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Official Facing Hell FAQ

This is the official FAQ - frequently asked questions - of the project 'Facing Hell'. If you have any suggestions or unanswered questions please send them in.

Last Update of this FAQ was on October 29th, 2006

• 1. General Information
• 1.1 What is Facing Hell?
• 1.2 What is the general plot in Facing Hell?
• 1.3 Who developes Facing Hell?
• 1.4 Is it free for download?
• 1.5 When is release day?
• 1.6 Will there be a contradiction between FH and the upcoming Resurrection of Evil?
• 1.7 Do i need to install Resurrection of Evil to play FH?


• 2. New Features
• 2.1 Water (new)
• 2.2 Storytelling (new)
• 2.3 Infight balancing and Auto-Haste (new)


• 3. Gamplay Issues
• 3.1 Is a multiplayer mode included?
• 3.2 Does the common Doom III gameplay change in FH?
• 3.3 ?
• 3.4 Do i need to finish Doom3 and/or RoE, to play FH?


• 4. Content related
• 4.1 Does FH feature new weapons?
• 4.2 Are there new monsters we must be afraid of?
• 4.3 Are new maps planned for FH?
• 4.4 How many maps are going to be in FH?
• 5. Other
• 5.1 Do you need help of a mapper/coder/artist/whatever for your project?
• 5.2 Will there be a beta test/playable beta version?
• 5.3 What do you think about the poor multiplayer success of Doom3?

1. General Information

1.1 What is Facing Hell?

'Facing Hell' (respectively FH) is an add-on, or in other words, a missionpack to the 3D-Shooter "Doom 3", id Software's latest game in the famous Doom series. Often, the term 'mod' is used to describe such types of add-ons, but due to the nature of the story in FH, we rather call it an unofficial missionpack for Doom 3. [index]

1.2 What is the general plot in Facing Hell?

In FH, we continue the story of original Doom 3 and surprise the player with a deep story, that tells the truth about the origin of all evil and hell. The player will discover some interesting things about the UAC, their artefacts from the archeological excarvation on mars and the weird network of evil thoughts and research that leaded to where we are now: a neverending painful mission for the Doom Marine.

The player goes on a journey that starts about 48 hours after the end of Doom 3. After the torture of his way to hell and back, the Doom Marine can't get rid of the hellish pictures in his mind. He has to make a decision, that could stop his pain immediately or send him once again on a demonic trip to fight the evil once and for all, this time off mars.
On his journey, the protagonist will reveal many things the original Doom 3 story left unanswered. One name frequently appears during his way off the mars station - the "New Creed Corporation". The Doom Marine comes across some interesting facts, that will change the relationship between the UAC, Dr. Betruger, the ancient people from mars and all the different things that were discovered before.
We can't tell you extactly what will happen in FH - we don't want to take away the experience of a good gameplay. As a suggestion: take a seat and watch your back frequently :) [index]

1.3 Who developes Facing Hell?

A small group of german nostalgic doom fans. We are computer interested guys, all lost in a manner of digital artist being. We love the original doom series and we like the step, how id Software was going to do the new Doom title. As id Software stated "The legacy of evil lives on" we try to do our part in keeping up this idea. [index]

1.4 Is it free for download?

Yes, Facing Hell will be free for download when it is ready for release. [index]

1.5 When is release day?

"When it's done" won't satisfy you, right? If we can tell a more accurate date, the FAQ gets updated and you can read it in the news on the main page. [index]

1.6 Will there be a contradiction between FH and the upcoming Resurrection of Evil?

No, RoE starts two years after the end of Doom3 and you play a combat engineer. In Facing Hell you are still the same space marine and it starts only about 48 hours after you were found by the rescue team. We are proud to say, that all the stuff we know about RoE so far fits perfectly into our storyline, so we guess both missionpacks will complement each other very well. [index]

1.7 Do i need to install Resurrection of Evil to play FH?

No. [index]

2. New Features

2.1 Water

FH will support several kinds of water with realistic physics.

- We are able to create any water type we need (like clean water, sewage...), each with it's own effects and physics.
- The player can swim and dive into water, his sight will have nice distort effects depending on the water type.
- Projectiles have lifelike behaviors, e.g. they slow down underwater or cause trails of bubbles (think of diving, while a machine guy pumps it's bullets into the water, causing a number of bubble-trails with adequate underwater sounds).
- Several nice effects like particles simulating the impact on the water surface, evaporating fireballs or vaporizing plasma balls make water-action real fun :)
- For moveable physics objects in the game like barrels, chairs etc... the underwater behavior is calculated - buoyancy causes them to swim while massive objects sink slowly to the ground.
- Even AFs (articulated figures) / ragdolls are calculated correctly and swim or sink in water.
- Weapons have different sounds and behavior underwater, making underwater fights very interessting.

FH takes advantage of all these features, taking the player into an exciting new gameplay experience. [index]

2.2 Storytelling

FH's story will be complex, no question. We had to find a way to tell it in a more exciting way:

- In FH, there is no PDA anymore. The doom marine has a new method of gathering important information about his environment: he utilizes a scanner-like device, mounted directly into the player's hud. This device is part of a new technology, embedded into the marine's helmet.
- Scan a lot of different objects: computers, machines, strange structures, even informations about NPCs or dead bodies can be collected in that way.
- The player doesn't have to read through a lot of emails like in original Doom 3, instead of that, the informations are displayed directly on the hud. [index]

2.3 Infight balancing and Auto-Haste

We love the old classic doom titles, and their gameplay speed. Id Software was going a new way with Doom 3, making it slower and more frightening. We are trying to give Doom back what made the old titles so much fun during a fight.

- The player speed will be increased just a bit for tensing situations, in which the doom marine is going through dark places.
- When it comes to a fight, adrenaline rushes in and the marine begins to run automatically, providing a basis for a fast, action-loaded struggle.
- When there is no monster anymore, the marine calms down and begins to walk again. This is what we call our "Auto-Haste" feature. It makes both slow, horrible scenes and fast pacing action possible.
- With this gameplay change in mind, we put a lot more monsters into the maps. Nearly all monster spawns in Doom 3 were suddenly appearing teleportations in front of or behind the player. We are trying to go the way older titles like the Quake 2 singeplay were going - the player can engage enemies, which will be already there, perhaps patroling in the map.

With this balancing, the player will get the impression of beeing in Doom 3 and classic Doom the at same time. [index]

3. Gamplay Issues

3.1 Is a multiplayer mode included?

Not yet decided. [index]

3.2 Does the common Doom 3 gameplay change in FH?

Since FH is a missionpack style mod, the common gameplay will not change. We do not want to invent a new gameplay, Doom is good as it is :-) We just want to keep up that great atmosphere and try to add our own ideas to get a frightening and dreadful playtime. [index]

3.3 ?

Erm... no. [index]

3.4 Do i need to finish Doom3 and/or RoE, to play FH?

No, but some of our story elements are going to be related to the things happened in the original game, so you should know what exactly happened there. If not, we recommend you to play it once again :) [index]

4. Content related

4.1 Does FH feature new weapons?

Yes. There are some new weapons planned, whereas "new" is relative, because one of them is a remake of the orignial Quake II's double barreled shotgun. [index]

4.2 Are there new monsters we must be afraid of?

Yes. As with the weapons, at this stage of developement we can't tell you how many or which types of monsters appear in FH . [index]

4.3 Are new maps planned for FH?

Hell yes :-) We do a complete new plot for FH, with new places to go (and die). [index]

4.4 How many maps are going to be in FH?

Hard to say, because of gameplay and story changes that may occur during developement. The player will visit nearly six to eight different places (Mars, an industrial area, vast ancient caverns etc...), splitted into several maps. [index]

5. Other

5.1 Do you need help of a mapper/coder/artist/whatever for your project?

Maybe, if you are a skilled [put one of the jobs in here], have enough time to work on FH in your spare time and you want to work in a great team, send us some information about you and what you've done in the past. [index]

5.2 Will there be a beta test/playable beta version?

There is no open beta test planned. We will do internal tests with some players. [index]

5.3 What do you think about the poor multiplayer success of Doom3?

id always pointed out, that Doom3 is not meant to be a multiplayer game, so we don´t really care about this. Doom3 is an awesome singleplayer experience and that's the stuff we also concentrate on. [index]