scalliano's 667 Shuffle! - IT'S BACK!!

[supergoofy]

I would suggest for the original doom weapons and fist to include in your mod perkristian's Smoother weapon sprite animations: http://www.sendspace.com/file/4imi07

perkristian created the wad (pk_weapons.wad) and I think phi108 created the decorate code (pk_weapDECOR4.pk3) to make it work in zdoom.

[Moti]

Thanks for looking into these issues. I have some more to list.

-All of the Energy Cell Packs (that aren't dropped by monsters like Repeater Zombie and Thamuz) are replaced by Big Gasoline Canisters. All of them. I doubt it's supposed to be like this.
-As Vader stated, the Hellion is replacing the Archvile, but it is really weak and has like 70 HP. It would be better if it replaced the Imp instead.
-Hades Elemental sometimes seems extremely overpowered and unfair. It replaces Pain Elemental, but has 1400 HP, which is over 3 times the original HP. I think it's HP should be decreased a bit.
-Obituary issues. A lot of punctuation lacking in many items/monster kills, also Hellion and Diabolist have some seriously weird obituaries. "%o got was set ablze by a Diabolist". Got was? Heh.
-Pyro Demon is also an overpowered beast. Playing Map22 of MM2, I found two of them in a very close space and died numerous times. Also it has 2500 HP, which takes a long time to defeat, especially when you're encountering issue #1 (Energy Cell Packs lacking).
-As stated before, I don't like how the Zombieman Rifle has a better preference than a SSG. D:

That's it for now. If I find any more bugs or issues, I'll let you know.

[lzvk25]

I don't know if this affects somehow, in some monsters like the UnMakerZombie, I found code like the following :

Code: Select all

  XDeath:
    ZUNM O 5
    ZUNM P 5 A_XScream
    ZUNM Q 5 A_NoBlocking
    ZUNM RSTUV 5
    ZUNM W -1
  Raise:
    ZUNM KJIH 5
    goto See

Shouldn't there be a "Stop" just before the "Raise:" state ?

Code: Select all

  XDeath:
    ZUNM O 5
    ZUNM P 5 A_XScream
    ZUNM Q 5 A_NoBlocking
    ZUNM RSTUV 5
    ZUNM W -1
    Stop             // Is it 100% necessary to code this ?
  Raise:
    ZUNM KJIH 5
    goto See

I noticed this because, while testing some code, I changed the "-1" to "30" and the funny thing is that the monster became inmortal after being hit with a BFG. Most likely, I think this shouldn't affect as long as there is the "-1", but then again, maybe it needs the "Stop" anyway.

[lzvk25]

Another thing that helps a lot to find bugs is to make use of the indentations, for instance, in the afrit we have code like the following :

Code: Select all

actor Comet
{
Radius 6
Height 8
Speed 10
Damage 5
SpawnID 250
ExplosionDamage 80
ExplosionRadius 80
Scale .55
PROJECTILE
SeeSound "comet/launch"
DeathSound "comet/explosion"
Decal Scorch
States
{
Spawn:
COMT AAAABBBBCCCC 1 Bright A_SpawnItemEx("CometTail", 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 128)
Loop
Death:
COMT D 3 Bright A_SpawnItemEx("CometDeathGlow", 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 128)
COMT E 3 Bright A_Explode
COMT E 0 A_SpawnItemEx("CometDeath", 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 128)
Stop
}
}

This is very hard to read, specially with more complicated situation. So many times, you will have to fix what was coded by children, at least to be able to read it :

Code: Select all

ACTOR Comet
{
	Radius 6
	Height 8
	Speed 10
	Damage 5
	SpawnID 250
	ExplosionDamage 80
	ExplosionRadius 80
	Scale .55
	SeeSound "comet/launch"
	DeathSound "comet/explosion"
	Decal Scorch

	PROJECTILE

	States
	{
	Spawn:
		COMT AAAABBBBCCCC 1 Bright A_SpawnItemEx("CometTail", 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 128)
		Loop
	Death:
		COMT D 3 Bright A_SpawnItemEx("CometDeathGlowAF", 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 128)
		COMT E 3 Bright A_Explode
		COMT E 0 A_SpawnItemEx("CometDeathAF", 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 128)
		Stop
	}
}

Simple indentations do help a lot, but some people are so novices at programming that for sure they spend a lot more time than what is needed just to see what is happening.



Just a little tip from someone who has to deal with all kinds of programs, some of which were coded back in the '60's, just imagine, programs with 60,000 lines of IMS Cobol code with no indentation, structure, or whatever, and those programs are still running managing some of your bank accounts, and of course, they are full of bugs.... Nice isn't it ?

[scalliano]

FIRSTLY I WOULD JUST LIKE TO STATE THAT THE ONLY MODIFICATIONS I HAVE MADE TO ANY OF THE MONSTERS ARE CONCERNING ITEM DROPS. Anything else is an issue with how the monster itself was made available. I'll get around to cleaning up the obits and such, but that's not a priority right now.

@Moti: I'm already currently rejigging the spawns for better balance. I've also fixed the large cell ammo, that will be in the next release.

@lzvk25: I've noticed that too on some of the DECORATE lumps. Anything I've coded myself (Nightmare Imp, Flamer Zombie, for example) does have the proper indents, for the reasons you stated. I've fixed the Unmaker Guy, too.

[scalliano]

OK, new version uploaded. Hopefully this should correct all of the major issues:

- Cell Packs now spawn properly
- Unmaker Zombie's death state corrected
- Hellion now randomly spawns in place of the Imp
- Pyrodemon now randomly spawns in place of the Spider Mastermind
- Hades Elemental and Defiler now randomly spawn in place of the Baron Of Hell
- A few new monsters added: Grief Elemental, Plasma Elemental, Tortured Soul, Suicide Bomber, Superdemon and Plasma Demon
- Original monsters' spawn weights have been decreased, and medium ammo spawn weights have been increased slightly.

Keep the feedback coming!

[Moti]

- Hades Elemental and Defiler now randomly spawn in place of the Baron Of Hell
- A few new monsters added: Grief Elemental, Plasma Elemental, Tortured Soul, Suicide Bomber, Superdemon and Plasma Demon

Absolutely no sense. Defiler is a Pain Elemental replacement (and isn't that badass either), why is it replacing the Baron of hell?
Hades Elemental could be nerfed and kept as a Pain Elemental. How? Well... Less HP would be nice.

Grief Elemental? Never heard of this one. I'll check it out. And I hate the Suicide Bomber, oh well.
Will test this new version soon.

[scalliano]

Well, if the Suicide Bomber proves unpopular, I can get rid of him. Wasn't too sure about including him anyway.

I've given the Hades Elemental the same health as the Defiler and put them both back on the Pain Elemental's roster. The Grief Elemental is a new Pain variant. Less health than the other two but easily as vicious.

I will continue to update this, but the next version I upload will probably be the last for a wee while, as Threshold is about 75% complete and I want to concentrate on that over the next few weeks. I'll make the next update a substantial one, so there should be plenty to mull over.

[Moti]

Sure, thanks. I'd like if you'd move the Defiler back to the Pain Elemental slot though. And maybe the Hades Elemental, too.

[scalliano]

I've given the Hades Elemental the same health as the Defiler and put them both back on the Pain Elemental's roster...

o_O

[Moti]

I've given the Hades Elemental the same health as the Defiler and put them both back on the Pain Elemental's roster...

o_O

Oh sorry, I just somehow missed this sentence. My bad

[scalliano]

Right, new version uploaded with the aforementioned changes. Now has the Sniper Rifle, and I ended up ditching the Suicide Bomber as he started to do my head in This will be the last version for a few weeks as I'll be concentrating on other stuff, but since I'm a big PSX fan I've attached a little patch below which will allow the mod to be played with fenderc01's Playstation TC. I will still be checking for feedback, so if there are any more issues I'll do my best to address them. Enjoy!

[Moti]

Finished Memento Mori and now onto Scythe with this. Here's a few more bugs I found.

- Hand Grenade is pretty useless. It's range is very, very small, and is more likely to kill you than the monsters around.
- One of the Hand Grenade's frames has a similar frame to the mace sphere from Heretic. Try throwing a grenade and see how it strangely morphs.
- The Nightmare Demon (I think it's called that?) is spawned in place of an Imp, whereas it should be as the Demon.
- The Nightmare Demon's death frame is... weird. It freezes like 1 frame before it dies, making it have blood particles in the air whilst it's dead. It looks like this.
- The Infernal Spider has a small sprite clash with the Phantom's soul summon. Here's a picture on how it looks.
- Tornado Demon should have less HP.
- The Diabolist's attacks' damage should be halved if you're intending to keep it as an Archvile. It is super tough and damages you badly at sight, making it nearly impossible in tight spaces/sniping with a lack of ammo.
- Quad Shotgun is given without reloaded ammo. It's very annoying and if you just picked it up and there's monsters around, you're gonna lose plenty of HP until realizing you have to reload.
- The Dark Cardinal spawns a green cacodemon thing that's called "Paingasm". In it's obituary, it says "You were..." instead of "%o was...".

That's it for now, if there's any more I'll let you know.

[scalliano]

I'll look into the issues you mentioned and I'll see if I can sort out the Nightmare Demon. That's a weird one as he's not on the Imp's roster.

As for the hand grenades, just like every other shooter that has them, you need to hold in the fire button. The longer you charge, the further you'll throw it. Turns out the sprite is clashing with the Moloch's grenades - fixed.

Cannon shotgun now spawns fully loaded.

I'm going to temporarily remove the Phantom until I can find out what's causing the error messages in the console - this in turn should fix the Infernal Spider for the interim. I'll post that up later.

EDIT: Just sussed out the issue with the Plasma Demon. The sprite names are the same as the Dark Imp. This is now fixed.

[scalliano]

...the next version I upload will probably be the last for a wee while...

Turns out I lied. New version in first post.