...Well, perhaps this is not first "summon-friendly-monsters" mod, but probably this is most technically advanced, strange and provocative of them. Some features here have not occured before and demonstrate, how wide possibility of zdoom engine can be extended. Mod is notable of abundantly using voxel models. And I hope not only not be banned for this "nazi shit", but enrich zdoom community with plenty new technical methods. Also, sorry for my poor english.
Also for moderator: Yep, I know about rule of coop decorate bots. However, I think this is not that case. Here the emphasis is on the strategy, relatively weakly player almost does not take part in killing monsters. And mortars, airplanes and heavy tanks have very little resemblance to a typical "decorate scripted marines". In short, I don't know, how to classify this, and can not decide, is this illegal or not. Gameplay video contained below.
§ 1. Conception.
You are playing as Adolf Hitler, which arrived to hell after his death, and now is forced to eternally fight on hellish Doom maps.
But even in hell he kept his power. And he can summon the different Third Reich's military forces up to the artillery, heavy tanks and luftwaffe to help.
This mod converts singleplayer Doom gameplay into the strange genre hybrid of first person shooter and strategy. Among hand weapons player has only poor mp-40 and some grenades, but besides he has advanced instrumentary to control his army. They are:
- 6 Radiostations to call different units.
- Teleporter. You can select up to 10 soldiers (or 1 big thing like tank) and teleport them from location to location. (Teleportation of some big things is paid for reasons of balance.)
- Finger pointing, to say soldier stay at position or move. Mod also include "spawn static units-mode" to spawn immovable soldiers as default. (To quick arrange snipers for example.)
- Third Reich's flag to mark/remove waypoint for soldiers.
- Calling the squad. To call up to 8 variable type soldiers by 1 click. (4 assaults, 1 sniper and 1 machinegunner as default.)
- Squad-setup mode. You can tune your own composition of squad depending on situation. 4 assaults and 2 panzershreckers for mopping-up the hall? Or 3 snipers and 1 flamethrower to hunt archviles? All on conscience of your tactical genius.
- Kampfpistole, the flare gun. Marks a point for artillery to shoot for. (If artillery can reach it, of course.) Panzershreckers also try to shoot on kampfpistole mark, this can be useful for destroying icon of sin through its small window.
- (in progress) Statistic table, which shows, how many units of each type was spawned, how many is alive, and what is death percentage.
- Tanks can also smash enemies with tracks, yay. Maximum height of crushable enemy depends on the size of specific tank. The corpses of the enemies are deformed, flatten vertical. (There is a funny bug with this: if archvile resurrects crushed monster, monster will stay deformed. I decided not to fix it.)
Mod paradigm is compatibility with ALL possible mappacks at maintaining the enough realism. Even mortar fire and aviation works on pseudo-3d sector engine on standard doom2 maps. (Unfortunately I can't made fleet support, lol.) Soldiers have good AI, but their effectiveness depends on the commander.
(Of course, it is preferably to use large realistic maps with sky, where all mod features could be released. Ideal is something like NewWorld.wad.)
This is alpha-version of GDWP 2.0. You can test it, downloaded from here: DOWNLOAD
(Mod is not finished, for now this is disorderly dump of files, workable, unworkable and obsolete code. It contains only 2 types of tanks now, spawning special units is not set yet, many scripts must be reworked. But this test version is technically playable now.)
Work is unstable in progress, time o time I can take break to work on my project of air propulsors or when development 3d puzzles takes too much time.)
Old version 1.0 was made in 2010 and can be downloaded there: DOWNLOAD It contains more primitive scripts and only one tank made with sprites (already then with independent rotation turret. Later I will publish its simplified variation for using in wolfenstein-like wads as boss monster.)
Spoiler: Old promo video§ 2. Features.
- Advanced anti-friendlyfire system.
- Ground attack aircrafts. (On standard doom maps, yes.)
- Ballistic calculating mechanism for grenade throwing and artillery based on half-parabolical periods considering the height difference. Mortar also checks trajectory for obstructions.
- Mortar has dual shot mechanism. In high sectors (~700 and higher) it makes ballistic shot. In low sectors with sky mortar use asymptotic pseudo-ballistic mechanism, where projectile is teleporting between points as if height was enough. In both cases it matters, where the mortar is located on the map and what dead zone is created with level configuration. It is possible to make realistic indirect fire with helping of player or assault soldiers to aim.
- Vehicles motion is radically different from the usual monsters motion. Tanks move realistic-smoothly without any instant turns. Turrets also rotates smoothly and have visual models for different pitch.
- Combi-voxel objects, composed of two independent voxel models with Z-coordinate visual-stabilisation mechanism. (Yep, this is "maximum kludge", but it works on Zdoom even without OpenGL renderer.)
- Tanks with large radius works on the stairs (stepheight limit is traditional problem of big monsters).
- Objects with non-cylindrical complex collision model, like very big and long vehicles as Elefant schwerer panzerjager.
- Armor penetration system for some projectiles. They are rippers, but their damage and penetration limit depends on total health of penetrated actors.
Fot example: Shell with damage potential 1000 will not penetrate a cyberdemon, and will hit it on 1000hp (full damage). But if two revenants is standing in front of cyber, shell will penetrate (and kill) them both, but the cyberdemon will be damaged on 400hp (1000-2x300). And if revenants are wounded and have only 15% hp, cyberdemon will be damaged on 910hp (1000-2x45).
- (planned) Special armoured transporterto heal wounded soldiers and player inside it.
- (planned) Advanced ballistic targeting for bombers.
§ 3. Units:
They are not free of charge due to savage grin of capitalism. Each unit cost some points of "nazi mana". Player gets it, collecting medals of Third Reich, which replaces all standard ammo and weapons.
- Assault. Inexpensive universal soldier with stg-44 and grenades. Optimal for fighting at close and medium range. Has a melee attack. Also can give target designation for artillery.
- Sniper. Accurate soldier with five-shot rifle. Useful to shoot enemies from long distance and through small holes. Also has grenades, but throws them rarely.
- Machinegunner. Half-stationary unit. By default can shoot short bursts with a large spread. When machinegun is mounted, can shoot long accurate bursts.
- Panzershrecker. Heavy support with rocketlauncher. He has much firepower, but helpless in close combats and tries to runaway if enemies would come critically near.
- Flamethrower. Soldier for close combats and exterminating strong enemies in narrow places. Wears a fireproof suit and does not take damage from fire.
- R75 motorcycle. Stronger high-mobile analog of machinegunner. Attack enemies on high speed, sometimes rams small targets. Also sometimes it drifts around the target and shooting it. Has some difficulties to rotating in hold-position mode. Does not take damage from fire.
- Mortar soldier. Half-stationary unit. If conditions allow, he mounts mortar and turns into artillery support. If not, he will shoot with pistol.
- Pzkpfw II ausf L "luchs". Light fast-moving tank armed with 20mm autocannon and machinegun. It has 10 rounds in the magazine and needs to reload it periodically. This is very small tank, so it can be successfully used in buildings, caves etc. Loses duel with cyberdemon, but can win it with support of soldiers.
- Airstrike. (There is an old obsolete version of airstrike. Planned to radically rework it.) Only in outdoor locations with enough space. Call airplanes, flying over the map and bombing the monsters.
- (planned) Pzkpfw IV. Just a big expensive fighting machine with 75mm gun, to fight with bosses and to make genocide in open maps.
- (planned) Paratroopers landing operation
§ 4. Additional units:
Some units with specific using tactics cannot be unlimitedly called by player. They spawns randomly by the piece and must be collected in inventory.
(NOTE: this is a unfinished version. Only 2 units added for now, and they dont spawn on maps yet. Instead of this the player starts with 8 elefants, 20 Pak36 and 20 flaks in inventory, so you can test them. Later random spawning will be set.)
- 20mm Flak 38 AA gun. Best friend of cacodemons and loctsouls. Has 3 visual models for different pitch. Has not negative pitch angles, so needs placing, taking into account the dead zone under it. Stationary unit.
- Elefant/Ferdinand panzerjager. Huge slow hulking machine with deadly 88mm L71 cannon and mg34, which can kill a cyberdemon by 2-3 shots. Has intellectual target selecting mechanism, so it tries to attack small targets with machinegun instead of spending cannon shot to kill a miserable imp. Ferdinand has complicated non-cylindrical collision model, and it is so big, that it can't turn around in narrow space. It needs a fire support in close combat to prevent enemies to attack it in the flank. But its armor is so strong, that vehicle can withstand the battle with at least 4 cyberdemons. Also it is useful to put it in hold position mode.
- Pak 36, 37mm anti-tank cannon. Stationary unit with limited traverse angle (about 60°). It can perfectly control the narrow corridors and streets, but is helpless if enemies come from dead zone. Place it wisely.
(Following units are planned. I dont know yet, how much their realization would be successful and how many of them will be in the release. But according to preliminary estimates the chances are good.)
- Hetzer
- Something like 10,5 cm leFH18 howitzer (or maybe its mobile version).
- Flettner Fl 282, experimental german helicopter.
- Nebelwerfer
- 88mm Flak18, heavy AA/AT gun. (Probably with interactive explosion timer for destroying flying enemies.)
- Flammpanzer III
- Flakpanzer IV Wirbelwind
- Armoured transporter, in which soldiers and player can be cured. (Maybe kfz-250/251 or something.)
- Tiger (maybe Konigstiger?)
- Maus (extremely rare and powerful vehicle for large slaughter maps.)
§ 5. Controls:
slot1: Mp-40 / grenades
slot2: Call assault or squad
slot3: Call sniper or machinegunner (light support)
slot4: Call panzershrecker or flamethrower (heavy support)
slot5: Call motorcycle R75 or mortar soldier. (special support) (note: mortar has no icon yet)
slot6: Call tanks
slot7: Call airstrike
slot8: Hold position finger (fire: hold position, altfire: move on)
slot9: Teleporter (fire: select unit, altfire: teleport unit)
slot0: Nazi flag (fire: set waypoint, altfire: cancel waypoint, reload: select unit)
G - kampfpistole (fire: mark target for artillery, altfire: cancel)
H - attack mode (Soldiers behave aggressively and go into close combat.)
J - defence mode (Soldiers are trying to keep a distance with the enemy.)
K - fall back mode (Soldiers run away from enemies with minimum attacks.)
T - spawn static units mode (on/off)
Y - squad setup mode (on/off)
U - show stats
§ 6. Credits:
Mp-40 sprites from WW-diaz mod.
Some effect sprites from NeoDoom.
Soldier sprites based on some HL player models with unknown origin.
Teleport sprite based on HL2 gravgun.
Kampfpistole sprite based on Wolfenstein:The New Order screenshot.
Voxelmodels based on some bf1942/FH/FHSW models.
Sounds from bf1942/FH/FHSW/Return to castle wolfenstein.
§ 7. Some screenshots and video:
Spoiler: Videos
Spoiler: Screenshots§ 8. Notes.
- Use fulscreen HUD. Unit icons are so large for standard doom HUD. ("Stretch fulscreen HUD" option must be OFF)
- Remember, that tanks have limited pitching angle, so they need infanfry protection on maps with strong vertical component. Some planned stationary objects (like Pak 36) also have limited yaw angle and need the rear guard.
- Soldiers move on shortest path to the waypoint. So, dont place waypoint very far, if there are many obstacles before it. Also be careful with unreachable waypoints (for example too high on wall). Units will try to reach it and stuck near that place until waypoint will be cancelled (RMB).
- Use hold position mode to make ambush for monsters. Very effective tactics is lure enemies to firing point with machineguns and heavy stationary weapons.
- Defence mode is useful, when enemies are at a high altitude, when infantry is escorting tanks and in some other conditions.
- If tank gets stuck, use teleporter to move it out.
- For large units, take sure that there is enough space to place them. But if spawning failed, spent energy/item returns to player.
§ 9. Problems found.
- Mortar has the wrong animation. Shot occurs before the mine falls into the barrel. This does not affect gameplay but should be fixed later.
Fixed
- Dead tanks have collision box. Destroyed Pz2 is not so big, but in theory destroyed Ferdinand can block the narrow way and make map impassable. I have not decided yet what to do with this. Huge wreck without collision box is stupid.
Fixed, now wreck is destroyable.
- Sometimes rendering voxel models can cause lags on maps with a lot of transparent middle textures. (Only in Zdoom. GZdoom works well with it.)
- A big problem was found on the gzdoom-renderer: it is strange, but it does not support voxel translucency (zdoom does). So, once teleported tanks incorrectly displayed as a grid of triangles. I have a unelegant solution, but I have taken the time to think, maybe to come up something else.
Fixed.
§ 10. Uncertainties.
- Automap marks for units. Do they need?
Added.
- As you can see, Pz2 and Elefant are conteptual antipodes. Pz2 is short, small, 1 collision actor-based object, making it easy to maneuver and can turn around in the narrow space. Elefant is long, 2 collision actor-based object, that creates problems in the navigation. But Elefant has relatively small width, allowing it to pass through a standard 128x128 door. Problems starts with medium tanks like PzIV. Calculations show that its length must be ~189 and width ~92. If realised in 1-collision actor scheme, it must have minimum average radius ~70, so it can not pass through 128x128 door, but can turn around everywhere. If realised in 2-collision actor scheme, it can pass doors, but will be less maneuverable. What paradigm is preferably? I don't know yet. I think, I need some testing report about it. (Must take into account, that Ferdinand has no turret, and has to rotate the entire hull for targeting, that creates an additional chance of getting stuck. Long tanks with turret has no this problem.)
- Third Reich's flag creates only one universal waypoint for all spawned soldiers and vehicles. It is important to quick direct all your army, but sometimes would be useful to set individual waypoint for 1-2 units. (For example for sending light tank to the other flank.) Current system does not support this. In theory I can make this, but it requires adding extra mouse control button and more management complexity: LMB - waypoint for all units (if nobody selected) or for selected units (if someone selected), MMB - select individual unit, RMB - cancel all waypoints. I don't sure, that so complicated scheme will be intelligible. What do you think about it?
Added. Use "reload" button to select separate unit.
- Also adding MMB would be useful for Mp-40 as reload button. For now it reloads only automatically, when the magazine is empty.
Added. Use "reload" button.
Spoiler: § 999.
