ZDoom

Greetings, and welcome to the project page for Chromatic, my first ever ZDoom mod! The current release is v01 Alpha 5.

Chromatic is a gameplay mod for the original Doom/Ulimate Doom inspired by Treasure's beloved 2001 shoot-em-up Ikaruga. The premise is simple: Doom's enemies now come in a palette of three different colors: red, blue, and green. Your weapons fire projectile that are also red, blue, or green. The monsters are immune to all projectiles and attacks that aren't their color, so you need to use the appropriate color projectile from your weapon to take them down. Additionally, while your gun is capable of firing projectiles of one color, you can block all enemy attacks and projectiles that are that same color.

So in a nutshell, you need to swap your gun's projectiles in and out constantly and keep up both your offense and defense if you want to win.



Mechanics:

Color Swapping

As mentioned previously, your gun needs to fire the right color projectile in order to take down an enemy of that same color. This is done through on-the-fly hot swapping of your gun's available projectiles. The color of the projectiles that your gun can fire is shown by visible highlights on the gun itself, and swapping colors is as easy as hitting a key. You can have binds for each one of the colors, or use a bind to cycle colors. Or both. The switching animation is fast, and so is changing weapons, allowing for minimal downtime so you can focus on the fighting.

Focus



Another large element of the gameplay is the acquisition and use of a resource called "focus." Focus is gained through blocking enemy projectiles or through pickups (shown above, small pickups give 5 focus, while large ones give 20), and is used to power your weapon's special attack and extra abilities found in the levels (see below for costs). The player can have up to 100 focus at a given time. The best way to get focus is to block enemy projectiles, so mastering the color swapping mechanic is essential.

Power Management



Each of the five weapons has it's own power meter, shown at the bottom of the HUD (It looks like this: ). As you use primary and alternate attacks with the weapon, the meter will drain. When the meter reaches certain stages, your weapon's damage will decrease. Keep an eye out for the pickups shown above to replenish power for all weapons, and be sure to swap weapons every so often to conserve power!

Enhanced Movement

Your enemies will be swift and relentless, so you should be too! You can utilize powerful movement techniques using a resource meter above the armor number on the HUD. These include...

Rocket Slide
Slide along the ground in a forward direction at high speed. Simply hold crouch and press forward to use it.

Jet Thrusters
Press and hold the Jump key to fly for a limited period of time. Hold down the run key while flying to increase the speed of forward/backward movement and strafing.

Coming soon to Alpha 3!
Now available!

Weapons:


Chroma Gun

The player's default weapon. A highly adaptable and reliable firearm, it can attack from a distance with an accurate stream of projectiles, or blast foes up close with a spread of bullets.

Primary Attack: Rapid Fire (2 Power)
Fires a continous stream of lightly damaging projectiles. A great source of continuous damage with little downtime between shots.

Alternate Attack: Line Blast (6 Power)
Fires a horizontal spread of three projectiles at once. Has a somewhat long cooldown between bursts.

Special Attack: Penta Volley (30 Focus)
Fires five volleys of four lightly damaging projectiles each in a tight spread.


Chroma Scissors
Named for the slicing motion that this weapon's flesh-rending projectiles make, it is a robust and elegant tool of destruction in the hands of a skilled user.

Primary Attack: Rending Strike (8 Power)
Fires two projectiles that weave in opposite directions and converge some distance away. This attack pierces flesh, and will travel until it hits an obstacle.

Alternate Attack: Severing Star (36 Power)
Fires a ripping projectile that homes in on targets in the player's field of view and deals continues damage to them. This projectile does not stay in flight for long, and the attack has a very long cooldown before it can be used again.

Special Attack: Tainted Wave (45 Focus)
Fires a large horizontal wave of cutting projectiles that cause continuous damage to all enemies hit.


Chroma Hammer
True to it's namesake, attacks from this weapon will rattle foes and send them flying.

Primary Attack: Impact Shard (15 Power)
Fires a blast that will deal heavy damage to the target and knock them back.

Alternate Attack: Vacuum Shard (25 Power)
Fires a projectiles that scuttles along the ground and pulls enemies into it. Upon contact with an enemy it will detonate, dealing heavy damage.

Special Attack: Phantom Hammer (50 Focus)
Fires an invisible, instantaneous wave that causes short-range explosions on enemies hit.


Chroma Needle
This weapon brings a sadistic flair to battle, with gradual damage and high-velocity rounds.

Primary Attack: Piercing Pain (9 Power)
Fires a piercing projectile that lodges itself into the target and deals gradual damage upon impact.

Alternate Attack: Accelerating Point (15 Power)
Fires a slow-moving projectile that quickly builds up speed and rams into the target. Damage increases with speed.

Special Attack: Emblem of Avarice (45 Focus)
Fires a deployable construct that fires a continuous beam at a target. While damaging the target, it will also shoot a beam at the player, generating power for all other weapons if the beam makes contact.


Chroma Nova
As powerful as it is imposing, this large, destructive weapon taps into unknown energies to fuel its onslaught.

Primary Attack: Void Blast (25 Power)
Fires a large, slow-moving mass of pulsating eldritch energy. Upon impact it will release a wave of energy and deal additional damage to anything nearby.

Alternate Attack: Harrowing Rain (12 Power)
Fires a spread of dark projectiles that detonate within a short radius on impact.

Special Attack: Chernobog's Touch (65 Focus)
Fires a pulse of energy that hangs in the air and discharges volleys of dark energy at a target. After it's excess energy is exhausted, it will home in on a target and damage it.

Abilities:


Strike (25 Focus)
Teleport to a target and deliver a mighty blow.


Barrier (25 Focus)
Creates an energy field that blocks enemy projectiles and sends them back at their source. The player can shoot through it as well.


Guardian (40 Focus)
Summons a deployable that shoots projectiles that are the same color as the player's gun at a target. Additionally, if the player is injured, it will shoot a volley of bullets that match the color of the enemy that injured the player.


Scream (35 Focus)
Fire a barrage of projectiles forward over a wide area. Enemies hit will suffer gradual damage.


Smite (50 Focus)
Deals heavy damage to all enemies of the same color as the player within a moderate radius.

Game Modes:

Normal Mode:
This is the stock gameplay experience that a player can expect from Chromatic. The player starts with only one weapon and one ability, Charge, and must find the others, as well as any other resources, in the levels themselves. Enemies do not respawn, have their stock health values, and are moderately aggressive.

Master Mode:
Master Mode is a unique gameplay experience tailored for those looking for a more tactical and challenging approach to the gameplay. The player starts with all weapons and abilties, but the enemies have more health, are more aggressive, and respawn after a short period. In addition, health, power, and focus are acquired at a slower rate, making resource conservation more essential.

Warlock Mode:
Feeling masochistic? Warlock mode is for you! In this mode, you have no weapons! Your abilities are your only means of engaging enemies; your "weapon" is a laser beam that does no damage but generates focus if it hits an enemy of the same color. Oh, and the enemies respawn much more quickly than in Master Mode, and focus gain is reduced. Have fun!


FAQ:

Pending

Releases:

v01 Alpha 5
https://goo.gl/vQ7uBc

NOTICE: This link was created with Google URL shortener for the purposes of analytics. I will NOT use the data collected to spam you with advertising (what would I even advertise, anyway?); I'm only curious about number of downloads and stuff like that.

Changelog:

v01 Alpha 5 (hotfix)
-Fixed map exploits in E1M4, E1M6, and E1M7.
-Fixed a texture glitch in E1M9.
-Fixed a bug that caused Barrier to linger indefinitely after spawning.
-Tweaked the weave of the Chroma Scissors' projectiles.
-Tweaked the hitbox for the Chroma's Scissors' projectiles
-Lowered power costs for the primaries of the Chroma Scissors, Chroma Hammer, and Chroma Needle.
-Removed fade outs from in-game BGMs.
-Fixed momentum inheritance issue with the Chroma Nova's primary.
-Sped up the animation of the Pinky Bomb.
-Added ripping properties to Pinky Bomb projectiles, and lowered base damage.

v01 Alpha 4 (feature update)
-Added new leveling system for abilities
-Added more ability pickups to existing maps
-Reworked the slide so it no longer gets stuck on items.
-Tweaked maps to account for new movement styles.
-Reworked ability display on HUD to show ability level
-Removed links to earlier alphas

v01 Alpha 3 (feature update)
-Added new movement mechanics to the mod. Players can now slide along the ground quickly and fly for a limited period.
-Changed the enemy sprites so that they are no longer translucent.
-Changed the Behavior of Scream's projectiles.
-Fixed a bug that allowed players to access E1M9 through exploiting Strike.
-Projectiles now inherit the momentum of the player, due to the addition of the ground slide.
(Alright, I think Alpha 3 is ready now. For realz this time).

v01 Alpha 2 (balance patch)
-Lowered the focus cost of all weapon specials.
-Reworked Charge into a new ability called "Strike."
-Reworked Scream from a radial attack to a frontal one.
-Doubled the radius of Smite.
-Tweaked Phantom Hammer for more consistent accuracy.
-Fixed a bug that caused Chernobog's Touch to hang in the air indefinitely.

v01 Alpha (initial testing release)
-Added customized maps based on Episode 1 of the original Doom.
-Reworked enemy types to fit with the mechanics.
-Added new sounds, weapons, and music.
-Added three game modes: Normal, Master, and Warlock.
-Added keybinds for all major functions.

Just as a heads up, I've been evaluating my work on this mod, and I will be able to get a test version out much sooner than I thought. I should be able to get one out early to mid November. Keep an eye out!

Have to say, I'm excited for this. We haven't had a game take after Ikaruga in a long time. Be interesting to see this concept applied to an FPS, much less Doom itself.

Oh man. This looks unique.

If we could get some tron-style maps made to go with this, that would be rad.

Thanks for your interest guys!

Oh boi, this is Mythic wad ever that i seen

I've just added a brief section on the gameplay modes that are gonna be in the mod. Check it out!

Also, I've been floating the idea of doing a playtesting stream where you all can see me fail at playing my own mod. Sound like fun? Let me know!

Very clever and unique weapon designs! It's totally impressive and futuristic. Looks promising overall. Way to go!

Thanks Captain J!

Alright, so I'm wrapping up the mapping portion for the testing version of this mod. Working on E1M6 and tweaking E1M5. But just for transparency's sake, here's a couple things I need to do before I release this into the wild.

1. Fix a nasty invincibility bug with the shielded enemies. In some circumstances, when the enemy loses it's shield, it remains impervious to damage. I was stumped as to why, but I think it had to do with the lack of XDeath/Crash states for the shield. More testing is needed. I think I fixed it.
2. Remove the Spectre's ability to teleport. They keep getting stuck behind walls, making the ability more trouble than it's worth.
3. Fix a bug that makes Pinkies/Spectres invincible during their Melee state. I think Imps might have it too. Fixed. It had to do with a projectile hitbox.
4. Fix wonky hit detection with the Charge ability.
5. Get the main menu music to loop.
6. Map E1M7 and E1M8.

There might be more, but I can't think of them right now.

EDIT: I might as well dial this mod's difficulty down while I'm at it. Jesus.

WE ARE LIVE BOYS AND GIRLS!

So I didn't get to do everything that I wanted, but I still feel that this mod is ready to be played and tested. An alpha build is available and ready for your rabid consumption. Check it out and let me hear your thoughts!

Do note that this will not work that well with Doom2.wad. It'll run, but there will be missing textures and music. Best to stick to Doom.wad.

I've tested this on the latest version of GZDoom (3.6.0, as of this writing), and it runs great! I wouldn't recommend using anything much older though.

Have a ball!

After blowing through the first few levels of Doom, gotta say, I really like this. I love how you handled ammo and how much thought went into how the weapons work. However, got a few criticisms, but I still really like this, these are just nitpicks

1. I think your first weapon, the Chroma Gun, was a little too big, as it tended to obscure pickups, enemies, or just generally messed with my aiming. I think it still worked really damn well, just the sprite is too big.
2. Is the Chroma Hammer supposed to spawn with backpacks, cuz thats where I got it?
3. I didnt find the abilities useful. Only Charge for single combat was fine, but the Guardian lasts way too short for its high Focus cost, usually only getting off about 3 rounds or less if that. A few times it didnt even fire when in a group of enemies. Scream didnt do anything, or if it did, its power is far too low for its cost as well. Even when I was in a group full of the same color, all it did was stagger them, I finished them all off. The last two are fine as is, but the earlier powers just werent as fun to use or even care about when they did so little
4. The enemies can be hard to see, especially in dark areas. However, this matters the least, as the 'shoot in the general direction until you hear a scream' method works rather well

Aside from that, I'm having a blast, pun intended. It works so well, aside from the Abilites. I'll be there for as many versions as I can manage

UnbornDecay25 wrote:After blowing through the first few levels of Doom, gotta say, I really like this. I love how you handled ammo and how much thought went into how the weapons work. However, got a few criticisms, but I still really like this, these are just nitpicks

1. I think your first weapon, the Chroma Gun, was a little too big, as it tended to obscure pickups, enemies, or just generally messed with my aiming. I think it still worked really damn well, just the sprite is too big.
2. Is the Chroma Hammer supposed to spawn with backpacks, cuz thats where I got it?
3. I didnt find the abilities useful. Only Charge for single combat was fine, but the Guardian lasts way too short for its high Focus cost, usually only getting off about 3 rounds or less if that. A few times it didnt even fire when in a group of enemies. Scream didnt do anything, or if it did, its power is far too low for its cost as well. Even when I was in a group full of the same color, all it did was stagger them, I finished them all off. The last two are fine as is, but the earlier powers just werent as fun to use or even care about when they did so little
4. The enemies can be hard to see, especially in dark areas. However, this matters the least, as the 'shoot in the general direction until you hear a scream' method works rather well

Aside from that, I'm having a blast, pun intended. It works so well, aside from the Abilites. I'll be there for as many versions as I can manage

Thanks for your thoughts man! I really appreciate it.

I'll admit. I hadn't anticipated your criticisms. But I guess that's what alphas are for, right? To get feedback you wouldn't even have considered? I think so.

Anyways, I'll take your suggestions into consideration, and I'm glad that you enjoyed the mod. I certainly enjoyed making it!

JohnnyBGetgoode wrote:

UnbornDecay25 wrote:After blowing through the first few levels of Doom, gotta say, I really like this. I love how you handled ammo and how much thought went into how the weapons work. However, got a few criticisms, but I still really like this, these are just nitpicks

1. I think your first weapon, the Chroma Gun, was a little too big, as it tended to obscure pickups, enemies, or just generally messed with my aiming. I think it still worked really damn well, just the sprite is too big.
2. Is the Chroma Hammer supposed to spawn with backpacks, cuz thats where I got it?
3. I didnt find the abilities useful. Only Charge for single combat was fine, but the Guardian lasts way too short for its high Focus cost, usually only getting off about 3 rounds or less if that. A few times it didnt even fire when in a group of enemies. Scream didnt do anything, or if it did, its power is far too low for its cost as well. Even when I was in a group full of the same color, all it did was stagger them, I finished them all off. The last two are fine as is, but the earlier powers just werent as fun to use or even care about when they did so little
4. The enemies can be hard to see, especially in dark areas. However, this matters the least, as the 'shoot in the general direction until you hear a scream' method works rather well

Aside from that, I'm having a blast, pun intended. It works so well, aside from the Abilites. I'll be there for as many versions as I can manage

Thanks for your thoughts man! I really appreciate it.

I'll admit. I hadn't anticipated your criticisms. But I guess that's what alphas are for, right? To get feedback you wouldn't even have considered? I think so.

Anyways, I'll take your suggestions into consideration, and I'm glad that you enjoyed the mod. I certainly enjoyed making it!

No problems man. As I said, they're only nitpicks, and I can still play just fine with or without em. For a first time Zdoom mod, you already have something special going. So keep at it, man!

P.S: I liked your rip of the Hollow Bastion as the main theme as well. Works with the sort of hectic gameplay that ensues

Update: I have noticed that Scream and Guardian DO work, they just have to be on the same position on you heightwise to be effective. If they are even a step down, they fail and cant do any damage. But my complaint about the Guardian lasting way too short for my tastes still stands, unless it was being destroyed

No problems man. As I said, they're only nitpicks, and I can still play just fine with or without em. For a first time Zdoom mod, you already have something special going. So keep at it, man!

I sure will! I'm not even close to done with this mod yet.

Update: I have noticed that Scream and Guardian DO work, they just have to be on the same position on you heightwise to be effective. If they are even a step down, they fail and cant do any damage. But my complaint about the Guardian lasting way too short for my tastes still stands, unless it was being destroyed

For Guardian, that's probably true. Just coding that thing was nightmarishly difficult and there's probably some collision bugs still left in the code, but I'm fairly certain Scream adjusts to whatever you're looking at. You can look up and Scream will still shoot projectiles in that direction. Unless you meant something else?

Also, I recall you saying that Guardian didn't get any shots off when you were using it. Keep in mind that in it's current form, Guardian changes color to match yours, even while it's deployed. It also has a color-recognition system in place, so it won't shoot anything that's not its color. Maybe that's where you're running into issues?

EDIT: I see what you mean about Guardian. I just ran Warlock Mode and found that Guardian gets confused easily. XD

With Scream in particular, I found that it only traveled in a circular formation around me that didnt account for height, or angle. The first time I tried it was on the stairs at E1M2. Either the Imps outlasted the power, or the attack didnt really work