Tempered Arms: A weapon mod for Hexen [v1.6.2]

[Lippeth]

Thank you for the detailed feedback, and I'm glad you've been enjoying the mod! Off the bat I like your idea of the wraithverge main attack being a close-range damaging forcefield of sorts, taking care not to replace the functionality of the wooden shield with the mace. It'll take a while for me to fully process and consider all of these ideas; I can be quite stubborn at first and need a little longer than usual to mull them over and decide whether or not they fit the raw vision, and a large part of the vision is to have weapons that are straightforward and simple to use, putting the way they feel over concept or logic at times. Allow me a little bit of time to come back with either agreeance, an explanation as to why something was done in a specific way, or that I'm simply not knowledgeable or creative enough to implement something specific.

Deidolon bleeding green is intentional; his normal death sprite has him melting into a green liquid, so I changed his xdeath sprites and bludtype to green in order to match. I thought it made sense for him to have green blood and committed to the idea.

I haven't touched this mod in a while, but I'll keep your post handy for when I decide to get back into it, and don't hesitate to post more ideas or thoughts (or bugs!) should you come across anything!

[CacoTwoShoes]

Parias’ necromantic-looking weapons like the serpent staff and the wraithverge suggest he’s spent at least some time in Traductus’ service since the Church’s fall so this very well may stand true also for Deidolon who might even no longer remain entirely human after serving a corrupted Menelkir on who knows what kinds of errands. That being sad, he should also have greenish veins and a very sallow skin tone caused by his mutated blood present in the capillaries. It also looks a bit silly that he bleeds literal gallons, being human-sized and at least partially human. I guess Nash’s blood sprites just look kinda big when spawned right in front of the camera.

attack being a close-range damaging forcefield of sorts

Not just a field but a deadly carnival of ghosts because the rule of cool demands it and frankly no other game has anything similar. Wraithverge’s principle of operation is just so iconic. An escort of restless ghosts eating your enemies alive would look even cooler.

taking care not to replace the functionality of the wooden shield with the mace.

I suggest a similar dynamic for Daedolon’s close combat Alt Fire modes:

Sapphire Wand: charges up for a while, keeps dealing damage for a while. The player only needs to approach an enemy for the brief moment of striking. Damage dealt depends on chargeup time, can be extremely deadly to individual enemies but the DPS isn't terrific. That’s actually how the wand works right now.

Frost Shards: pushes enemies back with the damage greatly waning over distance. Thus not much of a damage dealer really but... anyone foolish (and massive) enough to keep running into our guy is bound to end up a frozen statue. Airborne enemies get blown away far and instantly, bigger things like chaos serpents are harder to push back, centaurs are forced into their defensive stance while staggering back and ettins struggle to stand on their feet. Primary Fire is the weapon’s versatile damage dealer so one gotta get creative with the Alt Fire: essentially a supportive close combat mode but one that leaves the hero with full freedom of movement.

Oh by the way, similar physics regarding the target’s weight and land/air mode of locomotion would make any sort of knockback mechanic much more fun (shield bashing, mace / hammer melee hits, punching the Afrits like cue balls with Spiky, etc.)

Arc of Death: dishes out immense damage to a single enemy but has the downside of physically latching Daedolon onto his target: (almost) no moving during grasping the enemy, identical to how Doom’s chainsaw continuously tugs the player towards whatever’s being hit. Any other enemies attending are free to attack an immobilized Daedolon all they want to save their unlucky comrade. Otherwise this Alt Fire feels a bit overpowered due to hit-and-run abuse combined with its insane DPS.

[CacoTwoShoes]

A few more thoughts on differentiating Parias’ area-of-effect attacks:

Serpent Staff: instead of dealing instant damage in a sector-shaped area in front of the player, places a timed venom curse on the ground that deals damage over time and slows down the enemies. Cursed enemies continue taking damage after leaving the affected area for X seconds. Airborne enemies need to stay at least Y map units above the affected surface to remain unscathed. Parias is immune to the curse’s effects as long as he keeps the Serpent Staff equipped.

Firestorm: stays as it is, Parias is immune to the brimstone rain he himself conjures (in case you decide to dash forward while holding alt fire).

Wraithverge: as long as Primary Fire is held, a whirlwind of ghosts engulfs Parias. The ghosts will restlessly attack any singular target that’s currently caught in the crosshairs, the Wraithverge acting like a laser guide to a flock of winged chainsaws (think of General Raam from GOW and his Kryll-based attacks). The ghosts lose all interest in the target once it leaves the crosshairs and pull back to Parias until target reacquisition. The ghosts will not attack targets beyond lower-mid range unlike the ‘autonomous launch’ Alt Fire that packs them into a ball and sends them to tear and rip on their own, and to great distances. When no target is acquired, the ghosts will randomly attack anyone in Parias’ melee range (like a living shield, err well, unliving) but ignore any entity beyond Parias’ arm’s reach unless that is the currently marked target. Releasing Primary Fire instantly releases all ghosts.

[schkorpio]

Absolutely love this mod. It keeps the spirit and feel of original Hexen, but makes the combat so much fresher, it's very fun now, especially the melee

Is there any way to change how long you can shield block for? The block is so useful during co-op play! (maybe at the expense of movement speed, so the longer you hold the shield the slower your movement becomes, eventually causing a full stop until you let go, to avoid abuse and invincibility exploits with an unlimited shield)

Also, I think it would be interesting to speed up the gauntlet fist punch, and slow down the sword. So you have this nice synergy of slower, but long range sweeping sword, and faster but closer range punch.

Lastly is it possible to have the Mage's flechette flask be a proximity mine, instead of timed?

I love using Tempered Arms with ParryMe mod, as well as Critical hits and Backstab mod. It adds an additional layer to the combat. And shield parry is very fun

[Lippeth]

* 1.6.0 *
-Reworked animations for all weapons
-Replaced alternate sprite angles with texture definitions to reduce filesize
-Added sound for Ettin's mace floor impact when gibbed
-Sword and Gauntlet only use stronger attacks when making contact with monsters
-New rapid fire for Quietus main attack
-Quietus lowers when out of mana
-Flammable objects burn with the correct hue of green when struck by Quietus
-Disabled Cleric combo powerup
-Mace alternate swings act as consecutive hit combo, swing slightly faster and slightly push monsters away
-Serpent Staff and Firestorm alt attacks no longer go through walls
-Firestorm main attack reduced damage and increased animation speed
-Sapphire Wand alt fire pushes monsters away
-Removed damagetype modifiers
-Removed monster projectile damagetypes
-Updated brightmaps and dynamic lights file

Here's a short demo of the cleric's weapons so far:

[ArchDoomer]

Great job. Thank you!!

[Ivan951236]

Good job with the mod!

[ArchDoomer]

Hello. Unfortunately, this great mod makes you feel a bit OP. Is there a way to make the enemies tougher/stronger (similar to the Walpurgis MOD)? That would be great...
Greetings

[Lippeth]

Good job with the mod!

Thank you!

Great job. Thank you!!

Glad you're enjoying it, thanks for playing!

Hello. Unfortunately, this great mod makes you feel a bit OP. Is there a way to make the enemies tougher/stronger (similar to the Walpurgis MOD)? That would be great...
Greetings

Thanks for the feedback! In the past I made the player weaker to different types of damage depending on the weapon they have equipped to balance difficulty. I supposed I can go back to that, and even go so far as to make monsters stronger and weaker to different types of damage (afrits less vulnerable to fire, stalkers less vulnerable to poison, etc), though I did scrap it due to it not being clear what's happening without reading a manual. I can experiment with that idea again.

[ArchDoomer]

That would be great!! I would be all for it.

[schkorpio]

Hello. Unfortunately, this great mod makes you feel a bit OP. Is there a way to make the enemies tougher/stronger (similar to the Walpurgis MOD)? That would be great...
Greetings

I use several monster mutator mods to address this

[ArchDoomer]

Which of them??

[schkorpio]

Which of them??

I use all 3 of these at once for a very dynamic experience

LegenDoomLite_4.1.pk3
Mk-champions[20210309].pk3
erlba_040.wad

I don't want to hijack this thread, but if you can't find the mods I have it bundled in my map pack thread with a lot of other mods that I think make hexen feel quite more modern, the parry mod works particularly well with Tempered Arm's shield blocking abilities.

Have fun!