Today... That mod is complete (hopefully).
Let me introduce you to...
'Chaos, Uprising' is a modification for Heretic that I have been working on a bit irregularly during the whole last year.
Its aim is to upset as possible the arsenal and beastiary of the famous Raven game, trying to make things look (and play!) a bit more flashy and magical.
The modification somehow assumes to let you play again in the world of Parthoris... But around 1910 circa. It draws a lot of inspiration from several other occult-type modifications I had the chance to try - most prominently, Carnage Galore by Ichor, POSSEST by Zygo and the magical weapons provided in the latest incarnations of AEoD.
...
Your man is a mysterious and solitary individual known by all as "The Newcomer", who fled to Parthoris after years of travels and perils to finally find a peaceful setting to rest. Unfortunately, after only a few years of apparent calm, things start to go wrong - a sinister plague starts decimating the population of Parthoris, and everything seems to turn hopeless and doomed - save for a relatively small congregation of sombre, dark-dressed, cloaked individuals that reunite under a secret congregation labeled as 'The Serpent Cult'. In a distant epoch, this land had already been saved by a legendary elven hero... Yet it seems that those forces that were cast away have now returned and gathered enough followers to claim their revenge...
...
Alright, enough with the sketched storyline - let me go straight to the details:
Arsenal:
Right from the start, the standard 'Newcomer' class comes equipped with the trustable 'Iron Arbalest' and basic 'Spellcasting Arts', that at the beginning consist of the simplest spell ever usable. A few additional classes are provided, each one with different stats and a personalized starting equipment.
The full arsenal is composed of:
slot 1) Mav3rSickle
A light and sharp war sickle. Rotate it in comboable fast swipes to repeatedly injury the enemy! For each successful hit, the weapon transfers a tiny fraction of dealt damage into new life for the wielder.
In powered form, speed and sucked life fraction both increase...
slot 1) ToothEye (Satan's Tooth, Eye Of God)
An ominous-looking scythe, and a strong wooden shield enclosed in a golden ring. The former lets you slash the enemy with good reach, while the latter - if used with strict timing - can cancel and disolve any ranged attack.
In powered form, the Tooth has greater speed/power/reach, while the Eye is able to deflect one whole volley of projectiles towards your attackers.
slot 2) Revolver
A basic firearm that can be scavenged from cultists corpses - good for dispatching more cultists and gargoyles, but not much more. Requires a refill every six shots.
In powered form, power and accuracy increase - plus, the gun needs no more ammo!!
slot 2) Iron Arbalest
Fast and silent, your crossbow allows you to sneak upon unsuspecting enemies and deliver accurate shots. The weapon is particularly effective against gargoyles.
In powered form, released bolts turn into a stream of hot metal that carves easily into flesh.
slot 3) Duofold Arquebus
As an experienced mercenary, our man is proficient with these brand new firearms. The weapon can shoot two shells before requiring a reload (altfire can fully rearm the weapon halfway).
In powered form, each single pellet becomes explosive, and the spread reduces.
slot 4) Spear Of Illwhyrin
A silvery sceptre ornated with greenish-gleaming jewels, this magical weapon is modeled after the famous sorceress' personal favourite. Emits fast energy bolts at high rate from its horns.
In powered form, the central gem hurls multiple energy shards per round in slightly-erratical directions, that bounce off surfaces for a while and deal major damage.
slot 5) Trident Of The Titans
Almost seemingly like a living being, this weapon starts roaring with the power of thunder just after materializing in your hands... Use it and you will summon a small lightning storm that actively seeks for targets (*).
In powered form, be prepared to the recoil of three (!) fast lightning beams that destroy everything on their path...
While the normal form is most effective on larger foes, the powered one is best used against distant targets.
(*) consider it as my personal, DECORATE-only reinterpretation of the Arc Of Death. While not exactly the same, I am satisfied anyway...
slot 6) Pyrokrates
One of the first rudimentary examples of warfare engineering from Parthoris, the Pyrokrates is fed through hot embers - and turns them into fast, exploding fireballs.
In powered form, the box is able to spit giant lava balls that explode with a powerful area effect.
slot 7) Deathbringer
This horrible-looking sentient weapon is directly bound to the Netherworld, and keeps whispering with the voices of the damned when you hold it. Use it to summon one hungry soul that shall slowly direct on a prey - if it connects, both shall be dragged away to the other world in no time.
In powered form, the weapon summons a formation of dark energy that shall try to suck away as many living beings as possible at random.
slot 7) Power Symbol
It is unclear whether this weapon comes from the past, or rather from the future... Indeed, it is powerful! You need three pieces to recreate it, and I won't tell you how to obtain them...
This thing can generate an impressive stream of continuous energy that refracts everywhere and erases everything around in no time.
In powered form, you can fire a giant energy ball that eats through (and shoots at!) any living thing around, and finally explodes on walls...
Don't stand too close and target water, though! >-D
slot 8) Spellcasting Arts
Our 'Newcomer' is well versed in the Arcane Arts. During his journey, he shall encounter mighty and evil magicians that - when subjugated - shall increase his spellcasting skills every time.
Available spells are listed here, in increasing order of power:
- REPELLO: thrust away attackers, deflect their projectiles.
-In normal form, monsters are repelled with a weaker push and receive no damage from collisions.
-In powered form, monsters thrown against walls or obstacles get slightly damaged each time.
TAMER: enslave the mind of a monster, turning it into an ally.
-In normal form, the spell can be directed towards a single target.
-In powered form, the spell has greater diffusion and splash power, and a single round can have effect on multiple monsters.
CASTLING: shelter yourself behind a magical stone barricade.
-In normal form, this spell summons two trails of high poles that expand sideways in front of you, effectively creating a wall. Each spike dissolves after absorbing a certain amount of damage. If you need to break open one of your barricades, use ToothEye!
-In powered form, the resulting wall is made up with more enduring poles that actively pulse with energy - any creature wandering too near shall get hurt, including you!
PLAGUE: contaminate organic enemies with an obscure disease that makes them die prematurely, exploding into a handful of critters! These one shall start attacking all creatures around, leaving you as their last meal.
-In normal form, you can hurl a (tipically) single-target blob of goo. Plagued enemies are recognizable by a greenish cloud trail.
-In powered form, you can drop multiple clouds of poison that shall roam around for a while, contaminating everything on their path - very effective in closed spaces!
RATIFICATOR: turn your opponent into a fierce but low-stamina rat... For a little while.
-In normal form, the morphed enemy shall still be aggressive with you - and beware, since its bite is no joke.
-In powered form, the ratificated being shall try to run away from you in terror - kill it before it's too late!
LAVA RAIN: control the power of fire, either to attack or to defend yourself.
-In normal form, hurl a pyrotechnical projectile that shall start a firestorm on the hit foe.
-In powered form, you stop to summon a ring of fireballs rotating hastily around you (and burning anything too near) that after a little speed crescendo shall erupt in all directions, to explode against any still-surrounding enemy. Better than fireworks!
WINTER WIND: control the power of ice, either as an aggressive or shielding entity.
-In normal form, emit a stream of fiercely-bitter icicles from your palm - foes in front of you shall turn into reflective statues of ice in no time, and shall break up shortly after.
-In powered form, you stop to summon a protective frost aura that shall still be in effect for a while after the spell is completed - this aura shall follow your movements and freeze anything that dares to approach you.
CHAOS SERVANTS: evoke the forces of the Netherworld, and ask them a greater sacrifice.
-In normal form, summon a Servant Of Chaos from the sky - this ghostly being suffers no normal attack, and keeps hunting for preys to capture and throw them into oblivion, either melee, or at a distance. After raiding around for a while, it suicides and dissolves.
-In powered form, call for a storm of Chaos Gaunts to utterly rape armies of enemies - they do not last very long, but it's not necessary...
I also took this chance to replace a few inventory items in Heretic's original offering - I'll let you discover them by yourself for the moment.
If you are curious beforehand, see below:
Spoiler:
Oh, and don't think you shall encounter the same old foes across the levels - things have changed quite a bit in Parthoris too!
Spoiler:
(NEW as of July 22, 2014) Now we have classes back!
Spoiler:
Now let me depict a bit the actual state of things:
Spoiler:
And your reward for stopping here, of course:
FINAL RELEASE! July 31, 2014: "Chaos, Uprising" #4++!
Spoiler: Old releases
Code: Select all
January 22, 2014: initial release.
February 14, 2014: release #2.
- halved DropItem chances for AmberMana.
- made Alephox slightly weaker against Electrocution.
- Minister now slightly more resilient to Electrocution.
- increased powered Trident damage and penetration (thanks Mav3rick).
- ratificated foes now actually aggressive / lethal.
- added ammo capacities on LiteFX fullscreen HUD (thanks Mav3rick).
- shortened arbalest rearm times (thanks Mav3rick).
- finally applied a proper IGNORESKILL flag on all ammo types (thanks Mav3rick).
- plague spell effects now better scaled on different monster classes.
- Deathbringer normal attack beefed up.
- opal mana a bit more rare now.
- improved trident normal attack with light A_Explode call (thanks Mav3rick).
- rarefied the chance of obtaining statuette artifacts from infectors.
- improved normal Eye Of God shield timing (thanks Mav3rick).
- improved normal repello spell range and power (thanks Mav3rick).
March 07, 2014: release #3.
- added new replacement for ToothEye: the Mav3rSickle
(upon suggestion by ZDOOM forum contributor Mav3rick).
Retains most ToothEye properties, no shield attached.
May 11, 2014: release #3.5.
- removed health sap effect from powered ToothEye, yet augmented slash power
for both normal and powered modes, and augmented kickback for reflective
shield projectiles.
- augmented arbalest normal attack power, reworked powered attack
to bounce against walls, liberating metal shards upon each impact. >-D
(Thanks SidDoyle!)
- slightly increased spear normal attack, and made associated mana spawns
more abundant (thanks Mav3rick!).
- added derivative lightning propagation from impacted enemies for
trident in powered mode (thanks Mav3rick!).
- added alternate fire mode (both normal and powered) to Pyrokrates.
- augmented power of Deathbringer normal attack, and duration of
powered attack for the same weapon (thanks Mav3rick!).
- nerfed health amount of Patriarch a bit.
- enhanced Spear Of Illwhyrin idle animations.
- enhanced Mav3rSickle idle and raise animations, integrated with main mod
as 'Newcomer' starting weapon. Slightly reduced attack range.
- improved tamer spell normal attack sprites.
- improved plague spell powered attack sprites, speed and effectiveness.
- added 'Revolver' weapon (thanks SidDoyle!).
- added 'Power Symbol' weapon.
- nerfed the number of particles spawned from exploding barrels
(thanks Ed the Bat!).
- integrated LiteFX components within main modification, can now
be toggled with a dedicated Options menu flag (thanks Ed the Bat!).
- limited number of spawned castling poles (both normal and powered)
for performance reasons.
- increased effectiveness of chaos servants spell powered attack.
- reduced Alephoxes resistance to electric damage.
- improved visibility of Vigor Curse spell from Patriarch.
- added hi-res modification title (thanks Mav3rick!).
July 19, 2014: release #4.
- fixed Arquebus Adepts attack power (harmless so far... :-O
Thanks ArgonianLord).
- fixed inconsistency in logical inventory actors for
cooperative play (thanks ArgonianLord, Ed the Bat).
- fixed revolver pickup ammo supplying (thanks Mav3rick).
- improved Minister's re-tracking pattern (would get stuck
sometimes).
- ...and MOST OF ALL: (re-)added the three additional player
classes (Mercenary, Seer, Warlock), each one sporting a
different signature weapon and ability, plus distinct appearance
and behaviour.
July 31, 2014: release #4++.
- fixed Newcomer mugshot lumps.
- added extra properties to Gaia's Perch (for better balance).
- fixed Deathbringer spawner.
(thanks Mav3rick, kmxexii:)
- improved speed and accuracy of revolver.
- reduced recoil on Pyrokrates, improved normal mode projectile.
(thanks Mav3rick:)
- added leeching projectiles to Mav3rSickle powered form.
- added +NODAMAGETHRUST to Trident attacks.
- reduced resistance of Alephox to electric damage.
- slightly reduced spawning rate of arachnids from Infector.
(thanks -Ghost-:)
- added supply barrel that - when broken - provides assorted ammo
for non-magical weapons.
(thanks NantoCodd, -Ghost-:)
- improved sound quality of revolver and spear - they were too weak!
(thanks NantoCodd:)
- slightly reduced initial charge time of most melee weapons
so to allow for improved ease of use.
So... I hope you can enjoy my new "Heretic world"!
And as usual, I'm looking forward to your suggestions and opinions! Keep them coming!!Credits list (as in the soon-to-be-uploaded IDGames release textfile):
Spoiler:
but i do sooo love the alter one, is soo detailed and very diablo style, but is no enough big 
Their sounds actually come from Tekken 3's Bryan Fury, who sounded quite creepy in the original game. I might as well go back and alter them again anyway...
(sorry)
I am absolutely open to suggestions!