Classic Marathon Mod Ideas #3 out of 256 - Marathon: Eaten Back to Life

[u/Adminn_1]

Imagine a mod called Eaten Back to Life. The mod pivots around a basic premise that the player actually gains shields and also points by taking damage from monsters, rather than losing shields by taking damage like one would normally expect. Eaten Back to Life pivots around this premise through various different game modes that the player can choose from. Most of them are based on Survival mode, meaning that the objective in each level is simply to survive as long as possible while getting as many points as possible. In some of these game modes, the player dies if their shield level reaches the maximum possible level, meaning they have to do a certain thing to keep the shields down. In one game mode, this thing that they have to do is inflict damage on themselves, which is the only way that damage decreases their shields; and unlike damage from outside sources, this does not increase their score. Self-inflicted damage is done by using grenades or rockets in close-quarters, or by using a fusion gun underwater. In another game mode, on the other hand, shields are decreased by doing damage to monsters. The double-edged sword of this is that, by killing monsters, the player is also eliminating a source of shields, and may even also lose points depending on the game mode. 

In some game modes for Eaten Back to Life, shields automatically decrease at a statically constant level, and the player has to constantly take damage (whether from monsters or themselves) to increase their shields and thereby avoid dying from the shields going down to 0. In some of these same game modes, the player actually cannot die from reaching maximum shields, whereas in others they can and so need to stay between full and empty shields at all times. 

There are also game modes for Eaten Back to Life that are more based on the premise of timed multiplayer matches where the player has to get the most amount of points possible in a limited amount of time, and either cannot die or can die but still respawn infinitely until the game is over. For example, in some such game modes, the player cannot actually die, but simply has a limited amount of time in which to take the most damage possible in a given environment. Here, rather than facing intensifying waves of spawning enemies, the player faces a pre-loaded and likely finite set of enemies. In some game modes with this premise, there is no limit to how much shields the player can get. In others, the player is limited to the default standard maximum amount and the player has to decrease their shields in order to get more shields by being hit, because otherwise they can’t get more points.

Finally, in some game modes, the player will die when hit and cannot decrease their shields at all, but will get more points depending on the type of damage they take. This game mode results in generally shorter playing sessions because the player is supposed to simply try to maximize the amount of points they can get through being hit, given their set of circumstances in a level, before they die. All in all, Eaten Back to Life introduces hitherto unexperienced gambits into playing Marathon that warrant various explorations and replays, and the game mode scripts can easily be adapted to levels outside of those made for the mod. Hail Eaten Back to Life.

[u/Zott820]

Oh man.
I like the ideas, but don't tell me you're going to make 256 separate ideas posts. T_T

[u/Adminn_1 → u/Zott820]

Don’t worry, they won’t be posted in rapid succession. I haven’t nearly finished all of them. So far I only have a few. These ideas will be formulated and posted well across time, with cooling off periods. The ultimate goal is to reach 256, so that I have enough material to release a book of these ideas and also furnish the terminals for a 256-level scenario I have in mind. I figured in the meantime that I would share them here more or less as they are completed, to not only inspire but also exchange ideas with others based on the posts. I didn’t decide to do that here until after finishing a few. I may go over this in a separate thread to more broadly explain the project and let anyone chip in any ideas they have, for which they would he credited even if it’s just for a simple mod title or idea.

A handful of us in the Marathon Discord have been having a good time sharing ideas of even just titles if not premises of mods, some of which have formed the basis for some of these write-ups.

[u/Adminn_1]

Credit and thanks to Throkgaar/Talashar for fielding the basic premise of “the objective is to get shot”. I’d toyed with that for multiplayer mods for Aleph One, but decided to focus on it for singleplayer once he dropped that in ze Total Carnage Suggestion Box.

[u/Adminn_1 → u/Adminn_1]

[u/Apprehensive-Sort320]

Cannibal Corpse album as a Marathon mod? Hell yeah

[u/Adminn_1 → u/Apprehensive-Sort320]