Hearts of Demons - BARON [1.1.0] 7/29/22

[Conprime]

The HUD doesnt appear for me. Im only using that mod and GZDoom.. help?

Make sure you adjust your HUD Screen Size to 11. That's the only available, visible HUD.

You know, i think DBZ style on the Baron: Hell's second strongest goatman there is, i think that might cool. Voted.

Ok I am just dumb lol. I saw the thing about having issues about the hud

[Captain J]

Glad now can see the HUD. Tho would be nice if this mod could have some alt HUD with simpler and compact design.

[The_BloodyCrow]

Hello. Loving the mod, but there's a compatibility issue.
one of the mods recommended to be run alongside this one, Brutal doom monsters/bdmonsters, is causing a very annoying graphic glitch when used with this one. Whenever something catches fire or a similar effect is active, it becomes literally eye searingly bright. blocking a large portion of the screen and making playing very obnoxious due to the overdose of shiny effects. When either mod is run by itself this graphic glitch does not occur. Attached screenshot should show what I mean (shown is the aftereffect of a exploding barrel I spawned via console).

[Brohnesorge]

Yeah its a sprite naming conflict. I apparently have the same naming convention as BDMonsters. I'll get it fixed before the next update, if its not what I really REALLY hope it isn't.

In other news, I have two things: One, I'm finally ready to announce what is coming next to Baron!
0.10.0 is gonna see some pretty major, and possibly controversial, changes to the mod as a whole. A LOT of the mod is being simplified and streamlined. What does this mean? Well...here's an overview of some of the changes being made...

Code: Select all

-Necromancy spells are being removed
-Spell Strikes are being removed
-Weapon Enchantments will now just be alt-fires instead of a toggle
-Extra weapon functions are being removed
-Spell casting is being simplified to just Fires/Alt-Fires instead of individual hand casting
-Rebalancing to everything to be weaker overall

Why? Well, simply put, as cool as a lot of these features were, I felt they really only served to bloat the mod and make the experience a lot more complicated than it needed to be, and more complicated than I ever intended it to. A lot of it was just features and systems for the sake of features and systems. So I'm trimming it down to be a much more focused mod, with a much lower entry point. A lot of stuff was also just unmaintainable, which causes the future of the mod to suffer. I'm expecting some backlash, for sure, and the current version with all the stuff will be backed up and available for those who want it, but above is the direction the mod is going in now. I expect it to be out in a few weeks.

Two is a Help Wanted ad. One of the things I'm doing is redesigning all the guns to be more consistent with each other, and I'm looking for someone to bring those designs to life! Unfortunately, our previous spriter has moved on from the community, so wish him well on his endeavors. This does leave a hole in the development team I'm really hoping to fill; I have zero artistic talent of my own, and have neither the time nor energy to learn, with doing all the other stuff and other mods and whatnot. So if you are interested, or know someone who might be interested, hit me up either here or on Discord!

Thank you, and keep me posted.

[Brohnesorge]

[Someonewhoplaysdoom]

Its kinda sad to say goodbye to the Apex inmolate shockwave and the Azazel "rifle". But otherwise the changes for the version looks really cool. This don't feel like is a really downgrade, but all looks with a good sense of balance of the systems. It looks fun and you're still overpowered.

[Jayrassic Park]

Agreed. The Azazel had no point to it after after you get everything else in the arsenal, except maybe having missiles on rapid fire. Half the spells I also did not use because they were either so situational, or weren't much more useful than spamming rockets.

[Meme_Believer]

The hud doesn't seem to appear at the bottom no matter what I do. I saw someone else's comment saying to turn the size to 11, but my version of gzdoom only reaches 8.

[Captain J]

Messages, Consoles, Status Bar, Fullscreen HUD and Alternative HUD all reach 8 because it would get much bigger if it had like 11 limit. On my end, the HUD appears just fine with User Default Scale on Fullscreen HUD.

Maybe it's because the resolution? Mine's 2400x1350. And i think the logo is rather big for the version 4.5.0's menu screen.

And Heavy Machine Gun looks way too HD compare to other weapons, Hard to aim with throwing a boulder and i can't do Defile spell(because of balancing i guess?) on Corpse props!

[Venetin]

So I wanted to post my opinion here because I see you're very keen on getting feedback. Some may agree, some may not, and what I'll say is not to sound negative, but rather give insight to what made BARON special.

I fell in love with this mod back sometime between beta 11 and beta 12 when ICARUSLIV3S's video came out. Maybe it's just me when it comes to this mod, but that window of BARON's development was when the mod really shined for me. Hell, if I had the option to go back and download that specific version, I would. The sprites were consistent and equally charming, the spells, while some not as usable in certain WADs, had a wide range of ways to expel rage at the other demons both creatively and effectively, the weapons all had some wicked personality, and I especially loved the wind-up for the Type 95, and the mod even scaled rather nicely despite having all that content to offer and making you a full-on war machine.

The ease of the mod came from how effective the *player* could utilize their spells and weapons and not just plainly given to you. I can respect your decision on truncating a lot of BARON down to make it more lean and straightforward, but I also personally feel like it's lost the point just a bit. iirc the whole point was you were an ancient Baron of the old ages, a magician far, far more skilled than any other Baron or Arch-Vile that existed, even a spell writer yourself to an extent, and even then, weaponry was an advantage at your disposal. The sheer insanity of all those things combined, and the creativity of thinking, "Oh, I can ENCHANT it, too," or, "Hahaha, I can put a SPELL in this Autocannon" just dripped personality.

What you do with this mod is ultimately up to you, as it's yours (obviously), and maybe there's something about it you know that I clearly don't, who knows?

[Brohnesorge]

First I want to open by apologizing that I haven't been nearly as attentive as I usually am. I won't go into details (this is not really the place) but life has been busy and difficult and I've been focused both on other mods and life shit (i.e. getting engaged). But let me thank everyone for their continued support, feedback and attention even in my...hiatus, of sorts.

Now let me reply specifically to some peeps!

Messages, Consoles, Status Bar, Fullscreen HUD and Alternative HUD all reach 8 because it would get much bigger if it had like 11 limit. On my end, the HUD appears just fine with User Default Scale on Fullscreen HUD.

Maybe it's because the resolution? Mine's 2400x1350. And i think the logo is rather big for the version 4.5.0's menu screen.

And Heavy Machine Gun looks way too HD compare to other weapons, Hard to aim with throwing a boulder and i can't do Defile spell(because of balancing i guess?) on Corpse props!

4.5.0 changed a lot of the menu scaling stuff, and I'm not 100% what I can do on my end to fix it. I've noticed it too, but its not something I consider super important to dive into.
Also, eventually, I plan on doing a redraw of all the sprites so they are all consistent with each other, at some point down the road. For now, weird wacky res inconsistencies with the weapons sprites is just something we'll all have deal it. It bugs me too, and its in the pipeline to get "fixed", I just have other things I want to do first. Boulder aiming is intentionally difficult to do, but I have gotten a lot of complaints about it, so I will do something to make it a little easier. And not being able to Defile corpse props is 100% intentional, as editing props like that is outside of the scope of the mod. Defile is getting removed anyway.

So I wanted to post my opinion here because I see you're very keen on getting feedback. Some may agree, some may not, and what I'll say is not to sound negative, but rather give insight to what made BARON special.

I fell in love with this mod back sometime between beta 11 and beta 12 when ICARUSLIV3S's video came out. Maybe it's just me when it comes to this mod, but that window of BARON's development was when the mod really shined for me. Hell, if I had the option to go back and download that specific version, I would. The sprites were consistent and equally charming, the spells, while some not as usable in certain WADs, had a wide range of ways to expel rage at the other demons both creatively and effectively, the weapons all had some wicked personality, and I especially loved the wind-up for the Type 95, and the mod even scaled rather nicely despite having all that content to offer and making you a full-on war machine.

The ease of the mod came from how effective the *player* could utilize their spells and weapons and not just plainly given to you. I can respect your decision on truncating a lot of BARON down to make it more lean and straightforward, but I also personally feel like it's lost the point just a bit. iirc the whole point was you were an ancient Baron of the old ages, a magician far, far more skilled than any other Baron or Arch-Vile that existed, even a spell writer yourself to an extent, and even then, weaponry was an advantage at your disposal. The sheer insanity of all those things combined, and the creativity of thinking, "Oh, I can ENCHANT it, too," or, "Hahaha, I can put a SPELL in this Autocannon" just dripped personality.

What you do with this mod is ultimately up to you, as it's yours (obviously), and maybe there's something about it you know that I clearly don't, who knows?

I really appreciate your concerns, and want you to know the decision to cut so much down was not made lightly, and was done as carefully as possible preserve the spirit and progression of the mod. That said, it was done based on my perspective, so it might be different from what others might consider. So I want to try and ease any potential concerns as best as I can.

So I want to say thank you for your kind words. It really means a lot to me to see people enjoying the mod, and hearing from people who are playing regardless. I want to say I'm trying to keep a lot of those wide variety of options and progression by having spells grow more with Baron Level, and adding more effects to Max Level to help make up for the loss of stuff like Necromancy. I can't remember what all features I talking about in that video, and what ones I've only talked about in Discord, but another thing to make up for not being able to put spells in the Azazel is now its new Magic Shot scales and gets new effects based on what spells you have learned. Its not quite the same, I know, but the old system was too clunky to execute for my tastes, and very VERY hard to work with code-wise. TBH, a lot of my decisions were made based on stuff code-wise and me wanting to return to simplicity. Old Baron was getting too complicated for my tastes! That isn't to say I don't like complicated mods, I like HDest a lot and am making a new mod in the same vein, but it isn't what I wanted for Baron. That said, I do want to remind people reading this that Apex and Enchants are not removed, just simplified to a single button press instead of being a mode toggle.

I dunno if I'm getting my point across effectively or if I'm being too long-winded or vague, but I hope you understand what I'm trying to say.

EDIT: I also want to say that progress on the new update is behind, so more apologies for that. Said life circumstances and I've been more focused on Revenant and the new mod lately.

[Venetin]

First I want to open by apologizing that I haven't been nearly as attentive as I usually am. I won't go into details (this is not really the place) but life has been busy and difficult and I've been focused both on other mods and life shit (i.e. getting engaged). But let me thank everyone for their continued support, feedback and attention even in my...hiatus, of sorts.

I really appreciate your concerns, and want you to know the decision to cut so much down was not made lightly, and was done as carefully as possible preserve the spirit and progression of the mod. That said, it was done based on my perspective, so it might be different from what others might consider. So I want to try and ease any potential concerns as best as I can.

So I want to say thank you for your kind words. It really means a lot to me to see people enjoying the mod, and hearing from people who are playing regardless. I want to say I'm trying to keep a lot of those wide variety of options and progression by having spells grow more with Baron Level, and adding more effects to Max Level to help make up for the loss of stuff like Necromancy. I can't remember what all features I talking about in that video, and what ones I've only talked about in Discord, but another thing to make up for not being able to put spells in the Azazel is now its new Magic Shot scales and gets new effects based on what spells you have learned. Its not quite the same, I know, but the old system was too clunky to execute for my tastes, and very VERY hard to work with code-wise. TBH, a lot of my decisions were made based on stuff code-wise and me wanting to return to simplicity. Old Baron was getting too complicated for my tastes! That isn't to say I don't like complicated mods, I like HDest a lot and am making a new mod in the same vein, but it isn't what I wanted for Baron. That said, I do want to remind people reading this that Apex and Enchants are not removed, just simplified to a single button press instead of being a mode toggle.

I dunno if I'm getting my point across effectively or if I'm being too long-winded or vague, but I hope you understand what I'm trying to say.

EDIT: I also want to say that progress on the new update is behind, so more apologies for that. Said life circumstances and I've been more focused on Revenant and the new mod lately.

I absolutely respect your decisions. And life stuff I definitely understand, so please, take the time you need to sort out those things, because a healthy life comes before work (so I believe anyway). As for the work you're doing to streamline the magic insanity down, Perhaps I'll end up liking the idea now that you describe it more clearly, especially with the ease of use. As with coding, I have a feeling knowledge like that via your experience with the mod is going to be beneficial for others who want to make their own. Otherwise, thanks for the reply! I'll definitely still find time to try out 0.10 when it comes out..!

[Brohnesorge]

WOWEE, we finally did it. 0.10.0 is now released!

---

///--------///
///GAMEPLAY///
///--------///
-Spell casting remade. Now is just Fire to Cast, Altfire to Apex Cast, Reload to cycle forward, Zoom to cycle back
-Gun handling updated. Now just Fire to shoot and Altfire to Enchanted Shot on all guns
-Defile, Hydra and Autogenesis spells removed
-Spell Strikes removed
-Apex casting is no longer a toggle
-Enchantments are no longer a toggle
-Soulgem Fragments can now spawn over Runes you already own
-Soulgem Fragments can now spawn over Spells you already own
-Added toggles for spells spawning
-Added toggles for Runes spawning
-Max overheal amount reduced to 3000 from 9999
-Fragments required to assemble a Soulgem increased to 5 from 4
-Barrel damage lowered slightly
-Backpacks now have a reduced chance of being dropped from enemies. Does not effect map spawns.
-Soulspheres now have a reduced chance of being dropped from enemies. Does not effect map spawns.
-Megaspheres now have a reduced chance of being dropped from enemies. Does not effect map spawns.
-Soulgems now have a reduced chance of being dropped from enemies. Does not effect map spawns.
-Soulgem Fragments now have a reduced chance of being dropped from enemies. Does not effect map spawns.
-Runes now have a reduced chance of being dropped from enemies. Does not effect map spawns.
-The Baron now has 50% resistance to Small Arms. This is meaningless...for now.
-The Baron now has 25% resistance to Bullets. This only effects DRLAMons and Colorful Hell

///-------///
///WEAPONS///
///-------///
-Claw & Punch animations tweaked
-Claw & Punch attacks faster overall
-Claw Fury attacks now do bonus damage based on Baron Level
-Claw Carnage damage increased to 80-160 from 60-120
-Claw Carnage attacks now deal bonus damage
-Claw Carnage attacks now set enemies on fire when you have the Apex Rune
-Claw groundslam base damage reduced to 80 from 160
-Claw groundslam base radius reduced to 64 from 128
-Claw Fury groundslam damage reduced to 120 from 240
-Claw Fury groundslam radius reduced to 64 from 192
-Claw Carnage groundslam damage reduced to 160 from 240
-Claw Carnage groundslam radius reduced to 128 from 256
-Claw Carnage groundslam now sends out a weak fire wave when you have the Enchantment Rune
-Claw rock lift damage changed to 64-128 from 128
-Punch base damage increased to 120 from 80
-Punch Fury damage increased to 180 from 120
-Punch Fury does bonus damage based on Baron Level
-Punch Carnage damage increased to 240 from 120
-Punch Carnage now does bonus damage
-Punch Carnage is now explosive when you have the Enchantment Rune
-Spell Casting animations updated
-Flare damage updated to 32-64 from 10-80
-Flare now shoots 3 balls at Level MAX
-Apex Flare is now known as Shock
-Shock added. Does triple damage, is faster, doesn't explode and penetrates enemies it kills with less than 150 HP
-Shock shoots 3 balls as Level Max
-Incineration base damage updated to 64-128 from 60-120
-Incineration charge 1 damage updated to 96-192 from 80-160
-Incineration charge 2 damage updated to 124-256 from 120-240
-Incineration charge 3 damage updated to 152-304 from 160-320
-Incineration charge 4 damage updated to 240-480 from 200-400
-Incineration charge 4 explosive damage increased to 448 from 384
-Incineration charge rate reduced
-Incineration charge level and charge rate is now tied to Baron Level
-Incineration can be charged up to an extra level at Level Max. Level Max does not do direct damage, but sucks in enemies and can light them and the ground on fire
-Apex Incineration is now known as Smite
-Smite added. Limited range ramming punch that explodes on enemies. Range increases with Baron Level
-Immolation range reduced
-Immolation damage reduced
-Immolation effect area reduced
-Immolation is now cast from both hands, doubling the effect
-Immolation cost scales with Baron Level
-Immolation does fully effect on BOSSes at Level Max
-Immolation sets enemies on fire at Level Max
-Apex Immolation is now know as Wrath
-Wrath added. After a short delay, showers the area around you with lightning bolts. Range and bolt count increase with Baron Level
-Catastrophe casting time increased
-Catastrophe casting time reduced at Level Max
-Catastrophe recovery time scales with Baron Level
-Catastrophe meteor sprite updated
-Catastrophe meteor delay reduced slightly
-Catastrophe now summons 3 meteors
-Catastrophe meteor damage reduced to 800-1600 from 1225-3500
-Catastrophe meteors are now RIPPERs
-Catastrophe impact zone damage inceased to 2560 from 1000
-Catastrophe secondary impact zone damage added
-Catastrophe meteor now sets the ground on fire on impact
-Catastrophe meteors now have a delay before detonation
-Catastrophe meteors now detonate after impact and set the ground on fire
-Apex Catastrophe is now known as Armageddon
-Armageddon added. Call forth the end of the world
-Armageddon casting time scales with Baron Level
-Slot 3 Belial Flak Cannon no longer spawns over the Shotgun
-Slot 3 Belial Flak Cannon shard damage changed to 10-20 from being velocity based
-Slot 3 Belial Flak Cannon shards no longer lose velocity as they travel
-Slot 3 Belial Flak Cannon recovery time increased slightly
-Slot 3 Belial Flak Cannon flak bomb removed.
-Slot 3 Belial Flak Cannon Enchanted Shot added. Mid range delayed cluster blast
-Slot 4 GAU-19/A Enchanted Shot added. Does reduced damage but lights enemies on fire
-Slot 4 GAU-19/A fuller auto removed
-Slot 4 M2HB Enchanted Shot added. Does reduced damage but lights enemies on fire
-Slot 5 Moloch Rocket Multi-cannon multifire mode removed
-Slot 5 Moloch Rocket Multi-cannon napalm bomb removed
-Slot 5 Moloch Rocket Multi-cannon rate of fire reduced slightly
-Slot 5 Moloch Rocket Multi-cannon fire updated. Spead napalm and lights enemies on fire
-Slot 5 Moloch Rocket Multi-cannon Enchanted Shot added. Sets enemies in area on green fire
-Slot 6 Azazel Magic Autocannon now spawns over Plasma Rifle spawns
-Slot 6 Azazel Magic Autocannon now uses unique ammo
-Slot 6 Azazel Magic Autocannon ammo modes removed
-Slot 6 Azazel Magic Autocannon sprites updated
-Slot 6 Azazel Magic Autocannon alt-fire updated. Now does a Magic Shot that does increased damage based on Baron Level. Having Incineration lets you charge the shot, Immolation gives it piercing and Catastrophe makes it explosive.

///------///
///SOUNDS///
///------///
-New sounds for Apex casting
-Added a cast fail sound
-Updated ground slam sounds
-Updated various casing sounds
-Updated footstep sounds
-Updated landing sound
-Fixed various sound peaking and overlap issues

///----///
///MISC///
///----///
-Crosshairs added to all weapons
-Added toggle for extra berserk effects
-Added toggle for screen quake effects
-Added toggle for recoil
-Added toggle for screen flash effects
-Updated various decals
-Overheal is now visible on HUD
-Updated spell and ammo icons for HUD (Thanks HyperUltra64!)
-Cleaned up various spries
-Added flavor text to locked door messages
-Added Doom 2 ending text
-Tweaked various flame effects
-Added new flame sprites
-Casting animations updated and rune effects added
-HUD redesigned slightly to make what you have more clear...hopefully
-Updated barrel VFX
-Various explosion VFX tweaked
-Various item VFX updated
-Added more screen tips
-Gameplay tips are green, lore bits are gold
-Various screen text updated to be easier to read

This is the so called "Remake" update. So here is a short version of all the changes

Code: Select all

- Necromancy removed
- Spell Strikes removed
- Magic is now just Fire, Alt Fire, Reload and Zoom
-- Fire casts spells
-- Alt Fire casts Apex spells 
-- Reload cycles forward
-- Zoom cycles back
- Guns are now just Fire and Altfire
-- Fire shoots
-- Alt Fire magic shoots if you have the Enchantment Rune
-- Azazel can magic shot without the Rune

Anyway, have fun and let me know if you run into any problems.

[Someonewhoplaysdoom]

WOWEE, we finally did it. 0.10.0 is now released!

This is the so called "Remake" update. So here is a short version of all the changes

Code: Select all

- Necromancy removed
- Spell Strikes removed
- Magic is now just Fire, Alt Fire, Reload and Zoom
-- Fire casts spells
-- Alt Fire casts Apex spells 
-- Reload cycles forward
-- Zoom cycles back
- Guns are now just Fire and Altfire
-- Fire shoots
-- Alt Fire magic shoots if you have the Enchantment Rune
-- Azazel can magic shot without the Rune

Anyway, have fun and let me know if you run into any problems.

So Azazel is gonna stay on Play? Neaat. I want to play this again with the update, I think this mod was one the first ones I tried when I downloaded Gzdoom

(maybe to finally getting my revenge on that dumb slaugtherfest 2012) :3 :3

[Ahriman]

Hello!

I registered specifically to write here about this mod, sooo... Hi to the forum I guess.

Allow me to start by saying that this is by far my favourite Doom mod. I've always wanted something of the sort, to take control of a big a** demon and go wreck stuff. You're doing magnificent work and I hope you keep up with it!

That said, I registered because I have a few things to say regarding the new update.

I really like the changes to the spell system. People have already written it before me: the old apex immolation shockwave will be missed but overall changes to spells are in plus. You've literally removed the spells that I never ever used (except hydra on Hell Revealed map 32, but that's a single case in a sea) and you've fixed the gripe I had with the spell switching system, so all in all massively in plus.

Weapons however..... I find it a mixed bag.
I'm neutral towards Azazel, whatever you do with it, I'll withold any judgement until it is all polished.
Gatling definitely in plus, it used to have basically 4 firing modes which I found redundant. Now with less powerful normal and more powerful enchanted it is just right. The only problem I have is that in enchanted mode it flashed the enchantment rune every time it shoots, which is to say: at an epyleptic rate. Maybe you could think of a fix to only show the rune on the first shot of the burst, or even remove this effect altogether. It is annoying. Not game breaking, but annoying.
Rocket launcher I think I'm okay with. I think you merged all 4 firing modes into 2 quite neatly. It's fine as far as I'm concerned.
Shotgun... oh my god the shotgun. It used to be my favorite weapon but now... I'd love to test it out but I can't. The game for some reason crashes when I try shooting in an enchanted mode.
No idea what happened, I'm not savvy enough with crash reports. But even now I can tell that either enhanced shot or grenade mode is gone, and I'll miss it terribly. I'd love to see shotgun be in its old form, but I guess it can't really be done with the current global changes.
I ran it normally on GZDoom, with no other mods unlocked except good ol' test map wad, I hope you could try to help with this issue? I'll be surprised if I'm the only one with the issue.

Cheers anyway and good luck with the mod!

Edit:
After writing this post, I also found that the bull charge from immolation gives me similar (if not the same) crash, but only when it connects with something big. Wall or Mancubus for example.
If I charge and nothing bigger than an imp gets actually hit it's fine, but the moment it connects solidly with something, I get a crash.