[0.10.6] Gun Bonsai -- everything-compatible weapon upgrading

[Brohnesorge]

If it helps with your testing, I get the crash when gibbing enemies in quick succession with Chain Lightning and LEGION

[ArcCaster32]

I am having some issues getting this to work with Legendoom it launches but even going to the full options menu in GZDoom 4.8.2. there is no options menu for gun Bonsai and actually, a few others like indestructible and lazy points, Not sure if the fault is my own or not, my load order in ZDL is as follows.

HR.WAD
SynthDoom3.wad (A music mod)
libtooltipmenu-0.1.3.pk3
GunBonsai-0.8.1.pk3
Indestructable-0.2.0.pk3
lazy-points-master
LegenDoom_2.8.3.pk3
LegenDoom_Rifles_1.0.pk3
DoomRL_Monsters_Beta_7.3.pk3
mk-champions[2.666].pk3
damnums_1.0.2.pk3
target-spy-v2.0.1.pk3

[Starman the Blaziken]

This is a very compelling mod! Took it for a bit of a spin so far, and I quite enjoy what it has so far and had not really expected to see any sorts of mod like this happen. Would love to see more someday!
Probably would like to say though about things like breakable decorations and things (whether it moves or not) and I think barrels too, even really tanky objects or purposefully invincible objects or the like can make it an easy farm to get EXP for your weapon, if not too easy to accumulate enough by the base leveling multiplier just by shooting at it. Although I probably will decrease the multiplier as leveling weapons can be pretty easy a lot of the time.

[Ribo Zurai]

As an avid lover of levelling systems, all I can say is YES.

[ToxicFrog]

Version 0.8.2 released! This fixes the Chain Lightning crash and Juggler rendering errors, makes a bunch of balance changes based on feedback in this thread and personal testing, and adds two alternate HUD graphics and configuration options for the level-up flash and sound effect. It is also now compatible with LZDoom, although it has not been extensively tested and may have glitches.

---

- New: health/armour drops cast light.
- New: WIP LZDoom compatibility. Some menus have rendering problems but it is playable.
- New: compatibility note about Final Doomer.
- New: FAQ entry about the HUD being covered up by other UI elements.
- New: options to disable the level-up flash and sound effect
- New: alternate HUD skins selectable from the options, thanks to Craneo
- Change: default HUD position changed to top right to make it less likely to be covered by other HUDs by default.
- Balance: Poison Shots no longer depends on a puff. This makes it consistent with the other elemental upgrades. This means that (like the other such upgrades) it can trigger in a variety of situations that might not make sense, so this behaviour might be revised in a future version.
- Balance: HE Rounds damage bonus reduced from 40%/0 (what was I thinking?) to 10%/1. It's now an actual choice between the Damage upgrade for pure damage output or HE Rounds for area of effect.
- Balance: HE Rounds damage falls off more gradually.
- Balance: Dark Harvest now restores a flat 1/1 hp/ac per level, x10 for bosses, capped at 100 + 20/level.
- Balance: Scavenge Blood restores a flat 1 hp, with a cap of 100 at level 1 and 200 at level 2+
- Balance: Scavenge Steel restores a flat 2 ac, with a cap of 100 at level 1 and 200 at level 2+
- Fix: some errors in README corrected; layout improved.
- Fix: Juggler caused rendering errors when paired with weapon states that manually adjusted the weapon y-offset.
- Fix: crash when Chain Lightning can't find anything to arc to or from at all
- Fix: Submunitions are meant to be ranged-only

Download it here or via the link in the OP.

Just as another suggestion for a Melee Weapon powerup, something limited to one or two ranks (much like shield) could be "Range" if there's a way to increase the range they're capable of hitting at. It feels like a sort of natural extension, and a parallel to the improved projectile speed mod.

Also, "Submunitions" may be miscategorized? I'm not even sure. The document says "Weapon Only" which... aren't they all weapons? But it shows up on melee which feels profoundly unsafe. Fun and entertaining, but... unsafe.

Increasing range isn't possible, sadly -- that's baked into the weapon's state definitions so you can't really change it without subclassing and replacing the weapon. One of the limitations of Bonsai's compatibility-first design is that there's a lot of things it can't touch, so there are features in stuff like DRLA and Legendoom that will never be possible in Bonsai -- it's a tradeoff.

As for Submunitions, the "Weapon Only" note is a holdover from an earlier version of the README when weapon and player upgrades were all mixed together in the same list. You're right that it should be ranged only, though -- it was earlier, then I made it spawnable on anything for testing purposes and forgot to turn that back off.

I am having some issues getting this to work with Legendoom it launches but even going to the full options menu in GZDoom 4.8.2. there is no options menu for gun Bonsai and actually, a few others like indestructible and lazy points, Not sure if the fault is my own or not, my load order in ZDL is as follows.

By default gzdoom hides a bunch of the options menus, including mod options -- make sure you've selected "full options" in the gzdoom options menu. You can also use "option search" and search for bonsai or indestructable. I don't think lazypoints has an options menu at all.

If all else fails you can also open the console and use 'openmenu GunBonsaiOptions' and 'openmenu IndestructableOptions' -- if those don't work the mod isn't loaded at all. In that case, double-check your filenames -- if you tell gzdoom to load a file that doesn't exist it just silently skips it rather than reporting an error.

This is a very compelling mod! Took it for a bit of a spin so far, and I quite enjoy what it has so far and had not really expected to see any sorts of mod like this happen. Would love to see more someday!
Probably would like to say though about things like breakable decorations and things (whether it moves or not) and I think barrels too, even really tanky objects or purposefully invincible objects or the like can make it an easy farm to get EXP for your weapon, if not too easy to accumulate enough by the base leveling multiplier just by shooting at it. Although I probably will decrease the multiplier as leveling weapons can be pretty easy a lot of the time.

XP is only awarded for attacks against things that are monster-flagged, and on testing it definitely doesn't award XP for attacking barrels in vanilla doom2; are you using a mod that replaces decorations? If so it may have improperly flagged the decorations as monsters.

[ArcCaster32]

with the most recent release of 0.8.2 The Menu for Gun Bonsai shows up in the GZDoom "Full options" But indestructible is still having an issue of not showing up any Menu and even using the console command to open the Indestructible option menu does nothing.

[DarkkOne]

Increasing range isn't possible, sadly -- that's baked into the weapon's state definitions so you can't really change it without subclassing and replacing the weapon. One of the limitations of Bonsai's compatibility-first design is that there's a lot of things it can't touch, so there are features in stuff like DRLA and Legendoom that will never be possible in Bonsai -- it's a tradeoff.

Yeah, understand completely. Figured that *might* be the case, actually, and I'm all for keeping the compatibility. I *love* universal mods that I can mix and match to basically turn Doom engine games into whatever I want.

[Starman the Blaziken]

It is probably not always improperly flagged as you might say. Some mods I seen use non-monsters for stuff like shootable chests or contains something but is generally optional but always stationary and defenseless, but Angelic Aviary has something of the like with a tanky Forgotten Maden statue that drops a friendly goose on destruction. While I am at it, EXP also does apply to shootable ally monsters too instead of probably ignoring it in a similar case if it already should not be abused to an extent either.

[ArcCaster32]

The Recent Update too 0.8.2 fixed the issue with the Menu not showing up in GZDoom 4.8.2s "Full option" Menu, the only Issue I have now is the same issue with Indestructible, not even using the console command you mentioned 'openmenu IndestructableOptions' brings anything up. And I did make sure to use the Full Options in GZDoom 4.8.2 too make absolutely sure.

[mamaluigisbagel]

Well that didn't take too long. Had this crash with Hellrider after blowing myself up, having owned the weapon juggler player ability. (will also note weapons were NOT swapping instantly after obtaining that upgrade)

[Brohnesorge]

It is probably not always improperly flagged as you might say. Some mods I seen use non-monsters for stuff like shootable chests or contains something but is generally optional but always stationary and defenseless, but Angelic Aviary has something of the like with a tanky Forgotten Maden statue that drops a friendly goose on destruction. While I am at it, EXP also does apply to shootable ally monsters too instead of probably ignoring it in a similar case if it already should not be abused to an extent either.

At least in the case of Angelic Aviary, yes, that statue IS flagged as a monster.

So I mostly play mods that have higher than 100 Health as the max health and higher than vanilla max armor so the new Scavenge Blood and Scavenge Steel are completely useless. Is there a way to have it track to the MaxHealth property instead of it just being 100 + 20/level?

[Tapwave]

Oh man, I had a whole design thing for something like that, but no coding skill to achieve it. Glad to see something similar coming out
I'll have to test this out once I'm done with my playthrough of complete doom.

[ToxicFrog]

with the most recent release of 0.8.2 The Menu for Gun Bonsai shows up in the GZDoom "Full options" But indestructible is still having an issue of not showing up any Menu and even using the console command to open the Indestructible option menu does nothing.

Sounds like Indestructable isn't getting loaded at all, then. Check your filenames.

It is probably not always improperly flagged as you might say. Some mods I seen use non-monsters for stuff like shootable chests or contains something but is generally optional but always stationary and defenseless, but Angelic Aviary has something of the like with a tanky Forgotten Maden statue that drops a friendly goose on destruction. While I am at it, EXP also does apply to shootable ally monsters too instead of probably ignoring it in a similar case if it already should not be abused to an extent either.

XP getting assigned for attacks on friendlies is definitely a bug. Should be an easy fix.

I don't think I can do anything about decor being monster-flagged, though -- that has to be fixed on their end.

Well that didn't take too long. Had this crash with Hellrider after blowing myself up, having owned the weapon juggler player ability. (will also note weapons were NOT swapping instantly after obtaining that upgrade)

I'll have a look -- Juggler is pretty hacky. The crash is going to be easy to fix, not sure about the juggler-not-working part.

So I mostly play mods that have higher than 100 Health as the max health and higher than vanilla max armor so the new Scavenge Blood and Scavenge Steel are completely useless. Is there a way to have it track to the MaxHealth property instead of it just being 100 + 20/level?

Whooops. I think that'll be an easy fix but I'll have to do some testing. Got any suggested mods for this?

[openroadracer]

So I mostly play mods that have higher than 100 Health as the max health and higher than vanilla max armor so the new Scavenge Blood and Scavenge Steel are completely useless. Is there a way to have it track to the MaxHealth property instead of it just being 100 + 20/level?

Whooops. I think that'll be an easy fix but I'll have to do some testing. Got any suggested mods for this?

Off the top of my head, Trailblazer allows health and armor to stack up all the way to 999, or you could use Russian Overkill that completely uncaps health and armor.

[CaptainNurbles]

Working my way through a few levels of Akeldama with my own mod Scavver's Paradise. So far no compatibility issues! It does absolutely destroy the balancing for the mod, but that's not surprising rofl. Having a ton of fun with an incendiary damage-boosted riot shotgun c: The nature of my mod though means that a lot of EXP is going to be spread out across tons of weapons as you use what you can until you build up a preferred loadout, but at least if you ditch a weapon and want to use it later it'll retain the same EXP as before.