Introduction
I originally started making this back in late 2018 as a little gameplay mod that fixes some of the things I didn't like about Heretic. As time goes on over the past few years, it eventually evolved into a gameplay mod (albeit quite ambitious with the classes and RPG stuff) after several layoffs, burnouts and a few restarts later. Heretic Silverspring Fortress is an enhancement gameplay mod for Heretic, it aims to overhaul most of the gameplay with the addition of playable classes, RPG system, and some other aspects inspired from Heretic II and the rest of Hexen series. As of now, this mod is currently in W.I.P and things are subject to change as development goes on.
Features
- Improved vanilla gameplay
- New monsters with exception of the randomizer
- 9 playable classes
- Several new weapons
- Leveling and stats
- Spells system
- Alt-fire for all weapons, tomed as well
- A few new artifacts
- Various additional particle effects
Spoiler:Bestiary
The player classes will have their assigned stats, signature weapon, set of weapons (varies on the class), offensive & defensive spells, and playstyle. Unlike in HeXen, most of the player classes are likely to be shared from the original arsenal while some will have their new weapons and be affected from armor pickups as there will be multiple of them in this mod.
Heretic
The base class. It starts with the same weapons and default speed. All ranged weapons are balanced, best with weapons like the ethereal crossbow.
Best at being well-rounded in general.
Heathen
A brute who likes to get close and personal against his enemies. It starts with a warhammer and the most health.
Best at melee and has the most health of all other player classes.
The Heathen cannot use most of the original heretic weapons but, most have been replaced with martial-based weapons to fit as an melee-orientated class.
Weapons
- Warhammer (Starting melee weapon)
- War Axe (3rd weapon slot)
- Flail (4th weapon slot)
- Trident (5th weapon slot)
Clergy
- Maul (6th weapon slot)
A priest who can heal and buff his comrades. It starts with a mace and slightly slower speed.
It's best at support.
The Clergy can use most of the original heretic weapons except the Hellstaff, it can use the Holy Staff as a replacement instead.
Weapons
- Mace (Starting melee weapon)
Blasphemer
- Holy Staff (5th weapon slot)
A magician who excels at magic from not only magical staves and wands but it's spells as well. It starts with a spellbook and is the slowest of all other player classes.
It's best at any ranged magical weapons and spells. By far the biggest damage dealer in general.
The Blasphemer learns the most of offensive and defensive spells at certain levels.
WeaponsKleptes
- Spellbook (Starting melee weapon)
A thief who specializes in combat through stealth and nimble tricks. It starts with the most trickery, dagger and is the fastest of all other player classes.
Best at movement and stealth.
The Kleptes can use most of the original heretic weapons except the ethereal crossbow, it can use the ethereal bow as a replacement.
When the Kleptes attacks an unsuspecting enemy or one engaged in another fight, it deals a surprise attack bonus. Be quick to catch the enemies off guard to take that advantage.
Weapons
- Dagger (Starting melee weapon)
Pagan
- Ethereal Bow (3rd weapon slot)
A magician who focuses on dark magic and arts of necromancy. It starts with a sickle, gargoyle wand and slightly less physically weak from Blasphemer.
It's best at cursing enemies, summons and control.
The Pagan cannot use nearly all of the original heretic weapons except Gauntlets of the Necromancer, all of them have been replaced with necromancy or dark magic themed weapons.
Weapons
- Sickle (Starting melee weapon)
- Gargoyle Wand (Starting weapon)
- Chaos Crossbow (3rd weapon slot)
- Scepter Of Souls (4th weapon slot)
- Skull Staff (5th weapon slot)
- Lich Staff (6th weapon slot)
Pyromancer (TBD with class name)
- Blood Scepter (7th weapon slot)
A magician who wields the art of fire magic.
It's best at crowd control and being resistant to fire attacks
It's weapons are to be determined for now.
Beastmaster (TBD with class name)
A beastmaster who can summon several minions as their companions to control a battle, more notably the Chaos Serpent. It starts with a magic wand and slightly less physically weak from Blasphemer.
It's best at summons and being an formidable opponent if riding on a Chaos Serpent.
The beastmaster cannot use all of the original heretic weapons except Gauntlets of the Necromancer, many will consist half of weapons for normal form and rest of half for summons.
It's weapons are to be determined for now.
Changeling
A shapeshifter who can change their mortal form into several morph shapes with it's set of stats, attacks and so. It starts with a magic wand and is slightly faster but not as Kleptes.
It's best at being support and able to morph into several shapes that has it's uses to certain encounters.
The Changeling cannot use nearly all of the original heretic weapons except Gauntlets of the Necromancer, many of them have been replaced with half of weapons for normal form and rest of half for morph shapes.
It's weapons are to be determined for now.
Spoiler:RPG System
The original bestiary have received various changes from a range of tweaks to overhauls and contains new monsters with permission from The Raven's Craze for Heretic by Krazy Commando. Heretic really lacks monster variety and I can say the same to HeXen but, that one is a completely different ball game than Heretic's case. Anyway, there will be a wide set of custom monsters and it's spawners can toggled from the range of global spawn level, some monsters from HeXen, cultists for golems, ambush for monsters, and either a random or chosen different final boss than D'Sparil himself. If the RPG system is implemented, both of original and custom bestiary will be affected as well.
Spoiler:Spells System
In general, the RPG mechanics from HRPG/XRPG by peewee_RotA will be used as a base (which I asked for permission beforehand). It's definitely more lite than what I came up with when I started with this mod a long time ago. At the moment, it will not be in the mod until if there's enough help to implement it or if all other features are sorted out first.
Leveling
You gain XP by damaging an enemy and then you level up when it reaches enough xp each per level. Each level up resets XP, raises max health, heals the player and increase stats. Depending on the class, it also rewards the player with new skills/spells for offensive & defensive (Heretic II). The stats can be raised by automatic or manually spent on from a simple RPG menu that can also display the current stats as well. The latter may happen if there's a popular demand.
Stats
There are 3 stats. Brutality, Trickery and Corruption. Each 3 have their uses and it can affect certain classes that can benefit from it by least to most.
Each level up increases the player's stats by 5 points, awarded randomly, weighted to go to the highest stat.
The stat increase will be randomized or manually, depending if the RPG menu is implemented or not.
Brutality
Determines health increases at levels and increases melee damage with strength-based weapons.
Health increases are randomized as well.
Trickery
Determines damage with dexterity-based weapons.
Corruption
Determines damage with magic wands, staffs and spells.
Spoiler:Screenshots
The Spells system is the foundation of being able to use offensive and defensive spells in Heretic. Depending on the class, many of them can use spells while Heathen can only use skills. Each class will start off with a single spell (skill if playing Heathen) and they get more by leveling up, the max amount of spells for each class can have is 12. The spells can be used alongside with your weapons, albeit it goes through spellcasting animation (Something like in Heretic II). Yes, the skills can be casted immediately upon use (if you’re wondering). Lastly, the offensive and defensive spells use 2 different ammo type, Green and Blue Mana. In terms with selecting spells and skills for only Heathen class, it can be done with a custom keybind and activating it casts that said spell.
At the moment, the list of spells are currently not finalized yet.
Spoiler:Download
Do keep in mind that some of the screenshots are outdated and will likely get updated in the future.
Current Version: 0.2
Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1keRdtw ... sp=sharing
Moddb: https://www.moddb.com/mods/heretic-silv ... g-fortress
Q:A
Spoiler:Help Wanted!
Why Heretic II stuff in Heretic?
To be honest, I really like Heretic II for several reasons despite being a different game in third person. The magic, spells and some other stuff were the inspiration of making this mod. I could say the same with the weapons but to be frank, it really varies since they share it's similarities from Heretic so I'm not sure. If I wish to recreate the particle effects and so from that game, that is a lot of god damn effort and I'm not up for that task than maybe re-create some of it as very few mods did it differently. Who knows.
Why player classes in Heretic?
It all started with a Heretic II mod named The Heretic Fortress (THF) as an inspiration. While that mod is a completely different beast as it's only designed for multiplayer, I found myself wanting to make a wide selection of player classes a thing in Heretic. This unfortunately became a pipe dream as I realized of each class potentially having their own set of weapons was never going to work, let alone Heretic isn't like Hexen despite I wish to add a little bit more depth to it's gameplay.
I curbed my ambitions by toning down the large amount of custom weapons and determining what could work in Heretic. Many of the player classes that I originally planned are restored since but, I remain uncertain about Pyromancer, Enchanter and Blacksmith as the only two support type classes. If you have any better ideas for player classes, please let me know.
Are the balance changes based on Wayfarer's Tome?
No. Many of the "balance" changes from Wayfarer's Tome feels closer to Doom, it just doesn't feel like Heretic (and why I am not very fond of with it, especially in Heretic/Hexen re-release). I decided to use the balance changes from The Raven's Craze as a base instead and frankly, it gets the job well enough without going backwards to make it feel like Doom which it's simply wrong to me.
Will there be any compatibility to other mods like Brutal Heretic?
Nope, this mod changes everything along with addition of the RPG system. Some companion addons could work but I haven't tested these out as much so, use it at your own risk.
Will this mod be playable in custom mapsets?
Vanilla style mapsets are playable at best. Custom mapsets that includes custom monsters, weapons, it'll require custom patches to work and that varies on if some of those are possible to do so.
Are you planning for a mapset for this mod?
Yes, this mod will have it's own mapset. One for remix of the original Heretic levels + fan-made Fate's Path and second for HeXen like hubs as a bonus.
Can Silverspring Fortress be playable in HeXen and Doom?
I am considering about making Silverspring Fortress be playable in Doom and Hexen as well as several mods did before. I am not really sure if it's fully possible or really worth the effort to do it but, please leave your thoughts about it before I dismiss it.
Since this mod is still under W.I.P and the only person working on this, I really need help on 2 issues:
1. Sprites for player classes and weapons.
2. ZScript stuff for RPG system and other things.
Any kind of help will be much appreciated.
