[Hexen] The Ranger - 12/15/2011 Video + /idgames link!

[TerminusEst13]

Oh, cool. I didn't know there was still interest in this.
I better push this out, then. This is the Release Candidate version. Assuming nobody finds any more major bugs or there's no more major problems, after this version I'll finish up the Ranger's player sprites and put it on /idgames. If you have any suggestions, criticisms, complaints, or whatever, now would be a really good time to mention them, please.
Wow, my first actual release. Kind of weird! After so many private projects, now something I can really call my own.

http://www.multiupload.com/BW18XR74BU - The download.

CHANGELOG:
1: The Ranger can no longer accidentally drop his class. That was a weird glitch.
2: The duration for the Icon of the Defender has been decreased slightly, and the Buddha code has been removed. While an interesting little concept, it was too easy to swap between hubs while it was in effect and get the Buddha code eternally.
3: The Scrapbox spikes no longer hang in the air after impacting Slaughtaur shields, Stalkers, Disciples, or some other things.
4: The magazine of a weapon is no longer refilled upon picking it up again.
5: The Godcannon stops its winding when its ammo is already full.
6: Flechette caltrops no longer last forever, and instead fade out after about half a minute. This should keep DM players from spreading caltrops across the entire map and winning without fighting.
7: Flechette visuals tweaked. Now it should look a little prettier.
8: Scrapbox reload time quickened slightly.
9: Dumped Ironsheath mag graphic made longer and thinner, to match the gun graphic.
10: Flechettes no longer hurt you when thrown while in Godcannon's Turret Mode.
11: Godcannon's shots no longer commits friendly fire in co-op.
12: Script-tweaking to allow multiple Rangers online to run different ACS scripts at the same time.
13: Tweaked MapInfo a bit to be more like actual Hexen.
14: Slightly increased the holstering speed of the Scrapbox.
15: The Scrapbox, when out of ammo, now draws and holsters with the pump in, instead of magically having the pump jut out.
16: Removed ThruGhost for the Scrapbox's spikes. Not sure why it was there.
17: Players who play with auto-aim on won't find their Scrapbox or Godcannon shooting in a nice neat line anymore.
18: Sounds added to the Godcannon and Scrapbox when their shots impact.
19: Converted almost all .wavs to .oggs for a smaller .wad filesize.
20: Scrapbox now spatters SOME sparks/debris, instead of none at all. Drastic reduction last time somehow meant zero were coming through at all.
21: Added GLDef entries for the Godcannon's fire. Now they should light up darker areas.
22: The Godcannon's fire now has prettier trails behind it.
23: The other classes can no longer shout the Ranger's battlecries.
24: Fullscreen players rejoice! The fullscreen HUD has been modified in ZDoom to work properly with the Ranger's weapons.
25: Testing and damage comparison between classes has revealed the weapons are quite overpowered in damage-to-mana ratio. The Ironsheath now takes double the amount of mana when reloading, the Scrapbox triple.
26: The Scrapbox's reload system was deeply fucked. It can no longer can reload infinitely when it's mag isn't empty, and no longer gets a full magazine from even just one single mana.
27: Enhanced the readme. Truly an important addition to this changelog.

[TheDarkArchon]

Check your SBARINFO: The ZDoom version has an inproperly definied deathmatch condition near the top.

[TerminusEst13]

Whoops. Accidentally put an extra comma there. Funny that such a simple typo can bork things.

Fixed and re-uploaded. Please re-download and try it again.

[wildweasel]

Awesome. Will try this once I get my main machine back up.

[Xaser]

Hmm, after running a few more tests, I'm not sure that the Ironsheath needed an ammo decrease. Shot for shot, it's comparable to the Serpent Staff in damage, and the Ironsheath's inherent qualities (more accurate but slower when standard firing, quicker but less accurate when fanning) balance it out well against the other classes' second weapons, I think. Scrapbox is fine, I think, but I need to play some more first.

Speaking of accuracy, could the Ironsheath's possibly be buffed up just a bit? I keep finding myself unable to pick off Afrits from a distance, which IMO seems like the best draw for the class.

[TerminusEst13]

Thank you very much for looking it over.

Hmm, after running a few more tests, I'm not sure that the Ironsheath needed an ammo decrease. Shot for shot, it's comparable to the Serpent Staff in damage, and the Ironsheath's inherent qualities (more accurate but slower when standard firing, quicker but less accurate when fanning) balance it out well against the other classes' second weapons, I think. Scrapbox is fine, I think, but I need to play some more first.

Good point, I'll change it back to one mana.
Mana balance was mostly based off a series of tests where I'd take the classes respective weapons and use them against ten helpless Ettins one at a time on the middle difficulty, noting how many shots it took to fall them. Several hundreds of Ettins were grievously wounded in the gathering of information.
I thought the Ironsheath was more like the Frost Shards in power, but now that I look over the numbers again, it actually seems right in the middle between the Serpent Staff and Frost Shards. Scrapbox should be fairly balanced, its kill-tally is right up there with the Hammer of Retribution, which has the same mana cost, though the Hammer is admittedly much longer ranged.\

Speaking of accuracy, could the Ironsheath's possibly be buffed up just a bit? I keep finding myself unable to pick off Afrits from a distance, which IMO seems like the best draw for the class.

Will do. The Ironsheath's normal fire is supposed to be super-accurate, and I thought a width/height variance of 2 would be accurate enough while still maintaining a quote-unquote "realistic" level of variance. Apparently not! Bumped down to 1.

[Xaser]

Cool! That should work just nicely, from the sounds of it. Looking forward to the next version.

[Doomer_1996]

I think that the nails from the scrapbox are a bit too big for gun itself, dunno, maybe a bit strange?Sorry for it, but i think i just might have played too much Quake before it :S and the nails are triangular spikes.That's pretty much it, think of this like a small suggestion.

[MartinHowe]

Hmm, no Westinghouse 440 or #4 cartridges, then?

[TerminusEst13]

Afraid nothing of the sort, no. Just balls of steel lead.

Also, assuming nobody notes any more major problems, full release will probably be by the weekend.
(First mod or no, half a year is way too goddamn long to make four weapons...)

[JimmyJ]

Eagerly awaiting it! You think half a year for four weapons is too much, at least you don't work at my pace. One incomplete weapon every few months that I never do anything with!

[TerminusEst13]

(Color washed in the preview thumbnail for...some reason. The video doesn't actually look that garish)

And here it is.
Wow. My first published mod, finally finished. Just...wow.
I feel like there's something I should say. But, well, here it is. I'm sorry that it took so long, but here it is. Please enjoy it.

Thank you to everyone interested in following this. My next project will have to involve a tighter leash, time-wise.

http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/?id=16660 - The download.

---

1: Ironsheath's accuracy for standard firing buffed a bit.
2: Ironsheath's mana cost for reloading halved, back to previous builds.
3: The skin is finished! Woohoo! Now you can play online and not be a shapeshifter!
4: Skin's XDeath has the location of the feet fixed. Now it doesn't look as awkward when you splatter to pieces.
5: Claw combos heavily tweaked. Now the differences between the power, speed, and normal combos are more pronounced, the damage values are significantly more balanced, and everything flows more smoothly.
6: The Godcannon no longer spawns overlapping multiples of itself when set up. That was a weird glitch.
7: The player can no longer run around with the Godcannon in Turret mode when using Boots of Speed and Wings of Wrath at the same time.
8: Player height and view-height more in line with other Hexen chars.

[TerminusEst13]

Probably not worthy of an update post, so sorry if this is unneeded (I am clueless how this "release process" actually works!), but it's up on /idgames now.
Download links changed to reflect it.

Now to figure out what to work on next.

[amv2k9]

So I finally got around to playing this more and I have to say I like it.

But the reloading presents something of a problem in the Sacred Grove secret map. Both the Ironsheath and Scrapbox take so long to reload that the map spawns Ettins faster than you can put them down, and if you take too long to kill them, you "fail" the map and it starts spawning an infinite amount of Chaos Serpents.

[TerminusEst13]

Thank you very much. I'm glad you like it.

And aaahhh, I'm sorry to hear about that. I had a lot of problems with that map, so I tried to buff the Claws and Caltrops to accommodate it.
On the fourth/Dungeoneer difficulty the Power combo usually takes out an Ettin clean, and the Caltrops are supposed to help to continue dealing damage while reloading...but it's possible that I didn't quite make it as useful as I thought.
If you're still having trouble, please let me know, I'll see if I can do something else.