ONSLAUGHT - GZDoom meets Dark Messiah of Might & Magic (plus Head Soccer!)
ONSLAUGHT is a melee-focused mod for GZDoom, inspired by Dark Messiah of Might & Magic. It is set in a dark, barbaric fantasy world where you have to fight through arenas filled with deadly enemies and traps.
Gameplay features:
- Kick your enemies into spikes and lava pits!
- Bash them with your shield to stagger them, or block their attacks!
- Use power attacks to deal vicious blows to your foe!
- Execute fallen enemies to gain rage!
- Collect enough rage to enter rage mode, becoming an unstoppable killing machine!
- Participate in a match of Head Soccer!
Description:
ONSLAUGHT started as a simple melee mod after being inspired by the old Barbarian I and II games from the 80s. To add to the deadly feel of combat, the first thing I added was the ability to kick monsters into spike walls that happen to stand around everywhere, in turn inspired by the awesome melee combat system of Dark Messiah of Might Magic. This gameplay style lends itself well to arena-like maps where having all these traps around you actually makes sense
I went for a dark and brutal fantasy scenario as seen in Dark Sun or the world of Conan the Cimmerian. In my opinion, model-based actors work better for melee combat due to the smooth frame interpolation, so I added some monsters from Quake and gave them animations for their new abilities and special deaths. To make combat more tactical, enemies can block attacks and won't run around like headless chicken between attacks. The HUD was kept very simple and is in fact not visible most of the time; this is a direct copy of the HUD from Skyrim. Besides stamina and health, I added a rage mechanic that lets you enter a berserker-like mode for a short period of time. Since kicking heads around just had to be included, I also created a soccer field that even tracks score and has (zombie-)cheerleaders.Included so far:
- Maps: One map consisting of two arenas (plus a Head Soccer match)
- Items: Gauntlets, axe, wooden shield, rage pickups
- Enemies: Knights, deathknights, zombies
Development notes:
The spikewalls were the first thing to be implemented and went through many iterations until I got their behavior (or rather, their victims' behaviors) mostly right. I had to rig and animate the Quake models for the new monster death states, which later came in handy when I wrote more advanced enemy behavior, where they would be able to block your attacks. The player has the ability to kick as well as block and bash with his or her shield plus use power attacks, which all had to work flawlessly together. After I noticed that the player can get surrounded quickly, I added a ground stomp which sends enemies flying away to make for some breathing space.
The map is heavily scripted, especially the head soccer mechanic took quite a while to get right. I chose to include tutorial-like hint messages to explain the new gameplay concepts.
What I would like to add:
- Power attacks and kicks/bashes for enemies
- Slow motion / bullet time to dodge enemy power attacks
- More enemy types, including archers (to make shields even more useful)
- More weapontypes: Hammers, swords, and two-handed versions of everything
- Player skill system for longer rage mode, stronger kicks, more damage for power attacks while sprinting,...
- More maps and traps (fire, or jumppads that launch enemies into ceiling spikes!)
- More variety in the encounters apart from "monsters plus traps in arena"
- Some kind of armor system, possibly
- Boss fights
- Goofy or Wilhelm scream when kicking enemies into pits (thanks to Monody for the idea)
- Power attack as a seperate bind optionally (for Delta Touch users)
onslaught.pk3
ZMovement-style movement and NashGore have been integrated into Onslaught, so you only need to load onslaught.pk3 itself.
ONSLAUGHT works with either Doom II or Hexen IWADS (Hexen is preferable for the more fitting music).
Changelog:
0.2 (08/23/2022)
The shield and kick work again after being broken due to changes in GZDoom in the way model overlays work earlier this year. There are also some small fixes, like added footsteps and most importantly, no mod bloat anymore; ZMovement-style movement and NashGore have been integrated into Onslaught, so you only need to load onslaught.pk3 itself (with Hexen.wad as iwad, preferably, or Doom II).
0.1
Initial version
Credits:
- Raven Software - Assets
- id Software- Assets
- Boondorl - Spike Wall relative velocity math, Overlay/PSprite help
- Jekyll Grim Payne - Overlay/PSprite help
- Nash - Nashgore, NashMove
- Ivory Duke - ZMovement
- HorrorMovieGuy - Quake asset conversion & actor code
- Hewson Consultants - Title & title screen art
- vsonnier - ZScript Footsteps
- DAZombieKiller - Original Footstep code
), I love the slim knight design from Q1, oh.. those axe vs sword duels . 
