Walpurgis 1.0 (For Doom/Heretic/Hexen) [GOLD RELEASE!]

[eharper256]

Another really short video to show off a new monster that will be in 0.94, the Cardinal, who is the Elite version of the D'Sparil Disciple and Bishop of Korax, and can appear as a replacer for either of those guys in Heretic and Hexen.

He has menacing black robes, and fires deadly blasts of light. Whereas normal floating cultists have a tendency to wander around, if the Cardinal locks on, he exhibits behaviour similar to a Doom Chaingunner, continually firing shots until you're out of sight, making him an annoying priority in a crowded room!

[eharper256]

HERE'S THE MYRMIDON'S DUAL-WIELDED GLADIUS!!

Yes indeed; long thought mythical by observers, here we finally have the dual-wielded Ventus Gladius, the Myrmidon's alternate in-slot 2 weapon.

Though most of the art was ready, I finally programmed the damn things this week! And I'm happy with how its shaping up as a nice alternative to the Axe.

What do you all think?

Though the Tertiary fire isn't ready yet, so doesn't show up in the video, in case you're wondering.

[SallazarSpellcaster]

Dual gladius look sick! The speed, and likely their general damage -especially when combined with Icon of the Defender- makes it look like they'll be perfect to slice through enemies. Their wind projectiles currently seem to be a little low on damage, but the melee attack looks badass.

As a possibility, tertiary fire could be a full-on whirlwind, having the Myrmidon spinning with the gladiuses outstretched, charged with magic, and mincing everything in his path. Think about the Diablo II Barbarian's Whirlwind skill, and somewhere along the lines of Firestorm's tertiary, only with much shorter range and higher damage.

[eharper256]

Dual gladius look sick! The speed, and likely their general damage -especially when combined with Icon of the Defender- makes it look like they'll be perfect to slice through enemies. Their wind projectiles currently seem to be a little low on damage, but the melee attack looks badass.

As a possibility, tertiary fire could be a full-on whirlwind, having the Myrmidon spinning with the gladiuses outstretched, charged with magic, and mincing everything in his path. Think about the Diablo II Barbarian's Whirlwind skill, and somewhere along the lines of Firestorm's tertiary, only with much shorter range and higher damage.

Yep, I'm currently playing with a kind of teleport charge impale and indeed, "spin to win" was also an option considered. My recent spat with Path of Exile again this season made me wonder if Flickering Strike was possible to program in DECORATE (lol) and it might well be! (i.e. Think what a chain lightning spell does, but instead having the player be the lightning, and that is basically Flickering Strike). Though fun to watch from isometric, it might be horribly disorienting from First Person though (both spinning and flickering options). Still, as far as stupid programming ideas I've had for Walp go, this is fairly tame.

You'll be glad to know Doomed Souls mode is in as well; I've been polishing that up this last week.

[SallazarSpellcaster]

Yep, I'm currently playing with a kind of teleport charge impale and indeed, "spin to win" was also an option considered. My recent spat with Path of Exile again this season made me wonder if Flickering Strike was possible to program in DECORATE (lol) and it might well be! (i.e. Think what a chain lightning spell does, but instead having the player be the lightning, and that is basically Flickering Strike). Though fun to watch from isometric, it might be horribly disorienting from First Person though (both spinning and flickering options). Still, as far as stupid programming ideas I've had for Walp go, this is fairly tame.

You'll be glad to know Doomed Souls mode is in as well; I've been polishing that up this last week.

I'm familiar with Flickering Strike, and indeed, it would be too disorienting in first person. Spin-to-win can be justified through videogame logic - "you spin so quickly your vision doesn't blur!" and instead have only a spinning animation play on the weapons themselves, similar to how Oblivion and Skyrim handle spin attacks.

Doomed Souls mode, now that's BRÜTAL

[eharper256]

I'm familiar with Flickering Strike, and indeed, it would be too disorienting in first person. Spin-to-win can be justified through videogame logic - "you spin so quickly your vision doesn't blur!" and instead have only a spinning animation play on the weapons themselves, similar to how Oblivion and Skyrim handle spin attacks.

Doomed Souls mode, now that's BRÜTAL

Well, how Vanilla Skyrim does it anyway; if you have hilarious camera mods, melee combat is vomit inducing for most nerdy game players.

It took some extra time to add in the CVAR customisible Kestus Flask for Doomed Souls and make sure it was not causing silly bugs (for some reason at one point all vials in Hexen became Urns because of a copypasta fail and it was driving me crazy lol).

[eharper256]

So we're approaching the 0.94 release! Not long now; I'm just trying to add in some extra last minute stuff. I expect it to be out next week!

Its been a bit of a while this time, which is unfortunate, but at least there's a fair bit of new content for everyone!

[eharper256]

And here we go, here's 0.94, as promised, and just in time for the weekend.
Get it HERE from MEGA

Or Get it HERE from GoogleDrive

Here's the Changelog:

Code: Select all

 [0.94]
'Key To The Armory'
--------------------
27/08/2021
+New!:	The Druid gets her alternate in-slot (2) weapon, Dagon's Cane! 
		This is the second one to go in. Right now, it cannot be upgraded, so
		Azurintine Fruits used on it will be wasted. 
		> Primary fire shoots High Pressure Water Blasts at good velocity.
		> Secondary fire slams the ground with the cane. The first enemy in a
		  direct line from your position will have a boiling geyser erupt at
		  their feet. This ignores elevation and cliffs but has no effect on
		  flying enemies. Enemies near and on the geyser will be blown away.
		> Tertiary fire briefly turns you into a tidal wave and makes you 
		  surge forwards. You'll blast through enemies on the way, dealing some
		  damage to them; and knock foes away on arrival, making it an ideal
		  panic and escape button (and likely a speedrunners best friend, ha!). 
		By default, it will spawn randomly along with Lupin Charms, but you
		disable either of them in the Walpurgis Options if preferred.
+New!:	The Myrmidon gets his alternate in-slot (2) weapon, the Ventus Gladii! 
		This is the third one to go in. Right now, it cannot be upgraded, so
		Whetstones used on it will be wasted. 
		> Primary fire swings and stabs the dual swords rapidly to dice up foes.
		> Secondary fire invokes the Ventus runes, allowing you to rapidly 
		  swing to shoot shearing wind blades at distant foes. The blades cause
		  erupt on impact, throwing nearby things backwards (including you, and
		  any stray projectiles), so you can use them to clear gaps, but be
		  careful if you're fighting with you back to a cliff!
		> Tertiary fire is a charge-up attack. When you release, you'll stab with
		  both swords, also unleashing a localised explosion of air. Though
		  slow, the AOE and damage delivered at the high end of the charge is 
		  quite good, and can gib multiple low and some mid-tier enemies.
		By default, it will spawn randomly along with Timons Vorpal Axe, but you
		disable either of them in the Walpurgis Options if preferred.
+New!:	Upgrades for Aestus!
			+ Primary Fire shoots flame darts much quicker. The darts themselves
			  also move faster and deal mildly (about 7%) more damage.
			+ Secondary changes the Molten Ball into a proper Meteor Blast,
			  allowing it to fly. It can also bounce off floors and ceilings
			  but will detonate on walls. It still flies quite slowly, mind.
			+ Tertiary's Fire Whip also fires out additional bouncing molten 
			  balls after detonation, and has a greater Area of Effect.		
+New!:	[Doomed Souls Mode] - A new special challenge mode for Walpurgis.
		In this mode, normal health pickups do not spawn in levels, ever. 
		You start the game with a special Kestus Flask, which has a fixed 
		amount of HP in it; and which can only be re-filled (by 75) by finding
		where super-health pickups would normally be (Soul Spheres, Urns etc.)
		You can set its starting amount in the Walpurgis Options, as well as
		assign it a hotkey.
+New!:	New Elite: The Cardinal- Replaces the D'Sparil Disciple and the Korax
		Bishop in Heretic/Hexen respectively. Whereas normal floating cultists 
		have a tendency to wander around, if the Cardinal locks on, he exhibits 
		behaviour similar to a Doom Chaingunner, continually firing shots until 
		you're out of sight, making him an annoying priority in a crowded room!
+New!:	New Elite: The Pulsarach- Replaces Doom Arachnotrons. Fires Red Laser
		Pulses at a rapid rate. Similar to its base type, but its harder to hide
		from and the lasers are very dangerous. 
+New!:	Smart Flasks: Quartz Flasks have gotten smart (OH NO!). Now, if you run
		over one, it will auto-check your HP, and if its missing 25+, you'll just
		instantly use it off the ground like a Doom Health Item. If its not, 
		you'll grab the Flask as normal to inventory. It will never waste healing
		as Doom Items do, so don't worry about that. But if you want to revert
		to the old behaviour, you may change it in the menu (as with many things!).
+Tweak:	You can now adjust the Percentage (%) spawning chance for Elite enemies
		from the Bestiary tweaks menu. By default, this is 10% but can be set
		at any 5% interval between 0% and 100% if you like.
+Tweak:	More reactive catching for the Vorpal Axe when its thrown- so if you're
		about to throw a punch but the axe makes it back you'll catch it 
		dramatically and immediately slash. Radical. May still not react
		perfectly if you're in the midst of Shoryuken or Kick, but even there
		it will be alot better than before.
+Tweak:	The Lightbringer got revised ready/firing sprites to make it a new
		model that's more unique to Walpurgis. This joins the earlier overlay
		additions to make it pretty awesome looking!
+Tweak:	Aestus now has an additonal magic circle animation when using the
		secondary fire, which makes it look alot better (IMHO). 
+Fixed:	Various weird behaviours with the Crusader Mace Tertiary Attack fixed,
		The charge should now be a fairly reliable attack most of the time.
+Fixed:	Upgraded Druid Werewolf Primary no longer damages you if you punch a
		wall by mistake.
+Balance:	The Druid gains +1 to her base AC so its now equivalent to the 
			Magister's AC. Still very squishy, but no more rounding errors on
			damage.
+Balance:	Range on Druid's Baselard Swipes/Stabs increased by about 15% so its
			a bit easier to 'fence' enemies rather than needing to get so close
			since she doesn't have the endurance of the Myrmidon.
+Balance:	Druid is now immune to her own poison-gas from her Flechettes and
			the Hebiko Sceptre (finally, lol). 
+Balance:	The swing of the Aestus firewhip is now about 20% faster, and it also
			causes more AOE detonations to make it more worthwhile. However, it
			now also costs +2 more Aetherial Mana (for a total of 12). 
+Balance:	Firestorm Flamethrower (Primary) Damage increased by around 5%.
+Balance:	Boots of Speed in Hexen now spawn Upgrade items, since in general
			you would only get 2 upgrade items in the whole vanilla game.

Lots of stuff this time, hope you enjoy it!!

[AvzinElkein]

No Doom 1/2 end-of-episode messages yet?

[eharper256]

No Doom 1/2 end-of-episode messages yet?

Not yet, indeed.

Heck, I didn't even know people were interested that much in that; since there was no reaction to me adding in ones for Heretic way back. But I'll add it to the priority list now I know you're interested.

Yes indeed people; a reminder: I'm not psychic- if you want a feature or thing, speak up!

[Chunes]

It's out! Christmas is here!

Thank you for all the work you put into this mod. I can't wait to dig in!

[ClessxAlghazanth]

Great stuff ! I've always liked magical / fantasy themed mods and been enjoying Walpurgis for some time

Yes indeed people; a reminder: I'm not psychic- if you want a feature or thing, speak up!

Well , some spell effects give massive fps drops with lots of things going on , an option to reduce the amount of eye-candy or an general 'toaster mode' as in Guncaster would be useful for some ppl (with slower computers & mobiles)



Best regards

[Chunes]

I've had a chance to test the new weapons for a few hours and they're both lovely. The dual swords (Ventus Gladii) secondary gives the myrmidon a cheap ranged option and great crowd control, the primary is some satisfying slice n' dice, and the tertiary is just a heck of a lot of fun to use. I find that binding the tertiary to alt or a mouse button works better than 'r' so you can strafe right while charging it up.

As for the staff (Dagon's Cane), the primary comes with a bit of a learning curve due to the slight delay, which makes it all the more satisfying to use once you get it down. I love how it acts much like a rocket launcher against crowds of lesser foes, but it seems like AoE damage only happens if you hit an enemy directly -- could be wrong about that, but it feels interesting. The secondary does a fair bit of damage, but not as much as you might expect at first. Its true power lies in its utility. Excellent for killing enemies above or below you with impunity. It's also guaranteed to interrupt enemies including archviles. I haven't used the tertiary enough to comment yet -- seems effective, though restraint is required in certain situations...

The other balancing that was done has really smoothed over the game and I personally have fewer annoyances than in previous versions. Smart flasks are a joy and the new enemies are cool!

One oddity I encountered is that when upgrading the bow's tertiary, it made me put the weapon away and then I wasn't able to switch back to it again.

[PresBarackbar]

I dunno what Im doing wrong but for some reason the cane is not showing up for me in game, even when I set the option to only have the cane for slot 2.

[eharper256]

New video: playing the Manor level of Chainworm Kommando with the Druid, showing off some of the uses of new Dagon's Cane actually in levels, like the stunning use of the geyser and the advancing power of the Tidal Charge.

Chainworm is one of my favourite Doom Megawads, lots of varied levels, huge amounts of cute details, and fair and balanced combat. You can get it off Doomworld here: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/level ... -c/chnworm

That said, I've clearly forgotten the layout of this map at the end and go for a bit of a faff lol (sorry about that!).

I dunno what Im doing wrong but for some reason the cane is not showing up for me in game, even when I set the option to only have the cane for slot 2.

Well this is embarassing; the menu options have been reversed; set it to "Ain't Nothin but a Hound Dog!" for canes; and "Ea! R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!" for pendants. OOOPS!
Fortunately, it was easy to figure out with the test map lol. It's my own fault for calling the states "DogSpawn" and "DagSpawn" in the code, leading to easy confusion lol.
The "spawn both" mode, and the other spawn selectors work fine though.

I've had a chance to test the new weapons for a few hours and they're both lovely. The dual swords (Ventus Gladii) secondary gives the myrmidon a cheap ranged option and great crowd control, the primary is some satisfying slice n' dice, and the tertiary is just a heck of a lot of fun to use. I find that binding the tertiary to alt or a mouse button works better than 'r' so you can strafe right while charging it up.

Yep, its made as a counterpart to cover the Axe's weaknesses as all the Slot 2 alts are. The secondary really helps the Myrm with early ranged issues and distant crowd control, but in response, you don't have on-demand kill the thing standing in front of me and have to charge that, but in counter-response, the charge-up is actually better if you can wait for it. Also yeah, it might be one of the few attacks thats a bit awkward on (R).

As for the staff (Dagon's Cane), the primary comes with a bit of a learning curve due to the slight delay, which makes it all the more satisfying to use once you get it down. I love how it acts much like a rocket launcher against crowds of lesser foes, but it seems like AoE damage only happens if you hit an enemy directly -- could be wrong about that, but it feels interesting. The secondary does a fair bit of damage, but not as much as you might expect at first. Its true power lies in its utility. Excellent for killing enemies above or below you with impunity. It's also guaranteed to interrupt enemies including archviles. I haven't used the tertiary enough to comment yet -- seems effective, though restraint is required in certain situations...

Yes, you've got it down, though the Geyser can gib low tier enemies quite well, it is meant as the Druid's prime interrupt solution; enemies flailing throught the air aren't attacking you, and as you note, has the same multi-level capabilities as Algor's Ice Pillars and the Hammer's Quake Wave. It's also quite effective up close for that reason. And indeed, the Tertiary can accidently get you into shit if used incorrectly (lol I managed to wedge myself between a Baron and a wall once in testing), but its pretty effective to get through a whole corridor of zombies or heretic golems. Just check your expected destination before you get there.

The other balancing that was done has really smoothed over the game and I personally have fewer annoyances than in previous versions. Smart flasks are a joy and the new enemies are cool!

Fantastic! Smart Flasks were a fun experiment in tricking GZDoom with CustomInventory magic, much like the dynamic weapon and flechette spawners, so I'm glad you appreciate them. I will likely pop the same logic into Kraters now I know it works (i.e. checking if 100 mana would be useful to you right now). If you have any remaining annoyances, let me know about them, of course. And if you've told me before about, just keep telling me about them.

One oddity I encountered is that when upgrading the bow's tertiary, it made me put the weapon away and then I wasn't able to switch back to it again.

Huh. Well, the Ichival is not meant to be upgradable at all the moment; so that's some weird copy-pasta code going off most likely. I really should just put in a 'nope, not available' loop for the ultimates but I keep forgetting because I know not to try it myself lol.

It's out! Christmas is here!

Thank you for all the work you put into this mod. I can't wait to dig in!

Glad you've enjoyed it so far!

Great stuff ! I've always liked magical / fantasy themed mods and been enjoying Walpurgis for some time
Well , some spell effects give massive fps drops with lots of things going on , an option to reduce the amount of eye-candy or an general 'toaster mode' as in Guncaster would be useful for some ppl (with slower computers & mobiles)
Best regards

Glad to know I have more secret fans!

Yes, a Toaster mode is eventually planned once I've got all the content I want in.
One thing I ALWAYS tell people to check though if you have a low-end:
Enable the Full option menus if they're not enabled >> Goto GZDoom's Display Options >> Texture Options >> Make sure ALL the "High Quality Resize" are OFF
Then check Dynamic Lights >> Turn off their effects on sprites, particles, and shadowmaps.
This makes a HUGE difference for those without a strong dedicated graphics card. You'll lose a bit of eye-candy of course.