Doomvengers: Earth's Weirdest Heroes (v1.4 10/23/2021)

[Captain Ventris]

Note: Trailer footage is super out of date.

Doomvengers is a shooty, stompy, crazy chaotic mess that's a blast in SP but is also geared towards effective Co-Op play (designed with a max of 8 players in mind, though it will work regardless). Each player class (used with necessary permissions from awesome gameplay mods put out by the community) has its own playstyle and rules, but is balanced out with the other classes. Doomvengers seeks to preserve the relative gameplay balance of your favorite levels (i.e. the parts you dread in Scythe 2 will be dreaded just as much) as well as providing options for customizing your experience, from a more traditional blastfest with the various classes to having more enemies than you can shake a stick at, and crazy bosses out for your blood!
The central balancing factors around which the varied arsenals in Doomvengers are generally based are Ammo-Efficiency and Time-Efficiency. Sometimes, a weapon that may be less ammo-efficient can save your butt by getting its job done faster, and other times you need to use an ammo-efficient weapon to ensure you've got enough bullets for later. Some weapons are best against bosses, others rely too much on AOE to do much against them, etc. Each and every weapon is intended to have a distinct use-case such that old weapons are not outmoded by new ones - there will ALWAYS be a reason to use each weapon, though the divide between usage cases varies a great deal between the classes. Each class is also intended to play quite differently, such that you will almost certainly discover a favorite.

I'm sure this sounds like a lot, but it really isn't - you can just jump in and start feeling things out for yourself easily enough with most classes (Possesso and Super Chicken definitely have a learning curve), and for the rest there's a big, detailed manual to help you along!

Possess Me by Aluqah is included in the download with minor modifications for neatness' sake.

With Xaser's permission, the necessary files for Zharkov Goes to the Store are included, but for good form, here is the original. Same with Style Mod, with WildWeasel's permission. Necrodoom and Parkour Mod are packaged with the Doomvenger Core files with Xaser's permission (Parkour Mod is entirely integrated with permission into Doomvengers). Super Chicken has been integrated into the main files (again with permission from the author), so you don't need to download it, but here it is if you're feeling feisty: Super Chicken.

The Load Order for the mod is: the mapset you're using, Necrodoom, Possess Me, Doomvengers.pk3, The two modules according to their numbers, then a compatibility patch if necessary.

Also note that ice-based attacks can cause an enemy to be slowed for a time, signaled by frosty vapors. Fiery enemies may be immune to slowing but take increased ice damage. Stronger enemies are more difficult to slow. Electric attacks can stun, signaled by exclamation marks. Again, stronger foes are harder to stun, though Cyborg enemies are more vulnerable to this than others.

Now, who are the Doomvengers?

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Necrosuit, from Necrodoom by Xaser
The Necrosuit is an assault exoskeleton developed for heavy-duty military operations. Loaded with weapon systems and gadgets, the Necrosuit was made in the eventuality that the UAC had another trans-dimensional incident. The Necrosuit is a high-health tank character, meant to absorb damage and attract enemy fire. Though he doesn't deal too much damage, he can painlock and tie up hordes of enemies easily with his plentiful ammo supply. He's slow, but stores items for use at his leisure, and can exit the suit, set it to detonate, and go fetch another one from the spawn point, making him insanely durable.

Style Guy, from StyleMod by WildWeasel
Style Guy is the premier operative of the Colonial Special Operations Executive. Having out-cooled the very concept of ammo, Style Guy's weapons function purely due to the immense cool factor he has garnered throughout his life. Though Style Guy's weapons have infinite ammo, their primary fire attack is pretty weak. However, each weapon has an altfire Style Attack that deals mondo damage, and uses Style Points as ammo. Style Points can be gained through some items, but primarily are dropped by dying enemies and disappear after a short time, meaning he has to keep moving and keep killing to ensure he has enough Style Points to deal with a big crowd or boss.

The Freerunner, from Parkour Mod by Xaser
Predictably French, the Freerunner has taken his beloved sport of Parkour to a serious extreme in the wake of the demonic invasion. Freerunner is a character built for speed and twitch reflexes, rewarding those things above all else. His weapons are versatile and excellent for reacting quickly to changing battlefield conditions. He is accurate and can deal out a fair amount of damage in a short time, and has the ability to pick and choose his fights due to his maneuverability. However, most of his weapons do require reloading, so it is important that a player keeps this in mind and paces their fights correctly.

Super Chicken, from the Adventures of Super Chicken by Xutawoo
Granted not only abstract thought, but also the comically unreliable energies of the cosmos, Super Chicken is a torrent of Sorcerous power. The ultimate glass cannon, Super Chicken is vulnerable but deals out ridiculous amounts of damage. They receive a random power through either breaking open monitors throughout the level, or receiving a new power automatically once they have killed enough monsters. These powers all work very differently and have very limited ammo, meaning Super Chicken will be frequently switching between various abilities to which they must adapt and keep themselves alive.

Zharkov, from Zharkov goes to the Store by Xaser
Zharkov is so very crazy that his very presence tends to destabilize reality around him. He's tough and his melee attacks regen his health, but he has to go all-in like the berserker he is to succeed. His weapons are unorthodox and severe, and his ammo is fairly limited, but when played correctly he is very dangerous. Due to Zharkov's nature, he frequently observes and is affected by things that no one else sees, as well as causing strange events observable by others. Some of these things are harmful, some are helpful, and most are just strange.

Possesso, from Possess Me by Aluqah
A side-effect of an experiment with Neural Web technology where being a Patrick Swayze fan was the control variable, Possesso is an aparition with the ability to hijack corpses. Though Possesso is weak when outside a host, he can use and abuse Demon corpses, pushing them to limits they couldn't reach while alive. As such, his power level and capabilities can change rapidly as he switches hosts, ranging from him stomping around as a Cyberdemon, to running for his life as a Former Human. Possesso survives on wit, grit, and mounds of corpses.

Downloads
Doomvengers Complete Version 1.4 (8/7/20)(Core file, Necrodoom, and Possess Me)
Download Hither

Doomvengers Manual: Last Updated 12/30/19
Download Hither!
Contains all gameplay info, how to run Doomvengers, and Credits.

Modules and Options

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Legions of Noobs
With Legions of Noobs active (via the Doomvengers Settings menu), Monsters will always be multiplied via a semi-random number range dependent on the player count. Weaker monsters will multiply into more of their kind compared to stronger ones. All monsters can walk through others of their species, but cannot shoot through them. So you won't have 50 Imps firing at you at once, but don't let 50 Pinky demons standing in one spot bite you. Pain Elementals multiply, but the Lost Souls they project do not. Free-standing Lost Souls already in the map will multiply, and Lost Souls cannot attack through each other so that they can resume the infighting that makes them such affable fellows to begin with. Cyberdemons and Spider Masterminds do not multiply.
Basically, you'll have loads more enemies to unload on, while still being able to use infighting tactics, and without the core gameplay changing to account for the 9 ranks of imps behind the front being able to shoot you. This can make even wads you've beaten dozens of times challenging all over again. The Highest difficulty, "Doomvengers", provides monster multiplication ranges higher than they normally would be for the number of players. Fair warning, this may make certain wads impossible in single player due to having more foes then bullets.

Tools of the Trade
To help cope with bosses, there are a couple very special items the Worm may see fit to leave around for you... This feature can be turned on or off in the Settings menu, and simply results in rare special items appearing alongside the normal stuff. There are 6 Tools in total.

Gunfinity War, v0.3
Download Hither!
Gunfinity War provides the option (Again, in the Settings menu) to swap out the normal enemies for a different or altered set. Currently, you can play versus the monsters of Valiant and Eviternity(against whom Possesso receives the correct Hosts), or altered vanilla monsters that mimic the behaviors of Doom64, with the addition of Nightmare Imps, Nightmare Demons, and the Mother Demon. Even with Gunfinity War loaded, you can switch it to Vanilla in case something ends up too hard or not to your liking mid-game.

Age of Villainy, v1.3
Download Hither!
Villains Guide and Credits!
Note: The manual has not been updated with the 4 new bosses. Sorry!
With Age of Villainy, there is a chance for any Cyberdemon or Spider Mastermind to instead be replaced by a more powerful foe, with twenty four bosses total. Villains are announced by a music change and their name and source appearing at the top of the screen. They are always more powerful then what they replace, but come in five power tiers of increasing rarity. These range from T1 bosses that are only marginally harder then the norm, to the super rare T5s which are obscenely powerful (though still beatable)! Each has a different set of possible music tracks to help you know how dead you are.
Villains have scaling health effected by the number of players in-game. This health scaling is more severe in Doomvengers difficulty. I strongly suggest checking out the manual when you encounter a boss, as many of them pack nasty tricks.

Compatibility Patches

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These will allow Doomvengers to function fully on whatever wad they are for, i.e. making sure each Module works, and that the classes work right in a given wad. I'm so not doing these for wads that too heavily alter gameplay. These are to be loaded after all other files.
There are two kinds of Patch, Major and Minor. Minor patches just port over some things from the native wad (like if there's one custom enemy or something), while Major patches tend to involve full-roster alterations and other such heavy lifting.
Patch for Beyond Reality Latest Version: 1.2
Download Hitler
Beyond Reality actually inspired me to make Doomvengers Compatibility Patches in the first place. Enjoy a battle with Darsycho's cast of weirdoes!
-Snazzy new title screen!
-All Doomvengers features and modules have been balanced around the cast of Beyond Reality.
-King Bloatous has substantially more health and takes 20% less Ice damage, and is immune to stunning and slowing.
-King Bloatous and the Giant Imps have more health depending on how many players there are.
-Maephistos and Fat Cacos have all the drops, etc. that the Bosses would normally have.
-Maephistos are more vulnerable to stunning than most bosses.
-Haunted Swords are immune to slowing and stunning.
-Barrelmen can spontaneously explode while stunned.
-Enemies drop the nearest equivalent corpse for Possesso when killed.

Patch for VALIANT/Sawdust Latest Version: 0.6
Download Hither
This file is to be used with the original version of Valiant, so it can be played with the set of monsters it was intended for. Also works with Sawdust since Sawdust is a pack of rejected Valiant maps and includes all the Decorate required.
-Snazzy new title screen!
-All Doomvengers features and modules have been balanced around the cast of Valiant.
-The Final Boss gains health per player in the game, and is immune to slowing.
-Yes, Masterminds are vulnerable to splash damage as they were in Valiant.
-Pyrodemons are immune to slowing, but take 20% more damage from Ice attacks.
-Enemies drop the nearest equivalent corpse for Possesso when killed.

Patch for PSX Doom TC Latest Version: 0.3
Download Hither
Now the Doomvengers can blast their way through the moody stateliness of the PSX Doom TC! *Distant eerie reverberations abound* Despite being universally slower and often therefore less dangerous, the Legions multiplication ranges are identical to those for the default PC monsters so as not to alter the difficulty of playing the PSX TC with a controller, since that's what the monsters were designed around to begin with.
-Snazzy new title screen!
-All Doomvengers features and modules have been adapted to the PSX Monsters.
PLEASE NOTE: that if you are using the customizer, you have to edit PSXLOAD to include the proper Doomvengers files in its load order. The line below contains the exact text to add to the end of the load order in the GAMEINFO lump:

Code: Select all

, "xa-necro.pk3", "possesme.wad", "Doomvengers.pk3", "1 Doomvengers Age of Villainy.pk3", "Doomvengers PSX TC.wad"

With that added to PSXLOAD.pk3, running the PSX DOOM batch file that comes with the TC will be sufficient to run Doomvengers in PSX Doom correctly. Also note that standard HUDs are not displaying correctly, though full screen HUDs are working.

Patch for CQ3 Latest Version: 0.4
Download Hither
-Snazzy new title screen!
-All Doomvengers modules and features have been adapted to work on CQ3. Possession does NOT have custom hosts, sorry. But markers denoting the monster host he will be awarded are left behind by fallen Flemoids.

Patch for Eviternity Latest Version: 0.1
Download Hither-All Doomvengers features and modules have been balanced around the cast of Eviternity.
-The Final Boss gains health per player in the game.
-Arachnotrons indeed have the correct projectile!
-Enemies drop the nearest equivalent corpse for Possesso when killed.

Patch for UAC Ultra Latest Version: 0.6
Download Hither
DECORATE by Scalliano for his Realm667 Shuffle mod.
-The Haymaker is fully supported, but drops no corpse for Possesso. The Haymaker is vulnerable to Possesso's Supremacy ability.
-The final boss has more health, with some added per player in the game.

Patch for Doom 2 The Way iD Did Latest Version: 0.2
Download Hither
DECORATE by Beed28 for his ContraDoom. Used with permission. Purely for the satisfaction of drowning in Gargs and having a full Doomvengers battle with the vicious Dopefish.
-Adds support for the secret level enemies.
-The Dopefish is treated in all respects like a boss.

Patch for Deus Vult II Latest Version: 0.2
Download Hither
DECORATE by Beed28 for his ContraDoom. Used with permission. For those tasty Asian-themed levels and fully hilarious throwdowns in the latter levels.
-Adds support for the Afrit and Evil Cleric.
-Afrits are immune to slowing, but take 20% extra damage from Ice attacks. Afrits are also vulnerable to Possesso's Supremacy ability.

Patch for Doom 64 in Doom 2 Latest Version: 0.1
Download Hither
-Adds support for Nightmare Imps and the Mother Demon.

Patch for BTSX Episode 2 Latest Version: 0.2
Download Hither
A very minor thing for a very minor purpose, but hey. BTSX is good enough to keep things balanced as intended.
-Adds support for the Zombieman variant that doesn't drop ammo.

Be sure to run Doomvengers on the latest stable version of ZDoom or GZDoom!

Additional Credits:
-Mor'Ladim for Swarmer
-DavidRaven for Airstrike Marker
-Salahmander for the Chaos Sphere
-Captain Toenail for the Giant Bat
-Doomedarchviledemon for the Devil Worms

[HexaDoken]

I request adding Zharkov to the roster.

[Captain Ventris]

Oh shooooot, son! Knew I was forgetting someone!

...there's gonna be a lot of Xaser classes in this, huh?

[Gothic]

what about "the Ranger" by Terminus?

[Captain Ventris]

I'm gonna be wanting an inherent ridiculousness for classes to add, such as the Necrosuit's car-alarm beeper and general over-heavy-metalness (as a bottom line). Seriously, it's tooooo much! Also a definite change in gameplay style should be present.

[wildweasel]

If you're going to be adding Stylemod Guy to this mod, you might want to toss some of the cheesier stuff - like replace the Stylish Shades item with an actual sprite instead of leaving it as the hacky Textures thing.

[Jimmy]

What about Othal and Ezhek?

[Captain Ventris]

If you're going to be adding Stylemod Guy to this mod, you might want to toss some of the cheesier stuff - like replace the Stylish Shades item with an actual sprite instead of leaving it as the hacky Textures thing.

Pffffft those shades are the BEST...I'll do it if someone knows where to find a sprite of some sunglasses.

I do like the weapons and such, though. It's got... STYLE.

Might use Psyguy as the skin for Style Guy if Xaser lets me.

What about Othal and Ezhek?

I thought about it, but they are so frikkin' complicated that it would be weird to put them in there with the others, who are relatively plug-and-play. It's a whole leveling system that's just way out of the mindless dakka festival that I want this to be. For the same reason I won't be adding Psychic.

I AM considering adding in Aluqah's "Possess Me", though. Could be fun to have along with the others, and definitely a departure from normal gameplay. In co-op, he could be a good friend to have. "You go in first, you have an extra face."

[wildweasel]

Might use Psyguy as the skin for Style Guy if Xaser lets me.

Maybe the "Weasel" skin in ww-nazis would be preferable...though it kind of sucks a bit, you might want to fix it up. =P

[Zero X. Diamond]

If you're going to be adding Stylemod Guy to this mod, you might want to toss some of the cheesier stuff - like replace the Stylish Shades item with an actual sprite instead of leaving it as the hacky Textures thing.

Pffffft those shades are the BEST...I'll do it if someone knows where to find a sprite of some sunglasses.

Duke Nukem 2 had a pair of shades as a points item. Having just looked at the sprite, though, it might be a little bit unsuitable for use in a Doom mod.

[Captain Ventris]

Might use Psyguy as the skin for Style Guy if Xaser lets me.

Maybe the "Weasel" skin in ww-nazis would be preferable...though it kind of sucks a bit, you might want to fix it up. =P

Well that works. Now I need a skin for the Parkour Guy. Zharkov has a custom skin, and he's crazy enough to THINK he's wearing armor, so that works.

The inclusion of Zharkov sort of makes this whole mod some sick version of St. Elsewhere, doesn't it?

[Captain Ventris]

Version 0.15 is now out, and introduces Style Guy. Sprite set pending, particularly since it isn't recolorable. Get it from the first post, like before.

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Bug Fixes:
-Fixed Megasphere sprite issue
-Fixed Super Chicken being able to pick up Rage Batteries
-Fixed Super Chicken being able to pick up Backpacks

Gameplay Changes:
-Added Style Guy.
-Made the Super Chicken monitors -SOLID so that levels such as HR2 Map05 that start you on top of a weapon won't trap you.


Necrosuit:
-Now starts at 200 health and armor.
-Slowed down the Necro Suit. He lumbers now, and strafes even slower.
-Significantly reduced weapons damage.


Style Guy:
-Exists now.

[Nash]

I would have loved to see PsyGirl in here, though I understand that this is just technically difficult...

[Captain Ventris]

Oh, with enough patience/bugging DavidPH, I could do it, but I already stated my reasons for not including Psychic a couple posts above. An Omega/Psychic semi-RPG Superpack would be interesting, haha

[Sgt Dopey]

I'm getting this error on start up:
Script error, "Doomvengers.wad:NECROATE" line 7:
Replaced type 'NecroPlayer' not found in NewNecroPlayer

I am using GZDoom revision 1415