Walpurgis 0.98 (For Doom/Heretic/Hexen) [0.98 RELEASE!!]

[eharper256]

Good news for the Bardiche lovers; Alastor has all his fire modes now as well. Yes, he's also been named! The new secondary fire creates huge spikes of blood from the ground!!

Corpse Explosion, being the more niche effect, has been moved to the Tertiary slot. The Primary swing has also been tuned even more for responsiveness and I feel its in a good place. Much like Geomancy, I can now get to work on completing all the upgrades and mutations for Alastor.

In case you missed it; 0.98 Walpurgis ~should~ be out for around the end of May. Look forwards to it!

[Colerx]

niceeeeee

[eharper256]

niceeeeee

Thanks!

[neto592]

Well, more is coming... 0.98 will add in two of in-slot 3 extra options and all their upgrades (Geomancy for the Magister, and the Bardiche Alastor for the Myrmidon), with the the further two to follow in 0.99. But I'd say there is already a heck of a lot more than basic Hexen, especially with all the elite monsters, dimensional instability mode, compatability with Doom, Heretic and Hexen

So...
That means that there is hope for that earth-bending maul for the fighter as an alternative slot 4 weapon?



Also didn't knew that I needed but I really like what you did to Korax.



About the Deathkings if I may... I rather would prefer a D'Spiral fight remake.
(That because during my life I played more Heretic, then a little of Hexen, but I never played Doom).

[eharper256]

So...
That means that there is hope for that earth-bending maul for the fighter as an alternative slot 4 weapon?

Lol, sadly not.

Also didn't knew that I needed but I really like what you did to Korax.

Thanks, I really like that fight now.

About the Deathkings if I may... I rather would prefer a D'Spiral fight remake.
(That because during my life I played more Heretic, then a little of Hexen, but I never played Doom).

D'Sparil will probably also get a rework as he is also a bit tepid. Though Heretic is the game I have least experience with. I always appreciate anyones thoughts about how to alter or balance it with the Walpurgis arsenal as a result.

[eharper256]

I CAST FIST!!

Because every good Magister should be able to cast fist if they want to. Anyways, all the upgrades and mutations for Lapis Flos are now complete and we're basically in final gold for that. You can read the various things available when pausing the video, but I feature the Stone Fists and Upheaval mutations here specifically. You might notice a bevy of other changes, like a few new animations replacing placeholders, and adjustments to other stuff.

Let me know what you think about Lapis Flos overall. And in case you didn't get the memo, this version of Walpurgis should be out for the end of May!!

[PresBarackbar]

Those upgrades look great! I really like how the upgrade system in this mod has options to make the power work differently if the default behavior doesn't fit the current playstyle. I really like the Upheaval, it really does give the impression of rending the earth!

[eharper256]

Those upgrades look great! I really like how the upgrade system in this mod as options to make the power work differently if the default behavior doesn't fit the current playstyle. I really like the Upheaval, it really does give the impression of rending the earth!

Thanks!

Yeah, I thought I'd make that slightly clearer this patch by adding in that upgrade/mutate blinking text on the upgrader UI so its more clear that the right hand choice is modifying the fire mode to something different and the left-hand choice is a fairly clear-cut upgrade of what it was before.

[neto592]

I think there might be a graphic mistake when crusader third weapon upgrade doesn't show the using of both hands as it actually its mutation upgrade that actually shows he using both hands instead.

[eharper256]

I think there might be a graphic mistake when crusader third weapon upgrade doesn't show the using of both hands as it actually its mutation upgrade that actually shows he using both hands instead.

Both the upgrade and mutation of the primary fire use both hands. The difference is that the upgrade has a 50% more dense flamethrower, and the mutation has the bouncing flame. I guess I should add that to the description of the mutation though as it doesn't specify. Perhaps the mutation could also use a bit more identity; if I have time I might tweak it a bit before the release.

Admittedly, you have just revealed an entirely unrelated bug to me whilst I double checked this; where the flag that checks what upgrade you have breaks if you strip upgrades via console, but this isn't something you should come across in regular play (and if it is, you can clear the issue by putting Firestorm away and then pulling it back out, as there is a failsafe in place in the de-equip). But if you were testing in a similar manner you may have got this issue.

[eharper256]

I'm confirming we are in Go-Mode and 0.98 will be out some time tomorrow.

Get your hype on!!

[eharper256]

0.98 is released!!!
Get it here at MEGA
Or here at GoogleDrive

Code: Select all

 [0.98 CHANGELOG]
'Blood of the Earth'
--------------------
28/05/2023
+New!:	The Myrmidon gets his alternate in-slot (3) weapon, the Bardiche, Alastor! 
The Bardiche specialises in close-combat area damage in contrast to the
mid/long range of the Hammer. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
		> [Primary Fire] swings the bardiche. It has a wide arc and will hit 
		  ALL enemies in a wide frontal AoE slash for good damage. Slightly slow
		  but the hits will usually cause pain and knockback. 
		  >> Upgrading this will improve the damage and area of the swings that
		     the Bardiche makes.
		  >> Mutating this will make each swing also fire off a slash made of
		 blood. It has infinite range and penetrates foes, but has fairly
		 low damage overall. 
		------------------------------------------------------------------------
		> [Secondary Fire] will slam the Bardiche shaft on the ground, causing it
		  to summon huge spikes of blood from the ground, which will impale foes
		  in front for alot of damage, and then explode into shrapnel, throwing
		  blade pieces everywhere that will cut through other close enemies.
		  >> Upgrading this will make it so that the spikes deal more damage,
		     and explode into more shrapnel. 
		  >> Mutating this will change the mode so that it no longer summons
		 spikes. Instead, a heavy spiked ball is shot out, which will bounce 
	 	 up to medium range, throwing out shrapnel with each bounce. 
		------------------------------------------------------------------------
		> [Tertiary Fire] will create a magic circle in front of you. If there
		  are any corpses there, they will swell up and explode! Multiple corpses
		  can be exploded at once, and corpses killed by corpse explosions will
		  help feed the ability further!
		  >> Upgrading this will also create vengeful spirits at the same time as
		     causing the localised Corpse Explosion. They will attack those near
			 the circle with strong attacks to make some new corpses!
		  >> Mutating this will make Corpse Explosion no longer toggle from this
			 fire mode. Instead, ALL bardiche melee strikes cost +1 Mana, and 
			 on killing with them, the dying monster explodes on hitting the ground. 
			 This Fire Mode instead launches a powerful explosive blood missile. 
		By default, this will spawn randomly along with the Hammer of Retribution, 
		but you can disable either of them in the Walpurgis Options if preferred.
		 (Please Note: Corpse Explosions only work if you are using the Walpurgis 
		  Bestiary. If it is off, the Bardiche Tertiary fire instead fires blood
		  missiles. The Upgrade system isn't able to detect this right now.)
		
+New!:	The Magister gets his alternate in-slot (3) weapon, Lapis Flos (Geomancy)! 
		Lapis Flos focuses on crowd suppression and knockback. It is strong but
		requires good spacing and tactical casting. 
		------------------------------------------------------------------------
		> [Primary Fire] causes you to conjure boulders in front of you whilst
		  you hold down the button. You can conjure constantly up to around 10
		  boulders if you want. They will hover in place until you release
		  the button or reach the maximum. When released, they will fly off in 
		  direction they were originally conjured to crush enemies.
		  >> Upgrading this will make the boulders bounce further and constantly
		 fragment, throwing out deadly rock splinters on each bounce. 
		  >> Mutating this will change the function to conjuring alternating 
		  stone fists that will launch shortly after formation rather than
		  waiting. The Fists fly surely and steadily, smashing foes out of 
		  their way, only to keep going!! Heavy monsters that can't be smashed
		  aside take additonal damage from casting Fist at them (lol). 
		------------------------------------------------------------------------
		> [Secondary Fire] makes you fire a Geomantic Beam. This beam passes
		  through enemies for no damage. If it hits a floor, stalagmites will
		  tear from the ground, impaling enemies above. If it hits a wall or a 
		  ceiling then an avalanche of rocks will erupt to crush nearby foes.
		  >> Upgrading this will increases the amount of rocks and stalagmites
			 summoned in any given casting.
		  >> Mutating this will change the mode to instead causes a upheaval of
			 stalagmites in a wave emanating out from your position.  
			 You no longer aim the attack and it cannot cause rockslides, but
			 it will causes many stalagmites to erupt between you and the next
			 blocking line, making it excellent for crowds in narrow spaces.
		------------------------------------------------------------------------
		> [Tertiary Fire] creates an Obelisk covered in Geomantic runes. It will
		  wait for and detect nearby foes. When it does, it will slam power into
		  the ground, causing powerful earthquakes! You can only have one at a 
		  time and they cost a fair bit of mana, so place them strategically.
		  >> Upgrading this will improve the Earthquakes unleashed by the
		  Obelisk, making it throw out more damage and more debris.
		  >> Mutating this will change the Obelisk into a Buffing Obelisk. It
		  will instead project a protective aura when created. If you get all
		  three pulses, you will get +20% Damage Reduction and some small
		  HP regeneration for a short time. 
		  By default, this will spawn randomly along with Fulgur (Lightning), 
		  but you can disable either of them in the Walpurgis Options if preferred.
		
+New!:	A brand new Korax final boss fight level for Hexen! Includes new map,
	several new behaviours, new attacks, and additional voice work. This
	Korax now has three distinct boss fight stages. Whereas he was still 
	rather tepid as a final boss before, he now actually feels like a boss!
+New!:	To go with the above, completely revised the ending graphics for
	Hexen. In addition, Hexen: Deathkings no longer shares the same dialogue
	and gets it's own, more appropriate Ending AND Intermission text. 
+New!:	New Elite: The Marquis of Hell. As you might imagine, this is the Elite
	Baron of Hell that has been absent previously. Whilst Barons can use
	Meteor Shots sometimes, Marquis fire them rapidly and exclusively rather
	than standard baron balls. He also launches columns of fire, watch out! 
	Additionally, the E1M8 Barons, the Bruiser Brothers, will now ALWAYS be
	Marquis of Hell to give that level more of a bossfight feel (assuming
	you're not just flat out disabling all monster replacement, of course). 
+New!:	New Extreme Death animations for Revenant, Mancubus, Cacodemon, Baron,
	Hell Knight and Archvile added.
+New!: 	Cacodemon gets bite sprites for his bite attack, thanks to the work of
	HorselessHeadsman. 
+New!:	Even smarter Smart Flasks (OH NO!). Now, a Flask you cannot pickup right
	now and which cannot be used immediately will not lose it's smart effect
	forever. It will regain smarts after around 25 seconds (it needs to have
	a long delay like this, else infinite loops become possible).
+New!:	'+25 HP' overlay now shows when chugging the improved smart flasks.
	If you like this kind of extra UI information, please let me know, as 
	this is a test to see if it's worth the time investment. If no one 
	notices, I'll assume no-one cares. :(
+New!:	Algor Ice Spears get a brand new sprite set. On hit, they also now
	explode into chunks of ice, somewhat increasing their damage.
+New!:	Myrmidon Fists Upgrade no longer has the old ground kick move as it's
	Tertiary Fire. Instead, you may throw Legion Pilums like Javelins. 
	They have good range, and knock enemies away from you (or off ledges).
	Right now, they are infinite and cost no mana, we shall see how people
	find the balance of this going forwards.
		
+Tweak: Stunning Hits from the Grapple Chain and Shield should now be more
	reliable, increasing the length of the hit foes pain-state by 50% or so. 
	Additionally, the Myrmidon's kicks will cause more knockback than before
	to prevent enemies immediately attacking back in most cases.
+Tweak:	Technical behindscenes tweak to how Mana Capacity is expanded, which
	allows the above new item to work (and cleans up the Magister's 
	previously silly method for getting an expanded mana capacity). 
+Tweak:	Craneo's Crusader armour pickups (with some alterations by me) added.
+Tweak:	Myrmidon Axe Primary Fire Mutation now has a much more spiffy electrical
	effect and sound to accompany its balance change.
+Tweak: Crusader Spear Primary Fire Mutation also gained a unique frame of 
	animation for each type of swing/stab to accompany its balance change.
+Tweak:	Crusader Lightbringer Secondary Upgrade now has a charging up sound 
	effect to help give audible pointers to its purpose.
+Tweak:	Druid Dagon's Cane Primary Upgrade AND Mutation given new SFX and VFX
	to help give them more oomph and identity over the basic fire.
+Tweak:	Iron Golem seen in Heretic as an Elite gets a makeover for its spiked 
	ball projectile; looks massively better than its old one.
		
+Fixed: Mode 4 for weapon drop type (pick only 1) should now respect startup 
	spawn logic and work correctly even when there are multiple simultaneous
	spawns of a singular weapon type.
+Fixed: When a Pain Elemental died, it would sometimes spawn a Magi-Caco. Fixed.
+Fixed: Spawners now inherit from a base class, preventing rare cases where 
	monsters (and Turul) would attack the ground for no reason. This still
	doesn't change Ettin Sergeants obsession with beating up corpses, 
	because I have no idea why he does that, but its funny.
+Fixed: Ghostly Ettins summoned by the improved endgame Korax are no longer
	mysteriously immune to all damage except Fire and Lightning, and have
	a few changed attributes to make them more interesting. 
+Fixed: Crusader Spear Primary Mutation (Shock Spear) would not refund mana if
	it missed. It now does so. For mysterious reasons, this is still finicky
	on occasion and may refund a little too much... but after failing for 
	over an hour to understand why this is, I'm calling it a buff. :D
+Fixed: Crusader Firestorm had some finicky upgrade detection logic (probably
	as it was on the first ones I did). In regular play, this shouldn't have
	caused issues, but fixed anyway.
+Fixed: If you had exactly zero mana when trying to create Algor Ice Spears, 
	they would make a horrible screeching noise and also sometimes bypass
	the mana check. Fixed.
+Fixed:	In some rare instances the Aestus ammo check was skipped. Fixed.
+Fixed: If you died whilst using Agnus Abyssus Primary Fire, the spinning energy 
	overlay would continue. Now it ends correctly even if that occurs.
+Fixed: Due to a wrong pointer, Druid Dog Vision would still default to Sepia 
	on occasion. It should now stay in colour.
+Fixed:	Some minor sprite corrections to a few hands.
+Fixed: Heretic Disciples given correct blood colour.
+Fixed: Doom Imps dying would never cause your character to taunt due to a 
	skipped check. Fixed.
+Fixed: Barons of Hell should finally stop fighting each other. I thought this  
	was already fixed, but some situations still prompted it to occur.
+Fixed:	Hexen Bishop's spell firing noise played globally. Fixed to be local.
+Fixed:	Hexen Stalker and Bishop were treated as if they were walls for the 
	purposes of sound when melee attacks hit them, so they 'clanged'. They
	should now splatter as appropriate.

		
+Balance:	Myrmidon Axe Primary Fire Mutation swing damage increased by 15%
		to more justify mana cost, and it deals a very small amount of AoE
		damage as well. The Primary Upgrades damage is reduced by 5%, to 
		increase the difference between the two. 
+Balance:	Myrmidon Hammer Tertiary Fire Rumblers damage increased by 20%,
		which also applies to the upgrade and the mutation. The Mutation 
		also had its AoE range increased by 10%.
+Balance:	Myrmidon Quietus Tertiary Fire Seeker Flares damage increased by 15%
		and their homing routine was altered, should be more robust.
+Balance:	Crusader Lightbringer Primary Fire shot damage reduced by 10%, and 
		AoE radius also reduced by 10%. Applies in turn to Primary upgrade,
		but not primary mutation which remains at the same damage level.
		The base attack was just slightly too awesome as it was.
+Balance:	Crusader Lightbringer Secondary Fire Upgrade now only takes 1 second
		to charge up the big laser burst, rather than 1.5 seconds. It also
		has slightly less recoil.
+Balance:	Crusader Sturm Spear Primary Mutation damage increased by 10% and 
		more likely to shock enemies to be more competitive to the upgrade.
+Balance:	Crusader Sturm Spear Secondary Fire partisan damage reduced by 10%,
		AoE Radius also reduced by 10%. Upgrades are not affected by damage 
		nerf. Also, the Upgrade (multi-spear) costs -1 less mana per spear.
		Again, the base attack was just slightly too awesome as it was.
+Balance:	Crusader Sturm Spear Tertiary Mutation (Shock Circle) buffed with 
		+20% damage and +20% range on each lightning zap to be more useful.
+Balance:	Crusader Firestorm Primary Mutation Bouncy Flames damage increased
		by 30% to be more competitive with the Primary Upgrade.
+Balance:	Magister Aestus Primary fire darts gain a 5% damage increase. Also
		applies to the Upgrade (but not the Mutation). 
+Balance:	Magister Fulgur Primary Mutation Lightning Helix gains a +15% 
		damage increase.
+Balance:	Magister Agnus Primary Fire Seeker Stars damage reduced by 10%. 
+Balance:	Druid Hebiko Sceptre Tertiary Mutation (Hebiko Avatar) is now
		summoned right in front of you, rather than being a bouncing ball.
		It also attacks +1 additional time before dissapearing. This makes
		it considerably easier to place and more reliable.

I'm sorry that this one did unfortunately take a bit longer than I would have liked. I was pretty seriously ill in November last year, requiring a week in hospital, then Christmas saw one of my important relatives also be bedridden and require hospital, then I was insanely busy with lots of overtime in January, and then I took a highly needed Cruise as a vacation in March, so I lost alot of time I could have been doing Walp.

Even so, I think 0.98 turned out pretty cool, I hope you enjoy it!! Loads of new stuff again!

I'll pop on a video later showing it in action.

[eharper256]

Video as mentioned earlier. This is Glaive III by EANB. It's ironically not a good mapset for the Bardiche to show off its tricks; with lots of enemies attacking from range and angles, but I try it anyway. Still, it's my favourite type of Doom mapset in general, with short and punchy levels. You can get this mapset here: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/135361

[headlesszombie]

Wow the amount of content in this update is really awesome, can not wait to dig in and do some playthroughs with all the new toys. Out of curiosity what do you have left on your list of features and content before you consider it "complete" for the 1.0 release?

[eharper256]

Wow the amount of content in this update is really awesome, can not wait to dig in and do some playthroughs with all the new toys. Out of curiosity what do you have left on your list of features and content before you consider it "complete" for the 1.0 release?

0.99 will finish off the extra slot 3 weapons (for Crusader and Druid), and probably do something with D'Sparil and other Heretic bosses, then 1.0 will be consolidating everything with final adjustments as they are required. A few more items, elites, game-modes, UI enchancements and maybe mutations for the ultimate weapons.

Thanks, glad you're enjoying the update!