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

[ELPoder36]

What a good mod! thanks for sharing and for the work. Keep going for more!

[eharper256]

What a good mod! thanks for sharing and for the work. Keep going for more!

Hi! Welcome and thanks, glad you enjoy it.

Don't worry, there are still a few versions to 1.0!

I used a custom bolognese with bleeding effect that does additional damage. Running into the projectile caused a lot of bleeding instances and thus bled me dry in a moment. Considering the damage balance of the Walpurgis I decided to not use that version for Walp. playthroughs anymore, and use more performance efficient Nashgore instead, which pairs with it quite nicely.
I didn't notice the blood flying off of me due to it spawning behind me and the speed of self-killing it caused. Anyway, I don't think it is a thing anyone else will encounter.

That would do it, yes. Mystery solved.

Funnily enough, I tinkered with it just now and I seem to have fixed the bleed bug anyways, apparently it was related to the decorative particles of all things!

Another thing about Fulgur - is it possible to make cosmetic lightning trails to smoothly follow the player movement (with a warp maybe?) so far it feels "stuttery" during movement similar to many, many other "lightning gun" implementation. IIRC DoomTournament by MarisaKirisame is one of the very few that does smooth lightning gun (Pulsegun altfire in DT, Impaler altfire in Doomreal). IMO Fulgur would really benefit visually from such effect.

Yeah, those lightnings use models rather than sprites, and are basically straight ports from Unreal/UT99 itself, so I couldn't emulate how its done there. Fulgur primary is technically lots of low damage railgun shots in disguise (theres ALOT of hilarious code in Fulgur, to be honest) and the effect only lasts 1 tic; but the player can move at a whopping speed (seriously, if you do the napkin math, Illitheya runs at about 58 MPH!), which is what is causing the lag. It's actually already better than it was back in early 0.7 era Walp versions but I'm not sure what else I can do to optimise it since theres no real way to predict how the player will move in a given circumstance.

Aestus' firewhip is weird - it does about half the damage of the magma ball at the same price, slower fire rate and limited range. 2 other fire modes do 600-700 damage for 12 blue mana, same for the Algor fire modes. Whip does 300-350 damage for 12 mana, and has short range with long windup which makes it inferior to other fire modes in every situation. IMO it's price should be halved and range increased, and even then it would have rather niche use compared to the other fire modes.

Firewhip actually already got a decent buff (and magma ball a slight nerf) in this version, but balance is, as always, an ongoing project.

Since Magma Ball has a tendancy to detonate in your face if used up close (and does do damage to the Magister), the whip is best in those circumstances. Theoretically they're balanced around different ranges (CLOSE- Whip, MED/SPACING- Magma Ball, LONG- Fire Darts) in the same way as Algor does it with Shards/Spikes/Spears, though Aestus is clearly better at long range and is meant to contrast Algor in that respect, which is much stronger up close. So you can switch between them more often. Upgrades, as always, muddy those waters, though.

With Baratus - I've had the Chain disappear completely and then fist altfire only resulted in regular punches. It happened only once and persisted through the different levels until I started a new game, and it never happened again so I have no clue what had caused it.

Hmm, that's odd, it means he's lost the hidden inventory token that tells the game the chain is ready to use at some point. Starting a new game would obviously refresh it. There shouldn't be any circumstance where it gets lost in that manner any more (and there's a failsafe in place even if it does). About the only thing that could concievably break it is if you somehow clear the inventory or exit a level before the chain returns to you. Maybe Death Exits sometimes might do it if they do the inventory removal in a weird way rather than the normal way (in which case, those exits would also break the Crusader's Shield).

[combolynch]

Awesome mod! Well done. <3 One of my new favourites... Do you plan to add necromancer?

[eharper256]

Awesome mod! Well done. <3 One of my new favourites... Do you plan to add necromancer?

Welcome and Thanks! Glad you enjoy it!

At this time, no extra classes are planned, but there is a possibility for more after all the core features are in and balanced.

What did you have in mind specifically; the Hexen II Necro? Other than the death theming, the Magister already covers what he does (i.e. Bone Shards => Ice Shards, Magic Missiles => Fire Darts, a powerful homing staff, but with even more). Or are you talking more of a pet/minion spam class? I'm not sure that the latter will be great in Doom, its like letting the game play itself.

I'd want a unique niche for anything else that went in; and its not a project I'll take lightly (there's ALOT of art and code involved in each new class that I have make!) but everyone is always welcome to put down suggestions. There's a big history already in Walp of people's suggestions eventually weaving in there when they make sense and are feasible, so suggest away.

[Sinael]

necromancer

If you mean a Summoner-type class, then it won't work that well since that'd rely on AI battling AI, and they are fairly inconsistent at that.

[eharper256]

Yes indeed; we can already see its a bit weird when you use the Secondary Fire Hypnotism of the Hebiko Sceptre as the Druid.

[combolynch]

necromancer

If you mean a Summoner-type class, then it won't work that well since that'd rely on AI battling AI, and they are fairly inconsistent at that.

Maybe it could be magister but more dark like the woc one... only bad thing about woc is that the mod is rpg based and you can die so easily when you pistol start... this mod is faster-paced than woc..

[Colerx]

Thanks. There is limited Co-Op support already in since 0.91; but it needs more people to test it to be sure it works; the game in general shouldn't cause any issues now, but the spawners for weapons could still have some odd behaviours, since its basically impossible to check individual players in the game using DECORATE, so the blue weapon spawner currently uses a bit of a brute force method. If that one works, I can apply it to the others, though its ugly code and I dislike it.

ohh great to know! I will test it again, very good job

[eharper256]

necromancer

If you mean a Summoner-type class, then it won't work that well since that'd rely on AI battling AI, and they are fairly inconsistent at that.

Maybe it could be magister but more dark like the woc one... only bad thing about woc is that the mod is rpg based and you can die so easily when you pistol start... this mod is faster-paced than woc..

The WoC one is basically the Hexen II one with a couple changes and then the skill system slammed on top. I like the variety of WoC, but its real clunky, as I've noted before. Walp was indeed designed to be far more fast-paced and 'doom-like'. I might consider some dark spell if I ever get around to in-slot 3 replacements and nothing else comes to mind, though by default, I've liked the Magister theme being primarily an elementalist, and the Druid also already has the poison theme taken. So a fresh evil magic user class wouldn't have much to use besides dark magic and bone magic I expect.

ohh great to know! I will test it again, very good job

Might still be a bit weird, but let me know how it turns out. As I say, especially interested to see if the weapon spawners now work right.

[Sinael]

I have some ideas (maybe silly/unbalanced) for a "Malefic" (dark curse focused wizard) type class and can share if you want.

[eharper256]

Sure, go for it. Like I say, always interested in cool ideas.

However, curses imply debuffs which, whilst not hard as such to make, do require alot of faff and alteration of monster code.

[Sinael]

I think Final Doomer and few other mods handled Debuffs as powerups that you give to a monster when they are shot, so it works on any monster, no matter what monster mod they are from, and its all on Decorate+ACS so it works on Zandronum too.

Anyway, here are some ideas:

1 "Gloves of Blood Bath" - Something like Gauntlets of the Necromancer from Heretic, but instead of zapping with lightning, it extracts enemy's blood

Primary - At short range, makes drops of blood to fly from enemy to the caster (while damaging them obv.). In practice works like a bit longer range chainsaw. Fills special gauge/phial. Upgrade makes phial fill up faster and gives longer range.
Secondary - launch globs of blood at enemies that splash and burn them like acid. uses previously collected blood. Upgrade makes balls bounce.
Tertiary - launch glob of blood to circle around the caster, it will either splash against a foe (but not a wall) that dares to come near, or intercept a single projectile. Amount of simultaneous globs is upgradeable. uses previously collected blood.
Special - when Phial is filled, it can be used from inventory to refill 30 mana to the currently held weapon (15/15 for weapon 4), since other weapons use mana very heavily.

2. "Nails of a Forsaken Saint"

Primary - Throw a fan of 5 nails in front of you like a shotgun. Central nail has high chance to force painstate. Upgrade - Side nails bounce off a wall towards a nearby target (final doomer does this with one of its shotguns)
Secondary - A torrent of nails that are individually weak, but they slow whatever they hit for half a second (target can still retaliate at normal rate, only its movement speed is reduced) so continuous fire would pin the target in place. (FD does this with one of melees)
Tertiary - A tight group of nails that embed into the target, and explode after 2-3 seconds damaging both target and nearby enemy.

3. Book of Grim Ritual
Primary - First phase of a ritual. Places a dormant seal on the ground that activates when enemy steps on it, resulting in a purple flame pillar. MAX 3 dormant seals at a time. If aimed at an enemy within ~20m range, places seal directly below them and activates immediately. Upgrade increases max seals to 6, allows to place on walls.
Secondary - second stage of the ritual - Activate seals to release angry ghosts that seak out enemies. Cheap (1 mana per seal) as it depends on dormant seals which you spent mana on already. Ghosts disappear once they pass through an enemy, damaging them and leaving them Haunted (purple particles emit from them) for 6 sec. Haunting time increased to 10 sec. Haunted enemies are randomly struck with weak (1-8 damage) attack every 1-2 sec. with 100% pain chance. Upgrade - ghosts haunt one or two more enemies.
Tertiary - Final stage of the Ritual - Every haunted enemy explodes for AOE damage, releasing theem from haunting. If there are no haunted enemies yet, makes 1-2 enemies in front of you haunted, and activates immediately. Upgrade - instead of releasing enemies from haunting, refreshes the haunting. Mana spent depends on amount of haunted enemies (up to a cap of 50 mana or so).


4. Volt of the Nemesis - Looks like A sphere held in player's hands that shows an image of whatever player aims at (can be done via several cameratextures, HDest does this for some ADS) . Kinda like what Heresiarch had shown at the end of Heretic.

---

In arcane arts "Volt" is a representation of something linked to the thing it represents. Action enacted onto a volt will be enacted onto a thing it represents as well. By lighting a volt of a house on fire you can burn a real house. Voodoo doll is a basic case of Volting magic, the principle is same. Most Powerful mages use volt of the land under their rule to excert extreme level of control over it (and as real time map).

A powerful tool that affects whole screen and drains mana depending on amount of targets it hits.

Primary - Damage every enemy in front (custom BFG tracers explosion, but without a projectile, and weaker damage)
Secondary - Curse enemies with weakness, increasing damage they take. (set their damagerfactors to 2)
Tertiary - make enemies bleed/burn with a lasting damage-over-time effect.

[eharper256]

Heh, I see this as being the Doom version of Kotomine Kirei (from Fate Stay/Night) series in essence. Church inquisitor throwing his saintly blessed swords but being decidedly less than saintly himself. The Grim Dawn Inquisitor class as well is similar in nature.

I made a promise to never have extra "ammo" resources besides Aether and Verdant mana though way back in 0.7, so that blood function would never be a thing. I also always wanted it so that each fire mode is unique and has a niche for all the weapons, rather than being sequential, so grim ritual is also out (though I guess this one is less set in stone, since the Lightbringer Prism exists). These are unfortunately core points in the Walp philosophy.

However, if I don't get other ideas for the Crusader's in-slot 2 replacer; I might think about something similar to some of the nails functions (restyled to more holy, of course).

You'll also be interested to know that Discs of Repulsion are planned to act like your proposed blood glove tertiary fire when I get around to the artifacts update (probably 0.96/0.97).

Thanks for sharing though, interesting to read.

[PresBarackbar]

However, if I don't get other ideas for the Crusader's in-slot 2 replacer; I might think about something similar to some of the nails functions (restyled to more holy, of course).

Thematically I like the nails, but I think a crown of thorns would be cool too!

[Sinael]

Magister's Vis reload attack does not function in places with low ceilings. Enemies get bumped up, but the attack does not proceed further than that - enemies are not encased in a bubble or crushed, resulting in miniscule damage.

IMO Algor Secondary upgrade feels more like a downgrade, since the fire mode comes with very high delay between cast+aim and actual impact of the projectile which makes it rather unweildy (it is bettwr when you can pre-charge the attack as without upgrade), and the burst damage potential/niche is gone.

The Torch artifact no longer works if you dont have dynamic lights on - I think it should be possible to check dynamic lights CVARs through ACS function (combine with another CVAR check for hardware/software mode since those got separated) and activate either classic or dynamic version depending on player settings.