[WIP] Blood Dragon (Now with Strife Support!)

[Zhs2]

I know it might be a stupid question but if the bloom effects are the problem have you consider to play WITHOUT bloom?

I haven't even tried this mod yet, so the question is moot. Unless xenoxols is playing with some sort of bloom, I was commenting solely on the screenshots; also, I don't think based shader DLLs affect HUD sprites? If so, fair enough. Until then, my opinion is that this mod looks pretty ugly and I don't even want to try it based on that.

[xenoxols]

They do affect HUD sprites, and you could play with little or no bloom.
EDIT: You have to add a GZDoom section in QeffectsGL for it to affect HUD weapon sprites. I don't think it affects the HUD itself.

[xenoxols]

Screeenshots now have more reasonable bloom.

[amv2k9]

Okay, played the Strife version and there are a lot of problems:

-You don't have a modified STRFHELP ACS lump. The script contained within manages several things that are needed for Strife to work correctly, such as implementing Strife's unique linetypes and swapping out skies after the defeat of the Programmer. Most importantly, however, is that this script manages the opening of the door to the Entity's Lair, the final boss of the game. Strife's Sigil is both weapon and key; only with all five pieces in player inventory can you open the door. If you're not giving the player an item after the defeat of each Alien Spectre that this script can check for, Strife cannot be completed. Included in the attachment is an uncompiled STRFHELP lump for you to examine and edit. The only lines you have to worry about editing are 104, 113, 121, 178, 244, 366, and 394. I've put comments on those lines to explain what needs to be changed. Your replacement for the Sigil pieces doesn't have to be a weapon; as long as it inherits from Inventory and you can carry 5 at max, it'll work.
-Each of the Alien Spectres need to be modified as well. First off, you need to replace their hardcoded death action function, A_AlienSpectreDeath, with an ACS script that can run all of the functions A_AlienSpectreDeath accomplishes, which is quite a bit. Most of it is very important, such as giving quest items, printing logmessages to the Communicator, lowering floors, etc. Without this, Strife can't be completed. Included in the attachment below is an uncompiled version of the ACS script for you to examine and edit. The only line you have to worry about editing is 63, and there's a comment there to explain.
-You're missing a modified MAPINFO lump that has the 'redirect' property specified for MAP03 and MAP07. Without this present, after the defeat of the Programmer, you'll never be able to see the Abandoned Front Base (MAP30) or get back in to the New Front Base (MAP10) once you exit it for the first time. Without the latter, Strife cannot be completed. What you need to do is edit the Programmer actor and have it, upon its death, give the player something that the redirect property can check for:

Code: Select all

ACTOR BDProgrammer : Programmer replaces Programmer
{
 ConversationID 95
 DropItem "WeaponThatReplacesSigil"
}

Example of redirect in action:

Code: Select all

map MAP03 "The Front Base"
{
 next = "MAP04"
 sky1 = "SKYMNT02"
 music = "D_DANGER"
 cluster = 1
 noallies
 redirect = "WeaponThatReplacesSigil", "map30"
 slideshow = "Inter_Strife_MAP03"
}

-Unless I'm mistaken, you don't have any weapon with +SPECTRAL on it. This is what allows the Sigil to kill Alien Spectres, who are otherwise invulnerable to damage. Unless the player has access to a weapon with +SPECTRAL on it by the time they fight the first Alien Spectre, Strife cannot be completed. For weapons that fire projectiles, put +SPECTRAL on the projectile. For weapons that use hitscans, put +SPECTRAL on the puff that the weapon generates. For weapons that use rail attacks, I'm not sure. Putting +SPECTRAL on the weapon itself might work, but I'm unable to test that at the moment.
-Your ammotypes, and possibly other actor types as well, don't have ConversationIDs specified, which means they cannot be bought from vendors.
-Ammo that you intend to make buyable from vendors can't be RandomSpawners; those won't work correctly, since the actor itself must be placable into player inventory.
-You don't have any modified dialogue scripts, which means players won't be able to tell what they're buying.
-Strife's playerclass has a lower MaxStepHeight than Doom's. This means that in Strife, your new playerclass can walk over stuff that you wouldn't be able to in vanilla Strife; the console Rowan stands at near the start of the game, for example.
-A bunch of errors related to misspellings of actors, actors not being defined, actors being defined more than once, actors having invalid states... All of these can be seen in the console log upon starting a game.
-Strife's armors aren't replaced and the replacements are missing their sprites.
-The minimalist HUD could use some icons for the numbers being displayed onscreen.
-I don't know if you intend to use the BPUFA0-D0 sprites, but they're Doom-paletted and won't look right in Strife.
-While this isn't a problem per se, the preferred method of adding playerclasses is not through the KEYCONF lump but through the MAPINFO lump, with the PlayerClasses and AddPlayerClasses properties. PlayerClasses is used when you want to override any existing player classes, and AddPlayerClasses is used when you want to add additional player classes to any that are already defined. The MAPINFO alternatives were made to provide better compatability with mods intended to be used with other mods. Example:

Code: Select all

gameinfo
{
 ...
 PlayerClasses = "RexColt","Spider"
 ...
}

Some tips:
-If you intend to replace the Acolytes, make sure to give them the proper ConversationIDs, as an Acolyte in MAP18 drops a key that you need to complete the game, and the drop is actually performed through the map's dialogue script and not through the actor's DropItem property, because that actor class needs to spawn that key only on that particular map.
-If you intend to replace the Acolytes, leave the AcolyteBlue class alone. Governor Mourel's mission to get the coupling, if performed the 'wrong' way by attacking the first coupling you find in the tunnel beneath the game's starting point, results in a group of AcolyteBlues being spawned around the City Hall ruins, and the player is then tasked with killing them all. Replacing that class means the map can never tally up your kills of the AcolyteBlue that its checking for, and so the mission, and by extension Strife itself, cannot be completed. I assume this is fixable by editing the map itself, but I wouldn't know how to go about doing it.

[xenoxols]

Thanks, although I already knew most of these things. Although thanks for the advice for the stuff I didn't. Also I didn't know that I had defined the player class in KEYCONF, that was just me being lazy and not double checking I guess.

[Zhs2]

That is a useful reference post.

Now, I did give this mod a try. The weapons don't actually glow like they do in the screenshots, and you could've said so! Then again, I find that minorly disappointing because the new screenshots look tolerably glowy. Some other things I noticed:
- The animation on the Fazertron is a bit much, especially that it plays every time you select the gun.
- Zooming is slow. Being able to cancel it by holding the button is weird because you have the potential to flash the screen between the normal frame and the scope.
- The Galleria is repeatedly printing a blank message to my console on its idle frame.
- The Galleria's fire effect is also unusually strong for its weapon class, though not at all unusual because the projectiles are rippers. Arced correctly, and from the right height or range, the Spider Mastermind can be killed in two shots. (For that matter, I'm just a little disappointed that the Galleria isn't a real shotgun. The best feature was maximizing the number of barrels!)
- The noise made by casings repeatedly hitting the floor is a bit much, especially that they all sound the same. I... don't remember hearing casings in actual Blood Dragon.
- You pick up a lot of ammo for everything, considering the relative power of the weapons. I'd have to say the Fazertron is probably the most "balanced" gun, but that fits pretty much in line with Blood Dragon's feel. (Though, usually I just ignore the AJM9 and go Recurve Bow. The AJM9 isn't so worthless here in this mod.)
- The Killstar is pretty cool, but basic right now. Can't wait for the special effects.
- Like above, I see replaced blanks like Lost Souls and Megaspheres are probably in the works too.
- That is a huge statusbar when stretched.

Overall, this is pretty amusing for a once-off run. Keep up the good work!

[xenoxols]

Thanks, although I did tell you you need QEffectsGL for stuff to glow(bloom) IN GZDOOM PRE-2.x. I'll probably cut down on ammo, and nerf the Galleria(which has a temporary sprite).

[amv2k9]

That is a useful reference post.

I've been working on something for the Tutorials section that will, once it's completed, cover everything to know about making weapon mods specifically for Strife. It'll need Strife mapping info as well; somebody else'll have to contribute that as I don't know the first thing about mapping.

[Abba Zabba]

I must say that I like this. The weapons are quite powerful; the monsters are largely pushovers, even the interesting custom ones. They should probably get a health buff, or inversely, give the weapons a bit less damage.