[UPDATED February 6, 2012]: new versions for both mods released. The usual links below still apply! See last post for a bit of detail on updates...
Hi everybody,
another year has come, and here we are again... With a couple brand-new weapons/gameplay modifications!
* A little preface... *
When I was finished with the first release of the Salvo Jettison mod, Chronoteeth contacted me for a little "challenge". Basically, we would supply each other a set of resources (sprites, sounds, etc.) to be turned into a full-fledged modification. I got from him the resources he prepared for an old TC called "Polaris", which eventually never saw the light of day... What you see here are the results of my participation in this little challenge, as the final outcome of a couple ideas - suggested by Chronoteeth as well - that found their way in these modifications.
* The main release *
Polaris - The Gift (http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=16676)
In this modification, you impersonate either one of two soldier classes prepared by one brand new UAC subsidiary called "Polaris".
The company focuses mostly - but not exclusively - on cryogenics-based weapons, and started creating a brand-new army of soldiers, namely "Rangers". Unfortunately, no way had yet been found to guarantee perfect thermal isolation for their "coolant gel" pods (acting as the fundamental fuel for many of their mightiest, cryogenics-based weapons): as a consequence, cases of frostbiting started to occur among the ranks of the best trained rangers, up to the point that the company decided to develop a new prototype (and army) of android soldiers - aptly-called "Cyberians" - that would not have suffered fom low temperature issues at all...
The above rant is there only to introduce a small gameplay trick: if you play as a Ranger, you'll have better agility, but you'll also suffer from "cryophobia". When you are carrying too much coolant gel ammo, watch out for the gauge at the bottom of the screen - if it fills up completely, you'll start to slowly lose health up to frostbiting, so try to guard its level by finding thermal patches (obtained by killing zombies) and/or consuming most of your coolant gel ammunition!
On to the weapons roster:
Slot 1
- Steel Claw: your basic melee weapon. Can be comboed, but most of all, heavily boosted with a berserk pack: you'll appear as having more than two arms when attacking then!
- Shovel: powerful one-shot melee; time the swing correctly, and you can take a demon down with a single hit.
Slot 2
- Power Handgun: your trustable, not-so-weak pistol. Quite accurate, and good for anything up to imps.
Slot 3
- Dispersion Shotgun: obtained by rearranging together two double-barreled classics, this one is a four-barrel shotgun that fires in two rounds. Exploit the short-timed bouncing ability of its "dispersion pellets" to spray your opponents around corners!
Slot 4
- Stake Gun: your first coolant-gel based weapon - basically, an ice-spike machinegun that has decent rate and magazine capacity. Ice spikes tend to push away opponents quite easily, so make the most of it.
Slot 5
- Flaregun: a versatile weapon! Once you hit an opponent, the flare keeps burning and tearing it until it either exhausts, or engulfs the victim in flames. Or fire towards a wall or floor to have the flare rapidly deploy on ground, to light up the surrounding area.
- NitroLance Assaulter: a crazy grenade launcher thing, allows you to propel its so-called "nitrocubes" in rapid succession - but beware, these ones have a very erratic/bouncy behaviour...
Slot 6
- Marksman Rifle: the name says it all. But to exploit its power, you'd better enter the appropriate stance (with altfire): this way, you get a zoomed view, and roughly four times the power, at the cost of seriously-impaired movement.
- Vitrificator Rifle: another cryogenics-based weapon, this one can turn your opponents into statues of glass - or more concretely, into Your Own Personal Defense Barrier (TM). Too bad ArchViles can still see you through...
Slot 7
- Avalanche: a top-tier minigun that fires, uhm, explosive slugs. That is, watch'em fall down fast with this one...
- Blizzard: literally enough, this cannon can vomit coolant gel on your foes at an impressive rate, creating a nice snowstorm effect... Very handy also when you need to get rid fast of an excessive quantity of coolant gel.
Slot 8
- Glacier Bombs: they look like grenades, 'cept that they create a deadly cloud of freezing smoke when deployed. These are great for clearing out overcrowded areas, especially when you still haven't found any slot 7 weapon.
- Laser Tripmines: once deployed on ground, these mines create a traversal laser field and wait for it to be interrupted. Once a monster crosses the line, it's most probably gone (not counting the nice X-shaped explosion sequence ensuing afterwards).
The obligatory screenshots roundup (not much significant, as usual...
):Spoiler:Expect a few little extras in the inventory and enemies department, as usual (as you may have guessed from the screenshots).
So, what are you waiting for? Try it, and leave your comments/suggestions/criticism in the thread...
But please, only one thing: don't tell me the mod is cool.
* The bonus release *
X-Marines (http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=16677)
When I started creating the "system" for Polaris (that is, the combination of various effects such as the barrel replacement, blood/gore system, vanilla monsters redefinition, etc.) I wanted to show off a preview to Chronoteeth, but had no weapon ready, or even planned! So I went a bit nuts and decided to create an "appetizer" mini-mod that would have exploited such base. After playing it, however, I decided to keep this mod too, by later modifying it to make it sufficiently standalone and distinguished from "Polaris".
The mod more or less reproduces the vanilla weapons of DOOM, albeit with variations, sometimes major, sometimes less apparent. The main peculiarity being the possibility to again choose from two classes, the "Veteran" or the "Privateer" - each one using the same weaponset, but in a personal way.
The Veteran is mostly versed for (and thus, most effective with) traditional firearms - he makes great use of bullet ammo, but he's barely acceptable with hi-tech weapons.
The same can be said for the Privateer, in a specular way...
Give it a go, it's a nice/arcade-style diversion from vanilla anyway!
Screenshots, again:
Spoiler:
* Bottom line *
Special thanks to my friend Chronoteeth for support, resources, ideas and collaboration!
He's doing a very good job with his own entry in our little "challenge", be sure to check it out: http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=31223 (for EDGE)
Find all of my old stuff here: http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index. ... asc&page=1
