Specific issues you had with Hexen

[SamVision]

For melee combat, the mod Hexercise had this cool feature that made your weapon react every time it hit enemies or walls. While not necessarily improving the combat a large amount, it did feel really good to use and never got old.

[NeuralStunner]

In keeping with the "some items do different things for different classes" idea, the tome could power up the weapons in different ways for each class.

Um. If you're not giving every weapon a different effect, you've got no business adding the Tome of Power.

[zrrion the insect]

Yeah they'd all be different, but there'd be some sort of thematic similarity within the classes.

[SamVision]

I don't know if you can make the wraithverge any more powerful.

[Hisymak]

Well, I was playing Hexen when I was about 6-year kid, so I rather greatly enjoyed the fantasy theme and was fascinated with all the stuff like the environment and its ambience, magical weapons, items, puzzles and so on. I was really patient with this game, so I rather did not think about what was wrong with it. Indeed, I got stuck in several phases of the game (because I could not find some specific key or some unobvius path where to go), but after some time I passed them anyway and finally finished the game.

But there is one specific problem I really very disliked about this game: Broken/buggy scripts which did not trigger or died for some reason and blocked your way and thus caused you not able to progress further.
As far as I remember, there were two three such cases:
1. In second hub you must press 6 switches in 3 maps in order to open the silver portal in Shadow Wood. Pressing one switch would lighten one wall with a specific sign next to mentioned portal. However, sometimes, some switch did not work (some wall just did not lighten). After I pressed all six switches, the silver door did not open. I needed to save each time before pressing a switch, then press it and go immediately back to Shadow Wood to see if it worked.
2. In fourth hub in the very last part where you fight Heresiarch, behind Axe Key door. Sometimes, I got stuck there, because even after I killed all monsters there, the walls leading to a room with Heresiarch did not lower for some reason. I needed to save before entering Axe Key door and reload if the script did not work.
Did you also have these issues or any other? I for example never had any issue in third hub after killing Heresiarch.
EDIT: 3. I also sometimes (but rather rarely) got stuck in hub 1 secret level: Bright Crucible. I cannot remember clearly what exactly happened, but I could not reach the exit portal because it remained blocked by the wall, which, for some reason, did not open up. And I certainly took and placed the Heart of D'Sparil.

And also, I always did not like too much that Cleric's weapons were overpowered and superior to other character's weapons, as well as his Flechette's effect. Thus I tended to play as Cleric more often.

[xenoxols]

It wasn't an RPG.

[Ixnatifual]

For me the biggest issue is the lack of weapons. In total there are plenty of weapons, but you only have access to 4 of them in a playthrough. I also didn't enjoy juggling the inventory items, and some of the hidden switches were annoying.

The atmosphere and setting is top notch, though.

[Beed28]

I remember that one time when in Guardian of Ice, there was a part where you had to get the Steel Key from the ice cave. I completely had no idea how to reach it and had me stuck for hours on end... until I discovered a completely out of the way switch in the very corner of the cave. Not good puzzle design.

[Devianteist]

HeXen, being my favorite of all of the DOOM "clones," is admittedly very difficult.

The Heresiarch is indeed all that can be broken, and the weapons are insanely boring. Mods like Hexercise make HeXen an absolute blast when it comes to using the weapons (at least I think so), so taking tips from that can give you a definite jumpstart on your improvements.

If anything, I would LOVE it if you removed the Dark Servant and replaced it with the Tome. The thing gets in the way more than it actually helps.

[SamVision]

Yes please replace the dark servant with anything else. I remember using that mofo like once, and at the time it did more damage to me than the enemy. Also unlike Brutal Hexen, DO NOT remove the fighter's fists, it is an insanely satisfying weapon to use, something that Hexercise fully understands, and it is absolutely necessary for the fighter.

[Devianteist]

Yes please replace the dark servant with anything else. I remember using that mofo like once, and at the time it did more damage to me than the enemy. Also unlike Brutal Hexen, DO NOT remove the fighter's fists, it is an insanely satisfying weapon to use, something that Hexercise fully understands, and it is absolutely necessary for the fighter.

Oh dear god, there's a Brutal HeX--- Eh... I'll stop while I'm ahead.

[SamVision]

Actually while on the topic of weapons and Brutal Hexen, I would just like to state that you absolutely must keep the weapon balance in mind. All of the weapons, as lame as some of them are, are specifically specialized to fulfill a role. In Brutal Hexen all of the mage's weapons were just variations on pew pew, which is something you should avoid.

EDIT: I found something in my archives that may be of some use, although I don't know who made it and where it is from.

[xenoxols]

I'm not sure why everyone complains about the mage in brutal hexen when it was barely started on.
EDIT: I was thinking a gameplay mod with TSP like melee combat and an rpg system like WOC would be awesome.

[zrrion the insect]

An RPG system is something of the kind I like (think ww-skillguns) is something I have been thinking of.
As for fire deaths, I already have that covered. I have made a fire death that looks similar to the ice death. There is a charred body that spawns a bunch of pieces and fire. It looks quite good.

[Graf Zahl]

1. In second hub you must press 6 switches in 3 maps in order to open the silver portal in Shadow Wood. Pressing one switch would lighten one wall with a specific sign next to mentioned portal. However, sometimes, some switch did not work (some wall just did not lighten). After I pressed all six switches, the silver door did not open. I needed to save each time before pressing a switch, then press it and go immediately back to Shadow Wood to see if it worked.

No, that never happened to me. The only problem here is of course that it's easy to miss one of the switches and then having problems to find it again.

2. In fourth hub in the very last part where you fight Heresiarch, behind Axe Key door. Sometimes, I got stuck there, because even after I killed all monsters there, the walls leading to a room with Heresiarch did not lower for some reason. I needed to save before entering Axe Key door and reload if the script did not work.
Did you also have these issues or any other? I for example never had any issue in third hub after killing Heresiarch.

Yes, this is indeed a well known script bug.
The script that checks if enough monsters have been killed to go on looks like this:

Code: Select all

script 13(void)
{
    until(thingcount(T_DEMON, 0) == 3)
    {
        delay(const:210);
    }
    Door_Open(const:28, 32);
    tagwait(const:28);
    Stairs_BuildDownSync(const:18, 8, 16, 0);
}

So now imagine you kill the monsters fast enough that it jumps directly from 4 to 2, which is shit easy due to the 6 second(!) delay in the loop.
The first line should have been

Code: Select all

    until(thingcount(T_DEMON, 0) <= 3)

EDIT: 3. I also sometimes (but rather rarely) got stuck in hub 1 secret level: Bright Crucible. I cannot remember clearly what exactly happened, but I could not reach the exit portal because it remained blocked by the wall, which, for some reason, did not open up. And I certainly took and placed the Heart of D'Sparil.

That's because the exit is not opened by placing the Heart, it's opened by grabbing the Icon of the Defender in the northernmost room of the level