[A.1x1 released] - Nightmare of the Sin (NotS)

[Hornetzero]

For me, its always been about the whip "vampire killer" in the castlevania series. I made the chain whip sprite using Eriance's gun sprites because I just loved how unique and awesome this weapon would translate to in 3d. If the coding for the whip can be modified/simplified to allow the following features,

1, Allow the ability to swing the whip in a flailing fashion to hit creatures continuously in front of you and behind you.
2, ability to use the flaming whip
3, Somehow, correcting the sprite positioning to allow the stretched out arm to be visible.

This mod is complete for me and I would be on my way to build a submod over it. As it stands, its very well made.

[Pink Baron]

EDIT: Sorry for the wait, but I'm almost done with the new version featuring:
1) Balancing (eg. Bosses are now immune from Holy Water);
2) Code optimization (rewrote the Whip...again!);
3) New Subweapon projectile sprites...with sixteen rotations! (Remember the Axe I've posted a while ago? Well, forget it it sucked so I had to remade it. All over again);
4) New powerup sprites (LightAmp and World Map still missing);
5) A reworked version of Berserk (guess what it is?);
6) The BFC (also known as Big F****** Cross)!
7) Other things I can't remember right now such as...uh...ah, I suck at doing screenshots!

Sadly, I've found some issues that, also because of my inexperience about ACSes, lights, brightmaps, and particles, I can't and most likely won't make up by alone. Luckly they are minor things, and I'm sure
someone out there can help me fixing them.
To kill the wait, here's some new screenshots. They won't likely tell much, because as I said, I'm really bad at doing screenshots:

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I swear I'll never make another powerup with 60 sprites in this life. Trust me, don't try this at home!

[JimpArgon]

This looks amazing! I cant wait to give this a go, I love Castlevania!

[wildweasel]

I've been on something of a Castlevania kick for the last month or so and finally decided it was time to give this a try. Here's what I thought; I've been using the 0.88 version from the OP.

Firstly....I really hope someone can help spruce up the whip sprite. It's serviceable as it is, but it is missing that essential polishing that makes for a truly great Doom sprite...and the animation does not take widescreen displays into account. Also regarding the whip, is holding the button supposed to be some kind of guard against projectiles? I wasn't able to figure out what it's for.

I feel like the weapons in this are way too powerful. I can understand the whip and most subweapons killing zombies and maybe imps in one well-placed shot, but as I played through Scythe2, I found I was able to one-shot-kill Mancs and Arachnotrons if I got close enough with the whip. The cross boomerang absolutely trivialized an encounter with the Cyberdemon (but I wasn't able to use it very effectively against anything smaller), and the Holy Water is ridiculously spammable, especially on huge groups, since it has such a wide arc, long range, and only costs 1 heart to use. I suspect a lot of this headache comes from most of the weapons being +RIPPER; if you don't mind replacing the monsters, I seem to recall there is a way to make +RIPPER weapons only deal damage once per contact.

An alternative proposal for the +RIPPER weapons: instead of dealing direct damage to the enemy using the built-in method, give them NO direct damage at all, and have them A_Explode with a small radius every few tics. This way, you can make them deal relatively high amounts of damage through the explosion (making them effective against small monsters) while also preventing the weapon from damaging the enemy every single tic it's touching. The GBA/DS Castlevanias have a similar system in place; attacks that pierce through enemies have a timer on them that allows them to only damage the enemy once per interval, with the interval depending on the weapon. This makes it so that even very powerful persistent attacks like Holy Water or a stalled Cross can't deal insane amounts of damage while traveling through a large boss.

If you want to leave the damage as-is, I'd suggest adjusting the Hearts usage per subweapon. Since the player doesn't swap subweapons by picking them up, but rather carries all of them at once (similar to Portrait of Ruin's system), it feels like it makes no sense to use the knives once you've found basically anything else. For standard encounters on level ground with no obstacles, the Holy Water is better than literally everything else, not only because of its wide radius and range of attack, but because it only costs 1 heart to use. I do notice the Cross takes 3 hearts to use; why not adjust the other subweapons to suit, SOTN-style? That way, the player won't be constantly maxed out on hearts.

Speaking of maxing out: why don't the "heart bundles" increase the max? Maybe it's time to add that behavior, while simultaneously increasing heart costs across the board.

I notice you're using the Berserk packs as a generic "increase whip length" powerup. Combine this with the fact that the default whip is already pretty heavily overpowered, and perhaps you should have it behave more like the classic whip upgrade, make the player start with a weaker Leather whip, and have the upgrade cycle upwards through several levels? From leather, to thorn, to chain, to longer chain, to flame. It looks like you've got the Flame Whip installed in some form in the upcoming version...is this what you're doing already?

Lastly, as much as I love the existing sound effects, the only one that bothers me is the CV4 whip sound. Given the choice, I'd replace it with the SNES Dracula X whip sounds, both swinging and impact.

Kudos for your work so far, though! With as many Castlevania-themed Doom things as there have been, it's nice to see one that's actually had tangible progress on it. I look forward to the next version.

[Pink Baron]

I could have posted the update some day ago but luckily for you I've learned the use of ACS, so I've added in things (including a secret!) could get out otherwise.
Here's the update: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8jynn2cnbam8ar5/NotS%20A0.998.rar?dl=0

With this, the Alpha state is officially done - there's some minor issues here and there, but I can't get them out by alone anyway...you're free to give me an hand - thus I'll start working on the second class, Alucard...but only after someone finds out what this secret is! XD

Anyway, here's both the overview and the changelog:

UPDATE OVERVIEW:

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- All Richter's Subweapons are now avaiable to use;
- Subweapon's DPS have been further balanced;
- Wepaons now give you instant feedback - if you hit an enemy, you WILL see it;
- Added new fresh from Blender sprites for the vast majority of both Subweapons and Powerups;
- All vanilla Doom powerups are now replaced with their NotS versions. Most of them are results of only little edits, while other ones may give you great, unpredictable (but still expected) results;
- Both HP UP and Heart Brooch (= Backpack) now increase maximum stats each time one of them is picked up;
- Enemies have been balanced to give the player a more fair challenge;
- Rewrote codes to give modders wider range of options. Many key actors also have now a control panel, a map where core parameters are exactly located: you can now increase the Cross speed at will without screwing up;
- Other minor things and secrets I can't remember just now.

CHANGELOG:

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13/07/2016 - Release (Nots Alpha 0.998)

FILES

- Main codes optimized, in general to be ready for next updates;
- Introduced "Control Panel" comment-based on actors with complex scripts. They do nothingby themselfes...they help users to find key parameters, so that they will be able to basic edits without screwing all up;
- Added some ACS scripts. They will be mostly editable via DECORATE items (= no compiling required) whenever possibile;
- Optimized wad's file storage;

(SUB)WEAPONS

- Pickup rule changed: you gain +5 Hearts when you first pickup a subweapon, after that they will then give +1 instead.

Whip

- Code optimized...again;
- All whip pieces will now disappear at the same time (via inventory item);
- Rewrote the comments explaining how it works;
- It's now possible to "delay" the spawn of the pieces instead of make appear all pieces at once (debug only);
- DPS reduced. Should now kill smaller enemies with 1 hit, while Mancubi with 3 or more (for example);
- Base range increased to 310;
- Archviles will now get likely get into Pain state if they get hit this way.
- Subweapons can't be switched anymore while being behind the Whip;

Dagger

- DPS nerfed (with some exceptions...still lethal VS Lost Souls);
- They will now produce puffs if they hit a bleeding actor without killing it;
- You can throw Daggers even without ammo left. However, you will throw 1 Dagger instead of 3, also you have to wait a little longer before firing again this way;
- Whimp fire won't be triggered if AltFired while PowerInfiniteAmmo is active;

Ricochet Rock

- Added both HUD and in-game sprites. Both direcly come from CV SotN;
- Added a little cooldown to prevent spamming;
- Buffed DPS Vs Lost Souls (to better clear narrow corridors and small rooms);

Axe

- Projectile size increased;
- Slighly increased throwing range;
- Area of Black-Hole effect slightly expanded;
- Added both new HUD and in-game sprites. Inspired from CV SotN sprite, done by myself. 16 rotations;

Holy Water

- Area of effect decreased from 130 to 80 degrees;
- DPS nerfed;
- Removed "+FORCERADIUSDMG" from the damage formula: this means that Bosses are now immune by it.
- Cooldown increased;
- Added both new HUD and in-game sprites. Done by me;

Cross

- Added sound effects for when hitting an enemy;
- Main projectile (non-exploding) size reduced by almost half;
- Nerfed DPS (but full damage area is now increased);
- Cooldown increased by a bit, you won't spam Crosses anymore.

Grand Cross

- AKA "Rondo of Blood" (?);
- New subweapon, the BFG equivalent for Richter;
- Slot 7;
- Must stand still on grond to fire, it's invulnerable while doing so;
- Consumes 20 Heart per shot;
- The HUD will tell you if how have enough ammo to make this subweapon work;
- New sprites from scratch (but still inspired by Grand Cross's from CV PoR);

POWERUPS

- All vanilla Doom powerups are now replaced by NotS counterparts:

HP-UP

- Replaces Soulsphere;
- It give you +10 max HP instead of +20;

Hearth Brooch

- Replaces Backpack;
- It will now give you +50 max Heart on first pickup, and +10 Max Hearts after that;
- Sprite taken from CV SotN;

Berserk

- Completely reworked;
- Doesn't increase Whip's range anymore;
- You have to discover his new effects by yourself. Sorry guys;
- Sprite for Richter taken from PoR;
- Lasts 60 seconds;

Radsuit

- New sprite from scratch, albeit inspired from a CV game;
- Same effects, lasts 90 seconds;

Map, Infrared

- New item that replaces both artifacts, sprite taken from CV SotN;
- Its effects are Map's and Infrared's combined;
- The NightVision (torch version) effect lasts 120 seconds;

Immune Potion

- Replaces Invunlnerability;
- New sprites from myself;

Timesphere

- Replaces BlurSphere;
- Brand new sprites from myself (I regret nothing);
- You should note when one of them is nearby;

Megasphere

- New sprites made by me but inspired from elsewhere;
- Can now be dropped by some enemies...but only if you did your homework first!
- Former CV4 players should know how this works;

ENEMIES

- They will now flash when being damaged;
- Balanced some damagefactors: really too hard to explain all changes;
- The Revenant is now much more weak to the Dagger; it wouldn't be a fair fight otherwise.

OTHER

- Fixed a bug where the Yellow Skull Key was not displayed correctly;
- Fixed a bug where dying or exiting level while swinging causes a player freeze when respawning or next level load, respectively;

[JimpArgon]

an update? Hell ya!

[dljosef]

Found out something odd. The invulnerability jar is also on the chainsaw spot. Is that intentional?

[Pink Baron]

Found out something odd. The invulnerability jar is also on the chainsaw spot. Is that intentional?

Partially yes, it is: the chainsaw spot is replaced by a random powerup spawner, reload and see what happens. Maybe will be replaced with Berserk in the future, but I fear that some powerups may be not get proper "screentime" this way.

EDIT: Finally managed to make the Whip correctly spawn away from player letting me to add the "streching out" arm sprite, but I fear that overall result is slightly worse than expected (personal opinion, I don't like that pose in general...!), thus I'll be able to update soon (= 16/20 hours from now) as Alpha 1.000.

Still, I want to note that both fire and Grand Cross effects (brightmaps/lights and-or particles) are lacking, and sadly there's nothing I can do about them .-.

[Pink Baron]

EDIT: Version Alpha 1.000 released, see page 1.
CHANGELOG:

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15/07/2016 - Release (Nots Alpha 1.000)
- Supposedly very last update before working on Alucard;
- Managed to spawn the Whip away from player, so that he must now show streching his arm (kinda of) in order to attack Added a parameter to the Control Panel for X offset (default = 30);
- Fixed a bug where the Whip spawned from standard offset even while the player was chrouching;
- Increased scale for Berserk's sprite for Richter;
- Radsuit sprite reduced;
- TimeSphere sprite reduced, also doesn't pulse anymore;
- Doom Monsters now drops directly NotS items, not vanilla ones that are yet to be replaced. Also code them to always have a total Weight of 20, to better customize the chances of each drop;
- MegaSpheres dropped from bosses, if picked up while playing Single Player on a map where monster count <= monster killed, won't add anymore towards item percentage;

[HolyHeadcrab]

I'm having trouble getting the subweapons to work properly. The axe just immediately starts falling when I use it rather than being tossed upwards.

[Captain J]

I guess just like the original game, you have to aim upwards to toss it more further.

[HolyHeadcrab]

I guess just like the original game, you have to aim upwards to toss it more further.

It never worked like that before I updated, though. I'm assuming the newer versions of GZDoom break the physics or something.

[Captain J]

That's odd. Because in GZdoom g2.3.2(this latest version btw), the physics seems to be work fine. It's hard to hit and you gotta aim upward and more to throw it further, sure. But other than that, nothing's weird to me.

EDIT: AUTOAIM. Garg why did i even forgot about that?

[Vostyok]

I noticed autoaim really screws up arcing weapons recently. Maybe try turning it off/down? Worked for the hand grenades I used in another mod....

[HolyHeadcrab]

It wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't affecting the Holy Water's behavior too: It just kind of descends from the ceiling immediately as well.