Why doesn't Doom 3 have massive outdoor sections?

[DarkStar]

The engine is obviously capable of it. Go into the console and type "noclip" while you're riding the monorail if you don't believe me. Those areas are HUGE! It would have been awesome had they included some gameplay in those types of areas. Like, give you a special suit to wear outside for a little while that has an unlimited air supply.

Hopefully some talented modmakers will think of this.

 

[Prince of China]

Hmm...that's a good point.

But there's nothing really out there in Mars...Except martians and a few rabid demons.
Nevertheless, it's still arid and insipid.

 

[Roland Deschain]

Nothing scary about seeing an imp running at you 2 km away and large outdoor sections wound necessiate a sniper (at least for me) and large outdoor sections where not a part of Doom

 

[Mr. Redundant]

Nothing scary about seeing an imp running at you 2 km away and large outdoor sections wound necessiate a sniper (at least for me) and large outdoor sections where not a part of Doom

beat me to it

Doom3 is cramped and dark for immersion and ambiance.. not because the engine cant handle it.

theres really no need for expansive environments at all in terms of the feeling they were shooting for.
however I wouldnt mind a change of pace, run across the surface a bit.

 

[Foxtrot]

Half-Life 2 has large outdoor sections and enemies still suprise you.

 

[KagePrototype]

1. The martian landscape is boring. It's a big red desert with nothing in it.

2. It wouldn't be as scary outside if you could walk around large open areas without a small amount of breathing air.

It's all about creating the right atmosphere. It just wouldn't be scary. I think Carmack himself has commented on this subject before.

 

[Prince of China]

If you could go outside and fight...it would be very boring.

You could have 20 ft. between you and a horde of Hell Knights.

 

[Murray_H]

Maybe a sandstorm would give the feeling of claustrophobia, with faces in the sand OMG what was that....it was a FACE!!111

 

[MultiVaC]

It would be a bit dull... you couldn't have much out there because of the huge lighting calculations of all the stuff you would be seeing. You could do a Mars landscape just fine, but that's boring. An open city or forest would slow it down a lot.

 

[DarkStar]

^^ See, you're all wrong.

The dark cramped areas would be that much scarier if that wasn't all the game consisted of. I love Doom 3, but it really could have used a little better pacing...I mean, when there is absolutely no contrast and everything is dark and cramped, then it eventually loses some of its scare factor. Having large open outdoor areas would have allievated some of the tension, so you dreaded having to go back inside. Plus, to those saying that the monorail sections looked boring well.....those outdoor areas looked absolutely amazing.

Also: For those who would say that large open area just aren't Doom. Well, you're dead wrong, the original doom games had large open areas. Perhaps there weren't that many, but the gameplay certainly was not totally confined to corridors as it is in Doom 3. You could also have a bunch more enemies to fight if there were some open areas. Like the hordes you fought in the original games.

 

[Baal]

I think they did it perfectly really...For exactly the reason everyone has said so far...

I love how you just have to run accross the surface though, through those decompression chambers, those things are so awesome!

 

[scribblehead]

As mentioned, i think it all comes down to gameplay - its just not in D3's favor to introduce large expansive areas....hell the originals where "corridor crawlers", why would you want to change that when its a remake?

The engine is clearly capable of rendering levels as larger or larger than what we've seen done in Far cry/Battlefield.

From what i know the levels could be huge - the engine uses some kind of portal system that allows for extremely large levels, as to why the ones in the game aren't exactly large by todays standards. It could be because outdoor levels mainly utilize 1 lightsource (the sun) and the indoors - well, use alot

EDIT: Yeah i loved the decompression thing too - 1st time i've seen that idea in a game....dunno why someone has'nt picked up on that...

 

[Murray_H]

Would an outdoor area with no monsters but suggestions of a presence of something been good? Like noises and things moving (e.g. an inanimate object with a similar shape to a demon dangling and swinging in front of a light source) to create the atmosphere of fear but giving the player a sense of security, then scaring the shite out of them when they get back in from a 'nice', safe, experience outside.

 

[scribblehead]

Did anyone other than me really want to see ALOT more of the station - i know lots of ppl just wanna run and gun - but i really wanted to look at what other thing there were in mars city....such as habitats/living quarters.

Also did anyone else just insanely want to have an intro sorta like HL, but with the transport ship instead? - flying over UAC's complex could have looked soo cool

(sorry if its a bit off topic)

 

[DarkStar]

Did anyone other than me really want to see ALOT more of the station - i know lots of ppl just wanna run and gun - but i really wanted to look at what other thing there were in mars city....such as habitats/living quarters.

Also did anyone else just insanely want to have an intro sorta like HL, but with the transport ship instead? - flying over UAC's complex could have looked soo cool

(sorry if its a bit off topic)

Totally. It was just lab after lab after lab. Seeing living quarters or a bar or a kitchen or a rec room or hangers or offices would have been awesome.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

i refuse to believe ID couldn't add a few outside environments in the SP.. they'd just need to be creative about it and perhaps limit the outside area to in and around the facility and not too far out like some of u have mentioned.

anyway, i think for a dev team its important to at some point separate the SP from the MP.. i mean its fine to have elements of SP in MP but.. like i don't think it would have harmed Doom3 if they had some outdoor like maps for MP.

of course i haven't played all the MP maps.. so this is assuming none of them have outdoor environments.