[Hexen] The Ranger - 12/15/2011 Video + /idgames link!

[Gez]

When crafting the Godcannon, an arrogant engineer made her goal very clear--a siege weapon that could tear down even the gates of the afterlife and make even the gods cry for mercy.

So the ultimate weapon of holy destruction was invented by a woman. Hah

I'll bet she had been scorned. It's a well known fact that nothing motivates them more; at least when it comes to wrecking shit up.

[wildweasel]

I'll bet she had been scorned. It's a well known fact that nothing motivates them more; at least when it comes to wrecking shit up.

"Hell hath no fury" and all that? =P

I'd love to see more of this - I've tried numerous times to introduce guns to Hexen, none of my attempts worked, but it seems like you're really making it happen, so I greatly look forward to this.

[TerminusEst13]

Progress Update:
Conceptual: 100%
Class Coding: 95%
Weapon Coding: 95%
Graphics: 30%
Sound Effects: 100%

Original Flechette behavior has been determined, sound'd, programmed, and put in. Info about the Flechette has been put in the Detailed Information section in the original post. Now all of the Ranger's weapons are just about complete, code-wise. All that's left is to put in the graphics and adjust the code to fit the new animations.
Several irritating bugs have been fixed, and graphical progress is very, very slow but very, very steady. The base sprites for two of the weapons are complete and waiting to be turned into animations, the Flechette is entirely done, and about a third of the skin is drawn and waiting to be shaded. I apologize for the lack of speed; I am not a very good artist at all, but I'll try my best.

Here's a couple more screenshots.

---

The Flechette in action. The bottle is broken and thrown a distance away, bouncing until it comes to a rest. It can still do decent damage when just thrown in an enemy's face, but the real use comes in after.



Once the Flechette stops its bouncing, it lays to rest in the ground and hides itself. Anyone (except the Ranger) that walks across it gets acid-covered glass jammed directly into their feet. Useful for trapping corridors and doorways, setting up a perimeter, or covering an escape.



Okay, now you're just being an asshole, Terence.



Whoops.

[ShadesMaster]

CROOOTCH SHOT!!!!

[TerminusEst13]

Uh. Hey.
I'll be frank. And I'll also update the first post.
I have only one beta tester, since all but one of my friends are not interested in Doom. I would really like feedback on this, so I just have to swallow down the "OH GOD IT'S NOT READY THEY'LL ALL HATE ME" fears and put it out to you guys for input. If you would consider downloading this, checking it out, and offer input, I would DEEPLY appreciate it.
Please be gentle, this is my first time.

DOWNLOAD LINK:
http://www.multiupload.com/RKPBMZOHYW - (File size is about 3.71 megs)

KNOWN BUGS:

---

IMPORTANT: Not really a BUG, but the hands for the Claws and the Scrapbox are not done. At all. They look hideous, not to mention horribly inconsistent with the Ironsheath. Also, the skin sprites aren't done, either, so. Uh.

1: The Scrapbox rounds don't move when nailed to moving objects. Not sure how to fix this.
2: Scrapbox rounds can get nailed to the sky. Interesting to try and figure out how this works, but needs to get fixed. Somehow.
3: Spamming the Scrapbox over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over in a single area may cause lag on older machines.
4: In Skulltag, the difficulty settings for the Ranger are way off to the side, rather than being centered. I have no clue why.
5: On the select screen, the Ranger's sprites stop after running for a bit. No clue how to fix this.
6: If you play as a Cleric with this mod loaded, you'll find your stuff gone and replaced with other stuff. If you play Fighter, you'll find lots of gfx borked up. Every other class can pick up and use the Ranger's flechettes. So, uh. Play as the Ranger when loading this up, I guess.
7: Don't even try to play co-op or deathmatch with this mod. Seriously. It just will mess things up horribly.
8: The Godcannon hits dry fire when you have two shots left, instead of 0.
9: When playing with a shrunken HUD, the bottom of the knee attack sprite is gone.

CREDITS:

---

They say that there's no original idea under the sun, and that everything is a copy of everything else. In my case, this goes double. I would like to say that everything that comes from my head is incredibly fresh, unique, interesting, original, and all other appropriate synonyms, the fact of the matter is that I nicked from a host of other people--both in ZDoom mods and in other games.
So, who are the gigantic amount of people I yoinked from, and what did I take? This is the section dedicated to them. Thank you very much for your extremely hard work, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you very much for continuing to put out quality work. I can only apologize that this little shindig does not even begin to do it justice.

I would just like to start off with stating that I have an absolutely horrible memory; I had a lot of trouble keeping track of what came from where, what was original, what was ripped, and what was modified.
If there is something that you did not want used, or if there is something of yours that I forgot to credit, or if I got a credit mixed up and it's actually yours, please, please, please, PLEASE let me know. I am more than happy to oblige by changing things up or tossing you on this list, so please don't be upset with me if I forgot something you did or missed a "do not friggin' use this, seriously" notice.


GENERAL CREDITS:
===============+
ObviousIssues: My first beta tester and a close friend. More than half the total tweaks came from his suggestions.
---------
Graf/Randy: For ZDoom and all of your support for both it and the community. Thank you for keeping the classics alive!
---------
Xaser: Arguably my biggest inspiration, above all else. Thank you for your support, your inspiring work, and your kind words.
---------
Konami: Terry Holtzer, the Ranger, is an unabashed hybrid of CastleVania's Cornell and Henry Oldrey.
---------
id: Doom. What more else is there to say? The first. Still the best.
---------
Raven Software: Heretic and Hexen are very underappreciated classics!
---------
Tormentor667: The tutorials and the tips held on the site really helped a lot with this. Thank you for Realm 667!



GRAPHICS CREDITS:
================+
Monolith: Providing the Tommygun sprite from Blood, which I edited into the Scrapbox, and the Claws sprites.
---------
Xaser: The Nailgun that acts as the basis for the Godcannon came from Zen Dynamics.
---------
Marty Kirra: The Ironsheath was extensively edited from his break-action shotgun.
---------
Gez: For the colormap for Hexen, allowing me to use non-palette'd sprites. And white. Seriously. I NEED white.
---------
Strife: For the Soldier sprites I edited for the Ranger's skin.
---------
Mark Quinn: For the Pistol Marine firing sprites I also edited for the skin.
---------
JoeyTD: For...something that I did not write down. I'm sure I nicked something from you, though. So here you are, anyway! Thank you.
---------
Neoworm: For the bolts of the Scrapbox, which I edited from the Steel Crossbow on Realm 667.
---------
Xim: The colored knee sprites, which came from his Nukem mod.
---------
X-CrazyKool-X: For the Razor Wind sprites I modified.



CODING CREDITS:
==============+
Caligari: The ricochet effects are his.
---------
WildWeasel: For the Scrapbox's rounds, as well as the recharging of the Godcannon.
---------
Xaser: The Claws primary attack's chaining ability was heavily inspired by the machete's combo attacks from Zen Dynamics. It seemed daunting at first, but it was actually really easy to code!
---------
XXX: For the Godcanon in almost its entirety. I wish I could say I provided my own original or unique twist, but it's almost entirely a rip of the turret from xXx-Mercenaries.
---------
Xim: I took the knuckle-crack almost wholesale from his DukeWeapons mod.
---------
Electronic Samurai: The Ranger's Flechette simply would not be possible without the caltrops from NinjaDuel and how he coded them acting as inspiration.
---------
Vaecrius: The recoil/muzzle climb was my first foray into ACS, only possible with his code acting as a basis.
---------
TheDarkArchon: Smoke effects from his weapon mods were extensively modified, tweaked, and bastardized.



SOUND CREDITS:
=============+
Neverwinter Nights: Most of the voice acting came from here, in the vein of Cam Clarke's succulent voice. His gravelly tone was perfect for a Ranger.
---------
Painkiller: Other bits of Cam Clarke's voice acting came from here, along with numerous other sound effects.
---------
FreeSound.Org: A beautiful source of sound effects for free. Thank you to Pogotron, datasoundsample, m_O_m, qubodup, huluvu42, and thebondman.
---------
CDTextFiles: For a flechette shattering sound.
---------
Running With Scissors: Postal 2 was not a good game. It had lots of good sounds, though.
---------
Monolith: For the Ironsheath lifting up.
---------
id: Not just for the obvious of creating Doom, but also for Doom 3's wonderful library.
---------
Weapon Resource Wad: A couple hit sounds.
---------
Epic Games: Unreal is pretty much Unreal. A lot of Godcannon sounds came from Unreal Tournament '99 and Unreal Championship 2.
---------
Valve: The firing sound for the Godcannon.
---------
Other Users: Many times, instead of websites or games, I would nick some sounds from other mods. Credit to Daniel, Alando1, DuduKrazy, WildWeasel, Xaser, RSL, TheShooter357, TheDarkArchon, and Pillowblaster. Thank you for your incredible work in the Doom community, and thank you for helping this marvelous game of eightteen years continue to entertain even today.

[wildweasel]

I should not be credited for the ricochet effects (those are Caligari's) or the Ironsheath graphic (that is Marty Kirra's based on a Redneck Rampage sprite).

[edit] The knee strike in the claws' combo detaches from the bottom of the screen in fullscreen mode.
[edit2] The whole thing seems unoptimized for fullscreen play; the Ironsheath does not display an ammo counter at all in fullscreen.

[TerminusEst13]

I should not be credited for the ricochet effects (those are Caligari's) or the Ironsheath graphic (that is Marty Kirra's based on a Redneck Rampage sprite).

Noted and fixed. Thank you, and I'm sorry for the mixup.

[XutaWoo]

I don't have the patience to actually play through Hexen, but even incomplete the last weapon seems lacking. It doesn't seem to have enough bang, considering it completely obliterates your mobility. And while it killed Korax really fast, it didn't mow down the Ettins or the Centaurs and I'm sure I would have run out of ammo before the groups died.

[wildweasel]

Perhaps the final weapon needs +FOILINVUL so that it can damage the Centaurs when they're blocking.

[TerminusEst13]

The whole thing seems unoptimized for fullscreen play; the Ironsheath does not display an ammo counter at all in fullscreen.

None of the weapons do, upon checking. I'm pretty sure this is Hexen's fault, but it's still kind of a Bad Thing. Any idea how I could go about fixing this?

I don't have the patience to actually play through Hexen, but even incomplete the last weapon seems lacking. It doesn't seem to have enough bang, considering it completely obliterates your mobility. And while it killed Korax really fast, it didn't mow down the Ettins or the Centaurs and I'm sure I would have run out of ammo before the groups died.

Upon running some tests, the Godcannon needs about an average of eight shots to take down an Ettin. Yeah, that's kind of a lot, especially considering the other weapons (the Scrapbox takes an average of 3, the Ironsheath takes an average of 4). Considering its rapid-fire and technically-infinite ammo, I think that would mandate less damage-per-shot than the others, so as not to blow them entirely out of the water--but I guess the main question is, how little is too little?

Perhaps the final weapon needs +FOILINVUL so that it can damage the Centaurs when they're blocking.

That makes sense. Though it would make the Claws completely useless upon acquiring it, but who uses the melee weapon later in the game? Besides, something like the Godcannon probably SHOULD be infinitely more useful than Claws.

[XutaWoo]

Well, keep in mind that it /completely/ removes any mobility you have while using it. It's a freakin' mounted machine gun, infinite ammo or no, it should be able to mow down basic infantry with ease.

[TerminusEst13]

So, a quick bit of experimenting reveals that the fault with ammo not showing up in fullscreen really lies with Hexen. If you use a custom ammo source for a weapon, it refuses to show up on the fullscreen HUD--along with the ammo it DOES recognize, leaving a pretty-much-blank screen aside from your health and Inv bar.

Assumedly, the easiest way (for a certain variation of the term "easiest") to fix this would be to add in an SBARINFO for the fullscreen that adds an ammo count, but attempts with that have rendered the non-fullscreen HUD empty. Attempts to copy-and-paste the existing Hexen SBARINFO into this (in addition to custom info for the lifebar/weapon slots/etc of the Ranger) works mostly fine and dandy in ZDoom but incessantly crashes Skulltag (my main engine of choice)--and only "mostly" in ZDoom because it gets rid of the Mana bars for the normal Cleric/Fighter/Mage weapons.
This is going to be painful. Is there any sort of introductory guide to it or anything?

In the meantime, I upgraded the Godcannon's damage (along with some other changes). Does this seem to be better?
http://www.multiupload.com/C94XJRIVCV

---

1: Increased the power of the Scrapbox.
2: Increased the power of the Godcannon. Added +FoilInvul to it. Which unfortunately means it can make mincemeat of the Heresiarch.
3: Added an extra firing mode to the Ironsheath. The Ranger can now fan the hammer by holding down fire, which does less individual-shot damage and has much less accuracy with the benefit of severely increasing burst damage. Useful for more stubborn targets, like Serpents.
4: Nerfed the Flechette slightly.
5: Finished more of the player sprites. Now you can use Chasecam and not hurt your eyes!
6: Got rid of the respawn time on Nightmare difficulty.
7: The Scrapbox will no longer cause lag on older machines.
8: The knee actually has a bottom, now, in full screen.

[TerminusEst13]

Well, that took far longer than it should have. Roughly a month of struggling with SBarInfo, which I eventually gave up on (I apologize to everyone who wants to play this without the status bar), and Skulltag eventually refusing to play anything Hexen related.
For the very few of those interested in this, I apologize deeply for the delay.

http://www.multiupload.com/U7YXYGGS5T - The download.

You will notice two files in there. There's an interesting story behind that.
While working on the pick-up system for the pieces of the Godcannon, I found that Skulltag doesn't support A_Log. For the most part, I'm a flexible man and there's not a lot in the whole ZDoom/Skulltag functionality that really bothers me. Unfortunately, the difference between A_Log and A_Print for pick-ups is placed firmly outside my comfort zone.
The ZD version is code-wise exactly the same, but with A_Print replaced with A_Log. For those who are just as anal about little things as I am and don't want the Godcannon pickups to give you text in the center of the screen but rather in the corner, please use the ZD version.
Why this has made me so anal and not other things is beyond me.



CHANGELOG:
1: Finished more player sprites. About half the skin is done now, and now there are sprites for jumping and standing still. For single-player, all of the relevant sprites are complete, and people can play through single-player without any immersion-jarring graphics changes.
2: The Ranger's hair and boots are no longer an interesting shade of glowing Hell-magma in ZDoom.
3: Finished sprites for the Claws, including the cracking of knuckles. The Godcannon also now actually has hands holding it, instead of floating off the Ranger's dick.
4: Reloading no longer alerts enemies.
5: The Godcannon now hits dry fire when it's truly empty, not when it has 2/3 shots remaining.
6: The Flechette no longer takes your gun's ammo.
7: Fixed an irritating bug where the Godcannon would sometimes randomly vanish while charging it.
8: The Godcannon actually rains fire now, like it was supposed to, instead of bullet sparks.
9: The Ranger no longer stops running to stare derpily ahead on the select screen.
10: Added a menu key for taunting. Skulltag already has taunts, but now ZDoom players can taunt, too. And they're different taunts!
11: The walking-ahead-from-behind animation is no longer a spastic mess.
12: Buffed the Claw chains. Their finishing moves do more damage, and other attacks do much less varied random damage.
13: Replaced the heavy-dude-in-armor-with-five-layers-of-metal-strapped-to-his-feet landing sound with something much lighter.
14: The Ironsheath dumps an empty mag on the ground when reloading.
15: The Razor Wind has a much prettier trail behind it, now. Also travels a bit slower and has less of a spread.
16: Everyone picks up their own respective shit now. Only the Ranger can get his caltrop Flechettes, instead of the Cleric, Fighter, and Mage being able to get them. The Cleric can get his weapons, the Fighter can get his weapons, etc.
17: In co-op/deathmatch, the Ranger's comments upon picking up weapons no longer play all over the map.
18: The Scrapbox spatters much less pronounced debris and sparks when hitting walls, now.
19: The Godcannon no longer randomly gives infinite ammo.
20: Added +CLIENTSIDEONLY to numerous non-interactive elements, for easier online play.
21: Re-arranged a lot of sound categories. Sounds shouldn't overlap each other as much now.
22: Bullet sparks are slightly more pronounced.
23: The Ironsheath is now more difficult to accidentally fan.
24: Trying to fan the Ironsheath without ammo no longer causes a hand to magically appear.
25: Online/multiplayer play will no longer instantly castrate you. It's still quite buggy (most prominent being the Ranger's skin not being finished and the Fighter and Ranger will have to compete over weapons), and it is HIGHLY suggested not to bring a Fighter along, but it's possible now.
26: The Ranger has his own unique class benefit for the Icon of the Defender now. While the others cause them to go more defensive, for the Ranger it causes him to go berserk in a feral fury.
27: The Scrapbox now has polished sprites, proper hands, and dumps spikes on the ground when reloading.

[Doomer_1996]

Well, i think it's pretty awesome.The new weapons and effect really made me play it with Wolfen for some good hours.

[Xaser]

Oh dear! I like this.

Definitely nice n' original and the character's got some real character. The ammo balance is a bit odd -- one Green for each nailblast is a bit on the low side, meaning you'll practically never run out.

More later when I play through some Deathkings with it.