Harbinger 2.0

[Shadelight]

That would be greatly appreciated, LilWhiteMouse.

[LilWhiteMouse]

I think I've done all the grunt work. Rewrote a lot of it from scratch.
http://home.midmaine.com/~lilwhitemo/harbinger.7z

Fluff text for the original project:

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The three Omens they were called, the destroyers of worlds.
The first, the Harbinger of Doom. The Harbinger signaled the end of a world. A rock, with as much brains. The Harbinger was a blunt weapon, forcing a world's inhabitants to wield their most powerful weapons to counter it. Deployed at major population areas, the Harbingers cause chaos and destruction on epic scales. Even if a world manages to defeat them, the resources spent doing so would cost them later. Despite it massive size, the Harbinger's brain was little more then information storage. As their range of targets begins to thin out, Harbingers that cross paths had been known to inadvertently kill each other.

The second Omen, the Adjudicator of Hersey. Lacking the raw power of the Harbingers, the Adjudicators make up for it with a most dark intelligence. When the Harbingers had completed their jobs, the Adjudicators would hunt down and kill the remaining Harbingers. Feasting on the Harbingers, the Adjudicator absorbs all the knowledge the Harbinger had gathered on their reign of chaos. With this information, the Adjudicators begin their quest to quell pockets of resistance the Harbingers were unable to handle. Unlike the Harbingers, Adjudicators commonly worked in packs to shepard their targets.

The final Omen, the Mother Devourer. When Adjudicators had silenced the remaining strength of a world, the Devourers would descend. Gorging themselves on the aura of pain and suffering left behind in the wake, they would absorb all the biological material a planet had to offer. As their bodies swelled, they birthed new Harbingers and Adjudicators, to begin the cycle anew.

[EDIT] If anyone is wondering why the Harbinger has so many HPs, you were never meant to take it on with infantry. You were supposed to escort these units to within their firing range so they could bring it down.
UAC Pathfinder

UAC Ultra Berserker
Same as a Berserker but with the mounted recoiless cryo rifle.

[LilWhiteMouse]

Bumpity
Working on a few improvements:
I've tightened the spread of the eye beam spawn points, so they don't appear outside the sprite.
Gave the magma cannon shots an initial downward angle in case it doesn't have a proper target.
Gonna try and tweak the foot impacts to better match the location of the sprite.
Still not happy with the death. I need large gore sprites, any suggestions? I'll make my own if need be.

---

Rayne - "I have entrails in my hair." Sevren says something I can't remember. Rayne - "I HAVE ENTRAILS IN MY HAIR."
Now that would be interesting. You bore a hole into the Harbinger, then have to climb in and shoot it's "heart", before getting ejected and have to do it all over again.

I'd like to make the Suicide Souls a little flashier. Compared to the magma shot and eye beams they're rather boring.
Would there be any objections if I changed the belly gun into a flamer?
Forgot to fix the magma gun's facing to the body when it's destroyed.

[Shadelight]

Those are awesome models.

[Xaser]

Wow -- this guy is just as awesome as I remember.

Ah, it's times like these I wish I hadn't stopped adding to Zen. Thankfully, that wish only lasts for a couple of seconds before I realize how absolutely silly that would be.

[Matt]

Wow -- this guy is just as awesome as I remember.

What Xaser said.

It's precisely because they're not as flashy that I've probably taken more hits from the suicide souls than anything else... nothing quite like turning around and suddenly meeting with a screaming skull before dying, almost took me back to the very first time I'd ever seen a Lost Soul.

Dunno about the flamer... it was never worth going anywhere near the thing to shoot it,* so unless the player's forced to get in close for whatever reason it seems to be a pretty big downgrade.

*except when I cheated and used the BFG

[LilWhiteMouse]

nothing quite like turning around and suddenly meeting with a screaming skull before dying

They actually do this now, scream as they fly.

Dunno about the flamer... it was never worth going anywhere near the thing to shoot it,* so unless the player's forced to get in close for whatever reason it seems to be a pretty big downgrade.

Base friendly AI isn't that smart. Moths to the flame they are.

[Shadelight]

Yeah, I think I'll move this now so it doesn't get lost in this forum for all eternity.

[LilWhiteMouse]

Revised edition:
http://home.midmaine.com/~lilwhitemo/harbinger.7z
OGG'd the bigger sounds, dropped the file size down to 1mb 7zipped. Suicide Souls are a little better, and improved the aiming of the eye beams. The Harbinger now holds it's position when it uses it's eye beams, and the legs stop as well. Left the belly gun as is, just tweaked it's range a little.

Friendly marines will occasionally stop attacking/moving. I could probably fix this, but I've strived to keep them as simple as possible for outside modification.

[Ceeb]

We need to create the title of "Mistress of ZDoom Innovation" specifically for LWM.

[David Ferstat]

And, yet again, I can't connect to Mouse's ISP. Can someone please post a mirror?

Many thanks.

[Captain Ventris]

You really need to get a line down to her secret lair installed like the rest of us, David.

[LilWhiteMouse]

Revisions for the next version:
The belly gun was firing too high, forgot to fix it when I went back to the old projectile.
When the Harbinger is reduced to 3 parts, and the body is still alive, it now enters a panic mode. In this mode it attacks more often, and can use it's eye beam attack without any delay. When in this mode, I reduced it to a max of four beams to compensate.

[David Ferstat]

You really need to get a line down to her secret lair installed like the rest of us, David.

Dammit, I was wondering what was wrong!

[LilWhiteMouse]

http://home.midmaine.com/~lilwhitemo/harbinger.7z
Updated the first post with a more permanent screenshot.
Added an extra visual effect to the magma pools.
A better death, actually leaves a bit of carcass behind now. Still needs work though. I was able to cheat with my Super Mastermind and use the Mastermind death. Haven't really found anything useful for the Harbinger yet.
Split things into three wads (all contained in the 7zip), the harbinger itself, the demo map, and the extra bits. The extras.wad does contain the friendly marines which are required, but I figure any end user will probably (and should) modify them to make their own cannon fodder.

To do still:
The final death.
Strip the demo level to bare minimum, and add a second more playable demo level. Probably raid the failed Hellspawn 2 map for bits.
Rename some of the sprites to be unique (ripped straight from Heretic/Hexen).
Update the eye beams to use FastProjectile instead of MageWandMissile.