HXRTC Project Golden Edition Plus R17a (Update 1 Mar 2025)

[Bobby]

I know this sounds silly but, could you add an addon to disable the screaming on enemies when set on fire? The current one freaks me out way too much. Thanks for reading and God bless!

[Hexereticdoom]

Hello there guys, how is it going?

OK, finally -and after a long while- a new update of the mod is available, this time is Revision 17 that takes over... And what happened to R16, you say? Oh well, don't worry about it... It simply was discarded and not been published at the time by some silly issues and certain changes that I later regretted. So to hell with that one...

Returning to the R17 which is what really matters, this one brings a few new changes and improvements respect the previous versions (not excessively important but somewhat a bit remarkable) plus the relevant bug fixes which is the norm after all. So without further ado, I leave you below the small list of changes in this current release:

• - From this point on, your starting weapon known as Z-Gun can be upgraded in two levels, instead of just one as before! What does this mean? Very easy, let me explain it for you: until now when you picked up around a Z-Gun Upgrade Kit toolbox you were able to obtain instantly the improved Z-Gun Plus, right? So if by chance -and if you are enough lucky- you get a second Upgrade Kit toolbox, you will obtain... the new and revolutionary Z-Gun Ultra!!! This one is, undoubtedly, the biggest improvement available for this handy weapon, with which you'll be able to shoot even faster and with higher power beams than its previous levels! Therefore, it shall become your ideal companion on those game maps where ammo is scarcer than water in the desert...
  
  -There is also available from now another ultra-rare and powerful secret weapon for your arsenal, but sadly it's not currently allowed to give information about it right now... The only thing that can be said at the moment is that this new weapon completely replaces one of the old ones (specifically, it is the Ember Pistol which gets out of the repertoire, which after careful consideration some weeks ago, I thought there was not much point in keeping it since it was a fairly average weapon in general terms, and was not in line with the power and handiness of all other weapons hosted in Slot 0). Anyway, I hope you have luck in finding it, which it's not an easy task, but I can assure you that it will surprise you as soon as you have it in your hands!
  
  - Improved visually the Musket Laser and Gatling Lasergun shooting beams, which now have trails (to be honest, I don't remember exactly why I left these laser shots as they were, but lately I had been noticing that they needed some fine-tuning). Likewise, these changes have also been applied to certain enemies that make use of similar attacks, specifically the Extreme Shotgunner, the Beholder and the Executioner big boss.
  
  - Refined the previous W-Shotgun's dark blue laser-shooting sprites with a lighter blue tone, more in line with the colour of the primary fire 'sky-blue' shots.
  
  - Fixed unexpected behaviour related to the rarely spawnable Poca-Cola Vending Machine: now it's not possible anymore to drain HP from it when hitting it with any player attack. (Sorry!)
  
  - Updated the HUD for showing the current Z-Gun Upgrade Kit level indicator and for compatibility with the new ultra-rare secret weapon.
  
  - Some minor tweaks, bugfixes and code optimizations.

That's all for now, dear comrades! Hope you keep having fun with the mod as usual...

Have a nice Doomsday, everyone!

[Bobby]

Cool release! Did you change the enemy scream sound? Or add an option to disable it?

[Hexereticdoom]

Did you change the enemy scream sound? Or add an option to disable it?

Nope, no changes have been made there, but if you only want to mute the screams of the burning zombies, there is an easy way to do it...

Below here you have a simple patch for silencing the aforementioned sounds. Just make sure to load it after the main mod file, et voilà, no more zombie yells at all.

I hope it helps you... Have fun!

[Bobby]

I actually didn't get bothered by the screams after playing it earlier today. Thanks anyways for the patch. God bless!

[Hexereticdoom]

Revision 17a is up! This is a pretty minor update respect previous R17 released just a couple of weeks ago, which is optional but rather recommended...

In this one, the old and 'super-mario-esque' DaisySphere sprite (yep, the one with the carrot) has been replaced by a newer, better-looking animated sprites set, more in keeping with the Doom game theme, although the rest of the powerup properties remain intact. Also, the Chainsaw's initial sequence of secondary fire has been a bit smoothened, adding a few extra graphics to make the saw movement less abrupt than before (it just adds very few extra tics, so the speed of the attack charge is barely affected).

It's all for now... Enjoy and keep having fun, dear Doomguys!

[Sighbernot]

Would it be possible to create a patch that removes custom decorations? I’d love to play Ancient Aliens with this mod, but the experience just doesn’t feel the same without the original decorations from that WAD. If it’s not feasible, no worries!

[Hexereticdoom]

Would it be possible to create a patch that removes custom decorations? I’d love to play Ancient Aliens with this mod, but the experience just doesn’t feel the same without the original decorations from that WAD. If it’s not feasible, no worries!

Yeah, it is possible to disable decorations... In fact, it's quite easy you could patch the mod yourself, if you use SLADE (or even 7-Zip) to edit the main mod file. Just follow the next steps:

• 1. Open the HXRTC Project Golden Edition PK3 file with SLADE (or 7-Zip, if you're not familiar with the other one), and open to edit DECORATE.txt in PK3 root.
  2. Search the following line and then just erase it, or disable it by putting // in front of it:
  
  #include ACTORS/DECORATION.txt
  
  3. Exit and save all changes, and voilá! When you play with the modified PK3 file, the specified decorations in Ancient Aliens should appear normally.

Hope you find this info useful... Enjoy and have fun!

[Sighbernot]

Thanks for your response! I gave it a try using both Slade and 7zip, but I encountered an error that says: "Execution could not continue. Script error, 'HXRTC_PROJECT_GOLDEN_EDITION_PLUS_R17a.PK3:decaldef.txt' line 997: HotCoalFire is not an actor." I’m not very familiar with this process, so I might be making a mistake somewhere. Do you have any suggestions on how to resolve it?

[Hexereticdoom]

Thanks for your response! I gave it a try using both Slade and 7zip, but I encountered an error that says: "Execution could not continue. Script error, 'HXRTC_PROJECT_GOLDEN_EDITION_PLUS_R17a.PK3:decaldef.txt' line 997: HotCoalFire is not an actor." I’m not very familiar with this process, so I might be making a mistake somewhere. Do you have any suggestions on how to resolve it?

Ouch... I see, that was an unexpected side-effect for disabling some things dependent on others. My apologies, I didn't check-and-test it actively and I mistakenly supposed that was gonna be easier than that...

But no worries, after all this time I have done the relevant tests and finally I have decided to create an official version of the mod without including the custom decoration elements, for use primarily in those PWADs that define other decorative things instead. In it, I have removed all console error messages and it should no longer cause any conflicts with those custom map levels like Ancient Aliens and similar ones...

You can download it from the following link:

https://mega.nz/file/AjxVwIwK#UgnfLvtxZ ... IqL97fIa_8

I have also updated the first post for including it...

Sorry for the inconvenience. Hope you enjoy and have fun!

[Sighbernot]

Awesome, thank you so much! Now I can enjoy my favorite WADs with my favorite mod!

[Sighbernot]

Hi again! I really appreciate how polite and helpful you were in addressing my issue before, so I hesitated to bring this up again because I didn’t want to be a bother. However, after testing it further, I’ve noticed that the version with the custom decorations removed only seems to work when the maps are loaded after the mods, which ends up causing some visual glitches. Would it be possible for you to take another look and see if there’s a way to fix this?

[Hexereticdoom]

Hi again! I really appreciate how polite and helpful you were in addressing my issue before, so I hesitated to bring this up again because I didn’t want to be a bother. However, after testing it further, I’ve noticed that the version with the custom decorations removed only seems to work when the maps are loaded after the mods, which ends up causing some visual glitches. Would it be possible for you to take another look and see if there’s a way to fix this?

Well, it's to be expected that only the method you mentioned is the one that actually works, since GZDoom sets the last loaded file(s) as the highest priority one(s), in this case, the maps...

Unfortunately, there is always the possibility that, as you also mention, some visual glitches may occur, specially in those maps that contain special elements that are significantly modified compared to the original Doom ones, and that's something that cannot be avoided unless a specific patch is made for those particular maps (and even directly patching the map file, if necessary).

Also, keep in mind that there are also some megawads/PWADs that are not entirely mod-friendly, as they also may include some serious changes such as exclusive weapons, custom enemies, re-defined textures and possibly some other modifications (tweaked menus, DEHACKED patches, etc.) which can lead to unexpected results... In specific case of Ancient Aliens, this megawad has LOTS of graphic lumps (sprites, textures) and even includes several stock ones included already in original DOOM I-II IWAD files, which can be a problem for certain mods, since in this instance the PWAD (Ancient Aliens), having the highest priority in the loading order, replaces irredeemably certain graphic elements already defined in the used mod (HXRTC) due to clash/conflict between existing lump names, which when they match exactly are then replaced by the PWAD...

Therefore, it's not something that has an easy solution... And for this reason, I should highly recommend using the HXRTC mod only with PWADs that don't include those severe modifications by default. However, do not forget that there are also some vaccinated versions of certain megawads, as is the case with VALIANT, which can be safely used with HXRTC (or any other similar gameplay mod out there):

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/level ... wads/valve

I hope you find all this information useful... Enjoy and keep having fun!

[Sighbernot]

Okey dokey, sorry for the trouble! Your mod is still my favorite by far, and I’ll keep playing it for sure.