame Smash Bros. It's engraved so hard on my tongue that I probably won't ever say it "maylay" or however without constant reminding.

And no, Shottyman just uses move time to calculate reload time, provided you're just moving, I think.

And I keep forgetting berserk stacks aaaaaaaaaargh

Mitt Romney is the former governor of Massachusetts. Really, I expected better of you two. Keep up the good work!

Well, I live in SLC, and I knew he was kind of affiliated with the place on account of managing the Olympics when they were here. But I probably should've clued in about not having heard of him before then.

But honestly, why are you expecting better of either of us? We came here to talk about shooting demons and ASCII characters, politician states are not exactly our biggest concern.

Agh, that backfired

I was kidding, I only knew cause I lived up there for a bit. I'm all in for demon-killing and shotguns, not the political commentary! Sorry for any mix-up. So, again, keep up the good work, both on this and Custom Robo.

What does the shambler look like again?

I think it has a canonical appearance, I just don't remember ever seeing it.

I'm just sayin'.

Doctor Dudebro.

I have no words.

I have no words because the Shambler wasn't in the doom comic. What am I supposed to do, invent my own mindless machismo-laden phrases?

The Shambler is from Quake.

TASTE MY ROCKET JUSTICE SHAMBELAME. I'M SO MUCH MAN I'M THE MAIN MAN AND MY MAIN MAN PLAN IS SCRAMBLED BRAINS, DAMN!