[Release] The Trailblazer - 1.5e

[PillowBlaster]

it doesn't matter how many times I've changed the process, it's such a chore spending hours slaving over frames only to fuck up at some point and have to do it all over again, ain't nobody got time for that, on top of that it seems like a waste of time, nearly always the first question thrown in my direction is "does this work in brutal doom", "can you make this for brutal doom" but even more so, and ever more annoying "can I use deez guns in muh shitty generic realm667-weapon-mashup mod" and then they've done some awful recolour or fucked with the contrast.

don't get me wrong, i'm more than happy to see these resources put to use, there's definitely room for some super sweet frankensprites/hackjobs, I like lurking around to see what others come up with, but inevitably most of this will end up ripped and placed as is in some obnoxiously file-sized brutal doom variation without a credits.txt

So, my only request from the community here is - give this man some love, as all I could give him recently was whining and complaining!

(For which I feel of course terribly sorry, but dissapointment took over. I still did finish it on my own mostly with him in mind, as his work deserved that final cut, even if he doesn't believe in it.)

[Captain J]

i hella concur, since i liked doomnukem's masterpieces when i heard about atm first.

[TheBadHustlex]

So. Now that I have played a lot of this mod, I can actually say more then "it's decent".

1) One huge plus-point is that you don't reload automatically. That's something I miss in a lot of mods.
2) The dual-revolvers feel like an exact copy of the RO-ones. Not bad, but kinda... lazy.
3) The single doublebarrel is an exact copy of the one in Psychic. Again, not bad, but sorta lazy. The dual-mode feels really cool with these, though.
4) There is too much ammo for the double-barrels. I alwas shot both of them at the same time, but I never managed to run out of ammo. I played on the fourth difficulty.
5) The machine-pistol and that rifle feel too similar while firing. Maybe one could have some more recoil.
6) The explosive revolver feels a little like a better version of the grenade-launcher. There is not enough difference between them, I think. Also, the alt-fire of that weapon feels exactly like the altfire of the revolver from ww-doomnukem.
7) The speed-sphere makes you too fast to play normally, I think.

This is what I'd like to have fixed. Other then that, it's pretty great.

[FreddBoy]

The Blazing sphere is to give you the benefits of being at critical health at full health. Far more speed in movement, and an insane ROF boost to all guns as well as much faster reloads. The leadspitters become lulzy with these, and the minigun is the "I win" gun!

Also, to everyone who says the mimigun is too OP, realise that is the only true crowd control weapon in the game. With no BFG, and the Nutcracker only good against single enemies, the minigun is the only option to use, as all others are too ammo constrained, or don't have enough damage over time to be effective.

[Cardboard Marty]

A ton of stuff

I can sympathize with you there man. Your artwork indeed has come very far and I can understand wanting to go back over and over again. But while we can revise revise revise, at some point you got to just shrug and say "well that was the best I could do at the time". I've burnt myself out on just revising existing graphics and animations over and over again, I definitely know the feel. And your bit about spriting being frustrating and time-consuming is definitely true, and it's kind of the major downfall of doing sprite work.

Trust me when I say your work in here still holds up as what I'd call "pretty freaking great", and I dig Pillowblaster's work but know that without you it wouldn't be nearly as amazing. You're integral, man! But take a break, or just quit, who knows! Do whatever makes you happy. This is a hobby for everyone involved and when you start treating it like a job, you start to realize you aren't getting paid and the motivation goes plummeting down. Trust me, I think I've been on the other side of that fence more often than not this past year.

[PillowBlaster]

So. Now that I have played a lot of this mod, I can actually say more then "it's decent".

1) One huge plus-point is that you don't reload automatically. That's something I miss in a lot of mods.
2) The dual-revolvers feel like an exact copy of the RO-ones. Not bad, but kinda... lazy.
3) The single doublebarrel is an exact copy of the one in Psychic. Again, not bad, but sorta lazy. The dual-mode feels really cool with these, though.
4) There is too much ammo for the double-barrels. I alwas shot both of them at the same time, but I never managed to run out of ammo. I played on the fourth difficulty.
5) The machine-pistol and that rifle feel too similar while firing. Maybe one could have some more recoil.
6) The explosive revolver feels a little like a better version of the grenade-launcher. There is not enough difference between them, I think. Also, the alt-fire of that weapon feels exactly like the altfire of the revolver from ww-doomnukem.
7) The speed-sphere makes you too fast to play normally, I think.

This is what I'd like to have fixed. Other then that, it's pretty great.

2) I do wonder how am I supposed to make revolvers less, I don't know, feel like revolvers? Not mentioning that RO revolvers are way slower, they don't need to reload, and pack different kind of punch. Plus they aren't break-action like those two.
3) Blame me, as I was huge fan of that gun, so I literally nagged DN to make it work like that one. That's not laziness - just paying homage, heh.
4) I am kind of person who doesn't like to force one to use different weapons due to ammo shortage. Yeah, that's how it supposed to work, but... I never liked it. Blimey, at this rate I'll have to rig entirety of the mod with cvars, but I seriously can't (and don't want to) please everyone.
5) FMG supposed to have low recoil for semi-sniping purposes, and if I'd add any more recoil to the uzis, they would just feel bad with such inaccuracy on top.
6) They occupy the same slot, and fullfill similar purpose. And again, I felt that would fit for me, hence why I bothered with this kind of alt-fire. However, I would rather add ADS to it, as I guess it would increase its usefulness... if I had any sprites for that. (Not feeling like raiding aforementioned mod for that matter.)
7) Agreed, but only when it starts to stack up with your low health boost. I guess I should poke Zhs2 to make that take into account, and perhaps nullify, or just strongly shorten its effects.

And to agree with Marty - yeah, I love doing doom modding, but if you start to treat it like work - it stops making sense. I just hope you'll get the fun out of it once again, rather than quit forever, no matter the pain in the ass it can cause at times. (with me doing fonts recently as a lead example of such pain in the ass, heh. Well, now I think it was worth it!)

[TheBadHustlex]

2) I do wonder how am I supposed to make revolvers less, I don't know, feel like revolvers? Not mentioning that RO revolvers are way slower, they don't need to reload, and pack different kind of punch. Plus they aren't break-action like those two.
3) Blame me, as I was huge fan of that gun, so I literally nagged DN to make it work like that one. That's not laziness - just paying homage, heh.
4) I am kind of person who doesn't like to force one to use different weapons due to ammo shortage. Yeah, that's how it supposed to work, but... I never liked it. Blimey, at this rate I'll have to rig entirety of the mod with cvars, but I seriously can't (and don't want to) please everyone.
5) FMG supposed to have low recoil for semi-sniping purposes, and if I'd add any more recoil to the uzis, they would just feel bad with such inaccuracy on top.
6) They occupy the same slot, and fullfill similar purpose. And again, I felt that would fit for me, hence why I bothered with this kind of alt-fire. However, I would rather add ADS to it, as I guess it would increase its usefulness... if I had any sprites for that. (Not feeling like raiding aforementioned mod for that matter.)
7) Agreed, but only when it starts to stack up with your low health boost. I guess I should poke Zhs2 to make that take into account, and perhaps nullify, or just strongly shorten its effects.

2) That might be true.
4) That's where our opinions split up, I guess.
5) Grr. I love SMGs with heavy recoil.

[Zhs2]

To be fair, DN, you did start making resources for Brutal Doom! For the most part, I agree with Marty's advice: Once it turns into a job in your mind, you stop having fun with it. Pillowblaster puts a lot of love and spirit into his work, and I can see why that would be an unappealing course for a hobby for some - not to turn this into a "he's the bad guy" post, but for the most part, if his requests are hindering your style, well, you do what you have to! On the other hand, though, I understood that you promised a lot and returned with damp towels - a lot of stuff has been an unhealthy engagement for all sides, but hey, we've at least got this completed set of weapons, a complete set for AtM redone however many times, and are only missing one from the other set! I understand that you've done a lot more than that, too, so don't let me sell you short - even if your stuff might be used for half-assed addons, I'd say most of them get the attention they deserve (negative publicity creations from bad authors notwithstanding) and it's mods like the Trailblazer that feel good, that have a physical soul to them that people can't stop wanting to complain about having weapons too stronk in, that make all the difference. Right?

As an aside, I'm glad that Pillow stopped you from redoing this set. This is not a hit on you personally for being a perfectionist, mind you, though I've complained in lesser settings about that before - I just love the nitty-grittiness of these sprites, and the fact that some of them are a bit wonky or a bit strangely aliased does not stop the love. To paraphrase Enjay, they look good, they feel good, they look good, they work well, they look good; they have this embodiment of unification that makes them, surely, have individual problems of their own to point out, but together make a strong, solid weapon set that would feel strange to find single pieces of in somebody else's weapon mod. Errors can be touched up and oddities can be patched, but ultimately this set has a legacy to it's name, an unbeatable "you got it here first, folks" that will see this mod and its parts into the future for what I feel like will be a good, long time. You've done your job, and you've done it well, DN - for that, I say, congrats, thanks for all the fish, and good luck on future endeavors. Oh, and that I'd kill myself if I was ever, in any situation, required to force art, so don't let it happen to you!

[PillowBlaster]

Update! Changes in ze spoiler, link here.

---

V1.2 (2015-01-14)
-The Chrome doesn't jitter while punching anymore.
-Fixed Sidekick not using proper ammo in Hexen.
-Fixed the crosshairs disappearing if you press reload while having full clip with ironsights on.
-Fixed missing FMG in Hexen.
-Fixed the lights in synthfiring weapons, and tweaked them a bit in all rest.
-Fixed the dual-wield spawners not working entirely correctly.
-Added +AMMO_CHECKBOTH on most of the weapons.
-Swapped the FMG with the Leadspitters in terms of weapons they cover in Hexen. (You'll more likely find another frost shards, rather than another lightning.)
-Removed/replaced more of the Hexen items.
-Added the missing sprites of the Hexen weapon pieces.
-Added crush state with a return in thrown macheterang.
-Added bounce-grenade alt-fire on Patriarch.
-Removed +NOAUTOAIM on most of the hitscan weapons.
-Nutcracker and Chrome Justice's projectiles have a higher affecting radius now.
-Dashing double-tap time has been decreased by a tic.
-Tweaked FMG animations, and touched uzis reload a little.
-Tweaked the Blazingsphere's speed boost. (Now it's handled by the script as well.)
-Expanded Sidekick's clip to 16 bullets.
-Edited credit file again.
-Re-added the whiskey counter.
-Copy-pasta'd the fullscreen HUD to normal one as well.

[Captain J]

i got another questions, why chrome justice's normal shot have to be moved on to secondary? i know it's far more stronger than firing the blazing rings of death and it shows some different taste, but it's pretty unconventional...interestingly.

and i realized that every bulletpuffs have no sound at all, just like same as atm. because it was kinda annoying to hear it all over again massively?

also i finally realized that leadspitter also it's akimbo version of it can be obtained from chaingun guys. but the reloading animation is suddenly becomes nonsense when i make it into an akimbo mode. how can he reload those both guns even he already grabbed them and cannot be grab more especially magazines? so instead, he uses psychological power to raise the magazine to reload. and i know that cradle and grave is referenced seriously and fleshrend is used to be psychical because you love it, just like what you said before. but i think this one is referenced from old bald ninja's gun who reloaded two uzis with one hand, right? is there any ways to make it least humanish and normal? or is it was psychically intentional?

anyway bitchmaker would be amazingly overwhelming if it can have an akimbo mode or nutcracker's shell have explosive damage, for secondary mode. if you want to add some details for it.

[Zhs2]

Magnetic torso clips. Also, the Chrome's normal shot is fiery blazing rings of death; in development, the altfire was initially removed, but I added it again with sniping capability (and balanced it for firing three shells' worth of pellets) and it was kept for the utility. Funnily enough, both NC and Chrome now have some explosive power...

[osjclatchford]

... take a break, or just quit, who knows! Do whatever makes you happy. This is a hobby for everyone involved and when you start treating it like a job, you start to realize you aren't getting paid and the motivation goes plummeting down. Trust me, I think I've been on the other side of that fence more often than not this past year.

well. said. that. man!

a LOT of this going on on the forums these days. and it ruins it for all involved. constant criticism wrecks the hobby for the creator, he gets pissed, fucks it off, then the end use gets pissed as "sob-sob", no more product...

when you release any work all you seem to get are a laundry list of complaints about what the end-user don't like. thats not a bug report. thats just annoying. plus why does no-one ever read things properly? they seem to forget that you are sharing it to share, not to get praise or to attain their approval. you arn't doing it for them its for you in the end. thats why we call it a hobby... ok rant over.

@doomnukem; love the sprites regardless of how you feel about them. always been a fan

@pillowblaster; love the mod! nice to see it done and I have had tons of fun playing it...

[Captain J]

Magnetic torso clips. Also, the Chrome's normal shot is fiery blazing rings of death; in development, the altfire was initially removed, but I added it again with sniping capability (and balanced it for firing three shells' worth of pellets) and it was kept for the utility. Funnily enough, both NC and Chrome now have some explosive power...

anyway since nutcracker's shell is rare to be found, how about increase it's explosive damage and decrease the radius unlike the other explosive weapon does? just my thought, but it should helps to make it little bit different.

EDIT: removed unnecessary words.

[Zhs2]

He did. It's in the lore.

[Captain J]

curse my dyslexia, i always start to play the mod with reading the first page of the thread and without opening the mod file. also, didn't realized. anyway without problem that i mentioned such as bulletpuffs don't have any sounds, this mod is all fine now.