Shotgunnery mod v1.85 (latest update: 7/10/23)

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Chaosvolt
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Shotgunnery mod v1.85 (latest update: 7/10/23)

Post by Chaosvolt »

This is a playerclass and weapon replacement mod, compatible with Doom 1, 2, Final Doom, Chex Quest, and Heretic. The basic concept is, instead of an assortment of weapons, the only weapon you'll ever need is a simple double-barreled shotgun (and your fists, if you're so inclined). Switching weapons instead changes out what type of shell is loaded into them, smoothly swapping between them with the same animation used in reloading.

To add a bit more depth to it, your basic shotgun fires off a single barrel instead of both like the vanilla super shotgun, with the altfire dealing out both barrels if available. Things start off about consistent with the vanilla super shotgun in terms of raw damage (10 pellets a shot), with later ammo types offering both more firepower and more options.

Google Drive link

As this is a replacement for playerclass, weapons, and some item spawns, this means it will not be compatible with mods like Brutal Doom that also affect playerclass and weapons. As it does not replace monsters however, it can readily be used with the Brutal Doom Monsters Only mod, Ketchup, or other mods that alter monsters.

Details on the weapon replacements:
Spoiler:
Ammo and weapons have accordingly been replaced by the available types of ammunition, of which there are 6 types to be found:
Spoiler:
Adrenaline:

In addition to weapons and ammo, you start off with an inventory item that can be activated to toggle on or off an additional ability. Instead of a conventional consumable powerup, using the ability in your inventory hotbar drains available charges over time, shutting itself off automatically if you run out and requiring them to toggle on.

While Adrenaline is activated you'll gain doubled rate of fire, 50% greater movement speed, and your melee damage (including quick melee) will be 5 times greater.

As mentioned, there are two powerups you can find as well. After all, the standard weapons are all replaced with ammo spawns, so you'll notice that leaves the chainsaw and berserk pack to be accounted for. The mod options menu allows you to set keybindings for quickly activating adrenaline or guns akimbo.

These two powerups are:
Spoiler:
In addition to keybindings for quickly activating either powerup, the following options can be found in the mod options menu, allowing you to turn on or off certain extra features:
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. Share Adrenaline and Akimbo Powerups in Co-op? A bonus for co-op players. If enabled, picking up these items 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.
4. Randomize Adrenaline and Akimbo Powerups Spawns? If enabled, this sets it so that chainsaw and berserk pack replacements will randomly select between guns akimbo and adrenaline boosts, 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.

Some other details about UI and visuals:
Spoiler:
Some Screenshots (bit out of date regarding some UI elements):
Spoiler:
Issues and problems I am aware of, and other planned things to tinker with in the future:
1. Status bar and UI could use a bit more fiddling to fit better when used in Chex Quest and Heretic. Getting keys to align better, better matchup between the status bar and any divergent fonts, etc.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. I plan to implement a setting that, if enabled, will steadily earn charges of adrenaline from kills, based off watcher code Zhs2 provided. So far I've had little luck getting it working, but we'll see.
5. Also planned: updates to the reload animation for dual shotguns. Namely, only depict opening one of the two shotguns if you've only fired the first two shots, to add to the verisimilitude and make it so the player isn't punished with a time penalty for reloading early. Main thing complicating this is I'd also need to add a variation for if the player only has 1 or 2 shells left, meaning only the right shotgun needs shells to be inserted.
6. 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.


Special thanks to friends of mine known elsewhere as Ekarus, Kallin, and Saltmummy. They all helped with playtesting and/or feedback. Ekarus in particular provided some musings in a conversation that provided the initial inspiration for this mod, which I proceeded to massively overthink. They also gave the feedback that led me to implement the scripted "show color-coded weapon display name" feature to make it easier to tell what ammo you're using at a glance.

Additional credits:
1. Getting the ZScript status bar working: Phantombeta, Blue Shadow, and Player701; 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.

Changelog:
Spoiler:
Last edited by Chaosvolt on Mon Jul 10, 2023 9:39 pm, edited 23 times in total.
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Chaosvolt
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Re: Shotgunnery mod v1.1

Post by Chaosvolt »

And added an update to it,version 1.1 which has the ZScript status bar finally working. It also varies a bit to fix some things when used with Chex Quest or Heretic, which the mod should now be compatible with. Item replacements for both have been implemented, and a few things I had to add to the compatibility files so it'll work in those two games were added.

I still don't 100% like how the Heretic font looks over the Doom-style status bar, and might in the future add status bar variations for both the other compatible IWADs.

I also might add a setting to the mod options menu to randomize what drops from chainsaw/gauntlets and berserk/tome replacements. Main reason is, since Chex Quest doesn't seem to have any equivalent to the berserk pack in it, this would make both powerups accessible to the player if enabled.
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MrRumbleRoses
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Re: Shotgunnery mod v1.1

Post by MrRumbleRoses »

ah yes. nothing like a good ol' double barrel shotty to solve all problems. haha
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Spaceman333
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Re: Shotgunnery mod v1.1

Post by Spaceman333 »

As mentioned, you start off with just your bare fists and a shotgun
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.
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Chaosvolt
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Re: Shotgunnery mod v1.1

Post by Chaosvolt »

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.
This was definitely tempting yeah, though that does run into the issue of needing to mess with spriting up a sensible animation for it since so far I haven't strayed too far away from vanilla sprites. Though for single shotgun, incorporating the vanilla punch sprites into a "let go of the foreend and let loose a quick punch" animation would be feasible enough, with the tricky part being dual shotguns.

I'd also need to fiddle a bit with how it treats ammo, to try and ensure that will will correctly try to not switch away if you have empty chambers while keeping the actual shell type as essential. Probably some more checks for available ammo will fix that up easy enough though.

EDIT: Actually thinking on it, adding a quick melee action while still retaining a dedicated melee option in slot one does avoid the issue of "what does it try to switch to if you're out of ammo" but will have to see.
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Spaceman333
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Re: Shotgunnery mod v1.1

Post by Spaceman333 »

Even a cheap 2 frame solution with some 'move sprite up/down quickly' decorate trickery could be sufficient and satisfying enough. Theres probably some neat sprites to grab in the Resources section of the forum, so might be worth a look if no vanilla shotgun frame seems sufficient.

I'm currently thinking of using an addon mod that gives me a quick melee kick with this mod when I get around trying it (so much backlog aaa), so I'm fine but an official built-in shotgun themed quick melee would be superior. I'll probably also throw in some grapplehook + UAC survival pack for added versatility and crowd control.

--

Btw I saw this
Zombiemen have a 1/3 chance to drop a pair of shotgun slugs, and chaingun zombies will always drop a pair of slugs.
Can I still play the mod with custom monster replacements or are those drops tied to vanilla monsters only?
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Chaosvolt
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Re: Shotgunnery mod v1.1

Post by Chaosvolt »

I think the easiest method to animate and flavor the quick melee would be in the vein of a pistol whip. Well, shotgun whip I suppose you could say, still fitting since my mental image here (and as the akimbo powerup's sprite depicts) is they likely have the stocks sawed off as well (unlike the vanilla super shotgun, whose item sprite shows it still having a stock). I'll see if I can mess with it in the morning.
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.
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Spaceman333
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Re: Shotgunnery mod v1.1

Post by Spaceman333 »

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.
Thanks, I appreciate the info. I'm so busy lately that I'm in full TL;DR mode these days.
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Chaosvolt
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Re: Shotgunnery mod v1.2

Post by Chaosvolt »

And now implemented a fairly basic pistol-whip animation in version 1.2, which was swiftly replaced with 1.21 as I was typing this when I realized I needed to add a sound or two to the compatibility folder for Heretic's sake. Not entirely happy with it and the temptation's there to instead swap over to something more like just pulling the shotgun(s) back and giving a quick jab, but I like the functionality a bit better than basic punches since it has slightly more damage, range, and knockback.

Also obsoleted the problem I was having of railgun attacks not respecting autoaim, via having converted flechette shells to use ripper fastprojectiles instead. This warranted a big nerf to their damage value, from 3-9 down to 1-3, since they'll deal extra damage as they pass through targets. I wish there was some sort of "max damage instances" property for ripper projectiles so it could deal only X amount of damage to every target it passes through, but eh.
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Chaosvolt
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Re: Shotgunnery mod v1.22

Post by Chaosvolt »

And a lil minor fix while I was tinkering with some testing: turns out when I added in the ZScript status bar, the small ammo counters for slugs and flechettes were swapped around by mistake.

EDIT: I also thought I had the offsets for armor correct there, whoops. Now that's fixed too.
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Sgt. Shivers
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Re: Shotgunnery mod v1.23

Post by Sgt. Shivers »

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.
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Chaosvolt
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Re: Shotgunnery mod v1.23

Post by Chaosvolt »

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.
Thanks. That'd be a nifty feature yeah, though not sure how well bouncing plays with FastProjectile currently. I did think that a bouncing projectile of some sort might be nifty but couldn't think of a good niche to slot that into.

EDIT: Finally tested once I got home, seems bouncing just full-stop does not seem to work for fast projectiles, even if I mess around with using bounce types that shouldn't reduce momentum.
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Chaosvolt
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Re: Shotgunnery mod v1.3

Post by Chaosvolt »

And another update: I was pointed in the direction of Angled Doom, a mod whose author has allowed many others to use sprites from, as a source for better sprites for the dual shotguns instead of my original "rotate the original in GIMP" method. After some consideration and discussion with friends elsewhere I went along with it.

Now that this includes other resources besides vanilla stuff and my own editing work, included a credits file alongside the readme, in addition to editing it into the OP.
ArchVain12
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Re: Shotgunnery mod v1.3

Post by ArchVain12 »

Cool mod yeh we all know "our" that ssg is the best guns now it have more bullet type for this mod cool can play it in chex quest...
Artman2004
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Re: Shotgunnery mod v1.3

Post by Artman2004 »

Aw... I liked that the slugs could gib.

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