Walpurgis 1.0A (For Doom/Heretic/Hexen) [FULL 1.0 Release]

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neto592
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Re: Walpurgis 1.0A (For Doom/Heretic/Hexen) [FULL 1.0 Release]

Post by neto592 »

eharper256 wrote: Tue Jan 13, 2026 4:19 pm Why? Because it's based on classic Hexen, where yes, the Cleric was by far the worst at the start to compensate for how great his end was. I'm not considering the remake, Walp was designed far before it and arguably the shield might be inspired by mine. And using a chain hook also doesn't sound like a very honorable or crusader-like thing to use from a Watsonian perspective.

Dagon's uses mana for the charge attack. The Mace does not. The Spear and Lightbringer are among the best Weapon 2's. Firestorm and Heavensever too, are excellent. Aria's Hammer is actually a buff, it's wildly strong and more interesting to use than Crux.

And I wouldn't consider hardest to ever be the difficulty I balance around. 2 to 4 are where a large chunk of players play. By going max difficulty, you're asking for suffering anyways. And I have to consider Doom and Heretic levels, where getting your 2 is often very quick.

Ultimately, the design is such that I DONT WANT YOU to use your 1. If it's too good, there is no need for mana using weapons at all. This was why Vis was nerfed a few times for the Magister, some youtubers I watched were preferring it over using mana-spells, and that is not what I wanted. My design goal is to get you to cycle weapons, spend mana, use your upgrades.

So no, this will never change. :P

You still don't answer why give the Fighter the Hook and the Pillum as weapon 1 despite the fact that the Fighter doesn't have any range weapon capabilities in his weapon 1 on the original Hexen (just like the Cleric)


And about the difficulty, what I said is that it is harder to play with the Crusader until you get weapon 2 than it playing with the Fighter.


Also, do you intend also keep the long wait time for the Crusader's weapon 1 Charge to actually star charging? That also won't never change?


Maybe you are playing too much Doom and too little Hexen mega-wads...
Even on Hexen vanilla, on the hardest difficulty, even the Fighter has the hook until he can get weapon 2. So why the Crusader has to be more melee than the Fighter until there?


If so, if you despite so much weapon 1 melee capabilities...
Considering that not only the Cleric but Fighter as well, both struggles awfully against ranged monsters until they get weapon 2, even on original Hexen vanilla hardest difficulty, then for the sake of balance, please nerf as well the Fighter first weapon range abilities, like the unfair hook and his even more unfair pilum.


Speaking on balance, because I guess you would be against giving sheath melee weapon 1 attacks for the others than the Druid (despite the Duid having stealth range attacks as well), I think you should make all Druid weapon 1 and all weapon 2 werewolf attacks alerting monsters.
Otherwise, it makes too much of an unfair advantage.
Depending on the map you are playing it is obligatory or at least it is extremely rewarding to play it stealthy, forcing you choosing to play with the Druid because of that.
Furthermore, I believe that it is the Druid, on the beginning, who can afford the most on playing less stealthy than everyone else, given her range weapon 1 options and her speed to escape ambushes, relocating herself on a favorable position on the map. I know she is the only without initial armor and the second with less life, but in my opinion it still too unfair she being the only one having not just stealthy range weapon 1 attack but having werewolf weapon 2 melee stealth attack as well.
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eharper256
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Re: Walpurgis 1.0A (For Doom/Heretic/Hexen) [FULL 1.0 Release]

Post by eharper256 »

Yep, and I expect most people are playing Doom wads; the main reason I built in Doom support was because Hexen only mods die. It gets overwhelmingly more levels to play, and I sure don't want to repeat the same levels over and over. I even let you put Hexen Monsters on Doom levels with Dimensional Instability, so yes, I want you to play Doom Megawads.

I did explain about the grapple. Because it's not thematically right for the Crusader to use it.

Precise balance between classes is silly. This isn't a multiplayer mod. So I wanted some disparity between them at different stages.
rayburn
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Re: Walpurgis 0.98A (For Doom/Heretic/Hexen) [0.98A Hotfix!]

Post by rayburn »

eharper256 wrote: Thu Nov 16, 2023 5:37 pm Welp, steady on there.
Yeah I personally thought a lot about that particular problem, since I really want to have option for fantasy races and male/female sprites in my own mod. In the end, I decided that every weapon will just be held by a heavy leather gloved hand transitioning into gambeson. This way it would kind of fit all classes to an extent and also obfuscate both race and gender. Still a lot of work, but seems like the best approach all around. Oh, and hi, I'm back. Thanks for that last message you sent me a while back, really appreciate it.
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Re: Walpurgis 0.98A (For Doom/Heretic/Hexen) [0.98A Hotfix!]

Post by eharper256 »

rayburn wrote: Sat Feb 14, 2026 6:10 am Yeah I personally thought a lot about that particular problem, since I really want to have option for fantasy races and male/female sprites in my own mod. In the end, I decided that every weapon will just be held by a heavy leather gloved hand transitioning into gambeson. This way it would kind of fit all classes to an extent and also obfuscate both race and gender. Still a lot of work, but seems like the best approach all around. Oh, and hi, I'm back. Thanks for that last message you sent me a while back, really appreciate it.
That's nearly three years ago lol. :shock:

But I'm glad it helped.
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Re: Walpurgis 1.0A (For Doom/Heretic/Hexen) [FULL 1.0 Release]

Post by eharper256 »

I suppose I should probably get around to announcing the fact that I've not been entirely idle since Walp's full 1.0 release, and have actually started a whole new project. Yep! So here I present: Damocles Legacy (tentative title):


Some of you that have been around a while here might be aware I was, at one point, going to be adding in an RPG mode of sorts to Walpurgis. Unfortunately, after that causing so many stalls to 1.0's release since I just wasn't happy about it, I decided to abort it and go with other features. Honestly, I decided it was impossible to make an RPG that works with what I want, but which also functions within the framework of a Doom mod.

Of course, I ended up with lots of ideas from that which I was sad to forever leave unused, but couldn't do anything about. But then, amazingly, various stars aligned in such a way back in August to make me actually sit up and go 'You know what? Making my own game... actually isn't impossible.' I pondered it for a while, and the more I studied the idea, the less insane it first seemed.

So yeah, I've actually spent most of my spare time since then (Sept) making a First-Person Dungeon Crawler with turn-based, JRPG combat. As you might imagine, my big inspirations are Etrian Odyssey, classic 90's crawlers like Wizardry and Might and Magic, Trials of Mana, and Octopath Traveller. The core gameplay loop will be delving a singular, giant-sized dungeon. You will have a party of 5, with your customisable Main Character joining your choice of 4 others (from a pool of 10 very unique characters).

I'm aware that people purely interested in FPS and Boomer-Shooters won't give much of a darn about this; but if you're Hexen enjoyers, I figure some of you might cross-apply yourselves to RPG's as a whole (like myself), so perhaps you might be interested.

If you are interested, I'd recommend checking out my discord or my youtube for subsequent updates. Obviously, as it's not Doom or Walp related, I don't want to cross-contaminate this topic more than this, but feel free to comment on it here.
PresBarackbar
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Re: Walpurgis 1.0A (For Doom/Heretic/Hexen) [FULL 1.0 Release]

Post by PresBarackbar »

Wow, I just want to say, as someone who has been following Walp since its early days, its REALLY COOL to see you with a new project! That looks really cool, I will definitely keep an eye on it!
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Re: Walpurgis 1.0A (For Doom/Heretic/Hexen) [FULL 1.0 Release]

Post by eharper256 »

PresBarackbar wrote: Sat Feb 28, 2026 1:15 pmWow, I just want to say, as someone who has been following Walp since its early days, its REALLY COOL to see you with a new project! That looks really cool, I will definitely keep an eye on it!
Glad you think so. :)
Justthebizz
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Re: Walpurgis 1.0A (For Doom/Heretic/Hexen) [FULL 1.0 Release]

Post by Justthebizz »

Hey @eharper256 I’ve started making a custom wad using your walpurgis, first let me say kudos and excellent work! Your artwork is amazing and you really put together an amazing pack, very fun and great balance! The story I’m trying to tell through this game is something that requires me to lock in crusader as the main character with occasional changes on other maps to other characters or to play all/any characters after completing the story. Is this possible? I’ve tried to do it with Zscript and acs+mapinfo and couldn’t get it to override cvar. Any tips or ideas?? Would love to be able to finish it and get you to try it out and hear your opinion! Thanks 🙏 😊
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eharper256
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Re: Walpurgis 1.0A (For Doom/Heretic/Hexen) [FULL 1.0 Release]

Post by eharper256 »

Justthebizz wrote: Thu Mar 19, 2026 12:37 pm Hey @eharper256 I’ve started making a custom wad using your walpurgis, first let me say kudos and excellent work! Your artwork is amazing and you really put together an amazing pack, very fun and great balance! The story I’m trying to tell through this game is something that requires me to lock in crusader as the main character with occasional changes on other maps to other characters or to play all/any characters after completing the story. Is this possible? I’ve tried to do it with Zscript and acs+mapinfo and couldn’t get it to override cvar. Any tips or ideas?? Would love to be able to finish it and get you to try it out and hear your opinion! Thanks 🙏 😊
Thanks, and let me know if you make progress. I know you've already asked on the Discord, but to re-iterate just in case it's useful down the line, you'd include a new MAPINFO in your WAD with a GameInfo block so it overrides Walp's own, and make sure it only includes PlayerClasses = "CrusaderPlayer". At least I believe that should be the case.
Predictabowl
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Re: Walpurgis 1.0A (For Doom/Heretic/Hexen) [FULL 1.0 Release]

Post by Predictabowl »

I registered to the forum just to commend your work and says that this is very high quality and fun. Excellent job Indeed!
So far I played extensively with all the classes except the Druid, and besides very few annoying bugs (like the Crusader's SturmSpear Alt Fire Mutation that can get stuck in small places and vibrate indefinitely), I think is very well made.

I would like to leave some constructive criticism, if you don't mind, especially regarding balance. But before, to clarify, I don't care balance between different classes, as someone who made RPG systems for my half a century long life, I can say it's almost never a problem. So if you don't want to read criticism you can stop here, you did an awesome work.


----------------------------
The primary balance concern that I have is: the ultimate weapons are way too cheap to use considering their power, once you get them there's no reason to use any other weapon unless for styling.
I've been trying to play with 2x health on monsters and without using consumables, spamming ultimates, and still I finish most Hexen/Heretic maps (on Ultra Violence or equivalent) with mana to spare everywhere, so much that I decided to not use ultimates just for fun. In the original Hexen using the ultimate was choice as they were really expensive to spam (let's not talk about Wraithverge, which was expensive at 20+20 mana but still OP).

In the end I made little mod for myself that raises all the costs of ultimate weapons of about +25% (and to enable 6 weapons slots instead of 4) to enjoying it more. Maybe you can consider making an option or a little module that increase cost of mana on ultimates.


Other minor preferences of mine (not criticism):
Wizard (Magister) was my favourite by far, spells are quite diverse, even if some are way more powerful that others (like Chain Lightning), but it's not an issue. I also think that the old Bloodscourge Sprite was way cooler than the Ram, just my preference.

Cleric (Crusader) is my 2nd favourite, The StarHammer is way too overpowered, even if it can kill you and is annoying to wait for the Blackhole to fizzle out.

Warrior (Myrmidon)
- The Bardiche primary attack Mutation (the 3 projectiles) feels it should have some green mana cost and should not be free
- I don't like that the primary Attack on Quietus is free, it should be at least be 1 mana blue+green. Maybe the damage could be raised a little to compensate for this, but having the Quietus primary free it outclasses all other Warrior weapons.
- You can spam the Quietus Tertiary all day long, everything in front of you will die and it won't make a dent in your mana reserve
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eharper256
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Re: Walpurgis 1.0A (For Doom/Heretic/Hexen) [FULL 1.0 Release]

Post by eharper256 »

Predictabowl wrote: Sat Apr 04, 2026 6:20 am I registered to the forum just to commend your work and says that this is very high quality and fun. Excellent job Indeed!
So far I played extensively with all the classes except the Druid, and besides very few annoying bugs (like the Crusader's SturmSpear Alt Fire Mutation that can get stuck in small places and vibrate indefinitely), I think is very well made.

I would like to leave some constructive criticism, if you don't mind, especially regarding balance. But before, to clarify, I don't care balance between different classes, as someone who made RPG systems for my half a century long life, I can say it's almost never a problem. So if you don't want to read criticism you can stop here, you did an awesome work.
Hey dude, thanks for playing and glad you appreciate it. It's always high praise that someone decides to register specifically to give feedback when so many people just lurk these days on the internet, so you're appreciated. :D And go ahead, I always appreciate some feedback.

That blasted Alt Fire Sturmspear is known, yes. Unfortunately, not much I can do about that, it already has a failsafe built in which usually solves this issue but sometimes it manages to richochet so fast it fails to run it correctly.
Predictabowl wrote: Sat Apr 04, 2026 6:20 amThe primary balance concern that I have is: the ultimate weapons are way too cheap to use considering their power, once you get them there's no reason to use any other weapon unless for styling.
I've been trying to play with 2x health on monsters and without using consumables, spamming ultimates, and still I finish most Hexen/Heretic maps (on Ultra Violence or equivalent) with mana to spare everywhere, so much that I decided to not use ultimates just for fun. In the original Hexen using the ultimate was choice as they were really expensive to spam (let's not talk about Wraithverge, which was expensive at 20+20 mana but still OP).
All I can say about that is you're obviously way better than me at this, haha. I'm afraid it is balanced around my old, lame-ass HMP/Skill 3 level, who still dies even then from time to time, so people who are generally great at UV might find themselves a bit short sometimes. I did add in all the extra difficulty boosts precisely for people like yourself. There is also an element of making sure it remains balanced when playing Doom levels as well as Hexen/Heretic, and with the expanded bestiary/elites/dimension instability modes.
Predictabowl wrote: Sat Apr 04, 2026 6:20 amIn the end I made little mod for myself that raises all the costs of ultimate weapons of about +25% (and to enable 6 weapons slots instead of 4) to enjoying it more. Maybe you can consider making an option or a little module that increase cost of mana on ultimates.
If you can seperate it off into it's own override module with SLADE, feel free to post it here. Doing little things like that is exactly how I got started on modding (haha); if you were to delve into my dark history here, you'll see I released a mini-mod for Xaser's Argent with a few changes.
Predictabowl wrote: Sat Apr 04, 2026 6:20 amOther minor preferences of mine (not criticism):
Wizard (Magister) was my favourite by far, spells are quite diverse, even if some are way more powerful that others (like Chain Lightning), but it's not an issue. I also think that the old Bloodscourge Sprite was way cooler than the Ram, just my preference.
Cleric (Crusader) is my 2nd favourite, The StarHammer is way too overpowered, even if it can kill you and is annoying to wait for the Blackhole to fizzle out.
Warrior (Myrmidon)
- The Bardiche primary attack Mutation (the 3 projectiles) feels it should have some green mana cost and should not be free
- I don't like that the primary Attack on Quietus is free, it should be at least be 1 mana blue+green. Maybe the damage could be raised a little to compensate for this, but having the Quietus primary free it outclasses all other Warrior weapons.
- You can spam the Quietus Tertiary all day long, everything in front of you will die and it won't make a dent in your mana reserve
Funnily enough, Quietus did used to cost 1 & 1 to swing historically, but nearly everyone mentioned disliking that. I do personally love going ham with it so eventually I changed it; because its fun and feels good. Same thing for the Bardiche Mutation, Hammer, and Chain Lightning, really. Rule of cool has overriden them being nerfed in the past, and you have to kind of work for all them in most cases.
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Re: Walpurgis 1.0A (For Doom/Heretic/Hexen) [FULL 1.0 Release]

Post by Predictabowl »

Sorry for the late reply, something happened and I ended up in the hospital, but everything's fine now.
In the meantime I was able to play with all classes in all Heretic and Hexen official levels and expansions (with x1.7 health). The Druid was the one that was more difficult, especially if you're stuck with Dog shapeshifter and Driad mode, because the lack of ranged options is really lethal for a druid.
If you don't mind I'll post my standalone tweaks (very minor) here, with a readme/changelog on what I changed and why. Just need to find some time and load them up in a git.

Thanks for the work.
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Re: Walpurgis 1.0A (For Doom/Heretic/Hexen) [FULL 1.0 Release]

Post by eharper256 »

Interesting to hear, most people say Druid is easier (lol). Druid is generally meant to be Fragile Speedster as an archetype, where her fast move allows her to leverage the melee quite effectively.

I can see getting only transforms being quite tough in Heretic though, because yes that does very much expect you to be able fight extensively at range. Getting extended range brambles as your first upgrade on Dryad would probably be sufficient for most levels, though.
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Re: Walpurgis 1.0A (For Doom/Heretic/Hexen) [FULL 1.0 Release]

Post by Predictabowl »

I got my hands full with work, so I didn't had much free time. I would like to discuss about the weapons balance etc., and I also wanted to wait to make extensive tests before releasing my "patches" but, alas, I don't think I have so much leisure time.

For now I'll just post the links for the patches I made, even if I feel they are incomplete. Anyway here we go:

Related Projects:
-----------------
- Findus Patch: https://github.com/Predictabowl/Walpurg ... Patch_repo
- No Shield Frag: https://github.com/Predictabowl/Walpurg ... dFrag_repo
- Faithless Trilogy Compatibility: https://github.com/Predictabowl/Walpurg ... h_Tri_repo
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eharper256
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Re: Walpurgis 1.0A (For Doom/Heretic/Hexen) [FULL 1.0 Release]

Post by eharper256 »

Predictabowl wrote: Thu Apr 30, 2026 2:33 am I got my hands full with work, so I didn't had much free time. I would like to discuss about the weapons balance etc., and I also wanted to wait to make extensive tests before releasing my "patches" but, alas, I don't think I have so much leisure time.

For now I'll just post the links for the patches I made, even if I feel they are incomplete. Anyway here we go:

Related Projects:
-----------------
- Findus Patch: https://github.com/Predictabowl/Walpurg ... Patch_repo
- No Shield Frag: https://github.com/Predictabowl/Walpurg ... dFrag_repo
- Faithless Trilogy Compatibility: https://github.com/Predictabowl/Walpurg ... h_Tri_repo
Cool. Mm, interesting changes, and just in time for the 1st anniversary (and Walpurgisnacht again!). :)
I appreciate the fixes on gravity, I was always a bit too lazy to get that fixed properly.
You might even want to put that seperate in the No Shield Frag patch, actually, keeping all the fixes together (if you did, I'd probably use that myself!).

In any case, here's my two pennies on why the decisions were the decisions (in same order as your git):
>> Starhammer Singularity: Actually used to be 24+24 on the old Crux Calicus Ult as it was a long range weapon, but it was reduced because now it's easier to be in close range with the hammer (and hence kill yourself with black holes).
>> Timons Electric Swings/Hammers Explosion: Cost was happening anyways because of the decent damage increase, and it's the 'skill' upgrade, meant to punish your whiffs. Was that fair? In retrospect, I dunno, but that was why.
>> Bardiche Projectiles: They had no cost to justify that, honestly, this is a fair bit weaker than the other one, it's just it gives you more range, in effect.
>> Quietus Cost: Was already explained earlier; nobody liked it when it was a thing in early versions. I guess this is okay as a compromise, though.
>> Torp: It has no hitbox if I recall when charging, so I never found it inconvienient to just... move it a bit to see where it might land with a quick flick motion. But I do understand this one.
>> Flares: Yeah it's spammable, and the amount of times I've loved spamming it meant that cost stayed. That's all, really. No defence on balance for this one, it's just cool. :D
>> Dagons Wave: It's basically meant for those that want more wide crowd control. It's pretty great in open areas, with say, a horde of pinkies coming at you, usually pushes them back.
>> Ichival: By default, Druid's AoE's are all kinda conditional (geysers, wolf leap, gas clouds), so the Ichival is meant entirely to be "BOOM AOE ARROWS!" gone wild to compensate. The cost on Primary is balanced by the fact it's attached to the 'ol Time Slow for your precise targeting, which IS REALLY useful, so whilst going all out on sniper mode does sound like a natural extension, I'm actually not a fan of making it too much cheaper.
>> Meteor Aestus: You basically already guessed what it's for here, it's defo the AoE option, but it's also the stun option, all the little rippers make it stun horribly! Generally, I set the Rapid-Fire as being the single target DPS mode rather than this. The rapid fire darts are very satisfying, IMHO.
>> Flame Whip: Yep, I know it's a divisive one, this one. It's actually not meant to be a panic button, honestly. It's a 'time your attack for maximum impact!' effect, much like the Sturm Spears Thunder Circle. Really, Aestus isn't optimal at all in close combat, that's where Algor outshines it vastly.
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