Balmung - Full Metal Guardians [0.1 Preview]

[Hetdegon]

I starting toying with zscript a bit ago and decided to do something with it.



It's still VERY early and rough, but I decided to jump the gun and start posting here in order to keep myself motivated to continue working on it steadily.

This is pretty much a port of an RPG I was developing, but due to shenanigans with the engine I decided to move the entire thing to gzdoom.

Mission statement:
The point of this mod is to create a different sort of experience, using the power of zscript to create things that were never done before in the engine, and providing new, hand-made assets for the community to use. All code and assets in the project (except for music, I'll go full infringerino with that because I can't do music at all) will be fully original and made from scratch. The whole thing, once complete, will be a bit of a cross between Super Robot Wars, Armored Core and Bayonetta, so it's gonna be as anime as it can get.
The end result is going to be a mixture of TC (story mode) and regular Doom gameplay mod (Arcade mode) for use with OBLIGE maps and such.
Because the music will be not original, and for ideological reasons, this mod will never be monetized in any way.

The mod will feature five characters, all top-ranked crew of the "Balmung", one of the many groups from the Dimensional Guardian Police (DGPD), who are tasked with destroying dimensional invaders and various eldritch abominations, in order to protect the balance of the multiverse. A story mode with a fully original story and characters will be featured, although for the time being it's being developed in order to take advantage of randomly generated OBLIGE maps and Doom monsters in form of an "arcade mode".

The gameplay is different from Doom in many aspects:

---

Boosting:
The crew of the Balmung is mostly mechanized and have booster packs equipped for high mobility. Press and hold the jump button to boost upwards, or press it with a directional key pressed to boost in that direction. Mastering the boosting will allow you to have an incredible degree of mobility, but beware of overheating!

Boost crash:
If you are in the air and press the crouch key, you will boost downwards and cause a shockwave that will stun and damage enemies, giving you an opening for evasion or melee attacks!

Melee:
All characters will be equipped with a melee combo attack, performed by using altfire with the right timing. Some characters will alter their melee attack based on their equipped weapon.

Weapons:
All characters (with the exception of one) will have a loadout of 3 weapons, available from the start. In general terms they will fit the roles of "regular usage weapon 1 and 2" and a power weapon for the stronger enemies. To compensate for this, the weapons will feature alternate modes or functions (handled with the reload button). Those weapons operate in a simplified ammunition system, color-coded as blue, green and red, from weakest to strongest. Ammo pickups are changed to give ammunition based on who picks it up, balanced for their loadouts.

Repair system:
Instead of just picking up health and just healing, your pickups are instead treated as energy for a built-in repair system, and only excess pickups will give you health directly. As development progresses, you will be able to upgrade the system to store more health, gain more health per pickup, slowly charge up or revive you once if it's at full capacity.

Shield generator system:
Similarly to the health pickups, armor instead becomes energy for a personal shield system, which will also be capable of receiving upgrades to increase protection rate, capacity and potentially gain elemental resistances.

Rank system:
To avoid enemies becoming too weak after you gain upgrades and capabilities, a "rank" system will keep track of your progress and allow enemies to become stronger dynamically. If you are familiar with games like Battle Garegga, you will know what this means. In coop modes, the total rank is the average of all active players.

Loot system:
This is an arcade mode-only feature. Standard doom weapon pickups will be replaced by loot boxes. Loot boxes contain money, upgrades, ammunition and other goodies, and they have specific requirements to open:
Cyan boxes are standard and will just deliver goodies.
Yellow boxes are timed. You can only open them before their timer expires.
Blue boxes require finding a number of secrets to open.
Red boxes require killing a number of enemies to open.
Green boxes are locked and require finding a key dropped by enemies at random to open.
Purple boxes are cursed and will give you a defense debuff for 3 minutes, but have the highest potential value.
The unopened boxes that you can't open yet will mark themselves on the map so you can remember them!

Resources:
For now, resources are useless, but later on they will be used to create upgrades (as soon as I can figure out how to make a mouse-driven interface) for your equipment, weapons and systems.

Portals:
Still in progress, and also an arcade mode feature, but every few stages a dimensional rift will appear. Killing all enemies in the level will allow you to warp to a boss arena. Killing the boss will let you pillage some loot and then you will go on to the next level normally.

Persistence:
Still in progress, but certain progress such as certain upgrade findings will be eventually saved to cvars, allowing you to keep that progress across wads. Essentially, this will be a bit of a roguelite in arcade mode, while story mode will be a more linear story-driven experience, with certain levels varying depending on selected character (totally possible with ACS and zscript).

At the moment only one character is available, Jay "Orbital" Hawking, the captain of the Balmung crew and a "choujin", a race of humans that evolved into full mechanoids, keeping only their human souls.

---

He has a focus on speed and balanced abilities, and features the following loadout:
Solid Bit (blue ammo): Jay will summon six small satellites to use as a machinegun. His hands are free and available to do regular melee attacks, so his melee capabilities are unaffected. The weapon is weak but shoots very fast.

Missile Bit (green ammo): Jay will summon two larger satellites that fire homing missiles. The missiles are fast but weak, but more missiles can be stored by holding the reload key, allowing to fire a salvo of 16 missiles total.

Orbital Rifle (red ammo): Jay's standard handheld weapon. It is a powerful plasma rifle that can fire very quickly, and can switch to the "Thunder Sword" mode (reload key) which turns it into a railgun. Holding on the fire button on this mode allows to fire a very strong energy beam upon release, but it will eat your ammunition.

Melee: Since he makes sure to keep his hands unoccupied, his melee attack is standard across his loadout. He can do two slashes, a direct stunning punch, and finally shooting his rifle at point-blank range.


You can check out progress at https://github.com/hetdegon/Balmung. To install, download the repository (the big green download button) unzip, and zip the "pk3" folder, or load it directly in gzdoom. The only playable character at the moment is Jay. Story mode will redirect you to a debug room for now. The HUD is as well mostly for debugging and will be prettified eventually.

Feel free to steal code from it, even in this experimental stage there are a lot of goodies that might help people grasp the sheer power of zscript (I'd welcome credit, but I'm not quite expecting it). Either way, try it out, find the bugs, open issues, and I'll fix them! Feature suggestions aren't open yet, though. I want to translate the original RPG's features as originally envisioned first.

I apologize in advance for the roughness of the package, it's still very undercooked, but by posting it early I am making sure I complete it, or face everlasting shame. I have way too many things I never released in my hard disk already, so this is a bit of a drastic approach. There aren't many mods based on mechs as well (and the few ones are pretty much walking tanks instead of something more on the lines of a gundam or such), so hopefully someone finds it interesting as well.

[Spaceman333]

When I heard Armored Core, I popped a boner. This is definitely something I'm looking forward to.
I read through the whole post and some parts I like, some parts I don't.

I like these:
-Boosting
-Boost crash
-Melee
-Weapons
-Repair system
-Shield generator system
-Jay's character, load out and abilities
-Resources (sort of)
-Persistence (sort of)

I don't like these:
-Rank system
-Loot system
-Portals

I'm also wondering how is death handled by the mod. Theres a persistence system, but dying is totally still a thing in this, so what happens there? What about if I want to play the game again after a month, but no longer have the upgrades I grinded for. Would I need to start over each time to jump through the hoops to acquire upgrades again and again?

Meanwhile, the rank system and persistent upgrades will do more harm than good. Its a common mistake when developers are trying to achieve meaning and prolonging the playtime of their game. I see it all the time. The whole point of those feature is to provide a meaningful persistent thread that attempts to make the game experience feel like its not just a random throwaway nonsense experience, but something that has meaning and progression to it. So that playing it won't get boring, stale or feel empty.

The issue is that ranks break consistency of the ingame universe, arbitrarily making something more powerful or weaker than it would make sense in reality. This has a severe negative impact on immersion and the meaningfulness of the experience, causing the opposite effect of what its trying to achieve. Theres also the issue of power-creep, where player power vs monster power will arbitrarily and exponentially grow into DBZ-tiers of absurdity, which will either become a nightmare to manage or end up with a boring pattern that becomes predictable.

Meanwhile upgrades are an issue is that they're about a finite ladder that needs to be climbed. For a story game that someone would play once or twice over, thats fine, especially if the story is interlinked with the reason for the upgrades to exist. However, the effect that upgrades have is they cap the game experience. The game will remain meaningful only up until the upgrades run out. Even worse, at all stages of the progression in acquiring these upgrades, the player will never feel comfortable to enjoy the experience for the intrinsic reason of blasting monsters with a hitech mech.

With upgrades, at the beginning the player's power is limited and somewhat weak. They will feel inadequate and intrigued by the potential upgrades they can earn. Focus of enjoyment gets stolen for the extrinsic reason to earn upgrades, with the hope to eventually reach the state where the "game really starts", where they can be done with the chore of attaining the upgrades, so they can finally focus purely on the intrinsic action.

The nasty thing is that this moment never comes. By midgame, the player may have substantial upgrades to be quite capable of kicking ass, but the allure of ever powerful and complete arsenal still lies in the horizon. Its addicting. Trying to enjoy the intrinsic fun isn't all that doable just yet, the player wants to reach out to get those full upgrades too. The focus is still stolen.

The killing blow comes when the player reaches the top. Now they have everything unlocked and fully charged, only to find out that the enemies arbitrarily buffed themselves with artificial video game magic. That kills immersion, meaning and consistency harded than anything else. Or alternatively, the player is just a bit too overpowered. The result is the same. At the end, the meaning brough by the addicting hunt for upgrades has gone, but now theres nowhere else to climb up towards and the player's progress is a mess because nothing is consistent anymore due to overpower or arbitrarily buffed monsters. Even with infinite maps, the game would become devoid of meaning very quickly, with the persistent element doing more harm than good.

I know this is something that a majority of developers do and how what I'm saying is unpopular and heretical, yet at the same time this is what is happening. Its a really poor tradition that drives people to make games/mods that end up shooting themselves suicidally in the foot design wise.

I'd rather advocate on not having ranks or upgrades, but rather letting the player persistently gather resources, which would then be used for creating consumable items/upgrades/limit cancellers/weapons/abilities for temporary disposable upgrades that boost the player's capabilities in various ways beyond the normal base state. The meaning can come from new maps, randomly mutated monsters, player's persistent inventory that carries over from map to map, campaign to campaign and the situations that arise from the combination of the three.

Death can also be made into something meaningful and impactful, yet not gratingly punishing that solving it would only be done via turning the time back. Each time the player dies, their character could be recorded in a persistent log of fallen troopers that display stats and a name for that particular character. After that, the level is reset and the new a character with a new name enters with a basic starter pack to continue the legacy of their fallen comrades.

There are far better ways to achieve longer replayability and meaning in game design. I hope this was useful or atleast thought provoking.

[Hetdegon]

Ah a very interesting post.

Where to start. Well, the rank's effects are pretty limited in scope. It doesn't mean the enemy get leveled up, but that at specific "landmarks" some enemies unlock different attacks, usually increasing their attack frequency or getting an alternate mode, but not buffing their core stats such as attack and defense. For example, when the rank value is over 100, zombiemen will fire two shots instead of one, or revenants start shooting two rockets at rank 1000. (Or spawning a lost soul on death at rank 5000...)
(Note: In this mod, you can shoot down or melee rev's rockets and lost souls are less tanky. Never understood why they have so much health for what they are)

Note that the rank is not recalculated at start, but rather based on time spent on levels, score and other factors. It's punitive, but it's nowhere like in say Skyrim where even crap bandits are always keeping up. As I said I modeled the thing after Battle Garegga, an arcade shoot'em-up. The rank, likewise, is adjusted on difficulty setting, and will never increase health for monsters (I hate meat walls and Doom enemies already get way too much health for their capabilities (looking at you Barons)).
In other words, rank applies to your current run as opposed to be a global modifier.
For large difficulty adjustments, difficulty level is to be used instead. It's to be noted that the easiest difficulty will provide all unlockables by default, while the highest will ignore persistent unlocks and only depend on what you find in the current run. So basically play easy if you want to feel like Russian Overkill and go hard if you want to feel like Hideous Destructor (well, not so much, you still move fast (sorry Vaecrius)).

Hmm, resources are indeed going to be used to create gear and "mods" to equip on the different parts to boost their efficiency or add special effects (for example, Jay's Solid Bit will allow to add upgrades to pierce or set up a different secondary mode based on what's given to it, or stuff like live the Missile Bit damage-over-time effects or raising the amount of the charged salvos). Although I still didn't elaborate on those because I need to code some interface to allow equipping them, so stats are handled crudely into internal structs at the moment.
My plan is less having you become overpowered and more like giving incentive to exploring randomized maps for loot and goodies (note that this only applies to arcade mode, on story mode since it's gonna be more linear and controlled, emphasis will be put on fights instead). There's a limit on available mods for each part as well, so there's a bit of a flexible cap so you will never be doing anything like 10x damage per attack with perfect accuracy, although it would make enough of a difference to still have ammunition left after going past 20 barons or dispose of the more damaging threats before they can drain your health entirely.

In general terms, other than allowing degrees of customization or fancifying your toys, the rest is still left to your skill as a player. I mean I want to do something different to Doom, but it's still depending (in arcade mode) on Doom provisioning and monster placement, so I can't deviate all that much from the formula in some regards. Stuff like loot boxes are programmed to warrant dropping certain types of ammo when they replace stuff like a BFG pickup, for example, so you don't find yourself short of it in something like a slaughtermap where the ammo levels are carefully controlled. In story mode I can do whatever I want, but I really wanted to set it up in a way to ensure OBLIGE maps and other megawads still have value.

Portals are also a way to keep challenge going, since I can control what boss you fight based on your rank values. They are going to be sort of a built-in secret exit where you decide if you want to take the risk or not. What is it you don't like about them?

Still, that was an interesting post, thanks a lot for your insight. And feel free to counter any of my points! I want to make something fun and replayable, so while I said I am closed to feature suggestions, discussion about balancing and such is still very welcomed.

[Spaceman333]

Thank you for the reply, its interesting to talk about this.

Ah a very interesting post.

Where to start. Well, the rank's effects are pretty limited in scope. It doesn't mean the enemy get leveled up, but that at specific "landmarks" some enemies unlock different attacks, usually increasing their attack frequency or getting an alternate mode, but not buffing their core stats such as attack and defense. For example, when the rank value is over 100, zombiemen will fire two shots instead of one, or revenants start shooting two rockets at rank 1000. (Or spawning a lost soul on death at rank 5000...)
(Note: In this mod, you can shoot down or melee rev's rockets and lost souls are less tanky. Never understood why they have so much health for what they are)

Note that the rank is not recalculated at start, but rather based on time spent on levels, score and other factors. It's punitive, but it's nowhere like in say Skyrim where even crap bandits are always keeping up. As I said I modeled the thing after Battle Garegga, an arcade shoot'em-up. The rank, likewise, is adjusted on difficulty setting, and will never increase health for monsters (I hate meat walls and Doom enemies already get way too much health for their capabilities (looking at you Barons)).
In other words, rank applies to your current run as opposed to be a global modifier.

Hmm, so the enemies get more desperate and unlock more of their potential the deeper you progress in a level set, then?
I really like that stats such as attack or defence are not changed and that the emphasis is on enabling concrete abilities.

Hmm I don't know. On one hand, difficulty is something that I believe is best achieved by the map itself in how it places enemies. Having the enemy have unlockable abilities might feel like the monsters are "holding back" arbitrarily simply because I'm at the earlier levels and the game is being gamey and giving me an easier time. On the other, the idea that the enemy starts off somewhat relaxed at the beginning and then becomes more desperate towards the end does sound like the enemy faction is truly reacting to the player's progress.

I do feel excited about lost souls having less hp and revenant missiles being shootable. I wish that was more common among monster mods.

For large difficulty adjustments, difficulty level is to be used instead. It's to be noted that the easiest difficulty will provide all unlockables by default, while the highest will ignore persistent unlocks and only depend on what you find in the current run. So basically play easy if you want to feel like Russian Overkill and go hard if you want to feel like Hideous Destructor (well, not so much, you still move fast (sorry Vaecrius)).

I like the idea to cater to multiple needs with different difficulties, but wouldn't that come at the cost of consistency?

I mean with easy mode the core upgrade system is essentially skipped entirely with full potential arsenal given at once, while with the hardest difficulty its turned off and absent, chopping off a major part of the mod. The former I'm ok with since it would be somewhat of a cheat to have a power fantasy with, but with the latter, a huge part of the mod is essentially removed. It feels a bit like the upgrade system is somewhat disposable, rather than something that is integral and irreplacable to the mod.

My plan is less having you become overpowered and more like giving incentive to exploring randomized maps for loot and goodies (note that this only applies to arcade mode, on story mode since it's gonna be more linear and controlled, emphasis will be put on fights instead). There's a limit on available mods for each part as well, so there's a bit of a flexible cap so you will never be doing anything like 10x damage per attack with perfect accuracy, although it would make enough of a difference to still have ammunition left after going past 20 barons or dispose of the more damaging threats before they can drain your health entirely.

To give incentive to exploring? Why though?

Ammo, health, armor, powerups and additional weaponry is already more than enough incentive on its own. Heck, I play doom specifically to kill 100% monsters, so the monsters themselves are an incentive too. I don't see the need to use arbitrary rewards with arbitrary mechanics (like the timed loot boxes), when regular pickups are more than enough to look for them. I believe using rewards as a method to drive player motivation is a very destructive one. I think it kills immersion and steals the focus away from the intrinsic fun of blasting demons with awesome heavily armed mechs.

I also wonder if the balancing will become a headache when the player's power and the monster's power are both moving targets, instead of being standardized to a single constant.

Portals are also a way to keep challenge going, since I can control what boss you fight based on your rank values. They are going to be sort of a built-in secret exit where you decide if you want to take the risk or not. What is it you don't like about them?

The feel arbitrary, gamey, artificial, tacked on. Their optional nature also implies that I'm not doing a thorough job in cleaning up the demon/alien infestation if I choose not to do them. My need for meaning gets stomped on by this system and I feel disinterested by it. It makes it difficult for me to take the mod and its universe seriously. Everything starts to feel like a cardboard cutout because of it.

[Hetdegon]

Hmm I don't know. On one hand, difficulty is something that I believe is best achieved by the map itself in how it places enemies. Having the enemy have unlockable abilities might feel like the monsters are "holding back" arbitrarily simply because I'm at the earlier levels and the game is being gamey and giving me an easier time. On the other, the idea that the enemy starts off somewhat relaxed at the beginning and then becomes more desperate towards the end does sound like the enemy faction is truly reacting to the player's progress.

That's exactly the intention! At first they are like "lol, look at this tin can" and later they are like "they killed Bob! They must pay! destroy them at all costs!". Or in other words, your martial prowess is being made known among their ranks.

I like the idea to cater to multiple needs with different difficulties, but wouldn't that come at the cost of consistency?

I mean with easy mode the core upgrade system is essentially skipped entirely with full potential arsenal given at once, while with the hardest difficulty its turned off and absent, chopping off a major part of the mod. The former I'm ok with since it would be somewhat of a cheat to have a power fantasy with, but with the latter, a huge part of the mod is essentially removed. It feels a bit like the upgrade system is somewhat disposable, rather than something that is integral and irreplacable to the mod.

Well, with the highest difficulty modes I'm sort of preemptively taking into account the inevitable cries for "make it harder". You know that's a thing, and it's indeed a thing I kept encountering in my career as developer. Some people want to be absolute badasses and flex their minmaxing muscles, so a mode catered specially to that audience is the result.
Of course you can still find upgrades in that mode, but it's intended to be a challenge mode specially intended for those that find the other modes "baby stuff" and want their inner munchkin to shine.
Nowadays, there's too much emphasis on grading the defaults instead of changing the content via difficulty settings as they should be used. I merely want to do my part and use such a thing for its intended purpose.

To give incentive to exploring? Why though?

Ammo, health, armor, powerups and additional weaponry is already more than enough incentive on its own. Heck, I play doom specifically to kill 100% monsters, so the monsters themselves are an incentive too. I don't see the need to use arbitrary rewards with arbitrary mechanics (like the timed loot boxes), when regular pickups are more than enough to look for them. I believe using rewards as a method to drive player motivation is a very destructive one. I think it kills immersion and steals the focus away from the intrinsic fun of blasting demons with awesome heavily armed mechs.

I also wonder if the balancing will become a headache when the player's power and the monster's power are both moving targets, instead of being standardized to a single constant.

Well, you are right there, however, I only have full control of things in story mode (which isn't available yet) and instead have to rely on the random nature of Doom maps. They might be slaughtermaps, they might be puzzle maps, or they might be maps where pickups are sparse, or even maps generated by a computer program. This system serves to randomize the content of levels but at the same time respects the design guidelines, and makes it valuable to go back to pick stuff up and aim for 100% instead of skipping the map because "lol I can fly". In your use case, you probably won't notice much of a difference. Furthermore, loot boxes vary their content based on type, meaning they can provide extra health, shield and ammo, as well as valuable ammo capacity upgrades, based on their requisites (the ones that demand more stuff apply a higher multiplier to their value).
Timed boxes, unfortunately, can't be made to be placed in strategic positions (even if I measured the distance to the player start, it might or might not be a straight line there, it's impossible to predict), they would admittedly be way more interesting when placed manually to encourage not lingering around for long, but alas, that's a bit of an engine limitation.
They are technically the rarest type of box, however, so if RNGesus feels like it, they might actually serve their purpose.
While I admit they are a bit of a gamism, the system is only beneficial to the player, as the contents are a piñata of goodies (+whatever they are supposed to replace, to not choke the mapper's intended flow of ammunition), which can be given without replacing other things which might be vital to the map's experience (such as health or ammo pickups, or stuff like invulnerability or even light-amps, which are common targets of replacement).

The feel arbitrary, gamey, artificial, tacked on. Their optional nature also implies that I'm not doing a thorough job in cleaning up the demon/alien infestation if I choose not to do them. My need for meaning gets stomped on by this system and I feel disinterested by it. It makes it difficult for me to take the mod and its universe seriously. Everything starts to feel like a cardboard cutout because of it.

Well, the only solution I'd have to this would be altering mapinfo to give you boss fights every 4 maps or so, but then you'd run into possible issues, like the map being hub-based and the provided mapinfo breaking it entirely.
You can't really put the boss fights into the maps themselves, either, because it's virtually impossible to know where to put them.
And then again, the maps containing the bosses will look out of place, so explaining them via "you went into another dimension" is much better than "it was in the way". It's pretty much a variant on the optional challenge arenas in Bayonetta, in essence, in the way they are sort of detached from the route.

I didn't really start implementing the feature yet (I didn't really model any boss outside of story mode yet, and I want to avoid using the same bosses for this, since they got story significance and whatnot) , so I might scratch it or move it to a different "mode" so to speak. Maybe you'd feel they'd belong more in some sort of "invasion" mode? I was planning to have one, since I kinda miss that stuff and is reminiscent of "arena" modes in various action games, which I admit I really enjoy. Although I'd still like to replace the IoS map for a custom boss more fit with the "fighting the eldritch" theme of the setting. (and maybe give a bit of a nod to VIOS)
Still, story mode will be more oriented towards boss fights, and characters are tuned to do well in such situations, so I really, really want to be able to fight bosses during the course of a run. But as we all know, Doom boss monsters...well...they are a little bit of a joke, to be frank. Both the Cyberdemon and the Mastermind are pretty much walls of HP, with very predictable tactics, and their only challenge depends on being put in a map that limits your options or uses them in ways that changing their behavior might totally break everything. So I can't really replace them for a tougher boss without creating some impossible-to-avoid situation, so the best option for a complex fight is to just put them outside of the maps as literal alien elements. Doing so through an in-game entity is the safest option and the least likely to break things, even at the cost of immersion.

Also, I think it's fine for a game to feel a bit gamey. Taking oneself too seriously tends to end up kinda edgy or even tryhard. And in a setting with stuff like robot yakuza samurai or fiery time-controlling vampires fighting lovecraftian horrors and mechanical tyrants, it's perhaps for the best to add some levity here and there.


On a side note, the github repository now has some changes to melee behavior, enabling aerial combos in the style of DMC or such.

[Spaceman333]

Hmm I don't know. On one hand, difficulty is something that I believe is best achieved by the map itself in how it places enemies. Having the enemy have unlockable abilities might feel like the monsters are "holding back" arbitrarily simply because I'm at the earlier levels and the game is being gamey and giving me an easier time. On the other, the idea that the enemy starts off somewhat relaxed at the beginning and then becomes more desperate towards the end does sound like the enemy faction is truly reacting to the player's progress.

That's exactly the intention! At first they are like "lol, look at this tin can" and later they are like "they killed Bob! They must pay! destroy them at all costs!". Or in other words, your martial prowess is being made known among their ranks.

Ah now I remember! When I wrote that post, I had a feeling of uncertainty that something was off, but couldn't remember it at the time. I had pondered about this very thing in the past, about the positive and negative sides of it, as well as what consequences it may hold. I've now recalled what was bugging me.

Since the idea is for the mod to be replayable in the arcade mode, the rank system has the draw back of interfering with that aspect. Enemies starting relaxed and then becoming more desperate in later ranks makes sense on the first playthrough and I think it fits well with a non-replayable story mode. However in an arcade mode, when I'm on the 4th playthrough of a new 32 map campaign, it will begin to feel jarring as I know at the back of my head that the enemy is holding back during early levels because the mod is scripted so.

By the 3rd campaign, I think the greater monster empire would take me seriously from the very start. It made sense for them to be relaxed the first and maybe second time, but in the subsequent campaigns when I'm taking down their 136th stronghold? I'd expect them to give their fullest at that point from the start. Surely they can communicate or perhaps sense their brethren somehow to warn the others of the notoriously devastating Full Metal Guardians.

Meanwhile, from a need fulfilling standpoint, by the 4th playthrough I'd most likely be at the point of basic mastery of the mod and its features, so I'd be longing to play the mod at its full force anytime I want to boot it up. I'd want all limiters to be off by that point and stay that way, so I know that I'm playing the real deal, now that I've gotten good at it. I'd seek my replayability from the surprise of new map packs and the randomization of randomizable elements. I'd also get my challenge dictated by the maps themselves, as well as the randomization.

From the point of view of replayability, the rank system would eventually start getting in the way of fun. It would create friction against what the player wants vs what the game/mod gives them.

I like the idea to cater to multiple needs with different difficulties, but wouldn't that come at the cost of consistency?

I mean with easy mode the core upgrade system is essentially skipped entirely with full potential arsenal given at once, while with the hardest difficulty its turned off and absent, chopping off a major part of the mod. The former I'm ok with since it would be somewhat of a cheat to have a power fantasy with, but with the latter, a huge part of the mod is essentially removed. It feels a bit like the upgrade system is somewhat disposable, rather than something that is integral and irreplacable to the mod.

Well, with the highest difficulty modes I'm sort of preemptively taking into account the inevitable cries for "make it harder". You know that's a thing, and it's indeed a thing I kept encountering in my career as developer. Some people want to be absolute badasses and flex their minmaxing muscles, so a mode catered specially to that audience is the result.
Of course you can still find upgrades in that mode, but it's intended to be a challenge mode specially intended for those that find the other modes "baby stuff" and want their inner munchkin to shine.
Nowadays, there's too much emphasis on grading the defaults instead of changing the content via difficulty settings as they should be used. I merely want to do my part and use such a thing for its intended purpose.

I hear ya, different players play games to satisfy different needs. Some may be looking for an experience to relax with, while others may be looking for a challenge to get tense with.

That said, the needs of both of these groups pull in opposite directions. Trying to appease both groups may lead to a product that satisfies neither, since design decisions made in service of one group's need may end up violating the other groups needs. Its important to identify which one is the most important and make it clear to those who are looking for the opposite, so they'll better understand what is being created and for whom, primarily.

I also feel averse to difficulty setting in general too. My ideal vision of difficulty levels is not easy-medium-hard, its tutorial/sandbox-default-optional/alternative modes instead.

Whether difficulty levels are done via values or extra functions, they damage the consistency of the game experience, harming immersion and meaning, when I as a player cannot ever be fully sure what constitutes as standard inside the ingame universe. Its difficult to take a game seriously when things are either arbitrarily held back or boosted due to an artificial difficulty setting.

The feel arbitrary, gamey, artificial, tacked on. Their optional nature also implies that I'm not doing a thorough job in cleaning up the demon/alien infestation if I choose not to do them. My need for meaning gets stomped on by this system and I feel disinterested by it. It makes it difficult for me to take the mod and its universe seriously. Everything starts to feel like a cardboard cutout because of it.

Well, the only solution I'd have to this would be altering mapinfo to give you boss fights every 4 maps or so, but then you'd run into possible issues, like the map being hub-based and the provided mapinfo breaking it entirely.
You can't really put the boss fights into the maps themselves, either, because it's virtually impossible to know where to put them.
And then again, the maps containing the bosses will look out of place, so explaining them via "you went into another dimension" is much better than "it was in the way". It's pretty much a variant on the optional challenge arenas in Bayonetta, in essence, in the way they are sort of detached from the route.

The issue isn't how it could be done, but what it is at its core.

The bottomline is that its trying to introduce bosses during a 32 or so level campaign that may have ongoing continuity. It essentially like having ad breaks interrupt a movie on a tv channel every 20 minutes.

I didn't really start implementing the feature yet (I didn't really model any boss outside of story mode yet, and I want to avoid using the same bosses for this, since they got story significance and whatnot) , so I might scratch it or move it to a different "mode" so to speak. Maybe you'd feel they'd belong more in some sort of "invasion" mode? I was planning to have one, since I kinda miss that stuff and is reminiscent of "arena" modes in various action games, which I admit I really enjoy. Although I'd still like to replace the IoS map for a custom boss more fit with the "fighting the eldritch" theme of the setting. (and maybe give a bit of a nod to VIOS)
Still, story mode will be more oriented towards boss fights, and characters are tuned to do well in such situations, so I really, really want to be able to fight bosses during the course of a run. But as we all know, Doom boss monsters...well...they are a little bit of a joke, to be frank. Both the Cyberdemon and the Mastermind are pretty much walls of HP, with very predictable tactics, and their only challenge depends on being put in a map that limits your options or uses them in ways that changing their behavior might totally break everything. So I can't really replace them for a tougher boss without creating some impossible-to-avoid situation, so the best option for a complex fight is to just put them outside of the maps as literal alien elements. Doing so through an in-game entity is the safest option and the least likely to break things, even at the cost of immersion.

Hmm, adding these bosses into a run seems like something you want very strongly, but I don't really understand why. Story mode is totally fine, but why try to put them into arcade mode, where the game is defined by the mappack that often has a clearly defined progression, story and balance wise.

Some map packs may even feature a special configuration of the final level that "resembles" a boss and plays like a boss fight, but is actually just a cleverly constructed map with special triggers.

I'd rather see some sort of bossrush mode or boss arena mode, where you get some equipment before a boss, fight the boss, get bunch of loot when the boss dies and then repeat the cycle. Bonus points if the bosses are randomized or mutated, so it'd be possible to keep playing the boss rush potentially forever, where you never know which boss will be next and what extra features or stats they may have this time.

Also, I think it's fine for a game to feel a bit gamey. Taking oneself too seriously tends to end up kinda edgy or even tryhard. And in a setting with stuff like robot yakuza samurai or fiery time-controlling vampires fighting lovecraftian horrors and mechanical tyrants, it's perhaps for the best to add some levity here and there.

I think a bit differently. In my opinion the best possible game design is one that satisfies the needs of the player, but also does it carefully as to not accidently violate other needs of the player in the process. Deliberately choosing to add systems that are arbitrary and artificial in nature can have the effect of negatively unsatisfying the need for meaning, cohesion and consistency.

Even if the game is upfront about it and announces that "hey don't take this seriously, you're just playing a game", the human instinct will react to that with aversion, since anything we human beings do, we have a preference of not spending our time on something that isn't real or doesn't appear real. I've often noticed this with myself whenever I've played various games that are clearly gamey or have gamey elements in them.

It feels bad and drives me further away from wanting to play the game in the long term.

[Hetdegon]

Hmm, I'll see what I can do then. Give me a couple days to think about it as I implement other basic stuff.

[XavierStudios]

Hetdegon, if it means anything, I'm of a different - and perhaps diametrically opposed - viewpoint compared to Spaceman here. Immersion is nice to have when it doesn't affect the gameplay, but I don't view it to be particularly critical. If the gameplay feels right and doesn't show any slop or erroneous behavior, that's all I could ask of you.

Once the mod is more feature-rich and indicative of the final product, we can worry about game mechanics and dynamics because doing so now is counterproductive.