Customizable default inventory

[Graf Zahl]

Currently the default inventory is determined by the player's class. If you want to change it you have to use scripts.

But this can be extremely annoying if you just want to switch between maps in a WAD. Either you put the code into every level and use global variables to check for it or you run into problems when starting another map than the first one.

With custom weapons coming soon this might become a problem so there should be some means to define the default inventory a player will get upon starting a level from scratch somewhere else.

[Your Name Is]

I second this. DECORATE weapons will be a problem with the old inventory.

[Killo Zapit]

Actually, what if you just could define new player classes in a lump somehow instead? Not only for default inventory, but all of the players parameters, like speed, max health, armor class type (doom/heretic, hexen, or strife), or whatever.

[Anakin S.]

That sounds like a good idea. Then you could also define the player's states in a decorate-like fashion, like providing burning and disintegrating states.

[Graf Zahl]

Actually, what if you just could define new player classes in a lump somehow instead? Not only for default inventory, but all of the players parameters, like speed, max health, armor class type (doom/heretic, hexen, or strife), or whatever.

That would be even better. The most interesting parameters would be:

Speed: speed is controlled by 4 acceleration factors (slow/fast) (forward/sideways). If you could specify all 4 separately it would certainly be better than the current APROP_Speed method that affects all 4 of them simultaneously.

Default Hexen armor values: It is 0 for all non-Hexen players currently so they can't use Hexen armor at all. Since Doom- and Hexen-armor can coexist in the inventory this is all that is needed for armor. Heretic and Strife armor are the same as Doom's.

You have to be careful with the states though. The engine uses a very inflexible means to define the attack states so that part of the code had to be rewritten first. (Suggestion: Use MeleeState instead of MissileState+1 and most of the problems disappear. It would even eliminate the need for game-based distinctions of the used attack frames.)

Of course the default inventory and the standard stuff (like health, size etc.) could be set, too.

[Zippy]

Setting what weapons a class could use (or perhaps is restricted from using) is also important, especially with .97's DECORATE style weapon support.