Lasting Light V4.1 - A Chance for More Horror? (See Pg.10)

[Silentdarkness12]

MAXIMUM NOPE

But seriously, I seem to be running into the Creeper every 10-15 seconds. Something feels a bit off about that.

[Ral22]

Lasting Light quietly celebrated it's two year anniversary on October 30th, 2015. No party was held, no address was made; the game was played privately by it's creator who remembered the game fondly and the journey it made from initial release up to v4.1. Lasting Light is the first, truly complete wad I have ever finished; most of my projects come to be too ambitious or too shallow to make the pass into a full-fledged wad (The mourning of DesireDriven Doom's cancellation is still fresh with me), but Lasting Light made the leap and became something, that I believe is, very special. It was complete and I was proud of that, a finished project, through and through.

But things can always be added to, yes?

With my fond memories of this project, the great feedback from players who enjoyed my efforts, AND the recently announced adaptation of "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" with Guillermo del Toro's involvement (The illustrations of the original book are present in Lasting Light); my mind has turned back once again to horror gameplay mod. Looks back into the wad's code and methods fills me with both fondness and horror, mostly from what feels to be archaic ways of doing things. Some time spent in thought let's me see areas where Lasting Light could be further polished and updated. There's potential for the game to see a sequel or a major revision in the back of my mind.

So, my point being, would anyone be interested in seeing this game undergo some major revisions, to the point where it becomes a sequel or reboot of sorts? I have a few ideas floating around, some possibilities listed below, which could be added.

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- An updated, more "horror-centric" movement system.
- Addition of flashlight, instead of the lantern.
- Weather effects, like rain, thunder, and possibly snow added. (No custom maps, will continue to have vanilla/boom map compatibility)
- Addition of four, new possible monsters.
- Refinements to the existing three monsters.
- Alternate game modes like Endurance and Random.
- Possible lore/journal system added to provide a backstory.
- Expanded wad support, like native Heretic support and support of certain, specific wads. (Possible examples: Voodoo Guns, Unloved, Who Dun It maps, etc.)

If these ideas sound interesting, and you have some possible ones of your own, leave a comment. With enough support and interest, I'd likely pick this up again.

[Ed the Bat]

Funny thing: ever since the filter system was added to ZDoom, I'd been kinda wanting to say that I'd be honored if you wanted to roll my Chex Quest 3 patch into the main project. Of course, the project having been long complete, I always felt it would be a bit silly for me to dig it up and say anything. But, now that there could possibly be updates...

In any event, I'm genuinely interested to see any form of new content for this. Even as not-a-fan of jumpscares, the atmosphere alone in this project caught my interest right out the gate.

[Ribo Zurai]

Oh yes, I'd love to see this mod updated!

[Ral22]

@Ed the Bat: I always found your patch that adds Chex Quest support to be hilarious, it gives the game a black-comedy feel. If I was to start work on this update, almost everything will be rewritten from scratch, but I'll keep Chex Quest support added as an ode to your tribute!

[Ed the Bat]

Sounds great! I'd be happy to help out with making any of it come to life, too.

[unRyker]

Count me in riding along for a possible update!
Why wasn't I around to see this? I'll start playing it after you release an update!

[Ral22]

Count me in riding along for a possible update!
Why wasn't I around to see this? I'll start playing it after you release an update!

Well, if you're going to wait for an update, I suggest you get comfortable. I haven't fully decided on doing an update, and even if I did confirm one, it wouldn't see a release for some time. Why not give the original game a play in the meantime, you won't regret it!

[NullWire]

I suggest you to add more kind of really creepy sprites, that girl with the knife is weird.. and rare?
Sprites with doom style not rip offs for other games

[Death Egg]

If I have any kind of suggestion, it's that when I first started playing this mod, for some reason, the Screecher and Stalker sprites were completely black. In the case of the Screecher, it made him all the more terrifying, as him being only a silhouette left my imagination to make up what he might look like. I was playing with my brother watching at the time, and we both kept yelling about how we saw something completely different, like one of us thought he was a cloaked tall man, the other of us thought he was some kind of Slenderman-esque figure. Actually seeing the real sprites was kind of a disappointment. Perhaps you could change that?

[Ral22]

@DeathEgg: I'll keep that in mind if I do the update and add some monsters in!

[NantoCodd]

This always my favorite Doom horror mod, the flexibility that you can play this with every map you want is the best point. Iif I can give a suggestions, I agree with DeathEgg about monsters with not obvious appearance. There is Ghosted, a similar mod like this but it is more arcade-y with the main object being collecting papers, but the thing I like from that mod is monsters ability to directly manipulate the map (flicker light). With Lasting Light, maybe that can be made with map decorations like candles, lamps, barrels (e.g monsters turning on - turning off lamps and candles, toppling barrels). Or that can be adapted into a telekinetic or poltergeist monster?

[Ral22]

@NantoCodd: What a coincidence, I was just planning on trying some things like this. I definitely want to have more variety in this one. Lasting Light, the original, is great, but it can become a bit repetitive if you're trying to beat Doom 2 with it and you start to get into the double digit levels. I'm throwing around ideas of additional level interactions, some monsters imposing "minigames" of sorts, or maybe even taking you to somewhere else entirely...

All ideas, nothing set in stone. If I start piecing it all together and like it's progress, I'll continue on with it as official.

[YoBadMama]

I personally love horror mods for Doom, and Lasting Life's one of my favorites. Can't wait to see what's next for it!

[TiberiumSoul]

Did you ever see my PM on ideas Ral?

In a quick summary,

Multiplayer Capability : Players can get together on Skype, Teamspeak, Etc. and play Survival Coop on Zandrunum 3.0 Alpha and experience the horror together

Nightmare Mode : Players have ONE chance to be seen by The Screecher per level and he becomes super aggressive. The Stalker becomes wildly active with the shortest delay ever seen between appearances. The Creeper is unaffected.

The Watcher : A close relative of The Stalker, The Watcher appears randomly alongside her. Unlike her sister, The Watcher is blind and hunts by sound which makes for some interesting encounters. She is most likely to spawn in the presence of key switches or items that are required to open up the path to the exit. the sound of the player running can alert her or you can chuck a rock and send her away but be warned once triggered she will wander around and if she finds you by happenstance you will die.

The Watcher is escentially a female version of this:

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