[minimod][v0.10.0] 10.5x - enemy number multiplier (+divider)

[Lagi]

thanks for cooking my CPU !

excellent add on, i have lots of fun. now im seriously considering upgrading my laptop.

edit:

you should consider naming somehow the monster slider in the options. Because I have no clue what it is, at first.

[Rowsol]

I can't get the slider to work below 1.0 when playing Pandemonia. It uses standard RandomSpawners for monsters so I have no idea what's up with it. Increasing numbers work fine.

[m8f]

Thanks for reporting! I think I fixed it now, can you please verify it works: https://github.com/mmaulwurff/10.5x/archive/master.zip

[Rowsol]

It works. The thrust when raising the number doesn't work though. Or if it is working, it's barely noticeable.
Care to let me in on what the problem was?

[m8f]

I'll look into thrust issue later.

I was processing monsters in the first world tick. The problem was, in the first tick RandomSpawner hasn't spawned enemies yet, and the mod wasn't able to mark them to kill. So, to properly decrease monster numbers, the mod has to do the work in the second tick.
But, at the same time, if I want to monsters be randomized, I must multiply RandomSpawners instead of resulting monsters. So, to properly increase monster numbers, the mod has to do the work in the first tick.
So, I added a check, and the mod does the job on the first or the second tick depending on the slider value.

[fcas3t]

The thrust when raising the number doesn't work though. Or if it is working, it's barely noticeable.

What thrust values were you using, and what maps did you test it on?

Today I tested the first few levels of Doom1 on Ultra-violence with 10x enemies. (This was the first time I used console cheats; no way I'd survive otherwise.) Increasing thrust (combined with the random angle m8f already provided) did indeed spread enemies out.

I tested 100, 500, and even 5000. Going from the default of 2 to 100 was a noticable difference: in the first map, several of the imps on the raised platfrom were now on the ground near the entrance to that room. Before they were all clumped up top.

Boosting to 500 spread out a number of areas even more. Beyond that, I couldn't tell a difference when I went to 5000, so I've settled on a thrust of 500.

One potential problem I did notice in the code is that x5_thrust is defined as an integer, but the Zscript function needs a double. (It may still work fine; I already removed the CVar in my copy when I was making some other changes. I just hardcode it, so no problems for me.)

Anyhow, this mod has been fun. I like turning familiar maps into slaughterfests Thanks m8f!

edit the next day:
When I was testing last night, I didn't know what the thrust values truly meant. (Of course it made sense that a larger number would thrust a clone farther.) But, in an interesting twist of fate, earlier today m8f hooked me up with the answer to complete my AutoMove mod. And the answer was thrust Under the GZ hood, the player thrust function at the post I just linked to maps to a similar function as the actor.Thrust function used in 10.5x.

So now I know what the numbers mean specifically. For the player character, each point of thrust is equivalent to 1 frame of movement in the specified direction. I assume it's the same for enemies. Thus the 10.5x default value of 2 means just 2 frames of walking, which is why it results in no discernable change.

The clones will be thurst forward until they hit an impassable barrier, like a wall or door. Since a large portion of Doom maps are small rooms or corridors, the thrust often doesn't matter that much, unless the random angle is going straight down a hallway. But for the bigger rooms and outdoor areas, extra thrust can literally go a long way.

I'm still keeping thrust at 500, which is about 14 seconds of walking for the clones. (That's at enemy walking speeds, which is slower than the player by default.) It explains why certain ones ended up pretty far away from their spawn point and why most of their twins still end up close to the original. Having the clones spread out more, on average, makes the use of 10.5x more interesting.

[StroggVorbis]

Just tested this with Strife. It doesn't appear to work in maps entered within a hub, might also be worth adding a check to not multiply non-counting monsters, as otherwise you get double quest givers, shopkeepers and so on too.

[fcas3t]

Just an FYI:

Clone Enemies is a fork of 10.5x I made. It has 4 sliders, so it provides much more flexibility for cloning enemies.

But it doesn't have the ability to reduce enemies, so you still need 10.5x for that.

[Rowsol]

Loading this with Colourful Hell, map01 of Doom 2. I set the multiplier to 5. Waking up the monsters in front of me, the left pile doesn't budge but the right one does. Repeatable. They also don't initially thrust apart like they should.
I load up VDP instead of CH and the left pack is properly alerted but again, no initial thrust.
I mean, it's obvious this mod works fine normally but I'm mentioning anyway in case you wanted to look into it.

[m8f]

Thanks for reporting! Created an issue so I don't forget. Cannot promise that I'll get to it any time soon.

[juq]

Created account to say I love your mods m8f. I also made my first mod (with great difficulty and help from m8f), a fork of this mod in which every level spawns exactly 500 enemies (give or take a couple).

[Spaceman333]

Added a suggestion for a simple new feature.

I noticed how levels in doom can often range from 50 to 1000 enemies on average, causing multiplying or dividing enemy counts have massive difference that I didn't want for some levels.

Also sometimes default numbers of enemies on some maps are so high that certain monster/gore/visual mods can lag a lot on them, making them somewhat unplayable.

If this mod had a MaxMonsterCount = 100 setting/slider, that would solve both issues nicely.

By capping the maximum amount of monsters on a level would allow making early low-enemy levels more intense, while high-enemy levels would stay reasonable. Or just globally reducing enemies-per-level amount to as low as it needs to be to handle a more performance intensive mod. Or just having a more reliable global way to reduce enemies on a level universally for a more chill experience.

[Hell-met]

Thank you for this mod, it's really good

However I was wondering if it was truly necessary for monsters to no longer collide with themselves? This is particularly powerful for fast pinkies where they just stack in eachother and turn into an unstoppable killing machine.

[m8f]

Added a suggestion for a simple new feature.

I have to think about it. It makes sense, but I would really want to keep all the settings as a single slider.

However I was wondering if it was truly necessary for monsters to no longer collide with themselves?

Yes. Otherwise multiplied enemies would stuck in themselves and wouldn't move at all.

[Nems]

So I was playing around with this earlier and I have a suggestion/question:

Would it be possible to add another slider to affect ammo pickups? Depending on whether you're playing vanilla or with mods, the player could run out of ammo pickups if the monster count is multiplied. Also, having a slider that reduces ammo pickups would make for a great survival horror experience.

If not, no biggie. I can always fire up Ultimate Custom Doom if I need more ammo to kill the extra baddies I spawned with this mod. Just thought I'd ask.