SUPERHOT in Doom

[Josh771]

Well, I know someone else is making a more full-bodied total conversion of this, but if you're just after a gameplay mod that can plug-and-play with existing WADs, this will do the trick.

sphot.7z

Contents:
sphot.pk3 • More accurate "SUPERHOT" emulation in Doom using custom monster and weapon definitions
sphot-u.pk3 • Universal "SUPERHOT" script that adds time-freezing rules to most games and mods

The Universal .pk3 is fun to play around with in various games; I have played through a great deal of Hexen with it and I imagine it works well with anything that does not use heavily scripted effects. Mods that use scripts to perform status changes over time on players or monsters will break if you use this, as the scripts do not respect time freezing powerups.

[Someone64]

I'm really quite interested in the universal freezing time version of this.

As for the mod you've released, it's quite a cool proof of concept but I don't like how unresponsive it is with freezing you as there's quite a delay after taking a step in any direction. It would also be cool if there was a version that moved time slowly instead of at full speed if you just looked around but didn't take any other type of action. Lastly, on my crappy Lenovo Ideapad 300, just one super shotgun blast floating in the air seems to cause a lot of graphical lag.

[Josh771]

I'm really quite interested in the universal freezing time version of this.

As for the mod you've released, it's quite a cool proof of concept but I don't like how unresponsive it is with freezing you as there's quite a delay after taking a step in any direction. It would also be cool if there was a version that moved time slowly instead of at full speed if you just looked around but didn't take any other type of action. Lastly, on my crappy Lenovo Ideapad 300, just one super shotgun blast floating in the air seems to cause a lot of graphical lag.

Thanks for the feedback!

Yeah, I might put together the universal release, maybe even with a slider in the options for the "frozen" time rate. I'm afraid slow-motion in ZDoom is a bit choppy using the only available hack, but I can do it.

The problem with the delay after taking a step is that the passage of time there is based on player speed, and Doom has a very slip-slidey world. I may need to give the player character more friction, but I know that will mess with movement rules in a detrimental way if I'm not careful. Perhaps I should tie the passage of time only to movement key inputs and Z-axis motion?

Don't worry about your "crappy" (to quote you) Lenovo; the shotgun blasts are slowing down my gaming tower just as easily. I've clearly got to tweak these visuals down a bit, make the trails shorter - maybe even optional.

[Someone64]

Hell, even completely frozen time instead of slow mo would be good. Looking around doesn't exactly do anything anyway and it just makes the game punish you for evaluating your situation better visually.

Also, movement key input and z axis motion sounds like a good solution. Would feel a lot better than having time keep going just because I'm slip sliding around. Also would probably be horrible on wads with actual ice grounds.

What might be the limitations of the universal mod, btw? Can it be used with other mods that don't freeze things? What CAN'T it freeze?

[Josh771]

The limitations of the universal script will become apparent in various ways with basically any mod out there that uses script loops that operate over time. I don't think any ZDoom modders out there (although I'm quite willing to be corrected if I'm mistaken) bother to write their ACS scripts to check whether or not a player has a time-freezing powerup, and that makes sense. There's no reason to anticipate it, typically. So games that update player or monster status over time using scripts will likely break somehow, or at the very least they will behave somewhat erratically.

To answer the big question: what it CAN'T freeze is level geometry. Doors, lifts, crushers, etc. I have no solution, since this mod does not actually manipulate time as the ZDoom universe sees it - at least, it doesn't manipulate it any more than "freezing" for certain entities and then re-engaging.

I'll go ahead and rewrite the script now to respect the movement inputs instead of X-Y motion, and I might as well upload a universal version of it.

[Josh771]

Updated. Download in OP is now a .zip containing sphot.pk3, which has custom Doom monster/weapon definitions, and sphot-u.pk3, the universal script form of the mod. Here is a bulleted list of changes:

• Time freezes respect movement input instead of X-Y velocity now
• When you stop moving, your X-Y velocity is quickly cut to 0
• Movement, crouching, and interaction unfreeze you for a shorter period now
• Attacking and reloading* unfreeze you for a longer period now
• Removed time passage on mouselook and turning
• Shortened bullet trails to increase performance
*The mod does not include reloading weapons; this is here for the universal script version to support mods using the reload keybind.

[Hetdegon]

I never played SUPERHOT (allcaps?) but this is kinda fun, I like it!

[Someone64]

Playing the universal version (was playing with Flakes Doom and Beautiful Doom monsters in this case) is immensely amusing! It's kinda funny how you can cheat the fire rate of certain weapons like the shotgun and super shotgun or the chaingun because the mod doesn't freeze their spin down, pumping, or reloading and doesn't unfreeze for weapon switching either. You can pull off some crazy things with that. I suggest reducing the time it takes to freeze for everything to be even shorter, specially for shooting. Even with mods with lots of projectile weapons you don't really get to see your OWN projectiles frozen that often unless you fire at long distances because of the long freeze delay after firing.

EDIT: Huh. http://www.moddb.com/games/superhot/makeitsuperhot

[Josh771]

Not only does that competition exist, Someone64, but it looks like I was long beaten to the punch: http://www.moddb.com/mods/superdoom I'm quite unlikely to stand out in a competition like that. My work is just a hobby and someone's already got a Doom-based mod entered.

Now, about the freeze times, I made it kinda long for attacking because I knew most weapons had some kind of wind-down that needed to be accounted for, and the only other option was nightmarish custom weapons that check on every frame whether time is frozen and, if it is, loop there. I think that would actually necessitate a new state for every frame. Uughh.

It's already "breaking" gameplay in a sense. I'll reduce the freeze time and see what I think of it.

[Someone64]

Well, it was already kind of drastically changing gameplay to begin with. I like to think of it as some kind of new weapon manipulation super power for Doomguy. This would be fun to play with Never Breaking Orbit (haven't checked to see if it even works) or playing a mod with Custom Doom to turn the player damage received way up (combined with lower freeze delays) to make using frozen time to dodge projectiles more important (and the unintentionally buffed weapons could compensate to make you a glass cannon).

[Josh771]

I was actually thinking about how cool it would be to use this to make a mod about some kind of temporal mage, include lots of time-related spells and specially programmed monsters you can manipulate. Like, if there were monsters that always memorized (with user_vars) their location 5 seconds ago, then the player could use a special attack that sends them back. Also stasis fields that halt the movement of anything that enters them...

Could make something pretty awesome, actually, but it would take a bit of artwork. Maybe it's something that would better suit Heretic or Hexen? I've been playing through Hexen with this thing, by the way, and I kinda like how I can use inventory while frozen. Drink a couple potions, use a flechette, then sidestep a fireball.

[Someone64]

What about a proof of concept universal chance to replace health bonus item mod that gives time stasis grenades that temporarily time freeze things in its blast radius?

[SleepyPiggy64]

I'm having a bit of a problem.
I'm not sure why, but my computer won't let me remove or copy the pk3 files out of the zip.
What should I do?

[Deii]

Same thing over here, I can't extract the PK3 files. Tried rebooting and reinstalling WinRAR but it still happens.

[Hetdegon]

Strange, it worked fine for me with the current version. I could repackage them and upload elsewhere if you need (as long as SidDoyle doesn't object to that).