ZDoom

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As mentioned, you start off with just your bare fists and a shotgun (in code terms, technically 7 weapons in total), and that's all you'll need. Your fists have some basic fleshing out and rebalancing compared to vanilla, with primary being 10-30 damage, and altfire being a slightly faster right jab that deals the average damage comparable to vanilla (5-15 vs 2-20). They can be up to 5x as powerful with the right powerup as is normal.

However, the real meat of the mod is the shotgun. You start off with some buckshot and both barrels loaded, with your alternate ammo being used to track how many shells have been loaded currently. You can fire them off in fairly quick succession, reloading automatically when they're empty, and can reload a half-empty shotgun manually if you bind that key. Altfire will fire both barrels at once like you're used to, though this comes at the cost of increased spread and recoil. You also actually have to have both barrels loaded for this, if you use the altfire with only one shell loaded it will act just as if you hit fire. Hold states are also present, so you'll have to take advantage of that low refire delay manually.

In addition to reloading after each shot or on demand, switching weapons also entails a reload. After all, you only have one weapon but multiple ammo types, so rather than simply lowering and raising the weapon you'll actually, visibly reload the shotgun to swap out ammo type when you switch to a different load. Switching back and forth between your fists and any of the shotgun loads also plays a different animation implying holstering/drawing, as well.

Running out of what type of ammo will also autoswitch to whatever you have available as is normal, and will correctly show you reloading a different ammo type instead. And of course, if you only have one shell left, you'll only end up with one barrel loaded.

In addition to dedicated fisticuffs, the zoom function is used by the shotguns for a dedicated pistol-whipping (well, shotgun-whipping you could say) function. The key can be held down to leave the attack wound up if needed. Overall speed is slightly slower than a punch (not counting the time it'd take to switch) in exchange for a bit more damage, knockback, and range. If a certain setting is turned on (see below), it will also gain the benefit of blocking projectiles. This feature is off by default.

For even more fun, you can end up dual-wielding shotguns with the right powerup. These obviously give you 4 rounds at a time to work with. Altfire still only lets off 2 barrels at a time by default, but with twice the barrels that means you can do 2 in a row if the situation warrants it. Or you could just as easily fire off a single shot, then an altire, then follow up with another single shot. It's fairly flexible. If a certain setting is turned on (see below), you have the option of unleashing all four barrels at once (if fully-loaded) for complete overkill.

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Buckshot, occupies slot 2.

Fires 10 pellets, each of which deal 5-15 damage, making it match what you'd expect from a single barrel of the vanilla super shotgun. Spread from a single barrel is closer to the total area of the regular vanilla shotgun, though with narrower horizontal spread in exchange for a comparable vertical spread.

Every standard ammo pickup has a 1/3 chance to spawn buckshot. Shotgun spawns on the map will always spawn a pack of buckshot shells. Zombiemen have a 1/3 chance to drop a pair of buckshot shells, and shotgun zombies will always drop a pair of buckshot shells.


Flechette shells, occupies slot 3.

Fires a spray of extremely fast ripper projectiles. They deal very little damage individually (1-3) but fire 20 per shell, plus being ripper projectiles actual damage is higher overall. Useful for cutting through a crowd of enemies at once. Spread is also a bit wider than buckshot.

Ammo spawns that would spawn vanilla shells will spawn flechette shells 2/3 of the time. Super shotgun spawns on the map will always spawn a pack of flechette shells.


Shotgun slugs, occupies slot 4.

Fires a single large bullet with even more raw power than buckshot, 75-225 damage. Has some narrow spread built in.

Ammo spawns that would spawn vanilla bullets will spawn slugs 2/3 of the time. Chaingun spawns on the map will always spawn a pack of slugs. Zombiemen have a 1/3 chance to drop a pair of shotgun slugs, and chaingun zombies will always drop a pair of slugs.


Explosive slugs, occupies slot 5.

A hitscan explosive, firing a single impact that deals less impact damage than buckshot (40-120 damage), but makes up for it with an explosion nearly as powerful as a rocket (120 damage vs 128). Explosive radius is smaller than a rocket however (80 units), so make your shots count. Also has spread built in, between that of slugs and buckshot.

Ammo spawns that would spawn vanilla rockets will spawn explosive slugs 2/3 of the time, and rocket launcher spawns on the map will always spawn a pack of explosive slugs.


Incendiary shells, occupies slot 6.

Because "dragon's breath shells" breaks the naming convention a bit. Fires a spray of 5 flaming projectiles that ignite on impact, with a noticeably wider spread than buckshot. These will obey gravity so mind your aim, and they'll also have just enough bounce it they hit a wall to slash the floor nearby instead of sticking to the wall like they might otherwise do. Raw damage for a direct hit is low (4-12 damage per pellet), but each burning pellet provides continuous damage in a short radius (80) over a short period of a time, each one adding a total of 28 damage to make the overall power decently high.

Ammo spawns that would spawn vanilla plasma cells will spawn incendiary shells 2/3 of the time, and plasma rifle spawns on the map will always spawn a pack of incendiary shells.


Plasma shells, occupies slot 7.

A little something special. This is your BFG-tier ammunition, firing a cone of green death with massive spread. The raw damage is comparable to the BFG's tracer spray, 40 pellets each dealing 30-90 damage (vs. 15-120 for each BFG tracer). While it lacks the maximum potential damage the BFG has and doesn't gain the benefit of the main projectile's 100-800 damage, it's far more consistent and usable on the spot, making it devastating (especially if you dole out both barrels of it).

These only spawn from backpacks (4 shells, same as all other ammo types) and in place of BFG-9000 spawns on the map.

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Guns akimbo, replacing the berserk pack.

This functions much like the tome of power in Heretic, swapping you to powered-up weapons instead. For the fists this will work like the berserk pack, increasing your damage (by 5x instead of 10x, so that primary fire deals the same average damage as vanilla and so altfire jabs have half that damage). But as usual, the real value of this is in it giving you 2 shotguns to work with, and thus 4 barrels to play around with.

As with the berserk pack, this lasts until the end of the level. No need to worry about wasting it, though the "carry powerups" setting can still be useful for if you want to save the guns akimbo effect for a latter level that either lacks a berserk pack or spawns one later on than you'd like to have it.


Doubled fire rate, replacing the chainsaw.

Does exactly what it says on the tin, making weapon states twice as fast and thus giving you quicker firing, reloading, weapon switching, what-have-you.

Lasts for 60 seconds, and being able to save it for a tough fight instead of being at the mercy of the map's choice of chainsaw placement is the primary benefit to the "carry powerups" setting.

• 1. Quick Melee Can Block Projectiles? The zoom command can be used while the shotgun(s) is equipped for a quick melee attack. With this setting enabled, the resulting pistol-whip will also be able to strike projectiles out of the air. This requires a bit of good timing, and doesn't work on hitscan attacks, but can offer some added utility if turned on. Needless to say, using it against rockets is a Bad Idea.
  2. Allow Quad-Fire With Guns Akimbo? By default, using the altfire with dual shotguns will still only fire two barrels at a time, assuming at least two barrels are loaded. With this setting enabled, using the altfire with all four chambers loaded will unleash all four at once. This comes at further penalty to spread and recoil.
  3. Carry Fast-Fire and Akimbo Powerups? By default these powerups will be activated the instant you pick them up, as is standard for items in Doom. If this is enabled, these two powerups will go to your inventory for later use, like with items in Heretic, Hexen, and Strife. This is especially useful for the powerup replacing the chainsaw (see below). If a map is kind enough to provide multiple berserk packs or chainsaws, you'll find this setting allows you to carry up to a single unused one of each powerup with you to the next level, Heretic-style.
  4. Share Fast-Fire and Akimbo Powerups in Co-op? A bonus for co-op players. If enabled, picking up these powerups will also grant it to all other players in the area as well, whether it's set to instant-use or carried for later activation.
  5. Randomize Fast-Fire and Akimbo Powerups Spawns? If enabled, this sets it so that chainsaw and berserk pack replacements will randomly select between guns akimbo and fast-fire, instead of always spawning a specific replacement for each item. This is useful for scenarios such as episode one of Doom or with Chex Quest, where you can encounter one item but not the other.

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Comes with a working Doom-style status bar if you prefer that over the fullscreen HUD. It swaps out the frags/weapon display with instead showing you how many chambers you have loaded (since frags aren't really that vital to have listed up-front and no need to show weapon list when you already have your weapon on hand to begin with), and the ammo section lists the mod's available shotshells instead of vanilla ammo counts.

The name of the weapon and current ammo type loaded is also automatically printed when you switch to it, with color-coded text to better help the player tell at a glance what load they're using. This came from feedback by a friend of mine as a fairly simple and non-intrusive way to keep the player from having to constantly look down at the bottom-right corner of their screen if using fullscreen HUD, plus it's the only real way to tell what loadout you're using if you're using the status bar.

Visual details added include:

• 1. Dynamic lighting for the impact effects of explosive slugs and plasma shells, for incendiary shell projectiles, and a slight fiery/green glow when firing incendiary shells and plasma shells respectively.
  2. Gun smoke effects on firing. Offset left or right if dual-wielding, and the smoke effect is more prominent and fades slower if firing 2 barrels at once (unless it's the altfire state for the dual shotguns that fire one barrel from each gun, in which case it spawns 2 properly-offset standard smoke effects instead).
  3. Minor screen shake using A_Quake when firing 2 barrels.
  4. Flash states for the shotguns correctly vary depending on which barrel is being fired. For the standard shotgun single shots will fire the left barrel, then the right one. For dual shotguns it fires off one at a time, from the left shotgun's first barrel to the right shotgun's second barrel.
  5. The flash state for the dual shotguns' state will also vary depending on chamber state. Firing from full has both barrels of the left shotgun fire off, firing with 3 chambers loaded shows the left shotgun's second barrel and the right shotgun's first barrel firing, while firing with 2 chambers loaded has the right shotgun fire off both barrels.
  6. Different sprites for ammo types, and reload animations for the shotguns will show the correct pattern for the type of shell being loaded.
  7. Fist sprites from Angled Doom, to give a consistently gloved appearance to the character's hands. Edited to remove the brass knuckles in addition to mirrored sprites for altfire jabs.
  8. Dual shotguns make use of the sprites from Angled Doom, edited to be mirrored appropriately, have the correct complex flash state sprites as mentioned above, and with the few glimpses of them being held two-handed removed for obvious reasons.

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• 1. I was tempted to work on some custom muzzle flash effects for explosive, incendiary, and plasma shells instead of using shotgun and super shotgun muzzle flashes for all ammo types. Problem is that I have a grand total of 20 different flash sprites due to how complex the weapons themselves are, so that'd be 60 more sprites I'd need to edit together in GIMP, set offsets in SLADE, and test to make sure everything is aligned just right.
  2. I'm tempted to look into some scripting stuff to streamline the fire and reload states a tiny bit, especially for the dual shotguns. Will have to see sometime.
  3. The idea of adding a grappling hook utility in the vein of Doom Eternal has also come up, I've yet to look into the sanest way to implement that. Figuring out a good keybinding would also be good, as now the zoom state is already in use for quick-melee.
  4. Any other suggestions for stuff I could improve, and potential additional options that could be added to the mod options menu, would be worth looking into as well.

• 1. Getting the ZScript status bar working: Phantombeta and Blue Shadow, on the ZDoom forums.
  2. Gloved fist sprites: Edited from Angled Doom's fist sprites by JDRedAlert, on the ZDoom forums.
  3. Angled dual shotgun sprites: Edited from Angled Doom's super shotgun by JDRedAlert, on the ZDoom forums. Angled super shotgun sprite originally by JoeyTD, with editing by Denis Belmondo.

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Version 1.0: Initial release.

Version 1.1:
* Implemented Zscript status bar to replace SBARINFO, with thanks to Phantombeta and Blue Shadow here on the ZDoom forums.
* Implemented compatibility with Chex Quest and Heretic. Required adding a bit more to compatibility folders, and tweaking the status bar ZScipt a bit.

Version 1.2:
* Added a so far very basic melee feature bound to the zoom state to the shotguns. Uses a fairly basic animation for pistol-whipping (well, shotgun-whipping rather) with the option to wind up and release when needed by continuing to hold zoom.
* Converted flechette shells to fire fast ripper projectiles instead of using rail attack, which fixes the issues that using A_RailAttack had like not working with autoaim.

Version 1.21: Forgot some sounds I had to add to the compatibility folder for use in Heretic.

Version 1.22: Fixed status bar ammo count having slugs and flechettes swapped around.

Version 1.23: I also thought I had the offsets for armor correct there, whoops.

Version 1.25:
* Fixed gunsmoke being able to teleport.
* Set it so slugs can't gib enemies (since they combine a lot of damage in a single mundane impact), while plasma shells will always gib.

Version 1.3:
* Per some feedback after discussing it with others, added angled sprites for dual shotguns.
* Added Credits file.

Version 1.35:
* Fixed incendiary shell's projectile lacking a compatibility entry in SNDINFO.
* Fixed fast fire powerup failing to pick up properly when "carry powerups" setting is on.
* Nerfed value of shell boxes from 20 down to 16.
* In exchange, bumped up max shell capacities from 50/100 to 80/160.
* Tweaked sprites for shell boxes slightly.
* Per request, went ahead and set it so slugs can gib again.

Version 1.4:
* Ported over the gloved fist sprites from Angled Doom as well, edited to remove the brass knuckles for a bit more consistency.
* Tweaked altfire jabs for the fists a lil bit to add a proper transition from hand to fist using a mirrored B sprite.
* Added an option to randomize guns akimbo and fast-fire spawns. Particularly handy for Chex Quest.
* Added different gunshot sounds for explosive, incendiary, and plasma shells.
* Set it so plasma shells have an impact quake effect.

Version 1.5:
* Added an option that allows the quick-melee function to also block projectiles if you time the swings right. Won't block bullets, and trying to use it on a rocket is a Bad Idea, but does have some utility if enabled.
* Added an option that sets it so that dual shotguns will fire all four barrels one altfire, if they're all loaded. Comes at cost of increased spread and recoil, regular altfire can still occur with this setting on if you have less than four barrels loaded.
* Fixed dual shotguns with explosive slugs still using generic shotgun sound effects instead of the custom sound for explosive slugs.

Version 1.51: Fixed share powerups option not working through walls, doh.

Version 1.6:
* Overhauled how reloading and loaded chambers are handled, making the shotguns significantly less fragile and less vulnerable to ending up in a state that might leave you unable to select a weapon.
* Also fixed the issue where co-op always forces the player to respawn with fists equipped.
* Set it so that you can cancel out of a reload into quick-melee if you hit the zoom command early enough. Also means the shotguns will be able to force a reload if you've somehow put them in a state where they're both ready but also empty.
* Converted the weapon name script into part of the custom ZScript HUD. This fixes some issues where the displayed weapon name could potentially fail to trigger.
* Shifted around the damage of incendiary shell projectiles to favor a bit more direct hit damage and slightly less burn damage, also adds a tweak to how its velocity changes on hitting monsters, allowing it to burn a beaten zone into a crowd of enemies instead of settling at the very edge of the group after initial impact.

As mentioned, you start off with just your bare fists and a shotgun

Spaceman333 wrote:Quick anytime melee would be better so player doesn't have to switch away from the shotty.

Heck, remove fists altogether and replace with a buttstock whack that can be performed anytime.

If run out of ammo, use shotgun as a baseball bat with increased reach melee distance + swing width + added knockback power against monsters.

Also use empty shotgun as an automatically retrievable spear as a last ditch emergency ranged attack.

Zombiemen have a 1/3 chance to drop a pair of shotgun slugs, and chaingun zombies will always drop a pair of slugs.

Spaceman333 wrote: Can I still play the mod with custom monster replacements or are those drops tied to vanilla monsters only?

Chaosvolt wrote:

Spaceman333 wrote: Can I still play the mod with custom monster replacements or are those drops tied to vanilla monsters only?

As the OP states, monster replacements will still work yeah. The way it works is just that the item set to replace clips checks if it has the dropped flag, and if so that changes what it spawns. So any monster set to drop vanilla clips will exhibit this behavior. Same applies to anything set to drop vanilla shotguns or chainguns, hence why shotgun guys and chaingun guys drop a pair of buckshot/slugs instead of what would normally replace those weapons.

I could rig it so that every ammo item is able to check whether they're being dropped by a monster, most notably for Heretic's ammo drops, but since Heretic monsters all drop small ammo pickups instead of large ammo or weapons (AND don't drop them 100% of the time like Doom zombies do) there's less immediate need to nerf them.

Sgt. Shivers wrote:I really like this mod! The various shells are a lot of fun to blast stuff with but I think it would be neat if the flechettes had a chance to bounce like the flak in unreal tournament, it would give the player a way to effect their spread.