Scavver's Paradise V3 Beta - A Survival Horror Mod

[CaptainNurbles]

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Took a peek of current version of version 1.5 and compared it to when I started (with slow, bouncy shrapnel) of version 1.0; I noticed you applied the +HITOWNER flag and I'm wondering if it's consuming all the shrapnel on itself, somehow? The wiki mentions to take careful note of this. I can't see anything else that sticks out. Bizarre.

YOU'RE A GENIUS. 100% the problem, the shrapnel was being generated, and was just hitting the first thing it came in contact with, which happened to be the barrel it was inside. Easy fix, just make a separate HostileShrapX actor that is funcitonally the same minus HITOWNER. I'm also going to apply this to enemies that fling explosives so that they don't accidentally kill themselves.

Would recommend lowering the chance of spawning a proper chaingunner that can spawn from the chaingunguy actor replacer, along with giving him 10 more HP to better represent his thick armor and large frame.

Good heavens I already panic whenever I see the big red bastard. I like the cut of your jib, consider it done.

Any chance in the future of making the 9mm SMG use the custom in universe 9x20mm 'Slugger' round (Browning Long?), for consistency's sake? Maybe slight damage tweak and abundance change to reflect this?

Main reason for the SMG using 9mm Luger is to sorta explain why the SMG is weaker than the police pistol per shot. That said, I do need to boost the damage of the auto pistol to be on par with the police pistol since, at least in semi auto mode, their fire rates are now about the same and the lowered damage was originally to sorta balance the auto pistol out some back before I changed the weapons to true semi auto (Pick the police pistol for damage and accuracy, pick the auto pistol for rate of fire.)

Also, I forgot to mention this early on, but burn damage from immolated enemies running into stuff (including you) is way too high for what it is,

Gonna be tedious, but I do generally agree. Gonna nerf the blast damage caused by flaming enemies.

and on top of that, imp resistance to fire is next to nothing. I'd leave non-fire based demons alone in terms of adding fire resistance, but imps get set ablaze like ironic tinderboxes.

The main reason behind the adding of fire resistance is me figuring that demons that live in a dimension of fire and brimstone would at least be somewhat used to the heat, with lesser demons having less resistance and greater demons having more. Then there's the flame boye himself the Archvile who is largely impervious to fire.

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[CaptainNurbles]

A quick fix has been released! Just a few fixes for some bugbears, notably the broken automap and the barrel shrapnel issue, with a few niceties tacked on as well. Won't break your saves if updating from 1.5 to 1.6.

DOWNLOAD HERE (Updated 30/1/21)

Changelog:

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1.6 Quick Fix! Uploaded 30/1/21

* Barrels now generate shrapnel properly FOR REAL THIS TIME OMG.
* Enemies that fling explosives can no longer be harmed by their own shrapnel.
* Medical goods have had their max amounts changed:
Stimpak) From 6 to 12
Bandage) From 9 to 24
Blood Pack) From 3 to 6
Pain Killers) From 3 to 6
Medikit) From 3 to 5
Berserk Pack) From 1 to 3
Super Stim) From 3 to 6
Berserk Injector) From 1 to 3
* Bandages are half as effective per use, but each pickup gives 3 uses of bandage.
* Changed a detail with one of the text logs, forgot to change a name.
* Fixed the automap not displaying properly.
* TazeFist now displays proper sprite when scrapped for ammo.
* Frag Grenades have a new sprite, and the arms no longer detach from your body when throwing them.
* 4.6mm PDW has new sprites and sounds.
* 4.6mm PDW and pistol have had their damages buffed.
* 9mm auto pistol now deals the same damage as the 9mm police pistol.
* Standard PDA drops are now similar to the map PDA in that they give you a random data log you've yet to pick up, eliminating the chance of getting duplicates.
* Crossbow bolts now cause actors to bleed.
* Sawed-off Shotgun zombie, when wielding the 12g single, now drops up to 4 individual shells when killed.
* Blind Pinkies would continue to block players even after death. Fixed.
* Zombies, when burned to a crisp, cause flame damage in a small radius. The damage has been nerfed. It also deals the proper damage type.
* Auto Pistol zombies, when burned to death, now drop auto pistols. Before they dropped police pistols.
* Combat SMG zombies, when wielding the 4.6mm PDW, are guaranteed to drop a PDW. Before it was a slightly less than 100% chance to drop.
* Chaingun zombies are rarer now, but are tougher.
* .22 Pistol zombie now has a very innaccurate burst attack it uses when close, and a more accurate single shot attack when at longer distances. I plan on doing this for all gunner zombies, to some degree.
* Fisticuff punching is slightly faster and slightly stronger.
* Knuckle punch damage is stronger, making the knuckles more useful.
* Some weapon world sprites have been mirrored so that they all face the right for consistency's sake.
* Item tags have been modified to play nicer with Use To Pickup.

[Abba Zabba]

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YOU'RE A GENIUS. 100% the problem, the shrapnel was being generated, and was just hitting the first thing it came in contact with, which happened to be the barrel it was inside. Easy fix, just make a separate HostileShrapX actor that is funcitonally the same minus HITOWNER. I'm also going to apply this to enemies that fling explosives so that they don't accidentally kill themselves.

You're too kind, I'm just happy to help. I figure even if it wasn't the case it's worth mentioning to at least get all bases covered. And thank you for updating this concentrated piece of tough, quality addiction as often as you do.

* Standard PDA drops are now similar to the map PDA in that they give you a random data log you've yet to pick up, eliminating the chance of getting duplicates.

You might be psychic, because I was just about to mention that, with Use to Pickup, I now pay attention to what PDA logs I'm about to pickup, and was wondering if a log could either let me continue picking up more units of the same unique log (so they don't sit around), or be randomized with a new one you've yet to see, given per pickup. Great change. (and I'm assuming all the writing of the logs is done by just yourself, I love these logs and would encourage you to write more in the future, especially now that they're guaranteed to give you something new per pickup.)

* Blind Pinkies would continue to block players even after death. Fixed.

THIS was what was gnawing at me days ago that I forgot to mention in post. I only noticed it once, however, on a wide lift. Wasn't exactly sure if it was the creepy blind pinky that looked like it came out of Unloved, or if it was something else.

* .22 Pistol zombie now has a very innaccurate burst attack it uses when close, and a more accurate single shot attack when at longer distances. I plan on doing this for all gunner zombies, to some degree.

Good change, they're a bit of a pushover even for a 'high' tier zombieman spawn. Do they have a chance of a failed rimfire crimp on hammer drop, like the player? This also reminded me that the female ZK-172 zombie never uses her underslung shotgun at close range, maybe add it in the future? Would have the added benefit of potentially being nastier than a few round burst, depending on your armor situation, but at the same time, could be weaker than the burst.

Great stuff, again.

[CaptainNurbles]

(and I'm assuming all the writing of the logs is done by just yourself, I love these logs and would encourage you to write more in the future, especially now that they're guaranteed to give you something new per pickup.)[/quote[

100% mine. I don't consider myself much a writer, though I do have fun doing up short bits of prose like what's in the mod. I'd love to add more to help flesh the world out a bit more! But I also want to avoid adding text logs that tell similar things, I want each one to be unique and to feel like a bunch of pieces to the same story, rather than just the same pieces as one another, if that makes sense. I'd also be willing to take in guest writings for extra logs to be found, though I'd be a bit strict with those to make sure that they're consistent with the lore I've got in me head, while also being vague enough to work with mostly any map set you pick, and of course make sure that they're quick bite sized logs that can be read in the brief moments between firefights.

Good change, they're a bit of a pushover even for a 'high' tier zombieman spawn. Do they have a chance of a failed rimfire crimp on hammer drop, like the player?

I actually never considered that! I might just add that in.

This also reminded me that the female ZK-172 zombie never uses her underslung shotgun at close range, maybe add it in the future? Would have the added benefit of potentially being nastier than a few round burst, depending on your armor situation, but at the same time, could be weaker than the burst.

With her I plan on:

Long range, single shot rifle attack that's highly accurate.

Medium-long range spray and pray, highly inaccurate, but a torrential storm of lead to suppress the player and keep them behind cover. This is a maybe since I'd imagine it'd be more help to the player from infighting.

Medium-close range burst attack similar to what she's got now, moderate accuracy.

Close range shotgun attack.

If player is WAY too close, like a few feet apart, backpedal to get some space.

I plan on a similar convention for most other gunners, giving them a bit more anti-player strategy than just "occasionally shoot."

By the way, it took me this long to realize that the explosives need some major balancing out. 40mm grenades deal almost 500 damage at most (including splash damage), much stronger than vanilla rockets, and have a wide blast radius and tons of shrapnel. 20mm rocklets from the cannon dish out 300+ damage per hit if splash is included, and 84mm rockets can deal over a thousand damage per shot if luck is on your side. Would you folks say I should lower explosive damage some?

[Abba Zabba]

Haven't tested the rockets (neither 20mm nor 84mm) but I can say that the 40mm grenades do feel a bit OP. I think they should reliably kill up to cacos and that brown squire hell knight (that's supposed to project shields? I haven't caught it doing so yet), but not so much the more powerful rare alt monsters of those tiers and above. Shouldn't kill a mancubus or arachnotron (basic variant), imo.

Won't speak for the 20mm rockets, but I'd personally leave that potential 1000 damage of the 84mm rockets alone so you have a designated boss buster. Tweak the availability some though, they are quite common for what they are. Same applies moreso to 40mm grenades. Perhaps swap them out with impact bombs and frags, moreso. Maybe even some fire bombs which I have trouble finding.

That topic of enemy-launched capsules of manhacks is indeed a brutal thought, but then I got to wondering about it's potential application for a proper boss (maybe barons, since they're technically bosses, but by proper boss I mean the huge tier of cyberdemon or spider mastermind). Since you hug cover just about the most you ever do when fighting bosses, it could be a cruel way of flushing out a concealed player, fitting ability for something that tough.

[CaptainNurbles]

Haven't tested the rockets (neither 20mm nor 84mm) but I can say that the 40mm grenades do feel a bit OP. I think they should reliably kill up to cacos and that brown squire hell knight (that's supposed to project shields? I haven't caught it doing so yet), but not so much the more powerful rare alt monsters of those tiers and above. Shouldn't kill a mancubus or arachnotron (basic variant), imo.

I looked into the theoretical max damages of the explosives when shrapnel was factored in and JESUS the 40mm grenades were almost as damaging as the 84mm rockets were! Up to 300 impact damage, over 200 splash damage, with dozens of shrapnel each doing up to 30 damage per projectile! What in the god damn was I thinking. 20mm rocklets were dealing nearly 500 damage in total per shot with shrapnel factored in, meaning they could theoretically drop hell knights in one go. Even thrown frag grenades were dealing dick loads of damage! I know I said I was going to slow down on updates and such but this is ridonculous! I'll be uploading a patch some time soon to address these insane damages. As it currently stands, explosives outperform BFG weapons not just in terms of weighing less, but in terms of raw damage output. You have no reason NOT to ditch the energy weapons in favor of explosives. I'll also look into buffing BFG-tier weaponry overall.

Tweak the availability some though, they are quite common for what they are. Same applies moreso to 40mm grenades. Perhaps swap them out with impact bombs and frags, moreso. Maybe even some fire bombs which I have trouble finding.

In general I'm gonna see about having 40mm grenades and 84mm rockets be rarer, with the makeshift explosives being slightly more common. Fire bombs are so rare because of how absolutely ridiculously damaging they are against crowds. Toss one of those in a crowded hallway and you've basically bought yourself a brief moment of respite to relax and chill out. I ~want~ them that dangerous as a sorta "get out of jail free" card for ambushes and traps.

That topic of enemy-launched capsules of manhacks is indeed a brutal thought, but then I got to wondering about it's potential application for a proper boss (maybe barons, since they're technically bosses, but by proper boss I mean the huge tier of cyberdemon or spider mastermind). Since you hug cover just about the most you ever do when fighting bosses, it could be a cruel way of flushing out a concealed player, fitting ability for something that tough.

You've reminded me that I really ought to finish the enemy roster by adding archvile, spider mastermind, and cyberdemon replacements.

[Abba Zabba]

Bug: the 'unbranded' flamethrower is able to be scrapped for ammo, when the PDA entry for the flamethrower describes the fact that the proprietary fuel tanks that it uses are incapable of being swapped out by hand, making ammo scavenging for the weapon pointless. Scrapping the flamethrower just seems to play a rocket launcher chambering sound while deleting the weapon.

Would love to see those 3 bosses (if barons of hell are counted as bosses, archviles imo should definitely be included, barons and archviles fit pretty snugly into a mini boss tier) be modified for this great mod.

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I tweaked bandages further and made a roll give 4 units, but heal for 10 each, just to make them as flexible of healing as could be, and to add just a bit more distinction and shine to stims giving 20 HP so quickly (stims have felt ideally balanced from the get go of version 1.0 so good job on that.) I also lowered max bandages from 24 to 20, and lowered max stims from 12 to 10 for consistency's sake. I've honestly been liking this change a bit more, and would recommend you give it a shot to see how you feel about it. A roll of bandages only loses a pittance of 5 HP potential, and with this change, a full roll of bandages heals exactly twice that of a stim, with two bandages functioning the same as a single stim for getting you off of death's door of 1 HP, and into the minimum health required to be able to run again. Also, if you test this tweak, make sure to change the medikit so that it gives you 4 bandages instead of 3. Along with changing the PDA medical tip for bandages.

I'd make barrel shrapnel perhaps a bit more deadly. Maybe 50% more shrapnel? Damage isn't too bad as is, however.

Lastly, I edited the third (C) frame of the combat knife because I couldn't stand the baked in motion blur of the sprite; to me, it fits the mod's spirit better and isn't as visually distracting as it was before. If you want me to, I'll attach it to a response post.

[CaptainNurbles]

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Bug: the 'unbranded' flamethrower is able to be scrapped for ammo, when the PDA entry for the flamethrower describes the fact that the proprietary fuel tanks that it uses are incapable of being swapped out by hand, making ammo scavenging for the weapon pointless. Scrapping the flamethrower just seems to play a rocket launcher chambering sound while deleting the weapon.

I feel like it's probably more player friendly to be able to grab more ammo off a spare flamethrower, rather than having to completely spend one, then drop it to grab the other. I should, however, add a visual cue to let you know that "ey, you've gotten fuel from this thing" and reword the PDA entry to better explain such. I mostly added the bit about fuel being hard to come by to explain why I haven't been assed to make flamer fuel a regular ammo drop (Two reasons: 1) The mod REALLY doesn't need more ammo pickups, and B) The flamethrower is pretty dang powerful as it is, I want it to be a "sometimes food" that the player can use to simply demolish whatever they like for a brief moment.)

Would love to see those 3 bosses (if barons of hell are counted as bosses, archviles imo should definitely be included, barons and archviles fit pretty snugly into a mini boss tier) be modified for this great mod.

I don't know if I can be assed to add more monsters for the upcoming update, it's already a pain enough in the ass to be adding new attack patterns for all the gunner zombies on top of the other fixes and modifications I've been doing in my spare time. It will happen, tho.

Guff about bandages.

I'll play around with it some. I've also been tempted to add more types of medical goods to the mod to kinda spruce things up, but I don't know if there's much that would be helpful or interesting.

I'd make barrel shrapnel perhaps a bit more deadly. Maybe 50% more shrapnel? Damage isn't too bad as is, however.

I've been doing a UV run of Flashback to Hell in my spare time these past couple of days and yeah, I do agree. Added more shrapnel.

Lastly, I edited the third (C) frame of the combat knife because I couldn't stand the baked in motion blur of the sprite; to me, it fits the mod's spirit better and isn't as visually distracting as it was before. If you want me to, I'll attach it to a response post.

Eh, may as well! See how it looks.

At this point man you're basically an unofficial member of my mod team! (Of which, currently consists of me atm.)

[Abba Zabba]

KNFNC0.zip

(4.63 KiB) Downloaded 47 times

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Suggestion: add an armor remover tool/function for the times where your armor may be in good condition and/or of a higher tier, but you wish to swap to a different category of protection, such as ballistics, fire, or even melee.

Also, the 6mm UAC rifle could do with a little boost in fire rate on semi auto, so you can stunlock zombies at medium range.

I feel like it's probably more player friendly to be able to grab more ammo off a spare flamethrower, rather than having to completely spend one, then drop it to grab the other. I should, however, add a visual cue to let you know that "ey, you've gotten fuel from this thing" and reword the PDA entry to better explain such. I mostly added the bit about fuel being hard to come by to explain why I haven't been assed to make flamer fuel a regular ammo drop (Two reasons: 1) The mod REALLY doesn't need more ammo pickups, and B) The flamethrower is pretty dang powerful as it is, I want it to be a "sometimes food" that the player can use to simply demolish whatever they like for a brief moment.)

Collecting proprietary or not flamethrower fuel does sound like a good idea so you can amass a large reserve for the moment where you do plan on using it (similar to the chaingun,) but at the moment scrapping it just deletes the flamethrower and drops nothing, just to be clear.

I'll play around with it some. I've also been tempted to add more types of medical goods to the mod to kinda spruce things up, but I don't know if there's much that would be helpful or interesting.

I think one more general medical item could be worked in, but I'm not sure how in practice. I've really been enjoying the 10 HP bandages, but at the same time, I'm wondering about a way you can just set it and forget in terms of wound care, i.e., apply all that you need to for the time being and then wait for the HP to roll back to you. That's sort of like what a blood bag accomplishes already, but it's fairly situational and becomes less situational depending on how many vitality orbs you've happened to collect. Also, would recommend removing the ghetto lite amp gamma tint (plain white screen affect) from the bandages and instead give them to the stim and superstim, the white conveys this refreshing kind of feel, seems like more of a thing for stim stuff.

Glad you agree on shrapnel. Too often am I able to stand relatively close to a barrel and not get pelted with at least one piece of something from it.

Lastly, I edited the third (C) frame of the combat knife because I couldn't stand the baked in motion blur of the sprite; to me, it fits the mod's spirit better and isn't as visually distracting as it was before. If you want me to, I'll attach it to a response post.

Eh, may as well! See how it looks.

At this point man you're basically an unofficial member of my mod team! (Of which, currently consists of me atm.)

I'm flattered, but this is all yours, I just want to help something I find special and quality. Attached the sprite tweak to this post.

[Ac!d]

Issue with the T84 Rocket Launcher : If the T84 is loaded and you press the reload key, the T84 will reload and deplete 1 unit of ammo.

[CaptainNurbles]

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Suggestion: add an armor remover tool/function for the times where your armor may be in good condition and/or of a higher tier, but you wish to swap to a different category of protection, such as ballistics, fire, or even melee.

Would certainly love to! Currently, haven't an idea on how to implement this, from my guess would be some fuckery with ZScript, especially if you want the game to keep track of armor condition. I know it is doable with DECORATE and ACS, but from my limited knowledge it'd basically be limited to how it works in DRL:A. As in, you can pick up, carry, and drop armors, but if that bitch ain't at full condition when you remove it it's torn to shreds thanks to the limitations of not using ZScript.

Also, the 6mm UAC rifle could do with a little boost in fire rate on semi auto, so you can stunlock zombies at medium range.

Toying around with it, yeah having a faster semi firing rate is more fun. Personally don't want it to be too fast so as to make the semi-fire mode a more accurate, but more frustrating fully auto mode, tho, but the next update will see a faster semi-fire mode.

Collecting proprietary or not flamethrower fuel does sound like a good idea so you can amass a large reserve for the moment where you do plan on using it (similar to the chaingun,) but at the moment scrapping it just deletes the flamethrower and drops nothing, just to be clear.

Actually it deposits the ammo directly into your inventory, the only gun to do so. I'm not sure if I'll touch that just yet as one thing I do plan on doing is doing away with the "quick ammo scrap" feature and in its place having a dedicated "unload" button. Equip a gun, unload the magazine, and when you drop it it leaves an empty gun that CAN be picked up, but it has no ammo. The unload feature is definitely doable in DECORATE, but having it drop an empty gun if you unloaded it may be JANK AS FUCK unless I convert the weapons to ZScript, so a proper unload feature may wait til the 2.0 release.

I'm wondering about a way you can just set it and forget in terms of wound care, i.e., apply all that you need to for the time being and then wait for the HP to roll back to you. That's sort of like what a blood bag accomplishes already, but it's fairly situational and becomes less situational depending on how many vitality orbs you've happened to collect.

Sounds like it'd need ACS to do that. I'll give it some thought and some tinkering around. When it comes to adding more medical goods I was thinking more along the lines of general support items, things that would give the player a handy, actually useful boost. Something for a temporary boost in speed is tempting, but I don't really see that being used too often. I never use the steroids when playing Duke 3D.

Also, would recommend removing the ghetto lite amp gamma tint (plain white screen affect) from the bandages and instead give them to the stim and superstim, the white conveys this refreshing kind of feel, seems like more of a thing for stim stuff.

The various screen tints on healing items was done to help convey to the player "Healing is happening until it isn't!" Was a workaround, tho now that the HUD displays what items are in use when you're using them, suppose it's a bit redundant, innit?

Issue with the T84 Rocket Launcher : If the T84 is loaded and you press the reload key, the T84 will reload and deplete 1 unit of ammo.

Fixed. Literally just forgot to change how many frames a JumpIfInventory command needed to jump.

By the way, do you folks think the mod spawns too much health now? I just completed a run of Flashback to Hell with the mod and, good time overall, but I was FLUSH with health for like the last 2/3rds of the campaign, partly because of how often megaspheres and suits of marine armor would spawn in secrets. I'm talking constantly having over 75% bandages, 100% stimpaks, multiple medikits and berserk packs, etc. I was never ~not~ hurting for health.

Also this next update is going to see a new feature that is currently limited to just one weapon: Swapping out multiple ammo types! In my FTH playthrough I had realized that I'd made the Icon of Sin largely unbeatable due to the fact that your most reliable means of pumping explosives into its brain, the 84mm rocket launcher, had an abysmally tiny blast radius, and therefore could only harm the Icon via shrapnel. The grenade launchers are an option, but good luck getting the arc right in the heat of combat, or on certain Icon of Sin maps where the Romero Receptacle™ is oddly shaped.

Now it can take two types of rockets: High explosive, and HEAT. HE rockets have more impact damage than 40mm grenades but less splash damage, a slightly smaller blast radius, and less shrapnel. The HEAT shells are unchanged from before, having a tiny blast radius and low amounts of shrapnel, but insane impact damage. HE rockets are much more common than HEAT shells, which you may only find in individual units, never in larger boxes. I'll be toying around with this feature to see how the rocket launcher is balanced, but it should be an interesting addition! I may do something similar with the shotguns, giving them alternative ammo types to further increase their usefulness (maybe slugs for 20 gauge shotguns and dragonbreath for 12 gauge.)

I do NOT want to touch the non-shotgun ballistic guns (rifles, SMGs, pistols, etc.) since there's already tons of ammo types in that regard and adding more would be bad. Shells, explosives, figured that would be fine to introduce new ammo types into since there's only a small handful of ammo types on Shell and Rocket spawns.

[Antihistamine]

Overall I am really enjoying this mod a lot since I was looking for something like HD but more survival horror driven. Absolutely love the atmosphere of the mod, and the pda logs. (that was one of my favorite parts of doom 3)
Can't wait for the next update.

Thoughts and feedback

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-Casings and effects-
Really enjoying how all the casings and corpses stay, but I understand when people voice concerns about performance. Especially on lower end pcs and bigger maps. A good way to get the best of both world would to have some kind of slider for the number of casings and junk on the floor. That way people who have rigs that can handle it can max that out, or preferably just turn of de-spawning casings if they choose. Sort of like how nashgore and droplets have sliders for blood effects etc

-ammo stuff-
Something I do wish you could do however is check how much ammo you have for guns you are not currently carrying. Just so if the player is carrying a lot of one kind of ammunition; they know to be on the look out for that particular weapon.

-melee weapons-
Durability on melee weapons would be something that could be cool to tinker with. Perhaps something kind of like condemned criminal origins. That way stuff like the sledge hammer can stay powerful and meaty but not be spammed. This could also force the player to also use more variety in what melee weapons they use. I.E my pipe wrench is almost broken guess the knife is gonna have to do.

-Grenades-
A nice quality of life addition for them, would be the ability to hold them un-pinned, then throw em when you let go of the mouse button. So you can prep it for the throw before you round the corner.

[Abba Zabba]

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I don't know if this is recent or what, but I'm now noticing some pretty inconsistent health effects going on. Removing a powerup's color shouldn't affect duration, but now it seems that healing items are lasting for one second more than they should, but not all the time. I'm guessing this is GZ's own counting of tics being slightly inaccurate? It's bizarre. I spawn a bunch of stims and take health through the console, and test the whole stack of stims. I start off with 10 HP, then use a stim, go to 30 HP, use another, go to 50, then another stim, and I get to 75. Bandages for whatever reason seem to consistently heal 11 HP instead of 10 (given my change of 15 HP to 10 HP, of course,) but this may just be my luck. I'm going to try shaving off just half a second or so from the intended duration in tics (instead of the mod's default of seconds with the -X value, which I'm not certain on whether or not it allows decimals) to see if this errant, random occasion of an additional second of a healing item's effect, can be stopped.

RE: too much health: I personally think that normal, mundane medical items of stimpacks, medikits, and even berserk packs feel balanced enough and are still fairly tricky to come by depending on the map, but I will, however, agree that supernatural healing is somewhat OP, as they feel like they largely provide vanilla amounts of health reliably instead of another item spawning in their place. I'd buffer out soulspheres and megaspheres with more vitality orbs, and more permanent upgrades. With megaspheres spawning higher tier gear or having a higher chance to spawn health related things, as megaspheres in vanilla essentially function as a maxed out player restore in health and armor, almost always used before or after something that requires them, whereas soulspheres are just 100 supernatural health, and as such are more flexible in their distribution.

The alternate ammo type idea is great! That way too, you can prioritize splash later on in a mapset where you know that you might be dealing with a romero head, and knowing this, pack accordingly. Would love shotgun slugs, I've been forcing myself to use 20ga more often, because I forget that 9mm (pistol) mags and 20ga shells are your bread and butter; as a result, it's got me wondering if you'd consider adding temporary shields on monster death to soak up shrapnel or pellets so you can't super shotgun hole punch through a crowd, and would have to instead pepper your shots across the crowd for shotgun crowd control.

I hear you on the pistol, carbine, and rifle topic. Plenty of ammo types as is. Maybe in the future too, the 9mm can be condensed to one specific 9mm caliber (plain old ancient Parabellum or the custom in-universe 'Slugger' caliber), along with the .22WMR pistol being changed to just .22LR in the indefinite future, so you can strip the lowest tier of handgun from the lowest tier of gun toting zombie (did not know that zombieman tier gun wielding zombies had kevlar jackets, good to know now) and accumulate ammo to load into that incredibly useful .22LR PDW.

[CaptainNurbles]

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I don't know if this is recent or what, but I'm now noticing some pretty inconsistent health effects going on. Removing a powerup's color shouldn't affect duration, but now it seems that healing items are lasting for one second more than they should, but not all the time. I'm guessing this is GZ's own counting of tics being slightly inaccurate? It's bizarre. I spawn a bunch of stims and take health through the console, and test the whole stack of stims. I start off with 10 HP, then use a stim, go to 30 HP, use another, go to 50, then another stim, and I get to 75. Bandages for whatever reason seem to consistently heal 11 HP instead of 10 (given my change of 15 HP to 10 HP, of course,) but this may just be my luck. I'm going to try shaving off just half a second or so from the intended duration in tics (instead of the mod's default of seconds with the -X value, which I'm not certain on whether or not it allows decimals) to see if this errant, random occasion of an additional second of a healing item's effect, can be stopped.

If I were to guess it might be because of how GZDoom counts whole seconds vs the Doom engine's native Tic counting. I'll swap the durations from seconds to tics and see how that fairs.

Edit: Nope, even when counting in Tics and not seconds it still has a chance to heal extra. Probably just a limitation of PowerRegeneration. I'm sure there may be alternative ways to have gradual healing, but at the moment I'm unsure.

I was looking for something like HD but more survival horror driven.

If you haven't yet, might I recommend you try HDster with Ugly as Sin? One of the modules in it is a "scarcity" module which takes a player-specified percentage of items spawned and removes them. Of what's leftover, an additional slider can reduce it to scrap. As in, you'd have a chance to come across a Clip spawn and, if it wasn't simply removed, it might leave behind an empty ZM66 magazine and some loose 4.26mm rounds. Cranking that up can REALLY put the player on edge as they scrounge for supplies. Plus it has a corpse looting module that plays phenomenally into the scarcity.

Now that I think about it, might not be a bad idea to implement a scarcity slider of my own into the mod! That way players can pick how badly they want to be boned, and to also help account for maps that are normally resource rich like Struggle and Lost Civilization.

A good way to get the best of both world would to have some kind of slider for the number of casings and junk on the floor. That way people who have rigs that can handle it can max that out, or preferably just turn of de-spawning casings if they choose. Sort of like how nashgore and droplets have sliders for blood effects etc

I am planning on adding such a slider once I can figure out how to do such a thing. Won't be coming with this update, but perhaps the next update after this will focus heavily on CVars and shit!

Something I do wish you could do however is check how much ammo you have for guns you are not currently carrying. Just so if the player is carrying a lot of one kind of ammunition; they know to be on the look out for that particular weapon.

Once I push this next update I'll look into how SUAB did it so I can implement something like it into this mod.

Durability on melee weapons would be something that could be cool to tinker with. Perhaps something kind of like condemned criminal origins. That way stuff like the sledge hammer can stay powerful and meaty but not be spammed. This could also force the player to also use more variety in what melee weapons they use. I.E my pipe wrench is almost broken guess the knife is gonna have to do.

Genuinely would love to! I tried to implement this in DECORATE and it simply won't work due to the limitations of DECORATE. I'd have to do this once I convert all the weapons into ZScript... Whenever the hell THAT comes.

(It'll come, I hope! I recall MatthewTheGlutton had a guide for making guns that track ammo and I was going to base it off that guide.)

A nice quality of life addition for them, would be the ability to hold them un-pinned, then throw em when you let go of the mouse button. So you can prep it for the throw before you round the corner.

Shouldn't be ~too~ hard, methinks. The landmine already does this with its altfire, and it even lets you toss the mine even farther if held longer, so I could probably rewrite the grenades based off the mine code.

I will, however, agree that supernatural healing is somewhat OP, as they feel like they largely provide vanilla amounts of health reliably instead of another item spawning in their place. I'd buffer out soulspheres and megaspheres with more vitality orbs, and more permanent upgrades. With megaspheres spawning higher tier gear or having a higher chance to spawn health related things, as megaspheres in vanilla essentially function as a maxed out player restore in health and armor, almost always used before or after something that requires them, whereas soulspheres are just 100 supernatural health, and as such are more flexible in their distribution.

Might not be a bad idea, actually. I had an idea that soulspheres, rather than healing instantly, would gradually heal the player's wounds and could even overheal, but A) would only heal 50, not 100 points of HP, and B) Would have a debuff after it wears off where the player takes a smidge bit more damage and walks a bit slower for a moment. All I'd need to know is how to have powerups give other powerups when the first runs out.

it's got me wondering if you'd consider adding temporary shields on monster death to soak up shrapnel or pellets so you can't super shotgun hole punch through a crowd, and would have to instead pepper your shots across the crowd for shotgun crowd control.

Part of me agrees, and part of me disagrees. I do like the idea of the player having to make their shots count in the form of not wasting ammo on enemies once they've already been killed, but at the same time I feel like shotguns in my mod are nerfed considerably compared to how they are in most Doom mods. A supershotgun is great for blasting chaingunners away in vanilla Doom, but doing so in Scavver's Paradise will leave you MegaBoned™ because their security armor soaked up the majority of that damage and you've given the chaingunner an opening to rip and tear you apart with his chaingun.

Maybe in the future too, the 9mm can be condensed to one specific 9mm caliber (plain old ancient Parabellum or the custom in-universe 'Slugger' caliber), along with the .22WMR pistol being changed to just .22LR in the indefinite future, so you can strip the lowest tier of handgun from the lowest tier of gun toting zombie (did not know that zombieman tier gun wielding zombies had kevlar jackets, good to know now) and accumulate ammo to load into that incredibly useful .22LR PDW.

(God that .22 SMG is fun, innit? I think it's my personal favorite weapon in the mod.)

If I were to include mag loading like what Hideous Destructor has I'd definitely do that, 100%. That's a feature I initially planned on adding when I first wrote up the initial design document, and I still think, from my knowledge, that it would be doable in DECORATE. It also sounds like an absolute NIGHTMARE to code in DECORATE, especially with how many ammo types there are in the mod and with how limited DECORATE is. Best to do so once I eventually learn ZScript, but I doubt I'll ever code that in as doing so would probably take me a good couple of weeks of working just on the mag loader functionality and making sure it's perfectly functional, which sounds ridiculously frustrating.

[Abba Zabba]

Blazing fast response because I seemingly found a sweet spot with the inconsistency of these tics of the engine; remove a little over one quarter of a second from the duration of a given effect, in tics only. So for example, with stims, they normally would have a tic duration of 140 (4 seconds, each second being about the same as 35 tics) but when I shave off 10 tics (technically 8.75 tics, but since you can't do decimals with this effect, just round up. Plus it's a nice clean easy to remember number.) to get a value of 130 tics, it seems to fall in a sweet spot and trigger correctly every time, but I'm not holding my breath just yet. I tested with 20 stims so far, while taking away health in increments of 10, and it's worked correctly so far.

Edit: seems like that's not full proof either, but I'll try taking away 2 tics at a time and see how it fares. It might just be unsalvageable for long term, accurate use.