ZDoom

Spoiler: The Plot

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In this game you take on the role of Gustav Erikssen, a Swedish archaeologist
recently graduated in medieval history.

The year is 1974, and Gustav raised funds from family business to hire a excavation group. After months of work, the group found the ancient ruins of a temple. This place had religious artifacts and representations of magical portals, and that interested Gustav a lot, because he recognized the same symbols from the amulet carried by him.

The Fire amulet was a gift that passed through generations on his family. Some say that it was made by a close friend of a noble ancestor, thousands of years ago. Seems so perfectly crafted that you can barely see traces of human labour.

Upon reaching the temple ruins, the amulet started to glow and vibrate, as if it awakened some powerful energy, sleeping for centuries. The structure shook and trembled, as a portal opened right in front of him.

A group of mercenaries also hired by Gustav (since he was aware he could be betrayed and stolen from his discoveries) volunteered to enter the portal. "Stay here. Five minutes, and that's all we need". A long time has passed, but nobody got back from the portal. Gustav knew this was a lifetime event. He entered the portal, and the stench of dead mercenary bodies struck him as strong as a punch. Two-headed beasts and fire gargolyes were all across the land, seeking for a fresh target. The only thing Gustav could think of was to grab a pistol lying in the ground, but it was too late.

As soon as the monsters attacked Gustav, he positioned the amulet in front of him like a reflex. He opened his eyes and witnessed a fire ball burning through his hands and destroying the beast. Gustav don't get it. His hands are still shaking from the fear, and at the same time, feel warm from the... fire ball. He just threw a fire ball. Also, the place had this feeling. Like some kind of energy, an aura was all around the place. Could it be that magic, which was so spoken in fairy tales and myths, was real here?

Gustav still wants to find out more. He checks the pistol again, presses the mag release button, counts the bullets and thinks: "If this doesn't work, i hope i can throw that thing again". He would never knew this portal would lead to the realm of Korax, who is been after those amulets for aeons, and an easy prey just passed through his front door with another amulet.

Spoiler: The Game

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This game works slightly differently depending if you play it with Hexen or Doom/Heretic. Let's start with Doom/Heretic:

You start with a pistol and 50 points of mana. The pistol has infinite ammo (though i am thinking of adding a CVAR if you want to suffer). You have some weapons that replace the usual shotgun, chaingun and rocket launcher. The Plasma Rifle and the BFG9000 are replaced with amulets that grant you magical spells (2 per amulet). Select the amulet by scrolling through the inventory items and alternate between spells by pressing the "use inventory" key. This is usually bound on the enter key, but it's up to your choices, really.

To cast a spell, just press the "Altfire" key. Each spell obviously draws from your mana pool, and mana potions can be found easily around Cells, Cellpacks and armor bonuses. You'll usually find a big mana potion which increases the maximum mana by 25 points (Mainly Blurspheres and Chainsaw spots). Health can also be increased if you find chalices on Berserk spots.

Everytime you alternate between spells, there's a brief description of what it does, the element and how much mana it consumes. The HUD displays the current spell selected. If you get out of mana, you can either recover it from mana potions or use your "Meditate" key in the Extra menu. Like it wasn't enough, if you get cornered or out of ammo, there's a quick kick key to be bound too. The kick deals a fair amount of damage and it doesn't alert monsters. Can be more useful at close ranges than a weapon would do.

There are 10 amulets in total, divided on 2 groups of 5 amulets each: Elemental forces and Mortal forces (not mortal as in deadly, but as in forces which affect mortal beings). Once you grab one amulet, the next spot of that given amulet will spawn a new one, and after all amulets are got, the spots will give you a Potion which increases your maximum mana.

In HeXen:

The game doesn't really changes the way it is played, but the amulets now are scattered around in places where weapon pieces for each Hexen class are spawned. For a better and less tedious experience, it is recommended to play this game in the "Bringest Them Oneth" difficulty level, though the weapons are easy to find in the Hubs.

Ammunition spawns at random, and M79 grenades are spawned in Posion Bags/Flechettes. Playing it in Heretic and Hexen also gives you exclusive armors which won't appear in normal Doom gameplay.

Spoiler: The Weapons

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[Slot 2] Tokarev TT - Your starting weapon. A Russian pistol pistol with 8 bullets, good range, average damage and infinite ammo. Reloading time has a little randomized duration, but overall it won't ruin your plans.

[Slot 3] Mosin-Nagant - Since we are talking about russian weaponry, it's inevitable to talk about the Mosin-Nagant rifle. Packs extreme damage, but has to rack the bolt every shot. If you can leave the small ammo capacity aside and get the grip of this bad boy, you'll miss it when out of ammo, trust me.

[Slot 4] Kalashnikov AK-47 - A cult classic. Designed for harsh environiments, and used until today, the machinegun present in the game is exactly what you would expect of it. 30 bullets, and reload. The best recommendation is to fire it in short bursts, as ammo ends quickly.

[Slot 5] Springfield M79 - Straight from U.S. goverment stuff. You don't even think about asking how those mercenaries got their hands on this. What you surely know is that it works flawlessy, launching a grenade projectile which explodes things on contact. Human technology can also look like magic to these beasts. You should know this already, but, keep a certain distance from the explosion or you'll get caught. And there are no resurrection spells.

[Slot 6] PKM Machinegun - To fulfill the needs for a heavy machinegun, the PKM makes minced meat outta demons. It may not have better damage than the Mosin or may not be as fast as the AK, but provides a constant supressing fire and average DPS. Best if used against sub bosses or tough guys.

Spoiler: The Credits

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Special thanks start to wildweasel, Xaser, Marrub and Blue Shadow, who helped me dedicating their attention, as quick as it was.

Sprites must be credited to YukesVonFaust, CaptainJ, chronoteeth, wildweasel (sleeves and reload offsets), Sgt. Shivers (boot sprites and Mosin-Nagant sprites), ZikShadow, potetobloke (inspiration drawn from SUAB add-ons as in weapons and reload offsets), DBThanatos (Muzzle Flashes), DoomNukem, NoozeArts (backpack), HazeBandicoot, Neoworm, Joblez (for the new reload animations for the AK-47), TerminusEst13 (inspiration from Harder Event and High Noon Drifter, some of my favorite mods EVER), Xaser (for inspiring me), Pillowblaster (40mm grenade sprite), LossForWords (D64 barrel debris)

Sounds must be credited to Xeotroid (Guardian of Steel theme), Nullwire (menu sounds) torridgristle, YukesVonFaust, The Sounds Resource,... i think this covers it, but if i forgot you or anybody else, please give me a shout!

Eggs wrote:Pretty good so far, the only complaint that i have is that the Grenade Launcher took me what felt like over 100 direct GL hits and a few pistol mags to take down a Cyberdemon, other then that, i have no other complaints so far.

EddieMann wrote:Ah, so this is a weapons mod?

Captain J wrote: - I see that Each Amulet has two spells. Would be less confusing if the Amulet sprite changes when switching the spell.

Captain J wrote: - Are there any Amulet that heals or regenerates your Mana? Sometimes i face the mana crisis and have to look around for some potions to heal my mana.

Captain J wrote: - Schyndros spell seems less powerful, and just spawns only one ice spike trap. The same thing goes to Krystactus spell as well.[/i]

Captain J wrote: - Would be nice if Springfield M79's projectile travels more further. It's barely possible to defeat the Icon of Sin with this weapon.
- When i reload AK-47 with few ammo inside of it, i have to pull the bolt anyway. Would be nice if you can make the animation separated?

ImpieTwo wrote:So far it does take some getting used to the new hud and controls. The fact that the options menu changes quite a bit threw me off. I'd rather just have the regular menus I know how to navigate, with a couple extras added for the mod.

Biggest complaint so far is my aim arcing upward when i fire my guns, the pistol in particular. It's kind of annoying on its own, but if you have players who prefer not to use freelook, they'll have to reset their view with every shot.

Eggs wrote:Pretty good so far, the only complaint that i have is that the Grenade Launcher took me what felt like over 100 direct GL hits and a few pistol mags to take down a Cyberdemon, other then that, i have no other complaints so far.

DabbingSquidward wrote:Haven't tested the mod yet, but by default boss monsters (cyber- & spiderdemon) are immune to splash damage.

ImpieTwo wrote: Really dig the mod though. I was testing it on my Dr Chaos maps for Heretic, since they're more or less set in the same period the protagonist seems to hail from. I love the idea that this can be played with any of the standard idtech games: really gives the impression that this guy travels across space and time.

NailZx128 wrote:This is pure gold, my dude. I freakin' love that thing. Keep it up!

hybridial wrote:Oh nice, another mod thematically designed for Hexen.

I'm in love with Hexen as a game right now, so it'll be cool to have this extra "class" to play, but so far I've just tried it out in Heretic. Seems cool, if I come across any issues when I play it more, I'll let you know.

I will say I definitely like mods that try offer legitimate gameplay variation from the original games without going overboard, and this fits that mold quite well.

Juste_ssgunner wrote:man very good work ... I will prove it at this moment it looks great ....

namsan wrote:Oh yes, it's new GAA1992 MOD!! Imma download it.

ImpieTwo wrote:This looks really neat. Downloading!