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Hello,

after VoxelChibi Doom, I present you my second mod:

XCOMDoom!




So far, this is basically a sprite replacement mod with minor gameplay changes due to the new monster and weapons behaviors. I ripped pretty much all the monster and weapon sounds from XCOM:EU and out them into an addon soundpack, but I won't include them here so I used free replacement sound effects.

Spoiler: Features:

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• Replaces all Doom2 monsters (except for Commander Keen) with aliens from XCOM: Enemy Unknown.
• Weapons:
  • Pistol
  • Shotgun
  • Assault Rifle
  • Light Machinegun
  • Sniper Rifle
  • Rocket launcher
  • Plasma Pistol
  • Light Plasma Rifle
  • Plasma Rifle
  • Heavy Plasma
  • Blaster Launcher
  • Frag Grenade
  • Alien Grenade
  • Arc Thrower
• Player Classes:
  • Generic (Pistol ony)
  • Assault (shotgun, pistol and frag grenades)
  • Heavy (LMG and rocket launcher)
  • Support (assault rifle, pistol and frag grenades)
  • Sniper (sniper rifle (duh!) and pistol)
    /list]
  • Custom Status Bar.
  • Aliens: All Aliens from XCOM: Enemy Unknown save for the Cyberdisc.

Spoiler: Screenshots:

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Sectopod firing it's ray cannon:

Sectoid Commanders and Thin Men:

Sectoid fighting against a Chryssalid:

Sectoid Commander getting shot in the back by his comrade while a Muton and Outsider join the fray:

Muton fighting Secoit Commanders:

Muton Elite squad:

Floaters and Heavy Floaters:

Spoiler: Plans for the future:

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Include more stuff, of course, namely:

• Proper psi attacks for the Ethereals and Sectoid Commanders. DONE!
• Plasma and Laser weaponry. DONE!
• Arc thrower melee weapon; If an alien is not killed/stunned with the Arc thrower, it's weapon will not drop as it will disintegrate upon death. DONE!
• Grenades both for the player and for Mutons and other enemies. DONE!
• Other misc inventory items
• Custom maps resembling the classic XCOM locales such as farmhouses and forests with downed UFOs, as well as an inner-city terror size and an alien base or large ship.

Spoiler: Known and possible issues:

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• All enemies from the Enemy Withing expansion can't be included because the animation importer doesn't work with them, so no Seekers and Mechtoids either.
• The Cyberdisc file can't be imported properly with it's animations intact, so it can't be included sadly.
• Ethereals and Ethereal Elders will not stop summoning aliens once active, however they will only do so when they can see the player.
• Certain Doom 2 monsters have been replaces with squads of Mutons, in tight spaces they will probably not all spawn.

Download:
Newest version: 0.21 Be sure to update your BAT files!
xcom0.21.pk3
Recommended with Target Spy!

Spoiler: Old versions:

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xcom0.2.pk3
xcom0.1.pk3

Spoiler: Changelog:

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0.21:

• Fixed player class weapons & ammo
• Fixed super shotgun replacement

0.2:

• Plasma weapons completed
• Killed zombies spawn Chryssalids
• Yellow alien blood, and new blood effects
• Arc thrower with stun mechanic
• Player classes
• Sniper rifle scope has been made smoother
• New Psi skills and attacks for certain aliens
• Changed Doom 2 enemy replacement
• Sectopods fire a harmless red aiming laser right before their ray attack to warn the player. They also aim at their target instead of the general direction.
• Mutons, Muton Elites and Heavy Floaters throw alien grenades occasionally. the player also has access to alien and frag grenades.
• Muton Berserkers use a bullrush attack now
• Re-rendered all HUD weapon with better bump mapping and changed camera settings so graphics aren't cut off.
• Projectiles are fired from the muzzles of the guns, both for aliens and for the player HUD weapons.
• New plasma projectile, using a recoloured Baron projectile.
• Added trails for alien grenades and plasma bolts.
• Most weapons automatically reload when the last shot in the magazine has been fired.
• Destroyed Sectopods cause a frag grenade explosion
• Sectopods will always spawn with two drones. These will, when active, check if a Sectopod is near and if yes, and below it's max health, attempt to heal it.
• Thin Men use a spit attack occasionally. When the spit projectile hits something, it creates a poisonous cloud that lingers for a short while.
• Pretty much all actor properties have been rebalanced.
• Credits added.
• Aliens have been given Tag names for Target Spy.
• Various other stuff I can't remember right now

0.1: Initial version

Spoiler: Gameplay tips:

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• The aliens rarely drop their weapons and grenades when killed. Use the Arc Thrower to stun aliens that are low on health.
• This mod works really well with TargetSpy. Configure it so you see an alien's current health points, and if it's at or below 30, stun it!
• The Alt-Fire for the Blaster Launcher fires a homing projectile.
• Use the XCOMDoom options menu to disable the recoil effect of the Assault Rifle and LMG if you want.
• Keep moving! There are no hitscan enemies (save for the Sectopod's ray attack) but alien grenades and psi attacks can really ruin your day!
• You probably won't make it through the vanilla Doom 2 campaign with this TC, just load up Map13: Downtown, type IDFA and watch the chaos unfold!

[/list]

Spoiler: Credits:

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Sprites: Firaxis/XCOM 2012
Unreal Engine asset extraction: Gildor
Explosion A and B: RSSwizard
Explosion C-G: TNT Team/Nam
Plasma Bolt Projectile,
Blaster Bomb fragment: Raven Software/Heretic
Poison Spit Projectile: Monolith Productions/Blood
Poison Cloud Sprite: Bullfrog/Dungeon Keeper
Blood: Valve/Half-Life
Alien Summoning: id Software/Doom
Psi Seeker: id Software/Doom

Here's my feedback for the 0.1 version:

Weapons

Spoiler:

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General: They can be moved quite a lot closer to the center of the screen. The reloads don't need to be any smoother, but they could use being sped up quite a bit (Duke3D style). The actual XCOM sounds would be very nice to have (I don't think it's illegal to rip game sounds and use them for a mod, is it?). Depending on how "modern" you'd like the mod to feel, bullet casings/smoke/visual recoil could be interesting additions. Weapon pickups could use a healthy amount of ammo with them given that no aliens drop it, and pickups in general could be things like backpacks and whatnot with more than 1 clip per vanilla clip pickup, to balance it out. Removing weapon bob to prevent the edges of the weapon from being seen (and to make it feel a little more "tactical") would be nice.

Arc Thrower: Would replace the Chainsaw, just stuns aliens (deals a set amount of damage with a special drop set on a "kill" with it).

Pistol: Could be more accurate and less damaging. Needs to be higher up on the screen. This would be good as one of the player's starter weapons.

Shotgun: Would benefit from a more aggressive pump animation- currently the soldier barely moves it backwards. I know there's no Super Shotgun, but reducing this thing's damage and inaccuracy to be more in line with the single Shotgun would help. This could probably be found in standard Shotgun weapon spawns (I'd recommend placing dead XCOM or generic military soldiers in the spawner with the weapon, to explain why they're there- of course, with custom maps, you control where these appear, so that's not so much of a problem).

Assault Rifle: Pretty good, though I'd like a more accurate, less spray-and-pray weapon, it fits XCOM better (at least lore-wise). Starting the player with this and a Pistol (plus some grenades) would be pretty good.

LMG: I'd put this in regular Chaingun spawns, along with the chance for some ammo or a rocket launcher (i.e. on a dead Heavy). Could do with a heavier feel (shake a bit while firing, loud-ass sound, etc.) as currently it feels more like a battle rifle in comparison to the AR than the hulking squad support weapon it is.

Rocket Launcher: No real problems, though for a weapon that's quite a lot slower than the stock RL it seems too weak damage-wise.

Sniper Rifle: The bolt animation looks kinda strange, other than that I didn't have too many problems with it. I could see this appearing in Plasma Rifle spots, as you already have 2 automatics (AR and LMG).

Grenade: Would be a good addition. Alien nades would just be flat damage upgrades, but would probably be much rarer and only dropped by nade using aliens (I'd recommend making these inventory items, not weapons, to keep things simple and consistent).

Monsters

Spoiler:

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General: Could get a lot more blood particles and general gore during the death animations, as they are unusually clean ATM (the "clean" deaths would work just fine as "stunned" aliens with an Arc Thrower). The firing positions of the plasma bolts could be moved over the exact muzzle locations of their plasma weapons. Some of the aliens need resizing (e.g. Sectopods are bloody tiny, and Zombies seem kinda huge). Their actual EU sounds would be very nice.

Sectoid: I like this, don't recommend any real changes ATM aside from making the plasma bolt come out of the pistol. I'd have him replace the Shotgunguy too, but unlike the Zombieman replacers, shotgunguy replacing Sectoids would be able to "mindfray" the player (read: weakish long-ranged hitscan attack with a purple hue, representing them screwing with your head), using their pistols more often. I don't see how Mind Merge would work without a lot of ZScript magic, so best not to use it (unless it's Sectoids healing each other, which is very doable).

Thin Man: This alien could be scaled down a bit and could benefit from a stronger, faster-moving plasma bolt (seeing as how he has a rifle, not a pistol). He could perhaps fire more than one shot, or use his Enemy Unknown poison spit attack.

Outsider: Since he's in the Chaingunner slot- and his EU animation had 6 rapid fire shots- I'd recommend making him endlessly fire to be more of a challenge.

Drone: Could be slightly smaller; since it's weaker than vanilla Lost Souls, making it much faster and fire more often would help. If there were nearby Sectopods it'd be nice to see this thing heal them with a beam.

Chryssalid: I like this a lot, it's just fine.

Zombie: I think this should be slow, weak, and pathetic, but burst into a much faster-moving Chryssalid when killed, just like OG X-Com; hence, you would try to avoid them or at least mitigate how many you kill to get through your path. Could be a bit smaller too.

Floater: Needs to move MUCH, MUCH faster. Other than that, single shots would work.

Heavy Floater: Needs a speed boost and grenade attacks. Could fire 2-3 times.

Muton: I like the Revenant slot, but seeing as how these guys are the most common alien heavy infantry in EU, I'd recommend also putting a squad of 1-3 in the Arachnotron slot, and a squad of 3-5 into the Mancubus slot. They could fire three plasma bolts and throw grenades as a random special attack when the player is fairly close.

Muton Berserker: Fairly decent for a Hell Knight replacement, though it seems like just a much heavier Demon. Could get a "charge" special attack.

Muton Elite: Should throw grenades (much farther than Mutons) and fire bursts of Heavy Plasma fire.

Sectoid Commander: I think this one should replace the Arch-Vile; Ethereals IMO should be a monstrous threat comparable to a Spider Mastermind. Could buff all Sectoids around (make them shoot crazy fast and deal more damage). At longer ranges it would use a "mindfray" attack (read: Archvile style heavy hitscan damager with a purple hue), at close range it would panic and use its plasma pistol plus alien grenades.

Ethereal: Needs to be much stronger and more deadly; I also suggest mindfray here, plus summoning reinforcements. A single Ethereal would be a good Baron of Hell replacement.

Sectopod: Needs to be bigger. I love its missile attack, but its plasma attack is a bit rough around the edges, and the beam cannon has a tendency to totally miss a stationary player. Could be a great Cyberdemon replacement.

NOTE: Any "empty" alien slots would actually be very nicely papered over by just applying a squad of Mutons of varying size. They're a well-rounded enemy and I think it'd be fair to see a lot of them. If not, very similar variants (like Sectoid (Zombieman) -> Sectoid with Weak Mindfray (Shotgunguy)) would work well for this.

Player

Spoiler:

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General: Should be a bit smaller (towers over the vanilla Doom player).

It would be interesting to have "classes" similar to XCOM; you'd have the Support with lots of medkits (as an item), AR, and pistol; Assault, with shotgun, pistol, and grenades (maybe a flashbang too?), Sniper, with a sniper rifle, pistol, and medkit/other support item, and Heavy, with LMG, rocket launcher, and grenades. Or just Rookie, who just has his trusty rifle, grenades, and pistol, and probably no idea what he's about to face.

Ultimately I really like this and can't wait to see where it goes. Props to you for the fantastic monster and weapon rips.

Thank you very much for your detailed comments and critique. I took the time to write down my own thoughts.

Retraux Squid wrote:
They can be moved quite a lot closer to the center of the screen. The reloads don't need to be any smoother, but they could use being sped up quite a bit (Duke3D style). The actual XCOM sounds would be very nice to have (I don't think it's illegal to rip game sounds and use them for a mod, is it?). Depending on how "modern" you'd like the mod to feel, bullet casings/smoke/visual recoil could be interesting additions. Weapon pickups could use a healthy amount of ammo with them given that no aliens drop it, and pickups in general could be things like backpacks and whatnot with more than 1 clip per vanilla clip pickup, to balance it out. Removing weapon bob to prevent the edges of the weapon from being seen (and to make it feel a little more "tactical") would be nice.

The screen weapon placement might look different on different resolutions, I'm not sure. On my screen, they look good and have been positioned so to not show the edges on bobbing, but disabling weapon bob would probably be a good idea, as is screen shaking (I experimented with the A_Quake command but couldn't figure out how to make only the screen shake and not the player as well). "Ripping game sounds and use them for a mod" means redistributing material from third party, something that is specifically mentioned in the EULA. That so much sprites etc. from games get included in mods is more because these games are old and the right owners don't care anymore .

Retraux Squid wrote: Arc Thrower: Would replace the Chainsaw, just stuns aliens (deals a set amount of damage with a special drop set on a "kill" with it).

I have included the Arc Thrower with the current version (to be uploaded later), it works as I and you described, it deals special damage and if the aliens "die" from it they drop their plasma weapons. This mechanic would benefit from a on-screen health bar indicator for enemies to know when they are close to death so they can be stunned to get their weapons.

Retraux Squid wrote: Shotgun: Would benefit from a more aggressive pump animation- currently the soldier barely moves it backwards. I know there's no Super Shotgun, but reducing this thing's damage and inaccuracy to be more in line with the single Shotgun would help. This could probably be found in standard Shotgun weapon spawns (I'd recommend placing dead XCOM or generic military soldiers in the spawner with the weapon, to explain why they're there- of course, with custom maps, you control where these appear, so that's not so much of a problem).

The problem with the shotgun cocking animation is the model itself; the forward stock can only move a few real-worl inches before it clips into the receiver, I notices that but it's just the design of the weapon. In XCOM this isn't as apparent since the shotgunner does a fancy "one-hand-pump" animation with a lot of movement to both the weapon and the arm. I agree that is might be too powerful at the moment. Accuracy is actually slightly less than Doom's, but the spread is not limited to the horizontal plane.

Retraux Squid wrote: LMG: I'd put this in regular Chaingun spawns, along with the chance for some ammo or a rocket launcher (i.e. on a dead Heavy). Could do with a heavier feel (shake a bit while firing, loud-ass sound, etc.) as currently it feels more like a battle rifle in comparison to the AR than the hulking squad support weapon it is.

Yes, the sound could be better, maybe I can find something beefier. I thought of this as being similar to Opposing Force's M249 or Half-Life 2's aliens machinegun. Ammo should be kinda rare so it gets used only in dire circumstances, similar to the Plasma Rifle in vanilla Doom.

Retraux Squid wrote: Rocket Launcher: No real problems, though for a weapon that's quite a lot slower than the stock RL it seems too weak damage-wise.

Agreed, it needs more damage and bigger explosion.

Retraux Squid wrote: Sniper Rifle: The bolt animation looks kinda strange, other than that I didn't have too many problems with it. I could see this appearing in Plasma Rifle spots, as you already have 2 automatics (AR and LMG).

As with the shotgun, the bolt cycling animation is limited by the model; The bolt can't move back enough to fully eject and insert a round

Retraux Squid wrote: Grenade: Would be a good addition. Alien nades would just be flat damage upgrades, but would probably be much rarer and only dropped by nade using aliens (I'd recommend making these inventory items, not weapons, to keep things simple and consistent).

Good idea.

Retraux Squid wrote: General: Could get a lot more blood particles and general gore during the death animations, as they are unusually clean ATM (the "clean" deaths would work just fine as "stunned" aliens with an Arc Thrower). The firing positions of the plasma bolts could be moved over the exact muzzle locations of their plasma weapons. Some of the aliens need resizing (e.g. Sectopods are bloody tiny, and Zombies seem kinda huge). Their actual EU sounds would be very nice.

Agreed. I don't want to include seperate gory death sprites as that would mean a lot more tedious work so maybe some particle blood effects will have to do for non-stun death.

All assets in general are sized consistently to each other. However, seeing that these come from a game where they would mostly be seen from above, their vertical dimensions might be exaggerated. I thought about placing the spawn position of the plasma bolts over the muzzles but feared that it might lead to monsters firing at walls when they target the player. Some testing is in order!

Retraux Squid wrote: Sectoid: I like this, don't recommend any real changes ATM aside from making the plasma bolt come out of the pistol. I'd have him replace the Shotgunguy too, but unlike the Zombieman replacers, shotgunguy replacing Sectoids would be able to "mindfray" the player (read: weakish long-ranged hitscan attack with a purple hue, representing them screwing with your head), using their pistols more often. I don't see how Mind Merge would work without a lot of ZScript magic, so best not to use it (unless it's Sectoids healing each other, which is very doable).

I have become dissatified with enemy hitscan attacks (the Sectoid Commanders are more of a threat than I initially thought since I sped up their mindfray animation). I now aim to have them a "rolling thunder" type attack where a big "psi bolt" is fired and makes the ground under it explode.

Retraux Squid wrote: Thin Man: This alien could be scaled down a bit and could benefit from a stronger, faster-moving plasma bolt (seeing as how he has a rifle, not a pistol). He could perhaps fire more than one shot, or use his Enemy Unknown poison spit attack.

Spit attack is definitely planned, as is some puking for the zombie

Retraux Squid wrote: Outsider: Since he's in the Chaingunner slot- and his EU animation had 6 rapid fire shots- I'd recommend making him endlessly fire to be more of a challenge.

I haven't played XCOM in quite some time so you are probably right. I saw him as some sort of generic alien soldier but making him a rapid-firing monsters might also be fun.

Retraux Squid wrote: Drone: Could be slightly smaller; since it's weaker than vanilla Lost Souls, making it much faster and fire more often would help. If there were nearby Sectopods it'd be nice to see this thing heal them with a beam.

I was actually planning for them to heal Sectopods but couldn't figure out how to do it. So now they only revice dead aliens.

Retraux Squid wrote: Chryssalid: I like this a lot, it's just fine.

I plan to make them drop pieces of their armor upon death which act as armor bonuses for the player.

Retraux Squid wrote: Zombie: I think this should be slow, weak, and pathetic, but burst into a much faster-moving Chryssalid when killed, just like OG X-Com; hence, you would try to avoid them or at least mitigate how many you kill to get through your path. Could be a bit smaller too.

Hatching a Chryssalid is also planned, I will see if there's a special animation for that in the game files.

Retraux Squid wrote: Muton: I like the Revenant slot, but seeing as how these guys are the most common alien heavy infantry in EU, I'd recommend also putting a squad of 1-3 in the Arachnotron slot, and a squad of 3-5 into the Mancubus slot. They could fire three plasma bolts and throw grenades as a random special attack when the player is fairly close.

Good idea about the squads and grenades.

Retraux Squid wrote: Muton Berserker: Fairly decent for a Hell Knight replacement, though it seems like just a much heavier Demon. Could get a "charge" special attack.

A charge attack woudl be cool but then again, I don't know how to do it

Retraux Squid wrote: Muton Elite: Should throw grenades (much farther than Mutons) and fire bursts of Heavy Plasma fire.

I wonder, what kind of weapon should the Heavy Plasma be? a quick-firing plasma machinegun or a slow-firing cannon?

Retraux Squid wrote: Sectoid Commander: I think this one should replace the Arch-Vile; Ethereals IMO should be a monstrous threat comparable to a Spider Mastermind. Could buff all Sectoids around (make them shoot crazy fast and deal more damage). At longer ranges it would use a "mindfray" attack (read: Archvile style heavy hitscan damager with a purple hue), at close range it would panic and use its plasma pistol plus alien grenades.

I like the arch-vile replacement although I wonder if the Sec Com isn't too frail for that?

Retraux Squid wrote: Ethereal: Needs to be much stronger and more deadly; I also suggest mindfray here, plus summoning reinforcements. A single Ethereal would be a good Baron of Hell replacement.

Summin reinforcements is a cool idea.

Retraux Squid wrote: Sectopod: Needs to be bigger. I love its missile attack, but its plasma attack is a bit rough around the edges, and the beam cannon has a tendency to totally miss a stationary player. Could be a great Cyberdemon replacement.

Even bigger? I don't like the Sectopod at all, he indeed had trouble hitting things since the ray fires from such a great height.

Retraux Squid wrote: Should be a bit smaller (towers over the vanilla Doom player).

It would be interesting to have "classes" similar to XCOM; you'd have the Support with lots of medkits (as an item), AR, and pistol; Assault, with shotgun, pistol, and grenades (maybe a flashbang too?), Sniper, with a sniper rifle, pistol, and medkit/other support item, and Heavy, with LMG, rocket launcher, and grenades. Or just Rookie, who just has his trusty rifle, grenades, and pistol, and probably no idea what he's about to face.

I seem to remember that the XCOM sprites were scaled according the normal Marine player sprites, maybe my math was off or they just seem to be bigger since they are leaner overall?
Classes would be perfect for this mod but don't benefit much for longer campaigns, since progressing by way of finding and using new weapons is an important part and having a lot of these at game start would destract from that. Might work better for custom missions, though.

Retraux Squid wrote: Ultimately I really like this and can't wait to see where it goes. Props to you for the fantastic monster and weapon rips.

Thank you very much. New version is coming out soon, with all plasma weapons plus arc thrower (and hopefully grenades).

Cherno wrote:Thank you very much for your detailed comments and critique. I took the time to write down my own thoughts.

The screen weapon placement might look different on different resolutions, I'm not sure. On my screen, they look good and have been positioned so to not show the edges on bobbing, but disabling weapon bob would probably be a good idea, as is screen shaking (I experimented with the A_Quake command but couldn't figure out how to make only the screen shake and not the player as well). "Ripping game sounds and use them for a mod" means redistributing material from third party, something that is specifically mentioned in the EULA. That so much sprites etc. from games get included in mods is more because these games are old and the right owners don't care anymore .

Ah, that sucks with the EULA. I would suggest using the OG X-Com noises instead (the plasma gun especially would fit). I use a 1280x800 monitor (yeah, kinda old ) and my weapons are super far off to the right; I can still see them, but it seems a bit weird. If you could make the sprites extend beyond the screen, it would be easier to keep them from looking weird.

Cherno wrote: I have included the Arc Thrower with the current version (to be uploaded later), it works as I and you described, it deals special damage and if the aliens "die" from it they drop their plasma weapons. This mechanic would benefit from a on-screen health bar indicator for enemies to know when they are close to death so they can be stunned to get their weapons.

That's pretty cool! I think a health bar isn't really necessary; it can just have a unique damagetype (with aliens having a death.damagetype with a dropped weapon) and do a set amount of damage. Though a mechanic where they can shrug it off if they're not at low health, a la EU, would be cool.

Cherno wrote: The problem with the shotgun cocking animation is the model itself; the forward stock can only move a few real-worl inches before it clips into the receiver, I notices that but it's just the design of the weapon. In XCOM this isn't as apparent since the shotgunner does a fancy "one-hand-pump" animation with a lot of movement to both the weapon and the arm. I agree that is might be too powerful at the moment. Accuracy is actually slightly less than Doom's, but the spread is not limited to the horizontal plane.

Huh. You could have the weapon tilt back and slightly toward the center of the screen (so the pump is obscured) to disguise this, or maybe even the one-handed pump if you can manage it.

Cherno wrote: Yes, the sound could be better, maybe I can find something beefier. I thought of this as being similar to Opposing Force's M249 or Half-Life 2's aliens machinegun. Ammo should be kinda rare so it gets used only in dire circumstances, similar to the Plasma Rifle in vanilla Doom.

Sounds right. The M249 in Opposing Force is a great base for it, but that seems more powerful than the LMG at the moment.

Cherno wrote: As with the shotgun, the bolt cycling animation is limited by the model; The bolt can't move back enough to fully eject and insert a round

Huh, I thought the EU Sniper ejected a round in their animation? If all else fails, sprite edits or simply tilting the rifle back to obscure the poorly made bolt on the EU model would improve things.

Cherno wrote: All assets in general are sized consistently to each other. However, seeing that these come from a game where they would mostly be seen from above, their vertical dimensions might be exaggerated. I thought about placing the spawn position of the plasma bolts over the muzzles but feared that it might lead to monsters firing at walls when they target the player. Some testing is in order!

Right; the Thin Man towers over a stock DoomImp, where in EU he only seemed moderately taller than a human. That's not good for gameplay, since in MAP01 he can shoot the ceiling when he goes to attack. I looked at the sprites, and the Muton (for instance) was quite well proportioned (excellent sprite rip on that BTW), so I'm not sure if they're vertically exaggerated.

Cherno wrote: I have become dissatified with enemy hitscan attacks (the Sectoid Commanders are more of a threat than I initially thought since I sped up their mindfray animation). I now aim to have them a "rolling thunder" type attack where a big "psi bolt" is fired and makes the ground under it explode.

That sounds pretty cool.

Cherno wrote: I haven't played XCOM in quite some time so you are probably right. I saw him as some sort of generic alien soldier but making him a rapid-firing monsters might also be fun.

The Outsider would be a decent "generic alien soldier" (being a human-sized light plasma rifle using enemy)... if only that was the case in EU. In game, it manifests when you enter a UFO, and appears to be the "captain". There is only ever the one Outsider in a UFO, and it vanishes otherwise. It is quite murderous early game owing to having a LPR that deals much more damage than Sectoid pistols (represented by it firing 6 rapid bursts).
You COULD just make it a standardish enemy, but Mutons seem to fill that role already (having a well rounded arsenal of rifle and nades, and lore wise they're the principal alien heavy infantry); I think making the Outsider focus on fire rate above all else would make it a better fit for the Chaingunner slot.

Cherno wrote: I was actually planning for them to heal Sectopods but couldn't figure out how to do it. So now they only revice dead aliens.

The Sectopod could emit a 0-dmg invisible explosion with a special damage type; if the Drone was hit, it would switch targets to the Sectopod and fire a healing beam at it. This is how Brutal Doom makes monsters shoot at captured marines when the Doomguy approaches; the captured marine actor sees Doomguy, emits a "killme" type explosion, and any nearby monsters hit by it target the captured marine.

Cherno wrote: A charge attack woudl be cool but then again, I don't know how to do it

I know Project Brutality has Demons that do a charge attack; I think it involves lots of A_Recoil (a few normal ones to have it "rear back", and then lots of negatives to make it shoot forward). This would work just fine for the Berserker.

Cherno wrote: I wonder, what kind of weapon should the Heavy Plasma be? a quick-firing plasma machinegun or a slow-firing cannon?

I think alien weapons should have special niches compared to the ballistic weapons (kinda like how Hideous Destructor has them have special roles with the bullet-shooters being more reliable but less powerful). The Muton heavy plasma fires cannon shots, but the human-held one fires like an MG. I personally prefer the cannon type.

I think the plasma pistol would not need ammo but have slow moving shots, the light plasma rifle would be a general-purpose rapid-fire carbine with slower moving shots, the plasma rifle would be a semi-automatic with fast moving, powerful bolts (kinda like a battle rifle), and the heavy plasma would be an LMG-like cannon of a weapon.

Cherno wrote: I like the arch-vile replacement although I wonder if the Sec Com isn't too frail for that?

You could make it a squad spawner with a few other aliens; if it had major buffs to Sectoids, it could have a swarm of 8-10 around them (with no infighting between sectoids and commanders- for that matter, infighting should generally be disabled among aliens). Otherwise, I could see it having a Muton or Muton Elite bodyguard.

Cherno wrote: Summin reinforcements is a cool idea.

Since Muton Elites appear to guard the Ethereals on the Temple Ship, I would suggest reinforcing with periodic squads of those. Alternatively, it could summon roulette of enemies; random swarms of Sectoids, squads of Mutons, Elites, maybe a Sectopod if it was really evil.

Cherno wrote: Even bigger? I don't like the Sectopod at all, he indeed had trouble hitting things since the ray fires from such a great height.

Something like a seriously reduced version of the Spider Masterspark from Legendary Complex Doom might work (with a red beam). I have no idea how they pulled it off though...

Cherno wrote: I seem to remember that the XCOM sprites were scaled according the normal Marine player sprites, maybe my math was off or they just seem to be bigger since they are leaner overall?
Classes would be perfect for this mod but don't benefit much for longer campaigns, since progressing by way of finding and using new weapons is an important part and having a lot of these at game start would destract from that. Might work better for custom missions, though.

Could just make him a rookie starting with a pistol and AR, and maybe a grenade or two. This seems balanced enough, especially when considering aliens will have special attacks like poison spits (you'll need that AR early-game...)

Can't wait for the next version, really excited to see how the plasma guns will be like!

Retraux Squid wrote: Ah, that sucks with the EULA. I would suggest using the OG X-Com noises instead (the plasma gun especially would fit). I use a 1280x800 monitor (yeah, kinda old ) and my weapons are super far off to the right; I can still see them, but it seems a bit weird. If you could make the sprites extend beyond the screen, it would be easier to keep them from looking weird.

I'm sure it's part of prety much every game's EULA. Fortunately, there are free sounds available as you mentioned.

Retraux Squid wrote: Sounds right. The M249 in Opposing Force is a great base for it, but that seems more powerful than the LMG at the moment.

I gave it some recoil for now.

Retraux Squid wrote: The Sectopod could emit a 0-dmg invisible explosion with a special damage type; if the Drone was hit, it would switch targets to the Sectopod and fire a healing beam at it. This is how Brutal Doom makes monsters shoot at captured marines when the Doomguy approaches; the captured marine actor sees Doomguy, emits a "killme" type explosion, and any nearby monsters hit by it target the captured marine.

That's a neat technique but from what I understand the drone wouldn't stop healing the Sectopod until it is dead, which is the main difference from the monster killing captured marines in BD. Still, instead of them replacing regular monsters, I might have them spawn randomly near Sectopods and use them exclusively as healers since they are pretty weak anyway.

Retraux Squid wrote: I know Project Brutality has Demons that do a charge attack; I think it involves lots of A_Recoil (a few normal ones to have it "rear back", and then lots of negatives to make it shoot forward). This would work just fine for the Berserker.

Good idea. I will look into it.

Retraux Squid wrote: You could make it a squad spawner with a few other aliens; if it had major buffs to Sectoids, it could have a swarm of 8-10 around them (with no infighting between sectoids and commanders- for that matter, infighting should generally be disabled among aliens). Otherwise, I could see it having a Muton or Muton Elite bodyguard.

Making the Commander a support type would be cool but it also sounds like some pretty advanced coding

Retraux Squid wrote: Can't wait for the next version, really excited to see how the plasma guns will be like!

I have completed all plasma guns just today, but they need balancing and fine-tuning as they are pretty boring now. They use a common pool of "plasma ammo" which would make most of them obsolete once the more powerful weapons are found, kinda like Doom's pistol and chaingun. The Blaster Launcher is also incuded of course, it works just liek a rocket launcher right now for testing purposes but I plan to give it seeker missiles and a huge explosion of course with some whiz effects.

Next, I'll work on hand grenades for the player and aliens.

Drones could simply exclusively be healers, clearing their target after shooting. It would be cool to reprogram them via the Arc Thrower to become allied to the player like that one late game research project.

To compensate, you could edit the existing Lost Soul drones to be "combat drones" with an actual attack but no healing ability, or just put Floaters in that spot.

The commander could simply fire a spray of invisible actors out around it, which would cause sectoids to enter -fast mode or something. Either that or just summon lotsa sectoids all the time.

Can't say much apart from what has already been said; will look further for new versions

As for the weapon sprites: they look "cut" when I play in 16:9 aspect ratio. 4:3 looks fine. Try "force aspect ratio -> 16:9" in GZDoom video settings, and you'll see. Please, make it compatible somehow

^ I have started rendering the weapon sprites again with a different camera setup where the sprites have to cut off border. The autofire guns will also get some recoil effects (A_SetPitch and A_SetAngle).

One little setback I've experienced is that I can't find the frag grenade weapon model I'll have to find a substitute, luckily it's a rather generic item and doesn't even need any animations or viewmodels.

Still working hard on this mod. Tons of stuff has been added in the last days, and old things refined. All Plasma weapons are in, as are frag and alien grenades, which also get thrown around by certain monsters occasionally. Sectoid Commanders and Ethereal Elders have new Psi attacks, I'm still thinking of another one for the normal Ethereals. Sectopods spawn with two Drones now, and these Drones will periodically check for Sectopods in their vicinity and if there is one, the Drone will heal the Sectpod. Drones can also be reprogrammed if hit with the Arc Thrower and made to fight on the player's side. Zombies, when killed, burst into a shower of gibs and yellow pus and a Chryssalid hatches. Most armed aliens now shoot three-round-bursts from their plasma longarms every now and then. They all only drop their weapons when stunned by the Arc Thrower. There's still some stuff to do, like writing a support role for the Sectoid Commanders, A proper Ethereal (Elder) behavior so they spawn aliens to help them, and playtesting it all to find the right values for weapon damage and health pools.

New version 0.2 0.21!



xcom0.2.pk3
xcom0.21.pk3
Recommended with Target Spy!

Be sure to update your BAT files!

New stuff:

• Weapons:
  • Plasma Rifle
  • Heavy Plasma
  • Blaster Launcher
  • Frag Grenade
  • Alien Grenade
  • Arc Thrower
• Player Classes:
  • Generic (Pistol ony)
  • Assault (shotgun, pistol and frag grenades)
  • Heavy (LMG and rocket launcher)
  • Support (assault rifle, pistol and frag grenades)
  • Sniper (sniper rifle (duh!) and pistol)
    /list]
  Changelog for 0.2:
  • Plasma weapons completed
  • Killed zombies spawn Chryssalids
  • Yellow alien blood, and new blood effects
  • Arc thrower with stun mechanic
  • Player classes
  • Sniper rifle scope has been made smoother
  • New Psi skills and attacks for certain aliens
  • Changed Doom 2 enemy replacement
  • Sectopods fire a harmless red aiming laser right before their ray attack to warn the player. They also aim at their target instead of the general direction.
  • Mutons, Muton Elites and Heavy Floaters throw alien grenades occasionally. the player also has access to alien and frag grenades.
  • Muton Berserkers use a bullrush attack now
  • Re-rendered all HUD weapon with better bump mapping and changed camera settings so graphics aren't cut off.
  • Projectiles are fired from the muzzles of the guns, both for aliens and for the player HUD weapons.
  • New plasma projectile, using a recoloured Baron projectile.
  • Added trails for alien grenades and plasma bolts.
  • Most weapons automatically reload when the last shot in the magazine has been fired.
  • Destroyed Sectopods cause a frag grenade explosion
  • Sectopods will always spawn with two drones. These will, when active, check if a Sectopod is near and if yes, and below it's max health, attempt to heal it.
  • Thin Men use a spit attack occasionally. When the spit projectile hits something, it creates a poisonous cloud that lingers for a short while.
  • Pretty much all actor properties have been rebalanced.
  • Credits added.
  • Aliens have been given Tag names for Target Spy.
  • Various other stuff I can't remember right now
  
  Gameplay tips:
  • The aliens rarely drop their weapons and grenades when killed. Use the Arc Thrower to stun aliens that are low on health.
  • This mod works really well with TargetSpy. Configure it so you see an alien's current health points, and if it's at or below 30, stun it!
  • The Alt-Fire for the Blaster Launcher fires a homing projectile.
  • Use the XCOMDoom options menu to disable the recoil effect of the Assault Rifle and LMG if you want.
  • Keep moving! There are no hitscan enemies (save for the Sectopod's ray attack) but alien grenades and psi attacks can really ruin your day!
  • You probably won't make it through the vanilla Doom 2 campaign with this TC, just load up Map13: Downtown, type IDFA and watch the chaos unfold!

Hotfix 0.21:

xcom0.21.pk3

Fixed some errors with the player classes and super shotgun replacement.

So I'm playing this mod because I've been also side by side playing OpenXcom and its a blast using this map set

https://www.moddb.com/mods/x-coom-ufo-ue/#7145341

with this mod except that I get the MIB instead of sectoids coming at me.

The above map set works with regular doom, Brutal Doom, Project Brutality and Russian Overkill.

It just may be actor replacements to be fixed to make it work but so far, its still a blast.

At last a GREAT 3D FPS Doom / X-Com mashup for fans in us.

I can only suggest to keep at this and maybe expand the arsenal and monsters from other X-Com'ish or compatible games as well - Would love to go up against future TFTD type missions (maps) and monsters.

TFTD weapons and maps would be very cool as the underwater scenario is rarely used. However, I doubt it will happen since all weapons would have to be created from scratch.

I'm glad you found this TC to be fun and editiong the monster replacements is always possible since it's all in DECORATE code.

I wonder if the author of the maps and modules knows about this TC

The map author does know about your mod! He linked it in his comments...

Just gave it a run through nice job any chance of having a monsters only version of this?