XRpg - Simple Hexen RPG mod [v2.3.1 Released] New GUI inventory system with full mouse support

[peewee_RotA]

Have fixes for multiplayer leveling and everything. Also found some minor bugs, including an issue with the axe while berserking. The main problem is a persistent crash that only happens in multiplayer. Looking into that.

[peewee_RotA]

Got it to crash at about the same spot in vanilla hexen multiplayer. Guess I'll have to do more digging.

Edit: Version 4.6.1 is not crashing. Checked the version log but didn't see anything major. However the widescreen sprites for hexen means this is the new target version

[peewee_RotA]

Version 1.1.1 is out now with multiplayer fixes. See original post.

Download: https://github.com/cabbruzzese/xrpg/releases/tag/v1.1.1

[peewee_RotA]

Version 1.2 is out with fixes to mage spells and hammer smash. See original post.

Download: https://github.com/cabbruzzese/xrpg/releases/tag/v1.2

[peewee_RotA]

Going to test out on some level packs and report back with compatibility.

So far tested Single Player on A New World level pack. Confirmed to work.

Very beautiful level set. Highly recommended to anyone who hasn't seen it:
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=47060&p=1159680&hilit=ANW#p793596

Also tested on HeroQuest level pack:
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=45245&p=746687&hilit=heroquest#p746011

[peewee_RotA]

Tested with Penumbra mega wad. Works great! Lots of fun.

viewtopic.php?f=42&t=68824&p=1186541&hilit=penumbra#p1186541


Being a flying wizard with a billion enemies was definitely a fun aspect.

[peewee_RotA]

Tested with curse of the lost gods (took a long time to find the wad and a working link). Based on the hype and pretty screenshots I assumed it was a good one to end the testing on.
https://www.doomworld.com/files/file/18 ... lost-gods/

As you can see in the comments the gameplay is an example of all of the don'ts in level making. XRpg makes it at least playable because leveling gives you health and some mana, mana regen helps a little, and monster drops help a lot. So the wad IS playable in XRpg. It's still not fun, but I'm happy to provide a way to make the wad challenging. One neat thing that works well together is all of the pits at the end make the "brute" pushback a good challenge and a unique experience for hexen.

Anyway, just finishing going through some level wads to make sure I didn't break anything as a way to put XRpg through its paces.

P.S.

The sheer number of pine trees and shrubs (that steal auto aim and make level 2 pretty unplayable for the wizard) revealed a bug. The brute pushback is affecting trees too, so I will have a fix out for that.

Also want to revisit the fighter skills. With all the play throughs, I only used the skills for bosses because the health cost was too high.

P.S.S.

The lightning teleport doesn't work great near pits. Need to make sure it doesn't put the monster on the ground if they are a flying monster.

[Crudux Cruo]

So im trying this out now, i think im getting the gist of what this actually does, but having no documentation on the front page really doesnt help. Would you mind listing features, what stats and levels actually mean, and so on?

[peewee_RotA]

That's a great suggestion. I had a write-up on the github page, but adding a similar summary on the original post is better.

Thanks! I hope you enjoy it.

[Crudux Cruo]

All right so I'm just going to give feedback on the warrior for now and let the rest for another time, but first, some overall notes.

Looking into the code of this thing I can see a lot of thought and effort went into this and this is no sort of patchy half put together projects. If you're capable of writing code like that and you pretty much can go anywhere you want to with this project!

One of the best mods I've ever played in the vanilla rebalance minimalist style has got to be parkour. By far it is the most mind-blowing mod that totally changes the way the game looks and feels without actually adding any sprites it's just code. I definitely feel like there's more room for a simple RPG for hexen that kind of remixes the weapons and playability of it without cluttering it with a bunch of extra. For sure there is definitely some Polish to be had here and more features could be added and tweaks could be made to amp everything up, but I just wanted to say how well written the code was and how impressed I was, even if the gameplay is very simple at the moment.

With that being said, here's my specific thoughts on the warrior.

---

So the specific changes that I discovered with the warrior weapons were as follows:

Fist alt is a charge strong punch attack.
Axe alt is a tear through boomerang. Costs five mana when used powered.
Hammer alt is a directional tear through floor attack that uses three mana.
Sword alt is a cheap but effective railgun attack that cost six of each mana.
Sword alt also can be held to charge for a very strong melee attack, and also is now usable in melee though it does not drain mana and though it makes a magic explosion on hit it acts just like any other weapon.

So the weapons are very much vanilla with their balance, which would be fine, but you change everything about the game around it and most importantly the ammo pool so it really falls flat in some places and is way over the limit on others.

Negatives.

The fists work more or less fine like I would expect them to, and they can do some hefty damage when using the power spell especially if you're using the berserk spell with it.

The axe alt fire is really abusable and very unwarrior like. Basically you throw your spinny acts of death at the ground where an enemy is definitely going to be and you use it like a trap catching them in a spinny death. Usually can one shot a centaur if done correctly.

The hammer alt is pretty flat in it's execution and definitely doesn't have a melee range option, which it really should, exploding in the face of the victim and using mana in addition to the attack it's already supposed to do, but set under the monster that is struck.

The sword alt really feels cheesy to use, although it is effective it definitely is very unwarrior like. I really feel like more could have been done with this weapon to give it more pizzazz without taking its character away.

Ideas.

I really think all the warrior weapons work best when used in melee and the stats and the reduced mana makes sense for a character that hardly uses magic and prefers to get up close and personal.

By now plenty of mods have tackled the tricky issues of trying to modify hexen and there are definitely some pretty impressive candidates.

If you want to make a very minimalist mod, that's fine. I don't like messing with too many stats and what not. But get the basic weapons working with some quality of life improvements and balancing to your mod.

My opinion is that every weapon should be useful for something.

Fists: it's nice to have combos and kicks and such, but for vanilla minimalism, they're a pretty good weapon. Especially later with beserk and power.

Axe: should be fast like fists with better range, and instead of a boomerang axe for the right, a side swipe cleave attack that can hit multiple monsters in close range. The axe should help for cheap crowd control and as a mainstay weapon.

Hammer: a cheap, strong, slow, single enemy killer. The unpowered attack should hurt (not one shot) ettins, pushing them back quite a bit. The hammer throw should work like a short range boomerang instead of a long range missile, but on connecting do more damage.
Alt should be a powered melee that explodes, dealing area damage and doing much more single target damage. The range should be what it is now but with more area of effect at a higher cost. Unlimited range perfectly accurate damage should be costly for the warrior.

Sword: should be slower than the axe or fists but do a lot more damage. Unpowered single target hits multiple times, guaranteeing pain, but also doing serious damage with no damage cost. The alt charged attack should sweep in a arc hitting enemies like the axe, but no mana cost.
The powered version should attack with double range, with area of effect flame. Alt fire would be a large arc of flame. Very expensive to use mana, but very strong, a boss killer

All weapons should use the reload key to turn on or off power for the warrior, and in general mana should be expensive but damaging to use and decidedly short range.

Now none of that should use any new graphics, perhaps some creative coding, but if you wanted to a really handy feature would be a shield. The warrior has little in the way of avoiding damage or healing.

That's my take so far.

As for the spells, the stats ... All seems fine to me. I think berserk and power spell should be merged. So just level 10 and 20 to grind. Would make the class more useful earlier.

[peewee_RotA]

That's great feedback. I appreciate it and will see what I can do.

I did experiment with swipe attacks in Heretic's HRPG and hitting multiple targets was very difficult. It worked best as a way to more easily hit flying monsters. I can give it another try, since Hexen has a way more complicated hit scan for players that basically does a swipe but ends on the first hit, it may be easier to implement.

As for the hammer, it definitely needs a fix, but I wanted to point out that the alt-fire does melee damage. It causes a radius damage burst centered on the player, and does a push back on any monsters nearby. A point blank hit on a regular serpent should kill it. The main problem I want to resolve is that it doesn't do much more than just using a disc of repulsion, and switching to the weapon and then using the attack takes way too long. So as a utility spell it's so situational, I usually only use it to create a explosion blast on platforms above or below.

I believe Korax Mod has a hammer that causes a close up explosion. I wanted it to be a little different, but have a similar feel. It falls flat, but that's the inspiration.

[Crudux Cruo]

ps I'll be honest I had no idea you'd even did a heretic project! I'll definitely check it out. I never really connected with heretic, it's basically Doom but the weapons power up, so anything that can jazz it up a little bit I'm all game. I really honestly haven't seen one good heretic mod.

For the record I really love korax mod. I really hate playing it on vavoom though. My favorite exit might of all time though is wrath of Kronos though. Honestly every weapon feels right the way that plays. Walpurgis is also good.

[peewee_RotA]

Set aside some time the past couple nights to test out this feedback.

Removing the idea of a "spell" and making the abilities passive really improves the experience for the fighter. Also looking at a way to implement the weapon feedback. I think a good option for hammer and quietus is left click = melee, and right click = ranged with some variation.

[peewee_RotA]

Hobbled together a new weapon sprite for the cleric last night.

[peewee_RotA]

Based on the feedback, replaced the throwing axe with a two handed swing. The sprite isn't great, but it's still fun to see when animated.