[RELEASE #4++ FINAL] 'Chaos, Uprising' for Heretic

[Mav3rick]

bug.
when having max ammo for the revolver, is still posible to pick up others revolvers.

[ArgonianLord]

Thank you all for the precious support and retesting!
I am really glad the issue could be fixed quickly, and I shall be sure to integrate the suggested changes in my working copy.

Also, speaking of in-progress work, please have a little teaser in the form of new mugshots for the extra classes:


The Mercenary

The Seer

The Warlock


Hmmm... HeXen, you say? Well, that might do for a future continuation of work on this

You're welcome, glad to see this mod getting the classes back for that matter, I honestly thought they were removed from the mod at first.

Only thing you should make sure to do though is give the Warlock pointy ears, as Parthoris is a world that doesn't have any humans, only the Sidhe elves, Ssithra, T'Chekrik, Cauthorians and Ogles (And if you wanna count them, the Seraphs) etc.

Other than that they look really great. You should also integrate the same change I mentioned before to the Newcomer, as I'd doubt it would be possible for him to be a human.

Also, the bug Mav3rick mentioned I've seen too. It should also be fixed but I dunno how. I haven't messed around a whole lot with DECORATE and weapons >.>

And that's nice to hear, can't wait to see how that will turn out

[Ed the Bat]

Also, the bug Mav3rick mentioned I've seen too. It should also be fixed but I dunno how. I haven't messed around a whole lot with DECORATE and weapons >.>

Removing the ALWAYSPICKUP flag from it would do the trick.

[rsl]

You're welcome, glad to see this mod getting the classes back for that matter, I honestly thought they were removed from the mod at first.

Only thing you should make sure to do though is give the Warlock pointy ears, as Parthoris is a world that doesn't have any humans, only the Sidhe elves, Ssithra, T'Chekrik, Cauthorians and Ogles (And if you wanna count them, the Seraphs) etc.

Other than that they look really great. You should also integrate the same change I mentioned before to the Newcomer, as I'd doubt it would be possible for him to be a human.

A good point, I'd say! Though I actually intended them to be humans stranded in Parthoris, in a very different epoch...

bug.
when having max ammo for the revolver, is still posible to pick up others revolvers.

Removing the ALWAYSPICKUP flag from it would do the trick.

Heh, I was aware of this behaviour... Having used two alternate pickups for the revolvers (to better match the different animations they have when getting dropped in two different directions by fallen cultists), I ended up defining them as 'CustomInventory' pickups.
Now, my intended fix would have been to spawn them directly as weapon actors (sacrificing aesthetics a bit), but I still need to try out the solution suggested by Ed the Bat - which I didn't know about.

[rsl]

Time for the final upgrade, isn't it? Well, well...
Where do I start from? Ah yes, the classes! Welcome to

'Chaos, Uprising' IV (AKA The Classy Upgrade)

As I promised a few weeks ago, I went back to what was the still-lacking part of the mod: the classes. Originally I had put them in as light variations on the main character, but as I gathered more time to work on it, I managed to re-implement them the proper way. Now you have the final product!
Let me briefly sum them up graphically (yes, these are the selection screens you find ingame, and the stats are in effect):


The Newcomer The Mercenary The Seer The Warlock


As you can see, each one has peculiar traits and abilities, and exploits most of the weapons common to all classes in their own personal way. Let me explain:

The Newcomer is the default, best balanced class - the one that you managed to try out up to the latest release of the mod before this one. If you are unsure about who to pick up / are trying the mod for the first time, this remains the best choice. And as you know, his signature weapon is the Mav3rSickle.

The Mercenary is your typical tank-like, brawler-type character. Muscular and very resilient to most kinds of attacks, he is more effective with low tech or melee weapons, but not very good with magical ones. Sports the highest ordinary stamina pool, but also the lowest moving speed. Suffers very low recoil from most weapons.
Starting signature weapon: the Mace Of Rancor - a heavy iron mace you can smash enemies with. Every few hits, the mace supercharges (accumulates its own titular "rancor") and delivers a more devastating, ranged blow. With a tome of power, the weapon decides a different attack according to the distance between you and your foe: if near, the mace hits directly, otherwise it hurls an image of itself in explosive form.
Special ability: the alternate fire of most weapons is tied to a special move that you can perform with the mace - a very quick and quite effective smash that can be useful as the occasional finisher / ammo saver. Needless to say, even these side blows can exploit the Rancor Effect. A gauge in the top right corner of the screen hints at the current "rancor" level.

The Seer: a pagan priestess with a devotion to the cult of Mother Earth, she is quite frail in terms of stamina. To compensate for this, she is also blazing fast - both when moving, and when using any kind of weapon - and blessed to resist poisoning attacks better than any other. She isn't robust enough to deal with weapon recoil very well, though.
Starting signature weapon: Gaia's Perch might seem like an ordinary wooden staff at first, but in fact it's infused with the magical force of the great goddess. When the priestess holds it idle with both hands, she receives a costant life upgrade that can allow her to recover from wounds - for example, while running away or trying a "pacifist escape" through hordes of monsters. Oh, and don't underestimate the attack power of the staff - it requires a bit of practice to master its combos, though. If powered up, the healing ability of the staff increases - so does its attack power.
Special ability: the alternate fire of most weapons can be used to throw an "Ethereal Bond": a trail of stardust that lets you grip to any surface, pulling you in shortly after. Think the ultimate climbing harpoon - great to escape overcrowded places, or to reach ledges that are normally unaccessible...

The Warlock: a sinister magician, whose actual ties with the dark side remain unclear... As one could expect, he is superior to any other in exploiting the power of all things magical, but similarly, he isn't equally proficient with non-magical ones. Thanks to his arcane arts, he developed superior resistance to fire; yet he is the weakest against all other kinds of damage. And interestingly, he's got the strange ability of (gently) floating down from high places - a double-faced asset, this.
Starting signature weapon: he owns the MoochStone, mounted on her own, eerily-looking wand - a mysterious stone whose magical ranged attacks are not really threatening per se, but allow the wizard to spill extra mana from his victims for each connecting hit. The powered incarnation of the stone delivers more damaging, more accurately-seeking projectiles.
Special ability: the natural ability of a great magician can be none other than... Casting magic! And that's precisely the same here: alternate fire of most weapons allows this class to cast the spell that was last-selected on the spellcasting sphere (provided that the required amount of mana for it is available!). To verify which one is the sideloaded spell in every moment, look in the upper, rightmost corner of the screen...


As usual, this version comes with its own fair share of bugfixes (whose origin was mentioned in the preceding posts - thank you all for reporting). Look in the OP to find out, and to download this latest version!
I hope you can enjoy the newly-added characters, and please find the t/nc review here. Don't forget to drop me a line in the IDGames page - I can't believe it hasn't got any review yet!

[Mav3rick]

Hey nice looking update

few things and suggestions

1.. When the tome is used give the Mav3rSickle the ability of absort constant life from enemies, after been hit with it, they get surrounded by a red or dark aura that keep sucking they life and cause more pain state? of course it will no last till they die but it will be a good way to keep a fight with big enemies when there is low ammo or no strong weapons at hand

2.. can be added dual revolvers? since having only one and it have very bad aim i guess the caracter is drunk lol, will no be better have 2 to have some compensation for the lack of aiming

3.. Trident Of The Titans can you add the ability to hold the target as this is been hit be the lightning? i notice that what make this weapon "weak" is that when they get hit they are constant been pushed away and that make the damage be low, so to avoid this the enemy will be hold as long the lightning is active, maybe increment the pain state

4.. Pyrokrates i supoce the recoil can be lower some because is weird have the enemy on the center of my sight to find the ball travel upward and no hitting the spot, which make it hard for long rage attack

5.. Power Symbol holly molly O.o weird as hell weapon, powerful as a bomb and kick more than a donkey lol XD, the weapon is nice but the fire animation really dont let me look beyond and there is no idea if the shoot is the target, maybe make the sprite translucent?? and please can you do something with the HUGE kick back? it make the weapon useless if there is no a wall to hold on

6.. Alephoxes can you be able to the player remove their shield or destroy it? they use it too much sometimes and can be annoying (btw when they have the shield up they are invulnerables?)

7.. maybe lower the spawn of arachnids from the Infector a small room and that is chaos with butter lol

as always great progress with the mod liking many things and having fun killing and been killed
cheers

[-Ghost-]

Just played through a few levels as the first class, the guns feel pretty good now. There was one thing I wanted to suggest, would you be able to make the barrels breakable and hold items? It might be a good way to replenish ammo/health/items occasionally by breaking a bunch of them. I've seen other heretic mods do it before and it's a nice little touch.

[rsl]

Hey nice looking update (...) as always great progress with the mod liking many things and having fun killing and been killed

Thank you!

1.. When the tome is used give the Mav3rSickle the ability of absort constant life from enemies, after been hit with it, they get surrounded by a red or dark aura that keep sucking they life and cause more pain state? of course it will no last till they die but it will be a good way to keep a fight with big enemies when there is low ammo or no strong weapons at hand

Hmm... Implementing that on the melee puff is a bit more complicated IMHO, but I could make it spawn leeching/seeking projectiles with a limited existence time, when powered. What about it

2.. can be added dual revolvers? since having only one and it have very bad aim i guess the caracter is drunk lol, will no be better have 2 to have some compensation for the lack of aiming

Well, I am not so fond of the dual revolvers idea... But I can nonetheless improve the accuracy and speed of the single one.

3.. Trident Of The Titans can you add the ability to hold the target as this is been hit be the lightning? i notice that what make this weapon "weak" is that when they get hit they are constant been pushed away and that make the damage be low, so to avoid this the enemy will be hold as long the lightning is active, maybe increment the pain state

Going to try with +NODAMAGETHRUST!

4.. Pyrokrates i supoce the recoil can be lower some because is weird have the enemy on the center of my sight to find the ball travel upward and no hitting the spot, which make it hard for long rage attack

I guess I may nerf its recoil a bit... And also slightly augment radius and height of the fireballs.

5.. Power Symbol holly molly O.o weird as hell weapon, powerful as a bomb and kick more than a donkey lol XD, the weapon is nice but the fire animation really dont let me look beyond and there is no idea if the shoot is the target, maybe make the sprite translucent?? and please can you do something with the HUGE kick back? it make the weapon useless if there is no a wall to hold on

Well, I conceived that as a tradeoff to the sheer power of the weapon. In this connection, I am a bit more uncertain on what to do...

6.. Alephoxes can you be able to the player remove their shield or destroy it? they use it too much sometimes and can be annoying (btw when they have the shield up they are invulnerables?)

I know! I've been a bit frustrated by them during my playtests, too. The weapon best designed to deal with them is the Trident (such as the Arc Of Death was killer with the Centaurs), so I guess I'll reduce their resistance to electricity a little bit more...

7.. maybe lower the spawn of arachnids from the Infector a small room and that is chaos with butter lol

Yeah, now I actually remember you asking for that already Should be done for the next version.

Just played through a few levels as the first class, the guns feel pretty good now.

Thank you! Glad to hear it - all those balance tweaks paid off at the end...

There was one thing I wanted to suggest, would you be able to make the barrels breakable and hold items? It might be a good way to replenish ammo/health/items occasionally by breaking a bunch of them. I've seen other heretic mods do it before and it's a nice little touch.

That would be a really nice touch. Yes, I am going to look into it - thanks for the suggestion!

[Mav3rick]

Hmm... Implementing that on the melee puff is a bit more complicated IMHO, but I could make it spawn leeching/seeking projectiles with a limited existence time, when powered. What about it

Sound good

Well, I am not so fond of the dual revolvers idea... But I can nonetheless improve the accuracy and speed of the single one.

Accuracy will be a great one, the speed is good as it is

Going to try with +NODAMAGETHRUST!

sound like a plan

I guess I may nerf its recoil a bit... And also slightly augment radius and height of the fireballs.

Kindly appreciated

Well, I conceived that as a tradeoff to the sheer power of the weapon. In this connection, I am a bit more uncertain on what to do...

mmm maybe make the player slow when is selected and almost no be able to move when is used (shooting)


oh btw the little special fx are really good nice touch

Edit: the revolver is still been pick up when is ammo is full

[NantoCodd]

The weapons are cool, especially the silk smooth animation. But for me the weapons and players sounds is weak and lo-fi .
The revolver is powerful, will down cultists (heh Blood ruins my interpretation of robe-clad mooks in games) in 1-2 shots but it feels wrong that it goes paff paff instead of BLAM BLAM. The HUD and weapons graphics is good, but I will thank you very much if you can make it compatible for widescreen.

[-Ghost-]

Yeah, the weapons could use a little more oomph in the sounds department, especially the revolver. I also noticed something weird, I skipped ahead in E1 to about E1M3 or E1M4 and no matter how many Adepts I Killed, I couldn't pick up a revolver. Was it just bad luck?

[rsl]

The weapons are cool, especially the silk smooth animation.

Thank you! I set out to have crazy weapon animations as one of the main mod peculiarities, and you are actually the first to highlight them...

The HUD and weapons graphics is good, but I will thank you very much if you can make it compatible for widescreen.

Considering how many sprites would need this treatment, I doubt I shall consider this task.

But for me the weapons and players sounds is weak and lo-fi . The revolver is powerful, will down cultists (heh Blood ruins my interpretation of robe-clad mooks in games) in 1-2 shots but it feels wrong that it goes paff paff instead of BLAM BLAM.

Yeah, the weapons could use a little more oomph in the sounds department, especially the revolver.

For NantoCodd: I guess your are referring to its powered-up sound. Regarding player classes, originals for the last-added ones were admittedly of low quality - but I suspect no improved version exists... And yes - while I am quite satisfied with how the most part of game sounds turned out, I admit that some are quite weak - for example, all the Spear attacks, or the cited revolver. I shall reconsider them for the next release...

I also noticed something weird, I skipped ahead in E1 to about E1M3 or E1M4 and no matter how many Adepts I Killed, I couldn't pick up a revolver. Was it just bad luck?

Hmm, tried your same pattern myself, and it worked fine. A couple points:
- could you have met arquebus-toting cultists only?
- I used classic cheat engageXY to jump to E1M3, E1M4. Were you using the same? (the other way I know - CHANGEMAP from console - preserves your old inventory...)

Thank you all for trying (and hopefully enjoying) the mod!

[NantoCodd]

For the weapon sounds, I mean the un-powered forms, its normal state. For me, well maybe just me, they sounds weak, make me feel unconfident using them without Tome of Power, although ammo come in heaps. And about the most melee weapon, can you make them a bit more responsive? They are mostly used during early level, and sometimes when I swing my melee weapons I already damaged by enemies before I can hit them.

[-Ghost-]

I was using the map e1m4, etc command in the console to warp, so maybe that affected it somehow. I saw them dropping pistols, but couldn't pick them up, they'd disappear.

[rsl]

An updated version of the mod (4++) is now available at the usual download location.
Highlighted changes include:

- enhanced Gaia's Perch (for better balance as starting weapon).
- improved speed and accuracy of revolver.
- reduced recoil on Pyrokrates, improved normal mode projectile.
- added leeching projectiles to Mav3rSickle powered form.
- added +NODAMAGETHRUST to Trident attacks.
- Alephoxes now less resistant to electric damage.
- slightly reduced spawning rate of arachnids from Infector.
- added supply barrel that - when broken - provides assorted ammo for non-magical weapons. You can spot it by a black 'X' painted on it.
- better sounds for revolver and spear.
- slightly reduced the initial 'charge' time of most melee weapons.

This release also marks the end of development for the mod - I have another long-standing project that claims for attention, plus a lot of ZDOOM-unrelated stuff going on. Please enjoy!