VDP-MonsterRandomizer UPDATED September 1, 2022

[Plynthus]

Turin Turambar
Thank you for saying that. I'm pretty happy how this has turned out so far.

I am still open to adding that option at some point. I remember you asking it before on Doomworld.

But going through every monster and trying to decide which belongs to which category is going to be a pain.
Some would be obvious, but some not so much.
Some should be in more than one category, and some in only one.
I feel like I would need a little help with it. At least ask opinions on the ones I wouldn't be so sure of.

Of course I could just categorize them the way they are in Realm667(most of the monsters are from there).
Any suggestions would be great too!

Unfortunately now is not the time though.
I'm not currently working on this, and that would require the kind of time I currently don't have.
But at some point I will jump back in to this for sure.



Captain J
The monsters that belong in the same replacer category. Like Imp and all its replacers.
They should not fight each other, or the monster they're replacing.

However there are few exceptions.
Because some monsters have attacks that can still cause infighting, even if they belong to the same species.
Like explosions and rail attacks. I've managed to work around some of them, but some still are there.

Mostly replacers for enemies that normally wouldn't fight each other, won't fight each other(including the original monster and all the replacers for it), which has been my goal.

[Rowsol]

StealthFighter is missing A_NoBlocking on it's xdeath.

[Turin Turambar]

One of the caco monsters, the Hades Elemental I think it's called, need a bit of a nerf. He is clearly superior to the other variations.

[Plynthus]

I have an update that adds about 16 more monsters. Plus more tweaks to existing monsters here and there.
It's been almost ready for a while now, but I got into other games and stuff again. And been busy at work.
I'll try to finish and release it by the end of this month.

StealthFighter is missing A_NoBlocking on it's xdeath.

Thanks for letting me know. Seems to be missing it on normal death as well.
On my tests it wasn't blocking on either death. But there was a monster earlier which would block only sometimes. Or maybe it's because of a different version of GZDoom or something.
Either way I'll fix it for the next update.

One of the caco monsters, the Hades Elemental I think it's called, need a bit of a nerf. He is clearly superior to the other variations.

I've already nerfed it quite a bit. But I'll do some more testing before the next update. It's actually a replacer for Pain Elemental. But can also replace cacodemon if you have "monster mixer" on.
I do allow Pain Elemtal replacers to be little stronger, because Pain Elementals can be very dangerous as well. And they're not that common monsters.

[Rowsol]

StealthFighter is missing A_NoBlocking on it's xdeath.

Thanks for letting me know. Seems to be missing it on normal death as well.

It has A_Fall, which is the old code for the same thing. If you were to add NoBlocking to it he would drop his loot twice.

[Plynthus]

StealthFighter is missing A_NoBlocking on it's xdeath.

Thanks for letting me know. Seems to be missing it on normal death as well.

It has A_Fall, which is the old code for the same thing. If you were to add NoBlocking to it he would drop his loot twice.

Thanks. I didn’t know that. I always thought the monsters would drop the drop items automatically at their death states.

[Plynthus]

The new update with the added monsters and some fixing/tweaking/balancing is now available.
The main download link is now updated.



Turin Turambar:
I nerfed Hades Elemental as well.
The attack where it used to shoot 5 of those red ball things. Now it only shoots 3. And I disabled the MISSILEMORE flag, so it's less aggressive now.
I continued to test other Pain Elemental replacers. And I ended up disabling the MISSILEMORE flag from most of them.

[Plynthus]

That said, if I can put something of the wishlist of new features, I wish there were some toggles to enable/disable themes of monsters. With this I mean, there are already enough amount of monsters that you could classify it in three types, 'sci-fi', 'fantasy' and 'neutral', and the player would be able to enable/disable each to add their monsters to the random pool.
The whole idea here is to have the option of being able to play fantasy-looking maps with only fantasy appropriate monsters, as if the mappers would have included the custom enemies by hand, and play the most sci-fi looking monsters without warlocks or gargoyles flying around.

Sorry, but this is not in the new update.

I've come to the conclusion that the best way for me to do it would be not to add it as an in-game option.
But instead as another file you would load on top of the main monster randomizer file.
Because the best way I know how to do it as an in-game option would really make everything in the mod so much more confusing to me.
Which would make me feel less inspired to add more stuff to the mod, knowing how much more complicated it would be.

It would be one separate file per theme.
The extra files would only contain text. So the size would be very small.
I don't have anything yet. I've only tested how well it would work.
Requires correct load order, but definitely works.

The "Scifi" theme would probably be undoable with the current monsters.
Because even though there are plenty that would fit in that category.
Some monsters wouldn't have any fitting ones. So it would feel very incomplete to play like that.

"Fantasy" theme probably would have enough.

And by "neutral" you probably mean Doom type monsters only?

I feel that those two would be worth doing at some point.
Just got to find the time to try to decide which monster belongs where.
Of course the categories in Realm667 will help me a lot with that.

[Turin Turambar]

I have an update that adds about 16 more monsters. Plus more tweaks to existing monsters here and there.

I've already nerfed it quite a bit. But I'll do some more testing before the next update. It's actually a replacer for Pain Elemental. But can also replace cacodemon if you have "monster mixer" on.
I do allow Pain Elemtal replacers to be little stronger, because Pain Elementals can be very dangerous as well. And they're not that common monsters.

Ohh that explains it, I was indeed playing a Doom 1 wad so I activated the mixer. For a PE replacement he is more in line, then.

And by "neutral" you probably mean Doom type monsters only?

Well, I guess I meant the ones not easily categorized as 'cyborg soldier' or 'flying warlock'

[Plynthus]

Well, I guess I meant the ones not easily categorized as 'cyborg soldier' or 'flying warlock'

Haha, ok of course. I think that option would work best, because it should still leave most monsters in there. Wouldn't mess with the balance too much.
I'll try to get to it at some point in the future.
For now I'll only post smaller updates for a while if needed. In case something new(or old) needs fixing.

[HDV]

This mod is amazing! I'm playing custom maps with Led's Generic Weapons and this one. The game feels really good and still have a vanilla feeling. Thanks for making this!

[PokeParty445]

This mod is really fun, probably one of the best vanilla esc Doom randomizers I've found, maybe only second to Shades of Doom.

Although with certain mods it seems to crash. The only one I've found so far is Highway Acceleroid Booster. It's not a super big issue just figured I'd say something!

[64palm]

another best randomizer after shades of doom

[Shatter-Thought[V-4]]

I have downloaded and played your randomizer, and it has a strange error with La-Tailor girl where the "normal" vanilla ammo of Doom seems to be mixed into the game along with the proper ammo from LTG.

Zombiemen in example, of all variants who drop bullets, will drop standard vanilla doom bullets rather then the equivalent of the mod.
Enemies that drop weapons like sergeants and machinegunners will drop the proper LTG weapon however.

Static ammo spawns I have encountered are as follows: Bullets seem to be vanilla with the small pickups, but large ones are from LTG.
Shotgun shells are vanilla for the small pickups but are LTG for the large ones.
Small energy pickups are vanilla, but large ones are LTG.

I have seen this happen either playing with default settings, or when messing with the extra options a little.

I tested VDP with Ultra Crispy to see if it would replicate there, but it seemed to play fine (In fact it was quite fun)

Other then it's weird clash and bugs with LTG, it's quite great in it's own right and very fun! Thanks for making this mod and continuing to work on it!

[kalensar]

I have downloaded and played your randomizer, and it has a strange error with La-Tailor girl where the "normal" vanilla ammo of Doom seems to be mixed into the game along with the proper ammo from LTG.

Zombiemen in example, of all variants who drop bullets, will drop standard vanilla doom bullets rather then the equivalent of the mod.
Enemies that drop weapons like sergeants and machinegunners will drop the proper LTG weapon however.

Static ammo spawns I have encountered are as follows: Bullets seem to be vanilla with the small pickups, but large ones are from LTG.
Shotgun shells are vanilla for the small pickups but are LTG for the large ones.
Small energy pickups are vanilla, but large ones are LTG.

I have seen this happen either playing with default settings, or when messing with the extra options a little.

I tested VDP with Ultra Crispy to see if it would replicate there, but it seemed to play fine (In fact it was quite fun)

Other then it's weird clash and bugs with LTG, it's quite great in it's own right and very fun! Thanks for making this mod and continuing to work on it!

This is an issue that is not part of VDP. VDP is a monster pack. Monster packs do take account for what drops what, but when its designed to be compatible for
vanilla play there are only 3 monsters that drop anything, and the coding doesn't touch the other random spawners or spawners.

Basically what happened is You loaded LA Tailor Girl before VDP. This results in Zdoom reading VDP last which means it prints VDP assets first in the form of FILO or First in Last Out.

This is a common drag and drop issue that can be solved by using holding control button and then clicking the order for the mods to be loaded and then dragging the selected files afterward. Or get a mod loader or write a bat file in the correct load order.
The load order for least bug issues of intermixing mods is this:
1.maps
2. monsters
3.weapons
4. textures and includes gore mods like bolognese or nashgore
5. HUDS.