"Get the torches and the pitchforks! Drive the crazy witch out of the village!!"
Use my name as a curse if you will, or make an effigy of me and stick pins in it...
...but there were a few things about the previous "final version" of the mod that I simply was not satisfied with, so I continued to work on it.
In the end it's probably for the best. Along the way I discovered that there were still a lot of sprites that used the same naming convention, which explains why some of the monsters looked exactly like others. I've re-named over 100 more sprites, so hopefully that's all sorted out now.
The biggest flaw that needed to be corrected concerned my random spawners for health and ammo. I played through the entirety of Doom II with the previous "final version" and, on the surface, everything seemed to be working properly. But it bothered me that it seemed a bit too easy, even though I was playing on the Ultra-Violence difficulty setting. I realized that the entire time I was playing through the IWAD I had never seen any of the smaller ammo and health drops, only the bigger ones. Upon closer investigation I discovered that I had made a fundamental error that had a major impact on the gameplay balance that I had been working so carefully to maintain.
When trying to figure out how to increase DoomGuy's ammo carrying capacity I had been told that it was a bad idea to re-name the ammo types, something to do with "actor properties inheritance"... or at least that was the way I understood it at the time. Apparently it was either explained to me incorrectly or not in enough detail or I simply misunderstood. I'll not bore you with all the finer technical details; the short story is that in my first versions I had it right, I changed it and did it wrong in the last version but now I've changed it back to the right way in this version. All the ammo and health spawners are working exactly as I had intended them to now, and DoomGuy's ammo carrying capacity is still increased.
It has also been discussed here that it really sucks when you inadvertently pick up a SoulSphere when you don't need it, more so now that DoomGuy's health has the potential to reach a maximum of 300%. I've remedied this issue, though I was unable to do so by simply modifying the default power-up. Instead I scripted an entirely new item, but don't worry... it still uses the same sprites, has the same name and does the same thing; while playing, the only way you will notice it's any different is that now it won't be picked up automatically if DoomGuy's health is above 200%.
I want to achieve this same effect with the MegaSphere, but I just can't seem to figure it out. Something about the fact that it contains both an armor and a health increase makes it so that the game can't know whether or not or when you're really in need of it. Or at least that's the way it seems to me. Or maybe it's just something that I'm not understanding about the properties of armor in general, because I've also been unsuccessful in my attempts to get the ArmorShards to be of any benefit beyond 200% or to keep DoomGuy from picking them up if he's already got 200% armor. But at least these items are working exactly the way they're supposed to by default, so I suppose I shouldn't be complaining.
However, while trying to sort out these issues, I did manage to create an all-new original item exclusive to my mod! I proudly present:
THE ULTRASPHERE!
Like the MegaSphere, the UltraSphere increases both health and armor... but it does so to the 300% maximum! Unfortunately, also as with the MegaSphere, I can't figure out how to keep it from being picked up if it's not needed... but those are the breaks, I suppose. At least having this new item appear now and again might help ease the pain of it a little. And though it was only a minor cosmetic issue, while working on this I also figured out how to fix the floor-clipping issues of the invulnerability sphere which occurred when I made all the alien artifact spheres in the game "floaty". So even though I haven't been able to do every little thing that I wanted, in the process of trying I discovered new things and how to fix some of the other smaller issues.
Though hardly as major as the above issues, I wasn't truly satisfied with the Tesla Coil. I love the concept of the monster: a stationary item that somewhat resembles one of the default inanimate fixtures until it takes you by surprise with an attack. Well, the Tesla Coil can't really take you by surprise since its loud buzzing can be heard from the moment you enter a new map where it's present. Furthermore, I placed it in a spawn to replace the default light fixture of the same height, so when it spawns in corners the big sphere at the top of it clips into the walls. I also wasn't happy with its attack animation; it's just like the railgun's attack animation but is white, so it has a tendency to look like soap bubbles.
Having successfully created the UltraSphere, I decided I would take a shot at the Tesla Coil as well. The result was an entirely new creature: the Railgun Sentry!
There are actually three versions of my Railgun Sentry, a tall one which can randomly appear in the place of the tall tech lamp and two shorter versions which can randomly appear of course instead of the normal and "small column" tech lamps. They don't make any sounds until they become active after having "seen" our favorite space marine, so they could potentially take one by surprise. They also use the attack animation of the normal railgun so it looks more like a laser shooting out. For the sake of continuity and cosmetics, I later replaced the sprites of the inanimate floor lights as well, but you'll still be able to tell the difference; the lights have a cool blue color while the Railgun Sentries have a red light, will beep at you and of course shoot at you.
So I'm editing sprites and creating creatures now; why stop with just one or two?
When I originally began this project I had the idea to do something similar with the Evil Eye, but at that time I had not yet learned how. There was a creature on the Realm667 Beastiary called Baphomet's Eyes but they were not stationary, instead flying around with Kamikaze attacks like the Lost Souls and thus not fitting exactly what I had in mind at that time. But after creating the Railgun Sentries, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.
There are now two new versions of the Evil Eye that will attack DoomGuy: a red one that spits fire and exploding flying Evil Eyes and a green one that spits poisonous clouds as well as flying Evil Eyes that will explode in toxic green clouds. Both will laugh at you mockingly... though I'm not going to try to explain how an eye can laugh...
Since I was doing some editing of my own, I also made the toxic and lava floors just a tad brighter, but hopefully not over-done:
Also, I think the Wolfenstein levels look much better my way:
And, speaking of the Wolfenstein levels, I replaced Commander Keen's sprites and sound effects as well.
...oh, and in this version I've added another new weapon and over 30 new monsters...
The MegaUpload links in the blog's sidebar are for this current (I don't dare use the "f"-word) version, but the link to DoomWorld (for now) is still for the previous version. Unlike a modding site like the TES Nexus, where one can easily edit, update or even remove one's submitted content, apparently with DoomWorld once something is submitted to the Archives it is irrevocably there for the rest of all eternity. When people started making accusations about my submitted maps, I sent an e-mail to Ty Halderman himself asking him to remove the files from the Archives, to which he claimed he would. That was at least a year ago, and yet the files are still there...
Anyway, here are the links to the latest downloads. If I can get the new version to replace the old one on DoomWorld I will do so, but I'm not going to loose any sleep over it...
HERCULINE'S DOOM UPGRADE
Without Music 26 MB
With Music 363 MB
As with previous versions, this one likely won't work with any other saved games, so if you're currently playing through a major set of maps with the older version then you might want to just store this one somewhere until you're ready for it.
I'm not going to paste in a copy of the readme again; you guys have read it at least twice now and anyone who hasn't can scroll down the blog page. However, I suppose I should reiterate what I've said in previous posts: this is a randomizer. While I've gone to certain lengths to ensure that only certain classes of enemies spawn where they're supposed to with a certain frequency, randomness is difficult to control (and doing so would kinda defeat the whole purpose of the mod). I bring this up because I just finished a map that had a lot of the zombie soldiers in it by default and with the randomizer at one point I got rushed by about a dozen zombies all with chainsaws. I've set up the Chainsaw Zombie to spawn only 20% of the time, so the mob was obviously simply the result of the random roll of the dice that might never happen again and certainly not again in that same spot.
TL/DR
In a nutshell, this is a new version with several flaws fixed, a few pending minor issues of personal preference that I might change later if I ever figure out how... and a big chunk of new content that wasn't in the previous version.
Until next time, ENJOY!
Use my name as a curse if you will, or make an effigy of me and stick pins in it...
...but there were a few things about the previous "final version" of the mod that I simply was not satisfied with, so I continued to work on it.
In the end it's probably for the best. Along the way I discovered that there were still a lot of sprites that used the same naming convention, which explains why some of the monsters looked exactly like others. I've re-named over 100 more sprites, so hopefully that's all sorted out now.
The biggest flaw that needed to be corrected concerned my random spawners for health and ammo. I played through the entirety of Doom II with the previous "final version" and, on the surface, everything seemed to be working properly. But it bothered me that it seemed a bit too easy, even though I was playing on the Ultra-Violence difficulty setting. I realized that the entire time I was playing through the IWAD I had never seen any of the smaller ammo and health drops, only the bigger ones. Upon closer investigation I discovered that I had made a fundamental error that had a major impact on the gameplay balance that I had been working so carefully to maintain.
When trying to figure out how to increase DoomGuy's ammo carrying capacity I had been told that it was a bad idea to re-name the ammo types, something to do with "actor properties inheritance"... or at least that was the way I understood it at the time. Apparently it was either explained to me incorrectly or not in enough detail or I simply misunderstood. I'll not bore you with all the finer technical details; the short story is that in my first versions I had it right, I changed it and did it wrong in the last version but now I've changed it back to the right way in this version. All the ammo and health spawners are working exactly as I had intended them to now, and DoomGuy's ammo carrying capacity is still increased.
It has also been discussed here that it really sucks when you inadvertently pick up a SoulSphere when you don't need it, more so now that DoomGuy's health has the potential to reach a maximum of 300%. I've remedied this issue, though I was unable to do so by simply modifying the default power-up. Instead I scripted an entirely new item, but don't worry... it still uses the same sprites, has the same name and does the same thing; while playing, the only way you will notice it's any different is that now it won't be picked up automatically if DoomGuy's health is above 200%.
I want to achieve this same effect with the MegaSphere, but I just can't seem to figure it out. Something about the fact that it contains both an armor and a health increase makes it so that the game can't know whether or not or when you're really in need of it. Or at least that's the way it seems to me. Or maybe it's just something that I'm not understanding about the properties of armor in general, because I've also been unsuccessful in my attempts to get the ArmorShards to be of any benefit beyond 200% or to keep DoomGuy from picking them up if he's already got 200% armor. But at least these items are working exactly the way they're supposed to by default, so I suppose I shouldn't be complaining.
However, while trying to sort out these issues, I did manage to create an all-new original item exclusive to my mod! I proudly present:
THE ULTRASPHERE!
Like the MegaSphere, the UltraSphere increases both health and armor... but it does so to the 300% maximum! Unfortunately, also as with the MegaSphere, I can't figure out how to keep it from being picked up if it's not needed... but those are the breaks, I suppose. At least having this new item appear now and again might help ease the pain of it a little. And though it was only a minor cosmetic issue, while working on this I also figured out how to fix the floor-clipping issues of the invulnerability sphere which occurred when I made all the alien artifact spheres in the game "floaty". So even though I haven't been able to do every little thing that I wanted, in the process of trying I discovered new things and how to fix some of the other smaller issues.
Though hardly as major as the above issues, I wasn't truly satisfied with the Tesla Coil. I love the concept of the monster: a stationary item that somewhat resembles one of the default inanimate fixtures until it takes you by surprise with an attack. Well, the Tesla Coil can't really take you by surprise since its loud buzzing can be heard from the moment you enter a new map where it's present. Furthermore, I placed it in a spawn to replace the default light fixture of the same height, so when it spawns in corners the big sphere at the top of it clips into the walls. I also wasn't happy with its attack animation; it's just like the railgun's attack animation but is white, so it has a tendency to look like soap bubbles.
Having successfully created the UltraSphere, I decided I would take a shot at the Tesla Coil as well. The result was an entirely new creature: the Railgun Sentry!
There are actually three versions of my Railgun Sentry, a tall one which can randomly appear in the place of the tall tech lamp and two shorter versions which can randomly appear of course instead of the normal and "small column" tech lamps. They don't make any sounds until they become active after having "seen" our favorite space marine, so they could potentially take one by surprise. They also use the attack animation of the normal railgun so it looks more like a laser shooting out. For the sake of continuity and cosmetics, I later replaced the sprites of the inanimate floor lights as well, but you'll still be able to tell the difference; the lights have a cool blue color while the Railgun Sentries have a red light, will beep at you and of course shoot at you.
So I'm editing sprites and creating creatures now; why stop with just one or two?
When I originally began this project I had the idea to do something similar with the Evil Eye, but at that time I had not yet learned how. There was a creature on the Realm667 Beastiary called Baphomet's Eyes but they were not stationary, instead flying around with Kamikaze attacks like the Lost Souls and thus not fitting exactly what I had in mind at that time. But after creating the Railgun Sentries, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.
There are now two new versions of the Evil Eye that will attack DoomGuy: a red one that spits fire and exploding flying Evil Eyes and a green one that spits poisonous clouds as well as flying Evil Eyes that will explode in toxic green clouds. Both will laugh at you mockingly... though I'm not going to try to explain how an eye can laugh...
Since I was doing some editing of my own, I also made the toxic and lava floors just a tad brighter, but hopefully not over-done:
Also, I think the Wolfenstein levels look much better my way:
And, speaking of the Wolfenstein levels, I replaced Commander Keen's sprites and sound effects as well.
...oh, and in this version I've added another new weapon and over 30 new monsters...
The MegaUpload links in the blog's sidebar are for this current (I don't dare use the "f"-word) version, but the link to DoomWorld (for now) is still for the previous version. Unlike a modding site like the TES Nexus, where one can easily edit, update or even remove one's submitted content, apparently with DoomWorld once something is submitted to the Archives it is irrevocably there for the rest of all eternity. When people started making accusations about my submitted maps, I sent an e-mail to Ty Halderman himself asking him to remove the files from the Archives, to which he claimed he would. That was at least a year ago, and yet the files are still there...
Anyway, here are the links to the latest downloads. If I can get the new version to replace the old one on DoomWorld I will do so, but I'm not going to loose any sleep over it...
HERCULINE'S DOOM UPGRADE
Without Music 26 MB
With Music 363 MB
As with previous versions, this one likely won't work with any other saved games, so if you're currently playing through a major set of maps with the older version then you might want to just store this one somewhere until you're ready for it.
I'm not going to paste in a copy of the readme again; you guys have read it at least twice now and anyone who hasn't can scroll down the blog page. However, I suppose I should reiterate what I've said in previous posts: this is a randomizer. While I've gone to certain lengths to ensure that only certain classes of enemies spawn where they're supposed to with a certain frequency, randomness is difficult to control (and doing so would kinda defeat the whole purpose of the mod). I bring this up because I just finished a map that had a lot of the zombie soldiers in it by default and with the randomizer at one point I got rushed by about a dozen zombies all with chainsaws. I've set up the Chainsaw Zombie to spawn only 20% of the time, so the mob was obviously simply the result of the random roll of the dice that might never happen again and certainly not again in that same spot.
TL/DR
In a nutshell, this is a new version with several flaws fixed, a few pending minor issues of personal preference that I might change later if I ever figure out how... and a big chunk of new content that wasn't in the previous version.
Until next time, ENJOY!
I'm sort of looking forward to installing this, and sort of not. I've been playing on and off with the last version, and been grinning evilly the whole time (my face might freeze that way...). Even for someone that will cheat like me (and those options are extremely restricted nowadays), I was finding things a tad easy. I do look forward to experiencing all the additions you have in this version, though.
ReplyDeleteOn that note, I have to ask, how did you manage to increase the size of the non-audio version by only 10 megabytes, but the audio version more than tripled in size?
While I was working on the base of the upgrade I was also upgrading my music files. Originally I had been using the music WAD that is available for download on the Doom Depot, but I also found the same music in CD tracks that were of higher quality and decided to use those in the latest version instead.
ReplyDeleteAh, that would explain it. *downloads*
ReplyDeleteDruuler:
ReplyDeleteThank you for reminding me of this. I've added another DL link to the sidebar for the music only, so that you can have the PSX music with anything even if not playing with my upgrade...
...though I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want to play with my wonderful mod...
*shrugs* Me neither :)
ReplyDelete"or make an effigy of me and stick pins in it..."
ReplyDeleteHo-kay. I apparently need to clean my glasses and/or get my mind out of the gutter.
I read that out of the corner of my eye, and my subconscious felt the need to swap out a word that completely changed the meaning of the entire statement...
Oh, and uh... congrats on improving the mod?