Hearts of Demons - BARON [1.1.0] 7/29/22

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Brohnesorge
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Hearts of Demons - BARON [1.1.0] 7/29/22

Post by Brohnesorge »

Requires GZDoom 4.7.0 or higher! I strongly recommend to always be on the latest GZDoom version!
LZDoom is not supported
Discord Server for my mods
Works with Delta Touch! maybe

Download Here
Git Repo

GZDoom can run zips like it can pk3 or WAD, so after downloading just load it up like you would any other mod.

For Heretic OR Doom!
Spoiler: TLDR Version
Hell. Those Spiderdemons have run it into the ground. The Icon of Sin allowed them to let it weaken, weaken to the point where some human dressed like a squash was able to crush it. Embarrassing.

You have awoken from an eon long slumber, from an long gone age. Sensing your displeasure, the Spiders turned your vassals against you, sealing you and your power away. Now you seek vengeance and upheaval. You will rise and show Hell that the Spiders are not what they should fear and obey, that it is you. You will show them what it means to be...

Image

A Baron of Hell.

Rise from your sleep, take old weapons and ancient destructive magics in hand and plow your way through this traitorous new Hell's legions to overthrow the Spiders.

Gameplay changes

You, old Baron whose name is forgotten, are larger and stronger then most. With 1000 starting health, you are difficult to kill despite being too large for most armor. You can leap great distances with your powerful legs, and your cloven hooves fear no danger from lava or nukage. Human's medical technology has very little effect on you, but you can consume the souls of human enemies to restore your health and arcane power. Your eyes can see nearly perfectly in even the blackest darkness. You can build up speed while running and trample smaller enemies.

Old and powerful beyond compare, you hold the pieces for the Ritual of Ascension. All it requires is a little...something. Build up as you take damage, when maximized, you can press Weapon State 2 to transform into a Bruiser Demon! While much more powerful, hardier and with more powerful spells, this transformation is permanent. You can no longer wield your weapons in this form.

You will need to utilize Alt-Fire, Zoom, Use Item, Weapon State 2 and Reload.

Weapons

Terrible and varied, the weapons and sorceries of humans and ancient demons will serve you well in your quest for vengeance.
Spoiler: Weapons
Powerups

The Berserk, Light Amp, Blursphere and Environmental Suit have been replaced by spawners for the Spell Boost, Mana Boost, Enchantment Rune and Berserk.
Spoiler: Powerups
Mod Overview


ICARUSLIV3S' video on HoD - BARON


Heavily inspired by Empathy, I've decided to make yet another mod that allows you to play as a Baron. Expanding upon their abilities and incorporating features of them from the 3 games they appear in, I wanted to build upon Empathy and make it a whole experience.

This is my first mod, and a learning exercise in DECORATE/ZScript so any and all comments, compliments and criticisms are welcome. It's playable and I want some outside input. When done with it will be a total character replacement with updated graphics on all items. You are OP but I felt it was necessary to really get the Baron feel across, and this was designed with monster mods in mind.

Latest Changelog
Spoiler: Changelog
Credits in the PK3!

I know the file size is kinda large. Visuals and stuff. And the Hisotensoku sprites look like shit when rendered as Doom graphics. Also, I've never played Dark Awake but it's got some pretty sweet sprite effects. My code is probably inefficient too.

Incompatible Mods
Unfortunately, certain mods when used with this one will crash the game, or worse. Here are some to avoid.
10x Universal - Causes a crash with the Hydra Summon spell.

Recommended Mods

This mod makes you OP as fuck, and as I said, it is designed with monster mods in mind. Here's some personal favorite mods to use to boost your experience and difficulty. I take no credit, so if you like their work, go give them some love.

Colorful Hell - Do I really need to explain this one? Harder monsters and constant drops make for an awesome time. All these colors piss The Baron off, too. IS THAT A CYBER-KNIGHT?! BREAK IT!
LegenDoomLite - Makes enemies randomly assigned LEGENDARY which increases their health and gives them increased stats and drop Megaspheres on death. Compatible with Colorful Hell and almost all other monster mods; use them both for the best results.
Hellspawn: Hell's Army - Makes certain enemies summon reinforcements on death. Things get hectic pretty fast! The Spiders' know you are coming, and are pulling all the stops to impede your progress.
Demonic CounterStrike - Not related to CS:GO, it makes it where enemies and items will start spawning in areas you've already been. Combine with Hellspawn : Hell's Army for best results.
DoomKraken's Monster Randomizer - Originally built for Guncaster, it features a wide variety of pretty strong monsters. Includes The Baron's most hatedfavorite thing: cyber monsters!
Shades of Doom - A purely cosmetic mod, it swaps out every monster with tons of visual variants, while keeping their behavior the exact same as vanilla. For when you just want some variety with no gameplay changes. NOTE: Recent verisons have several sprite name conflicts with Baron. Use at your own risk.
Brutal Doom Monsters - The added gore and altered monster behaviors fit pretty well and add some difficulty. Mod features the damage types required to trigger alternate deaths. NOTE: Cannot pick up barrels with this.
Droplets - A blood mod of excellent quality. I almost never play without it.
Smooth Doom Monsters Only - Smooth animations for enemies with additional death animations and improved blood and gore. Highly recommend if you don't want to change monster gameplay at all.
Ludicrous Gibs - A gore mod that is compatible with just about everything! Things gib Duke Nukem style!
SpriteShadow - Dynamically draws Duke3D style shadows on any monster from any game or IWAD with the power of ZScript! By Nash, so you know it's pretty legit.
DAMNUMS - Displays damage numbers when you shoot, burn and otherwise bring harm to enemies, similar to games like Borderlands. Works with just about anything.
Tilt++ - Adds a highly customizable Quake style tilt to strafing and moving.

Image
Last edited by Brohnesorge on Sat Jul 30, 2022 2:29 am, edited 217 times in total.
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mutator
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Re: Hearts of Demons - BARON [Early WIP]

Post by mutator »

you did really good job! I never thought someone could do this good mod with first time trying
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Crimsondrgn
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Re: Hearts of Demons - BARON [Early WIP]

Post by Crimsondrgn »

Might want to check that download link, not working for me.
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Brohnesorge
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Re: Hearts of Demons - BARON [Early WIP]

Post by Brohnesorge »

whoops. Not familiar with using DropBox. Should be working now.
GOODGOOD
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Re: Hearts of Demons - BARON [Early WIP]

Post by GOODGOOD »

Need a new Weapon, a MK 19 Grenade Launcher could work I guess? or a M202 FLASH Rocket Launcher (How the hell is that weapon doing in the future).

I like the Flak Cannon Sprites, maybe an alternate fire? a Slug or Explosive Slug with Increased Accuracy consuming ammo MORE and cooldown with a smoke effect should be a balance.

And that's all maybe? btw Good luck
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Re: Hearts of Demons - BARON [Early WIP]

Post by shotfan »

Nice work! The weapon pickup quotes especially drawn my attention :twisted:
My comments/suggestions:
- Slot 0/chainsaw: a hammer punch. Generates a shockwave that knockbacks enemies.
- Slot 1/melee altfire: a kick. I want to use these hooves :twisted:
- Slot 5 spell's altfire has impressive SFX!
- Slot 6 replacement: a plasmathrower. Short ranged and consumes ammo fast, but is powerful. Also, Baron now has slow attacks, which can spell doom to him when he is cornered and surrounded. This spell would give him a chance in such situation.
- Plasma Fountain (slot 7) consumes too much ammo. I would cut it in half, to 50.
- Slot 0 and 1 attacks are too weak - cannot take down an imp, or sometimes even a zombie in one hit!
- Does Berserk's damage amplification work here? It would be nice if Berserk Pack could replaced with some artifact that allows Baron to punch with plasma-powered hands (for free!)
- Could not armour be replaced with arcane essence (ammo for spells)? Does not seem to be replaced with anything at the moment.
- Is there any large type of arcane essence? Could not find any.
- Maybe replace LAVs with something else, and give Baron natural nightvision? Not that he could sensibly wear or use them anyway.
- Any chance we could see an ability/weapon that allows you to cause Hell Knights and other Barons to ally with you? You are fighting for them, after all, and yet they still attack you.
- If you want to do a new monster, then I propose a Cacodemon. Does not require any first person sprites, so it would be easier to make in that regard.
GOODGOOD wrote: I like the Flak Cannon Sprites, maybe an alternate fire? a Slug or Explosive Slug with Increased Accuracy consuming ammo MORE and cooldown with a smoke effect should be a balance.
Flak Cannon already has an altfire: a single super slug that consumes 4 shells and can go through multiple enemies.
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Re: Hearts of Demons - BARON [Early WIP]

Post by Brohnesorge »

- Slot 0/chainsaw: a hammer punch. Generates a shockwave that knockbacks enemies.
I'm actually right in the middle of coding the chainsaw. It'll be a faster stronger claw attack with a ground pound alt fire, a la Doom 2016 (I guess HKs do it more but whatevs). Later, when I attract a spriter or learn to do it myself, I'll change it to a punch.
- Slot 1/melee altfire: a kick. I want to use these hooves :twisted:
I've actually entertained the idea of a bull charge/trample of some kind, but feel it would be a little to hard to code, for now. A kick would be cool, but again, sprites.
- Slot 6 replacement: a plasmathrower. Short ranged and consumes ammo fast, but is powerful. Also, Baron now has slow attacks, which can spell doom to him when he is cornered and surrounded. This spell would give him a chance in such situation.
I did notice during testing that The Baron is extremely vulnerable to this, but raising his defense or regen would make him damn near immortal. His DR got nerfed 4 times over the course of development (50>40>33.3333333>25>15) and his regen once (2>1). Like he would survive getting corner fucked but be basically unkillable by everything else. But one plasmathrower coming up! It and the slot 0 should help with this problem without making him more OP then he already is.
Plasma Fountain (slot 7) consumes too much ammo. I would cut it in half, to 50.
I'll reduce it for the next release. During testing I felt 50 was too low as the spell can drop a Spiderdemon in 2-4 shots, depending on where the smaller balls hit. But we'll see.
- Slot 0 and 1 attacks are too weak - cannot take down an imp, or sometimes even a zombie in one hit!
I'll buff the claw a bit, but I'm keeping the slot 1 the same. It's an exact copy of the baron ball and would like to keep it that way. Most WADs will give you a Flak right away, anyway. If not, spam that alt, which I'll buff up to 5 shots and give a little more starting mana.
- Does Berserk's damage amplification work here? It would be nice if Berserk Pack could replaced with some artifact that allows Baron to punch with plasma-powered hands (for free!)
Yes, but it's underwhelming. It's only a 2x instead of a 10x. It's in the works.
- Is there any large type of arcane essence? Could not find any.
It replaces Large Cell, Large Rocket and Large Clip drops. It doesn't have a different sprite so it's hard to notice, but it has a different pickup message. I'm also in the middle of changing it.
- Maybe replace LAVs with something else, and give Baron natural nightvision? Not that he could sensibly wear or use them anyway.
He'll have toggle night vision next release. If other barons can see in the dark, why not? I don't know what to replace the LAV with, though as they are often placed in weird spots.

- Any chance we could see an ability/weapon that allows you to cause Hell Knights and other Barons to ally with you? You are fighting for them, after all, and yet they still attack you.
yes, actually! I'm planning on adding some kind of amulet or crown that makes HKs and BoH fight for you for a while. It may be a little tricky, as I'm trying to avoid editing monsters in anyway and that might require adding species tags. Plus, he views current HKs and BoH as traitors for siding with the Spiderdemons. And demons fight among themselves if nothing else is around.

Thank you for your input. Testing's been difficult as non of my friends know a DOSBox from a ZDoom, so all comments are invaluable.

GOODGOOD wrote:Need a new Weapon, a MK 19 Grenade Launcher could work I guess? or a M202 FLASH Rocket Launcher (How the hell is that weapon doing in the future).
This is actually a good idea, for him to find an old M202 FLASH, like an old one from Vietnam loaded with Napalm. Would explode and coat the ground with fire for a duration. Let me see if I can find some sprites that don't show hands.
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Re: Hearts of Demons - BARON [Early WIP]

Post by Crimsondrgn »

This may be something you already know, but the origin of the Flak when fired comes from the bottom middle of the screen, as if the weapon was centered when it's not. Also not sure if it really matters but the Vulcan's shots make a square pattern on the wall if you unload without moving or aiming away.
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Re: Hearts of Demons - BARON [Early WIP]

Post by Brohnesorge »

I actually didn't notice until you pointed it out. I fixed it in this update.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/v4440w8ibpnrv ... 2.pk3?dl=0
Spoiler:
Shit forgot the night vision. Expect it next update. Also the square thing is a quirk of the Doom engine. There is a trick you can do in DECORATE to fix it, but I'm not too worried about it right now; it's pretty low on my ToDo list. Also, using this with BD Monsters has some strange results:All the mana sprites turn into Manicubus arm sprites. Sprite names are important! Will fix in future.

Currently working on
Spoiler:
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Re: Hearts of Demons - BARON [Early WIP]

Post by shotfan »

Comments from testing the second version:
- Melee damage is now alright.
- Enhanced Claws are similar to what I proposed - they generate small plasma charge, I assume? However, I do not understand why you would want to separate them from ordinary claws, as EC are a straight upgrade, with damage boost and still free of ammo consumption. They should be a permanent replacement. Also, they should stack with Berserk, but this may be rather complicated to do...
- I prefer quintuple altfire for basic plasmaball. Triple form was too slow anyway for its damage potential.
- Wow, you actually made the plasmathrower! I must thank you, since I wished to see it implemented for Barons, and you gave us a playable version of it! Great! It devoures mana faster than a hungry Pinky eating chickens! And oh my, is not this damage formidable!? It works perfectly to melt away any monsters too close to comfort! A really worthy slot 6 weapon! :thumb: (yes, I am rather exicted with this spell, hence all these exclamation marks :wink: )
- Content with 50-mana Plasma Fountain as well, obviously :)
- I can now see big mana pickups clearly, no doubt :mrgreen:
- Why does Baron roar when he falls down? A simple pain sound would better. That roar would better be saved for a taunt (if you want to aggro enemies on you for some reason) or for that "control Hell Nobles" ability we have talked about.
- You may be wide now, but I can still fit into small windows (of a height equal to half of a zombie's) through jumping+crouching. Not that big of an issue, though.
- Is this a Quake 3 Team Arena Nailgun's SFX I hear from Belial Flak Cannon? Good as placeholder, but I think it eventually needs something bigger... sounds a bit wimpy for such a big gun.
- "Groundpound"? Something like the Baron's smash attack from Doom 4?
- That magical Vulcan bullets sound enticing. However, I prognose you will run out of mana and bullets quickly with that one, so this fire mode should better be very powerful.
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Re: Hearts of Demons - BARON [Early WIP]

Post by Brohnesorge »

The claws didn't come out exactly as I hoped and what they are now is a place holder. All the sound stuff I plan on doing last. It's very tedious. But I do plan on getting rid of the roar on fall thing. It's because that's the pain sound and you make the pain sound after falling so far. Fitting through windows is something that's intentional; don't want to be so big that you can't beat levels, now do we? Plus thats a quirk with crouching in general. But yes, like what Barons do in Doom 4. The magic vulcan would do tremendous damage and possibly rip, I'll have to test. Next update won't be for a week or so (job) so a lot of this one was making the mod more whole before this drought.
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Re: Hearts of Demons - BARON [Early WIP]

Post by shotfan »

Brohnesorge wrote: All the sound stuff I plan on doing last. It's very tedious. But I do plan on getting rid of the roar on fall thing. It's because that's the pain sound and you make the pain sound after falling so far.
I thought that Baron has a short grunt as his pain sound. His roar is an alert sound.
Fitting through windows is something that's intentional; don't want to be so big that you can't beat levels, now do we?
You mean levels with obligatory vent duct sections? Yeah, there are some wads with this (Brutal Doom Starter Pack, Doom 2 Reloaded at least).
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Re: Hearts of Demons - BARON [Early WIP]

Post by Brohnesorge »

He uses the Alert roar as his "Big Pain" sound, which is the sound it calls upon for falling. It's how the SNDINFO was set up in Empathy. You can change the height/fall speed that the sound plays, so I plan on changing it to such a ridiculous height that it doesn't play until I replace it, because it's annoying to hear it non-stop while jumping. And if your size is too large, you can't even finish MAP 01 of base Doom 2, on top of other low ceiling stuff. You can't fit under the Exit sign; it's kinda funny, but game breaking. But it's actually one of the things I was aiming for, having a mental image of this big ass Baron ducking under shit that a human could just walk under.

Also, fun fact, over in Resources there was a M202 FLASH sprite. Surprise, CaptainJ again. Just some quick edits to turn the hand around (a baron holding one like a long pistol doesn't see too far fetched) and make it baron colored. It'll look a bit off from the claw, because the claw is red for some reason, but it'll get fixed too down the road.
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Re: Hearts of Demons - BARON [Early WIP]

Post by GOODGOOD »

I think something like a bfg replacement or a new weapon... yeah a cyberdemon cannon?
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Re: Hearts of Demons - BARON [Early WIP]

Post by Brohnesorge »

There is a BFG replacement in the form of Devastation. If you are having a hard time telling slots apart, play with weapon tags on. I'm working on recoloring hand sprites now it it will be easier to tell them apart. I am pretty satisfied with the amount of weapons right now so after I add the M202 next update, that'll be all of them. I'm not looking for a AEons of Death thing nor to have a spell and gun in every slot.

And I don't feel like the cyber demon arm would fit and it makes no sense to me anyway. Its a cybernetic attachment, so it most likely requires a neurological link to the Cyber's brain to function.

Okay, so I'm starting to lay down the groundwork for Powerups and I'm having a hard time deciding on some stuff. Not all of these will be in the next update, especially the Bruisersphere, but I'm laying the groundwork.

Megasphere->Edited Megasphere,gives 100 mana and 250 health with no max, and Bruisersphere,Turns you into a Bruiser Baron for 5 minutes, making you set fire to the ground as you walk and making your spells set enemies on fire.

Light Amp Visior->???, maybe a Enchantment Rune. For a few minutes/permanantly, your weapons are empowered with your mana increasing damage/allowing you to toggle empowerment causing weapons to use both mana and bullets. Maybe put this in place of the E-Suit?

Backpack->Ammo Satchel that only gives and doubles ammo for guns (so the Flak Cannon, Vulcan and M202) and has a chance to be replaced with a Manafont/Leyline, which doubles mana total and increasing it further by 10% for each found after the first, ala the Hammerspace Bag from GC.

Environmental Suit-> ????? I legit have no idea what to replace it with. Like at all. HALP.

Blursphere->[jewelry] of [Domination? Enslavement? Nobility?] For 120 seconds, Hell Knights and Barons of Hell regard you as an ally and will not attack you.

Berserk->Edited Berserk, duration goes across levels, is 5 minutes and gives you expanded melee abilities during the duration on top of increasing damage.

Thoughts?
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