Cold Hard Cash 2, the official sequel to my old EDGE mod, is a ZDoom mod that aims to implement Privateer-style resource and financial management into Doom gameplay. In short, all enemies drop money. Money is used on vending machines (that replace all weapons in the game) to purchase new weapons, ammo, health, armor, upgrades, and (eventually) repairs.
For those that want to goof around with the current ALPHA-QUALITY version, here is a GitHub link. There are basic instructions in the readme, but please mind the clutter and mess, because this is nowhere near ready for prime time.
https://github.com/wildweasel486/ww-cash2
(Oh, also, make sure you've got an up-to-date Development Build of ZDoom or GZDoom; this WILL NOT WORK on stable releases.)
Here's an actually up-to-date screenshot!
Spoiler: Old-ass screenshot.Here's what I need a lot of help with.
Currently, Cash2's shop menus use the ZDoom Strife Dialog Format. This is hideously messy, because many transactions require multiple item checks (i.e. weapon upgrades), which requires me to reroute the Strife dialogue into ACS scripts. As such, if I need to (for example) change how much something costs, I wind up having to change the cost number in multiple places. It is not easy to maintain, even at this relatively simple level (weapon durability isn't even implemented yet, and that's going to be a major part of the mod).
What I need is some enterprising volunteer to help rewrite the shop system completely from scratch. I want nothing more to do with ZSDF, as it does not fit my needs. I need a system that is well-documented (so I can make changes as needed; I'm not exactly an ACS expert here), expandable (vending machines are, at this point, capable of having as many as eight or more different products, as well as the ability to sell, upgrade, and eventually repair things), and highly customizable (for the best example, find the Hell Vendor that replaces Berserk - custom shop messages everywhere, as well as ability to buy things with HP instead of money).
I simply do not have the expertise needed to design such a system from the ground up, especially with ACS-based menus tending to break multiplayer if not coded just right (MP support is a thing that would be quite nice to not have broken). Any help anyone can offer would be vastly, vastly appreciated.
Thanks to the efforts of Ed the Bat, the shop menu is now more-or-less fully functional, and all I need to do is work on some of the aesthetics of it, such as supplying icons for the weapons, and a couple other presentational touches like an on-screen controls guide and maybe some extra stuff for the Hell Vendor.