QuakeCon is officially underway, and id Software has announced a massive new update for DOOM: The Dark Ages. Live on all platforms, it adds the Ripatorium, a highly customizable Horde Mode-style game mode. Check out director Hugo Martin’s explanation below.
Players can essentially select one of three areas, the music, and which enemies they’d like to appear. Tweak their parameters and the waves, then hop in to slay them within the time limit. id Software is looking to further adjust the Ripatorium in future updates, so this is only the beginning.
Update 2 also brings numerous balance adjustments to the campaign, Atlan mech, and Dragon mount. New options include a slider for the slow motion that triggers on melee and parries, and a setting for weapon class switching. Weapon swapping in general is much quicker, and the team has performed a pass on all the audio to ensure the correct music when things get heavy.
Check out some of the weapon changes and details below (beware of spoilers), and the full patch notes here.
Update 2 Notes
Weapons
- Increased speed of Weapon Swap animations
Rail Spike Impaler
Balance adjustments including:
- Reduced Impaler damage vs. Hellknight and Vagary demons
- Reduced Impaler damage vs. armored demons
- Put further emphasis on Impaler headshots by increasing headshot damage, and reducing non-headshot damage vs. various demons
- Shield Throws that deflect off of larger demons no longer drop Impaler ammo when the Stalwart upgrade is equipped
- Reduced the amount of Mace charge received from headshots with the Lobotomy upgrade
Plasma Rifle Class
- Lowered base ammo on Plasma Rifle Cycler
- Adjusted value of ammo capacity increase earned through Demonic Essence upgrades
- Lowered maximum ammo capacity of Plasma Rifle Cycler
Super Shotgun
- Reduced Super Shotgun damage vs. Hellknight, Mancubus, Pinky Rider, Cosmic Baron
- Reduced Super Shotgun damage vs. armored demons
- Player can now interrupt the Super Shotgun reload to perform executions
Chainshot
- Lowered starting ammo capacity
Dreadmace
- Executions performed with the Dreadmace equipped now drop the same amount of ammo as executions performed with other melee weapons. The amount of ammo dropped as a result of other Mace attacks has not changed
- Reduced Dreadmace AOE damage, increased Dreadmace direct-hit damage to compensate for AOE damage reduction
- Parrying a Hell Surge attack drops less Dreadmace charge
- Drops triggered as a result of Impaler headshots with the Lobotomy upgrade equipped drop less Dreadmace charge
Gauntlet
- Lowered the amount of charge received via Duelist upgrade
Shield Saw
- Removed the slight cooldown on Shield Throw after catching it from a previous throw action
- Refined Shield Saw parry detection
Atlan
Stomp
- Adjusted Stomp behavior to apply an electrical stun and shock state to enemies
- VFX and audio adjustments to accompany this change
- When attacking shocked enemies, the Atlan will punch faster
- Updated the tutorials to cover the new behavior
Encounters
- Updated Atlan encounters to account for new Stomp behavior
Dragon
- Extended empowered shot time
- Updated Anti-Dragon AI’s projectile attacks in the tutorial section to include line attacks and remove the hourglass projectile
- Improved tutorial messaging for assault mode dash directions
- Added new HUD elements to indicate when the player should initiate assault mode and dodge actions
- Shortened the delay time for AI firing projectiles after lock-on
- Players will now skip straight to the Holy City of Aratum if tutorials are turned off
Enemy AI
- Made the Kreed Maykr fight more challenging
- Extended the range on Prince Ahzrak’s spear
- The Old One’s Aerial Slam damage radius now covers the entire arena
- FX and SFX have been added
- Increased the AOE of the waveblast from the Komodo’s Graviton arm attack
- Completed a pass on AI logic events to ensure they are stopping correctly when AI pain reactions are triggered
- The Pinky bite attack has been updated with new animations, FX and audio to help the attack read better
- HP buffs have been added to the Cacodemon, Mancubus, and Armored Mancubus.
- Addressed the Chaingunner Soldier’s target acquisition, fire rate, and overall player responsiveness
- Pinky Rider leader now fires shield projectiles at the start of the flame wall attack instead of basic fire projectiles
- Increased Mancubus Flamethrower damage
- Increased Mancubus Fireball speed and size
