[WIP] Sun Damage Omen : Version 0.7c

[Gabbuz85]

this is perfect to play with torment & torture

[Chloroxite]

May I also suggest a new name? Sun Damage Omen sounds weird. Perhaps Solar Omen?

[DevilBlackDeath]

Soooo, Brutal Doom if it was actually fun and not a mash up of Doom, Mortal Kombat and CoD =D

Just kidding, this looks quite interesting, gotta give this a try some day soon !

[Matt]

The name is a tribute to a groundbreaking French prog metal band, don't mess with it.

[TheRailgunner]

I really like how Sun Damage Omen feels - the sounds and effects work really well together. The only nitpick I really have is that player projectiles are pretty slow - you have to actively lead enemies from any sufficient range - while not a bad thing on its own, I've noticed that it's really easy to die before your bullets reach their target.

EDIT: I decided to test it with headshots.

[DoukDouk]

I really like how Sun Damage Omen feels - the sounds and effects work really well together. The only nitpick I really have is that player projectiles are pretty slow - you have to actively lead enemies from any sufficient range - while not a bad thing on its own, I've noticed that it's really easy to die before your bullets reach their target.

Thank you! You'll be glad to know that bullet speed is now totally adjustable from the options.

The first version to use ZScript has been uploaded! It was... Surprisingly painless. Probably TOO painless.

Download: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6y8i ... 1BkaldRQ2c

Changelog:

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(Sept 24, 2017) Version 0.6d
- ZScript is now functional in Sun Damage Omen! Here are the following features now available:

• All Doom 2 enemies are now supported, modified, and some have been recolored! Modifications include:
  • Proper blood colors
  • Fixed/modified projectiles
  • GLDefs for projectiles
  • Better sprite fixes and adjustments
• All enemies now flash red whenever hit, regardless of pain chance.
• Bullet speed is now adjustable under SDO options

- GLDefs updated for both lost soul and flamethrower
- Damage boosted for rockets + flamethrower

[Matt]

Looking forward to the monster buffs!

Way too easy to kill a spider mastermind with a fully loaded flamethrower and maybe a bit too easy to kill a cyberdemon with a spider mastermind.

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I'm not really sure what the solar propulsor or gatling would even be for if you have the flamethrower though. Killing a cyberdemon with SP and flamethrower after an IDFA I'm left with 360 cells with the SP (after a few misses) and 324 cells with the thrower (after only about twice as many missed projectiles as missed shots with the SP).

Using up all bullets on the gatling (with about twice as many missed shots as the thrower's missed projectiles) leaves the cyberdemon almost dead but still capable of attacking.

The combined spread projectile and rapid fire and stunlock basically means I'm incapable of missing with the flamethrower.

Basically the flamethrower does everything the gatling or SP can do but better... at full ammo gameplay just boils down to "hold this button and run around facing the general direction of the enemy until they are all dead".

Now I'm not suggesting a "nerf" in just reducing damage because that just makes it too similar to the gatling. But maybe something could make it stand out more?

- one possibility is to have the flames do their damage by sticking around and continue damaging things. This can create a lot of lag with lots of lingering actors constantly polling for collision with nearby monsters. (One possible way to get around it: if one lingering flame touches another, the newer one disappears and the older one has its lifetime extended by the lifetime of the newer.) This can create a weapon that naturally creates hazards around the map that could hurt the player later.

- some monsters might be resistant to fire and need to be taken down with a kinetic weapon (including the Propulsor).

- flames that hit too close to the player could burn the player. (This could be done by hurting the player if the flame enters its death state before a timer has finished - that way you don't need a laggy A_Explode or square root Distance3D call for every projectile)

[Captain J]

Yeah, it's very easy to kill SMM with Flamethrower. It literally pain-locking the poor guy... Except it takes too much time.

Anyway HOT DAMN, now this is good shit! Had fun playing this mod and i really love weapons looks like they're actually solar-powered! But of course, i've got some problems to tell;

- Those pallets... Coming out of every single guns looks not powerful enough, if you tell me. But don't get me wrong. I know they looks kinda powerful, but something is not enough. Perhaps add them a trail or something?

- Sometimes i can't kill brown pinkies in point-blank shot with SSG unless i get super-very closer to them. Not bad overall, but it kinda grinds my gear.

Speaking of which, i can't kill Cacodemons with two rockets either. But no biggie.

- Solar Flamethrower is kinda weak. Yeah, it spews flame like a minigun, but still it takes lot of time to kill medium enemies with this weapon. Yet its projectile has no Decal.

- Solar Propulsor is strong overall, but would be very powerful and neat if it had much loud firing sound effect and kickass scorch decal.

So yeah. That's about it. I really love the weapons' concepts like Shotgun with Flamethrower. That's very new and interesting thing to see. And i also like the Daikatana HUD as well, if i'm right!

[DoukDouk]

I really appreciate the input! I agree that the Solar Propulsor felt kind of weird when you hit anything other than a gibbable enemy, but mostly that was because I couldn't figure out how to get A_Railattack to use a puff. Now I fixed that though, so the next update should have a much beefier Solar Propulsor.

I actually nerfed the SSG in this mod since I thought it was OP that it fires nearly 3 times the normal shotgun's ammo for only twice the cost, but I think I could balance it out to be more like the vanilla SSG again.

That's odd that it takes more than 2 rockets to kill a caco for you. Always seemed like 2 to me... Will look more of it up. That's also odd that you think the flamethrower is weak. If anything I think it's OP as hell at the moment. When you have ammo for it, that is.

Tracer bullets will be added very soon, I promise. I understand lots of people like 'em.

Also, while I would have loved to give the flamethrower's napalm some sort of decal, the thing spews fire so much that I'm 100% confident that the amount of decals it would create would either cause some weird decal limit side effect or lag the person's computer to all hell. Perhaps every 1/6 flames could create a decal instead, but that might look weirder than if there were no decals.

The flamethrower does a ton of damage, but it also chews through ammo like nothing. I've found that the flamethrower takes about as much cells as the vanilla plasma rifle to put down a Cyberdemon / Spider Mastermind, give or take 10-20 cells. However, the ammunition cost isn't the only thing that matters, as it's evident that because it has such a high rate of fire now, it rarely gives an enemy a chance to fight back from all of the stunlock. The flamethrower fires about 2 projectiles per tic, compare that to 1 projectile every 2 tics to the vanilla plasma rifle, so it's about four times as fast, leaving an enemy a quarter of their usual time to be able to dish out damage.

I could address this issue a couple ways.

One is that I could keep the damage, but simply have the flamethrower not cause a pain chance at all in any enemy. I think this is the most direct way to address the issue of constant stunlock while keeping raw damage, and while it doesn't make the most realistic sense, realism isn't really a big factor here as much as balance. I think this might end up being the best option, as it then gives the gatling gun room to be THE stunlocking weapon instead.

Another way to handle it would be, like you said Vaecrius, have some enemies (lost soul and pain elemental come to mind, but also bosses like SMM and cybie) take half as much damage from the flamethrower. But again, I want this mod to keep it simple and streamlined, and as much as I LOVE having different damage types for different weapons, in this circumstance I want to keep it all the same.

Additionally, I could do the Strife method of flamethrower control and simply make it hard to control, jittering the player's view around so that they can't reliably aim at something, but I'm not a fan of taking any control out of the player's hands.

[Matt]

Having flamethrowers be totally painless but not (e.g.) bullets would be a total immersion-killer. Seems like it would make more sense to do the reverse - keep the painlock but reduce the damage.

(Doing that would also give the flamethrower a special defence role where the SMG is good but not great and the gatling takes too long to start to do properly)

[TheRailgunner]

I really appreciate the input! I agree that the Solar Propulsor felt kind of weird when you hit anything other than a gibbable enemy, but mostly that was because I couldn't figure out how to get A_Railattack to use a puff. Now I fixed that though, so the next update should have a much beefier Solar Propulsor.

I actually nerfed the SSG in this mod since I thought it was OP that it fires nearly 3 times the normal shotgun's ammo for only twice the cost, but I think I could balance it out to be more like the vanilla SSG again.

That's odd that it takes more than 2 rockets to kill a caco for you. Always seemed like 2 to me... Will look more of it up. That's also odd that you think the flamethrower is weak. If anything I think it's OP as hell at the moment. When you have ammo for it, that is.

Tracer bullets will be added very soon, I promise. I understand lots of people like 'em.

Also, while I would have loved to give the flamethrower's napalm some sort of decal, the thing spews fire so much that I'm 100% confident that the amount of decals it would create would either cause some weird decal limit side effect or lag the person's computer to all hell. Perhaps every 1/6 flames could create a decal instead, but that might look weirder than if there were no decals.

The flamethrower does a ton of damage, but it also chews through ammo like nothing. I've found that the flamethrower takes about as much cells as the vanilla plasma rifle to put down a Cyberdemon / Spider Mastermind, give or take 10-20 cells. However, the ammunition cost isn't the only thing that matters, as it's evident that because it has such a high rate of fire now, it rarely gives an enemy a chance to fight back from all of the stunlock. The flamethrower fires about 2 projectiles per tic, compare that to 1 projectile every 2 tics to the vanilla plasma rifle, so it's about four times as fast, leaving an enemy a quarter of their usual time to be able to dish out damage.

I could address this issue a couple ways.

One is that I could keep the damage, but simply have the flamethrower not cause a pain chance at all in any enemy. I think this is the most direct way to address the issue of constant stunlock while keeping raw damage, and while it doesn't make the most realistic sense, realism isn't really a big factor here as much as balance. I think this might end up being the best option, as it then gives the gatling gun room to be THE stunlocking weapon instead.

Another way to handle it would be, like you said Vaecrius, have some enemies (lost soul and pain elemental come to mind, but also bosses like SMM and cybie) take half as much damage from the flamethrower. But again, I want this mod to keep it simple and streamlined, and as much as I LOVE having different damage types for different weapons, in this circumstance I want to keep it all the same.

Additionally, I could do the Strife method of flamethrower control and simply make it hard to control, jittering the player's view around so that they can't reliably aim at something, but I'm not a fan of taking any control out of the player's hands.

So, I have a better idea - you can reduce the pain chance that certain enemies have against it, that way players can't cheese bosses with it (I wouldn't change it for Pain Elemental, since someone could just as easily cheese the PE with the Shredder at close range).

Headshots are most fun with the shotguns.

[badcaradvice]

I love the aesthetic of this mod. The Quake-style sprites, the gritty feel, and even when the enemies light up when they're hit. And it all works well with the projectile-based, high speed gameplay. Keep it up!

I also like how the Solar Propulsor sounds like the start of an 80's flick while you're holding it.

[Chloroxite]

Enemies do ridiculous damage in UV, it feels more like nightmare because of how much zombies alone hurt, it would be nice if enemies dealt damage based on an optional slider instead of affected by difficulty setting. As I stated before, the player already has to deal with more of them, no need for them to be more powerful. (I do appreciate them not being as bullet spongy anymore. )

EDIT: if your intention is for the mod to be hard, I suggest balancing the enemies to hurt like they do in "Hardened Man". This seems to be a good balance of difficulty if challenge is what you wish.

[DoukDouk]

New version! This adds tracers and balance issues regarding the difficulties and the flamethrower.

Download: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6y8i7 ... pub1E/view

Changelog:

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Version 0.6i:

- Added tracers for bullets! Non-bright bullets option has been removed as tracers are cooler anyway. Thanks a ton, Belmondo!
- Boosted SSG Damage (increased pellets from 14 to 18)
- Fixed bug that made spectre appear as normal demon
- Boosted Sun Propulsor's visuals
- Difficulty settings balanced better (less of a damage multiplier)
- Nerfed Flamethrower: Damage slightly randomized + added a "cooldown" effect after firing similar to vanilla plasma rifle

[Matt]

Now that tracers are always on I managed to get through TNT Map01 without getting shot once, at no point in any real danger of running out of ammo. The change in difficulty is huge.

Flamethrower definitely feels more "right" now.