Alternate take on Partial Invisibility

[Matt]

Old fat spider spinning in a tree!
Old fat spider can’t see me!
Attercop! Attercop!
Won't you stop,
Stop your spinning and look for me!

[Ryuhi]

Really great idea! Since it's specifically looking for +SHADOW, is it safe to assume it doesn't work directly with PowerGhost? If thats the case, would it be much work to have an option (maybe via a CVAR) for that as well? Ghost is technically already less useless than normal cloaking, but this effect would go very nicely with it as well

[Enjay]

From memory, PowerGhost inherits from PowerInvisibility and simply adds the +GHOST flag (as well as changing a couple of other parameters like maybe powerup strength or duration of something). So, PowerGhost should have the +SHADOW flag and this should work for that too.

[Ryuhi]

From memory, PowerGhost inherits from PowerInvisibility and simply adds the +GHOST flag (as well as changing a couple of other parameters like maybe powerup strength or duration of something). So, PowerGhost should have the +SHADOW flag and this should work for that too.

ah, nice, thanks for clarifying.

[Misery]

What about somethin' along the lines of A_SpawnItemEx a hate target wherever the player enters any kind of attack state?

[Enjay]

I've been using this for a while now and it has been working very nicely. It actually took a bit of getting used to because once you fire, you must move or the bad guys will shoot the dummy-you that you just happen to be standing at. Which is fair enough and quite "realistic" but it's also kind of the opposite of what is sometimes needed with the original blur because moving with that often means you dodging straight into the path of a mis-aimed enemy shot . It's a great alternative though because it also means the item can be used tactically to deliberately have a bad guy (or guys) concentrating on the wrong place while you nip around behind him to take a shot, rinse and repeat. Good fun.

However, I've been wondering if there would be any way to unlink this from the the built-in powerups? The reason I ask is that I was thinking that it would be nice to have this as a separate powerup for modders to place in a map. So you could have both the original blur sphere and the alternate-take in the same map.

Why would anyone want to do that? Well, simply because more is more - more options, more powerups yadda yadda. Also, tactically the two items are quite different. The alternate-take is great and can be used very tactically (as described above) but the original blur can sometimes be useful (yeah, I know, hear me out): for example in a room of rapid hitscanners, having the bad guys fire in random directions means that they miss you a lot. With the alternate-take, as soon as you fire, the bad guys know where you are and chaingunners, for example, just shift to start firing at the location where you made a noise and if you don't move quickly (or possibly can't if you are in a cramped space), you are now immediately in the line of fire.

The alternate-take specifically looks for the +SHADOW flag, so I'm not sure how to unlink it so that it can be a stand-alone powerup in its own right.

[Misery]

However, I've been wondering if there would be any way to unlink this from the the built-in powerups? The reason I ask is that I was thinking that it would be nice to have this as a separate powerup for modders to place in a map. So you could have both the original blur sphere and the alternate-take in the same map.

Does the DECORATE inherit from or Replace? As long as it isnt Blank Replaces, it should be separate. Unless there's somethin' else. I can't look at it from here, 'cause my laptop's at home.

[Rachael]

The alternate-take specifically looks for the +SHADOW flag, so I'm not sure how to unlink it so that it can be a stand-alone powerup in its own right.

You can have it check for the contents of inventory, instead of the +SHADOW flag. And just have a dummy item called "FullyInvisible" item in there or something.

[Enjay]

Ah yes, that would make sense. I'll give that a go tomorrow (getting late here). Thanks.

[JohnnyTheWolf]

Amazing! You fixed what was for the longest time the most useless powerup in Doom. Thank you!

Honestly, I wish this could be either part of every mod from now on or downright get integrated into GZDoom as an option!

[sir_firebrand]

Thanks for this amazing mod, definitely on my default mod list.

Everything just works flawlessly with everything I threw at it, but for some reason it is not working with BTSX-E1. The monsters just freeze in place when the partial invisibility is active.

[JohnnyTheWolf]

I tried on my end and it too does not seem to work with Back to Saturn X. Curious.

[JohnnyTheWolf]

Sorry to bump this up, but I have just realized that while the modified Blursphere causes enemies to become stuck in place in BTSX Episode 1, it appears to be working properly in Episode 2.

I have tried looking into the wads, but so far, I have not seen anything that could explain this behaviour.

Any idea?

[JohnnyTheWolf]

EUREKA!

I have finally figured out why the mod would not work properly with Back to Saturn X: Episode 1 and only Back to Saturn X: Episode 1.

It is due to btsx_e1a.wad's ZMAPINFO and MAPINFO both having the compat_invisibility = 1 line. Delete it and the reworked invisibility will work as intended!