The Soldier Z - WIP - Update 13 11/14/2021 Options

[Dr_Cosmobyte]

Nice to know this was updated. I really like this mod. It beats the hell out of mods that think they are realistic.

but... i found a bug.

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The grenade is STUCK in that section of the ceiling. If it bounces on the high part THEN bouncing there, it explodes. Fine.

But if i throw it exactly on that spot, it gets glued and explodes after a while.

[Lt.blam]

Gave it a quick try just now and I got some thoughts.
First, the good. Weapons feel responsive and punchy and are fun to use and you chose some great spites and sound assets. However, I have a few suggestions. Firstly, those weapon raise times are painfully slow and could do with being sped up. Also weapon reloads suffer from the same issue as the raise time, they're too slow. I understand that you're going for a more realistic and tense feel but making raise and reload times longer isn't the best way to do it in my opinion. My recommendation would be to lower ammo caps and increase monster damage. Make it so every shot counts and your only defense is the first strike initiative. Also you might want to make the lmg recoil a bit less, intense. Anyways, those are my thoughts
Keep up the good work!

[Brohnesorge]

That grenade bug is something I've run into before, in both this AND HoD - Baron, and them blowing up after a time is my short term solution for it. I think it's just wonky-ness in Doom's physics, but I'll see if I can do something about it regardless.

RE: Things are too slow.
Always ALWAYS remember your quick draw pistol. I have no intention of speeding things up, outside of upgrades. The point of the mod is to take it slow, and make sure you are prepared before you open that door/hit that switch. And should shit hit the fan, run like hell and/or draw that pistol. Some maps do become 10x more difficult with this mod, but that's just kinda the nature of the mod and hardcore/realism mods in general.

As for the LMG, I FINALLY GET TO TALK ABOUT DESIGN.
When making the LMG, one thing inspired me most when deciding on its recoil and whatnot, outside of the realism of holding a LMG is a very difficult thing to do...

And that thing is one of my favorite scenes from my favorite movie

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Go watch Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence if you haven't seen it. I recommend the subtitled version over the dubbed version. I love Richard Epcar as Batou, but the Japanese version is just twice as good. But either way, go see it.

Capturing the pure adrenaline I get when it switches to Batou's POV as he mows down Yakuza is something I wanted to do with this mod. And I think I've come pretty close.

Anyway, notice how the M249 still jitters and jumps in Batou's hands, and he's a top of the line combat cyborg. The Soldier has much lower tier augments, so he feels the recoil even more.

Also custom difficulties are planned that are basically HD-lite. One shot, one kill, for both sides. These would be available alongside the normal Doom difficulties.

[Brohnesorge]

Uploading a bit of a little fix after running into some issues when playing with my roommate.

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--Removed strange message popping up in between levels. It was a debug thing of me trying to figure out dodge rolls.
--Fixed crash when you respawn in Co-op.

Grab it from the OP

[mentha]

i discovered this thanks to the inmost dens tumblr! i'm very thankful i did, because this is quite fun. I especially like the plasma rifles heat mechanic!

EDIT: i played this more, and i'm wondering if you're considering adding more ways to upgrade weapons? Lots of mapsets don't have plentiful chainsaws.

[Brohnesorge]

EDIT: i played this more, and i'm wondering if you're considering adding more ways to upgrade weapons? Lots of mapsets don't have plentiful chainsaws.

I've been heavily considering having backpacks being rarely (like, 5% or lower) replaced with a upgrade. I don't want to go overboard on upgrade spawns, however; the upgrades are cool, and I still wanted to have them to have a very video-gamey aspect to it, but too many of them total circumvents the challenge of the mod and them being rare makes them much more valuable. You are meant to only get a few...and almost never all of them. Having 1 gun fully upgraded makes that gun incredibly powerful so having all the guns being fully upgraded is just...

I'll mess with some stuff and see if I can figure something out. I also want to note that when the monster pack comes out (whenever the hell I feel like starting it) that the zombie replacements will have a low chance to drop upgrades for the gun they are using.

P.S. what is inmost dens? I'm always curious to see what kind of things are giving me coverage.

[RastaManGames]

I found little and necessary bug. Or this is a feathure?

[mentha]

if you google "inmost dens tumblr" its the first hit right now.

it had a single paragraph about the mod, followed by a minor addendum. the idea of a "normal" soldier using "realistic" weapons got me interested.

i liked the magazine system. it made me feel clever when i purposely dropped a gun to pick up a fully loaded one instead of being helpless for a while, so i kept playing.

i'm sure you'll figure something out about the upgrades.

[Brohnesorge]

I found little and necessary bug. Or this is a feathure?

Good ol' Doom PhysX™. I can't promise anything, but I'll see if I can do something about this. It has to do with the casings spawning inside the decorations which causes the engine bounce code to freak out. I think. I'll mess with some stuff.

Found that article too. Pretty neat. And yeah, the dropping to switch is a little trick I hoped people would catch onto. It's really handy in maps that have areas with lots of rocket launchers but not a lot of rockets.

Anyway, I'm putting the finishing touches on Update 3, and expect it to be out late tonight or tomorrow, if everything goes as planned. But I've created a little poll about the Carbine's balance, and it's not for the coming Update 3, but rather Update 4. I just feel that the Carbine is strong enough that the SMG just isn't a viable option, but it could just be me, so I'm asking for some outside input. So please vote.

Granted, realistically, yeah carbines are a lot stronger then SMGs so...

[Gideon020]

Anyway, I'm putting the finishing touches on Update 3, and expect it to be out late tonight or tomorrow, if everything goes as planned. But I've created a little poll about the Carbine's balance, and it's not for the coming Update 3, but rather Update 4. I just feel that the Carbine is strong enough that the SMG just isn't a viable option, but it could just be me, so I'm asking for some outside input. So please vote.

Granted, realistically, yeah carbines are a lot stronger then SMGs so...

Have dual starting SMG's instead? Or give it (the SMG) Ripper projectiles to represent some kind of specialist ammunition?

[TheRailgunner]

So, for starters, if you empty your shotgun while aiming down sights, it'll switch to its hip-fire idle sprite while remaining zoomed until you switch weapons. I also feel that zooming/unzooming animations could be much smoother. The low sight line during the shotty's ADS is kind of misleading, though.

On the other hand, the M249 feels pretty awesome - could probably do with an ADS mode, just for kicks. Only real downside to it is that it's overpowered as fuck, being very accurate and having a magazine capacity of 200 (this means that Chaingunners give you more than enough ammo to just dakka your way through any level), which is a sharp contrast to the RL, for which you can only hold three rockets (one loaded, two in reserve).

[Brohnesorge]

The shotgun brace thing has been fixed in this upcoming update and was a typo because I r gud coder. Animating shotgun ADS issue is from lack of sprites, as I am no spriter and have less then zero talent for it. I have been putting off adapting sprites from AtM because I'm pretty sure that has a smoother ADS animation, I have the permission but haven't actually done much with it AND is actually placed to use it but I'm lazy. I am fully aware that it is currently too low to actually use as sights, hence me calling it a Brace instead of a true ADS.

RL has a super low ammo capacity, and it's something I have been thinking of increasing slightly, but do remember that it can kill Barons and smaller (or just about anything with a Quad Damage active) in a single direct hit, and also has a very large blast radius. Also ammo caps are (VERY) roughly based on the weight of the ammo, and mild balance. Problem being that I haven't been able to find the weight of just the NLAW's warhead, as normally they are disposable not reloadable, but the whole thing loaded is about 27 lbs. Honestly I know nothing about the weight of explosives, so I just assume the warhead is half the weight of the whole system, so about 13.5 lbs. Pretty heavy to be carrying around a lot of them. Maybe I'll raise the backpack amount or have a separate backpack item that increases the capacity of "heavy" ammo by more.

M249, admittedly is very strong compared to almost everything else, to the point of using anything else is semi pointless. If not for the extended reload. But I figured it'd be fairly accurate and powerful from a combo of it's length and caliber. And with some help from someone who probably knows more about guns then me (Lud), using 5-15 for 9mm from a M9 as the standard of damage. I figured its relatively high recoil would be a good balance for it. I'll mess with making it where gun drops don't give you ammo for it. It was a long debate with myself to have that in or not, and decided that later on I would change it if I felt like you got too much ammo for it.

M249 ADS would be cool, but again, lack of decent sprites. I'm no spriter, but I guess I could start asking around for some reloading and ADS sprites, because I would like an ADS for it.

All stuff I'll mess around with after this update!

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-The Eye
--Slot 8 Demon Weapon: The Eye added!
--Has a chance to spawn over the BFG, and starts unloaded.
--Need to be reloaded with your blood, doing sizable damage. 20 HP for 1 Shot.
--Kills anything, including Spiderdemons and Cyberdemons, in one shot.
--Shots can be stacked up.

-Baikal MP-133
--Fixed ADS flag not clearing when switching out weapon.

-Melee
--Made grenade throwing faster
--Fixed sound issues

-Misc
--Casings should no longer get stuck in decorations.
--Backpacks have a low chance to be upgrades instead.
--M_DOOM added!
--Terrain effects added!
--Embers added to explosions.
--Quake effects added to explosions.
--FONT!

Note that I did try to fix the grenades getting stuck thing by increase the size of them, but it just made it worse so I reverted them back to before. Wew based on the early results of the poll I'll leave the carbine alone but we'll see. Naturally though, keep me posted on stuff!

EDIT: Whoops almost forgot about the difficulties!
Any of the "Hardcore" ones are the same as normal but monsters do 2x damage. The others explain themselves when you select them.

[TheRailgunner]

I'm gonna look for more ADS sprites for your weapons and take a crack at smoothing out the existing ADS animations - I'm also gonna look into making a version with angled weapons (there are a few really good looking M249 sprites floating around).

[Brohnesorge]

I'm honored! XWeapon was a pretty big inspiration for this so I'm pretty elated to hear that!

[TheRailgunner]

In the meantime, I'm gonna look around for FN Minimi feed trays - one thing I've always wanted to do is make a reload animation for a belt-fed machine gun. Also, gonna find that one MP7 set I saw floating around here somewhere.