The Raven's Craze: a monster mod for Heretic (and eventually, Hexen)

[Krazy Commando]

Heretic is a game I grew up with, and the Heretic/ Hexen series is one I have enjoyed and cherished ever since I started playing video games so many years ago. Now that I have modding tools and programming knowledge, it's about time I gave something back to these games. Something big, something that I have seen a striking lack of throughout the series' already limited modding panel. I give you The Raven's Craze, a monster randomizer mod designed to be flexible for pairing with other mods, while addressing flaws that others (including myself) have noticed and pointed out about these games.

Download The Raven's Craze zip file from the Dropbox link here!

What this mod features: randomly generated versions of just about every monster type that can be encountered in Heretic, as well as alterations, buffs, and rebalances to vanilla monsters. A Hexen version of the mod is planned, but not constructed as of yet. All monsters have been playtested, and should function as designed. The zip folder also includes a separate addon with rebalanced vanilla weapons, designed to make the normal game less finnicky and tedious, but the monster pack does NOT require this weapon addon to run.
In case the randomly generated monsters are too easy or totally tearing you a new one, there are also a bevy of options to adjust their spawn rate (this mod does NOT feature a dynamic progression system, however). There are monsters ported from other games in the series present in this monster pack, and Hexen- ported ones can be disabled in the Heretic version in case they break any maps. There are numerous modified versions of monsters from Realm 667 too and some completely new monster varieties, with more planning to be added over time. Remember: just because a monster looks like something you've seen before doesn't mean it will behave exactly the same way. All monster have been adjusted and modified by me, some drastically changed into something else altogether despite using the same resources. Be prepared to encounter ANYTHING out there.
The Zip folder also contains a text document containing such things as credits, author info, and installation instructions, in addition to a lore text document which has both background information and stats for all the monster types that you may encounter in the mod. If you're unclear on what a certain monster type is capable of, reading the lore document will probably answer your questions.

A word of warning: Unlike Doom, Heretic and Hexen are actually playable on their hardest difficulty levels, and I am fully aware that there are people who pretty much exclusively play on said hardest difficulty. While this mod has been playtested to an extent on these difficulties, and there have been rudimentary balances to prevent monsters from spamming their most B.S. abilities on this difficulty (namely abilities that spawn more monsters or grant I-frames), this mod was not designed primarily for the hardest difficulty and its +FAST onslaughts. It would be wise to familiarize yourself with what these monsters can do on lower difficulties first, and play Black Plague difficulty at your own risk. In issuing this warning, I can no longer be held accountable for any physical, mental, or hardware injuries resulting from unprepared Black Plague runs.

Screeshots below (spoiler warning):

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From the Heretic Treasure chest, a lineup of many of the golem variants:

Ghostly monster variants under the effects of Corruption cards. Super Spooky.

Explosive Expedition versus new Sabreclaw types. Vanilla versions of high- tier enemies such as these have been overhauled to pose a bigger threat.

New bosses, under the effects of Legendoom Lite. Some monster types have really wild abilities that you will need to watch out for.

This monster mod should work with various versions of GZDoom, and has been proven to work in both single player multiplayer cooperative mode. I do not know if it works with Zandronum; if it doesn't, I don't know how to fix that.
This mod should work with map packs that use vanilla monster resources, such as HYMN, HUMP, or Heretic Treasure Chest. The mod itself is not very invasive coding- wise, and will likely also work with weapon- only mods for Heretic (as long as the rebalanced weapon pack is not loaded up) such as Codename: Demolitionist, High Noon Drifter, or any Pillowblaster mod except Guncaster. I can confirm it works for Legendoom Lite, Corruption Cards, and Explosive Expedition, at least. All monsters in the mod that drop ammo now have generic ammo drops instead of hardcoded amounts like vanilla Heretic, specifically to scale with the balance of weapon mods. For map packs that include new monster types, such as Faithless or Tenebrum, I have no idea if it will work or not so use at your own risk (I have attempted to avoid actor name overlap, at least). I can confirm this works with Masters of Chaos, however.
It has come to my attention that this mod is compatible with Walpurgis, but with a few graphical bugs. This patch made by Serious Cacodemon should fix some of them.
NOTE: This mod is going to need patches in order to run with Guncaster, Wrath of Cronos (normal version), or Brutal Heretic. A Wrath of Cronos patch is on the to- do list and I THINK I know how to make one, but any Guncaster or BH patches will need to be made by a third party since I have no idea how to spin those together. If you know how to make such a patch, I would prefer you to make it with my input for correct balancing and seamless function. I would personally recommend a Guncaster patch to replace all monster ammo/ item drops with mana and money.

As mentioned earlier, this should not be considered a final release, and more monsters will be added to the lineup over time. Resources are tight and more are appreciated, but if you have resources you think could be useable for this mod, make sure you send them to me for my approval first. Sprites in particular are in high demand. Also, if I do accept a monster resource or idea sent to me, don't get too upset if I end up modifying it heavily like I did to just about everything else in the mod- I want to keep this monster pack varied and interesting.
Others are not allowed to distribute the mod itself anywhere without my express approval. However, if an expediting modder/ mapper feels inspired looking at some of the monsters in this pack and wishes to use them in their own creations, I will allow that as long as you cite where the monster came from- although I would prefer it if you were to notify me and get my approval in advance (worked wonders for Argo!). Many of these monsters also use vanilla Heretic resources and may take some adjustment to work in other IWADs.

I hope you enjoy, I had a lot of fun playing and showing this mod off myself! Special thanks to Argonian Lord, Lord Misfit, and Marisa the Magician for their playtesting and contributions to the mod!

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Changelog:
9/29/2022: The first release. Many monsters have one or two variants at this point. Vanilla monsters modified, too. Settings to control spawns fully implemented. New monsters in this pack: Vermin, Ifrit, Grell, Ettin, Blood Golem, Malachite Golem, Gheist, Ghoul, Cultist Thrall, Cultist Missionary, Undead Savage, Twilight Shade, Rimespike, Living Lava, Pulse Adder, Unholy Saint, Gyak, and D'sparil's "Herald of the Tempest" loadout.
10/24/2022: New content update, also included some cleanup of resource names in an attempt to eliminate overlap. Added Razorhand (Sabreclaw type), Chaos Serpent (Weredragon type), and Corpulent (ambush). Added new option for ambush- type monsters, and integrated new monsters into settings. Slight tweaks to D'sparil (both phases) as well, including a longer delay after teleporting.

[RKD]

I've been looking for a good Heretic monster replacer for ages and this one feels so nice to play. I like the variety this add and the extra challenge isn't unfair (except in very specific circumstances). I've been playing Heretic Treasure Chest with this and I'm two out of three episodes completed. I like what you did with the weapons, too.

As a little bit of feedback, I've noticed that these monsters tend to fire at the player almost instantly on sight, even on Bringest Them Oneth (confirmed after some maps with big open spaces and a lot of enemies placed far away with enough line of sight). I'm not too fond of it, since the constant and instantaneous projectile spitting in Black Plague is the main reason why I prefer BTO. It isn't constant with your monsters, but it certainly seems instantaneous like in BP. Also the Iron Lich tornado spell is unbearable with how long it lasts. I like the better homing and the summoned-in-player-spot mechanic, but its duration could be brought down to half or something with how annoying it can get.

Also, the firemace projectiles are able to hit ghost enemies. I mean, considering how scarce its ammo is and how fast it depletes in your mod, it kind of balances itself out, but I mention it anyways because I'm not sure if it's intended.

Btw, just for the record, I've tried this with H-Zone but sadly the Undead Knight appears as the H-Zone version instead of this mod (some sprites glitch within attack animations too). I assume it will be the same deal with the Iron Lich.

Overall it's one of the best monster replacer for Heretic available. Good job on it!

[Krazy Commando]

I'm glad you appreciate this in its current state, even if it is a bit on the scrapbooky and limited side. Unfortunately it will likely be a while before an update is released, but I still wanted to address:

Also the Iron Lich tornado spell is unbearable with how long it lasts. I like the better homing and the summoned-in-player-spot mechanic, but its duration could be brought down to half or something with how annoying it can get.

If my mental math is correct, this actually DOESN'T last as long as it did in vanilla gameplay (or at least it has a more consistent timer). I also thought the long duration was offset by a large margin since you can get rid of tornadoes by luring them into walls or scenery objects as opposed to them getting stuck there and camping you, as well as their much- needed speed decrease, but this is noted.

As a little bit of feedback, I've noticed that these monsters tend to fire at the player almost instantly on sight, even on Bringest Them Oneth (confirmed after some maps with big open spaces and a lot of enemies placed far away with enough line of sight).

I honestly have no idea what this is or why it's happening. I playtested two entire episodes after receiving this post on a higher difficulty, and found absolutely no cases of monsters shooting on sight- they always take at least one step first. Monsters can immediately attack if you activate them by shooting them, but I assume this is not the case for you. I have two theories on this- the first being that the spawn system is not setting some of their parameters correctly. That whole entire spawn system is going to get replaced with a more stable Zscript- based one eventually, likely when I release the Hexen branch of the monster pack (which is going to take a long time FYI). My other theory is that something is just borking up on GZDoom's side of things, considering I've seen cases similar to what you've described in unmodded Doom games numerous times now.

Also, the firemace projectiles are able to hit ghost enemies.

Speaking of GZDoom problems, that's what's causing this to happen. It's not supposed to be able to hit ghostly monsters aside from its splash damage- one of the GZDoom updates, I'm thinking it was around version 4 or so, completely screwed up how bouncing projectile collision with monsters works. Rippers get stopped when they're not supposed to, and bouncing shots also ignore +MTHRUSPECIES and +MTHRUGHOST (which should be self- explanatory flags), so yeah, I won't be able to fix that and I'm totally slave to the GZDoom devs to fix it for me.

[RKD]

Hey, glad to know you still intend to keep working on this, even if it's sporadically. It's genuinely one of the nicest Heretic mods out there, imo. Regarding some points:

I also thought the long duration was offset by a large margin since you can get rid of tornadoes by luring them into walls or scenery objects as opposed to them getting stuck there and camping you, as well as their much- needed speed decrease

The issue is that these tornadoes don't always disappear after bumping a wall, specifically when said wall has a floor above since the tornado change heights and just keeps going up and down between one floor and the other. Picture this: Floor height of player sector is 64. Player has its back against a "wall", which is just a sector with a floor height of 128. Ceiling is 300 in both sectors. You manage to avoid the tornado and get it to spin around you. It won't vanish until its timer runs out because it doesn't "bump" anything. It just changes from one floor to the other.

I playtested two entire episodes after receiving this post on a higher difficulty, and found absolutely no cases of monsters shooting on sight- they always take at least one step first.

No clue why I found them attacking almost instantly on my side. It may be either one of your theories, or even just my personal impression. I use GZDoom 4.x.x since quite a while ago, so I wouldn't discard that theory, as you mentioned regarding the firemace projectiles.

In any case, your weapons have become my main go-to option when playing Heretic maps. They play fantastic. Recently did a run on Wayfarer with Raven's Craze, and I didn't found a single issue. The few new monsters in there are still present (their scripts activate just fine) and your weapons override the ones in the wad without a problem.
This one is old, but...:

I can confirm it works for Legendoom Lite, Corruption Cards, and Explosive Expedition, at least.

I confirm Champions is also a good addition for this, specially alongside Legendoom Lite, since it comes with compatibility options with it.

Hope I redacted somewhat properly this post. It's late over here and I should be sleeping, haha.

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EDIT: For the record, I'm adding that activating a torch as of 4.12.1 crashes the port. Previous build I had was 4.10.0 and didn't have a problem. It crashes now, no matter if I set it to Hardware or Software.

[Krazy Commando]

This mod is dead. Wayfarer has killed it.

For those not in the know, a full remaster of Heretic and Hexen has been officially released. This remaster version contains many "balance" changes, many of which in Heretic were ported after the horrible, game- breaking, and completely backwards balance changes made by Wayfarer (why I dislike them so much is beyond the scope of this thread).

This means that an entirely new standard has been set for these games. Since there is a new standard, there is no longer a place for vanilla- designed content like Raven's Craze any more, and this mod is probably going to die. I was simply too late; had I begun making and publishing this mod sooner, it might've actually stood a chance of getting noticed, let alone being played. I don't think I need to elaborate on why this is so depressing for me to discover.

I will continue work on this mod where I can; I think I'm roughly halfway done with the Hexen version and over a third done with a gigantic update for the Heretic version, so I've simply gone too far to stop, even if this will accomplish nothing. My work on this mod was slow to begin with and this depressive cycle that this new update is sending me through will likely slow it even further, so there's no guarantees on when such an update will be out. There will still be an update however, for those precious souls who found this mod and are willing to stick around and listen.

To be totally clear: I am NOT going to build this mod around those official remasters, it will still be built to work with the original IWADs.

To the handful of you who actually picked this mod up, I am eternally grateful. Krazy out.