Aetherius (GZD 4.7.1) (Doom/Heretic/Hexen/Strife) [hiatus]

[Sinael]

What's with the green bar in the middle of a screen in the videos?

[Lord Misfit]

Flora's main weapon [the Sceptre] has a very wide and multi-hit arc, and the green "bar" is the weapon's reticle, to indicate this [and the "points" along it represent roughly where the "hits" on the swing land]. If it's a bit too obstructive, you might want to scale down crosshairs.

[kadu522]

i haven't played your mod yet but how are you going to balance the Lv up sistem, i know that do tho playing doom rpg you can get really OP if you know what you are doing.

Edit:i just saw that one of the mays you are doing is limiting spells to Lvs. but are you considering other metods?

[Lord Misfit]

---

My good friend WhamNinjaMoleHill [also known as Tyketto on the forums] is doing a playthrough of this with the Epic 2 mapset, specfically, the compatiblity pack of it].

Sorry for the lack of general updates to the topic. I've been settling in a new laptop computer [with a GTX 1070], but I also had been forced to use Windows 10 due to various reasons. A lot of the last month and a half has been more trying to adjust things on the new computer best to my perferences. Hopefully some more progress on the mod will be made soon.

In some other news, most of Illucia's weapon sprites [the ones with visible hands], have been updated. Thanks much to Sgt. Shivers for this. Some weapons have yet to be given their proper updated sprites [the fist and one other weapon].

[DoomUser]

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Hmmm, I am having trouble with this as well... I am not savvy with manual loading of MODs either, but I did follow the instructions provided and I can't get the MOD to load. It keeps loading vanilla Doom 2, and I have the combo pack sitting in it's own GZDoom directory with it's own version of GZDoom extracted from the extra's folder.

https://i.imgur.com/KfXEvcf.png
Okay, so I'm gonna try and break down batch files ezpz, so that people can hopefully enjoy this mod. [doom2 was the only wad in this zdoom folder, so my example didn't use the -iwad part since it just defaults to doom2]

Step 0: Unzip the DV-DS folder(s) into your GZDoom main folder (or QZDoom dev builds if you're like me)
Step 1: Create a new text file and open it.
Step 2: Type out: gzdoom.exe -iwad doom2.wad -file "DV-DS-ComboPack-master" +hud_scale 0 exit
Replace doom2.wad with whichever main game you want to play and add "DV-DS-idTech1-master\gamehere" right after the combopack if you want to play heretic/hexen/etc
Step 3: Click "File" then "Save As". Name the file whateveryouwant.bat, change the "Save as type" to "All Files" and save.
Step 4: Double-Click the new file you just made, and play.
~~~~~~~~~~
Alternatively: With 7zip(or another compressor i suppose) https://i.imgur.com/2V6zj0q.png
Unzip the combopack folder anywhere. Select all the files inside the main DV-DS folder, right-click -> 7zip > add to archive -> name it deargodpleasework.pk3, make sure the compression level is set to "store" or as low as possible and hit OK. Now add it to ZDL or what-have-you OR just drag and drop it onto gzdoom with either doom/doom2/tnt/plutonia and call it a day.

If you want to play heretic and the others this way you need to repeat, but with the contents of the idtech1\gamehere folders and load them after the main mod package. (each idtech game needs a seperate .pk3, no cheating. same with the map compat files, if you want to play those. It starts getting cluttered at this point.)

Godspeed, and may Lord Misfit have mercy on your poor souls if you still can't get it working.

if you're really hopeless, you can just drag and drop the whole DV-DS-ComboPack-master folder itself onto gzdoom. don't do it, that's gross

Well, it keeps running Doom2, instead of Aetherius... I done the bat files from before, the steps you described and the small text "drag and drop the folder on the gzDoom.exe".
I don't know how EXP someone should have with computers too start this mod. I'm a web developer, and pretty much ok with computers. So I ether missed a very valuable part for the whole process or this is harder than it sounds.

1. download 3 master branches from Github into a zip folders.
2 unrar them into a gzdoom folder (downloaded from the recommended in a link after the links for the folders)
3 make a bat file using a text file and paste there the following: gzdoom.exe -iwad doom2.wad -file "DV-DS-ComboPack-master" +hud_scale 0 exit
4 have a Doom2.wad in the folder.
run it.

it here is something wrong it could only be the doom2.wad presence in the gz folder, because i read 3 pages of forum posts to get to that conclusion.

Spoiler'd the quote for ease of read - HR

[Doomguy914]

The instructions on getting everything running were a bit confusing, but you provided an example for the .bat file so it was smooth sailing from there. I started out having no clue what to do, but thanks to Whamninjamolehill's overview video, I quickly got the hang of it. Actually, he's the reason I even found out about this mod. Been watching his videos for about 5 years now, and he's introduced me to a lot of great Doom mods.

This feels like a very advanced Wrath of Cronos, as far as the RPG elements are concerned. You start out VERY weak with this mod, but your melee packs a punch. Once you get your first invisibility spell, things begin to get easier, and then they just snowball out of control until you are death incarnate. Hint, always use night vision. It's cheap, showcases normal enemies, and makes invisible enemies way less hidden. A lot of monsters can still see you while you are invisible, but the majority don't usually spot you. About 10 maps through, my frames started plummeting. Due to power-ups carrying over to the next map, I hardly ever had a moment where I ran out of mana. That meant that ALL the mana enemies dropped were left floating in the air. Might I suggest lowering the amount of mana cubes spawned by dead enemies, and just increasing the amount they give instead?

A rather funny moment came from MAP05's Mastermind. I sprinted across the walkway to the blue key and carefully took out the imps in the alcove above it. Then I high tension'd to 200 and activated the increased melee damage, charged up the swing, and dropped right on the bastard. It said Overkill in big blue letters and made me laugh hysterically. Actually, I think that level is the one that began getting out of control. I got 2 wand drops on that level, and the secrets with the 2 Megaspheres really boosted the amount of mana I had.

Anyway, I just got Epic 2 running and I have a quick question about it. Do you require the Epic2.wad file in your GZDoom folder and .bat file, in order to fully play the wad with Aetherius? Because I haven't added it yet and I've gotten all the way to map 3, but now I am consistently locking up right before you encounter the first enemy in that stairway. If you can tell me how to create a crash log and where to officially report it I would be more than happy to provide you with it so patches or fixes can be made for the compatibility folders.

Such an amazing mod so far. I think I might record some of this gameplay myself!

[Doomguy914]

---

Hmmm, I am having trouble with this as well... I am not savvy with manual loading of MODs either, but I did follow the instructions provided and I can't get the MOD to load. It keeps loading vanilla Doom 2, and I have the combo pack sitting in it's own GZDoom directory with it's own version of GZDoom extracted from the extra's folder.

https://i.imgur.com/KfXEvcf.png
Okay, so I'm gonna try and break down batch files ezpz, so that people can hopefully enjoy this mod. [doom2 was the only wad in this zdoom folder, so my example didn't use the -iwad part since it just defaults to doom2]

Step 0: Unzip the DV-DS folder(s) into your GZDoom main folder (or QZDoom dev builds if you're like me)
Step 1: Create a new text file and open it.
Step 2: Type out: gzdoom.exe -iwad doom2.wad -file "DV-DS-ComboPack-master" +hud_scale 0 exit
Replace doom2.wad with whichever main game you want to play and add "DV-DS-idTech1-master\gamehere" right after the combopack if you want to play heretic/hexen/etc
Step 3: Click "File" then "Save As". Name the file whateveryouwant.bat, change the "Save as type" to "All Files" and save.
Step 4: Double-Click the new file you just made, and play.
~~~~~~~~~~
Alternatively: With 7zip(or another compressor i suppose) https://i.imgur.com/2V6zj0q.png
Unzip the combopack folder anywhere. Select all the files inside the main DV-DS folder, right-click -> 7zip > add to archive -> name it deargodpleasework.pk3, make sure the compression level is set to "store" or as low as possible and hit OK. Now add it to ZDL or what-have-you OR just drag and drop it onto gzdoom with either doom/doom2/tnt/plutonia and call it a day.

If you want to play heretic and the others this way you need to repeat, but with the contents of the idtech1\gamehere folders and load them after the main mod package. (each idtech game needs a seperate .pk3, no cheating. same with the map compat files, if you want to play those. It starts getting cluttered at this point.)

Godspeed, and may Lord Misfit have mercy on your poor souls if you still can't get it working.

if you're really hopeless, you can just drag and drop the whole DV-DS-ComboPack-master folder itself onto gzdoom. don't do it, that's gross

Well, it keeps running Doom2, instead of Aetherius... I done the bat files from before, the steps you described and the small text "drag and drop the folder on the gzDoom.exe".
I don't know how EXP someone should have with computers too start this mod. I'm a web developer, and pretty much ok with computers. So I ether missed a very valuable part for the whole process or this is harder than it sounds.

1. download 3 master branches from Github into a zip folders.
2 unrar them into a gzdoom folder (downloaded from the recommended in a link after the links for the folders)
3 make a bat file using a text file and paste there the following: gzdoom.exe -iwad doom2.wad -file "DV-DS-ComboPack-master" +hud_scale 0 exit
4 have a Doom2.wad in the folder.
run it.

it here is something wrong it could only be the doom2.wad presence in the gz folder, because i read 3 pages of forum posts to get to that conclusion.

Spoiler'd the quote for ease of read - HR

Well the way I got it working is the following: I opened the README.md file located in the DV-DS ComboPack-master folder, scrolled down to the part where it gave an example .bat file, and simply copy pasted in notepad. One of the folder names is different in the example I copied, but a quick change to match the actual name of the folder got everything running smoothly. http://imgur.com/a/AW8Ue

DV-DS-ComboPack simply needed to be renamed to "DV-DS-ComboPack-master" in order to get it running.

[Lord Misfit]

This feels like a very advanced Wrath of Cronos, as far as the RPG elements are concerned. You start out VERY weak with this mod, but your melee packs a punch. Once you get your first invisibility spell, things begin to get easier, and then they just snowball out of control until you are death incarnate. Hint, always use night vision. It's cheap, showcases normal enemies, and makes invisible enemies way less hidden. A lot of monsters can still see you while you are invisible, but the majority don't usually spot you. About 10 maps through, my frames started plummeting. Due to power-ups carrying over to the next map, I hardly ever had a moment where I ran out of mana. That meant that ALL the mana enemies dropped were left floating in the air. Might I suggest lowering the amount of mana cubes spawned by dead enemies, and just increasing the amount they give instead?

A rather funny moment came from MAP05's Mastermind. I sprinted across the walkway to the blue key and carefully took out the imps in the alcove above it. Then I high tension'd to 200 and activated the increased melee damage, charged up the swing, and dropped right on the bastard. It said Overkill in big blue letters and made me laugh hysterically. Actually, I think that level is the one that began getting out of control. I got 2 wand drops on that level, and the secrets with the 2 Megaspheres really boosted the amount of mana I had.

Anyway, I just got Epic 2 running and I have a quick question about it. Do you require the Epic2.wad file in your GZDoom folder and .bat file, in order to fully play the wad with Aetherius? Because I haven't added it yet and I've gotten all the way to map 3, but now I am consistently locking up right before you encounter the first enemy in that stairway. If you can tell me how to create a crash log and where to officially report it I would be more than happy to provide you with it so patches or fixes can be made for the compatibility folders.

Such an amazing mod so far. I think I might record some of this gameplay myself!

Epic2.wad (nor epic2gl.wad) is not required for the compatibility patch. The patch is all self contained (and includes the skyboxes from epic2gl.wad as well). And I've never encounter a crash on map 3 [or any map really]. Then again, I'm still using an pre2.4 version, so that might have something to do with it?

Also the reason the Mastermind is easier to kill is because of how the Sceptre attack actually works. The intended idea is that you have about a 120-135 degree arc of effect for the swing, but due to limitations [there's no proper A_ArcAttack kind of thing in Decorate/ZScript yet], you basically swing out seven melee hits over that range [1 in the middle, and 3 on each side], each hitting for 275-325 base damage. This mean wider enemies soak up multiple hits, and the Mastermind... she's the widest monster by far, so she'll almost be guaranteed to take all seven hits, for about ~2200 damage or so.

As for mana, the large amount of pickups is more noticable as Flora because ammo that would be the usual Doom fare turns into mana when using her [it spawns a lot less often playing as the marines], but then again, she has far less ammo types to take advantage of, besides arrows and Hellcore weapons, so MP/Mana is her main ammo source there. :V

Also Night Vision making "stealth" enemies more visible is INTENTIONAL too, btw. Also, invisibility is useful since it jacks up evasion by up to 33%, which means even a direct hit to you will sometimes do 0 damage. Additionally, it also slightly reduces the damage you take even when hit, and also slightly increases the damage you do to enemies [since they can't always predict where you are in theory you can hit they a bit better than usual]. Also you occasionally will only take a glancing hit that means much less damage than usual. I really wanted invisibility to have an actual use in this mod since people hate it otherwise. >.>

Granted there are a lot of ways to possibly cheap things out (especially as Flora, but note the marines don't have it nearly as easily in the long run as she does), but I also see it as "I'd rather have the potential to be a bit too overpowered in certain situations (like certain early-game slaughter[y]maps in other wads) than too underpowered. Also balance is a fickle thing with me too. :V

DV-DS-ComboPack simply needed to be renamed to "DV-DS-ComboPack-master" in order to get it running.

Yeah, in my personal situation, I use TortoiseGit, etc to download my versions of various mods hosted there [and to upload new versions on github, etc], so I tend to forget "-master" gets appended onto folders downloaded directly off the site. That's my own mistake. x.x

[Doomguy914]

I'm using the GZDoom version that came zipped in the DV-DS-ComboPack-master folder. Also the reason I brought up the mana lag, is because I hope to play this with something like Dark Tartaurus eventually. What exactly stops it playing nicely with other wads like Epic2? Is it just custom textures that are the problem? Something like RLA doesn't require patches for each specific Megawad you decide to play. Is there a chance in the future, this mod will be packed in the future to run similarly?

[Doomguy914]

You may want to put all those videos behind a spoiler. It makes for some awful long loading times for this page.

[TheBeardedJedi]

I think Flora is approaching DBZ-level power:

[kadu522]

I think Flora is approaching DBZ-level power:

I think is more One-punch man level of power!

[Tyrantk]

Flora is my new waifu

Playing through the games right now, having a blast after I sorted out how to organize everything.

[Scautura]

Right now, I'm having major issues getting this to run. I thought I'd managed once, but I botched turning it into a PK3 so it just loaded plain Doom2 Basically, no matter which version of GZDoom I run, I get an error:

2.4 that comes with Aetherius:

Code: Select all

Script error, ":zscript.zc" line 1: Unexpected identifier
Expecting end of file or 'include' or 'extend' or 'class' or 'struct' or 'const' or 'enum'

Which I'm assuming is due to the 'version "3.1" ' line at the top of zscript.zc

3.1 "latest" (as of yesterday, I think?):

Code: Select all

Script error, ":decorate/items.dec" line 3326: Parent type 'AetheriusBaseCustomInventoryZSC' not found in MonsterMunchies
Script error, ":decorate/items.dec" line 3334: "INVENTORY.INVBAR" is an unknown flag

Script error, ":decorate/items.dec" line 3335: "INVENTORY.HUBPOWER" is an unknown flag

Script error, ":decorate/items.dec" line 3336: "INVENTORY.PERSISTENTPOWER" is an unknown flag

Script error, ":decorate/items.dec" line 3337: "INVENTORY.KEEPDEPLETED" is an unknown flag

Note that I get these errors no matter how I try to run Aetherius (packed as a PK3, as a folder with -file, using WadSmooshed "CompleteDoom" WAD, just doom2.wad, anything) so I'm stumped. This is using the latest master (commit b61ddbfe790b34f7eb84169e45b41a42c693d538 11 hours ago, as of this post)

Any help? I'd sacrifice my first born, but I think that's kind of an empty sacrifice right now!

Edit: I just downloaded the current build (4 hours old at time of download) and everything works as expected. Go figure.

[Lord Misfit]

Yeah, I've been uploading new builds often. I can't really put a proper manual changelog and keep track in my head of every little change that's been happening. I wish there was a command that would allow you to post a summary of a github repository's recent changes. :V

But there's newer versions than the one you just got. I recently added a new Railgun Zombie and a Railgun weapon for the marines to the mod. I don't know exactly why you had that earlier issue though, Scautura. o.o

Though I recently started ZScript for the mod by adding a set of custom Action Functions for the "Spreader Aura" buff that allow you to plug in basically the same parameters for functions like A_Saw, A_CustomPunch, A_FireProjectile, A_RailAttack, A_FireBullets, etc on player weapons, and that's what was related to the errors you logged.