Mellow Heretic - [monster package]... and Amber Wayfarer

[Tyr]

Maulotaur (E2M8) difficulty 3 started without weapons.

Perfect - they are faster now and damage seems to be higher
Doable for every playertype - if you manage to split them up. 8 highspeed rounds around the block (running in circles) they were finished one after another.

[Lagi]

the balance of weapon/attack dmg and monster hp need to be adjusted.

I was more concern about speed of maulotaur, speed of projectiles. New graphics and behavior.
1. melee attack - push back, do more dmg, can be avoid be crouch
2. charge - faster. Maulotaur is no longer immortal when charging
3. hammer throw - fireballs are overused to death.
4. fire trail - small fire always looks silly to me. Know they not instant kill.
5. with new wound state, its way easier to focus on weaker minotaur, and boss battle is shorter (because you are not confused who is more hurt).
6. he is faster, because everybody are constant running in vanilla heretic

thanks

[Lagi]

Added fire death to each monster

(only phenix staff is dealing fire damage in vanilla heretic)

[Lagi]

I update Amber Wayfarer weapon mod in first page

its wayfarer with switched hellstaff into freezing weapon, so you can see the freeze corpse in play

[Tyr]

Super!

You mean
Amber The Wayfarers Tome (which is the weapon mod).
Amber The Wayfarer (which include the levels) is your other mod of a mod.....i nearly had overwritten it in my mod folder.

Oh Confusion! Get your Wayfarer together )

But looks nice!

[Lagi]

i overwritten my previous weapon mod Amber_wayfarer version which include Wayfarer levels - they are no longer available, lost in the history forever. Current Amber wayfarer is just weapon mod.

I think about "remaking" first episode of heretic to include all the weapons. Unless someone already do that? (i search but dont find nothing)

edit:

episode 1: would have hellstaff from level 3-gatehouse, and then hellstaff placed in each level.
phenix rod start appearing from level 5 - citadel.
lightbringer from level 6 - cathedral

enchant shield and mystic urn, i think its not needed to force this artifacts earlier appearance.

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gauntlets punch shouldnt affect ghost, however this require to rewrite the code in zscript for what im too lazy RN. (a_changeflag not affect weapons, neither ACS).

[Lagi]

add 4x of this possessed monster, instead half of the health potions on maps


MythWarrior have own sounds

[Lagi]

amber_wayfarer (weapon mod) have alt fires to all weapons (staff swing, melee).
staff, wand and crossbow are smooth (+2frames).

Mace swing use hexen behavior!! so you dont need to aim perfectly on target, mace will hit nearest monster in front thanks to Player107



I add option to amber wayfarer:
No running with weapons

with on, when you press shift you hide your weapon and will move faster. You are no longer able to Run and use weapon. Walk speed is increased 30% from 1.0 to 1.3.

if you turn "No running with weapons" to Off, you will still be able to run with 2.0 speed and shoot with weapons.

[Lagi]

bug fix to amberwayfarer and mellow (some frame fix, sound add, faster wand projectile...)
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ive been playing custom maps with Mellow and Bitter H.
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Amber Wayfarer add alternate shoots, for all weapon it add melee attack except xbow. Which make Crossbow even more universal tool. I think I would remove xbow alt fire, and add melee attack instead (punch?). So there is more incentive to use other weapons.

the structure of custom maps is quite repetitive. Its always about finding crossbow and the half of level is play with it. Sometimes you find early also Mace. close to end you are finding Hellstaff, Phoenix rod or Lightbringer and there is never time to play with it properly.
the maps have some general theme in mind. but there is seldom any cohesion with it. next room feel random. The pickup placement feels "gamey". Its not like you find a storage room where between barrels are supplies, usually you find stuff in the middle of corridor, or just after opened doors. There is not enough landscaping feature, like sold soul campaign have this ships at the start f.ex. Or first hexen map has this big bell.

Mace alt attack, mace swing, is quite good. The hexen hit behavior (auto-aim) is excellent.

I modify the movement: with weapon you walk 1.3, without weapon you run with 1.8. And it works well. The vast emptiness of maps can be still quickly cross with run. The weapon draw fell as it is slower, because the time of lowering "invisible" weapon is still included. Exploration and combat is slower, as it should be IMO. (its basically Neoworm very first feedback, that was always in my mind, but i always were reluctant to apply it literally).

New warrior work better as golem replacement IMO. First it was always lacking to me, no human like monster benchmark. His function is same as golem road block. Instead of being pure HP tank, he has active defense with shield that can negate even the most powerful attack, but it happen quite rare, and he is just fancy exploding meat block.

I play then Bitter H. ... hmm... this mod is slow. You expecting from doom games, to have massive edge (to the point of blunt) over hordes of enemies. I was trying playing with Hefty sword, but this weapon is just too slow, and not affecting all monsters in cone. Good stuff is blocking, you can stun attacking monsters. Melee attacking monster (ophidian, disciple, nitrogolem) are also nice, because coming closer to some of them giving you advantage.

-----------------------
So yeah... next iteration of Bitter should be focus on dealing with horde of monsters. It means killing them quicker.

Promising concept i would like to explore, is knocking enemies down. Like with Possessed, they fly back sometimes, giving you time and space.
If this would be next common mechanic, like Pain, it would open new tactics. Instead of hurting monster, you might want to scatter them around.
Ofc heavier monster could be resistant to knocking down, and be just push in direction instead. (it need tons of drawings)

Dismemberment of golem, feels very good in game. Sadly the gameplay impact is very slim. After few novelty times, I start feeling that i didn't achieve anything with removing the golem arms. He is little slower with his attack, but it doesn't matter that much he is still same threat as he was before, moreover has been heal in the process of losing limb.

In general changing the "state" of monster is very fun. Even if its just graphical marker of low health monster. it feel like some accomplishment. That my efforts in game are having some impact.

Monster behavior could change. There is fear (or afraid) flag, that is underused.

MythWarrior could lose his shield, without protection he could try run away.
Undead Knight is okish, he should be even lower threat when he lost head or legs
Gargoyle is knock down from the sky often and this is fun. He could try to never attack player from front.

Monster could has agony state, when he is no longer a threat, but just block the projectile. So its waste of some player ammo to finish him off.

[Lagi]

fix the undead warrior gib death spawning only legs. Now it should looks proper. I also reduce his shattering phase by half, so he explode twice as faster.



amber wayfarer:
pressing Shift will hide weapon, realeasing shift will drawn the weapon back (after about 5 tic, so its not unpunishied hiding weapon in combat).

timebomb is dealing less damage to player and more to monster.

knight redaxe is dealing less dmg (mellow heretic)
fix double sound for Myth warrior attack.
reduce damage phoenix rod deal to the player (128 > 78, still lot but its not insta kill from 100 hp)

edit:
amber wayfarer:
the speed of drawing the weapon is faster. It is enough punishing anyway.
also fix the shift walk speed when you set running options to OFF.

edit:
all staff swings on alt fire dont alert monster (also gauntlets punches)
staff poke (weapon 1only) push monster back (exaggerated, to have gameplay impact)
transition between alt fire and main fire is faster on all weapons. Also there is no delay for mace

edit:
gauntlets punch dont affect ghosts
mace is not auto switching when ammo is 0
mace and gauntels hit 2x as fast when powered.

ediut:
add sound to mace and gauntlets
remove no auto switch from mace
fix bug with not picking up gauntlets

mellowH: ironlich is no longer flying to not mess with custom maps

[Ermac]

This monster pack is interesting. I'm happy to report that it works nicely with Blasphemere.

[kalensar]

Mellow Heretic





I command You to use this package in your mod! And to distribute/upload it everywhere.
If you disobey you will be curse ethereally by JuJu from the mountain.

This right here just made you my favorite creator of content. Yes Sire. I shalt use thy monsters for my next mod!

[Asurmen]

Playing with Amber Wayfarer and a bunch of other mods and love it! The emphasis on melee combat is refreshing and being able to strike with staff adds a little extra to the "immersion" while you're rampaging through monsters. I especially love the firemace.

[Lagi]

Thank You, i play it today too.

There isnt too much melee combat, its rather adjusted vanilla experience.

Oh I love Firemace too... and lightbringer. And freezing hellstaff. And less spongy enemies.

here is maybe better topic with list of changes:
viewtopic.php?p=1170400&hilit=amber+wayfarer#p1170400