I also think that the idea of increasing usability is a noble one but I think that most developers take the lazy route - aka the glowing path or giant HUD arrow or whatever.

I think with a carefully designed system, you could ensure the player doesn't get lost but also feels like they still have a good amount of freedom.

Proper design in this area would result in players feeling like they "figured it out" and "solved" the levels without being aware they were led the entire time.

The lazy "we have to ship in 3 months!" solution is the glowing path on the floor.

We need to start leaning towards the subtle. 

But so what:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FpigqfcvlM

Learning through play.

He also did a new one not so long ago about zelda, but not relevant to the discussion.

For the good or bad solutions I think the problem isn't so much that the developers are lazy, more that nobody cares enough about the usability during the development and as such the big ugly band aid is slapped on at the last minute.

The ship in three months panic :)

The reason they don't care is because subtle solutions are, well, subtle. It's not immediately obvious if something is working, and it only takes one person in the decision making process to get cold feet and the whole thing collapses like a domino run. 

I really liked the locator line.

It reminded me of playing Doom64 in map mode, somehow.

In a clever way it made me explore more - I knew where to go, and that I wouldn't get lost, so I wanted to see what was down that other route, how the level interconnected and so on.

I did feel that the levels could have been more intentionally labyrinthine to take advantage of this effect more. 

Interesting, this is straying into the territory of a blog post I've got mostly written that I haven't posted. I was going to do a post mortem on my way-old QBOARD.WAD level and it grew into a comparison of Doom and Quake level design centered on how much the player is or is not led by his nose.

I should finish that I guess. 

The BLOPS one is peak pretentiousness. 

the item timers are actually fun for random tdm 

The rest of the changes blow dick in FFA (nb I only play botmatch BUT aside from the quality of opponents it's the same fucking game / ruined game).

Starting weapons make it a ridiculous spam-fest, right off the bat it's rockets and plasma and bullshit flying everywhere. No build-up while players find weapons, much less variety in fighting due to that.

Universal ammo packs make it even worse as you're always replenishing your starting weapon.

Movement around the map is partially discouraged as there's less need to hunt weapons and ammo. It makes the whole thing feel like Rocket Arena on a larger scale.

These are all obvious reasons why this is a terrible idea that makes the gameplay worse, and yup that's exactly how it happens.

Item timers are so-so. They're a noob-friendly pussy option but they don't really ruin the actual combat.

Same with the digits for how much damage you've done.

The new menus and screens are really fucking bland compared to the originals. 

"We feel that these elements overall help bring Quake one step closer to being a modern shooter, while still holding true to our roots of remaining an incredibly fast paced old school shooter. "

They got confused, it's modern shooters that have to be brought closer to Quake, not the contrary 

 

 

Most of the changes are pretty bad on paper, but could have worked fine if they weren't applied all at once. Spawning with the Machine Gun only always feels like shit, so I don't mind the loadouts that much - it's almost like a perverse form of Team Fortress with 16 classes.

However little balance was left, though, got completely thrown out of the window with making all ammo unified and making weapons respawn practically instantly. Sure, make me spawn with a RL and low ammo if you want to... but don't immediately let me get from 5 rockets to 25!

Item timers - every "pro" player used to count the next respawn time on their own. I don't mind this becoming global.

The new announcer couldn't sound any more bored.

A sound playing as feedback for when you get a kill isn't a bad idea - but why did it have to be a cartoony ding?!

I want a Doom Live now.