Would anyone be willing to explain how to read TCount?

additup · Post by **additup** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 13:18

I see the lists of things and the numbers of them on the different difficulty levels, that's simple. I don't understand how the point system works, though, or the ratios. Can't find anything about it online.

Here's what TCount31 spat out.

E1M1 Totals by Difficulty:

________HEALTH____ARMOR____AMMO__POINTS
1+2______3053______1378_____16990___4375
3________3053______1378_____18602___8060
4________3053______1378_____20974___12853

Ratios to POINTS by Difficulty:

__________HEALTH____ARMOR____AMMO
1+2________0.70_______0.31______3.88
3_________ 0.38_______0.17______2.31
4_________ 0.24_______0.11______1.63

Anyone get this?

Post by **Paul** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 13:47

Moved to offtopic.

Can you explain where did this come from? I'm not exactly sure what this is..

additup · Post by **additup** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 10:34

Yeah, sure. This is the text file that was spat out by the program TCount (you can see it listed here but I had to go somewhere else to actually download it).

The description reads: "This is a DOS program intended to provide WAD writers with a starting point for determining how much HEALTH, ARMOR, and AMMO to place in a WAD based on the total number of damage points of the monsters in the WAD. In addition, TCOUNT can be used to examine existing WADS to list the THINGS, find where they are, when they show up, etc."

I still don't understand how to translate the information it gave me though. Will anyone see my thread now that it's in the off-topic forum?

Visplane_Overflow · Post by **Visplane_Overflow** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 20:48

I don't understand your problem =p The first graph shows on the left, difficulty levels, on top, the different types of variables, and then below that, it lists the variables themselves. How you read this information is up to you =p The idea is that you take this information, and then decide how much you need to add to/take away from your map to make it challenging.

For extra clarity, the first graph says that on difficulty level 4, there will be 3053 units of health to pick up for the player (including secrets and whatnot), 1378 units of armour to be had, 20974 ammo units to pick up (of varying types). However, 'Points' just plain baffles me

Afterall, Doom is played for the bodycount, not the highscore =p I suspect 'Points' are something arbitrary that the author of your program has explained presumably in some text file, that was packaged with your download =p At any rate, I hope that helps you out.

additup · Post by **additup** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 5:38

Thank you for replying. The things you said are mostly what I figured, including the points thing being arbitrary. Alas, no text file's present explaining it, which is puzzling. I thought some old schoolers here might have used this program way back in the day and could shed some light on it.

Visplane_Overflow · Post by **Visplane_Overflow** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 11:09

I'm not usually a big help =p At any rate, you may want to invest a moment of time trying to find the original packaged program, since it may have a very valuable text file with it =p That's my advice.