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

[HyperLuke]

Bruiser sphere should make you incredibly powerful, punch a cyberdemon to death, infinite ammo, reduced recoil, stuff like that.

[Brohnesorge]

The way it's set up right now I can't really do much to the tick-ness of the Soul Siphon without changing it dramatically, but I'm pretty sure if I put the mana drain on the hit puff, it'll only drain Mana when it's hitting stuff. I'll figure it out.

THAT DAMN VULCAN BUG. I swear, I've fixed it 100000000000 times and it keeps coming back. I think I know what I'll do to put a nail in it for good this time.

I should also note that the Bruiser Sphere will do nothing to guns. It might alter some of the Enchantments, but guns and ammo will be largely unaffected. It's an augment to The Baron's body and magical essence (mostly his essence), not his equipment. I'm still hammering out exactly how it'll affect melee, though.

Speaking of, while the sprites fell through, I'm going to improvise with what I have to add the last feature of the new melee : Spell Strikes! Heavily inspired by the Magus class from the Pathfinder TRPG, you'll be able to strike with a spell imbued melee attack, greatly augmenting the damage for a single strike and unleashing new effects from the spells, like an explosive strike for Fireball or a sweeping flame strike for Immolation! Debating on if you need an Enhanced Claw to do it, or if you need to wait for Carnage.

[Dalse]

I've played around the carnage and the enhanced melee.

So , about the spell strikes , I think the "power strikes" ones should be reserved for the enhanced claw , while the "Rapid Strike" ones should be reserved to carnage.

Or if you want tiers of powers , the carnage should have the most powerful spells.

Or , each one has a piece of powerup , where if you have both it is complete.

Also, how this spells strikes are going to be affect in Bruiser mode?

[pricetagman]

I gotta say the whole idea with a playable Baron Of Hell is a marvellous thing, works perfectly with any gore related mod, nice work. Awesome. A+.

[kadu522]

Regarding the baron ball idea. i don't think they should use mana.

The gradual upgradeing however is agreable,it mite need futher tweaking however.

[Brohnesorge]

TL;DR version : Baron Ball's aren't going to be free, update in a few days, Spell Strike and Brusiersphere stuff

Okay, so it'll still be a bit before an update. The Baron Ball rework is about 80% complete, but I want to finish a few other things before I release it. I expect to finish the Baron Ball before I go to bed today, and plan to have the rest done by Wednesday morning. Honestly, if I didn't work tonight, I'd just hammer out the whole thing before bed.

Anyway, I just want to say a few things. I know it won't be a very popular decision, but the Baron Ball will cost Mana in the next update. Let me explain before you grab your pitchforks. First, it's important to note that The Baron, right after waking up, isn't much stronger then a normal Baron of Hell. All his shit's been sealed away and taken from him. So he has a melee like theirs and a BB like theirs. Sure, enemies never run out, but neither do Zombies run out of bullets. I'm also a fan of progression, so starting out really basic and slowly becoming all-powerful is really fun and satisfying to me. Second, I'm not a fan of slot 1 unlimited ammo weapons. I can't really explain it in a decent way, but I just don't like them. Third, Mana is going to become a lot easier to expand in the next update because Megaspheres are going to give you 5 Soulgems. While the amount Soulgems expand your Mana will be lowered, you'll get more Soulgems overall AND the max amount of Soulgems you can carry has been raised. Fourth, when the Baron Ball is Lv4, it's quite powerful, not too far off from being a faster alternative to Fireball. It doesn't feel right to me that it should be free. It's basically the Doom 4 Baron Ball, which is quite strong and explosive. Finally, it DOES become free at Lv5, after finding 4 Soulgems. Actual Soulgems. Megaspheres do not give Baron Ball levels.

Now to answer a question and talk about Spell Strikes and the Bruiser Sphere a bit more.

Also, how this spells strikes are going to be affect in Bruiser mode?

To be honest, I'm not 100% sure. Often, if you're this close to an enemy after transforming into a Bruiser Demon, it'll be dead because of the constant flames you spawn. Probably they'll do as they normally do, but you also unleash a burst of fire all around.

Or , each one has a piece of powerup , where if you have both it is complete.

I want to open with Spell Strikes are going to be delayed a bit. Just while I hammer out some details.
But...
This gives me an idea for the Spell Strikes (I'll shorten this to SS from now on), where every spell spawn will be a chance to be the SS for that spell instead, i.e. a Fireball Tome Spawn could be either a Fireball Tome or the Fireball SS. I'll probably take a note from XWeapon and make some more advanced spawns that make it where it'll only spawn the SS after you have the spell associated with it and won't spawn the SS at all if you are lacking the Enhancement Rune or Carnage Rune. Carnage Rune will gain an effect where it boosts your SS, while you just need the Enhancement Rune to use them. This might lead to rare situations where you get the Carnage Rune before an Enhancement Rune, so you have boosted SS that you can't use, but I really don't mind that.

Now for some more Bruiser Sphere stuff.
It's a very powerful upgrade, and it'll be just that, an upgrade, not a powerup, so I want to make it 100% worth it, but I also want there to be some effort involved in getting it. I'm thinking that, in addition to it having a chance to spawn over the Invulnerability Sphere, it won't spawn until you have so many Soulgems, I'm thinking 10. But for how difficult it is to get, it'll do...
-Mana Regeneration
-Constantly spawn flames as you walk
-Max HP raises from 1000 to 2000
-Gain immunity to M202 flames
-Melee upgraded to Carnage, if you don't have it.
-Groundslam spreads flames
-Soul Siphon ???
-Baron Ball auto max level, if for some reason it isn't yet.
-Fireball spreads flames, like the M202.
-Immolation fires and sweeps. And spreads flames. Alt-Fire drops flames as it travels.
-There's an assload of flames.
-Devastation untouched.
-Guns largely unaffected. Azazel alt-fire of offhand spells are mostly just affected as above.
-All the green stuff will become flame colored stuff.
-Boosted modes will largely be affected in the same way as base.
-Boosted will be Black Skin with Green energy. Archon of Hell.

This list is partly for my own sake, so I write it down before I forget, and partially to see what you guys think and to see if anyone has any ideas for alternate features, additional features and to fill in the blanks. And before you say that it'll make spells grossly outclass most of the guns...that's kinda the point. Bruiser Demons are the absolute appex of Hell Nobles, with Archons being little more than Bruiser Demons with a title.

Naturally, nothing is really final, and even after getting put in, everything is subject to tweaks*10^9999999999999999.

[Brohnesorge]

Alright, here we go, it took MUCH longer then expected but here is the update with the Baron Ball rework. I didn't spend a lot of time with balancing, because it took so long just to get it functioning. Enough rambling, here it is.

---

Gameplay
-Spell switching and boosting are slower, to give more control.
-Soulgems now give you Baron Ball levels.
-Soulgem Mana capacity increase decreased from 100 to 50
-Soulgem maximum amount raised from 16 to 20
-Megasphere Health and Mana raised from 250 and 100 to 500 and 200 respectively
-Megasphere now gives 5 Soulgems. Does not give Baron Ball levels.

Weapons
-Baron Ball is smaller now. So it can fit between stuff easier.
-Baron Ball reworked! Start with the basic Baron Ball, and it levels up as you gather Soulgems.
--Level 1 is just a basic Baron Ball, the same one that enemy Barons use.
--Level 2 raises speed
--Level 3 raises damage
--Level 4 makes it explosive
--Level 5 makes it cost no Mana. Main Fire only.
--Affects both Alt-Fire and Boost mode. But they never become free in Boost mode.
-Fireball Boosted mainfire damage raised.
-Fireball Boosted mainfire explosion radius lowered.
-Fireball Boosted alt-fire no longer explodes after a random time.
-Slot 4 Azazel main fire explosive mode explosive damage and radius increased slightly.
-Slot 4 Azazel alt-fire Fireball explosion damage and radius raised slightly.
-Slot 5 M202 Flash main fire flames behavior altered. Doesn't look as good, but it fully spreads out instead of getting stuck on stuff.
-Slot 5 M202 Flash main fire flames spread tightened slightly.
-Slot 6 M61 Vulcan enchantment toggle much MUCH slower. As in you can actually do it now without it freaking out.

Graphics
-Fireball boosted alt-fire explosion no long has random green sprites.
-Devastation boosted sprites. Like all of them.

Misc.
-Some pickups floatbob
-Changed labeling pattern in Changelogs to the button you actually push.

I'll get around to updating the OP eventually; this one took a lot out of me and I'm tired as balls. I know I said I would take a break before, but I didn't. NOW I'm going to take a break, so it might be a few weeks before the next update. I'll be lurking around, though, so as always keep me posted.
Edit two seconds later: Shit, I forgot, features new M202 sprites. Special thanks to Lt.blam, again.

Edit like 15 minutes later: FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU I forgot to apply levels to Azazel alt-fire with Baron Ball active. I'll fix it later. Or tomorrow.

[Brohnesorge]

TRI-TRI-TRIPLE POST
But I got the next update here. It's a small one; I've been hurting for motivation over the last few weeks and have been sick as hell the last few days.
Smash that muthurfachking download button!!

---

Weapons
-Slot 4 Azazel Rapid Autocannon fire rate lowered significantly. Rapid mode remains the same.
-Slot 4 Azazel Rapid Autocannon damage and blast radius raised significantly.
-Slot 4 Azazel Rapid Autocannon alt-fire Baron Ball now goes off of Baron Ball level.

Sounds
-New sounds for Belial
-New sounds for Azazel

Graphics
-Sparkle effects on Soulgems
-Flaming effect on Immolation Scroll
-Aura effects on Fireball Tome and Devastation Tome

Misc.
-Deleted unused sprites
-Added a detailed credits file
-HUD rearranged a bit
--All Runes in a row next to health
--Baron Ball level dispalyed next to Soulgem count

I've got a few more tweaks to make to Devastation and potentially the Belial. And starting work on Bruiser Sphere.

Also, heads up, I'm going to be reworking the OP sometime this week and will be taking down and no longer supporting older versions or changelogs! So if you have a preferred alpha version, grab it now. I won't be added this above update to the OP because I'm lazy, and because of this coming OP change. That said, anyone willing to do a gameplay video? I keep going to make one, then make a major update that renders the video outdated.

[kadu522]

I would make a gameplay vid of your mod but my setup is not good yet
Plus youtube has rediculus upload times right now for me.

[Brohnesorge]

So, as PSA and announcement of sorts, because of the state of the dev version of mod right now, it'll be quite a bit of time before the next release (potentially over a month) so get used to 4.1. I'm like partway through the Bruiser Sphere, Devastation, a Belial rework, among other things. My plan is this next update will be the last one before I start work on Hearts of Demons - REVENANT.

That said, I'm going to make, as a little side project, I'm going to be doing a play-through video series with our good old Hearts of Demons - BARON. Look forward to it. I'll be polling the details over the next week, so make sure you vote and stay tuned!

[Gideon020]

So, as PSA and announcement of sorts, because of the state of the dev version of mod right now, it'll be quite a bit of time before the next release (potentially over a month) so get used to 4.1. I'm like partway through the Bruiser Sphere, Devastation, a Belial rework, among other things. My plan is this next update will be the last one before I start work on Hearts of Demons - REVENANT.

That said, I'm going to make, as a little side project, I'm going to be doing a play-through video series with our good old Hearts of Demons - BARON. Look forward to it. I'll be polling the details over the next week, so make sure you vote and stay tuned!

I assume with that name we're going to be seeing all sorts of crazy action with a Revenant? Like combined melee/guns actions since the weapons would all be shoulder-mounted?

[Brohnesorge]

I assume with that name we're going to be seeing all sorts of crazy action with a Revenant? Like combined melee/guns actions since the weapons would all be shoulder-mounted?

I don't want to get too off track from this topic, but yeah, I'll be trying to implement Synth-Fire to allow meleeing and shooting at once. Guns probably won't have alt-fires, but quick melees, largely explosive and energy weapons, and a jetpack should make up for it.

[SHayden]

Looking forward to HoD - Revenant keep up the good work.

P.S. I voted for hell on earth starter pack it's the most amazing map pack I've ever played

[shotfan]

On the topic of the Bruiser Sphere bonuses: I think it should cover the areas that are left to improve for The Baron. His strength is already enough to blast through most powerful (vanilla) enemies with ease when fully empowered, is very durable, Baron Ball and Azazel take care of precise attacks, and also has good area-based attacks in the form of M202, Immolation and Devastation. I think that the Brusier form should mainly boost his speed, so he can get to his foes more quickly and thus, employ his 9000+ STR on them faster. The range of his melee and spell attacks might be also increased, to deliver the damage to more distant enemies/higher number of enemies at once. Aside from that, I think that he could get an innate, powerful plasma-based/tough-skin kind of damage reduction, like up to 50% - in practice that should prove more effective than doubling his healthpool, since the latter necessitates even more healing, whereas the former makes the health erode at reduced rate, with less need of the pitiful human medical technology.
Some other gains like green flame trail left by the Bruiser as he strolls, or a passive damaging aura would be good in my eyes as well, and make Brusier form even more special and awe-inspiring. And of course complete immunity to all of his own attacks, particularly M202-borne flames.
Overall - once you obtain the Brusier Sphere, you should acquire a power of such degree that any bastard standing in your way should curse the day they were born

I am VERY in favour of making the Brusier form look like the Archon of Hell. That is my favourite custom Hell Noble.

One more thing: will be the Bruiser Sphere time-limited?

(both votes cast from me, of course)

[SHayden]

I agree with shotfan, regarding bruiser sphere to increase baron's speed and regarding recieved damage reduction. Also why do other barons and hell knights attack me...? Aren't we in the same team?