Bitter Heretic: Melee combat emphasise

[Lagi]

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Bitter Heretic



Focus on melee combat (nerf range, boost melee dmg, lower monster dmg/longer telegraphing behavior, add blocking(stun monster), shield deflect projectiles, push backs).
Mod ambience is low magic, mundane, prosaic. There is no epic-wow colors / graphic. Mod is filled with nuisances, losing weapons, self-hurts, slow attacks.

• 15x weapons with alt fires, and R'eloads. Each weapon has some annoyance (like breaking, losing, turning you into chicken, slow reload)
• 3x "grenades" (quick keys), that hurts player
• slower run speed, whole gameplay is slow: monster, attacks
• Tweaked some pickups and artifacts (quick use keys).
• include Neural hiRes textures without actors (to avoid resolution dissonance with new animations), include also Fullscreen status bar mod.
• new monster death/wound/melee/pain animation
• smooth animations [12 frame walk: golem, gargoyle, knight, sabreclaw, wendigo. Weredragon 10 frames]
• include PY weapon wheel (set on Capslock in options)
• include Fullscreeen Status Bar mod (turn on in HUD options)
• randomize door keys (pick random 3 of 6 colors, at start of each map)
• default pistol_start (feel free to change in options)

Items/weapons/monstersHP stats are somewhat adjusted. but its not balanced. All make an easy game.

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Monster changes: wound states (knight, golem, lich, minotaur), new melee attacks (golem, weredragon, sabreclaw, ophidian, wizard) and death animation (golem, gargoyle, sabreclaw, beast, ophidian, wizard). Its harder to step out of monsters melee attacks.

golem ghost 70 hp, death knight 190 hp, wendigo 180 hp.

Im adjusting each weapon and grenades damage; Amount of hits to kill particular monster, speed (frame tic), radius dmg.

left is Bitter 12 frame animation (and speed adjustment), right is vanilla Heretic 4 frame animation (its copy-paste of code)

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,

weapon slots:
1, Mace: +- Shield
2, Gold Wand
3, axe / 2x axe / axe+shield
4, Gauntlets
5, sword
6, trident
7, hammer
8, book
9, Crossbow
0, Mace+Torch

Starting weapon is Mace. Its useful all the game. Have backhand attack. Can hit multiple targets. Mace can be combine with shield or torch. Block reduce damage by 60% and stun attacking monsters in front.
Primary: swing
Alt: block
Reload: -

Shield - can be combine with mace or axe. Corvus receive 10% less damage if he just have selected shield, and 60% less (not combine) if he cover behind shield. Shield block stun monsters only at the start of animation. Shield can deflect projectiles (hold alt fire) and push back (click alt fire) all nearby monsters, also shield bash always cause pain. When in cover, player take less damage. if armor drop to 0, player lose shield. If you already have shield, then next one (and only 1) is put into inventory.

Gold Wand - Shoot projectiles that hurt ghosts. Crystals need to be manually reloaded by pressing R. There is no automatic reload. Alt fire is staff poke, that push back monsters. You can also swing staff when changing from crystal side to staff side (and vice versa). If you have staff end prepare, you block with R key.
Primary: shot
Alt: staff melee
Reload: reload crystal

Axe - often drop by Knights or SabreClaw's. Faster than Mace but less damage (and dont push victims back). If player has 2+ axes, he used them in both hands. Alt fire is a block reducing damage by 60%. Reload throw axe, not capable of wounding ghosts. If player pickup shield he can wield axe and shield (press 3 again, to change set).
Primary: axe hack
Alt: block
Reload: throw axe

Gauntlets - green shock attack is healing player. Each shock charge gauntlets, when overheat (red color) no longer healingm but do little more damage. Alt fire is 4x different punches, left right & hooks. Each strike is play only one in a row. Punches dont affect ghosts. Reload keys is block (reduce 60% damage and stun).
Primary: electrocute
Alt: punch
Reload: block

Crossbow - Ethereal primary fire shoot only 1 bolt, that hurt ghosts. Alt fire shoot 3 bolts (for 2 ammo), which go through ghosts. Mundane has slow reload & dont hurt ghosts.
If player touch ghosts even if crossbow is not selected , the crossbow will evaporate, damaging everything around. Player would stay with mundane (worse) version. Use of Shadowsphere, protect ethereal crossbow lost, and upgrade the crossbow to better version (finding new crossbow do the same).
Primary: shot penetrating bolt
Alt: shot cluster of bolts (reload only for mundane)
Reload: reload (only mundane)

Tome of Power - Book is allowing to cast multiple scattered balls, that freeze enemies (also ethereal one, there is frozen corpse for each monster). Around maps are scattered pages, that serves as ammunition. Alt fire create ice wall, useful to block projectiles and monster paths. Ice wall sometimes freeze alive nearby monsters. Reload is kick, that shatter ice corpses and push monster back. Book is loosing pages (half the time) when fired. Tome of power don't need ammo, but if you are at zero pages, there is 25% chance to be morph into chicken (but you will keep the book).
Primary: cluster of freezing balls
Alt: summon ice wall
Reload: kick
Hammer - Drop by Maulotaurs (but can be find on levels as well). With Flame Orb ammunition, allow to throw exploding fire hammers, explosion radius hurt player as well. Reload is powered up hammer in melee that do damage everything around, hurt ghost. Flaming hammer hurts ghosts and set opponents on fire. Alt fire is a fast "dry" hammer swing and uplift hit.
If you out of flame, Corvus will throw dry hammer, that have 15% chance to crumble into dust, otherwise you can pick dry hammer again.
Primary: hold to throw flaming hammer (hint the fire-rain fallout is doing most damage, try to aim at ceiling above enemies)
Alt: melee strikes
Reload: radius melee smite (1 ammo)
Trident - Drop by Ophidians (but can be find on levels as well). Thrust have long reach, every third thrust is inflict at slight angle. Trident is also a range weapon. Each pickup trident still has some charges. Each use create volley of 3 blue and 1 red balls. Fire from trident have quite a recoil, that stop Corvus in place. Trident have 2x ammo counters. One for combine charges and second for amount of tridents itself, cause tridents can be thrown. Then its a piercing projectile that go through all victims on his path. Press R, if you want to thrown trident.
Primary: thrust
Alt: shot 3 balls of energy
Reload: throw trident (penetrating)
Sword - wide slow swing, hitting up to 5 enemies, second best damage. Getting nicks and breaks after long time.
Primary: sword swing
Alt: block
Reload: -

Torch - illuminate area. Is taken from the walls. Torch add 3rd attack (torch thrust) to melee combo with mace. Alt fire is combo with more torch burn, than mace swings. Reload throw torch like flare (can be pickup after). Torch use dynamic lights. After each level player lose all torches. Fire hurt ghosts.
Primary: combo with mostly mace hit
Alt: combo with mostly torch burns
Reload: throw torch (flare)

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Corvus speed is 1.15 . There is no running with Capslock. Shift is hiding weapons (it take him some time to prepare his equipment for sprint) so Corvus is running +0.3 faster (total 1.4). Krater of Might increase temporary speed +0.4. (total Krater+hidden weapon = 1.8 (almost vanilla running =2.0)). Speed is lowered if Corvus is wounded (hp<33) by -0.15. And wearing Plate armor reduce speed by -0.15 (it combine to -0.3, if wounded & inside plate). Corvus move slower backwards, always with the same speed (0.335 back).

With hidden weapon Corvus can also climb ledges [hold jump] (if he can reach it), do a dash [ctrl+fire] to move through monsters and pickup [use] barrels or fungal pods

Instead of magic healing potions there is:
different type of food +10 HP,
bandage (+25 hp like quartz flask),
ointments (+100 hp like old mystic urn, current mystic urn also increase HP up to 200).
Corvus is recovering slowly on his-own.

Armors:
Helmet / chainmail / Hauberk
plate armor (slow down player -0.15 speed (13% slower), will break into pieces at 50 armor) as Ring of Invincibility replacement.

Armors use threshold to prevent few damage point.

Removed tome of power (as artifact) - power up that make killing everything super easy with extra fireworks didn't fit to my prosaic vision.
There is 3x type of "grenades" : exploding in place Tar , throwable Ice Shard , throwable poisonous Mushroom
All monster can be frozen or burn ,
HP of monsters was reduced (mostly Ophidian, SabreClaw, Beast, Wizard, Maulotaur).
Maulotaur and Iron Lich have graphic wound state when they are past 50% hp.

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Q bandage ,
Z Morph Ovum,
X tar ,
C mushroom ,
F ice shard ,
V Krater of Might (speed up) ,
G Shadowsphere,
B Mirror (telep to start),
H Ointment (100 heal) ,
j Mystic Urn (heal 100, up to 200 health)
N wings

all keys can be adjust in settings.

Suggested key setting WSAD, E-use, R-reload, space-jump, ctr-crouch, mouse scroll-next item, middle mouse - use item

download zdl3-1.1
download GZdoom engine
recommend Nash gore mod

Many tool with many options, that allow to configure lots of thing.

you need to have Heretic.wad
my gzdoom-m.ini file - with key and graphic settings

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in ZDL: general setting tab: add (+ plus icon) heretic Wad on right, add GZdoom engine on left.
add in LaunchConfig External Files : Bitter Heretic, and below Bitter put Nashgoremod
select Heretic wad on right
press on Launch button on bottom right

do yourself a favor and turn off the blur:
options > display options > texture options > texture filter mode: NONE

statusbar settings:
options > HUD options > {at the bottom is} Fullscreen Status Bar > optional settings > show arms on split bar ON
also check in general setting split bar on/off (adjust to your liking).
for the status bar to work, you should has no green bar at the bottom.

Turn off the music, in Sound Options, Music slider to 0.

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Bitter is playtest on each map of vanilla 5 episodes. I like mostly episode 4.

other that I play or know that exist

Master levels for Heretic - compilation

Hymn keep the heretic ambient

Heretic: Quest for the Crystal Skulls - its recent and very fun. Be careful and load Bitter Heretic after Quest, to overwrite custom monster (otherwise you face stock Disciple with 180 hp-sponge and no new animations).

some that i dont play yet:
Call of the Apostate
The Master's Domain
Curse of D'sparil

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This mod is all about whacking monster in close distance. For that melee weapons kill monsters in about 2 hits and monster itself are modified with Health, longer pain time and longer attacks telegraphing, to support that. Increasing difficulty was not my aim, I would said Bitter Heretic is easier than vanilla. I suspect You will try to keep distance and use range weapons as default FPS habit, that's ok - just to make clear my intensions behind making this mod.

For defense half of weapons (mace,axe,staff,gauntlets, sword) have block ability that stun the monsters when they try to hit you. Block can stun multiple monsters upfront. Additionally when you blocking you take 60% less damage.
Shield can deflect projectiles coming from front. Also if shield is selected (with mace or axe) it automatically reduce damage by 10%, if you cover behind shield the damage is reduce by 60% (total). Blocking doesn't work against fire (from tar, your own weapons or lava - none of enemy attacks are fire type, even if they appear like firebase).

When in trouble don't forget about Mirrors (B key) that will teleport you to the start of level.

Healing. Close combat will get you wounded, its not a clean job. Corvus regenerate health on his own very slowly. On [Q] key you have quick access to 25hp bandage (most common item) healing. Gauntlets shock attack is as well source of healing. If you in desperate you can always start destroying barrels, there is small chance for food drop (you can try to set multiple barrel at once on fire, with using tar, but be careful to not kill self in this process - you can be harm by explosion, fire on walls, flame from burning barrels). Finally you can morph yourself into chicken (by exploiting Tome Of Power with zero Pages(ammo)) to be morph back with 100 HP.

Light source - torch as weapon grant main and best light. Dont forget you can throw Torch on ground, it act like flare. You can illuminate crystal on wand, be pressing reload on fresh crystal. Runic Sword, Gauntlets and Hammer also generate some weak light during attack.

If you hide weapon (shift), you can run faster (if that too slow (for some rare traps - its like 3 in whole vanilla episodes), drink Krater of Might). Climb (hold jump). and do dash (crouch+fire) to escape when surrounded by enemies. You can summon ice block with Alt fire, climb on it and reach higher ledge. Also without weapon you can lift a barrel and carry it around. Repositioning of barrels can adjust environment to block enemy routes.

There are 3 particular type of grenades that you should be familiar with: Mushroom, Ice Shards and Tar. They have quick keys C,F,X and occur in excess on every map. Dont be afraid on using them, in fact it should be your main way of crowd controlling.

Mushrooms create poisonous gas cloud which hurt monsters and turn them green. Green-sick enemies would feel pain for a little longer, disturbing they future attacks. To protect yourself from gas, crouch. You can then walk underneath it. Mushrooms are very nice to attack targets behind corners.

Ice shards thrown, implode when they hit anything (walls or monsters). Implosion suck everything in big radius inside, which is very good to crowd in one place scattered enemies, so they can be hurt with another grenade. To save your self from pulling try to hug a wall corner or some decoration. Freeze monster would be tinted greyish for short time, slowing his move speed by 75%. This could be confused with freezing monster to death.

Activate Tar (notice burning candle on top), is exploding in place (but you can thrust it with attack somewhere, like playing pool) after some time. Explosion is thrusting monster in radius and setting them on fire. Once burning monster will start to damage and setting ablaze nearby foes, so keep distance, until its all over. To save your self from the long range fire ring, you can try to jump at the exact time of explosion. Very useful tactics is to drop down Tar from the ledge, to the monster beneath OR come close to the wall with monsters on top and set the Tar. It would be "thrown" to the top. Each fire damage is marked with flames on target, its not decorative, and damaging everyone in radius - in fact tough burning opponent can charred weaker one, surviving himself.

Each grenade can be activate by shooting/hitting it - no need to pick it up. Its useful to kill monster without even entering the room. The instability of grenade pickups are creating chain reaction, that is a source of frustrating death to the Corvus as well.

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press ~, type summon (...) : sword, hammer, book, shield, axe, Gauntlets, Crossbow, torch, tar, freeze, mushroom, plate, chainmail

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Neoworm, may his name be praised, his alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth; his gifts are eternal, for all (weapons, items) sprites - I do 80% of things in this mod because got inspired by his sprites. He bless this thread with his gaze, so we can stop interneting and bask in his ave. Thrice glory.
BrutalHexen ZDL & Seidolon the one who knows he has achieved unsullied craft - I wouldn't start modding without mace+shield inspiration
BrutalHeretic Seidolon - i copy paste goldwand projectile and brutalstaffpuff - there is no reason to change perfection
HexArcana for sword sprites (mirrored from hexen sword) and axehit sound - 4page (or his predecessor) Also I learn from 4page code, how to make a mod at all.
Background Gerald Brom
Animated Heretic logo - NeuralStunner
Tome of Power weapon cover - Arcane Dimensions, by Talisa http://quakeone.com/forum/quake-mod-rel ... d-overhaul
BrutalHeretic - Seidolon gold wand projectile
one cleric hand sprite is not neoworms - ?
Sword icon - PSTrooper
heart icon - i take it from Aluqah mod - Epicus
Amuscaria for Hellforge mod
Bandage and ointment icon - stoneshard game
sounds from soundbible - decompresion, hail, ... some more
Hailstorm, chain sound-Mike_Koenig
Chamber Decompressing-SoundBible.com
Isle - velocity calculation script
Whoah - the first user.
melee arc code - neural stunner - use for hammer melee
capital letters - Ichor , viewtopic.php?f=37&t=64128
climbing - Dodopod
fire effect of hammer - 4page
axe projectile for player - 4page
fire effect of tar - eharper256
scale mail on shoulder - eharper256
crossbow, barrel - neoworm
poison cloud - NailSeed
melee code for weredragon - Martin Howe
melee disciple = MagicWazard
fluids - Rachael viewtopic.php?f=105&t=55161
hi res textures - grandgreed https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/1 ... ture-pack/
new monster possessed, corpse gibs, golem xdeath (swordkill named) - OSJC
ice shard - RotMGBeige https://www.reddit.com/r/RotMG/comments/5ni1u7/idea_sprite_improvement_glitch_fix_for_ice_tomb/
sprite fix - Marphy Black https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=36713
Jarewill, Mikk- - barrel lifting code
NightFright - full screeen mod viewtopic.php?f=46&t=63863
Jarewill - for bug report
Jarewill - double crossbow code improve, lights code improve
Gifty - gold wand frames
ShadowCaster - textures use in help screen
Tormentor667 - DeathKnight monster
thecheeseman from soundbible - death sound
Doberman from soundbible - death sound Monster
Hollywood Edge Historical Series SFX Library- complied by BouncyTEM
Ultimate Torment & Torture Popular from Realm667 annoynmous - death sound
orangefreesounds - few pain/deathsounds
Sreggin Etah I - for feedback
DrPyspy - for PY wheel add on
Sjukob - for feedback
3saster - UI fix

for anyone who make and maintain zdoom.org/wiki - this is brilliant,
for anyone who make and maintain doomwiki.org/wiki
for multiple users of forum.zdoom.org without your posts I would be stuck
for ID and Raven Software for awesome Doom,Heretic&Hexen
to everybody who make GZdoom engine
for Markey Jester and his Interprite tool, which allow me to do smooth animations

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in paintNet
ice translation
-180 / 0 /-20

only blue curve
100,132

slade/gzdoom ice translation ? not sure if work "0:0=%[0.04,0.03,0.07]:[0.58,0.58,0.67]"
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paintNet for fire corpse colors:
red -33 / 0 / -67
black -33 / +144 / -17

v19.09.2020

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dynamic lights (torch, burning corpse for all monsters, items, weapons, monsters), akimbo axes, gloves on sword. Tar and Freeze potion have improved visuals. Lich has frozen corpse. Losing weapons (book,hammer,sword). Trident new weapon. Axe combine with shield. Wand reloads, staff attack improved. Knight losing head. Sounds weapons grenades. Puffs, metal. BurnDeath Fix.Torch melee attack. Fix flickering bug of torch+mace when player move. Barrel can be destroyed (sometimes 20% drop food). Krater of Might as a speed bonus.Alternate speed works: shift activate running mode. Add plate armor (give 99% armor, but slow down player), instead of Ring. Tweak Crossbow (need selected crossbow to be devour by ghost, alt fire 2 bolts, primary penetrate all targets in line). Remove all Fire+AltFire, replace with 'R' key. Golem: 2x new death anim, 2x new wound state (without left or right arm), punch with left hand also; fix issue with invulnerable knight when losing head (also golem can be hit when he losing arm), knight throwing 1x axe at the time; staff less dmg; axe higher % to 1-hit gargoyle; weapons slots change; crossbow faster primary projectile; add axe & mace sound when hit monster; smaller axe ammo icon; 6 bolts when pick up crossbow; primary crossbow fire dont light 2x sparkle at the side of bow (yeah mega immersiun); fix some quick bugs from edit2 - need to play to check if no more errors.Capital letters, diff skill names and change, sword charge mechanism improve (r to hurt self for ammo), hammer new explosion, tar new explosion, new crossbow, chicken death improve, new armor graphics, Mystic Urn (take health above 200), mirror artifact replace chaos device, plate armor lost effect, new sprint prepare effect, new thrust for kick and staff poke (only 1 monster, not all in radius), add kicking to book (r), new poison cloud (you can crouch to avoid it), barrel catch fire, hammer have hit in arch (like in hexen), torch, powered hammer can hurt ghost now, alt fire for torch (combo with more often torch burn), Weredragon have melee attack (left/right claw, head bite), improve golem melee AI (at the expense of playing his hit&swing sound together).New melee attack for weredragon (claws hit(front+7xdirection recycle sprite) and bite (8x direction)) new melee attack for Sabreclaw (slash,backslash(only front) and tali swing (only front but its look ok in other angles as well). Add ophidian attack animation (+ 1x 8direction sprite), plus redflash on trident when he shoot. fix headless ghost to spawn from knightghost. faster axe thrown. nerf mace (slower), to exhibit axe as faster weapon. Block for Mace, axe (alt fire), gauntlets (R) - reduce dmg by 40%. remove torch from slot 1 (its on slot 0). Hammer has second swing. tar is spawn little in front. If Player has 66hp+ - auto regeneration; 33- hp -slow movement; 10- bleeding (just graphic). Iron lich has wound state + during pain he close eyes. Pain of each monster take more time (this would need tests to adjust). Mace is always stunning monsters (i can not just increase the %). Minotaur wound state when he take 1500 dmg (all 100 sprites with body wound)., add wand block, weredragon alt death. Faster run change.fluids animation (rachel code). hi res textures neural (only walls/floors, exclude monsters and items).mirror gargoyle attack,pain. add block stun for all monsters (beast, lich, minotaur resist). retouch clink backslash sprite. mirror golem,wizard pain. remove always pain from mace. fix bug staff hammer dmg. fix bug beast hp. fix tar inventory bug. new axe projectile. retouch leg lost best death. faster trident melee. block all front monster attacks, improve block stun logic. Add some decoration from neural. Improve imp head lost. Improve Alternate HUD looks (weapon icons). Gargoyle lost wing (and fall and die). New gargoyle corpse remains after crash landing (1old+3new x2 mirror = 8 sets, now you should not see the same garg gibs on the floor). Iceshard (replace freezing potion). You can destroy ice,tar&mushroom pickup. You can push ignite tar. greenkey sprite fix. Add mirrored pain sprite for sabreclaw,knight,snake. add another barrel death (critical update ), add barrel lifting (with bug), add gargoyle split death, add to UI weapon numbers (include Fullstatbar mod), fix gargoyle fire death, faster gargoyle deaths, add disciple spine out death, fix barrel bug (if you shoot barrel, CTD), remove solid flag from grenades (no more stop if you pick them up),bugfix, add ophidian cut in half death. add sucking effect to ice shard implosion. add not lagging dynamic lights. Add cut head dead animation of Ophidian. new xdeath golem, faster gargoyle death animation. Add Disciple hole in body animation (code sucks, i cannot interrupt animation when he hit wall). I add lore wall of text. I add charging for hammer primary fire, you need to hold fire button to throw (safety from accidental self damage), the graphical thrown hammer flames fallout is no longer only pretty visuals (i does serious /main dmg). FIxed fluids (water lava) animations (or whatever you call what happening with textures). Add transparent string for double Xbow (string is twitches a little, not sure bug or feature?), remove auto aim from Xbow and hammer (easyTime&noCrossbow ok - but 1. tricky rail shoots was not possible, b. hammer fire rain req. aiming above victims (ceiling preferably), and its fresh type of gameplay). Remove ripper from mushroom to eliminate sound span, also tweak damage (now monster have bigger chance to escape the cloud). fix xbow remain after death. Add crouch sprites. Add empty crossbow selection (just improve visuals cohesion, no image of loaded xbow with 0 ammo).Add mundane crossbow. Knight is faster. Thrown axe dont hurt ghosts. recolors monster affected by ice or poison damage. use A_warp for burn puffs. Add Possessed weak new monster. Fire puff hurts (no longer only visuals). Fix disciple hole in body death (crush on wall, correct direction of thrust, few new frames to look more coherent). Add sounds to every weapon. Improve Hammer Reload attack. Add knockback/down effect to Possessed (new monster), and fall down effect to Gargoyle, improve Wizard body hole animation. Add sound if attack is blocked. Increase stun duration (was not enough when crowded). New Knight death. Speed alteration dont affect backspeed (positive (krater) neither negative (low health)). Clip for golem arm. Blood pool under ophidian and possessed top torso. Alter beast brain. Adjust to work flawless with PyWeaponWheel v0.3 - Universal weapon wheel, new XDeath for Knight.Balance&bugfix(less trident, more ovum, faster block recovery). add golem death losing second arm. tone down some golem alt death colors. golem code for losing arm change (if hp < 25; spawn armless on Pain; no armless spawn on death), mitigate prolonging of golem fights (1st kill 80hp, then kill 55hp => 1st kill 55hp then kill 55 hp = 110 hp instead 135), with keeping the frequency of arm losing. Add slide (shift-runmode; crounch & fire) to escape from being cornered. Add neoworms hefty sword. Add the custom blood for Knight, Sabreclaw, Disciples, IronLich (work little wonky with NashGore). fix color saturation for gargoyle death. Add gargoyle melee attack sprites (without fire). Fire gargoyle knockback behavior (shaking up/down). Improve shield block (less likely twitch (still happen), better projectile deflection; stun block working all time, not only when covering with shield[remove timing]). Add ice&fire death for legless knight. Tweak golem hp for removing his arm (less total HP pool).
Torch has second longer ranger of weaker light. If you already have shield, you take another into backpack (so you can boost your armor 100 and get shield). Fix boss deaths (lich and Maulotaurs) not triggering end level opening ([un?]fortunately wounding them is enough to escape the level). Fix sword bug. Better heal from gauntlets [0,15>0,2]. Fix dynamic lights for golem (firedeath/nitroshoot,ghost,armless combinations), and disabled knight. Better debris spawn when you lose plate armor (yess critical fix ), extra frames for Quitus sword (green cheap from hexen - now the visual quality of swing is comparable with hefty sword). Possessed (nr 3 with eye) missing frame fix (knockdown). Add possessed attack sound.
Nerf hammer and sword damage (before I kill Minotaur with 5x hammer, now its 10+). I add telegraphing (slow attack start) and new attack frames to each monster - basically you can now tell when the monster will attack (maybe the attack will look slow - need test): esp. Knight receive new melee frame and sound, and Lich has new frame (eye without jaw open - stupidly easy, but what can you really do with head?) give plenty of time before he cast each spell.
You can now switch on weak light on crystal wand (for the cost of 1 crystal). With fresh crystal loaded, press R'eload (you need min 2 crystals). Yet another funny weapon trap to lose some ammo .
Fix morph bug. Fix (hope so) disciple merging into ceiling during death. Add new defensive behavior for disciples (run away from player, become ghost - no strafing, because i dont know how to make it without making him fighting against thrusting force). Ophidian (try to) run away when he is about to die.golem has 12 frame for walk. gargoyle has 12 frame, and recovery 6 frame. Gold wand smooth shoot [from Gifty].
add smooth knight (3 front directions), add freeze alive
add smooth sabreclaw (3 front directions)
add reconfigured weredragon sprites (front has 10 frames instead 6)- it looks little more smooth. The interprite looks similar, so I spare myself job.
quick key to throw torch, VeryHard difficulty longer respawn, Weredragon HP -15, more susceptible to ice. Remove Quietus.
add side direction 3&7 smooth movement for Gargoyle
you can remove torch from wall, you can pick up fungal pods (if have weapons hidden SHIFT), fix barrel carry malfunctions when you look down (hopefully), fix golem ghost arm gib to be also ghost, barrel contain grenades sometimes (and player usually trigger then when opening the barrels ), fix color translation when monster is catch on fire (after ice or poison tint), amount of axes is affected by bag of holding (8>12), idle golem 2x frames set, fix armless golem multiply when lose arm from shield bash,Wendigo appear more often.

add 8 direction weredragon claw attack (infights looks better), add small % to freeze monster alive (so he will thaw back, if its not shatter), sword less durable (40% less), fix frozen disciple corpse, backhand slash after block with sword (looks better), goldwand shoot even faster (no machinegun), sphere prevent from crossbow lost from ghosts,

shield block fix stun, block fix damage resistance, add icon for mace&torch and missing texts for pick ups, sword less durable 100>60, axe is attacking slightly faster (like 4 tic faster).

add 1-arm golem smooth animations - 8 direction both armless variants. Bugfix freeze deaths (like you freeze the golem but he sometimes dont shatter when you kick the icecorpse).

tar is affected by some sector push. Mushroom flying little higher. ice wall is cast faster. Primary tome of power has now safety lock on trigger, so accidentially shot with ice balls, that take quite time, occur less frequent. Crossbow reload is faster.
add help screens. Add 8x direction gargoyle movement.

add 8 direction smooth (12 frame) move for Knight and Headless Knight.

add Death Knight. mdf Wendigo attacks (telegraphin, melee)

fix morphed chicken(ghost). add frame for wendigo punch. add headless knight new melee frame in 8 dir. tar and freeze doing half damage to player.

add sounds pain/death to: gargoyle, golem, knight, wendigo, disciple, ophidian, sabreclaw, beast, maulotaur.
add sound for hammer pickup
add dash time limit (1 per 5 second)
add powerup time counter for speed and dash cool down (need to be turn on in fullscreen bar options)
hiding weapon and drawing it back is twice as fast as before.

tweak speed: slightly faster forward, lot faster strafing. Krater of Might speed affect strafe speed, but Run (hide weapon dont).
forward 1.05 > 1.15, side 0.7 > 0.85. top forward speed 1,15+0,3+0,35= 1,8 (vanilla heretic top speed is 2.0)
i check episod E5M2 - you could walk against each stream, without Krater of Might.

staff is not alarming monsters (but crystal shot does), i add new Gargoyle dead sound, change hammer pick up (edit by Sreggin Etah I), add smooth wendigo (with dead animation, telegraphing, improve missiles), ironlich and afrit prone for ice and poison hue, Minotaur faster, his floorFire attack is not insta killing (each fire from trail doing 128 radius dmg in vanilla), Shadowsphere grant fire,ice,poison 80% resistance. include weapon wheel mod. Add random keys. mundane crossbow semi reload. 3rd help page add.
fix red gizmo (was spawn obsidian), fix golem death counter (was not adding kills properly).book no pickup fix, death knight sword drop sprite fix, xbow bolts bounce from lich and death knight, wendigo is susceptible to fire 200% dmg, torch alt fire is only torch burn (primary only mace swing)

when pickup shield, it not change from mace to axe.
reduce golem ghost hp -10
pistol start - ghost not remove ethernal crossbow
shadowshpere is not granting upgrading crossbow

hiding weapon (shift) and drawing it is way faster
in pistol start mode, if you use ShadowSphere your crossbow is upgrade into double one.



I made or modify few sprites, everybody feel free to reuse them (as well whole this mod). I don't want any credits. In fact I would be honored if you use any part of my opus.

[neoworm]

Nice to see my sprites used again.
I tried it and I think the player speed is really annoying. The maps are really not made for this speed and it makes the game absolute slog to get through. I think maybe let player sprint with original running speed but while sprinting he can't use weapons. It would make moving around the map less annoying but the combat will still work as you intend.

[Whoah]

Yeah, I gotta agree with the speed thing. A lot of Heretic maps are based around quick movement and reflexes, which this mod doesn't exactly facilitate. You could do what Final Doomer+ does, and slow down the player's walk speed, but keep the run speed the same as vanilla. All that aside, this mod is pretty damn fun, and it's a really cool and consistent spin on the standard Heretic arsenal

[Lagi]

thank you for feedback! Im very happy to see it.
neoworm, its a pleasure being able to use your graphics, thank you very much for it, the quality & fidelity of your work is amazing, its "seamless".

speed - its set so low, to be more "believable" for bipedal creature. I just finish E1. For me the speed was ok, moreover I always have spare speed up powerup (seeds of chaos). but on the other hand, I know the levels, i dont need to backtrack, and its my creation so Im biased:). Speed affect the combat, because you will be able to easier avoid/escape enemies/ dodge bullets. For the projectiles I include shield (and ice wall), and there is sphere also. Frozen corpses create barrier as well.

Your proposition of faster run, with hidden weapon sounds good. Not sure if I know how to code it however. I will increase the forward speed by 0.1

---

wand will need to have more shoots per crystal
the blinking wand crystal feature (dont allow to shoot when grey) is annoying (i thought it would be cool )
geode (big wand ammo), make no sens - it not fit in wand slot. What Corvus break it to smaller pieces?
there is too much crystal ammo. I never have less than max capacity. I will make 30% chance to spawn one of grenades instead
there is not enough grenades!! and they are fun to use
lots of missing pickup text (axe, gauntlets)
there is too much weapons on slot 1. Pressing number 1 take too much time to select given weapon.
too much ammo for wand, crossbow, book
remove Wimpy flag from mace (auto switch is annoying)
make book very last in selection order (i die multiple times due to book switch)
backpack increase ammo too much
set torch to give max light (a_light20)
add single Mace - some alt fire function - dont know what yet, any ideas?
Ice wall should melt - let it take damage over time
ironlich frozen corpse bug
when player die, the book closing animation is ongoing

[Whoah]

For the mace altfire, I'd suggest maybe corvus takes out the wand real quick, and fires off a quick wand shot? Could be useful for when you get ambushed by some ranged enemies. Alternatively, a kick with lower damage and higher knockback would be nice for clearing some space. The torch being a dynamic light would be really nice too

[Lagi]

Whoah, wand shoot inspire me to do something with wand. Throw crystal with hand? or reload the wand? or both by throwing crystal you reload the wand.
I would like to add the dynamic lights as well, I make some attempt, but Im just too stupid yet. Its probably something easy, like everything if you know how to do it

---

Player is faster, for me it know feels like car racing game, still Corvus is 45% slower than in vanilla. I would like to go for running with hidden weapon, if I invest again my time into modding. Animations are faster. All previous things are corrected. I played E2, there is abundance of grenades (mushrooms, tar, frosty potions), but i like it, instead stockpiling ammo, you have some active maneuvers, and you dont have to be shy with using items, because there is plenty. Decreased ammo Max capacity, create some new gamey edge with ammo management, usually you were at max cap and dont care about ammo preservation. the 2x weapon per slots are nice, brighter torch is more useful. There is more armor, but armor still feels like paper layer that its very easy to peel off

[Whoah]

A premature reload for the wand wouldn't be the worst idea. Maybe you could reload it to have more shots at the ready, but you sacrifice any remaining shots that remained in your last gem? It would also be nice if the reload animation didn't play even when you had no gems left, as it's a bit of a pain when in more hectic situations

[Lagi]

thanks Whoah,

I try to add wand reload if you press fire and altfire, but I cannot make it work. Below are two attempts I try dont work. I will try to educate myself more in ACS, maybe there I would have more luck (the button press ACS example from wiki works, just messing with weapons states by ACS is terra incognita for me).

Code: Select all • Expand view

  /* {
         A_SetUserVar(user_buttons, GetPlayerInput(INPUT_BUTTONS,-1));
         if ((user_buttons & BT_Attack))
         {       A_JumpIfInventory("GoldWandAmmo2",1, "Reload");    }
   }
      */
   {
      if(GetPlayerInput(INPUT_BUTTONS) & BT_Attack && (GetPlayerInput(INPUT_BUTTONS) & BT_AltAttack))
      {       return state ("Reload");  }
   }


Script error, "Bitter Heretic2.pk3:actors/goldwand2" line 46:
Return type mismatch

as you said, I remove the reload animation if no more crystals is in inventory (its 3rd update of link).

---

I also reduce some monster hp, because they feel too tough (except Knight, he is 200 hp, but he is slow moving and slow firing so he is ok):

shooting Gargoyle - hp 80 > 60
Wizard 180 > 120
snake with gun 280 > 200
beast 220 > 190
clink (brown "alien" with axe) 150 > 130
Minotaur 3000 > 2000 (im not sure about this one, cause E2 boss fight was epic with 3000 each, anyway feel too long)

thrown Axe is doing more damage 12xd8 (12-96) instead 8xd8
shield and staff push - is stronger, to have bigger gameplay impact

---

fader for ice decals, :/ sorry the ice on walls will burden your cpu till the next update
remove/ add flag through ghost for gauntlets - this A_changeflag, doesnt work
increase throwing time of grenades - not sure how to increase Use: time, it doesnt seem to work

[neoworm]

This may be helpful.

viewtopic.php?f=39&t=62228

[fluffyshambler]

I try to add wand reload if you press fire and altfire, but I cannot make it work. Below are two attempts I try dont work. I will try to educate myself more in ACS, maybe there I would have more luck (the button press ACS example from wiki works, just messing with weapons states by ACS is terra incognita for me).

Code: Select all • Expand view

  /* {
         A_SetUserVar(user_buttons, GetPlayerInput(INPUT_BUTTONS,-1));
         if ((user_buttons & BT_Attack))
         {       A_JumpIfInventory("GoldWandAmmo2",1, "Reload");    }
   }
      */
   {
      if(GetPlayerInput(INPUT_BUTTONS) & BT_Attack && (GetPlayerInput(INPUT_BUTTONS) & BT_AltAttack))
      {       return state ("Reload");  }
   }


Script error, "Bitter Heretic2.pk3:actors/goldwand2" line 46:
Return type mismatch

.

I believe the solution for the "return type mismatch" error is to add "else { return state (""); }" after your if statements. This makes zdoom happy and does nothing but let the current state continue.

[Whoah]

After playing this a bit, I've come to realize that the Hellstaff is a liiiiiiittle useless. The hammer does better in any field the hellstaff could be used, and also doubles as a melee weapon. Perhaps the Hellstaff could be either replaced with a different weapon or done away with altogether? Because as of now, it just kinda clutters my inventory

[Lagi]

thanks for the Zscript link Neoworm, could be useful (for the next christams break time )

fluffyshambler, you are brilliant it works! uploaded new version. If you so acquainted, could you help me with my decal animator?

---

Code: Select all • Expand view

decal IceScorch 13
{
   pic IceScorch
   
   randomflipx
   randomflipy
   translucent 0.7
   animator meltIce  //line 8
}

decal IceScorch2 14
{
   pic IceScorch2
   
   x-scale 0.2
   y-scale 0.2
   randomflipx
   randomflipy
   translucent 0.7
   animator meltIce //line 20
}

fader meltIce
{
   DecayStart 0.3
   DecayTime 0.9
}


decalgroup IceScorch3
{
   IceScorch2   1
   IceScorch2   1
}

, here is error from console (in game):

unable to find animator MeltIce

in line 8 and 20

Whoah, thanks for feedback.
Hellstaff looks great as weapon its my favorite heretic weapon, the rain fire is epic. And its use is niche. You fire it into room or by the window and run away to safety.
Agree it was maybe too weak (i dont know how to edit hardcoded rain function). I increase rate of fire more than twice and reduce ammo use (damage taken) from 1-2 to 0-2. Just clear E5M1 on hard twice, and I think its fun weapon.
Give it a shoot, if you dont mind your save file
I'm trying to make generic burning fire death for a monster (from existing sprites), but so far my sprites looks out of place and very artificial, but I dont give up. Imagine it, you fire hellstaff few time in a room, and the rain burn everyone inside
And what is on your mind Whoah? what weapon would you like to see instead hellstaff?

[Whoah]

I think something like a spear or polearm of some sort. I know there are some sprites of a spear with cleric gloves on em somewhere, but I'm not sure where. The hellstaff's probably my favorite Heretic weapon as well, but I just sorta felt like it's role was filled by other weapons. Hell, I'd almost say just do away with it altogether and move either the tome or sword into it's slot. Of course, these are just suggestions though, and I very well could be in the minority

[Lagi]

hmm... concept of polearm is interesting. And you could throw the spear ofc. Unfortunately I will not have any soon, more of free time to change the whole weapon and do/adjust/ modify/code the graphics.

here is some fire - mediocre


edit: some in game - eh.. I dont know - (its not uploaded, cause its very unfinished - the fire sprites are not well connected)

---

[Whoah]

Hate to necrobump this, but I noticed it got updated and I have some feedback!

The Good:
-The axes are 1000% more fun to use. Seriously, hacking away at golems with a pair of hand axes feels awesome.
-The wand feels much more smooth and fun to use, ESPECIALLY that melee altfire. Super fluid transition.
-The trident is a very welcome addition to the arsenal, and feels much more useful than the hellstaff. Good stuff.
-The enemy changes definitely compliment the weapons, and I was pleasantly surprised by the headless skellie bois. It added an extra layer of character that felt super natural.

The Bad:
-The crossbow feels a bit redundant. The wand has more plentiful ammo, a faster rate of fire, and does enough damage to stand in for the crossbow. Perhaps the crossbow could behave more like a sniper rifle/railgun type weapon. Come to think of it, I don't believe there's a long range weapon in the whole arsenal, which I suppose makes sense, but it would be a welcome addition for the sake of dealing with certain encounters.
-The axe altfire feels a little underwhelming. I feel like it could use a damage/speed buff, and perhaps some new graphics so it looks more like the axe your character holds.
-The enemies could use some more melee-centered tweaking. Like having undead warriors throw his axes less, and have more diverse melee attacks for instance. This could help sell the whole melee combat emphasis.
-The tar bomb's explosion radius seems just a little too big. It feels powerful, but also just a touch too volatile. On the flip side, it is still useful and fun to use.
-Most of the animations in general feel just a little slow and clunky. I may just be spoiled because I'm so used to super fluid and fast animations in mods, and I do understand why, because coding animations is super tedious.

And that's all I got! Great work so far, man. The other additions like the fire deaths and such were also neat to see. Excited to see where you might take this mod next. Hopefully no one gets mad at me for necroposting.